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How Integrated circuit are designed ?	They are written in programming languages that specify the logical operations. Then Synthesis is performed by (a usually very expensive) piece of software to map the logic to the transistors. [Some example code](_URL_1_) In the old days chip designers were drawing huge masks with some kind of cutting equipment and r...	[ "Integrated circuit design involves the creation of electronic components, such as transistors, resistors, capacitors and the interconnect of these components onto a piece of semiconductor, typically silicon. A method to isolate the individual components formed in the substrate is necessary since the substrate sili...
how does the technology that sees if tennis balls are in or out work, and how come it hasn't completely replaced linesmen?	I know more about this than a lay-person should, but that's perhaps because I'm considering starting a business in this area. On this, you can AAMA - I know quite a bit. I also know this is _way_ more info than you actually care about, and nobody is going to care about this, but I enjoy talking about it, so, here goes...	[ "In informal games, either a rubber ball or tennis ball is used as an alternative. The rubber ball is not suitable for the variety of surfaces made use of in informal games; it is too bouncy on cement and concrete and barely bounces at all on grass or soil. An unmodified tennis ball is light, but it is incapable of...
Are the Burmese Way to Socialism and the Khmer Rouge related?	I am not as familiar with Burmese history as I am with Cambodian but funnily enough I am currently writing a thesis which examines ethnic cleansing in each area. So, far from an expert analysis on the subject I will give you some thoughts which might constitute an answer for you. If I understand correctly your questio...	[ "The Burmese Way to Socialism has been described by some as anti-Western, neutralist and socialist in nature, characterised also by an extensive dependence on the military, emphasis on the rural populace, and Burmese (or more specifically, Burman) nationalism. In January 1963, the Burmese Way to Socialism was furth...
What is the environmental and long term climate impact of the recent Chile volcano eruption?	Locally a big impact mostly from falling ash an air pollution. However globally, I doubt we'll see much impact unless this continues for several months. It is located around 41 S, so not near the tropical regions. For volcanoes to have a global cooling effect, they usually need to be erupting in the tropical region....	[ "The eruption of the Chilean volcano Puyehue significantly affected the surrounding environment. The temperature of the Nilahue River rose to and killed an estimated 4.5 million fish with an economic impact on fish farming in the area. The cattle economy was also damaged.\n", "Forests near the volcano have been b...
Everyone's worried about the radiation but can we harness the energy from solar flares?	It's not really feasible to construct an elaborate and expensive generator which is powered by relatively rare and extremely powerful events. When it comes to harnessing energy you want a steady and consistent supply as that is the manner it is used in and won't have to be stored. We already have solar panels to capt...	[ "A solar flare is an explosion in a solar atmosphere and was originally detected visually in the Sun. Solar flares create massive amounts of radiation across the full electromagnetic spectrum from the longest wavelength, radio waves, to high energy gamma rays. The correlations of the high energy electrons energized...
Advice on how to effectively study science?	Draw diagrams until you can make them from memory.	[ "Researchers may seek advice on a wide range of subjects concerning their research. One of the major tasks of the methodological advisor is to help his clients think about what they really want to accomplish. This may involve helping them to (re)formulate the research question and relatedly, the research hypothesis...
How do denatured proteins in cooked food get absorbed and "used" in the body?	You already solved it - proteins are made from amino acids. Denaturing a protein just changes the conformation (shape) irreversibly. Your body would do that when you eat it. You need 22(?) essential amino acids in your diet that your body can't produce. Your body breaks down those amino acid chains and reconfigures the...	[ "When preparing proteins for consumption, there are three ways of denaturing the proteins: heating, acids, and mechanical force (e.g. whisking eggs). All three methods have the same result: hydrogen bonds in the proteins are broken allowing the proteins to \"unwind\". When the proteins are unwound, they have been a...
What did the Founding Fathers do for fun?	[terrible one-line answers about marijuana and sex] Please stop posting these. People come to AskHistorians for in-depth, comprehensive and factually accurate answers. Please take the time to review our rules - our [section on in-depth answers](_URL_0_) in particular - before commenting.	[ "According to the Olympic Club's official website, \"giving back to the community is a tradition that has endured since the Olympic Club's earliest days.\" The Olympic Club has a long history of philanthropy, dating back to its origins in 1860. In December of that year, the Club held its first public exhibition, in...
which consequences of a dam being built lead to environmental change/damage?	One problem is that the dam floods the valley behind it, turning it into a lake. This kills virtually everything that was previously growing in the valley.	[ "Dams are considered \"installations containing dangerous forces\" under International humanitarian law due to the massive impact of a possible destruction on the civilian population and the environment. Dam failures are comparatively rare, but can cause immense damage and loss of life when they occur. In 1975 the ...
Where are we in the current Milankovitch cycle? And when would the next ice age be (if there was no human cause climate change)?	Firstly, there isn't a single Milankovitch cycle. Milankovitch cycles describe a set of different cyclical changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun and rotational axis. Whilst this is a simplification, there are three main cycles that respectively control changes in eccentricity of the Earth's orbit, the tilt/obliqu...	[ "There is strong evidence that the Milankovitch cycles affect the occurrence of glacial and interglacial periods within an ice age. The present ice age is the most studied and best understood, particularly the last 400,000 years, since this is the period covered by ice cores that record atmospheric composition and ...
why people need to be raised and schooled to live well as a person, but my cat, who's not around other cats, knows how to live well like a cat?	One of the trade offs we made in our evolution for more powerful brains that take up a quarter of our blood supply was that it takes us longer to come online. Our brain starts as a plastic bin of parts that grow together and adapt to our culture as well as the tasks we demand of it to live in a society. As our society ...	[ "Cats like to organize their environment based on their needs. Like their ancestors, domestic cats still have an inherent desire to maintain an independent territory but are generally content to live with other cats for company as they easily get bored. Living alone for a longer time may let them forget how to comm...
How much authority did Kaiser Wilhelm II actually have during the First World War?	Hi, I'm a student of German and politics rather than history directly. I can't provide a hyper detailed account of Wilhelm II's role in the First World War but what I can do is give some background to the constitution of the German empire - especially how it relates to the Kaiser - and some of the background leading up...	[ "During World War I, the Kaiser increasingly devolved his powers to the leaders of the German High Command, particularly future President of Germany, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and \"Generalquartiermeister\" Erich Ludendorff. Hindenburg took over the role of commander–in–chief from the Kaiser, while Ludendor...
Does the surface of the Earth "flatten out" to any extent due to space-time curvature?	The answer is yes or no depending on exactly how you phrase the question. Let me explain: Let me just specify first that these effects are minuscule. Basically Earth's mass curves spacetime, sure; the components of curvature relating time and space are pretty large and are what gives you the gravitational force, etc...	[ "The flatness problem (also known as the oldness problem) is an observational problem associated with a Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric (FLRW). The universe may have positive, negative, or zero spatial curvature depending on its total energy density. Curvature is negative if its density is less than the ...
