id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
32w7hv | How are cannabinoids metabolized? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_1_\n\n > After smoking, the initial metabolism of THC takes place in the lungs, followed by more extensive metabolism by liver enzymes which transform THC to a number of metabolites. The most rapidly produced metabolite is 9-carboxy-THC (or THC-COOH) which is detectable in blood within minutes... | null |
8c0wdm | how do remote controlled cars work? | [
{
"answer": "A radio sends commands to a controller in the car. That in turn sends electrical signals to the various motors and solenoids that operate the mechanical parts of the car.\n\nThis can be super basic in a battery powered car with simple steering, or increasingly complex as you approach full sized ga... | null |
cnhs7r | Why did the vice president switch from being the second place finisher in the US presidential elections to a ticket with the president? | [
{
"answer": " The most obvious answer is the election of 1800, but the election on 1796 had some impact on the 12th Amendment as well . The way the constitution was originally structured, electors from each state had 2 votes each with no distinction for president and vice president. It was also the case that ... | null |
bdiczk | what's the difference between thermionic emission and thermoelectric effect? | [
{
"answer": "Thermionic emission is the ability of some materials to emit electrons more readily when heated. Electronic vacuum tubes (valves) use heated cathodes to take advantage of the effect. \n\nThe thermoelectric effect happens when two different metals are joined. Temperature difference can be converted ... | null |
5c5r5r | even with the advances in sciences, why is meteorology so inexact? | [
{
"answer": "Because the climate is complicated and modeling it is hard and expensive. Being sort of right is good enough and spending the money to be right slightly more often (meteorologists aren't actually that bad at predicting the weather) isn't worthwhile for, say, a news station.",
"provenance": null... | null |
3jefvs | Why did the Western borders of Tang China jut out? | [
{
"answer": "That extension to the Northwest is the modern Gansu Corridor and some areas along the Tarim Basin. These areas were strategically important because they controlled key overland trade routes with India, Central Asia, and the Middle East -- the proverbial Silk Road. This area was important for comm... | null |
fimeym | Pandemics and Quarantine History - Megathread | [
{
"answer": "In the generations that followed The Black Death, did any particularly interesting patterns of government or economics pop up?\n\nWith such a massive number of people dying, I can't help but think that the collective trauma might have had some far-reaching effects",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
6g18rh | when a restaurant runs out of something, why is it "86ed"? | [
{
"answer": "As you'll see in [this article](_URL_0_) there are a number of theories, none of which are confirmed and all of which have problems. \n\nI think as the article states at the end that the most likely answer is that it rhymes with \"nix,\" meaning eliminate or negate. Wouldn't shock me to learn that ... | null |
6epbg7 | why do we sneeze and why would our body cease all other functions to favor one thing? | [
{
"answer": "We sneeze to clear irritants out of our noses. As a multistep process to keep whatever it is out of our lungs.\n\nOur bodies are fallible though, sometimes it overreacts. Like seeing pollen as a dangerous intruder.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is no concrete answer, but t... | null |
1n5vip | If the mechanisms of nerve impulses is always exactly the same, how does the brain differentiate between different signals/messages and carry out different functions? | [
{
"answer": "Mechanism of delivery < > information\n\nTake all the methods of communication we have. We can deliver messages verbally, written down, on the computer over the wire. The mechanism of delivery is different but the information is the same.\n\nThe reverse is true too. Take how a computer knows ... | null |
16wqma | Do you and I see the same colors? | [
{
"answer": "[Is it possible that you and I see the same colors differently?](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The thing you're asking about has a name, [qualia](_URL_0_), which is the experience of consciousness. Such as, what do you perceive when your eye looks at something blue, or w... | null |
4kkf3k | if liquids in containers above 100ml in size can be dangerous (for various reasons), why does airport security dump the contents of said bottle into a bin (with who knows what else) not that far from people amassed in long lines? | [
{
"answer": "It could be enough liquid explosive to blow a hole in a plane cabin, but blowing it up in a huge airport in a trashcan would be fairly harmless. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Honestly, you're going to have a hard time finding logic in most of the TSA's guidelines. It's more abo... | null |
