id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
5m8pi2 | I'm going to jail tomorrow and I want to read the best nonfiction books about History. What do you suggest? | [
{
"answer": "I'm sorry to hear that. Are you planning to buy your books on the outside or use the library system?\n\nFor the Civil War, I would start with either (or both) James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom and Shelby Foote's The Civil War. Those are two mainstays that you should be able to find relatively... | null |
1nuywf | why do horses let humans ride them? | [
{
"answer": "Humans 'break' the horses. From a very young age the horses are conditioned with pain and fear (depending on your perspective) . Tools like spurs (sharp cog like items worn on the heels of cowboy boots) are worn to inflict pain on the horse to make it go.\n\nSome horses are trained and not 'broken'... | null |
9qknnc | what are nfl coaches writing during a game on the sidelines? | [
{
"answer": "They're writing down exactly how hard they're going to cut you next season, *Kelvin Benjamin*.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This question may better fit in /r/nostupidquestions I'm suggesting that based of the low responses and the down votes I see.",
"provenance": null
},... | null |
4yzeit | Why are things getting blue with the horizon? | [
{
"answer": "It's the same reason that the sky is blue--Rayleigh scattering. This type of scattering only occurs for suspended particles of sufficiently small size (on the order of 10 microns or less in diameter). It preferentially scatters light with the smallest wavelength.\n\nSo basically, when you look of... | null |
2s8egi | wine tasting | [
{
"answer": "Good and bad are all a matter of opinion. The purpose of wine tasting is to figure out what YOU like, and what YOU find appealing. Price has little to do with weather or not a bottle is \"good\". Once you are able to recognize what is meant by those terms you will start to learn what you like. ... | null |
s30wq | Is an object colder if it's moving faster? | [
{
"answer": "It turns out that temperature really only has meaning when you talk about a set of molecules or atoms. The most reasonable description, I suppose, for a molecule would be that the amount of energy in each vibration should be related to the molecule's temperature. At relativistic speeds, the molecul... | null |
4l4p6h | how can developers of self driving cars ensure that there is no lag in the system? | [
{
"answer": "The answer is a so-called Real Time Operating System, which guarantees to handle data within a certain time.\n\nAnd about the crashing, the trick is to have a very small and good designed kernel and the rest of the stuff runs as an userland thread on top of the kernel: If a thread dies, it doesn't ... | null |
a6a9ka | When did English change its method of counting numbers above twenty? | [
{
"answer": "French does not follow this pattern. 22 is vingt-deux (twenty-two). This pattern is typical of Romance languages, for example Spanish 22 is viente dos and Italian is ventidue. Both Aldi following the \"twenty two\" pattern. \n\nFrench is different for numbers 70 tp 99 but the spoken order persists,... | null |
jka0m | lag | [
{
"answer": "What kind of lag?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What kind of lag?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "16404808",
"title": "Robertson lag",
"section": "",
"start_paragraph_id": 1,
... | null |
1ujm8m | Why is it so common for stroke victims to have a speech impairment? | [
{
"answer": "The simple answer is that the parts of the brain which control speech are the same parts which are likely to be affected by a stroke.\n\nSpeech is not a single process governed by a single part of the brain. Stroke victims can have difficulty forming any words, finding specific words, putting word... | null |
5hajp1 | Indo-european and Peppers ? How is Sanskrit connected to European languages and what is up with ancient Indian peppers ? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, Sanskrit is part of the Indo-European language family, and yes, its speakers migrated there from the steppes of what is now Ukraine and Kazakhstan. However, Indo-Iranian moved into its modern range by way of Bactria, not the Caucasus. There are libraries of literature on Indo-European, and the... | null |
3w20nz | Is it possible to determine the location at which a photo was taken based on the moon's position in the sky? | [
{
"answer": "No, it won't tell you the location from which the photo was taken. What you'd actually need would be an image of the stars in the night sky, but even that would only narrow it down to a latitude, unless you knew the UTC time the photo was taken.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes,... | null |
2p4g0j | How historically accurate is the quote: "The war wasn’t only about abolishing fascism, but to conquer sales markets. We could have, if we had intended so, prevented this war from breaking out without doing one shot, but we didn’t want to."? | [
{
