question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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graphic card memory | Graphics card memory is RAM that's built directly into the video card itself.
Unlike general RAM which can be used for whatever, this stuff is reserved for *just* graphics, and being hooked right to the GPU makes it fast and easy fo rthe GPU to use it.
Typically, things like textures are stored in this memory. More m... | [
"Memory cards are flash memory storage media used to store digital information in many electronics products. The types of memory cards include CompactFlash, PCMCIA, secure digital card, multimedia card, memory stick etc.\n",
"A memory card reader is a device for accessing the data on a memory card such as a Compa... |
Terms in electrolysis which confuses me. | The anode is ALWAYS the electrode where the oxidation reaction occurs. Similarly, the cathode is the electrode where reduction reaction occurs. Just remember
*AnOx, RedCat*
The anode and cathode switch depending on whether the cell is galvanic or electrolytic. | [
"Electrolysis is the passing of a direct electric current through an ionic substance that is either molten or dissolved in a suitable solvent, producing chemical reactions at the electrodes and a decomposition of the materials.\n",
"The key process of electrolysis is the interchange of atoms and ions by the remov... |
what would happen to italy if we got out the euro? | No one really knows and that is what makes it so scary.
One problem is that your debt would still be in Euros, so going back to the Lira would not get you back in control of your debt. While debtors do not like the idea that you would inflate your way out of debt, they prefer that to the idea of default. So it is ea... | [
"With regards to Europe, Roubini predicted that Italy, and possibly a series of other eurozone countries (Portugal, Spain, Greece) might have to exit the eurozone if they did not implement \"serious economic reforms.\" \"[It] is not a foregone conclusion but, if Italy does not reform, an exit from EMU within 5 year... |
How do you store plasma? | Magnetic fields can be used to store a plasma. This is done in fusion reactors, for example. Alternatively you can just keep it in a regular container but keep supplying energy to ionize new atoms while others become neutral. | [
"A plasma is any gas in which a significant percentage of the atoms or molecules are ionized. Fractional ionization in plasmas used for deposition and related materials processing varies from about 10 in typical capacitive discharges to as high as 5–10% in high density inductive plasmas. Processing plasmas are typi... |
Is it possible to generate every possible combination of every pixel on your screen to create every image that could ever be taken? (For a specific resolution, anyways) | I'll assume a 1920x1080 resolution. Each pixel has three red, green, and blue sub-pixels that can each be in one of 256 brightness values, therefore each pixel can display as many as 256^3 = 16,777,216 colors.
A 1920x1080 resolution screen has 1920*1080 = 2,073,600 pixels. Therefore, there are 16,777,216^2,073,600 pos... | [
"An entire class of operations on binary images operates on a 3×3 window of the image. This contains nine pixels, so 2 or 512 possible values. Considering only the central pixel, it is possible to define whether it remains set or unset, based on the surrounding pixels. Examples of such operations are thinning, dila... |
I just recently read that there's a black hole at the center of our galaxy, would it be logical to assume that there might be one at the center of most galaxies and nebulae, thus causing them to contract in the first place? | Not really. Most galaxies have them yes but not nebulae. For galaxies it's still a chicken an egg question, did supermassive black holes form very early and take part in galactic formation, if so how did they collapse? Or were they simply an outcome of the collapse of the central regions of proto-galaxies already formi... | [
"Every massive elliptical galaxy contains a supermassive black hole at its center. Observations of 46 elliptical galaxies, 20 classical bulges, and 22 pseudobulges show that each contain a black hole at the center. The mass of the black hole is tightly correlated with the mass of the galaxy, evidenced through corre... |
In animals with a larger brains than humans, what is the purpose of their extra brain mass and volume? | > Surely an elephant leg, despite being much bigger than a human leg, wouldn't require over triple the brain mass to control a limb that is functionally equivalent to the scaled-down human version.
That's where you're wrong. While the elephant's leg is effectively just a blown up version of a human leg on a macrosco... | [
"Brain size was previously considered a major indicator of the intelligence of an animal. Since most of the brain is used for maintaining bodily functions, greater ratios of brain to body mass may increase the amount of brain mass available for more complex cognitive tasks. Allometric analysis indicates that mammal... |
Why do baby boys or boys below puberty age get boners? | Why questions are very difficult to answer, as they frequently have very nebulous answers. Adult males get erections every night. It's one of the methods they use to detect whether impotence is psychological or physical. They put a paper band tightly around the base of the penis, and if it breaks in the night, then y... | [
"During puberty, the physical traits of the syndrome become more evident; because these boys do not produce as much testosterone as other boys, they have a less muscular body, less facial and body hair, and broader hips. As teens, XXY males may develop breast tissue and also have weaker bones, and a lower energy le... |
AskScience, why is the landing of Curiosity so important? | Curiosity rover is the biggest, most sophisticated explorer we've landed on another planet. | [
"\"Curiosity\" successfully landed in the Gale Crater at 05:17:57.3 UTC on August 6, 2012, and transmitted Hazcam images confirming orientation. Due to the Mars-Earth distance at the time of landing and the limited speed of radio signals, the landing was not registered on Earth for another 14 minutes. The \"Mars Re... |
Discounting infant mortality, at about what rate has our life expectancy been increasing? | Wolfram alpha has the data. try:
_URL_0_
Between 1980 and 2000, life expectancy for 5 year olds males in the US has increased from about 71 years to 75 years. | [
"The infant mortality rate went down 5.9% between 1999 and 2013. The Gini coefficient fell from 47.8 in 1999 to 44.8 in 2006. The government earmarked 44.6% of the 2007 budget for social investment, with 1999-2007 averaging 12.8% of GDP.\n",
"The decline in the human mortality rate before the 1950s was mostly due... |
What is the formula to convert gigabytes to gibibits and which is right, google or ddg? | Google is wrong, Wolfram Alpha is right.
A Gigabyte is 10^9 bytes. A gibibit is 2^30 bit.
The giga- prefix is defined in base 10, the gibi- prefix in base 2. | [
"The gibibyte is closely related to the gigabyte (GB), which is defined by the IEC as 10 bytes = , ≈ . 1024 gibibytes are equal to one tebibyte. In the context of computer memory, gigabyte and GB are customarily used to mean 1024 (2) bytes, although not in the context of data transmission and not necessarily for ha... |
If I traveled back in time with modern medical knowledge, would I be able to make antibiotics/vaccines? | I can't speak to vaccines, but I work with antibiotics, so I'll just comment to that effect.
Could you make penicillin? Maybe. In order to make it you'd need to do two things: 1. find a microbe that produces it, and 2. purify it from the microbe.
