question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
|---|---|---|
Its 1775 and I'm a young man living in Boston. I want to buy a gun, for... reasons... Where do I buy from? What selection do I have? Where were the guns manufactured? How did the guns make their way to Boston? And how will my firearm stack up to the firearms of those stinking English? | The simplest answer is that you'd buy your guns from a gunsmith or other merchant who would sell or import guns, but even that varied by colony and region. Even though the British, when "the troubles" started up, were understandably more sensitive to colonists' access to firearms, it was never seriously considered to a... | [
"Charles Daly was born in New York City on October 12, 1839. In the late nineteenth century, around 1875, in New York City, Charles Daly and August Shoverling began a business importing firearms into the United States, primarily from the city of Suhl in what was then Prussia. Manufacturers for Daly at that time inc... |
How much of the Meiji Restoration was Meiji actually involved in/in control of? | I recently answered a similar question: [To what degree was the Meiji Emperor personally involved in the modernization associated with his name?](_URL_0_). | [
"The foundation of the Meiji Restoration was the 1866 Satsuma-Chōshū Alliance between Saigō Takamori and Kido Takayoshi, leaders of the reformist elements in the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain. These two leaders supported the Emperor Kōmei (Emperor Meiji's father) and were brought together by Sakamoto Ryōma for t... |
If I took a picture of the night sky and told you the time I took the picture, how accurately could you guess my location? | Given a view of the north or south horizon, it would be possible to deduce latitude by comparing the angular measurement between 2 stars (known) and between them and the ground.
A picture including the east or west could then show a star on the horizon. If you gave us the time [and date] in GMT, somebody could deduce ... | [
"Suitable times for making photos were when the observer's sky was dark enough to show stars but the very high altitude satellite was directly illuminated by the sun. Most such times were during the two hours before dawn or after sunset at the observer's location, but vehicles reaching sufficiently southerly or nor... |
why do my dogs take a few steps forward and strut the dirt backwards after they do a #2? | I think it depends on both breed and age. Some breeds will try to kick dirt over their.... waste, to try to bury it so their scent and presence is disguised. In the right breeds, this happens more frequently when they're weak, old, or aware of a more dominate dog's presence. However, some breeds don't have this instinc... | [
"If a dog is too large, he will not be able to get past turns in the tunnel, and will have to be dug to every few feet. If a dog has to dig to the quarry when the tunnel tightens down (as it invariably will), the dog will have to push dirt behind it to progress, which can result in the dog being “bottled” by dirt f... |
why is steel colder than plastic when touched in freezing temperatures? | We don't feel temperature. We feel the rate of heat transfer. Metal is a good conductor of heat, and thus "sucks heat away" from our hands faster than plastic at the same temperature. Thus is feels colder. | [
"Cold work also serves to harden the material's surface. This makes cracks less likely to form at the surface and provides resistance to abrasion. When a metal undergoes strain hardening its yield strength increases but its ductility decreases. Strain hardening actually increases the number of dislocations in the c... |
why does sometimes we feel that the light flickered off for just a moment? | maybe it did | [
"As Jennifer Tipton said to \"The New York Times\" \"I feel that light is like music. In some abstract, emotional, noncerebral, nonliterary way, it makes us feel, it makes us see, it makes us think, all without knowing exactly how and why.\" She talks about how probably 99.9% of the audience isn't even really aware... |
My Grandad Came Across an Iron Cross | This appears to be an Iron Cross 2nd Class from 1939. They're not particularly rare as around 4.5m were awarded over the course of the war, so it's entirely possible one of your family picked one up off the battlefield but without any documentation or more information it's impossible to tell who it belonged to. They we... | [
"The Iron Cross (, abbreviated EK) is a former military decoration in the Kingdom of Prussia, and later in the German Empire (1871–1918) and Nazi Germany (1933–1945). It was established by King Frederick William III of Prussia in March 1813 backdated to the birthday of his late wife Queen Louise on 10 March 1813 du... |
why are office buildings so cold? | To ensure the fire of your soul remains extinguished | [
"Winter was always a tough time for the establishment. Snow was very frequent in the area, and due to the light construction of the buildings, maintenance workers were often needed to live within the hotel, their primary job to keep snow off the roofs so they would not collapse under the weight. \n",
"The buildin... |
How efficient is the human body at absorbing and using the chemical energy in food, and can that efficiency be changed? | [Xenical](_URL_1_) is a widely available drug (in places) that works by reducing fat absorption.
A [drug](_URL_0_) in the 30's worked in a similar but different way. It uncoupled oxidative phosphorylation resulting in a very inefficient use of chemical energy in food. This resulted in lots of heat being produced howe... | [
"Absorption efficiency is estimated to be between 9 and 22%. The absorption and conversion of carotenoids may depend on the form of β-carotene (e.g., cooked vs. raw vegetables, or in a supplement), the intake of fats and oils at the same time, and the current stores of vitamin A and β-carotene in the body. Research... |
how come you cannot carrier unlock a mobile phone without paying for a "code", even with custom firmware and root access? | The cellular radio is controlled by a separate processor (often called a baseband processor) with completely separate firmware.
In order to bypass the lock, you either need to get that CPU to release the lock by giving it the code it wants, or you need to somehow hack into it.
The problem is that even if you can ins... | [
"Before carriers began voluntarily providing unlock codes for all phone models, in 2010 the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) successfully convinced the United States Copyright Office to allow an exemption to the general prohibition on circumvention of copyright protection systems under the Digital Millennium Co... |
why are the bodies left on mt. everest and are not returned to the families? | Summiting Everest requires a great deal of money, and it's quite treacherous.
Every corpse you see on Everest is someone who died on the way to the summit or on the way back. It's hard enough to do it carrying all of the gear (oxygen bottles, tent gear, clothing, food, climbing gear, so on) that they have to carry.
... | [
"Expeditions have removed supplies and equipment left by climbers on Everest’s slopes, including hundreds of oxygen containers. A large quantity of the litter of past climbers—tons of items such as tents, cans, crampons, and human waste—has been hauled down from the mountain and recycled or discarded. However, the ... |
why do asian people (primarily women) cover their faces/mouths when smiling/laughing? | In Japanese culture it's impolite to show bone (your teeth) | [
"Smiling is an important skill for Japanese women working in the service industry. Almost all service industry companies in Japan require their female staff to smile for long periods of time. Natsume says that his female patients often talk about the importance of smiling when the topic of the conversation is on th... |
how does digital radio work? why is there still occasional signal interference with digital? | If AM radio waves were visible, you'd see each channel (frequency) as a specific color of varying intensity.
For FM, you'd see a fixed intensity but the color would vary around a specific one.
Interference would look as other sources of colored light that mix up or overpower your radio station.
For digital, sounds a... | [
"Digital radio is the use of digital technology to transmit or receive across the radio spectrum. Digital transmission by radio waves includes digital broadcasting, and especially digital audio radio services.\n",
"By utilizing additional digital subcarriers or sidebands, digital information is \"multiplexed\" on... |
how could disappear over 4 trilion usd during the financial crisis from 2007? | Here's a way to think about it.
