question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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how countries like egypt and jordan can seek and destroy isis within days/hours after their countrymens' executions, and yet the us and other more powerful enemies of isis seem to have trouble locating them? | Most of the time we have no problems finding who we are looking for. the problem is how to deploy troops to go resolve the problem. in a lot of cases we find them in a "not so internationally friendly way" so we have to create a story to allow us to engage the mission or wait until we have a story or a reason to be in ... | [
"Egypt employs a \"shoot to stop\" policy against refugees attempting to continue to Israel. According to Human Rights Watch, over 50 refugees, including women and children, have been shot by Egyptian border guards since 2007.\n",
"BULLET::::- 16 February: Egypt retaliated against ISIL for the beheading of 21 Egy... |
In the movie Kingdom of Heaven, Saladin is depicted as having a chest full of ice in his tent in the middle of the desert. How would he have gotten ahold of ice and preserved it? | This has been asked a few times before:
like [here ](_URL_1_) with an answer by /u/Eireika
and [another one](_URL_0_) with a nested comment by /u/Valkine adding the the scene was probably a creative freedom, mixing a historical known ice gift from Saladin elsewhere into the movies setting.
tl;dr: ice could be harves... | [
"The Boneless King captures Shimmer, Monkey, and Indigo. They manage to escape and attempt to retrieve Baldy's cauldron, in which Thorn's soul is now sealed. However the Boneless King turns the tables on them and traps them in a cavern beneath Egg Mountain where he was formerly imprisoned with the river poisoned an... |
How much autonomy did the Republics of the USSR have? | The Republics had varying degrees of autonomy. Never much. Citizens of the Republics had varying degrees of rights. Thus it was possible for the residents of some Republics to easily visit Moscow, while a citizen of Moscow might have trouble visiting the same Republic. | [
"The first Soviet republics were short-lived communist revolutionary governments that were established in what had been the Russian Empire after the October Revolution and under its influence. These states included some such as the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic which... |
why do we feel the urge to destroy things when we're angry? | Anger management therapist here. People usually get angry in response to feelings of vulnerability and disempowerment. Any situation where someone gets angry, they are also probably feeling something like hurt, insecure, disrespected, invalidated, betrayed, frustrated, threatened, the list goes on. Anger allows you to ... | [
"Self-destructive behavior is formed by a repetitive bad habit that is ultimately caused by a preadolescent event that makes them act out in such ways. These past events act as barriers that causes one to feel insecure about a specific situation or event. When this happens, it causes their emotions to be sporadic a... |
Wednesday Week in History | Sept. 11 - Sept. 17 | On 11 September 1973, the Chilean coup d'état left democratically elected socialist President Salvador Allende dead, a military junta headed by General Augusto Pinochet in power, and thousands of Allende supporters, including famed *nueva canción* singer Víctor Jara, rounded up, tortured, and murdered.
The coup was a ... | [
"BULLET::::- August 12 – President Johnson signs Proclamation 3799, designating \"the period of November 5 through November 11, 1967, as American Education Week\" and calling \"upon the American people to celebrate the achievements of their educational system, and to dedicate themselves to making it still more resp... |
can someone explain aleph-null to me like i'm 5? | First some vocabulary: if you have a collection of things in it, we call the number of things the "cardinality" of the collection.
This is fine if you only have finitely many things; the cardinality is just whatever number you have. But what if you have an infinite number of things? It turns out that infinity isn't a ... | [
"In morphology, a null morpheme or zero morpheme is a morpheme that has no phonetic form. In simpler terms, a null morpheme is an \"invisible\" affix. It is a concept useful for analysis, by contrasting null morphemes with alternatives that do have some phonetic realization. The null morpheme is represented as eith... |
why are domestic power outlets in the united states 120v? is there any story behind that convention? | Basically, it's because old light bulbs sucked. America was quite a ways ahead of the rest of the world when it came to early electricity and was about to make good lightbulbs that ran at 120 volts. If it was upped to 240 (which is easier to transmit long distances), they would burn out pretty quickly.
By the time Eur... | [
"CERC and State Electricity Regulatory Commission (SERC) are the two electricity regulators – one operating at the central level and the other at various state levels. CERC’s primary function was to regulate the tariffs of central generating stations as well as for all interstate generation, transmission and supply... |
When did Norman England no longer associate with the French monarchy? | So, basically, it depends on what you mean by "associate."
The Kingdom of England was never considered part of the Kingdom of France or subordinate to it. English kings and property owners were not bound to the king of France under any kind of "feudal" ties. The Anglo-Norman, Angevin, and Plantagenet kings of England,... | [
"After the Norman conquest in 1066, Anglo-Norman replaced English as the official language of England. However, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Plantagenet kings of England lost most of their possessions in France, began to consider England to be their primary domain, and turned to the English langu... |
Who was Mikhail Kalinin and how did he survive Stalin's purges as the Soviet head of state? | Mikhail Kalinin certainly was something of an odd-duck in the Stalinist state apparatus. Despite the massive cult of personality surrounding the General Secretary, Kalinin was nominally the head of the Soviet state. His Old Bolshevik background was also atypical by the late 1930s as some of the more prominent veterans ... | [
"As head of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Stalin consolidated near-absolute power in the 1930s with a Great Purge of the party that claimed to expel \"opportunists\" and \"counter-revolutionary infiltrators\". Those targeted by the purge were often expelled from ... |
Will the phytoestrogens in soy products make it more difficult for a male to gain muscle mass? | Soy and phytoestrogens won't lower testosterone, but they do disrupt estrogen receptor activity. Males have estrogen receptors too, not just women, and side effects of higher estrogen levels in males can include gynecomastia.
More information here: _URL_0_
TL;DR: avoiding soy due to phytoestrogens may be pragmatic, ... | [
"BULLET::::- Soy products decrease sperm quality due to the high content of a type of phytoestrogen called isoflavones. Theoretically, this exposure to high levels of phytoestrogen in men may alter the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. A few studies on animals have shown that such a hormonal effect may be signif... |
is the rothschilds networth an actual thing ? does this family actually control nearly all the wealth in the world? if not then why are they mentioned so much in online forums and blogs ? | They are rich, but the wealth has shrunk and divided with each other. No 1 member of the family owns it all anymore.
As for the hate they often are tied into the conspiracies like the Rockefellers or other wealthy families from the Industrial Revolution. From Illuminati, New World Order, to Reptilian Aliens, the tinfo... | [
"While the Rothschild family rose to the status of the wealthiest family of bankers in the 19th century, their wealth was distributed among a number of family members, preventing them from appearing among the wealthiest individuals. The richest among the Rothschilds was the head of its English branch—Nathan Mayer R... |
why is my laptop's time estimate of how much battery i have left always so incorrect? | 1. There isn't a way for your laptop to tell exactly how much power is left in the battery. It has to estimate it by measuring how much power the battery is outputting, but that's not always a nice neat line.