Part 1 might be relatively easy, if you knew what you were looking for.... | [
"Antibiotics have been used since ancient times. Many civilizations used topical application of mouldy bread, with many references to its beneficial effects arising from ancient Egypt, China, Serbia, Greece and Rome. The first person to directly document the use of moulds to treat infections was John Parkinson (156... |
Given that energy can't be created or destroyed, will wind/tidal power remove energy from the wind/tides and thus affect the environment in their own way? | It does. But so does erecting tall buildings that block the wind and form turbulence. Ultimately, the amount of energy extracted is insignificant compared to the amount present, even scaled up to supply the world's energy needs thousands of times over. A mature hurricane, for example, is driven by moist convection w... | [
"Tidal energy can be extracted by two means: inserting a water turbine into a tidal current, or building ponds that release/admit water through a turbine. In the first case, the energy amount is entirely determined by the timing and tidal current magnitude. However, the best currents may be unavailable because the ... |
- why do we only ever see white people with down syndrome | Nobody is exempted from having Down Syndrome. But, there may be a variety of factors at play that have resulted in your lack of encounters with non-white people with Down Syndrome.
First, according to the Centers for Disease Control, the mortality rate for black infants with Down Syndrome is higher than for white infa... | [
"The following missing person cases have been cited as instances of missing white woman syndrome; media commentators on the phenomenon regard them as garnering a disproportionate level of media coverage relative to contemporary cases involving missing girls or women of non-white ethnicities, and missing males of al... |
Does torture work? | Torture is *very* good at getting people to talk. Unfortunately, it is *not* good at getting people to tell the truth. The victims usually just end up admitting to whatever their torturer wants them to admit, regardless of how true it is. | [
"The psychology of torture refers to the psychological processes underlying all aspects of torture including the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim, the immediate and long-term effects, and the political and social institutions that influence its use. Torture itself is the use of physical or psycho... |
What was life like for a Spanish citizen living in the new world in the 16th and early 17th centuries | A reply to /u/thomasin500
The situation was different at different periods in different locations. But in the 16th-17th centuries, what tended to happen was that explorers came first, while clergy and administrators came later, and sometimes much later. This is due to the limited extent that the Spanish monarchs were ... | [
"During the Colonial era, the Spanish restricted the entrance of other Europeans, however, some non-Spanish Europeans were present. In 1556, the English adventurer Robert Thomson encountered the Scotsman Thomas Blake (Tomás Blaque), who had been living in Mexico City for more than twenty years. Blake is the first k... |
How does the polarized light that reflects off of the screen in a 3D movie theater retain its polarity? | Also worth noting that some 3D Film projections aren't vertically/horizontally polarised, but rather circularly polarised in different directions (otherwise the effect wouldn't work if you turned your head). | [
"RealD 3D cinema technology is a polarized 3D system that uses circularly polarized light to produce stereoscopic image projection. The advantage of circular polarization over linear polarization is that viewers are able to tilt their head and look about the theater naturally without seeing double or darkened image... |
why is michael jackson so associated with pedophilia? has he ever even been convicted of it? | Michael Jackson reportedly had a large collection of 'paedophilic' content at his Neverland Ranch in 2003, according to police reports cataloging the property following a search.
This info was released to the public just recently. | [
"Jackson had previously been accused of child sexual abuse in 1993. He denied the allegations and settled with the accuser's family out of court, which ended the lawsuit. Prosecutors dropped the criminal investigation after the accuser refused to cooperate following his settlement. In the 2005 case, Jackson was acc... |
How similar (or different) are the techniques used for cloning both animals and human cells? | At the heart of it, cloning is the same. However, the difficulty in successfully cloning varies between species. Cloning frogs is relatively easy and was first done several decades ago. Cloning mammals is more difficult and so that's why Dolly the sheep was publicised so much in the 90s. However, cloning primates is mo... | [
"In recent years, the technique of cloning whole organisms has been developed in mammals, allowing almost identical genetic clones of an animal to be produced. One method of doing this is called \"somatic cell nuclear transfer\" and involves removing the nucleus from a somatic cell, usually a skin cell. This nucleu... |
why is dreaming about not wearing pants such a common childhood nightmare? | It's embarrassing in today's society to be naked. In a child's brain, which (among other things) is highly concerned with social groups and social development, the fear of being put in social situations where you are made to feel vulnerable and losing social status frequently manifests itself as nightmares. Of course, ... | [
"During most dreams, the person dreaming is not aware that they are dreaming, no matter how absurd or eccentric the dream is. The reason for this may be that the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for logic and planning, exhibits decreased activity during dreams. This allows the dreamer to more ... |
How do we get footage inside insect colonies? (And other insect and ant film questions) | **1)**The [BBC's website](_URL_0_) provides a clue as to how filmmaker John Brown filmed honeypot ants:
> To film them he caught some females that had just mated and set them up in a fake colony in his studio. He also had a wild nest in the field where he filmed the above ground behaviour of the ants.
**2)** In ma... | [
"In cinematography, butterflies (also known as overheads) are structures on which materials are mounted so to control lighting in a scene or photograph. Materials commonly used on butterflies include: flags (black, opaque materials), nets (layers of neutral-colored bobinette), and diffusions (translucent white mate... |
What are some good books on the Battle of Kursk? | I can confirm that *Kursk: the Greatest Battle* is a good book, it has a few bits and pieces that could be better. But its a solid work none the less. However another good book is *Armor and Blood: The Battle of Kursk* by Dennis Showalter.
You can't go wrong with either one. | [
"BULLET::::- \"Kursk: The German View\" by Steven H. Newton. The first part of the book goes to a new translation of a study of Operation Citadel (the great tank battle of Kursk) edited by General Theodor Busse, which offers the perspectives of key tank, infantry, and air commanders.\n",
"The Battle of Kursk was ... |
why do people tend to idealize the past and catastrophize the future? | Entropy applies where thermodynamics are concerned, but as far as human civilization goes thus far, the overwhelming trend is that things get better. In general, people live longer, are healthier, wealthier, and less likely to die in particularly horrible ways (famine, war, disease) the closer you get to today.
