Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
What is happening in the brain when we try and 'think hard'?	A priority of brain resources are routed to the prefrontal cortex. This is a "newer" part of the brain, evolutionary speaking and is why some of us are better at concentrating than others. Fun note, this also leads the brain to produce extra waste in the forms of proteins. As this protein builds up, it makes focusing...	[ "Pashler proposed that the brain contains one mental entity to where all tasks must be carried out. A real-life example of this could be going to the dentist; the only place to have cavities filled is at a dentist’s office. When the brain is attempting to complete two tasks, both tasks are present in the same mind ...
what does "quark gluon plasma" mean? why is this a new form of matter if it moves in the same direction? i want to understand	It means a plasma that is made of quarks and gluons. It's a new form of matter because, under normal conditions, you cannot have a plasma made of quarks and gluons. I don't know why its direction of movement would be relevant.	[ "Quark–gluon plasma is a state of matter in which the elementary particles that make up the hadrons of baryonic matter are freed of their strong attraction for one another under extremely high energy densities. These particles are the quarks and gluons that compose baryonic matter. In normal matter quarks are \"con...
What is the difference between Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease(CJD) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease(vCJD)?	CJD is caused by a prion and presents with uncontrollable seizures, dementia and death, usually within three months. A prion is a chain of protein that attaches itself to the DNA/RNA replication enzymes and reproduces or replicates itself within the human brain. Usually CJD is transmitted via direct ingestion. vCJD is ...	[ "vCJD is a separate condition from classic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (though both are caused by PrP prions). Both classic and variant CJD are subtypes of Creutzfeld–Jakob disease. There are three main categories of CJD disease: sporadic CJD, hereditary CJD, and acquired CJD, with variant CJD being in the acquired g...
why is our vision the one sense that let us down the most? i know tons off people with glasses, and very little with hearing aids.	Because we can correct vision to perfection cheaply and painlessly, in many cases. I have hearing loss, but I can't afford to purchase hearing aids, nor do I want to deal with the irritation, weight, added cost of upkeep, etc. I can hear 'well enough' to get by. Vision correction, however, was covered 100% by my las...	[ "New studies have adapted this hypothesis to explain cross modal plasticity which seems to occur in blind people. This is the fact that other senses in blind people seem to be heightened as a result of the loss of vision. Since blind patients are not exposed to the novel function of visual reading, the cortical are...
What is the origin of the idea that China is the world's oldest civilization? (As opposed to Sumer)	I think the saying is that China isn't the oldest civilization but rather the oldest continuous civilization. Even with China's modernization and radical changes in the communist era, their culture is still present to this day. Something that pretty much no other culture can claim (except for i think India and other co...	[ "Chinese civilization begins during the second phase of the Erlitou period (1900 to 1500 BC), with Erlitou considered the first state level society of East Asia. There is considerable debate whether Erlitou sites correlate to the semi-legendary Xia dynasty. The Xia dynasty (2070 to 1600 BC) is the first dynasty to ...
How many times brighter the Sun would need to be for its light to reach the deepest place under water on Earth?	It wouldn't reach the bottom no matter how bright it was. A kilometer's length of ocean water is effectively opaque, and your question then becomes akin to how bright does a light have to be to shine through a wall. [edit] reference: _URL_0_	[ "Dr. Research explains that the Sun is 93 million miles away and its light takes 8 minutes to reach the earth. Light from the next closest star, Alpha Centauri, takes more than 4 years to get to us at a speed greater than 186,000 miles per second. The sun weighs the same as 330,000 earths and is 95% hydrogen and he...
During WWII, was it safer to be a fighter pilot or bomber crew?	The answer varies from time to time, place to place and airplane to ariplane. In the beginning of the war B -17 fighters were sent without fighter escorts while in the Pacific at the and of the war there was little resistance on the part of the Japanese to the death that rained down from above. Then you have the Lutwaf...	[ "In the early stages of World War II, bombing runs often took place without escort fighters. German fighter pilots were scrambled to deal with these raids, and soon learned that it was much easier for them to take out formations which were unescorted as opposed to those who were escorted. As a result, fighters woul...
How would the children/adults of an upper class Victorian home address a governess?	This is actually a rather simple answer: they would call her Miss [Lastname]. "Mistress" as a title was essentially defunct by the Victorian era. It entered the English language through French in the Middle Ages as the feminine form of maître (well, maistre) - maistresse. Both maistre and maistresse could be...	[ "\"public schools\" in the English sense) and also many other boarding schools, whereby younger pupils were required to act as personal servants to the most senior boys. While domestic servants were common in family households, the custom reflected household task distribution and taught pupils about service from bo...
what is happening in the brain when time "slows down" in high-pressure situations?	It is probably an evolutionary trait that allows more relative reaction time to pass, allowing the individual to survive a threatening situation. It's called [tachypsychia](_URL_0_). It causes the outside world to relatively appear to move in slow motion. We measure the perception of time passing by two methods, obse...	[ "Possibly related to the oddball effect, research suggests that time seems to slow down for a person during intense events—such as a car accident, a robbery, a chase, skydiving or bungee jumping, a potential predator threat or an intimacy with sexual partner (which would elicit sexual excitement, which in turn rele...
how can people with speech impediments sing so clearly?	As well as the different parts of the brain thing, people sing on the purified vowel. Isolating sounds like that makes it easier.	[ "In most cases the cause is unknown. However, there are various known causes of speech impediments, such as \"hearing loss, neurological disorders, brain injury, intellectual disability, drug abuse, physical impairments such as cleft lip and palate, and vocal abuse or misuse.\"\n", "Speech disorders or speech imp...
Back when the Pope had an army and ruled over the Papal States, he fought wars and put down rebellions against people who were presumably Catholic. How did Catholic leaders and soldiers justify fighting the Pope?	Excommunication was a powerful tool of the popes, but like any tool, you use it too much and after awhile it looses its edge. Although many Christian powers have tried to control the papacy in one way or another (See Byzantine Emperors, And Holy Roman Emperors and [Ceaseropapism] (_URL_4_) ) it was towards the end of...	[ "John Pope was the commander of U.S. forces in Utah during the Second Mexican War. He was responsible for ordering the execution of several Mormon leaders during the attempted revolt in Utah. Pope also arrested former president Abraham Lincoln for allegedly having Mormon sympathies, but President James Blaine order...
