id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
2fvdp5 | What did the public think of Castrati? How was life for them past their singing age? Did the public accept/approve the castration for music practice? | [
{
"answer": "This forum has a resident castrati expert, hopefully he sees it and answers the question. They are a fascinating subject. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nThis is your man with the answers.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Oooh one in my subject area!! Best mark this in my diary, this only happens... | null |
g3vpg8 | why does our teeth not erode away when we are brushing our teeth (and using them in other ways) every single day? | [
{
"answer": "If the tooth enamel is only gently weakened it can regenerate. Toothpaste is specifically made to help your teeth do this regeneration. If you significantly damage your tooth enamel it is gone forever and your tooth underneath will likely begin to rot.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer"... | null |
amhg3w | what's the significance of the queen's guard's hats? bonus explanation: what purpose do they serve in a modern attack with glowing uniforms and massive heads? | [
{
"answer": "The queen's guard aren't commandos that get sent on covert Missions.\n\nThey're meant to stand out, and be a very visible show. They aren't just ceremonial, though. They're full trained soldiers in their own right on full guard duty.\n\nBut to do their job there is no need to hide or blend in. Th... | null |
3jbmcg | Origins of Japanese and Korean, and why they sound similar? | [
{
"answer": "Korean and Japanese are both *language isolates*, that is, languages not provably related to any other language. Okay, recently a dialect of Japanese has been moved to related language, but so far there are no ties between Korean and Japanese. A proposed Altaic superfamily would still leave them le... | null |
hp1gn | Can you actually hear bullets whizzing past your head? | [
{
"answer": "Yes you can. I've heard it.\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I was told by a Vietnam veteran that the whizzing sound is a misconception. He said it is more of a clapping sound when a bullet goes by you when your being shot at, due to the bullet breaking the sound barrier. ",
... | null |
a6i477 | How did Native American tribes’ tactics to resist European encroachment evolve? With expulsion being a common fate for those lucky enough to survive, did streams of survivors travel to Western tribes, warning them of U.S. strength and brutality? If so, how did this change Native responses? | [
{
"answer": "I think this question assumes a homogeneity among native tribes. Often tribes were fighting amongst themselves. Europeans often played a role as another tribe to be reckoned with, either as an ally or as an enemy, as a trading partner and/or arms supplier. The long term narrative is of the constant... | null |
4lqv2o | how do snakes grow? | [
{
"answer": "The same way other animals do?\n\nDo you think you were born with a full-sized adult ribcage?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The number of vertebrae is genetically determined, as with us, and does not increase during the snake's lifetime. Their bones grow, just as with ours, and j... | null |
8a0mqz | how do tv game shows tax people who get cash on the spot? | [
{
"answer": "Any cash prize (including lotteries) is generally considered income in the eyes of the IRS (or similar entity for other countries). \n\nThe person/entity giving the money will report the transfer of money to the IRS (and in some cases, offer to withhold the expected taxes) , and it becomes the res... | null |
4sg7vd | why did civil war soldiers not use revolvers exclusively? | [
{
"answer": "Range, revolvers have a very limited range. If you exclusively rely on revolvers the enemy will sit out of range and pick you to pieces. In addition the reloading speed of revolvers is slow compared to that of the rifles and carbines of the period so the number of shots per minute were relatively f... | null |
2y2421 | Since kittens are born in litters from one pregnancy, does that make them twins/triplets/quadruplets? | [
{
"answer": "It would make them fraternal twins/triplets/etc, for the most part. They're the product of multiple eggs being fertilized by different sperm, just like human fraternal twins are. However, in cats, multiple eggs being released from the ovaries is normal. It's still possible to have identical twin... | null |
12nwt4 | how commonly known would the story of the Iliad, have been in the second century BC classical world? | [
{
"answer": "A cup with a depiction of a scene of the Illiad was found in a grave of the first century AD in Denmark. I guess they knew what the scene meant.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Few people would have read it because few people could read. But most people would have known it, at leas... | null |
dbem0h | Was it common to actually eat the bizarre dishes seen in the cookbooks of the 1970s and earlier? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, they were certainly a thing. Taste is capricious. /u/searocksandtrees has collected [answers about jello oddities before](_URL_1_), feat. /u/gothwalk, et al.\n\n/u/PeculiarLeah interprets it as [part of the recovery from rationing in World War II](_URL_0_), specifically mentioning bananas and ... | null |
