Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
mass surveilance. what's the point?	I'll start by saying that I completely oppose mass surveillance, I'm merely answering your question. So, there are several justifications for why such systems would be useful, and some do have their merits. The idea is that by collecting information on everything, a database can be created that could theoretically cat...	[ "In social dynamics, critical mass is a sufficient number of adopters of an innovation in a social system so that the rate of adoption becomes self-sustaining and creates further growth. The term is borrowed from nuclear physics and in that field it refers to the amount of a substance needed to sustain a chain reac...
how do odors work? are they infinite?	It's molecules spreading away from an object, it smells less strong the further away you are because they dissipate.	[ "Phantosmia (olfactory hallucinations), smelling an odor that is not actually there, and parosmia (olfactory illusions), inhaling a real odor but perceiving it as different scent than remembered, are distortions to the sense of smell (olfactory system) that, in most cases, are not caused by anything serious and usu...
why do infants grasp every object put in their palms?	It is a reflex of the muscle palmaris longus. The insertion tendon of it can be seen on the anterior side of the forearm when trying to touch thumb to pinky. It is kind of a vestigial muscle from our chimpanzee-like ancestors that would have to grasp tightly to the branch or mother's fur for survival. Now it serves...	[ "Infants reach as early as 16 weeks of age and are able to perform certain actions that lead to grasping objects. The act of grasping is a two stage motor skill that develops. The first stage, infants will reach out towards the desired object. In the second stage, the infants will then clench fingers once the objec...
How common was comitting suicide in order to die with honor (like seppuku) in ancient greek/rome?	Being ordered to kill one's self was more common in the Empire than the Republic. Most emperors, especially the crazy ones, jealously guarded their power and were wary of a general getting too popular. Despite swearing an annual oath of loyalty to the Emperor the troop's favor could always shift if the emperor was weak...	[ "In ancient Athens, a person who committed suicide without the approval of the state was denied the honors of a normal burial. The person would be buried alone, on the outskirts of the city, without a headstone or marker. However, it was deemed to be an acceptable method to deal with military defeat. In Ancient Rom...
why should i pay $50 to get my tires filled with nitrogen instead or regular air?	When you are flying your jumbo jet at 30000ft in temperatures of -40, not having moisture in the stuff filling your tyres helps. When you are landing said jumbo jet and the tyres strike tarmac and rapidly heat up, having them filled with an inert gas helps. $50 isn't really much compared to the other costs of a jumbo ...	[ "BULLET::::- Aircraft & motor vehicle tires: Although air is 78% nitrogen, most aircraft tires are filled with pure nitrogen. There are many tire and automotive shops with nitrogen generators to fill tires. The advantage of using nitrogen is that the tank is dry. Often a compressed air tank will have water in it th...
My green laser pointer turns orange when the light hits these highlighters. Why?	You're witnessing [fluorescence](_URL_0_). The atoms in the highlighter absorb the higher energy (shorter wavelength) green light and then emit the orange-ish lower energy (longer wavelength) light you're seeing.	[ "The violet 405 nm laser (whether constructed from GaN or frequency-doubled GaAs laser diodes) is not in fact blue, but appears to the eye as violet, a color for which a human eye has a very limited sensitivity. When pointed at many white objects (such as white paper or white clothes which have been washed in certa...
Did European Knights ever use guns/cannon?	Early modern cavalrymen -- [reiters](_URL_1_) -- often used pistols. Some of them also used longer (but still short compared to infantry) firearms, a type of early carbine called a harquebus. Most of these cavalrymen were not knighted (except maybe in areas like Poland where titles of nobility were very common), but in...	[ "The crossbows of infantry became heavier, and more dangerous for the knights, and the ordinary shield of the past was replaced with the pavise; a high, rectangle shield, from behind which a foot soldier could safely shoot at the enemy. The very last inventions of the 15th century were black powder and cannon. The ...
How much energy does it take to split an atom?	The short answer is that it depends on the atom. Atomic nuclei have what's called a "nuclear binding energy", which means an atomic nucleus has a lower potential energy than the sum of its constituent parts, and that holds the nucleus together. When talking about binding energies, physicists commonly use units of "en...	[ "Nuclear energy is released by the splitting (fission) or merging (fusion) of the nuclei of atom(s). The conversion of nuclear mass-energy to a form of energy, which can remove some mass when the energy is removed, is consistent with the mass-energy equivalence formula:\n", "The immediate energy release per atom ...
why aren't doctor's/dentist's offices open on the weekends	Because doctors don’t want to work weekends and as it’s a necessity people really don’t really get to protest the scheduling by not going	[ "There was an established interesting outcome, which was explained that many dentists do not use posts in their appropriate way, which means they apply them in the way that they understand by themselves, and this fact causes two main problems, consuming time and failing the post.\n", "Nearly a third of all Americ...
how do languages change over time?	When they were your age, your grandparents didn't speak the way you speak now. Each generation has its own manner of speaking that's very slightly different from the last, and over centuries these differences add up. There are some very obvious changes in vocabulary. Some of them are very deliberate, such as saying "a...	[ "Language change is variation over time in a language's phonological, morphological, semantic, syntactic, and other features. It is studied by historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary linguistics. Some commentators use the label corruption to suggest that language change constitutes a degradation ...
From my understanding, the "Crusader Kings II" feudal system (for lack of a better phrase) of a clearly defined hierarchy of vassalage wasn't nearly as universal across Europe as the game suggests. So how exactly did the feudal system vary between countries in the high middle ages?	This is a bit of a tricky question to answer, but rather than just link back to the numerous 'Feudalism doesn't exist' threads which you can find in the FAQs (and I do encourage you to have a look at them, because there's lots of interesting and relevant stuff there, [even if it is a little bit more complicated than it...	[ "With the breakup of the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century, the system of feudalism places kings at the head of a pyramid of relationships between liege lords and vassals, dependent on the regional rule of barons, and the intermediate positions of counts (or earls) and dukes. The core of European feudal manoria...
Middle Names	hi! answers are going to differ by cultures, but you'll find some examples in these earlier threads * [Where does the middle name come from?](_URL_2_) * [When did we start having/using middle names and why?](_URL_0_) * [When (and why) did middle names become commonplace in the West?](_URL_1_)	[ "Middle names can also be used as first names. Major examples are Paul McCartney, Mitt Romney, Dakota Fanning, Stephen Curry, Elle Fanning, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Jonathan Demme, Oliver Stone, Jason Witten, Riley Keough, Reese Witherspoon, Hayley Orrantia, Brad Pitt, Ashton Kutcher, Meghan Markle, Rihann...
