Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
If I jump during a crash, will I feel the impact?	Yes, because you are moving at the same speed as the truck toward the wall, regardless if you jump or not. To not be affected, you have to jump "backwards" at the same or greater speed than the truck is moving "forward."	[ "Crash has the ability to jump into the air and land on an enemy character, spin in a tornado-like fashion to knock enemies off-screen, slide across the ground, and perform a body slam to break certain objects. Crash can jump higher than he normally can if he jumps immediately following a slide. All of these techni...
what is the reason fake facebook profiles keep trying to add me?	Because, while you see through the thinly veiled deception, many people do not and just add anyone that friends them, especially if they look young and cute. Science. Theeeeen, another arm of the company is selling likes to stupid marketing companies, using those same bot accounts to like stuff for money. Facebook's s...	[ "In August 2012, Facebook revealed that more than 83 million Facebook accounts (8.7% of total users) are fake accounts. These fake profiles consist of duplicate profiles, accounts for spamming purposes and personal profiles for business, organization or non-human entities such as pets. As a result of this revelatio...
WW2: How prevalent where Soviet "blocking formations" or "barrier troops" on the Eastern Front, and how ruthless were they against retreating soldiers?	Reposting something I wrote awhile back: Barrier Troops, or Blocking Detachments (Otryadi Zagrazhdeniya/отряды заграждения) were certainly a thing during the Second World War, but while watching a film like “Enemy at the Gates” might make you think that most Soviet formations needed a literal gun in the back i...	[ "The first use of the barrier troops by the Red Army occurred in the late summer and fall of 1918 in the Eastern front during the Russian Civil War, when People's Commissar of Military and Naval Affairs (War Commissar) Leon Trotsky of the Communist Bolshevik government authorized Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the commander...
what are the advantages of driving on the left side of the road as opposed to the right?	Two major reasons. * Who colonized you. * Who is your major source of vehicles. Keeping to the left while walking, driving etc is an English custom while it was customary to drive on the right in continental Europe. Countries like America and Australia were colonized by England and so had 'drive on the left' rules. ...	[ "\"Arm to the right\" has the advantage that it is more visible to any traffic likely to be affected, for example vehicles in the next lane to the right or also intending to turn right. It is also easier to teach to children: \"point in the direction you are going to turn.\"\n", "A (standard) RCUT, in contrast to...
Two plant-life questions about Mars.	Genetic engineer specializing in plants here; this is my life career-goal. Although I previously believed that genetically modified microbial life was the best way to generate an atmosphere for Mars, I began taking astronomy courses to become better educated regarding potential hurdles. I'm not certain (I'm never ce...	[ "There is ample evidence to suggest that Mars once offered habitable conditions for microbial life. It is therefore possible that microbial life may have existed on Mars, although no evidence has been found.\n", "The possibility of life on Mars is a subject of significant interest to astrobiology due to its proxi...
how does minute rice work?	It is rice that is already cooked, and subsequently dehydrated, so you don't have to heat it long enough to actually cook it, but rather just long enough to heat and rehydrate it.	[ "Instant rice is made using several methods. The most common method is similar to the home cooking process. The rice is blanched in hot water, steamed, and rinsed. It is then placed in large ovens for dehydration until the moisture content reaches approximately twelve percent or less.\n", "Instant rice is rice th...
When did the first humans enter Indian subcontinent?	The earliest modern human migration out of Africa is thought to have followed the coast of south Asia and [eventually reaching Austrailia](_URL_1_). Small, darkskinned people descended from this wave of migration inhabit the Andaman Islands of India and several other places in Asia [source](_URL_0_). They came along e...	[ "According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. However, the earliest known human remains in South Asia date to 30,000 years ago. Contemporaneous human rock art sites have been found in many parts of the...
Why does high blood pressure sometimes lead to atherosclerosis?	High blood pressure causes damage to endothelium (the inner lining of bloodvessels). Endothelial dysfunction is one of the key factors in the initiation of atherosclerosis. An atherosclerotic plaque have to grow to a sufficent size before it is able to cause symptoms, either by occluding the bloodvessel directly, brea...	[ "As volume status continues to decrease, systolic blood pressure drops. As a result, oxygen delivery to vital organs is unable to meet the oxygen needs of the cells. Cells switch from aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism, resulting in lactic acidosis. As sympathetic drive increases, blood flow is diverted fro...
why is the american keyboard set up so seemingly jumbled?	The QWERTY keyboard was designed to space out frequently typed keys to prevent typewriters from jamming, and when computers came out so many had devoted the QWERTY setup to memory they just continued using it.	[ "The US keyboard layout has a second Alt key instead of the AltGr key and does not use any dead keys; this makes it inefficient for all but a handful of languages. On the other hand, the US keyboard layout (or the similar UK layout) is occasionally used by programmers in countries where the keys for []{} are locate...
why does the us have a president, but canada and the uk have a prime minister?	The United States has a much stronger divide between the executive functions and the legislative function. When the Constitution was being written, the general goal was to create a government with a strong legislative center (Congress) and an executive that would help to balance Congress by holding the powers of exec...	[ "Because the prime minister is, in practice, the most politically powerful member of the Canadian government, he or she is sometimes erroneously referred to as Canada's head of state, when, in fact, that post is held by the Canadian monarch, represented by the governor general. The prime minister is, instead, the h...
how are action movies and fight scenes made?	Careful choreography, prop weapons, and editing tricks. A big part of filming violence is making the viewer think they saw something they didn't actually see. For example, in a show like Supernatural you'll often see one of the brothers swing a knife or bat at something, then the camera cuts to their face while squishy...	[ "Martial arts films are a subgenre of action films, which feature numerous martial arts fights between characters. These fights are usually the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often are a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts are frequently featured in trai...
If gravity is one of the weakest natural forces, then why is it the dominate force in space?	Because there are only two infinite-range forces, EM and gravity. Moreover, in EM opposite charges are strongly attracted to form neutral states where the positive and negative charges cancel. So large systems will almost always be electrically neutral. Gravity is essentially all that's left above a certain scale.	[ "Gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental interactions of physics, approximately 10 times weaker than the strong interaction, 10 times weaker than the electromagnetic force and 10 times weaker than the weak interaction. As a consequence, it has no significant influence at the level of subatomic particles. In ...
why does am talk radio have such a disproportionately large amount of commercials compared to fm music stations?	Your FM station has sneaky ways of putting in advertising even though it might claim to have 55 minutes of music. It's advertising when the DJ comes on between songs and reminds you that they will be at a certain business (AD!) tomorrow from 4 to 6 and they'll be giving away a certain item (AD!). It's advertising whe...	[ "More than eight out of ten Americans feel listening to commercials in exchange for free radio is a \"fair deal\". Furthermore, broadcast radio advertising often offers the advantage of being localized and inexpensive in comparison with other mediums such as television. Thus, radio advertising can be an effective, ...