You own a painting. You think that the painting is an original by Da Vinci, worth $10 million. You have the value of that painting as part of your net worth, not cause you have the actual cash on hand, but because the painting has worth and adds value.
However, something horrible hap... | [
"On November 5, 2007, several days after Merrill Lynch announced that it too had been losing billions from the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States, Citi reported that it will lose between $8 billion and $11 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007, in addition to the $6.5 billion it lost in the third quarter... |
before midi, how did musicians time the beats exactly right? | Practice by drummers. The main function of drums is to keep rhythm so any drummer worth their salt practices countless hours with a metronome to hone this skill.
It’s also not uncommon for musicians(drummers too) to record with a click track to keep them on tempo.
Also, the 70s is when programmable drum machines ... | [
"In the 20th century, composers like [[Igor Stravinsky]], [[Béla Bartók]], [[Philip Glass]], and [[Steve Reich]] wrote more rhythmically complex music using [[List of works in unusual time signatures|odd meters]], and techniques such as [[Phasing (music)|phasing]] and [[additive rhythm]]. At the same time, modernis... |
Often in Medieval Europe/Medieval Europe-influenced films we see warriors/soldiers practicing against each other with real swords. How accurate is this? Wouldn't this be exceedingly dangerous? | It depends on the type of training, for the most part.
Luckily, we do know that fencing practice was common in the medieval and early modern periods, and we also know a great deal about the types of weapons used for practice. A common retronymic term popular today is "feder," German for "feather," and used to refer to... | [
"Fights staged for entertainment may also be in earnest for the combatants, as was the case with the Roman gladiators, and any public duel, such as the judicial duel of the European Middle Ages. The medieval tournament and joust are a classical examples of competitive ritualised mock combat. The joust from the time... |
how are pets that spend all year inside in a temperature controlled house able to synchronize their shedding cycles with the seasons? | I'm pretty sure that stuff is regulated by amount of uv radiation and color temperature, not room temperature | [
"Many animals have a specific temperature range where they are active, meaning the times they are active vary with the seasons. Snakes and lizards hibernate during the winter months, are diurnal during the late spring and early fall, and become crepuscular during the heat of summer. Many insects and some birds also... |
why do many people enjoy messing with others to a certain extent? | If you mess with somebody (a little bit) and they take it well it can be both funny and endearing. It's funny, because it's audacious, and it goes beyond your everyday platitudes.
It's endearing in the sense that if they take it well you know they have a sense of humor, and that they don't take life as seriously as po... | [
"We’d do much better to teach them the signs of people (strangers or not) who are behaving badly: touching them inappropriately, being overly personal, trying to get them alone, acting drunk, provoking others or recklessly wielding weapons. We need to help children practice refusal skills, disengagement skills and ... |
Given the right trajectory and velocity, could an asteroid enter the atmosphere and not burn up? | In short, no. It can graze the atmosphere, in which case it can hit the molecules at a rate low enough that it won't burn up. Problem is that doing so won't be enough to capture it. If the asteroid is in a hyperbolic trajectory, then it will still continue to pass by. If the asteroid is just *barely* above escape v... | [
"If the asteroid had collided with Mars, it would have hit with a velocity of about 13.5 km/s (8.4 miles per second), and would have produced an explosion equivalent to about 3 megatons of TNT. Due to the thin atmosphere of Mars, it was predicted that the asteroid would have reached the surface intact and blasted o... |
Who is the earliest person referenced in the Old Testament for whom there is independent, i.e. non-biblical evidence that he/she actually existed? | The [Tel Dan Stele](_URL_1_) is an Aramaic language inscription which mentions both Hazael, a king of an ancient Syrian city-state, as well as King David. The verifiability of it referring to *the* King David is debatable in some groups, but Hazael [is mentioned by name in the Book of Kings](_URL_0_). This puts the f... | [
"The hypothesis takes its name from Augustine of Hippo, an early 5th century bishop and church father, who wrote: \"Now, those four evangelists whose names have gained the most remarkable circulation over the whole world, and whose number has been fixed as four, ...are believed to have written in the order which fo... |
Why was there so much animosity toward black people in the U.S. from it's inception through the 1960s (and to a smaller degree, beyond)? | To preface the below: visiting the intentions of ordinary Americans is a difficult and challenging task given the problems inherent in projecting psychoanalysis into History. Racism was frequently a subconscious act - even today, many people who do not regard themselves as racists still hold racially determinist views ... | [
"The gains made by African Americans in the civil rights movement and in the Black Power movement not only obtained certain rights for African Americans, but changed American society in far-reaching and fundamentally important ways. Prior to the 1950s, Black Americans in the South were subject to de jure discrimina... |
why do my lips get so dry in the winter? | Cold air holds less moisture than warm air - and if you take in cold air and warm it up, its relative humidity drops. So the air really can be dryer in the winter, which affects your lips and other parts (eyes, skin). | [
"Lip licking, biting, or rubbing habits are frequently involved. Counterintuitively, constant licking of the lips causes drying and irritation, and eventually the mucosa splits or cracks. The lips have a greater tendency to dry out in cold, dry weather. Digestive enzymes present in saliva may also irritate the lips... |
if the constitution clearly states we have the right to bear arms why is it illegal to have unregistered weapons or to carry weapons without a permit? | There are at least two responses to that. The first is that nearly all Constitutional text has to be interpreted for modern times. Justices like Scalia and Gorsuch try to stick to the original intent more than other justices, but even they agree that you can't interpret everything literally since technology, language, ... | [
"The Supreme Court has not ruled on whether the Second Amendment protects the right to carry guns in public for self-defense. Federal appeals courts have issued conflicting rulings on this point. For example, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled in 2012 that it does, saying, \"The Suprem... |
When the US was working on the Manhattan project, was the funding going into to it acknowledged to the US public? | When George C Marshall got the House of Represenatives to fund the Manhatten Project, he told them he could not tell him what the money is being spent on. His credibility was so high, that Congress gave him the money and did not ask any more questions. The Manhatten Proje... | [
"Following the United States entry into the second world war, the Manhattan Project emerged as a massive coordinated program to pursue development of nuclear weapons. Leading scientists such as Robert Oppenheimer, Glenn T. Seaborg, Enrico Fermi and Edward Teller were among the thousands of civilian scientists and e... |
A question for Greek Scientists/mathematicians:What notations do you use when doing math? | IANAS, but as far as I can recall we use greek letters for both constants and random variables, and latin letters for the SI units and respective variables in equations (F=ma, **m**illi,**k**ilo,**M**ega).
Constants such as Pi use the greek alphabet(π)
Variables are also in greek (ex. συνθ=cosθ)
Designators (sorry if... | [
"The notation is convenient for math students whose knowledge of trigonometry and complex numbers permit this notation, but whose conceptual understanding does not yet permit the notation . As students learn concepts that build on prior knowledge, it is important not to force them into levels of math for which they... |
Could quantum computing help predict catastrophic events? | Perfect predictions require perfect information and perfect rules of simulation.
