question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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why cant we just send money to other countries to pay for their food? | One thing to consider: the only reason gas is so cheap in Venezuela is that the government deliberately pays over 90 percent of the cost to keep prices down and avoid...well, at best rioting and at worst a full scale revolution. | [
"Senders and recipients have the option of paying or receiving payment in their own local currency. This supposedly makes life easier for small producers, which until then were used to sell and buy goods only in their own currencies. They don’t have to fix their prices in US-Dollars or calculate exchange-rates thei... |
li5: financial derivatives | Here is an excellent answer to your question, which was asked a few hours ago: [Here](_URL_0_) | [
"In finance, a derivative is a contract that \"derives\" its value from the performance of an underlying entity. This underlying entity can be an asset, index, or interest rate, and is often simply called the \"underlying\". Derivatives can be used for a number of purposes, including insuring against price movement... |
how is there nothing in space? i get that there isn’t necessarily air like we have in our atmosphere on earth, but how can there be nothing? | Most theories think the universe started out as mostly gaseous, but particles of matter attract each other through the force of gravity (which is something you get for free, as a fundamental property of matter). When matter starts to clump together, voids are left in space - and over a very, very long time, those voids... | [
"One part of space is not by itself and in the absolute sense of the word equal to another part of space, for if it is so for us, it will not be so for the inhabitants of the universe B, and they have precisely as much right to reject our opinion as we have to condemn theirs.brbr\n",
"Atmospherics is a qualitativ... |
how does wii emulation work? | The motion controls are just values fed into the Wii - if you’re rotating the Wii remote slightly upwards, it’s just increasing the value of the y-axis’ rotation, for example.
A lot of Wii games only have basic motion controls, for instance “flick the remote” or “tilt the remote sideways”, without requiring precise co... | [
"Emulation is a technique that allows a computer to execute binary code that was compiled for a different type of computer. Before IBM's acquisition of QuickTransit in 2009, application binary software for IRIX/MIPS and Solaris/SPARC could run via type of emulation called \"dynamic binary translation\" on Linux/Ita... |
how fast do airplanes fly? and why doesn't it seem like we are going that fast? | planes don't got 500-700mph when they takeoff. take off and landing speeds are 150-200mph.
you don't feel speed. you feel acceleration. | [
"BULLET::::- The fastest civilian airplane currently flying: the Cessna Citation X, an American business jet, capable of Mach 0.935 (over 600 mph at cruising altitude). Its rival, the American Gulfstream G650 business jet, can reach Mach 0.925\n",
"The aircraft uses two 2439 KW Allison AE 2100C turboprop engines.... |
How fast/close/times can i use gravity to slingshot out to interstellar space? | It only takes one pass by Jupiter to find yourself with enough speed to escape the solar system—Voyager 2 did it. See [this](_URL_3_) graph; once you're above the blue line you are leaving the solar system unless you do something about it. Interestingly, note that Voyager 2 got a negative assist from Neptune. It wou... | [
"The gravitational slingshot technique uses the gravity of planets and moons to change the speed and direction of a spacecraft without using fuel. In typical example, a spacecraft is sent to a distant planet on a path that is much faster than what the Hohmann transfer would call for. This would typically mean that ... |
How do animals like horseshoe crabs process information from so many eyes? | I did not know the answer to your question bit started wondering myself as well. I am not sure what tour background is but these two links should provide accesible information:
_URL_1_
This wiki contains a lot of information about the processing of compound eye information in insects
_URL_0_
This piece in the new... | [
"The horseshoe crab has traditionally been used in investigations into the eye, because it has relatively large ommatidia with large nerve fibres (making them easy to experiment on). It also falls in the stem group of the chelicerates; its eyes are believed to represent the ancestral condition because they have cha... |
Naval history? These unique antique doors are from an inn in Wales, but nobody (including the owner) knows what they are. Are they gun doors? (x-post) | It seems unlikely that they are from a ship at all. Those chains, assuming they're original to the "lids", would be an odd choice for shipboard use due to their weight. Ropes were much more the order of the day. These ropes, in turn, attached to eyebolts, which were usually integral to the metal straps, rather than in ... | [
"The walls of the inn hold numerous historic artifacts. Paintings are prominently displayed of famous vessels from the age of sail and steam, and the Gun Room has a collection of rare firearms. The inn has the largest privately held collection of the works of Antonio Jacobsen, the country's most prolific painter of... |
how big a problem is all the debris in orbit around earth? what can be done about it? | It's not necessarily a humongous threat, but it's definitely big enough to have to be accounted for when you're doing anything up there. Earth is enormous and there is a LOT of space between these thousands of pieces of debris. However, something will eventually hit, which obviously causes a problem.
As /u/fillingthe... | [
"\"Space debris\" usually refers to the remains of spacecraft that have either fallen to Earth or are still orbiting Earth. Space debris may also consist of natural components such as chunks of rock and ice. The problem of space debris has grown as various space programs have left legacies of launches, explosions, ... |
Why did the US end up so much more economically successful than Brazil? | Brazil's only capital rich land lies to the south, near the border with Uruguay. All other lands are more capital poor because of temperature and challenging geography. The United States is a massive power because it controls the mississippi river system, which is the largest interconnected river system in the world. R... | [
"The Great Depression possibly had a more dramatic effect on Brazil than on the United States. The collapse of Brazil's valorization (price support) program, a safety net in times of economic crisis, was strongly intertwined with the collapse of the central government, whose base of support resided in the landed ol... |
What was the relationship like between Ptolemaic ancient Egypt and the Carthaginian Empire? | The short answer is that Egypt had better things to worry about than sticking its nose into Western Mediterranean affairs.
For most of the First Punic War (264-241), it was hardly clear that Rome would be victorious. The larger issue was that the Ptolemaic Kingdom had much more immediate threats than Rome. Magos, a br... | [
"Ptolemy's family ruled Egypt until the Roman conquest of 30 BC. All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy. Ptolemaic queens, some of whom were the sisters of their husbands, were usually called Cleopatra, Arsinoe, or Berenice. The most famous member of the line was the last queen, Cleopatra VII, kno... |
When the weather report says the temperature is X, but it feels like Y because of the humidity, what is the relative humidity they're assuming for Y? | Heat index (and wind chill, in areas where it's relevant) are a measure of how fast the body sheds heat in given conditions.
There are four ways for something to cool off: conduction, convection, radiation, and evaporation. For the most part, we rely on convection and evaporation to cool our bodies.
When we go for ... | [
"The humidex (short for humidity index) is an index number used by Canadian meteorologists to describe how hot the weather feels to the average person, by combining the effect of heat and humidity. The term humidex was first coined in 1965. The humidex is a nominally dimensionless quantity (though generally recogni... |
What was socialism before Marx? | Well, that doesn't make a lot of sense since while there was socialism pre-Marx, Walter Ulbricht was member of the left.wing of the German Social Democratic party under Luxemburg and Liebknecht, both would classify as rather Marxist Communists of the Council Communist variety.
