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how do websites, such as _url_0_, that have no advertisements and provide a free service stay in operation and even grow larger? | Businesses and car dealerships pay to post ads. I think other groups pay as well. | [
"The sites make money through advertising or charging for premium services such as increased downloading capacity, removing any wait restrictions the site may have or prolonging how long uploaded files remain on the site. Premium services include facilities like unlimited downloading, no waiting, maximum download s... |
Why is mathematics -- something humans develop in their own heads -- so effective when it comes to describing the external, physical world? | This is sort of like asking why language is so good at describing the physical world—it's because **we develop the mathematics we need**. Mathematics is a formal tool for studying anything that obeys rules; physics obeys rules, so math is useful for studying it. | [
"Another unique aspect of human culture and thought is the development of complex methods for acquiring knowledge through observation, quantification, and verification. The scientific method has been developed to acquire knowledge of the physical world and the rules, processes and principles of which it consists, a... |
why is "w" pronounced "double u" and not "wee"? | Because historically it was a ligature (single graphics shape combining two or more letters) of two U/V. And U and V was the same letter in ancient Latin. Let's start with the classical Latin alphabet:
ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTVXYZ
There are no J as I and J were just graphical variants of the same letter. There is also... | [
"Many imported words beginning with \"w\" in English have cognates in French that start with a \"g\" or \"gu\". This is because the English word was not borrowed directly from French or Old French, but from some of the northern langue d'oïl dialects such as Picard and Norman, where the original \"w\" sound was pres... |
How correct is it to say that the IRA practically invented modern urban guerrilla warfare? How did the lessons learned by their struggle against the British affect other urban insurrections around the world? | Adapted from an old answer of mine:
The influence of Michael Collins and the pre-Irish Civil War IRA on post-1920s guerrilla campaigns is low and reached its peak in the late 1940s. Yitzhak Shamir, the leader of the Stern gang (or more officially, Lehi) and Vladimir Jabotinsky (who founded Irgun) were both influenced ... | [
"The IRA's initial strategy was to use guerrilla tactics to cause the collapse of the government of Northern Ireland and to inflict enough casualties on British forces that the British government would be forced by public opinion in Britain to withdraw from the region. This policy involved recruitment of volunteers... |
Could we deplete the earth's core of heat? | > Could we deplete the earth's core of heat?
No. Not in any realistic scenario. We are too puny. Also, the geothermal energy is slowly dissipating in space even without our help.
The equation you are using is about *ideal* gases, and the Earth core is neither of those.
More importantly, pressure by itself does not... | [
"The early formation of the Earth's dense core could have caused superheating and rapid heat loss, and the heat loss rate would slow once the mantle solidified. Heat flow from the core is necessary for maintaining the convecting outer core and the geodynamo and Earth's magnetic field, therefore primordial heat from... |
what happens when someone declares bankrupcy in us. | Don't know about people. When companies go bankrupt, it actually can help. This is an ELI5 of what happens:
0.) **why does it exist?** - the issue in bankruptcy is that there's not enough money left (in terms of assets) to pay off all of the debts the company has or is about to have at 100% of their value. So, since... | [
"On March 11, 2013, the United States designated the bank as falling under US executive order 13382, which applies to \"proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters\". The order freezes all assets, and prohibits any transactions between US entities and the bank.\n",
"In 1998, the Bank ordered... |
Did armies ever send out one champion from each side to battle it out and winner takes all, instead of having everyone fight? | Judicial duels in Russia known for a long time. According said the Arab writers, X century Amin Razi and Mukaddezi depicting tradition Russes, "when the king decides to dispute between two litigants, and they remain unhappy with his decision, then he says to them sort it out with their swords - whose sharp, that and wi... | [
"Instances of single combat are known from Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages. The champions were often combatants who represented larger, spectator groups. Such representative contests and stories thereof are known worldwide.\n",
"Typically, it takes place in the no-man's-land between the opposing armies, w... |
How come Ireland adopted the language of England, but not its religion, while Finland adopted the religion of Sweden, but not its language? | I can't speak to Finland and Sweden, but in Ireland, English was pretty heavily enforced as a language by the British colonists. Irish was prohibited in British National Schools, and the famines hit the rural areas, where Irish was a majority language, much harder than urban areas where English was more popular. There'... | [
"Swedish became Sweden's main official language on July 1, 2009, when a new language law was implemented. The issue of whether Swedish should be declared the official language has been raised in the past, and the parliament voted on the matter in 2005 but the proposal narrowly failed. The Swedish language also has ... |
how do music/video editing programs isolate vocals, frequency, pitch, etc.? | It’s pretty complex but I think what you don’t understand is that the editing softwares are not meant to isolate anything, they’re meant to take the isolated vocals and turn them into a final product. So with each recording you can edit its pitch and frequencies and do whatever other mixing you wish to do, and then you... | [
"As mentioned in the Automatic music transcription section, some commercial software can roughly track the pitch of dominant melodies in polyphonic musical recordings. The note scans are not exact, and often need to be manually edited by the user before saving to file in either a proprietary file format or in Stand... |
Why does happy instrumental music sound happy to us? | Because you have seen similar music used in contexts that were happy or meant to evoke happiness, like in movies where the protagonists experience joy. You now subconsciously associate those instrumental features with positive emotions. This sounds like a circular argument, but the process is self-amplifying, and so it... | [
"Limb also investigated the relation of emotion to creativity. He asked jazz musicians in the fMRI to improvise music they felt corresponded to the emotions in photos of a sad, neutral, and happy woman. He found that when musicians responded to happy photos, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex deactivated much more ... |
In the early days of firearms (16th and 17th centuries) how did one go about treating gunshot and cannon wounds? | Hi, not discouraging other contributions here, but you might be interested in some earlier answers
* /u/xRathke provides an overview of medical thought in [What did pre-germ theory people think was going on when a cut got infected?](_URL_2_)
* /u/staples11 in [During the buccaneering era of piracy (1650-1680), was p... | [
"Treating a wound was and remains the most crucial part of any battlefield medicine, as this is what keeps soldiers alive. As remains true on the modern battlefield, hemorrhaging and shock were the number one killers. Thus, the initial control of these two things were of the utmost importance in medieval medicine. ... |
if your pouring molten steel into a cast, what prevent the cast from melting or distorting? | By having a different melting temperature than the metal that is being poured into it. | [
"Casting removal - After the molten metal has cooled, the mold can be broken and the casting removed. Trimming and cleaning processes are required to remove any excess metal from the feed system and any sand from the mold.\n",
"Molten steel is cast into large blocks called \"blooms\". During the casting process v... |
how do they get the caramel in the caramilk? | First they form the top of the bar. Looks like an ice cube tray. They then turn it over and fill the depressions with caramel. Then they place a chocolate slab on top (and that is the bottom).
