question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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Did the USSR have any kind of attempt to appeal to the youth similar to how Captain America got big in the US? | The kinds of figures that were lauded by Soviet propaganda were "everymen" who, because of their love of their country etc. etc., rose to do incredible things. The case in point here is Alexey Stakhanov, of the Stakhanovite movement. It would have been at odds with Soviet ideology for science-manufactured supermen to b... | [
"As the Cold War flared up in the 1950s, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev realized that the Soviet Union needed its own equivalent to Captain America. Khrushchev chose Alexi Shostakov over Yuri Gagarin who would later become the first man in space. The KGB faked his death and trained him in secret, keeping his surv... |
why animals naturally know how and when to mate, where as we are educated or we learn about it from external sources? | We don't really get taught about the mechanics of sex in our education/external source learning. But it's not a very difficult concept to figure out once you're ready for the moment.
Animals don't have to worry about things like consent, unwanted pregnancies causing a financial burden, or the long upbringing of a chil... | [
"Some animals engage in matutinal searching flights to find mates early in the morning. It is thought that this is adaptive because it increases the chance of finding mates, and reduces competition for mates (i.e., by flying directly to a potential mate before it has a chance to find other mates). This is supported... |
does your blood temperature actually increase when you get mad or hot(old people saying "makes my blood boil")? | A lot of times when you get angry it's because you feel a psychological threat, like the threat of embarrassment or losing status somehow. Your body can go into 'fight or flight' mode, which increases your adrenaline and your blood pressure.
So, people that are real angry feel their heart pounding, they get flushed, ... | [
"Fever, also known as pyrexia and febrile response, is defined as having a temperature above the normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature set point. There is not a single agreed-upon upper limit for normal temperature with sources using values between . The increase in set point triggers increased ... |
The Byzantines favored blinding to remove a potential rival from politics. How did the act of blinding take place? What was the favored method for blinding someone? What tools were used? | Two points to make here; Mutilation was a particularly gruesome tool used by the Byzantine (and lots of others), and they used blinding to far greater scope and effect than purely as a way to eliminate potential rivals.
There is an inherent second level to this question that greatly effects the outcome; what was the r... | [
"In the Middle Ages, blinding was used as a penalty for treason or as a means of rendering a political opponent unable to rule and lead an army in war. Byzantine general Belisarius ( - 565) is said to have been blinded at the order of the Emperor Justinian. Vazul (before 997 – 1031/1032) of the Hungarian royal Hous... |
How big of a part did the navy play during Ancient Rome? What were some of the largest and/or most important naval battles? | Rome's navy was actually very important when it had to undergo the Punic Wars against Carthage. Being that Carthage was on the other side of the Mediterranean, sea dominance was critical at the time. Since Hannibal had to march his army across Gaul and Hispania (modern day France & Spain) and while he did manage to k... | [
"Although the first sea engagement of the war, the Battle of the Lipari Islands in 260 BC, was a defeat for Rome, the forces involved were relatively small. Through the use of the \"corvus\", the fledgling Roman navy under Gaius Duilius won its first major engagement later that year at the Battle of Mylae. During t... |
When does the body produce Melanin? | Let's limit the question to production and release of eumelanin (="true melanin") in human skin; melanin can be found in other odd places and in different forms.
Eumelanin production is stimulated by UV-B-caused DNA damage in the form of pyrimidine dimers in melanocytes, a type of cell dispersed in the bottom layer o... | [
"Melanin is a natural pigment produced by cells called melanocytes in a process called melanogenesis. Melanocytes produce two types of melanin: pheomelanin (red) and eumelanin (very dark brown). Melanin protects the body by absorbing ultraviolet radiation. Excessive UV radiation causes sunburn along with other dire... |
why our vision appears to be "green" after closing the eyes for some time? | Your eyes when closed still allow some light which is coming through your eyelids. This gives it a reddish hue. When eyes are exposed to this color this much then they adjust which results in lack of red when you open your eyes. | [
"Human eyes have color receptors known as cone cells, of which there are three types. In some cases, one is missing or faulty, which can cause color blindness, including the common inability to distinguish red and yellow from green, known as deuteranopia or redgreen color blindness. Green is restful to the eye. Stu... |
why can’t a patient’s blood be reused in cases of internal bleeding? | Yes. It's called a cell saver. The blood is suctioned out of the surgical field; washed, filtered, and centrifuged; then transfused back to the patient. It takes some time to set up, but it can save you using a few units of blood. | [
"In surgery, control of bleeding is achieved with the use of laser or sonic scalpels, minimally invasive surgical techniques, electrosurgery and electrocautery, low central venous pressure anesthesia (for select cases), or suture ligation of vessels. Other methods include the use of blood substitutes, which at pres... |
why do aa and aaa batteries not shock us when touching opposite ends with wet fingers, but licking a 9 volt battery does? | First of all, your saliva is much more conductive than your skin.
Secondly, 9 volts is times stronger than 1.5 volts. | [
"Most battery voltage testers and chargers that can also test nine-volt need another snap clip to hold the battery, while cylindrical batteries often share a holder that may be adjustable in size. Because of the proximity of the positive and negative terminals at the top of the battery and relatively low current of... |
why does antipsychotic medication mess with motor function and cause the body to tense up? | Super simplified laymans knowledge version: psych drugs affect various neurotransmitters in the brain (dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, etc), these neurotransmitters are multipurpose and some regulate motor function in addition to mood. | [
"Automatism, in toxicology, refers to a tendency to take a drug over and over again, forgetting each time that one has already taken the dose. This can lead to a cumulative overdose. A particular example is barbiturates which were once commonly used as hypnotic (sleep inducing) drugs. Among the current hypnotics, b... |
Why did Benjamin Franklin not discuss the Revolution in his autobiography? | The answer for this is fairly simply, apologies therefore if this seems rather sparse for a top-level post.
Franklin does not discuss the Revolution, because he died before finishing the autobiography. | [
"In both the play and the film, John Adams sarcastically predicts that Benjamin Franklin will receive from posterity too great a share of credit for the Revolution. \"Franklin smote the ground and out sprang—George Washington. Fully grown, and on his horse. Franklin then electrified them with his magnificent lightn... |
why does the education system favours memory retention over imagination? | Because most of us are not going to be in a situation where we need crazy outside the box imaginations. Most of us are going to have jobs where we’ll need the knowledge and competence in that particular field, and would only need a limited imagination to problem solve within the scope of our position. | [
"Another method for improving memory and retention is imaginative and abstract thinking. Using imagination and thinking abstractly when learning new things are effective ways of improving memory and enabling a great amount of material to be effectively retained. Imagination creates stronger visuals and connections,... |
Does uranium actually glow green as it's often depicted? If so, why? | [Uranium glass glows green under UV](_URL_0_) and was pretty popular in the mid-20th century. However it's not the radioactivity making things glow, it's a regular atomic transition. Radium was also used as a glowing paint before it was realized how horribly dangerous that is, and tritium is occasionally used for that ... | [
"The resulting , a white solid, is highly reactive (by fluorination), easily sublimes (emitting a vapor that behaves as a nearly ideal gas), and is the most volatile compound of uranium known to exist.\n",
"Uranium borohydride is the inorganic compound with the empirical formula U(BH). Two polymeric forms are kno... |
when you're reviewing your research, how the hell do you find the null hypothesis? | The nullhypothesis is a statistical question.