Don't get me wrong, there is non-Marxian... | [
"For Marxists, socialism or, as Marx termed it, the first phase of communist society, can be viewed as a transitional stage characterised by common or state ownership of the means of production under democratic workers' control and management, which Engels argued was beginning to be realised in the Paris Commune of... |
What was the difference between women and men’s labor camps during Nazi Germany? | Quite interested in this, waiting on a response also! | [
"Near the end of the war, women were forced from factories in the German Labour Exchange and sent to training centres. Women were also trained on a smaller scale at the camps of Neuengamme; Auschwitz I, II, and III; Flossenbürg (as well as Dresden-Goehle, Holleischen and Zwodau); Gross Rosen (as well as its satelli... |
Do historians believe the Carthaginians, around the time of Hamilcar and Hannibal, were black/dark skinned or more fair skinned? | They were more likely to be fairer skin. Carthage was founded as a Phoenician colony and the Phoenicians themselves were a Semitic people. The region that they settled (modern Tunisia) was populated by Libyans who bear more resemblance to modern day Berbers (group of people dispersed across much North Africa). In other... | [
"From the Second Punic War until the 3rd century AD, the bulk of Rome's light cavalry (apart from mounted archers from Syria) was provided by the inhabitants of the Maghrebi provinces of Africa and Mauretania Caesariensis, the Numidae or Mauri (from whom derives the English term \"Moors\"), who were the ancestors o... |
How does the "Stimulated Emission" part of a Laser work? | It has to do with the statistics of exchanging bosons. You may have learned the "Pauli exclusion principle" that no two fermions (spin-1/2 particles) can have the same location and state at the same time. Photons are spin-1 particles and have the opposite effect: two photons *prefer* to be in the same location and s... | [
"The critical detail of stimulated emission is that the induced photon has the same frequency and phase as the incident photon. In other words, the two photons are coherent. It is this property that allows optical amplification, and the production of a laser system. During the operation of a laser, all three light-... |
why does a balance sheet always balance? | Because you can't print or destroy money. If you're assets increased, you must have paid for those assets somehow - so you have less cash or more debt or whatever it took to get that asset. | [
"The balance sheet is the financial statement showing a firm's assets, liabilities and equity (capital) at a set point in time, usually the end of the fiscal year reported on the accompanying income statement. The total assets always equal the total combined liabilities and equity in dollar amount. This statement b... |
Why can rocket boosters have more than 100% thrust? | 100% thrust was the original specification for maximum output from the rocket. It was later determined it could handle more (up to 104% based on the original 100% definition). | [
"The thrust to weight ratio of rockets typically greatly exceeds that of airbreathing jet engines because the comparatively far greater density of rocket fuel eliminates the need for much engineering materials to pressurize it.\n",
"A variety of other rocket propulsion methods, such as ion thrusters, give much hi... |
How much water is there under the earths surface? Will springs ever stop producing water? |
MS hydrogeology grad student here. I assume you’re asking about fresh groundwater that can be used by people (e.g. not sea water or salty brines). In answer to your first question, a recent study estimated the total groundwater volume with 2km of the earth’s surface (essentially this is the water that is accessible t... | [
"The flow of water from Fossil Springs has been estimated to range from (320–420 gal/s) year-round, and it emerges from underground at a constant . The United States Geological Survey installed a stream gauge at the Fossil Creek Bridge in 2010. The maximum daily discharge at that station was on February 19, 2011, a... |
How much did China contribute to the end of Imperial Japan | I would direct you to my answer on a related question: [How significant was the Second Sino-Japanese War in World War II?](_URL_0_)
It must be emphasised that this is still very much a debated topic among scholars - Western and Japanese scholars tend to downplay the role of China in the larger Pacific War, which I agr... | [
"Japanese investment (private and central government) ran at ¥1,715,000,000 (£171,580.000 sterling) in 1938. In 1941, ¥5,000,000,000 was reinvested—the equivalent of $2 for every person in China. For local and foreign commerce, Japan organized a centralized economic structure, a national central bank and a local cu... |
why are we told leave a pool during a thunder storm if the pool is grounded? | Yes, the pool is grounded, so lightning will pass through it into the ground. You are mostly water. If you are in the water, some of those 1.21 Gigawatts are going to pass through you was well. | [
"Unlike other thunderstorms, which typically can be heard in the distance when approaching, a derecho seems to strike suddenly. Within minutes, extremely high winds can arise, strong enough to knock over highway signs and topple large trees. These winds are accompanied by spraying rain and frequent lightning from a... |
What's that noise I hear when I shut my eyes really tightly? | Congratulations, there are not many people who can flex this muscle at will. I do it sometimes to drown out loud noise. I can basically create a rumbling noise like thunder or a 747 passing, and I can probably hold it for an hour if I wanted to.
_URL_0_ | [
"For a person who tries to actively observe this closed-eye perception on a regular basis, there comes a point where if they look at a flat-shaded object with their eyes wide open, and try to actively look for this visual noise, they will become aware of it and see the random pointillistic disorganized motion as if... |
Any news on the attempt to photograph a black hole? | _URL_0_
It's on the front page right now. | [
"She led the development of an algorithm for imaging black holes, known as Continuous High-resolution Image Reconstruction using Patch priors (CHIRP), and was a member of the Event Horizon Telescope team that captured the first image of a black hole.\n",
"studies into black holes with the goal to construct a blac... |
Is it possible for an environment to be so cold, an existing fire would be extinguished? | Absolutely. The fire needs to be hot enough to be self-sustaining. Each reaction has to give off enough energy to trigger the next reaction. If the surrounding environment absorbs this energy then it is not available to trigger the next reaction.
Just for a simple example, if you've ever tried to put out a fire in ... | [
"In some cases there is sufficient heat, fuel, and oxygen to allow spontaneous combustion and underground fires to smolder for some considerable time, as has occurred at a natural reserve in Spain. Such fires can cause surface subsidence, presenting an unpredictable physical hazard as well as environmental changes ... |
why is going asleep on your stomach so bad for you but feel so good? | If sleeping on your back is *uncomfortable*, maybe you just need a new mattress. If you want to sleep on your stomach, though, know that sleeping on your stomach can put your lower back in an awkward position. If stomach sleeping is more comfortable for you, try sleeping with a pillow under your stomach. That will put ... | [
"\"\"We are having a particularly hungry period and [I] can quite truthfully say that our mouths water, and that we 'slaver' as dogs do before meals. Some of us find it advisable to rise slowly after lying down, as due to malnutrition, any rapid movement is apt to cause dizziness or even a black-out ... one morning... |
Did early sailors believe the ocean was an entity that either A) Looked out for them or B) Was out to get them? | Pre-Conversion Scandinavians saw the open ocean personified as a couple of gods; Aegir and his wife Ran. Aegir was the brewer of the gods (with his enormous bubbling cauldron; see the symbolism?) and generally a decent sort.
