question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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How can we be sure that planets light years away will still be there when we get there? | You cant. But the odds are pretty good for a planet to last a billion years or sk. We can tell what stage the star is at in its lifecycle. But yeah...especially if it's taking you thousands of years to get there the planet may have been destroyed or chucked out of its orbit (especially in a binary star system) | [
"Astrophysicist Sten Odenwald stated that the basic problem is that through intensive studies of thousands of detected exoplanets, most of the closest destinations within 50 light years do not yield Earth-like planets in the star's habitable zones. Given the multitrillion-dollar expense of some of the proposed tech... |
what/ who are gypsies? | The Romani (also spelled Romany; /ˈroʊməni/, /ˈrɒ-/), or Roma, are a traditionally itinerant ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas, who originate from the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent.[28][29] The Romani are widely known among English-speaking people by the exonym "Gypsies" (or "Gipsi... | [
"One theory suggests that the name ultimately derives from a form \"ḍōmba-\" 'man of low caste living by singing and music', attested in Classical Sanskrit. Many also believe that Gypsies are descendants of Dalit because of the word zingaro (ατσίγγανος) (\"untouchable\") that was used to designate gypsies in Greece... |
death by hanging | It depends if they do it properly. Hanging is supposed to snap your neck, severing your spinal cord,and killing you fairly quickly.
Often (especially when done by amateurs), if it isn't done right (drop isn't big enough, knot isn't done right, whatever), and the neck isn't snapped, they'll suffocate slowly. | [
"Hanging, as it was practised in 1817, was particularly cruel and inefficient. The story predates the adoption of the \"long drop,\" calculated to end the condemned person's life quickly by breaking the neck. During this time, all deaths by hanging are caused by slow choking. In the novel, James Botting, the execut... |
What is the driving force of the solar cycle? Does it significantly affect total solar output? | The Sun is a giant rotating ball of plasma. Plasma is very electrically conductive so the currents in the Sun naturally give rise to strong magnetic fields. This "solar dynamo" is a complex phenomenon because the Sun's poles and equator rotate at different speeds, causing the magnetic field to evolve in an unusual fash... | [
"The solar cycle also modulates the flux of short-wavelength solar radiation, from ultraviolet to X-ray and influences the frequency of solar flares, coronal mass ejections and other solar eruptive phenomena.\n",
"The solar cycle is an approximately 11-year period of varying solar activity including solar maximum... |
how do some websites keep you from navagating back? | Usually, this is done by sending people to a page, which immediately redirects to another page. So, if you click back on the second page, it just sends you back to the first page which immediately redirects you again.
Usually, if you click back fast enough, you can get past it and eventually make it back to where you... | [
"The first layer of defense is a captcha page where the user is prompted to verify he is a real person and not a bot or tool. Solving the captcha will create a cookie that permits access to the search engine again for a while. After about one day the captcha page is removed again.\n",
"Delete messages: A user can... |
I've heard a lot that pre-modern soldiers generally did not aim to kill, or would purposefully miss their target so-as to not kill. Was this also a problem when melee weapons and archery was the dominant means of warfare? | You may be interested in a [previous answer](_URL_0_) I wrote to a similar question. | [
"As happens, the Army's men often had the weapons to fight the \"last\" war by the time of the following conflict. Most of the 19th century weapons were technologically obsolete at their introduction or within five years, and despite the apparently exhaustive testing many inadequate weapons were issued.\n",
"Trad... |
Why was Gustav III of Sweden so determined to aid Louis XVI during the French Revolution? | Multiple reasons. First Gustav III was a king who believed in the idea of 'Enlightened Absolutism'. He'd instituted absolute monarchy (one of two quite short periods of that in Swedish history) in a coup d'etat, inspired strongly by Louis's absolutism, and Gustav in his coup strongly curtailed the power of the Swedish ... | [
"When Gustav made war on Russia and did poorly he was assassinated by a conspiracy of nobles angry that he tried to restrict their privileges for the benefit of the peasants. Under King Charles XIII, Sweden joined various coalitions against Napoleon, but was badly defeated and lost much of its territory, especially... |
Is the term "Cultural Marxism" actually historically related to a fascist reaction against Critical Theory? | Yes, that would be the idea that the term "Cultural Marxism" comes from the 1920s German concept of Cultural Bolshevism (Kulturbolschewismus - _URL_6_) - which along with "Jewish Bolshevism" (originating in pre-war Poland as "Żydokomuna" _URL_2_) was claimed to be the secretive and hidden attempt of Bolshevists to brin... | [
"In \"Fascism: Fascism and Culture\" (2003), Matthew Feldman traced the etymology of the term \"Cultural Marxism\" as derived from the anti-Semitic term \"Kulturbolshewismus\" (Cultural Bolshevism), which Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party used in charging that Jewish cultural influence was the source of German social... |
High heels were primarily worn by men for the first 700 years after they were invented, changing to being primarily worn by women in the 17th century. What triggered this change? Was there a time when both genders commonly wore them? | I've actually got a past answer that deals with this question: [How did heels became a purely feminine thing, after it was first used on shoes in the 16th century by noble or rich men?](_URL_0_) (For more on the Great Masculine Renunciation I mention in it, try [here](_URL_1_).) It's on the short side, though, so there... | [
"The girdles and buckled belts that were popular in the fifth and sixth century, with tools and personal items suspended from the belt, have gone out of fashion by the tenth century. Women wear simple ankle shoes and slippers in the tenth and eleventh century. Archaeological evidence suggests that a variety of shoe... |
What was the draw weight of a historical Yumi (Japanese bow)? | You would do far better to search on military forums, as there are no historical records of an actual number to it. There is no direct data that is reliable enough to draw a conclusion, unlike Chinese, Turkish and Middle Eastern, and European bows that still survive or were measured with quantitative draw weights. Not ... | [
"Among Filipino swords, the most distinguishing characteristic of the Kampilan is its huge size. At about 36 to 40 inches (90 to 100 cm) long, it is much larger than other Filipino swords, and is thought to be the longest, though smaller versions (sometimes called the \"kampilan bolo\") exist. A notable exception w... |
How much land does it take to support one human being? | > The minimum amount of agricultural land necessary for sustainable food security, with a diversified diet similar to those of North America and Western Europe (hence including meat), is 0.5 of a hectare per person. This does not allow for any land degradation such as soil erosion, and it assumes adequate water suppli... | [
"For example, there were 12 billion hectares of biologically productive land and water on this planet in 2008. Dividing by the number of people alive in that year, 6.7 billion, gives a biocapacity of 1.8 global hectares per person . This assumes that no land is set aside for other species that consume the same biol... |
Louis XIV and absolute monarchy | The standard Europe 101 argument (and I just gave a lecture on it last week) is:
- by building a state bureaucracy of non-noble, paid staff (instead of offices that would be handed to aristocrats)
- by having loyal administrators, *Intendants*, travel to distant areas and keep an eye on things;
- and by building Ve... | [
"Louis XIV, known as the \"Sun King\", reigned over France from 1643 until 1715 although his strongest period of personal rule did not begin until 1661 after the death of his Italian chief minister Cardinal Mazarin. Louis believed in the divine right of kings, which asserts that a monarch is above everyone except G... |
Can stars spit out elements we've yet to discover? | Currently, for transuranium elements the heavier atomic weight is, the less is half-life. So, by simple extrapolation, heavier nuclei shouldn't really exist. Now, it has been theorized that there is an ["island of stability"](_URL_0_), where extremely heavy nuclei suddenly become stable. We are currently unable to test... | [
"The presence of heavy elements in a star's light-spectrum is another potential biosignature; such elements would (in theory) be found if the star was being used as an incinerator/repository for nuclear waste products.\n",
"BULLET::::- 1957 – William Alfred Fowler, Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, and Fred H... |
how does photos taken on iphone geotag without service? | It simply uses the phone's built in GPS (which only requires a view of the sky) and puts the phone's current location into the metadata of the picture. | [
"Many smartphones automatically geotag their photos by default. Photographers who prefer not to reveal their location can turn this feature off. Additionally smartphones can use their GPS to geotag photos taken with an external camera.\n",
"Contributors gather imagery with their smartphones using an Android or iO... |
why is a flat tax regressive? | Let's look at two people:
* A makes $50,000 and spends $25,000.