What is "fuzzy logic" and how is it used in washing machines?	Check out the [wikipedia page on fuzzy logic](_URL_0_). There are some relevant examples. From that section: > ...a simple temperature regulator that uses a fan might look like this: > > IF temperature IS very cold THEN stop fan > IF temperature IS cold THEN turn down fan > IF temperature IS nor...	[ "Basic fuzzy logic is the logic of continuous t-norms (binary operations on the real unit interval [0, 1]). Applications involving fuzzy logic include facial recognition systems, home appliances, anti-lock braking systems, automatic transmissions, controllers for rapid transit systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, ...
why do my mustache hairs get all tingly sometimes? am i feeling them grow?	Kinda.. ever heard of shaving rash? That could be a possibility.. sometimes like the 2nd or 3rd day after shaving my skin begins to get irritated where the hair is coming back all stubbly	[ "Traction alopecia is caused by adding too much strain on the hair on one's head. Tight ponytails and other styles that require added tension to the hair are often what cause this disease. It can also occur on the face in areas where the hair is often styled. Plucking or waxing one's eyebrows frequently, for exampl...
why people are rolling over during their sleep if it's not necessary for their bodies to survive the night, like breathing?	It is necessary. Lying in one position for too long causes discomfort as the bed presses on the body, restricts blood flow, and so on. Over a long period, this can lead to bedsores, which is why bedridden patients that cannot move by themselves need to be turned periodically. EDIT: fixed broken English	[ "While sleeping, a normal individual is \"at rest\" as far as cardiovascular workload is concerned. Breathing is regular in a healthy person during sleep, and oxygen levels and carbon dioxide levels in the bloodstream stay fairly constant. Any sudden drop in oxygen or excess of carbon dioxide (even if tiny) strongl...
Can you mitigate of a food allergy by removing exposure to the food and donating blood for several years to remove some of the antibodies?	The body continually makes more antibodies, so that wouldn't work.	[ "Dr. Stephen Lockey at the Mayo Clinic and later Feingold at Kaiser, hypothesized that eliminating both salicylates and synthetic food additives from patients' diets not only eliminated allergic-type reactions such as asthma, eczema and hives, but also induced behavioral changes in some of their patients.\n", "Di...
Is there any proof of the Fascist plot in the 1930s led by Wall Street financiers to overtrow Roosevelt?	I can't answer the question directly, but this plot is generally referred to as the "Business Plot", and searching for that will give you more information, such as [this previous post](_URL_0_) from /u/bug-hunter, highlighting the difficulty of verifying many important facts.	[ "The most prominent of Roosevelt's critics in regards to fascism was Herbert Hoover, who saw a connection between the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) and the \"Swope Plan\", named after Gerard Swope. Hoover was an ardent supporter of trade associations, but saw the Swope Plan as fascistic because of its com...
how is it possible to film light passing and bouncing of a mirror?	They use extremely fast camera shutters to capture a very short moment so you can see the light beam. However they can not reset the camera in time for the next frame so they cheat a bit by sending a new beam of light for the next frame. They make sure to synchronize the short beams of light with the camera shutter but...	[ "In both types of rotating mirror cameras, double exposure can occur if the system is not controlled properly. In a pure rotating mirror camera, this happens if the mirror makes a second pass across the optics while light is still entering the camera. In a rotating drum camera, it happens if the drum makes more tha...
How did Muslims initially react to photography given the widespread taboos against depicting people and animals in Islamic art?	Also, the 8th century Caliphs' palace in Jordan named [Qasr Amra](_URL_0_) is well known for its frescoes of people and nude women. So was this an exception, or the general unspoken rule that this "depiction of people forbidden" thing wasn't really taken seriously (and, of course, the "no naked ladies" thing)?	[ "Islamic visual art has, throughout history, been mainly abstract and decorative, portraying geometric, floral, Arabesque, and calligraphic designs. Unlike the strong tradition of portraying the human figure in Christian art, Islamic art is typically distinguished as not including depictions of human beings. The la...
why does it burn when i desinfect a wound?	> It's not like I would apply pressure, or attack the nerves in any different way. A disinfectant kills the bacteria and organisms that would infect you, but it will also harm your tissue and nerves. It burns because you are engaged in friendly fire against your body.	[ "BULLET::::- Wounds caused by physical agents, including physical trauma and chemical burns, can be treated with antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs to prevent bacterial infection and inflammation. Keeping the wound clean from infection also prevents necrosis.\n", "Infection results when the wound’s micro-org...
why macs are more preferred in the creative industry and why windows is more commonly used in corporate settings.	I'm sure there are plenty of technical reasons, but there are more sociological ones too. The reason why Windows is big in corporate settings is because windows was the most popular computer when personal computers became big. It was, and still is, considered a default operating system, in a sense. And because of th...	[ "The fact that there is a multitude of people using Windows makes the product more attractive to consumers. The large installed base ... impels ISVs (independent software vendors) to write applications first and foremost to Windows, thereby ensuring a large body of applications from which consumers can choose. The ...
how do landlines call mobile numbers?	To explain how this works we should first address an evident misconception about mobile phones: They do not communicate directly with each other or with satellites. They communicate with cell towers on the ground, typically within about 5 miles. The connection is then transferred to its destination over conventional ca...	[ "Landline telephone numbers consists of an area code of 1 to 2 digits (excluding the leading zero) followed by a 6 to 8-digit subscriber number. Mobile phone numbers consists of a mobile phone code of 2 digits followed by a 7 to 8-digit subscriber number. Mobile phone codes are originally assigned to specific mobil...
why are police vehicles allowed to have strobe-like lights on their car? is this not high-risk for epileptics?	People who are seizure-prone generally not allowed to drive. Basically there aren't enough epileptics in the world to warrant emergency vehicles not using flashing lights. It's safer for the majority of motorists for emergency vehicles to have them.	[ "The Department for Transport (DfT) commissioned research to gather statistics on accidents involving electric vehicles with pedestrians who are blind or vision impaired to determine whether the perceived accident risk is real and whether electric and hybrid cars are more difficult to detect audibly than convention...
What do we know about the oral traditions of children?	I've never delved into this, but there has been a tremendous amount of study of traditional songs games and other aspects of folklore carried on by children for children. [Here is a bibliography](_URL_0_) by the American Folklore Society. Consider also [this](_URL_1_) and [this](_URL_2_).	[ "The oral tradition is not dead. In schools or at home or in the street, where children are taught to learn by heart, to memorize, nursery rhymes or poems or songs, then they can be said to participate in the oral tradition. The same is often true of the children belonging to religious groups who are taught to lear...
Do neutrons bound to stable atoms decay the same way protons do over long timescales?	A nucleus containing protons and neutrons fills two sets of quantum states, one for neutrons and one for protons. You then calculate the total energy for that configuration. Now you check what would happen to the energy if you fill the same quantum states with one more proton and one less neutron, plus an electron an...	[ "Neutrons in unstable nuclei can decay by beta decay as described above. In this case, an energetically allowed quantum state is available for the proton resulting from the decay. One example of this decay is carbon-14 (6 protons, 8 neutrons) that decays to nitrogen-14 (7 protons, 7 neutrons) with a half-life of ab...
