question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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Are there any differences between muscles that have atrophied and regrown and muscles that have never atrophied? | Not necessarily, muscles are made up of the same components regardless of any physiological changes, the only difference may be the phenomenon called "muscle memory" where the muscle that has undergone atrophy can grow back at a seemingly quicker rate.
Of course, due to injury, there may be implications such as intern... | [
"Previously untrained muscles acquire newly formed nuclei by fusion of satellite cells preceding the hypertrophy. Subsequent detraining leads to atrophy but no loss of myo-nuclei. The elevated number of nuclei in muscle fibers that had experienced a hypertrophic episode would provide a mechanism for muscle memory, ... |
Why does light blur? | What you're seeing is not a solid circle, but it's a result of your own biological process called 'persistence of vision', in which things you see persist for a small amount of time. The object holding the laser pointer is spinning faster than your persistence of vision takes to wear off. | [
"Motion blur is caused when either the camera or the subject moves during the exposure. This causes a distinctive streaky appearance to the moving object or the entire picture (in the case of camera shake).\n",
"Motion blur is the apparent streaking of moving objects in a photograph or a sequence of frames, such ... |
This hat. What's the point? | The British Grenadier guards began to wear them after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, since that was when Napoleon threw his Old Guard at the British and they were routed, and the Old Guard's distinctive headgear were tall, bearskin hats. If I'm not mistaken, the Grenadier Guards still have French bearskins that they c... | [
"As part of traditional formal wear, in popular culture the top hat has been associated with the upper class, and used by satirists and social critics as a symbol of capitalism or the world of business (one current example is the Monopoly Man). The top hat also forms part of the traditional dress of Uncle Sam, a sy... |
What were views in Iran of Nazi Aryanism, and did this influence German-Iranian relations during and after the Third Reich? | Persia was in the sphere of influence of Britian and even occupied by Soviet Troops (in the oil rich areas near to the Caspian sea). They even hosted a tripartite conference in Tehran. So obviously there was no official friendly relations between Berlin and Tehran | [
"Nazi ideology was most common among Persian officials, elites, and intellectuals, but \"even some members of non-Persian groups were eager to identify themselves with the Nazis\" and a supposed Aryan race. Hitler declared Iran to be an \"Aryan state\"; the changing of Persia's name to Iran in 1935 was done by the ... |
how do they track baseballs during a game and turn it into a visualization for the audience? | There are three cameras set up at known locations in the ball park and the distances and angles between them, the plate and pitchers mound are known precisely. Each camera records the ball as it moves from the pitcher toward the plate and the location in each camera is combined in order to calculate the exact position,... | [
"Beginning in the 2007 baseball season, the MLB started looking at technology to record detailed information regarding each pitch that is thrown in a game. This became known as the PITCHf/x system which is able to record the speed of the pitch, at its release point and as it crossed the plate, as well as the locati... |
lightning scarring | Lightning, because it is a series of rapid pulses of current, is “high frequency”. High frequency currents travel along the outside of the conductor (in this case, the body of poor dude standing out in the middle of the golf course) in what is known as “skin effect”. So the current travels along the outside of you a... | [
"Hazards due to lightning obviously include a direct strike on persons or property. However, lightning can also create dangerous voltage gradients in the earth, as well as an electromagnetic pulse, and can charge extended metal objects such as telephone cables, fences, and pipelines to dangerous voltages that can b... |
What kind of music did the Founding Fathers listen to? | Are you asking about Jefferson/Adams/Washington or the earlier Pilgrims?
The first settlers had some fairly narrow ideas about what was permissable/godly. A good way to imagine their hymnody is to think of "My country 'tis of Thee" sung plain, with no instrumental backup. Instruments tend to play with a good beat, b... | [
"The earliest music in the Philadelphia region was that of the indigenous peoples of the area, though little is known about their music. The city was founded in 1682 by William Penn of England on land granted to him by Charles II as a place of refuge for victims of religious persecution. As a result, much of the ci... |
why do pictures taken with a microscope camera look like paintings? | The photo was taken in black & white, with colour added that in post. This makes it seem "painting" like. | [
"Conservators and researchers can generally recognize anomalies in a painting by observing variation on its surface with the naked eye. To confirm that these variations are the product of an earlier image, a number of technical means to look beneath the visible image can be used. X-rays and infrared light can penet... |
why we couldn't just pull out of iraq once we found out there were no wmds | Because, in order to do a thorough search for WMDs, we had to take out Hussein and the Ba'ath party, in essence, the government that had ruled Iraq for about 25 years. We couldn't pull out immediately because there would be no government to maintain order. Anarchy would ensue and probably civil war as various groups ... | [
"Vice President Cheney stated in 2006 that the U.S. would still have invaded Iraq even if intelligence had shown that there were no weapons of mass destruction. He said Hussein was still dangerous because of his history of using WMD, and taking him out of power \"was the right thing to do\".\n",
"Some opponents o... |
does sautéing food effect it's nutritional values? | All cooking affects food's nutritional value.
Sautéing obviously adds oil (fat) to the food. It'll break down some of the less stable nutrients, like vitamin C. Carbohydrates may break down into sugars. Some nutrients may not change but become more easily absorbed as elements of the food break down.
You can look at s... | [
"The increasing trend to enrich foods with polyunsaturated acyl groups entails the potential risk of enriching the food with some OαβUAs at the same time, as has already been detected in some studies carried out in 2007. PUFA-fortified foods available on the market have been increasing since epidemiological and cli... |
why aren't noise cancelling headphones as effective in cancelling high pitch sounds as their in cancelling low pitch sounds? | The way noise cancelling works is that it has a microphone pick up some noise and then a speaker produce that noise phase shifted 180 degrees. The resulting waveforms precisely cancel out.
However, the microphone can only pick up the noise as it's passing by and there's a delay before it can generate the phase-shifted... | [
"Active noise-cancelling headphones use a microphone, amplifier, and speaker to pick up, amplify, and play ambient noise in phase-reversed form; this to some extent cancels out unwanted noise from the environment without affecting the desired sound source, which is not picked up and reversed by the microphone. They... |
why does lettuce turn pink shortly after you cut it? | Lettuce contains iron. When the lettuce is cut the iron is exposed to the air and combines with oxygen to form rust, which is red. | [
"One form of lemon is called a cut and shut or clipping, a form of body collision \"repair\" based on buying a wrecked car and sawing off the wrecked section to replace it with a matching section from another (similar) car. If improperly repaired, these vehicles may be inherently dangerous; at high speeds, or in an... |
What were the NAZIS gonna do if they won? | /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov has previously answered [What was Hitler's endgame?](_URL_1_)
/u/commiespaceinvader has previously answered [What was Germany's plan after WW2?](_URL_0_) and more specifically [What was Nazi Germany's endgame for WESTERN Europe?](_URL_0_)
/u/depanneur has previously answered [How did the Nazis plan... | [
"This strategy is exemplified in then-U. S. Senator Harry Truman's statement in 1941 regarding the invasion of Nazi-Germany and its Allies, Italy, Hungary, Finland, Romania of Russia, \"If we see that Germany is winning we ought to help Russia, and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany, and that way let the... |
gc/ms testing substances | It identifies molecules two ways (it's basically two machines -- a GC machine and an MS machine).