It is the question you ask in order to disprove your hypothesis.
If you cannot disprove it with the data you collect, then the hypothesis must be correct.
(Well, most likely correct.)
| [
"In inferential statistics, the null hypothesis is a general statement or default position that there is nothing new happening, like there is no relationship between two measured phenomena, or no association among groups. Testing (accepting, approving, rejecting, or disproving) the null hypothesis—and thus concludi... |
What happens to satellites and other objects orbiting our planet when they are outdated or no longer work? | Ideally, low earth orbit satellites would be de-orbited intentionally when they are no longer needed. Then they'll just "burn" in re-entry. Or the satellites will de-orbit themselves eventually due to small atmospheric drag.
For geostationary satellites, the propellant needed to de-orbit them is much more than a satel... | [
"Due to a failure in a spacecraft system, the ground team was unable to actively command the satellite and spacecraft became just a passive object in Earth orbit by which some passive drag characteristics might be deduced.\n",
"Although the ITU now requires proof a satellite can be moved out of its orbital slot a... |
Is a child born via egg donor related to the birth giver? How much so? | If you mean does the surrogate influence the foetus it grows in any way then yes. While not all that common, it is possible for the foetus to take on the mitochondrial DNA of the surrogate mother, whilst still retain the egg and sperm donors DNA within the rest of their genetic make up.
Here is an article about it, th... | [
"For most sperm or egg recipients, the choice between anonymous sperm or egg donor and a non-anonymous one is generally not of major importance. For some donor conceived children, on the other hand, it may be psychologically burdensome not having the possibility of contacting or knowing almost nothing about the don... |
what does "support/maintenance" for software mean? what is part of it, why do companies pay money for it instead of foregoing it to save money? | It's like buying a really nice warranty for your phone.
If your phone breaks, and you don't have the warranty, then you better hope you know how to fix it.
But, if you bought the nice warranty, then you get 24/7 support from the manufacturer who will answer any questions you have, will fly a guy over to your house to... | [
"Computer-aided maintenance (not to be confused with CAM which usually stands for Computer Aided Manufacturing) refers to systems that utilize software to organize planning, scheduling and support of maintenance and repair. A common application of such systems is the maintenance of computers, either hardware or sof... |
Was being a frontline, front rank, musket-carrying infantryman in conflicts like the Seven Years War a death sentence? | These types of questions have been brought up a lot around here so I will try to sum them up and then post ones I am referring to later (bed time).
One post talks about how men in these battles would actually be pretty bad at aiming and only be drilled in firing and reloading, some never said "aim", only "level". Also... | [
"Raynal Cawthorne Bolling (September 1, 1877 – March 26, 1918) was the first high-ranking officer of the United States Army to be killed in combat in World War I. A corporate lawyer by vocation, he became an early Army aviator and the organizer of both of the first units in what ultimately became the Air National G... |
Why do I talk louder when I can't hear my voice as well? | [Speakers rely on auditory feedback of their own voices when speaking.](_URL_1_) I'm not sure if that article is open-access or not.
A pretty cool demonstration of how much hearing your own voice can disrupt your speech is [delayed auditory feedback](_URL_0_). If you've ever spoken in a room with an echo/reverb or b... | [
"BULLET::::- Speak in a normal, clear, calm voice. Talking loudly or shouting does not increase the volume of your voice at the receiving radios, but will distort the audio, because loud sounds result in over-modulation, which directly causes distortion.\n",
"Some patients with this condition are disturbed by the... |
How did humans end up in the Americas before it got ‘discovered’ by Europeans? | I would suggest cross posting this question at r/AskAnthropology. They even have an entry in their faq regarding this subject. | [
"The long-held theory that the first human beings in the Americas arrived by land through an ice-free corridor in western Canada has been called into question by archaeological discoveries along the Pacific coastlines of North and South America. Many scientists now believe that the earliest inhabitants arrived by b... |
how can we edit dna if it’s so small!? | We use really small tools!
& #x200B;
Keep in mind that eventhough DNA is very small, it is absolutely necessary for an organism to have a full access to it and to manipulate it with critical accuracy. A single mistake, and the whole cell can become cancerous! (it usually commits suicide before that happens, it's cal... | [
"RNA editing is a molecular process through which some cells can make discrete changes to specific nucleotide sequences within an RNA molecule after it has been generated by RNA polymerase. RNA editing may include the insertion, deletion, and base substitution of nucleotides within the RNA molecule. RNA editing is ... |
Why does an atom that gains neutrons become radioactive? | Due to the Pauli exclusion principle, you can't have have all the electrons in the same orbital, so you have electron shells and valance electrons and all that. The same applies to protons and neutrons. The important thing here is that it applies to them separately. As you add neutrons onto an atom, they have to have m... | [
"Neutrons are the only type of ionizing radiation that can make other objects, or material, radioactive. This process, called neutron activation, is the primary method used to produce radioactive sources for use in medical, academic, and industrial applications. Even comparatively low speed thermal neutrons cause n... |
How does the brain "store" vision? | Edit: Note I'm talking about image storage, which I think is specifically what you're asking about. There is a related but separate area of the brain that just collects raw sensory data (eyes > optic nerve > lateral geniculate nucleus > occipital lobe > secondary association areas like dorsal and ventral stream... | [
"Various areas of the brain work together in a multitude of ways in order to produce the images that we see with our eyes and that are encoded by our brains. The basis of this work takes place in the visual cortex of the brain. The visual cortex is located in the occipital lobe of the brain and harbors many other s... |
why do some people get so effin' angry over repetitive noises? | My answer has no scientific basis, and is pretty much just my own experience, but I think when we are concentrating on certain tasks (in this instance playing LoL) and we hear things that not only distract us, but also annoy us, it either makes us want to try even harder to tune them out and continue doing what we are ... | [
"For example, those who suffer from misophonia often report that specific human sounds, including those made by eating, breathing, whispering, or repetitive tapping noises, can precipitate feelings of anger and disgust, in the absence of any previously learned associations that might otherwise explain those reactio... |
Pretty sure most of these photos are from WW1... what can you all tell me about them? (OC xpost from r/pics) | The first four are of American troops during WWI. No patches, distinctive hats, puttees (like an ace bandage wrapped around the shoe tops and lower leg).
