id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
s0fs6 | What's the current scientific consensus on the effect of dietary fat on heart disease? | [
{
"answer": "A quick Pub Med [search](_URL_1_) has several articles that might answer your question. I'm busy studying at the moment but if I get some free time I'll try to skim some of the literature. I grabbed two that looked promising if you want to do some reading in case I forget about this and don't ret... | null |
xtp5n | How did lords control their land? | [
{
"answer": "By saying \"taking it over\" I assume you're saying that the vassal will rise up against his lord? It's my understanding that vassals were granted land that provided them with homes, food, protection. To rise up against the lord was to threaten this entire system, and I'm guessing *other* vassals ... | null |
4eul5r | how do doctors know the type of cancer someone has when it's metastatic? | [
{
"answer": "You can obtain a sample and look in the microscope. Colon cancer mostly occurs in the outermost most layer of the GI tract called epithelial layer and the surrounding connective tissue. The best way to see if it is spreading is by checking presence of cancer cells in areas below the epithelial laye... | null |
vb7qw | At the end of Fight Club, the main character shoots himself in the head with a gun in his mouth and just ends up with a hole in his neck. Is this possible, improbable or just outright ridiculous? | [
{
"answer": "Surprisingly yes. [Here](_URL_2_)\n\n[Another](_URL_0_)\n\n[Last one for now](_URL_1_)\n\nIt's still quite rare for most psychiatric patients to attempt a self-inflicted gunshot wound, pills are a far more common choice, but even a gunshot to the head is not a guaranteed death by any means.",
"... | null |
1oaecc | are you good with css? | [
{
"answer": "CSS is very easy coding wise. The only difficult area I might see is finding what you want or you're looking for in clarity of the links. \n\n_URL_0_ - this page is what you're going after correct link wise? \n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
2pkh5d | what was the justification for the chinese government selecting the last panchen lama? | [
{
"answer": "The way I understand it is China had a pretty good relationship with the Tibetan buddhists and for hundreds of years there was an understanding between the two. The Chinese respected the choices made by the Panchen for finding the next Dalai Lama. \n\nFast forward to the current Dalai Lama and th... | null |
3p3nn5 | When one washes the dishes, is the soap foam a good 'practical' indicator about how dirty is the water? | [
{
"answer": "Two things:\n\n1. Foam is generally an indication of agitation, since foam is just small bubbles and bubbles form by 'mixing' air into the water so to speak. So it is likely that your end water is foamier because of more scrubbing and swishing around. (Scientist note: try washing your dishes from m... | null |
89yw80 | why do google captchas make you click street signs? | [
{
"answer": "They're used to train their image recognition software so that they can read street signs more accurately.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Google is working on self driving cars and they need their algorithms trained. So they crowd source it. And they know computers cant tell becau... | null |
2v7nkx | how is nintendo able to demand ad revenue for related youtube videos? | [
{
"answer": "Fair Use doesn't technically apply to Let's Play content so Nintendo is under no legal obligation to allow that content to remain on YouTube, so they can hold it to ransom all it likes.\n\nFair Use mostly applies to Review content (which Nintendo have been striking off YouTube too, because they're ... | null |
4xqevm | after a band breaks up or a musician dies, who profits from the sale of their merchandise and music? | [
{
"answer": "It really varies a lot based on the legal structure of the group (e.g., incorporated or not) and their agreements with the record label. In general, copyright is treated like any other property, and may be sold, transferred by a will, and so on. \n\nFor example, if the artist assigns the copyright ... | null |
jy7vb | Non-combustive exothermic reactions? | [
{
"answer": "Salt (e.g. calcium chloride) + Water is an example of one.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Unless you mean exothermic without oxidizing (Combustion is just a faster oxidizing reaction) I'd vote for:\n\n* Potassium Permanganate and Glycerol or Ethylene glycol\n* Cyanoacrylate and co... | null |
zacvx | How would I go about making a superconducting magnetic train? | [
{
"answer": " > You have to make a superconductor by cooling strong magnets with liquid nitrogen.\n\nNo, that's not how superconductors work, you need to have something made specifically from a superconductive material.\n\n > What kind of magnets do I use? What strength?\n\nOrdinary neodymium magnets would be f... | null |
9m69sq | At what age does human hearing fully mature? | [
{
"answer": "Hearing in infancy is much less sensitive (to quiet, high, and low sounds) than in adulthood. An informative paragraph from a review of the topic (pdf: [Mattock, Amitay, & Moore, 2010](_URL_0_)):\n\n\"It is not entirely clear when human hearing begins, but behavioural indices, such as fetal movem... | null |
