question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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why do you feel light headed when you quickly get out of bed? | ELI5: Gravity pulls blood from the heart so your brain won't get enough oxygen and nutrients for the brain (you get dizzy)
In depth :
When you lay down, blood flow to the heart is facilitated by not having to work against gravity. To preserve a normal blood pressure in this scenario, blood vessels dilate and the hear... | [
"The individual places the sensor (usually located in briefs or underwear) and turns the alarm device on (there are various types of alarms) before going to sleep. The enuresis alarm is triggered when a sensor in the sheets or night clothes becomes wet with urine, setting off an auditory signal with the intention o... |
How did early chemists conduct accurate experiments without knowing which chemicals they were using? | It's a bit of a complicated question to answer in a nutshell.
In the early days they mostly *didn't* conduct accurate experiments. Much of the early history of chemistry (alchemy, really) was very qualitative, very "trial-and-error", and very wrapped up in mysticism.
Over time, people working in what we now call chem... | [
"They also explored the world of poisons and hazards that were completely unregulated until this time - from arsenic and opium to explosives. But the lack of restrictions they had enjoyed enabled 'experimental chemists' to invent products ranging from matches to fireworks, to custard and jelly. The team learned the... |
why is a cinema advert called a trailer? other things that trail go behind the main object (car trailer, contrails, a trailer stalking an animal...), not before. | Originally "trailers" were shown at the end of a feature film. | [
"Some trailers use \"special shoot\" footage, which is material that has been created specifically for advertising purposes and does not appear in the actual film. The most notable film to use this technique was \"\", whose trailer featured an elaborate special effect scene of a T-800 Terminator being assembled in ... |
how do websites that stream tv shows for free earn money? | Ads and subscription services. | [
"Some Internet content is free, often from government and nonprofit sites such as BBC Online, Book2, Foreign Service Institute, with no or minimal ads. Some are ad-supported, such as newspapers and YouTube. Some require a payment.\n",
"Content is not generally output across traditional media, as a broadcast licen... |
Does Carr's history of the Soviet Union stand up? | Carr's work is best read as starry-eyed fantasy by someone very naive and ideologically blinkered. You would be laughed out of the room if you tried to cite him today. What are you interested in specifically? | [
"The pro-Soviet slant in Carr's \"The History of Soviet Russia\" attracted some controversy. In a 1955 review in \"Commentary\", Bertram Wolfe accused Carr of systemically taking on Vladimir Lenin's point of view in \"History of Soviet Russia\" volumes and of being unwilling to consider other perspectives on Russia... |
why does toothpaste and mouthwash give that intense cold and sometimes spicy feeling in your mouth, when it isn’t actually cold or spicy? | The neurons that are sensitive to cold are also triggered by the presence of the flavour compound menthol.
So a drop of menthol mouthwash on your tongue sends basically the same message to your brain as a drop of cold water would. | [
"Some substances activate cold trigeminal receptors even when not at low temperatures. This \"fresh\" or \"minty\" sensation can be tasted in peppermint, spearmint, menthol, ethanol, and camphor. Caused by activation of the same mechanism that signals cold, TRPM8 ion channels on nerve cells, unlike the actual chang... |
Was the Japanese Embassy raided after Pearl Harbor? Was the American embassy in Japan raided as well? | No in fact DC police and the FBI actually set up a cordon around the Japanese embassy in Washington to ensure the safety of those inside. A large crowd had gathered outside through the day and needless to say their blood was up. However there was no Tehran style storming of the compound if that's what you were wonderin... | [
"Following the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the embassy was seized by the United States government and re-purposed to house the Far Eastern Commission. The embassy was returned to Japanese control in April 1952.\n",
"The attack on Pearl Harbor raised concerns in the public regarding the possibility of... |
Was Eisenhower the first U.S. president on TV? When did national addressses become normal? | A cursory search shows that FDR's speech at the Grand Opening of the 1939 New York World's Fair was broadcast on WNBC in the New York area. This marks the first time that a *sitting US president* was broadcast on TV.
Herbert Hoover had, as Secretary of Commerce, been on television in already in 1927 via an experimenta... | [
"Eisenhower's farewell address (sometimes referred to as \"Eisenhower's farewell address to the nation\") was the of Dwight D. Eisenhower as the 34th President of the United States, delivered in a television broadcast on January 17, 1961. Perhaps best known for advocating that the nation guard against the potential... |
w4 tax paperwork and claiming exempt? | You should file taxes regardless of how much money you make. There are refundable credits that you can qualify for.
If you expect to owe no taxes, and did not owe any last year, you can tell your employer not to withhold anything by indicating as such on line 7 of form W4. They cannot change your withholding status wi... | [
"One contention of tax protesters is that they are not liable to file returns or pay taxes because, they argue, Form 1040 or some other Federal tax form, or the related instructions, or a Treasury Regulation, does not contain an \"OMB control number\" (a number issued by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget und... |
How did Europe's nobility view the merchant class and trade republics? | I know a little of the pre-Revolutionary situation in France:
By 1780~, the French nobility was firmly split into two camps- the nobility of the sword (I don't recall the French) and the nobility of the robe. There existed other classes of noble, but I don't know enough about them, and my sources do not elaborate. It ... | [
"Across Europe a wealthy merchant class developed in the important trading cities. Despite their wealth they had little power in the feudal system dominated by the rural land owners, and across Europe began to advocate for their own privileges and powers. The more centralized states, such as France and England, gra... |
How were dwarves of Aryan descent treated in the Third Reich? | Hi there!
Since the term "dwarf" is considered offensive by people who handicapped in the way of growth could you please resubmit your question using a less offensive term such as growth restricted or "little people".
Thank you! | [
"BULLET::::- The Ovitz family were a family of Romanian Jewish actors/traveling musicians who survived imprisonment at the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. They were the largest family of dwarfs ever recorded and were the largest family (twelve family members from a 15-month-old baby to a 58-year-o... |
Is there any evidence that the subconscious brain is better at tasks that the conscious mind? If there is, how does that work? | There is *some* evidence of this, yes; [Ap Dijksterhuis](_URL_0_) [PDF] is one example of a researcher who has devoted quite a lot of time to exploring this issue. I've heard that attempts to replicate his work have experienced a lot of trouble, however, so take it with a grain of salt.