2nl7ln | Was the Dunkirk evacuation a triumph or defeat for Britain? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on how you define triumph.\n\nOn one level it can be seen as a triumph in that so many troops were successfully evacuated and the little ships can be seen as a great propaganda scoop.\n\nHowever on the other hand it can be seen as a complete disaster. For a start most of the British equipme... | null |
10z3a0 | why do bytes use metric prefixes (giga, mega, etc) if they don't follow metric standards? | [
{
"answer": "Computers like powers of 2, and people decided that 2^10 = 1024 was close enough to 1000 to use the kilo- prefix.\n\nBut then some marketers came along, and decided they could make hard drives look bigger if they used 1000 for kilo instead of 1024. So things got confusing.\n\nThere are some altern... | null |
3foj7o | Was there a moral justification given in ancient India for the practice of slavery? | [
{
"answer": "Slavery as in West (west of Indus) never existed in India until Muslim conquests into India(Legally). There were no Historical stories which mention about slavery, other than few anecdotes. \n\n\nDue to high population and economical/social segregation of Varna system, Slavery as seen in west was o... | null |
6f4zyk | what prevents us from just arranging protrons, electrons and neutrons together in any way we like to create any elements we want and make anything we want out of nothing? | [
{
"answer": "About 7000 nuclides are predicted to exist according to certain calculations in theoretical nuclear physics. Of those 7000, about 3000 have been found in nature and/or produced using particle accelerators/nuclear reactors.\n\nSo we can produce a huge range of nuclear species for experimental purpos... | null |
6p35dk | what was the reason to split programs into interpreters and compilers? | [
{
"answer": "An interpreted language does not need to be compiled, this means that it is faster to change something and try again, so potentially better for learning to program. These days it's pretty fast either way, though, so makes little difference.\n\nIt's also easier to create a simple interpreted languag... | null |
2eunu3 | how do some studies (referenced) come to the conclusion that smoking marijuana is not harmful to the human body? | [
{
"answer": "Smoking might induce the body to produce more blood than otherwise, but so would doing something like donating blood. Unless we are to accept that the Red Cross is harming donors it wouldn't be reasonable to consider the minor monoxide poisoning to qualify as a harm on such a report.",
"provena... | null |
4nqfa1 | Alexander the Great marched all the way to India. How did he supply his army? | [
{
"answer": "So Alexander the Great's great cause he conquered the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Until he passed over the Indus, all the lands he had conquered had either been Persian satrapies or at least within the Persian orbit. This included everything from Thrace, the Levant, Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria, and Pe... | null |
1tnzw9 | When showing teeth (in art, photograph and portraits) became culturally acceptable? And why it wasn't before? | [
{
"answer": "The first question to ask is what message the portrait is intended to convey. Through to the eighteenth century, portraits were primarily commissioned by either the clergy or the nobility and so reflected the social norms and customs of those two groups. In particular, open-mouthed smiling in art w... | null |
76vzok | what makes white wines "dry"? | [
{
"answer": "There is a spectrum of wines! Both red and white have it. \n\nThey range from dry to sweet. That's how you get semi-sweet, etc.\n\nIt's determined by how much natural sugar from the grapes is left in the wine. You can stop the fermentation process early to make a sweeter wine (or add sugar afterwar... | null |
ikho8 | A question about intelligent life. | [
{
"answer": "With the exception of some very very exotic and speculative reproductive technologies, no.\n\nEvolution is just long-term adaptation to our environment. If, say, our brains start getting smaller because we can offload thinking to technology, then that *is* the process of evolution in action. If the... | null |
tkt1v | If I have two quantuam entangled particles at large distance, can I change the state of the far-away particle by changing the state of my near-by particle? | [
{
"answer": "No. Entanglement is nothing more than a correlation between the outcomes of measurements. If you measure the state of the first particle, then you will be able to predict with certainty the outcome of a similar measurement on the second particle. It has nothing to do with controlling the second par... | null |
4tkqeg | What's the deal with the pyramids in bosnia? | [
{
"answer": "You'll be interested in my response [here](_URL_0_), as well as the discussion elsewhere in the thread. I and the others definitely welcome follow-up questions. It's a claim backed by a few people with monetary investments (read: tourism) in the site, based on results that have not been replicated ... | null |
vsbl5 | Is beauty a human invention, or do animals differentiate in a similar way? | [
{
"answer": "This is typically called [sexual selection](_URL_0_) and yes, it occurs in many species of animals (humans included). One good example is the tail of a male peacock. The color, size, luster etc, of the plumage works to attract the females of the species (peahens). This makes for a pretty good ex... | null |