1. Separates the molecules and measures characteristics like their weight (mass). This is a *mass spectrometer.*
2. Heats up the substances and examines the details of what colors of light they emit when glowing. This is ... | [
"GC-MS has been regarded as a \"gold standard\" for forensic substance identification because it is used to perform a 100% specific test, which positively identifies the presence of a particular substance. A nonspecific test merely indicates that any of several in a category of substances is present. Although a non... |
When reading about WW2, i often see American soldiers described derisively by their German opponents. Was there any substance to the supposed inferiority of the American army during WW2? | The study mentioned in the article was conducted by retired U.S. Army soldier Trevor N. DuPuy, who formed an extant research organization dedicated to the study of armed conflict. Several books have been published on the topic, including DuPuy's *A Genius for War* and *Numbers, Predictions, and War*, and Israeli histor... | [
"German intelligence officers, interrogating American prisoners, mistakenly concluded that the Americans notions of why they were fighting were for such vague concepts, such as \"Mom's apple pie,\" and concluded that American servicemen were idealistically soft and could be convinced to desert their allies.\n",
"... |
Did the Romans use carrier pigeons? |
They did use carrier pigeons like before them the sumerians, , egyptians, greeks ( It was a pigeon that delivered the results of the first Olympics in 776 B.C ) and the etruscans ( [Orvieto's pigeons holes](_URL_1_) ).
Carrier pigeons are also mentionned in the Old Testament (think about Noah's dove ).
> The pige... | [
"Homing pigeons have occasionally been used throughout history by different cultures. Pigeon post had Persian roots, and was later used by the Romans to aid their military. Frontinus said that Julius Caesar used pigeons as messengers in his conquest of Gaul.\n",
"Racing pigeons were first developed in Belgium and... |
how do we sing in key when our voices sound different in our heads? | Your head isn't thick enough to have an effect on the frequency that you hear. When you listen to a recording of your own voice, what's missing is the deeper harmonics that result from the sound travelling through you skull to the bones in your ear, but it doesn't really affect the accuracy with which you can judge th... | [
"The voice, like all acoustic instruments such as the guitar, trumpet, piano, or violin, has its own special chambers for resonating the tone. Once the tone is produced by the vibrating vocal cords, it vibrates in and through the open resonating ducts and chambers. Since the vocal tract is often associated with dif... |
how come a mechanical watch changes it’s time over a long period of time | For starters, if it's been running nonstop since "a few years ago", I doubt it's actually a mechanical watch. A mechanical watch, one driven by a wound up spring and gears, can only run for a few days without needing to be wound. It's far more likely that you have some sort of quartz watch - where a battery run elect... | [
"Traditional mechanical watch movements use a spiral spring called a mainspring as a power source. In \"manual watches\" the spring must be rewound periodically by the user by turning the watch crown. Antique pocketwatches were wound by inserting a separate key into a hole in the back of the watch and turning it. M... |
If you placed a single photon of light inbetween two blackholes of exactly equal gravitational strength, what would happen to the photon? | This is an interesting question. I just did a quick calculation and it looks like the photon would go either towards one of the black holes or away from both, depending on where it was going previously. In other words, this "say it magically appeared in the middle" thing doesn't make any sense. You can't do any calcula... | [
"Fritz Zwicky proposed in 1929 that a gravitational drag effect on photons could be used to explain cosmological redshift as a form of tired light. However, his analysis had a mathematical error, and his approximation to the magnitude of the effect should actually have been zero, as pointed out in the same year by ... |
given enough time, could other animals, such as cats or dogs evolve to a similar intelligence level to humans? | Intelligence is not the end goal of evolution. Evolution has no goals. Natural selection just leads to a species that will survive, and there are lots of different survival strategies out there beyond intelligence.
Could another species select for intelligence if that makes them more likely to survive? Sure. But they ... | [
"As living creatures adapt and evolve, the levels of intelligence changes to suit its living. The level of intelligence of modern humans are considerably higher compared to the hominid ancestors from millions of years ago. Among which during this time the volume of the hominid brain began to gradually increase star... |
What is the most devastating fire in history? | I'm sorry to have removed this question, but this falls under a poll-type question and is prohibited according to our rules. The problem with questions like these is that they invite speculative answers and the risk is that the thread is going to end up more like an /r/AskReddit thread than a thread we want here. | [
"The Great Fire of 1922 was a wildfire burning through the Lesser Clay Belt in the Timiskaming District, Ontario, Canada, from October 4 to 5, 1922. It has been called one of the ten worst natural disasters in Canadian history.\n",
"BULLET::::- August 20 & 21 – The Great Fire of 1910 wildfire burns about in north... |
How far away are we from being able to directly resolve surface features on exoplanets? | Nowhere even close. To have 1000 km resolution (enough to resolve continents) with visible light at a distance of 10 light years, we would a telescope about 50 km in diameter. Our largest optical telescopes are about 10 meters in diameter.
We can, however, using very clever spectroscopy and signal processing, make map... | [
"Present day searches for exoplanets are insensitive to exoplanets located at the distances from their host star comparable to the semi-major axes of the gas giants in the Solar System, greater than about 5 AU. Surveys using the radial velocity method require observing a star over at least one period of revolution,... |
If an ancient (pre-history), advanced culture had existed and died-out – say 100,000+ years ago – what evidence could we expect to find that wouldn't have degraded, disintegrated, disappeared by now? | There would be plenty of evidence if the civilization was large and advanced enough. Even though their structures may have turned to dust, the dust would remain...conservation of mass. High-tech materials, and their byproducts would be detectable. We would find many chemical/molecular materials that are not naturall... | [
"The archaeological evidence shows a widespread collapse of Bronze Age civilization in the Eastern Mediterranean world at the outset of the period, as the great palaces and cities of the Mycenaeans were destroyed or abandoned. At about the same time, the Hittite civilization suffered serious disruption and cities f... |
air con in cars | Because it takes energy to drive a compressor to make the air conditioner work. Energy doesn't come from nowhere, so the fuel consumption is slightly increased. | [
"A compressed air car is a compressed air vehicle that uses a motor powered by compressed air. The car can be powered solely by air, or combined (as in a hybrid electric vehicle) with gasoline, diesel, ethanol, or an electric plant with regenerative braking.\n",
"Compressed air cars are powered by motors driven b... |
why do some people bother uploading illegal content for us all to view/download? what do they gain from it? | Typically nothing. They just consider it a service to provide people with free stuff.
