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why do iowa and new hampshire vote before everyone else? wouldn't it make sense to all vote at once?	Each state gas to decide its primary election dates. These are not general elections. They serve to whittle the field down. This also allows large contributors to focus on fewer candidates before the general election.	[ "In the United States, Iowa and New Hampshire have drawn attention every four years because they hold the first caucus and primary election, respectively, and often give a candidate the momentum to win their party's nomination.\n", "In the United States, Iowa and New Hampshire have drawn attention every four year...
why does such a small difference in the amount of co2 in the atmosphere make such a large impact on temperatures?	Why do you think its a small increase in C02? there has been about a 40% increase in C02 PPM over the past 100 years and it shows no signs of slowing down. At this rate we will probably be at double the C02 in the atmosphere before the end of the century.	[ "The quick increment in the centralization of air CO2 proceeded with anthropogenic emanations of this gas is the fundamental factor driving worldwide environmental change. Due to many different causes global temperatures are to increase by 3-5 degrees celsius or 5.4 - 9 degrees fahrenheit within this century.\n", ...
Israeli enforcement of laws in the occupied territories	Not sure this is the right subreddit for that sort of question, but I'm Israeli so I can tell you that sometimes some Israeli laws - especially those relating to the West Bank, are somewhat based on old Ottoman or British laws. I cannot tell you to what extent but I think the statement you heard is very generalized. I...	[ "According to the legal framework of international law, a local population under occupation should continue to be bound by its own penal laws and tried in its own courts. However, under security provisions, local laws can be suspended by the occupying power and replaced with military orders enforced by military cou...
why is an icebergs ice a pure source of "freshwater" when the ocean is full of salt?	Icebergs are not frozen ocean. Icebergs are created from snow that fell on land, was pressed down to make glaciers, which flowed down to the sea, where they started floating and broke off.	[ "Changes in Antarctic sea ice are also important because of implications for atmospheric and oceanic circulation. When sea ice forms, it rejects salt (ocean water is saline but sea ice is largely fresh) so dense salty water is formed which sinks and plays a key role in formation of Antarctic Bottom Water.\n", "Se...
In the Ancient and Medieval worlds, what excuses did invaders use to justify conquering people (especially people like Napoleon, Alexander, and Caesar)?	I talked [here](_URL_0_) about the English justification in literature of the invasion of Ireland in the 1170s. The whole affair was a brutally opportunistic land-grab by members of the aristocracy acting in their own interests, but was couched in language of Christian salvation and national duty. Gerald of Wales' pol...	[ "[I]t is very unusual, even in cases of conquest, for the conqueror to do more than to displace the sovereign and assume dominion over the country. The modern usage of nations, which has become law, would be violated; that sense of justice and of right which is acknowledged and felt by the whole civilized world wou...
How can baryons consisting of the same type of quarks have different masses?	The same reason why Hydrogen has multiple energy levels in spite of the different energy states corresponding to the same two particles (a bound proton and electron). The wavefunction of the same three bound quarks can take on multiple excited configurations - the lowest energy for uud is the proton, the next highest i...	[ "Baryons are hadrons containing an odd number of valence quarks (at least 3). Most well known baryons such as the proton and neutron have three valence quarks, but pentaquarks with five quarks – three quarks of different colors, and also one extra quark-antiquark pair – have also been proven to exist. Because baryo...
What language is this book, what is it about, how old?	The book is apparently entitled Fürûkü'l-Usûl (Ottoman transliteration), which could mean a variety of things but perhaps means something like "The Fundamental Differences." Googling that name links me to an Arabic publication attributing it to Ibn Kemal Pasha, i.e. Kemalpaşazade, a Şeyhülislâm of the Ottoman Empir...	[ "The book has been published in many languages, including English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Greek, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Portuguese (Brazilian and Portuguese editions), Romanian, Hungarian, French, Spanish, Slovene, Croatian, Turkish, Estonian, and Polish.\n", "The book was first published by Profile Books i...
if casinos are illegal, why are they bound by other laws?	What makes you think gambling is illegal in the US? It is legal under Federal Law (hence why the Indian Reservations are clear since they are under Federal Law). Vegas and Atlantic City are just two dens of sin and vice.	[ "In the United States, illegal gambling is a federal crime if it is done as a business. However, each of its states has its own laws regarding the regulation or prohibition of gambling. States that permit such gaming usually have a gaming control board established to oversee the regulation of the industry, such as ...
Are there any viruses or bacterial infections that make us feel better? If not, why?	You should read on the history of the mitochondria in our cells. They actually have a different genome than what exists in our nucleus. A number of studies of migratory patterns of Paleolithic man and Neanderthals have been performed through the analysis mitochondrial DNA. Mitochondria really are fascinating; and are...	[ "Health care providers distinguish bacterial and viral sinusitis by watchful waiting. If a person has had sinusitis for fewer than 10 days without the symptoms becoming worse, then the infection is presumed to be viral. When symptoms last more than 10 days or get worse in that time, then the infection is considered...
Prior to the adoption of trench warfare after the Battles of the Frontiers and then Marne, how were Machine Guns used?	Great question. My particular specialty is the Austro-Hungarian army, so I’ll focus on their use of machine guns in 1914. I’ll be very interested to see whether specialists on the other armies can compare or contrast their armies’ use of MGs. Machine guns were thought of very differently at the beginning of the First...	[ "The introduction of trench warfare in the First World War changed tactics substantially, and by 1916 Thompson was experimenting again with automatic small arms, this time attempting to design a weapon that troops could use to clear an enemy trench—what he called a \"trench broom.\" Thompson studied several designs...
Who built the NYC subway? Private companies? The City of New York? MTA?	Much of the system was built by two private companies, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT, later Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, BMT). The first subway line opened in 1904, but there had been elevated rapid transit lines since the 1870s, and those lines were...	[ "The NYCTA, a public authority presided over by New York City, was created in 1953 to take over subway, bus, and streetcar operations from the city. The NYCTA was under control of the state-level MTA in 1968. Soon after the MTA took control of the subway, New York City entered a fiscal crisis. It closed many elevat...
Where do all the protons go when a neutron star is formed? Or is a better question where did all the neutrons come from?	The star consists of atoms, which contain electrons, protons, and neutrons. At the high density and pressure involved in neutron star formation, you get the reaction proton+electron -- > neutron + neutrino This is where the protons and electrons go. You can learn more about neutron stars (including their formatio...	[ "Neutron stars form as remnants of massive stars after a supernova event. Unlike their progenitor star, neutron stars do not consist of a gaseous plasma. Rather, the intense gravitational attraction of the compact mass overcomes the electron degeneracy pressure and causes electron capture to occur within the star. ...
how all of the gold in the world can fit in less than four olympic sized swimming pools?	I believe it is because the gold used in jewelry and coinage is alloyed with other metals to strengthen it, which makes for a lower percentage of gold. Also, olympic-sized pools are huuuuge	[ "A swimming pool must be 50 m long by 21 m wide and 1.8 m deep, i.e. an Olympic-size swimming pool (also known as a long course pool) suitable for the holding of swimming races for either the Olympic Games and a FINA world championships. The International Rules do not permit the use of 25m length pools (known as sh...
