id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
3ma1rf | how the hell can 700+ people die in a stampede? | [
{
"answer": "Imagine an enormous crowd, tens of thousands or even *hundreds* of thousands of people, you might see this as at a musical performance or a mass protest of some kind.\n\nThen imagine there was some kind of emergency like a fire or gunmen started shooting or something. Everyone's running and it's to... | null |
ecveh3 | Was Teddy Roosevelt’s reputation as a badass exaggerated? | [
{
"answer": "Well, let's just take your list and see if it happened. \n\n\n > Went blind in one eye from a boxing match while he was president. \n\n[Teddy Roosevelt's little-known secret](_URL_2_)\n\n > Of the White House incident in which he was blinded, Roosevelt wrote in his autobiography: \n > \n > \"I... | null |
40r8la | why do teeth feel a bit loose when not brushing for a couple days? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know how old you are, or what dental treatment you have had in the past but here goes:\n\n- As you get older, your gums recede leaving your teeth with less structure around them\n- If you smoke or drink alcohol or have an unhealthy diet, this will also cause gum recession\n- If you haven't ... | null |
3nwpdn | why are those red lines on composition notebooks not lined up? | [
{
"answer": "The sheets are cut in twos, stacked, folded in half, bound to the cover, and cut to size and uniformity. When the pages are folded, the sheets shift causing the red margin to be in slightly different places on each page",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
2vtdyo | how come my cat can tear up chipmunks and birds and eat them, but if i were to do the same thing, i would probably get very sick? | [
{
"answer": "Your kitty cat and you have different tummys. Your kitty gets to eat chipmunks and birds and cat food with its tummy, and you get to eat chocolate and ice cream and human food with your tummy.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id":... | null |
2nyx4b | why aren't heatsinks entirely made of copper (mostly for cpu's or gpu's)? | [
{
"answer": "Wrong. Copper is very expensive, aluminum very cheap. Price (and availability) is what drives this. For reference, the current London Metal Exchange (the world metal standard) price for aluminum is $2071.00 per tonne and for copper is $6515.00 per tonne. Copper is more than triple the price of alum... | null |
4rv9k5 | why is "swatting" so easy? i feel like it shouldn't be that simple. | [
{
"answer": "For police, the risk of there actually being a problem and ignoring it greatly outweighs the risk of visiting some nerd while he plays TF2.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "All you need is the persons address and the number for the police office in their town and you can report them... | null |
3w28ip | why is exercise not enjoyable if it is beneficial? | [
{
"answer": "It is enjoyable once you start doing it.\n\nThe reason it's found hard to start is because as a rule of thumb, it is evolutionarily beneficial to save energy rather than \"wasting\" it in superfluous exercise. The problem is that in our society, you can almost get around moving altogether; but that... | null |
s3thd | Is there a chance abiogenesis occurs all the time, but there's just next to no likelihood of it being observed? | [
{
"answer": "The [Miller and Urey experiment](_URL_0_) sought to recreate conditions they think existed on the earth long before life existed here. They succeeded in creating amino acids from inorganic precursors.\n\nThey did not create life but showed an important fist step was possible.\n\nOn earth now the c... | null |
bkewxi | what things affect fuel prices? | [
{
"answer": "Avalability of oil, political sanctions and teriffs (tax), disputes between the countries providing the oil, and cost of refining to fuel as well as transport.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "571005",
"title": "Consu... | null |
e2ir0h | how do aimbots work? | [
{
"answer": "The bot responds to the \"pull trigger\" key by twitching the weapon's aimpoint onto the nearest target first. The user kits a key and the game sees a mouse move and key sequence that produces a better score. You have to be pretty close and \"target-ness\" needs to be well defined, so it's hardl... | null |
3q6zz0 | why do computer mice move off the screen on the bottom and right side of the screen? also is there any purpose to this? | [
{
"answer": " > Because the pointer is normally at the top left tip, which is the part that is restricted to the screen boundaries. The rest of the cursor is just a graphic that helps in visually locating this tip. This graphic is not restricted, and in fact can't be - if the cursor graphic was trapped you wou... | null |
60cmz4 | at a molecular level, why do super hot and super cold objects induce pain when we touch them? | [
{
"answer": "On a basic level... The hotter something is, the faster its molecules move. \n\nWhen you touch a super hot object, it actually damages the cells in the skin because the molecules are excited, and at a certain point, actually begins to overheat the water in the cells. That's what causes burns... As ... | null |
6sha5y | What religion did jews and inhabitants of what is today israel and palestine practice before judaism ? | [
