question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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how come americans have large portion sizes and relatively cheap prices for their food? | When you go to a restaurant, you pay for the service first, then for the actual food. As a rule of thumb, the ingredients usually make up only 1/4 to 1/3 of the costs. Additionally, the work of preparing a dish twice as large usually isn't twice as much for the chef.
So it comes down to the customer's expectations. Am... | [
"Portion sizes in the United States have increased markedly in the past several decades. For example, from 1977 to 1996, portion sizes increased by 60 percent for salty snacks and 52 percent for soft drinks. Importantly, larger product portion sizes and larger servings in restaurants and kitchens consistently incre... |
Doesn't the speed of light disprove Fermi's paradox? | When discussing the Fermi paradox, people usually only talk about civilizations in the Milky Way galaxy. The distance between galaxies is far to great to consider an inter-galactic civilization (though it may be possible).
The diameter of the stellar disk of the Milky Way is only about 100,000 light-years. So if a civ... | [
"In 1962 J. G. Fox pointed out that all previous experimental tests of the constancy of the speed of light were conducted using light which had passed through stationary material: glass, air, or the incomplete vacuum of deep space. As a result, all were thus subject to the effects of the extinction theorem. This im... |
is taking a shot of 100 proof alcohol the same as taking 1.25 shots of 80 proof? | Essentially yes. Except for the additional water in the 80 proof alcohol. But there is just as much alcohol in both shots so it will have the same effect on your blood alcohol content. | [
"The concentration of alcohol in a beverage is usually stated as the percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV, the number of milliliters (ml) of pure ethanol in 100 ml of beverage) or as \"proof\". In the United States, \"proof\" is twice the percentage of alcohol by volume at 60 degrees Fahrenheit (e.g. 80 proof = 40... |
why do humans start getting body odor after they go through puberty? | Basically (the way I was taught this at least) you have two major types of sweat glands, apocrine and eccrine. Sweat produced by eccrine glands is mostly water. Apocrine sweat is more oily and contains a whole bunch of other stuff (which I won't get into). So bacteria can metabolize the components of apocrine sweat far... | [
"The average beginning of pubarche varies due to many factors, including climate, nourishment, weight, nurture, and genes. First (and often transient) pubic hair resulting from adrenarche may appear between ages 10-12 preceding puberty.\n",
"Before puberty effects of rising androgen levels occur in both boys and ... |
Do bone conduction earphones protect hearing? | There's no reason to believe that they would. Hearing loss is usually caused by damage to the inner ear, which is still getting as much sound exposure with bone conduction as it would through the normal path of sound. | [
"It is a semi-implantable under the skin bone conduction hearing device coupled to the skull by a titanium fixture. The system transfers sound to the inner ear through the bone, thereby bypassing problems in the outer or middle ear. Candidates with a conductive, mixed or single-sided sensorineural hearing loss can ... |
why do circles tesselate hexagonally? | It's all geometry. Assuming equal radii between all circles, if you place them in a way that they don't intersect but touch each other at exactly one point (tessellating) and you start with just 3 circles, those circles form a triangle shape. If you connect the centerpoints of those circles, it forms an equilateral tri... | [
"A study by David George Kendall used the techniques of shape analysis to examine the triangles formed by standing stones to deduce if these were often arranged in straight lines. The shape of a triangle can be represented as a point on the sphere, and the distribution of all shapes can be thought of as a distribut... |
Where do vegetables and fruit/nut bearing plants get their vitamins and minerals? | They get all the minerals they need from the soil. Vitamins for plants aren't the same necessarily as our vitamins, because a vitamin is something the organism needs to survive but cannot produce on its own (vitamin D is not a true vitamin to us).
So, for example, plants can produce vitamin C (ascorbic acid) through a... | [
"Vitamins and minerals are required for normal metabolism but which the body cannot manufacture itself and which must therefore come from external sources. Vitamins come from several sources including fresh fruit and vegetables (Vitamin C), carrots, liver (Vitamin A), cereal bran, bread, liver (B vitamins), fish li... |
What's the noise a formula 1 makes when it changes gears? | It's most likely a backfire. When the car is accelerating its at full throttle/load, and the engine runs out of power, so it's time to change gears. imagine going from full throttle to no throttle (changing gears) then back to full throttle.
The bang u hear is unburnt fuel exploding in the exhaust after its left the c... | [
"BULLET::::- Transmission problems were tackled by adding a further mounting-point (making five) for the whole engine and transmission assembly at the back of the gearbox where it was supported by an extra chassis cross-member. The transmission made a significant humming noise while in neutral and there were diffic... |
what determines how internet lag in different games looks? | Male programmer type guy here. It just depends on how the programmers who made the game decided to handle the case where the game isn't getting updates from the server. Some games leave the character in place, and then warp him when the updates resume. Others avoid the warp by having the character fly from their old po... | [
"Since the game requires information on the location of other players, there is sometimes a delay as this information travels over the network. This occurs in games where the input signals are \"held\" for several frames (to allow time for the data to arrive at every player's console/PC) before being used to render... |
In the United States, have there been any particularly strong Vice Presidents, and how was The Senate different under them? | In addition to Calhoun, John Adams regularly presided over the Senate and partook in debates, and beats Calhoun by one vote for the most tie breaks.
That said, while they are the nominal head of the Senate, the Constitution also says that the House and Senate get to write their own procedural rules in Article I, Sect... | [
"He served as one of several alternating presidents pro tempore of the United States Senate during the 62nd Congress (1911 to 1913), as part of a compromise under which Bacon and four senators from the Republican majority rotated in the office because no single candidate in either party was able to secure a majorit... |
Do black holes really vary in size or does the collapsed point in space just vary in intensity? | Every amount of mass has some radius that, were it all to be compressed within the radius, it would form a black hole. This is called the Schwartzchild radius, and it's calculated by the formula r=2GM/c^2 . G is the gravitational constant, and c is the speed of light. These are both constant, so the math works out the ... | [
"In general relativity, if a star collapses to a size smaller than its Schwarzschild radius, an event horizon will exist at that radius and the star will become a black hole. Thus, the size of a preon star may vary from around 1 metre with an absolute mass of 100 Earths to the size of a pea with a mass roughly equa... |
why do strange graphical effects sometimes occur when alt+tabbing a computer game? | It's because the game takes up the majority of your computer's resources and stays at the forefront. Your computer needs to load in all the other stuff that the OS and other programs need before you can use them. | [
"\"Glitching\" is also used to describe the state of a video game undergoing a glitch. The frequency in which a game undergoes glitching is often used by reviewers when examining the overall gameplay, or specific game aspects such as graphics. Some games such as Metroid have lower review scores today because in ret... |
How much of time dilation is due to the gravity well versus relative velocity? | You can indeed separate the two effects if the field is weak. I've done the explicit computation for the orbit of Mercury around the sun [here](_URL_0_). It turns out that in a circular orbit the time dilation due to the orbital speed is exactly half the gravitational time dilation.
