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have humans created a new species? (via selection) | Using the biological species concept (which I assume, based on your question, is your framework), we have only created one to my knowledge: [Drosophila synthetica.](_URL_0_)
If you use the morphological or phylogenetic species concepts, we have created buttloads. | [
"Humans have created a wide range of new species, and varieties within those species, of both domesticated animals and plants. Other human activity also impacts evolution. This has been achieved in a very short geological period of time, spanning only a few tens of thousands of years, and sometimes less. Maize, \"Z... |
why do some foods contain insect parts? | If you have an open vat of tomatoes, say at the ketchup making plant, bugs are going to get into it. Then you take all those tomatoes and put them in a machine that pulverizes them. The machine doesn't differentiate between bugs and tomatoes, it just makes juice out of whatever is in the storage container.
Then that ... | [
"Insects as food or edible insects are insect species used for human consumption, e.g., whole or as an ingredient in processed food products such as burger patties, pasta, or snacks. The cultural and biological process of eating insects (by humans as well as animals) is described as entomophagy.\n",
"In some cult... |
why are serif fonts "easier to read in long paragraphs of text?" | There's actually no conclusive study on this that shows that serif fonts are genuinely easier to read than san serif fonts.
The idea is that the extra markings make a letter more immediately distinguishable from another letter. By having more angles on a letter, there is sharper contrast to one another and to the whi... | [
"Serifed fonts are widely used for body text because they are considered easier to read than sans-serif fonts in print. However, scientific study on this topic has been inconclusive. Colin Wheildon, who conducted scientific studies from 1982 to 1990, found that sans serif fonts created various difficulties for read... |
can sound waves create other sound waves? what would those sound like? | Absolutely! Sounds waves are just a vibration, and cause other objects to vibrate as well. Primary waves create what are called overtones and harmonics as they interact with the air and surrounding surfaces.
If you go to a piano and play one of the lower notes loudly and hold the key down, you will hear other, higher ... | [
"Sometimes sound waves at ultrasonic frequencies can be used to levitate objects, thus creating no sound heard by the human ear, such as was demonstrated at Otsuka Lab, while others use audible frequencies. There are various ways of emitting the sound wave, from creating a wave underneath the object and reflecting ... |
What warcrimes did the Dutch commit in the Indonesian Independence war in 1945-1949 | The Dutch historiography and research into war crimes conducted by the Dutch army during the Indonesian independance war is not very well researched. This because it was 'actively forgotten' by the Dutch governement in that no serious research was conducted , people involved were encouraged to remain silent about it an... | [
"The Japanese invasion and subsequent occupation during World War II ended Dutch rule and encouraged the previously suppressed Indonesian independence movement. In May 1940, early in World War II, the Netherlands was occupied by Nazi Germany. The Dutch East Indies declared a state of siege and in July redirected ex... |
how does the bar exam work and who governs it? | In the United States, each individual state has its own bar exam, and it is generally administered under the authority of the state's highest court. For example, the Illinois bar exam is administered by the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar (IBAB), and IBAB is seven lawyers appointed by the Illinois Supreme Court... | [
"The bar examination in most U.S. states and territories is at least two days long (a few states have three-day exams). It consists of essay questions, usually testing knowledge of the state's own law (usually subjects such as wills, trusts and community property, which always vary from one state to another). Some ... |
Is it possible to estimate the cost of constructing one of the great pyramids (adjusting for inflation)? If so, how expensive of a project was it? | Ancient Egypt didn't have a monetary system until 2000 years after the pyramid's construction so it is probably better to use work hours and the cost of employing workers as a comparison, especially because the value of today's money is heavily warped compared to a barter system.
--------------------------------
**How... | [
"One mystery of the pyramid's construction is its planning. John Romer suggests that they used the same method that had been used for earlier and later constructions, laying out parts of the plan on the ground at a 1-to-1 scale. He writes that \"such a working diagram would also serve to generate the architecture o... |
if i rinse out a dish right after using it and there's nothing on it, is it fully clean or do i still need to use soap? | Come on, man. Soap. | [
"Hand dishwashing detergents utilize surfactants to play the primary role in cleaning. The reduced surface tension of dishwashing water, and increasing solubility of modern surfactant mixtures, allows the water to run off the dishes in a dish rack very quickly. However, most people also rinse the dishes with pure w... |
What is the cost of the extinction of individual species? | Answering that question requires two other questions be answered: "How important is the niche this organism is in?" and "How well can other animals fill in that niche?" Many species are more critical to the survival of an ecosystem than others. For instance, in the Southern US gopher tortoises are suffering huge loss... | [
"It's estimated that, because of human activities, current species extinction rates are about 1000 times greater than the background extinction rate (the 'normal' extinction rate that occurs without additional influence) . According to the IUCN, out of all species assessed, over 27,000 are at risk of extinction and... |
how likely is it that earth is the only planet with living beings, and that humans are the only species that have the intelligence to speak, create, develop etc? | We don't really have great way to actually put a number to it, but the general consensus among scientists is that it's essentially a certainty that there *is* other intelligent life out there. Based on our current knowledge of exoplanets, it's estimated there as many as *40 billion* Earth-like planets in our galaxy alo... | [
"It may be that while alien species with intelligence exist, they are primitive or have not reached the level of technological advancement necessary to communicate. Along with non-intelligent life, such civilizations would be also very difficult for us to detect, short of a visit by a probe, a trip that would take ... |
what is mthfr gene mutation? | The MTHFR gene has the instructions for the body to build an enzyme with a really long name. An enzyme is a protein that helps the body perform chemical reactions. This particular enzyme helps make methionine, one of the building blocks of proteins, and helps the body to use vitamin B9 (also known as folic acid).
... | [
"The MTHFR nucleotide at position 677 in the gene has two possibilities: C (cytosine) or T (thymine). C at position 677 (leading to an alanine at amino acid 222) is the normal allele. The 677T allele (leading to a valine substitution at amino acid 222) encodes a thermolabile enzyme with reduced activity.\n",
"At ... |
the handicap hypothesis/principal in sexual selection | Rich person wants to convince a potential mate that he/she is worth mating with. Rich person has so much money that they can afford to spend much of it on frivolous material goods that may actually decrease their ability to survive (dangerously fast car). This signals to a potential mate that they are exceptionally wor... | [
"Several mid-level evolutionary theories inform evolutionary psychology. The R/K selection theory proposes that some species prosper by having many offspring while others follow the strategy of having fewer offspring but investing much more in each one. Humans follow the second strategy. Parental investment theory ... |
the significance of platonic solids, what makes them different from the other shapes? | They are polygons (3D shapes made up of flat surfaces joined together) for which:
* the faces are identical in shape and size
* the faces are regular polygons (so all their angles equal and all their sides are equal)
* the same number of faces meet at each vertex (corner) of the polygon
* the polygon is convex (it ... | [
"\"The Platonic Solids\" was inspired by Plato's conception of the five classical elements: earth, air, fire, water, and ether. In Plato's work \"Timaeus\" (ca. 350 BCE), the five forms of matter are related to elemental solids and shapes (the cube, the octahedron, the tetrahedron, the icosahedron, and the dodecahe... |
Why do depictions of American Indians never show men with facial hair? | You may be interested in the older post:
* [Native Americans generally didn't have beards. Do we know what they thought of the bearded and mustachioed Europeans and their decedents?](_URL_0_)
Many groups plucked facial hair, with wooden or shell or even bronze implements. Others apparently singed hair off. In some g... | [
"Some consider Williams' portrayal of American Indians to have been offensive. His use of a stylized headdress was often referenced as the reason for offense, as the headdress is a sacred, central cultural item for many tribes.\n",
"H. Harris, publishing in the \"British Journal of Dermatology\" in 1947, wrote Am... |
why drugs companies give half the people placebo's and half the people the actual drug when testing | Lets say you give 10 people a new drug and 5 of them get better/improve, you might think that 50% of the people who take the drug get better.