"answer": " > verify the quote\n\nThere's zero evidence that this was ever said by Churchill, Truman, or anyone else involved in WWII. If one is to presume that the premise of the quote is accurate (that is to say, the war was fought by the allies to \"conquer sales markets,\" why would they admit that after... | null |
2p12gh | What is the relationship between biological nucleus and chemical nucleus? | [
{
"answer": "The dictionary definition of a nucleus is the central and most important part of an object. Both biologists and chemists decided to use this term (in reference to the general meaning), but they refer to entirely different things.\n\nThe atomic nucleus (as you stated) is the central part of an atom ... | null |
e0dmtn | why aren’t patients scrubbed down the same as doctors are? | [
{
"answer": "The patient will be unconscious during surgery and won’t be touching themselves or moving. The doctors will be touching the patient and the surgical site so it’s more important for them to be sterile.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Having had multiple surgeries I gotta tell you; a... | null |
bq44aa | why do bugs like to buzz around people's heads, even when being constantly swatted at? | [
{
"answer": "Most bugs that do this are attracted by the CO2 in our breath. Not sure why, think its something to do with finding a good vein or maybe warmth",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "To answer the second half, bugs are generally not intelligent enough to recognize being swatted at is conn... | null |
2sealb | if there's a no knock raid on your house by police and you kill the raiders would you be innocent in court? | [
{
"answer": "Thats tricky. \n\nPretty much the only way to remain innocent in that case would be if you happened to live in a country/state where the Castle Doctrine is observed and the police failed to identify themselves in any meaningful or obvious way. \n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I... | null |
7q1xuy | when computers crash why do you sometimes still hear the sound playing? this happens especially during in game crashes. | [
{
"answer": "It might be that the video card fails, but the motherboard (and hence the sound) is still running ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The sound card in your computer has a buffer that contains the sounds to be played(lets say 1 second worth of music). In a normal situation the game w... | null |
5ms6s6 | Water waves - transverse or longitudinal? | [
{
"answer": "[Here](_URL_0_) is a .gif that shows the dual nature of water waves.\n\nYou can see that the black dots (which you can think of as water particles) move forward-backward as well as up-down. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "7... | null |
5sd9ai | on snl (and similar shows) how is the live audience's laughing timed with the camera cuts we're seeing at home, when they can see everything happening on stage? | [
{
"answer": "I have been to a recording of a show once as live audience and they tell you everything your supposed to do. Laugh, applause etc. It is also fairly common to add prerecorded laughter in many tv shows, so it's not always a live audience",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are seve... | null |
24nqcn | When we look back at ancient cultures we always try to estimate what year those people would have been in an area, doing a certain thing, etc. Would those people have known what year it was? | [
{
"answer": "How are you defining year? Plenty of cultures used their own calendars to keep track of years, many of which we have coordinated with our own to determine dates. Care to elaborate?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "hi! you're basically asking about all people that ever existed anywhe... | null |
1lyaza | why are there economic theories that differ so drastically? shouldn't there be more economic consensus if it's studied so much? | [
{
"answer": "Economics is a social science. It isn't like biology, chemistry, etc where you can test something in a completely controlled environment. Since we can never control all of the variables, there will never be consensus among economists.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I think t... | null |
uof0t | Why don't rising C02 levels get cancelled out by more global plant growth? | [
{
"answer": "carbon dioxide isn't the factor limiting tree growth, so increasing its concentration shouldn't have a significant effect on growth rate",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "the answer is that the real world is a lot messier than a lot of people want to believe. There's a concept in ag... | null |
a0z5ja | why does the sin wave not look circular? | [
{
"answer": "Because you don't want a circle, you want to know it's respective cos or sin value of a point on the circle. So when you travel around the circle and map out the sinus values, you get the sinus wave.\n\nSee this animation to show you how every point on a circle mapped out creates the sinus wave.\n\... | null |
7ch77c | This Week's Theme: Oral Traditions | [
{
"answer": "**[Previously](_URL_1_)**\n\n**Current**: Oral Traditions\n\n**Upcoming**: Substance Abuse\n\n**In the hole**: Sovereignty\n\nRemember to ask theme-related questions in [a new thread!](_URL_0_)! If your submission doesn't get automatically flaired, [send us a modmail](_URL_2_) with a link!",
