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how is it that when women apply heat to their hair it becomes softer and shinier, but is actually damaging the hair?	When hair is heated the proteins that make up hair (keratin) are damaged (denatured). In doing so they don't hold together as well. This makes the hair softer. In essence, damaging the hair through heat is what causes the hair to be softer. Not sure what causes the shininess though.	[ "Overuse of heat tools can permanently alter the hair's structure. This is known as \"heat damage\". Use of protective sprays or lotions before heat styling may help to prevent heat damage. Once the damage has occurred, it can be disguised using various styling techniques, but not reversed. The only way to repair h...
Why were the only countries interested in colonisation of the new world in Western Europe?	They weren't. The Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which was a vassal of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in modern day Latvia, had a colony in Tobago in the West Indies. Sweden had a colony in Delaware. Russia had colonies on the west coast in Alaska and at Fort Ross in Northern California.	[ "Other European nations soon disputed the terms of the Treaty of Tordesillas. England and France attempted to plant colonies in the Americas in the 16th century, but these failed. England and France succeeded in establishing permanent colonies in the following century, along with the Dutch Republic. Some of these w...
AskHistorians consensus on Mother Theresa.	At the risk of putting the cart before the horse, I'd like to put a notice here. This question is here because I don't feel it breaks any rules, and the questions asked are valid. However, it is not an opportunity to attempt to politicise the person at the centre of discussion, or soapbox about your own personal inter...	[ "Theresa provides her terminally-ill mother with a cannabis joint laced with poison, allowing her to commit assisted suicide. After her mother's death, she inherits her home in rural Northern California. Theresa's boyfriend, Nick, wants her to move elsewhere with him, but she insists on staying in her mother's hous...
What about a black hole causes it's "temperature" to decrease as it's mass increases?	The temperature of a big black hole is lower than a small black hole because the curvature at the event horizon decreases with radius. It's the curvature, i.e. the bending, that determines the temperature - more curvature = higher temperature. The curvature is a fourth rank tensor, but a convenient measure of it is the...	[ "The link with the laws of thermodynamics was further strengthened by Hawking's discovery that quantum field theory predicts that a black hole radiates blackbody radiation at a constant temperature. This seemingly causes a violation of the second law of black hole mechanics, since the radiation will carry away ener...
Do all oceanic fish swim with the same orientation (that is, with their backs to the surface and their bellies to the seafloor)?	Nope; flatfish (e.g. flounder) swim with either their right or left side facing up. _URL_0_ (flatfish are probably best known for the eye migration thing < --only certain species)	[ "These oceanic fishes are pelagic feeders that stay well above the sea floor, and normally occur in waters 100–1000 m deep. They are typically brightly coloured as adults, often with brilliant crimson fins. Lampriforms have highly variable body forms, but they are generally laterally compressed. Some are rounded in...
Does the visual cortex in a congenitally blind person display any activity when they're prompted to imagine something?	I'm going to link you this paper here, titled [Visual Imagery Without Visual Perception](_URL_1_) that goes into great detail on this topic. It's an easy read, but page 179 and onwards are particularly pertinent to your query. In so many words, the researchers studied congenitally blind subjects via PET scans (an ima...	[ "Mapping of the occipital cortex has possible use in the development of a prosthesis for the blind. Electrical stimulation in the occipital lobe has been found to cause visual illusions called phosphenes such as light, colors, or shadows, which were observed in the early experiments of Penfield and Jasper . The fir...
Is it possible lands now underwater were settled by humans thousands of years ago?	hi! it would be worth x-posting this to the anthropologists & archaeologists in /r/AskAnthropology. Or possibly /r/AskScience or /r/Archaeology	[ "Underwater archaeologists from the University of Victoria are seeking to confirm that stone structures discovered in 2014 on the seabed of Hecate Strait may date back 13,700 or more years ago and be the earliest known signs of human habitation in Canada. Coastal sites of this era are now deep underwater.\n", "Se...
How much energy is lost in transmitting electricity?	[Electric power transmission losses seem to be around 7%.](_URL_1_) It also sounds like the TED talk about [superconductivity](_URL_0_), where the resistance in a material vanishes.	[ "Transmitting energy over long distances has been criticized, with questions raised over the cost of cabling compared to energy generation, and over electricity losses. However, the study and current operating technology show that electricity losses using high-voltage direct current transmission amount to only 3% p...
Would it be possible to grow electric eel cells in a lab in order to generate electricity?	Basically no - cells need so many different nutrients that it would never be cheaper than just burning the sugary fuel or reacting it in some kind of fuel cell. Though I think it would be interesting to design an electric eel so that the stacked cell membranes of its electric organ preferentially pass different isotop...	[ "Researchers at Yale University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology argue artificial cells could be built that not only replicate the electrical behavior of electric eel cells, but also improve on them. Artificial versions of the eel's electricity-generating cells could be developed as a power so...
why do so many pagan/polytheism religions have so much in common even when the cultures never or rarely interacted?	We all live on the same Earth, and ancient cultures, no matter where they were, experienced many of the same events they could not explain. Like, why the sun rises and sets, and the moon and stars, comets, volcano eruptions, massive storms, diseases that kill thousands, natural disasters, etc. No matter where you liv...	[ "Traditional religions embody such concepts as monotheism, animism, vitalism, spirit and ancestor worship, witchcraft, and sorcery and vary widely among ethnic groups. The syncretic sects often merge Christianity with traditional beliefs and rituals, and may not be accepted by mainstream churches as part of Christi...
why dont prime ministers and presidents combine into one role?	Well in many of these countries are under a parliamentary republic system. The President assumes the same role as a Monarch under a parliamentary monarchy. They are for the most part ceremonial figureheads who don't have much say in the day to day business of the government but every bill must be signed by him or her a...	[ "The prime minister has a secondary role in the executive branch, when he or she is from the same party as the president, as the head of the executive is constitutionally the President. However, when there is cohabitation (i.e., when the president is of one party while another party controls the National Assembly) ...
Would I be more closely related to my father, my brother, or a son?	Father or Son would be a 50% match to you. Brother could be between 0% and 100% match; though extreme values are less likely. You and your brother get 50% of your DNA from your mother and 50% from your father; but they don't have to be the same 50% in each case. The most likely case is that you and your brother shar...	[ "He and his older brother (1516–1522) are often mistakenly thought to be the same person, because both died as children and bore the same name. It was not unusual in Tudor times to name a child after a deceased sibling.\n", "The three eldest siblings were born in India and the two younger ones in Ukraine. All wer...
why does european aviation use feet instead of meters?	When you are flying, you don't have to convert units a lot. Your speed is in knots, you are never going to have to know what that is in feet. That removes one of the primary advantages of using the metric system. Since you are just reading them off of a dial, you can think of them as magic airplane units, and don't ...	[ "Aircraft altitudes for air traffic control and related purposes are measured in feet in the U.S. In fact, most of the world has used feet for aviation altitudes since the end of World War II (meters before 1945 in all European countries except the UK), with the notable exceptions of China, North Korea, and many CI...