If the rifled barrel was first used in the early sixteenth century, why was it not widely adopted in military small arms until the nineteenth century?	Rate of fire mattered more than accuracy in combat at the time, and smoothbore guns were quicker to reload. Infantry combat typically took place at close range, especially after the Swedish Empire introduced the bayonet charge. Units would generally fire coordinated volleys at enemy formations, and in doing so the accu...	[ "By the late 18th century there were increasing efforts to take advantage of the rifle for military purposes, with specialist rifle units such as the King's Royal Rifle Corps of 1756 and Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort's Own) of 1800. Despite this, smoothbores predominated until the advent of the Minié ball – by whic...
why does the teaching profession have a much higher job security compared to other occupations.	Quality teachers are rare, considering the terrible pay. When you get good ones you need to lock them down. Sometimes even mediocre ones will do considering the things teachers have to put up with.	[ "They have to go for part-time jobs to meet their basic needs. Again, the teaching profession also does not enjoy due respect in the society. The primary and secondary teachers are particularly at a disadvantage. Their status is lower than that of doctors, engineers, advocates, civil servants; even lower than that ...
Can you see the real size of stars in this picture?	No, you are looking at the [point spread function](_URL_0_) of the telescope. Real optical systems cannot be focused perfectly, and turn points of light into small circles that you see in the picture. The smallest angle that a telescope could resolve is called the [diffraction limit](_URL_3_). Larger telescopes have ...	[ "The following is a list of stars with resolved images, that is, stars whose images have been resolved beyond a point source. Aside from the Sun, stars are exceedingly small in apparent size, requiring the use of special high-resolution equipment to image. For example, the first star, other than the Sun, to be dire...
Are speedreading school legit or a hoax, howmany words per second can the brain actually read retaining all the information?	I don't have any numbers on this but speedreading is legit. It's achieved by reading in chunks instead of word-by-word, and minimizing or even eliminating silent speech (don't think about the sound of the words while reading). However, while it's faster to get a general understanding of the text than traditional readin...	[ "Ronald Carver, a professor of education research and psychology, claims that the fastest college graduate readers can read only about 600 words per minute, at most twice as fast as their slowest counterparts, and suggests that Kennedy's claimed reading speed was more a measure of how fast he could skim a piece of ...
how does my iphone x know where i’m parked?	I believe it uses the accelerometer and gyroscope (and bluetooth if your car uses it, as well as CarPlay) to know you're driving. Then, when it detects you've stopped driving, it marks the GPS location as your parking spot. This is also how the Do Not Disturb while driving feature works.	[ "A marker can be automatically placed to indicate the user's parked car. The marker can also tell the user when they last parked their car, and a Notes field allows the user to enter information, such as parking garage number, in the app.\n", "The sensor detects any movement of the car and triggers an alarm proce...
Roma/Gypsies in Romania, Bulgaria, Andalusia	The reason for their higher numbers in Eastern Europe is slavery, they were enslaved for over 500 years. How this came to be is unknown, some Romanian historians suggest that the Mongols introduced this practice in the area during their invasion in the 13th century but I wouldn't be able to tell you how valid this theo...	[ "Roma in Bulgaria are not a unified community in culture and lifestyle. The most widespread group of the Romani in the country are the \"yerlii\" or the 'local Roma', who are in turn divided into Bulgarian Gypsies (\"daskane roma\") and Turkish Gypsies (\"horahane roma\"). The former are mostly Christian (Eastern O...
how do ads help sell products, even when everybody hates them?	Here are a few basic reasons: 1. Not everyone hates ads. People will watch the trailer for a movie they like or read an article about a gadget they want to buy (often those are also paid advertisements). Lots of people enjoy certain ads and buy products based on them. 2. They create brand recognition. I bought my wal...	[ "Advertisements are used to attract customers to a business’ products or services. In doing so, they are also making statements regarding race, social class, gender, values, and family. They not only \"describe\" these social categories, they \"prescribe\" behaviors or show one how it is that they should act in acc...
The asteroid belt...is it a sphere?	The asteroid belt is pretty flat, you can imagine it like one of the rings of Saturn in shape. The reason for this is that all the planets/asteroids etc in the solar system formed inside a spinning ring of matter (an accretion disc) around the very young Sun, so are all orbiting roughly the same way (interactions betwe...	[ "In astronomy and navigation, the celestial sphere is an abstract sphere that has an arbitrarily large radius and is concentric to Earth. All objects in the sky can be conceived as being projected upon the inner surface of the celestial sphere, which may be centered on Earth or the observer. If centered on the obse...
Do donor organs impact chronic medical conditions?	In your example given, asthma is the body's immune reaction and not necessarily a function of the lungs so no, the person would still have asthma. -Correction in reply below Now, if someone had nerve damage in their hand (not resulting from a spinal issue) and successfully recieved a hand transplant, in theory this wo...	[ "Reports by the World Health Organization show decreased health and economic well-being for those who donate organs through transplant tourism. In Iran (where organ sales are legal), 58% of donors reported negative health consequences. In Egypt, as many as 78% of donors experienced negative health outcomes, and 96%...
how is it possible for other countries to hack elections?	When people are talking about "hacking the election", they're not just talking about directly manipulating ballots. It's more a reference to social engineering (called "active measures" by the Russian security forces) to manipulate the public to achieve a result desired by a foreign power. You add in the actual hacki...	[ "Cyber threats or attacks to elections or voting infrastructure could be carried out by insiders within a voting jurisdiction, or by a variety of other actors ranging from nefarious nation-states, to organized cyber criminals to lone-wolf hackers. Motives may range from a desire to influence the election outcome, t...
why do traditional rain boots have those little loops on them?	You’ve heard of bootstraps? Those are they.	[ "Both Mickey Mouse boots and bunny boots have an air valve on each of the boots. These air valves must be opened prior to flying, to ensure that the air pressure differential between the walls of the boot and the outside air does not cause the boots to rupture. A common theory on the origins of the name of bunny bo...
if hitler was a socialist, a leftist political ideology, why are neo nazi parties like the golden dawn considered the 'far right'?	Hitler nearly had to fight a civil war against the german communist party. He did not believe in, nor did he promote collective ownership of capital (the core of socialist thought). Communist dissidents were among the first to be persecuted in concentration camps (unsurprisingly since they were the most likely to vio...	[ "The majority of scholars identify Nazism in both theory and practice as a form of far-right politics. Far-right themes in Nazism include the argument that superior people have a right to dominate other people and purge society of supposed inferior elements. Adolf Hitler and other proponents denied that Nazism was ...
