id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
5y3o0m | what is the significance of coughing during a rectal exam? | [
{
"answer": "Imagine you had a sharp object hidden in your ass. If you end over and cough. The muscles contract which would cause complete and utter chaos and an unbelievable amount of pain. That's the purpose behind the prison inspections. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " > what is it about ... | null |
kqf3v | the difference between string theory and quantum mechanics | [
{
"answer": "Quantum mechanics explains odd phenomena found in nature. It allows us to precisely model how particles and systems of particles behave. \n\nKey points to QM:\n\nParticles act like waves (or probability distributions).\n\nParticles are only allowed certain energy levels in certain situations.\n\nSt... | null |
1nsyns | why do people in some countries get punish for being raped? | [
{
"answer": "Religion-based governments consider sex outside of wedlock illegal. They don't accommodate for common sense.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Good question: in some parts of the Middle East it's also true that a woman is punished more harshly for sex outside marriage than her male p... | null |
2tmr4t | When condoms are listed as 99% effective, is that per use? How is that number determined? | [
{
"answer": "Condoms come along with a small information package that tells you what the failure rates are. Here is an example: \"Pregnancy rates for birth control methods. (For one year of use in the United States)\"\n\nFor \"Male latex condom\" it states 2% for \"Lowest Expected Rate of Pregnancy\" - so it me... | null |
6eperb | why is it bad to eat the ground up bones/eyes/skin etc., that is present in things like chicken nuggets? | [
{
"answer": "I think the argument isn't so much that it's eyes/feet/bones, but rather that it could be anything in there.\n\nMost cultures have historically had a use for every part of an animal, including some of the bones, so that's not much of a shock. The other additives and preservatives that are (arguably... | null |
a1nfsh | why doesn’t hot weather cause more rain? | [
{
"answer": "Air has many things in it. H2o in the form of vapor, O2, Nitrogen, C02 etc...\n\nWhen that air is warm, the molecules move faster and push each other further apart. \n\nWhen they are furthur apart, there is more space for H20 in Vapor form \n\nWhen that same quantity of air cools, the molecules mov... | null |
8ne2gz | is a fruit or vegetable 'ripe' when humans deem it fit for consumption, or is it a biological state for the plant? | [
{
"answer": "In short, both.\nFruits love to be eaten because in doing so animals spread the seeds they contain, either from spitting them out as they chew or from coming out the other end, with a nice pile of fertiliser to boot.\nHence, a ripe fruit is just one that is fully developed and prepared to be eaten ... | null |
4zlgfl | Why does fat distribution seem to change as people get older? | [
{
"answer": "Fat cells stored lipids as triglycerides and can't release them unless the enzymes necessary are present and active. If the cell loses its hormone receptors that normally trigger lipolysis, the fat stays there. So, fat accumulates in regions where lipocytes have been 'down regulated' for lipolytic ... | null |
4icjba | Can bleach expire/'go bad'? | [
{
"answer": "Bleach is usually NaOCl, which is a relatively stable compound, but it does interact with air a bit, and this volatility is what gives it its strong smell of chlorine. If the lid is kept on and is hermetically sealed, the bleach inside will stay at a steady state indefinitely. The only way it can \... | null |
6xdp6c | is the amount of caffeine absorbed into the bloodstream dependant on the same variations that alcohol absorption is based upon? | [
{
"answer": "Also, does it matter how caffeine is ingested? Pill/Powder/Drink/Food",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well, it's dependent on the same mechanisms in your GI tract. So all chemicals from food and drink end up in your blood stream the same way. There are a few differences specificall... | null |
303chq | what makes the noise inside a can of guinness and what is it's purpose? | [
{
"answer": "It's called a 'Widget', and it's job is to foam up the Guinness. It contains pressurized nitrogen and skims the top to make a head.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes, it's called a \"Widget\". **but it does not contain nitrogen**. The nitrogen is in the *can*. The way it w... | null |
2jf3b3 | why is it that when i look, for example, from the top of one hill to another in the distance the area between my location and the far point shifts from it's normal colour to a faded blue? | [
{
"answer": "What you're seeing is sunlight scattered by the atmosphere. Blue light is scattered more than red light. Red light can pass through the atmosphere in a relatively straight line from the sun, but the blue light bounces around and hits your eye. It's also why the sun looks orange/red from earth but w... | null |
5skhfe | I stand on Earth so that Sun is behind me and Moon is in front of me at the same time. How can it be that the Moon is NOT full? | [