Is there a discipline among academic historians studying the role of women in history?	Yes, historians have spent the last 50-odd years learning to pay attention to the women of the past. In some cases, like medieval religion and cultural history, this development has radically changed our understanding. If you're interested, I wrote about historians' changing attitudes towards women [last week.](_URL_0...	[ "Women's history is the study of the role that women have played in history and the methods required to do so. It includes the study of the history of the growth of woman's rights throughout recorded history, personal achievement over a period of time, the examination of individual and groups of women of historical...
What were Japanese firearms like during Sengoku Jidai?	While I'm tempted to just post my Senior Thesis here, because it was exactly on the Japanese Teppo or matchlock in the Muromachi and Azuchi–Momoyama eras (Esentially from ~1337 C.E. to 1600 C.E.) I'll try to answer your question point by point and add some more background when i can. I'll start from the beginning and...	[ "Chokutō was among the earliest in the history of Japanese sword-forging as its basic style and forging techniques probably originated in ancient China and were brought to Japan by way of Korea in the 3rd centuries. It was created before the development of differential tempering in Japanese swordsmithing. Chokutō t...
why cant we find a permanant cure for things like depression?	We do not fully understand how the brain works and there are simply too many variables in depression for there to be a single cure.	[ "Thus depression may be a social adaptation especially useful in motivating a variety of social partners, all at once, to help the depressive initiate major fitness-enhancing changes in their socioeconomic life. There are diverse circumstances under which this may become necessary in human social life, ranging from...
the sound my speakers make when my cell phone is close to them.	Basically, it is your cell phone talking back and forth with the cell phone tower nearby. If I were to explain this to a five year old, I would tell them that normally, your speakers receive a special music signal from your iPod/TV/whatever. When your speakers recognize this signal, it converts it into an audio signa...	[ "Nokia and the University of Cambridge demonstrated a bendable cell phone called the Morph. Some phones have an electromechanical transducer on the back which changes the electrical voice signal into mechanical vibrations. The vibrations flow through the cheek bones or forehead allowing the user to hear the convers...
why are pop song verses so short?	Mostly cuz that's what people will remember. Something short and catchy. The shorter and less complicated the more people will remember it, even if they don't like the song	[ "The main medium of pop music is the song, often between two and a half and three and a half minutes in length, generally marked by a consistent and noticeable rhythmic element, a mainstream style and a simple traditional structure. Common variants include the verse-chorus form and the thirty-two-bar form, with a f...
Photons and the light spectrum	To your first question: physics doesn't distinguish qualitatively between visible light and other wavelengths. Only our eyes do :)	[ "Photonics is the physical science of light (photon) generation, detection, and manipulation through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Though covering all light's technical applications over the whole spectrum, most photonic applications are in the range o...
where did this 1 in front of phone numbers come from???	+1 is the international country code for the US and Canada. As long as you're not actually making an international call it's unnecessary.	[ "Until the 1950s, a typical telephone number in the United States and many other countries consisted of a telephone exchange name and a 4 or 5-digit subscriber number. The first two or three letters of the exchange name translated into digits given by a mapping typically displayed on the telephone's rotary dial by ...
why didn't louis slotin's criticality incident at los alamos lead to a full-scale nuclear explosion?	The core was designed to reach just short of criticality, not go supercritical. It also couldn't physically handle doing so - rather than go boom, it would have been a mini-meltdown. Criticality is, at its bare minimum, where each fission event will generate one other fission event on average (neutrons aren't exactly ...	[ "Following the Mike blast by less than a year, Joe-4 seemed to validate claims that the bombs were inevitable and vindicate those who had supported the development of the fusion program. Coming during the height of McCarthyism, the effect was pronounced on the security hearings in early 1954, which revoked former L...
is it better to stay awake if you naturally wake up after only about five hours of sleep, or go back to bed trying to hit those eight hours, but risk waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle.	Technically, REM cycles are about 90 minutes long hence why 7 1/2 hours of sleep each night is the optimal amount of time. So you can determine if you’ve woken up during a cycle or not if you feel groggy. If you have, you’ll most likely feel more tired. It’s easier to wake up when that 90 minute cycle is over. So to an...	[ "Among lifestyle practices, going to sleep and waking up at the same time each day can create a steady pattern which may help to prevent insomnia. Avoidance of vigorous exercise and caffeinated drinks a few hours before going to sleep is recommended, while exercise earlier in the day may be beneficial. Other practi...
the australian equivalent of the american education system. junior, middle, high school, college, gpa etc.	Aussie here. I'll do my best, but keep in mind that my understanding of the US school system is based on my recall of the Babysitter's Club. Elementary School more or less equals Primary School. Middle School and High School are often combined in Australia into a High School or Secondary College, although a number ...	[ "The flagship Australian universities are Go8 universities. Australian universities are modeled from the British system, so learning is comparatively challenging, but there are other intermediate options to take as preparatory steps and very research-oriented starts early from the similar American freshman year (th...
cellular respiration	Let's say that there's a tower with 3 levels and the roof has a king with absolute power (ATP). You want that power so you start going up the tower. On the first level, there's a wizard who tells you "My name is Wizard Glycolysis! You need to get me some magic powder (Glucose) if you want to get to the next level! And...	[ "Cellular respiration is a set of metabolic reactions and processes that take place in the cells of organisms to convert biochemical energy from nutrients into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and then release waste products. The reactions involved in respiration are catabolic reactions, which break large molecules in...
How did Roman emperors travel? How were they protected?	First, a disclaimer: the ancient sources are not very good. The historian Dio tells us how he traveled: not in a lazy man's carriage, but always walking or on horseback! (Dio, Epitome of Book LXIX 9.3) He also tells us that Hadrian loved to drill the soldiers and "fixed" their training, which had become lax (apparent...	[ "From the era of Hadrian, Roman emperors employed a military strategy of \"preclusive security—the establishment of a linear barrier of perimeter defence around the Empire. The Legions were stationed in great fortresses\"\n", "Byzantine Emperors followed the Roman practice and contracted foreigners especially for...
Why did Knights still use swords after the invention of Plate? Wouldn't the Mace become the more favorable and even "romantic" weapon?	With the advent of plate on the medieval battlefield, both the design and techniques of swords began to shift to handle the new threats. Two-handed weapons became more popular as the shield was discarded. Swords often became longer and thinner (with a few exceptions, such as the famous [sword of Henry V](_URL_2_)). You...	[ "The Catholic Monarchs' great sword kept in the Royal Armoury of Madrid, made in the 15th century, was used during the reign of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabelle of Castile and in all solemn court occasions until the 18th century. With this sword, the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella knighted Christopher ...
how do grounding wires work to stop electricity from electrocuting something/someone and why dont we get shocked when its on the frame of something like a washing machine?	Electricity likes to go through the path of least resistance, a ground wire provides that. Ground wires don't carry current all the time, they simply provide a place for the electricity to go in the event of a short circuit, just for long enough to trip the breaker. In the event of a short, the electricity will most li...	[ "A hazardous technique sometimes used by amateurs is to break the \"third wire\" ground conductor \"P\" in one of the component's power cords, by removing the ground pin on the plug, or using a \"cheater\" ground adapter. This creates an electric shock hazard by leaving one of the components ungrounded.\n", "In p...
