id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
8fylaw | how did we as humans collectively decide on the location of the international date line? | [
{
"answer": "you'll notice the exact opposite longitude goes through London. \n\nwhen they started timezones etc, Britain was basically the Great Power. They decided that all longitudes, and, later, timezones would be counted from there. And nobody really argued with them, because they had less boats.\n\nFortun... | null |
2phapa | Were does the inertia of a playground swing come from? | [
{
"answer": "Swings with children pumping their legs to increase their peak height have actually quite complicated physics that many people confuse with the simpler case of a pendulum with constant peak height and constant total energy. \n\nWhere does the extra energy come from to increase the child's total ene... | null |
2cqtfa | Why do serrations help knives and saws cut? | [
{
"answer": "Serrated blades focus the pressure onto many smaller points of contact, and those contact points are at a higher angle, both of which works better to cut some surfaces or materials. It isn't quite as smooth of a cut, though.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In the US, we call it a \... | null |
27tc3w | How were Medieval churches and cathedrals financed? | [
{
"answer": "Indulgences could be used to finance the building of cathedrals in at least one case. Pope Leo X allowed for the sale of indulgences to finance the renovation of St Peter's Basilica, the act of selling indulgences as part of a way to finance Church activities is one of the points of contention for ... | null |
3xyeer | How long did Humans typically go without eating? | [
{
"answer": "I would suggest that you consider cross-posting this to /r/AskAnthropology, as it is less an historical question than one about human physiology.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "History-related question:\n\nIs a three-meal day a modern practice? How much do we know about the dietar... | null |
13696f | when movies make hundreds of millions, whats an accurate picture of where this money comes from and where it ends up? | [
{
"answer": "Typically, a writer/producer develop the idea for a film. They take this idea and 'sell' it to a studio for, let's say, 10 $.\n\nThe studio will now hire actors, writers (maybe even the same one), producer/directors, sets etc etc etc and spend 50 $ on this all to make a final/finished movie. Since ... | null |
1h0muy | When did my Iron Meteorite form? | [
{
"answer": "Iron meteorites formed within a few ~50 million years of the start of the solar system so it's about 4.5 to 4.567 billion years old.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "145352",
"title": "Iron ore",
"section": "S... | null |
4mhxf5 | What reactions happen in the brain when someone experiences in 'epiphany'? | [
{
"answer": "When researchers study this, they typically call it \"insight\" and is often used in the context of problem solving. There are some interesting behavioral aspects of insight: the longer you are working on a problem, the closer you feel you are to a solution, but if you ask people what they think th... | null |
15mrym | When a person says they're not fat, but big boned, can that actually be the cause for their big size? How much bigger could someone's bones be than that of the average person's, with or without looking fat? | [
{
"answer": "Two different questions here. One, yes some people have larger bone structures. Two, the statement is colloquially used in America by people who deny that they're overweight. The second half of your question, however, delves into social science and observation and I'll get downvoted to hell if I... | null |
6iunka | do good gut bacteria fight against each other? | [
{
"answer": "Yes! It's definitely an active area of research, but you can be pretty assured that wherever there is a dense, varied bacterial community, they are fighting each other. Certainly indirectly via competition for resources, and in some cases directly by poisoning each other. When there are lots of bac... | null |
6jlwru | Why is it that when a spacecraft docks with the ISS, the force of them docking doesn't disrupt the orbit of the station? | [
{
"answer": "It does! Whenever two bodies in space come into contact, they transfer momentum. Fortunately, when spacecraft dock with the ISS, they use their thrusters to dock at a speed which does not have a significant impact on the overall momentum of the space station. Should the space station's orbit be aff... | null |
1g6x6w | Would meat ever spoil if we killed all bacteria on it and kept it in a vacuum? | [
{
"answer": "[Neil deGrasse Tyson on Food for Mars Missions](_URL_1_), Neil deGrasse explains how they conserve food in space, and how the texture changes even if no microbes are in the food.\n\n[Tasting Astronaut Food: Inside NASA's Space Food Systems Laboratory](_URL_0_), 20 minute video about space food (but... | null |
82hd9r | why do most restaurants/fast food places use foamy soap? | [
{
"answer": "The soap is the same as normal hand soap. It is the dispenser that makes the soap foam. These dispensers help to reduce waste by making it seem like you have more soap than you really do. It doesn't take a lot of soap to effectively wash your hands either.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"ans... | null |