{
"answer": "Unless it's a lunar eclipse there is no way the moon can't be full if you are in line between the sun and the moon. \n\nHumans are pretty bad at judging elevation, so if you have seen something like what you describe the chance is that the sun and/or the moon were higher in the sky than what you t... | null |
2ajby6 | why does netflix have so many great tv shows but has a poor selection of movies? | [
{
"answer": "It's all about paying for the shows and movies, which movies cost more. TV shows make money on their respective networks when aired because of advertisements etc. and movies are sales oriented.\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's primarily due to licensing fees",
"provenance... | null |
2nsnma | could causality theoretically predict the future? | [
{
"answer": "In classical physics, yes: a complete knowledge of the state of a system provides complete knowledge of all its future states. Once quantum effects come into play, our best current answer is \"no\": there appear to be truly random processes at play there.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answ... | null |
fc29sf | What is the most comprehensive, unbiased world history textbook you know of? | [
{
"answer": "Not a textbook, but The Human Story by James C. Davis gives a good, comprehensive overview. I refer to it when I'm trying to quickly make cross-cultural connections. But I'm teaching middle schoolers, and I'm not sure what level of research you're trying to accomplish. The Human Story: Our History,... | null |
1yzshn | How well and what style of swimming did Europeans have in the Medieval periods? | [
{
"answer": "This is tangential, but it is clear from a copy of Bellisfortis included in Hans Talhoffer's 1459 manuscript on combat arts that human bouyancy was a subject of study; _URL_0_ Notably, an inner tube of stitched leather filled with air.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Barbara Hanawa... | null |
1kekrf | why is it so hard for veterans to find jobs? | [
{
"answer": "Veterans like to write about the things they did in the army in their applications. They write about the planes they flew and the time they spent with their fellow soldiers and all the medals they got.\n\nHowever, when a potential boss looks at that application, unless he was in the army or likes r... | null |
38vanm | If the atmosphere of Mars is less than 1% the density of Earth, why are there large dust devils and sand dunes? | [
{
"answer": "Two factors are involved there. First, windblown sand is not like beach sand, it's much finer, almost like talcum powder. Desert sand dunes are not much like beach sand dunes, which is a very common mistake people make, as most people are more familiar with the latter rather than the former.\n\nS... | null |
62ecqz | What's going on, at the chemical level, when you let a wine bottle "breathe"? What exactly is being oxidized, and how does it affect the taste of wine? | [
{
"answer": "The conversion of ethanol to acetaldehyde is only the final step of wine oxidation, and it's actually phenolic compounds or \"tannins\" that are oxidized during intermediate reactions. These reactions cause them to combine with each other or with other wine constituents, e.g. thiols, consequently c... | null |
967ken | Why does WWII combat footage seem “tame” compared to reality? | [
{
"answer": "The first thing I'd point out is that \"compared to reality\" is something of a strange baseline to make. I doubt that you are a World War II veteran, and neither am I, as you might suspect, but nevertheless, I would note that technically speaking, *actual* combat footage *is* reality, while \"Savi... | null |
10b3it | What are the real world obstacles to tackling megafauna extinction through poaching by genetically modifying elephants/rhinos not to produce ivory? | [
{
"answer": "I remember reading about a national park or some such in Africa where they removed the horns from some rhinos (or possibly de-tusked elephants) manually in an attempt to hinder poaching.\n\nThe poachers, presumably pissed off after spending a long time tracking down a rhino only to find it had no h... | null |
6k9nxn | How do the different ways of medicine delivery (oral, nasal, IV, etc) affect treatment/symptom relief? | [
{
"answer": "The most impactful mechanism is the first-pass effect. When you take drugs orally they eventually reach the liver which has a very diverse set of enzymes. The most important ones for the first pass effect are the cyp450 family of enzymes. They metabolize the drug and in most cases significantly red... | null |
77wbj9 | what are programming design patterns? | [
{
"answer": "Design patterns are a way to achieve something with your code.\n\nFor example, a Single is a pattern that make sure there is one and only one instance of an object during the execution of the program. The Observer/Observable pattern keep the modularity of your code while using interface for the mos... | null |
1f9rt8 | Why does cloning (extinct / prehistoric animals) require live cells? | [
{