If instead, you give 10 people the drug and 10 people a placebo and 5 people from each group get better, than you know that the drug isn't (neccessarily) causing the improvemen... | [
"Researchers suggest that because variation in drug use susceptibility is in part due to genetic factors, drug consumption could potentially be a costly and honest signal of biological quality. The hypothesis being that humans engage in substance use despite health costs in part to evidence that they can afford to ... |
the science behind the charlie charlie pencil game | The kid off camera to the right is blowing slightly, moving the pencil. Try it yourself, it takes very little wind to move the pencil. You can tell because they never show anybody in frame when the pencil is moving.
This is really no different than the telekinesis trick James Hydrick used to make pencils move back in ... | [
"The Charlie Charlie challenge is a modern incarnation of the Spanish paper-and-pencil game called \"Juego de la Lapicera\" (Pencil Game). Like a Magic 8-Ball, the game is played by teenagers using held or balanced pencils to produce answers to questions they ask. Teenage girls have played \"Juego de la Lapicera\" ... |
Do historians generally believe that terracotta army found near Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum were made using imported 'Hellenistic' expertise? | There was a great answer on this question about a year ago by u/kungming2 in response to someone who watched the same documentary:
_URL_0_ | [
"In 2017 Li Jian was curator of the \"Terracotta Army: Legacy of the First Emperor of China\", the Qin Dynasty terracotta soldiers exhibition at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The VMFA's director, Alex Neryges, stated that the Terracotta Army was the biggest archaeological discovery of all time calling the Qin S... |
how's does liquid soup turn into foam when i pump it from it container? what's exactly is happening? | When you push the pump (which contains one chamber for soap and one for air) it creates negative pressure that brings the liquid and air together, creating foam. | [
"One of the ways foam is created is through dispersion, where a large amount of gas is mixed with a liquid. A more specific method of dispersion involves injecting a gas through a hole in a solid into a liquid. If this process is completed very slowly, then one bubble can be emitted from the orifice at a time as sh... |
why do i sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with the sole thought of remembering i forgot to set my alarm? | I'd love to know the answer to this too. Sometimes I can't even get to sleep until I *know* I set the alarm. | [
"Today, many humans wake up with an alarm clock; however, people can also reliably wake themselves up at a specific time with no need for an alarm. Many sleep quite differently on workdays versus days off, a pattern which can lead to chronic circadian desynchronization. Many people regularly look at television and ... |
what is the point of those things that appear in your eyes after sleeping? | They're called eye poop in Sweden | [
"When the individual is awake, blinking of the eyelid causes rheum to be washed away with tears via the nasolacrimal duct. The absence of this action during sleep, however, results in a small amount of dry rheum accumulating in corners of the eye, most notably in children.\n",
"Acute Haemmorrhagic Conjunctivitis ... |
why do companies spend excessive amounts of money on logos that look barely different? | Peter Drucker, a very famous business professor, was often quoted as saying: "There are only two things in a business that make money - innovation and marketing. Everything else is a cost."
A company's logo is its face to the world. Anything that people think of when they glimpse a company's logo is probably going to ... | [
"Because these company and program logos represent the company and product itself, much attention is given to their design, done frequently by commercial artists. To regulate the use of these brand icons, they are trademark registered and are considered part of the company intellectual property.\n",
"Consumers de... |
britons of reddit, can someone explain the "first past the post system"? | The country is divided into "constituencies".
Each constituency elects a single representative, or MP. (Edit, as pointed out below): they do this by voting on the candidates, and the candidate with the most votes wins. The winner doesn't need a majority of votes, they just need more votes than anyone else.
Most MPs r... | [
"First past the post was used in New Zealand prior to MMP, and the three other systems were recommended by the Royal Commission on the Electoral System for further scrutiny in 1986 and were voted on in 1992.\n",
"The first-past-the-post system used in UK general elections means that the number of seats won is not... |
Did any military powers use light (most likely the reflection of it) in military tactics in an attempt to blind or burn the opposition? | Sorry, we don't allow ["example seeking" questions](_URL_0_). It's not that your question was bad; it's that these kinds of questions tend to produce threads that are collections of disjointed, partial, inadequate responses. If you have a question about a specific historical event, period, or person, feel free to rewri... | [
"Battlefield illumination is technology that improves visibility for military forces operating in difficult light conditions. The risks and dangers to armies fighting in poor light have been known since Ancient Chinese times. Prior to the advent of the electrical age, fire was used to improve visibility on the batt... |
quantum computers (you can explain it like i'm a dumbass 26yr old too if that suits you more.) | _URL_0_
This video explains it fairly well. | [
"Quantum computers are the ultimate quantum network, combining 'quantum bits' or 'qubit' which are devices that can store and process quantum data (as opposed to binary data) with links that can transfer quantum information between qubits. In doing this, quantum computers are predicted to calculate certain algorith... |
eli: the current debate in the uk about the eu. | [This](_URL_0_) excellent post by /u/loudribs over at /r/unitedkingdom gives a good overview of the pros and cons. | [
"The United Kingdom renegotiation of European Union membership was a package of changes to the United Kingdom's terms of European Union (EU) membership and changes to EU rules which was first proposed by Prime Minister David Cameron in January 2013, with negotiations beginning in the summer of 2015 following the ou... |
Is there a chance to be struck by lightening in a room with window and door closed ? | Yes, but probably not in the way you think. A lightning bolt will most likely not shoot through a window, leave the wall unmolested, shoot through the air in your room and then head right towards you. Lighting is electricity and takes the path of least electrical resistance. Your walls have metal plumbing pipes and met... | [
"Upon entering the darkened room, the gaze falls on a black “picture”, which, surrounded by a vibrating light, appears to float in front of the wall. The image is made up of 16 monitors arranged as a compact rectangular block at a distance of 30 centimetres from the wall – the screens facing the wall. A crackling s... |
why do people enjoy the smell of their own farts?? | It's just you. | [
"The effect his scent has had now confirms to Grenouille how much he hates people, especially as he realizes that they worship him now and that even this degree of control does not give him satisfaction. He decides to return to Paris, intending to die there, and after a long journey ends up at the fish market where... |
why was earth more subject to cosmic debris impacts billions of years ago compared to today? | Because there were a lot more cosmic debris back than, in fact Earth is a collection of cosmic debris. Over the course of billions of years Earth along with the rest of the planets in the Solar System have cleaned out the space debris adjacent to their orbits. That being said there are still billions of space rocks lef... | [
"Large areas of Earth's surface are subject to extreme weather such as tropical cyclones, hurricanes, or typhoons that dominate life in those areas. From 1980 to 2000, these events caused an average of 11,800 human deaths per year. Many places are subject to earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, to... |