His wife, however, was known as the seawitch and would cast her net, pulling unlucky sailors ... | [
"Despite all this, human knowledge of the oceans remained confined to the topmost few fathoms of the water and a small amount of the bottom, mainly in shallow areas. Almost nothing was known of the ocean depths. The British Royal Navy's efforts to chart all of the world's coastlines in the mid-19th century reinforc... |
why does stress result in prolonged muscle contractions? (i.e., chronic neck and shoulder pain) | Goes back to the fight or flight instinct.
Stress puts an added toll on our bodies. When you feel fear or anxiousness, you are under stress as well.
Basically its your instincts tensing your muscles to tell your body we need to move and move fast because the situation we're in is dangerous. Stress is prolonged and ... | [
"Chronic stress is the response to emotional pressure suffered for a prolonged period of time in which an individual perceives they have little or no control. It involves an endocrine system response in which corticosteroids are released. While the immediate effects of stress hormones are beneficial in a particular... |
how does silicon and copper and the makeup of a chip ultimately store digital information? | Electronic memory storage at it's most basic has to do with being able to either hold onto some amount of electrons, or get rid of those electrons.
We discovered that if you stick two slightly different types of silicon together in just the right pattern, you can create a little electrical gate. If you shove electrons... | [
"In the raw file, each of 4.7 million triples of digitized data from the sensor contains three measurements taken at three different depths within the silicon chip. The penetration of light into silicon is dependent on the wavelength of the light; therefore, the red, green, and blue values can be independently calc... |
Decay related: does time (in any scale) have any significance to a stable atom? | It depends on what kind of stable atom you're talking about and whether you mean just the nucleus of the atom or if you include the electrons in the atom.
A large group of nuclei are theoretically stable forever as long as protons do not decay (we think they don't). Some "stable" nuclei are considered stable but actua... | [
"Physically, the time constant represents the elapsed time required for the system response to decay to zero if the system had continued to decay at the initial rate, because of the progressive change in the rate of decay the response will have actually decreased in value to formula_1 in this time (say from a step ... |
Does The Endoplasmic Reticulum Transport ATP? | Hi. The ER is used for the transport of proteins and other complex molecules as you mentioned, but that does not really include ATP. ATP, whether it's made by oxidative reactions (glycolysis -- > electron transport chain) or anaerobic respiration, is utilized instantly. Thus, a cell makes ATP *as required*; it isn't t... | [
"The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) does not harbor an ATP-regeneration machinery, and therefore requires ATP import from mitochondria to exert its biological function. For example, the imported ATP is used for protein folding and trafficking \n",
"Neurotransmitter transport systems are responsible for the release, r... |
if bitcoins have a monetary value, and bitcoin mining earns you bitcoins, how does this mining create any value? | The calculations that are being done secure the network. The cool thing about Bitcoin is that it is a monetary system that is completely decentralized--there are thousands of computers working together to maintain a public ledger of accounts with balances and nobody has authority. That type of system would normally b... | [
"Bitcoin mining is a competitive endeavor. An \"arms race\" has been observed through the various hashing technologies that have been used to mine bitcoins: basic CPUs, high-end GPUs common in many gaming computers, FPGAs and ASICs all have been used, each reducing the profitability of the less-specialized technolo... |
what makes software compatibility between mac or pc so difficult? | Let's say PC is like building with lego, Mac is like building with k'nex. Sure they're both plastic, but lego doesn't fit with k'nex. | [
"Other PC compatibility solutions took a more native approach by running Windows and MS-DOS by using x86 expansion cards with an x86 chip on the card. Apple offered some systems configured this way, marketed as \"DOS Compatible\"—a card with dedicated x86 CPU and RAM was used, while the Mac hard drive, sound subsys... |
What happens if mass defect equals or exceeds original rest mass? | Actually from my understanding (read out of my ass and memory) the mass defect is the minimum energy needed to overcome other force and stay binded together, hence it's other name, binding energy. So this mass defect cannot be augmented by putting the nuclei closer together.
> Any examples theoretically possible in ... | [
"Mass defect is the difference between the mass of an object and the sum of the masses of its constituent particles. Discovered by Albert Einstein in 1905, it can be explained using his formula \"E\" = \"mc\", which describes the equivalence of energy and mass. The decrease in mass is equal to the energy given off ... |
what's benefit do major powers get from donating to struggling countries? | They get influence over that country. Take South Korea for example. After Korea helped their war o their behalf, the US is seen as a powerful country that every Korean highly respects. This country could help the US in the future. | [
"Beyond the incentive compatibility problems that can happen to foreign aid donations –that foreign aid granting countries continue to give it to countries with little results of economic growth but with corrupt leaders that are aligned with the granting countries’ geopolitical interests and agenda –there are probl... |
what is happening in britain's parliament and why did the queen "close" it. | They are starting a new session of parliament after electing a new Prime Minister. In order to do this they have to end the old session and the only way to do that in their system for the Queen to order it. | [
"Until the passage of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act in 2011, government shutdowns in the United Kingdom were impossible due to parliamentary convention. A government which could not command a majority in Parliament would be dismissed, either prior to the seating of Parliament when the Queen's Speech was voted down... |
What prevents a car/engine from surpassing its top-speed? What's happening when it is reaching that point? | I assume you mean the maximum RPM of an engine? The maximum RPM of a car engine, usually called the redline, is based on a few physical factors.
First, the rotating mass in the engine. High speed rotating things have lots of energy, causing high stresses. Spinning all those components too fast may damage something ... | [
"If the speed of the car starts to drop below the goal-speed, for example when climbing a hill, the small increase in the error signal, amplified, causes engine output to increase, which keeps the error very nearly at zero. If the speed begins to exceed the goal, e.g. when going down a hill, the engine is throttled... |
the difference between a pothole and a sinkhole | A pothole is a hole that develops in the road. Roads wear over time. Cracks develop and connect, eventually the piece of asphalt becomes loose and falls out, leaving a big chunky hole in the road.
A [Sinkhole](_URL_0_) happens when water erodes the earth below the surface. Eventually the cavity becomes large enough... | [
"Whereas a sinkhole is a depression (doline) of surface topography with a pit or cavity directly underneath, a ponor is kind of a portal where a surface stream or lake flows either partially or completely underground into a karst groundwater system. Steady water erosion may have formed or enlarged the portal in (ma... |
What exactly is Gnosticism and how does it differ from Christianity? | Gnosticm isn't a single belief or religion. So it is hard to pin down how it differs from Christianity. Indeed there are even forms of Gnostic Christianity.