When did people start thinking about how different the future might be?	Not meaning to dissuade anyone from answering, but OP, you may find some interesting answers in these related threads: * [Was there something like "futurology" or "science fiction" in ancient times or the middle ages?](_URL_1_) * [How did people in the middle ages view the (distant) future of the world they lived in?]...	[ "In 2015, Montgomery and co-author, Dan Chirot, also in the Jackson School of International Studies (University of Washington), published \"The Shape of the New: Four Big Ideas and How They Built the Modern World\", a work of significant and growing influence. The main premise of this wide-ranging and well-written ...
What are the consequences of implementing Hydrogen Fuel cells on a large scale?	Where do you get the hydrogen? How to transport large quantities? How to store large quantities? The last two aren't that bad to overcome, because if you think about it we transport and store large quantities of toxic or highly flammable substances and don't have that many problems. The first question is more probl...	[ "Another problem with contemporary fuel cells is the storage of the fuel. In the case of hydrogen fuel cells, storing the hydrogen in gaseous rather than liquid form improves the efficiency by 5%. However, the materials that we currently have available to us significantly limit fuel storage due to low stress tolera...
Do diabetics drinking alcohol become hyper or hypoglycemic?	[This report](_URL_0_) might be of interest to you if you want a reputable source. From what I've gleaned, alcohol use can cause hypoglycemia in the short term for diabetics and non-diabetics while fasting for an extended period of time (1-2 days). After 1-2 days the glycogen stores in your liver that would be brok...	[ "In addition to respiratory failure and accidents caused by effects on the central nervous system, alcohol causes significant metabolic derangements. Hypoglycaemia occurs due to ethanol's inhibition of gluconeogenesis, especially in children, and may cause lactic acidosis, ketoacidosis, and acute renal failure. Met...
wasn't irrigation supposed to stop crop destruction by drought? why is so much of the harvest ruined because of drought?	Irrigation is only ever meant to supplement natural precipitation, not replace it entirely. Irrigation also typically draws from water sources that are replenished by rain water. So when you have a drought, there are two problems. The first is that you need to draw much more water to keep your fields in good con...	[ "Drought stress is one of the main causes of crop loss within the agricultural world. This is due to water's necessity in so many fundamental processes in plant growth. It has become especially important in recent years to find a way to combat drought stress. A decrease in precipitation and subsequent increase in d...
what is the anti-hydrogen spectrum?	It's exactly the same as the hydrogen spectrum! That's a wonderful discovery that validates many parts of our theories. Anti-hydrogen is the simplest kind of anti-matter. When atoms are excited, the electrons move into different orbits. When the stimulation ends, the electron drops back and a photon is emitted. Th...	[ "H-alpha (Hα) is a specific deep-red visible spectral line in the Balmer series with a wavelength of 656.28 nm in air; it occurs when a hydrogen electron falls from its third to second lowest energy level. H-alpha light is important to astronomers as it is emitted by many emission nebulae and can be used to observe...
how is tea made into different flavours?	While there are different cultivars of tea, the difference between different tea "colors" is processing. In order to make green tea, the leaves are heated to stop oxidation immediatelly after harvesting. For white tea, the leaves are let to wilt and then dried or baked. Yellow tea is similar to green tea, only that ...	[ "Although many teas are still flavoured directly with flowers, herbs, spices, or even smoke, teas with more specialized flavours are produced through the addition of flavourants or perfumes. This is particularly true for tea blends with pronounced fruit or flower aromas, which cannot be achieved with the original i...
Does gravity ever fluctuate here on Earth?	Yes, the surface gravity of the Earth fluctuates due to the influence of the sun and the moon reshaping the Earth with their tidal fields, which causes the gravitational field to fluctuate over the course of a day by about a part in ten million.	[ "In 1672 Jean Richer found the first evidence that gravity was not constant over the Earth (as it would be if the Earth were a sphere); he took a pendulum clock to Cayenne, French Guiana and found that it lost minutes per day compared to its rate at Paris. This indicated the acceleration of gravity was less at Caye...
Any chance of Jupiter collapsing on itself someday?	Not really. Jupiter's hydrostatic equilibrium is not driven by any internal processes, like the hydrostatic equilibrium of a star is. It's stable, and will stay just as it is unless something significant happens to change it, like a large fraction of the atmosphere being blown off due to the sun's expansion in about fi...	[ "Jupiter survives the collapsing structures, only to land at the feet of Balem who tries to kill her; but she fights him off, and is rescued by Caine while Balem falls to his death. As the refinery is in its final stages of collapse, Tsing opens a portal to Earth and prepares to evacuate, potentially leaving Caine ...
How did the Yakuts, a Turkic group, end up in Siberia?	Turkic groups were most probably living in present-day eastern Siberia.[1] Nomadic tribes from Siberian forests (taiga) migrated to Asian Steppe (bozkır), where they built their legendary city: Ötüken (present-day Mongolia). As Bilge Khagan Inscription (from Orkhon Inscriptions) states, *Türük Kağan Ötüken yış ol...	[ "The Russian conquest of Siberia was accompanied by massacres due to indigenous resistance to colonization by the Russian Cossacks, who savagely crushed the natives. At the hands of people like Vasilii Poyarkov in 1645 and Yerofei Khabarov in 1650 some peoples like the Daur were slaughtered by the Russians to the e...
What languages were spoken in Southern China before the early Chinese Empires expanded there? Did those languages have any effect on the modern Chinese languages of Southern China?	Hakka, Cantonese, Mandarin, Wu, and a few others, are the descendants of Middle Chinese. Middle Chinese and Min are descendants of Old Chinese. Min was an earlier branch than those others, and thus we find Southern Min (Taiwanese, Teochew, Hokkien among other names/groups), Nothern Min, Eastern Min, Puxian Min being re...	[ "Successive waves of migration in different localities during various times in Chinese history over the past two thousand years have given rise to different dialect groups seen in Southern China today. Modern Lingnan culture contains both Nanyue and Han Chinese elements: the modern Cantonese language closely resemb...
why do we fall?	So we learn to pick ourselves up	[ "Researchers have tried to create a consensual definition of a fall since the 1980s. Tinneti et al. defined a \"fall\" as \"an event which results in a person coming to rest unintentionally on the ground or other lower level, not as a result of a major intrinsic event (such as a stroke) or overwhelming hazard.”\n",...