Tho others are from WWII, one of an infantry division (91st?) corporal/technician on a what looks to be a plow horse (the 91st had a tough time). Another is an ambul... | [
"The first color photographic cover on the Saturday Evening Post magazine (May 29, 1937)was by Dmitri, a photo of an Automobile racing driver seated in his race car. Another SEP cover, May 16, 1944, was a photo of General 'Hap' Arnold, with B-17's flying overhead, with a B-17 crew planning a flight. This cover was ... |
Did the US *have* to nuke Japan in WWII? | You might be interested in some threads from the WWII FAQ section on "[The atomic bombs](_URL_2_)" as well as from a recent search:
**Overview of the Atomic Bombings**
* [Could America have used the atomic bomb on a purely military target or some other more ethical way to force Japan's hand into peace?](_URL_4_) - 11... | [
"Faced with a planned invasion of the Japanese home islands scheduled to begin on 1 November 1945 and with Japan not surrendering, President Harry S. Truman ordered the atomic raids on Japan. On 6 August 1945, the U.S. detonated a uranium-gun design bomb, Little Boy, over the Japanese city of Hiroshima with an ener... |
why does it always come down to "drink lots of fluids" when you tell the doc you gave the flu? | There's no cure for influenza once you're sick. It's a self-limiting and mild infection that your immune system will fight off, all you have to do is keep your body working long enough for it to do so. That means sleep and fluids. | [
"People with the flu are advised to get plenty of rest, drink plenty of liquids, avoid using alcohol and tobacco and, if necessary, take medications such as acetaminophen (paracetamol) to relieve the fever and muscle aches associated with the flu. In contrast, there is no enough evidence to support corticosteroids ... |
when we sleep on our arms or legs in a weird way, why does the resulting muscle ache only seem to go away after we sleep again? | I’m not an expert, but my understanding is that sleep helps the body heal from a lot of different things, including this.
The 5-year-old version is that while asleep, your body can put all of its focus on maintenance instead of giving you energy to do stuff. This includes healing wounds and injuries. It would make sen... | [
"Painful erections appear only during the sleep. This condition is present during the REM sleep. Sexual activity doesn’t produce any pain. There isn’t any lesion or physical damage but an hypertonia of the pelvic floor could be one cause. It affects men of all ages but especially from the middle-age. Some pharmacol... |
Was the Propaganda leaflets dropped over japan effective? | Contrary to a lot of internet confusion, no leaflets warning about the atomic bomb were dropped on Japanese cities prior to the bombing of Nagasaki. Certainly none indicated any actual possible targets. You can read the whole story [here](_URL_0_), as well as read the official report on the leaflet operation which is l... | [
"The use of propaganda in World War II was extensive and far reaching but possibly the most effective form of propaganda used by the Japanese government was film. Japanese films were produced for a far wider range of audiences than American films of the same period. From the 1920s onward, Japanese film studios prod... |
What was J.S. Bach's personality like? | I am not a Bach scholar, so take this with caution.
My understanding is that we don't have much to know about his private life. There aren't many personal documents of his... For other composers we have many letters, and even fragments of conversations. We have many accounts of them because they were celebrities in th... | [
"He was particularly renowned for his Bach interpretations, and he recorded several albums, most notably the complete Well-Tempered Clavier of Bach for Nonesuch, and Bach's French Suites for Hanssler Classics. He taught at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and at the Mannes College of Music in New York ... |
how can a country survive without government? | They can't... or at least... not on a scale that we would recognize as a country.
A country without a government would just be a bunch of people living in a geographic area... with none of the connections, services, or bonds that would give them any real semblance of identity on an international scale.
As soon as you... | [
"The government system in many countries is divided into the legislative, executive and judiciary branches in an attempt to provide independent services that are less subject to grand corruption due to their independence from one another.\n",
"Governments sometimes have a narrow base of support, built upon cronyi... |
A question regarding language... | Some groups of humans separated at least fifty-thousand years ago. Just look how different some dialects are in the US although they only had about 250 years to form and English is a pretty established language and you don't find new things you need new words for twice a day.
| [
"Language is a system used to represent thoughts and ideas. Language is made up of several rules that explain what words mean, how to make new words, and how to put words together to form sentences. A community must share the same language in order to attach meaning to utterances. The method of delivery of language... |
why do streams need to buffer although the bar shows that it has many minutes preloaded already? | I know YouTube stopped doing this as many people were not watching all the way through, so they now only pre-load in segments, say 30sec intervals. What may what happened to you is the player is incorrectly showing the buffer. | [
"Having a big and constantly full buffer which causes increased transmission delays and reduced interactivity, especially when looking at two or more simultaneous transmissions over the same channel, is called bufferbloat. Available channel bandwidth can also end up being unused, as some fast destinations may not b... |
Is it possible to slow down radioactive decay through cooling? | To the best knowledge we have at present, radioactive decay is not perceptibly affected by any external conditions such as temperature or pressure.
Chemical composition of the substance slightly affects some forms (electron capture, internal conversion) of radioactive decay for some substances, but this is related to ... | [
"The mathematics of radioactive decay depend on a key assumption that a nucleus of a radionuclide has no \"memory\" or way of translating its history into its present behavior. A nucleus does not \"age\" with the passage of time. Thus, the probability of its breaking down does not increase with time, but stays cons... |
How do distant neurons know to connect with each other to create new pathways? | Most synapses are formed during development and the number of synapses in humans peaks in early development. This process is largely governed genetically during development. This synaptic maximum is followed by a period of synaptic pruning that ends in adolescence. A lot less neurogenesis or synaptogenesis is taking pl... | [
"Most neurons receive signals via the dendrites and soma and send out signals down the axon. At the majority of synapses, signals cross from the axon of one neuron to a dendrite of another. However, synapses can connect an axon to another axon or a dendrite to another dendrite.\n",
"Neurons form complex biologica... |
how did it come to be that michael jackson owned the beatles’ songs? | Songwriters often contract with a publishing company to market their songs for commercial purposes. That means they sell the rights to commercial use to the company, and the company pays them royalties (either a flat dee or a percentage every time the song is used). This is a benefit to the songwriter in many cases bec... | [
"Three years later, Michael Jackson purchased ATV for a reported $47.5 million. The acquisition gave him control over the publishing rights to more than 200 Beatles songs, as well as 40,000 other copyrights. In 1995, in a deal that earned him a reported $110 million, Jackson merged his music publishing business wit... |
If we can "freeze" light for a minute, does that mean that we can "freeze" time? | No. The freezing of light actually involves absorbing light in a very cold gas. It's so cold that the atoms have an "absorbed" state that lasts a very long time before re-emitting the light in its former trajectory. Not directly related to relativity or anything like that. | [
"When we freeze time we can only see a part of the perdurant. Perdurants are often what we know as processes, for example: \"running\". If we freeze time then we only see a part of the running, without any previous knowledge one might not even be able to determine the actual process as being a process of running. O... |
why are we less likely to fancy new stuff (especially music, art, cartoons, etc) when we get older? why does it always seem that only children and teenagers pick up on the latest crazes? | As we get older, we recognize a craze is just that--a craze. Why invest time and money in something that won't be around six months to a year from now? | [
"Age is another strong factor that contributes to musical preference. Evidence is available that shows that music preference can change as one gets older. A Canadian study showed that adolescents show greater interest in pop music artists while adults and the elderly population prefer classic genres such as Rock, O... |
Humans are one species, but we speak different languages in different parts of the world, which means not every human could communicate with every other human. Are any other species like this? | There is some evidence to suggest that orcas (killer whales) exhibit this kind of phenomenon. The species has a huge geographical distribution, and different populations feed on a wide variety of food and tend to specialise in one type of hunting. Some hunt fish, and others mammals like seals, which makes some populati... | [
"The capacity to acquire and use language is a key aspect that distinguishes humans from other beings. Although it is difficult to pin down what aspects of language are uniquely human, there are a few design features that can be found in all known forms of human language, but that are missing from forms of animal c... |
what would the u.s. government have to do in order to make college free in the states? | I'll assume that we're trying for a Swedish style system because, hey, that's worked. I'm on mobile, so I won't pull sources unless you guys need them.