1htkf2 | how the mpaa can decide what i get to watch? | [
{
"answer": "Because all the major movie producers agree to listen to what the MPAA says. There's nothing stopping some rogue producer from ignoring them, but you'd have a hard time finding that producer's movies.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikiped... | null |
26vsv5 | Please join us in /r/HistoryNetwork for an Historical IAmA in 190 with Prime Minister Winston Churchill shortly after the Battle of Dunkirk | [
{
"answer": "Might just have to have a look at that...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "19646920",
"title": "Anglo-French Supreme War Council",
"section": "Section::::Meetings of the SWC.:During the Battle of France.:Crisi... | null |
5780jm | how did samsung not notice note 7s exploding in the testing | [
{
"answer": "There are 35 worldwide reports of explosions or fires from Note 7s, 2.5 million were sold. That's 0.14% that have had a problem. Its very possible that its just bad luck none of the phones they tested had the issue.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{... | null |
xzqtk | Can you tell me what this is that fell from the sky? | [
{
"answer": "In a situation like this taking samples is vital.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "My guess is that it would be ballooning silk/thread from a spider or other arthropod and that it shrunk after drying out and/or becoming increasingly cohesive/adhesive, and perhaps disappeared because... | null |
6dpo25 | network ports and its exact purpose | [
{
"answer": "No, no. Ports are used so the **device**, identified by it's IP address on the network, knows which application should handle the data, *not* so that the network knows where to send the data.\n\nIt's essentially the same as a ship harbour - the IP address is the coordinates of the harbour, and the ... | null |
21tgz2 | israel-palestine war. which country started and why? | [
{
"answer": "well, this could be a brief answer to your question _URL_0_ ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "45137635",
"title": "1947–1949 Palestine war",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_chara... | null |
41huc3 | how do payday loans pay so fast? | [
{
"answer": "Many Australian banks will offer loan money to customers as soon as they're approved (at least for personal loans, mortgages can be more complex). Transfers between accounts within a bank are also usually instant.\n\nWhat often takes a long time is transfers between banks. [This is complicated](_UR... | null |
lo7f8 | Why are certain people always prone to the virus that causes warts? | [
{
"answer": "Viral infections such as those caused by [HPV](_URL_0_) often exhibit latent, asymptomatic phases. The virus may remain in the host for many years, cycling through periods of heightened activity before being suppressed [but not cleared entirely] by the immune system.\n\nSo, to answer your question:... | null |
3k5k0l | why hasn't the united states adopted a propotional representative congress? | [
{
"answer": "It has to do with the federal nature of our government. One of the core goals of our Constitution was to give all regions of the country a voice in the government. The way that that was done was to create a bunch of separate, winner-take-all districts.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer"... | null |
yrcxh | modern art...i just don't get it. | [
{
"answer": "You know how everyone in your class always tries to colour in the lines? Because pictures always look better when you colour in the lines, right? And the sky should be blue and the grass should be green and if you follow all those rules your pictures will always be pretty. ...And they'll all kin... | null |
13hgca | How do printers pick out one piece of paper if they are all stacked up? | [
{
"answer": "They have rubber rollers that descend onto the stack of paper and then push the paper sheet by sheet into the printer. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Rubber rollers with a lot of friction, spread across the sheet. This is really easy for thin sheets. (text weight paper)\n\nSometi... | null |
8nms8a | what keeps mail delivery people from taking your packages? | [
{
"answer": "Aside from the fact the packages are tracked and logged, it is unlikely an individual would want to risk there income for a £10 loot crate",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Besides honesty? Nothing except security cameras and the fear of one day finding the police searching their hou... | null |
2frzmk | Many galaxies are moving away or towards us. Are there any galaxies that aren't moving considerably, or have more sideways movement than in and out? | [
{
"answer": "Measuring the sideways motion of galaxies isn't something we can really do. However there are nearby galaxies with have negligible velocity (relative to us) in the radial direction; in these cases, you can safely assume that their sideways motion (relative to us) is the larger component.",
"pro... | null |
naib0 | what exactly causes websites to display special characters incorrectly (often quotes or ampersands) | [
{
