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How did the religious class view Benjamin Franklin's scientific experimentations during his retirement?	I'd suggest that that documentary was probably lying, or at least misrepresenting things. People have offered naturalistic explanations of lightning for as long as people have been writing about lightning, and I don't think they would have created a dichotomy between "God did it" and "lightning is a result of X natura...	[ "In 1743, Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society to help scientific men discuss their discoveries and theories. He began the electrical research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life, in between bouts of politics and moneymaking.\n", "He was part of a ...
Why do we build larger particle colliders with bigger diameters instead smaller diameters traveled multiple times?	To go to higher energies at a fixed bending radius, you need stronger bending magnets. The momentum per unit charge of a particle along the central orbit inside a bending element is called its magnetic rigidty: Bρ = p/q. B is the magnetic field strength of the bending magnet, ρ is the bending radius of the central o...	[ "The shape of the collider is also important. High energy physics colliders collect particles into bunches, and then collide the bunches together. However, only a very tiny fraction of particles in each bunch actually collide. In circular colliders, these bunches travel around a roughly circular shape in opposite d...
why do people tap the top of their soda cans before opening them?	If bubbles have formed on the side of the can, tapping the can may dislodge them and cause them to pop at the surface. Since the can is usually somewhat pressurized, any gas in the can will expand when you open it. If the gas expands under liquid (the bubbles stuck to the side of the can), the gas might carry the liqui...	[ "Cans are filled before the top is crimped on. The filling and sealing operations need to be extremely fast and precise. The filling head centers the can using gas pressure, purges the air, and lets the drink flow down the sides of the can. The lid is placed on the can, and then crimped in two operations. A seaming...
Why can't we make a camera that captures images that look the same as how we see them?	What you should be asking is, "why can't we make a camera that captures images exactly how we see them and reproduce them in a medium which is visually indistinguishable from the original scene?" Designing a camera that captures information identical to the photoreceptor layer of your retina is simply a matter of engi...	[ "Photographic technology employs different physical methods than the human eye in order to capture images. Thus, manufacturing optics which produce images that appear natural to human vision is problematic.\n", "Certain image capturing devices are capable of producing images through materials that are opaque to v...
I have a question about Pavlovian conditioning.	It could get generalized to either of the two responses. It is more likely that it will not bring forth any response, though that may depend on how the middle C functioned during the conditioning process. If there was no stimulous matched with it then there would be no reason for the dog to expect anything. I dont kno...	[ "Pavlov proposed that conditioning involved a connection between brain centers for conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. His physiological account of conditioning has been abandoned, but classical conditioning continues to be to study the neural structures and functions that underlie learning and memory. Forms of ...
Parsley can cause a miscarriage?	[There is some evidence that parsley might be partially effective in inducing abortion, but it doesn't appear to be very safe.](_URL_0_) That "infographic" is at least ill-advised and possibly dangerous.	[ "Miscarriage, also known as spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the natural death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Some use the cutoff of 20 weeks of gestation, after which fetal death is known as a stillbirth. The most common symptom of a miscarriage is vaginal bleeding wit...
why can't i just hit the "off" button on my computer rather than "shut down"	+ Pressing shut down Will terminate all system and user processes normally. Exiting processes have time to write logs and results in the primary memory. Some of it can be important, but 95% of the time you won't notice a difference, if you are a casual home user and not involved in servers or programing projects etc. ...	[ "In Apple macOS the computer can be shut down by choosing \"Shut Down…\" from the Apple Menu or by pressing the power key to bring up the power management dialog box and selecting button \"Shut down\". An administrator may also use the Unix codice_1 command as well. It can also be shut down by pressing [Alt]+[Comma...
Could a planet be 'locked' in orbit between two stars?	~~Yes but~~ no because it would be unstable meaning if there were any gravitational fluctuations at all from anything it would perturb the system pulling the planet towards one of the Stars slightly more than towards the other which would increase the Gravity from the one-star and decrease it from the other until the p...	[ "The two stars orbit each other with a period of only 2.15 days and an eccentricity of zero, indicating their orbit is close to circular. They are orbiting sufficiently close to each other that their rotation periods have most likely become tidally locked—meaning they always maintain the same face toward each other...
Why is history's calendar based off a religion that not everybody follows?	Well it has been the tradition, and from a long history of western colonial dominance it has become (generally) the worldwide norm, the same way that western dress and the English language have become dominant in governments worldwide. Some countries, (Saudi Arabia is the best example) don't use the Gregorian calendar,...	[ "[T]he Christian calendar no longer belongs exclusively to Christians. People of all faiths have taken to using it simply as a matter of convenience. There is so much interaction between people of different faiths and cultures – different civilizations, if you like – that some shared way of reckoning time is a nece...
What causes logs to turn white while burning, and why do moving black patches appear?	The ash that is produced is composed of several products. Some of of it is incompletely combusted carbon which tends to be black. Other components are due to other elements in the wood such as magnesium which forms white magnesium oxide when burned. The colour fluctuations you see while it is burning is due to black...	[ "Logs that are cut from the butt forest, brought to a mill or to a log-house construction yard, have their bark removed and are used to build a log-house shell (handcrafted log houses), or sent through profiling machines (manufactured logs) are usually referred to as \"green\" logs if they have not been air- or kil...
why right before you go to sleep do you feel heightened emotions that you normally don't feel during the day? either motivation for making a life change, fear for a test, regret for a decision etc.	Do some meditation and you'll see that this doesn't have to happen only at night. The sad fact is that people are scared to be alone with themselves and their thoughts. We find distractions to fill our minds every minute of every day. Have you ever seen the running joke on reddit that people HAVE to take something to t...	[ "Sleep plays a role in emotion regulation, although stress and worry can also interfere with sleep. Studies have shown that sleep, specifically REM sleep, down-regulates reactivity of the amygdala, a brain structure known to be involved in the processing of emotions, in response to previous emotional experiences. O...
how to christians justify strict adherence to one part of the bible (e.g. homosexuals not allowed to marry) and complete disregard for another (e.g. bible says you cannot get a divorce, etc.)?	Because people tend to not follow rules/laws they don't want to follow. Every religion has the rules that only the most devout people follow because those rules are inconvenient. And you'd have trouble finding someone who doesn't J-walk even though it's against the law, because it's an inconvenient law.	[ "Christian marriage is to be between one woman (adult female) and one man (adult male) and that God Himself joined them and that no human is to separate them, according to Christ (Matthew 19:4-6). The Holy New Testament states that an unmarried Christian woman is to celibate or is to become the Christian wife of on...