If Curiosity DOES find evidence of life...how will this information be disseminated?	In the past, NASA has done press releases detailing their findings. Amino acids have already been discovered in meteorites, for example--this was disseminated by [press release](_URL_0_).	[ "Curiosity measured ionizing radiation levels of 76 mGy a year. This level of ionizing radiation is sterilizing for dormant life on the surface of Mars. It varies considerably in habitability depending on its orbital eccentricity and the tilt of its axis. If the surface life has been reanimated as recently as 450,0...
why do you you have to confirm your age when you go to the website of an alcoholic drink but they can advertise relatively freely using other methods?	Because the [alcohol industry said they'll try and do that](_URL_0_). Really it's something cheap that the lobbyists dreamt up so people don't point them out as the bad guys, and hopefully when discussion about requiring it pops up, the lobbyists can say "we already do that, no need to make it law".	[ "A liquor identification is also provided in some jurisdictions for residents to affirm their age of majority to sellers of liquor, although a state-issued ID that proves the individual is over the legal drinking age often suffices. This is another measure to prevent minors from purchasing alcohol.\n", "For deter...
How did the tiles on the space shuttle work?	It's actually about the low conductivity, plus the ability to cool down radiatively. Basically you need those two things to make a good heat shield: it must protect the inside from the intense heat it receives outside, and it must cool down before heat causes it to fail. All heat shields are good thermal insulators, th...	[ "\"A space shuttle has more than 25,000 differently shaped tiles. The simple shape of Shefex tiles should lower the maintenance costs of the thermal protection system and a simple replacement of tiles in space would be possible.\"\n", "Another element was a maneuverable work platform which would secure an MMU-pro...
Is there any evidence of discrimination within concentration camps between the different demographics/race of prisoners?	Part 1 From the wording, albeit it is not entirely clear to me, I assume you mean discrimination of one group of prisoners by another group of prisoners and not singling-out one group of prisoners by their guards and the Nazis. The answer to both of those issues is, yes, that happened and, in fact, the two – discr...	[ "According to conflict theorists such as Marvin Wolfgang, Hubert Blalock and William Chambliss, the disproportionate representation of racial minorities in crime statistics and in the prison population is the result of race- and class-motivated disparities in arrests, prosecutions and sentencing rather than differe...
Were the European witch trials partially rooted in the Cathar heresy and the Albigensian Crusade?	This is not a commonly accepted interpretation. No real mention of Catharism is made when trying to explain the origins of the witch trials. Inquisitors interrogating Cathars were not looking for evidence of Satanism or black magic, they were looking for evidence of the heresy that the Cathars actually believed in – fo...	[ "The English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper advocated the idea that the witch trials emerged as part of the conflicts between Roman Catholics and Protestants in Early Modern Europe. This theory has, however, received little support from other experts in the subject. This is because there is little evidence that either...
why are boxes of canned soda so much cheaper when you buy them in 3's or 4's?	Because of the Cola Wars. John Sculley, who would later briefly head up Apple, started out as a sales rep for Pepsi, and ran an experiment to see what the theoretical upper limit for soda sales was: volunteer families were recruited and, every day, a Pepsi truck would pull up and refill their soda fridge. No matter ho...	[ "The popularity of canned drinks was slow to catch on, as the metallic taste was difficult to overcome with the interior liner not perfected, especially with more acidic sodas. Cans had two advantages over glass bottles. First for the distributors, flat-top cans were more compact for transportation and storage and ...
what is the easiest way to calculate mentally large multiplication sums e.g 30 x 40 x 50 x 60	Don't try to do everything in your head. That's a neat parlor trick, but the people grading the exams only see the answer -- not how you did it. Separate out the zeros and factor them in at the end. 30 x 40 x 50 x 60 = 3 x 4 x 5 x 6 x 10000. Then just do them in pairs. 3x4 = 12, 5 x 6 = 30 12 x 30 = 360. Then ad...	[ "The abacus system of mental calculation is a system where users mentally visualize an abacus to do calculations. No physical abacus is used; only the answers are written down. Calculations can be made at great speed in this way. For example, in the Flash Anzan event at the All Japan Soroban Championship, champion ...
What does matter "look" like inside of a black hole?	A classical black hole is a vacuum solution to Einstein's field equations meaning if you were unfortunate enough to fall into a black hole, but some how survive^[1] you would just see empty space around you and some warped light from the outside which had fallen in with you. [Here's a video of what this would look lik...	[ "The holeum is a stable particle. It is the gravitational analogue of the hydrogen atom. It occupies space. Although it is made up of black holes, it itself is not a black hole. As the holeum is a purely gravitational system, it emits only gravitational radiation and no electromagnetic radiation. The holeum can the...
Yorkist Claim to the English Throne	There was also a female line descent from the second son. It was the lack of something like a salic law in England that complicated things over whether a senior cognatic link beat a lesser agnatic link	[ "With the Duke of York's death in 1460, the claim transferred to his heir, Edward. After a series of Yorkist victories from January–February 1461, Edward claimed the throne on 4 March 1461, and the last serious Lancastrian resistance ended at the decisive Battle of Towton. Edward was thus unopposed as the first Yor...
Nelson Mandela before his arrest, history with the MK	I have an eye on this thread, keep it factual folks.	[ "Mandela began planning for MK members to be given military training outside South Africa and managed to slip past authorities as he himself moved in and out of the country, earning him the moniker \"The Black Pimpernel\". Mandela initially resisted arrest within South Africa, but in August 1962, after receiving so...
In modern strategy games, it is easy to see if you are winning or losing a battle, because the game simply tells you. But how did foot soldiers and officers discern victory and defeat during the heat of battle? How did they evaluate if they should retreat or stand their ground?	During the Napoleonic Wars, there were three main factors that helped armies determine if the day had gone against them: the presence of strong forces in reserve, the safety of the line of retreat, and the possession of ground. During the Wars of the French Revolution, war, battle, and combat changed dramatically, e...	[ "For instance, if the player is attacked at an unexpected spot, they can travel to the past and move their army towards the spot where they now know the attack will occur. Or if the player waged a battle which ended in defeat, they can jump to the past and prevent the battle from ever happening. That said, the oppo...
why can my girlfriend tolerate a hotter shower temperature than i can?	It's funny you say this because I notice that I usually prefer the shower a bit hotter than my boyfriend as well. Whenever we shower together I have the urge to turn it way up. Also, apparently my body heat at night is very high. He nicknamed me "Little Furnace." He also has a higher pain tolerance than me, it's just t...	[ "A steam sauna can take 30 minutes to heat up when first started. Some users prefer taking a warm shower beforehand to speed up perspiration in the sauna. When in the sauna users often sit on a towel for hygiene and put a towel over the head if the face feels too hot but the body feels comfortable. In Russia, a fel...
why linux is supposedly so much more secure than windows, even though it is open source and does not have a multi million corporation behind it?	It's secure because it is open source - anyone can look at the code in order to find security issues. Also, there are literally dozens of companies which contribute to the Linux project, such as Canonical (developers of Ubuntu) and Red Hat.	[ "Some critics have stated that compared to Windows, Linux is lacking in end-user support. Linux has traditionally been seen as requiring much more technical expertise. Dell's website described open source software as requiring intermediate or advanced knowledge to use. In September 2007, the founder of the Ubuntu p...