1j48v5 | why does a gyroscope resist being rotated | [
{
"answer": "This video is far greater than any words I can possibly convey: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "45832",
"title": "Gyrocompass",
"section": "Section::::Operation.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 6,
... | null |
dv8zde | why can you cook some things from frozen but not others? | [
{
"answer": "You *can't* cook originally fresh chicken from frozen??\n\nUh oh...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " Well if you try to cook it straight out of the freezer you will cook the outside but on the inside it will still be frozen.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Usually... | null |
cemhl3 | how does the https transfer the key to decrypt the data without compromising the contents of said data? | [
{
"answer": "To try to simplify, these kinds of protocols work by having the reciever send the lock, instead of the sender transmitting the key.\n\nAn analogy is that I send you a combination safe, you put the thing inside it and send it back to me. The combination to open the safe is only ever known by me, but... | null |
3y0l6n | What would happen to the children of prostitutes in Roman society? | [
{
"answer": "In Roman society, children weren't seen as full people. If a parent possessed a child that was unwanted they would abandon them until they either were adopted by somebody that did want them, or succumbed to exposure. It would come to no surprise then, that this was a common practice among prostitut... | null |
1j5kc0 | Was there a peaceful coexistence between the early Christian groups? | [
{
"answer": "I can come up with a couple examples:\n > And certain men which came down from Judaea taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.\nWhen therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that Pau... | null |
a4jtug | how the casino know where we put our bets on the roulette and how do they avoid us lying that we won the bet? | [
{
"answer": "Each player has different colored chips. There is a big table with all the possible options that you can bet on. There's a space for each number, for black, for red, for odd numbers, etc. You have to put your chips on the table before the dealer waves and says no more bets. There is a camera right ... | null |
3zjwon | How did France's Revolutionary Army equip itself? How could it supply almost a million men? | [
{
"answer": "The French Revolutionary army was an odd animal. Hodgepodge and haphazard, the Revolutionary army was very different than the previous armies of France. Rather than the restrained, well kept armies dressed in white, the French Revolutionary army was funded and equipped with what they found or given... | null |
cmuyip | why does playing a game at higher frames than originally intended (e.g. 60fps instead of 30fps) often cause glitches with the physics? | [
{
"answer": "These games run the FPS and the physics engine in the same loop, and make some assumptions about the speed. They don't calculate physics that would have happened since the last calculation, they just calculate another 1/30 of a second of physics. So, by increasing the FPS, you increase the number o... | null |
1al2o0 | What are the properties of plasma formed at reentry in the atmosphere? | [
{
"answer": "Oxygen glows blue due to [glow discharge](_URL_0_) while re-entry plasma is basically a [black body](_URL_2_) and its color depends on its temperature. \n\nAccording to [NASA](_URL_3_) the space shuttle reaches 3000 Farenheit, which is 1900 Kelvin which corresponds to orange-red black body radiatio... | null |
1qb7p9 | what difference does the wheel size make, specifically in regards to winter tires? | [
{
"answer": "You want narrow tires for snow/ice. 245/45R18 aren't that narrow. \nUsually what people do is buy a cheap set of steel rims in a size common on econoboxes, so they cay buy cheap, tall, narrow econobox winter tires to put on them. Also because you can slide around into curbs and only mess up your ch... | null |
ngifg | why i get so many nose bleeds in the winter and other people don't | [
{
"answer": "Its something to do with the sensitivity of the blood vessels in your nose and how the cold dry air of winter often exacerbates said sensitivity. Atleast thats how I think of it because I'm getting the fucking nose bleeds too.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Cold air is dry air. Yo... | null |
193eu5 | the amazon web services | [
{
"answer": "The basic idea is that Amazon has *shitloads* of computers, all set up so that if one goes down, nobody will ever notice. They've designed their system to handle massive spikes of customers so they can handle the holiday rush. Once they had all this figured out, they realized they could rent out ... | null |
efvaim | How centralized was the Sassanid Empire? | [
{
"answer": "Honestly, it's hard to say. By the time of the Arab invasion, the Sasanian monarchy had by and large collapsed, and Khusrau Anushirwan's decision to split the empire into four administrative regions exacerbated this, turning it into, effectively, a series of principalities governed by the powerful ... | null |
