id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
1dgx3n | why do carriers care if you tether? | [
{
"answer": "the same reason why Hollywood cared about VCRs or the music industry cared about cassette tapes.\n\nwith tethering, you'll only need to subscribe to their service once instead of multiple times (ie one subscription per device).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "1. It ties up bandwit... | null |
hsvf3 | Can someone explain how astronomers know the exact spectral composition of the standard candles identified in the observable universe? | [
{
"answer": "we use color-color diagrams and where they lie on a Hertzsprung-Russel diagram. You measure the stars flux in different wavelengths and it gives you a color. You can also get spectral lines and that is how you get spectral type.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You can look at the p... | null |
6mj97r | Police dispatchers in the 1960s | [
{
"answer": "Yes, big cities had a central phone number that was publicized to the public: published on the phone book cover, distributed on stickers, painted on police cars, etc. In addition, everyone knew that you could dial 0 for Operator, and ask for the police (or fire or ambulance).\n\nThe central office... | null |
3rlj45 | black holes suck in light, so why are they black? | [
{
"answer": "Black is the label we apply to an absence of light. You can't make a flashlight that projects black. Since the BH absorbs light, it you could look at it you would see no light. That condition is labeled \"black\".",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "We call them black because we bel... | null |
1eer1l | What were the social requirements to becoming a naval officer in 18th century Britain? | [
{
"answer": "Sure could.\n\nIf a family was wealthy enough they could get their son enlisted as a midshipman. Most midshipmen started when they were just boys and spent many years at sea under the tutelage of their superior officers. Once they had progressed far enough they had to pass competency tests. If they... | null |
6pjk6f | why is being bare foot seen as taboo? why is it different between being barefoot or in flip flops. | [
{
"answer": "Where i work its an insurance thing, yes we clean our floors but there is no guarantee there is not an odd shard of glass somewhere, if you cut your foot the company could be held liable so we would just rather you wear your fucking shoes please, hippy.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer... | null |
2fna0l | Did Tibetan rule practice slavery well into the 20th century and if so, did chinese annexation actually end it? | [
{
"answer": "Followup question, how accurate is the Penn and Teller episode of \"Bullshit!\" on the Dalai Lama where this claim is repeated?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This question has come up a few times before that has yielded some good answers, and while we are always interested in mor... | null |
1s8wvm | what does this patent troll bill say and do? | [
{
"answer": "I would honestly like to know that as well.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "\"You must pay the Troll toll, to get to this boys hole.\"",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Nice try patent troll.\n\nActually, I heard on NPR that the law is for companies who own patents, ... | null |
2z882e | What would happen if the North Star goes Supernova? | [
{
"answer": "**Short answer:** It would be brighter than a full moon and visible during the day, likely for a few weeks or months. Unfortunately, it's not massive enough to produce a supernova. \n\n**Longer answer:** The concept of a north star is cool. As the earth rotates, it looks like everything in the sky ... | null |
1njl9g | how can a microwave heat up food but have no affect on plastic food wrap? | [
{
"answer": "Microwaves are radio waves that are roughly around 2,500 megahertz\n\nThese radio waves are absorbed by water, fats, and sugars. \n\nThese waves are also not absorbed by most plastics, ceramics, or glass.\n\nIf you were to change the frequency then you could design a microwave that only melted plas... | null |
6sl5mr | nuclear preparedness | [
{
"answer": "Everybody's going to die, slowly. That's arguably an improvement over people inside the loop, who are going to die quickly.\n\nThe sort of war that would include attacks on major American cities is likely to be the sort of thing that ends humanity as we know it. Perhaps a single nuclear missile a... | null |
trp5k | why do people protest the nato summits? | [
{
"answer": "If you use the search bar, you'll find [this was already asked](_URL_0_). Unfortunately there was only one answer so it's not incredibly helpful. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "10935538",
"title": "2008 Bucharest s... | null |
2bumsk | why if i approach any wild animal in the countryside on foot it sprints away, but when you're in a car they just sit in the middle of the road until you nearly, or do, run them over. | [
{