As to *why* the unconscious mi... | [
"Behaviorism notwithstanding, the unconscious mind has maintained its importance in psychology. Cognitive psychologists have used a \"filter\" model of attention, according to which much information processing takes place below the threshold of consciousness, and only certain processes, limited by nature and by sim... |
What causes the following rock formations (pics in description) near a spillway? | Could be embedded [concretions](_URL_0_)? | [
"The large natural rock formation is similar in appearance to Wave Rock and has a number of large cavern areas with several gnamma holes on top. It is surrounded by natural bushland. Another feature is Monty's Pass, a tunnel that runs along the edge of the rock, caused by a rock slide where a large section of the o... |
The Space Shuttle was intended to fly 26 missions a year, a flight every 2 weeks. When did NASA officially give up on this goal and who made the decision? | Pinging /u/IrishWaterPolo who specialises in the space race. Follow-up question, come the early-mid '70's why did public interest in the space race seemingly dwindle? When only 6 years previous the moon landings had received mass media attention. | [
"From 1981 to 2011 a total of 135 missions were flown, all launched from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. During that time period the fleet logged 1,322 days, 19 hours, 21 minutes and 23 seconds of flight time. The longest orbital flight of the Shuttle was STS-80 at 17 days 15 hours, while the shortest flight... |
[AMA] Hamilton and his Time: The Stories Behind the Musical | "Don't lecture me about the war
you didn't fight in it"
- Hamilton to Jefferson.
Was there resentment between the founding fathers about who fought in the war? A sense that the ones who served in the Army deserve more? | [
"Hamilton: An American Musical is a sung-and-rapped through musical about the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, with music, lyrics and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda, inspired by the 2004 biography \"Alexander Hamilton\" by historian Ron Chernow. Incorporating hip hop, R&B, pop, soul, traditional-sty... |
why do photos load differently when i have slow internet. | It depends on the file format of the image. Most image files contain one giant representation of the image and your browser will receive the image data from top to bottom so it'll start displaying the top while it downloads the rest.
Other image formats (progressive JPEG for example, I don't know if there are others ... | [
"Overall, users experience of a site utilising style sheets will generally be quicker than sites that don’t use the technology. ‘Overall’ as the first page will probably load more slowly – because the style sheet AND the content will need to be transferred. Subsequent pages will load faster because no style informa... |
Putting it out there that this is for a high school social studies class, but I was wondering if any of you knew good places online to find foreign language or english primary source documents on the Rape of Nanking? | Hello there. Your question seems to be related to school work, so we just want to remind you, and any potential respondents, that [our rules](_URL_0_) DO permit people to ask for help with their homework, so long as they are seeking clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself. This policy is further expla... | [
"The program takes the perspective of the ordinary Chinese citizen and make a story out of the ordinary day-to-day routine. For example, there was a report done on internet addiction by high school students and what happened when a town decided to enforce a curfew that basically shut down internet cafes in that tow... |
why is advised to create a 500 calorie deficit through exercise to achieve weight loss. why not just eat 500 calories less? | 1. exercise is generally great for you.
2. studies have shown very clearly that people are more succesful over longer periods of time with the exercise option than the food option.
3. exercise can result in muscle mass which increase your basel metabolic rate, which means you're burning more calories just being. That ... | [
"Weight loss is achieved by adopting a lifestyle in which fewer calories are consumed than are expended. According to the UK National Health Service this is best achieved by monitoring calories eaten and supplementing this with physical exercise.\n",
"A permanent routine of exercise, eating healthily, and, during... |
How does water separate and blend the RGB emissions from LCD screens? | I have a feeling that the water beading into droplets acts as a magnifying glass. And as you look ever more off-axis the light becomes sufficiently distorted that it blends together. | [
"green–red–blue additive mixing is used in television and computer monitors, including smartphone displays, to produce a wide range of colors. A screen pixel uses a juxtaposition of these three primary colors. Projection televisions sometimes have three projectors, one for each primary color.\n",
"Electrowetting ... |
how does a town's water supply become decontaminated of e coli? | The water company uses chemicals to kill it, generally chlorine. It doesn't take that much chlorine so you don't taste it in the water. | [
"Other proven prevention methods for \"E. coli\" transmission include handwashing and improved sanitation and drinking water, as transmission occurs through fecal contamination of food and water supplies. Additionally, thoroughly cooking meat and avoiding consumption of raw, unpasteurized beverages, such as juices ... |
Did any loyalists fight, aid, or plot against their own countrymen in the American Revolution? | If you're asking if inhabitants of the American colonies fought for the British crown in the War of Independence then the answer is, most definitely. The idea that the American Revolution is more accurately described as a 'British civil war' has been an increasingly popular one in recent years.
When thinking about th... | [
"During the American Revolutionary War, many of the Scots were Loyalists. In their defeat in Scotland, they had been forced to take ironclad vows that prohibited taking up arms against the British. Some Rebels considered them traitors to the cause of Independence. Public executions of suspected spies occurred. One ... |
how do bail bonds work? | Let's say you get arrested for a crime. Your trial will be in three weeks.
Now, we have an issue. You're innocent until proven guilty (at least in America). But at the same time, you're both a potential threat to society as well as a flight risk. So what do we do?
The answer is bail. You're ordered to stay in jail to... | [
"A bail-in is the opposite of a bail-out because it does not rely on external parties, especially government capital support. A bail-in creates new capital to rescue a failing firm through an internal recapitalization and forces the borrower's creditors to bear the burden by having part of the debt they are owed wr... |
If stars forged hydrogen/helium into lithium through iron, where do the other elements come from? | The energy required to create heavier elements comes from supernova of large stars. When they blow, they generate enough energy to fuse heavier elements. Since super large stars are the only ones who can create them under such specific circumstances, elements heavier than iron are relatively rare. | [
"Metals up to the vicinity of iron (in the periodic table) are largely made via stellar nucleosynthesis. In this process, lighter elements from hydrogen to silicon undergo successive fusion reactions inside stars, releasing light and heat and forming heavier elements with higher atomic numbers.\n",
"Heavy metals ... |
what makes sunlight so special? why does it make your skin produce vitamin d but an uv lamp doesn't? | An UV lamp does make you produce vitamin D.
The main difference is the intensity of the light / radiation. Most lamps only work well if they are very close to you. Also, ideally they should be used very early in the morning. | [
"Humans with light skin pigmentation living in low sunlight environments experience increased vitamin D synthesis compared to humans with dark skin pigmentation due to the ability to absorb more sunlight. Almost every part of the human body, including the skeleton, the immune system, and brain requires vitamin D. S... |
Uncertainty principle from diffraction | You can't derive ΔxΔp = ħ/2 from a sine wave, because that equality holds if and only if the position/momentum has a gaussian distribution.
| [
"An uncertainty principle applies to all quantum mechanical operators that do not commute. In particular, it applies also to the electromagnetic field. A digression follows to flesh out the role of commutators for the electromagnetic field.\n",
"Historically, the uncertainty principle has been confused with a rel... |
Could someone take a picture of the moon landing sites from Earth or Earth orbit? If not, what technology would be needed to do so? | One of the lunar orbiters got spectacular pics of several landing sights. | [
"\"The Daily Telegraph\" published a story in 2002 saying that European astronomers at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) would use it to view the landing sites. According to the article, Dr. Richard West said that his team would take \"a high-resolution image of one of the Apollo landing sites.\" Marcus Allen, a consp... |
why do some credit card readers tell you to insert and remove your card as quickly as possible and others tell you to leave it in for several seconds? | The ones that want you to go fast are reading the swipe strip.