It was a general movement in the Mediterranean Basin in the first few centuries CE. The basic point of a gnostic belief, was that there was some special form of k... | [
"Gnosticism in modern times includes a variety of contemporary religious movements, stemming from Gnostic ideas and systems from ancient Roman society. Gnosticism is an ancient name for a variety of religious ideas and systems, originating in Jewish-Christian milieux in the first and second century CE.\n",
"The e... |
How many scientists are religious? | Amongst chemists, the percentage of non-religious people is quite high. There are some of everything, of course, but from personal experience there are more atheists than anything else.
There is a good [wiki page](_URL_0_) on the subject.
More than 70% of members of the National Academy of Sciences don't believe in... | [
"Prominent modern scientists who are atheists include evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and Nobel Prize–winning physicist Steven Weinberg. Prominent scientists advocating religious belief include Nobel Prize–winning physicist and United Church of Christ member Charles Townes, evangelical Christian and past hea... |
Does anyone have information on Georgy Zhukov's service in WWI? | You mean you need to give a speech on him, so, schoolwork? In that case, I'd like to simply point you in the right direction to research this. "Stalins General" by Geoffrey Roberts is the best English language biography on Zhukov. Roberts also is the editor for the most recent English edition of Zhukovs memoirs. Get yo... | [
"Appraisals of Zhukov's career vary. For example, historian Konstantin Zaleski claimed that Zhukov exaggerated his own role in World War II. Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky said that the planning and decisions for the battle of Kursk were made without Zhukov, that he only arrived just before the battle, made no deci... |
If two people held a string stretching from one side of the universe to the other, would it snap due to the expansion of the universe? | Yes. There is a real tension on the string from the expansion. | [
"String theory proposes that our universe is merely a 4-brane, inside which exist the 3 space dimensions and the 1 time dimension that we observe. The remaining 7 theoretical dimensions either are very tiny and curled up (and too small to be macroscopically accessible) or simply do not/cannot exist in our universe ... |
is the time +12 hours or -12 hours in the opposite part of the world? | Timezones are very confusing my man I feel you. I say we get rid of them and just all keep one time. Back to your question though. Two things are important to answering your question: the direction of rotation of the Earth/its shadow, and the international date line. We all know the Sun rises and the East and sets ... | [
"In several countries the 12-hour clock is the dominant written and spoken system of time, predominantly in nations that were part of the former British Empire, for example, the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, the United States, Canada (excluding Quebec), Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ma... |
why sometimes only the back end of the scissors work, sometimes the middle, and sometimes only the tip? | The blades of the two sides of the scissors aren't perfectly parallel. If there's even a small gap, they won't cut very well. This could be due to the scissors themselves, or the blades being deformed slightly by the material you are trying to cut. The tips are easiest to splay apart.
Or the scissors are dull in... | [
"The direction of the cut is quite easy to change because of the thinness of the blade. Gentle curves are achieved by slowly turning the whole frame by means of the handle while continuing to cut steadily. When necessary, the blade can also be rotated with respect to the frame to make sharper curves in the material... |
the debate over whether the eu is good | You want the *debate* explained?
Some people think EU is good. Other people think it is not so good. This is the debate.
[Edit] To make this post less worthless - the debate will depend mostly on what country are you talking about. Economically, it is generally considered that EU is more beneficial the poorer the mem... | [
"The EU Institute focuses on topical issues in international commercial law, and European law. The European Union is a major trading partner of the United States and Asia, and as the enlargement process of the EU continues a sound understanding of the many legal and policy questions that arise is imperative for any... |
why does the sound of poured water gets higher and higher as you keep pouring? | Because the sound you're hearing is sound coming out of a round chamber. When the glass fills with water, the size of the chamber changes, so the pitch changes. Large chamber, low pitch. Small chamber, high pitch. It's why digieridoos are deep and rumbly while ocarinas are high pitched and whiny. | [
"Jugs will also produce sound at their main resonance frequency when air is blown across the top opening. This method is not used in bands, since it is relatively quiet and produces only a single pitch. It is typically used for making glass bottles whistle. A larger bottle produces a lower musical pitch while small... |
Do sentience and self-awareness have an evolutionary advantages? If so, what are they? If not, how did they become such predominant features in humans? | You might not have any replies yet because I think you're asking about the [hard problem of consciousness](_URL_0_). | [
"In summary, allorecognition, the ability to distinguish self from non-self, is basic to all life, unicellular as well as multicellular. The earliest recognition systems were innate, and were based on the recognition of self molecules. The evolution of multicellular forms brought about selective pressures for ever-... |
What is the main source of protein for large herbivores? | Many plants have a high protein content. Even grass has a decent amount. Grass seed like oats and barley have somewhere in the ballpark of 8%-10%. Other plants are higher than grass, clover and alfalfa spring to mind. | [
"A large percentage of herbivores have mutualistic gut flora that help them digest plant matter, which is more difficult to digest than animal prey. This flora is made up of cellulose-digesting protozoans or bacteria.\n",
"BULLET::::- Amino acids are the basic components of proteins. Protein requirements vary acc... |
Is donated blood cleaned in any way to prevent the spread of disease? | Blood is transfused (out of the donor and into the recipient) by the unit and each unit of blood is only from a single person. Also, it is all screened, in high income countries, anyhow, for a range of infectious disease including (These are what the Red Cross check for, other organizations test for other diseases): Ch... | [
"Donations can also be taken by machines called cell separators, usually in larger blood donation centres located in city centres. These machines use a process called apheresis to collect either blood plasma only, or plasma and platelets, the other blood cells being returned to the patient. Platelets are the tiny f... |
why is it that a rocking motion or a car ride puts my baby to sleep but when i'm in a similar situation it doesn't make me sleepy? | It's not just the rocking motion, it is the constriction of the car seat that doesn't allow him to move coupled with the sound of the car. A car's tires on the road would be a familiar sound to what a baby hears for the entire gestation period. For instance, cup your hands over your ears and you hear the blood rushing ... | [
"Many adults find rocking chairs soothing because of the gentle motion. Gentle rocking motion has been shown to provide faster onset of sleep than remaining stationary, mimicking the process of a parent rocking a child to sleep.\n",
"Indian people believe that the rocking motion soothes and relaxes the child and ... |
why do so many homeless people talk to themselves out loud? | They most likely are mentally ill. | [
"There is anecdotal evidence that many Americans complain about the presence of homeless people, blame them for their situation, and feel that their requests for money or support (usually via begging) are unjustified. In the 1990s, particularly, many observers and media articles spoke of \"compassion fatigue\" a be... |
what do they do with money found on/ around dead people at the scene of the crime?(after investigating it) | Give it to the family if the money is “clean”.
