Split (2)

train · 226k rows

question stringlengths 3 301	answer stringlengths 9 26.1k	context list
what is causing that effect in the centre of the sky? picture in comments	That's an [upper tangent arc](_URL_0_), one of a variety of effects produced by a bunch of ice crystals high in the air. They line up and form, essentially, one gigantic lens that bends the sun's light in interesting ways.	[ "Relief displacement is prominent when photographing a variety of elevations. This situation causes objects above sea level to be displaced outward from the centre of the photograph and objects below ground level to be displaced toward the centre of the image (Figure 2). The severity of the displacement is negative...
why does the back of a rollercoaster train feel like it's going faster than the front?	The back of the roller coaster does go faster over bumps and down drops. Take the initial drop for example. When the coaster first starts going over the drop, it's moving very slowly. But as more and more of the coaster clears the drop, the more weight there is pulling the rest of the coaster down. Thus the front ...	[ "When going around a roller coaster's vertical loop, the inertia that produces a thrilling acceleration force also keeps passengers in their seats. As the car approaches a loop, the direction of a passenger's inertial velocity points straight ahead at the same angle as the track leading up to the loop. As the car e...
Why did the first humans originate in Africa? Is there any particular reason that they appeared there first, instead of Asia or Europe?	This is really a question for r/anthropology, I think, as its prehistory.	[ "This recent out of Africa migration derived from East African populations, which had become separated from populations migrating to Southern, Central and Western Africa at least 100,000 years earlier. Modern humans subsequently spread globally, replacing archaic humans (either through competition or hybridization)...
Were there ever any instances of executions through an archer "firing squad."	> "And the archers shot at him till he was as full of arrows as an urchin, leaving him there for dead." There is some mention of this happening, [Saint Sebastian](_URL_0_) is one. Although it might never had happened that way.	[ "Execution by firing squad is distinct from other forms of execution by firearms, such as an execution by shooting to the back of the head or neck. However, the single shot by the squad's officer with a pistol (coup de grâce) is sometimes incorporated in a firing squad execution, particularly if the initial volley ...
Why isn't there cobalt in the Earth's core?	This is a very good question and the answer is so counterintuitive, that you posted it in the wrong section. As you probably know, heavy elements are produced inside big stars. These stars then explode and enrich the interstellar gas clouds with the produced elements. The gas clouds collaps and form new star systems - ...	[ "Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. Like nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, produced by reductive smelting, is a hard, lustrous, silver-gray metal.\n", ...
I know nothing about pre-Colombian civilizations. Can you point me towards some good bibliography on them?	hi! you can get started on this sub's Book List - [here](_URL_0_)	[ "Colombian literature dates back to pre-Columbian era; a notable example of the period is the epic poem known as the \"Legend of Yurupary\". In Spanish colonial times, notable writers include Juan de Castellanos (\"Elegías de varones ilustres de Indias\"), Hernando Domínguez Camargo and his epic poem to San Ignacio...
how is flying in a "v" shape better for birds?	The aerodynamics of the wind currents from the front bird help the birds in the back have to do less work. They rotate in and out of that front position, too. Have you ever been kayaking or rowing? When you're in sync, it becomes easier to paddle because everyone is helping the person behind them pull the water. Same ...	[ "The V formation possibly improves the efficiency of flying birds, particularly over long migratory routes. All the birds except the first fly in the upwash from one of the wingtip vortices of the bird ahead. The upwash assists each bird in supporting its own weight in flight, in the same way a glider can climb or ...
How does the food, medicine, drink that we take go to specific parts of our system?	For the most part, they don't get properly distributed, they just get distributed. How or whether a cell in that tissue uses any particular molecule in the interstitial fluid is up to that cell. That said, things aren't evenly distributed, since certain organs and tissues get more blood flow than others, so that ca...	[ "When drugs are taken orally, they enter the gut lumen to be absorbed in the small intestine and sometimes, in the stomach. In order for drugs to be absorbed, they must pass through the epithelial cells that line the lumen wall before they can enter the hepatic portal circulation to be distributed systemically in b...
Would a modern day human be able to reproduce with a 200,000 year old Homo Sapien? Other hominids? If so would there be any complications?	Almost certainly. [Genetic evidence indicates that the modern human and Neanderthal lineages diverged well upwards of 500,000 years ago.](_URL_0_) We also know that the two lineages were able to interbreed much more recently (all modern populations outside of Africa have ~2-4% Neanderthal DNA), so it's extremely unli...	[ "300 years hence, the anatomically modern humans that stayed behind on Earth have split into the Hitek (\"Homo sapiens machinadiumentum\"), almost totally dependent on cybernetic technology, augmenting and keeping their bodies alive well past their natural lifespans, and their handlers (still \"Homo sapiens sapiens...
Coworker asked me about the legitimacy this DNA study on Homo sapiens cognatus "bigfoot". Article says 3 "bigfoot" genmoes sequences in a 5-year study	The first thing I did was click through to the paper at _URL_0_. Pretty flashy site for a scientific journal. Not much there except for the 'bigfoot' study. So then I googled "DeNovo Scientific _URL_1_", the parent org, supposedly. Again, not much there except for this one 'study'. I leave you to draw your own conclus...	[ "\"Homo sapiens\" has been proposed as derived from \"H. heidelbergensis\" via \"Homo rhodesiensis\", present in East and North Africa from around 400,000 years ago. The correct assignment of many fossils to a particular chronospecies is difficult and often differences in opinion ensue among paleoanthropologists du...
do bones scar after a break?	Not in the same way as skin does, but sometimes you can see a little kink or bump in an xray if it's a serious enough fracture. source: have broken things, used google :) edit: phrasing (lana.........)	[ "When a bone is fractured as a result of an injury, the two fragments may be displaced relative to each other. If they are not, usually no treatment is required other than immobilisation in an appropriate cast. If displacement does occur, then the space separating the fragments fills with blood shed by the damaged ...
Were there really Samurai in Mexico?	I'm going to refer you to another post of this exact same question: _URL_0_	[ "Several of Aztec's early employees were Texas cowboys whose abilities made them legends among their fellow ranchers during their years in Arizona. Some were involved in Arizona's Pleasant Valley War in the late 1880s and early 1890s, a decade-long feud between cattlemen and sheep herders over rangeland and resourc...
what is clickbait, jailbait	Jailbait is the term for an attractive but underage (under 18) girl, so anything you did with her would be legally obscure at best, but the laws vary from place to place. You got clickbait correct.	[ "Jailbait or jail bait is slang for a person who is younger than the legal age of consent for sexual activity and usually appears older, with the implication that a person above the age of consent might find them sexually attractive. The term \"jailbait\" is derived from the fact that engaging in sexual activity wi...
when asked for the gdp of a country, what gdp is generally wanted?	The first two are just about how to convert the NZD value to USD for international comparison. The per capita just divides the first one by population. For the healthcare one it makes no difference, or rather, it uses the original NZD value.	[ ", the country's GDP per capita at purchasing power parity is $37,370 (similar to Israel, Italy or Slovenia) and $22,850 at nominal value. According to Allianz A.G., in 2018 the country was an MWC (mean wealth country), ranking 26th in net finacial assets. The country experienced a 4.5% GDP growth in 2017, giving t...
