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if 4-word passwords are the safest*, then why does password managers like lastpass not do that?	4-word passwords aren't stronger than a bunch of random characters. The xkcd you linked is comparing 4-words passwords to a specific type of password where you take a single dictionary word ("troubadour", in this case), swap some of the letters for similar-looking characters, and add a couple of random characters to...	[ "But passwords are typically not safe to use as keys for standalone security systems (e.g., encryption systems) that expose data to enable offline password guessing by an attacker. Passphrases are theoretically stronger, and so should make a better choice in these cases. First, they usually are (and always should b...
Why are smaller animals more resistant to ionising radiation?	As far as I'm aware, we still don't quite know. Compared to humans, we've known for some time that insects are generally more resistant to ionizing radiation, and multiple hypotheses have been proposed to explain this radioresistance. For a long time it was thought that because actively dividing cells are those mos...	[ "The comparison in the table below is only meant to give approximate indications of radioresistance for different species and should be taken with great caution. There are generally big differences in radioresistance for one species among experiments, due to the way radiation affects living tissues and to different...
How did India become one country? how did it avoid civil war after independence?	This is a question which can only be fully answered over the pages of several books since the formation of the India Union spans nearly two centuries and the the geopolitics of the subcontinent is equally broad and complex. What ill attempt to do here is provide a summary that goes through various political, social and...	[ "In 1947, India gained independence from the British Empire. The empire was in decline but adapted to these circumstances by creating the British Commonwealth—since 1949 the Commonwealth of Nations—which is a free association of equal states. As India obtained its independence, multiple ethnic conflicts emerged in ...
How extensive was the system of slavery in Dutch South Africa?	/u/Khosikulu is the best person to address this question. However, I think he is supposed to writing a proposal right now. I'll give a college-try, though if he reads this he might dispute some aspects, or at least recommend some further literature on the matter. > Did the Dutch enslave the local population, or were ...	[ "Although slavery was illegal inside the Netherlands it flourished throughout the Dutch Empire in the Americas, Africa, Ceylon and Indonesia. The Dutch Slave Coast (Dutch: \"Slavenkust\") referred to the trading posts of the Dutch West India Company on the Slave Coast, which lie in contemporary Ghana, Benin, Togo a...
If the brain can't feel pain, why are aneurysms (sometimes) so painful?	The brain may not feel pain, but the dura mater, a sac that surrounds the brain, does. Any pressure on the dura can affect the trigeminal nerves and upper cervical nerves, causing extreme pain. I have intracranial hypertension, where I produce too much cerebrospinal fluid, so I was given a shunt to drain it. The shunt ...	[ "The brain itself is not sensitive to pain, because it lacks pain receptors. However, several areas of the head and neck do have pain receptors and can thus sense pain. These include the extracranial arteries, middle meningeal artery, large veins, venous sinuses, cranial and spinal nerves, head and neck muscles, th...
how can i see a movie trailer (suicide squad) that basically looks like the movie is "done" but the release date is more than a year?	Hi, design student here - film is not my main subject but I've done a few storyboards for film productions at my university and could get a bit of insight on the production process. First of all, what you see in the cinema is only a very small fraction of what has been filmed (recently I read something about Mad Max:...	[ "The movie itself is presented as being a trailer for a 9 hour long movie. It starts with a voice-over, telling the viewer that: \"\"some murders take seconds; some murders take minutes; some murders take hours; this murder... will take years!\"\".\n", "On December 17, 2018, IGN released an exclusive teaser poste...
Why do we grip smooth things better than rough things? And grip better when our hands are slightly wet rather than dry or soaked?	I wrote an answer about this earlier [here](_URL_0_). Briefly, the answer is that the friction between your hand and the glass depends most strongly on adhesion (a non-specific attraction between the molecules in your hand and the surface of the glass). Smoother glass results in a larger effective contact area, and hen...	[ "Surface roughness can also affect the adhesive strength. Surfaces with roughness on the scale of 1-2 micrometres can yield better wetting because they have a larger surface area. Thus, more intermolecular interactions at closer distances can arise, yielding stronger attractions and larger adhesive strength. Once t...
why does driving on an overpass create a higher pitch sound than driving on a surface street?	Sometimes bridges are "paved" with a different material than the rest of the road. It could be concrete/cement instead of tar, it could be a different type or blend of tar. But you might also be hearing the pavement vibrate more because it is open underneath and the sound has a chance to cause sound waves in the air....	[ "Cars significantly contribute to noise pollution. While on common perception the engine is the main cause for noise, at city speeds the noise produced by wheel and asphalt is commonly the dominant factor while at highway speeds air friction noises become a major factor.\n", "Roadway geometrics and surrounding te...
why can't doctors replace a failing heart with a mechanical pump system?	Take a look at HeartMate, the market leader in heart pumps. They are typically given to people on the waiting lists for donor hearts though are increasingly used as a 'destination therapy', that is, in patients who do not go on to get a whole new heart. There are lots of fun distinctions in the devices. There are puls...	[ "The Artificial Cardiac Pump temporarily takes over the function of breathing and pumping blood for a patient. It has two parts, the pump and the aerator. Cardiac pumps are most often used in heart surgery, so that a patient's heart can be disconnected from the body for longer than the twenty minutes or so it takes...
in america, why is taking the bus looked down upon, more so than taking the train/subway/taxi?	It's a social status thing. It isn't necessarily true everywhere, but buses tend to have routes mostly or entirely in the city, not in the areas that upper class people care about. Trains and subways will have stations that travel out of the city to the suburbs, so more wealthy people can travel into the city for work...	[ "However, this system also creates a noticeable problem with people bunching up near the front of the bus during times when customers pay on exit. People are reluctant to move to the rear of the bus for fear they will have difficulty getting out, as only the front door is used as both entry and exit during these ti...
Besides the Anabasis, is there actually any other information to corroborate Xenophon's Persian Expedition?	Artaxerxes II had a Greek doctor, Ctesias, who wrote a Persian history that mentions Cyrus the Younger's campaign. It is extremely fragmentary. [Here](_URL_0_) is a translation of the relevant fragmentary. It's preserved in Photius, a Byzantine Patriarch. The fragment notes Cyrus brought Greeks and names Clearchus ...	[ "BULLET::::- \"Anabasis\" (also: \"The Persian Expedition\" or \"The March Up Country\" or The \"Expedition of Cyrus\"): Provides an early life biography of Xenophon. \"Anabasis\" was used as a field guide by Alexander the Great during the early phases of his expedition into the Achaemenid Empire.\n", "Written ye...
explain this eyeglasses prescription li5	Each set of 3 numbers are instructions for the lens crafter, telling them how to combine two geometric shapes (a spherical lens and a cylindrical lens) into the final piece of glass or plastic. It's sort of like if someone gave you a drawing of a square and a drawing of a circle. The two drawings have very precise mea...	[ "An eyeglass prescription is an order written by an eyewear prescriber, such as an optometrist or ophthalmologist, that specifies the value of all parameters the prescriber has deemed necessary to construct and/or dispense corrective lenses appropriate for a patient. If an examination indicates that corrective lens...