* B makes $100,000 and spends $40,000.
If you have a flat consumption tax of 50%, A pays $12,500 and B pays $20,000. The effective tax rate (the amount paid in tax relative to income) for A is 25% and B is 20%. Since A pays more as percentage of his inc... | [
"Where deductions are allowed, a 'flat tax' is a progressive tax with the special characteristic that, above the maximum deduction, the marginal rate on all further income is constant. Such a tax is said to be marginally flat above that point. The difference between a true flat tax and a marginally flat tax can be ... |
Regarding the media treatment of President Kennedy's affairs in the 60's. Is this really accurate? | A lot of it was that the press really, really liked Kennedy. You don't smear people you like. No president since has been anywhere near as popular with the press, not even Obama, though he has come closest. | [
"President John F. Kennedy, whose government was the main sponsor of Diệm's regime, learned of Đức's death when handed the morning newspapers while he was talking to his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, on the phone. Kennedy reportedly interrupted their conversation about segregation in Alabama by excla... |
To what extent was the spread of Islam bloodless? | You're absolutely right that the expansion of territory under the control of Muslims happened very quickly and through military conquest! However, scholars differentiate between *Arabization* and *Islamicization* (or Islamization) of conquered territories. It generally happens that conquest preceded the gradual accultu... | [
"Besides the spread of Islam through Arabia by prophets it spread through trade routes like the Silk Road and through conflicts of war. Through the Silk road traders and members of the early Muslim faith were able to go to countries such as China and create mosques around 627 C. E. As men from the Middle East came ... |
can you get in trouble for streaming movies online for free? | Any authority is much, much more likely to go after the host of the stream rather than an individual user who watches it. Legal? No, it's not. Going to get you into trouble? Unlikely. | [
"The film can also be rented via DVD on Netflix as of March 17, 2010. When asked by a media provider on behalf of Netflix in April 2010 if she would also offer the film via the company's on-demand streaming service in exchange for a limited amount of money, Paley requested that the film be streamed either DRM-free ... |
How does a radio not pick up old signals? | Old radio signals from space? Radio telescopes *do* pick up radio waves from long ago because it takes so long for the wave to travel through space.
Old radio signals from Earth? They are absorbed and destroyed soon after they are created. For instance, a radio broadcast tower sends out waves. These waves travel throu... | [
"Unlike modern AM radio stations that transmit a continuous radio frequency, whose amplitude (power) is modulated by an audio signal, the first radio transmitters transmitted information by wireless telegraphy (radiotelegraphy), the transmitter was turned on and off (on-off keying) to produce different length pulse... |
what does „star collapses under its own gravity” really mean when star dies? | The gravity of the star constantly pulls all of the mass toward the center. While the mass of the star is a plasma, a lot of that mass and energy pushes particles apart and forces the star to expand. The star expanding and the gravity pulling eventually reach a relative equilibrium that keeps the shape and size of the ... | [
"The gravitational collapse of a star is a natural process that can produce a black hole. It is inevitable at the end of the life of a star, when all stellar energy sources are exhausted. If the mass of the collapsing part of the star is below the Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff (TOV) limit for neutron-degenerate matter... |
How much radiation would you be exposed to holding weapons-grade plutonium in your hand? | It depends on how much of it you’re holding, and whether or not criticality is reached. The “common” isotopes of plutonium are radioactive to alpha decay, but Pu always comes cladded in other metals, which the alpha particles can’t penetrate. Some fraction of the time, it will undergo spontaneous fission instead, which... | [
"BULLET::::- While demonstrating his technique to visiting scientists at Los Alamos, Canadian physicist Louis Slotin manually assembled a critical mass of plutonium. A momentary slip of a screwdriver caused a prompt critical reaction. Slotin died on May 30 from massive radiation poisoning, with an estimated dose of... |
Breathing fumes of dry ice, bad for you? | A little bit of it, not that bad. But I once made the mistake of accidentally inhaling some really concentrated fumes, while bent over double trying to get some of the last chunks of the stuff out of a usually closed container. **River** of blood out my nose in under a second. Do not try at home. | [
"Dry ice sublimates at , at Earth atmospheric pressures. This extreme cold makes the solid dangerous to handle without protection due to burns caused by freezing (frostbite). While generally not very toxic, the outgassing from it can cause hypercapnia (abnormally elevated carbon dioxide levels in the blood) due to ... |
is the sugar in chocolate the same as the sugar in fruit? | No, they are different sugars.
The (added) sugar in chocolate is typically sucrose, the sugar in fruit is fructose.
However In practice, they both become glucose in the body, so a comparable amount of sucrose is 'the same' as that amount of fructose.
Remember, you're not just eating a teaspoon of sugar in either ... | [
"BULLET::::- Fructose, or fruit sugar, occurs naturally in fruits, some root vegetables, cane sugar and honey and is the sweetest of the sugars. It is one of the components of sucrose or table sugar. It is used as a high-fructose syrup, which is manufactured from hydrolyzed corn starch that has been processed to yi... |
how is it that the leaders in the house can hold back a vote (regarding the us budget)? | For one, spending bills have to originate in the House. Also, the House Rules Committee recently amended the rules to only allow the majority leader, Eric Cantor, to put bills before the House. This rule is temporary, but it is the reason why moderate Republicans have not allied with Democrats to pass a clean continuin... | [
"Both majority and minority blocs in Congress have used the lack of quorum in defeating bills that they don't want to be passed without putting it to a vote. After an election during the lame-duck session, quorums are notoriously difficult to muster, more so in the House of Representatives as winning incumbents may... |
is saudi arabia's rejection of its security council seat anything other than symbolic? | I am not sure what would qualify this to you as a big deal. It is in protest of the veto members blocking Saudi's attempts to sanction Bashar Al-Asad. The security council seats are highly coveted as it signifies prestige and international influence for a country.