Why do objects of varying mass accelerate towards the earth's surface at the same rate?	Heavier things need more force to move them than light things do. Heavier things experience more force from gravity than light things do. It turns out that these exactly balance out. The extra force you get for being heavier is exactly the amount you need to cancel out the fact that you need more force to accelera...	[ "A set of equations describe the resultant trajectories when objects move owing to a constant gravitational force under normal Earth-bound conditions. For example, Newton's law of universal gravitation simplifies to \"F\" = \"mg\", where m is the mass of the body. This assumption is reasonable for objects falling t...
megapixel camera, is this actually something to do with the quality of the camera?	An 8 megapixel digital camera means that the camera has ~ 8 million sensors that detect the color and intensity of light. Each sensor basically tells the camera, "I'm at position x,y and I just detected a value of E01B1B (which might translate to a certain shade of red). When you take a picture the camera asks all th...	[ "TechRadar.com mentioned that the 10 megapixel camera was slightly lagging because of its boundaries on sensor resolution. Nikon believes that 12 megapixels is enough for its full-frame cameras, making the 10 megapixel appeal of this camera a slight drawback when considering the potential of this camera.\n", "The...
Is charging a Lithium Ion battery with an underpowered or overpowered charger detrimental to battery health?	No, unless you have a "dumb" lithium battery there should be no problem. Almost all devices have all kinds of circutry in them to make sure the batteries get charged properly/evenly in addition to things like wear and health monitoring. So unless your charger severely over volts the and damages the device itself (poss...	[ "Most modern cell phones, laptops, and most electric vehicles use Lithium-ion batteries. These batteries last longest if the battery is frequently charged; fully discharging the cells will degrade their capacity relatively quickly, but most such batteries are used in equipment which can sense the approach of fill d...
what's going on with brian williams? what did he do?	He claimed that he was in a helicopter that was struck by an RPG and forced down, contradicting previous accounts where he claimed the helicopter he was following (in a seperate helicopter) was struck. The crew of the helicopter that was forced down, claimed that Williams was in fact an hour behind them, and simply le...	[ "On December 3, 2012, Williams announced the end of his stand-up comedy career, a day after a bizarre incident in Seattle, Washington that landed him in jail. However, just 3 days later, Williams announced he was coming out of retirement.\n", "In March 2016, Williams announced he was retiring from touring and can...
why do old people seem to bruise so easily and so severely over their face and body parts whereas younger people don’t?	Lots of old people take blood thinners for various circulatory disorders. These make them very prone to bruising because their blood doesn’t coagulate in he same way. Additionally, their skin is weaker and less elastic with age, so the repair processes that happen when you bump your arm and break some blood vessels g...	[ "Another factor that may contribute to chronic wounds is old age. The skin of older people is more easily damaged, and older cells do not proliferate as fast and may not have an adequate response to stress in terms of gene upregulation of stress-related proteins. In older cells, stress response genes are overexpres...
Why do so many important compounds seem to contain carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen? What makes them so special?	At least part of the reason is quite simple - they are four of the five most common elements in the universe (Helium, which is generally unreactive, comes in at #2), and so you would expect to see compounds made from them appearing more commonly. By the way, "pharmaceuticals" refers to medical chemicals only - I'm not...	[ "Hydrogen forms a vast array of compounds with carbon called the hydrocarbons, and an even vaster array with heteroatoms that, because of their general association with living things, are called organic compounds. The study of their properties is known as organic chemistry and their study in the context of living o...
why some europeans countries like france or spain are these big united countries while eastern europe is full of all these small separate countries.	In the past, language/culture wasn't of great important for an country because most common people had nothing to do with the government so they didn't care what language their leader was speaking. But in the 19-20th century this started to change drastically. More people were able to read and implicated in the politica...	[ "Depending on context, Central European countries are sometimes grouped as Eastern or Western European countries, collectively or individually but some place them in Eastern Europe instead: for instance Austria can be referred to as Central European, as well as Eastern European or Western European.\n", "BULLET:::...
Can anyone provide solid evidence for and against radiometric and carbon dating?	Your best bet is to read this [document](_URL_0_). You won't find any scientific arguments against radiometric dating, because there aren't any. At least, no valid ones.	[ "Conversely, the radiocarbon dates have been argued to be inaccurate on scientific grounds. That argument has been made, in particular, by Malcolm H. Wiener. The primary problem is that C-deficient carbon, sourced from the environment, might easily have affected the radiocarbon dates.\n", "Radiocarbon dating is a...
when you're downloading two files on your computer and your bandwidth is maxed out (limiting factor), how does your computer decide how much bandwidth to allocate to each download?	The remote servers decide. The computer has no control over what data arrives. Well, very little, anyway. Computers sending data rely on two things to know how fast they should keep sending data out. Firstly, when a router between the server and the client has more data than it can send on, it will start deleting, or...	[ "BULLET::::- Files are downloaded in multiple streams, which under certain conditions can accelerate download speeds by up to eight times, depending on the bandwidth of the Internet connections and the speed at which the server sends files. At present, an option to increase or decrease the downloading speed is not ...
Who authorised Napoleon's expedition to Egypt and what the hell were they thinking?	Shortest Answer The Directory -- the group of men who ruled France after the end of the Terror -- authorized it, but didn't initiate the idea. Short Answer Was the Egyptian expedition the result of . . . * long standing French grand strategy dating back before the Revolution to build a Mediterranean Empire...	[ "General Napoleon Bonaparte (later Napoleon I) of France invaded Egypt in 1798. The main Ottoman army was preoccupied in European fronts and the only defenders were local forces which were routed in the Battle of Pyramids. However Napoleon couldn't proceed much because his fleet was defeated by the British navy. In...
"free speech" restrictions and the growth of racist nationalism	Part 1 > restrictions on the freedom of speech in certain European nations, as opposed to the (almost) absolutist protections in the U.S., have backfired by directly being the cause of the rise of ultra-right anti-immigrant groups. This is not only a – as you said – gross overstatement, it is also something tha...	[ "In South Africa, hate speech (along with incitement to violence and propaganda for war) is specifically excluded from protection of free speech in the Constitution. The Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000 contains the following clause:\n", "In the area of human rights, Heinze ...
What would happen to two Earth-sized planets if you were to put them in stable orbit around one another with 100 miles between their surfaces?	They would come apart, due to being inside each other's Roche limits. The debris would float around, collide with other debris, and soon coalesce into a new, larger planet.	[ "A necessary condition for the existence of a planet in this system are stable zones where the object can remain in orbit for long intervals. For hypothetical planets in a circular orbit around the individual members of this star system, this maximum orbital radius is computed to be 9.5 AU for the primary and 7.1 A...