How is CRISPR/Cas9 delivered to the body?	We don't use CRISPR in human bodies, so the answer to your question is "it isn't". But in mice, people have done AAV and lentiviral delivery of CRISPR/Cas9. Naked DNA rarely does any good, and DNA in a pill would just get digested. People are working on other delivery vehicles, like liposomes, polymersomes, etc.	[ "CRISPR is a repeated, short sequence of RNA that match with the genetic sequence that the scientists are aiming to modify or engineer. CRISPR works in rhythm with Cas9, an enzyme that splices the DNA. First, the CRISPR/Cas9 complex searches through the cell's DNA until it finds and binds to a sequence that matches...
why is a ladder more stabile for the person climbing when there is another person standing on the other end?	Because to climb the ladder, you need to lift a foot off it to go up a rung. That places all your weight on the other foot temporarily, meaning that all the weight is now on one side of the ladder, which can cause it to lean. If you have someone standing on the other side, it adds weight, keeping the ladder from shif...	[ "A ladder standoff, or stay, is a device fitted to the top of a ladder to hold it away from the wall. This enables the ladder to clear overhanging obstacles, such as the eaves of a roof, and increases the safe working height for a given length of ladder because of the increased separation distance of the two contac...
What do we actually sense when we feel that something is wet?	The typical sensation of wetness is related to the coolness of the evaporative effect. When we are wet, either from sweat or an external source, the water is immediately drawing heat from our skin as it evaporates. Hot or warm water splashed on us feels different at first because it's actually adding heat. It feels wet...	[ "The wetness of skin in different areas also affects perceived thermal comfort. Humidity can increase wetness on different areas of the body, leading to a perception of discomfort. This is usually localized in different parts of the body, and local thermal comfort limits for skin wettedness differ by locations of t...
the process of data encapsulation (networking)	What do you want to know, specifically? In general, each layer of the OSI model operates independently of the rest. Data encapsulation is how each layer takes the bits from the previous layer and transports them without messing them up. Analogy: You want to ship a care package across the ocean. YOU and the RECIPIEN...	[ "In computer networking, encapsulation is a method of designing modular communication protocols in which logically separate functions in the network are abstracted from their underlying structures by inclusion or information hiding within higher level objects.\n", "A node stream is a method of transferring large ...
[META] Medial Advice on AskScience: The Guidelines.	Thank you for typing this up and getting it out there. I try to make sure I reinform others, and report when necessary as this occurs. I know that some of you guys aren't going to like that we can't allow this, but that doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that you're certain whatever is bothering you is trivial. Yo...	[ "Brief Answers to the Big Questions is a popular-science book written by physicist Stephen Hawking, and published by Hodder & Stoughton (Hardcover) and Bantam Books (Paperback) on 16 October 2018. The book examines some of the universe greatest mysteries, and promotes the view that science is very important in help...
Are there any models in which causality breaks down?	There are some models of naked singularities which allow for [time travel and causal loops](_URL_0_). The problem is that we don't understand gravity well enough to know if naked singularities are even possible, and then we don't know if we're right about how physics would go wonky near them. As for what this would m...	[ "In TSVF, causality is time-symmetric; that is, the usual chain of causality is not simply reversed. Rather, TSVF combines causality both from the past (forward causation) and the future (backwards causation, or retrocausality).\n", "In philosophy of science, a causal model (or structural causal model) is a conce...
what's the point of voting for the president(us)?	The President: * Is command-in-chief of the Armed Forces. Although he cannot declare war, he can order troops to mobilize and is ultimately in charge of the entire military. * Sets policy for the federal government. What's not codified in law can be affected by his political leanings, e.g. directing the FBI or Depar...	[ "The President has a casting vote (in the event of an equality of votes). Like the Speaker, the President continues to attend party meetings, and at general elections stands as a party candidate. On the other hand, the President does not usually take part in debates in the Council and does not speak in public on pa...
How much mathematics was used in Greek and Roman architecture?	It's difficult to give a general answer, because specific projects would require specific approaches, but I think it's safe to say "not very much". If you read an ancient architectural treatise like [Vitruvius',](_URL_1_) you'll see lots of references to numbers, proportions, and famous mathematicians, but nothing in ...	[ "Greek mathematics was technically advanced and we know for certain that they employed and understood the principles of pulleys, which would have enabled them to build jibs and cranes to lift heavy stonework to the upper parts of buildings. Their surveying skills were exceptional, enabling them to set out the incre...
How is the focal length of a gravitational lens determined?	[This page](_URL_0_) has some good info and a set of included references. We have to get out to about 550 AU to use the gravitational lens of our star. Apparently that's where the corona doesn't obscure what we can see via the gravitational lens. There is no focal point, there is a focal line that extends great dist...	[ "The focal length of an optical system is a measure of how strongly the system converges or diverges light. For an optical system in air, it is the distance over which initially collimated rays are brought to a focus. A system with a shorter focal length has greater optical power than one with a long focal length; ...
what causes the sun to make our skin brown?	Biologist here! Its a protection method by our body. As the UV radiation reaches the lower levels of our skin, it tickles melanocytes, cells that basically act like photoreceptors They detect the radiation and release Melanin, a pigment that browns our skin, making it harder for UV radiation to penetrate into the ...	[ "Melanin in the skin protects the body by absorbing solar radiation. In general, the more melanin there is in the skin the more solar radiation can be absorbed. Excessive solar radiation causes direct and indirect DNA damage to the skin and the body naturally combats and seeks to repair the damage and protect the s...
What would the rule of the Dalai Lama have been like?	I've answered this question in depth before. [My first answer](_URL_0_) on r/AskHistorians was actually a variation of this question and it's still the most popularly asked question regarding the history of Tibet. > 'disgusting how the liberal left embraced the Dalai Lama when he was more or less a theocratic dicta...	[ "The Dalai Lama had a strong following as many people from Tibet looked at him as their leader from not just a political point of view but, also from a spiritual perspective. After the Dalai Lama's government fled to Dharamsala, India, during the 1959 Tibetan Rebellion, it established a rival government-in-exile. A...
why do most products have a "made in (country)" label?	It's a requirement for (most) products imported into the USA. [Source 1](_URL_0_.) [Source 2](_URL_1_)	[ "Many companies highlight the fact a product is made in the U.S. with their branding and marketing campaigns, benefitting from the huge marketing potential, often affecting the success of a product. Country of origin is a typical heuristic used when purchasing, playing a significant role in consumer perception and ...
