question
stringlengths
3
301
answer
stringlengths
9
26.1k
context
list
what's the difference between delirium and psychosis?
In the most basic sense, delirium is caused an underlying medical/physical illness or problem. When the underlying problem is treated, delirium is resolved. Psychosis is a symptom of a mental illness like during a manic episode or more commonly in schizophrenia. Antipsychotic meds help to control these symptoms.
[ "Pharmacology divides hallucinogens into three classes. \"Psychedelic\" (first used in 1956 from Greek \"psyche-\" \"mind; soul\" and \"delein\" \"to manifest\"): \"Pertaining to a rather imprecise category of drugs with mainly central nervous system action, and with effects said to be the expansion or heightening ...
how do 47% of people in the us not pay federal income tax?
There are a few groups of people who don't pay federal income tax. The biggest group (about 60% of them) don't because they qualify for enough deductions to reduce their burden to $0 (think lower-class families with kids). Both parties are responsible for introducing tax cuts/credits, so if this is in response to Mit...
[ "In addition, Federal income tax may be imposed on non-resident non-citizens, including corporations, on U.S. source income. Federal tax applies to interest, dividends, royalties, and certain other income of nonresident aliens and foreign corporations at a flat rate of 30%. This rate is often reduced under [[tax tr...
What was the role of Druids in Pagan Irish religion?
Our information about the druids are pretty scarce because the druids themselves didn't keep any records. What knowledge we have are from the Romans, who usually portray them as some sort of priests (divine powers, contact with the Gods, etc.). This quote is from Tacitus (book XIV, chapter 30) in the Annals: > On th...
[ "When druids are portrayed in early Irish sagas and saints' lives set in the pre-Christian past of the island, they are usually accorded high social status. The evidence of the law-texts, which were first written down in the 7th and 8th centuries, suggests that with the coming of Christianity the role of the druid ...
the miller-urey experiment
Scientists were trying to determine if the chemicals needed for life (amino acids) could be produced from the chemicals that they believed existed when the Earth was young. So, they took those chemicals and put them in a closed loop along with water. They heated that water to simulate evaporation from the oceans and z...
[ "The Miller experiment appeared in his technical paper in the 15 May 1953 issue of \"Science\", which transformed the concept of scientific ideas on the origin of life into a respectable realm of empirical inquiry. His study has become a classic textbook definition of the scientific basis of origin of life, or more...
can you think of ancient (more than 500 years ago) monarchs who may have had Autism? If "yes" who were they and what were they like as a ruler?
This sort of retrospective diagnosis of some sort of condition ought to remain nothing more than speculation.
[ "A few examples of autistic symptoms and treatments were described long before autism was named. The \"Table Talk\" of Martin Luther, compiled by his notetaker, Mathesius, contains the story of a 12-year-old boy who may have been severely autistic. Luther reportedly thought the boy was a soulless mass of flesh poss...
do breathalyzers measure bac accurately for people with lung issues such as asthma, copd, or just being generally out of shape?
Breathalyzers are "good estimates", not highly accurate. They don't measure total breath flow, either. They just determine the percentage of alcohol in the C02 of your breath, and conditions like asthma, COPD, or others don't really have any affect on that. If you're on the verge of blowing just at the legal limit, yo...
[ "In 2013, Chinese and Israeli scientists reported a successful pilot study of a breathalyzer-style breath test intended to diagnose stomach cancer by analyzing exhaled chemicals without the need for an intrusive endoscopy. A larger-scale clinical trial of this technology was completed in 2014.\n", "Breath tests h...
Nazism: Left, Center, Right? Or something different entirely?
The [Left/Right](_URL_0_) model is a broken paradigm that isn't particularly useful for classifying political parties. I know everyone (including myself) uses it, but it's a bad habit. The weaknesses of the model are especially highlighted when you try and classify extreme groups like the Nazis. Gun to my head I would...
[ "\"Far-right\" is synonymous with the term \"extreme right\", or literally \"right-extremist\" (the German term used by the German intelligence service, the Verfassungsschutz), according to which neo-Nazism is a subclass, with its historical orientation at Nazism.\n", "Milton Rokeach claimed that the defining dif...
Is water cycle present in Antarctica?
Sure there is a water cycle, it's just a bit different than the other continents. Snowfall is driven by winds carrying moisture in from the oceans. Water molecules can return from the ice to the atmosphere via sublimation, which is like evaporation but is a phase change directly from the solid (ice) to gas (water vap...
[ "Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) originated in the Oligocene with the opening of the Drake Passage and the Tasmanian Seaway and resulted in the thermal insulation of Antarctica. AABW mixes with other masses in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) to form the Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW). In the Agulhas Basin CDW f...
I do not understand why different zygotes from the same parents are different and not clones.
Each parent contributed only one of each of their chromosome pair to the zygote. For each chromosome, one of the two is picked at random. In humans that means that you have 2^23 (or about 8 million) possible sets of chromosomes from each parent for the zygote to inherit. This alone makes it unlikely for two zygotes ...
[ "The two were the result of an experiment in genetic recombination in which two parent cells were separated into complementary haploid gametes, and recombined into two embryos. The resulting zygotes were implanted in a woman and gestated by her, with the result that although both have the same surrogate mother and ...
so, given that people use quantum physics normally and also talk about how it involves observation or whatever, how has this fact been proven?
> "*the thing is actually decided upon observation*" This is the most common way of describing it, but it trips people up because it implies the necessity of an observer. "observation" in the quantum-mechanical context simply means that the system in question has come into causal contact with another, different quan...
[ "Quantum mechanics can thus predict or explain a variety of phenomena in a variety of systems, from the well established photoelectric effect to the transmission of information via entangled quantum objects. These phenomena arise from the concepts of quantum mechanics; for instance, the wave-particle duality allows...
(Biology) why do people get red in the face when lifting/moving heavy objects?
Basically, if you're lifting something heavy your muscles will need to be supplied with more oxygen and waste products like lactic acid (from anaerobic respiration) will need to be taken away from the site through your blood. This increased blood flow causes your blood vessels to dialate, bringing blood closer to the ...
[ "In rare conditions it has the potential to lead to limited functional activity in the upper extremity to which it is adjacent. It can affect a person's ability to lift, pull, and push weighty objects. In some serious cases, the ability to perform activities of daily living such as changing one's clothes and washin...
what makes ram volatile and hdd's and other memory devices like that non volatile?
Fundamentally, it's about the way the memory is constructed. Volatile memory requires a constant source of power to maintain its storage, whereas non-volatile memory doesn't. DRAM (which is the RAM you're thinking of) is made of capacitors that are charged up if they're storing a 1 bit. It's very small and simple, b...
[ "Volatile memory has several uses including as primary storage. In addition to usually being faster than forms of mass storage such as a hard disk drive, volatility can protect sensitive information, as it becomes unavailable on power-down. Most of the general-purpose random-access memory (RAM) is volatile.\n", "...
why someone with half a brain can live? will he lose something from the surgery?