P.S.: GPS satellites are *not* in ... | [
"In 2010, Chou \"et al\". performed tests in which both gravitational and velocity effects were measured at velocities and gravitational potentials much smaller than those used in the mountain-valley experiments of the 1970s. It was possible to confirm velocity time dilation at the 10 level at speeds below 36 km/h.... |
how exactly is the “stop/start” automatic engine feature in newer cars “better”? | Barely any wear and tear, better for the environment as all that time you spend not moving while the engine running is time that CO2 and pollutants are spewing out when they don't need to be. Multiply all that time by millions and millions of cars and you have a significant CO2 saving.
Saves fuel and thus cash too. | [
"From 2011, Stop/Start was added to certain engines (engines with (S/S) are bold in CO2 column), a cleaner, more powerful 1.7 CDTI auto was added, and the petrol engines became slightly more efficient. A six speed automatic gearbox became available for the 1.4T (120) petrol engine.\n",
"The automatic transmission... |
how do all the bodies, tanks etc. get cleaned off the battlefields? | Usually they don't. Outside of Kursk you can take a spade out West of the city and dig down just a few inches to human remains, shell casings, etc. Vehicles were only removed if they were salvageable or were in the way. After the war civilians gleaned the site for years for scrap but anything else was just abandoned... | [
"To this day, the remains of missing soldiers are still found in the countryside around the town of Ypres. Typically, such finds are made during building work or road-mending activities. Any human remains discovered receive a proper burial in one of the war cemeteries in the region. If the remains can be identified... |
why does our body need uv to create vitamin d when uv exposure increases our risk of skin cancer? | UV light is an energy source, since humans are automatically exposed in varying degrees to this energy source we have evolved to make use of the "free" energy to create vitamin D. We have also evolved to darken the skin to prevent over exposure to UV which would increase risks of skin cancer. Only animals like naked mo... | [
"The sun's UV radiation is both a major cause of skin cancer and the best natural source of vitamin D. The risk of skin cancer from too much sun exposure needs to be balanced with maintaining adequate vitamin D levels. Vitamin D deficiency in Australia has also greatly increased, since sunblock also reduces vitamin... |
Is there any particular reason why so many people in the United States claim Cherokee ancestry? | Hello. I'm a mod over on /r/IndianCountry, the second largest and most active Native American subreddit. We recently constructed an FAQ [with a section that answers this specific question](_URL_1_) and links to several sources to back it up.
I would like to note, though, that this is more of a social question with a h... | [
"Gregory D. Smithers wrote, a large number of Americans belong in this category: \"In 2000, the federal census reported that 729,533 Americans self-identified as Cherokee. By 2010, that number increased, with the Census Bureau reporting that 819,105 Americans claimed at least one Cherokee ancestor.\" By contrast, a... |
how does the new iphone voice command system (siri) work? | I don't know the exact details, but I do know that any query made to the system goes to remote servers with the voice command. There, the technology across multiple servers parses your voice to determine exactly what you say (some say the original creators of the voice recognition technology, Nuance, [is still primari... | [
"Apple added Voice Control to its family of iOS devices as a new feature of iPhone OS 3. The iPhone 4S, iPad 3, iPad Mini 1G, iPad Air, iPad Pro 1G, iPod Touch 5G and later, all come with a more advanced voice assistant called Siri. Voice Control can still be enabled through the Settings menu of newer devices. Siri... |
How livable would 2x the Earth's gravity be? | You might want to check out some discussion we've had here recently on the same topic. [Here](_URL_1_) and [here](_URL_0_). | [
"Gravity on the Earth's surface varies by around 0.7%, from 9.7639 m/s on the Nevado Huascarán mountain in Peru to 9.8337 m/s at the surface of the Arctic Ocean. In large cities, it ranges from 9.7760 in Kuala Lumpur, Mexico City, and Singapore to 9.825 in Oslo and Helsinki.\n",
"The precise strength of Earth's g... |
why are chemical weapons worse than regular ones? is gassing a town worse than bombing it, assuming the number of innocent deaths is the same? | Chemical weapons are worse because:
1) They kill slowly.
2) They are not as controllable as they drift in the air and on the water. This means they cause a lot of collateral damage.
3) They often contaminate and kill those attempting to treat the injured, and they often have very few to no actual treatments that w... | [
"The use of poison gas by all major belligerents throughout World War I constituted war crimes as its use violated the 1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gases and the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, which prohibited the use of \"poison or poisoned weapons\" in warfare. Widespread horror and publ... |
why is it so much louder when you whistle with two fingers? | I can't do that. I just wanted you to know I both envy and respect your ability to whistle with your fingers | [
"Pucker whistling is the most common form in much Western music. Typically, the tongue tip is lowered, often placed behind the lower teeth, and pitch altered by varying the position of the tongue. Although varying the degree of pucker will change the pitch of a pucker whistle, expert pucker whistlers will generally... |
Would it be possible to use time dilation to travel into the future? | In terms of physics, yes. The technology for that doesn't exist right now though. We can send things at like 20 km/s, and we'd need to go like ten thousand times that fast to start seeing these effects. | [
"Theoretically, time dilation would make it possible for passengers in a fast-moving vehicle to advance further into the future in a short period of their own time. For sufficiently high speeds, the effect is dramatic. For example, one year of travel might correspond to ten years on Earth. Indeed, a constant 1 g ac... |
Are there multiple types of Electromagnetic Fields? | > I've seen it described as a "field produced by charged objects", but in other places it sounds more like one continuous thing that extends through all space
The electromagnetic field extends through *all space.* It simply has essentially a zero value away from charges. (though self propagating disruptions can trav... | [
"In electromagnetism, the electromagnetic field is generally thought of as being made of two things, the electric field and magnetic field. They are both three-dimensional vector fields, related to each other by Maxwell's equations. A second approach is to combine them in a single object, the six-dimensional electr... |
How does salt damage concrete on a molecular level? | Normally the embedded steel in concrete (be it re-bar or welded wire fabric) is protected from corrosion by an effect called passivization caused by the high PH (around 13) of concrete. When water containing dissolved chlorides makes it way to the steel, through the concrete pore structure or more typically cracks, th... | [
"Concrete can be damaged by many processes, such as the expansion of corrosion products of the steel reinforcement bars, freezing of trapped water, fire or radiant heat, aggregate expansion, sea water effects, bacterial corrosion, leaching, erosion by fast-flowing water, physical damage and chemical damage (from ca... |
how/why does one company make so many different, unrelated products? | It's called "vertical integration" and it's regarded as a smart move because the more a company diversifies its products, the less hurt they are if one product takes a hit (for instance, if they need to recall, or if a competitor comes up with something better, or if a change in the marketplace at large makes the produ... | [
"In some cases, the original technology supplier did not need to manufacture the product itself—it merely patented a specific design, then sold the actual production rights to multiple overseas clients. This resulted in some countries producing separate but nearly identical products under different licenses. \n",
... |
What are the hazards of Fusion technology? | People discussing fusion reactors usually focus on the use of abundant Deuterium extracted from water as the fuel. While Deuterium would be part of the fuel mix, most of the fusion reactor designs are built around the use of a combined deuterium-tritium fuel source. The ITER reactor for example [will use a 1:1 mix of D... | [
"The world of \"Fusion\" is centuries in our future, when a series of galactic wars have led to a spiraling arms race between \"tekkers and splicers\" — that is, between those who take a technological and technocratic route to improving humanity, and those who have abandoned humanity altogether through genetic engi... |
why are space rockets so hard to handle? | You need to look up what they call "the rocket equation".
