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question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
In "Diplomacy" by Kissinger, he mentions that 19th century Russia had both Asian and European focused foreign offices. With the European directive being dominated by "Baltic Germans". Who were these Baltic Germans and how important of a role did they have in Tsarist Russia?	From an [earlier answer of mine](_URL_0_) Part I Although the state's trust in its Baltic German minority waned over time, it was an especially privileged group in the imperial state hierarchy, especially in the Petrine and Katrine years. Baltic Germans in this period found a wide variety of roles inside the Russ...	[ "The Foreign policy of the Russian Empire covers Russian foreign relations down to 1917. All the main decisions in the Russian Empire were made by the tsar (tsarist autocracy), so there was a uniformity of policy and a forcefulness during the long regimes of powerful leaders such as Peter the Great and Catherine th...
Employment status of prostitutes in the Old West	I would love to hear what insight /u/itsallfolklore has.	[ "Brothel prostitutes, also known as Courtesans, work as independent contractors and thus do not receive any unemployment, retirement or health benefits from the house they work for. They are responsible for paying Federal income tax and their earnings are reported to the IRS via form 1099-MISC. Nevada does not have...
why did the us care so much about not letting cuba, parts of latin america, vietnam, and other parts of the world become communists?	We were (and some argue still are) at war with Russia. Allowing a communist nation in our region of influence would give Russia a point that they could use to attack up directly faster than we could react, and it would siphon money and political influence away from us.	[ "Cubans were given preferential treatment in the United States for four main reasons: Cold War politics, reduction of administrative burdens for immigrants, humanitarian concerns, and Cuban professionals' potential impact on the United States economy. The United States government was concerned that Cuba would serve...
Can anyone help identify the pictures on this scrimshaw? [x-post] r/whatisthisthing and r/antiques	What an interesting mystery! I find a depiction of Jenny Lind pretty reasonable for the 1880s, because she did the big American tour in 1850 so people would probably remember her from then. The scrimshaw might predate the wedding by a while too. My library has digital copy of Godey's Lady's Book and I took a look at ...	[ "The picture was published by \"LIFE\" in their June 20, 1949, edition, covering most of pages 112 and 113. That the picture used most of two pages was in itself unusual. The photograph was part of the magazine's coverage of the 3rd Sculpture International exhibition, which was organized by the Fairmount Park Art A...
why is footage from camera that was attached to you always shaky while you don't see same shaky effect through eyes?	There's three things going on: 1) Our eyes automatically counterbalance the effects of walking; as we step up slightly during our gait, our eyes look slightly down (pretty much automatically) to keep our field of vision somewhat stable. Most cameras don't do this, so it's shakier than an actual person's vision. 2) Yo...	[ "Home movies, often filmed with a cell phone camera, also tend to cause motion sickness in those who view them. The person holding the cell phone or other camera usually is unaware of this as the recording is being made since the sense of motion seems to match the motion seen through the camera's viewfinder. Those ...
if diamonds are just compressed carbon, why cant we make a machine that just compresses carbon into diamonds	We have them. They make industrial diamonds for saw blades and the like quite frequently. We produce diamonds all the time through a variety of processes, though it only recently we have been able to make gem quality diamonds of size in the laboratory.	[ "At very high pressures, carbon forms the more compact allotrope, diamond, having nearly twice the density of graphite. Here, each atom is bonded tetrahedrally to four others, forming a 3-dimensional network of puckered six-membered rings of atoms. Diamond has the same cubic structure as silicon and germanium, and ...
Why do we "Weigh" things in kg,g,and mg, if grams are units of mass? If I've got some powder on a scale and it reads 40mg, is it actually calculating the weight and then dividing it by 9.8 to tell me the total mass of the powder on the scale?	> Why do we "Weigh" things in kg,g,and mg, if grams are units of mass? We measure mass by exploiting Newton's 2nd law: F=ma. The acceleration due to earth's gravity at its surface is about 9.8 m/s^2, so we can measure an object's mass by measuring the force gravity exerts on it and then dividing by 9.8 m/s^2 (us...	[ "Although the size of an object may be reflected in its mass or its weight, each of these is a different concept. In scientific contexts, mass refers loosely to the amount of \"matter\" in an object (though \"matter\" may be difficult to define), whereas weight refers to the force experienced by an object due to gr...
Kind of a weird question, but do any historians here feel that being religious affects their professional career?	A lot of the people in Reformation history are Christians, and I've never seen anyone suffer as a result of it.	[ "Scholars of religion have argued that a study of the subject is useful for individuals because it will provide them with knowledge that is pertinent in inter-personal and professional contexts within an increasingly globalised world. It has also been argued that studying religion is useful in appreciating and unde...
If you were trapped in a room to die of dehydration with nothing to drink but alcohol, would you live longer if you did or did not drink it?	Well, if you were willing to drink your own urin, you are good to go. Problem with alcohol is that it blocks your Pituitary gland from producing Vasopressin. This hormone makes your kidney reabsorb the water from your urine. So if you drink alcohol, you lose a lot of water from your system. But if you drink your ow...	[ "Death from dehydration can take from several days to a few weeks. This means that unlike many other suicide methods, it cannot be accomplished impulsively. Those who die by terminal dehydration typically lapse into unconsciousness before death, and may also experience delirium and deranged serum sodium. Discontinu...
why do three-pin sockets block two-pin plugs when this security measure can easily be bypassed by a three-pin plug key or using a stick to push the relevant lever?	Because you're supposed to be more afraid of the fire you're likely to start by doing that than proud of how clever you are for using the stick.	[ "Within each size group, the plugs and sockets are keyed with certain \"lugs\" protruding on the outside of the plugs. Higher current plugs have more lugs to prevent them from being inserted into a lower current socket outlet, while still allowing them to be inserted into a socket outlet of the same size group rate...
How do T-cells know which cells they've already inspected?	It doesn't know. And it doesn't loop because it's not like the T-cell specifically waits until the current cell under investigation has "passed inspection" before moving on. The T-cell just moves around, continuously coming into contact with other cells in the neighboring environment, and if it happens to brush shoul...	[ "T cells need another signal to become activated in addition to Signal 1, this is done by co-stimulatory molecules such as the proteins CD80 (B7.1) or CD86 (B7.2), although other additional co-stimulation molecules have been identified. When Signal 2 is not expressed, but T cells receive Signal 1, the antigen-speci...
what are the main doctrines of christianity?	- Believe God exists and created everything - Believe John 3:16 - Love God - Love people - Pray faithfully - Acknowledge the existence and reality of heaven, hell, and eternity - Don't be stupid	[ "Christian doctrines include the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, founded the Christian Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement for sin, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven, from where he will return. Most Chri...