We just did this in my psych class actually so here goes. Half the brain is only actually removed in young children, because their brain is still developing, it adapts to only having half of it there so the person learns to function almost normally. [Here is a video about a girl who had half her brain removed to prev...
[ "In 1995, after a brain operation, the result of a genetically caused brain-bleeding, he ended up sitting in a wheelchair with hemiplegia. He was told, that the control of the right half of his body was probably for ever lost.\n", "Throughout their care, brain dead patients could experience a wide range of compli...
Is a bacteriophage just a virus that infects bacteria?
Phage is short for bacteriophage, which is a virus that infects bacteria (there are many types of bacteriophages). There are also viruses that infect other types of organisms like animals; these are not bacteriophages. As to a question like "Are bacteriophages related to animal viruses?" or something like that, I bel...
[ "Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria and archaea. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses officially recognises 28 genera of bacteriophages that belong to 11 families. They are important in marine ecology: as the infected bacteria burst, carbon compounds are released back into the environment...
why are their age restrictions in american public offices?
It mostly has to do with what the constitution says. For president you have to be at least 35 years old as it was thought you would have enough life experience and wisdom to lead the country. :)
[ "Some political offices have qualifications that discriminate on the basis of age as a proxy for experience, education, or accumulated wisdom. For example, the President of the United States must be at least 35 years old; a United States Senator must be at least 30; and a United States Congress member must be at le...
Augustus' political affiliation? (Populares/Optimates)
That's simply not how Roman politics worked. *Populares* and *optimates* were not political parties, factions, or affiliations. The *optimates* in particular don't really exist--*optimas*, and the more common *bonus* is a rhetorical term that is applied to pretty much whomever you want to apply it to at the given momen...
[ "Augustus gathered almost all the republican powers under his official title, \"princeps\": he had powers of consul, \"princeps senatus\", aedile, censor and tribune—including tribunician sacrosanctity. This was the base of an emperor's power. Augustus also styled himself as \"Imperator Gaius Julius Caesar divi fil...
why are residential solar panels common, but not wind turbines? or water wheels for people who live by rivers?
Wind turbines are all about size, bigger is more economic, not more (edit: not more of them. If a manufacturer/operator could choose, they would pick bigger size over quantity), so they're not cost effective in a subdivision. They also make a lot of noise, require quite a bit of maintenance, and space, kill birds, and ...
[ "However, many areas have long winter nights or dark cloudy days. In these climates, a solar installation might not pay for itself. In stormy or windy climates, wind generators can replace or supplement solar power. The average autonomous house needs only one small wind turbine, 5 metres or less in diameter. On a 3...
How many different colors were categorized/can be distinguished by an average human?
This article answers your question and provides an interesting extension in the form of tetrachromats _URL_0_
[ "Any true physical color can be represented by a combination of pure spectral colors. As physical colors can be composed of any number of spectral colors, the space of physical colors may aptly be represented by a Hilbert space over spectral colors. Humans have three types of cone cells for color perception, so the...
"nuking" the filibuster
It can be done at any time. The Senate Majority Leader would declare Senate Rule 22(filibuster rule) a Constitutional question, and the Senate would immediately begin debating Rule 22 with a simple majority needed to change the rule.
[ "The filibuster is an obstructionary tactic used to defeat bills and motions by prolonging debate indefinitely. A filibuster may entail, but does not actually require, long speeches, dilatory motions, and an extensive series of proposed amendments. The longest filibuster speech in the history of the Senate was deli...
when you shake flour, why do all the larger bits make their way to top and not the bottom?
You can do the same experiment with a jar of rocks. Shaking the jar allows all of the little rocks to find their way down in the spaces between the larger rocks. Keep shaking and pretty soon all of the big rocks will appear to "climb" to the top.
[ "The flour plays an important role in the texture, structure, and elasticity of an angel food cake. Minimal folding of the flour allows cell walls to form when it comes in contact with the egg protein foam and sugar mixture. If the batter is over-mixed, the egg white proteins may coagulate causing the bubbles to br...
Why should I wash my hands after using the restroom? Bear with me here...
Your skin is always covered with various types of bacteria. The pelvic (specifically genitoanal) region, is typically populated by a class of bacteria known as [coliforms](_URL_0_), which are generally harmless when on the skin or in the normal environment in the intestines, but can cause illness if introduced elsewher...
[ "After completing urination or defecation and upon leaving the bathroom, the person washes their hands. According to Jewish etiquette, this should be done outside the bathroom, but if there is no source of water available outside the bathroom, it is permissible to wash one's hands inside the bathroom, then dry them...
why do we die instantly when our heart stops? why don't we asphyxiate from lack of oxygen from blood no longer circulating?
You don't die instantly; people with a totally stopped heart often die, but it is possible if the heart resumes in a timely manner you'll survive. There's a distinction between alive and conscious, though. A total stop in blood flow will make you pass out really quickly; in fact a sudden decrease in blood flow to the ...
[ "Once the heart stops, the blood can no longer supply oxygen or remove carbon dioxide from the tissues. The resulting decrease in pH and other chemical changes causes cells to lose their structural integrity, bringing about the release of cellular enzymes capable of initiating the breakdown of surrounding cells and...
What is the historical significance of Dravidian history, their rule and culture? It looks like lot of their history is missing out?
I might only be moderately qualified to answer this question, but for me (or anybody else) to do so would require a lot more information about what you're looking for in an answer. Could you narrow it down a bit? As it is, you're asking a question about a culture group that sweeps literally all recorded history, from ...
[ "By the early centuries of the common era most of the principalities of Southeast Asia had effectively absorbed defining aspects of Hindu culture, religion and administration. The notion of divine god-kingship was introduced by the concept of Harihara, Sanskrit and other Indian epigraphic systems were declared offi...
How does the amount of energy required to sustain a temperature vary with the temperature itself?
Ignoring radiative heat transfer, the other main two routes for heat transfer are conduction and convection, both of which are proportional to the temperature gradient, and assuming a constant value for the latter say through a wall, proportional to the temperature difference, as you guessed. Now, assuming a steady sta...
[ "No change in internal energy (as the temperature of the system is constant throughout the process) leads to only work done of the total supplied heat, and thus infinite amount of heat is required to increase the temperature of the system by a unit temperature, leading to infinite or undefined heat capacity of the ...
Was the Nazi's obsession with "wonder weapons" an extension of their ideology?
I'm not sure what would the ideological link be. But about the reasoning of the Wunderwaffe. The popular dichotomy between the triumph-of-will and triump-of-technology in warfare has been present in the Wehrmacht since the 1940, however not as it is commonly portrayed in popular culture. In 1940, after the Battle of...
[ "Wunderwaffe () is German for \"Miracle Weapon\" and was a term assigned during World War II by the Nazi Germany propaganda ministry to some revolutionary \"superweapons\". Most of these weapons however remained prototypes, which either never reached the combat theater, or if they did, were too late or in too insig...
the more i rub my eyes the more colors i see
When you rub your eye you are mechanically stimulating your retina, causing you to see light that is not actually there. The images projected by said light are called Phosphenes, specifically pressure phosphenes. It's you fooling your brain into believing photons are entering your eye when they really aren't.