is it really true that cockroaches find humans repulsive? | Cockroaches don't have the neurons required to feel revulsion, or much of anything, really. They're little machines with a bunch of hardwired responses and little to no ability to actually make decisions. That said, one of their responses is to remove foreign smells from their bodies. The oils on your finger qualify, s... | [
"Cockroaches are social insects; a large number of species are either gregarious or inclined to aggregate, and a slightly smaller number exhibit parental care. It used to be thought that cockroaches aggregated because they were reacting to environmental cues, but it is now believed that pheromones are involved in t... |
Historians, how do you feel, in general, the accuracy and completeness of wikipedia entries compares to High School history textbooks? | It depends on the article, especially on how popular the topic is. I'd say, in general, that wikipedia articles are more complete than a typical textbook. This is due to space more than anything. A textbook can't spend 1200 words on Julius Caesar's [early career](_URL_0_) before becoming consul. But the rest of his car... | [
"The book reflects Loewen's belief that history should not be taught as straightforward facts and dates to memorize, but rather as analysis of the context and root causes of events. Loewen recommends that teachers use two or more textbooks, so that students may realize the contradictions and ask questions, such as,... |
how come some animals, like kangaroos, bulls and some apes, can get so jacked buy eating almost no proteins? | They don't eat "no" proteins, but their diet consists of food with only a small amount of protein in it (grasses, etc do still have a small amount of protein)
So they eat a LOT of it. And have digestive systems (and muscles) that have evolved to extract the maximum benefit out of what they do eat. | [
"Kangaroos have single-chambered stomachs quite unlike those of cattle and sheep, which have four compartments. They sometimes regurgitate the vegetation they have eaten, chew it as cud, and then swallow it again for final digestion. However, this is a different, more strenuous, activity than it is in ruminants, an... |
how can video games produce sounds from specific areas in the game? | Science.meme
But seriously, it’s all in just using the right balance between left and right to mimic what he hear and how we perceive direction in real life. We experience the sounds we hear all the time in stereo (i.e. out of each of our 2 ears), so it’s *relatively* straightforward to create this same effect by spli... | [
"Many games use advanced techniques such as 3D positional sound, making audio programming a non-trivial matter. With these games, one or two programmers may dedicate all their time to building and refining the game's sound engine, and sound programmers may be trained or have a formal background in digital signal pr... |
what does the wow! alien signal mean? the image is just a bunch of numbers and letters so what is the significance of those specific letters? | [Here is a better visualization of the WOW signal](_URL_0_)
Basically those numbers and letters are a printout of raw data because you can fit more datapoints on a printed sheet of paper this way. The numbers go up and then into the alphabet to represent the strength of a signal.
As you saw on the printout, the norm... | [
"Donnelly discovers that the symbol for time is present throughout the message, and that the writing occupies exactly one-twelfth of the space in which it is projected. Banks suggests that the full message is split among the twelve craft, and the aliens want all the nations to share what they learn.\n",
"The Wow!... |
how does the chinese economy work/differs from the rest of the world. | Its basically American capitalism with loose or non-existent civil rights laws (child labor, unequal wages and hours ) and the government can own and compete in business. Imagine if the US government decided to start building super cheap economy cars, built with unpaid slave labor provided by the prison system and supe... | [
"The socialist market economy of the People's Republic of China is the world's second largest economy by nominal GDP and the world's largest economy by purchasing power parity. Until 2015, China was the world's fastest-growing major economy, with growth rates averaging 6% over 30 years. Due to historical and politi... |
why do non-hearing people sound "that way" when they speak? | They can see how lips move, but they can't see how throat, tongue, windpipe, etc move. Observing mouth movement is not enough to recreate all the sounds, you need to be able to hear it in order to accurately replicate what others are saying. Not to mention you can't get the tone or pacing correctly either by just looki... | [
"BULLET::::- psychological noise are the preconception bias and assumptions such as thinking someone who speaks like a valley girl is dumb, or someone from a foreign country can’t speak English well so you speak loudly and slowly to them.\n",
"While native speakers correctly pronounce the sequence differently in ... |
why do road workers cut strips out of the interstate and refill them? | Potholes are partially caused by the stuff under the road settling and no longer supporting it. They need to cut out the road and repair the road bed or else the problem will just come back.
A freeway isn't just a strip of concrete, they have to dig out the ground and provide a stable foundation when building it. Just... | [
"These roads are made from recycled plastics, and the first step in constructing them is to collect and manage the plastic material. The plastics involved in building these roads consists mainly of common post-consumer products such as product packaging. Some of the most common plastics used in packaging are polyet... |
Does anyone know a good read on snipers in WWII? | Karabiner 98k by Karem and Steves is a great resource for K98k snipers, particularly Volume IIa. There are currently 3 volumes, Volume 1 covers pre-war (banner model, standard modell, etc) to 1938 rifles at Mauser-Oberndorf, JP Sauer, Mauser-Borsigwalde, Ermawerke, Berlin Lubecker, and BSW. Volume 2 covers wartime pr... | [
"Common sniper rifles used during the Second World War include: the Soviet M1891/30 Mosin–Nagant and, to a lesser extent, the SVT-40; the German Mauser Karabiner 98k and Gewehr 43; the British Lee–Enfield No. 4 and Pattern 1914 Enfield; the Japanese Arisaka 97; the American M1903A4 Springfield and M1C Garand. The I... |
Iroquois vs. Haudenosaunee | The exact etymology of "Iroquois" is debatable, and there are plenty of Iroquoian people who use it and related terms for various purposes. If you're talking about an individual person, it's best to go with their specific nation. Joseph Brant is Mohawk (or *Kanien'kehá:ka* if you're feeling particularly ambitious). Hau... | [
"The Iroquois Confederacy or Haudenosaunee is believed to have been founded by the Peacemaker in 1142 or 1451 AD, bringing together five distinct nations in the southern Great Lakes area into \"The Great League of Peace\". Each nation within this Iroquoian confederacy had a distinct language, territory, and functio... |
How did the various Viking colonizers of parts of Britain react to different forms of Paganism in the areas they commanded? | They didn't react to them, because as far as we can tell, there were no surviving population groups practising pre-Christian religions in the British Isles when the Vikings first began making incursions in 793. Ireland and Scotland had fully Christianised over the course of the fifth to seventh centuries and developed ... | [
"The Viking invasions of the eighth and ninth centuries reintroduced paganism to North-East England, leading in turn to another wave of conversion. Indigenous Scandinavian beliefs were very similar to other Germanic groups, with a pantheon of gods including Odin, Thor and Ullr, combined with a belief in a final, ap... |
what does a magnetic polar reversal mean for everyday life? | The poles don't actually switch like flipping around. One or both weaken, then wander. During the weak time, the Earth is bathed in radiation that a strong field prevents. Time to go underground. | [
"Gregg Braden (born June 28, 1954) is an American author of Consciousness literature, who wrote about the 2012 phenomenon and became noted for his claim that the magnetic polarity of the earth was about to reverse. Braden argued that the change in the earth's magnetic field might have effects on human DNA. He has a... |
if i find an undiscovered island in international waters, is it mine? | Essentially, on the scale of nations, there's not really legal rules exactly. Its more like, if you can convince everyone that it is yours, then it's yours.
