Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
It is commonly said that in the colonial era, the colonists used infected blankets with diseases unknown to the natives, making them effectively bio weapons, did the opposite also occur?	/u/anthropology_nerd has previously answered [When Europeans brought diseases to the New World, how come Europeans themselves didn't get sick from diseases specific to the New World?](_URL_0_) This topic was addressed broadly during anthropology\_nerd's series MYTHS OF CONQUEST for /r/badhistory in the entry ["Death b...	[ "Salish blanket weaving declined in the early 20th century. In 1884, a law was passed banning religious practices of the First Nations people as part of an attempt by the colonizers to \"civilize\" the indigenous population. This law stayed in force until the 1920s. The important potlatch ceremony was included in t...
Is there evidence to support that the British Empire manufactured famines?	Irish writer and historian, Tim Pat Coogan has written a great book about Britains role in the Irish famine, The Famine Plot. Although some points are disputed by other Irish historians, most of the book is well cited and sourced. I don't have it at hand but it goes into great detail about how Britain contributed to th...	[ "During British rule, two devastating famines occurred costing millions of lives in 1770 and 1943. Scarcely five years into the British East India Company's rule, the catastrophic Bengal famine of 1770, one of the greatest famines of history occurred. Up to a third of the population died in 1770 and subsequent year...
How is the brain protected from damage once a hemispherectomy is performed?	There is a really good answer about this provided by [The Naked Scientists](_URL_0_). There are a lot of factors, including structures, that provide stability to the brain after a hemispherectomy. These include, according to my source, the tentorium cerebelli and the falx cerebri. These two structures help to hold the ...	[ "This procedure is a modern adaptation of the radical hemispherectomy in which one brain hemisphere is removed to prevent the spread of seizures from one brain hemisphere to the other. In the functional version only a part of the hemisphere is removed but the connections to the other brain hemisphere are cut throug...
What is the history of the cigar?	What in particular? The history of the cigar or at least it's origins from what I recall are a tad hard to pin down given that there aren't too many sources that I can find that are reliable. So I'll do my best with my passing interest in cigars and the one book I've read about the history of cigar production. But at ...	[ "The first cigars by Alec Bradley were known as \"Bogey's Stogies\" and were designed to be sold through golf pro shops for golfers to smoke on the course. Manufactured from 1997 to 1999 — the deepest years of the \"cigar bust\" which followed the faddish cigar boom of the 1990s — Bogey's Stogies proved an unprofit...
How did bilge pumps work in the old sailing ships?	I have a book at home which has diagrams, if nobody's posted any by the time I get home I'll get you some pictures. But for now, [this is the best I can find](_URL_0_) (Source: _URL_2_) Elm tree pumps, also known as chain pumps, were one sort of bilge pump used. You can see one in HMS Victory in Portsmouth. Two elm tr...	[ "Ancient bilge force pumps had a number of common uses. Depending on where the pump was located in the hull of the ship, it could be used to suck in sea water into a live fish tank to preserve fish until the ship was docked and the fish ready to be sold. Another use of the force pump was to combat fires. Water woul...
what causes those static-like patches of white pixels when watching films on a disc that's been scratched?	Imagine it like this, Yoi stretched out the dvd into one line, here you can see all the code for the laser which is etched into the dvd, if it gets scratched off the laser will see nothing an percieve it as zero and leave the screen white in places. However sometines when scratched the laser can also percieve the scr...	[ "In the context of image processing of monochrome raster images there is a type of noise, known as the salt and pepper noise, when each pixel independently becomes black (with some small probability) or white (with some small probability), and is unchanged otherwise (with the probability close to 1). An image const...
Why is Pluto's (and other dwarf planets) orbit so unusual?	One reason is "chaotic" gravity. The dwarf planets beyond Neptune (and other objects in that region) can experience tumultuous gravitational influence from the outer planets and from each other. As an example, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Pluto's orbit is in resonance with Neptune's, meaning N...	[ "Pluto has five known moons: Charon (the largest, with a diameter just over half that of Pluto), Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra. Pluto and Charon are sometimes considered a binary system because the barycenter of their orbits does not lie within either body.\n", "Pluto, a dwarf planet, has five moons. Its largest...
when someone’s metabolism speeds up where does the extra energy go?	Your body is in a constant state of two processes: [Gluconeogenesis](_URL_0_)- the building up of sugar chains in order to store and transfer energy [Glycolysis](_URL_1_)- the breaking down of sugar chains to use energy to do work What is important to know about these two processes is: 1) They are almost exactly...	[ "Overall, the glycolysis part of the cycle produces 2 ATP molecules at a cost of 6 ATP molecules consumed in the gluconeogenesis part. Each iteration of the cycle must be maintained by a net consumption of 4 ATP molecules. As a result, the cycle cannot be sustained indefinitely. The intensive consumption of ATP mol...
The history of Feminism.	Holy god, the assignment is to compare & critique the historiographic approaches of multiple generations of scholars? Are you a grad student in history or Women's Studies? The problem with writing "comparative history" is that you need to be well-versed in the subject matter and the primary writers in the field befor...	[ "The article was so influential to the development of women's history that, more than 40 years after its publication, it continues to be widely cited and discussed in major scholarly forums. As historian Claire Bond Potter pointed out to the Organization of American Historians (2015), “when feminist scholarship beg...
Hi, Historians! Can you please tell me what the diet was like of an average person of your respective eras of expertise? I have so many questions!	The Aztec diet was more like hunter-gatherers than you might expect, in part due to the lack of domesticated animals that could be exploited for meat and milk. It was heavily biased towards a wide and diverse fruit/veg base, with animal protein being a more incidental occurrence. That being said, a lot of the foods I'm...	[ "According to Adrienne Rose Johnson, the idea that the primitive diet was superior to current dietary habits dates back to the 1890s with such writers as Dr.Emmet Densmore and Dr.John Harvey Kellogg. Densmore proclaimed that \"bread is the staff of death\", while Kellogg supported a diet of starchy and grain-based ...
where does our bodily energy go when we don't use it?	You're conflating the physical concept of energy with the abstract human feeling of being energetic. They are not the same at all. Being riled up doesn't mean your body contains more energy, it's just how you feel. Your body isn't a vessel that stores energy until it reaches some peak and explodes. That's not what pote...	[ "About 70% of a human's total energy expenditure is due to the basal life processes taking place in the organs of the body (see table). About 20% of one's energy expenditure comes from physical activity and another 10% from thermogenesis, or digestion of food (\"postprandial thermogenesis\"). All of these processes...
When you record sound on your phone at a concert, why does it pick up the sound of everyone around you over the speakers, but your ears pick up the soundsystem?	Humans have the ability to focus on a single source and mentally filter out background noises. Your phone does not.	[ "Sound around mode allows for real time overlapping of music and the sounds surrounding the listener in her environment, which are captured by a microphone and mixed into the audio signal. As a result, the user may hear playing music and external sounds of the environment at the same time. This can increase user sa...