52pd01 | How did the jellyfish lifecycle evolve? | [
{
"answer": "just a highschool student, so this might be wrong, please correct me if i am: the polyp phase is adapted to sitting at the sea floor and getting food there, having is tentacles pointing upwards and its mouth adapted to eat stuff that it finds there. after it gets enough time to grow and mature, the... | null |
oswhi | How do our bodies stay together? | [
{
"answer": "Big question my friend.\n\nCovalent Bonds: Atoms form together to form molecules. I am not a quantum physicist, so I can not explain this process perfectly, but simply put, atoms join together because that is what they do. That is the nature of out universe. By sharing electrons, they form a lower ... | null |
2q5qem | Why would an asteroid impact produce more than a hole in the ground? | [
{
"answer": "Keep in mind that meteors impact really, really fast. The meteorite that produced [Meteor Crater](_URL_0_) is theorized to have impacted at 12.8km/s. At that speed, it doesn't just leave a hole in the ground: The meteor is heated by the extreme deformation, and most or all of it is immediately vapo... | null |
7rafie | Are there problems in computer science that no algorithm can solve for all inputs? | [
{
"answer": "Are you familiar with Undecidable problems:\n\n_URL_1_\n\nand specifically the Halting problem?:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nAlso an important excerpt:\n\n > Alan Turing proved in 1936 that a general algorithm running on a Turing machine that solves the halting problem for all possible program-input pairs necess... | null |
5cgg8f | do all software have bugs in their code or can there be bug-free software? | [
{
"answer": "As software becomes more complex, the likelihood that it will be used in unforseen ways increases exponentially. \n\nThere are tons of bug-free software. Have you ever seen a 4-function calculator crash? Probably not. \n\nBut, realistically, the chances of having something as complex as Windows ... | null |
7308rw | Did Martin Luther condemn peasants because he truly believed that they were acting like savages, or was he trying to look good for the political leaders that the peasants went against? | [
{
"answer": "My estimation is that Luther meant what he wrote concerning the 1525 Peasants' Rebellion. More broadly, he wasn't politically ignorant, but he was also not really known for flattering those in authority or trying to look good for political leaders against his own views. He knew how to say things in... | null |
cbhqx2 | why do more razor blades = a closer shave and more razor burn? | [
{
"answer": "Each item on a razor blade pulls the skin tighter and tighter as it passes over the skin. A 5 blade razor will pull from the back of the head, and then each blade which will slice closer and closer to the stretched skin. Since your skin isn’t perfectly smooth you end up ‘shaving’ a little bit of yo... | null |
1vt977 | why are rear wheel drive cars better for racing than front wheel drive cars | [
{
"answer": "Mostly because 1) when a car accelerates, weight is shifted to the rear. More weight = more traction. By the same token, less weight in the front means less traction. 2) Steering is easier because in a FWD car, the front wheels have to move the vehicle AND steer. You can get a lot of negative side-... | null |
1igyss | If the Moon is slowly moving away from us, what will happen to the Earth when this actually happens? | [
{
"answer": "The Moon will never leave orbit. Its track widens at a rate of only a few centimeters per year, and given current rates of change, the Earth will become tidally locked with the Moon (keeping the same face constantly toward each other) long before it can to leave orbit. At that point its orbit will ... | null |
6y3eqi | what is that strange feeling of numbness we get when we wake up in the middle of the night? | [
{
"answer": "Yer probably describin' the physical consequences of *sleep paralysis.*\n\nYarr! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: Sleep Paralysis ](_URL_7_)\n1. [ELI5: Sleep paralysis and why it happens. ](_URL_0_)\n1. [ELI5: Sleep Paralysis ](_URL_2_)\n1. [ELI5: Sleep paral... | null |
2h13vd | how come only the skin on the palm of our hands and at the bottom of our feet get 'soggy' when we are in water for too long? why not our arms or legs etc? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_ \n \n\"...Common perception is that wrinkling is a local effect on the skin, unconnected to rest of the body... \nEinar Wilder-Smith, a neurologist at the National University of Singapore, has done research looking into the wrinkling effect over the past decade. His research suggests tha... | null |
7a6t3s | why and how is bottling up your feelings bad for your health | [
{
"answer": "It'll make you neurotic. If you can't process and come to acceptance of your emotions, it can lead to anxiety, depression, bouts of anger, unhealthy impulses, and self destructive coping mechanisms.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because burying your feelings tends to make them la... | null |
b8a2l7 | what is the laplacian operator (in both scalar and vector forms) in vector calculus? | [
{