Lets say you want to throw 10kg into orbit. Orbit speed means you have to accelerate it to something like 9.4 km/s (thats per _second_). Thats pretty fast. To accerlate your 10kg AND your rocket to that speed you need a certain amount of thrust. That means bi... | [
"Their simplicity also makes solid rockets a good choice whenever large amounts of thrust are needed and the cost is an issue. The Space Shuttle and many other orbital launch vehicles use solid-fueled rockets in their boost stages (solid rocket boosters) for this reason.\n",
"While comparatively inefficient for l... |
What methods were used to estimate the population of pre-columbian America? How reliable were they? | There were a number of methods used that resulted in widely varying estimates. Charles Mann provides a brief but thorough discussion of methods used to estimate pre-contact populations in the new world in "1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus" (Vintage, 2011). Some researchers used early records archiv... | [
"Given the fragmentary nature of the evidence, even semi-accurate pre-Columbian population figures are impossible to obtain. Scholars have varied widely on the estimated size of the indigenous populations prior to colonization and on the effects of European contact. Estimates are made by extrapolations from small b... |
how do dual sim phones work | A [dual SIM](_URL_1_) phone can hold / use 2 [SIM cards](_URL_0_).
The SIM card holds an identifying (hardware) number that identifies the phone, so you can set up a subscription and associate the SIM number with a phone number.
So dual SIM phones can answer/handle two separate phone numbers. These can be on the s... | [
"Dual SIM refers to mobile phones that support use of multiple SIM cards. When a second SIM card is installed, the phone either allows users to switch between two separate mobile network services manually, has hardware support for keeping both connections in a \"standby\" state for automatic switching, or has indiv... |
What was happening pre World War 1? | Here's some answers I've given previously on the subject
[The Balkan Wars] (_URL_1_)
[Lead up to and outbreak of WWI] (_URL_2_)
[Balkan Nationalism and the Outbreak of WWI] (_URL_0_)
The 1890s saw the formation of the Triple Alliance (Germany, Austro-Hungary, Italy), the formation of the Franco-Russian and Franco-B... | [
"In 1914, the First World War broke out. For the next four years fighting raged across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. On 8 January 1918, United States President Woodrow Wilson issued a statement that became known as the Fourteen Points. In part, this speech called for Germany to withdraw from the territ... |
What percentage of new immigrants learned "fluent" English in the 19th century? | To which country? | [
"Before the arrival of the British, the official language for hundreds of years, and one of the educated elite had been Italian, but this was downgraded by the increased use of English. In 1934, English and Maltese were declared the sole official languages. That year only about 15% of the population could speak Ita... |
why does the uk require citizens to register to vote? why not automatically enroll people when they receive their national insurance number? | You need to be registered at an address so they know which constituency you are in so your vote can be cast in the right place. If they didn't voting would be chaotic and it would be difficult to detect fraud. | [
"Within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom, the right to register for voting extends to all British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens. British citizens living overseas may register for up to 15 years after they were last registered at an address in the UK. Citizens of the European Union (who are ... |
how does facebook "share bait" work. what are the spammers getting out of getting it? | Money. The more people you can attract to your facebook page/website the more money you can get out of ads.
Plus if you have some bad intentions you can try to infect the user when he visits your website, which is mostly equal to money. | [
"Using Facebook, Tinder is able to build a user profile with photos that have already been uploaded. Basic information is gathered and the users' social graph is analyzed. Candidates who are most likely to be compatible based on geographical location, number of mutual friends, and common interests are streamed into... |
How was the first Operating System made when there were no computers to make it on? | Our modern notion of computer didn't arise suddenly well-formed from theoretical concepts. In fact, the entire idea of operating system isn't necessary for a computer to work at all (and most microcontrollers don't run one).
To start with, what exactly is an operating system? Well, it's hard to pinpoint one or two def... | [
"Early computers were built to perform a series of single tasks, like a calculator. Basic operating system features were developed in the 1950s, such as resident monitor functions that could automatically run different programs in succession to speed up processing. Operating systems did not exist in their modern an... |
since cellphones are here to stay and commercial flight is here to stay, why haven't they figured out how to make it so we can keep our phones on. | You *can* have them on. You can't use them as a phone.
_URL_0_
One, cell towers aren't designed for phones 30,000 feet in the air that can hit multiple towers.
Two, on a long flight having people babbling on phones would cause some passengers to politely invite others to step outside. | [
"In Europe, regulations and technology have allowed the limited introduction of the use of passenger mobile phones on some commercial flights, and elsewhere in the world many airlines are moving towards allowing mobile phone use in flight. Many airlines still do not allow the use of mobile phones on aircraft. Those... |
What were the implications of Operation Unthinkable and just how close did it come to fruition? | I do not know much about the inner workings of the British military and government in April and May of 1945, and so I cannot say how seriously the British themselves took this plan, but I can say that Winston Churchill's goal of stunting Soviet influence in postwar Europe did not align with the aims of Harry Truman's g... | [
"Operation Unthinkable was a code name of two related, unrealised plans by the Western Allies against the Soviet Union. They were ordered by British prime minister Winston Churchill in 1945 and developed by the British Armed Forces' Joint Planning Staff at the end of World War II in Europe.\n",
"As noted in the f... |
nuclear fusion. | Well, we *don't*, is the short answer. But let's not stop there.
Small atoms work in a strange way. Normally if you think about two separate objects that you want to put together — think Legos or whatever here — you find that you have to *do work* in order to put them together. You have to pick up the Legos, line them... | [
"In nuclear chemistry, nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles (neutrons or protons). The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of energy. This d... |
What was the Islamic attitude towards and tolerance level of other religions, prior to the sacking of Constantinople by the crusaders and the destruction of Baghdad by the Mongols? | Why the West attained a period of dominance is a separate question that I won't address here, although I will point out: Latin Christians conquered Constantinople from *Greek Christians* in 1204. That doesn't seem to be a breaking point in Muslim attitudes towards the "Franks" and "Romans" for, well, obvious reasons. A... | [
"In 1453, Constantinople was conquered by the Ottoman Empire under Mehmed the Conqueror, who ordered this main church of Orthodox Christianity converted into a mosque. Although some parts of the city of Constantinople had fallen into disrepair, the cathedral had been maintained with funds set aside for this purpose... |
why do people shiver when they are using all of their strength? | They aren't actually shivering. Their muscles are rapidly changing the fibers they use to balance and lift the load. One set of fibers is doing the majority of the lifting while the other set relax slightly then they switch positions creating the illusion of shivering. This switching can happen upwards of several thous... | [
"Shivering (also called shaking) is a bodily function in response to cold in warm-blooded animals. When the core body temperature drops, the shivering reflex is triggered to maintain homeostasis. Skeletal muscles begin to shake in small movements, creating warmth by expending energy. Shivering can also be a respons... |
why does our brain get attached to people, things, places etc, and why do we have a strong need to find the one we love | Probably all to do with our survival instincts. We can get attached to places as a way to demonstrate that it's "our area", and to produce offspring we adore the person that is deemed by our brain as the best mate, for healthier and stronger children. This is my biased idea, so take it for what it is. | [
"Unable to explain the unique circumstances in which they acquired their knowledge, they both have difficulty convincing their friends that they know what is the right thing to do. Neither is able to completely dissociate themselves from the things that were once important to them, and they realize that by not conc... |
what does remastering a game entail? | It *completely* depends on the company doing the "remastering". There is no fixed set of things except, perhaps, as requirements from the licensor. In addition, there are often limitations on what can be overhauled because original development materials may have been lost or are otherwise no longer available.