How has light had time to reach us from distant stellar phenomena?	> More precisely what I mean is, if our universe is only 13-14 billion years old, how has light from objects that are 40 billion light years away reached us. The objects were much, much closer when they emitted the light. Over time, the distance between us and the light and the distance between us and the object expa...	[ "By thinking of photons of light as ants crawling along the rubber rope of space between the galaxy and us, we can see that just as the ant can eventually reach the end of the rope, so light from distant galaxies, even some that appear to be receding at a speed greater than the speed of light, can eventually reach ...
why are ancient names like those belonged to the pharaohs so different, where do they come from, and what do they mean?	Probably most Ancient Egyptian names would sound alien to us, as they are from a language that evolved over a nearly 2,000 year span which predates most modern languages and which is only now used in very, very limited Coptic religious circles. In reality, the word "Tutankhamun" is nothing too foreign - it means "Livi...	[ "Pharaoh (, ; \"Pǝrro\") is the common title of the monarchs of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BCE) until the annexation of Egypt by the Roman Empire in 30 BCE, although the actual term \"Pharaoh\" was not used contemporaneously for a ruler until Merneptah, c. 1200 BCE. In the early dynasty, ancient ...
how can animals like the celiocanth and alligator gar who are considered "living fossils" go millions of years without really evolving all that much.	They're evolving the entire time just like everything else. The difference is that their form is relatively well suited to their environment, and so they don't show a lot of deviation in form. If your form is already well suited, then changes from that are less likely to be more successful. That shouldn't be confused w...	[ "Most fossil sharks from about 300 to 150 million years ago can be assigned to one of two groups. The Xenacanthida was almost exclusive to freshwater environments. By the time this group became extinct about 220 million years ago, they had spread worldwide. The other group, the hybodonts, appeared about 320 million...
When military commanders in middle ages were making strategies and decisions, would they really consider chivalry as a important thing?	Medieval conceptions of "chivalry" were multifaceted, confusing, and often contested. There were multiple meanings of the term and different ways of understanding it. It is better to think of the concept in terms of "chivalric culture" as opposed to a singular, codified "chivalry." Popular modern understanding of chiva...	[ "Chivalry developed as an early standard of professional ethics for knights, who were relatively affluent horse owners and were expected to provide military services in exchange for landed property. Early notions of chivalry entailed loyalty to one's liege lord and bravery in battle, similar to the values of the He...
michelin star restaurant ratings	> Why is a tire company the sponsor of such a prestigious rating system? It started in the era when tire companies wrote a lot of travel guides. The Michelin Star system indicates restaurants that they are very good. > Is 3 stars the best rating that can be provided? Yes. Those with 3 stars are specifically no...	[ "Michelin stars are a rating system used by the blue Michelin Guide to grade restaurants on their quality. The guide was originally developed in 1900 to show French drivers where local amenities such as restaurants and mechanics were. The rating system was first introduced in 1926 as a single star, with the second ...
If every gasoline car/truck on earth suddenly switched to a Hydrogen Fuel Cell, emitting only water vapor as exhaust, would there be a negative environmental impact?	A lot depends on how the hydrogen gas is produced. Electrolysis of water, for example, takes a very large amount of energy, and if you want a high purity output, you require a high purity input...thus, you're likely looking at distilling water before electrolysis. How the energy that powers the electrolysis has to be...	[ "As of 2009, motor vehicles used most of the petroleum consumed in the U.S. and produced over 60% of the carbon monoxide emissions and about 20% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, however production of hydrogen for hydro cracking used in gasoline production chief amongst its industrial uses was respo...
To what extent did organised natural disaster relief exist in Europe during the late Middle Ages and Early Modern period?	Since noone answered, perhaps a piece of info from the roman times could prove interesting, even if largely unrelated to your question. A flood destroyed a dam in central Greece. It was the dam that kept lake Copais dry (the previously submerged land was now farms but the flood destroyed the crops and some infrastructu...	[ "The crisis of the Late Middle Ages was a series of events in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that brought centuries of European prosperity and growth to a halt. Three major crises led to radical changes in all areas of society: demographic collapse, political instabilities and religious upheavals.\n", "Th...
how have we as humans not become immune to the cold virus?	'The cold virus' is not just one thing, but consists of multiple strains. When you become immune to one, you're not automatically immune to the others. On top of that, viruses mutate, so there's always a freshly mutated version out there that you aren't immune to.	[ "Along with HCoV-229E, a species in the Alphacoronavirus genus, HCoV-OC43 are among the known viruses that cause the common cold. Both viruses can cause severe lower respiratory tract infections, including pneumonia in infants, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals such as those undergoing chemotherapy and...
How does human cells replicate to form specific organs, features and continue developing without breaking the pattern?	It's a very complicated process and not every detail is understood but it boils down to signals which change gene expression. Every nucleus contains an organism's entire genome. Depending on which genes are used, a cell can take on different shapes, functions, and locations in the body. Regulation happens at many lev...	[ "Cells in the body function because of DNA. DNA sits within the nucleus of a cell. Here, parts of DNA are copied and sent to the body of the cell via RNA. The RNA is then used to create proteins which form the basis for cells, their activity, and their products. Proteins dictate cell function and gene expression, a...
Defeated crusaders were often presented with a choice: convert to Islam or die. What happened to the ones that converted to Islam? Did they assimilate into their societies?	> Defeated crusaders were often presented with a choice: convert to Islam or die? Do you have a source for this assertion? I can’t claim that the crusades are a specialty of mine, but I’m not familiar with this claim.	[ "For eight days, the Crusaders resisted thirst and a rain of arrows and smoke from the Turks. After, the leader of the Germans offered to surrender and to fight for the Turks. The fort surrendered on September 29, 1096. Some of the Crusaders who converted to Islam became slaves, while others who refused to abandon ...
why do humans have more problems with teeth compared to other animals?	You are assuming that other animals have fewer problems than us. I have no data about wild animals. However, as some others have said we tend to eat foods which we did not evolve the ability to handle, like large amounts of sugar. Moreover, some of our dental problems arise from the rapid evolution of the human head an...	[ "Because every mammal's teeth are specialised for different functions, many mammal groups have lost teeth not needed in their adaptation. Tooth form has also undergone evolutionary modification as a result of natural selection for specialised feeding or other adaptations. Over time, different mammal groups have evo...
I've heard a lot about European colonialism and Imperialism on the indigenous people of the Americas but what about Russia's interactions with indigenous people as it spread to the Pacific?	Hey, great question. The period that you'll be most interested in extends from 1558 to 1819 and from the Ural Mountains to what is now British Columbia in North America. During this time, Russia expanded across Siberia to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Faced with an immense ocean obstacle, the Russians drove themselv...	[ "The Russian colonization of Siberia and treatment of the resident indigenous peoples has been compared to European colonization of the Americas, with similar negative impacts on the indigenous Siberians as upon the indigenous peoples of the Americas. One of these commonalities is the appropriation of indigenous pe...
why do you often lose cellphone signal in stairwells?	Most stairwells are made of brick or cinder block. Often times, the steps themselves are made of cement. Wireless signals do not easily travel through these materials.	[ "In areas where signal reception would normally be strong, other factors can have an effect on reception or may cause complete failure (see RF interference). From inside a building with thick walls or of mostly metal construction (or with dense rebar in concrete), signal attenuation may prevent a mobile phone from ...
how to blind differentiate different denominations of currency?	Canadian notes feature [braille](_URL_0_) on them to allow people to tell the difference	[ "A study commissioned by the Bank of Canada in 1994 stated that about 8,000 blind Canadians do not benefit from the large numerals or distinct colouration of the banknotes. In 1990, the Bank of Canada, via the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, had begun distributing to these individuals a free electronic d...
why do people make an "er" sound when thinking?	I've always heard it defined as a 'verbal pause'. This Wikipedia link may help: _URL_0_ Here's an excerpt I think will clear it up a bit: Recent linguistic research has suggested that non-pathological disfluencies may contain a variety of meaning; the frequency of "uh" and "um" in English is often reflective of a spe...	[ "Eh ( or ) is a spoken interjection in English that is similar in meaning to \"Excuse me?,\" \"Please repeat that\", or \"Huh?\". It is also commonly used as an alternative to the question tag \"right?\", i.e., method for inciting a reply, as in \"It's nice here, eh?\" (instead of \"It's nice here, right?\"). In No...