let's say the euro collapses tonight... (follow-up)	What currently is happening, as far as I know, is that the Euro enabled some countries (Greece, for instance) to borrow money at rates that did not reflect the actual risk there was in lending money to them. A lot of people have been realizing this, thus interest skyrocketed. However, the important point to take away ...	[ "The European sovereign debt crisis that unfolded in 2010 sent the euro falling to a four-year low of $1.1877 on June 7, as investors considered the risk that certain Eurozone members may default on their government debt. The euro's decline in 2008-2010 had erased half of its 2000-2008 rally.\n", "During the summ...
are cars with 'stop/start technology' more likely to deteriorate their starter motors in less time?	The starter motors obviously see a lot more use and thus a lot more wear and tear than regular cars, but the starters used in these cars are designed for more than normal use.	[ "It has been widely anticipated that for electric vehicles (EVs), clutches and multi-speed gearboxes would not be required, as electric motors can drive the vehicle both forward and reverse from zero speed and typically operate over a wider speed range than combustion engines. Elimination of the gearbox represents ...
video game graphics, what makes certain games look more realistic?	The basic aim of most video game developers (also special effects companies that do work on movies, creating realistic looking backgrounds and objects that don't exist when filming and are added after filming) is to simulate real life characteristics within a graphics engine. There are lots of small things that we see ...	[ "The games' graphics capabilities vary by platform to platform, but their environmental realism (such as a pool hall) is on par with the graphics in other contemporary rendered games (like first-person shooters). The games' use of first-person perspective, shooting balls (rather than bullets) rather than using an o...
Why is Ottoman bureaucracy considered efficient?	Could you elaborate on this question? Who is making this claim, in what context, and for what time period? Right now it is too vague to properly answer.	[ "The Ottoman economic mind was closely related to the basic concepts of state and society in the Middle East in which the ultimate goal of a state was consolidation and extension of the ruler's power, and the way to reach it was to get rich resources of revenues by making the productive classes prosperous. The ulti...
how does the moon shine?	Moonlight is just reflected sunlight, owing to the fact that the Moon's surface is mainly just a grey-white silicate dust.	[ "The Moon is directly illuminated by the Sun, and the cyclically varying viewing conditions cause the lunar phases. Sometimes the dark portion of the Moon is faintly visible due to earthshine, which is indirect sunlight reflected from the surface of Earth and onto the Moon.\n", "When the Moon as seen from Earth i...
Does the lift generated by an Orbiter assist the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft in flight?	Unfortunately not. The 'wings' on the orbiter are there not to provide lift (upwards force) but to help slow the shuttle down and keep it stable during reentry and landing. While they would provide some lift when on the Carrier, any benefit from this is far, far smaller than the cost of carrying all that extra weight...	[ "The lifting bodies act as wings to allow the craft to operate from a runway like a conventional aeroplane, and carry multiple jet engines to reduce the amount of fuel needed for the main body's chemical engines. They separate from the main body when the craft is at a sufficiently high altitude and fly back to base...
How could the Romans mass produce the Gladius while in Medieval Europe swords were limited to the elite?	I am going to open with the fact that you will need someone else to answer questions about medieval arms and production. You touched a little bit on the answer in your post, namely that Roman’s had a higher capacity to produce arms and armor than medieval kingdoms, and this is true for many other states in Antiquity....	[ "Originating in Spain, the \"gladius\" was adopted by the Romans as one of their most commonly used weapons for close combat. Typically 30 cm in length, characterizing a short sword, the term \"gladius\" was also applied to longer swords. Though many swords were double-edged for ease of cutting, this was not always...
why does diet coke 'fizz up' in the glass so much more than regular coke?	In researching this question I'm seeing a lot of statements about how Diet Coke's fizziness is because of artificial sweeteners instead of sugar, but I can't find a source for that. I assume if this is the mechanism, then the sugar might disrupt the surface tension of regular Coke and allow the dissolved CO2 to escape ...	[ "Coca Cola with Lime was briefly available in Australia, but proved quite unpopular with some larger retailers such as Woolworths and Coles, who bought in bulk, having to reduce the price considerably (50c for a 1.25 L bottle compared to around A$2 for all other varieties) in order to clear the product out. Diet Co...
Is it true that Emperor Rameses 2nd had red hair? And if this is the case, where did he and the 19th Dynasty of Egypt come from?	Not directly about Ramses, but /u/400-rabbits wrote [a post](_URL_0_) about other pseudohistorical claims about redheaded mummies in the Andes, where he(?) mentioned that reddening is a well known chemical process post mortem.	[ "In Ancient Egypt, Ahmose-Henuttamehu (17th Dynasty, 1574 BCE): Henuttamehu was probably a daughter of Seqenenre Tao and Ahmose Inhapy. Smith reports that the mummy of Henuttamehu's own hair had been dyed a bright red at the sides, probably with henna.\n", "Bacchylides described Theseus as wearing a hat with red ...
if we sweat excessively during exercise does it eliminate the need to urinate?	Yes and no? You can sweat so much you dehydrate. Part of this is your body pulling any water it can and it can do this from the kidneys too. What's left however is all the chemicals your body normally flushes in urine(notice how sometimes it is yellow or even VERY yellow?) and these will build up to unhealthy levels...	[ "However, since this can risk dehydration, an alternative approach is possible of consuming a substantial amount of salt prior to exercise. It is still important not to overconsume water to the extent of requiring urination, because urination would cause the extra salt to be excreted.\n", "As the intensity of exe...
how do telvision producers "create drama" on reality tv shows.	As others have said, they find melodramatic, attention-seeking and narcissistic people and then ply them with combinations of alcohol, competition, sexual frustration, personality clashes etc etc. They watch as the dynamics develop and then push the 'storyline' in certain directions by combining people, choosing act...	[ "Reality television shows have faced speculation that the participants themselves are involved in fakery, acting out storylines that have been planned in advance by producers. \"The Hills\" is one notable example; the show faced allegations that its plots are scripted ahead of time. During the second season of \"He...
why does the sun seem to bother me more sometimes when it's cloudy?	The sun is crazy bright, soft overcast days blur the direct light into a giant blanket that is uncomfortably bright. It's also the opposite of a magynfying glass. Instead of focusing from large area into a pin....it takes that super bright pin and expands it to cover the whole sky. You can get a bad sunburn on overcast...	[ "Clouds intercept both heat from the sun and heat radiated from the Earth. Their effects are complex and vary in time, location, and altitude. Usually during the daytime the interception of sunlight predominates, giving a cooling effect; however, at night the re-radiation of heat to the Earth slows the Earth's heat...
what are drainholes and how/why do they work?	Are you talking about [something like this?](_URL_0_) Those aren't natural, they are drain holes for dams. They work exactly like you imagine they would.	[ "A trench drain (also channel drain, line drain, slot drain, linear drain or strip drain) is a specific type of floor drain containing a dominant trough- or channel-shaped body. It is used for the rapid evacuation of surface water or for the containment of utility lines or chemical spills. Employing a solid cover o...