For my money, I would instead make a deal with the US or your large power of choice. "Let me own this whole island, and I'll be part of your country." The odds of... | [
"The only immediate mining potential is on and immediately offshore of the islands themselves (phosphates, sand, gravel, and coral) which would conflict with their protected status per the study. Iron deposits on a few seamounts are also mentioned as an \"intermediate\" possibility but no energy resources are ident... |
how do music editing programs change the pitch without changing the speed? | Sound can be converted between "time domain" and "frequency domain" using Fourier transform (sort of a spectrum analyzer). So you can convert the sound to frequencies, do modifications there (for example shift frequencies) and convert back to time domain, and you get pitch shift without speed change. In practice doing ... | [
"The software generally goes through a two-step process to accomplish this. First, the audio file is played back at a lower sample rate than that of the original file. This has the same effect as playing a tape or vinyl record at slower speed - the pitch is lowered meaning the music can sound like it is in a differ... |
Is the total mass of oxygen atoms greater in the ocean or in the air? | Oxygen is about 23.20% of the atmosphere by mass, and the atmosphere has a total mass of about 5 x 10^(18) kg. So the atmosphere contains about 1.16 x 10^(18) kg of oxygen.
Oxygen is about 88.89% (16/18) of water by mass, and the oceans have an approximate mass of 1.35 x 10^(21) kg. So the oceans contain about 1.2 x 1... | [
"Oxygen is one of the most abundant elements on Earth and represents a large portion of each main reservoir. By far the largest reservoir of Earth's oxygen is within the silicate and oxide minerals of the crust and mantle (99.5% by weight). The Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere together weigh less than ... |
All this talk about humans on Mars someday. How will that be possible with such extreme cold temperatures on Mars? | Well, the temperature isn't even the biggest problem. Radiation and (lack of) pressure are at least as problematic. All of these limit the extent of extravehicular surface activities feasible to humans. We do need heated, insulated pressure suits on Mars, but they can be quite a bit more lightweight and less clumsy tha... | [
"In complete contast the mean temparature on Mars is very cold at -63 deg C [-82 deg F] This is despite having over 95% atmospheric CO2, almost the same as Venus, but at a much lower pressure than both earth an Venus. Mars is further from the Sun than earth but still receives about 44% of the suns heat [approx 500w... |
why do apples make me hungrier? | The problem with apples is that they are purely carbs and nothing else, and carbs will always leave you with that "empty" feeling. Granted, they have a lot of health benefits, are highly nutritious, and I definitely eat them all the time. However, foods that contain fats and proteins are the ones that make us feel full... | [
"It is fairly large, oblong and has red skin and crisp flesh. Like many late-season apples, it improves with a few weeks of cool storage, which brings it to its full, rich flavor. Hedrick praised this apple as attractive and keeping well in cold storage, but added that it was imperfect in that the trees lack vigor ... |
Why is there a dotted image on the side of public bus windows? | It's called frit. Has a number of purposes- it's ceramic based paint that helps the adhesive bond to the window in the mount. It also minimizes UV reducing its ability to break down the sealant.
And, I've heard they think it makes a car more appealing- so you don't go from black window gasket to window- it's a slow t... | [
"At the centre of the map is a rectangular area with a yellow background which shows the local street layout and bus stops labelled with letters (A to Z, and if necessary AA to ZZ) of all the bus-stops in the local area. Beyond this is a schematic bus map for an area about radius with a pale yellow background, whic... |
how does private individual buy stocks offline/online? and how does the process work? | "private individuals" don't really buy stocks, you need to go through a broker. You place an order with one of a thousand or more investment houses/companies that you have made an account with, the company then goes through the process of buying you that stock through their electronic systems. It takes only millisec... | [
"There are other ways of buying stock besides through a broker. One way is directly from the company itself. If at least one share is owned, most companies will allow the purchase of shares directly from the company through their investor relations departments. However, the initial share of stock in the company wil... |
Did the Byzantines ever consider building a 'Great Wall' of their own to repel the Arabs and Turks? | The situation for the Byzantines was very different.
In the cases of the Romans versus the Picts/Germans/other peoples, or the Chinese versus the various nomadic peoples to their north, you have a big, strong, rich, centralised empire that has to deal with endemic raiding from less organised but mobile and elusive ene... | [
"The Byzantine Empire was left much poorer, smaller, and ultimately less able to defend itself against the Turkish conquests that followed; the actions of the Crusaders thus directly accelerated the collapse of Christendom in the east, and in the long run facilitated the expansion of Islam into Europe.\n",
"Event... |
why does america mostly use traffic lights at intersections when europe uses a lot of traffic circles? what are the benefits to either? | A roundabout (or traffic circle) can usually handle a greater volume of traffic. It's relatively rare, at least outside of the rush hour, for traffic to come to a complete standstill, which is the case with traffic lights. However, roundabouts do force traffic to slow down: at traffic lights, drivers may be tempted to ... | [
"In other countries like Australia, New Zealand, Lebanon and the United Kingdom, traffic lights are mounted at the stop line before the intersection and also after the intersection. Some busy intersections have an overhead traffic light for heavy vehicles and vehicles further away.\n",
"In North America, there is... |
Are (biological) children of gay people more likely to be gay? | > Is this an inheritable trait?
is a different question than
> Are (biological) children of gay people more likely to be gay?