"answer": "DNA is a very complex molecule, and as you most likely known, it can be easily damaged or destroyed by ionizing radiation, various toxins or free radicals, even a sunburn damages your DNA. A living cell has many mechanism of reproducing new DNA and repairing the older DNA. Once these processes stop... | null |
2wusl9 | why does canada suck at cricket, unlike most other former british colonies? | [
{
"answer": "There's no answer other than it's just not very popular here. I live in Vancouver and as far as I'm aware there are only two cricket pitches here. I live several blocks away from one of them and I've only ever seen people playing on it once. I think we're more occupied with hockey, football, and Am... | null |
3drm5m | What was Byzantine Iconoclasm and what was it's effect on the Orthodox church? | [
{
"answer": "Byzantine Iconoclasm was a period in the 8th and 9th centuries when intellectual discourse and political intrigue in the highest ecclesiastical and imperial circles was dominated by debate over whether icons (depictions of biblical scenes and figures that were meant to be venerated) and religious i... | null |
2zd77m | why aren't there stricter physical requirements for police officers? they have to be prepared to chase down and/or apprehend criminals daily, but few seem like they're in good shape. | [
{
"answer": "The vast majority of police interactions don't require \"chasing down and/or apprehending criminals\". Most interactions are resolved simply and easily; without conflict. Police spend a lot of time sitting in their cruisers or slow walking around; low physical activity.\n\nThere is rarely a foot ch... | null |
8jnnss | What was the FBI’s plan when they sent a letter to Martin Luther King Jr instructing him to commit suicide? Did they honestly believe he’d do it. | [
{
"answer": "Why was the link to the letter deleted? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's not every day that I get to answer two questions, one about Israel and the other about MLK, but it turns out I have the sources on this at hand.\n\nThe FBI's main goal was to discredit and shame him, some... | null |
27a8d1 | In Game of Thrones, everyone knows The Bear and the maiden fair. Were there any universally popular songs in medieval England? | [
{
"answer": "Furthermore, were songs like 'The Rains of Castamere' real? As in were songs commissioned to pau tribute to something in particular?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Related question: isn't it true that they used to recycle a lot of tunes (and put different words to them), and that ... | null |
4m0ts6 | why do people code desktop apps in java when very few end users like it? | [
{
"answer": "If you write in Java, your program will run on any system that is capable of running Java, which is basically every computer. Java certainly has its many flaws, but the ability to write a program that is guaranteed to be able to be run on anything is reason enough to overlook the flaws in many cas... | null |
3mn2qj | The surface of Venus sounds like hell. How comparable is it to the Hadean eon of Earth? | [
{
"answer": "They both had/have lots of volcanos and an atmosphere rich in CO2 and water (both with a lot of pressure, 90 and 100x modern Earth, respectively). Both hot, but Venus is all the way at 462°C (we use temperatures lower than that for sterilization) and Earth only made it to 230 °C (and Venus is near ... | null |
4d3p67 | how would/does north carolina go about enforcing their gay rights laws? | [
{
"answer": "It would be after the fact. Basically someone who uses the same restroom as you accuses you of being the wrong gender for the bathroom, calls the police, you get arrested and then it's hashed out in court.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wi... | null |
2q4299 | at which point does something move? | [
{
"answer": "Motion is a change in position, so an object will move as soon as its position changes.\n\nMathematically, Zeno's Paradox is interesting history but not particularly useful. If you have one liter of water, and divide it into two halves, you will still have one liter of water. If you split the halve... | null |
ctpzel | why do scraps of paper stick to our fingers temporarily if we press hard? | [
{
"answer": "Everything sticks to your fingers a little bit. When you press down your skin flattens and the surface area of your skin that's touching the paper increases. With more surface area there's more force holding the paper in place. After a bit your skin stretches back to normal and the paper falls off.... | null |
4p87q4 | why does a fan/cool air help in reducing motion sickness? | [
{
"answer": "The nausea is caused by a disagreement between the inner ear, which detects movement, and the eyes, which see movement. If you watch a 3D movie you can get the visual sense of motion but the inner ear disagrees. \n\nDue to an evolutionary trait most humans have, your body treats disagreements betwe... | null |
l6bro | Did the Milky Way ever have a quasar at its center? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not certain, so someone with more education in the subject please correct or corroborate...\n\nIt'd look overwhelmingly bright. If it didn't kill us -- there are two jets that shoot out of either end of a Quasar (or any black hole) that are the result of matter falling in. There'd be radiati... | null |