If all life in Earth originated from the same source, what is the common ancestor between animals and plants?	It was a single-celled lifeform 1.6 billion years ago. _URL_0_ You share some 44% of your genes with a cabbage because so many are to do with microscopic processes such as cell respiration. Our common ancestor would be a load of single-celled organisms which hadn't settled on which genes to activate for pattern formati...	[ "In this system the multicellular animals (Metazoa) are descended from the same ancestor as both the unicellular choanoflagellates and the fungi which form the Opisthokonta. Plants are thought to be more distantly related to animals and fungi.\n", "All life on Earth shares a last universal common ancestor (LUCA) ...
what are the black rope-like things sometimes put on roads across lanes? are they counters? how do they work?	Yep. Those types are usually hollow rubber hoses sealed off at one end and attached to a pressure sensor at the other end. When a car drives over the hose it increases the pressure in the hose slightly triggering the counter to go up 1. If two cars go over at the same time it will probably count it as only one, but the...	[ "On some roads, lanes are marked only with a mix of Botts' dots and conventional reflective markers, eliminating the need to repaint lane divider lines. Botts' dots are rarely used in regions with substantial snowfall, because snow plows damage or dislodge them.\n", "In the United States, crosswalks are sometimes...
what is the purpose of this wall outlet?	Is it a connector for cable television service? Cable television wall plates are typically a single "F" type RF connector on a plate by themself, or sometimes on the same plate with a phone jack. (/Short comment)	[ "A \"water pipe\" is a pipe or tube, frequently made of plastic or metal, that carries pressurized and treated fresh water to a building (as part of a municipal water system), as well as inside the building.\n", "The East Side Big Pipe is a large sewer line and tunnel in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. It i...
I need help on identifying some of the items in an old photo	hi! while you might get help here, it would be worth x-posting this to /r/WhatIsThisThing: identifying items is their specialty	[ "BULLET::::- British Museum collection online: each item has a page on the database, which may be found by searching on the acquisition numbers 1866,1229.1 to 1866,1229.59 inclusive . Not all objects have photographs, but the major ones have several.\n", "Many photographs in \"\"Objects\"\" depict possessions tha...
What are some good sources on ancient/middle age Eurasian nomad cultures?	"The Silk Road: A New History" by Hansen is a good document-based summary of the cultures that lived in Central Asia in that time period. Not necessarily the ones you're thinking of though; it talks a lot about Sogdians, Tocharians, Uyghurs, etc. "The Horse, the Wheel and Language" covers pre-historical Eurasia, not ...	[ "After the fall of the USSR, Zuev was able to publish a number of works on ancient and medieval history of nomadic peoples of the Central Asia and Kazakhstan. These are \"Sarmato-Alans of Aral (Yancai\\Abzoya)\" (1995), \"Ancient Turkic social terminology in the Chinese texts of the 8th century\" (1998), \"Creation...
Is it possible for only one twin to have Downs Syndrome or would they both have it?	Contrary to what has been said, it is not impossible for only one identical twin to suffer from Down's syndrome. It would be very unlikely, however. Around 95% of Down's syndrome comes from either the egg or the sperm carrying an extra copy of chromosome 21 due to meiotic nondisjunction (messed up cell division). In t...	[ "In identical twins, if one is affected there is a 50–60% chance that the other will also be affected. In non-identical twins the risk is 15%. These risks are greater in those with generalized rather than focal seizures. If both twins are affected, most of the time they have the same epileptic syndrome (70–90%). Ot...
How was adultery viewed in late-15th/early-16th century Italy?	Something even more interesting for you, OP! After Lucrezia "broke up" with Pietro Bembo, she had a pretty steamy affair with Francesco Gonzaga -- the husband of Isabella d'Este. Who is Alfonso d'Este's sister. And thus Lucrezia's sister-in-law. So all those rumors about incest? Technically true (according to the m...	[ "16th century Spaniards are known to have been pessimistic about marriage. Many of the initial conquistadores had left their wives in Spain and engaged in adultery in Chile. Examples of this is Pedro de Valdivia who held Inés de Suárez as lover. Adultery was explicitly forbidden for Catholics and the Council of Tre...
why stimulant and depressant drugs wont cancel each other out	They can. But, there are lots of different kinds of stimulants and depressants, so sometimes the matchup isn't perfect, and you get some stimulant effects that aren't offset by depressants, and vice-versa. Imagine you had two cars parked bumper-to-bumper. If they are identical, and perfectly lined up, and they push ex...	[ "In rare cases antidepressants can make users obsessively violent or have suicidal compulsions, which is in marked contrast to their intended effect. This can be regarded as a paradoxical reaction but, especially in the case of suicide, may in at least some cases be merely due to differing rates of effect with resp...
why are there so many competing small plug types	So 2 factor. 1 improvement and obsoletion. USB - C is objectively better than USB - 3, 2 B and A. The problem is that everyone is on USB 2 architecture so everyplace uses the same USB 2 stuff and it's hard to move forward. You don't want to make a cable no one will buy. But eventually everything will move to USB - C ...	[ "There is a range of plugs and sockets of different sizes with differing numbers of pins, depending on the current supplied and number of phases accommodated. The fittings are popular in open-air conditions, as they include IP44 weather-proofing. They are also sometimes used in situations where their special capabi...
why is it wasting water when we let it run while we brush our teeth?	Water that goes down the drain has already been purified once, and will now have to be purified again before it can be discharged. The water itself can be reclaimed, but the energy used to purify it is wasted.	[ "Brushing teeth properly helps prevent cavities, and periodontal, or gum disease, which causes at least one-third of adult tooth loss. If teeth are not brushed correctly and frequently, it could lead to the calcification of saliva minerals, forming tartar. Tartar hardens (then referred to as 'calculus') if not remo...
What happened in a lunatic asylum during the 19Th century when a patient became pregnant?	This is a really fascinating question that is best served by first understanding the way women were treated during that time period, and why they would be sent to an asylum in the first place. I'm also writing this from the American perspective and I have no idea how to answer it from the non-American perspective. Al...	[ "Throughout the colonial period, \"isolation of the insane with proper justification was then thought necessary and custodial care was the mainstay of the day\". Treatments were administered under the belief that mental illness was caused by \"a foreign body that had to be expelled from the body\". Hence, all lunat...
what is it exactly that sunlight "quality" (brightness, intensity, clearness, etc) cannot be completely/very closely replicated by man-made lightbulbs?	It's mainly a problem with brightness. At the brightest, sunlight provides 1050 Watts per square meter of area. That's about the power of a regular microwave for just for a square meter! If you plug two microwaves into the same circuit and turn them on, you'll most likely blow the breaker. It would take a great amount ...	[ "Although inefficient, incandescent light bulbs have an advantage in applications where accurate color reproduction is important, since the continuous blackbody spectrum emitted from an incandescent light-bulb filament yields near-perfect color rendition, with a color rendering index of 100 (the best possible). Whi...