Look at the bar and you can see the seam
You owe me a carmilk now because I now crave one | [
"Crème caramel (), flan, caramel dessert, or pudim (in Portuguese speaking countries) is a custard dessert with a layer of clear caramel sauce, as opposed to crème brûlée which is custard with an added hard clear caramel layer on top.\n",
"Salted caramel is a noticeably salty variant. It was invented in 1977 by t... |
In whaling times, how were organic products preserved on board long enough to make it to market? | Whale oil itself will not mold or rot and even is fairly resistant to rancidity (more so even than most vegetable oils). This shouldn't be too surprising as it exists naturally in large volumes inside the whale and if it required a lot of upkeep or immune activity to maintain it would be very biologically costly. Typic... | [
"Wooden casks of various sizes were used to store whale oil on ships in the age of sail. Its viscous nature made sperm whale oil a particularly difficult substance to contain in staved containers and oil coopers were probably the most skilled coopers in pre-industrial cooperage. Olive oil, seed oils and other organ... |
Did all land-dwelling creatures evolve from one, the first and only, amphibious creatures? | The answer is no. Tetrapods, insects, crustations (several times), arachnids, meriopods, velvet worms, molluscs (several times), etc all invaded land separately.
> But I find it hard to believe that one amphibious creature gave rise to every land-dwelling creatures, especially when other species of fish were faced wi... | [
"There were many genera, and some of these are very well known (e.g., \"Rodhocetus\"). Known protocetids had large fore- and hindlimbs that could support the body on land, and it is likely that they lived amphibiously: in the sea and on land. It is unclear at present whether protocetids had flukes (the horizontal t... |
why do all animals, even insects, seem to go nuts over the red dot? | > Felidae (all kinds of cats from large to small) brains and eyes are geared to a) notice motion and b) play with their prey. Playing with prey is the best way to kill possibly dangerous animals... especially things like venomous snakes. Dodge in, bat the hell out of it before it can strike, dodge out. After 5 or 6 re... | [
"Up to 5% of some populations of \"Cephalotes atratus\" suffer from an infection by the tetradonematid nematode \"Myrmeconema neotropicum\". It causes the ant's abdomen to turn from black to bright red, strikingly resembling a red berry. In addition, the ant then holds it up most of the time, and it is easily rippe... |
Are Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells as advantageous as Embryonic Stem Cells, research wise? | Short answer is no. While iPS cells have a lot of potential, they simply are not as undifferentiated as ES cells. This means ES cells can be used for a wider variety of purposes more effectively. Potentially we could find a way to program them like ES cells, but it's kind of a ridiculous step when ES cells are merely a... | [
"The ethical debate about use of embryonic stem cells has stirred controversy both in the United States and abroad; although more recently these debates have lessened due to modern advances in creating induced pluripotent stem cells from adult cells. The greatest advantage for use of embryonic stem cells is the fac... |
How effective would a stirling engine that is orbiting the sun be? | It is possible. The main problems are that stuff with moving parts generally need a lot of maintenance, and that stirling engines involve gas, which is hard to keep hold of in space. It would also have to radiate the heat away from the heat sink, which isn't a fast process, but this is a problem with heat pumps in gene... | [
"The higher conversion efficiency of the Stirling cycle compared with that of radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) used in previous missions (Viking, Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini, New Horizons, and Mars Science Laboratory) would have offered an advantage of a fourfold reduction in PuO fuel, ... |
why are there so many atheists on reddit? | Reddit appeals to a younger demographic, and younger people tend to be less religious (a trend which has been ongoing for many decades). For example, 20% of Millennials (those born in 1981 or later) are not religious. [[source](_URL_0_)] | [
"Globally, some atheists also consider themselves Agnostic, Buddhist, Hindu, Jains, Taoist, or hold other related philosophical beliefs. Some, like Secular Jews and Shintoists, may indulge in some religious activities as a way of connecting with their culture, all the while being atheist. Therefore, given limited p... |
Why do some scientist think that in multiverse theory, the laws of physics would be different to our own universe? | There are many multiverse theories, but the most popular one right now is eternal inflation.
In eternal inflation the inflaton field, which is postulated to have driven the postulated inflation in the very early universe, a period of extremely rapid expansion, has spontaneously decayed to its current vacuum value. Thi... | [
"Since the current laws of physics are only known to be valid in this universe, it is possible that the laws of physics are different in parallel universes, giving a God-like entity more power. If the number of universes is unlimited, then the power of a certain God-like entity is also unlimited, since the laws of ... |
what (if any) is the practical biological purpose of my beard? | To keep you warm.
To keep dirt from you face, mouth, nose.
To act as a social signifier of post-pubescent
To make you look cool. | [
"A beard is the unshaven hair that grows on the chin, upper lip, cheeks and neck of humans and some non-human animals. In humans, usually only pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. Some women with hirsutism, a hormonal condition of excessive hairiness, may develop a beard.\n",
"A relatively small numb... |
Why is Nicolas II of Imperial Russia perceived as an incompetent ruler? | Like most topics in history, its a multi-faceted issue:
As /u/RyanGlavin stated below, he was seen as an incompetent military ruler. Not only was there the debacle with the Russo-Japanese war, but there was also his insistence to join the war effort personally as grand marshal of the troops.This was a horrible idea fo... | [
"However he was critical of the monarchy in Russia. He believed that Nicholas II was to a large degree the one responsible for the collapse of Imperial Russia in 1917. His abdication and the subsequent abdication of his brother Mikhail Alexandrovich were crucial mistakes which led to the abolition of monarchy and c... |
"Spin" of elementary particles | [Searched](_URL_2_)
Relevant [discussion](_URL_0_)
Original question by [pryomancer](_URL_1_)
> What is meant by the spin of an elementary particle?
Top comment courtesy [mufusisrad](_URL_4_)
> Spin, at least with respect to elementary particles, has no simple classical counterpart. Classically, the intrinsic an... | [
"\"Spin\" is a non-classical property of elementary particles, since classically the \"spin angular momentum\" of a material object is really just the total \"orbital\" angular momenta of the object's constituents about the rotation axis. Elementary particles are conceived as concepts which have no axis to \"spin\"... |
how come people in america need $15/hr jobs if people from asia can apparently live off ridiculous wages like $2/hr? | Accepted standards of living, and societal expectations of what you will be capable of doing.