2ivtpq | Why does Earth's orbit sync up with its rotational tilt? | [
{
"answer": "This [video](_URL_0_) may help you understand the mechanics a bit better. The north pole and south pole remain pointed at fixed points in space year round, while the planet circles the sun on a different plane. This means the orbit naturally creates the same seasons year round.\n\nIf the poles were... | null |
38f3pg | why we can´t "see" atoms or small particles using some kind of microoscope. | [
{
"answer": "Ultimately to see something you have to bounce something off of it. For big things this is easy—we can bounce photons (i.e. light) off of it and detect where those photons land.\n\nHowever, a typical red photon may be 430 nanometers, while a hydrogen atom is about 1.1 Angstroms (about 4,000 times ... | null |
a3gedk | Are there planets with mountains so high they extend past the atmosphere so you could literally climb your way into zero gravity looking over the curvature of the entire planet? | [
{
"answer": "Atmosphere and gravity are two different things!\n\nIn terms of atmosphere, there isn't a hard cut-off where the gas just disappears - it slowly gets less and less dense as you go up. The International Space Station actually feels drag from the atmosphere and has to boost itself a little bit every ... | null |
3mia2x | what do professional painting restorers do beyond being good painters and having an eye for color? | [
{
"answer": "They paint pictures in the same way the original artist did and they have a good eye for colour. \nCan you do that? if so, go get a job as a painting restorer",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "53622622",
"title": "Cons... | null |
8aqpgo | Why don't we send satellites upwards out of the solar system? Why always through the planetary pathway? | [
{
"answer": "Fuel is a major concern, a lot of existing rockets aren’t powerful enough to get significantly away from the plane of the solar system.\n\nUlysses was a joint NASA, ESA probe with a mission to study the sun from all latitudes, and that required it to leave the plane of the solar system to observe t... | null |
5hj6fi | why are marshmallows white? | [
{
"answer": "Gelatin is almost nothing but protein, that's why it's sticky and behaves the way it does.\n\nSo yes, it's the proteins changing after heating then cooling that cause it to turn white.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "84241",... | null |
fvherf | Can jet engines function underwater? | [
{
"answer": "Jet engines follow the [Brayton cycle](_URL_1_), which uses hot air. The air is heated up by combustion, and the hot air + combustion products run through a gas turbine. As they are currently engineered, this will not work underwater because the gas compressors and turbines are meant for gases (i.e... | null |
4ep4nf | how important are the visual chart questions when you're having an eye exam? | [
{
"answer": "Which line you start to have trouble on gives them a good idea of the range they're shooting for -- and don't assume that one option is obviously better than another. Sometimes, there's intentionally little or no difference just to keep the patient honest. But... the doctor already knows where you'... | null |
25haf4 | why is appearing "desperate" socially unacceptable? | [
{
"answer": "If you're desperate, it's because you have few, or no, options. If you have no options, it's because nobody wants you. If nobody wants you, you are not very desirable.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because desperate people usually have very few options they are usually perceived ... | null |
5wxt87 | How does an internet server know at what speed to transmit you data? | [
{
"answer": " > Is that extra data lost and resent?\n\nThis depends on the size of the buffer. When data is incoming at a higher rate than outgoing it must be buffered and those buffers are not infinite. If the buffer overflows, data is silently discarded. When the original sender (the server) does not receive... | null |
9054b2 | What is exactly happening at the molecular level and in terms of thermodynamics when acid is added to water that make it safer than doing the reverse? | [
{
"answer": "The reasoning isn't based on molecular or thermodynamic effects per se. If you combine too much water and acid and the resulting exothermic reaction causes boiling and spraying, would you rather be covered with (1) a solution of water with a little acid added or (2) a solution of acid with a little... | null |
3d9jf8 | why are corporations, especially the larger ones already worth billions, always so concerned with growth? | [
{
"answer": "Because you grow or die.\n\nConsider a CEOs position, he is beholden to the share holders of the company and the board of directors. The share price at any point in time factors in future growth, if the company falls short is these, the share price drops and the share holders lose money. People who... | null |
l7atl | the difference between advertisement and propaganda. | [
{
