question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 7.04k | context listlengths 7 7 |
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how is baldness determined by our mothers? | It's a concept called sex-linkage. Females have two X sex chromosomes (so are known as homogametic) and males have and X and a Y sex chromosome. The Y chromosome has fewer genes than the X so some genes are only present on the X chromosome. Since women lack a Y chromosome all males get their Y chromosome from their fat... | [
"Balding's well-documented aristocratic lineage on her mother's side can be seen in records that TheGenealogist has identified in research. Researchers found Balding's maternal line reveals that she is the great-granddaughter of Sir Malcolm Bullock whose sexuality was investigated in her episode of the \"Who Do You... |
Why did Pope Alexander II give approval to William's conquer of England | He didnt hate Harold, was probably barely aware of him. Simplistically put however there had been an ongoing dispute over who was Pope, Alexander II or Honorius II. The former elected by the Church, the latter elected by the German court of Henry IV, via his mother as he was still a kid. The Sicilian Normans, once in ... | [
"William of Poitiers states that William obtained Pope Alexander II's consent for the invasion, signified by a papal banner, along with diplomatic support from other European rulers. Although Alexander did give papal approval to the conquest after it succeeded, no other source claims papal support before the invasi... |
How do we track our own stealth aircraft? | It's a transponder, the signal is encrypted. The transponder uses spread spectrum communications so it is difficult to see the signal if you do not know what your looking for.
Spread spectrum signals use many parts of the spectrum and low power so the signal appears as background noise.
| [
"However, as stealth technology grows, so does anti-stealth technology. Multiple transmitter radars such as those from bistatic radars and low-frequency radars are said to have the capabilities to detect stealth aircraft. Advanced forms of thermographic cameras such as those that incorporate QWIPs would be able to ... |
Why is China considered the oldest continuous country when thorough it's history it's been shattered and conquered? | Because the Roman Empire wasn't just taken over wholesale by one barbarian tribe - then it probably wouldn't have been considered to have fallen completely. Instead, it splintered and the government and culture gradually faded away and ceased to exist. China, from the Qin dynasty to the end of the Qing, always had a mo... | [
"According to Jacques, China's history as a nation-state only dates back to around 120 years, perhaps with the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, paving the way for the Republic of China (1912–1949) and then the People's Republic of China. However China's history as a civilization is much longer, with many Chine... |
why do tv shows now divide themselves into yearly "half seasons" instead of yearly seasons? | Fall spring is divided into two because usually there is more holiday programming, and in the case of the US football heads into the playoffs, which decreases viewership of competing shows. And by splitting it into two, they can potentially create more viewers through reruns between and hold onto viewers through cliff ... | [
"A full season is sometimes split into two separate units with a hiatus around the end of the calendar year, such as the first season of \"Jericho\" on CBS. When this split occurs, the last half of the episodes sometimes are referred to with the letter B as in \"The last nine episodes (of \"The Sopranos\") will be ... |
why aren't foreign words originating from non-latin alphabets (e.g. yarmulke) spelled more phonetically? | The major reason for this is that many languages contain sounds that don't exist in English, and cannot be represented with the English alphabet. So the typical solution is to decide "these characters mean this sound, and these other characters mean this other sound", even when doing so isn't strictly phonetic to how ... | [
"Additionally, in languages for which the Latin alphabet has been adapted only recently, has been used for various sounds, in some cases inspired by European usage, but in others, for consonants uncommon in Europe. For these no Latin letter stands out as an obvious choice, and since most of the various European pro... |
In the early 1900's ,Were there any religious or cultural resistance towards the use of flying machines such as Bi planes? | There was no widespread "flying is evil! down with planes!" movement in the early 1900s... but by then, humans had been flying for [more than 100 years](_URL_0_).
The airplane had to have shown up in a few sermons in the first decades of the 20th century, but was generally treated more like a novelty - not so many hy... | [
"The aircraft has been popular with flying schools — especially from the pre-World War II existence of the Civilian Pilot Training Program using them in the United States — and remains so with private individuals, into the 21st century.\n",
"After the Wright brothers first flight the opportunity of flight raced a... |
where do nuns(roman chatolic) outfits originate from (design)? | since most religious habits were patterned on the garb for either unmarried women or widows in their own cultures, I imagine only religious orders that began in Middle Eastern countries have (or had) habits patterned on typical female garb in those countries, and what may still be traditional in those societies that ar... | [
"The traditional dress for women in religious communities consists of a tunic, which is tied around the waist with a cloth or leather belt. Over the tunic some nuns wear a scapular which is a garment of long wide piece of woolen cloth worn over the shoulders with an opening for the head. Some wear a white wimple an... |
Why do they elevate bruised areas of the body to decrease blood flow? Why isn't the opposite more beneficial? | Elevating an injured limb is not to decrease blood flow. It's to decrease pooling and swelling.
Recall that blood is pumped outward to your limbs in pressurized arteries, but it returns in veins, which aren't under much pressure and have less motive force to move the blood along.
If the injured limb is allowed to han... | [
"Compression aims to reduce the edematous swelling that results from the inflammatory process. Although some swelling is inevitable, too much swelling results in significant loss of function, excessive pain and eventual slowing of blood flow through vessel restriction.\n",
"Angiogenesis may be a target for combat... |
who are some of the contenders in the 2016 u.s. presidential election that have a strong foothold in the door? how well do they reflect the values of their party? | Super, super early, but some of the strong possiblities:
Hillary Clinton will almost certainly run in 2016. She did very well as Secretary of State, but a possible issue will be Benghazi. That's one of the reasons the GOP has been stretching out what seems to be a non issue for so long. She'll have strong challenge... | [
"During the U.S. presidential election of 2016 he was the only Arizona Republican to have held high office who endorsed the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton. Regarding the two presidential candidates, he wrote, \"Hillary Clinton is one of the most qualified nominees to ever run for president. Donald Trump is t... |
can kings and queens be removed from power due to deteriorative illnesses of the brain and such? | That fully depends on the country and the rules that they have set up for succession. Virtually all have the ability for voluntary abdication which would be used for severe illness or anything that rendered them incapable of fulfilling their duty. Most would also have some method of forced abdication if they were not c... | [
"She was deposed twice, each time by her own husband, forcing her to stand up against him and quite possibly her own courtiers who conspired against her. She successfully deposed three Kings; her brother and two husbands. Despite successfully managing to assassinate three Kings, it is impressive how she managed to ... |
How does the melt rate change based on the mass of ice and the temperature of the surrounding air? | There are definitely equations that can describe what is going on! Heat and mass transfer are an important part of physics and engineering.
In order to melt, the ice must be raised to its melting point temperature, then given enough energy to melt into liquid. This energy needs to come from somewhere. Heat moves from... | [
"Estimates on future contribution to sea level rise from Greenland range from , for the year 2100. The contribution of the Greenland ice sheet on sea level over the next couple of centuries can be very high due to a self-reinforcing cycle (a so-called positive feedback). After an initial period of melting, the heig... |
fps in film | The reason why 29.97 FPS has historically been such a common frame-rate in North America is quite complicated.
