Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
is salt water beneficial for healing wounds? if so, can you please explain how this works.	salt water kills cells. you kill off more bacteria cells than your cells. your body will grow new cells to replace the dead ones. dead bacteria doesn't regrow.	[ "Wound cleansing forms an integral part of wound management and generally suggests the application of a fluid to aid the removal of surface contaminants, bacteria and debris from the wound surface and surrounding skin. Water as a cleansing agent, especially in chronic wounds has been proposed and is widely used esp...
Do other primates show instinctive drowning response?	Possibly of interest - _URL_0_	[ "Huxley defended automatism by testing reflex actions, originally supported by Descartes. Huxley hypothesized that frogs that undergo lobotomy would swim when thrown into water, despite being unable to initiate actions. He argued that the ability to swim was solely dependent on the molecular change in the brain, co...
how imgur file names work.	Think of normal decimal number systems. 0 through 9. When you get more than 9, you just increment to 10 and keep going until you get to 99, then you just add another 1 in front, etc. Imgur and other sites like _URL_0_, instead of limiting themselves to just numbers will include letters. After 9 comes a, b, c, etc. ...	[ "A filename (also written as two words, file name) is a name used to uniquely identify a computer file stored in a file system. Different file systems impose different restrictions on filename lengths and the allowed characters within filenames.\n", "Macintosh file systems have a separate area for metadata distin...
Where does the energy at the core of a planet's hot center actually come from?	There are 2 sources The first is the leftover heat from the formation of the planet. As rocks smashed together their gravitational potential energy was converted to heat. This made the planet very hot when forming but this energy would have escaped by now if it were the only source and the interior of the planet woul...	[ "The core is the only region in the Sun that produces an appreciable amount of thermal energy through fusion; 99% of the power is generated within 24% of the Sun's radius, and by 30% of the radius, fusion has stopped nearly entirely. The remainder of the Sun is heated by this energy as it is transferred outwards th...
why are prices always something like $49,95. instead of just $50?	The primary usage is to disguise the fact that the item is $50. If you glance at it quickly, you'll notice the $49 first or even the $4x.xx. This allows the consumer to subconsciously think it is cheaper than previously thought. Secondly, if you are doing price matching online, the results will show yours first (Wal-M...	[ "The price of an item is also called the \"price point\", especially where it refers to stores that set a limited number of price points. For example, Dollar General is a general store or \"five and dime\" store that sets price points only at even amounts, such as exactly one, two, three, five, or ten dollars (amon...
The Romans named their legions, their fleets, even their auxiliary cohorts. Did any other ancient kingdoms and empires do this, that we know of?	> And on a slightly different but related note, do we know how the Roman practice of giving their legions cognomen as well as numbers started? (Legio II Augusta, Legio VI Ferrate, etc.) From the timeline and from common sense I assume it only began once units acquired a more permanent nature in the first century BC J...	[ "Augustus modified the command structure of the legion to reflect its new permanent, professional nature. In Republican tradition (but ever less in practice), each legion was under six equestrian military tribunes who took turns to command it in pairs. But in the late Republic, military tribunes were eclipsed by hi...
How did women like Cleopatra rise to power and maintain it, back in the day when most of the world was heavily patriarchal?	Your question is very broad, maybe try to mention some people you wish to know about to get responses since there are plenty of ways and circumstances women gainer power. The only only one you name is Cleopatra but you do not seem to wish any further info on her rule.	[ "and Cleopatra ), and women held important positions in government and trade. When it came to elite women in ancient Egypt there were few women who made it to the top of the hierarchy: to be a pharaoh. As listed before, the two most well known are Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VII. They held the same types of rights and...
How accurate is Master and Commander's representation of naval warfare during the Napoleonic Wars?	[This thread should probably answer most of your questions](_URL_0_)	[ "The naval campaigns, operations and battles of the Napoleonic Wars were events during the period of World-wide warfare between 1802 and 1814 that were undertaken by European powers in support of their land-based strategies. All events included in this article represent fleet actions that involved major naval comma...
if a power line runs from one hill to another, how do they connect it?	Every trade has it's tricks. If they had enough opening in the woods they could have just walked a rope to the other side and pulled it up between the trees. From there depending on the weight of the line you either pull an attachment cable or just the line itself. If the tree growth is to thick they might have trie...	[ "A pole route (or pole line in the US) is a telephone link or electrical power line between two or more locations by way of multiple uninsulated wires suspended between wooden utility poles. This method of link is common especially in rural areas where burying the cables would be expensive. Another situation in whi...
why does it get colder in higher altitudes? aren't you closer to the sun? in fact why is space between earth and the sun cold if it's getting direct sunlight without the atmosphere blocking it?	Various gasses in the air are able to hold onto small amounts of energy (heat) and even though their weight is small, it is still enough for most gasses to keep them relatively grounded. As you go higher and away from the density of gasses, the air becomes thinner and there are less gas molecules retaining heat energy ...	[ "Polar regions receive less intense solar radiation than the other parts of Earth because the sun's energy arrives at an oblique angle, spreading over a larger area, and also travels a longer distance through the Earth's atmosphere in which it may be absorbed, scattered or reflected, which is the same thing that ca...
If the universe expansion appears to be accelerating the further away we observe, wouldn't that mean that actual expansion is slowing?	No. First of all, you should realize, that expansion of the universe is not the same as movement in space. When we observe some galaxy redshifted, it does not mean, that it is running away from us in the usual sense of this expression. It means, that although our galaxy and that distant galaxy sit at the same local co...	[ "To determine if the expansion rate of the universe is speeding up or slowing down over time, cosmologists make use of the finite velocity of light. It takes billions of years for light from a distant galaxy to reach the Earth. Since the universe is expanding, the universe was smaller (galaxies were closer together...
why is stretching before/after exercise important?	Exercising without stretching is like jumping out of a closed window, its possible but chances are its gonna hurt	[ "Increasing flexibility through stretching is one of the basic tenets of physical fitness. It is common for athletes to stretch before (for warming up) and after exercise in an attempt to reduce risk of injury and increase performance.\n", "Stretching prior to strenuous physical activity has been thought to incre...
What speed/size must an asteroid have to be to hit the bottom of the deepest ocean on impact?	Here's a good place to start to answer these questions: [_URL_1_](_URL_1_). For example, here are the effects for [a 100-km rock going 11 km/s crashing into 10 km depth of water](_URL_0_).	[ "Risk assessments were calculated based on a diameter of 130 meters. It was estimated that, if it were ever to impact Earth, it would enter the atmosphere at a speed of 19.2 km/s and would have a kinetic energy equivalent to 150 megatons of TNT. Assuming the target surface is sedimentary rock, the asteroid would im...