[Engineering] What actually happens when you switch electricity suppliers?	Nothing. You'll still get a bill from your normal power company for "distribution", which should be a separate line item on your bill anyway. There will be no physical change - it's just paperwork.	[ "Electricity provider switching is the ability of power consumers to have an option—or the \"power to choose\"—their electricity provider in a deregulated electricity market as permitted by a state public utilities governing body.\n", "SWITCH is a power system model, focused on renewables integration. It can iden...
why rain harvesting is beneficial to us, aren't we disturbing the natural cycle ?	Not really cause when we drink it we piss it out which evaporates into a cloud and then rain again	[ "Precipitation, especially rain, has a dramatic effect on agriculture. All plants need at least some water to survive, therefore rain (being the most effective means of watering) is important to agriculture. While a regular rain pattern is usually vital to healthy plants, too much or too little rainfall can be harm...
I have this problem with history I think you all can help me with.	YouTube videos, pop history books, documentaries, and podcasts are all an excellent way to get introduced to history. You often find topics you like there, find the stories that interests you the most and it engages you in history in a way that it might never have had in the past. The unfortunate part, as you point out...	[ "History has a long-range perspective. It ultimately passes stern judgment on tyrants and vindicates those who fought, suffered, were imprisoned, and died for human freedom, against political oppression and economic slavery.\n", "Personalizing conflicts is typical of a particular view of history, according to whi...
why do we have both coal and oil?	Coal is pretty much fossilized prehistoric trees and other forest plants. Before bacteria and fungus evolved the ability to breadown the lignen and cell walls of trees, the forest floor was covered with piles of dead trees. Those trees became buried under dirt and eventually with heat, pressure and time became coal O...	[ "Heavy fuel oil was once a significant source of energy for electric power generation. After oil price increases of the 1970's, oil was displaced by coal and later natural gas. Distillate oil is still important as the fuel source for diesel engine power plants used especially in isolated communities not interconnec...
Is "Information" bound by the speed of light?	* "Classical" information is bound by the speed of light. * Quantum ~~information~~ effects, like with entanglement, are not bound by the speed of light. (But then again, quantum effects aren't useful for anything you're thinking of, and it's impossible to use it for faster-than-light communication). The really-lon...	[ "In the study of quantum systems such as quantum optics, quantum information theory, atomic physics, and condensed matter physics, it is important to know that there is a finite speed with which information can propagate. The theory of relativity shows that no information, or anything else for that matter, can trav...
how do chiropractors practice making adjustments?	I'm a 3rd year DO student, which is an actual medical doctor, with some manipulation mixed in during the first 2 years of school. It's called OMT (Osteopathic Manipulative Technique), which includes "back-cracking" or "HVLA" as we call it We practice on each other. Even though we're all relatively healthy, we also spe...	[ "The intention of a chiropractic adjustment is to affect or correct the alignment, motion and/or function of a vertebral joint. Specifically, they are intended to correct \"vertebral subluxations\", the term given to the signs and symptoms that are said by chiropractors to result from abnormal alignment of vertebra...
; why is jesus on a cross the symbol for the religion and used against demons?	Jesus on the cross is dying for our sins, to absolve and protect all the rest of us. He protects us from our own "demons," that is, our sinful nature. Remember, being crucified didn't destroy Jesus. He was resurrected shortly thereafter. It was merely an ordeal he went through on our behalf. I think I've got this rig...	[ "Unlike many other Christians, the LDS Church does not use the cross, crucifix or ichthys as symbols of faith. Many Mormons view crucifixion-related symbols as emphasizing the death of Jesus rather than his life and resurrection. The early LDS Church was more accepting of the symbol of the cross, but after the turn...
What popular Christmas traditions haven't survived to the modern day?	> There'll be parties for hosting > Marshmallows for toasting > And caroling out in the snow > There'll be scary ghost stories > And tales of the glories of the > Christmases long, long ago --The Most Wonderful Time of the Year, Andy Williams According to [Gothic Horror Stories](_URL_0_) this actually...	[ "The traditions of the Twelve Days of Christmas have been nearly forgotten in the United States. Contributing factors include the popularity of the stories of Charles Dickens in nineteenth-century America, with their emphasis on generous giving; introduction of secular traditions in the 19th and 20th centuries, e. ...
what is literary theory/criticism, and what is its purpose?	My SO is pursuing a grad degree in English, and this is how SO (heavily paraphrased) describes it: Literary Theory/Criticism is an exploration of humanity - how we interpret the world, how we perceive and understand information, and how that effects out physical, mental, and emotional responses. For instance, Milton'...	[ "Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Though the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not alw...
Was there any immigration at all in the Third Reich?	Point 8 of the NSDAP 25 points says "8. Any further immigration of non-Germans must be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans who have entered Germany since August 2, 1914, shall be compelled to leave the Reich immediately." This was made before Hitler rose to power so I don't know if it was fully enacted but its l...	[ "By 1939, about 304,000 of about 522,000 German Jews had fled Germany, including 60,000 to British Mandate Palestine (including over 50,000 who had taken advantage of the Haavara, or \"Transfer\" Agreement between German Zionists and the Nazis), but British immigration quotas prevented many from migrating. In March...
several candidates in the us presidential election have called for overturning citizens united. how can a supreme court decision be overturned?	Two ways, one official and one unofficial. Officially, once the Supreme Court has ruled that should be the end of it. A Constitutional amendment can reverse it, but (especially in a short timeframe) nothing else can. Unofficially, the President appoints justices, and the Court can overturn itself (in fact, it did i...	[ "Justices Breyer, Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan dissented, arguing that the decision \"creates a loophole that will allow a single individual to contribute millions of dollars to a political party or to a candidate's campaign. Taken together with \"Citizens United v. Federal Election Comm'n\", 558 U. S. 310 (2010),...
Geologists: If the existing continents were once part of a supercontinent called Pangea, do we know that there weren't additional continents elsewhere on the Earth that were swallowed up at the receding ends of the continental plates?	There are two kinds of crust: -[Continental Crust](_URL_2_) is very thick and light, composed primarily of felsic igneous rocks. -[Oceanic Crust](_URL_0_) is thin and dense, composed of mafic igneous rocks, which are enriched in heavier metal elements. When a tectonic plate made of oceanic crust collides with a plat...	[ "The movement of plates has caused the formation and break-up of continents over time, including occasional formation of a supercontinent that contains most or all of the continents. The supercontinent Columbia or Nuna formed during a period of and broke up about . The supercontinent Rodinia is thought to have form...