In some cases though such as games, the uploader group might have some site with ad money or a donation button... or pack malware into their release. | [
"BULLET::::- Downloading illegal copies on the Internet will be prohibited. Downloading for personal use won't be punished, but it may lead to claims for damages, if the copier knows or should have known that the source is illegal.\n",
"Instead, the aim of content providers is to make illegal downloads statistica... |
Why Sun’s energy is so consistent? | The first step in the nuclear reaction in the sun actually isn't so much a reaction that can chain, it's a radioactive beta decay. As you may be familiar with on earth, radioactive decays can be quick (fractions of a second half life) or incredibly slow (uranium-238 is 4.5 billion year half life) . Although, even the q... | [
"The mechanism was originally proposed by Kelvin and Helmholtz in the late nineteenth century to explain the source of energy of the Sun. By the mid-nineteenth century, conservation of energy had been accepted, and one consequence of this law of physics is that the Sun must have some energy source to continue to sh... |
labor party vs liberal party vs the greens (in australia)? | Remember that when you're voting you need to give a preference to each party and can even decide to Vote 1 for a small party you haven't heard of before (or, if you live in the electorate of Grayndler, Meow-Ludo Disco Gamma Meow Meow because you like the name - but seriously don't do this without researching the party ... | [
"Unlike in other states, the Liberal Party of Australia and Nationals were not on a joint ticket. However, the Liberals finished far ahead of Labor in the primary vote with a 10% margin between them. The Greens finished with over 9% of the vote. The Liberals won three seats on primary vote alone whilst Labor won tw... |
what’s the difference between gas stations, and why might one get their gas at other locations? | My understanding is that it comes down to additive package and volume.
Find s station that’s top tier and moves a lot of fuel.
The top tier means it has more than bare minimum federal mandated additives which is good.
The volume means it doesn’t sit in the holding tank too long and possibly pickup moisture or othe... | [
"The term \"gas station\" is widely used in the United States, Canada and the English-speaking Caribbean, where the fuel is known as \"gasoline\" or \"gas\" as in \"gas pump\". In some regions of Canada, the term \"gas bar\" is used. Elsewhere in the English-speaking world, mainly in the Commonwealth, the fuel is k... |
how can there be a lake under a sea? | Waters of different densities don't easily blend together, so it's not a lake, but it's segmented layers of waters that may be of different temperatures and salinity.
For example, when the oceans near the poles freeze, only the water freezes, the salt does not. So the salt gets concentrated in the remaining water, cr... | [
"A lake is a terrain feature (or physical feature), a body of liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the bottom of basin (another type of landform or terrain feature; that is not global). Another definition is a body of fresh or salt water of considerable size that is surrounded by land. On Earth a b... |
Ts there a formula to predict the exact amount of atoms in any object? | No, unless you know the exact chemical composition of the object. Generally though, there are about 10^23 atoms for every gram of material.
Edit: a lot of people are having problems with my approximation, so I'll elaborate a bit. Sure, if you know the exact chemical composition of your material then you can make a mor... | [
"This formula gives considerably lower rates for a given \"E\". For instance, it gives the rate for bolides of 10 megatonnes or more (like the Tunguska explosion) as 1 per thousand years, rather than 1 per 210 years as in the Palermo formula. However, the authors give a rather large uncertainty (once in 400 to 1800... |
difference between von neumann architecture and harvard architecture? | The Harvard architecture has separate memory stores for instructions and data. The von Neumann architecture has just one. The von Neumann architecture allows instructions to be manipulated as data, which is helpful in more complex systems. A basic example is instructions stored in executable files, which can be loaded ... | [
"The von Neumann architecture—also known as the von Neumann model or Princeton architecture—is a computer architecture based on a 1945 description by the mathematician and physicist John von Neumann and others in the \"First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC\". That document describes a design architecture for an elec... |
why can't you feel it when you're on a commerical flight and the airplane makes a turn that is practically perpendicular to the ground? | When you're in a turning vehicle, "centrifugal force" (*) tends to push you toward the outside of the turn. At the same time, gravity pushes you downward, so the total force on you is down and outward, on a diagonal.
When a pilot makes a "coordinated turn", he/she tilts the plane to an angle that matches the directio... | [
"Thus the steering wheel controls both the horizontal and vertical movements of the aeroplane. More than this, it is a feeler to the aviator, warning him of the condition of the air currents, and for this reason must not be grasped too firmly. It is to be held steady, yet loosely enough to transmit any wavering for... |
How did the Prince of Wales become the title for the next in line of the British Crown? | The first heir apparent to the English/British throne to hold the title Prince of Wales was Edward (later Edward II), son of Edward I, awarded to him by Parliament at Lincoln in 1301.
The legend is that Edward I, after the subjugation of Wales in the late 1200s, promised that Wales would be ruled over by someone who w... | [
"Edward I took the title of \"Prince of Wales\" for the Crown, bestowing it upon his son, Edward, at a Parliament held in Lincoln in 1301 at the age of seventeen. The title is still given to the heir apparent to the British crown to this day.\n",
"William Camden wrote in his 1607 work \"Britannia\" that originall... |
dirty glasses appear clean | Your brain is really good at ignoring parts of your vision where you can't see as well. In fact, there's actually a blind spot in your visual field right now where there are no photoreceptors on your retina. But, you brain edits out this blind spot and you don't notice it. | [
"These are composed of organic,water-miscible solvent such as isopropyl alcohol and an alkaline detergent.Some glass cleaners also contain a fine,mid abrasive.Most glass cleaners are available as sprays or liquid.They are sprayed directly onto windows,mirrors and other glass surfaces or applied on with a soft cloth... |
why we cant just put water on dry skins? | Aesthetician here...dry skin is not just the lacking of water, but natural oils your body naturally produces. **Sudoriferous** glands (sweat glands) excrete water. Internally, adding more water and clear fluids to your diet will help improve the hydration of your skin. Externally, wash with a softer water that is medi... | [
"Reasonable care must be taken not to puncture or tear membrane dry suits, because buoyancy and insulation depend entirely on the air space in the undersuit, (whereas a wetsuit normally allows water to enter, and retains its insulation despite it). The dry suit material offers essentially no buoyancy or insulation ... |
Are there any differences between they way earlier species of humans experienced pregnancy and birth and the way we experience it now? | Chimps and gorillas have a gestational period just under humans which implies that ~9 months was a commonality likely shared with early hominids.