When did crossing one's legs become a worldwide habit? Is it a natural position?	[Before there was such a thing as humans and human history.](_URL_0_) Leg-crossing is a natural, instinctual habit, not a learned one. In fact, the way you feel more comfortable when crossing your legs (right leg up vs left leg up) is [determined to a point at a genetic level and inherited from parents to children.](_...	[ "Cross-steps in general appeared between 1910 and the 1920s in the American one-step (the Snake Dip), Argentine tango (Cruzada, Ocho) and especially in the foxtrot (the Cross Step). The March 1920 issue of \"Dancing Times Magazine\" in London reported that in the foxtrot, \"The crossing of the feet is popular and e...
Why doesn't Newton's second law account for energy?	I think you've hit upon the [work-energy theorem](_URL_0_), which states that "the work done by all forces acting on a particle (the work of the resultant force) equals the change in the kinetic energy of the particle." Here, work is defined as a force acting over a distance. As shown in that article, the work-energy ...	[ "Newton used the third law to derive the law of conservation of momentum; from a deeper perspective, however, conservation of momentum is the more fundamental idea (derived via Noether's theorem from Galilean invariance), and holds in cases where Newton's third law appears to fail, for instance when force fields as...
Why were the czechs considered german?	It's not that Germans considered Czechs to be German, it's that Germans considered most of Bohemia (half of the Czech Republic today) to be German. The reason is that these lands were German in addition to being Czech -- they were multi-ethnic. And since Bohemia was a part of the Austrian empire, it was dominated b...	[ "The Czech are closely related to the neighbouring Slovaks (with whom they constituted Czechoslovakia 1918–1993). The Czech–Slovak languages form a dialect continuum rather than being two clearly distinct languages. Czech cultural influence in Slovak culture is noted as having been much higher than the other way ar...
why do your limbs go numb when you cut off the circulation?	The nerves start to shut down. Without oxygen and fresh blood, the nervous system of that region decide to go into shutdown until they either die, or circulation is regained. The nerves shutting down is also why it hurts.	[ "The most common nerve injuries during surgery occur in the upper and lower extremities. Injuries to the nerves in the arm or shoulder can result in numbness, tingling, and decreased sensory or muscular use of the arm, wrist, or hand. Many operating room injuries could be solved by simply restraining the arms and l...
why we should not eat food before exercising?	One reason is that digestion and exercise both need quit a lot of bloodflow. So if you exercise heavily on a full stomach, your body is going to have problems supplying enough blood.	[ ". . . to put it simply, human beings are evolving much more slowly than the food we eat. And the food is tricking us. We think it's what we need, but it's just what we want. What can we do? Eat sensibly and exercise, of course. One thing we have to do, though, is not to “listen to your body\" – because it craves f...
why for most sports olympic gold is the top achievement, while in boxing olympic games are considered an amateur level?	Because most Olympic sports don't have the potential for their athletes to earn hundreds of millions of dollars. If a top pole vaulter could make $80m by going head to head on pay-per-view with another top pole vaulter, nobody would care about Olympic pole vaulting.	[ "By the early 21st century the Olympic Games and all the major team sports accepted professional competitors. However, there are still some sports which maintain a distinction between amateur and professional status with separate competitive leagues. The most prominent of these are golf and boxing. In particular, o...
what is the difference between (us) special forces and combat troops?	"Special Forces" are highly-trained individuals in small teams tasked to perform specific, high-risk missions. They are typically equipped to bring a lot of firepower to a target over a very short amount of time and then leave; they are equipped for "go there, fight, and hold that place for an extended period of time"....	[ "Although they are part of a regular army, United States Special Forces are trained in missions such as implementing irregular military tactics. However, outside the United States, the term special forces does not generally imply a force that is trained to fight as guerillas and insurgents. Originally, the United S...
why is it that aa batteries can have a small form factor and hold 2700mah while my phone battery is huge and stores less?	mAh or mili Amp Hour isn't a measurement of energy. Amps measure the amount of electrons flow per second, but does not take into account the "Pressure" behind those electrons Energy(Watt Hours) is Amp Hours X Volts. Volts is the "Pressure" behind those electrons. AA batteries are either 1.5V(alkaline) or 1.2V(Rechar...	[ "This battery size is most often used in small devices such as laser pointers, LED penlights, powered computer styluses, glucose meters, and small headphone amplifiers. These batteries are not as popular as AAA or AA type batteries, and consequently are not as commonly available.\n", "Batteries come in many shape...
Did any of the big German companies we see today, like Volkswagen or Audi, use Jewish slave labour during the Holocaust?	[Yes](_URL_1_) Although it's important to remember almost all major companies in wartime Nazi Germany used some sort of slave labor. Men of fighting age were, wait for it, fighting the war. So the factories and mills needed people to run them. It was also economically feasible for a state at war to use free work- more...	[ "About 12 million forced labourers, most of whom were Poles and Soviet citizens \"(Ost-Arbeiter)\", were employed in the German war economy inside Nazi Germany. More than 2000 German companies profited from slave labour during the Nazi era, including Daimler, Deutsche Bank, Siemens, Volkswagen, Hoechst, Dresdner Ba...
Would water eventually evaporate after a certain time in a water bottle?	Technically yes, because the water bottle is not completely sealed (the plastic has pores, not a perfect seal at the cap etc. ) but it would take an extremely long amount of time.	[ "BULLET::::- Leaching of bottle material: There has been some concern over the question of whether plastic drinking containers can release chemicals or toxic components into water, a process possibly accelerated by heat. The Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research have examined the diffusion o...
Did Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals interact at the same time? And follow up if they did: were they combative towards one another?	> So our species came to be about 200,000 years ago, right? Yes, in Africa. In contrast [Neanderthals](_URL_0_) evolved about 350,000 to 600,000 years ago in Europe. It is thought that we share a common ancestor - who may have been [Homo heidelbergensis](_URL_4_). > And neanderthals' remains were found as late ...	[ "Some authors have discussed the possibility that Neanderthal extinction was either precipitated or hastened by violent conflict with \"Homo sapiens\". Violence in early hunter-gatherer societies usually occurred as a result of resource competition following natural disasters. It is therefore plausible to suggest t...
What is the difference between "organic" arsenic and "inorganic" arsenic?	Had the same question earlier today and found [this resource.](_URL_1_) Organic arsenic and inorganic arsenic are different both in their structure and effects. See the first paragraph for details. Short answer is that organic arsenic is believed to be nontoxic. Edit: I figured you might be like me and need some a...	[ "Compounds of arsenic resemble in some respects those of phosphorus which occupies the same group (column) of the periodic table. The most common oxidation states for arsenic are: −3 in the arsenides, which are alloy-like intermetallic compounds, +3 in the arsenites, and +5 in the arsenates and most organoarsenic c...