Over there, they spend about 4% of their GNP on education and research, one of the highest rates in the world. This would amount to about 640 billion dollars in nation... | [
"The United States has school choice at the university level. College students can get subsidized tuition by attending \"any\" public college or university within their state of residence. Furthermore, the U.S. federal government provides tuition assistance for both public and private colleges via the G.I. Bill and... |
flashing headlights at oncoming traffic | Having lived in the UK and Australia I can say that in these places at least this usually means that there is a speed camera stationed up ahead and the other driver is warning you. | [
"In Ohio, courts have held that the act of flashing one's headlights so as to alert oncoming drivers of a radar trap does not constitute the offense of obstructing a police officer in the performance of his duties, where there was no proof that the warned vehicles were speeding prior to the warning. In another case... |
What substance (if any) is there to claims of Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact by the Arab or Muslim sailors? | There's always room for discussion but perhaps the section [Travel and contact across the Atlantic before Columbus](_URL_0_) from our FAQ will answer your inquiry. | [
"There is evidence of pre-Contact trade in the circum-Caribbean region, with an early European report by Peter Martyr noting canoes filled with trade goods, including cotton cloth, copper bells and copper axes (likely from Michoacan), stone knives and cleavers, ceramics, and cacao beans, used for money. Small gold ... |
Could somebody who specialises in American history assess the historical accuracy of the article "Southern Slavery As It Was" written by two American pastors with Confederate sympathies? | Accuracy: Little to none.
To begin with, it isn't even entirely by those two pastors, as it seems to have [heavily plagiarized](_URL_0_) another work from two decades prior.
The publishing house, [Canon Press](_URL_2_) of Moscow, Idaho, seems to specialize in publishing Evangelical tracts on topics such religiously i... | [
"Albert Taylor Bledsoe (November 9, 1809 – December 8, 1877) was an American Episcopal priest, attorney, professor of mathematics, and officer in the Confederate army and was best known as a staunch defender of slavery and, after the South lost the American Civil War, an architect of the Lost Cause. He was the auth... |
how was professional cooking and baking handled hundreds of years ago in the hot seasons with no refrigeration? | A combination of fresh food and storage methods that didn't require cooling.
Smoking, air drying, salt curing, pickling, fermenting, and canning can preserve foods in hot weather. Foods like cheese and some sausages are preserved by being covered in a layer of beneficial mold to prevent other bacteria that would cause... | [
"The cooking technique flourished because of its role in preserving meat in a tropical climate. Prior to refrigeration technology, this style of cooking enabled preservation of the large amount of meat.\n",
"The beehive oven typically took two to three hours to heat, occasionally even four hours in the winter. Br... |
Roman, Merovingian, and Carolingian political organization: what was the relationship between them? | I can tell you about the Carolingian organization and the birth of feudalism
Carolingian administration was in some aspects a direct inheritor of Roman tradition, attemtping a centralized imperial administration, where important regional powers were actually functionaries of the empire, so their authority was derived ... | [
"The unification achieved by the Merovingians ensured the continuation of what has become known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The Carolingian Empire was beset by internecine warfare, but the combination of Frankish rule and Roman Christianity ensured that it was fundamentally united. Frankish government and cultu... |
what happens with all the profits the fortune 500 companies make? | Like any other companies's profits. It goes into bank account and used to pay for things later.
Maybe later next year we build a new factory. Maybe we buy new machines. Maybe we get big bonus.
Or maybe be put it into an investment account until we find a use for it. | [
"As of 2019, the Fortune 500 companies represent approximately two-thirds of the United States's Gross Domestic Product with approximately $13.7 trillion in revenue, $1.1 trillion in profits, and $22.6 trillion in total market value. These numbers also account for approximately 17% of the gross world product. The c... |
Has there ever been a country that **de**industrialized for self-sustainability purpose? | I personally have no knowledge of any in modern times that did this on their own accord, though Germany post WWII was forced to deindustrialize. The [Morgenthau Plan](_URL_1_) was proposed by [Hengry Morgenthau](_URL_0_.) who was the United States Secretary of the Treasury. Post WWII no one in the world wished for Germ... | [
"C2C suggests that industry must protect and enrich ecosystems and nature's biological metabolism while also maintaining a safe, productive technical metabolism for the high-quality use and circulation of organic and technical nutrients. It is a holistic, economic, industrial and social framework that seeks to crea... |
hand sanitizer kills the germs, but the germs still remains on our hands. so its not clean right? | What is your definition of "clean"? If dead bacteria are unclean, when why aren't dead skin cells? | [
"If soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol (check the product label to be sure). Hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol is effective in killing Cronobacter germs. But use soap and water as soon as possible afterward because hand sanitizer does not kill all ... |
What would a spaceship moving at 0.9c firing lasers both in front of it and behind it look like to an external reference frame? | An observer who sees the spaceship moving at speed 0.9*c*, will see both light signals moving at speed *c*. The distance between the ship and the front signal increases at a rate of 0.1*c*. The distance between the ship and the back signal increases at a rate of 1.9*c*. The distance between the two signals increases at... | [
"BULLET::::- Daifighter: Daitarn's plane/spaceship form. Can reach speeds of near light speed while in space. Armed with rockets from the wings, a pair of missile launchers, twin lasers, and a powerful laser on the front called the Daitarn Laser. Length: 80 meters. Width: 50 meters. Max Speed: Mach 20.\n",
"The p... |
why do they launch boats sideways instead of forward when first launching them? | Boats are designed to have their weight supported for the entirety of the keel length.
If you tried to launch long boat pointy bit first, you'd have a time when the front is in the water, the back is still on the dock and the middle is unsupported. This (potentially) kills the boat.
And there's no real need to slow... | [
"Normally, ways are arranged perpendicular to the shore line (or as nearly so as the water and maximum length of vessel allows) and the ship is built with its stern facing the water. Where the launch takes place into a narrow river, the building slips may be at a shallow angle rather than perpendicular, even though... |
why does insulation work? | It's not so much that it *takes longer* for heat to travel through the insulation (although it does). The useful thing is that less heat travels through the insulation *per unit time*.
