id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
12eqqm | Can all of chemistry be explained/modeled by physics? | [
{
"answer": "sort of yes, you can solve the [Schrödinger equation](_URL_0_)\n\nbut of more relevance is the XKCD article on [purity](_URL_1_) ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes, that's true. All theoretical chemistry is based off physics, and has been since around the 1920's. Virtually all th... | null |
344uqr | In Ancient Rome, did Gladiators pick on Scholars and call them a Roman equivalent of 'nerds'? | [
{
"answer": "No, for most of the empire the nerds held the political power.\n\nSuccess in Roman politics depended upon education and connections. You had to know the right people, and you met them while attending elite schools that trained you in the rhetorical skills, philosophical knowledge, and deportment ne... | null |
2bcnna | Do dogs know our faces or do they use our scent to differentiate between us? | [
{
"answer": "They know our faces. An easy way to check this is go outside with your windows closed and when your dog goes to the windows, look to see if he notices you.\n\nIf you want a more science-y answer, my *guess*: dogs were able to be domesticated since they were able to succesfully socialize (in their ... | null |
l6787 | the difference between a url, urn, and uri | [
{
"answer": "The simplest explanation starts by categorizing: The first thing you should know is that an URL or a URN are **both** URIs.\n\nAn [**URI** (Uniform Resource Identifier)](_URL_3_), is a way to identify some type of resource on the Internet, they are handled by browsers and other network capable appl... | null |
3ocn90 | What DID "Game of Thrones" get right? | [
{
"answer": "Game of Thrones is a work of fiction and should be treated as such. If you have a question about the historical accuracy of *historical fiction* (e.g. 'How accurate is the Sharpe series of books?' 'How accurate is Stanley Kubrick's portrayal of 18th century Ireland in 'Barry Lyndon'?') you are more... | null |
mpmh1 | credit default swaps | [
{
"answer": "So ShittyBank offers loans to people buying homes (mortgages.) The bank writes you a mortgage, buys your home for you and lets you live there as long as you make monthly payments to pay off the loan. ShittyBank does this hundreds of thousands of times all over the country.\n\nNow ShittyBank turns a... | null |
1r0prc | Were there major tensions between the different Jewish groups that came to Israel? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, from what I gather after talking to my Hebrew teacher and my Grandfather there was a lot of tension (and there still is) between European Jews how see Israel as a European State in the Mid-east and the Jews from the Levant, North Africa and Persia who see Israel as a modern Middle Eastern stat... | null |
5j2iot | what factors contribute to cultures advancing at different rates? | [
{
"answer": "Cultures advance for two reasons, because they have to and because they can.\n\nCultures have to advance when they are facing a threat. Common threats include another nation attacking you, a new disease, or localized climate change.\n\nCultures can advance when they can spend time doing thing other... | null |
3i0rt4 | How come the Iberia in the caucuses and the Iberian peninsula share the same name in spite of being thousands of miles apart at opposite ends of the Roman empire? | [
{
"answer": "I submitted [this question](_URL_1_) awhile ago and only got one reply. You can check it out while you are waiting for a better reply, as I would like one as well. \n\nAs a summary it was said it is unclear if there is a link between them, but the [etymology site](_URL_0_) linked in the reply gives... | null |
dm23vn | why do scientists think hubble constant (a characteristic of the universe expansion rate) is actually a constant? | [
{
"answer": "When you look farther away you also look back in time, so when you detect light that has been travelling for 10 billion years from a distant quasar you're also detecting the results of whatever happened to it during that time.\n\nThe amount of redshift (energy loss due to the expansion of space whi... | null |
3skm9d | how was nyc able to build and afford their entire subway system over the past 100+ years, but the 2nd ave line keeps running into budget issues and delays? | [
{
"answer": "I would say the construction costs have soared. Wages are high for construction workers compared to the past. An immigrant was willing to work for low wages. Now there are unions, OSHA, overtime rules, etc. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"... | null |
4nae14 | Fiction makes such a big deal of British, US and Soviet spies. In the end, how important were they really in ending (or surviving) the Cold War? | [
{
"answer": "No replies yet so I'll try to offer something.\n\nThere is a lot of uncertainty when exploring what-if scenarios. You can't be sure what may have happened without the efforts of the spies involved. The best example I can give of spies potentially contributing to the peaceful resolution of the Col... | null |
22vlna | how do marketers get so much data on me? | [
{