Why was high noon the favored time for gun fights in the old west.	Hate to rip out the rug from a fellow Old West fan, but there really isn't much truth at all to the concept of "Duel at high-noon" (Or at least not to the degree that we we want!) . I can't speak for other time-periods though. Your stated reasons are probably why that became the common trope though. The few duels I'...	[ "The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a 30-second shootout between lawmen and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cowboys that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Arizona Territory. It is generally regarded as the most famous shootout in the history of t...
i’d like to hear some simple explanations of the bible. i’d like to hear from history buffs or christians as well as people with other religions or none at all.	The Bible is a compilation of various books, letters, and texts created over a period of several hundred years. Some dating possibly as far back as the 8th century BC but most from a period of 500BC to 300BC and 0AD to 100AD. The Old testament is older Jewish texts and histories, many of which were compiled in a time ...	[ "Regarding the importance of Biblical study, Ehrman says in the preface, \"This kind of information is relevant not only to scholars like me, who devote their lives to serious research, but also to everyone who is interested in the Bible -- whether they personally consider themselves believers or not. In my opinion...
How can the corona of the sun be hotter than the surface?	The top comment is not correct. Nobody knows how the corona is heated. It is an excellent question to ask but no one can answer you for certain. The comment suggest flares but they have been ruled out. They simply do not provide the energy that is needed where it is needed; they are too occasional and they are limited...	[ "The chromosphere, transition region, and corona are much hotter than the surface of the Sun. The reason is not well understood, but evidence suggests that Alfvén waves may have enough energy to heat the corona.\n", "The corona is the next layer of the Sun. The low corona, near the surface of the Sun, has a parti...
why can't a coup happen?	There are so many reasons a military coup could never happen in the USA. First of which is US pride in its self for its democratic ideals! If a military leader tried to take power their troops certainly wouldn't obey them and others would actively fight them. The US population all have access to the media, which is wel...	[ "A coup d'état (; ), also known as a putsch (German:), a golpe de Estado (Spanish/Portuguese), or simply as a coup, means the overthrow of an existing government; typically, this refers to an illegal, unconstitutional seizure of power by a dictator, the military, or a political faction.\n", "A coup utilizes polit...
how did people talk to people on different continents back when we only had land lines?	There are lots of physical telephone cables under the Atlantic and elsewhere. These trace their history back to underwater telegraph cables that were laid in Victorian times. [Map of Atlantic cables 1858](_URL_0_) The British Empire worldwide was similarly connected in this era. More recently (post WW2) saw the dev...	[ "Native Americans in the United States have developed several original systems of communication, both in Pre-Columbian times, and later as a response to European influences. For example, the Iroquois, living around the Great Lakes and extending east and north, used strings or belts called \"wampum\" that served a d...
Resonance a consequence of quantum theory?	Resonance is a quantum thing that chemists sort-of discovered before quantum mechanics existed. Kekulé postulated that the two structures of benzene 'oscillated' back and forth, because he couldn't reconcile the valency of carbon (which is what they called single/double bonds then) with the fact that all the carbon ato...	[ "Resonance has a deeper significance in the mathematical formalism of valence bond theory (VB). Quantum mechanics requires that the wavefunction of a molecule obeys its observed symmetry. If a single contributing structure does not achieve this, resonance is invoked.\n", "In quantum mechanics, resonance occurs in...
why can events occurring before the administration of general anesthesia be erased from memory?	Your brain isn't like a recorder that instantly writes your experiences into a persistent format. It sorts, categorizes, prioritizes, and even edits your experiences as it makes memories. That takes a certain amount of time, and getting hit with a syringe full of night-night juice interrupts the process.	[ "Anesthesia – pharmacologically induced and reversible state of amnesia, analgesia, loss of responsiveness, loss of skeletal muscle reflexes or decreased sympathetic nervous system, or all simultaneously. This allows patients to undergo surgery and other procedures without the distress and pain they would otherwise...
How do we still have radioactive particles on earth despite the short length of their half lives and the relatively long time they have been on earth?	Yes, carbon-14 is constantly being produced on Earth, for example by nuclear reactions in the atmosphere caused by cosmic rays.	[ "Because some radioactive species have half-lives longer than one million years, even very low container leakage and radionuclide migration rates must be taken into account. Moreover, it may require more than one half-life until some nuclear materials lose enough radioactivity to cease being lethal to living things...
what is 'liberalism' or 'being a liberal' in the us and why is it considered bad or a derogatory term by some?	If you were five I would tell you to compare politics to your school. Liberals would be the children who want the teacher to help them and their classmates with "everything" Conservatives would be the children who want to do everything on their own with no teacher interaction There are positives and negatives to bot...	[ "In the United Kingdom, the word \"liberalism\" can have any of several meanings. Scholars use the term to refer to \"classical liberalism\"; the term also can mean \"economic liberalism\", \"social liberalism\" or \"political liberalism\"; it can simply refer to the politics of the Liberal Democrat party; it can o...
the australian pm switcheroo	Tony abbot was probably one of the most corrupt politicians in control of a first world country. He actively sold Austrailias wellbeing and prosperity to the highest bitter (removed protections on the great barrier reef, dismantled public health orginizations), as well as openly denying global warming for a profit (dis...	[ "Rudd's 2007 policy included the phasing out of Australian Workplace Agreements over a period of up to five years, the establishment of a simpler awards system as a safety net, the restoration of unfair dismissal laws for companies with under 100 employees (probation period of 12 months for companies with less than...
Does dark energy do anything else besides cause the universe to expand?	I am by no means an expert on the subject, but I also just finished an astronomy course and I would like to share my understanding and be corrected if I'm wrong. From what I understand, dark energy has two effects. One is the expansion as you said and the other is simply adding mass-energy to spacetime, which contribu...	[ "Dark energy is believed to act like a cosmological constant - a scalar field that exists throughout space. Unlike gravity, the effects of such a field do not diminish (or only diminish slowly) as the universe grows. While matter and gravity have a greater effect initially, their effect quickly diminishes as the un...