"p... | null |
ow6s4 | With a strong enough fan placed at a right angle to a speaker output would you hear anything from the speaker when the fan is blowing? | [
{
"answer": "With a powerful enough fan you will \"blow the sound away\", albeit at some angle away from the speaker (not 90 degrees).\n\nLet's change the scenario to a wind blowing directly at the speaker at 340 m/s (speed of sound). This is exactly the same as if the speaker were travelling through still air ... | null |
6f0zz0 | board of directors vs. owners/shareholders | [
{
"answer": "In the most simple ownership structures, the shareholders own the company and elect the board of directors. The board of directors then hire the CEO.\n\nYou're describing a scenario where a founder (person who started the company) has sold the company, in whole or in part, to other people/entities.... | null |
65a3ip | In the U.S., why are many major cities governed by their own counties or parishes, yet surrounding suburbs tend to be comprised of many cities and towns under a common county or parish? | [
{
"answer": "I'm assuming that you are not from the United States. First the federal government has no oversight into how the States organize their local entities. Second county organization has nothing to do with white flight as county organization occurred well before.\n\nEach state is different in how it org... | null |
10fspq | What are the most genius political power plays in your period? | [
{
"answer": "I honestly believe the first triumvirate between Caesar, Crassus, and Pompeius has to be one of the greatest political power plays of all time. The length of time they managed to keep it a secret, and then the way in which they revealed it was so theatrical it genuinely thrills me. Caesar had just ... | null |
1pqzqa | Why is it useful to hyperventilate during childbirth? | [
{
"answer": "One of the changes in maternal physiology during pregnancy is an increase in minute ventilation (hyperventilation). This occurs even before labor (evidenced by decreased PaCO2 =mild respiratory alkalosis).\n\nMany times we (physicians, nurses) tell people to focus on their breathing. This is mainly... | null |
1pi2fh | how is it that the taliban, removed from power in 2001, still able to fight and thrive against the afghan government and nato to this day? | [
{
"answer": "The Taliban was effectively pushed out of Afghanistan in December 2001 during Operation Jawbreaker. CIA paramilitaries, backed up by northern militias with loose ties to the US from their guerrilla war against the Russians. They effectively moved into the tribal regions of Afghanistan and blended ... | null |
2tv1fv | why do we become out of breath? | [
{
"answer": "Ok, so when you run, or do exercise, you can't breath enough oxygen for your cells to respire (produce energy) normally so you start to respire anaerobically (without oxygen) so that you provide enough energy to keep on running. Obviously there is a catch, and the catch is that you produce an acid ... | null |
fd785x | what prevents the cell from getting too large? | [
{
"answer": "It's frankly poorly understood. It seems to be a network of several regulatory pathways tied to metabolic activity in combination with cell cycle control.\n\n[Björklund, 2019](_URL_0_) has an overview on the current state of research.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Doesn’t Myostat... | null |
32t7b6 | why do we take off our hats during the national anthem? | [
{
"answer": "It supposedly stems from medieval times when knights would remove their helmets to show trust. But really, it's just tradition. Each generation is taught that taking their hat off is respectful. There's no good reason. We could just as easily say taking your wristwatch off is a sign of respect... | null |
ee1wz2 | why do so many cultures use onions and garlic in their cuisine? | [
{
"answer": "Onions, garlic, and leeks are really easy to grow and they grow in cold weather and warm weather too.\n\nThey give a lot of flavor. For instance to beans or soups. They're a vegetable, but they act like a spice. A wide variety of spices wasn't always available. Before global marketing, most people... | null |
7pft8c | In the film 'Inglorious Basterds' the French citizens under Nazi occupation are portrayed as more or less continuing their daily lives, just with Nazi soldiers everywhere. Is this accurate? | [
{
"answer": "I get that Quentin Tarantino wasn't exactly setting out to make a documentary, I just found his portrayal of Nazi-occupied Paris as fairly regular French life with some Nazi officers overseeing things as taking some serious liberties.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You might be in... | null |
5iyckv | how can personality traits be passed down genetically? | [
{
"answer": "There is some debate on nature vs nurture for character traits we consider \"genetic\". Some times it is the cultural or socioeconomic background which makes it appear like a family has similar traits. Maybe the daughter was given a lot of scientific models or books as a youngster, or the parents p... | null |
d8p519 | negative product placement in movies / shows | [
{