2. There isn't any way for your laptop to know how much demand you're going to put on it. A laptop that's play... | [
"The Surface Laptop is the 5th addition to Surface lineup, following the Surface Pro, Surface Hub, Surface Book, and the Surface Studio. Unlike the other products, the Surface Laptop is aimed toward students. Microsoft claims a 14.5-hour battery life when running Windows 10 S, but testing suggests that the battery ... |
When did Latin and Old French stop being mutually intelligible? | At the third Council of Tours, the priests were ordered to preach in vulgar Latin, as the common folk could no longer understand formal Latin. This was in 813 CE. While it may still have been Latin in name, this language would likely have been significantly different from the VL at the fall of the Western Roman Empire.... | [
"Latin (which later developed into the brief-existent, little-known African Romance language) was the language of the Roman occupation; it became widely spoken in the coastal towns, and Augustine attests that in his day it was gaining ground over Punic. However, it gave way to Arabic and Berber after the Umayyads' ... |
shouldn't things like the "law of gravity" or the "laws of thermodynamics" correctly be called "theories" instead? | The scientific laws are generally just observations, not theories. The law of gravity doesnt explain gravity, it just describes it - whereas the theory of general relativity provides a model for how gravity works within the bounds of spacetime | [
"The term scientific theory is reserved for concepts that are widely accepted. A scientific law often refers to regularities that can be expressed by a mathematical statement. However, there is no consensus about the distinction between these terms. Every scientific concept must have an operational definition, howe... |
the difference between plasma and the ‘other’ states | Unlike gases, plasmas are made up of atoms in which some or all of the electrons have been stripped away, leaving positively charged nuclei, called ions, roam freely. | [
"Plasma is often called the \"fourth state of matter\" after solid, liquids and gases, despite plasma typically being an ionized gas. It is distinct from these and other lower-energy states of matter. Although it is closely related to the gas phase in that it also has no definite form or volume, it differs in a num... |
How long would it take a quantum computer (theoretically) to make as many computations as has been made in the entire history of computers? | Quantum computers aren't magical. They cannot perform arbitrary computations faster than classical computers can. They can solve *certain* problems faster (for example, [brute-force search](_URL_0_)). You might have gotten the wrong impression from pop science articles that claim that quantum computers somehow perform ... | [
"In September 2012, Australian researchers at the University of New South Wales said the world's first quantum computer was just 5 to 10 years away, after announcing a global breakthrough enabling the manufacture of its memory building blocks. A research team led by Australian engineers created the first working qu... |
How were lances used before the invention of stirrups? | I'm not sure that your assumption is entirely correct (remember, the impact when hitting someone will come from in front): older books I've read, like Oman, tend to believe this, state that the development of the stirrup essentially lead to feudalism, and put a lot more significance on pictures like [this](_URL_0_) one... | [
"Stirrups were invented by steppe nomads in what is today Mongolia and northern China in the 4th century. They were introduced in Byzantium in the 6th century and in the Carolingian Empire in the 8th. They allowed a mounted knight to wield a sword and strike from a distance leading to a great advantage for mounted ... |
given the emphasis placed on the separation of the three pillars of the american government, how can the president grant pardons? is this not the executive messing with the judiciary? | If all that was said was "Congress makes laws; President enforces laws; Judges interpret laws," then maybe. But the President has the explicit power in the Constitution to pardon people. You might think that invades the province of the judiciary, but it's granted authority so no one has a real issue with it. | [
"Notwithstanding their executive power, the president cannot make treaties or appointments without the advice and consent of the Senate. Likewise, the president's pardon power is limited to offenses against the United States (federal crimes) and does not extend to impeachments or violations of state law. As treatie... |
what do large corporation do with billions of dollars in revenue after expenses? do they spend it all on assets or can they get a bank account like people? | All of the above. After paying out expenses. And stockholders fees. And bonuses to management. They will invest in research and development. Donate to causes, mainly for tax write-off. Funnel money into politics through lobbyists, for power and control. They will buy smaller business, and newer technology and inventio... | [
"The majority of company's income comes from management fees, dividends and revenue from part sales of businesses. To this day assets after loans owned by the company both directly and through its affiliates, related or associated companies are valued at nearly 120 million euros.\n",
"The company has reported ann... |
how is it possible that isp's can see what your up to online? i thought https encrypted your traffic so it can't be read? | Sorta.
The ISP is your mailman. They need to get packages to where they need to go, Reddit for example is sending you a package containing this reply. You pay the mailman monthly for a rate at which they send packages from you and to you.
HTTPS encrypts the package’s contents, however the ISP’s responsibility is sti... | [
"An ISP cannot know the contents of properly-encrypted data passing between its consumers and the Internet. For encrypting web traffic, https has become the most popular and best-supported standard. Even if users encrypt the data, the ISP still knows the IP addresses of the sender and of the recipient. (However, se... |
why does anybody in this day and age like the royal family? what good have they managed? | This is going to be mostly an opinionated thread; but there are three possible explanations:
1) They aren't- Taking this from the "Ask British people" threads that pop up, attitudes from even the Brits range from 'they suck' to 'who cares'.
2) They're figureheads for a strong nation- A lot of people respect Heads of... | [
"The Royal Households of the United Kingdom are the collective departments which support members of the British royal family. Many members of the Royal Family who undertake public duties have separate households. They vary considerably in size, from the large Royal Household which supports the Sovereign to the hous... |
what is happening in brazil, with all these big rallies taking place? | tldr, ex-President is involved in a giant corruption investigation and was just appointed the Chief of Staff by the current President in an attempt to shield him from prosecutions (in Brazil, ministers are to be judged by the Supreme Court, which comprise mostly of people picked by the acting party), thus the huge prot... | [
"Protests across Brazil have drawn millions to the streets in a wave of rolling fury that became the biggest demonstrations in decades. A young man was killed in Ribeirão Preto during the protest when a driver ploughed through a peaceful demonstration, also injuring 11 other people. President Dilma Rousseff address... |
How mixable are different types of plastic? Like PET and HDPE? | Some polymers have an affinity for each other and mix well. Polycarbonate, some styrene copolymers, and PET Mix well. This is driven by the chemical structure. Think that some are more polar, water like and others are less polar or oil like.