What is the most accurate and in depth book on the seige of Stalingrad? Every time I think I've found one, a dozen people claim it's full of lies and inaccuracies.	David Glantz's Stalingrad trilogy is about the most well-researched and comprehensive tome I've seen on the subject.	[ "Richard Bernstein, in \"The New York Times\", writes that \"the colossal scale of Stalingrad, the megalomania, the utter absurdity, the sheer magnitude of the carnage in what many military historians see as the turning point in the war, are marvelously captured\". He concludes that \"Stalingrad\" is \"a fantastic ...
When did firearms replace bows in Japan? Was this a gradual or rapid process? Were bows completely replaced?	Well, interestingly, many people associate the advent of firearms in Japan with the Meiji Restoration in the 1860s and modernization to European standards because that has this really stark contrast in the popular imagination of feudal samurai, these guys wielding katanas and wearing the fierce looking [men-yoroi](_URL...	[ "The yumi (Japanese bow) as a weapon of war began its decline after the Portuguese arrived in Japan in 1543 bringing firearms with them in the form of the matchlock. The Japanese soon started to manufacture their own version of the matchlock called \"tanegashima\" and eventually the tanegashima and the yari (spear)...
when a person's senses become "heightened" due to the loss of one sense (temporarily or permanently) what is happening to their body to allow for such changes? bonus: how does this differ from the experience of "heightened" senses during a 'fight-or-flight' response?	Just like someone with a broken arm in a cast, the unused arm gets weaker while the other arm has to do more work. When someone goes blind for example, the part of the brain used for sight essentially goes unused, while the person struggles to use their other senses to compensate. These other senses become stronger ...	[ "Many types of sense loss occur due to a dysfunctional sensation process, whether it be ineffective receptors, nerve damage, or cerebral impairment. Unlike agnosia, these impairments are due to damages prior to the perception process.\n", "The signs of vertiginous epilepsy often occur without a change in the subj...
is it possible to forcibly deflate currency by removing it from circulation or is it going to inflate infinitely?	It's certainly possible, but it's something most countries really want to avoid. Deflation incentivizes hoarding money, and widespread hording can crater an economy even faster than rampant inflation.	[ "Since the amount of foreign reserves available to defend a weak currency (a currency in low demand) is limited, a currency crisis or devaluation could be the end result. For a currency in very high and rising demand, foreign exchange reserves can theoretically be continuously accumulated, if the intervention is st...
What did William do with the Anglo Saxon Lords after he finished his conquest?	This topic has been covered a number of times in the past. The short answer is that a large proportion of the senior Saxon nobility, including two of Harold's brothers, was killed at Hastings; a significant number of others fled (including Harold's sons, to Ireland; at least a few went to Byzantium and entered imperial...	[ "Although William's main rivals were gone, he still faced rebellions over the following years and was not secure on his throne until after 1072. The lands of the resisting English elite were confiscated; some of the elite fled into exile. To control his new kingdom, William granted lands to his followers and built ...
why is the score on metacritic consistently lower than the score on rotten tomatoes?	metacritic attempts to put all reviews on a percent scale---0 to 100. Rotten Tomatoes is just given the number of "fresh" reviews---roughly a C+/B or above 75% on a 1 to 100 scale---as opposed to "rotten" reviews. So, imagine a movie with three reviews: The first reviewer thinks it's the best movie ever (100%), the ...	[ "Metacritic lists a composite critical score of 88 out of 100 based on 12 reviews, meaning \"universal acclaim.\" Rotten Tomatoes records a score of 84%, and an average rating of 7.9/10, based on 67 reviews.\n", "Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score from film critics' reviews, reports a rating of 43...
Why can't we feel the acceleration of the universe?	You are part of the universe.	[ "In the 4th century BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle believed that there is no effect or motion without a cause. The cause of the downward motion of heavy bodies, such as the element earth, was related to their nature, which caused them to move downward toward the center of the universe, which was their natural ...
How do xrays travel through matter so easily?	It's important to note that our bodies aren't completely transparent to x-rays, otherwise we would never see any contrast in the images. At a most basic level, x-rays and visible light are the same phenomena except for a difference in energy. Also the probability of an interaction is directly related to the similarit...	[ "The X-ray tail may be produced by emission from energetic particles in a pulsar wind, with the particles produced by the pulsar spiralling around magnetic field lines. Other X- ray tails around pulsars have been interpreted as bow-shocks generated by the supersonic motion of pulsars through space, with the wind tr...
Why did China enter a period of Isolationism during the Ming and Qing dynasties after the Zheng He journeys?	The primary reason was that Zheng He's expeditions basically bankrupted the Ming Court. Entire forests in Southern China (and part of Vietnam) were leveled to resource the timber needed for the massive ships of Zheng He's fleet. Ship building and maintenance proved to be very costly for China. On top of it, Manchuri...	[ "The easy transition between the Ming and Qing dynasties has been ascribed to the Chongzhen Emperor's refusal to move southward when his capital had been under rebel threat. This allowed the Qing dynasty to capture an entire corps of qualified civil servants to administer the country, and also ensured that the Sout...
Were nuclear weapons a straightforward result of nuclear theory? Or was it more complicated than that?	> Once scientists understood how nuclear reactions occurred, were nuclear weapons an obvious/straightforward application of nuclear theory? Once you realize that neutron-induced fission reactions release neutrons, it becomes immediately clear that there is the potential for some kind of positive feedback causing a nu...	[ "Due to the increased amount of publicly available resources regarding nuclear weapons, it is reasonable to assume that a viable weapon design could be reached with even less effort today. However in the history of nuclear weapons, the development of fission weapons was never strongly hindered by basic design quest...
how are mortgage interest rates affected by federal policy?	Well, here are some terms you could use.... need to stimulate the economy ...give it a stiff injection of cash ...you want to see the economy grow ...but you need to do it slowly ...not too fast ...because the economy could get to hot, and no-one like hyper-inflation. But if we use quantitative easing ...we can stimu...	[ "A drop in mortgage interest rates reduces the cost of borrowing and should logically result in an increase in prices in a market where most people borrow money to purchase a home (for instance, in the United States), so that average payments remain constant. If one assumes that the housing market is efficient, the...
How did classical composers get paid back in the day? It's not like they had big record deals with music companies back then.	Hi, there's lots of room for more answers, but fyi, you can get started here * [How did classical composers/pianists make money?](_URL_0_) featuring /u/caffarelli among others	[ "The settlement of the first recording ban of 1942–43, leading to an increase in royalties paid to musicians, had a serious effect on the financial viability of the big bands, including Ellington's Orchestra. His income as a songwriter ultimately subsidized it. Although he always spent lavishly and drew a respectab...
does my dog understand why we get in the car and what a car does?	My dog hears "wanna go for a ride" and gets super excited, when the door opens she runs straight for the truck and sits and waits. She is quite in the truck until we get about half a mile from either a dog park, beach or friends house and then she start whinning. This happens well before the destination is in sight s...	[ "Self-driving cars are already exploring the difficulties of determining the intentions of pedestrians, bicyclists, and animals, and models of behavior must be programmed into driving algorithms. Human road users also have the challenge of determining the intentions of autonomous vehicles, where there is no driver ...
