id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
8gb4h4 | in regards to verbal communication, how long does it take baby animals to comprehend what their older counterparts are communicating? | [
{
"answer": "Well for humans there's many stages of learning involved in speech and speech comprehension. Babies are prone to mimicking what they see or hear, so seeing the movement of their parents mouths and the noises that come out pushes them to do the same. Obviously their brains are not fully developed so... | null |
adior7 | What happens when you magnetize antimatter? | [
{
"answer": " > According to Einsteins equation a reaction with 1 gram of antimatter colliding with another gram of regular matter of the same element can create x1335 the energy need to propel the Saturn V Rocket to light speed\n\nThis uses the Newtonian formula for kinetic energy. The correct formula for kine... | null |
frfze9 | what is the difference between a snowball effect and a domino effect? | [
{
"answer": "Just my thoughts...\nDomino effect would create a chain reaction of multiple events.\n\nFor example:\nyou yell at someone, which ruins their day, they then yell at someone, running their day, and so on.\nThe be original action is essentially repeated in a similar manner.\n\nSnowball effect would cr... | null |
h3pm8 | Airplanes and passenger weight. Cost difference in flying heavy/light passengers. | [
{
"answer": "I'm approving this on a very tentative basis. Please keep the discussion to the science of flight-weight ratios alone and *not* the ethical implications of such a system.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is no real way to calculate this without more info. It depends on the pl... | null |
26frj2 | Where there any proposals to create an African nation in America? | [
{
"answer": "There were black communities set up by African Americans in the late 1870s-80s, but they weren't protected by the government like Native American reservations.\n\nThe people participating in the communities were called [exodusters](_URL_1_) because of the exodus from the south to states like Kansas... | null |
4pjtim | someone explain cpu cores to me | [
{
"answer": "suppose you are assigned to make sure a big bag of skittles gets eaten. two cores means two people eating, a faster clock speed means each person eats faster.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You seem to have a bit of a misconception about what clock speeds mean. It isn't a measurem... | null |
a56vh4 | why is crying a natural response to both extreme sadness and extreme happiness, but not so much for anything in between? | [
{
"answer": "Crying is a response to extreme emotion- I’ve seen people cry from being scared, angry (kind of the same thing) etc. it’s a natural way to release those pent up emotions. You wouldn’t need to cry over something mild happening, like say, your food order being late, unless you already had a bunch of ... | null |
63vd10 | What's the difference between formulas, algorithms and equations? | [
{
"answer": "An equation always has an \"equal\" sign in the middle, and declares that the two things on either side of it are equal.\n\nA formula is a type of equation.\n\nAn algorithm is a defined series of instructions...a recipe or procedure.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "To be more speci... | null |
6d9gbp | Were ancient Greek statues really coloured like this? | [
{
"answer": "There was a good discussion about the specifics of the color recreations on the sub a few weeks back; you can read it [here](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "321956",
"title": "List of common misconceptions"... | null |
6ez12q | how can wal-mart sell so many items for cheaper than other big box store prices? | [
{
"answer": "I remember watching a video, that by selling it at a lower price they can make up the lost profits by selling more and buying/selling in bulk.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "let's say your local hardware store buys 50 hammers to stock their shelves with/expect to sell for the year... | null |
1vr3l9 | How different would the star constellation be around Alpha Centauri? Would we share any of the same noticeable constellations? | [
{
"answer": "There are 2 small constellations that lie almost directly opposite Alpha Centauri. They are [Triangulum](_URL_1_) and [Aries](_URL_3_).\n\nThe two nearest stars in these constellations are [Teegardens](_URL_2_) and [TZ Arietis](_URL_0_) which can only be seen with very large telescopes. All the oth... | null |
9gzodh | Regional Differences in US Soldiers' Placements during WWII? Regional Differences in War Coverage? | [
{
"answer": "For the U.S. Army, generally no, [as I've elaborated on before](_URL_6_), although there were a few interesting exceptions. \n\nOne circumstance that could have large numbers of men from the same area fighting together in the same unit in the same theater was if they were members of the National Gu... | null |
a59fzo | Why on Wikipedia list of top WW2 Ace pilots are above 50 almost only marks only German Luftwaffe pilots? | [
{
"answer": "1. ***Luftwaffe*** **personnel policy** \\- The Germans tended to keep pilots in combat for as long as possible. In general, German *jadgflieger* only stopped flying combat missions if they were killed (Walter Nowotny), badly wounded (Günther Specht, although he eventually returned to service), cap... | null |