[ "BULLET::::- Rubbing of eyes - Eyes may water, causing a person to rub their own eyes. This can happen when a person feels uncomfortable or tired. It may also happen when a person simply has something in their eyes.\n", "The Chinese idioms \"Ah Meng under Wu\" () and \"rub one's eyes and look\" () originated from...
difference of lcd, oled, and amoled that can be easily understood
/u/kittuboy/ is correct about *LED, but made some mistakes about LCDs. LCD basics: structure with liquid crystals and polarizers that can be switched to pass light through or block it. Three such structures with RGB color filters and white backlight make one pixel. Because of constant white backlight LCDs are bad at p...
[ "An OLED display works without a backlight. Thus, it can display deep black levels and can be thinner and lighter than a liquid crystal display (LCD). In low ambient light conditions such as a dark room, an OLED screen can achieve a higher contrast ratio than an LCD, whether the LCD uses cold cathode fluorescent la...
why do you feel full faster if you eat slower?
It takes some time for the chemicals responsible for fullness to be released and move from the stomach to the brain. When you eat slowly, these chemicals are released gradually and so your brain's levels of them rise gently. When you eat quickly, you suddenly shift from no fullness to tons of fullness, but it's delayed...
[ "Sometimes the fast is broken with tea and cake before eating a full meal. A drink of milk or juice before the post-fast meal helps the body to readjust and diminishes the urge to eat too much or too rapidly.\n", "Due to the high volume or water content of fiber-rich foods, fiber displaces available calories and ...
How would 200 volts kill me (at 10 milliamps), but 200 amps (at 10 millivolts) not?
First off, it's amps not volts that kills you; you have this backwards. Also, your latter example gives you a resistance of 5 x 10^-5 Ohms, which is basically a conductor.
[ "Voltages over approximately 50 volts can usually cause dangerous amounts of current to flow through a human being who touches two points of a circuit—so safety standards, in general, are more restrictive around such circuits. The definition of \"extrahigh voltage\" (EHV) again depends on context. In electric power...
the millennium prize problems
Okay, i'm a CS guy so here you have **P vs NP** This problem asks whether every problem whose solution can be quickly verified by a computer can also be quickly solved by a computer. (thanks [wikipedia](_URL_0_)). Now, like you were 5: Just imagine you have a box and a few keys and you are asked to find the key that...
[ "The Millennium Prize Problems are seven problems in mathematics that were stated by the Clay Mathematics Institute on May 24, 2000. The problems are the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture, Hodge conjecture, Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness, P versus NP problem, Poincaré conjecture, Riemann hypothesis, and ...
Humans are willing to sacrifice their needs/survival for people/things they love. In what other species is this tendency also seen?
This can be seen in a few species, though it may not be for "love," depending on your definition of that word. When a bison herd feels threatened, they will surround the young and weak and face outwardly to create a living shield of body mass and horns. Even when not among the herd, this instinctual behavior takes ove...
[ "The need to belong is rooted in evolutionary history. Human beings are social animals. Humans have matured over a long period of time in dyadic and group contexts. Humans evolved in small groups that depended on close social connections to fulfill survival and reproductive needs. Unlike other species, humans recei...
Are electric solar cells on top of cars an effective method of transit?
Time for a "back of the napkin" thought experiment! Say that you have [a Chevy Volt](_URL_2_) with the following characteristics: * 110 kW engine * you drive your car for 3 hours per day * while you're driving your car's average power output is 50% of installed power * your car is outside 100% of daylight hours with ...
[ "The area of photovoltaic modules required to power a car with conventional design is too large to be carried on board. A prototype car and trailer has been built Solar Taxi. According to the website, it is capable of 100 km/day using 6m of standard crystalline silicon cells. Electricity is stored using a nickel/sa...
Does my phone use more battery if i use its in-built speaker or with headphones?
Headphones and the integrated speaker are both powered by the phone's battery. A small experiment: -Place the headphones and the phone at equal distances, in turn, turn the volume to max then play a song. -You will barely hear the headphones while the speakers will be very loud. The sound energy from the speakers ...
[ "Most headphone amplifiers support a higher voltage output and therefore higher power (volume) levels. Whereas most portable electronics are powered by a 1.8, 2.5 or 3.3 Vpp supply, many headphone amplifiers use 10, 18 or 24 Vpp supplies, allowing 5-20 dB higher volume. If a pair of headphones is too quiet, adding ...
how come when were not thinking of something, we don't sense it?
And now you've made everybody self-conscious of their breathing! :-) I don't know the exact mechanisms for things like breathing and blinking, but I *imagine* it's a similar concept to (for example) when you place your hand on a table and you feel the surface, but after a while you forget about it. In these cases, it...
[ "It is an error to think that objects of sense, or real things, exist in two ways: in the mind and not in the mind (apart from the mind). Scepticism results because we can't know if the perceived objects are like the unperceived objects.\n", "In 1973 in the introduction to his book \"Thought\", Gilbert Harman sai...
Books on Political economy for beginners?
I'm currently reading Robert L. Heilbroner's "The Worldly Philosophers" which gives an outline of the basic ideas behind the thinking of Smith, Marx, Mill, Keynes etc… Though I have found it fascinating it is slightly muddied by Heilbroner's biases, as the works of Hayek, Friedman, Rothbard and others are entirely igno...
[ "Daniel Raymond (1786–1849) was the first important political economist to appear in the United States. He authored \"Thoughts on Political Economy\" (1820) and \"The Elements of Political Economy\" (1823).\n", "Politicians sponsored many small newspapers, which provided an outlet for numerous writers to debate e...
how do animals survive being struck by lightning if the temperature of an average bolt is 5 times of that of the surface of the sun? (roughly 30,000 kelvin)
How much heat you absorb is a function of both temperature and time. A lightning strike is over in a millisecond, so only a small amount of energy is transferred. It is enough to burn the skin, but not enough to damage anything internal. It's sort of like how if you cook at too high of a temperature you can burn the ou...
[ "A bolt of lightning can reach temperatures approaching 28,000° Celsius (50,000° Fahrenheit) in a split second. This is about five times hotter than the surface of the sun. Spectacular and unconventional lightning damage can be caused by thermal effects of lightning. \"Hot lightning\" (high-current lightning) which...
how do animals like geckos and other lizards climb on smooth walls like concrete?
Their fingers are covered by very tiny textured bristles, called setae, which hook into and around the tiny irregularities on the surfaces they're climbing.
[ "Several different approaches have been used to develop robots that have the ability to climb vertical surfaces. One approach mimics the movements of a human climber on a wall with protrusions; adjusting the center of mass and moving each limb in turn to gain leverage. An example of this is Capuchin, built by Dr. R...
in footage of nuclear explosions, what are the white vertical stripes?
Those are rocket trails. Just before launch small rockets are launched which leave those plumes of white smoke as they go up. Scientists can watch how the plumes behave in the vicinity of the blast and get a nice visualization of how the air around the fireball is behaving. It is possible that the specks of white ligh...