Why do we accept differences in intelligence between dog breeds, but not human groups?	because dog breeds are not at all similar to human ethnic groups. Dog breeds are the result of very intense artificial selection over a very short period of time (most dog breeds came about only in the last few hundred years). The breeds are well defined and distinct from each other for both of these reasons. The in...	[ "Both humans and dogs are characterized by complex social lives with rich communication systems, but it is also possible that dogs, perhaps because of their reliance on humans for food, have evolved specialized skills for recognizing and interpreting human social-communicative signals. Four basic hypotheses have be...
how does a particulate mask/gas mask protect against radiation?	Nuclear fallout is radioactive dust returning to the earth after a nuclear blast has occurred. The air isn't radioactive, the particulate matter in the air is. Wearing a particulate mask prevents you from inhaling the radioactive dust.	[ "Airborne toxic materials may be gaseous (for example, sulfur mustard and chlorine gas) or particulates (such as biological agents). Many gas masks include protection from both types. Gas masks are used in construction to protect against welding fumes, in demolition to protect against asbestos or other hazardous pa...
how could humans distinguish different voices pouring out from output device since it's just waves of compressions and decompressions?	ALL sounds and vibrations in nature are waves. Think about it, an atom cannot move instantaneously from one position to another. So sound is just waves. But you can add how many waves you want of different pitch, phase, and amplitude, as you want, to create a unique wave. That's how all sounds are formed.	[ "A similar process has been created to aide people who have lost their vocal cords. This experimental device would do away with previously used robotic sounding voice simulators. The transmission of sound would start with a surgery to redirect the nerve that controls the voice and sound production to a muscle in th...
Did medieval castles really have water filled moats?	Yeah sure! Like [that](_URL_0_) for example. But only when the castle was in the low lands near a river or at least at sea level. On everything higher was no water. There were just no logistics to get that much water up.	[ "A moat was a defensive ditch with steep sides, and could be either dry or filled with water. Its purpose was twofold; to stop devices such as siege towers from reaching the curtain wall and to prevent the walls from being undermined. Water moats were found in low-lying areas and were usually crossed by a drawbridg...
do cars use up petrol due to speed or rpms?	RPMS and the motor curve matched with the transmission. Motors are more efficient at certain RPMS. Along with the load on the engine. Steep hill vs flat ground. To check the load vs certain gears and rpms you need exhaust temp. Lower temp is better and more efficient less fuel being blown out.	[ "Engine RPM seemed to be more a function of accelerator pedal position than of actual road speed. \"Flooring\" the accelerator pedal would cause the engine speed to flare (even though there is no automatic downshift and no torque converter lockup to disengage). As the car would accelerate, RPM would further climb, ...
What was the German language known as before the creation of the modern Germany	I'm not sure what you mean by the creation of modern Germany. The first unified German state was the German Empire formed in 1871, and before then I don't believe the German language was vastly different from its modern incarnation. Can you clarify the question, please? EDIT: Misread. I thought you asked what it was...	[ "Modern German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which the influential German philologist Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War. This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingl...
I just finished reading Shogun by James Clavell and I have some questions about the historical events that followed the Battle of Sekigahara	Christianity was banned, and people were usually registered to Buddhist temples through the danka system. Missionaries/Jesuits were absolutely not allowed to stay in Japan, and would be killed if found out, especially if they had an underground church. The Japanese era of Sakoku (closed off country) was created in o...	[ "The 1585 was one of a series of assaults made by Toyotomi Hideyoshi against the Ikkō-ikki religious zealots towards the end of Japan's Sengoku period. This battle followed the siege of Negoro-ji, in which Hideyoshi's forces burnt a temple complex to the ground; a number of the Saiga Ikki zealots escaped to nearby ...
Is getting 8-9 hours sleep long enough for a quality sleep, or are there other factors that should be taken into consideration?	There are other factors that should be considered when talking about sleep. One of the big ones is pretty obvious: age. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has the [following chart](_URL_1_) that lists the suggested length of sleep by age group. Sleep is an interesting topic, because we still don't quite know...	[ "BULLET::::- Infants (Birth to one year) are recommended to have 14 to 17 hours (for those aged 0-3 months) and 12 to 16 hours (for those aged 4-11 months) of good quality sleep, including naps during the 24 hour period.\n", "The National Sleep Foundation cites a 1996 paper showing that college/university-aged st...
Is gravity the same throughout the earth?	Gravity differs all over the planet. [Here](_URL_0_) is a link to a seafloor gravity anomaly map. The accompanying article explains a lot about why gravity varies (rock densities, and the amount of mass between you and the center of gravity) as well as what such anomalies tell us about geologic structure.	[ "The gravity of Earth is the acceleration that is imparted to objects due to the distribution of mass within the Earth. Near the Earth's surface, gravitational acceleration is approximately . Local differences in topography, geology, and deeper tectonic structure cause local and broad, regional differences in the E...
what is the strategy behind football players always running straight into the pack of opposing players, gaining just 2-3 feet?	Football is very much the game of inches. Rushing the ball is slow and takes a lot out of your players, but its consistent. You are going to gain yardage, and as long as you can get first down its progress. Throwing the ball is risky if its an incomplete pass there is no progress, and if your QB gets sacked you lose ya...	[ "Players can run with the ball in any direction they want. However they cannot use a teammate to obstruct the opposition. This occurs when they run around or into one of their own players and in the process prevent a defender from tackling them. Defending teams can also run anywhere they want as long as they do not...
Does electricity slow down as it moves along a wire (or other conductor)?	The main issue with long distance power transmission is that you don't get 100% transmission. A lot of electricity is lost to heat (and other energy) as the electricity moves down the wire. Our grid isn't very efficient, and this is one of its big problems.	[ "The electrical resistance of a power line causes it to produce more heat as the current it carries increases. If this heat is not sufficiently dissipated, the metal conductor in the line will expand and lengthen, so that it sags between supporting structures. If the line sags too low, a flash over to nearby object...