What speed and distance units were used to measure speed before cars?	Speed limits for horses were often expressed in terms of the horse's gait: walking only, no trotting or running, etc. Certainly by 1905, towns were posting speed limits for autos in mph. But miles per hour were certainly well known for trains, and speeds for ships were similarly measured in knots. It's just that ste...	[ "Speed is the change in distance to an object with respect to time. Thus the existing system for measuring distance, combined with a memory capacity to see where the target last was, is enough to measure speed. At one time the memory consisted of a user making grease pencil marks on the radar screen and then calcul...
what does a light scratch hurt more than a deep cut?	Because most of the pain receptors are found near the surface of your skin, , so a wide superficial cut will trigger a lot more pain receptors than a small but deep puncture.	[ "Low levels of damaging forces produce small bruises and generally cause the individual to feel minor pain straight away. Repeated impacts worsen bruises, increasing the harm level. Normally, light bruises heal nearly completely within two weeks, although duration is affected by variation in severity and individual...
I have an AP US History exam tomorrow, what is one bit of US History you feel is important for me to know?	Alexander Hamilton shows up all the time. On every practice exam I took, he was on it. So I'd know who he is and why he's important (and why he's the most awesome founding father ever, but that's just me.) The other guy who will show up all the time is Henry Clay. That dude lived for a long time.	[ "The AP U.S. History exam lasts 3 hours and 15 minutes and consists of two sections; additionally, each section is divided into two parts. Section I, part A includes 55 multiple choice questions with each question containing four choices. The multiple choice questions cover American History from just before Europea...
what is the difference between an emoji and an emoticon?	An emoji is a little picture, while an emoticon is a collection of letters and symbols which look like a little picture (;-)	[ "Emoticons is a Unicode block containing graphic representations of faces, which are often associated with classic emoticons. They exist largely for compatibility with Japanese telephone carriers' implementations of Shift JIS.\n", "An emoticon (, , rarely pronounced ), short for \"emotion icon\", also known simpl...
why is there always construction being done on roads that had nothing wrong with them?	Yes, that happens. But preventative maintenance is still a thing. Also, sometimes they have to work on something under the road (sewer/gas line, etc) and there's nothing to be done but to tear up the road to do it.	[ "When roads are built by engineers with capital to support their work, they are successfully able to build roads across difficult soils. Modern road builders have less need to seek out easy geological conditions. When roads were made not by civil engineers but by people walking on the ground, the road followed the ...
What is the history of coal and coal mining?	Well, I can't give an in depth review of the importance of coal, but I can say this- 1: Coal was important because it was commonly found in Europe and abroad, but where as something like oil took a fair amount of processing to take from initial substance to a workable product (mining might seem expensive, but so was ...	[ "The history of coal mining goes back thousands of years. It became important in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries, when it was primarily used to power steam engines, heat buildings and generate electricity. Coal mining continues as an important economic activity today. Compared to wood fuels...
if looked at under an extremely powerful microscope, what would sub-atomic particles look like? what would the space between them look like?	Part of the problem with you question is that "looking" is something that is not independent of size. Visible light has a wavelength from 390 to 700 nm (3.9 to 4 x 10^−7 m) while atoms have a radius of 30 to 300 pm (3 to 30 x10^-11 m). So seeing is not really applicable here visible light does not work at this scale...	[ "Because of their extremely small size, the study of microscopic and subatomic particles fall in the realm of quantum mechanics. They will exhibit phenomena demonstrated in the particle in a box model, including wave–particle duality, and whether particles can be considered distinct or identical is an important que...
why jeremy johnson is being jailed for contempt of court after invoking his 5th amendment rights?	From the article: > After being sworn in and refusing to answer basic questions, the judge found Johnson in contempt. Your 5th Amendment rights don't apply to basic questioning, only to questions asked that could incriminate you while you are in custody.	[ "The Fifth Amendment protects against double jeopardy and self-incrimination and guarantees the rights to due process, grand jury screening of criminal indictments, and compensation for the seizure of private property under eminent domain. The amendment was the basis for the court's decision in \"Miranda v. Arizona...
do the wings on my paper/plastic/model airplane work like the wings on a real airplane? if not, how does it fly?	Model airplanes, yes. They use a specially shaped wing to produce lift (see: airfoil). A paper airplane, however, is acting more like a parachute, using the large surface area to slow its descent.	[ "The wing box of an airplane is the structural component from which the wings extend. It is usually limited to the section of the fuselage between the wing roots, although on some aircraft designs, such as the Boeing 787, it may be considered to extend further.\n", "\"Note on terminology:\" Most fixed-wing aircra...
How do pebbles on the beach get those tiny holes through them?	The stones aren't the same stuff through and through. Sometimes there's an inclusion or patch or bit of other mineral that's more soluble or less resilient than the surrounding mineral, leaving a gap, hole, or pit.	[ "Pebbles are found in two locations – on the beaches of various oceans and seas, and inland where ancient seas used to cover the land. When then the seas retreated, the rocks became landlocked. They can also be found in lakes and ponds. Pebbles can also form in rivers, and travel into estuaries where the smoothing ...
does keeping someone "awake", keep them from dying like in movies?	> You know that thing they do in movies where people are like: "Hey, stay with me?" as if they're trying to keep someone from falling asleep? Does that actually prevent someone from passing away? It does not. It is used to determine the patients ability to stay conscious. If it doesn't work anymore, the situation h...	[ "The Dead Sleep Easy is a 2007 Canadian drama film, a co-production of Odessa Filmworks and Zed Filmworks produced on location in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Its tagline is \"When you're this far south, sometimes it's better to be dead than alive.\"\n", "BULLET::::- Waking sleepwalkers does not harm them. While...
where does the idea that jews run the world come from? and when something happens, immediately point to isreal and us?	The idea that Jews runs the world dates back to the early imperial age and the rise of the middle class. Often times merchant ventures needed loans to get started, and since Catholics weren't allowed to charge interest on loans, invariably that meant going to a Jew. Now, being in a position to even approach someone abo...	[ "According to some ancient Hebrew worldviews, reality unfolds along a linear path (or rather, a spiral path, with cyclical components that nonetheless have a linear trajectory); the world began with God and is ultimately headed toward God's final goal for creation, the world to come. The main textual source for the...
How does my brain instantly calculate that I can toss an object into a small area from several feet away while walking?	It's an interesting question; do you mean for something you are doing for the first time, something you have practiced, or something you do often without thinking too much about? The same question could be asked about how people are able to react in sports to balls, for example. How does a tennis player know exactly h...	[ "Cells in the M pathway have the ability to detect high temporal frequencies and can thus detect quick changes in the position of an object. This is the basis for detecting motion. The information sent to the Intraparietal Sulcus (IPS) of the posterior parietal cortex allows the M pathway to direct attention and gu...
