Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
how the hell can 700+ people die in a stampede?	I was once trapped in a bad situation, a crushing crowd. It was New Years Eve, in Paris. My wife and I were with friends. When it started getting bad, we all held hands, but that wasn’t enough; our friends were slowly ripped away from us and we wouldn’t see them till the next day. My wife and I stayed together by huggi...	[ "\"If you look at the analysis, I’ve not seen any instances of the cause of mass fatalities being a stampede,\" says Keith Still, professor of crowd science at Manchester Metropolitan University. \"People don't die because they panic. They panic because they are dying.\"\n", "A human stampede occurred on 30 Septe...
Was Teddy Roosevelt’s reputation as a badass exaggerated?	Well, let's just take your list and see if it happened. > Went blind in one eye from a boxing match while he was president. [Teddy Roosevelt's little-known secret](_URL_2_) > Of the White House incident in which he was blinded, Roosevelt wrote in his autobiography: > > "I had to abandon boxing as well...	[ "Roosevelt normally enjoyed very close relationships with the press, which he used to keep in daily contact with his middle-class base. While out of office, he made a living as a writer and magazine editor. He loved talking with intellectuals, authors, and writers. He drew the line, however, at expose-oriented scan...
why do teeth feel a bit loose when not brushing for a couple days?	I don't know how old you are, or what dental treatment you have had in the past but here goes: - As you get older, your gums recede leaving your teeth with less structure around them - If you smoke or drink alcohol or have an unhealthy diet, this will also cause gum recession - If you haven't been to the dentist in qu...	[ "Brushing teeth properly helps prevent cavities, and periodontal, or gum disease, which causes at least one-third of adult tooth loss. If teeth are not brushed correctly and frequently, it could lead to the calcification of saliva minerals, forming tartar. Tartar hardens (then referred to as 'calculus') if not remo...
why are those red lines on composition notebooks not lined up?	The sheets are cut in twos, stacked, folded in half, bound to the cover, and cut to size and uniformity. When the pages are folded, the sheets shift causing the red margin to be in slightly different places on each page	[ "The lines are not straight, but askew. The difference of the thickness of ink color shown on drawn letter paper is large, and spots often occur. Even some characters, such as 'day' (日) or 'one' (一), are written reversely, while other letters are not printed out completely. The same typed letters are not shown on t...
how come my cat can tear up chipmunks and birds and eat them, but if i were to do the same thing, i would probably get very sick?	Your kitty cat and you have different tummys. Your kitty gets to eat chipmunks and birds and cat food with its tummy, and you get to eat chocolate and ice cream and human food with your tummy.	[ "The cat manages to survive, but he's still out to get Tweety. When he arrives at the bottom of the tree, he becomes a nest. Tweety attempts to get into it, but a hen, laying her eggs, causes him to get off. When she's finished, she flies off. The cat also arrives and his mouth is full of nothing but eggs. He attem...
why aren't heatsinks entirely made of copper (mostly for cpu's or gpu's)?	> To my knowledge pricing cannot be the reason as aluminum and copper are both relatively cheap raw materials. Copper costs more than three times as much as aluminum.	[ "Copper’s antimicrobial properties can enhance the performance of HVAC systems and associated indoor air quality. After extensive testing, copper became a registered material in the U.S. for protecting heating and air conditioning equipment surfaces against bacteria, mold, and mildew. Furthermore, testing funded by...
why is "swatting" so easy? i feel like it shouldn't be that simple.	There was a [pretty good AMA](_URL_0_) earlier this week after the Keemstar/SWAT incident which would answer some of your follow-up questions. A few key points: Some popular YouTubers will notify their police department of their online presence and give a heads up that they might be a potential target for a SWAT call...	[ "Swatting is a criminal harassment tactic of deceiving an emergency service (via such means as hoaxing an emergency services dispatcher) into sending a police and emergency service response team to another person's address. This is triggered by false reporting of a serious law enforcement emergency, such as a bomb ...
why is exercise not enjoyable if it is beneficial?	It is enjoyable once you start doing it. The reason it's found hard to start is because as a rule of thumb, it is evolutionarily beneficial to save energy rather than "wasting" it in superfluous exercise. The problem is that in our society, you can almost get around moving altogether; but that hasn't been going on for...	[ "Benefits of exercise include stress reduction, reduced risk of heart disease, lowers blood pressure, helps control weight and aids insulin in improving management of diabetes. Exercise that is not too strenuous is recommended. Such activities may include walking, swimming, gardening, cycling or golfing.\n", "Stu...
Is there a chance abiogenesis occurs all the time, but there's just next to no likelihood of it being observed?	The [Miller and Urey experiment](_URL_0_) sought to recreate conditions they think existed on the earth long before life existed here. They succeeded in creating amino acids from inorganic precursors. They did not create life but showed an important fist step was possible. On earth now the conditions are not necessa...	[ "It has also been noted that arguments against some form of life arising \"by chance\" are really objections to nontheistic abiogenesis, not to evolution. Indeed, arguments against \"evolution\" are based on the misconception that abiogenesis is a component of, or necessary precursor to, evolution. Similar objectio...
what things affect fuel prices?	Avalability of oil, political sanctions and teriffs (tax), disputes between the countries providing the oil, and cost of refining to fuel as well as transport.	[ "Increases in the price of fuel do not lead to decreases in demand because it is inelastic. Rather, a greater portion of income is spent on fuel, and less is available to purchase other goods. This leads to an overall decrease in consumer spending.\n", "Rising oil prices cause rising food prices in three ways. Fi...
how do aimbots work?	The bot responds to the "pull trigger" key by twitching the weapon's aimpoint onto the nearest target first. The user kits a key and the game sees a mouse move and key sequence that produces a better score. You have to be pretty close and "target-ness" needs to be well defined, so it's hardly a perfect thing. Howev...	[ "Aimbotting relies on each player's client computer receiving information about all other players, whether they are visible from the player's position or not. Targeting is a matter of determining the location of any opponent relative to the player's location and pointing the player's weapon at the target. This targ...
why do computer mice move off the screen on the bottom and right side of the screen? also is there any purpose to this?	> Because the pointer is normally at the top left tip, which is the part that is restricted to the screen boundaries. The rest of the cursor is just a graphic that helps in visually locating this tip. This graphic is not restricted, and in fact can't be - if the cursor graphic was trapped you would not be able to cli...	[ "Nearly all mice now have an integrated input primarily intended for scrolling on top, usually a single-axis digital wheel or rocker switch which can also be depressed to act as a third button. Though less common, many mice instead have two-axis inputs such as a tiltable wheel, trackball, or touchpad.\n", "A mous...
at a molecular level, why do super hot and super cold objects induce pain when we touch them?	On a basic level... The hotter something is, the faster its molecules move. When you touch a super hot object, it actually damages the cells in the skin because the molecules are excited, and at a certain point, actually begins to overheat the water in the cells. That's what causes burns... As well as actually "cooki...	[ "When a person touches a hot object and withdraws their hand from it without actively thinking about it, the heat stimulates temperature and pain receptors in the skin, triggering a sensory impulse that travels to the central nervous system. The sensory neuron then synapses with interneurons that connect to motor n...