"answer": "Different character encoding standards. \n\nYour computer only recognizes the number that's being sent, not the character. Computers only understand zeros and ones. A computer will assign each letter a different set of 8 zeros and ones, but problems happen when two computers use a different system ... | null |
1cdyye | was meat considered to be something just for the upper class in Europe 900 years ago? | [
{
"answer": "Not at all. Medieval peasants grew livestock and used their produce for their own sustenance - chickens, pigs, goats, and cows were all consumed by members of all classes. If they lived near a river or the sea, they would also probably eat fish as well.\n\nThe difference between classes, as far as ... | null |
34kifz | why has china not taken over mongolia and korea but shows irredentism when it comes to tibet, taiwan, islands in south china sea? | [
{
"answer": "This is a [progress of China's borders](_URL_0_) through out history.\n\nNotice both Tibet and Mongolia were part of China's Qing (1644 to 1911) dynasty. China's Yuan (1271–1368) dynasty was actually Mongols, which of course includes Mongolia. China broke apart into several warring factions after 1... | null |
2cy6yl | Where did Yiddish as a language originate? | [
{
"answer": "An episode of the [AskHistorians podcast](_URL_0_) deals with this topic. I've pinged /u/gingerkid1234 in case he has more to add.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "א שיינעם דאנק פור די שאלה!\n\nYiddish is, as the podcast and others have said, closely related to German. It's got loan... | null |
6kr8ta | if vegetables are good for you, why do soda, chips, and other "junk food" taste better? | [
{
"answer": "Sugar, salt, and fat are critical for the human body to work. Our brain users more sugar than any other part, salt is needed to conduct electricity, and fat is of course an excellent store of energy. \n\nYou and I are unfortunately a very old model, stuck in modern times. Human beings haven't had... | null |
bfk3q3 | notre dame is getting lots of donations to rebuild and they say it's not enough. wouldn't a world landmark be covered in insurance for catastrophe like this? | [
{
"answer": "From my understanding, neither the maximum amount of insurance possible on the church, nor the insurance bond of the construction company doing the restorations, come anywhere close to the BILLIONS it will take to rebuild.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
62a1oi | What was civilian life like during WW2? During WW2 in US was life in country more or less "business as usual"? | [
{
"answer": "It was fairly different. Though as the war went on, people took the restrictions less seriously and there was always a thriving black market. \n\nThe main differences were the number of men leaving to join the military was very different, the lack of military age males meant for the first time larg... | null |
2in9om | what is the difference between knitting and crocheting? | [
{
"answer": "Knitting uses two needles\n_URL_1_\ncrocheting uses a hook \n_URL_0_\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "977576",
"title": "History of knitting",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
"start_c... | null |
2s8ffw | Were US troops in WWII required to have haircuts? | [
{
"answer": "If you mean buzzcuts in the modern sense, no; at least not for the US Army. They absolutely, however, had grooming standards; its a basic tenet of military hygiene. Hair had to be short at the sides and back; away from the collars and not covering the ears. [Haircuts happened when they could](_URL_... | null |
nzm4u | Could polar bears and penguins be introduced to their respective opposite poles (south, north) and survive? | [
{
"answer": "Its unlikely that they would survive. [Polar bears](_URL_5_) are adapted to eating seals, but its very hard to hunt them in the open water so they hunt on land. Two common ways of catching seals include: crashing through the ice using their paws and kill the seals in their dens or stalking air hole... | null |
6y32rp | why do smaller animals seem to live shorter lives and larger animals longer? such as a fly compared to a whale | [
{
"answer": "Typically organisms with shorter life spans have a survival strategy based on rapid and mass reproduction. A fly for example would be expected to grow many larvae to maturity, mate, and lay their own eggs within a month because flies die all the time to various things. If a fly needed to survive fo... | null |
s05j1 | modern vs. post-modern | [
{
"answer": "Modernism was a cultural movement that began around 100 years ago. Modernist writers are the folks who rejected big, dramatic stories about glorious heroes defeating sinister villains, chosen people going on exciting adventures, comedies about elaborate social disasters, etc and instead focused on ... | null |
3dbqk5 | When doing statistics, is too large of a sample size ever a bad thing? | [
{
"answer": "The only way I can think of would be if your sample size is larger than your population of interest. For example, if you want to figure something out about a population of 10,000 people and you poll 20,000 people, you've clearly polled at least 10,000 people that are not part of your population of ... | null |
cb1sx4 | It seems to be a commonly held belief that only the richest american families owned slaves. Is this true or just another case of southern revisionist? | [
