question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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why aren't more uplifting, good news (the ones that put faith in humanity) shown in journalism? | Longtime communications person w/ a journalism degree and a lot of feeling about this topic.
Speaking to American journalism specifically, the vast majority of outlets are for-profit (as opposed to non-profit), so they have to try and generate revenue through their reporting to stay afloat. Think NY Times, FOX News, e... | [
"A number of writers have tried to explain the decline in journalistic standards. One explanation is the 24-hour news cycle, which faces the necessity of generating news even when no news-worthy events occur. Another is the simple fact that bad news sells more newspapers than good news. A third possible factor is t... |
How did Hezbollah go from a small militia to such an impressive paramilitary force? | Quick answer: Support from Iran via Syria and stong social presence. More detail:
* Hezbollah military men get trained in Iran. They also get weapons from Iran through Syria. Lots of weapon and artillery. They know the country and the villages and the inner streets so they are very well positioned to fight off any at... | [
"The militia is described as an \"operational auxiliary\" or subsidiary of Hezbollah. Group members fight under the Hezbollah flag and command structure in combat, but are at least nominally separate in peacetime. They also receive intelligence from Hezbollah.\n",
"At its zenith, the militia had 14,000 troops. Am... |
how do you explain that depak chopra and other woo woo new age pseudo science/medicine is bogus to someone that is deeply invested in them? | Sounds like it is trying to take advantage of the placebo effect, a real phenomenon. Honestly, people who are deeply invested in these pseudosciences usually will not listen to reason and they will reject any evidence that doesn’t support their belief, much like a person who is delusional with a psychiatric illness. | [
"Chopra has equated spontaneous remission in cancer to a change in quantum state, corresponding to a jump to \"a new level of consciousness that prohibits the existence of cancer\". Physics professor Robert L. Park has written that physicists \"wince\" at the \"New Age quackery\" in Chopra's cancer theories, and ch... |
Do any ancient bibles/scriptures show that Jesus did not resurrect? | Honestly, not really. Even in the earliest gospel (Mark), after women enter Jesus' tomb, an angel says
> "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. *He has been raised; he is not here*."
And the earliest sources that we have -- the epistles of Paul -- are permeated with references ... | [
"According to the New Testament, some Christians reported that they encountered Jesus after his crucifixion. They argued that he had been resurrected (belief in the resurrection of the dead in the Messianic Age was a core Pharisaic doctrine), and would soon return to usher in the Kingdom of God and fulfill the rest... |
if we were to go extinct today, would earth be able to erase any evidence of us completely? | Yes and no. The things you mention, such as buildings and bridges, would pretty much fade to oblivion. Foundations would probably remain for some things but for the most part, we would simply fade away. However, many of our more forward thinking projects, such as seed banks, would be around for millennia. When we decid... | [
"Researchers experience difficulty in studying near human extinction directly, since humanity has never been destroyed before. While this does not mean that it will not be in the future, it does make modelling existential risks difficult, due in part to survivorship bias. However, civilizations vanished rather freq... |
why do humans feel shame? | It's a social emotion similar to embarrassment. When you feel shame, it's usually from doing something not socially accepted and whatnot, so you feel a bad emotion to be discouraged from doing it again, as humans are social creatures, and we generally prefer to be accepted by our communities. | [
"Shame can be a contributor to those with problems of low self-esteem. Feelings of shame usually occur because of a situation where the social self is devalued, such as a socially evaluated poor performance. A poor performance leads to higher responses of psychological states that indicate a threat to the social se... |
why its carl's jr. on the western half of the u.s and hardee's on the midwestern/some eastern | Carl's and Hardees were originally different restaurant chains. Back in 1997, the parent company of Carl's Jr. bought Hardees and is slowly combining the two restaurants. I expect they will keep the names separate indefinitely, as there's no reason to throw away name recognition. | [
"By 1975, there were more than 100 Carl's Jr. locations in Southern California, and the company expanded into the northern part of the state. Carl's Jr. celebrated its success by building its Anaheim corporate headquarters in 1976. The following year, it became the first QSR chain to offer salad bars in all 200 loc... |
how does lying to yourself work? | You don't actually "lie" to yourself. You don't say something factually wrong like "I'm not fat" and suddenly believe you are not overweight.
What you do is delude yourself about things that are less factually certain. You say things like "I might be overweight, but I am still pretty healthy". You focus on the evid... | [
"Researchers have looked into individuals cognitive effort when choosing between a lie versus the truth. Lying has been proven more difficult for the brain than telling the truth, they have found that lying increases activity in the brain regions. It takes the brain longer to formulate a deceptive answer than it do... |
what exactly is a bruised bone? | A bone bruise, or a bone contusion, is an injury to bone typically caused by trauma that results in [microscopic fractures and the build-up of blood and fluid in the surrounding tissue and bone](_URL_0_). Bone bruises can be very painful but are much less severe than a fracture. While fractures can be seen on x-rays, a... | [
"A bruise, also known as a contusion, is a type of hematoma of tissue, the most common cause being capillaries damaged by trauma, causing localized bleeding that extravasate into the surrounding interstitial tissues. Most bruises are not very deep under the skin so that the bleeding causes a visible discoloration. ... |
why do people have pairs of chromosomes? what does that do? | You get one chromosome from each parent. It increases genetic diversity by giving you one from each parent, rather than just one chromosome from one parent. | [
"Humans have a total of 46 chromosomes, but there are only 22 pairs of homologous autosomal chromosomes. The additional 23rd pair is the sex chromosomes, X and Y. If this pair is made up of an X and Y chromosome, then the pair of chromosomes is not homologous because their size and gene content differ greatly. The ... |
Why does it hail in warm weather? | Sleet is just normal rain which freezes prior to hitting the ground. Freezing rain is also just normal rain, but freezes on contact with a surface. Hail on the other hand, is formed by a completely different mechanism. The stones are created deep inside strong updrafts in powerful thunderstorm, very high up in the atmo... | [
"Hail fog sometimes occurs in the vicinity of significant hail accumulations due to decreased temperature and increased moisture leading to saturation in a very shallow layer near the surface. It most often occurs when there is a warm, humid layer atop the hail and when wind is light. This ground fog tends to be lo... |
How are vaccination schedules determined? | There's many things going on when deciding on vaccine schedules. From the top of my head, there's
**Maternal antibodies** (The mother will transfer some antibodies to the infant that lasts for a couple of months and might interfere with the vaccine response)
**Risk of side effects** of the vaccine versus severity of... | [
"An alternative vaccination schedule is a vaccination schedule differing from the schedule endorsed by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). These schedules may be either written or \"ad hoc\", and have not been tested for their safety or efficacy. Proponents of such schedules aim to reduce the r... |
Does soap attack or dissolve phospholipid bilayers? (cell membranes and such) | Since there's already a thread discussing question 1, I'll start one for discussing question 2.
Phospholipids *do* form micelles.