How much of pregnancy death in past ages is attributed to the young age of mothers?	A certain amount would have been due to the young age of mothers, a body being physically too small to give birth makes labour far more complicated. However in most instances girls would marry after puberty set in and should be physically prepared for labour. Many deaths would have been caused by poor hygiene and poor...	[ "The death rate for women giving birth plummeted in the twentieth century. The historical level of maternal deaths is probably around 1 in 100 births. Mortality rates reached very high levels in maternity institutions in the 1800s, sometimes climbing to 40 percent of patients (see Historical mortality rates of puer...
order in which the body uses macronutrients or bodyfat as energy.	Overall, in general, the body "prefers" to draw energy from these sources in this order: Glucose - blood sugar Glycogen - stored carbohydrates in the liver & muscles Fat Protein - This is last not only because it's an inefficient conversion, but also because it's a desperation move, betting that you will find...	[ "The macronutrients (excluding fiber and water) provide structural material (amino acids from which proteins are built, and lipids from which cell membranes and some signaling molecules are built), and energy. Some of the structural material can also be used to generate energy internally, and in either case it is m...
How can brain aneurysm acctually kill you? Isn't just a little blob that can cause some blood to leak?	A bleed from a brain aneurysm is called a "sub arachnoid haemorrhage" (SAH) and is a devastating and often fatal condition. The overall mortality is around 30%, with perhaps 10% of people dying before they reach hospital. Although the aneurysm itself is just a "little blob", that is to say it is a localised distension...	[ "BULLET::::- Subarachnoid haemorrhage occurs when blood leaks out of damaged vessels into the cerebrospinal fluid in the subarachnoid space around the brain. The most common cause of a subarachnoid hemorrhage is an aneurysm rupture due to the weakened blood vessel walls and increased wall stress. The neurologic sym...
Is it true Hitler was distraught when he watched The Great Dictator because he had always looked up to Charlie Chaplin and saw himself being ridiculed?	It is not true. Well, it's not true in the sense that we have no unbiased, confirmed source stating that he ever saw it. A TV documentary said Hitler watched it twice, but Albert Speer says Hitler never watched it. No matter whether or not he watched it, there is no recorded reaction to the film.	[ "At an industry party Chaplin causes a minor scandal when he refuses to shake hands with a visiting member of the Nazi party. Fairbanks (with his health in great decline) comments that Chaplin looks a lot like Adolf Hitler, providing Chaplin with inspiration for his next movie in their final encounter before Fairba...
Proton size problem?	Can you link to a claim that this must require new science? In [this article](_URL_0_) from members of the CREMA collaboration from 2010, several possible explanations are offered: > First of all we need to understand the origin of the observed discrepancy. It may be a computational mistake of the energy levels in m...	[ "The proton radius puzzle is an unanswered problem in physics relating to the size of the proton. Historically the proton radius was measured via two independent methods, which converged to a value of about 0.877 femtometres (1 fm = 10 m). This value was challenged by a 2010 experiment utilizing a third method, whi...
if a neutron decays into a proton and electron, how do we know a neutron isn't just a proton and a electron together?	Well, ONE way a neutron can decay is into a proton + electron + anti-neutrino, sure. But another way it can decay is into an anti-proton + positron + neutrino. So is it made out of the firsts three, or the last three? It can't be both. Actually, in this case, we already know a neutron is made out of even smaller p...	[ "Inside a nucleus, a proton can transform into a neutron via inverse beta decay, if an energetically allowed quantum state is available for the neutron. This transformation occurs by emission of a positron and an electron neutrino:\n", "Inside a nucleus, on the other hand, combined protons and neutrons (nucleons)...
why do older people not use the term "girlfriend" or "boyfriend" when referring to their so?	Because it sounds juvenile. A lot of people want to indicate that the person is their significant other, especially if they're not engaged (or if marriage isn't something they're into) and want the relationship to be taken more seriously than a couple of high schoolers. I've never heard of two people in a committed re...	[ "The term \"girlfriend\" does not necessarily imply a sexual relationship, but is often used to refer to a girl or woman who is dating a person she is not engaged to without indicating whether she is having sex with them. With differing expectations of sexual mores, the term \"dating\" can imply romantic activity w...
why is it easier carry someone who has a tense body rather than someone who is dead weight?	If they tense their body, they will shift their weight close to you. All the muscles that your body uses to carry your own weight, can then be used to carry this other person. If the person will just hang onto you, a lot of their weight will be shifted away from your body. It puts you out of balance, which your muscle...	[ "Carrying someone in this manner has several advantages over other methods of moving another person. The subject's torso is fairly level, which helps prevent further injuries. When the subject's weight is evenly distributed over both shoulders, it is easier to carry them for a longer distance – or more.\n", "To g...
Why in some countries people greet each other with kisses in the cheek? Where this tradition comes from?	follow-up question as I'm just returning from Belgium but met with Dutch nationals as well...: how did the regional variations come about? in Belgium it is one kiss on the cheek. in the Netherlands it is three alternation kisses. secondarily, when - assuming this is a tradition that spread, rather than popped up indep...	[ "While cheek kissing is a common greeting in many cultures, each country has a unique way of kissing. In Russia, Poland, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Iran and Egypt it is customary to \"kiss three times, on alternate cheeks\", but kiss twice in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Italians, Hungaria...
why can't i just right click and download videos like i do pictures on the internet?	It depends. If the video is a raw html5 video then you actually can. In general though what you are probably seeing is actually a flash movie, these play in a plugin and follow different rules. Lately there has been significant progress in using JavaScript player systems to prevent download as well. You find these i...	[ "The internet makes it possible for students to view videos of activities, events and places around the world. Viewing these activities can help English language learners to develop an understanding of new concepts while at the same time building topic related schema (background knowledge).\n", "Some sites exist ...
manual transmission and shifting	I can understand your excitement. Manual's are a lot of fun. But please use the search function. _URL_0_	[ "A manual transmission, also known as a manual gearbox, a standard transmission or colloquially in some countries (e.g. the United States) as a stick shift, is a type of transmission used in motor vehicle applications. It uses a driver-operated clutch, usually engaged and disengaged by a foot pedal or hand lever, f...
How did the Royal Navy recruit new sailors in the Napoleonic Wars?	There were volunteers in the royal navy as well - especially skilled craftsmen such as carpenters, barrelmakers and ropemakers could make a decent sum working on a royal navy vessel, and the workload and food was usually better aboard a warship than it was aboard a merchantman. However, much of the crew was indeed pres...	[ "During the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man them. The Royal Navy could man its ships with volunteers in peacetime, but it competed in wartime with merchant shipping and privateers for a small pool of experienced sailors, so it...
why has our culture come to see older things as being more authentic?	The idea is that these things have been validated by being tried for a while and not rejected. Some old things are rejected as silly (think: white polyester disco suits). Those that remain have "passed the test of time" and are now considered accepted and good.	[ "These reproductions and the values of authenticity presented to the public through artifacts in museums provide “truth”. However, authenticity has a way of also being represented in what the public expects in a predictable manner or based on stereotypes within museums. This idea of authenticity also relates to cul...