Intuitively, you can think of heat in the 18th-century way, like [an invisible fluid](_URL_2_) that leaks from place to place. Hot thi... | [
"Insulation may be categorized by its composition (natural or synthetic materials), form (batts, blankets, loose-fill, spray foam, and panels), structural contribution (insulating concrete forms, structured panels, and straw bales), functional mode (conductive, radiative, convective), resistance to heat transfer, e... |
What were relations like between Pirates and Native Americans? | Mixed.
Some pirates utilized them to great ability, if your definition of "pirate" encompases privateers, buccaneers, corsairs, and freebooters. For simplicities sake, I'll use the term "pirate" as a catch all term for non-traditional non-governmental forces though including those groups that were *sanctioned* such a... | [
"Contrary to popular belief, there is no documentary evidence of pirates using the area as a base of operations. Piracy was rampant in the Gulf of Mexico from pirates working out of Hispaniola, the Caribbean, and the Florida Keys. Notable raids occurred in 1683 and 1687 against the Spanish fort at San Marcos de Apa... |
Why are the major producing oil fields located where they are? | Oil fields are where they are as a due to the location of ancient organic-rich basins. Why were the organic-rich basins there? Tectonics, they generally drive the placement of landmasses.
For oil to be extracted, it needs:
- a source rock: often these are shales with high carbon content, the remains of ancient accu... | [
"Major oil fields are found in southeast Alberta (Brooks, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge), northwest (Grande Prairie, High Level, Rainbow Lake, Zama), central (Caroline, Red Deer), and northeast (heavy crude oil found adjacent to the oil sands.)\n",
"The Mid-continent oil field is a broad area containing hundreds of oi... |
how do caterpillars know when to spin a cocoon? | How do you know when to go to the bathroom or shield your eyes from the sun with your hand?
Okay it's not exactly the same, but we can all explain how it's because of chemical signals and hormones that indicate to the organism to change their behavior, but ultimately to really know what it's like to be a caterpillar i... | [
"When the caterpillar is fully mature it spins a dark brown silken cocoon on a branch which usually has a leaf to protect it with. When spinning is complete, the caterpillar sheds its final skin and takes the form of its pupall life stage. Within a day of spinning completion, the cocoon sets to a hard waterproof sh... |
I heard the Human body holds many more bacterial cells than it has Human cells. Hypothetically speaking, if all the bacterial cells could be removed from an average human, would that translate to a significant loss in weight? | Not particularly. The vast majority are in your large intestine and appear to be feces in training. Each individual bacterial cell is much smaller than the average human cell, thus the difference. | [
"The famous notion that bacterial cells in the human body outnumber human cells by a factor of 10:1 has been debunked. There are approximately 39 trillion bacterial cells in the human microbiota as personified by a \"reference\" 70 kg male 170 cm tall, whereas there are 30 trillion human cells in the body. This mea... |
why do closed rooms have a particular "smell" to them? | the smell (in general) is because of the molecules carried by the air like salt in the sea. That means that when you're smelling, let's say an orange, you absorb orange molecules that carries the smell.
When air is stagnant, you get something like the dead Sea (to continue the metaphor) where because the water never ... | [
"In early 18th-century house descriptions, the area was usually called the \"airy\", which suggests that its primary function was ventilation, needed to prevent cooking smells from percolating upstairs to the rooms above. This implies that the term \"area\" was a corruption of \"airey\" rather than vice versa.\n",
... |
how does yelp manipulate reviews? | Yelp was accused of manipulating reviews, almost in a Mafia-like fashion. Business owners would get calls from Yelp asking if they wanted to purchase advertising (Yelp's main source of revenue). If they said no, some noticed their positive reviews disappear. No definitive statistics exist on this. But Yelp did go to tr... | [
"As Yelp became more influential, the phenomenon of business owners and competitors writing fake reviews, known as \"astroturfing\", became more prevalent. A study from Harvard professor Michael Luca analyzed 316,415 reviews in Boston and found that fake reviews rose from 6% of the site's reviews in 2006 to 20% in ... |
Why did people think Anastasia survived/escaped the Romanov execution? | There were rumors of each of them being the sibling to have survived, actually - and bear in mind that the full story we know of the Romanovs being executed in the House of Special Purpose was not publicly known at the time. People weren't even really sure that Nikolai and Alexandra were dead, let alone that their chil... | [
"Anastasia's supposed escape and possible survival was one of the most popular historical mysteries of the 20th century, provoking many books and films. At least ten women claimed to be her, offering varying stories as to how she had survived. Anna Anderson, the best known Anastasia impostor, first surfaced publicl... |
why can astronomers see many distant galaxies but they don't know what's on outside of our own solar system? | The Oort cloud isn't actually emitting any light, so there isn't anything for our telescopes to pick up on. Distant galaxies, on the other hand, are composed of countless stars as bright as or brighter than our own. Its the same reason you could see a lighthouse from miles away out at sea, but not your hand in front of... | [
"The Local Group contains the largest number of visible galaxies with the naked eye. However, its galaxies are not visually grouped together in the sky, except for the two Magellanic Clouds. The IC342/Maffei Group, the nearest galaxy group, would be visible by the naked eye if it were not obscured by the stars and ... |
The Collapse of the Kievan Rus' | Firstly, Moscow was never a large city prior or during Mongol conquest. And it was sacked.
Secondly, Novgorod avoided the fate because it was far enough away to the Mongols to not bother to go there. Novgorod accepted the Mongol rule anyway.
Thirdly, there was no 'powerful Russian state' based out of Kiev prior to the ... | [
"Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state because of in-fighting between members of the princely family that ruled it collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, Novgorod in the north, and Halych-Volhynia in the south-west. Conquest by the Mongol Golden Horde in... |
Why was Catharism never as succesful as Protestantism? | Hi! You might be interested in this similar thread:
* [How was it that Protestantism spread so far and to so many people in Europe, when previous heresies such as Catharism and Fraticelli were much smaller and more confined?](_URL_0_): A flaired user answers the OP's question plus some follow-ups. | [
"Catharism (; from the Greek: , \"katharoi\", \"the pure [ones]\") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic revival movement that thrived in some areas of Southern Europe, particularly what is now northern Italy and southern France, between the 12th and 14th centuries. The followers were known as Cathars and are now main... |
Were the plays and poetry made by William Shakespeare considered vulgar, sexually explicit and immoral in his own lifetime, or shortly after his death? Was he considered a great playwright during his lifetime? | Shakespeare was writing for a "common" audience, as well as for a noble one. His plays were ones that everyone could understand, which did mean that there are several that have "low art" in them. Much Ado about Nothing comes to mind, there are several dick jokes in it, as does Romeo and Juliet (the nurse has several hu... | [
"William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright from the 16th century. Through plays like \"Hamlet\" and \"Titus Andronicus\", Shakespeare portrayed the basic characteristics of a revenge tragedy. He presented elements that are quite similar to those from Seneca's tragedies, establishing tragedy as a more w... |
How did one join the Soviet secret police in the 1920's? | Originally, the CHEKA was originally drawn from Petrograd Bolshevik members. As it grew into the 1920's Felix Dzerzhinksy, the man Lenin put in charge of the CHEKA after its initial head, Moses Uritski, was shot and killed, recruited from members of the Bolshevik faction he knew to be trustworthy and not squeamish. Bas... | [
"The Soviet secret police, the NKVD, working in collaboration with local communists, created secret police forces using leadership trained in Moscow. As soon as the Red Army had expelled the Germans, this new secret police arrived to arrest political enemies according to prepared lists. The national Communists then... |
how do news organizations report natural disaster death counts so specifically and so quickly (i.e. "88 people dead as a result of ...")? | When there are major incidents, local emergency workers generally establish a command post-type place where things like fatalities are reported as soon as they're located. When they give the death toll, they give it based off the numbers that have been reported thus far. | [
"The total death toll was calculated originally as 2,209 people, making the disaster the largest loss of civilian life in the United States at the time. This number of deaths was later surpassed by fatalities in the 1900 Galveston hurricane and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. However, as pointed out by Da... |
what is *everything* made of? | The 12 particles and 4 forces of the Standard Model. It stops at the elemental particles like quarks, gluons, electrons, photons, neutrinos stuff like that | [
"A material is a chemical substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified based on their physical and chemical properties, or on their geological origin or biological function. Materials science is the study of ... |
how can dogs bark and whine if they don't have a voice box? | > I assume they don't have a voice box, otherwise they'd be able to talk, right?