Our standard of living requires that everyone have enough food for 3 meals a day, electricity in our homes, running water in our homes, plumbing in our homes, air conditioning, entertainments (books, tv, cable, internet, vid... | [
"However, not all Asian groups in the United States have such high wages; certain Asian groups have fared better than others in the United States labor market. East Asians from Hong Kong,Taiwan, China, Japan, and Korea have higher median wages and household income than Southeast Asian refugees from Laos and Vietnam... |
what is the difference between disk capacity and density with a ssd? | Capacity is what you really want, that's how much total storage the drive provides
Density is about how much storage we can fit in one flash chip. Higher density chips enable higher capacity drives in the same size, or drives with the same capacity but fewer chips
Density matters in the long run, it's what has enable... | [
"Areal density is used to quantify and compare different types media used in data storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical disc drives and tape drives. The current unit of measure is typically gigabits per square inch.\n",
"\"Single density\" (SD or 1D) describes the first generation of floppy disks that... |
Why have Argentine and Chilean political cultures been different? | I would say Chile's geographic isolation had a key role. Have a desert in the north and a frozen wasteland to the south tends to place the heart of the populace in the center. That eliminates the problem of regionalism that other countries at the time had. Chile never really had a caudillo problem because of that too. ... | [
"The culture of Chile reflects the population and the geographic isolation of the country in relation to the rest of South America. Since colonial times, the Chilean culture has been a mix of Spanish colonial elements with elements of indigenous (mostly Mapuche) culture, as well that of other immigrant cultures.\n"... |
If the M14 was readily available and known to be a good weapon then why was the M16 used in Vietnam? | The development and testing of the m16 is one fraught with bureaucracy and was generally mishandled by people who either: 1) had little experience with small arms design (ie generals) and 2)Those that simply wanted a rifle similar to the m1 garand with full power rifle ammo. Much of this story goes back to the initial ... | [
"The M14 remained the primary infantry rifle in Vietnam until it was replaced by the M16 in 1967, though combat engineer units kept them several years longer. Further procurement of the M14 was abruptly halted in early 1978 due to the U.S. Department of Defense report which had also stated that the AR-15 (soon to b... |
eli:5 - what is with the giant outrage of texas demanding id for voting? | Because some people argue that as these IDs require money and time to acquire, it constitutes a poll tax, which is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause as determined by the case of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966). | [
"In July 2016, a federal appeals court found that Texas's voter ID law discriminated against black and Hispanic voters because only a few types of ID were allowed; for example, military IDs and concealed carry permits were allowed, but state employee photo IDs and university photo IDs were not.\n",
"A 2014 Rice U... |
How accurate is Da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper from what people at the time would have visualized the Last Supper as? | Da Vinci's The Last Supper is a special portrayal of the biblical event because it was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan, to be placed in the dining hall of the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery, which the Duke had recently had renovated. The reason this makes it special is because Sforza requested th... | [
"\"The Last Supper\" has been the target of much speculation by writers and historical revisionists alike, usually centered on purported hidden messages or hints found within the painting, especially since the publication of Dan Brown's novel \"The Da Vinci Code\" (2003), in which one of the characters suggests tha... |
how can the fbi seize a website? | The website is stored on a server which is physically located somewhere. If it's located in the United States then the FBI can get a warrant to take possession of it (or at least the section of it that the website is on) to shut the service down. If it's located in another country then they have to cooperate with the l... | [
"The FBI's Investigative Data Warehouse contains an \"Open Source News Library\". This library contains news gathered by the TIDES program. The information is collected from dozens of public websites all over the world, such as Ha'aretz, Pravda, the Jordan Times, The People's Daily, \"The Washington Post\", and oth... |
What would a explosion look like in space? | im by no means an expert on the subject, but I have a couple links that may interest you. look into [Starfish Prime.](_URL_1_) it was part of a series of High Altitude Nuclear Tests carried out by the US. This one in particular was conducted 400km above Earth. The highest ever recorded nuclear test was also conducted b... | [
"Carolyn Porco of NASA was consulted on the planetary science and imagery. The animators realistically recreated what an explosion would look like in space: short blasts, which suck inward and leave debris from a ship floating. For shots of an imploding planet, the same explosion program was used to simulate it bre... |
Does plastic deteriorate/lose integrity over time? | Yes, and it really depends on the plastic.
Some plastics react to moisture or oxygen in the atmosphere and will break down over time. These are fairly rare and not used as commodity plastics yet, but occasionally you'll come across that biodegradable cup where this applies.
Most plastics will degrade upon exposure t... | [
"The cause of deterioration regarding plastics can be linked to age, chemical composition, storage, and improper handling of the objects. Conservators are in place to slow down the processes of deterioration by considering the 4 leading caused of deterioration:\n",
"Biodegradable plastics have become an issue bec... |
does it rain over all the oceans and seas? are any areas over an ocean or a sea classified as deserts? | There are definitely bodies of water which get rained on more or less depending on where they are. The amount of precipitation which falls in the arctic is very small compared to that which falls in a tropical region. Areas of ocean which are downwind from deserts also get very little direct precipitation.
Oceans and ... | [
"Desert areas situated along the west coasts of continents at tropical or near-tropical locations characterized by frequent fog and low clouds, despite the fact that these places rank among the driest on earth in terms of actual precipitation received are labelled \"BWn\" with the n denoting a climate characterized... |
How do NASA scientists take such clear long exposure photographs of Nebulas and galaxies, if the Earth is constantly rotating itself and around the sun? | Telescopes are motorized to track a location in the sky as the Earth rotates under them.
The [Wikipedia article on equatorial mounts](_URL_0_) has a bunch of examples and pictures of telescope mounts.
Even relatively small backyard telescopes can have motorized mounts, for amateur astronomers who want to take long du... | [
"NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope includes instruments for obtaining both images and spectra of light emitted by PAHs associated with star formation. These images can trace the surface of star-forming clouds in our own galaxy or identify star forming galaxies in the distant universe.\n",
"The astronomers use observ... |
How does cocaine get into the hair structure through use and environmental exposure? | > is water soluble, why isn't it coming out in the water? Why is permeating the hair further?
I can't answer your other questions, but keep in mind there is a lot of water in the human body, inside cells and tissue and bodily fluids etc. Just googling it hair is apparently 10 - 13% water. Might be wrong but I think a... | [
"Human hair is composed largely of keratin protein, which has a negative ionic charge, giving hair a negative ionic charge as well. As chemistry dictates, oppositely charged compounds attract and compounds with the same charge repel each other. Most hair dyes are positively charged, helping them attach to the negat... |
Could a hydrogen car have a water dispenser inside the car? | The water produced by this process would be pure, and would need to have minerals added to it to make it safe for regular human consumption _URL_0_ | [
"In June 2008, Japanese company Genepax unveiled a car it claimed ran on only water and air, and many news outlets dubbed the vehicle a \"water-fuel car\". The company said it \"cannot [reveal] the core part of this invention\" yet, but it disclosed that the system used an onboard energy generator, which it called ... |
Why can't herbivores eat meat, and why can't carnivores eat plants? | Depends. The difference is very rarely psychological. The main difference is the digestive systems in place and the energy demands of the animal.
Deriving energy from plants is hard work thanks to cellulose and a whole heap of other barriers including poisons. Herbivores therefore either need to be specialists and foc... | [
"Herbivores form an important link in the food chain because they consume plants in order to digest the carbohydrates photosynthetically produced by a plant. Carnivores in turn consume herbivores for the same reason, while omnivores can obtain their nutrients from either plants or animals. Due to a herbivore's abil... |
How did elite Westerners entertain long-term visitors before the twentieth century? | This is right at the end of the 19th century, in the Gilded Age in America, but [The Biltmore Estate](_URL_0_) gives you a good idea of how the tippiest-top of the elite would entertain. I visited about a year ago so it's on my mind.