How long does it take a natual diamond to form?	Depending on the factors involved, it can take from 1 to 3 billion years. Synthetic diamonds are made from any carbon rich substance (even things like peanut butter), and put under tremendous amounts of heat and pressure, thus making the time much much shorter.	[ "Most natural diamonds have ages between 1 billion and 3.5 billion years. Most were formed at depths between in the Earth's mantle, although a few have come from as deep as . Under high pressure and temperature, carbon-containing fluids dissolved minerals and replaced them with diamonds. Much more recently (tens to...
if our bodies adapt to certain things, weather, temperature, etc. would our bodies adapt to smoking, if the human race did it for long enough?	In terms of evolution, it's possible but unlikely. The reason is because animals evolve for certain traits that affect their ability to reproduce. Most people who die from smoking-related illnesses do so well beyond their reproductive years, and so it would not affect which genes get passed to the next generation. But...	[ "With the evolution of hairless skin, abundant sweat glands, and skin rich in melanin, early humans could walk, run, and forage for food for long periods of time under the hot sun without brain damage due to overheating, giving them an evolutionary advantage over other species. By 1.2 million years ago, around the ...
plato's third man argument.	Basically it's a criticism of Plato's theory of forms. Plato believed that, for example, chairs were only chairs because they shared an essential quality of chair-ness. This chair-ness is a Form, and chairs are like shadows of chair-ness cast from a higher level of reality. The third man argument goes like this: 1. A...	[ "The third man argument (commonly referred to as TMA; ), first appears in Plato's dialogue \"Parmenides\". (132a–b) Parmenides (speaking to Socrates) uses the example of μέγεθος (\"mégethos\"; \"greatness\") in a philosophical criticism of the theory of Forms. The theory of forms is formulated based on the speeches...
how game developers can simultaneously work on a game from different computers?	Former game developer here, On the software side of things, we use a Version Control System (VCS) whose function is to manage concurrent work among the developers. If you change file A and I change file B, the VCS can combine the work into a single, congruent whole. If we modify the same file, these programs can often...	[ "A game programmer is a software engineer who primarily develops video games or related software (such as game development tools). The game's codebase development is handled by programmers. There are usually one to several lead programmers, who implement the game's starting codebase and overview future development ...
(Physics) If a marble and a bowling ball were placed in a space where there was no other gravity acting on them, or any forces at all, would the marble orbit the bowling ball?	That depends on the initial speed of the marble with respect to the bowling ball. If they start out stationary with respect to eachother, the marble will simply fall towards the bowling ball (and vice versa). In order for the marble to enter orbit, it needs to have sufficient sideways velocity (where "sideways" is defi...	[ "A: No. A falling ball exerts a force on the hand greater than its own weight. Rather, a \"thrown\" ball exerts greater force than a \"held\" one. That is, the additional force equal and opposite to that imparted to a flung ball, in addition to the juggler's mass, would exceed the bridge's tolerance (the bridge can...
Is there a visible difference between a "dwarf" and average newborn baby?	There are many different kinds of dwarfism, so I'm not sure about all of them, but achondroplasia (the most common kind) can be detected via prenatal ultrasound. [Wikipedia has details](_URL_0_). Another very rare form of dwarfism, [Primordial Dwarfism](_URL_1_), results in a smaller-than-average fetus and continued ...	[ "Descendants of the dwarf men of the family were born taller; the women did not become pregnant due to their small pelvises. The firstborn of the dwarfs, Rozika Ovitz, died in 1984 at the age of 98. The last adult dwarf survivor of the family, Perla Ovitz, died in 2001.\n", "Dwarves appear to mature much more slo...
could there be any business/financial-related reasons it is taking valve so long to develop/announce half-life 3?	There's a few reasons. First, Valve has a pretty loose command structure. For the most part, people just kind of work on what they want to work on. Unless you've got a bunch of people who want to make HL3, there's no HL3 team. More importantly though, they're facing the Duke Nukem Forever problem. People have been w...	[ "Valve announced \"Half-Life 2\" at E3 in May 2003, where it won several awards for best in show. Originally scheduled for release in September 2003, it was delayed in the wake of the cracking of Valve's internal network. The network was accessed through a null session connection to a server owned by Tangis, which ...
How is it that the only 4 species of big cats able to roar live on 3 different continents?	As long as the members of a species are mixing their genes around generation after generation, it's unlikely that any new species will appear. By far the most common reason that a species splits is because a population was separated geographically, so over time they built up enough mutations that weren't shared with th...	[ "The cougar is on average larger than all felid species apart from the lion, tiger, and jaguar. Despite its size, it is not typically classified among the \"big cats\" because it cannot roar, lacking the specialized larynx and hyoid apparatus of \"Panthera\". Compared to \"big cats\", cougars are often silent with ...
How can fusion reactors take the extremely high temperatures (100,000,000c+) without simply melting the casing?	From what I remember reading, the plasma in which the fusion takes place is suspended through powerful magnets, in a vacuum chamber. Thus, there is no actual physical contact of the plasma with the container, and the only method of heat transfer is radiation, which is typically extremely low compared to conduction.	[ "Taking advantage of this possibility requires the fuel plasma to be held together long enough that these random reactions have time to occur. Like any hot gas, the plasma has an internal pressure and thus tends to expand according to the ideal gas law. For a fusion reactor, the problem is keeping the plasma contai...
what do investors gain from buying shares of companies that don't pay dividends(e.g. amazon)?	You hold a non-dividend stock in hopes that the price will increase over time. Amazon is a good example of one that has done just this. If you went back to January 2005 and bought 100 shares of AMZN at $40/share then came back to today, you could sell them for $1300/share. Your $4k would have turned into $130k. You...	[ "A secondary offering is not dilutive to existing shareholders since no new shares are created. The proceeds from the sale of the securities do not benefit the issuing company in any way. The offered shares are privately held by shareholders of the issuing company which may be directors or other insiders (such as v...
Are there any books in the literary canon that were regarded as garbage when they first came out?	I'm told Herman Melville's Moby Dick was considered unreadable by many critics in its own day, but I'll leave that tale to someone more qualified to tell it. In my own field, some of the major names in British war poetry were essentially unknown in their own time on a popular level. Wilfred Owen is a good example o...	[ "Sometimes called \"books never written\" or \"world's greatest books\", these are jokes which consist of fictitious book titles with authors' names that contain a pun relating to the title. Perhaps the best-known example is: \"\"Tragedy on the Cliff\" by Eileen Dover\", which according to one source was devised by...
Will the rings of Saturn eventually become a moon?	No, they can't form a moon. \[Geologist here, keeping the seat warm until an astronomer arrives\] There is a distance from the centre of a planet called the Roche Limit inside of which objects can't accumulate to form moons. Very simply, a particle in a lower orbit (closer to the planet) feels a slightly greater g...	[ "The rings of Saturn are made up of objects ranging in size from microscopic to moonlets hundreds of meters across, each in its own orbit around Saturn. Thus a precise number of Saturnian moons cannot be given, because there is no objective boundary between the countless small anonymous objects that form Saturn's r...
