id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
pprid | This may sound daft but, when Comets go though space they appear to have a tail, but space is a vacuum so what would be causing the tail is there is no resistance? | [
{
"answer": "The sun. The tail of a comet doesn't indicate where it is going but rather where it is relative to the sun\n\nEdit: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Indeed, for part of a comet's orbit (when it's moving away from the sun), its tail is actually ahead of it.",
"provenance"... | null |
6soq46 | [Mores, Customs & Folkways] Do historians use literature to study areas that are well documented or is literature only used if there are no other sources? | [
{
"answer": "Hi, history is more interdisciplinary than the question seems to imply - but it's also a big question. \n\nCultural history may involve study of fictional literature; for example, a student could examine how Shakespeare's portrayal of the Plantagenets in his history plays related to propaganda rein... | null |
2kdebe | if bathroom hygiene is so important why don't we get sick after performing oral sex? | [
{
"answer": "It's more a matter of frequency. If you consider all the times in a day you touch a person (shake hands, etc.) or touch something they touch (doorknobs, etc.), it ads up to a lot of exposure. \n\nIf you sucked that many dicks, every day, from that many random people, you would probably get sick a l... | null |
8t6r2y | how did people get enough heat to smelt metals before the industrial age? | [
{
"answer": "Coal fire forges are able to reach temperatures of about 1900 degrees C which is more than enough to melt most ‘primitive’ metals such as iron, bronze, copper and steel. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They melt at much lower temperatures than you might think.\n\nYou can take raw ... | null |
6ees71 | How did scientists measure the radius of atoms and other stuffs? | [
{
"answer": "The most accurate measurements are spectroscopic measurements, in which the energy between states of e.g. atoms is measured. These measurement happen typically with lasers, the frequencies of which can be very well controlled. This is the domain of atomic physics, which is mainly quantum mechanics ... | null |
1f4e1v | How is the infrastructure of the internet built? | [
{
"answer": "The \"internet\" is simply a huge network. There are many subnetworks, and subnetworks of those networks, but it all is just a big web of connections. \n\nSome huge telecommunication companies own huge fiber optic cable trunks, and they have an agreement to connect them. The top level ISPs are call... | null |
cqfp3k | why does english pop up everywhere? like in anime, and foreign music they just say a line in english and then just back to their respective languages. | [
{
"answer": "Because it's currently seen as the lingua franca of the western world I'd reckon",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "English is the world's most popular second language. Hundreds of millions of people know a little English, enough to understand a word or two thrown into a song for fun.... | null |
w08c8 | Border Between Portugal and Spain | [
{
"answer": "Why specifically these borders and not somewhere else is a question that's beyond me, but Portugal, immediately after its Reconquista, was a County and vassal to the Kingdom of Galicia and later Leon. Afonso I of Portugal became independent mostly with papal support due to his role in driving out t... | null |
53e6b3 | - why do people want ivory so bad and why is it illegal? | [
{
"answer": "Before the advent of plastics, ivory was a very durable alternative to wood. It was considered a luxury good because of its relative scarcity. Most countries have made ivory trade illegal because harvesting it requires killing of endangered elephants.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer... | null |
3m94kc | what is the difference between a credit card reader and a chip-and-pin machine? | [
{
"answer": "Chip and pin cards look [like this](_URL_0_), where you insert the chip into [the reader](_URL_1_), and are prompted to enter a PIN number (like an ATM) before you can make a purchase.\n\nTraditional credit card readers just [swipe the magnetic strip](_URL_2_), and you sign the receipt.\n\n**Edit**... | null |
2ni637 | Is there any hard data to suggest that an animal that has killed a human (like the bear on the front page) is actually likely to repeat this behavior? | [
{
"answer": "Yes there is. Especially if they develop a taste for human meat. Carnivores frequently will attack humans if they are sick, weak, or old. We are quite easy to eat. \n\nabout lions in the 1800's that preyed on Keyan construction Workers _URL_0_ ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,... | null |
1vw3dn | why is it that the majority of the police officers/military in corrupt states defend the corrupted governments? | [
{
"answer": "Cops aren't as oppressed as those they help oppressed. Cops break the law a lot more than your average citizen and their position lets them get away with it. As long as they keep those in power they get to keep their jobs and the perks that come along with it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
4h1ntl | What is the Western Han and Eastern Han in the context of the Han Dynasty? | [
{