[ "The U.S. government, who provided the nuclear bomb explosion footage that opens the film, insisted that certain spectrum colors be eliminated from the sequence, lest it \"could reveal nuclear secrets\".\n", "One particular image of the Castle Romeo fireball (at right) has been one of the most highly reprinted im...
Do any encryption algorithms exist that are safe from attack by quantum computer?
Yes. There is research into [post-quantum cryptography](_URL_0_). Also, that's just for public-key encryption. Anything where you use the same key to encrypt and decrypt, which is useful for encrypting password-protected stuff or if you're willing to send keys by courier, still works. Quantum computers can cut down the...
[ "Mainstream symmetric ciphers (such as AES or Twofish) and collision resistant hash functions (such as SHA) are widely conjectured to offer greater security against known quantum computing attacks. They are widely thought most vulnerable to Grover's algorithm. Bennett, Bernstein, Brassard, and Vazirani proved in 19...
Has string theory been conclusively disproven?
No, it hasn't been proven or disproven because A. it's not developed to the point where this is possible and B. we don't have the technology to experiment with quantum gravity. Certain choices of parameters that can be used to make predictions at the energy scale of the Large Hadron Collider can be ruled out by experim...
[ "Although string theory had its origins in the study of quark confinement and not of quantum gravity, it was soon discovered that the string spectrum contains the graviton, and that \"condensation\" of certain vibration modes of strings is equivalent to a modification of the original background. In this sense, stri...
why are GPS satellites put in LEO and not geostationary?
Geostationary orbits are all over the equator. This would lead to sight line issues if you want to use GPS away from the equator. I live on a north facing hill in Canada so I can't get satellite TV signals. The only potential advantage to geostationary GPS satellites would be a few fewer lines of code in the receiver a...
[ "Low Earth orbiting satellites (LEOs) are often deployed in satellite constellations, because the coverage area provided by a single LEO satellite only covers a small area that moves as the satellite travels at the high angular velocity needed to maintain its orbit. Many LEO satellites are needed to maintain contin...
How effective are surgical masks at reducing the chance of infection for the user? How effective are they against spreading germs that can cause infections if the user is infected?
If they're not rated N95 and sealed properly, not much use. Those fabric masks with tiny "filters" sold for pollution, cycling, etc. are useless. [“Right now, there’s no evidence that (wearing face masks) is going to help prevent that infection,” Dr. Charles Chiu, a professor of medicine at University of California Sa...
[ "Evidence supports the effectiveness of surgical masks in reducing the risk of infection among other healthcare workers and in the community. In community settings, facemasks must be coupled with other measures such as avoiding close contact and maintaining good hand hygiene to reduce the risk of getting influenza ...
AMA: The Atlantic Slave Trade, especially human trafficking between the colonies throughout the Americas.
Apparently of all the millions of slaves, only a smaller number (400k out of 12m or thereabouts?) went to North America. I don't mean to relativize suffering or anything, but how come the NA slave narratives and history seem so much more known, prevalent and common? Is it 'just' because of US influence in general - mu...
[ "The Atlantic slave trade, also called Triangle trade, encompassed the trafficking in slaves by British merchants who exported manufactured goods from ports such as Bristol and Liverpool, sold or exchanged these for slaves in West Africa (where the African chieftain hierarchy was tied to slavery), and shipped the s...
why isn't gravity scaled to smaller things?
They are attracted. All things with mass are always pulling on all other things with mass. But it takes A LOT if mass to make a difference. So if you have a large and small ball, both are still pulled to the earth. Earth is a bigger ball.
[ "For Gregory, this observation raised particularly interesting questions about how different principles for understanding the world compete in our perception. The \"anti-gravity effect\" is a much stronger paradox than the \"size change\" effect, because it seems to negate the law of gravity which is a fundamental ...
Where is all the nuclear contamination from the atmospheric nuclear tests decades ago?
The nature of nuclear radiation is such that it decays over time. As u/frogjg2003 pointed out, the nuclear fallout from all of the testing is still present in the environment--but it's radioactivity has decreased, or *decayed,* over time. To put it another way, it is not as radioactive as it used to be. The second t...
[ "Over 500 atmospheric nuclear weapons tests were conducted at various sites around the world from 1945 to 1980. As public awareness and concern mounted over the possible health hazards associated with exposure to the nuclear fallout, various studies were done to assess the extent of the hazard. A Centers for Diseas...
why does black absorb sun rays so much?
Colors we see are perceived by light rays (certain wavelengths) that are reflected. Meaning the object doesnt absorb that color. For example, apples reflect the color red. White reflecting all colors essentially and black reflecting no colors. Since black is absorbing these colors and light rays contain energy it heats...
[ "In physics, a black body is a perfect absorber of light, but, by a thermodynamic rule, it is also the best emitter. Thus, the best radiative cooling, out of sunlight, is by using black paint, though it is important that it be black (a nearly perfect absorber) in the infrared as well. In elementary science, far ult...
why is nickelback the butt of so many jokes?
Because they're not very good, generic pop with some metal painted over it. [At least two of their songs are exactly the same music with different melodies](_URL_1_) Most of their songs are about sex and drugs. The few that aren't have little lyrical creativity. They regularly get booed off stage, and have stuff t...
[ "Toupées have a long and often humorous history in Western culture. The toupée is a regular butt of jokes in many media, with a typical toupée joke focusing on the wearer's inability to recognize how ineffective the toupée is in concealing his baldness. An early instance of \"toupée humor\" was an illustration by G...
polish reverse notation
I'm assuming you are referring to Reverse Polish Notation On paper, RPN is just postfix (operator after the numbers) arithmetic read left to right. 2 + 3 becomes 2,3 +. 3 * 5 + 70 becomes 3,5 * 70 + Do not get caught up with how it looks in this format, it is actually much simpler to think of it as you would have ...
[ "Reverse Polish notation (RPN), also known as Polish postfix notation or simply postfix notation, is a mathematical notation in which operators follow their operands, in contrast to Polish notation (PN), in which operators precede their operands. It does not need any parentheses as long as each operator has a fixed...
What causes religion?
When you get an answer, let the rest of us know. No, in all seriousness, this a nearly impossible question to answer. The problem is that we can certainly postulate explanations like those you give in your OP (and these are some of the more popular candidates, to my knowledge), and we can definitely demonstrate that s...
[ "According to Kingsley Davis and Wilbert E. Moore, \"[t]he reason why religion is necessary is apparently to be found in the fact that human society achieves its unity primarily through the possession by its members of certain ultimate values and ends in common\". Furthermore, Davis and Moore contend that it is \"t...
could someone explain google seo, and what to look for when choosing a google seo package?
SEO means "get your result to appear higher in the results for a search". The closer to the top of the results list the more likely a link is to be clicked. Being at the top of the results list generates the most clicks. Google (and Bing) optimize the results that are returned for every search with the goal of prese...
[ "Search engine optimization (SEO), is the ongoing practice of optimizing a website to help improve its rankings in the search engines. Several internal and external factors are involved which can help improve a site's listing within the search engines. The higher a site ranks within the search engines for a particu...
why are actors not allowed to drink alcohol in commercials right after drinking it/ doing drugs in shows?