"answer": "Stevia isn't a brand. It's a sweetener derived from the leaves of the plant *Stevia rebaudiana.* So there's no one to pay for the namedrop. It'd be like saying that \"Maple Syrup\" is a brand name.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Stevia is not a brand like others said. He could be ... | null |
got6o | What's the evolutionary advantage of a circadian rhythm that doesn't match the Earth's rotation? | [
{
"answer": "Things don't have to make sense. They're there because they haven't reduced fecundity.\n\nStuff happens because it can. Organisms are historical documents, not perfectly tuned machines.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It isn't easy to get a super accurate clock and 1) the main cloc... | null |
b47y8p | Did the advent of cooking food correlate with an increased longer lifespan, and/or have an obvious impact on early human evolution? | [
{
"answer": "It may not have had a direct nutritional effect. But indirectly it may have been a factor. \n\nCooking food helps break the tightly bound carbohydrates within foods such as rice and wheat. Perhaps the advent of cooking provided early man a ready nutritious food source at his/ her doorstep. No going... | null |
2tpgnu | Why did US coinage transition from generic symbols of liberty to presidents and people? | [
{
"answer": "The 20th Century had three distinct eras of coin design. The first was the Golden Age marked by the work of famous sculptor August Saint-Gaudens gold issues but also included the coins made during the 1910s. The end of the Golden Age was marked by the Great Depression and President Franklin D. Roos... | null |
1lyiqq | Does the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle mean that we've proved string theory and does that mean we now have the elusive "Theory of Everything"? | [
{
"answer": "Short answer: no. The Higgs boson is predicted by the Standard Model (SM), and its confirmation just serves to strengthen that model. Since we know that SM can't be the whole story its predictions should fail at some point. The discovery of the Higgs boson merely tells us that we still haven't reac... | null |
bal355 | how do people lose coordination while playing vr games? | [
{
"answer": "Have you played it?\n\nThere's big difference between looking lifelike, and looking good enough to throw off your senses.\n\nIf it's good enough to make you believe it's moving, your mind is getting different signals from your equilibrium and balancing sensors (in your ears) and your eyes. \n\nThin... | null |
alx4ac | why is it so much easier to eat a spoonful of sugar than a spoonful of salt? | [
{
"answer": "Humans are wired to find more sugar. A spoonful of sugar will not kill you. 10,000 years ago a spoonful of sugar would be hard to find, and a very nice energy boost to a person who generally had to still hunt for food. High energy, carbohydrate dense sources taste sweet and pleasant because 1) eati... | null |
5ecezc | What were the Origins of the Seljuk Dynasty? | [
{
"answer": "I'll begin in what's known as the Islamic Golden Age under Haroon. Haroon, while leader of the Abbasid Caliphate, brought his empire to unprecedented heights, but \"he may have undermined its strength by over-taxation, the unvarying disease of old empires.\"* After he died in 809, his son Mamoon wa... | null |
4z5hap | Why is liquid oxygen magnetic? Are there any other gases that are magnetic when in liquid form? | [
{
"answer": "The oxygen molecule has a magnetic moment because the two electrons in the two highest occupied molecular orbitals have parallel spin. Curie paramagnetism increases at lower temperatures and is quite noticeable at the boiling point.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Magnetism is pec... | null |
1b4x6f | Did the American military expect/plan for an attack from Mexico during world war 1? | [
{
"answer": "Mexico was undergoing a multi-sided civil war, and they were in no position to fight a war against anyone outside their borders. As for the US military, the so-called \"Punitive Expedition\" saw about 5,000 US troops chase one of the combatants, Pancho Villa, around Mexico for a year with the inten... | null |
2kwhbm | how come in zombie themed movies and tv shows the characters never refer to the zombies as zombies? | [
{
"answer": "Because that would denote a previous knowledge of zombies, which one could presume to include knowledge of how to eliminate them as a threat. The scenario being depicted is more realistic if the unaffected do not have any knowledge about the threat.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "... | null |
7gizps | if liquids turn to gas when heated, how is it that liquids like pancake mixture turn to solids when heated? | [
{
"answer": "Short version. \n\n\nYou're heating the moisture out of the pancake mix, while also changing the chemical structure of the mix, which is what cooking is, changing the chemical structure in your food. When the moisture leaves, you're left with the changed solid and some moisture trapped inside.",
... | null |
1xm5fx | the argentine economic crisis | [
{