If it’s “dirty”, meaning obtained illegally in one way or another, the police department seized it and typically spends it. I know in my area, any drug money seized is put into drug education for students or invested into the departments drug task force. | [
"After money or merchandise has been stolen, the criminal employs a mule to transfer the money or goods, hiding the criminal's true identity and location from the victim of the crime and the authorities.\n",
"However there was little or no evidence found at the crime scene: no blood (except from the victims), hai... |
Why does this flame look segmented? | They're called shock diamonds i believe, and they occur at super-sonic speeds. | [
"The flame is applied to the base metal and held until a small puddle of molten metal is formed. The puddle is moved along the path where the weld bead is desired. Usually, more metal is added to the puddle as it is moved along by dipping metal from a welding rod or filler rod into the molten metal puddle. The meta... |
What kind of lasting impact did the Civil War have on American citizens? How did they cope with such massive scale violence? | I don't have a lot to offer you in terms of new sources, but I was immediately struck by how little you're including Civil War memory in your discussion. It may be that escapism played a role in how the Civil War was portrayed in subsequent decades and even to this day, but debates and interpretations about the legacy ... | [
"The casualties of American Civil War did more than simply reduce the male population of the country, they also dramatically increased the number of widows and orphans. Many states reacted to the crisis by erecting new (or taking over existing) buildings to \"care for, educate and train the children of fallen soldi... |
The James Webb Space Telescope: Why the gold-coated beryllium reflector? | _URL_0_
> If the Hubble Space Telescope's 2.4 meter mirror were scaled to be large enough for Webb, it would be too heavy to launch into orbit. The Webb team had to find new ways to build the mirror so that it would be light enough - only one-tenth of the mass of Hubble's mirror per unit area - yet very strong.
>... | [
"BULLET::::- Gold is a good reflector of electromagnetic radiation such as infrared and visible light, as well as radio waves. It is used for the protective coatings on many artificial satellites, in infrared protective faceplates in thermal-protection suits and astronauts' helmets, and in electronic warfare planes... |
Why did the French Government regress back to bolt action rifles at the end of the first world war? | The answer is one of doctrine
through most of the second world war, the primary combat weapon for an infantry soldier in almost all armies was a bolt action rifle, in most cases supplemented by a squad/platoon level machine gun section (this varied drastically from formation to formation of course)
the idea was to ha... | [
"After the end of World War I, the French Army sought to replace the problematic \"Fusil-mitrailleur mle 1915 CSRG\" light machine rifle (better known as the Chauchat). French commanders considered standardizing on the American Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR), but eventually required the development of a locally bui... |
Why did the Australians unload their rifles before going 'over the top' at Gallipoli? | They didn’t unload their weapons before “going over the top”. Why would you believe they did? A military rifle such as the .303 Lee-Enfield has the following degrees of readiness:
Unloaded – No round in the chamber and no rounds in the magazine (or magazine removed),
Loaded – No round in the chamber but rounds in... | [
"When the Australians reached the Ottoman trenches they found them roofed with pine logs with no easy entrance, which had not been identified by aerial reconnaissance during the planning stages. As the Ottoman defenders recovered from the artillery barrage, they began firing at the Australians through specially cut... |
Who are the Rusyns? | "Ruthenia" is a latinized version of "Rus'," which is the root word for "Russia." The chemical element "Ruthenium," for example, is named after Russia.
In practice, however, the word "Ruthenia" came to apply only to lands outside the Romanov Empire. I suspect the ethnonym "Ruthenian" enjoyed more popularity than the p... | [
"The term Rusyns (\"rusyny\") is derived from Rus' (Ruthenia) and has been widely used for centuries for East Slavs inhabiting it. Since the 18th century this term \"came to be associated primarily with those Ukrainians who lived under the Habsburg monarchy, in Galicia, Bukovyna, and Transcarpathia\", and since ear... |
Why are algal blooms bad? Wouldn't they be a major balancing force for rising CO2 levels? | Algal blooms can cause oxygen depletion - which is actually a problem we have righ now around the Danish waters. I can’t really explain much, but [here is a good article explaining it.](_URL_0_) | [
"CO concentrations have been steadily rising for more than two centuries. Increases in atmospheric CO concentration affect how plants photosynthesise, resulting in increases in plant water use efficiency, enhanced photosynthetic capacity and increased growth. Increased CO has been implicated in ‘vegetation thickeni... |
why text messages are limited to 160 characters while multimedia like pictures can be up to 1,000 | Text messages are sent through a protocol called SMS, or Short Message Service. This protocol basically piggy backs on data signals like tower pings (if you've ever had your phone near some speakers that started making funny noises, that's a ping confirming that your phone is communicating with a particular tower)
so... | [
"A single SMS message has a maximum size of 1120 bits. This is important because there are two types of character encodings, GSM and Unicode. Latin-based languages like English are GSM based encoding, which are 7 bits per character. This is where text messages typically get their 160 character per SMS limit. Long m... |
how is it legal tsa offering first class passengers a faster airport security lane? | Are you sure that is what is happening? My boss pays a yearly fee to go through security faster but he also had to go through an extensive background check and interview process to get that luxury. | [
"As the Q400's 360-knot (414-mph, 667-km/h) cruise speed approaches jet speeds, short-haul airlines can usually replace a regional jet with a Q400 without changing their gate-to-gate schedules. Most short-haul routes are less than 350 miles (500 km), so the time spent on taxiing, taking off, and landing virtually e... |
how can kid music be so annoying to adults while children love it? | With a lot of music, there's a kind of tension between what's predictable and what's interesting or novel. Predictable elements are things like chords that are very harmonious and lead naturally to one another, rhymes and predictable themes in lyrics, melodies that match well with the underlying harmony, etc. What make... | [
"Children's music or kids' music is music composed and performed for children. In European-influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has historically held both entertainment and educational functions. Childre... |
How can volcanoes form where there are no plate boundaries? | Couple of options:
1) [Hotspot volcanism](_URL_0_) where volcanoes erupt above a localized zone of anomalously hot mantle. These are most likely related to [mantle plumes](_URL_2_), but a few holdouts still argue for alternative mechanisms. Regardless, hotspots can occur near plate boundaries (e.g. Iceland) or in the ... | [
"Movements of tectonic plates create volcanoes along the plate boundaries, which erupt and form mountains. A \"volcanic arc system\" is a series of volcanoes that form near a subduction zone where the crust of a sinking oceanic plate melts and drags water down with the subducting crust.\n",
"On Earth, volcanoes a... |
Are human beings a particularly diverse species? It seems that we have a big range of physical characteristics and mental prowess while other species are much more homogeneous. | No. We're not all that diverse. Not much more than other animals anyways. *We* see these differences, because those are differences we use to identify individuals, and many of those differences are a result of nurture, rather than nature. | [
"Non-human primates and humans have been observed to be very similar in terms of personality, such as chimpanzees having “’Big Five’ personality factors found in humans, i.e. neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness”. Primates seem to possess a sixth personality trait, dominance. Ch... |
how does a penis triple in size while erect? | Human skin has a natural elasticity, like a rubber band, and can stretch a little, or a lot, depending on the area. The extra mass that fills the skin is blood within the veins and muscle. That’s what ‘engorged’ means. When you’re not excited there’s less blood flow to the area so it’s in the rest of your body doing ot... | [
"Generally, the size of an erect penis is fixed throughout post-pubescent life. Its size may be increased by surgery, although penile enlargement is controversial, and a majority of men were \"not satisfied\" with the results, according to one study.\n",
"A statistically significant correlation between penis size... |
; why is theory of everything so elusive? | If anyone actually knew the answer, they'd be spending the rest of their lives getting free sexual favors from every theoretical physicist on the planet. It's impossible to answer because no one knows. | [
"Stanley Jaki, in his 1966 book \"The Relevance of Physics\", pointed out that, because any \"theory of everything\" will certainly be a consistent non-trivial mathematical theory, it must be incomplete. He claims that this dooms searches for a deterministic theory of everything.\n",
"“[A] scientific theory is so... |
why do ants take very roundabout routes to get from a food source to the colony? | > This method of locomotion seems very inefficient, so why do they do it?