"answer": "They check the listings in the county tax assessors office, which lists dates of sales, as well as amounts and names. It's also more than possible that the realtor sold your data.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's a result of \"big data\" analytics and marketers' increasing abil... | null |
3q5r5v | how do mom porcupines and hedgehogs give birth without the babies' spines causing any harm to the mother's insides? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not a porcupine expert, but my guess, is they the baby's quills are still soft/not fully hardened, and the babies are probably pushed out head-first, so that the quills lay down. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A porcupine's quills are hair, not stiff rods. When they give birt... | null |
alqf14 | How excentric is the solar system's orbit around the gravitational center of the milky way? | [
{
"answer": "The words you are looking for are apogalacticon and perigalaticon.\n\n \n\n\nThe eccentricity of the sun's orbit about Sagittarius A\\\\\\*, (the center of the Milky Way galaxy) is 1.07, which leads to a difference of about 15% between apo- and peri- galacticon. This leads to the two points being ... | null |
z0l8l | the oil business | [
{
"answer": "Let's say you have a lemonade stand. You charge a thousand dollars per lemonade, and since it's really hot, you make a million dollars a day.\n\nWell, obviously, that can't last. Someone else will open up a lemonade stand and try to take your business away by only charging $750. Pretty soon there a... | null |
a5tamj | why is it that bands/singers can have wildly successful careers sometimes spanning decades, dozens of albums, and countless recorded tracks, yet only have those 3 or 4 songs that really get any airplay/recognition? | [
{
"answer": "Short answer, program managers are lazy. It's easy to stick with the 'classics'. It's safe. \n\nAlso if a band is around long enough they may not fit the style of the station with their new/old stuff. Classic rock stations are going to play the hell out of 60/70 era Rolling Stones, but wont tou... | null |
4b8yzm | how does bracing yourself for an impact actually make the impact worse? | [
{
"answer": "Because your muscles tense up and become rigid and have no \"give\" at that point. If you don't know it's coming, you will be loose and more flexible which would help with NOT further jarring the flexed muscle.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's all about pressure. My favorite ex... | null |
4kg52l | Is there a speed a cell phone can go to not receive wifi or cell signal anymore? | [
{
"answer": "The frequency bands for both Wi-Fi and LTE are both reasonably narrow, so you will hit a point where the waves for the node you are trying to connect to are red or blue shifted to the point where your device will not be able to communicate on them\n\nA long time before you get to that point, you wi... | null |
1jotbw | Is there any point during Operation Barbarossa that Axis victory over the USSR was obtainable? | [
{
"answer": "Not really, no. The only way the Germans could have scored a victory was to have Russia negotiate for peace after taking Moscow, which the Soviet regime had little intention of doing as it was a fight for the very survival of the Russian nation and Stalin did not want to appear so weak abroad. Ther... | null |
3az64q | Do animals actually understand each other's calls like humans understand speech? | [
{
"answer": "Like humans? Yes, maybe. We think dolphins actually have a complex language with syntax. There is evidence that they even each have individual names that they get from their mother's name. But we haven't made much headway in learning their language if it's there. \n \nOther animals certainl... | null |
tcviz | Is there any credence to the marketing claim that a better
bed provides a "better night's sleep"? | [
{
"answer": "I think you partly answered your own question with the \"springs\" comment. Better just means that you are able to experience enough deep sleep at night. Things that are uncomfortable, painful, noisy, etc rouse you from this deep sleep. Since there are distinct stages of sleep, you spend more time ... | null |
5m1gf6 | how does the u.s. government owe money to itself? | [
{
"answer": "Governments borrow money by issuing bonds, which are simply agreements to pay back the money, along with a modest amount of interest, by a particular date (the bond's maturity date). Try googling \"How do government issued bonds work?\" or similar.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "T... | null |
u8abm | the sufi sect of islam. | [
{
"answer": "I won't be able to go into much detail on account of illiteracy, but just for starters:\n\nSufiism is not as much a 'sect' of Islam as a way of thinking. It is kind of an 'approach' to how to treat the philosophies of your sect (be it sunni or shia or whatever). That said, it is very distinct and '... | null |
1s0kal | Is the common cold or flu transmissible through contact with the infected person's blood? | [
{
"answer": "Think this came up in one of my lectures the other week; I believe it would be *possible* but unlikely since the virus only replicates in certain cells (in the case of influenza in the cells of the upper respiratory tract, particularly the nose), and is therefore only present in large quantities at... | null |
6zdvpc | how/why does our brain mishear lyrics? | [
{