How do you describe the force acting on a ferromagnetic object from a magnet? Which formulas can you apply?	Students who learn to find electric forces between point charges or gravitational forces between masses are lulled into a false sense of simplicity when it comes to magnetostatics, because here the objects we care about are dipoles. To answer your question, I would first propose a simpler question, which also has a co...	[ "Using the formula for force mentioned earlier it is possible to plot the force as a function of the gap distance of the external hiperco bar. Two curves were obtained: one for the EPM in ON state and the other for the EPM in OFF state: If we plot those forces together it is possible to observe the difference of at...
diabetes, please.	Basically the issue with Diabetes is Insulin. Think of insulin as a keycard, glucose(sugar) as you and your friends, and your body's cells as a locked room with a party inside. Normally, you would use a keycard to swipe the reader near the door, the door then opens, and you and your friends walk into the room. In thi...	[ "Today, the term \"diabetes\" most commonly refers to \"diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus\" is itself an umbrella term for a number of different diseases involving problems processing sugars that have been consumed (glucose metabolism). Historically, this is the \"diabetes\" which has been associated with sugary...
How feasible is it for us to have a complete and detailed mapping of what is on the ocean floor at some point in the future?	Not anytime soon because light and submarines do not go deep into the ocean at all, mostly because of the high pressure. Just zoom in on google earth to see how much less detailed the ocenas are, with the exception of a few thin lines that have a little more detail. The deep sea is just not as interestring because it ...	[ "There has been a boom in the underwater environmental exploration; rather than simply creating a map, scientists are attempting to visualize the entire seafloor with maximum possible detail. Computers are put to good use here with their help, researchers have managed to store and analyze large quantities of data. ...
why when we get a scratch does it raise up from the rest of the skin?	The main cause is the release of histamine from a type of cell known as the mast cell, which can be found throughout the body. Histamine causes small arteries and veins to dilate, which results in increased amounts of blood hanging around the injury site. This increased blood is what makes the skin swell. In addition t...	[ "Formication may sometimes be experienced as feelings of itchiness, tingling, pins and needles, burning, or even pain. When formication is perceived as itchiness, it may trigger the scratch reflex, and because of this, some people who experience the sensation are at risk of causing skin damage through excessive scr...
why do companies make limited releases on exclusive items?	The “exclusive” or “rare” styles make them more desirable because there is only so much stock. Similar to how water is necessary for life, and diamonds are not. Yet diamonds are so much more expensive. In clothing, The rare quantities increase demand over time like the many streetwear hypebeast brands that do drops e...	[ "The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, video games or recorded music and films, but now including clothing, ca...
how to stop isps from getting your personal data?	For ISPs specifically, a VPN would work. For websites tracking you (from one site to the next), clearing your cookies (and blocking all third party cookies) would work.	[ "Dallas Harris, an attorney who specializes in broadband privacy and a policy fellow at consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge notes that ISPs might be able to figure out where you bank, your political views, and your sexual orientation based on what sites you visit and asserts that \"the level of information tha...
What would happen to a German spy in the UK that was caught a few months after WW2 ended?	Interesting question. Have you considered turning him to double cross the East German/Soviets?	[ "Following a July 1940 conference in Kiel, the Abwehr (German intelligence) began an espionage campaign against Britain involving intelligence gathering and sabotage. Spies were sent over from Europe in various ways; some parachuted or came off a submarine. Others entered the country on false passports or posing as...
how to determine the complexity of an algorithm	While every algorithm has those three cases in reality there are often only two cases people care about. Those are average case and worst case (with people usually caring more about the worst case). When people talk about complexity they use wordslike big-O and big-theta (math terms). Big-O is the worst case scenario a...	[ "Determining the complexity of an algorithm means finding upper bounds or estimates of how many elementary operations such as additions and multiplications of scalars are necessary to perform some algorithm, for example, multiplication of matrices. For example, calculating the matrix product of two \"n\"-by-\"n\" m...
Who are the descendants of the Trojans?	Before you can answer that question, you have to begin with, "Who are the Trojans?". And this question is not so easy as you might initially think. Anthropologists today pretty much define ethnicity exclusively in terms of ascription-- Does a person self-ascribe as a certain ethnicity, and do outsiders ascribe that sa...	[ "The first literary suggestions that the Romans were descended from survivors of the Trojan War are found among the Greek writers, many of whom considered the Romans descendants of the Achaeans, rather than the Trojans. At the conclusion of the \"Theogony\", Hesiod mentions Latinus and Agrius as sons of Odysseus an...
Just how amazing were the German "Paris guns" that shelled Paris in 1918?	From a technical standpoint they were quite the achievement, surpassing anything made at the time. But as a weapon of war they were nearly useless. They were so inaccurate that they could not be used against military targets. Even when fired at cities as large as Paris they would miss as often as they hit. Shortly afte...	[ "As military weapons, the Paris Guns were not a great success: the payload was small, the barrel required frequent replacement, and the guns' accuracy was good enough for only city-sized targets. The German objective was to build a psychological weapon to attack the morale of the Parisians, not to destroy the city ...
Did Attila and the Huns come from Mongolia?	From what I understand on this issue is that no one really knows. The Huns did not have a written language so most of what we know comes from outside sources who tended to dislike the Huns and not take too much interest in their history. Most sources I have come across only state that they came from the East but that i...	[ "The Hun hordes of Attila, who invaded and conquered much of Europe in the 5th century, may have been Turkic and descendants of the Xiongnu. Some scholars argue that the Huns were one of the earlier Turkic tribes, while others argue that they were of Mongolic origin.\n", "BULLET::::- Most historians contended tha...
What is the Warring States Period not called the era of Warring Kingdoms?	Not all of the states during the Warring States period were ruled by nominal kings. So they cannot be translated, strictly speaking, as “kingdoms.” This may seem like a matter of semantics to us, but whether a sovereign at the time was a viscount, a duke, or a king was of great political, and therefore historical sign...	[ "Scholars disagree on the appropriateness of the term \"Warring States period\" (which is the Chinese term borrowed by the Japanese in calling this period \"sengoku jidai\"). Many argue that since Japan was essentially intact, the Emperor and shogunate remaining at least nominally in command of the whole country, a...
how is the selective service system not a violation of the constitution, and how come i can be arrested for up to 5 years for refusing to sign up?	Because the Supreme court has said it doesn't violate the constitution. _URL_0_ > The Selective Service System is authorized by the Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution which says Congress "shall have Power To ... raise and support Armies [and] To provide and maintain a Navy;" The Selective Servic...	[ "The Selective Service system has always recognized that it was created to provide registrants for the armed forces, rather than to secure their punishment for disobedience of the act and regulations. There occasionally will be registrants, however, who will refuse to comply with their legal responsibilities. or wh...
why dont we just use data (3g/4g/lte) to make telephone calls instead of using the standard telephone network?	All 4 Tier 1 carriers in the US have VoLTE either in testing, in widespread use, or on the drawing board.	[ "In the public switched telephone network (PSTN) one channel of a communications link is typically used for the sole purpose of carrying signaling for establishment and tear down of telephone calls. The remaining channels are used entirely for the transmission of voice messages. In most cases, a single channel is s...