I keep hearing about outbreaks of measles and whatnot due to people not vaccinating their children. Aren't the only ones at danger of catching a disease like measles the ones who do not get vaccinated?	Sadly, no. Unvaccinated people are indeed at the highest risk, however, while vaccines are very effective, no vaccine is 100% effective. Most childhood vaccines protect between 85 and 99 percent of the population. For some reason, [a small percentage of folks who are vaccinated do not develop immunity](_URL_2_). This ...	[ "Choosing not to vaccinate is largely to blame for the recent outbreak of measles. Parents choosing not to vaccinate prevents herd immunity, which is what patients who suffer with immunocompromising diseases rely on to protect them. To prevent the measles outbreak of 2019 from getting worse it is necessary for anti...
why do cables that plug into phones such as the iphone cable have multiple pins going out but ultimately its a 4 pin usb connection on the others end?	The iPhone dock connector was designed to provide multiple types of control & power. If you plug the phone into certain types of docks, it carries audio data & lets you control the device (play/pause, stop, next/previous track), along with providing power. When you connect it to USB, you're only connecting power ...	[ "BULLET::::- Mini USB connector is slightly non standard as the plastic lip that holds the electrical connectors on the cable needs to be slightly thicker to allow contact with the connectors on the phone. You may need to try a couple of different cables to find one that connects properly, or even slightly dent the...
why do people want obama impeached over the benghazi attack?	The scandal originally was about when the attacks occurred the Administration, including Hillary Clinton, blamed it on reaction to some terribly made [anti-Muslim movie trailer](_URL_0_). In actuality it was coordinated effort by Al Qaeda. This got the Republicans very upset. And they accused Obama of playing politics...	[ "BULLET::::- Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich suggested that Barack Obama could be impeached. Kucinich said Obama's action in Libya was \"a grave decision that cannot be made by the president alone\". He also claimed Obama violated the Constitution by failing to seek the approval of the Congress first. Republ...
why is planter's trail mix allowed to use real m & ms?	Because they have a deal with Mars. It's mutually beneficial for the two companies since they don't directly compete. If you pay attention you can find this sort of thing all over the snack aisle.	[ "The X-Trail has had three model revisions, the Series 1 and Series 2 (using Nissan FF-S platform) and the Series 3 (using Nissan/Renault C platform). There were various cosmetic and engineering changes made between Series 1 and 2, but the Series 3 T31 is all new despite a similar appearance with new engines apart ...
why is planting trees so important when farmers plant millions of plants every year?	Many reasons. Trees are much larger than what a farmer plants. When they grow they provide homes for many animals and one tree is better for the environment than an acre of a crop. Trees provide shade, they can live for many years, cleaning the air.. Trees have deep roots which are good for the soil. They reach de...	[ "Planting of trees also serves other purposes like providing alternative fuel options, food for cattle, helps in soil conservation and more than anything offers a natural aesthetic beauty. Planting of trees also helps to avoid soil erosion which may cause floods. \n", "The project has helped farmers achieve bette...
why does my voice sounds weird on video/audio?	When you speak, you hear two things. You hear the sound of your own voice carried through the air back to your ears (having bounced off the walls or something), and you also hear the sound of your voice resonating inside your own body, in your chest cavity and your sinuses and all that. Both of these contribute to what...	[ "There have been reports of microphone issues that result in weak and spotty voice quality. Google is investigating the issue, and it is suspected that the issue is partially caused by noise cancellation.\n", "In film, the filmmaker places the sound of a human voice (or voices) over images shown on the screen tha...
What can cause a person to change the language they are speaking, mid sentence, and not realize it?	It's entirely possible that this man has a form of aphasia (language impairment). [Here is an interesting study](_URL_0_) on the effects of aphasia on bilinguals (note: "L1" means "native language" or "first language" and "L2" means "second language" or "language learned later in life"): > Bilinguals must focus their...	[ "The learner's emotional state or affect can interfere with acquiring a new language because acquiring a new language inevitably involves practicing it in public and conversing with others. All these encompassed the possibility of making mistakes, resulting in embarrassment, and such anxiety can block the ability t...
the difference between hate crime and terrorism	edit:formatting Hate crime is targeted at a specific individual(s) and causing harm to those individual(s) solely because they are a member of a legally [protected class.](_URL_0_) Terrorism is an act that targets a group of people broader than those harmed in the action taken. The intent is to cause fear tha...	[ "\"Hate crime\" generally refers to criminal acts which are seen to have been motivated by bias against one or more of the social groups listed above, or by bias against their derivatives. Incidents may involve physical assault, damage to property, bullying, harassment, verbal abuse or insults, mate crime or offens...
Is there anywhere on Earth which has experienced no conflicts in the past?	Well, every place on earth has seen some sort of conflict, military or not. Greenland was (and still is) a colony of Denmark. In World War 2, Denmark was annexed by Nazi Germany, and Greenland came with it. It was only until the allies established minor bases on it that it was secured by the allies. Although it was...	[ "Over one hundred years ago the planet earth was embroiled in its most dismal war. No one yet living remembers its exact cause, but no one was too young to be spared its merciless horror as rival terran and colonial clans waged bitter conflict throughout the Solar System.\n", "In the year 2079 conflicts arose bet...
if you throw a die you have a 1-in-6 (16.7%) chance of landing the desired number, but if you throw it six times you don't have a 100% chance of landing it.	For independent events like die rolls, probabilities don't add, they multiply. So the chance of getting a 2nd roll the same as the first is 1/6. And the chance of getting a 2nd roll the same as the first AND a 3rd roll the same as the second is 1/6 * 1/6, or 1/36.	[ "If one throws a die once, it is difficult to predict the outcome, but if we repeat this experiment many times, we will see that the number of times each result occurs divided by the number of throws will eventually stabilize towards a specific value.\n", "So the player has an 87.2% chance of scoring even when th...
how instant hot water showers work	There are several different configurations of shower but the main two are as follows. Electric showers: An electric unit on the wall of the shower heats up cold water as it passes into the shower unit. These are usually cheap as all you need is the shower unit on the wall. They are normally often don't give a particu...	[ "In 2015, the Dutch company Hamwells introduced the e-Shower at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in London. Citing hygiene issues in earlier solutions, Hamwells opted for a solution with a semi-closed loop where the water is used several times instead of the entire session. External hot water is used to maintain t...
how do government agencies/big companies track internet usage of users, especially if there are hundreds of people using it at the same time?	The places sending you the information have to track you anyway in order to send it. All the government/companies have to do is copy and organize this data; when you have lots of very big servers, that's not particularly hard.	[ "There are many ways in which online tracking has manifested itself. Historically, when companies wanted to track users’ online behavior, they simply had users sign in to their website. This is a form of deterministic cross-device tracking, in which the user’s devices are associated with their account credentials, ...
if everyone stopped dying altogether, right this moment, how long do we have before the earth is completely overpopulated?	I believe 14B is an accepted maximum capacity. For every 8 worldwide deaths, there are 19 births (2.375x). Around 55.3M people die every year. Since the population is currently ~7.4B, that means we need 6.6B more, so just under 116 years.	[ "On the same day across the Earth, the concept of death is suddenly nullified when it is found that people who have suffered mortal wounds or fatal diseases are unable to die. This is initially seen as a religious miracle, but the absence of deaths begins to strain medical resources and spread diseases around the g...
why is it that as we get older, we find it harder to enjoy new things (ie. music) and instead focus on things that remind us of the past?	I'm not really sure that this is the case. If it is, though, I would think the answer is in the question: since the very young have comparatively less of anything to remind them of good things in the past, they cling to whatever's current just by default, whereas anyone who's even 20 or older will have (increasing...	[ "When we were all younger it was like we just wrote and made music. We would get together in the practice space and just start playing. Somebody would start and everyone else would join in. And we started overthinking everything slowly over time. This was about trying to forget everything we'd learned and going bac...