1jqfv8 | how is it that i'm left handed but do some activities like a right handed person would? | [
{
"answer": "As I understand it, left/right-handedness isn't a 100% binary thing. You can be left-handed for *most* activities, but still be right-handed on a few/some others depending on how you were taught, how you grew up, etc.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm a leftie too, but I use cutl... | null |
6s3glr | if some humans have neanderthal dna while others don't, does that mean some humans are at least somewhat of a different species than others. | [
{
"answer": "No. The definition of a species is whether or not members can interbreed. All humans can interbreed as a species. We're all one breed much less not the same species. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Homo sapiens neandethalensis (neandertals) is a sub-species of homo sapien sapien (... | null |
6c3uzf | How do dogs make ATP? | [
{
"answer": "Gluconeogenesis is the production of glucose from protein-rich sources. This is quite commonly used for production of energy across all living beings (plant and animal alike). In humans this is frequently seen in ketogenic diets or diets treating diabetes (and, to an extent, also the Atkins diet th... | null |
157tf9 | on gawker websites i need to spam the back button to actually go back, why? | [
{
"answer": "I'd also like to know why this happens, not just for Gawker sites but twitter and a few others",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "What happens when you click on one of their links is you get taken to a proxy page. This proxy page basically acts like a handler for requests. It then pas... | null |
1xzfw0 | often people say when you get a splinter your body will learn to push it out at some point. how does it happen? | [
{
"answer": "Your body doesn't learn to push it out, it's just that tissue regrows in such a way that the splinter is eventually moved towards the outside of the body, which eventually results in the splinter emerging from the skin.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
5b2ofw | how do prince rupert's drops work? | [
{
"answer": "Because the glass is rapidly cooled it sets up a state of high residual stress, compressive stress on the surface and tensile stress in the center. This effectively toughens the glass of the head similar to how Gorilla glass is toughened on cell phone screens. The residual compressive stress in th... | null |
36ghz3 | why/how did smoking become less painful on my throat and lungs over time? | [
{
"answer": "You destroyed the nerves that were on the surface, and the cilia that are in your lungs that cause coughing when a foreign substance is introduced. Cilia are fine hairs in your lungs that move out mucous. Smoking burns them away. \n\nIf you stop smoking/weed for a length of time, you will regain... | null |
bsm778 | how is a glass of wine everyday good for you? :) | [
{
"answer": "It is NOT healthy at all.\n\nThe thing you heard is only a myth. Take a half aspirine instead.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It is not. There is proof to suggest that the antioxidants in wine are good for you. \n\nBut with that said, current consensus is that *any* alcohol is bad... | null |
vijwg | What are some recent major depopulation events? | [
{
"answer": "European discovery of the Americas. Close to 90% of Native Americans died to diseases. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In Australia, both world wars caused reasonable depopulation of rural/remote areas as young men enlisted (and, in many cases, didn't return). Just under 10% of th... | null |
37mnem | how does motorcycle rpm and gearing work. | [
{
"answer": "The RPM of a motorcycle engine as well as how the gearing works, functions on the same principles as any other engine. The whole system is setup slightly different as space is an issue. But the basics are all the same. To answer if your engine is doing the same work at 5k RPM on 2nd gear vs 5th sim... | null |
2fgs6s | what would happen if coke stopped advertising for a year? | [
{
"answer": "Pepsi would advertise so much it would drive us all insane!...plus coke advertisements are kind of an American tradition now so Christmas would be sad with no polar bear commercial.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm assuming you mean advertising as in media (TV, radio, billboards... | null |
3yhc8f | why does online shopping shipping cost so much more than personally sending packages? | [
{
"answer": "a few examples.\n-amazon (not books)- free under certain conditions, reasonable when not-free. probably has a deal with ups/usps for volume discount.\n-amazon - books - media mail at usps costs $2.65. there is not really a cheaper way to send a book. if you pay less than $4 for a book + shipping th... | null |
1w16xt | how can our brains, while sleeping, create images of people/things we've never met or seen before and how can dreams create deja vu/seemingly predict future occurrences? | [
{
