question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
|---|---|---|
how does a country surrender? | Surrender is a conversation between the winner and the loser. Either side can theoretically start the conversation ("I want to give up!" vs. "do you want to give up yet?"). It comes down to the *terms* of surrender - the loser will often have to give up very valuable things to get the winner to stop killing them. If... | [
"Surrender, in military terms, is the relinquishment of control over territory, combatants, fortifications, ships or armament to another power. A surrender may be accomplished peacefully, without fighting, or it may be the result of defeat in battle. A sovereign state may surrender following defeat in a war, usuall... |
how can doctors say someone definitively died from second-hand smoke? | Significant factor!
A doctor must complete a Death Certificate listing 1) immediate cause, 2) underlying cause(s), and 3) Significant factors contributing to death.
1) Immediate cause is almost always some series of Latin words that mean "heart stopped."
2) Underlying cause(s) is what most people think of as the "c... | [
"The current US Surgeon General's Report concludes that there is no established risk-free level of exposure to second-hand smoke. Short exposures to second-hand smoke are believed to cause blood platelets to become stickier, damage the lining of blood vessels, decrease coronary flow velocity reserves, and reduce he... |
What was life like for the average person in Roman Britain? | The Romans were not particularly harsh rulers (in fact within that statement there are several flawed assumptions), but life certainly did not occur as usual. Britain after the conquest in 54 CE (well, really towards the end of the century) underwent a process that has been termed "Romanization". This term has been a s... | [
"\"The Little Emperors\" ends with the Roman protagonist concluding most Britons had a better life without 'Roman civilisation,' which was confirmed by a 2014 study showing average life-span actually increased in Post-Roman Britain due to better diet. Similarly, in \"Conscience of the King\" Cerdic regrets the dirt... |
How did Italian-Americans fighting for the Allies in WW2 feel about the Italy's support of the Germans? | Also on a related topic, was it common for people with Italian names to "Americanize" them? This seems to be fairly common in my area with German names. A common local example would be Young. It is common to see it on old headstones as Jung. | [
"Fascist Italy was an official enemy, and citizens of Italy were also forced away from \"strategic\" coastal areas in California. Altogether, 58,000 Italians were forced to relocate. They relocated on their own and were not put in camps. Known spokesmen for Benito Mussolini were arrested and held in prison. The res... |
Why is it, that tv shows ripped from places like Japanese television networks for example, and then uploaded to youtube, seem to almost always have a horrible resolution? | The long and short of it is that the video is likely to have been lossily transcoded many times by the time it shows up on YouTube. It's transcoded once when going from the content maker to the TV station, another time at the TV station to convert it to a format suitable for airing, possibly once more when the receiver... | [
"Some episodes were released on video in Japan, but a complete release of the show was held up for many years owing to poor sales. It was rumoured for that the lack of a DVD release was due to the original masters of some episodes being lost, but this proved not to be the case. Starchild Records released the comple... |
how do nfc credit cards work? do they store the credit card number? how are card numbers not stolen by people with nfc readers? | Firstly, there are no NFC cards, they are RFID. The distinction comes from power. When using NFC payment on phones, the phone transmits the signal, costing some battery life. On RFID cards, you obviously don't charge them, the card reader actually sends a tiny amount of power to them so they are able to transmit the si... | [
"In certain markets, NFC support on Windows Phone 8 can also be used to conduct in-person transactions through credit and debit cards stored on the phone through the Wallet application. Carriers may activate the NFC feature through SIM or integrated phone hardware. Orange will be first carrier to support NFC on Win... |
What can I realistically learn about history from reading Asterix and Obelix? | I'm a massive fan of the series, and grew up reading the comics in both English and French.
Historically, you're not going to learn much other than 1) The Romans conquered Gaul, 2) the Celts had Druids, and 3) Caesar had a kid with Cleopatra.
The real brilliance of the series is not in accurate presentation of histor... | [
"The novel revolves on a modern update of the Excalibur legend. Among the historical figures fictionalised in the novel are Chaim Weizmann, A. J. Cronin, Winston Churchill, Éamon de Valera, Anthony Eden and Joseph Stalin.\n",
"BULLET::::- First time an Asterix book makes reference to past adventures. The first in... |
How did they replace destroyed planes on WW2 aircraft carriers? | Although practice about replacement aircraft differed between navies, there were several methods for replacing damaged or lost aircraft. The most common method was to keep a number of replacement aircraft in storage on the larger fleet carriers. These aircraft were disassembled and required a number of man-hours to put... | [
"Despite the expensive reconstructions, both vessels were considered obsolete by the eve of the Pacific War, and neither saw significant action in the early years of the war. Following the loss of most of the IJN's large aircraft carriers during the Battle of Midway in mid-1942, they were rebuilt with a flight deck... |
is it possible to remove cancer through surgery or is it only possible to remove tumors but not cancer? | Tumors are clumps of cancerous cells. "Cancer" is generally the ailment of being afflicted by cancerous cells; we can't surgically remove all "cancer" from a patient because manipulating individual cells is well beyond the capabilities of any surgeon. Conceptually they are physical objects which could be manipulated bu... | [
"Surgery with the intention of a cure is only possible in around one-fifth (20%) of new cases. Although CT scans help, in practice it can be difficult to determine whether the tumor can be fully removed (its \"resectability\"), and it may only become apparent during surgery that it is not possible to successfully r... |
why do we get "sand" in the corners of our eyes when we sleep? and why do we not get it during the day when we're awake? | The "sand" is actually dried tears.
That is, tears are similar to salt water -- liquid with salts in them. Overnight, when the tears at the edges of your eyes dry, the salt is left behind as "sand". | [
"When the individual is awake, blinking of the eyelid causes rheum to be washed away with tears via the nasolacrimal duct. The absence of this action during sleep, however, results in a small amount of dry rheum accumulating in corners of the eye, most notably in children.\n",
"The Sandman is a traditional charac... |
If an alpha particle is essentially the same as a helium nucleus (two protons, two neutrons), why doesn't a helium atom share the same ionising properties? | Alpha particles are ionizing because they have no electrons and they have high kinetic energies (alpha decay Q-values are around 5 MeV).
Bullets don't harm you when they're not shot from a gun. | [
"Alpha particles consist of two protons and two neutrons bound together into a particle identical to a helium nucleus. Alpha particle emissions are generally produced in the process of alpha decay, but may also be produced in other ways. Alpha particles are named after the first letter in the Greek alphabet, α. The... |
How likely is it that the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki prevented a Soviet invasion and occupation of Japan? | > Did the demonstration of atomic weapons prevent a possible occupied red Tokyo?
No. While obviously strong, the Red Army stood no chance of invading Honshu. Simply put, they didn't have the sealift capabilities to pull it off.