Footage of people being knocked out by a 'sucker punch' usually shows their legs instantly going rigid. Why is this?	The nerves for conscious motor control originate in the "top" of the brain at the cortex and make up the corticospinal tract, but there are also subconscious reflex arcs that help you maintain your balance in the vestibulospinal tract. These reflex arcs originate much lower in the brainstem and often even in the spina...	[ "David Boreanaz's stunt double, Mike Massa, says the scene in which he is tossed across the room upside down is his favorite stunt of this season. To get the effect, he was shot across the room using an air ram. \"The reason I like it so much is because it really knocked the heck out of me,\" he says. \"It was 900 ...
what does western society have against the female nipple? (serious responses only)	It's not so much that society is against the female nipple. It's more that society is against public sexuality. A fully nude man is, broadly speaking, no more acceptable in public than a fully nude woman. But female nudity has become so fetishised that the default assumption is that bare skin on a woman is sexual ...	[ "The culture tendency to hide the female nipple under clothing has existed in Western culture since the 1800s. As female nipples are often perceived an intimate part, covering them might originate as a Victorian taboo just as was riding side saddle. Exposing the entire breast and nipple is a form of protest for som...
Does an increase in energy also increases the amount of entropy in a system?	Generally speaking, yes. When increasing the internal energy of a system increases its entropy, that system is said to be at positive (absolute) temperature. Certain systems can be arranged in a way that increasing their energy decreases their entropy. Then it would have a negative temperature. So any system with pos...	[ "This effect can be explained by looking at the change in entropy of the system. At zero temperature only the lowest energy level is occupied, entropy is zero, and there is very little probability of a transition to a higher energy level. As the temperature increases, there is an increase in entropy and thus the pr...
do authors get money only when a person buys their book, or when the bookstore buys it in bulk?	I think this answer needs a little background. Via the traditional publishing route: Author writes a book. Author sends book to agent, who reads the book and figures out what publishing editors to pitch it to. Agent pitches the book to editors at various publishing houses. It could be a high-powered agent with good c...	[ "“Writing books, reviewing books for publishers, and copying them afterwards takes a lot of time. This time is usually paid for by state institutions or funding agencies. The publishers do not pay for it. On the contrary, some even require money from the authors to keep the book prices low (...). When libraries buy...
video aspect ratios	It adds dramatic quality to the video. Epic and dramatic scenes and movies will be filmed in a wider aspect ratio than say a comedy or something. There are many movies where aspect ratios change dynamically throughout more intense/epic scenes and you wouldn’t even notice unless you were told. You would notice the scene...	[ "Cinematographic aspect ratios are usually denoted as a (rounded) decimal multiple of width vs unit height, while photographic and videographic aspect ratios are usually defined and denoted by whole number ratios of width to height. In digital images there is a subtle distinction between the \"display\" aspect rati...
why do our tongues get stuck on poles.	Because your tongue is wet, and metal is extremely heat-conductive. So, the metal cools your saliva faster than your tongue can warm it up. At low enough temperatures, the saliva freezes to both the pole and tongue, so you're stuck. The only safe option for releasing the frozen saliva is to heat up the pole above ...	[ "The practice is associated with significant health risks, as tongues are coated with a film of microorganisms, which may cause infections in the eye, such as conjunctivitis, herpes and chlamydia. It also carries the risk of corneal abrasion and corneal ulcers. Oral bacteria on the tongue can potentially enter corn...
musical chord progressions.	Your question is pretty vague but I'll give it a shot! A chord progression is essentially a sequence of chords, often repeating multiple times throughout the duration of a song, that have been selected and placed in a specific order due to their relationship to one another. To break it down further; a chord itself is...	[ "Harmonically, in rock music, the most common way to construct chord progressions is to play major and minor \"triads\", each comprising a root, third and fifth note of a given scale. An example of a major triad is C major, which contains the notes C, E and G. An example of a minor triad is the A minor chord, which...
why does america have such a higher report of children with autism and adhd compared to other countries?	There is so many things that play a role, it is hard to name them all. - Overall, the USA does have a very high quality medical system compared to certain countries. Doctors are available here and know what Autism/ADHD is. You can't say the same about certain other countries. Sometimes they do not have doctors, of whe...	[ "The best-known example is that of the increasing rates of autism in developed countries such as the United States, which some studies suggest is at least partly a result of people substituting diagnoses of autism for mental retardation and learning disabilities. While a pilot study by the MIND Institute published ...
How did Harald Hardrada escape from Constantinople?	> The same night King Harald and his men went to the house where Maria slept and carried her away by force. Then they went down to where the galleys of the Varings lay, took two of them and rowed out into Sjavid sound. When they came to the place where the iron chain is drawn across the sound, Harald told his men to s...	[ "The crusaders reached Constantinople on 23December 1096. The Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos demanded an oath of allegiance from their leaders and imposed a blockade on their camp to enforce it. Baldwin made raids against the suburbs, compelling Alexios to lift the blockade. The Emperor also agreed to hand ov...
Can all life be explained by chemical reactions/processes?	Although we can't recreate all elements of it (ie throw a bunch of components together and have it work as a eukaryotic cell) science and physics adequately explains every component of the life of a cell and all of the functions of life	[ "In the same way, biology cannot be fully reduced to chemistry despite the fact that the machinery that is responsible for life is composed of molecules. For instance, the machinery of evolution may be described in terms of chemistry by the understanding that it is a mutation in the order of genetic base pairs in t...
what does it mean for a watch to be waterproof up to "200ft"?	After that the water pressure is great enough to break whatever seal was protecting the goods	[ "In horology, the waterproofness of a watch is defined by its resistance under pressure. The manufacturers indicate mostly the degree of waterproofness in metres (m), feet (ft) or atmospheres (atm). Watches with the \"waterproof\" name, with or without indication of overpressure, have to be complied and have to und...
In his time was Shakespere's writings difficult to understand?	Hi, FYI there have been some earlier posts asking this question * [When Shakespeare's plays were first performed, was the average theater goer able to sufficiently understand the dialog to be able to follow the plot and understand the character's motivations?](_URL_0_) - featuring /u/texpeare * [Did people actually ...	[ "Besides the publications cited above, he revised and edited Charles Hole's \"Brief Biographical Dictionary\" (1866), and the \"Dickens Dictionary\" (1873), and began a \"Cyclopædia of Shakespearian Literature\". He edited \"Mother Goose Melodies\" (with antiquarian and philological notes, 1869). He left unfinished...
If we were to discover tomorrow that a huge asteroid is going to hit Earth, could we do something about it?	there have been a lot of theories of how we would be able to deter an asteroid, most people first think to blow it up but if it's too close to earth then that isn't going to do us much good. The best plan that I've seen (works only if there's enough time before it gets to earth) is to land a vehicle on the asteroid and...	[ "In 2016, a NASA scientist warned that the Earth is unprepared for such an event. In April 2018, the B612 Foundation reported \"It's 100 per cent certain we'll be hit [by a devastating asteroid], but we're not 100 per cent sure when.\" Also in 2018, physicist Stephen Hawking, in his final book \"Brief Answers to th...
what is a "principal component analysis"?	Hard to explain without using images. See: _URL_0_	[ "Principal component analysis is used to study large data sets, such as those encountered in bioinformatics, data mining, chemical research, psychology, and in marketing. PCA is also popular in psychology, especially within the field of psychometrics. In Q methodology, the eigenvalues of the correlation matrix dete...