The evidence is overwhelming that there are genetic factors at play in homosexuality, if your identical twin is gay, there's something like a 52% chance that you will be gay[1], compared wi... | [
"A 2001 review suggested that the children with lesbian or gay parents appear less traditionally gender-typed and are more likely to be open to homoerotic relationships, partly due to genetic (80% of the children being raised by same-sex couples in the US are not adopted and most are the result of heterosexual marr... |
Can it be that life is originating constantly since it first originated 3.5 billion years ago? | There is no real way of knowing, but until we find another form of life that does not use DNA/RNA, we have no reason to believe that abiogenesis (the process of life originating) is still occurring.
I would also add that it is very very very unlikely that any life from recent abiogenesis would ever be found, if it eve... | [
"The chemistry of life may have begun shortly after the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago, during a habitable epoch when the Universe was only 10–17 million years old. According to the panspermia hypothesis, microscopic life—distributed by meteoroids, asteroids and other small Solar System bodies—may exist throughou... |
why hasn't usa adopted nordic countries education and health care system? | *Sigh*. Some of us have, it just doesn't go anywhere for a variety of reasons.
The "core" reason is that when the European democracies rebuilt after WWII, they developed universal healthcare systems to ensure everyone had care. This was largely an expansion of the systems Germany used to strikebreak or otherwise help ... | [
"According to Finnish sociologist Erik Allardt, the hallmark of the Nordic welfare system was its comprehensiveness. Unlike the welfare systems of the United States or most West European countries, those of the Nordic countries cover the entire population, and they are not limited to those groups unable to care for... |
how do grizzly bears (or any other animal) know that we are not a threat to them? | > How do they know that we are weaker than them?
We are smaller, no claws in sight.
> They don't get taught by their parents to hunt human, so why they are not afraid to attack us?
See answer #1
> How do they know that we don't have some poison or something.
animals have very limited reasoning abilities. We don... | [
"Grizzly bears normally avoid contact with people. In spite of their obvious physical advantage they rarely actively hunt humans. Most grizzly bear attacks result from a bear that has been surprised at very close range, especially if it has a supply of food to protect, or female grizzlies protecting their offspring... |
Any recommendations for a good espionage book? | I'm a fan of the atomic spies myself. Some favorites that focus on individuals (which often makes for better stories than big, all-encompassing books on Soviet espionage, like _The Haunted Wood_):
* _Bombshell: The Secret Story of America's Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy_. This focuses primarily on the spying of Ted H... | [
"\"Time\" magazine, while including \"The Spy Who Came in from the Cold\" in its top 100 novels list, stated that the novel was \"a sad, sympathetic portrait of a man who has lived by lies and subterfuge for so long, he's forgotten how to tell the truth.\" The book also headed the \"Publishers Weekly\"s list of 15 ... |
why does certain parts of audio dissappear when the headphonejack isn't all the way in? | The headphone plug actually has multiple connectors on it--those are the colored ridges on the plug itself. Usually, there are three main connectors, but I suppose others can exist.
When the plug isn't all the way in, some of those connectors don't line up, and others might line up with another input. This causes the ... | [
"The Gamate's mono internal speaker is of poor quality, giving off sound that is quite distorted, particularly at low volumes. However, if a user plugs into the headphone jack, the sound is revealed to be programmed in stereo, and of a relatively high quality.\n",
"Active noise-cancelling headphones use a microph... |
Have the Amish always been significantly different than other rural Midwestern farmers? At what point did technological and societal changes really set the Amish apart? | From the time they first settled in the US, the Amish have been different. They spoke German and eschewed the clothing that was popular. They had specific rules about dress and behavior, like no buttons, which set them apart even before modern technology. They also have their own religion that is a branch of Protestant... | [
"The first Amish began migrating to the United States in the 18th century, largely to avoid religious persecution and compulsory military service. The Northkill Creek watershed, in eastern Province of Pennsylvania, was opened for settlement in 1736 and that year Melchior Detweiler and Hans Seiber settled near North... |
why does tiresize change based on car size? | Larger wheels allow the axle to be higher off the ground, letting you drive over larger irregularities without smashing into things. This is important in something like a pickup truck which might be driving onto an ungraded work site. A civic or a smart car would prefer to have smaller wheels because they aren't design... | [
"Note that tire size (or dimensions of the road wheels) does not affect the gear ratio of a vehicle, and thus using a different size tire on the same vehicle does not affect the torque on the road wheels or the crawl ratio. However, for a given engine speed and a gear ratio, the output force on the road wheels decr... |
why does our own body clog our nose, which is essential for breathing, on allergic reactions or when we've got a cold? | The allergic reaction comes from the inflammatory response trying to stop the spread of the allergen. The cells that release these chemicals don't know where in the body they are located. Just that something foreign is there and the body doesn't like it. | [
"One of the more common health risks that people encounter is a result of air pollutants and air quality. Allergic Asthma is a chronic disease that affects individual's inflammatory system when they are exposed to allergens resulting in shortness of breath, wheezing, and coughing. Environmental factors such as, air... |
if you're swimming in a pool and lightning strikes the water, it'll most likely harm you. at what range when swimming in a larger body of water, like a lake or even an ocean would lightning have an effect on a person swimming in it at the time? | Lighting striking in an open water has a lethal range of about 6 - 10 meters with most of the energy being dispersed along the surface. If you're outside that range, you might still suffer burns. There's also a notable pressure wave (the underwater equivalent of thunder) that would be potentially dangerous at further d... | [
"Besides boats and dockside power hookups, several other potential causes exist. Lightning strikes over or near water have caused electric shock drownings. Faulty hydroelectric generators or damaged underwater power lines can cause leakage currents, potentially creating a hazard. In general, anything electrically a... |
in terms of evolution, why are peacocks' tails so big? | a large tail would be a trait of a healthy bird, which in turn drives the success of the species. | [
"The tail of a peacock makes the peacock more vulnerable to predators, and may therefore be a handicap. However, the message that the tail carries to the potential mate peahen may be 'I have survived in spite of this huge tail; hence I am fitter and more attractive than others'.\n",
"In 1993, along with two other... |
at any given night in a city, we see a fairly small amount of stars but far away from city lights we see thousands of stars. what determines what stars we see in a city? | The brightest stars are still visible. Cities produce a lot of light, dubbed "light pollution" that drowns out the light from dimmer stars. | [
"Heavy, bright stars (both giants and blue dwarfs) are the most common stars listed in general star catalogs, even though on average they are rare in space. Small dim stars (red dwarfs) seem to be the most common stars in space, at least locally, but can only be seen with large telescopes, and then only when they a... |
How does the photon of specific phase that causes stimulated emission in a laser device arise? | The first photon doesn't have to have a specific phase. Whatever it has determines the phase of the laser. In terms of direction and polarization: If it is not aligned with the laser cavity (or has the wrong polarization, if that is relevant), this chain of photons dies down quickly and another "first photon" will star... | [
"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-... |
Who is the Japanese military leader in this picture? | > My own investigation of Jappanese military leaders who killed themselves in circumstances where the Americans might quickly find their body makes me think it could be either Isamu Cho or Mitsuru Ushijima. The picture of Cho kind of looks like the picture I have.