"answer": "The Laplacian can be thought of as the \"curvature\" of a function. To grossly simplify it, you could say it takes the average of the gradients of a function. For example, a flat surface will have no curvature and thus has a Laplacian of 0.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
3gtyc4 | How historically accurate are Shakespeare's histories? | [
{
"answer": "As Bill Bryson Notes in his edition of the Eminent Lives series, the history plays were highly reflective of the mood and political movements of the time and always looking to curry favour with the Monarch as well as provide entertainment for Londoners of all classes. This, it is believed, is where... | null |
7ic323 | What happens when hadrons collide in a particle accelerator? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, energy and momentum are conserved. There are many different processes which can occur when particles collide, depending on the types of particles and the collision energy. But the total energy and momentum are always conserved.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "At high energies,... | null |
4nexpg | Celebrations in liberated countries WW2 | [
{
"answer": "Although it is common to see flag-waving and bouquet-throwing civilians greeting Allied troops, this is not always representative of experiences across Europe. It is important to note that in many places in Europe, some of which were flattened by preliminary bombing operations or artillery shelling... | null |
2i25zr | Are there any examples of prophecies that have led to war? | [
{
"answer": "Apparently not haha",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "24876440",
"title": "Falsehood in War-Time",
"section": "Section::::Summary.\n",
"start_paragraph_id": 7,
"start_character": 0,
"end... | null |
g1o3qr | why do some humans become depressed/anxious when all alone and other humans don't? | [
{
"answer": "I don't believe there's a single person who wouldn't get depressed when left alone too long. We're a social species and there are many cases where extended isolation has severely damaged people's mental well-being. \n\nNow I think there are definitely people who get depressed faster than the others... | null |
1yqjoo | if keeping your heart rate up is good for you during exercise, is the same true of watching scary movies, playing video games, or other passive heart rate boosters? | [
{
"answer": "Heart rate increases due to exercise are healthier than heart rate increases due to terror (eg. watching a scary movie). Terror-based heart rate increases are accompanied by a spike in adrenaline, which can be damaging to your heart over time. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When ... | null |
3rvc37 | What exactly caused Europeans to be seen as barbarians by the Chinese? | [
{
"answer": "I believe your question stems from debate regarding the precise definition of the Chinese term 夷 (*yi*) which appears to have arisen in the mid-19th century. This term was variously translated as 'foreigner' or 'barbarian' - the latter use promulgated by a Pomeranian missionary-cum-translator in Ch... | null |
4oerta | What were/are historians' responses to Max Weber's theories? | [
{
"answer": "As a related question, am I wrong in thinking that Weber's definition of the minimal requirement for a state (monopoly on the legitimate use of force within a limited and defined area) is still pretty damn useful?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
4bjd07 | why is a two-state solution for palestine/israel so difficult? it seems like a no-brainer. | [
{
"answer": "Because Israel is about the size of New Jersey, splitting it would make it downright tiny. Liveable land isn't exactly plentiful as it's mostly desert. It would also require resettling a whole lot of people. Also, the area around Israel has a lot of cliffs and strategic value when it comes to de... | null |
3iteh7 | how does using a throwaway account protect your identity on reddit? | [
{
"answer": "It's to prevent people in your life who know your reddit username from knowing that the stuff posted by the throwaway is from the same person.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "A throwaway account is a new account that have no connection to your main account or real identity (if your... | null |
qtbdj | the process of brewing | [
{
"answer": "Yeast eats sugar and excretes ethanol and carbon dioxide as a waste products. Eventually there is so much alcohol in the solution the yeast dies off and you have an alcoholic beverage.\n\nFor beer, the sugar typically comes form a specially prepared malted barely. Most homebrewers start with a ki... | null |
b4jtsq | why does screaming relieve physical pain to an extent? | [
{
"answer": "The theory is that the the part of the brain used for pain and the part of the brain we use for talking or yelling kind of “overlap,” so we can’t really use both at the same time. The brain is quite interesting, but sometimes it really sucks at multitasking, so we’re able to use one part or the ot... | null |
7kgamb | what makes something “music”? | [
{
