question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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human wave attacks | > trained, fed and transported to the battlefield, that's a huge investment going to waste.
In ye olden times the troops in those waves you're talking about often had no training beyond "take this pitchfork, stick 'em with the pointy end" and were likely fed the cheapest rations that would keep someone moderately a... | [
"The human wave attack, also known as the human sea attack, is an offensive infantry tactic in which an attacker conducts an unprotected frontal assault with densely concentrated infantry formations against the enemy line, intended to overrun and overwhelm the defenders by engaging in melee combat.\n",
"Human wav... |
why notebook paper has blue text lines and red margin lines | Blue lines are not reproducible. You can not copy them on a xerox machine.
Two reasons for this.
The first reason is that the sellers do not want you to make lots of copies of lined paper, they want to sell you more paper, but consider the other thing of having your well done handwriting reproduced without the lines ... | [
"This embossing is transferred to the pulp fibres, compressing and reducing their thickness in that area. Because the patterned portion of the page is thinner, it transmits more light through and therefore has a lighter appearance than the surrounding paper. If these lines are distinct and parallel, and/or there is... |
Why were the buildings of a Roman castrum spread out? | First: *castrum* is not typically used in Latin, except in very rare cases, and those probably confusion with the similar *castellum,* which does appear in the singular. The Latin noun is always plural, *castra*, though it refers to a single camp.
For the average run-of-the mill *castra,* there were no "buildings." T... | [
"The castrum was discovered in 2009. Excavations have taken place in the years 2010 and 2014-2015, demonstrating that it was built by the Romans. The wood discovered in the walls showed a construction period ranging from 50 BC to 125 AD: it was the time when Augustus wanted to annex to his Roman empire the short-li... |
Would a white population eventually turn black if they lived many generations in Africa? | Given enough time, and assuming the climate remained as it is (ie hot and dry) it is conceivable that the average skin color of the population would get darker, yes.
Darker skin is a result of higher levels of the pigment melanin in the skin, which protects it against harmful radiation from the sun. Paler skin is more... | [
"The result was a series of conflicts which eventually led to a reduced presence of White Africans due to emigration and natural death. Many were murdered, tens of thousands driven off their lands and property, with many of those remaining being intimidated and threatened by the government and political and paramil... |
what is api, rest, soap, json and xml | API: Application programming interface - definitions, communication protocols, and tools for building software, mostly built by companies to allow 3rd party access
REST: REpresentational State Transfer - standardised communication style
SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol - platform independent format for sending and... | [
"Web 2.0 Web APIs often use machine-based interactions such as REST and SOAP. RESTful web APIs are typically loosely based on HTTP methods to access resources via URL-encoded parameters and the use of JSON or XML to transmit data. By contrast, SOAP protocols are standardized by the W3C and mandate the use of XML as... |
Can anyone describe the use of and attitude towards marijuana in the German Democratic Republic? | Since this is such an absurdly specific question I tried to do a little bit of reading to see what I could come up with.
In *German Democracy : From Post-World War II to the Present Day* Gert-Joachim Glaessner writes that the idea of drugs, as an example of a decaying or corrupted society, were often used as a to... | [
"Following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 and the subsequent Soviet participation in the invasion of Poland, the Communist Party was against the French war effort and so was outlawed: the Communist Party did not support what the Nazis stood for, but did support the Soviet Union's tactical treaty with Germany i... |
Is there a quantitative way of measuring tiredness? | There are many different objective clinical scales that can be used to measure sleepiness, fatigue, tiredness, and drowsiness (based on many possible definitions of these words), but most are very specific tests that are only useful for very specific conditions.
With that said, there are a few general objective scale... | [
"Study in fatigue has been focusing on mainly two fields: application in designing regarding size in aeronautics and energy production using advanced calculation methods. The LCF result allows us to study the behavior of the material in greater depth to better understand the complex mechanical and metallurgical phe... |
why do anti-virus and malware programs move the virus and malware files to quarantine instead of deleting them? | For a few reasons:
1. false positives.
2. recoverable data - if a little bad shit has come into my phD thesis I may want to try to recover the good from the good + bad.
3. Evidence. It's a great pile of validation of the worth of the product you bought.
4. In some systems, and some configurations, permissions. Depe... | [
"Many third-party anti-virus software vendors have released detection updates to their products and claim to be able to remove the worm. The evolving process of the malware shows some adoption to the common removal software, so it is likely that some of them might remove or at least disable some variants, while oth... |
Are there games similar to Foldit designed to aid other fields of science? | [EteRNA](_URL_0_)- Researching RNA design to make things more predictable/improve computer models
There is also [BOINC](_URL_1_), a collection of projects that run as a sort of screensaver. Uses up your "unused" processor cycles to do crowdsourced resources for different projects you can choose from, like ATLAS@hom... | [
"\"Foldit\", while also a GWAP, has a different type of method for tapping the collective human brain. This game challenges players to use their human intuition of 3-dimensional space to help with protein folding algorithms. Unlike the ESP game, which focuses on the results that humans are able to provide, Foldit i... |
Light Thrust? | Fermat's principle isn't that light rays **finds** the quickest path. It's not like light ray knows it will leave A end up to B and then optimizes to take the quickest path there. It's that the path that light rays that do reach B happen to **take** is the quickest. "Find" and "take" are very different words.
Consid... | [
"The optical force is a phenomenon whereby beams of light can attract and repel each other. The force acts along an axis which is perpendicular to the light beams. Because of this, parallel beams can be induced to converge or diverge. The optical force works on a microscopic scale, and cannot currently be detected ... |
does body adapt to different climates? if yes, how does it adapt? | Yes. When army people are dropped off at a new location, their bodies have to get used to, or acclimatize, to the new weather and temperatures, normally over 2-3 weeks. A returned soldier friend of mine said that when his squadron went home by plane, they hadn't received proper time to acclimate, so when they left the ... | [
"As in other mammals, thermoregulation in humans is an important aspect of homeostasis. In thermoregulation, body heat is generated mostly in the deep organs, especially the liver, brain, and heart, and in contraction of skeletal muscles. Humans have been able to adapt to a great diversity of climates, including ho... |
How/Why did Britain lose the Battle of Hong Kong against Japan in 1941? | **How?**
For the how part, they were attacked by a much stronger force of far superior quality that enjoyed complete air superiority. To compound problems further the British gravely underestimated the fighting ability of the Japanese and left only three batalions on the Gin Drinkers line. There was just no way that a... | [
"In 1941, during the Second World War, the British reached an agreement with the Chinese government under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek that if Japan attacked Hong Kong, the Chinese National Army would attack the Japanese from the rear to relieve pressure on the British garrison. On 8 December, the Battle of Hong K... |
how is a 12oz can of coca-cola and a 20oz bottle of coca-cola both one serving size of coke? | Because most people will drink the entire can or bottle in a single sitting, and not save some of it for later. | [
"In summer of 1960, Double Cola used a Chinese name as \"(得寶可樂)\", a locally made super king size with much more carbon dioxide for only 40 Hong Kong cents for a 16 fluid ounce (473 ml) bottle which could serve three then-typical beverage cups.\n",
"BULLET::::- \"United States v. Forty Barrels & Twenty Kegs of Co... |
when did the northern European monarchies become
powerless? | The Revolutions of 1848 definitely killed the absolutism of the Danish Monarchy and killed off the French one as a whole. It also helped to change the Netherlands to a much more liberal nation under decree of William II (although William III unpopularily attempted to reverse everything). The Swedes went to constitution... | [
"Since the end of World War I, however, most European monarchies have been abolished. There remain, as of 2016, twelve (12) sovereign monarchies in Europe. Of these, seven are kingdoms: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and Northern Ireland are of pre-modern origin. The kingdoms of the N... |
whats the difference between all of the different kinds of salts? what makes a 50$ pound bag of salt better than a 50 cent pound bag of salt? | The cheap salt you get in the grocery store is *just* salt - sodium chloride. It tastes 'salty'.