"answer": "advertisement sells a product/service. propaganda *'sells'* an ideal.\ncan't be put simpler than that.\n\n**Note** that the *'sells'* in propaganda is just a term used to equate the two; you're not actually sold anything but theoretically you can 'buy' into it.\n\nExamples: a poster for CocaCola is... | null |
ckssoc | how are trickshots filmed? | [
{
"answer": "There is 3 ways to go about making a “trick shot” video is 3 methods\n\nExtreme practice, this is the most grueling way to make this genre of videos, but it is possible, for example the popular channel “dude perfect” is a group of people who whole career is dedicated to making these videos, they ha... | null |
3njz55 | do we age faster if we don't sleep as much? | [
{
"answer": "There's a couple of things that need to be separated:\n\n1. Pulling an allnighter occasionally shouldn't be much of a problem if you catch up a bit soon after. But structurally skipping sleep is very unhealthy. Your brain needs sleep to process information and \"get rested\". If you don't do that, ... | null |
1hqtgq | How much power did the Queens and Kings in Europe have in the 18th and 19th century when Parliaments were gaining strength? | [
{
"answer": "In England, it varied, really. The story of the 18th century in England is the decline of the powers of the House of Lords and the monarch, but George III took an active interest in playing parliamentary politics and, I think, halted (or at least slowed) said decline for a few decades. \n\nGeorge I... | null |
5bpfx7 | Why were Charlemagne and the Abbasids able to command huge armies compared to later feudal states in Europe? | [
{
"answer": "Not really an answer, but I'm just wondering where you've got the idea of 'huge' Carolingian armies from? Almost all of what I've read on Carolingian warfare suggests very small army sizes, certainly never really going over 5 figures in terms of manpower. The only scholar who seems to take a differ... | null |
15jn9d | What limits the amount of ram a computer supports? | [
{
"answer": "Firstly RAM is subdivided into 8bit cells (8 bits = 1 byte). The theoretical limit to the amount of ram you can store is dependant on the architecture of the CPU. The amount of ram the CPU can access is dependant on the largest number the CPU can store in one of its registers. This is the number if... | null |
4rvcpi | Can someone explain what a "Memresistor" does in a circuit? | [
{
"answer": "Assuming you are asking about a *memristor*, this started out as a theoretical concept: if resistors impose a relationship between voltage and current, capacitors impose a relationship between voltage and charge (charge being the integral of current), and inductors impose a relationship between cu... | null |
1l0wys | How exactly does a microscopic organism become airborne? | [
{
"answer": "I have a two part answer:\n\nThe general spirit of the factoid is true: If you have water that has bacteria in it, they will stay in the liquid water as the water vapor escapes. This is because evaporation is a molecular process: molecules leave essentially one at a time. And you must realize that,... | null |
1ufb7z | When and why did New England Puritanism fall out of fashion? | [
{
"answer": "It was basically driven out of control by commerce and trade. The Pilgrims landed in the New World and immediately decided to set things up how they wanted. They tried to control things with their laws, starting immediately with the Mayflower Compact. For example you had to be a member of their chu... | null |
2ufbux | how exactly does someone code an app such as 'shazam'? | [
{
"answer": "I do not know the specifics, but am pretty sure the app uses a centralized server that houses all of the music and relates that information back to the app. If my thoughts are true, then the app doesn't actually figure out what the song is.\n\nThink of it this way: Just like when we google somethi... | null |
3iwp4h | deliberate homelessness - just why? | [
{
"answer": "It's hard to have a definite answer as it's obviously a complicated situation. My guess would be some degree of mental illness (severe clinical depression, bipolar disorder, etc.). Maybe he feels like a complete failure for failing out if university. I know people who under-performed and was penali... | null |
flv361 | how game devs avoid people stealing their games. | [
{
"answer": "They don't really care, the people buying games is more than enough. Video games are worth more and more each year. Games now make more per year than movies, the profits are going up and up, there is insane growth year on year, even with piracy, for indie and big studio alike. if anything having yo... | null |
fcehv6 | Why didn't Hitler invade Iran for Oil instead of the Soviet Union? | [
{
"answer": "The short answer would be that the oilfields of Grosny and Maikop, later on Baku were easier accessable than Irans. For this there are two reasons, logistical prakticality and availibilty. \n\nOn the one side the it is the logistical side. We can see in the North African campaign that the Germans w... | null |
5hsckz | why is it okay to eat sushi at a sushi restaurant, but it's bad to go to the store and get raw fish to eat? | [
{