Amphiphilic molecules like phospholipids and soaps are lyotropic liquid crystalline molecules. A liquid crystalline molecule exists in a phase of matter that is intermediate to a solid ... | [
"The surface charge of endothelial cells at points of diffusivity can determine which type of molecule can diffuse through the capillary walls. If the surface is hydrophilic, it will allow water and charged molecules to pass through. If it is hydrophobic, non-charged and lipophilic molecules will be able to diffuse... |
How do Americans get 115V? | most of us do get 240V to the home, as a single phase- but that phase is "split" - the transformer that supplies the house is center-tapped, that center is pinned to ground, so there's effectively a +120 and a -120. obviously not really positive and negative since it's a/c, but they're 180° out of phase. so some circ... | [
"Illinois 115 is a north–south highway from Perdueville to Buckingham; at Buckingham, it turns east but is still marked north–south. South of Kankakee, Illinois 115 turns north again on its way into Kankakee.\n",
"Route 115 is a highway in the St. Louis, Missouri area. Its western terminus is at exit 237 of Inter... |
Why does the trait of skin color mix together into a shade rather than being one or the other, like eye color? | Most interesting traits are polygenic - they are controlled by many different genes, not just one or two.
When we’re taught introductory genetics, we’re taught inheritance with Mendelian diagrams showing how one dominant/recessive gene set is inherited. Later maybe we’re taught how two or three genes get inherited, a... | [
"Skin colour is a polygenic trait, which means that several different genes are involved in determining a specific phenotype. Many genes work together in complex, additive, and non-additive combinations to determine the skin colour of an individual. The skin colour variations are normally distributed from light to ... |
how do i perceive myself as a single entity, when i'm actually composed of a group of cells that are each self replicating blocks of life? | You just asked "what is the nature of consciousness?" People have been debating and researching that for millenia. | [
"The individuality of a being is a certain intricate form, not an enduring substance. In order to understand an organism, it must be thought of as a pattern which maintains itself through homeostasis – life continues by maintaining an internal balance of various factors such as temperature and molecular structure. ... |
What were the attitudes of the labour movements in New Zealand and Australia towards the indigenous populations? | This question is made for /u/w2red and /u/Algernon_Asimov but I can answer for one union in particular...
The North Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) founded in the Northern Territory in around 1911.. Their history is covered in this doctoral thesis by Bernie Brian
_URL_0_
To quote from there:
> For the most part th... | [
"New Zealand's claims to be a classless society were dealt a fatal blow in the 1980s and 1990s by the economic reforms of the fourth Labour government and its successor, the fourth National government. A cultural shift also took place due to the economic and social impact of international capital, commerce and adve... |
Why do many people take sniper kill counts for granted? Can we really trust any of the offical numbers, some as high as 4-500? How reliable are the figures? | > Why do so many military historians take the numbers for granted?
So the question is... do they? Now, to be sure, *popular histories* like those kinds of numbers. Take for instance the aforementioned Simo's profile on "[_URL_1_](_URL_0_)", which, as an aside, also manages to only go 2 for 3 of actual photos of the m... | [
"This list is not exhaustive, as such data is generally not tracked nor managed under any official procedure. For example, the Canadian Army 2002 sniper team that saw two soldiers (Arron Perry/2,310 m and Rob Furlong/2,430 m) set consecutive new records, also made a number of kills at that are not counted here. The... |
how do seasons work around the world? is it summer everywhere, or is it just summer on a part of the world? | When it is summer in the northern hemisphere, it is winter in the southern hemisphere. When it is hot in the US, it is cold in Australia. When the days are long in the US, they are short in Australia. This is due to the tilted axis of the earth, resulting in the different hemispheres getting different amounts of sunlig... | [
"A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology, and amount of daylight. On Earth, seasons result from Earth's orbit around the Sun and Earth's axial tilt relative to the ecliptic plane. In temperate and polar regions, the seasons are marked by changes in the intensity of sunlight that rea... |
how can we recall memories and imagine scenarios and see them visually, while also seeing and observing the current environment? | Your brain does lots of things simultaneously, if it didn't your heart would stop when you needed to take a breath, or when you thought about a math problem.
Needless to say, the thing you're seeing in actuality is based on stimulus coming from your optic nerve. That path only takes inputs from your eye (normally) ... | [
"Spatial view cells are used by primates for storing an episodic memory that helps with remembering where a particular object was in the environment. Imaging studies have shown that the hippocampus plays an important role in spatial navigation and episodic memories. Also, spatial view cells enable them to recall lo... |
It seems like every modern President of the US was a golfer. Were there any who weren't? | Teddy Roosevelt, Hoover, Truman and Carter were the only US presidents not to play golf since McKinley, who introduced it to the White House. [Source](_URL_1_)
[FDR considered himself a golfer even though he was physically unable to play.](_URL_0_) I'll leave it up to you whether or not to include him in the list. | [
"Harry Watkey Easterly Jr. (1922-2005) served as president of the United States Golf Association, one of the World's two ruling bodies of Golf (the other being the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews), in 1976 and 1977 and later as its first Executive Director.\n",
"Charles Robert Coe (October 26, 1923 – Ma... |
Is there a timeline of the history of women's rights in ancient Greece between the 5th and 1st century BC? | Is this a homework question? It says in our [rules](_URL_1_):
Our users aren't here to do your homework for you, but they might be willing to help. Remember: AskHistorians helps those who help themselves. Don't just give us your essay/assignment topic and ask us for ideas. Do some research of your own, then come to us ... | [
"Although most women lacked political and equal rights in the city states of ancient Greece, they enjoyed a certain freedom of movement until the Archaic age. Records also exist of women in ancient Delphi, Gortyn, Thessaly, Megara and Sparta owning land, the most prestigious form of private property at the time. Ho... |
Why can i not see the exhaust from a bus, but i can see its shadow | Its a [shadowgraph](_URL_0_) caused by the difference in index of refraction between the hot exhaust and cold air.
| [
"“I mean for example the tailgate lights they aren’t electronic, they are just reflectors, like the sort of reflectors they have on bicycle wheels, so that’s on the back on the bus. Very simple lighting. They are not air-conditioned, you always see them driving around with the windows open,” Rowan Beard from Young ... |
How dangerous are dog bites? | It depends on the severity and how it is treated.
As a veterinarian, I get bit often. Most of them heal fine with soap and water, but one started to cause intense pain and swelling that spread through my entire finger after 24hours. Without antibiotics, there is a real chance I would have lost my finger, or worse.
... | [
"The study defined dog attacks as \"a human death caused by trauma from a dog bite\". Excluded from the study were deaths by disease caused by dog bites, strangulation on a scarf or leash pulled by a dog, heart attacks or traffic accident, and falling injury or fire ant bites from being pushed down by a dog. The st... |
Iceland was one of the poorer countries in Europe 1980. How did it grow so quickly after that to become so wealthy today? | I would like to preface this post by saying that I am not an economist and nor do I specialize in economic history. I am, however, somewhat acquainted with the economic development of Iceland as well as the historiography of this phenemenon due to being an Icelandic historian.