59rv2s | In the Andy Williams Christmas song "It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" he says "There'll be parties for hosting Marshmallows for toasting And caroling out in the snow There'll be scary ghost stories". Why is he talking about Scary Ghost Stories at Christmas? | [
{
"answer": "The tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas time is a moderately long one, and – certainly outside the US, where Hallowe'en has often only become a big thing in the last 20-25 years (very much true where I write, here in the UK) – it significantly antedates current conventions.\n\nThe key s... | null |
1d4etx | To what extent can/do multiple strains of an illness (like 2 different kinds of the flu or 2 colds for example) infect a person at the same time and compete for control of their body? | [
{
"answer": "For something like the flu or a cold if the viruses have different target cells they probably don't compete much. They are just waiting until they find the right cell type to replicate. \n\nAs for bacterial pathogens there would be a lot of competition for limiting nutrients, such as iron, with not... | null |
4dl3pj | why is the default stressful dream "unprepared in high school" for so many people? | [
{
"answer": "I think it's because school is the first time people are \"graded\" based on effort entirely within their social circle they are immersed in daily.\n\nIt's not just hormones causing you to feel uncomfortable, anxious and stressed, but you also have to compare your worth against people who are your ... | null |
291o1m | Did any non-Austrian influenced Italians (i.e. Scicilians) oppose unification in the 19th century? | [
{
"answer": "When the unification movement started, Cavour only wanted Piedmont to annex what was North of Rome. He practiced Realpolitik, which meant he was interested in tangible results and all of his actions were calculated. Garibaldi, a Romantic Italian, wanted unity for all of Italy. Garibaldi sent his ar... | null |
4ao9lf | why does a phone need to be charged above 15% to take a picture? | [
{
"answer": "First, phones make some assumptions about the battery. They might know the charge level, but they calculate the rate they are draining at based on current activity. So if you fire up the camera and sees that the drain-rate goes up, the phone might go \"Uh oh, I'm about to lose power\" and warn you.... | null |
1t7gjj | What was the largest slave plantation in history? | [
{
"answer": "Just briefly reviewing this [book](_URL_1_) which also has the 223 figure as the average size I would think that there would be no plantations significantly larger than the average given that:\n\n1) in jamaica the top 1% of slave owners (119) had 45025 slaves suggesting an average size of the large... | null |
bpjf8q | For experts about the American Revolution in the South--what happened to the British soldiers who were stationed in Charleston when the Revolutionary War started? | [
{
"answer": "I'm afraid the answer is disappointingly simple: there were no British regulars in Charleston in 1775, and by the time open fighting began, the British had other worries than immediate reconquest of a somewhat insignificant town.\n\nThe pre-war British army was quite small, numbering just under 50,... | null |
3gpqy8 | In Western Europe in the 16th/17th centuries, how achievable would it have been to 'pretend' to a higher status? Are there examples of people doing so? | [
{
"answer": "\n\nPerkin Warbeck as Richard of York:\nNot only did young Perkin Warbeck masquerade as a prince, he nearly succeeded in overthrowing King Henry VII of England. In 1491, Warbeck appeared in Ireland claiming he was Richard of York, the youngest son of the former King Edward IV. The real Richard was ... | null |
61yc1s | How oppressive was Lee Kuan Yew's government? What questionable policies did it enforce? | [
{
"answer": "Follow-up question:\n\nWhat are the best books to read to begin studying about LKY? \n\nI've watched his interviews on Charlie Rose and I find I am utterly fascinated by him.\n\nThank you!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "808... | null |
44kkh4 | how do wet dreams cause one to cum if there is no sexual pleasure in reality? | [
{
"answer": "Sexual pleasure is mostly in the mind. Your dreams are fully capable of providing that. What little contact is needed for wet dreams is provided by your underwear/other clothing, sheets, or actually masturbating in your sleep. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance":... | null |
283xue | During the Three kingdoms period, was Lu Bu real? And was he as strong as people say he was? | [
{
"answer": "Lü Bu was a real person, yes. Chen Shou's *Sangouzhi* (三國志, Records of the Three Kingdoms, written in the 3rd century) mentions him, and that's pretty much the most cited historical document for the time period/location. \n\nWhile the site itself is mostly dedicated to Luo Guanzhong's *Sanguo yan... | null |
kwhv6 | Hypothetically, could anaphylactic shock be treated by sending the victim bungee-jumping or other adrenaline-inducing experience? | [
{