Why is the Vietnam War so vilified in American culture, but the Korean War not?	Well, a number of reasons. Perhaps the most notable, besides the loss/tie difference that you pointed to, is that they were sold as similar wars but were in fact very different. Korea, while unpopular, was nowhere near as catastrophic from a PR point of view as Vietnam. ~~South Korea was a legitimate state, and as such...	[ "Unlike World War II and Vietnam, the Korean War did not get much media attention in the United States. The most famous representation of the war in popular culture is the television series \"MAS*H\", which was set in a field hospital in South Korea. The series ran from 1972 until 1983, and its final episode was ...
How long would a scent last in a glass jar?	If you had a vessel that could be sealed and would not allow any exchange of material between the internal and external environments, and didn't absorb or react with any of whatever molecules that produced the scent, then the only thing that would limit how long the scent remained would be the rate of decay of the scen...	[ "Proper preservation of perfumes involves keeping them away from sources of heat and storing them where they will not be exposed to light. An opened bottle will keep its aroma intact for several years, as long as it is well stored. However, the presence of oxygen in the head space of the bottle and environmental fa...
If black holes can bend light, can they be used as lenses to see further into space?	Yes, this is called gravitational lensing. In reality though we don't use black holes, we use galaxies. [Here](_URL_0_) is an extreme example, where light from the background galaxy is almost bent in a circle by the foreground galaxy. Even though it looks distorted, the galaxy is magnified by the gravitational lens. Th...	[ "Another way that the black hole nature of an object may be tested in the future is through observation of effects caused by a strong gravitational field in their vicinity. One such effect is gravitational lensing: The deformation of spacetime around a massive object causes light rays to be deflected much as light ...
Who ruled Roman Judea, a king or Prefect?	I think you are getting confused about chronology, as the system changed over time. Herod the Great Rules as a client-king after he overthrow Antigonus in 37 BC. Basically Rome employed client-states a great deal, particularly in the East, for a number of reasons. Firstly, people tended to be less rebellious if p...	[ "In AD 6, Judea, Idumea, and Samaria were transformed from a client kingdom of the Roman Empire into an imperial province, also called Judea. A Roman prefect, rather than a client king, ruled the land. The prefect ruled from Caesarea Maritima, leaving Jerusalem to be run by the High Priest of Israel. As an exceptio...
After the destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, how long did it take for the news to reach Rome and was there any coordinated attempt to rescue survivors	In a letter to Tacitus written years after the event, Pliny the Younger described how his uncle, Pliny the Elder, was killed during the eruption of Vesuvius. Pliny the Elder was in command of the Roman navy stationed in the Bay of Naples. When he saw the plume of smoke and ash rising from the mountain across the bay,...	[ "During Titus' second visit to the disaster area, a fire struck Rome which lasted for three days. Although the extent of the damage was not as disastrous as during the Great Fire of 64, crucially sparing the many districts of insulae, Cassius Dio records a long list of important public buildings that were destroyed...
why do news sites usually position the content in the middle of the page instead of using all of the space avaliable?	A recent trend in web design has been what's called "responsive" web design. It used to be that you could assume someone viewing your page was using a desktop computer with a certain minimum screen resolution you could optimize your layout for. When smartphones and tablets became popular you started to see "full versio...	[ "NewsLibrary differs from other news databases in that the site allows the user to input a date, region, and newspaper, but nothing in the search bar; this brings up all of the articles published within the narrowed selection string, rather than searching for the use of a term or phrase within an article.\n", "Us...
what makes it possible for someone to ride a bicycle with no hands?	Here is a nice explanation: _URL_0_	[ "Although arms are weaker than legs, many hand cyclists are able to make use of the power of the whole upper body. A good hand cyclist can still achieve a respectable pace in competitions. Handcycles have also been used for touring, though few designers incorporate mudguards or luggage racks. Also, the gear ratios ...
why does the irs make it so difficult to understand how to file personal taxes?	The IRS doesn't make it difficult. It's congress that passes these bills. They have very precise wording to avoid people exploiting unintended loopholes.	[ "In its continual effort to enforce the tax laws and identify unreported and under-reported income, the IRS uses tax information returns in electronic cross-matching against income tax returns. Because of this reliance on receiving information returns from the payers of income, the IRS administers a system of asses...
why are almost all modern day figther jets grey?	It acts as camouflage against the sky when seen from the ground. In WW2 we preferred green and brown on top to provide camouflage against the ground when seen from above, but now anything that's likely to see you from above is likely to fire a missile at you without ever seeing you, so camouflage won't help.	[ "The Air Force also uses a low visibility roundel of the same design only replacing the traditional roundel colours of red, blue and white with two grey colour variations of light and dark for contrast; these roundels have most recently been placed on refurbished MiG-29s. Most other aircraft continue to use the sta...
why are certain drugs snorted (cocaine, for example)? please, explain the whole drug absorbtion process in this case.	Your nose contains mucus membranes, through which substances can be absorbed faster than through your digestive tract. Generally speaking, the fastest absorption will be through injection into the bloodstream, second fastest is inhalation, third is mucus membranes, and last is digestion.	[ "Nasal insufflation (known colloquially as \"snorting\", \"sniffing\", or \"blowing\") is a common method of ingestion of recreational powdered cocaine. The drug coats and is absorbed through the mucous membranes lining the nasal passages. Cocaine's desired euphoric effects are delayed when snorted through the nose...
why don’t businesses take the money and run when getting rich?	Most large companies aren't privately owned. They are publicly traded corporations. The major stockholders can't "take the money and run" because the money is in their ownership of the business.	[ "It is, of course, also possible to amass wealth simply by \"taking it off other people\" in some way, but once this appropriation has occurred, the source of additional wealth vanishes, and the original owners are no longer so motivated to produce surpluses, simply because they know their products will be taken of...
Is it true native Americans visited Europe in the second century AD?	Almost certainly not. This comes from something Pliny the Elder wrote, in 60 BC, not the 2nd century AD:“The same Cornelius Nepos, when speaking of the northern circumnavigation, tells us that Q. Metellus Celer, the colleague of L. Afranius in the consulship, but then a proconsul in Gaul, had a present made to him by t...	[ "The first Europeans to encounter the Native Americans were Spanish explorers in the mid-16th century. At that time the historical Creek tribe inhabited the southern two thirds of what is now defined as Georgia, west of the Low Country. they are believed to be the descendants of the Mississippian culture.\n", "Th...
how does euler's formula actually work?	This is a bit like magic trick and when all the moving parts and behind the scenes preparation are revealed the result is clear, magic evaporates, and, in this case, follows from the uniqueness of the complex function f(z) satisfying f'(z) = f(z) and f(0) = 1 but that fact is often obscured by our intuition regarding e...	[ "Euler's formula, named after Leonhard Euler, is a mathematical formula in complex analysis that establishes the fundamental relationship between the trigonometric functions and the complex exponential function. Euler's formula states that for any real number :\n", "Both sides of the Euler product formula converg...