What is the purpose of sparks at base of a rocket just before launch?	The sparks you see in the picture above are from the hydrogen burn-off igniters, which are mounted on the launch pad and exist to make sure all of the excess fuel is burned away before it can accumulate in enough quantity to the point where it can pose a danger to the launch vehicle. The engines are actually ignited by...	[ "The engines are ignited by electrically initiated pyrotechnic flares, mounted on birch poles, which are ignited at approximately T-20, a few seconds before fuel components are introduced into the combustion chamber. This sequence rarely fails due to its simplicity. During launch, the support booms track the moveme...
if the universe is expanding in all directions, does that mean that the universe is shaped like a sphere?	Here's a 2D example. Take a semi-inflated balloon. Glue a bunch of pennies on the surface of the balloon. The 2D surface of the balloon is an analog to our universe. If someone starts blowing up the balloon even more, each of the pennies is moving away from each other, and the surface area of the balloon is expanding. ...	[ "The universe has no edge; it is not known whether it is finite or infinite, but we can only observe a finite amount of it (the observable universe). It has no centre: the Big Bang should not be visualised as an explosion outwards from a central point, but as an equal expansion at all points within itself. This exp...
Wondering about the history of the fedora - when did it start being stylish? When did it start being associated with neckbeards?	[WARNING THIS IS TOTALLY A JOKE NONE OF THIS IS REAL. READ MOD NOTE HERE](_URL_1_) This was something I learned about during my time as an underwater archaeology minor while pursuing my degree. Fedoras (at least the ones we've seen worn for the past 100 years or so) actually have a long history and were only recently ...	[ "By the early 21st century, the fedora had become a symbol of hipsters. \"Vice\" has referred to the early 2000s as a \"fedora renaissance\", with celebrities like Johnny Depp and Pete Doherty wearing the hat, but claimed that by 2016, the fedora may be \"the single most-hated fashion accessory money can buy\". Thi...
the circle of cash flow	I’ll assume you’re referring to the economic cash flow of a two sector model. For basics, a cash flow basically shows how money is moved around the economy in two sectors, households (us) and businesses. Let’s say there is $1000 in the economy, with both households and businesses having $500. If the households decid...	[ "A cash flow is an amount of money that is either paid out or received, differentiated by a negative or positive sign, at the end of a period. Conventionally, cash flows that are received are denoted with a positive sign (total cash has increased) and cash flows that are paid out are denoted with a negative sign (t...
hdtv resolutions (1080 vs. 720, hz, i vs. p)	TVs make a picture out of thousands of little dots called "pixels." A higher pixel count means that the TV can show a finer picture without parts appearing fuzzy or jaggy. The 1080 and 720 labels mean how many pixels tall the picture is, so a picture with a 1080 display is 1920 pixels wide and 1080 tall. 1080 is curren...	[ "1080p (1920×1080 px; also known as Full HD or FHD and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen vertically; the \"p\" stands for progressive scan, \"i.e.\" non-interlaced. The term usually assumes a w...
how can we get immersed in a movie or any piece of fiction? why does suspension of disbelief happen?	Your brain tricks you into thinking it's you even though you know it's not, it makes you emotionally invested in something its envisioning happening to itself/you. Its why porn turns you on, why sports make you agitated, why seeing people eat makes you kinda hungry. But, I'm high. So I could be wrong. [7]	[ "Aesthetic philosophers generally reject claims that suspension of disbelief accurately characterizes the relationship between people and \"fictions.\" Kendall Walton notes that, if viewers were to truly suspend disbelief at a horror movie and accept its images as absolute fact, they would have a true-to-life set o...
Is a spiders web unique to the spider that produces it? Can they get stuck in their own web? I've seen them stuck in others before.	Spiders produce two types of thread...sticky and non-sticky kinds. Obviously the main structure of the web is not sticky. The spider needs to be able to walk on its web without getting stuck. The areas of the web where the spider wants to catch insects is of course coated with the sticky material. They also create sp...	[ "This spider spins an unusual web. It creates a tube of silk that is hidden partially underground, with the portion above ground being covered in leaves and other debris. The spider waits for an insect to land or crawl onto the tube, then bites through the silk to pull the insect inside. These spiders usually do no...
when hourly weather predictions say there's a 20% chance of rain per hour for 5 hours straight, what is the chance of rain during those 5 hours combined?	Usually the predictions are specific to each hour. They're over a larger area of time. The chance of precipitation is determined by the chance that precipitation will fall somewhere withing the forecast area times the percentage of the area over which it is likely to fall. For example, if a forecaster is 100% certai...	[ "PECOTA accounts for these sorts of factors by creating not a single forecast point, as other systems do, but rather a range of possible outcomes that the player could expect to achieve at different levels of probability. Instead of telling you that it's going to rain, we tell you that there's an 80% chance of rain...
Is it possible for hurricanes to merge?	Is it possible for tropical cyclones to merge? Yes, and [it has happened several times](_URL_0_) over last few decades. When two storms are close to each other, they usually undergo a so-called [Fujiwhara interaction](_URL_1_), and begin to rotate around a common center. The effect of this interaction is a net att...	[ "Hurricanes often begin forming in the waters around the islands of Cabo Verde, but it is rare that the strength of the storm reaches close to the islands. A Cape Verde type hurricane is formed in the area south of the islands, near Sao Miguel, after a tropical wave on the African continent during the rainy season....
how does gravity make time slow down?	Speed is equal to distance over time. Gravity increases the distance light travels as it curves space. The speed of light is constant no matter where you are and no matter how fast you're going. So, if the speed of light is fixed and the distance increases due to gravity then time has to slow to make sure the equati...	[ "Assuming that the equivalence principle holds, gravity influences the passage of time. Light sent down into a gravity well is blueshifted, whereas light sent in the opposite direction (i.e., climbing out of the gravity well) is redshifted; collectively, these two effects are known as the gravitational frequency sh...
what is intermittent fasting? i've been seeing posts describing they lost a ton of weight by doing it, can anyone explain?	Losing weight comes down mostly to calories and physical activity. With Intermittent Fasting, you basically eat only during an 8 hours window each day. Basically this will automatically restrict the amount of calories to can eat by limiting WHEN you eat, thus making you lose weight, unless somehow you're still over e...	[ "Intermittent fasting (intermittent energy restriction or intermittent calorie restriction) is an umbrella term for various eating diet plans that cycle between a period of fasting and non-fasting over a defined period. Intermittent fasting is under preliminary research to assess if it can produce weight loss compa...