It is true that Iceland endured some econ... | [
"Until the 20th century, Iceland relied largely on subsistence fishing and agriculture. Industrialisation of the fisheries and Marshall Plan aid following World War II brought prosperity and Iceland became one of the wealthiest and most developed nations in the world. In 1994, it became a part of the European Econo... |
putin's government in russia and the quality of democracy that exists there. | Well, I lived in Russia during Putin's primetime. And in all honesty, 10 years ago he was the best thing that happened in Russia. He made the country great, became a very popular, most people loved him. Then when reaching his maximum term, he declined to rewrite a law (that would let him stick around longer consecutive... | [
"Sovereign Democracy in Russia was realised in the form of a dominant-party system which was put into place in 2007 when as a result of the Russian legislative election of 2007 the political party United Russia, headed by president Vladimir Putin, without forming a government, formally became the leading and guidin... |
How much did scientists know about the makeup of other planets in our solar system prior to spectroscopy? | Even though I don't have a clue, I'll take a stab at answering, since no one else has. I'm going to take it as sort of a running narrative of how I'm researching it... No particular reason why.
[Wikipedia](_URL_4_) states astronomical spectroscopy dates back to the (rather unhelpful) "early 1800s", but states that the... | [
"Most of our direct information on the composition of the giant planets is from spectroscopy. Since the 1930s, Jupiter was known to contain hydrogen, methane and ammonium. In the 1960s, interferometry greatly increased the resolution and sensitivity of spectral analysis, allowing the identification of a much greate... |
what keeps a bowling lane from getting warped from thrown balls? | Wood lanes are shaved down usually every 2 years. Also the lanes are not 1 continuous piece of wood. There are sections. The front part of the lane (where balls land) are made of a harder wood.
Most lanes today are made of a synthetic material. Also in sections that can be replaced. | [
"As bowling balls are quite heavy to throw, some alleys provide portable slides from the top of which the ball is pushed down rather than thrown. Use of these slides is often combined with the use of bumpers. These slides are used by children and the disabled to assist their throw. They are also referred to as \"ra... |
I am looking for a Site which has a database of News Clippings of English Newspapers from 1900-1950?? | [Proquest Historical Newspapers](_URL_0_) has the Guardian and the Observer. If you are member of a uni, library or other institution with a subscription, it's free. | [
"The British Library has already digitised two separate collections of newspapers: British newspapers 1800-1900 and the Burney collection of British 18th century newspapers. This project added another 1m pages of historical newspapers to the platform\n",
"This is a list of defunct newspapers of the United States.... |
is there a reason why all or most ip addresses begin with 192.168..? | 192.168.x.x is part of the 'private' range of addresses set aside by the Internet masters (APNIC). Whilst these are valid addresses, they are specificically designed not to be transmitted across the wider Internet. There are actually 3 such sets, (Class A, B and C).
These are:
A: 10.0.0.0 to 10.255.255.255.
B: 172... | [
"For example, the global IPv4 address has the corresponding 6to4 prefix . This gives a prefix length of 48 bits, which leaves room for a 16-bit subnet field and 64 bit host addresses within the subnets.\n",
"Addresses in this group consist of an 80-bit prefix of zeros, the next 16 bits are ones, and the remaining... |
why are americans so obsessed with halloween? | Because Halloween is fun. The little kiddies dressed up in their costumes out getting candy. The harmless pranks people can play on others. Great movies on T.V. Everything about Halloween is just fun. | [
"While not traditionally a part of Australian culture, non-religious celebrations of Halloween modeled on North American festivities are growing increasingly popular in Australia, in spite of seasonal differences and the transition from spring to summer. Criticism stems largely from the fact that Halloween has litt... |
Can you layer sun protection products and is their SP factor cumulative? | You can layer but you will only get the higher protection. 15 + 15 does not equal spf 30.
They’re tested at a rate of coverage that equals about 1/4 teaspoon for the average male face too. It’s a good idea to measure it for a while to be sure you are getting enough.
It doesn’t last all day, so reapply about every 2... | [
"A relatively new rating designation for sun protective textiles and clothing is UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor), which represents the ratio of sunburn-causing UV measured without and with the protection of the fabric. For example, a fabric rated UPF 30 means that, if 30 units of UV fall on the fabric, only 1 u... |
Which books of the Bible attributed to a single author (ex: first six books of Old Testament to Moses, Luke/Acts to Luke, John/Revelation to John, various letters by Peter and Paul) do scholars agree were really written by the same person? | You might want to post this in /r/academicbiblical as well. | [
"Irenaeus (died c. 202) quotes and cites 21 books that would end up as part of the New Testament, but does not use Philemon, Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 3 John and Jude. By the early 3rd century Origen of Alexandria may have been using the same 27 books as in the modern New Testament, though there were still disputes ... |
why are some people great at abstract thinking but terrible at algebra which involves it? | Math requires abstract thinking to understand why you're supposed to do certain things, but not to literally do them. You need abstract thinking to understand why you can divide two from both sides of 2x=4, but not to do it.
The people that are good at math before calculus are people that can do well in a system that ... | [
"Abstract mathematical problems arise in all fields of mathematics. While mathematicians usually study them for their own sake, by doing so results may be obtained that find application outside the realm of mathematics. Theoretical physics has historically been, and remains, a rich source of inspiration.\n",
"By ... |
In fantasy it is common to read about colored or painted armor. Is there any historical basis for this? | There was a style that became popular in 16th century Germany referred to as "black and white" armor. Decorative patterns were created by selectively polishing certain areas. [Here's a good example.](_URL_1_) As you might expect, the higher one's status, the fancier of a pattern one could afford. [This](_URL_0_), b... | [
"The clear and detailed depiction of the costumes of the figures in the tinted drawings has been discussed and copied in works on the history of costume since the late 18th century; in particular the sleeveless open-seam surcoat worn over chain mail of the kneeling knight is often used as an example of this innovat... |
the yahoo-alibaba spin-off | Yahoo is doing terribly and its' core business is pretty much worthless. However, Yahoo owns a lot of shares in a company called Alibaba, which is actually very profitable. So they want to get rid of their actual business and make money on the shares instead. | [
"In June 2011, Alibaba Group Executive Chairman and former CEO Jack Ma announced that Taobao would split into three different companies: Taobao Marketplace (a C2C platform), Tmall.com (a B2C platform; then called Taobao Mall), and eTao (a search engine for online shopping). The move was said to be necessary for Tao... |
the bill of rights | Most of them are pretty self-explanatory.
1. There can be no laws against what you say, or what religion you follow, or who you associate with.
2. We need a military force, so you're allowed to own guns.
3. You cannot be forced to house troops.
4. Your home can't be searched without an OK from a judge.
5. You can'... | [
"The Second Bill of Rights is a list of rights that was proposed by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his . In his address, Roosevelt suggested that the nation had come to recognize and should now implement, a second \"bill of rights\". Roosevelt's argument was that the \"political rights\" guara... |
the philosophical concept of epiphenomenal qualia and jackson's "mary" thought experiment. | It's not open and shut because it's not demonstrable that Mary *has* learned anything new. [Mary's room](_URL_1_) has been argued by greater (or at least more singularly focused) minds than either of ours, and yet they still disagree.