However most polymers by themselves are typically not mixable. When mi... | [
"Some familiar household synthetic polymers include: Nylons in textiles and fabrics, Teflon in non-stick pans, Bakelite for electrical switches, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in pipes, etc. The common PET bottles are made of a synthetic polymer, polyethylene terephthalate. The plastic kits and covers are mostly made of ... |
what force is stronger than electromagnetism, if any, and what makes it stronger? | The nuclear strong force is the strongest of the four fundamental forces. This is the force that holds quarks together inside protons and neutrons, and protons and neutrons together inside atomic nuclei. However, it has an extremely small range, and drops off to almost non existent levels over only the distance of a ... | [
"Even though electrostatically induced forces seem to be rather weak, some electrostatic forces such as the one between an electron and a proton, that together make up a hydrogen atom, is about 36 orders of magnitude stronger than the gravitational force acting between them.\n",
"BULLET::::- It is already known t... |
What would happen if the superheated material inside a fusion reactor was exposed? | Essentially the same as with any superheated material breaking out of containment. The reactor and surrounding structure might be damaged or destroyed. The amount of damage will depend on the size of the reactor and the materials used. Depending on the type of fusion taking place, there may be free neutrons flying arou... | [
"Once the fuel elements of a reactor begin to melt, the fuel cladding has been breached, and the nuclear fuel (such as uranium, plutonium, or thorium) and fission products (such as caesium-137, krypton-85, or iodine-131) within the fuel elements can leach out into the coolant. Subsequent failures can permit these r... |
how can humans instinctively know what angles to launch something make it go the farthest? | They learn it. From age 0 on you throw stuff around and observe the physics of the world. That is why people who don't throw things (like balls) as a kid suck at throwing and aiming. So it is not an instinct, it is more of a skill. | [
"Target angle is the relative bearing of the observing station from the vehicle being observed. It may be used to compute point-of-aim for a fire-control problem when vehicle range and speed can be estimated from other information. Target angle may be best explained from the example of a submarine preparing to laun... |
What does the coronation of Charlemagne as Roman Emperor suggest about attitudes towards the Roman Empire at the time? | I partly answered your question [here](_URL_0_), although admittedly that answer focuses mostly on England in the period. Nonetheless, the answer isn't *radically* different in that early medieval political aspirations hinged on *Romanitas* less as an immediate continuation of Rome, but as a valid successor through the... | [
"Charlemagne was crowned Emperor by Pope Leo III on Christmas Day, 800. The clergy and nobles attending the ceremony proclaimed Charlemagne as \"Augustus\". In support of Charlemagne's coronation, some argued that the Imperial position was actually vacant, deeming a woman unfit to be Emperor. However, Charlemagne m... |
if the cold temperatures of frozen food prevent them from going off, why do frozen foods not last forever? can bacteria suddenly survive at colder temperatures after a food has been frozen for a certain length of time? | Even though it is frozen that doesn't mean that the food is static. The food will slowly dehydrate and with that it loses its taste and becomes inedible. The cells in the food also get damaged after long period of being frozen, which cause it to lose flavour | [
"Food frozen at 0 °F and below is preserved indefinitely. However, the quality of the food will deteriorate if it is frozen over a lengthy period. The United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service publishes a chart showing the suggested freezer storage time for common foods.\n",
"Fre... |
how did iraq go from having the best army in the arab world, to being unable to maintain it's sovereignty? | You may have noticed George Bush lied to the American people to get the US involved in a stupid and un-winnable war with no exit strategy. As a result the most powerful army in the world destroyed the most powerful army in the Arab world. He left them with no resources and no ability to govern themselves and then we pu... | [
"After the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, Iraq decided to improve all aspects of its army. Iraqi General Ra'ad al-Hamdani stated that, in spite of careful analysis of the 1973 Arab–Israeli War, no clear progress in the Iraqi Army was achieved by the Ba'ath Party. In comparison to their Israeli counterparts, the Iraqi Army ... |
My understanding is that both Sodium and Chlorine by themselves are dangerous (explodes in water and is toxic, respectively). If that is true, why is dissolved sodium chloride (salt) perfectly safe? Why don't the dissolved ions have the same properties as sodium and chloride separately? | The form of chlorine which is dangers is [chlorine gas, (Cl2)](_URL_0_) which has very different properties from the [chloride ion. (Cl-)](_URL_1_)
| [
"While sodium hypochlorite is non-toxic, its corrosive properties, common availability, and reaction products make it a significant safety risk. In particular, mixing liquid bleach with other cleaning products, such as acids or ammonia, may produce toxic fumes.\n",
"A disadvantage of sodium is its chemical reacti... |
according to the bible, how did jesus's death save humanity? | ELI5:
Imagine you're in a courtroom, and you're guilty of a crime. You owe an exorbitant fine, and you can't pay it.
Then a man comes along and offers to pay it for you. This is the only man with enough money to pay that fine, and he pays it in your place, satisfying the legal requirement.
That's what Jesus did.
Ev... | [
"Christians predominantly profess that through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, he restored humanity's communion with God with the blood of the New Covenant. His death on a cross is understood as a redemptive sacrifice: the source of humanity's salvation and the atonement for sin which had entered human histor... |
Why is spit bubbly like soap bubbles? | Saliva has a lot of proteins in it, proteins can increase surface tension and lead to stronger bubbles like the lipids in soap. | [
"Just as soap bubbles, with air inside and air outside, have negative buoyancy and tend to sink towards the ground, so antibubbles, with water inside and air outside have positive buoyancy and tend to rise towards the water surface. But again, just as soap bubbles can be filled with a lighter gas to give them posit... |
it just hit me that there are no longer any wild cows. how/when did this happen? | Cattle were domesticated from the wild aurochs. As time went on, the aurochs were hunted, saw their available habitat shrink greatly, and contracted diseases from domesticated cattle. The last one died in the 17th century. | [
"The loss of livestock was not discovered until spring, when many cattle carcasses were spread across the fields and washed down streams. The few remaining cattle were in poor health, emaciated and suffering from frostbite. This resulted in the cattle being sold for much less, in some cases leading to bankruptcy.\n... |
work, power, and energy (physics) and their differences | Work - When a **force** moves an **object**, **energy is transferred** and **work is done**. Work is measured in Joules. Whenever something moves, something else is providing some sort of **effort** to move it. The thing providing the effort needs some sort of **energy** (food, fuel, electricity etc.). It then does wo... | [
"As a physical concept, power requires both a change in the physical system and a specified time in which the change occurs. This is distinct from the concept of work, which is only measured in terms of a net change in the state of the physical system. The same amount of work is done when carrying a load up a fligh... |
In light of the recent growth of sightings of Tasmanian Tigers and possibility of a species coming back from what we thought was extinction... Has this happened with any other species in the last ~500 years? | Black footed ferrets from the US and Canada were declared extinct in 1979 due to farmers poisoning prairie dogs, their food supply. Lo and behold, a farmer's dog brought home a dead one 2 years later and they became endangered instead! | [
"BULLET::::- Tasmanian tiger – Despite the widely held view that the thylacine (or Tasmanian tiger) became extinct during the 1930s, accounts of alleged sightings in eastern Victoria and parts of Tasmania have persisted to the present day.\n",
"The eastern quoll likely became extinct on mainland Australia due to ... |
Why galaxies have shape at all? (speed of light, correlation light scale, causality) | Changes must not be faster than the speed of light, but existing fields are not changes. Gravity for example is traveling at the speed of light. By your thought, the sun shouldn't be capable to pull on earth, because it is so far away. But actually, the gravitational field already exists and we are moving in it, so the... | [
"There are many galaxies visible in telescopes with red shift numbers of 1.4 or higher. All of these are currently traveling away from us at speeds greater than the speed of light. Because the Hubble parameter is decreasing with time, there can actually be cases where a galaxy that is receding from us faster than l... |
the difference between milk pasteurization in europe and america that lets european milk last so much longer and without refrigeration. | First off, let's understand why food or drink spoils. in our world, there are microscopic living things everywhere. We call them *microbes*. Bacteria and molds are the kind we're usually worried about when it comes to food, because they're usually what make it spoil. They eat the food and grow in it. We can't eat the f... | [
"Developed countries adopted milk pasteurization to prevent such disease and loss of life, and as a result milk is now considered a safer food. A traditional form of pasteurization by scalding and straining of cream to increase the keeping qualities of butter was practiced in Great Britain in the 18th century and w... |
What's the hottest and coldest temperatures insects can survive in? | Because of their ability to withstand desiccation (removal of moisture) insects can recover from extreme temperature events. Including being submerged in liquid helium.