Peopl... | [
"Future thinking, also known as autobiographical thinking, serves as a way to speculate and anticipate future events. Though it's costly for current external activities performances, the benefit will be paid off later since future thinking allows better plan and preparation of the future goals. Actually people are ... |
What is the "youngest" species we have discovered? | According to [this](_URL_0_) BBC article, the answer may be senecio eboracensis, having originated mere decades ago. It's worth keeping in mind, though, that there's no clear set of guidelines for what makes an organism a separate species. The definition has been changed numerous times with new scientific discoveries, ... | [
"\"B. vanhouteni\", described in 1998 by Bloch and colleagues, is the oldest species, and was discovered in Wasatchian deposits in Wyoming, USA. It is based on a juvenile specimen, consisting of a mandible and some teeth.\n",
"Fossils of the older species, \"C. leiseyorum\", from Florida are from 1.4 Mya, while f... |
the stomach has neurons, but what are they for? | Neurons are not only useful for sensation you feel but to allow areas of the body to communicate information to other areas. For example if the senses detect food it is helpful to be able to start up the digestive process such as salivation and increased stomach activity. Similarly the stomach is going to need to be ab... | [
"In humans and many other animals, the stomach is located between the oesophagus and the small intestine. It secretes digestive enzymes and gastric acid to aid in food digestion. The pyloric sphincter controls the passage of partially digested food (chyme) from the stomach into the duodenum where peristalsis takes ... |
air quality index (aqi) reports | There is no standardized way to measure "air quality", everyone is free to label it as they wish. The number indicated by one system isn't intended to be compared with other systems, but with itself over time. If the number is going up the quality is deteriorating, that kind of thing. It's like ranking temperature outs... | [
"The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed an Air Quality Index that is used to report air quality. This AQI is divided into six categories indicating increasing levels of health concern. An AQI value over 300 represents hazardous air quality and below 50 the air quality is good.\n",
"... |
Is there any species of mammal where there are not sex differences in behavior/temperament? | AFAIK, mammals all reproduce sexually and use hormones as a mechanism to differentiate sexually during development. This difference in development includes differences in brain development, at the very least for sex-related behaviors. [This review article](_URL_0_) goes into greater detail about how hormones affect the... | [
"The MWH argues that the sex differences in attitudes towards outgroup members may be a result of the different reproductive strategies used by males and females—specifically, the greater competition among males for mates. In mammals, males and females have distinct reproductive strategies based on the physiology o... |
why do hit radio stations, who have access to thousands of songs, seem to always play the same exact playlist all day, every day? | Record companies underhandedly pay radio stations to keep their artists' songs in rotation. Interesting article [here.](_URL_0_) | [
"Each week, the Radio Songs chart ranks the 100 songs with the most airplay points (frequently referred to as audience impressions, which is a calculation of the number of times a song is played and the audience size of the station playing the tune). A song can pick up an airplay point every time it is selected to ... |
Were there any notable cases that caused the public to distrust the "insanity defense"? | Probably the most high-profile successful insanity defense was probably too late to inspire the literary trope, but was nevertheless very important: the case of John Hinckley Jr., who shot President Ronald Regan in 1981. Hinckley was obsessed with actress Jodi Foster and apparently believed that as an assassin of a pre... | [
"One of the best known applications of the insanity defense was for John W. Hinckley, a man who attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1982. He was ultimately acquitted of his charges under the insanity defense. The outrage after the court decision caused four states to eliminate the insanity defense: Montana, U... |
Is there any evidence of Soviet/Communist involvement in the black civil rights movement? | Someone else actually asked [a similar question](_URL_2_) a few months back. My answer was: there is some evidence that the Soviets attempted to infiltrate and co-opt the civil rights movement — they weren't providing support to the movement out of solidarity, but rather saw an opportunity to foment dissent and attempt... | [
"In the October 1967 General Conference Apostle Ezra Benson declared that the civil rights movement was a tool of Communist revolutionaries, and that it was led by mostly white male Communists who want to \"destroy America by spilling Negro blood\". He also stated that accusing law enforcement of \"police brutality... |
Why are some types of firewood more likely to "pop" when burning? | Trapped pockets of resin vaporize and violently escape. | [
"Exploding trees also occur during forest fires and are a risk to smokejumpers. In Australia, the native eucalyptus trees are also known to explode during bush fires due to the high flammability of vaporised eucalyptus oil produced by the tree naturally.\n",
"The wood is very dense and produces a hot flame when b... |
Are all planet's cores made out of iron? | No, not even Earth's. It's primarily iron, but has enough "not iron" to qualify as "not really iron". Most of the "not iron" is nickel, but also the huge majority of Earth's complement every metal heavier than iron is in the core. The core could be as much as 25% nickel, but is probably less, maybe 8-10%. This is expec... | [
"Metallic or native iron is rarely found on the surface of the Earth because it tends to oxidize. However, both the Earth's inner and outer core, that account for 35% of the mass of the whole Earth, are believed to consist largely of an iron alloy, possibly with nickel. Electric currents in the liquid outer core ar... |
How come urine and feces are generally always yellow and brown, and smell generally similar, even though people consume hugely varied diets? | See [this thread](_URL_6_), as well as searches for [urine](_URL_1_) and [feces](_URL_7_) color.
The short answer is that the breakdown of heme produces [urobilin](_URL_3_) and [stercobilin](_URL_0_), which are responsible for the colour of urine and feces, respectively. As this process is a constant part of your body... | [
"The urine of animals of differing physiology or sex sometimes has different characteristics. For example, the urine of birds and reptiles is whitish, consisting of a pastelike suspension of uric acid crystals, and discharged with the feces of the animal via the cloaca, whereas mammals' urine is a yellowish colour,... |
What is the melting point of roads? | _URL_0_
Mixing is generally performed with the aggregate at about 300 °F (roughly 150 °C) for virgin asphalt
| [
"For successful bonding of the roads in the process control of the thermal environment is necessary. Therefore, the system is kept inside a chamber, maintained at a temperature just below the melting point of the material being deposited.\n",
"Use of ice as the main construction material allows unusual constructi... |
why do large and already established companies feel the need to advertise their company in general? | They actually are trying to raise awareness. They want to make it so that when you think about fast food, you think about McDonald's. That way, when get an urge to eat fast food, your first thought is to go to McDonald's. Most people don't want to spend a huge amount of time deciding where to go, so they will go to the... | [
"Companies that want to take advantage of last minute ad space must make it easy for the media source to work with them and use their ad. Because these ad spaces come up at the last minute, media companies often would rather simply offer the opportunity to their larger advertisers because they have ready budgets, a... |
Rolling Stone recently published a fascinating article about JFK and how he faced down the military brass during the Cuban Missile Crisis, thereby preventing all-out nuclear war. They make it sound as if he nearly lost control of the generals. Is that sensationalized or factual? | There is a counter-argument written by Sheldon Stern in *The Cuban Missile Crisis in American Memory* [available here](_URL_1_). Mr. Stern argues, compellingly, JFK was largely responsible for the crisis and its escalation.
Benjamin Schwarz recently wrote a summary in the Atlantic Monthly [here](_URL_0_).