Firstly, the reason why ~30 FPS has been the North American standard for TV (compared to the 25 FPS standard used in Europe) has to do with the electrical power system.
Back in the old days, TV's relied on c... | [
"FP is a cubic-grain black-and-white film from Ilford Photo with a long history. It originated as Fine grain Panchromatic roll film in 1935. Like its faster partner product, HP film, it has gone through a number of versions since then, with the latest being FP4 plus (FP4+ for short).\n",
"Upon its theatrical rele... |
Is it possible to create diamond like crystals from other elements? | Yes. Diamond has a structure called [FCC(face centered cubic)](_URL_1_) with two atoms in the base. That means for each "spot" in an fcc, there are two atoms - one on the spot and one shifted along the diagonal of the unit cell (1/4, 1/4, 1/4).
To answer your question: Yes. [To quote wikipedia:](_URL_0_)
> While the... | [
"Solid foreign crystals are commonly present in diamond. They are mostly minerals, such as olivine, garnets, ruby, and many others. These and other inclusions, such as internal fractures or \"feathers\", can compromise the structural integrity of a diamond. Cut diamonds that have been enhanced to improve their clar... |
why do the police follow me for a while before pulling me over? | They're looking up your plate to see if your car has any violations or if the registered owner has a warrant or had reported the car stolen. | [
"There have been cases where criminals have pulled over motorists while pretending to be driving unmarked police cars, a form of police impersonation. Some US police officers advise motorists that they do not have to pull over in a secluded location and instead can wait until they reach somewhere safer. In the UK, ... |
why do many people see policing and military as necessary things to support with their tax dollars, but see a more subsidized healthcare system as a form of communism? | Because everyone needs the police and the military. The rich and the upper middle class dont need subsidized health care and dont want to help fund it. | [
"Other factors of spending are largely political in the sense that politicians who can effectively argue for more spending get the most spending for their states. Some trends of spending as of 1999 are as follows: defense spending in the South and the national capital, non-defense discretionary spending between the... |
why are streets and housing developments in residential areas across the us named so consistently and generically, often with no relation to geographic features? e.g., hillcrest, hillview, pinewood, oakwood, lakeview, fairview, etc.? does this happen in other countries? | The joke I heard is that streets and housing developments are named after whatever natural things were removed to make room for the streets and houses. | [
"Neighborhood names and boundaries vary in their formality some are well defined and long established, while others are more informal. Further names and boundaries have evolved over time due to development or changes in demographics. Woodward Avenue, a major a north-south thoroughfare, serves as a demarcation for n... |
Art History question: Was 'modeling' a profession or was there a modeling industry pre-19th century in the Middle, Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo eras? Were there famous, sought after models who commanded higher prices? Were there agents and managers? | *pauses*
This is actually a lot trickier than my initial "no". Mostly no. There were "allegorical" portraits. Elisabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, commissioned a few of these. One was to showcase the plight and what she saw as inevitable triumph of her dispossessed children. Agnes Sorel, one of the earliest known mist... | [
"During the 15th century portraiture became common, initially often formalised profile portraits but increasingly three-quarter face, bust-length portraits. Patrons of art works such as altarpieces and fresco cycles often were included in the scenes, a notable example being the inclusion of the Sassetti and Medici ... |
In terms of physique, would real gladiators have been more similar to Andy Whitfield of TV's 'Spartacus' or to Russell Crowe of the film 'Gladiator'? | _URL_0_
Apparently, they wouldn't have looked beefy at all.
> **New evidence indicates gladiators may not quite match Hollywood's interpretation.**
> The researchers expected gladiators would need a protein-rich diet to build muscle - however their analysis of the bones in fact suggested a vegetarian diet...
> P... | [
"Inspired by the success of \"Spartacus\", there were a number of Italian peplums that heavily emphasized the gladiatorial arena in their plots, with it becoming almost a peplum subgenre in itself; One group of supermen known as \"The Ten Gladiators\" appeared in a trilogy, all three films starring Dan Vadis in the... |
why do sirens sound like they do? why do they vary by country? | They are designed to get your attention - simple as that.
Why do they vary by country? Because there's more than one way of getting someone's attention! I know that here in the UK, they use a variety of sirens because they found that changing from one to another actually gets people's attention better than playing any... | [
"Today, signals are determined by state and local authorities and can vary from one region to another. The most common tones produced by sirens in the United States are \"alert\" (Steady) and \"attack\" (wail). Other tones include Westminster Chimes (commonly used for the testing of electronic sirens), Hi-Lo, Whoop... |
How long did it take for the relations between England and America to recover after the revolutionary war? And what were some significant milestones in that process? | On a government level, we signed the Jay Treaty during the Washington administration which gave favorable trade terms to the British.
Under John Quincy Adams, we drafted the Monroe doctrine (JQA doesn't get credit for it since he lost re-election soon after it was ratified) which told Europe to stay out of the western ... | [
"During the 1760s and 1770s, relations between the Thirteen Colonies and Britain became increasingly strained, primarily because of resentment of the British Parliament's ability to tax American colonists without their consent. Disagreement turned to violence and in 1775 the American War of Independence began. The ... |
If two people, A and B, ate the same amount of food in terms of caloric intake and quantity but A exercised and B didn't, would both defecate the same amount of feces in terms of weight? | Someone please answer this man, I'm incredibly interested | [
"Based on extrapolation from studies done on animals, the maximum tolerable daily intake of coumestrol for human beings has been estimated at 22 μg per kg of body mass. This was calculated by extrapolating from the lowest level at which adverse effects were seen in animals. Although, due to the variability of the h... |
If there is a breach in a fusion reactor, what will happen? | If you remove a part of the wall but not the magnets the fusion reaction will heat the magnets until they stop being superconducting. The magnetic field breaks down, the reaction stops - essentially instantaneous, probably before you even managed to fully remove the wall segment.
The energy stored in the plasma at any... | [
"Unlike nuclear fission, fusion requires extremely precise and controlled temperature, pressure and magnetic field parameters for any net energy to be produced. If a reactor suffers damage or loses even a small degree of required control, fusion reactions and heat generation would rapidly cease. Additionally, fusio... |
Were presidents Garfield and McKinley "sainted" after their assassinations in the same way as Lincoln and Kennedy? | Garfield was already a beloved national hero due to his service in the American Civil War. He was only president for a few months before his assassination.
Source: Destiny of the Republic
That being said, I believe his reputation has actually suffered due to his assassination. He wasn't in office long enough to cre... | [
"President McKinley was enjoying great popularity as he began his second term, but it would be cut short. In September 1901, while attending an exposition in Buffalo, New York, McKinley was shot by an anarchist. He was the third President to be assassinated, all since the Civil War. Vice President Theodore Roosevel... |
how does this "cure" for tinnitus work? | Tinnitus isn't fully understood, but one of the hypothesis for its cause include a problem in the amplifier part of our ear.