While you were staying with the Vanderbilts you could expect:
- formal dining ever... | [
"The Western adventures of famous figures, like Theodore Roosevelt, were made available to paying guests from cities of the East, called \"dudes\" in the West. In the early years, the transcontinental railroad network brought paying visitors to a local depot, where a wagon or buggy would be waiting to transport peo... |
why is it ok to insult religion in name of freedom of speech, yet not ok to be a racist? | Being racist is also protected by free speech.
It is illegal to discriminate based on race or ethnicity, but you are fully allowed to think, speak, draw or do anything you like that is racist so long as you do not directly harm or call other to harm someone. | [
"Critics claimed the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 could hinder freedom of speech. Leaders of major religions as well as non-religious groups such as the National Secular Society and English PEN spoke out in order to campaign against the Bill. Comedians and satirists also fear prosecution for their work. How... |
Historians who read languages for which there is no known pronunciation, or for which there are large gaps in pronunciation, how do you do it? | This is exactly what I work on (and I mean *exactly*). Most Egyptian texts are written in a phase of the language called Middle Egyptian. Middle Egyptian was only spoken until the mid second millennium BCE, but the written language continued to be used for formal writing for the remainder of Egyptian pharaonic history.... | [
"Several languages are only known by mention in historical documents or from only a few names or words. It cannot be determined that these languages actually existed or that the few recorded words are actually of known or unknown languages. Some may simply be from a historian's errors. Others are of known people wi... |
was fighting in ice hockey allowed since the beginning of this sport, or was it introduced later - and if so how that happened. | It's not allowed. That's why there are penalties for fighting.
Fighting is a result, usually, of three things.
1. Get your team to raise their game. I'm willing to drop gloves and get into a fight. What are you willing to do to get our team back into the game?
2. Defend a team mate. That little a-hole just unloade... | [
"Fighting has been a part of ice hockey since the sport's rise in popularity in 19th century Canada. There are a number of theories behind the integration of fighting into the game; the most common is that the relative lack of rules in the early history of hockey encouraged physical intimidation and control. Other ... |
Why did germanic migrants lose more of their language in favour of Latin? | An answer ([Why are the spanish and french not considered Germanic](_URL_0_); u/Libertat) I posted some time ago might provide with some elements of response.
Basically, it's doubtful that each Barbarian coalition had its own "national" language, being made up from the IInd century of various (indigenous or migrating... | [
"The demise of Vulgar Latin in the face of Anglo-Saxon settlement is very different from the fate of the language in other areas of Western Europe which were subject to Germanic migration, like France, Italy and Spain, where Latin and the Romance languages continued. The likely reason is that in Britain there was a... |
why does damage to eyes not become apparent immediately and takes time ranging from a night's sleep to years to show up? | It's like a sunburn. At first, it's just all red and painful (but your retina has no pain receptors, so it doesn't hurt). The next day, your skin is literally falling off your body. In that time, the damaged cells were figuring out that irreparable damage had occurred and that they might be cancerous. When they do, the... | [
"Normal eyes grow during the day and shrink during the night, but occluded eyes are shown to grow both during the day and the night. Because of this, FDM is a result of the lack of growth inhibition at night rather than the expected excessive growth during the day, when the actual light deprivation occurred. Elevat... |
why does the us senate always seem so empty? | Most of them are doing their jobs. Their jobs just have very little to do with the debate floor. Think about it, how inefficient is it to have one guy speak to a room of a hundred about some issue while everyone else has to feign attention. During that time a politician could be meeting with lobbyist, working on acquir... | [
"The Senate is widely considered both a more deliberative and more prestigious body than the House of Representatives due to its longer terms, smaller size, and statewide constituencies, which historically led to a more collegial and less partisan atmosphere. The presiding officer of the Senate is the vice presiden... |
can someone explain the difference between a university and a technical school? | In the US, technical schools focus mainly on job training and associates degrees in specific fields. They're great if you want to be a plumber, electrician, automotive tech, or some other sort of skilled trade.
There may be a stigma against the sort of jobs you'll likely be training for. You wouldn't be able to trai... | [
"University education includes teaching, research, and social services activities, and it includes both the undergraduate level (sometimes referred to as tertiary education) and the graduate (or postgraduate) level (sometimes referred to as graduate school). Some universities are composed of several colleges.\n",
... |
hare krishna | They are a branch of Hinduism that started in New York in the 1960's. Sort of.
Spiritually they try to grow closer to the Supreme Lord Krishna, through various methods.
They require members to be vegetarians and abstain from 'illicit' sex, gambling and intoxicants. They highly regard four virtues: self-control, mercy... | [
"Krishna is the son of a rich business couple (Kanta Rao and Pandari Bai). Bharathi is also a daughter of another rich man (Rao Gopal Rao). Krishna has grown up without knowing or facing any problems and gets a new car. While driving in competition with his friend Satyam (Satyanarayana), he accidentally kills Balai... |
why has no one crossed a dandelion with a carrot or parsnip, thus creating a nutritious vegetable that grows wild as a weed? | A few things. First, dandelions *are* nutritious vegetables that you can eat lots of ways.
Second, a weed is just any unwanted plant - they typically grow more aggressively than cultivated plants because they are evolved specifically for the environment in which they are found and because they don't waste any energy p... | [
"There are several diseases that can reduce the yield and market value of carrots. The most devastating carrot disease is \"Alternaria\" leaf blight, which has been known to eradicate entire crops. A bacterial leaf blight caused by \"Xanthomonas campestris\" can also be destructive in warm, humid areas. Root knot n... |
Why does the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall baffle cosmologists, but not its namesake constellations? | The constellations are merely local stars visible from earth and have no relation to the galaxy structure other than direction. The galaxy structure is behind the stars that make up the constellations and hence from our observational point of view "in" those constellations the same way a distant lighthouse is in a wind... | [
"Michael Speidel associates Mithras with the constellation of Orion because of the proximity to Taurus, and the consistent nature of the depiction of the figure as having wide shoulders, a garment flared at the hem, and narrowed at the waist with a belt, thus taking on the form of the constellation.\n",
"There wa... |
How does the fact that energy is quantized explain blackbody radiation? | If you assume that EM radiation at thermal equilibrium can have arbitrary energy in each mode, you run into an ultraviolet divergence (call the ultraviolet catastrophe). The total energy goes like ω^(2), integrated from zero to infinity, which is divergent.
If you assume that radiation can only be absorbed and emitted... | [
"At the same time, investigations of blackbody radiation carried out over four decades (1860–1900) by various researchers culminated in Max Planck's hypothesis that the energy of \"any\" system that absorbs or emits electromagnetic radiation of frequency \"ν\" is an integer multiple of an energy quantum . As shown ... |
how does a barometer actually measure air pressure? | Inside a barometer is a sealed can, containing air. This makes it a bit like a metal balloon in that air is trapped, and can neither flow in or out of the can.