An ant has a brain of only about 250,000 cells, compared to our 10,000,000,000 cells. They aren't that smart, and they don't have very good eyesight so they navigate largely by scent trails. Their behavior might be less than optimal but it wor... | [
"In the natural world, ants of some species (initially) wander randomly, and upon finding food return to their colony while laying down pheromone trails. If other ants find such a path, they are likely not to keep travelling at random, but instead to follow the trail, returning and reinforcing it if they eventually... |
Where could I find a condensed history of the world? (perhaps not phrased very well) | If you can get access to them, the [Cambridge Histories Series](_URL_0_) is generally very good and covers a wide variety of geographic regions, time periods and areas of study. It's worth checking to see if you can find a library that will provide you online or physical access, because they are quite comprehensive, an... | [
"BULLET::::- Ellis, Edward Sylvester (1913). \"The Story of the Greatest Nations: A Comprehensive History, Extending from the Earliest Times to the Present, Founded on the Most Modern Authorities Including A Complete Chronology of the World and a Pronouncing Vocabulary Of Each Nation\". New York, NY: F.R. Niglutsch... |
why are the gender divisions in choruses? wouldn't you get a fuller sound from integrated choruses? | Also, it's much more challenging for individuals to stay on pitch and in tune when surrounded by others singing different tunes. Keeping the voices together helps everyone song the right notes. | [
"One Voice Mixed Chorus unites gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender people and straight allies to build community by raising their voices in song. It is one of the largest LGBT choruses in North America, the 100 singing members range from ages 17 to 75, and the “Fifth Section” boasts more than 50 non-singing volunte... |
If everyone in the world gave up smoking, what would be the impact on global pollution? | ***Edit: this calculation has several mistakes that led to this answer being wrong. [See here](_URL_3_) for a better estimate***
There are [about 5 billion cigarettes](_URL_0_) produced each year.
To look at the impact on pollution, let's look at one specific type of harmful pollution: [PM_2.5](_URL_2_), or small pa... | [
"The United Nations’ World Health Organization projects that a billion people will die prematurely from smoking this century. In the next 20 years, there will be nearly 1.6 billion smokers around the world. \"A Billion Lives\" takes a critical look at the history of smoking and the corruption that has led to the cu... |
How the image of our galaxy is calculated and how accurate it is? | Images [like this one](_URL_3_) are built from a mixture of things.
First and foremost they are drawn under the assumption that the Milky Way is a lot like other nearby galaxies, so how they look is a useful guide to what the Milky Way would look like from outside.
Then different known parts of the Milky Way are put ... | [
"Images were taken using a photometric system of five filters (named \"u\", \"g\", \"r\", \"i\" and \"z\"). These images are processed to produce lists of objects observed and various parameters, such as whether they seem pointlike or extended (as a galaxy might) and how the brightness on the CCDs relates to variou... |
why did we wait so long to draw attention to china's (and other countries') air pollution problems? | They have been a problem for a while, don't you remember the 2008 olympics? Why do you think this is a new issue? | [
"In 1997, the World Bank issued a report targeting China's policy towards industrial pollution. The report stated that \"hundreds of thousands of premature deaths and incidents of serious respiratory illness have been caused by exposure to industrial air pollution. Seriously contaminated by industrial discharges, m... |
Do birds avoid clouds? | I know that soaring birds (vultures, hawks, etc.) will often seek out the right sort of cloud because it indicates a thermal (rising column of air) that they can use to climb without much energy. However, in this case climbing into the cloud would be avoided since it is--very simplified--the marker of where the therm... | [
"Flight in these birds is almost purely confined to reaching their roosting areas at sunset in trees or any other high and relatively safe places free from ground predators, and for escape from immediate danger through the day.\n",
"These birds forage in soft mud, probing or picking up food by sight. They mainly ... |
Could Hawking radiation cause black holes to stop being black? | > gravitational field stops being greater than the speed of light?
Gravitational fields and speeds are not comparable quantities.
> Or is space-time in black holes so skewed that this couldn't happen?