WHen you start looking at fancy salts, you end up with little bits of different minerals mixed in. Just like tap water in different cities tastes differently because of minor differences in mineral content, salt from dif... | [
"Because the salt has a purer flavor due to the lack of metallic or bitter-tasting additives such as iodine, fluoride or dextrose, it is often used in the kitchen instead of additive-containing table salt, so such flavors are not introduced to prepared food. Estimating the amount of salt when salting by hand can al... |
Can an atom have significant mass from its electrons? | Not really. An electron is about 1/2000 the mass of an atom. Even in the largest nuclei, all the electrons amount to a few percent of the mass of a proton. | [
"That is, the total atomic mass is the mass of the nucleus, plus the mass of the electrons, minus the sum of all \"electron\" binding energies for the atom. This equation is rearranged to find formula_12, and formula_17 is found similarly. Substituting these nuclear masses into the Q-value equation, while neglectin... |
I'm a poor farmer in France during the revolution. I live far away from any cities or near the frontier. How is my life affected? | I'll copy a bit from an old post I made:
Where do you reside? Most specifically, are you from the North or the South? Another question I need to ask is how old are you? What gender are you? Those last two are the most important because, frankly, they determine how likely it is that you live or die. How rich are you, y... | [
"The population in French rural areas had risen rapidly, causing many peasants to seek a living in the cities. Many in the bourgeoisie feared and distanced themselves from the working poor. Many unskilled labourers toiled from 12 to 15 hours per day when they had work, living in squalid, disease-ridden slums. Tradi... |
In Battlefield 1 many American troops call German soldier "Hun" during World War One. Was that popular slang for German soldiers or is Battlefield taking liberties with history again? | Yes it comes from a speech made by the Kaiser. I can't get it right now but I'll send you a link in a few unless someone beats me to it.
_URL_0_ | [
"Although recorded as a colloquial term for Germans by the mid-nineteenth century, it was during World War I that \"Kraut\" came to be used in English as a derogatory term for a German. In World War II it was used mainly by American soldiers and less so by British soldiers, who preferred the terms Jerry or Fritz. I... |
how to songwriters ensure they aren't accidentally ripping off someone else's music? | Well, if you're a professional musician, that song will go through many people and iterations before it's released. If it's at all a popular song, someone will catch it. There's a story about Paul McCartney who woke up with the tune for "Yesterday" in his head walking around and asking other bands if they've heard it b... | [
"There is a way to prevent such legal battles. A songwriter can commit their \"intent to make a song\", which prevents any of the parties ripping the song apart. Some artists send out a legal disclaimer making clear that if their melody isn't used after doing a topline, it reverts to them, and the track back to the... |
why the fridge door sometimes sticks really hard | If I had to guess: when enough warm air gets into the fridge and then the door is closed, the temperature then drops causing the air to contract and drop in pressure like a vacuum. Since fridges are fairly well sealed, that may be enough to cause some extra resistance when you try to open the door. | [
"The \"refrigerator rule\" applies, and a refrigerator door is not opened from the inside. If the hinges are on the right then it is a right hand (or right hung) door. (Australian Standards for Installation of Timber Doorsets, AS 1909–1984 pg 6.)\n",
"By the mid-1980s the house had fallen into disrepair, as water... |
Why was Andrew Jackson against the Bank of The United States? | Henry L. Watson, in his seminal work “Liberty and Power,” extensively describes the politics of the Jacksonian era. He explains how the early republic quickly found itself politically divided among many competing visions of the future. The United States has always been a diverse place with very diverse interests. From ... | [
"When Jackson entered the White House in March 1829, dismantling the Bank was not part of his reform agenda. Although the President harbored an antipathy toward all banks, several members of the president's initial cabinet advised a cautious approach when it came to the B.U.S. Throughout 1829, Jackson and his close... |
what are the long term effects of casual alcohol consumption (ex 3-5 drinks per week) and how do the effects differ from alcoholism/heavy drinking? | First of all, there is a difference between alcoholism and heavy drinking. Alcoholism is a psychological dependency on alcohol, where the individual cannot or will not stop drinking despite whatever bad effects it is having on his life, health, job, and family. Alcoholism and heavy drinking typically go hand in hand,... | [
"Alcohol consumption: Studies suggest that light-to-moderate alcohol intake is associated with lower risk (once or twice a week or three or four times a week), as were frequent drinking in earlier life is identified as a risk factor for cognitive decline in later life.\n",
"A study found that moderate consumption... |
How different in duration was the lifespan of the earliest stars in the universe? | The life span of stars is heavily dependent on their mass, very massive stars will go through their supply of Hydrogen a lot quicker even now. There are some very massive stars that live just a few hundred million years before violently dying, while small dwarf stars can simmer away for billions of years. Our sun is fa... | [
"By (100 trillion) years from now, star formation will end. This period, known as the Degenerate Era, will last until the degenerate remnants finally decay. The least massive stars take the longest to exhaust their hydrogen fuel (see stellar evolution). Thus, the longest living stars in the universe are low-mass re... |
How many more people have died than are alive? | In the range of 108 billion.
_URL_0_ | [
"Of the roughly 150,000 people who died each day across the globe, about two thirds—100,000 per day—died of age-related causes in 2001, according to an article which counts all deaths \"due to causes that kill hardly anyone under the age of 40\" as age-related. In industrialized nations, the proportion was even hig... |
if we can create animals like "ligers" and "mules" why haven't we attempted to create a mix of humans and chimps? | [Some have tried](_URL_0_). I think there would be some pretty big ethical problems if it succeeded. | [
"Chimpanzees (\"Pan troglodytes\") are smart, social animals. In the wild they cooperate to hunt, dominate rival groups, and defend their territory. They have participated in many cooperative pulling experiments. The first ever cooperative pulling experiment involved captive chimpanzees. In the 1930s Crawford was a... |
where do small animals go at night, and bugs go in the winter? | Deer move as families and nest in the forest. They never stay at the same nest for more than a few days.