"answer": "i once watched a report that stated you only dream of people you have already seen at least once. maybe you are not aware of meeting that one person but your subconscious remembers everything.\nthe deja vu thing is easily explained: you experience something and your brain accidentally stores it in ... | null |
94xtej | what are turkeys being pardoned from if they have not done anything? | [
{
"answer": "They are \"being pardoned from the sentence of death for being a turkey at thanksgiving\". It is just a silly tradition. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "3225648",
"title": "National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation"... | null |
1gg3du | How did the Norway GDP increase by ~$22k in a 4 year span? | [
{
"answer": "edit-- not an economist so maybe someone else will prove/disprove the following\n\nGDP per capita increased by USD 22k in 4 years. The important thing to note here is that it is in USD, so let's just run a quick conversion from USD to NOK for 2009 and 2013:\n\n77k USD - > 77/0.14 - > 550 NOK in 2... | null |
1noq8l | Why were so many large college football stadiums built in the US in the 1920's? | [
{
"answer": "The Colleseum in Los Angeles was built for the 1932 Olympics. Cleveland built their Munincipal Stadium in an attempt to augment their bid for the 1932 Olympics. Not only did they not get the Olyimpics, they could not convince the Cleveland Indians to pla... | null |
3hyt85 | why is computer image recognition so hard? | [
{
"answer": "I know we aren't supposed to post just links, but I don't think there's a better explanation than [this WaitButWhy article](_URL_0_). Scroll down to \"The Road From ANI to AGI\" paragraph.\n\nEdit: For those about to tl;dr - over millions of years of evolution our brains became really good at recog... | null |
4hynmm | If protons & neutrons are each composed of 3 quarks, is the atomic nucleus just a jumble of quarks, or is each set of 3 quarks a distinct particle? | [
{
"answer": "These pictures of 3 quarks making up a nucleon is a crude simplification. A proton is a very complex bound state that consists of the 3 valence quarks as well as a fluctuating part of gluons and quark anti-quark pairs. \n\nEven though the nucleons are a seemingly a mess, they can be more or less b... | null |
1gzmkd | Do eggs change weight as they develop? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, the [egg loses weight during incubation](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "55425105",
"title": "Hemileuca lucina",
"section": "Section::::Life cycle.:Eggs.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 31,
... | null |
136w1d | intelligence quotient / iq, what exactly is it and what are its criticisms? why is it potentially wrong? | [
{
"answer": "My understanding is IQ is broadly an analytical way of assessing a person's capabilities. It uses a combination of problems, pictures and other tests to assess a person. It is a good measure, but it is not the best indicator for a person's abilities. You may be bad at identifying sequences, but sti... | null |
5ojn69 | when someone talks about rendering a video, or an animation, what does that mean? and how would not rendering it affect it? | [
{
"answer": "Rendering means having a machine draw each frame (picture) used in the video. Not rendering it means it would be blank.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Think of \"rendering\" as a painter painting a still image. In an animation/video, the computer renders/paints each frame of the ... | null |
2pu2xh | why do so many americans blame obama for practically everything? | [
{
"answer": "Uhhhhmm, every president gets blamed for everything. This is not a slight, or a joke, its nearly the main reason they exist.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Isn't this true everywhere? I know David Cameron gets blamed for most stuff that goes wrong in the UK.",
"provenance": n... | null |
fhln5a | Why is Neptune warmer than Uranus? | [
{
"answer": "There isn't a great deal between the two, but because of the huge distance that both are from the Sun neither gets much warmth from the Sun. Instead some heat is generated by internal motion within the planet, partially assisted by the Sun striking the pole as Neptune is \"tipped over\"",
"prov... | null |
8015il | why can't another wifi device interfere with another one | [
{
"answer": " > Hey, I'm the router, send me your information\" as Man in the Middle Attack\n\nThey can do exactly this. It is known as an [ARP poisoning attack](_URL_0_) and it is a type of man-in-the-middle. An attacker sends spoofed ARP packets to other machines on the network, causing them to route all pac... | null |
48j5cd | if we could take a snapshot of every atom in the universe, could we effectively predict the future? | [
{
"answer": "Quantum Mechanics at least suggest, if not prove, that there may be an element of inherent randomness that cannot be eliminated. If that is the case, then it is certainly at least plausible that there is some degree of unpredictability that also cannot be eliminated in macroscopic events.",
"pr... | null |
3jbep7 | why are males naturally attractive without make-up? | [
{
"answer": "Because we are conditioned to believe that girls need make up to be attractive, not to mention that women have used make up for a long time creating a \"norm\"",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They aren't. Most men would look better with a bit of makeup. It's just not our cultural n... | null |