"answer": "Sushi-grade=has been flash frozen to kill any parasites\n\nYou absolutely can buy fish at the store and eat it straight raw. I do all the time. Just ensure it's been frozen well at some point.\n\nYou really don't want to catch raw ocean fish parasites. Imagine coughing up worms...",
"provenance... | null |
fv5jhh | Is “like dissolves like” always true? | [
{
"answer": "\"Like dissolves like\" is generally true, but a broad oversimplification. What dissolves/mixes with what depends on how the chemical/functional groups present in each compound interact. \n\nPolar and non-polar are generalized terms to describe how evenly electrons are distributed between different... | null |
yuixp | How can beta particles travel faster than the speed of light? | [
{
"answer": "Rounding to 300,000,000 m/s is very commonly done with the speed of light, since you rarely need to be exact enough for the rounding to matter, and 3x10^8 is a lot more elegant than 299,792,458 m/s.\n\nBeta rays do not travel faster than light. Having mass, they travel slower than it (an initial s... | null |
1vjlwu | Why does it seem that skin is the only human organ unable to adapt to weight loss? | [
{
"answer": "Skin does adapt. You're much larger/heavier when you're 20 years old than when you were 2 years old. If you *rapidly* gain weight you exceed the elastic limit of your skin (stretch marks). \n\nIf you *rapidly* lose weight, you will end up with extra skin. If you lose 10 pounds in a year, you won't ... | null |
7yxv3a | reactive hypoglycemia | [
{
"answer": "Hypoglycemia means low blood sugar so you don't have any immediately available energy to do things.\n\nA very simplified version of that article suggests that it happens after eating a lot of sugar or sugar-producing food. The body produces a lot of insulin to use or store the energy from the suga... | null |
1yav32 | where does all the rock salt for keeping the roads clear go? why haven't so many areas near roads become too salty for grass, trees etc. ? | [
{
"answer": "You're on the right track of thinking. \n\nThe reason areas near roads don't become too salty right away is because when it rains most of that water enters a drainage system and makes its way towards rivers and lakes. That's where the biggest issues occur as you often see fish, algae, pretty much a... | null |
lci1z | - what people mean when they claim the civil war was not about slavery. | [
{
"answer": "People who assert that the Civil War was not about slavery will point out that the issue was State's Rights.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "For example, the *Emancipation Proclamation* (The thing that everyone says freed the slaves) freed slaves in *states in rebellion* (the South... | null |
16ni7s | How much do sports affect our physical structure? | [
{
"answer": " Veins and nerves already come adapted to these issues. Veins and arteries are very elastic and stand up to compressive forces very well. They may collapse briefly but the collagen and elastin they are composed of will not be destroyed by compressive force. If a person is hit hard enough with ... | null |
2kyrea | why is it so socially acceptable to refer to someone as 'white' or 'black', but never 'yellow' or 'red'? | [
{
"answer": "Because white and black have become socially acceptable identifiers.\n\nYellow or Red have not. Those people say I'm asian [insert particular country/region] or I'm native american [insert particular tribe]\n\nIt's just a thing about the vernacular. Not unlike how 'gay' is an acceptable descriptor,... | null |
avjpne | what exactly is a "share" / "share price"? | [
{
"answer": " > Why can one buy/sell \"share\" from companies?\n\nThey are referred to as \"shares\" in plural but someone can buy a share or more *of* a company or *from* a company under different circumstances. Usually when purchasing a share of a company it is from other people who own said shares, and it i... | null |
46wxek | when there was a constitutional disagreement in early u.s. history, were the writers of the constitution, like james madison, constantly consulted what they meant by a certain clause given they were still alive? if they weren't, why not? | [
{
"answer": "Yes and no. During the debates about ratification, for example, they traveled to their home states as well as neighbors to make the case for ratification. They expounded on the proper interpretation of the clauses as they understood them, so the states would not misunderstand. Records of these deba... | null |
apdr2u | why is that although lakes/ponds freeze on the surface first, they melt off the surface last? or does it just appear this way because water leaks around and back to below the ice? | [
{
"answer": "You've basically got it. Water is weird in that its solid form is less dense then its liquid one. Which is why ice floats. Now when ice starts to melt the water will start to pool on the the ice and depending how thick the ice is, it will either continue to pool until it melts through to the water ... | null |
3r65bf | Would it be fair to call the Albigensian crusade a genocide? | [
{
"answer": "From a historian's point of view, 'The Perfect Heresy' by Sean O'Shea is considered popular history - and I can see how from that book's spin one could get the idea that the Albigensian Crusade was a genocide. But the Crusade really doesn't meet even the loosest definition of the term; it was a war... | null |