Schwar... | [
"\"JFK and Vietnam: Deception, Intrigue, and the Struggle for Power\" argues that United States President John F. Kennedy would not have placed combat troops in Vietnam and was preparing to withdraw military advisors by the end of 1965. Oliver Stone, director of the 1991 film \"JFK\" called it \"a breakthrough expl... |
why should i worry about companies (such as fb and google) data-mining my internet profiles? | In the popular FB-deleting current trend, data was obtained from 50 million people. Psychological profiles were executed on these individuals. Based on their psychological type, targeted ads, even with fake news, were targeted towards these individuals to influence their decision on who to vote for. This can be dangero... | [
"Through data mining, companies are able to improve their sales and profitability. With this data, companies create customer profiles that contain customer demographics and online behavior. A recent strategy has been the purchase and production of \"network analysis software\". This software is able to sort out thr... |
why is "whistleblowing" such a heavily punishable offense? | Whistleblowing is not a punishable offence in and of itself, but the desemination of classified information is, especially if you agreed in your employment not to do so. Someone reporting the find, like Wikileaks, has done nothing wrong. But snowden violated a number of conditions in his contract that are designed to p... | [
"Whistleblowers are often protected under law from employer retaliation, but in many cases punishment has occurred, such as termination, suspension, demotion, wage garnishment, and/or harsh mistreatment by other employees. A 2009 study found that up to 38% of whistleblowers experienced professional retaliation in s... |
What would a dark age church service look like? | There are a great number of possible variations on the following, but I'll do my best to give you an idea.
**Tithing**
Firstly, my family are rye farmers. Much depends on what that means. If we're at the bottom of the social pile producing rye for another citizen farmer then we probably get enough food to live but no... | [
"The Church in the Darkness is an upcoming action-adventure video game. It was originally announced in 2016 to ship in early 2017, but is now expected to be released in 2019 for Microsoft Windows, macOS, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. It was designed by Richard Rouse III under the name Paranoid Productions.\n",
"Du... |
Who was the first person to have their own army? | As far as I am aware, the first recorded individual was a ruler named Sargon of Akkad. He apparantly created a standing army of 5400 men:
_URL_0_
Keep in mind we have pictorial evidence of people fighting in organized bodies prior to that, but Sargon was the first individual with whom a military force was *personally... | [
"The full army was normally led in battle by the two kings; initially, both went on campaign, but after the 6th century BC only one, with the other remaining at home. Unlike other states, their authority was severely circumscribed; actual power rested with the five elected \"ephoroi\". The kings were accompanied by... |
Are there cultures where smiling is not used to show happiness? If not, how did it develop to mean this across the world? | Like birds know to fly south in the winter, humans are born with certain facial expressions as a representation of emotion. Facial expressions associated with disgust, happiness, surprise, fear, anger, and sadness have been found to be the same across the world, including cultures isolated from the rest of the world. ... | [
"Among humans, smiling is an expression denoting pleasure, sociability, happiness, joy or amusement. It is distinct from a similar but usually involuntary expression of anxiety known as a grimace. Although cross-cultural studies have shown that smiling is a means of communication throughout the world, there are lar... |
Was bronze ever used for (chain) mail? | The Roman period is before my period of expertise, so I can't say much about the Lorica Hamata.
However, in the Middle Ages there are occasional uses of latten (a copper alloy, generally containing Zinc - basically brass) to make mail. The most common use of this is a decorative border on the edge of a mail garment - ... | [
"Mail, sometimes called \"chainmail\", made of interlocking iron rings is believed to have first appeared some time after 300 BC. Its invention is credited to the Celts; the Romans are thought to have adopted their design.\n",
"Common bronze items included domestic wares like oil lamps, incense burners, tables, i... |
what is the point of ticketmaster if it just brings you to another site to but the tickets? | Ticketmaster gets a commission from every ticket sale made from another website. The cost for that commission is ultimately paid by you. | [
"TicketHurry is an online ticketing company, serving as an alternative to similar marketplaces such as StubHub and TicketsNow. TicketHurry's listings include all spectator events, including concerts, sporting events, theater, and Broadway. The company is primarily an aggregator, as they do not purchase tickets or a... |
why is it so difficult for people to admit they are wrong about something? | I don't know about any studies, but I think it's probably something to do with either pride, or they don't want people to think badly of them for not being right | [
"BULLET::::- People can be very resistant to admitting they are wrong about something, or that they did (or said) the wrong thing. They like to believe they got it right, even when others disagree. Acknowledging that they got it wrong, could be very embarrassing, confusing or distressing – especially if they person... |
why do i sleep like a beautiful princess after i wash my sheets and make my bed? | After a shower and a shave - I'mma sleep till NOON. | [
"Parents and family members are frequently stressed by a child's bedwetting. Soiled linens and clothing cause additional laundry. Wetting episodes can cause lost sleep if the child wakes and/or cries, waking the parents. A European study estimated that a family with a child who wets nightly will pay about $1,000 a ... |
why it is metres per second per second instead of metres per second? | 10 m/s^2 is an acceleration, not a movement, it means that for every second, it moves 10 meters per second faster.
10 m = length
10 m/s = speed
10 m/s^2 = acceleration | [
"The joule-second \"should not be confused\" with the physical process of joules per second (J/s). In physical processes, when the unit of time appears in the denominator of a ratio, the described process occurs at a rate. For example, in discussions about speed, an object like a car travels a known distance of kil... |
shifts in what is considered attractive | Another point is that now tan women are generally preferred because it means you have time to work/play outside as opposed to sitting in an office all day. However, it used to be considered attractive to be pale because it meant you didn't have to work outside in the fields. | [
"One other possible explanation about the cause of this perception of higher attractiveness is \"mere familiarity or exposure\" (Zajonc, 1968). This means that previously seen stimuli may be perceived more positively than new stimuli. In addition, another explanation comes from the commodity theory (Brock, 1968). A... |
how come some countries' money is cheap and others' expensive? | What's stopping a country from secretly printing a lot of money and exchanging and buying things it needs from another country without the other countries realizing that they have been duped with their now deflated trade off? | [
"Most things are cheaper in poor (low income) countries than in rich ones. Someone from a \"first world\" country on vacation in a \"third world\" country will usually find their money going a lot further abroad than at home. For instance, a Big Mac cost $7.84 in Norway and $2.39 in Egypt in January 2013, at the pr... |
Why do whirlpools cast shadows? | Stagnant water can still cast a shadow.
A whirlpool casts a different shadow due to the turbulence in the water which causes different directions in which the light scatters. | [
"However, Shadow shares a lot of similarities with Sonic. He can perform spin attacks common to Sonic, which are a variation on the tendency for hedgehogs to roll into tight balls for protection. Additionally, with the power of a Chaos Emerald, Shadow can warp time and space with Chaos Control. Shadow is also able ... |
Were there any Christian or Muslim rulers who converted to a non-Abrahamic faith in History? | The one person who comes to mind is the Roman emperor Julian (360-63), who, though raised Christian, turned back to the Greek religion of the Homeric gods and tried to reestablish that faith as the principal religion in the Roman empire. For that reason the Christian historiography referred to him as "apostata". Since ... | [
"The conversion of the native Christians to Islam did not mean the total erasure of previous beliefs and social practises. There is some evidence of a limited cultural borrowing from the Christians by the Muwalladun and other Muslims in Al-Andalus. For instance, the Muslims' adoption of the Christian solar calendar... |
What factors lead to Opera's decline in popularity in the United States? | Kindly release opera from its grave! Just because you don't personally consume something, doesn't mean it's dead. For America in particular, I can comfortably state that you live in the best time of all for consumption of opera. As of today opera is the most accessible and affordable to Americans that it has ever been,... | [
"After World War I, however, opera declined in comparison to the popular heights of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Causes included the general cultural shift away from Romanticism and the rise of the cinema, which became a major source of entertainment. A third cause is the fact that \"internationalism\" had br... |
What is the difference between a hypernova and a super luminous supernova? | I'm definitely not an expert in this topic by any means so take this with a grain of salt.