... | [
"When remastering a distro, remastering software can be applied from the \"inside\" of a live operating system to clone itself into an installation package. Remastering does not necessarily require the remastering software, which only facilitates the process. For example, an application is remastered just by acquir... |
[Meta] This sub desperately needs a "Answered" flair for posts that have ad least one mod approved reply | This one gets asked a lot, because it's a seemingly intuitive solution to the common problem of clutter - threads with high comment counts that suggest the presence of an answer, but in reality are all just removed comments.
However, the issues - both practical and conceptual - raised by actually implementing an answe... | [
"Meanwhile, on Usenet, Mark Horton had started a series of \"Periodic Posts\" (PP) which attempted to answer trivial questions with appropriate answers. Periodic summary messages posted to Usenet newsgroups attempted to reduce the continual reposting of the same basic questions and associated wrong answers. On Usen... |
I heard something off of my granddad about World War 2 spies. He said that, when the British were interrogating German spies, they would end the interrogation with "good luck" or "hail victory" in German and, if the German replied, they would know he was a spy. Is there any validity to this? | As far as "good luck" goes, he may be thinking of a scene in the 1963 film *The Great Escape* where this happens in reverse- escaped British PoWs are captured when a Gestapo officer wishes them "Good luck" in English and one of them instinctively replies "thank you".
I have seen claims (for instance in *This Great Esc... | [
"During World War II, an American intelligence agent in England, ashamed for having yielded information to the Germans during a previous capture, attempts to redeem himself by contriving his way into a French resistance group, with his ultimate plan being to kidnap a valuable German general and obtain his secrets.\... |
how can general pain medication like paracetamol and ibuprofen treat so many different things? | Prostaglandins are natural chemicals that are released into your body when you are injured or sick. When they're released, they make nearby nerves hurt. This is when your body can tell that something is wrong, and you feel pain. Meds like ibuprofen target prostaglandins. It keeps more of them from being made, which red... | [
"Many drug therapies are available for pain management after third molar extractions including NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory), APAP (acetaminophen), and opioid formulations. Although each has its own pain-relieving efficacy, they also pose adverse effects. According to two doctors, Ibuprofen-APAP combinat... |
why do massive arcade style coin operated machines suck so much in comparison to other video game consoles? | It actually used to be the opposite way around. Back in '94, we were getting things like Cruisin' USA and Sega Rally that were a generation ahead of where consoles were at the time, and that were built on hardware that wasn't bettered until the PS2 generation. Unfortunately, that's pretty much what killed arcades. Used... | [
"Due to the success of arcades, a number of games were adapted for and released for consoles but in many cases the quality had to be reduced because of the hardware limitations of consoles compared to arcade cabinets.\n",
"Developing from earlier non-video electronic game cabinets such as pinball machines, arcade... |
why do developing countries receive development aid from other countries instead of simply "adding" the same amount of money into government budget? | Hyperinflation from printing money to cover government deficits happens because the supply of the currency is dramatically increased. Note that this happens relative to the currency of which the supply is increasing--for example, when there is hyperinflation occurring with the Zimbabwe dollar, prices when paying with U... | [
"There are an increasing number of studies and literature that argue aid alone is not enough to lift developing countries out of poverty. Whether or not aid actually significantly affects growth, it does not operate in a vacuum. An increasing number of donor country policies can either complement or hinder developm... |
Can someone explain the physics going on with the snapping shrimp when it shoots its shockwave bubble attack? | The most basic scenario of cavitation is if you have an infinite fluid, and magically cause a sphere of it to disappear, and track what happens to the water trying to fill that vacuum. In this case, it's not a vacuum but a vapour bubble, but the water collapses just the same. When this happens, the water nearest the bu... | [
"Pistol shrimp (also called \"snapping shrimp\") produce a type of cavitation luminescence from a collapsing bubble caused by quickly snapping its claw. The animal snaps a specialized claw shut to create a cavitation bubble that generates acoustic pressures of up to 80 kPa at a distance of 4 cm from the claw. As it... |
what starts the pumping of the human heart and how does it keep going? | You don't sound dumb. It's a good question. The heart has its own electrical system that keeps it pumping independent of brain function. Sometimes it misfires, though, and that can lead to things like heart attacks. Basically, as long as there's blood flowing through the heart to keep it alive it doesn't even need to b... | [
"The cardiac cycle is the performance of the human heart from the ending of one heartbeat to the beginning of the next. It consists of two periods: one during which the heart muscle relaxes and refills with blood, called diastole (), followed by a period of robust contraction and pumping of blood, dubbed systole ()... |
why do i see lots of black guys with white girls, and very few white guys with black girls? | The same reason black men date white women, because black women are crazy. | [
"most American white men are trained to be fags. For this reason it is no wonder their faces are weak and blank ... The average ofay [white person] thinks of the black man as potentially raping every white lady in sight. Which is true, in the sense that the black man should want to rob the white man of everything h... |
why is 95 gasoline powerful than 92? | Are you talking about octane rating? If so, it's not more powerful. Octane rating indicates how much compression the fuel can sustain before it ignites. A high octane rating can be compressed more, thus high-powered engines that compress the fuel more need it in order to avoid it igniting prematurely, causing knocking ... | [
"Most gasoline (petrol) and diesel engines have an expansion ratio equal to the compression ratio (the compression ratio calculated purely from the geometry of the mechanical parts) of 10:1 (premium fuel) or 9:1 (regular fuel), with some engines reaching a ratio of 12:1 or more. The greater the expansion ratio the ... |
how do scientists know how much of an impact the human body can take in a car wreck? | There has been much research done on corpses to analyze how strong bones and other tissues are and there are a great many analyses of injuries where we can estimate the forces involved using physics and then compare the forces with the degree of injury. | [
"Road traffic accidents usually involve impact loading, such as when a car hits a traffic bollard, water hydrant or tree, the damage being localized to the impact zone. When vehicles collide, the damage increases with the relative velocity of the vehicles, the damage increasing as the square of the velocity since i... |
How does gravity affect atom nucleus? | Several things regarding this.