Turtles bury themselves in mud at the bottom of the creek, breathing in the oxygen from the water. Some other freshwater turtles may dig themselves into a marshy area of grass or moss.
Some bugs migrate in the win... | [
"They are active year-round, day and night, but are usually more active near sunrise and sunset. They make trails through the surface vegetation and also dig underground burrows with many entrances. They burrow under the snow in winter. These animals are often found in colonies.\n",
"During certain times of the y... |
Why can I "feel" the bass, but not the other parts of the song? | Have you ever been in the Ocean and buffeted by a series of "Thin" by waves. You move a little, but definitely not as much as a "Fat/Long" waves. It's similar with sound. Low frequencies have large wavelengths and as a result you get to feel them more than the other frequencies.
Additionally, the song/music could have... | [
"I have to be able to feel the bass. I've worked hard with our producers to make sure that when you play our records on your stereo, you can feel the bass. You might not necessarily be able to hear it all the time, but if you turn it up you can feel the movement in the low end—that it's moving the song. And when it... |
Does ECT work? | There is certainly a place for it in modern medicine, and it is still used quite frequently. The early days of ECT were certainly fraught with unethical practices and using a treatment without fully understanding it, however we've come a long way since then. It's important to keep in mind that it's by no means a perf... | [
"In contemporary psychiatric practice, ECT is used mainly in the treatment of depression. It is occasionally used in the treatment of other disorders such as schizophrenia. When undergoing modern ECT, a patient is given an anaesthetic and a muscle relaxant. A brief-pulse electric current of about 800 milliamperes i... |
Why is it light cannot travel through an opaque object when members of the electromagnetic spectrum on either side of light can? | Visible light interacts with matter through electronic transitions. What that means is that when a photon hits something coloured it is absorbed by an electron in an atom and gives that electron more energy.
Electrons have certain energy levels they are "allowed" to have (you could say there are discrete quantities th... | [
"If the object is transparent, then the light waves are passed on to neighboring atoms through the bulk of the material and re-emitted on the opposite side of the object. Such frequencies of light waves are said to be transmitted.\n",
"Since X-rays and visible light are both electromagnetic waves they propagate i... |
why are math, tech and science majors paid more than literature, art and social studies? | Basically, you should rarely think about pay as anything other than "how much money can i likely make for my boss" and secondly "how hard would it be if i left." The idea of jobs being paid according to importance, or worthiness, or "value to society" is very rarely the case. It is "how much is this work worth it to th... | [
"Criticism of the traditional humanities/liberal arts degree program has been leveled by critics who see them as both expensive and relatively \"useless\" in the modern American job market, where several years of specialized study is required in most job fields. According to a 2018 report by the Humanities Indicato... |
why are so many animals intolerant to theobromine (an active ingredient in chocolate) but humans have no problem eating it? | Humans do have a problem with theobromine, it's just that the fatal dose for a human is very high. Iirc, the fatal dose for humans would require eating 6kg of dark chocolate in one sitting (over 40kg if you prefer milk chocolate)
A lot of cheap chocolate is so processed it contains hardly any theobromine at all. | [
"In sufficient amounts, the theobromine found in chocolate is toxic to animals such as cats, dogs, horses, parrots, and small rodents because they are unable to metabolise the chemical effectively. If animals are fed chocolate, the theobromine may remain in the circulation for up to 20 hours, possibly causing epile... |
Why were opposite gender friendships less common in the past? | So there are a couple of things going on here. One is that women not appearing in photos in bars/pubs/saloons doesn't indicate that women were never friends with men: drinking establishments were often officially or unofficially coded as masculine spaces, particularly if they served a middle-class clientele. (Working-c... | [
"2. Research he conducted with Richard C. Keefe overturned a long-standing assumption that women are attracted to older men, and vice versa, because of the norms of American society. This research demonstrated that the pattern of sex differences found in the United States is found all around the world, and is in fa... |
Who were the Philistines of the Bible, and where did they come from? | This is a rather large question mark in this area. Based on linguistic evidence (mostly place-names), they don't seem to have been a Semitic people, certainly not a Canaanite group. Because artifacts recovered from digs resemble those of Greek groups (but not Canaanites), they seem to have been at least from the Aege... | [
"The Philistines were an ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan between the 12th century BC and 604 BC when they were exiled to Mesopotamia by King Nebuchadnezzar II. They are known for their biblical conflict with the Israelites. The primary source of information about the Philistines is the Hebrew ... |
how does one 'occupy' a territory? | You spread your troops/police force/militia/bandidos throughout the area in which you wish to occupy. Define it as yours loudly and denounce/arrest/kill/oppress those who disagree with you. Wait 100 years for it to become your de jure land.
- source CK2 | [
"Military or belligerent occupation (hereon after referred to as simply \"occupation\") is effective provisional control by a certain ruling power over a territory, which is not under the formal sovereignty of that entity, without the violation of the actual sovereign. The territory is then known as the \"occupied\... |
american politics vs canadian politics | The main difference between our two nations is how we deal with the different branches of power. The United States has a Senate, a President, and Congress, each of which has its own powers an responsibilities, and it is expected (and encouraged) that each of them will influence the course of government so that no one ... | [
"In Canada politics are similar to United Kingdom politics but it does instead have either one or occasionally two and three national and provincial third parties since last few decades in Canadian politics like the national New Democratic Party and most its provincial chapters, the national Green Party of Canada a... |
why is it that in the ocean so many different species can live in such close proximity to each other but on land it seems like they live separately. | Volume of room. On land you have one flat plain while in the ocean layers. It boils down to volume vs. Surface area. | [
"All species have geographic limits to their distribution, which are determined by their tolerance to environmental conditions, and their ability to compete successfully with other species. In marine environments this may be less evident than on land because there are fewer topographical boundaries, however, discon... |
If I cut open a fruit (e.g a pomelo), does it continue to ripen? | There are two basic types of fruits in regard to ripening: climacteric and non-climacteric. Climacteric fruits will continue to ripen after being picked, while non-climacteric fruits must be picked ripe because they don't ripen after being picked. Bananas are a great example of a climacteric fruit-if you buy green ba... | [
"The fruit matures from December to February, being a pear-shaped red berry, known as a riberry, growing to 13 mm long, covering a single seed, 4 mm in diameter. Seed germination is unreliable, complete after 25 days; however, cuttings strike readily. The fruit is eaten by the Australasian figbird, emu, and flying ... |
360° videos | Those videos are created by using a specialized device that captures footage through numerous cameras simultaneously, and then are stitched together to create the illusion of a seamless recording. YouTube has had support for this kind of video, but as you can imagine, very few videos on the service utilize it. | [
"360-degree videos, also known as immersive videos or spherical videos, are video recordings where a view in every direction is recorded at the same time, shot using an omnidirectional camera or a collection of cameras. During playback on normal flat display the viewer has control of the viewing direction like a pa... |
what is the point of buying an ultra hd (4k) tv when there are very few movies/tv channel in the world that have the 4k resolution? | There is not reason. Turns out that when everyone owns a TV, there is very little reason to buy another TV. So manufactures make better tv's and then try to convince you to replace your current "outdated" tv with a new one. First we had HD tv's (720p), then flat screens, full HD, (1080p), then smart tv's, 3D tv's, 4 c... | [
"In March 2015, DirecTV became the first multi-channel video provider to offer 4K Ultra HD programming direct to customers, offering a variety of new releases, popular films and nature documentaries with nearly four times the resolution of HD. Customers who have DirecTV's Genie HD DVR are able to watch 4K programmi... |
why do airplane flight tracks always make big arcs, rather than a “straight line” directly to your destination? | Because the earth is round and what you're seeing is a projection on a 2D map of the shortest path on a sphere (the Earth). | [
"In air navigation, ground tracks typically approximate an arc of a great circle, this being the shortest distance between two points on the Earth's surface. In order to follow a specified ground track, a pilot must adjust their heading in order to compensate for the effect of wind. Aircraft routes are planned to a... |
How did Washington and the colonial army pay for the costs of the American Revolution without the ability to levy taxes? | They borrowed.