How come our immune system doesn't create super bugs like antibiotics?	It does. "Super bug" means a bacteria or other pathogen that is immune to some or many conventual treatments like antibiotics. Basically, they've evolved ways to not be harmed by them. In the same vein, plenty of pathogens have evolved ways to avoid, trick, or even attack human immune systems (HIV and measles are bot...	[ "Antibiotics such as tetracyclines, rifampin, and the aminoglycosides streptomycin and gentamicin are effective against \"Brucella\" bacteria. However, the use of more than one antibiotic is needed for several weeks, because the bacteria incubate within cells.\n", "Some antibiotics actually kill the bacteria (bac...
What were the main points of evidence in favour of Phlogiston theory? How long did it take for chemists to agree that it wasn't true?	It's an interesting question but one I feel is incomplete without understanding Kuhnian incommensurability, i.e. that concepts and the language which describes them do not change at the same rate. So the big debate was between Antoine Lavoisier and Joseph Priestly in the 1770s to 1780s. Priestly was a supporter of Ph...	[ "The theory of phlogiston arose in the 17th century, late in the period of alchemy. Its replacement by caloric theory in the 18th century is one of the historical markers of the transition from alchemy to chemistry. Phlogiston was a hypothetical substance that was presumed to be liberated from combustible substance...
removing the subjective factor, personal tastes or "audiophile" bias: are tube amplifiers really superior to transistors? why is that?	It depends on what quality you are looking for. Semiconductors need a certain voltage before they do anything. This is why you do not see electronics running on under 700mV. So if you just have a simple transistor as your amplifier then it will stop working in the quiet parts of each wave. This is similar to how a gate...	[ "Tube amplifiers typically have much lower feedback ratios, and in any case almost always have output transformers that limit how low the output impedance can be. Their lower damping factors are one of the reasons many audiophiles prefer tube amplifiers. Taken even further, some tube amplifiers are designed to have...
Why is Africa so genetically diverse yet nearly all African languages belong to just a few language families?	Africa is fairly linguistically diverse. I think the comparison would be to Papua New Guinea where you often have totally new languages every few miles because steep mountains and ravines keep ethnic groups separated. However, the geography of Africa is much flatter, and single ethnic groups have settled wide swathes o...	[ "With few exceptions, all of Africa's languages have been gathered into four major phyla: Afroasiatic, Niger–Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan. However, the genetic unity of some language families, like Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan, is questionable, and so there may be many more language families and isolates than curren...
how does flavored coffee get it's flavoring?	The flavoring is added separately using chemicals or syrups. The beans are all the same though. Source: I worked at Dunkin' Donuts.	[ "BULLET::::- Flavored coffee: In some cultures, flavored coffees are common. Chocolate is a common additive that is either sprinkled on top or mixed with the coffee to imitate the taste of Mocha. Other flavorings include spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, or Italian syrups. In the Maghreb, the orange blosso...
why do your hands shake when being nervous?	During periods of extreme stress your body chemically alters the signaling pathways to put your muscles into battle mode - increasing strength and reflex speed but decreasing accuracy and rational thought. This makes the muscles jittery and tense, and prematurely engages sweating before you've started fighting. Reall...	[ "Characteristics may include a rhythmic shaking in the hands, arms, head, legs, or trunk; shaky voice; and problems holding things such as a fork or pen. Some tremors may be triggered by or become exacerbated during times of stress or strong emotion, when the individual is physically exhausted, or during certain po...
Are any of the events in New Testament proven to be fake?	Just for clarity, by “fake”do you mean, event see k ow for certain did not happen?	[ "Almost all modern scholars consider this passage to be authentic in its entirety, although a small number of authors have questioned it. Because the death of John also appears prominently in the Christian gospels, this passage is considered an important connection between the events Josephus recorded, the chronolo...
Can a satellite, with a GPS receiver, determine its position using the GPS? Basically, can the global positioning system be used in space?	Yes it can, and it is. One interesting example of this is the [GRACE](_URL_0_) pair of satellites, that "chase" each other in orbit, measuring (among other things) the precise distance between them. From small variations in that distance, we can refine measurement of the Earth's gravitational field.	[ "Modern GPS receivers work somewhat similarly in that they also correlate a received PN bit stream (at 1.023 Mbit/s) with a local reference to measure distance. But GPS is a receive-only system that uses relative timing measurements from a set of satellites to determine receiver position while the Apollo USB is a t...
how do printers and printer ink and printing work? i don't understand how the liquid ink doesn't just like soak the page, how does it form letters and pictures?	For liquid-based inks, pretty much the same way pens work - they release a very specific amount of ink in a certain pattern and that amount soaks into the paper and dries quickly enough to maintain the pattern (letters, numbers, symbols, lines, shading, etc.). It's just that the pattern making happens very quickly bec...	[ "Solid ink is changed into a gas without passing through a liquid phase (sublimation), using heat and pressure. The design is first produced in a computer image file format such as jpg, gif, png, or any other. It is printed on a purpose-made computer printer ( most commonly Epson or Ricoh brands) using large heat p...
how dns works? and how it resolves the domains registers few seconds ago?	The DNS works almost exactly like the routers that move bits around the internet. Every node has a local DNS resolver, and a list of other DNS servers to ask for a resolution if the local resolver fails. (Just like every router knows about some routes local to it, and has one or more gateways to try to send packets to...	[ "Only the designated registrar may modify or delete information about domain names in a central registry database. It is not unusual for an end user to switch registrars, invoking a domain transfer process between the registrars involved, that is governed by specific domain name transfer policies.\n", "Only the d...
why didn't Tasmanian aboriginals have dingos whereas mainland aboriginals did?	There are no dingos on Tasmania is the short answer to why the Aboriginal population there did not associate with the dingo in the same way as Australian populations. As to why no dingos are present on Tasmania-- for that your best bet is to ask a paleo-biologist. It is very likely that the dingo derives from the dog...	[ "Dingoes occurred throughout mainland Australia before European settlement. They are not found in the fossil record of Tasmania, so they apparently arrived in Australia after Tasmania had separated from the mainland due to rising sea levels. The introduction of agriculture reduced dingo distribution, and by the ear...
why can i stream live tv, netflix and even porn in crystal clear hd, but youtube buffers and lags like no tomorrow?	YouTube has long been notorious for having lousy servers. To an extent, it's probably "you get what you pay for". Netflix has a vested interest in insuring a feed that isn't laggy because you're paying them every month for the service. But YouTube is free, so Google isn't going to turn the world upside down to make sur...	[ "When streaming over-the-top (OTT) content and video on demand, systems do not typically recognize the specific size, type, and viewing rate of the video being streamed. Video sessions, regardless of the rate of views, are each granted the same amount of bandwidth. This bottlenecking of content results in longer bu...
why when you choke on even the tiniest bit of spit or water, do you cough/splutter/struggle to breathe for so long?	This is called a partial choke and it is your body naturally trying to clear the pathway to your lungs the reason you do it so long is because that's like trying to dry up a spill with your hand.	[ "While it works in preventing speech, a person who has been stuff gagged can easily spit it out by pushing it with his/her tongue. However, it is for this reason that the stuff gag is one of the safest gags to use during self bondage, as the person with his/her hands tied can still spit the gag out if he/she feels ...