Black babies as bait for alligator hunt?	Holy cow. I had never heard of this before. I did a search of GenealogyBank (they have a large American newspaper database) for the phrase "gator bait." I found a few articles that talked about exceptionally large alligators being caught (around 1900-1910) that mention using a pig leg or a live pig stuck on a hook (poo...	[ "BULLET::::- Alligator bait / Gator bait: (U.S.) a black person, especially a black child. More commonly used in states where alligators are found, particularly Florida. First used in the early 20th century, although some hypothesize the term originated in the late 19th century. The term derives from the fact that,...
what keeps your skin cells in a human shape instead of them reproducing outwards indefinitely?	Oversimplified: Skin grows upward from a base layer - as you go further there's less and less blood supply, and cells aren't supported. The outer surface of your skin is substantially dead cells that form a protective layer. In the case of injury, other tissues are involved, and chemicals help signal where repair need...	[ "The cells in the stratum granulosum do not divide, but instead form skin cells called keratinocytes from the granules of keratin. These skin cells finally become the cornified layer (\"stratum corneum\"), the outermost epidermal layer, where the cells become flattened sacks with their nuclei located at one end of ...
How many primary sources do we have about Rome from 700 _URL_0_ 500 a.d?	Virtually all of our literary sources on ancient Rome were transmitted through the Christian monastic system. The oldest literary manuscript we have is the Vatican Vergil, which dates from the early fifth century CE. There are a small handful of manuscripts from about that time period, but I think they are all of Vergi...	[ "The cover matter states \"Part X: The History of Rome from the Earliest Times to 476 AD\" is based chiefly on the works of the following authorities: Ammianus, Appian, Thomas Arnold, Barthélemy Aube, the Augustan History, Julius Caesar, Henry Fynes Clinton, Cicero, Dion Cassius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Eutropi...
What are some things that are attributed to Roman culture and society, but actually come from the Etruscans?	A whole lot! Tarquinian kings ruled Rome until 509 BCE, so much of early Roman culture was derived from the Etruscans. Etruscan art became highly sophisticated during the Orientalizing period (c. 700-570 BCE), and Etruscan bucchero pottery exhibited particularly fine craftsmanship for its era that was later imitated by...	[ "The Etruscans (\"Etrusci\" or \"Tusci\" in Latin) were settled north of Rome in Etruria (modern northern Lazio, Tuscany and part of Umbria). They founded cities like Tarquinia, Veii and Volterra and deeply influenced Roman culture, as clearly shown by the Etruscan origin of some of the mythical Roman kings. The or...
why did humans lose fur?	_URL_0_ This article brings up an interesting fact about humans and their long-distance running abilities. > “Ancient humans exploited the fact that humans are good runners in the heat,” Dr. Bramble said. “We have such a great cooling system” — many sweat glands, little body hair. Humans are outstanding l...	[ "Loss of fur occurred at least 2 million years ago, but possibly as early as 3.3 million years ago judging from the divergence of head and pubic lice, and aided persistence hunting (the ability to catch prey in very long distance chases) in the warm savannas where hominins first evolved. The two main advantages are...
Has any country that engaged in mass surveillance of its own citizens avoided becoming totalitarian?	> > The question was raised by a famous cryptographer Bruce Schneier in this article, but was not answered. This isn't as good or insightful a question as you might think it is. Pre-modern governments tend not to have the power or technology to conduct surveillance of individuals en masse in society. The pre-modern...	[ "Surveillance can be viewed as a violation of privacy, and as such is often opposed by civil liberties activists. A liberal democracy may have laws which restrict domestic government and private use of surveillance. Authoritarian governments seldom have any domestic restrictions, and international espionage is comm...
what's the difference between a strategist and a tactician?	Strategy is big picture, tactics is more technical. A military example would be: "let's move our armies to X area to damage the enemy's food supplies" - strategy "let's go this way and flank the enemy with our soldiers" - tactics	[ "A strategist is a person with responsibility for the formulation and implementation of a strategy. Strategy generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy describes how the ends (goals) will be achieved by the means (resources...
why do children so often cry on public transport whilst a private car sends them to sleep?	Maybe its all the strangers comming off and on the bus. When its a car its just your family and you all the while.	[ "A study by the American Automobile Association (AAA) found that talking to a passenger was as distracting as talking in a call on a hands-free smartphone, and a study by Monash University found that having one or more children in the car was 12 times more distracting than calling while driving. Devid Petrie of the...
the difference between curd and yogurt.	I like both cheese (curds) and yogurt and no one has answered, so I'll have a go at this. Milk is made of water, sugars, fat and proteins. When they're all flowing together as a liquid, that's milk or cream. Curds are formed when the proteins in milk get bunched together and tangled up so that part of the milk turns...	[ "In Indian English, used only in the Indian subcontinent, \"curd\" or \"curds\" instead refers to the traditional homemade yogurt (also known as dahi, while \"paneer\" and \"Chhena\" are used to denote curdled milk.\n", "Another name for this curd is Chakku yogurt. There is also a reason behind the name. The qual...
Could there be a noticeable change in heat on objects that are illuminated by a regular light bulb?	Speaking from decades of experience, old style incandescent bulbs radiated 90+% of the energy they consumed as heat. That meant 25 watts was just mood lighting and 40w could barely be read by. But if you sat by a lamp with a 100w bulb, your bare skin could feel the sensation of heat and under a 200w bulb your skin wo...	[ "According to classical electromagnetic theory, the photoelectric effect can be attributed to the transfer of energy from the light to an electron. From this perspective, an alteration in the intensity of light would induce changes in the kinetic energy of the electrons emitted from the metal. Furthermore, accordin...
How were microprocessors made before automated robots (which use microprocessors) were invented?	Microprocessors are really just integrated circuits (ICs). The first IC was fairly primative and was developed by Jack Kilby. You can see what it looked like [here](_URL_0_). Keep in mind, integrated circuits are really just circuits made out of semiconductor substrates (e.g. silicon). The actual circuit components s...	[ "The first uses of modern robots were in factories as industrial robots – simple fixed machines capable of manufacturing tasks which allowed production with less need for human assistance. Digitally controlled industrial robots and robots using artificial intelligence have been built since the 2000s.\n", "Industr...
why is it bad for our body to shower daily, but it's okay to wash our hands many times a day?	I think I'll have to disagree with your premise. Can you show evidence that your claim of daily showers being bad?	[ "More frequent is washing of just the hands, e.g. before and after preparing food and eating, after using the toilet, after handling something dirty, etc. Hand washing is important in reducing the spread of germs. Also common is washing the face, which is done after waking up, or to keep oneself cool during the day...
the difference between countries ruled by england (eg scotland/wales) and colonies of england (eg canada/australia)	Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland are all constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Although England is the largest country and home to the capital, England does not rule the other countries. in fact its the other way around as the other countries each have thier own governments while England does not. ...	[ "Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are also Commonwealth Realms which share Elizabeth II as constitutional monarch and head of state. The countries share a number of institutional, linguistic and religious similarities such as the use of the Westminster parliamentary system of government, Common...