"answer": "Because rappers need to demonstrate better diction!\n\nDammnit, i love hip hop but if i hear another rapper garble nonsense into my headphones im gonna lose it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Being a plastic organ, the brain is adaptative and predictive, as proven [here](_URL_0_).... | null |
a2c6dx | what is *first run syndication*, how does it work, and how is it different from standard *broadcast syndication* | [
{
"answer": "A first-run syndication show is one that is sold to individual local TV stations instead of to a national network. The show won't be available in all regions and will play at different times in different cities.\n\nA TV station has certain hours of the day when they decide locally what programs to ... | null |
2dpex6 | how those little baby doll toy bottles work where you hold it upside down and the liquid seems to appear like he drank it, but when you hold it right side up, it refills...? | [
{
"answer": "The bottle is actually two containers (one inside the other). There is a thin gap between the two which is filled with liquid.\n\nThis allows a very small amount of liquid to appear to fill the entire bottle. When you tip it, the liquid flows through the gap and down into a resevoir in the top, mak... | null |
29rwd6 | why is it considered immoral to outsource labor to workers in countries willing to work for very little money? | [
{
"answer": "The problem is many of these companies fired people just to have the work done elsewhere for people. The companies took away the ability for people to provide for their families and sent their jobs elsewhere just so the company could save a little bit of money.\n\nEdit: Also, these outsourced jobs ... | null |
fhk1uc | how does standard bar soap clean your hands if it does not have any antibacterial additives? especially when the soap uses animal fat as a base component. | [
{
"answer": "It emulsifies the dirt and oil on your skin letting it be washed away.\n\nTo be fair all the antibacterial this and that really only makes us feel safer as it and people not taking tgeir antibiotics properly is leading to drug resistant bacteria.\n\nThis pandemic however is a virus so antibacterial... | null |
1vfrow | why is the vatican and the pope in italy? wouldn't it be more logical for the head of the church to be in the country jesus was active in? | [
{
"answer": "Christianity wasnt popular in Israel, never rising above the status of a sect or cult - it was only its adoption by the roman emporer constantine which raised it's status and propelled it to becoming a world religion",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's because that's where Simon P... | null |
mj4u0 | A solid argument against the earth being billions of years old? | [
{
"answer": "I think taken one at a time, these arguments could likely all be defeated by logic and science. Why not start here?\n\n51-52 _URL_0_ According to this, trace amounts of carbon 14 could be found in coal and oil due to contamination of bio matter \n\nArticle citation: _URL_1_",
"provenance": null... | null |
zb2pn | So I was told today by a professor (not a science professor) that the Theory of Gravity is not actually proven and that we don't actually know how it works. Is this true? | [
{
"answer": "Nothing is proven. If he was trying to enlighten you with regard to empiricism, then great. If he was trying to sow seeds of doubt with regard to scientific endeavour, then hey! draw your own conclusions.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Unless you are using a rather weak definiti... | null |
n5l33 | Do Brita filters need to be replaced as often as suggested? Or is Brita just capitalizing on replacement filters? | [
{
"answer": "The activated carbon does get saturated at some point, but don't buy a whole new filter: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The activated carbon does get saturated at some point, but don't buy a whole new filter: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
8wf7sj | why do raised areas of the body (collarbone/cheekbone etc) get more severely affected by sunburn than the surrounding area? | [
{
"answer": "Because natural shadows occurs when these raised areas “intercept” sun rays thereby blocking the lower lying areas from absorbing light. Inversely there is nothing shadowing your most protruding body bits hence why they are likelier to burn. But rest assured if you lay perfectly still at a perpendi... | null |
3wy97g | Why did bread never become a big part of the Chinese diet? | [
{
"answer": "It did! It's just more traditionally confined to the North.\n\nThere's not just one Chinese cuisine. Rice cultivation wasn't actually a part of the early Chinese diet at all. There's no word in Sinotibetan languages for rice that isn't a loan. In Tibetoburman they borrowed the vocabulary from Tai l... | null |
4afhe3 | What is the importance of irrational numbers? | [
{
"answer": "even the square roots of certain numbers (like 2) are irrational. pi and e are in a sense even more.. let's say you need to put in more work to describe them. \nthe roots are zeros of polynomials with rational coefficients. pi and e aren't. \n\nwhen you start out with rational numbers (ie fraction... | null |
spu4w | how do forex brokers work? | [
{