That region of the world will still have representat... | [
"Following the vote, Saudi Arabia, despite winning, declined to take the seat citing the UNSC's \"double standards\" in being allegedly ineffective in regards to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, nuclear disarmament in the Middle East and putting an end to the Syrian civil war. This was the first time a state had r... |
how is maintaining a high credit card balance bad for your credit score, even though you constantly pay off 10x the monthly payment at a time? | Credit score is all about saying how responsible you are with credit. If you have a $10,000 credit limit, but you routinely carry a $9,000 balance, that tells other creditors that you run it pretty close to the edge and that you borrow a lot of money and take time to pay it back. They don't care *how much* you pay each... | [
"Because a significant portion of the FICO score is determined by the ratio of credit used to credit available on credit card accounts, one way to increase the score is to increase the credit limits on one's credit card accounts.\n",
"Getting a higher credit limit can help a credit score. The higher the credit li... |
during the late 80s to mid 90s, every home computer came with their own operating system. now almost all home computers comes with just windows, why? | The short answer: because Microsoft, lead by Bill Gates, engaged in illegal anti-competitive actions to drive competitors out of business and establish a near-monopoly. They engaged in [wide-spread predatory business practices](_URL_0_) designed to drive out direct and indirect competitors in the OS market.
To give ju... | [
"A home computer was the description of the second generation of desktop computers, entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s. A decade later they were generally replaced by IBM PC compatible \"PCs\", although in actuality home computers are also members of the class known as personal compute... |
how do construction workers put together a crane | I assume you mean a tower crane. That is done piece by piece as with another mobile crane as helpt initially. You put it together with the horizontal beam relative close to the ground and then the crane can raise itself up and add another vertical segment.
Look at [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) The self raising part start at 4 ... | [
"Cast Load: Crane has the ability to produce cast loaded explosives utilizing various production lines with mixing, melting, and holding kettles. We have the capability to produce bombs, mines, shock test charges, demolition charges, shape charges, burster tubes, underwater sound signals, cluster bombs and projecti... |
why is it so easy for a person to believe in a complex conspiracy such as the illuminati? | It's easy for people to believe conspiracy theories because they are basically shortcuts to explain the world. Understanding the Federal Reserve is complicated, understanding how power is allocated and what motivates people in power is complicated. Accepting cancer rates are rising due to known carcinogens, but we ra... | [
"Many conspiracy theories propose that world events are being controlled and manipulated by a secret society calling itself the Illuminati. Conspiracy theorists have claimed that many notable people were or are members of the Illuminati. Presidents of the United States are a common target for such claims.\n",
"On... |
what causes a drug addict's veins to deteriorate when i've been donating plasma for months with no deterioration? | [Here's my arm after 2 years of shooting H 3-4 times a day](_URL_0_). Only been about every second day for the last 2 months though cause I'm on Suboxone. So it's not always too bad.
It's not because drug users 'don't know what they're doing' as mentioned here. 99% of the time I get it right on the first try, and I've... | [
"Alcoholic cirrhosis caused by alcohol abuse is treated by abstaining from alcohol. Treatment for hepatitis-related cirrhosis involves medications used to treat the different types of hepatitis, such as interferon for viral hepatitis and corticosteroids for autoimmune hepatitis. Cirrhosis caused by Wilson's disease... |
what happens to the Carbon-14 that decays inside of us? | It pretty much does what you think it might. It changes into nitrogen which changes its chemical properties. Since Carbon typically makes 4 bonds while Nitrogen prefers 3 if the bonds aren't destroyed by the nuclear reaction itself (Since these reactions can often give off a fairly large amount of energy) they'll lik... | [
"Nitrogen-14 is the source of naturally-occurring, radioactive, carbon-14. Some kinds of cosmic radiation cause a nuclear reaction with nitrogen-14 in the upper atmosphere of the Earth, creating carbon-14, which decays back to nitrogen-14 with a half-life of 5,730 ± 40 years.\n",
"By emitting an electron and an e... |
why can't we simply restart the brain? | Brain-dead doesn't mean the software in your brain has crashed and requires a reboot. Brain death means the hardware of your brain has been chemically destroyed. It's not usable anymore. | [
"BULLET::::- Dying ReLU problem: ReLU neurons can sometimes be pushed into states in which they become inactive for essentially all inputs. In this state, no gradients flow backward through the neuron, and so the neuron becomes stuck in a perpetually inactive state and \"dies\". This is a form of the vanishing grad... |
In 1095, the First Crusade is called to aid Byzantium, a Christian power, against their Muslim enemy. In 1204, the Fourth Crusade conquers the capital of Byzantium. How on earth did this happen? | While it is true that the relationship between the Catholic and Orthodox churches did decline this isn't them main reason for the 4th Crusade conquering Constantinople. The 4th Crusade wasn't called against the Byzantine Empire, infact the pope excommunicated the participants of the 4th Crusade because they weren't fig... | [
"In 1099, the Christian Crusaders, with the support of the Roman Catholic Church, launched the First Crusade campaign with the aims of regaining control of Jerusalem from the Fatimid Caliphate, and helping the Byzantine Empire fight the Seljuk Turks. During the campaign, the Crusaders launched an assault on the cit... |
what is that yellow foil around space probes and what is its function? | The gold and silver colored sheets you see are often a single layer of aluminized polyimide with the silver aluminum side facing in. The yellowish-gold color of the polyimide on the outside gives the satellite the appearance of being wrapped in gold.
Multi-layer insulation is used on satellites primarily for thermal c... | [
"Foil is commonly used in household applications. It is also useful in survival situations, because the reflective surface reduces the degree of hypothermia caused by thermal radiation (see space blanket).\n",
"An aluminum electrolytic capacitor with a non-solid electrolyte always consists of two aluminum foils s... |
If I filled up a water bottle underwater in the deep part of the ocean, and brought it back up again, would the bottle explode? | **Short answer:** Probably not, but it depends on the quality of your plastic bottle.
**Long answer:** Gasses and liquids behave a little differently when under pressure. The temperature or pressure of ideal gasses, for example, will have a dramatic response when compressed.
Water is different- in fact, it's often t... | [
"The bottle, more precisely a metal or plastic cylinder, is lowered on a cable into the ocean, and when it has reached the required depth, a brass weight called a \"messenger\" is dropped down the cable. When the weight reaches the bottle, the impact tips the bottle upside down and trips a spring-loaded valve at th... |
Can you tell the age of someone by their DNA? | To some extent, yes. In the S-phase of the cell cycle, when the cell is preparing to undergo mitosis, the chromosomes containing our DNA are duplicated by the DNA-polymerase enzyme.