Why don't wireless phone chargers mess up the rest of the phone's circuitry?	There is a standard that regulates the amount of power that inductive chargers can transfer for purposes of charging a mobile device: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) In terms of circuitry there are also techniques such as reducing the area of the loop that involves the semiconductors to diminish the potential induction in unwanted...	[ "Most mobile phone chargers are not really chargers, only power adapters that provide a power source for the charging circuitry which is almost always contained within the mobile phone. Older ones are notoriously diverse, having a wide variety of DC connector-styles and voltages, most of which are not compatible wi...
How common were wild lions in ancient Greece?	I don't know much about the history of lions on the European continent. I know lions went extinct in Ancient Greece roughly around 100 BC. They had been becoming increasingly rare in the centuries prior to that. But it's not an area I have any expertise in. However, I can say a little bit about discussions of lions i...	[ "Today, lions are not part of the Greek fauna. The Asiatic lion subspecies formerly ranged in southeastern Europe. According to Herodotus, lion populations were extant in Ancient Greece. George Schaller asserts that they may have been present in the area until circa. 100 BC.\n", "Lions were present in the Greek p...
[META] Do any users here have historical blogs or podcasts that they update regularly?	If you check the [user profiles](_URL_0_) page, some people link to their blogs.	[ "Audiences are interested in current events. They include other professionals, such as journalists and campaign managers and politicians, who can use the podcast's content as source material for future articles that they might write or produce. Some podcasts focus on a specific region; there are podcasts which focu...
What was the extent of the Soviets efforts to relocate its industry away from the onslaught on the eastern front and how much of a factor did this play in the outcome?	Not super knowledgeable in this but from a soviet history class we read a book by John Scott, Behind the Urals, whom went to the Soviet Union for work during the Great Depression. They were building a new industrial city called Magnitogorsk. So in short, industry had already started moving before the war itself to the ...	[ "During the invasion of the Soviet Union in the early months of the war, rapid German advances almost captured the cities of Moscow and Leningrad. The bulk of Soviet industry which could not be evacuated was either destroyed or lost due to German occupation. Agricultural production was interrupted, with grain crops...
I just read that, when they tested the atomic bomb, there was a belief it might light the atmosphere on fire. If they believed this, why did they still test it?	There wasn't much of a belief that this could happen, because it had been considered and refuted by the scientists involved in the development of the first nuclear weapons. [In a 1991 interview with renowned physicist Hans Bethe](_URL_1_) about this very question, he credits Edward Teller as the physicist who first bro...	[ "Time magazine also took note on November 19, in a somewhat satirical article titled \"Great Balls of Fire.\" In the article, they lightheartedly speculated that the green fireballs were connected to the atomic testing.\n", "The Discovery Channel series \"MythBusters\" explored the incendiary paint hypothesis and...
I heard someone make the claim that in WW2 the allies were complicit in the Holocaust because "They could've bombed the death camps but chose not to." How much of this is grounded in reality and how much is plain revisionism?	Until a historian can Write an answer more specific to your question you may be interested to read the excellent answers to a previous post [Why didn't the allies bomb the railway tracks leading to the Concentration/Extermination Camps in WWII?](_URL_0_)	[ "Other researchers have challenged such criticism. Some have argued that the idea that the Allies took no action is a myth—that the Allies accepted as many German Jewish immigrants as the Nazis would allow—and that theoretical military action by the Allies, such as bombing the Auschwitz concentration camp, would ha...
Why didn't they use Guillotines for amputations during the Civil War?	Amputation wasn't just a matter of cutting a limb off. There was a surgical procedure to be followed. If you used a guillotine to remove a limb you've simply sliced open a whole new bunch of blood vessels with a very clean cut. The patient would either die of blood loss, or take months and months to grow skin over the...	[ "During the American Civil War, chloroform was used during surgery to reduce pain and allow more time for operations. Due in part to the lack of sterile technique in hospitals, infection was the leading cause of death for wounded soldiers.\n", "During the American Civil War (1861–1865) the bayonet was found to be...
How much did Albert Speer really have to do with the increase of munition production in wartime Germany?	Quite a bit. Before and during the early years of the war, the German armaments industry was very fragmented and uncoordinated. The military had a great deal of control over it, but they were not suited for it. As was so typical of Nazi Germany, there were also a number of other factions playing politics and vying for ...	[ "In 1942, after the death of Armaments Minister Fritz Todt, Hitler appointed Albert Speer as his replacement. Wartime rationing of consumer goods led to an increase in personal savings, funds which were in turn lent to the government to support the war effort. By 1944, the war was consuming 75 percent of Germany's ...
Was belief in extra-terrestrial life common in any society before the discovery of extra-solar planets?	The earliest (of those later confirmed) exoplanet discoveries [was in 1988.](_URL_0_) Before that, it was all theorization (in the "hypothetical" sense)--but that didn't stop science-fiction writing and film from being broadly popular in various societies around the world, going back at least to the 19th century (in Eu...	[ "In a prologue, the Journalist notes that in the late 19th century few people had even considered the possible existence of extraterrestrial life, and yet, planet Earth had in fact long been enviously observed by advanced beings.\n", "The idea that planets beyond Earth might host life is an ancient one, though hi...
Do those "sunrise" alarm clocks, which wake you up by imitating the light of the rising sun, really work?	Anecdotal evidence: I suffer from depression in the winter, and those 10,000 Lux SAD lamps really help. So I imagine light during waking is similarly powerful. But I haven't tried one.	[ "An alarm clock is a clock that is designed to alert an individual or group of individuals at specified time. The primary function of these clocks is to awaken people from their night's sleep or short naps; they are sometimes used for other reminders as well. Most use sound; some use light or vibration. Some have s...
What were the proportions of different ethnicities, languages, and colors among the population of the Roman Empire?	Historical demographics are extremely tricky when you're looking outside the modern era, since detailed records on language, religion, population, and the like weren't kept as thoroughly as they are in modern nation-states. I will point out that there was a massive part of the empire (the majority of the eastern regio...	[ "Known as the three \"Romulean tribes\", these first tribes have often been supposed to represent the major ethnic groups of early Rome: the Ramnes representing Rome's Latin population; the Tities representing the Sabines; and the Luceres probably representing the Etruscans. Rome lay on the Tiber, the traditional b...
If I stood in front of an infinitely wide mirror that started accelerating sideways, what would happen to my reflection as the mirror approached the speed of light?	Nothing. From the POV of the mirror, light always travels at the speed of light, even though the mirror is moving sideways relative to you. It is still a mirror and will behave the same way.	[ "BULLET::::- The excited portion of a reflecting mirror acts as a new source of light and the reflected light has the same velocity \"c\" with respect to the mirror as has original light with respect to its source. (Proposed by Richard Chase Tolman in 1910, although he was a supporter of special relativity).\n", ...