As a reminder of the strengths of forces acting on the particles:
Strength of gravity of a proton acting on an electron:
F_g = G *m1*m2/r^2
= 3.67*10^-47 Newtons
Strength of electromagnetism acting on an electron:
F_e = k * q1 * q2 / r^2
= 8*10^-8 Newtons
In particle physics, the effe... | [
"After the nucleus was discovered in 1908, it was clear that a new force, today known as the nuclear force, was needed to overcome the electrostatic repulsion, a manifestation of electromagnetism, of the positively charged protons. Otherwise, the nucleus could not exist. Moreover, the force had to be strong enough ... |
if formula 1 teams use totally smooth tires for perfect grip in dry weather, why are there laws in place about grip on road tires? | F1 (and NASCAR, etc) have different sets of tires for dry and wet conditions; they go into the pits to change tires when the wet happens. The "rain" tires have grooves.
Your parent's tires have to handle all weather conditions (unless they are rich with a Ferrari and a racing garage) so your government has laws in p... | [
"Formula One tyres bear only a superficial resemblance to a normal road tyre. Whereas the latter has a useful life of up to , the tyres used in Formula One are built to last less than one race distance. The purpose of the tyre determines the compound of the rubber to be used. In extremely wet weather, such as that ... |
Why is it that Neutrinos can pass through so much material without a problem (like the Earth?) How are we able to detect them if they so easily penetrate matter? | Neutrinos only interact through the [weak interaction](_URL_2_) because they don’t posses an electric charge (needed for electromagnetic interaction) or a color charge (needed for [strong interaction](_URL_1_)). The weak interaction being a short range interaction, neutrinos interact very little with matter, meaning th... | [
"Since neutrinos interact only very rarely with matter, the enormous flux of solar neutrinos racing through the Earth is sufficient to produce only 1 interaction for 10 target atoms, and each interaction produces only a few photons or one transmuted atom. The observation of neutrino interactions requires a large de... |
what causes the “refrigerated taste” food can get when it is uncovered in the freezer too long? | All the food inside is drying out and all the moisture takes smells into the air with it. The fridge is closed and small, so all that smelly air is trapped in there. Over time, food left in there a long time will have a dry crust and the humid smelly air will start to go back into the dry crust. The yucky taste and tex... | [
"When foods are frozen without preparation, freezer burn can occur. It happens when the surface of the food is dehydrated, and this leads to a dried and leathery appearance. Freezer burn also ruins the flavor and texture of foods. Vacuum packing reduces freezer burn by preventing the food from exposure to the cold,... |
is it real that when you left the refrigirator door open it consumes more energy? | It does cost more electric because your letting the cold out so it has to use more power to try and keep it cool BUT it is never going to be noticeable on the electricity bill unless you leave it fully open all day in temps with 20c and even then it's going to add maybe 25p per day,
BUT here's my question who on earth... | [
"Refrigeration may be defined as lowering the temperature of an enclosed space by removing heat from that space and transferring it elsewhere. A device that performs this function may also be called an air conditioner, refrigerator, air source heat pump, geothermal heat pump, or chiller (heat pump).\n",
"A defros... |
What happens when you prepare acids with heavy water? | What you are referring to is called the [isotope effect](_URL_0_). It is real, but it isn't usually very pronounced. | [
"Strong acids also undergo hydrolysis. For example, dissolving sulfuric acid (HSO) in water is accompanied by hydrolysis to give hydronium and bisulfate, the sulfuric acid's conjugate base. For a more technical discussion of what occurs during such a hydrolysis, see Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory.\n",
"Preparati... |
What is the spectrum of professional opinion on the Kennedy assassination? | Oswald shot him. In the head.
That's pretty much the only opinion that will not get you rejected for tenure. Why? Because like all conspiracies, the JFK conspiracy relies upon such a perfect chain of events, placement of people, and reliance on their complicity, as well as not leaving a paper trail a mile long, tha... | [
"At least five other American films dramatize the Kennedy assassination as a conspiracy; \"Executive Action\" sits alongside Oliver Stone's \"JFK\" (1991); John MacKenzie's \"Ruby\" (1992); the 1984 William Tannen film \"Flashpoint\"; and Neil Burger's 2002 pseudo-documentary \"Interview with the Assassin\".\n",
... |
what's more inflated, the price of diamonds or artificial diamonds? | That's a damn interesting question but impossible to answer because we do not know just how horribly inflated diamond prices are. | [
"Regarding the latter, the main argument presented being that the paradigm where diamonds were seen as rare due to their visual beauty is no longer the case and instead has been replaced by an artificial rarity reflected in their price. This is attributed to confirmed evidence that there were price-fixing practices... |
How much Spanish troops were on Cuba and Puerto Rico during the Spanish American war? | Spain's force in Cuba numbered 278,457 soldiers, distributed in 101 Infantry Battalions, 11 Cavalry Regiments, 2 Artillery Regiments, and 4 Marine Battalions. The force in Cuba made up the bulk of Spain's entire military force, being nearly 57 percent of the Army. This force was bolstered by another 82,000 volunteers. ... | [
"The Spanish Crown sent the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Puerto Rican Provisional Battalions to defend Cuba against the American invaders. The 1st Puerto Rican Provisional Battalion, composed of the Talavera Cavalry and Krupp artillery, was sent to Santiago de Cuba where they battled the American forces in the Battle of San Ju... |
if the deepest depth drilled by man is about 8 miles, and the crust is nearly 20 miles deep, how were scientists able to discover that there is an upper and lower mantel and inner and outer core? | The same way you are able to tell what's in the box your grandmother sent you at Christmas. When you shake it, a sweater sounds different from a PS4 controller. Obviously scientists can't shake the earth, but the earth shakes itself sometimes, and scientists in different places are always listening (or rather their s... | [
"This record remains the longest penetration in a deep cave. The new record for the longest penetration at any depth is now held by Jon Bernot and Charlie Roberson of Gainesville, Florida, with a distance of .\n",
"The trench reaches one of the greatest depths in the ocean, third only to the Mariana trench and th... |
When did the word "ass" start applying to people's butts instead of just to donkeys? | Don't forget that outside of the US it's spelt and pronounced 'arse,' whilst the type of donkey is still universally called an ass. A lot of Irish accents have a very 'ass'-like pronunciation of 'arse,' and of course Irish immigrants made up a huge number of Americans during the initial population boom. | [
"The English word \"ass\" (meaning donkey, a cognate of its zoological name \"Equus asinus\") may also be used as a term of contempt, referring to a silly or stupid person. In the United States (and, to a lesser extent, Canada), the words \"arse\" and \"ass\" have become synonymous.\n",
"At one time, the synonym ... |
why is having two heads such a commonly seen mutation? | Most often these are not mutations but conjoined twins. One case is when an egg doesn’t split properly during development; another theory, though heavily disputed, is the fusion of two separate fertilized eggs during development. | [
"An individual heterozygous for three mutations is crossed with a homozygous recessive individual, and the phenotypes of the progeny are scored. The two most common phenotypes that result are the parental gametes; the two least common phenotypes that result come from a double crossover in gamete formation. By compa... |
crime shows always say “they hung up before we could trace the call”. what goes into tracing a call and how long does it actually take? | It's 100% Hollywood bullshit. It might have been true decades ago when phone calls were connected manually, but not since the electronic switches that we have since the 1970s. | [
"The First 48 is an American documentary television series on A&E. Filmed in various cities in the United States, the series offers an insider's look at the real-life world of homicide investigators. While the series often follows the investigations to their end, it usually focuses on their first 48 hours, hence th... |
A friend of a friend came into possession of this. Any idea what it is | While these sorts of posts are welcome in this subreddit, it's often not the best place to put them. You may find you have better luck in /r/whatisthisthing, as the sub specializes in identifying unknown objects. | [
"According to one tale, a poor fisherman in Istanbul near Yenikapi was wandering idly, empty-handed, along the shore when he found a shiny stone among the litter, which he turned over and over, not knowing what it was. After carrying it about in his pocket for a few days, he stopped by the jewelers' market, showing... |
why do student loans get shifted to different banks/loan services? | Everyone is making money but you.