In terms of entropy, why is the big bang different from heat death?	Entropy in the presence of gravity is extremely tricky. The early Universe was pretty much a homogeneous warm gas. You would assume this is a high, or even maximum entropy state, but this is incorrect, since it spontaneously collapses gravitationally, to produce galaxies and stars and other inhomogeneities. When a ...	[ "The heat death of the universe, also known as the Big Chill or Big Freeze, is a conjecture on the ultimate fate of the universe, which suggests the universe would evolve to a state of no thermodynamic free energy and would therefore be unable to sustain processes that increase entropy. Heat death does not imply an...
would we be able to see new colours?	There are thermal visors which allow us to see infrared, which is basically another colour. Many cameras can also pick up certain bands of infrared. That said, our eyes detect three colours - red, green and blue. Through mixing you get a rainbow. If you lack one or two of these detectors, you are colour blind. Howeve...	[ "At about the same time that Goethe was publishing his theory, a British physicist, doctor and Egyptologist, Thomas Young (1773–1829), showed by experiments that it was not necessary to use all the colors of spectrum to create white light; it could be done by combining the light of just three colors; red, green, an...
why are studies on potential cancer cures like soursop so limited?	There are a million things that can be studied as potential cancer treatments. There's no particular reason to believe that soursop works at all. Most researchers prefer to direct their work into areas that actually have some prior plausibility. Something to bear in mind: while various online advocate groups insist ...	[ "The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center lists cancer treatment as one of the \"purported uses\" of soursop. According to Cancer Research UK, \"Many sites on the internet advertise and promote graviola capsules as a cancer cure, but none of them are supported by any reputable scientific cancer organisations\" an...
Are all of our cells replaced as we are, or can we point at a cell somewhere and say "that cell is 35 years old"?	Different cell types have different rates of what is called "cell turnover". Some cells, such as the ones lining your gastrointestinal tract, last only days. The neurons in your brain and spinal cord can last your entire life. Long lived cells can actually be carbon dated - or at least, their DNA can be carbon dated. ...	[ "The single live cell of the starting configuration is a sawtooth pattern. This means that in some time steps the numbers of live cells grow arbitrarily large while in others they return to only two live cells, infinitely often.\n", "Most other cells cannot divide indefinitely as after a few cycles of cell divisi...
why don't republicans want to nominate mitt romney?	A lot of people don't trust him. He's been on both sides of many major issues (taxes, gay marriage, abortion, individual mandate for health care). So, while what he's saying now sounds good to many Republicans, there's no particularly good reason to believe that he means it, or that he'll govern the way he says he wi...	[ "Romney stood to benefit from the Republican electorate's tendency to nominate candidates who had previously run for president, and thus appeared to be next in line to be chosen. The early stages of the race found him as the apparent front-runner in a weak field, especially in terms of fundraising prowess and organ...
if the cleft chin is a dominant trait, why are non-cleft chins so much more common?	Just because a gene is dominant, doesn't mean its feature is going to be common. This is because the frequency of genes being dominant/recessive is not 50/50! Let's say that the non-cleft chin gene is 90% common, and the cleft chin gene is 10%. A simple model would say that this means, roughly 19% of the population ha...	[ "A cleft chin is an inherited trait in humans, where the dominant gene causes the cleft chin, while the recessive presents without a cleft. However, it is also a classic example for variable penetrance with environmental factors or a modifier gene possibly affecting the phenotypical expression of the actual genotyp...
why were there so many movies set in the midwestern us in the 1980's and none today?	Well, for one thing, John Hughes is dead. He was responsible for a lot of 80s teen movies set in the Chicago area.	[ "Many critically acclaimed movies have been set in the cultural background of the South. A partial list of these films follows – for a more complete listing of Southern cinema, see list of films set in the Southern United States.\n", "By the 1960s and 70s, times had changed. America's flight to suburbs was having...
Can you think of a monarch who had real power when they under 21 and actually used it pretty well?	Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden became king when he was 16, and inherited three wars. He then led his troops in battle (almost drowning once) and managed to end one of the wars with relatively minor loss (the Kalmar War against Denmark, where Sweden was at a severe disadvantage) by the time he was 18. Of course, after 21...	[ "If a young child is crowned the monarch, a regent is often appointed to govern until the monarch reaches the requisite adult age to rule. Monarchs' actual powers vary from one monarchy to another and in different eras; on one extreme, they may be autocrats (absolute monarchy) wielding genuine sovereignty; on the o...
Could you consider neutrons, electrons and protons examples of perfect spheres?	The electrons are different from protons and neutrons in that they have no internal structure. Protons and neutrons are made of 3 quarks each. For electrons and other fundamental particles, there are two considerations, the first being volume, and the second being spherical symmetry. Volume is easier to address : in ...	[ "Geometrically speaking, a positive integer is a perfect cube if and only if one can arrange solid unit cubes into a larger, solid cube. For example, 27 small cubes can be arranged into one larger one with the appearance of a Rubik's Cube, since .\n", "The Lénárt sphere is useful in modeling and demonstrating sph...
Who were the Triarii and how were they different from regular old veteran soldiers?	As your googling probably told you, they were the older heavy infantry soldiers in the Roman legions. Specifically, they were the older soldiers in the Roman army of the middle republic, which is to say the early third to the late second/early first century B.C. sometimes called the Polybian Legion. (Not because that ...	[ "Triarii (singular: \"Triarius\") were one of the elements of the early Roman military manipular legions of the early Roman Republic (509 BC – 107 BC). They were the oldest and among the wealthiest men in the army and could afford high quality equipment. They wore heavy metal armor and carried large shields, their ...
How much free time for recreation (if any) did black slaves in the US have, and what did they do for fun?	By function and design, enslaved people existing in a system of chattel slavery had no say over how they spent their time. This isn't to say every minute of every day was scheduled by their owner, but rather, how they spent their time not doing labor was shaped by their enslavers and the rules and systems around them. ...	[ "Since the 16th century, thanks to a government approved program called \"manumisión\", the black slaves were allowed to pay for their freedom with their own savings. Therefore, a larger number of free blacks were dedicated to the manual labors in the fields than in the cities and some of them were also able to bec...
Why didn’t the Chinese execute their royal family like the Russians did?	I'm going to talk here about the 1911 Xinhai revolution of 1911, since this was when the royal family was removed from power and thus when the question would seem to be most pertinent. They weren't executed because as part of the abdication deal their safety was guaranteed. In 1911 a republican revolution swept thro...	[ "Han Chinese Generals who defected to the Manchu in early Qing were sometimes married to imperial daughters, although this is much less frequent than the case where Aisin Giroro women married to Mongolian aristocrats or other Manchu elite. Unlike the marriage between Manchu and Mongolians that lasted throughout the...
why is winking associated with flirting/sexual behavior?	Winking or small gestures is associated with covertness; sharing of personal secrets and a sign of closeness and relationship. This suggests intimacy and is a physical form of say, calling someone by their nickname.	[ "In some cultures it is often a sexual interest, or flirtatious manner, during momentary eye contact. This is often followed by a smile and usually a smile from the receiver if it is accepted or approved by them, sometimes combined with blushing if they are embarrassed. A smile from the receiver sometimes—but not a...
What can you tell me about the Barbary Wars?	Well what would you like to know? Happy to answer stuff, just want to know what your are looking for/where you want more info. If you are interested in reading a bit on them the best book out there is probably "6 Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the US Navy" By Ian W. Toll.	[ "The Oyster Wars were a series of sometimes violent disputes between oyster pirates and authorities and legal watermen from Maryland and Virginia in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River from 1865 until about 1959.\n", "The First and Second Barbary Wars were a series of conflicts between the Unit...
how does isopropyl alcohol works on eletronics?	It really only removes debris that could be in there. If you remove all the power and dry it afterwards, a lot of electronics don't even mind touching water. Alcohol is used because it evaporates very quickly. _URL_0_	[ "Isopropyl alcohol is commonly used for cleaning eyeglasses, electrical contacts, audio or video tape heads, DVD and other optical disc lenses, removing thermal paste from heatsinks on CPUs and other IC packages, etc.\n", "Isopropyl alcohol is miscible in water, ethanol, ether, and chloroform. It dissolves ethyl ...