"answer": "I'll have a go.\n\nAn important concept in economics is the Impossible Trinity: free flow of goods/capital, control over interest rates, fixed exchange rates. Essentially, only 2 of these 3 are ever possible to maintain. \n\nArgentina tried to maintain all three. Free flow of goods and capital an... | null |
rukby | Is it beneficial to try to avoid coughing when sick? | [
{
"answer": "Coughing can help to remove sputum plugs and other irritants from the lungs. It most definitely has beneficial effects.\n\nThat said, an ineffective cough can be just as dangerous long term as it can hurt muscles and even lung tissue if continued for long periods. (this is very uncommon even amon... | null |
1ck3vy | /r/theredpill | [
{
"answer": "It's basically a more militant version of /r/mensrights, who believe that men are an actively oppressed group, and that feminists/women are responsible.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Just to expand on the original question; what is an alpha and why do men seem to care so much abo... | null |
eqv1te | How is asthma medication made? | [
{
"answer": "There's various different classes of asthma medication - inhaled corticosteroids, beta agonists, leukotriene modifiers. That's why you can't find a direct source on how it is made. Also, compared to rocket fuel, we are getting into really complex chemistry here, so you need to know what to look for... | null |
318rrv | How did plants get by before the Angiosperm? | [
{
"answer": "Just because a plant doesn't produce a flower doesn't mean they don't produce seeds. \n\n[Gymnosperms](_URL_0_) are an ancient plant type (cycads, ginkgo, pine, etc.). Their seeds develop either on the surface of scales or leaves, often modified to form cones, or at the end of short stalks as in Gi... | null |
47kewt | what is it about potatoes that cause them to retain the heat of four suns as opposed to the other ingredients in the soup? | [
{
"answer": "That starchy sponge soaks up lots of water. Not only is it insulated, but water has a very high specific heat, so they take longer to cool down than most of your soup.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Potatoes are made of mainly water. Water has a very good ability to store heat.\n\... | null |
352oq9 | Is it possible for the wind to blow hard enough to change the direction of a photon? | [
{
"answer": "**Short answer:** Nope. \n\n**Long answer:** There was actually [a very good experiment done around 1900](_URL_1_) that tested whether the speed of light would change in moving medium - flowing water in particular. It was found that it didn't. This was a big deal, and it meant that something really... | null |
496kdz | My friend says, that during medieval times 90% of an army would consist of drafted peasants with no prior fighting experience and sub par equipment (like sharpened pieces of wood as an improvised spear) is this true? | [
{
"answer": "A reply to /u/themantheycallsven\n\nYou may want to read /u/mi13 's answer here\n\n_URL_0_?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well, it depends on what you mean by \"medieval times.\" In the early middle ages, then yeah, most armies were primarily made up of militias. For instance, in... | null |
21qdrk | What causes voltage? | [
{
"answer": "Voltage isn't the potential per unit charge. It's a potential difference between two points. Potential is potential *energy* per unit charge.\n\nEssentially, it's the amount of potential the circuit has to accelerate a unit of change to a velocity such that the charge has a kinetic energy of qV. In... | null |
9sstwb | how come most people can't sing in tune, but crowds of people hit the right tones. | [
{
"answer": "You can't hear each individuals pitch. You end up getting the closest common pitch. It's like looking at a single piece of clear plastic. On its own, it's perfectly clear but when you stack 1000 of these sheets, they become the greenish greyish color that they all actually are",
"provenance": n... | null |
cr5qvb | Do SSRIs actually work and why is there so much scaremongering about them? | [
{
"answer": "These communities you speak of are peddling quackery. Selective Serotonin Re-Update Inhibitors do indeed function as described, but they are not intended to be used exclusively with the expectation that they will \"cure\" depression or anxiety. Any mental health professional worth their salt will u... | null |
2xb3w0 | why is the border between canada and the us so straight in comparison to the rest of the worlds borders? | [
{
"answer": "Most borders were caused by mountain ranges, rivers, and centuries of conflict back and forth. The US/Canada border was formed by a treaty where we placed a bunch of monuments along the border and declared that to be the official boundary. When that wasn't good enough, the two governments cut a 20 ... | null |
n8zzo | Should I listen to music while studying? | [
{
"answer": "Theoretically, you're worse off studying with music (unless you're listening to the music during the exam and the music doesn't distract you *at all*). However, if you're able to do an hour of study without music or three hours with, I'd use music.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "S... | null |
18q097 | The Black Death as the crucial factor that ended feudalism and began the Protestant Reformation - accurate? too simple? both? | [
