id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
j3aa8 | what is existentialism? it seems like a lot of redditors believe in this philosophy. | [
{
"answer": "From \"The Matrix: Revolutions\" (the final battle between Neo and Smith) \n\nSmith: \"Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth... | null |
e7b7jc | Hellenistic Feminist Revolution? | [
{
"answer": "Female agency is a complex matter and I cannot even pretend to address all aspects here, nor will I pretend to be an expert on this question. I will focus mainly on money and general mobility as the factors I’d consider most important. I hope this helps.\n\nFirst, it is important to note that our k... | null |
3drt22 | how are short daytime naps supposed to be beneficial when it takes you 1.5 hours to go through one full sleep cycle? | [
{
"answer": "You don't need to go through a full sleep cycle to experience benefits from napping because your brain does different things at different stages of sleep. REM sleep (which takes about 1.5 hours) is important for making new connections in the brain and solving creative problems, but you don't need t... | null |
4quxrd | why do people go diving with a snorkel that is not hooked up to any oxygen tank? | [
{
"answer": "You scout from the surface of the water with the snorkel, then when you see something you take a breath and dive down to check out what you saw. That way you dont have to hold your breath to scout and search.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "With a snorkel you can swim with your fa... | null |
1623mm | Could anybody help me with good but easy written sources for the history of the United States from the end of WWI to present? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_1_\n\nPDF here: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1732624",
"title": "Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center",
"section": "Section::::Focus.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 8,
"start_cha... | null |
abp5kb | can solar storms permanently alter earth's magnetic field in some way? | [
{
"answer": "Technically yes due to [Alfvens frozen flux theorem](_URL_0_). We know that the solar wind (and hence solar flares) interact and move the magnetic field lines. Due to Alfvens theorem field lines are \"frozen\" to the fluid flow. So if you move the field lines you move the flow and vice versa. So te... | null |
zfrw4 | As modern medicine increases our longevity further and further, will different types of diseases emerge? | [
{
"answer": "Your question is a bit to vague.\n\nThe answer is that we don't know what we have not previously encountered. Unless you want to go \"star trek\", we cannot say what strange pathological things could happen to our bodies.\n\nIt is highly unlikely that with age our bodies would develop some totally... | null |
5602rc | What do historians specializing in Medieval history think of Peter Wilson's *Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire*? | [
{
"answer": "I haven't read it, but I am inclined to do so. I'm nearly finished his *The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy* and I've been really impressed by it. While one good book doesn't guarantee the quality of the others, especially as *Heart of Europe* ventures a bit beyond his usual comfort zone, I'm wi... | null |
4dexs1 | where do illegal drug chemists get the skills to make hard drugs such as meth or krokodil? | [
{
"answer": "if you know where to look, you can find tutorials on the internet. others learn by working with more experienced drug manufacturers. it really isn't that hard as long as you can get the basic starting materials.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It doesn't really take skill; all you ... | null |
18g8ip | what would a free-trade agreement between the us and the eu mean to these countries and to the rest of the world? | [
{
"answer": "The trade agreement would give tariff free access to the $1 billion wealthiest people on the planet. It would significantly lower the cost for businesses that are based in the USA and export to the EU and vice versa. \n\nIt is basically an attempt to compete with China both now and in the future, i... | null |
1tlavc | How is a full DNA transcribed and what is the end result? | [
{
"answer": "First off, there's a specific distinction in biology of a phenomenon called transcription, which is the copying of DNA into a messenger RNA molecule. This process is carried out by a complex protein called RNA polymerase. It has an error rate of about 1 in 10,000 bases, but there are also proofread... | null |
28h9xi | why doesn't alcohol have the nutrition block? | [
{
"answer": "Because alcohol is regulated by the ATF not the FDA. It looks like they're planning on requiring it soon though.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Is alcohol a meaningful source of nutrients beyond calories?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
ewyvr4 | what is a thermoradiative cell and how/why does it work? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know, on a physical level, how this system works. Frankly, I'm too tipsy to research it. However, I can answer some of this from a thermodynamics perspective:\n\nEnergy alone is not normally useful. It tends to become chaotically distributed everywhere. This is best demonstrated by heat, wh... | null |