Why was Christianity so widely adopted by Europeans? Is there a reason for why Islam spread throughout the Middle East more than Christianity?	Not sure about the first part of your question (Constantine and his conversion definitely had a part, but how did Christianity even reach him? Trade routes?), but Islam spread through the Middle East because the people who conquered it were Muslims and allowed for easy conversion, at least according to [Fred Donner](_U...	[ "Christianity originated in the region in the 1st century AD, and was one of the major religions of the region until the Muslim conquests of the mid-to-late 7th century AD. Christianity in the Middle East is characterized with its diverse beliefs and traditions compared to other parts of the old world.\n", "In te...
why are viruses so difficult to get rid of? if they mutate too quickly, how do they retain their orignal side effect? (common cold, hiv, herpes)	First of all, you have to distinguish between RNA and DNA viruses. Mutations rarely occurs in DNA viruses but are frequent in RNA viruses (just think about the common flu virus). The problem with viruses is that they use the transcriptional/traslational apparatus of the cell for their replication so their life circle w...	[ "Because many viruses integrate their own genomes into the genomes of their host cells in order to replicate, mutagenesis caused by viral infections is a fairly common occurrence. Not all integrating viruses cause insertional mutagenesis, however.\n", "While viral latency exhibits no active viral shedding nor cau...
What are the earliest examples of people putting collars on pets? Was there ever a significantly different way of identifying personal pets?	Egyptian art from the 4th millennium BC depicts dogs wearing collars and some of those have been discovered by archaeologists. We know the types of names they gave their dogs because of inscriptions on surviving collars. Names like 'Brave One, Reliable, Good Herdsman and North-Wind' _URL_0_	[ "There is evidence from ancient Egypt that people were using decorative collars to adorn their dogs. One collar was discovered in the tomb of the ancient Egyptian nobleman Maiharpiri in 1440 BC. It depicts hunting scenes embossed into leather. The dog's name, Tantanouit, is visible on the collar. He was a favorite ...
if one country gets fined by another, how is the fine enforced?	I don't understand. It is impossible to fine other countries. If you are referring to reparations for war, that is different. It if you are referring to fines imposed by a treaty organization (I.e. UN, NATO, etc) that is also different. Can you please clarify.	[ "Imposing sanctions on an opponent also affects the economy of the imposing country to some degree. If import restrictions are promulgated, consumers in the imposing country may have restricted choices of goods. If export restrictions are imposed or if sanctions prohibit companies in the imposing country from tradi...
how do stops in a pipe organ work?	Those are literally valves that direct air to different sets of pipes. Depending on the material, shape, length, etc., of the pipes, you can get different sounds. If you pull a stop, it opens a valve, and when you push it back in, it closes it.	[ "An organ stop (or just stop) is a component of a pipe organ that admits pressurized air (known as \"wind\") to a set of organ pipes. Its name comes from the fact that stops can be used selectively by the organist; each can be \"on\" (admitting the passage of air to certain pipes), or \"off\" (\"stopping\" the pass...
why are there print and television advertisements for things like cotton, plastic, clean coal or eggs.	Those campaigns are put on usually by lobbies for the entire industry. Their purpose is to influence and raise people opinion of the item in question so that people both buy it more/vote for proposal that they feel are in their interest. That's partially why you'll fine that those ads seem to be more about inspiring pe...	[ "Until the 1970s, commercial poster hangers always \"cooked\" their own paste, but since then many have bought pre-cooked instant pastes. It is applied to the backside of paper then placed on flat surfaces, particularly concrete and metal as it does not adhere well to wood or plastic. Cheap, rough paper such as new...
What the heck happened after the American Revolutionary war?	This time is known generally as the Articles of Confederation period. The same agreements that unified the 13 colonies to fight the Revolutionary War pretty much continued, along with the Continental Congress. As the states acted more as independent countries, most governance was within the states- the Congress had fai...	[ "One of the causes of the American Revolutionary War was the dispute between the British government and the British colonials who wanted to settle in the region. During the course of the war, American forces captured outposts in the lower areas of the territory, but British forces maintained control of Fort Detroit...
What happens to you physiologically when exposed to radiation from a nuclear bomb detonating? Sources?	The type of radiation emitted from a nuclear blast is ionizing radiation. These high energy particles interact with the molecules of your DNA and can cause breaks or can cause an alteration of the DNA conformity. Most ionizing radiation you come into contact with is such a low dose that the natural DNA repair mechanism...	[ "Non-radioactive injuries from the blast itself would result from the human body being thrown and from impacts from objects. The detonation would produce intense heat that will cause burns to exposed skin and eyes. There are two general categories of nuclear radiation produced in a detonation. First, is the prompt ...
During the time of the 13 colonies/Europe what was the literacy rate? And with the population that wasn’t literate, did that understand the concept of percentages?	I'll defer to others regarding the literacy rate in Europe but can speak to the American colonies. Pinning down exactly what we mean by "literacy" is complicated and has changed over time. The definition wouldn't be standardized until the late 1800's and the rise of literacy tests for voters. Some government officials ...	[ "Although the present-day concepts of literacy have much to do with the 15th-century invention of the movable type printing press, it was not until the Industrial Revolution of the mid-19th century that paper and books became affordable to all classes of industrialized society. Until then, only a small percentage o...
the implications of the detection of gravitational waves by the ligo team	"Well, gravitational waves give us another way to observe space. For example, waves from the Big Bang would tell us a little more about how the universe formed. Waves also form when black holes collide, supernovae explode, and massive neutron stars wobble. So detecting these waves would give us a new new insight into t...	[ "In 2015, the LIGO project was the first to directly observe gravitational waves using laser interferometers. The LIGO detectors observed gravitational waves from the merger of two stellar-mass black holes, matching predictions of general relativity. These observations demonstrated the existence of binary stellar-m...
How does ingesting sodium/potassium affect the "sodium-potassium pump"?	This is only a partial answer to your question but is still worth noting. Increased sodium intake increases your blood pressure because it pulls water into the blood stream from the interstitial space (space in between cells) and other cells. This is why you feel dehydrated after eating a high salt meal, and also why y...	[ "The sodium-potassium pump was discovered in 1957 by the Danish scientist Jens Christian Skou, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work in 1997. Its discovery marked an important step forward in the understanding of how ions get into and out of cells, and it has particular significance for excitable cells such as...