"answer": "If the person is unconscious because of the anaphylactic shock, probably not.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Another question: Wouldn't the fact that you probably think your dying during anaphylactic shock cause you to pump out adrenaline anyway? Why doesn't this solve its own pro... | null |
e6lsnc | how does picture format conversion work? eg. png to jpg | [
{
"answer": "It's basically the same as translating languages. A program knows how to read and save both formats and remakes the original in the other format.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "16009",
"title": "JPEG",
"sect... | null |
38y40s | why is it that every device i own slowly but surely slows down and refuses to work like they once did no matter what i do? shouldn't upgrades and better technology ensure longer lifetimes for gadgets, not kill them off and force me to buy new ones? | [
{
"answer": "I hear this all the time, and it might be because I work in a technology field, but I never run into this problem. It always has to do with some kind of problem that the owner has either neglected or have been unaware of that slowly gets worse as it's not taken care of. It really depends on what ki... | null |
cr5okt | When did garbage collection become a common feature in American cities? What did people do with their refuse before that? | [
{
"answer": "TL;DR: Roughly 1880 - 1890, starting largely in New York City.\n\nFor a brief overview, [A Filthy History: When New Yorkers Lived Knee-Deep in Trash](_URL_5_) gives a pretty good outline, and is a review of a book, [_Picking Up_](_URL_1_), by Robin Nagle, with much more detail.\n\nIn the late 19t... | null |
77ku1e | how does having sickle cell protect against malaria? | [
{
"answer": "We don't know exactly, but it has something do do with the fact that the Malaria parasite lives in the red blood cells for part of their development. \n\nThere are different theories, but they basically come down to one of two things:\n\n* Either the red blood cells of people with sickle-cell disea... | null |
1rkk4z | What was the lifelong illness that plagued Augustus? | [
{
"answer": "Could you explain why you think that Augustus suffered from a lifelong illness in the first place?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "2648700",
"title": "Marcus Claudius Marcellus (Julio-Claudian dynasty)",
"sec... | null |
986ph0 | How come North and West are common English surnames, but not East and South? | [
{
"answer": "Hello everyone. Just want to give a quick heads up as to why there are a bunch of removed comments, because people keep asking. Here are some of the removed comments, in their entirety:\n\n > Damn it. I need an answer.\n\n > WHY IS EVERYTHING REMOVED? Every time I’m genuinely curious :(\n\n > Geez,... | null |
c8ohpq | the physics that make the double bounce on a trampoline so effective and at launching kids so high in the air. | [
{
"answer": "When you land on a trampoline, the weight of your body landing loads the webbing and springs with potential energy.\n\nMore people landing on the webbing at the same time creates more potential energy on the trampoline. \n\nOnce those other people jump, all that potential is passed to the person in... | null |
24boq8 | Would fighter jets experience G forces if they fought in space? For example, would it be possible for the x-wing pilots in star wars to black out from over G's? | [
{
"answer": "Absolutely they would. G-forces, as they're referred to in air-to-air combat, are the forces experienced by the pilot due to centripetal acceleration as they make tight turns, and for brief periods can exceed 5x the force of gravity.\n\nIn space, there wouldn't be the constant downward force of gr... | null |
37gfbl | why the u.s. is going after fifa, but none of the international big banks? | [
{
"answer": "With the FIFA scandal, the issue can be traced back to certain individuals who took bribes and against who they have proof. (though it has not actually gone through a court of law yet, so we don't even know what charges they will eventually end up with)\n\nWith the banking crisis, it is much much h... | null |
22aytj | How are the fundamental forces related, and how does the weak force fit in? (many questions) | [
{
"answer": " > From what I understand, gravity has one property (sorry I don't have a better word for this) and reaches it's lowest energy state when anything displaying this property (mass) is brought close together. Electromagnetism has two properties, positive and negative charge, that reach lower energy st... | null |
d35mci | Does cognitive ability such as memory, processing decline as we age? | [
{
"answer": "I feel like the answer to this question is really well known... Yes, cognitive ability decreases with age, but I don't think that you're witnessing it before 30. The brain is very \"plastic\" when youre young and \"elastic\" when youre old, if you will. If you cram a bunch of knowledge into the kid... | null |
gh6r8 | What is the highest velocity an object in space can travel at before relativistic effects take place (or become a problem?) | [
{
"answer": "It depends what you mean by noticeable. In order to experience a 1% change in elapsed time or distance, you'd have to be going 14% the speed of light.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You're really asking about the [Lorentz factor](_URL_1_), I think. If it's 1, then everything is at... | null |