First, the individual states and the Continental Congress printed paper money, and as expenses exceeded income, they printed more of it. As a result the paper money depreciated in value to little or nothing, which eventually led to the phrase "not worth the Continental". This essentially was a tax lev... | [
"The purpose of the tax was to pay for British military troops stationed in the American colonies after the French and Indian War, but the colonists had never feared a French invasion to begin with, and they contended that they had already paid their share of the war expenses. They suggested that it was actually a ... |
If you were on the Moon, and wanted to "throw" something at the Earth, what is the minimum speed it would need to be launched at in order to escape the Moon's gravity well, and reach Earth? | This is not an easy question to answers. Rough estimates would be fairly easy to come by but the absolute minimum not so. Just considering the Earth and Moon makes it a [three-body problem](_URL_0_) and you already have to solve this numerically or make some simplifications. Furthermore, if you really want the absolute... | [
"The speed at a perigee of 6555 km from the centre of the Earth for trajectories passing between 2000 and 20 000 km from the Moon is between 10.84 and 10.92 km/s regardless of whether the trajectory is cislunar or circumlunar or whether it is co-rotational or counter-rotational.\n",
"If the speed is the orbital s... |
Does dyslexia affect things like sheet music as well? Or is it strictly written language? | I'm not sure of the neuroscience behind it, but I have dyscalculia (numbers) and it also affects my musical ability. I have serious difficulty with reading sheet music and my instructor identified it as a form of dyslexia. It also had something to do with the way I naturally try to strum a guitar going up first instea... | [
"The phonological deficit theory proposes that people with dyslexia have a specific sound manipulation impairment, which affects their auditory memory, word recall, and sound association skills when processing speech. The phonological theory explains a reading impairment when using an alphabetic writing system whic... |
Is it possible for a noise to be so loud it could be heard around the world? If so, how loud would it need to be? | Large metorite strikes are presumably "heard" around the world.
\- _URL_1_ -
(Depending on how we're defining "heard". The pressure waves from big strikes are strong enough to just blow away large objects in the vicinity - I don't know whether you're defining that as a "sound".)
1883 eruptions of the volcano Krak... | [
"In finance, noise obtained a formal definition in a 1986 paper by Fischer Black: \"Noise in the sense of a large number of small events is often a cause factor much more powerful than a small number of large events can be.\"\n",
"Most of the whistles described generate nearly pure tones that can be heard. The mo... |
what language do people have thoughts in if they speak more than one language fluently? | I fluently speak Danish, English and French. It strongly depends on whom I'm with and what I'm doing. When I'm with my family I'll think in Danish, and with friends I'll think in either English or French depending on what we're speaking. But if I'm driving for example, I'll think in French since it's the language I lea... | [
"Our thoughts often occur as the inner speech of our natural language. Inner speech is used for such things as rehearsing facts, having a mental conversation with oneself, and counting, among many others. Being fluent in more than one language can affect inner speech in multiple ways. Studies have revealed that flu... |
what is so difficult about making wings for people? | You'd need something like a 12 metre wingspan and muscles far stronger than those you possess to fly like a bird. Humans are not birds. Stick to jetpacks mate. | [
"There are also different types of wings. Cheaper, paper-made wings are disposable, and are made for temporary use. They are unidirectional (up or down) and the user can only partially control them by leaning in the desired direction. Higher-quality wings can be taken on and off at will and are controlled by telepa... |
why can't we put probes or something similar in black holes to study them deeper? | For starters, the closest black hole to earth is around 7800 light years away from earth. The fastest man made object ever was a space probe traveling 25 miles per second. At that speed it would take **58 million years** to get there.
58 million years ago, the first primates were just beginning to evolve. Humans ha... | [
"Probe size is important because longer probes hybridize less specifically than shorter probes, so that short strands of DNA or RNA (often 10–25 nucleotides) which are complementary to a given target sequence are often used to locate a target. The overlap defines the resolution of detectable features. For example, ... |
how did foods like onions and cranberries get to be considered food, when they must have been so difficult to eat when discovered? | A food is pretty much is anything you can eat and it will not kill you (when ingested). I would be more interested in who decided to eat lobster first and how many people died before finding out what parts of a puffer fish were edible. | [
"Vegetables are not found often in the archaeological record and it is difficult to determine the role that they played, because plant foods were often eaten raw or were simply boiled, without requiring special equipment for preparation, and thus barely leaving any trace other than the type of food itself. Vegetabl... |
why do we sleep better in clean sheets/clothes? | Could be mental, much in the same way getting dressed up makes you more productive throughout the day. Lounging around in pyjamas breeds laziness, etc. | [
"Other materials, notably cotton and wool, have also been used for sleeping bags. Wool repels water nicely and also resists compression, but it weighs much more than any alternative. Cotton suffers from high water retention and significant weight, but its low cost makes it an attractive option for uses like station... |
How fast would the earth have to rotate in order to fling us (or other stuff) off of its surface? | I'll work from the assumption that we're on the equator, where rotational speed is greatest.
The acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s^(2). Centripetal acceleration in a rotating system is calculated by a = v^(2)/r, where v is the circular velocity and r is the radius of the circular path.