893qoy | why do so many ant hills show up after it's been raining? | [
{
"answer": "Ant hills are usually caused by ants dumping debris out of the holes that lead into their home complexes. After a rain, a lot of dirt and debris has fallen off the walls and into the holes, and has to be removed. So the ants take all that out and dumps it into the area around the holes, making a ... | null |
37syyb | when looking at laptops, is the mah the capacity of the battery? is it multiplied by how many cells there are? | [
{
"answer": "The thing that matters is watt hours. That is amp hours times nominal voltage. Assuming the batteries are of the same chemistry, thus each cell has the same voltage, yes, it's proportional to the number of cells. So the 6 cell 4.4 stores almost twice as much energy as the 3 cell 4.6.",
"prov... | null |
8k8jsr | how was the world able to work together to ban cfcs and protect the ozone layer, but aren't making those same enviornmental gains now? | [
{
"answer": "Not an expert by any means, but CFCs in aerosol cans and the like are easily and cheaply replaced by other gases. Carbon emissions are the main cause of climate change and those are caused by fossil fuel consumption. The oil, gas, and coal industry has a much more powerful lobby in governments, and... | null |
29wdou | why do many businesses, especially those with long term aspirations lease vs buy their buildings? | [
{
"answer": "I am no expert, but I will say it's because they are not in the commercial real estate business. If I have an IT business, I want to focus on that business alone, not also worry about maintaining a building. Plus, it's easier to grow or shrink if you are renting.",
"provenance": null
},
{... | null |
1w7183 | why do we as humans, classify things that we perceive are beautiful, elegant, graceful etc. and other things are abhorrent, loathsome, repulsive etc. | [
{
"answer": "I think that this originally comes from instinctual knowledge about how things look. We are predisposed to like flowing water and healthy green plants and to dislike rotting things and dark places basically anything that could have caused us harm. Everything else is just an extension of this and th... | null |
g1e3ku | where does the flu go? | [
{
"answer": "It's still there. The number of infected people just go down because people aren't stuck inside together, so it doesn't get passed as easily. But once it gets colder and people stay inside together, one infected person can infect more people.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
1fdcm3 | why do i pass out when i see my own bloody injuries? | [
{
"answer": "Yeah, what we're disgusted/shocked at is generally not in our control. It's not a voluntary response, where we look at something and consciously think, \"OH GOSH that is so gross I'm gonna pass out.\" It's really our subconsciousness' decision.\n\nSince your sister also does this, it might be [va... | null |
4k0a1e | the new rules regarding overtime pay announced by the department of labor | [
{
"answer": "An individual has to pass two tests to be considered exempt. \n\n1. They have to perform certain types of duties at work \n2. They had to be paid a minimum of $23,600 per year\n\nIf they met both tests they were \"exempt\" from the fair labor standards act, which means they did not have to be pai... | null |
lvl0p | Your Finger is Pricked by a HIV Infected Needle- Can You Amputate To Save Yourself? | [
{
"answer": "[It takes about 1 minute](_URL_0_) for blood to circulate through the body and back to the heart, which is too fast for amputation to be an effective option, unless it's done immediately in one clean slice, which isn't likely to happen unless you just happen to have surgically sharp tools lying aro... | null |
3jleuc | Does the universe really look like a brain cell? | [
{
"answer": "First it should be pointed out that this is not a picture of the universe. This is picture of a dark matter simulation. That being said, if you choose the right scale, on the right simulation, and choose the right colour scheme to compare with, then they do look similar. I can't say much as to the ... | null |
36afsa | Why can't some tissues like ligaments regenerate? | [
{
"answer": "In order for parts of the human body to regenerate, stem cells have to be present that can differentiate into the damaged tissue. You might be familiar with the fact that your skin is continuously being replaced as old cells are sloughed off and replaced with new ones. This occurs because epithelia... | null |
17l789 | what is reddit? | [
{
"answer": "Reddit is like a forum, except anybody can create their own sub-forums (or \"sub-reddits\") within it if they'd like. Some of the most popular threads in the most popular sub-forums are aggregated and displayed on the front page by default. (The word \"aggregate\" simply means \"to gather togethe... | null |
1lyrd3 | How does the chemical composition of air influences our behaviour? | [
{
"answer": " > Q What happens to human behaviour when the current balance of the global chemical composition of air is changed?\n\nThat's a very vague question. Temporary low oxygen enviornments over a few weeks can boost red blood cell count which can benefit athletes in training. High oxygen environments can... | null |