This is how I see it: Suppose Mary *and Martha* work together in the black & white... | [
"Jackson believed in the explanatory completeness of physiology, that all behaviour is caused by physical forces of some kind. And the thought experiment seems to prove the existence of qualia, a non-physical part of the mind. Jackson argued that if both of these theses are true, then epiphenomenalism is true—the v... |
Today I was in a 15 story building during an earthquake. If the building collapsed, would I have been safer on the first floor, 15th floor or somewhere in between? | Structural engineer here. Everything is coming straight down in a total collapse. Think building demo. People have this idea of buildings falling way sideways like a Jenga block and it doesn't work that way at these scales.
But what you should do in an earthquake is different than the ideal place for a building collap... | [
"Of 14 hotels that had already been built under false pretenses when the problem first came to light, two of them were shown to fail Japan's earthquake resistance standards. Because the concrete had insufficient reinforcing steel, there was a fear that an earthquake of magnitude 5 on the Japanese Shindo scale could... |
the lake effect, as in what happened in buffalo. | Basically, the Lake Effect is what happens when cold air moves over warmer water, picking up water vapor which freezes in the air, and then comes down as snow when the air moves downwind to land. Since Buffalo is right next to Lake Erie and Ontario, there is plenty of water for the cold air to move along. Additionally,... | [
"Buffalo was a major port on Lake Erie and felt the force of the storm as water from the lake forced ships onto the piers and shoreline of the city. The creek rose 20 feet as the wind and the harbor front were swept away.\n",
"In Buffalo, New York, another winter storm triggered a strong lake-effect band, which i... |
Is there any other way for life to develop besides cells? | It seems like this question gets into the philosophical definition of "what is life." Scientists are still debating whether or not viruses constitute a form of life, so realistically we haven't even nailed down a definition of life on earth.
That being said, I don't see why life on other planets would have to adhere ... | [
"The German pathologist Rudolf Virchow brought forward the idea that not only does life arise from cells, but every cell comes from another cell; \"\"Omnis cellula e cellula\"\". Until now, most attempts to create an artificial cell have only created a package that can mimic certain tasks of the cell. Advances in c... |
How are electrical signals traveling on neurons directed to its target? | What /u/unia_7 said. Each nerve carries a large number of individual axons. Each axon either goes to one group of muscle fibers, or from one sensory receptor.
That said, an axon CAN split in two and make synapses onto multiple separate target neurons. But it can't 'route' electrical signals down one branch vs. an... | [
"A neuron receives signals from neighboring cells through branched, cellular extensions called dendrites. The neuron then propagates an electrical signal down a specialized axon extension to the synapse, where neurotransmitters are released to propagate the signal to another neuron or effector cell (e.g., muscle or... |
what are the blue and orange/yellow lines that i see on the edges of everything when i have my glasses on? | You are nearsighted, your eyeglass lenses are concave, and the outer edges act like prisms that split up light into its component colors. A white object, seen through the edge of your lenses, will appear to have a reddish halo that oozes out towards the outer edge of your lens, with a corresponding bluish halo that ooz... | [
"Glass containing two or more phases with different refractive indices shows coloring based on the Tyndall effect and explained by the Mie theory, if the dimensions of the phases are similar or larger than the wavelength of visible light. The scattered light is blue and violet as seen in the image, while the transm... |
Why is New York City named the same as the state? IE why do the city and state share the same name? Do any other places on earth do this? | > Do any other places on earth do this?
There's one example in Germany: Bremen, Bremen. Bremen (the city) is part of Bremen (the state), together with another city called Bremerhaven (roughly translates to *Port of Bremen*). This is the only example in Germany, for Hamburg and Berlin, there is no distinction between... | [
"New York City is frequently shortened to simply \"New York\", \"NY\", or \"NYC\". New York City is also known as \"The City\" or \"The Big City\" in much of the Western hemisphere. Other monikers have taken the form of \"Hong Kong on the Hudson\" or \"Baghdad on the Subway\", references in different cases to the c... |
does having a "will to live" help you overcome a severe illness or injury, and if so, how? | Definetly. Someone who has given up on everything is less likely to think about his/hers well being. As someone who has a will to live will check up symptoms, have less anxiety. Some cures in life are really the pure basics like sleeping and eating well. | [
"In psychology, the will to live is the drive for self-preservation, usually coupled with expectations for future improvement in one's state in life. The will to live is an important concept when attempting to understand and comprehend why we do what we do in order to stay alive, and for as long as we can. This can... |
when nuclear weapons were added to the us arsenal, why was the ability to launch them given to the president of the united states and not congress? | Constitutionally, (although not really in practice any more), Congress is the sole authority on declarations of war or authorizations of the use of military force, but the President is the commander in chief of the armed forces. Congress can't tell generals what to do and it can't give or veto military orders. A nuclea... | [
"Since World War II, the President of the United States has had sole authority to launch U.S. nuclear weapons, whether as a first strike or nuclear retaliation. This arrangement was seen as necessary during the Cold War to present a credible nuclear deterrent; if an attack was detected, the United States would have... |
why are the baby boomers considered the worst generation? | Generally because they inherited a hard-won and prosperous welfare state but then proceeded to dismantle it in the name of short-term profit at the expense of their children. This current generation are the first who, on average, are going to be worse off than their parents, and the policies of deregulation and privati... | [
"This population is sometimes referred to as Generation Jones, and less commonly as Tweeners. These cuspers were not as financially successful as older Baby Boomers. They experienced a recession like many Generation Xers but had a much more difficult time finding jobs than Generation X did. While they learned to be... |
why my car windows do this and how i can prevent it? mostly happens in rain. | It's condensation because of the temperature/humidity difference between the cabin of your vehicle and outside.
They make antifogging coatings that you can use (rainx makes one, for instance) but for immediate relief, use the defrosting setting on your air conditioner. | [
"Stone damage can be dangerous in many ways. Stone damage can cause small cracks in the windshield that can refract or reflect normally unharmful light such that it can distract or blind the driver. Stone damage can also cause large cracks in the windshield – this usually happens during the winter period because of... |
do those pedestrian button things at traffic lights actually do anything? how do they work? | It will depend on where you are (including which country you're in) and even what time of day it is. It may be that some of those buttons are just there to make people feel they have some sort of control, but many of them -- I can attest from personal experience -- really do work.