Why didn't Romans take a ship to the far east?	They did at least reach southeast India as early as in the 1st century, as is proven by coins and pottery and some buildings (amphi-theatre). _URL_0_ Pepper was imported form south India since this time and is found in excavations in roman castles in Europe. Some nice coin pictures are at the wiki page: _URL_1_	[ "Rather than sail direct from Phintias for North Africa, the Romans sailed west, intending to cross the Strait of Sicily at its narrowest point. This would minimise the time the fleet spent in the open sea; ships of the time, especially the less seaworthy galleys, kept in sight of land whenever possible. The Cartha...
how come rainforests are so lush if tropical soils are generally low in nutrients?	Pretty much any nutrients that that become available are immediately used up. The trees also have partnerships with fungi that live in the soil and on their roots which help to break down dead plant matter, etc. The fungi hand all the nutrients they manage to produce over to the trees, and the trees give them some suga...	[ "Soil types are highly variable in the tropics and are the result of a combination of several variables such as climate, vegetation, topographic position, parent material, and soil age. Most tropical soils are characterized by significant leaching and poor nutrients, however there are some areas that contain fertil...
how long can a phone charger be before it affects the amount of time it would normally take to fully charge your phone?	As long as the specification allows. In the case of USB 3, this is 3.0 meters or 9.8 feet. You can extend past that, but charging speed will decay as the line loses some power over distance.	[ "If a battery has been completely discharged (e.g. the car lights were left on overnight) and next is given a fast charge for only a few minutes, then during the short charging time it develops only a charge near the interface. The battery voltage may rise to be close to the charger voltage so that the charging cur...
is it possible that dinosaurs could exist on another planet like earth	Technically possible but extremely unlikely that another planet would have nearly the same conditions and evolutionary path that would lead to dinosaurs existing. Actually, it's so unlikely that it is almost impossible.	[ "In the McNinja universe dinosaurs are not extinct, but still alive and thriving on a remote island owned by Rupert Murdoch and a deserted, Pacific island housing the ruins of an old Amerindian civilization. Also, when Earth was hit by the meteor that killed off most of the original dinosaur population, some of the...
how do the servers know a game is pirated, like if you had a pirated copy of c.o.d what happen s to stop you playing online?	Old games used to just want to connect so servers would let them play. Now a days with faster connection, the first message your game sends to the server is the exact version of the game and the serial number of the copy and a signature of all the parts of the computer(processor, Ram, graphics card, sound card ect) ...	[ "Another method consists of modding the BIOS to insert the SLP 2.1 table, which can be used to replace blacklisted keys, or to add the SLP table to motherboards that do not have it (such as Gigabyte). Some brand-name computers such as Dell, already have the SLP table in their BIOS, which means that using software r...
blood type inheritance	###The long answer There are four different blood types: A, B, AB, and O. These are called "phenotypes". It's the traits that are displayed, genetically. However, they are represented as "genotypes", the actual genetic makeup. For example, the blood genotype AA means type A blood. But the genotype AO is also type A blo...	[ "In Mendelian inheritance, genes have only two alleles, such as \"a\" and \"A\". In nature, such genes exist in several different forms and are therefore said to have multiple alleles. A gene with more than two alleles is said to have multiple alleles. An individual, of course, usually has only two copies of each g...
why do the chinese who lost family in mh370 have strong distrust of the malaysian government?	It's also possible (though I have no direct evidence to support this statement) that the Chinese government is feeding it's people anti-Malaysia propaganda.	[ "On 12 December 2012, Perkasa chief Datuk Ibrahim Ali commented that of late the Malaysian Chinese have been playing up political sentiments and accused the country's second-largest ethnic group of forgotten how living in Malaysia is \"like heaven\". He also commented that the Chinese community will become a nation...
When and why did 'Once upon a time...' become the go-to opening phrase for a story?	The use this sort of phrase is widespread in Europe - and elsewhere - for the way to begin a folktale, the traditional "novel" of the folk. [This wiki page](_URL_0_) is useful in the way it provides numerous common introductions for various cultures, most of which can be boiled down, in English, to "Once upon a time......	[ "The phrase entered popular culture in the 1970s, often describing ordinary or mundane events with an implication that the said events were being overly sensationalized, or as a short-hand expression akin to \"tell you later.\"\n", "\"Once upon a time\" is a stock phrase used to introduce a narrative of past even...
why can't someone take a glass of coca cola in a lab and learn the secret recipe?	The ingredients and quantities are far less important to cooking times and ingredient order. The cooking process results in chemical reactions fundamentally altering the structure of the mixture (compound I forget my chemical terminology). TLDR: its impossible to know how long X and Y were heated before Z was added wh...	[ "Curiosity Cola is made using the following ingredients: carbonated water, fermented ginger root extract (water, glucose syrup, ginger root, pear juice concentrate, yeast), sugar, flavourings, colour: caramel (E150d), phosphoric acid (E338), caffeine\n", "BULLET::::- Merchandise 7X, the \"secret ingredient\" or \...
why do mlm/pyramid schemes inspire such cult like behavior	Once people have invested in the idea they don't want to admit the loss, so they deny it.	[ "BULLET::::- Pyramid schemes – Work by recruiting “members” to invest into a scheme. Most of the money is made by recruiting new members and a prime characteristic of the scam is the product is of little value. The people at the bottom of the pyramid pay the people at the top. Inevitably they will run out of new re...
why will there be a 5-10 year appeal process before the boston bomber is executed? don't we already have complete evidence of his guilt?	In order to have a fair justice system, we need to allow for appeals. And, as much as some people are kinda horrible, we need to allow appeals for them too because the minute we start denying legals such as appeals and presumption of innocence to even one person, we open up the possibility of denying them to other, pot...	[ "Immediately after entering the plea, however, Olson told reporters that she was innocent and that she had decided to take a plea bargain due to the climate after the September 11 attacks, in which she felt an accused bomber could not receive a fair trial from a jury. \"It became clear to me that the incident would...
if things like nuts and seeds are not properly digested by our bodies, then how do we benefit from their nutrition?	Nuts and seeds are made of more than one material. While you might not be able to digest the fiber, you can digest the protein, fat, etc.	[ "Nuts are an important source of nutrients for both humans and wildlife. Because nuts generally have a high oil content, they are a highly prized food and energy source. A large number of seeds are edible by humans and used in cooking, eaten raw, sprouted, or roasted as a snack food, or pressed for oil that is used...