What religion did jews and inhabitants of what is today israel and palestine practice before judaism ?	There is substantial evidence that the ancestors of those who would call themselves Israelites followed religious practices common in Canaan, and that they themselves were a subgroup of the what would broadly be considered Canaanites. Canaan itself would have been a sort of area between the great bronze-age empires of...	[ "Judaism was practiced widely throughout the European continent within the Roman Empire from the 2nd century. Throughout the Middle Ages, Jews were accused of ritual murder, faced pogroms and legal discrimination.\n", "BULLET::::- Judaism — the national religion of the Israelites/Hebrews of the Fertile Crescent, ...
Where did the Imperial Chinese court get its eunuch?	Ming is the "golden age" of Chinese eunuchs, that's the period with the most of them running around, so you have made a solid choice! One of the [few good English texts on Chinese eunuchs](_URL_0_) is just about this period. Eunuchs of this period would have been majority voluntary or semi-voluntary, both adult men w...	[ "At the end of the Ming dynasty, there were about 70,000 eunuchs (宦官 \"huànguān\", or 太監 \"tàijiàn\") employed by the emperor, with some serving inside the imperial palace. There were 100,000 eunuchs at the height of their numbers during the Ming. In popular culture texts such as Zhang Yingyu's \"The Book of Swindl...
Why do I randomly and suddenly run out of breath mid-sentence? It feels similar to a hiccup.	Are you forgetting to breathe when you talk? That's not snark, that's an actual question. When you talk, make sure to pause and take a breath. That's also a good time to think about what you're saying.	[ "A hiccup (also spelled hiccough) is an involuntary contraction (myoclonic jerk) of the diaphragm that may repeat several times per minute. The hiccup is an involuntary action involving a reflex arc. Once triggered, the reflex causes a strong contraction of the diaphragm followed about a quarter of a second later b...
Is there a link between handwriting and writing abilities?	Relevant Studies that investigate correlations between handwriting and personality variables: _URL_1_ _URL_2_ Maybe the most relevant to your question: _URL_0_	[ "Research in writing development has been limited in psychology. In the research that has been conducted, focus has generally centred on the development of written and spoken language and their connection. Spoken and written skills could be considered linked. Researchers believe that children's spoken language infl...
Did the stereotypical drill sergeant exist before WWII or so?	Sorry, we don't allow ["trivia seeking" questions](_URL_0_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of disjointed, partial responses, and not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about an historical event, period, or person, please feel free...	[ "Top Sergeant is a 1942 American military drama film. United States Army Sergeant Rusty Manson (Don Terry) is on maneuvers with slackers Frenchy Devereaux (Leo Carrillo) and Andy Jarrett (Andy Devine) when robbers attack them and kill Manson's brother \n", "Combat Sergeant is an American television program that o...
exactly how are underwater bodies of water formed (e.g.: underwater waterfall, river, lake, etc.) and why do they occur?	The short answer is: Different densities of water and temperature. Salt water meeting fresh water is a great example of this. Check this out ---- > _URL_0_	[ "The water in a river is usually in a channel, made up of a stream bed between banks. In larger rivers there is also a wider floodplain shaped by waters over-topping the channel. Flood plains may be very wide in relation to the size of the river channel. Rivers are a part of the hydrological cycle. Water within a r...
What kind of defense against invasion did Great Britain have during WW2?	I can't speak to static defenses, but the main deterrent to a cross-Channel invasion were the RAF and the Royal Navy. The Germans had little chance of a cross-channel invasion after they were unable to win the Battle of Britain. Making an amphibious landing without air superiority would have been difficult, particula...	[ "British anti-invasion preparations of the Second World War entailed a large-scale division of military and civilian mobilisation in response to the threat of invasion by German armed forces in 1940 and 1941. The British army needed to recover from the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force in France, and 1.5 mi...
in cryptography, how is it that i am able to encrypt something with a public key but then not able to decrypt it?	You should watch [THIS VIDEO](_URL_0_). They liken it to colors - just because you have the ending color doesn't mean you know what the exact original colors were.	[ "Encryption in modern times is achieved by using algorithms that have a key to encrypt and decrypt information. These keys convert the messages and data into \"digital gibberish\" through encryption and then return them to the original form through decryption. In general, the longer the key is, the more difficult i...
How do they know that HPV in men can cause certain types of cancer and genital warts if it is impossible to test men for HPV?	Just because there aren't widely used clinical tests for HPV in men does not mean that we don't have ways of detecting HPV in males. [PCR](_URL_0_), which amplifies DNA, can be used to detect HPV in a variety of locations such as [on the penis](_URL_1_), [in the rectum, and in the mouth](_URL_2_). PCR can also be perfo...	[ "HPV is the sexually transmitted virus that is known to be the cause of genital warts. There are currently more than 100 different strains of HPV, half of which can cause genital infections. It is worth noting here that although it is not usually the HPV strains that cause genital warts that are associated with the...
If even light cannot escape the event horizon of a black hole because of the mass of the singularity, how did the universe expand from an infinitely dense singularity in the first place?	This question has [already been asked](_URL_0_) tl;dr — it's not the density that results in black holes, but curvature, and uniformly distributed matter doesn't generate the necessary curvature.	[ "With classical-model black holes, objects passing through the event horizon on their way to the singularity are thought to enter a realm of curved spacetime where the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light. It is a realm that is devoid of all structure. Further, at the singularity—the heart of a classic black ...
Is it theoretically possible to freeze or preserve a human embryo and then have the child in the future?	IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) often uses this exact mechanism. (Any professional biologists feel free to chime in and correct me if I slip up somewhere.) Short and sweet background on IVF: Potential mothers are given hormones (primarily FSH) for ~3 weeks before the procedure. Around 24 hours before the extraction of...	[ "or donating them for use in embryonic stem cell research. Although embryos can, theoretically, survive indefinitely in frozen storage, as a practical reality someone must eventually decide on a permanent disposition for them.\n", "The Rand Consulting Group has estimated there to be 400,000 frozen embryos in the ...
why do starved people (holocaust victims, famine victims and other unlucky people) die if they eat too much food after being rescued or find food?	After a long period of starvation, the body has learned to not secrete digestive juices. Stomach muscles shrink as they have no work. All the glands are on holiday and don't know when duty again calls. (Without food in the stomach the stomach acid will severely damage the thick stomach lining). Pancreas and liver also...	[ "When food is not sufficient, the elderly are the least likely to survive. In the extreme case of famine, the Inuit fully understood that, if there was to be any hope of obtaining more food, a hunter was necessarily the one to feed on whatever food was left. However, a common response to desperate conditions and th...