Book recommendations on the Taiping rebellion?	God's Chinese Son is the first thing that comes to mind. The story focuses on the spread of Christianity through China led by Hong Xiuquan, who believed that he was the brother of Jesus Christ. The government tried to quash their efforts, viewing Christianity as a threat to Chinese society and social order. It's not a...	[ "The University of Washington Project on Modern History organized translations and monographs on the Taiping Rebellion, the mid-19th century civil war that nearly overthrew the dynasty. One result of the Project was \"Taiping Rebellion in China\", published by The University of Washington Press in three volumes, be...
why aren't computers and other electronic devices instant, why is there a 'loading' time?	because of how electronics work at the basic level. everything is synced to a metronome called the processor clock. the entire orchestra of several billion transitors operates on the processor clock's conductor timing. when processor clock says your data's ready to read, then read, not before. at the electrical...	[ "Many embedded systems must boot immediately. For example, waiting a minute for a digital television or a GPS navigation device to start is generally unacceptable. Therefore, such devices have software systems in ROM or flash memory so the device can begin functioning immediately; little or no loading is necessary,...
how is stephen hawkings able to communicate using a computer if his entire body is paralyzed?	Stephen Hawking has very limited (but sufficient) muscle control around is cheek area. Basically the computer displays a number of options and constantly scrolls through those options. Hawking can then indicate he wishes to select an option by flexing his cheek muscle. This is an extremely inefficient way to operate ...	[ "Because of his motor neurone disease, Hawking was unable to speak, and he communicated using a custom-made computer. With small movements of his body, Hawking wrote a text onto the computer, which was then spoken by a voice synthesizer. Because of this, Hawking had to write all his lines on his computer, while the...
How was America, Germany, and Russia all able to produce Nukes around the same time?	In history of science, technology and ideas, simultaneous discovery and innovation is the norm, not the exception. Almost every technology (and many ideas) have been invented or discovered very nearly simultaneously by multiple inventors once the intellectual and physical "building blocks" required for the invention ha...	[ "The United States and Germany develop atomic weapons of their own and, alongside the Soviets, engage in a nuclear exchange with the Race. The Soviets may have detonated the first atomic bomb, but it was only because their original sample of Plutonium (captured from the Race) was larger than the samples given to th...
how do they resize a ring?	[Here's some pictures of repairing a ring](_URL_0_) - from [this thread on /r/pics a few days ago](_URL_1_). Expanding a ring a little bit could easily be done by just forcing it a bit further down the mandrel. For more embiggening or shrinking, you can cut the ring and add/remove material. Since jewelry is made fro...	[ "A back-up ring is a rigid ring that holds an elastomeric seal or plastic (such as Polyethylene) connection to its designed shape and in its correct place. Back up rings are commonly used with O-rings, lip seals, and as reciprocating shaft seals. They are also used for piping connections joining two different mater...
What happened to all of the escaped slave communities in Latin America?	In Brazil, if an escaped slave wasn't able to pass as a freeman in another area, they would form maroon communities called [_quilombos_](_URL_2_), many of which survive to this day. These were independent communities consisting of escaped African slaves. The same was true of the Guianas, but with an interesting twist...	[ "It is estimated that 12 million African slaves reached Latin America, mainly arriving at the ports of Buenos Aires and Montevideo, with many transshipped to other regions through Valparaíso and Rio de Janeiro. An estimated 10-15% of slaves died during passage across the Atlantic. However, many more died during the...
During WW1 what did the British believe made a good leader?	In what sense? Politically, economically, strategically, tactically? And which segment of the British population? The military, the political elite, or the commons?	[ "In 1965 he provided a wider picture of both the First World War and his role in it in \"Soldier from the Wars Returning\". Carrington argued that Britain's involvement in the First World War was just and that there was no alternative to persevering until victory was won. Britain had reason to be proud of the Army'...
the benefit of government paying a 'baby bonus'	It does give incentives to breed more. Thats considered by the government to be a good thing. The reason you don't necessarily want to bias it towards low income families is that it incentivizes them to have more children than they can support long term (the baby bonus doesn't last forever). Thus it could increase the...	[ "The baby bonus was abolished and replaced with a family tax benefit equivalent to less than half of the then-current payment. The payment was to cease on 1 March 2014, reducing expenditure by $1.1 billion over five years, and being replaced with an increase in family tax benefits which will be means-tested and lim...
Explain to me please the social stigma associated with Tattoos	Bit late, found this randomly searching the word "tattoo" In Christian culture the taboo comes from Leviticus as mentioned, but also from prejudice from the Roman era, as tattoos werecommon in Barbarian areas. In Asia, tattoos have sometimes been used to mark convicts (rings around wrists and ankles) but they were a...	[ "Stigma is a Greek word that in its origins referred to a type of marking or the tattoo that was cut or burned into the skin of criminals, slaves, or traitors in order to visibly identify them as blemished or morally polluted persons. These individuals were to be avoided particularly in public places.\n", "Curren...
why would a company want to acquire a company just to dismantle it or resell it?	If the movie Wall Street taught me anything, it's that sometimes you make more money stripping and selling the company than keeping it together and running it as a business. Like being a parts supplier. It's also a good way to take out the competition, I guess, as well	[ "There are a variety of reasons why an acquiring company may wish to purchase another company. Some takeovers are \"opportunistic\" – the target company may simply be very reasonably priced for one reason or another and the acquiring company may decide that in the long run, it will end up making money by purchasing...
why do we wake up early when we don't have to but tend to wake up late when we need to be up?	The simple answer is stress causes this. By setting a schedule your body will fall into a rhythm. After a while you don't really need the alarm at all. However as we know our natural rythems get disturbed occasionally. When we must get up we are creating stress that is easiest to avoid by doing nothing and that is wha...	[ "Waking up early is a productivity method rising early and consistently so as to be able to accomplish more during the day. This method has been recommended since antiquity and is now recommended by a number of personal development gurus. The philosopher Aristotle said, \"It is well to be up before daybreak, for su...