3dy6eg | how do computers know where to send a web request if they only know a web address? | [
{
"answer": "There are databases of where to look called DNS servers. They translate the web address to an IP address; which the computer understands and uses to send messages to.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "An IP address is the formal street address of your building (e.g. 4242 South 3rd ST... | null |
4tzinf | why do we praise the Templar Knights? | [
{
"answer": "I haven't ever heard of someone praising them. I have heard people enthused by the mystery of the order, and the various myths that have sprung up around it. \n\nTo compare them to terrorists is fallacious in the extreme, as well as anachronistic. They were an international organization, authorized... | null |
r9ze3 | I want to learn more about Syria during and just after the French mandate | [
{
"answer": "Check out the recent book *A Line in the Sand* by James Barr. He's one of the first English-language writers to look at the British/French power games in the levant, and he also take advantage of recently de-classified French sources which have been ignored to date. It's also very readable.\n\n",... | null |
39f2h5 | wth is going on with r/all? | [
{
"answer": "this isn't really the right forum, \n\n1: _URL_1_\n\n2: _URL_2_\n\n3: _URL_0_\n\n4: /r/outoftheloop\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "5528374",
"title": "Triple H (Sydney)",
"section": "Section::::Present act... | null |
3xu8g4 | Did WWI fighter pilots carry extra magazines for their machine guns? If so, how much did they carry? | [
{
"answer": "The [Lewis Gun](_URL_0_) had a 97 round pan magazine attached to the upper wing on a 'Foster Mounting' that allowed the pilot to pull the gun backwards and change the magazine. Bear in mind the rate of fire on the Lewis gun was around 500rpm and that gives the pilot around 12 seconds of firing time... | null |
ujedw | Why is mercury a silver color at room temperature when other metals glow fire red at liquid temperature? | [
{
"answer": "The color of glow is dependent on temperature, not state. The glow you see is the [blackbody radiation](_URL_0_) from the metal. Since liquid mercury or gallium are only 300^o K or so, they don't glow very much in the visual spectrum. Additionally, since the radiation emitted is a function of T^4 ,... | null |
635p76 | Did the USSR suffer from a reverse "Baby Boom", a slump in birth rates after World War II? | [
{
"answer": "So while it isn't 100 percent focused on your question, you may find [this answer](_URL_2_) to be of interest, as it does touch heavily on the pro-natal policies of the Soviet Union during and following the war as they attempted to encourage procreation. Edit: I've gone and reposted it here with so... | null |
7v8u3s | why did kim jong il make so many trips to china and seemed to get along with its leaders when they have different ideologies? | [
{
"answer": "They may have different idealogies, but from the perspective of global politics, they are on the same side. North Korea and China, and to an extent, Russia, all are not supporters of a world where the USA is a military leader/policing nation.\n\nPut simply, North Korea provides a buffer between Chi... | null |
4d68l1 | why do dogs go berserk over squeaky toys. | [
{
"answer": "Basically, to the dog it sounds like a wounded animal and so the dog gets a sort of \"thrill of the hunt.\"",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I was told the squeak mimics the sounds of small prey, ie: rabbit, and being descendants of wolves, It's their instinct to hunt. That being sa... | null |
1q34iw | Before NMR and similar instrumentation, how would chemists characterize a molecule? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know how far back you want to go, but UV-vis and IR spectrometers have been around for quite a while, and those are immensely useful.\n\nBefore those, it's based on a lot of hard work and deduction based around chemical reactions. An example is how [Fischer determined the structure of gluco... | null |
wslio | what art deco and art nouveau is? | [
{
"answer": "Art Nouveau is a pretty, delicate, girly, mostly interior style of decorating and art. Late 1800s. Think of Rivendell from Lord of the Rings, basically. If an elf would use it, it's probably Art Nouveau. Lots of whiplash curves. Alphonse Mucha posters. \n\nArt Deco, on the other hand, is the kind o... | null |
79dgn9 | Definition of War vs Conflict | [
{
"answer": "I would argue that you're both wrong.\n\n > it was actually only a military conflict since it was never declared a war by Congress.\n\nThat's a terribly American-centric view of the war and of war in general. Had North Vietnam declared war on the United States would it not have constituted a war i... | null |
9097aw | What was the French attitude toward the white flag in the 17-19th centuries; wasn't it established by that time to be the flag for negotiation/surrender? | [
{