"answer": "A survival skill is the ability to recognize and react to movements of animals (such as people) differently than movements of objects (such as trees blowing in the wind) - you run when it's the former but the latter is just background noise to be ignored. But cars are something relatively new, some... | null |
1y3mii | What would a persons diet consist of before the processing of grains. | [
{
"answer": "You might try x-posting this question to /r/AskAnthropology, they would probably better be able to answer your question.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "31167189",
"title": "Ancient Israelite cuisine",
"secti... | null |
70s28a | why do we see multi-colored dots in the dark? | [
{
"answer": "I'm in a sensation and perception class right now. Even when your eyes are closed, the inner anatomy of your eye is still picking up what minimal sensations are present. Your neurons are still firing from this input, just not much so your perception will almost never be pitch black.",
"provenan... | null |
241qge | How do our brains remember the time of the events that have been fixed in the memory? | [
{
"answer": "nobody really knows for sure, but recent work suggests it likely involves the hippocampus and surrounding cortex. memories involve binding certain aspects of experiences together, which is likely reflected in neuronal firing patterns (either pattern of which neurons fire or firing rate.. or both, ... | null |
7zgnwe | Recommendation | [
{
"answer": "Not to discourage any recommendations (because the more the merrier) but \n\n[What if I told you there's an awesome reading list that's perpetually updated by the knowledgable flairs and mods?](_URL_4_)\n\nA few subsections that might interest you include:\n\n[Cultural, Intellectual and Religious H... | null |
5m20v7 | why does a website with a recipe often include a long preface before you get to the actual recipe? | [
{
"answer": "I would guess it's because these websites aren't cookbooks, they're blogs, which implies some degree of the author writing for themself. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Imma answer your question, but first let me tell you about this time I watered the lawn on a warm july afternoon... | null |
66vaxh | Did the Roman Empire ever contact the ancient Chinese? | [
{
"answer": "This question gets asked a lot. Here's an excellent older thread about it: _URL_0_\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "/u/Tiako is probably best placed to provide a detailed account of earlier instances of Roman contact with China, but I have written a little bit on what the (Eastern... | null |
3hnu95 | Best book to understand Islam | [
{
"answer": "Reza Aslan's No God But God should be fine and readable. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'd like you to qualify here: Do you want a history book, a philosophy book, a political book, a theological book? Do you want fiction or non-fiction (fiction sometimes being better at presen... | null |
1tjgsh | Do satellites rotate with the earth? | [
{
"answer": "Satellites in geostationary orbit maintain the same position above the Earth because it takes them 24 hours to rotate. These are about 30,000 km up. Many satellites are much closer to Earth and orbit in a few hours.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
i2wl1 | Is there a limit to the amount of energy that can be in one place at one time? | [
{
"answer": "If you cram too much into one space, you get a black hole.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "On a similar subject, check out information density. I remember reading some stuff about it and thought it was really interesting. Can't find a really good link at the moment though. Hopef... | null |
1auei8 | Are fish in tanks/aquariums aware of the fact that they live in an enclosed space? | [
{
"answer": " I don't know how you would go about proving that fish were 'aware' of the size of their enclosure but it's quite common for aquarium fish to bump, or sometimes _bash_ right into the glass, especially fast swimmers. Some enthusiasts even recommend putting leafy plants around the ends of the tanks i... | null |
1t2rkk | What would a typical day be like for an RAF pilot during the battle of Britain? | [
{
"answer": "Pilots were actually required to do very little apart from fight. Pilots on alert (duty) had to wait either in their aircraft or at airbases very near them: literally every second could count in 'getting up' as time = altitude.\n\nIf not on duty pilots were quite free, but transport could be diffi... | null |
2jnelo | what is the connection between greenland and denmark? | [
{
"answer": "Greenland is a country within the Kingdom of Denmark, similar to how Scotland is a country within the UK.\n\nGreenland has been aspiring to greater autonomy, and Denmark has completely, putting them on a track to assume increasingly more control of their domestic affair. Despite this, Greenland re... | null |
xccb3 | Are there any political or social trends that tend to repeat themselves over the course of human history? | [
{
"answer": "It can depend on what specific topic you're looking for. For example, if you were looking at repeating trends in America, there would be at least two massive ones.\n\n1. Tradition vs. Progress: Don't think I need to explain this. Some people want change, others want it to stay the same.\n\n2. ... | null |