The ones that want you to hold it are reading the chip.
Chip is more secure and the rest of the world has been using it for years.
America is currently catching up with the new tech, but there's a lot of POS out there that don't read chips. | [
"In December 2017, Google introduced an \"Unsubscribe\" card that lets users easily unsubscribe from mailing lists. The card appears for email messages from specific senders that the user hasn't opened for a month.\n",
"Some consumers prefer \"credit\" transactions because of the lack of a fee charged to the cons... |
since the gravitational pull of an object is based on the object's mass and not it's density, how does a black hole have such strong gravity when its the same star, just really really compressed? where does this mass come from, or is one's gravitational pull also based on it's density? | It has the same gravitational pull as a star, but because it's more dense objects can get much much closer to it then to a star without actually hitting it.
Black holes don't have more gravity than their corresponding star, it's just possible to get closer to it without colliding with it than a star.
Imagine a star,... | [
"BULLET::::- Black holes have the same gravitational effects as any other equal mass in their place. They will draw objects nearby towards them, just as any other planetary body does, except at very close distances to the black hole. If, for example, the Sun were replaced by a black hole of equal mass, the orbits o... |
Why must chocolate be tempered? | Cocoa butter can form at least 6 different crystal structures. Only one - the so called beta form - is what you want. The different crystal forms have different temperatures at which they melt, in addition to the other properties (shine, snap...)
The trick in tempering is to get a liquid substance with enough beta c... | [
"Although convenient, melted chocolate chips are not always recommended as a substitute for baking chocolate. Because most chocolate chips are designed to retain their shape when baking, they contain less cocoa butter than baking chocolate, and so can be more difficult to work with melted.\n",
"Cocoa butter must ... |
why do wooden power poles have so many staples and nails on them? is there a purpose? | I've designed many-a-distribution system. The nails going from top to bottom are generally going to be for the ground wire (it connects under the butt of the pole to a ground plate or spiral wrap).
Any nails and staples you see are generally from people illegally hanging signs on them. | [
"Most utility poles are made of wood, pressure-treated with some type of preservative for protection against rot, fungi and insects. Southern yellow pine is the most widely used species in the United States; however, many species of long straight trees are used to make utility poles, including Douglas fir, jack pin... |
what does "non-linear model" mean? | A linear regression model means that if you look at the graph that they drew up, its a linear line. Like its straight as a rule. A non-linear regression model means that the graph is a non-straight line. It could be exponential, or logarithmic, etc. It's curved.
Because "non-linear model" or "non-linear regression mo... | [
"In statistics, the term linear model is used in different ways according to the context. The most common occurrence is in connection with regression models and the term is often taken as synonymous with linear regression model. However, the term is also used in time series analysis with a different meaning. In eac... |
why would my brother's wife be called my sister-in-law? doesn't that imply that they became brother and sister? | No, it implies that she became your sister by marriage rather than blood relation. They are the actual married pair, and so by the same ruleset, they are husband and wife. The status change between them results in a set of changes between the non-blood family and blood family. But that *second* set of changes do not ca... | [
"In contrast to all of the above fine distinctions, in American English the term \"my brother-in-law\" covers \"my spouse's brother\", \"my sibling's husband\", and \"my spouse's sibling's husband\". In British English, the last of these is not considered strictly correct. \n",
"The term \"brother\" occurs in ver... |
where did the phrase "bat shit crazy" come from? | I believe it's a clever play on the older term for the same thing, 'bats in the belfry', a belfry being the top bit of a bell tower. The idea being that a belfry with lots of bats in it will also have lots of bat shit.
Hence 'Bat shit crazy"
EDIT: Bats in the balfrey would come from the fact that a balfry infested w... | [
"The phrase \"football crazy\" came into popular use during the 1960s, following the song's success, and was extended into the common phrase it is today, often paraphrased. Amongst other things, it has been the title of:\n",
"There are numerous 18th and early 19th-century references in England and especially Amer... |
on a walk with my dog, why does he not bark back at other dogs behind fences? | There could be a number of reasons. What breed is he? Some dogs are more apathetic towards other dogs.
Could also be territorial. The dog barking at yours could be signaling their territorial claim, and your dog isn't challenging their claim. just moving along | [
"Allowing dogs off-leash in the safety of a dog park is an excellent way to socialize dogs, but they must be supervised at all times. When people converse with each other they can lose sight of their dogs, which can lead to trouble. Some owners are unaware of \"dog language\" and inadvertently read signs of aggress... |
Why were steam trains, steam boats fed coal by a man with a shovel, not by some mechanical device? | As with everything in engineering, reliability and cost.
People are relatively cheap and replacing an injured stoker is easier than fixing a clogged hopper. Your loading mechanism will also need to be able to withstand the heat, smoke and soot of an active boiler.
The next benefit is level loading. For a hopper you... | [
"Bores and reservoirs were established at intervals, but the water was often brackish and unsuitable for steam locomotive use, let alone human consumption, so water supplies had to be carried on the train. In the days of steam locomotion, about half the total load was water for the engine.\n",
"In the second half... |
In your area of concentration, what is the Big Idea causative model that someone needs to understand to "get" why the history unfolded as it did and why historians approach it as they do? | So, for my part:
There have been two essential views of the development of science that have predominated in the field of scientific history. The first is usually given by describing the work of Karl Popper. Popper’s view is essentially as follows:
[Popper](_URL_3_) is a main-line science kind of guy as we picture it... | [
"Causation in economics has a long history with Adam Smith explicitly acknowledging its importance via his (1776) An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations and David Hume (1739, 1742, 1777) and John Stuart Mill (1848) both offering important contributions with more philosophical discussions. Ho... |
Why 300 Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae? | The major source for this is Herodotus. He says (referring to Leonidas)
*He now came to Thermopylae with the appointed three hundred he had selected, all of whom had sons. The Spartans sent the men with Leonidas on ahead so that the rest of the allies would see them and march, instead of medizing like the others if t... | [
"At the Battle of Thermopylae, a small force of Greek warriors led by King Leonidas of Sparta resisted the much larger Persian forces, but were ultimately defeated. According to Herodotus, the Persians broke the Spartan phalanx after a Greek man called Ephialtes betrayed his country by telling the Persians of anoth... |
How can 2D CMB radiation images tell us about the structure of our 3D universe? | The data you see in most CMB pictures already has radiation from stars and dust clouds removed (the raw data looks more like [this](_URL_0_), processed data looks like [this](_URL_1_)). Techniques for doing that are... a lot of work, but pretty good overall.