Did nativism play a significant role in the American prohibition movement?	There was indeed a great deal of overlap between the nativist and prohibitionist movements. The Anti-Saloon League, the most vocal prohibitionist organization in the country, was led mainly by Protestant ministers, most of whom were concerned that the religious and moral character of the United States was in peril. It...	[ "In a backlash to the emerging reality of a changing American demographic, many prohibitionists subscribed to the doctrine of nativism, in which they endorsed the notion that America was made great as a result of its white Anglo-Saxon ancestry. This belief fostered resentments towards urban immigrant communities, w...
why do "800 service" call me every day but nobody is ever on the line?	If you let it go to voice mail, they'll play a prerecorded message. But they know that trying to play a prerecorded message when there's a human on the other end doesn't work, so the computer making the call is programmed to hang up if someone answers.	[ "AT&T Phone (formerly AT&T U-verse Voice) is a voice communication service delivered over AT&T's IP network (VoIP). This phone service is digital and provides a voicemail service accessed by *98 from the home number. Customers who subscribe to both AT&T Phone and U-verse TV get features such as call history on chan...
so how does the body 'die'? also what does it feel like just before a person is about to die?	Neuroscience PhD here. We have learned a lot from near-death experiences (NDEs). The body dies from the outside in. For most people, your heart is the first to stop. It just gets tired and worn out having been in use continually for 80+ years. Because blood is your body's way of heating the whole system, you start...	[ "In a certain philosophical context, death can be seen as the ultimate existential moment in one's life. Death is the deepest cause of a primordial anxiety (\"Die Anfechtung\") in a person's life. In this emotional state of anxiety, \"the Nothing\" is revealed to the person. According to twentieth-century German ph...
do blind people need to close their eyes to go to sleep if so why? if they already see pitch black?	Because eyes need moisture and the only way to do that it to close your eyes so that your tears can cover the entire surface of your eye.	[ "Another study has indicated that sleeping with the light on may protect the eyes of diabetics from retinopathy, a condition that can lead to blindness. However, the initial study is still inconclusive.\n", "Night blindness is the difficulty for the eyes to adjust to dim light. Affected individuals are unable to ...
what do the numbers mean in reference to eyesight? eg. 20/20	According to below, 20/20 essentially means the person can see an image 20 ft in front of them the same way someone with 'normal' vision would see the image. if they had 30/20 vision for example, this person would see an image 30 ft away the same way someone with 'normal' vision would see the same image from 20 ft away...	[ "The standard definition of normal visual acuity (20/20 or 6/6 vision) is the ability to resolve a spatial pattern separated by a visual angle of one minute of arc. The terms 20/20 and 6/6 are derived from standardized sized objects that can be seen by a \"person of normal vision\" at the specified distance. For ex...
the college admissions process.	Let me give a broader version than the other comments: Applications/Colleges and Admission in General College X has enough space/professors/resources to educate 500 freshmen next year. However, 5000 students apply to College X. At first, you'd think it was easy: just admit the best 500 students and enroll them. How...	[ "College admissions in the United States refers to the process of applying for entrance to institutions of higher education for undergraduate study at one of the nation's colleges or universities. For people intending to go immediately into college after high school, the college search usually begins in the elevent...
how does kelvin work?	Kelvin is a temperature scale that start with absolute zero and has uses the same degrees as Celsius. Celsius has water freeze at 0° and boil at 100° absolute zero is at -273.16° C. So in Kelvin absolute Zero is a 0 K, water freezes at 273.16 K and boils at 373.16 K There is a corresponding temperature scale that al...	[ "The Kelvin transform is a device used in classical potential theory to extend the concept of a harmonic function, by allowing the definition of a function which is 'harmonic at infinity'. This technique is also used in the study of subharmonic and superharmonic functions.\n", "The kelvin is the base unit of temp...
why commercial airplanes are usually white while military airplanes are usually grey?	3 main reasons : 1. Minimizing visual signature . Aircraft operating over sea can be camouflaged by painting them blue\-grey. 2. Blending of aircraft with the tarmac. Parked aircraft outlines are harder to see if the aircraft color doesn't provide sharp contrast with the surface they are on. 3. Modern milit...	[ "Originally, many aircraft in service retained the basic color scheme they were acquired in. Prior to World War II, combat aircraft were given a green and brown top scheme with white or sky blue underside, similar to the Royal Air Force. After the war, jet fighter aircraft such as the Sabre and Starfighter would se...
how do websites, particularly like instagram and tumblr, deal with constant additions in content? is their storage virtually unlimited?	those are so tiny compared to youtube. youtube adds storage space at the rate of petabytes a day. there's a module in a shipping container that house storage for 12petabytes. drop one of those in, you're good for another couple of days	[ "Web Storage is a W3C standard API that enables key-value storage in modern browsers. The API consists of two objects, sessionStorage (that enables session-only storage that gets wiped upon browser session end) and localStorage (that enables storage that persists across sessions).\n", "BULLET::::- One file per ar...
why do home appliances all hum at the same tone frequency?	Your electrical power is alternating current - switching back and forth 60 times per second. You will hear that 60 Hz tone, as well as overtones of 60 Hz (such as 120, 180, 240 Hz). edit: typo in overtone frequencies.	[ "Digital alarm clocks can make other noises. Simple battery-powered alarm clocks make a loud buzzing or beeping sound to wake a sleeper, while novelty alarm clocks can speak, laugh, sing, or play sounds from nature.\n", "Some central office switches in the United States, notably older GTD-5 EAX systems, utilize a...
how can there be so much opiate prescription drug abuse when, in theory, the number of manufactured pills and the number of prescriptions are known? isn't it obvious the pills are being abused?	Canadian pharmacist here. Getting opioid medications is a 2-step process: the physician needs to OK it, and the pharmacist needs to OK it. Both of these checkpoints are failing. From the physician's side: Imagine you're a physician and a patient presents to you saying they are in pain (or has a bad cough.) Pain is v...	[ "In 2015, approximately 50% of drug overdoses were not the result of an opioid product from a prescription, though most abusers' first exposure had still been by lawful prescription. By 2018, another study suggested that 75% of opioid abusers started their opioid use by taking drugs which had been obtained in a way...
What are some examples of artwork by historical leaders?	Winston Churchill did [a lot of painting](_URL_0_) too.	[ "Its name honors the politician and historian Diogo de Vasconcelos, which stood out as a pioneer in defense of the historical and artistic heritage, mining and national level and is considered the first historian of art in Brazil.\n", "Among the most representative works available to the public, we find historica...