Do nerve cells/nerve systems work like actual circuits?	I don't know too much about electronics yet so bear with me and let me know if I make a mistake. Neurons work very differently than our electronics. They're vastly more complicated and more simple at the same time. For one, each individual neuron works kind of like a simple transistor. It has two states: either on or o...	[ "The nervous system is the system of neurons, or nerve cells, that relay electrical signals through the brain and body. A nerve cell receives signals from other nerve cells through tree-branch-like extensions called dendrites and passes signals on through a long extension called an axon (or nerve fiber). Synapses a...
what the hell is the deal with bronies?	They are fans of the show My Little Pony, similar to how Trekkers are fans of Star Trek and Browncoats are fans of Firefly.	[ "A Brony Tale (originally titled Brony) is a 2014 Canadian-American documentary film directed by Brent Hodge. The film explores the brony phenomenon, the adult fan base of the children's animated show \"\" that arose shortly after its premiere in 2010. The film is structured around the journey of Ashleigh Ball, one...
If infrared is just another "place" on the spectrum that includes visible light, can something be painted infrared? Or is the "visible light spectrum" different in some way apart from the fact that we can only see that?	Yes. Although when you say "painted" you're defining the spectrum as what you can see. A blue object reflects blue light and absorbs light from all other colors in the visible spectrum. But a what you call a blue object may also reflect infrared light. So to an animal that has the ability to see some of the infrared sp...	[ "Infrared radiation with wavelengths just longer than visible light, known as near-infrared, behaves in a very similar way to visible light, and can be detected using similar solid state devices (because of this, many quasars, stars, and galaxies were discovered). For this reason, the near infrared region of the sp...
Was the Roman legal system the most modern and developed legal system during ancient times?	You're almost assuming that the derivation of western legal traditions in large part from Roman law was a conscious choice or decision over other alternate systems that were less "developed". It's basically tautological, but the reason for the Latinisms in modern western legal language is simply that they were derived...	[ "BULLET::::- Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome. The development of Roman law covers more than one thousand years from the law of the twelve tables (from 449 BC) to the Corpus Juris Civilis of Emperor Justinian I (around 530). Roman law as preserved in Justinian's codes became the basis of legal practice...
why is it called "surfing" the web?	Language left over from channel surfing on TV.	[ "The word \"surf\" is polysemous; having multiple, related meanings. \"Surfing\" the World Wide Web is the act of following hyperlinks. The phrase \"surfing the Internet\" was first popularized in print by Jean Armour Polly, a librarian, in an article called \"Surfing the INTERNET\", published in the Wilson Library...
How "woman-friendly" was early Christianity, at least for its place and time?	So, I think it's important to note that Christianity being "women-friendly" should not be strictly identified with allowing women to be priests/deacons/whatevs. After all, the vast majority of Christians do not become priests and I worry that concentrating so much on the priesthood imports both modern notions about wh...	[ "During the early centuries of Christianity, there is evidence of a great deal of activity by women in the life of congregations. Women served as deacons and ladies of means like Lydia of Philippi acted as financiers. Women probably constituted the majority of Christians. Blainey notes that by around AD 300, women ...
If you were standing on the surface of Pluto (or one of the outer planets), how much illumination would the sun actually provide for you to see with the naked eye?	The amount of sunlight is decreases by a factor of roughly the square of the distance. So if you are 10 times further away the sun is 100 times dimmer. Pluto is over 30 times further away than the Earth is from the sun, so the sun is about 90 times dimmer than it is on Earth. The thing is the Sun is very very brig...	[ "From Pluto, the Sun is point-like to human eyes, but still very bright, giving roughly 150 to 450 times the light of the full Moon from Earth (the variability being due to the fact that Pluto's orbit is highly elliptical, stretching from just 4.4 billion km to over 7.3 billion km from the Sun). Nonetheless, human ...
what is poison?	Really, a poison is something that will harm or kill you if taken into your body in an amount you're likely to encounter. Technically, water or caffeine (or anything) will kill you if you take enough of it, so that's why I added the "in an amount you're likely to encounter" part of it. Since your body is really just ...	[ "In biology, poisons are substances that cause death, injury or harm to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when an organism absorbs a sufficient quantity.\n", "The term \"poison\" is often used colloquially to describe any harmful substance—particularly corrosive sub...
why are there so many different electrical outlets in this world?	I would say because there are so many countries. Theoretically, a mass summit could create a universal wall plug that countries could then opt into, but no one really has any incentive to do that. The economy will barely benefit from such a change, and might even take a dip, because all the people selling wall plug con...	[ "Mains electricity by country includes a list of countries and territories, with the plugs, voltages and frequencies they commonly use for providing electrical power to appliances, equipment, and lighting typically found in homes and offices. (For industrial machinery, see Industrial and multiphase power plugs and ...
why is there so much media attention on the jodi arias case?	Attractive white girl + violent crime = media frenzy	[ "On May 9, \"The Republic\" commented: \"The Jodi Arias trial has been a social-media magnet. And when Arias was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder, Twitter and Facebook exploded with reaction. Much of it was aimed at Arias, though plenty of people tweeted at the media coverage, such as the antics of HLN ho...
How the bloody hell did an old italic alphabet reach scandinavia and became the runic alphabet used by germanics ?	There is a large debate on the origin of runes. Simply because we do not know 'exactly when, where, why or by whom runes were first created' (Findell 2014:6). Barnes (2012: 9-10) lays out four basic points that runologists agree upon concerning the origin of runes: 1. The oldest runic inscriptions are dated from AD...	[ "From roughly the 2nd century AD, certain speakers of early Germanic varieties developed the Elder Futhark, an early form of the runic alphabet. Early runic inscriptions also are largely limited to personal names and difficult to interpret. The Gothic language was written in the Gothic alphabet developed by Bishop ...
what exactly causes the sickly gross-tasting burps that occur after overeating?	A pocket of air is always present in your stomach (and visible on a standard chest X-ray). When eating, some more air gets in through swallowing. The stomach doesn't immediately empty itself when eating, so imagine all you have eaten starting to be digested by stomach acid and enzymes and floating in what you've drunk....	[ "Gibbing is the process of preparing salt herring (or soused herring), in which the gills and part of the gullet are removed from the fish, eliminating any bitter taste. The liver and pancreas are left in the fish during the salt-curing process because they release enzymes essential for flavor. The fish is then cur...