gwh9f | Do headphones increase the likelihood of being struck by lightning? | [
{
"answer": "I would say the magnet inside an earbud would have essentially no effect on increasing the likelihood of you being struck by lightning. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "2449741",
"title": "Lightning strike",
... | null |
76kx5q | why does licking the wrapper of a cinnamon gum and placing it into your skin start to burn your skin? | [
{
"answer": "The cinnamon oil that flavors the gum feels hot in your mouth when you chew it. This is because it's an \"irritant\", or a molecule that activates pain receptors. The gum wrapper has some of the cinnamon oil on it, and when you moisten it by licking you make it easy to transfer the oil from the w... | null |
totwu | If we can build huge reflectors/magnifiers to concentrate light into extremely hot beams, why can't we harness this power for all our energy needs? | [
{
"answer": "You mean [like this Solar Power Tower in Spain?](_URL_1_)\n\nedit: [Better link](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "41455",
"title": "Optical attenuator",
"section": "Section::::Principles of operation... | null |
3bnbn6 | Does your body still "recharge" at all if you are just lying there, eyes closed, not moving, but not sleeping? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, to a certain extent.\n\nThe body's systems are not usually just \"on\" or \"off\". There are gradients and different levels of activation of each system in the body. Even within the context of sleep, there are different kinds of sleep, with some biological processes occurring at different rate... | null |
2i8j62 | was scurvy actually particular to sailors? it seems like citrus wouldn't have been available to most of the lower classes | [
{
"answer": "Citrus isn't the only source of vitamin C, it just happened to be a good one for ship-goers since most things that were cheap and vitamin C rich were perishable.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C. \nVitamin C can be found in peppers, turnip gr... | null |
39ah49 | why can massive video games like the witcher or elder scrolls come on a single disc, but most tv shows always come on around 5 discs? | [
{
"answer": "Because video isn't generally a small thing to carry, whereas 3D data can be. \n\nVideo is just being read and played back, all the data you're seeing has to be there on the disk, otherwise, well, there's nothing to play. \n\nWith something like Elder Scrolls games however what the disk is storing ... | null |
pskbn | How many solar panels would be needed to power all of the U.S.? | [
{
"answer": "a 100 mile by 100 mile solar thermal plant located in the desert southwest could power the United States. \n\n_URL_0_\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A rough estimate is 1TW (peak) power.\n\nAssuming solar modules are 15% efficient, and the sun's incident energy is 1kW/sq m , tha... | null |
4br7cl | native reserves in the usa and canada. | [
{
"answer": "What, specifically, do you want to learn about them?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Basically Native Americans didn't see land ownership in the same way the Europeans did.\n\nAs the Europeans came to North America they began claiming land that they saw as \"unclaimed\". This lead... | null |
8jiwod | Does sound have an infinite volume? | [
{
"answer": "Ish. The quietest sound is simply no sound. Any given device is going to have a threshold minimum sound it can sense, but I don't see a reason you can't get as close to zero as you want, at least averaged over a large area. Since particles in a gas never fully stop moving, there is always going to ... | null |
2m75q9 | What was the role of Capitalism in starting the first world war? | [
{
"answer": "Could you please specify what you mean by \"capitalism\"? It is a very loaded term; most people actually mean various things they associate with it when they use it.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " > the Economist writes that capitalism was not responsible.\n\nFrom what I've n... | null |
4eamjt | is a poisonous reaction just a effective form of allergy? | [
{
"answer": "A poison is something that attacks your system and causes it damage.\n\nAn allergy is when your body overreacts to a substance and *thinks* it's under attack. The key point of an allergy is that it's something that is actually benign (or at least not terribly threatening) but your body goes apeshit... | null |
3zsmky | why are "red" cameras so expensive? (upwards of $77,500 per camera) | [
{
"answer": "They're not. They're cheap. Like WAY cheap.\n\n\"Red\" cameras are not consumer products. They are essentially the digital equal/evolution of 35mm film cameras, such as the Panavision Milennium XL, which many Hollywood movies are filmed on. These cost MUCH more (well into 6 figures), plus you g... | null |
2qi98v | packing a cigarette before smoking. | [
{