From a cursory look, it appears +/- 55 C is the general range of temperatures.
References/further reading: [Cold](_URL_1_) and [Hot](_URL_0_). | [
"A number of insects have temperature and humidity sensors and insects being small, cool more quickly than larger animals. Insects are generally considered cold-blooded or ectothermic, their body temperature rising and falling with the environment. However, flying insects raise their body temperature through the ac... |
why are local positions like coroner, surveyor, recorder, etc elected by the people, and why should the average person care about them? | The theory is that these people's findings have (or used to have) a direct impact on tax collection, so the people should have a say in who gets the job to prevent abuse of power.
> Electing a coroner is a holdover from British Common Law, where the coroner’s job was to determine how and when people had died in orde... | [
"Career civil servants (not temporary workers or politicians) are hired only externally on the basis of entrance examinations (). It usually consists of a written test; some posts may require physical tests (such as policemen), or oral tests (such as professors, judges, prosecutors and attorneys). The rank accordin... |
why cant we cure genetic diseases with genetic engineering? | That's like saying "why can't we solve engineering problems with engineering?"
It's one thing to spot and identify a problem, but a whole different thing to find ways to understand it, solve it, get the tools you need at the precision you need.
For all things medical you also need extensive studies to rule out (or re... | [
"Genetic engineering could potentially fix severe genetic disorders in humans by replacing the defective gene with a functioning one. It is an important tool in research that allows the function of specific genes to be studied. Drugs, vaccines and other products have been harvested from organisms engineered to prod... |
why are emergency services' two way radio systems so fuzzy and unclear? shouldn't emergency services have crisp audio more than anyone else? | They use big long radio waves that can go through almost anything. That has the drawback that that frequency has a lot of minor interference and distortion on it. | [
"Police radio and other public safety services such as fire departments and ambulances are generally found in the VHF and UHF parts of the spectrum. Trunking systems are often used to make most efficient use of the limited number of frequencies available. \n",
"Emergency radios are generally designed to cover the... |
How were large, dangerous animals like bears hunted in the Middle Ages? | Unfortunately there isn't a lot of source material on bear hunting as a lot of our late medieval 'hunting manuals' were produced in England...when the bear had been long extinct. However, the very famous 14th c hunting manual by [Gaston Fébus](_URL_0_), the [*Livre de chasse*](_URL_3_), features a chapter on hunting be... | [
"Bear hunting is the act of hunting bears. Bears have been hunted since prehistoric times for their meat and fur. In modern times they have been favoured by big game hunters due to their size and ferocity. Bear hunting has a vast history throughout Europe and North America, and hunting practices have varied based o... |
why doesn't facial hair get greasy? | not as much oil secreted by the face as the top of the head | [
"Greasy hair is a hair condition which is common in humans, one of four main types of hair conditioning— normal, greasy, dry and greasy dry. It is primarily caused by build-up of the natural secretion from the sebaceous glands in the scalp and is characterised by the continuous development of natural grease on the ... |
why did ronda rousey look like a complete amateur tonight who had never stepped foot into an octagon? | She was not THAT great of a fighter, just a dominant one in a growing sport (Women's MMA). As it got bigger, the fighters got better. And she took a long break and had just not improved in the time. | [
"Ronda Rousey began the Women's Bantamweight bout aggressively. Holly Holm, with her boxing ability, and from her southpaw stance, tagged Rousey repeatedly with her left hand while controlling the distance. Rousey attempted several clinches through the round, including an attempted armbar, but none had a decisive o... |
hot weather the cause of higher violence rates? | Climate changes how people live, which affects decisions made and indirectly affects violence. I seriously doubt you will find any evidence that heat directly affects the mind. The research has long shown that it is a indirect relationship. I have never heard of a direct correlation with weather affecting the mind ... | [
"Heat waves are the most lethal type of weather phenomenon in the United States. Between 1992 and 2001, deaths from excessive heat in the United States numbered 2,190, compared with 880 deaths from floods and 150 from hurricanes. The average annual number of fatalities directly attributed to heat in the United Stat... |
Why is there an absolute reference for rotation? | The discussion about no preferred reference frames is in the context of special relativity, which only considers unaccelerated motion. A rotation is always an accelerated motion, i.e. you need a centripetal force to "bend" the path of an object. This force makes different reference frames different.
Note that you coul... | [
"A common situation in which noninertial reference frames are useful is when the reference frame is rotating. Because such rotational motion is non-inertial, due to the acceleration present in any rotational motion, a fictitious force can always be invoked by using a rotational frame of reference. Despite this comp... |
how was the stuxnet virus created, and why was it so successful? | There's a youtube video on this by an a channel called "The Hungry Beast" or something similar, try looking it up.
I'm in China atm and it's blocked for me, =/
_URL_0_ - Someone linked it in another thread | [
"\"Stuxnet\" is a computer worm discovered in June 2010 that is believed to have been created by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. It switched off safety devices, causing centrifuges to spin out of control. Stuxnet initially spreads via Microsoft Windows, and targets Siemens industri... |
why are ssds sold in 240 gb, 480 gb, etc. whereas hdds are sold in 250 gb, 500 gb, etc.? | tl;dr: Marketing, false advertising, GB as used by computer geek vs GB as used by rest of the world, and hidden reserve to make the drive run faster and have a safety buffer in case of failure. Also, lost track of what sub I was in and made this not very ELI5. Sorry.
Internal computer memory (RAM or Random Access Me... | [
"Consumer flash storage devices typically are advertised with usable sizes expressed as a small integer power of two (2, 4, 8, etc.) and a designation of megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB); e.g., 512 MB, 8 GB. This includes SSDs marketed as hard drive replacements, in accordance with traditional hard drives, which us... |
why do girls do the "duck face?" | The ‘duck face’ started back when MySpace was still thriving, around the year of 2005. The face is also attributed to the ‘MySpace pics’ tren, which I think are now called ‘selfies’. Usually teenagers would set their profile picture to something they took in the bathroom mirror, or with their arm extended in front of t... | [
"Duck face is a photographic pose, which is well known on profile pictures in social networks. Lips are pressed together as in a pout and often with simultaneously sucked in cheeks. The pose is most often seen as an attempt to appear alluring, but also as a self-deprecating, ironic gesture making fun of the pose. I... |
Do cardiac muscle cells die? | [We used to think of cardiomyocytes as nondividing and persistent cells](_URL_0_):
> For nearly a century, the general belief has been that the heart is a terminally differentiated post-mitotic organ in which the number of cardiomyocytes is established at birth with these cells persisting throughout the lifespan of t... | [
"After a myocardial infarction (MI), cardiac myocyte death can be triggered by necrosis, apoptosis, or autophagy, leading to thinning of the cardiac wall. The surviving cardiac myocytes either arrange in parallel or in series to each other, contributing to ventricular dilatation or ventricular hypertrophy, dependin... |
Movies always make out ancient warriors to be these huge guys with huge muscles that you'd have to get in gyms. Basically what I'm asking is, on average how buff or big were spartan warriors or a knight in the crusades? | They were indeed strong, but not with the sort of big bulky muscles Ahnold and his ilk have. Big muscles are developed through short movements such as lifting weights, which would have been seen as quite strange for a soldier of the past. Warriors had to be able to march for long distances bearing their combat load a... | [
"As Robert Rushing defines it, peplum, \"in its most stereotypical form, [...] depicts muscle-bound heroes (professional bodybuilders, athletes, wrestlers, or brawny actors) in mythological antiquity, fighting fantastic monsters and saving scantily clad beauties. Rather than lavish epics set in the classical world,... |
what income groups does a sales tax impact more? | Sales tax influences the poor people more.