Can insect cells be gram stained?	You should be ok (though I can't say for certain). Gram staining is staining for peptidoglycan, which is present in high levels in gram positive bacteria cell walls and less so in gram-negative. Insects don't have cell walls, so I would think that the only place a gram stain might light up is in something like chitin (...	[ "The gram-positive cell wall is characterised by the presence of a very thick peptidoglycan layer, which is responsible for the retention of the crystal violet dyes during the Gram staining procedure. It is found exclusively in organisms belonging to the Actinobacteria (or high %G+C gram-positive organisms) and the...
Danes vs Swedes	Sweden has won more by most counts. /u/vonadler did a good summary of all the wars fought between Swedem and Denmark in [this](_URL_0_) thread.	[ "The Danes saw this as an opportunity to regain control over the Scanian lands, which had fallen to Sweden with the 1658 Treaty of Roskilde. The Danes invaded via Helsingborg in late June 1676 with an army of 14,000 men, where they found themselves supported by the local peasantry. This made it impossible for the o...
why can other animals build up fat reserves and live off of them for leaner months without apparent consequences but we find it so hard to live off of fat reserves and still feel weak when we don’t eat regularly, even when we have stored energy in fat?	Human beings, much like other animals, did evolve the capability of building up fat reserves when food is abundant, and then living off those reserves when food is scarce. The only reason why this system has broken down in the modern world is that most of us now have access to abundant food all the time. We are alway...	[ "During periods of prolonged exercise, animals are dependent on a combination of two sources of fuel: glycogen stored in the muscles and liver, and fat. Because glycogen is more easily oxidized than fat, it is depleted first. However, over longer periods of time, energy demands require that fat stores be utilized a...
the anti-fedora culture online	"fedora felt hats as a fashion accessory, are often mocked online for being worn by men without poor sense of style." shown in [This picture](_URL_0_)	[ "By the early 21st century, the fedora had become a symbol of hipsters. \"Vice\" has referred to the early 2000s as a \"fedora renaissance\", with celebrities like Johnny Depp and Pete Doherty wearing the hat, but claimed that by 2016, the fedora may be \"the single most-hated fashion accessory money can buy\". Thi...
Quakers and the Civil War: How did their pacifism and abolitionism interact as ending slavery became more and more central to the Union cause?	The Quakers are an interesting community in many ways. As you noted, they're famous for their pacifism. Analyzing the reasons behind why a man or a community fought in a war is a complicated subject, and of course the reasons I'm going to give are general ones, but the answer to your question lays in the Quakers anti-s...	[ "The Quakers were involved in many of the great reform movements of the first half of the 19th century. After the Civil War they won over President Grant to their ideals of a just policy toward the American Indians, and became deeply involved in Grant's \"Peace Policy\". Quakers were motivated by high ideals, playe...
freedom of religion as a guise to avoid laws you don't like	I thought about trying to explain all your questions, but no one can explain this better than Eugene Volokh does in his [Religious Exemptions Guide for the Confused](_URL_0_).	[ "Freedom of religion is considered by many people and most of the nations to be a fundamental human right. In a country with a state religion, freedom of religion is generally considered to mean that the government permits religious practices of other sects besides the state religion, and does not persecute believe...
I'm on a starship traveling from the Milky Way to Andromeda. I look out the window. What do I see?	> Or would the starscape be completely dark except for the closest two galaxies? Pretty much, yes. The only stars you can see as individual stars with the naked eye are within a few thousand light years. The Milky Way and Andromeda would be visible as faint patches of light a couple of degrees or so across. They wou...	[ "The constellation of Andromeda lies well away from the galactic plane, so it does not contain any of the open clusters or bright nebulae of the Milky Way. Because of its distance in the sky from the band of obscuring dust, gas, and abundant stars of our home galaxy, Andromeda's borders contain many visible distant...
Even though the concept of Democracy was known since 500 BC most of the world lived under a Monarchy up until the 1700’s. Why was Democracy unpopular during this time?	I can only speak for the Classical World - but in that context, it is clear that democracy was unpopular (a) because no civic democracy could resist the power of the large kingdoms that dominated the Mediterranean basin from the time of Alexander onward, (b) because the Roman Empire discouraged democracy on the local l...	[ "Since the middle of the 20th century, most countries have claimed to be a democracy, regardless of the actual makeup of its government. Yet, after the demise of Athenian democracy, few looked upon it as a good form of government. This was because no legitimation of that rule was formulated to counter the negative ...
What were different decades in the 1800s like?	Well, pop culture is a big definer for a time period in my opinion, and Gothic fiction was a bit of pet hobby of mine. So.. The first Gothic novels were published in the mid-1700s, and the genre exploded. And with that explosion of popularity came a lot of repetitive derivative works, trying to capture that supernatur...	[ "The 1800s decade lasted from January 1, 1800, to December 31, 1809. The term \"eighteen-hundreds\" can also mean the years between 1800 and 1899 (the years beginning with \"18\"), and is almost synonymous with the 19th century (1801–1900). This article refers to the decade comprising 1800–1809.\n", "The 19th (ni...
What is the theory behind using twisted pair wiring in cables?	Electromagnetic interference can change the voltage in long wires. To combat this problem, signals are sent by varying the difference in voltage between the two wires in a twisted pair. The pair of wires are twisted together so that any interference that one wire receives will also be received by the other wire, so t...	[ "Twisted pair cabling with the ubiquitous \"RJ-45\" 8P8C modular connector is a form of wiring in which pairs of wires (the forward and return conductors of a single circuit) are twisted together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference (EMI) from other wire pairs and from external sources. Th...
why are animal sounds different in different languages? how did their spellings originate?	Different languages use different sets of sounds, and different ways of stringing sounds together, to make words. For example, the way an American would say the 'r' in "red" doesn't exist that way in Japanese. Another example, the way a Francophone would say the 'r' in "rouge" doesn't exist in English. The sounds tha...	[ "For animal sounds, words like \"quack\" (duck), \"moo\" (cow), \"bark\" or \"woof\" (dog), \"roar\" (lion), \"meow\"/\"miaow\" or \"purr\" (cat), \"cluck\" (chicken) and \"baa\" (sheep) are typically used in English (both as nouns and as verbs).\n", "This is a list of animal sounds. This list contains words used...
why do animals seem to be able to shrug off bad injuries much better than us humans?	In some cases it’s because their systems aren’t as complex. In many cases, however, it’s just a combination of the fact that they can’t talk (and therefore can’t tell you that their leg still hurts) and the fact that if they get severely injured they will simply die because they can’t feed themselves (and thus you won...	[ "Similar notions that suggest animals—like fish, for example—feel less pain are brought forth today as a justification for animal cruelty. The feminist side of the argument, however, suggests that there is no rationalization for treating animal lives with lesser reverence than human lives, even if the theory that a...
so a cpu is just a bunch of switches, either being "on" = 1, or "off" = 0. but "who" or what decides when a switch should be "0" or "1", in order to make a useful computation?	I'll try to give an eli5 but keep in mind it's an highly abstracted answer which grows in complexity step by step. To answer your question you need to look at the structure of the CPU itself. 1. we'll start from a transistor that like you said act as a switch. it can transmit electric power (logic '1') or b...	[ "Ideal switches are considered as having only two exclusive states, for example, open or closed. In some analysis, the state of a switch can be considered to have no influence on the output of the system and is designated as a \"don't care\" state. In complex networks it is necessary to also account for the finite ...
