Split (2)

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question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
Sometimes when you wash your hands in water that is too hot, you can tell that it's too hot, but there is a 1 - 2 second lag before you actually feel the burning pain in your hands. What is the reason for this delay, and how do we know the water is too hot before we actually feel the pain?	Answers to the same question - hope this helps 1. [here](_URL_2_) 2. [here](_URL_0_) 3. [Here](_URL_1_)	[ "Showers or compresses using hot (but not scalding) water can relieve itching for up to several hours, though this \"also taxes the skin's integrity, opening pores and generally making it more vulnerable\", and is only useful for secondary treatment (not for cleaning urushiol from the skin, which should be done wit...
why do people still submit scientific papers to pay-to-view journals? has anyone tried creating one for free?	The "impact factor" of a journal was developed as a way for libraries to be able to gauge which journals were the most important ones in a field to subscribe to. If articles from journal A get cited 10 times as often by other authors than articles in journal B, the library should subscribe to journal A if you can only ...	[ "Many scientists and librarians have long protested the cost of journals, especially as they see these payments going to large for-profit publishing houses. To allow their researchers online access to journals, many universities purchase \"site licenses\", permitting access from anywhere in the university, and, wit...
When did marriage become about pairing with your "one true love" or "soul mate"? When did these romantic notions become popular, and what popularized them?	You may be interested in the '[Marriage for love versus arranged marriages](_URL_0_)' section in the Popular Questions pages.	[ "Love and music often went hand in hand in the 17th century, especially with the presence of a musical duet between a man and a woman. Playing music with one another was one of the few activities where young people of the opposite sex could socialize. The two in the painting were likely part of the haute bourgeoisi...
what does ibm do these days? how do they make money?	IBM isn't close to being dead. Their revenue is still in the order of over 100 billion USD. The difference is that they've moved on from consumer goods to goods oriented towards large businesses. It became removed from public knowledge, similar to how few people talk about ARM Holdings (despite the Arm Architecture bei...	[ "International Business Machines (IBM), which was founded in 1896 as The Tabulating Machine Company, is a multinational computer, technology and IT consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, North Castle, New York, United States. It is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history d...
How does radiation heat things?	Radiation is the transfer of energy using electromagnetic radiation. All things radiate heat energy. Hotter bodies radiate heat energy to a colder body. When the energy from a hotter body hits a colder body, part of it is reflected, part of it is absorbed and part of it is transmitted. The absorbed part has the heatin...	[ "Thermal radiation is energy emitted by matter as electromagnetic waves, due to the pool of thermal energy in all matter with a temperature above absolute zero. Thermal radiation propagates without the presence of matter through the vacuum of space.\n", "All normal (baryonic) matter emits electromagnetic radiatio...
Where do land and land/sea mammals living in the arctic/antarctic get drinking water?	The simple answer: through eating snow and/or drinking salt water. Many sea going mammals (whales, dolphins, seals, sea lions) drink ocean water. They have specialized kidneys that can excrete urine that has 2 to 3 times the salinity of ocean water. Land based mammals, will often eat snow (the stuff that falls from the...	[ "The microbial loop functions differently in sea ice, as compared to oligotrophic or temperate waters. Animals found in the extreme polar environments depend on the high bacterial production as a food source, despite the slow turnover of DOM. The microbial production of ammonium in nitrate-rich Antarctic waters may...
Why does our tongue not react to salt as much as other muscles?	Because pain receptors on the tongue aren't directly exposed to the salt. Unless you cut your tongue, anyway.	[ "Because sodium is also lost from the plasma in hypovolemia, the body's need for salt proportionately increases in addition to thirst in such cases. This is also a result of the renin-angiotensin system activation.\n", "Sodium ions (Na) are necessary in small amounts for some types of plants, but sodium as a nutr...
Why is the Delian League sometimes refered to as the "Athenian Empire"?	So, first and foremost, a basic synopsis of what the Delian League was. It was supposed to be a coalition of city-states led by Athens to strip Persia of its remaining holdouts across the Aegean. Of course, the city-states had to pay (whether in gold or in ships and men) for the pleasure of being a part of the League. ...	[ "The Delian League, founded in 478 BC, was an association of Greek city-states, with the number of members numbering between 150 and 330 under the leadership of Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Second Persian invasio...
why do most fertilisers have nitrogen?	Nitrogen is a very important nutrient which most plants require to grow in their initial stages of growth. By overusing the soil, much of the nitrogen is taken out within a few years. That is why fertilizers need to have much nitrogen, since it would take for too long for the soil to replenish itself by natural means...	[ "Nitrogen fertilizers are made from ammonia (NH), which is sometimes injected into the ground directly. The ammonia is produced by the Haber-Bosch process. In this energy-intensive process, natural gas (CH) usually supplies the hydrogen, and the nitrogen (N) is derived from the air. This ammonia is used as a feedst...
Did Madagascar people maintained contacts with their Southeast Asian Austronesian brethren after the peopling of the island?	Hi! I'm not a historian, but a biologist who spent some time in Madagascar and love the island. Since no one has answered, I'll give it a stab with what I learned, but if it doesn't qualify as a top comment, I apologize and mods please remove it. Madagascar is a really interesting island because it is believed it was ...	[ "Austronesian people started settling in Madagascar between 200 and 500 CE. They arrived by boats and were from various southeast Asian groups. Later Swahili, Arab and Indian and Tamil traders came to the island's northern regions. African slaves were brought to the island in increasing numbers between the 15th and...
Why does stressing a muscle cause it to grow?	Applying stress to muscles causes micro-cracks in muscle fibres, which are then regrown as stronger (thicker), fitting them for surviving stronger tensions. Depending on muscle location and number of fibres, it takes between 1 to 3 days (24-72h).	[ "Difficulty building muscle is often associated with the ectomorph body somatotype, however other common reasons also include a lack of proper nutrition, suitable physical activity level or not allowing enough recovery time for the stressed muscles to regain their previous state and then grow bigger (overtraining)....
how does your body know that you want to just fart and not just crap in your pants?	It doesn't. Continue your research at r/TIFU	[ "It is important to step away from the screen and immerse in actual physical work. “Computers have robbed us of the feeling that we’re actually making things,” Kleon cautions. \"Involve your full body, and not just your brains.\"\n", "In his book \"Why Do We Need To Go Whenever We're In A Bookstore?\" (\"Naze hon...
when you copy/paste pictures onto notepad what's up with the weird symbols that pop up.	As you know, all data in computers is stored as numbers. That means that there needs to be a mapping between letters and their numeric representation. For a long time the usual way of doing that was with [ascii](_URL_0_). Ascii is a 7-bit encoding, meaning any character in ascii can be encoded with only 7 binary digits...	[ "These phonetic symbols sometimes appear as ruby characters printed next to the Chinese characters in young children's books, and in editions of classical texts (which frequently use characters that appear at very low frequency rates in newspapers and other such daily fare). In advertisements, these phonetic symbol...