I have encountered pedestrian crossin... | [
"Call buttons are installed at traffic lights with a dedicated pedestrian signal, and are used to bring up the pedestrian \"walk\" indication in locations where they function correctly. In the majority of locations where call buttons are installed, pushing the button does not light up the pedestrian walk sign immed... |
how does the common signature hold so much power confirming identity? anyone could copy it and there are much better tools available. | Signatures don't confirm identity, they affirm it. When you sign something, you're making a promise that you're the person named in the document. | [
"A digital signature is a mathematical scheme for verifying the authenticity of digital messages or documents. A valid digital signature, where the prerequisites are satisfied, gives a recipient very strong reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender (authentication), and that the message was n... |
copyright / trademarks. | **Copyright:** You wrote something, and nobody else gets to make copies unless you say they can. Also they don't get to make a movie of your book, or a performance of your play, unless you say they can. There are some exceptions for people who are talking about your work, teaching, writing reviews ("fair use"). For mus... | [
"Current federal trademark law follows the Lanham Act, otherwise known as the Trademark Act of 1946. Under the Lanham Act, a trademark is \"any word, term, name, symbol, or device, or any combination thereof\" used in commerce to identify a service or good. Under this definition, it is possible for the names and li... |
why don't big companies get hitmen to off people who successfully sue them? | It's not particularly easy to commit murder without leaving a trail to follow. It's too much of a risk for the company. | [
"Serious torts and fatal injuries occur as a result of actions by company employees, have increasingly been subject to criminal sanctions. All torts committed by employees in the course of employment will attribute liability to their company even if acting wholly outside authority, so long as there is some temporal... |
Why didn't the Roman Empire expand into Africa more then it did? | Because of a little something called the Sahara Desert. The only real routes of expansion into Africa were along the southern Moroccan coast (which was desolate, sparsely inhabited all the way up to the late 18th century, when the Moroccan government began to encourage irrigation projects there) and via the Nile Valley... | [
"North Africa remained a part of the Roman Empire, which produced many notable citizens such as Augustine of Hippo, until incompetent leadership from Roman commanders in the early fifth century allowed the Germanic peoples, the Vandals, to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, whereupon they overcame the fickle Roman defe... |
the void | Instructions were not clear. I hurt my back trying to shake my 27 inch CRT monitor. | [
"\"A Void\"'s plot follows a group of individuals looking for a missing companion, Anton Vowl. It is in part a parody of \"noir\" and horror fiction, with many stylistic tricks, gags, plot twists, and a grim conclusion. On many occasions it implicitly talks about its own lipogrammatic limitation, highlighting its u... |
How do plants get the material to grow so much from just a tiny seed? | Carbon dioxide out of the air, water and nutrients out of the ground and energy from the sun. The carbon dioxide and nutrients make up the cell structures of the plant. The water helps move everything around and inflate the cells. The sun gives it the energy to do all of it. | [
"Plants are readily propagated from seed. As seed is surrounded by irritating hairs within the pod, extraction requires care. Stem cuttings of semi-mature growth can be taken in late summer and require the application of rooting hormones and bottom heat.\n",
"To grow new plants by seed, the seed capsule should be... |
How do Historians use other Social Science disciplines in their research? | I use sociology, LGBT studies, queer theory, gender studies, and even dance studies in my work. In my case it is largely out of necessity, as there are no true histories of the AIDS crisis and still fairly few about gay and lesbian history. Other disciplines can offer a different perspective when you are dealing with a... | [
"Social Science History is a quarterly, peer-reviewed academic journal. It is the official journal of the Social Science History Association. Its articles bring an analytic, theoretical, and often quantitative approach to historical evidence. The journal's founders intended to \"improve the quality of historical ex... |
In 17th Century Europe, how were coffee and coffeehouses viewed? | I'll have to make this brief as I'm about to go out (but I can explain (a lot!) more, if necessary).
To answer those three questions in a go, let's establish the 17th century coffee-house in general (funnily enough, I have a chapter more or less dedicated to this in my PhD):
During the latter half of the seventeenth ... | [
"In the 17th century, coffee appeared for the first time in Europe outside the Ottoman Empire, and coffeehouses were established and quickly became popular. The first coffeehouses in Western Europe appeared in Venice, as a result of the traffic between La Serenissima and the Ottomans; the very first one is recorded... |
why does symmetry make people look more attractive? | Not 100% sure about this but I think that it is in our genes.
Symmetry is associated with healthiness. Back then when it was "only the strongest survive" symmetry was (and is) a sign of a healthy individual with good genes.
If you have a healthy partner, you and that person are more likely to create a strong and a h... | [
"Some physical features are attractive in both men and women, particularly bodily and facial symmetry, although one contrary report suggests that \"absolute flawlessness\" with perfect symmetry can be \"disturbing\". Symmetry may be evolutionarily beneficial as a sign of health because asymmetry \"signals past illn... |
what exactly happened in the olympic boycotts in 1980/84? | There were 4 significant Olympic boycotts, two in 1976 and one each in 1980/84. I mention the 1976 boycotts because they inform the subsequent ones:
**Chinese-led boycott**: Taiwan (officially the Republic of China) and China (officially the People's Republic of China) both boycotted over the recognition of the othe... | [
"The Olympic Boycott Games of 1980 were held at the University of Pennsylvania in response to Moscow's hosting of the 1980 Summer Olympics following the Soviet incursion in Afghanistan. Twenty-nine of the boycotting nations participated in the Boycott Games.\n",
"1956 was the first time in history that several co... |
Following the Muslim conquests, many local languages, such as Berber or Coptic, were gradually replaced with Arabic and turned into minority languages. What allowed Persian to not share the same fate? | I apologize that I mostly know about Coptic and Berber but I will try to demonstrate why this question is hard to answer and then introduce a recent theory into this particular subject. First, I would like to point out that when talking about "Berber" or "the Berber" one is actually talking about quite a diverse group ... | [
"With the advent of the early Muslim conquests of the seventh and eighth centuries, the hitherto largely uninfluential Arabic language slowly replaced many (but not all) of the indigenous Semitic languages and cultures of the Near East. Both the Near East and North Africa saw an influx of Muslim Arabs from the Arab... |
the who announcement regarding processed meats. | So first off you really need to understand what the numbers look like here. We're talking about maybe 34,000 cases worldwide. Almost 13 million cases of cancer are diagnosed every year. So even if we take this announcement at face value, you're looking at about .002% of all cancer. Over the course of your life you ... | [
"The 2013 meat adulteration scandal started when German authorities detected horse meat in prepared food products including frozen lasagna, where it was declared fraudulently as beef. The mislabeling prompted EU authorities to speed up publication of European Commission recommendations for labeling the origin of al... |
when i eat apples my face sweats, why reddit | Are you allergic to apples? I never had this happen or heard of it happening to anyone. Bot pls don't kill me :( Friend bot? | [
"The skin of the fruit is a delicately waxy yellow-green with crimson spots and reddish lines, but the apple may also occur in a classically red variation. These red apples, known as Red Gravensteins, are sports, which are genetically similar to Gravenstein, so they are not good pollinators for it, and nor is it fo... |
what happens to water when it goes stale? | After about 12 hours tap water starts to go flat as carbon dioxide in the air starts to mix with the water in the glass, lowering its pH and giving it an off taste | [
"In the United Kingdom, plumbers refer to waste water as 'bad water'. This is under the premise that the water they are moving from one area to another via the use of a drain is not needed and can be removed from the area, like a 'bad apple' being removed from a fruit bowl.\n",
"BULLET::::- Various pathogens, inc... |
why hasn't a car company come up with a new better performing, more efficient air cooled engine? | Ironic username is ironic.