When referring to temperature, what exactly is a degree?	Temperature is really a measure the average kinetic energy of the molecules. As they gain energy (heat) they tend to move around more. Degrees are a fundamental unit, meaning they aren't a product of other units like joules or watts. The different scales like Celsius, Fahrenheit, or Kelvin, are based of different expe...	[ "The term degree is used in several scales of temperature. The symbol ° is usually used, followed by the initial letter of the unit, for example “°C” for degree(s) Celsius. A degree can be defined as a set change in temperature measured against a given scale, for example, one degree Celsius is one hundredth of the ...
why do my hands get clammy when i am afraid? evolutionarily shouldn't i increase my grip ability rather than losing grip with moisture?	I always remind people: evolution is a c- student. Evolution processes do just enough to help that species "pass."	[ "Frictional gripping is used by primates, relying upon hairless fingertips. Squeezing the branch between the fingertips generates a frictional force that holds the animal's hand to the branch. However, this type of grip depends upon the angle of the frictional force, thus upon the diameter of the branch, with large...
how is blackberry still in business when no one uses one? i don't know a single person who still uses a blackberry.	How many people do you know? Let's be generous and say 500. That's a rounding error on the population of the US. So your circle is probably not a great indicator. There are a number of companies, organizations and agencies that had longstanding contracts with Blackberry. Many of them are working off those contract...	[ "The primary competitors of the BlackBerry are smartphones running Android and the Apple iPhone, with Microsoft's Windows Phone platform emerging as a more recent competitor. For a number of years, the BlackBerry was the leading smartphone in many markets, particularly the United States. The arrival of the Apple iP...
is there an architectural advantage to “the pentagon” building being shaped as a pentagon? like does it provide more security, or is it simply for aesthetics?	It's a fascinating story. The book Pentagon a History by Steve Vogel goes into it in detail. The idea was to build a building for the War department with a lot of square footage without exceeding the low building height limits of the District of Columbia. The original location was a rectangular space with one corner...	[ "Square or rectangular towers are easy to construct and give a good amount of usable internal space. Their disadvantage is that the corners are vulnerable to mining. Despite this vulnerability, rectangular towers continued to be used, and Muslim military architecture generally favoured them.\n", "The ground plan ...
how are amazon third-party book vendors able to offer new and recently-published books in "new" or "like new" condition so quickly?	They are lying about availability, and I can (kind of) prove it with a simplified example. [This](_URL_0_) is an Amazon link to a manual for a calculator app that's available for Window. I'm very familiar with it because I wrote both the app and the manual. According to Amazon, there are 3 used and 8 new ones availab...	[ "BookFinder.com is a vertical search website that helps readers buy books online. The site's meta-search engine scans the inventories of over 100,000 booksellers located around the world. Among the books from sellers whose inventories are indexed, users can find the lowest price for a book of their choice from over...
Does the speed of light apply as a limit to how fast something can rotate?	There's no limit on angular velocity, but there is a limit on tangential velocity at any point on a rotating body. So if something has a relatively small diameter, it can rotate very fast. However, if you start looking at rotation of very large (planet-scale) objects, where the outer edges would be moving at relativi...	[ "when the rotational parameter \"a\" approaches zero. In this form of solution, units are selected so that the speed of light is unity (\"c\" = 1). At large distances from the source (R » a), these equations reduce to the Eddington–Finkelstein form of the Schwarzschild metric.\n", "For example, a strobe light can...
Humans seem to have a universally visceral reaction of disgust when seeing most insects and spiders. Do other animal species have this same reaction?	Not sure about insects, but a study has shown that there is some correlation between the development of highly-advanced vision in primates and the amount of deadly snakes present in the areas they developed. This is known as Snake Detection Theory. _URL_0_ The study suggests that part of the longevity of primate sp...	[ "Bites from Katipo spiders produce a syndrome known as latrodectism. The venoms of all \"Latrodectus\" spiders are thought to contain similar components with the neurotoxin α-latrotoxin the main agent responsible. Most bites are caused by female spiders; the male katipo was considered too small to cause systemic en...
How can i make colored fire?	Different chemical elements burn with different coloured flames. See: [Flame tests](_URL_0_)	[ "To color their flames, pyrotechnicians will generally use metal salts. Specific combinations of fuels and co-solvents are required in order to dissolve the necessary chemicals. Color enhancers (usually chlorine donors) are frequently added too, the most common of which is polyvinyl chloride. A practical use of col...
A question about the Gestapo secret police of Nazi Germany	The [Ordnungspolizei](_URL_1_) was responsible for most of the day-to-day police duties during the war, and that article suggests that they took on other duties as well, such as fire fighting. The [Kripo](_URL_0_) served as the civilian detectives, but I believe they worked closely with the SS and the Gestapo to invest...	[ "BULLET::::- Geheime Staatspolizei (\"Secret State Police\"; Gestapo) was the secret police force of Nazi Germany and German-occupied Europe. Formed in April 1933 by the aviation minister Hermann Göring, it was by the following year administrated by the SS and regarded as a sister organization of the SD. The Gestap...
why are most cities "downtown" sections really shitty when they're usually a popular	Maintenance of a downtown area is a tremendous undertaking. For example, repairing the streets could mean closing down the street for days and days. Colossal traffic jam, redirecting bus routes, businesses on that street pissed off, etc. It's very expensive and difficult. Due to the location, it gets tons of car an...	[ "In the United States, central business districts are often called \"downtown\" (even if there is no \"uptown\"). In most cities the downtown area will be home to the financial district, but usually contains entertainment and retail of some kind as well. The downtown areas of many cities, such as Los Angeles, Chica...
Why can you refuel a plane mid-flight, but you can't refuel a car while it's running?	You can absolutely refill a car while it's running. Admonishments to turn off your car while fueling are generally due to one of two situations: -A running car in theory presents a fire or operational hazard, as if the car were to be put in gear it could propel itself forward and pull the breakaway hose out of the pu...	[ "At most, aircraft are available every other turn. After completing a mission, they must spend one turn refuelling and rearming before they can be used again. However, aircraft being fuelled on an aircraft carrier pose an extreme fire hazard if the carrier is attacked, a vulnerability reflected by the rules.\n", ...
Why did Truman perform better in suburbs than cities?	The easiest way to answer that would be to say that the parties in 1948 were not the parties you know today. Both parties had a liberal wing and a conservative wing. Dewey was from the northeast, the liberal wing of the Republican party, and a lot of the issues he was running on were basically expanding parts of the N...	[ "Many public housing officials in the Roosevelt Administration were progressives, and had strong convictions about the right of all citizens to inexpensive, quality housing. The provision of decent housing seemed to many of these officials to be a key to the preservation of democracy during the dark days of the Dep...