Would you ignite if you fired a firearm while covered in gasoline?	Possible, but I think unlikely. The flammable fumes are probably too far away from the muzzle of the gun to get ignition. It can be surprisingly difficult to get gasoline to light sometimes.	[ "Gasoline is the most common fire accelerant used but it could also be present at a scene as an ignitable liquid due to gasoline being a common fuel. Although ignitable liquids are the most common fire accelerants it is possible to have other chemicals being used as a fire accelerant. Gases such as propane or natur...
do websites that rely on traffic/video views/etc make money off of me if i have adblock on?	If they rely solely on traffic and video views, then yes, they do, because you're still viewing their content and videos. If they are actually relying on ads that are displayed along with the content and/or videos, and you're blocking them, then no, they do not make money off you. If they embed ads in the video, f...	[ "Unwanted advertising can also harm the advertisers themselves if users become annoyed by the ads. Irritated users might make a conscious effort to avoid the goods and services of firms which are using annoying \"pop-up\" ads which block the Web content the user is trying to view. For users not interested in making...
why does liberia in particular have so many child soldiers?	Watch The Cannibal Warlords of Liberia (Full Length Doc…: _URL_0_	[ "By 2006 children were no longer being used by any military groups in the country, although armed groups from Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea continued to abduct Liberian children. , children were no longer being used for military purposes in Liberia, and its armed forces were recruiting only adults over the age of 18.\n"...
how breaking the sound barrier was such a technological feat, that failed many times before success, but things seemingly irregular in shape like the space shuttle or spacex rocket boosters (on return to earth as well) break the sound barrier with seemingly no issue?	Be aware that the German V-2 rockets of WW2 flew several times faster than the speed of sound; they were close to being hypersonic. A large part of the problem of going supersonic is simply the power required and rockets are much more powerful than jet engines. Part of the reason for the early Soviet lead in space was ...	[ "The claim of breaking the sound barrier on land was made on December 17, 1979 after a run on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards AFB. While it has been claimed that the Budweiser Rocket did briefly break the sound barrier, it could not gain any official titles because standard ground speed record regulations measure an ave...
Are there any books you would recommend about the Roman Emperor Caligula?	The 12 Caesars by Seutonius. Roman history by Cassius Dio. Seutonius is very much into scandal and gossip, but that has the advantage of discussing personal matters that more serious scholars might ignore. Also The Annals by Tacitus, who is a better historian. This gives a good background about the general period but...	[ "He wrote also a history of the Roman emperors, \"Chronica regum Romanorum\"; Books VI and VII, which are of independent value as sources, were edited by Pribram in the \"Mitteilungen des Instituts für österreichische Geschichtsforschung\", third supplementary volume (Innsbruck, 1890-1894), 38-222.\n", "Despite d...
Could two women conceive a child through IVF by replacing sperm's DNA with female DNA?	In theory you could; it's been done in [mouse studies](_URL_0_), and has produced viable embryos based solely on two maternal genomes with no sperm. As far as I know, though, it's never been done in a human embryo, at least in terms of viability. In principle, the formation of an embryo from two males is possible, alt...	[ "Theoretically, IVF could be performed by collecting the contents from a woman's fallopian tubes or uterus after natural ovulation, mixing it with sperm, and reinserting the fertilised ova into the uterus. However, without additional techniques, the chances of pregnancy would be extremely small. The additional tech...
how do new apps that require a large and active user base get off the ground?	New apps that acquired a large player base does so by creating very big advertisement campaigns for example travago and line 'messenger" ads almost went on tv everyday for an entire month. By paying alot for advertisement these app makers increases their market share in a given market which is potencial very rewards bu...	[ "These apps that can be used on mobile devices (tablets and smartphones) for people to express their views on the evolution of a neighbourhood before future developments are outlined by professionals. \"Through a simple interface, they make up a realistic representation of their expectations for a given site. Six c...
historically, what decided if hong kong residents could get uk citizenship or not?	The short answer is, UK law. Back in the nineteenth century and before, UK colonies and territories were considered to be part of the United Kingdom proper. They weren't separate countries, but simply part of one massive globe spanning country. Living in one of these overseas territories was legally the same as livin...	[ "Critics argued that one of the main political motivations behind the new law was to deny most Hong Kong-born ethnic Chinese the right of residency in the United Kingdom in the time preceding the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 and later the handover of Hong Kong (then the largest British colony), to the Peo...
Were Victorian chimney sweep boys generally a happy sort, content with their employment?	No. Young chimney sweeps captivated Romantic writers, just before the Victorian period, as a symbol of the injustice and exploitation of industrialization; William Blake, in 1789, wrote a poem from the perspective of a sweeper boy called "The Chimney-Sweeper," which powerfully condemns the clean, warm lives that rest ...	[ "Chimney sweeps were often depicted in Victorian literature as heartless scoundrels who abused their child workers. They are typified in \"The Water Babies\" by Charles Kingsley. The English poet William Blake portrayed the chimney sweep as an abused child who hoped for a better life. In both \"Songs of Innocence\"...
can you help me understand the difference between anova and unvariate analysis?	Sorry, I might need some more info out of you. • Are you looking at the same cells exposed to treatment A and treatment B or do you have some cells assigned to treatment A and some others assigned to treatment B? • Can you explain what it is you’re comparing across these two groups? Just want to know if it’s continu...	[ "The ANOVA tests the null hypothesis that samples in all groups are drawn from populations with the same mean values. To do this, two estimates are made of the population variance. These estimates rely on various assumptions (see below). The ANOVA produces an F-statistic, the ratio of the variance calculated among ...
why do many people say that racial discrimination against whites cannot be called "racism"?	There's an academic definition of systemic racism that defines it as "prejudice + power". By that definition, only whites can be racist in America. This definition is useful when looking at society as a whole because it's what negatively impacts large groups of people. By the common definition, anyone can be racist. C...	[ "A 2016 poll found that 38% of US citizens thought that Whites faced a lot of discrimination. Among Democrats, 29% thought there was some discrimination against Whites in the United States, while 49% of Republicans thought the same. Similarly, another poll conducted earlier in the year found that 41% of US citizens...
turing completeness	It basically means that a computer, or a computer language, is as powerful as a Turing machine. Powerful in the sense that it is possible to solve all the problems that a Turing machine can solve. It doesn't say anything about how fast it would solve them or how easy it would be to make the programs that solve the prob...	[ "Turing completeness is the ability for a system of instructions to simulate a Turing machine. A programming language that is Turing complete is theoretically capable of expressing all tasks accomplishable by computers; nearly all programming languages are Turing complete if the limitations of finite memory are ign...