What would have been the diet of people who lived in the region of Alexandria, Egypt, in the early to middle third century?	A lot of their food would have recognisable as Egyptian food today. Much would have also been recognisable to Egyptians of Pharaonic times. Dishes such as ful medames (stewed broad beans/fava beans) and molokhiya (green soup of mallow leaves) are considered national dishes for good reason - they have been eaten in ...	[ "The cuisine of ancient Egypt covers a span of over three thousand years, but still retained many consistent traits until well into Greco-Roman times. The staples of both poor and wealthy Egyptians were bread and beer, often accompanied by green-shooted onions, other vegetables, and to a lesser extent meat, game an...
I assume the common ancestor of birds and man must have been sexual, yet we encode sex genetically in entirely different ways. How is this possible?	The common ancestor of birds and mammals would have been reptile-like. Most reptiles have [Temperature Dependent Sex Determination](_URL_0_). It is thought that two modes of chromosomal sex determination (ZW in birds and XY in mammals) evolved separately. [Here's an interesting article](_URL_1_) about the evolution ...	[ "Sex-linked traits are a little bit more complex because these recessive traits are carried on the genetic information which determines the gender of a bird. These genes are usually referred to in simplified terms as X and Y genes. In mammals, it is the male that determines the sex of their offspring, in that mamma...
Possibly a dumb question but here we go; There have been multiple female absolute monarchs in history who had total power over the laws, why didn’t they just make total gender equality laws and then enforce them?	Short answer: Not a dumb question-- it's one whose answer gets to the heart of medieval and early modern ideas about political power. Don't assume that "people then" thought like "people now", or that power was ever really absolute. Discussion: Variations of this question have been asked before. You make an...	[ "Some countries however accepted female rulers early on, so that if the monarch had no sons, the throne would pass to the eldest daughter. For example, Queen Christina of Sweden succeeded to the throne after the death of her father, King Gustav II Adolf.\n", "Some countries, however, accepted female rulers early ...
Did the King of France actually control Avignon during the Avignon Papacy?	Avignon was formally part of the Kingdom of Arles when the various popes lived there. Arles was independent from France and remained formally a part of the Holy Roman Empire. It was culturally distinct from the north in many ways. However, despite the formal distinction of the region, it was basically settled that t...	[ "The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon (then in the Kingdom of Arles, part of the Holy Roman Empire, now in France) rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pop...
is it possible through a birth defect for someone to be born with a super power?	What is your definition of a super power? [Natasha Demkina](_URL_1_) claims to have x-ray vision. [Al Herpin] (_URL_0_) says he hasn't slept in 10 years. And [Veronica Seider] (_URL_2_) is said to have 20 times better vision than an average human. If being able to do something that most others can't is a super pow...	[ "If the mother is a carrier, and therefore one of her two X chromosomes has a DMD mutation, a 50% chance exists that a female child will inherit that mutation as one of her two X chromosomes, and be a carrier. If that carrier has a male child, there is a 50% chance that he will inherit the X chromosome with the mut...
Why don't we use maglev launchers for spacecraft?	The advantage of maglev is that it's low-friction. You can reach top speed because very little slows you down. They're not really remarkable to any degree besides that. Air still slows you down and air is the thing that space shuttles have trouble with. Sure, they'd make you use slightly less fuel at the very beginnin...	[ "The Soyuz vehicles are used as the launcher for the crewed Soyuz spacecraft as part of the Soyuz program, as well as to launch uncrewed Progress supply spacecraft to the International Space Station and for commercial launches marketed and operated by Starsem and Arianespace. All Soyuz rockets use RP-1 and liquid o...
what is a dead pixel and how would i get/notice one?	A dead pixel is one very very tiny dot on your screen that's either stuck black, or stuck one color. If you opened a giant white page and saw a black dot that wouldn't go away, or if you opened a giant black page and saw a red/green/blue dot that won't go away, that's a dead pixel. Your monitor has millions of pixels ...	[ "Stuck pixels are often incorrectly referred to as \"dead pixels\", which have a similar appearance. In a dead pixel, all three sub-pixels are permanently off, producing a pixel which is permanently black. Dead pixels can result from similar manufacturing anomalies as stuck pixels, but may also occur from a non-fun...
Why does osmosis not result in perpetual motion?	Wow, thanks for a thought-provoking question.... You got me to puzzle over this for a while. [Here's](_URL_0_) the best explanation I found online. (Make sure you read the "Why it won't work" part at the bottom.) There's a bunch of other websites too - people have been kicking around this idea at least since 1971. A...	[ "As \"perpetual motion\" can exist only in isolated systems, and true isolated systems do not exist, there are not any real \"perpetual motion\" devices. However, there are concepts and technical drafts that propose \"perpetual motion\", but on closer analysis it is revealed that they actually \"consume\" some sort...
During the Napoleonic wars did any high ranking officers serve with their men in the frontlines?	/u/BritainOpPlsNerf handled the notable cases but I'll handle the average day to day with exclusive respect to the French. The most basic (ie: smallest) tactical body in the French military was the battalion. As in, the battalion of 840 men composed of a voltiguer (skirmisher) company, a grenadier (which I go over ...	[ "Pierre Belon Lapisse, Baron de Sainte-Hélène (25 November 1762 – 30 July 1809) commanded an infantry division in Napoleon's armies and was fatally wounded fighting against the British in the Peninsular War. He enlisted in the French Army during the reign of Louis XVI and fought in the American Revolutionary War. A...
what is the cancer rate for livestock, and what happens when we consume cancerous cells via eating meat?	The vast majority of cancers aren't transmissible by consumption. Your digestion breaks down the material anyway. Also, cancer is something that tends to affect life forms that age longer. Animals that are raised for human consumption don't live very long.	[ "A 2016 literature review found that for the each additional 50g per day of processed meat (e.g., bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausages) consumed, the risk increased 4% for total prostate cancer, 8% for cancer mortality, 9% for breast cancer, 18% for colorectal cancer, 19% for pancreatic cancer, 13% for stroke, 24% for ca...
Did any other countries in the 20th century with significant ethnic minority populations implement an equivalent of the "separated but equal" policy?	Poland had something a little like this for a bit. Jews were segregated in many areas, but still had legal rights. As in the US, they weren't actually equal, but the inequality wasn't as severe as in the Jim Crow era.	[ "In the 20th century, a few states passed, or attempted to pass, nationality laws, through efforts that share certain similarities. All took place in countries with at least one national minority that sought full equality in the state or in a territory that had become part of the state and in which it had lived for...
How is meth different from ADHD meds?	Methamphetamine is actually prescribed sometimes for ADHD. Its drug name is Dexosyn. See: _URL_0_ The only difference between Dexosyn and street meth is purity and formulation (although to be fair, formulation is pretty important for determining the effects of a drug, and as u/CanaryBean pointed out the route of admin...	[ "In both adults and children, ADHD has a high rate of comorbidity with other mental health disorders such as learning disability, conduct disorder, anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder, and substance use disorders.\n", "ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder which is most pronounced in chi...