You take out a loan from Bank A for $100,000. If they kept it, you'd probably end up paying them $150,000 back.
They sell it to Bank B for $120,000. Bank A makes $20,000 right away, and Bank B makes $30,000 in the long run because now you're paying THEM the interest for the loan. | [
"The lent amount, often referred to as a \"student loan,\" may be owed to the school (or bank) if the student has dropped classes and withdrawn from the school. Students who withdraw from an institution, especially with poor grades, often end up disqualifying for further financial aid. For low and no-income student... |
If you were smaller than the length of a light wave, what would you see? | We *are* smaller than the wavelength of a lot of electromagnetic waves (e.g. radio waves) and our eyes simply don't detect them, that is, we see nothing. We can pick them up with other specialized instruments, for example by connecting a length of wire to a properly tuned receiver circuit, which is what an antenna and... | [
"This implies that one might encounter a wave that is roughly double the significant wave height. However, in rapidly changing conditions, the disparity between the significant wave height and the largest individual waves might be even larger.\n",
"The effect of viewing distance on perceived size can be observed ... |
why do we sense five basic tastes (sweet/sour/bitter/salty/umami or savoury)? | Sweet - Your basic energy unit is glucose, this taste makes you want to eat things high in sugar
Salty - Sodium is a vital electrolyte is maintaining physiological balance (water, chemical, energy production, ect) so you need foods with it too.
Umami - Tripped by the amino acid glutimate, and not present in all peopl... | [
"Bitter foods are generally found unpleasant, while sour, salty, sweet, and umami tasting foods generally provide a pleasurable sensation. The five specific tastes received by taste receptors are saltiness, sweetness, bitterness, sourness, and \"savoriness\", often known by its Japanese term \"umami\" which transla... |
the sexual revolution | Why more sex?
Birth control was more widely available.
The Vietnam war in the 60's/70's brought back boys that were now men who had horrible PTSD and drug exposures.
Ways of escaping could have been sex, "Make love, not war". They felt their lives were at their end, their number is called, might be up.
Why divorce ... | [
"The sexual revolution was initiated by those who shared a belief in the detrimental impact of sexual repression, a view that had previously been argued by Wilhelm Reich, D. H. Lawrence, Sigmund Freud, and the Surrealist movement. \n",
"The sexual revolution, also known as a time of sexual liberation, was a socia... |
why can't you eat salmon after it spawns? | I think you can eat it, it's just that salmon that have spawned have not eaten for months and are essentially on their last breath. Their meat becomes mush when cooked traditionally. It is not very appetizing. It also loses much of its oil. | [
"Typically, salmon are anadromous: they hatch in fresh water, migrate to the ocean, then return to fresh water to reproduce. However, populations of several species are restricted to fresh water through their lives. Folklore has it that the fish return to the exact spot where they hatched to spawn. Tracking studies... |
Sources for the Ainu and Emishi in Pre-Modern Japan | It's not the right era (up til 1600), but I checked my copy of [*Sources of Japanese Tradition vol. 1*](_URL_1_) and it has some primary sources that mention the Ainu.
1. "New History of the Tang Dynasty" mentions the ainu arriving at the Chinese court w/ a Japanese envoy in 663 (p.12)
2. "Reform Edicts" from the Ta... | [
"The evidence that the Emishi were also related to the Ainu comes from historical documents. One of the best sources of information comes from both inside and outside Japan, from contemporary Tang- and Song-dynasty histories as these describe dealings with Japan, and from the \"Shoku Nihongi\". For example, there i... |
How exactly does tea block the absorption of iron in your blood cells? | Tannins are an organic compound found in both green and black varieties of tea. The tannins found in tea can interact with iron in the gastrointestinal tract, rendering iron less available for absorption. Drinking tea with a meal that contains iron-rich foods can decrease iron absorption by up to 88 percent, depending ... | [
"To reduce bacterial growth, plasma concentrations of iron are lowered in a variety of systemic inflammatory states due to increased production of hepcidin which is mainly released by the liver in response to increased production of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as Interleukin-6. This functional iron deficiency w... |
Was the Speed of Sound ever considered a theoretical speed limit? | The 'sound barrier' was never considered a theoretical speed limit while the term was being used. The tips of airplane propellers had been brushing up against it for a long time. Bullets has been breaking it for a long time. The V2 bomb broke it during every flight.
The term referred to the many disparate problems tha... | [
"The limitations of the concept of speed of sound due to extreme attenuation are also of concern. The attenuation which exists at sea level for high frequencies applies to successively lower frequencies as atmospheric pressure decreases, or as the mean free path increases. For this reason, the concept of speed of s... |
cloning | Traditional reproduction has a sperm and egg. Both have half of a full set of chromosomes. When the sperm enters the egg it deposits its half of the chromosomes, now with the two combined the newly formed zygote has a full set. It begins to develop as a new individual with neither the exact DNA of its mother or father,... | [
"Cloning is a recurring theme in science fiction films like \"Jurassic Park\" (1993), \"Alien Resurrection\" (1997), \"The 6th Day\" (2000), \"Resident Evil\" (2002), \"\" (2002) and \"The Island\" (2005). The process of cloning is represented variously in fiction. Many works depict the artificial creation of human... |
What could be the consequences of extreme harvesting of tidal energy? | _URL_1_
_URL_0_
tl;dr:
Currently, water hitting already extant natural barriers in the world causes a slowing of the rotation rate that lengthens the day by about 2.3 milliseconds per day per century.