As the Pacific War drew to a close, the Soviets did invade the Kuril Islands. They ... | [
"Ward Wilson wrote that \"after Nagasaki was bombed only four major cities remained which could readily have been hit with atomic weapons\", and that the Japanese Supreme Council did not bother to convene after the atomic bombings because they were barely more destructive than previous bombings. He wrote that inste... |
; why do commercials say something will be aired live, but they show previews of said live event that hasn’t happened yet? | They often show rehearsals so you have an idea what it will be like, or sometimes just an earlier performance by the same artist. | [
"Another problem is that many fans prefer to record these shows and binge watch the whole season in one session. These viewers are not included in TV ratings as they are much less likely to watch commercials than live viewers. The move away from live viewing and toward DVR or internet-streaming services has hurt ma... |
what happens to valuations and stock prices in financial markets during weekends and off-hours | In most markets trading is down in those hours, so no trades are made at a different price then the market closed. However, I think buy and sell orders can be placed during off hours, influencing the price when it opens again. | [
"Time-based pricing is the standard method of pricing in the tourism industry. Higher prices are charged during the peak season, or during special-event periods. In the off-season, hotels may charge only the operating costs of the establishment, whereas investments and any profit are gained during the high season (... |
How long would it take to hard-boil an egg on Mount Everest? | The egg requires heat to be cooked, it doesn't actually boil. Boiling water is a lower temperature when it is at a lower pressure, so the egg would exist in lower temperature water, so it would cook slower or not at all depending on the pressure. | [
"Chef Heston Blumenthal, after \"relentless trials\", published a recipe for \"the perfect boiled egg\" suggesting cooking the egg in water that starts cold and covers the egg by no more than a millimeter, removing the pan from the heat as soon as the water starts to bubble. After six minutes, the egg will be ready... |
What would happen if we 'bled' a volcano? Would it release pressure, or would it make things worse? | it would completely depend on the type of volcano that you're trying to 'bleed'. If you're looking at a volcano that has a magma chamber filled with andesites and rhyolites (a very quartz rich magma) (see any of the volcanoes around the Ring of Fire") then drilling a hole to it would be pointless as these magmas have a... | [
"Gas hydrate pingo may accumulate non-hydrate gas under pressure leading to explosions that forms craters. Crater depressions of this type have been found on the seafloor of Barents Sea. A trigger for the explosions may be drop in pressure as result of lowering of the sea level.\n",
"The sudden release of pressur... |
Portuguese - Japaneese Travel routes the 1500 century | Here are some suggestions for you to look up. (I won't answer this in full, since that would mean doing your homework for you.)
Portuguese ship ca 1500-1600: I would look up Galleon or Carrack
Portuguese ships sailed down the western coast of Africa and probably stopped at Luanda, Angola to refuel. They would then ... | [
"The Japan voyage (\"viagem do Japão\" in Portuguese) was a trade route established by the Portuguese from 1550 to 1639 linking Goa, then capital of the Portuguese India, to Japan. This lucrative annual trip was carried out under monopoly of the Portuguese crown, and was in charge of a Captain general. The charge o... |
Are there medical benefits to running the same distance faster or slower? | This is actually quite a common question. Check out some of the previous threads on this topic:
_URL_0_ | [
"The impact of long-distance running on human health is generally positive. Various organs and systems in the human body are improved: bone mineral density is increased, cholesterol is lowered. However, beyond a certain point, negative consequences might occur. Male runners who run more than 40 miles (64 kilometers... |
What are the steps between the mouth and neurons that ingested botulinum toxin takes when it causes botulism in the human body? | [Absorption](_URL_1_)
Source: [Interaction of Botulinum Toxin with the Epithelial Barrier](_URL_3_)
[Intoxication](_URL_0_)
Source: [Botulinum Neurotoxins: Biology, Pharmacology, and Toxicology](_URL_2_)
I can answer any specific questions you might have. | [
"In each of these cases, Botulinum Neurotoxin causes functional damage to SNARE proteins, which has significant physiological and medical implications. By damaging SNARE proteins, the toxin prevents synaptic vesicles from fusing to the synaptic membrane and releasing their neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft.... |
What's the stronger protecting layer, Corning "Gorilla" glass from smartphones or sapphire crystal used in watches? Why doesn't one use the other? | They're strong in different ways. Sapphire is super-strong, but brittle. Compared to that, Gorilla glass is flexible.
For a large display that is likely to get dropped, you want flexibility. If the glass doesn't bend, it'll shatter. It's why modern phones are so much more durable than old PDAs.
On the other hand, a w... | [
"Gorilla Glass, an outgrowth of the 1960s Chemcor project, is a high-strength alkali-aluminosilicate thin sheet glass used as a protective cover glass offering scratch resistance and durability in many touchscreens. According to the book \"Steve Jobs\" by Walter Isaacson, Gorilla Glass was used in the first iPhone ... |
Is it true that Iranians knew very little about Persian and Achaemenid antiquity until European historians rediscovered it? | It depends a bit on what you mean, so the Achaemenid Persians appear in Tabari's *History of the Prophets and Kings*, the problem is that to my knowledge neither he nor any successive writer in Persian or in Arabic had access to Herodotus, which remains one of the main sources about the history of this period to this d... | [
"The oldest date of use of Old Persian as a spoken language is not precisely known. According to certain historical assumptions about the early history and origin of ancient Persians in southwestern Iran (where Achaemenids hailed from), Old Persian was originally spoken by a tribe called \"Parsuwash\", who arrived ... |
Why do microwaves damage circuitry? | Microwaves, or any light for that matter, are oscillating EM fields. In the case of MW its on the same size order of most of these objects so the fields couple very well.
These fields then induce a current which then proceeds to short or melt various parts of circuits. | [
"The continuing trend towards reduced feature size and voltage in integrated circuits renders modern electronics highly susceptible to damages caused by High Power Microwave (HPM) and other microwave based directed energy sources. These induce high voltage transient surges of thousands of volts which can punch thro... |
why are not all electromagnetic waves visible to the human eye? | The EM receptors that evolved on Earth are able to see a part of the EM spectrum on Earth. Some creatures have more or less receptors and can see more/less than humans but this is a common theme with evolved traits. Either a mutation to see more never occurred or it did occur but wasn't useful enough to spread through ... | [
"Refraction not only affects visible light rays, but all electromagnetic radiation, although in varying degrees. For example, in the visible spectrum, blue is more affected than red. This may cause astronomical objects to appear dispersed into a spectrum in high-resolution images.\n",
"Visible light can be seen b... |
how is digital music (such as techno, electro, etc.) made? what makes up the sounds that they use? | So, you have to start by remembering that all sound is just a vibration. Musical instruments get their sound by having a vibrating piece, like a reed, or a string, or the musician's lips, and then funnel that vibration through the instrument to refine the sound. The way the instrument sounds is caused by the fact that ... | [
"Electronic or digital music technology is any device, such as a computer, an electronic effects unit or software, that is used by a musician or composer to help make or perform music. The term usually refers to the use of electronic devices, computer hardware and computer software that is used in the performance, ... |
i suck at math, why is this comic funny? alternatively, if it's not funny, what the hell does it mean? | The first line is [Euler's identity](_URL_1_). It's a formula that involves the numbers e, pi, and the imaginary number i (the square root of 1).
From there the artist butchers the math, replacing "Pi" with "P x i" (in math, the multiplication symbol can often be often omitted, so Pi is like P x i).