"answer": "They are the same dynasty ruled by the same family. The reason why there is the Western Han and the Eastern Han is because in between the two, a man named Wang Mang usurped power from the Western Han emperor and established the Xin Dynasty. After he was defeated and overthrown, the Han dynasty was ... | null |
17ns24 | When you rinse out a glass of red wine, why does the water turn gray? | [
{
"answer": "Probably the pH change, which turns the anthocyanidins from their \"native\" reddish/purple color (at the low pH of the wine) to a blue color which, when diluted, looks a bit gray. This is also a decent technique for removing red wine stains: use a cleaner with a higher pH. _URL_0_",
"prove... | null |
14e6kr | Why aren't we crushed by the weight of the air over our heads? And why don't we feel the weight of the air lifted off of us when we go into a car or building? | [
{
"answer": "[Atmospheric pressure](_URL_0_) is the measure of the amount of force the air exerts on you per area. So it _is_ already measuring the weight of air that exerts on some area. If your room is at one atm, it is pressurized. The weight of air is on you.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": ... | null |
3t5p53 | why do some people who's parents are immigrants have an accent while others don't ? | [
{
"answer": "Accents tend to come more from peers than parents. So someone who grew up in an area where all the friends and neighbors share the same accent, or perhaps went to a private or parochial school where that was the case, will more likely have a similar accent. But when children go to assimilated sch... | null |
1feum5 | When did winking become a thing? | [
{
"answer": "I can tell you the OED's first use of this definition of the word \"wink\" if that's useful at all.\n\n1541 Thomas Elyot's *Image of Gouernance* (Governance)\n\n\"Of a mayster sturdy and fierce, a lyttell wynke to his seruant is a fearefull commaundement.\"",
"provenance": null
},
{
"an... | null |
3d2vj0 | why do we use olive oil instead of frying oil when stirfrying vegetables? | [
{
"answer": "Properly stir-frying anything requires using really high temperatures.\n\nMost olive oil has a relatively low smoke point (the temperature at which it starts to break down & smoke). Stir-fry oils are generally things that handle temperatures better like corn, peanut, canola & soy.\n\nThere's a... | null |
3mxjni | why european civilizations were so much more advanced in terms of everything compared to african and native american civilizations. and so when white ppl came to america they basically just took over with guns. | [
{
"answer": "_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_5_\n\n_URL_2_\n\n_URL_3_\n\n_URL_4_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "14099",
"title": "History of Africa",
"section": "Section::::19th century.:European trade, exploration and conque... | null |
arrggi | the united states is over $22 trillion in debt. what does that mean? | [
{
"answer": "Not a whole lot, actually. Somewhere between 70-80% of that debt is held by American citizens in the form of bonds, including savings bonds. Bonds are heavily used as a stable investment to protect your money from inflation (the rates on the bonds basically keep up with the rate of inflation). And ... | null |
1sl6ow | what is the bubonic plague, and would it be as fatal today as it was in the middle ages? | [
{
"answer": "Bubonic plague is a specific kind of disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis. (Pneumonic and septicemic plague are the other kinds, less famous because they didn't destroy Europe.) Yersinia lives in fleas, which live on rodents. As a result, plague was able to spread very quickly in a time w... | null |
8akuip | [Medicine] Improper alcohol detoxification can kill a person. How then can people rehabilitate alcoholics? | [
{
"answer": "have them (the addict) continue to consume alcohol as needed to avoid serious withdrawal symptoms.\n\nHowever, the amount consumed per day is decreased continually over a span of several days, so that their dependance on ethanol is gradually reduced to zero.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"a... | null |
wmfo2 | What is a plausible scientific explanation for "glory clouds" in church services? | [
{
"answer": "That's dust. Definitely dust, you can tell by the straight line it makes coming from the light. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Edit: Probably [This.](_URL_0_)\n\nIt is most likely due to the condensation of water from evaporated sweat and breath. Supposedly if one of Hitler's bui... | null |
301iom | how do cough suppressants, decongestants and expectorants work together to help with a cold? | [
{
"answer": "None of the above help colds. They help the symptoms of a cold. Decongestants, fine. Cough suppressants and expectorants seem illogical if mixed but separately they might help the symptoms. \n\nMany of this type of symptomatic \"cure\" has ingredients that defy strict logic. Despite this, people b... | null |
1orquy | What causes the varied distribution of resources across the Earth? | [
{
"answer": "It's not a random process. Certain minerals only form under a set of very precise geological conditions. Much like how you need just the right ingredients to make a cake, you need just the right conditions to produce certain types of rock. These conditions include depth below the surface, temperatu... | null |