{
"answer": "There is substantial evidence that the ancestors of those who would call themselves Israelites followed religious practices common in Canaan, and that they themselves were a subgroup of the what would broadly be considered Canaanites. Canaan itself would have been a sort of area between the great ... | null |
40nm5k | Where did the Imperial Chinese court get its eunuch? | [
{
"answer": "Ming is the \"golden age\" of Chinese eunuchs, that's the period with the most of them running around, so you have made a solid choice! One of the [few good English texts on Chinese eunuchs](_URL_0_) is just about this period. \n\nEunuchs of this period would have been majority voluntary or semi-vo... | null |
hasnu | Why do I randomly and suddenly run out of breath mid-sentence? It feels similar to a hiccup. | [
{
"answer": "Out of shape?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "1. breathe\n2. talk\n3. repeat.\n\n\nbe careful not to mix up the order.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This happens to me! I'll be talking, but it's more like a \"burp\" or something, but no air comes out. Like my lun... | null |
tjx71 | Is there a link between handwriting and writing abilities? | [
{
"answer": "Relevant Studies that investigate correlations between handwriting and personality variables:\n\n_URL_1_\n\n\n_URL_2_\n\n\nMaybe the most relevant to your question:\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I haven't seen any studies, but I work with eating disorder patients (AN, ... | null |
4930xg | Did the stereotypical drill sergeant exist before WWII or so? | [
{
"answer": "Sorry, we don't allow [\"trivia seeking\" questions](_URL_0_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of disjointed, partial responses, and not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about an historical event, period, or p... | null |
8rhkxo | exactly how are underwater bodies of water formed (e.g.: underwater waterfall, river, lake, etc.) and why do they occur? | [
{
"answer": "The short answer is: Different densities of water and temperature. Salt water meeting fresh water is a great example of this. Check this out ---- > _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Do you mean underground water bodies?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
2o14t4 | What kind of defense against invasion did Great Britain have during WW2? | [
{
"answer": "I can't speak to static defenses, but the main deterrent to a cross-Channel invasion were the RAF and the Royal Navy. The Germans had little chance of a cross-channel invasion after they were unable to win the Battle of Britain. Making an amphibious landing without air superiority would have been... | null |
20g6kf | in cryptography, how is it that i am able to encrypt something with a public key but then not able to decrypt it? | [
{
"answer": "You should watch [THIS VIDEO](_URL_0_).\n\nThey liken it to colors - just because you have the ending color doesn't mean you know what the exact original colors were.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's not that \"you can't decrypt something that you have encrypted\". You know... | null |
296jql | How do they know that HPV in men can cause certain types of cancer and genital warts if it is impossible to test men for HPV? | [
{
"answer": "Just because there aren't widely used clinical tests for HPV in men does not mean that we don't have ways of detecting HPV in males. [PCR](_URL_0_), which amplifies DNA, can be used to detect HPV in a variety of locations such as [on the penis](_URL_1_), [in the rectum, and in the mouth](_URL_2_). ... | null |
van5p | If even light cannot escape the event horizon of a black hole because of the mass of the singularity, how did the universe expand from an infinitely dense singularity in the first place? | [
{
"answer": "This question has [already been asked](_URL_0_)\n\ntl;dr — it's not the density that results in black holes, but curvature, and uniformly distributed matter doesn't generate the necessary curvature.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia... | null |
pb9wp | Is it theoretically possible to freeze or preserve a human embryo and then have the child in the future? | [
{
"answer": "IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) often uses this exact mechanism. (Any professional biologists feel free to chime in and correct me if I slip up somewhere.)\n \nShort and sweet background on IVF: \n\nPotential mothers are given hormones (primarily FSH) for ~3 weeks before the procedure. Around 24 hours... | null |
e2k3ii | why do starved people (holocaust victims, famine victims and other unlucky people) die if they eat too much food after being rescued or find food? | [
{
"answer": "After a long period of starvation, the body has learned to not secrete digestive juices. Stomach muscles shrink as they have no work. All the glands are on holiday and don't know when duty again calls. (Without food in the stomach the stomach acid will severely damage the thick stomach lining). Pa... | null |
2la6hh | Book Recommendation on Class Analysis of Nazi Germany | [
{