The telomeres are strands of nucleotide bases at the end of the chromosomes where no genes are located. These are used to provide the loc... | [
"The determination of an individual's age by anthropologists depends on whether or not the individual was an adult or a child. The determination of the age of children, under the age of 21, is usually performed by examining the teeth. When teeth are not available, children can be aged based on which growth plates a... |
In video games and popular media, the Sengoku Period of Japan are often characterized as a period of conflict between Japanese clans which were small but were of equal economic or military strength with each other. Was this accurate? | Well...it really depends on the specific clan, battle, and war. When we are talking about local strongman vs local strongman, it's probably not too far off to assume each side only had a few hundred, or at most a couple of thousand. However, things could be quite large and lopsided. For instance, the overall engagement... | [
"\"Sengoku BASARA\" takes place during the Sengoku period, or Warring States period, of feudal Japan during which Japan was split into many minor states battling over power and land. The game features two historical warlords as the main protagonists: Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura.\n",
"The Sengoku Period is m... |
if humans have a night and day circadian clock, why have i (and others) been a night owl since birth? | I'm right there with you. Our knowledge of sleep is still very limited (as well as pretty much anything that has to do with our brain), but there are a large range of classified sleep disorders. Insomnia, night terrors, narcolepsy, things you've probably heard before. [Here's a good Wikipedia article on Delayed Sleep P... | [
"The opposite of a night owl is an early bird – a lark as opposed to an owl – which is someone who tends to begin sleeping at a time that is considered early and also wakes early. Researchers traditionally use the terms \"morningness\" and \"eveningness\" for the two chronotypes or diurnality and nocturnality in an... |
How common were certain Roman names, and are there any reliable statistics on this? | The traditional Roman male *tria nomina* were made up of three elements. The *tria nomina* was a symbol of Roman citizenship and quite often thought as the 'classic' form of Roman nomenclature, but in reality, it was actually used for a relatively short amount of time in Roman history and all sorts of other formulas an... | [
"The early sources for Roman names show numerous variants and misspellings of the Latin names. Moreover, one of the principal authorities, Ptolemy, wrote in Greek so names that he records need to be transliterated back into Latin to reveal the original form.\n",
"An amount of names from Roman times has also survi... |
Should the Atlantropa project (the partial drying of the Mediterranean sea) be realised, wouldn't the newly freed land be too salty for agriculture ? | It's not easy but the Dutch have been doing it for a long time now.
Youtube clip, 19 minutes:
_URL_0_
Long read about the Dutch desalination and reclamation of land:
_URL_1_ | [
"In 1985 a new development proposal was formulated that would see additional land taken from the Mediterranean, and integrate as an urban park, a beach of three kilometers, as well as residential, commercial and tertiary zones. The first works for its revitalization began in 2006 and consisted of work of depollutio... |
why streaming porn on my tablet loads 10 times faster than any other video streaming domains. | There are a LOT of people using SFW video streaming domains like Netflix and YouTube. Compared to the relatively small amount of data not-video content takes up, it's an absolutely massive amount of traffic. Porn sites get a lot of traffic too, but I'd be willing to wager that at least within the US (because copyrighte... | [
"The amount of data used by video streaming services depends on the quality of the video. Thus, Android Central breaks down how much data is used (on a smartphone) with regards to different video resolutions. According to their findings, per hour video between 240p and 320p resolution uses roughly 0.3GB. Standard v... |
Russian roulette - what is the origin? Has it actually been played? Are there testimonials from survivors? | One of the first mentions of Russian Roulette in literature was in a 1840 novel by Russian poet Lermontov "Hero of Our Time" (Full ebook available on [Gutenberg Project](_URL_1_), scene is in the last chapter of the book).
Since Lermontow was a Russian officer who served in Caucasus and at least some facts\stories in ... | [
"Russian Roulette is the third studio album by American hip hop producer and recording artist The Alchemist, the album was released on July 17, 2012. The project is constructed from samples of Soviet music (hence the title), making it a concept album. Featured artists on the project consists of acts such as Evidenc... |
What is the best book to explain the evidence and the argument for climate change? | There is a wealth of resources that deal with climate change.
For a brief summary, I think the [booklet published by the Australian Academy of Science](_URL_0_) does a fair job. There are probably many similar booklets out there.
If you want more details, the website [Skeptical Science](_URL_1_) is one extraordinary ... | [
"The book presents an in-depth analysis and refutation of climate change denial, going over several arguments point-by-point and disproving them with peer-reviewed evidence from the scientific consensus for climate change. The authors assert that those denying climate change engage in tactics including cherry picki... |
do birds pee? | Water is a pretty heavy material, so if birds were to have a bladder it would significantly affect weight distribution. So instead of converting amino acids to urea which needs to dissolve in water to be removed, a lot of water. The convert it to uric acid which forms a paste when a small amount of water is added to it... | [
"This is a vocal bird in the breeding season, with constant calling as the crazed tumbling display flight is performed by the male. The typical contact call is a loud, shrill \"pee-wit\" from which they get their other name of peewit. Displaying males usually make a wheezy \"pee-wit, wit wit, eeze wit\" during thei... |
Any book recommendations on the history of contemporary music? | First off, because you mention the 60's as your starting point for learning about the history of music, I am going to assume your focus lies in the British reinvention of rock and roll and the countless genres spawned by this event. This happens to be an area with which I am familiar. However, our culture glorifies th... | [
"Hebert's interests in global music historiography developed as he explored such topics as how European music was adopted in Japan, and how the American genres of jazz and rock music ironically struggled to gain acceptance in American schools. In 2014 he produced a book with Jonathan McCollum (Washington College) e... |
After WWII, what did the International Red Cross conclude, in it's investigations into the holocaust? | From an [older answer concerning this specific claim about the ICRC](_URL_2_). And for good measure one on the actual death toll [here](_URL_3_)
With regards to the documents by the International Committee of the Red Cross:
This myth of a Red Cross document originates with famous Holocaust Denier Richard Harwood in h... | [
"The International Committee of the Red Cross did relatively little to save Jews during the Holocaust and discounted reports of the organized Nazi genocide, such as of the murder of Polish Jewish prisoners that took place at Lublin. At the time, the Red Cross justified its inaction by suggesting that aiding Jewish ... |
Are there the equivalent of speech impediments in sign language? | I've worked with a lot of impaired students, and some of the students who sign have physical disabilities with their hands/arms, or cognitive disabilities that affect their motor skills. So yes, trying to understand their signing is a lot like trying to understand someone with a severe speech impediment | [
"For people who have hearing difficulties, sign language is sometimes employed to communicate. Sign language makes use of a combination of hand gestures, facial expressions, and body postures. Similar to speech, it has its own grammar and linguistic structure and may vary from each deaf community around the world.\... |
why do we have to move our eyes when remembering something? | I'm not a neurologist or psychiatrist, but I can tell you how it kind of works for me. When I move my eyes to remember, it's more like I'm looking away from what I was focused on rather than visually focusing on something new. It's kind of like daydreaming when can be staring off into space without really seeing what... | [
"Primarily, experimenters recorded eye movements while participants studied a series of photos. Individuals were then involved in a recognition task in which their eye movements were recorded for the second time. From the previous tasks, it was discovered that eye fixations, maintaining a visual gaze on a single lo... |
How strong is the electric current in Earth's core that produces Earth's magnetic field? | [Here](_URL_0_) is a discussion on this topic, the first comment used the formula for a current loop and came up with a value of around 10^8 amps. The comments note that this uses the field strength at the surface when it should be at the core, so more like 10^11 amps.