{
"answer": "It is too simplistic. No major world events can be boiled down to one cause. For example, World War I: The popular answer to \"what caused it?\" is the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. However, such an answers ignores other factors such as increased colonial aggression and the naval race.\n\nFo... | null |
9wm3vs | why do videos sound terrifyingly deeper when slowed down? | [
{
"answer": "Higher pitched sounds are just sound waves vibrating really fast. So when you slow a video down you’re also slowing the sound down making the vibrations slower and the sound deeper. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "173175",
... | null |
4icjde | How does car wax work to protect the paint colour? | [
{
"answer": "Well I can help with some parts of your question:\n\nWaxing a car in the traditional sense puts a microscopic layer between the world and clearcoat/paint. Water/acids/etc eat away at that first before they get to work on the clearcoat. Should enough time go by the clear coat will get eaten away a... | null |
9d8ucj | why do you burn fat better at a lower heart rate than your cardio zone? | [
{
"answer": "You don't. You burn a larger *percentage* of fat calories in that heart rate zone than in a higher zone. But, because you're burning more calories in total, you actually burn more fat calories in total at higher heart rates. \n\nSee _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Oxygen is... | null |
a7xphd | What were Catherine the Great favourite books from Voltaire? | [
{
"answer": "Hi! This is a great question. My name is Lena and I work on Voltaire and his library. Here are some examples from their correspondence of Catherine's favourite works by Voltaire, by no means an exhaustive list (she specifically ordered that all of his published works be sent to St. Petersburg along... | null |
5w4vwm | why third world countries are so cheaper in comparison with first world countries even for goods that both import/produce? | [
{
"answer": "Labor and property values.\n\nWhen you buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, you aren't just paying for the coffee. You are paying for the people who made the coffee and for the rent and utilities on the building. Of that $4 you are paying, maybe $0.50 is for coffee, milk, and the cup. Around $3 is ... | null |
1dwkm7 | why do people gravitate towards hatefulness rather than kindness and love? | [
{
"answer": "**Game Theory**\n\n\nSomeone who is kind or loving can be taken advantage of by someone. that person who takes advantage of them is not necessarily hateful, but possibly ignorant of their actions. \n\n\nAs this happens people realise that being kind and loving allows people to take advantage of the... | null |
1566st | Where did the Etruscans come from? | [
{
"answer": "Possibly from the [Villanovan culture](_URL_0_). The further back you go, though, the less clear history becomes, so I don't know if we can definitively trace where the Etruscans came from. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "No one really knows, there are two main theories, either th... | null |
89dx3z | How do squids propel themselves without using the tentacles? | [
{
"answer": "Jets is the right term. Squids have a moveable opening in their mantle cavity which they can use to direct a jet of water to quickly propel themselves. They usually use the flaps on the side of their bodies for smaller movement.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance"... | null |
eye9xo | _url_0_, inc. not paying income tax despite being legally considered a person. | [
{
"answer": "You’re allow to deduct your losses on your tax return. 3 years retroactively and 20 years prospectively. \n\nAmazon focused on growth for many years at the expense of profitability and is now using the tax loss carry forwards (Deferred tax assets) to offset their taxable income in profitable years.... | null |
fvmkro | In movies and TV shows, why does removing an object that has impaled a character often make them bleed more? | [
{
"answer": "Not just in movies and TV, in real life too! An object stabbing into you will cut and rip tissue and blood vessels, causing injury. But as long as the object is in there, it’s effectively holding everything in place still. It’s like that experiment where you take a plastic zip bag full of water and... | null |
ehoi10 | why is a larger digital camera sensor better than a smaller one? | [
{
"answer": "When you have bigger pixel buckets, the buckets stay cooler and are more likely to absorb the light accurately. \n\nThink of it like this, the more light that hits your pixel buckets, the more they heat up. If you imagine it like water, the more light that hits the sooner that water starts to boil ... | null |
1cp6y9 | Would plants grow differently in an environment with less gravity? | [
{
"answer": "[Here](_URL_0_) is an article reporting on an experiment on plant growth in weightlessness conducted on the Space Shuttle. There was a variety of impacts on plant growth -- for the stem, for roots, even for the pegs that bump out of germinated seeds.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer":... | null |