Book Recommendation on Class Analysis of Nazi Germany	Part of the problem with your google search might be that "class" is often a highly nebulous term and despite its importance to social historians, it is often highly difficult to nail down. Most of the works using a socioeconomic lens to examine the Third Reich deal primarily with the issue of the Nazi seizure of pow...	[ "In 1932, Geiger wrote an analysis of the classes in Germany. The analysis was based on an empirical study of social stratification. In his analysis of the data, he classified the population into five groups, more complex than capitalists and proletariat as used by Marx, to determine the objective economic criteria...
why do people hate sarah palin?	Because she is incredibly dense. A mixture of her over-friendly non-Canadian Canadian joyfulness pings a bad ring with many people especially with a mix of how she talks about thinks like she knows about things but is sadly mistaken when put to the test. Also the very idea this woman could have been an American Vice P...	[ "The Miranda character receives negative comments to her videos from viewers who are fooled by the character and believe that they are watching a serious video by a bad entertainer. Ballinger told \"Backstage\": \"It's sort of like an Andy Kaufman thing. You wouldn't believe the hate mail. ... You would never say t...
Why doesn't air (Nitrogen, Oxygen, CO2) separate into different layers?	[Turbulence keeps gasses mixed in the lower parts of the atmosphere:](_URL_1_) > The homosphere and heterosphere are defined by whether the atmospheric gases are well mixed. In the homosphere the chemical composition of the atmosphere does not depend on molecular weight because the gases are mixed by turbulence.[11] ...	[ "When air is liquefied the oxygen and nitrogen are condensed simultaneously. However, owing to its greater volatility the latter boils off the more quickly of the two, so that the remaining liquid becomes gradually richer and richer in oxygen.\n", "An air separation process is used to separate nitrogen from air f...
how does the picking of world cup teams happen?	The countries do send in their best possible premier team, just every country is different. I am assuming you are referring to the comments related to Christiano Ronaldo's club team Real Madrid as opposed to his national team Portugal. Real Madrid is one of the wealthiest teams in the world and simply buys the top ta...	[ "The first event of the FIFA World Cup starts with a kind of lottery but instead of selecting classified numbers, in this contest a country is selected; most had been made in January of the tournament year until 1982 and since the 1986 World Cup it is held in early December of the year before the start of the tourn...
how does the stomach work in space? do astronauts feel constant need to throw up since the contents are bouncing around inside?	A stomach is also more a wet bag than a box or bottle. There's no big open space to fill. The contents can slosh around when you fill it up. You have a sphincter (round muscle like your butthole) that holds things in at each end. There's a lower esophagal sphincter at the top of the stomach that keeps the digesting fo...	[ "Breakfast began at 7 am. Astronauts usually stood to eat, as sitting in microgravity also strained their stomach muscles. They reported that their food—although greatly improved from Apollo—was bland and repetitive, and weightlessness caused utensils, food containers, and bits of food to float away; also, gas in t...
why does my internet go so much faster when downloading from steam or a torrent?	Your download speeds depend both on your connection to the server and the server's capacity. If you're connecting to a server on the other side of the world, you'll probably get a crappy download speed, even if both you and the server have a super fast connection to your ISP. Because of this, large networks like Steam...	[ "speeding up the download time, especially for users with faster download than upload speeds. Thus, the more popular a file is, the faster a user will be able to download it, since many people will be downloading it at the same time, and these people will also be uploading the data to other users.\n", "BULLET::::...
what does the cdc in america do?	As some examples: CDC tracks the spread of diseases, looking for the source, transmission vector, and that sort of thing. CDC also maintains the ‘strategic national stockpile’ of medicine, which is basically something from an action move. They can get tons of medical products to basically anywhere in the US in 12 ho...	[ "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the leading national public health institute of the United States. The CDC is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.\n", "The CDC works with other organizations around the w...
How is 90377 Sedna's orbit really an orbit? How is this stable?	It is counted as a stable orbit because it is gravitationally bound to the sun. It will repeat its motion around the sun indefinitely. Why would it not be stable? The only unstable orbit would be due to a) gravitational interactions which deposit large amounts of momentum into the body and cause it to eject from the sy...	[ "The orbital inclination of HD 3167 d is inclined at least 1.3° away from the orbital planes of the other two exoplanets. Its orbit is expected to remain stable for periods longer than 100 million years only if this inclination is less than 40°. It has an orbital period of , placing it in between the other two orbi...
what happens in america if someone rings 911 for an ambulance and that person is dying, but they do not have health insurance?	The ambulance comes. They get cared for, taken to the emergency room, get treated. Then they start getting really large bills that they cannot pay and end up declaring bankruptcy.	[ "In general, first responders are sent to immediately life-threatening situations such as cardiac arrest. Some ambulance services restrict the type of calls which responders can attend, either through blanket prohibition or by more detailed call screening by the emergency dispatch centre. This is because responders...
How far from the surface of the Earth would a nuclear explosion have to be before it didn't create a mushroom cloud?	> I assume that mushroom clouds are a result of the explosion moving away from the surface of the earth. Kind of. They happen when less dense gases form (in this case due to an explosion), and rise rapidly forming a vortex. That's the column. The head of the mushroom comes from the gases reaching an altitude/tem...	[ "Aboveground nuclear explosions produce a characteristic mushroom cloud, which moves downwind as it reaches its stabilization height. Dispersion of the radioactive elements causes vertical and lateral cloud movement, spreading radioactive materials over adjacent regions. While the large particles settle nearby the ...
i just watched a cop roll through the same stop sign that i got pulled over for rolling through last week. if i were ballsy enough for a citizens arrest, how would that work? if some rando ever tried to arrest me, i’d laugh and ask what their authority was, and then likely walk away.	As far as I know citizen arrests can only be done if you witness someone committing an indictable offense or a felony. And you can only interfere if you are there when it is happening you can't go get them after	[ "The police officers who were still on scene, then pulled McGee over. McGee then became combative with the officers, asking \"What are you going to do about it, arrest me?\" McGee's statement says he was then pulled from the car, handcuffed, struck with a closed fist on the side of his head and then had his head sl...
difference between phenomenology and symbolic interactionism	Phenomenology considers the “subjective conscienciousness”, where and individual’s consciousness creates meaning based on experiences. It concerns understanding of the underlying meaning of “things”, stripping away assumptions based on how we perceive the world, influenced by cultural norms. Symbolic interactionism, o...	[ "The phenomenological lineage can be traced through philosophers Franz Brentano, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger. This perspective stands in contrast to the positivist reductionist orientation of the scientific psychology. Rather than understanding mind, emotion and consciousness in terms of its constituent par...
the first lady's role in politics	Officially, no purpose. The first lady is just the president's wife (and sometimes not even that, Emily Donelson was Andrew Jackson's Niece and served as First Lady because Jackson's wife died). Unofficially, the first Lady plays a huge role in both the president's public image and are now almost expected to use the p...	[ "The position of the first lady is not an elected one and carries only ceremonial duties. Nonetheless, first ladies have held a highly visible position in American society. The role of the first lady has evolved over the centuries. She is, first and foremost, the hostess of the White House. She organizes and attend...
sleep apnea?	Apnea is "not breathing" sleep apnea is when you have something wrong with you that will make you stop breathing while you sleep. It happens if your throat is partly paralyzed, swollen for some reason or just a huge fat neck. It makes it so you never sleep right and are always sleeping and also makes your brain slo...	[ "Sleep apnea may be diagnosed by the evaluation of symptoms, risk factors and observation, (e.g., excessive daytime sleepiness and fatigue) but the gold standard for diagnosis is a formal sleep study (polysomnography, or sometimes a reduced-channels home-based test). A study can establish reliable indices of the di...