If color is the non-absorption of specific wavelengths, wouldn't a 'red' laser consist of every color except red?	The colour of an object is determined by the wavelength(s) of the light that it emits or reflects. If you take an object that doesn't emit visible light on its own, then the visibility of the object is purely caused by reflection of light from other sources. Depending on what the object is made of, it will reflect som...	[ "Red is any of a number of similar colors evoked by light, consisting predominantly of the longest wavelengths discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 625–750 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colors.\n", "The spectrum does not contain all the colors that the human eyes and...
Why does pain pulsate in intensity, and not remain consistent?	Not all pain necessarily has the qualities of being pulsating/throbbing. Pulsating pain presents in a number of different pain conditions, but it has always been associated with some form of vascular involvement. The problem with this notion is that all that is 'obvious' is not always clear. In the case of headache...	[ "Because of their higher conduction velocity, Aδ fibers are responsible for the sensation of a quick shallow pain that is specific on one area, termed as first pain. They respond to a weaker intensity of stimulus. C fibers respond to stimuli which have stronger intensities and are the ones to account for the slow, ...
From an oblivious Canadian, why was Robert McNamara so controversial in relation to the Vietnam War? In brief, what's his story?	Robert McNamara is controversial because he bears a significant amount of responsibility not only for US involvement in the Vietnam War, but also for the strategy that the US used, which proved ultimately ineffective at winning the war. During the 1950s, McNamara worked as an executive for the Ford Motor Company. Whi...	[ "Robert S. McNamara, US Secretary of Defense during most of the Vietnam War, came from a background of quantitative analysis both in conventional warfare and industry, but appeared to assume that the North Vietnamese leadership would use logic similar to his own. Lyndon B. Johnson, however, personalized conflict, s...
Theory Thursdays \| Edward Gibbon and the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire	There are plenty of 'explanations' for the wide-ranging process we shorthanded as 'fall of Rome', but the trick in reading Gibbon is actually reading him. His work is much more nuanced than it is commonly presented, and relies only on historical texts (including the Augustan History) and not on archaeology, but overall...	[ "The belief has been traced back to Edward Gibbon's work, \"The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire\", published between 1776 and 1788, where Gibbon argues that Rome collapsed due to the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens, who became lazy, spoiled and inclined to hire foreign mercenarie...
what is kwanzaa? where does it come from and who celebrates it?	Regardless of how I - or anyone else - views the holiday, Kwanzaa is an African-American celebration that is primarily observed in the southern states. It first came about in America about sixty years ago, in the heat of the black rights movement. It was created as a way for black Americans to celebrate the tradition...	[ "Kwanzaa () is a celebration held in the United States and in other nations of the African diaspora in the Americas and lasts a week. The celebration honors African heritage in African-American culture and is observed from December 26 to January 1, culminating in a feast and gift-giving. Kwanzaa has seven core prin...
What role did the Bubonic plague of the 14th century have in spurring the Renaissance?	It can be argued that the removal of one third of the population did in some way contribute to the Renaissance because it indirectly lead to increased social mobility and the creation of the merchant class which in turn led to humanism. However, this would not explain why it is that the Renaissance began in Northern It...	[ "The reference above to bubonic plague seems improbable. Typhoid is far more likely; it was both endemic and epidemic at the period, killing Prince Albert in 1861, but bubonic plague had a heyday from 1348 to about 1700. Cholera is just possible; there were outbreaks in 1832 in Liverpool and reputedly as late as 18...
how do we know that we actually can win at online casinos?	Well if they are legal then they have to follow some legal regulations. Some of which ensure that it's possible to win, even though you're obviously more likely to lose than win. If they aren't legal, then you probably can't know that.	[ "Due to the virtual nature of online gambling, it is hard for players to verify the authenticity of sites they are using. Unlike in physical casinos, randomness and deck shuffling cannot be verified by visual means unless the casino is provably fair. Players interact with other players through GUIs, which connect t...
why, when you’re sick, does it feel like you are “breathing fire” from your nose?	Because you have a fever, which increases your body temperature. Since your body is hotter than what's normal, the air inside you becomes hotter than what you're used to, so when you exhale it you are breathing out hot air.	[ "Many compounds of smoke from fires are highly toxic and/or irritating. The most dangerous is carbon monoxide leading to carbon monoxide poisoning, sometimes with the additive effects of hydrogen cyanide and phosgene. Smoke inhalation can therefore quickly lead to incapacitation and loss of consciousness. Sulfur ox...
why are most old generation computer games not converted to the current generation? are emulation/redevelopment costs really that prohibitive?	I think there are 2 big contributing factors: 1. You can't just release a 'new version' of a game if you don't own the intellectual property rights to it. Some old games were never snapped up by bigger studios, so perhaps those people just aren't interested in doing it anymore (e.g.: they have a different career, th...	[ "Being able to purchase new, better and different games for the same console at a reduced price, instead of several identical consoles that occupied more space and a connection on the TV, lead to the fall of dedicated consoles, in favor of better technologies. The transition was abrupt, so manufacturers scrambled t...
why are americans so individual and selfish when it comes to politics and social programs?	Your question seems a little subjective, and the answers I saw were also. To that end, I suggest you post in r/askanamerican.	[ "The culture of poverty, as Hylan Lewis points out, has a fundamental political nature. The ideas matters most to political and scientific groups attempting to rationalize why some Americans have failed to make it in American society. It is, Lewis (1971) argues, 'an idea that people believe, want to believe, and pe...
how can 2 opposite viewpoints both point to science to back up their side?	Science is complicated, and often doesn't give clear-cut answers. Especially in the case where both sides have valid arguments, there's going to be evidence that supports both of their cases. For example, let's imagine that you and I were arguing over whether it's better to have a small car with a small engine or a bi...	[ "Some see science and religion as being diametrically opposed views which cannot be reconciled. More accommodating viewpoints, held by mainstream churches and some scientists, consider science and religion to be separate categories of thought, which ask fundamentally different questions about reality and posit diff...
how are cryptocurrencies valued, why are they so volatile, and why do they fluctuate together?	Instead of thinking about crypto-currency like stocks, think of them like gold or silver. Each CC is like its own precious metal, distinct from the others, but still very similar. To that end, certain events can affect only one currency, like those issues that bitcoin had with one of its 3rd party banking groups gettin...	[ "Cryptocurrencies are based on distributed ledger technologies which enable anyone to purchase or transfer their cryptocurrency holdings to any other person without the need for an intermediary (such as an exchange) or to update a central record of ownership. Cryptocurrencies can be transferred easily across nation...