An item worth $100 is 10% month's salary of a person earning $1,000/month; it is 1% of someone earning $10,000.
Raising the price by $1 (however that is done, in this case a 1% sales tax), and the added cost is 1% of the former, but only 0.1% of the latter person.
An income... | [
"The top 1 percent of income-earners accounted for 52 percent of the income gains from 2009 to 2015, where income is defined as market income excluding government transfers, while their share of total income has more than doubled from 9 percent in 1976 to 20 percent in 2011. According to a 2014 OECD report, 80% of ... |
Why were the Germans in WWII so much more scared to surrender to the Soviets? | They were taught, brainwashed, in to believing that the soviets were sub-human savages. Barbarians. They put out a lot of propaganda about Russian soldiers raping and pillaging and ignoring laws in order to improve the moral while fighting them.
But it worked so well that many of them genuinely believed it. Maybe they ... | [
"There were several reasons some Germans decided to end their lives in the last months of the war. First, by 1945, Nazi propaganda had created fear among some sections of the population about the impending military invasion of their country by the Soviets or Western Allies. Information films from the Reich Ministry... |
why can't people remember correct spellings of common words? | I type reasonably fast, frequently my misspellings are when I am thinking of the right word but I type a homonym or I start to type one word like pay and then swap what I want to say to use paid mid-word and just add the typical past tens suffix.
Edit: I've been a fast reader for several decades and read mostly from... | [
"At the other extreme are languages such as English, where the pronunciations of many words simply have to be memorized as they do not correspond to the spelling in a consistent way. For English, this is partly because the Great Vowel Shift occurred after the orthography was established, and because English has acq... |
How do we know that physical constants such as G, C, etc. have not slowly change over time? | Because if they did it would have measureable effects that we can observe. We know, for example, that the gravitational constant varies by less than a few parts per trillion yearly. [link](_URL_0_) | [
"In 1937, Paul Dirac and others began investigating the consequences of natural constants changing with time. For example, Dirac proposed a change of only 5 parts in 10 per year of Newton's constant \"G\" to explain the relative weakness of the gravitational force compared to other fundamental forces. This has beco... |
why is a bullet so deadly? | The bullet moves very fast, and though it only leaves a small hole, the shockwave disrupts and destroys a lot of tissue.
Look at the various films where people shoot melons. These melons explode in all directions. Imagine flesh being subjected to those forces. | [
"BULLET::::- Is presumed to be toxic to humans because it falls within any one of the following categories when tested on laboratory animals (whenever possible, animal test data that has been reported in the chemical literature should be used):\n",
"The bullet design can produce deep wounds while failing to pass ... |
Did Arian Christians accuse "Orthodox" Christians of heresy? | In short, yes.
Remember, "Arian" is two sorts of label used to describe a number of groups in the fourth century. Firstly, it's a label used by Athanasius from the 360s onwards to describe a number of groups that he opposes, and to attempt to *taint* them through guilt by association with Arius, who had already been c... | [
"Other allegations of heresy have emerged among conservative Christians, such as that White has denied the Trinity, partly as a result of a video shared by Christian author Erick Erickson that shows White assenting to the viewpoint that Jesus Christ was not the only son of God, in contravention of the Nicene Creed.... |
USSR Causing Ukrainian Genocide, Mao Responsible for Famine, and Stalin Creating Consideration Camps: Did Any of These Happen? | They aren't fabrications.
The Soviet Famine of 32-33 (what you refer to as the Ukrainian Genocide) was an actual famine caused by a massive drought throughout the major wheat production centers in the Ukraine and North Caucuses. The debate lies in whether or not the drought was deliberate or not and the extent to whi... | [
"In 1932, under the rule of the USSR, Ukraine experienced one of its largest famines when between 2.4 and 7.5 million peasants died as a result of a state sponsored famine. It was termed the Holodomor, suggesting that it was a deliberate campaign of repression designed to eliminate resistance to collectivization. F... |
eau de toilette, eau de perfume, eau de cologne | The major distinction between the three is the concentration of the actual fragrance that is dissolved in alcohol.
Eau de toilette, toilet water, has anywhere from 5-15% concentration of the fragrance.
Eau de perfume has anywhere from 10 to 20%.
It's worth noting, that Parfum du Toilette and Eau du Parfum are usuall... | [
"Eau de Cologne (; German: Kölnisch Wasser ; meaning \"Water from Cologne\"), or simply cologne, is a perfume originating from Cologne, Germany. Originally mixed by Johann Maria Farina (Giovanni Maria Farina) in 1709, it has since come to be a generic term for scented formulations in typical concentration of 2–5% a... |
How did marsupials spread from the Americas to Australia if they evolved way after South America separated from Gondwana? | This seems to be a difficult question to answer, in part because Antarctica is difficult to study: fossil records are scarce, as are geological samples. There were apparently many active volcanoes along the Antarctic peninsula during the late cretaceous and early tertiary times, which, combined with the discovery of a ... | [
"Marsupials reached Australia via Antarctica about 50 mya, shortly after Australia had split off. This suggests a single dispersion event of just one species, most likely a relative to South America's monito del monte (a microbiothere, the only New World australidelphian). This progenitor may have rafted across the... |
can somebody please explain two of the federalist papers to me, specifically #10 and #51? | Here's my breakdown of 10 Federalist, which I posted back in the spring, the last time this question was asked on ELI5. I'll get to 51 Federalist in a little while.
**The Situation:** The new constitution has just been written (mostly based on Madison's ideas), and now the states have to ratify it. Each of the Federal... | [
"Federalist No. 73 is an essay by the 18th-century American statesman Alexander Hamilton. It is the seventy-third of \"The Federalist Papers\", a collection of articles written to promote the ratification of the United States Constitution. It was published on March 21, 1788 under the pseudonym Publius, the name und... |
why fort knox has so much gold stored within it. | The US dollar, like most currencies, used to be based on gold. So the government had to have a lot of gold stuck in its vaults to back up its currency.
This isn't true anymore, but there's no good way to get rid of all that gold. If it were all dumped on the open market, the price would crash. | [
"The United States Bullion Depository, often known as Fort Knox, is a fortified vault building located next to the United States Army post of Fort Knox, Kentucky. It is operated by the United States Department of the Treasury. The vault is used to store a large portion of the United States' gold reserves as well as... |
why can't we identify someone if we can't see their eyes? | We can identify people without seeing their eyes just fine if we know them well. Haven't you ever recognized someone with their back turned or semi-profile if their hair has partially fallen over their face so you can't see their eyes? Or how about someone asleep? You can't see their eyes then. | [
"Face recognition can be used not just to identify an individual, but also to unearth other personal data associated with an individual – such as other photos featuring the individual, blog posts, social networking profiles, Internet behavior, travel patterns, etc. – all through facial features alone. Concerns have... |
when a company offers a direct listing for a new stock, how is the initial price point determined? | In the case of a direct listing, the original share holders put up their shares and determine the value themselves (no underwriters involved). It is much cheaper for the company but it is also considered extremely unsafe. There are no protections against the price swinging violently.
