Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
why organised crime played such a large part in boxing, as opposed to other competitive sports?	Only need to pay one person in boxing to all but guaranteed a thrown match (i.e. purposefully losing). In other sports, you would need to pay more players, increasing your chances of getting caught, let alone increasing the costs of paying them off.	[ "While initially boxing was illegal many fighters and fights were held in secret to avoid arrest the sport soon found advocates in the late 19th century in the muscular Christianity movement, a religious sect that views sport as way of increasing moral and physical character.\n", "The growing popularity of boxing...
how does air get drawn into our lungs by the diaphragm when we inhale? what's physically pulling the air in our nose/mouth?	The chest cavity is a cavity. It's a closed in area that experiences a change in pressure when the diaphragm pulls down. This has a vacuum effect which pulls in air through the nose and down to the lungs. When the diaphragm relaxes, the pressure in the chest cavity pushes the air back out. So, when you inhale, the ...	[ "Air is brought to the alveoli in small doses (called the tidal volume), by breathing in (inhalation) and out (exhalation) through the respiratory airways, a set of relatively narrow and moderately long tubes which start at the nose or mouth and end in the alveoli of the lungs in the chest. Air moves in and out thr...
why do aeroplanes retract their wheels immediately after take off but put them back down so far in advance?	As an aircraft is taking off you want to gain speed. Air is particles, and atoms which create drag and slow any object down. They retract their landing gears because you make the aircraft more streamline and allow it to come to speed faster, due to the less drag. It also saves fuel. If something is more aerodynamic it ...	[ "A subsequent investigation found a simulated engine failure procedure was being conducted, which involved a member of the crew pulling back the throttle lever for engine No. 4 prior to taking off. Investigators found that if the throttle lever was pulled back too far, it would cause the propeller to reverse—a feat...
Why did ancient Egyptians mummify their animals in such great number?	I'm by no means an expert, but an Egyptian Archaeology professor I once had mentioned that there are multiple theories regarding this. The most interesting one was that massive amounts of animals were mummified in order to be a "food source" in the afterlife.	[ "Animal mummification originated in ancient Egypt. They mummified various animals. It was an enormous part of Egyptian culture, not only in their role as food and pets, but also for religious reasons. They were typically mummified for four main purposes—to allow beloved pets to go on to the afterlife, to provide fo...
how can servers let multiple gamers play together in real time?	There's a lot of very low level detail, but it basically comes down to sharing the workload between the servers and the player's local.machine (the "client") and having each connection to the server processed independently of the others so they don't get mixed up. If you're in a game with another person, and they move...	[ "To connect to a server, one can create a server on a LAN, or the Internet. Like in the singleplayer game, the game world is generated randomly and events unfold as time passes, except players can help each other accomplish the tasks at hand.\n", "On the other hand, the server takes the tedious role of managing a...
How were orphans dealt with in Ancient Rome?	I can't go too much into detail with this, but they did have orphanages. Empress Faustina(adoptive mother to Marcus Aurelius) was known for organizing/assisting charities for the poor and orphaned, it was one of the arguments in favor of her deification. After her death, her husbad Antoninus Pius formed an organization...	[ "The Romans formed their first orphanages around 400 AD. Jewish law prescribed care for the widow and the orphan, and Athenian law supported all orphans of those killed in military service until the age of eighteen. Plato (\"Laws\", 927) says: \"Orphans should be placed under the care of public guardians. Men shoul...
how can hdds and ssds delete data faster than they can write?	When you delete something, you're not actually removing it from the drive. Instead, the computer is just telling itself to recognize the space as free and writable. Once you start saving new documents, downloading new music, etc. the "deleted files" (which are still sitting on the drive) will begin to be overwritten.	[ "Flash memory-based SSDs do not need defragmentation. However, because SSDs write pages of data that are much larger than the blocks of data managed by the file system, over time, an SSD's write performance can degrade as the drive becomes full of pages which are partial or no longer needed by the file system. This...
why don’t car insurance and car rental companies typically look deeper than age and sex when determining risk?	I'd say its not really your age that comes in play, but your drivers license date. If your driving without accidents for > 5 years you'll get a rate. > 10 another rate. > 20 another rate (probably getting the best deal possible from this one on). Sex is just idiotic and I'm pretty sure that's not that common these d...	[ "For insurance reasons, some companies stipulate a minimum and/or maximum rental age. In some cases, the minimum age for rental can be as high as 25, even in countries where the minimum legal age to hold a driver's license is much lower, e.g. 14,15,16 or 17 in the United States. It is not uncommon for there to be a...
how does gut bacteria affect weight-loss or gain?	Well, if there were a person who knew a good answer to that he'd be a rich person and probably a nobel price winner in Medicine. What we know is that people have different populations of gut bacteria and recent research seems to indicate that obese people tend to have different gut bacteria than people who manage to ...	[ "Bacterial cell surfaces may be damaged by the acceleration forces attained in centrifuges. Laboratory centrifuges routinely achieve 5000–15000g, a procedure which often kills a considerable portion of microbes, especially if they are in their exponential growth phase.\n", "Studies on the relationship between inf...
why do rainbows split so cleanly into 7 distinct colours? why isn't there a gradient or some sort.	A rainbow does not split "evenly" into 7. The light is diverged into a full spectrum of wavelengths, even outside the visible range (which is around 700-400nm, or red to blue). In short, the colors between red and violet ARE the gradient, a continuous change in wavelengths. The popular drawings of them in pop culture o...	[ "The colour pattern of a rainbow is different from a spectrum, and the colours are less saturated. There is spectral smearing in a rainbow owing to the fact that for any particular wavelength, there is a distribution of exit angles, rather than a single unvarying angle. In addition, a rainbow is a blurred version o...
What were very early WW1 dogfights like?	The first machine gun fired from the air was demonstrated in 1912, when [a Lewis Gun was fired from the air at stationary targets at the U.S. Army Aviation School in Maryland](_URL_0_). I don't know if any weapons were mounted on any aircraft at the outbreak of war, but if not, the situation was quickly remedied. The ...	[ "Dogfights usually occurred when enemy airfields were being attacked. But fierce air battles took place at the beginning of November 1940, during the British offensive against the Italian forts of Gallabat and Metemma, along the Sudan border. The \"Regia Aeronautica\" was dominant in these fights, sometimes even ag...
Question about uranium on earth and the age of the star that produced it.	Did you try a search? I [answered a similar question recently](_URL_0_). The solar system did not form exclusively from one supernova. Also, uranium dating depends on minerals like zircon which initially have uranium but no lead. Whatever lead we find in a zircon must be from decayed uranium, so we can figure out how ...	[ "In nature, uranium is found as uranium-238 (99.2739–99.2752%), uranium-235 (0.7198–0.7202%), and a very small amount of uranium-234 (0.0050–0.0059%). Uranium decays slowly by emitting an alpha particle. The half-life of uranium-238 is about 4.47 billion years and that of uranium-235 is 704 million years, making th...
how can companies own the rights or patent a chemical?	A government must exist that creates laws that say such ownership is legal, then it's sold to that company from the government. Some things are not legal as property in some countries so a patent is different in every single country and a patent in one country does not transfer legally to be a patent in another countr...	[ "Still other patent holders focus on obtaining patents from original inventors and licensing them to companies that have introduced commercial products into the marketplace after the patents were filed. Some of these patent holders, such as Intellectual Ventures, are privately held companies financed by large corpo...