From there the c... | [
"We write jokes, and the jokes are funny. With a game, the fourth, fifth, sixth, 80th, 100 millionth time you've seen that joke it becomes not funny, then you lose faith in it, and then you question it, and you go round this emotional circle ... We've always liked fresh-baked stuff a little better but, with a video... |
why couldn't the eagles have taken bilbo and the dwarves/the fellowship to the lonely mountain/mount doom? | I've been a Tolkien geek for 27 years ... I think I can shed some light on this for you.
Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast are called "wizards" but they are actually beings called Maiar. There are tons of them, but Gandalf, Saruman, and Radagast (and two other not mentioned) are part of the Istari sent by Illuvatar (god)... | [
"The idea of the Eagles transporting the Ring to Mount Doom, or at least part of the way, is not discussed in \"The Lord of the Rings\" and Tolkien himself apparently never specifically addressed it, except in an oblique manner. In \"The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien\", he stated: \"The Eagles are a dangerous 'machin... |
hot tea tastes wonderful! iced tea is yummy. why does hot tea that's gone cold taste horrific? | Iced Tea tends to have a buttload of sugar in it, more than you would put in hot tea, which offsets the bitterness of hot-tea-gone-cold | [
"In restaurants, iced tea is usually served unsweetened except in the Southeastern United States where iced tea is much more common and is available both sweet and unsweetened and \"iced tea\" is often considered to be \"sweet tea\" unless otherwise specified. The reason for the presweetening is that it may be diff... |
Hopi and Aztec religions have a lot in common, minus sacrifices. Were any of the Southwestern nations in contact with Mesoamerica? | In regards to the "prophesied the arrival of a white man" statement, perhaps these two previous topics from our [FAQ section on Mesoamerica](_URL_0_) are of interest.
* [Did Moctezuma II really believe Cortes was 'an armor-clad God'?](_URL_2_) by /u/Ucumu and /u/400-Rabbits
* [I've heard that Cortés arrived in Americ... | [
"Aztec religion is one of the most widely documented pre-Hispanic cultures. Diego Durán in the \"Book of the Gods and Rites\" wrote about the religious practices devoted to the water gods, Tlaloc and Chalchiuhtlicue, and a very important part of their annual ritual included the sacrifice of infants and young childr... |
Is there any way for low frequencies of light to constructively interfere to form a higher frequency with minimal energy lost? | You can frequency double light inside a non-linear crystal. If you put this crystal into a cavity - so more or less two mirrors opposite to each other - then you can get conversion efficiencies of up to 90%. This process does not require external energy except for the light you double in frequency, since the conversio... | [
"At high frequencies, particularly radio frequencies (RF), inductors have higher resistance and other losses. In addition to causing power loss, in resonant circuits this can reduce the Q factor of the circuit, broadening the bandwidth. In RF inductors, which are mostly air core types, specialized construction tech... |
Is it bad to take medication you don't really need? | Yes, because you will experience the adverse effects of that medication. Whether or not these adverse effects have any long-term impact on your life is another question and depends on the medication and chance. You may experience no adverse effect, or you may experience a really rare adverse effect that has crazy negat... | [
"When people fail to take their antidepressants, there is a greater risk that the drug won't help, that symptoms get worse, that they miss work or are less productive at work, and that the person may be hospitalized. This also increases costs for caring for them.\n",
"Individuals who are on prescription medicatio... |
how can we not feel any of our inner organs? or better why do we only feel pain and no other feeling with them? | Because you don't really need to.
Actually, you can kinda feel your organs. You can have sensations of pressure or distension in your stomach and bowels. If you take a deep enough breath, you can feel some shifting of your internal organs, or viscera.
But you're right that, for the most part, proprioception of your ... | [
"There are two main types of pain that we experience in our bodies: pain caused by damage of body tissue and pain caused by nerve damage. Nociceptive pain serves as a warning or signal for tissue damage and works to preserve the body’s equilibrium and functionality. This pain is signaled by the interworkings of bot... |
do dogs recognize their own barks? | Well, most of the time people aren't sure of their own voice with a recording... so the same probably applies to dogs. | [
"These dogs are outstanding bay dogs, or tracking and hunting dogs. They have been known to track animals from miles away, and have been used for hunting feral pigs, squirrel, deer, raccoon, mountain lion, and black bear. They often track silently and only begin to make their distinctive baying bark, eye to eye wit... |
why do we have the capacity to hate ourselves? | Free thought and free will has many positives and negatives. Increased intelligence means that we also can see the uglier sides of things, and well.... | [
"Nate Leipciger: “You cannot have hate in your heart without being hateful against yourself. And that’s the big problem – when you are hateful, you become bitter, you resent everything and that becomes part of your nature.” Student: “You don’t hate the soldiers, who took those kids out [and murdered them]?” Nate Le... |
how to understand and to visualize the 4th to 10th dimensions | There is no easy way to visualize it but this video does a good job!
_URL_0_
Edit:
Just found a way toi visualize the 4
A point has 0 dimensions.
A line segment is a 1 dimensional object bounded by 2 0-dimensional points.
A square is a 2 dimensional object bounded by 4 1 dimensional lines.
A cube is a 3 dimensional ob... | [
"Dimensions are the variables of the data and can be mapped to specific locations in space; 2D data can be given 3D volume by adding a value to the \"x\", \"y\", or \"z\" plane. \"Assigning height to 2D regions of a topographic map\" associating every 2D location with a height/elevation value creates a 2.5D project... |
what are arrays in programming? | You know what a variable is, yes? x = "fred". Simple.
Now, imagine you have a set of 500 words, and you want to store each of them in a separate variable. Sure, you could do:
x1 = "once"
x2 = "upon"
y = "a"
z = "time"
and so on, but it would be a problem. First, it would take ages to write the code. Secondly... | [
"An Array is a JavaScript object prototyped from the Array constructor specifically designed to store data values indexed by integer keys. Arrays, unlike the basic Object type, are prototyped with methods and properties to aid the programmer in routine tasks (for example, join, slice, and push).\n",
"Arrays: are ... |
Why do all objects in space seem to be moving very fast? | Let me flip it around: why does everything on Earth seem to be moving so slow? Massive particles can have any velocity between 0 and 299,792,458 m/s, but on Earth everything seems to be going only a few hundred meters per second or (usually) much less. Well, because atmospheric drag keeps most things below the speed of... | [
"An object moving in a circular motion—such as a satellite orbiting the Earth—is accelerating due to the change of direction of motion, although its speed may be constant. In this case it is said to be undergoing \"centripetal\" (directed towards the center) acceleration.\n",
"This is known as \"uniform motion\".... |
why do humans tend to seek for competition, success and out doing others? | From evolutionary standpoint: To find better mate and reproduce. But the humans are capable of overcoming such base motivations. | [
"In \"Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World\" (1978), René Girard posits that human behavior is based upon mimesis, and that imitation can engender pointless conflict. Girard notes the productive potential of competition: \"It is because of this unprecedented capacity to promote competition within limits ... |
Trying to remember the name/location of an ancient battle | You're thinking of the Battle of Ilipa in the Second Punic War, in which Hasdrubal Gisco was the Carthaginian commander, while Scipio Africanus led the Romans. In the leadup to the battle, Scipio would array his heavy Roman troops in the center, with the more lightly armed Iberian allies on the wings. Hasdrubal match... | [
"The locations of ancient battles can be apocryphal. In England, this information has been more reliably recorded since the time of the Norman conquest. Battles are usually named after some feature of the battlefield geography, such as the name of a town, forest or river, commonly prefixed \"Battle of...\", but the... |
What do we know about Native American cuisine? | I have answered a number of questions on Native American, specifically Mesoamerican, cuisine that you may find informative. Please feel free to ask any follow-up questions.