"answer": "Brokers in general provide access to markets, and clearing and settlement facilities. So when you buy some euros, they handle all the details of actually getting those euros into your account (including routing your order to the proper market and getting it executed). \n\nI am not sure what you mea... | null |
2pnsgj | Was Shay's Rebellion Really a Result of a Weak Central Government? | [
{
"answer": "A Shays' Rebellion question! My favorite!\n\nThe primary weakness of the existing governmental structure that the rebellion exposed was the inability for the Massachusetts Governor to quickly raise the troops necessary to fight off the rebels.\n\nYou mention that the rebels were fairly easily dispe... | null |
bpm77q | how do car horns project so well? | [
{
"answer": "So usually cars have two horns in the front of the car, a high pitch and a low pitch. So a standard electric car horn does have a diaphragm just like a speaker. Inside there’s basically a plunger connected to the center of the diaphragm and on the other side of the plunger is an electromagnet. When... | null |
1mpkbe | How did Fascists deal with healthcare? | [
{
"answer": "Both Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy were concerned with healthcare and promoting health in general, for a couple reasons. Firstly, for reasons of natalism. Militarist-expansionist states need a growing population to make up for deaths in war and settle conquered territory, so both the Nazis and the... | null |
1y79ad | What types of plants played the role grasses before grass evolved? | [
{
"answer": "The short answer is [pretty weird](_URL_0_) with a lot of [seriously alien-looking wtf plants](_URL_1_).\n\nMost plants you see today are vascular plants; they have xylem and phloem (picture little pipes running from roots to leaves) to carry water up to the leaves and sugar down to the roots respe... | null |
1e40ib | how the gunslingers in western films shoot so perfectly from the hip? | [
{
"answer": "Because it's fiction. \n\nIn real life, no one actually fought like that. Gun slinger fights in the wild west were messy, and usually involved many combatants, not 2 doing a stand off. It was no different than modern gang shoot outs, except their guns were far less accurate, and shooters would typi... | null |
ckttjw | what exactly makes the popping sounds when popping/cracking your muscles? | [
{
"answer": "Air pockets between your joints. When your joints are moving, it can occasionally cause a gas bubble of CO2 between the joints. When you \"crack\" said joints, the sound is the air bubble collapsing. This is my most knuckle cracking only happen once after using your fingers for a while and you can'... | null |
2dosl6 | does the earth travel the exact same orbit every year or does it change slightly? | [
{
"answer": "The orbit definitely changes, but by how much? With Newton's law of universal gravitation (F=GmM/d^2 ), the force of gravity is dependent on the square of the distance between two objects. The force between two objects can literally never be 0, but it will get really small. That means every object ... | null |
60pdvr | how many days of fasting does it take for your metabolism to slow down? | [
{
"answer": "This isn't as simple as how many days. A person's metabolism is based on multiple factors, such as age, gender, genetics, etc. As far as fasting if you mean eating smaller meals then it won't have much of an effect. If you mean more a person that doesn't eat for a day and is barely eating then they... | null |
4iillq | why does rubbing a coin on a metal surface make a vending machine accept it? | [
{
"answer": "I wasent aware this was a thing, Have you tried it? Because this sounds ridiculous considering how vending machines work",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Vending machines indentify coins by several criteria, commonly size, weight and electric conductivity, as well as a magnet trap f... | null |
3z32y4 | just watched "the big short" someone please explain exactly how the main characters made money. | [
{
"answer": "To address your questions;\n\nBonds (groups of mortgages, with bad mortgages mixed in) were bought and sold. They had variable rates and terms that made it very easy to obtain a mortgage regardless if someone was qualified or not. \n\nTheir \"bets\" did not really effect the economy. They had caug... | null |
1x2gcr | how does electrical grounding work for ships? why is it so complicated? | [
{
"answer": "It's not about electrical safety directly. If you use a metal hull as ground, especially in salt water, electrolysis can cause corrosion.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm not sure about civilian ships, but in the Navy we used an ungrounded 3 phase system for reliability.",
... | null |
8g8106 | why after months of making no noise does my fan catch something in it to start making a rattling noise. | [
{
"answer": "Spinning and vibrations can loosen screws. Loose screws cause pieces to knock against eachother. It should be an easy fix unless something is actually broken.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Fans are balanced to eliminate as much vibration while the blades are rotating. If somethin... | null |
1hktc0 | how nyc is able to implement "stop and frisk". | [
{