"answer": "So the Bourbon kings' use of a white banner as their standard was quite controversial, even unpopular, during the 19th Century. But I can't speak to whether any of this was due to the white flag's association with surrender. In all my sources that discuss the white Bourbon flag, it was unpopular no... | null |
1mdh3s | if falsely imprisoned for a long period of time, do you receive any compensation? | [
{
"answer": "Some do, some don't. It depends entirely on the jurisdiction. In the US, for example, [up to 40% of those released from prison after being wrongfully incarcerated receive no compensation.](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In South Africa , you receive your freedom back. ",
... | null |
718ts8 | how can people hold two opposing ideas at the same time? e.g. "doublethink" | [
{
"answer": "I'm going to ignore the example, but it's probably not true that you *can* hold two opposing ideas at the same time, far as the brain is concerned. The network of our neurons can be thought of as a map of attachments to ideas that are interrelated, and given the complexity of these interrelationshi... | null |
6fqgzf | if stars explode because they run out of fuel, what fuels the explosion? | [
{
"answer": "A star is basically a massive continuous H-bomb in space. The thermonuclear reaction at the center is constantly trying to blow it apart. Gravity pushes back in the other direction. Forcing the star's mass towards the center.\n\nAs a star burns up its hydrogen fuel it starts to fuse heavier atoms. ... | null |
1zhk7n | What is the historical significance of Kiev to Russia? | [
{
"answer": "Several nations claim to inheritance to the Kievan Rus. The Vikings did indeed sail down through Russia's many rivers and settle in several areas, Kievan Rus being the most well known. Although it is debated whether the founders were Slavs or Varangians (I imagine it was both). It was perhaps th... | null |
2d0p50 | By the time the last Roman Emperor in the West came to power in 475, the "Empire" was really just Italy and some other small parts. But just 100 years previously, the Empire had dominated Europe and North Africa. How did the citizens feel about this decline? | [
{
"answer": "There's parts of your question that I'll leave up to people far more educated than myself on the subject to answer, but I'll try to clear up some misconceptions.\n\nFirstly, you state that \"in 100 years it was all gone.\" That's not quite true: the entire eastern portion of the empire survived on ... | null |
es9kd4 | How did the modern Chinese concept of nationhood and race develop? | [
{
"answer": "This is quite similar to [a question asked recently](_URL_1_) by /u/michelecaravaggio that I began drafting an answer to, so helpfully I can kill two birds with one stone here! Admittedly, I'm only really capable of taking the narrative up to the early Republic, before the KMT came to power in 1927... | null |
38wyk5 | How many times have 'the Jews' been expelled/exiled/ejected/etc? | [
{
"answer": "Spain didn't expel the Jews until 1492, and Portugal in 1497. They were among the last western European kingdoms to do so, as England had done so in 1290 and France twice--once in the 13th century and once in the 14th.\n\nI certainly don't have a comprehensive answer to your question, apart from co... | null |
4cherf | why is fascism conscidered right wing and communism conscidered left wing? | [
{
"answer": "Right-wing politics supports inequality of wealth as a natural and normal thing. Fascism links government closely to big businesses. Hence the right-wing connection.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The wings are an incomplete portrait of political spectrum, since an accurate descri... | null |
5gei1d | What happened to the Carthaginian people after the fall of Carthage? | [
{
"answer": "Many of them were killed, many of them were sold into slavery, and many of them undoubtedly lived out there lives scarred by the horror that they witnessed. The city of Carthage itself remained devoid of urban settlement, despite the fact that it is a really good spot for a city, until it was desig... | null |
2f5q5j | why are all the celeb naked pictures allowed on reddit but there was such a drama surrounding zoe quinn? | [
{
"answer": "Well I think you could blame the Quinn thing on corrupt subreddits. Also the pictures are never related, we aren't on r/gonewild :-P",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because the drama that fueled that situation was mostly in part due to maintaining journalistic integrity, while cert... | null |
72xfst | Why did tank destroyers using the Sherman tank chassis have thinner hull armor. | [
{
"answer": "The M10 was a unique vehicle, and wasn't converted from anything that was already produced.\n\nThe original prototype of what would become the M10, the [T35](_URL_0_), was just an M4A2 Sherman with a different, open-topped cast turret mounting a 3-inch gun. The armor on the upper hull was later cha... | null |
5ms0tp | Will a leaf continue to carry out transpiration once removed from its plant? | [
{
"answer": "As far as I know, there are no significant differences in the measurement. We did transpiration measurements on olive leafs with the LiCor 6400-XT and we always took the leafs and brought them to the device. Although I was just the 'picker' during these measurements, I was wondering too. My advisor... | null |
