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why is snow soft | Moisture in the atmosphere is water vapor. When the temperature is low enough, the molecules of water condense but also freeze simultaneously in ice crystal structures rather than forming together into a water droplet THEN freezing (which would obviously result in hail). These ice structures are much less dense than ac... | [
"BULLET::::- \"Snow hardness\" (\"R\" ) is the resistance to penetration of an object into snow. Most snow studies use a fist or fingers for softer snows (very soft through medium) and a pencil (hard) or knife (very hard) below the hardness boundary of ice.\n",
"Snow becomes suitable for packing when it approache... |
How much more or less brutal were the Germans in Russia than the Russians were in Germany at the end of world war II? | The German occupation was significantly more brutal, considering Germany suffered some million or so civilian casualties from all military actions (including those of the western allies,) compared to the 8-12 million inflicted in the Soviet Union.
The Russian occupation is, I feel, often played up due to the political... | [
"Russian people played a crucial role in the victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. According to the British historian Richard Overy, the Eastern Front included more combat than all the other European fronts combined—the Wehrmacht suffered 80% to 93% of all of its total World War II combat casualties on the Eas... |
why do motorcycles redline at ~14 k rpm, but most everyday cars redline at ~7 k rpm | Small parts can move faster, and motorcycle engines usually have a short stroke. They are generally optimized for maximum horsepower, while car and truck engines place a greater importance on torque at low RPMs for moving heavy loads from a standstill. Modern sportbike engines are also significantly more advanced tha... | [
"Motorcycle engines can have even higher redlines because of their comparatively lower reciprocating mass. For example, the 1986–1996 Honda CBR250RR has a redline of about 19,000 rpm. (Though due to regulations in Japanese motorcycle manufacturing this was later lowered to 18,000). Higher yet is the redline of a mo... |
How long could a person survive eating only human flesh? | I realize this shouldn't be a top-level comment, but since no one's posted I will. I went to the wiki page for rabbit starvation syndrome, and it said it was from a lack of fat in your diet. Humans are pretty fatty, so it shouldn't be a problem. | [
"In general, humans can survive for two to eight weeks without food, depending on stored body fat. Survival without water is usually limited to three or four days. About 36 million humans die every year from causes directly or indirectly related to starvation. Childhood malnutrition is also common and contributes t... |
why do people cook with alcohol, is it just for flavour, if so then can't you just use non-alcoholic substitutes? | One thing to note about cooking it off properly is that alcohol (specifically ethanol, for context) has a much lower boiling point than water. Thus, the ethanol boils and evaporates off earlier and more completely than water. So if your food is cooked properly, it would be highly unlikely that any ethanol would remain... | [
"Pure ethanol tastes bitter to humans; some people also describe it as sweet. However, ethanol is also a moderately good solvent for many fatty substances and essential oils. This facilitates the use of flavoring and coloring compounds in alcoholic drinks as a taste mask, especially in distilled drinks. Some flavor... |
what kind of video editing software to big movies such as harry potter use? | Final Cut X is actually not Final Cut 10, just "X". It is a dumbed down, consumer version of the glorious Final Cut 7 which Apple abandoned years ago, which was used on many feature films.
The old standard, Avid, is still a big one. However, Adobe Premiere is taking its cut of the cake as it has improved considera... | [
"Hollywood film studios had already used the technique in animated films, but it took time and efforts from professionals. The main difference is that today anyone can use a deep fake software and rig videos.\n",
"Movie Edit Pro (also known as Magix Video Deluxe in Europe) is a video editing software developed by... |
why do i sound on pitch when i'm singing but when i listen to a recording i'm horrible? | As a Singer (opera, rock, pop, choral) I love answering this because It's a struggle I have had constantly. Nobody can be actually tone deaf or you wouldn't be able to ever hear a tune or inflection in peoples voices, But when you are singing along with a track or with an instrument you are also hearing the instrument ... | [
"A low pitch (also known as the pitch of the missing fundamental or virtual pitch) can sometimes be heard when there is no apparent source or component of that frequency. This perception is due to the brain interpreting repetition patterns that are present.\n",
"A special type of pitch often occurs in free nature... |
With all this fear mongering about Ebola, how about facts. How could a virus like Ebola become airborne, what mutation would be necessary? | It is difficult to say specifically for ebolavirus. To know precisely which mutation would be necessary to confer airborne transmission would require gain-of-function experiments such as those conducted on the H5N1 avian flu. ([source](_URL_1_)) This kind of study is basically forced lab evolution: site-directed mutag... | [
"Good disease tracing is important to prevent the outbreak from spreading. Previous Ebola outbreaks have occurred in remote areas making containment easier; the current outbreak struck in an area that lies at the centre of both a highly-mobile and densely populated region which has made tracking more difficult: \"T... |
regarding nasa's new "warp" discovery: how does a warp open? | I think you're confused. Nasa's newest piece of technology is the EMDrive. It doesn't create warp bubbles but years ago some guy in a garage said "hey, I can accelerate this thing without using propellant!" but was treated as some crazy dude in a garage. Not too long after China, I believe, verified and ran their own t... | [
"The episode \"Metamorphosis\", from \"The Original Series\", establishes a backstory for the invention of warp drive on Earth, in which Zefram Cochrane discovered the \"space warp\". Cochrane is repeatedly referred to afterwards, but the exact details of the first warp trials were not shown until the second \"\" m... |
how is it that otherwise seemingly normal people can become so invested in a sports team that they're willing to make it a huge part of their identity, up to the point of rioting should their team lose? | I did research on this in college for psychology. Turns out the more invested in outside events, especially sports the lower the self esteem of the individual. Now having a healthy relationship with a sports team is ok and being happy or disappointed when your team wins and loses is ok, but the people that get truly ... | [
"In such sports as basketball and football there is a stress on the importance of teamwork. This is so because the team is a smaller society that needs to function properly. This means that they need good communication and get necessary goals accomplished for the team. Because of this, the individual on the team is... |
why are there hd versions of tv channels? why not just replace the original channel with the hd version? | > Surely if something is in HD, it was recorded that way originally.
Correct.
> If its just a rip off thing
It's not a "rip-off" thing. It's a "people are willing to pay less for standard definition, and more for high definition" thing.
> wouldnt it be a good idea to make laws banning this practice?
No. Tell... | [
"When the HD channel launched, the network had a different presentation than most HD channels, choosing to present content on the standard definition feed using a left cut of the HD image rather than taken from the center of the screen within the standard 4:3 safe area. As of February 2013, the standard definition ... |
why is it called a 'cold' when you're body is actually hot? | Have you noticed that you *feel* cold when your running a fever? It's sometimes called "the chills".
Part of the sensation of temperature is the *difference* between the room's temperature and your body temperature. When your body is hot (without clear causes such as exertion), the room feels colder.