"answer": "Bloomberg prefers asking forgiveness rather than permission. The city will be sued at some point, but by that time Bloomberg hopes to have something to show for this very questionable policy. He did it with the park smoking ban, too. Make bold laws, let someone else work to get rid of it.\n\nTha... | null |
1ahfm0 | What are some causes of the tank in WWI? | [
{
"answer": "You pretty much hit it on the head already. The tank was developed to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare, nothing morehere and t was certainly no desire to replace cavalry. In fact, on the Western Front, offensives were planned with cavalry to be used in conjunction with tanks. And they had t... | null |
34f9q8 | statutory rape? | [
{
"answer": "The idea behind statutory rape laws is that young people are much easier to manipulate, are frequently placed in situations where adults have considerable power over them, and haven't developed enough judgement to make potentially large decisions. \n\nThose factors combine to make any potential ac... | null |
objra | Seriously: What came first, the egg or the chicken? | [
{
"answer": "In terms of timeline, the dinosaurs were laying eggs before birds had even become a separate biological class, so the very first animal that could even possibly have been designated as a type of fowl would have come *long* after the first egg.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
2hw3s7 | why is push-back from power utilities against solar power such a big deal? | [
{
"answer": "There are some laws in place which require utilities to purchase excess generation. These laws didn't really have as much of an impact on the utilities back when there weren't many cases of this, but as it's become more common they are more concerned about it.\n\nFor utilities it'd be in their int... | null |
1r8gcg | why in the usa do black people typically vote for the democratic party when the gop is the party of emancipation and used to have the so-called "black" vote? when did it change? | [
{
"answer": "The New Deal (1930s) started the change in voting patterns, and Truman's desegregation of the military (1948) also shifted the partisan identification of blacks in the US towards Democrats, but the overwhelming margins today stem from the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act of 1964 and 1965... | null |
1nh7uf | why do we like listening to sad music and watching scary movies when sadness and fear are negative emotions? | [
{
"answer": "It's not the feelings of being sad and scared that are so enjoyable, its the psychological notion that you are in control of those experiences and that you are actually safe and sound. There is also the release of adrenaline with the fear response.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": nu... | null |
4dntl3 | facebook bought whatsapp for $22 billion a while back. they just updated their app and claim that nobody, not even themselves can read the messages and calls now. whatsapp has close to zero revenue. what's in it for facebook? | [
{
"answer": "The user base. Facebook cares about time spent on Facebook. Whatsapp has 1 billion users. Suppose whatsapp adds a feature that causes people to spend more time on whatsapp, eg a newsfeed. Now 1 billion people have less time to spend on Facebook. Facebook makes less money.\n\nSource: know whatsapp e... | null |
aa0spm | why does toothpaste with the colours of red white and blue never mix up | [
{
"answer": "The gel compartments are near the nozzle of the toothpaste tube. Most of the tube has white toothpaste. As the toothpaste is squeezed through the nozzle, it passes the gel compartments and gains the characteristic stripes. They are not mixed until the very end of the tube.\n\nEdit: [Here is a youtu... | null |
761i4b | if i'm driving at a constant speed of 60mph and get rear-ended by a vehicle which is moving at a constant 80mph, would the force of impact be the same as if i were sitting at 0mph and got rear ended by someone driving 20mph? | [
{
"answer": "yes, the impact would have the same amount of force. \n\nThe big difference would be the whole spinning out of control at 60 mph would be much more dangerous than at 0 mph.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yes, you would experience the same force, but this doesn't mean the same thin... | null |
d9hnt7 | In Medievel Europe, Were Jewish People More Literate than Average? | [
{
"answer": "It is pretty much impossible to know for sure, because, like you said, they didn't have comprehensive population surveys, and we have no records about most people's lives. In particular, we have almost no records of people who couldn't write, because they didn't write anything. So even if we have l... | null |
79378n | What were the difference in the military physical qualifications during WW2 between the various powers? | [
{
"answer": "As a follow up, were there differences in mental or educational qualifications as well? \n\nI know from [this excellent answer](_URL_0_) by /u/the_howling_cow that the US military often rejected recruits for not meeting literacy qualifications. But I assume that the Soviets, Japanese and even Germ... | null |
88z2be | How does being born blind or deaf influence the way you think? | [
{
"answer": "DeafBlind people learn tactile sign language. So they think in that language. \n\nIf you're interested in something more deeper, there have been studies that show hearing people are able to memorize 7 short bits of information (like a phone number) in only one direction, while Deaf people are abl... | null |