"answer": "In my opinion it makes for a thicker more satisfying smoke. Also it is about personal habits usually learned and copied from someone else.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "As far as I know it prevents the end of the cigarette from burning weakly or unevenly, and also helps it to 'd... | null |
eoexqf | how did telephones work in the early 1900s? | [
{
"answer": "There was a wire connection from each house which directly linked up via an exchange which plugged in specific lines to specific locations in a board _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Do you mean the decade the 1900s or the century the 1900s? \n\nIf you're talking about the o... | null |
218683 | how/why do boogers form and why can't i feel them forming? | [
{
"answer": "Mucus is excreted into the nose by a few types of cells on the inner surface of it. It's purpose is to trap pathogens, dust, or other particles in order to prevent them from entering your respiratory system. You can't feel it form because it happens so slowly and gradually that it never causes any ... | null |
4fozko | how do electric fences cause discomfort if the person or animal touching the fence is essentially a load resistor in parallel with a short? | [
{
"answer": "The fence isn't a short. The entire fence is energized to very very high voltage. The fence completes a circuit through you to the ground because you offer less resistance than the air does. \n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id... | null |
3filvv | If I were traveling at near the speed of light (enough to significantly slow time), would I be able to "think" normally? Would I be able to tell that time is slowing down? | [
{
"answer": "As long as you were moving at a constant velocity, then nothing would appear \"strange\" to you. A key point of [special relativity](_URL_2_) is that the laws of physics work the same in any (i.e. non-accelerating) inertial frame of reference. So yes, if you have a spaceship that is moving *relativ... | null |
63thy6 | Were any of the German soldiers who slept with sexual slaves in government brothels prosecuted after WW2? | [
{
"answer": "These questions are rather difficult to answer altogether since while there is literature on the subject, mostly published since the mid-2000s forward, it still is a fairly under-researched area.\n\nStarting with the post-war prosecution, there is to my knowledge no case that deals with the brothel... | null |
2bkj1p | why don't some other company produce sodium thiopental if others refuse to provide it for executions? | [
{
"answer": "Why can't they just fire up ol sparky. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Best guess: Poor ROI.\n\nTo make any chemical substance, you need to set up a lot of equipment. This means buying new equipment, renting a place to put it, and staffing a team.\n\nMy best guess is that investor... | null |
1s48qd | How did the UK go from running a globe-spanning empire controlling 1/4th the world to its current level of power, where fielding a military force to retake the Falkland islands was a major effort? | [
{
"answer": "The reasons for Britain’s decline from the position of pre-eminent global super power are undoubtedly complex and multi-faceted. Here are some of them:\n\nRelative decline in Wealth:\n\nOne of the reasons Britain became the hegemon was that Britain innovated the Industrial Revolution, and that led... | null |
4kp4cp | How do we find out if electrons are not elementary? | [
{
"answer": "There have been experiments looking for electron sub-structure, all of which have come up null. This can be used to further constrain a potential electron radius to smaller and smaller values. [This one](_URL_0_) puts it at below 10^-22 meters. Similar things can be done to look for a possible elec... | null |
3cb54m | how do we know we aren't seeding life on mars when sending probes there? | [
{
"answer": "It is extremely important to the people building these probes that we don't \"seed\" the planets, because part of the mission is to try to find life. The probes are built in a perfectly sterile environment. The air is carefully filtered, and the people building the parts need to be completely cover... | null |
5nz1m1 | When European missionaries , such as the Portuguese, first landed in Eastern lands, such as Japan, how did they initially communicate and eventually learn the vernacular language to preach there? | [
{
"answer": "/u/TheLegendofNick\n\nIn the specific case of Francis Xavier, the first Christian (Catholic) missionary to Japan, language was a significant barrier. Through is travels in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, Francis Xavier knew that language was important, so he sought to learn local languag... | null |
253mmu | why is it when we get angry or upset about something we can "sleep it off" and feel much better about the situation later? | [
{
"answer": "Emotional responses are \"faster\" and \"stronger\" than logical responses.\nGoing to sleep, or any delaying action such as deep breaths, counting to ten etc. is kinda like the tortoise (logic) and the hare(emotion)\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{... | null |
80ud46 | Napoleonic Sailors Could Not Swim(?) | [
{