16ddlo | How did Italian-Americans react to the extremely racist Allied anti Axis propaganda films? | [
{
"answer": "You're referring to American films? Or is that incorrect? If so, I apologize. \n\nTo answer the question to the best of my ability, most Italian-Americans realized by 1939 that Benito Mussolini wasn't a champion of the people of Italy. But, more and more, he appeared to be a cancerous tyrant who wa... | null |
2ogz05 | The ratio of the distance between a planet and its star vs the ratio of the distance between an electron and its nucleus, are the two ratios similar? | [
{
"answer": "Compared to the radius of the sun, the Earth is 215 times farther away.\n\nCompared to the radius of a proton, the average position of the ground state hydrogen electron is 62,350 times farther away.\n\nNow, there are other planets and stars and other elements, but that gives you a rough picture.",... | null |
h6htd | Considering all dogs have 38 chromosomes, can a very small dog mate with(in some manner) and give birth to a very large dog's pups? | [
{
"answer": "A family member of mine breeds dogs so I've seen newborn puppies firsthand. There were two simultaneous litters of puppies; one from a toy poodle, and one litter from a standard poodle. What was amazing is that these newborns were practically the same size, just the toy poodle had considerably less... | null |
1jc7wr | why are vishnu and his avatars blue? | [
{
"answer": "Blue is considered a divine/pure colour. \nI.e. connected to the sky / the sea",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "4543",
"title": "Blue",
"section": "Section::::In world culture.:Religion.\n",
"start_par... | null |
1kvd7u | How long can a plant survive in space? | [
{
"answer": "Depends on the environment. Plants can grow in microgravity with an artificial atmosphere, but if you're just talking about throwing a naked plant into space, the extreme temperatures would start rupturing cells immediately (areas in the sun would be very hot, and areas in shade would be well belo... | null |
3riw90 | Why were brass knuckles made of brass? | [
{
"answer": "I can't speak to the historical aspect but from an industrial aspect brass is pretty inexpensive and is usually cast in a mold. Forged steel would be much more labor intensive. Cast iron would be subject to rusting. Brass is a good tradeoff of strength, cost, and corrosion resistance.",
"proven... | null |
b9wwcw | why did ants ( and other insects maybe idk) get an exoskeleton rather than a normal skeleton? | [
{
"answer": "Because a hard outer shell doubles as protection from predators, as well as anchor points for muscles.\n\nEndoskeletons evolved to provide otherwise soft-bodied animals leverage to generate more power in their appendages without sacrificing as much flexibility as an exoskeleton.",
"provenance":... | null |
2ye88c | do people who talk languages other than english think in those languages? | [
{
"answer": "Do you think in English?\n\nSeriously, when you think of a dog running across a field, do you imagine those words \"a dog running across a field\"? Or do you imagine an actual dog running across an actual field?\n\nThe only times that we actually think in words, is when we are thinking of a languag... | null |
6sfpj2 | How is corruption measured? | [
{
"answer": "Here's the sources for the Corruption Perception Index of 2016:\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Transparency International publishes what they call a \"Corruption Perception Index\" made up from polls. They ask people how often in the past year (or whatever timeframe) th... | null |
80u2q7 | what happens to the food company when someone who is allergic to a secret ingredient consumes their food? will it be revealed? why has it not ever happened? | [
{
"answer": "I think due to FDA regulations all ingredients must be listed, so the secrets are usually formulas and combinations. But the individual ingredients that people may be allergic to are listed. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "there's a list of specific allergens that must be listed i... | null |
3j0cns | if it is illegal to melt down pennies, how is it legal to press them? | [
{
"answer": "Are you talking about how it's legal for the US Mint to press them? Because they're authorized by law to do so.\n\nIf you're asking about those novelty machines that strech out a penny, it's because defacing the currency for non-fraudulent purposes isn't illegal.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
3k85qd | why the american corn taste different from middle eastern corn or asian one? | [
{
"answer": "They differ in species, soil composition, environment, exposure to the sun. These all could effect the taste.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are many different variations of corn. In Korea (s), supermarkets usually have 2 or 3 different corns in the vegetable section (starch... | null |
7aguu2 | what's the difference between tense, mood, and case? | [
{
"answer": "Tense is the time of the action, past, future, happening right now. The tenses give a sense of when an action was completed, or if we expect the action to continue into the foreseeable future. It puts the verbs into a context of when. \n\nMood adds or removes a certain certainty or uncertainty or... | null |
b15c9b | if peanuts aren't actually nuts why do people with a nut allergy die from them? | [