Our ears are pretty sophisticated, and including in them essentially a biological amplifier which, when there's no ambient sound around, increases sensitivity so that we can pick up quiet sounds... | [
"If there is an underlying cause, treating it may lead to improvements. Otherwise, the primary treatment for tinnitus is talk therapy, sound therapy, or hearing aids. There are no effective medications or supplements that treat tinnitus.\n",
"The best supported treatment for tinnitus is a type of counseling calle... |
what is that line in the roof of your mouth and what is it for? | You mean the ridge on your palate that runs from front to back? That's called the palatine raphe. It's just where the 2 halves of our face meet. When we're embryos, our faces are 2 separate halves that sort of fold in and meet in the middle. The palatine raphe is just where the bone and soft tissue of the mouth meet an... | [
"The roof of the mouth is termed the palate and it separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. The palate is hard at the front of the mouth since the overlying mucosa is covering a plate of bone; it is softer and more pliable at the back being made of muscle and connective tissue, and it can move to swallow fo... |
Are lightnings three-dimensional or two-dimensional? | The shape you are looking for is ["dendritic"](_URL_1_). That's greek for tree-like, and it is the term used for anything that branches (crystals, nerve cells, lightning strikes, fractures, and so on).
As has already been mentioned, lightning typically follows a complex 3D path, but it can also be 2D if you confine it... | [
"In three-dimensional space, 0-blades are again scalars and 1-blades are three-dimensional vectors, and 2-blades are oriented area elements. 3-blades represent volume elements and in three-dimensional space; these are scalar-like—i.e., 3-blades in three-dimensions form a one-dimensional vector space.\n",
"In thre... |
why do some chemicals change colours when mixed with other chemicals? | These changes are do to new molecules being formed, making light react differently to the product. Different atoms and molecules radiate different colors of light, and the colors they radiate depend on their particular atomic and molecular structure. Specifically, the more electrons are confined, the closer the spacing... | [
"Chemical colors are more durable properties of an external object, such as the red color of an apple. A chemical color is incomprehensible because we don't know its cause. Its appearance is only known from experience and it is not an essential part of the object. Chemical colors result from changes in an object's ... |
when completing in luge, what exactly are the athletes doing to control themselves and maximize their speed? | The sled rides on two sharp-bottomed blades known as runners, the only part of the sled that makes contact with the ice.
In order to steer the sled, the slider uses his or her calves to apply pressure to one of the runners, or shifts their weight using their shoulders. Considering the extreme speed, athletes only need... | [
"3. Extreme speed is used by the martial artist - by perfecting their relaxation skills thereby allowing the kick to be sent unhindered by muscle - until the moment of contact, where the Wing-Chun base posture, provides target-ground-target energy. \n",
"Players need to readjust the distance of their bounces when... |
why is latin, arguably a dead language, is still so prevalent in medicine, law, and even science? | That is one of the reasons they started using it, because dead languages doesn't change!
To make it short, a swede named Carl Linnaeus got tired of the confusion that plants having different names in different languages caused, so he gave them all latin names. Most scientists at that time knew latin anyway.
That rem... | [
"Because it gave rise to many modern languages, Latin did not \"die\"; it merely evolved over the centuries in different regions in diverse ways. The local dialects of Vulgar Latin that emerged eventually became modern Italian, Spanish, French, Romanian, Portuguese, Catalan, Romansh, Dalmatian, Sardinian, and many ... |
in the usa, what are the guidelines on having a lawyer during interactions with law enforcement? | You don't have to go down to the station at all.
If they ask you to come down to answer questions, just ask "Am I being arrested?" if they say no, then say "Then please leave me alone" if they say yes just say "I want a lawyer" | [
"The right to consult a lawyer is considered to be important, and the courts have been understanding if, even in cases in which the person arrested or detained preferred not to see any lawyer, it is later argued section 10 is violated because the arrested or detained person did not know any better. This applies, fo... |
why is the dead sea not overflooding? | The dead sea evaporates away leaving salt. It only has tributaries which is why the salt content is so high. | [
"In 2016, the DESERVE institute constructed a network of scientific monitoring stations around the Dead Sea, expanding our understanding of declining water levels, freshwater pollution, and the increased occurrence of sinkholes. Their findings have confirmed previous estimates of water level decline, by the Ministr... |
Can Dogs Count? | Important to note that there's a difference between counting *n* entities and realizing it should be *n+1*, and seeing a group of familiar people and noting that one or more are absent.
Like I show you a picture of Larry and Curly, you aren't counting them, you are *identifying* them and basing your conclusion that Mo... | [
"A sense of number has also been found in dogs. For example, dogs were able to perform simple additions of two objects, as revealed by their surprise when the result was incorrect. It is however argued that wolves perform better on quantity discrimination tasks than dogs and that this could be a result of a less de... |
why do people put salt in cakes meant to be sweet? | Salt removes bitterness. I add salt to coffee and lemonade as well. Since dark chocolate, fresh citrus, etc can be pretty bitter it allows the cake to have flavor without the bite. | [
"The cakes are typically served in the paper they were baked in. Found in bakeries, the cakes are typically eaten during breakfast, or teatime. Because of the cakes’ light flavouring, it is possible to eat much of the cake without getting sick because of an overly sugary taste.\n",
"The most variety comes in swee... |
When listening to music, individual areas of the brain are "activated" for melody, rhythm and pitch. Are these areas in the exact same place in my brain and yours? | Okay, so first, caveat, I'm a bit of an fMRI skeptic. This is not to say I think it's all lies, but it is the number 1 area of neuroscience that science writers tend to run with, and the authors never make any attempt to correct them.
Whenever you read anything the that talks about fMRI, you need to remember they are ... | [
"Human brain scans indicated that a peripheral bit of this brain region is active when trying to identify musical pitch. Individual cells consistently get excited by sounds at specific frequencies, or multiples of that frequency.\n",
"The perception of music has a quickly growing body of literature. Structurally,... |
How did the fallen angel Lucifer end up as Satan/the Devil - red-faced, horned, hooved and not what he originally was? | Different people say different stuff because it's a form of Christian mythology, and different people have different explanations depending on where they were raised, the denomination or congregation they attend. It's the same reason why folk songs have many different lyrics, e.g. whether Barbary Allen's boyfriend is n... | [
"Some Christian writers have applied the name \"Lucifer\" as used in the Book of Isaiah, and the motif of a heavenly being cast down to the earth, to Satan. Sigve K Tonstad argues that the New Testament War in Heaven theme of Revelation 12 (), in which the dragon \"who is called the devil and Satan … was thrown dow... |
How does the theory of wave/particle duality do away with the need to find a wave medium for light, i.e. ether? | The aether was supposed to be some sparse gas through which light was an oscillation. But modern physics has things called [fields](_URL_0_). And you can think of the universe as all of these overlaid fields for electrons and quarks and electromagnetism and gluons and so on. And light, photons, are an oscillation in th... | [
"In physics, two wave sources are perfectly coherent if they have a constant phase difference and the same frequency, and the same waveform. Coherence is an ideal property of waves that enables stationary (i.e. temporally and spatially constant) interference. It contains several distinct concepts, which are limitin... |
Just how much of an impact did Alexander Hamilton have? | Although I'm not an expert on the American Revolutionary War, I am an economic historian and have extensively studied Alexander Hamilton's absolutely pivotal role in the creation of the modern american political and economic system.