3zwfij | how can al qaeda both launch attacks against shia's yet also work with shia militants? | [
{
"answer": "One reason is the strategic use of lesser enemies against greater enemies. \n\nAnother is that al-Qaeda is a gigantic organization with lots of franchises. Some groups start independently and then declare allegiance to al-Qaeda in an effort to secure prestige, expertise, funding, weapons, etc and w... | null |
v8mne | We have Vampires and Werewolves, what did ancient people get scared by? | [
{
"answer": "Your examples are things that ancient people did get scared by that we do not. Getting killed by wild beasts is a fluke nowadays, and while we are still afraid of twisted aristocrats, they take a different form in our imaginations than vampires and mummies. The monsters we're really afraid of are a... | null |
75h3sy | SF₆ exists, so why are sulfur compounds with two triple bonds not a thing? | [
{
"answer": "Because bonding isn't as simple as there being \"free\" bondable electrons.\n\nEach electron populates an \"orbital\", or energy state, that has a particular \"shape\" and definition. \nI don't know the exact orbital shell of Sulfur off the top of my head, but it's likely that the particular arran... | null |
17b3fq | Why does lake ice sometimes crack in a spiral? | [
{
"answer": "Your pics look like straight lines. What spirals?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Sorry, I don't see what you're describing",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "712625",
"title": "Scree",
"section... | null |
1g6t9o | when my computer freezes, why does the music hardly ever freeze or lag with it ? | [
{
"answer": "It depends on how your computer freezes. I've had plenty of freezes where the sound gets frozen too and puts out a rather nasty stream of sound.\n\nTypically though, unless it's the program MAKING the sound that's crashing, your computer is hung up on some other program, and all of its resources ar... | null |
3357bv | I'm looking for reading recommendations on labor history of Nazi Germany (in English) | [
{
"answer": "Although it is long out of print, Robert Smelser's biography *Robert Ley: Hitler's Labor Leader* is a good introduction to the *Deutsche Arbeitsfront*, the state body that governed labor affairs and replaced trade unions. The ability of the NSDAP to recruit among certain segments of labor in the We... | null |
ov2sc | why are furry creatures who lick themselves clean not constantly gagging on hair? | [
{
"answer": "They developed specific physiologies from their repeated lickings that prevent things like immediate gagging, but that doesn't exclude them.\n\nFor example, a cat will occasionally throw up a hairball. This is the exact hair that they licked off themselves. It's just stored in the digestive tract u... | null |
3agczx | how can insurance companies legally create terms for damages that are impossible to claim? | [
{
"answer": "They were not covered by flood insurance because they didn't *purchase* it. I assure you that it was available to them. If the insurance company felt it was impossible to happen, they would have happily sold it to them since there was such a low risk of a claim.\n\nWhat happened, I think, is when t... | null |
2dxkr2 | How long does it take to test someone for ebola? | [
{
"answer": "Hypothetically between about 2 and 6 hours for either an ELISA or for a genetic test via PCR under ideal conditions. \n\nThere may be some freaky kits to let you do it a bit faster but that is unlikely for ebola. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
5pgfpl | why is white a brighter color? | [
{
"answer": "White is a combination of all the colors of the visible spectrum. In screens, all colors are mixed using red, green and blue subpixels. So to get white, you have to turn on all three at the same intensity. Thus you get three times as much light as you would for a solid blue color.",
"provenance... | null |
qu495 | Where does science draw the line on what is living and what is not? | [
{
"answer": "From, the perspective of an origin of life researcher, life must be considered as a continuum. Some things are clearly living or not, rocks versus cats, but may things fall in between. Viruses are most certainly alive, they can't reproduce by themselves, but then again neither can a human (you need... | null |
2uw9ru | why many bands/artists in the 60s/70s could release multiple albums each year, yet nowadays artists struggle to put out an album in a two year period. | [
{
"answer": "Maybe because back then you could actually make money on records. These days releasing a record serves the purpose of getting your music out there and getting fans excited to see you live. Performing live is where the moneys at and when artists are on the road, they don't have the time to work on n... | null |
36g3l6 | Why does a feather fall at the same rate as a hammer when they are in a vacuum? Surely the one with greater mass (gravity) should attract the earth a bit more than the other? | [
{
"answer": "You're only looking at the first piece of this question (although you're quite right about it). \n \nThe law of gravitation tells us that the force due to gravitational acceleration is equal to the gravitational constant x mass of the first object x mass of the second object / the distance betwee... | null |