bmhvg3 | Did WW1 really have a reason? | [
{
"answer": "You can point to some widespread elements that contributed to the war. Social Darwinism, nationalism, militarism may have, to debatable degrees, made the leadership and population of Europe more accepting of the idea of a general conflict. There was likely also an lack of appreciation for the ris... | null |
1l2tsg | why do 2 minute offenses in the nfl seem to be more efficient than the normal offense? | [
{
"answer": "the 2-minute offense, also known as the \"hurry up\", seeks to play as many downs as possible in the quickest time. A defense usually puts new guys in during the game (i.e. bigger dudes on 3rd and short to stop the run). The hurry-up prevents this, by not giving the defense enough time to swap pe... | null |
3gk84n | how do these websites that buy gift cards from consumers work? | [
{
"answer": "They re-sell your gift card. If you browse around the site you'll usually also find gift cards for sale, those are the cards they bought. They make money by selling them for a few bucks more than they bought them, they aren't using the cards or anything like that.",
"provenance": null
},
{... | null |
469v91 | Did the Confederate troops that accidentally shot Stonewall Jackson suffer any repercussions for their actions? | [
{
"answer": "The commander of the 18th NC, Major then Col John Barry retained hi s command till the end of the war and was both wounded and served as acting Brigadier General in the Overland Campaign. He died soon after the war and supposedly continuously expressed remorse.\n\nThe Brigade commander General Jame... | null |
33s5hn | gearing/leverage (finance) | [
{
"answer": "Gearing and leverage refer to the level of debt a company or financial venture has taken on. To see why it's called leverage, let's look at a simple example.\n\nLet's say I have a business venture that can always earn a 10% return on capital investment. That means, every time you give me $100 to bu... | null |
zuqwb | if the fec restricts individual contributions to a federal election to $2500, how can celebrities and the super wealthy hold $40,000 a plate fundraisers? | [
{
"answer": "$2500 is the limit for individual candidates, you can also give $30k to the national parties, and $5000 to PACs. So that $40k will get split up in some legal way, but in general the candidates will have direct or indirect access to those funds.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,... | null |
ptj22 | How long is the delay between the stimulus and response for any sensory organ in the body? | [
{
"answer": "You are aware of a delay when someone touches you? Most people are not normally aware of anything coming between ourselves and what we see/hear/touch (we aren't aware of the various pathways the signal travels in our body or our brain interpreting the signals). Also perceptual experience is seeming... | null |
e87jte | What qualities did furs from North America have that made them so desirable to Europeans? Were commonly worn clothes prior to the Fur Trade really much worse, or was it primarily an aesthetic/fashion/status thing? | [
{
"answer": " One of the biggest qualities North American furs had was a simple one: they were there to use in the first place. One of the largest sources of supply for European furs before 1492 was in northern Russia, flowing into Western Europe primarily via Novgorodian and later Russian traders through the ... | null |
dcb6in | Is it possible to have a non-gaseous planet with permanent storms like Jupiter? And what would the conditions have to be for that to happen? | [
{
"answer": "It would have to be covered in some sort of fluid atmosphere in order for the storms to have a media to propogate in. For example a liquid covered planet with oceans over the entire surface several kilometres deep at a minimum would be covered in constant ongoing chaotic weather systems which could... | null |
5ozrvm | why do so many asian demonyms end with "ese"? (chinese, vietnamese, japanese, burmese) | [
{
"answer": "This is a good question, specifically why we say \"Chinese\" instead of \"Chinan\" (or why we say \"Korean\" instead of \"Korese\")",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "From [this source](_URL_0_):\n\n > The -an, -ian, and -ese suffixes all stem from the Latin adjectival naming system:\... | null |
30d740 | why are saudi arabia and iran are having a war in yemen? | [
{
"answer": "Same reason most wars were fought in the 20th century. It's about ensuring a sphere of influence.\n\nIf the Sunni side wins, it's another ally for the Saudis. If the Shia side wins, it's an ally for Iran.\n\nBoth countries have long been locked in a struggle to be the \"top dog\" in the region. Jus... | null |
4tpzmu | the "planet x" conspiracy | [
{
"answer": "This might be a bit long winded as there's a bit of background to get through.\n\nOk, before we really could see well to Pluto and beyond, we knew that funny things were influencing Neptune and Pluto's orbits. A lot of explanations were put forth, and one of them was that there was a relatively lar... | null |
ewrlw | Why do vaccines cause fever and flu-like symptoms in some people? | [