What was, historically, the highest tax ever placed on the American people, how and why was it put in place, and what effects did it have on the economy?	During the Truman and Eisenhower Administration the top income tax rate was absurdly high. This was to pay off the huge debt run up by World War II. Yet, the income tax was far more progressive in those days, meaning there were a lot more tax brackets. People who earned ...	[ "The history of taxation in the United States begins with the colonial protest against British taxation policy in the 1760s, leading to the American Revolution. The independent nation collected taxes on imports (\"tariffs\"), whiskey, and (for a while) on glass windows. States and localities collected poll taxes on...
what specifics are there when war is declared? is there a start date? is there a specific region that is designate as warzone, and are there boundaries? i know modern warfare is a little more complex than this.	It has always been quite nebulous and needs to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. As a modern example, the Iran-Iraq War started with a downgrade of diplomatic relations and persecution/deportation of civilians of the opposing country. This was followed by small skirmishes in disputed territory, then a full-scale i...	[ "Warzone takes place in a fictional dieselpunk future in which a space faring humanity has explored beyond Pluto and has uncovered artifacts which unleashed an evil entity known as the 'Dark Soul' and a magic force known as 'Dark Symmetry'. This is a force which corrupts both man and complex machines (chips and bey...
Do we know of the first example of someone writing purposefully for future historians?	Sorry, we don't allow ["example seeking" questions](_URL_0_). It's not that your question was bad; it's that these kinds of questions tend to produce threads that are collections of disjointed, partial, inadequate responses. If you have a question about a specific historical event, period, or person, feel free to rewri...	[ "He began by publishing numerous essays on his work in the drafting stage, limited to specific subjects, but his major work is undoubtedly the \"Dictionnaire topographique du département de l'Aude\" published in 1912, providing details on all the cantons and villages of the department, from archival works now missi...
What were the defenses of the English Channel like during WWII?	My favorite Channel defense was the tiny [Romney Hythe & Dymchurch light railway coastal armored defense train](_URL_0_). The efficacy of a 15 inch gauge armored train is highly questionable. To me, though, it epitomizes the idea of 'British pluck.' If it could be used to resist the Germans, it was bloody well g...	[ "Allied Command Channel was established in 1952 to defend the sea areas, including allied shipping, around the English Channel. In case of war with the Warsaw Pact American reinforcements, crucial to defeat a Soviet advance towards the Rhine, would have passed through the English Channel and disembarked mainly in t...
Would a person on the moon see the Earth in different phases, i.e. "full earth", "new earth", waxing and waning gibbous/crescent, etc.?	Yes -- if the person could see the Earth. Because one side of the Moon always faces the Earth and the other points away, only those on the Earth-facing side of the Moon could even see the Earth, with the Earth sitting at basically one spot in the sky. (Note: Actually, the part of the Moon that faces the Earth at some...	[ "The Earth phase, Terra phase, Terrestrial phase or phase of the Earth, is the shape of the directly sunlit portion of the Earth as viewed from the Moon (or elsewhere extraterrestrially). From the Moon, the Earth phases gradually and cyclically change over the period of a synodic month (about 29.53 days), as the or...
With an adjustment to inflation and modern equivalence, what is the comparison of British Pounds Sterling to today's US dollar in worth?	Hello! Hope you don't think I'm stalking you (I have you as a friend on Reddit). Anyway, it all varies on the source you use for the rate of inflation, how it's calculated (there are different ways) etc. Although no longer updated, the National Archives offers a tool to convert the value of the currency, both pre and...	[ "The pound and the euro fluctuate in value against one another, although there may be correlation between movements in their respective exchange rates with other currencies such as the US dollar. Inflation concerns in the UK led the Bank of England to raise interest rates in late 2006 and 2007. This caused the poun...
Latvia and the Soviet Union/Russian Revolution	in Orlando Figes' A People's Tragedy (a very good history of the revolution), the Latvian Rifle Brigades are referred to as 'the staunchest defenders' of the Bolsheviks in the Civil War, alongside the Kronstadt sailors and the Red Guards. Some other quotes from Figes that might be interesting - 'The only real troops...	[ "The Soviet re-occupation of Latvia in 1944 refers to the military occupation of Latvia by the Soviet Union in 1944. During World War II Latvia was first occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940 and then was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941–1944 after which it was re-occupied by the Soviet Union.\n", "The Latvia...
how did england politically justify keeping a chunk of ireland (northern ireland) after the war of independence, and why don't they come under more pressure from the international community to hand it back?	If it was up to England, Northern Ireland would probably have been handed back in the 70s or something. Generally speaking, most people in Great Britain (so including Wales and Scotland as well as England) would have preferred giving Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland. At least that was the case until recently...	[ "A brief period of limited independence for Ireland came to an end following the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which occurred during the British war with revolutionary France. The British government's fear of an independent Ireland siding against them with the French resulted in the decision to unite the two countries. ...
Nineteenth Century Folks: What am I looking at? _URL_0_	[Working link to OP's image](_URL_0_)	[ "The museum gives visitors the chance to take a look back in time to the nineteenth century to see how the people in that century were transported. There are examples of the different types of vehicles there. For example, there are funeral wagons, carts, pleasure vehicles, carts a milkman would have used and a lot ...
Since beta particles are electrons, can they be directly converted to electrical energy?	Yes, this is done through a [betavoltaic cell](_URL_0_). These used to be use to power pacemakers. Nuclear decay is also used to power space probes, except it's through excess heat rather than direct betaelectricity.	[ "These beta particles, having an average energy of 50 keV, undergo inelastic collisions with other carbon atoms, thus creating electron-hole pairs which then contribute to an electric current. This can be restated in terms of band theory by saying that due to the high energy of the beta particles, electrons in the ...
Why do we find relatively pure elements such as gold in concentrations in the earth? Shouldn't the atoms be more or less randomly distributed as the earth formed?	The earth has a very large number of concentration processes active on it. In order to concentrate a mineral or element you need some kind of sorting process - whether through density, chemical reactivity, or other physical parameter. You can imagine earth starting off as a big molten homogenous ball. Because it's h...	[ "Because they are so concentrated in the dense core, siderophile elements are known for their rarity in the Earth's crust. Most of them have always been known as precious metals because of this. Iridium is the rarest transition metal occurring within the Earth's crust, with an abundance by mass of less than one par...
why do fruits and vegetables always feel cold, even when they should be room temperature?	How cold things feel to the touch is a reflection of their ability to conduct heat. Items which are better heat conductors will feel colder, whereas items that don't conduct heat well, will feel less cold. Put a glass cup, a plastic cup, and a metal cup on your counter and let them all come to room temperature. The ...	[ "Fruits in this category are not hardy to extreme cold, as the preceding temperate fruits are, yet tolerate some frost and may have a modest chilling requirement. Notable among these are natives of the Mediterranean:\n", "Directly following the heat treatment, vegetables/fruits are quickly chilled by cold water. ...
Could you recommend a text which describes military uniforms during the British Raj?	Definitely: For the Indian Armies- W.Y. Carman's Indian Army Uniforms vols. 1 and 2 is, in my experience, the most comprehensive overview of the Indian Army (under both the Presidencies and the Raj) up till 1947. Volume 1 covers the Cavalry, whilst Volume II covers Infantry, Artillery and Engineers. Carman's volu...	[ "Battle Dress (BD), later called \"No.5 Dress\", was the official name for the standard working and fighting uniform worn by the British Army and the armies of other Imperial and Commonwealth countries in temperate climes from 1937 to the late 1960s. It was a pair of trousers and a close fitting short jacket \"Blou...