18uym4 | the osi model | [
{
"answer": "Are you talking about the OSI-Model as in the computer interconnection model?\n\nOh damn, it's been a while since school. As far as I remember, it is pretty much a (succesful) attempt to standardize how low-level stuff (your USB/Bluetooth/FireWire/DSL/T1 protocols, basically.) ends up interfacing w... | null |
3grysa | why hasn't the us government closed down the deep web and or try to block it from users? | [
{
"answer": "You're confusing deep and dark. Deep us anything unindexable. Settings pages, email inboxes, databases.\n\nDark is where shady, illegal, or exceedingly discreet or private stuff happens.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Why would they? People's searches are a great way to track th... | null |
2j7kd8 | Why does a flashlight only light up a short distance but you can see the light head on from far away? | [
{
"answer": "If I understand you right, you are asking why at a large distances from a flashlight, you can't see the an object being illuminated by the flashlight beam, but if you turn and look directly into the flashlight from the same distance, you can see that it's on. The difference here is that to see the ... | null |
86onkg | the setup and dismantling of cranes in construction. | [
{
"answer": "I'm 40 and I'm here having always wondered the same thing, so don't think age is an issue! ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "So, for the big skyscraper cranes or \"tower\" crane, the center pillar the crane rests on can be jacked up - it grows \"up\" with the building. They'll use ... | null |
25erei | Why do European place names like "Southend-on-sea" or "Villes-sur-mere" explain their location but such names are uncommon or nonexistant in the New World? | [
{
"answer": "Names that describe geographical location? Well in California I can think of many, there's Oceanside, Riverside, Long Beach, Seaside, Quartz Hill. And with the Spanish heritage, California is not limited to English names, there are some in Spanish too: Arroyo Grande (big spring), Morro Bay (bluff),... | null |
1ynly5 | how are some people able to not only eat but enjoy sour candy? | [
{
"answer": "If you don't like sour candy... there's more for me.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's just preference. I like the tingle sour candy or lemons give me. The flavor and tingly feelings are an experience.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
2nl6md | why does oil sound like it's boiling before it actually reaches a boil? | [
{
"answer": "In most cases it is water in the oil boiling away. The oil itself would boil at a much higher temperature.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "6494011",
"title": "Blown oil",
"section": "Section::::Description.\n... | null |
1r4orq | Is it possible to jam the GPS signal? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, GPS jamming is possible - as with any radio communications, you just need to fill the relevant frequencies with enough \"junk\" to drown out the actual signal.\n\nIt's also possible to spoof GPS signals, by creating a much more powerful signal that overrides the normal one. This can be used to... | null |
9wdjaz | Where did the fish in volcanic crater lakes come from? | [
{
"answer": "Mostly from migratory Birds. A duck that goes from Lake to Lake will often carry eggs on its feet. All it takes is a few and with them traveling so much it's about the only way that you can have a species of fish that spans multiple areas. Otherwise every Lake would end up with a unique species due... | null |
46lidi | why does the fanta in greece taste so much more "genuine" with it's lighter color and more natural taste than the fanta sold in america? | [
{
"answer": "\"Real\" orange Fanta has sugar and orange juice in it. US orange Fanta has neither of those substances, to save money, and it's really orange, rather than yellower. Interestingly, in Mexico they use the same formula as in the EU, so it's really not a geographic thing. ",
"provenance": null
... | null |
4j1h0b | if a muslim is in space, how does he pray towards mecca? and how would the ramadan work? | [
{
"answer": "A typical prayer lasts about 3-5 minutes; you could easily orient yourself towards Mecca for such a short time.\n\nAs for Ramadan, you just pick a time period to practice as a day, just like they do now, and use that for your fasting times.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Their rel... | null |
5a8eti | in hollywood, why are successful people in offices always portrayed in context while drinking some alcohol like scotch/whiskey etc? is that really even a thing anymore and if so where did it start? | [
{
"answer": "it may be a sign of wealth to have some expensive whiskey around and to be able to enjoy an expensive lifestyle. I can't tell you if there are really people how have alcohol in their offices, but it is a move hollywood makes to show that a person is rich and successful.",
"provenance": null
}... | null |
4958hs | how have the names for the six trigonometric functions originated? (sine, cosine, tangent, cotangent, secant and cosecant?) | [