Is there any veracity to the Romulus and Remus myth, and if not, where do Rome's origins genuinely begin	Lots of myths are based on historic truths; the Romulus and Remus myth is probably not one of them. Some indications that the story was invented: - The name of Romulus is derived from the name of Rome. - Their father is a god (Mars). - Their abandonment and rescue as babies is a common mythological motif; their mira...	[ "The early \"history\" of Rome is widely recognized as a historicized retelling of various old myths. Romulus and Remus are twin brothers from Roman mythology who both have stories in which they are killed. The Roman writer Livy reports that Remus was believed to have been killed by his brother Romulus at the found...
what is the point of studying literature	By the same token, what would be the point in getting a degree in something like astrophysics? You may not see the point because literature apparently doesn't interest you. But are you trying to insinuate that every single degree out there has some sort of worldly benefit and these people go on to do great things? I...	[ "Theorists suggest that literature allows readers to access intimate emotional aspects of a person's character that would not be obvious otherwise. That literature aids the psychological development and understanding of the reader, allowing someone to access emotional states from which they had distanced themselves...
why is natural gas stored in round tanks?	Because when you store a gas, it exerts a pressure. (or more truthfully has a pressure difference between it and the 'outside') A round storage container distributes this pressure equally over the surface area so it doesn't put more pressure on weaker parts of the container, i.e. a corner. This is why bubbles and ball...	[ "Natural gas is often stored underground inside depleted gas reservoirs from previous gas wells, salt domes, or in tanks as liquefied natural gas. The gas is injected in a time of low demand and extracted when demand picks up. Storage nearby end users helps to meet volatile demands, but such storage may not always ...
If the flu mutates so much, why does nothing else?	Influenza isn't unusual in the amount of mutation it has. All RNA viruses, like measles and polio, and single-stranded DNA viruses like parvo and so on, all undergo very high rates of mutation that are generally quite similar to each other. Where flu is unusual is in its ability to tolerate mutations. When a virus l...	[ "A flu-flu is a form of fletching, normally made by using long sections of full length feathers taken from a turkey, in most cases six or more sections are used rather than the traditional three. Alternatively two long feathers can be spiraled around the end of the arrow shaft. The extra fletching generates more dr...
linux users of reddit. why and how do you use linux?	I use it because everything I want to do with my computer that's not playing games is obscenely easier using one of the modern, larger Linux distributions. Even Ubuntu, the most simplified Linux out there, still happily supports all the lower-level more technical stuff that can be very useful for someone trying to deve...	[ "LinuxEDU is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu (operating system). It is a free and open-source operating system that helps students and teachers to be able to provide better higher education all over the world.\n", "Linux is used extensively on servers in businesses, and has been for a long time. Linux is als...
how does google maps get satellite photos without clouds in them?	1) Take many photos. 2) Discard photos with clouds in them. Problem solved.	[ "Google Maps' satellite view is a \"top-down\" or \"birds eye\" view; most of the high-resolution imagery of cities is aerial photography taken from aircraft flying at , while most other imagery is from satellites. Much of the available satellite imagery is no more than three years old and is updated on a regular b...
how/why do the ice cubes on the plane i'm on have hollow cylindrical shapes?	They're formed in an ice-making machine which has a freezing plate with fingers sticking out of it. They poke into the water, which freezes round them. When they're ejected they have that characteristic hole down the middle. They're cylindrical because that's how the ice freezes - in a consistent thickness around the f...	[ "Unlike the rounded V-Cube 7, the original V-Cube 6 has flat faces. However, the outermost pieces are slightly wider than those in the center. This subtle difference allows the use of a thicker stalk to hold the corner pieces to the internal mechanism, thus making the puzzle more durable. The V-Cube 6b, which has t...
How do photons escape the sun?	That is a slightly misleading statement. Photons are always traveling at 'c', so that photon as been absorbed and re-emitted many times from the time it was "created" until it finally escapes the Sun. Of course, you can't really say that it is the same photon that gets re-emitted after it is absorbed, just that a photo...	[ "The high-energy photons (gamma rays) released in fusion reactions take indirect paths to the Sun's surface. According to current models, random scattering from free electrons in the solar radiative zone (the zone within 75% of the solar radius, where heat transfer is by radiation) sets the photon diffusion time sc...
airline/car rental web reservations: they have the records, why ask for a confirmation number when cancelling/modifying?	It's basically there to add an extra layer to prevent you (or somebody else) from accidentally making changes. Say you have two booking and you want to cancel one - but you accidentally click on the wrong one - asking you to give your confirmation number just gives you that extra check to make sure you want to do what...	[ "Airlines individually announced return to service dates to facilitate flight reservations and scheduling into the future, as groundings have resulted in cancellations of flights served by the aircraft.\n", "When a reservation is confirmed, the airline keeps a record of the booking in its computer reservations sy...
why do many ceiling fans with speed settings go from useless to slightly faster but still useless to category 5 hurricane?	These fans are not designed to be used like floor fans. They are for circulation of air - not really for direct cooling. They are also designed to be used in spaces of differing sizes and shapes. The higher speeds are typically used when they are mounted high above the floor. The idea is to get rid of stratification an...	[ "They busted the myth in both scenarios with both household and industrial fans, as tests proved that residential ceiling fans are, apparently by design, largely incapable of causing more than minor injury, having low-torque motors that stop quickly when blocked and blades composed of light materials that tend to b...
How do scientists know that electrons reside in electron shells?	I think what you're more trying to explain is how the electrons orbit the nucleus only at allowed radii. You can start from Rutherford and go on from there. So far you've shown that Rutherford established that an atom is made up of a dense nucleus of positive charge surrounded by electrons. So he made a model where th...	[ "The existence of electron shells was first observed experimentally in Charles Barkla's and Henry Moseley's X-ray absorption studies. Barkla labeled them with the letters K, L, M, N, O, P, and Q. The origin of this terminology was alphabetic. A \"J\" series was also suspected, though later experiments indicated tha...
Before the concept of the Nation State, how did empires, kingdoms etc. determine the ownership of unworked or unutilized land?	The answer to this question will shift depending on the region under investigation. In Southeast Asia the structure of state authority has been termed "galactic polities" which describes a system of power where many smaller kingdoms have diffused spheres of influence that often overlap. Weaker polities pay tribute to o...	[ "Several of these states had gained sovereignty following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Others were created as sovereign states after the Congress of Vienna in 1815. Territories were not necessarily contiguous, such as Bavaria, or Oldenburg—many existed in several parts (enclaves and exclaves), as a res...
why do your feet hurt worse when you sit down?	Pressure is off the soles of your feet when you sit down so blood flows freely, with a full supply of blood the nerves send their full allocation of signals reporting how battered they are.	[ "Some people fear kneeling because it is a form of submission. Symptoms include but are not limited to becoming sick to the stomach, excessive sweating, dry mouth, and anxiety when presented with a situation including knees or kneeling. Sufferers fear the uncomfortable feeling they experience at the sight of knees ...
Alright science community, please help me. Is there anything blatantly wrong about this infographic on carbs?	The fact that there are no references at all, the closest it comes to it is saying about researchers from Stanford university, not a great help but from what I could find about the study (unfourtunately I don't have access) is that they adjusted their interpretation of the different diets, for example of the carbs that...	[ "Carbohydrate Research is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on the chemistry of carbohydrates. It is published by Elsevier and was established in 1965. The editor-in-chief is R. Field (John Innes Centre). According to the \"Journal Citation Reports\", the journal has a 2014 impact factor of 1.929...