Why when we stare at a negative image, then blink, do we see it in colour?	I am a computer vision PhD student, and I study human perception as part of my work. What you are describing is a very interesting use of the [afterimage](_URL_2_). Short, digestible explanation: Your iris, cornea and lens act like a camera lens to project the image your eye is facing onto your [retina](_URL_0_), wh...	[ "A stimulus which elicits a positive image will usually trigger a negative afterimage quickly via the adaptation process. To experience this phenomenon, one can look at a bright source of light and then look away to a dark area, such as by closing the eyes. At first one should see a fading positive afterimage, like...
microwaves	Microwaves are photons, like light. They are much longer (lower frequency) than light, about a 1cm wavelength. [This nice graphic](_URL_0_ ) shows the whole spectrum.	[ "Microwaves are electromagnetic waves with wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz (0.3 GHz) and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF (millimeter waves), and various sources use different boundaries. In all ca...
how are counterfeit bills smaller than $20 prevented from entering circulation?	As soon as you spend it, it's likely going to be deposited into that business's bank account. Bank money counters spot fake bills even when a person can't. Most counterfeit bills don't circulate for as long as you would think because of this. Edit: The money counters I'm referring to are actually machines. We don't ...	[ "In 2005, Peruvian Banks ceased to accept $100 bills from the 2001 series CB-B2, due to a detection in a series of counterfeit bills in Peruvian circulation. The Peruvian media reported that the notes were so well made that they were \"perfect fakes\". The differences between them and genuine bills were reportedly ...
What made medieval England prone to rebellion and civil war?	Civil wars such as the Anarchy and the Wars of the Roses in English history mostly came about as a result of succession crises rather than socio-economic factors. To put it bluntly a lot of it was down to chance: the availability of a direct male heir. For instance, the Anarchy (1136-54) occurred because the Henry I'...	[ "England had suffered extensively from the war by 1147, leading later Victorian historians to call the period of conflict \"the Anarchy\". The contemporary \"Anglo-Saxon Chronicle\" recorded how \"there was nothing but disturbance and wickedness and robbery\". Certainly in many parts of the country, such as Wiltshi...
Is it possible for a supernova to occur close enough to be seen by the naked eye without major negative effects?	Certainly. The most recent supernova visible to the naked eye was [SN 1987A](_URL_1_) in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 168,000 light years away. It was too far away to harm us. It's possible that a bright enough supernova in M-31, 2.5 million light years away, would be just visible to the naked eye under good conditions...	[ "The overwhelming probability is that the next supernova observed in the Milky Way will originate from an unknown white dwarf or anonymous red supergiant, very likely not even visible to the naked eye. Nevertheless, the prospect of a supernova originating from an object as extreme, nearby, and well-studied as Eta C...
the philosophy of space and time being the same thing	It isn't a philosophy. It's an empirical fact. The "same thing" that space and time both are is geometric in nature. It's easy to think of space as being geometric; space is where geometry happens! We can talk about shapes and distances and angles and all that very easily when we're talking about space; it's obvio...	[ "Philosophy of space and time is the branch of philosophy concerned with the issues surrounding the ontology, epistemology, and character of space and time. While such ideas have been central to philosophy from its inception, the philosophy of space and time was both an inspiration for and a central aspect of early...
if i renounce my u.s citizenship where would i be deported to?	You cannot revoke your citizenship while inside the country. The first step would be to leave. Assuming you were just visiting somewhere and then renounced your citizenship, that country may still be able to deport you back to the USA, just as a noncitizen. This would make some things like travel and work very difficu...	[ "The following is an incomplete list of notable people who have been deported from the United States. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), particularly the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), handles all matters of deportation. Their decisions may be a...
do different altitudes in the ocean have different oxygen levels?	Different ocean depths have different oxygen levels. Near the surface the ocean has a similar oxygen level to the air. Organic matter sinks down, and is eaten by bacteria and such as it goes. Oxygen levels can decrease with depth because it is used up by those bacteria in the deeper water. Below a certain point the or...	[ "The other main issue with altitude is hypoxia, caused by both the lack of barometric pressure and the decrease in oxygen as the body rises. With exposure at higher altitudes, alveolar carbon dioxide partial pressure (PCO2) decreases from 40 mmHg (sea level) to lower levels. With a person acclimated to sea level, v...
how do they stop people from stealing cars during a test drive?	Usually the dealer will take something of value from the customer and something which defines them, such as a credit card or something along those lines. Credit cards are checked with drivers licenses for verification.	[ "A test drive is the driving of an automobile to assess its drivability, or roadworthiness, and general operating state. A person who tests vehicles for a living, either for an automobile company, automotive media for review purposes, or a motorsports team, is called a test driver.\n", "Likewise, after too many a...
can a soap be dirty? in a sense that there are still some bacteria living on it.	Bars of soap do get "dirty". A bar of soap helps clean your hands and body by latching onto grease, dirt, and oil more strongly than your skin does. When you're using soap you're washing away those loose, dirt-trapping, dirty soap molecules. A bar of soap does not clean itself, however. A Bar of soap gets cleaned by ...	[ "Solid soap, because of its reusable nature, may hold bacteria acquired from previous uses. A small number of studies which have looked at the bacterial transfer from contaminated solid soap have concluded transfer is unlikely as the bacteria are rinsed off with the foam. The CDC still states \"liquid soap with han...