Perfect information will almost certainly never be available, because there's way too much to collect and it changes way too quickly; and of course we've got the Uncertainty Principle as a limit at the bottom - you simply *can't* know ev... | [
"Economic and meteorological simulations may share a fundamental limit to their predictive powers: chaos. Although the modern mathematical work on chaotic systems began in the 1970s the danger of chaos had been identified and defined in \"Econometrica\" as early as 1958:\n",
"Hamiltonian simulation (also referred... |
Why did Avignon belong to the Papal States in the Middle Ages? | I responded to a similar question recently: [What is the city in Southern France that was never taken by the French till the revolution? And why did it remain independent for so long?](_URL_0_)
Basically for a brief summary of that, the land around Avignon, the Comtat Venaissin, was bequeathed to the Papacy in the wi... | [
"Avignon was sold to the papacy by Joanna I, Queen of Naples and Countess of Provence, in 1348, whereupon the two \"comtats\" were joined together to form a unified papal enclave geographically, though retaining their separate political identities.\n",
"From 1305 to 1378, the popes lived in the papal enclave of A... |
why can the human body heal stuff like flesh but not hearing or vision? | Hearing and vision are super high-level evolutionary functions. Late stage, very precise with lots of moving parts. Skin and flesh are much more primitive.
The primitive parts of you have way less constraints on them to perform their function. You say "heal" but in reality the word is "scar". The scar is a simple ... | [
"...the organs of vision are incapable of curing themselves … then the eyes must be totally different in kind from other parts of the body. Given favourable conditions, all other organs tend to free themselves from their defects. Not so the eyes. … it is a waste of time even to try to discover a treatment which wil... |
why is it that the french and americans have such a bond? | France is our oldest ally. They helped tremendously during our fight for independence. We may not always see eye to eye, but we have each others backs. | [
"French–American relations refers to the diplomatic, social, economic and cultural relations between France and the United States since 1776. France was the first ally of the new United States. The 1778 treaty and military support proved decisive in the American victory over Britain in the American Revolutionary Wa... |
difference between un and nato | NATO is not for peacekeeping, it's a military alliance made initially in order to defend Europe against the USSR and its allies. | [
"NATO, is an alliance of nations that via three permanent members (USA, UK, and France) is a nuclear alliance. This alliance was formed in order to provide a blanket of security for Western European nations, Canada, and the United States against the Soviet Union. NATO members get the safety of Nuclear weapons being... |
When a new planet is discovered somewhere off in the galaxy, how do they know anything about it? | If you measure its orbital period, you can figure out the distance from the star, if you know the mass of the star. If you know the brightness of the star, you can estimate the temperature of the planet.
If you measure how much light from the star the planet blocks, you can get its size. If you measure how much the pl... | [
"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",
"The timeline of discovery... |
what are balanced and unbalanced connections in audio? | I've searched tha seven seas fer an answer. Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:
1. [ELI5 Balanced vs. unbalanced audio signals ](_URL_4_) ^(_5 comments_)
1. [ELI5: What's the difference between a "balanced" and "unbalanced" XLR cable? ](_URL_3_) ^(_7 comments_)
1. [ELI5: what does low/high impe... | [
"Balanced audio is a method of interconnecting audio equipment using balanced lines. This type of connection is very important in sound recording and production because it allows the use of long cables while reducing susceptibility to external noise caused by electromagnetic interference.\n",
"Balanced connection... |
how was the middle east before the us first got involved? and why did they get involved there? | The better question to ask is 'how was it before Europe got involved?'. Before the Europeans started picking away at the region (roughly early 19th century) there was the Ottoman Empire. Things were pretty stable and it was a very advanced civilization. Religious sects remained in their desired regions thus keeping rel... | [
"The modern Middle East was shaped by three things: departure of European powers, the founding of Israel, and the growing importance of the oil industry. These developments led increased U.S. involvement in Middle East. The United States was the ultimate guarantor of the region's stability as well as the dominant f... |
[request] I'd like to know more about Byzantium at the time of Constantine The Great... | I'm sure there are probably some great books specifically about Constantine, but off the top of my head, [12 Byzantine Rulers](_URL_0_) would be a great place to start. Also, [this.](_URL_1_) I have no idea why it's free (since this is a pretty legit site), just go with it. | [
"Jonathan Harris is professor of the History of Byzantium at Royal Holloway, University of London. Harris's research is in the area of \"Byzantine History 900–1460; relations between Byzantium and the west, especially during the Crusades and the Italian Renaissance; the Greek diaspora after 1453.\"\n",
"Byzantine... |
What Law, Order, or other Official Document called for the construction of Nazi Concentration camps? | **Part 1**
"The main constant of the KL [meaning the Concentration Camps System] was change", writes Nicholaus Wachsmann in his new seminal study on the Concentration Camps. The main thing to keep in mind here is that the CC system underwent several historical distinct phases and a particular evolution, that – as the ... | [
"BULLET::::- Adolf Hitler authorized the formation of the first Nazi concentration camps (\"Konzentrationslager\"), where opponents of the regime would be kept in \"protective custody\" (\"Schutzhaft\") until they could reform.\n",
"A network of Nazi concentration camps were established on German-controlled terri... |
What do we know of ancient Sumerian burial practices, specifically from around 2100-2000bc? | Edit: replaced amazon link.
Firstly I'm on a mobile so apologies for typos & bad formatting. The first thing j would suggest besides the general books below is the excavations of Ur by Woolley - which you can read online for free here _URL_2_
Afaik people were buried in cemeteries and in houses, though I'm not an e... | [
"In the necropolises the change from the kind and the rites of the funeral can be observed over centuries; so different types of burial were used in the found graves. In a few cases there were cremations, in the majority of cases earth burials. Toddlers were often buried in common clay pots, which were broken up an... |
Urine: Until recently, I had always heard that it was "sterile." However, Ebola can apparently be transmitted through urine. What's the story? | Urine is essentially sterile *in the normal uninfected person*. Urinary tract infections are all the proof you need that urine is not sterile all the time. Blood is also essentially sterile in normal individuals as well, but viruses and bacteria can also be present in it in disease states (i.e. bacteremia/viremia).
A... | [
"Sterile pyuria, is urine which contains white blood cells while appearing sterile by standard culturing techniques. It is often caused by sexually transmitted infections, such as gonorrhea, or viruses which will not grow in bacterial cultures. Sterile pyuria is listed as a side effect from some medications such as... |
why are some japanese games aren't localized in the us, even when there is a large demand? | Because Japanese companies do market research just like any other company. If the cost of translating, marketing and distributing the game outweighs the return they predict they'll get, then they won't bring the game to the west.