Inside the event horizon, there are no physically realizable directions that reduce your distance from the singula... | [
"Hawking radiation is black-body radiation that is predicted to be released by black holes, due to quantum effects near the event horizon. This radiation reduces the mass and energy of black holes, causing them to shrink and ultimately vanish. If black holes evaporate via Hawking radiation, a supermassive black hol... |
why do we only get "infected" by bad bacteria? why aren't there positive infections? | There are. In fact, by cell count, you are far more bacteria than you are human. Your stomach is full of bacteria that helps you digest, giving you more energy. Unfortunately, antibiotics are indiscriminate and hurt them too. | [
"Bacterial and viral infections can both cause the same kinds of symptoms. It can be difficult to distinguish which is the cause of a specific infection. It's important to distinguish, because viral infections cannot be cured by antibiotics.\n",
"Infections may be caused by bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites... |
Why doesn't the wavelength of light affect light speed? | The wavelength is not the motion of a photon. It's the peak-to-peak distance of the maximum amplitude of the electric field (see [image](_URL_0_)). The motion is always perpendicular to both the electric and magnetic fields. So, the light wave is not moving up and down but along the red axis. The speed is equal to freq... | [
"Another reason for the speed of light to vary with its frequency would be the failure of special relativity to apply to arbitrarily small scales, as predicted by some proposed theories of quantum gravity. In 2009, the observation of the spectrum of gamma-ray burst GRB 090510 did not find any difference in the spee... |
why does blizzard take _url_0_ offline every other tuesday for maintenance, yet most other game services never go down? | Most major mmos go down regularly for patching. Most mobas do as well. | [
"On November 30, 2018 the servers were shut down, citing the license running out and the game making barely enough to keep the servers running. Due to the license only allowing online games, the game needs the servers to work, even in a 'play alone' mode, using NPCs instead of other players in the mission.\n",
"T... |
why do human eyes turn red when a flash is used but dog eyes turn green? | We have slightly different retinas than dogs do. Dogs have the ability to see in very low lighting because what appears green is a layer in their eyes that reflects light within the eyeball in order to increase the amount of light that hits the photoreceptors. Humans lack this adaptation but many other vertebrates have... | [
"The red-eye effect in photography is the common appearance of red pupils in color photographs of the eyes of humans and several other animals. It occurs when using a photographic flash very close to the camera lens (as with most compact cameras) in ambient low light.\n",
"In flash photography the light of the fl... |
Was there any kind of precursor to the modern anti-vaxxer movement? | Yes, anti-vaccination has a long history. After vaccination against smallpox was made compulsory in 1853 in the UK an anti-vaccination movement grew up calling for an end to compulsory vaccination. This movement was much more widespread than the anti-vaxxer movement of today, lasted for decades and spread to other coun... | [
"In February 2019, Zedler came out supporting the anti-vax movement by introducing a Texas bill that would allow parents to opt out of school vaccination requirements. He was quoted as saying “They want to say people are dying of measles. Yeah, in third-world countries they’re dying of measles. Today, with antibiot... |
Willpower and ability to focus are finite resources. So is there anything I can do to "recharge" them faster? | Roy Baumeister is a prominent researcher of willpower and was one who put forward the hypothesis of willpower being a limited resource and I wrote a small paper on this topic for undergrad. That said, my understanding is not very thorough and is limited. He publishes frequently so, if you have access to JSTOR, you shou... | [
"The willpower paradox is the idea that people may do things better by focusing less directly on doing them, implying that the direct exertion of volition may not always be the most powerful way to accomplish a goal.\n",
"Kelly McGonigal defines willpower as \"the ability to do what you really want to do when par... |
Are some people actually 'big boned'? | Everyone, please, if you are going to comment, leave your personal histories out of it. Make it scientific and leave sources where appropriate. | [
"We have, consequently, in the clearest cases a lean narrowly-built man: with narrow shoulders, with thin muscles, delicately boned hands, with a narrow, long, flat chest, on which we can usually see the ribs.\n",
"I'm a big guy, I stand at 6' 5\". When I was working out with a friend who was 5'7\" we both were w... |
Soviet POWs in Great Britain during WWII? | According to the [plot summary on IMDB](_URL_0_) the character is a Russian who had been fighting for Germany, rather than a Soviet soldier, who apparently feared extradition to the USSR (can't say I blame him). | [
"From 1942 onward, Soviet POWs were viewed as a source of forced labour, and received better treatment so they could work. By December 1944, 750,000 Soviet POWs were working, including in German armaments factories (in violation of the Hague and Geneva conventions), mines, and farms.\n",
"Sixty percent of Soviet ... |
Given the nature and quantity of Pompeii's graffiti, it is plausible to assume a high rate of literacy? | Possibly, but not necessarily. If we look at the sheer number of graffiti and the fact that many of them are of vulgar (in the linguistic sense, not the weird way that contemporary English uses the word) and use those as more or less the sole criteria, sure. But there's a lot more that's implicit here than what you're... | [
"Historic forms of graffiti have helped gain understanding into the lifestyles and languages of past cultures. Errors in spelling and grammar in these graffiti offer insight into the degree of literacy in Roman times and provide clues on the pronunciation of spoken Latin. Examples are \"CIL\" IV, 7838: \"Vettium Fi... |
how do they program traffic lights? how do they coordinate a grid of traffic lights so traffic flows properly? | It used to take a *lot* of exhaustive studying of traffic patterns to keep traffic lights programmed properly to keep jams to a minimum; lights in this system have intervals that are set ahead of time.
These days lights are increasingly controlled by computers. For this, there are induction sensors buried under the ro... | [
"Lane control lights are a specific type of traffic light used to manage traffic on a multi-way road or highway. Typically they allow or forbid traffic to use one or more of the available lanes by the use of Green lights or arrows (to permit) or by red lights or crosses (to prohibit). When used, they are usually re... |
what is it about tomato based sauces that makes it a destroyer of tupperware in the microwave? | They are getting stained by Lycopene that ends up in the porous plastic.
You can denature it with a soak in a peroxide solution, they will oxidise and become free of color. | [
"Just like tomato puree or tomato paste, tomato sauce may be one of the ingredients in other dishes, like a tomato-based soup. The sauce is thinner than either the puree, or the paste (which is the thickest), and it may have additional flavors.\n",
"In the U.S., \"tomato sauce\" refers to two distinct sauces. One... |
Is it possible to see the moon become a new moon? | A thin waning crescent Moon always rises during dawn twilight. It becomes a New Moon and waxing crescent once it passes through conjunction with the Sun. This always happens within 5° of the Sun, usually much closer. So the minimum crescent is razor thin and totally invisble in the glare of the Sun.
The moment that... | [
"In astronomy, the new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude. At this phase, the lunar disk is not visible to the unaided eye, except when silhouetted during a solar eclipse. Daylight outshines the earthlight that dimly illuminates the new moon. The actual phase is us... |
how did teeth change throughout history? | Forcing teeth straight, unless the situation is truly physically detrimental, is usually cosmetic. It's culturally pushed hard in North America. I've heard part of the stigma that British have bad teeth is just that they don't see the need for the massive expense of braces and over whitening their teeth for beauty. The... | [
"Tooth eruption is a process in tooth development in which the teeth enter the mouth and become visible. It is currently believed that the periodontal ligament plays an important role in tooth eruption. The first human teeth to appear, the deciduous (primary) teeth (also known as baby or milk teeth), erupt into the... |
To reach speed of light you need crazy amount of energy so Does light actually travels with the speed of light or slightly less? | This is the speed light travels at.
For an object with non-zero mass, it would take infinite energy to get it to the speed of light, which is one way to understand why that can't happen.
But for photons (the particles of which light is made), things are different. Photons have no mass, which turns out to mean they a... | [
"This constancy of the speed of light means that, counter to intuition, speeds of material objects and light are not additive. It is not possible to make the speed of light appear greater by moving towards or away from the light source.\n",
"As speeds approach that of light, the acceleration produced by a given f... |
why does poking a bruise sometimes feel good even though it’s painful? | The pain and pleasure centers of the brain are right next to each other, and mild pain can cause them to get "confused" (as far as I understand it).