Not right. Pretty much all amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals have a larynx (aka, "voice box").
To quote Wikipedia:
> computer-modeling techniques have suggested that the species-specific human tongue allows the vocal tract (the... | [
"Talking Dog (voiced by Tom Kane in the series and by Paul Mercier in the \"What a Cartoon!\" episodes) is a small white dog with black ears and nose and a black spot on his back, wearing a red collar with a yellow dog tag. When he stays with the girls he is shown to be blunt, abrasive and insulting, though his dem... |
What aspects of Turner's
Frontier thesis are still
accepted by modern
environmental historians? | Forgive me for not directly answering the question, but since there are no responses yet, I'll give a little background on the Turner thesis. You can find the text of the thesis online here (1920 republishing): _URL_0_
The American frontier was officially declared "closed" in 1890, with Turner publishing his thesis ... | [
"From the 1970s the term frontier, and the frontier myth, fell into disrepute due to its failure to include minorities based on race, class, gender and environment. The New Western History has focused on an examination of the problems of expansion; destruction of the environment, indigenous massacres, and the histo... |
How common was violence against peasants in the Middle Ages? Is it exaggerated in novels and films? | First thing to be considered for western europe (old Western Empire) the "peasants" have two origins, slaves and former slaves, or former citizens that fled the cities when plague and invasion struck them. The lords were germanic warriors (Franks and the like) who were given lands in exchange for the fight, and later o... | [
"At the local level, levels of violence were extremely high by modern standards in medieval and early modern Europe. Typically, small groups would battle their neighbors, using the farm tools at hand such as knives, sickles, hammers and axes. Mayhem and death were deliberate. The vast majority of people lived in ru... |
why exactly do phone carriers sell their cellular devices with all of those unnecessary apps that users can't delete and stay on your phone forever unused? | Somebody is paying them to. Since it's not you, suspicion would have to fall on the app producers, or the data sellers that benefit from the data extracted by the apps. | [
"Customers of Consumer Phone Services number less than a million. In 2007, some 580,000 customers still leased phones through the company. A majority of the customers are elderly who have found convenience in simply leasing the same telephone. Most customers are also leftovers from before the 1984 breakup of AT&T, ... |
as something gets closer and closer to the exact center of a body of mass (say, earth), what happens to the gravitational force from that body of mass? | > So say it was completely possible to drill down to the exact center of the earth. How would gravity change from the surface of earth to the core?
If the Earth were the same density throughout, gravity would drop the further down you went, and would reach zero at the center.
This is because of something called th... | [
"where is the gravitational constant and is the mass of the body. As long as the total force is nonzero, this equation has a unique solution, and it satisfies the torque requirement. A convenient feature of this definition is that if the body is itself spherically symmetric, then lies at its center of mass. In gene... |
why is it that you can try something for hours and hours, take a break/be done for the day and somehow do it your first time upon retrying? | I just heard a really great interview with sleep expert Matthew Walker. He had a theory about this. The ELI5 version is basically that your brain "practices" what you learned while you sleep, which makes you better at whatever it is you are trying to do. This is one of the reasons why it's important to get at least sev... | [
"During the examination, candidates may take a break after completing a \"testlet\" (either a set of multiple choice questions or a simulation). Once a testlet is completed, however, the candidate is not allowed to return to it, so it is not possible to use the \"break time\" to improve one's score by looking up an... |
Why did the Lorica Segmentata become the foremost armor both before and after the use of chain mail? What was special about the period that favored it? Why did plate not gain prominence again for a thousand years? | [Dan Howard](_URL_2_) tells us that the main reason for adopting the Lorica Segmentata was that it was far cheaper to produce than Hamata. Furthermore, because of the wide coverage provided by a scutum, the most common area of injury for a legionnaire would be the shoulders. Lorica Segmentatas' reinforced shoulder plat... | [
"\"Lorica hamata\" was a type of mail armour used during the Roman Republic continuing throughout the Roman Empire as a standard-issue armour for the primary heavy infantry legionaries and secondary troops (\"auxilia\"). They were mostly manufactured out of iron, though sometimes bronze was used instead. The rings ... |
why do people turn down the music when they're close to locating a street or destination? | I do it because I feel like it helps me focus. The music seems like a distraction, especially if it's loud. | [
"The song \"The One You Are Looking For Is Not Here\" is not literally about not being able to find a person, but about telling a person their preconceived notions about themselves were incorrect - that such a person does not exist. Multiple tracks, including \"Buildings\", allude to abandoned city scenes, which we... |
what is actually happening (inside) when you plug a portable charger into itself? | It's not technically bad, it's just dumb (no offense). All that will happen is the charger will generate heat from the current while slowly losing charge to the resistance of the cable used to plug it into itself. Longer cables will provide more resistance, though most cables for such a thing won't be terribly long.; ... | [
"In simple terms, inductive charging works by separating the two halves of an electric transformer with an air gap – one half, the Plugless Power Vehicle Adapter, is installed on the vehicle and the other half, the Plugless Power Parking Pad, is installed on the floor of a garage or in a parking lot. When a car wit... |
why do people in the us work so much? | Average work week in the US is 47 hours a week. Full time is 40 hours. There is no required amount of vacation time in the US, the average number of days of paid vacation a year are 12 (this includes paid federal holidays), The average number of sick days a year are 10 and they are generally non-paid days off.