From the cursory research I've done, it seem that the difference is in mass vs light. A hypernova is exceptional in the kinetic energy of it's mass ejections, whereas a super luminous supernova is exceptional in the amount of e... | [
"A supernova is a violent explosion of a star that occurs under two principal scenarios. The first is that a white dwarf star, which is the remnant of a low-mass star that has exhausted its nuclear fuel, undergoes a thermonuclear explosion after its mass is increased beyond its Chandrasekhar limit by accreting nucl... |
chicago note style (in academic papers) | If you want an actual guide to formatting, the [Purdue OWL](_URL_1_) academic writing lab is incredibly helpful as a guide. If you have Firefox, the [Zotero](_URL_0_) extension automatically creates perfect citations according to the official formats (for Chicago and other research citation formats) where you just inpu... | [
"\"Chicago\" style offers writers a choice of several different formats. It allows the mixing of formats, provided that the result is clear and consistent. For instance, the fifteenth edition of \"The Chicago Manual of Style\" permits the use of both in-text citation systems and/or footnotes or endnotes, including ... |
How does coordination work? | Your muscles have a bunch of nerves in them that communicate with the brain not only to contract/relax, but how the muscle is being stretched and how it’s moving. It’s called proprioception. This, combined with the vestibular system in the ear and visual input from the eyes provide information to the brain that combine... | [
"Coordination is defined as \"\"the deliberate and orderly alignment or adjustment of partners’ actions to achieve jointly determined goals\"\". Collaboration tools supporting this are the ones who allow you to set up group activities, schedules and deliverables.\n",
"Coordination refers to \"the degree to which ... |
At the Battle of Ulundi, during the British-Zulu war, how did the British win while only destroying such a small part of the opposing Zulu force? | It's important to know that battles are not determined by how many casualties each side takes. Without getting into a lengthy discussion about strategy, in general, the goal is to make the other side withdraw. Whether this be a rout (enemy cohesion breaks, disorderly retreat, time when most casualties occur) or an orga... | [
"The Battle of Ulundi took place at the Zulu capital of Ulundi on 4 July 1879 and was the last major battle of the Anglo-Zulu War. The British army broke the military power of the Zulu nation by defeating the main Zulu army and immediately afterwards capturing and razing the capital of Zululand, the royal kraal of ... |
Historian's with a specialty in religion, how have your studies impacted your faith? | For me, being a historian of religion has made me very skeptical of claims that modern people make like "Judaism teaches x" or "According to Christianity, no one may do y." Because for most claims like that, the important people associated with the religion said pretty much the opposite at some point in their history. ... | [
"Partridge writes that \"by the second half of the twentieth century the study of religion had emerged as a prominent and important field of academic enquiry.\" He cites the growing distrust of the empiricism of the nineteenth century and the growing interest in non-Christian religions and spirituality coupled with... |
I've heard that "the equations of particle physics and of general relativity cannot be reconciled in the mathematically expected manner", can someone elaborate? | It's complicated. When you do a calculation in quantum field theory (what particle physics is based on), you eventually get an infinite result, and you essentially get around it by subtracting another infinity from that until things work out. It's called renormalization and mathematicians hate it, but it works well for... | [
"If general relativity were considered to be one of the two pillars of modern physics, then quantum theory, the basis of understanding matter from elementary particles to solid state physics, would be the other. However, how to reconcile quantum theory with general relativity is still an open question.\n",
"For t... |
Is Albert Speers book on the Third Reich a good source? | Hello - I read this book two summers ago and may I say I found it to be a riveting read. It provides details into the intimate workings of the Reich, and Albert Speer's relationship with Hitler that would be difficult to find elsewhere. In particular I was struck by the inefficiencies and haphazard administration of th... | [
"He has written extensively on the Third Reich, including on Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Reinhard Heydrich, Adolf Eichmann, the formation of the Nazi Party, the Munich Beer Hall putsch, the Berlin Reichstag fire, the Night of the Long Knives, the Nuremberg racial laws, Vichy France, Stalingrad, the D... |
How was it to attend or work in a university in Nazi Germany? | One thing you have to keep in mind about the Nazis is that from fairly early on they began a program of "coordination" which made sure that practically all organizations that had any sort of state connection were rearranged along very linearly hierarchical lines of authority, ultimately leading towards people at the to... | [
"During the German occupation, which lasted from 1940–1945, the university rector, Didrik Arup Seip, was imprisoned. The university was then placed under the management of Adolf Hoel, a NS (Norwegian Nazi Party) appointee. A number of students participated in the Norwegian resistance movement; after fire was set in... |
How does the heart work differently in space compared to earth? | Blood does not fall into the ventricles, the atria contract and force it in. If the circulatory system relied on gravity we wouldn't be able to lie down or hang upside down. | [
"In humans, other mammals, and birds, the heart is divided into four chambers: upper left and right atria and lower left and right ventricles. Commonly the right atrium and ventricle are referred together as the \"right heart\" and their left counterparts as the \"left heart\". Fish, in contrast, have two chambers,... |
how do the cells stay alive when you fall asleep on a body part for an extended period of time? | Your arteries are high pressure hoses that stay open even if you compress them. They are deeper in your body too so they wont get compressed easily. | [
"In non-resting cells, the cell cycle consists of G0 - G1 - S - G2 - M phases, and is tightly regulated at checkpoints between the phases. If the cell has undergone stress, certain proteins are expressed that will prevent the specific sequence of macromolecular interactions at the checkpoint required for progressio... |
how did early television shows record episodes for later broadcast? | There really was little thought of "later broadcast" (as in reruns) for very early TV, meaning late 1940s/early 1950s. Some "live" shows were filmed directly from a TV monitor screen (these filmed copies were called "kinescopes") for archiving and for rushing to the west coast for broadcast 3 hours later. Filmed shows ... | [
"It is not known how many episodes still exist, given station practices of the era. A 16mm kinescope recording of the episode aired 26 August 1957 is held by National Archives of Australia. (note: Kinescope recording, also known as telerecording, was an early method to record live television, used in the days befor... |
A domed building a good place to be in a tornado? | Probably more of an engineering question. | [
"A tornado struck the building on April 3, 1974, causing extensive damage to the cupola and roof. It also ripped the main sanctuary doors apart, damaged or destroyed 34 of the 38 stained glass windows, and caused water damage in the interior. The damage was repaired from 1975–76. Destroyed stained glass windows wer... |
how does a proposition become a law? | [Schoolhouse Rock: I'm Just a Bill](_URL_0_) | [
"A proposition is also a measure or proposed legislation \"proposed\" to the members of a legislature or to voters, in a direct popular plebiscite, for their approval. In the US American phenomenon of popular plebiscites, propositions can take the form of an initiative or a referendum; for example, see the list of ... |
If wind is primarily generated by the rotation of the Earth, then how are some days windier than others? | The answer to "If X, then why Y?" is often "Because X isn't true."