"answer": "If you've already read it, ignore me, but Evans's Third Reich trilogy is a very good, comprehensive work on the political, economic, and ideological state of things during the Nazi period.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Richard Grunberger's *A Social History of the Third Reich* is... | null |
2hyxy9 | why do people hate sarah palin? | [
{
"answer": "Because she is incredibly dense. A mixture of her over-friendly non-Canadian Canadian joyfulness pings a bad ring with many people especially with a mix of how she talks about thinks like she knows about things but is sadly mistaken when put to the test.\n\nAlso the very idea this woman could have ... | null |
1cvnnd | Why doesn't air (Nitrogen, Oxygen, CO2) separate into different layers? | [
{
"answer": "I believe this is best explained by entropy. ( wikipedia will be able to explain it much better than me). The universe has a driving force to be random. This overcomes the small differences in densities. Larger differences in densities are not negligible. I am talking small scale though. I do ... | null |
28uox4 | how does the picking of world cup teams happen? | [
{
"answer": "The countries do send in their best possible premier team, just every country is different. I am assuming you are referring to the comments related to Christiano Ronaldo's club team Real Madrid as opposed to his national team Portugal. \n\nReal Madrid is one of the wealthiest teams in the world and... | null |
eru7bk | how does the stomach work in space? do astronauts feel constant need to throw up since the contents are bouncing around inside? | [
{
"answer": "Óir bodies are very good at keeping everything compact. While aided by gravity, one can digest anything in 0-G, and even upside down, since the entire process is muscularly controlled.\n\nBut no - astronauts get extensive training to *not* throw up. Most are/were former fighter pilots and have re... | null |
2zoyqc | why does my internet go so much faster when downloading from steam or a torrent? | [
{
"answer": "With steam you download it directly from their servers, which have a really high upload speed.\n\nWhen you're downloading a torrent you're actually downloading it from other people, they have to upload it so you can download it from them, if there aren't enough seeders(uploaders) for all the leeche... | null |
6gtkhb | what does the cdc in america do? | [
{
"answer": "As some examples:\n\nCDC tracks the spread of diseases, looking for the source, transmission vector, and that sort of thing. \n\nCDC also maintains the ‘strategic national stockpile’ of medicine, which is basically something from an action move. They can get tons of medical products to basically an... | null |
6jhjnq | How is 90377 Sedna's orbit really an orbit? How is this stable? | [
{
"answer": "It is counted as a stable orbit because it is gravitationally bound to the sun. It will repeat its motion around the sun indefinitely. Why would it not be stable? The only unstable orbit would be due to a) gravitational interactions which deposit large amounts of momentum into the body and cause it... | null |
3xvjiy | what happens in america if someone rings 911 for an ambulance and that person is dying, but they do not have health insurance? | [
{
"answer": "The ambulance comes. They get cared for, taken to the emergency room, get treated. \n\nThen they start getting really large bills that they cannot pay and end up declaring bankruptcy.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "149341... | null |
2hz73w | How far from the surface of the Earth would a nuclear explosion have to be before it didn't create a mushroom cloud? | [
{
"answer": " > I assume that mushroom clouds are a result of the explosion moving away from the surface of the earth. \n\nKind of. They happen when less dense gases form (in this case due to an explosion), and rise rapidly forming a vortex. That's the column. The head of the mushroom comes from the gases r... | null |
9cy90x | i just watched a cop roll through the same stop sign that i got pulled over for rolling through last week. if i were ballsy enough for a citizens arrest, how would that work? if some rando ever tried to arrest me, i’d laugh and ask what their authority was, and then likely walk away. | [
{
"answer": "As far as I know citizen arrests can only be done if you witness someone committing an indictable offense or a felony. And you can only interfere if you are there when it is happening you can't go get them after ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Poorly. It would work poorly. \n\nTh... | null |
4dc55t | difference between phenomenology and symbolic interactionism | [
{
"answer": "Phenomenology considers the “subjective conscienciousness”, where and individual’s consciousness creates meaning based on experiences. It concerns understanding of the underlying meaning of “things”, stripping away assumptions based on how we perceive the world, influenced by cultural norms.\n\nSym... | null |
47akx3 | the first lady's role in politics | [
{
"answer": "Officially, no purpose. The first lady is just the president's wife (and sometimes not even that, Emily Donelson was Andrew Jackson's Niece and served as First Lady because Jackson's wife died).\n\nUnofficially, the first Lady plays a huge role in both the president's public image and are now almos... | null |
6afp5z | sleep apnea? | [
{