Right idea, but wrong guy, mainly because this is a s... | [
"There are Japanese caricatures and depictions of the Imperial Japanese Army. There is also a reference to Hirohito. The Japanese soldiers speak in stereotypical dialect and advocate firing the first shot at a man's back.\n",
"It shows the common Japanese soldier as an individual and as a family man, and even ene... |
why do woman traditionally throw underhand while men throw overhand? | What do you mean by "traditionally"? Do you mean as in softball vs. baseball? They're different games with different rules, and overhand pitching is illegal in softball. Women who do play baseball do throw overhand pitches. | [
"Dunking is much less common in women's basketball than in men's play. Dunking is slightly more common during practice sessions, but many coaches advise against it in competitive play because of the risks of injury or failing to score.\n",
"\"Faltas\" (errors or faults) were made when the ball came to a halt on t... |
Will Microscopes ever be powerful enough that we can view individual molecules? | [Already exists](_URL_0_). That is from an atomic force microscope; optical microscopes are limited by the wavelength of light and laws of optics. | [
"Optical microscopes can focus on objects the size of a wavelength or larger, giving restrictions still to advancement in discoveries with objects smaller than the wavelengths of visible light. Later in the 1920s, the electron microscope was developed, making it possible to view objects that are smaller than optica... |
i need help understanding the difference between torque and rotational inertia | Linear | Rotating
---|---
Force | Torque
Inertia | Rotational Inertia
Torque is the force you apply in a circular fashion. The moment arm is how far away from the axis that the force is applied. If I have a wrench and I'm turning a nut with it, I'm applying torque (circular force) to that nut by pushing on the end of... | [
"Torque is the rotation equivalent of force in the same way that angle is the rotational equivalent for position, angular velocity for velocity, and angular momentum for momentum. As a consequence of Newton's First Law of Motion, there exists rotational inertia that ensures that all bodies maintain their angular mo... |
electricity supply | Houses have 3 power lines. Imagine a top, bottom and middle line. Top and bottom are 240V with respect to each other. The middle line is there to give you 120V between it and the top or bottom line. | [
"Electric power is usually produced by electric generators, but can also be supplied by sources such as electric batteries. It is usually supplied to businesses and homes (as domestic mains electricity) by the electric power industry through an electric power grid. Electric energy is usually sold by the kilowatt ho... |
why do muscles stiffen and lose flexibility? and why does stretching sometimes feel good and sometimes hurt? | Lots and lots of reasons. But ELI5. Muscles get stiff because they get used to being short and all the fibres get tighter and closer together. It can also be because of literal knots in the muscle. Imagine you cut a piece of string in half, to make it whole you have to tie a knot in it. The string is shorter but i... | [
"Flexibility is improved by stretching. Stretching should only be started when muscles are warm and the body temperature is raised. To be effective while stretching, force applied to the body must be held just beyond a feeling of pain and needs to be held for at least ten seconds. Increasing the range of motion cre... |
what is a proxy war? what sets it apart from a traditional war/conflict? | You have a brother called Joe, and a sister called Suzy, now you don't want to fight Joe because your parent will get mad at you, so you give Suzy some candy to pick a fight with Joe. Your parents don't get upset with you, because you're not involved. | [
"A proxy war is an armed conflict between two states or non-state actors which act on the instigation or on behalf of other parties that are not directly involved in the hostilities. In order for a conflict to be considered a proxy war, there must be a direct, long-term relationship between external actors and the ... |
why does vision degrade when you are tired? | Your eyes become fatigued, as they are working muscles. So after a long day of using your eyes, they need that rest. Usually by the time you’re tired your eyes have been strained enough to feel that fatigue. It can also sometimes make you think that you are tired when your eyes just need resting too, especially if you... | [
"Numerous clinical studies have shown that dark adaptation function is dramatically impaired from the earliest stages of AMD, retinitis pigmentosa (RP), and other retinal diseases, with increasing impairment as the diseases progress. AMD is a chronic, progressive disease that causes a part of your retina, called th... |
Was there any condemnation in the 1500s towards Luther's piece on the Jewish community? | I wasn't active here for a while and am looking through the backlog of Judaism related questions, and think this is a great one.
Luther's views on Jews in that essay were by no means universal and perhaps more vitriolic than the average, but they did reflect his era's view on Jews in general, were not considered parti... | [
"Luther argued that the Jews were no longer the chosen people but \"the devil's people\". An English translation of \"Vom Schem Hamphoras\" was first published in 1992 as part of \"The Jew In Christian Theology\" by Gerhard Falk. Historians have noted Luther's writings contributed to antisemitism within the German ... |
the median of something vs. the average. | Median is just a different way to calculate an average. The three main ways to 'average' a group of numbers are: Mean, median, and mode.
Let's say you have the following 11 speeds caught on a radar and you need to determine the average
(56,58,62,65,65,68,69,70, 71,74, 75)
Mean = 66.6 (add all #s and divide by the ... | [
"The median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample (a population or a probability distribution). For a data set, it may be thought of as the \"middle\" value. For example, in the data set {1, 3, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9}, the median is 6, the fourth largest, and also the fourth smallest, ... |
if both nuclear fission and fusion generate energy, why don't we have infinite energy? | You don't use the same elements in fusion and fission. The whole reason the respective processes can generate energy is because the nuclear reaction results in a nucleus that is _more stable_ than the starting nuclei.