{
"answer": "Adapted from [an older answer](_URL_1_): \n\nIt's a myth that \"only the richest American families\" in southern states could own slaves, which is perpetuated mainly by Confederate apologists hellbent on arguing that the Civil War wasn't about slavery. \n\nSpoiler alert: it was about slavery. \n\n*... | null |
5fz0th | Some mammals have internal testes (Elephants, Rhinoceroses, Cetaceans), how do they get around the difficulties that body heat imposes on sperm production? | [
{
"answer": "Well, the first mammals had internal testes. Having external came much later. Rhinoceroses having internal testes has evolved secondarily.\nOn of the arguments is, that early mammals might have had a slightly lower body temperature and didn't need to have external testes for efficient spermatogenes... | null |
wurrd | cryptology | [
{
"answer": "People like to communicate. When we communicate, sometimes we tell each other secrets - things that nobody else should know.\n\nIf you are sending a message containing a secret to somebody you might fear that this message will fall into the wrong hands and the wrong people will know your secret. So... | null |
3pjh9e | Why do people (usually children) associate transparency with the colour white? | [
{
"answer": "For children coloring, white and clear mean the same thing, on a white piece of paper. If they want to show something as white, they don't fill it in, it'll be the white of the paper. If they want to show something as clear, they'll leave it blank, and it'll be transparent to them.",
"provena... | null |
9qjimh | - why does one get cravings? when one quits a drug/behavior, what's exactly happening when one senses a 'craving'? | [
{
"answer": "When one does drugs or smoke or eat junk food, our brain responds by giving you a “feel good” feeling. This feeling is caused by chemicals aka neurotransmitters, in our body like dopamine and endorphins. Our brain remembers what caused us to feel this way and knows in the future what it needs to m... | null |
8rn3yr | why must clothes irons be hot in order to serve their purpose ? | [
{
"answer": "It's kinda like how you straighten hair the carbon bonds are weak in hair heat allows the breaking of bonds and forms it straight under the flat surface ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "349632",
"title": "Clothes iro... | null |
93j3zc | how do lottery ticket companies make sure their workers don't track down the winning tickets that they print? | [
{
"answer": "A computer prints the numbers on the scratchoff tickets as they roll through the printing presses at a thousand tickets a minute and the machine also coats the tickets with the scratch off coating in the same process. So when they come out of the press all the employee sees is the completed ticke... | null |
2q26h2 | why is it so difficult to provide africa with clean drinking water desalination? | [
{
"answer": "Solar stills might be more viable there than in other parts of the world, but the problem is that they still aren't very viable.\n\nThe parts of Africa that have trouble accessing clean drinking water generally aren't coastal regions, those tend to be quite prosperous areas that have wells or other... | null |
1hdvi5 | Has there ever been any movements similar to Zionism? | [
{
"answer": "Irredentism is a fairly common phenomena. For a long, for instance, Greece had ambitions to take back eastern anatolia, which had once been part of the Greek Byzantine world, from the Turks, regardless of the fact that Turks mostly now lived there, and launched numerous wars to that effect. ",
... | null |
2dnbek | Are there visual anomalies that the human eye can see but wouldn't be seen on a picture taken? | [
{
"answer": "Off the top of my head, there's the blind spot (_URL_0_) in our visual system.\n\nA typical camera (point and shoot, or cell phone for instance) would not have such a blind spot.\n\nEDIT: Fixed link...sorry, link isn't working due to the parentheses in the URL.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
73ze7h | the universe is expanding, but where is the center of the expansion? is that the point in which the big bang happened? and where are we relatively to it? | [
{
"answer": "Every point is expanding away from every other point. There's no \"center of the expansion\".\n\nImagine an infinitely large rubber sheet, with a 1\" grid drawn on it.\n\nNow stretch out the rubber sheet so that the grid lines are 2\" apart instead, everywhere. Is there a \"center\" to this stret... | null |
45vxff | if the universe is infinite but empty outside of the "edges", wouldnt gravity curve space so that if you go straight sooner or later you would end up "inside" of the edges again? | [
{
"answer": "This is one of those impossible scenarios not addressed here.\n\nThere are no real edges. That is hard to understand. Think of it this way. If matter exists there is space around it. So nothing can get to the edge.\n\nWe will never travel to an edge. We will not even travel a billion light years. N... | null |
3g0ndn | how were the victims of the hiroshima and nagasaki bombs "killed instantly"? | [
{
"answer": "The bomb generated extreme heat, around 3000 degrees Celsius and given that humans are mostly water, they literally steam cooked and exploded at the same time ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Here's a video. You can see the multiple stages of the atomic bomb detonation. First there... | null |