1p4atg | the differences and similarities between anarchy and communism | [
{
"answer": "Anarchy is an ideology which asserts that there is no need for a government for a peaceful and ideal community.\nOn the other hand communism requires a government. And the key idea behind communism is to make all citizen equal.(This is the duty of the government) For example all of them will have a... | null |
afl8u9 | In the human heart, why are the atria and ventricles of the same side separated from each other? Couldn't there just be a right chamber that pumps blood to the lungs and a left chamber that pumps blood around the body? | [
{
"answer": "It would be possible to make a heart that relies completely on passive filling in humans, but we have evolved from animals in which atria contribute much more than in our heart.\n\n\nIn mammals and humans, the atria play a relatively small role, when they contract they contribute ~10-30% to ventric... | null |
al85zo | why do people that aren't normally suicidal, randomly have the urge or thought to drive into oncoming traffic or other ways to die? | [
{
"answer": "They are called intrusive thoughts. They are normal, automatic and can't be controlled. We don't really know why people have them. Their isn't usually a deeper meaning to them and in fact, and the fact that people don't want to act on them and find them disturbing means they aren't subconscious des... | null |
504v9y | I'm the head of a Roman family during the height of the Imperial Period and the Tax Collector asks for the taxes, and I refuse for one reason or another. What happens next? | [
{
"answer": "The head of a *Roman* family? Or a provincial? A Roman wouldn't have had to pay taxes, Roman citizens were exempt from all taxes except the vectigals, a broad class of duties levied generally on trade. Most Roman citizens would not have paid any taxes at all, except for those few who engaged in som... | null |
5w3kai | How do scientists know what planets look like, what they're made out of, whether it could sustain life etc. They're millions of light years away and they don't see much detail, right? And what do scientists see when they see into telescopes like the Hubble. Do they just see a round ball or more? | [
{
"answer": "Well, first off, we don't know of any exoplanets that are millions of light years away. That's MUCH too far to be able to spot planets.\n\n[Here's a list of known exoplanets.](_URL_0_) The farthest one is 8500 parsecs, which is about 27,700 light years. Still a pretty good distance, but barely 1/4 ... | null |
2cotft | "It ain't over til the Fat Lady Sings" | [
{
"answer": "This quote is supposed to be about Brunhilde singing her final aria at the end of Gotterdammerung, which is the last opera in the Ring Cycle (four total operas) and is about 6 hours long. (!!!) Brunhilde is often a larger woman, and her [traditional costume has her in a chestplate and a winged hat]... | null |
1wswg8 | why when i zoom out on ascii art it changes color? | [
{
"answer": "Text scaling gets weird when individual characters get really small - near the pixel size or smaller.\n\nWhen dealing with modern digital LCD displays and modern operating systems, you're starting to look at [sub-pixel rendering](_URL_0_) of text (just looking at the pictures in that article will p... | null |
23f36b | Question Regarding Radar Fire Control in WWII | [
{
"answer": "Some Japanese vessels, like the new Akizuki class as well as larger capital ships like the Kongo, Haruna, Yamato, and more, were equipped with a surface-surface radar (Type 22) that could be used to provide information to the fire control systems. It was fairly standard equipment by early 1944 or s... | null |
2f5xmq | what was the reason for nintendo 64 to use a 64-bit processor, and why did it take 10 years for every other processor type to catch up? | [
{
"answer": "Its processor had a 32-bit bus; in the decade to follow, other gaming systems would use processors with a full 64-bit bus.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Chance, I would suppose. A company called Silicon Graphics Inc. acquired another company called MIPS Technologies specifically ... | null |
7tzz6d | Do rubber soles on our shoes actually protect us from lightning strikes? | [
{
"answer": "No, it's very unlikely that they do. \n\nAir has a dielectric strength of 3 MV/m. To travel 1 m, we need 3 million volts. To travel two meters, 6 million volts. And so on.\n\nRubber has ~15 MV/m. It seems a lot more insulating than air. This means that for electricity to travel through your 1 cm so... | null |
6yov6l | What was the first country to have an accurate map of the whole world? | [
{
"answer": "Maps are still being refined. What do you intend with \"accurate\"?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "2866264",
"title": "Early world maps",
"section": "Section::::After 1492.:\"Kunyu Wanguo Quantu\" by Matteo... | null |
22jskn | Why do some animals have completely blacked out eyes? | [
{
"answer": "It's an evolutionary trait that has benefited certain types of predators.\n\nLooking at this from the other side. What benefit comes from eyes that have white around the cornea?\n \nIn herd animals or pack predators there is a type of non verbal queue that allows for one to estimate the direction... | null |