Who was General Tso?	[Tso Tsung-t'ang](_URL_1_) (alternately Zuo Zongtang) was a Chinese general during the late Qing dynasty, most famous for helping to quell the Taiping rebellion. I'm about to commit a horrible sin for /r/AskHistorians by linking to a TED talk. Nevertheless, this [talk by Jennifer 8. Lee](_URL_0_) (coincidentally title...	[ "General Xu Yongchang (15 December 188512 July 1959) (Hsu Yung-chang; ; style name: Cichen (Tzu-chen)) was the Minister of Board of Military Operations of the Republic of China between December 22, 1948, and April 22, 1949, and the representative of the Republic of China on September 2, 1945, at the signing of the ...
How do we have so many pictures and videos of the treatment of Jews in europe during the Nazi-era?	Much of the footage that you see was done by the Nazis themselves. Their plan was to destroy the Jewish people and wanted to have evidence of how they had done so in a very thorough and efficient way. There was also a plan for Führermuseum - a museum whose purpose was to display a selection of the art bought, confiscat...	[ "The attitude of German soldiers towards atrocities committed on Jews and Poles in World War II was also studied using photographs and correspondence left after the war. Photographs serve as a valuable source of knowledge; taking them and making albums about the persecution of Jews was a popular custom among German...
Is there any evidence suggesting that the Roman origin myth, that it was settled by emigrees from Troy (or the Trojan war), had any basis in fact?	The Homeric epics and Virgil's Aeneid, the telling of the myth of Rome supposedly founded by the descendants of Troy, are, well, myth. The Iliad tells us more about the culture of Archaic Greece at the time that the epic was put in writing than it does about the mythical time of Greek Gods and Heroes that is narrated i...	[ "Eratosthenes, the most influential of the ancient chronologists, reckoned that the sack of Troy occurred in 1184 BC, more than four centuries before the traditional founding of Rome, in 753. The history of the Alban kings conveniently filled that gap with a continuous line leading from Aeneas to Romulus, thus serv...
how do doctors choose which of several medicines that do the same thing they should prescribe?	Medicines will be ranked as first, second or third choice, etc., for a given condition. Doctors will work through the line until they get a solution. This is why you should never give up on meds just because they don't work for you. Second line meds might work far better than first line meds for any given person.	[ "In pharmacy, a formulation is a mixture or a structure such as a capsule, tablet, or an emulsion, prepared according to a specific procedure (called a “formula”). Formulations are a very important aspect of creating medicines, since they are essential to ensuring that the active part of the drug is delivered to th...
Was it common for WW2 fighter planes to shoot for wing-mounted bombs?	Such precision gunnery was nearly impossible with WWII fighters. Shooting for the bombs would be a much more difficult target than the engine, cockpit, or wing root (where the wing meets the fuselage). There were largely two types of guns in WWII fighters. The first type was wing-mounted guns that were generally con...	[ "During World War II, a new bombsight was invented that allowed bomber planes to hit precision targets from high altitudes, but at 25,000 feet a single degree of oscillation in the plane's flight course threw a bomb 400 feet off its target. The Flight Control Equipment system commonly known as “auto-pilot” was init...
why do many americans support a 2-term limit on presidents?	If you take a good hard look at this current election, do you really think the logic of "if people don't want a president, they won't vote for them" always plays out perfectly? There are many reasons why term limits are important. Why, look no further than the Senate. The Senate is useless, constantly gridlocked, a...	[ "Many modern presidential republics employ term limits for their highest offices. The United States placed a limit of two terms on its presidency by means of the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution in 1951. There are no term limits for Vice Presidency, Representatives and Senators, although there have been calls for...
How intelligent are giant octopuses?	I don't know, but increased body and brain size don't correlate with higher intelligence so you can't really infer anything from that alone.	[ "Octopuses are ranked as the most intelligent invertebrates. Giant Pacific Octopuses are commonly kept on display at aquariums due to their size and interesting physiology, and have demonstrated the ability to recognize humans that they frequently come in contact with. These responses include jetting water, changin...
How can a curve in spacetime make a a force (gravity)?	The rubber-sheet analogy is an extreme simplification that doesn't really shed much light on the underlying mechanism. It gives a bit of intuitive justification for how the paths of objects can be curved, but as you correctly observe, it doesn't provide any explanation for where their motion comes from, or why gravity ...	[ "In Einstein's theory of general relativity, gravitation is an attribute of curved spacetime instead of being due to a force propagated between bodies. In Einstein's theory, masses distort spacetime in their vicinity, and other particles move in trajectories determined by the geometry of spacetime. The gravitationa...
Is anything still named after Hitler?	Maybe not entirely irrelevant to your question would be the story of the Viale delle cave ardeatine in Rome. You might have guessed this road was formerly named 'Viale Adolfo Hitler'. And was part of the greatest charm offensive in history. Mussolini wanted to impress Hitler so badly that he invited him over on a ...	[ "\"Schicklgruber\" is the surname Adolf Hitler's father, Alois Hitler carried for the first 40 years of his life, until he took the name Hitler (Hiedler) from his stepfather. While Adolf Hitler himself never carried the surname, the British made use of it for propaganda purposes since even to Germans, the name is l...
What would stop an AI system with greater-than-human intelligence from being detrimental to humanity?	This question is difficult, mostly because of the notion of "greater-than-human intelligence". What does this mean? In some sense it seems to imply that intelligence is a unidimensional quantity, and everything fits neatly onto some scale with humans at the top (currently). This is obviously wrong, though. Computers a...	[ "A survey of AI experts estimated that the chance of human-level machine learning having an \"extremely bad (e.g., human extinction)\" long-term effect on humanity is 5%. A 2008 survey by the Future of Humanity Institute estimated a 5% probability of extinction by superintelligence by 2100. Eliezer Yudkowsky believ...
Why was American Revolution helped by European powers, but French Revolution was feared?	The reason is that the American revolution wasn't viewed as a revolution. The American revolutionaries legitimised their actions by claiming that the England had encroached on their traditional rights as Englishmen. The monarch had acted as a tyrant and rebellion could therefore be defensible, if the aim was to *restor...	[ "French support of the American Revolution was probably a significant factor in shaping American's feelings towards France. Prior to that, the French had been seen as rivals for control of North America until their decisive defeat in the French and Indian War. With the elimination of France as a major colonial powe...