If the air pressure outside of the can changes, it'll squash the can slightly. If the air pressure drops, the can will expand. It's these changes in shape that... | [
"A barometer is a scientific instrument that is used to measure air pressure in a certain environment. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather. Many measurements of air pressure are used within surface weather analysis to help find surface troughs, pressure systems and frontal boundaries.\n... |
Does special relativity preclude multiple time dimensions? | No, it doesn't. Special relativity admits a simple generalization to p time dimensions and q space dimensions by replacing the Lorentz group with SO(p,q), the group of transformations that preserve the line element:
ds^2 = (dt^1 )^2 + ... + (dt^p )^2 - (dx^2 )^2 - ... - (dx^q )^2
The real problem is that multiple tim... | [
"where are the differentials of the four spacetime dimensions. This suggests a deep theoretical insight: special relativity is simply a rotational symmetry of our spacetime, analogous to the rotational symmetry of Euclidean space (see Fig. 10‑1). Just as Euclidean space uses a Euclidean metric, so spacetime uses a ... |
how did all matter fit into an area less than an atom at the beginning of time? | We don't know! But it probably wasn't really what we would consider to be "matter" at that point anyway as even subatomic particles wouldn't have been precipitated out yet. | [
"It is thought that the early universe began with a nearly uniform distribution (each particle an equal distance from the next) of matter and dark matter. The dark matter then began to clump together under gravitational attraction due to the initial density perturbation spectrum caused by quantum fluctuations. This... |
Is there a historical reason why, in regards to U.S. currency, the coin denominations are 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 while the dollar denominations are 1, 5, 10, *20*, 50? | The 25c denomination is historically derived from the usage of the Spanish colonial 8 reale or "Spanish Dollar" coin in British colonial America. The Spanish Dollar (and smaller denominations such as the 4 reale, 2 reale or quarter dollar, 1 reale, and half reale) is estimated by some to have comprised half the coinag... | [
"The denomination of two dollars was authorized under a congressional act, and first issued in March 1862. The denomination was continuously used until 1966; by this time the United States Note was the only remaining class of U.S. currency the two-dollar bill was assigned to. In August 1966, the Treasury Department... |
why gas mileage goes up the slower you go | Your gas mileage depends more on the RPMs (rotations per minute) than anything. Have you ever noticed when the pedal is pushed down, the RPM meter goes up? Well, that's when more gas is spent. Because not only is gas being spent on making the wheels turn, but it's being spent on how fast the wheels turn. That's why whe... | [
"The more cars there are on the road, the more pollution is emitted into the air. This is because motor vehicles are one of the main sources of pollution in the world. On the other hand, there is an inverse relationship between the moving speed of traffic and air pollution. The slower the traffic moves, the more po... |
Why is the fall of the Mississippi River considered a great blow to the Confederacy? | You are correct in the assertion that geographically, the Confederacy wasn't split in "half," but it was irreparably split. Think of the consequences had the British been successful in controlling the entire Hudson River and split New England from the other colonies. Geographically it wasn't half, but would have been ... | [
"No major battles were fought in or near the city, but the Mississippi River was a vital highway during the war. Divided loyalties to the Union and Confederacy caused rifts in some families in St. Louis. This divide remained consistent throughout the entirety of the war. Though many believed in the cause of aboliti... |
the usps is struggling financially and therefore eliminating saturday deliveries, while ups and fedex are doing just fine. why doesn't the usps try and model itself after them? | Got it backwards, kind of. UPS, Fedex and other carriers were modeled after the USPS.
As for why the USPS is struggling, the answer is that the USPS has an albatross around its neck that nobody else has: In 2006, the Congress — *God* knows why — passed a law requiring the USPS to shovel *vast* sums of money into a fun... | [
"FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS) directly compete with USPS Express Mail and package delivery services, making nationwide deliveries of urgent letters and packages. Due to the postal monopoly, they are not allowed to deliver non-urgent letters and may not directly ship to U.S. Mail boxes at residential and co... |
how can someone open a credit card under my name. | Did he actually open it under your name? If he did, you would see the bank summary and transactions as far as I know. He probably added you as an authorized card holder to one of his accounts. I have cards from my parents that are like that | [
"A credit card issuing company, such as a bank or credit union, enters into agreements with merchants for them to accept their credit cards. Merchants often advertise which cards they accept by displaying acceptance marks – generally derived from logos – or this may be communicated in signage in the establishment o... |
How did Werner Van Braun feel about being taken to the US? | German scientists were taken to some sanatorium at Gorodomlya island at Seligyor lake, they lived there much more comfortably than most of Soviet scientists. They actually had made a contract to work there and were allowed to take with them wives (or mistresses) and children. German engineers were paid quite well and w... | [
"Von Braun and members of his team decided to surrender to the United States military to ensure they were not captured by the advancing Soviets or shot by the Nazis to prevent their capture. They came to the United States via Operation Paperclip. The Army first assigned the Germans to teach German missile technolog... |
Is it possible to culture healthy gut bacteria outside of the body with the intention of reintroducing it? | There's actually a technique called "[poop transplant](_URL_0_)" where they transfer poop from a na healthy person to the patient, they do this to restore the microbic biome in the patient's guts, usually is done after something nasty happened to the patient's bacteria (example: chemotherapy). | [
"In addition to surviving within the gut of an organism, \"L.Brevis\" can also act to inhibit the pathogenic effects of certain gut pathogens and can also proliferate in the presence of additional bacteria. Some strains are resistant to certain antibiotics, specifically erythromycin and clindamycin. This antibiotic... |
how did the notion of sharing blood with family members came about in ancient and medieval times? | Even before our understanding of DNA, there was still a conception and understanding of inherited traits. At the time, the blood was considered the essence of a person's life and contained your personality.
Since offspring inherited a parent's physical and behavioral traits, it is not a big leap to suggest they inheri... | [
"Blood brothers among larger groups were common in ancient Southeastern Europe where, for example, whole companies of soldiers would become one family through the ceremony. It was perhaps most prevalent in the Balkans during the Ottoman era, as it helped the oppressed people to fight the enemy more effectively; blo... |
Would Jesus have been educated or familiar with the teachings of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle? What do we know about the education of young Jews of his time period? | So the simple answer to this would be: probably not. The longer answer is, in order for Jesus to have studied these philosophers, even on a basic level, he would have had to have learned how to speak, read, and write ancient Greek, and while there is a legitimate chance he could have spoken greek, he likely didn't lear... | [
"In another text, Josephus the first-century Romano-Jewish scholar claimed that Clearchus has reported a dialogue with Aristotle, where the philosopher states that the Hebrews were descendants of the Indian philosophers:\n",
"In responding to a series of questions by Jones as to why God would \"randomly decide to... |
Is it true that Kruschev wrote in his memoirs that during the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK told him that the military might overthrow him? | Hi. I'm not a historian but I am reading [Tim Weiner's *Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA*](_URL_1_). Here are a few thoughts.