Vikings are famous for raping and pillaging, and undoubtedly more than one woman must have given birth to a half-Viking child who was a product of rape. How did societies treat these children?	Rape was the fear, expectation, the weapon, the reward for soldiers, and the terrible reality of medieval (ancient, early modern, modern) warfare. And by warfare, we're talking about short raids, longer "campout" raids that could last a week or a month, the stereotypical protracted siege culminating with "taking the ...	[ "The Vikings (Scandinavians who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late 8th century to the early 11th century), have acquired a reputation for \"rape and pillage\". Viking settlements in Britain and Ireland are thought to have been primarily male enterprises, with a lesser role for Viking females. B...
do other animals actually have “human” facial expressions (smiles, frowns, furrowed brows) or is it just our minds wanting to see facial expressions in animals?	Sure. A dog will squint different way with either pain or pleasure. We humans pick up on it.	[ "Facial Mimicry defined is the resemblance shown by one animal species to another which protects it from predators, perceived or otherwise. Dimberg's research revealed that mothers tend to open their mouths in response to their infants opening and closing the mouth to feed. There is substantial and compelling evide...
why was the native american code during ww2 so hard to break?	Languages are organized in families. English is part of the Indo-European family, so almost all European languages are from that family. There are lots of loanwords too. The Native American languages were from their own family, so the linguists in Germany and Japan didn't have experience with them. Also, since pretty ...	[ "German authorities knew about the use of code talkers during World War I and sent a team of thirty anthropologists to the United States to learn Native American languages before the outbreak of World War II. However, the task proved too difficult because of the array of native languages and dialects. Nonetheless, ...
Why do fabrics become more resistant to tearing when wet, while other materials, like paper, become more prone to it.	Simply put because the wetness softens the fibers. In a woven fabric, the fibers are basically going the entire width of the item in one strand. So when they become softer, they tend to stretch or slide past each other, and they still need the same amount of force applied to break each fiber, but it is harder to apply...	[ "Linen is a very durable, strong fabric, and one of the few that are stronger wet than dry. The fibers do not stretch, and are resistant to damage from abrasion. However, because linen fibers have a very low elasticity, the fabric eventually breaks if it is folded and ironed at the same place repeatedly over time.\...
why does windows sometimes estimate copying time super incorrectly?	It takes longer to copy many smaller files than one large file. Sometimes you may be copying a combination of the two so windows thinks all the files are small and since the average copying speed has dropped copying the smaller files it increases the expected time to complete the rest of the files thinking that the rem...	[ "Because a single time code is made up of 40 consecutive bits, read errors can cause a timecode to be unreadable even if a single bit is misread. A bit that has become unreadable due to a scratch can make an entire 40 bit long time code permanently unreadable. Dust can have a similar effect on the time code. The ti...
how does air move across a room?	Air pressure. My house has really weird pressure. I can close a door on one end of the house, and if the garage door isn't latched right, it'll open and then SLAM shut.	[ "An air door or air curtain is a device used to prevent air or contaminants from moving from one open space to another. The most common use is a downward-facing blower fan mounted over an entrance to a building, or an opening between two spaces conditioned at different temperatures.\n", "In architecture, an airsh...
how is dubai able to build so much infrastructure so quickly without much political opposition?	Dubai is an absolute monarchy: there is no political opposition. That doesn't mean that the ruling family does whatever they feel like doing without consultation, but they could. The largest property developers have state connections e.g. the founder of Emaar Properties, Mohamed Alabbar, was also a chief economic adv...	[ "The government's decision to diversify from an oil-based economy, and to make Dubai the main hub of tourists in the world, has made and other developmental projects such as Dubailand, more valuable, resulting in the property boom from 2004 to 2007. There are over 1,500 major freehold developments and communities i...
how do open source projects compete with for profit alternatives?	Poorly. They really cannot advertise, for the consumer market which is mostly free, nor compete much with Microsoft for being included on sold PCs.	[ "In contrast to traditional open source projects, a Single-vendor commercial open source project \"is controlled by exactly one stakeholder with the purpose of commercially exploiting it\". In this context, the open source community is less engaged in the development of core functionality, as they typically are in ...
if suicide by subway train is prevalent, why don't the subway trains slow down enough to make a quick stop before they get to the platform?	Trains have poor stopping distances. The value of a subway system is rapid mass transit. Slow travel times undermine its use as competition with driving/walking. Suicide by train is not that common in fact it's so rare that its often international news when it happens. Even if it were a problem, a much more effec...	[ "Jumping in front of an oncoming subway train has a 59% death rate, lower than the 90% death rate for rail-related suicides. This is most likely because trains traveling on open tracks travel relatively quickly, whereas trains arriving at a subway station are decelerating so that they can stop and board passengers....
why does the tail rotor on a helicopter spin on an axis perpendicular to the main rotor on top of the helicopter?	The purpose of the tail rotor is not to create lift but to counter the torque produced by the main rotor, which would otherwise cause the helicopter to spin around uncontrollably. The thrust from the tail rotor is angled at 90 degrees to the main rotor in order to counter this tendency to rotate. Some very large heli...	[ "The tail rotor is a smaller rotor mounted so that it rotates vertically or near-vertically at the end of the tail of a traditional single-rotor helicopter. The tail rotor's position and distance from the centre of gravity allow it to develop thrust in a direction opposite of the main rotor's rotation to counter th...
what is preventing us to make more of the drug quaaludes since it doesn't exist anymore? (depicted in wolf of wallstreet)	It's mostly been replaced by better, safer, modern drugs. Benzodiazepines (eg - Xanax & Valium) have less problems with addiction, drug interactions & are harder to overdose on. Additionally, there's a wide variety to choose from, with different strengths, onset times & durations. In parts of the world, clande...	[ "These drugs are listed here either because they are not very effective (e.g., clarithromycin) or because their efficacy has not been proven (e.g., linezolid, R207910). Rifabutin is effective, but is not included on the WHO list because for most developing countries, it is impractically expensive.\n", "Rep. John ...
how did "aww" become a standard reply upon seeing/hearing something cute?	Perhaps it's because it sounds like what one says when they see or hear something cute. Basically a moan.	[ "In 1969, the Japanese oil company Maruzen Sekiyū released a television commercial featuring Rosa Ogawa in a mini-skirt that gets blown up by the wind and her lips forming an 'O' in surprise. This led to children imitating her line \"Oh! Mōretsu\" (Oh！モーレツ, too much, radical), and a fad for sukāto-mekuri (スカート捲り fl...