Let 9.8 m/s^(2) = v^(2)/... | [
"With the Earth move [...] all things that are on the Earth. If, therefore, from a point outside the Earth something were thrown upon the Earth, it would lose, because of the latter's motion, its straightness as would be seen on the ship [...] moving along a river, if someone on point C of the riverbank were to thr... |
why hotdogs are not a normal item at fastfood places? | In some places (Chicago, New York) they are. It's merely a cultural preference; there is no scientific reason for it. Why apple pie and not peach? | [
"Hot Dog on a Stick, is a fast food company that was founded by Dave Barham in Santa Monica, California, in 1946, and later branched out into malls and shopping centers. In 2014, the company was purchased by Global Franchise Group (the strategic brand management company behind Great American Cookies, Marble Slab Cr... |
why does rock music and classical music fit together so well? | All western music is based on the same music theory of melodies and harmonies created from the major and minor scales and the different modes of them. But rock, (especially metal) has closer ties with classical than, say, R & B because some of the more unusual modes and scales are shared by both. Rock guitarists learn ... | [
"Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as \"rock and roll\" in the United States in the early 1950s, and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, a style whic... |
from where was the logarithmic constant pulled from? | The derivative of an exponential is an exponential as well, so there will also be an exponential whose derivative is itself, and that is e^x
And it turns out because of that it also has lots of other mathematical proprieties and appears very often in maths | [
"Before 1748 and the publication of Introduction to the Analysis of the Infinite, the natural logarithm was known in terms of the area of a hyperbolic sector. Leonhard Euler changed that when he introduced transcendental functions such as 10. Euler identified e as the value of \"b\" producing a unit of area (under ... |
why doesn't apple make iphones that can use only one kind of headphone, thereby essentially forcing everyone to buy headphones made by apple? | The backlash would cost them sales and bad PR. | [
"Prior to the iPhone, \"Handsets were viewed largely as cheap, disposable lures, massively subsidized to snare subscribers and lock them into using the carriers' proprietary services.\" However, according to \"Wired\", \"Apple retained complete control over the design, manufacturing, and marketing of the iPhone\", ... |
why is pi repeating and how or why does this happen? | as far as we know pi doesn't repeat | [
"Circular cumulative causation is a theory developed by Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal in the year 1956. It is a multi-causal approach where the core variables and their linkages are delineated. The idea behind it is that a change in one form of an institution will lead to successive changes in other institutions.... |
where did the song structure "verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus" originate, and how did it gain such popularity? | According to [Wikipedia](_URL_0_), it began in the early 20th century, when the chorus was just a way of changing things around a bit. By the 1960s it had become the norm, and the chorus wasn't just used to change things around but had become the main part of the song. | [
"There are two distinct uses of the word \"chorus.\" In the thirty-two bar song form that was most common in the earlier twentieth-century popular music (especially the Tin Pan Alley tradition), \"chorus\" referred to the entire main section of the song (which was in a thirty-two bar AABA form). Beginning in the ro... |
why are aliens portrayed as stronger and superior? | The general thought I see it as: If an alien race has the technology to come to our planet, they are technologically advanced/superior to our own.
But, this isn't always 100% accurate: See War of the Worlds, where they are stopped not by humans, but by disease that we are immune to (or well, resistant to the point of ... | [
"\"Aliens versus Predator\" received \"favorable\" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website GameRankings. IGN praised the game for allowing the player to play three different characters, each with a unique game-play element, and for being \"fun and terrifying at the same time\". \"GameP... |
how do we know where a missile is headed? | Simiple trajectory of Newtonian physics (ballistic trajectory). Of course each course correction updates the trajectory so the missile needs to be constantly tracked for any trajectory changes.
_URL_0_ | [
"The guidance system of the missile is actually command guidance, as the missile doesn't have its own radar. It only follows orders provided by the onboard radar of the carrier/launcher helicopter, the Thomson-CSF I/J-band \"Agrion 15\". When this radar detects and identifies a suitable target, it switches to autom... |
how are exit/opinion polls calculated during elections? | They pollsters know the voting patterns of each constituency, based on decades of poll results. They can sample key locations, and use that as the basis for an analysis of how that area will vote.
| [
"An election exit poll is a poll of voters taken immediately after they have exited the polling stations. Unlike an opinion poll, which asks for whom the voter plans to vote, or some similar formulation, an exit poll asks for whom the voter actually voted. A similar poll conducted before actual voters have voted is... |
what is safer for the baby, a natural birth or c section and why? | There's evidence for the safety of both and the dangers of both. I trained to be a doula for a while, so this was all very important for my studies, and I'm basing my statement off of peer-reviewed evidence-based practice and theory.
In theory, natural childbirth is far safer and better for both the baby and mother. N... | [
"In December 2014 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence updated its guidance regarding where women should give birth. The new guidance states that midwife-led units are safer than hospitals for women having straightforward (low risk) pregnancies. Its updated guidance also confirms that home birth is... |
Do any animals other than humans like spicy food? | Spiciness, caused by the chemical Capsaicin, appears to be an adaptation of plants to prevent mammals from eating their fruit/peppers. Birds, which are immune to Capsaicin, appear to be the intended consumer of these fruits, which is understandible considering they fly and can, thusly, disperse the seeds over a wider ... | [
"Treeshrews have also been observed intentionally eating foods high in capsaicin, a behavior unique among mammals other than humans. A single TRPV1 mutation reduces their pain response to capsaicinoids, which scientists believe is an evolutionary adaptation to be able to consume spicy foods in their natural habitat... |
how does france maintain more than two political parties despite a winner-take-all system? | Many countries with single-winner, district-based elections have multiple major parties. These systems discourage party fracturing, but do not prevent it--e.g., in the United Kingdom the Liberal Democrats are a respectable third party. The reason the United States has just two main parties has to do with political pola... | [
"France has a multi-party political system: one in which the number of competing political parties is sufficiently large as to make it almost inevitable that in order to participate in the exercise of power any single party must be prepared to negotiate with one or more others with a view to forming electoral allia... |
Do static electric shocks people get on a door knobs and metallic objects can hurt and/or kill them? | When you shuffle your feet along the carpet, you're picking up electrons from the carpet. So now you've got all these extra electrons hanging around, meaning you're negatively charged. If everything you touched had the same high charge, it wouldn't matter - you wouldn't feel it. The only way you get current is if th... | [
"A person touching the un-earthed metal casing of an electrical device, while also in contact with a metal object connected to remote earth, is exposed to an electric shock hazard if the device has a fault. If all metal objects are connected, all the metal objects in the building will be at the same potential. It t... |
how is it possible rick astley's "never gonna give you up" has 140,000,000+ views and he's only made $12 from royalties? | Part of it has to do with the way his song has been shared. It's been uploaded and re-uploaded by hundreds (probably) of people, none of which are officially tracked. Sure, Astley deserves to get paid, but by whom? YouTube isn't going to take responsibility for paying for illegally uploaded content. Neither is the reco... | [
"In 2018, Adam Sandler wrote and performed an emotional tribute song dedicated to Farley in his 2018 Netflix stand-up special \"Adam Sandler: 100% Fresh\". Netflix published the song performance on YouTube later that year to commemorate the 21st anniversary of Farley's death. Sandler later played the song live on a... |
What does a geological history map of the world tell you about the region (beyond the age of the uppermost rocks)? | Title question:
Not much, geologic maps of the world are very simplified and there is little use to look at the world as a whole. If you get a detailed smaller map, then you can get down to business. Maps in geology have near infinite applications, usually the more detailed maps have age, a rock description and variou... | [
"Eoarchean geology is the study of the oldest preserved crustal fragments of Earth during the Eoarchean era from 4 to 3.6 billion years ago. Major well-preserved rock units dated Eoarchean are known from three localities, the Isua Greenstone Belt in Southwest Greenland, the Acasta Gneiss in the Slave Craton in Cana... |
insect intelligence | Insects (and other invertebrates) still have brains made of nerve cells and can make their own decisions. Some research showed that [fruit files can make decisions on their own](_URL_1_) (i.e. they appear to have free will) and other research that [jumping spiders appear surprisingly intelligent](_URL_0_), tho they are... | [
"The premise of the multiple intelligences hypothesis, that human intelligence is a collection of specialist abilities, have been criticized for not being able to explain human adaptation to most if not all environments in the world. In this context, humans are contrasted to social insects that indeed have a distri... |
what do iss spacesuits do? i know they provide an at atmosphere but do they have insulation? i'd guess not because there's no atmosphere to cool you down, but what about depressurization? | They are insulated because space is a wild set of climates. Imagine standing inside a huge deep freeze with a million watt floodlight 10 feet from you pointed at your back.