* Weiner writes about an Oval Office conversation on October 27, the day before the crisis was resolved, in which Robert McNamara burst into the office to report that the U2 was shot dow... | [
"Kennedy's Oval Office telephone conversation with Eisenhower soon after Khrushchev's message arrived revealed that the President was planning to use the Cuban Missile Crisis to escalate tensions with Khrushchev and in the long run, Cuba as well. The President also claimed that he thought the crisis would result in... |
Why is a dust particle floating upward in my room? | Air is still circulating in the room. If it weren't, then all of the air molecules would collect around the ground and there would be big troubles for us. | [
"In 1827, the British botanist Robert Brown observed that dust particles inside pollen grains floating in water constantly jiggled about for no apparent reason. In 1905, Albert Einstein theorized that this Brownian motion was caused by the water molecules continuously knocking the grains about, and developed a hypo... |
how come if a car sits for an extended period outside, the tires get dry rot, but the tires on my daily driver which sits outside all the time don't? | Because tyres work via friction on the road. Friction generates heat. Heat cycling a tyre causes chemicals used in the curing of the tyre to be released which stops them from cracking/rotting. Tyres that do not get heat cycled by driving the chemicals in the tyre remain in one place.
You can see this on motorbikes esp... | [
"A literal flat spot can occur on car tires if the vehicle is parked without moving for some time (generally longer than a week), and the tire deformation at the bottom of the wheel becomes semi-permanent. The flat spot gradually relieves itself when the car is driven but can temporarily give similar symptoms to an... |
How and why did so many of the Buddhist monastic orders and sects that took root in Asia become divorced from meditation as a cornerstone of the religion/practice? | It was not the 'cornerstone' for many. There are other parts of the Noble Eightfold Path, after all. And there are many 'Dharma doors': devotion, faith, charity, compassion, ethical behavior, the path of study, the path of shamanism, the path of work, the path of yoga, lay and monastic paths, social and hermetic paths.... | [
"East Asian Buddhist monastics generally follow the monastic rule known as the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya. One major exception is some schools of Japanese Buddhism where Buddhist clergy sometimes marry, without following the traditional monastic code or Vinaya. This developed during the Meiji Restoration, when a nationwi... |
How did CollegeBoard manage to get its SAT and AP tests to be such important steps in getting into most universities in the US? | The short answer to your question is that the College Board is the Old Boys Club in education made tangible.
The College Board (originally called the College Entrance Examination Board) is basically one of the first educational think-tanks in this country, founded in 1899 by educational leaders including Nicholas Mur... | [
"Many colleges use the SAT Subject Tests for admission, course placement, and to advise students about course selection. Some colleges specify the SAT Subject Tests that they require for admission or placement; others allow applicants to choose which tests to take. Students typically choose which tests to take depe... |
How surprising was the American military's dominance over Iraq in the Gulf War? | Well for one thing, observers were looking at what seemed to be building up to a massive scale conflict and Iraq's military was certainly nothing to sneeze at.
We have the gift of hindsight and many today seem to consider Iraq's military forces as weak, incompetent or 'not standing a chance' against US/UN coalition f... | [
"The US role in the Gulf War was very significant. When Iraq decided to invade another Arab country, Kuwait, several Arab states decided to enter to free Kuwait; the US adopted these States, and headed the coalition forces, which gave the US the image of a liberator, especially among the rich Arab states of Saudi A... |
If I smashed my hand with a hammer, and someone cut my hand off instantly after, would I still feel the pain from the broken hand? | This question doesn't have anything to do with Phantom Pains. I'm not sure why it's the top voted comment right now. It has everything to do with how neurons conduct impulses.
When you smash your finger, the sensory neurons in that [dermatome](_URL_0_) are stimulated and send a signal of pain to your brain. You bra... | [
"A hammer may cause significant injury if it strikes the body. Both manual and powered hammers can cause peripheral neuropathy or a variety of other ailments when used improperly. Awkward handles can cause repetitive stress injury (RSI) to hand and arm joints, and uncontrolled shock waves from repeated impacts can ... |
why was it a trend to add 2000 and 3000 to the end of products? | There was a time when year 2000 was the future. | [
"It is quite possible that new sizes will continue to appear and disappear. One possible reason that a particular manufacturer may use a new size is to discourage use of third-party power supplies, either for technical reasons or to force use of their own accessories, or both.\n",
"The Commission concluded that m... |
Can electromagnetic radiation create sound? | Your definitions are a little hazy. On one end of the spectrum you have radio waves (which you can't hear directly...try listening now) on the other end you have gamma rays (which silently irradiate you). However if radio waves travel through the medium of a crystal radio you can definitely hear them. There is also ... | [
"Theories on the generation of these sounds may partially explain them. For example, scientists at NASA suggested that the turbulent ionized wake of a meteor interacts with Earth's magnetic field, generating pulses of radio waves. As the trail dissipates, megawatts of electromagnetic power could be released, with a... |
with websites using shortened links(reddit, youtube, twitter ect), why do they still use the full link at all? | It's just semantic. With the long URL, you can tell what subreddit it's in and what the title of the post is. You only need the thread ID to grab the thread's data, but it doesn't mean anything to any of us because we aren't relational databases. | [
"The company uses HTTP 301 redirects for its links. The shortcuts are intended to be permanent and cannot be changed once they are created. URLs that are shortened with the bitly service use the codice_3 domain or any other generic domain that the service offers. Information about any short bitly URL codice_4 is av... |
From an infantryman's perspective, what war from the beginning of the 20th century to the present has been the most horrific? | I think this will be almost a matter of taste. In chronological order, and taking no stance on which one is worst:
* The Boer war is notoriously the last in which the British Army suffered more casualties from disease than from combat. Also where concentration camps were invented, although this perhaps didn't bother t... | [
"World War II is a prime example of paramount number of military operations with a long history of military conflict involving 30 countries, lasting from 1939 to 1945 and being the deadliest wars, killing over 70 million people across the globe. There are many factors that contributed to World War II which were the... |
Do wild animals get physical addictions to substances? | They certainly *can*, though I have no benchmark for how common this is in most species.
There is plenty of documentation for various animals seeking out psychoactive substances on the semi-regular. Common ones include preferential selection of fermented fruit over newly fallen material for the purpose of getting dru... | [
"Animal models, especially rats and mice, are used for many types of biological research. The animal models of addiction are particularly useful because animals that are addicted to a substance show behaviors similar to human addicts. This implies that the structural changes that can be observed after the animal in... |
In the 1800s in "wild west" America were there neighborhoods that people lived in similar to today? Or were there singular houses spread out randomly? | The West is an enormous place so generalizations are difficult to make. That said, the majority of the region was and continues to be largely urban in its settlement. Since most people in the nineteenth century did not have a horse (contrary to the Hollywood-based stereotype), people had to be able to walk to work, sho... | [
"While there are houses on Fairfield Avenue that date from the nineteenth century, the majority of the single and multi-family houses in the South West neighborhood were built between the 1940s-1960s. Recognizable patterns of American vernacular architecture predominate in the South West, including small colonial r... |
Can someone elaborate on the natural gas pipelines of the Han dynasty? | [You might find this interesting.](_URL_1_) Can't say I know much more than that, but I recall Needham mentioning the same thing in one of his books on China. You can download his books [here](_URL_0_) if you're interested. Sorry for the short answer and I haven't read RKG's book, but this is something right? Maybe /u/... | [
"Natural gas was discovered accidentally in ancient China, as it resulted from the drilling for brines. Natural gas was first used by the Chinese in about 500 BCE (possibly even 1000 BCE). They discovered a way to transport gas seeping from the ground in crude pipelines of bamboo to where it was used to boil salt w... |
What is Mitochondrial Decay? Is this real? | Mitochondrial DNA decay is a weak argument against evolution. Creationists are still looking at developing sciences and demanding immediate proof for "gaps" in scientific knowledge.