{
"answer": "Because peanut allergies are different from nut allergies. I'm allergic to peanuts but not nuts. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "896467",
"title": "Carrier oil",
"section": "Section::::Safety aspects.\n",
... | null |
55hnmh | why does my cat retain the ability to bound at 30 mph and jump vertically 5ft if he sleeps all day? | [
{
"answer": "I assume your cat, like almost every cat, likes to jump up on things and tends to go bat-shit crazy in the middle of the night and run around like a maniac sometimes. This is its exercise. \n\nCompare that to a reasonably fit human that works out regularly - not a gym nut or anything but just a guy... | null |
37tihf | why don't we just use two or more different antibiotics, with different ingredients to kill off 100% of bacteria | [
{
"answer": "Well antibitoics don't all target the same things. But even if the did, it would be a terrible idea to try. Because if any of the bacteria live? They now have a resistance to all of those antibiotics, instead of just one or two.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "We do. Antibiotic coc... | null |
1ebayp | how do different sound waves of the same wavelengths carry a different timbre? | [
{
"answer": "The shape of the wave affects its sound, or timbre.\n\nThere are some examples [here](_URL_0_). (I don't think the instrument names next to the waves are correct... but it gives you the right idea.)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is a big difference between 'wavelength' and ... | null |
3ayhxa | Were torches used in medieval times as much as movies make us believe and what were they made out off? | [
{
"answer": "Were torches used as often as we see in movies?\n\nNo. Movies generally seem to show torches as the most common light source for medieval people, when in fact rushlights (reeds soaked in animal fat), tallow candles and simple oil lamps seem to have been much more common.\n\nWhat were torches made o... | null |
900fcz | why do monotonous noises (like the sound of an alarm clock) begin to sound like it has two different pitches after hearing it for a while? | [
{
"answer": "i think that it may be because of our natural tendency to turn repetitive sounds into melodies. So a repetitive sound gets given different pitches by our brains. Its called the speech to song illusion. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikip... | null |
8h9hve | how come many fish were able to survive the great k–pg extinction, but pretty much no sea reptiles (mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, etc) were able to? | [
{
"answer": "It takes a LOT of food and a very balanced ecosystem to keep a giant alpha predator alive. If the food diminishes or the ecosystem shifts, alpha predators die out pretty easily.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Another additional reason. Reptiles are dependent on the surface for ai... | null |
2w5p7r | how do bank errors leaving customers with extra money happen? | [
{
"answer": "I have this saying: \"As long as humans are involved, there will be human error.\" \n \nSimple as that - someone at the bank done goofed. You are right - banks *do* have incredibly strict controls to prevent errors, but as long as human beings are punching keys and inputting information, there'... | null |
2nhgjt | Did European explorers/settlers encounter any Native American urban centers in the in modern-day USA and Canada? | [
{
"answer": " > the Pueblo Indians had urban centers, but I'm not sure what happened to them\n\nMany are alive and well. Consider Acoma Pueblo and Taos Pueblo, both of which were founded around 1000 years ago and both currently home to between 4500 and 5000 people. Others didn't survive, such as Hawikuh - an ... | null |
45gr6y | why does light/sound propogate as a wave? why not a straight line? | [
{
"answer": "They both do propagate in a straight line just as a wave in the water does. A sound wave or water wave is a varying pressure, not space. And luckily google gave me the answer [from Reddit](_URL_0_) on what varies in a photon: \n\n > The wave is not the path that the photon takes. The wave is a re... | null |
4kaii4 | are there gradual forms of depression or is it purely binary? | [
{
"answer": "As someone who is very depressed, it's gradual. Never binary. You have good days, you have bad days.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "20529621",
"title": "History of depression",
"section": "Section::::20th an... | null |
fa95vx | why is it that it's possible to shake a cup with a bunch of dice in it to the point that they can all stack on top of each other? | [
{
"answer": "It's not just being shaken randomly. If you'll note, the predominant motion is a circular swinging. What they're doing is forcing the dice to the edge of the cup and getting them to swirl around. If done right, that forces the dice to assume a vertical stack inside the cup. It takes practice of cou... | null |
3eofhe | how come putin has the same power in russia now as a prime minister as he had as a president? | [
{
"answer": "Vladimir Putin *is* the President of Russia. Has been since 2012. Before that he was Prime Minister. Before *that*, he was President. \n\nIt is fairly accepted that he was still running things when he was Prime Minister, though and that the president at the time (Dmitry Medvedev) was merely his pup... | null |