"answer": "It's a bit like asking what makes something art. There's no one definition that everyone agrees on. Personally I believe something is art when it is called art by its creator. By extension, something is music when it is art (by the definition above) and it is sonic in nature.\n\nPeople who say you ... | null |
3t5n5k | why don't refugees, if they have to pay up to 1000 dollars in order to get crammed on a sketchy boat, use that money to arrange their own, less sketchy boat with fewer people? | [
{
"answer": "They use smugglers because that is their only option. Legitimate travel methods are not allowing them out of the country and buying their own boat would cost far more than what the smugglers are charging if there are even boats available for purchase and people who know how to operate them for hire... | null |
jzk9x | Cows have bacteria in their stomachs to help break down cellulose in grass in order to digest it. Could a human be inoculated with these bacteria, and then be able to eat grass? | [
{
"answer": "The bacteria are part of it, but remember that ruminants like cows have a four compartment stomach. First, the plant material enters the rumen and is separated into solid and liquid layers. The solid is regurgitated as the cud, which is masticated further and swallowed again. So, even if we innocul... | null |
4skh8n | How do we know that the Andromeda galaxy is 2.5 million light years away from Earth if it takes 2.5 million years for light to get there in the first place? | [
{
"answer": "Andromeda is billions of years old so we have plenty of old light hitting us. The light being 2.5 million years old is of little concern. Measuring cosmic distance is actually pretty hard to do and requires being clever. [Here's my favorite lecture on the topic](_URL_0_), it's by Fields Medalist Te... | null |
1qdt9l | Were gladiators assigned to a single gladiator type, or did they change fighting styles from fight to fight? | [
{
"answer": "To the best of my knowledge gladiators were assigned a single 'style' and trained in that area. The reason for this is actually quite simple, some styles (i.e. Retiarius) took a large amount of skill to preform well. A lanista would not want to invest a large amount of time and money into training ... | null |
4fj2if | why are divorce rates so high in america where people can choose their spouse but low in india where it's arranged? | [
{
"answer": "Research shows that \"love marriages\" and \"arranged marriages\" end up with similar levels of happiness.\n\nSo the difference in divorce rate can't be attributed to differences in happiness.\n\nDivorce became common in the USA in the last 50 years because (1) the social taboo against it faded, (2... | null |
zlla8 | why do (uk) car insurance prices vary from week to week/month to month? | [
{
"answer": "Insurance companies try to get the very best price that you (or people like you) are will to pay. This involves the company using data analytics to find the perfect price point for every kind of customer.\n\nSource: I work in the industry. I build the rules that optimise prices.",
"provenance":... | null |
uqoxc | What would a person experience if they took a dose of LSD while in a Sensory Deprivation chamber? | [
{
"answer": "If you are not opposed to some Googling, searching for John C Lilly might bring some answers for you. Sorry I cannot provide more information. r/drugs might also be able to prove some insight.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": ... | null |
62lrpk | how is it that the us pay more taxes towards healthcare than most countries with universal healthcare, but majority of the citizens don't receive the benefits? where does all of the tax money go? | [
{
"answer": "THe US does not pay more TAX MONEY towards healthcare. They do pay more money towards healthcare. That is a major distinction, because it introduces a private party that has a vested interest in collecting profit.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well, there are various reasons.\n\n... | null |
2of7qo | how is lizard squad hacking xbox live? | [
{
"answer": "DDOS attacks on their servers. They did the same to EA earlier. Completely destroyed the use of all their online games.\n\nEdit: think of it as someone using up all the bandwidth so that no one else can use the internet. Like powering on a torrent at full speed, while your playing a game of Fifa on... | null |
axv8tx | What did British military recruitment look like in the Scottish highlands in the 18th century? Specifically, how did the consequences of Jacobite Rebellions impact highlander's willingness to serve/the British ability to garner interest in military service? | [
{
"answer": "This is a very insightful barrage of questions, and while I am tempted to try to answer them in detail, I would instead like to recommend a handful of top-notch works that comprehensively address these issues far better than I could hope to do. I would consider all of these absolutely indispensable... | null |
9en3x7 | Ancient Greek Capitalism | [
{
"answer": "I cannot directly address the question, beyond saying \"it depends on your source.\" But if you'd like context...\n\n & #x200B;\n\nMarx was not alone in the characterization. Adam Smith also maintained that there was a definitive change in the economic system. He did not go back to Ancient Greece, ... | null |