It's the same reason why some people like spicy foods and spanking in bed. I'm guessing that how masochistic you are is determined by how easily your pain and pleasure ce... | [
"A bruise, also known as a contusion, is a type of hematoma of tissue, the most common cause being capillaries damaged by trauma, causing localized bleeding that extravasate into the surrounding interstitial tissues. Most bruises are not very deep under the skin so that the bleeding causes a visible discoloration. ... |
why, with the thousands and thousands of possible number/letter combos, would 2 license plates in the same area be even remotely similar? | The numbers aren't random, there are patterns that relay certain informaiton about location, time registered, etc. Though its not universal, and I couldn't tell you what those patterns in canada mean, its likely there is a non-random code used to determine them. | [
"Formats for license plate numbers may be consistent within the state. For example, Delaware and Rhode Island were formerly able to use six-digit all-numeric serials due to their low respective populations; both now use five-digit serials, with Delaware using a letter and four digits, and Rhode Island using two let... |
can anyone explain what happened here on scientific level | Air has weight, and there is miles of it. We have "air pressure" that is the air above is pushing on everything and the air at ground level is pushing back.
If you remove the air at ground level you suddenly get a few miles of air above that spot trying to crush something and just a fraction of an inch of steel trying... | [
"A worldwide scientific conference is taking place in Sydney, Australia when Dr. Austin Shepard (Peter Fonda) suddenly disappears. Dr. Shepard's colleague, Christopher Richardson (Luke Perry) and other individuals are soon faced with the reality of an impending crisis and an attempt to keep the information from the... |
when terminally ill patients want to be euthanized what substance is injected for them to pass away and why does it kill them? | Secobarbitol as a capsule, pentobarbitol as a liquid. Both are barbiturates.
Low does of secobarbitol is actually used for insomnia and anxiety.
Makes you sleepy, then you sleep. Your central nervous system becomes depressed, leading to brachycardia and brain death.
Basically everything slows down until you die... | [
"Lethal injection has also been used in cases of euthanasia to facilitate voluntary death in patients with terminal or chronically painful conditions. Euthanasia can be accomplished either through oral, intravenous, or intramuscular administration of drugs. In individuals who are incapable of swallowing lethal dose... |
wrinkle-free clothing. | Extremely short answer. Plasticity - some things can be bent over on themselves and some cannot. Wrinkle free material is not bothered by bending, like a rubber band. | [
"Wrinkle-resistant fabrics are textiles that have been treated to resist external stress and hold their shape. Clothing made from this fabric does not need to be ironed and may be sold as non-iron clothing. While fabric cleaning and maintenance may be simplified, some wearers experience decreased comfort.\n",
"In... |
If I lived in western Africa during the height of the Atlantic slave trade, how likely is it that someone I know was captured and shipped to the Americas? Was there a drastic change in culture as a result of the massive loss in population? What societal impact was there? | **The Atlantic slave trade had a catastrophic and permanent effect on western and central Africa.** One of the common misconceptions (and one repeated in a now-deleted comment) is that a slave trade already existed in Africa, so the trans-Atlantic trade couldn't have had significant negative effects. That's entirely wr... | [
"Researchers estimate that between two and three million people were stolen out of this region and traded for goods like alcohol and tobacco from the Americas and textiles from Europe. Current estimates are that about 12 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic from West Africa, although the number purchas... |
If everything in the universe doubled in size instantly
would we notice? | Yes, absolutely. In fact there are only a hand full of special systems where this wouldn't be the case for the parameters involved. We call these systems 'conformally invariant' and a side effect of that is scale invariance which is what you asking about. These systems normally involve some sort of phase transition. | [
"BULLET::::- The largest structures in the universe are larger than expected. Current cosmological models say there should be very little structure on scales larger than a few hundred million light years across, due to the expansion of the universe trumping the effect of gravity. But the Sloan Great Wall is 1.38 bi... |
what are essential tremors? what is the correlation with parkinsons disease if any? | The "essential" in the name means it's something on its own - I'm sure you've looked up the history of the term - and it's idiopathic, meaning having no known cause.
It's only related to Parkinson's in that it's sometimes mistaken for it. Also I'm not a neurologist and you should listen to yours! | [
"BULLET::::- Parkinsonian tremor is caused by damage to structures within the brain that control movement. This resting tremor, which can occur as an isolated symptom or be seen in other disorders, is often a precursor to Parkinson's disease (more than 25 percent of patients with Parkinson's disease have an associa... |
why is it so difficult to swallow when you look up, or tilt your head backwards? | Because tilting your head back opens your airway and they can't both be open at the same time. | [
"The infant's head should be slightly tilted back to make nursing and swallowing easier. When his or her head is tilted back and the mouth is open, the tongue will naturally be down in the mouth to allow the breast to go on top of it.\n",
"The tonic labyrinthine reflex is a primitive reflex found in newborn human... |
Can whales see in front of them? | They likely have a blind spot a little beyond the snout but not much further. Its not uncommon for animals to have eyes on the sides of their heads rather than the front. This is usually seen in herbivores as it gives them a almost 360 degree view (better for spotting predators).
The whale probably compensates for thi... | [
"The whale eye is relatively small for its size, yet they do retain a good degree of eyesight. As well as this, the eyes of a whale are placed on the sides of its head, so their vision consists of two fields, rather than a binocular view like humans have. When belugas surface, their lens and cornea correct the near... |
why does banana substitute the fat in baked goods successfully? | The purpose of oil is to prevent water from reacting with the gluten in the flour (which tends to make your baked goods 'chewy').
Applesauce and bananas contain something called "pectin" which can also prevent gluten from doing its thing.
The mechanisms however are different - oil works by blocking water from getti... | [
"Some varieties of banana chips can be produced using only food dehydration. Banana slices that are only dehydrated are not dark yellow and crunchy, but rather are brown, leathery and chewy. They are very sweet and have an intense banana flavor. These are ideally made from bananas that are fully ripe. Another kind ... |
How universal is the concept of religion in different cultures? | hi! It may be worth x-posting this question to a few other subs for their input: r/AskReligion, r/AskSocialScience, perhaps r/AskAnthropology | [
"The development of religion has taken different forms in different cultures. Some religions place an emphasis on belief, while others emphasize practice. Some religions focus on the subjective experience of the religious individual, while others consider the activities of the religious community to be most importa... |
why do most sinks have that "u" shape at the bottom? i've seen it in some urinals and toilets too... | Its called a trap and it prevents sewer gas from backing up the pipe into the sink or toilet/urinal. Water stays in that bend in the pipe to "trap" the gas behind it. | [
"The term \"water closet\" now often refers to a room that has both a toilet and other plumbing fixtures such as a sink or a bathtub. Plumbing manufacturers often use the term \"water closet\" to differentiate toilets from urinals. American plumbing codes refer to a toilet as a \"Water Closet\" or a \"WC\". Many Eu... |
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