Does anybody know how Sagittarius A* was created?	It is currently not known how Super Massive Black Holes (SMBHs) are formed. What is known is that there aren't stars big enough to form a SMBH straight away (some SMBH can reach a few billion times the mass of the Sun!) However, it is possible that a black hole left behind by a star going supernova might grow by accr...	[ "Diplorrhina is a genus of trilobites, a well known class of extinct marine arthropods. It lived during the early Middle Cambrian (Amgan and Mayan stages) in what are now the Czech Republic and the North Siberian plateau. Like all agnostina it has a headshield (or cephalon and tailshield (or pygidium of approximate...
The role of Drummer Boys in warfare.	Well I can only comment on the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars but as that answers at least part of the question I shall proceed. Firstly I shall draw the distinction between regimental bands and the enlisted musicians. Regimental bands were non-combatants who were hired by regimental officers to accompany a...	[ "Before motorized transport became widespread, drummers played a key role in military conflicts. Military drummers provided drum cadences that set a steady marching pace and elevated troop morale on the battlefield. In some armies drums also assisted in combat by keeping cadence for firing and loading drills with m...
At what point in time did mental diseases like schizophrenia get introduced into our species and do other animals suffer them as well?	Mental illness has likely affected the human species as long as it has existed, although categorizing mental illness into specific groups like schizophrenia is relatively new. (Schizophrenia was not labeled until 1908) It's difficult to determine the effect of mental disorders in non-human animals, since we have to re...	[ "Clear descriptions of some syndromes, such as the condition that would later be termed schizophrenia, have been identified as relatively rare prior to the 19th century, although interpretations of the evidence and its implications are inconsistent.\n", "Professor Timothy Crow, from the University Department of P...
If the universe's expansion is constantly accelerating, will it eventually reach the speed of light - turning everything into energy?	The universe's expansion is not described by a single speed. It's a metric expansion, which means that the recession speed depends on the distance between two points. If expansion accelerates in a nonasymptotic matter, which is what is believed to happen, then for an arbitrarily small distance of separation there is ...	[ "To determine if the expansion rate of the universe is speeding up or slowing down over time, cosmologists make use of the finite velocity of light. It takes billions of years for light from a distant galaxy to reach the Earth. Since the universe is expanding, the universe was smaller (galaxies were closer together...
Who was the last Byzantine emperor to have a Latin instead of a Greek name?	The last one, Constantine XI Palaiologos (1448 - 1453). Not what you expected, huh? ;) Less snarky answer: The last non-Greek, non-Biblical, non-Constantine was Romanos IV Diogenes (1068 - 1071). Constantine XI himself was the first Constantine since the 11th century.	[ "During most of the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Greeks self-identified as \"Rhōmaîoi\" (, \"Romans\", meaning citizens of the Roman Empire), a term which in the Greek language had become synonymous with Christian Greeks. The Latinizing term \"Graikoí\" (Γραικοί, \"Greeks\") was also used, though its use was less com...
what the fuck is going on with reddit and their admins?	They are trying to save reddit from sinking like the titanic. Problem is it has already hit the ice berg....lol	[ "On July 2, 2015, Reddit fired communications director Victoria Taylor, a well-liked administrator who coordinated celebrity interviews from Reddit's New York office. In protest, volunteer moderators of the IAmA community set their forum to private, effectively turning it off, and other volunteer moderators followe...
why many wine bottles have an inverse dome at the base.	It's called a punt and it was originally developed for sparkling wines to strengthen the bottle and enable them to cope with the high internal pressures. Source: worked in the wine industry for years.	[ "Research in the late 1990s suggested that the ideal orientation for wine bottles is at a slight angle, rather than completely horizontal. This allows the cork to maintain partial contact with the wine in order to stay damp but also keeps the air bubble formed by a wine's ullage at the top rather than in the middle...
why do nfl teams fire coaches with one or two games left in the season?	There comes a point where the relationship becomes toxic. Everyone knows the coach is going to be fired, the players know there won't be any consequences to ignoring him, and the fans aren't interested in seeing them half ass it on the field for a lame duck. Firing the head coach and naming an interim coach reignites...	[ "Coaches and game officials were supplied by the NFL. Head coaches in the game were assistant coaches with NFL teams who did not advance to the postseason; Jonathan Hayes of the Cincinnati Bengals for the East team, and Bobby Johnson of the Oakland Raiders for the West team.\n", "Starting with the January 2017 ga...
Why is the Armenian Genocide in Turkey more well known and talked about than the Greek Genocide in Turkey, which happened concurrently?	This question was asked a few days ago, so instead of repeating my answer I'll just link to the [earlier post](_URL_0_)	[ "Tensions stemming from the Armenian Genocide, the systematic murder of an estimated 1,500,000 Armenians by the authorities of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, are a bitter point of contention, with most historians defining the killings as a genocide, a term whose applicability the Turkish state rejec...
Is there a limit to how large a human could be?	Look at some of his health problems: _URL_0_	[ "BULLET::::- Humans can attain weights of up to as well as heights of up to , although these are cases of morbid obesity, tumor, gigantism or other medical malady. However, even when not afflicted with gigantism, humans are the tallest living primates. The biggest man without growth abnormalities was an incredible ...
are there any real benefits to buying things duty free? if so what are they	Well, no duty...	[ "This is a list of duty-free shops. A duty-free shop is a retail outlet that is exempt from the payment of certain local or national taxes and duties, on the requirement that the goods sold will be sold to travelers who will take them out of the country. Which products can be sold duty-free vary by jurisdiction, as...
why handguns, the cause of most firearms deaths, aren't controlled to the extent that other firearms are such as assault rifles?	In many countries they are, and many states or municipalities have tried to control them in similar ways. The thing that stops those regulations from getting through is the fact that handguns have the best potential for self defense. It is unreasonable to carry an AR 15 on your person going through day to day activit...	[ "Globally, shotguns are generally not as heavily regulated as rifles or handguns, likely because they lack the range of rifles and are not easily concealable as handguns are; thus, they are perceived as a lesser threat by legislative authorities. The one exception is a sawed-off shotgun, especially a lupara, as it ...
why do all visas start with 4, all mastercards start with 55, all amex's start with 37, and all discovers start with 6011?	Basically, so that you can identify which provider issued the card (and the CC processer can tell who verify the number with). 1. The first digit identifies the provider (AMEX (3)/Visa (4)/MC (5)/Discover (6)) 2. The next six digits ID the issuing bank (Chase/BofA/Capitol One). It usually identify what "brand" of ca...	[ "On November 8, 2004, MasterCard and Diners Club formed an alliance. Diners Club cards issued in Canada and the United States start with 54 or 55 and are treated as MasterCards worldwide. International cards use the 36 prefix and are treated as MasterCards in Canada and the United States, but are treated as Diners ...
how do wood-burning stoves heat an entire house?	They didn't. They really only heated the room they were in. The same with any kind of stove that just makes heat in one place. I stayed with grandmother often enough to know that the bedrooms there were always really chilly in winter and the only warm rooms in the house were the living room and the kitchen.	[ "This is a list of stoves. A stove is an enclosed space in which fuel is burned to provide heating, either to heat the space in which the stove is situated, or to heat the stove itself and items placed on it. Stoves are generally used for cooking and heating purposes.\n", "A wood-burning stove (or wood burner or ...