2c5ms6 | How was bronze-/iron age metal mined, what types of metals where mined. | [
{
"answer": "hi! not discouraging anyone from providing more info, but FYI, you may be interested in previous posts on mining from the FAQ (link on sidebar):\n\n[Mineral resource extraction](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "29219... | null |
7jufob | Has anyone proved how many colors you would need if you had a cube with an arbitrary number of three-dimensional regions in it so that no two bordering regions are the same color? It would be like the four color theorem but in three dimensions. | [
{
"answer": "There are generalizations of the 4-color theorem to arbitrary surfaces. The classical 4-color theorem is concerned with maps drawn on a plane, but we can consider maps drawn on a sphere, or a torus, or a Mobius band, or any 2-dimensional manifold. It turns out that answer to that question is known,... | null |
9r2fi6 | Did the average American see the Civil War coming? | [
{
"answer": "Adapted from a previous answer:\n\n**1/2**\n\nDid anybody see the Civil War coming? The answer there that it depends what one means by \"see the Civil War coming\" and also what \"the Civil War entails\" in their minds when they do or don't see it. So let's open the box on Schroedinger's Antebellum... | null |
6yv83e | are there examples of countries that were made artifically successful? are they still successful? is the same thing possible today with any 3rd world country? | [
{
"answer": "one could very easily argue Japan if what I understand about your question is correct.\n\nJapan was heavily invested in by the United States and the west after WWII. Given now-to-no interest loans, and tariff-free trading abilities Japan was able to rebuild much faster than the other countries that... | null |
3sqvhf | at what point in space would something actually become "weightless?" | [
{
"answer": "There is no \"range limit\" on gravity. As you get farther away it takes more sensitive instruments to measure it, but it never stops. \"Weightless\" simply means that you and your surroundings are accelerating together at the rate that matches that caused by the local gravity curvature. You can... | null |
1zv8ne | How long does it take for a star to go nova/supernova, and what would it look like? (Among other questions) | [
{
"answer": "The Sun won't \"blow up\". The last evolutionary stage of the Sun is the AGB (Asymptotic Giant Branch) where it starts to pulsate, shredding off most of its mass into a giant [nebula](_URL_0_) leaving a very hot and very dense core consisting of mostly free electrons. This core remnant is known as ... | null |
7qpprx | how do people learn to enjoy the taste of hard liquors such as whisky? | [
{
"answer": "Drink rotgut to get drunk, then drink something of higher quality to enjoy the experience of drinking. You'll appreciate the difference.\n\nNote: don't do this all in one night.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "39374484",
... | null |
b5yo7r | Is it true that Mahatna Gandhi used to sleep with two girls, naked and told people that he's learning self control? | [
{
"answer": "You may be interested in [these two](_URL_0_) previous [answers](_URL_1_) on Gandhi by /u/CogitoErgoDoom and /u/barath_s, respectively. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "19379",
"title": "Mahatma Gandhi",
"sec... | null |
1rry3i | what actually happens mechanically when you turn the thermostat in your car? | [
{
"answer": "Modern cars have electronic thermostats, so nothing mechanical happens with the actual thermostat, although a mechanical valve governing the airflow might move.\n\nTraditional thermostats are purely mechanical, however. They have a component called bimetal, it consists of two strips of different ty... | null |
1dn85n | why do streaming video services (vudu, netflix, amazon, etc.) load up in full hd within a matter of seconds, but youtube videos can take 30 seconds to partially buffer in only 240p? | [
{
"answer": "Let's say you want to get to work and you have a whole lot of money and comfort is important to you. So you hire a limo to take you to work and pay $100 every day for that service. For $100 you get a lot of comforts, a private limo, plenty of room to spread your legs, leather seats, a mini-bar, i... | null |
dwknbb | How hydraulic systems work in space? | [
{
"answer": "Tanks in space have a zone for liquid and another one for gas, separated by a flexible or movable membrane (a diaphragm). It's the pressure of the gas that pushes on the liquid (okay, it pushes on the diaphragm which in turn pushes the liquid) forcing it to stay next to the tank outlet.\n\nThe prob... | null |
eoczlz | what does microsoft’s announcement really mean and why are people so upset? | [
{
"answer": "If you’re talking about that “pedophile tracker”, most people think it’s \nA. Not effective and most likely will be like other AI detectors. \nB. Simply an excuse to look at peoples chatrooms under the pretense of safety.\nC. Ineffective because, Weill, who uses chatrooms anymore?\nThat’s just what... | null |
6mjkhg | Is our Solar System's number of planets and planetoids, and the distance between them, unusual? | [
{