Why does a full moon make people nuts?	there is no scientific basis/evidence for believing the full moon has any adverse effects on human behavior. It is a selection effect and nothing more than a folklore/myth.	[ "The Moon has long been associated with insanity and irrationality; the words \"lunacy\" and \"lunatic\" (popular shortening \"loony\") are derived from the Latin name for the Moon, \"Luna\". Philosophers Aristotle and Pliny the Elder argued that the full moon induced insanity in susceptible individuals, believing ...
how they make flavours for chips to actually taste like the flavour? e.g.: cheesy garlic bread, sriracha, cheeseburger	In essence it's like culinary science, much in the same way as artists create different shades of paint they create different flavours using extracts and the like. Most of the "Flavourists" are actually based in New Jersey but beyond that I don't know much.	[ "Four flavours are available– original, Tangy Tangerine, Lemon Lime, Berries and Active. In 2011, a non-carbonated version called 100PLUS Edge was introduced before another one in 2017 called 100PLUS Active.\n", "Large-scale manufacturers have also started using the flavoring in their products. Calbee makes snack...
Can monomorphic species distinguish males and females simply by looking at each other?	Humans are a very visually oriented because of evolutionary pathways to our development with some emphasis in auditory sensing. Thus we can usually tell who is a female and who is a male by sight and some sound alone. Females have distinct vocal sounds on the whole relative to males and we can usually visually pick o...	[ "Despite being a monomorphic species, there are a few subtle traits that can help distinguish males from females. Males usually attain a length of 3.5 inches (9 cm), while females are significantly smaller, at 2.5 inches (6.5 cm). Males also tend to show a slightly more intense coloration.\n", "Sexes of the speci...
why are organizations like the nra allowed to spend money shifting a politicians viewpoint?	This sounds like bribery, but in theory it is not. The legal definition of bribery is "If I pay you X, will you do Y?". The NRA goes "Here's a check from the NRA to your campaign. I'm making a donation because we feel the same way about gun control". "X for Y" is never stated, although it's heavily implied. It's like...	[ "Critics reproach members of Congress for protecting their own electoral interests at the expense of the general welfare. Congressmen tend to distribute specialized benefits at a great cost and ignore the particular costs the legislation bears upon the taxpayers (Evans 1994). Legislators, who seek their personal be...
is there a way to make an electric jet?	Sorta. For most air-breathing propulsion, the idea is to compress air, add energy to it when it's compressed, and then allow it to expand and push you with thrust (for turbines) or push a piston (for piston-cylinder engines). The reason you add energy when the air is compressed is due to the way heat engines are const...	[ "Willauer said seawater is the \"best option\" for a source of synthetic jet fuel. By April 2014, Willauer's team had not yet made fuel to the standard required by military jets, but they were able in September 2013 to use the fuel to fly a radio-controlled model airplane powered by a common two-stroke internal com...
why is it considered especially dangerous to pass on the right while driving?	Passing on the right is an unexpected action, and people are less likely to check to their right when changing lanes. The right side of a car also has more visual obstacles to hide your unexpected movement. Being unpredictable causes accidents. That said, if someone's going slow in the left, I'll pass anyway.	[ "BULLET::::- Not keeping on the left or near side of the road, when meeting any other carriage or horse. This rule does not apply in the case of a carriage meeting a foot-passenger, but a driver is bound to use due care to avoid driving against any person crossing the highway on foot. At the same time a passenger c...
how is it that we can understand most, if not all, forms of broken english?	Most languages, like English, have a lot of redundancy built-in and our brains are also particularly good at finding patterns (even in novel sets of stimuli) and linking those patterns to pieces of knowledge or expressions that we have been exposed to previously. It depends on the language though. Some languages, for ...	[ "Broken English is a non-traditionally spoken or alternatively-written version of the English language, sometimes considered a pidgin. Under the strictest definition of the term, broken English consists of English vocabulary grafted onto the syntax of a non-English speaker's native language, including word order, o...
what are calories exactly? how do they know that e.g. 250 ml can of coke has 105 kcal?	They're a unit of energy. 1 calorie is the amount of energy required to heat up 1 gram of water by 1 degree Celsius at 1 atmosphere of pressure. Food calories are actually kilocalories which = 1000 calories. For Coke, they know how much sugar they put in so they can calculate the kcal from that (1g sugar = ~4 kcal).	[ "However, water and sweeteners made up much of the other 49% of the drink, and the calorie count for an 11 oz. (325 ml) can of Swerve Chocolate Drink was 160 calories – more than the 140 calories found in a 12 oz. can (355 ml) of Coca-Cola Classic.\n", "In a 100 gram serving, raw millet provides 378 calories and ...
why do you need a flu vaccine every year, when other vaccines last for many years? and if it's because the flu virus is adapting, why don't the other vaccine diseases also adapt?	You are spot on with the adaptation of the flu virus. The flu virus has a very special way of adapting that other viruses we get vaccinated against tend to lack. Analogy for Flu Infection Let's just say a cell is a series of doors with a factory in the middle. There is a set of doors to get into the factory, the...	[ "Due to the high mutation rate of the virus, a particular influenza vaccine usually confers protection for no more than a few years. Each year, the World Health Organization predicts which strains of the virus are most likely to be circulating in the next year (see Historical annual reformulations of the influenza ...
how do we know that leaked documents are legit?	We don't know. As with so much information, if we like/trust the source and the "leaked" docs support some narrative we believe in, then we grant legitimacy.	[ "The documents are from a variety of sources. Only some are leaked internal memos (documents I, II, VII, VIII, and X). One is a public statement (document III). The others are responses by Eric Raymond to various columns, news articles, and other works.\n", "Verifying the legitimacy of leaked documents is common ...
what happens to a person's circulation system when they get fat? with the increased mass, are all the veins/arteries they had when they were thinner just working harder or do they somehow get more?	[New blood vessels can grow](_URL_0_) to serve new tissue.	[ "There is also fat \"accumulation\" in various body parts. Patients often present with \"buffalo hump\"-like fat deposits in their upper backs. Breast size of patients (both male and female) tends to increase. In addition, patients develop abdominal obesity.\n", "It has been known since the 1970s that when fat ce...
the impulse to scream	It is a way to communicate to others to either help or get out, and screaming also has to do with fight or flight because screaming can scare away a creature or disturb it (i.e. A high pitched scream). It's a deterrent.	[ "This is actually a scream and not mere imagination. Just as some vessels bring the sound from your lungs to your lips, others bring it to the brain. You can draw the sound through these nerves, literally bringing it into your head. When you do this, you are actually shouting inside your brain.\n", "BULLET::::- \...
how do barcode scanners display the correct barcode number even when the barcode is upside down?	The first block of lines and the last block of lines are a set symbol and aren't the same so it's easy to tell if it's reading left to right or right to left.	[ "By using the barcode center marker, it is possible for a barcode scanner to scan just one half of the barcode at a time. This allows reconstruction of the code by means of a helical scan of the barcode by an angle of approximately 45 degrees.\n", "A barcode is a series of alternating dark and light stripes that ...