Wind is not *principally* caused by the Earth's rotation: the main cause is differences in air temperature. Air heated by the sun rises, and cooler air moves in to take its place. This movement of cooler air is the phenomenon we call "wind".
The Earth... | [
"In the absence of rotation, the wind tends to blow from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. The stronger the pressure difference (pressure gradient) between a high-pressure system and a low-pressure system, the stronger the wind. The coriolis force caused by Earth's rotation gives winds within high-pr... |
the most modern understanding of human evolution/origin? | No, it goes like this:
1. Homo erectus. A few H. erectus leave Africa (able to survive only in the tropics of Eurasia, lacked fire); some of these Eurasian H. erectus groups evolve into new hominid species.
2. Meanwhile, back in Africa! Homo erectus has evolved into several new hominid species, most notably Homo he... | [
"The timeline of human evolution outlines the major events in the development of the human species, \"Homo sapiens\", and the evolution of the human's ancestors. It includes brief explanations of some of the species, genera, and the higher ranks of taxa that are seen today as possible ancestors of modern humans.\n"... |
Why did the Marshall Mission, the American attempt to create a unified government between Chinese Communist Party and Nationalists following WWII, ultimately fail? | Hello, and thank you for this thoughtful and well-worded question! I'm unfortunately not an expert on the Chinese Civil War, but I'll try my best to provide some background.
The very short answer to everything is that Mao Zedong and the Communists never had any intention to cooperate with the Nationalists or the Ameri... | [
"The Nationalists and Chinese Communists were allies during the Sino-Japanese War, but their domestic rivalry resumed after the defeat of Japan. To prevent the resumption of civil war, the U.S. government sent George C. Marshall to China to mediate. The Marshall Mission was headquartered in Beiping where a truce wa... |
Can anyone explain this mythbusters result? Because it seems to break my understanding of Newtonian physics. | The movement is from the small amount of air that rebounds in the opposite direction off the sail. | [
"Newton himself often told the story that he was inspired to formulate his theory of gravitation by watching the fall of an apple from a tree. Although it has been said that the apple story is a myth and that he did not arrive at his theory of gravity in any single moment, acquaintances of Newton (such as William S... |
why whenever i eat fruits i still feel hungry, but eat fatty foods and feel full. | According to [this article](_URL_0_):
"When the fat remains stable in the acid environment of the stomach, it empties into the small intestine more slowly and increases satiety."
However, for a more ELI5 version:
Think of your stomach as a bonfire. When you put in a piece of paper (e.g. the apple) it burns it very q... | [
"Although fruits provide a source of carbohydrates, they have very little protein, and because protein cannot be stored in the body as fat and carbohydrates can, fruitarians need to be careful that they consume enough protein each day. When the body does not take in enough protein, it misses out on amino acids, whi... |
how does a stylus work on a phone screen, but other objects won't? | The screens are capacitive. Basically, things like your skin change surface voltages, and that's how it detects where you're tapping. It will work with sausages (though you'd get your screen greasy).
If something can't change the voltage (like a cotton swab), it won't register on your phone screen. | [
"In computing, a stylus (or stylus pen) is a small pen-shaped instrument that is used to input commands to a computer screen, mobile device or graphics tablet. With touchscreen devices, a user places a stylus on the surface of the screen to draw or make selections by tapping the stylus on the screen. In this manner... |
why does touching metal to a metal cavity filling hurt like crazy? | Have you ever touched a 9-volt battery to your tounge? Similar thing. Along with other stuff in your mouth, certain metals brought together make a very small and weak battery. While weak, you have sensitive nerves in your tooth, and the metal filling makes it very easy for the electricity to reach them. | [
"Rubbing dissimilar materials against one another can cause a build-up of electrostatic charge, which can be hazardous if flammable gases or vapours are present. When the static build-up discharges, explosions can be caused by ignition of the flammable mixture.\n",
"Pitting results when a small hole, or cavity, f... |
Did the Mughals cultivate special breeds of elephants, as Westerners do with horses? | Due to the long lifespans and long gestation periods of elephants, breeding them as one does with horses was impractical at best. There are no known acknowledged "breeds" of elephants (aside from the Asian and African varieties that we know of today). | [
"Elephant cavalry first appeared three thousand years ago, simultaneously in India's Vedic Civilization and in China. Female Asian elephants were used, sometimes in small groups, sometimes in vast regiments of thousands of animals in the 13th century, primarily to produce a tactical \"shock and awe\" effect in the ... |
What did the North Vietnamese Army do to all of the South Vietnamese Army once they captured Saigon and ended the war? Were a lot of people killed on the South Vietnamese Army side once the Americans left? | [I have written about this before here](_URL_0_), which might answer some of your questions. | [
"After the fall of Saigon to the North Vietnamese People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), the ARVN was dissolved. While some high-ranking officers had fled the country to the United States or elsewhere, thousands of former ARVN officers were sent to reeducation camps by the communist government of the new, unified Sociali... |
how do large indoor spaces like warehouses have their own weather? | In short, they don't.
The Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral, the largest buildings ever constructed in terms of open interior volume, is the typical source of this urban legend. The rumor goes that its air conditioning system, which replaces the entire building-volume's air every hour, is less effective at d... | [
"In rural and suburban areas most facilities contain multiple single-story buildings with mostly drive-up units which have natural ventilation but are not climate-controlled. These buildings are referred to as \"traditional\" storage facilities. Climate-controlled interior units are becoming more popular in suburba... |
what does 'bridge' mean in musical terms? | A bridge is a contrasting section of music that prepares for the return to the 'original' section.