How do we decide which stars are important enough to name?	Most of the names are historical, and the modern convention is not to assign names to newly discovered stars. This [wikipedia article](_URL_0_) and some of the others it links to give a pretty good discussion.	[ "Some independent astronomical and astrological businesses or organizations claim to sell the opportunity to \"name a star\". These names are not recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). The IAU is the most influential organization that names stars and other celestial objects; it is the only one re...
why, when i eat terribly (pizza, cookies, chips, beer, etc) can i eat a lot, but when i clean diet, i get so full and 2k calories is hard to get each day?	Caloric density (the ratio of calories to the weight of the food). Carbohydrates have around 4 calories per gram; proteins also have around 4 calories per gram; and fats have around 9 calories per gram. When you eat "clean" foods, you are generally eating foods that have a low caloric density, but that is not a...	[ "A boy buys junk food from the school canteen every day. His teacher gets annoyed, as does one of his classmates. But when he moves to a new house, he finds a spellbook; one of the spells allows him to pass his obesity to others. So every day, he eats enough junk food to make him sick; whenever someone insults him,...
is there a possibility in the future for full immersion virtual reality gaming?	Anything is possible, someday, as long as that thing doesn't violate fundamental physical laws. And even then, who knows. Practically though, yes, this is reasonable some day. One of the critical aspects here for experiencing this "just [sitting] in a chair" is the ability to plug our brains directly into computers. ...	[ "In 2017 the Royal Academy invited Gormley to consider the possibilities of virtual reality. In 2019 in collaboration with astronomer Priyamvada Natarajan he produced a VR experience called \"Lunatick\" which allows the viewer to seemingly travel through space to the Moon and fly over its surface, based on images f...
The closest star to earth is 4.3 light years away. Is this par for the course in the Milky Way?	The density of stars decreases as you move away from the galactic centre. There, stars are much closer together.	[ "The nearest star to the Earth, apart from the Sun, is Proxima Centauri, which is 39.9 trillion kilometres, or 4.2 light-years. Travelling at the orbital speed of the Space Shuttle (8 kilometres per second—almost 30,000 kilometres per hour), it would take about 150,000 years to arrive. This is typical of stellar se...
why can't we make a system similar to a human body that gets energy from food?	We could do that. We don't because it would be horribly inefficient compared to the fuels we already use, or most of the alternatives we've already devised.	[ "Relatively speaking, the brain consumes an immense amount of energy in comparison to the rest of the body. The mechanisms involved in the transfer of energy from foods to neurons are likely to be fundamental to the control of brain function. Human bodily processes, including the brain, all require both macronutrie...
Is physical information within our universe finite?	According to (quantum) information theory, the answer to both questions is yes, since "[information is physical](_URL_0_)", as [Rolf Landauer](_URL_1_) puts it in the linked paper. Since there is only a finite amount of matter in the observable universe, there can only be a finite amount of information. (Naturally, no...	[ "In digital physics, the Fredkin finite nature hypothesis states that ultimately all quantities of physics, including space and time, are discrete and . All measurable physical quantities arise from some Planck scale substrate for information processing. Also, the amount of information in any small volume of spacet...
how does online banking work without the exchange of actual money?	Most money is never actually physical money. When you get paid direct deposit, your money is not physical cash it just stays electronic. It’s just a number on a screen with codes and data that keep it secure and correct. Only when you choose to take out cash does your money become physical legal tender that you can tou...	[ "Internet or online banking enables a customer to perform banking transactions and payments, to view balances and statements, and various other facilities. This can be convenient especially when a bank is not open and enables banking transactions to be effected from anywhere Internet access is available. Online ban...
how does game streaming service (geforce now, stadia) have little to no lag, while traditional remote desktops (chrome remote desktop, microsoft remote desktop etc) having significant lags?	Whatever remote desktop program you're running has to render and then encode the video feed of the desktop on the computer that you're connecting to. The encoding takes a little bit of time. That little bit of time, combined with the fact that most remote desktop programs are just really quickly slapped together wi...	[ "Many televisions, scalers and other consumer-display devices now offer what is often called a \"game mode\" in which the extensive preprocessing responsible for additional lag is specifically sacrificed to decrease, but not eliminate, latency. While typically intended for videogame consoles, this feature is also u...
For lack of a better way to put it: What "sets" the speed of light?	I think you're asking why c is 3 x 10^8 m/s as opposed to some other value. There's two answers. First, why that number - that's just units. It's 1 in natural units, 3 x 10^10 cm/s, and all sorts of other values in other unit systems. I think what you're getting at, though, is the question "Why do massless things tra...	[ "In Conway's Game of Life (and related cellular automata), the speed of light is a propagation rate across the grid of exactly one step (either horizontally, vertically or diagonally) per generation. In a single generation, a cell can only influence its nearest neighbours, and so the speed of light (by analogy with...
Why did savory pie culture (shepherd's pie, chicken pot pie, etc.) not transfer to North America nearly as well as desert pie culture (apple pie, blueberry pie, etc.) while by comparison it thrived in Europe?	The short, simple answer to your question is that savory pies are very popular in the US, just maybe not in the part of Florida you live. Aside from the much more well-known chicken pot pie, you also have the good ol' Natchitoches meat pie (which is actually one of the official state foods of Louisiana), and the Frenc...	[ "According to the theory, PIE became widespread because its speakers from the Kurgan culture could migrate into a vast area of Europe and Asia thanks to technologies such as the domestication of the horse, herding, and the use of wheeled vehicles.\n", "Pies remained as a staple of traveling and working peoples in...
how does country get richer through protectionism?	So the idea is that protectionism keeps profits inside your own country. I buy a car from Ford for $20,000, they spent $15,000 to make it, so they earn 5,000 in profit, and because they're an American company, that profit stays in America. I buy a car from Volkswagen for $20,000, they spent 15 to make it, so they earn ...	[ "There is a consensus among economists that protectionism has a negative effect on economic growth and economic welfare, while free trade, deregulation, and the reduction of trade barriers has a significantly positive effect on economic growth. Some scholars have implicated protectionism as the cause of some econom...
How can we detect Anti-matter stars if they exist?	If there are pockets of the observable universe where antimatter is common, then those pockets will have borders. At the borders, a primarily matter region will be interacting with a primarily antimatter region, meaning they will be annihilating each other, which we could detect as very energetic gamma rays.	[ "In the unlikely event that dark stars have endured to the modern era, they could be detectable by their emissions of gamma rays, neutrinos, and antimatter and would be associated with clouds of cold molecular hydrogen gas that normally would not harbor such energetic particles.\n", "Exotic stars are largely theo...
what the current state of the marvel comics universe is	do you want spoilers?	[ "Marvel NOW! officially ended in May 2015 at the start of the \"Secret Wars\" storyline, which saw the end of the Marvel Universe. Following the conclusion of \"Secret Wars\", the universe is scheduled to be relaunched again in \"All-New All-Different Marvel\". Alonso stated that the relaunches are reminiscent of t...