What will airlines do when fossil fuels run out?	> So, are aviation-grade biofuels possible? Is it feasible/possible to have a jet engine capable of running on 100% biofuel? Absolutely. It's a huge focus in engineering R & D by all the major aircraft/engine manufacturers. [You can read about it here.](_URL_0_) There have been many commercial flights that used a ble...	[ "On January 7, 2009 Continental Airlines successfully completed a test flight from Houston, Texas using a 50/50 mixture of algae/jatropha-oil-derived biofuel and Jet A in one of the two CFM56 engines of a Boeing 737-800 Next Generation jet. The two-hour test flight could mark another promising step for the airline ...
why is it that the stock market generally continues to go up forever?	I run a company. I made some profits. I use those profits to build new factory. I didn't have to go steal that factory from some other country or company, I just made it. (Or hired people to.) The stock value of the company I run has gone up, because now I have another factory which is a source of profits.	[ "A 2012 Wall St. Journal editorial stated, \"One reason the U.S. economy isn't creating enough jobs is that it's not creating enough employers ... For the third year in a row the world's leading exchange for new stock offerings was located not in New York, but in Hong Kong ... Given that the U.S. is still home to t...
why are certain things interesting?	My source for this is the book 'A Theory Of Fun' by Raph Koster in which he asks this question to neuroscientists but... The human brain is constantly trying to identify patterns in everything, and it rewards us with dopamine for doing so. When we manage to discern a new pattern and get that dopamine hit we refer to i...	[ "Unlike the blobby cute or the hyperactive zany, the aesthetic form of interesting has no external characteristics, it is a space of judgment. We recognize it through context, that is, through novelty, through the emergence of an unexpected element within a predictable sequence.\n", "\"One thing people often miss...
if an atom is mostly empty space, how are we able to touch anything, and how do atoms combine to make something solid?	Everything is mostly empty space because it is made of atoms. The nature of protons, neutrons and electrons is that they can't be pushed together more than a certain amount. The reason why is "quantum stuff", a bit beyond ELI5, but roughly because they can't be confined into a smaller space. When the atoms of your fin...	[ "\"[All things are made of atoms]. [Little particles that move] [around in perpetual motion], [attraction each other] [when they are a little distance apart], [but repelling] [upon being squeezed] [into one another].\"\n", "BULLET::::- \"Āyojanāt\" (lit., from combination): Atoms are inactive. To form a substance...
Would spraying boiling water over a fire put it out as effectively as room temp water?	The main mechanism of water to put out a fire is via evaporation. There are two reasons for this: 1) The latent heat of vaporization--converting water from liquid to gas at 100 degrees Celsius--requires about 2.2MJ per kg. That means, every kilogram of water on the fire will absorb 2.2MJ of energy from the fire, helpi...	[ "French firefighters used an alternative method in the 1970s: spraying water on the hot walls to create a water vapor atmosphere and asphyxiate the fire. This method is no longer used because it turned out to be risky; the pressure created pushed the hot gases and vapor towards the firefighters, causing severe burn...
How much does Solar Maximums and Minimums affect temperature here on earth?	To first order, we can talk about the difference in temperature caused by the difference in sunlight during solar maxima and minima. Note that this ignores more subtle effects, such as a slight increase in cloudy days due to increased particle flux at solar maximum. We've observed that the averaged solar flux (i.e. su...	[ "Solar maximum or solar max is a regular period of greatest Sun activity during the 11-year solar cycle. During solar maximum, large numbers of sunspots appear, and the solar irradiance output grows by about 0.07%. The increased energy output of solar maxima can impact Earth's global climate, and recent studies hav...
how does putting a lawyer on retainer work? what are the advantages of doing this versus just hiring/consulting a lawyer when you need one?	TV shows do not represent real life. The reason some gets a Lawyer on retainer is because it is cheaper. It is essentially buying in bulk. Someone pays the lawyer to be on retainer so that they can consult with them whenever they want/often. This is cheaper than paying the lawyer each time the person needs legal adv...	[ "In the United States, an up-front fee paid to a lawyer is called a retainer. Money within the retainer is often used to \"buy\" a certain amount of work. Some contracts provide that when the money from the retainer is gone, the fee is renegotiated. This is to be differentiated between a retainer in Commonwealth st...
how do batteries (aa, aaa, b, c, d, etc.) get their names? what do they mean?	Every time you step up a letter, the batteries get bigger. Because we don’t have a letter smaller than A, we repeat the letter. AAAA < AAA < AA < A < B < C < D Edit: Yes, there’s an A battery. Yes, there’s a B battery. No, they didn’t name them after bra sizes. No, that joke you stole from another post abo...	[ "An AAA or triple-A battery is a standard size of dry cell battery commonly used in low-drain portable electronic devices. A zinc–carbon battery in this size is designated by IEC as \"R03\", by ANSI C18.1 as \"24\", by old JIS standard as \"UM 4\", and by other manufacturer and national standard designations that v...
glass that is more scratch resistant is more brittle and prone to shattering.	It is more scratch resistant because it is harder, and in some materials more hardness means more brittleness. You see the same thing in machine tooling, tungsten carbide is well-regarded because it is hard and can cut through many materials, but one bad move and it shatters much more easily than say HSS steel.	[ "Broken glass is typically repaired in one of three ways: copper foiling (thin copper tape that is applied to both sides of the break and then soldered); epoxy edge-gluing; and silicone edge-gluing. Each of these has its own inherent benefits and problems. For instance, copper foiling produces a strong, reversible,...
why do cops use fatal guns instead of tranquilizer guns just like used in animals?	Tranquilizing someone is an exact science, which is why anesthesiologists get paid the big bucks. You'd have to know the person's exact height and weight (plus a few other important factors, like if they're a natural ginger) to safely knock them out. If you give them too big a dose they die and if you don't give them e...	[ "They can also be armed with non-lethal (more accurately known as \"less than lethal\" or \"less-lethal\") weaponry, particularly for riot control. Non-lethal weapons include batons, tear gas, riot control agents, rubber bullets, riot shields, water cannons and electroshock weapons. Police officers typically carry ...
Why are there no "of" or "from"s in English surnames? (Similar to Von, Da, De, Van)	To clarify your question some: there are location-based surnames in English (for example Sean Salisbury and Thom Yorke) but that doesn't explain why the "from" was dropped, when it isn't in other languages.	[ "In surnames, it can appear by itself or in combination with an article (compare French \"de la\", \"de l\"'). The most common cases of this are van de, van der and van den, where the articles are all current or archaic forms of the article \"de\" \"the\". Less common are van het and van 't, which use the similar b...
how cannabinoid receptors are affected when we consume marijuana	Do you remember the toys you played with as a kid where you would try to put the square peg in the round hole? This is vaguely kind of how neurotransmitters work. The cannabinoids from pot will travel to your brain through your blood from your lungs or stomach and look for places where they fit. Once they reach their d...	[ "There exist two primary CNS cannabinoid receptors, on which marijuana and the cannabinoids act. Both the CB1 receptor and CB2 receptor are found in the brain. The CB2 receptor is also found in the immune system. CB is expressed at high densities in the basal ganglia, cerebellum, hippocampus, and cerebral cortex. R...
Did the Italian Establishment, together with NATO and/or the CIA sponsored far-right terrorism to stop Communism during the Cold War?	To be sure, the "anni di piombo" period is usually associated with left wing terrorism, of which the chronicles of the time are full. They culminated with the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro (at the time the head of the major christian democratic party) in 1978, and in the kidnapping and subsequent liberation of the...	[ "According to Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, in order to prevent Communist party members from being elected in Italy following World War II, the CIA worked closely with the Sicilian Mafia, protecting them and assisting in their worldwide heroin smuggling operations. The mafia was in conflict with leftist...