_URL_1_
_URL_4_
_URL_5_
_URL_6_
_URL_3_
_URL_2_
_URL_0_ | [
"Information about Native American cuisine comes from a great variety of sources. Modern-day Native peoples retain a rich body of traditional foods, some of which have become iconic of present-day Native American social gatherings (for example, frybread). Foods like cornbread are known to have been adopted into the... |
Prior to the Emancipation Proclamation, when property in Confederate territory was confiscated by the Union what became of slaves which were legally part of confiscated estates? | Good question. Lincoln was very keen to dampen, not fan, the flames of war during the early years of the Civil War for a couple of reasons. First, border states like Kentucky were still on the fence about whether or not they were going to secede. Lincoln didn't want to give them a push one way or another by acting like... | [
"In August, the US Congress passed the Confiscation Act of 1861, which declared that any property used by the Confederate military, including slaves, could be confiscated by Union forces. The next March, its Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves forbade returning slaves to Confederate masters or the military.\n",
... |
how the us supreme court decided the 2000 presidential election, and how is the decision viewed today? | With all states except Florida counted, neither candidate had the majority of 270 electoral votes they needed to win. The 25 electoral votes from Florida would give either candidate the Presidency.
The Florida vote was extremely close. There was a long process of a hand count which ended with Bush leading by less th... | [
"After winning the presidential election, Trump and White House Counsel Don McGahn interviewed four individuals for the Supreme Court opening, all of whom had appeared on one of the two previously-released lists. The four individuals were federal appellate judges Tom Hardiman, Bill Pryor, and Neil Gorsuch, as well ... |
Found brittle WW2 newspapers, Need suggestions re: preservation | So first off you actually want to maintain a dry environment (35%) humidity or less for the paper. Paper in a Humid environment may actually disintegrate faster.
It's important that you try not to touch the paper with your bare hands the oil on your fingers can actually cause further break down.
Here are some great... | [
"In May 1988, a library in New Haven, Connecticut decided to take all of their materials that were getting really old, brittle, falling apart of even deteriorating like books, maps, manuscripts and other materials to be transferred to microfilm, so that the materials could be saved.\n",
"The library was nearly co... |
What capital cities have never been sacked or conquered? | Sorry, this question has been removed for being a [throughout your era question, which the rules don't allow](_URL_0_). | [
"Because of its wealth and its strategic location near the coast, the city was sacked several times during and after the fall of the Roman Empire, by Goths, Vandals and, finally, by the Saracens who destroyed it in 827. The inhabitants subsequently moved to the ancient acropolis and founded a new community.\n",
"... |
what even is a permanent record? | Student records commonly include details such as class grades, important test scores, attendance records, health and immunization information, discipline records, special awards conferred, previous schools attended, and so on. In other words, these 'permanent records' are typically just a log of various information tha... | [
"Long-term records are those that are identified to have a continuing value to an organization. Based on the period assigned in the retention schedule, these may be held for periods of 25 years or longer, or may even be assigned a retention period of \"indefinite\" or \"permanent\". The term \"permanent\" is used m... |
What properties of beet juice make it a useful additive for combating snowy/icey roads? | I'm not 100% sure but:
Trimethylglycine found in the byproduct produced in the processing of sugar beets. Trimethylglycine is a freezing point depressant, similar to salt, and has applications in prevention of freezing of aircrafts and runways.
In addition to the freezing point depressant properties, trimethylglyci... | [
"When beet juice is used, it is most stable in foods with a low water content, such as frozen novelties and fruit fillings. Betanins, obtained from the roots, are used industrially as red food colourants, e.g. to intensify the colour of tomato paste, sauces, desserts, jams and jellies, ice cream, sweets, and breakf... |
in ocean searches for lost ships / planes, who pays the private companies for their time and resources? | I am assuming there is a some kind of compensation if something is found, but I think it is mostly PR. Take a merchant ship that isn't needed in port urgently who happens to pass through the search zone. Go ahead and "Look for remains" while just continuing its rout with some guys on double shifts checking out the ocea... | [
"Investment in ships involves purchasing or leasing new or second-hand vessels and either operating them directly or chartering them to other operators. Investors seek either profits generated from shipping fees, capital appreciation of the vessels themselves, or both. Due to the high capital commitments involved, ... |
Is it possible to be immune to certain drugs? | In addition to what the other poster wrote, there are cases where a person is a hypermetaboliser of certain drugs, to the point that normal dosage may be ineffective. Sometimes a larger dose can be given to overcome the problem but it may still be short acting and largely ineffective, and if the metabolites of the drug... | [
"The proposed mechanism of most idiosyncratic drug reactions is immune-mediated toxicity. To create an immune response, a foreign molecule must be present that antibodies can bind to (i.e. the antigen) and cellular damage must exist. Very often, drugs will not be immunogenic because they are too small to induce imm... |
How were deserters from the U.S. army punished during/shortly after the revolution? | Deserters from the Virginia militias faced the "general discretion of the court martial" for the first two years of the Revolution and then a fine not more than two month's pays or imprisonment of not more than one month. In the fall of 1777, additional months of service was the most common form of punishment. A boun... | [
"In the United States, before the Civil War, deserters from the Army were flogged; after 1861, tattoos or branding were also used. The maximum U.S. penalty for desertion in wartime remains death, although this punishment was last applied to Eddie Slovik in 1945. No U.S. serviceman has received more than 24 months i... |
Science: How close are we to curing HIV/AIDS? | A bone-marrow transplant from someone immune to AIDs can cure you. It's horrible painful and a tad expensive, and requires you finding someone immune, but it's possible. | [
"Professor Barré-Sinoussi believes that scientists have made steady progress given the development of antiretroviral treatment which UNAIDS states is being accessed by 17 million of the people globally who are living with AIDS, but finding a cure, or cures, will take time, and a continued investment in research. As... |
how the double-heading (double engine/locomotives) railways work efficiently ? | Multiple-unit train control - basically single control for all the engines running one train have been around in different forms from 1920's | [
"Most modern diesel and electric locomotives can run equally well in either direction, and many are push-pull trains with control cabs at each end. In addition, railroads often use multiple locomotives to pull trains, and even with locomotives that have distinct front and rear ends, the engines at opposing ends of ... |
What are some examples of beneficial microorganisms? | Microbiologist here. Microorganisms are unbelievably important for human and environmental health, and without them, life as we know it wouldn't exist. Some examples to answer your question:
*E. coli* is used to produce synthetic insulin (_URL_2_)
*S. cerevisiae* is the yeast (a type of fungus) responsible for making... | [
"Microorganisms are useful in producing foods, treating waste water, creating biofuels and a wide range of chemicals and enzymes. They are invaluable in research as model organisms. They have been weaponised and sometimes used in warfare and bioterrorism. They are vital to agriculture through their roles in maintai... |
What is the correct way for loading a Napoleonic muzzle-loading flintlock musket or rifle? | First of all, I'd like to state that while I Have read many of Cornwell's Sharpe books, I do not have any copies at hand, so I can't directly reference the details of loading, per Cornwell's descriptions and how accurate they are, so I'll speak generally to the process, and the possible source of the inconsistency you'... | [
"A muzzle loading weapon is loaded through the muzzle, or front of the barrel (or \"tube\" in artillery terms). This is the opposite of a breech-loading weapon or rifled breechloader (RBL), which is loaded from the breech-end of the barrel. The rifling grooves cut on the inside of the barrel cause the projectile to... |
How come there are no famous or well-known Civil War songs from the North? | So... this is one of those questions where I'm hard pressed to answer exactly as asked, as the premise is somewhat leading. When a question is "Why don't I know about [X]?", "Why wasn't I taught about [Y]?", and so on, the answer is often less about an overarching narrative than it is about your specific circumstances ... | [
"After the American Civil War, the song was documented more extensively. Joel Chandler Harris included a version of it in his \"Uncle Remus and His Friends\" (1892), and in 1915, E. C. Perrow included a version with his article \"Songs and Rhymes from the South\" in \"The Journal of American Folklore\". Dorothy Sca... |
Can someone explain DNA sequences? | Each side connects to a different carbon on the backbone, either 5' or 3'. Generally the convention is to express sequences from 5' to 3', so it'd be like 5' ATCGATCGATTACA 3'. The opposite strand would go 3' to 5'. | [
"Information on the distribution of nucleotides in a DNA sequence can be determined from the Z curve. The four nucleotides are combined into six different categories. The nucleotides are placed into each category by some defining characteristic and each category is designated a letter. \n",
"Formally, a DNA seque... |
why is a nation citizen id card in the us a bad idea? | there are millions of legal residents here that aren't citizens. they all can get a state ID or a driver license.
| [
"There is no compulsory federal-level ID card issued to all US citizens. US citizens and nationals may obtain passports or US passport cards if they chose to, but the alternatives described below are more popular.\n",
"BULLET::::- National ID card: The United States does not have a national ID card, in the sense ... |
Why did Carthage rely on mercenaries so heavily, while other Mediterranean powers of the same time seemed to be drawing more from their citizenry? | More input is always welcome; for the meantime, this answer by u/Jollydevil6 [on the Carthaginian army](_URL_0_) may be of interest to you. | [
"Carthage did not maintain a large, permanent, standing army. According to Polybius, Carthage relied heavily, though not exclusively, on foreign mercenaries, especially in overseas warfare. The core of its army was from its own territory in Northwest Africa (ethnic Libyans and Numidians (modern northern Algeria), a... |
Is USB charging more battery friendly than charging with AC charger? | There is a lot of different things going on. Devices which charge from USB get up to 500mA as a basic source. The device can negotiate for more current by asking for it. From an electronic design standpoint, it is more effort to put that into a design that normally doesn't communicate with a computer.
For a wall wart ... | [
"240 volt AC charging is known as Level 2 charging. Level 2 charging is similar to household appliances such as clothes driers. Level 2 chargers range from chargers installed in consumer garages, to relatively slow public chargers. They can charge an electric car battery in 4–6 hours. Level 2 chargers are often pla... |
why would seeing yourself when time traveling mess up everything? | If you saw yourself then that may alter the "timeline" that you've been on. Remember in the film Jurassic Park where the "butterfly effect" is explained? The idea is that a small alteration in the past (like seeing yourself) may have dire consequences on the future.
If you change this timeline when you travel to the ... | [
"The person affected by Alice in Wonderland syndrome may also lose a sense of time, a problem similar to the lack of spatial perspective. Time seems to pass very slowly, akin to an LSD experience. The lack of time and space perspective also leads to a distorted sense of velocity. For example, one could be inching a... |
if the moon's near side is locked onto always facing the earth, how does it rotate every month without us seeing the far side? | Because its rotation is sync'd up with its revolution around the Earth as you can see [here](_URL_0_). While the moon spins, it is also revolving around the Earth so that the same side is always facing us. | [
"The Moon is in synchronous rotation as it orbits Earth; it rotates about its axis in about the same time it takes to orbit Earth. This results in it always keeping nearly the same face turned towards Earth. However, because of the effect of libration, about 59% of the Moon's surface can actually be seen from Earth... |
why, when using the same tv and console, do i need the volume on, say 20 to watch netflix comfortably, but then on 40 or 50 to hear hbo go the same way? | When you watch certain videos on Netflix, the audio stream that comes with it may be louder than certain videos from HBO Go.
This tends to happen due to the loudness war, where producers try and make audio streams louder to attract your attention when flipping through the channels.
Audio streams should be rec... | [
"As of the end of 2016, the channel was the least-watched English-language channel on all of American subscription providers, averaging only 30–35,000 viewers on an average night in primetime (a decline of nearly a third from the already-low numbers VH1 Classic had netted in 2015), which was likely a factor in the ... |
So i tried applying super glue with a Qtip, moments later got a cloud of awful smelling smoke and the glue was almost instantly dried. Wtf? | Cyanoacrylate (crazy glue) [reacts](_URL_0_) strongly with cotton. | [
"The name derives from Genkem, a brand of glues which had \"become the generic name for all the glues used by glue-sniffing children\" in South Africa, where the drug originated and is most popular on the African continent today. In the book \"Children of AIDS: Africa's Orphan Crisis\" by Emma Guest, the making of ... |
Why has Texas become so much more prosperous than its Great Plains counterparts? | Central Texas is largely covered with cedar trees and oak groves (in the Hill Country), with large Cypress along the rivers. It can look Savannah-like when landowners clear all of the cedar in these places. Central Texas contains an abundant number pecan trees and other hardwoods, with large bald cypress along rivers. ... | [
"Texas's large population, abundance of natural resources, thriving cities and leading centers of higher education have contributed to a large and diverse economy. Since oil was discovered, the state's economy has reflected the state of the petroleum industry. In recent times, urban centers of the state have increa... |
Can Animals Identify Their Younger Selves? | Most animals can't even identify themselves in front of a mirror. This includes dogs\cats\horses etc.