{
"answer": "It's pretty hard to give an ELI5 explanation, as you will see with the fairly elucidating Wikipedia explanation of the etymology. \n\nThe word sine derives from Latin sinus (\"bend\", \"bay\", \"the hanging fold of the upper part of a toga\", \"the bosom of a garment\"). The use of sinus originates... | null |
10i9tc | why is it so difficult to get bicycle grease off your hands? | [
{
"answer": "This grease is designed to stay in place and keep your bicycle's gears well lubricated for a long time between reapplication.\n\nThis stickiness is a good thing and is a desirable product of modern chemistry.\n\nFun Fact: in the \"old days\" gears would have to be re-lubricated on a frequent basis.... | null |
6ljf6y | what are vitamin supplements made out of? | [
{
"answer": "In the example you cited, bacteria. There is a non-animal source for every vitamin we need.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "32509",
"title": "Vitamin C",
"section": "Section::::Diet.:Supplements.\n",
... | null |
38347i | Why does your computer screen look 'liquidy' when you apply pressure to it (i.e. pressing your fingernail against your pc monitor)? | [
{
"answer": "Because it *is* liquidy. The screen uses something called a \"liquid crystal\", which is a layer of a special liquid sandwiched between two pieces of glass or plastic (or one piece of glass and one piece of plastic). \n\nThis liquid is what forms the image, by changing how it interacts with polar... | null |
1oy99l | why are there no freshwater sharks? | [
{
"answer": "There are several.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Their called River Sharks and they exist.\n\n_URL_1_\n\nBut basically the problem is that it is difficult for a species to live in both freshwater and salt water it requires really specific adaptation. This is called Eur... | null |
38d4lp | why do fake elections in many regimes end up with 99% and not a 100% of the votes for the candidate? (north korean elections, third reich,...) | [
{
"answer": "Probably to make it seem at least a tiny bit legitimate. Like \"see, we didn't even get 100% of the votes, we're totally a democracy.\" ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "If you vote for someone that isn't part of the regime, and the regime ends up with 100% of all the votes, that is... | null |
28zyqv | those black rubber tubes that cross the road and appear to count cars. why are they counting and who puts them there? | [
{
"answer": "Your local DOT to better understand traffic in that area. They then use that information to adjust traffic lights or make decisions to better the safety of the community. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They're very simple and cheap methods to gather traffic data for road and traf... | null |
460es3 | why are drag queens so easily distinguishable from women in equal makeup? | [
{
"answer": "**Yes, it's the face structure.**\n\nHumans are quite good at recognising small details in faces. Our brains are \"programmed\" that way.\n\nMen and women typically have different facial characteristics. To an alien or another animal we all look the same, but we can usually tell the difference.",
... | null |
dyheyc | normal form in databases? | [
{
"answer": "So: Let's get the fundamental idea out of the way. In a database, you'd like to store data in one place, and one place only. You don't want to have it so that a single piece of information appears in multiple places in the database, nor do you want your database to be unable to process requests tha... | null |
1tmehn | how do dan aykroyd and eddy murphy make mortimer and randolph go broke at the end of trading places.. how did they get rich? | [
{
"answer": "Short selling.\n\nAt the beginning of the trading day, the Dukes have a fake, unreleased forecast report saying that there will be a shortage of oranges, and therefore the price of frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) will go up.\n\nThe Dukes' goal is to buy as much FCOJ as they can before the r... | null |
4kunq1 | How do we know quantum entanglement influences things at large distances disregarding the speed of light? | [
{
"answer": "You're right that entanglement doesn't seem weird if you just assume that the outcome was determined at the point when the particles were entangled. This was once a major interpretation of quantum mechanics, which I'll call \"local hidden variables.\" Unfortunately, it turns out that this interpret... | null |
1wdhtw | What's the evidence behind diet causing acne? | [
{
"answer": "So this one is actually pretty well documented with Google Searches:\n\n_URL_0_\n\n**Foods that aid skin care:** These foods increase overall skin health\n\nVitamin A,E, & C rich foods\n\nZinc & Selenium\n\nProper Hydration\n\n\n**Foods that may worsen acne**\n\nMilk which comes from cows that ha... | null |
p6lnd | How do we know how intelligent Dinosaurs were? Also were there any that were on the same level as, say, dolphins or really smart dogs? | [
{
"answer": "As a note, we don't generally measure against *absolute* brain size, but we note that most animals fall along a fit of brain size to body mass ratio. Some animals lying above or below this line (humans being reasonably well above it, if I recall correctly) seem to indicate more or less intelligence... | null |