Would it be possible to build a magnetic shield for earth to protect us from solar flares?	Yes it is possible, and the earth already has one! The part of the earths atmosphere that protects us from radiation from the sun and other sources of radiation is called the [magnetosphere](_URL_0_). We could build an artificial magnetic shield by wrapping massive wires around the earth several times and inducing a mi...	[ "CME radiation is dangerous to astronauts on a space mission who are outside the shielding produced by the Earth's magnetic field. Future mission designs (\"e.g.\", for a Mars Mission) therefore incorporate a radiation-shielded \"storm shelter\" for astronauts to retreat to during such an event.\n", "Another stud...
semiconductors and doping	Si has 4 electrons in its outer shell, and they bind up with other Si atoms in the crystal pretty well, so it is hard for them to move around. If you introduce a few atoms with 5 valence band electrons, those extra 5th electrons are like free agents. They aren't all that needed to bond the crystal together, so they a...	[ "Doping is the key to the extraordinarily wide range of electrical behavior that semiconductors can exhibit, and extrinsic semiconductors are used to make semiconductor electronic devices such as diodes, transistors, integrated circuits, semiconductor lasers, LEDs, and photovoltaic cells. Sophisticated semiconducto...
Why is South Africa the most developed African country?	This might be better suited to /r/asksocialscience. Also, you might want to re-frame the question - by any metric of development I'm aware of (for example, [HDI](_URL_0_)), South Africa isn't the most developed African country.	[ "South Africa is the most structurally and economically developed nation on the African continent. As such, its major cities have experienced construction booms that most other cities of similar size in Africa have not. Advanced development is significantly localised around five areas: Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Du...
Why was the Soviet military so ineffective in the first half of WW2?	This is a very complex and complicated subject - probably hundreds of books have been written about this both inside and outside of the USSR. Essentially, the reasons could be put into 2 categories: First Reason: The Soviet Union was simply not ready for war when Germany invaded. During peacetime, the military of ...	[ "Soviet forces suffered heavy damage in the field as a result of poor levels of preparedness, which was primarily caused by a reluctant, half-hearted and ultimately belated decision by the Soviet Government and High Command to mobilize the army. Equally important was a general tactical superiority of the German arm...
why do non-native english speakers make the "their vs. there" confusion less often than natives?	Native speakers learn the language mainly through listening and speaking as a child. As there, their and they're are pronounced the same they may not be distinguished from each other for many years until a child starts learning grammar. On the other hand when you are learning a foreign language you tend to begin with ...	[ "Because of the use of English as a lingua franca, native speakers are outnumbered by non-native speakers of English, which is a situation that is quite atypical for western European languages. A consequence of this is a sense of ownership of the language by different communities, which is reflected in the way Engl...
what is cosmic radiation and why is it harmful to life?	Cosmic rays originate from outside of the Solar System, and it's essentially high-energy radiation coming from space. Because of how powerful it is, it's not only bad for life, but it's also bad for electronics because it can alter circuit components in them. As for life, it's the main barrier for space travel because...	[ "Space radiation comes from cosmic rays emitted by our local star, the Sun, and from stars beyond the Solar System as well. Space radiation can trigger cancer and cause damage to the central nervous system. Similar instruments are flown on the Space Shuttles and on the International Space Station (ISS), but none ha...
why do some governments call snap elections, even if they have a chance of losing?	Sometimes, governments are forced into positions where they have to make unpopular decisions. Some people will see how the government's hand has been forced and will accept it. But other people might object to the decision they've made, and feel the government is not acting for the thing it claimed to stand for when i...	[ "Since the power to call snap elections usually lies with the incumbent, they usually result in increased majorities for the party already in power having been called at an advantageous time. However, snap elections can also backfire on the incumbent resulting in a decreased majority or even the opposition winning ...
Who do you think is Jack the Ripper?	Academic historians tend to be fairly unconcerned with who the murderer really was. This is partly because we'll never know for sure, and partly because the myth of the Ripper is far more interesting than any reality. As a cultural historian of late-Victorian Britain, I'm fascinated by the response to the murders and w...	[ "There are many and varied theories about the identity and profession of Jack the Ripper, but authorities are not agreed upon any of them, and the number of named suspects reaches over one hundred. Despite continued interest in the case, the Ripper's identity remains unknown.\n", "Jack the Ripper features in hund...
[Meta] Can we start a FAQ link of Recommended History Books?	we have a link on the sidebar for finding good resources, however compiling a list of books can get unwieldy quick. WARFTW alone would contribute like 40 books just on the Battle of Kursk.	[ "The book, written in the satirical paper's editorial voice, contains entries for nearly every country on Earth, including detailed maps, feature articles, and humorous stereotyped descriptions of regional history and customs. For example, Romania's entry is subtitled, \"Bram Stoker's Romania.\"\n", "The book com...
the congressional vote to repeal no child left behind, and the impact it will have on the federal push for common core standards implementation.	Remember during the Bush administration when a school's funding was to be based on test scores, and all the kids who failed the tests still got to move on to the next grade? That was no child left behind. Now that they are finally acknowledging our failing education system, they want to make kids pass the tests in ord...	[ "The No Child Left Behind Act(NCLB) legislation was signed by President Bush in January 2002 and dramatically expanded federal influence over the nation's more than 90,000 public schools. The main implications of this legislation was states had to conduct annual student assessments linked to state standards to iden...
Can light waves experience interference?	Yes, one of the most well known phenomena is [two slit interference](_URL_0_)	[ "Interference of light is a common phenomenon that can be explained classically by the superposition of waves, however a deeper understanding of light interference requires knowledge of wave-particle duality of light which is due to quantum mechanics. Prime examples of light interference are the famous double-slit ...
For some species of ant, like Army Ants, what determines whether they become a small worker, a large soldier, a male, or a queen? Is it random or do queen ants choose which profession ants will be when they lay the eggs?	It depends on the species, but among many species of ants the caste that an egg develops into is based on differences in nutrition received through care and feeding by other ants as the larvae develops -- not by anything that the queen does.	[ "Not all ants follow the basic pattern described above. In army ants only males are alates, having wings. They fly out from their parent colony in search of other colonies where wingless virgin queens wait for them. A colony with an old queen and one or more mated young queens then divides, each successful queen ta...
how are professionals able to spot counterfeit signatures if a person can't sign their name exactly the same each time?	It's more about finding consistent patterns than about finding perfectly consistent shapes to each figure. Maybe the signer does wide, loopy lowercase L's. They won't all be exactly the same, but they're always wide and loopy. If the L on a signature is thin and stunted, then it casts doubt on the signature. Maybe ...	[ "While many people sign their names enough that it becomes very routine, it is still an important skill to have. A \"false signature\", forgery, is a punishable by law offense. Writing a check, signing a credit slip, signing a marriage certificate, and signing an apartment lease are just a few of the occasions when...
why is low blood pressure and a low heart rate good, if that means that your heart is pumping less often and not pushing as hard?	As long as your body functions normally at a lower pressure or pulse, that means it's doing what it needs to with less effort and less strain that could be damaging over time. It also means there is more room for pressure or pulse to increase later in life without necessarily becoming a problem. But there are people ...	[ "Some heart conditions can lead to low blood pressure, including extremely low heart rate (bradycardia), heart valve problems, heart attack and heart failure. These conditions may cause low blood pressure because they prevent the body from being able to circulate enough blood.\n", "When the heart beats excessivel...