fwfj39 | Were Asian Americans Segregated and considered "Coloured" in the 1950's to 60's? | [
{
"answer": "Yes they were. Asians were subject to segregational practices in many cities. I wrote a bit about this topic previously [here](_URL_0_), but am always happy to add on to it or have more of a discussion on the topic. Filipinos, for example, were prominent targets of attacks by white people. This was... | null |
25fvb5 | in traffic, why do cyclists by default have to use the road instead of the sidewalk? aren't motor vehicles and cyclists a bigger danger to each other than cyclists and pedestrians would be? | [
{
"answer": " > Bicyclists on a sidewalk or bicycle path incur greater risk than those on the roadway (on average 1.8 times as great), most likely because of blind conflicts at intersections. \n\n\n\n\n[here is a good post about it](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When I ride, I rid... | null |
4twh57 | why is the taste/smell of licorice so polarizing? | [
{
"answer": "This is the same with most bitter foods like coffee and beer. People have an inherent disgust for things bitter and you have to learn that something bitter is good. After you have related the bitter taste of licorice with the sweet taste, or the bitter taste of beer with alcohol you start ignoring ... | null |
62dk1r | how does all dna of a fully grown human fit in a baby? | [
{
"answer": "DNA isn't very big.\n\nAll of your DNA fits in a single cell.\n\nMost all of your cells have all of your DNA.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's better than that -- all the DNA fits in almost every one of the trillion cells in a human body! How? Because DNA Is written ... | null |
ldwtt | If you were to ingest or inject yourself with ATP, would it provide you with energy? Would consuming more act like a sugar rush or an energy drink? | [
{
"answer": "ATP is fairly large, and it's purine functionality would make it difficult to enter the cell without transport. Outside of the cell it acts as a signalling molecule, which plays a role in regulating heart rate, blood coagulation, and inflammatory/immune response. The metabolic byproducts of ATP deg... | null |
u25rf | Can we reproduce every wavelength of the electromagnetic spectrum? | [
{
"answer": "Even if I only have an LED, which emits light at one singular frequency, we can still get any wavelength we want by moving that LED and let the Doppler effect take care of the rest.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "85754",
... | null |
2rhld1 | Is topical Vitaminc C effective for boosting collagen or is the beauty/skincare industry somewhat falsely claiming this? | [
{
"answer": "Vitamin C can diffuse through the cellular membranes but it's very slow and it has to be from high concentration to low.\n\nHere's some literature about topical Vitamin C :)\n\n_URL_2_\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "This is the problem with most supplements. ... | null |
f60z3a | Why on earth did Krushchev try to put offensive nuclear missiles in Cuba in the first place? | [
{
"answer": "There's a lot to it, but the gambit was that a) the US had put missiles in the USSR's back yard (the Jupiter missiles in Turkey, to say nothing of the [over a dozen](_URL_0_) nuclear deployments that the US ringed the USSR and China with in the late 1950s), and this was both payback and a stimulus ... | null |
4df32u | What is the smallest possible Goldilocks zone for any star? | [
{
"answer": "Probably a red/brown dwarf where the goldilocks zone will be close to the star itself, adjusting the mass and temperature of the star so that it's right outside of the Roche limit for a rocky planet.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedi... | null |
cuwqii | why can't dental crowns be whitened/have something placed over them to make them whiter? | [
{
"answer": "Crowns are made of non-porous material that is very, very hard. They don't discolor or stain, so it's uncommon for them to need to be whitened. Crowns are matched to your natural teeth colour, so if you plan on bleaching your teeth, you should bleach them prior to the crowns being colour-matched,... | null |
7i4pmt | What's myth and what's truth about the legend of Rasputin? | [
{
"answer": "* /u/kieslowskifan has a fantastic post on the [creation of the Rasputin mythology](_URL_0_) out of contemporary Russian court gossip and post-Revolution anti-Romanov polemic. It addresses the \"power\" aspects of the legend\n* /u/carlton_the_doorman addresses the rumors specifically connected to [... | null |
5lq7a5 | how do some websites offer free returns on unwanted goods? | [
{
"answer": "Some of it is about price. Whether that comes from charging the customer more, or getting the goods cheaper. Some websites (such as Amazon) have stipulations about free returns depending on who you purchased from or what good it is, unless you pay for Prime, so it isn't actually free. And of course... | null |
14cwfz | What is the oldest translated book? | [
{