6pj79z | how do natural fields exist? (more specifically, ones found in the middle of forests.) | [
{
"answer": "It's part of ecological succession. Environments are constantly changing. It's a system that is complicated by an almost infinite amount of factors and conditions. Usually a glade represents an area that recently changed so that it could no longer support the other surrounding plants. This could be... | null |
5x4mgc | I'm looking for examples (Sources) of literature which typify Colonialist attitude? To use as a reading in Church. | [
{
"answer": "Hi! I think the best example i can think of would be Rudyard Kipling's *White Man's Burden*. You can find it on the internet but here's a link anyway:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nCheers!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "76065",
"ti... | null |
1855bt | Was illegal immigration around in the US during the late 1800s and early 1900s? | [
{
"answer": "Immigration was first regulated on a mass scale in [1892](_URL_2_), when the requirement to be registered at Ellis Island was created. Immediately illegal immigration came into existence. The term \"wop\" for Italian-Americans derives from [\"without papers\"](_URL_3_) and dates from 1908. \"Wetbac... | null |
b9pqhk | When Hernan Cortez and the Spaniards arrived in the Aztec empire in 1519, it is been said that Cortes was taken to the king of the Aztecs and told them he was a peaceful emissary sent by King of Spain. How was this information relayed to the Aztecs linguistically? | [
{
"answer": "There’s one quite clear answer to this: the Spaniards communicated at first via two translators, the Spaniard Géronimo de Aguilar and the Nahua woman Malinche/Malintzin (also \"Marina\" to the Spanish). For a few years before Cortés reached modern-day Mexico in February 1519, other conquistadors ha... | null |
1gemha | Why do we get hungry sooner after a small, high-calorie meal than after a large, low-calorie meal even if the net caloric content is the same? | [
{
"answer": "Hunger is a physiological response to a range of chemical markers in blood changing, such as depleted blood glucose and reduced blood amino acid content. When you eat, you trigger a number of chemical pathways, such as through stretch receptors in the stomach wall, which stimulate secretion of gast... | null |
17v14m | Why are American spellings of many words different from English spellings? | [
{
"answer": "I can only speak for the Australian experience. There has been some use of US spelling in Australia.\n\nFor example the ALP which is the Australian Labor Party. It was spelt with the American spelling of Labour as they believed it showed that they were progressive. Originally they had been proRe... | null |
7208pw | how do software updates like ios11 speed up the phone? | [
{
"answer": "The hardware will determine the maximum performance. How fast a app or the operation system depends on hot the program code is written.\n\nThere are multiple ways to write code that do the same thing and it is usually the case. The simplest and fastest way write code often will result in a slow pro... | null |
1cbpdz | Why do dogs obey our commands? | [
{
"answer": "We've selectively bred them to be good at it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Dogs are pack animals just like humans. We share the same kind of social dynamics and are reading and responding in the same kind of way to social hierarchy. If you take the lead as the alpha in the group... | null |
6emer6 | why are the majority of boundaries between us states perfect straight lines? | [
{
"answer": "They tend to be not-straight when there is a significant geographical boundary, like a river, or historical population divide, like language. If there isn't a significant geographical boundary, drawing a squiggle doesn't necessarily gain you much value. It's just unnecessary complexity to keep trac... | null |
i12rp | How is there a way to clean radioactive water like the water at the Fukushima plant? | [
{
"answer": "It's not the water itself that's radioactive, it's that it's contaminated with radioactive matter. You can separate that out any which way; filtration or evaporation and so on. _In principle_ it's very easy, but in practice it's much more difficult because of the safety hazards posed by the radiati... | null |
1wt7w2 | What altitude does sound stop working? | [
{
"answer": "NB This is not a complete answer, but this may be of use to someone who has time to write and research a fuller answer:\n\nThe atmosphere doesn't suddenly stop in the same way that - say - the oceans do with a clear boundary between water and air. Instead the atmospheric pressure gets less and less... | null |
30kntd | Why do white shirts glow under U.V. lights? | [
{
"answer": "Washing powder often contains a compound that fluoresces under UV light. This is to make your \"whites seem whiter\" when outside in the sun.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "11555",
"title": "Fluorescence",
"... | null |
q44d1 | hypnosis | [
{
"answer": "Please do not talk about hypnosis from a Freudian standpoint (ie: subconscious and conscious minds). Hypnosis is a state of selective attention and concentration in which highly suggestible people (10% or so of the population) can exert a lot of control over the processes in their brain using top-d... | null |