When and why did we stop having state militias?	The National Guard are classified as a subset of the term "militia". In the US, technically every adult male (and many adult females) are classified as part of the militia. [The individual state militias basically got rolled into the national army](_URL_0_). In other words, they still exist, but the states can't use t...	[ "Prior to the Militia Act of 1903, which reorganized state militias into the National Guard of the United States, each state maintained its own militia, which could be used to supplement the full-time military in times of war.\n", "The Militia Acts of 1792 were a pair of statutes enacted by the second United Stat...
how hot air balloons navigate with accuracy	There are different "layers" to the air, so at 100 feet, the wind may be blowing to the west, but at 250 feet the wind may be blowing to the east. So hot air balloons have to go up and down until they find a layer that is going the direction they want to go. It's not an exact science by any means and sometimes they...	[ "The next step in a hot air balloon flight is unpacking the balloon from its carrying bag, laying it out on the ground, and connecting it to the basket and burner. A fan, often gasoline-powered, is used to blow cold (outside) air into the envelope. The cold air partially inflates the balloon to establish its basic ...
Was dual wielding weapons as common as the fantasy genre would have us believe?	Generally speaking, no. Now that I've made a broad declarative statement I'm going to immediately undermine it by saying there were a few historical examples. Some cases in Japan of wielding a full length sword in one hand and a shorter one in the other for example. Some cases of vikings supposedly using combinations...	[ "Dual wielding is using two weapons, one in each hand, during combat. It is not a common combat practice. Although historical records of dual wielding in war are limited, there are numerous weapon-based martial arts that involve the use of a pair of weapons. The use of a companion weapon is sometimes employed in Eu...
does the zika virus survive in a dormant state, putting future pregnancies at risk if the patient is not pregnant when she contracts the virus?	I haven't seen that specifically reported but, it seems like a possibility. They found high concentrations in the women's [male partners' testicles](_URL_0_)	[ "Zika virus had been relatively little studied until the major outbreak in 2015, and no specific antiviral treatments are available as yet. Advice to pregnant women is to avoid any risk of infection so far as possible, as once infected there is little that can be done beyond supportive treatment.\n", "\"Zika viru...
why are there galaxies made up of matter, but no galaxy made up of antimatter?	This is one of our current big mysteries. We assume that there should be an equal amount of matter and antimatter in the universe, and yet we rarely see antimatter (we can create small amounts of it in things like particle accelerators, but that's it).	[ "There is considerable speculation both in science and science fiction as to why the observable universe is apparently almost entirely matter (in the sense of quarks and leptons but not antiquarks or antileptons), and whether other places are almost entirely antimatter (antiquarks and antileptons) instead. In the e...
Would a Bose-Einstein condensate be capable of quantum tunneling?	Looking through the literature, it appears so, but I most of the papers discussing it are pretty technical. _URL_0_ _URL_1_ Figure 4 of that first link shows a BEC tunnelling between different optical traps in a gravitational field.	[ "The idea of quantum tunneling applied to phonons produces the idea of \"phonon tunneling\", where across nanometer-wide gaps, heat can transfer between materials from phonon that \"tunnel\" between the two materials. The type of heat transfer works between distances too large for conduction to occur but too small ...
what is the ph of our drinking water?	Depends on where you are. Typically some ions are mixed into drinking water so that it doesn't leach from pipes or your bones. For example, SF area is pretty good at keeping drinking water at about 6.8, but water near Reno is not uncommon to reach like 8.6. Some places even have pH that varies based on things like wea...	[ "The pH is a chemical parameter that measures the acidity or basicity of the water and is commonly measured in situ. Distilled water has a pH of 7, where less than 7 is considered acid and greater than 7 is considered basic. In most cases, low pH is due to organic overloading and low oxygen conditions in the water....
Do we know if any first-hand sources about Medieval / Early Modern heresy exist, from the Heretic's POV?	For the Cathars, at least, we have a few of their texts. Most notably the Cathar Ritual and the Book of the Two Principles. Here is a website with some latin and english version of some of these texts: [link](_URL_0_). Also you should definitely look up [Heresies of the High Middle Ages](_URL_1_) trans/ed. Walter Wak...	[ "The manuscript (usually associated with the name \"Ecclesiae Regimen\") is a medieval Latin undated handwritten text document containing church reform thoughts of John Wycliffe and the Lollards. The Roman Catholic Church reformation ideas identified as originally belonging to John Wycliffe was expounded upon by th...
how can a building cost over 1 billion dollars?	buying materials, land, and machinery, hiring the labor and a major architecture firm to engineer the building, and there still has to be something left over for the developer to skim off the top.	[ "An estimate in February 2007 placed the initial construction cost of One World Trade Center at about $3 billion, or $1,150 per square foot ($12,380 per square meter). However, the tower's total estimated construction cost had risen to $3.9 billion by April 2012, making it the most expensive building in the world a...
if the united states was originally colonized by england several centuries ago, how did it eventually grow to drop it's british accent and adopt different spellings for common english words?	It's actually the British accent that has changed. Back when they colonized the Americas their accents were more like how Americans speak today. The rich English changed their accent during the industrial revolution to separate themselves from the common folk, and it eventually caught on and most everyone speaks that w...	[ "The establishment of the first permanent English-speaking colony in North America in 1607 was a major step towards the globalisation of the language. British English was only partially standardised when the American colonies were established. Isolated from each other by the Atlantic Ocean, the dialects in England ...
How was anorexia treated in the 1970s?	Two quick references: Hilde Bruch's The Golden Cage (pub. 1978) is a pretty representative book for the time - the reductive summary is about over-controlling mothers and type-A daughters. She also wrote in 1973 "Eating disorders; obesity, anorexia nervosa, and the person within". You might want to read the relevant po...	[ "Ataxia as a symptom has been known since the mid 19th century and the heterogenous group of diseases now known as spinocerebellar ataxias was the subject of extensive research in the latter part of that century. Advances in molecular genetics in the 20th century allowed distinct causes of these diseases to be iden...
Was there any incidents of Soviet and Allied aircraft coming into accidental conflict with one another at the closing stages of WWII?	In Serbia, a formation of American P-38 Lightnings flying from their base in Italy attacked a ground column of what they though was German infantry in Serbia, only to be hastily intercepted by what they thought were BF-109's from a nearby Luftwaffe instillation. As it turned out, they were Soviet troops and the interce...	[ "The number of aircraft lost during the war is in dispute among both the UN and the Soviet bloc nations. UN pilots claim 840 aircraft shot down during the war, while Chinese, Soviet, and North Korean sources indicate only 600 were lost among the three nations, including non-combat losses. Conversely, the Soviet Uni...