The primary role of mitochondria is to increase the energy extraction from glucose with cellular respiration by about 16 times over an... | [
"Mitochondrial theory of aging was first proposed in 1978, and shortly thereafter the Mitochondrial free radical theory of aging was introduced in 1980. The theory implicates the mitochondria as the chief target of radical damage, since there is a known chemical mechanism by which mitochondria can produce Reactive ... |
how does a website know i mistyped my card number before i even click “place order”? | Part of the card number identifies the type of card so it can tell immediately if you have tried to put a debit card instead of a credit card (or vice versa) or if that part of the number doesn't match any type of card. | [
"Marked cards are printed or altered so that the cheater can know the value of specific cards while only looking at the back. Ways of marking are too numerous to mention, but there are certain broad types. A common way of marking cards involves marks on a round design on the card so as to be read like a clock (an a... |
How do molecules such as ATP, mRNA and proteins, transport around the cell? | Proteins bind a host of other proteins that both direct their transport and physically move them throughout the cell. Freshly translated proteins are loaded into little structures known as vesicles, these vesicles are bound by 'motor' proteins that physically walk up and down long polymerised tracks known as microtubul... | [
"Mechanism of transport. A molecule will bind to a transporter protein, altering its shape. The change of shape or other added substances such as ATP will, in turn, cause the transport protein to alter its shape and release the molecule onto the other side of the cell membrane. \n",
"Mitochondrial membrane tran... |
The need for air conditioners to have a solid barrier between inside and outside... | An AC doesn't make "cold" out of nothing. In reality there is no such thing as making cold. What it does is separate hot from cold. So cold air comes out one side, and hot air comes out the other. If there is no barrier. the inefficiencies of the whole process would actually make the room hotter.
TL;DR - It would ... | [
"Some buildings designed with sustainable architecture principles may use airtight technologies to conserve energy. Under some low energy building, passive house, low-energy house, self-sufficient homes, zero energy building, and superinsulation standards, structures must be more air-tight than other lesser standar... |
why iron is considered the most 'stable' element. wouldnt helium or the inert gases be it? | It’s a different kind of stable. Helium is stable since it doesn’t react with other elements, while iron is stable in the way that if you have a single iron atom, it isn’t going to fall apart. | [
"Because of the common occurrence of those two elements in the universe, possible compounds of hydrogen and iron have attracted attention. A few molecular compounds have been detected in extreme environments (such as stellar atmospheres) or detected in small amounts at very low temperatures. The two elements form a... |
is there an actual law stating that the opposite genders aren't allowed to go into the other's restroom in a public space, or is it just a common courtesy being practiced? | I dont think there's any law. I was at Belmont a few years ago to see Smarty Jones, there was a record breaking crowd there. I am in the mens room taking a pee as some nice looking well dressed girl walks right past me, as I am standing in the urinal. Jeezus that freaked me out. I told her what the hell! and she's like... | [
"An area of legal concern for transgender people is access to restrooms which are segregated by gender. Transgender people have, in the past, been asked for legal identification while entering or using a gendered restroom. Recent legislation has moved in contradictory directions. On one hand, non-discrimination law... |
why is it i feel more comfortable walking around while im on phone? am i alone in this? | I do the same thing and have always wondered why. I always guessed that it was because it's a habit to move away from other people while talking on the phone as to not be rude. | [
"Due to the proliferation of smart phone applications performed while walking, \"texting while walking\" or \"wexting\" is the increasing practice of people being transfixed to their mobile device without looking in any direction but their personal screen while walking. First coined reference in 2015 in New York fr... |
What two ethnic groups are genetically farthest from each other? | I don't know which specific groups, but at least one of them, and maybe both, would be associated with sub-Saharan Africa. All of the populations associated with other parts of the world would have diverged more recently, ie. after having migrated farther away, and are therefore more closely related to each other. [Her... | [
"A 1994 study by Cavalli-Sforza and colleagues evaluated genetic distances among 42 native populations based on 120 blood polymorphisms. The populations were grouped into nine clusters: African (sub-Saharan), Caucasoid (European), Caucasoid (extra-European), northern Mongoloid (excluding Arctic populations), northe... |
why are spray bottles cold, instead of hot, to the touch? | 1. they aren't hot or cold when resting. If they stayed hot while under pressure then you'd have just discovered infinite energy! The bottle may _feel_ cold because it absorbs heat readily (e.g. it's made of aluminum).
2. you may be feeling the bottle after it has lowered its pressure. The bottle will become - as you... | [
"A spray bottle is a bottle that can squirt, spray or mist fluids. A common use for spray bottles is dispensing cool cleaners, cosmetics, and chemical specialties. Another wide use of spray bottles is mixing down concentrates such as pine oil with water.\n",
"Heavier than plastic, stainless steel or aluminum bott... |
why do we have to go through us customs in canada, but not the canadian customs in the us? | It used to be that you went though US customs in the US, and Canadian customs in Canada. Some smaller airports continue to work this way.
But then the US introduced customs pre-clearing, so instead of checking after you've arrived in the USA, the check everything before you get there. | [
"Canada and the United States have the world's largest trading relationship, with huge quantities of goods and people flowing across the border each year. Since the 1987 Canada–United States Free Trade Agreement, there have been no tariffs on most goods passed between the two countries.\n",
"The U.S. maintains im... |
ocams razor and the burden of proof | **Occam's razor:** The original, from William of Occam, is: *"plurality should not be posited without necessity."* This means that you shouldn't add assumptions that are not needed to explain something.
Nowadays it is used to say that, of several possible explanations, the simpler one should be preferred, because it ... | [
"Occam's razor is not an embargo against the positing of any kind of entity, or a recommendation of the simplest theory come what may. Occam's razor is used to adjudicate between theories that have already passed \"theoretical scrutiny\" tests and are equally well-supported by evidence. Furthermore, it may be used ... |
From your period of expertise, what is a human trait that was revered, held in high regard or even just generally accepted that would typically be looked down upon today? | There is absolutely no way that the media would have given FDR the same consideration of his disability that they did in the 1930's and 40's. Even when he was "walking" you could tell something was wrong. Many people knew he had problems, but the full extent of his disability was relatively well hidden. Also, the media... | [
"BULLET::::- Cicero questions why, despite the fact that many people have exceptional abilities, there are so few exceptional orators. Many are the examples of war leaders, and will continue to be throughout history, but only a handful of great orators.\n",
"'(He) was a remarkable person who achieved great things... |
what happens to a copyright when the company that holds it goes out of business? | The rights would be considered an asset by the liquidators and sold in order to pay creditors | [
"The Copyright Act of 1976 gives copyright owners control over most, if not all, activities of conceivable commercial value. The statute provides that the owner of a copyright has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: \n",
"The owner of copyright may assign the copyright (s. 14) or gra... |
Where did Western Europe get its natural gas during the Cold War? | If I may add a few supplementary points to u/kieslowskifan 's answer...