How long can the brain be deprived of oxygen before brain damage occurs?	Do you mean the organism in question has simply stopped breathing or the oxygen stores in the brain have been depleted? If the latter then cells will immediately start to die and necrosis of brain tissue will occur quickly. If you stop breathing then, according to most clinical references, like [this](_URL_0_), it do...	[ "Under normal conditions, humans cannot store much oxygen in the body. Prolonged apnea leads to severe lack of oxygen in the blood circulation. Permanent brain damage can occur after as little as three minutes and death will inevitably ensue after a few more minutes unless ventilation is restored. However, under sp...
every time i purchase something small and say no when asked if i need my receipt, why do tills and pay points print the customers receipt any way, just to be thrown away? could you not tell it to just print the merchant copy by default unless told otherwise?	Some of the new point of sales systems have this option (print, email receipt, or no receipt). But many of the older point of sales systems automatically print the receipt regardless of what the customer wants. The manufacturers certainly can update the software to have this option, but it's not a huge issue for the me...	[ "An indicium is valid if an item is posted by midnight of the working day following the day it was emitted. Refunds are available for unused indicia online within 14 calendar days of purchase, so long as the mail item has not been processed by the mail centre. If an indicium fails to print properly, e.g. due to an ...
bose-einstein condensation	Think of it like this: you've probably heard that particles are waves and waves are particles, right? This is most obvious with photons, they can be treated as small particles when they have high energy (like x rays) or like long waves when they have low energy (like radio waves). However nothing fundamental changes a...	[ "The first \"pure\" Bose–Einstein condensate was created by Eric Cornell, Carl Wieman, and co-workers at JILA on 5 June 1995. They cooled a dilute vapor of approximately two thousand rubidium-87 atoms to below 170 nK using a combination of laser cooling (a technique that won its inventors Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-T...
how does freeway traffic get bogged down if everyone is supposed to be driving 65 mph?	If you brake at 2mph I have to brake at > 2mph in order to not run into you (because I'll hit my brakes after you not simultaneously). The guy behind me has to slow down faster, etc. Eventually someone comes to a complete stop. There are images/animations of traffic in waves. Basically tapping your brakes in de...	[ "Since off-road versions do not have to drive on roads at highway speeds, a typical top speed is just . It is rare for these vehicles to be on highways, so it was very unusual when a pedestrian was accidentally struck and dragged by a yard truck at an intersection in Bellevue, Washington, in February 2014.\n", "O...
How do they test computer microprocessors?	It depends on whether you are talking about design validation testing, or production testing. I'll assume the latter. Production testing of a microprocessor (uP) is typically done at 2 or 3 discrete places in the manufacturing flow: 1. While the die are still in wafer form. Contact is made via very fine ele...	[ "Logic analysis hardware was also divided into \"state\" analyzers and \"timing\" analyzers. The former measured signals in synchronization with a system clock and could, for example, record the states of the address, data and control buses in the user system at each CPU cycle. This data was normally presented as a...
Did Sulla truly intend to restore the traditional workings Roman republic through his dictatorship?	After being named dictator by the interrex L. Flaccus late in 82 BCE, Sulla reinforced the number of senators, which had dwindled sharply from it's traditional 300, and increased that number to 600 by the inclusion of many equestrian-rank persons, especially those of the Italian elite (newly minted as Roman citizens ...	[ "In the decades before Sulla had become dictator, a series of political developments occurred which severely weakened aristocratic control over the Roman Constitution. Sulla's dictatorship constituted one of the most significant developments in the History of the Constitution of the Roman Republic, and it served as...
before capitalism, we has feudalism. what was the economic system like before then? and before that one too? what was it in the time of jesus?	This is a rather hard question, because what capitalism actually is isn't very clear in the first place. And the same is true of feudualism. The terminology you use implies distinct changes between systems when what we tend to see is messiness, across both countries and time. I'm going to speak a lot here about the co...	[ "In effect, feudalism began to lay some of the foundations necessary for the development of mercantilism, a precursor of capitalism. Feudalism was mostly confined to Europe and lasted from the medieval period through the sixteenth century. Feudal manors were almost entirely self-sufficient, and therefore limited th...
Due to the solar wind and the planet's lack of magnetic field, and this issue alone, could Mars ever become biologically habitable?	Yes, without a magnetic field (and combined with lower surface gravity compared to Earth) Mars cannot sustain an atmosphere breathable to people.	[ "In 1965, the Mariner 4 probe discovered that Mars had no global magnetic field that would protect the planet from potentially life-threatening cosmic radiation and solar radiation; observations made in the late 1990s by the Mars Global Surveyor confirmed this discovery. Scientists speculate that the lack of magnet...
Did the Indo-Europeans bring the concept of writing to China and if so what evidence is their?	It's been suggested before, but there's no evidence. The consensus is that Chinese writing developed independently, in China. The evidence for the early evolution of Chinese writing is poor. The first clear evidence of writing - the Shang oracle bones - is already a mature writing system that is ancestral to the moder...	[ "It is still safe to conclude that the earliest known \"undisputed\" examples of true writing in China (that is, symbols used to fully record language rather than isolated meanings) are the oracle bones of the late Shang dynasty, c. 1200 BCE.\n", "There is no known evidence of a writing system among the Yue peopl...
When was the last time a "third candidate" won a state in the US presidential elections?	If you are asking when a non-Republican, non-Democratic party cantidate last won the popular vote (and thus the electoral votes) of a state, that would be George Wallace in 1968. He won five states (all in the South) plus one faithless elector in North Carolina, for a total of 46 electoral votes. ~~No third party can...	[ "Since 1836, no major U.S. party has nominated multiple regional presidential or vice presidential candidates in an election. However, since the Civil War there have been two serious attempts by Southern-based parties to run regional candidates in hopes of denying either of the two major candidates an electoral col...
Why are human so weak in comparison to most animals?	In regards to our upper body strength compared to other apes, we have the ability to recruit smaller numbers of muscle fibers which results in a finer control of movement and greater dexterity. The trade off is less strength. But we are really not that much weaker overall, provided we exercise. Pound for pound we coul...	[ "Inequity aversion in animals is the willingness to sacrifice material pay-offs for the sake of greater equality, something humans tend to do from early age. It manifests itself through negative responses when rewards are not distributed equally between animals. In controlled experiments it has been observed, in va...
why are the temples on the human skull a soft spot?	It allows a baby's skull to deform during birth. The soft spot should close/harden after a few years.	[ "The temple is a juncture where four skull bones fuse together: the frontal, parietal, temporal, and sphenoid. It is located on the side of the head behind the eye between the forehead and the ear. The temporal muscle covers this area and is used during mastication.\n", "The human skull consists of the cranium an...