To what extent is the modern notoriety and recognition of Caesar, Antony, Cleopatra, Brutus, etc. the result of Shakespeare?	I can only speak about notoriety and recognition in the anglophone world. Caesar, Antony, Brutus, and Cleopatra would definitely still be remembered without Shakespeare's plays. Having one of the most famous writers in history make your life into a narrative piece of theater is certainly helpful when it comes to stay...	[ "Many critics have noted the strong influence of Virgil's first-century Roman epic poem, the \"Aeneid\", on Shakespeare's \"Antony and Cleopatra\". Such influence should be expected, given the prevalence of allusions to Virgil in the Renaissance culture in which Shakespeare was educated. Moreover, as is well-known,...
why do radio stations change by region?? and how come xm is the same across america/the world?	Radio stations have an antenna and they broadcast their signal out. But the Earth is round, so most of the Earth isn't within reach of the antenna (there's a planet in the way of the signal). So you only receive the signal of radio stations near you. It's the same reason why broadcast TV stations are local but cable ...	[ "On March 29, 1941, 795 of the 883 AM stations in the United States had to shift to new transmitting frequencies, in what was informally called \"Radio Moving Day\". The moves were the result of the implementation of the North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement (NARBA), and were primarily designed to allow ot...
why is there such a disconnect between science and the government?	Because there is a disconnect between people and science. The government will only change things that benefit them, or that there is enough public demand for that changing it would increase their chances of continued election. If the majority of voters either don't know or don't care about something, the government i...	[ "Discussing science's role in policy and government, Rush Holt points out a fallacy in viewing science and politics as philosophically incompatible: \"The ethic in the profession is that you stick to your science, and if you're interested in how science affects public policy or public questions, just let the facts ...
Floating Feature: STEM the Tide of Ignorance by Sharing the History of Science and Technology	So I get that the Soviet propaganda poster is sort of a joke, but there is an interesting Soviet tie-in to the modern study of the history of science. One of the most impactful papers given in the 20th century study of the history of science was that given by Boris Hessen, a Soviet physicist, at the Second Internatio...	[ "Information theory was a fashionable scientific approach in the mid '50s. However, pioneer Claude Shannon wrote in 1956 that this trendiness was dangerous. He said, \"Our fellow scientists in many different fields, attracted by the fanfare and by the new avenues opened to scientific analysis, are using these ideas...
Can an insect be “fat”? How do they store energy?	It depends a lot on the insect in question. The most extreme example I can think of is the [honeypot ant](_URL_0_). Some members of these colonies become living food storage for the rest, hanging in place and taking in or giving out their stored reserves as needed.	[ "An insect uses its digestive system to extract nutrients and other substances from the food it consumes. Most of this food is ingested in the form of macromolecules and other complex substances (such as proteins, polysaccharides, fats, and nucleic acids) which must be broken down by catabolic reactions into smalle...
Does a multi-decade concentration of Radon gas lead to an accumulation of lead particles in an enclosed environment (basement)?	We're talking about concentrations that would be nearly undetectable if the substances weren't radioactive. Let's run some numbers. The highest recorded residential levels of radiation from radon and its decay products have been on the order of 100,000 becquerels of activity per cubic meter of air, where 1 Bq is defin...	[ "In 2001, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources found that street dust in the town of Herculaneum contained 30% lead. Testing the same year by the United States Environmental Protection Agency found high levels of air pollution. Test results also showed elevated levels of lead among more than half of pre-sch...
Book suggestion for the 1933 coup, and the 1959 revolution?	You may want to specify the country in your OP: some flaired users have auto-notifications set up for certain key words	[ "BULLET::::- Describes a coup d'état organized by right wing conservatives to overthrow the popular, newly elected socialist government. While the book is technically fiction it is strongly based on the overthrow of the government of the author's cousin Salvador Allende and the dictatorship of General Pinochet\n", ...
developing grey hair at a young age	Mine's genetic, but not as bad as my grandfather. He went completely grey by 20. Me, I'm salt and pepper right now. I don't mind though. Better to have hair than no hair. If it's that big of a deal, you could dye it. But, to answer your question: 1. Stress has not been shown to increase greying (but I tend to th...	[ "Children born with some hair colors may find it gradually darkens as they grow. Many blond, light brown, or red haired infants experience this. This is caused by genes being turned on and off during early childhood and puberty.\n", "Premature greying of hair, also known as canities, can have negative effects on ...
Why did the Australopithecus become extinct?	Of all of the primate human ancestors it could be said that they met one or a combination of three fates: * Evolve and occupy a separate niche which does not compete with what became human * Interbreed with what became human * Compete for resources and lose against what became human In other words they either fought ...	[ "\"Lystrosaurus\" survived the Permian-Triassic extinction, 252 million years ago. In the Early Triassic, they were by far the most common terrestrial vertebrates, accounting for as many as 95% of the total individuals in some fossil beds. Researchers have forwarded various hypotheses for why \"Lystrosaurus\" survi...
Why does sand express the same properties of a non-Newtonian fluid when wet? Is it a non-Newtonian fluid?	Yes, a non-newtonian fluid acts like a solid when a force is applied because the particles of sand (or corn starch, etc) restrict the flow of water when pressure is applied. Additionally, the surface tension of the water keeps the particles bonded together as a cohesive unit.	[ "A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid that does not follow Newton's law of viscosity, i.e. constant viscosity independent of stress. In non-Newtonian fluids, viscosity can change when under force to either more liquid or more solid. Ketchup, for example, becomes runnier when shaken and is thus a non-Newtonian fluid. Ma...
Is there a charge for the weak force?	The equivalent of charge and colour for the weak force is flavour, with a caveat (edit: more precisely, weak isospin, as corrected below). Typically, flavour refers to the 6 different kinds of quarks and the six different kinds of leptons, but they're organized in 3 groups of two, with each group, called a generation, ...	[ "In the nuclear physics, and atomic physics weak charge refers to the standard model vector coupling of nucleons to the Z boson, namely formula_1, where \"T\" is the weak isospin, \"Q\" the charge, and \"θ\" the weak mixing angle. Thus, it is approximately -0.99 for a neutron and +0.07 for a proton.\n", "The dist...
what is it like behind the scenes when a major website or video game has a massive crash?	Panic from everyone non-technical and loud sighs from all of the developers/network guys. It's usually a straight-forward fix, so the tech people see "work at off-hours that I don't get paid for because I'm salary" and all of the business people see some super complex world-ending problem that they have no idea how lo...	[ "BULLET::::- \"Crash Online\": Halfway through the year 2006, a small article was published on the Internet, listing several online PC games which were meant to be released by Sierra. Amongst them there was a mysterious project named \"Crash Online\". The game was set for a release in 2007, but a small copy of its ...