1lqbiu | What was the military organization, equipment, and tactics of Carthage like during the Punic Wars? | [
{
"answer": "In large part, the Carthaginian armies during the first Punic War were largely composed of mercenary troops from a variety of different areas under the control of Carthage (think North Africa, Spain and southern Gaul). \n\nDuring this period, the command was generally along the lines of the Romans ... | null |
o7nee | what are you supposed to do when an emergency vehicle passes you on the opposite side of the road? | [
{
"answer": "If there is a physical obstruction in the median (for example trees, bushes, dirt etc.) then you do not need to do anything but if it is just yellow lines or there is a big enough opening for them to cross onto your side of the road then you should pull over until they pass.\n\nThis is so that if ... | null |
9iywvj | what is a generator in electricity? | [
{
"answer": "It's like an *electron pump* that pushes electrons away from one end and toward the other end. This creates a *voltage* (electric pressure) which is then used to power the flow of electricity through wires and other things.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I majored in physics and i... | null |
6jc1bw | why are media companies so obsessive about pirating movies or music online, when just a few years ago people would record movies off of tv or music from the radio and it wasn't a big deal? | [
{
"answer": "They were making a big deal about it then, that's why they would put in warnings and videos about piracy, but they had to crackdown harder on internet privacy because the ease of it caused piracy numbers to skyrocket creating a bigger problem",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Back in... | null |
3d0ls1 | Were there any devout Christians among the Nazis who participated in the Holocaust? How did they come to terms with the things they had done? How did they justify their actions in front of the altar of God? | [
{
"answer": "Not sure if this would be considered devout. Josef Tizo was a Catholic priest and also one of the leaders of the Slovaks Peoples Party a Clerical-Fascist party that was installed in power during WW2. It was also founded by another Catholic priest Andrej Hlinka, for which their paramilitary, the H... | null |
42iokp | many american football players have brain diseases in their old age because they have so many concussions during their career. why don't rugby players, who don't wear helmets, have this problem? | [
{
"answer": "Because American Football players wear helmets and protective armor, they regularly crash into each other way more violently than rugby players would, leading to the apparently paradoxical effect that football players' \"protection\" actually make the sport more dangerous. \n\nIn a similar case, th... | null |
6f60dj | When history says "Alexander founded a new city," what is being described here? | [
{
"answer": "Hi, not discouraging responses here, but fyi there was a fairly lengthy thread on this topic last week that would be worth catching up on - see here\n\n* [In ancient times I've heard that historical figures \"built cities\" like Alexander did at Bucephala in honor of his horse. How did a ruler in G... | null |
1gtbbl | Do we have any idea what the relationship between Sumer/Mesopotamia and Egypt was? | [
{
"answer": "According to [this website](_URL_0_) \"There is no mention of the Egyptians in the Sumerian archives, or vice-versa, and there is no direct evidence that they had a noticeable influence on one another, except for their propensity to build giant pyramids and ziggurats. Although on a modern map they ... | null |
4w3km1 | if i have an electrical circuit, run a current through it, and then suddenly interrupt the circuit, what happens to the electricity still within the circuit? | [
{
"answer": "Imagine a channel of water. On one end you pump in water, on the other end you suck water away. Imagine that you suddenly stop doing both. The water briefly builds up due to leftover inertia and then it stops moving.\n\nSame thing in a circuit. The electrons are slowly moving through your circuit. ... | null |
1kbb68 | When did nations begin to regularly levy taxes? | [
{
"answer": "Can you winnow this question down more, whether geographically, temporally or both? It's quite broad, considering that taxation was introduced, disappeared, and reintroduced at varying times as well as varying regions throughout history.\n\nAre you talking about taxation in antiquity? Late mediev... | null |
bf94sd | What are those curvy distortions in the air above a hot stove? | [
{
"answer": "The index of refraction (how much the speed of light changes through a medium) of a gas depends on its temperature. What you are seeing is light going through regions whose temperature is changing (and possibly also a changing composition, e.g. leaky propane above a bbq). You can see it more clearl... | null |
3hjlns | what happens during an internet outage? | [
{
"answer": "There can be a million reasons ... The chain from you to the data center is: PC -- > LAN -- > Router/Modem -- > Landline/cable/fibre to some more central place (plus converters) -- > Another Router/Modem -- > fatter line to data center -- > [more hardware] -- > interconnection with other ISP... | null |