Are Rubbing Alcohol & Hydrogen Peroxide actually bad for cuts? [MIC]	Normal saline works just fine for most wounds and it doesn't hurt or irritate it.	[ "Historically hydrogen peroxide was used for disinfecting wounds, partly because of its low cost and prompt availability compared to other antiseptics. It is now thought to inhibit healing and to induce scarring because it destroys newly formed skin cells. Only a very low concentration of HO can induce healing, and...
why do we set the clocks ahead in the spring when the sun already sets later, rather than in the winter when the sun goes down before 5?	'Daylight savings' moves daylight from very early in the morning when you're likely still asleep and moves it to the evening where it can be put to better use. In the winter, there's no extra daylight in the morning. People don't want their kids waiting for the bus in the dark. That's also why they don't use DST in...	[ "During early spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt relative to the Sun, and the length of daylight rapidly increases for the relevant hemisphere. The hemisphere begins to warm significantly, causing new plant growth to \"spring forth,\" giving the season its name. \n", "Winter time is the practice...
why do different militaries have different combat styles?	Different military forces are run by different commanders, with different teachings, coming from different schools of thought, with different histories, and comprised of different people from different cultures. It is the same as wondering why two MMA fighters have different techniques when they learned from different...	[ "Other combatives systems having their origins in the modern military include Chinese Sanshou, Soviet Bojewoje (Combat) Sambo, and Israeli Kapap. The prevalence and style of combatives training often changes based on perceived need, and even in times of peace, special forces and commando units tend to have a much h...
What drove Europe's modern re-forestation?	Yes, its true of Europe, also true of the United States. The topic is more the domain of agronomists, ecoomists and geoscientists than historians, but we can say a few things: There have been intentional reforestation programs, for example the Patrimonio Forestal del Estado in Franco's Spain, but these are less si...	[ "New forest laws have been adopted in Eastern European countries as part of their transition to a market economy. These laws had considerable effect on the structure of forest land ownership, improvements in management regulations, and modernization of the forest sector's institutional framework. New forest legisla...
Did westerners ever migrate/defect to the Soviet Union?	Indeed, this did take place, and not just to the Soviet Union - Westerners defected to many of the other countries in the Eastern Bloc (mostly East Germany), as well as the People's Republic of China, and, at times, North Korea, Cuba, and Vietnam. Some defected to non-aligned and ostensibly neutral states, such as Swit...	[ "During the Cold War, the many people illegally emigrating from the Soviet Union or Eastern Bloc to the West were called defectors. Westerners defected to the Eastern Bloc as well, often to avoid prosecution as spies. Some of the more famous cases were British spy Kim Philby, who defected to Russia to avoid exposur...
why can't any beverage quench the thirst of water (only) even though they contain water in it?	We evolved to want water, so when are brains sense that we are consuming it, endorphins are released to promote the habit of drinking water. (pretty much why anything if good to use) Most other drinks contain added ingredients like sugar and/or salt, so the brain doesn't recognize them as exactly water. So less endorph...	[ "Compared to dehydration, hyponatremia is a relatively recently recognized danger, and there are different opinions about how much water to drink at each water stop. Some texts say that thirst is not a reliable indicator of the need in water, while other say that obligatory drinking at every opportunity without rea...
why can't failing businesses in ordinary times with lots of employees like sears or kmart get financial help by the government?	Because you don't want to incentivize companies that fail due to their own incompetence by paying them for sucking. If outside factors come into play that cause these companies to fail, you want to help them out. It's the same reason why insurance companies won't cover your home if you intentionally light it on fire...	[ "Company stores have had a reputation as monopolistic institutions, funneling workers' incomes back to the owners of the company. This is because company stores often faced little or no competition for workers' earnings on account of their geographical remoteness, the inability and/or unwillingness of other nearby ...
when you stop doing exercise for some time, up to what point do you maintain grown muscles?	It depends on your calorie intake and daily routine, you can definitively go back to your starting point but that would mean that you haven't lifted in some years and had a poor diet.	[ "For physical fitness activity to benefit an individual, the exertion triggers a response called a stimulus. Exercise with the correct amount of intensity, duration, and frequency can produce a significant amount of improvement. The person may overall feel better, but the physical effects on the human body take wee...
how did silicon valley become the "mecca" of computer technology? could this have happened anywhere like new york or chicago or is there something specific about the geographic or political climate that allowed silicon valley to become what it is?	William Shockley, one of the men who invented the transistor spent time there as a child. He founded his company, Shockley Semiconductor and headquartered it there. He hired 8 engineers for his new company, and was such a bad manager they abandoned him and founded their own company under the Fairchild business (they ...	[ "Robert Norton Noyce (December 12, 1927 – June 3, 1990), nicknamed \"the Mayor of Silicon Valley,\" was an American physicist who co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957 and Intel Corporation in 1968. He is also credited (along with Jack Kilby) with the realization of the first integrated circuit or microchip th...
why don't casinos shuffle the deck frequently during blackjack to avoid card counting?	Afaik, they do. They have machines that constantly shuffle two or three decks. At the same time, there's tables where they only use one deck...counting is somewhat possible there, although they reshuffle it each hand.	[ "Blackjack can be legally beaten by a skilled player. Beyond the basic strategy of when to hit and when to stand, individual players can use card counting, shuffle tracking or hole carding to improve their odds. Since the early 1960s a large number of card counting schemes have been published, and casinos have adju...
The Irish were known for potato agriculture, such as the Irish potato famine. With potatoes being native to the new world, what did they grow and eat before that?	U/foldweg and u/gothwalk gave some good comprehensive answers in this previous thread: _URL_0_	[ "The potato would appear to have been introduced into Ireland in the second half of the 16th century, as a result of the European colonisation of the Americas, initially as a garden crop. It eventually came to be the main food field crop of the tenant and labouring classes. As a food source, the potato is extremely...
why can companies use other brand names in advertising in a negative sense and avoid copy right laws?	I would assume the same reason why people can review products. You don't need permission to review. I would imagine though that they would have to be able to back up their claim that their product is better.	[ "Other advertisements are called classifieds, which are placed by people who want to buy or sell something (such as a car or real estate), employers who have job openings, or property owners who have rental property available.\n", "All of the above abbreviations have their origins in classified personal advertise...
if hackers are using "brute force" password guessing, why can't websites lock them out after too many guesses like they do legitimate users?	That's exactly what happens. However, when there is a leak (data security breach) and they get their hands on the encrypted password file, then they get infinity tries to decrypt it.	[ "An important property is that an eavesdropper or man in the middle cannot obtain enough information to be able to brute force guess a password without further interactions with the parties for each (few) guesses. This means that strong security can be obtained using weak passwords.\n", "small number of consecuti...
does an active electrical appliance falling into a bathtub really electrocutes a person?	Any water with you in it is going to be salty and filled with various contaminants that make it a fine conductor. It used to be that yes, you'd be electrocuted and "Game Over'. Now, in theory, there's a nice device called a GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter) that should save your life and cut off the juice before you fry l...	[ "BULLET::::- Using AC electrical appliances around bathtubs, swimming pools, hot tubs, etc. with the risk that the appliance may fall into the water and cause electrocution. Only battery-operated devices are safe.\n", "It is also recommended to install residual-current devices for protection against electrocution...