It is often used to contrast with and prepare for the return of the verse and the chorus of a piece of music. | [
"The Bridge chord is a bitonal chord named after its use in the music of composer Frank Bridge (1879–1941). It consists of a minor chord with the major chord a whole tone above (CEG & DFA), as well as a major chord with the minor chord a semitone above (CEG & DFA), which share the same mediant (E/F). () Both form e... |
How are medical grade sterile cloths made? | Gamma Irradiation normally. But occasionally Ethylene Oxide. They make it, put it in a bag, and then zap the hell out of it with a gamma ray source, usually Cobalt 60. | [
"Non-surgical scrubs come in a wider variety of colors and patterns, ranging from official issue garments to custom made, whether by commercial uniform companies or by home-sewing using commercially available printed patterns.\n",
"In general, surgical instruments and medications that enter an already aseptic par... |
What is the deepest someone could breathe underwater through a tube to the surface? | A normal adult has a [vital capacity](_URL_0_) of about 3-5 liters, which is the maximal volume of air that can be exhaled or inhaled. Let's use the max and say 0.005 cubic meters.
The average diameter of a snorkel is 3/4 inch or 0.01905 meters.
Volume of a cylinder is v = (pi) times radius^2 times height. Solve ... | [
"Jim Bowden is an American technical diver, known as a cave diver and as a deep diver. In 1994 he set a world record, since broken, by diving to . He is one of only eleven people who have dived below a depth of on self-contained breathing apparatus. He has also made six sub-five hundred foot dives.\n",
"BULLET:::... |
why do some medications have to be specifically taken or applied at night? | Usually it is because they have a sedative effect (make you drowsy) so it's safer to take them at night when you are going to sleep anyway.
For some others it's because it times with bodily functions (cholesterol medication for e.g. because the liver is more active at producing cholesterol when you are asleep)
Some ... | [
"Hypnotics, sometimes referred to as sleeping pills, may be prescribed by a physician, but their long-term efficacy is poor and they have numerous adverse effects including daytime drowsiness, accidents, memory disorders and withdrawal symptoms. If they are to be taken, the preferred choices are benzodiazepines wit... |
why do republicans and similar think that president obama is directly trying to destroy america? | _URL_2_
_URL_1_
_URL_0_
| [
"Margolis wrote this about Barack Obama's election:Americans did not \"liberate\" Iraq, but they certainly liberated their own nation last week by sweeping the Republican Party from power. One prays America's long nightmare of foreign aggressions, fear, religious extremism, and flirting with neo-fascism is finally ... |
Why are "elite" forces of the Napoleonic era beefed up standard regiments with special honors while "elite" forces of the modern era are special operations units? | This is just one an example of the centuries long trend in modern military history of increasing dispersion in the face of increasing firepower.
Elite troops (i.e. Guard Regiments) in Napoleonic times were elite because they were better organized, braver, more disciplined and sometimes physically larger and more intim... | [
"France's Imperial Guard (\"Garde Impériale\") was the elite military force of its time and grew out of the \"Garde du Directoire\" and \"Garde Consulaire\". It was, quite literally, a \"Corps d'Armée\" itself with infantry, cavalry and artillery. Napoleon wanted it also to be an example for the entire army to foll... |
how can concert tickets and big clothing drops seemingly be already sold out at the exact same second they go live? | Either someone had access to buy before that, or a lot of buyers were just faster than you.
There's many examples of employees buying the entire stock before the sale goes live. And there's also many examples of people making software to buy tickets as fast as possible (seconds) as soon as sales opens, leaving little ... | [
"Concert tickets went on sale on Monday, June 3, and almost all (60,000) were sold the same day, with online wait times to purchase tickets that exceeded six hours. This caused the organization to initially freeze ticket sales and then release 30,000 tickets for sale on the 17th, though these were for seats at the ... |
What happens to the electrons in the positive plate of capacitor? | There are two things going on here.
First, a charge distribution is what actually produces a voltage. Everything wants to be neutral, so if you connect a conductor between the positively and negatively charged components in a charge distribution, it will cause the charges to equalize.
The second thing is that a batt... | [
"where the sign is negative because charge leaves this plate (the charge is decreasing), and where \"S\" is the area of the surface \"R\". The electric field at surface \"L\" is nearly zero because the field due to charge on the left-hand plate is nearly cancelled by the equal but opposite charge on the right-hand ... |
why is the bathroom always the first room you see when you enter a hotel room? | Mainly because that layout is cheaper to build. Having the plumbing all as close as possible, towards the hallways means a more compact and efficient layout than spreading it to the outsides of the rooms. | [
"Customers who have rooms may leave their room doors open to signal that they are available for sex. An open door can also be an invitation for others to watch or join in sexual activity that is already occurring.\n",
"The Hotel Sterling opened with approximately 175 rooms and 125 bathrooms. This suggests a large... |
why is there a ball inside of guinness beer cans? | It's to create a head on the beer when drinking or pouring, as guinness is ment to be drank that way, and it's actually a bottle shaped piece of plastic
Edit*I couldn't remember the name of the ball/bottle thing, it's called a widget,
_URL_0_
| [
"Unlike kegs, which can be simply stood upright on the floor, casks are used lying on their sides. This allows the beer to run from the tap under gravity, with room in the \"belly\" of the cask below the outlet for the finings to collect. The shive with the spile will then be the highest point on the cask. As the b... |
why does your body feel things to be bigger than they are? | If I understand your question correctly, you're curious why your tactile sense is not as accurate as your eyesight, right? Well it's tricky, but for a good reason, so brace yourself.
You have incredibly sensitive skin. Practically everywhere, really, but there are some localized differences. Here's an example: find a ... | [
"In poetry, fiction, and other literature, size is occasionally assigned to characteristics that do not have measurable dimensions, such as the metaphorical reference to the size of a person's heart as a shorthand for describing their typical degree of kindness or generosity. With respect to physical size, the conc... |
How come that whole state of New York was named after a city? | It's less that the state is named after the city or vice versa, and more that both geographical regions were given Anglicized names at the same time. While the legacy of Native tribes and people can be seen in place names such as Manhattan (based on a Wampanoag or Lenape word used to describe the land mass between the ... | [
"The city of New York is a special case. The state legislature reorganized government in the area in the 1890s in an effort to consolidate. Other cities, villages, and towns were annexed to become the \"City of Greater New York\", (an unofficial term, the new city retained the name of New York), a process basically... |
why are tank tracks so efficient at traction? | The purpose of tank tracks is not traction. The purpose is to spread the significant weight of the tank over a large area so they don't sink into sand or mud or whatever. | [
"Other designs dramatically increase surface area to provide more traction than wheels can, for example in continuous track and half-track vehicles. A tank or similar tracked vehicle uses tracks to reduce the pressure on the areas of contact. A 70-ton M1A2 would sink to the point of high centering if it used round ... |
baudrillard's "simulacra and simulation" | Basically, the treatise states that our world is "fake", and that our culture is made up of false symbols. In other words, reality is hidden behind a fake mask that we've created.