Keep in mind that not every gamer reads gaming news or reviews. Many game buyers are st... | [
"Sales of different types of games vary widely between countries due to local preferences. Japanese consumers tend to purchase much more handheld games than console games and especially PC games, with a strong preference for games catering to local tastes. Another key difference is that, despite the decline of arca... |
Why do my brother and I don't have 20/20 vision when our parents and grandparents had perfect sight? | This is actually an area of some study, and some groups are arguing they've found the culprit. The problem is that some cultures are having myopia (nearsightedness) rates increase far too rapidly to be a genetic factor:
> One of the clearest signs came from a 1969 study of Inuit people on the northern tip of Alaska ... | [
"Far-sightedness is often present from birth, but children have a very flexible eye lens, which helps to compensate. In rare instances hyperopia can be due to diabetes, and problems with the blood vessels in the retina.\n",
"Near-sightedness is due to the length of the eyeball being too long, far-sightedness the ... |
Did other countries in WWII evacuate their children out of the cities, or just the UK? | Informally, there was an evacuation of French cities during the attack on that country. This was anticipated by the Germans and planned for. Refugee columns clogged the roads, and the Germans chose which of these traffic jams to attack with strafing and bombing attacks and which to leave unmolested so as to deny the ... | [
"The evacuation of children in Germany during the World War II was designed to save children in Nazi Germany from the risks associated with the aerial bombing of cities, by moving them to areas thought to be less at risk. The German term used for this was Kinderlandverschickung (KLV), a short form of \"Verschickung... |
Why did't the Byzantines us Greek Fire on land? | They did. In the *Praecepta Militaria* of Nikephoros II Phokas, he dedicates a whole section to the use of Greek fire on land. In it, he explains that each battalion was to carry along a select number of portable Greek Fire projecting devices known as *cheiromangana*, to be used in a variety of tactical situations. Nik... | [
"Kallinikos' development of Greek fire came at a critical moment in the Byzantine Empire's history: weakened by its long wars with Sassanid Persia, the Byzantines had been unable to effectively resist the onslaught of the Muslim conquests. Within a generation, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt had fallen to the Arabs, wh... |
how does a star (such as sol) work? | A star is an immense ball of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium. The gravitational pull draws the gasses towards the center of the star. This creates incredible pressure. The pressure causes nuclear fusion, which fuses hydrogen atoms into helium, releasing a lot of energy in the process. This energy pushes outwards, worki... | [
"The stars move across the inner surface of the celestial sphere along the circumferences of circles in parallel planes perpendicular to the Earth's axis extended indefinitely into the heavens and intersecting the celestial sphere in a celestial pole. The Sun and the planets do not move in these parallel paths but ... |
Did the Royal Navy win any significant naval battles against the Japanese in WWII? | As part of Operation Dukedom in May 1945, a force of five RN destroyers, the 26th Destroyer Flotilla, managed to sink the heavy cruiser *Haguro* and the destroyer *Kamikaze* in the Malacca Strait. The IJN ships were operating on a armed evacuation of Japanese forces in the Andaman Islands and the RN tasked the destroy... | [
"The Imperial Japanese Navy in World War II, at the beginning of the Pacific War in December 1941, was the third most powerful navy in the world, and the naval air service was one of the most potent air forces in the world. During the first six months of the war, the Imperial Japanese Navy enjoyed spectacular succe... |
Mom bought this at Goodwill today. Not sure what it is, hope you can help us. | /r/whatisthisthing and/or /r/Whatisthis are the subs you're looking for. | [
"Sandra, who is always strapped for cash, discovers an antique coin among her dead grandmother's things and decides to sell it so that she can have the roof of their beloved house repaired. She sells it to Dave, the owner of the only hobby shop in their town. It is hate at first sight for the two of them, but Sandr... |
Meta: With the ongoing opening of the Vatican Archives, what are (unobvious?) questions you historians want to have answered? | hi! fyi, you'll find some general information about the archives in these earlier posts
* [How many historical documents is the Vatican library sitting on? Any denied research requests?](_URL_0_)
* [Why does the Vatican restrict access to so much of its archives?](_URL_1_)
* [What do we know about the contents of th... | [
"The Vatican Secret Archives, located in Vatican City, is the central archive for all of the acts promulgated by the Holy See, as well as the state papers, correspondence, papal account books, and many other documents which the church has accumulated over the centuries. In the 17th century, under the orders of Pope... |
how come we seem to stare at someone as they walk by? what really gets our attention | Not really an answer for your question but I had a similar thing happen recently, it was bizarre.
I was sitting in my car waiting for someone and just kinda spaced out.
A car is passing by and out of no where I lock eyes with the passenger of this car and they just stare back at me.
As you say in your post, usually ... | [
"Looking is the act of intentionally focusing visual perception on someone or something, for the purpose of obtaining information, and possibly to convey interest or another sentiment. A large number of troponyms exist to describe variations of looking at things, with prominent examples including the verbs \"stare,... |
The USA, and the West in general, experienced a counter-culture movement in the 1960s and 70s, did such a thing ever surface in the USSR and the Eastern Bloc at any point? | In a manner of speaking, yeah.
I'll preface this by saying that the countries of the Eastern Bloc cannot be classified as some huge totalitarian monolith - different governments (even different governments in the same country) enacted different policies and supported differing things. Likewise, the citizens of differe... | [
"BULLET::::- The Counterculture of the 1960s (approximately 1960–1973) was a social revolution that originated in the United States and United Kingdom, and eventually spread to other western nations. The themes of this movement included the anti-war movement, civil rights for African-Americans, rebellion against co... |
what are the dangers and warning signs of mob mentality? | Dangers: civil logical people become less so as tensions build causing people to do things they never normally would if on their own. The perpetuation of emotional response overshadows logical reason and herd mentality forced people to follow before fully evaluating the situation.
Warning signs: there's a mob.
But se... | [
"Other researchers have found associations between childhood abusive behaviors and the appearance of violent behaviors in psychotic individuals. This could be a result of their inability to cope with aggression as well as other people, especially when constantly attending to potential threats in their environment. ... |
What were fetishes like in antiquity? What were commoners "into" compared to today? [nsfw?] | I have a book titled "Encyclopedia of Sexual Knowledge" by Norman Hare (and a few others), published by Eugenics Publishing Co. in 1940. It is from the United States.