1trz3q | During WW2, how was the traffic between Switzerland and other countries handled? | [
{
"answer": "At the Évian Conference the Swiss stated that they can just be used for transit emigration. Fugitives were temporarily tolerated. Since the outbreak of war all foreigners required a visa to enter Swiss territory. Excluded from this were political refugees, but this status were not given to Jews. Il... | null |
1jhfy2 | why hollywood releases movie that are so similar in plot and so close in time intervals.examples are this is the end and the worlds end; oblivion and after earth, etc... | [
{
"answer": "allegedly it's because of *Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need*.\n\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Probably the Save the Cat reply, but another idea could be market saturation. You can undercut your competitors by making what they release feel l... | null |
orgje | the naming conventions of sea vessels, hms, ss, rms etc. | [
{
"answer": "\n\n\nAHT\tAnchor Handling Tug\n\nAHTS\tAnchor Handling Tug Supply vessel\n\nCRV\tCoastal Research Vessel\n\nC/F\tCar Ferry\n\nCS\tCable Ship\n\nDB\tDerrick Barge\n\nDEPV\tDiesel Electric Paddle Vessel\n\nDLB\tDerrick Lay Barge\n\nDCV\tDeepwater Construction Vessel\n\nDSV\tDiving Support Vessel/ De... | null |
6xvmfc | how did joel olsteen end up with a net worth of $57 million, despite average preachor wages being around $50,000? | [
{
"answer": "Predominantly through book sales. He's been investigated and was found to have crossed all the t's and dotted the i's. He's a dick but keeps clean books.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "because thats not what averages mean. however I suspect your not really asking this as a ques... | null |
2icp28 | Does distance affect heat produced from light? | [
{
"answer": "The amount of energy an object will receive per unit of time (power) from a light source certainly does change with distance but the size (and even sign) of the effect depends on the nature of the light source.\n\nLets start off with a normal point source like a light bulb. The light leaving the bu... | null |
3el9hs | why do we go through so much security to get on an airplane but virtually none for any other mass transit? | [
{
"answer": "Mostly not especially logical hysteria post 9/11 for things like taking off your shoes and not bringing liquids. But airplanes have always had more security because airplanes are more vulnerable to attack and hijacking (which is what people *used* to be afraid of before terroists slammed them into ... | null |
k9bs2 | (or like... hs): why does my stomach get upset when i'm stressed? | [
{
"answer": "I've kind of wondered this as well, but I usually figure it's just emotional things making physical changes in your body.\n\nSometimes, it's because you strongly associate something with a physical reaction, so you have that reaction in response to those emotions. \n\nOther times, emotions will cha... | null |
bwhf8g | why are g-protein receptors the target for more than half of the drugs? | [
{
"answer": "G-protein receptors are very common receptors that need to be activated in order to trigger a cascade of reactions within the cell. They are involved in a large amount of common processes that can often go wrong in people (e.g. inflammation, glucose homeostasis, etc.). This makes an obvious target ... | null |
2zjfet | Does flushing help or hinder a drought? | [
{
"answer": "The problem with flushing is that you then fill your tank back up and use more water. If you live in an area with a drought, you should use less water, including flushing less regularly, taking shorter showers, turning off the water while brushing your teeth/washing you face, etc.",
"provenanc... | null |
6vpk26 | why do people feel mentally clear when fasting? | [
{
"answer": "I have lost about 35 pounds over the last 3 months using a combination of intermittent fasting and fasting. It has been the most effective way to lose weight I have tried. Problem is, while fasting, I am NOT clear headed. I am a miserable fuck. Wife and kids can't stand during that time. It is... | null |
1m1v5i | What is the best Frederick the Great biography? | [
{
"answer": "I'm actually not aware of too many scholarly biographies of Frederick the Great in English. [Gerhard Ritter's](_URL_1_) biography is a translation from German that's a bit older, but does a good job of putting Frederick's life into the context of European state absolutism and international relatio... | null |
7fimel | Song Dynasty China was said to be close to an industrial revolution. Was there anything "lost" during periods afterwards? Was the Song really more likely to industrialize than it's successors? | [
{
"answer": "I would point you to the answers that others and I made in this [thread](_URL_0_) regarding Song state institutions, the role it played in the Song's tremendous economic growth, and how later dynasty's diverged from the Song model. \n\nI would also add that the Song was birthed from a unique period... | null |
iex23 | Can complex life evolve on a moon? | [
{