As has been mentioned in order to stand upright our pelvis has rotated and shortened to accommodate the range of motion needed in our legs as well as narrowing which better ... | [
"Most mammals develop similarly to \"Homo sapiens\"; during the earliest stages of development, the embryo is largely indistinguishable from another mammal. However, there are phenomena found in human beings not found in all other mammals, as well as phenomena occurring in other mammals, but not in humans.\n",
"S... |
Following some recent posts, discussing historical conceptions of race, what books would AskHistorians recommend to better understand how one should approach race in a historical context? | I would recommend Colin Kidd, *The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600-2000* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). The book looks at the cultural construction of race, and particularly how changing interpretations of Christian scripture were part of the development of ra... | [
"Robert J. Cottrol reviewed \"The Myth of Race\" favorably, writing, \"With \"The Myth of Race\", Robert Sussman gives us a comprehensive history of the idea of race and particularly the rise and not total fall of scientific racism\". Ruth C. Engs was less favorable in her review of the book, writing that \"...rare... |
why doesn't the us just go to sheremetyevo airport and get snowden themselves? | Because they have no authority to make arrests on Russian territory. And the entire airport is Russian territory. All that stuff about a transit zone being something other than fully a part of Russia is just a diplomatic convenience. It has no real basis in law or custom. Believe me, if a wanted Russian criminal en... | [
"Snowden left the Moscow airport on August 1 after 39 days in the transit section. He was granted temporary asylum in Russia for one year, with extensions possible. According to his Russian lawyer, Snowden went to an undisclosed location for security reasons. The White House stated that it was \"extremely disappoin... |
why do some coins have ridged edges and some have smooth edges? | "Milled" edges were originally used to deter people from filing or clipping silver off the edges of coins to melt for scrap. Now coins that used to be silver are made of other metals, but the millings have accessibility advantages also, and are just traditional now. | [
"One theory is that the serrated edge made it easier to prove that the coin was solid metal. However, only the Seleucid bronze coinage, rather than coins of gold and silver, feature this sort of an edge. Certain Roman serrated denarii were especially designed to be harder to counterfeit or debase. However, the Roma... |
To what extent could we breed humans to improve their intelligence? Could we at all? And, if so, why haven't we? | From a morals and scientific ethics perspective this is reprehensible.
As a purely biological problem it would rely on evaluating and defining intelligence (which is a huge problem) and investing in developing education (which is a political problem). Also, heritability of intelligence is unknown, so it is not known h... | [
"According to Hunt, international studies of intelligence are important because they measure which populations possess the cognitive skills that are necessary in a post-industrial world. He also writes that genetics cannot be ruled out as a possible cause, but that education surely plays a major role, so one should... |
What are the sources of error with atomic clocks? | Is all about the two largest sources of measurement uncertainties — distributed cavity phase and microwave lensing frequency shifts.
To be really accurate we cheat a little, we have several copies of the insides and use the values to calculate a more accurate time | [
"The satellites' atomic clocks experience noise and clock drift errors. The navigation message contains corrections for these errors and estimates of the accuracy of the atomic clock. However, they are based on observations and may not indicate the clock's current state.\n",
"A pair of experimental atomic clocks ... |
How much is a 20 mark bond from 1918 worth? | I don't think it's worth a whole lot if you were to sell it. It's worth a lot more because it's from your grandparents. | [
"Bonds issued from 1941 to November 1965 accrued interest for 40 years; those issued from December 1965 to June 1980, for 30 years. They were generally issued at 75 cents per dollar of face value, maturing at par value in a specified number of years that fluctuated with the rate of interest. Denominations available... |
why do cats bring us dead animals? | I read somewhere that it's because they think you're a giant dumb cat that can't feed itself so they're trying to feed/take care of you. | [
"Many modern cats show this mixture of traits. Lions are able-bodied hunters, but will steal when they are given the opportunity. Tigers and cougars bury their kills and return later to keep eating, even days later. All cats prefer killing the sick or injured, and there is a fine line between an animal so sick it c... |
why is a bad idea to double up on rubber bands for braces? | My ortho told me to double up on bands..but that was years ago, things might have changed. I'd say have a talk with your ortho about how her or she sees your case going and whether or not doubling up (or using stronger bands) would speed things up.
Closing an overbite is usually the very last part of a case, so it coul... | [
"The application of braces moves the teeth as a result of force and pressure on the teeth. There are traditionally four basic elements that are used: brackets, bonding material, arch wire, and ligature elastic (also called an “O-ring”). The teeth move when the arch wire puts pressure on the brackets and teeth. Some... |
how come some of my subs randomly disappear from my drop down menu? | You can only have a certain amount of subscriptions in your drop down at any given time. I believe the limit is 50 but I might be wrong on the exact number.
Which subs are shown seems to be randomized, and it changes depending on which sub you're visiting when you click on the drop down. | [
"BULLET::::- Dropdown menu: In computing with graphical user interfaces, a dropdown menu or drop-down menu or drop-down list is a user interface control GUI element (\"widget\" or \"control\"), similar to a list box, which allows the user to choose one value from a list.\n",
"A drop-down list (abbreviated drop-do... |
why does the winter sun seem so harsh? | In the winter the sun spends more time lower in the sky. It's actually less bright since the rays are traveling through more air, but it's in your eyes more than in the summer when it is higher in the sky. | [
"During winter in either hemisphere, the lower altitude of the Sun causes the sunlight to hit the Earth at an oblique angle. Thus a lower amount of solar radiation strikes the Earth per unit of surface area. Furthermore, the light must travel a longer distance through the atmosphere, allowing the atmosphere to diss... |
How would the modern-day United States be different if a Federal Bank had been established as Hamilton proposed? | Hamilton's National Bank *was* established.
There was a National Bank from 1791-1811, then no bank for 5 years, then a new National Bank from 1816-1836, then no bank for a while, then a new National Bank from 1863 (Civil War debts and loans and what-not) until the early 20th century when the Federal Reserve banks wer... | [
"At Hamilton's initiative, and over the opposition of Thomas Jefferson, Congress set up the privately owned First Bank of the United States (BUS) to provide a uniform financial system for the 13 states.\n",
"Establishment of the Bank of the United States was part of a three-part expansion of federal fiscal and mo... |
What would space look like from the middle of two galaxies? | If you are not within a thousand light-years, or so, of stars, the sky will be nearly black. Most stars that are visible to the naked eye are this close. You'll be able to see a few nearby (within a megaparsec, or so) galaxies as faint, fuzzy patches in the sky. | [
"Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope show an elliptical galaxy with blobs and a filamentary structure. The radio jets being generated by the active galactic nucleus are interacting with the interstellar medium, producing extended narrow line regions. These features are commonly associated with many active ... |
how does a universal remote work? | Each kind of remote has its own special language.
Universal remotes know all of the languages but you have to tell them which one to use
Or it pretends to be what ever remote is needed to do what you want | [
"A universal remote is a remote control that can be programmed to operate various brands of one or more types of consumer electronics devices. Low-end universal remotes can only control a set number of devices determined by their manufacturer, while mid- and high-end universal remotes allow the user to program in n... |
how are some traits heritable? | So genes are what makes something heritable, you get one set from each parent and for some characteristics there is a single dominant gene and a single recessive one meaning you express only one gene from one parent.