Why is modern day Arabia so different from Ancient Arabia?	There are a few things to keep in mind here. First of all, your original question assumes that the image you get of "Ancient Arabia" from Arabian Nights and Disney's Aladdin is an accurate one. However, as Edward Said has exhibited in his landmark work Orientalism, there has historically been many problems with Weste...	[ "The Arabian peninsula and the surrounding Middle East and Near East regions saw dramatic change during the Postclassical Era caused primarily by the spread of Islam and the establishment of the Arabian Empires.\n", "The Arabs historically originate as a Central Semitic group in the Arabian peninsula. Their expan...
Can we discuss the "stone age" and what to do about this misleading term?	[3.3 million years old](_URL_0_), actually. I don't think the term Stone Age is inherently misleading. For a start, prehistorians very rarely use it. Instead we almost always talk about its major divisions: the Lower, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic; the Epipalaeolithic; the Mesolithic; the Neolithic; the Eneolithic; th...	[ "The concept of a \"Stone Age\" is found useful in the archaeology of most of the world, though in the archaeology of the Americas it is called by different names and begins with a Lithic stage, or sometimes Paleo-Indian. The sub-divisions described below are used for Eurasia, and not consistently across the whole ...
the cosmological argument and its criticisms	1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause. 2. The Universe began to exist. 3. Therefore, the Universe had a cause. So something had to have caused the universe to exist, let's call that cause the prime cause. When did this prime cause begin to exist? You now have to repeat the argument --- 1. Whatever beg...	[ "In natural theology and philosophy, a cosmological argument is an argument in which the existence of a unique being, generally seen as some kind of god, is deduced or inferred from facts or alleged facts concerning causation, change, motion, contingency, or finitude in respect of the universe as a whole or process...
according to scientific sources, a nuclear conflict involving just 100 nukes would have catastrophic consequences for the environment (mass crop failure etc.) due to athmosferic pollution, so how come the 1000+ nuclear bomb tests during the cold war did not cause such effects?	Most of them were detonated underground which mitigated a lot of the environmental damage (although they ended up causing a few earthquakes which is not ideal).	[ "A study presented at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in December 2006 found that even a small-scale, regional nuclear war could disrupt the global climate for a decade or more. In a regional nuclear conflict scenario where two opposing nations in the subtropics would each use 50 Hiroshima-size...
why did movies, tv shows, and comics start using the plot device that radiation provides positive effects (super powers, growth, etc.) and why do they still use it?	Many of these stories were from the 50s and 60s (the sixties, especially, for comics) when radiation was the biggest scare for people living under the threat of nuclear war. These stories just tapped into anxieties that were already there. I saw an interview with Stan Lee about when the Spider-Man origin story was twe...	[ "Kenneth Strickfaden designed the electrical effects that were used in the \"creation scene\". They were so successful that such effects came to be considered an essential part of every subsequent Universal film involving the Frankenstein Monster. Accordingly, the equipment used to produce them has come to be refer...
What factors contributed to the rise of the nation state?	You will have to forgive my brevity, as I am on my phone, but this topic spans both of my flaired areas of expertise so I feel it necessary to chime in. Strictly speaking, there are innumerable factors involved. However, one of the most important was the spreading of common culture over a geographic or political area....	[ "The transition to this modern state was possible in Europe around 1600 thanks to the confluence of factors like the technological developments in warfare, which generated strong incentives to tax and consolidate central structures of governance to respond to external threats. This was complemented by the increasin...
Historians: throughout your studies, what was the oldest and most interesting text that you've personally handled from your field of history?	I recently handled a portion of a tablet from Sumeria covered in Sumerian cuneiform. It dates to about 2000 BCE, making it well over 4000 years old. I touched it with my hands (they were gloved). It was one of the most amazing things I've ever done, to be able to hold something so old and examine it at length. I don't ...	[ "The oldest record of written history was published in Venice by the Italian author Giovanni Francesco Straparola in his \"The Facetious Nights of Straparola\" (c. 1550–53) in XIV-XV. His original title was \"Costantino Fortunato\" (lit. \"Lucky Costantino\").\n", "The oldest written records in the collection inc...
how and why do spider webs become cobwebs?	> How do the webs lose their "stickiness"? They get covered in dust. Spiders frequently rebuild their webs in new locations. The old, abandoned web ends up collecting dust, which makes it less sticky, just like covering a piece of tape with dirt and debris makes it less sticky.	[ "The web, with its shelter at the centre, is easily identifiable. The leaf curling spider cleverly weaves a leaf or other object into the centre of its web as a hide-away from birds and other predators. Leaves are twisted along their length to form a funnel, (sometimes with a silk wall on one side, if necessary) th...
Do animals with teeth get cavities?	Animals that eat diets with a particularly high sugar content will get cavities. However, most animals don't live long enough for this to become an issue. Having rough elements to your diet, such as bone, wood etc can help to keep teeth clean also. Source: I work at a zoo and we have to brush our animals teeth for th...	[ "Cavities can develop on any surface of a tooth, but are most common inside the pits and fissures in grooves on chewing surfaces. This is where the toothbrush bristles and fluoride toothpaste cannot reach effectively.\n", "In dogs, the teeth are less likely than humans to form dental cavities because of the very ...
How does an action potential in neurones begin?	This depends on the cell that is generating the voltage. In most cells, it is one of two things 1) a chemical gating an ion channel directly (ionotropic) or 2) a chemical causing a G-protein/second messenger system to open an ion channel sensitive to whatever second messenger (metabotropic) (or 3) gap junctions direct...	[ "In neurons, action potentials play a central role in cell-to-cell communication by providing for—or with regard to saltatory conduction, assisting—the propagation of signals along the neuron's axon toward synaptic boutons situated at the ends of an axon; these signals can then connect with other neurons at synapse...
why wasn't there a surge in african economic migrants during the second half of the 20th century to europe as there is today?	Conditions did not seem so bad at home. Perhaps laws actually changed which enabled them to feel safe once they got to a destination. Cell phones with texting has change a lot of things in the last decade. Suddenly refugee migrants who not long ago had the most problem communicating with anyone anywhere can text back ...	[ "Since the 1960s, the main source countries of migration from Africa to Europe have been Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, resulting in large diasporas with origins in these countries by the end of the 20th century. In the period following the 1973 oil crisis, immigration controls in European states were tightened. The...