2yhbza | why would putin admit he ordered the annexation of crimea? | [
{
"answer": "I think mostly to show that he can. He is demonstrating his power. Opposing Putin tends to have it's downsides as well....",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Keep in mind when he claims he said it. \n\nBasically, Putin's position (and you can take this back to either Soviet or Czaris... | null |
703q1n | During the Second World War, were there any Red Army units deployed, say, deep within Siberia or the -Stan countries, that were never sent to fight against Germany? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, since after all, throughout the war the USSR maintained a border with the Japanese controlled regions of China, and Japan wasn't exactly a friend, but it was not a particularly strong force.\n\nTo start, just prior to the outbreak of World War II the two powers had been involved in low level c... | null |
mdzl6 | fifo & lifo (accounting) | [
{
"answer": "Let's say you buy 10 widgets at $1 a piece, then later you buy 10 more at $1.10. You then sell 5 of them. How much are the remaining 15 widgets worth? FIFO means first-in-first-out, LIFO means last-in-first-out, meaning do you count those 5 you sold out of the first batch you bought (the $1 ones... | null |
2p6bz1 | why are guns legal but switch blade knives are illegal? | [
{
"answer": "Because laws are not necessarily logical or moral, and in fact are often very arbitrary. I have no idea why people don't understand this.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There's no National Knife Association to tell idiot politicians why those laws won't do what they think they'll ... | null |
4pa9wo | What are meteorites made from? | [
{
"answer": "In the broad sense Meteorites are for the most part made of the same minerals Earth is made of (there may also be volatile species [ice, CO2, and rarely organic molecules, etc.], those burn up on rentry for the most part and I'll leave their discussion to others if they feel like joining in). That ... | null |
1x4x6m | does cancelling my credit card hurt my credit? or is it better to keep it and not use it? | [
{
"answer": "Hurts your credit. Just don't use it and let it expire. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The age of your credit history does go toward calculating your credit score. Also the number of credit accounts you have can also increase your score. \n\nYou would more than likely, in the lon... | null |
1uppyo | how do massive cold fronts, like the one being experienced in america right now, occur? | [
{
"answer": "The cold front that is being experienced by the United States and Canada right now is known as a polar vortex. Polar vortexes are strong winds found in the upper level of the atmosphere that normally stay over the north pole. On occasion the vortex can be distorted, causing cold air to spill to the... | null |
3ldrry | why is it so difficult to not flinch when something jumps out at you on a screen(like a scary movie for example) even though our brain registers that it is fake and expected? | [
{
"answer": "Reflexes occur *much* faster than rational thought. It's been shown that people reacting to painful stimuli move away from the stimuli before the rational centers of the brain are even activated. This means that your rational brain is not even involved when you flinch - you know it's fake, but that... | null |
7zjn85 | How does the cosmic microwave background persist? Why hasn't it been distorted and destroyed by new sources of energy pumping into space? | [
{
"answer": "Basically CMB, it is a picture of a age, the last scattering surface age, and it is the name of that because, the photon crosssection is very low, basically a photon of cmb can interact with gravitation lens and matter. So if you observe through the MW disk, you will see a interference, but in the... | null |
282ngn | If someone paralyzed from the waist down breaks their leg, will their body still know and be able to repair it? | [
{
"answer": "Paralyzation and regeneration are two different things. Just because paralyzed people don't feel their legs doesn't mean the body ignores it completely...ya just can't feel bad stuff happening to it. There's actually a disease people can have where the body feels no pain. Was covered in a House epi... | null |
adm2su | Buddhism originated in India but today, most of India is either Hindu or Muslim. Conversely, Buddhism is very common in East Asian countries such as Japan. What were some of the key factors that lead to the decline of Buddhism in India and its rise in East Asia? | [
{
"answer": "One of the interesting things about the spread of Buddhism is that it took a very roundabout route through the northwest of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia (what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan) into East Asia along the Silk Road routes -- so the form it reached China in (Mahayana) was a b... | null |
6gmtvd | stop-motion animation | [
{
"answer": "Conceptually, there's not much to it. \n\n1. Set your camera on a tripod or other device to ensure it stays in exactly the same place\n2. pose your clay figure/doll/paper cutout/clothes\n3. take a photograph.\n4. SLIIIIIIGHTLY move your figure towards it's next position. \n5. Take another pic.\n6. ... | null |