Do more physically attractive people tend to have more pleasant (or even sexy) voices? What role does voice play in human mate selection?	Not so much. The markers identified for physical attraction (facial symmetry) and voice preferences (vocal tract size) do not correlate in either direction. Furthermore, the studies that have discovered these preferences lack cross-cultural validation. Voice: Even within a population, these preferences appear to s...	[ "In addition to physical looks, quality of voice has also been shown to enhance interpersonal attraction. Oguchi and Kikuchi (1997) had 25 female students from one university rank the level of vocal attraction, physical attraction, and overall interpersonal attraction of 4 male students from another university. Voc...
can somebody please explain how the person betting $1billion that the united states will lose it's aaa rating will make money if that happens.	You can [short sell](_URL_0_) anything. In this case, he shorted US government bonds. Short selling is the practice of borrowing a stock or bond (or anything) from person A and selling it to person B. Then after the price goes down (hopefully), you buy it from person C and sell it back to person A. Boom - you pocke...	[ "Standard & Poor's downgraded America's credit rating from AAA to AA+ on 6 August 2011 for the first time. The US had a AAA rating since 1941. Standard and Poor's said that it could go down further than AA+, with Moody's also warning of a potential downgrade of the government's credit rating.\n", "Several credit ...
Red and blue images on my phone look 3D through my corrective glasses. What gives?	It looks like the polarizer on your phone and the anti-glare coating on your glasses Real interacting to create a ChromaDepth effect. This website explains the phenomenon quite well: _URL_0_	[ "In Blue Only mode only the blue pixels of a display render the picture on the screen - or, for CRT displays, the blue cathode ray tube. Thus we see only the blue channel of the image, but rather blue tinted than black and white. Areas with blue color in it appear bright and those without blue color appear dark or ...
why do some pencil sharpeners work perfectly and others simply mutilate my pencil slowly without sharpening the lead?	There is 2 main factors to a good pencil sharpener. 1 - Blade sharpness, the sharper the blade the more smoothly you can sharpen your pen without the tip "cracking" and the sharper it is the sharper the maximum sharpness the tip can be. 2 - The plastic guider that guides the pencil into the blade, if the guider is of b...	[ "Mechanical pencils dispense the graphite lead progressively during use and thus do not require sharpening; such pencils are sometimes called \"self-sharpening\". A type of mechanical pencil has a rotating gear mechanism which rotates the lead slightly every time the lead is lifted off the paper, helping to maintai...
what happens if a wedding guest "speaks now" instead of "forever holding their peace"?	Usually nothing. By that time if someone speaks up at that moment, they're drunk or delusional. But, there is a good reason to do this. Marriage is a funny institution, so one cannot legally be married to two people at a time. I remember reading a case where a women had been trying to get her husband to sign divorce ...	[ "BULLET::::- 389: Frenemies – Speak now or forever hold your peace (September 11, 2009): Rakoff demonstrates—in rhyme—how to make a wedding toast for people you never wanted to see married in the first place\n", "Sandy keeps quiet about what she has seen. At the wedding she almost speaks up at the point in the ce...
What exactly would Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels have been charged with had they been tried at Nuremberg?	There were 4 indictments leveled against Goering and the other high ranking Nazi's in the first of the series of Nuremberg Trials. They were: A. Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace B. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggression and other crimes agains...	[ "BULLET::::- In Munich, Adolf Hitler was fined 1,000 marks for contempt of court and threatened with prison time for refusing to answer questions from a Jewish lawyer. Hitler had been called as a witness in a perjury lawsuit against the writer Werner Abel, who accused Hitler of accepting bribes from Italian Fascist...
what happens to my feces when it’s at the gates but i’m driving and can’t stop to defecate? it feels as though it simply goes away and i get a bit of stomach rumbles	What makes you feel like you have to poop (or pee for that matter) is that there are muscles in your stomach which you don't have any control over. Those muscles try to push the poop/pee against muscles that you do have control over, so you have to push back to keep the poop/pee in. Even though you don't have conscio...	[ "Humans expel feces with a frequency varying from a few times daily to a few times weekly. Waves of muscular contraction (known as \"peristalsis\") in the walls of the colon move fecal matter through the digestive tract towards the rectum. Undigested food may also be expelled this way, in a process called \"egestio...
Is there any scientific studies on the difference between children raised by gay parents vs. heterosexual or single parents?	Not sure why this is getting downvotes, the question is valid, we are all shaped by our experiences and our environment it is not a controversial hypothesis that there could be differences between heterosexual parents and gay/lesbian parents. In the same way that there could also be a difference between gay men and les...	[ "A 2002 review of the literature identified 20 studies examining outcomes among children raised by gay or lesbian parents and found that these children did not systematically differ from those raised by heterosexual parents on any of the studied outcomes.\n", "Scientific research has been generally consistent in ...
Who were the major "sex symbols" of the 19th century?	A discussion of this sort should probably begin with Sarah Bernhardt, who set Europe ablaze with her acting and her rambunctious public persona from the 1870s onwards. She was rumoured to be romantically linked with dozens of then-famous men - including some, like Gustave Doré, Alphonse Mucha, and Nikola Tesla (who ...	[ "The term \"sex symbol\" was first used in the mid-1950s in relation to the popularity of certain film stars and pin-up models, including Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, and Raquel Welch. This concept was a reflection of the post-World War II increase of sexual and economic emancipation of women. \n", "Towards t...
Why are Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian (Uralic Languages) under the same language family and how did they become related?	They didn't become related. The common roots of the 3 languages (with only about 200 related words) originated just west of the Ural Mountains and grew further and further apart with time. The first mention of any Uralic language was in 98 AD in Tacitus's "Germania." The languages are very distantly related.	[ "BULLET::::2. The second main argument is that, although Hungarian does have similarities in structure and vocabulary with Finno-Ugric languages, it has equally significant and fundamental similarities to other language groups, such as the Turkic languages. The alternative theories claim that the connections betwee...
burning wood to create energy does not create global warming?	Our planet has not always been the same as it was now. It took a very long time for photosynthetic life to store all of the carbon currently sequestered. (It's also worth noting that not all carbon in the world is either in plants or the atmosphere.) The problem is that when people burn wood for fuel, we have the capac...	[ "As fossil fuels, burning wood causes greenhouse effect gases. However, wood is a renewable source of energy. A sustainable heat system would be to use solar heat in the summer, and the minimum of wood in the winter, thanks to maximum insulation.\n", "The environmental impact of using wood as a fuel depends on ho...
beyond the protection of fame and money, how do serial sexual predators like cosby, weinstein, or spacey get away without serving any jail time?	You can only get jail time of you're convicted of a crime. A lot of the people accused of sexual misconduct are accused of behaviors which aren't actually criminal. They might be unlawful civilly, where they could be sued over it, or they might just be severely frowned upon, but you only get jail if you're convicted of...	[ "The crime of stalking is punishable in California by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment in the state prison. The punishment for violating a CHO is 2–4 years of imprisonment....