I read that S & M was not openly talked about in public, but was practiced a lot. Really, a lot of topics and fetishes are focused on in the book, and ... | [
"My argument, then, is that the fetish could originate only in conjunction with the emergent articulation of the ideology of the commodity form that defined itself within and against the social values and religious ideologies of two radically different types of noncapitalist society, as they encountered each other ... |
Why does MRI use helium as cooling? | The answer that I got to that from my old NMR grad-course teacher, was that that high-temperature superconductors can't handle the (huge) amounts of current required. | [
"Cryostats used in MRI machines are designed to hold a cryogen, typically helium, in a liquid state with minimal evaporation (boil-off). The liquid helium bath is designed to keep the superconducting magnet's bobbin of superconductive wire in its superconductive state. In this state the wire has no electrical resis... |
does wind or particle movement drag light with it? | Nope. The light you see from the object just travelled in a straight line (minus any gravitational effects which will be absolutely negligible). Depending on the air clarity and distance to the object, a certain amount of the light it emits/reflects will be absorbed by molecules in the air then re-emitted, however this... | [
"A particle passing through a material at a velocity greater than that at which light can travel through the material emits light. This is similar to the production of a sonic boom when an airplane is traveling through the air faster than sound waves can move through the air. The direction this light is emitted is ... |
if you get disemboweled, and someone touches your organs outside of your body, do you feel it inside of you or wherever your organ is? | Im pretty sure most visceral organs dont have sensory neurons for anything other than pain. So you wouldnt feel touch or pressure, only pain. The skin is the only organ that senses touch and pressure. This is why most feeling in the anterior cavities is some form of pain and never " I feel like my kidney is being tickl... | [
"General somatic sensations of a hallucinatory nature are experienced when an individual feels that their body is being mutilated, i.e. twisted, torn, or disembowelled. Other reported cases are invasion by animals in the person's internal organs such as snakes in the stomach or frogs in the rectum. The general feel... |
When did monarchs first start using regnal numbers? (e.g. Henry VIII, Louis XIV) | Hi, hopefully others will drop by with earlier practices, but *for England/Scotland*, the practice came from Norman influence. Here are a few posts on the subject
* /u/Miles_Sine_Castrum in [Why is it that the regnal numbers of the monarchs of England start from the Norman Conquest? For example, why is Edward I not kn... | [
"The following table gives the dates of the regnal years for Kings of England (and subsequently Great Britain), from 1066 to the present day. These are official \"de jure\" dates, and may or may not coincide with whether a particular king had \"de facto\" power or not at that time. For example, as the Commonwealth ... |
why is horse racing such a tossup? | They are set up that way. Track stewards assign weights to horses to even out the odds. A very good horse must carry more weight. The less weight the faster the horse runs. More weight also means more injuries. The horse's trainer weighs all of these factors when choosing what races to enter. The goal is to win every r... | [
"One of the reasons that harness racing was less popular than horse racing has been the reservations in gamblers’ minds about the various means of starting trotting races, particularly when bets have been lost before contests were properly under way. Before mobile starting gates gained popularity in harness racing,... |
When developing the Chinese keyboard why wasn't Pinyin chosen? | Do you mean on computers, or are you talking about typewriters? I'm a little unclear on what you're asking, but I have a feeling that you might be mistaken about the timeline of some of the relevant events.
If you can clarify your question I can most definitely provide you with an answer.
Meanwhile, you might be inte... | [
"Chinese keyboards are usually in US layout with/without Chinese input method labels printed on keys. Without an input method handler activated, these keyboards would simply respond to Latin characters as physically labelled, provided that the US keyboard layout is selected correctly in the operating system. Most m... |
- if helium is one of the most common elements in the universe, how are we "running out of helium" on earth? | Helium is not evenly distributed in the universe. What we have on earth is mostly produced by radioactive decay in earth's crust, which we can get out in gas wells. It's produced at a fixed and low rate that way exceeds how fast we use it.
Helium is so light that, when it's released it tends to drift away and escape p... | [
"BULLET::::- Although abundant in the universe, helium is very scarce on Earth. The only commercially viable reserves are a few natural gas wells, mostly in the US, that trapped it from the slow alpha decay of radioactive materials within Earth. By human standards helium is a non-renewable resource that cannot be p... |
When and why did the notion arise that Existentialism is pro-suicide? | First, I should really note that it isn't accurate to characterize existentialism as "pro-suicide", given that no existentialist (to my knowledge) advocates widespread suicide. The closest anyone comes to this is probably Schopenhauer (who for my money isn't even an existentialist proper, though his influence on Nietzs... | [
"The nineteenth century French pioneer sociologist Émile Durkheim borrowed the word from French philosopher Jean-Marie Guyau and used it in his influential book \"Suicide\" (1897), outlining the social (and not individual) causes of suicide, characterized by a rapid change of the standards or values of societies (o... |
What would it take for the Great Lakes to be frozen solid? | You estimate this with the "square root of
freezing degree days" method. Take the difference between the average air temperature and the freezing point of water is multiplied by days. Thickness of ice is proportional to the square root of this quantity.
So here's a ball park estimate
assume 1 inch of ice for 10 d... | [
"The first core of freshly frozen lake ice was obtained on 10 January 2013 at a depth of . However, as soon as the ice was pierced, water from the underlying lake gushed up the borehole, mixing it with the Freon and kerosene used to keep the borehole from freezing. A new borehole was drilled and an allegedly pristi... |
about industrial engineering... | engineering generally is highly reliant on math. forgetting the formulas is not an issue, that can be fixed and most of them are only used in very narrow circumstances. however forgetting the methods and approaches is a much bigger issue, as those will carry forward into your job.
Does your faculty have some sort of g... | [
"Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy and materials. \n",
"Industrial engineering is the b... |
Who gave the names for the coalitions during World War I and World War II. | The Axis label came from the Hungarian Head of State when he was pursuing an alliance with Germany and Italy. The implication is that all foreign policy (war, essentially) should revolve around the three countries working together around Austria. Hungary wanted its land back that it lost after WWI but the other Balkan ... | [
"The term was used in 1943–45 during the latter stages of World War II to define the status of former allies and associates of Germany (Italy from 1943, Bulgaria, Romania and Finland from 1944), after they joined the Allies war against Germany.\n",
"The Coalition Wars (French: \"Guerres de Coalitions\", German: \... |
how would our lives be different if gravity was halved or doubled tomorrow? | To be clear, are you asking if the fundamental force of gravity was different, or just that wherever you happen to be is is experiencing a local change in the *sensation* of gravity? | [
"After about 5 days in zero gravity, for instance in orbit around Earth, the h-reflex diminishes significantly. It is generally assumed that this is due to a marked reduction in the excitability of the spinal cord in zero gravity. Once back on Earth, a marked recovery occurs during the first day, but it can take up... |
Do men and women respond differently to the sex hormones or is sexual dimorphism (caused by them) a result of different hormone concentrations? | It's a bit of all that you described. During prenatal development, fetuses are exposed to different hormones based on their genetic sex (assuming nothing goes awry like exogenous compounds or genetic conditions). Males are exposed to testosterone (T), which is converted into estradiol (E2) via the enzyme aromatase, and... | [
"The female sexual response system is complex and even today, not fully understood. The most prevalent of female sexual dysfunctions that have been linked to menopause include lack of desire and libido; these are predominantly associated with hormonal physiology. Specifically, it is the decline in serum estrogens t... |
Job market for Public Historians? | From what I've been hearing, especially in my Public History classes, is that in terms of working in a history-field, Public History is your best bet at finding a job. If you've got any education experience, that will significantly up your chances, as most institutions aren't currently hiring for curators, they're hir... | [
"Fink's 1994 book, \"In Search of the Working Class: Essays in American Labor History and Political Culture\", drew attention for its focus on the role of the historian. The essays in the book highlight the role of the historian as an outside observer of a basic unit of culture and economics as the worker, and what... |
Why is Inferno talked about so much more than the rest in the Divine Comedy? | The Devine Comedy is an Epic allegorical poem with three parts, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paridiso (Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven). Each usually published as separate books. It discusses the frame work and consequences of christen dogma. It was written by, and from the perspective of Dante Alighieri. Each part of the Epic... | [
"Inferno (; Italian for \"Hell\") is the first part of Italian writer Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem \"Divine Comedy\". It is followed by \"Purgatorio\" and \"Paradiso\". The \"Inferno\" tells the journey of Dante through Hell, guided by the ancient Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as nine... |
why can we not clearly see/look at ultraviolet lights? what makes them seem blurry? | UV lights generate a small level of top end blue/violet light, and that's what you can see.