I am researching a photo taken of my great grandfather from World War 1. From what my family has told me the picture includes my great grandfather Jakub Postl and Adolf Hitler. Is this a family myth?	Could you clear some things up for me? Czechoslovakia didn't exist as a country until 1918, and your great grandfather was born in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Furthermore, it is unlikely that your great grandfather is in that picture with Hitler, considering Hitler served in the 16th Bavarian Reserve Reg...	[ "For his solo exhibition at Paul Kasmin Gallery, Mother, Hod created a series of paintings that reference the iconic photograph, taken by the Nazi photographer Franz Konrad, of Nazi soldiers clearing out the Warsaw Ghetto during the Second World War. Although most of the scholarship and speculation about this photo...
How does the collision of quarks create elementary other particles?	The process at root is this: energy is conserved, but the form that energy can take can vary. Energy comes in three generic forms: kinetic energy (energy of motion), potential energy (energy of position), and rest energy (energy of existence, also known as rest mass). In an accelerator, particles are accelerated to g...	[ "The elementary quark and gluon particles involved in a high energy collision are not directly observable. The interaction produces jets of newly created hadrons that are observable. Those hadrons are created, as a manifestation of mass-energy equivalence, when sufficient energy is deposited into a quark-quark bond...
when a bug gets stuck in your car and travels a few miles with you before it gets back outside, does it ever find its previous home/nest/colony again? does it care?	That depends on the bug. Some bees have been shown to be able to re-locate their hive after being separated by a reasonable distance. Over time they learn the area while foraging and can find their way back if they're not moved too far. Ants trace their location carefully with scent and would be lost if moved. Most...	[ "Bugs, feeling as though he's safe, stops to catch his breath, not knowing Smidgen is right behind him. Before he knows it, Bugs is licked by the dog's enormous tongue, which lifts him off the ground each time. Bugs tries to run away, but stops at the sight of something. He calls Smidgen's attention to a giant redw...
why is caucasian the only racial category for white people? is it for the sake of simplicity, or because the caucasian hominids are the ancestors of europeans? why not have italic/slavic/germanic etc. instead?	It's got a long history, but the term is really obsolete and meaningless. In the late 18th century, European philosopher divided the world into three races, Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid. Christoph Meiners chose the term for white people in 1785 because Caucasians had the "whitest, most blooming and most delicate s...	[ "Racial categories remain widely used in medical research, but this can create important problems. For example, researchers Raj Bhopal and Liam Donaldson opine that since white people are a heterogeneous group, the term \"white\" should therefore be abandoned as a classification for the purposes of epidemiology and...
I'm a totally new to World History, what should I watch?	Try Crash Course: World History's playlist on YouTube. Very interesting and entertaining. Its not very in depth but it covers up most of the timeline.	[ "\"Our World\" was created by ABC News president Roone Arledge. The show had its genesis in a 1985 ABC News special called \"45/85\", a three-hour documentary that reviewed post-World War II history with an emphasis on the Cold War. That special was produced by Avram \"Av\" Westin, who also produced \"Our World\". ...
Do writing, typing, speaking, and sign language use the same parts of the brain?	Absolutely. Comprehension of language is controlled by [Wernicke's area](_URL_0_), including reading, spoken language and I presume sign. Language expression by [broca's area](_URL_1_). In the same way. This is exploited medically to find out where a brain problem is located. If someone can understand and follow inst...	[ "These regions are where language is located in the brain – everything from speech to reading and writing. Language itself is based on symbols used to represent concepts in the world, and this system appears to be housed in these areas. The language regions in human brains highly resemble similar regions in other p...
When I shine a light into stained/colored glass, the glass' shadow is the same as the glass' color. Why is that?	Shadows mostly aren't an absence of light, they are just less light than their surroundings. Coloured glass absorbs other coloured wavelengths. So green glass, for example, absorbs the other colours and only reflects green light back to you, so it looks green. It is also transparent, so it lets some green light through...	[ "The glass is coated with, or has encased within, a thin and almost-transparent layer of metal (usually aluminium). The result is a mirrored surface that reflects some light and is penetrated by the rest. Light always passes equally in both directions. However, when one side is brightly lit and the other kept dark,...
How did the deer, moose, elk, caribou and reindeer of the family Cervidae, develop cranial appendages(antler) throughout history?	This is actually a pretty big mystery, and we don't know all the details. Deer ancestors seem to have had more standard horns that weren't shed (a bit more like the bony horns of a pronghorn), but transitioned to shedding and regrowing them in the Miocene. It's not really appreciated because of how common deer are, b...	[ "Large deer with impressive antlers evolved during the early Pleistocene, probably as a result of abundant resources to drive evolution. The early Pleistocene cervid † \"Eucladoceros\" was comparable in size to the modern elk. † \"Megaloceros\" (Pliocene–Pleistocene) featured the Irish elk (\"M. giganteus\"), one o...
why wont older printers connect with newer operating systems?	It's all about the drivers. If no one writes a driver for the new OS you are out of luck. You can try generic drivers but you will lose some functionality.	[ "Until approximately 2000, PC computers could still be purchased with a mix of ISA and PCI slots, so it was still possible that manual ISA device configuration might be necessary. But with successive releases of new operating systems like Windows 2000 and Windows XP, Microsoft had sufficient clout to say that drive...
Why was the Christian Church so dogmatically pro Aristotlean philosophy when Aristotle was a pagan?	If you are interested in this topic, you might want to read Hannam's „God’s Philosophers“ as it answers this question more thorougly than I ever could. To paraphrase: The Church as a whole was not “dogmatically” pro-Aristotle, and their attitude changed over time. In the absence of serious alternatives, Aristotelianis...	[ "If the philosophy of Aristotle, as revived and enriched by Thomas Aquinas and his school, may rightly be called the Christian philosophy, both because the church is never weary of putting it forward as the only true philosophy and because it harmonizes perfectly with the truths of faith, nevertheless it is propose...
how are ip addresses identifiable by location?	Blocks of IP addresses are assigned to organizations on request by a handful of non-profit organizations responsible for maintaining the IP space. These are the Regional Internet Registries. In North America this organization is ARIN, in Europe its RIPE, in Asia it's APNIC, etc These organizations each have certain n...	[ "IP address location data can include information such as country, region, city, postal/zip code, latitude, longitude and time zone. Deeper data sets can determine other parameters such as domain name, connection speed, ISP, language, proxies, company name, US DMA/MSA, NAICS codes, and home/business.\n", "An IP a...
does pickle juice have the same effect as grapefruit juice for intensifying medications?	No. The acidity is not the issue with grapefruits. The problem is that there enzymes in Grapefruit that mess with the medications in various ways.	[ "The effect of grapefruit juice with regard to drug absorption was originally discovered in 1989. The first published clinical report on grapefruit drug interactions was in 1991 in \"The Lancet\" entitled \"Interactions of Citrus Juices with Felodipine and Nifedipine.\" However, the effect only became well-publiciz...