_URL_0_
From the wiki:
> Animals that have been observed to pass the mirror test include:
>
All great apes:
Humans – Humans tend to fail the mirror test until they are about 18 months old, or in wh... | [
"\"Gelyella\" shows some paedomorphosis, in which animals reach sexual maturity while still partly resembling juveniles. The adults are long with a nearly cylindrical body that tapers towards the rear. There are eleven body segments, the last of which is the length of the previous two segments combined.\n",
"A ju... |
What are some examples of 1920's swing-dancing clothing? | Skirts, trousers, shirts...what exactly are you looking for, here? [this](_URL_0_)? | [
"Swing dance is a group of dances that developed with the swing style of jazz music in the 1920s–1940s, with the origins of each dance predating the popular \"swing era\". During the swing era, there were hundreds of styles of swing dancing, but those that have survived beyond that era include: Lindy Hop, Balboa, C... |
Do other animals get stretch marks? if not, why? | Yes. Rolls Royce only use bull hides in the leather on their cars because female cows can get stretch marks more easily, just like human women. To my understanding, stretch marks are scars from skin being stretched until it breaks. You can get them from gaining weight quickly and this happens more to females than males... | [
"Because it does not stretch, animals are less likely to become entangled in HT wire. However, for the same reason, if an animal does become entangled or runs into a few strands at a high speed, it can be deadly, and is sometimes referred to as having a \"cheese slicer\" effect on the animal.\n",
"Anoles are harm... |
What are the most interesting human artifacts with uses that are unknown or disputed? | Stone Henge. Scientists have used computer models to see what the sky looked like when stone henge was built. The stars were in different positions thousands of years ago so scientist have to rethink what it was pointing to and what made those stellar objects so important. | [
"Of the myriad artifacts displayed within the museum, the most peculiar were a reconstructed panther skeleton, a collection of grapefruit-sized turquoise malachite eggs, fossilized elephant bird eggs, unexploded military mortar shells, an elephant skull with jaw-bone, dried elephant dung balls, a stuffed dingo, and... |
Expansion of space ≈ contraction of Planck length? | Well the short answer is no. The Planck length is just a length you get by combining three of the constants of our universe, G, h and c (gravitational constant, Planck's constant (quantum of action), and the speed of light). We could rearrange them a bit and come up with a mass of a few micrograms, but that's no more a... | [
"The Planck length is the scale at which quantum gravitational effects are believed to begin to be apparent, where interactions require a working theory of quantum gravity to be analyzed. The Planck area is the area by which the surface of a spherical black hole increases when the black hole swallows one bit of inf... |
why is it that when an object falls from orbit, it goes faster than terminal velocity? | Terminal Velocity is the point where gravity cant pull you faster through whatever material you are falling from.
Normally this is air, but in orbit there is much less air and thus less stuff to fall through, thus you can fall faster. | [
"The terminal velocity of a falling body occurs during free fall when the force due to gravity is exactly balanced by the force due to air resistance, such that the body experiences zero acceleration. The formula for terminal velocity (where buoyancy in air is negligible) is given by the thrust\n",
"As the speed ... |
Can someone explain the galaxy rotation graph? | > v = sqrt(GM)/sqrt(r)
This would be the correct orbital equation if all the galaxy's mass were concentrated in a point at the center. Now, there is a black hole at the center, but [its mass](_URL_0_) is no more than a few millionths of the of the [total mass of the galaxy](_URL_1_): most of the mass is spread out ... | [
"The galaxy rotation problem is the discrepancy between observed galaxy rotation curves and the theoretical prediction, assuming a centrally dominated mass associated with the observed luminous material. When mass profiles of galaxies are calculated from the distribution of stars in spirals and mass-to-light ratios... |
why are there different levels of spf in products? why is the highest not always the best? | Higher SPF sunscreens will prevent tanning, and a lot of people want to tan a little when they are out in the sun. Maximum SPF value is good for young kids, people with sensitive skin, people with a predisposition to skin cancer, and people working for long periods in the sun. For people who just want to tan a little w... | [
"Some studies have shown that people commonly apply only 1/4 to 1/2 of the amount recommended for achieving the rated sun protection factor (SPF), and in consequence the effective SPF should be downgraded to a square root or 4th root of the advertised value. A later study found a significant exponential relation be... |
Via a similar process to electrolysis, could we extract a viable amount of oxygen out of CO2? | Yep, it's mainly called artificial photosynthesis, and it's arguably the largest unsolved problem in the field of inorganic chemistry. State-of-the-art systems can only consume millimole per hour quantities of CO2, which is obscenely slow, for a bunch of reasons. | [
"In addition to reduce the voltage required for electrolysis via the increasing of the temperature of the electrolysis cell it is also possible to electrochemically consume the oxygen produced in an electrolyser by introducing a fuel (such as carbon/coal, methanol, ethanol, formic acid, glycerol, etc.) into the oxy... |
during traffic stop how police communicate with drivers who don't speak english? | Police departments actively hire officers who speak the languages common in the area, and offer a salary bump to ones who learn them. One of them would be called in as a translator if necessary.
And even the officers who don't understand the language will have a cheat sheet and quickly learn the common phrases they n... | [
"BULLET::::- In England Traffic officers are employed by Highways England and maintain traffic flow on trunk roads and some bridges and tunnels. There are different types of traffic officer and they are appointed under separate Acts. They have limited powers to direct traffic and place road signs, close lanes of an... |
how did humans train horses to willingly charge into danger or death? | Horses, like all animals, don't have a concept of their mortality.
They have instincts which tell them to avoid trouble that helps keep them alive.
However once you get a horse used to the sounds of warfare, they'll charge right in to wherever you point them.
Horses that were too scared simply wouldn't be used. | [
"Once humans domesticated horses, that animal became a favorite way to escape a crime scene. Jesse James and many old \"Wild West\" bank robbers and train robbers of the 19th century used horses to get way from the scene of their larceny.\n",
"The primary purpose of training horses is to socialize them around hum... |
Considering the enormous number of memories we retain into old age, what was all of that brain matter being used for before these memories were stored? | Memory is a huge and complex topic which is not well understood. There are different kinds of memory, but you seem to be asking about [long-term explicit memory](_URL_2_).