That's because of friction of the ocean against natural barriers and the ocean floor... maybe some other stuff, ... | [
"Another physical limitation is the energy available in the tidal fluctuations of the oceans, which is about 0.6 EJ (exajoule). Note this is only a tiny fraction of the total rotational energy of the Earth. Without forcing, this energy would be dissipated (at a dissipation rate of 3.7 TW) in about four semi-diurnal... |
How much sailing did Native Americans do on the Great Lakes? | Lots of paddling but no Sailing
There is significant physical evidence that Native Americans traveled to various islands in the Great Lakes. There are hunting artifacts on Pelee Island and pictographs on Kelley's Island in Lake Erie.
There were Ojibway (Chippewa) recorded as living on Michipicoten Island at the time... | [
"Several Native American tribes inhabited the region since at least 10,000 BC, after the end of the Wisconsin glaciation. The peoples of the Great Lakes traded with the Hopewell culture from around 1000 AD, as copper nuggets have been extracted from the region, and fashioned into ornaments and weapons in the mounds... |
el salvador switching all of its currency to the us dollar. where did the dollars come from? | They come from banks in the US. The US doesn't officially sanction other countries using her currency, but you can't keep those slips of paper from going on vacation. | [
"San Salvador, as well as the rest of the country, has used the U.S. dollar as its currency of exchange since 2001. Under the Monetary Integration Law, El Salvador adopted the U.S. dollar as a legal tender along the colon. This decision came about as an attempt to encourage foreign investors to launch new companies... |
why people with asperger's syndrome are genius or prodigious? | Nobody talks about the ones that become janitors. | [
"Asperger's syndrome (AS) is characterized by considerable problems in social interaction, other notable symptoms include restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and activities. Patient with AS generally has no setback in language cognitive maturity, or self-help abilities but has clear language skill defici... |
why chargers (phone, tablet, computer) get so hot while charging. | Chargers must convert Alternating Current (which is easy to transmit efficiently from the generating station, across the electrical grid, then to your home) to Direct Current (which is easy for digital electronic devices to use to process information). Converting AC to DC is not 100% efficient; some energy is lost--as... | [
"The safe temperature range when in use is between −20 °C and 45 °C. During charging, the battery temperature typically stays low, around the same as the ambient temperature (the charging reaction absorbs energy), but as the battery nears full charge the temperature will rise to 45–50 °C. Some battery chargers dete... |
In pop culture, there's a lot of resistance to discussing movie/story spoilers without having an appropriate warning. Is this new behavior, or were people equally wary of spoilers for that brand new Shakespeare production? | The concept of a "plot twist" which can be "spoiled" is a fairly recent concept in the history of drama/literature. In Ancient Greece, for instance, everyone knew the all of the legends and their plots forwards and backwards - if you found someone who didn't know that Klytemnestra killed Agamemnon, you'd think them ign... | [
"Some producers actively seed bogus information in order to misdirect fans. The director of the film \"Terminator Salvation\" orchestrated a \"disinformation campaign\" where false spoilers were distributed about the film, to mask any true rumors about its plot.\n",
"At the end of the 1990s, some small companies ... |
Did the city-states of Greece, like Sparta or Athens, have a concept of "Just War," did they fight with certain rules? | I can give you some answers on this, at least according to Herodotus. The Greeks generally had some rules of war, but they were also great "innovators" when it came to waging war, so sometimes these rules went out the window. A big rule though was not destroying temples, anyone who destroyed the temple of a God would... | [
"In 431 BC war broke out between Athens and Sparta. The war was a struggle not merely between two city-states but rather between two coalitions, or leagues of city-states: the Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta.\n",
"Lack of political unity within Greece resulted in frequent... |
can a body get an infection from a single cell of bacteria or do they need to be in quantity to start an infection? | Yes and yes.
Technically, a single cell of bacteria or a single virus can infect you.
But, they are far more likely to make you sick if your initial exposure is bigger. | [
"Bacteria can often be killed by antibiotics, which are usually designed to destroy the cell wall. This expels the pathogen's DNA, making it incapable of producing proteins and causing the bacteria to die. A class of bacteria without cell walls is mycoplasma (a cause of lung infections). A class of bacteria which m... |
proper eye contact | Use it as an accent to your conversation. If you never look at someone you're either ignoring them or submitting to them, so when you've finished your conversation you stop making eye contact and look away until they get the idea. If you look directly at someone constantly you're either creepy as hell or attempting t... | [
"According to Eckman, \"Eye contact (also called mutual gaze) is another major channel of nonverbal communication. The duration of eye contact is its most meaningful aspect.\" Generally speaking, the longer there is established eye contact between two people, the greater the intimacy levels.\n",
"Eye contact is a... |
Can anyone help decipher this WWII unit from a gravestone? | Edgar's F. Raines's *Eyes of Artillery: The Origins of Modern U.S. Army Aviation in World War II* ([link](_URL_0_)) seems to mention this unit on page 257. According to Raines, during the Battle of Leyte in 1944:
> Resupply became the main, but not the only, mission of the [11th Airborne] division's aircraft during ... | [
"BULLET::::- A rectangular marble plaque on a concrete base marks the grave of seven unknown Partisan soldiers from the Second World War. The memorial was set up in 1979. The grave is located at the crossroads to Koprivnik, Brezovica pri Predgradu, and Črnomelj.\n",
"The Tomb was placed at the head of the grave o... |
{eli5} how do guitar fret harmonics work? | When a guitar string vibrates without anyone pressing the frets, it makes a big wave in the air.
How fast the wave moves back and forth is what determines what note you hear. (frequency)
When you play a 12th fret harmonic, you put a "damper" at the exact half-way point of the length of the string. This forces the st... | [
"A pinch harmonic (also known as squelch picking, pick harmonic or squealy) is a guitar technique to achieve artificial harmonics in which the player's thumb or index finger on the picking hand slightly catches the string after it is picked, canceling (silencing) the fundamental frequency of the string, and letting... |
how can you get stuck inside something? | The bones are rigid but the flesh can distort. Moving one direction it may be spread down, becoming narrower; moving in the other direction it may be bunched up, becoming wider. | [
"This ability enables a Croutonian to temporarily place their consciousness into an inanimate object for a short period of time. All they had to do was will it and their body would disappear as they would now be inside the object that they wanted. Throughout the show's run they appeared inside objects ranging from ... |
when pro athletes admit to using ped's (such as ryan braun today), why aren't they arrested for using illegal drugs? | I don't know exactly what drugs were used, but just because a drug is banned from use in sports does not mean it is also illegal to use outside of sports. | [
"BULLET::::- In February 2009, \"Sports Illustrated\" reported that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two AAS, testosterone and metenolone enanthate, while playing for the Texas Rangers in 2003. He claims to have purchased them over the counter, in the Dominican Republic. However, \"boli,\" as he referred to it, i... |
How does our brain interpret wildly-different accents as the same language? | Certain sounds within a language are [allophones](_URL_0_). This means that they can be interchanged while not altering the meaning of the word.