Why didn't sports teams in the US develop like soccer clubs in England?	In part we can look to the prevalence of collegiate sports programs across the nation as an alternate form. New York City for instance at one time all had Columbia, Fordham, NYU, St. John's, and just up the river, West Point, fielding teams with Yale, Princeton, and Rutgers just outside the City, attracting young men ...	[ "Unlike major team sports in North America, where franchises are awarded to nominated cities, most European teams have grown from small clubs formed by groups of individuals before growing rapidly. Churches, universities and work places have often been the most fertile birthplace of many of Europe's major sports cl...
Ten years ago, my boyfriend found this buried at the beach. Does anyone know anything about it?	I think it is a small [shot put](_URL_0_), not a cannonball. Sorry, I know that's not as exciting! However, it's a reasonable size for a shot, and while I can't think of a reason why a cannonball would be labeled by weight, a shot should be. Edit: drat, beaten to the punch while I looked up a link!	[ "The next morning, on Tuesday, 12 January, Peter Smith was taking three young nephews for a walk through the Wanda Beach sand-hills. Some distance north of the surf club, he discovered what appeared to be a store mannequin buried face-down in the sand. He brushed away sand from the head and realised that it was a b...
why can't pilots see when a laser hits them?	Lasers spread out the farther they travel. That "tiny dot of light" isn't so tiny after it travels 1000 feet through the air. If it hits the plexiglas cockpit window, it diffuses out even more. The result looks [something like this](_URL_0_). You're right that it only flashes for a split second, but that's all it...	[ "Under certain conditions, laser light or other bright lights (spotlights, searchlights) directed at aircraft can be a hazard. The most likely scenario is when a bright visible laser light causes distraction or temporary flash blindness to a pilot, during a critical phase of flight such as landing or takeoff. It is...
My town claims to be the originating place of three nursery rhymes; Twinkle Twinkle, Old King Cole and Humpty Dumpty. Do we know the history of other children's rhymes?	Many nursery rhymes have legendary or unclear history. However, the nursery rhymes you mentioned all originate in England or Britain. The lyrics to Twinkle Twinkle were indeed, as far as we know, written by Jane Taylor. The Wikipedia article shows she was born in London, which is near Colchester. Old King Cole's origin...	[ "Colchester is reputed to be the home of three of the best known English nursery rhymes: 'Old King Cole', 'Humpty Dumpty' and 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star', although the legitimacy of all three claims is disputed.\n", "Rhymes for the Nursery is a collection of English poems by sisters Jane and Ann Taylor, publis...
why was there no guerilla resistance to the us occupation of japan?	Japan was under a brutal Imperial rule where civilians were told to kill themselves rather than surrender, with mass horrors committed on Japanese soil. When Japan surrendered, its people were already heavily demoralized after the dropping of the Nuclear weapons and the social conditions that were enforced during the w...	[ "The Japanese army implemented a scorch earth policy. Filipino and American guerrilla forces fought back during this occupation and American planes bombed both the university and San Agustin church on October 10, 1944. The Japanese were never able to successfully move outside the city for any length of time due to ...
Confederacy fetishists often point to Lincoln not being on the ballot in 1860 as the "principal" cause of the Civil War, but why wasn't he on the ballot in southern states? Did they just refuse to put him on there, or was there some complications w/r/t the newly formed party and the dem split?	It's absurd to say that Lincoln not being on the ballot in 1860 is the principal cause of the Civil War. The only way that even makes minimal sense as a southern grievance is if southern state governments and a large portion of the white populace in the slave states wanted Lincoln on the ballot. They didn't and *that w...	[ "BULLET::::- The South Was a Closed Society: For the 1860 Presidential Election, in 10 of the 11 states that became the Confederate States, Lincoln was not on the ballot, denying him at least the 100,000 votes of those who later went north to join the Union Army, possibly more. Jaffa points out that in the Cooper U...
how does flea medication for pets work?	The shoulder blade spot-on treatments are absorbed through the skin, go into the blood, and are then ingested by the adult fleas when they bite the animal. The best flea treatments generally have two active ingredients. There is the "adulticide" (e.g., permethrin) which kills the biting adults, and also an insect growt...	[ "Removing fleas from the pets is not a difficult task considering the advent of products which are designed not only to kill fleas, but also to offer protection from further infestations. Flea-control products are available in once-a-month topicals, dog collars, sprays, dips, powders, shampoos, and injectable and o...
how did the gunmen in the slew of mass murders over recent years acquire their guns and would any laws have stopped them?	Today you can buy guns legally, at a gun store, or illegally, from a criminal in a bad part of town late at night. Changing the laws only impacts the first transaction. Pot was completely, totally, illegal in all states 20 years ago; and yet we have people running for president that admit they were able to buy it u...	[ "As a result of the mass shootings Hungerford massacre in Hungerford, England and Dunblane school massacre in Stirling, Scotland, the United Kingdom enacted tough gun laws and a buyback program to remove specific classes of firearms (The Firearms Amendment Act 1988 limiting rifles and shotguns, and the 1997 Firearm...
During WWII, how did China (and not Japan) end up getting into the Allies?	From circa 1925, Japanese political/social culture shifted significantly — away from the democratic experiments of the Taishō era and towards the nationalist, militarist, expansionist and ultimately totalitarian state structure that characterised the Shōwa period. So, for example: the Peace Preservation Law of 1925 m...	[ "In September 1940, Japan decided to cut China's only land line to the outside world by seizing French Indochina, which was controlled at the time by Vichy France. Japanese forces broke their agreement with the Vichy administration and fighting broke out, ending in a Japanese victory. On 27 September Japan signed a...
circuit boards	You probably mean Printed Circuit Boards (PCB's)? They form a firm structure to hold electric components an replace loose wires by having one or more layers of copper that are removed except from small connecting 'paths' that are actually needed to connect the electric components.	[ "A distribution board (also known as panelboard, breaker panel, or electric panel) is a component of an electricity supply system that divides an electrical power feed into subsidiary circuits, while providing a protective fuse or circuit breaker for each circuit in a common enclosure. Normally, a main switch, and ...
why can't we help fight global warming by painting things like cars, roofs, roads, etc. white? wouldn't it reflect sunlight just like the arctic snow does?	It [might not](_URL_0_) be as helpful as we'd like to think. > Painting roofs white has been—like changing lightbulbs—one of the well-cited easy ways out of climate change. By reflecting more light and heat back to the atmosphere, a white roof should act like a natural anti-warming device, while also reducing your en...	[ "A 2011 study by researchers at Stanford University suggested that although reflective roofs decrease temperatures in buildings and mitigate the \"urban heat island effect\", they may actually increase global temperature. The study noted that it did not account for the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that res...
supply side economics. is it the same as trickle-down? if not, how's it different?	trickle down is tax rich people less so they will spend more money on businesses, and thus that money will grow the economy. That works if people like investing more then they like just keeping money. Supply side is invest in/tax less factories and companies that produce things. The idea being that it will encourage c...	[ "Traditional supply-side economics suggests that when business is less hampered by government controls or high taxation, it produces more economic benefits for the middle class in the form of jobs and cheaper goods. \"Trickle-down economics\" is a pejorative term for a policy of cutting taxes on wealthy in an attem...