a0o8jv | The rate of universal expansion is accelerating to the point that light from other galaxies will someday never reach us. Is it possible that this has already happened to an extent? Are there things forever out of our view? Do we have any way of really knowing the size of the universe? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, there are galaxies from which we will never receive any light at all. (Any galaxy beyond a current distance of about 65 Gly.) There are also galaxies whose light we have already received in the past but which are currently too far away for any signal emitted from us *now* to reach them some ti... | null |
87t95r | encoders, decoders and transcoders | [
{
"answer": "Encoder - changes data into a certain format or \"code\". Usually it's to conform to certain standards for displaying the information, such as ASCII being the standard for displaying letters and symbols on computers and other devices, or .mp3 being a common format for audio data.\n\nDecoder - chang... | null |
1l3gcf | why is it not practical for more countries to send a space shuttle to the moon with all the advances in technology since 1969? | [
{
"answer": "Two reasons. First, getting to the moon is *incredibly* difficult. It's not like \"Yeah, it's hard to figure out but once you crack it it's easy.\" I mean it's *incredibly* difficult. The energy requirements are really enormous. You just wouldn't believe.\n\nThe other, better reason is that the moo... | null |
1k6ew2 | I'm the illegitamate kid of a English king in the Middle Ages, what's my life like? | [
{
"answer": "I assume you're talking about an *acknowledged* illegitimate kid?\n\nIf so, and you're a boy, you'll probably be made a duke or an earl and the king will pay for you're upbringing and you'll have a very comfortable life, including favouritism for a political career if you want one. If you're a girl... | null |
6ji5gg | Why does a pistol's muzzle flip upwards when you shoot? | [
{
"answer": "The hot gas does leave the muzzle equally. \n\nHandguns are held from the bottom and the recoil goes backwards through the barrel on top, so there's a torque force which wants to rotate it a little. \n\nEven if the recoil force translated dir... | null |
204wth | regarding the current event surrounding the missing malaysian airplane, if family members of its passengers claim that they can still call their missing relative's phone without getting redirected to voice mail, why doesn't the authority try to track down these phone signals? | [
{
"answer": "First of all, the family members may not be correct. Second of all, you can't just \"ping\" a cell phone like you see on TV. It just doesn't work that way. Third of all, the way cell phones work, it might not be unusual at all for a phone to ring and then disconnect and not go to voice mail. ",
... | null |
4c00ff | why would a company sell stock and buy it straight back? | [
{
"answer": "Sell when it's high, stockholders may start selling too which can bring down stock price, buy it all back again. Profit. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I think its for tax reason. Sell below capital value to realise a capital loss then immediately buy it back.\n\nLink : _URL_0_",... | null |
78cupu | How much beta/gamma radiation does the core of a star that has undergone supernova emit? | [
{
"answer": "It depends slightly on the type of supernova, and what the core will be made of. However you need to remember a star is much bigger than a nuclear reactor! As such it will emit trillions of times more radiation. \n\nTo go into a bit more detail, stars don't contain many radioactive materials (the... | null |
1gdo2b | I just learned about foreign accent syndrome, when brain damage makes it sound like you have a foreign accent. Do those who suffer from it actually speak with an accent from one they know or is it just the new speech patterns that come with the syndrome making it sound similar to an existing accent? | [
{
"answer": "No, it's a change in the way they produce speech which just seems to sound (to some speakers) like another specific accent. The man who gained an Irish accent after a stroke would not have sounded Irish to an Irish person. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'll answer this with the ... | null |
4e5xjt | Is the Out of Africa hypothesis still widely accepted? Are all humans really "african?" | [
{
"answer": "While some anthropologists hang out here, you should X-post this to /r/AskAnthropology, as this well predates written history.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The good fellows over at /r/AskAnthropology gave me some [wonderful answers](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
7wwykr | How do stains work on the molecular level? | [
{
"answer": "I can tell you how bleach works on some types of stains. So some Compounds have color because of the molecule is a conjugated system. Meaning that more than 8 groups of alternating double then single bonds in a row all share electrons. When light hits this conjugated system it absorbs then release... | null |