One example is /t/. If you take nearly any English word with that sound and replace it with an alveolar flap or a glottal stop it changes the accent, but not the meaning o... | [
"In a study conducted by Newman et al., the relationship between cognitive neuroscience and language acquisition was compared through a standardized test procedure involving native speakers of English and native Spanish speakers who have all had a similar amount of exposure to the English language(averaging about 2... |
does it cost internet providers more money to give as an individual faster internet? | Directly... No. Any individual is virtually nothing on the scale that the ISPs operate.
Indirectly... Yes. Its not as simple as providing one person faster internet, you would have to provide everyone who asked faster internet. Soon you have to upgrade the entire infrastructure and that costs a few hundred billion. | [
"Clemons suggests alternative methods for earning money through the Internet, namely selling content and selling access to virtual communities. However, one might argue that this would not be effective in current society; since content and access has been available for free for as long as the Internet has been arou... |
considering the level of climate change denial and inaction, how on earth was the montreal protocol implemented (and successfully so)? | Don't post loaded questions.
Climate change is not in denial, it's the cause of which that is in dispute. | [
"The 1987 Montreal Protocol is commonly cited as a CAC success story at international level. The aim of the agreement was to limit the release of Chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere and subsequently halt the depletion of Ozone (O3) in the stratosphere.\n",
"Over the decades, the Montreal Protocol became a vic... |
Why hasn't the world's most fascinating monument, the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of China, been excavated? | There are conservation reasons, which I don't have the scientific training to discuss, but I'd like to question your assumption that it is the "world's most fascinating monument". Yes, it is a large and spectacular tomb that probably has a lot of marquee artifacts inside, but those kinds of sites are not always the bes... | [
"The Mausoleum was approximately in height, and the four sides were adorned with sculptural reliefs, each created by one of four Greek sculptors: Leochares, Bryaxis, Scopas of Paros, and Timotheus. The finished structure of the mausoleum was considered to be such an aesthetic triumph that Antipater of Sidon identif... |
why dont we ever hear about people born without a sense of taste/touch/smell? | We do. I knew a guy that couldn't feel pain or temperature. He had to be careful not to burn himself and constantly had to check himself to make sure he didn't get injured that day. | [
"Often people who have congenital anosmia report that they pretended to be able to smell as children because they thought that smelling was something that older/mature people could do, or did not understand the concept of smelling but did not want to appear different from others. When children get older, they often... |
How deep would I have to dig into the earth to stop finding life? | Pretty darn deep. If I recall correctly, organisms have been found in boreholes 4km deep, though I can't find a source for anything deeper than 2.7 km.
Here is a brief discussion of it: _URL_1_
This is also full of interesting information: _URL_0_ | [
"Life has been found at depths of 5 km in continents and 10.5 km below the ocean surface. The estimated volume of the deep biosphere is 2–2.3 billion cubic kilometers, about twice the volume of the oceans.\n",
"Like probes sent into outer space, scientific drilling is a technology used to obtain samples from plac... |
When did pornography come about in human history? | I'm adapting this from some older answers.
Here's the tricky thing about your question--do you mean 'porn' in the sense of moving visual art of people doing erotic things? Then in 1894 Edison's studio recorded a vaguely erotic short, titled Carmencita, which featured a Spanish dancer who twirled and posed on film fo... | [
"Another early form of pornography were comic books known as Tijuana bibles that began appearing in the U.S. in the 1920s and lasted until the publishing of glossy colour men's magazines commenced. These were crude hand drawn scenes often using popular characters from cartoons and culture.\n",
"Another early form... |
What's a Good Book To Learn About the Hanseatic League? | Do you read German? If so, get the standard work on the Hanseatic League: *Bracker, Jörgen / Henn, Volker / Postel, Rainer (Eds.): Die Hanse. Lebenswirklichkeit und Mythos, 3rd edition, Lübeck 1999.*, a German language collection of various texts on a diverse range of topics. I don't believe it's been translated though... | [
"His major work was his monograph \"Geschichte des Hanseatischen Bundes.\" (engl.: \"History of the Hanseatic League.\") published in three volumes 1802-1808. His research on this topic was the first modern work on the Hanseatic League. A second edition prepared by him was published post mortem in 1830. He made a h... |
What do we know about the long-term effects of nicotine, as distinct from the long-term effects of tobacco? | We do not have long term human studies yet. However, we have done studies in rats (so take that as you will).
Findings from one such study show that long term, heavy usage (twice the blood plasma level of nicotine found in heavy smokers) show **no increase "in mortality, in atherosclerosis or frequency of tumors in th... | [
"Although nicotine does play a role in acute episodes of some diseases (including stroke, impotence, and heart disease) by its stimulation of adrenaline release, which raises blood pressure, heart and respiration rate, and free fatty acids, the most serious longer term effects are more the result of the products of... |
Did the ancient Romans have a system for writing music? | They used the old Greek letter notation as well as Greek music theory. This was, as far as we can tell, a matter for the educated in theorising about music, rather than a tool for musicians to help remember and communicate musical ideas. One of the best preserved antique pieces of music is from the roman period, but it... | [
"Rome's adoption of papyrus facilitated the spread of writing and the growth of bureaucratic administration needed to govern vast territories. The efficiency of the alphabet strengthened monopolies of knowledge in a variety of ancient empires. Innis warns about the power of writing to create mental \"grooves\" whic... |
Timothy Snyder states that there is no official French history of WW2 because "more French soldiers fought on the Axis side than the Allied side."- Is this true? | So I'm not entirely sure that Snyder is being serious there? Right after he states it, he then goes on to say "OK, you didn't think that was as funny as I did." If he *is* serious, well, it is an hilarious silly thing to state. At the outbreak of war, France was able to mobilize roughly 5 *million* soldiers, across the... | [
"The complex and ambiguous situation of France from 1939 to 1945, since its military forces fought on both sides under French, British, German, Soviet, US or without uniform – often subordinated to Allied or Axis command – led to some criticism \"vis-à-vis\" its actual role and allegiance, much like with Sweden dur... |
With high magnification and low exposure, can telescopes see the shape of the nearest stars to the Sun (like the Alpha Centauri system, or Barnard's Star)? Or are these stars still too far away and appear only as points? | Larger stars can be resolved, for example [Betelgeuse](_URL_0_).
Sirius, a large and close star, when imaged with Hubble, basically looks like a point spread function. _URL_1_ | [
"This star system has an apparent visual magnitude of +3.0, making it one of the brighter stars in the constellation and hence readily visible to the naked eye. Parallax measurements from the Hipparcos mission yield a distance estimate of around from the Sun. This is a single-lined spectroscopic binary system, whic... |
how is it decided whether someone is sane or insane during a trial? | During a trial, the final decision lies with the jury (assuming you are talking about the US court system)
Since Reagan signed Insanity Defense Reform Act in 1984, it is up to defense that to prove that the defendant was not sane. Both sides can call upon so called expert witnesses (someone who is specialised in a par... | [
"Where the defendant is alleged to have been insane at the time of committing the offence, this issue can be raised in one of three ways; the defendant can claim he was insane, the defendant can raise a defence of Automatism where the judge decides it was instead insanity, or the defendant can raise a plea of dimin... |
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