The term cold de... | [
"Cold has numerous physiological and pathological effects on the human body, as well as on other organisms. Cold environments may promote certain psychological traits, as well as having direct effects on the ability to move. Shivering is one of the first physiological responses to cold. Extreme cold temperatures ma... |
factorials | You're counting how many ways you can arrange things.
Say you have 4 cards. How many possible ways can you order those cards?
There are 4 possibilities for the first card, 3 for the second, 2 for the third, and one for the last (whichever one is left). 4 * 3 * 2 * 1 = 4!. | [
"In number theory, an aurifeuillean factorization, or aurifeuillian factorization, named after Léon-François-Antoine Aurifeuille, is a special type of algebraic factorization that comes from non-trivial factorizations of cyclotomic polynomials over the integers. Although cyclotomic polynomials themselves are irredu... |
why are some noises "louder" than others? | You are probably experiencing the effect that things sound louder when there is a drastic change in volume level from before to during the sound. Bangs of doors tend to go from quiet to loud really fast, while shouting is consistent. | [
"Less addressed is how humans adapt to noise subjectively. Indeed, tolerance for noise is frequently independent of decibel levels. Murray Schafer's soundscape research was groundbreaking in this regard. In his work, he makes compelling arguments about how humans relate to noise on a subjective level, and how such ... |
why do batteries have a 'use by' date, and what could be the result of using it after that date? | Because there's a chemical reaction going on all the time inside the battery, it can burn itself out if not used for a certain length of time. | [
"BULLET::::- In the United States there are codes on batteries to help consumers buy a recently produced one. When batteries are stored, they can start losing their charge. A battery made in October 2015 will have a numeric code of 10-5 or an alphanumeric code of K-5. \"A\" is for January, \"B\" is for February, an... |
why is jimi hendrix considered one of the greatest guitar players? | Jimi Hendrix is considered a great guitar player because he reinvented how the guitar was played. He invented a style that influenced just about every rock, blues and jazz guitarist that came after him. His technical skill wasn't the greatest, but his creativity and style has proven to be extremely influential--even ne... | [
"The American musician Jimi Hendrix (born November 27, 1942) was one of the most influential guitarists of the 1960s. His Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography says he \"was arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music. Hendrix expanded the range and vocabulary of the electric guitar into areas... |
How are Tourniquets usually removed if they have been on for a while but so that the limb can still be saved? | In a operating room, slowly so as not to cause bursting of capalaries(sp?). Up to 6 hours from initial application of the tourniquet the limb can be mostly saved (depends on the damage done) this is from memory from military training. | [
"Emergency tourniquets are cuff-like devices designed to stop severe traumatic bleeding before or during transport to a care facility. They are wrapped around the limb, proximal to the site of trauma, and tightened until all blood vessels underneath are occluded. The design and construction of emergency tourniquets... |
david camerons deal with the eu | Cameron told the EU he would stop promoting a "Brexit" if they made reforms in 4 certain areas. Yesterday Donald Tusk (president of the European Council) released a draft trying to find a compromise between Cameron and the EU. Here's what these 4 demands are, and the EU's response to them:
**1. Demand**: Citizens of t... | [
"In early 2014, David Cameron outlined the changes he aimed to bring about in the EU and in the UK's relationship with it. These were: additional immigration controls, especially for citizens of new EU member states; tougher immigration rules for present EU citizens; new powers for national parliaments collectively... |
What Medieval War Strategy Book Should I Read? | I recommend the following five works as the rock on which to build your understanding of medieval warfare. They are not all easy to read, *Warfare in Medieval Europe 400-1453* is particularly dense, but they will all add to your understanding of the subject. In general, the newer works supersede the older works when it... | [
"“The Offensive/Defensive in Medieval Strategy,” \"From Crecy to Mohacs: Warfare in the Late Middle Ages (1346-1526). Acta of the XXIInd Colloquium of the International Commission of Military History\" (Vienna, 1996) (Vienna: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum/Militärhistorisches Institut, 1997): 158-171.\n",
"“Early a... |
why is pneumonia diagnosed with an x-ray? | On X-ray, things that are not dense (like air) are dark. The radiation passes right through air and none of it is "blocked" on the way to the film. When no X-rays get blocked, the film is black. Things that are white on X-ray are white because they "intercepted" all of the radiation. As an example, check out the fir... | [
"The discovery of x-rays made it possible to determine the anatomic type of pneumonia without direct examination of the lungs at autopsy and led to the development of a radiological classification. Early investigators distinguished between typical lobar pneumonia and atypical (e.g. Chlamydophila) or viral pneumonia... |
Do people digest less when they have the runs? | You lose a lot of nutrients when you have 'the runs' mainly because bacterial infections which cause the symptom of 'the runs' alter cellular pathways such as the cAMP pathway in gut epithelia, which in the short form, leads to efflux of water out of your cells and into the lumen (hole) of your gut.
This 'washing out'... | [
"A person with healthy digestion will have lower risk of experiencing diarrhea, constipation, heartburn, bloating, flatulence, and indigestion. Additionally, a person with healthy digestion will have less need of digestive medications than a person who does not have healthy digestion.\n",
"Foods with carbohydrate... |
Bremsstrahlung and General Relativity: Does a charge resting on the surface of earth emit radiation? | It depends on the frame of reference. A charge at rest on the Earth does not appear to radiate as seen by other at-rest observers on the Earth, but a freefalling observer would see a charge-at-rest radiate. | [
"Equivalently, we can think about a charged particle at rest in a laboratory on the surface of the Earth. In order to be at rest, it must be supported by something which exerts an upward force on it to balance the Earth's downward gravitational field of 1 \"g\". This system is equivalent to being in outer space acc... |
what is smoke, exactly? | Steam, unburnt gases, particles of ash. | [
"Smoke is a collection of airborne solid and liquid particulates and gases emitted when a material undergoes combustion or pyrolysis, together with the quantity of air that is entrained or otherwise mixed into the mass. It is commonly an unwanted by-product of fires (including stoves, candles, internal combustion e... |
Do light particles weigh anything? | No, photons are massless.