Did people pay attention at the opera?	Oh man, sorry you got subjected to Wagner. Wagner's not for everyone... given the choice between free tickets to the Ring Cycle and sticking my hand in a blender, I'd ask the speed setting. I hope this wasn't your first opera! For your first bullet point, [I'm going to point you to an old answer if you don't mind,](_...	[ "Not only the wealthy and aristocratic patrons of the opera were enthusiastic about the performance and the singers: their servants who were in attendance on them were allowed free admission to the gallery and such was their enthusiasm during the opera that a notice was inserted in the London press, as printed in t...
why is james joyce's "ulysses" such an important book?	Ulysses came at a time when Modernist literature was really hitting its stride. That's the movement where people stopped writing in poetic, flowery manners and began to write more in what your average person might consider plain english, about people you were intended to relate to, in settings you can recognise. Ulyss...	[ "Ulysses is a modernist novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal \"The Little Review\" from March 1918 to December 1920 and then published in its entirety in Paris by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, Joyce's 40th birthday. It is considered to be one of the most imp...
what happens if a tornado runs into a skyscraper, mountain, or other large object it cannot destroy?	Happened in Fort Worth several years back. It stripped all the glass off the building and turned the whole downtown into a blender of glass shards. The tornado is actually powered by the storm sell over it, so nothing happens to the confluence of winds, it keeps going like nothing happened.	[ "The source of this myth is from the appearance of some destroyed structures after violent tornadoes. When one wall receives the extreme pressure of tornado winds, it will likely collapse . This then leads to a considerable pressure on the three remaining walls, which fall outwards as the roof falls down, creating ...
Flamethrowers in WW1 - Vietnam War: In what scenario were they used? How was the use of this weapons perceived by the soldiers and what kind of soldiers was tasked with using flamethrowers?	_URL_0_ WW2 medal of honor winner talking about clearing pill boxes with flamethrower during Iow Jima	[ "The LPO did see some service in the Vietnam War. Viet Cong forces were reported to have used the flamethrower at the 1967 Đắk Sơn massacre. At least one was used in an attack on the USMC base at Con Thien (also in 1967), and there were several captured ones on display in Saigon in 1972.\n", "The United States Ma...
Are there any notable works about Ancient Carthage (city state, not the empire)?	There are currently two books seen as up to date regarding Cartage: Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization by Richard Mills and Carthage by Serge Lancel . Both of them start at the Ancient era and move through time to its destruction. Additionally, The Phoenicians by *Saba...	[ "Most ancient literature concerning Carthage comes from Greek and Roman sources as Carthage's own documents were destroyed by the Romans. Apart from inscriptions, hardly any Punic literature has survived, and none in its own language and script. A brief catalogue would include:\n", "Regarding \"Phoenician\" writi...
How does light fade over distance?	Air can diffuse light, to say nothing of things in the air, like water vapor, smog, etc.	[ "BULLET::::- Light fading occurs when materials are exposed to light, e.g. while on display. The intensity of the light source and ultraviolet (UV) rays will affect the rate of change and fade. Magenta dyes will typically fade the quickest.\n", "In stage lighting, a fade is a gradual increase or decrease of the i...
Why did the USSR help the Chinese develop their own nuclear arsenal capabilities instead of just guaranteeing them protection under their nuclear umbrella?	Why would any state help another state acquire nuclear weapons? This is a general question (it has happened many times — the USSR and the PRC, France and Israel, China and Pakistan, Pakistan and lots of people, etc.), and has many different possible answers. The political scientist Matthew Kroenig has a theory (in his ...	[ "The USSR had nuclear weapons for a longer time than China, so the Chinese adopted an asymmetric deterrence strategy that threatened a large conventional \"People's War\" in response to a Soviet counterforce first-strike. Chinese numerical superiority was the basis of its strategy to deter a Soviet nuclear attack. ...
how allergy congestion works.	Congestion is caused by two things: inflammation of the nose and increased snot production. The two work together to make you extra miserable, as the inflamed nasal passages have less room for more snot. The congestion can move because snot is a liquid and can flow downhill to whatever nostril is closer to the ground, ...	[ "A cause of nasal congestion may also be due to an allergic reaction caused by hay fever, so avoiding allergens is a common remedy if this becomes a confirmed diagnosis. Antihistamines and decongestants can provide significant symptom relief although they do not cure hay fever. Antihistamines may be given continuou...
how does amazon get away with encouraging everyone to rate sellers - except _url_0_ llc?	There's no legal obligation to allow people to rate your service. Companies just do it to help out customers. Of course, they don't want to allow that same spotlight to be shone upon themselves, because they don't want people trash-talking them. In short, they're not "getting away" with anything, because they're not d...	[ "In January 2017, Amazon.ca was required by the Competition Bureau to pay a $1M penalty, plus $100,000 in costs, over pricing practices for failing to provide \"truth in advertising\" according to Josephine Palumbo, the deputy commissioner for deceptive marketing practices. This fine was levied because some product...
what's the process for removing a us president that is mentally incapacitated.	Woodrow Wilson suffered a severe stroke in 1919 and spent the remainder of his presidency as an invalid. A few decades later, Congress ratified the 25th amendment to avoid a repeating that. Section 4 says: > Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or ...	[ "Members can vacate the office by resigning in the form of writing addressed to the President or can be removed from office by the President when both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have formed the opinion that such member is \"physically or mentally incapacitated and is unable to function furt...
In Ancient Greek comedy, have the plays ever directly or indirectly made fun of their audience?	This conceit is very common in Aristophanes. There's a joke in Birds about the actors going and having sex with the councillors' wives while they're all in the theatre, but possibly the most famous line is from Frogs: > DIONYSUS But tell me, did you see the parricides And perjured folk he mentioned? > XANTHIAS Did...	[ "This type of comedy has been a fixture ever since Greek plays. For instance Sophocles once wrote a satyr play, no longer extant, about Satyrs who seek to persuade a king that they are worthy suitors of his daughter by bragging about their capacity for flatulence. Aristophanes claimed that he hoped his plays would ...
gravity is often demonstrated in 2 dimensions like a heavy object on a bed sheet. how does this actually translate into our 3 dimensional reality?	Imagine that you're in a McDonald's ball pit. Except instead of the balls being able to move around freely they're all glued to one another. You go to one side of the pit, grab a ball, and begin pulling it towards you as hard as you can. This causes all of the balls to get stretched towards you, but the balls clos...	[ "In general relativity, gravity has curvature effects on the four dimensions of the universe. A common analogy is placing a heavy object on a stretched out rubber sheet, causing the sheet to bend downward. This curves the coordinate system around the object, much like an object in the universe curves the coordinate...
the appeal of haikus	Well, they come from Japan. And in Japanese poetry, rhyme holds little significant, considering that most words have phonetically similar last syllables. They look for beauty in other forms, mainly simplicity. It also has a lot to do with the Japanese aesthetic principles of yugen, wabi and sabi. These aesthetic princi...	[ "The loosening of traditional standards has resulted in the term \"haiku\" being applied to brief English-language poems such as \"mathemaku\" and other kinds of pseudohaiku. Some sources claim that this is justified by the blurring of definitional boundaries in Japan.\n", "The first haiku written in English date...
why do goldfish grow as big as their surroundings?	They're large pond fish. When kept in bowls, they suffer from ammonia poisoning, stunting their growth before killing them.	[ "Goldfish kept in bowls or \"mini aquariums\" suffer from death, disease, and stunting, due primarily to the low oxygen and very high ammonia/nitrite levels inherent in such an environment. In comparison to other common aquarium fish, goldfish have high oxygen needs and produce a large amount of waste; therefore th...