Considering the rate time passes differs with speed, wouldn't time pass differently in planets with different rotational and orbital speeds?	I assume you're talking about time dilation, in which case the answer is yes but it's largely negligible. Take our solar system. We see it as being, say, 4.568 billion years old. In order for time dilation to cause some other observer to see it being 4.567 billion years old (or, rather, for us to see their clock as hav...	[ "BULLET::::- In computing the instantaneous motion of a planet, the time interval between successive positions of the planets was no greater than a \"truti\", or a of a second, and his measure of velocity was expressed in this infinitesimal unit of time.\n", "Unlike the Earth and Mars, Venus’s structure does not ...
how did mammals survive mass extinction 65 million years ago?	When the asteroid hit, it likely started wildfires all over the world due to secondary impacts, which not only wiped out most of the terrestrial food reserves but also made the air fairly toxic and blocked out a good amount of sunlight causing the non-radioactive equivalent of a nuclear winter. If any large mammals e...	[ "Haynes has studied the disappearance from Earth of its largest animals approximately 11,000–10,900 years ago. Using contrary evidence, he questions the theorists who say that humans killed off the large mammals by predation, as well as the theorists who look to an asteroid impact. Haynes notes that the extinction ...
creationist here, without insulting my intelligence, please explain evolution.	In nature, we observe the following things: 1.) animals reproduce, but they do not reproduce exact copies. children look like their parents, but not exactly. (there is variation ) 2.) these differences between generations tend to be small, but also unpredictable in the near term. So a child is taller or...	[ "Michael Shermer argued in \"Scientific American\" in October 2006 that evolution supports concepts like family values, avoiding lies, fidelity, moral codes and the rule of law. He goes on to suggest that evolution gives more support to the notion of an omnipotent creator, rather than a tinkerer with limitations ba...
why do bananas have fruits but don't have seeds?	[Bananas do have seeds](_URL_0_). However, we don't eat these kind of bananas. The bananas we eat are sterile, thus, don't have seeds.	[ "Although fruit of the wild bananas (\"Musa\" spp.) have large, hard seeds, most edible bananas are seedless. Banana plants are therefore propagated asexually from offshoots. Because these rhizomes are usually free of symptoms even when the plant is infected by \"F. oxysporum \"f. sp.\" cubense\", they are a common...
How were ancient ports/ harbors made?	Great question, and thankfully a question which we have a good answer to. We have a layman's guide to architecture written by the Roman architect Vitruvius. He just so happens to talk about the construction of harbors in [Book 5, Chapter 12](_URL_0_). Ancients would rely mostly on natural features. A good shoreline ...	[ "Whenever ancient civilisations engaged in maritime trade, they tended to develop sea ports. One of the world's oldest known artificial harbors is at Wadi al-Jarf on the Red Sea. Along with the finding of harbor structures, ancient anchors have also been found. \n", "Artificial harbors are frequently built for us...
Effect of the Iroquois on US constitution.	As far it having some sort of effect, yes, but it's significance is often overstated. For example, the Iroquois Great Law of Peace provided for hereditary titles and positions - something that the US Constitution utterly rejected. Probably the biggest issue is a total lack of evidence in the record. Things like the ...	[ "In the 20th century, some writers have credited the Iroquois nations' political confederacy and democratic government as being influences for the development of the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. In October 1988, the U.S. Congress passed Concurrent Resolution 331 to recognize the inf...
why are deep voices relaxing to most people, as opposed to high pitched ones?	No clue if this is "official" or correct, but many times I associate high pitched voices with either panic, anxiety, or whining. My voice gets higher when I'm upset.	[ "Bentley told Roughstock that “You have one ear monitor in, one ear out, and the crowd’s there and your voice feels really great. There’s a certain amount of gravel to it because you’re tired, but you’re all jacked up on whatever you're drinking and adrenaline, and the crowds and the fans are there and there’s this...
Was there an effort by Wehrmacht officers to avoid areas with concentration camps when retreating west in the final years of WWII to avoid their soldiers seeing the atrocities?	I am aware of no such efforts, and given the rampant involvement of those same westward-fleeing Wehrmacht soldiers in war crimes including crimes related to the Holocaust on the Eastern Front, I can’t imagine any commanders would have wasted much time wringing their hands over it. Some of the camps were specifically gu...	[ "As the Red Army advanced west closer to Oświęcim, the Nazis strengthened their defences greatly, hoping to win time to obliterate their crimes at Auschwitz concentration camp. Shapiro's specially trained division of 900 men led this advance, and took heavy losses from the retreating Wehrmacht over the last , reach...
why isn't there any skin colored tattoo ink that can be used to cover up bad tattoos?	Tattoo artist here. Tattoo ink isn't actually "ink", it's pigment in a carrier (usually sterilized water and alcohol), which means that when it goes into the skin, it's staining the skin at a depth where the skin heals (anything above that dies and falls off during the scabbing process). Have you ever stained white f...	[ "No tattoo inks have ever been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration because the FDA \"has not traditionally regulated tattoo inks or the pigments used in them\". Claims made that UV tattoo ink is \"FDA Approved\" when used for tattooing humans appear to be fraudulent. This is confused by the f...
what is a master's degree, bachelor's degree and phd?	A Bachelor's degree is awarded in the completion of an undergraduate education in a university. Usually it involves four years of post-secondary studies. A Master's degree is one step up - it's one or more years of graduate studies _after_ one has received their Bachelor's. Some Master's programs are purely course-bas...	[ "The College of Graduate Studies offers master's degrees in nearly 40 areas, the Specialist in Education degree (Administration and Supervision, Curriculum and Instruction in Educational Leadership, Elementary School Education, and School Psychology), and the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree. MTSU's first Ph.D. ...
How does the total energy in the universe gets closer and closer to zero as the universe expands?	He's wrong. The last sentence simply does not follow from what he says before. Krauss is in fact known to occasionally spout random, oddly incorrect stuff. There are at least a couple of different reasonable ways to define energy in an expanding Universe. The most obvious and useful is as the integral of the 00 compo...	[ "The critical density of the universe is dependent upon the rate at which the universe is still expanding. The universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, but was originally thought to be slowing down. Furthermore, the rate at which this is changing gives the overall mass density of the universe which is denoted ...
What are the titles called after a monarch's name, when are they designated, and by whom?	These are not titles, consider them more like nicknames ( I do not know if there is a specific term in English though ) but they are not titles. As for whom decided what nickname should a monarch be " given " it depends. you pretty much have to research for every individuals how and when X nickname appeared. But gen...	[ "The 1751 warrant confirmed the royal titles or other special designations of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, 27th and 41st regiments. In later years, other regiments were allowed to bear the names of the monarch or other members of the Royal family. Only one regiment, the 33rd Foot, was allowed...
why should i upgrade to windows 10?	You shouldn't. I always give a new OS a few months to allow for compatibility and service packages to patch any existing bugs before I update. Since I really on my computer heavily for work I can't risk bugs and compatibility problems by updating early.	[ "A Windows Update, KB3033055 \"Update for Windows RT 8.1 feature improvement\", was released on September 16, 2015, adding the ability to use a version of Windows 10's Start menu (based upon a version seen in earlier beta builds of the operating system due to technical limitations), but otherwise does not contain a...