433ggr | do other mammals (apes, cows, etc.) get high from weed smoke, or trip balls with magic mushrooms? | [
{
"answer": "Elephants seem to deliberately go for fallen, fermented fruit knowing full well from experience the effect it will have. An elephant never forgets it really loves you, mate. Nah, really really, OK, like you know, defnally LOVES you. Who you calling big nose...?",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
5o87y2 | If elephants had gone extinct before humans came about, and we had never found mammoth remains with soft tissue intact, would we have known that they had trunks through their skeletons alone? | [
{
"answer": "Trunks do leave visible attachment marks for muscles, ligaments, & such on the skull. However, from osteological correlates alone, it would be impossible to infer exactly what the trunk looks like. In what is perhaps a \"reverse-application\" of this line of reasoning, [trunks can be rejected for... | null |
1qcs6r | Was The Ottoman Empire eager to join WWI against Britain as retribution for the Treaty of Balta Liman in 1838, or were they more weary and only did so at the bequest of their ally Germany? | [
{
"answer": "By the onset of WWI, the Ottoman Empire, despite being a parliamentary monarchy by name, functioned more as a de facto oligarchy, with the men in charge being known as the the [Three Pashas](_URL_0_). It was under the Three Pashas that the Empire entered the [Ottoman-German Alliance](_URL_1_), sign... | null |
6ycc6c | why wasps and other insects like it exist | [
{
"answer": "Animals and other lifeforms do not exist \"for a reason\", and while every lifeform inhabits a niche in it's environment, it does not have to be beneficial to that environment, or to other life in that environment- there is no purpose here. \n\nThere is no *requirement* to *contribute*, only life's... | null |
3sxizk | why are multiple car dealerships all clumped together next to each other? | [
{
"answer": "To fight for customers in key areas. It's like if you have one dealership in the west and another in the east about an hour away, then you're only catering to a certain area of customers each. This can be good if you're in a prime area and it can be bad if you're in a bad area. \n\nIn being next to... | null |
9gg6cp | how do animal claws start fat at the base and grow pointy? | [
{
"answer": "They are getring used up, meaning theyll get pointy. in the case of a dog, they usually get pointy by the dog just walking, In the case of cats (and I assume many other animals too) the claws grow frome inside out, at the same time as as from back to front. Thats why a cat needs something to claw a... | null |
4xwxu9 | why haven't we been able to discover how to craft very old things, such as greek fire? | [
{
"answer": "We can make things like Greek Fire was described. But without knowing what it was we can't be sure what we made was actually the old recipe. It isn't a problem of making the mixture, it is a question of identification of what it was.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's not that we... | null |
284pkt | Why does Croatia's coat of arms have the red and white checkered part? Is there any back story to this or is it just there? | [
{
"answer": "It comes from legends about Red Croatia and White Croatia. Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, an Eastern Roman Emperor in the 900s talks about inviting the tribe of \"White Croatians\" to be part of the empire, when they migrated from Bavaria & Krakow, because they were prone to allying with Franks... | null |
qf1ht | twin peaks | [
{
"answer": "Erm, what part? There are lots of things about Twin Peaks that are hard to understand.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's about the dark, unconscious mind manifesting chaos into the real world.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Couldn't find it with Google? Is tha... | null |
er84q7 | why do eyes get red when watching tv or a screen for a long time | [
{
"answer": "From straining them. You're focused so you blink less. The same idea can be used when putting pressure on a body part for to long will make it red. The touch is focused on per say.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because they dry out. When our eyes are focusing on something, like a... | null |
fggy8d | does an older phone battery (less capacity) charge faster than a new phone with brand new battery? and if it’s using a portable battery, will it use less of that portable batteries “juice” to charge than a new phone? | [
{
"answer": "Speed of charge, and total capacity can be very unrelated traits of a battery.\n\nWith advances in technology, not only are newer batteries capable of holding more electrical charge in the same physical form factor, but they also are capable of drawing more current without overheating, allowing the... | null |
6ma8vu | why do our bodies produce phlegm when we run/exert ourselves? how did making it harder to breathe help our ancestors? | [
{
"answer": "Well, remember that we aren't so much 'producing' phlegm as we are expelling unwanted things from our body through the medium of phlegm.\n\nVomiting, for example, isn't intrinsically useful or pleasant, but it's a mechanism to remove harmful things from our body.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