1b093r | What were the extent of Anglo-Saxon and German Saxon Relations until the Carolingian Conquest of Saxony? | [
{
"answer": "To answer briefly, there was a massive amount of contact between the two cultures. Trade continued between them in the early years, and after the Anglo-Saxon conversions were complete numerous missionaries were sent to different parts of Germany, the most famous being Boniface and Willibrord in th... | null |
e8hq43 | What did the British plan to do if the captured New Orleans during the war of 1812? | [
{
"answer": "I've written [pretty extensively](_URL_0_) before on the causes of the war, on [British war aims](_URL_2_) and their [alliance with American Indians](_URL_3_), and how they contrasted with [American goals](_URL_1_). To make a long story short, the British were defending their colonies in Canada and... | null |
3n4kyt | What was the mentality/practice behind conducting electro-shock therapy on homosexuals as a "cure"? | [
{
"answer": "I'm no expert on this, but I'm currently reading [Steve Silberman's Neurotribes](_URL_0_), which is a cultural history of autism. It's not specifically about homosexuality, but it does delve into the use of electro-shock therapy on autistic children, as what's known as aversion therapy. Basically, ... | null |
3twnhz | Why didn't the Greeks try to explore west? | [
{
"answer": "Precisely because they were able to calculate the circumference of the Earth. Ancient Greek ships weren't able to handle the open ocean, and it was thought all the way up until Columbus' time that there was nothing but open ocean between Europe and Asia. Sailors and explorers at the time would have... | null |
2wqhw5 | who decided the #2 pencil was the one to rule them all? | [
{
"answer": "The #2 is a measure of the \"hardness\" of the pencil lead (which is actually graphite, but that's a different thread). \r\r#1 pencils are very \"soft\", meaning they wear fast, smudge often, and it's difficult to keep the writing point sharp. Numbers #3 and higher stay nice and sharp, but make li... | null |
5vkvdk | why can't we just like take a giant telescope and look at the planets that nasa discovered? similar to how our satellites can zoom in on earth. | [
{
"answer": "Satellites take pictures of things from about 100 miles away. A planet that's 40 light years away is 235,100,000,000,000 miles away. So, you'd need a camera that is about one trillion times more powerful than what's on a satellite.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because of fundame... | null |
e01lf9 | why is it that most of us won't think twice about spending £3.00 on a beer but will hesitate and think far too long about buying something that'll actually be useful and last for a long time? | [
{
"answer": "Instant gratification versus something that has long last impact where the benefit isn't immediately noticeable or required?\n\nYour steam game for example, doesn't just cost you money, it costs you *time* which you gotta invest in.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You expect your b... | null |
3t3xvg | why do they market toys and collectibles before their respective movies come out? | [
{
"answer": "It's better to have them released beforehand, so when people see the movie and get excited they can immediately find them on the shelves in stores, than risk a delay and them not getting into stores when demand is highest.\n\nBack when Star Wars (the original movie) came out in theatres, the toys w... | null |
4d2alo | Did the USSR have any kind of youth counterculture movement like the USA during the late 1960s? | [
{
"answer": "[Punk in the Soviet Union](_URL_0_)\n\nedit: not in the 60's, but might be interesting.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "8544676",
"title": "Counterculture of the 1960s",
"section": "",
"start_paragrap... | null |
1api3p | if the 4th dimension exist does that mean im already dead somewhere/when in time? | [
{
"answer": "Who said the 4th dimension was time?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well if you are considering the 4th dimension to be time then yes you are dead somewhere in the 4th dimension, unless you plan on living forever.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The way I like to ... | null |
30tu6a | How far into North America did the diplomatic/economic sphere of the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican empires extend? For instance, would a Native American living on the Chesapeake have heard of massive, city-building empires to the south? | [
{
"answer": "If you check our [FAQ](_URL_0_) we have a whole section dedicated to pre-Columbian contact that may answer your question.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Connections between what is now the American Southwest and Mesoamerican are so well established that it is almost inappropriate ... | null |
2nhamk | What does "punk" mean in this context? | [
{
"answer": "\"Punk\" was used to mean listless or generally poor. So this could be taken to mean that he was going to a party that was bland and he wasn't having a good time. Would that make sense in the context? Context is everything. References to this use of the term in North American slang appears in the O... | null |
5f92k6 | if i sat in a bathtub of liquor would i get drunk? | [
{