I think engineers like water cooling because it helps solve a number of problems. It quiets the engine, provides a reliable source of heat for the HVAC systems and allows the temperature of the engine to be contained to a narrower range, allowing it to run more efficiently.
That said, I l... | [
"It can be seen that since formula_10 is fixed by the environment, the only way for a designer to increase the Carnot efficiency of an engine is to increase formula_9, the temperature at which the heat is added to the engine. The efficiency of ordinary heat engines also generally increases with operating temperatur... |
Do blind people have better short-term memory for auditory input? | I might just be spitballin' here, but i'm pretty sure when someone is blind/deaf, they compensate for it through neuroplasticity. As some parts of the brain are lacking input and just using space (ie neurons in the visual cortex that are not in use due to being blind), your brain will develop connections with neighbori... | [
"It has been suggested that blind individuals have an enhanced ability to hear and recall auditory information in order to compensate for a lack of vision. However, whilst blind adults' neural systems demonstrate heightened excitability and activity compared to sighted adults, it is still not exactly clear to what ... |
time signatures | Simply, a time signature is the number of beats in a measure.
Listen to a piece of popular modern music, and count the beats. You'll most likely notice that it goes BOOM dot dot dot BOOM dot dot dot or some variant on that. The most significant beat happens every fourth beat.
In music, these four beats define a measu... | [
"The time signature is written as a horizontal fraction: codice_6, codice_7, codice_8, codice_9, etc. It is usually placed after the key signature. Change of time signature within the piece of music may be marked in-line or above the line of music. Some pieces that start with cadenza passages are not marked with ti... |
Why was Alfred the great viewed positively by later kings when they only came to power by taking the country from his dynasty? | Alfred the Great was extremely popular. He established a model of kingship in England that was built upon by his successors, and copied by later conquerors. Alfred established fantastical roots both for his kingship, and for the Anglo-Saxon people, tying them together with Christianity as glue in the Anglo-Saxon Chroni... | [
"Alfred the Great is dying, Rivals for his succession are poised to tear the kingdom apart. The country that Alfred had worked for thirty years to build is likely to disintegrate. Uhtred, a Saxon born warrior, who has been raised by the Danes, wants more than anything else to go and fight to reclaim his stolen Nort... |
how come i wake up a minute or two before my bus stop more or less like clockwork when i fall asleep on the bus? | It's probably a combination of a bunch of subtle clues that you subconsciously pick up on. It could be a pattern in the stops right before yours, subtle changes in the scent of the air near your stop, specific sounds that you only hear near your stop, the absence of the voice of a person who gets off right before your ... | [
"Buses when late may experience a problem known as bus bunching. On some bus lines with a more frequent service, if one bus falls behind schedule passenger numbers waiting at bus stops may grow, required a longer layover time. One or more subsequent buses on the published schedule may pass these already cleared sto... |
How much urbanisation was there in South America, besides the Inca cities? | Hey there! Are you asking about urbanization in *regions* other than that which the Inca controlled, or are you interested in cultures that inhabited the same areas before them and whose own urbanisms developed into the Inca's? | [
"Industrial cities, such as Concepción and Talcahuano, began as colonial centers in the 1600s. Most of the large cities in Chile began as settlement locations for Spanish colonists living in homes constructed from adobe. They have grown to be the densely populated urban locations they are known for today.\n",
"In... |
why is brown rice so much dryer than white rice? | Brown rice is just white rice that hasn't been processed so it still has a thing called a bran layer.
The bran layer is a tough fiberous coating. It isn't very absorbent and it surrounds the outside of the rice grain, so when you feel it in your mouth, it feels drier and more coarse than regular rice which has that t... | [
"Red rice is a variety of rice that is colored red by its anthocyanin content. It is usually eaten unhulled or partially hulled, and has a red husk, rather than the more common brown. Red rice has a nutty flavor. Compared to polished rice, it has the highest nutritional value of rices eaten with the germ intact.\n"... |
how do glow sticks light up when broken | The outside tube is made of flexible plastic and contains a solution of phenyl oxalate and fluorescent dye. Inside that is a glass tube containing hydrogen peroxide. When you bend the stick far enough, the glass tube breaks and the two chemical solutions can mix. The reaction between phenyl oxalate and hydrogen pero... | [
"Glow sticks emit light when two chemicals are mixed. The reaction between the two chemicals is catalyzed by a base, usually sodium salicylate. The sticks consist of a tiny, brittle container within a flexible outer container. Each container holds a different solution. When the outer container is flexed, the inner ... |
What kind of programs or movements existed to assist the homeless between the 19th century and the Great Depression? | Unions, Churches and Ethnic clubs/General Community organizations.
Before Roosevelt, there was a strong mainstream belief that the poor should not rely on a government dole in order to get by. If they needed some help, then the community could help somebody when they were down. But this was temporary and it relied to... | [
"In the early 1900s, the organization began an expansive philanthropic program that included employment bureaus, co-operative stores, medical dispensaries, distribution of clothes, women's sewing classes, Thanksgiving meals, reading rooms, fresh air camps and other establishments. During the advent of the Great Dep... |
how they change wedding rings size without cutting? | Hey, goldsmith here. The picture you linked is, like another user said, a device we call a "ring stretcher". There are various forms of it and it usually includes a compressor as already mentioned. This works only for rings of one color, and that are the same all the way around the band. Jewelers will not use this for ... | [
"As of 2015, princess cut diamonds were the second most popular choice for an engagement ring. Approximately 30% of engagement rings use princess cut diamonds, behind round diamonds (50%) and ahead of cushions (8%). It saw its popularity at its peak in the 80s and 90s. The princess cut experienced a rise in popular... |
why do modern phones lack the soap opera effect of modern tvs? | I think they r referring to that hyper realistic quality in the picture.. i dont like it..it does remind me of a soap opera..I thought i was high the first time i saw it on someones tv.. | [
"BULLET::::- The visual quality of a soap opera is usually lower than prime time U.S. television drama series due to the lower budgets and quicker production times. This is also because soap operas are recorded on videotape using a multi-camera setup, unlike primetime productions that are usually shot on film and f... |
how do companies like primerica make you money? | Don't use Primerica. It's a scam, or at least as close you can legally be to a scam. Their fees are insanely high, and their products are way too expensive.