why are some of us not hungry when we're heartbroken? what exactly causes this?	Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why do some people binge eat when they're stressed, while others lose their appetite entirely? ](_URL_1_) 1. [ELI5: Why do some people lose their appetite when they're upset or depressed, while others consume more food?? ](_URL_0_) 1. [ELI5: Why do ...	[ "Emotional hunger does not originate from the stomach, such as with a rumbling or growling stomach, but tends to start when a person thinks about a craving or wants something specific to eat. Emotional responses are also different. Giving in to a craving or eating because of stress can cause feelings of regret, sha...
what is better for a desktop pc, to leave it on at all times, to leave it in sleep mode when its not being used, or to shut it down completely between use, and why?	This is assuming that your PC is properly maintained and cooled. Leaving it on at all times will wear out some parts faster, but in most PC's it's not fast enough to really matter. You'll probably end up upgrading parts or buying a new PC before it really matters. Some people leave their computers on all the time and...	[ "In Windows Vista, sleep mode is the default \"off\" power state for both desktop computers and mobile PCs such as laptops; sleep mode replaces the standby mode seen in previous versions of Windows. To ensure that sleep mode transitions are reliable, Windows Vista does not, by default, allow applications or drivers...
how are tv shows and movies broadcast on tv	Picture and sound gets turned into electrical signal, electrical signal gets turned into radio waves, radio waves get broadcast, radio waves get received by decoder, radio waves get decoded into electrical signal, electrical signal gets decoded back in to picture and sound. Radio waves have different frequencies. Dif...	[ "Television and radio programs are distributed through radio broadcasting or cable, often simultaneously. By coding signals and having decoding equipment in homes, the latter also enables subscription-based channels and pay-per-view services.\n", "A television film is a feature-length motion picture that is produ...
How did a cavalry charge evolve and what were the most common tactics?	The video is a good indication of the momentum carried by charging horses - imagine, then, how much havoc and chaos you could create in a cohesive unit of cavalry charging through an opposing unit. To answer your question on how often the cavalry charge was used, you first have to figure out which context you're referr...	[ "The cavalry charge was a significant tactic in the Middle Ages. Although cavalry had charged before, a combination of the adoption of a frame saddle secured in place by a breast-band, stirrups and the technique of couching the lance under the arm delivered a hitherto unachievable ability to utilise the momentum of...
when i'm playing video games, why does leaning forward make me concentrate more?	You're misinterpreting. Concentrating more makes you lean forward, not the other way around. It's not just video games. It's not even just things on screens. Even when reading a book that you're holding in your lap, the same thing occurs, even though leaning forward doesn't get you a single inch closer to the book....	[ "Another cognitive enhancement provided by playing video games would be the improvement of brain functioning speed. This happens as the player is immersed in an unendingly changing environment where they are required to constantly think and problem solve while playing in order to do well in the game. This constant ...
how do countries communicate with each other to talk about things such as trade deals or meetings	They have an army of staffers who talk to each other and mostly decide everything and then tell the important people when it’s happening	[ "Talks were held on a wide range of political and economic issues with Minister of State for Europe and the Americas Alan Duncan and Minister of State for Trade Policy Greg Hands. As a result of official meetings, official documents were signed: MoU on trade and economic cooperation, which provides for the establis...
What system of units would get rid of the most constants from our physics equations?	The Planck units are the best system of units for this; they get rid of the speed of light, Newton's constant, Coulomb's constant, Boltzmann's constant (related to the ideal gas constant), and Planck's constant. All of those have a value of 1 in Planck units. Planck units however are not necessarily "funamental", for ...	[ "Certain universal dimensioned physical constants, such as the speed of light in a vacuum, the universal gravitational constant, Planck's constant, Coulomb's constant, and Boltzmann's constant can be normalized to 1 if appropriate units for time, length, mass, charge, and temperature are chosen. The resulting syste...
how the daily show correspondents can conduct interviews where they can basically make fun and destroy their interviewee without any problems.	I'm sure the interviewee has agreed to some sort of agreement beforehand. These interviews are made to be laughed at and as humans, we are enthralled by this kind of stuff.	[ "Journalism and other media. Typically, reporters covering a story in journalism conduct interviews over the phone and in person to gain information for subsequent publication. Reporters can interview political candidates on television shows. In a talk show, a radio or television \"host\" interviews one or more peo...
why do the girls processing drugs always wear nothing but bra and panties?	Fanservice. In small scale production it's also to keep the girls from pocketing some of the drugs. In large production realistically they will all wear lab coat and mask both to protect themselves from the drug and retain the quality of the drug from dead skin, hair, and sweat.	[ "In a recent analysis, it was found that almost 30% of the clothing items available for pre-teen girls on the websites of 15 national stores had sexualizing characteristics. The clothing emphasized or revealed a sexualized body part (e.g., bikinis and push-up bras), or had characteristics associated with sexiness (...
how comes whenever i buy something, including water, it has a best before or expiry date, however there's none on any alcoholic beverage i get?	Water and the like are regulated by the FDA, while alcohol is regulated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. The FDA requires expiration dates, while the ATTTB does not.	[ "Best before indicates a future date beyond which the food product \"may\" lose quality in terms of taste or texture amongst others, but does not imply any serious health problems if food is consumed beyond this date (within reasonable limits).\n", "\"Best before\" or \"best by\" dates appear on a wide range of f...
why does the speed of sound increase again after a certain altitude?	At ~18km up you leave the Troposphere, and enter the Stratosphere. Up there instead of it getting colder with increasing height, it gets warmer again. This is due to heating from the sun due to Ozone absorbing UV light. This means the top layer heats up more than the bottom layer, as less UV light gets down to the bot...	[ "Note that the speed of sound decreases somewhat with altitude, due to lower temperatures found there (typically up to 25 km). At even higher altitudes the temperature starts increasing, with the corresponding increase in the speed of sound.\n", "Since temperature (and thus the speed of sound) decreases with incr...
why do fat people tend to breathe louder than slim people?	2 reasons: -They have so much fat their airway is restricted, even slightly. -Fat is living tissue, and needs food and oxygen like any other. So, because of all the extra fat, they have to move more blood to feed and oxygenate that fat. To oxygenate the extra blood flow, they have to breathe deeper and more often.	[ "In 2009, Wardle appeared in BBC Horizon: Why Are Thin People Not Fat? (season 45, episode 8), a documentary which examined why some people manage to stay slim while the world is being affected by an obesity epidemic. In it, she explored whether eating habits are genetic or learned.\n", "An explanation for the in...
why do dogs wink.	I don't really know, but I always thought it was my dog trying to say to me: "I know I can't talk, but I'm way smarter than you think I am"	[ "The behavior of a dog may not always indicate its friendliness or unlikelihood of biting. This is because when a dog wags its tail, most people interpret this as the dog expressing happiness and friendliness. Though indeed tail wagging can express these positive emotions, tail wagging is also an indication of fear...