"answer": "An actual historian can give you a more detailed answer, but you should check out the Wikipedia page on [ancient literature](_URL_1_). The short answer would be the Sumerian texts discovered in Abu Salabikh and the Akkadian legend of Etana. While there are earlier examples of writing that has been ... | null |
5bwyv2 | posting for a friend, "so color is just a specific reflection of light, correct? would that mean that a planet under another star (ex. krypton and it's red sun) would have completely different colors?" | [
{
"answer": "No, not completely. The colour of an object is depending on what light it reflect but our eyes can only see colours within certain wavelengths. That doesn't change on another planet. Certainly a different colour from a light source changes the colour you see from an object but that can be shown on ... | null |
5wie8d | why is an accounting firm responsible for the academy award envelopes? | [
{
"answer": "Tabulating vote data, ensuring its accuracy, and security from disclosure are all things that fall under the realm of accounting/auditing.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "20265620",
"title": "The Surplus",
"s... | null |
3j8mq5 | Just how successful or influential was the global protest movement in shaping the course of the Vietnam War? | [
{
"answer": "Have you read Todd Gitlin's [The Whole World is Watching: Mass Media in the Making & Unmaking of the New Left](_URL_0_) (1980)? Gitlin is now an academic, but during 1963-4, he used to be the head of the SDS, the main student activist organization in the US, and was involved heavily with the anti... | null |
3tyhxd | When in high school I remember somebody telling me the fire us made of a different sate of matter (different being not solid, liquid or gas) called plasma. Is there any truth to this statement and if so what exactly is plasma? | [
{
"answer": " > Is there any truth to this statement and if so what exactly is plasma?\n\nAbsolutely it is true!\n\nThe standard response is that plasmas are the fourth state of matter, just like you can heat a solid into a liquid and a liquid into a gas you can heat a gas into a plasma. The transition happens ... | null |
9i8rbf | Why does damped oscillation depend on velocity? | [
{
"answer": "Friction forces are not typically considered damping. You are confusing energy dissipation (which can come from anything, including friction) with damping. Damping is a type of energy dissipation, as is friction. But damping is a specific type of energy dissipation, specifucally given to energy ... | null |
qhf4c | Why are low-pitch sounds generally relaxing while high-pitch sounds are annoying? | [
{
"answer": "Because the higher the frequency the more waves are hitting your ears (and all the stuff in them) per second and the lower the frequency the less that is.\n\nSay I punch you in the arm at a rate of 4 times per minute, it's not as bad as being punched 400 times per minute. Just pretend the movement ... | null |
3kjx1m | why is a viral disease, cat leukemia, named as a cancer type? | [
{
"answer": "This virus causes the cats to get this type of cancer.\n\nJust like some strains of HPV result in cervical/penile (and throat) cancer in humans, some viruses will integrate into the genome of some of your cells and cause them to turn cancerous.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Cance... | null |
9kbg2p | Is it true that Germans didn't actually use the term Blitzkrieg themselves? | [
{
"answer": "It’s true the term “Blitzkrieg” does not come up often in German plans, old memoirs, or communiques. It’s closest word or phrase that the Germans/Prussians may have used more often was Bewegungkrieg or maneuver warfare. The term Blitzkrieg however pops up more post-war to describe the tactics of th... | null |
4yx3o5 | how would we know how much *successful* voting fraud is happening, if by definition successful attempts at fraud go undetected? | [
{
"answer": "This is a bit like Russel's Teapot--it's very difficult if not impossible to prove that there *isn't* a teapot floating around somewhere between Mars and Earth. It's more useful to focus on the fact there is no evidence to suggest that there *is*.\n\nThere are many ways we could detect large-scale ... | null |
1eiu53 | why do i get automated phone calls that promptly hang up? | [
{
"answer": "Assuming that you don't owe the ISP money, there's a good chance that the person making the calls on the other end is a machine. If you pick up, AND the operator isn't on another call, the machine will connect you two. \n\nOr, it could be that the operator on the other end has to log a certain numb... | null |
4159wn | why is the lesbian/gay/transgender community referred to with so many different acronyms, many of which are long and confusing? | [
{
"answer": "Organizations focusing on inclusiveness, but also trying to respect individual differences. Thus: gay - > gay & lesbian - > gay & lesbian & bi - > lesbian & gay & bi & trans - > etc.\n\nUnfortunately there is no single term that seems to encompass all of these, so they end up using ... | null |
4110pp | why do people lose their senses of hearing and sight, but not their sense of touch, taste, or smell? | [
{
"answer": "People can also lose their sense of taste and smell...you are just a lot less likely to notice them.\n\nPeople also can lose there sense of touch over part of their bodies, but there are not a lot of neurological disorders to totally remove touch...at least not without also killing you.",