Why is hypoglycemia a symptom of diabetes?	Future Med Student here! Hypoglycemia, or low blood glucose, is a side effect of treating diabetes. There are 2 types of diabetes, insulin dependent or non-insulin dependent. In insulin dependent (type 1) the pancreas produces little or no insulin; in insulin independent (type 2) the pancreas produces insulin, but the...	[ "Hypoglycaemia occurs when blood sugar levels drop too low; it can cause a variety of symptoms including hunger, sweating, rapid heart rate, and shaking. If left untreated, hypoglycaemia can lead to a loss of consciousness. Onset of hypoglycaemia can be sudden, requiring glucose levels to be normalised by consuming...
Why do we steer vehicles from the front, but aircraft (elevators/rudder) from the rear?	That's a good question, but in short the way vehicles and aircraft are controlled aren't really related. I can explain why standard aircraft have the control surfaces at the back on the tail (the rudder/vertical stabilizer/elevator/horizontal stabilizer assembly being called the empennage). Also note, some ground ve...	[ "When an aircraft is steered on the ground exclusively using the rudder, turning the plane requires that a substantial airflow be moving past the rudder, which can be generated either by the forward motion of the aircraft or by thrust provided by the engines. Rudder steering requires considerable practice to use ef...
why can't they make space elevators with propellers on them to reduce tension forces?	That would only work in the atmosphere, where the propellers have something to push: air. But the cable will experience the same amount of tension above the atmosphere, where there is no air for the propellers to push. The only real solution is to find a way to manufacture, in large quantity at reasonable cost, a mat...	[ "Both the horizontal stabilizer and the elevator contribute to pitch stability, but only the elevators provide pitch control. They do so by decreasing or increasing the downward force created by the stabilizer:\n", "Historically, the main technical problem has been considered the ability of the cable to hold up, ...
What are the margins of error in elections? If a study hasn't been done, how could we construct one?	You can look at recounts to get a sense of how much the count varies on repeated measurements. I found some statistics here: _URL_0_ Based on those 72 counties, the average relative change in Prosser's vote was 0.999877827 and the standard deviation over counties was 0.001448963. In terms of absolute votes, the aver...	[ "Another way to reduce the margin of error is to rely on poll averages. This makes the assumption that the procedure is similar enough between many different polls and uses the sample size of each poll to create a polling average. An example of a polling average can be found here: 2008 Presidential Election polling...
what makes some color combinations more aisthetically pleasing than others?	Mostly it comes to personal preference. I would recommend watching this video by Kurzgesagt about what makes humans 'like pretty things.'	[ "Designers should also note that red-blue and yellow-blue color combinations are generally safe. So instead of the ever-popular \"red means bad and green means good\" system, using these combinations can lead to a much higher ability to use color coding effectively. This will still cause problems for those with mon...
When does a baby get its own blood type?	Depending on what you mean, either a. immediately upon conception, because the blood type is genetically determined or b. around week five when first blood cells are formed according to those genetic instructions.	[ "ABO blood grouping and screening for antibodies in neonates differs from blood grouping in adults and older children. Any antibodies detected are the mother's antibodies rather than the baby's. Therefore, any donor blood given to the baby must be ABO and D compatible with both mother and baby; and antigen-negative...
It's a common trope in 19th century fiction for a character to descend into insanity. What would 19th century "insanity" mean in modern medical terms?	Edit: Thanks for your patience, everyone. I hope you will enjoy my answer: please scroll further down the page to find what became many hours of research for your amusement and edification. Could you please give some examples of the texts you mean? For example, a lot of research has been done on the trope of the "madw...	[ "In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, terms such as \"madness,\" \"lunacy\" or \"insanity\"—all of which assumed a unitary psychosis—were split into numerous \"mental diseases,\" of which catatonia, melancholia and dementia praecox (modern day schizophrenia) were the most common in psychiatric institutions.\n...
how do chinese speakers imply sarcasm?	You can still stress syllables in Chinese without changing the tone. In addition in China people tend to be very creative with word choices and puns to imply sarcasm or even insults. Source: Native speaker.	[ "In English, sarcasm is often telegraphed with kinesic/prosodic cues by speaking more slowly and with a lower pitch. Similarly, Dutch uses a lowered pitch; sometimes to such an extent that the expression is reduced to a mere mumble. But other research shows that there are many ways that real speakers signal sarcast...
Question about US Air Force rank structure during WWII	Short answer. The Air Force was a branch of the army in WW2 and used Army ranks. It was known as [The United States Army Air Forces](_URL_0_). The US Air Force was not active until 1947.	[ "When the ranks of the RAF were designed, an officer with the rank of group captain (equivalent to colonel and naval captain) commanded such a unit, although by the time of World War II, many groups were commanded by air commodores (equivalent to brigadiers/brigadier generals and commodores) or air vice-marshals (e...
How did ancient Greek and Roman sculptures survive in such good condition for so long?	One of the larger factors in the survival for more than 2000+ years of Greek and Roman statues (and buildings) has been the relative lack of large scale heavy industry in their immediate vicinity. A great deal of damage was caused between circa 1940 and 1980 by [Acid Rain](_URL_0_) which, while less of a threat n...	[ "Examples of Roman sculpture survive abundantly, though often in damaged or fragmentary condition, including freestanding statues and statuettes in marble, bronze and terracotta, and reliefs from public buildings, temples, and monuments such as the Ara Pacis, Trajan's Column, and the Arch of Titus. Niches in amphit...
why do people that play hockey or other sports left handed prefer to golf right handed?	Canadian kids starting to learn hockey are taught to place their dominant hand on the end of the stick. This translates to playing golf "left-handed"	[ "The game of golf is most commonly played right-handed, and left-handed players typically must provide their own special golf clubs. The game can be played with both hands, provided the player has both left- and right-handed clubs, giving an advantage over one-handed players. Professional golfer Phil Mickelson play...
if we have enough grain and milk sitting in silos around the usa to feed the world why do we give farmers subsidizes to burn it instead of using that money to give it away?	To stabilize the price. Too much supply will result in price drop which will drive lot of farms out of business which will decrease the supply and cause price spike. We are doing this to stop volatility in prices.	[ "BULLET::::6. \"Yet the United States, even if it fully cultivates all its land, even if it opens every spigot of charity, will not have enough wheat and other foodstuffs to keep alive all the starving\" (p. 206)\n", "The US Agricultural Act of 1949 made surplus US agricultural products available to be shipped ab...
why did nature make us intelligent instead of strong?	We are actually quite large and strong. We are not as strong as some other primates, but we have a lot more stamina, and we can run farther (although not faster) than just about any land animal in existence. While we lack the innate weapons of other large predators, we can still kill many smaller animals with our bar...	[ "BULLET::::- The power of nature over the lives of humans is demonstrated throughout the narrative with the rising of the water levels of the Great Salt Lake. Just by the flooding alone, the residents of the area had their lives interrupted to the point that they considered intervention the only option. Williams, h...