You use a heavy element - such as uranium - for fission, while you use a light element - such as hydr... | [
"Nuclear fusion produces energy by combining the very lightest elements into more tightly bound elements (such as hydrogen into helium), and nuclear fission produces energy by splitting the heaviest elements (such as uranium and plutonium) into more tightly bound elements (such as barium and krypton). Both processe... |
How did medieval leaders get their armies to fight against the pope? | In some cases there were Antipopes - that is, a rival claiming to be the true pope. Of course, each declared the other to be the Antipope! This was the case during Roger II of Sicily's disagreements with the papacy. In Roger's case the hostilities were usually initiated by the pope rather than the king, which might hav... | [
"While the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy were in conflict, it often fell to secular leaders to campaign. What is sometimes known as the Barons' Crusade was first led by Count Theobald I of Navarre and when he returned to his lands, by the king of England's brother, the newly arrived, Richard of Cornwall. Sultan ... |
if the edge of the universe to us is 45 billion light years away, could it have already stopped expanding? | When we talk about the "edge" of the universe, we are referring to the extent of the observable universe. Space is expanding, and there is no centre to the expansion. Every point is moving away from every other point, equally in all directions. The further away you look, the more space exists between you and the point... | [
"The proper distance—the distance as would be measured at a specific time, including the present—between Earth and the edge of the observable universe is 46 billion light-years (14 billion parsecs), making the diameter of the observable universe about 93 billion light-years (28 billion parsecs). The distance the li... |
why do we tend to get small violent tendencies when we get angry or have a heated argument with someone else? [biology] | The "Fight or Flight" response to the confrontation. Anticipating a fight, a cascade of things happen to your physiology..adrenaline production, flushing, heat, respiration increasing, muscles tensing..the whole brain is prepped to go to battle. This also suppresses normal functions, like situational awareness giving w... | [
"Confrontation may occur between individuals, or between larger groups. Because groups are composed of multiple individuals, with each member having their own specific triggers for a violent response to a perceived provocation, risk factors which \"may not be sufficient individually to explain collective violence, ... |
I'm watching English period pieces like The Tudors and Elizabeth. Did monarchs have titles like Lord Burleigh to give out? What did that entail? | If you're just talking about titles rather than estates and incomes, yes. The sovereign is the [fount of honour](_URL_0_), i.e. has the exclusive right to confer titles of nobility and orders of chivalry. | [
"There was no consistent title for the king of England before 1066, and monarchs chose to style themselves as they pleased. Imperial titles were used inconsistently, beginning with Athelstan in 930 and ended with the Norman conquest of England. Empress Matilda (1102–1167) is the only English monarch commonly referr... |
Why do atoms "want" to get full outer electron shells when bonding? | Good question! Understanding this behaviour requires that you first understand that a reaction can be considered as a number of individual processes. When you combine chlorine and sodium to make table salt, the sodium atom loses an electron, the chlorine atom gains one and the resultant ions bond due to their charge (t... | [
"Chemical bonds between atoms in a molecule form because they make the situation more stable for the involved atoms, which generally means the sum energy level for the involved atoms in the molecule is lower than if the atoms were not so bonded. As separate atoms approach each other to covalently bond, their orbita... |
What is the best referencing/organizing software you use to write history and why? | Not history specific, but OneNote works REALLY well for writing initial drafts. You can organize your work far beyond anything else I've used, and can include text clippings, photos, videos, and links out to the side. It eschews the "page" construct and is more like a whiteboard.
Once you get down to doing a final d... | [
"The more-concise author-date style (sometimes referred to as the \"reference list style\") is more common in the physical, natural, and social sciences. This style involves sources being \"briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name and year of publication\" with the parenthetical cita... |
what is the purpose of checking in for a flight, if you can check in online? | The online checkin process is mainly to get the customer to complete as much of the administration and data entry as possible before hand - rather than have staff do it whilst a queue waits. | [
"Online check-in is the process in which passengers confirm their presence on a flight via the Internet and typically print their own boarding passes. Depending on the carrier and the specific flight, passengers may also enter details such as meal options and baggage quantities and select their preferred seating.\n... |
Why do the edges of certain materials dry faster than the middles? | The edges are more likely than not touching more air than concrete found in the center of a section of sidewalk. Whereas the center only has exposure to air above it (along with a very small amount found in small cracks, etc), the edges are exposed to air on two fronts, the top and the side that goes into the ground. M... | [
"Because reeds change with climate, reeds that are too soft can be kept in the hopes that they eventually thicken, but there is nothing else that can be done. If a reed is too stiff, however, there are solutions. The most simple solution is to turn a piece of paper over so there is no ink and gently rotate the reed... |
Why can I hear a transmitted radio signal on several frequencies? | Its called harmonics, the idea comes from that all waveforms comes from the sum of a series of increasing sinusodial waves. Meaing a 11MHz transducer is transducing a sum of 11Mhz, 22Mhz, 44Mhz, 88Mhz etc frequencies, but in decreasing amplitudes. But your reciever is sensitive enough to pick those harmonics up.
I ne... | [
"The radio waves from many transmitters pass through the air simultaneously without interfering with each other because each transmitter's radio waves oscillate at a different rate, in other words each transmitter has a different frequency, measured in kilohertz (kHz), megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz). The receiv... |
why is it easier to shoot at people under you in games? | Insert "i have the high ground" meme.
Its not only in games, highround has the vision advantage. | [
"Many shooters will allow players to zoom down the sights of a gun or use a scope, usually exchanging movement speed, field of vision, and the speed of their traverse for greater accuracy. This can make a player considerably more vulnerable to circle-strafing, as objects will pass through their field of vision more... |
why doesn't the us place a price ceiling on medical equipment ? | The issue is that developing new medicines or medical devices is somewhat of a gamble. It costs a lot of money and the project you're working on might turn out to be ineffective or not be approved by the FDA or whatever. The prospect of being able to make a lot of money encourages companies to go out there and spend a... | [
"In 2018, an analysis concluded that prices and administrative costs were largely the cause of the high costs, including prices for labor, pharmaceuticals, and diagnostics. The combination of high prices and high volume can cause particular expense; in the U.S., high-margin high-volume procedures include angioplast... |
What is happening at the molecular level when water is being squeezed or wrung out of something? | Water goes into fabric and is held in small spaces where its cohesive and adhesive properties hold it to the fibers in the cloth. Tighten up the fibers (by wringing) and you restrict the space the water can be in squeezing it out of all its little spaces in the cloth. | [
"In a liquid solution, any given liquid molecule experience strong cohesive forces from neighboring molecules. While these forces are balanced in the bulk, molecules at the surface of the solution are surrounded on one side by water molecules and on the other side by gas molecules. The resulting imbalance of cohesi... |
why do people hide their license plate when selling their vehicle but not always their vin? | The VIN number only shows who manufactured the car and what model it is. The licence plate tells you what state the car is in and, if someone is thorough, it can reveal the location. You don't want randoms knowing where you live. | [
"This is the recommended procedure for selling a car. Alternatively the seller may hand out their car with valid licence plates and papers still in their name to the new owner thus giving them the responsibility to register the car in their name shortly. In a scenario without a proper sales contract the seller may ... |
How often does a comet crash into the Sun? | Only one time per comet. | [
"In 1998, two comets were observed plunging toward the Sun in close succession. The first of these was on June 1 and the second the next day. A video of this, followed by a dramatic ejection of solar gas (unrelated to the impacts), can be found at the NASA website. Both of these comets evaporated before coming into... |
what is with the sometime hours and hours or delay in having sore/dead/tired legs after over doing and pushing yourself with leg exercise/walking/running? | I believe it's somewhat to do with DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness), in which your body begins to repair tiny microtears in the muscle fibres of your legs after long periods of exertion.
Doing this makes your legs stronger and able to endure more physical activity. It's like how people build muscle in the gym.