"answer": "A combination of practical and cultural factors were at work here, which have been addressed in some earlier responses:\n\n[Is it true that a lot of old-timey sailors couldn't swim?](_URL_0_)\n\n[Sailors ability to swim in the 15th century](_URL_1_)\n\nYou are correct that there is no obvious reaso... | null |
1sqhqq | why do degrees break down into minutes and seconds? | [
{
"answer": "I know about the words, but not about the number 60.\n\nMinutes and seconds are both abbreviations.\n\nMinute used to be Prima Minute \"The first small part\", second was Seconda Minute \"the second small part\". (Spellings probably wrong).\n\nHours and degrees both needed subdividing, and then sub... | null |
1i0c9i | What was medical treatment like for slaves that got sick or injured in North America? | [
{
"answer": "I'll answer based on why I know of U.S. slavery. I'm also going to assume you're speaking more about diseases and conventional medical questions, rather than the injuries that owners actually inflicted on their slaves. \n\nAfrican-American female slaves were often respected healers on plantations. ... | null |
1k68cx | When one donates blood, does he/she also pass on the hormones (female to male and vice-versa) to the receiver? What about immunity to diseases? What other things are transferred besides RBC? | [
{
"answer": "When one donates blood, the blood is processed from its raw form to filter out all the parts they need into separate containers. This way, blood transfusions are only RBCs. Platelets transfusions are just platelets. And a number of other useful chemicals and substances can be extracted from the res... | null |
jb3ln | the political situation in wisconsin | [
{
"answer": "This is a hard one to explain to a five year old and I'm not good at coming up with analogies, but I kept it as simple as possible.\n\nEssentially, Scott Walker's \"budget repair bill\" does the following:\n\n1. Eliminate collective bargaining rights for most public workers. So while unions still c... | null |
69ni9v | at what point does counterfeit money legally fit the definition of being counterfeit? | [
{
"answer": "Fun fact. If you shine a laser cat toy or pointer through a Canadian banknote at the clear Canada flag, the denomination will be projected on the wall as three numbers in a circle.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "America has regulations for this:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n > * Illustration mu... | null |
2g20j1 | why does the us government keep publicly stating that they will be air-striking is? doesn't this give is a heads up and chance for counter plans? | [
{
"answer": "There's not much a group like ISIS can do about air strikes. Their knowledge of them doesn't harm US forces. If it forces them to stay in hiding more, that's a plus.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What counterplans? The USAF is pretty much unassailable to most real countries. Th... | null |
8223q5 | what is aging? | [
{
"answer": "Aging is thought to happen when the ends of DNA (telomeres) become damaged enough to let the important generic information get messed up. These telomeres act like a shield made of garbage, they help protect the more important parts of the strand of DNA by taking the brunt of the damage during cell ... | null |
3qrtuf | Looking for book recommendations: England 800-1100 | [
{
"answer": "A few books that you might like include Nicolas Higham's *The Anglo-Saxon World* ~ A good introduction to the Anglo-Saxons.\n\nRobin Fleming's *Britain After Rome* ~ Provides a authoritative account of how Britain transformed after 410 AD \n\n David Hogwarth's *1066: The Year of the Conquest* ~ Pl... | null |
2od6xh | If a single transistor on a modern cpu stopped working, would we notice? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, that circuit would be inoperable.\n\nTo answer the inevitable follow-on question: how in the world do chipmakers get away with having to have a perfect record for chip production?\n\nThe answer: they don't. When they create, say, a 6-core CPU, they test every chip extensively. If they find a f... | null |
18326t | Where does 'political correctness' originate from? | [
{
"answer": "the term? or the concept?\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's hard to place down the exact lineage of the term in the modern sense down, but most sources on the topic seem to agree that it originates from a Communist leader, though there is disagreement on which specific one - g... | null |
5nt25o | why do we sometimes experience tremendous mood shifts based upon music? | [
{
"answer": "It's based on you experiences you have had with these genres. For example, I used to listen to the most annoying alarm clock every morning because it was the only thing loud enough to wake me. One day I was walking through a store and heard a sound with the same frequency going over the PA and imme... | null |
5tp0f2 | Is there something wrong with Bell's inequality? | [
{
"answer": " > Is there something wrong with Bell's inequality?\n\nNot really, no.\n\n > Can't disagree with the math, but it felt like the premise was wrong for same axis, opposite directions.\n\nCan you clarify what you mean by this? I can’t understand your diagrams at all.\n\n > (if it's supposed to be up i... | null |