Is there an end to the obesity epidemic in sight?	I found better data for overweight so I will make my arguments for overweight instead of obesity. The correlation is so high that it makes no difference. 1) The adult population of some states in the US is now ~67% overweight (Mississippi, West Virginia) and the trend is still going up. So we have not reached an upper...	[ "Brownell and many of his colleagues attribute the nation’s obesity epidemic to the toxic environment. In 1995, the Institute of Medicine noted that the human gene pool has not undergone any real change over the past several decades when obesity has been on the rise. Therefore, the root of the obesity crisis must l...
If fever is a common means of thwarting infection, why haven't bacteria and viruses evolved to tolerate a slightly higher body temperature?	You've struck on a very interesting and "hot" topic in evolutionary medicine. One interesting theory (and I may be biased, since it's been posited by my adviser) claims that it's a form of micro-selection. First, it should be noted that even one "strain" of a pathogen still exhibits slightly different variants, as one...	[ "In theory, fever can aid in host defense. There are certainly some important immunological reactions that are sped up by temperature, and some pathogens with strict temperature preferences could be hindered.\n", "Temperature has the highest effect on virus’s survival in water since lower temperatures are the key...
What does the word Way mean in The Milky Way?	In the night sky without light pollution, you'll see a white cloudy band, like a milky-colored road through the sky. Presumably because of this, this band was called in Latin the "Via Lactea" which we translate into English as "the Milky Way" -- way as in road or path. And this band is the Milky Way galaxy as w...	[ "In western culture, the name \"Milky Way\" is derived from its appearance as a dim un-resolved \"milky\" glowing band arching across the night sky. The term is a translation of the Classical Latin \"via lactea\", in turn derived from the Hellenistic Greek , short for (', \"milky circle\"). The Ancient Greek (') – ...
when i'm watching satellite tv, is the satellite transmitting all the channels at once for my receiver to pick one or is my receiver requesting a channel to the satellite?	They broadcast from a few satellites on horizontal and vertical polarity. Your dish selects which satellite and polarity, but it still receives many channels at once. The signal going from the dish to the receiver has many radio carriers, and the receiver has to tune to the desired one. Further, within each carri...	[ "The set-top box selects the channel desired by the user by filtering that channel from the multiple channels received from the satellite, converts the signal to a lower intermediate frequency, decrypts the encrypted signal, demodulates the radio signal and sends the resulting video signal to the television through...
why do first nations / native people in canada continue to live on reservations where they have poor housing, below par schools and medical access, few jobs, poor quality of life and limited prospects for their children?	Partly culture but mainly land claims. If they all abandoned their reserves it'd be harder for them to claim their treaty rights on the land. I think this duality inside Canada is a shame though. It's basically apartheid. They live in squalor because of how remote they are but they can't really relocate because of ...	[ "Some Indians have immigrated from the United Kingdom and the United States due to both economic and family reasons. Indians move for economic prospects to Canada's economy and job market and have been performing well against many European and some American states. Lastly, individuals have decided to settle in Cana...
what's causing the very high pitched engine noise and bangs usually rally cars produce?	Straight cut gears (used because stronger than the quieter helical cut gears used in most road cars)will whine" at higher road speeds. A blow off valve or BOV will vent excess turbo boost pressure when the throttle is closed, this generally produces a high pitched "squeak" An anti lag system will delay the ignition aft...	[ "Due to their characteristic howling start-up noise, which is typical for three-phase AC motors with pulsed voltage control, these vehicles are occasionally also called \"circular saws\", \"hoe buoys\" or \"flying alarms\". The loud start-up and brake noise has led to many complaints.\n", "Cars significantly cont...
why do pets play with/are scared of their own tails? do they not know they're their own?	Young dogs and cats do it because it's fun. They like having fun just like we do. Slightly older pets might do it to get attention from humans since we tend to find the spectacle to be hilarious. If you have an elderly pet chasing their tail regularly, you might want to consider taking them to a vet because it might...	[ "Animals respond to threats in many complex ways. Rats, for instance, try to escape when threatened, but will fight when cornered. Some animals stand perfectly still so that predators will not see them. Many animals freeze or play dead when touched in the hope that the predator will lose interest.\n", "The signal...
What was the long term ecological impact of the Narnian ice age?	The Narnian ice age (which is more properly categorised as a pessimum, as Narnia was - still is - in an ice age during the entire time, an ice age being properly defined as a time when both the polar caps are full of ice year long, and when the sweet sea that rocks Aslan's realm drops below 10 degrees surface temperatu...	[ "Regions that experienced greater environmental effects as the last ice age ended have a much more evident Mesolithic era, lasting millennia. In Northern Europe, societies were able to live well on rich food supplies from the marshlands fostered by the warmer climate. Such conditions produced distinctive human beha...
how to choose delicious watermelon?	Weight and sound. The heaviest one per size means that they have more water, and usually more sweetness. When you tap on the watermelon it should be more of a dull/muffled thud rather than a higher pitched sound.	[ "Watermelon soup is prepared with watermelon as a primary ingredient, and may be served chilled. The seeds of the watermelon may be removed, or seedless watermelon may be used, and additional ingredients can include additional fruits, ginger, chili pepper and sugar.\n", "Sukiyan is prepared by cooking green gram ...
Do Immunosuppressant medications cancel historical vaccinations?	Defective? No. The vaccine-induced immune responses would be suppressed via general suppression of humoral and cellular responses, but it would still be recoverable. Vaccine-induced immunity is essentially stored in memory B and T cells. If an infection occurs, these cells recognize elements of the pathogen and undergo...	[ "As with other immunosuppressants, application of live vaccines is contraindicated because the microorganisms in the vaccine could multiply and infect the patient. Inactivated and toxoid vaccines do not hold this risk, but may not be effective under imatinib therapy.\n", "To help avoid shortages of these drugs, t...
why am i so tired after flying, or other times where i sit all day?	I know that, for me, I feel tired when I get off a plane because I just spent the past few hours scrunching in my shoulders and arms and keeping my legs together in order to not encroach on the space of the person sitting next to me. If I were sitting in a regular chair at my office for the same duration of time, I wou...	[ "Due to the work nature of airline pilots, who often cross several timezones and regions of sunlight and darkness in one day, and spend many hours awake both day and night, they are often unable to maintain sleep patterns that correspond to the natural human circadian rhythm; this situation can easily lead to fatig...