_URL_0_
_URL_1_
_URL_9_
_URL_2_
_URL_8_
_URL_3_
_URL_7_
_URL_5_
_URL_6_
_URL_4_
If you really want advice on things like retirement saving, IRAs etc. c... | [
"In Primerica's eleven-tiered multilevel-marketing system, the company's sales representatives receive a commission for selling financial products, while a portion of the sale is also paid to the representative's recruiter, the recruiter's recruiter, and so on, up to eleven levels. Sales agents are tasked with sell... |
For a peasant/farmer, how onerous was Roman taxation? Was it good value for the services provided? | It really depended on where you were and when. Even in modern times there have been areas that could resist taxation with remoteness, despite modern states having considerably more coercive power. In general, however, taxation was collected by local authorities and folded into rent payment. This could be ruinous, or it... | [
"Tax farming was originally a Roman practice whereby the burden of tax collection was reassigned by the Roman State to private individuals or groups. In essence, these individuals or groups paid the taxes for a certain area and for a certain period of time and then attempted to cover their outlay by collecting mone... |
If Mitochondria exist as almost separate entities from the cell, does it always divide perfectly during mitosis? | In mammals, mitochondria don't necessarily divide during mitosis; instead they divide when the host cell requires more energy and combine or die out when less energy is needed. During mitosis, the mitochondria present are split up between the two daughter cells. In single celled eukaryotes; the mitochondria divides wit... | [
"Most cells only have one centrosome for most of their cell cycle, however, right before mitosis, the centrosome duplicates, and the cell contains two centrosomes. Some of the microtubules that radiate from the centrosome grow directly away from the sister centrosome. These microtubules are called astral microtubul... |
why are fiber-optic connections faster? don't electrical signals move at the speed of light anyway, or close to it? | Individual signals inside both fiber and electrical cables do travel at similar speeds.
But you can send way more signals down a fiber cable at the same time as you can an electrical cable.
Think of each cable as a multi-lane road. Electrical cable is like a 5-lane highway.
Fiber cable is like a 200 lane highway. ... | [
"The main benefits of fiber are its exceptionally low loss (allowing long distances between amplifiers/repeaters), its absence of ground currents and other parasite signal and power issues common to long parallel electric conductor runs (due to its reliance on light rather than electricity for transmission, and the... |
Has the privilege of knights to make knights ever been abolished? | Alternatively I'd question the premise. Did common knights (as opposed to Barons, Earls, or other titled nobility) ever have the right to bestow knighthood upon others - particularly with regard to England, Great Britain, or the UK? If not, where did this idea arise?
Today all knighthoods are bestowed by the Queen or ... | [
"The Knights as a group were governed by the General Directorate (\"Generaldirektorium\"). This exercised the \"jus retractus\", the right to buy back any land sold to a non-knight for the original price within three years, and the \"just collectandi\", the right to collect taxes for the upkeep of the knightly orde... |
why do so many superhero origin stories involve parents dying? | It is a very common trope in fiction. It is frequently used because it can accomplish several things
- give the protagonist a motive. Why are they a superhero / chasing this villain / in this job. Easy answer: their parents died.
- if the crime was committed by the main antagonist, it's an easy way to establish that ... | [
"However, baby May and her parents were never reunited in Marvel's main continuity. Editors repeatedly stated that the baby died, or at the very least would never be seen again; the child was considered a major factor in the aging of the characters. In \"Marvel Knights Spider-Man\" issue No. 9, Mac Gargan, while sp... |
what's the difference between cables that send power and cables that send data? how come phone cables can do both? | At each end of every cable is a connector. Typically cables have a male connector that plugs into the female connector on a device. On every connector there are multiple "pins" or connection points. You solder a wire to each pin, and encase it into one cable.
For example, on an instrument/old telephone connector ther... | [
"Electrical cables are used to connect two or more devices, enabling the transfer of electrical signals or power from one device to the other. Cables are used for a wide range of purposes, and each must be tailored for that purpose. Cables are used extensively in electronic devices for power and signal circuits. Lo... |
Are artistic traits, such as being able to draw exceptionally or excelling in the musical arts, dependent on one's genes? | 'Artistic' is probably not a genetic trait. But if you break it down into its component parts, then each of the following things are at least PARTLY genetic: hand-eye coordination, fine motor movement, gross motor movement, depth perception, color perception, tonal perception, dexterity, muscle composition, flexibility... | [
"A relationship between music and the strengthening of math, dance, reading, creative thinking and visual arts skills has also been reported in literature. (Winner, Hetland, Sanni, as reported in \"The Arts and Academic Achievement - What the Evidence Shows\", 2000) However recent findings by Dr. Levitin of McGill ... |
A question from my 4yo son | All from Wikipedia - _URL_0_
The core (25% of the radius) is up to 150 times the density of water.
The next layer, the radiative zone, (from 25% to 70% of the radius) has a density from 20 times the density of water (similar to gold) to one fifth the density of water (similar to cork).
The convective zone (from 70% ... | [
"Sek-Lung, or Sekky the third son, is the youngest child of the Chen family and the second child born to Father and Stepmother. Because he tended to be sickly, he becomes close to Poh-Poh, who spends most of her time taking care of him. When she passes away, he becomes obsessed with the war games that have emerged ... |
how do public policy think-tanks work? | They get paid to think about problems and write reports of their conclusions. The analysts that work in these places combine expertise in the subject matter (economics, foreign policy, ...) with critical thinking and analysis skills to explore the problem, the solution space, and possible courses of action. | [
"A think tank or policy institute is a research institute which performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most policy institutes are non-profit organisations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada pro... |
Were the Persians and the Chinese empires aware of each other's existence and did they frequently interact? | The first known interaction was reported by Zhang Qian, a Chinese explorer. He wrote that they were an advanced civilization, and commented on their currency, wine, cultivation and walled cities and also of the amount of cities. This was in 126 BCE and the two people started trading embassies and missions and had a pea... | [
"Sino-Persian relations (Chinese: 中国–波斯关系, Persian: [same as above]) refer to the historic diplomatic, cultural and economic relations between the cultures of China proper and Greater Iran, dating back to ancient times, since at least 200 B.C. The Parthians and Sassanid empires (occupying much of present Iran and C... |
When and how did pop culture associate all things Nuclear with the color green? | Radioactive materials are often portrayed as green because back in the mid 20th century, there was a trend of making glowing watch faces with radioactive paint mixed with phosphorus. As you say, radioactivity is impossible to see with the naked eye and if you have Cherenkov radiation, it's a visible blue. The phosphoru... | [
"\"Green\" was released on November 7, 1988, in the United Kingdom, and the following day in the United States. R.E.M. chose the American release date to coincide with the 1988 presidential election, and used its increased profile during the period to criticize Republican candidate George H. W. Bush while praising ... |
why do you need to pay to get a divorce and pay to get married? | Why does it cost money to get divorced?
Because it's worth it! | [
"In other jurisdictions such as United Kingdom and Singapore, divorce is granted on the basis of an irretrievable breakdown of marriage. Under current divorce law in England and Wales, a person has to prove in court that the marriage has broken down; there are five reasons for which a marriage can be considered to ... |
How common was the surname 'Hitler' in Germany/Austria prior to the 1930s? Did people later drop it because of its connotations? | This is some anecdotal evidence.