Why is meat, specifically bacon described as lasting days or up to a week without refrigeration in older books, but these days it’s recommended to throw out bacon left at room temp for more than two hours?	Keeping food over long periods of time was a great challenge in the pre-industrial world, before refrigeration. Even things like ice boxes ( and icemen to fill them) didn't become a common thing until the later 19th c. , after ice was developed as a commodity. The methods were few: but most still exist. Some things co...	[ "The book claims that 71 percent of bacon is still consumed at breakfast or brunch. It includes 10 recipes for the early in the day meals and then covers appetizers, sandwiches, entrees and a few desserts, such as a savory bread pudding with Canadian bacon, multigrain bread, feta cheese, tarragon and wild mushrooms...
when we say a list of names, how come some sound better in a specific order?	Like 60% of the time, when someone asks why a certain phrase sounds better in a certain order, the answer is rhythm. Phrases with repetition seem to make people happy. "Evan and Emily" sounds good because it repeats the same pattern twice: a stressed syllable with an "e" sound follow by two unstressed syllables. Note ...	[ "The pronunciation of French-language first and last names uses mostly-French sounds may be mispronounced by speakers of other languages. For example, the pronounced \"r\" sound and the silent \"d\" of \"Bouchar\"d\"\" may be both pronounced: . French-speakers and Quebec English-speakers are more likely to vary suc...
Does Quantum Field Theory imply that the idea of "Four Fundamental Forces" is an incorrect simplification?	Each kind of particle is an excitation of its corresponding field, but each field does not correspond to a fundamental force. The Standard Model of particle physics has 12 "force carrier" particles, divided between three fundamental forces (one photon, three weak vector bosons, and eight gluons).	[ "In mathematical physics, constructive quantum field theory is the field devoted to showing that quantum theory is mathematically compatible with special relativity. This demonstration requires new mathematics, in a sense analogous to Newton developing calculus in order to understand planetary motion and classical ...
why does copper powder not give a high conductivity when in water?	The path of current does not go THRU it to convey current. The water by itself is the pathway for current. If the pure elemental copper was combined as a salt, it would then be conductive in the water and aid in passing the electrical current.	[ "Under many application conditions copper is higher on the galvanic series than other common structural metals, meaning that copper wire is less likely to be corroded in wet conditions. However, any more anodic metals in contact with copper will be corroded since will essentially be sacrificed to the copper.\n", ...
is it actually bad for your brain to fall asleep to tv/music?	Music and tv is disruptive to sleep because your brain is still processing information, it doesn't just shut down when you fall asleep. You will have difficulty moving adequately through the stages of sleep because every change in tempo, sound level or light will cause an arousal or disturbance from the current sleep p...	[ "In another study, specifically looking to help people with insomnia, similar results were seen. The participants that listened to music experienced better sleep quality than those who did not listen to music.\n", "Other types of auditory hallucination include exploding head syndrome and musical ear syndrome. In ...
why don't politicians ever take contributions then act counter to the contributors wishes?	Most likely because whoever gave the contribution will go to their rival and make sure that person does not get re-elected. You typically don't bite the hand that feeds you.	[ "A 2016 experimental study in the \"American Journal of Political Science\" found that politicians made themselves more available for meetings with individuals when they believed that the individuals had donated to their campaign. A 2011 study found that \"even after controlling for past contracts and other factors...
how do jpeg/jpg images get so pixelated and messed up?	In an effort to reduce the size of the image, JPEGs will reduce the quality (kind of like how MP3s work). Sometimes it's noticeable, sometimes it's not, depending on the image and the level of compression. PNG files don't reduce the quality, but they are also larger than JPEGs.	[ "Those who use the World Wide Web may be familiar with the irregularities known as compression artifacts that appear in JPEG images, which may take the form of noise around contrasting edges (especially curves and corners), or \"blocky\" images. These are due to the quantization step of the JPEG algorithm. They are...
Does the propagation of a gravity wave through a massive object encounter resistance from the mass of said object?	We have never observed gravity to slow down or gravitational waves to scatter from matter interactions. Theory states that at least the former does not occur, but we haven't really had the facilities to perform the necessary experiments to verify this to any certainty. The fact that our galaxy is very dense in the cent...	[ "Note that for gravitational masses moving past each other in straight lines (or for that matter for electromagnetically charged objects), there is little or no retardation effect on the effect from them, which is mediated by \"static\" components of the fields. So long as no radiation is emitted, conservation of m...
why is it that car insurance companies are telling me i am responsible for my children until they are 21, even though they are adults at 18?	Are they driving vehicles insured by you, or are you guarantor under the policy?	[ "In 2010, National Safety Council selected American Family Insurance as a recipient of its Teen Driving Safety Leadership Award. Through its “Teen Safe Driver Program,” the company has provided, a video feedback program (using the DriveCam system) in which parents can watch the actual driving actions of their teens...
why does the cia sometimes refer to osama bin laden as "usama bin laden"?	Because his first name is spelled "أسامة", which doesn't have an exact representation in the Latin alphabet. Both "Osama" and "Usama" are correct. As are "Oussama" and "Usamah".	[ "bin Laden () is an Arabic language surname synonymous with Osama bin Laden (1957–2011); it may also pertain to the Saudi Binladin Group, a holding company for the assets of the bin Laden family, and other notable members of Osama's family.\n", "There is no universally accepted standard for transliterating Arabic...
why a billion dollar gaming industry hasn't produced a "gaming" operating system?	They have...it is called the XBox and the Playstation. One of the advantages of PC gaming is you can still use your box for other stuff, and that usually means Windows or Linux. Setting up a dual boot partition and rebooting whenever you want to play a game is not something most consumers want to deal with. Also, Di...	[ "Where a PC is multi-functional and will be purchased to perform tasks other than gaming, a dedicated gaming console must have games available for it to be successful. A good library of games will give a consumer reason to purchase the console and in turn create opportunities for more games to be created for it. Co...
how can judges dismiss evidence that isn't "submitted correctly" such as videos that incriminate the accused?	[Here](_URL_0_) is part of the Illustrated Guide to Law that explains this with comics. Basically, it's to protect citizens from police investigators overstepping their boundaries. The Constitution, which states the fundamental rights belonging to Americans, makes it clear that the government is to protect people fro...	[ "Sometimes, after a number of witnesses have been deposed, the parties will have enough information that they can reasonably predict the outcome of a prospective trial, and may decide to arrive at a compromise settlement, thus avoiding trial and preventing additional costs of litigation. Accordingly, while most dep...
Why were Italian and Irish immigrants to America given such a hard time? Was this typical of every immigrant, and the Italians and Irish had just arrived in greater numbers? Or was there something unique about these immigrants that made them "lower-class"?	I can think of four things that distinguished Italians and Irish from other immigrant groups (bearing in mind that Chinese and Jewish immigrants faced different, and in some ways more severe, forms of discrimination): 1. They were predominantly Roman Catholic. The United States had long defined itself as a Protestant ...	[ "The experiences of Italian immigrants in North American countries were notably different than those in South American countries, where many of them immigrated in large numbers. Italians were key in developing countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. They quickly joined the middle and upper classes i...