However for a lot of characteristics there are many different genes all contributing to that one charac... | [
"It is important to note that the term \"heritability\" refers only to the degree of genetic variation between people on a trait. It does not refer to the degree to which a trait of a particular individual is due to environmental or genetic factors. The traits of an individual are always a complex interweaving of b... |
Why is the cloning of mammoths feasible and not of other ancient beasts? | I think the answer is primarily that mammoths are likely to be found frozen in ice somewhere, nicely preserved. Most animals just rot away, so no DNA can be recovered, not enough to clone from, anyway. But mammoths were cold dwelling, so we have a much higher chance of finding a nice preserved body (and indeed we've fo... | [
"Cloning may have uses in preserving endangered species and may become a viable tool for reviving extinct species. In January 2009, scientists from the Centre of Food Technology and Research of Aragon, in northern Spain announced the cloning of the Pyrenean ibex, a form of wild mountain goat, which was officially d... |
why are conservatives fiscal plans considered to be the best choice when it comes to national economies. | You are likely paying more attention to conservative-leaning media.
Nobody knows *for sure* the best way to fix the economy. It's possible for different people to look at the same set of evidence and come away with different conclusions. That's why elections happen, because there is no definitive right or wrong answer... | [
"Fiscal Conservatives typically argue for market-based solutions, with less government restriction of the private sector. Conservatives tend to oppose stimulus spending or bailouts, letting market determine success and failure. Typical proposals involve deregulation and income tax rate reduction. Conservatives hist... |
what's the difference between a dean, director, superintendant, principal or any other word used for the head of school? | A principal is typically the head of a school, overseeing all the teachers and staff. A superintendent runs a school district, which includes multiple schools. So they are the principal's boss. A dean is typically below a principal and deals with students matters, like attendance, dress code enforcement, discipline, et... | [
"Furthermore, each division has its own head, whose role is most analogous to that of principal in a public school. Each division head has an administrative assistant. The Upper School has a Dean of Students, charged with overseeing student affairs, including discipline, the Upper School dress code, and clubs.\n",
... |
how is it u.s. debt can remain exactly $16,699,396,000,000 ($25 million below legal limit) since may 17? | Which of your sources list the US debt every day since May 17?
This source summarizes the debt and shows it changing every day:
_URL_0_ | [
"For scale, CBO has estimated that the U.S. will add approximately $9.4 trillion to the debt total over the 2018-2027 period, based on laws in place as of January 2017. The $321 billion therefore represents a reduction of about 3.5% of the total debt increase over the decade, while the $150 billion is about 1.6%.\n... |
why are baseball teams forced to play so many games compared to other sports? | Baseball requires more games to determine which is the better team. A *very* good baseball team only wins 65% of thier games.
Also, as others have mentioned, baseball is less grueling than many other sports, so they can play almost every day. | [
"In the other major professional sports leagues of North America it is virtually impossible that a team could lose all its games, for the simple reason that there are many more games in the regular season than in football or lacrosse.\n",
"Unlike some other sports, the nature of baseball is such that it is not re... |
Do most historians believe that history is teleological? | **Mod notice:**
**This thread has been officially designated this week's Theory Thursday post. See [here](_URL_0_) for details, but keep the discussion here, in this thread.** | [
"Historist historiography rejects historical teleology and bases its explanations of historical phenomena on sympathy and understanding (see Hermeneutics) for the events, acting persons, and historical periods. The historist approach takes to its extreme limits the common observation that human institutions (langua... |
li5 how can you own a house, but not the land that it's built on? and what exactly are property taxes? | I can try to help a little. With property tax, you are paying for the space that your 'Property' takes up.
Lets say you have a table. This table only has a limited amount of space. People want to put stuff on the table (food, toys, etc.). There are more people that want to put things on the table then there i... | [
"Homeowners are usually required to pay property tax (or millage tax) periodically. The tax is levied by the governing authority of the jurisdiction in which the property is located; it may be paid to a national government, a federated state, a county or geographical region, or a municipality. Multiple jurisdiction... |
why is that when i drink water or soda, i feel full after a while, while with beer, there's no stopping me? | By the time you have drank enough to feel full [for me it is 3 glasses of water] you have had enough alcohol for the fun to start. Lack of inhibition is enough at that point to make you want to drink more. On top of that the ethanol being metabolized in your liver causes a sudden blood sugar drop. Drops in blood sugar ... | [
"When we are intoxicated with strong drink we drown our rational powers, by which we are distinguished from the brutal creation--we unman ourselves, and bring ourselves not only level with the beasts of the field, but seven degrees beneath them...How many [drunkards] have been drowned in our rivers, and how many fr... |
How do fertility/sperm tests work? | The simplest test just involves looking at a semen sample under a microscope, counting the sperm in a given volume, and seeing whether they look normal.
You could probably do this at home if you bought a microscope and hemocytometer. However, without training it probably wouldn't be super reliable. You should see a do... | [
"Fertility testing for men involves semen testing and genetic testing, as other factors such as impotence are obvious. Semen can be tested for sperm count, sperm motility, sperm morphology, pH, volume, fructose content, and acrosome activity. Checks are also made to identify undescended testicles and retrograde eja... |
What is the actual part of the LHC that speeds up the particles so fast, and why does the LHC need to be miles long? | The particle acceleration is done by [cavities](_URL_0_) , high-tech versions of what you should have encountered in school as a plate condensators, aka two differentially charged metal plates, which will accelerate any free charge placed between them.
This simply concept will give you a
[CRT](_URL_1_), probably an a... | [
"LHC@home consists of two applications: LHC@home Classic, SixTrack, which went live in September 2004 and is used to upgrade and maintain the particle accelerator Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), and LHC@home 2.0, Test4Theory (now is Virtual LHC@home), which went... |
why are human boobs bigger than any other animals? | It seems to serve mostly as sexual fitness signalling function, as women with small breasts don't have problems feeding their offspring, generally. This goes well with the tendency of many males to attribute some sexual attraction to them.
Breasts, outside pregnancy, do not have high metabolic demands, so there wouldn... | [
"Brain size usually increases with body size in animals (is positively correlated), i.e. large animals usually have larger brains than smaller animals. The relationship is not linear, however. Generally, small mammals have relatively larger brains than big ones. Mice have a direct brain/body size ratio similar to h... |
During the holocaust, many of the Jews were given big yellow stars to wear. What stopped them from taking them off? | Many people were too scared of what would happen to them if they took them off. If you were caught to be a registered Jew without a star on your chest, you were either imprisoned or killed. Plus, in the beginning, most people thought nothing of the stars. They believed it to be just another way to identify people. Then... | [
"On 29 May 1942 it was announced that all Jews living in the occupied zone had to wear a yellow star of David with the words \"Juif\" or \"Juive\" at all times by 7 June 1942. Ousby described the purpose of the yellow star \"not just to identify but also to humiliate, and it worked\". On 14 June 1942, a 12-year-old... |
Where do all of the lightening bugs go during the day? | Lightning bugs are nocturnal beetles that rest during the day wherever they can find a shady spot. | [
"This species feeds and breeds in various types of dung, and in the British Isles it is usually seen between the months of April and October. The beetle is particularly sensitive to light. During the daytime hours or under artificial light, it instinctively burrows into the nearest moist soil or preferably fresh du... |
why does an extreme lack of sleep seem to temporarily change an individuals mannerisms and personality? | Mood and sleep are linked. When you are overly tired, you lose some abilities to regulate your emotions, so you feel more emotional extremes than usual.