Robert Graves Myths	If you get a full edition of his book, there are notes, in which he cites primary sources, including big names such as Hesiod, Homer, etc. but also scholia and later sources. But he cites by section, rather than individual sentence, so it's not always clear what source he is using for what particular detail. But as I'...	[ "Michael 'Mike' Parker Pearson, FSA, FSA Scot, FBA (born 26 June 1957) is an English archaeologist specialising in the study of the Neolithic British Isles, Madagascar and the archaeology of death and burial, and is known for his catchphrase \"The Dead Don't Bury Themselves\". A professor at the UCL Institute of Ar...
the ndaa.	NDAA is indeed the National Defense Authorization Act, it is the bill that specifies the budget for the Department of Defense. You can get a look on the site of the United States House of representatives ([_URL_5_](_URL_5_)) shearching NDAA, from there, you’re directed on the site of the Armed Service Committee, ([_UR...	[ "The NDAA 2014 was introduced into the United States House of Representatives on October 22, 2013 by Rep. Theodore E. Deutch (D, FL-21). It was referred to the United States House Committee on Armed Services. On October 28, 2013, the House voted to pass the bill by a voice vote. It was received in the United States...
Let's say I have a cut on my arm that and my body is currently fighting the infection. Am I subsequently at less risk of contracting a cold or flu because my body is already on alert for pathogens?	Yes and no. Technically your immune system has been primed by the current infection, and thus your immune system is on the hunt for pathogens to destroy. So yes, you should have a quicker immune reaction to a new infection. However, the immune system response to a microorganism often causes symptoms such as a high f...	[ "People can transfer the virus from their cold sores to other areas of the body, such as the eye, skin, or fingers; this is called \"autoinoculation\". Eye infection, in the form of conjunctivitis or keratitis, can happen when the eyes are rubbed after touching the lesion. Finger infection (herpetic whitlow) can oc...
Pain is obviously the way of the body telling us something is wrong, but why can it get so severe that it cripples us?	Does your question basically boil down to 'why does the body not work perfectly'? There are plenty of examples of healthy physiologic processes that can become harmful when taken to an extreme. For example, the ability of your blood to clot is a great help to keep from bleeding out, but when clots form in bad locatio...	[ "Humans have always sought to understand why they experience pain and how that pain comes about. While pain was previously thought to be the work of evil spirits, it is now understood to be a neurological signal. However, the perception of pain is not absolute and can be impacted by various factors in including the...
Why do we age?	One predominant theory right now is telomeres, the ends of our chromosomes. Basically, the DNA copier enzyme (DNA polymerase) which duplicates your DNA as cells divide isn't quite perfect. When it reaches the end of a chromosome, it "skips" the last 2 bases. So to protect against important genetic info from being trunc...	[ "Depending on cultural and personal philosophy, ageing can be seen as an undesirable phenomenon, reducing beauty and bringing one closer to death; or as an accumulation of wisdom, mark of survival and a status worthy of respect. In some cases numerical age is important (whether good or bad), whereas others find the...
The Russian navy between the 1600's and early 1900's	Here are some numbers from XVIII cent. Prior to 1696 there were little attempts in creating a fleet in Russia. First frigate "Frederick" was build by Holstein merchant expedition (with russian carpenters) in 1636 and wear Holstein banner, lost in the same year in Kaspian Sea. Next ship "Orel" ("Eagle") was built in 16...	[ "The Imperial Russian Navy () of the Russian Empire, had been established at the end of the 17th century under the regency of Peter the Great and by the personal leadership of Franz Lefort. It existed until the October Revolution of 1917.\n", "The Imperial Russian Navy continued to expand in the later part of the...
why can't the military be prosecuted by regular trial?	The military has its own rules and punishment.	[ "Legal specialists say that the U.S. government is unlikely to allow a trial in the Iraqi courts, because there is little confidence that trials would be fair. Contractors accused of crimes abroad could be tried in the United States under either military or civilian law; however, the applicable military law, the Un...
why aren't puerto rico, the virgin islands, guam, and american samoa states? what is the point of "territories," and what distinguishes them from states?	They have not chosen to apply to be States yet. Puerto Rico was close to voting to apply for statehood a few months ago though.	[ "Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are officially territories of the United States, but are sometimes referred to as \"protectorates\" of the United States. They are self governing territories subject to Congress plenary powers over the territories.\n", "The U.S. territories of the Northern Marianas and Pue...
What was the effect of returning military on the Tulsa Race Riot?	The Tulsa Race Riot, was a incredibly violent and destructive time in our history (I am from Tulsa). What is more incredible is how little is actually taught about it in our school systems, I was in college before I first heard of it. When reading the stories and looking at the destruction I couldn't help but see a bi...	[ "Between the World Wars the Oklahoma National Guard was frequently called to state duty. In 1921 the guardsmen were rushed to the Tulsa Race Riot. Gov. Jack C. Walton used the troops to prevent the legislature from convening during his impeachment. Gov. William H. Murray dispatched the National Guard thirty-four ti...
soap versus rest for web development	> I've read that SOAP is like putting your letter(request) in an envelope to make it more secure, while REST is just sending is the letter(request) as is. This is complete nonsense. The difference has absolutely nothing to do with security. Neither SOAP nor REST have encryption as part of the protocol. Someone appar...	[ "Unlike SOAP-based Web services, there is no \"official\" standard for RESTful Web APIs. This is because REST is an architectural style, while SOAP is a protocol. REST is not a standard in itself, but RESTful implementations make use of standards, such as HTTP, URI, JSON, and XML. Many developers also describe thei...
what is up with israel?	Historical religion/population from an area spread out into surrounding continents (group 1). In the meantime, a new religion/population gained control of the same area (group 2). Centuries pass. Group 3 - historically, geographically, and culturally distinct from both previous groups - gains control of the area aft...	[ "Israel was established as a homeland for the Jewish people and is often referred to as the Jewish state. Israel's Declaration of Independence specifically called for the establishment of a Jewish state with equality of social and political rights, irrespective of religion, race, or sex. The notion that Israel shou...
why is the eastern canada-us border the way it is?	This video does a fairly good job explaining why the border is shaped the way it is. [Canada & The United States: Bizarre Borders Part 2](_URL_0_)	[ "The United States shared a long border with British North America (present-day Canada) in 1814. During the war, the Americans launched several invasions into Upper Canada (present-day Ontario). One section of the border where this was easiest (because of communications and locally available supplies) was along the...
movie budgets were big back in the day because people had to build sets and props etc. now with cgi eliminating most of those jobs and materials, why are movie budgets still so big?	The sets and props weren't expensive. Foam, plaster, and plywood are cheap. The artisans to build them were expensive. Good people with marketable skills are expensive. That hasn't changed. Now instead of hiring a bunch of set guys and prop guys and costume guys you're hiring a hoard of CGI guys and renting hundreds of...	[ "The 1950s saw costs rapidly escalate as cinema competed with television for audiences, culminating with some hugely expensive epics in the 1960s that failed to recoup their costs. A prominent example of this trend was \"Cleopatra\" (1963), which lost money on its initial release despite being the highest-grossing ...