"answer": "I must admit, that I haven't played either Mass Effect nor Infinite Space. But in general games are not the best source for scientific accuracy ;) \nAccording to the [exoplanet archive](_URL_0_) there are almost 600 confirmed multiplanet systems. The largest of which have 7 confirmed exoplanets. I... | null |
2j37zo | why don't popular types of candy (m & m's, skittles, reese's, etc.) have cheaper knockoff versions like all other products? | [
{
"answer": "They manage to keep their products so cheap, and they have such incredible brand recognition, that it's essentially impossible to compete with them.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They do. They just don't have a very large market share because they are aren't cheap enough to warra... | null |
1s2zik | Is the "time goes faster as we get older" adage an actual psychological phenomenon? | [
{
"answer": "Yes.\n\nThink about it like this.\n\nIf you are two years old, a year is half of your life.\n\nIf you are 50, a year is 1/50 of your life.\n\nIf you're 100, it's 1/100 of your life.\n\nLooking back, the year will seem a lot less, and it will seem to have gone faster then when you were younger.",
... | null |
5hps3k | why do white people in the west have much higher suicide rates? | [
{
"answer": "Presuming you mean European-descendent people in the Western World (typically North America + western Europe), and noting that what motivates suicide is wildly individually dependent, generally some contributing factors to the suicide rates of this (big, diverse) cohort include (but are not limited... | null |
ylphw | How much oxygen would you need to ignite the potentially highly reactive atmosphere of Titan? And how much energy would be released if a suicidal astronaut lit a match? | [
{
"answer": "Atmospheric pressure on Titan is about 150 kPa. Acceleration due to gravity at Titan's surface is about 1.4 m/s^2, so the mass of a 1m^2 air column is about 100000kg. Titan has surface area of 8.3E7 km^2, so the mass of the atmosphere is about 8E18 kg. Assuming 1% methane by mass, that is 8E16 kg o... | null |
3fqg8l | How did one join the ranks of Praetorian Guard, back in ancient Rome? | [
{
"answer": "The Praetorians actually began their existence as the personal bodyguards of Republican generals; the name of this corps was the \"cohors praetoria.\" Augustus took the men from this corps in order to form the modern image of the Praetorian Guard; as a result, Praetorians were initially a general's... | null |
mcsrq | The space program has used CO2 scrubbers for ~50 years. Why can't we use this same technology to help clean the atmosphere? | [
{
"answer": "It is largely an issue of size, temperature and time scale, though price cannot be discounted. Here is a link describing the method used on the space shuttle:\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "My understanding is that the production and recycling of CO2 scrubbers takes a s... | null |
ef1dra | how is a game converted to a rom for emulation purposes? | [
{
"answer": "It depends on the platform. Typically in older systems you would have some sort of interface to the cartridge that could pull address lines up and read data lines in sequence transferring it back to whatever you’re going to store the ROM on. \n\nFor a lot of the DVD based consoles they would often ... | null |
5mz6ya | Did the Allies in World War II ever entertain the idea of offering a conditional surrender to Nazi Germany before the end of the war? Do we know any details on what the conditions of these offers might have entailed? | [
{
"answer": "The Allies had different goals of victory for the end of the war, so a discussion of conditional surrender has to take this into account. Churchill, coming from a more traditional British school of thought, was primarily focused on restoring the old European balance of powers system of internationa... | null |
e1xfv0 | Were the Reserves for Native Americans in Canada Inspired by the Reservations in the United States? | [
{
"answer": "Kwe,\n\nReserves in Canada were created before the first US reserves, even before the US themselves. The first to establish reserves were the French when what is now Eastern Canada was New France (1534-1763).\n\n Most Indigenous peoples living on the territorie claimed by the French were nomadic or... | null |
22xzfg | how can this book cost $7000? | [
{
"answer": "I don't think this is the result of a runaway pricing algorithm, I think it is intentionally priced at this level.\n\nSome companies or labs need to have reference materials; a chemical engineer may need to look up the official weight of a particular compound, or a structural engineer may need to l... | null |
9nx6mj | why do objects in old cartoons that the characters interact with have distinctly different textures, colours, brightness, saturation, etc. than the background? | [
{
"answer": "Because they're drawn separately on different cels.\n\nIn old cartoons, a background cel would be drawn and colored, and the foreground cels, containing everything that moves and is interacted with, are drawn and colored separately as well.\n\nThe cells were stacked and the entire thing was filmed,... | null |
2mtffu | what makes the internet "fast lane" different than paying for faster shipping with the usps? | [
{