"answer": "The earth has lots of variation too; 24-hour day/night cycle, tilted axis causing seasonal changes, and the distance to the sun varies something like 5 million kilometers throughout the year. The reason why those changes aren't too bad for life, is because we have an atmosphere to help equalize the... | null |
6lp2yz | why do some artists choose not to upload their singles on youtube, even ones that are decades old? wouldn't they make lots of money from advertisement? | [
{
"answer": "A lot of songs are not property of the artist themselves, who would probably love to be making money off their own work..",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "770126",
"title": "Swedish hip hop",
"section": "Secti... | null |
12kchz | if i put a candle on fire and a bug and put them under a glass cup..when the fire depleates all the oxygen inside will the bug eventualy die suficating? | [
{
"answer": "I flame needs approx 13% oxygen to sustain the flame, I have no idea what an insect needs to sustain life.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "24544",
"title": "Photosynthesis",
"section": "Section::::Discovery.\... | null |
53avoo | how do bees track a missing queen? | [
{
"answer": "Pheromones! The worker bees can smell their queen. They use chemical signals, especially wheb distressed. That queen is probably very scared and all the workers are trying to protect her because they can smell her fear.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
5halfc | why cans/tins of foods such as soup and fruit, as well as jars of food, are mainly cylindrical rather than other forms, such as cuboidal. | [
{
"answer": "Canning involves changing the pressure on the inside of the vessel, and using a shape that has edges makes those points weak spots which could collapse, crack, or break. By being round, all the pressure on them is distributed equally around, like an archway in a stone wall. It's also one of the mos... | null |
3cl5p8 | the difference between philology and linguistics. | [
{
"answer": "There's definitely a (venn diagram style) overlap. Linguistics primarily questions the relation of signifier (sign/sound/the noise that comes out of your mouth when you say the word \"tree\"/the 4 letters T R E E next to each other on a page) and signified (the actual physical living tree that you... | null |
5mjzu2 | what exactly happened to make julian assange and wikileaks go from loved to hated? | [
{
"answer": "Well he was never really entirely loved. Half the population generally thought he was a traitor (generally the more right wing folks) and others thought him a hero for exposing too much government intrusion into citizen's private lives (in direct violation of the constitution).\n\nThe problem is he... | null |
cqkrcl | Is there any historical documents or autobiographies of what it was like being a king? | [
{
"answer": "I immediately thought of the \"political last wills\" or \"political testaments\" that have been written by various rulers throughout the ages. Depending on the individual text they fluctuate between self-justification, political autobiography, philosophical musings about the nature of monarchical ... | null |
34isw4 | the feeling of "touch" on a molecular level. | [
{
"answer": "When you touch something the cell walls of your nerves are stretched (think pushing on a balloon). Protein complexes in the cell walls of your nerves are stretched as well. This stretching opens a channel down the middle of the protein and let's ions from outside the cell in. The change in voltage... | null |
9ls8xj | why does a small cloud form at the top of a newly-opened, cold soda bottle? | [
{
"answer": "The rapid depressurization lowers the vapor pressure of that little volume of air in the top of the bottle, and the humidity in that air rapidly condenses into that little cloud. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "6254672",
... | null |
a01ft7 | how are gift cards validated and activated at checkout? are their serial numbers stored in a database and then marked as activated? how are they activated when their numbers haven’t been scratched off? | [
{
"answer": "Don't over think it. It's no different from your normal bank given credit/debit card. It just comes with a few more restrictions like the kind and location of transactions. It's all. Activation is similar. It just let's the backing financial institution(s) know that this card is now sold so the use... | null |
84v8kg | how to calculate mechanical advantage of a pulley system | [
{
"answer": "ratio 500/10 = 50 , answer b \n\nIf they show a diagram the trick is to imagine the load raised by 1cm and follow how many cm of rope you could pull free as a result· \n\nSimplest machines: \n- inclined plane \n- pulley \n- lever (3 classes of lever) \n\n\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
5jzaq2 | why are companies who get fined by the government fined for so little? | [
{
"answer": "Because the fines are set, in part, by a combination of laws designed for older currency values, and also in part by lobbies in the industry pulling for smaller wrist-slaps.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The fines are set high enough to hurt, but low enough that companies won't g... | null |
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