Hamilton's close personal relationship with Washington and his role as Secretary of t... | [
"Hamilton appears to have hoped in 1796 that his influence within an Adams administration would be as great as or greater than in Washington's. By 1800, Hamilton had come to realize that Adams was too independent and thought the Federalist vice presidential candidate, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, ... |
Theoretical physics- What if there was no speed limit like the speed of light? | TL;DR: In non-relativistic quantum mechanics, particles can't decay.
If you take the limit where the speed of light goes to infinity, but you keep ["Galilean relativity"](_URL_0_) (the notion of relativity we'd been using before special relativity), a very large change occurs at the level of elementary particle physic... | [
"These considerations show that the speed of light as a limit is a consequence of the properties of spacetime, and not of the properties of objects such as technologically imperfect space ships. The prohibition of faster-than-light motion, therefore, has nothing in particular to do with electromagnetic waves or lig... |
when i'm about to fall asleep, i sometimes have a semi-dream that i'm walking. then i stumble and my leg jerks and wakes me up. why? | It's called a [hypnic jerk](_URL_0_). They're associated with anxiety, but they occur essentially at random even if you're not stressed. Personally, I enjoy them. | [
"Sleepwalking was initially thought to be a dreamer acting out a dream. For example, in one study published by the Society for Science & the Public in 1954, this was the conclusion: \"Repression of hostile feelings against the father caused the patients to react by acting out in a dream world with sleepwalking, the... |
So... does every (soft drink/water) bottle I drink from have BPA in it? If so, just how bad is this shit for you, and does anyone know what brands do not use a BPA-laden plastic? | Many do not these days, at least to my knowledge. The most common way to find out in my experience is to check the number on the bottle. Look for a 7 in the recycle sign, if it has a that, the bottle most likely has BPA in it.
As far as brands, not so sure.
Edit: typos | [
"Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical used to make plastics, and is frequently used to make baby bottles, water bottles, sports equipment, medical devices, and as a coating in food and beverage cans. Scientists are concerned about BPA's behavioral effects on fetuses, infants, and children at current exposure levels beca... |
why is it that sounds that would normally drive is to murder, become perfectly bearable when we are the ones making them? | You may have something called Misophonia. This is a psychological condition where certain sounds trigger your fight or flight response. So you hear someone chewing loudly, and either you want to leave or you want to hit them.
These sounds don't actually bother the other people.
from _URL_0_
"Exposure to a trigger ... | [
"A folk etymology is that it is from white people honking their car horns a lot to get people's attention and perhaps as a metaphor for liberal whites who make a lot of noise (honking) but do not do anything.\n",
"Particularly severe cases of misophonia may result in violent impulses toward the source of the soun... |
internet cookies? | Imagine you're reading a book. You're at a specific part of the book, somewhere in the middle. You decide "that's enough book for today" and you close the book. Next time you open your book, you're going to have to flip through all those pages again and manually find your page. Rather than having to remember what page ... | [
"An \"HTTP cookie\" (also called \"web cookie\", \"Internet cookie\", \"browser cookie\", or simply \"cookie\") is a small piece of data sent from a website and stored on the user's computer by the user's web browser while the user is browsing. Cookies were designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to rememb... |
why do kids love bright colors so much, but as they get older, bright colors seem less important? | While growing, humans use attention to collect useful information. In early childhood attention is mostly focused on easily perceivable differences between events and things like contrast, brightness, loudness, primary tastes etc When you grow older you already collected that information and unless some part of your fo... | [
"The age when infants begin showing a preference for color is at about 12 weeks old. Generally, children prefer the colors red/pink and blue, and cool colors are preferred over warm colors. Purple is a color favored more by girls than by boys. Color perception of children 3–5 years of age is an indicator of their d... |
Could it ever be possible to "download" our brains and assemble a "Wiki" of an individual's knowledge, memories, etc? | No.
A number of other threads in /r/askscience recently have been on the same, or similar topics.
Using the search feature with these keywords will show those:
* download/downloading
* upload/uploading
* transfer
* singularity
* brain
To give you the short version: we don't know how brains work, contrary to... | [
"He proposes that every memory, skill, and passion is encoded somehow in the connectome. And when the brain is not wired properly it can result in mental disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's. Understanding the human connectome may not only help cure such diseases with treatments but... |
How bad was the economic/social state in Britain before Thatcher? | The problem we get before going into the question is that we need an adequate benchmark to judge the economic performance be it by economic growth, productivity, macroeconomic parameters, competitiveness, social indicators of Britain. I think the most relevant comparison would be Federal Republic of Germany (West Germa... | [
"A strict modernisation of its economy began under the controversial Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher following her election as prime minister in 1979, which saw a time of record unemployment as deindustrialisation saw the end of much of the country's manufacturing industries but also a time of economic boom a... |
What are some examples of historic deals which were done over beer? | Sorry, we don't allow [throughout history questions](_URL_0_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a historical event or period or person, please feel free to re-compose your quest... | [
"In the long run, Herrero's brewery did not survive, and the production of European-style beverages such as beer and wine were heavily taxed and heavily regulated by Spain to protect home markets. The purpose of this was to make colonials import these products from Europe. While the policy mostly worked, beer brewi... |
Dear Scientists, How hard is it to synthesis Diesel or Petrol or other fuels obtain by crude oil? | Not hard, just not worth it while there's cheap oil to burn.
Basically, you use a [gasifier](_URL_1_) to generate a mixture of H2 and CO gasses, called "synthesis gas". This is basically done by burning a chunk of carbon (which can come from coal or biomass) in an oxygen-starved atmosphere, and then passing hot steam ... | [
"Synthetic crude may also be created by upgrading bitumen (a tar like substance found in oil sands), or synthesizing liquid hydrocarbons from oil shale. There are a number of processes extracting shale oil (synthetic crude oil) from oil shale by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution.\n",
"An oil refine... |
Is there any material that allows light to pass through without any interference? Is it possible to manufacture such a material? | Even a completely transparent substance still has an index of refraction that bends light that goes through it and I assume that refraction would count as "interference."
I don't believe there's anything other than a vacuum that has a refractive index of zero, so I think the answer to your question is "no."
Edit: val... | [
"Some materials allow much of the light that falls on them to be transmitted through the material without being reflected. Materials that allow the transmission of light waves through them are called optically transparent. Chemically pure (undoped) window glass and clean river or spring water are prime examples of ... |
Female Suffrage in France | There was actually quite some activity towards women's suffrage in interwar France; for example, Léon Blum's government made a proposal for this (Léon Blum had probalby the best feminist pedigree in that time period), which was voted by the (left-wing) Assemblée nationale, but rejected by the (right-wing) upper house (... | [
"The French Union for Women's Suffrage (UFSF: \"Union française pour le suffrage des femmes\") was founded by a group of feminists who had attended a national congress of French feminists in Paris in 1908.\n",
"The French Union for Women's Suffrage (UFSF: \"Union française pour le suffrage des femmes\") was found... |
how does a bill that passed overwhelmingly in the house and senate (98%+) not get enforced by the executive branch? | In response to the title, since the Executive branch has sole authority in enforcing the law, as a consequence it can choose not to enforce the law at all.