Since the Earth and the Sun are constantly moving in their respective orbits, is it fair to say we'll never be in the same spot in the Universe again?	> As I understand astronomy, the Earth is orbiting the Sun That's one reference frame. There's also a reference frame in which Earth is stationary. Both are equally valid, though one may be preferable for various calculational purposes. > the Sun, which is in turn moving in the Milky Way That's one reference frame...	[ "BULLET::::- Explanation : Within the Sun–Earth system, the point exists on the opposite side of the Sun, a little outside Earth's orbit and slightly further from the Sun than Earth is. This placement occurs because the Sun is also affected by Earth's gravity and so orbits around the two bodies' barycenter, which i...
is the human immune system "stronger" now than it was 1000+ years ago? (not including knowledge of simple things like hand washing, etc.)	Evolution does not change a lot in a thousand years. There is a dance between infectious diseases and their hosts. A really deadly disease kills the host and therefore itself. We have found antibiotics that work for a while. Let me relate a story about malaria. Malaria is the number one killer of humans. It has done...	[ "The immune system extends this response to its treatments of self-antigens, softening reactions against allergens, the body, and digestive microorganisms. As the worms developed ways of triggering a beneficial immune response, humans came to rely on parasitic interaction to help regulate their immune systems. As d...
What was Julius Caesar’s legacy as a politician? Was he remembered as an absolutist and a populist or as the demigod that tried to end the corrupted Senate?	Not to discourage further answers but you might enjoy reading these: [Why when people hear Julius Caesar, do they think of a great historical figure and a tragedy in the form of his assassination, when he was so obviously a tyrant?](_URL_0_) by /u/Celebreth [Was Julius Caesar a reformist, a conservative, or just an o...	[ "Gaius Julius Caesar, sometimes distinguished as \"the Elder\", was the father of the dictator. In 103 or 100 BC, he served on a commission for the distribution of land, which was then awarded mainly to veterans who had served under Marius. Caesar was praetor around 92 BC, and proconsul of Asia for at least two yea...
why people enjoy the bitter taste of alcohol	Even though alcohol isn't usually as pleasant to drink as soda and juice, drinking it usually makes people happier and more social. That's why people like to drink alcohol at parties and social events. Also, having milk at a party would be a [poor choice](_URL_0_).	[ "Excessive concentrations of some alcohols other than ethanol may cause off-flavors, sometimes described as \"spicy\", \"hot\", or \"solvent-like\". Some beverages, such as rum, whisky (especially Bourbon), incompletely rectified vodka (e.g. Siwucha), and traditional ales and ciders, are expected to have relatively...
What the rationale for the Soviets letting the East German army keep it's Prussian tradition?	Though I'm not an expert, I think the assumption you're making is incorrect. The East German army didn't keep Prussian military traditions, they adopted Prussian military traditions. The National People's Army was established in 1956. East Germany didn't have an army before then. Post World War II communism also full...	[ "The East Prussian Offensive was planned by the Soviet Stavka to prevent flank attacks on the armies rushing towards Berlin. Indeed, East Prussia held numerous troops that could be used for this. During initial Stavka planning, Joseph Stalin ordered Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky to annihilate the Wehrmacht forces ...
how does morse code work	With silences. A silence the duration of three dots separates between letters, while a silence with the duration of 7 dots separates between words.	[ "BULLET::::- Morse code is a variable length telegraphy code, which traditionally uses a series of long and short pulses to encode characters. It relies on gaps between the pulses to provide separation between letters and words, as the letter codes do not have the \"prefix property\". Morse code can be represented ...
[META] Is it just me or are there way more [deleted] comments in this sub as compared to other popular subs? Why is that?	Trust me on this: I don't mod here, but I mod over in ye olde /r/askscience which has a similar comment philosophy. You are not missing anything in these deleted trees. The contain unsourced answers, bad attempts at puns, etc. If you're here because you're interested in history, then the deleted trees are a good th...	[ "In between these views is the assertion that comments are neither beneficial nor harmful by themselves, and what matters is that they are correct and kept in sync with the source code, and omitted if they are superfluous, excessive, difficult to maintain or otherwise unhelpful.\n", "Other phrases typically used ...
who owns the land that roads are on? can you purchase that land?	The exact arrangement varies by location. In some places, the land is owned by the adjacent landowners, but the city, county or state government has a right of way permitting it to build the road. This means that if it were ever stricken as a public road, it would revert ownership to the adjacent owners. In other area...	[ "Many public highways in the UK have a private owner. That is, someone can prove \"title\" to them, either by being the registered owner or by having conveyances showing exactly how the land has been bought and sold over a long period of time. Such ownership in no way affects the public highway rights, since the re...
the sports and competition seeding system for playoffs or things like octa/quarterfinals	In some activities this is called the "power protect" tournament system. It is to reward the players/teams/competitor with the best regular season or preliminary rounds performance. This system is the most likely to produce the two best teams in the final round... Notice that the only way the #1 seed and the #2 see...	[ "The playoffs, play-offs, postseason and/or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be either a single game, a series of games, or a tournament, and may use a ...
If I went to 1st century Rome with 100 pounds of salt, how rich would I be?	Are you sure you didn't mean to write pepper or some other (for that age) luxury spice? At that time the Mediterranean cultures already knew how to extract salt from the sea and salt mines were abundant. 100 pounds of salt wouldn't get you very far.	[ "The Latin word \"salarium\" originally \"salt money\" (Lat. \"sal\", salt), \"i.e.\", the sum paid to soldiers for salt. () or the price of having soldiers conquer salt supplies and guard the Salt Roads (\"Via Salaria\") that led to Rome. But there is no evidence for this assertion at all.\n", "In ancient Rome, ...
Does the flight from Europe and USA (and in the other way) lasts longer/shorter because of Earth movement beneath the plane?	It doesn't create any real effect on travel time; Air in our atmosphere tends to rotate with the earth. A small headwind however can change flight times by hours. These winds tend to blow in one direction, so traveling one way you'll have a tailwind, reducing your travel time. _URL_0_	[ "The \"world's longest flight\" has disputed status due to the generality of such a claim. While the distance between two cities is constant, aircraft do not follow a straight path but will adjust the flight path based on headwinds and tailwinds and other weather events, and to avoid flying over certain countries b...
Some modern animals look just like their long-extinct ancestors. Have these "living fossils" really not changed in millions of years?	It might be easiest to explain using a specific example. I'll use one of the poster boys of living fossils, the horseshoe crab, the best studied of which is the atlantic horseshoe crab, Limulus polyphemus. Although "horseshoe crabs" may have been extant as early as 450 million years ago, L. polyphemus itself is no...	[ "At the end of the 18th century Georges Cuvier showed that some fossil animals resembled no living ones, thus demonstrating that animals could become extinct; this led to the emergence of palaeontology, the study of fossils. The coasts of eastern Devon and western Dorset were rich in fossil beds, but before this ti...
what does a non compete clause stop workers from doing?	It means you can't go work for a competing company either durring employment and usually for a set period after you leave the company.	[ "The extent to which non-compete clauses are legally allowed varies per jurisdiction. For example, the state of California in the United States invalidates non-compete-clauses for all but equity stakeholders in the sale of business interests.\n", "In contract law, a non-compete clause (often NCC), or covenant not...
why are mortgages so much more common in the u.s. than in other countries?	Why do you think this is? People take out loans for homes in every corner of the globe, they usually cannot purchase them straight up. A mortgage is just the name of a loan you get to buy a home.	[ "In most of Western Europe (except Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany), variable-rate mortgages are more common, unlike the fixed-rate mortgage common in the United States. Much of Europe has home ownership rates comparable to the United States, but overall default rates are lower in Europe than in the United Sta...
how do women in burqas pass through customs in an airport?	Honestly women in full burqas are a small fraction of all Muslim women. And usually from the poorest Islamic nations. I doubt many of this already small population actually fly. But if they did I'm guessing a female security officer would ask to see them unveiled.	[ "Women are generally discouraged from using public transport. It is technically forbidden, but unenforced, for women to take taxis or hire private drivers, as it results in \"khalwa\" (illegal mixing with a non-\"mahram\" man). Women have limited access to bus and train services. Where it is allowed, they must use ...