"prov... | null |
26hvyy | If shoot a gun in a car at 10 m/s, and the car is travelling at 5 m/s relative to an outside observer, is the bullet really moving at exactly 15 m/s? Do velocities really transfer fully? | [
{
"answer": "For the numbers you mention, the answer is for all intents and purposes yes. But according to special relativity velocities u and v add according to the formula w = (u+v)/(1+uv/c^2) where c is the speed of light. For small u and v this works out to very close to just w = u+v.",
"provenance": ... | null |
32mmx0 | why didn't other european powers shut down hitler as soon as he violated the versailles treaty? | [
{
"answer": "That would require mobilization of troops and resources that many European powers just didn't have. World War I decimated many European countries in manpower, resources and financially and the Great Depression didn't help any.\n\nNot to mention that many politicians wanted to avoid war because it ... | null |
235hx5 | Why did the Germans seemingly abandon their colonial holdings in Asia during WWI? | [
{
"answer": "They were un defendable these colonies were right on the doorstep of Australia and New Zealand two British colonies with millions of people compared to the German colonies couple of thousands. If they had tried they would have failed. Any attempt to reinforce would have resulted in the ships sinki... | null |
ashwlm | how is netflix able to provide seemingly perfect subtitles to basically every show/movie on their platform and what allows them to do this so well? | [
{
"answer": "The people that make the show or movie write down the subtitles, from the script. They package that as a subtitle file inside the video file, and Netflix opens that up to show it to you if you enable subtitles.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When a show is delivered to Netflix it ... | null |
mbbe8 | how does venture capitalism work? | [
{
"answer": "On one end, there are the big money funds. Some groups that have tons of money. Enough that they've already put a lot into traditional stocks and bonds and money market stuff. Now they want to take some more and put it in a different area: new companies that aren't on the stock market yet.\n\nO... | null |
4waexw | What was the general public perception of Dunkirk immediately after the rescue throughout the nations involved in WWII? | [
{
"answer": "I can give a broad summary from the point of view of the British as, like so many other British War myths, it is more complicated than it has subsequently been reduced to and therefore infinitely more interesting as a result (in my admittedly nerdy opinion).\n\nSo I will assume the common narrative... | null |
814gkk | How do you calculate the focal length of a multi-lens setup? | [
{
"answer": "In my opinion, the cleanest formalism for linear optics is using [transfer matrices](_URL_0_). There is a fixed matrix for each type of optical element, and to find the optics of a series of optical elements, you just multiply the corresponding matrices in the right order. Then you get one final ma... | null |
bmjywd | how do they measure the visual acuity of animals? | [
{
"answer": "One of the oldest way to test it is the following:\n\n1. set up 2 doors: one with food and one without. Put a label on top of each door with black square (door no food) and black square with a single white stripe (door with food).\n2. During the first few times, open both door and let the animal go... | null |
1tg4ff | how can north korea have work camps and not get in trouble for it? | [
{
"answer": "The UN is mostly toothless, and there's no such thing as \"world police\". \n\nFurther, no one is willing to go up militarily against a nuclear state for fear of starting World War III.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because they're a country. They're not a person and can be arr... | null |
yuncy | Does mental/emotional trauma halt maturation of the mind? | [
{
"answer": "Clinical psychologist here. The effects aren't nearly that predictable or lawful. Various effects are possible, its not a straightforward case of arrested development. Some victims of abuse are amazingly [resilient](_URL_0_).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [... | null |
bcr935 | who pays for the plane ticket back to your home country if you’re denied entry to a country? | [
{
"answer": "The airline that took the person in has to take them back out again, however the airline can then get the money back from individual (or attempt to).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The passenger legally has to pay, but the airline is required to take them back no matter what. If t... | null |
1b11zu | I heard in a PBS documentary that Napoleon's policies set the framework for what would become modern France. How specifically did he help build this framework? And to what extent did Napoleon pick up on the shortcomings of the French Revolution to spur the country into its 'modernity'? | [
{
"answer": "Oh man, I have tons of notes on this subject from a previous class but they're all stuck on a windows partition that just shit the bed today.\n\nBasically, Napoleon reorganized how France was governed in the form of departments and greatly increased the bureaucracy. This allowed for much more effi... | null |