"answer": "Apnea is \"not breathing\" sleep apnea is when you have something wrong with you that will make you stop breathing while you sleep. \n\nIt happens if your throat is partly paralyzed, swollen for some reason or just a huge fat neck. \n\nIt makes it so you never sleep right and are always sleeping an... | null |
4tcf82 | Why didn't sports teams in the US develop like soccer clubs in England? | [
{
"answer": "In part we can look to the prevalence of collegiate sports programs across the nation as an alternate form.\n\nNew York City for instance at one time all had Columbia, Fordham, NYU, St. John's, and just up the river, West Point, fielding teams with Yale, Princeton, and Rutgers just outside the City... | null |
196a8j | Ten years ago, my boyfriend found this buried at the beach. Does anyone know anything about it? | [
{
"answer": "Pretty sure it is a Middle school girls shot put. I believe a 6lb cannon ball would be a good site larger.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I think it is a small [shot put](_URL_0_), not a cannonball. Sorry, I know that's not as exciting! However, it's a reasonable size for a shot, ... | null |
75y55w | why can't pilots see when a laser hits them? | [
{
"answer": "It is a focused beam of energy that can potentially damage the retina.\n\nEver have a bright light suddenly shine into your eyes, temporarily blinding you as you try to blink away the bright afterimage?\n\nThat short period of temporarily blindness *could* mean a plane crashing into something.",
... | null |
1he23m | My town claims to be the originating place of three nursery rhymes; Twinkle Twinkle, Old King Cole and Humpty Dumpty. Do we know the history of other children's rhymes? | [
{
"answer": "Many nursery rhymes have legendary or unclear history. However, the nursery rhymes you mentioned all originate in England or Britain. The lyrics to Twinkle Twinkle were indeed, as far as we know, written by Jane Taylor. The Wikipedia article shows she was born in London, which is near Colchester. O... | null |
3tlood | why was there no guerilla resistance to the us occupation of japan? | [
{
"answer": "Japan was under a brutal Imperial rule where civilians were told to kill themselves rather than surrender, with mass horrors committed on Japanese soil. When Japan surrendered, its people were already heavily demoralized after the dropping of the Nuclear weapons and the social conditions that were ... | null |
7mfsdd | Confederacy fetishists often point to Lincoln not being on the ballot in 1860 as the "principal" cause of the Civil War, but *why* wasn't he on the ballot in southern states? Did they just refuse to put him on there, or was there some complications w/r/t the newly formed party and the dem split? | [
{
"answer": "It's absurd to say that Lincoln not being on the ballot in 1860 is the principal cause of the Civil War. The only way that even makes minimal sense as a southern grievance is if southern state governments and a large portion of the white populace in the slave states wanted Lincoln on the ballot. Th... | null |
6e54rc | how does flea medication for pets work? | [
{
"answer": "The shoulder blade spot-on treatments are absorbed through the skin, go into the blood, and are then ingested by the adult fleas when they bite the animal. The best flea treatments generally have two active ingredients. There is the \"adulticide\" (e.g., permethrin) which kills the biting adults, a... | null |
3n8ron | how did the gunmen in the slew of mass murders over recent years acquire their guns and would any laws have stopped them? | [
{
"answer": "If we abolished all guns completely, and rendered the nation defenseless, there will be no more gun crime to worry about. Every step or restriction placed in the way, that makes it more difficult for a person to acquire means to defend themselves, is one step closer towards achieving that aim. \n\n... | null |
2dev4y | During WWII, how did China (and not Japan) end up getting into the Allies? | [
{
"answer": "From circa 1925, Japanese political/social culture shifted significantly — away from the democratic experiments of the Taishō era and towards the nationalist, militarist, expansionist and ultimately totalitarian state structure that characterised the Shōwa period. \n\nSo, for example: the Peace Pre... | null |
3lpy0e | circuit boards | [
{
"answer": "You probably mean Printed Circuit Boards (PCB's)? They form a firm structure to hold electric components an replace loose wires by having one or more layers of copper that are removed except from small connecting 'paths' that are actually needed to connect the electric components.",
"provenance... | null |
53f6cg | why can't we help fight global warming by painting things like cars, roofs, roads, etc. white? wouldn't it reflect sunlight just like the arctic snow does? | [
{
"answer": "It [might not](_URL_0_) be as helpful as we'd like to think.\n\n > Painting roofs white has been—like changing lightbulbs—one of the well-cited easy ways out of climate change. By reflecting more light and heat back to the atmosphere, a white roof should act like a natural anti-warming device, whil... | null |
7gr8qf | supply side economics. is it the same as trickle-down? if not, how's it different? | [
{