How far do supernovas expand?	Pretty damn far. The shockwave from a supernova can create a "bubble" of reduced density in the interstellar medium extending for tens to hundreds of light-years from the star. The actual material from the dead star will get mixed throughout the galaxy and eventually the material from many supernovae will end up in a n...	[ "Remnants of many supernovae consist of a compact object and a rapidly expanding shock wave of material. This cloud of material sweeps up the surrounding interstellar medium during a free expansion phase, which can last for up to two centuries. The wave then gradually undergoes a period of adiabatic expansion, and ...
how do airplanes fly and why do they travel at high altitudes?	Search_bot explains the first part. In answer to your second question: There are four main forces at work on an airplane: lift, thrust, drag, and gravity. Lift is a result of air being forced over the wings, and like I said, the explanation of why airplanes fly explains the first part pretty well. Lift usually counter...	[ "The airplane is certified to fly up to an altitude of above mean sea level with its pressurized cabin. It is designed to operate in most weather conditions, including icing conditions, and it is usually equipped with weather radar to help pilots avoid severe weather. The aircraft can be fitted with a lavatory, usi...
Cartoonists in WWII	Dr. Seuss did quite a bit of cartoons and was a strong advocate in actual politics instead of just making Hirohito having buck teeth and slanted eyes. I actually have a book of his completely devoted to his WWII comics and it was fascinating, not to mention hilarious seeing the same style animation being applied to Sta...	[ "Turner got his first training in cartooning via a correspondence course. During World War II, where he served as a mechanic with Tuskegee Airmen, his illustrations appeared in the newspaper \"Stars and Stripes\". After the war, while working for the Oakland Police Department, he created the comic strip \"Baker's H...
Why was the Clinton–Lewinsky scandal such a big deal when JFK is well known for his extreme sexcapades? What differentiates the two presidents and why is a president getting a blowjob in the Oval Office a big deal versus JFK having sex often twice daily when everyone seemingly knew about it?	In Clinton’s case, there was a specific legal issue at hand- whether he committed perjury and obstruction of justice in trying to cover up his relationship with Lewinsky. During the time his relationship with Lewinsky was active, Lewinsky confided the details of their relationship to a friend, Linda Tripp. At the sam...	[ "In 1998, the Clintons' private concerns became the subject of much speculation when investigations revealed that the president had engaged in an extramarital affair with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Events surrounding the Lewinsky scandal eventually led to the impeachment of the president by the...
how much does it really matter where i buy my gas? are “name brand” gas stations any different?	Some "name brand" gas companies include fuel system cleaning additives, but you can buy an occasional bottle of fuel system cleaner at an auto parts store for pretty cheap, and it will do the same thing. Assuming that you use the correct octane level for your engine, fuel from just about any station should work simila...	[ "Individual gas stations in the United States have little if any control over gasoline prices. The wholesale price of gasoline is determined according to area by oil companies which supply the gasoline, and their prices are largely determined by the world markets for oil. Individual gas stations are unlikely to sel...
Alkali metals are the most reactive metals. Are there any compounds that are more reactive?	This is an impossible question to answer since it depends on what exactly you mean by 'reactive', it's a very broad term. The simple answer is yes, there are many compounds that are extremely reactive. If you're just looking at elements fluorine is very reactive with just about anything it comes into contact with. If y...	[ "The alkali metals (Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, and Fr) are the most reactive metals in the periodic table - they all react vigorously or even explosively with cold water, resulting in the displacement of hydrogen.\n", "The alkali metals are all shiny, soft, highly reactive metals at standard temperature and pressure and ...
what would we see if we could see a wider range of wave lengths?	You would see more "colors". An apple is red because it reflects mostly red light. But if the apple also reflected a lot of ultraviolet light (making this up) you would now see the apple as a combination of red and whatever color your mind would use for ultraviolet. Depending on the wavelengths you see, you would also...	[ "So the wave amplitude is ½\"H\", half the wave height. This is of the same form as studied in Airy wave theory, but note that cnoidal wave theory is only valid for long waves with their wavelength much longer than the average water depth.\n", "This implies that one might encounter a wave that is roughly double t...
Missing link between plants and animals?	Check out this [article](_URL_1_) from Discover Magazine on a sea slug that uses chlorophyll. edit: from [Wired](_URL_0_) on the same slug: *Scientists have shown that once a young slug has slurped its first chloroplast meal from one of its few favored species of Vaucheria algae, the slug does not have to eat again fo...	[ "The exact phylogenetic relationship between plants, animals and fungi is not well understood. A small CSI-based study was conducted to elucidate this relationship. Four CSIs were used to place animals and fungi together as a monophyletic group, and exclude plants. These CSIs were found in two essential cellular pr...
I tried to explain relativity in a thread about Interstellar, did I get it right?	For special relativity, you got it almost exactly right, but let's be very clear about what's going on. If I replace the ball with a pulse of light and some mirrors at the end of an evacuated tube, then the example you gave is complete right. The light follows a longer path for the observer off the train than it does ...	[ "\"Hubble's law violates the special theory of relativity\": Hubble's law predicts that galaxies that are beyond Hubble Distance recede faster than the speed of light. However, special relativity does not apply beyond motion through space. Hubble's law describes velocity that results from expansion \"of\" space, ra...
Does Oliver Cromwell really deserve his popular reputation as "butcher of Ireland"?	A follow-on question, if I may? I have heard that Cromwell'd reconquest of Ireland was a last Death blow for the old Irish clan system (which had been under assault for a long time) and that in the fighting, most of the Irish elite or nobility was killed or exiled, meaning that English and protestant landowners replac...	[ "Cromwell's suppression of the Royalists in Ireland during 1649 still has a strong resonance for many Irish people. The siege of Drogheda and massacre of nearly 3,500 people—comprising around 2,700 Royalist soldiers and all the men in the town carrying arms, including civilians, prisoners, and Catholic priests—beca...
How much history is there left to be found? What is your educated guess as to how many books and documents are as yet undiscovered? Dusty shelves in old libraries? Lost scrolls in caves? Tablets in the sand? How often does new material from primary sources turn up?	As for "Tablets in the sand", we've probably only discovered about half of all the scholarly texts of Mesopotamia, complete or fragmentary, and I'm sure not even a fraction of the remaining non-scholarly texts (business records, letters, stuff like that). There's so much material excavation left to be done, as it's la...	[ "The most substantial surviving manuscript is contained in the Papyrus Boulaq 4 held in the Cairo Museum, though only small fragments of the first pages remain. Fragments of the text are found in three other papyrus sections in the Musée Guimet, the Papyrus Chester Beatty V held in the British Museum, and in four o...