Are hormones passed from the donor to the recipient in a blood transfer? How do they treat the blood before it's ready for use?	Yes hormones exist in transfused blood. Whole blood or plazma will contain [hormones from the donor](_URL_2_). In most cases the hormone levels are insignificant so they aren't a consideration. However, in some cases the remaining hormones are used for [therapeutic purposes](_URL_0_). The hormones can break down over...	[ "Apheresis platelets are collected using a mechanical device that draws blood from the donor and centrifuges the collected blood to separate out the platelets and other components to be collected. The remaining blood is returned to the donor. The advantage to this method is that a single donation provides at least ...
are there any negative side effects to eating a tumor?	I’m honestly not sure how much nutritional benefit could be gained, but it wouldn’t be poisonous nor give you cancer. Only side effect would be grossing out the redditors who read your question, afaik.	[ "Physical inactivity is believed to contribute to cancer risk not only through its effect on body weight but also through negative effects on immune system and endocrine system. More than half of the effect from diet is due to overnutrition rather than from eating too little healthy foods.\n", "BULLET::::- Nutrit...
How close do atoms in a given space have to be in order for sound to be able to travel across them?	The is no distinct line. The average distance between atoms in a gas (ideal gas really, but it's the same at the low-pressure limit) is inversely proportional to the pressure. So what you're asking is the same thing as what the lowest pressure is, at which you can have sound. But sound is a propagating [_fluctuation_...	[ "In low molecular weight gases such as helium, sound propagates faster as compared to heavier gases such as xenon. For monatomic gases, the speed of sound is about 75% of the mean speed that the atoms move in that gas.\n", "For sound waves in air, the speed of sound is 343 m/s (at room temperature and atmospheric...
How does β-NMR-spectroscopy work?	I'm surprised nobodies said anything yet, so I guess i'll try to give it a shot. Basically any NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) application is using the nuclear spin of the material to identify what the material is. It's done by using magnets to orient the direction of the spin, then using another magnet that is pulse...	[ "NMR spectroscopy is one of the principal techniques used to obtain physical, chemical, electronic and structural information about molecules due to the chemical shift of the resonance frequencies of the nuclear spins in the sample. Peak splittings due to J- or dipolar couplings between nuclei are also useful. NMR ...
How close exactly was India to the USSR? What was the nature of the Indo-Soviet friendship, and were the Indo-Pakistani wars actually proxy wars?	The USSR has always had fairly warm ties with India, and these ties became warmer as the Sino-Soviet split became apparent. The deterioration of the USSR-China relationship made close ties with India a natural fit. USSR began aid and technology transfers to India and both countries jointly developed their military indu...	[ "The relationship between the Soviet Union and India was a significant part of the Cold War. Both political and scientific in nature, this cooperation lasted for nearly 40 years. Over this span of nearly four decades, Soviet-Indian relations maintained through three pairs of leaders—Jawaharlal Nehru and Nikita Khru...
why is muhammed ali considered the greatest (or one of the greatest) boxers of all time if he lost five times?	From an article by Max Kellerman. > The only heavyweight champion in history to beat more than one other great heavyweight in that heavyweight's prime -- and Ali did this several times when he was no longer at his best! Even if you take Joe Frazier and George Foreman and even Sonny Liston off his resume, Ali still ha...	[ "Muhammad Ali is regarded by boxing commentators and historians as one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. \"The Ring\", a prominent boxing magazine, named him number one in a 1998 ranking of greatest heavyweights from all eras. In 1999, \"The Associated Press\" voted Ali the number one heavyweight of ...
what does the secretary general of the united nations do?	He or she expresses concerns... sometimes, on rare occasions, they express deep concerns. That’s about it.	[ "A Special Representative of the Secretary-General is a highly respected expert who has been appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to represent her/him in meetings with heads of state on critical human rights issues. The representatives can carry out country visits to investigate allegations of h...
why schrödinger's cat needs to be observed, and why someone/thing needs to be observing everything around us?	It is a bit different than that. In normal physics, when you don't measure something you don't know the value of whatever it was that you did not measure. When you do decide to measure the value (you observe the system) you find one single value. You deduce that it did have that particular value all along, even at...	[ "BULLET::::- Schrödinger's cat, a thought experiment devised by Schrödinger that illustrates what he saw as the problem of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics applied to everyday objects\n", "BULLET::::- Schrödinger's cat, a thought experiment devised by Schrödinger that illustrates what he saw as ...
Books about US Covert Activity?	While not a strictly CIA operation "Blind Man's Bluff" was a good read on submarine operations during the Cold War, specifically Operation Ivy Bells which detailed the tapping of undersea cables between Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok. As a former spook, this book still feels wrong to read because of what's in it.	[ "The \"Covert-One\" series is a sequence of thriller novels written by several authors after the death of Robert Ludlum, presumably according to some of his ideas. The books feature a team of political and technical experts, belonging to a top-secret U.S. agency called Covert-One, who fight corruption, conspiracy, ...
how can the distance of a light year be consistent?	This is actually a good question. And the problem isn't with just "light years". You can apply that argument to any distance. The answer is that part of the relativistic effects along with time dilation is length contraction. That is, the closer you are to the speed of light, the more distances are contracted for you...	[ "Older studies generally derived smaller distances such as 345, 370, or 430 lights years. The original parallax calculated from Hipparcos measurements was 9.43 mas, indicating a distance of 346 light years.\n", "Astronomical distances are sometimes expressed in light-years, especially in popular science publicati...
when trying to regain balance, why do we lean towards the side that is off balance?	Your upper body/head/chest seem to move to the left; this is so that your hips/center of mass will move to the right. Your hips/waist/belly easily counteract the tilt. It is impossible, however, to move your waist to the right quickly without moving your upper body to the left. Does that make sense?	[ "The complexity of balance allows for many confounding variables to affect a person's ability to stay upright. Fatigue (medical), causing central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction, can indirectly result in the inability to remain upright. This is seen repeatedly in clinical populations (e.g. Parkinson's disease, mul...
countries with a president and a prime minister	It goes back to the idea that it has been found by experience that a country needs both a head of state and a head of government. A head of state personifies the nation, acts as a focus of national unity, acts as diplomatic host, and is generally just "there". A head of government actually runs the country having been...	[ "The post of prime minister may be encountered both in constitutional monarchies (such as Belgium, Denmark, Japan, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Malaysia, Morocco, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom), and in parliamentary republics in which the head of state is an...
how were modern day scholars able to translate works written in archaic english (e.g. the canterbury tales) so accurately when the language used is so different from the english today?	You have a lot of texts written in Old English, Middle English, Early Modern English, Victorian English, etc., so you can trace the evolution of the language and backtrack. By now, Old English is an easy language to learn since we know so much about it. Things that help: * Having the same text in multiple periods (t...	[ "Such modern rendering is applied either to literature from classical languages such as Latin or Greek, notably to the Bible (see \"Modern English Bible translations\"), or to literature from an earlier stage of the same language, as with the works of William Shakespeare (which are largely understandable by a moder...