This can lead to your shares not b... | [
"To induce the shareholders of the target company to sell, the acquirer's offer price is usually at a premium over the current market price of the target company's shares. For example, if a target corporation's stock were trading at $10 per share, an acquirer might offer $11.50 per share to shareholders on the cond... |
Are there any people alive today that can trace their ancestry back to ancient history? | There are plenty of people/dynasties that claim they "descend from antiquity" but there are no 'Western' claims that are accepted by historians and genealogists.
There are a number of 'Eastern' claims that might one-day be accepted, the oldest of which is Kung Tsui-chang who claims to be the 79th-generation male desce... | [
"A 2013 study in \"Nature\" reported that DNA found in the 24,000-year-old remains of a young boy from the archaeological Mal'ta-Buret' culture suggest that up to one-third of the indigenous Americans may have ancestry that can be traced back to western Eurasians, who may have \"had a more north-easterly distributi... |
Why were the Mormons driven out west and why did they settle in Utah of all places? | The Mormons, especially their leader Joseph Smith, tended to run into legal problems wherever they landed. That makes a consistent narrative hard to compile.
Let's start in upstate New York. As a teen Smith engaged in the profession of using a peep stone to look for buried treasure. He and his band of treasure hunters... | [
"Utah's Black Hawk War had far-reaching and unforeseen outcomes for Mormons and Utes alike. After 1872 Mormons in Utah were able to expand settlements as immigrants swelled valley populations without the threat of Ute resistance. The chasing of Ute raiders through unexplored regions of Utah actually helped explore ... |
Why were Quakers banned from the Massachussetts Bay Colony in the mid-1600s? | Quakers were a persecuted group even back in the UK- they emphasized a more personal, direct relationship with God, unmediated by clergy, which was viewed as blasphemous and a threat to the established power of the Church of England. Because the monarch was the head of the church, denying one's allegiance to the church... | [
"Of all the New England colonies, Massachusetts was the most active in persecuting the Quakers, but the Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven colonies also shared in their persecution. When the first Quakers arrived in Boston in 1656 there were no laws yet enacted against them, but this quickly changed, and punishmen... |
how do torrent websites keep track of the seeds/peers of each torrent? | So a torrent has seeders (people who have the whole file and are actively sharing it) and leechers (typically people who download more than they upload). The collection of the seeders and leechers is called a swarm. Different torrent sites use a tracker to organise the swarm. The tracker is what detects the number of p... | [
"The algorithm applies to a scenario in which there is only one seed in the swarm. By permitting each downloader to download only specific parts of the files listed in a torrent, it equips peers to begin seeding sooner. Peers attached to a seed with super-seeding enabled therefore distribute pieces of the torrent f... |
Did the concept of zero exist in the Roman era? | The Romans didn't have a _number_ for zero. They definitely had the _concept_ though.
They just used the word "nulla" to mean nothing. Either you had something, or it wasn't worth counting.
Roman numerals are almost useless when doing math. Even simple addition and subtraction is clumsy and slow. I've heard it specu... | [
"Neither the concept nor a symbol for zero existed in the system of Roman numerals. The Babylonian system of the BC era had used the idea of \"nothingness\" without considering it a number, and the Romans enumerated in much the same way. Wherever a modern zero would have been used, Bede and Dionysius Exiguus did us... |
Was there any actual proof of genocide in Srebrenica and Zepa? | Discovery and excavation of mass graves in the region has been [going on for years.]( _URL_0_) | [
"On 12 July 2010, at the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre, Dodik declared that he acknowledges the killings that happened on the site, but does not regard what happened at Srebrenica as genocide, differing from the conclusions of the ICTY and of the International Court of Justice. \"If a genocide happene... |
What does the wobble of the earth's axis have on the weather? | You are on the correct trail in researching Milankovitch cycles. The question of does it effect weather is really one of time-scales. The characteristic time scale of Axial precession (wobble) is 26,000 years so any effect on our 'weather' would be on similar time-scales. It is basically impossible for something whi... | [
"Retrograde motion, or retrogression, within the Earth's atmosphere is seen in weather systems whose motion is opposite the general direction of airflow, i.e. from east to west against the westerlies or from west to east through the trade wind easterlies.\n",
"Surface friction allows the atmosphere to 'pick up' a... |
why does mitch mcconnell have so much power? | He is the Senate Majority Leader.
& #x200B;
The political party that he belongs to, the Republicans, have the majority of the seats in the Senate. According to the Senate's rules (which they get to make up themselves), the majority party gets to vote to elect a leader. That leader is given the power to schedule bill... | [
"McConnell has gained a reputation as a skilled political strategist and tactician. However, this reputation dimmed after Republicans failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) in 2017 during consolidated Republican control of government.\n",
"McConnell was elected to the Senate in 1984 and has been re-... |
Was Ludwig van Beethoven black? | My vote is for "this is bullshit."
Beethoven was well known in his life. After his death, he was pretty much considered the model of what the composer should be and his music became gospel. He was pretty much canonized in the 19th century, and his image is still VERY strong in the world of classical music. His music w... | [
"Ludwig van (full title: \"Ludwig van: A report\"; German: \"Ludwig van: ein Bericht\") is a black-and-white German film by Mauricio Kagel. Filmed in 1969, it was first screened the following year. The work was commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk for the bicentennial celebrations of the birth of Ludwig van Beeth... |
what is a good and simple analogy for the big freeze theory? | Imagine you put 1000 ants randomly onto a little patch of soil 1 foot square. They're close together, they can work together to achieve things, maybe they'll even establish a new colony. It's thriving with activity.
But now imagine you can magically grow that square foot of soil at an ever-expanding rate.
After an ho... | [
"The Big Freeze is a 1993 featurette-length film written and directed by Eric Sykes. The action centres on mishaps involving a father and son plumbing team attending to business in sub-zero temperatures at a retirement home in Finland. Like other Sykes directorial vehicles, the piece is a silent comedy with a star ... |
Hypothetical Exoplanet Analysis | Off the top of my head, the simplest example in that image of a mistake that I think would stand up is that it shows a star in the sky that is either very large or pretty close - and the brightness from it would certainly drown out the other stars in the black sky there.