In response to the post, since I do not know what specific bill you are talking about I can describe the two vetoes.
First, the President can outright veto a bill... | [
"Each bill needs the consent of both houses in order to be submitted to the president for his signature. If the president vetoes the bill, Congress can override the veto with a two-thirds supermajority. If either house voted down on a bill or fails to act on it after an adjournment sine die, the bill is lost and wo... |
would the screen rotation function work in space? | Phones have devices called accelerometers which feel the pull of gravity similar to how we do. Take one of these devices on a bungee jump, and it will record the increased force that you feel at the bottom of the cord.
In orbit, everything is in constant free-fall, so there is very little apparent gravity for people o... | [
"An example where rotation representation is used is in computer vision, where an automated observer needs to track a target. Consider a rigid body, with three orthogonal unit vectors fixed to its body (representing the three axes of the object's local coordinate system). The basic problem is to specify the orienta... |
If a human got shrunk to a minuscule size, would physics act on him in the same way? | I'm no expert in this by any means, but I seem to remember a biology textbook saying that the size of our cells are such because a certain ratio of surface area to volume is required to preform certain cellular functions.
So I'm assuming that if we were truly "shrunk" are bodies wouldn't be able to function normally... | [
"The problems of the miniaturized human do not stop there, however. Basic geometry governs such things as the relationship between cross-section, volume, and surface area. It may be impossible for a one-inch high human to kill themselves in a fall of any conceivable height, but they may be able to drown themselves ... |
how do brackets move teeths from their cavity? | Your bone isn't a static structure, the hard mineral deposits that gives it its strength is constantly being repaired and remodeled by specialized cells.
Applying force in one direction on the tooth stimulates the removal of bone on one side (by osteoclasts) and deposited on the other (by osteoblasts) so the entire ca... | [
"The application of braces moves the teeth as a result of force and pressure on the teeth. There are traditionally four basic elements that are used: brackets, bonding material, arch wire, and ligature elastic (also called an “O-ring”). The teeth move when the arch wire puts pressure on the brackets and teeth. Some... |
Before the American war of independence, did the residents of the colonies consider themselves American, or as British colonists living in America? | Many of them considered themselves to be British before and during the American Revolution, and actively fought against the Colonists on the side of the British. These people were known as Loyalists. The others did not view themselves as Americans either though. They identified themselves as Virginians or Pennsylvan... | [
"The colonies were very different from one another but they were still a part of the British Empire in more than just name. Demographically, the majority of the colonists traced their roots to the British Isles and many of them still had family ties with Great Britain. Socially, the colonial elite of Boston, New Yo... |
How could a backdoor be put into a random number generator? | The trick is that Intel's RdRand is a black box that we have to trust. So, conceptually, what is something they could do to "backdoor" the system?
In cryptography, a secure stream cipher is *indistinguishable from random* by an adversary (that is limited to probabilistic polynomial time, but details details). In other... | [
"An example of a simple mathematical trapdoor is \"6895601 is the product of two prime numbers. What are those numbers?\" A typical solution would be to try dividing 6895601 by several prime numbers until finding the answer. However, if one is told that 1931 is one of the numbers, one can find the answer by enterin... |
who makes direct-to-video movies and how do they make money? | Filmmaker here. To understand how studios such as "The Asylum" make money on movies like Transmorphers you have to understand a bit about the industry.
There are approximately 7 major studios who make the major pictures you've heard of eg. Transformers. The majors have the vast money to fund, make and distribute their... | [
"A-Company Filmed Entertainment (commonly known as A-Company) is an independent film and video content provider for Central and Eastern Europe, CIS and Vietnam. A-Company distributes theatrical, home entertainment and television productions as well as Video-On-Demand.\n",
"Videofilms in this era were produced on ... |
what's the difference between a state and a province? | Technically, a state is an independent political entity, while a province is a sub-section of a state.
The confusion arises from nomenclature not keeping pace with politics. The United States was, when founded, similar to the modern European Union. It was a union of various sovereign entities. However, after the Ci... | [
"In many federations and confederations, the province or state is not clearly subordinate to the national or central government. Rather, it is considered to be sovereign in regard to its particular set of constitutional functions. The central- and provincial-government functions, or areas of jurisdiction, are ident... |
as a heavy ( > 1pack/day) smoker, why don't i wake up from nicotine withdrawals when i can barely make it two hours without a smoke? | Most smokers *DO* wake up after a night's sleep with nicotine withdrawal. I do not know why you do not. That is not the usual pattern for addicted smokers. | [
"Normal between-cigarettes discontinuation, in unrestricted smokers, causes mild but measurable nicotine withdrawal symptoms. These include mildly worse mood, stress, anxiety, cognition, and sleep, all of which briefly return to normal with the next cigarette. Smokers have worse mood than they would have if they we... |
When a photon is emitted from an stationary atom, does it accelerate from 0 to the speed of light? | They don't start off at zero, and there's no acceleration. They start off at *c* and always travel at *c*. This is because, due to special relativity, any massless particle can *only* ever move at *c*, any other speed isn't allowed physically. | [
"By combining the small momentum of a single photon with a velocity and spatially dependent absorption cross section and a large number of absorption-spontaneous emission cycles, atoms with initial velocities of hundreds of metres per second can be slowed to tens of centimetres per second.\n",
"BULLET::::- Relati... |
if the odds of winning the powerball is 1 in 235 million, but the jackpot is $800 million, wouldn't it make sense to buy 235 million quick picks if you could afford it? | Taxes, and the unfortunate circumstances where you share your winnings with others who only bought a few hundred picks... Not a good investment no | [
"While Mega Millions and Powerball each have similar jackpot odds despite having a different double matrix (Mega Millions is 5/75 + 1/15), since Powerball is $2 per play, it now takes $584,402,676 (not counting Power Play side bets) on average to produce a jackpot-winning ticket.\n",
"The odds of winning or shari... |
High exposure to sunlight damages your skin. What does it do to the bacterial population? | The given "sunlight damages your skin" needs to be addressed before the question. The pathogenesis of sunburn is distinct from the mechanism of alkaline or thermal burns insofar as the agent (sunlight) is not directly traumatic. The change is mediated by signaling cascades possibly secondary to alteration of base pai... | [
"Exposure to sunlight has been shown to deactivate diarrhea-causing organisms in polluted drinking water. The inactivation of pathogenic organisms is attributed to: the UV-A (wavelength 320–400 nm) part of the sunlight, which reacts with oxygen dissolved in the water and produces highly reactive forms of oxygen (ox... |
what is it about how sound waves interact that make some sounds/chords pleasing? for example, why does a 5th sound good but a tritone (diminished 5th) doesn’t? why does it seem chords/chord progressions resolve? | It has to do with the ratio of one sound wave's frequency to that of another. When the value can be expressed as a simple ratio, we interpret the interval as pleasing, or "consonant." If the ratio is complex, we tend to interpret the result as displeasing, or "dissonant." A perfect fifth, for example, is a 3:2 ratio, w... | [
"A conical shaped resonator, such as a megaphone, tends to amplify all pitches indiscriminately. A cylindrical shaped resonator is affected primarily by the length of the tube through which the sound wave travels. A spherical resonator will be affected by the amount of opening it has and by whether or not that open... |
what exactly is gluten, and why is it bad for you? | It's a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye, and it gives bread it's chewyness.