2rutiy | when a mosquito bites me, does it take enough blood for the night or does it come back for seconds? | [
{
"answer": "Females bite to get blood, somehow it's needec for them to lay eggs. So they'll bite once only in their lives. Males won't bite you at all.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Only females bite, and they bit until they're abdomen is full. From (Mosquito FAQ's)[_URL_0_]:\n \nA female w... | null |
1pc8rn | How did the typical rock arrive in my backyard? | [
{
"answer": "Where do you live? The answer to that question will shape the specifics to your backyard. For example in my home state of Michigan most of our geology is related to the movement of glaciers. When the glaciers encroached downwards they blulldozed and pulverized rocks in the path into till. This till... | null |
72espf | why did america put a term limit in place after such a successful president | [
{
"answer": "Well it's important to realize that the 2 term limit had been enshrined in the American Consciousness since George Washington, so the fact that FDR broke that centuries old precedent (for good reasons, but still) was alarming so there was an impetus to make the unwritten rule a written one.\n\nThe ... | null |
9wzqcy | why do governments subsidise fossil fuel companies when they are so rich? | [
{
"answer": "Because lobbying. The companies pay people lots of money to convince politicians that it's in their best interests to give taxpayer money to petrochemical companies.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A big part of the reason is to get them to listen to what the government wants. Loca... | null |
1zj0dx | how does a car jack work? | [
{
"answer": "A regular car jack just uses a lever and a hydrolic actuator to lift the car. The force required to lift the car is less when you use a lever. Give me a fulcrum and a lever long enought and I'll move the world.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are several designs of jacks avai... | null |
36q7ct | how do airlines get my bag to my destination? | [
{
"answer": "Inside a modern airport is a massive network of conveyor belts that take the luggage from the check in counter to the area where the baggage handlers are.\n\nAs the baggage travels down the belt, pneumatic pushers or gates redirect the bags into different belts that redirect the bag to the proper s... | null |
4rc6xl | how does wifi and cell service get slow when too many people are visiting my town of 1500 people? | [
{
"answer": "Simple, more people but same bandwidth. If a cell tower is fed 500Mbps and there usually are 500 people connected, each get 1Mbps if used simultaneously; if there are now 1000 people connected, each gets 0.5Mbps is used simultaneously. \n \nThis is the same reason why non-fiber Internet speeds de... | null |
16p5q9 | why charging someone more money for insurance based on age isn't considered discrimination. | [
{
"answer": "It is considered discrimination. We just don't have laws against all kinds of age discrimination, because we as a society have concluded that it's not that bad.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "*Why not base the pricing off of driving history alone?*\n\nThinks about this for a momen... | null |
7kbxsx | how do two brown haired people create a blonde baby? | [
{
"answer": "The genetics of hair color haven't fully been teased out yet, but it seems that the genes for blonde hair are recessive compared to the genes for brown hair. So if both genes are present, the person will have brown hair. Only when - by chance - a child only gets the blonde genes from its parents wi... | null |
3ddh7f | do cats and dogs 'like' their owners, or is it simply an intrinsic sense of security that draws them to their human companions? | [
{
"answer": "I read somewhere that domestic pets have had the attachment to humans bred into them over 1000's of years.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Animals are capable of showing signs of emotion, and if you pay attention you can see some pretty surprising similarities between human emotion... | null |
2gc9ul | How important is Earth's distance from the sun, for human survival? | [
{
"answer": "The Earth's distance to the sun is greatly important for our survival. The level of precision that people ascribe to the bounds is greatly exaggerated.\n\nThe Earth needs to be far enough away from the sun to not be turned into a burnt crisp like Mercury or Venus, but close enough to not be freezin... | null |
232bd4 | whats that thing i see when my eyes are closed, while i press the top of my eyes side to side? | [
{
"answer": "I've never heard of what you described; most people see random patters of colors kind of like looking through a kaleidoscope....It's called an \"entoptic phenomenon,\" meaning that it originates from the eyeball. When you apply pressure to the eyeball, you also put pressure on the retina, which is... | null |
25abwv | What is the oldest, continuous land border in the world? | [
{
"answer": "Do you want one that has been fixed in place for the longest time?\n\nIf so, the Swedish-Norwegian border (which remained even when the countries were in a Union 1814-1905) has been the same since 1660.\n\nPortugal has had the same borders since about 1300, but the states on the other side of the b... | null |