- whats the difference between a rebellion and a revolution?	A rebellion is a violent uprising of the masses against their leadership, as opposed to "resistance" in general which can be armed or unarmed and for any goal including marginal OR complete change to a system of government. Rebellion may cause revolution, but one does not necessarily indicate the other. Revolution is ...	[ "In political terms, rebellion and revolt are often distinguished by their different aims. If rebellion generally seeks to evade and/or gain concessions from an oppressive power, a revolt seeks to overthrow and destroy that power, as well as its accompanying laws. The goal of rebellion is resistance while a revolt ...
Why aren't we using hydrogen instead of fossil fuels?	You touched on a few of the main problems. 1. It's not an energy source, it's an energy storage medium and competes with batteries more than with fossil fuels 2. It has a very low energy density and must be compressed to extreme pressures to get a decent amount into a reasonable volume. This takes a lot of energy t...	[ "In the search for a clean, renewable energy source to replace fossil fuels, hydrogen has gained much attention as a possible fuel for the future. One of the challenges that must be overcome if this is to become a reality is an efficient way to produce and consume hydrogen. Currently, we have the technology to gene...
Books on the History of Gun Control/Laws in the United States	Honestly, one of the best I have found is Clayton Kramer's "The Racist Roots of Gun Control." It's been a while since I read it, and it clearly is attempting to reach a conclusion, but it does an absolutely fantastic job of researching early gun control laws in the US, and explaining their origins. The fact that prior ...	[ "The first major federal firearms law passed in the 20th century was the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934. It was passed after Prohibition-era gangsterism peaked with the Saint Valentine's Day massacre of 1929. The era was famous for criminal use of firearms such as the Thompson submachine gun (Tommy gun) and sa...
What, in your opinion, are some absolutely required historical readings?	Benedict Anderson - Imagined Communities	[ "\"The reading in the first stage, where [the people] will receive their whole education, is proposed.. to be chiefly historical. History by apprising them of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of th...
is it actually possible to stop the world cup from happening in qatar and, what would the consequences of this be?	A boycott is still possible but more than likely it would be the FiFA sponsors that would end up forcing a venue change. Qatar would probably be better off now than if the games were actually not held there. They lack the infrastructure to deal with the number of people expected to attend in person, and have essential...	[ "Shortly after the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar, the bid was embroiled in controversy, including allegations of bribery. European football associations have also objected to the 2022 World Cup being held in Qatar for a variety of reasons, including the impact of high temperatures on players' fitness, to the d...
why do most websites' search features suck so much?	There are two main reasons. First is code re-use. Most websites are either built on a popular platform with a built-in search function (like WordPress), or implement a common search function downloaded from an internet repository (like GitHub). So most search functions suck because they mostly come from a short list ...	[ "The collection of user data by search engines can be viewed as a positive practice because it allows the search engine to personalize results. This implies that users would receive more relevant results, and be shown more relevant advertisements, when their data, such as past search queries, location information, ...
How did the check mark become a thing?	This is anecdotal, but I restore old books and I find the "x" is common in the 19th century and the check mark starts becoming more common about 1920's. I don't know why. The time frame seems to indicate post WWI.	[ "The check mark is believed to have been created during the Roman Empire. \"V\" was used to shorten the word \"veritas\", meaning 'truth'. This was used to indicate yes, true, or confirmed on items in a list. Over time, the design of the mark started to change. As people started writing more quickly, the right side...
Who built Teotihuacan?	To put it simply, Teotihuacan was built by the Teotihuacanos. As to who they actually were is up for debate. While Teotihuacan left some writing it appears to be pneumonic based much like the later Aztec writing was in which pictures were used to help recall something memorized. What the Teotihuacanos spoke is also up ...	[ "Teotihuacan was a city built in the Valley of Mexico, containing some of the largest pyramidal structures built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Established around 200 BCE, the city fell between the 7th and 8th century CE. Teotihuacan has numerous well-preserved murals.\n", "Teotihuacan , (in Spanish: Teotihuacán)...
how is it that hiv and other viruses can only be transmitted sexually? why not airborne or through skin contact like other viruses?	The HIV virus cannot live in an oxygen rich environment. It kills it pretty quickly; this is why oral sex with someone HIV+ is considered mostly safe, assuming no sores. It would need to mutate in a way that allows it to live much longer outside a human body.	[ "In the case of HIV, sexual transmission routes almost always involve the penis, as HIV cannot spread through unbroken skin; therefore, properly shielding the penis with a properly worn condom from the vagina or anus effectively stops HIV transmission. An infected fluid to broken skin borne direct transmission of H...
When people have a high pain tolerance, are experiencing less pain, or are they just better at "sucking it up?"	No, it is not all psychological. Pain may be mediated by a number of factors, including: * Sleep deprivation^[1](_URL_5_) * Sex^[2](_URL_1_),[3](_URL_0_) * Humour^[4](_URL_4_) * Depression and/or Anxiety^[5](_URL_2_),[6](_URL_3_) * And very likely countless others. Is there likely a significant psycholo...	[ "There is also an aspect of drug intolerance that is subjective. Just as different people have different pain tolerances, so too do people have different tolerances for dealing with the adverse effects from their medications. For example, while opioid-induced constipation may be tolerable to some individuals, other...
Has the United States Supreme Court ever made a decision that was a strong departure from what the public opinion was at the time?	In 1967's [Loving v. Virginia](_URL_0_) decision, the Supreme Court ruled that laws banning interracial marriages were unconstitutional. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote for the unanimous court that "Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' [...] There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent...	[ "No major cases came before the Supreme Court during Ellsworth's brief tenure as chief justice. However, four cases the Court issued rulings on were of lasting importance in American jurisprudence: \"Hylton v. United States\" (1796) implicitly addressed the Supreme Court's power of judicial review in upholding a fe...
If you were invincible, and tried to walk on the sun, what would you see?	You would end up inside constant thermonuclear reaction. No solid surfaces to walk on. Sun is basically a constant nuclear explosion driving matter apart and gravity keeping it all together.	[ "Bates said that, just as one should not attempt to run a marathon without training, one should not immediately look \"directly\" at the sun, but he suggested that it could be worked up to. He acknowledged that looking at the sun could have ill effects, but characterized them as being \"always temporary\" and in fa...