What happens to rain/hail in and around a lightning bolt?	Interesting question. Rain water is basically distilled water (there are very minor impurities in it from particles in the air) and afaik does not conduct the electricity anymore than the air around it. As for what happens to the precipitation around the lightning bolt, it gets vaporized into steam due to the intense ...	[ "A typical cloud-to-ground lightning flash culminates in the formation of an electrically conducting plasma channel through the air in excess of tall, from within the cloud to the ground's surface. The actual discharge is the final stage of a very complex process. At its peak, a typical thunderstorm produces three ...
why line breeding animals is considered okay, when most other forms of inbreeding aren't.	it's not considered okay to people who don't hold a double standard inbreeding of dogs is famous for creating problem dogs, complete with medical issues people keep "purebred" lines, but it's just them rationalizing shitty behavior	[ "Inbred strains (also called inbred lines, or rarely for animals linear animals) are individuals of a particular species which are nearly identical to each other in genotype due to long inbreeding. A strain is inbred when it has undergone at least 20 generations of brother x sister or offspring x parent mating, at ...
curse_of_kintave's bestof'd comment explaining hipsters	Oddly enough, _URL_0_ of all places has the answer you're looking for: _URL_1_	[ "Mark Greif, a founder of \"n+1\" and an Assistant Professor at The New School, in a \"New York Times\" editorial, states that \"hipster\" is often used by youth from disparate economic backgrounds to jockey for social position. He questions the contradictory nature of the label, and the way that no one thinks of t...
how are stereotypes formed?	Human brains are basically always trying to predict things, and one of our major sources of data for predictions are the opinions of others. Unfortunately, other people aren't pure sources of information, rather their opinions are colored by the desire to believe their tribe or group is better than others. So they mi...	[ "Stereotypes say about a fixed form or convention and also about something missing in individuality or originality. Human brain proceed the informations and then stores them in the memory, but there is a huge amount of informations it collects, that it is inavoidably to sort and then categorize them. Stereotypes ar...
If we could travel at 99.9% the speed of light, it would take 4 years to get to Alpha Centauri. Would the people on the spaceship feel like they were stuck on board for 4 years or would it feel shorter for them?	Nope, time dilation is a cool part of special relativity. At 99.9% the speed of light the trip would be 0.17 ish years to the occupants of the spaceship. The closer you get to 100%, ie. add more 9’s to the end of your percentage, the faster the trip would feel to the occupants. Here’s a cool calculator site you can pla...	[ "The journey to Alpha Centauri B orbit would take about 100 years, at an average velocity of approximately 13,411 km/s (about 4.5% the speed of light) and another 4.39 years would be necessary for the data to reach Earth.\n", "The fastest outward-bound spacecraft yet sent, Voyager 1, has covered 1/600 of a light-...
Did the Soviets have anything similar to the U2 or SR-71? And did they fly over the US in the way the US did over the USSR.	[The question was asked and answered here.](_URL_0_) > Yes and no. They did have a U2 like plane in the M-55. However Russia had issues spying on the US via planes. Problems the US did not have. That issue was the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. You have to understand the the Russia is a huge country that UNLIKE the US i...	[ "The Skunk Works had predicted that the U-2 would have a limited operational life over the Soviet Union. The CIA agreed. In late 1959, the Skunk Works received a contract to build five A-12 aircraft at a cost of $96 million. Building a Mach 3.0+ aircraft out of titanium posed enormous difficulties, and the first fl...
Did the United States know of Russia's presence in the Americas before the Lewis and Clark expedition?	Yes, the expedition did know of Russia's presence, and so did the wider world. While the explorations of Russian pioneers like Chirikov and Bering were known among select audiences in Europe as early as the late 1740s, knowledge of Russian explorations was not initially disseminated widely due to the language gap a...	[ "In 1788 the Spanish made contact with the Russians in Alaska for the first time. An expedition by Esteban José Martínez and Gonzalo López de Haro visited several Russian settlements. Their westernmost visit was to Unalaska. On August 5, 1788, they claimed Unalaska for Spain, calling it \"Puerto de Dona Marie Luisa...
why are bi-racial, partially black people considered black? is it just racism?	The traditional rule is the "one drop" rule. That is, if you have one drop of "black" blood then you have been "contaminated" and are now non-white and thus lesser. Obviously we have largely moved away from that sort of thinking. And I am in no way advocating it! But the memory of it is still alive and well. Part of ...	[ "A way of classifying someone by looking at their physical appearances, like skin color, nose shape, lip size, etc. and choosing their race based on what they look like. Doyle and Kao (2007) said biracial individuals (black/white) felt more keen to identify as black because of the process of physiognomy, in compari...
What are the risks associated with microwaving plastics?	I have had a thousand arguments with biologists on AskScience on this issue, and I'm tired of engaging in this argument, so I will limit the scope of my claims to this: My understanding of the topic is that there are some biological studies which claim the leaking of certain small molecules, like bis-phenol A from poly...	[ "There is ongoing concern as to the use of plastics in consumer food packaging solutions, environmental impact of the disposal of these products, as well as concerns regarding consumer safety. Karin Michaels, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, suggests that toxins leaching from plastics might be related...
how is congress legally allowed to hold committee to pass legislation in a closed manner?	So, I'll answer each question in succession: (1) How is this legal? It's important to bear in mind that what the conference committee does is, essentially, compare the House and Senate versions of a bill, hammer out the differences, and create a new piece of legislation which then has to be passed in both the House...	[ "In the House of Representatives of the US Congress, motions to suspend the rules are in order on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and during the last six days of a session. The Committee on Rules normally releases a list of bills and resolutions to be suspended for the week as were requested by the various committee...
Relative to the Earth's environment, how bright would Pluto's landscape appear if you were standing on the sunny side?	Pluto receives about 1/1000th the sunlight that Earth does. So, it would appear pretty dark. However, it would be significantly brighter than it would be on Earth at night during a full moon.	[ "During its 2012 close approach to Earth, had a brightest apparent magnitude of about 13.9, making it about as bright as the dwarf planet Pluto. By 25 February 2012, it had dimmed to magnitude 30. During its close approach of on 28 January 2014, it will only reach a magnitude of about 23. has been observed in more ...
When an electron orbits a nucleus is it something similar to how a satellite orbits the Earth, or is there some other mechanism propelling it?	It is extremely difficult to visualize the orbit of an electron. It can't be thought of in the classical sense (i.e., an object orbiting another object). Instead, you have to describe it's motion using quantum mechanics. QM tells us that the electron will occupy a "cloud". We don't know where the electron is, but it i...	[ "Only orbits that begin and end at the nucleus are important in closed-orbit theory. Physically, these are associated with the outgoing waves that are generated when a tightly bound electron is excited to a high-lying state. For Rydberg atoms and molecules, every orbit which is closed at the nucleus is also a perio...