How likely is it that the origin of Jews in Eastern Europe arrived with the Khazar State?	Not very. First off, the only serious evidence for it is the genetic study you referenced. It only indicates that there'd be some Khazar origin among Ashkenazi Jews; that they're a mix. And it disagrees with numerous other studies and has some issues, notably the fact that Armenians were selected as the "Khazar cont...	[ "Several scholars have suggested that the Khazars did not disappear after the dissolution of their Empire, but migrated west to eventually form part of the core of the later Ashkenazi Jewish population of Europe. This hypothesis is greeted with scepticism or caution by most scholars. The German Orientalist Karl Neu...
how do lighthouses find their homes?	The most dramatic shots of lighthouses are during the winter months with big wind and waves. The weather is not always like that - construction would be in the gentler spring and summer months where your only problem would be getting the construction material over there, which would have to be by boat. This is that ...	[ "The lighthouse is a tourist attraction and open to the public during summer. Apart from the lighthouse itself, a few keeper houses remain, dating back to 19th century. Facing west, inland, one can see the Swedish Hill with an old lighthouse built during World War II to replace the one destroyed in Hel at the same ...
There used to be Kiev Rus, how and why did Moscow become the new capital? Is it the same peoples?	Kievan Rus began to fragment over time. This happened for a number of reasons, among them odd succession rules (where the oldest member of the ruling familiy became the new Grand Prince as opposed to the oldest son of the previous prince) and geography. Dynastic struggles and civil wars eroded the power of the Grand Pr...	[ "The city of Moscow gradually grew around the Moscow Kremlin, beginning in the 14th century. It was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Moscow (or Muscovy), from 1340 to 1547 and in 1713 renamed as the Tsardom of Russia by Peter I \"the Great\" (when the capital was moved to Saint Petersburg). Moscow was the capital ...
Plausibility of cold fusion?	The whole area is so swamped in sketchiness that it's hard to take any related claim seriously. Ponz and Fleischman, Taleyarkhan, Andrea Rossi, etc. There are, however, many projects aimed at initiating hot fusion that are ongoing.	[ "Cold fusion is a hypothesized type of nuclear reaction that would occur at, or near, room temperature. It would contrast starkly with the \"hot\" fusion that is known to take place naturally within stars and artificially in hydrogen bombs and prototype fusion reactors under immense pressure and at temperatures of ...
During the European conquest of India and Southeast Asia (17th-19th centuries), did European armies fight any major battles against armies equipped with war elephants? If so, how did the elephants perform against gunpowder weapons? How did the European soldiers react to the sight of elephants?	The British did encounter elephants, but they weren't really used in a "combat role" but they were more used as a platform by Indian commanders to look over the battlefield and give orders. Jos Gommans' book "Mughal Warfare" explains the use of elephants in combat really well: > Much earlier, from the eleventh to th...	[ "When the whole record is analyzed, gun-armed European troops met defeat on several occasion by charging spearmen or African infantry using poisoned arrows. In 1684 for example, the spearmen and bowmen of \"Changamire Dombo\" met the Portuguese in open combat at \"Mahungwe\". Firearms inflicted heavy casualties on ...
how do you immigrate to the united states of america?	Since it may be a while before you get a serious answer that goes into real detail, I'll give you what I know: You have to file for citizenship, take a test, pass a background check, and pay substantial fees every step of the way. This is a short explanation, but in reality the process takes many months and often yea...	[ "Today, U.S. law allows several ways for an American citizen to petition for a foreign loved one to immigrate to the United States. Immigrant visas are available for an American to marry his or her spouse in a foreign country and then petition the spouse to immigrate to the United States. Spouses of U.S. citizens r...
why are the kentucky derby, preakness stakes, and belmont stakes the triple crown? what makes them special amongst horse races in general?	All three events have been running for ~ 140 years, and by the early 20th century they were the largest and most prestigious events of their kind, draw the best horses and the largest prizes. It was recognized that it took a very special horse to win all three events, and so eventually the "Triple Crown" term took hol...	[ "The Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes constitute the American Triple Crown of horse racing, and since 1919, only 13 horses have won that award. The Breeders' Cup series of year-end championship races began in 1984, which was well after the racing career of Affirmed, who in 1978 had been the 11th ...
if stalking is a crime,why are paparazzi tolerated?	I'm going to quote the California stalking statute. Other states and countries will be different but this is an example. > (a) Any person who willfully, maliciously, and repeatedly follows or willfully and maliciously harasses another person and who makes a credible threat **with the intent to place that person in r...	[ "Simple obsessional stalking constitutes a majority of all stalking cases, anywhere from 69–79%, and is dominated by males. This form of stalking is generally associated with individuals who have shared previous personal relationships with their victims. However, this is not necessarily the case between a common me...
why is it difficult for a camera to produce an image in poor lighting that i can see very clearly?	Your brain can both remember details of what it saw with better lighting (and add them to what you "see" now) and can collect information over a long period of time to make an image (your eyes transmit images pretty constantly so there's lots of data for the brain to do "noise reduction"). Putting the camera on a trip...	[ "It logically follows that all film photography (now almost in disuse) distorted the image beheld by the eye, among other reasons because the film surface was flat in the manner of the picture plane. Artifactual characteristics of a camera lens may aggravate the distortion. This is demonstrated with a pinhole camer...
how do they get modern military equipment for movies?	There are movie prop companies that purchase military surplus equipment for just this purpose. In some cases they can also get the cooperation of the actual military. If they can't do either one of those, they have their prop department build something that looks close enough to pass or use CGI.	[ "This is a list of some of the modern and historical equipment used by the Indian Army. Most of the army equipment is of foreign design and produced under licence in India but efforts are on to progressively design and manufacture equipment locally. The 41 Indian Ordnance Factories under control of Ordnance Factori...
How did the Spanish manage to explore and establish footholds in the interior of the South and Latin America so early in the 16th century compared to British/U.S. North America which the Western part was mostly uninhabited by Europeans until the mid-19th century?	Forgive me for the brevity of this answer, but they did and didn't (though somewhat did not largely pierce the interior of the south American continent) With regards to Spanish colonization, part of why their empire expanded to the degree that it did was because they essentially "absorbed" already existing native comm...	[ "The interior region bordering Spanish and Portuguese territories in South America was largely unexplored at the end of the 17th century. Dispatched by the Spanish Crown, Jesuits explored and founded eleven settlements in 76 years in the remote Chiquitania – then known as Chiquitos – on the frontier of Spanish Amer...