There are different laws for advertisements. In TV shows, drinking alcohol is generally an aspect or a character, or important to a scene, or something that isnt directly related to wanting to make you buy that alcohol. Advertisement on the other hand, would want to make you buy alcohol in any way they possibly could...
[ "Alcohol advertisements are prohibited on television or in cinemas. The law requires strict control over messages and images and the inclusion in all advertisements of a message to the effect that alcohol abuse is dangerous to one's health.\n", "BULLET::::- \"Limitations of Marketing Alcoholic Beverages\": This l...
why does water go down a plughole differently depending on which side of the equator you're on?
It doesn't Water goes down the plug hole depending on the design of the sink. The forces due to the side of the equator are tiny so have essentially zero effect on water in a kitchen sink or toilet. Which side of the equator you are on can have an effect on water through the [Coriolis effect](_URL_1_) but only in lar...
[ "Downstream of the outlet, the water runs through surface canals called jubs (\"jūbs\") which run downhill, with lateral branches to carry water to the neighborhood, gardens and fields. The streets normally parallel the jubs and their lateral branches. As a result, the cities and towns are oriented consistent with ...
Did Viking armies have a military rank structure? If so, what was it, and who was in charge or above who?
The following is just a bit re-edited summary from my previous comment to the relevant question, [During the "Viking Age", how common was it for Danes, Swedes and Norwegians to become vikingr? Was this something many people did, or just a small group? What was the social class of the people who went? How did normal far...
[ "The law code of King Ine of Wessex, issued in about 694, provides a definition of \"here\" (pronounced ) as \"an invading army or raiding party containing more than thirty five men\", thus differentiating between the term for the invading Viking army and the Anglo-Saxon army that was referred to as the \"fyrd\". T...
What is "modern sand" and when was it deposited on the sea floor?
Not sure why he says 1 B years ago, but he must be talking about the Cambrian substrate revolution. Essentially, before this event, seafloor life was centered around microbial mats, tight, firm films of bacteria, along with the fauna which depended on them and existed on top (and rarely under) of them. With the evoluti...
[ "They were laid down during the Callovian, offshore from the London-Brabant Island, between 165 and 160 million years ago, in the latitude of the modern Mediterranean Sea, when the structure of Britain was still taking shape. At this stage, the coal swamps of the north-western shore of the island had subsided below...
what happens to you if you sell something that says "not labeled for individual sale"?
In addition to what u/rhomboidus said, there might also be legal penalties. The most likely scenario is with food products, where there are laws requiring labeling of all the ingredients, allergens, calories, etc. On some bulk purchases of individually wrapped items that are all the same, they put one label on the outs...
[ "When an item is no longer of use to a person they may sell or \"pawn\" it, especially when they are in need of money. Items can also be sold (or taken away free of cost) as scrap (e.g. a broken-down old car will be towed away for free for its scrap metal value). Owners may sell the good themselves or to a dealer w...
Why does TV/Film from the late 80s/90s often have such oversaturated colours?
So, you may have better luck on /r/editors or /r/videoediting, but I'll take a stab at it anyway. Actual oversaturation would mean you're compressing the color information at the top end. So, take [this](_URL_0_), and imagine everything getting squished toward the top. This will often also result in noticeable artif...
[ "The introduction of colour television in the United Kingdom from 1967 meant that broadcasters felt there was even less value in retaining monochrome recordings. Such tapes could not be re-used for colour production, so they were disposed of to create space for the new colour tapes in the archives, which were quick...
How did the approximately four minute song become (somewhat) standard? Was it influenced by the needs of radio, or was it the other way around?
You may like these previous answers. But these are not to discourage discussion here -- further questions, data, and debate are welcome. "When did music shift from long, drawn out symphonies to the short songs of today?" at _URL_2_ has answers from /u/joglaser , /u/erus , and /u/thesweetestpunch . This discussed his...
[ "With these factors applied to the 10-inch format, songwriters and performers increasingly tailored their output to fit the new medium. The 3-minute single remained the standard into the 1960s, when the availability of microgroove recording and improved mastering techniques enabled recording artists to increase the...
When you have an illness (flu, throat infection etc) does your immune system weaken since it is busy fighting or actually improves since it is active? Or none of the above? Thank you
I see some people saying yes and this is not a supported statement. Your immune system is activated upon interaction with a pathogen or with the recognition of a non-self antigen. This means your entire immune system begins to rapidly expand and proliferate. At the beginning of an infection this is dominated by your in...
[ "The most likely cause is the convergence of large numbers of people arriving from all over the world, many of whom carry pathogens to which they are immune, but others have not had a chance to acquire the necessary immunity. The poor diet and heavy consumption of alcohol during Freshers' Week is also reported as a...
trust funds
A trust fund is basically a bank account with a sum of money in it. The interest on the account goes out as a check to the receiver, every month, for the rest of their life because the trust fund will keep generating interest forever. So trust fund babies are people whose grandparents thought they'd blow all the cash...
[ "A trust may be used as an estate planning tool, to direct the distribution of assets after the person who creates the trust passes away. Trusts may be used to provide for the distribution of funds for the benefit of minor children or developmentally disabled children. For example, a spendthrift trust may be used t...
why terminally ill liver cancer patients feel so drowsy?
Likely it was the cocktail of drugs he was given towards the end. Was he on palliative/end of life care? Ativan, (Which is a benzodiazepine) Fentanyl, and Morphine (which are opiates/opioids) are frequently given which all cause drowsiness, and potentiate each other. Edit: also, our liver is what allows us to break d...
[ "The prognosis of these patients is grim with untreated patients having an extremely short survival. The severity of liver disease (as evidenced by the MELD score) has been shown to be a determinant of outcome. Some patients without cirrhosis develop HRS, with an incidence of about 20% seen in one study of ill pati...
how can frozen dinners (like banquet brand) cost as low as 89¢ per box? is it even food?
I never heard of this brand, so I Googled it. The cheapest I was able to find was $1.65. Either way, it's cheap because it's small amounts of low-cost food -- corn, potatoes and low-quality meat. Rounding: The whole thing weighs 9 ounces, so let's say each bit is 3 ounces. You can get a can of corn for less than a do...
[ "The banquet consisted of 16 courses with eight wines served over eight hours. The cost of the meal was 400 francs per person (over €9,000 in 2020 prices). The high price of the wines served contributed to the high price of the meal.\n", "A value menu (not to be confused with a value meal) is a group of menu item...
Is the nucleus of an atom a sea of quarks without clear boundaries between protons and neutrons?
No, it’s more of a sea of nucleons/quasiparticles (nucleon pairs, alpha clusters, etc.). It’s not simply a homogeneous sea of quarks.
[ "As with electrons in the electron shell model, protons in the outermost shell are relatively loosely bound to the nucleus if there are only few protons in that shell, because they are farthest from the center of the nucleus. Therefore, nuclei which have a full outer proton shell will be more tightly bound and have...