The we can get data from the structure of the 3D universe be... | [
"The Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation signature presents a direct large-scale view of the universe that can be used to identify whether our position or movement has any particular significance. There has been much publicity about analysis of results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) an... |
Does Sodium Thiopental actually work as a truth serum? Can you resist it? | Have you ever been under partial anesthesia, like at a dentist for toothwork or to another doctor have a endoscopy or something? Essentially what is going on is that you arent necessarily overcome with a compulsion to tell the truth, rather the drug puts you into a dissociative state. Essentially a form of anesthesia w... | [
"Sodium thiopental is an ultra-short-acting barbiturate that is marketed under the name Sodium Pentothal. It is often mistaken for \"truth serum\", or sodium amytal, an intermediate-acting barbiturate that is used for sedation and to treat insomnia, but was also used in so-called sodium amytal \"interviews\" where ... |
What contributions to the Gulf War did Coalition nations (Aside from the US) make? | This [map](_URL_1_) should help illustrate the various nation's contributions to Desert Storm, as well as show how they fit into the overall strategy.
But just to highlight two important contributions, first the Arab forces on the Coalition's right flank, and especially the Saudi Arabian forces, were the target of the... | [
"The US role in the Gulf War was very significant. When Iraq decided to invade another Arab country, Kuwait, several Arab states decided to enter to free Kuwait; the US adopted these States, and headed the coalition forces, which gave the US the image of a liberator, especially among the rich Arab states of Saudi A... |
Was the Berlin Wall built by the Soviets, the allied or as a joint project? | The wall was built by the GDR with prior consultation with the Soviets. There was no joint effort to ease tension and the move was condemned by the West in general and actually raised tensions.
I have never considered the question how much foreknowledge western governments had, but [this](_URL_0_) German newspaper art... | [
"On August 13, 1961, a barbed-wire barrier that would become the Berlin Wall separating East and West Berlin was erected by East Germany. Two days later, police and army engineers began to construct a more permanent concrete wall. The construction briefly caused fears of a military crisis, though only 11,000 wester... |
why won't gas prices go back to pre-9/11 prices if we are producing as much if not more oil? | Market price has nothing to do with WHO makes it.
When the US comes up with an oilfield on federal land, the government makes out like gangbusters. It's tax income.
The oil will ALWAYS be sold at market value, no matter where it comes from. Even if you were so deluded as to say "we're gonna sell gas to Americans ... | [
"During the significant oil price rise through 2007, a theme among several industry observers was that the price rise was only partially due to a limit in crude oil availability (peak oil). For example, an article by Jad Mouawad cited an unusual number of fires and other outages among U.S. refineries in the summer ... |
why does a country downstream from a dam suffer a hit to its water supply? doesn't the net water flow stay the same? | One big factor is evaporation. A reservoir generally creates a greater water temperature in the upper layer and a larger surface area, which increases evaporation and reduces downstream water availability. Also infiltration can be a problem, with water becoming groundwater due to the fact that it's sitting in the res... | [
"Dams can severely reduce the amount of water reaching countries downstream of them, causing water stress between the countries, e.g. the Sudan and Egypt, which damages farming businesses in the downstream countries, and reduces drinking water.\n",
"Because large conventional dammed-hydro facilities hold back lar... |
I have a vague question about medieval English literature. It involves a half-remembered piece from a class I took as an undergrad. | Possibly The Battle of Maldon?
_URL_0_
(Though I can't find the bit about blood in the water..) | [
"He obtained some knowledge of literature and history by reading old German books that he found in the attic of a local manor house; although he did not know the language at first, he enjoyed looking at the pictures and asked grown-ups about the meaning of the texts. In the process he shaped his own imaginary world... |
how does windows know wether i am plugin in a new printer/keyboard/mouse/etc? | every device has a chip that says what it is. like a person says his/her name to you. so you know name of that person. | [
"The desktop tool automatically compares the desktop version of a file stored on the user's computer and the handheld version of the file. If they do not match, it applies changes made on one version to the other version, transferring the document to or from the device's memory.\n",
"Users can press the default C... |
when producers say, let's say, an episode of the sopranos cost 2 million dollars, what do they mean? | Actors, Directors, Editors, Janitorial Staff, paying for stage time, cameras, effects etc.
So many people are involved who arent cheap to pay and then you have lots of expensive equipment that it all adds up very quickly.
I mean the three main actors on the Big Bang Theory each make 1 million dollars an episode. | [
"After salary re-negotiations in 2008, the voice actors received approximately $400,000 per episode. Three years later, with Fox threatening to cancel the series unless production costs were cut, Castellaneta and the other cast members accepted a 25 percent pay cut, down to over $300,000 per episode.\n",
"Up unti... |
how do our bodies/brains know how to do things we haven't learned? | In your case FYI, your brain does not know shit, it is all the natural processes of the body. The brain is actually a little less important than you think, still important, just slightly less.
How does it know? These mechanisms are simply programmed into DNA and the proteins it makes and the molecules said proteins ma... | [
"All three of these important systems in the brain function together as a team, one not being more important than the other. They work together to allow for responding to sensory events, timing, controlling physical actions, and more. However, it is important to remember than unless a person is actively practicing,... |
Is there a limit to how massive black holes can be? | Yes.
Our Universe is exponentially expanding (actually, it has just started to, but it's a minor point) and thus is approaching what is known as a de Sitter spacetime, due to the effect of dark energy. Distances grow exponentially:
(distance after time t) = e^(Ht) (distance now)
(some rough approximations here) wher... | [
"There is, however, an upper limit to how large supermassive black holes can grow. So-called ultramassive black holes (UMBHs), which are at least ten times the size of most supermassive black holes, at 10 billion solar masses or more, appear to have a theoretical upper limit of around 50 billion solar masses, as an... |
what makes the travelling salesman problem so difficult to solve? | Two reasons: input space growth, and a lack of greedy choice heuristics that can help.
So the traveling salesman has an solution space size that grows in factorials based on its input space.
If we were going to go through all possible paths with N cities, we’d have N! Combinations to go though. This grows much faste... | [
"Travelling Salesman is a 2012 intellectual thriller film about four mathematicians solving the P versus NP problem, one of the most challenging mathematical problems in history. The title refers to the Travelling salesman problem, an optimization problem that acts like a key to solving other mathematical problems ... |
are cyborg enhancements ever going to be a thing, and if so how far are we from it? | I think it'll be a thing.
Think about your phone. It's a portable device that responds to touch and voice commands, has global communications and GPS, allows near-instantaneous lookup of any information humans have ever researched, and functions as an entertainment system as well.