Are there dangerous retroviruses in vaccines?	Unfortunately you may find it hard to reason with some people, even with good sources. My own father has a degree in Geography yet refuses to believe in man made climate change. Remember, for his theories such as Judy Mikovits being under duress it is his responsibility to get evidence for it. Anyway, here are some s...	[ "There are no vaccines against these viruses as there is little-to-no cross-protection between serotypes. At least 99 serotypes of human rhinoviruses affecting humans have been sequenced. However, a study of the VP4 protein has shown it to be highly conserved among many serotypes of human rhinovirus, opening up the...
what happens to wildlife in a blizzard?	More deer do die during really bad winter conditions, but it's surprising how ridiculously tough they are. During the end of fall they undergo a number of bodily and behavior changes: they eat way more food to pack on insulating layers of fat, they shed their summer coats and grow a winter hide of hollow fur that traps...	[ "Ground blizzards are common in the American great plains in the wake of snowstorms producing light, dry snowfall that is more easily picked up by strong winds. They are also common in the Canadian Prairies, Siberia, Northern China, and also Arctic and Antarctic regions during seasonal transition periods, such as t...
why does law enforcement need a warrant to search a suspects property? and why is evidence acquired without a warrant inadmissible?	It's inadmissible so that cops won't be encouraged to do illegal searches. It's to protect innocent people from just having cops bust down their doors on the off chance that they find something.	[ "Though specific interpretation may vary, this right can often require law enforcement to obtain a search warrant or consent of the owner before engaging in any form of search and seizure. In cases where evidence is seized in a search, that evidence might be rejected by court procedures, such as with a motion to su...
how is it economical to ship ramen packets?	It probably costs a lot less to ship things than you think. Let's say it costs about $2000 to ship a 20ft container from Asia to the US. That's [1100 cubic feet of space](_URL_0_). Let's also call a [12-count of ramen](_URL_1_) is about 0.23 cubic feet. Doing some math, that gives 5100 cases or 61,200 packets of ...	[ "BULLET::::- Ramen – referred to as \"curly noodles\" in North Korea. Shin Ramyun is a brand of instant noodles produced in South Korea that is nicknamed \"money ramen\" in North Korea, due to its relatively expensive pricing in North Korea at around 800 won per unit. In 2009, boxes of Shin Ramyun that contain twen...
Is the radiation from a microwave oven considered a photon?	It's a stream of photons, yes. If the average photon has an energy of about 1.65-2.00 electronvolts (eV, a unit of energy) we call it "red light", if it's 2.75-3.26 eV we call it "violet light", if it's got 0.000001 eV to 0.001 eV we call it "microwave". There is no difference beyond that, "microwaves" are just ligh...	[ "Photon radiation is called gamma rays if produced by a nuclear reaction, subatomic particle decay, or radioactive decay within the nucleus. It is otherwise called x-rays if produced outside the nucleus. The generic term photon is therefore used to describe both.\n", "All warm objects emit low level microwave bla...
what are the differences in antibiotics that are designed for different varieties of infection (viral, fungal, bacterial, etc.) ?	Antibiotics are only for treating bacterial infections. That's literally what the word means. If you're looking at treating fungal infections, you need an antifungal. If you're looking to treat a viral infection, you need an antiviral. They're all completely different drugs.	[ "Bacterial infections may be treated with antibiotics, which are classified as bacteriocidal if they kill bacteria, or bacteriostatic if they just prevent bacterial growth. There are many types of antibiotics and each class inhibits a process that is different in the pathogen from that found in the host. An example...
How diverse was Bohemia during the fifteenth century?	Hi, not discouraging more info here, but FYI there was a popular thread on this a couple of weeks ago, featuring /u/commiespaceinvader among others * [People are getting extremely upset because there are no black people in Kingdom Come: Deliverance. How accurate is this for 16th century Bohemia?](_URL_0_)	[ "Bohemia became the cultural center of Central Europe when Charles IV brought the Holy Roman Emperor's court to Prague in the 14th century. The Royal Court Workshop under the guidance of Peter Parler was one of the highlights of Gothic architecture in the Holy Roman Empire. The Hussite Wars then stopped all plans f...
machiavellianism	Machiavelli is best known, and the term which now bears his name comes from, a book he wrote called The Prince. In it he explains clearly to the rulers of his day how a prince, the ruler of a city-state, should act. He gives advice on a range of topics, but in general it all comes down to a few key rules. First: i...	[ "Machiavellianism is the political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, expressed notably in his theoretical and historical writings. The word comes from the Italian Renaissance diplomat and political thinker Niccolò Machiavelli, born in 1469, who wrote the books \"Il Principe\" (\"The Prince\"), and the Discourses o...
if we know jet fuel doesn't melt steel beams then how is 9/11 explained?	1) Combustion temperatures depend, amongst others, on surroundings. The 9/11 crash lead to higher temperatures than the test. 2) Things don't go from completely rigid to molten right away. As temperature heats up, the molecular structure of steel changes and it can rapidly loose it's strength. 3) Fire can and will he...	[ "On August 31, 2009, the National Geographic Channel aired the program \"9/11 Science and Conspiracy\", in which the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center tested some of the claims frequently made by those who question the accepted 9/11 account. Specifically, the experiments concluded that burning jet fue...
why are we able to predict astronomical events like eclipses and transits down to the minute but we still don't know when or if asteroids like bennu will hit earth?	A couple reasons: A) The moon is fairly large and obvious, so it's been observed for a very long time, so we have a lot of data to say where it's going to be. It is also less likely to be bothered by small disturbances tugging on it (it don't care if a small rock hits it). It's so large and close, we landed on it ...	[ "Currently prediction is mainly based on cataloging asteroids years before they are due to impact. This works well for larger asteroids ( 1 km across) as they are easily seen from a long distance. Over 95% of them are already known, so their orbits can be measured and any future impacts predicted long before they a...
the difference between a gatling and a machine gun.	Another distinction is that classic Gatling guns were hand-cranked, while true machine guns (Maxim onwards) are self-powered:the exhaust gases from one round are harnessed to eject that casing and load the next cartridge. Thus when there is a problem with one round the machine gun stops working. In a Gatling gun the...	[ "An externally actuated weapon uses an external power source, such as an electric motor or even a hand crank to move its mechanism through the firing sequence. Most modern weapons of this type are called Gatling guns or, in reference to their driving mechanism, chain guns. Gatling guns have several barrels each wit...
How an Aerospike engine really works ?	> I don’t understand, why, in that case, the thrust isn’t expending on the side like a normal random flow firing in all direction ? the exhaust pressure is still much higher than air….. one side of the exhaust is on the spike make a “half” bell, right, the other, exposed to air, should just go in all directions, like...	[ "Early stationary engines employed a small scoop on the extremity of the crankshaft or connecting rod to assist with the lubrication of the cylinder walls by means of a splashing action. Modern small engines, such as those used in lawnmowers, use a \"slinger\" (basically a paddle wheel) to perform the same function...
what's the difference between debt and bankrupt?	Debt just means you owe someone money. You're have to give it back with interest at some point(s) in the future, usually spread out. Being insolvent means you have debts which you should pay back right now, but are unable to do so because you don't have any income or savings (or too little). Bankruptcy is...	[ "A debt is defined as a debt which arises from a debtor-creditor relationship based upon a valid and enforceable obligation to pay a determinable sum of money. The debt in question must also be considered worthless. This distinction is further broken down into the level of collectibles. One must determine whether t...
if it is legal to have up to 1oz of weed, how do drug dealers keep from getting arrested since they obviously have more?	This is really a ask a legal question, not a concept question.	[ "Police Enforcement in Costa Rica (Fuerza Pública) does not have a specific protocol to deal with cannabis users, nonetheless in case of possession of \"small dosages\" (informally considered somewhat between 1 - 8 grams) they will confiscate the drugs. In the case of a larger amount they may proceed with a formal ...