"answer": "trickle down is tax rich people less so they will spend more money on businesses, and thus that money will grow the economy. That works if people like investing more then they like just keeping money.\n\nSupply side is invest in/tax less factories and companies that produce things. The idea being t... | null |
5gamxi | What happens physically when crossing the Termination Shock? | [
{
"answer": "It's more correct to say that the termination shock is the point where the solar wind velocity slows down to subsonic speeds due to interactions with the interplanetary medium. The interplanetary medium, while extremely sparse, has a constant pressure, whereas the pressure of the solar wind decreas... | null |
6cw8fv | why do abuse victims frequently become abusers themselves? | [
{
"answer": " > Why do abuse victims frequently become abusers themselves?\n\nThey don't BUT many abusers were abused. It is an important distinction. Most abuse victims do not become abusers but many of those who are abusers were abused. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because being a non-abu... | null |
rrkmv | How rapidly would a flamethrower deplete the oxygen in an enclosed space? | [
{
"answer": "3000 cubic feet of air would contain about 1520 moles of oxygen. Wikipedia says that modern flamethrowers use propane.\n\nPropane combusts as follows:\n\nC3H8 + 5 O2 - > 3 CO2 + 4 H2O\n\nSo 1520 moles of oxygen could combust 304 moles of propane. 304 moles of propane has a mass of 13.4 kg.\n\nUnfo... | null |
5syb9f | ignoring religious reasons, what benefit does removing birth control and making abortions illegal serve to the usa? i'm struggling in understanding the politics behind it besides catering to "public opinion." (fyi liberal bay area native just trying to understand) | [
{
"answer": "Having a \"moral\" people can be useful in foreign relations with other countries. \n\nI thought for a solid minute. All I could come up with. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You can't ask this question without considering religion. A significant portion of the population, even th... | null |
20ld7e | are you able to split a different type of atom in an atomic bomb to have the explosion but without radiation? | [
{
"answer": " > If you were to use a different atom, the explosion would be a lot smaller. Right?\n\nNo, just much, much harder to get a chain reaction going.\n\n > radiation\n\nNo, radiation is a byproduct of splitting atoms. You'll always get that if you're splitting enough atoms to create a fissile explosio... | null |
1y980k | what is the point of places like puerto rico, usvi, etc , being "us territories"? | [
{
"answer": "They are covered by US federal law, and people born there are considered US citizens (some exceptions in the case of Somoa). Basically, the individuals have most of the same rights as any other citizen in the US, but they have limited power in congress. If they chose to do so, the territories can g... | null |
ecp9mh | How did knights mount horses in medieval times? | [
{
"answer": "Artistic evidence says that they could mount a horse, armoured, unassisted, foot in stirrup and hands on saddle (basically similarly to mounting a saddled horse unarmoured). Textual evidence suggests that at least some could leap onto horseback - this appears to mean mounting without using the stir... | null |
1qe8sr | how jihadism/muslim extremism convinces so many individuals to abandon their lives for its cause? | [
{
"answer": "Similar to how kids today join gangs. From a rational expectations perspective, no one should even consider a gang - you're very likely to either end up in jail or dead. People join because they don't have many other options, it looks cool, everyone else around them is doing it, and you get to be a... | null |
7ru2wy | Females in the military prior to the 20th century? | [
{
"answer": "Woman have always fought wars of course but normally informally. Female pirates, women fighting in drag, women fighting because their town was attacked and it was fight or die, etc. You do see occassional records of female fighters within the formal military (there's records of female samurai and n... | null |
5hihj0 | why does the quadratic formula work? | [
{
"answer": "[This website explains the derivation of the quadratic formula really well](_URL_0_). Basically in ax^2 + bx + c = 0, you're just solving for x, and the quadratic formula is a shortcut so you don't have to do it by hand every time.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "begin with the gen... | null |
ccbf9t | if our bodies run on atp and we can "replenish" that atp from eating alone, why do we need to sleep to feel refreshed? | [
{
"answer": "sleep isn't for collecting energy, it's for cleaning up chemical buildup in your brain (which is why you can't think right) and your muscles (which is why you feel fatigued)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Nobody knows. There's not really a conclusive answer as to \"why\" we need ... | null |
3sofvl | In the 17-1800s, how were dances developed and circulated to the higher classes of European societies? | [
{
"answer": "Dances were important social occasions, and people studied to dance well, if they wanted to make an impression. There were dancing masters ( you can see a caricature of one, up on his toes with his typical kit fiddle in [one](_URL_0_) of Hogarth's series The Rake's Progress). There were also plent... | null |