Speaking mostly from the realm of artificial neural networks, which are only loosely modeled on brain physiology, I think the most concise answer ... | [
"Research focused on gaining a better understanding of what memories are has been going on for many years, in this way so has research in memory erasure. The basis for the recent history for memory erasure has been focused on determining how the brain actively keeps memories stored and retrieves them. There have be... |
Nazi literature, poetry, films or other artistic works? | Though it doesn’t get into what ultimately became of Nazi books, films, and artwork after the war, you should definitely take a look at u/commiespaceinvader’s in-depth response to [Were there any truly talented Nazi artists, musicians, or writers who would be renowned if not for their political views?](_URL_0_), where ... | [
"It took four years to \"refine\" the Nazi art criteria; in the end what was tolerated was whatever Hitler liked, and whatever was most useful to the German government from the point of view of creating propaganda. A thorough head-hunting of artists within Germany was in effect from the beginning of the Second Worl... |
What are the other names for "The Great War"? | It was in the early days called "the war to end war," or "the war to end all wars" - in optimism that it would be the last. However (even during the war), as it became apparent WWI would not, in fact, end war, the term became used more sardonically. | [
"In this series, the war remains known as \"The Great War\" and the term \"World War\" never comes into use. When a second war of comparable proportions breaks out twenty years later, it get named \"The Second Great War\" and the earlier one becomes retroactively \"The First Great War\".\n",
"The war has been des... |
how to progressively learn math. | Go to any university website and then look up the books from the lowest mathematics course, which is probably "introduction to trigonometry", to whatever is offered in the Ph.D courses. When learning from these books, do the exact opposite of what you would do in university. Study them to learn and to learn it well. Do... | [
"The principles of mathematics are generally understood at an early age; preschoolers can comprehend the majority of principles underlying counting. By kindergarten, it is common for children to use counting in a more sophisticated manner by adding and subtracting numbers. While kindergarteners tend to use their fi... |
why is there an apparent war between pc gamers and developers? | Ignoring piracy when answering that question is kind of counter intuitive because its the single biggest reason. Pirating on PC is significantly easier then on any other platform. Developers see this as disincentive to working for that platform. It's also harder to develop for PC because there is a huge amount of poss... | [
"PC development is different. Game developers try to account for majority of configurations and hardware. However, the number of possible configurations of hardware and software inevitably leads to discovery of game-breaking circumstances that the programmers and testers didn't account for.\n",
"The change of foc... |
What is the highest frequency of light that the human eye can detect/process? What is the lowest? | We can only see visible light, roughly 390 to 700nm in wavelength. 3x10^8 / 390x10^-9 gives the highest frequency. 3x10^8 / 700*10^-9 will give the lowest frequency. This [wikipedia picture](_URL_1_) does a good job showing the three cone cells and their contribution to our perception of [visible light](_URL_0_). | [
"The commonly stated range of human hearing is 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Under ideal laboratory conditions, humans can hear sound as low as 12 Hz and as high as 28 kHz, though the threshold increases sharply at 15 kHz in adults, corresponding to the last auditory channel of the cochlea. Humans are most sensitive to (i.e. ab... |
elliptical curve cryptography - how does it work? | OK, first off it's "elliptic curve", not "elliptical curve". An elliptic curve is the collection of points (x, y) in the plane that satisfy
y^2 = x^3 + ax + b
together with a special point (∞, ∞). Different choices of a and b give different curves. I'll talk about the elliptic curve version of Diffie-Hellman key... | [
"In mathematics, the Jacobi curve is a representation of an elliptic curve different from the usual one (Weierstrass equation). Sometimes it is used in cryptography instead of the Weierstrass form because it can provide a defence against simple and differential power analysis style (SPA) attacks; it is possible, in... |
How/Why can matter go from a solid state to a gaseous state? Completely skipping over liquid, and vice versa...? | Molecules will occupy a state of aggregation to minimise their free energy. For particular conditions of T and P, this is a trade off of energy and entropy. For some molecules, the additional reduction in entropy by going directly to a solid is more than offset by the reduction in enthalpy so the molecules prefer to... | [
"Historically, the distinction is made based on qualitative differences in properties. Matter in the solid state maintains a fixed volume and shape, with component particles (atoms, molecules or ions) close together and fixed into place. Matter in the liquid state maintains a fixed volume, but has a variable shape ... |
why does yahoo answers rate higher than reddit? | So let's say Yahoo!, Google, and Reddit are prominent families in the neighborhood. All three are well-known around town and are trusted more than other families (sites). Each family also has their own strengths and weaknesses as well as kids (subdomains/subreddits) who specialize in certain areas. The Google family is... | [
"This \"Internet language\" of incorrect spelling and improper grammar also contributes to Yahoo! Answers' reputation of being a source of entertainment rather than a fact based question and answer platform, and for the reliability, validity, and relevance of its answers. A 2008 study found that Yahoo! Answers is s... |
In movies, there's frequently a standoff with two people pointing a gun at each other. Is human reaction time quick enough for the second person to get their shot off before dying if the first fires and hits them in the head? | Really depends on the guns and distance involved.
From one source, we see bullet speeds ranging from ~180 m/s (.38 special) to ~1200 m/s (.22 swift) (Petzal, 1992).
Eckner, Kutcher, and Richardson (2010) found that people respond to visual stimuli at ~270ms, but earlier studies found reaction times closer to 190ms (e... | [
"Suddenly, they turned around, got on their knees, as if they were ordered to, they did it all together, aimed. And personally, I was standing there saying, they're not going to shoot, they can't do that. If they are going to shoot, it's going to be blank.\n",
"A reaction shot usually implies the display of some ... |
Did the ancient Romans probe far beyond the borders of their empire? | Yes, the Romans were quite nosy. I've made a couple of comments on this subject ([1](_URL_0_), [2](_URL_1_)). To reiterate myself (sorry for this comment being a bit of a mishmash):
The Romans actually invaded Arabia during Augustus' reign, under a commander named Gallus, and even besieged the city of Ma'rib in Yeme... | [
"The Roman Empire had reached its greatest extent under the Emperor Trajan. However, before Trajan, the Emperor Augustus set about stabilizing the frontiers of the Empire. As a result, the Romans were more interested in simply defending their territory and consolidating the Empire rather than in attempting to conqu... |
what exactly is a continent? just a part of the earth that rises above water? how was the first continent made? | > why was it all lumped together on one side of the earth in the beginning? Wouldn't it be random?
It wasn't the beginning. There were [a bunch](_URL_0_) of continents and super continents before Pangaea. Ever since the surface of the earth cooled and cracked, about every 450 million years or so, the continents go t... | [
"The Earth's continents started to form in the Archean, although details about their formation are still being debated, due to lack of extensive geological evidence. One hypothesis is that rocks that are now in India, western Australia, and southern Africa formed a continent called Ur as of 3,100 Ma. A differing co... |
why does de-fragmenting a solid-state drive reduce it's lifetime? | Life span of a solid state drive is determined by how many times each unit of storage can be read and written to.
All de-fragmentation takes parts of files that that have been stored all over and re-arranges them so they are all together.