"answer": "You order something from Joe's House of Crab Cakes. You pay for the regular ground shipping. Joe ships it to you. It takes a week. Your crab cakes are rotten.\n\nYou order something from Joe's House of Crab Cakes. You pay extra for the expedited shipping. Joe ships it to you. It takes two days. You... | null |
pfqav | Is there a "true" up and down in the universe? Our galaxy is flat, where is up and down in relation to the Earth? | [
{
"answer": "There is not a true up and down in the universe. You can only infer an up or a down using reference; for example the earth rotates the Sun, you could define \"Up\" and \"Down\" using that reference to the earth, by defining the rotation as forward/backward and left/right axis.",
"provenance": n... | null |
a9s6y6 | why does chocolate in advent calendars and selection boxes not melt? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on the ingredients-milk, wax, cocoa, etc. it just has a bit of a higher melting point. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Most chocolate manufacturers add bees was or paraffin wax or some other Edible wax so that they do not have to temper the chocolate and so that it will... | null |
22ng86 | NSFW How did Ancient cultures deal with sex crimes? | [
{
"answer": "I can comment on the issue of rape in ancient Greece. My main source being Lysias 1 in which Lysias (a logographer) writes a defence speech for Euphiletos who has just killed a man named Eratosthenes after catching him sleeping with his wife. Lysias was considered on of the greatest \"lawyers\" Ath... | null |
443gob | why do we rarely use the term "tens" but "dozens" is commonly used? | [
{
"answer": "Base 12 counting. These days once we count up to ten we start again with a new set of ten. Hence ten, twenty, thirty, etc. This is called \"base ten\" counting.\n\nIn older counting systems, we used base twelve. Twenty would be \"one dozen and eight\" while 24 is two dozen, etc. This format still h... | null |
4fqz0w | [Biology] Does the vagina absorb any seminal fluids? | [
{
"answer": "Most of them just find their way out shortly afterwards, thanks to gravity.\n\nMost of the rest find their way out via regular discharge/menstruation.\n\nI believe that the woman's white blood cells will attack and disassemble some if they are there too long. Not sure how much of the leftovers are ... | null |
3blhoh | i see many videos of people peacefully interacting with wild sea animals, from blue whales and manatees to orcas and white sharks. the same is not true for land animals. what makes sea animals, even big predators, seem so much more tolerant to human interaction than wild land animals? | [
{
"answer": "Hmm...I'm talking out of my ear here, but maybe because out in the ocean mammals are so much further and far between?\n\nOrcas will torture and kill seals for fun though, so yeah...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Not directly involved in their habitat? Or at least for a while.",
... | null |
1efujn | Why have countries prevented their citizens from leaving? (Russia, E. Germany, China,...) | [
{
"answer": "The rationale was that people were treated very much like kids who could not be trusted to make the correct choices on their own. \n\nBecause free will was uncacceptable. Free will means that every person can make any decision (well, in the developed society of today there are some limits to this b... | null |
av2izq | Cold War Propaganda Posters? | [
{
"answer": " You can find a good digital collection of propaganda posters from Mao-era China here: _URL_0_\n\nThe editor, Stefan Landsberger, is a really reputable historian. Each poster has an English translation and a little bit of historical context, too. There are a few from after Mao, such as Hua Guofeng,... | null |
q7tu8 | How is mimicry/camouflage selected for, and how can it become so accurate? (Owl faces in moths/butterflies, walking sticks, leafy seadragons, etc) | [
{
"answer": "Take your basic butterfly, add a pattern that varies with each individual, eat all the ones that look the least like the target pattern, and what's left over will have patterns that are less likely to be eaten. Repeat for generations and you get closer and closer to perfection.",
"provenance": ... | null |
9f2b0i | if rat fleas are natural carriers of the plague, how come they don't transmit it anymore? | [
{
"answer": "They do; there are between 1000 and 3000 cases of the plague reported annually. Rats just aren't as much of an urban epidemic as they used to be and the plague can be cured now.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's still somewhat common, it's just treatable with antibiotics now. I ... | null |
edo3wg | Does velocity of sound waves in a medium vary by the frequency? | [
{
"answer": "There is no frequency-dependence for the speed of sound traveling through an ideal gas, but at least in air there is a small (unnoticeable) frequency-dependence due to vibrational relaxation effects of nitrogen and oxygen. You can calculate the speed of sound through air at a given frequency with:\... | null |
2gy6jj | What sort of buildings would be found in a roman town? How would a hamlet, town and city differ regarding types if structures? | [
{
"answer": "For a largish Roman city of the early Imperial period, you should imagine a \"civic package\" of buildings: a theater, an arena, a forum-basilica with temple, aqueducts, sewers, and a stadium. Not every city had every building: for example, in Britain it was very rare to have a temple connected to ... | null |