Is there a chemical with a triple point at room temperature and 1 atm? If so, what is it? If not, why doesn't it exist?	There isn't really a compelling reason why such a molecule should exist. "Room Temperature" and "1 atm" are important to humans incidentally, but there's nothing special about ~300K and ~101kPa that should make it a likely triple point	[ "In thermodynamics, the triple point of a substance is the temperature and pressure at which the three phases and solid of that substance coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium. It is that temperature and pressure at which the sublimation curve, fusion curve and the vaporisation curve meet. For example, the triple po...
why do doctors continue to prescribe antibiotics unnecessarily when they know that science says different?	Hospitals are reimbursed partially based on patient satisfaction scores. So it's not that far off that doctors succumb to patient pressure to keep them satisfied.	[ "BULLET::::- antibiotics, called prophylactic when given as prevention rather as treatment of infection. However, long term use of antibiotics leads to resistance of bacteria. While humans do not become immune to antibiotics, the bacteria does. Thus, avoiding using antibiotics longer than necessary helps preventing...
why is it that oreos get soggy in regular milk but not chocolate milk?	chocolate milk has emulsifiers to keep it mixed that prevents the oreo from soaking up the milk in the same way. If you use nesquick, it does not have emulsifiers, and should not have a similar milk absorbance to store-bought chocky milk EDIT: I'm gonna add a few more notes after seeing the comments below. note - I'm ...	[ "Milk often has flavoring added to it for better taste or as a means of improving sales. Chocolate milk has been sold for many years and has been followed more recently by strawberry milk and others. Some nutritionists have criticized flavored milk for adding sugar, usually in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, ...
Why does the American attitude towards policing differ so much from the rest of the Anglosphere?	I can answer from a legal perspective and the history of law as it pertains to police forces, and the impact of those laws, but there are still a wide variety of theories as to why the specific attitude about police has become what it is in America. From a legal perspective, the police force as we know it in America b...	[ "During the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution witnessed London becoming larger geographically and more significant economically. It became clear that the locally maintained system of volunteer constables and \"watchmen\" was ineffective, both in detecting and preventing crime. Due to this, Royal Assent ...
A few cosmology questions	1. Yes, but also more minutes of night time, because of 1. The rotation of earth slows down, days are getting longer by a second every couple of years, if I remember correctly. 2. I am not sure, but I don't think so. The moon is moving away because of friction due to the tides. The further away the moon is, the lower t...	[ "Physical cosmology is studied by scientists, such as astronomers and physicists, as well as philosophers, such as metaphysicians, philosophers of physics, and philosophers of space and time. Because of this shared scope with philosophy, theories in physical cosmology may include both scientific and non-scientific ...
Does logarithm of negative numbers have any meaning?	Physicist here, we use complex exponentials when representing the amplitude and phase of a wave of light. It is based off Euler's formula and can help make solving problems involving light much easier to calculate. When finding the phase of the light we have to take the logarithm of a complex number. In the special ca...	[ "To avoid the need for separate tables to convert positive and negative logarithms back to their original numbers, one can express a negative logarithm as a negative integer characteristic plus a positive mantissa. To facilitate this, a special notation, called \"bar notation,\" is used:\n", "In common logarithms...
why does holding down the power button on devices work even when the system is frozen?	You are thinking of your operating system being frozen. YOu might have windows. This is a layer of 'computer'. But you can do a fun experiment. Disconnect your hard drive. Turn on your computer. You will then find a whole level of 'computer' that exists beneath your operating system (OS). It is running somet...	[ "Pressing the reset button would be preferable to the power button, which could potentially leave a device in the middle of some operation and subject to defect. In most commodity hardware, the consumer would expect the device to be resilient enough to 'reset' when power was restored.\n", "Due to the electromagne...
what biologically is happening inside trees that causes them to bloom after a week of warm weather?	you quite answered by yourself: Normally we have modeled the phenomenon with the [Degree day](_URL_0_) which is somewhat the energy taken in a certain period of time. Of course the answer is much more complex of this because in reality there are many ways plants adopted to control the blooming, depending on where t...	[ "Observable changes in nature related to season creep include birds laying their eggs earlier and buds appearing on some trees in late winter. In addition to advanced budding, flowering trees have been blooming earlier, for example the culturally-important cherry blossoms in Japan,\n", "Their habitat is a winter ...
How did Hospitals work in the Middle Ages?	"Hospitals" in the Middle Ages weren't just for sick people - some operated like hotels where poor and/or sick pilgrims could stay for a night. Some hospitals were completely secluded and meant for lepers. Some were modeled after religious communities where "patients" had to dress in uniform and go after particular for...	[ "The tertiary function of medieval hospitals was to support education and learning. Originally, hospitals educated chaplains and priestly brothers in literacy and history; however, by the 13th century, some hospitals became involved in the education of impoverished boys and young adults. Soon after, hospitals began...
Did Lewis Carroll invent the idea of Humpty Dumpty being an egg?	In the Annotated Mother Goose, Martin Gardner claims that the poem, which first appeared in 1810 but was much older, had always been intended as a riddle to which the answer is: an egg. The OED gives two definitions of the term, though doubts that the two are related. The first, dating to 1698, is "a drink made with ...	[ "The rhyme does not explicitly state that the subject is an egg, possibly because it may have been originally posed as a riddle. There are also various theories of an original \"Humpty Dumpty\". One, advanced by Katherine Elwes Thomas in 1930 and adopted by Robert Ripley, posits that Humpty Dumpty is King Richard I...
look down the middle of pascal's triangle. notice that, except for the very top 1, all these numbers are even. why?	Surely Pascal's triangle is symmetrical so any centre values will be the sum of two identical integers.	[ "Take Pascal's triangle, which is a triangular array of numbers in which those at the ends of the rows are 1 and each of the other numbers is the sum of the nearest two numbers in the row just above it (the apex, 1, being at the top). The following is an APL one-liner function to visually depict Pascal's triangle:\...
Why did the name "John" (and its translations) become the most popular given name throughout the Christian world?	Traditional Church teaching identifies John the Apostle (one of the 12 apostles mentionned in the Gospels) with John the Evangelist (author of the Gospel of John) with John the author of the book of Revelations (John of Patmos) with the "disciple whom Jesus loved" (ὁ μαθητὴς ὃν ἠγάπα ὁ Ἰησοῦς). Whether this identificat...	[ "It is among the most common given names in Anglophone, Arabic, Persian, Turkic and European countries; traditionally, it was the most common, although it has not been since the latter half of the 20th century. John owes its unique popularity to two highly revered saints, John the Baptist (forerunner of Jesus Chris...
what is the actual difference between acrylic, watercolor, and oil paints structurally?	As I understand from some googling: Acrylic paints use acrylic polymers to hold the colorant. This can be mixed with water, but ultimately the solvent is the acrylic. Watercolor paints use water to hold the colorant. As such, adding water to a wet canvas re-wets the paint. Oil-based paints are the big bads of the paint...	[ "Oil paint has a higher pigment load than acrylic paint. As linseed oil contains a smaller molecule than acrylic paint, oil paint is able to absorb substantially more pigment. Oil provides a refractive index that is less clear than acrylic dispersions, which imparts a unique \"look and feel\" to the resultant paint...