{
"answer": "vaccines are made with small amounts of what they are meant to treat.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Would it make things clearer if I pointed out that fevers are (in many cases) *not* caused by the flu? Your own body is what causes the fever when you have the flu; it's an immune... | null |
4m3x74 | the difference between existentialism, nihilism and absurdism | [
{
"answer": "Existentialism - individual people are free and responsible to determine their own purpose and development through their actions.\n\nNihilism - extreme skepticism, belief that life is meaningless.\n\nAbsurdism - attempts of humans to determine meaning of anything is absurd due to the vast amount of... | null |
69frsd | how do car key-fobs work and why do we not see machines that can mass-spoof unlock signals like computer passwords? | [
{
"answer": "What you're thinking of is called brute force algorithm. Where you just try everything. Now it's been done before where people try to get the key fobs signal and replicate them to steal a car, which makes brute force unnecessary because then you might end up signaling the alarm. ",
"provenance"... | null |
cpicdw | how did all(or most) countries in the world decided to bring in same laws/rules to living, eg; lights on street red+amber+green or sirens on police being red and blue and many others? | [
{
"answer": "Unofficial conventions to begin with, international agreements and the UN later.\n\nThis [Wikipedia article](_URL_0_) is a good start, but there is a myriad of different local, regional and national agreements and standards bodies that regulate these things.\n\nI can't speak to emergency vehicles i... | null |
f8j0ld | If fusion power was as widespread as fission today, what would the worst case "meltdown" scenario be and how bad would it be compared to fission meltdowns? | [
{
"answer": "Since fusion reactions take place only under very specific conditions (very high temperature and pressure), any disruption in the operation of the reactor would cause the necessary conditions for fusion to disappear, which would halt the reaction.\n\nUnlike nuclear fission, which in many cases can ... | null |
nozak | what would happen if hackers stole all the digital money from all the countries and corporations? | [
{
"answer": "Digital money doesn't actually exist, it is just a system that you gave the bank money, now they owe you that money and you can ask for it when you wish. You cannot steal what does exist.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Digital money doesn't actually exist, it is just a system that... | null |
argabs | how does a car shutting down automatically at a stop light/sign help with gas consumption? | [
{
"answer": "The amount of fuel spent idling at an intersection, keeping the engine rotating are a slow speed with a light load, far exceeds the amount needed to restart the engine.\n\nModern car engines start up very quickly.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "An idling engine burns fuel without ... | null |
3klxbi | Did the Andean countries ever get into conflict with the mayans or the aztecs? | [
{
"answer": "No, they have absolutely no known direct contact. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "6845087",
"title": "Zapotec civilization",
"section": "Section::::Warfare and resistance.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 3... | null |
duby1z | Which of the basic forces of nature is the strongest? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, your teacher is correct.\n\nThe reason why gravity seems to be the strongest over large length scales is that the strong and weak forces have very short ranges (~ 10^(-15) and 10^(-18) meters, respectively), and electrostatic forces tend to cancel each other out when you have material that is ... | null |
1skyg0 | what exactly does it mean to "hedge" against something? | [
{
"answer": "In essence, a \"hedge\" is an investment designed to offset substantial losses (or gains) made by an individual or organization.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Hedge means to fence in. \n\nIn these cases they are trying to fence in potential losses. You might buy stock in an elec... | null |
1rzhv7 | Are there organisms with more than two functional sexes? | [
{
"answer": "Some species have multiple morphs which have different behaviors depending on which \"gender\" they are. Where they may be multiple male genders each having a distinct behavioral pattern. But in the terms of reproduction, no species requires three genders. It doesn't make sense because of how dna w... | null |
2eqv5d | Transgenic engineering: when a gene from an original organism is completely foreign to the new host organism, how do we know where to insert it in the host genotype? | [
{
"answer": "Foreign genes inserted into a host genome need to have some type of regulatory DNA (called a \"promoter\") in order to be transcribed and translated (\"made into protein\"). There are two ways to do this, generally: 1) include a promoter region just before the foreign gene such that the inserted DN... | null |
126h20 | Why does language become more difficult to read as it gets tilted sideways and then upside-down? Can't our brains compensate? | [
{