What causes the planets to align the way they do?	This is answered in the sciencefaqs. _URL_0_	[ "Since the alignment must be so precise, if the event lasts more than a few weeks, scientists can observe changes as the Earth moves around the sun, since this movement changes the alignment. Traditionally in astronomy, a change in view caused by the Earth's motion is called parallax, and this is the term used by r...
Did civilization recede in China in periods of disorder between dynasties?	Well, let me start by saying that, as I sit here in an at-least-nominally-republican society, typing away in a Latin script, and using a language deeply infused with Romantic vocabulary, and speaking from a high Judeo-Christian social perspective… that reports of fall of Roman Civilization remain somewhat exaggerated. ...	[ "BULLET::::- This invasion, combined with the later Mongol rule, were speculated to have caused China's advance into capitalism to fall behind by several centuries; although the Ming dynasty later restored the old order, their own fall to the Manchus was to stagnate China once more. This view is supported by the fa...
how does opening a beer with just a refrigerator magnet and a quarter work	It's a trick - a normal fridge magnet and bottle of beer wouldn't do that. I strongly suspect the bottle is rigged before the video starts and the magnet is just a red herring. It might even be completely fake.	[ "The device works by loading a beer from the refrigerator to an elevator leading outside of the fridge. From there, the beer is loaded to a catapult. The prototype device is controlled by a remote keyless control which can determine and lock the speed, launch angle, and direction just by the press of a button. Then...
Did Spartacus ever truly threaten Rome / the Republic?	An uprising of slaves was nothing new to Rome. Spartacus led the third Servile War. The trouble with this war, or any war with slaves, was no Roman general was very interested in conquering the slaves; primarily because it brought no glory or loot. But if you lost, which was a possibility, it meant defamation and the...	[ "Spartacus defeated many Roman armies in a conflict that lasted for over two years. While trying to escape from Italy at Brundisium he unwittingly moved his forces into the historic trap in Apulia/Calabria. The Romans were well acquainted with the region. Legions were brought home from abroad and Spartacus was pinn...
- i saw a ted video today about altering the dna in bacteria to fight cancer. how does one "edit" the dna in something??	Kurzgesagt made [the most clear and amazing video](_URL_0_) about how we can use CRISPR to edit DNA	[ "Transformation of bacteria, plant cells and animal cells has important research and commercial functions. Targeted introduction of exogenous DNA is used to identify genes because the introduced DNA can act cause a mutation or altered expression of the gene into which it inserts. This technology, known as insertion...
How can a complex protein fold in milliseconds, yet it takes current supercomputers an immense time to find the lowest energy state? How do they know how to fold?	They don't "know how" to fold. They don't know anything, and, I guess you could say, there is no "how" to know. They are following the laws of physics, those involving thermodynamics, entropy, quantum mechanics and all that follows, and their folding behavior is going to depend to some degree on their environment (e.g....	[ "The duration of the folding process varies dramatically depending on the protein of interest. When studied outside the cell, the slowest folding proteins require many minutes or hours to fold primarily due to proline isomerization, and must pass through a number of intermediate states, like checkpoints, before the...
why does the us have less money now than it did in the mid-20th century?	The US government didn't do all that production; they converted essentially all factories to wartime production...car companies made tanks and engines, pipe companies made gun barrels, airliner companies made fighters and bombers...basically, the entire industrial capacity of the US for everything switched to war pro...	[ "By the end of the 20th century, the United States dollar was considered the world's dominant reserve currency. The world's need for dollars has allowed the United States government as well as Americans to borrow at lower costs, granting them an advantage in excess of $100 billion per year.\n", "The United States...
How could the "stab in the back" myth have formed if Germany had essentially become a military dictatorship under von Hindenburg and Ludendorff?	The key words here are "essentially military dictators." The Hindenburg and Ludendorff duo had broad powers within in Germany, but the civilian government conferred these powers on them. The duo operated within Oberste Heeresleitung (Supreme Army Command/OHL) which nominally was under the leadership of the Kaiser. Wi...	[ "The former military chief Erich Ludendorff successfully propagated the Stab-in-the-back myth. This stated that Germany could have been victorious, had not greater powers insidiously undermined the \"heroic struggle of the German people\". His wife Mathilde authored writings on the \"supranational powers\" which ex...
why are there flights that take longer than 12 hours?	Earth may spin 1 rev/day, but planes spin with it so the spin of Earth doesn't matter at all. Its just about the speed to get from A to B. i.e. Why doesn't a boat just take 12 hours around the world?	[ "In air travel, as delays are both common and potentially expensive, the scheduled flight time is usually increased to about 110% of the expected flight time, however some airlines are reportedly now padding by as much as 50%. \n", "The longest non-stop scheduled flight was the Singapore Airlines Flight 21 from N...
Is is any more likely that the universe is not expanding, but that every point or particle in it is shrinking in size? Does the distinction even matter?	I am a cosmologist and this thought has crossed my mind before and I have discussed it with my colleagues. And I can't give you a good reason why this would be impossible. However, it seems less likely, because there is no known mechanism that could even come close to causing something like this. Whereas we know that t...	[ "Even if the overall spatial extent is infinite and thus the universe cannot get any \"larger\", we still say that space is expanding because, locally, the characteristic distance between objects is increasing. As an infinite space grows, it remains infinite.\n", "Whether our universe is ever-expanding depends on...
Why isn't Guy Fawkes night celebrated in the Republic of Ireland?	Guy Fawkes Day is a day of celebration of the fact that King James I survived the attempt on his life; not that the attempt was made. The day was enacted by Parliament specifically in thanks that the Protestant Monarch was alive. The day also mobilised significant anti-Catholic feeling. [Wikipedia states "a study...	[ "Settlers exported Guy Fawkes Night to overseas colonies, including some in North America, where it was known as Pope Day. Those festivities died out with the onset of the American Revolution. Claims that Guy Fawkes Night was a Protestant replacement for older customs like Samhain are disputed, although another old...

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