So you wrap yourself up in crazy amounts of insulation to keep from freezing and boiling at the same time. But now all that body heat you generat... | [
"Spacesuits are required for astronauts to survive in space; they are the most essential piece of equipment with many features to help protect them from the dangers of space. Due to space being a vacuum, the suits are required to have oxygen, which is stored in tanks allowing astronauts to work or remain outside fo... |
How did the Mongols view sex and virginity? | First of all it would be false to claim that Jochi's paternity caused no issues. While he was afforded respect and authority as Genghis Khan's first born son it appears that the questionable parentage was raised as a point against him by Chagatai when Genghis Khan's was choosing his successor.
That said the Mongols ... | [
"However, Mongol and Persian chroniclers criticize Ögedei for a crime he committed in 1237 which violated the laws of his father, Genghis Khan, which forbade seizure, rape, kidnapping, bartering, or selling young girls, who were allowed to be married at a young age but could not engage in sexual activity until the ... |
Can re-hydration occur through food only, without access to liquids? | There are two levels to this. One is that if you eat a 'watery' food like watermelon, it'll help because there's literally water there.
But there is also the fact that the metabolism of some foods will actually generate water. This is called 'metabolic water' and while in some bacterial species it can be upwards of ... | [
"The liquid leaches out a valuable fraction of proteins, nutrients and lactic acid. To recover them, and to avoid drowning the fermentation, runoff is captured from the fermentation vessel, either through a tap, into a base of absorbent material such as biochar or waste cardboard, or into a lower chamber. The runof... |
Would someone be able to describe in lamens terms what Long-term potentiation is? | I'm not sure how simple you want it, so I'm going to err on the side of "really simple" and lead off with a ridiculously simple analogy (if it's condescendingly simple, it's unintended and I apologize in advance).
Say you really love cookies, and you're in the middle of a park with a lot of people around you. You hav... | [
"In neuroscience, long-term potentiation (LTP) is a persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity. These are patterns of synaptic activity that produce a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between two neurons. The opposite of LTP is long-term depression, which produces a long-l... |
why were european and other folks in the medieval and early modern world religiously intolerant. why burn heretics? what is to be gained? | An important thing to remember is that a heretic is not someone who holds a different religion than you hold. It is someone who holds your same religion but interprets things in a different manner than the religious leadership does. This is potentially dangerous as it can undo your entire religion. | [
"During the European Middle Ages, the centuries following Christianization of the continent, the Church focused on the persecution of heresy in order to maintain unity of doctrine. Practitioners of folk magic were left unmolested by the authorities.\n",
"Throughout Europe Christianity was becoming the main religi... |
Slavery during Roman times is portrayed in media as being less of a race issue and more of a "we conquered you" issue. How accurate is this and did racism play any part into slavery during that time? | While experts prepare more targeted answers, here are some threads with background information on the topic from the FAQ section on “[Racism and Slavery](_URL_8_)":
**Race and Slavery in Antiquity**
* ["I don't think that ancient slavery is really comparable to the chattel slavery that we saw in the Americas." How ... | [
"According to Jennifer Glancy, sexual exploitation of slaves in Roman Empire, was helped by Christian morality. Jesus urged his followers to act like slaves, implementing a slave morality. The early Christian theologians were unconcerned about slave morals.\n",
"During the period of Republican expansionism when s... |
how do aquariums get the large fish to the aquarium once construction is finished? | I admit, I can't help but think of them being transported in huge plastic bags, like goldfish. In reality, they do it like [this](_URL_0_). Basically, big tanks that look like storage containers. | [
"The aquarium opened in 1985 after 10 months of construction. Tarlton developed a new method of building an acrylic tunnel by taking large sheets of clear acrylic, cutting them to size and heating them in an oven until they took the shape of the mould. Some of the sheets weighed over one tonne. Because of the refra... |
When you dry heave why do you always feel better? | Once you trip the gag reflex (or mental equivalent thereof) your body is going to keep trying to expel (what it thinks is) something dangerous until it succeeds or it was proven to be a false message. | [
"Dryness is a property of beverages that describes the lack of a sweet taste. This may be due to a lack of sugars, the presence of some other taste that masks sweetness, or an underabundance of simple carbohydrates that can be converted to sugar by enzymes in the mouth (amylase in particular). The term \"dry\" may ... |
Did Pasteur's rabies cure involve injections to the stomach? | Biologist here:
Awesome question!
Pasteur’s treatments were indeed shots in the abdomen, in a series.