2537bd | Why do scientists currently refer to Dark Matter as matter? Isn't it possible that the evidence for Dark Matter may actually be an incomplete understanding of gravity or other forces? | [
{
"answer": "I've had this same question. Observations of galactic interactions, however, point strongly to a cloud of invisible matter that accompanies galaxies. This is famously evident in the bullet cluster, where the mass distribution just isn't right, until one factors in dark matter.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n",
... | null |
3snuyq | What is an inertial frame of reference? | [
{
"answer": "It's a reference frame that's not accelerating. If you're just floating in space, you're in an inertial frame of reference. If you're on an accelerating spaceship, you're not, so you feel like there's something pulling you towards the engines when it's really just the engines accelerating towards y... | null |
740tkn | Looking at maps of Yugoslavia, its clear that large parts of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia had ethnic majorities from one of the other nations. Did this cause problems before the 90's? Were there any attempts to change the internal borders? | [
{
"answer": "The only real evidence I can find of any internal attempts to change borders prior to the late 80s/ early 90s was the Nazi and Fascist Italy attempting to \"persuade\" Croatia to become independent, to push for more autonomy so to speak. \nWhen Yugoslavia as a whole was invaded by Axis powers in 19... | null |
1ipyqt | Tesseract 4th dimension | [
{
"answer": "The square doesn't have to be within the other cube. When you see a tesseract drawn... What you're looking at is a 2 dimensional representation of a 3 dimensional representation of a 4 dimensional shape. If you were to build one out of matchsticks and view it front on at the correct angle, you'd ... | null |
bzamp4 | why do instruments sound different if sound is just vibrating air? | [
{
"answer": "It all has to do with what they call timbre.\n\nDifferent instruments may be capable of playing the same note or pitch, but they all do it differently. Not only is the pitch (or frequency of the note) being sounded, but also other frequencies get sounded, too. These might be overtones, or multipl... | null |
6m0ytn | there are people who claim that drinking beer gives them a "happy-go-lucky" drunk, but drinking whiskey or liquor makes them a "mean" drunk. what could cause this? | [
{
"answer": "It's mostly due to accelerated drunkenness. 1 shot of 80 proof liquor is roughly equivalent to 1 beer. So taking a shot is like drinking a whole beer in a matter of seconds. Even if you sip liquor, most people will end up drinking it faster if you are out with the boyz. So people that claim that a ... | null |
5u88pe | If the population of rome was so large in its early history, why is there so little written down? | [
{
"answer": "Why are you equating size of settlement with presence of surviving written literature? The two are in no way correlated. We have a plethora of sources from democratic Athens, including tragedy, comedy, history, and philosophy, and that city was absolutely tiny compared to Rome as far as populatio... | null |
2s9bxp | why isn't the data on a black box saved 'in the cloud'? | [
{
"answer": "Some of the newer devices can upload data, but it's a recent development that hasn't yet spread to every airline in every territory.\n\nIt's a lot of data to push, if you don't have a good connection. Many planes just don't have that sort of bandwidth.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer"... | null |
4a183y | if there are over 7 billion people in the world & only a limited number of features on the face (eyes, nose, chin, etc.)that can determine how a person looks, why is it that almost everyone looks different? | [
{
"answer": "There may be a limited number of features on human face, but there is a near infinite number of tiny changes you can make to them. \n\nSubtle changes in size, shape, and position of each of the individual features all add up to give everyone their own unique look.\n\nRecognizing faces is immensely ... | null |
1uixqj | when big movie producers send out movies to be reviewed by critics, shouldn't it be easy to catch who uploaded the dvdscr? | [
{
"answer": "It's a decent idea.\n\nAmazon tried to do something simillar for their e-book sale, they thought of placing 1-2 random spelling mistakes in each one, to see who uploaded something at a torrent tracker. But eventually they abandoned the plan. \n\nI'm not answering your question though :( ",
"pro... | null |
3qtynz | why are fruits that can be grown on the east coast so much more expensive to purchase than produce in california? | [
{
"answer": "Transport is basically cheap. You might add a nickel a pound to transport a truckload across the country.\n\nTransporting by ship might be a nickel a ton per thousand miles.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "/u/friend1949 explained why the shipping costs don't add significantly to t... | null |
5wo9y2 | why can't you compress a rar file with rar or zip? | [
{
"answer": "Compression is a technique for finding patterns in a file and writing it in a way that takes more space. For example instead of writing \"aaaaaaaa\" you may write 8*\"a\" which is much shorter. Or instead of writing \"abcdefgh\" you may write \"a\"-\"h\". However if you have already compressed a fi... | null |