If you... | [
"In 2000 the average American worked 1,978 hours per year, 500 hours more than the average German, yet 100 hours less than the average Czech. Overall the U.S. labor force is one of the most productive in the world, largely due to its workers working more than those in any other post-industrial country (excluding So... |
all 5 mass extinction of the earth | [From youngest to oldest...](_URL_0_)
0. **[Holocene/Anthropocene Extinction](_URL_4_):** Ongoing. By all accounts, humans are now in the midst of a [6th major extinction](_URL_2_). Only the culprit this time isn't an asteroid or a volcano, its human activities. We are causing rates of extinction to be much much highe... | [
"The first of five great mass extinctions was the Ordovician-Silurian extinction. Its possible cause was the intense glaciation of Gondwana, which eventually led to a snowball earth. 60% of marine invertebrates became extinct and 25% of all families.\n",
"The first known mass extinction in earth's history was the... |
why is saudi arabia not diversifying their economy to include solar or wind power? | But they are:
[Source 1](_URL_2_)
[Source 2](_URL_1_)
[Source 3](_URL_0_) | [
"As opposed to overall energy reduction, the government organization Saudi Aramco wishes to create a solar energy sector. Saudi Arabia has a goal to create 41 GW of renewable energy plants, which would place the country as a leading solar energy exporter. Currently, the country is at 17 MW of solar energy and as a ... |
When the US entered WW2, how far did geography determine where a draftee would be deployed? For instance were those from Cali more likely to head into the Pacific, and likewise New Yorkers into Europe/North Africa? Brit here and it's something I've no idea about! | As /u/eleventeenth_beatle and /u/drpinkcream noted, branch of service played a major role in theatre deployment. I'm going to just address the Army in this comment.
My understanding is that deployment was not done by *draftee* but by divisions, which were the primary independent units of the Army (see _URL_1_).
So ... | [
"Taking a southerly route to avoid the Japanese Navy, they arrived in southern Australia at Port Adelaide on 14 May 1942, having traveled in 23 days. They were the first American division in World War II to be moved in a single convoy from the United States to the front lines.\n",
"During World War II, the group ... |
why are portraits, any paintings of humans really, almost always left or right-facing instead of directly forward? | People often look less flattering when faced front on. If you’re creating an artwork you most likely want it to look as aesthetically pleasant as possible. This would be much harder if the subject looked ugly.
Also when drawing or painting the (technical) purpose is to create depth. Facing front on would decrease th... | [
"Self-portraits are usually produced with the help of a mirror, and the finished result is a mirror-image portrait, a reversal of what occurs in a normal portrait when sitter and artist are opposite each other. In a self-portrait, a righted handed artist would appear to be holding a brush in the left hand, unless t... |
Is "Common Ancestor" a Literal Concept of a Single Animal? | In evolutionary terms "common ancestor" is not used to represent an individual. The term defines a species from which two other species diverged. In the classical evolutionary tree schematic used to represent evolutionary history, a common ancestor is a point at which a branch forks. | [
"In biology and genealogy, the most recent common ancestor (MRCA, also last common ancestor (LCA), or concestor) of any set of organisms is the most recent individual from which all the organisms from such set are directly descended. The term is also used in reference to the ancestry of groups of genes (haplotypes)... |
why does it make a difference in taste, if the water i brew tea with has boiled or not? | It's about temperature and solubility. Coffee is the same way, you're toeing a fine line with certain flavor compounds that come out at certain temps.
For instance, if you boil the water, once it's all mixed in with the tea leaves it'll sit at say 204F (95C), this is hot enough to get all of the good flavors out of bl... | [
"The tea can be brewed very differently and there are many combinations that yield interesting results, but it is important to use good mineral water to bring out the sweetness and aroma of the tea and not to over brew or make a bitter and very strong brew.\n",
"Water should be given careful consideration when co... |
In theory (disregarding light pollution), do we see more stars now than our ancestors hundreds of years ago? | Not really, no. The length of time that's passed even over the entire existence of mankind is a very small portion of the universe's age, so the factor by which the observable universe has grown during humanity's existence is very small.
There is a more fundamental reason why we can't see further as time passes, thoug... | [
"The light observed from the star was emitted when the universe was about 30% of its current age of 13.8 billion years. Kelly suggested that similar microlensing discoveries could help them identify the earliest stars in the universe. The star no longer exists as a blue supergiant, given the known lifetime of such ... |
what happens when someone wins a large amount of money (powerball, pch) and why does everyone seem to be broke after? | People go broke mainly because they don't understand that if you are not making money right now, you should not be spending it. They don't invest the money they make in something that will make them money and they spend large amounts of money because they have it right now. They don't think about the future.
Also, a... | [
"At each level, the contestants may quit with the money they have accumulated; making a mistake at any point ends the game and nullifies any winnings from it. If a team quits or successfully gives all 15 answers, the money they have achieved is banked and can no longer be lost. There is no limit to the amount of mo... |
Do plants/trees experience wind chill? | Wind chill is simply a way of expressing the enhanced rate of convective heat transfer on surfaces due to convection. This applies for all surfaces, not just human skin. So yes, a tree will have more heat transfer away from its surface when the wind is blowing just like a human would.
However, heat transfer will onl... | [
"Trees can withstand temperatures of −31 °C (−25 °F) or colder for short periods of time, provided the ground around the roots is insulated with either heavy snow or mulch. Outside its natural range, the foliage can suffer from damaging windburn.\n",
"Plants can sense the wind through the deformation of its tissu... |
How can you separate mixed dna samples? | They always have to do this to separate out the victim's DNA. Adding one extra isn't too tough - if you know there are two perpetrators, they test quite a bit of DNA and can get 3 different results. In a large gang rape, it gets increasingly difficult, but apparently is improving. Here's an interesting article on it:
_... | [
"The separated DNA bands are often used for further procedures, and a DNA band may be cut out of the gel as a slice, dissolved and purified. Contaminants however may affect some downstream procedures such as PCR, and low melting point agarose may be preferred in some cases as it contains fewer of the sulphates that... |
What would be found in a WW2 British soldiers rucksack or knapsack | This [YouTube](_URL_0_) link shows some of the items a British solider would have during the Japanese invasion of Singapore. Some canned food, grenades, .303 ammunition, gas masks and a few other items that I can't make out. It also brings up another question for you. Which theater in WWII and which time period duri... | [
"A World War II pillbox can be found in the hedgerow along the riverbank. This pillbox and others along the River Medway formed part of the Ironside Line. On 27 May 1944, Prime Minister Winston Churchill put General Sir Edmund Ironside in charge of creating a first line of defence against German invasion forces.\n"... |
Would a fusion reactor be affected by earthquakes? | Fusion reactors are created using super-cooled magnets that sustain the fusion reaction. Unlike a fission reactor that would go into meltdown if enough damage were to be done because the reaction is self-sustaining, a fusion reactor would simply shut down since the reaction cannot sustain itself. | [
"The damage from the earthquake to the Fukushima Daiichi reactor prompted stress tests of the nation's other fifty-four nuclear reactors; the tests were meant to inspect the resilience of the other reactors in case of another earthquake or tsunami. All of the reactors decommissioned for stress tests and safety chec... |
In light of today's Connecticut shooting, are mass shootings a fairly recent occurrence? | Have you ever heard of the expression "running amok"?