What is going on during the period of anticipation time (and sometimes rocking) before an animal makes a big jump?	Depth perception is hard. Especially when you only have one viewpoint to assess the scene from. This is illustrated very nicely by images like [Julian Beever's sidewalk chalk drawings.](_URL_0_) But as soon as you move around the chalk drawing, your visual system gains more information from different viewpoints, and yo...	[ "This phenomenon has been observed in numerous vertebrate behaviors, one of the most notable being jumping. Observed in kangaroos, bush babies, birds, frogs, and various species of antelope, jumping relies on this system because the action is inherently limited in the time that is available to produce power once th...
what happened in history to associate the jewish culture with controlling the media?	Jewish people were usually the wealthiest, which meant brightest and with the most influence = controlling the media.	[ "The British authorities enacted in 1933 the Press Ordinance, which regulated the content of the news press in British Palestine. Many of the country's Jewish newspapers, particularly the English-language \"Jerusalem Post\" and those printed in Hebrew, were founded by Zionist political parties during the pre-stateh...
can humans eat leaves and lawn grass to get their fiber?	You already eat plenty of leaves, or at least you should. Lettuce, spinach, kale, collard greens, etc are all example of leaves that you eat. As for grasses, you eat the seeds of them, wheat, oats, corn, rice. Humans lack the enzymes and digestive fauna to effectively break down grass, so it would be highly inefficien...	[ "Dietary fiber consists of non-starch polysaccharides and other plant components such as cellulose, resistant starch, resistant dextrins, inulin, lignins, chitins, pectins, beta-glucans, and oligosaccharides.\n", "Nondigestible dietary fibers from plant foods, often considered as a phytochemical, are now generall...
Why is nitrous oxide used as anaesthetic in surgery and why it has a laughing effect?	I believe nitrous oxide is referred to as a dissociative anesthetic, meaning it separates your mind from your body or the pain that your body is experiencing. The laughing comes from the euphoric feeling it gives people who otherwise don’t get that feeling regularly from drugs or inhalants. Kind of like the first time ...	[ "Nitrous oxide is a weak general anaesthetic, and so is generally not used alone in general anaesthesia, but used as a carrier gas (mixed with oxygen) for more powerful general anaesthetic drugs such as sevoflurane or desflurane. It has a minimum alveolar concentration of 105% and a blood/gas partition coefficient ...
how is foreign investment raising housing prices in vancouver?	It's not tax evasion, but security of assets... while China has loosened up and is much more capitalistic than in the past, there's always the threat of a crackdown or attempt to confiscate assets, whether a government-wide thing or going after somebody who crosses a particuar official, etc.. It's a lot harder to do so...	[ "By 2018, housing prices Vancouver were the second-least affordable in the world, behind only Hong Kong. Many experts point to evidence of money-laundering from mainland China as a contributing factor. The high price of residential real estate has led to the implementation of an empty homes tax, a housing speculati...
How many square miles would it take to fit every person in the world?	Let's say the average person, viewed from above, takes up 0.5 meters from side to side and 0.3 meters from front to back. The population of earth is 6.9 billion, so 6.9e9 * 0.3 m * 0.5 m ~ 1 billion m^2 ~ 400 mi^2. This is a little smaller than the land area of [Los Angeles](_URL_0_).	[ "In comparison, based on a world population of seven billion, the world's inhabitants, as a loose crowd taking up ten square feet (one square metre) per person (Jacobs Method), would occupy a space a little larger than Delaware's land area.\n", "\"Specifically, people who lived 100 metres from their favourite ven...
why are pests' immune response systems seemingly better than humans'? (full worded question in text)	They reproduce faster with shorter lives and therfore have a more rapid generational genetic change. Someone is going to explain this much better than I have though.	[ "Resistance to pests is not normally a trait developed by breeding, but is rather a trait selected from among breeds. Certain breeds of coffee have been found to be resistant to nematodes and leaf miner. As with diseases, robusta has been found to be the more resistant species compared to arabica.\n", "BULLET::::...
how does colin kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem help to draw attention to issues in america?	Answering this neutrally... Why the anthem? One reason...the anthem is a time when the cameras are on the players, but the players aren't in the middle of playing the game. Another...it's symbolic. The national anthem represents the country it belongs to. Standing for it is a sign of respect to that country, and...	[ "In a pre season game against the Los Angeles Chargers, Colin Kaepernick, a quarterback for the San Diego 49ers, chose to kneel instead of standing in solidarity with his teammates for the National Anthem. He did this to raise awareness for victims of police brutality and oppression of minorities in America. Many p...
why do some tv adverts have out of sync audio	Often because they were originally shot in another language (German ones are common on British TV) and have been dubbed on the cheap.	[ "Some TV and radio commercials are concluded with \"fast talking\", which is barely audible or comprehensible to most. While it is this very message that states all necessary disclaimers and exceptions to the advertisement, it is often stated too fast for the viewer or listener to comprehend. This is often coupled ...
what is going on inside the brain of a person with a speech problem? (stutter, stammer, etc)	Speech Pathologist here. We still aren't 100% sure what causes it. We know that there is a neurogenic component, there may be some genetic components. You cannot "learn" to stutter or "catch" a stutter (yes I've had parents ask!) One of the gold standard treatments for stuttering does in fact "rewire" the brain. For c...	[ "Stuttering is generally not a problem with the physical production of speech sounds or putting thoughts into words. Acute nervousness and stress are not thought to cause stuttering, but they can trigger stuttering in people who have the speech disorder, and living with a stigmatized disability can result in anxiet...
Do humans have protists as symbiotes in our guts like we have bacteria?	Yes, we do. "Emerging evidence suggests that many common eukaryotic residents of the human gut are commensal or beneficial rather than parasitic, at least in some contexts." _URL_0_ I can't speak much to how these developed, but I imagined somewhat similarly to how we evolved these relationships with bacteria.	[ "Protelean organisms are widely regarded as a special class of parasites, often referred to as parasitoids. Protelean parasites refer to insects that begin the juvenile phase of their lives as parasites and ultimately destroy or consume their host to emerge as free-living adults. Defining attributes of Protelean pa...
how are we able to use sophisticated telescopes such as hubble to view deep space, but not able to fixate on closer earth-like planets to search for civilization?	Because Earthlike planets dont give off lots of light. Cant see something that isnt emitting light. Basically its way easier to see a star 1000 light years away than it is to see a planet even 1 light year away.	[ "One of the key aims of the astronomers who designed the Hubble Space Telescope was to use its high optical resolution to study distant galaxies to a level of detail that was not possible from the ground. Positioned above the atmosphere, Hubble avoids atmospheric airglow allowing it to take more sensitive visible a...
the leveraged buyout of toys r us by private equity firma and resulting bankruptcy	No, the firms that bought Toys R Us did not make money from the deal. They put $1.28 billion of their own money into the deal to buy the company in 2005. Since that time they have received ~$180 million in dividend equivalents. That means that they lost $1.1 billion of their own money in the deal. Its also worth no...	[ "To improve the company, the board of directors installed John Eyler (formerly of FAO Schwarz) in May 2000. Eyler launched an unsuccessful, expensive plan to remodel and re-launch the chain. Blaming market pressures (primarily competition from Walmart and Target), Toys \"R\" Us considered splitting its toy and baby...