Is it possible to terraform the moon, or would any attempt at an artificial atmosphere be drawn to earth via earth's gravity?	to address the second half of the OP's quaestion > or would any attempt at an artificial atmosphere be drawn to earth via earth's gravity? The answer to this is "no" as well. The [details for this is found in the "Neutral Point"](_URL_0_) > *"At a point 43,495 miles from the Moon, lunar gravity exerted a force ...	[ "Although the gravity on Earth's moon is too low to hold an atmosphere for geological spans of time, if given an atmosphere, it would retain the atmosphere for spans of time that are long compared to human lifespans. Landis and others have thus proposed that it could be feasible to terraform the moon, although not ...
what is psychosis?	Psycosis is often misinterpreted as an actual mental illness, but in reality it is a symptom. It would be like saying a rash, obviously the rash isnt whats wrong, it has a cause. Psycosis can be caused by pretty much any mental disorder, or even just extreme sleep deprivation. It is basically a state where it is litter...	[ "Psychoeducation is an evidence-based therapeutic intervention for patients and their loved ones that provides information and support to better understand and cope with illness. Psychoeducation is most often associated with serious mental illness, including dementia, schizophrenia, clinical depression, anxiety dis...
What were the long term effects of the Enlightenment?	One of the clearest influences is in the development of modern ideas on how the government should be organized. This of course was part of a longer development like things tend to be. During the 17th century, there was a long lasting struggle between the parliament and king over how should the land actually be governed...	[ "In the 1970s, study of the Enlightenment expanded to include the ways Enlightenment ideas spread to European colonies and how they interacted with indigenous cultures and how the Enlightenment took place in formerly unstudied areas such as Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Poland, Hungary and Russia.\n", "The Age of E...
Is it safe to say that General Horatio Gates was the main reason for Benedict Arnold's betrayal towards the Continental Army during the American Revolution?	Although Horatio Gates was a part of his reason for betrayal I wouldn't say it was the main reason. Benedict Arnold was an ambitious man and although we instantly assoicate his name with treason he was once a proud patriot. Arnold sacrificed a great deal for the colonies including his leg during the Battle of Quebec bu...	[ "During these actions, Arnold made a number of friends and a larger number of enemies within the army power structure and in Congress. The actions of some of these political enemies resulted in courts martial and other investigations that contributed to his eventual decision to join the British side of the conflict...
How can a miniscule change in atomic makeup of isomers drastically change the way chemicals act on the body?	In ordinary lab chemistry, it's difficult to be stereoselective because most reactions are occurring between free molecules in solution. The molecule is often equally accessible from every angle. For instance, in the textbook [sn1 reaction](_URL_0_), where a group leaves a carbon atom forming a carbocation as an interm...	[ "Many physical changes also involve the rearrangement of atoms most noticeably in the formation of crystals. Many chemical changes are irreversible, and many physical changes are reversible, but reversibility is not a certain criterion for classification. Although chemical changes may be recognized by an indication...
What was Soviet espionage like during the Cold War?	Soviet intelligence has generally been known for its excellent ability to recruit human sources (Humint), however, during the later stages of the Cold War these Humint capabilities went into sharp decline before having some success again during the final years of the Cold War. The 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia had a...	[ "Soviet espionage in the United States during the Cold War was an outgrowth of World War II nuclear espionage, with both sides utilizing and evolving techniques and practices practiced during World War II. Cold War espionage has been fictionally depicted in works such as the James Bond and Matt Helm books and movie...
What languages were used for trade between Rome and India?	This is only a partial answer, but there's evidence that at least some of the Pandyan Dynasty elites (in what is present day South India) were formally taught Greek, and had access to manuscripts written in both Greek and Latin. In the Western Satraps, which also contained some trade hubs, there was at least some penet...	[ "Roman and Greek traders frequented the ancient Tamil country, present day Southern India and Sri Lanka, securing trade with the seafaring Tamil states of the Pandyan, Chola and Chera dynasties and establishing trading settlements which secured trade with the Indian Subcontinent by the Greco-Roman world since the t...
why does my hair take so long to dry?	Imagine your hair as a sponge, It absorbs the water, and with out squeezing it (rubbing with a towel) it stays absorbed to a maximum capacity. So more water is there to evaporate than if it wasn't as "full" of water, thus taking longer. As for the skin drying fast, A.) it doesn't absorb nearly as much water as hair an...	[ "As hair grows, the natural protective oils of the scalp can fail to reach the ends of the hair. The ends are considered old once they reach about 10 centimeters since they have had long exposure to the sun, gone through many shampoos and may have been overheated by hair dryers and hot irons. This all results in dr...
what exactly is happening when my iphone/computer starts up? why doesn't it just turn on instantly?	Most important/highly accessed parts of your system are loaded into ram. When you power your device off, the power stops getting supplied to your ram. Your ram is volatile, meaning it needs power to store things. So when you turn your device on, it needs to load it all to ram again. This takes time. Also, with computer...	[ "BULLET::::- In May 2015, iPhone users discovered a bug where sending a certain sequence of characters and Unicode symbols as a text to another iPhone user would crash the receiving iPhone's SpringBoard interface, and may also crash the entire phone, induce a factory reset, or disrupt the device's connectivity to a...
Current vaccines are essentially a weakened virus/microbe. Is it possible to contaminate an other person with this weakened vaccine?	Yes, it is, but it depends both on the nature of vaccine and the immune system status of the person who is infected. Some vaccines are completely dead and are incapable of infecting anyone (there are exceptions to this but it would be an incredibly small possibility) and then there are live attenuated vaccines which ar...	[ "First generation vaccines are whole-organism vaccines – either live and weakened, or killed forms. Live, attenuated vaccines, such as smallpox and polio vaccines, are able to induce killer T-cell (T or CTL) responses, helper T-cell (T) responses and antibody immunity. However, attenuated forms of a pathogen can co...
why most of news companies using "times" or times-based word as their brand name?	In the past, "times" meant something close to "things that happen", or "current events". We also see it still used in phrases like "sign of the times" or "behind the times".	[ "A company name may also be portmanteau (e.g., \"Timex\" is a portmanteau of \"Time\" (referring to Time magazine) and Kleenex) as well as a product name (e.g., Renault markets its \"Twingo\", a combination of \"twist\", \"swing\" and \"tango\").\n", "\"The Times\" is the first newspaper to have borne that name, ...
if a director of a film shoots 35mm film, how on earth do they put cgi onto the film negative if its projected in the same 35mm format?	It depends on a few things. If you mean before there were digital effects, they would usually composite their effects after a rough cut of the movie directly to the 35mm roll and would copy that over to a new roll. If you are talking about during the digital effect days (last 20 years), they do 1 of 2 things. Either:...	[ "35mm anamorphic – This type of widescreen is used for CinemaScope, Panavision, and several other equivalent processes. The film is essentially shot \"squeezed\", so that the actors appear vertically elongated on the actual film. A special lens inside the projector unsqueezes the image so that it will appear normal...