"answer": "They can, that's why it just gets more difficult but not completely impossible.\n\nMost people learn to read(and practice reading) on things that aren't tilted or upside down. As you learn to read, your brain physically reconfigures itself to handle the task of translating squiggles on a page into... | null |
e73gck | the difference between being asleep, being unconscious and being put asleep with anestesia. | [
{
"answer": "Unconsciousness is a broad term. Being conscious means reacting to outside stimuli. A sleeping person is technically conscious because they still react to light, sound, pressure, etc. Someone in a coma - medically induced or otherwise - typically will not.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"ans... | null |
1nu8jp | How Nazis Evaluated The French Revolution? | [
{
"answer": "Add on question: I'm currently reading a book about the history of Communism, and the author talks about how Karl Marx and many other socialists drew inspiration from the Jacobins. But in describing the Jacobins, it seems they had many qualities that Fascists would value (being against conservative... | null |
1zdc74 | space coordinates? | [
{
"answer": "There are several astronomical coordinate systems: Horizontal (AltAzimuth), Equatorial, Ecliptic, and Galactic are four commonly used, and each has it's own purpose. The choice of which coordinate system you use depends on what you're looking at, what kind of instrument you're using, and who you're... | null |
33vmsq | Is there any single cell in my body that would have any effect if it suddenly ceased to be? | [
{
"answer": "The human body has a lot of redundancy as a protective mechanism...at least off the top of my head I can't think of a situation where functional loss would occur from the loss of a single cell.\n\nAwesome question though.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is a theory in neurosc... | null |
2jaba7 | Were Oktoberfest celebrations held in the German Democratic Republic? | [
{
"answer": "The short answer is no, but that would be a bit untruthful since I think what you mean is something else (if not, I apologize):\n\nOktoberfest is not a pan-German phenomenon, it isn't even a pan-Bavarian (whose culture seems to be often associated with Germany in General abroad) one. Oktoberfest is... | null |
19lgwd | How did Spanish theologians try to legitimise Spanish overseas expansion in the 16th century, and the treatment of the native people that they 'acquired?' | [
{
"answer": "Who is this Vitaria of which you speak? I studied a bit about the period you're talking about but I can't recall the name and Google searches give me nothing.\n\nIn any case, have you heard about the Valladolid debate? It was a debate by two Spanish theologians about the treatment of the native sub... | null |
1xtik1 | what exactly does oil have to do with the wars in afghanistan and iraq? | [
{
"answer": "oil doesnt have really anything to do with either conflict. iraq does have the worlds 4 largest reserves, but the us doesnt even have access to them. they let the iraqi's bid them out and now china's gas company, BP, Total Sa, and Sidanco are the owners of the oil extraction. theres no oil in afgha... | null |
2cz4ce | why don't device manufacturers provide higher rate chargers with the device? | [
{
"answer": "I think it can shorten the battery life.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "My understanding was always that it could shorten the life of the battery as well as cause the charging circuit to think the battery is fully charged and stop charging (or start trickle charging), even though ... | null |
644sw5 | Why are energy levels of electrons quantized? | [
{
"answer": " > I've read on Yahoo answers that these quantized energy levels are harmonic solutions to Schrödinger's equation and that just like there are some harmonic frequencies that a bell rings at, there are certain harmonic solutions to the equation. In which case my question would be that is this due to... | null |
dj5pqs | custom feeds. how are they, how do they work, how do you edit them? | [
{
"answer": "A multireddit, now renamed to “custom feed”, is a group of two or more subreddits. Think of it as a folder in your bookmarks. Instead of seeing everything in your home feed, you will see just the ones in that folder. This is the main way I use Reddit. I have all of my subs grouped into topics look ... | null |
60ljgk | if our field of vision is limited, why can we not see or imagine "nothing" on the outer edges of our vision, or "black" like the top/bottom edges of movies | [
{
"answer": "Your brain already \"erases\" information you see but you don't need, as well as \"fills in the blanks\" for information that's missing or assumed.\n\nyou have a blindspot in each eye but if you look at a wall, you don't see two black circles, your visual center just automatically paints in the bli... | null |
1vselb | why does yellow highlighter not show up when you copy it? and why can't you copy red pages? | [
{
"answer": "It's just a matter of contrast. Most copy machines only print black and white; they can't even produce gray except with [dithering](_URL_0_). So every color on the page has to be converted to either black or white. Yellow is very close to white, so it disappears. Red is sort of a half-dark colo... | null |
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