The Franks became Christian much earlier than many other Germanic groups. Why is this? When/where were the last Frankish pagans?	I'm going to do my best in answering this question as I feel it falls in my wheel house and I'm actually reading two books on the Gothic and Frankish peoples. Starting off with the first part of your question I just want to make a minor correction. > The Franks became Christian much earlier than many other Germani...	[ "In the 8th century, the Franks became standard-bearers of Roman Catholic Christianity in Western Europe, waging wars on its behalf against Arian Christians, Islamic invaders, and pagan Germanic peoples such as the Saxons and Frisians. Until 1066, when the Dane and the Norse had lost their foothold in Britain, theo...
why are some people well written but not well spoken? (myself included)	To be well spoken you need to construct well phrased sentences in a fraction of the time you have when you are writing something. This requires a lot more practice as you can't do it if you have to use a lot of your brains capacity for it.	[ "Writing for a class of readers other than one's own is very difficult. It takes training, method, and practice. Among those who are good at this are writers of novels and children's books. The writing experts all advise that, besides using a formula, observe all the norms of good writing, which are essential for w...
what is the medical condition s.t. depression?	There are about 11 different serious medical conditions that can cause a cardiac ST depression. ***I highly suggest you or your mom call her cardiologist and tell them you don't understand his/her explanation and would like to meet to talk about it again. If they aren't willing to do that, then you need to find a ne...	[ "\"Depression\" refers to a spectrum of disturbances in mood that vary from mild to severe and from short periods to constant illness. DD-NOS is diagnosed if a patients symptoms fail to meet the criteria more common depressive disorders such as major depressive disorder or dysthymia. Although DD-NOS shares similar ...
In the US, did any of the founding fathers have thoughts about the Salem witch trials that happened within living memory?	Related question: when did the Salem witch trials become 'common knowledge' in America, for lack of a better term, and why the Salem witch trials as opposed to any other sort of tale of hysteria/superstition gone awry?	[ "One of the most widely known aspects of Salem is its history of witchcraft allegations which started with Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, and their friends playing with a Venus glass (mirror) and egg. The infamous Salem witch trials began in 1692, and 19 people were executed by hanging as a result of the false acc...
Do animals experience menstrual cramps?	Yes. However, not many animals menstruate. Humans and old-world primates are about the only animals that undergo menses with the exception of bats.	[ "Many women experience painful cramps, also known as dysmenorrhea, during menstruation. Pain results from ischemia and muscle contractions. Spiral arteries in the secretory endometrium constrict, resulting in ischemia to the secretory endometrium. This allows the uterine lining to slough off. The myometrium contrac...
what would we experience on earth if another earth-like planet were to collide with us?	We would all die in a matter of seconds.	[ "At the moment of contact, Atheria vanishes from existence...the Moon ploughing through the space it once occupied. Later, Koenig broods as he stares out a window into the empty space sky. He is joined by Helena, who begins apologising for her actions. He interrupts, insisting she did nothing wrong. His story \"was...
If there was no official "Emperor" position in the Roman Empire, or in its early days at least, what exactly did the new Emperor inherit from his predecessor? What official title or position did the new Emperor inherit that gave him absolute rule?	The successor inherited nothing de jure. It was up to the Senate to grant him the same powers as his predecessor. What became common practice was that the current ruler would groom his successor, including him in the government and having him take bigger responsibilities. He would thus be granted offices by the Senate ...	[ "During the transition from republic to the Roman empire, the constitutional balance of power shifted from the Roman Senate back to the executive (the Roman Emperor). Theoretically, the senate elected each new emperor; in practice each emperor chose his own successor, though the choice was often overruled by the ar...
Now that summer is upon us: Is there any real conclusive evidence about sunscreen being bad for us?	I am a bit uncomfortable with this question, as the last paragraph makes it clear you are asking for medical advice (which we are not allowed to give). Please see [this post](_URL_0_).	[ "BULLET::::- Claims that many commercial brands of sunscreen increase, rather than decrease, the likelihood of contracting skin cancer with high UV exposure, and instead advocating the use of natural sunscreens, some of which he markets on his website. This view is not held by mainstream medical science; in 2011, t...
Poisoning wells is a common espionage activity in fiction based in medieval times. Was well poisoning actually something spies would do? What would the exact goals of a well-poisoning be?	Words and water were both weaponized in medieval warfare, but it's questionable whether the same people would have been involved in both types of caper. First, when talking about spies and espionage in the Middle Ages, scholars have overwhelmingly stressed the importance of intelligence gathering--in wartime and in ...	[ "Well poisoning has been historically documented as a strategy during wartime since antiquity, and was used both offensively (as a terror tactic to disrupt and depopulate a target area) and defensively (as a scorched earth tactic to deny an invading army sources of clean water). Rotting corpses (both animal and hum...
why are bathroom hot air hand dryers better for the environment when they are using a non-renewable resource (fossil fuels) to save a renewable one (trees)?	To answer that question we need to know how much energy that particular dryer uses to dry your hands, what percentage of that energy is coming from burning fossil fuels, how much energy was used to produce the paper towel, and what resources were used to produce the paper towel. I have often pondered this as well, but ...	[ "Beyond issues with venting exhaust, other improvised efficiency efforts with conventional dryers attempt to harvest an input source of pre-heated air rather than using the conditioned air of the living space. One notable source of heat to pre-heat dryer air is to install ductwork allowing the device to suck hot ai...
Is it possible to put enough perfluocarbons into a lake or large body of water for people to be able to breathe underwater?	Well the most widely used fluorocarbon for 'liquid breathing' is [perfluorodecalin](_URL_2_). There are videos on YouTube of [mice being submerged in it](_URL_1_), then freaking out when they realise they can still breathe. The solubility of O2 in perfluorodecalin is about 49% w/v, cf air which is approximately 21% v/v...	[ "Other posited applications include deep sea diving and space travel, applications that both require total, not partial, liquid ventilation. The 1989 film The Abyss showed a fictional use of perfluorocarbon for human diving but also filmed a real rat surviving while cooled and immersed in perfluorocarbon. (See also...