Why did USA give Japan an ultimatum to "open" their economy? - Why was trade with Japan so important to USA that they were willing to go to war with them over it	The United States was not willing to go to war with Japan. Commodore Perry had not been authorized to start a war nor to explicitly threaten one. His orders from President Fillmore stated that he should "refrain from every act that could possibly disturb the tranquility" of Japan. (Obviously not honoured in spirit, but...	[ "In light of Japan's dependence on imported oil, the trade embargoes were especially significant. These pressures directly influenced Japan to go into alliance with Germany and Italy through the Tripartite Pact. According to Kurusu, because of these reasons, the Allies had already provoked war with Japan long befor...
when do babies gain awarness of themselves?	Sometime between 15-24 months. Babies/children will take a step in self-awareness. If you would place a child in front of a mirror before their 15th month, and they have for example a postit stuck on their forehead, they will not realise that it's on their own head. When the children are between 15-24 months, they begi...	[ "The Pre-Eidetic Stage includes the smile response, stranger anxiety and separation anxiety. During this stage, the child gains the capacity to remember images of her parents to which she can then turn to feel that she is causing her parents to care for her while she explores more and more of her world. Most import...
how do tv writers/producers etc get the right amount of time for each episode?	When TV writers and producers are writing the scripts for the show, if they have written a lot of episodes before, they know about how many pages they have to write. Then, when they take parts of the show out, to make it go faster, or be funnier, they aim to make the show the right length. They also know how long the...	[ "The show hires a stable of writers, who usually work in parallel: the first writer works on the first episode, the second on the second episode, etc. When all the writers have been used, episode assignment starts again with the first writer. On other shows, however, the writers work as a team. Sometimes they devel...
Why doesnt Alzheimers make the person forget how to speak or even breath?	In the later stages, Alzheimer dementia sufferers do lose the faculty of speech. They end up bed bound, staring at thin air, with only reflexes working. The brain stem is unaffected by Alzheimers and it is where the most basic functions are regulated: Heart rate, breathing, temperature control.	[ "Language problems are mainly characterised by a shrinking vocabulary and decreased word fluency, leading to a general impoverishment of oral and written language. In this stage, the person with Alzheimer's is usually capable of communicating basic ideas adequately. While performing fine motor tasks such as writing...
The Austrian (and later the Austro-Hungarian) Empire went from one of the great powers and the leading German state to being militarily incompetent and unstable. What caused its decline?	Some elements of your question have been considered in earlier answers here. While you're waiting for fresh contributions, you might like to review some or all of them; collectively they pose some interesting questions about the thesis of Austro-Hungarian decline: [I've been reading about World War 1, it seems as if t...	[ "Prior to the collapse of the multinational Austro-Hungarian Empire towards the end of World War I, what now is the Republic of Austria had been part of a monarchy with an emperor as its head of state and chief executive. The empire noticeably began to fracture in late 1917 and manifestly disintegrated into a numbe...
what is clock cycle in cpu?	A CPU is a massive logic circuit working in sync with a clock. The reason you need a clock is because the CPU needs to follow a sequential list of instructions. One of the basic circuits inside a CPU is a counter, when the clock ticks the counter will increment. This counter is wired to lookup the numbered instruction ...	[ "The system clock is typically implemented as a programmable interval timer that periodically interrupts the CPU, which then starts executing a timer interrupt service routine. This routine typically adds one tick to the system clock (a simple counter) and handles other periodic housekeeping tasks (preemption, etc....
why do printers do "something" for 1-2 minutes each time i want to print a paper that prints in 5 seconds?	When you let an inkjet printer sit idle for a day or more, the ink that is on the ends of the ink jets tends to dry out and get gunky. When the printer turns back on, it rubs the ink jets against a small sponge to get the gunk off. Also: sometimes, the print head contains a little sensor that says "I've bumped into t...	[ "The printer contains melted wax when at operating temperature, and owners' manuals warn that it cannot be moved until it has completed a special cool-down cycle selected from the machine's control panel. It is recommended to provide a 30-minute cool down time from the point of removing main power, however all mode...
Why does bond-breaking require energy if catabolic reactions release energy?	The chemistry part you hear about "breaking bonds" is _simply that_ and nothing more - you are breaking bonds and separating atoms. So a positive enthalpy change is expected. The inverse of _forming_ bonds is also just that, and a negative enthalpy change occurs. After all, a bond is _defined_ to be a low-energy sharin...	[ "All chemical reactions involve both the breaking of existing and the making of new chemical bonds. A reaction to break a bond always requires the input of energy and so such a process is always endothermic. When atoms come together to form new chemical bonds, the electrostatic forces bringing them together leave t...
what makes the age of 18 so special?	Well, that also depends where it is you are from. Where I am from, in the province of Ontario in Canada, the legal drinking and cigarette purchase age is 19. We are allowed to vote and buy lottery at 18. The province next to me, Quebec has a blanket age of 18 for all things. Because my city is on the river that divid...	[ "What is more, if the years 18-25 are classified as \"young adulthood,\" Arnett believes that it is then difficult to find an appropriate term for the thirties and that it is nonsensical to combine the late teenage years, twenties, and thirties together because the 18‑25 age period and the thirties are very distinc...
how does the vacuum in deep space differ from that made in a vacuum chamber on earth?	Our best vacuum chambers still do not provide the same level of vacuum (i.e. such low pressure) as that of Earth orbit, which is still within Earth's outermost atmosphere and is polluted with things like paint particles. Deep space interplanetary vacuum is a step further than even that.	[ "BULLET::::- Deep space is generally much more empty than any artificial vacuum. It may or may not meet the definition of high vacuum above, depending on what region of space and astronomical bodies are being considered. For example, the MFP of interplanetary space is smaller than the size of the Solar System, but ...
why when an airplane closes its doors it can't open them again?	They Could Technically reopen them. they could Disarm the door, reopen and let you on. But when the plane closes it doors there is a decent amount of paperwork that has happen, passenger lists submitted, Gates moved back, connections outside might have already be replaced. Its just like when the door is closed they ...	[ "Doors which lead from interior, pressurized, sections of an aircraft to exterior or unpressurized areas can pose extreme risk if they are inadvertently opened during flight. This can be mitigated by having doors that open inwardly and are designed to be forced into their door frames by the internal cabin pressure ...
why do we often catch ourselves staring at other people when we zone out?	It's not that you happen to stare at people. In fact, it's the opposite - that you're not staring at anything. Normally, you tend not to focus on people due to social inhibitions and etiquette. But if your mind is elsewhere, your (lack of) focus will drift off to anywhere, including people.	[ "When two or more people engage in conversation, the person that converses is accustomed to being looked at. Therefore, making eye contact and mimicking the eye contact creates a mirrored effect to the other person to expect conversation and dialogue.\n", "In many cultures, such as in East Asia and Nigeria, it is...