29l9pi | as a non-american, please explain to me what's all this "hobby lobby" hullabaloo. | [
{
"answer": "In America, employers are required to provide health insurance for employees since we can't get our shit together with a single payer system like the rest of the First World. Hobby Lobby is a company owned by conservative Christians that believe birth control is a sin. Our Supreme Court just decide... | null |
dqb7jc | In theory, could our blood flow in a constant stream as opposed to at the rhythm the heart pumps it at? If it is possible what would be the advantages and disadvantages of this? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, it is possible to replace a heart with a continual flow pump. However, little research has been done and the only example I know is an impoverished South American man who missed a follow-up appointment because he “felt fine” despite his heart having completely died by the time he could be cont... | null |
his1j | r/askscience, is it normal to see different hues of color in each eye? | [
{
"answer": "I experience similar things when I've been exposed to sunshine (or other strong light) from one side only. Might have something to do with the photopsins being bleached and not yet replenished. But you have this all the time?\n\n[See here for example.](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
1n1bwh | Is every nerve ending in the hand connected to the brain? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not entirely sure of your question. All sensory nerve endings do eventually end up in the CNS (even though each sense may go through different tracts/paths to get to where they end up), where sensory information is processed. \n\nIn the case of the hand in particular, you have the Ulnar nerve t... | null |
24abef | What factors cause the cake batter to change from liquid to solid? | [
{
"answer": "Most baking is about the gelatinization of starch (from flour). This is what forms the crumb in bread and firms up the foam structure of cakes (the foam coming from the action of leavening agents like baking soda/powder). Each little piece of flour is basically a tiny starch granule. When it is hea... | null |
1hd1ve | how come things like washing machines and cars always stay at high prices, meanwhile things like radios and tvs get cheaper and cheaper? | [
{
"answer": "Cost of things are proportional to the cost of their base materials. Things like electronics become cheaper because they are used in technology that allows you to make NEW technology (like whats used in electronics) faster, smaller and cheaper. \n\nSo, the reason why a washing machine or car raises... | null |
4n49dy | Why did the US government refuse to support Chiang Kai-Shek after WW2, and was this a major cause of the victory of the Chinese Revolution? | [
{
"answer": "The US government refused to support CSK after WW2? What? The US sent a whopping $4 billion to him within two years after the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War. The US gave him military hardware and trained his troops. The US airlifted Nationalists forces to liberated areas, including Manchuria, ... | null |
1pbq16 | How much water does it take to offset sodium intake? | [
{
"answer": "A \"normal\" blood panel sodium level is ~140 mmol/L, sea water has a salt concentration of ~600 mol/L, so it has about 4.3 times as sodium as blood.\n\nAs I understand it, as your salt intake increases, the concentrations in your urine will rise without you needing to increase your water intake, u... | null |
4ssih1 | why do smoke detectors emit the same noise regardless wether they are out of battery or there is an actual fire? | [
{
"answer": "It would cost more to produce a smoke alarm which emitted two different signals. The goal is an alarm which works for a low cost. So it is cheaper to produce one with one alarm sound. If it goes off, look around for a fire. If no fire, change the battery.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answ... | null |
12hrv0 | how do people get drugs into prison? | [
{
"answer": "Up the butt.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I imagine there are crooked guards that sell to the prisoners. I can't imagine any other way. Just my speculation.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "TV tells me the guards do it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"an... | null |
1c1cnv | Abolitionists vs Anti-Slavery? | [
{
"answer": "You might start [at the American Memory collection](_URL_1_). The way to think about this is that Abolition=immediate end of slavery because slavery is bad (usually on moral grounds, ie Fredrick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison) while Anti-Slavery=ending slavery for the US. An antislavery person... | null |
9ttytz | What is the smallest animal that can hear? | [
{
"answer": "Whether a longitudinal wave is a \"sound\" or a \"vibration\" is a matter of scale. We can't hear sound on the order of 10Hz (wavelength of about 30 meters) but we can feel it. Similarly, a 1cm insect couldn't \"hear\" sounds where the wavelength is much larger than their body, but could feel the... | null |