Why does a firefly light up? Is it a defense mechanism?	Its a chemical reaction in their gut where an enzyme reacts with some chemical, atp and oxygen to produce light. They do this for defensive reasons and for sexual reasons. The more frequently a male firefly emits light the more attractive he is.	[ "Light production in fireflies is due to a type of chemical reaction called bioluminescence. This process occurs in specialized light-emitting organs, usually on a firefly's lower abdomen. The enzyme luciferase acts on the luciferin, in the presence of magnesium ions, ATP, and oxygen to produce light. Gene coding f...
"schroedinger's cat is alive"	Humanity has observed the world and made many conclusions about how things work. There are fundamental rules and laws of nature. Like gravity and mass and velocity. Well, some people realized that the smaller things are, the more our fundamental rules fall apart. On the quantum level, and that is really tiny, things ...	[ "Schrödinger's cat is a thought experiment, sometimes described as a paradox, devised by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. It illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects. The scenario presents a hypothetical cat that may be sim...
What effect does average length of lifespan have on the evolution of an organism over time?	A shorter lifespan gives more generations in a given period. This allows for more chances at incremental improvement in reproductive fitness. This doesn't inherently mean "faster" evolution, it only means more chances at incremental improvement in reproductive fitness. That is to say, it's possible for field mice t...	[ "A large array of genetic modifications have been found to increase lifespan in model organisms such as yeast, nematode worms, fruit flies, and mice. As of 2013, the longest extension of life caused by a single gene manipulation was roughly 50% in mice and 10-fold in nematode worms.\n", "All of the biological org...
if we switched out all of ones organs with bionic organs that do the same thing, would that person be able to live a much longer life than a normal person?	That would depend on the quality of your bionic organs, of course. And it would assume it was one of those organs that would have failed in the first place, otherwise it would be pointless. And everything ages. If it didn't it would be trapped in time.	[ "In Niven's universe, the technology to indefinitely sustain any human organ outside of the body was developed in the early 21st century, greatly simplifying organ transplants. This led to the creation of \"organ banks\" which, in theory, one could use to extend life indefinitely so long as a compatible organ had b...
how do they decide which roads to fix and when? why are roads fixed a different way (black top, total fix)?	Who makes that decision depends on the road. Surface streets are usually managed by the city. Freeways are managed by the state DOT. Roads, especially ones driven on often by large trucks, experience tremendous wear and repairing them is never cheap, and never permanent. It is a constant race to keep roads drivab...	[ "Users are able to add new roads (trails are included here), edit a road or remove it, add a new place, edit a place or remove it and finally add a house number, edit or remove it. In addition, users can edit road details such as speed limits, number of lanes, one- or two-way, type \"open road\", \"tunnel\" or \"br...
why on maps and globes do they show antarctica with ice caps but not the arctic?	Basically, under ice cap of Antarctica there is land, and thus it is counted as a continent. Arctic consists of pure ice, without any land.	[ "While Antarctica does have some small areas of tundra on the northern fringes, the vast majority of the continent is extremely cold and permanently frozen. Because it is climatically isolated from the rest of the Earth, the continent has extreme cold not seen anywhere else, and weather systems rarely penetrate int...
why is mocking the jewish faith so common in popular entertainment?	I just wanted to point out that Matt Stone is Jewish and that South Park rips every religion a new asshole, not just Judaism. They also wrote a massively successful musical called "The Book of Mormon" which completely destroys a particular religion. Can you guess which one? I'll give you a hint: NOT JUDAISM.	[ "In 1982, KABC (AM) in Los Angeles hired Prager to host a talk show on religion every Sunday night, which eventually expanded to a daily talk show. He and Telushkin published another book in 1983, \"Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism\". According to a review in \"Commentary\", the book depicts antisemitism a...
How revolutionary was the creation and introduction of synthetic fibres in textile and clothing production?	It depends on your perspective - you could argue that it was quite revolutionary or not very. On the not very side, the introduction of rayon (not technically synthetic, but still considered man-made) in the 1920s and then nylon in the 1930s had little to no effect on the way that styles progressed. That is, there was...	[ "The first artificial fibre, known as art silk from 1799 onwards, became known as viscose around 1894, and finally rayon in 1924. A similar product known as cellulose acetate was discovered in 1865. Rayon and acetate are both artificial fibres, but not truly synthetic, being made from wood. Although these artificia...
During both World Wars, sniper rifles appeared to be little more than a standard issue rifle with a scope. Is this the case?	This covers a lot of ground. In WWI, sniping was still cohering as a doctrine. The British issued SMLEs with telescopic sights, but many rifles from civilian life, often bolt-action hunting rifles (including Mannlichers and Mausers) with quality telescopic sights, were either contributed or brought along by their owner...	[ "In 1941, the Italian military returned to a long-barrelled infantry rifle once again (slightly shorter than the original M91), the Carcano M91/41. True sniper versions never existed, but in World War I a few rifles were fitted with telescopic lenses and issued for service use (World War II scoped rifles were stric...
if i jump how long must i be above the ground for the earth to noticeably rotate below me.	You won't notice it for two reasons. 1) You are rotating at the same speed as the earth, so when you jump, you will continue to rotate with the Earth rather than staying still. 2) You are being pushed on by the atmosphere in the direction of rotation, so there is no drag to slow you down once in the air. The air arou...	[ "My flights to 217,000 feet [66 km] and 314,750 feet [96 km] were very dramatic in revealing the Earth's curvature ... at my highest altitude I could turn my head through a 180-degree arc and wow! — the Earth is really round. At my peak altitude I was roughly over the Arizona/California border in the area of Las Ve...
Do we have data on Imperial Rome's population growth over time?	Yes, we do have the [census records](_URL_0_) of the Romans. In the first year of the Republic, 508 BC, all Roman lands had a population of 130,000 [highly skeptical number]. In 86 BC (year during Sulla's rise and Marius' death) all Roman lands had a population of 463,000. In 28 BC (a year before Augustus became the...	[ "Modern estimates of the population of the Roman Empire derive from the fundamental work of nineteenth-century historian Karl Julius Beloch. His estimates of the area of different components of the empire, based on planimetric estimates by contemporary military cartographers, have not been challenged by any more mo...
Has a creditor State ever gone to war with a debtor State over the latter's defaulting on its debts?	Short answer: yes. It was much more frequent in the 1800s. In the event of a default, a creditor nation might intervene, capture the customs house, and extract revenue until the debt was repaid. Intervention wasn't exactly going to war, but it's certainly an act of war. I'm on my phone, so I can't give a more in-dep...	[ "Sovereign borrowers such as nation-states generally are not subject to bankruptcy courts in their own jurisdiction, and thus may be able to default without legal consequences. One example is Greece, which defaulted on an IMF loan in 2015. In such cases, the defaulting country and the creditor are more likely to re...