How did Buddhist-majority nations reconcile state violence (wars and so on) with Buddhist precepts of non-violence? Did they bother to do so?	Interestingly enough, I did a paper on this very question in my bachelor (comparative religion). My case study was Sri Lanka, but I'll give examples from other nations here as well, for a more 'universal' approach. There are three means of reconciliation of violence and Buddhism I will distinguish here. Incidentally,...	[ "Buddhism and violence refers to acts of violence and aggression committed by Buddhists with religious, political, or socio-cultural motivations, as well as self-inflicted violence by ascetics or for religious purposes. Buddhism is generally seen as among the religious traditions least associated with violence. How...
i try to light my gas stove, but it doesn't light. i smell the gas several seconds later. i turn on another one, and that ones lights. why doesn't that flame blow my house up?	They put bitterants in the gas that humans are extremely sensitive to. You smell amazingly small traces of it. You need a decent amount to get a decent bang. Certainly you could do some damage if you were trying but the gas needed for the stove for a few seconds isn't really that dangerous. Be safe and give a bit ...	[ "BULLET::::- Gasifier stoves force the gases and smoke that result from incomplete combustion of fuels such as biomass back into the cookstove's flame, where the heat of the flame then continues to combust the particles in the smoke until almost complete combustion has occurred, reducing emissions. Typical gasifier...
Why are water droplets equal distance apart?	Imagine instead of liquid water, we have the flow of identical marbles out of a spigot. That is, one successive marble after the other with the same initial horizontal velocity. The time between successive marbles starting to fall will be constant, let's call it Δt. All marbles will follow the same trajectory, so the...	[ "When a single stream of water hits a surface the water must go somewhere, and because the stream is uniform the water will tend to go mostly in the same direction. If a single stream hits a surface which is curved, then the stream will conform to the shape and be easily redirected with the force of the volume of w...
What was the siege of Malta significance in WW2 and what are some good sources to read on the subject?	Malta had a great strategic significance for the British in the Mediterranean, as a result of its geographical position. Being in the centre of the Mediterranean, aircraft, ships and submarines based there could interdict any shipping trying to move past it. This proved to be especially valuable, as it controlled the s...	[ "The Siege of Malta began on 11 June 1940 following Italy's entry into the war. The island was dependent on supply convoys fighting their way through from Gibraltar or Alexandria, and meanwhile, the garrison and people were subjected to some of the heaviest bombing of the war for a period of over two years. For its...
What are the consequences of significantly skewed gender ratio among human population? Are there any documented cases?	Check out [this article on missing women of Asia](_URL_0_) and China's [one-child policy](_URL_1_), both of which outline actual cases of sex disparity and consequences of such.	[ "Although there is significant evidence of the prevalence of sex-selective abortions in many nations (especially India and China), there is also evidence to suggest that some of the variation in global sex ratios is due to disparate access to resources. As MacPherson (2007) notes, there can be significant differenc...
Why does Israel exist?	> I will fully admit I am coming from a place of relative ignorance here but my uninformed understanding is that sometime following WWII, the U.N. created the state of Israel The UN did not create Israel. It proposed a partition of what was known as the British Mandate for Palestine, originally envisioned as a Jewish...	[ "Israel was established as a homeland for the Jewish people and is often referred to as the Jewish state. Israel's Declaration of Independence specifically called for the establishment of a Jewish state with equality of social and political rights, irrespective of religion, race, or sex. The notion that Israel shou...
On average, how accurate is the modern ascribing of medical conditions to historical figures?	Even in situations where an accurate diagnosis can be made, the utility of this kind of diagnosis can be questionable. All diseases are, to some extent, culture-bound. How we interpret and feel about symptoms and treatments, and how those feelings and interpretations inform our actions are directly tied to what we bel...	[ "His landmark paper \"Phthisiologica, seu exercitationes de phthisi libris comprehensae. Totumque opus variis histories illustratum\" was published in Latin in 1689, with an English translation appearing in 1694. A second English edition was published in 1720. Its significance is partly due to the disease receiving...
Darwin's use of "Natural Selection"	Is there a question here? I'm having a little trouble figuring out what kind of answer you're looking for.	[ "Darwin thought of natural selection by analogy to how farmers select crops or livestock for breeding, which he called \"artificial selection\"; in his early manuscripts he referred to a \"Nature\" which would do the selection. At the time, other mechanisms of evolution such as evolution by genetic drift were not y...
if sugar is so bad why should i eat fruit? what does it give me that vegetables don't?	It's not that sugar is bad; it's that sugars in certain capacities are bad. If you drink a soda that has 20g of sugar, those 20g of sugar are going to be immediately and instantaneously absorbed by your body. On the other hand, let's say you eat a piece of fruit that contains 20g of sugar - that sugar will be digested...	[ "A 2003 World Health Organization technical report provided evidence that high intake of sugary drinks (including fruit juice) increased the risk of obesity by adding to overall energy intake. By itself, sugar is not a factor causing obesity and metabolic syndrome, but rather – when over-consumed – is a component o...
what is a virtual cpu ?	> Virtual CPUs or vCPU are the brand name of NetLogic for its SMT implementation, like Intels HyperThreading. The concept is easy: For each CPU core you have several vCPU's, which are simulated and share the hardware of the one core. The software that runs on such a architecture "sees" x vCPU's altough there are only ...	[ "General-purpose computing on graphics processing units (GPGPU, rarely GPGP) is the use of a graphics processing unit (GPU), which typically handles computation only for computer graphics, to perform computation in applications traditionally handled by the central processing unit (CPU). The use of multiple video ca...