However, massless particles can still have momentum and exert a force. In the case of the sun and the earth, this pressure is between 4.5 and 9 micro-Newtons per square meter (4.5 if photons are absorbed entirely, 9 if all photons are reflected, in reality the value will be somewhere in betwe... | [
"In a similar manner, even photons (light quanta), if trapped in a container space (as a photon gas or thermal radiation), would contribute a mass associated with their energy to the container. Such an extra mass, in theory, could be weighed in the same way as any other type of rest mass. This is true in special re... |
why does time go from 11 am to 12 pm and vice versa? | AM stands for ante meridiem and PM stands for post meridiem - before noon and after noon. Noon is the point at which the sun is highest in the sky. In the AM, the sun is rising. In the PM, it is setting. | [
"At its most extreme, time zones can cause official noon, including daylight savings, to occur up to three hours early (the Sun is actually on the meridian at official clock time of 3 pm). This occurs in the far west of Alaska, China, and Spain. For more details and examples, see Skewing of time zones.\n",
"The 1... |
- how does the body fight infections not in the bloodstream such as respiratory infections? | Cells like neutrophils can leave the bloodstream to fight infections like that. Mucosal sites can also fight infection with a special antibody called IgA. | [
"Bacteria and fungi typically enter the lungs through the inhalation of water droplets, although they can reach the lung through the bloodstream if an infection is present and often live in the respiratory tract. In the alveoli, bacteria and fungi travel into the spaces between cells and adjacent alveoli through co... |
if muscle growth is them tearing and re-growing tissue, why can't we invent a machine or procedure that artificially replicates this tearing in order to build up muscle mass without actually working out? | [We have.](_URL_0_) It's very painful to have your muscles electrically stimulated to build them up though so it's not wide-spread. | [
"A convenient method to treat an enlarged muscle is through the use of botox injections. Botox is injected into the enlarged muscle, weakening it so it slowly becomes smaller through atrophy over several months. There is no down-time and improvement is gradual—individuals who interact with the patient may never kno... |
why don't all the mosquitos die out when it gets to cold? do some of them fly south or what? | It depends on the species but they use one or more of three strategies to survive the winter:
*Hibernation as an Adult - Females will drop their metabolic rate and survive off stored fat, usually hiding in a hole or something.
*Hibernation as a Larvae - Larvae can also go into hibernation, but need to do so in water.... | [
"With an increase in air traffic volume, higher climate temperatures and humidity, the summers of temperate climates are potentially favourable for mosquitoes. Should temperatures rise in Europe and the United States as a result of global climate change, conditions may become more ideal for mosquito survival, poten... |
Why "666" for the beast? Without a base-10 positional representation system, this number wouldn't look particularly remarkable. | I can't tell you much about the numerological implications of the number and the interpretation of Johannes, but I'm going to say something about Roman numbers that might be helpful:
Roman numerals don't use positional notation, but they still represent base-10 - there are symbols for the decimal powers: I, X, C, CD ... | [
"666 is generally believed to have been the original Number of the Beast in the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible. In 2005, however, a fragment of papyrus 115 was revealed, containing the earliest known version of that part of the Book of Revelation discussing the Number of the Beast. It gave the number as ... |
This question has been stewing for a bit. If a neutrinos pass through our body all of the time, then what happens when one actually collides with the atoms of our bodies? | When a neutrino interacts with a part of our body, it scatters off a proton or neutron in the nucleus of an atom. It will sometimes scatter elastically, causing the nucleus of the atom to recoil and the atom to become ionized. It can also scatter inelastically, producing secondary particles, such as pions, which decay ... | [
"One problem with the neutrino conjecture and Fermi's theory was that the neutrino appeared to have such weak interactions with other matter that it would never be observed. In a 1934 paper, Rudolf Peierls and Hans Bethe calculated that neutrinos could easily pass through the Earth without interactions with any mat... |
how do police evidence videos end up online? | Sometimes leaked but you can usually get them through the freedom of information act unless it is pending investigation or prosecution. | [
"Evidence.com is a cloud-based digital evidence management system that allows police departments to manage, review, and share digital evidence, particularly video evidence captured with Axon-branded cameras. It includes an automated redaction tool, audit trails for chain of custody purposes, and functionality to sh... |
There are Churches older than the Byzantine and Roman Catholic: How does their interpretation of Doctrine and Religious practice differ and why? Did these Churches interact with the Roman and Byzantine Churches further into the Medieval, or did they lose contact? | I hope no one minds an Eastern Orthodox deacon commenting?
The Churches you mention are known as the Oriental Orthodox churches, and are not, in fact, older than the Byzantine and Latin churches. In fact, they split off from the Latin and Byzantine Church during the [Council of Chalcedon](_URL_0_) over what today ... | [
"Even after the split of the Roman Empire the Church remained a relatively united institution (apart from Oriental Orthodoxy and some other groups which separated from the rest of the Church earlier). The Church came to be a central and defining institution of the Empire, especially in the East or Byzantine Empire,... |
why is facebook considered such a large company when it seems like the site itself is dying out? | It might just be regional, because I only know a couple of people who *don't* use Facebook. Facebook chat seems like the primary method of communication for a lot of people, or is at least tied with texting. I also see a lot of people and organizations using Facebook for planning events. I work in advertising and a lot... | [
"Facebook is a social networking company that has acquired other companies, including WhatsApp. The WhatsApp acquisition closed at a steep $16 billion; more than $40 per user of the platform. Facebook also purchased the defunct company ConnectU in a court settlement and acquired intellectual property formerly held ... |
. why can't we fill our coal mining pits with our rubbish? we are taking out one pollutant and replacing it with another. | You start storing waste underground and you need to be damn sure there's no groundwater movement that can leach waste into drinking water. That is not possible in the vast majority of mine systems as the geology which accompanies coal formation trends to be fractured and porous. | [
"Mining has contributed to many of the air pollutions being released into the air. When mining for these resources, inexperienced employees are creating many detrimental outcomes when mining in the wrong areas or hitting gas leaks. In specifics to coal mines, communities have no choice but to leave their land behin... |
what are einstein's two main postulates on special relativity, and what are the relativistic consequences of their effects? | Einstein's theory of relativity states that time and velocity are relative to an observers point of view, or reference frame. His special theory is called such because it deals only with inertia reference frames which are reference frames that have no acceleration or change in gravitational potential. His general theor... | [
"The extent to which the null result of the Michelson–Morley experiment influenced Einstein is disputed. Alluding to some statements of Einstein, many historians argue that it played no significant role in his path to special relativity, while other statements of Einstein probably suggest that he was influenced by ... |
why in the military do some people get the best medical care in the country at places like walter reed while other military personnel and veterans get awful horrible care at va hospitals? | A lot has to do with where and when your injured.
Active duty and in combat: If it's sever enough you'll go to Walter Reed, otherwise you'll be in a different military hospital, some excellent, some okay, and some barely passable (just like any large dispersed group).