if the european union would suddenly decide to be one country, what would be the main advantages / disadvantages for its inhabitants?	National TV would be slightly confusing.	[ "I fear that the attempts to speed up and deepen integration and to move decisions about the lives of the citizens of the member countries up to the European level can have effects that will endanger all the positive things achieved in Europe in the last half a century... Let us not allow a situation where the citi...
what is bioinformatics and what is it used for?	Basically the idea of analyzing huge amounts of data. These days in biology, we generate unbelievably massive amounts of data. For example, researchers in any field of bio might do an RNA-seq, in other words sequence all of the RNA in 2 different cultures and compare to see what changes between them. You'd get a data s...	[ "Bioinformatics is both an umbrella term for the body of biological studies that use computer programming as part of their methodology, as well as a reference to specific analysis \"pipelines\" that are repeatedly used, particularly in the field of genomics. Common uses of bioinformatics include the identification ...
why do those cheesy pictures that get shared on facebook always looks so grainy and pixelated?	They tend to pick up artifacts because the original image has gone through a chain of hundreds of computing devices which used different file formats and resolutions and so on. People do stupid shit with their files like opening them in Paint to edit them (adding/removing watermarks, resizing, adding/removing text, mes...	[ "I think it was really special to have behind-the-scenes photos, you know, pictures that the fans haven't seen before, all together of a very specific moment of my life, an album of my life. They just get to see all the things that they hadn't seen that were going on behind the scenes; really cool stuff, not typica...
on how irreducible complexity would disprove darwinism (aka natural selection)?	They say some body structures/organs/molecular pathways are so complex that they couldn't have formed gradually, while evolution states life started (relatively) simple and complex structures grew through mutations and natural selection.. They eye is often used: It is so complex they say it wouldn't work if you change ...	[ "Irreducible complexity is not an argument that evolution does not occur, but rather an argument that it is \"incomplete\". In the last chapter of \"Darwin's Black Box\", Behe goes on to explain his view that irreducible complexity is evidence for intelligent design. Mainstream critics, however, argue that irreduci...
What is the difference between the Romans and Byzantium?	The differences in terms of legal and political structure are pretty minor, and there was a certain amount of cultural continuity. The key differences lie in language, and how they each conceived their ethnic identity. Language should be obvious. Latin was the lingua franca in the West; Greek in the East. After Rome f...	[ "Latium (, , ) is the region of central western Italy in which the city of Rome was founded and grew to be the capital city of the Roman Empire. Latium was originally a small triangle of fertile, volcanic soil on which resided the tribe of the Latins or Latians. It was located on the left bank (east and south) of t...
mindfulness	It is a legitimate, well researched psychological phenomenon. Anxiety can often be caused by racing thoughts and an inability to focus. Mindfullness is slowing down and focusing your thoughts so you are only thinking about a small number of things. Breath happens to be a particularly easy thing to focus on, and also...	[ "Mindfulness is gaining a growing popularity as a practice in daily life, apart from Buddhist insight meditation and its application in clinical psychology. In this context mindfulness is defined as moment-by-moment awareness of thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, characterized mainl...
who receives royalties from streamed and downloaded classical music?	In the US, copy write lasts for the lifetime of the author, and then for 70 years after their death. Music made before 1922 is also considered in the Public Domain, and so anyone can perform and record and use this music without copy write concerns. However, the performance of public domain music is owned by the ...	[ "Recording artist royalties are a vital part of an artist's income and are gained through the digital and retail sale of their music along with the use of their music in streaming services, broadcasting, and in other forms of media such as TV shows and films.\n", "When a recording is broadcast (either on radio or...
We think Earth has a magnetic field because of the iron in the core. But the sun and moon also have magnetic fields. What causes their magnetic fields)?	Earth has a magnetic field because of convection in its liquid iron core. Important is the movement of the conductive iron. The moon does not have an active magnetic field, only remnants of an old field. Stellar magnetism is interesting. Only stars with a convection envelope have magnetic fields. Stars above 1.3 so...	[ "The magnetic field at the surface of the Sun is about 10 T. If the form of the field were a magnetic dipole, the strength would decrease with the cube of the distance, resulting in about 10 T at the Earth's orbit. The heliospheric current sheet results in higher order multipole components so that the actual magnet...
why if i play blackjack against the house, with the same exact rules as the house, that i am still at a disadvantage.	Simplest explanation may be that you go first, and if you bust you lose immediately regardless of what happens to the dealer.	[ "All lower denomination blackjack tables only offer a proprietary variant of the game called BlackJack Plus, which has been described as \"the worst game of blackjack in Australia\". This variation enormously increases the house advantage from around 0.5% in the higher denomination tables, to around 5%, making its ...
how does building and launching a rocket into space cost over $200million? india does it for a small fraction of that.	The majority of the cost of a rocket launch is manpower. If an American scientist costs $100 000/yr, and an Indian scientist costs $20 000/yr - there's your answer. $20 000 buys a lot more in Mumbai than $100 000 buys in Miami.	[ "Present-day launch costs are very high – $2,500 to $25,000 per kilogram from Earth to low Earth orbit (LEO). As a result, launch costs are a large percentage of the cost of all space endeavors. If launch can be made cheaper, the total cost of space missions will be reduced. \n", "With an estimated manufacturing ...
Are any other animals dependent past sexual maturity?	Hmm, this might be a hard question to answer because for many social species they often live with kin (relatives). Usually only one sex stays in the group and the other disperses (to reduce inbreeding). For example all females might stay in a group, and the males leave once they reach sexual maturity. So if a mother ha...	[ "Sexual maturity is reached at around 20–25 years in captivity, possibly 40 years in the wild. Life expectancy in the wild is thought to be over 100 years, making it one of the longest-lived species in the animal kingdom. Harriet, a specimen kept in Australia Zoo, was the oldest known Galápagos tortoise, having rea...
why do road speed limit signs sometimes give national speed limit symbols, and other times a number which is equal to the national speed limit.	from _URL_0_ "An increasing number of lit NSL roads (for example the A556 between the M6 Junction 19 and Lostock near Northwich), are now being given "60" or "70" repeaters rather than NSL ones. Presumably the thinking is that this makes the speed limit clearer, as there is evidence that the NSL is not properly unders...	[ "In the United States, the signs are usually rectangular with the words \"SPEED LIMIT\" and the values in black on a white background. The U.S. Federal Highway Administration's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices provides guidelines for the appearance of speed limit signs. In Alaska and California, speed limi...
if almost all industries are inversely related with the oil industry (if the price of oil drops, then things become cheaper to produce), why is the economy so reliant on having a high price for oil?	Well, it's not. The economy as a whole does better when oil is low and does worse when oil is high. However, the oil industry itself does terrible when oil is low and well when oil is high. So local areas that have a lot of oil jobs (the gulf coast, fracking towns in the Great Plains, etc.) tend to swing in the oppo...	[ "Another component of the hypothesis is that the price of petroleum is more stable in the U.S. than anywhere else since importers do not need to worry about exchange rate fluctuations. Since the U.S. imports a great deal of oil, its markets are heavily reliant on oil and its derivative products (jet fuel, diesel fu...