Its known as an attenuated vaccine, by starting with an incredibly weak version of the virus and slowly stepping up in strength and condition of the virus, the body is slowly able to build an immunity and stop the i... | [
"Pasteur also isolated a crude preparation of the infectious agent for rabies. In a brave piece of rapid medicine development, he probably saved the life of a person who had been bitten by a clearly rabid dog by performing the same inactivating process upon his rabies preparation and then inoculating the patient wi... |
how do they film those commercials/videos where people are frozen, but the camera moves all around them? | They use a lot of cameras and select different images from each camera, like [this](_URL_0_). The first instance of this technique I'm aware of was in the matrix, they called it bullet time, I don't know if it has a more formal name these days since becoming more common. | [
"Camera movements can also be motion captured so that a virtual camera in the scene will pan, tilt or dolly around the stage driven by a camera operator while the actor is performing. At the same time, the motion capture system can capture the camera and props as well as the actor's performance. This allows the com... |
why do movie theaters still use film reels when there is other technology available? | For the most part they aren't anymore. I forget the movie, but a recent one (possibly even an upcoming one) was/is supposed to be available on film only due to director preference and a bunch of theater chains are giving loud wtf's on that. They all just spent a bunch of money upgrading to digital projectors so nobody ... | [
"Historically, all mass-marketed feature films were made to be shown in movie theaters. The development of television has allowed films to be broadcast to larger audiences, usually after the film is no longer being shown in theaters. In 1971 U-Matic became the first magnetic format in which movies could be enjoyed ... |
I found this small ice formation in my garden. It has the appearance of a stalagmite however there was nothing above it which could have dripped on to it, suggesting the ice rose upwards on its own. Can anyone explain the process by which this could have occurred? | I don't have any scientific expertise in this area, but your description does remind me of ice cube tray ice spikes. I don't know if they're related, but [here's some reading](_URL_0_) if you're interested! | [
"In early 2015, scientists announced the discovery of an almost circular structure in the ice surface, about wide. First hypothesis for its origin, among other ice-shelf processes, was the impact of a meteor. The feature was discovered by German scientist Christian Müller as he conducted an aerial survey on 20 Dece... |
Diminishing returns on exercise. How big are we talking? | The first hour a week is far and away the most important, because it stimulates the metabolism and muscle growth of an otherwise unhealthy/unsporty person. Someone who works out regularly should not notice a positive effect of such an extend after each individual workout.
Other than that, you can't really define "bene... | [
"Physical exercise may increase life expectancy. People who participate in moderate to high levels of physical exercise have a lower mortality rate compared to individuals who are not physically active. Moderate levels of exercise have been correlated with preventing aging and improving quality of life by reducing ... |
Question about kingship and the Holy Roman Empire | In a sense, it developed around 1000 A.D. that "Rex Romanorum" was the title that the electors confered on the elected, before that it was "Rex Germaniae" or even "Rex Francorum" - they meant East Francia.
Before Maximilian it was implied that the elected would have to get the pope to crown him to be emperor. In 1508,... | [
"The four Salian kings of the dynasty—Conrad II, Henry III, Henry IV, and Henry V—ruled the Holy Roman Empire from 1027 to 1125, and firmly established their monarchy as a major European power. They achieved the development of a permanent administrative system based on a class of public officials answerable to the ... |
Is there a defining symptom for comas? | One of the difficulties with answering this question is that the term "coma" is not used in medicine at all. It's a layman's term, so the definition varies broadly. I think the most reasonable definition that medical personnel would agree with is a person who is unresponsive in all ways (voice or movement), cannot move... | [
"The severity and mode of onset of coma depends on the underlying cause. For instance, severe hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or hypercapnia (increased carbon dioxide levels in the blood) initially cause mild agitation and confusion, but progress to obtundation, stupor, and finally, complete unconsciousness. In cont... |
Are there any books on ancient martial arts practices, exercises, and philosophies? | Two books are:
* Michael B. Poliakoff, *Combat Sports in the Ancient World: Competition, Violence, and Culture*, Yale University Press, 1987. As the title suggests, this is restricted to sports (mostly wrestling, boxing, and pankration), and focusses on Greek sports. Egyptian stick-fighting is covered in a few pages.
... | [
"The manuscript contains instruction of martial techniques and is one of three extant sources on martial techniques in Middle English, the other two being Cotton MS Titus A XXV folio. 105 and Additional MS 39564.\n",
"Books written by modern-day martial artists make many claims that are not congruent with histori... |
Do animals that don't sweat require additional water when it is hot? | I'm no expert but animals that don't sweat can have other forms of thermoregulation that involve evaporating water.
ie. dogs stick their tongues out and pant when it's hot, therefore they would require more water. | [
"Xerocoles have developed a variety of mechanisms to reduce water loss via evaporation. Mammalian xerocoles sweat much less than their non-desert counterparts. For example, the camel can survive ambient temperatures as high as without sweating, and the kangaroo rat lacks sweat glands entirely. Both birds and mammal... |
What did soldiers in the Mongol army do in their "free time"? | They trained archery, horsemanship and wrestling the three manly skills. _URL_1_. These were important for the Mongols. You can read about the Genghis khan and his empire forging in the book "Genghis khan and the making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford. Also Conn Iggulden's "Conqueror" series is good, albeit no... | [
"Forces under the command of the Mongol Empire were trained, organized, and equipped for mobility and speed. Mongol soldiers were more lightly armored than many of the armies they faced but were able to make up for it with maneuverability. Each Mongol warrior would usually travel with multiple horses, allowing him ... |
Why are Lagrangian points only limited to the orbital plane? | No, there are no such points. So the whole Lagrangian points are only relevant in a rotating reference frame so that's what we're going to use. There are three forces present. Gravitational force towards each of the two bodies and the centrifugal force (centrifugal force is very real in our reference frame, don't go on... | [
"Lagrangian points are the constant-pattern solutions of the restricted three-body problem. For example, given two massive bodies in orbits around their common barycenter, there are five positions in space where a third body, of comparatively negligible mass, could be placed so as to maintain its position relative ... |
why is there speculation about 9/11? why do some believe that the us government knew about it beforehand? | Because if we have no control over our world, things would be scary.
You'll notice that people who think the government are ultra-meticulous masterminds also accuse them of amazingly inept when talking about other grievances. | [
"Conspiracy theorists have questioned whether \"The Oil Factor\" and 9/11 provided the United States and the United Kingdom with a reason to launch a war they had wanted for some time, and suggest that this gives them a strong motive for either carrying out the attacks, or allowing them to take place. For instance,... |
Fight or flight is controlled by the adrenal glands (atop the kidneys). Does someone who has had kidney transplants lose this response? | there are a few misunderstandings in your question. innervation of adrenal glands do not originate in the kidneys. their removal does not prevent innervation (but does affect adrenal function). secondly, you are right that some nerve connections do not regenerate but that is isolated for the most part to central nerves... | [
"This downregulation of sympathetic nervous system reactivity is also believed to be accompanied by a compensatory increase in a number of opposing organs and systems. Although these are not as well specified various candidates for such \"organs\" have been proposed: the parasympathetic system as a whole, the septa... |
why don't porn sites end with .xxx instead of .com? | The .xxx domain only came up a few years ago. Most major porn websites existed long before.