This will probably fail but, why did we evolve into what we are now?	I want to hop in before everyone tears you apart for saying we evolved from monkeys. I understand you're probably using "monkey" to mean "something kind of human-shaped but not a human".	[ "The traditional consensus among economists has been that technological progress does not cause long-term unemployment. However, recent innovation in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence has raised worries that human labor will become obsolete, leaving people in various sectors without jobs to earn a ...
[Australian Political History] - What are the seminal works (or most useful for a general understanding), of Australian politics/political history in the late 20th century (say, post-1960s)?	One of the more influential works on people's understanding of late 20th century Australian politics is Paul Kelly's political history of the 1980s The End Of Certainty, which argues that the 1980s ended what Kelly calls the 'Australian settlement'; the book in a lot of ways details the way that the centre-left Labor...	[ "The 1911 election is considered by political historians such as Brian de Garis and David Black to mark the end of the first phase of the development of party politics in Western Australia, which had begun with the granting of responsible government to the then British colony in 1890. Labor held onto government wit...
what causes intramuscular shots to hurt? is it the volume being administered?	Multiple possible reasons. If the muscles weren’t relaxed enough during injection, then there will be resistance while inserting the needle which can damage the tissue. Needle tips are sometimes sterilised with alcohol, which dehydrates local tissue when injected and cause discomfort. Poor technique injects the shor...	[ "Temporary cavitation can emphasize the impact of a bullet, since the resulting tissue compression is identical to simple blunt force trauma. It is easier for someone to feel when they have been shot if there is considerable temporary cavitation, and this can contribute to either psychological factor of incapacitat...
Is there any evidence for multiple personality disorder?	Okay, so mental health has had problems categorizing the set of symptoms that you would associate with this, which is actually known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, but some feel are simply a symptom of another disorder such as somatisation disorder or borderline personality disorder. See with a lot of mental healt...	[ "The first known case of an individual with conduct that would today be considered Multiple Personality Disorder was recorded in the late 18th century (Hacking, 1995). In 1972, there were ten known cases over the previous fifty years despite a widespread interest in psychotherapy over that period. By 1986, it was b...
'spooky' experiment proves quantum entanglement is real.	That article was written by some child or something? Sheesh	[ "Many modern experiments are directed at detecting quantum entanglement rather than ruling out local hidden variable theories, and these tasks are different since the former accepts quantum mechanics at the outset (no entanglement without quantum mechanics). This is regularly done using Bell's theorem, but in this ...
How could all the atoms in the universe possibly fit into something the size of a marble at the time of the Big Bang?	Because there weren't any atoms. Protons and neutrons didn't even exist until the first millionth of a second or so.	[ "Such a number may be incomprehensibly huge. If the Big Bang is reckoned to have occurred 13.8 billion years ago, there have been \"only\" about 4.35 x 10 seconds since the birth of the universe. It is estimated that the Earth is made up of roughly 5.5 x 10 atoms; the number of atoms in the Milky Way Galaxy is appr...
A PC uses 200W/hour. A heater uses 200W/hour. Do they liberate the same amount of heat?	Yes, any electrical device consuming a given amount of power will ultimately give off that amount of heat. I've seen electric space heaters advertised as 100% efficient, which is kind of hilarious when you realize that it is physically impossible for them to be anything else.	[ "As modern PCs grow more powerful so do their requirements for electrical power. Computers convert part of this electrical power into heat generated by all major components. Heat production varies with system load, where periods of compute-intensive activity generate much more heat than the idle time does.\n", "T...
If bicycles can generate power, why can't we design a (nearly) self-propelled car?	Because any energy harvested this way will take away from the energy available to move the car. Remember, energy is conserved, so you can't expect to get more energy somehow by getting energy from the movement of the car and then putting it back to move the car. You're probably thinking of something like a bicycle dyn...	[ "The pedals on a motorised bicycle must be the primary source of power for the vehicle. If the motor is the primary source of power then the device cannot be classed as a motorised bicycle. For example, a device where the rider can twist a throttle and complete a journey using motor power only without using the ped...
If elephants were entirely extinct in the modern era, and we only had the usual recovered specimens to examine, would we be able to determine their large ears?	disclaimer: I'm just a non-practicing archaeologist, not a paleoreconstruction expert. The general musculature that paleoartists reconstruct is partly due to comparison with related living animals, partly due to comparison with unrelated living animals that have similar morphology due to convergent evolution (animals ...	[ "Despite the DNA evidence, official sources insisted that only one elephant survived, an elusive female known as 'The Matriarch' or 'Oupoot', making the Knysna elephant functionally extinct. In the 1990s in an effort to bolster the numbers, some juvenile elephants were introduced from the Kruger National Park. It w...
why do vendors on shopping websites (_url_0_) make their items extremely overpriced for certain items ($20 book for $900)?	Those items are usually bots who keep their price slightly above everyone else's price. If there happens to be 2 bots, then both bots will slowly increase the price of each of their items until they are extraordinarily high. [This article](_URL_0_) gives a better description.	[ "Because of the huge number of books for sale, there is no single comprehensive price guide for collectible books. The prices of the copies listed for sale at the online bookseller sites provide some indication of their current market values.\n", "George Akerlof in \"The Market for Lemons\" notices that, in such ...
So, if I accelerate a grain of sand to the speed of light, will it become a black hole?	A black how becomes a black hole not because it has infinite mass, but rather the density it has. Gravity behaves following the inverse square law. What that means is this: If you double your distance from the object, the gravity will only be a quarter of what it was before. On the surface of the earth, we experience ...	[ "The region outside the event horizon but inside the surface where the rotational velocity is the speed of light, is called the \"ergosphere\" (from Greek \"ergon\" meaning \"work\"). Particles falling within the ergosphere are forced to rotate faster and thereby gain energy. Because they are still outside the even...
why do some animals have no whites in their eyes, and other have slits instead of pupils? is what they see much different to humans?	Having completely dark eyes is the norm. Humans are actually the odd ones out in that the whites of our eyes are visible as a form of nonverbal communication. See _URL_0_	[ "One explanation for the evolution of slit pupils is that they can exclude light more effectively than a circular pupil. This would explain why slit pupils tend to be found in the eyes of animals with a crepuscular or nocturnal lifestyle that need to protect their eyes during daylight. Constriction of a circular pu...
How high was a musket era soldiers morale?	Morale and discipline were constant problems for armies in age of linear warfare. Wars tended to be for pretty abstract purposes - pressing the right of a king to a piece of land, or defending some crowned head's (or later, nation's) sense of honor, or traveling halfway around the world to make someone else rich. Soldi...	[ "Historian M. L. Brown states that some of these men mastered the difficult handling of a rifle, though few became expert. Brown quotes Continental Army soldier Benjamin Thompson, who expressed the \"common sentiment\" at the time, which was that minutemen were notoriously poor marksmen with rifles: \"Instead of be...