4f9n8i | how do statistical websites count enormous numbers such as the birth and death count, or the population of the earth, or even money spent on illegal drugs? | [
{
"answer": "These are estimates based off some formula. Lots of governments and organizations collect vast amounts of demographic data and publish it freely, all you need to do is a look at a few numbers for whatever you are interested in, devise a formula, and easy enough.\n\nFor example, If I drink 1 liter ... | null |
2p4qy9 | how can bill clinton almost get impeached for lying to congress, yet hayden and other intelligence agency officials do so regularly and nothing happens? | [
{
"answer": "Clinton did get impeached. He just didn't get removed from office. The House impeached him but the Senate did not remove him. It was a political move by his enemies. Nothing more. Other presidents have done a lot worse than lie about a blowjob without getting impeached.\n\nWhen that happened, I... | null |
3erqaf | how do you really know sites like duckduckgo aren't stealing your info and selling it? | [
{
"answer": "You can always see what data websites are asking for from your browser (in most browsers you can press F12 and go to the \"network\" tab). If you do that for [DuckDuckGo](_URL_0_) and compare it to [Google](_URL_1_) you can see that Google stores all kinds of unique identifiers in a cookie while Du... | null |
1sx5pt | why aren't planets or the moon declared property of a country? | [
{
"answer": "International treaties barring the claiming of any body outside of the Earth by countries.\n\nPlus you can declare as much as you want it doesn't make it so.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In addition to existing treaties, the most important part of claiming ownership to a territo... | null |
2yraaa | who were the first to harness the power of advertising? who figured out that concept? | [
{
"answer": "It would have happened a few seconds after bartering happened. I have a thing I am willing to give to someone for another thing, so I say, \"I have a thing I am willing to give to someone for another thing.\" Advertising.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "We know that advertising was... | null |
14vjc8 | Why do young children cry at bedtime? | [
{
"answer": "Not all toddlers and young kids cry when they are put to bed. It could be a prevailing perception but that doesn't make it definitive. \n\nThere are lots of possible reasons: fatigue, frustration, fear, etc. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Remember that the idea of having babies a... | null |
89ub1g | - how do so many sportstars, actors, etc. that make millions of dollars end up in debts? | [
{
"answer": "Because they, like many others in our society, spend more than they make. Yes, they make a lot. They also spend > a lot.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They spend faster than they earn as crazy as that sounds. Every situation is unique but it often comes down to unsustainable sp... | null |
d60idd | could memory loss make you "forget" you have depression, or any other mental illness? | [
{
"answer": "A treatment for severe depression is electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), where you run an electrical voltage through the brain. This causes memory loss. It's the most effective treatment for depression we know of. It's possible that memory loss facilitates the therapeutic effects. The patients don't ... | null |
29vwj6 | Why did the germans choose Verdun in WW1 as one of their main targets ? | [
{
"answer": "At a basic level, Verdun was intended to bleed France's armies. Falkenhayn, the commanding German officer, hoped to capture a number of French positions, forcing the French to counter attack to retake them, leaving them open to bombardment from German artillery positions. Falkenhayn hoped to recrea... | null |
1u8d1e | Why haven't the great muslim empires been able to regain their former glory? | [
{
"answer": "Not to pick on you specifically, but there have been a lot of this sort of a question recently. \n\nThis is not a well-phrased question.\n\nIf you want really good answers from good historians, you need to frame your question positively, ie. \"Why did X happen?\" Asking why something didn't happen ... | null |
2w7ysi | During heavy exertion, such as lifting, why do we close our airways? | [
{
"answer": "I can offer a little bit of information on this, but not the complete picture. We don't really need to breathe when we lift or go through quick, heavy exertions. Weightlifting is almost purely an anaerobic exercise (my physio syllabus actually says its 100% anaerobic which makes sense). Oxidative p... | null |
2b011u | In theory, could it be possible for there to be a genetic mutation that stops genetic mutations? | [
{
"answer": "It is possible to get mutations in the DNA polymerase or any of the many proteins involved in DNA repair that would decrease the mutation rate. In fact many of the commercial DNA polymerases used in [PCR] (_URL_0_) are enginered to have very low mutation rates in the PCR environment. However, it is... | null |
tpcrq | Are there any examples of cross breeding animal species with very similar genomes ie those with recent evolutionary divergence? | [
{