why does fruit taste sweeter when it decomposes?	The complex sugars are broken down by bacteria, turning them in to simple sugars which are much sweeter	[ "Fruits such as sweet detar can contribute to successful interventions to improve local livelihoods as they are rich in nutrients, require minimal preparation, and have flavours that appeal to many tastes. Storing sweet detar at temperatures around 4 degrees Celsius will preserve its quality by limiting the loss of...
how would aliens figure out how to decipher the voyager 1 golden disk?	The instructions are written using chemical and physical knowledge any advance civilization should have. It's also written in the most basic numeric system that exists, which is binary. So any alien race which is capable of logic, knows the time period associated with a fundamental transition of the hydrogen atom (Most...	[ "The Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions, which started in 1977, were designed to deliver color imaging amongst scientific information of Jupiter and Saturn. This resulted in increased coding requirements, and thus, the spacecraft were supported by (optimally Viterbi-decoded) convolutional codes that could be concaten...
why do brightly lit objects stay in our vision for a few minutes after we look at them, especially when blinking?	Your vision works by damaging easily repaired parts of your eye. Brighter objects damage it more. You see outlines until they’re repaired.	[ "Changizi says that visual illusions are due to a neural lag which most humans experience while awake. When light hits the retina, about one-tenth of a second goes by before the brain translates the signal into a visual perception of the world. \n", "The eye is able to detect a visual stimulus when the photons (l...
Historians, Who exactly were the Ustase and Chetniks and what did they do? (I'll expand on this in text.)	Sorry to be so brief with these answers (and to ignore some outright), there's A LOT of questions to tackle and I'd end up dumping a huge essay in here otherwise. I'm sticking to the Ustasha if that's okay, as I've written a lot about them in the past. > 1: Why did the Ustase form? What were their goals? At the beg...	[ "Chetniks along with the Ustaša were vilified by Tito era historiography within Yugoslavia. In the 1980s, Serbian historians initiated the process of reexamining the narrative of how World War Two was told in Yugoslavia which was accompanied by the rehabilitation of Chetnik leader Draža Mihailović. Monographs relat...
how a bunch of lines of code can become a complex image like a video game	Take a big piece of graph paper and a pencil It wouldn't be hard to write a set of instructions for draw a big square in the middle of the grid. * Erase everything on the page * Go to the 300th column, 300th row, * Draw a line from here to the 700th column, 300th row * Draw a line to 700,700 * Draw a line to 300,70...	[ "The extensive form can also capture simultaneous-move games and games with imperfect information. To represent it, either a dotted line connects different vertices to represent them as being part of the same information set (i.e. the players do not know at which point they are), or a closed line is drawn around th...
light into matter?	I have no clue what that is referring to, but we have known about light making matter for quite some time. The process is known as pair production, in which two photons (light) with sufficient energy can form a electron-positron pair (or some other matter-antimatter pair). This is allowed because an electron and positr...	[ "At the end of the 19th century, light was thought to consist of waves of electromagnetic fields which propagated according to Maxwell's equations, while matter was thought to consist of localized particles (See History of wave and particle duality). In 1900, this division was exposed to doubt, when, investigating ...
What liquid is the wettest?	"Wettest" or "wetting" are perfectly fine words to use. Predicting the wettest liquid for a given material requires consideration of the liquid's and material's surface energies as well as the interfacial tension between the two phases. Essentially, the wettest liquid is one that gives the lowest interfacial tension as...	[ "A dry ton or dry tonne has the same mass value, but the material (sludge, slurries, compost, and similar mixtures in which solid material is soaked with or suspended in water) has been dried to a relatively low, consistent moisture level (dry weight). If the material is in its natural, wet state, it is called a we...
if our bodies are naturally 36c, why does 36c weather feel very uncomfortable?	Because our body is basically a walking heater. Our cells constantly produce heat, and our body is tuned to produce so much heat that we can maintain an internal temperature of 36°C. The amount of heat we produce can change to react to the environment, but when the environment is too hot we can't tone down our own heat...	[ "Humidity is an important factor in determining how weather conditions feel to a person experiencing them. Hot and humid days feel even hotter than hot and dry days because the high level of water content in humid air discourages the evaporation of sweat from a person's skin.\n", "The climate is tropical, though ...
What determined borders in Roman times?	The Romans didn't have an actual concept of a "limit" to their empire - in their own view the empire was endless, there simply were areas that weren't Romanized. The Romans denoted their borders or "limes" usually by a ditch, or a system of defensive fortifications. Such defenses ran through Arabia, on the Rhine and D...	[ "The borders of the Roman Empire, which fluctuated throughout the empire's history, were a combination of natural frontiers (the Rhine and Danube rivers to the north and east, the Atlantic to the west, and deserts to the south) and man-made fortifications which separated the lands of the empire from the \"barbarian...
If you were to mount a flashlight on a sled moving at close to the speed of light, why wouldn't the light from the flashlight move at a greater speed?	> S(sled) + S(light) = C That's not the formula to use in relativity. Do this instead: S(sled) + S(light) ----------------------------- = C 1 + S(sled) * S(light) / C^2 But if you plug in `S(light) = C`, you'll notice that this is trivially true no matter what `S(sled)` is. Which means that no ma...	[ "In 1913, Georges Sagnac showed that if a beam of light is split and sent in two opposite directions around a closed path on a revolving platform with mirrors on its perimeter, and then the beams are recombined, they will exhibit interference effects. From this result Sagnac concluded that light propagates at a spe...
why do some flames (like a candle) put off a lot of light, while others (like a butane torch) put off almost none?	The temperature of the flame determines it's color. A candle has a lot of flame in the yellow and orange range. A butane torch produces blue flame. Blue light doesn't brighten a space as well as yellow light does. At least to the human eye.	[ "The liquid wax is hot and can cause skin burns, but the amount and temperature are generally rather limited and the burns are seldom serious. The best way to avoid getting burned from splashed wax is to use a candle snuffer instead of blowing on the flame. A candle snuffer is usually a small metal cup on the end o...
What was the extend of metallurgy in pre-Colombian Society in the Americas?	We have a whole [section](_URL_0_) of Pre-Columbian metallurgy questions in our FAQ section.	[ "The emergence of metallurgy in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica occurred relatively late in the region's history, with distinctive works of metal apparent in West Mexico by roughly AD 800, and perhaps as early as AD 600. Metallurgical techniques likely diffused northward from regions in Central or South America via marit...
In heterosexuals, physical attractiveness is (frequently) related with mating and offspring. In homosexuals, does physical attractiveness relate with some "rule"?	I'm no expert in this area but there seem to be a few studies that look at this kind of thing. [This one](_URL_0_) looks at facial preference and found that both homosexual men and women prefer more masculine faces in men and women, respectively. And [this one](_URL_1_) looks at waist-to-chest ratio (WCR) and found t...	[ "The relationship between handedness and sexual orientation has been suggested within both sexes and may reflect the biological etiology of sexual orientation; work by Ray Blanchard has linked the relationship to the fraternal birth order effect, which suggests that a man with several older biological brothers is m...