I’m not really sure how valid of an estimation t... | [
"The main part of Earth's magnetic field is generated in the core, the site of a dynamo process that converts the kinetic energy of thermally and compositionally driven convection into electrical and magnetic field energy. The field extends outwards from the core, through the mantle, and up to Earth's surface, wher... |
A foolish question on my part, but it's bothering me (Relating to stellar evolution). | All other things being equal, more mass would mean longer lifetime, but all other things are not equal. The luminosity of a star increases much faster than its mass; it typically goes something like (mass)^3.5 (the exponent varies somewhat depending on the mass of the star), and so the increased rate of fusion wins ou... | [
"Stellar evolution is not studied by observing the life of a single star, as most stellar changes occur too slowly to be detected, even over many centuries. Instead, astrophysicists come to understand how stars evolve by observing numerous stars at various points in their lifetime, and by simulating stellar structu... |
what is it about video games that turns some lazy people into completionists? | I'm not sure who you mean by "lazy people" in the title, but let's assume you mean someone like me. I'm at work and I'm on reddit, despite having made multiple appointments on my calendar that simply say (no exaggeration), "get to work."
Yet I'm an achievement whore of OCD caliber.
The reason is simple: Video games o... | [
"This genre involves games that orient the player with a trivial task, such as clicking a cookie; and as the game progresses, the player is gradually rewarded certain upgrades for completing said task. In all, these games require very little involvement from the player, and in most cases they play themselves; hence... |
how can some parts of the universe be so far that light hasn't reached them, since nothing can travel faster than light? | Because space can expand faster than the speed of light, matter cannot however. | [
"Some parts of the universe are too far away for the light emitted since the Big Bang to have had enough time to reach Earth or its scientific space-based instruments, and so lie outside the observable universe. In the future, light from distant galaxies will have had more time to travel, so additional regions will... |
The United States Second Amendment starts with "A well-regulated militia...". What was intended by the phrase "well-regulated" if the right extends to gun owners who are not part of an organised group? | Looks like I am a little late to the party, however, I just answered a very similar question a few days ago, so [I will copy and paste it here:](_URL_3_)
Specific question I answered: "Why would Thomas Jefferson write in, and founding fathers put their signatures on, the 2nd amendment after Shays rebellion?"
This is ... | [
"In a 1994 article co-authored with University of Oklahoma law professor Robert B. Smith, Deming and Smith concluded \"the Second Amendment safeguards an individual right; the militia consists of people who have a right to keep and bear arms.\" In 1997, Deming argued that gun ownership was \"net benefit to our soci... |
how do biologists and doctors know what chemical to use in order to make something happen in the body? | The collective body of herbalists, doctors, chemists, and witch doctors from the past two to three thousand years have been documenting findings and studying effects of substances on the human body.
Lets work out an easy example. In our tribe of neanderthals, everyone knows if you eat the red berries from the bush ... | [
"Researchers often want to measure, say, medical compounds in the bodies of animals. It's hard to measure them directly, so it can be chemically joined to a radionuclide - by measuring the radioactivity, you can get a good idea of how the original medical compound is being processed.\n",
"Direct biochemical metho... |
Is it possible or even part of the theory of evolution that a population produces multiple beneficial mutations at once? | This happens, people tend to follow one mutation down generations only for simplicity of demonstration but of course each and every gene develop in parallel. Millions of genes all develop at the same time.
Mathematically, however, the most common mutations are minor, insignificant mutations that do not affect reproduc... | [
"The probability that amount of mutation will go to 0 with the next generation is increased by using non-uniform mutation operator. It keeps the population from stagnating in the early stages of the evolution. It tunes solution in later stages of evolution. This mutation operator can only be used for integer and fl... |
what is the difference between gaming fps, where it's normally around 60, and slow-motion fps in videos, where it says 1000 fps. | The 1000 FPS in the video is referring to the number of frames per second the camera captures, not the number of FPS the video is playing back.
When you're playing LoL and getting 60 FPS, the game is rendering 60 FPS, and displaying it at 60 FPS.
The 1000 FPS camera is capturing 1000 frames in a second, and then the ... | [
"Because both film speeds have been used in 25-fps regions, viewers can face confusion about the true speed of video and audio, and the pitch of voices, sound effects, and musical performances, in television films from those regions. For example, they may wonder whether the Jeremy Brett series of Sherlock Holmes te... |
Has David Irving contributed anything positive to Holocaust academia? Or have his contributions worked to purposefully obfuscate real Holocaust research? Additionally, are there any other examples of well-known "researchers" to watch out for? | Personally i have a lack of knowledge on the work by David Irving. What i can talk about is other Holocaust research and academia. Due to battery life, this will have to be a tad limited, sorry for this.
You ask for "well-known" researchers, then i will give you three.
* Raul Hilberg
* Christopher R. Browning
* Dani... | [
"Over the years, Irving's stance on the Holocaust changed significantly. From 1988, he started to espouse Holocaust denial openly: he had previously not denied the Holocaust outright and for this reason, many Holocaust deniers were ambivalent about him. They admired Irving for the pro-Nazi slant in his work and the... |
Does the "will to live" among the very ill create biochemical changes in the body that helps keep them alive? | There are a number of articles and research papers indicating that a positive mental attitude towards an illness such as cancer can have a profound effect on the rate of recovery. The reasons for this are not particularly well known. It's potentially an extension or application of the placebo effect in that a person ca... | [
"Many studies have been conducted on the theory of the will to live. Among these studies are subject to the difference in gender and the elderly and also in the terminally ill. One study focused on a simple question that asked about rating one’s will to live and presented the findings that elderly participants repo... |
If you traveled back in time wouldn't you being there mean that more mass has entered the universe than was originally there? | So you're asking "if you violate the laws of physics, wouldn't that mean you've violated the laws of physics?"
Yes. | [
"Namely, that from the perspective of the point of origin of the Big Bang, according to Einstein's equations of the 'stretching factor', time dilates by a factor of roughly 1,000,000,000,000, meaning one trillion days on earth would appear to pass as one day from that point, due to the stretching of space. When app... |
- why don't we clean up satellite debris? | High cost, low benefit. | [
"\"Space debris\" usually refers to the remains of spacecraft that have either fallen to Earth or are still orbiting Earth. Space debris may also consist of natural components such as chunks of rock and ice. The problem of space debris has grown as various space programs have left legacies of launches, explosions, ... |
why does food that should be warm seem to taste worse when cold? also why does it seem cold when left out for too long, when it should only be room temperature? | When it's warm, it has more flavor. Some liquids evaporate and give off that aroma, some liquids better coat your tongue.
Food left out *is* cold, compared to the temperature it's served at and the temperature of your body. Food is usually heated above 100 degrees F. You body is in the 90s. Room temperature is usually... | [
"Temperature can be an essential element of the taste experience. Food and drink that—in a given culture—is traditionally served hot is often considered distasteful if cold, and vice versa. For example, alcoholic beverages, with a few exceptions, are usually thought best when served at room temperature or chilled t... |
Info on English Lancegays seems to be impossible to find on, are there any sources that I can be pointed towards as to how these were used? Any treatise or manuals as to how they'd be used in combat? | > [...] there is no identified archaeological evidence: nothing that can show us exactly how long or heavy a lancegay was, what the diameter of the shaft was, what shape of head it had, or whether it had heads at both ends, as is sometimes claimed. There is also no detailed description of a lancegay in any known writ... | [
"A number of manuscripts covering longsword combat and techniques dating from the 13th–16th centuries exist in German, Italian, and English, providing extensive information on longsword combatives as used throughout this period. Many of these are now readily available online.\n",
"\"Conquests of the Longbow\" is ... |
why blood turns brown after it dries? | When the liquid from the blood is seeped into the bandaid, the only thing left outside are the dead red blood cells. That is what you are seeing.