No longer active duty but with service related i... | [
"The Army Medical Service employs military physicians, nurses, combat medics and other groups, and is traditionally responsible for providing medical humanitarian relief in armed conflicts, including caring for sick or wounded soldiers on the battlefield and operating first aid stations and field hospitals near the... |
Is a rain (snow?) of carbon dioxide possible in Antarctica? | It's cold enough, but there is very little CO2 in the atmosphere. You can't look at the sublimination point at 1 atm because the partial pressure of CO2 is much lower. The low partial pressure of carbon dioxide would cause it to subliminate in this environment--some molecules are freezing out, but at the same time ot... | [
"Around 98% of continental Antarctica is covered in ice up to thick. Antarctica's icy deserts have extremely low temperatures, high solar radiation, and extreme dryness. Any precipitation that does fall usually falls as snow, and is restricted to a band around from the coast. Some areas receive as little as 50mm of... |
what is web api and what is it used to accomplish? | An API is a defined way for one person's code to interact with another person's code. "Web API" means an API that uses the standard systems of the world wide web to interact with each other. For example, you can see reddit's API documentation [here](_URL_0_). It's a list of web addresses you can go to and give certain ... | [
"Web APIs are the defined interfaces through which interactions happen between an enterprise and applications that use its assets, which also is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) to specify the functional provider and expose the service path or URL for its API users. An API approach is an architectural approach that ... |
What are ideal situations for the creation of stalactites or stalagmites? | Quite a lot has been published and I'll list some papers below which will be of interest to you but essentially, everything comes down to a chemical equilibrium between carbonate and calcium^i ions on one side, and calcium carbonate (limestone), water, and CO2 on the other (e.g. see [here](_URL_0_)). What this means is... | [
"The process is suitable for a variety of soil conditions including clay, silt, sand, and rock. Problematic soil conditions include large grain content in the form of coarse gravel, cobbles, and boulders. Other subsurface conditions which can impact the feasibility of Directional Boring/HDD include excessive rock s... |
Has the Earth expanded over the last 3 billion years and is it still? | The idea that the Earth was expanding (or contracting) as an explanation for common geologic features (e.g. mountain ranges, ocean basins, etc) was abandoned once plate tectonics was developed and provided a more consistent set of explanations that were better supported by data. In the modern, with a variety of tools l... | [
"The expanding Earth or growing Earth hypothesis asserts that the position and relative movement of continents is at least partially due to the volume of Earth increasing. Conversely, geophysical global cooling was the hypothesis that various features could be explained by Earth contracting.\n",
"This was immedia... |
Length of Wehrmacht Deployments in World War II? | Well, to quote Kipling: "There is no discharge in the war!"
You didn't go on deployment in the Wehrmacht, you were entitled to, under the best of circumstances, two weeks of leave twice a year (for the Field Army/ combat troops) or once a year (for the Replacement Army/reserves, garrison personnel and other non-combat ... | [
"During the later stages of World War II, as the strength of the German \"Wehrmacht\" was increasingly depleted, march battalions became improvized combat units, with an average strength of 800–1,000 personnel in three to five companies, as well as a small headquarters company and a field kitchen. Their equipment o... |
how come after a cia or military operation gets declassified the files say “redacted” for certain things? | Because there are still secret aspects of the file that cannot be revealed to the public. A file doesn't have to be 100% declassified to be "declassified", if that makes sense - it just means that it has to go through the process of being cleared for public release. | [
"Document Exploitation (DOCEX) is the set of procedures used by the United States Armed Forces to discover, categorize, and use documents seized in combat operations. In the course of performing its missions in the War on Terrorism, members of the United States Armed Forces discover vast amounts of documents in man... |
how come is it incredibly hard for me to get back in shape at age of 45? | This is going to get removed but here it is:
Fiber is the key. Fiber and water. You have to poop a lot. That's it. | [
"\"When I was in the amateurs, I cut a lot of corners. I was having a good time partying, going out and just being young but doing so while half assing it boxing. I stopped boxing a couple a months after turning 23 because I had to make a decision to either continue having fun or to get serious about boxing and i w... |
god rays; why they give the impression the sun is only just above the clouds | _URL_0_
> Despite seeming to converge at a point, the rays are in fact near-parallel shafts of sunlight, and their apparent convergence is a perspective effect (similar, for example, to the way that parallel railway lines seem to converge at a point in the distance). | [
"Crepuscular rays (; more commonly known as sunbeams, sun rays, splintered light, or god rays), in meteorological optics, are rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from the point in the sky where the Sun is located. Shining through openings in clouds (particularly stratocumulus) or between other objects such as m... |
why do public domain books cost money on app stores? | If a work is public domain, anyone can take it and charge money for it. Night of the Living Dead is a good example. It's public domain work now, anyone can make a DVD of it and sell it in stores.
Most free public domain ebooks are actually scanned and distrusted by volunteers who feel the work should accessible for f... | [
"In 2011, an Apple spokesperson announced that \"We are now requiring that if an app offers customers the ability to purchase books outside of the app, that the same option is also available to customers from within the app with in-app purchase.\" Due to the 30% revenue share that Apple receives from the in-app pur... |
How did life evolve to snakes? What was the natural selection? | Snakes share a common ancestor with modern lizards, which was a legged lizard. Apparently some species actually benefitted from losing their legs, which is where natural selection comes in.
[Certain modern lizards](_URL_0_) provide good example of what the intermediates must've looked like. These species have already ... | [
"Many modern snake groups originated during the Paleocene, alongside the adaptive radiation of mammals following the extinction of (non-avian) dinosaurs. The expansion of grasslands in North America also led to an explosive radiation among snakes. Previously, snakes were a minor component of the North American faun... |
what is motivation? i mean what is going on in the brain when somebody gets motivation or has motivation? | A popular model of motivation requires two things: an incentive (something of value), and the belief that you will get that thing. So, what is going on in your brain is an appraisal of value (I want that thing) and an assessment of your ability to do what is needed to get that thing.
Goal-setting plays a large role. Y... | [
"Motivation is the driving force of desire behind all deliberate actions of humans. Motivation is based on emotion—specifically, on the search for satisfaction (positive emotional experiences), and the avoidance of conflict. Positive and negative is defined by the individual brain state, which may be influenced by ... |
How would the daily life of the common man be different if Einstein hadn't made his discoveries? | A quantum mechanical understanding of materials was necessary to develop the transistor and the entire computer revolution that came from it. | [
"Albert Einstein was also living at Princeton during this time. Gödel and Einstein developed a strong friendship, and were known to take long walks together to and from the Institute for Advanced Study. The nature of their conversations was a mystery to the other Institute members. Economist Oskar Morgenstern recou... |
why do the cups of water i set out at night end up with bubbles and a "stale" taste in the morning? | The bubbles have something to do with the oxygen being gassed out especially if the water is cold, since cold water holds more oxygen. And the taste is CO2 being dissolved in the water over the period of time which creates a chemical compound H₂CO₃ - carbonic acid. So the increase of the acid changed the taste of the w... | [
"Pliny the Elder noted \"In Tongrie, country of Gaul, there is a famous source, whose water, while sparkling bubbles, a ferruginous taste that is, however, feel that when we finished drinking. This water purges the body, cures fevers and dispels calculous affections.\"(C lib.XXXI VIII).\n",
"Tap water can sometim... |
why can't we upgrade our smartphones like we do on personal computers? | Smartphones are very small. They are built with components that have to fit very tightly together, otherwise there either won't be room inside the case, or the components might interfere with each other, or the heat dispersal won't be effective and the phone will overheat. The same problem applies to laptops too, which... | [
"By allowing users to bring their own operating system there are significant cost savings to be made by organisations who commonly have many on-site users and are obliged to provide them with computer hardware to allow them to perform specific tasks as there is no longer a need to install a hard drive in each compu... |
Does a person's body still become rested if only laying down instead of completely asleep? | The effects of sleep are primarily related to brain function, and that recuperation does not happen from just laying down all night. If you actually needed a physical break then that would help (but chances are you probably didn't). | [
"BULLET::::- Get enough rest. Rest allows body tissues and joints the time they need to repair. Sleeping is a great way to maintain health and helps both body and mind. Lack of sleep, stress levels and symptoms might get worsen. Immunity to other infections or diseases is reduced when sleep is not adequate. Rest co... |
how does sequence and separation of files in the deletion process of the computer work? | > How does the computer decide what to delete first?