3qk3oa | if we are never really touching anything due to atomic repulsion, how do we get cuts, scrapes and impalements? | [
{
"answer": "It's that same atomic repulsion that causes friction, which causes human flesh to be scraped, cut, etc. The object that causes the injury is pushing your flesh out of its way.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Just because you don't actually touch the razor blade, doesn't mean there... | null |
6icdgq | why is it called an autopsy for humans, but a necropsy for animals? | [
{
"answer": "\"auto\" means \"self\" and \"optos\" means \"to see,\" so the sense here is that when we dissect another human, we are inspecting ourselves. Since animals aren't humans, when we dissect them, we are only inspecting \"necros,\" or \"death.\"",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
5lu9ye | why some countries spice a lot their food and others don't? | [
{
"answer": "Typically countries use a lot of spice when spices grow well in their climate, or when their climate is very warm and thus foods are prone to go bad.\n\nCountries with neither of these attributes tend to have mild food, other than immigrant groups who came from spicy-food countries.",
"provenan... | null |
4eolx8 | Importance of combat experience during world war two. | [
{
"answer": "Obviously more experienced troops will perform better than green troops, but it depends what you really mean as green. True a lot of Allied troops that landed in Normandy were relatively green, but the Allies had been preparing for Overlord for a long time and the troops had large amounts of traini... | null |
1vshoj | Age of Discovery - are there any interesting, but relatively unknown discoveries? | [
{
"answer": "Try this guy.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If it must be the age of discovery and not run of the mill you can look at the exploration and exploitation of the artic (Spitzbergen, Novaya Zemlya, Greenland).\n\nSome wiki articles;\n\nAn explorer stuck for a winter ne... | null |
2q701g | I Have Two Chinese Antiques with a Common Theme - Need help with identification and context | [
{
"answer": "The old fellow is a *xian*, or immortal sage. Cranes are a symbol of longevity and immortality.\n\nThere are couple specific possibilities. \n\nIn the carpet, I'm guessing there are two more figures not pictured, and that he's [Zhongli Quan](_URL_3_) or maybe [Zhang Guo](_URL_7_) (is that possibly... | null |
7v3l6v | the difference between uhd 4k, super uhd 4k, dolby vision, hdr. | [
{
"answer": "UHD - means \"ultra HD\" its a nonsense marketing term for 4K and pretty antiquated.\n\n4K means 4K resolution\n\nSuper UHD - is a nonsense term, the \"super\" doesn't mean anything its just a tv line, like a Toyota \"Corolla\". These aren't even the top end TVs they make. Complete non-meaning in ... | null |
1ax39f | Chess is a game that has existed in its current form for hundreds of years, and in different variations for over a thousand. How did people in your area of history view the game? Has it always been associated with smart people, for example? | [
{
"answer": "We know that chess was played in 11th c. Scandinavia and the British Isles and the most evocative evidence of its popularity are the beautifully carved [Lewis Chessmen](_URL_0_) which were made of Walrus ivory and Whale's teeth. They are currently held at the [British Museum](_URL_1_) and the Museu... | null |
2hbb9l | why do so many huge companies continue to use very old computers and software when it seems the benefits a system-wide update would outweigh the associated costs? | [
{
"answer": " > when it seems the benefits a system-wide update would outweigh the associated costs?\n\nApparently, the management doesn't think so.\n\nOr, they may not be tech-competent. Lots of people aren't, especially people old enough to be managers/business owners.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"... | null |
afmloq | are different over-the-counter pain medications better for different kinds of pain? | [
{
"answer": "Ibuprofen, Naproxen, and aspirin are all non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). All are used to reduce fever and inflammation, as well as help with pain. \n\nAcetaminophen (Tylenol) is not an NSAID, which means it does not reduce inflammation. It still reduces fevers and helps with pain, b... | null |
1ouupe | What historical basis is there for pirates being popularly depicted with eyepatches? | [
{
"answer": "You should read the biographical accounts of Admiral Don Blas de Lazo. Whilst the article I will cite is not academic, I found it very entertaining. _URL_0_\n\nAdmiral Don Blas de Lazo lost his eye, leg and hand in the service of the Spanish Navy. He had a peg leg, an eye-patch and a hook hand, pre... | null |
1k0oc8 | why shouldn't i wash my cast iron pan? | [
{
"answer": "Cast-iron seasoning is technically, just oil that has slightly soaked into the metal. This soaking-in is also why the pan is heated to season it as heat expands the molecules of iron allowing room for oil to soak in.\n\nAs for cleaning and taste:\n\nYou can wash cast-iron with soap and water every ... | null |
615gqf | why are some showers very steamy, but then the next day in the same shower there will be no steam at all, even at the same temperature? | [