Roman historians - what are some of the more overt historical inaccuracies in the game Ryse: Son of Rome?	Having never played the game, I took a few minutes to read about it and to watch some "let's play" videos on YouTube. I only dedicated about fifteen minutes of my time to this endeavour, so bear with me here. * The game begins with a barbarian assault on the Domus Aurea (!!!), the very residence of Emperor Nero. Someh...	[ "Catan Histories: Struggle for Rome is a 2006 German-style board game based on the game mechanics of \"Settlers of Catan\", depicting the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The game is created by Klaus Teuber, the creator of \"Settlers\", and is published under license from Catan GmbH by Kosmos in German and Mayfair...
why do religious beliefs get special consideration under the law, but other beliefs don't?	(1) Congress passed a law called the Religious Freedom Restoration Act giving religious beliefs enhanced protection. (2) The First Amendment specifically singles out religious belief as being protected. There has been some flirtation in the Supreme Court with the idea that strongly held non-religious views get the ...	[ "The law protects the right of individuals to choose and change their religion and to interpret their religious beliefs for themselves. Members of all religious groups worshiped freely. There is no state or otherwise dominant religion, and the Government practiced no form of religious favoritism or discrimination e...
After WWII what happened to the money Jewish people killed in the holocaust had in the bank?	In the United States if someone dies and doesn't leave a will then the money/assets typically get forfeited over to the government. I'd have to imagine the Swiss have a similar law for if the bank isn't contacted about an account every X number of years	[ "In 2007, the bank denied being in possession of funds deposited by Jews who had died in the Holocaust. Although denying any wrongdoing, in 2011 the bank agreed to pay out 130m NIS after a state inquiry claimed 300m NIS was being held in 3,577 dormant accounts. The bank was accused of refusing to cooperate with the...
Were there ever real "heroes" in battle like the heroes of the Greek legends or great warriors of the Viking sagas?	Stories like the Iliad don't feature the exploits of heroic warriors just because they make a cool story. These legends focus on supernatural feats of martial prowess because they reflect a society in which bravery in combat is crucial to the social status of warrior elites. As the hero Sarpedon puts it to his comrade-...	[ "Further studies showed that the main heroes of Iliad – Achilles, Ajax, Nestor and others were not historical personalities as they are presented in the epic but rather half-mythical cult heroes almost akin to Christian saints, each responsible for a special sphere of life: Achilles was a warden of ships, Nestor a ...
indian giver?	> As observed and documented by Lewis and Clark in their journal, trading with Native Americans had a very unusual aspect - any trade, once consummated, was considered a fair trade. If on one day, they traded beads for a dog from a tribe, then days later, the trade could be reversed - upon surrendering the beads, the...	[ "Indian giver is an American expression, used to describe a person who gives a \"gift\" and later wants it back, or who expects something of equivalent worth in return for the item. It is based on cultural misunderstandings that took place between early European settlers and the Indigenous people with whom they tra...
If you jump into a volcano filled with flaming hot magma would you splash or splat?	Splat and then burn (pretty much happening at the exact same time). Ok, first some pedantry, melted rock at the surface of the Earth is called lava, not magma (magma is the same material when still beneath the surface). Two things to consider, lava is quite dense and viscous (i.e. it's thick). Both of these actually v...	[ "Steam explosions are often encountered where hot lava meets sea water. Such an occurrence is also called a littoral explosion. A dangerous steam explosion can also be created when liquid water encounters hot, molten metal. As the water explodes into steam, it splashes the burning hot liquid metal along with it, ca...
when you smell cigarette smoke from far away, are you necessarily inhaling second-hand smoke or is it just the "odor"?	You smell things by inhaling them. The odor of a thing is it vaporized. So, yeah, you're still inhaling second hand smoke.	[ "Second-hand smoke is also another major problem from cigarettes, and it has the same effects on nonsmokers as it does to smokers. There are two types of second-hand smoke, with Type 1 being sidestream smoke and Type 2 being mainstream smoke. Sidestream smoke is the smoke that comes from the lighted cigarette, whil...
Are the methods we use to treat cancer (radiation, chemotherapy, etc.) implicated in causing other forms of cancer?	It absolutely can. As others noted, it's certainly true for radiation. It's also true for some chemotherapy. This is why it's important to have well designed clinical trials that assess the truly important outcomes. Early trials can look at how a treatment regimen makes the cancer regress (remission rate, relapse rate,...	[ "BULLET::::- Chemotherapy may be used with radiation therapy either before or after surgery to try to shrink the tumor or kill any remaining cancer cells. The use of chemotherapy to prevent the spread of soft-tissue sarcomas has not been proven to be effective. If the cancer has spread to other areas of the body, c...
why do different fruits/vegetables accumulate different nutrients?	Different plant species (and species overall) have different needs ([their niche](_URL_0_)). Both a tree and a herb can be cultivated in your garden but by their very nature they'll have different needs for nutrients. In the case of domesticated plants, like kale, potatoes, or watermelon, besides having those intrinsi...	[ "These include apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, etc. Fruits are low in calories and fat and are a source of natural sugars, fiber and vitamins. Processing fruit when canning or making into juices may add sugars and remove nutrients. The fruit food group is sometimes combined with the vegetable food group. Note tha...
Is this quote true? If it is, when did people figure out that moon reflects the light from the sun?	The first two people in Europe reported to espouse this belief are Thales of Miletus^1 (born about 620 BCE) and Anaxagoras (born about 500 BCE). Thales of Miletus found the shapes of celestial bodies via eclipses. He argued that if the earth were not a sphere, a lunar eclipse would not have a disc shaped shadow, so he ...	[ "He was also an advocate of the theory that the light emanating from the spherical Moon (as seen from Earth) was merely a reflection of sunlight. This was known as the 'radiating influence' theory in ancient China, which stated that the light of the Moon was merely the light reflected from the Sun, and that the cel...
(U.S.) During the days of segregation, when there was a natural disaster or similar catastrophe, did society mostly help everyone in need, or were the responses to crises also segregated?	Probably the greatest natural disaster of the era was the Mississippi floods of 1927. I'm not an expert on the period, but it appears the answer is that it's complicated. Relief efforts were largely dominated by the Red Cross, which had a strong emphasis on local control and volunteer participation. In the context of M...	[ "From the 1960s to the present, most U.S. states have moved towards the elimination of segregated institutions. Along with the work of Wolfensberger and others including Gunnar and Rosemary Dybwad, a number of scandalous revelations around the horrific conditions within state institutions created public outrage tha...