Going back 30 years, don't you th... | [
"On the contrary, the enhanced cyborg \"follows a principle, and it is the principle of optimal performance: maximising output (the information or modifications obtained) and minimising input (the energy expended in the process)\". Thus, the enhanced cyborg intends to exceed normal processes or even gain new functi... |
how does the "bidding website" scam work? | Those web site you see ads for that say PS3 just sold for $2.56. Well it did "sell" for that but the trick is that you must pay for each bid you enter like $1.And they will keep changing the end time of the auction so more people will pay that dollar to enter a bid. Technically it did sell for that, but that was after ... | [
"Scam methods may operate in reverse, with a stranger (not the registrar) communicating an offer to buy a domain name from an unwary owner. The offer is not genuine, but intended to lure the owner into a false sales process, with the owner eventually pressed to send money in advance to the scammer for appraisal fee... |
why do air conditioners on airplanes suck? | Are you saying they don't cool you down enough? I've always found them to keep me quite cool. | [
"Modern airliners use HEPA filters to reduce the spread of airborne pathogens in recirculated air. Critics have expressed concern about the effectiveness and state of repair of air filtering systems, since they think that much of the air in an airplane cabin is recirculated. Almost all of the air in a pressurized a... |
why don't desktop computer have their own battery? | There's no reason they can't. They just aren't built that way. What would be the point? It's not really portable, so it's not like you could use a desktop on battery wherever you went. I guess you could use it if the power went out, but how are you going to use a desktop without power for the monitor. If you're going t... | [
"A small segment of desktop replacements do not include a battery as a standard feature, while some do not include ExpressCard support. They have the same limitations on serviceability as laptops, and can rarely use identical components to a desktop computer.\n",
"Unlike later portable computers from Apple and ot... |
Could an EMP wipe the data on a hard drive? | The electric circuitry in the harddrive would break long before any information stored would be compromised. Hard disks utilize a Neodymium magnet to write bits, which is so powerful you could hurt yourself if you got a finger stuck between it and a metal surface. In addition, the computer case would act as a Faraday c... | [
"A powerful EMP can also directly affect magnetic materials and corrupt the data stored on media such as magnetic tape and computer hard drives. Hard drives are usually shielded by heavy metal casings. Some IT asset disposition service providers and computer recyclers use a controlled EMP to wipe such magnetic medi... |
How did people keep fleas off of domesticated dogs 100, 200, or even 500 years ago. | I'm not sure people even tried to keep bugs off themselves. I read the memories of a Yiddish baker in Varsaw a hundred years ago, he describes how the bakery was full of spiders, fleas, lice, mice, rats, sometimes in the dough itself, and people just didn't pay any attention to it. Then he describes with some details h... | [
"During the 1960s and 1970s \"Professor\" Len Tomlinson operated one of the UK's last flea circuses in a small booth on the amusement park. The attraction consisted of harnessed human fleas racing chariots at the rate of an inch every few seconds, pulling a garden roller, riding a tricycle and \"fencing fleas\" scr... |
what's the difference between bacteria, viruses, fungi and pathogens? | Bacteria and fungi are living things. They're made of cells, they all have DNA, they reproduce themselves, they eat stuff, break it down and use it to power themselves, excreting any waste etc. They essentially do all the basic things we can do.
Bacteria are always made up of a single cell, and inside that cell their ... | [
"Pathogens include bacteria, fungi, protozoa, helminths, and viruses. Each of these different types of organisms can then be further classified as a pathogen based on its mode of transmission. This includes the following: food borne, airborne, waterborne, blood borne, and vector-borne. Many pathogenic bacteria, suc... |
how are lenticular clouds formed? | Pretty simple, actually. If you have a fairly stable air mass that flows over an obstruction, it gets lifted. As it rises, it cools, and when it reaches the dew point you can now see the cloud as the moisture condenses to form droplets. A good way to think of clouds is that they are the visible part of a moisture pl... | [
"BULLET::::- Around the crest of the wave, adiabatic expansion cooling can form a cloud in shape of a lens (lenticularis). Multiple lenticular clouds can be stacked on top of each other if there are alternating layers of relatively dry and moist air aloft.\n",
"Lenticular clouds (\"Lenticularis\" in Latin) are st... |
Why Moscow and not Novgorod? | Politically, the rise of Moscow is closely connected to its princes being basically the main Mongol enforcers in the Russian principalities until they were strong enough to drive the Tatars out in 1380 (and finally in 1480). However the area geographically is far from insignificant. This part of Rus' lands is basically... | [
"According to the Russian historian Kluchevsky, the rise of Moscow under Ivan I Kalita was determined by three factors. The first one was that the Moscow principality was situated in the middle of other Russian principalities; thus, it was protected from any invasions from the East and from the West. Compared to it... |
Does it take the same amount of energy to change the temperature of water at 0 °C by +50 as it does -50? If not then why? | What your question boils down is whether the heat capacity of ice is the same as water. The heat capacity of water is 1 calorie/degree/gram (that's what a calorie is), and the heat capacity of ice is about half that. So, it would take less energy to change it to -50 from 0 (if it were ice) than to +50 (if it were water... | [
"The definition of the kelvin underwent a fundamental change. Rather than using the triple point of water to fix the temperature scale, the new definition uses the energy equivalent as given by Boltzmann's equation.\n",
" The temperature and pressure at which ordinary solid, liquid, and gaseous water coexist in e... |
how can the president "bypass" congress to make legislation without congressional approval? | He can't. He can issue executive orders, but those are directions to employees in the Executive Branch on how to carry out enforcing federal laws. Actual laws have to be passed by Congress. | [
"The President must sign and approve all bills adopted by Parliament before they become law. The President must decide on ratification within three months of receiving the bill and may request an opinion from the Supreme Court or the Supreme Administrative Court before giving assent. Should the President refuse ass... |
why do computers have detachable power cords when most appliances have fixed ones? and why do they all have the strange 3 pronged connector? | The connector you mention is a C13/C14 connector.
The female part is a C13 and the male part is a C14.
They are part of an international standard called [IEC 60320](_URL_0_) that also includes the two pronged razor type connectors (C1/C2) and the three pronged "mickey mouse" style connectors (C5/C6) as well as bigge... | [
"Power strips are generally considered a safer alternative to “double adapters”, “two-way plugs”, “three-way plugs”, or “cube taps” which plug directly into the socket with no lead for multiple appliances. These low-cost adapters are generally not fused (although more modern ones in the UK and Ireland are). Therefo... |
credit cards, what are they, are they all the same? if not, which are better for whom? | Credit Cards are a way of paying for things. When you need to buy something, you can put it on a Credit Card, which is like promising the person you are buying it from that you will pay for it later. But what actually happens is that the credit card company pays them, and you owe the credit card company instead.
Depen... | [
"Credit cards offer an alternative method of payment to cash or check and make life simpler for many people; however, today there are over 600 million credit cards issued in the United States alone and four major credit card companies. It is no longer even possible to buy a car, get a home loan, or rent an apartmen... |
uk elections - after the election...what do the members of parliament who are not elected do with themselves? | > Or are they still MPs with an active role in our country? Who is paying them?
If they are not re-elected they are no longer MPs (that's the point) and so have no formal role in government.