They could in theory have their old .com just redirect to an .xxx version, but why bother really? Nothing stops them continuing as-is. | [
"Around late 2000, when ICANN discussed and finally introduced aero, biz, coop, info, museum, name, and pro TLDs, site owners argued that a similar TLD should be made available for adult and pornographic websites to settle the dispute of obscene content on the Internet and the responsibility of US service providers... |
Does anything exist in between solar systems? | Yes, the so called [interstellar medium](_URL_1_), which is made of hot and cold gas, cosmic rays and dust particles. There are also [rogue planets](_URL_0_) and rogue comets between the stars, if you don't consider them as own systems. Similarly to the interstellar medium, there is a [intergalactic medium](_URL_2_) pr... | [
"At present, few systems have been found to be analogous to the Solar System with terrestrial planets close to the parent star. More commonly, systems consisting of multiple Super-Earths have been detected.\n",
"orbit around a star or star system. Generally speaking, systems with one or more planets constitute a ... |
Is there historical doubt of the "historical Muhammad"? | From my Early Islamic History class, what I would say is that there is no doubt that there was a very charismatic man named Muhammad whose general life story (somewhat successful business man, left for Medina, returned to Mecca, etc) is not in doubt. He died in 632 or so and by 634 you already have the "Muslims" (uncl... | [
"While the existence of Muhammad is established by contemporaneous or near-contemporaneous historical records, attempts to distinguish between the historical elements and the ahistorical elements of many of the reports of Muhammad have not been very successful. Hence the historicity of Muhammad, aside from his exis... |
Do we have any actual clue on what happened to the Vikings in Greenland after 1408? | There's a Denmark-based international research group that's been pushing *hard* at this question in the last 5-10 years (although the project goes back to 1982 or something nuts like that); *Journal of the North Atlantic* has had a few special issues devoted to archaeological and paleobotanical research from various an... | [
"The book \"Norse Greenland: Viking Peasants in the Arctic\" (Routledge, 2018) discusses how a community of 2000–3000 Viking peasants survived in Arctic Greenland for 430 years (ca. 985–1415), and why they finally disappeared.\n",
"Archaeological evidence shows that over the next hundred years the last Norse sett... |
why did old-timey western saloons have swinging doors ? | Hollywood exaggerated their prevalence considerably. Most saloons of old had normal full length doors, and were very small inside. Basically a closed hallway with a bar on one side. Real estate was very expensive and a huge bar with tables all over was very rare.
The "batwing" style doors were almost never used a... | [
"A pair of \"batwing\" doors at the entrance was one of the more distinctive features of the typical saloon. The doors operated on double action hinges and extended from chest to knee level. Further in the American West, some sold liquor from wagons, and saloons were often formed of materials at hand, including \"s... |
how do pit stops work in racing ? do you lose your spot | Yes you do lose your spot but in long races with stops allowed there is a strategy involved with doing them, a car that plans to do a certain number of pit stops can refuel, meaning they can carry less fuel during the race which will make the car lighter, they can also change the tires which will make it handle better ... | [
"The pit-crew also has a deciding factor in each race because the more funds are applied into it, the faster they work when in pit stops. The pit stop events are controlled by the player, when a car has the need to go in for a pit stop the player controls one of the mechanics in the pits, which changes the tires on... |
When did we move away from the notion of "primitive" peoples? | It's interesting to look across historical sub-disciplines, because one of the things you notice is that various fields are at different stages of epistemological and theoretical maturity. For example, western European medievalists often consider the Byzantine field to be approximately 20 years behind in this regard.
... | [
"Through history, successful civilizations have spread, taking over more and more territory, and assimilating more and more previously-uncivilized people. Nevertheless, some tribes or people remain uncivilized even to this day. These cultures are called by some \"primitive\", a term that is regarded by others as pe... |
why do animals have so many different shapes of pupil and colours of iris? | The eye is actually fairly uncomplicated from an evolutionary perspective. It only takes a few thousand years to grow, and every small evolution is a massive advantage
Dawkins did a great presentation on "what use is half an eye": _URL_0_ | [
"Goats have horizontal, slit-shaped pupils. Because goats' irises are usually pale, their contrasting pupils are much more noticeable than in animals such as cattle, deer, most horses and many sheep, whose similarly horizontal pupils blend into a dark iris and sclera.\n",
"In humans, the pupil is round, but other... |
if the us congress has less than a 10% approval rating, why haven't we fired them? | A great many people believe that "their guy" is the only good one in congress. Since that's the only one they CAN vote for, he gets reelected, and the electorate continues to complain about all the "other guys". | [
"Since 2006, Congress has dropped 10 points in the Gallup confidence poll with only 9% having \"a great deal\" or \"quite a lot\" of confidence in their legislators. Since 2011, Gallup poll has reported Congress's approval rating among Americans at 10% or below three times. Public opinion of Congress plummeted furt... |
If differences in human phenotypes such as skin colour, hair colour, etc. are due to clinal adaptation, what clines lead to the development of East-Asian slanted eyes? | The explantation for epicanthus is that Central Asian steppes, the area where proto-Mongoloids origated, were very dusty with common dust storms and the epicanthus helped them to protect their vision. But it's also possible that it was a random mutation and an example of the founder effect.
Because epicanthus doesn't ... | [
"In Eurasia, modern humans acquired adaptive introgression from archaic humans, which provided a source of advantageous genetic variants that are adapted to local environments and a reservoir for additional genetic variation. Adaptive introgression from Neanderthals have targeted genes involved with keratin filamen... |
®, ©, and ™ | © indicates the owner and copyright properties of a creative work. For example, if I drew a picture in 2009, I could say © mustardgreens 2009, and then list the specific copyright restrictions.
® indicates an officially registered trademark. e.g. [McDonald's®, I'm lovin' it®](_URL_1_)
™ indicates a registered or ... | [
"Licensing means renting or leasing of an intangible asset. It is a process of creating and managing contracts between the owner of a brand and a company or individual who wants to use the brand in association with a product, for an agreed period of time, within an agreed territory. Licensing is used by brand owner... |
I want to actually learn physics. What math or (other classes) should I take first? | The basics: algebra, geometry
Beyond the basics: calculus
Starting to actually understand things: vector calculus, differential equations, linear algebra
Going in deeper: partial differential equations, group theory (never took this myself) | [
"Physics First is an educational program in the USA, that teaches a basic physics course in the ninth grade (usually 15-year-olds), rather than the biology course which is more standard in public schools. This course relies on the limited math skills that the students have from pre-algebra and algebra I. With these... |
nonpolar molecules with polar bonds? | ELI20: It comes down to geometry. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is such an example, with the C=O bonds each having a dipole moment, but because of the linear geometry of the molecule, the dipole moments cancel each other out and you’re left with a net zero dipole moment — i.e. a nonpolar molecule.
A slightly more complex exam... | [
"Bonds can fall between one of two extremesbeing completely nonpolar or completely polar. A completely nonpolar bond occurs when the electronegativities are identical and therefore possess a difference of zero. A completely polar bond is more correctly called an ionic bond, and occurs when the difference between el... |
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