UV light by definition is light that falls beyond the upper limit of our visual spectrum. If the light gave out nothing but UV it would not appear to be lit at all.
As for why pure blue/violet lights are something we can't f... | [
"Humans cannot see ultraviolet light directly because the lens of the eye blocks most light in the wavelength range of 300–400 nm; shorter wavelengths are blocked by the cornea. The photoreceptor cells of the retina are sensitive to near ultraviolet light, and people lacking a lens (a condition known as aphakia) se... |
why are macbooks so popular when there are pcs with much better specs and are cheaper? | Because... They're shinier. | [
"Among PC form factors, desktops remain a staple in the enterprise market but have lost popularity among home buyers. PC makers and electronics retailers have responded by investing their engineering and marketing resources towards laptops (initially netbooks in the late 2000s, and then the higher-performance Ultra... |
What is our solar systems orientation as we travel around the Milky Way? Are other solar systems the same? | So, within the Solar System, things tend to all rotate the same way. The Moon orbits the Earth on a plane that's very close to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. The Earth rotates in the same direction too. There are exceptions, but this is what happens in general.
The Solar System all rotates the same way... | [
"The Milky Way is rotating around its dense galactic center, thus the sun is moving in a circle within the galaxy's gravity. Away from the central bulge, or outer rim, the typical stellar velocity is between . All planets and their moons move with the sun. Thus, the solar system is moving.\n",
"The Sun orbits the... |
what are dog tags for ? | 'Dog tags' or more technically known as identification tags serve many purposes. There are two types of ID tags. The standard ones which identify the service member by NAME, RANK, SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, BLOOD TYPE (if a transfusion is needed), and RELIGION (for purposes of proper handling of a body). There are also RE... | [
"\"Dog tag\" is an informal but common term for a specific type of identification tag worn by military personnel. The tags' primary use is for the identification of dead and wounded soldiers; as such, they have personal information about the soldiers written on them, and convey essential basic medical information s... |
sas / sata / scsi? | They are all communication standards for connecting devices together. There are cables and drives which comply with the standards so they are referred to with the standards. | [
"The MPA program is a 90 ECTS executive, flexible length and multidisciplinary program (Master of Advanced Studies), designed for public sector managers or would-be managers. It is also open to anyone wishing to pursue a career in an organization whose activities involve working with the public sector.\n",
"Often... |
How much of a cloud's shape is due to the water condensation and dust particles contained within it and the air that surrounds it? | Cumulus clouds are the ubiquitous flat-bottom, fluffy-topped clouds you see on balmy summer days. They're formed by updrafts. Water vapor is lighter than air since H2O molecules have less mass than N2 molecules. Also, extra-warm air is lighter than ambient air. So either an area of extra humidity (like a pond or a ... | [
"Cloud condensation nuclei or CCNs (also known as cloud seeds) are small particles typically 0.2 µm, or 1/100th the size of a cloud droplet on which water vapor condenses. Water requires a non-gaseous surface to make the transition from a vapour to a liquid; this process is called condensation. In the atmosphere, t... |
surrogacies...if donor a fertilizes donor b's egg, and it's implanted in donor c, does the baby have any of donor c's genetic characteristics as a result of the incubation? | The fertilized egg will have A and B's chromosomes. Because all cells are then produced from this egg, all the baby's cells will have A and B's characteristics. C has nothing to do with the baby genetically. | [
"BULLET::::- In egg donation and embryo donation, the resultant embryo after fertilisation is inserted in another woman than the one providing the eggs. These are resources for women with no eggs due to surgery, chemotherapy, or genetic causes; or with poor egg quality, previously unsuccessful IVF cycles or advance... |
Where does it come from, that the 2nd amendment is against goverment tyranny? | When folks ask for primary sources regarding the U.S. Constitution, I tend to turn to the excellent *The Founders' Constitution* by the University of Chicago Press, which provides primary source documents that contribute to any discussion on the merits (or demerits) of any Constitutional clause. It last came up [in a d... | [
"The Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable searches and seizures. The exclusionary rule is not derived from the Fourth Amendment, rather it is the judicial remedy for a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Although the exclusionary rule was originally implemented as a guard for privacy rights, after \"United S... |
is the universe losing mass and gaining energy? | Broadly speaking, yes, although we could also be losing energy to whatever form mass-energy takes within black holes.
> I think I understand the conversion of mass to energy in natural settings, **like burning of firewood,** or fusion in the sun.
While you're technically correct, what precisely do you mean here? Bec... | [
"There is no clear way to define the total energy in the universe using the most widely accepted theory of gravity, general relativity. Therefore, it remains controversial whether the total energy is conserved in an expanding universe. For instance, each photon that travels through intergalactic space loses energy ... |
How close was the USSR to actually firing a missle aganist the United States during the Cold War? | One frightening incident that is quite well known occurred on September 26, 1983. In that incident, there was a gentleman named Stanislav Petrov, who was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces who was serving as the senior duty officer in charge of the command center at a Soviet early warning bunker (kno... | [
"This eight year watchdog initiative seemed to unnerve rather than reassure the USSR. With all of the information flowing in, it was unclear which piece of intelligence marked the initiation of a preemptive strike, which would call for immediate action from the Soviet side, before the U.S. could even get weapons in... |
WWII - Mongolian Russians fighting for the Germans? | Probably Kalmyks (a Mongolian people living on the lower Volga, near the Caspian Sea).
The Germans invaded Kalmyk territory in late 41/early 42, and when the Russians re-took it they accused the Kalmyks of collaborating with the Germans and deported them to Siberia. | [
"In 1939, Soviet and Mongolian troops fought against Japan in the Battle of Khalkhyn Gol, in Eastern Mongolia. In August 1945, at the end of World War II, Mongolian troops took part in the Soviet operations against Japan in Inner Mongolia.\n",
"In 1945, Mongolian forces participated in the Soviet invasion of Manc... |
Can liquor be distilled at room temperature in a vacuum chamber? | Even in vacuum, distillation still requires a temperature differential between your receiving vessel and the boiling vessel. If you simply placed a container of alcohol into a static (i.e., not dynamic) vacuum chamber, it would vaporize until the vapor pressure of the liquids inside was reached.