What happens physically when crossing the Termination Shock?	It's more correct to say that the termination shock is the point where the solar wind velocity slows down to subsonic speeds due to interactions with the interplanetary medium. The interplanetary medium, while extremely sparse, has a constant pressure, whereas the pressure of the solar wind decreases according to inver...	[ "A break junction is an electronic device which consists of two metal wires separated by a very thin gap, on the order of the inter-atomic spacing (less than a nanometer). This can be done by physically pulling the wires apart or through chemical etching or electromigration. As the wire breaks, the separation betwe...
why do abuse victims frequently become abusers themselves?	> Why do abuse victims frequently become abusers themselves? They don't BUT many abusers were abused. It is an important distinction. Most abuse victims do not become abusers but many of those who are abusers were abused.	[ "Many abusers are able to control their victims in a manipulative manner, utilizing methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the abuser, rather than to force them to do something they do not wish to do. Simon argues that because aggression in abusive relationships can be carried out subtly and covertl...
How rapidly would a flamethrower deplete the oxygen in an enclosed space?	3000 cubic feet of air would contain about 1520 moles of oxygen. Wikipedia says that modern flamethrowers use propane. Propane combusts as follows: C3H8 + 5 O2 - > 3 CO2 + 4 H2O So 1520 moles of oxygen could combust 304 moles of propane. 304 moles of propane has a mass of 13.4 kg. Unfortunately, i'm unable to find...	[ "The fuel supply to the fire was so rich that some of the combustibles were unable to find oxygen inside the tunnel with which to burn; they were instead ejected from vent shafts 8 and 9 as fuel-rich gases that burst into flame when they encountered oxygen in the air outside. At the height of the fire, pillars of f...
ignoring religious reasons, what benefit does removing birth control and making abortions illegal serve to the usa? i'm struggling in understanding the politics behind it besides catering to "public opinion." (fyi liberal bay area native just trying to understand)	Having a "moral" people can be useful in foreign relations with other countries. I thought for a solid minute. All I could come up with.	[ "Shirley Chisholm spoke to the debate from a political perspective in 1970. Chisholm described the decriminalization of abortions as a necessary step toward the safety of women. \"Experience shows that pregnant women who feel that they have compelling reasons for not having a baby, or another baby, will break the l...
are you able to split a different type of atom in an atomic bomb to have the explosion but without radiation?	Only a small number of specific types of atoms (isotopes) can be used in an atomic (fission) bomb. This is because they need to have several properties: * they need to be easily split by the kinds of neutrons that are released with fission (splitting) happens * they need to release neutrons when they fission (split) ...	[ "Atomic bombs are based on the theory of nuclear fission, that when a large atom splits, it releases a massive amount of energy. Thermonuclear weapons, (colloquially known as \"hydrogen bombs\") use the energy from an initial fission explosion to create an even more powerful fusion explosion.\n", "BULLET::::- Inv...
what is the point of places like puerto rico, usvi, etc , being "us territories"?	They are covered by US federal law, and people born there are considered US citizens (some exceptions in the case of Somoa). Basically, the individuals have most of the same rights as any other citizen in the US, but they have limited power in congress. If they chose to do so, the territories can go through a process t...	[ "Puerto Rico is an organized unincorporated U.S. territory which has been given internal self-governing powers which are referred to as \"Commonwealth\" status. (The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, located in the western Pacific Ocean, has a similar delegation of self-government powers by the United S...
How did knights mount horses in medieval times?	Artistic evidence says that they could mount a horse, armoured, unassisted, foot in stirrup and hands on saddle (basically similarly to mounting a saddled horse unarmoured). Textual evidence suggests that at least some could leap onto horseback - this appears to mean mounting without using the stirrup, presumably with ...	[ "In the Early Medieval period any well-equipped horseman could be described as a knight, or \"miles\" in Latin. The first knights appeared during the reign of Charlemagne in the 8th century. As the Carolingian Age progressed, the Franks were generally on the attack, and larger numbers of warriors took to their hors...
how jihadism/muslim extremism convinces so many individuals to abandon their lives for its cause?	Similar to how kids today join gangs. From a rational expectations perspective, no one should even consider a gang - you're very likely to either end up in jail or dead. People join because they don't have many other options, it looks cool, everyone else around them is doing it, and you get to be a man with a gun and f...	[ "In a lecture given in University of the Gambia, Zakir strongly condemned the atrocities around the world in the name of Jihad, where innocent people lost their lives, saying \"Jihad is misunderstood by both Muslims and non-Muslims, Jihad means to strive and struggle to make society better, the best form of Jihad i...
Females in the military prior to the 20th century?	Woman have always fought wars of course but normally informally. Female pirates, women fighting in drag, women fighting because their town was attacked and it was fight or die, etc. You do see occassional records of female fighters within the formal military (there's records of female samurai and ninjas, viking burials...	[ "The first American women enlisted into the regular armed forces were 13,000 women admitted into active duty in the Navy and Marines during World War I, and a much smaller number admitted into the Coast Guard. These \"Yeomanettes\" and \"women Marines\" primarily served in clerical positions. They received the same...
why does the quadratic formula work?	[This website explains the derivation of the quadratic formula really well](_URL_0_). Basically in ax^2 + bx + c = 0, you're just solving for x, and the quadratic formula is a shortcut so you don't have to do it by hand every time.	[ "In elementary algebra, the quadratic formula is the solution of the quadratic equation. There are other ways to solve the quadratic equation instead of using the quadratic formula, such as factoring, completing the square, graphing and others. Using the quadratic formula is often the most convenient way.\n", "Th...
if our bodies run on atp and we can "replenish" that atp from eating alone, why do we need to sleep to feel refreshed?	sleep isn't for collecting energy, it's for cleaning up chemical buildup in your brain (which is why you can't think right) and your muscles (which is why you feel fatigued)	[ "The oxidative system (aerobic) is the primary source of ATP supplied to the body at rest and during low intensity activities and uses primarily carbohydrates and fats as substrates. Protein is not normally metabolized significantly, except during long term starvation and long bouts of exercise (greater than 90 min...