if fox/espn can track the position of the baseball, how come home plate umpires are still needed to call balls/strikes?	Reason #1 - I do not expect to see the home plate umpire changed to a computerized determination because of... tradition. Baseball fans and purists are very traditional and would be outraged if that process were changed to a computer making decisions if the pitch were a ball or a strike. Reason #2 - There are so many ...	[ "In baseball and softball, there is commonly a head umpire (also known as a plate umpire) who is in charge of calling balls and strikes from behind the plate, who is assisted by one, two, three, or five field umpires who make calls on their specific bases (or with five umpires the bases and the outfield). On any qu...
how do shadows look like crescents during a solar eclipse?.why is it only small things that have the crescent shadow?	The sun, for most practical purposes, acts like a single point of light. However, it is a large object, and light comes from all points on the sun. Since the light comes from multiple points, it's possible to cover up the light from some of those points and not others(this is why shadows aren't entirely crisp as we...	[ "Shadow bands are thin, wavy lines of alternating light and dark that can be seen moving and undulating in parallel on plain-coloured surfaces immediately before and after a total solar eclipse. They are caused by the refraction by Earth's atmospheric turbulence of the solar crescent as it thins to a narrow slit, w...
if we are safer from illnesses after we had it already (our body gets stronger) then why do we still catch a simple cold numerous times in our life?	One of the things the cold virus is very good at is changing itself over just a few generations. So, after you get a cold, you will be immune to that particular strain of cold virus. But it doesn't take very long for the virus to mutate into something your body no longer recognises - and then you can catch it again.	[ "The common cold is the most common human disease and affects people all over the globe. Adults typically have two to three infections annually, and children may have six to ten colds a year (and up to twelve colds a year for school children). Rates of symptomatic infections increase in the elderly due to declining...
why is fruit healthy but when it is squeezed to make juice it makes it unhealthy?	All that healthy fiber gets left behind and you end up with a glass of colored sugar water.	[ "The American Academy of Pediatrics as of 2017 says that fruit juice should not be given to children under age one due to the lack of nutritional benefit. For children ages one to six, intake of fruit juice should be limited to less than per day (about a half to three-quarters of a cup) due to its high sugar and lo...
/r/fitness' faq says that fast/slow metabolism shouldn't significantly affect how you lose/gain wait. why is it then that i, who eat way too much and live a completely sedentary lifestyle, gain no wait, but my friend who exercises everyday and eats healthy is fat and just doesn't lose weight?	You're eating less than you think, and he's eating more than he claims. He probably does minimal exercise at the gym, and downs a couple of sugary gatorades while he's at it. Both of you start a food diary on _URL_0_ (or anything similar), compare after a few days. You'll see what's really up.	[ "Phillips maintains that aerobic exercise is more effective for fat loss when done first thing in the morning, because it raises the metabolism for the remainder of the day, and because the body draws more heavily on its fat stores after fasting overnight.\n", "The human body adapts itself to changes in nutrition...
Does anyone know of a scientific guide to yoga for beginners? (or have any tips for getting the most out of non-spiritual yoga?)	There's that book Anatomy of Yoga.	[ "In 1994 Garfinkel was the lead author of a study that showed that yoga could be used for treatment of osteoarthritis of the hands, and in 1998, Garfinkel was lead author of a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrating the yoga could be used to relieve the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndr...
why do your eyes 'jump' from point a to b? why can't we move them in a continuous motion between two points?	we actually can move them in continuous motion if our eyes are following something. this is known as smooth pursuit motion. the jumping between two points is known as saccades which is what we use to quickly scan environments but not when we are tracking something.	[ "Intermediate directions are controlled by simultaneous actions of multiple muscles. When one shifts the gaze horizontally, one eye will move laterally (toward the side) and the other will move medially (toward the midline). This may be neurally coordinated by the central nervous system, to make the eyes move toget...
A few questions on colour blindness	In most cases, when someone says they are color blind they are referring to [red-green colorblindness](_URL_2_) which is a sex linked disorder that results in problems in the cone photoreceptors in the eye. Sometimes problems in someone's brain can lead to color blindness. An example of this is [cerebral achromatopsi...	[ "Colour anomaly, sometimes referred to as partial colour blindness, is an inherited condition in which people have full trichromatic colour vision, but do not make the same colour matches as the majority of the human population. It is much more common than dichromacy or other forms of colour blindness, affecting ab...
why do people throw pairs of shoes onto telephone wires?	From my limited knowledge of rap videos and secondhand information: it means a place where drugs are sold. I was in a sketchy area deep in Florida when I was younger, and asked my guide what the shoes meant. He told me it means you can easily score in the neighbourhood.	[ "Nevertheless, the main reason for dangling shoes on high wires is for recreational or trivial purposes, usually as a prank played by bullies and drinkers. Thrown shoes may also symbolize local culture or traditions of some sort, including insults.\n", "Jumping wires have fallen out of use since the end of World ...
how do big slabs of concrete such as sidewalks or roads get huge cracks in them?	Slow process. Very small cracks will form because of expansion and retraction and those will grow naturally with more temperature changes. In cold climates that small cracks can fill with water which then freezes and expands the crack.	[ "Concrete cracks due to tensile stress induced by shrinkage or stresses occurring during setting or use. Various means are used to overcome this. Fiber reinforced concrete uses fine fibers distributed throughout the mix or larger metal or other reinforcement elements to limit the size and extent of cracks. In many ...
Quarterstaff combat is all over fantasy games, were quarterstaves ever used in real combat? If so, where, when, and how?	> The short staff [ie. quarterstaff] or half pike, forest bill, partisan, or glaive, or such like weapons of perfect length, have the advantage against the battle axe, the halberd, the black bill, the two handed sword, the sword and target, and are too hard for two swords and daggers, or two rapier and poniards with g...	[ "The quarterstaff is also mentioned in England's legend of Robin Hood. In ballads and tales of the famed yeoman, the quarterstaff is often mentioned. For example, in \"Robin Hood and the Tinker\" and several other tales, the quarterstaff is the weapon in hand as the two engage in a duel, as the Tinker was apparentl...
When did "sleeping" evolve? What are the most primitive organisms that we know of that sleep?	Tangent question, is sleep what evolved or the state of being awake? As in, did multicellular organisms first evolve to walk around, eat, reproduce, then sleep and recover.. or did they evolve to stay in a neutral state then get up, eat, and reproduce?	[ "Sleep as a phenomenon appears to have very old evolutionary roots. Unicellular organisms do not necessarily \"sleep\", although many of them have pronounced circadian rhythms. The jellyfish Cassiopea is the most primitive organism in which sleep-like states have been observed. The nematode \"C. elegans\" is anothe...
How did the weregild work in England?	Weregild appears in the earliest codexes of English law - the immediate post-conversion laws of Æthelberht of Kent from c.597 - which implies that at this point, the custom is already a well established part of customary tribal law. The lexigraphical expansion which accompanies the conversion to Christianity merely...	[ "In Anglo-Saxon England, a folkmoot or folkmote (Old English - a meeting of the people) was a governing general assembly consisting of all the free members of a tribe, community or district. It was the forerunner to the witenagemot, which was in turn in some respects the precursor of the modern Parliament.\n", "V...

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