{
"answer": "Barometric pressure, as the pressure rises and falls with different weather patterns, the steam in your shower will stay around longer or shorter. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "147020",
"title": "Hygiene",
... | null |
4esk9j | why does a larger screen look better than a smaller screen even if, by adjusting viewing distance, the field of vision occupied is exactly the same? | [
{
"answer": "Your phone has a higher pixel density than your TV. Plus your TV probably has larger pixels too. So the image sharpness would be better on your phone.\n\nAs for why you would prefer to watch a movie on your TV despite the phone looking just as big: The phone is still physically closer to you and yo... | null |
4mvty2 | if you were to draw the universe as a circle on a piece of paper, what would be outside the circle? | [
{
"answer": "Nothing: it's like taking a 5\" radius circular piece of paper and saying 'this represents the universe' and then asking what's written 6\" from the centre: nothing! \nOn the other hand, depending on the 'shape' (or more correctly the geometry) of the universe, this might become more meaningful: i... | null |
1cx3h9 | To scale, how big would the earth be if the observable universe was the size of the milky way? | [
{
"answer": "The diameter of the Milky Way is 100000-120000 light years (_URL_1_). The diameter of the observable universe is about 28 billion parsecs (_URL_0_). So we're scaling down by a factor of about 10^(6), and the scaled diameter of the Earth is around 15 meters.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"an... | null |
bdjnum | What happens when the myelin sheath gets damaged? | [
{
"answer": "Similar in principle to what happens when a wire starts loosing its insulation. \n\nThe electrical signal carried in a myelinated axon jumps between the small gaps in the myelin sheath. This dramatically speeds up the rate of conduction. When the sheath gets damaged, the signal has to travel along ... | null |
zyqeq | Could it be possible that degenerate matter ("neutronium") exists outside of neutron stars ? | [
{
"answer": "It's the force provided by gravity that turns the matter into \"neutronium\", so anything that gets ejected from a collision would no longer be under an immense gravitational force. With the loss of this force, the matter would likely return to a more normal state.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
jya9x | What are the differences between Adult Stem Cells and Embryonic Stem Cells in research? | [
{
"answer": "To put it simply, one (adult) is already more differentiated, meaning it has already undergone some changes that make it more like the normal adult cells in your body and less like the pluri potent stem cells that can turn into anything (if they get the right signals to do so)\n\nedit: see ren5311'... | null |
4pjfx0 | Was the Puckle gun used during the American Revolution? | [
{
"answer": "As cool as that would be, there's no record of the Puckle gun being used by either side. From the [Long 18th Century Blog Series](_URL_0_): \n > \"Although John Montagu, 2nd Duke of Montagu (1690-1749) purchased several pro-type models of the gun in 1722, the British army and Royal Navy never place... | null |
7g09ns | During the Middle Ages, why was the suffix “-eth” used, and what purpose did it serve? | [
{
"answer": "This comes from how verbs were conjugated in Middle English. -eth was a common marker of the 3rd person present tense singular. I'm sure you could get a more in depth answer about how this in particular became culturally associated with \"Middle Ages speak\" in general, however.\n\n\nSource: Thomas... | null |
49g2d5 | what is the actual amount of money spent on welfare/food stamps in the united states? how does it compare to subsidies and military funding? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_ \n\nThis is more of a search for the answer than simplify a complex subject. \n\nMilitary is about twice welfare, but subsidizes other countries in a way. \"Welfare\" draws from other programs in loosely related ways as well. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"pro... | null |
gbqhx | What happens if a plutonium reactor heats up in a molten pool of salt? | [
{
"answer": "NaCl has a BP of 2575 F. No nuclear scientist, but I think getting that hot would be pretty damned difficult. I'm sure there are other materials in the reactor that would succumb before the salt would.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I would think they flush it out while its just... | null |
3aqfx7 | why did muslim countries stop secularizing and embraced islamic fundamentalism | [
{
"answer": "I don't think there's really an ELI5 answer to this one. There are lots of complex reasons for the way things have developed geopolitically. One thing i've heard was that, in the Middle East particularly, every form of government has been tried. Capitalism, socialism, democracy, secular dictatorshi... | null |
9gqzkg | the difference between ad valorem tax and capital gains tax | [
{
"answer": "An Ad Valorem tax is a flat percentage tax based on the sale price of an item. For a 20% tax, if the item sells for $100, you pay $20; $1000 pay $200, etc. \n \nCapital Gains tax is only assessed on the appreciation of an asset during the time you own it. So if you bought it for $80 and sold fo... | null |