Even the moon photos with their lack of atmosph... | [
"NICMOS observed the exoplanet XO-2b at star XO-2, and a spectroscopy result was obtained for this exoplanet in 2012. This uses the spectroscopic abilities of the instrument, and in astronomy spectroscopy during a planetary transit (an exoplanet passes in front of star from the perspective of Earth) is a way to stu... |
how do companies get away with badmouthing each other? | There is nothing illegal about using your competitor's name in an advertisement. But...you open yourself up to false advertisement claims (not to mention mounds of legal costs) when piss off a competitor. The use of the "compared to the leading brand" is often chosen to avoid hassle, but also because you don't want t... | [
"This type occurs whereby a dominant firm using dominant position to exploit consumers without losing them through conduct like price increase and production limitation. There is no legal definition of ‘exploitative abuse’ under Article 102 but it can be taken as ‘any conduct that directly causes harm to the custom... |
How did the Russians manage the logistics of redeploying their Baltic fleet to the Far East in 1905? | Expanded [from an earlier answer of mine](_URL_0_)
The process of coaling was an arduous and backbreaking task in the early twentieth century. This was doubly true for the fleets commanded by Zinovy Rozhestvensky and Dmitry von Fölkersam which had to make a long journey to Asian waters. The journey was a logistical ni... | [
"The Baltic Fleet took a prominent part in the Russo-Japanese War. After the defeat of earlier Siberian Military Flotilla vessels, in September 1904, a squadron under the command of Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky was sent on a famous high-speed dash around South Africa – stopping in French, German and Portuguese colo... |
why do cops use numbers like 10-4 to talk to each other instead of saying what’s actually happening? | Because there are multiple officers all trying to talk on the same frequency so it's good to be brief. Also in case someone is listening it isn't immediately obvious what's going on | [
"Ten-codes, officially known as ten signals, are brevity codes used to represent common phrases in voice communication, particularly by law enforcement and in Citizens Band (CB) radio transmissions. The police version of ten-codes is officially known as the APCO Project 14 Aural Brevity Code.\n",
"In the United S... |
why the new star wars movie still isn't rated this close to it's release date? | In this case I believe it is because they have not released the movie to critics so as to avoid leaking plot details. Current rumor is there is some big reveal regarding Luke they don't want to give away in advance. | [
"All six \"Star Wars\" films were released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on Blu-ray Disc on September 16, 2011 in three different editions, with \"A New Hope\" available in both a box set of the original trilogy and with all six films on \"Star Wars: The Complete Saga\", which includes nine discs and over ... |
What is "foaming at the mouth" and what exactly causes it? | Rabies causes, amongst other things "hydrophobia" which counter to what its name suggests isn't a literal fear of water but more an inability to swallow effectively. Many patients when afflicted by rabies experience laryngospasm, pharyngeal or diaphramatic spasms. The end result is the inability to effectively swallo... | [
"In cuisine, foam is a gelling or stabilizing agent in which air is suspended. Foams have been present in many forms over the history of cooking, such as whipped cream, meringue and mousse. In these cases, the incorporation of air or another gas creates a lighter texture and a different mouth feel. Foams add flavor... |
Are trees from different families examples of convergent evolution? Or do many families of plants come from a tree-like ancestor? | So I've heard of arboresence (or tree-ness) considered a convergent phenotype in George McGhee's book "Convergent Evolution: Limited forms most beautifu"l. In fact, he argues that arboresence has evolved independently in 9 plant lineages. One example is Ferns which evolved tree-ness in 3 groups throughout history (only... | [
"Genome-wide analysis of 11 clumps of \"P. trichocarpa\" trees reveals significant genetic differences between the roots and the leaves and branches of the same tree. The variation within a specimen is as much as found between unrelated trees. These results may be important in resolving debate in evolutionary biolo... |
What did Classic, Country Music stars like Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and the like, think of the Woodstock Music Festival? | In 1969, both Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash were both fairly unusually aligned with the American youth counterculture than the average country musician. Kris Kristofferson's 1970 debut album *Kristofferson* features the track 'Blame It On The Stones', which satirised bourgeois hypocrisy about the counterculture an... | [
"In 2005, Professor Louie & the Crowmatix were the first artists to have a live concert recording released by the New York State Museum. The CD is entitled “The Spirit of Woodstock”. It comprises fourteen songs including the music of Bob Dylan, The Band, Bruce Springsteen, The Crowmatix and more. The performance wa... |
if i were able to attain enough money to hire a team capable of sending me into space, and buy the spacecraft itself, would anyone be legally allowed to stop me? | Goodness no! In fact, you'd probably get a prize, if you were able to do something novel up there. We're actively encouraging civilian spaceflight through a number of initiatives, including SpaceX Prizes and general tax breaks for corporations even attempting it.
Mind you you'd have to schedule your launch past air tr... | [
"It's possible to equip your space shuttle with cargo, crew, and energy. Then you will launch, pilot, and land it on a carrier. While orbiting the Earth you will deploy and maintain satellites, or build and visit a space station.\n",
"Furthermore, if such services were unavailable by the end of 2010, NASA would'v... |
Regarding classical conditioning and using it to influence your sexual preferences.. | I'm no psychologist, but preferences for women's body types vary markedly by culture, and even over time within the same culture. That suggests that they aren't all hardwired at least, and that there is a fair amount of conditioning that goes into it, whether it's social reinforcement or whatever. There are probably ... | [
"Some explanations invoke classical conditioning. In several experiments, men have been conditioned to show arousal to stimuli like boots, geometric shapes or penny jars by pairing these cues with conventional erotica. According to John Bancroft, conditioning alone cannot explain fetishism, because it does not resu... |
kobe was accused of rape — the victim was battered, he was charged with a felony, they settled after a civil case, he issued an apology — but no one seems to care. why? | I think people have generally accepted that Kobe was *likely* guilty of adultery and but that it was consensual sex and not rape. Rationale:
1.) Authorities chose not to pursue criminal charges of rape against him
2.) He publicly admitted to adultery but not rape
3.) Civil case against him for rape was settled out o... | [
"The Kobe Bryant sexual assault case began in July 2003 when the news media reported that the sheriff's office in Eagle, Colorado, had arrested professional basketball player Kobe Bryant in connection with an investigation of a sexual assault complaint filed by a 19-year-old hotel employee. Bryant had checked into ... |
is the us going to war with iran? | You think the people in charge of our government have a cogent plan they're going to stick to? The Joint Chiefs of Staff probably know the answer to this as well as I do. But we do have some world-class warmongers making some high-level decisions right now | [
"Muravchik argued in the Washington Post that the United States should attack Iran, stating: \"Does this mean that our only option is war? Yes, although an air campaign targeting Iran's nuclear infrastructure would entail less need for boots on the ground than the war Obama is waging against the Islamic State, whic... |
The FDA says that "residual quantities of formaldehyde may be found in some current vaccines" How is that even remotely possible when formaldehyde is a gas? | Gases can be dissolved in liquids.
Formaldehyde exists in equilibrium with methylene glycol when dissolved in water. [The equilibrium constant at standard conditions is on the order of 10^3](_URL_0_), so most of it will become methylene glycol, but not all of it. | [
"In June 2011, the twelfth edition of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) Report on Carcinogens (RoC) changed the listing status of formaldehyde from \"reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen\" to \"known to be a human carcinogen.\" Concurrently, a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee was convened... |
How does the majority of historians view Julius Caesar? A great leader or an evil one? | The issue with this question is that it is completely variant on a subjective viewpoint. Judging whether or not a person as famous as Caesar was "good" or "evil" is a truly impossible task, not only because of the differences in morality between the ancient era and the modern one, but also because of the different nuan... | [
"Although Sextus Pompeius remained at large, after Munda there were no more conservative armies challenging Caesar's dominion. Upon his return to Rome, according to Plutarch, the \"triumph which he celebrated for this victory displeased the Romans beyond any thing. For he had not defeated foreign generals, or barba... |
How do bacteria get their energy? | [Metabolism](_URL_0_), like every other living creature.