16mpkt | what causes sad (seasonal affective disorder) and what helps? | [
{
"answer": "Though not definite, some think SAD is a caused by a lack of sunlight during the winter months. People have come to this conclusion since countries that are further North are more likely to report higher rates of depression during the darker months.\n\nMelatonin is a hormone that our bodies produce... | null |
14t4pl | How did HIV cure cancer in the 7-year old girl? | [
{
"answer": "They used a disabled form of HIV (one that cannot give you the AIDS, I'm assuming they removed the viral genes), and modified it by adding a specific gene that produces the \"chimeric antigen receptor\". This receptor gets expressed in the cells infected with the modified HIV, and is displayed on t... | null |
1qtz1i | how can people in tough financial situations can be living in hotels? | [
{
"answer": "It could be that their finances are in bad shape because they make poor decisions like that.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There was itinerant housing near my place in Chicago (no longer, they were bought out). It cost $30/night for a bed, and you got $5 back when you returned yo... | null |
3p4c65 | I've seen world WW2 posters with the message "loose lips sink ships" implying that there were axis spies in the US spying on american citizens for intel. Were there actually these spies and did these spies cause harm to the allies? | [
{
"answer": "German spies landed in the United States in a (failed) attempt to cause harm to our economy.\n\nOperation *Pastorius* was a plan to land teams of German spies (all of whom had lived in the United States) by submarine off the east coast of the United States in June 1942. The spies were equipped with... | null |
3ni4b7 | why do computer programs sometimes slow down when they're open for long periods of time? | [
{
"answer": "The simplest way to explain it is by thinking of a bucket you put water into. As long as the program is open, water is in the bucket. Whenevr you visit new information, you add water. Eventually you can't add more, and the bucket is very hard to carry. The only way to make it lighter is to close th... | null |
88wle3 | To what extent was North Korea a Soviet satellite state during the Cold War? | [
{
"answer": "A follow up question: can we think of South Korea and Taiwan as American satellite states when they were ruled by military junta?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "292155",
"title": "Korean conflict",
"section"... | null |
f4edy | Why only one origin of life? | [
{
"answer": "Because of the massive degree of similarity between every living organism we have found so far, there is virtually no chance that the life we see today originated from multiple ancestors.\n\n\"A universal common ancestor is at least 10^2860 times more probable than having multiple ancestors…\" \"A ... | null |
15lvye | Does separating compost slow down the decomposition of landfill trash? | [
{
"answer": "Garbage doesn't decompose in a landfill as they are compacted nd sealed off from oxygen. It wil be there for thousands of years to come. It will be where future archeologists will be digging to learn about us. In fact we are already king that to learn about past decades. ",
"provenance": null
... | null |
u62ca | Do insects see other dead insects as warning signs of danger? | [
{
"answer": "I was able to find [this](_URL_0_) and [this](_URL_1_), which say that crushed insects release chemical signals that attract others of their nest. Big caveat: neither of those sites are sourced, and the PETA one clearly has an ulterior motive for saying this. So I'd wait til someone with some exp... | null |
1ummap | why do people say 'film' instead of 'movie'? | [
{
"answer": "Why do some people (I do this) refer to 'taping' something when it would be more accurate to say 'recording' these days? Old habits die hard, especially when they've been embedded in our daily vocabularies. The word 'film' has now been around for longer than anyone has been alive, so it's not like... | null |
2g3sbm | how do democrats and republicans rationalize billions of dollars in tax breaks every year to oil companies? | [
{
"answer": "Look, you don't know about capitalism like our politicians. Do you want our oil to be \"Made in China\"??? [Let our Congressman Barton explain free market capitalism to you.](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[Barton: Govt Subsidies Necessary To Keep Exxon From Going Out O... | null |
21px9e | If vellum was so expensive in the Middle Ages, why do medieval books have such large blank margins? | [
{
"answer": "While there are sporadic examples of wide manuscript margins dating back late antiquity, their consistent appearance in manuscript production, and explanation for them, show up in the 11th century.\n\nThe answer suggests itself when we look at manuscripts like [this one](_URL_0_) - this is a [compe... | null |
1izxdj | Is it true that in colonial American rum and beer were considered more healthful than water? | [