4pfg91 | faq on united kingdom vote to remain in the european union, or leave. aka brexit | [
{
"answer": "The markets have been doing some funny things as of late (Canada), I'm assuming in anticipation of this vote. What type of economic impact will this have on an international scale? ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Can someone explain what \"LEAVING THE EUROPEAN UNION\" means apart ... | null |
3zwvlf | Did Ancient Israelites Write in Egyptian? Was Egyptian (or any form of it) known in Israel during biblical times and was it utilized in writing? | [
{
"answer": "Am I correct in assuming that by written Egyptian you are referring to Egyptian hieroglyphics in particular? And not to later Egyptian adaptations of other scripts/languages?\n\n[New Kingdom Egypt](_URL_1_) (c.1500-1000 BCE) was a garrison power in the Levant alongside their military rivals, the Hi... | null |
1t4qcr | Why do some people still believe that the South won the Civil War? | [
{
"answer": "After reading your question and explanation, I can only come up with one plausible explanation. \n\nThe Civil War was a war fought (essentially) over the equality and humanity of African-Americans. The North argued that blacks shared certain common rights with whites, where the South disagreed (thi... | null |
2gg1b7 | why are there lawsuits against google promoting its own services on search results? | [
{
"answer": "Because there are lawsuits doesn't mean that there will be victorious lawsuits. \n\nTheir argument is that Google is forming a monopoly on internet services, and needs to be stopped under anti-trust laws (funny how nobody's filing similar suits against ISPs, though, huh?)",
"provenance": null
... | null |
17chqv | How difficult is it to create an accurate text to speech from our own voices? | [
{
"answer": "Very difficult.\n I am a programmer and once tried to make my own text to speech program. Its difficult because for a text to speech software you need to either record a database of every word in the dictionary in every possible tone (which is really not efficient because it s very expensive and... | null |
2ms8jn | lake effect snow over 6 feet of snow across a wide region. do the great lakes actually measurably lose the volume of water? | [
{
"answer": "Technically yes, but the difference would almost certainly be negligible. \n\nSnow [according to here](_URL_1_) is about 5-20% of the density of water. So if you have 6 feet of snow, you will end up with 3.6-14.4 inches of water. Meanwhile, the [Great lakes have a tidal variation of less than 5cm o... | null |
b5fe4u | Did past civilizations have different attitudes to charity? | [
{
"answer": "Sorry, we don't allow \"throughout history\" questions. It's not that your question was bad; it's that these kinds of questions tend to produce threads that are collections of disjointed, partial, inadequate responses. If you have a question about a specific historical event, period, or person, fee... | null |
6qmvl4 | why can't use power bank or phone in airplane mode on plane? | [
{
"answer": "Regarding the power banks it have become very popular with lithium ion batteries which can put out a lot of power. The disadvantage to this is that they may overheat and cause a fire. It may be that the battery is damaged and a heating it during normal operation might bring two internal wires too c... | null |
2anv7e | Can historians recommend any good books about medieval warfare and life in France in the early 15th century? | [
{
"answer": "Right I was writing this on my phone, cobbling it together from a bibliography for late medieval kingship and nobility, last night so I've rewritten and reposted it. \n\nBefore continuing it should be said that any comprehensive study of warfare and 'life' in early fifteenth-century France requires... | null |
s5i82 | why certain applications *must* drop everything and shut down when they encounter certain kinds of errors. why can't they just muddle through, or revert to the most recent error-free state? | [
{
"answer": "Because there's a lot of programs that were written by people that got Cs in CompSci 100.\n\nRobust error handling takes a lot of work. Beyond that, if you can't avoid the bug in the first place, that means you didn't recognize the error was going to occur - figuring out what is an \"error-free st... | null |
2wugep | how do warring countries share borders? | [
{
"answer": "The borders in question were sites of cross border raids and shellings in both directions for years, until an uneasy peace settled in as a result of larger conflicts. Today the borders are constantly patrolled. The border between Jordan and Israel was mostly quiet after 1967, and no major flare-ups... | null |
4flnlq | whenever i hear the same song twice from the same source in a short amount of time, it sometimes sounds like it's being played at a lower pitch or slower tempo. why does this happen? | [
{
"answer": "I've never experienced this. Are you a drummer?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "2084734",
"title": "Nenano",
"section": "Section::::The use of phthora nenano in the psaltic art.:The phthora nenano as kyrios e... | null |
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