How exactly can we tell if other planets have water or water vapor in their atmosphere?	Spectroscopy. We don't just measure the overall decrease in brightness, we also measure it as function of wavelength. Water vapor preferentially absorbs some specific wavelength ranges while it lets others pass through. If we look at these wavelength ranges then the dip is deeper - the planet appears larger because its...	[ "Water vapor is a relatively common atmospheric constituent, present even in the solar atmosphere as well as every planet in the Solar System and many astronomical objects including natural satellites, comets and even large asteroids. Likewise the detection of extrasolar water vapor would indicate a similar distrib...
Book covering the early 1400s to present day	I'm reading and have been quite enjoying John Darwin's After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires 1400-2000.	[ "The book collection consisted of around 15,000 volumes from the 19th and 20th centuries, relating to history, theology and travel. In addition there were 450 prints of the 16th–18th centuries of Western European and Polish origin. There were also seven Incunables pressed in the 15th century. Among the first editio...
How accurate is this style of combat?	There are 15th century German fighting manuals (Hans Tallenhover's Fechtbuch or fight book) illustrating and showing captions that depict these kind of strikes in use. They were a technique that was apparently used by European swordsman reasonably often. I don't know enough about the subject to explain why this ...	[ "Tactical battles, which may or may not be open to the public, are fought like real battles with each side devising strategies and tactics to defeat their opponent(s). They have no script, a basic set of agreed-upon rules (physical boundaries, time limit, victory conditions, etc.), and onsite judges or referees, an...
How did the roman military punishment of sleeping outside the camp work?	Being forced to sleep outside the camp walls was a part of the decimation punishment, though it had fallen out of use by the time of Crassus and Antony. After a unit had been decimated, the remaining members would be forced to camp outside, and were only given barley or fodder-grade wheat. It’s important to remember t...	[ "Roman troops would construct a fortified camp, with a standardised size and layout, at the end of each day's march. Most of their adversaries would rely on camping on defensible features (such as hilltops) or in places of concealment (such as in forests or swamps). Although this practice spared troops the toil of ...
What is the actual origin of Valentine's day?	I can't say that I can answer your question in its entirety, but who says that Lupercalia is related to Valentine's Day? As far as I'm aware February 14 was simply the feast day of Saint Valentine, with no implications of a celebration of romantic love until the late Middle Ages. Someone can feel free to correct me if ...	[ "There is no evidence of any link between St. Valentine's Day and the rites of the ancient Roman festival Lupercalia, despite many claims by many authors. The celebration of Saint Valentine did not have any romantic connotations until Chaucer's poetry about \"Valentines\" in the 14th century. Popular modern sources...
why do christians celebrate jesus' birthday along with many other pagan traditions?	The Medieval calendar had a very large number of feast days - close to 30. This were set around the cycle of the farm and the seasons. So, for example, around the time that lambs are born, you have a feast, because you have some mutton that died in childbirth and a few more lambs than you wanted to keep, so you have ...	[ "BULLET::::- Annual festivals listed in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16 should be observed by Christians today as they were kept by Jesus, the original apostles, and the first-century Church of God, headquartered at Jerusalem. Members do not celebrate Christmas, Easter, saints' days, Lent, or other traditional Cath...
Was the fact that companies like Kodak, Hugo Boss, Volkswagen ect were part of the Nazi war effort used against them by their competitors in the post war years?	VW was famously established as a Nazi initiative. However, this was more than balanced at the end of the war by its recovery through the efforts of [Major Ivan Hirst](_URL_1_), a British engineer from the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. This started with the use of workshop facilities for the repair of Briti...	[ "The Nazi party came to power in Germany in 1933, and all German aviation development was shifted away from long-range civil aircraft types. Hugo Junkers himself was forced to transfer all his patents to the Nazis, who doubted that Junkers (a socialist pacifist) would comply with their plans. Shortly after, his hol...
Were people living in Greece by the 10th Millenium BC? If so, would they already be speaking the Greek language?	Just double-checking, do you mean 1,000 BC, or 10,000 BC?	[ "Greece was inhabited as early as the Paleolithic period. Prior to the 2nd millennium BC, the Greek peninsula was inhabited by various pre-Hellenic peoples, the most notable of which were the Pelasgians. The Greek language ultimately dominated the peninsula and Greece's mosaic of small city-states became culturally...
how do direction work in space because north,east,west and south are bonded to earth? how does a spacecraft guide itself in the unending space?	Spacecraft are able to determine their position and orientation through a combination of on board sensors (like star sensors) and off board trackers (like radar). Beyond that, it is typical to describe their position and velocity as an orbit. These orbits can be described using a few variables that indicate the size, o...	[ "More unusually, the Dymaxion map does not have any \"right way up\". Fuller argued that in the universe there is no \"up\" and \"down\", or \"north\" and \"south\": only \"in\" and \"out\". Gravitational forces of the stars and planets created \"in\", meaning \"towards the gravitational center\", and \"out\", mean...
how do people grow pot on tv without getting arrested?	Are you asking about fiction shows or TV as in documentaries? In the case of the documentaries some places it is completely legal to grow. Others, well it’s not hard to hide really if you have the right setup. The hardest part is covering up smell. Some induction fans or blower fans with charcoal filters connected to t...	[ "On September 3, 2003, during routine structural checks, officials discovered someone had been secretly growing marijuana near the mall's ceiling. No plants themselves were found but growing lights, gardening pots, and seeds were found in the roof space above one of the tenants. The amount of marijuana that had bee...