In the 17-1800s, how were dances developed and circulated to the higher classes of European societies?	Dances were important social occasions, and people studied to dance well, if they wanted to make an impression. There were dancing masters ( you can see a caricature of one, up on his toes with his typical kit fiddle in [one](_URL_0_) of Hogarth's series The Rake's Progress). There were also plenty of dance manuals- t...	[ "To understand why Quirey says \"The advent of the in polite society was quite simply the greatest change in dance form and dancing manners that has happened in our history\" we need to realize that all European social dances before the waltz were communal sequence dances – communal, because all the dancers on the ...
if we are never really touching anything due to atomic repulsion, how do we get cuts, scrapes and impalements?	It's that same atomic repulsion that causes friction, which causes human flesh to be scraped, cut, etc. The object that causes the injury is pushing your flesh out of its way.	[ "The Elise Kimble version of Persuader has an atomic axe that can cut objects on a molecular level, allowing her to cleanly shear flesh, bone, steel, wood and any other object except for Ravager's energy swords.\n", "Other nuclear warfare doctrines explicitly exclude decapitation strikes on the basis that it is b...
why is it called an autopsy for humans, but a necropsy for animals?	"auto" means "self" and "optos" means "to see," so the sense here is that when we dissect another human, we are inspecting ourselves. Since animals aren't humans, when we dissect them, we are only inspecting "necros," or "death."	[ "Post-mortem examination, or necropsy, is far more common in veterinary medicine than in human medicine. For many species that exhibit few external symptoms (sheep), or that are not suited to detailed clinical examination (poultry, cage birds, zoo animals), it is a common method used by veterinary physicians to com...
why some countries spice a lot their food and others don't?	Typically countries use a lot of spice when spices grow well in their climate, or when their climate is very warm and thus foods are prone to go bad. Countries with neither of these attributes tend to have mild food, other than immigrant groups who came from spicy-food countries.	[ "The trade among different countries also largely affects a region's cuisine. Dating back to the ancient spice trade, seasonings such as cinnamon, cassia, cardamom, ginger, and turmeric were important items of commerce in the earliest evolution of trade. Cinnamon and cassia found their way to the Middle East at lea...
Importance of combat experience during world war two.	Obviously more experienced troops will perform better than green troops, but it depends what you really mean as green. True a lot of Allied troops that landed in Normandy were relatively green, but the Allies had been preparing for Overlord for a long time and the troops had large amounts of training. This is massively...	[ "COMBAT was a project commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War. It was an offshoot of parent project Coming World Remember Me (CWRM), a collaboration between Vanmechelen and Jan Moeyaert.\n", "Distinctions between World War II combatives and modern combatives include: 1) The...
Age of Discovery - are there any interesting, but relatively unknown discoveries?	Try this guy. _URL_0_	[ "The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, was a period in history starting in the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century during which Europeans engaged in intensive exploration of the world, establishing direct contacts with Africa, the Americas, Asia and Oceania and mappin...
I Have Two Chinese Antiques with a Common Theme - Need help with identification and context	The old fellow is a xian, or immortal sage. Cranes are a symbol of longevity and immortality. There are couple specific possibilities. In the carpet, I'm guessing there are two more figures not pictured, and that he's [Zhongli Quan](_URL_3_) or maybe [Zhang Guo](_URL_7_) (is that possibly a phoenix behind him?). ...	[ "Traditionally, Chinese antiques are marked by a red seal, known as a 'chop', placed there by an owner. Experts can identify previous owners of an antique by reading the chops. The pre-revolution Chinese government tried to assist collectors of Chinese antiques by requiring their Department of Antiquities to provid...
the difference between uhd 4k, super uhd 4k, dolby vision, hdr.	UHD is a standard resolution of 3840x2160 pixels. This is the next step up from FHD (Full HD) which has a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and HD which has a resolution of 1280x720 pixels. UHD has exactly four times the pixels per field as FHD and maintains the same 16:9 aspect ratio. UHD 4K is a marketing term used to...	[ "This resolution, sometimes referred to as 4K UHD or 4K2K, has a 16:9 aspect ratio and 8,294,400 pixels. It is double the size of Full HD (19201080) in both dimensions for a total of four times as many pixels, and triple the size of HD (1280720) in both dimensions for a total of nine times as many pixels. 38402160 ...
Chess is a game that has existed in its current form for hundreds of years, and in different variations for over a thousand. How did people in your area of history view the game? Has it always been associated with smart people, for example?	We know that chess was played in 11th c. Scandinavia and the British Isles and the most evocative evidence of its popularity are the beautifully carved [Lewis Chessmen](_URL_0_) which were made of Walrus ivory and Whale's teeth. They are currently held at the [British Museum](_URL_1_) and the Museum of Scotland. The ma...	[ "The origin of three of the world’s most loved and played games all over the world can be traced back to India. Modern chess developed out of this ancient Indian game - chaturaṅga – meaning four parts. Trace the history of Chess back to the Gupta Period in the 6th Century AD. From the Indian game Pachisi, Ludo has ...
why do so many huge companies continue to use very old computers and software when it seems the benefits a system-wide update would outweigh the associated costs?	> when it seems the benefits a system-wide update would outweigh the associated costs? Apparently, the management doesn't think so. Or, they may not be tech-competent. Lots of people aren't, especially people old enough to be managers/business owners.	[ "This is the case for the computer market over the past decade or so. Every year, computer based companies market machines that are more and more powerful, and cheaper to make thanks to technological advancements. Computer based companies attempt to promote their newer models every year because of this, as it allow...
are different over-the-counter pain medications better for different kinds of pain?	Ibuprofen, Naproxen, and aspirin are all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). All are used to reduce fever and inflammation, as well as help with pain. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is not an NSAID, which means it does not reduce inflammation. It still reduces fevers and helps with pain, but since it does not ha...	[ "Pain medication, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, are effective for the treatment of tension headache. Tricyclic antidepressants appear to be useful for prevention. Evidence is poor for SSRIs, propranolol and muscle relaxants.\n", "Over-the-counter drugs, like acetaminophen, aspirin, or NSAIDs(ibuprofen, Naproxen,...