5s0qw0 | How were ancient open-field battles organised? | [
{
"answer": "I can only answer this for Classical Greece, but I'm sure some of our resident experts will be willing to add the Roman perspective.\n\nSimply put, Greek armies were usually able to find one another because it was all but impossible for an army to move without being noticed. Armies are large masses... | null |
e25los | why did google let microsoft use chromium on edge? | [
{
"answer": "[Google is an advertising company, first and foremost](_URL_0_). Everything that they do, they do to further the goal of selling more ads.\n\nChrome, Drive, their MS Office knock-offs: their only purpose is to get people to use them and sink ever deeper into the Google ecosystem. That is why they a... | null |
1z39jj | In evolution if mutations are random, how does bacteria learn to use the mutations correctly? Does the behavior mutate randomly too? | [
{
"answer": "'Mutation' refers to somewhat random modification of a cell's genome. This usually affects only affects a few proteins. A cell doesn't just mutate and create a complex structure like a flagellum. That sort of evolution takes a long time, think millions of years. In addition, mutation is only a smal... | null |
3p5rmh | Why didn't Germany go through Luxembourg instead of Belgium in WWI? | [
{
"answer": "The Germans **DID** go through Luxembourg, they just went through Luxembourg **and** Belgium. The problem with just going through Luxembourg, is that it creates an incredibly cramped 'battlespace' if you will, with not a lot of room for the massive German Armies (970 000 men alone advanced through ... | null |
fdd1pi | how are doctors so sure a person can't regain consciousness once their vitals shuts down? | [
{
"answer": "They have seen many people's vital signs shut down. When none of those people can be revived after X minutes, they start to think that nobody can ever be revived after X minutes. Nothing is every 100.0% certain, but they make decisions based on most probably outcomes.",
"provenance": null
}... | null |
3alatl | What is the Origin of Yahweh? | [
{
"answer": "Mark Smith in *The Early History of God* and *The Origins of Biblical Monotheism* traces the original cult center of Yahweh to the town of Tayma in NW Arabia. According to this theory the proto-Israelites were a combo of local Canaanites and migratory shepherds (much like the modern bedouins). The ... | null |
uby62 | If the Alsace-Lorriane region had not been taken away from France after the Franco-Prussian War would it have any effect on politics of Europe? | [
{
"answer": "That depends.\n\nAlsace-Lorraine was certainly a very serious problem between France and Germany, but so was crowning the Emperor in Versailles and a number of other slights during the Franco-Prussian war.\n\nIMO, if they had left Alsace-Lorraine with France, they could have patched things up. Als... | null |
1nfzhk | Other than the Doolittle Raid did Jimmy Doolittle do anything with a major impact on WWII? | [
{
"answer": "Doolittle's main impact on the war actually came before the hostilities. When he was working for Shell, he convinced the company to invest in the property/plant/equipment to refine 100-octane gasoline before there was a market for it. He correctly predicted that engine technology would evolve to su... | null |
3gd7ty | What would happen if a celestial body like the moon or small planet were to pass by us close enough to enter our atmosphere? | [
{
"answer": "I want to start to answer this question by helping you understand just how unlikely this scenario is. The height of our atmosphere is on the order of 100km. To help you picture how thin our atmosphere is, this is basically [equivalent](_URL_0_) to the thickness (not the radius) of a penny compared ... | null |
zynzn | Why do my stationary eyes fade to black in a little to no light environment? | [
{
"answer": "I have never experienced this \"fade to black\". Honestly, it doesn't sound like something that should be happening. If there is enough light in the room for your eyes to see around you, your vision should not fade at all due to a lack of motion. It might be a good idea to mention this to your doc.... | null |
igc3w | Physics Question: Driving in the rain. Does more rain hit your windshield as you go faster? | [
{
"answer": "Imagine uniformely distributed droplets ahead of your car. Look at the volume in front uf your windshield, forming a right cuboid (\"rectangular box\") the area of your windshield, but with a varying depth of 1, 2 and 3 meters.\n\nAt time t_0 there are, say, 100 drops within the first meter, 100 mo... | null |
37dcdi | why are we able to speak well over 6,000 languages, and yet are unable to effectively communicate with our domesticated brethren? | [
{
"answer": "As far as we know humans are the only animal to use language.\n\nThe sounds other animals make would be more analogous to human body language than to speech.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "3289550",
"title": "Simult... | null |
6z9hfu | how do clocks compensate for the fact that a day isn't a full 24 hours? | [
{