Is there a reason all the planets orbit the sun in approximately the same plane and direction?	Yes. Conservation of angular momentum. Our solar system started out as a rotating gas cloud. Over time, this cloud collapsed and denser regions formed the sun and the planets. But due to conservation of angular momentum, the rotation had to remain, which means that the solar system as a whole rotates around the same ax...	[ "Most large objects in orbit around the Sun lie near the plane of Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic. The planets are very close to the ecliptic, whereas comets and Kuiper belt objects are frequently at significantly greater angles to it. All the planets, and most other objects, orbit the Sun in the same directio...
how do top chess players look so many moves ahead?	Most of them don't look at all possible combinations. They only look for moves that they think are likely for an opponent (in a given position, this may be only one good move to as many as twenty). Also, they are familiar with particular positions. They know which positions to try to get to and which positions to avoid...	[ "Each player selects a maneuver. Both players then announce the corresponding numbers. Each player turns to the page number announced by the opponent, looks up his own maneuver there, and turns to the page number listed under it. After both players have done this, they are on the same (new) page, looking at new vie...
what's the difference between "assault" and "battery"?	Assault is the threat of the violence, Battery is the actual violence. From Wikipedia: Assault and battery is the combination of two violent crimes: assault (the threat of violence) and battery (physical violence). This legal distinction exists only in jurisdictions that distinguish assault as threatened violence rat...	[ "Assault and battery is the combination of two violent crimes: assault (the threat of violence) and battery (crime) (physical violence). This legal distinction exists only in jurisdictions that distinguish assault as \"threatened\" violence rather than \"actual\" violence.\n", "Much confusion can come between the...
has the olympics always (since 1896) been a major expense and drain to the host city/country?	The Olympic events themselves are, economically speaking, beneficial for a country. They attract a lot of visitors who will spend money at local establishments. The burden comes from the infrastructure. Unless a city has hosted the Olympics before, they're very unlikely to have all of the facilities they needed for at...	[ "The 1896 Olympics were regarded as a great success. The Games had the largest international participation of any sporting event to that date. The Panathenaic Stadium overflowed with the largest crowd ever to watch a sporting event. After the Games, Coubertin and the IOC were petitioned by several prominent figures...
What were the main reasons the Russians lost WW1, and what were the consequences on their society and economic and military strength?	Well to start off' when the war broke out Russia was in no way prepared for a major conflict. They had been thrashed by the Japanese in 1904-1905 in the Russo-Japanese war, which left the economy in shambles, and Russia dangerously unstable. Even though Russia had the largest army in the world at the time, they lacked ...	[ "World War I put what proved to be unbearable burden on Imperial Russia's government and economy, both of which were dangerously weak. Mass shortages and hunger became the daily situation for tens of millions of Russians due to the disruptions of the war economy. Fifteen million men were diverted from agricultural ...
why does earth's armosphere glow blue in pictures taken from space?	It is the same reson that the sky is blue from the ground. The atmosphere scatter the blue light more then the other colors so it looks blue. The amount of scattering depend on the wavelength of light. Blue scatter most and red on the others side of the spectrum scatter the least. Is is the same reason that a sun set ...	[ "One of the targets of particular interest was the crater Aristarchus. In 1963, Jim Greenacre saw a reddish glow in the region. This was confirmed by four other observers including the then-director of the Lowell Observatory. Apollo 15 was the first manned spacecraft to pass over the site. At the time it was not in...
Can anyone help me interpret this political cartoon? All I know about it is that it is related to the Algerian War.	My knowledge of the Algerian war is limited, but I can tell you that the image is a visual reference to [the three wise monkeys](_URL_0_), which in turn refer to the saying "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." The cartoon is accusing someone of turning a blind eye to unethical behavior, though I don't know who t...	[ "From 1954 to 1988, the massacres of Sétif and Guelma were commemorated in Algeria, but it was considered as a minor event compared to November 1, 1954, the beginning of the Algerian war for independence, which legitimized the one-party regime. The members of the FLN, as rebels and as State members did not want to ...
why is red hair so much more rare than other hair colors?	Because red hair is the most recessive of the hair colors. So if you look at a punnet square it'll be easy to see that unless both parents have red hair then there is only a 25% chance of the child having red hair at best and since there are multiple hair colors when red heads mate with non red heads it's easy to see ...	[ "Red hair ranges from light strawberry blond shades to titian, copper, and completely red. It is caused by a variation in the \"Mc1r\" gene and is recessive. Red hair has the highest amounts of pheomelanin, around 67%, and usually low levels of eumelanin. At 1–2% of the population, it is the least common hair color...
How were/are native peoples affected by the establishment of the US/Canada border?	There was no law or settlements in the Western Canadian prairies until the Northwest Mounted Police, newly established in 1873, arrived at Fort Whoop-up in 1874. Up until then there was no law nor any federal protection for the Indian tribes living in the Canadian side of the border and the US Cavalry was unwilling to...	[ "As a consequence of Article 3 of the Jay Treaty of 1794, official First Nations status, or in the United States, Native American status, also confers the right to live and work on either side of the border. Unlike the U.S., Canada has not codified the Jay Treaty. Canadian courts readily reject the Jay Treaty free ...
What are some great examples of military deception throughout history?	During WW2 the Australian Prime Minister kept speaking of the Japanese pushing south and Australia being in danger of invasion as a way of deceiving the Japanese. The Allies had broken Japanese military codes and knew that the Japanese had no intention of invading Australia. However, before this was known the idea th...	[ "Probably one of the best-known deceptions of the modern era was Robert Baden-Powell's defence of Mafeking during the Second Boer War. Baden-Powell had been dispatched to the North West province of South Africa shortly before the outbreak of war with orders to raise a small force and conduct a harrying war against ...
what is mk ultra?	It was a CIA project that started in the 50s and lasted the the 70s. It's goal was to identify drugs and techniques used for interrogation and counter intelligence. It included a lot of messed up experiments like daily LSD dosage on unknowing patients. It was illegal and didn't yield any real results. It did however dr...	[ "In mathematics, an ultralimit is a geometric construction that assigns to a sequence of metric spaces \"X\" a limiting metric space. The notion of an ultralimit captures the limiting behavior of finite configurations in the spaces \"X\" and uses an ultrafilter to avoid the process of repeatedly passing to subseque...
Was there anything like the American "temperance movement" in Europe in the 19th or 20th century?	There was a fairly strong temperance movement in Scandinavia. A number of both open and closed organisations were involved. An attempt was made in 1918 in Denmark to partially ban certain sorts of alcoholic drinks. A general drive to collect signatures for this managed 722,280 signatures (out of a pop. of 4 million). B...	[ "By the early 19th century, excessive drinking was considered to be a sufficient social problem that led to the founding of temperance societies in the United States and in Europe. The first founded in the U.S. was in 1808 in Saratoga, NY. By 1833, there were more than 6000 local societies in the country. At first ...
What’s the difference between sleep and just laying down/resting?	Frankly, nobody knows for sure. It's one of the great unresolved questions in psychology and neurology. Hypotheses for the function of sleeping range from consolidating new memories to cleaning up metabolic waste products accrued in the brain. All we know that deprivation of sleep eventually incapacitates you no matter...	[ "Lying, also called recumbency or prostration, or decubitus in medicine (from the Latin verb \"decumbere\" ′to lie down′), is a type of human position in which the body is more or less horizontal and supported along its length by the surface underneath. Lying is the most common position while being immobilized (e.g...
why do most americans seem to be suspicious of the federal government?	It's part of our culture. Our nation was founded by people with a fear and resentment of governments and kings. We were once a brave and rebellious assortment of people. Also our government always gives us good reason not to trust. Sneaky bunch of motherfuckers.	[ "Too many people have been spied upon by too many Government agencies and too much information has been illegally collected. The Government has often undertaken the secret surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even when those beliefs posed no threat of violence or illegal acts on behalf ...

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