What historical basis is there for pirates being popularly depicted with eyepatches?	You should read the biographical accounts of Admiral Don Blas de Lazo. Whilst the article I will cite is not academic, I found it very entertaining. _URL_0_ Admiral Don Blas de Lazo lost his eye, leg and hand in the service of the Spanish Navy. He had a peg leg, an eye-patch and a hook hand, pretty much all the stereo...	[ "One of the stereotypical features of a pirate as portrayed in popular culture, the eye patch, may have been partially derived from the Arab corsair Rahmah ibn Jabir al-Jalahimah, who wore a patch after losing an eye in battle in the 18th century.\n", "One of the stereotypical features of a pirate in popular cult...
why shouldn't i wash my cast iron pan?	Cast-iron seasoning is technically, just oil that has slightly soaked into the metal. This soaking-in is also why the pan is heated to season it as heat expands the molecules of iron allowing room for oil to soak in. As for cleaning and taste: You can wash cast-iron with soap and water every time, but then you must i...	[ "Because other cookware cleaning techniques like scouring or washing in a dishwasher can remove or damage the seasoning on a bare cast-iron pan, these pans should not be cleaned like most other cookware. Some chefs advocate never cleaning cast-iron pans at all; simply wiping them out after use, or washing them with...
why are some showers very steamy, but then the next day in the same shower there will be no steam at all, even at the same temperature?	Barometric pressure, as the pressure rises and falls with different weather patterns, the steam in your shower will stay around longer or shorter.	[ "Water left stagnant in the pipes of showers can be contaminated with pathogens that become airborne when the shower is turned on. If a shower has not been used for some time, it should be left to run at a hot temperature for a few minutes before use.\n", "The effects of dousing are usually more intense and longe...
why does a larger screen look better than a smaller screen even if, by adjusting viewing distance, the field of vision occupied is exactly the same?	Maybe it's because you have to force your eye's lens to focus close things (your phone). And for far images, you don't.	[ "The principal disadvantage of side-by-side viewers is that large image displays are not practical and resolution is limited by the lesser of the display medium or human eye. This is because as the dimensions of an image are increased, either the viewing apparatus or viewer themselves must move proportionately furt...
if you were to draw the universe as a circle on a piece of paper, what would be outside the circle?	Nothing: it's like taking a 5" radius circular piece of paper and saying 'this represents the universe' and then asking what's written 6" from the centre: nothing! On the other hand, depending on the 'shape' (or more correctly the geometry) of the universe, this might become more meaningful: if the paper is rolled in...	[ "The subject of these drawings, a small and always visible table is prosaic, it is always at hand. The lines on these drawings are never the contour of the closing of an area: they always move, thus liberating mysterious energies.\n", "No one has ever seen a perfect circle, nor a perfectly straight line, yet ever...
To scale, how big would the earth be if the observable universe was the size of the milky way?	The diameter of the Milky Way is 100000-120000 light years (_URL_1_). The diameter of the observable universe is about 28 billion parsecs (_URL_0_). So we're scaling down by a factor of about 10^(6), and the scaled diameter of the Earth is around 15 meters.	[ "Research released in 2016 revised the number of galaxies in the observable universe from a previous estimate of 200 billion () to a suggested 2 trillion () or more, containing more stars than all the grains of sand on planet Earth. Most of the galaxies are 1,000 to 100,000 parsecs in diameter (approximately 3000 t...
What happens when the myelin sheath gets damaged?	Similar in principle to what happens when a wire starts loosing its insulation. The electrical signal carried in a myelinated axon jumps between the small gaps in the myelin sheath. This dramatically speeds up the rate of conduction. When the sheath gets damaged, the signal has to travel along the length of the axon ...	[ "CNS demyelination autoimmune disease causes the myelin sheath to deteriorate since the sense of recognition of self is lost.The loss of the myelin insulation either disrupts or prevents neural conduction along the nerve cell’s axon.\n", "The myelin sheath is a multi-layered membrane, unique to the nervous system...
Could it be possible that degenerate matter ("neutronium") exists outside of neutron stars ?	It's the force provided by gravity that turns the matter into "neutronium", so anything that gets ejected from a collision would no longer be under an immense gravitational force. With the loss of this force, the matter would likely return to a more normal state.	[ "Another argument against the hypothesis is that if it were true, all neutron stars should be made of strange matter, and otherwise none should be. Even if there were only a few strange stars initially, violent events such as collisions would soon create many strangelets flying around the universe. Because a single...
What are the differences between Adult Stem Cells and Embryonic Stem Cells in research?	To put it simply, one (adult) is already more differentiated, meaning it has already undergone some changes that make it more like the normal adult cells in your body and less like the pluri potent stem cells that can turn into anything (if they get the right signals to do so) edit: see ren5311's comment below	[ "Adult stem cells have provided many different therapies for illnesses such as Parkinson's disease, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, lupus, sickle-cell anemia, and heart damage (to date, embryonic stem cells have also been used in treatment), Moreover, there have been many advances in adult stem cell research, includi...
Was the Puckle gun used during the American Revolution?	As cool as that would be, there's no record of the Puckle gun being used by either side. From the [Long 18th Century Blog Series](_URL_0_): > "Although John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu (1690-1749) purchased several pro-type models of the gun in 1722, the British army and Royal Navy never placed a major production or...	[ "The Gatling gun is one of the best-known early rapid-fire spring loaded, hand cranked weapons, and a forerunner of the modern machine gun and rotary cannon. Invented by Richard Gatling, it saw occasional use by the Union forces during the American Civil War in the 1860s, which was the first time it was employed in...
During the Middle Ages, why was the suffix “-eth” used, and what purpose did it serve?	r/AskHistorians probably isn't the best sub for this question, but the answer is conjugation. Before answering your question in more detail, I would point out that what you heard on the radio was not representative of language during the Middle Ages (moreover the Middle Ages covered a very long period and language was ...	[ "BULLET::::- Romance palatal approximant (GE-, GI-, I-) consistently became medieval , as in medieval Catalan and Portuguese. This becomes modern \"ch\" , as a result of the devoicing of sibilants (see below). In Spanish, the medieval result was either (modern ), or nothing, depending on the context. E.g. IUVENEM ...
what is the actual amount of money spent on welfare/food stamps in the united states? how does it compare to subsidies and military funding?	_URL_0_ This is more of a search for the answer than simplify a complex subject. Military is about twice welfare, but subsidizes other countries in a way. "Welfare" draws from other programs in loosely related ways as well.	[ "As of 2012, the United States government spent about $50 billion annually on 10 programs, mostly administrated by the Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which in total deliver food assistance to one in five Americans.\n", "BULLET::::- President Johnson presented a record 135 billion dollar U.S. governmen...
What happens if a plutonium reactor heats up in a molten pool of salt?	I would think they flush it out while its just very salty water. I doubt they let it evaporate until solid before putting new water in.	[ "Molten salt reactor designs carry out fluoride volatility reprocessing continuously or at frequent intervals. The goal is to return actinides to the molten fuel mixture for eventual fission, while removing fission products that are neutron poisons, or that can be more securely stored outside the reactor core while...
why did muslim countries stop secularizing and embraced islamic fundamentalism	Here's an extremely simplified bullet point explanation: * Most Middle Eastern nations are relatively new nation states (i.e., less than 100 years old) with very artificial borders that are a holdover from the colonial era. As such, most Middle Eastern nations are insanely divided along ethnic/sectarian/tribal lines, ...	[ "Because Muslims believe that their faith was revealed in its complete form to Muhammad, it has been difficult to adapt Islam to the social, economic, and political changes that began with the expansion of colonial rule in the late 19th century. Some modifications have occurred, however. One response was to stress ...