Does time flow differently in other galaxies?	Well, let's first take a look at time itself. What do we know about it? Well, it's relative. Meaning, our perception of time is dependent on several factors, it isn't a single thing that is independent from our understanding of physics. Time is also bounds by these laws. One of the major things that affects the rate a...	[ "One more important step being left out of the standard model, Wiltshire claimed, was the fact that as proven by observation, gravity slows time. Thus, a clock will move faster in empty space, which possesses low gravitation, than inside a galaxy, which has much more gravity, and he argued that as large as a 38% di...
programing question	Yes, you can. The compiled executable and the uncompleted text files have nothing to do with each other. You can change the code while the program is running, and changing the code will not magically alter a running program.	[ "Programming by permutation, sometimes called \"programming by accident\" or \"by-try programming\" or \"shotgunning\", is an approach to software development wherein a programming problem is solved by iteratively making small changes (permutations) and testing each change to see if it behaves as desired. This appr...
when you turn the ac on, turn the speakers louder or turn on a subwoofer in a car, does fuel economy decrease in order to create more power?	1 hp is about 750 watts. The alternator is in the ball park of 70 % efficient. Your AC compressor will take 2 or 3 hp mechanically from the engine. Take your electric load, divide by .7 and divide by 750, this is the load your placing on the engine. A modern car engine will have a fuel consumption of .4 to .5 pounds of...	[ "When the vehicle is turned on with the \"Power\" button, it is ready to drive immediately with the electric motor. In the North American second generation Prius, electric pumps warm the engine by pumping previously saved hot engine coolant from a coolant thermos before the internal combustion engine is started. Th...
why are people who run onto football fields so aggressively tackled?	They want to discourage it so that it doesn't become more common. They have a game to play (and televise, and sell advertisements for, etc) and don't want it to be frequently interrupted by people running around on the field. As well, if people were to run onto the field while a play were actually going, they could g...	[ "To protect players from potentially catastrophic injury, there are some restrictions on tackles and blocks. At no time may a defensive player tackle an offensive player by grabbing the facemask of their helmet; doing so incurs a 15-yard penalty and the victimized team is awarded a new set of downs. Although spear ...
could we reproduce the mechanics of what powers the earth's magnetic field, and miniaturize it to protect spaceships from radiation?	Yes. You just have to figure out how to avoid a strong-ass magnet from interfering with all the equipment.	[ "Furthermore, without Earth's surrounding magnetic field as a shield, solar radiation has much harsher effects on biological organisms in space. The exposure can include damage to the central nervous system, (altered cognitive function, reducing motor function and incurring possible behavioral changes), as well as ...
how do those cables they string across the road measure your vehicle speed?	if I am thinking about the same cables you are thinking about they aren't used to measure speed they're used to count how many cars are going across the road they use it to know how much maintenance or if they need to expand the road to handle more traffic.	[ "BULLET::::- Platooning, which allows vehicles to closely (down to a few inches) follow a leading vehicle by wirelessly receiving acceleration and steering information, thus forming electronically coupled \"road trains\".\n", "In one scheme, the roadway has magnetized stainless-steel spikes driven one meter apart...
how do people not feel effects from thc and other substances if they're still present in our systems for up to days/weeks/months enough to show up on drug tests?	Two reasons: First, much of the substance is excreted out of your body. They are testing for what small amounts are left over. The concentrations in your body are very very small, and not enough to make you feel any effects, but can still be detected. Second, depending on the drug, they are not always testing directly...	[ "Testing for metabolites of THC, versus the actual THC intoxicant, can result in DUID convictions of users who aren't actually impaired. According to National Institute on Drug Abuse, \"the role played by marijuana in crashes is often unclear because it can be detected in body fluids for days or even weeks after in...
why is scrotal skin so different from other skin?	Because it has a very particular job that other skin doesn't. Your testicles have to be kept at a certain temperature, one that's lower than the rest of your body. So your scrotum needs to be able to adapt to temperature and then respond by raising or lowering the testicles, becoming thicker, or thinner and shrinking ...	[ "The scrotum is an anatomical male reproductive structure that consists of a suspended dual-chambered sack of skin and smooth muscle that is present in most terrestrial male mammals and located under the penis. One testis is typically lower than the other to avoid compression in the event of impact. The perineal ra...
why is there seemingly only 5000 species of mammals on earth yet seemingly endless minute variations in insects/birds/reptiles etc?	Smaller reproduction times and lifespans means you can have more generations and a higher rate of mutation.	[ "It is estimated that the annual use of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from tens to more than 100 million. In the European Union, vertebrate species represent 93% of animals used in research, and 11.5 million animals were used there in 2011. By one estimate the number of mice and rat...
WWII - How much did the Axis powers know about the Allied invasion plans on D-Day-1?	It depends. Rommel is on record claiming that the Allies would come at high tide to minimize casualties crossing the (narrower) beach. This ruled out the 6th of June since it was generally acknowledged that the attack would commence at first light, and first light at June 6th had the low tide. That would mean the assau...	[ "In 1943 Allied high command decided that the following year would see the invasion of Europe, with Normandy chosen as the landing site. The LCS vied with Ops. B (another deception agency, set up under the Chief of Staff to the Supreme Commander Allied Forces). On 14 July Bevan published a paper entitled \"First Th...
why can't you cut all the wires in a bomb to prevent it from detonating?	EOD Tech here. I wanted to chime in because the top replies are mostly wrong. First of all, to answer your question simply: - Some "firing circuits", that is, the circuit in an electrically initiated explosive device(i.e., it contains a battery and electric detonator) **can be interrupted in literally any fashion to...	[ "It is possible to insert wiring without the proper tool, but this requires great care to avoid damaging the connectors. For example, pushing a screwdriver down the middle of the block is a bad practice as it forces the two blades of the terminal post apart, leading to bad contacts. It is also possible to punch-dow...
Who was the first U.S. President to have his photograph taken while in office?	Based on what I've been able to find out, the earliest surviving photo of a president in office is [of James K. Polk.](_URL_2_) However, [this one](_URL_3_) (of his cabinet) and [this one](_URL_0_) of he and his wife might have been taken in any order but they were almost certainly taken while he was in office becaus...	[ "Yoichi R. Okamoto (July 5, 1915April 24, 1985) was the second official U.S. presidential photographer, serving Lyndon B. Johnson. He was fondly known as \"Oke\", and was given unprecedented access to the Oval Office. He captured images of the President of the United States, more candid than had been previously acc...
what is cherenkov radiation?	In a nutshell, it’s like a sonic boom, but instead of going faster than sound, it goes faster than light. Instead of going BOOM, it’s a flash of light/radiation. Nothing goes faster than light in a vacuum. However, through a medium like water, light slows down so some subatomic particles can go faster than it. Usually...	[ "Cherenkov radiation is commonly used in experimental particle physics for particle identification. One could measure (or put limits on) the velocity of an electrically charged elementary particle by the properties of the Cherenkov light it emits in a certain medium. If the momentum of the particle is measured inde...
is there a reason spicy things become less spicy after being refrigerated?	Cold numbs your taste buds. So it's not less spicy your mouth just doesn't register the capsaicin like it would if the wings were hot.	[ "Although the consumption of spicy food can cause pain, people in many cultures ascribe a high hedonic value to it. Psychologist Paul Rozin puts forth the idea of \"benign masochism\", a learned tendency that overrides the typically aversive stimuli because of the risk-taking or thrill-seeking associated with overc...

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