I'm currently listening to the Cast Recording for the musical 'Hamilton'. What historical liberties does it take that I should be aware of?	At the risk of submitting a less-than-in-depth reply, I'll highlight two major inaccuracies in the hopes that someone more knowledgeable about Hamilton (though perhaps not the musical) can expand upon them - 1) The Farmer Refuted. In the musical, this is depicted as a debate in the street, with the original author ...	[ "The original Broadway cast recording for \"Hamilton\" was made available to listeners by NPR on September 21, 2015. It was released by Atlantic Records digitally on September 25, 2015, and physical copies were released on October 16, 2015. The cast album has also been released on vinyl. The album debuted at number...
why was digital tv mandated through law in many countries? what is the real reason for the analog to digital tv conversion?	My guess is so that we could open up the old spectrums and take up less space because digital is easier to compress	[ "BULLET::::- 26 May – As part of a government trial to test the feasibility of switching the UK to digital television, Ferryside and Llansteffan, two towns in Carmarthenshire, have been chosen to become the first places in the UK to have their analogue signal switched off. Residents who do not currently have access...
Why was the Soviet army able to win against the Kwantung Army in 1938-39, but was incompetent in the Winter War 1 year later?	Other factors helped the Soviets in the Far East. First, the terrain: compared to heavily forested Finland with many lakes and rocky outcroppings breaking the terrain further, Manchuria was more or less open plain, perfectly suited for the Soviet mechanized combat technique and penalizing the Japanese, who had far few...	[ "As the Kwantung Army's fighting power diminished, it had to amend its operational plans against the Soviets accordingly. While the strategy for 1942 was the same as it had been in 1941, by 1943 this had been abandoned in favor of only one attack – either on the Eastern Front against Primorye or in the north agains...
why are you sometimes able to eat a lot of candy or something sweet even though you cannot eat anymore of something fatty or savory, as if you have a second stomach for sweet foods?	I think it has something to do with the following - which is something I was reading about on a study into obesity awhile back: Hard to believe, but from the study they realised the body ‘knows’ when you’ve ate too much fat and too much sugar, the brain just tells you you’ve had enough of each by making you feel sick ...	[ "Even in a culture that eats sweets frequently, candy is not a significant source of nutrition or food energy for most people. The average American eats about 1.1 kg (2.5 pounds) of sugar or similar sweeteners each week, but almost 95% of that sugar—all but about 70 grams (2.5 ounces)—comes from non-candy sources, ...
Why months, weeks, hours, minutes & seconds?	Circles are measured in units of 360(ish) degrees since the ancient times because * 360 is an extremely convenient number, mathematically speaking — it's evenly divisible by every number from 2 to 10 except 7, and * a year (which is an important agricultural cycle) has close to 360 days (which are an important human...	[ "What might loosely be called \"weeks\" are the divisions of days 1–7, 8–14, 15–22, and 23–30 of each month – two weeks of seven days followed by two weeks of eight. The Gatha days at the end of the year do not belong to any such week.\n", "Time is measured in \"ọgán\" (seconds), \"ìṣẹ́jú\" (minutes), \"wákàtí\" ...
when someone has a stroke, why do they lose movement, and why only on one side of their body?	My undertanding is that a stroke is generally caused by a blockage in a single blood vessel to or in the brain. The result if often brain damage but only on one side because the brain is split into two hemispheres that receive bloodflow seperately. Each half of your brain is in turn responsible for motor control of ha...	[ "A stroke is a decrease in blood supply to an area of the brain causing cell death and brain injury. This can lead to a wide range of symptoms, including the \"FAST\" symptoms of facial droop, arm weakness, and speech difficulties (including with speaking and finding words or forming sentences). Symptoms relate to ...
how are music videos with multiple settings put together to make all the singing sync up together, or are they lip synced?	They record the song first and when they're filming the video they play the song in the background so the artists can lipsync over it, they'll do this various different times in different scenes and cut them all together for the final edit	[ "The music video uses \"duality\", as in \"light and shadow\" and \"virtual images and real images\" as the theme. Unlike previously released music videos, the scenes of them appear together are only a few and mostly are solo shots.\n", "Throughout the video, various bright-colored animations and shots are shown,...
Why do Kings go by just their first name, whereas modern heads of state tend to go by their last name?	Hi, the reason is that monarchs often didn't/don't have surnames. There's room for more contributions on this topic, but for now, there are a few responses in this old thread * [What was the surname of English monarchs?](_URL_0_)	[ "It is not uncommon for monarchs to have a double first name. In some countries, only the first of the two names are counted when giving the ordinal, like in Sweden where the present king is called Carl XVI Gustaf, while in others the double name is counted as one name, like in Austria-Hungary (Franz Josef I was no...
How helpful is mold?	It would be more human-friendly in that we would be free of the allergic, respiratory, and mycotoxin-related problems associated with mold. However, as you mentioned, fungus is a necessary part of the decay process. Without it, dead plant and animal matter would continue to build up. Something similar to this happen...	[ "Buildings are another source of mycotoxins and people living or working in areas with mold increase their chances of adverse health effects. Molds growing in buildings can be divided into three groups — primary, secondary, and tertiary colonizers. Each group is categorized by the ability to grow at a certain water...
why would the us gov have allowed or engineered the attacks on 9/11?	Individuals within the government. Unlike many other countries US politicians are allowed to own shares and the like and are given huge sums of money from businesses. If you go to war certain businesses will make more money, such as those that make military goods. If you're in their pocket, have shares in them, et...	[ "The President, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) are the most relevant elements of the U.S. government to the threat of American Islamic extremism and each has taken steps to address and counter the issue. Since 9/11 the go...
why does it feel good drinking water after eating?	you are fulfilling the hypothalamus' (brain region) stimulation of thirst, so it feels good. your body just took in salt and other solutes, so in order to avoid osmotic shrinking of your cells, water must be taken in as well.	[ "The weight loss effects of water have been little studied, but it is plausible that consuming water with meals may reduce total energy intake and aid weight loss, particularly if water is taken instead of calorific drinks.\n", "Drinking is the act of ingesting water or other liquids into the body through the mou...
On a molecular level, how does a mirrors reflect light. (x/post from ELI5)	"A mirror is essentially a plate of glass coated with a thin film of metal, such as silver. At the atomic scale, metals are a crystal network of atoms whose outermost electrons dissociate and wander with high mobility through the network. These mobile “conduction” electrons are the source of electrical conductivity in ...	[ "A mirror provides the most common model for specular light reflection, and typically consists of a glass sheet with a metallic coating where the significant reflection occurs. Reflection is enhanced in metals by suppression of wave propagation beyond their skin depths. Reflection also occurs at the surface of tran...
why does a car battery quickly become dead if left directly on concrete?	Absolutely not an urban legend. I've seen it first hand	[ "BULLET::::- Automotive batteries stored on a concrete floor do not discharge any faster than they would on other surfaces, in spite of worry among Americans that concrete harms batteries. Early batteries might have been susceptible to moisture from floors due to leaky, porous cases, but for many years lead–acid ca...

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