the difference between ad valorem tax and capital gains tax	You've got some of your vocabulary mixed up, and it's like you're asking what's the difference between asphalt and I-95. Capital-gains tax is basically a tax on your profit from buying something for a low price and selling it for a higher one. In a little bit more detail, it's a tax on the difference between your sa...	[ "Capital gains tax (CGT), in the context of the Australian taxation system, is a tax applied to the capital gain made on the disposal of any asset, with a number of specific exemptions, the most significant one being the family home. Rollover provisions apply to some disposals, one of the most significant of which ...
how are apple pay, samsung pay, google wallet different?	Samsung pay can use magnetic secure transmission, to basically send the information to the magnetic reader on almost all card readers wheras apple pay and google wallet use nfc to process payments The added capability of samsung allow it to truthfully make claims that it is accepted in more places	[ "While Android Pay is only available to Android users, Google Wallet is available on iOS and via Gmail as well. For those using Android, the two products together (Android Pay and Google Wallet) offer a comprehensive payments management system, a “tool for staying in charge of the bank account.” Users can link thei...
the confusion between r and l when japanese and english are exchanged.	The Japanese language has no L sound. It doesn't have a true R sound either. The sound that comes closest to both is actually the same sound - it's a sort of blend between the English L and the English R. It's always transliterated as an R sound because the sound is a lot closer to our R than it is to our L.	[ "Due to the difficulties that Japanese have in distinguishing \"l\" and \"r\", this expansion of Japanese phonology has not extended to inventing different kana for /l/ vs. /r/. Therefore, words with /l/ or /r/ may be spelled identically if borrowed into Japanese. One important exception is due to the fact that Jap...
why does a running hose slither around like a snake when you let go of it?	Because of Newton's third law. Water is pushed out the hose, so conversely, the hose is also pushed away from the water. This means that, as long as the water in the hose is under pressure, there will be a 'recoil' force acting on the tip of the hose, making it move around.	[ "When water is supplied to the hose, it flows through the nozzle body to the opening, where it would normally flow straight forward in a stream. Just after leaving the opening it encounters the plug, which deflects the water sideways through an angle. After travelling a short distance the water encounters the outsi...
Why do the poles of the moon have more craters than the equator?	Possibly because of sheer probability. One hemisphere of the moon is always blocked by the entire mass known as the Earth, and the other is sometimes blocked by the rest of the solar system, while the poles aren't blocked by anything.	[ "The far side has more visible craters. This was thought to be a result of the effects of lunar lava flows, which cover and obscure craters, rather than a shielding effect from the Earth. NASA calculates that the Earth obscures only about 4 square degrees out of 41,000 square degrees of the sky as seen from the Moo...
how have sports contracts gotten so inflated over time?	Sports are big money: the NFL made more than $13 billion last year, MLB $10 billion. Teams have to compete for top talent and better representation for players such as the NFL's Players Union mean that more of the total revenue of the league goes to players instead of owners.	[ "This competition for the best amateur athletes resulted in skyrocketing signing bonuses. In 1947, Major League baseball implemented the bonus rule. The rule prevented the wealthiest teams from signing all of the best players and from stashing those players in their farm systems. Additionally, the bonus market was ...
how does warrant canary work if they can compel you to lie?	A warrant canary works because you cannot be compelled to lie. I can be under a gov't warrant cooperate in some way, and I can be barred from revealing the existence of that warrant. If someone asked me directly, I can either lie, or refuse to answer without violating the warrant. The warrant canary is basically a t...	[ "A warrant canary is a method by which a communications service provider aims to inform its users that the provider has been served with a secret government subpoena despite legal prohibitions on revealing the existence of the subpoena. The warrant canary typically informs users that there has been a secret subpoen...
Were there any truly secular Muslim empires in history other than modern Turkey?	Most Middle Eastern countries have been secular since the end of colonialism, such as Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. In the more homogenous countries (basically all of them except Lebanon, Syria and Iraq), the primary political struggle was between secular military dictators and Islamists. That's ...	[ "Subsequent empires dominated by Muslims, such as those of the Abbasids, Fatimids, Almoravids, Seljukids, Ajuran, Adal and Warsangali in Somalia, Mughals in the Indian subcontinent (India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan e.t.c), Safavids in Persia and Ottomans in Anatolia, were among the influential and distinguished power...
lake baikal in russia - how did the baikal seals come to reach that lake?	It's actually somewhat of a mystery. There are 2 main theories. The first is that some ancestral seals from the Paratethys Sea, (a large, shallow inland sea covering much of Eurasia millions of years ago) could have gotten there by moving north, although this would have required the seals hopping through multiple river...	[ "The Baikal seal lives only in the waters of Lake Baikal. It is something of a mystery how Baikal seals came to live there in the first place. They may have swum up rivers and streams or possibly Lake Baikal was linked to the ocean at some point through a large body of water, such as the West Siberian Glacial Lake ...
How did Thomas Jefferson reconcile "all men are created equal" and the unalienable rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" with the fact that he owned hundreds of slaves?	I can't comment too much on Jefferson's wider moral and political philosophy because I'm someone who studies slavery in comparative contexts rather than the history of the United States itself, but I wrote an answer to a follow-up in [this thread](_URL_0_) a few months ago that a lot of people seemed to find really hel...	[ "BULLET::::- Thomas Jefferson: \"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.\" (Declaration of Independence)\n", "In 1773–85, Philip Mazzei, a physi...
is it legal to pirate a game i own legitimately?	If I remember correctly, you're not buying the game per se, but a license to play that game on whichever system you buy it for, which makes playing same game technically illegal on an emulator. Hopefully someone else can verify/expand on this.	[ "There are a number of Pirates in the game, who immediately attempt to destroy any non-Pirate ship they spot, with the exception of the player once they have achieved a high combat rating. The Pirates do not plunder their targets due to limitations in the game; the player, however, is allowed to board ships, and ma...
Is speed in space measured in relation to something else? If so wouldnt two beams of light going in opposite directions be going at 2c if measured relative to each other?	Congratulations! You have actually stumbled upon the same train of thought that led Einstein to develop his [Theory of Special Relativity](_URL_3_). Essentially, Special Relativity states that no matter what speed you are traveling, the laws of physics will be thee same. Since the speed of light is set by the laws of ...	[ "A series of one-way measurements were undertaken, all of them confirming the isotropy of the speed of light. However, only the two-way speed of light (from A to B back to A) can unambiguously be measured, since the one-way speed depends on the definition of simultaneity and therefore on the method of synchronizati...
Does the big earthquake in Alaska today mean there is less of a chance for "the big one" to happen that they keep talking about in the Pacific NW?	Releasing strain on one section of a fault can increase strain on another section. See the Anatolian fault earthquake dates as an example. Spoilers: Istanbul is in a tough place. That said, the PNW is a complex area with a variety of slip types ranging from constant slow slip which isn't a significant danger, to the m...	[ "Southern Alaska lies at the eastern end of the Aleutian Trench, where the Pacific Plate is subducting beneath the North American Plate. Near Anchorage, the plates are converging at a rate of 57 mm per year. The region has experienced severe earthquakes in the past, including several megathrust earthquakes. The 196...

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