What's the deepest ocean we've ever discovered in space?	The only other body besides Earth that is known to have liquid on its surface is Titan, which has lakes of methane. Not really an ocean. The deepest, based on radar measurements, is about 500 feet deep. It is thought based on gravitational and magnetic measurements that Europa has a large sub-surface ocean, thought to...	[ "The three best-documented water oceans beyond Earth are those within Europa, Enceladus and Titan. Of these, Europa's is closest to the surface —less than 10 km— and hence potentially best suited for eventual direct exploration. Enceladus' ocean is deeper —5 to 40 km below its surface— but fractures beneath the sou...
Is it accurate to say that American common law is based on English common law, which is based on Roman common law? At what point in the empire/ Byzantine era did England draw its traditions from? When was this adopted? How common was this among the fledgling nation states of Europe?	> Is it accurate to say that American common law is based on English common law, which is based on Roman common law? American law is based on English common law. This much is true. In fact, most US states have something called a "reception statute," which explicitly states that the laws of England apply except whe...	[ "The common lawso named because it was \"common\" to all the king's courts across Englandoriginated in the practices of the courts of the English kings in the centuries following the Norman Conquest in 1066. The British Empire spread the English legal system to its historical colonies, many of which retain the comm...
how are cars protected from theft at dealerships?	you mean, how do they avoid that you just drive off with their car and never come back? Well, for one, they probably want to see your drivers license. Even make an electronically copy of it. (in some places, the software that snaps the photo also automatically checks if it's valid, so that you can't just give them any...	[ "Vehicle Theft Protection Program is an educational initiative in North America started by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) and LoJack Corporation designed to help owners of cars, motorcycles, construction equipment and commercial vehicles better understand how to protect their assets from theft. \n", "...
why are grey hairs more crinkle-ey	Because grey hair has almost no melanin (what makes up the color), gray hair is thinner and more fragile than pigmented hair; it also has a thinner cuticle, so its outer layer is more easily damaged and dehydrated.	[ "In humans, terminal hairs are thick, long and dark, as compared with vellus hair. During puberty, the increase in androgenic hormone levels causes vellus hair to be replaced with terminal hair in certain parts of the human body. These parts will have different levels of sensitivity to androgens, primarily of the t...
Why were the seventies such a dangerous decade?	We've addressed the issue of crime in the seventies in a couple of earlier threads ... while you're waiting for fresh answers to your question, you might like to review [A Serial Killer expert on the podcast 'Accused' claimed that the late 70s saw such a high number of serial killers because they were raised by men wh...	[ "In this decade there were indeed dramatic increase in crime which reached dangerous numbers tragic simultaneously in many \"specialists\", including (but not limited to) terrorism, attempted coups, banditry (kidnapping), smuggling, trafficking in narcotics, robbery, extortion, Mafia robberies, racketeering and of ...
How far south into Africa was Rome (or the Mediterranean world) known in the ancient world?	There's no firm evidence of knowledge regarding Central Africa or West Africa and the Mediterranean; although a lot of African oral histories and folklore call out to the Classical world, they appear to do so as a means of establishing veracity, via elements incorporated from colonial or Islamic education systems and n...	[ "BULLET::::- the whole of Roman North Africa, stretching from Egypt, with the greatest metropolis Alexandria, and Cyrenaica to the east of above Africa proper to the westernmost provinces in Mauretania\n", "Following the conquest of North Africa's Mediterranean coastline by the Roman Empire, the area was integrat...
How did so many civilizations independently develop a 360 day calendar?	I am not sure how to say this in a way that doesn't sound like I'm stating the obvious, but: because there are 365 days in a year. A year is a very visible astronomical period, not just because of the seasons, but in the lengthening and shortening of days. If you're trying to keep time, counting the days between wint...	[ "BULLET::::- Calendars – calendars were developed by indigenous Americans throughout North America, Mesoamerica, and South America. They are known to have been in use since 600 BCE. Some calendars were so precise, that by the 5th century BCE, they were only 19 minutes off.\n", "Some Mesoamerican calendars used a ...
why is alcohol proof not double the % in some countries?	I would make an educated guess that it is something to do with the American 'Imperial' measurement system. Some American measurements differ slightly from the original British Imperial system (since superceded by the metric system). For example your Gallon is about 10-15% less. As India probably uses the original Briti...	[ "In the United Kingdom proof is 1.75 times the number (expressed as a percentage). For example, 40% abv is 80 proof in the US and 70 proof in the UK. However, since 1980, alcohol proof in the UK has been replaced by ABV as a measure of alcohol content.\n", "Alcohol proof is a measure of the content of ethanol (al...
why is there such a huge debate about the drugs used for capital punishment but seemingly no problems with drugs used for death with dignity?	There isn't much debate over the drugs. There is a huge debate over capital punishment, the drugs are just a pawn in that battle.	[ "The death penalty for drug trafficking was made mandatory in 1983. The main reason for this was because drug trafficking was seen as one of the national challenges of the country. Since then, there has been a relaxation on this rule as death penalties may sometimes be substituted with a lighter sentence which incl...
What were apples like in the past?	There are a huge number of apple cultivars. It's a very easy tree to cross-breed, compared to some other fruits, and new varieties are still being created.Though thousands have been developed and lost, some quite early ones are still being grown: the [Lady Apple](_URL_0_) dates back to the early 17th century, if not b...	[ "An apple is a sweet, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (Malus domestica). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus \"Malus\". The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, \"Malus sieversii\", is still found today. Apples have been grown for thous...
Does heat still rise on the ISS?	No, hot gas or liquid rises due to the fact that almost all materials decrease in density when heated and thus become more buoyant. As there is no gravity on the ISS (or, more correctly, because it is in free-fall) hot fluids will not rise. This has the effect of making [fire](_URL_0_) behave quite differently.	[ "The International Space Station (ISS) moderate temperature cooling loop is extended into the HRF to keep the rack at ambient temperature. The Avionics Air Assembly (AAA), which interfaces with the moderate temperature cooling loop, extracts heat from the air in the rack. Each payload can use up to 2000 W of coolin...
why do almost all foods have so much added salt?	Why do almost all PREPACKAGED foods have so much added salt? It's a useful natural preservative which increases shelf life, it often tastes good by itself and is also a flavor enhancer.	[ "Because the salt has a purer flavor due to the lack of metallic or bitter-tasting additives such as iodine, fluoride or dextrose, it is often used in the kitchen instead of additive-containing table salt, so such flavors are not introduced to prepared food. Estimating the amount of salt when salting by hand can al...

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