In chemistry labs, ... | [
"The final liquor is treated by blowing carbon dioxide through it. This precipitates dissolved calcium and other impurities. It also volatilizes the sulfide, which is carried off as HS gas. Any residual sulfide can be subsequently precipitated by adding zinc hydroxide. The liquor is separated from the precipitate a... |
Do eyes suffocate under water? | Yeah if the cornea is deprived of oxygen it will degrade. This is why glass contacts that didn't allow oxygen diffusion have to be taken off regularly to prevent corneal erosions and ulcers. New contacts allow oxygen diffusion so corneal ulcers don't happen. | [
"Water in the eye can alter the optical properties of the eye and blur vision. It can also wash away the tear fluid—along with it the protective lipid layer—and can alter corneal physiology, due to osmotic differences between tear fluid and freshwater. Osmotic effects are made apparent when swimming in freshwater p... |
Does ice get harder as it gets colder? | Yes -- at 0°C ice has a hardness of 1.5 on the Mohs
scale; at –70°C the hardness is 6 ([Nesje and Dahl, 2000,
p. 50](_URL_2_)).
Interestingly, the hardness measurements by King (1952)^1 were integral to the development of what would become Glen's law ([Glen, 1955](_URL_3_)) which describes how stress and strain are r... | [
"A third theory is \"friction heating\", which suggests that friction of the material is the cause of the ice layer melting. However, this theory does not sufficiently explain why ice is slippery when standing still even at below-zero temperatures.\n",
"Although the surface is cold, the base of an ice sheet is ge... |
why does watching rooftop parkour videos give me butterflies, even though i'm viewing from the safety of my home with no chance of falling to my death? | Humans have the ability to put themselves in the positions of others, to put it simply, part of your brain believes the person you are watching is you, this is why we can feel the pain of others or feel fearful when watching someone in a horror movie. The higher parts of your brain allow you to understand you're not ac... | [
"Jacobs noted some interesting challenges during the shooting of video with seagulls flying in and out of the building for shelter due to the heavy rain on the day of the shoot. Sharon Corr once said that in some shots, you can, in fact, see the birds landing in the galleries.\n",
"Imaginative spectators would cl... |
What did Russia do with its ships in the Black sea after the Crimean war? | > Russia had to remove its ships from the Black sea.
---
That's incorrect - per Russo-Turkish protocol, every country could have up to 6 steamers 50 m in length and up to 800 tonn plus 4 ships (steam-driven or under sails) up to 200 tonn.
> Its is quite a distance to get to the Baltic sea from there, so did they sa... | [
"To try to prevent Russia gaining access to a warm water port, the Crimean War was fought in the 1850s. Britain (in concert with the Turks and French) sent 150 transports and 13 warships and the Russian Black Sea fleet was destroyed. The Crimean War was a testing ground for the new technologies of steam and shell. ... |
Why is it so hard to stop browsing the internet? | There are many reasons for which people will browse the internet, especially procrastination. Websites are also designed to encourage further reading and time spent on them, such as suggesting 'related articles,' (every news website ever) while others encourage active participation (reddit, facebook etc.)
Anything tha... | [
"\"\"Browsing means looking at websites and checking email, but not watching videos, downloading files or playing games. We've got a fair use policy but ours means that you'll always be able to browse the Internet, it's only when you go over the fair use amount that you won't be able to download, stream and watch v... |
Why was the Arianism so divisive/important an issue to early Christianity? | (Full disclosure, I harvested some of this answer from my own previous answers on the topic.)
1) A potted history of the Arian conflicts
So the Arian conflict gets going around 318. Arius, presbyter in Alexandria, hears a sermon by Alexander (bishop) of Alexandria, who is teaching that the Son (= Jesus, the second Pe... | [
"Arianism was first put forward early in the 4th century by the Alexandrian presbyter Arius. It held that the Father is uniquely self-existent and immutable: consequently, Christ could not be God. The opponents of Arianism led by Athanasius of Alexandria claimed that the doctrine reduced Jesus to a demigod thus res... |
I know during the gold rush of the 1850s, there were Chinese immigrants in America. How were they treated with regards to the Civil Rights movement? Did they participate? | Here's some answers from the FAQ
[What were Asian American roles during the civil rights movement in the 50's?](_URL_2_)
[What was the status of Jews and Asians in America during racial segregation?](_URL_0_)
[How were other minorities treated during America's period of racial segregation?](_URL_1_) | [
"Chinese immigrants came to the U.S. in large numbers during the California Gold Rush and in the 1860s when the Central Pacific Railroad recruited labor to build its portion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Once gold became more scarce and labor more competitive, white hostility to the Chinese (as well as other fo... |
What is the relation between Ukraine, Poland, and "Austria-Galicia?" | 1. You have linked an ethnic map made by Wołodymyr Kubijowycz. He was involved in the formation of the Ukrainian SS. To say the least he is parisan in questions of the ethnic composition of Galicia in 1939. All the placenames have been Ukrainized as well. Try to find a map of the Kingdom of Galicia Lodomeria printed by... | [
"Ukraine emerges as the concept of a nation, and the Ukrainians as a nationality, with the Ukrainian National Revival in the mid-18th century, in the wake of the peasant revolt of 1768/69 and the eventual partition of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Galicia fell to the Austrian Empire, and the rest of Ukraine t... |
why is a single currency causing the eurozone so much trouble while the dollar is much more stable over a larger zone? | Greece is allowed to hold ridiculously large national debt, while also not being in control of the euro. California is not allowed to hold significant debt, and the federal government that *is* allowed to has complete control over the dollar. | [
"Further, Eurozone countries with sustained trade surpluses (i.e., Germany) do not see their currency appreciate relative to the other Eurozone nations due to a common currency, keeping their exports artificially cheap. Germany's trade surplus within the Eurozone declined in 2011 as its trading partners were less a... |
What is the mathematical possibility that some or all of the atoms in my body had been together making another organism before me? | Pretty high if you've eaten recently. | [
"With J. J. Thomson's discovery of the electron in 1897, it became clear that atoms were not the smallest building blocks of nature, but were rather composite particles. The newly discovered structure within atoms tempted many to imagine how the atom's constituent parts might interact with each other. Thomson theor... |
Did Japan's occupation of Korea have any effect on North Korea becoming the way it is? | Good question. In a recent book about North Korea, called *The Cleanest Race*, the author (an historian) puts forth the argument that the totalitarian dictatorship of the Kims was a continuation of the totalitarian dictatorship of the Japanese. That is, it was easier to subjugate a people who had never known freedom in... | [
"The Japanese occupation of Korea after annexation was largely uncontested militarily by the smaller, poorly armed, and poorly trained Korean army. Many former soldiers and other volunteers left the Korean Peninsula for Manchuria and Primorsky Krai in Russia. Koreans in Manchuria formed resistance groups and guerri... |
How did medieval aristocrats manage to accumulate so much wealth? | I don't think it's accurate to say there was no industry. There was nothing like the kind of industry we now know but there was industry. Especially toward the later Middle Ages (but it always existed). The increase in industry and trade led to the Renaissance rather than the other way around. (There were also joint en... | [
"However, the medieval era saw a change in the attitudes of Christians towards the accumulation of wealth. Thomas Aquinas defined avarice not simply as a desire for wealth but as an \"immoderate\" desire for wealth. Aquinas wrote that it was acceptable to have \"external riches\" to the extent that they were necess... |
Is there an evolutionary or functional reason why the mitral valve has only two cusps as opposed to three like the other heart valves? | There are many theories on this. First, we need to distinguish the atrioventricular valves (tricuspid and mitral) from the semilunar valves (aortic and pulmonic). The semilunar valves don't have "cusps" per se, but leaflets. The leaflets form a cup shape facing outward and away from the heart to prevent backflow. These... | [
"The mitral valve is also called the bicuspid valve because it contains two leaflets or cusps. The mitral valve gets its name from the resemblance to a bishop's mitre (a type of hat). It is on the left side of the heart and allows the blood to flow from the left atrium into the left ventricle.\n",
"More recent de... |
do domesticated animals (cats in this situation) recognize the difference between adults and kids? | So animals, regardless of species, are very in tune with the age of another animal (humans in this case). They understand that the little ones are probably harmless and should be treated as such.