Typically the delete command will assume that the sequence does not matter, so it just uses the most easily or quickly available one. Most likely, it will just call a routine to list the contents and delete them in that order, and that routine by default lists them... | [
"When a partition is deleted, its entry is removed from a table and the data is no longer accessible. The data remains on the disk until being overwritten. Specialized recovery utilities, may be able to locate \"lost\" file systems and recreate a partition table which includes entries for these recovered file syste... |
what is really the difference between high end sunglasses (like ray-bans) and cheap sunglasses (like some from walmart) | When you're 106 miles from Chicago, you have a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, and it's dark, cheap Wal-Mart sunglasses just won't do. | [
"Sunglasses allow for better vision in bright daylight, and may protect one's eyes against damage from excessive levels of ultraviolet light. Typical sunglasses lenses are tinted for protection against bright light or polarized to remove glare; Photochromatic glasses are clear in dark or indoor conditions, but turn... |
if left alone, will the debris in space around earth coalesce into a ring, if so how long 'til it happens? | The manmade satelites that aren't in a graveyard orbit will eventually reenter the atmosphere and burn up. Eventually the ones in the graveyard orbit will too but that will be quite a while. There isn't enough matter currently orbiting the earth to form rings comparable to our solar neighbours, save for the moon. #nota... | [
"By December 2011, many pieces of debris were in a steady orbital decay towards Earth, and expected to burn up in the atmosphere within one or two years. By January 2014, 24% of the known debris had decayed. In 2016, \"Space News\" listed the collision as the second biggest fragmentation event in history, with Kosm... |
if the earth’s crust is so thin relative to the thickness of the core and mantle, how come we don’t feel all that heat? | "Relatively thin" is still 20-30 miles of rock on average for continental crust. That's a lot of padding between us and the heat. | [
"The crust is a thin shell on the outside of the Earth, accounting for less than 1% of Earth's volume. It is the top component of lithosphere: a division of Earth's layers that includes the crust and the upper part of the mantle. The lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates that move, allowing heat to escape from... |
Do we have any proofs that "Armenian Genocide" was intentional? | In short, yes. [This section] (_URL_0_) of the FAQ may be helpful. | [
"The first person convicted in a court of law for denying the Armenian genocide is Turkish politician Doğu Perinçek, found guilty of racial discrimination by a Swiss district court in Lausanne in March 2007. At the trial, Perinçek denied the charge thus: \"I have not denied genocide because there was no genocide.\"... |
Why were the international soldiers who participated in the Spanish Civil War, to fight fascism, upon return home (to the US and Canada to be more precise) investigated by their nations and not allowed to serve in WWII? | What books or what were you reading that said that? There were definitely soldiers who served the Abraham Lincoln Brigade who then served in WW2 for America.
Here's one example: _URL_0_
| [
"A small number of Australian volunteers fought on both sides of the Spanish Civil War, although they predominantly supported the Spanish Republic through the International Brigades. The Australians were subsequently allocated to the battalions of other nationalities, such as the British Battalion and the Lincoln B... |
does the expansion of the universe have any measurable effects on smaller scales? | If by smaller scales you are talking about superclusters of galaxies then yes, there is a small measurable effect. However even the short distance between the Milky Way and Andromeda is too short for the expansion of the universe to be measurable. The gravity between the galaxies is much stronger and drowns out any exp... | [
"At a fundamental level, the expansion of the universe is a property of spatial measurement on the largest measurable scales of our universe. The distances between cosmologically relevant points increases as time passes leading to observable effects outlined below. This feature of the universe can be characterized ... |
why we hear about new cancer treatments, but patients still just get surgery, chemo, and radiation? | Those new treatments are chemo...
Not all chemo is the same. We have much better drugs than we did 30 years ago. For example, in 1975, a patient diagnosed with breast cancer had a 75% chance of being alive after 5 years. Today, that's over 90%. | [
"The treatment of cervical cancer varies worldwide, largely due to access to surgeons skilled in radical pelvic surgery, and the emergence of fertility-sparing therapy in developed nations. Because cervical cancers are radiosensitive, radiation may be used in all stages where surgical options do not exist. Surgical... |
Did Native American tribes who supported the Confederacy suffer any specific repercussions for this alliance? | I touch on the fallout some in [this broader answer](_URL_0_) which may be of interest. | [
"The Native American tribes of the Indian Territory realized that the Confederacy could no longer fulfill its commitments to them. Therefore, the Camp Napoleon Council was called to draft an agreement to present a united front as they negotiated a return of their loyalty to the United States. Native American tribes... |
why can we tell if a bill (currency) is fake or not/ | Money is like a cake. You have slices of it, and it's delicious. But what's it made out of? Well, there's a tricky question. Eat the cake and find out? You can try. Hell, let's say you do it. You somehow know every single ingredient in the cake. More still, you somehow know the exact measurments.
But if you put that ... | [
"However, these numbers are based on annual seizure rates on counterfeiting, and the actual stock of counterfeit money is uncertain because some counterfeit notes successfully circulate for a few transactions.\n",
"Promotional United States fake currency is faux \"currency\" that makes no assertion of being legal... |
why are drug stores selling products that have a disclaimer saying "no approved therapeutic claim"? | The simple answer: There's a demand for said products.
There's a demand for those products, even if there is no proof that the products actually work.
There are tons of people using treatments that science hasn't prooved to be working (e.g. homeopathy).