At the same time, sleep deprivation causes the same kind of impairment as alcohol intoxication. So you subjective understanding of what you are experiencing isn't nec... | [
"Sleep deprivation has been shown to have a detrimental effect on cognitive tasks, especially involving divergent functions or multitasking. It also has effects on mood and emotion, and there have been multiple reports of increased tendency for rage, fear or depression with sleep debt. However, some of the higher c... |
why are humans more or less shades of tan and brown instead of blues, greens, etc.? | Short Answer : Melanin.
Answering your question involves a mix of understanding biology and a little physics.
Melanin is a pigment that is naturally produced by your body, from the metabolism of an amino acid called tyrosine. This pigment can be polymerized and produced in skin cells, and by nature of its structure, ... | [
"Melanism, meaning a mutation that results in completely dark skin, does not exist in humans. Melanin is the primary determinant of the degree of skin pigmentation and protects the body from harmful ultraviolet radiation. The same ultraviolet radiation is essential for the synthesis of vitamin D in skin, so lighter... |
Need to settle a 2nd Amendment argument. Could someone store a cannon in their barn in 1790? | According to the [FAQ on owning cannons](_URL_1_), yes you could. See this response in particular:
* [When the Second Amendment was ratified, did the "right to bear arms" include the right of private citizens to own a cannon or any other weapon of war?](_URL_0_)
| [
"It was the \"Old Sacramento\" cannon that the pro-slavers made use of in their initial attempt to bring down the Free State Hotel. This weapon had been stored at the Liberty Arsenal until it was seized by pro-slavery forces in 1855. (The cannon would eventually be captured by free-staters later in 1856 during the ... |
spontaneous combustion | Nobody really knows for sure, due to its weird nature. However, it is accepted that two things are needed: fuel and ignition.
Fuel is either methane produced from digested foods (farts) being excreted from the skin or oily body fat. An ignition is usually either static electricity or a cigarette.
Do not worry though,... | [
"\"Spontaneous human combustion\" refers to the death from a fire originating without an apparent external source of ignition; the fire is believed to start within the body of the victim. This idea, and the term \"spontaneous human combustion\", were both first proposed in 1746 by Paul Rolli in an article published... |
why do i always see empty cars on the side of the highway with rags/plastic bags out the window? | those are broken down/out of gas cars and the bag is supposed to indicate that the car isn't abandoned and someone will be coming back for it | [
"Road debris, for the most part, tends to collect in areas where two-track vehicles such as cars and buses do not drive. In urban areas, this tends to be on the edges (shoulder) and on the crown of the road, and debris frequently collects around traffic islands and junctions. In rural areas, debris collects in the ... |
Queen Elizabeth is descendent from William the Conqueror, but to what extent does she actually have Viking blood in her veins? | hi! not discouraging direct responses, but you can get started on these:
* Roughly addressing the main question: the Viking Era was 1000 years ago; by now, pretty much everybody of European descent has "viking blood" in their veins: [Charlemagne family](_URL_0_)
* Re the bonus question: the Normans were more French t... | [
"Isabella is descended from Gytha of Wessex through King Andrew II of Hungary and thus brought the bloodline of the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, Harold Godwinson, back into the English royal family.\n",
"A dubious, later pedigree attributes to Ragnvald a daughter, Åsa Ragnvaldsdatter (\"Aseda Rognvaldsdatter... |
does the maestro or conductor of an orchestra really make a difference by standing there waving their wand? | The conductor serves an important function, yes. It is possible for an orchestra to play without a conductor, but there is a much greater chance of errors/mistakes and there will likely be synchronization problems as well.
Also, the conductor provides feedback to the performers with respect to how the music sounds fro... | [
"In performances given in America and/or featuring American or British orchestras, the concertmaster will usually walk onstage individually after the rest of the orchestra is seated, and bow and receive applause before the conductor appears. In continental European orchestras, this practice is uncommon. There, the ... |
why does florida have so many sinkholes? | Florida used to be largely under the ocean, because the water was higher and it's a flat state. Much of the state now is on top of the Florida Aquifer, which is sort of like a big limestone sponge filled with water and caverns and so on. (Limestone is "composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as c... | [
"The sinkhole provides a good environment for swimming, since the water source is a hot spring hidden in the depths, bringing the water temperature to . Surrounded by high cliffs the water is only accessible via a washout that breaks through the North West side, providing a steep path to the waters edge. Large lily... |
William the Conqueror was a duke in Francia, but became king of his conquered lands in England. How did the king of Francia feel about this? Wasn't that weird? Like the governor of California just going and conquering a part of Mexico for himself, but not the U.S.? Was that ok with the other dukes? | I think you might have misunderstood France in the 11th century. Early Capetian kings were weak, their reach didn't go far beyond Ile-de-France, the Dukes and Counts were basically running autonomous kingdoms doing as they wished, including waging wars against the king of France himself. The French king's symbolic powe... | [
"Having inherited his father's possessions in 1506, he was already a powerful ruler with extensive domains. On Maximilian's death these domains became vast. He was now ruler of three of Europe's leading dynasties—the House of Habsburg of the Habsburg Monarchy; the House of Valois-Burgundy of the Burgundian Netherla... |
Were kimono's common/existent in Japan in AD650? | Yes, they were existent but were not common until the 8th Century AD. Also they did not closely resemble the modern kimono we know as today. At that point in Japanese history the kimono more closely resembled the clothing of the Han Dynasty due to cultural adoption from Japan of Chinese culture. It wasn't until the Hei... | [
"Chinese fashion had a huge influence on Japan from the Kofun period to the early Heian period as a result of mass immigration from the continent and a Japanese envoy to the Tang dynasty. There is an opinion that \"Kimono\" was basically derived from the Chinese clothing in the Wu region. During Japan's Heian perio... |
Is it possible that procrastination may have been advantageous somehow from an evolutionary standpoint? | > Has anything good ever come out of any your lives because of procrastination?
AskScience discourages anecdotal replies, so you should rephrase this part of your question.
| [
"Procrastination has been linked to the complex arrangement of cognitive, affective and behavioral relationships from task desirability to low self esteem and anxiety to depression. A study found that procrastinators were less future-oriented than their non-procrastinator counterparts. This result was hypothesized ... |
Why do all helmets seem to loose their cheek pieces during the 5-10th centuries? | If I'm remembering correctly, I believe it was because skullcaps and 'bucket' shaped helms were easier to make. In europe, as blacksmiths began working for more decentralized states, armor quality became less specialized; rather than master blacksmiths overseeing large groups of apprentices for somewhat standardized ma... | [
"One innovation from the early 1900s period was hardened leather. 1917 marked the first time helmets were raised above the head in an attempt to direct blows away from the top of the head. Ear flaps also had their downfall during this period as they had little ventilation and made it difficult for players to hear. ... |
Today my friend told me that King John considered converting England to Islam to win support of Arabs against the threat of France. How true is this story? | The claim comes from the 'Chronica Majora' by Matthew Paris which forms part of the [The Saint Alban’s Chronicles.](_URL_0_) [Paris](_URL_4_) was an English Benedictine Monk who wrote about the alleged event some twenty years after it was meant to have happened.