{
"answer": "well, both were distilled which is what killed the germs that were often found in water. however, knowledge of said germs was not the reason why. so the author, when I read the piece, is inserting modern knowledge to colonial thought (red flag). he also goes over several decades with some sweepin... | null |
1eciba | How does E=MC^2 give us time dilation? | [
{
"answer": "Time dilation doesn't fall out of the mass-energy equivalence equation, it's a separate concept within relativity though they share common roots. So you're at least right in noticing that they are mostly unrelated even if it was based on the wrong premise.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"an... | null |
4pfuki | how is energy carried by electric currents? | [
{
"answer": "Well, best to explain everything.\n\nCurrent = Amounts of electrons per second\nVoltage = Energy carried per electron (More correctly, energy difference between 2 spots)\nResistance = How hard it is for the current to pass.\n\nSo, from that, we know that the energy released is equal to the differen... | null |
178nlp | What are some informative books, articles, or other resources one could look into regarding 20th Century French Colonialism in North Africa? | [
{
"answer": "I'm currently reading *A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962* by Alistair Horne, and it's just phenomenal. The author has spent decades interviewing people on all sides of the conflict and gives a very detailed look into not only the war, but also the underlying social problems brought about by ... | null |
a6rx2q | why does surface tension cast a shadow? | [
{
"answer": "It’s not the surface tension itself, more that the water bulges due to surface tension in such a way that it refracts the light round the centre of the bulge. Do you see how there are bright fringes around said ‘shadows’?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When the insect stand on the... | null |
1cbqkk | When were first lock systems built for water transport? | [
{
"answer": "Look to the early flash locks of [ancient China]( _URL_0_). (Just happened to run across that the other day while looking into the Ohio canal system that opened up exploration to the west.)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "26... | null |
6p1fvq | Why does it seem as though it's more common to get sick when the seasons or weather change? | [
{
"answer": "There are a few things at play here, as /u/Impossiblyrandom has suggested.\n\nIllnesses often spread in winter, not really because the cold makes people more susceptible - though cold weather can slow your immune system, but because when the weather gets cold, people gather indoors more often and i... | null |
2rsjb2 | Why was the War of the Roses not called the First English Civil War? | [
{
"answer": "It was known as The Cousins War. While the English Civil was a war between English *institutions*; the Crown and Parliament, the War of the Roses was a war between an extended family.\n\nMore than anything, it's the contrast in scales and impacts of the conflicts. In proportion to the population, a... | null |
1eb3te | what is the proposed euro-zone banking union about and how will it work? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nIt sounds like it's to give banks more power to lobby the government for bail-outs. So it's a bad thing that a few very rich people are trying to get away with so that they can go on staying rich and powerful by continuing to sell toxic investments back to the public through retirement s... | null |
4a8mxo | how do computers/computer systems deal with daylight savings time? | [
{
"answer": "Most computer systems don't work with timezones at all and prefer to store data in UTC only. Later they just convert time locally using current system settings for display purposes.\n\nWhen user needs to enter date (like schedule an appointment) computer converts it to UTC and stores in the databas... | null |
4eun2o | the madonna-whore complex | [
{
"answer": "The fundamental is the view that women are either virginal and pure, or unendingly slutty.\n\nThe concept goes back a long time. It can easily be traced in modern times to the thought that a woman must be a virgin until marriage, any woman who had sex outside of marriage was obviously for rent. Bey... | null |
21f2uo | why hasn't the ukrainian military fought back against the russian invasion of crimea? | [
{
"answer": "An excellent analogy posted by /u/CallMeMrKnowItAll in a similar thread:\n\n > If I'm out skinny dipping in a pond in the woods and a Grizzly Bear wanders up and sits its butt down on my boots, I think maybe I'll just walk home barefoot.\n > \n > I'm Ukraine. Russia is the bear. Crimea is the boots... | null |
56qtak | legality of war | [
{
"answer": "So, the first notion to dissuade yourself from is that there is international law on when a war is \"legal\" - there is not. Every country decides for itself whether a war is legal or not and imposes penalties if they feel it is \"illegal.\" And there has not been a single case in the modern inte... | null |
b9gbgm | Could King Henry VII of England speak Welsh? | [