Unless you have an allergy to it or Celiac disease, it's not bad for you at all. | [
"Gluten, a mixture of proteins found in wheat and related grains including barley, rye, oat, and all their species and hybrids (such as spelt, kamut, and triticale), causes health problems for those with gluten-related disorders, including celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, gluten ataxia, dermatitis her... |
why our ears remain numb and produce high frequency sound post concert? | There'll be a better answer by someone else soon, but:
Inside your ear there's an organ shaped like a snail. It has tiny hairs on it, that when they vibrate translate this into nerve impulses to send to your brain. If they are stressed too much, they stick to that organ, producing a constant signal. Some times they wi... | [
"When exposed to a multitude of sounds from several different sources, sensory overload may occur. This overstimulation can result in general fatigue and loss of sensation in the ear. The associated mechanisms are explained in further detail down below. Sensory overload usually occurs with environmental stimuli and... |
Were there any volunteer gladiators? | One exceptional example would be the Emperor Commodus, as depicted in the movie Gladiator. Commodus believed himself to be the reincarnation of Hercules and sought to imitate his martial accomplishments before the eyes of the Roman public. He, of course, was never in any real danger from his human opponents who (as rec... | [
"Athletic exercises by free citizens (no longer required to serve as soldiers since Marius' army reform) were partly replaced by gladiatorial games performed in amphitheatres. The gladiators were mainly recruited among slaves, war captives and death row convicts — the very lowest, who had no choice — but occasional... |
one day they're there and the other day gone after construction! how on earth are cranes made!?? | I presume you're talking about tower cranes - the type with the tall metal lattice tower?
They actually build themselves.
The very first thing that's done is that the bottom section of the tower is put in and, on top of that they put a special section of the tower that can move up and down, before plonking the top b... | [
"Throughout Asia, the crane is a symbol of happiness and eternal youth. In Japan, the crane is one of the mystical or holy creatures (others include the dragon and the tortoise) and symbolizes good fortune and longevity because of its fabled life span of a thousand years. The crane is a favourite subject of the tra... |
how dangerous is it to taste a small amount of cocaine? | I imagine this question popped into your head because of the movie trope where someone dips their finger or knife into some white powder then tastes it or rubs it on their gums to confirm "Yup, that's cocaine."
The small amount of exposure to the drug there would likely be too small to feel an effect, let alone have a... | [
"The acute toxicity of the drug is low. Overdose causes only harmless side effects such as nausea and vaginal bleeding. The has been found to range between 500 mg/kg in dogs and over 3000 mg/kg in rats. Chronic toxicity has been examined in animals, but nothing but the typical adverse effects of progestogens, and r... |
Does plate tectonic activity have a measurable effect on the weather? | Tectonics has a huge influence on the climate (the difference between weather and climate being a question of a very short vs a longer timescale, so by proxy, tectonics have an influence on the weather, but it's easier and more appropriate to think about tectonics and climate as these evolve on more similar timescales)... | [
"Over the course of millions of years, the motion of tectonic plates reconfigures global land and ocean areas and generates topography. This can affect both global and local patterns of climate and atmosphere-ocean circulation.\n",
"Tectonic–climatic interaction is the interrelationship between tectonic processes... |
Is there a compound that can be found naturally but cannot be made artificially? | Depends in what way you mean by 'made artificially'. Proteins and enzymes are very complex structures that can't really be made by standard chemical reactions, and require a living organism such as bacteria to be produced in a lab.
A good example is insulin, a hormone used to treat diabetics. It was originally isol... | [
"Since synthons are idealized structures, it is often difficult to find equivalent chemical compounds in the real world. Many carbanion synthons, as drawn, present stability issues that render the molecule’s existence in reality impossible. For example, an acyl anions are not stable species, but the acyl anion synt... |
If I ate this whole bottle of vitamins, what would happen to me? | [International Units](_URL_6_) or IUs are biological equivalents for substances like vitamins. There is no standard conversion such as 1 IU always equals 0.5mg. It depends on what vitamin we are talking about. This may seem unnecessary at first, but when you consider that various versions of pre-vitamins result in diff... | [
"Vitamin overdose can be avoided by not taking more than the normal or recommended amount of multi-vitamin supplement shown on the bottle. and not ingesting multiple vitamin-containing supplements concurrently\n",
"Toxicity results from ingesting too much preformed vitamin A from foods (such as fish or animal liv... |
If person A is travelling at a fast speed away from person B, why is it that person A's time runs slower when you could say that person B is travelling away relative to A? | Your assessment is spot on. They both see the others clock running slow, which is generally called 'the principle of reciprocity' in introductory textbooks.
If you have two space ships pass each other while traveling at constant velocities, each will feel 'at rest' with respect to the other. This results in each of th... | [
"More generally, it is normally impossible for information or energy to travel faster than \"c\". One argument for this follows from the counter-intuitive implication of special relativity known as the relativity of simultaneity. If the spatial distance between two events A and B is greater than the time interval b... |
Does the concept of religion differ outside of Abrahamic religions? | This isn't really a history question, but some here may want to answer. Meanwhile, you might consider x-posting this question to r/AskReligion, r/AskAnthropology, or r/AskSocialScience | [
"Today, religion is broadly conceived as an abstraction which entails beliefs, doctrines and sacred places—even though the ancient and medieval cultures that produced religious texts, like the Bible or the Quran, did not have such conceptions or ideas in their languages, cultures, or histories. However, there is st... |
what is the keynesian multiplier, and how does it help disprove supply-side economics? | The mythical Keynesisn multiplier falls hard for the Broken Window Fallacy. It measures what is seen in one part of the economy and neglects to subtracts out the unseen losses in the rest of the economy. If it were true we would never have another recession. | [
"The complex multiplier is the multiplier principle in Keynesian economics (formulated by John Maynard Keynes). The simplistic multiplier that is the reciprocal of the marginal propensity to save is a special case used for illustrative purposes only. The multiplier applies to any change in autonomous expenditure, i... |
what causes some tv shows/movies to look somehow "off" on newer screens (kind of soap opera-looking)? | You have motion interpolation turned on. It is a function that inserts computer-generated estimate frames between the existing frames of video to create smoother motion, but it's an aesthetic associated with camcorders and soap operas, so people often dislike it.