The other side of the simple answer: Legal obligations. If you... | [
"The following are settlements reached with US authorities against pharmaceutical companies to resolve allegations of \"off-label\" promotion of drugs. Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, it is illegal for pharmaceutical companies to promote their products for uses not approved by the Food and Drug Admi... |
why having a diet high in salt is bad for your heart | Simple explanation given to me I'm on a heart medication and diuretic (increased peeing = water and sodium levels decreased in blood)
Sodium is a known to cause fluid retention aka the more sodium you take in the more water stays in the body and not filtered out.
so high salt = high amount of water in blood.
lets ... | [
"Advising people to eat a low salt diet, however, is of unclear effect in either hypertensive or normal tensive people. In 2012, the British Journal \"Heart\" published an article claiming that a low salt diet appears to increase the risk of death in those with congestive heart failure, but the article was retracte... |
Is there any scientific evidence to prove that each individual perceives everything the same? | Actually, there is very good reason to believe that while there may be some differences in perception from person to person, and large differences when dichromacy or other forms of color blindness is considered, people do NOT see colors very differently from one another. That is, as long as neither one of us is colorbl... | [
"Among human beings, the sense of sight is usually in charge of recognizing other members of the same species, with maybe the subconscious help of smell. In particular, the human brain has a disproportionate amount of processing power dedicated to finely analyze the features of a human face. This is why we are able... |
When a computer screen is cracked at one spot, why does the entire screen no longer work? | Pixels turn completely white (transparent) when you switch them off. When your screen cracks a conductor that is wired in series is severed, thus pixels are powered off while background light keeps running. The black blotch is the result of messed up polarizing filter and/or pixels cracking and leaking (thus the name l... | [
"If an LCD is subjected to physical shock, this could cause one or more TAB connections to fail inside the display. This failure is often caused by horizontally flexing the chassis (e.g., while wall-mounting or transporting a display face up/down) or simple failure of the adhesive holding the TAB against the glass.... |
How in God's Name was Prohibition Ratified in the United States? | It's easy to look back and wonder what they were thinking, I agree. Temperance advocates had various advantages. There does seem to have been enormous enthusiasm, a deep conviction among the Temperance forces that banning alcohol would save most families from destruction, enable men to lead productive, long lives, and ... | [
"The Twenty-first Amendment (Amendment XXI) to the United States Constitution repealed the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which had mandated nationwide Prohibition on alcohol. The Twenty-first Amendment was proposed by Congress on February 20, 1933, and was ratified by the requisite number ... |
How do wild animals get rid of fleas? | Almost every wild animal will host a wide variety of parasites for its entire life. Some of these are relatively innocuous - for example [eyelash mites](_URL_3_) in humans. Some are much [less pleasant](_URL_2_).
Intestinal worms are very common - almost universal - in most species of wild mammals.
Fleas are the same... | [
"Removing fleas from the pets is not a difficult task considering the advent of products which are designed not only to kill fleas, but also to offer protection from further infestations. Flea-control products are available in once-a-month topicals, dog collars, sprays, dips, powders, shampoos, and injectable and o... |
Why didnt the civil war have armor? Wasn't close quarters fighting common? | > **Why didnt the civil war have armor?**
The American Civil War did see many experiments in body armor; Bashford Dean in [Helmets and Armor in Modern Warfare](_URL_1_) 58-59 notes:
> It is known that breastplates were worn more or less frequently during the American Civil War. In the museum in Richmond, there is... | [
"When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory was an early enthusiast for the advantages of armor. As he looked upon it, the Confederacy could not match the industrial North in numbers of ships at sea, so they would have to compete by building vessels that individually ... |
Why did France grant Monaco independence in 1861? | A very similar question was just asked a few days ago, you may want to search for answers here:
_URL_0_ | [
"Only in 1419 did Monaco gain control of its own sovereignty from French control after Lambert Grimaldi convinced the French king Charles VIII to grant it independence. King Louis XII recognized Monaco in 1512 with the signing of a document that also declared a perpetual alliance with the king of France. Following ... |
please explain the isis iraq situation. | Ohh man its complicated..
So ISIS is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. They have been active mainly in Syria fighting against Bashir Al Asad, but have been pushed back there (out of Alepo and denser urban areas) by more moderate rebels (who the US ostensibly supports). Recently they cashed in on the Iraq side of the... | [
"In early 2014, ISIL drove Iraqi government forces out of key cities in its Anbar campaign, which was followed by the capture of Mosul and the Sinjar massacre. The loss of control almost caused a collapse of the Iraqi government and prompted a renewal of US military action in Iraq. In Syria, ISIL has conducted grou... |
How do people determine the tilt of a planet of direction is relative in space? | We define the ecliptic as the plane that contains the Earths orbit around the sun. We define the tilt of a planet as the angle between the normal direction of the ecliptic and the axis of rotation of the planet. | [
"Orbital inclination is the angle between a planet's orbital plane and another plane of reference. For exoplanets, the inclination is usually stated with respect to an observer on Earth: the angle used is that between the normal to the planet's orbital plane and the line of sight from Earth to the star. Therefore, ... |
[Book Request] I don't see any books for the Reconquista on the book recommendation list | Point of clarification. What are you looking for when you say "a general history of *the Reconquista*?" Although the underlying crusade ideology is there for the Christians, and as time wore on Muslims definitely realized their al-Andalus (by then comprised of many little kingdoms) was losing ground to a bunch of Chris... | [
"A book has been published (written in Spanish) under the auspices of the Ajuntament De Carlet, Valencia, with the title \"Amparito Roca, El Pasadoble Del Mestre Texidor\". It contains biographical material and commentary on the works of Texidor with a catalogue and discography. The text is by Angel Valero Garcia.\... |
Why did CPUs stopped at around ~3-4GHz? | See:
_URL_0_
_URL_1_ | [
"Both the 6400 and 6600 CPUs had a cycle time of 100 ns (10MHz). Due to the serial nature of the 6400 CPU, its exact speed was heavily dependent on instruction mix, but generally around 1 MIPS. Floating-point additions were fairly fast at 11 clock cycles, however floating-point multiplication was very slow at 57 cl... |
What festivals did the romans celebrate (pre-christianity)? | The Romans celebrated plenty of festivals, and I'll highlight a couple of the more important ones for you.
* **Lupercalia:** This is possibly the most famous Roman festival, along with Saturnalia. It was celebrated during February (13-15) and it was a celebration of the health and fertility of the city of Rome. Prob... | [
"A major source for Roman holidays is Ovid's \"Fasti\", a poem that describes and provides origins for festivals from January to June at the time of Augustus. Because it ends with June, less is known about Roman festivals in the second half of the year, with the exception of the Saturnalia, a religious festival in ... |
why is if more harmful to the human body to be exposed to freezing water than it is to be exposed to air of a similar temperature? | Heat generally transfers from molecule to molecule. More molecules means faster heat transfer. The amount of molecules in a given volume is called density. Generally speaking, the denser a substance is, the better it is at transferring energy. Water is much denser than air. So, heat energy from your body will flow... | [
"Heat is lost much more quickly in water than in air. Thus, water temperatures that would be quite reasonable as outdoor air temperatures can lead to hypothermia in survivors, although this is not usually the direct clinical cause of death for those who are not rescued. A water temperature of can lead to death in a... |
How and when were tanks, semiautomatic weapons and planes started being deployed in warfare? | The Second Industrial Revolution happened.