Was internment (or similar action) considered for Korean-Americans during the Korean War?	Two points. First, the Korean War was a civil war, so there was Koreans on both sides. It hardly makes sense to alienate the Koreans on the US side by interning Koreans in the. US. Second, there were hardly enough Koreans to matter. The 1940 US census found only 1700 Koreans. The 1950 census doesn't have the data, but...	[ "After a treaty was signed in 1882, Koreans had begun migrating to the U.S. This came to an end when Japan annexed Korea in 1910. When the war began, Korean Americans were treated as enemy aliens, although this changed in 1943, when they were exempted from enemy alien status. About 100 enlisted in the U.S. Army ove...
why do we still have disadvantageous evolutionary traits?	Evolution doesn't strive for "best possible". It strives for "good enough to survive until mating age". Everything you listed usually doesn't kill us before puberty.	[ "Often, the advantages and disadvantages conveyed are rather complicated, because more than one gene may influence a given trait or morph. Major genes almost always have multiple effects (pleiotropism), which can simultaneously convey separate advantageous traits and disadvantageous traits upon the same organism. I...
what is reddit gold like?	I'm pretty sure that the money from reddit gold helps keep the site ad-free. So in addition to a couple of cool features, you're helping keep the site from getting clustered with ads. As a casual browser, you might not benefit from it TOO much, but it is better than just hitting a "donate" button.	[ "Black gold () is a term used in the Republic of China (Taiwan) to refer to political corruption. The term refers to the obtaining of money (the \"gold\") through a dark, secretive, and corrupt method (\"black\", an adjective in Chinese that also means illegal or illicit).\n", "\"Black Gold\" has attracted wide c...
how font designers can design for japanese and chinese, languages that both use millions of individual chinese characters?	It's a lot of work. In fact, Japanese and Chinese font files (ex ttf) are about 30 to 40 MB. Compare with an English font file which is about 0.5 MB.	[ "The Mojikyo fonts were created as a method of providing a complete documentary of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese characters. It was created in order to provide an easy method to compile large selections of Chinese characters as well as Japanese and Korean characters. This is in addition to a large selection of vari...
how can my cat crawl under a mountain of blankets on my bed and sleep comfortably for hours but i feel like i'm suffocating after just a few minutes?	The amount of oxygen a mammal needs is directly proportional to its mass, ergo your cat is way smaller than you are and needs a lot less air than you do. Basically it's just pure math, a cat that is 1/100th your size will need 1/100th the air.	[ "Owners with outdoor cats may not be able to observe the symptoms associated with litter box use and should watch for unusual behavioral changes. As time passes, the bladder fills up with urine and causes painful bladder distension. The cat becomes increasingly distressed, and may howl or cry out in pain. The male ...
Slow-Mo cameras: How do they handle the data?	High speed cameras have an on board memory system similar to RAM. They have a limited amount of it meaning they can only record for a short period (typically a few seconds at HD res). You then download the data to a computer which takes much longer. Then you can shoot again. Also 3 bytes per pixel is a large overest...	[ "The company keeps its data up-to-date in part through a fleet of dozens of mapping vans equipped with \"six cameras, two side-sweeping lasers and a GPS navigation device.\" The vans capture about three photos per second while traveling at normal speeds, resulting in more than 100 million images per year from each ...
why are soap operas instantly identifiable.	Mainly because of a few factors- Cinematography style: Almost all soap operas have a universal style of film. Long, drawn out shots, dramatic hesitation during speech, etc. Frame Rate: Most soap ops are filmed at really awkward frame rates, which is what gives them that uncomfortably smooth look. Go watch a general ...	[ "The main characteristics that define soap operas are \"an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas, emotional and moral conflicts; some coverage of topical issues; set in familiar domestic interiors with only occasional excursions into new locations\". Fitting in with these characteristics, m...
why do i absolutely love drinking salty soup yet near vomit when i drink salt water?	The salinity of the water is higher than the salinity of the soup. Also, remember that in soup you usually have a bunch of other flavors, which the salt complements. With salt water, there's really no taste but the salt, which is disgusting.	[ "More over, seen as a comfort food in history, soups help lessen cold symptoms and warm the soul, especially in Winter. As Elizabeth Arndt said, soup increase the feeling of fullness while reduce the total calorie intake. Besides, soups with chowders and stews effectively help meet the recorded daily needs for fibe...
Could a railgun projectile reach low Earth orbit? The ISS?	No. The speed that you mentioned is enough to reach the altitude of the ISS and many satellites, even though not fast enough to remain in orbit. If your objective is just reaching it (based on your use of the word "damage" I guess crashing isn't a problem) this could be enough, if sent in a trajectory where the sate...	[ "In addition to military applications, NASA has proposed to use a railgun to launch \"wedge-shaped aircraft with scramjets\" to high-altitude at Mach 10, where they will then fire a small payload into orbit using conventional rocket propulsion. The extreme g-forces involved with direct railgun ground-launch to spac...
To what extent were the Allies ignoring the situation in East Asia during the Second Sino-Japanese War prior to the Japanese invasion?	War with the Japanese was considered extremely likely in the 1930s. Britain especially was desperate to avoid war with Japan, not only due to their colonies in Southeast Asia but also the large number of British assets in China itself. This included Hong Kong, the International Settlement of Shanghai (composed of for...	[ "Japan took over the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931, engaged in a brief war with Chinese forces near Shanghai in 1932, and steadily encroached on the area around Beijing. World War II in East Asia properly began on July 7, 1937 when Japanese and Chinese soldiers clashed in the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The...
why the common logarithm base is 10?	It comes from the days of slide rules. To see how a slide rule works, imagine trying to perform basic addition by using two normal rulers. To add 2 + 3 you could find 2 on the first ruler, then line the end of the second ruler up with it. You then find the 3 on the second ruler and see what number it lines up against...	[ "Tables containing common logarithms (base-10) were extensively used in computations prior to the advent of electronic calculators and computers because logarithms convert problems of multiplication and division into much easier addition and subtraction problems. Base-10 logarithms have an additional property that ...
What is a historical occurrence which was believed at the time, yet was not true, and had societal implications?	I think the Exodus (and by that I'm including the Egyptian Sojourn where the Israelites were supposedly enslaved by the Egyptians) is a perfect example of this. There's absolutely no evidence for it but it's considered, perhaps, the foundation of the Jewish religion. A full 80% of the Torah is dedicated to the Sojourn,...	[ "Social scientists who study popular belief offer explanations for behaviors and events that arose as a means of redress in times of adversity or from perceived practical or spiritual utility. The cause of the European witch craze, responsible for the death of many older women in the sixteenth and seventeenth centu...

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