Also: the brown colour of poo is caused by the dead red blood cells filtered out by your liver. The contents of your guts before this is added is grey. | [
"Freshly dried bloodstains are a glossy reddish-brown in color. Under the influence of sunlight, the weather or removal attempts, the color eventually disappears and the stain turns gray. The surface on which it is found may also influence the stain's color.\n",
"The color of red blood cells is due to the heme gr... |
What would Gettysburg battlefield have looked like in the 1950s? (story behind question inside) | The Gettysburg National Military Park was established and gained it's initial protection status in 1863, about a hundred years before you father visited. The park received federal protection in 1893, was designated a National Park in 1895, and added to the National Register of Historic Preservation in 1966. Keeping in ... | [
"A copy of the Gettysburg Cyclorama was displayed in an 1894 tent at The Angle, and during reunions in 1887, 1913 (50th battle anniversary), and 1938 (75th); battle veterans shook hands over the rock wall at The Angle. The nearby field along the Emmitsburg Road was also the site of Gettysburg Battlefield camps afte... |
how does someone bet that a country's credit rating will fall and make money? | It's like betting on any futures.
The better the credit rating, the better the value is of a piece of paper that says someone owes you money. If you expect the credit rating to go up, you would buy more, if you expect it to go down, you would sell what you have.
The complicated part happens when someone figured out t... | [
"Defenders of credit rating agencies complain of the market's lack of appreciation. Argues Robert Clow, \"When a company or sovereign nation pays its debt on time, the market barely takes momentary notice ... but let a country or corporation unexpectedly miss a payment or threaten default, and bondholders, lawyers ... |
why is no mouth cpr what everyone is told to do now? | The breaths aren't worth doing. Keeping the heart pumping (doing the compressions) is far more important. This is because while people will lose consciousness from carbon dioxide build up in a couple of minutes, the average person actually has enough oxygen in their blood to stay alive for for a while (nearly 20 minute... | [
"Tube weaning is contraindicated in children who do not have a safe swallowing response. It is not recommended if there is a high possibility of an upcoming surgery or intervention that will require further usage of a feeding tube.\n",
"Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, a form of artificial ventilation, is the act of... |
why don't newly pressed vinyl records use the whole side? | I can tell you that some recording lathes (the machine that cuts the master disc that the record stampers are made from) are adjustable...to make the tracks closer together. This is done to increase the amount of music on the side. However, some lathes are better than others, and some engineers (who run the lathes) ... | [
"The composition of vinyl used to press records (a blend of polyvinyl chloride and polyvinyl acetate) has varied considerably over the years. Virgin vinyl is preferred, but during the 1970s energy crisis, it became commonplace to use recycled vinyl. Sound quality suffered, with increased ticks, pops, and other surf... |
Does the US meet traditional definitions of an empire? | It depends on what qualities defines an Empire, really. This is quite a hard question to answer for sure.
The element that is most iffy is the central idea that an Empire not only has the original culture subjugate others, but then attempts to create a state that actively manages all of those cultures at once. In the ... | [
"The term \"American Empire\" refers to the United States' cultural ideologies and foreign policy strategies. The term is most commonly used to describe the U.S.'s status since the 20th century, but it can also be applied to the United States' world standing before the rise of nationalism in the 20th century. The U... |
Why was there such a regression in technology from the time of the ancient Greeks and Romans to the Middle Ages? | Hiya, not discouraging any new answers coming in, but I think you might find the [part of our FAQ about the so called "Dark Ages"](_URL_0_) helpful and interesting. Scroll down a tiny bit when you open the link:) | [
"During the growth of the ancient civilizations, ancient technology was the result from advances in engineering in ancient times. These advances in the history of technology stimulated societies to adopt new ways of living and governance.\n",
"In summary, Rome contributed numerous advances in technology to the An... |
what is it about apples that makes us have so much variety compared to other fruits? | In many cases there are in fact many different kinds of a fruits or vegetable. We just either dont sell them or they got breeded out for what was considered better looking or tasting. For example there are multiple types of bananas, oranges, ( berries in general actually), etc. Theres also variety in vegetables with va... | [
"Apples are fruits commonly studied by researchers due to their high phenolic content, which make them highly susceptible to enzymatic browning. In accordance with other findings regarding apples and browning activity, a correlation has been found between high phenolic amount and enzymatic activity of apples. This ... |
In medieval times, was it common for average citizens to go about their daily lives with weapons? | The answer to this somewhat depends on your meaning of 'armed'. For example, early medieval English fashion called for the carrying of a *Seax*, a long, single-bladed knife that was worn horizontally hanging from a belt on the waist, roughly the size of large kitchen knife. The Saxons derive their demonym from this, bu... | [
"Through the medieval period, soldiers were responsible for supplying themselves, either through foraging, looting, or purchases. Even so, military commanders often provided their troops with food and supplies, but this would be provided in lieu of the soldiers' wages, or soldiers would be expected to pay for it fr... |
how / when did scotus judges become so partisan to predict a decision on the basis of party appointment rather than on the merits of each case? | They're really not as partisan as people make it seem. However, they are human. The constitution and laws have a lot of ambiguity to them. People are going to interpret certain things differently-
> If Supreme Court Judges are as partisan as everyone else they shouldn't be given lifetime appointments.
The founders t... | [
"The political litmus test is often used when appointing judges. However, this test to determine the political attitude of a nominee is not without error. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren was appointed under the impression that he was conservative but his tenure was marked by liberal dissents. Today, the lit... |
why do dogs care about babies? | Domestic dogs view themselves as part of a human pack, the family. Since babies are part of the pack too, and the pack's alpha members (us) like them they must be worth keeping (dog logic). | [
"They make fairly good watch dogs. When necessary, this dog will bark to alert its family that someone is nearby. This breed is typically good with other pets, especially when socialized at an early age. This dog gets along well with children, but it may be a good idea to socialize this breed at an early age as wel... |
Is dairy really that crucial to our diet? | As others have said, many, many perfectly healthy people live entirely without dairy (myself included).
> why dairy?