Generally considered to have started in 1870, the Second Industrial Revolution saw the development of a wide range of technologies, manufacturing techniques and chemicals that made many of the weapons and technologies of the First World War possible.
More efficient means of ... | [
"In post-Cold War conflict, the resurgence of expeditionary warfare has seen the emergence of gun-armed wheeled vehicles, sometimes called \"protected gun systems\", which may bear a superficial resemblance to tank destroyers, but are employed as direct fire support units typically providing support in low intensit... |
what is modern art and what determines the price? | Whatever the artist feels he is owed is weighed against public appraisal. It’s supply and demand, but on a very intimate scale, that determines the price. That is to say, the worth of the piece is the highest value a person wishes to pay. If the artist accepts, then that will be the price at which it is sold. | [
"Components of a work of art, like raw stone, tubes of paint or unpainted canvas, in general have a value much lower than the finished products, such as a sculpture or a finished painting. Also, the amount of labour needed to produce an item does not explain the big price differences between works of art. It seems ... |
why is depression such a pervasive theme throughout reddit? | Reddit is a fairly liberal place that likes to focus on fighting for marginalized causes. Depression and mental health are largely ignored in general society and affect a huge number of people, so naturally Reddit wants to talk about it. Also, since Reddit is an anonymous community, it is much easier to talk about our ... | [
"In this way, the depression can be traced back to a demand for perfection from which a person is deducing their own worthlessness, from which they are in turn deducing the horribleness of what happened.\n",
"Scholars Dhir et al. discuss the potential for depression in relation to social media use and FOMO. They ... |
why are rabbits associated with sexual things like playboy? | Rabbits have a reputation of breeding prolifically, which leads to their reputation of having sex very often. | [
"Rabbits are often used as a symbol of fertility or rebirth, and have long been associated with spring and Easter as the Easter Bunny. The species' role as a prey animal with few defenses evokes vulnerability and innocence, and in folklore and modern children's stories, rabbits often appear as sympathetic character... |
difference between memory and ssd | Memory typically refers to RAM (random access memory) where as SSD (solid state drive) refers to storage.
Easiest way to know the difference is think of RAM as a work table and SSD or other storage device like a hard drive as storage cabinets.
If you want to work on a project, you can only use as many tools (aka app... | [
"While both memory cards and most SSDs use flash memory, they serve very different markets and purposes. Each has a number of different attributes which are optimized and adjusted to best meet the needs of particular users. Some of these characteristics include power consumption, performance, size, and reliability.... |
how does mass hysteria work and how can it manifest physical symptoms? | It's pretty much a huge case of fomo with the placebo effect. You see a bunch of people doing something and your mind thinks that the might be something triggering it that effects you so you begin to physically manifest something like an uncontrollable urge to dance or some kind of sickness | [
"In sociology and psychology, mass hysteria (also known as \"mass psychogenic illness\", \"collective hysteria\", \"group hysteria\", or \"collective obsessional behavior\") is a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population in society as a result of rumo... |
why does hard cheese which has been maturing for years have a sell-by date of only a few weeks? | It's been cut.
As long as the outside of the cheese is entirely the outside of the cheese (the rind), the cheese will have a substantial shelf life. As soon as you cut it, opening up the more moist interior to oxidation, mold, and bacteria, it has a shelf life. That being said, some cheese (like parmigiano reggiano) w... | [
"Harder cheeses have a lower moisture content than softer cheeses. They are generally packed into moulds under more pressure and aged for a longer time than the soft cheeses. Cheeses that are classified as semi-hard to hard include the familiar Cheddar, originating in the village of Cheddar in England but now used ... |
why is video ram (like gddr5) so much faster than regular ram (like ddr3 or ddr4)? | GDDR, similar to GPUs are very parallel in design.
So while you might have "dual channel" or "triple channel" memory slots on a system board, GDDR memory can be arranged into 8, 16, or 32 parallel channels on the graphics circuit board. This yields nearly linear performance gains in memory throughput since memory chip... | [
"BULLET::::- Clock Speeds: This is the clock speed that the graphics core and video RAM run at; they do not need to be the same. The faster the clock speed, the more the graphics core and/or video RAM can accomplish in a second. All modern video cards use DDR SDRAM, which, for all performance issues, is twice as fa... |
in david attenborough documentaries, how do they get the camera inside each respective insect/animals home? | If you have the DVD/Blu-Ray sets, watch the behind-the-scenes extras.
These nature photographers spend months and months working to catch the perfect moment (really makes the viewer marvel and appreciate their contributions to public knowledge). | [
"Several special filming techniques were devised to obtain some of the footage of rare and elusive animals. One cameraman spent hundreds of hours waiting for the fleeting moment when a rare frog, which incubates its young in its mouth, finally spat them out. Another built a replica of a mole rat burrow in a horizon... |
What is the price difference between geothermal energy and fossil fuel energy? | It really *really* depends on where you're trying to get geothermal energy from. In Iceland, which has tons of volcanic activity and gets all its electricity from geothermal, electricity prices are about half the cost in other Nordic countries.
However, in almost every other part of the world, you'd have to drill 5-1... | [
"Geothermal power is considered to be a sustainable, renewable source of energy because the heat extraction is small compared with the Earth's heat content. The greenhouse gas emissions of geothermal electric stations are on average 45 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour of electricity, or less than 5 percent... |
Help identifying a Japanese battle flag from WWII | I can't read all of it--the vertical text on the sides is quite difficult and I will leave it to somebody else. But the text on the top 国報身 献、is a wartime slogan that means something like 'serve the country, give up one's body' and the name of the soldier on the bottom horizontal text, I think, is Hisanaga Takeshi. It ... | [
"BULLET::::- Finding the red in the national insignia adopted in June 1943 for its military aircraft could cause confusion with Japanese markings during combat, the United States adopts a new marking consisting of a white star centered in a blue circle flanked by white rectangles, with the entire insignia outlined ... |
how come the military is "always recruiting" and are all countries like this? | People are always leaving and moving up even when an army downsizes. Ergo there are always needs for replacements at the bottom.