In his version of events King John visited Muhammad al-... | [
"Writing two decades after the events, Matthew Paris, a St Albans chronicler of the early thirteenth century, claims that, in desperation, John sent envoys to al-Nâsir asking for his help. In return John offered to convert to Islam and turn England into a Muslim state. Among the delegates was Master Robert, a Londo... |
If left out long enough, does carbonated water become just plain water? | Yes, it does. The solubility of CO2 in water is extremely low - carbonation forces it in using pressure. It will slowly release over time, which is why sodas will feel "flat" a while after opening. Consider equilibrium to be saturation based on the partial pressure of CO2 in normal air. Exactly how long this takes ... | [
"By itself, carbonated water appears to have little impact on health. While carbonated water is somewhat acidic, this acidity can be partially neutralized by saliva. A study found that sparkling mineral water is slightly more erosive to teeth than non-carbonated water but is about 100 times less erosive to teeth th... |
Regarding the recent lapse of global warming in the last 10 years - which explanation should we believe? | The premise of your question is wrong, quite frankly. There is no "lapse" in global warming over the past 10 years. 2010, for instance, tied for the hottest year on record with 2005, according to NCAR and NOAA. There is always going to be noise in the climate signal. There is no way that each year will get progress... | [
"The changes observed over the last several decades are likely mostly due to human activities, but we cannot rule out that some significant part of these changes is also a reflection of natural variability. Human-induced warming and associated sea level rise are expected to continue through the 21st century ... The... |
Did any significant linguistic differences arise due to the division of Germany? | Hi, the short answer is: 'no'.
The linguistic differences existed previously. The most major distinction is Low German and High German, the latter of which is the "standard" dialect today. Low German was spoken as a lingua franca in Northern Germany and is still spoken today in Holland and parts of Belgium, where it i... | [
"Divisions between subfamilies within Germanic are rarely precisely defined, because most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not. In particular, there has never been an original \"Proto-High German\". For this and other reasons, the idea of representin... |
why aren't you supposed to put car batteries on the ground? | This is an outdated concern. Back in the olden days car batteries were made of a rubber material which actually allowed some acid seepage...potentially leading to conductive connection to the concrete diminishing the batteries stored potential.
Modern car batteries are not susceptible to this as they are made of pl... | [
"BULLET::::- Automotive batteries stored on a concrete floor do not discharge any faster than they would on other surfaces, in spite of worry among Americans that concrete harms batteries. Early batteries might have been susceptible to moisture from floors due to leaky, porous cases, but for many years lead–acid ca... |
with a few exceptions, the most popular vocalists throughout history are ones with high vocal ranges, not low. why do humans enjoy high pitched singing so much? | In classical music, it is typical for the melody to be played on a high-pitched instrument, such as flute, trumpet, or especially violin. This is because those instruments, in a higher register, are easier to hear over the rest of the orchestra. Having the melody "on top" of all of the other parts makes it stand out.... | [
"What distinguishes these voices from being called sopranos is their extension into the lower register and warmer vocal quality. Although coloratura mezzo-sopranos have impressive and at times thrilling high notes, they are most comfortable singing in the middle of their range, rather than the top.\n",
"Within ch... |
Could magnets be used to generate artificial gravity on a small scale? | Everything is possible, but this particular idea is neither practical nor useful. That doesn't mean that it isn't a wonderful idea to help astronauts fight atrophy, but consider the following:
It costs about $25,000 to place a single kilogram of material into space. One thousand kilograms costs $25,000,000. A machine ... | [
"A similar effect to gravity can be created through diamagnetism. It requires magnets with extremely powerful magnetic fields. Such devices have been able to levitate at most a small mouse, producing a 1 \"g\" field to cancel that of the Earth's. \n",
"In 2008, \"Cosmos Magazine\" reported on research into creati... |
What is more dense (in terms of volume): an atom or a galaxy? | **Short Answer:** An atom, for obvious reasons.
**Longer answer:** Approximate the Milky Way as a disk 1000 lightyears thick, with a radius of 50,000 light years, containing 100 billion stars, each with the mass of the sun.
The Milky Way then has a total mass of:
M = (2x10^30 kg) (10^11) = 2x10^41 kg
And has... | [
"In astronomy, the mass and size of a galaxy (or general overdensity) is often defined in terms of the \"virial mass\" and \"virial radius\" respectively. Because galaxies and overdensities in continuous fluids can be highly extended (even to infinity in some models, such as an isothermal sphere), it can be hard to... |
How accurately can we measure gravity, and do the formula we use to make the calculations take into account the effects of space/time expansion on its accuracy? | It depends what you mean by that. Measurements of the gravitational constant can be measured to 150 parts per million precision (e.g. [here](_URL_0_)). Experiments on Earth do not need to take into account the expansion of the universe. | [
"Atom interferometric and atomic fountain methods are used for precise measurement of the earth's gravity, and atomic clocks and purpose-built instruments can use time dilation (also called general relativistic) measurements to track changes in the gravitational potential and gravitational acceleration on the earth... |
why do computers with ssd's need ram? | RAM is not the same as flash memory. While flash memory is faster than hard drives, they're still about 100 times slower than RAM. | [
"Most SSD manufacturers use non-volatile NAND flash memory in the construction of their SSDs because of the lower cost compared with DRAM and the ability to retain the data without a constant power supply, ensuring data persistence through sudden power outages. Flash memory SSDs are slower than DRAM solutions, and ... |
What would a four or five dimensional object look like to us? [physics] | I think [This](_URL_0_) might put into perspective for you. I love Carl Sagan. If you're not familiar with his work, I would say look him up. He wrote an amazing book called Contact and it was later turned into a movie, absolutely amazing. And his show called Cosmos, is another amazing series. | [
"A picture of a three-dimensional object is a projection of that object from three dimensions into two dimensions. A tetraview is set of five projections, first from four dimensions into three dimensions, and then from three dimensions into two dimensions.\n",
"As a three-dimensional object passes through a two-d... |
Is it possible for a tectonic plate to break in half? | Plates can and do get broken up, such as through the formation and widening of rifts. That's how the Pangea supercontinent was broken up into several new continets/tectonic plates. That's how Africa will eventually split off into two separate continents (the main part of Africa which will eventually drive into Europe a... | [
"At the contact where two tectonic plates slip past each other every section must eventually slip, as (in the long-term) none get left behind. But they do not all slip at the same time; different sections will be at different stages in the cycle of strain (deformation) accumulation and sudden rebound. In the seismi... |
Why does the human body lose buoyancy as you dive into deeper water? | The water doesn't really change density much as you go deeper. It's already pretty damn close to as dense as it can get. You just have more pressure.