How much matter (i mean like asteroids, random stars, etc) do we think exists in the space between galaxies?
The intergalactic medium, the stuff between galaxies, mainly consists of very hot ionised particles. This is basically atoms like hydrogen that are so hot, they are stripped of their electrons. This a plasma of charged particles that lie between galaxies. This gas can be pulled in by galaxies, which is one idea of how ...
[ "As a matter of fact, the great majority of ordinary matter in the universe is unseen, since visible stars and gas inside galaxies and clusters account for less than 10 per cent of the ordinary matter contribution to the mass–energy density of the universe.\n", "The remaining 4.9% of the mass–energy of the Univer...
how does meditation improve mental stamina?
I feel like the other two are too quick to jump on the placebo explanation. A better way to think about meditation that sounds less mystical is that you're training your brain to stop wandering and having too many thoughts at the same time. It's a real and documented effect, and it does wonders for eliminating negativ...
[ "The proposed benefits of meditation include overcoming stress, depression, anger, neutralizing mood swings, increase creativity, peace of mind, inner strength, increase happiness, improvement in health, and generally improving the quality of life.\n", "A previous study commissioned by the US Agency for Healthcar...
Was there ever a time in the U.S. when an escaped slave could have taken refuge with a Native American tribe ?
Slaves often took refuge in the swamps of the American southeast during the early decades of the nineteenth century (I would presume further back into the eighteenth century as well, though I know less about that history). It was not easy for slaveowners/catchers to track runaway slaves into Florida's swamplands, and g...
[ "The 1842 Slave Revolt in the Cherokee Nation, then located in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) west of the Mississippi River, was the largest escape of a group of slaves to occur among the Cherokee. The slave revolt started on November 15, 1842, when a group of 20 African-American slaves owned by the Cherokee escaped a...
why do we see rays of light going in different directions when there is a single light source in a dark area?
Reflections. Everything you can see is literally reflecting (or emitting) light.
[ "From the side, a beam of light is only visible if part of the light is scattered by objects: tiny particles like dust, water droplets (mist, fog, rain), hail, snow, or smoke, or larger objects such as birds. If there are many objects in the light path, then it appears as a continuous beam, but if there are only a ...
what led to the us policy of containment?
People in the US government were divided between striking a conciliatory tone with the USSR and a strategy of confrontation that eventually became containment. The single event that most directly led to the adoption of containment was George Kennan, a diplomat in embassy at the USSR, writing what has come to be known ...
[ "Containment is a geopolitical \"strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States\". It is loosely related to the term \"cordon sanitaire\" which was later used to describe the geopolitical containment of the Soviet Union in the 1940s. The strategy of \"containment\" is best known as a Cold War foreign policy ...
How do retroviruses become endogenous?
Wow the author is jumping around on this subject. In general, one method of resistance is if the individual develops mutations in the receptor that the virus docks on to the point that the virus cannot dock on the host's cells. The virus needs to dock in order to be incorporated into the hosts cells. In this scenario, ...
[ "Although retroviruses are often classified separately, they share many features with LTR retrotransposons. A major difference with Ty1-\"copia\" and Ty3-\"gypsy\" retrotransposons is that retroviruses have an envelope protein (ENV). A retrovirus can be transformed into an LTR retrotransposon through inactivation o...
What is the most current description of a vacuum?
The best current description (and this describes everything we've observed in terms of high energy physics) is that spacetime is filled with quantum fields. It turns out that quantum states of these fields correspond to a number of particles with particular properties. e.g. we may excite the electron field to have 1 pa...
[ "Vacuum is space devoid of matter. The word stems from the Latin adjective \"vacuus\" for \"vacant\" or \"void\". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often discuss ideal test results that would occur in a \"perfect\" vacuum, which they ...
why do some states get to vote first? who decides?
First, all states vote on the same day for national general elections. Second, primaries are not a part of government...they are for two private clubs to decide who they want to support in the eventual election, and they get to make up whatever rules they want. So fair doesn't enter into it. The parties like the cur...
[ "Currently, in every state, an election by the people is the method employed for the choice of the members of the Electoral College. The Constitution, however, does not specify any procedure that states must follow in choosing electors. A state could, for instance, prescribe that they be elected by the state legisl...
how does an inverter increase voltage from 12v to 240v instantly?
Hi! An inverter, first and foremost, converts from a direct current input to an alternate current output, rather than converting from any lower voltage to a higher voltage. The latter is simply an advantageous side effect or features in most inverters. This DC-to-AC conversion is achieved using anything from a simp...
[ "The AC output voltage of a power inverter is often regulated to be the same as the grid line voltage, typically 120 or 240 VAC at the distribution level, even when there are changes in the load that the inverter is driving. This allows the inverter to power numerous devices designed for standard line power.\n", ...
Do muscles use the fat nearest them for fuel?
No. Muscles cannot use fats directly. They are broken down into glycerol and fatty acids by the liver, which in turn are transported via the blood stream to the muscles.
[ "The main fuel used by the body during exercise is carbohydrates, which is stored in muscle as glycogen – a form of sugar. During exercise, muscle glycogen reserves can be used up, especially when activities last longer than 90 min. Because the amount of glycogen stored in the body is limited, it is important for a...
Why are there different ways of measuring greenhouse gas emissions?
It probably has to do with the context. When speaking in contexts of individual impacts (gas-powered cars, electricity usage, etc.), it makes sense to use per-capita measurements. When doing other work, it may be more convenient to use total numbers. Without addressing each paper individually, that's about the best I c...
[ "Because the GWP of a greenhouse gas depends directly on its infrared spectrum, the use of infrared spectroscopy to study greenhouse gases is centrally important in the effort to understand the impact of human activities on global climate change.\n", "Greenhouse gas monitoring is the direct measurement of greenho...
Is there a theoretical minimum size for a living cell?
An interesting answer from a physics perspective was given by Schrodinger in "What is Life." He begins by asking why atoms are so small, by which he means why are organisms so large compared to atoms. The answer he gives is that life requires "exact physical laws." If you don't have enough atoms, statistical fluctuatio...
[ "Cell size is highly variable among organisms, with some algae such as \"Caulerpa taxifolia\" being a single cell several meters in length. Plant cells are much larger than animal cells, and protists such as \"Paramecium\" can be 330 μm long, while a typical human cell might be 10 μm. How these cells \"decide\" how...
Right now it's dark most of the day and freezing cold here in Scandinavia. What would my Viking ancestors be doing on a typical day this time of year?
I have an *ancient* answer on a slightly broader question that gets into activities: [How did people in medieval Scandinavia survive winter?](_URL_0_) ~~ Medieval Scandinavian saints, by and large, perform similar miracles to their continental counterparts: helping the blind to see, the lame to walk, and people with ...
[ "Trollheimen seems to be one of the first areas in Norway to be clear of ice at the close of the last ice age. There are several traces of stone age people using the mountains as a hunting ground, particularly stone \"fences\" used to channel scared reindeer herds towards cliffs, where some would fall off and die. ...
Why does the time of solar noon shift from month to month?