What are the best books on eastern Asian anthropolgy or history in general.	If you are mostly interested in ancient Japan, I would recommend picking up translated editions of Nihon Shoki and Kojiki. These are primary sources; chronicles of ancient Japan and how the Japanese people and polity came into being. BH Chamberlain did a good translation of the Kojiki a few years ago, and that ed...	[ "The Asia Library is located on the fourth floor of Hatcher Graduate Library (North). It is one of the largest collections of East Asian materials in North America, as of June 2012 holds some 785,000 volumes of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean monographs, 2,100 currently received serials, and 80,000 titles of material...
When did we start to enjoy food based on taste and not on necessity?	Taste is based on necessity. We evolved to enjoy and even crave meat, fatty and sugary foods because they are a good source of energy - the sort of meal that would greatly benefit a hunter-gatherer. Of course, now we've pretty much mastered our food chain, but our brains are still wired to crave those things, so we ea...	[ "The people discovered new foods (such as the potato and tomato imported from the Americas), and developed new tastes during the era. The more prosperous enjoyed a wide variety of food and drink, including exotic new drinks such as tea, coffee, and chocolate. French and Italian chefs appeared in the country houses ...
Why are Xenon and Krypton electronegative despite being noble gases?	Even though Krypton and Xenon are noble gases, they can form bonds with non-xenon and non-krypton atoms. The main reason they can do this (where the smaller noble gases like he, ne, and ar don't) this is because of the atoms relatively large size, they can access the d orbitals fairly readily. This is what allows the...	[ "Xenon and the other noble gases were for a long time considered to be completely chemically inert and not able to form compounds. However, while teaching at the University of British Columbia, Neil Bartlett discovered that the gas platinum hexafluoride (PtF) was a powerful oxidizing agent that could oxidize oxygen...
How different were American and Soviet military doctrines?	Soviet tank doctrine was completely different to the Blitzkrieg; which the Soviets believed was a failed system that channeled vulnerable armor too narrowly. Their experience and opinions in this regard were undoubtedly formed by their experiences in WWII and the recognization that a defense in depth could disrupt even...	[ "The Soviet meaning of military doctrine was much different from U.S. military usage of the term. Soviet Minister of Defence Marshal Grechko defined it in 1975 as 'a system of views on the nature of war and methods of waging it, and on the preparation of the country and army for war, officially adopted in a given s...
Are there any cellular processes not affected by changes in pH?	No not really. At a super high or super low pH the cell will just die, so pH is always important at some level. Some processes may be less sensitive to pH changes, and can occur at a wider range of pH than others, but at a basic level everything in the cell (with maybe the exception of a basic cell membrane) will be di...	[ "Phosphorylation is generally considered a reversible modification used to change enzyme activity in different conditions. However, activating phosphorylation of Cdk by CAK appears to be an exception to this trend. In fact, CAK activity remains high throughout the cell cycle and is not regulated by any known cell-c...
how do we unconsciously put parts of speech in the right order to form sentences?	Practice. Followed by more practice. That is followed by even more practice. Did I mention practice? The whole thing is based on practice. You took years to learn how to speak. Notice how little kids screw it all up all the time? Eventually you practice it so much that you don't even have to think about it, you j...	[ "Sentences can also be marked as questions when they are written down. In languages written in Latin or Cyrillic, as well as certain other scripts, a question mark at the end of the sentence identifies it as a question. In Spanish, an additional inverted mark is placed at the beginning (e.g.\"Cómo está usted\"). Qu...
What did the richest medieval lords eat each night?	Set aside the wild world of [splendors for all](_URL_0_) and a 19th-20th century conception of "the gentry versus the help." The demonstration and reinforcement of strict social hierarchy was indeed a chief goal of later medieval everyday dining practices in elite households--but its structure looked and functioned som...	[ "As with almost every part of life at the time, a medieval meal was generally a communal affair. The entire household, including servants, would ideally dine together. To sneak off to enjoy private company was considered a haughty and inefficient egotism in a world where people depended very much on each other. In ...
what's the whole deal with the satanic verses and what in it caused a fatwa on salman rushdie's life?	Some Muslim scholars, philosophers and biographers tell a story called the Gharaniq Incident. Basically what happened is that Mohammed, when he was alive, set about converting the Mecca area to his new religion (Islam). People in the Mecca area worshipped Lat, Uzza and Manat at the time. One day, Mohammed was reciting ...	[ "\"The Satanic Verses\" controversy, also known as the Rushdie Affair, was the heated and frequently violent reaction of Muslims to the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel \"The Satanic Verses\", which was first published in the United Kingdom in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. Many Muslims acc...
what would be some of the long term effects if a giant canal was built from the mediterranean to bringing water in the the heart of the sahara desert?	Please read this entire message --- Your submission has been removed for the following reason(s): ELI5 is not for: Hypotheticals --- If you would like this removal reviewed, please read the [detailed rules](_URL_1_) first. If you still feel the removal should be reviewed, please [message the moderators.](_U...	[ "Construction of the canal was preceded by cutting a small fresh-water canal called Sweet Water Canal from the Nile delta along Wadi Tumilat to the future canal, with a southern branch to Suez and a northern branch to Port Said. Completed in 1863, these brought fresh water to a previously arid area, initially for c...
Could the British have won the American Revolution? Or was the war only the American's to lose?	There were several times during which the British could have struck a blow that would have won the ground war, and several moments where the Americans could have lost it. Inevitability is rarely a concept that you can apply in history. If you look at the topic from a non-military perspective (one of a social, cultural...	[ "The British Army during the American Revolutionary War served for eight years in campaigns fought around the globe. Defeat at the Siege of Yorktown to a combined Franco-US force ultimately led to the loss of the Thirteen Colonies in eastern North America, and the concluding Treaty of Paris deprived Britain of many...
What is the evolutionary reason for grey hair?	Correct me if I'm wrong, layman here, but I think it's more about the absence of evolutionary reasons at that age. When your average life span is about 30, what happens to your body at 60-70 isn't particularly selected for by evolutionary processes.	[ "In some cases, gray hair may be caused by thyroid deficiencies, Waardenburg syndrome or a vitamin B deficiency. At some point in the human life cycle, cells that are located in the base of the hair's follicles slow, and eventually stop producing pigment. Piebaldism is a rare autosomal dominant disorder of melanocy...
baseball contracts. what is this gray area of "might stay or be traded"?	[David Price agreed to a 1-year, $14 million contract in January.](_URL_0_) This means he will not be a free agent until this contract expires. When/if that happens, he has the ability to sign with any team he chooses. In the meantime, while under contract, his rights are controlled by the Rays. They can trade thos...	[ "The Major League Baseball (MLB) trade deadline was first instituted for the 1923 season, on June 23 of that year. It was moved to July 31 starting with the 1986 season. Commissioner Rob Manfred moved it to August 1 for the 2016 season only, as July 31, 2016 was a Sunday. After the All-Star break, teams will determ...

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