3ve594 | Why is the letter "S" so drastically different in 16th and 17th century English? Also, why is there still the "normal" s in some words, but the old alteration in others? | [
{
"answer": "Linguistically speaking, there is an, albeit small, difference between the two different forms of the minuscule S. The long S, 'ſ' is an allographic variant of the grapheme < s > , which can also be represented as 'S', 's' and so on, depending on language, position and the type of the word. Practi... | null |
7tp927 | how does kinetic energy play a role in chemical reactions? | [
{
"answer": "When molecules collide with each other they may react with each other. So if you increase the kinetic energy of the molecules, you increase the number of collisions that occur in a given time interval. So you are increasing the rate of the overall reaction.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"an... | null |
349jqr | what does the "e-i-e-i-o"stand for in the old macdonald song? | [
{
"answer": "It doesn't mean anything lyrically. My best guess is that it's an easy way to appreciate the relationship between the notes in that musical motif, one-two-one-two-three.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It doesn't mean anything. It's like \"Rama Lama Ding-Dong\" or \"Give Peace a Ch... | null |
7t1zk0 | difference between references and bibliography | [
{
"answer": "References are specific citations, whereas a biblography covers works that were read as part of generalized research. \n\nThat's it, pretty much. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "190988",
"title": "Bibliography",
... | null |
5w6l20 | why is torture not an effective tool for information extraction? | [
{
"answer": "Because people might just tell you what you want to hear to get you to stop. So then your making decisions based off of possibly false information.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Becsuse after enough pain many people might just say something to make it stop. Lot of false confirmat... | null |
8jq6kn | what exactly is cobalt used for in lithium batteries and why can't we use more abundant materials instead? | [
{
"answer": "In lithium ion batteries, part of the process is chemically moving the Lithium ions from one end, to the other (cathode and anode). That means you need to physically \"fit\" those Lithium ions somewhere.\n\nCobalt oxide happens to have a crystal structure that handles those ions well. Not many mate... | null |
16oqh4 | Why is the grade school teacher traditionally a male profession in the UK, and a female one in America? | [
{
"answer": "This is an outdated stereotype that may still be true overall in the US but does not necessarily ring true at every school.\n\nPrior to WW2, one of the best jobs an educated woman could get in the US was a school teacher. The size of the draft pushed women into the workforce, but women would still ... | null |
2yzkh7 | Is it truth that Kuomintang did majority of fighting against Japanese forces during the Second Sino-Japanese War? | [
{
"answer": "The Kuomintang did the majority of the conventional fighting against the Japanese, whereas the Communists were far more interested in guerilla warfare. One of the main complaints of the US representative in China, general Joseph Stilwell, was that the Kuomintang was actually less enthusiastic about... | null |
2rqa3a | what is the deal with games over 60 fps? is there a difference between 60 and 300 fps. and what does interlacing and tearing have to do with this? | [
{
"answer": "60 fps is usually the standard that people aim for when it comes to frames per second in games. 60 is the standard because most common monitors are 60 hertz, meaning they refresh 60 times per second. They display 60 different images in a second. 60 fps also feels very smooth.\n\n30 fps is generally... | null |
67vpj3 | Shortages and Use of Resources during WWII | [
{
"answer": "Hey there -- while our historians here may be able to offer some more suggestions, *A World at Arms* and *Why the Allies Won* jump out to me from our [WWII books list](_URL_0_). ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "50186011",
... | null |
m03x9 | Is there any way to build up an immunity to commonly used murderous poisons like strychnine or arsenic? | [
{
"answer": "You are misusing the word 'immunity', I think you mean something like 'tolerance'.\n\nThis would be very complicated to answer and would need to be looked at case by case.\n\n The body can break down or excrete some 'bad substances' and can even adapt and get better at breaking them down into less ... | null |
v31km | What happens if your eye lids are removed? | [
{
"answer": "Not an ophthalmologist, so I may be wrong:\n\nIf the surface of the eye dries out, it will be extremely difficult and painful, if not downright impossible, for the eye to move in the socket.\n\nYes, you could lubricate with saline solution or some other artificial tears.\n\nBright light and dust wo... | null |
so8xf | the photoelectric effect, and how light can behave both as a wave and as a particle | [
{