When I viciously rip a leaf off of a tree during Spring months such as April, what exactly happens to the tree?	Assuming you didn't tear some of the bark and only ripped off the leaf, the tree will simply seal off that area via the [abcission layer](_URL_0_). Trees don't heal, they seal; leaves are shed in the fall by this same mechanism. While auxin is produced in the leaf the abcission layer will not seal off the leaf stem, bu...	[ "In the opening of the final chapter, \"Death\", the tree is 550 years old and stands 80 meters (260 feet) tall. Under the weight of too much snow accumulating on the canopy mat, a branch breaks off. Stresses from a long winter with a dry summer weaken the tree's immune system. The exposed area where the branch bro...
why aren't we always hungry for the things that our body needs most?	You are hungry for specific things. That's why you crave certain foods sometimes. Your body is used to nutrients being in that food so it tells you to eat that food.	[ "There is no single explanation for food cravings, and explanations range from low serotonin levels affecting the brain centers for appetite to production of endorphins as a result of consuming fats and carbohydrates.\n", "Commonly people have an appetite for meat or eggs, high protein foods. But these may be exp...
why are there free refills for soft drinks in the us?	In the US refills are free because soft drinks are commonly dispensed from fountain machines. A 12oz soft drink from a fountain costs the restaurant almost nothing, typically less than a penny. So restaurants see free refills as a perk they can offer with only a tiny cost to themselves that might encourage patrons to s...	[ "Free refills are seen as a good way to attract customers to an establishment, especially one whose beverages are not their primary source of income. Due to the extremely low cost of fountain soft drinks (especially the beverage itself, not including the cost of the cup, lid and straw), often offering a profit marg...
how does prison labor work?	In my prison, as an example, the guys who work in the dining facility start out at 40c an hour. The guys who work in the welding shop start out at 60c an hour. The guys who work in the wood shop get 45c an hour, but can get a bonus of up to $25 dollars depending on what they build. Inmates who stay with a job long enou...	[ "A labor camp (or labour, see spelling differences) or work camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment under the criminal code. Labour camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especially prison farms). Conditions at labor ca...
Are there any lifeforms that have evolved exclusively on land and never began from water?	Not sure what you mean there. If you trace back the lineage of all known life forms further and futher back, eventually they all had ancestors that lived in the water. (E.g. for Homo sapiens - _URL_0_) If you're just looking back one or two evolutionary steps, then of course the r...	[ "Recent studies showcase that ambulocetids were fully aquatic like modern cetaceans, possessing a similar thoracic morphology and being unable to support their weight on land. This suggests that complete abandonment of the land evolved much earlier among cetaceans than previously thought.\n", "Most life forms evo...
How is the insulin transfer into the bloodstream regulated?	The insuline secretion is mainly modulated by the blood sugar, i.e. your glucose level in the blood which is roughly 5 mmol/L or 90 mg/dL. Every cell in the body absorpts glucose (different mechanisms) where it can be metabolized. One important substance that you get this way is the ATP (Adenosine-Triphosphate), an ene...	[ "This influx then stimulates fusion of the insulin vesicles to the cell membrane and secretion of insulin in the extracellular fluid outside the beta cell; thus making it enter the bloodstream. [Also Illustrated in Figure 1.1.1].\n", "This insulin signal transduction pathway is composed of trigger mechanisms (e.g...
Roman (and other classical) political graffiti--what's the deal with it?	> In I, Claudius, I think there's a major plot element where Claudius freaks out about seeing his name written upside down Not quite. Part of the plot involves Germanicus, Caligula's superstitious father, being terrorised by defacements of his name and other omens, which turn out to be the doing of Caligula.	[ "More than simply text and thought, Roman graffiti give insight into the use of space and how people interacted within it. Studying the motivation behind the marks reveals a trend for the graffiti to be located where people spend time and pass most frequently as they move through a space. Common places for graffiti...
why does steam always have to install microsoft c++ redistributable 2005 when i install a game?	In case it isn't already there. It isn't part of the operating system (Windows XP, say, was released in 2001 so isn't going to have something released in 2005). Since the game needs it, it is going to be installed. Why do all games need it? Because it contains all the basic building blocks of the C++ language w...	[ "The game also drew praise for its high-performing engine, which enables the game to run on previous-generation hardware; the minimum system requirements for CPU on Steam are stated simply as \"Anything made since 2004\" and the game supports Windows XP despite Microsoft having discontinued support for that operati...
what's the difference between a war and a 'cold war'?	The cold war was a period where neither side liked each other, but both were too afraid of the consequences to fight an actual war against each other (since both had nuclear weaponry). The cold war involved spies, propaganda, arms races, foreign coups, supplying aid to terrorist groups attacking your enemy, supporting ...	[ "A cold war is a state of conflict between nations that does \"not\" involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, propaganda, acts of espionage or proxy wars waged by surrogates. This term is most commonly used to refer to the Soviet-American Cold War. The surrogat...
why do cars stop/stall when they are spun around?	Cars can stall when the car is in drive and the car is spun and the tires start to roll in the opposite way that the gear is supposed to be rolling, thus making the gears go the wrong way. If you have enough power and are spun, and keep your foot on the gas and the tires are spinning forward still, the car wont stall, ...	[ "Once the vehicle is rotating sufficiently rapidly, its angular momentum of rotation can overcome the stabilizing influence of the tires (either braking or skidding), and the rotation will continue even if the wheels are centered or past the point that the vehicle is controlled. This can be caused by some tires loc...
Are we bound to get cancer if we don't die from something else before that?	Pretty much yes. Cancer is an unavoidable consequence of evolution. A multicellular organism is a colony of cells that work in concert for one common goal. As we have evolved our cells have developed mechanisms to make sure all the cells divide and grow as complying members of the whole. Still, an individual cell tha...	[ "With the right medical help, cancer doesn't have to be a death sentence. Those who can afford it travel to other countries to pay for their treatment and care. Those who can't are left to suffer and die.\n", "Treatment and survival is determined, to a great extent, by whether or not a cancer remains localized or...
If you could theoretically survive on Venus, would you be floating in mid-air?	Density, not pressure is the key point for buoyancy. According to wiki, > The density of the air at the surface is 67 kg/m3, which is 6.5% that of liquid water on Earth. So while the air is 50 times denser than Earth's air, it's still like 15-20 times less dense than the human body, so you won't float.	[ "Although there is little possibility of existing life near the surface of Venus, the altitudes about 50 km above the surface have a mild temperature, and hence there are still some opinions in favor of such a possibility in the atmosphere of Venus.\n", "The fact that Venus is located closer to the Sun than Earth...
why do some armies use chevrons and others use inverted chevrons? is it simply a stylistic choice or does it have some significance?	I dont exactly know where it came from, but from an educated guess it could be left over from the use of heraldry when it was used to show a particular family association, or even a throw back to the Spartans who used a lambda (Λ) on their shields. Of course if you read the da vinci code, you'd know its a penis.	[ "At the earliest times, military insignias were very simple. Tree branches, mauled birds, heads of beasts, or a handful of dry grass, were placed on top of a pole or long stick, so that the combatants could recognize themselves in the fight, or to signpost a meeting place in retreat or defeat. But as the arts of wa...
how to patent an invention idea and get rich.	tl;dr: patents are not the way to go for an inventor It is said, that every good idea for a product is worth negative one million dollars. Why? Because you have to invest a significant amount of money until you can get any profit from it (prototypes, testing, tooling for production machines, investment in raw material...	[ "[T]this could be done best, by giving the public at large a right to make, construct, use, and vend the thing invented, at as early a period as possible, having a due regard to the rights of the inventor. If an inventor should be permitted to hold back from the knowledge of the public the secrets of his invention;...

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