> Also when other parties are debating against the elected party in the house of parliament, who is paying these other pa... | [
"United Kingdom general elections are held following a dissolution of Parliament. All the Members of Parliament (MPs) forming the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom are elected. Following the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, parliamentary sessions last five years and the only way that an early... |
Does anybody have any good articles or accesible books to recommend, for someone interested in the history of science and how it affected people? | Hi there -- a good place to start might be [this section of our books list](_URL_0_). If you have questions about any of the titles there, feel free to ask here! | [
"Based on an article Brooks wrote for \"New Scientist\" in March 2005, the book, aimed at the general reader rather than the science community, contains discussion and description of a number of unresolved issues in science. It is a literary effort to discuss some of the inexplicable anomalies that after centuries ... |
What have been some of the "sea changes" in the way historians pursue their discipline? | Like most branches of knowledge gathering, the study of history was launched into the Western tradition by the Ancient Greeks and gained most of its modern form in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Greek author Herodotus (c. 480-430 BC) is the earliest proper historian of which we know. He is still sometimes referred t... | [
"One approach to maritime history writing has been nicknamed 'rivet counting' because of a focus on the minutiae of the vessel. But revisionist scholars are creating new turns in the study of maritime history. This includes a post-1980s turn towards the study of human users of ships (which involves sociology, cultu... |
What problems did becoming the "Successor State" to the USSR bring Russia? | hi all. Just a reminder that this subreddit has a "20-year rule" against discussing current events: do restrict all discussion to events/conditions prior to 1995 only. Since the USSR dissolved in 1991, that doesn't give much room, but c'est la vie. Thanks!
OP, if you're looking for more current information, it may be ... | [
"On 25 January 1918, at the third meeting of the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, the unrecognized state was renamed the Russian Soviet Republic. On 3 March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, giving away much of the land of the former Russian Empire to the German Empire (Germany), in exchange for peace o... |
why is the u.s. rail system so awful? | The U.S. *passenger* rail system is bad. The U.S. has one of the best freight rail systems in the world.
Simply put, the U.S. is an enormous country with its population comparatively spread out. Rail is good for linking densely populated areas but no good for the scattered towns and sprawling cities that most American... | [
"Slippery rail has created severe disruptions of rail service, particularly in major metropolitan areas such as New York or Boston. In November 2006, it was blamed for roughly one-third of all Metro-North Railroad's Hudson and Harlem lines' passenger cars being taken out of service. During the same period on the Lo... |
Does the Doppler Effect apply to objects that are simply reflecting waves, or do they have to be specifically emitting the waves? | If the object reflecting the waves is moving? Then you get the Doppler effect as well. You even get it twice: Once to calculate the frequency the reflecting object sees, and again to calculate the frequency we see for the reflected waves. | [
"The Doppler effect is the change in frequency or wavelength of a wave for a receiver and source in relative motion. For simplicity, we consider here two basic scenarios: (1) The motions of the source and/or receiver are exactly along the line connecting them (longitudinal Doppler effect), and (2) the motions are a... |
what would happen if no insects were killed; would the earth be overrun with insects? | Yes. That's why predators are important. The loss of predators in an environment can cause an ecological disaster. See the Mexican Wolf in the American Southwest. Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico have been granting unprecedently high limits for hunters in the area, because, with the wolves near extinction, the d... | [
"In 2019, research was published showing that insects are destroyed by human activities like habitat destruction, pesticide poisoning, invasive species and climate change at a rate that will cause the collapse of ecological systems in the next 50 years if it cannot be stopped.\n",
"BULLET::::- If all the insects ... |
What was the likelihood of a frontline German soldier during WWII surviving the entirety of the war, from the invasion of Poland to surrender in 1945, and are there any known cases of that occurring? | I can't speak to any odds of soldiers surviving the entire war, but I know that there were soldiers who have done it.
Hans Von Luck is the one that comes to mind although he technically was an officer, but he did spend a significant amount of time on the front and fought in almost every major theater of WWII including... | [
"A large number of 580 AT Co's men became casualties, burned or drowned in the \"Hellas\" disaster, or taken prisoner of war (POW) – many of them badly injured – when they could not be evacuated. The unit's records were lost, and inquiries among survivors and returning POWs continued into 1945 in attempts to find o... |
When did people start using oil for cooking? What made them think to use oil for cooking? | There are are variety of different cooking methods we know of from prehistory. Spitted meat seems broadly common, in British Isles and Scandinavia there's evidence of heated stones and water pits being used to cook as well as spitted meat (Keating 1908:326), in Polynesia and other places there's evidence of essentially... | [
"Oils were used for aesthetic pleasure and in the beauty industry. It was a luxury item and a means of payment. It was believed the essential oils increased the shelf life of wine and improved the taste of food.\n",
"The technology of oil transportation has evolved alongside the oil industry. Although human use o... |
how do people with diseases like dementia and alzheimer's remember how to speak their language? | Alzheimer's disease affects the retention or creation of memory. Use this metaphor to help you:
Think of your memory as a huge stack of paper.
Every time you need to remember something, you flip through the stack until you find the right page.
When you need to remember something else, you place the page you were usi... | [
"Language problems are mainly characterised by a shrinking vocabulary and decreased word fluency, leading to a general impoverishment of oral and written language. In this stage, the person with Alzheimer's is usually capable of communicating basic ideas adequately. While performing fine motor tasks such as writing... |
virtual public networks (vpns), proxy servers, and how to set them up on a computer | Five Year old Answer (i.e, not 100% accurate and simplified)
**A virtual PRIVATE network:**
A VPN allows your computer to act as if it were physically connected to your work's office network even though you might be at home. You will have connections to file shares, printers, and other resources on your local offi... | [
"Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are a significant tool to allow private citizens to get around network sovereignty and any restrictions their government may place on their access to the internet. VPNs allow a computer to route its Internet connection from one location to another. For example one would connect from... |
what causes the point in your voice that drastically changes the pitch? | Basically your voice has several different "registers," or areas of production. These registers are characterized by a different vocal fold position and vibration pattern in order to create higher or lower pitches but we experience them mostly by where we feel them resonate. The lowest normal register is called "chest ... | [
"In the modal register, the length, the tension, and the mass of the vocal folds are in a state of flux which causes the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds to vary. As pitch rises, the vocal folds increase in length and in tension, and their edges become thinner. If a speaker or singer holds any of the three... |
why do humans sing along to songs on the radio instead of just listening to them? | Humans are social creatures, and singing together is a somewhat instinctive reaction that appears across many separate cultures. It helps us to bond, as a ritual. | [
"Music is the only form of communication that saves us from an overwhelming amount of small talk. This is not only a human phenomenon, but happens throughout the animal world. Thomas makes examples of animals from termites and earthworms to gorillas and alligators that perform some sort of rhythmic noise making tha... |
how can the price of food, school, cars, and consumer goods in general outpace inflation? isn't that the definition of inflation? | Rising prices can't outpace inflation, because they \*are\*, as you say, inflation. They can outpace the purchasing power of a dollar (or whatever monetary unit.) They can outpace income, or specifically the minimum wage, which is often a topic of discussion.