"answer": "Light behaving like both a wave and a particle is because it is neither of those things. In our macroscopic lives, we can observe waves and particles, but in the very small quantum world things are not exactly like either. They act somewhat like both. \n \nThe photoelectric effect occurs when li... | null |
3kks2j | What does Hollywood get wrong about Historical melee battles. | [
{
"answer": "Sorry, we don't allow [throughout history questions](_URL_0_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a historical event or period or person, please feel free to ... | null |
mpojg | Yeah, yeah, yeah, humans received AIDs from monkeys. Do species other than humans have sexually transmitted diseases? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, sexually transmitted diseases affect other species as well e.g. vibriosis in cattle.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "An example: I originally heard about this in a pet shelter,\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes, [koalas for example have a terrible... | null |
3xds36 | When did Globalisation REALLY start? | [
{
"answer": "Well, the problem with treating globalization as starting before 1492 is that any system of international trade is necessarily going to be limited to either Africa+Eurasia or the Americas. So \"Global\" is a bit of a misnomer.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": ... | null |
2c70km | what's up with those "buy gold" ads you see all over conservative media? | [
{
"answer": "An older audience that is distrustful of the government and the currency backed by that government? People that can remember when the dollar came off the gold standard? Extremely conservative people that want a return to the good old days? People that scare easily? \n\n**Perfect** targets for these... | null |
1gyhh0 | Have stories from Greek mythology been directly connected to or metaphorically connected to actual happenings? | [
{
"answer": "Warning: long answer coming up. The TL;DR is: sort of, but not the ones you're probably thinking of I'm afraid.\n\nFirst up, myths about the gods. As long ago as the 4th century BCE people started having the idea that the gods of story were heavily mythologised versions of kings of the distant past... | null |
a7xyqc | Can/is there a green or black star? | [
{
"answer": "The Sun actually [emits more light in the green than in any other part of the spectrum](_URL_0_), but the net result of this to the human eye is that the colors mix to look white (and then our atmosphere scatters some of that light, making it look yellow). So no, even a star that peaks at green wav... | null |
3w0fhk | why are big companies (like google, yahoo, facebook) buying small ones for a fortune, even if they could develop the whole service themselves? | [
{
"answer": "The company owns a patent for a particular thing... or it could be to prevent another company from acquiring them.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They get rid of the competition and acquire the user base all in one move instead of the development time and building a base of people... | null |
wg4lw | How can a guitar amplifier pick up radio waves and play them? | [
{
"answer": "This isn't all that uncommon. It used to happen to me quite a lot when I had my old Marshall JMP out on tour. It has something to do with the broadcast being picked up in the internal wiring of the amplifier. Think of the wires inside as an antenna. After the antenna picks up the signal, the amp si... | null |
m29l4 | Nutrition and Diet "science" seems so confusing and filled with contradiction or bias. What are some cold hard facts that you have learned about diets and food in general. | [
{
"answer": "If you want to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Fructose is currently considered harmful to the human body, and to be avoided. _URL_0_\n\nGrains, particularly gluten, are by many considered non-ideal for the human diet. _URL... | null |
psnsl | What would happen if the global production of oil stopped today? | [
{
"answer": "You might want to try r/economics and r/collapse for this one.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "90% road vehicles out of service;\n10-100% trains out of service (depending on region);\n100% of air travel compromised;\n99% of sea travel compromised (nuke powered civilian transport co... | null |
bvynfv | Are there galaxies that form spherically around a black hole? | [
{
"answer": "Elliptical galaxies like [M105](_URL_1_) or [M87](_URL_0_) can be close to spherical, and have quite large black holes at the center. It's probably more accurate to say that they form *with* the black hole instead of *around* the black hole, though - the gravity of the black hole is a small thing c... | null |
33yw81 | the difference between eukaryotes and prokaryotes. | [
{
"answer": "Eukaryotes - which include animals and plants - have cells that have a lot of internal structure. In particular, they have \"organs\" that are sealed off from the rest of the environment of the cell by membranes similar to the one that contains the cell itself. The nucleus (which contains the cell'... | null |
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