mnehc | Considering the universe is constantly expanding, what would happen if you suddenly stopped in place? | [
{
"answer": "Weird as it might sound, the expansion of the Universe doesn't actually mean that you're moving at all. It means that the distance we measure between two fixed points will grow with time. It's a statement about how we measure distances - or in other words, the geometry of the Universe - rather than... | null |
5xt81u | Why were so many Nazi war criminals released very early into their prison sentences? | [
{
"answer": "Not only were Nazi war criminals released relatively early into their sentences, but also Japanese war criminals. This largely took place in the mid-1950's, not only by the United States, but the majority of the Western Allies, who realised that there was limited political value in holding war crim... | null |
127uc8 | Sports in History | [
{
"answer": "Goodness, where to begin...\n\nIn 1770s-1780s Canada, though not competitive, people loved \"carioling,\" a form of sled dragged by horses. Ice skating was also very popular, though hockey wouldn't be invented for another century.\n\nIn the Thirteen Colonies, there were many sports played. One of t... | null |
38y3yx | Please steer me in the right direction about Civil wars in Republican Rome | [
{
"answer": "Could you elaborate a bit?\n\n* What's the paper for?\n* Where have you searched for sources?\n* What have you found so far?\n* What do you know already? (You do know *something*.)\n\nAnything else you may think is relevant. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [... | null |
313f15 | how does diet coke cause cancer? was that just media hype for a while, or is there legitimacy behind it? | [
{
"answer": "Diet Coke contains Aspartame, which is an artificial sweetener that many people believed for a long time helped contribute to cancer, specifically brain cancer.\n\nWhile there are people that will argue this is true and swear by it, the overwhelming majority of the medical industry believes that it... | null |
fh3muh | clueless about economics. how will the dow dropping 1,400+ points today and a potential recesssion/etc affect everday working people like me? those who aren't wealthy. | [
{
"answer": "Jobs may begin to slow down due to worry or lack of funding. Because of this your employer may limit hours or lay people off.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Immediately, it won't, outside of any 401k you may have. If the market rebounds within a month or so, you probably won't see... | null |
5yzjlo | The rule of India by East India Company is famously cited as a case of Corporation ruling an entire country. How did this work in practise? Did they separate their Commercial activities and Governance? | [
{
"answer": "Follow up question: what was the British people's opinion of this rule by the East Indian company? Did they have any anxieties about a company having so much power or was it mostly just accepted?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Follow up question: what was the construction that the... | null |
1d51ia | Do worms have a home? | [
{
"answer": "They just kind of roam around eating tasty soil. No set place of residence other than the entire patch of soil they came off of",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "43146",
"title": "Hemichordate",
"section": "",
... | null |
25se4n | How much difference was there in the way different ancient Mediterranean people dressed and clothed themselves, before the dominance of the Roman Empire? | [
{
"answer": "Unfortunately I can't give you a very full answer at the moment as I am away from my computer for today, but I can write something more detailed tomorrow. Until then, I would recommend this website: _URL_0_\n\nAlong the side you can see there is a section dedicated to costume. It does not deal with... | null |
g74jp | What is the fastest you can move, taking into account relativity? | [
{
"answer": "Massive objects can get asymptotically close to the speed of light given enough force.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "An observer at your destination (your \"appointment\" location) would probably have a hard time distinguishing you traveling at 99.999% the speed of light and the ... | null |
20b4md | POW mail in WWII: were mail ships neutral or was mail routed through neutral countries/states, or... | [
{
"answer": "I believe this was answered in another thread, so to make a long story short, the [Red Cross did most of the leg work of delivering mail to prisoners of war](_URL_1_), at least in the European theater. Mail would be routed through a neutral country such as [Portugal, Switzerland or Sweden] (_URL_0... | null |
3c9nat | what is this 'google dream code' thing i keep seeing every where and what is it used for? | [
{
"answer": "Think of your own brain, and imagine you are five (slaps knee), lying down on a field of grass looking up at all of the funny shaped clouds in the sky.\n\nYou notice one cloud looks like something, but you can't quite put your finger on it. You think of every single thing you've ever seen in your l... | null |
1wmkg8 | Why did elevated beds arise in some cultures while others use beds low to the ground? | [
{