It comes from the Malay term *(meng)amuk*, which refers to a type of killing spree. Dating back to premodern times, amok is a type of killing spree in which a sudden perceived mistreatment causes someone to go into a fit of rage and murder several people. Amok usua... | [
"On October 1, 2017, a mass shooting occurred on the Strip at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival, adjacent to the Mandalay Bay hotel. 58 people were killed and 851 were injured. This incident became the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history.\n",
"On Sunday, 12 August 2018, a mass shooti... |
When did Europeans in New Zealand start adopting the practice of Haka from the Maori? | hi! Hopefully some of the NZ specialists will drop by to address this question, but meanwhile, you can get a little start here
* [Why has New Zealand embraced indigenous culture more than other former British Colonies?](_URL_1_) - /u/Cenodoxus makes a few comments on adoption of the Haka
.. and if you're interested i... | [
"The use of the haka in welcoming ceremonies for members of British royal family helped to improve its standing among Europeans. Prince Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, was the first royal to visit New Zealand, in 1869. Upon the Duke's arrival at the wharf in Wellington, he was greeted by a vigorous haka. The \"Welli... |
Physics student with a question on Mathematics. Seeking answers from those who work in a physic's capacity everyday. | I'm afraid it's unavoidable: Sooner or later, you're going to have to wrap your head around group theory. It's as essential to modern physics as calculus was to Newtonian dynamics. | [
"One of the most cited works in this area, Chi et al. (1981), examines how experts (PhD students in physics) and novices (undergraduate students that completed one semester of mechanics) categorize and represent physics problems. They found that novices sort problems into categories based upon surface features (e.g... |
if our feet are naturally arched and used on the flat ground, why do flat shoes ruin arch support? | The ground our feet evolved to have an arch on wasn't really flat. Floors, sidewalks, and other manmade flat surfaces aren't really natural; they're just easier to sweep.
Feet do best on paths with little rocks or gravel, grassy areas, sand, and other rough or uneven surfaces. | [
"Flat feet (also called pes planus or fallen arches) is a postural deformity in which the arches of the foot collapse, with the entire sole of the foot coming into complete or near-complete contact with the ground. An estimated 20–30% of the general population have an arch that simply never develops in one or both ... |
how is it that so many laws and rules are being placed that have their basis rooted in religion, yet the constitution includes the "separation of church and state" ideal? | Separation of church and state doesn't mean that people can't use their religious principles to create laws. It means that the government won't set up a state religion, and you are free to follow any religion you want.
People are going to campaign for laws that fit what they feel is important. If the majority of peopl... | [
"Because of the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution, no religious tradition can be established as the basis of laws that apply to everyone, including any form of sharia, Christian canon law, Jewish halakha, or rules of dharma from Eastern religions. Laws must be passed in a secular fashion, not b... |
What were the lives of Black people in the United Kingdom like during the World Wars? | side note: did experience differ from Black British and West-Indies/African immigrants? | [
"By World War I, there were about 20,000 black people in Britain. Following disarmament in 1919, surplus of labour and shortage of housing led to dissatisfaction among Britain’s working class, in particular sailors and dock workers. In ports, such as South Shields, Glasgow, London's East End, Liverpool, Cardiff, Ba... |
why is the word "reich" always used in texts about germany, instead of translating it? | Because the word "realm" (the closest translation) is too general. Even German has multiple words for "realm of a king" vs "realm of an emperor" vs "realm of someone else".
By saying "the Nazi realm", what do we mean? Do we mean Germany and Austria, where the Nazis actually ruled directly? Do we mean those two AND all... | [
"Reich (; ) is a German word analogous in meaning to the English word \"realm\". The terms ' (literally \"realm of an emperor\") and ' (literally \"realm of a king\") are used in German to refer to empires and kingdoms respectively. The \"Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary\" indicates that in English usage, th... |
How do vegetables such as onions, potatoes, and garlic sprout long after harvest? | Yep, they're still alive!
A potato, carrot or beetroot is essentially a storage container for the plant. Take the carrot - it's a biannual, meaning it has a two-year life cycle where the plant spends the first year of its life gathering energy and nutrients, and the second year spending its stores on reproduction. All... | [
"When a vegetable is harvested, it is cut off from its source of water and nourishment. It continues to transpire and loses moisture as it does so, a process most noticeable in the wilting of green leafy crops. Harvesting root vegetables when they are fully mature improves their storage life, but alternatively, the... |
Why did the Catholic Church seem to be opposed to lay people reading the Bible? | Not exactly true. Catholic Church does not opposed lay reading Bible. In fact, reading of the Bible is part of the Mass and regular attendee of the Masses will hear a large portion of both Testaments in span of few years.
Given, that Catholic rites formed in the period of nearly universal illiteracy that alone shows t... | [
"In Catholic England, the only Bible available was written in Latin Vulgate, a translation of proper Latin considered holy by the Roman Catholic Church. As a result, only clergy had access to copies of the Bible. Countrymen were dependent on their local priests for the reading of scripture because they could not re... |
what does canada's recession mean, exactly? what makes it different from the economic recession of the usa a few years back, and what does it mean for the average canadian? | I don't know about the average Canadian, but Alberta has been experiencing steady lay-offs since oil dropped, and all forecasts predict more. That said, it's not like the situation is going to affect the other parts of Canada any more than any other region of the world that relies on oil for every-day transportation, i... | [
"The recession brought on in the United States by the collapse of the dot-com bubble beginning in 2000, hurt the Toronto Stock Exchange but has affected Canada only mildly. It is one of the few times Canada has avoided following the United States into a recession.\n",
"Canada was one of the last industrialized na... |
If I were in an astronaut suit and I floated through one of Saturn's rings, what would happen to me? | The rings are actually quite a dense mass of particles so your chance of hitting something massive is very high. If you hit the rings plane at more than (say) ten metres per second you will be in a lot of trouble. | [
"Minutes after the technical failure of her spacecraft, an astronaut finds herself ejected into space. She tries in vain to call for help. She is slowly running out of air. Little by little, fear grabs hold of her, and she faints. After floating adrift for several hours through the immensity of space, she awakens t... |
Do we know if people with depression have a structurally different brain when compared to person without depression. | Great question! There's been a lot of investigation into biological differences related to depression; much of this work (at least that I'm familiar with) is related to hormonal differences. However, you're asking specifically about structural differences, so I'll give you an example from morphometry, though this admit... | [
"MRI scans of patients with depression have revealed a number of differences in brain structure compared to those who are not depressed. Meta-analyses of neuroimaging studies in major depression reported that, compared to controls, depressed patients had increased volume of the lateral ventricles and adrenal gland ... |
why we can't change our vocal chords to sound exactly like another person, through surgery | it's not just the cords. it's the shape of the voicebox. the throat. the teeth the cheek. and the muscle control | [
"While hormone replacement therapy and gender reassignment surgery can cause a more feminine physical appearance, they do little to alter the pitch or sound of the voice. A number of surgical procedures exist to alter the vocal structure. These can be used in conjunction with voice therapy:\n",
"Due to the proxim... |
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