Why is it okay to take acetaminophen while pregnant, but taking ibuprofen can seriously harm your baby?	Acetaminophen is currently believed to be safe and is pregnancy category B in all trimesters. The current data about ADHD and asthma correlated to acetaminophen is extremely weak and spotty. Ibuprofen on the other hand is implicated in birth defects (teratogenicity) specifically of the developing kidney as it causes ...	[ "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notes that improper dosing is one of the biggest problems in giving acetaminophen (paracetamol) to children. The effectiveness of acetaminophen alone as an antipyretic in children is uncertain, with some evidence showing it is no better than physical methods. Therapies i...
why can't we create a suit or apparatus that allows us to fly like birds?	Extremely unlikely. For starters, our bodies are just too heavy. Birds evolved for flight by reducing their mass and streamlining efficiency in their systems. The term 'hollow bones' is a bit of a misnomer (they're not really hollow) but it reflects how much lighter their bones are. Their musculature is also more resil...	[ "For smaller craft, the increasing sophistication of smart control systems is being combined with flexible technologies to create articulated wings which mimic the natural flexing of birds' wings in flight. It is now even practicable to use a bird-like flapping action to provide thrust as an ornithopter. The UTIAS ...
Does an insects DNA change when it goes through metamorphosis?	Short answer: no, there's no change in the DNA, nor is it exactly that it's "finally being expressed". Long-ish answer: the genotype of the individual will remain the same, and genetically the pre-metamorphosis insect and the post-metamorphosis insect are exactly the same. Intuitively that seems crazy, I know. If you...	[ "More recently, an increased focus on the hormonal control of insect metamorphosis has helped resolve some of the evolutionary links between hemi- and holometabolan groups. In particular, the orchestration of the juvenile hormone (JH) and ecdysteroids in molting and metamorphosis processes has received much attenti...
why did sparta train their males at the ages of six years old, when other greek states waited at least until late teens?	The entire society of Sparta was focused on creating the perfect soldier. Spartan men did not have trades, they did not plant crops, they did not really craft anything either. Those things were done by the slaves they took in battle. Spartan training started early because it was what Spartan life was about. You trained...	[ "When male Spartans began military training at age seven, they would enter the \"agoge\" system. The \"agoge\" was designed to encourage discipline and physical toughness and to emphasize the importance of the Spartan state. Boys lived in communal messes and, according to Xenophon, whose sons attended the \"agoge\"...
why are radio commercials arranged into large blocks instead of being spaced out?	Because large radios have more commercials than the smaller/local radios, in my country law is that in one hour you can have 12 minutes of comercials. So, it is stupid split to play one song/one commercial,perhaps is better to play 3 songs and then 3 commercials, or maybe more, in that 12 minutes you can have like 36 c...	[ "They exist to allow network television stations to send content to smaller local stations. The shows contain no commercials, just a small gap of blank video to allow the local station to insert their own. The exception for this is for \"barter\" syndicated programming, where only the commercials required to be sho...
why do roosters have whole a different name than chickens?	Chicken is the non-gendered name for the species, like "dog" or "human". Male chicken is rooster/cockerel/cock. Female chicken is hen. Hen is such a nice short word. Why we don't use it more is beyond me.	[ "Roosters can usually be differentiated from hens by their striking plumage of long flowing tails and shiny, pointed feathers on their necks (\"hackles\") and backs (\"saddle\"), which are typically of brighter, bolder colours than those of females of the same breed. However, in some breeds, such as the Sebright ch...
Here's a physics puzzler: question about wine glass notes	Here is a great explanation: _URL_0_ TL;DR: As more water is added, the vibration of the glass is going to slow down therefore producing a lower note.	[ "Wine glasses are a type of glass stemware that are used to drink and taste wine from. Selection of a particular wine glass for a wine style is important, as the glass shape can influence its perception.\n", "The effect of glass shape on the taste of wine has not been demonstrated by any scientific study and rema...
A week in Rome	First off, congratulations on getting married! I have 3 recommendations for less well-known places to visit in Rome: 1. Musei Centrale Montemartini. The collection is mainly sculpture and the building is an old power plant, so the contrast between the marble statues and the industrial machinery is amazing. Honestly, ...	[ "The term \"week\" is sometimes expanded to refer to other time units comprising a few days, such as the nundinal cycle of the ancient Roman calendar, the \"work week\", or \"school week\" referring only to the days spent on those activities.\n", "Since local habits varied across the empire, local Roman habits al...
if there is a 'speed limit' to how fast objects can cool down or heat up.	Typically, cooling is more of a passive process where warming is an active process. That's why drinking room temperature water or warm water is more efficient on a hot day than drinking cold water. You conserve energy with room temperature water. Your body has to work to warm the cold water up.	[ "At high speeds through the air, the object's kinetic energy is converted to heat through compression and friction. At lower speed, the object will lose heat to the air through which it is passing, if the air is cooler. The combined temperature effect of heat from the air and from passage through it is called the s...
the plot(s) of "silent hill".	_Edit: Spelling and formatting_ SILENT HILL FOR FIVE YEAR OLDS Somewhere in America, there is a lake, and a town right next to it. It's a very beautiful town and people always liked to go there. At some point, people noticed that many of the people that came there were bad people who did bad things. There was a ...	[ " is a journalist who investigates the Order of Silent Hill. He was the previous occupant of Room 302, whom Henry takes over after his death. Joseph's research about the Order eventually led him to write an exposé about the Wish House orphanage, which he tried to link with the murders of serial killer Walter Sulliv...
Will two quantum entangled particles constantly switch between states until we measure them, or are their spin already determined at the moment they get entangled?	Neither. It's not the second because quantum mechanics violates [Bell's inequalities](_URL_0_). Basically, this means that when spins are entangled, you can never replicate the statistical predictions of quantum mechanics for that system by instead considering a system where the spins are determined at the start but a...	[ "which involves superposition of joint spin states for two particles with spin . As suggested by the previous equation, the singlet state satisfies the property that if the particles' spins are measured along the same direction then either the spin of the first particle is observed up and the spin of the second par...
Looking for an Academic Holy Bible	Most of my Classics courses used the Oxford Study Bible, which I found to be rather useful.	[ "One of the leading biblical scholars in the United States, he is the author of \"The Old Testament: A Historical and Literary Introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures\", editor of \"The New Oxford Annotated Bible\", \"The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible\", and Oxford Biblical Studies Online, and a contr...
Why do we call "Anglo-Saxon" to things influenced by the English when there was a much higher "Anglo-Norman" influence in Great Britain after William the Conqueror took over"	Linda Colley wrote a book called "Britons: Forging the Nation, 1707-1837" that examines how British identity was formed after the Act of Union (the act that united Wales and Scotland with England). Her answer to the question of how British identity was formed out of these disparate local identities is that several wars...	[ "The influence of Anglo-Norman was very asymmetric: very little influence from English was carried over into the continental possessions of the Anglo-Norman kings. Some administrative terms survived in some parts of mainland Normandy: \"forlenc\" (from \"furrow\", compare \"furlong\") in the Cotentin Peninsula and ...
Why do some satellites have strange orbit paths around the earth?	[GPS satellite orbits](_URL_1_) are nearly circular, have a declination of 55 degrees, and a period of 12 sidereal hours, so their ground tracks will look very regular. This type of orbit makes it much easier to do the kind of calculations required for precise positioning. The XMM-Newton's orbit is highly elliptical, ...	[ "Because a satellite in an eccentric orbit moves faster near perigee and slower near apogee, it is possible for a satellite to track eastward during part of its orbit and westward during another part. This phenomenon allows for ground tracks which cross over themselves, as in the geosynchronous and Molniya orbits d...