There are stories of where little kids/babies fall into animal enclosures at zoos, and the animals will protect the kid/ba... | [
"Kittens also show observational learning when they are socializing with humans. They are more likely to initiate socialization with humans when their mothers are exhibiting non-aggressive and non-defensive behaviours. Even though mothers spend most time with their kittens, male cats play an important role by break... |
Exploring antiquated laws. | You'll probably get the best results by contacting individual local historical societies, whose employees and volunteers may well have done such research for their locality. Wikipedia has a list of [county-level historical societies](_URL_0_) (as part of a bigger list, but I think you'll have better luck the more parti... | [
"Kapitany also noted the difficulties involved in the processes of mining and exploration, stating that \"it's very difficult for me to find out what I can legally and I can't legally do. And even the museum at times can't give me clear definitions or answers.\" \n",
"The Case of the Speluncean Explorers is a fam... |
why does venezuela post 3 official usd/vef exchange rates (plus some black market ones?) | The two lower rates are gov't subsidized rates used to prop up companies who import critical goods. The gov't sells dollars to these companies, they they in theory import food and medicine and machine parts. In practice, a lot of those dollars go right back to the black market, turning 6 bolivars into 200.
The third... | [
"At the end of 2013, the official exchange rate was 1 USD to 6.3 VEF while the black market exchange rate was over ten times higher since the actual value of the bolívar is overvalued for Venezuelan businesses. Since merchants can only receive so much necessary foreign currency from the government, they must resort... |
why are people who have 1 white parent and 1 black parent (e.g. obama) always classified as black? | When you say “always classified” what classification system are you referring to? | [
"President of the United States Barack Obama is often referred to as the first Black or African-American President. He has said as a youth that he chose to identify as black and worked in community organizing in a black community. His mother and her parents were of European descent; his father and his family are su... |
two part question 1. why is there so much weird shit that comes out of japan (even excluding the crazy tentacle hentai, theres a lot of pissing, shitting, and vomiting on)? 2. with all their weird shit why do they censor their naughty bits? | Japan's modern depiction of pornography stems from the turmoil in Japan's 20th century conflicts between modernity and classicism.
For most of Japan's history sex and sexuality was quite open. During the shogunate High Art was often pornographic and depicted imagery that went beyond most other countries social norms... | [
"Tadanori Yokoo's works reveal all of the unbearable things which we Japanese have inside ourselves and they make people angry and frightened. He makes explosions with the frightening resemblance which lies between the vulgarity of billboards advertising variety shows during festivals at the shrine devoted to the w... |
Biochemically, what happens to insulin after binding with a receptor? | "As mentioned below in the section on degradation, endocytosis and degradation of the receptor bound to insulin is a main mechanism to end signaling.[47] In addition, the signaling pathway is also terminated by dephosphorylation of the tyrosine residues in the various signaling pathways by tyrosine phosphatases" -Wikip... | [
"After the intracellular signal that resulted from the binding of insulin to its receptor has been produced, termination of signaling is then needed. As mentioned below in the section on degradation, endocytosis and degradation of the receptor bound to insulin is a main mechanism to end signaling. In addition, the ... |
how come anyone can't just get their own internet tower and connect to the internet without the use of a carrier? | Well, there's no such thing as an "Internet tower." But in theory, you could become your own carrier. It would cost you far more to do so than to pay your ISP $34.99 a month or whatever. | [
"Some things can connect directly to the Internet (e.g., using Ethernet, WiFi or GSM/3G), but in other cases (for example when devices are battery-powered) devices can access the Internet through Smart Gateways. Smart Gateway are protocol translation gateways at the edge of the network.\n",
"Users can access the ... |
Is there evidence of people in pre modern times avoiding pregnancy beacuse it was so dangerous? | Not certain that it applies to your question, but there is certainly substantial evidence of various forms of birth control used in many a premodern society.
For example in ancient Rome they cultivated a species of fennel that worked similarly to a birth control pill, used various (poisonous) substances as morning af... | [
"Contraception and other reliable forms of pregnancy prevention is routinely advised for women with SLE, since getting pregnant during active disease was found to be harmful. Lupus nephritis was the most common manifestation.\n",
"Contraception and other reliable forms of pregnancy prevention is routinely advised... |
Aircraft technology has been improving for many years. Why have we not reached a stage where we can fly from Australia to Europe in ~10 hours (half what it takes now)? | We have had the tech to do a 90 minute flight since April 12, 1961 (Vostok 1). However, it has not been economically viable for commercial purposes.
There are some companies that are trying to make a 3 hour flight economically viable though.
_URL_0_ | [
"The European industry began to accept, along with their governments, that collaboration was required to develop such an aircraft and to compete with the more powerful US manufacturers. Negotiations began over a European collaborative approach and at the 1965 Paris Air Show the major European airlines informally di... |
Why was there a significant increase in the divorce rate in the United States during the WWII era? | It appears that the peak occurs almost directly after WW2, although User 1two03Four has outlined a number of very good and valid points, I also believe that the stresses of the war, particularly PTSD, could have played a significant part in the direct post war period.
After the Vietnam war [38% of marriages failed wi... | [
"Divorce rates increase during times of hardship, war, and major events. Divorce rates increased after World War II because people were quick to marry each other before they went to war. When soldiers returned, they found out that they didn't have much in common with their spouses, so they divorced.\n",
"By the m... |
Is the ability to make the decision to not reproduce unique among humans? | Armchair zoologist here, but aren't panda's notorious for being too lazy to reproduce? | [
"Although from an evolutionary perspective women are usually the choosy sex, if a human male has the desire to reproduce he may seek certain qualities in a potential mate who could be the mother of his offspring. Humans have the ability to rely on biological signals of reproductive success and non-biological signal... |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.