4576bx | how are apple pay, samsung pay, google wallet different? | [
{
"answer": "Samsung pay can use magnetic secure transmission, to basically send the information to the magnetic reader on almost all card readers wheras apple pay and google wallet use nfc to process payments\n\nThe added capability of samsung allow it to truthfully make claims that it is accepted in more plac... | null |
2bncr5 | the confusion between r and l when japanese and english are exchanged. | [
{
"answer": "The Japanese language has no *L* sound. It doesn't have a true *R* sound either. The sound that comes closest to both is actually the same sound - it's a sort of blend between the English L and the English R. It's always transliterated as an R sound because the sound is a lot closer to our R than i... | null |
2u2d4y | why does a running hose slither around like a snake when you let go of it? | [
{
"answer": "Because of Newton's third law. Water is pushed out the hose, so conversely, the hose is also pushed away from the water. This means that, as long as the water in the hose is under pressure, there will be a 'recoil' force acting on the tip of the hose, making it move around.",
"provenance": null... | null |
34fa6h | Why do the poles of the moon have more craters than the equator? | [
{
"answer": "There's also more craters on the far side of the moon. This is because the near side of the moon has more volcanic eruptions resulting in the [lunar maria](_URL_0_). This is because the crust on the near side is thinner. I can't seem to find out why the crust on the near side is thinner.",
"pro... | null |
6ktjuw | how have sports contracts gotten so inflated over time? | [
{
"answer": "Sports are big money: the NFL made more than $13 billion last year, MLB $10 billion. Teams have to compete for top talent and better representation for players such as the NFL's Players Union mean that more of the total revenue of the league goes to players instead of owners.",
"provenance": nu... | null |
2zt2oc | how does warrant canary work if they can compel you to lie? | [
{
"answer": "A warrant canary works because you cannot be compelled to lie.\n\nI can be under a gov't warrant cooperate in some way, and I can be barred from revealing the existence of that warrant. If someone asked me directly, I can either lie, or refuse to answer without violating the warrant.\n\nThe warran... | null |
1e47p0 | Were there any truly secular Muslim empires in history other than modern Turkey? | [
{
"answer": "Most Middle Eastern countries have been secular since the end of colonialism, such as Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. In the more homogenous countries (basically all of them except Lebanon, Syria and Iraq), the primary political struggle was between secular military dictators an... | null |
cu8h0p | lake baikal in russia - how did the baikal seals come to reach that lake? | [
{
"answer": "It's actually somewhat of a mystery. There are 2 main theories. The first is that some ancestral seals from the Paratethys Sea, (a large, shallow inland sea covering much of Eurasia millions of years ago) could have gotten there by moving north, although this would have required the seals hopping t... | null |
4qxzdx | How did Thomas Jefferson reconcile "all men are created equal" and the unalienable rights of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" with the fact that he owned hundreds of slaves? | [
{
"answer": "I can't comment too much on Jefferson's wider moral and political philosophy because I'm someone who studies slavery in comparative contexts rather than the history of the United States itself, but I wrote an answer to a follow-up in [this thread](_URL_0_) a few months ago that a lot of people seem... | null |
5oxhtm | is it legal to pirate a game i own legitimately? | [
{
"answer": "If I remember correctly, you're not buying the game per se, but a license to play that game on whichever system you buy it for, which makes playing same game technically illegal on an emulator. Hopefully someone else can verify/expand on this. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Gener... | null |
141nsb | Is speed in space measured in relation to something else? If so wouldnt two beams of light going in opposite directions be going at 2c if measured relative to each other? | [
{
"answer": "Congratulations! You have actually stumbled upon the same train of thought that led Einstein to develop his [Theory of Special Relativity](_URL_3_).\n\nEssentially, Special Relativity states that no matter what speed you are traveling, the laws of physics will be thee same. Since the speed of light... | null |
a1ziwz | Does the big earthquake in Alaska today mean there is less of a chance for "the big one" to happen that they keep talking about in the Pacific NW? | [
{
"answer": "Releasing strain on one section of a fault can increase strain on another section. See the Anatolian fault earthquake dates as an example. Spoilers: Istanbul is in a tough place.\n\nThat said, the PNW is a complex area with a variety of slip types ranging from constant slow slip which isn't a signi... | null |
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