Now you may not get to be a helicopter pilot. There is always need in the infantry | [
"The most popular age group to recruit for the military is the youth population, because many youth are opting out of going to college because of the economic times and financial positions. \"The recruiting process involves national and local advertising to efficiently supply information on a widespread basis; info... |
how do people doing gymnastics always land on their feet? | They spend years failing to land on their feet. Its an enormous amount of practice, and even then they aren't always perfect. | [
"Gymnasts are expected to land cleanly, with no hops or steps, and within a set landing zone on the landing mat. They must also demonstrate good technique and execution in the actual vault. Falling or stepping on landing incurs deduction, as will lack of height off the table, or distance from the table.\n",
"Foot... |
i'm an adult. why do i always dream about school? | You can think of it as a very, very mild form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
Basically, you dream of it because you went through it. If someone does go broke and lives on the streets or get very sick enough that it impacts their life, they will probably have nightmares about being back in that situation. | [
"You can learn a lot about a person from his dreams. What we dream is a reflection of who we are. It is the measure of our aspirations and goals, and of those values we hold dear and place above all else.\n",
"This group of teenagers will discover that they have more in common than they imagined, they are united ... |
Would it be inaccurate to say that in general, the common people of modern first world countries eat better than medieval European royalty? | Actually, the quality of the cuisine was generally pretty good, if you're talking about how good it would have tasted. As (and it's embarrassing to admit) a Medieval food enthusiast, I can personally vouch for how tasty the food was. It was generally very similar to the modern foods of whatever country you're looking a... | [
"European consumption of meat remained exceptional by world standards, and during the period high levels generally moved down the social scale. But the poor continued to rely mainly on eggs, dairy products, and pulses for protein. Often they did better in the less populated regions, where wild game and fish could s... |
how can someone who lost all movement from below the neck breath without aid? | In some cases they absolutely cannot, and must use a machine such as an "iron lung" or respirator.
In other cases, although their voluntary nerves aren't working, the other nerves that run automatic systems are still in good shape. | [
"It is essential that rescue breathing be continued without pause until the paralysis subsides and the victim regains the ability to breathe on their own. This is a daunting physical prospect for a single individual, but use of a bag valve mask respirator reduces fatigue to sustainable levels until help can arrive.... |
why do adolescent girls seem to be more obsessed with boy pop stars (think justin bieber, boy bands, the beatles, etc.) than adolescent boys are obsessed with female pop stars? | Boy pop stars are marketed to girls.
Girl pop stars are marketed to girls. | [
"Girls gravitate towards \"music, clothes, make-up, television talent shows and celebrities\". As young children are more exposed to and drawn to music intended for older children and teens, companies are having to rethink how they develop and market their products. Girls also demonstrate a longer loyalty to charac... |
Does Crossing-Over in Meiosis result in new genes? | It's not clear from your question whether you mean new alleles ("versions" of genes) or whole new genetic loci (sections of the chromosome), but the answer is yes in both cases!
[Crossing-over](_URL_0_) happens anywhere along the chromosome, both within and between genes. For this reason, after meiosis one gene can en... | [
"Crossing over (genetic recombination) and random segregation during meiosis can result in the production of new alleles or new combinations of alleles. Furthermore, random fertilization also contributes to variation.\n",
"If \"terminal fusion\" (restitutional meiosis of anaphase II or the fusion of its products)... |
How many mass extinctions were there, and how do we know? | Your number is correct and we know different ways.
I note that animals (and plants) go extinct all the time but in order to be a mass extinction event the extinctions have to be within a similar time frame (happen over the same span of time which isn't just instant but can cover thousands of years - such as the curr... | [
"The first of five great mass extinctions was the Ordovician-Silurian extinction. Its possible cause was the intense glaciation of Gondwana, which eventually led to a snowball earth. 60% of marine invertebrates became extinct and 25% of all families.\n",
"There have been at least five mass extinctions in the hist... |
why arent any saudi royals on the top billionaire lists? are they not filthy rich from oil? | Those guys are also not particularly transparent. Since Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, the country's budget and state investment funds are also the royal family's own wallet, whereas "conventional" billionaires own far more easily detectable corporate assets. | [
"Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid (born 1939) () is a Saudi businessman. He is reputedly an influential advisor to the Saudi royal family and a US dollar billionaire. However he is not included in the \"Forbes\" list of the world's richest people as his personal wealth, like that of many Saudi insiders, cannot be assessed ... |
why does it matter that young people don't vote? | Broadly speaking, young people not voting shows there is a lack of engagement. This can mean they don't feel like anything will change, or can change.
This matters because for democracy to function properly (i.e. have checks and balances, a knowledgable electorate etc.) people actually have to give a damn. And what ... | [
"One reason cited for why children and the mentally disabled are not permitted to vote in elections is that they are too intellectually immature to understand voting issues. This view is echoed in concerns about the adult voting population, with observers citing concern for a decrease in 'civic virtue' and 'social ... |
I am a Roman equite from the age of Augustus examining Rome during the reign of Constantine. What has changed most noticeably? Is the new Rome even recognizable to me? | ^I'm ^not ^sure ^what ^you ^mean ^by ^"examining ^Rome". ^If ^you ^mean ^something ^like ^walking ^through ^the ^city ^of ^Rome, ^this ^would ^be ^my ^answer:
& nbsp;
Rome has changed massively between the reign of Augustus (27 BCE - 14) and that of Constantine (306-337). Most major monuments are completely new to y... | [
"Many consider Augustus to be Rome's greatest emperor; his policies certainly extended the Empire's life span and initiated the celebrated \"Pax Romana\" or \"Pax Augusta\". The Roman Senate wished subsequent emperors to \"be more fortunate than Augustus and better than Trajan\". Augustus was intelligent, decisive,... |
why does eating human flesh lead to "the shakes"? | Kuru is a real life disease caused by a prion transmitted through consumption of infectious brain matter.
It was first noted in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s and 60s and has largely remained only in that area due to endocannibalistic practices. They eat their dead.
Eating the flesh of a person who wasn't infected wit... | [
"In modern humans, necrophagy (eating of dead/decaying flesh) occurs rarely in most societies. This is likely an adaptation to the risk of disease, due to humans having lower levels of protective acids in the digestive tract, compared to species that are dedicated scavengers. Many instances have occurred in history... |
what actually are the trigometric fuctions? | EE student bored at a huge family Thanksgiving meal, I'll give this a shot.
The sine function takes an angle, traditionally labeled 'theta', as its input, and spits out the corresponding ratio between the opposite and hypotenuse sides of a triangle. Specifically, using [this image](_URL_2_) as a reference, you can say... | [
"In the mathematical study of rotational symmetry, the zonal spherical harmonics are special spherical harmonics that are invariant under the rotation through a particular fixed axis. The zonal spherical functions are a broad extension of the notion of zonal spherical harmonics to allow for a more general symmetry ... |
Why doesn't the US-Canada border follow the St. Lawrence River all the way to the Atlantic? | A very brief answer can come from looking at patterns of European colonialism. The Mississippi river, the St. Lawrence, the Columbia, the Fraser, all these are rivers that when they reach the ocean they come out in the middle of a political unit rather than as a boundary. This is largely because while rivers can repres... | [
"Development of the St. Lawrence River which serves as a border between Canada and the United States was in its early stages in 1871 when the Treaty of Washington was signed, which in part demarcated the St. Lawrence River as a boundary and offered Americans greater use of the Canadian side of the river for shippin... |
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