"answer": "**EDIT: /u/extesser is right, it's mostly dominated by heat conduction and not a temperature gradient. I'll leave the post untouched for the history books, since it sparked some interesting replies!**\n_________________________________________________________\n\nI can only speak for the Vikings in... | null |
sp8to | If a mosquito bites a person who is HIV positive, then bites me, will I become HIV positive? | [
{
"answer": "Almost assuredly not.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[This](_URL_0_) is a pretty good answer.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "368736",
"title": "Misconceptions about HIV/AIDS",
"s... | null |
6o0xcl | if california's housing market is already incredibly overpriced, why does it keep rising? | [
{
"answer": "Because the economy is still very strong, particularly in the Bay Area, people keep moving there. Home prices will drop once people stop wanting to move to California",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The core places that have growing home prices (commute-ready homes in San Francisco... | null |
7gmxo7 | When a person loses their vision in one eye, is their loss of depth-perception permanent or does the brain find a way to adapt? | [
{
"answer": "There are many monocular cues to depth such as parallax, relative size, atmospheric perspective, etc. you can find a list [here](_URL_3_). Some of these are both relative cues (something is farther away than something else) and some are absolute (something is this far away). If you close one of you... | null |
1cry92 | When / why did it become a custom to put your hand on your heart for patriotic moments (specifically US pledge of allegiance and national anthem) | [
{
"answer": "The hand over one's heart is a civilian salute. It is for use by civilians (people who are not in a nation's armed forces) at moments that would be appropriate for a military salute.\n\nSome countries (the US, Italy, etc.) use the hand over the heart as a civilian salute, some (Latin American count... | null |
9k69qk | I know why the inter-war Germany was called 'Weimar Republic', but who started using that term? And when? And did it have a positive/negative connotation? | [
{
"answer": "The name \"Weimar Republic\" was not really used much during the existence of the Republic. The Republic used \"Deutsches Reich\" as the official name, and \"Republik\" in various compounds, but Weimar was an informal title at best. Some Anglophone publications used Weimar Republic yet this was typ... | null |
36w0xr | Who were the most influential figures in the Bolshevik Party who weren't executed during the purges? Why did Stalin spare them? | [
{
"answer": "I think most influential is pretty subjective and the range of purges meant pretty much everyone who -was- overly influential and famous got purged. And the remainder of the Communist party in the aftermath of Stalin's purges was absolutely subordinated to him (with the possible exception of Beria)... | null |
vk0mt | French Colonies Gone Wrong | [
{
"answer": "It is hardly just France, The Belgian Congo and Portuguese Angola are hardly examples of successful states. For every successful colonial state you can point towards another that has been unsuccessful. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Vietnam is doing pretty well. Probably would ha... | null |
e7wo35 | when two tvs in tvs same house are run through the same cable service, why does one seem to always lag behind the other? | [
{
"answer": "A modern TV contains electronics which decode the digital HDMI signal and then turn it back into a picture and sound. Unfortunately these usually introduce a delay, and on some models it can be a notable fraction of a second, and it's not a standardized amount.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
ohc49 | What actually is going on as electrons move through a circuit? | [
{
"answer": "The best way to think of it is that the electrons in a wire are moving because of the electric field in the wire. The electric field is established in the wire when you connect it to the battery terminals, and the speed at which it propagates through the wire is the speed of light in that wire (or ... | null |
mqh35 | why can't leaded engines use unleaded petrol? | [
{
"answer": "Neither of those is correct. The leaded gasoline vapor can be compressed more than unleaded without spontaneously exploding due to the temperature increase. The compression ratio is determined by engine geometry, so an engine designed for leaded gas will compress unleaded gas to the point where it ... | null |
j9msq | From where do we measure distances between celestial bodies? (center-to-center? surface-to-surface?) | [
{
"answer": "It varies. Most celestial bodies aren't \"measured\", their distances are estimated using a variety of techniques.\n\nThe Moon for example can be measured by firing a laser at a small reflector on its surface (left by the Apollo mission) and measuring the time that the laser light takes to make the... | null |
8vxu8d | why does our heartbeat and blood pressure lower in our sleep and why is it important for our body to do so? | [
{
"answer": "* You are lying down. It takes more effort for your heart to pump blood straight up to your brain than it takes to pump when your whole body is horizontal\n\n* Your muscles aren't moving during sleep so they requires less blood\n\n* Your brain uses just as much blood/oxygen when sleeping as when aw... | null |
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