What was the rationale behind making suicide punishable with the death penalty? Was anybody ever put to death for attempting suicide?	I'd have to say that a considerable part of the rationale behind it would be that the Christian church would excommunicate anyone who attempted to commit suicide. In the 5th century, St. Augustine, in his The City of God, condemned suicide due to his interpretation of the sixth commandment: > God's command "Thou sh...	[ "In 18th-century Denmark, people wishing to commit suicide would sometimes commit murder in order to receive the death penalty. They believed murder followed by repentance would allow them to end their life while avoiding damnation.\n", "For much of history, people that attempted suicide were seen as violating la...
what is walmart's "great value" brand, and should we be concerned that it is hurting other, smaller businesses?	Every grocery store has their own generic/store-brand products. This is not unique to Walmart. If you're worried about the negative social consequences of Walmart, there's tons of bigger issues than having store brand products. Their low wages forcing workers to get on public assistance, their aggressive pricing for...	[ "BULLET::::- Great Value: The brand Great Value is Walmart's international brand, and it locally sells a range of everyday-use products like flour, staples, cereals, spices, tea, cold beverages, sodas, jams, ketchups, dry fruits, corn flakes, Indian snacks, dish-wash bars, detergents, toilet cleaners, and floor & g...
What tells a computer to draw graphics with the GPU instead of the CPU?	Game developers almost always make use of some kind of API to control the GPU. The two most common ones for personal computers are Direct3D and OpenGL. These APIs provide the means to compose and transmit instructions to the GPU, as well as retrieve data from the GPU. The GPU is really like a separate computer, and ...	[ "The GPU, or graphics processing unit, is the unit that allows the graphics card to function. It performs a large amount of the work given to the card. The majority of video playback on a computer is controlled by the GPU. Once again, a GPU can be either integrated or dedicated.\n", "The graphics processor of the...
Can dopamine be artificially entered into someones brain to make them feel rewarded for something they dont like?	That's actually part of dopamine's role in the brain. Extrinsic motivation, delay gratification, dopamine often spikes if you anticipate some action will lead to some sort of reward in the future, so that you kinda "enjoy" doing the action and are motivated to do it, even if you don't actually enjoy the action. The...	[ "Dopamine is one of the more known neuromodulators involved in procedural memory. Evidence suggests that it may influence neural plasticity in memory systems by adapting brain processing when the environment is changing and an individual is then forced to make a behavioural choice or series of rapid decisions. It i...
the panama papers	When you get a quarter you put it in the piggy bank. The piggy bank is on a shelf in your closet. Your mom knows this and she checks on it every once in a while, so she knows when you put more money in or spend it. Now one day, you might decide "I don't want mom to look at my money." So you go over to Johnny's house ...	[ "The Panama Papers are 11.5 million leaked documents that detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. The documents, some dating back to the 1970s, were created by, and taken from, Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, and were leaked in 20...
why is voting still done with (mostly) paper ballots?	Electronic voting is terrible because it just makes it easier to cheat. If you use papers, it requires a lot of effort to change even a small amount of votes. If it's in a computer you have to trust the voting machines, and the central system that counts them all up. So you are both at risk of corruption and hacking. ...	[ "However, the system was not ready for the election. Therefore, voters still voted on paper by punching a hole in one of the two candidates' photograph, number, or name. The ballots were then collected and counted at the village level, then city/regency level, province level, and finally the national level.\n", "...
What's wrong with my twin prime conjecture proof?	You have no way of knowing that x-1 and x+1 are primes. All you know is that they are divisible by primes not on your original list. For example: 2 x 3 x 5 x 7=210 210-1 =209 = 11 x 19	[ "The conjecture can be justified (but not proven) by assuming that 1 / ln \"t\" describes the density function of the prime distribution, an assumption suggested by the prime number theorem and would imply the twin prime conjecture, but remains unresolved.\n", "If Legendre's conjecture is true, the gap between an...
The Venus figurines of the Upper Paleolithic are known for their voluptuousness to the point of looking obese. During this period, however, there is almost no way someone could have sustained such a large amount of body fat. How, then, did the idea/inspiration for these figurines come about?	I'm curious as to why you say nobody from that time period coulf maintain that level of body fat.	[ "The first sculptural representations of the human body 20,000–35,000 years ago depict obese females. Some attribute the Venus figurines to the tendency to emphasize fertility while others feel they represent \"fatness\" in the people of the time. Corpulence is, however, absent in both Greek and Roman art, probably...
In the 1990's the CIA was caught bringing cocaine to streets of LA with the help of the LAPD What was the CIA's motive?	The sources from your Wikipedia page are dubious at best. Gary Webb, author of Dark Alliance, the evidence most often cited by proponents of the CIA's role in the crack trade, actually backpedaled the conspiratorial tone of his thesis: **''I never believed, and never wrote, that there was a grand C.I.A. conspiracy be...	[ "The CIA, in spite of objections from the Drug Enforcement Administration, in 1990 allowed at least one ton of nearly pure cocaine to be shipped into Miami International Airport. The CIA claimed to have done this as a way of gathering information about Colombian drug cartels. But the cocaine ended up being sold on ...
Why didn't the French make super thick long and wide shields to stop the English Longbow from piercing their metal armour?	They did. Quite often. The reason why knights didn't use them, however, is twofold: 1) Size and weight. A [pavise](_URL_0_) (which is what you're describing) is a big, heavy thing to lug about. They were typically employed by crossbowmen and archers, in two-man teams, who would use them in sieges as portable walls, ef...	[ "The English longbow was greatly responsible for making England a major military power in the late medieval period, the English had introduced this deadly longbow during the Battle of Crecy. King Edward III was ravaging the countryside during the invasion of France, King Philip VI of France intercepted the English ...
If I place two bowls of water in a freezer and one bowl is stagnant and the other is being stirred, will both bodies of water become frozen at same or different rates?	Mixing generally enhances crystal nucleation rates by increasing the number of critical concentration fluctuations. So I would say the stirred bowl will freeze quicker. Why don't you try the experiment yourself and report back your findings.	[ "Freezing a water-based solution converts all bulk water into ice crystals, but water associated with solutes—in the case of a soup stock, gelatin, fat, and flavor compounds—remains unfrozen to much lower temperatures; in practice, the freezing temperature of this associated water is well below the reach of convent...