The two common sources of energy are light and molecular bonds in food matter.
Different bacteria have evolved to capitalize on both sources.
The variations are fascinating.
Wood is a sugar molecule with lots of energy, but humans can't unlock it so we call ... | [
"Some species of bacteria obtain their energy by oxidizing various fuels while reducing arsenate to arsenite. Under oxidative environmental conditions some bacteria oxidize arsenite to arsenate as fuel for their metabolism. The enzymes involved are known as arsenate reductases (Arr).\n",
"In respiring bacteria un... |
Is it possible that scientific constants exist because of the way we define units? | Dimensionful constants, like the speed of light or Planck's constant, are indeed dependent on the units we choose, and we can set them to 1 in some appropriate unit system (this is commonly done, for example, in quantum field theory or in relativity). But dimensionless constants, like the fine-structure constant, have ... | [
"While there are several other physical constants, these three are given special consideration, because they can be used to define all Planck units and thus all physical quantities. The three constants are therefore used sometimes as a framework for philosophical study and as one of pedagogical patterns.\n",
"Usi... |
3 good questions about the derivatives of position. 1. can we perceive any besides velocity and acceleration?.... | > you go from velocity to acceleration by squaring the t in d/t
Well, given a function v(t), you differentiate with respect to time to get a(t). Ok, a perfectly valid function is v(t)=d/t with some constant d, which would mean a velocity that gradually approaches zero, but I doubt this is what you mean by d/t.
> ... | [
"If represents the position of an object at time , then the higher-order derivatives of have specific interpretations in physics. The first derivative of is the object's velocity. The second derivative of is the acceleration. The third derivative of is the jerk. And finally, the fourth derivative of is the jounce.\... |
what does cold/flu medicine do if you don't have a cold or flu? | The most commonly used decongestant is **guafenesin**. It increases the blood flow to your nose. Many opera singers use it daily to clear their sinuses. If you take too much you'll throw up, but it's not deadly.
**Guafenesin** is also an expectorant, but maybe your medicine uses **pseudoephedrine**. That will make yo... | [
"There is little evidence to support that Cold-fx is effective in the common cold. All trials have been done by the manufacturer and there has been poor data reporting. According to Health Canada's Natural Health Product Directorate records, the company claims that it may \"help reduce the frequency, severity and d... |
how can something like a cellphone or computer possibly have any effect on a plane during takeoff? | 800 megahertz communications can interfere with instrument landing systems as well as other navigation systems. | [
"\"The aircraft manufacturer's avionics representative advised that there was no likelihood that the operation of a computer, other electronic device or a cell phone would have affected the aircraft's flight instruments.\"\n",
"Initial analysis from David Learmount, a \"Flight International\" editor, was that \"T... |
How did the four Sunni Islamic school of thoughts settle to the current geography? Could this change in the future? | Mod mote to OP and potential respondents: just a reminder that this sub *does not permit speculation*, so discussion here will have to exclude the last question (re possible futures) . | [
"After its beginnings in the 8th century based on Hellenistic geography, Islamic geography was patronized by the Abbasid caliphs of Baghdad. Various Islamic scholars contributed to its development, and the most notable include Al-Khwārizmī, Abū Zayd al-Balkhī (founder of the \"Balkhi school\"), and Abu Rayhan Birun... |
Were there Prisoner of War camps in the American Civil War? If so, what were they like? How were the prisoners treated? | It was bad in the South as the war dragged on. The North was very effective at limiting the South's ability to supply their troops and civilians. PoWs are pretty low on the list when you're rationing.
Andersonville, by far the most notorious Civil War prison, housed nearly 33,000 men at its peak—one of the largest "... | [
"In the early years of the Civil War, the north barracks were used to hold Confederate officers taken as prisoners of war pending transfer to other Union prisons such as Camp Johnson in Ohio, Fort Delaware or Fort Warren in Boston Harbor. Fort Columbus and Castle Williams also served as a temporary prisoner of war ... |
Are there any theories which try to explain where the very first matter, mass, or "stuff" came from? | Current cosmological/physics theories can trace the universe back rather accurately to about 10^(-12) seconds or so after the big bang. All of our theories before that are speculative to some degree or another, so we can't say anything definitive about the universe at those points (let alone make sense of "before the b... | [
"All these theories imply that matter is a continuous substance. Two Greek philosophers, Leucippus (first half of the 5th century BC) and Democritus of Abdera (lived about 410 BC) came up with the notion that there were two real entities: atoms, which were small indivisible particles of matter, and the void, which ... |
what is stockholm’s syndrome and can children have it due to abusive parents? | Stockholm Syndrome is when a captive person grows an attachment to their captor. For example, it has been debated that dogs only love their owners because their owners feed and shelter them.
I think children can develop Stockholm Syndrome with/to abusive parents. Depending on their age, they probably do feel like pri... | [
"Stockholm syndrome is a \"contested illness\" due to doubt about the legitimacy of the condition. It has also come to describe the reactions of some abuse victims beyond the context of kidnappings or hostage-taking. Actions and attitudes similar to those suffering from Stockholm syndrome have also been found in vi... |
will the united states debt to china ever affect the us government in a negative way? | To China specifically? No. Owing money to China is no different from the US government owing money to me for money I've lent to it. The US government owes about $1.25 trillion to China and about $6.2 trillion to foreign sources overall. It doesn't really offer China any influence over the US.
Can debt overall effect t... | [
"A significant number of economists and analysts dismiss any and all concerns over foreign holdings of United States government debt denominated in U.S. Dollars, including China's holdings. Critics of the \"excessive\" amount of US debt held by China acknowledge that the \"biggest effect of a broad-scale dump of US... |
What were the consequences of Athens’ decisions, and how did their downfall effect Greece and ultimately leave it open for Phillip II to conquer. | There is a significant amount of time between the dissolution of the Delian League (404 BC) and the conquest of Greece by Philip II (338 BC). In fact, there was time enough for the Athenians to start a Second Delian League (probably in 378 BC) *and for that League to fall too* (after the Social War of 357-355 BC).
How... | [
"The Greek victories at Plataea and contemporaneous naval battle at Mycale had the result that never again would the Persian Empire launch an attack on mainland Greece. Afterwards, Persia pursued its policies by diplomacy, bribery and cajolement, playing one city state against another. But, by these victories, and ... |
Why do galaxies appear as consistent objects, given their sheer scale? | Hundreds of thousands of years is actually quite a short period of time in astronomy. Even very short-lived stars last for millions of years.
The distance to other galaxies is also much larger than their size. Andromeda, the closest large galaxy to us, is millions of light-years away. We can say many other objects tha... | [
"Current models also predict that the majority of mass in galaxies is made up of dark matter, a substance which is not directly observable, and might not interact through any means except gravity. This observation arises because galaxies could not have formed as they have, or rotate as they are seen to, unless they... |
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