Was there something about British colonial administration that made so many of its former colonial cities become world financial centers? (Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, Johannesburg, Dubai, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur)	The geography is important. With the exception of Johannesburg, all of these cities were in a position to become logical naval trade hubs for regional distribution. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries the UK was the dominant naval power in the world, and so it was in the strategic interest of the UK to build up and ...	[ "By the time Hong Kong became a full-fledged British Colony, many of the merchants would be led by a newer generation of western hong merchants. Many of these companies would become the backbone of the young Hong Kong economy.\n", "After the British established Hong Kong as a colony in the aftermath of the First ...
I'm taking a class titled 'religion and the enlightenment' next semester, and want to get a good background in the period. What are some enlightenment writings that I definitely need to read?	Try Voltaire's "Candide." It's a really easy read, you can probably do it in about a day. As you read, think about what institutions of Old Regime France Voltaire targets with his satire, how and why he satirizes them, and what you can learn about his attitudes towards various aspects of society. The novel addresses va...	[ "BULLET::::- Thomas Ahnert, \"Religion and the Origins of the German Enlightenment: Faith and the Reform of Learning in the Thought of Christian Thomasius\" (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2006) (Rochester Studies in Philosophy).\n", "Most recently Paine published—19 years in the making—\"Enlighten...
how did humans found out, that they can create paper out of wood?	people in China figured it out in about 105 AD. people in Europe didn't figure it out. they used parchment, which is treated animal skin. it wasn't until paper reached Europe about 1000 years later that Europeans started making paper .	[ "Fenerty had learned that trees have fibres too, through discussions with the naturalist Titus Smith. At the age of 17 (in c.1838) he began his experiments of making paper from wood. By 1844, he had perfected the process (including bleaching the pulp to a white colour). In a letter written by a family member circa ...
Does cancer evolve?	Cancer is a clonal process, i.e. a single mutated cell starts dividing and progressively mutating further,and acquiring new characteristics over time, like losing the proteins necessary for attaching to other cells (and thus invading other places) or metastasizing. It is a Darwinian process. [Nature paper on it](_URL_0...	[ "The transformation of a normal cell into cancer is akin to a chain reaction caused by initial errors, which compound into more severe errors, each progressively allowing the cell to escape more controls that limit normal tissue growth. This rebellion-like scenario is an undesirable survival of the fittest, where t...
can some explain the chemistry behind why some fats are good and some fats are bad to me li5?	Sorry if this goes against the rules of the sub reddit but some of the response here are going to cause my head to explode with all the misinformation. Right now the accepted wisdom (read: media) is that saturated fats will cause you do die if you eat them, while fat makes you fat and carbs are required to live. Oh and...	[ "Due to their physical characteristics, enzymatic interesterified fats have many food production applications, including cookies, crackers, biscuits, cakes and icings, dairy fat replacers, pie crust, popcorn, flatbread and tortillas.\n", "\"Bad carbohydrates\", such as those in sweets, potatoes, rice and white br...
what exactly is neoclassical economics, and what are its prescriptions?	I am no expert but since nobody has answered yet I'll have a try. So if others could verify or review that would be appreciated. Economics is hard especially when you start talking theories since a lot of theories are similar and economics is not an exact science. From my understanding Neoclassical economics relies he...	[ "Neoclassical economics is an approach to economics focusing on the determination of goods, outputs, and income distributions in markets through supply and demand. This determination is often mediated through a hypothesized maximization of utility by income-constrained individuals and of profits by firms facing pro...
where does the stereotypical pirate accent actually come from?	It comes from the movies. Specifically, from the actor who played Long John Silver in one of the old Treasure Island films. It's an English west country farmer's accent, which I believe the actor had grown up with. It felt right to him, and so he used it, and the film was so iconic that it became what we all think of a...	[ "Stereotypical pirate accents are modeled on those of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset or the Bristol Channel area in South West England, though they can also be based on Elizabethan era English or other parts of the world. Pirates in film, television and theatre are generally depicted as speaking English in a particular ...
Why does this problem not intuitively make sense?	The reason your intuition fails is because just adding the probabilities vastly overestimates the related probability. If the probability that you got at least 1 run after N roles was 1/100+1/100+...+1/100 = N/100, then if you roll more than 100 times, then you get a probability greater than 100%, which doesn't make ...	[ "According to Noam Chomsky, as described in Of Minds and Language (2009), the paradox arises because of extreme externalism: the assumption that what is true in our minds is true in the world. This is not an unassailable assumption, from the perspective of the natural sciences, because human intuition is often mist...
how do scientists know if they`ve already discovered a certain star or planet?	They don't search by a name, they search by the coordinates of the star they are looking at.	[ "When a planet is detected around a star, the star is often given a name and number based on the name of the telescope or survey mission that discovered it and based on how many planets have already been discovered by that mission e.g. HAT-P-9, WASP-1, COROT-1, Kepler-4, TRAPPIST-1.\n", "Preliminary identificatio...
if i'm not attracted to old women now why will i be attracted to them when i'm an old man?	Nah, you will still slyly eye up the hottest lasses you eye up now. But, you will be tempered by the fact that you are becoming a dusty old wrinkle and any "approach" will be regarded as pervy and dirty old manny. You will also develop taste. You will seek out a similar mindset and you will start to see past ...	[ "In modern peacetime societies with wide opportunities for romance, marriage and children, there are other reasons that available women remain single as they approach old age. Psychologist Erik Erikson postulated that during young adulthood (ages 18 to 39), individuals experience an inner conflict between a desire ...
why do bridges from the 17 & 1800s seem to last longer than our bridges today?	A well designed stone structure can last for a really long time, just look at the pyramids. Modern bridges take a whole lot more punishment than an old stone bridge ever would. A modern road or rail bridge sees more tonnage going over it in a year than most of those little stone bridges will in 500 years.	[ "The site of bridges back to the 14th century, a cast iron bridge was built in 1843 but increasing heavy traffic led to a 1913 survey that determined the need for a new bridge. Repairs, however, allowed the bridge to last for a further 40 years. The present wide bridge, clad in Portland stone was designed by Sir Ed...
how do they measure scoville units?	I googled your question and this is from the 2nd result: > To perform the Scoville Organoleptic Test, an alcohol extract of capsaicin oil from a dried pepper is mixed with a solution of water and sugar to the point where a panel of taste-testers can barely detect the heat of the pepper. The pepper is assigned Scovil...	[ "The Scoville scale is a measurement of the pungency (spiciness or \"heat\") of chili peppers and other spicy foods, as recorded in Scoville Heat Units (SHU) based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, among which capsaicin is the predominant component. The scale is named after its creator, American pharmacist Wil...
why does one hammer with a hammer, chisel with a chisel but sweep with a broom?	Hammers rarely hammer but they do tap, drive, pound, peen, beat, and a bunch of other stuff. Chisels mostly carve, cut, plane, and gouge, among other things. Broom is a bush (invasive species in the west, Scotch/french broom) that brooms are made from. A sweep is a shape of motion. Used in boat propulsion for ins...	[ "A hammer is a tool consisting of a weighted \"head\" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as with a forge), or to crush rock. Hammers are used for a wide range of driving, shaping, and breaking ap...