As the pressure increases, the human body DOES get more dense, because it shrinks. More pressure pushing in compared to the ~1 atmosphere internal pressure, causing ... | [
"The high pressures associated with deep dives cause gases such as nitrogen to build up in tissues which are then released upon surfacing, possibly causing death. One of the ways sea lions deal with the extreme pressures is by limiting the amount of gas exchange that occurs when diving. The sea lion allows the alve... |
what are the rules of evidence law and what are they there for? | That's not really something you can answer in the form that a five year old can digest but I'll try.
When you argue without rules there is no end to the argument. You can see this in the classic case of "he started it mom v did not you did". If on the other hand you enforce some rules such as not giving opinions as e... | [
"The law of evidence, also known as the rules of evidence, encompasses the rules and legal principles that govern the proof of facts in a legal proceeding. These rules determine what evidence must or must not be considered by the trier of fact in reaching its decision. The trier of fact is a judge in bench trials, ... |
Did Wealthy/Noble Romans do private things infront of their slaves? | I would say yes, but not in front of just any slave, these are their house slaves. The best of the best. The most professional and trustworthy and talented you can find. These slaves were paid well and lorded their status over those lower than they. The best analogy would be to Dowton Abbey or any show about the relati... | [
"Most families owned slaves as household servants and laborers, and even poor families might have owned a few slaves. Owners were not allowed to beat or kill their slaves. Owners often promised to free slaves in the future to encourage slaves to work hard. Unlike in Rome, freedmen did not become citizens. Instead, ... |
what was daily life in the city of Rome like after power shifted in the Byzantine era? would a modern day comparison be Detroit? or did it remain economically vibrant sans administrative power..? | Detroit isn't a good comparison because there are still several hundred thousand people living in Detroit, not to mention several million in the surrounding suburbs that spend a large amount of time within the actual city.
The Gothic Wars of the 6th century devastated Rome (along with most of Italy). The city was besi... | [
"Constantinople was the largest and richest urban center in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea during the late Eastern Roman Empire, mostly as a result of its strategic position commanding the trade routes between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. It would remain the capital of the eastern, Greek-speaking empire for ove... |
eli15: where does google get the satellite footage for their services from? (google earth, etc) | I've looked into buying satellite imagery for my research, which would require getting in touch with a company that has a private satellite (KokorHekkus mentioned Rapid Eye, but just a quick search turns up [Ikonos](_URL_4_), [Digital Globe](_URL_3_), and [Geoeye](_URL_1_), and there's also imagery taken by public enti... | [
"On June 27, 2016, Google rolled out new satellite imagery worldwide sourced from Landsat 8, comprising over 700 trillion pixels of new data. In September 2016, Google Maps acquired mapping analytics startup Urban Engines.\n",
"Satellite imagery (also Earth observation imagery or spaceborne photography) are image... |
What was Plan B for Overlord in WWII, and how close did it come to failure? | I'd like to add that during the Normandy invasion, the Allies also landed in Southern France in September - Operation Dragoon. Also the allies were advancing in Italy, they moved north and captured Florence between June and August 1944. Interestingly the Brazilian 1st Infantry Division fought in Northern Italy during W... | [
"In February 1942, Raeder presented Hitler with the \"Great Plan\", a grand strategic design for winning the war by a series of combined operations with Japan and Italy. Through essentially a rehash of the \"Mediterranean plan\" of 1940 with the main German blows to be focused against the British in the Middle East... |
how does dog the bounty hunter work? | Bail bondsmen are not affiliated with law enforcement | [
"Dog the Bounty Hunter is an American reality television series which aired on A&E and chronicled Duane \"Dog\" Chapman's experiences as a bounty hunter. With a few exceptions, the series took place in Hawaii or Dog's home state of Colorado.\n",
"Duane Lee \"Dog\" Chapman Sr. (born February 2, 1953), better known... |
why do some people love and crave the feeling from roller coasters or waterslides, while it makes others feel ill? is it pure emotion, or are they actually having physiologically different experiences? | There is a slight difference between adrenaline junkies(i.e thrill seekers) and non-junkies. Basically, adrenaline junkies have less sensitive adrenaline receptors, and there need more adrenaline to feel the rush. On the ther hand, non-junkies get overwhelmed by the huge influx of adrenaline and it upsets hormonal bala... | [
"Most roller coasters combine substantial heights with seemingly insignificant support, as well as free-falls and the illusion of uncontrolled drops. Because acrophobia involves an extreme fear of heights and falling, these conditions could cause someone who is an acrophobic to have an extremely negative reaction t... |
how does smelling something work? i saw a post today that a small test tube of a particular substance could make a half mile radius smell, does this mean particles of this are strewn that far? | That's exactly what is means.
Air molecules travel at a few hundred miles per hour, but you don't feel it because they are so small an all going in different directions. By the time they get too far away from the source, they are usually too dispersed for us to smell, unless it is something we are very sensitive too. | [
"The sense of smell is called olfaction. All materials constantly shed molecules, which float into the nose or are sucked in through breathing. Inside the nasal chambers is the neuroepithelium, a lining deep within the nostrils that contains the receptors responsible for detecting molecules that are small enough to... |
how does r/imgoingtohellforthis have 300 million+ subscribers when a subreddit such as r/pics only has ~5 million? | They have 300,000 subscribers. The 666 at the end is a joke. | [
"Although the total number of ML/1 users in the world is small, there are ML/1 users all over the world, and Bob has corresponded with ML/1 users in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Holland, and India.\n",
"In October 2016, Pinterest announced 150 million monthly active users, 70 millio... |
why does thoroughly washing frequently not prevent acne? | Acne can also be caused by diet, and sometimes washing too frequently can irritate your skin and make breakouts worse. | [
"In general, it is recommended that people with acne do not wash affected skin more than twice daily. For people with acne and sensitive skin, a fragrance free moisturizer may be used to reduce irritation. Skin irritation from acne medications typically peaks at two weeks after onset of use and tends to improve wit... |
When insects die of old age, what actually kills them? | Honeybees starve or freeze to death in old age. Due to their wings being worn out, they can't return to the hive, and if they do make it, are booted out.
Because I am a humble beekeeper, and also this wonderful man's work:
_URL_0_ | [
"IGRs prevent an insect from reaching maturity by interfering with the molting process. This in turn curbs infestations because immature insects cannot reproduce. Because these IGRs work by interfering with an insect's molting process, they kill insects more slowly than traditional insecticides. Death typically occ... |
What was the historical context in which Islam grew in the early 600s? | #**What was the historical context in which Islam grew in the early 600s?**
The Middle East at the time of Muhammad's death was in a great deal of turmoil. The two main powers of the region, Sassanid Persia and the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine), were engaged in a devastating war until just prior Muhammad's death.
... | [
"The seventh century saw the rise of Islam as the peninsula's dominant religion. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca in about 570 and first began preaching in the city in 610, but migrated to Medina in 622. From there he and his companions united the tribes of Arabia under the banner of Islam and created... |
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