Government food recommendations are based as much on economics as health, if not more so. Cheap high-yield staples are not the basis of the recommended diet for health reasons. Health issues are co... | [
"A 2009 scientific conference reported that despite the contribution of dairy products to the saturated fatty acid intake of the diet, there was no clear evidence that dairy food consumption is consistently associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.\n",
"Dairy products are produced from the milk of ... |
why does norway have some of the world's highest gas prices despite being the 15th largest oil producer (1.9m bbl/day) | It's mainly because they tax it ALOT. This is to make an negative incentive to drive as much because of the negative effects of traffic, the impact it has on local environment (bad air) and the global environment. This is also a huge way for the government to earn a lot of taxes which go to building infrastructure or o... | [
"In 2011, Norway was the eighth largest crude oil exporter in the world (at 78Mt), and the 9th largest exporter of refined oil (at 86Mt). It was also the world's third largest natural gas exporter (at 99bcm), having significant gas reserves in the North Sea. Norway also possesses some of the world's largest potenti... |
Is anyone creating Atoms? Or is this even possible? | Most of the elements on the periodic table above uranium are synthetically created. | [
"Other exotic atoms have been created by replacing one of the protons, neutrons or electrons with other particles that have the same charge. For example, an electron can be replaced by a more massive muon, forming a muonic atom. These types of atoms can be used to test the fundamental predictions of physics.\n",
... |
Is there any rational explanation for these noises? | Are they heard in any rural areas? It sounds like traffic noise echoing off of buildings.
(It would be easy enough to drop in a sound to a film to further conspiracy theories, btw.) | [
"According to the NOAA description, it \"rises rapidly in frequency over about one minute and was of sufficient amplitude to be heard on multiple sensors, at a range of over .\" The NOAA's Dr. Christopher Fox did not believe its origin was man-made, such as a submarine or bomb, nor familiar geological events such a... |
Bio: X-inactivation and x-linked disorders? | We evolved to handle two sets of every gene...except when it comes to the sex chromosomes. Having too much of certain proteins wreaks havoc during development (e.g. trisomy 21, having an extra chromosome 21 causes Down Syndrome), with most trisomies being fatal.
X-inactivation serves the purpose of making sure you on... | [
"The X-linked form of MTM is the most commonly diagnosed type. Almost all cases of X-linked MTM occurs in males. Females can be \"carriers\" for an X-linked genetic abnormality, but usually they will not be clinically affected themselves. Two exceptions for a female with a X-linked recessive abnormality to have cli... |
if we can have physician assisted suicides, why are there sometimes major malfunctions when administering the 'death penalty'? | Physician assistant suicide is often phenobarbital, something people would OD on back in the day. One single drug, gently knocks you out and kills you without any dramatic stuff. It basically amps up the brain receptor that says "chill out neuron" so your whole brain chills out, till it knocks you out, and your respi... | [
"Regardless of an alternative protocol, some death-penalty opponents have claimed that execution can be less painful by the administration of a single lethal dose of barbiturate. Supporters of the death penalty, however, state that the single-drug theory is a flawed concept. Terminally ill patients in Oregon who ha... |
what's the purpose of the num lock key on a full sized keyboard? | The first IBM PC keyboard had 83 keys. The numeric keypad doubled as the cursor control keys, and you used Num Lock to toggle between the two.
A few years later, IBM introduced what is now the familiar 101 key layout, with dedicated cursor control keys. Even though the Num Lock key was no longer strictly necessary, ... | [
"The Num Lock key exists because earlier 84-key IBM PC keyboards did not have cursor control or arrows separate from the numeric keypad. Most earlier computer keyboards had separate number keys and cursor control keys; however, to reduce cost, IBM chose to combine the two in their early PC keyboards. Num Lock would... |
how is it so hard for many people to even try to read or pronounce foreign names? | Part of how most people read is not by looking at each individual letter but rather looking at the word as a whole, more like a singular shape rather than a string of letters. If you've been reading "by shape" and have to switch to reading each individual letter it's pretty jarring. Also different languages will pronou... | [
"The following is a list of common non-native pronunciations that English speakers make when trying to speak foreign languages. Many of these are due to transfer of phonological rules from English to the new language as well as differences in grammar and syntax that they encounter.\n",
"Users have the ability to ... |
if water is not compressible, why does a pressure exists if pipe has limited volume of water ? | Water is compressible; everything is. Water pressure is typically generated by having the storage tank at some height above the pipes. The static pressure in the pipes is proportional to the height. | [
"On the other hand, liquids have little compressibility. Water, for example, will compress by only 46.4 parts per million for every unit increase in atmospheric pressure (bar). At around 4000 bar (400 megapascals or 58,000 psi) of pressure at room temperature water experiences only an 11% decrease in volume. Incomp... |
Were there any examples of Fascist states before 1930's Europe? | Fascism at the best of times is a vague description. As a Marxist, I see fascism as being a reaction to a crisis of state brought on by a crisis of capitalism, as such, to argue that fascist states existed before capitalism wouldn't make sense. The goal of a fascist state then is to try and maintain capital as a mode... | [
"The first totalitarian state in the West was established in Italy. Unlike the Soviet Union however, this would be a Fascist rather than a Communist state. Fascism is a less organized ideology than Communism, but generally it is characterized by a total rejection of humanism and liberal democracy, as well as very i... |
where did the misconception that radioactive waste glows green come from? | An early use of radioactive material was luminescent applications. You've seen glow in the dark watches as an example. These commonly involved a phosphor that glowed green via interaction with the radioactive substance.
This also led to [radium girls](_URL_0_) as an early terrifying example of what can go bad with ra... | [
"Near the facility, a dense cloud of radioactive dust killed off a large area of Scotch pine trees; the rusty orange color of the dead trees led to the nickname \"The Red Forest\" (\"Рудий ліс\"). The Red Forest was among the world's most radioactive places; to reduce the hazard, the Red Forest was bulldozed and th... |
Clarification of the disputed status of the Nagorno-Karabakh region | International norms. Since roughly WWII, it's been very rare for international organizations like the UN or NATO to recognize territorial changes adjudicated through conquest. Look at North Cyprus, or Western Sahara--they've been under the control of Turkey and Morocco, respectively, for decades but few countries for... | [
"Nagorno-Karabakh is a disputed territory, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but most of the region is governed by the Republic of Artsakh (formerly named Nagorno-Karabakh Republic), a \"de facto\" independent state with Armenian ethnic majority established on the basis of the Nagorno-Karabakh Auton... |
Were their any non-medieval jousts, for example in Japan or Ancient Rome? | OP, I was waiting for 3rd or 4th level comments to mention this, but since there aren't any responses...
I actually saw a jousting tournament at a marina in southern France (Nice?) but rather than two knights on horseback, it was two teams of two in small boats: one standing on the prow with a sheild & jousting pol... | [
"Evidence of jousting is subsequently found in Ancient Greece. The Greeks introduced the practice into Sicily where the Latins, great lovers of all kinds of spectacle, immediately adopted it. Indeed, there are countless signs of jousting in the Roman Empire, especially during naumachia (literally \"naval combat\").... |
Has anyone come across any papers on attempts to elucidate how telomerase becomes upregulated in cancerous cells? | Try this one:
Wnt/β-catenin signaling regulates telomerase in stem cells and cancer cells.
Hoffmeyer K, Raggioli A, Rudloff S, Anton R, Hierholzer A, Del Valle I, Hein K, Vogt R, Kemler R.