The name "Adolf" was a relatively common one in Belgium prior to World War II. One of the most famous 19th century Belgian politicians was [Adolf Daens](_URL_1_). After World War 2, the name died out. Parents stopped naming their babies Adolf, but I don't know if existing "Adolfs" chan... | [
"\"Schicklgruber\" is the surname Adolf Hitler's father, Alois Hitler carried for the first 40 years of his life, until he took the name Hitler (Hiedler) from his stepfather. While Adolf Hitler himself never carried the surname, the British made use of it for propaganda purposes since even to Germans, the name is l... |
how can we drive for minutes, maybe even hours, without really paying attention to the road? i have daydreamed and come back and not known what has happened the past 15 minutes. | Not remembering what happened for the last 15 minutes doesn't mean you weren't reasonably alert during that period, it just means that you weren't forming long term memories of what happened. It is possible for that part of your brain to take a break because whatever is happening is so irrelevant that there is no need ... | [
"BULLET::::- Driving time is between 8:00 and 17:00 (from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.). In order to select a suitable place for the overnight stop (alongside the highway) it is possible to extend the driving period for a maximum of 10 minutes, which extra driving time will be compensated by a starting time delay the next day.... |
Would rain droplets on a lower gravity planet be larger, on average, compared to our own planet? | I'm by no means an expert, but my understanding as a mechanical engineer is that the shape and size of rain droplets depend on 3 sets of parameters:
1, the acceleration due to gravity (9.81 m/s^2 on earth)
2, the fluid dynamic properties of the atmosphere (namely density and viscosity of the air)
3, the fluid dynami... | [
"That latter statement necessitates, as Clement states in the story, that the surface pressure on Tenebra be 800 atmospheres, not 218. At 800 atmospheres of pressure the surface atmosphere, with its load of dissolved oxygen and sulphur oxides, is compressed to a density a little less than the density of liquid wate... |
How did Venice lose her maritime importance while the less-powerful Genoa maintained as Italy's largest port today? | I think you are conflating together some things that happened centuries apart. In fact Genoa's mercantile empire declined faster and more dramatically than the Venetian one. To the point that Genoa essentially lost political independence much earlier than Venice.
A first phase of relative decline of the Republic begun... | [
"The two maritime powers, Genoa and Venice, had long been leading commercial powers with ties to Constantinople that had nurtured their growth during the Early Middle Ages. Their rivalry over trade with the Levant had generated a number of wars. Genoa, having suffered previous defeats at the hands of the Venetians,... |
Since DNA is an acid, is there such thing as DNA salts? | Not only can DNA exist as a salt, but this is pretty much its standard form in the solid state. In an aqueous medium, DNA exists as a conjugate base with negatively charged phosphate groups stabilized by a bunch of [counterions](_URL_1_) that are floating around in the solution such as Na^(+). When you precipitate the ... | [
"A further explanation of how DNA binds to silica is based on the action of guanidinium HCl (GuHCl), which acts as a chaotrope. A chaotrope denatures biomolecules by disrupting the shell of hydration around them. This allows positively charged ions to form a salt bridge between the negatively charged silica and the... |
why is it impossible to stop thinking? | Some kinds of meditation are the attempt to silence your thoughts. Through willpower and training you can silence the internal monologue of your thoughts. Of course your brain is still functioning and processing information, it does that even when you're asleep. | [
"Thought stopping is a cognitive intervention technique prescribed by therapists (psychologists and psychiatrists) with the goal of interrupting, removing, and replacing problematic recurring thoughts. It is considered a core cognitive intervention method that is distinct for the absence of analysis in the treatmen... |
During the American civil war Why weren't bayonet charges used often? | it appears to be inexperience by these armies. in the beginning of the war, the armies grew in size, many times their normal peacetime strength and so you have inexperienced leaders at every level; and large numbers of raw recruits. Frank Vizetelly an English war correspondent makes mention of this in a National Geogra... | [
"During the American Civil War (1861–1865) the bayonet was found to be responsible for less than 1% of battlefield casualties, a hallmark of modern warfare. The use of bayonet charges to force the enemy to retreat was very successful in numerous small unit engagements at short range in the American Civil War, as mo... |
caitlyn jenner in vanity fair and the big deal of it? | Caitlyn Jenner was formerly Bruce Jenner, an internationally renowned Olympic athlete who was the face of masculinity and athleticism in the 1970s. She recently came out as transgender. She is very likely the biggest celebrity in history to come out as trans. | [
"Bissinger's July 2015 Vanity Fair cover story \"Call Me Caitlyn,\" on the transition of former Olympic decathlete, businessperson, and television personality Bruce Jenner to Caitlyn Jenner star of E!'s \"Keeping Up With the Kardashians\" and \"I Am Cait\", with photographs by Annie Leibovitz, was one of the bigges... |
why is the credit card considered so secure if all the information required to make a purchase is on the card? | I work at Saks and we see significant credit card fraud at our store. For this reason we don't have a customer swipe or pin pad, you have to hand your card to the cashier, we frequently ask for ID as well. Banks and CC companies are getting more vigilant as well, we frequently have cards declined because people are tra... | [
"Credit card security relies on the physical security of the plastic card as well as the privacy of the credit card number. Therefore, whenever a person other than the card owner has access to the card or its number, security is potentially compromised. Once, merchants would often accept credit card numbers without... |
Is air indoors more polluted than outdoors? | I think it seriously depends on the situation but the EPA suggests that particle levels are the same or lower than outdoors in houses without smoking ([source](_URL_1_)). The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (discovered via Google, see [source](_URL_0_)) suggests that indoor levels could be a few times higher,... | [
"Scientific evidence has indicated that indoor air pollution can be worse than outdoor pollutants in large and industrialized cities. Many products and chemicals used inside the home, for cooking and heating, and for appliances and home décor are primary sources of indoor air pollutants. Everything we use in the ho... |
why are most corporations considered evil? | Most corporations aren't evil and just do useful things like make your bread for your breakfast toast or make wires for your house.
Of those that are evil often their evilness can be often put down to either to outright corruption in management ranks, which is just the human condition.
And secondarily companies often... | [
"An evil corporation is a trope in popular culture that portrays a corporation as ignoring social responsibility in order to make money for its shareholders. According to Angela Allan writing in \"The Atlantic\", the notion is \"deeply embedded in the landscape of contemporary culture—populating films, novels, vide... |
Landing on Mars with a glider? | > Does it have something to do with the 100 times thinner atmosphere
Probably. NASA engineers are smart people and think of all the angles, and then go through rigorous math to compare the price and effectiveness of various techniques. When you're sending something up into space, often the most expensive part of it ... | [
"One application of a Mars flyby is for a human mission, where after landing and staying on the surface for some time the ascent stage has a space rendezvous with another, unmanned spacecraft, that was launched separately from Earth, flying by. This would mean the ascent stage of the lander to reach the speed neces... |
If you listen to music loudly (via earphones) in a very windy situation, where you can barely hear the music (for example in a convertible going fast), is the music still doing damage to your ears? | Yep. Same thing with being at a bar or loud concert and yelling into your friends' ears so that you can hear each other. No different then if someone was yelling into your ear in a quiet room. | [
"When exposed to a multitude of sounds from several different sources, sensory overload may occur. This overstimulation can result in general fatigue and loss of sensation in the ear. The associated mechanisms are explained in further detail down below. Sensory overload usually occurs with environmental stimuli and... |
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