If the Earth suddenly vanished, how long would it take for the moon to get pulled into the sun?	If the Earth vanished, the moon will simply continue orbiting the sun with minor changes to its current trajectory. Since the moon is currently orbiting the Earth, its velocity relative to the sun is already close to the orbital velocity required to maintain an orbit at this distance. It won't fall into the sun.	[ "Currently, the Moon is moving away from Earth at a rate of 4 cm (1.5 inches) per year. In 50 billion years, if the Earth and Moon are not engulfed by the Sun, they will become tidelocked into a larger, stable orbit, with each showing only one face to the other. Thereafter, the tidal action of the Sun will extract ...
Why do we call the Greek sects devoted to worshiping one god a cult?	This is a rather general question that can only be answered generally, and I think you may receive a better answer (especially to the latter part of your question) if you specify exactly which Greek "cults" you are referring to. No size fits all in traditional Greek and Roman religion. You're correct-- in academic cir...	[ "The term \"cult\" is used in reference to devotion or dedication to a particular person or place. For instance, within the Roman Catholic Church devotion to Mary, mother of Jesus is usually termed the \"Cult of Mary\". It is also used in non-religious contexts to refer to fandoms devoted to television shows like \...
What is this new way to measure gravity?	There's zero need for GR here. Only basic QM. Do you know what an interferometer is? What a Bloch oscillation is? Both are pretty much undergrad concepts, so I'll assume you do. This device works by generating a cloud of atoms that is pushed onto the lattice inside an optical cavity, where they are held in place. Befor...	[ "Gravity measurements are a reflection of the earth’s gravitational attraction, its centripetal force, tidal accelerations due to the sun, moon, and planets, and other applied forces. Gravity gradiometers measure the spatial derivatives of the gravity vector. The most frequently used and intuitive component is the ...
If cooking chicken to 165F kills all salmonella bacteria, why must it still be held out of the "danger zone"?	Well like everything living there is an optimal temperature. 40-140F so 4-60C is the generic range that bacteria grow at. And because our human temperature is within that range, the bacteria that grow at that temperature can infect us. When you cook your food, you're killing the bacteria is has on it at the time. But b...	[ "In order to minimize and prevent any residues of antibiotics in chicken meat, any chickens given antibiotics are required to have a \"withdrawal\" period before they can be slaughtered. Samples of poultry at slaughter are randomly tested by the FSIS, and show a very low percentage of residue violations. Although v...
How easily could an explosion (bomb, or meteor...) trigger a large seismic activity?	Not likely. The energies involved are orders of magnitude apart, and even with something like a nuclear explosion, energy is not going to be easily transferred through the air to the ground. Humans can trigger earthquakes, but those were in cases of drilling into the earth or building massive construction projects ...	[ "Although there were early concerns about earthquakes arising as a result of underground tests, there is no evidence that this has occurred. However, fault movements and ground fractures have been reported, and explosions often precede a series of aftershocks, thought to be a result of cavity collapse and chimney f...
Do Orangutans and red-haired humans share the same gene for hair color?	Nope! The mutation that causes red hair in humans only showed up 20,000-100,000 ago (according to the Wikipedia article on [redheads](_URL_2_)). We split from the orangutans [~13 million years ago](_URL_0_). [This study](_URL_1_) decided to loop into whether the same mutation and/or the same gene was responsible for r...	[ "The genetic variant of the MC1R gene which was originally linked to red hair in Neanderthals is not found in Europeans but in Taiwanese Aborigines at 70% frequency and at somewhat high frequencies in East Asians; hence, there is actually no evidence that Neanderthals had red hair. \n", "Red hair (or ginger hair)...
why can't some functions be integrated?	These functions can be integrated as well, but we can't write that integral down as a closed-form expression. For some functions (such as sin(x^(2))), we can only express the integral with the integral notation, but that integral exists nontheless.	[ "Integration by parts is a heuristic rather than a purely mechanical process for solving integrals; given a single function to integrate, the typical strategy is to carefully separate this single function into a product of two functions \"u\"(\"x\")\"v\"(\"x\") such that the residual integral from the integration b...
"The Ancient Economy"	I'm not an expert on this particular time period, but I would be careful about taking what Finley says at face value. The book has been criticized for relying too heavily on literary sources (mainly Cicero, if I recall correctly?) and lacking data based on archaeological evidence. Someone with more knowledge than me co...	[ "The Ancient Economy is a book about the economic system of classical antiquity written by the classicist Moses I. Finley. It was originally published in 1973. Finley interprets the economy from 1000 BC to 500 AD sociologically, instead of using economic models (like for example Michael Rostovtzeff). Finley attempt...
When seawater freezes, is the ice still salty?	Nope, rather than getting locked in into water ice, salts are removed as it freezes. This is what creates such high salinity in the waters around the polar sea-ice forming regions and then helps to drive the thermohaline circulation. It’s slightly more complicated than just saying salt doesn’t freeze though: when [fr...	[ "Because about half of the oceans' water was frozen solid as ice, the remaining water would be twice as salty as it is today, lowering its freezing point. When the ice sheet melted, it would cover the oceans with a layer of hot freshwater up to 2 kilometres thick. Only after the hot surface water mixed with the col...
how can brain trauma allow a person to play an instrument that they had never touched before?	It can't suddenly give you knowledge. Like you said, I agree that it might make it much easier for you to learn. Maybe he simple toyed with the piano until he got which sound each key made. Combine that with an enhanced musical ability (being able to decide which sounds go together well) and you could probably explain ...	[ "In 1825, F. Gall mentioned a \"musical organ\" in a specific region of the human brain that could be spared or disrupted after a traumatic event resulting in brain damage. In 1865, Jean-Baptiste Bouillaud described the first series of cases that involved the loss of music abilities that were due to brain injury. L...
why can the densities of supermassive black holes be less than that of water on earth and what does it mean?	It's talking about the average density. The Schwarzschild radius isn't the radius of the matter in the black hole, like the radius of a star or planet is. It's the radius of the event horizon, the distance beyond which it's impossible to escape the gravity of the black hole. Most of the volume inside the event horizo...	[ "Supermassive black holes have properties that distinguish them from lower-mass classifications. First, the average density of a SMBH (defined as the mass of the black hole divided by the volume within its Schwarzschild radius) can be less than the density of water in the case of some SMBHs. This is because the Sch...
what would happen if the american dollar loses its value?	If the American dollar loses value, you lose buying power. Today, Widget X costs $10. You have 10 $1 bills and can buy Widget X (ignoring tax for now). Due to inflation and quantitative easing et al, suppose the dollar has lost 5% of the value. The manufacturer/store are still going to charge the same value for their ...	[ "The closures resulted in a massive withdrawal of deposits by millions of Americans estimated at near $6.8 billion (equivalent to around $60 billion in today's dollars). During this time the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was not in place resulting in a loss of roughly $1.36 billion (or 20%) of the to...

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