Stem cells use Wnt signaling through receptors (Lgr5 for instance) which modulates ß-catenin activity. Without Wnt ß-catenin is d... | [
"If increased telomerase activity is associated with malignancy, then possible cancer treatments could involve inhibiting its catalytic component, hTERT, to reduce the enzyme’s activity and cause cell death. Since normal somatic cells do not express TERT, telomerase inhibition in cancer cells can cause senescence a... |
why do certain franchising companies limit intentionally limit their geographic distribution? (i.e. why is there no steak n shake or in n out in the northeast?) | Part of bring a.franchise is maintaining uniformity of goods. You can't have an In N Out unless you get their meat, bread, etc. The parent company doesn't want to deal with shipping food across the country or setting up regional distribution. | [
"Regional distributors appeared, offering pressing and distribution deals to the small labels that would reach all of the shops in a region. Shops preferred to deal with only a handful of distributors and so the small distributors agreed to also distribute each other's stock, segregating the market by the geography... |
What were the economic causes of the Hundred Years War. And are there any parallels today? | Man I really wish I could give you a clear and direct answer but it has been a while since I spent any time on the 100 Years' War.
I'll try to sketch out some of the basic economic aspects of the war but a real late Medieval or Early Modern person can probably go further and do better.
First off, 1415 is not the be... | [
"The Hundred Years' War had begun in 1337 as an inheritance dispute over the French throne, interspersed with occasional periods of relative peace. Nearly all the fighting had taken place in France, and the English army's use of \"chevauchée\" tactics (destructive \"scorched earth\" raids) had devastated the econom... |
the problem with hipsters | Hipsters invented hipster hate as a way to make themselves appear more underground and oppressed. It is my belief that the majority of hipster hate posts are originated by hipsters.... | [
"Greif's efforts puts the term \"hipster\" into a socioeconomic framework rooted in the petit bourgeois tendencies of a youth generation unsure of their future social status. The cultural trend is indicative of a social structure with heightened economic anxiety and lessened class mobility.\n",
"Mark Greif, a fou... |
when we call or write our representatives in congress, what incentive do they have to listen to us instead of just doing what they wanted to do in the first place? | Because you voted them in and will choose whether or not they get re-elected in the next election. If your representative doesn't represent you very well, you're much less likely to vote for them next time. | [
"Even if Congress is composed of representatives elected by the people, it does not follow, except in a highly qualified sense, that in every exercise of its power of inquiry, the people are exercising their right to information. The members of respondent Committees should not invoke as justification in their exerc... |
What exactly is asthma? Like what is it, how does it form, and how severe can it get | Asthma is, essentially, a chronic inflammatory disease. After, being exposed to an allergen, your body sensitizes itself to that pathogen, so that in the future it garners a large immune response. In the early phase, you have cells that release a substance called histamine, this causes bronchoconstriction (basically y... | [
"Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath. These may occur a few... |
I just read that major works by Cicero, Aristotle, etc. are missing. How often do these things get found? Any hope of excavating a library? ... | Absolutely there is - hope of excavating a library, that is - and new works continue to be discovered, not on a timetable, but regularly. The Greeks and Romans generally used papyrus scrolls to record works of literature, and, in most places where the Greeks and Romans lived, papyrus and linen don't preserve well - bu... | [
"The Library of Alexandria was the most important collection of ancient knowledge ever assembled. The building stood for six hundred years and contained more than half a million manuscripts. Then suddenly it vanished. No trace of this literary treasure has ever been unearthed.\n",
"BULLET::::- The Library of Aris... |
What happens if an electron met the nucleus of an atom? | _URL_0_
It has nothing to do with temperature. Electrons are already in the lowest energy state they can occupy relative to the nucleus. | [
"In the quantum mechanical model of the electron, there is a non-zero probability of finding the electron within the nucleus. During the internal conversion process, the wavefunction of an inner shell electron (usually an \"s\" electron) is said to penetrate the volume of the atomic nucleus. When this happens, the ... |
What was the medical process like when an organ displayed symptoms (e,g gall or kidney stones, liver disease, stomach ulcers) back in the Medieval times? | One of our most interesting sources for medieval medicine is *Bald's Leechbook*, an Anglo-Saxon medical textbook of sorts, likely dating from the late ninth century and potentially a result of Alfred the Great's literary and educational reforms. The book itself is the only surviving copy, and was written by a scribe ca... | [
"human organs affected, rather than the disease itself, was a revolutionary development at that time. It contains insights that in some cases did not enter the medical knowledge of Europe until the twentieth century.\n",
"In Medieval Hungary, the Inquisition recorded the trials of pagans. A document from the 12th... |
if you want to heat an oven or stove to 175 degrees, does turning it way up to 400 degrees make it get to 175 faster? | For an electric oven, no. The temperature control is a thermostat, not an accelerator. If the oven is below the set point, the element is on; otherwise it's off. It will take the same amount of time regardless of the setting.
For a stove, it depends. A gas stove uses valves to control how much gas comes out, so turnin... | [
"When there is a high temperature differential (e.g., when an air-source heat pump is used to heat a house with an outside temperature of, say, 0 °C (32 °F)), it takes more work to move the same amount of heat to indoors than on a milder day. Ultimately, due to Carnot efficiency limits, the heat pump's performance ... |
How are scientists sure that the theory of a singularity at the centre of a black hole, is correct? | > how are scientists so sure that black holes have a singularity where all our understanding of physics breaks down rather than saying that the theory may have inaccuracies?
When they say "all our understanding of physics breaks down" is the same in this context as "the theory may have inaccuracies." "The laws of phy... | [
"In simple terms, he believes that the singularity in Einstein's field equation at the Big Bang is only an apparent singularity, similar to the well-known apparent singularity at the event horizon of a black hole. The latter singularity can be removed by a change of coordinate system, and Penrose proposes a differe... |
eli 5 if there is so much junk and satellites orbiting earth, how come we never see any of it in the background of pictures taken from space? | Because there *isn't* that much.
Yes there is a lot of it, but the amount of space is *huge*. You're talking about a density like one Volkswagen Beetle in the state of Texas. | [
"This is a list of satellite map images with missing or unclear data. Some locations on free, publicly viewable satellite map services have such issues due to having been intentionally digitally obscured or blurred for various reasons. For example, Westchester County, New York asked Google to blur potential terrori... |
What's past the cosmological horizon? | By definition, no; the observable universe encompasses all that we can have any information about. But there's no particular reason to imagine it would be much different from the local area--it's just impossible to confirm. | [
"The cosmological horizon (also called the particle horizon or the light horizon) is the maximum distance from which particles can have traveled to the observer in the age of the Universe. This horizon represents the boundary between the observable and the unobservable regions of the Universe. The existence, proper... |
why couldn't data be transmitted back to us beyond the event horizon of a black hole, i understand gravity prevents light from escaping, but how, and would it be a similar scenario for data? | Well, first off, the data would be travelling as some frequency of light, like radio. So, consider them one and the same.
The way it prevents light from escaping is that gravity actually bends space. Light travels along space, and when [space gets curved](_URL_0_), the light has a longer journey and that journey takes... | [
"Ever since Stephen Hawking suggested information is lost in an evaporating black hole once it passes through the event horizon and is inevitably destroyed at the singularity, and that this can turn pure quantum states into mixed states, some physicists have wondered if a complete theory of quantum gravity might be... |
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