At the beginning of the Cold War period, natural gas was not in wide usage as a fuel in Western Europe. Coal gas was made in gasworks local to many towns and cities, then piped to homes. The USA moved from coal gas to natural gas earlier than ... | [
"Although oil and gas were the primary Soviet exports to Western Europe, they represented only a small percentage of Western Europe's substantial fuel imports: Soviet oil provided 3 percent and natural gas 2 percent of the energy consumed in Western Europe. The completion of the Urengoy-Uzhgorod export pipeline pro... |
why do objects that are the same temperature as our average body temperature feel hotter than our hand when we touch them? | Because 37 degrees is the body core temperature. Your fingertips are often colder than that, especially the skin, where your thermoceptors are. | [
"When a person touches a hot object and withdraws their hand from it without actively thinking about it, the heat stimulates temperature and pain receptors in the skin, triggering a sensory impulse that travels to the central nervous system. The sensory neuron then synapses with interneurons that connect to motor n... |
Sleeping with music playing | In general, noise throughout the night is disruptive to sleep, especially if the noise level is highly variable, e.g., occasional loud noises. However, a steady background noise (e.g., white noise) can be beneficial to sleep quality if the environment is inherently noisy, e.g., [the ICU of a hospital](_URL_0_). Of cour... | [
"\"Sleeping\" is a song by The Band, first released on their 1970 album \"Stage Fright\". It was also released as the B-side to the \"Stage Fright\" single. It was co-written by Robbie Robertson and Richard Manuel. This and “Just Another Whistle Stop” are the only two songs Manuel receives credit for on the album. ... |
Why are creatures more energy efficient the larger they become? | At least for warm-blooded animals, surface area to volume, and heat loss are significant factors. Mammals, for example, keep a body temperature that is almost always warmer than their surroundings.
Imagine you have a cube mouse, 1 meter x 1 meter x 1 meter. This mouse has a volume of 1m^3, and a total surface area o... | [
"For example, larger organisms find it easier to avoid or fight off predators and capture prey, to reproduce, to kill competitors, to survive temporary lean times, and to resist rapid climatic changes. They may also potentially benefit from better thermal efficiency, increased intelligence, and a longer lifespan.\n... |
How did the armies of Genghis Khan handle logistics? | First I would recommend looking at Mongol culture and lifestyle. The Mongols come from a harsh steppe, and had a strong nomadic culture. It's cold at night, and hot during the day. The land is generally pretty terrible for farming, and there aren't many forests or trees around to cut up to build stuff with. Water is pr... | [
"Each archer had at least one extra horse – there was an average five horses per man – thus the entire army could move with astounding rapidity. Moreover, since horse milk and horse blood were the staples of the Mongolian diet, Genghis' horse-herds functioned not just as his means of movement but as his logistical ... |
how are deisel-electric engines more energy efficient than direct-drive deisel engines? | The diesel motor can run constantly at its most efficient rpm to charge the battery, rather than having to scale up and down as the vehicle accellerates. You can also get benefits from regenerative braking. | [
"When poor efficiency in a VFD powered motor has been investigated, in every case documented to date, the root cause for the loss in efficiency was either improper installation or a failure to adhere to best practices. Almost universally, a VFD increases the efficiency of a system and reduces operating costs.\n",
... |
why do i find it so hard to change my eating habits? how do i get myself to like eating something? | The way I see it is that the keyword is habit. It's amazing how closely related food and smells are to conditioning, think Pavlovian conditioning and the salivating dogs. When we eat or smell something high in fat or sugar our brain releases chemicals, most of them feel good. Seeing many of us have a choice in our f... | [
"There are multiple parts of an elderly person's life that can affect their preferences in foods. Aspects like the environment, mental & physical health, and lifestyle choices are all contributing to the way a person decides on what foods they happen to like or dislike.\n",
"Cognitive behavioural therapy, individ... |
Was there a period in the 19th century when Portugal was essentially governed from Brazil? | You are correct. But as you might guess the situation was far more complicated than that.
In 1803 the UK and France went back to war. Portugal was a long standing ally of England, but wanted no part of war with Napoleon. So the regent João (later João VI) tried to walk a line of neutrality between them. João was in a ... | [
"In 1808, the Portuguese Court was transferred to Brazil as direct consequence of the invasion of Portugal during the Napoleonic Wars. The office of Viceroy of Brazil ceased to exist upon the arrival of the Royal Family in Rio de Janeiro, since the Prince Regent, the future King Jonh VI, assumed personal control of... |
why does steam/valve insist that linux is the future of gaming? | There are several reasons for Valve pushing Linux or specifically SteamOS.
First reason is streamlined PC gaming, providing a more console like experience where everything just (usually) works. I.e. by taking all the weird crap people often have installed on their Windows machines out of the loop and instead just prov... | [
"During a panel at LinuxCon in 2013, Valve co-founder and executive director Gabe Newell stated that he believed \"Linux and open source are the future of gaming\", going on to say that the company is aiding game developers who want to make games compatible with Linux, and that they would be making an announcement ... |
title ll of net neutrality. how could isp's benefit from having control of internet speed on certain websites and apps? | They would get the power to censor as they see fit (we don't want you to visit site X, so we'll just restrict all data flow to and from it) and they would get the opportunity to add extra fees - an example would be to limit data speeds to the point where streaming becomes impossible, and then they'd charge you extra to... | [
"On 23 April 2014, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was reported to be considering a new rule that will permit ISPs to offer content providers a faster track to send content, thus reversing their earlier net neutrality position. A possible solution to net neutrality concerns may be municipal broadba... |
how do arms deals work? | The deal is between the UK government and the Saudi government. Regulations prevent BAE Systems (or anybody else) from just selling dangerous weapons on a retail basis. They sell them to the UK government, deliver them in Saudi Arabia, and get paid by the UK government with money they got from the Saudi government.
... | [
"BULLET::::- Arm – is the part of the upper limb between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. In common usage, the arm extends to the hand. It can be divided into the upper arm, which extends from the shoulder to the elbow, the forearm which extends from the elbow to the hand, and the hand. ... |
Was the collapse of Rome felt/realised in China? | I asked this question a few years ago
_URL_0_
The top comment by /u/Ambarenya states that the Chinese were at least vaguely aware of the Roman Empire's existence and had at least some limited communication. After a while the Chinese noticed that the limited communication had faded down to barely a whisper, giving th... | [
"Alexander Demandt enumerated 210 different theories on why Rome fell, and new ideas have emerged since. Historians still try to analyze the reasons for loss of political control over a vast territory (and, as a subsidiary theme, the reasons for the survival of the Eastern Roman Empire). Comparison has also been ma... |
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