Look through your TV's menu and turn it off. | [
"Many complain that the soap opera effect ruins the theatrical look of cinematic works, by making it appear as if the viewer is either on set or watching a behind the scenes featurette. For this reason, almost all manufacturers have built in an option to turn the feature off or lower the effect strength.\n",
"Phi... |
why some people can float, while others can' t? | People can float in water if they learned or figured out how to do so. Those who cannot did not learn how. But no one is incapable of it. In fact its harder to not float than it is to float, because of your lungs, since they are filled with air.
If you wanna see what I mean, try getting a basketball underwater. | [
"A floating sensation (referred to as 'float') is cultivated throughout. Float does not ignore the existence of gravity. However rather than giving into gravity and adhering to heaviness, the body uses gravity as a force of energy and even elevation of the limbs. Naharin states, “we sense the weight of our body par... |
Q from my 5-year old: did dinosaurs have boogers? | [Birds are more likely related to dinosaurs](_URL_2_), rather than reptiles to dinosaurs, and birds do get [nasal mucus](_URL_1_).
A booger by any other name is still a [booger](_URL_0_). | [
"\"Stegosaurus\" has long been featured in popular informational books about dinosaurs. This is ostensibly due to its status as being one of the most famous dinosaurs in popular culture. Several older nonfiction books incorrectly stated that \"Stegosaurus\" had two brains, due to a mistake made by Marsh during the ... |
calvinism | John Calvin was a theologian who was part of the reformation. His theology became known as Calvinism.
Basically Calvinism is boiled down to the TULIP beliefs.
* T - Total Depravity - All parts of man are affected by sin
* U - Unconditional Election - We are saved by Christ without any conditions. We do not earn it,... | [
"Calvinism is a system of Christian theology and an approach to Christian life and thought within the Protestant tradition articulated by John Calvin, a Protestant Reformer in the 16th century, and subsequently by successors, associates, followers and admirers of Calvin, his interpretation of scripture, and perspec... |
I always hear how "Wilt played against milkmen" or "NFL players had day jobs as oil workers". How did sports contracts go from the equivalent of a second job to multi-million dollar deals? | The answer boils down to about two points: Market size and collective negotiations.
Back in the day, sports athletes were considered amateurs and were more motivated by passion to engage in a hobby more than working a primary job for earning income. As time went on through the 30s and 40s, competition and swelling au... | [
"Bonus babies were the group of amateur baseball players who went straight to the Major Leagues between the years 1947 and 1965 and received a signing bonus in excess of $4,000. The bonus rule prevented the player from spending time in the Minor League Baseball system that was, and is, the training ground for most ... |
what are the benefits to running in the cold | I played rugby in high school and I much preferred training and playing in the cold because of how tired and overheated I felt after. At first it sucked since I was all clammy and cold but after you get blood moving this is no longer an issue. At the end of the day, I always preferred playing and training in the cold, ... | [
"Running is an effective way to reduce stress, anxiety, depression, and tension. It helps people who struggle with seasonal affective disorder by being more outside running when it's sunny and warm. Running can improve mental alertness and also improve sleep which is needed for good mental health. Both research and... |
how do huge herbivores such as elephants and rhino's build muscle and mass without meat? what makes a human's body unable to grow similarly from just grass/leaves? | Au contraire! Vegetables, especially grains, have all kinds of protein in them. Here's a series of charts.
_URL_1_
I think they get enough protein because they consume enough in their food.
Elephants are not ruminants.
_URL_0_ | [
"Members of the rhinoceros family are some of the largest remaining megafauna, with all species able to reach or exceed one tonne in weight. They have a herbivorous diet, small brains (400–600 g) for mammals of their size, one or two horns, and a thick (1.5–5 cm) protective skin formed from layers of collagen posit... |
why are female pornstars paid more than male pornstars? isn't that illegal? | How many beautiful women do you know that are willing to let a complete stranger fuck them in the ass and spray semen on their faces? Now, while you're pondering that I ask you, how many guys do you know that would fuck a beautiful woman they've never met in the ass and spray semen on their face? I believe it all comes... | [
"Payment for pornstars is dependent on the sex acts performed; however, in a single scene, female actresses typically make between $100 and $6000, while male actors make between $100 and $400. In 2017, the Independent reported that female performers in scenes with male performers typically earn around $1,000, compa... |
How can Planck's Constant be well... a constant if we know that space itself has and is expanding? | Physical constants are immutable with respect to time by definition. If for instance the speed of light would speed up or slow down for some magical reason, it would from a physical stand point be the meter which gets longer or shorter as the speed of light and the passing of time must be constant.
In your example, th... | [
"The Planck constant is one of the smallest constants used in physics. This reflects the fact that on a scale adapted to humans, where energies are typically of the order of kilojoules and times are typically of the order of seconds or minutes, the Planck constant (the quantum of action) is very small. One can rega... |
why my torrents go so slow even though there's more seeders than leechers? | There are several possibilities.
1. If you are using a public site like piratebay most of those "seeders" are probably limiting their upload to a few k/s
2. Your internet provider might be limiting your download over torrents.
3. You might not be connectable the port you are using is not open. This limits who you ... | [
"Super seeding transfers stall when there is only one downloading client. The seeders will not send more data until a second client receives the data. To avoid this, rTorrent continues to offer more pieces to the peers without waiting for confirmation, until it is uploading at its configured capacity. This improves... |
How did Hitler finance the industrial build up to WW2? The story’s of wheelbarrow bread buyers would make one assume it be impossible to ramp up such huge industrial undertaking... where did the money come from? | He did the same thing most modern economies do. Deficit spending.
Hitler and his Finance minister, Hjalmar Schacht, knew that simply printing money to pay for rearmament would lead to inflation, so they decided to re-finance industry by using credit. Schacht and the largest German industrial firms teamed up and issue... | [
"After the war, Albert Speer claimed that the German economy achieved greater armaments output, not because of diversions of capacity from civilian to military industry but through streamlining of the economy. Richard Overy pointed out some 23 percent of German output was military by 1939. Between 1937 and 1939, 70... |
how do artists who don't make their own music... get their music? | Songs are bought by music producers from writers either on spec or commissioned and then given to the artist to test out and possibly record. Commercial music artists pretty much just record the vocals of songs in studios, and then they are mixed with hired gun musicians (aka studio musicians). They are the front of bu... | [
"Musicians often use this license for self-promotion. For instance, a cellist who performed a musical work on a recording may obtain a mechanical license so he can distribute copies of the recording to others as an example of his cello playing. Recording artists also use this when they record cover versions of song... |
Why did the Neanderthals (200,000 BCE - 30,000 BCE) start burying their dead? | Not to discourage any responses, but this is more of a question for /r/askanthropology/ since it pre-dates written history. | [
"Though disputed, evidence suggests that the Neanderthals were the first humans to intentionally bury the dead, doing so in shallow graves along with stone tools and animal bones. Exemplary sites include Shanidar in Iraq, Kebara Cave in Israel and Krapina in Croatia. Some scholars, however argue that these bodies m... |
why are gas stations still advertising gas as unleaded? | Not all engines that use gasoline use unleaded gasoline. It's best to specify lest somebody fill up their gas tank and find their engine doesn't work. | [
"Due to heavy fluctuations of gasoline price in the United States, some gas stations offer their customers the option to buy and store gas for future uses, such as the service provided by First Fuel Bank.\n",
"Generic Advertisement Service (GAS): An IEEE 802.11u service that provides over-the-air transportation f... |
physiologically how do some scents cause certain animals to panic in fear even if they are naive to the origin of the scent? | Not about smells but there's a cool paper on how water fleas develop protective helmets and longer tail spines in response to a chemical from a fish predator.