623qan | why african americans are not given the prefix of their country of origin while european's are? | [
{
"answer": "Because most of them are descended from slaves, and don't know what country they're originally from, what languages their family originally spoke, etc. Slaves weren't usually permitted to talk about that stuff, families were broken up and sold off so many slaves never knew their parents, non-Englis... | null |
1np8qu | What Really Happened Between Edison and Tesla? | [
{
"answer": "Tesla claims, in his autobiographical [*My Inventions*](_URL_1_), the following regarding his time at the Machine Works in NY:\n\n > For nearly a year my regular hours were from 10.30 A.M. until 5 o'clock the next morning without a day's exception. Edison said to me: \"I have had many hard-working ... | null |
29d09f | why do dogs drink out of the toilet, even though you give them fresh water? | [
{
"answer": "The toilet water is renewed more often than most people refill their dog's bowl. They probably think it tastes better after a fresh flush than in a bowl filled with standing water. \nIf you close the bathroom door and fill their bowl with clean cool water a few times a day they might stop going to ... | null |
a0s77w | How large was the U.S involvement in the Boxer rebellion? | [
{
"answer": "The Boxer Rebellion, which took place at the start of the 20th century, was a 3-way power struggle between Chinese peasants, the Boxers (a xenophobic, anti-Christian, anti-modernization, mystic religious group), the Qing Empire and (mostly) Western foreign powers.\n\nThe United States desired to se... | null |
2hcjc6 | what is happening in our heads that allow thousands of people to sing, shout, clap or speak in almost perfect unison? | [
{
"answer": "I haven't been able to find anything completely definitive, but the phenomenon you're talking about is called [entrainment](_URL_0_) (specifically, beat induction), and is similar to how fireflies synchronize their flashes.\n\nThere's a neural deficiency known as [beat deafness](_URL_1_) that preve... | null |
1r8b8y | Are alligators and crocodiles actually living dinosaurs? Or did their ancestors just exist at the same time as dinosaurs? | [
{
"answer": "Crocodylians, which include alligators and crocodiles, are not dinosaurs. They are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs, however (because birds *are* theropod dinosaurs).\n\nDinosauria is a group that was originally defined by anatomist [Richard Owen](_URL_2_) based on a few described taxa, in... | null |
3sis6i | if i drive 5 miles going 40 mph vs. the same 5 miles going 80 mph, will one require more gas than the other? | [
{
"answer": "The short answer is that at those speeds yes, air resistance increases and going 80 will take more fuel. If you stick your hand out of the car window when doing both of those speeds you will notice that the air pushes harder on your hand at 80mph. The car engine needs to output more power to hold t... | null |
2fn91h | what was happening in north america during the bible? | [
{
"answer": "The guys who wrote the bible weren't aware it existed.\n\nEdit: To clarify for people complaining about the answer:\n\nMost (or possibly all) of the events of the bible did not literally occur, making the story as a whole, fictional. Asking what was happening in North America 'during the bible' is... | null |
5ff27i | Humans at one point used to see slavery as a positive good. At what time did this change to where now modern humans are disgusted by its practice? | [
{
"answer": "I can only speak of the American slave trade, and not anything that happened before 1492, but as far as the Transatlantic slave trade goes, slavery was never seen universally as a positive good.\n\nBartolomé de las Casas was a contemporary of Christopher Columbus's and participated in early expedit... | null |
dul0kb | Do videos and photos help children remember their early childhoods? | [
{
"answer": "Yes and no? Depends on how you would define memory I guess. \n\nWhen we recall something we rewrite said memory in the way we recalled it at that moment. Stuff we miss-remember becomes part of the memory and stuff we leave out will be forgotten. This has all kinds of implications like the setting i... | null |
xt1ao | /r/darknetplan | [
{
"answer": "So websites have names. The place that has all these names is called ICANN. When you type in a website name, ICANN tells you the address for you to go to so you can get to that website. A lot of other fancy stuff happens that makes the information get from one place to another.\n\nThis is good m... | null |
4vwe4t | what causes baseball pitchers speed to be capped at approximately 105 mph? | [
{
"answer": "The human factor. We are near the peak of human capability in many aspects as science has helped us get very efficient with training and nutrition. You may see a ball a little bit faster, but you're not going to see a 200 mph fastball until we start using bionics and other tech. Same with running... | null |
bxnze2 | Does the availability of Narcan (naloxone) encourage opioid use? | [
{