People often use the word 'inflation' to mean 'the whole pr... | [
"Conceptually, inflation refers to the general trend of prices, not changes in any specific price. For example, if people choose to buy more cucumbers than tomatoes, cucumbers consequently become more expensive and tomatoes cheaper. These changes are not related to inflation; they reflect a shift in tastes. Inflati... |
Ancient Celts Bibliography | Simon James - The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention
Simon James - Exploring the World of the Celts
J.V.S. Megaw and M.R. Megaw - "Ancient Celts and Modern Ethnicity," in Antiquity, 70 (1996)
These show 2 side of the debate on current knowledge of the origins and development of "the Celts."
Ben Ande... | [
"Archaeology provides much information regarding the material culture of the Celts, but the significance of these finds in determining how the ancient Celts actually fought is the subject of much speculation. It was long thought, for instance, that the Celts were headhunters but recent research from France has indi... |
At what point did Urdu and Hindi emerge and why out of all the others were they designated as national languages of Pakistan and India respectively? | To fully answer your question would take days to typing. So i'll start us with Sauraseni instead of going too far back. The most important players in changing the Indian Sub-Continent, even more than the British, were the Mughals. They were the last remnants of the great Khanates left behind by Genghis Khan. They occu... | [
"As Urdu and Hindi became means of religious and social construction for Muslims and Hindus respectively, each register developed its own script. According to Islamic tradition, Arabic, the language spoken by the prophet Muhammad and uttered in the revelation of the Qur'an, holds spiritual significance and power. B... |
What made the national borders in Africa be drawn where they are, other than who their colonial overlords were. Eg. why isn't Mali and Niger one country and why is their border where it currently is? | Most African borders are indeed drawn by colonial rulers without much regard for existing political structures; the colonisation was a process with many competing interests, both between countries and within them (e.g. companies, colonial authorities), and thus as with any 'land acquisition' there needed to be some way... | [
"Niger has ongoing processes delimiting sections of their borders with Burkina Faso and Mali, disputes which date back to the colonial period. These entities, along with Benin and other nations which do not border Niger, were semi independent elements of French West Africa. Within the colonial administration, borde... |
Why can't HIV be spread by vectors? | [The US NIH reports on this](_URL_1_).
HIV is a human disease and hasn't spread to any sort of insect. If a mosquito bites you, the virus dies inside it very quickly. And the mosquito isn't going to inject someone else with your HIV-positive blood (or vice versa); it's going to inject you with an anticoagulant and suc... | [
"Unlike viral vectors, non-viral ones avoid the risk of acquiring replication competence. They have the capacity to deliver a large amount of therapeutic genes repeatedly, and it is convenient to produce them on a large scale. The most important of all, they do not elicit immune responses in the host organism. In s... |
Why is it that when you're in a "dark" room and you focus on a really dark spot, everything, even light, will start to fade away? | What you describe is an example of Sensory Adaptation. Through the process of sensory adaptation, our sensory systems become less sensitive to constant, unchanging stimuli.
In your scenario, if your eyes remain motionless, what little light is present will continually stimulate the same retinal photoreceptors at the ... | [
"A dark area has limited light sources, making things hard to see. Exposure to alternating light and darkness (night and day) has caused several evolutionary adaptations to darkness. When a vertebrate, like a human, enters a dark area, its pupils dilate, allowing more light to enter the eye and improving night visi... |
why are there only testosterone injections and there are not testosterone pills? | Because Testosterone has a ridiculously short half life, and there's no way to esterify it in a pill. It would also need to be alkylated, which would make it liver toxic.
An injectible compound can be esterified, which means it can be released in a predictable and measured amount to create a stable blood concentratio... | [
"Enhancing substances (steroids) are sometimes used in the fitness industry to promote the development of muscle in a shorter amount of time. It is easier for a male to gain muscle mass than for women to gain muscle due to the amounts of testosterone that males have. Steroids are illegal unless they are prescribed ... |
Why do microscopic images have to be artificially colored? | Bacteria don't have much color on their own, so often they're stained. Things inside a cell, minus, say, chloroplasts, have almost no color at all, so those are almost always stained with a reagent that makes the feature of interest stand out.
When you get down to, say, single molecules (yes, we can see single mole... | [
"Another problem with color reproduction systems is connected with the acquisition devices, like cameras or scanners. The characteristics of the color sensors in the devices are often very far from the characteristics of the receptors in the human eye. In effect, acquisition of colors can be relatively poor if they... |
Is there a means to conclusively prove or disprove the concept of parallel worlds? | Nobody knows of any such experiment, and depending on what you mean by "parallel" here, probably none could exist. If another universe cannot interact with ours by definition, then it cannot be proven to exist or not to exist. | [
"Another speculation is that the separate worlds remain weakly coupled (e.g., by gravity) permitting \"communication between parallel universes\". A possible test of this using quantum-optical equipment is described in a 1997 \"Foundations of Physics\" article by Rainer Plaga. It involves an isolated ion in an ion ... |
Why did The vast majority of protestant voters vote for hitler in the 1932 election and the vast majority of catholics vote against him? | From an [earlier answer of mine](_URL_0_)
The [electoral map](_URL_1_) showcasing Catholic areas voting for the NSDAP reflects the nature of the late-Weimar political parties and their respective political strongholds in Germany. One of the most pervasive political parties of both Imperial Germany and Weimar was the ... | [
"Many Protestants voted for the Nazis in the elections of summer and autumn 1932 and March 1933. There is a remarkable gap to the Catholic populated areas, where the results of the Nazis were lower, even after the Machtergreifung (\"seizure of power\") of Hitler.\n",
"After Adolf Hitler imposed on all German chur... |
why do the same apps and programs on different operating systems perform differently on the same hardware? | I suppose that's because different systems consume different quantities of your resources like cpu, ram and others to be working, so it's different when you have 50% of cpu power and 70% of cpu power left to use on your apps and programs. | [
"Operating system is one of the requirements mentioned when defining system requirements (software). Software may not be compatible with different versions of same line of operating systems, although some measure of backward compatibility is often maintained. For example, most software designed for Microsoft Window... |
how are small businesses allowed to sell shirts based on popular shows/movies | Because the owner of the trademark isn't willing to put forth the legal manpower to sue. An attorney costs hundreds per hour. To file paperwork to sue thousands of shops for $100 of sales is economically unsound. | [
"Promotion and packaging: Companies are allowed to brand their products, but they must avoid anything that would appear to appeal directly to youth such as cartoon characters, animals, or celebrity endorsements. Event sponsorship is also not allowed. Companies can also use factual information on their packaging, su... |
how do radio stations transmit digital "hd" radio signal over the same fm frequencies used for standard radio? | They aren't the same *exact* frequencies. The frequencies used for the HD signals are right next to the ones used for analog broadcasts.