My Father says you shouldn't drink water melted from snow, because it will just make you thirstier as it lacks minerals. Is he right?	No, minerals in water have nothing to do with whether it slakes your thirst or not. Rainwater is also lacking in minerals, btw. The only problem with eating snow, or drinking melted snow, is if you do so in the weeks following an above-ground nuclear explosion. Then you might get some strontium-90 into your bones, esp...	[ "Like its close relative, the domesticated Bactrian camel, it is one of the few mammals able to eat snow to provide itself with liquids in the winter. While the legend that camels store water in their stomachs is a misconception, they cannot survive without water for long periods but do have the capacity to conserv...
how does a tire stay on the rim in pretty heavy conditions? (burnout, high cornering speed etc.) what exactly is holding it steady on the rim?	Each edge of the tire contains a thick metal wire inside that sets in a special "lip" in the edge of the tire. [The first diagram in this page sums it up nicely.](_URL_0_)	[ "Air pressure within a tire forces its beads against the wheel rim and normally ensures that the tire and rim rotate as a single unit. In general automotive situations, a tire's air pressure is sufficient to withstand dislodging and rim-slip forces experienced during, respectively, hard cornering and acceleration (...
How did infantry training change when semi-automatic rifles became standard issue?	To start off with, your question is a vast oversimplification of firearms technology due to the nature of how various armies adopted and used semi-automatic designs over time. The [Gatling Gun](_URL_14_) actually predates the modern cartridge design that we primarily use and it is technically a semi-automatic rifle (a...	[ "By 1940, it became apparent that some form of a semi-automatic rifle, with a higher rate of fire than existing bolt-action models, was necessary to improve the infantry's combat efficiency. The \"Wehrmacht\" issued a specification to various manufacturers, and both Mauser and Walther submitted prototypes that were...
why are concert volumes so high?	Concerts are usually too loud anyway, like hearing damaging loud. SOME people genuinely think louder=better However, the sound has to reach everyone in attendance. This is a problem if you only have 1 set of speakers and a large room but not so much if you have a rig set up with lots of speakers in different location...	[ "The main Concert hall for 3,500 seats is one of the biggest of its kind and is capable of hosting a multitude of different events, from classical to pop music, ballet and conferences thanks to its acoustic flexibility. This flexibility is produced by a system of acoustic curtains and a special false ceiling design...
Did inhabitants of European empires ever enage in tourism to the colonies?	Tourism as it is defined now did not really exist during the era of the colonies. The closet thing during that era would be the "grand tour" which was a rite of passage for wealthy young English students. They would make a tour/pilgrimage to important centers of classic history as a way of becoming cultured and as ...	[ "Modern tourism can be traced to what was known as the Grand Tour, which was a traditional trip around Europe (especially Germany and Italy), undertaken by mainly upper-class European young men of means, mainly from Western and Northern European countries. In 1624, young Prince of Poland, Ladislaus Sigismund Vasa, ...
where the hell do people in countries like india/afghanistan get buckets of acid to throw on people?	You can buy some pretty strong acids like hydrochloric acid over the counter and online. I'm not sure what is being used in these attacks but I'm sure it's readily available for purchase without regulation.	[ "According to researchers and activists, countries typically associated with acid assault include Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, China, United Kingdom, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. However, acid attacks have been reported in countries around the world, including:\n", ...
How did the Hubble take a 10 day exposure photo while orbiting the planet?	This is accomplished by using high-performance gyroscopes and reaction-wheels. More information can be found here: _URL_1_ _URL_0_	[ "The main purpose of this mission was to deploy Hubble. It was designed to operate above the Earth's turbulent and obscuring atmosphere to observe celestial objects at ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared wavelengths. The Hubble mission was a joint NASA-ESA effort going back to the late 1970s. The rest of the mis...
Are there animals whose evolutionary lineage we are unsure of?	How much uncertainty are we talking about here? At least in plants, we don’t have very good resolution on most branches of the tree of life once you get down to species level, and even genus level is pretty fuzzy in some families. I can’t speak to animals, though, and they tend to lack the weirdass reproductive opti...	[ "The therapsid lineage that led to mammals went through a series of stages, beginning with animals that were very like their pelycosaur ancestors and ending with some that could easily be mistaken for mammals:\n", "In many cases, the extinct wild type ancestors of a given species are known only through skeletons ...
how can a car run over a hand and not break any bones	As /u/stylz05 said, if the car has 4 wheels then only about 500 pounds would be on your hand. While that is the weight of a couple of big guys, it's possible to survive that without bones breaking. Helping that, tires are filled with air and made out of rubber, so they're slightly squishy. That would allow the tire to ...	[ "One's own car cannot be damaged by crashes in 10-lap or 30-lap races. In the longer races, excessively hard contact with a wall, fence or another car can cause wheel and/or engine damage. It is still possible to recover to the pits after damaging one front wheel, though the car is more difficult to control. Destru...
how does gas get " trapped" in your abdomen?	Like, in your GI tract? It generally gets there by you swallowing air or the bacteria in your gut releasing gas through breaking down your food.	[ "If a peptic ulcer perforates, air will leak from the inside of the gastrointestinal tract (which always contains some air) to the peritoneal cavity (which normally never contains air). This leads to \"free gas\" within the peritoneal cavity. If the person stands erect, as when having a chest X-ray, the gas will fl...
how does my dog know when something is wrong with me?	When the answer that you want Is in the question that you state Come what may, come what may Coheed and Cambria - Blood Red Summer	[ "An \"alert\" by an scenting dog can be distinct from an \"indication\" (although for a dog that uses a natural indication, the two may not be distinguishable). Both involve being able to read the dog's behavior. Alerts are instances where an scenting dog detects human scent but has not located the subject or sourc...
why do e-cigs need to use propylene glycol or vegetable glycerin? why can't they just emit water vapor?	The nicotine and flavorings that go into it are not water soluable and it wouldn't mix. Also water boils at 212F and inhaling steam would burn you pretty badly. It's also hard to get water really pure, and it's possible that mineral deposits in the water could make their way into your lungs and have no way to leave. ...	[ "LiquiGlide is a platform technology which creates slippery, liquid-impregnated surfaces that was developed at the Varanasi Research Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Prof. Kripa Varanasi and his team of students and post doctorals Dave Smith, Rajeev Dhiman, Adam Paxson, Brian Solomon, and Chris Lov...
why is data on a phone not recoverable after a factory reset the same way data on a pc is recoverable after deletion?	Very simply put, phones use solid state memory. It deletes data differently. A disk drive as is in a computer just changes the pointer. Its like telling your debt collectors that you dont live at a house anymore by changing the mailing address. Its still there but all the people mailing you would get their mail sent b...	[ "Sometimes, data present in the physical drives (Internal/External Hard disk, Pen Drive, etc.) gets lost, deleted and formatted due to circumstances like virus attack, accidental deletion or accidental use of SHIFT+DELETE. In these cases, data recovery software are used to recover/restore the data files.\n", "Per...
How do scientists manipulate microscopic situations?	I don't have access to the paper, so I'll have to guess. Most likely these pillars were created by a fairly conventional silicon micro-fabrication process. The scale bar in the SEM image (showing the pillars) is 1 micron, so these are reasonably large features. This pattern could easily have been produced using photo-l...	[ "Another common requirement is to take a series of images at a fixed position, but at different focal depths. Since most microscopic samples are essentially transparent, and the depth of field of the focused sample is exceptionally narrow, it is possible to capture images \"through\" a three-dimensional object usin...

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