"answer": "Male Donkey + Female Horse = [Mule](_URL_1_)\n\nMale Horse + Female Donkey = [Hinny](_URL_2_)\n\nMale Lion + Female Tiger = [Liger](_URL_3_)\n\nMale Tiger + Female Lion = [Tiglon](_URL_0_)\n\nThere may be others.\n\nI am unaware of cross breeds done that are further separated than these animals.\n\... | null |
12ij8n | Medieval Europe experts, how do you feel about Terry Jones' series "Medieval Lives?" | [
{
"answer": "Personally I can't give an opinion, but my medieval Prof (who's a genius, if a little insane) quite likes them, only thing he's considered showing us. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Jones is a legit historian. If you want a look at history from outside the Roman point of view che... | null |
7gamwl | why is some food "aged" and still edible while others are rotten and tossed out? | [
{
"answer": "Rotten food is an uncontrolled explosion of microorganism activity, which is almost always going to produce toxins or at least make the food entirely unpleasant.\n\nAging food is a more controlled process. Conditions such as temperature, humidity, salinity, etc are tuned to allow some bacteria, yea... | null |
o16r1 | what exactly causes paranoia? | [
{
"answer": "Why exactly are you suddenly so interested in this? What have you heard?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Paranoia and Panic Attacks are reactions to stress or unbalanced brain chemistry. \nEssentially your body is reacting to stress like it did when our ancestors were living in tr... | null |
2rkrr8 | why is there an android vs ios "feud" among consumers. | [
{
"answer": "The same reason there's a feud between XBox & Playstation gamers or people that drive Fords and Chevrolets or Team Edward claims superiority over Team Jacob in the Twilight fandom.\n\nPeople are tribal & insecure. They want to be convinced that they made the right choice and that the \"other s... | null |
39t0m4 | In 1600, would a 'citizen' of the Holy Roman Empire identity themselves as such? Would they even know they were one? Or was their view much more local? | [
{
"answer": "Citizenship in 1600 Germany was awarded by the Cities which derived [city rights from the Kaiser](_URL_0_) or the lord of the land (bishop, prince etc).\n\nEach new citizen had to make a Bürgereid, a Citizen's Oath, and repeat it every the \"swear day\" (Schwurtag). Now, the wording was different f... | null |
431x6u | How do we know that the Earth's atmosphere used to contain more oxygen than nitrogen in the past? | [
{
"answer": "Gaseous chemicals react with the earths surface, and in time gets burried in dust, sand, ect. When we then millions of years later dig through the soil, we can analyze its chemical composition and figure things like atmospheric composition, temperature and much more",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
k2ist | Why are women less likely to become scientists? | [
{
"answer": "I'll let HonestAbeRinkin write out a more complete answer, but it comes down to a few things:\n\n1. Sexism.\n\n2. A tradeoff between having babies and pursuing a scientific career.\n\n3. Cultural attitudes about the manliness or ungirliness of certain sciences.\n\nAll of these are changing for the ... | null |
173ia0 | how do slow songs like lullabies induce sleep? | [
{
"answer": "Music promotes overall arousal or relaxation in listeners, with heart rate being only one factor among many that music influences. When a music listener's brain registers the tempo of a song, his brain sends signals to the body that cause breathing to either accelerate or decelerate, matching the t... | null |
254sj7 | who owned ancient artifacts before they were in museums, assuming most museums were built in the 20th century? | [
{
"answer": "You should pose this question to /r/archeology as the folks in that subreddit are very helpful and friendly.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I believe that would be governments.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Collectors and previous museums. At some point in ... | null |
17vede | Are organisms that use non-XY sex determination systems "male" and "female" in the same sense as mammals? | [
{
"answer": "We use the female designation to tell which animal has the ova and which ones don't. Usually this is how we go about it regardless of the chromosome structure. ZZ birds are designated as male since they do not have ovaries. Likewise, XX humans are designated female because they carry the ovary. ... | null |
2f0uq0 | why do countries import and export the same product, like crude oil, or chicken? | [
{
"answer": "Different types of chicken, different flavours of crude plus individual companies with different trade agreements with other companies and countries",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "China will give us $100 a barrel for our crude oil and we can import our own crude oil for Canada @ ... | null |
g3n98x | in the world of trading stocks, what is margin buying power? | [
{
"answer": "Buying on margin is essentially taking out a loan to buy securities, using your already owned securities as collateral.\n\nSay you own a bunch of stocks worth $100,000. Your broker might lend you up to $70,000 to buy other stocks using your $100K as collateral. If the stock values drop to a certa... | null |
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