"answer": "This [National Academy of Sciences review paper](_URL_0_) cites several studies showing that Narcan is associated with lower overall heroin use, fewer opioid-related ER visits, and fewer deaths due to opioid OD. I assume your thought process is that people are more likely to take a more risky dose ... | null |
9lcitd | how are horses taught to respond to the controls of the rider? | [
{
"answer": "Repetition and reward. It's a long process to train a horse, and there are different methods (Western vs English mainly) but it all boils down to repetition and reward. Just like teaching a dog to sit, or a toddler to use the potty.\n\nThanks Pavlov",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": n... | null |
2nv8rc | Did Salmon Evolve From Freshwater Fish Or Saltwater Fish? | [
{
"answer": "[This book](_URL_0_) says that there has been \"considerable debate\" as to whether they evolved from freshwater or saltwater fish and the most recent theories suggest that they evolved from fish that were already able to survive in fresh and salt water.\n\nOriginally though, all fish evolved in th... | null |
5q2ppy | What was warfare like in pre-colonial Indonesia? | [
{
"answer": "Warning: Wall of text incoming. But then this was /r/AskHistorians, so you expected this.\n\nFor practical reasons this answer relies substantially on European sources and wars against Europeans, but I did intentionally avoid talking about more modern weaponry like muskets or cannons.\n\n---\n\nThi... | null |
4dg1lf | Hi, taking the family on vacation to Niagra Falls soon, what was life like around the falls before the Europeans arrived? | [
{
"answer": "There are some errors in /u/dbcanuck's post, at least if we're thinking of the area *prior* to the arrival of Europeans. A lot of what's said in that post more closely resembles a later colonial era view. The main issue is that dbcanuck skips over the people who were living in the immediate Niagara... | null |
1vytwk | How did france combat the longbow? | [
{
"answer": "If you are wondering about the 100 years war and the part the longbow played in it, I believe I can help you there. In the battle of Crecy, the English victory was due in part to the cunning leadership of King Edward III. His use of longbowmen was legendary, and the first major victory for longbows... | null |
7huyee | how does “i want my lawyer” work when being interrogated? | [
{
"answer": "When the police read you your rights (Miranda rights) they tell you that if you do not have a lawyer, that a lawyer will be appointed to you. \n\nYou are also given a phone call, to which you can call your lawyer. Otherwise, the officer/jail will work with you to find/contact your lawyer as they ca... | null |
49kq37 | why can't people who are very light in weight donate blood? | [
{
"answer": "Because the medical common \"unit of blood\" represent too large a proportion of their total blood - it would be unsafe for them to donate.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "they have smaller bodies. Smaller body = less blood. They typically (in the US) take about a pint. That can be... | null |
5af6tj | How did the Roaring Twenties happen when the decade before saw both WWI and the Spanish Flu Epidemic, essentially wiping out an entire young generation? What were the lasting negative effects of losing so many young people from 1914-1920? | [
{
"answer": "With the greatest respect, your question is based on a largely false or flawed assumption that most western countries did experience unprecedented levels of economic prosperity following the years 1914-1920. Certainly this is true of the US, not so much for Europe. The places where the ravages of t... | null |
44pt6m | Why do antibiotics cause rapid growth in animals? | [
{
"answer": "You're right, this is a real effect. And as of right now, we're not really sure how it works, though there are a few ideas. I'll quote verbatim from [this paper](_URL_0_):\n\n > At least four mechanisms have been proposed as explanations of antibiotic mediated growth enhancement: [1] inhibition of ... | null |
3mbbde | Does love (as a feeling) raise testosterone levels in men? | [
{
"answer": "I don't know how broadly or narrowly you are asking this question. I have not spent any time recently on this literature, but I do know of one study that found that when men fall in love their testosterone goes down. When men are married or cohabiting with their partner, they have lower testosteron... | null |
2cm80k | twitter reported a q2 loss of $144.6 million. how do they still afford to run a company and attract investors? | [
{
"answer": "Investors think they will be very profitable in the future, so they keep investing money, despite it currently operating at a loss. At some point, it becomes necessary to monetarize Twitter, which means (you guessed it) ads.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Apparently, they have mor... | null |
1xl3fg | github, including what branches, commit and repositories are. | [
{
"answer": "GitHub is just a git-based code repository. It's used for maintaining a code base, including distribution and version control. There are a lot of them, but git-based ones are popular these days because they work well.\n\nRepositories are communal places to store code and code changes. They can be f... | null |
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