What examples are there throughout history of socialist/collectivist societies?	Today i had to do a review of Evgenniy Anismov's "Russian Revolution" and he states that Peter the Great was the First Bolshevik, after a tiny bit of research, Peter the Great's greatest critic, Nikolai Berdyaev, drew a direct parallel between Peter and the destructive impact of the communist experiment. "The resembl...	[ "The history of socialism has its origins in the 1789 French Revolution and the changes which it wrought, although it has precedents in earlier movements and ideas. \"The Communist Manifesto\" was written by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels in 1848 just before the Revolutions of 1848 swept Europe, expressing what they ...
climbing stairs in twos...double the work?	It's not a strict equivalence because climbing two steps causes your body to stretch farther and use slightly different muscles and extend certain muscles farther than you would with a single stair. For me, it feels like less work climbing two at once because of how long my legs are. Trying to take most stair cases...	[ "The Penrose stairs or Penrose steps, also dubbed the impossible staircase, is an impossible object created by Lionel Penrose and his son Roger Penrose. A variation on the Penrose triangle, it is a two-dimensional depiction of a staircase in which the stairs make four 90-degree turns as they ascend or descend yet f...
why i'm better at video games when i'm leaning forward at the edge of my chair as opposed to sitting back with my feet up.	Follow up question, I get the leaning = focus part, but what about when you shift your body left and right when you're maneuvering in-game obstacles?	[ "2 point players need to put one hand on their chair's wheel for stability when trying to rebound. This is because of stability issues. When pushing themselves around the court, they do not require the back of their chair to maintain stable forward movement.\n", "Players can focus on moving the ideal person to th...
Why parts or even the whole medieval Northern Italy did not become a confederalized polity like early incarnations of would-be Switzerland?	The Swiss polities were poorer. The fundamental "problem" with Italy is that it was so agriculturally productive and economically vibrant that it could sustain multiple equally balanced, heavily urbanized, polities. The Swiss, on the other hand, were pushed together by necessity; whereas the Italian polities were fi...	[ "Northern Italy and upper Central Italy were divided into a number of warring city-states, the most powerful being Milan, Florence, Pisa, Siena, Genoa, Ferrara, Mantua, Verona and Venice. High Medieval Northern Italy was further divided by the long-running battle for supremacy between the forces of the Papacy and o...
what, if any, is the difference between food salts such as table salt, sea salt or himalayan pink salt?	There are difference between different salts. There are structural, flavour and slight mineral differences. It can impact on cooking so it is worth selecting the correct one. Table salt is highly refined, processed from mineral deposits. Often contains iodide. Sea salt is collected from sea water. Contains potassiu...	[ "Edible salts, also known as table salts, are derived from mining (rock salt) or evaporation (including sea salt). Edible salts may be identified by such characteristics as their geographic origin, method of preparation, natural impurities, additives, flavourings, or intended purpose (such as pickling or curing).\n...
What were the Sumerians' views on incest?	Poor. To paraphrase the translation of an ancient Sumerian Tablet of Law. Sexual relations were strictly regulated as well. Husbands, but not wives, were permitted sexual activity outside marriage. A wife caught committing adultery was pitched into the river. Incest was strictly forbidden. If a father committed incestu...	[ "Sumerian myths suggest a prohibition against premarital sex. Marriages were often arranged by the parents of the bride and groom; engagements were usually completed through the approval of contracts recorded on clay tablets. These marriages became legal as soon as the groom delivered a bridal gift to his bride's f...
what is electromagnetically induced transparency?	Things are transparent because they let the light go through themselves. They let light go through themselves because of how the molecules are arranged in the material. Some materials change the arrangement of their molecules if their electromagnetic charge changes. So they can be transparent or opaque depending on w...	[ "Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is a coherent optical nonlinearity which renders a medium transparent within a narrow spectral range around an absorption line. Extreme dispersion is also created within this transparency \"window\" which leads to \"slow light\", described below. It is in essence a qu...
- why do some languages have male and female words? eg german.	An important thing to take note of is not to put too much weight in to the words "Masculine", "Feminine", and "Neuter". these conventions are less trying to apply gender to objects and more trying to group similar words together in to word classes. it would be no different if we'd call these words "Black, White, Gray" ...	[ "German nouns have a grammatical gender, as in many related Indo-European languages. They can be masculine, feminine, or neuter, even words for objects without (obvious) masculine or feminine characteristics like 'bridge' or 'rock'. They are also declined (change form) depending on their grammatical case (their fun...
If you put ice in a blender and blend for a while, does it become water?	Assuming the apparatus is below freezing temperature and maintained at that temperature despite imparted kinetic energy and friction, it will simply be churned into increasingly small crystalline structures in a solid state up to the finite granularity accomplishable by the blender. So, no. Although I could be mistak...	[ "Another difference between commercially produced frozen custard and commercial ice cream is the way the custard is frozen. The mix enters a refrigerated tube and, as it freezes, blades scrape the product cream off the barrel walls. The now frozen custard is discharged directly into containers from which it can be ...
how does des/aes encryption work?	_URL_0_ _URL_1_ I think you won't find anything better to explain AES/Rijandel.	[ "The encryption method is vulnerable to known-plaintext attacks. If an unencrypted version of the same audio is known the random number stream can be easily retrieved and from it the key parameters can be determined, rendering every ADX encrypted with that same key decryptable. The encryption method attempts to mak...
why do gps apps such as google maps not take construction into account?	Because the GPS apps don't have a team of people scouring the news for every city in the world looking for road closure announcements and most major cities don't provide a computer-readable list of their construction plans. Google Maps tends to learn pretty quickly from traffic data that something is closed, from my ex...	[ "Overlaying GPS tracks on [[Google Maps\|Google.com Maps]] and any street maps sourced from Google.com via its API, will lead to a similar display offset problem, because GPS tracks use WGS-84, and Google.com maps use GCJ-02. The issue has been reported numerous times on the Google Product Forums since 2009, with 3r...
why do patents and copyrights expire? who/what decides when they do? is it fair to the inventor/creator and is there a way around it?	The idea for patents is this: We, the society (in form of the state) protect your invention from copying. In exchange, you make your invention public. So after the patent expires, everything can try to build it or improve it. You can also try to keep it secret, but then people who find out about your invention can bui...	[ "Patent law is designed to encourage inventors to disclose their new technology to the world by offering the incentive of a limited-time monopoly on the technology. For U.S. utility patents, this limited-time term of patent is 20 years from the earliest patent application filing date (but this term can be extended ...
why can you hear bass through walls when someone is playing music in another apartment, but you cannot hear the higher frequency sounds?	Because the higher frequencies (due to science) will get absorbed/scattered by their room and the insulation in your walls, but the lower frequencies will not. Actually, walls are quite large, so lower frequencies might trigger resonance in the wall (cause the wall to vibrate at the frequency of the lower tone, amplify...	[ "Some residents living nearby the street have complained that the loudspeakers from street performers produce big noises. They can hardly sleep deeply at night and kids cannot concentrate on doing their homework. As stated in the Noise Control Ordinance set by the Environmental Protection Department in 1997, noise ...

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