It's saying that most of our current society is a construct that we've created ourselves. It argues that the way we see of the world isn'... | [
"Simulation, Baudrillard claims, is the current stage of the simulacrum: all is composed of references with no referents, a hyperreality. Progressing historically from the Renaissance, in which the dominant simulacrum was in the form of the counterfeit—mostly people or objects appearing to stand for a real referent... |
95% of the moving truck vehicles for families i see are uhauls. how did one company create such a monopoly over the moving business? | One of the innovative things U-Haul did was franchise via gas stations. Existing infrastructure for fuel, office and garage space made the barriers to entry of a new franchisee really low. And there needs to be gas stations located strategically, so you get the coverage.
Also, the one-way rental is pretty huge, not ... | [
"As reported in June 1995 in Popular Science Magazine, self-driving trucks were being developed for combat convoys, whereby only the lead truck would be driven by a human and the following trucks would rely on satellite, an inertial guidance system and ground-speed sensors. Caterpillar Inc. made early developments ... |
A question about forces | In our present understanding, quantum fields are the fundamental concept. The existence of quantum fields leads to the existence of particles such as gauge bosons, as well as to other kinds of physical entities (e.g. bound states and extended field configurations like solitons). | [
"Since forces are perceived as pushes or pulls, this can provide an intuitive understanding for describing forces. As with other physical concepts (e.g. temperature), the intuitive understanding of forces is quantified using precise operational definitions that are consistent with direct observations and compared t... |
How does the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere directly affect coral reef building? | The build up of excess CO2 in the atmosphere has slowly began to change the pH of the earth's oceans, making the oceans more acidic, a process also known as [Ocean Acidification.] (_URL_0_) As the ocean acidifies, corals cannot absorb the calcium carbonate they need to maintain their skeletons, which cause the stony sk... | [
"A study released in April 2013 has shown that air pollution can also stunt the growth of coral reefs; researchers from Australia, Panama and the UK used coral records (between 1880 and 2000) from the western Caribbean to show the threat of factors such as coal-burning coal and volcanic eruptions. The researchers s... |
why do toiletry bags have handles on the side? | It's for hanging. When you unzip the toiletries bag and hang it on a hook, you have easy access and may avoid having to place it on a damp counter, etc. | [
"In those settings, bucket toilets are more likely to be used without a liner, or the liner is not removed each time the bucket is emptied. This is because the users cannot afford to regularly discard suitably sized, sturdy liners. Instead, the users may place some dry material in the base of the bucket (newspaper,... |
if i weigh 100 pounds and eat 50 pounds of food, do i now weigh 150 pounds? | Yes. If you somehow ate 50 pounds of food, you would in fact gain 50 pounds to your weight. Now this wouldn't last because you body wouldn't be able to metabolize this vast amount of food. You would probably be sick, gain a decent amount of fat, but in the long run you certainly wouldn't suddenly gain 50 pounds in fat ... | [
"BULLET::::- First, after a nutrition demonstration from chef Curtis Stone, the group is required to answer a series of eight questions (one per team). If the group collectively answers five questions correctly, 15 pounds will be deducted from the 150 requirement.\n",
"BULLET::::- The allowed carbohydrate amounts... |
who are the "kurdish"? and why are their female fighters such a big deal in usa media? | The Kurds are an ethnicity of people who do not have a country to call their own. They are closer related to Persians than they are Arabs or Turks, and they have a language and history distinct from all three.
The nearly 40 million of them live in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria.
The reason why the female fighters are... | [
"The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK (Kurdish: \"Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê\") is Kurdish militant organization which has waged an armed struggle against the Turkish state for cultural and political rights and self-determination for the Kurds. Turkey's military allies the US, the EU, and NATO label the PKK as a te... |
Were there revolutions outside of Europe/North America (pre-20th century) that implemented enlightenment (or something similar to them) ideas? | Sorry, we don't allow ["example seeking" questions](_URL_1_). It's not that your question was bad; it's that these kinds of questions tend to produce threads that are collections of disjointed, partial, inadequate responses. If you have a question about a specific historical event, period, or person, feel free to rewri... | [
"The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the 18th century. Under the influence of the Enlightenment, the Age of Revolution emerged from the United States and France as part of the transformation of the West into its industrialised, democratised modern form. The lands of North and South America, South Africa, ... |
When did Countries became Countries? | Can you clarify your question? Do you mean when did they consolidate as political entities? | [
"Western Europe, briefly mostly united into a single state under Charlemagne around 800CE, a few countries, including England, Scotland, Iceland and Norway, had already effectively become nation states by 1,000CE, with a kingdom (Commonwealth in Iceland's case) largely co-terminus with a people mostly sharing a lan... |
Is the UK/ island of Britain a fatherland or a motherland? | Neither, or both.
This is more a linguistics question in the field of contemporary and historical usage, but in the interests of fulfilling your question, let me talk about these terms for awhile.
Firstly, “Fatherland” and it’s cognates has a well established usage across European languages, especially Indo-European ... | [
"Motherland refers to a \"mother country\", i.e. the place of one's birth, the place of one's ancestors, the place of origin of an ethnic group or immigrant, or a Metropole in contrast to its colonies. People often refer to Mother Russia as a personification of the Russian nation. Within the British Empire, many na... |
how does the liver function when we consume alcohol? | After alcohol is absorbed, it is distributed fairly evenly amongst the body's water reservoirs, so there is no concentrating effect in the liver. The liver's job is to metabolize the alcohol into acetic acid.
Nothing special happens when you drink a lot such that your liver can't keep up with the elimination - the alc... | [
"During the metabolism of alcohol via the respective dehydrogenases, NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide) is converted into reduced NAD. Normally, NAD is used to metabolize fats in the liver, and as such alcohol competes with these fats for the use of NAD. Prolonged exposure to alcohol means that fats accumulate... |
why do pc's need to be upgraded for newer games while consoles can handle newer games just fine? | Two reasons.
The first is that consoles sport 1 hardware configuration each. Every 360 has the same processor, same ram, same graphics card, and understands the same code. As a programmer, this is useful, because you can design your game right around the hardware. Optimization is much easier(and so is debugging, for t... | [
"Some consoles lack the ability to play games from previous generations which allow a developer to release older games again but on the new consoles. The re-released game may be unchanged and simply be the same game but run on the new technology or it can be changed by the developer to have improved graphics, sound... |
Exactly how fast can a light sail travel? | According to [this](_URL_0_) paper, it will depend on the mass area loading on the sail, which is equal to (total mass) / (area of sail)
but the article says:
> The slowest
approach in Table 1 passes the 0.01 AU perihelion point and continues out into space at a
constant velocity of 0.0014 С (420 km... | [
"From the planetary frame of reference, the ship's speed will appear to be limited by the speed of light—it can approach the speed of light, but never reach it. If a ship is using 1 \"g\" constant acceleration, it will appear to get near the speed of light in about a year, and have traveled about half a light year ... |
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