Why is testing for Covid-19 considered so vital right now?	Knowing who has it exactly would tremendously help contain it. Healthy people could avoid those that test positive. It would also help improve data and give better numbers regarding who has it and the percentage that show symptoms and percentage that die. Right now they’re only testing people who are pretty close to d...	[ "In adults, the effects of HHV-7 separate from HHV-6 have not been well-researched. One reason for this is because the detection of HHV-7 was at first difficult to do quickly, as the process for doing so involves a procedure that is difficult to do in commercial laboratories and because viral isolation and serologi...
In social settings, I stutter because I get anxious, and get anxious because I think I'm going to stutter. Why?	This could be caused by the anxiety triggering yourself to start physically giving commands to your mouth to say. I know that failure under pressure (what I would call "choking under pressure) is very often caused by you physically trying to do the actions yourself, instead of letting your body naturally doing it. Fo...	[ "The impact of stuttering on a person's functioning and emotional state can be severe. This may include fears of having to enunciate specific vowels or consonants, fears of being caught stuttering in social situations, self-imposed isolation, anxiety, stress, shame, low self-esteem, being a possible target of bully...
what would happen if someone drilled a deep hole into the earth and then connected it to the ocean?	How far into the earth to be exact?	[ "During the late 1950s and early 1960s the executive committee of the U.S. National Science Foundation funded drilling a hole through the ocean floor to reach this boundary. However the operation, named Project Mohole, never received sufficient support and was mismanaged; the United States Congress canceled it in 1...
why are some people more sensitive to horror fiction than others?	The only simple answer to this is people are different. It's no different than some people find some jokes funny and others don't. Some people like vanilla and some like chocolate.	[ "One defining trait of the horror genre is that it provokes an emotional, psychological, or physical response within readers that causes them to react with fear. One of H.P. Lovecraft's most famous quotes about the genre is that: \"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest ki...
how does tracing a phone call to a physical location work? i see it all the times in movies and wondered how realistic it is.	Its called triangulation. Basically your cell is always sending signals to the various cell towers in the area, so they take the 3 closest towers to you and see how long it takes for a signal to go from the tower to your phone. By doing this, and some they can estimate your distance from each tower and find a common po...	[ "Mobile phones are commonly used to collect location data. While the phone is turned on, the geographical location of a mobile phone can be determined easily (whether it is being used or not) using a technique known as multilateration to calculate the differences in time for a signal to travel from the mobile phone...
In the Korean war did the American troops ever battle with Chinese or Soviet troops?	Yes. Im not positive about soviet troops(though there is convincing evidence that the UN air force was fightng soviet pilots), but the Battle of Chosin Reservoir is very popular in the USMC mythos. The 1st Marine Division, along with several Army units and i think a couple British, were completely encircled by veteran(...	[ "During the Korean War, the Battle of Inchon turned the tide against the Korean People's Army (NKPA) for the Americans who were fighting under the United Nations Command. The U.S. Eighth Army, which made up most of the United Nations forces, then raced to the Chinese border but were defeated in the Battle of the Ch...
why pewdiepie can use extracts from pop songs etc but other youtubers get copyright strikes if they do the same?	He's earning so much, chances are his network (Maker Studios I believe) or Pew is paying for using them. Paying for the rights to use the music would be fairly cheap considering what he can make off them. It keeps his video's 'current' plus the choice of copyright free music is generally pretty poor. Other youtubers li...	[ "The MPA's position on tablature has been criticized by the tabbing community. The community do not believe they are infringing copyright laws because they are only displaying their aural transcriptions of these songs, which are, more often than not, not entirely correct. They feel that the practice of tabbing and ...
Is the word "Ow" universal?	No. The precise word varies from language to language. For example the Japanese word for "Ow" is "Itai", you can see it in their media. Note that this is for minor pain, we all scream in agony in the same language.	[ "\"Mee-Ow\" was created in reaction to the \"closed door policies\" of the venerable Waa-Mu Show, Northwestern's long running annual musical revue. A new open door policy, based on the philosophy of Henry Miller, that \"Everyman is an Artist.\"\n", "According to etymologist Douglas Harper, the phrase is derived f...
if nuclear engines are the zenith of submarine technology why aren't they used more in other applications.	Former 8-year navy nuke here (operated the reactor and engine room equipment on a submarine). First, it is an awesome, powerful, and safe technology. But, it costs a lot of money to maintain, does not have favorable public opinion for commercial uses, and a power plant takes up A LOT of room, even for small power outp...	[ "While the greater endurance and performance of nuclear reactors mean that nuclear submarines are better for long distance missions or the protection of a carrier battle-force, both nuclear and non-nuclear powers continue produce conventional diesel-electric submarines, because they can be made stealthier, except w...
nsfw. how come sometimes ejaculation comes quickly and sometimes it takes forever while masturbating?	Some times it depends on the position. When standing or sitting, more blood flows down and into the tip of the penis, allowing it to achieve a climax faster. When lying down, it can sometimes be harder to reach an orgasm. Other times, it depends on your mood. Just a slightly sad mood can out off a climax for a good de...	[ "A usual precursor to ejaculation is the sexual arousal of the male, leading to the erection of the penis, though not every arousal nor erection leads to ejaculation. Penile sexual stimulation during masturbation or vaginal, anal, oral, or non-penetrative sexual activity may provide the necessary stimulus for a man...
What are the rates of lung cancer and similar smoking diseases in chronic marijuana users?	I don't know about rates, but several studies^[1](_URL_3_),[2](_URL_0_),[3](_URL_2_) have shown cancer-inhibiting effects of THC, even in lung cancer, so I wouldn't be surprised if lung cancer rates are lower. Edit: Sorry for the crummy link for the first one, but [Nature's](_URL_1_) link wasn't working.	[ "Regular cannabis smokers show pathological changes in lung cells similar to those that precede the development of lung cancer in tobacco smokers. Gordon and colleagues in a 2013 literature review said: \"Unfortunately, methodological limitations in many of the reviewed studies, including selection bias, small samp...
what are monoclonal antibodies and how do they work?	Basically disease causing cells that cause infection and sickness have a marker on their surface ("antigen") that alerts everyone around it that it's bad. Antibodies are substances that are produced to detect these antigens and then kill the bad disease cell. Monoclonal antibodies are revolutionary because they are ...	[ "Polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) are antibodies that are secreted by different B cell lineages within the body (whereas monoclonal antibodies come from a single cell lineage). They are a collection of immunoglobulin molecules that react against a specific antigen, each identifying a different epitope.\n", "The nomen...