From Wikipedia:
> HD Radio is a trademarked term for iBiquity's in-band on-channel (IBOC) digital radio technology used by AM and FM radio stations to transmit audio and data by usi... | [
"The AM version of HD Radio technology uses the 20 kHz channel (±10 kHz), and overlaps 5 kHz into the opposite sideband of the adjacent channel on both sides. When operating in pure digital mode, the AM HD Radio signal fits inside a standard 20 kHz channel (20–40 kbit/s) or an extended 30 kHz channel (40–60 kbit/s)... |
if a journalist writes about a source that pays them, it's a conflict of interest and against the work ethos. why is it considered ok for politicans to make laws which affect companies who pay them through campaign donations? | Because while journalists are expected to be representing the objective truth of a story, politicians are expected to be representing the goals of their constituents and backers. The politician is already *supposed* to be biased as compared to journalism being unbiased. | [
"Among the reasons cited for why it is unethical to pay a source, one is that it can easily affect the credibility of the information the source provides. Since paying a source creates a legal business relationship, it can also affect a journalist's ability to remain objective. The payments are typically for exclus... |
do the dates of world wide events change depend on what country you ask (due to timezones)? | Normandy wasn't exactly a worldwide event, though it had worldwide consequences. It happened in France, so it would make sense to talk about it based on the day it happened *in France*. | [
"Because of the division of the globe into time zones, the new year moves progressively around the globe as the start of the day ushers in the New Year. The first time zone to usher in the New Year, just west of the International Date Line, is located in the Line Islands, a part of the nation of Kiribati, and has a... |
what keeps bread from toasting when it bakes? | Bread still toasts pretty good when baking, it just depends on temperature and how far away from the heat source the bread is. | [
"Bread toasted in a conventional toaster can \"sweat\" when it is served (i.e. water collects on the surface of the cooled toast). This occurs because moisture in the bread becomes steam while being toasted due to heat and when cooled the steam condenses into water droplets on the surface of the bread.\n",
"Toast... |
how can the government credibly investigate itself, if the government appoints its own investigators? | Because a government isn't a single monolithic thing, it is a group of people with different interests and motivations. If enough of those people want an investigation, there will be an investigation.
| [
"The Director of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau may seek the President's assent to inquire or carry out investigations regarding information received about the conduct of any person, or any allegation or complaint made against any person. If the President exercises his discretion in concurring with the ... |
why are my knees so much more sensitive than when i was a kid? | Don't run so many knee marathons. | [
"It might be tempting to speculate that areas of the skin that are the most sensitive to touch would also be the most ticklish, but this does not seem to be the case. While the palm of the hand is far more sensitive to touch, most people find that the soles of their feet are the most ticklish. Other commonly tickli... |
how do you know your ballot was counted? how are ballots counted anyway? | How to be sure around the world: become a vote counter. It's a seasonal job of sorts, popular with teachers and retirees (and especially retired teachers). You get paid, fed, and get to not only make sure your own vote gets counted, but also all the other votes.
As for the procedure, here in Denmark we use paper vote... | [
"\"Only one ballot is to be counted at a time,\" Dunn told the Chicago Tribune. \"When the judge takes the envelopes out of the ballot box he numbers them. There is a pocket in the discard envelope to contain the smaller envelope which holds the voted coupons. The Judge takes the coupons out and reads the vote by t... |
When did Americans start spelling "arse" like "ass"? Did this reflect pronunciation, or was it euphemistic, like "shoot" for "shit"? | [Seems to have been just a sound change.](_URL_1_) The sound /r/ was lost before /s/ in words like curse (cuss), parcel (passel), and burst (bust). Sound changes like that are typically systematic, even if they don't happen to every possible word - words like *worse*, *course*, and *fierce* were apparently not includ... | [
"The English word \"ass\" (meaning donkey, a cognate of its zoological name \"Equus asinus\") may also be used as a term of contempt, referring to a silly or stupid person. In the United States (and, to a lesser extent, Canada), the words \"arse\" and \"ass\" have become synonymous.\n",
"BULLET::::- , mostly in A... |
How real was a Nazi invasion of the United States had Britain fallen? | There was a similar thread about this a few months ago [here](_URL_0_)
I'll copy my answer below:
As far as I know, there has never been a serious plan by any nation for the invasion and occupation of the mainland US. In both World Wars Germany (and in WWII Japan) limited their warplans to establishing naval supremac... | [
"With the Fall of France in July 1940, the Germans threatened to invade Britain. The British Government made frantic efforts to prepare to meet the threatened invasion. One particular problem was the defence of airfields against airborne troops.\n",
"Following the fall of France in July 1940, the Germans threaten... |
how do universal health care systems work, and why is the united states essentially the only developed country without universal health care? | Tax money goes to healthcare in a single payer system, and in turn is used to pay the doctors. The US doesn't like it because it looks like communism, and ultimately Americans in general like to be told what to do as little as possible. The US does have single payer systems, but they aren't universal due to bad experie... | [
"The United States is alone among developed nations in not having a universal health care system; the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provides a nationwide health insurance exchange that came to fruition in 2014, but this is not universal in the way similar countries mean it. Healthcare in the U.S. ... |
why do i have to wear a lead cover on my crotch when getting x-ray'd? what would happen if i didn't? | The little radioactive guys beat up your little swimmy guys (or eggy girls) and make it so you can't have little people guys. | [
"Some people wish to prevent either the loss of privacy or the possibility of health problems or genetic damage that might be associated with being subjected to a backscatter X-ray scan. One company sells X-ray absorbing underwear which is said to have X-ray absorption equivalent to of lead. Another product, Flying... |
Can an object (w/mass) moving infinitely close to the speed of light become a black hole? | No. The motion doesn't change the mass of the object. Also consider the following. You are already moving at an arbitrarily large speed in some reference frame. Are you a black hole? Nope. | [
"BULLET::::- At the event horizon, formula_30 the speed of light shining outward away from the center of black hole is formula_31 It can not escape from the event horizon. Instead, it gets stuck at the event horizon. Since light moves faster than all others, matter can only move inward at the event horizon. Everyth... |
why aren't bikers lawfully required to wear helmets? | In many states, they are. But in some states they trust the rider to make the wise decision for themselves. In populated areas it is wise, but out in the desert it is nice to have the choice. | [
"Motorcycle helmets greatly reduce injuries and fatalities in motorcycle accidents, thus many countries have laws requiring acceptable helmets to be worn by motorcycle riders. These laws vary considerably, often exempting mopeds and other small-displacement bikes. In some countries, most notably the USA and India, ... |
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