1ikw40 | how does basic circuitry (like in a calculator) perform coding or mathematical function? | [
{
"answer": "Is done in layers. Each layer adds complexity.\n\nLet's look at three layers:\n\n- Transistors\n\n- Logic gates\n\n- Logic circuits\n\nThe key element in these kinds of circuits are **transistors**. They work like tiny little switches.\n\nBy putting a few transistors together, it's possible to make... | null |
4bbksb | why do the germans have the 'german discipline'? | [
{
"answer": "It's really more of a way of perceiving your own country. Germany had a rather troubled past, which makes pure patriotism often hard to justify, so we instead cling to virtues like discipline, being on time, organization, that sort of things.\n\nOf course, that never really translates into reality ... | null |
34g4rw | does computer/laptop grow old? or they just can't keep up with current software? | [
{
"answer": "Unless you're talking about games with big resource requirements or heavy duty processing tools (like Adobe Premiere), they should keep up with software for quite a long time. A lot of desktop/laptop machines get bogged down over time with stuff that has been installed on them which add to their s... | null |
16okvb | what are ticks and why are they so bad? | [
{
"answer": "Ticks are a small bug that feed of the blood of animals and humans. They carry diseases, specifically Lyme Disease. They can be difficult to remove depending on where they attach to the host. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Ticks are little insects, a distant cousin of spiders. ... | null |
8tzvot | radio frequencies | [
{
"answer": "AM radio has a longer wavelength than FM. FM has cleaner sound, but a smaller effective range, while AM can be more easily interrupted, which leads to more static, however it can travel much farther than FM frequencies.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[GIF here](_URL_0_)\n\nFM and ... | null |
3mvytu | why does gravity cause planets to be attracted to other planets and the sun? | [
{
"answer": "It might help to think about this the other way around. It's not that something called 'gravity' existed and one day it decided to start pulling on planets. It's rather that we humans realized that we are pulled down toward the earth and decided to use the word 'gravity' to describe that. Later ... | null |
10c5z2 | Time dilation at absolute zero. | [
{
"answer": "Well the perception of time is relative to the observer. If you get in a spaceship with a clock and travel away from Earth at 99% the speed of light, to you the clock still ticks at the same rate but someone on Earth would see your clock slow down. I think Stephen Hawking gives a good example of th... | null |
3eojqi | are there any well documented nutritional differences between raw, unrefined sugar, cane sugar, white sugar, natural sugars in fruits etc? do our bodies handle refined white sugar differently than the "natural" stuff? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, there are differences, because there are different kinds of sugar. The most common two you'll see are sucrose (table sugar) and fructose (corn syrup, most fruits, honey). Fructose is sweeter, but also processed faster by your body, and as a result may cause larger blood sugar swings. ",
"p... | null |
3emio3 | why is it so bad to turn off a computer by the physical on/off button? | [
{
"answer": "Depends what you mean. If you press the button and let the system go through its shutdown process everything should be fine. If you hold it for a few seconds and force the system to just shut down in the middle of what its doing you risk data corruption. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answ... | null |
a7m6dy | Do any of the stars in the centre of our galaxy harbour planets? | [
{
"answer": "There aren't many collisions in the centre of the galaxy - the stars are still plenty far apart from each other. You do get some mergers in places like dense globular clusters, but not all that many. However, rather than direct collisions, the gravity of a star coming even vaguely close may disrupt... | null |
3xq5ro | In the past, farmers were far more numerous than smiths, so why is Smith a more common name than Farmer? | [
{
"answer": "hi, there's always room for more discussion on this, but thought you might be interested in a couple of earlier posts about \"Smith\"; the first one does discuss \"Smith\" vs \"Farmer\" also\n\n* [Why is Smith the most common surname?](_URL_0_)\n\n* [Why are there so many \"Smiths\" out there? Were... | null |
620oc9 | why is all glass not safety glass? | [
{
"answer": "for general use, cost. \n\ncar windshield glass is laminated. it's actually two pieces of glass with a clear glue in the middle. it doesn't shatter into million pieces when it breaks. windshield glass also needs to be mostly distortion free. you'll note that windshields are bent, but when yo... | null |
2d6w0h | why doesnt apple make computers specifically for video games? | [
{
"answer": "PC gamers are not their market and they probably don't want to be associated with them. Their current image brings them customers from the demographic they are targeting. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The power of an Apple computer is pretty meh for gaming, really. Even the real... | null |