Mostly because the Earth's orbit around the Sun is not a circle. As the Earth spins on its axis during a day, it travels through space around the Sun, so it has to spin more than 360° from solar noon to solar noon. When the Earth is near the Sun (January), it is moving through space faster than it is when it is far f...
[ "The hemisphere of the Earth experiencing daytime at any given instant changes continuously as the planet rotates on its own axis. The axis of the Earth's rotation is not perpendicular to the plane of its orbit around the Sun (which is parallel with the direction of sunlight), and so the length of the daytime perio...
How accurate is the new Assassins Creed game to classical Greece?
Not discouraging further answers, but [this thread](_URL_0_) may be of interest to you.
[ "IGN praised the \"world building, environment and engaging gameplay\" and summed up its 9.2/10 review with \"\"Assassin's Creed Odyssey\"s open-world adventure through ancient Greece is a gorgeous thrill, and the best the series has ever been.\" \"GamesRadar+\" gave it 5 out of 5 stars, praising the characters, op...
what exactly happens when a light bulb burns out? why is it that when i shake a burnt out light bulb, the filament is always disconnected such that it rattles?
_URL_0_ The filament burns out, breaks in the middle form heating and contracting or gets too think in a spot and melts through. The support wires don't get hot or deteriorate, so they still hold the ends of the now split filament wire, so it rattles when you move it.
[ "When the current through the lamp is lower than the current for the highest-current discharge path, the glow discharge may become unstable and not cover the entire surface of the electrodes. This may be a sign of aging of the indicator bulb, and is exploited in the decorative \"flicker flame\" neon lamps. However,...
Why are copper salts like CuSO4 blue while copper is red?
Because the absorption bands correspond to electronic transitions between orbitals. Changing what an atom is bound to will change the energy level differences. More specific to metal coordination complexes, one can analyze metal complexes via [crystal field theory](_URL_0_). Again, interaction with ligands can change ...
[ "Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural color other than gray or silver. Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a reddish tarnish when exposed to air. The characteristic color of copper results from the electronic transitions between the filled 3d and half-empty 4s atomic shells – the energy differ...
How did European explorers react upon discovering that people in Indonesia, a very far removed area of the world, adhered to the same religion as their immediate neighbours in the mashriq and maghreb?
I think one thing to bear in mind might be that, unlike the Americas, Europeans had a general idea of the existence of Indonesia long before they themselves had travelled there. They wouldn't have been totally ignorant of the region when they first arrived; at the very least, they'd travelled to India by sea a few deca...
[ "Italian explorers are among first European that reached Indonesian archipelago, the pioneer's reports provided initial information on Asia for later European explorer to follow during the age of exploration. In late 13th-century Marco Polo made a stop in Samudra Pasai, Aceh Northern Sumatra, on his way back from C...
If a child were never explicitly taught to walk, would he/she naturally develop the skill?
Genie learned how to walk and nobody ever taught her. She's more of a linguist disaster but she didn't know much of anything when child services took her. You should check out her story. It's heartbreaking at first but it gets better.
[ "Walking upright requires being able to stand up and balance position from one foot to the other. Although infants usually learn to walk around the time of their first birthday, the neural pathways that control the leg alternation component of walking are in place from a very early age, possibly even at birth or be...
why does the electricity in some cars get cut off when starting the engine?
The starter motor draws a lot of current, enough current to reduce the voltage output from the battery. Since electronics sometimes do wonky things when operated at lower than necessary voltage, it's better to just disconnect them for a couple of seconds while the car starts.
[ "\"The port inner engine caught fire due to a petrol escape from a ruptured pipe between the carburettor and oil dilution valve due to chafing. Ignition believed to be from exhaust pipe conduit to turbo supercharger.\"\n", "In worst cases, the excess fuel can foul spark plugs, sometimes necessitating their cleani...
what is euler's constant?
Take (1 + 1/n)^n As n gets larger and larger, the total gets closer and closer to e. It's not as intuitive as pi, but that might help. Examples: * (1+1/2)^2 = 1.5^2 = 2.25 * (1 + 1/100)^100 = 1.01^100 = 2.7048138294215260932671947108075 * (1 + 1/1000000)^1000000 = 1.000001^1000000 = 2.71828046931937688381979970...
[ "The Euler number (Eu) is a dimensionless number used in fluid flow calculations. It expresses the relationship between a local pressure drop caused by a restriction and the kinetic energy per volume of the flow, and is used to characterize energy losses in the flow, where a perfect frictionless flow corresponds to...
How long would a laser pointer travel in space before dissipating that you could no longer see it?
First, some assumptions: You're using a green (532 nm) laser pointer which can output 5 mW of power. The aperture is 3 mm in diameter, giving a minimum beam width of 532 nm / 3 mm * 180/pi = 0.010 degrees before diffraction becomes a problem. A real laser pointer probably isn't this good, but it's a decent starting po...
[ "Studies have found that even low-power laser beams of not more than 5 mW can cause permanent retinal damage if gazed at for several seconds; however, the eye's blink reflex makes this highly unlikely. Such laser pointers have reportedly caused afterimages, flash blindness and glare, but not permanent damage, and a...
why is it so hard to stay awake when we're sleepy?
Because your brain and your body want and need to go to sleep. So they're trying to go to sleep regardless of whether or not you're in a situation where you should be sleeping or not. You need sleep to survive and your body is more concerned about survival.
[ "BULLET::::- Researchers have shown that a fundamental reason for sleep is to clean the brain of toxins. This is achieved by brain cells shrinking to create gaps between neurons, allowing fluid to wash through.\n", "Sleep allows people to rest and re-energize for another day filled with interactions and tasks. If...
Are animals eyes affected by onions like humans?
Not the most prestigious source, but definitely simple and accurate: onions burn your eyes because [a gas gets released from them that turns into sulfuric acid after contact with water.](_URL_0_) Since the eyes are just as sensitive in nonhuman birds and mammals, and definitely watery enough for acid to form, I would ...
[ "Onions cause hemolytic anemia in dogs (and cats). Allyl propyl disulfide has been reported as being considered to be the main cause of onion poisoning in dogs. Thiosulfate has also been implicated. Thiosulfate levels are not affected by cooking or processing. Occasional exposure to small amounts is usually not a p...
what's the purpose of the mysterious slash at the end of urls?
The slash is to identify the last child as a directory. _URL_1_ does not have a slash, because it is a page not a directory, but _URL_0_ has a slash because it is a directory. In most cases, any file with a "." after the last slash(the only place a dot should be) in the URL will not end with a slash, and all others UR...
[ "The slash is used as the path component separator in many computer operating systems (e.g., Unix's ). In Unix and Unix-like systems, such as macOS and Linux, the slash is also used for the volume root directory (e.g., the initial slash in ). Confusion of the slash with the backslash largely arises from the use of ...
i just read about gravity traveling at the same speed as light and i'm still confused.
Imagine a big heavy ball in the middle of a rubber sheet.... if the sheet breaks and the ball falls through the bottom, then the rubber sheet will take time to "spring back" up to a normal flat plane... That doesn't happen infinitely fast.. The same thing with gravity which is really just a warping of the local space/...