Th... | [
"Intermittent claudication (Latin: \"claudicatio intermittens\"), is a symptom that describes muscle pain on mild exertion (ache, cramp, numbness or sense of fatigue), classically in the calf muscle, which occurs during exercise, such as walking, and is relieved by a short period of rest. It is classically associat... |
why is a revealing outfit that doesn't quite bare all often so much more attractive than a completely nude body? | For the same reason that things like burlesque and stripper shows are popular. It's about anticipation and tantalisation. While the body is covered up, your imagination is running wild. Even the most flawless body is still just a body. Your imagination is always more powerful.
EDIT: general useless spelling. | [
"Barechestedness is the state of a man wearing no clothes above the waist, exposing the upper torso. Bare male chests are generally considered acceptable at beaches, swimming pools and sunbathing areas. However, some stores and restaurants have a \"no shirt, no service\" rule to prevent barechested men from coming ... |
why does food dye in milk react in such a way when soap is added? | The soap breaks the surface tension of the milk. The food coloring rests on top because it has a lower density than milk. When you drop soap in the middle, the surface tension drops. But it takes time for that effect to reach the edge of the container. So the edge of milk still has all it's surface tension while the mi... | [
"Methyl cellulose is very occasionally added to hair shampoos, tooth pastes and liquid soaps, to generate their characteristic thick consistency. This is also done for foods, for example ice cream or croquette. Methyl cellulose is also an important emulsifier, preventing the separation of two mixed liquids because ... |
how are government subsidies for food producers different from an indirect food tax? | Do you read The Week (the magazine)? They just had a good feature on US food subsidies.
Anyways, there is a very simple difference between an indirect tax and a subsidy.
A tax generates revenue for the government. A subsidy is *paid for by the government*, meaning they lose money on it.
In terms of effects, (change... | [
"Like indirect taxes, they can alter relative prices and budget constraints and thereby affect decisions concerning production, consumption and allocation of resources. Subsidies in areas such as education, health and environment at times merit justification on grounds that their benefits are spread well beyond the... |
i know it's not quite scientific, but what are elementary particles(e.g. leptons, bosons) "made of"? | Thank you all for your answers! I suppose the question was easier to answer than I thought, though as I would hope, I'm still left wanting more answers to the universes mysteries. I imagine my talk with a physics professor would go something like:
Me: "Where did that come from?"
Professor: *Explanation given*
Me: "Bu... | [
"In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a with no sub structure, thus not composed of other particles. Particles currently thought to be elementary include the fundamental fermions (quarks, leptons, antiquarks, and antileptons), which generally are \"matter particles\" and \"antimatt... |
How does the electrolyte function in a dry cell battery? | I can't tell you about the specifics of dry batteries but I can try to address your two main questions.
1) The plates have positive or negative charges like a capacitor. However, unlike a capacitor, there are reactions at the electrodes that facilitate the replenishment of the charges and so a constant (-ish) voltage ... | [
"An A battery is any battery used to provide power to the filament of a vacuum tube. It is sometimes colloquially referred to as a \"wet battery\". (A dry cell could be used for the purpose, but the ampere-hour capacity of dry cells was too low at the time to be of practical use in this service). The term comes fro... |
what makes a good haircut? | Go to a licensed barbershop. Not a salon or discount place. Ask for a gentlemen’s cut. Haircut should run you $30-40.
Ask for a scissor cut. Long on top, taper fade on the sides.
This is pretty much the traditional ww2 style haircut everyone has. If you want to have a more extreme fade, you can ask them to use clippe... | [
"The cuticle is responsible for much of the mechanical strength of the hair fiber. A healthy cuticle is more than just a protective layer, as the cuticle also controls the water content of the fiber. Much of the shine that makes healthy hair so attractive is due to the cuticle. In the hair industry, the only way to... |
In the nervous system, how exaclty does a stimulus cause the initial depolarization of the membrane that will then open the Sodium voltage-dependent channels once the treshold value is reached? | At the synapse, the presynaptic terminal releases neurotransmitter that causes receptors on the postsynaptic cell to respond. Typically this can be ligand gated ion channels, G\-protein coupled receptors, or receptor tyrosine kinases. If the input is stimulatory, that is it triggers an action potential, the ligand gate... | [
"However, once a stimulus activates the voltage-gated sodium channels to open, positive sodium ions flood into the cell and the voltage increases. This process can also be initiated by ligand or neurotransmitter binding to a ligand-gated channel. More sodium is outside the cell relative to the inside, and the posit... |
where the phrase 'second nature' comes from | It's a corruption of the Latin phrase *secundum naturam*, which means 'according to one's nature'. Basically, whatever you're referring to meshes well with your natural abilities or tendencies, as opposed to something that was *contra naturam* (against one's nature), or *super naturam* (above nature, or Godlike). | [
"Nature has two inter-related meanings in philosophy. On the one hand, it means the set of all things which are natural, or subject to the normal working of the laws of nature. On the other hand, it means the essential properties and causes of individual things.\n",
"The word \"nature\" derives from Latin \"nātūr... |
Wool as a materials for uniforms: why? And why into WW2? | Alright, since no good answer has come up yet, I'll field this one.
There are a lot of misconceptions about wool, and they mostly stem from the horrible synthetic blends that parade around as "wool" in cheap suits, cheap coats, cheap socks, and cheap blankets. If your only personal experience with wool is with someth... | [
"During World War II, U.S. soldiers wore uniforms made of wool. Worried that domestic producers could not supply enough for future wars, Congress enacted loan and price support programs for wool and mohair in the National Wool Act of 1954 as part of the 1954 Farm Bill. Despite these subsidies, wool and mohair produ... |
what's wrong with dumping radioactive waste in the bottom of the ocean? | Kaiju
Gojira
Have you no cinema history?
/s | [
"Ocean floor disposal of radioactive waste has been suggested by the finding that deep waters in the North Atlantic Ocean do not present an exchange with shallow waters for about 140 years based on oxygen content data recorded over a period of 25 years. They include burial beneath a stable abyssal plain, burial in ... |
Were Henrietta Lack's cells special? | This is a great question! By today's standards, there is nothing inherently special about HeLa cells. Not only do we have countless "immortal" cell lines from other people, we have very well established protocols for immortalizing cell lines ourselves.
However, at the time Henrietta Lacks' cells were isolated, this wa... | [
"Henrietta Lacks was an African American woman whose cells were removed without consent while receiving cancer treatment. Her cells became the source of the foundational HeLa cell line in the scientific world today. Lacks and her family were neither informed nor asked for consent to the use of her cells for this re... |
why does the skin on our hands & feet have so many lines (i.e. fingerprints)? | They increase the grip and durability of that surface, the rest of your skin is pretty slick.
The process that your body uses to create that type of skin also blocks hair growth and disables melanin production though, so it's only done on the palms and bottoms of your feet. | [
"In the palms, fingers, soles, and toes, the influence of the papillae projecting into the epidermis forms contours in the skin's surface. These epidermal ridges occur in patterns (\"see:\" fingerprint) that are genetically and epigenetically determined and are therefore unique to the individual, making it possible... |
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