"answer": "It's such an insignificant amount of time that it's not really noticable. That's why leap years are only every 4 years instead of more often.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "That's what leap years are for but there is also a thing called leap seconds. Every once in a while scientis... | null |
30k413 | is google licensing its fiber optics? | [
{
"answer": "Google isn't licensing their fiber optics. What's happening is that Google is succeeding in their goal to force ISPs to step up their game. Google believes fast, affordable internet should be available to everyone. The current market is happy for a single ISP to have a monopoly over each area. Goog... | null |
duohmk | blue light from screens reduces melatonin, but doesn’t that mean more serotonin? | [
{
"answer": "No, it doesnt work that way. Oddly enough dopamine and melatonin are inversely linked (one goes up and the other goes down). But contrary to popular belief that has more of an effect on movement than on mood. But it is thought to be related to why people can get a bit addicted to screen time.",
... | null |
yzl3u | why don't girls ask guys out? | [
{
"answer": "Because our culture has long been focused on men being in a dominant role. Asking someone out is a dominant action and not expected of girls.\n\nNot that hard really.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Traditionally, men are seen as dominant. Men are viewed as the gender which is in c... | null |
5wzpf8 | why can't dc be transformed as easily as ac | [
{
"answer": "When you switch a DC signal on and off, you're turning it into an AC signal. \n\nIt's easier to manipulate the voltage and current of AC signals, because with AC we are able to use magnetic coupling as another degree of freedom. Magnetic fields can only create electric fields when they are changi... | null |
as54vl | if it takes about 8 minutes for sunlight to reach earth doesn’t that mean that it’s true position in the sky is 8 minutes ahead? | [
{
"answer": "EDIT: sorry, the first thing you said is not entirely true. The second is fine.\n\nThe sun's position in the sky is due to the rotation of the earth, much more than the orbit around the sun + difference from the speed of light. If the light reached us instantly, the sun would be an imperceptible fr... | null |
yadhz | what are they talking about when they say a room or building has 'great acoustics'? how do you determine if a room has great acoustics? | [
{
"answer": "When someone makes noise, a sound wave travels from them to your ear, and that's how you hear it.\n\nMaybe you're picturing a laser-beam type wave, shooting from the sound source to your ear. If you could see it though, it would actually look more like a ripple on a lake, traveling outward in every... | null |
49me1r | Did FDR let Pearl Harbor happen? Was there knowledge that A, the attack was going to happen, and B, when? | [
{
"answer": "Hey there this has come up before!\n\nWould point you towards 2 of my previous answers on the subject: _URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_\n\nIt boils down to a combination of things people looking back to say \"conspiracy!\".\n\nThe big one is that it is much easier to say it was all planned, then that 50 years of... | null |
1xgzcm | rutherford's nuclear atom | [
{
"answer": "I can't summarize it better than the Wikipedia article, but I'd be happy to answer any more *specific* questions you have.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The atomic model prior to Rutherford was that of J.J. Thomson. Thomson's atom was made entirely out of electrons (the first sub... | null |
2n9ko8 | why do we not use airships nowadays? shouldn't there be a solution to the explosive problem by now? | [
{
"answer": "They'd be pretty slow compared to airplanes, cars, trains, basically any other modern method of travel. It would be such a novelty/niche market that it'd probably be hard to turn a profit.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is a solution to the explosive problem, use helium inst... | null |
1selem | In the US during the 1800s, was it common for slaves to go insane? | [
{
"answer": "There was just a thread discussing this a couple of weeks ago, hopefully you can find some answers here: \n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "10899216",
"title": "History of Wicca",
"section": "Section... | null |
93hsq3 | How does the smoke, heat and debris from wildfires affect cloud and weather systems? | [
{
"answer": "Most areas have regular wind patterns that are determined by the heating of air. Hot air rises, and cold air sinks. Air, like most other things, likes to move from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. When hot air rises, the pressure beneath that air decreases, so surrounding air masses... | null |
2ofzdr | why do we refer the secretary of state as mr. secretary, but never the ceo of microsoft as mr. ceo? | [
{
"answer": "Because of tradition which was developed to divide society into classes dating centuries back and how that contrasted with the bourgeois revolution in the XVIII century. The titles mean to convey someone's social position and indicate whether the interlocutor is positioned above or beneath in socia... | null |
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