"answer": "Not a doctor. Do know several though that work ER. Since \"butt-chugging\" of alcohol is a thing I would be more concerned about the alcohol getting in there. Or just burning like hell on your bits. But if it did make it in, the effect is much stronger than if you drink it, which is why these idiot... | null |
3rx4ys | difference between enlisted and officers in army and how different are their selection process. | [
{
"answer": "Almost anyone can enlist, and it's basically the entry level to the military. Officers are required to have at least a bachelors degree, and are placed into leadership positions. The [rank](_URL_0_) system is completely different, and they are also sent to different boot camps to be trained in thei... | null |
1qurch | why is it that links are repeated on different pages in reddit? | [
{
"answer": "Going to the next page asks reddit to give you the 25 links following the link that's at the bottom of your current page. But the rankings of links are constantly changing - if that link has moved up the reddit rankings since you loaded your old page, it can jump over links you've already seen, and... | null |
cqwb7s | if spider webs are one of the most stiky things we know, why do spiders dont get stuck if they get tangled in them? and what aobout nest like spider webs? | [
{
"answer": "Spider webs are not completely sticky.\n\nSome of the \"silk\" (sorry, don't know the name in English), is sticky, but spider can produce some that are not.\n\nSo, when a bug come in contact with the web, it get glued on it, but the spider, who know where it put the sticky or non sticky silk, can m... | null |
a9j56b | Can someone explain to me what ricci flatness is? | [
{
"answer": "A manifold is Ricci-flat if the Ricci curvature tensor is zero. This roughly means that small cubes whose edges are geodesics have the same volume as cubes in the corresponding Euclidean space of the same dimension. But the geodesic cube itself may be twisted or curled into a different shape. (Thin... | null |
11ma6m | What will replace integrated circuits once they reach the smallest size possible? | [
{
"answer": "[Three-dimensional integrated circuit](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The smallest size possible was thought to be 1 micrometer not so long ago, so any predictions on when the transistor gate length will definitely be too small is a bit early in my opinion. \nArchitecture... | null |
15pzm9 | Did any significant amount of early-ish American settlers return to Europe? | [
{
"answer": "Some did. The most prominent one in the north was probably Edward Winslow who was one of the political leaders a Plymouth. He was eventually recalled for diplomatic service by the new king. He died on a voyage to the West Indies.\n\nHere's the wiki for some more info.\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"p... | null |
1kgb6v | Why do frozen foods thaw faster on granite countertops? | [
{
"answer": "Granite has a very high thermal mass. This means that it takes a lot of heat to change its temperature - much more than a laminate counter top.\n\nSo, you put some cold food on the granite. The heat transfers from the granite to the food, but since it has so much thermal capacity, its temperature... | null |
27y9v5 | - what does it mean when a file is encrypted? | [
{
"answer": "Encryption is the application of complex math to make files look like gibberish to computers and people.\n\nHackers don't just do encryption, your bank does, the NSA does, the Army does, and when you do online transactions, so does your browser.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Encr... | null |
2dbwul | When NSDAP wanted to replace Roman law with German law, what did they meant? | [
{
"answer": "A little while ago, there we had [a thread](_URL_0_) concerning this rather obscure topic. Perhaps you want to take a look at it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "606589",
"title": "Paragraph 175",
"section": ... | null |
1bmrt7 | Were left leaning student beatnik types any less hostile towards the Soviet Union in 1960s than most "normal" Americans at the time? | [
{
"answer": "[Students for a Democratic Society](_URL_0_) was one of the most popular and powerful of the \"New Left\" student groups. SDS was founded in 1960, and permitted Communist party members within their ranks (this was a change from previous leftist student groups). SDS campaigned against the Cold War a... | null |
38gnro | How come the Abwehr were so inefficient and seemingly completely useless in gathering intelligence? | [
{
"answer": "Look up what they did in the Netherlands. They were very effective in gathering intelligence before the invasion, trained, supplied and provided information for the Brandenburgers who took vital bridges during the Invasion of May 1940, and managed to capture almost all Allied spies active in the Ne... | null |
373jyk | by what method does google translate detect the language of input texts? | [
{
"answer": "Matching words with words it knows from various languages. Also what characters you input. Like, if you were to input the Kanji lettering for the term \"Horse stuffer\", it'd detect that it was Kanji first, then what words it is, then makes the connection.\n\nOr for other roman lettering, it just k... | null |
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