{
"answer": "As you mention, Henry VII was born in Wales, and in fact he lived in Pembroke Castle until he was 14 years old. He has regularly been claimed as 'Welsh' by the Welsh themselves, not least because, as Thomas points out, they considered themselves an oppressed people who were in need of an identifiab... | null |
8pul5h | Can the human body have too much blood? | [
{
"answer": "In addition to polycythaemia, which is mentioned above, you can also be given too much blood! If you give too much blood [product] via transfusion to someone they can get Transfusion Associated Circulatory Overload (TACO). ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes, however, understand ... | null |
wdk9e | When freezing saltwater how do you calculate how much salt can be added to a given amount of water for every degree below 0°C? | [
{
"answer": "You have to use what is known as a [phase diagram](_URL_0_) which uses empirical data however this...\n\n > I'm guessing that using saltwater instead of fresh water would keep the freezer's contents frozen longer.\n\n...I can't see what you think the mechanism behind it is.\n\n",
"provenance": ... | null |
brlr7g | looking for an in depth explanation of stocks and their market starting from the basics all the way to the complex. | [
{
"answer": "Sorry, didn't realise the sub. My link to [investopia](_URL_0_) was removed.\n\nA \"stock\" or a \"share\" (they're the same thing) is owning a slice of a company. Big companies are spilt into many millions of separate shares, but it varies company to company. \n\nSay your friend wants to set ... | null |
in43d | Does anything happen when a super-sonic thing drops below the speed of sound? | [
{
"answer": " > When something goes from sub-sonic to super-sonic, a sonic boom occurs.\n\n\nThat is when it begins, but a sonic boom is a continuing phenomenon. It is always present when the object is traveling faster than the speed of sound. Not just when the object breaks the sound barrier.\n\nWhen it stops ... | null |
2maps8 | Do deafblind people still perceive their consciousness as residing in their heads? | [
{
"answer": "It must be noted that some of the past cultures (e.g. some ancient Greeks, most notably Aristotle) used to believe that the seat of intelligence was in the heart. \n\nSo it is less than clear that there is an actual perception of location of consciousness as residing in the head, in the sighted hea... | null |
6bxrpg | Most countries in Europe have a history of long lineages of nobility. How did these noble families originate? | [
{
"answer": "There's no clear-cut answer. Marxists will tell you that in early agricultural societies, the strongest who were tasked with defending the settlement in exchange for food were the first to obtain status and wealth off the fruits of other's labor. Proto-capitalist-aristocracy, if you will. \n\nMore ... | null |
56otq4 | does waking up during the night but going back to sleep pretty immediately affect the benefit of sleep for that night? | [
{
"answer": "[](/adsleep)Few and short breaks in sleep, **as long as** they don't interrupt the deep sleep cycles, won't affect you. \nIn fact, is normal to wake up by yourself, and stay awake a little while at the end of a cycle, it's not mandatory to go back to sleep immediatly, as long as the sleep cycles a... | null |
4gvo1k | why are djs like calvin harris and david guetta getting billing over the singers in their songs? | [
{
"answer": "Besides producing the music, they usually also write/co-write the songs (though the singer may co-write also); so it usually is their song, they just asked a famous singer to sing it. \n \nSince these DJ's are popular, they negotiate it. It's a simple business move.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
52khwd | Did the ancients have their own archaeologists/antiquities? What would, say, the Romans have known about the people's who inhabited their empire before them? | [
{
"answer": "As an add-on question, what kinds of museums existed in this era?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A couple of similar questions have been asked before, and you can find them [here](_URL_1_) and [here](_URL_0_). In the 2nd link, I talked a bit about the Roman side of this question.... | null |
18rlqh | Would the Battle of Gettysburg have turned out differently if Pickett's Charge had not happened? | [
{
"answer": "We'll never know! But you're free to ask the folks over at /r/HistoricalWhatIf about your question.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "26828459",
"title": "Arthur F. Devereux",
"section": "Section::::Civil War.:... | null |
21lj4g | Is there a reason why bigger animals tend to have bigger eyes. What advantage is it having eyes in proportion to body size? | [
{
"answer": "Well, I haven't ever seen this answered directly.\nHowever, just stepping through the problem,\nLarger eyes means more room for rods/cones as well as collected light giving potentially better vision.\nLarger eyes are also more costly and vulnerable, so unless your life-strategy relies heavily on vi... | null |
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