Even if they've never met the fish before they will develop these traits. This means that the response was inherited from their parents because they realise th... | [
"When people are confronted with unpleasant and potentially harmful stimuli such as foul odors or tastes, PET-scans show increased bloodflow in the amygdala. In these studies, the participants also reported moderate anxiety. This might indicate that anxiety is a protective mechanism designed to prevent the organism... |
Might the radioactive water from Fukushima create radioactive rain on the west coast of the United States? | There is a [team in Berkeley which measures radiation in rainwater](_URL_0_). They found some I-131 during the weeks after the meltdown, but quickly fell below detectable levels, and has stayed that way ever since.
Food took a little bit longer, but they [haven't found anything in quite a while at this point](_URL_1_... | [
"A year after the disaster, in April 2012, sea fish caught near the Fukushima power plant still contain as much radioactive Cs and Cs compared to fish caught in the days after the disaster. At the end of October 2012 TEPCO admitted that it could not exclude radioactivity releases into the ocean, although the radiat... |
Pre 1800s how was money transferred between bank accounts across different countries? | I answered a very similar question [here](_URL_0_)
In your specific case of traveling to Italy from the US pre-1800, I am not sure. But, generally,, you would look to find and pay a merchant or bank that did enough business there to make up a letter of credit that said, essentially, pay John Smith 1,000 ducats. When ... | [
"Generally, a central bank or treasury is solely responsible within a state or currency union for the issue of banknotes. However, this is not always the case, and historically the paper currency of countries was often handled entirely by private banks. Thus, many different banks or institutions may have issued ban... |
what happens when you cancel an installation process? | If the program has a GOOD installer, then it will go back and delete any files and revert back any registry changes it may have made. If the installer is crap it will just leave everything right where it was, which can sometimes cause problems if you try to install the program again.
If you forcekill the installer fro... | [
"All installation operations are transactional. In other words, for each operation that Windows Installer performs, it generates an equivalent undo operation that would revert the change made to the system. In case any script action fails during deferred execution, or the operation is cancelled by the user, all the... |
why can't i just drink water and eat bread (or some such food for calories) and take in all other nutrients via vitamins or supplements and be healthy? | First, you're going to be healthiest with the appropriate protein/carb/fat balance. Bread has WAY too many carbs, and it's typically not a complete protein. But assume you had a food that did have the right balance, and included complete proteins. Would that work?
Probably, yes. The risk you run is that you don't ... | [
"Dietary supplements contain one or more dietary ingredients (including vitamins; minerals; amino acids; herbs or other botanicals; and other substances) or their constituents is intended to be taken by mouth as a pill, capsule, tablet, or liquid. Athletes may choose to consider taking dietary supplements to assist... |
why does money go to the hundredths decimal place? | We use base-10 so we like to dived things by 10. Dividing by 10 twice gives you 1/100. Divide by ten again and you get 1/1000 which is now ~~(and has always been)~~ too small to be useful for transactions. So, 1/100 **used to be** the smallest [order of magnitude](_URL_1_) of our currencies that was still useful for ma... | [
"A decimal currency is a currency where the ratio between the main unit and the subunit is an integral power of 10. Non-decimal currencies are now rare but had some advantages in daily life transactions. For example, 1 South German Gulden = 60 Kreuzer. 60 can be divided into 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20 or 30 part... |
Is there any material/chemocal that can go from a solid to a gas and skip the liquid state? | There are lots, its not a property of the material so much as its a property of its tempature/pressure. Remember that water has different boiling points at diffrent pressures. Low pressure, low temp required, however at higher pressure (think pressure cooker) higher tempatures are required to boil (change into a gas) ... | [
"Liquid–liquid extraction is possible in non-aqueous systems: In a system consisting of a molten metal in contact with molten salts, metals can be extracted from one phase to the other. This is related to a mercury electrode where a metal can be reduced, the metal will often then dissolve in the mercury to form an ... |
how much does "data" cost internet/service providers? where does the actual overhead come from? | The overhead comes from running an extremely complex network with lots of infrastructure that requires highly trained and specialized engineers operating significant portions of it. Depending on what kind of a connection you're looking at setting up, your minimum entry cost is tens of thousands of dollars for a simple ... | [
", only 40% of internet connections now have a fixed data cap. Once users have exceeded their data cap, they typically have the option of having the speed limited to 64-128 kbit/s for the rest of the month or paying for any extra data used. Most RSP's (retail service providers) offer unlimited data plans. On averag... |
why does amazon constantly have "sales" with $0.03 off? | For me, it's a classic marketing trick.
Pure and simply; it's designed to get you in the store or at least looking at the item.
Just because it's $0.03 off, doesn't mean it's not technically a sale.
It's like when a store has a massive sign outside saying "50% OFF SALE!". Most people fail to see the "Up To" in smal... | [
"In January 2017, Amazon.ca was required by the Competition Bureau to pay a $1M penalty, plus $100,000 in costs, over pricing practices for failing to provide \"truth in advertising\" according to Josephine Palumbo, the deputy commissioner for deceptive marketing practices. This fine was levied because some product... |
Could giant humans survive? | I don't know the specific answer, but [this article](_URL_0_) deals with some of the problems of scaling up. | [
"Humans were the least affected. The only thing they have lost was their original size and duration of life. Along with being giants, the first humans were believed to have had larger eyes and bigger bones than the present. Roog did not touch the human spirit. Instead, it allowed them to develop their minds and put... |
How 'German' was Eastern Prussia under Frederick the Great? | Just to correct a few things first: That doesn't correspond to the modern Baltic states, which are further northeast, that's broadly the north and west of modern Poland and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, formerly Königsberg. It's also a map of Prussia under the German Empire (1871-1918), not a map of Prussia under... | [
"East Prussia (, ; ; ; ; ) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 (with the Kingdom itself being part of the German Empire from 1871); following World War I it formed part of the Weimar Republic's Free State of Prussia, until 1945. Its capital city was Königsberg (present-day... |
Why do some ants have such a high brain to body mass ratio? | As the article you linked to, along with [this one](_URL_1_) describe, brain size does not scale linearly (isometrically) with body size. Instead, it scales *allometrically*, proportional to approximately (body mass)^(k), where the exponent k is somewhere around 0.5 to 0.75 (depending on the group of animals being stud... | [
"It is also important to note that the measure of brain mass or volume, seen as cranial capacity, or even relative brain size, which is brain mass that is expressed as a percentage of body mass, are not a measure of intelligence, use, or function of regions of the brain. Total neurons, however, also do not indicate... |
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