4wnnf1 | Why do chefs wear those tall white hats? | [
{
"answer": "The traditional chef's hat or a \"toque blanches\" was developed in 16th century France as a means of symbolising your status in the kitchen with chef's hats being the highest. The pleats in the hat were also a way of showing how experienced a chef was. Traditionally, the toques had a hundred pleat... | null |
ocefa | Does a power strip split up the power going to each device, or does it maintain the same power as plugging straight into the wall? | [
{
"answer": "It simply distributes the wall power to more outlets. It may have a surge protector to avoid overload, or other type of protection (e.g., battery backup) - but beyond that, it is not 'splitting' anything.\n\nThis makes logical sense -- everything you plug into it requires 110 AC (USA). If it was ... | null |
62ortl | What do we know about childhoods of The Beatles' members? | [
{
"answer": "*To be sung to the tune of the [Crash Test Dummies' 'Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm'](_URL_0_)*:\n\n\nOo-once there was this boy^1 who\n\nGrew up with his Aunt and never knew his Mum^2\n\nAnd wh-ee-en she finally came back\n\nShe got run over by a policeman^3\n\nIt really might explain why \n\nThe kid could be so... | null |
30q86h | how does light move forever (in a hypothetical pure vacuum)? wouldn't that take infinite energy? | [
{
"answer": "Energy is required to accelerate something. Moving at a constant speed takes no force, assuming there's no resistance.\n\nNot to mention that photons don't really behave according to traditional kinematics anyway.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Newton's First Law: \"An object at r... | null |
bz4grt | We often cite Rome as an example of a great empire. At Rome's height, what did Romans cite as an example of a great empire? | [
{
"answer": "This is a really complicated question on one level, if we are to get too deep into the various ideological constructs that surrounded the Roman notion of an \"Empire\" was. But there is at least one polity that I can point to some direct attestations of as being described as vast and powerful (if n... | null |
5astdc | why are gas companies allowed to put of ethanol inside of gasoline to make it burn faster | [
{
"answer": "Well, This is not so much on why they are allowed but more on how they can get gasoline to produce less polluting residue. \n\n > \"Most of ethanol blending into U.S. motor gasoline occurs to meet the requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act (RFG Fuel) and the Renewable Fuel Standard set forth in th... | null |
c7p0r1 | Does the amount of dark energy in the universe change? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, the density of dark energy is constant, which means that the total amount of dark energy is proportional to the size of the universe.\n\nDark matter is very different, is works just like regular matter with respect to expansion; it's not affected.\n\nThe above also means that conservation of e... | null |
1bmfhn | What sort of electrical potential differences exist between objects in space? | [
{
"answer": "One issue is that space is filled with plasma as well as gas. Plasma exhibits a phenomenon called screening, where a charged object attracts a layer of oppositely charged ions around it, called an electric double layer. At a certain distance (called the Debye length), there is zero net charge enclo... | null |
2aep48 | are there any "good" diseases that can make feel more strong, healthy or happy? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not a doctor but i think a Disease is the negative affect of a bacteria or virus. We have hundreds -if not millions- of bacterias in our bodies that help us. So there are good bacteria that help us stay healthy.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Mania might be the closest thing. ... | null |
ba4l3t | How do animals with fur and researchers in the arctic get vitamin D? | [
{
"answer": "Animals with fur can still make Vitamin D via UV dependent pathways, it's just less efficient because the fur blocks some of the sunlight. Fish are excellent dietary sources of Vitamin D and much of the non-human arctic wildlife eats fish or other aquatic wildlife that is obtaining Vitamin D from t... | null |
8uiq6a | What is the origin of the "International Jewish Conspiracy"? Have the rise of international banking families as Rothschilds fueled the belief that "Jews rule the World"? | [
{
"answer": "The origins of the \"international Jewish conspiracy\" can be traced to the Middle Ages. The stereotype of Jews working with money has very real foundations in the ways in which Jews were generally forced to make their living in Medieval Europe. Jews were subject to a whole host of laws and decrees... | null |
n8ae2 | What evidence is there that electrons literally orbit the nucleus? | [
{
"answer": "None, because they don't orbit. The electron wavefunction forms a geometrical shape around the nucleus with a different shape for each energy level s, p, d, f... The electron can be found to be in any position on this wavefunction when measured but is not in any position with any specific momentum ... | null |
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