[ "It is in fact not very easy to construct a self-consistent gravity theory in which gravitational interaction propagates at a speed other than the speed of light, which complicates discussion of this possibility.\n", "BULLET::::- Some bimetric theories of gravity with variable speed of light like the Janus cosmol...
if animals have far greater hearing capabilities then us, do they go insane when we play loud music in a confined area?
Its not like they can hear things louder, its that they can here things in a wider range of frequencies. Like when you take that hearing test at your doctors, they can hear more of the low stuff and the high stuff, past where you start and stop hearing them. However, with the way their ears are usually shaped, noise is...
[ "Noise can have a detrimental effect on animals, increasing the risk of death by changing the delicate balance in predator or prey detection and avoidance, and interfering the use of the sounds in communication, especially in relation to reproduction and in navigation. These effects then may alter more interactions...
on windows 64-bit, why do i see program files and program files (x86), and what is the difference?
Using "x86" to denote 32-bit programs is an old homage to the Intel 8086 processor, but it is a bit of a confusing name to non-savvy users. Processors can execute programs by either processing 32 bits at a time, or 64 bits at a time. If you have 64bit Windows, your computer can process both 32 and 64 bits at a time, s...
[ "By default, 64-bit (x86-64) Windows programs are installed onto their own folders under folder location \"C:\\Program Files\", while 32-bit (x86-32) Windows programs are installed onto their own folders under folder location \"C:\\Program Files (x86)\".\n", "x86-64 and IA-64 versions of Windows have two folders ...
why there are not much political movement to unify different countries that has very, very similar languages?
Just because two different countries have a very similar language, doesn't mean they also have very similar cultural and political beliefs, nor a shared history. When people still see themselves as a distinct group different from those in another country, there is going to be little push to unite into one country. The...
[ "BULLET::::- In countries where there are more than one main language, there are often political implications in decisions that are seen to promote one group of speakers over another, and this is often referred to as language politics. An example of a country with this type of language politics is Belgium.\n", "L...
Did Napoleonic armies bring marching bands with them into battle like the film Waterloo portrays?
The fife and drums commonly played either together, where they would form a fife and drum corps - and Waterloo portrays that pretty accurately - bringing some musical umph, as well as pacing and rhythmn, to large line infantry formations on the field. They could obviously also play separately if required - sometimes ...
[ "Prior to the Royal Artillery adopting 'The British Grenadiers' as its regimental quick march, 'The Train of Artillery' (as it is now known) was the rather elegant (medium-)quick march of the royal regiment. This march first appeared in print, published by Thompson & Son, London, in 'The Compleat Tutor for the Fife...
why do our butts hurt after sitting for a long period of time?
Well, the pressure causes your muscles to press against your bones, which hurts for example, pinch you arm. Your flesh is getting crushed, so it hurts....
[ "As the duration of the punishment increases, the tiredness becomes increasingly unbearable. At some point, one may feel compelled to raise one's bottom to try and get some relief. However, that only brings temporary relief as keeping the buttocks raised is painful (similar to standing murgha), so one soon lowers t...
Does Monty Hall Problem solution apply to Italian gameshow?
The key ingredient that makes switching best in Monty Hall is that the host removes a losing option. The host adds his own knowledge of which door is bad into the mix. Since this does not happen in this case, all the remaining boxes have the same odds of being the best box. So there will not be any benefit to switching...
[ "The Monty Hall problem is a brain teaser, in the form of a probability puzzle, loosely based on the American television game show \"Let's Make a Deal\" and named after its original host, Monty Hall. The problem was originally posed (and solved) in a letter by Steve Selvin to the \"American Statistician\" in 1975 ,...
how nuclear weapons could have been dropped and tested in nevada, without the nuclear fallout or radiation harming civilian populations in the surrounding communities.
they tested them in super remote areas, and before long, they stopped testing them above ground or under water (or space), they would detonate them underground, so the radiation would be contained. there is a low level of radiation across the globe that didnt exist before nuclear testing. generally inconsequential fo...
[ "For fission of uranium-235, the predominant radioactive fission products include isotopes of iodine, caesium, strontium, xenon and barium. The threat becomes smaller with the passage of time. Locations where radiation fields once posed immediate mortal threats, such as much of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on ...
What is the volume of an "average" event horizon?
There's an equation for that. Actually there are a few equations for that. For a non-charged, non-rotating singularity (a Schwarzschild black hole) it is: r = 2GM/c^2 where r is the radius of the event horizon, G is the gravitational constant, M is the mass of the singularity and c is the speed of light in a vacuum a...
[ "The event horizon is defined as the boundary of the causal past of null infinity. Such boundaries are generated by null geodesics. The affine parameter goes to infinity as we approach null infinity, and no caustics form until then. So, the expansion of the event horizon has to be nonnegative. As the expansion give...
what happens when there isn't enough electricity on the grid?
There can be "brown-outs" where the voltage is lower than normal. Lights will dim and some appliances won't work or could even be damaged. & #x200B; Rolling black-outs are another possibility, where the utility actually shuts down portions of the grid to allow the power they do have to serve a smaller area. They o...
[ "An electric power grid is almost never brought down intentionally. Generators and power stations are started and shut down as necessary. A typical power station requires power for start up prior to being able to generate power. This power is obtained from the grid, so if the entire grid is down these stations cann...
how does a toilet flush without any power?
A plumber will correct me, but there are three types that I know of, none of which use electrical power Directly, but all of which rely upon some kind of power source upstream of the toilet to generate some potential energy that "powers" the flush kinetically. - Typical residential tank toilet uses a gravity drain o...
[ "Toilets without cisterns are often flushed through a simple flush valve or \"Flushometer\" connected directly to the water supply. These are designed to rapidly discharge a limited volume of water when the lever or button is pressed then released.\n", "A typical flush toilet is a fixed, vitreous ceramic bowl (al...
"Doing" indigenous history
In my area I often hear people speak of indigenous pasts; or representations of the past, as 'history' as a study - or as a science- is a profoundly and specifically western approach to the study of the past, albeit one that has greatly influenced the approach of people across the globe to the study of the past. I wou...
[ "Since the activism associated with the late twentieth century, Indigenous peoples have worked to develop strategies to use, protect, research and manage their cultural heritage. Indigenous archaeology is just one among the tools they are using to reclaim their heritage.\n", "BULLET::::1. \"Indigenous peoples hav...
The freezing point of carbon dioxide is -78.5C, while the coldest recorded air temperature on Earth has been as low as -92C, does this mean that it can/would snow carbon dioxide at these temperatures?
Yes and No. Hypothetically yes, a container of CO2 would freeze in those conditions, in a practical sense though, CO2 only makes up 0.04% of the atmosphere, and, unlike water nucleating into raindrops, won't gather into single places, so you wouldn't actually get dry ice snow.
[ "In November 2018, the World Meteorological Organization released a report stating that 2017 atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reached 405 parts per million (ppm), a level not seen in three to five million years. In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its Special Report on G...