How does down-regulation and up-regulation of your brain's neurotransmitters work?	There are receptors on neurons that are referred to as "metabotropic", and these are slow to act, but stimulate gene expression in the neurons, and with expression, more lasting changes. Often they're creating proteins to make additional receptors if the amount of transmitter has decreased, and the converse is true as...	[ "BULLET::::- Down-regulation occurs, for example, when a cell is overstimulated by a neurotransmitter, hormone, or drug for a prolonged period of time, and the expression of the receptor protein is decreased in order to protect the cell (see also tachyphylaxis).\n", "BULLET::::- Up-regulation occurs, for example,...
what are the practical differences between 256-bit, 192-bit, and 128-bit aes encryption?	More bits = slightly slower encryption but more secure, since an attacker has more bits to break. In practice, AES works by dividing the input into blocks and performing some repetitions of transformations on each block. The number of repetitions depends on the key size: 10 repetitions for 128-bit, 12 repetitions for ...	[ "Formats 0 to 3 are all suitable for use with the Triple Data Encryption Algorithm, as they correspond to its 64-bit block size. However the standard allows for other encryption algorithms with larger block sizes, e.g. the Advanced Encryption Standard has a block size of 128 bits. In such cases the PIN must be enco...
el5: the benefits and downfalls of the federal reserve.	The [Federal Reserve](_URL_0_) conducts the monetary policy of the United States and has a lot of control over the dollar, our form of money. The Federal Reserve has 2 main responsibilities - maximum employment, and stable prices. The Federal Reserve has a lot of control over banks and lends them money periodically, ...	[ "The Federal Reserve has been the target of various criticisms, involving: accountability, effectiveness, opacity, inadequate banking regulation, and potential market distortion. Federal Reserve policy has also been criticized for directly and indirectly benefiting large banks instead of consumers. For example, reg...
why napster got sued but utorrent and others are still fine?	Napster was one centrally located server whereas utorrent is just an application that you use to connect to any of the millions of torrent tracker servers out there. It's as if there are millions of Napsters out there now instead of just the one. And those DO get shut down, it's just that there's so many of them and wh...	[ "First, she briefly observed that plaintiffs could show that \"Napster users are engaged in direct infringement.\" Judge Patel then turned to Napster's two arguments for why such third-party infringement was not illegal: fair use and substantial noninfringing use (the \"staple article of commerce\" doctrine from \"...
if you ate lots of fat, but no carbs whatsoever, would you gain weight?	Weight gain depends on the amount of calories consumed in relation to each individuals daily caloric requirements. If I am consuming calories under my total daily energy expenditure I will lose weight. If I lose 2lb a week consuming 2000 calories a day I don't think it matters where those calories come from. I would f...	[ "Studies have shown that people losing weight with a low-carbohydrate diet, compared to a low-fat diet, have very slightly more weight loss initially, equivalent to approximately 100kcal/day, but that the advantage diminishes over time and is ultimately insignificant. The Endocrine Society state that \"when calorie...
with the air cleaning up nicely throughout the world, where exactly does all the smog/soot go?	It settles on things, gets caught in things, and lots of places have smog traps that are just giant air filters. Think about any dust or dirt in your house, it settles somewhere eventually. CO2 of course is different and is absorbed by trees.	[ "Residue from cleaning products and cleaning activity (dusting, vacuuming, sweeping) has been shown to worsen indoor air quality (IAQ) by redistributing particulate matter (dust, dirt, human skin cells, organic matter, animal dander, particles from combustion, fibers from insulation, pollen, and polycyclic aromatic...
why is it easy to convert binary into hexadecimal?	Because binary is base 2, so if you go 4 number places out in binary that represent the number that is up to 2^4 = 16. Hexadecimal represents numbers in base 16, so whatever number that group of 4 numbers in binary is represents a single number of hex. Decimal is base 10 which does not have a whole number of binary dig...	[ "Binary may be converted to and from hexadecimal more easily. This is because the radix of the hexadecimal system (16) is a power of the radix of the binary system (2). More specifically, 16 = 2, so it takes four digits of binary to represent one digit of hexadecimal, as shown in the adjacent table.\n", "To conve...
After sitting on the subway today I have to know - when you smell something, are you breathing in the particles that make up that thing?	Yes, particles from the object interact with your scent receptors, that's how they detect scent. A large amount of the particles that make up an odor are relatively simple molecules, so for the most part they won't make you sick. Speculation: Bacteria and other infectious agents are too large to interact with scent r...	[ "It also has many references to Spiegelman's \"Maus\" comics, for example one in which Art said that the smoke in Manhattan smelled just like Vladek said the smoke in the concentration camps smelled. Also he often turns himself into a mouse on the fly.\n", "Back at the subway station, rats have infested the tunne...
Were Russian soldiers in WWII really given one rifle for every two men, as seen in Enemy at the Gates?	The classic answer to this particular question is [this two-post treatment](_URL_0_) by u/georgy_k_zhukov, which addresses Enemy at the Gates.	[ "BULLET::::- M1867 Russian Krnka - These were converted from the model 1857 muzzle loading rifles with a bronze receiver and steel lifting block much like the Snider. They were standard issue for Russia (during the Russo-Turkish War), Bulgaria, Serbia, & various balkan nations\n", "Several European countries also...
I work in a freezer at about -15 degrees Fahrenheit, how does sudden climate change affect my body in the long run?	The sudden temperature change does induce a stress on your body that can compound upon pre-existing conditions in much the same way as any stressor. However, if you're otherwise a healthy person these temperature changes won't likely have a long term effect. This might be a bit tangential to your original question but ...	[ "When \"Escherichia coli\" is exposed to a temperature drop from 37 to 10 degrees Celsius, a 4–5 hour lag phase occurs, after which growth is resumed at a reduced rate. During the lag phase, the expression of around 13 proteins, which contain cold shock domains is increased 2–10 fold. These so-called 'cold shock' p...
why does wikipedia deem references to primary sources as unreliable?	Because Wikipedia articles are supposed to present synthesized information, for which one needs to draw conclusions from the primary literature. Wikipedia editors cannot be trusted to have the expertise to do this properly, so Wikipedia prefers using sources in which experts have already synthesized information from th...	[ "However, primary sources – particularly those from before the 20th century – may have hidden challenges. \"Primary sources, in fact, are usually fragmentary, ambiguous and very difficult to analyse and interpret.\" Obsolete meanings of familiar words and social context are among the traps that await the newcomer t...
In fluorescence the emission wavelength is lower energy than the excitation wavelength. Where does the extra energy go?	Basically yes, it turns into kinetic energy -- vibrational and translational motion of the fluorescing species itself, or of surrounding atoms / molecules. In the chemistry world, the dominant process is referred to as internal conversion. [_URL_1_](_URL_0_). The shift between the excitation maximum and the emission ...	[ "In fluorescence, a molecule absorbs a photon and gets excited to a higher energy state. After a short delay (the average represented as the fluorescence lifetime formula_7), it comes down to a lower state by losing some of the energy as heat and emitting the rest of the energy as another photon. The excitation and...

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