I'm a black soldier in the U.S. army stationed in Britain during WW2. How am I treated by the locals?	For the most part, African-American soldiers were treated very well by British civilians, they opened up their bars and homes to them and there was certainly a good amount of co-habitation between British girls and Black GIs. Some British, in opposing the segregation and use of the color bar for Black GIs starting inst...	[ "During World War II, African-Americans formed 10 per cent of US Army servicemen in Britain, a total of about 150,000 in 1944. Most were in labour companies, engineers, stevedores and transport units. Many were based in the Bristol area because of the docks there. They had their barracks in Bedminster, Brislington,...
What were the first dictionaries and how were they created?	check out this post for some previous responses [The History of Dictionaries and Thesauruses](_URL_0_) it's odd that no-one describes the obvious low-hanging fruit in English dictionary history fame, [Samuel Johnson](_URL_1_), but here's another thread that mentions him a bit more [Historically, why do Americans not...	[ "The precursors of Chinese dictionaries are primers designed for students of Chinese characters. The earliest of them only survive in fragments or quotations within Chinese classic texts. For example, the \"Shizhoupian\" was compiled by one or more historians in the court of King Xuan of Zhou (r. 827 BCE – 782 BCE)...
Why is The Hague such a prominent city in international politics - its home to many international courts, for example.	International Court of Justice was previously known as Permanent Court of International Justice, it was established in 1922, after the World War I. Netherlands at that time was neutral, it not side with either Germany or the allies (UK and US). So it was natural choice.	[ "The city is home to many important international organisations and global companies. The Hague is known as the International City of Peace, Justice and Security and is home to around 131 international institutes and 80 justice organisations. International institutions include the Permanent Court of Arbitration, th...
what is depth-of-field? how does it work?	Depth of field is basically the area of your vision that is in focus. The human eye automatically adjusts the our DoF when we focus on something, much like a point-and-shoot digital camera. Hold up your hand about 10cm in front of your face and look at it. Notice how everything in the background is blurry and out of ...	[ "In photography, depth of field (DOF) means an effective focal length. It is usually used for stressing an object and deemphasizing the background (and/or the foreground). The important measure related to DOF is the lens aperture. Decreasing the diameter of aperture increases focus and lowers resolution and vice ve...
Considering the success of the steppe people's (Scythians, Huns, Mongols) mounted archers, why weren't mounted archers a greater feature in European and Southern Asian warfare?	The simple reason is geography. For those who don't know what a "steppe" is, the term refers to the flat, uninterrupted grasslands that form a large part of the landscape of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The lack of resources meant that the people living in these regions were mostly nomadic, but it also meant that ...	[ "Central tribesmen of Asia (after the domestication of the horse) and American Plains Indians (after gaining access to horses) became extremely adept at archery on horseback. Lightly armored, but highly mobile archers were excellently suited to warfare in the Central Asian steppes, and they formed a large part of a...
why are big teams of lawyers most likely to beat one very good lawyer?	They can dedicate more time and effort to working the ins and outs of the case. The team of lawyers who put in 1,000 combined hours of work will be more prepared for whatever variables happen in court than the one amazing lawyer who only put in 100 hours of prep.	[ "The Best Lawyers list is widely respected in the legal profession. Kevin Maroney, Associate General Counsel of United Healthcare, has said, \"I always review Best Lawyers and rely on its recommendations.\" Bernd-Peter Bier, Senior Vice President of the Tax Division at Bayer AG, has said, \"I have used Best Lawyers...
In early nineteenth century America, what caused the use of the word "yellow" to mean cowardice?	The term "yellow" referring to cowardice goes back much farther than 19th century America. [See this](_URL_0_)	[ "By the 1900s, \"nigger\" had become a pejorative word in the United States. In its stead, the term \"colored\" became the mainstream alternative to \"negro\" and its derived terms. After the civil rights movement, the terms \"colored\" and \"negro\" gave way to \"black\". \"Negro\" had superseded \"colored\" as th...
After World War II, did men from nations that sustained high casualties such as Germany and the USSR find themselves with a huge abundance of single women to pursue romantically?	This raises tons of demographics related questions for me as well. Did the war create a clearer "generational" divide in politics? Did the agricultural/economic disruption make a lasting impact on children's development? We're generational cycles of poverty/abuse broken/begun?	[ "World War I compounded the gender imbalance. The deaths of nearly one million men during the war increased the gender gap by over a million; from 670,000 to 1,700,000. The number of unmarried women seeking economic means grew dramatically. In addition, demobilisation and economic decline following the war caused h...
Why did the firing squad arise as a form of execution, as opposed to a single gunman?	Hi, while you're waiting, check out some earlier answers: * /u/TheFairyGuineaPig on [historical usage of the firing squad versus other methods of execution](_URL_2_) * /u/Elphinstone quotes additional/alternative reasons in a thread in [Short Answers to Simple Questions \| February 21, 2018](_URL_0_) * /u/shmag discu...	[ "Execution by firing squad is distinct from other forms of execution by firearms, such as an execution by shooting to the back of the head or neck. However, the single shot by the squad's officer with a pistol (coup de grâce) is sometimes incorporated in a firing squad execution, particularly if the initial volley ...
how did they print huge quantities of copies of images for mass distribution back in the first half of 1900?	Most posters back then didn't have lots of colours. They would be a single colour ink. It wasn't until the roaring 20's that you saw colour start to be introduced into mass-produced posters, and even then they were largely done by hand using stencils.	[ "Due to the very specialized and labor-intensive processes required to make photographic color prints from the negatives, only about a hundred of the images were used in exhibits, books and scholarly articles during the half-century after the Library of Congress acquired them. Their widest exposure was in the 1980 ...
why is it so hard for convicted criminals to get jobs in a country with the highest incarceration rate in the world?	Because that country (assuming you're talking about the US) also has a shortage of jobs, and it's easy to find a non-criminal to fill the position.	[ "Employment rates and earnings histories of people in prisons and jails are often low before incarceration as a result of limited education experiences, low skill levels, and the prevalence of physical and mental health problems; incarceration only exacerbates these challenges.\n", "However, the risk that offende...
Last Universal Ancestor - questions about implications.	[This question is actually the number 2 all-time highest-voted in the subreddit :)](_URL_0_)	[ "Put simply, the empirical Bayes approach calculates the probabilities of various ancestral states for a specific tree and model of evolution. By expressing the reconstruction of ancestral states as a set of probabilities, one can directly quantify the uncertainty for assigning any particular state to an ancestor. ...
on staplers, whats up with the other side of the plate? when would i need to reverse-staple something?	Pinning is midway between a staple and a paperclip. It's more secure than a paperclip, but more removable than a staple. You use it to temporarily bind two things together, knowing you want to separate them later. This can be used when you want to attach to pieces of cloth together for sewing, but don't want to use ...	[ "Tacking fastens objects to surfaces, such as bulletin boards or walls. A stapler that can tack has a base that folds back out of the way so staples drive directly into an object rather than fold against the anvil. In this position the staples are driven similar to the way a staple gun works, but with less force dr...

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