This requires a lot of reading and writing of large areas of the Solid st... | [
"Solid state drives have set new challenges for data recovery companies, as the way of storing data is non-linear and much more complex than that of hard disk drives. The strategy the drive operates by internally can largely vary between manufacturers, and the TRIM command zeroes the whole range of a deleted file. ... |
What did the Romans think of Stonehenge? | [A similar question was asked a couple of years ago.](_URL_0_) I second u/QVCatullus in that I don't believe there are any Ancient Roman mentions that we know of currently. Not saying that there aren't any, but we presently don't know what they thought of it. | [
"In 1655, the architect John Webb, writing in the name of his former superior Inigo Jones, argued that Stonehenge was a Roman temple, dedicated to Caelus, (a Latin name for the Greek sky-god Uranus), and built following the Tuscan order. Later commentators maintained that the Danes erected it. Indeed, up until the ... |
Are there any statements or interviews by the pilot/plane crew who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki | There have been many, many interviews with these people since 1945. They have not been, on the whole, reclusive. The Atomic Heritage Foundation has a [great oral history website](_URL_0_) of people who were involved in the development and use of nuclear weapons during World War II. If you click "filter by subject" and ... | [
"Flown by 393d commander, Major Charles W. Sweeney, it was assigned to the Hiroshima mission on 6 August 1945, as the blast measurement instrumentation aircraft. On the mission to bomb Nagasaki on 9 August 1945, it was to have been the aircraft carrying the bomb, but the mission schedule had been moved forward two ... |
Why did Pangea break apart and the continents move away in such a manner as if they were "floating", without regard for what lies underneath the ocean? | Alright, strap in, we have a lot of ground to cover before we can answer your question fully. First, there are two broad kinds of crust, continental and oceanic, which differ in their composition, densities, and other physical properties. [Continental crust](_URL_4_), which forms the bulk of areas above sea level, is g... | [
"The break up of Pangea occurs during the Kimmerian tectonic phase for most of the Mesozoic, until the early-mid Cretaceous, this marks the start of creating the present position of our continents today. During the Jurassic, rifting activity reaches its maximum and North America starts to move apart from Eurasia fo... |
Is it possible to be allergic to electricity? | It is not possible to be allergic to electricity as electric currents do not interact chemically or physically in a way that would provoke an allergic response. You might provoke some sort of response with a high current through an electrical burn or overstimulation of neural pathways but this would not constitute an a... | [
"It is possible that even in people without direct evidence of allergy, the allergic response may be playing a role in acute coronary syndrome: markers of mast cell activation are found in people with ACS.\n",
"An allergic reaction can be caused by any form of direct contact with the allergen—consuming food or dr... |
why are there time zones within the continental us with a one hour spacing? | The choice is really a bit arbitrary--but the fewer time zones, the simpler everything is to manage. There are a few places with 30-minute or even 15-minute offsets, but on the whole one-hour time zones have become the global norm. It strikes a good balance between convenience of administration and keeping track with t... | [
"Today, all nations use standard time zones for secular purposes, but they do not all apply the concept as originally conceived. Newfoundland, India, Iran, Afghanistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, the Marquesas, as well as parts of Australia use half-hour deviations from standard time, and some nations, such as Nepal, and so... |
How were monarchies first established after the fall of the Roman Empire? | The early feudal-type system ('feudalism' as an all-encompassing description of medieval society is a disputed subject these days) that the later monarchies rose out of largely came out of the late Roman Empire's villa system (which involved a landowner and hired 'peasants' working said land). In an effort to keep the ... | [
"In the ancient Kingdom of Rome, the kings were elected by the Assemblies. Once the Roman kings were overthrown, there remained an absolute prohibition for royal establishment in the Roman constitution, a prohibition which formally remained in place during imperial times, both Roman and Byzantine. In practice, howe... |
how can the us have so much foreign debt yet still be the most economically powerful nation in the world? given the current trajectory, how much longer will this last? | The US actually has a lower debt than Germany, Canada, Egypt, Spain, France, The UK, Singapore, Greece, Japan, and a host of other countries. When we look at public debt we do not compare total debt between countries, we compare debt to GDP (Gross Domestic Product). In that metric the US is actually in very good standi... | [
"The total national debt of the United States in the United States was $18.527 trillion (106% of the GDP) in 2014. The United States has the largest external debt in the world and the 14th largest government debt as a % of GDP in the world.\n",
"The national debt rose $238 billion (or about 60% of the new debt ce... |
what causes rhotacism? (the inability to pronounce the letter “r”) | It is dependent on how you hear sounds and the way you were raised. If your family mostly uses trilled R’s then you would have a slightly higher chance of developing it. This is abundant in Asian countries.
A better explanation would be from this video:
_URL_0_ | [
"In medical contexts, rhotacism () is the inability to pronounce or difficulty in pronouncing \"r\" sounds. Speech pathologists call the condition \"de\"-rhotacization, because the sounds lose their rhotic quality rather than becoming rhotic.\n",
"In English, the most common occurrence of this type is a pronuncia... |
the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 timing in music. | They each contain the same amount of [eighth](_URL_3_) notes but it's how they're grouped. 3/4 is the traditional notation where the [quarter](_URL_0_) note is the beat: [eighth-eighth](_URL_1_) eighth-eighth eighth-eighth (2 eighth notes = 1 quarter note hence the notation 3/4). 6/8 on the other hand is grouped into t... | [
"In music, the septimal major third , also called the supermajor third (by Hermann Helmholtz among others) and sometimes \"Bohlen–Pierce third\" is the musical interval exactly or approximately equal to a just 9:7 ratio of frequencies, or alternately 14:11. It is equal to 435 cents, sharper than a just major third ... |
How important was the Eichmann Trial in public awareness of the Holocaust? | I know this is over a week old, but I didn't want to leave this question unanswered.
From the end of the war until the Eichmann trial, the world obviously knew of the Holocaust and the general horrors that had occurred. Perhaps they knew someone that had been a victim of the Holocaust and so they knew some specific d... | [
"One of the goals of the trial was to disseminate information about the Holocaust to the public, and for the great majority of people around the world watching or reading about it, the Eichmann trial was their first confrontation with anything having to do with the Holocaust. As a result of all the coverage, it spa... |
the primary purpose of the supercomputer sequoia is nuclear weapons simulation. what does it mean? | They're simulating weapons to make sure they work so they don't have to physically test them. Those simulations are hard to do, and not always accurate if you don't have enough computing power. Nuclear physics is really complicated. | [
"The Advanced Simulation and Computing Program (or ASC) is a super-computing program run by the National Nuclear Security Administration, in order to simulate, test, and maintain the United States nuclear stockpile. The program was created in 1995 in order to support the Stockpile Stewardship Program (or SSP). The ... |
what part of a jet engine actually generates the thrust? | The gases being forced out the back are the source of thrust. It's actually different depending on what type of jet engines you're talking about.
Turbojet engines (all of the early jets, plus most older fighter jets) are all about the hot gases coming out from the turbines to provide thrust.
Turbofan engines (thi... | [
"All jet engines are reaction engines that generate thrust by emitting a jet of fluid rearwards at relatively high speed. The forces on the inside of the engine needed to create this jet give a strong thrust on the engine which pushes the craft forwards.\n",
"The main fan on a jet engine consists of a number of a... |
Was there any damage to the Vatican City during WWII? | The Vatican was hit by bombs twice during the war, once in November of 1943 and again in March of 1944. The second bombing was done by an Italian plane, it killed one person and damaged the Pontifical Urban University and the Palace of the Holy Office with small bombs.
The 1943 bombing damaged the Vatican Gardens b... | [
"BULLET::::- Despite its neutral status in World War II, Vatican City had four bombs dropped upon it from an unidentified airplane at 8:10 pm . Windows and glass were broken at St. Peter's Basilica and at the Palace of the Governorate, and there was damage to the Vatican aqueduct, but nobody was injured. A British ... |
Does a USB-C - USB-C charger extension cord slow down the charge? | First off, the battery charger is actually built into the phone. The wall wart is a constant voltage power supply. Some USB-C power supplies have the ability to output one of 2 or 3 different voltages, but they are voltage regulated.
All charging cables have resistance. Resistance causes voltage drop which reduces t... | [
"In addition to limiting the total average power used by the device, the USB specification limits the inrush current (i.e., the current used to charge decoupling and filter capacitors) when the device is first connected. Otherwise, connecting a device could cause problems with the host's internal power. USB devices... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.