id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
5fdtl8 | In "Diplomacy" by Kissinger, he mentions that 19th century Russia had both Asian and European focused foreign offices. With the European directive being dominated by "Baltic Germans". Who were these Baltic Germans and how important of a role did they have in Tsarist Russia? | [
{
"answer": "Did they ever have nationalist tendencies? Were they trusted?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "From an [earlier answer of mine](_URL_0_)\n\n**Part I**\n\nAlthough the state's trust in its Baltic German minority waned over time, it was an especially privileged group in the imperial s... | null |
4wd0q8 | Employment status of prostitutes in the Old West | [
{
"answer": "I would love to hear what insight /u/itsallfolklore has.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "First, the West covers a great deal of territory and whatever the \"West\" means spans many decades, so arriving at generalities is problematic. In general, the West could be an extraordinary f... | null |
3vdga6 | why did the us care so much about not letting cuba, parts of latin america, vietnam, and other parts of the world become communists? | [
{
"answer": "We were (and some argue still are) at war with Russia. Allowing a communist nation in our region of influence would give Russia a point that they could use to attack up directly faster than we could react, and it would siphon money and political influence away from us. ",
"provenance": null
}... | null |
1rhzht | Can anyone help identify the pictures on this scrimshaw? [x-post] r/whatisthisthing and r/antiques | [
{
"answer": "What an interesting mystery! I find a depiction of Jenny Lind pretty reasonable for the 1880s, because she did the big American tour in 1850 so people would probably remember her from then. The scrimshaw might predate the wedding by a while too. \n\nMy library has digital copy of Godey's Lady's Boo... | null |
51x7bt | why is footage from camera that was attached to you always shaky while you don't see same shaky effect through eyes? | [
{
"answer": "There's three things going on:\n\n1) Our eyes automatically counterbalance the effects of walking; as we step up slightly during our gait, our eyes look slightly down (pretty much automatically) to keep our field of vision somewhat stable. Most cameras don't do this, so it's shakier than an actual ... | null |
2yto4u | if diamonds are just compressed carbon, why cant we make a machine that just compresses carbon into diamonds | [
{
"answer": "We have them. They make industrial diamonds for saw blades and the like quite frequently. We produce diamonds all the time through a variety of processes, though it only recently we have been able to make gem quality diamonds of size in the laboratory. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer... | null |
2hrt3c | Why do we "Weigh" things in kg,g,and mg, if grams are units of mass? If I've got some powder on a scale and it reads 40mg, is it actually calculating the weight and then dividing it by 9.8 to tell me the total mass of the powder on the scale? | [
{
"answer": " > Why do we \"Weigh\" things in kg,g,and mg, if grams are units of mass?\n\nWe measure mass by exploiting Newton's 2nd law: F=ma. The acceleration due to earth's gravity at its surface is about 9.8 m/s*^2*, so we can measure an object's mass by measuring the force gravity exerts on it and then di... | null |
14rjf5 | Kind of a weird question, but do any historians here feel that being religious affects their professional career? | [
{
"answer": "A lot of the people in Reformation history are Christians, and I've never seen anyone suffer as a result of it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's weird that you mention that, because I just finished a course on American History after the Civil War during Reconstruction.\n\nFirst... | null |
1fki9o | If you were trapped in a room to die of dehydration with nothing to drink but alcohol, would you live longer if you did or did not drink it? | [
{
"answer": "Well, if you were willing to drink your own urin, you are good to go.\n\nProblem with alcohol is that it blocks your Pituitary gland from producing Vasopressin.\n\nThis hormone makes your kidney reabsorb the water from your urine.\n\nSo if you drink alcohol, you lose a lot of water from your system... | null |
2zkl14 | why do three-pin sockets block two-pin plugs when this security measure can easily be bypassed by a three-pin plug key or using a stick to push the relevant lever? | [
{
"answer": "Because you're supposed to be more afraid of the fire you're likely to start by doing that than proud of how clever you are for using the stick. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "976663",
"title": "Industrial and mult... | null |
4khalb | How do T-cells know which cells they've already inspected? | [
{
"answer": "It doesn't know. And it doesn't loop because it's not like the T-cell specifically waits until the current cell under investigation has \"passed inspection\" before moving on. The T-cell just moves around, continuously coming into contact with other cells in the neighboring environment, and if it... | null |
4k2l4a | what are the main doctrines of christianity? | [
{
"answer": "- Believe God exists and created everything\n- Believe John 3:16\n- Love God\n- Love people\n- Pray faithfully\n- Acknowledge the existence and reality of heaven, hell, and eternity\n- Don't be stupid",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikiped... | null |
2sra7p | Black babies as bait for alligator hunt? | [
{
"answer": "Holy cow. I had never heard of this before. I did a search of GenealogyBank (they have a large American newspaper database) for the phrase \"gator bait.\" I found a few articles that talked about exceptionally large alligators being caught (around 1900-1910) that mention using a pig leg or a live p... | null |
6aiaj3 | what keeps your skin cells in a human shape instead of them reproducing outwards indefinitely? | [
{
"answer": "Oversimplified: Skin grows upward from a base layer - as you go further there's less and less blood supply, and cells aren't supported. The outer surface of your skin is substantially dead cells that form a protective layer.\n\nIn the case of injury, other tissues are involved, and chemicals help s... | null |
2urllh | How many primary sources do we have about Rome from 700 _URL_0_ 500 a.d? | [
{
"answer": "Virtually all of our literary sources on ancient Rome were transmitted through the Christian monastic system. The oldest literary manuscript we have is the Vatican Vergil, which dates from the early fifth century CE. There are a small handful of manuscripts from about that time period, but I think ... | null |
3vzz2y | What are some things that are attributed to Roman culture and society, but actually come from the Etruscans? | [
{
"answer": "A whole lot! Tarquinian kings ruled Rome until 509 BCE, so much of early Roman culture was derived from the Etruscans. Etruscan art became highly sophisticated during the Orientalizing period (c. 700-570 BCE), and Etruscan bucchero pottery exhibited particularly fine craftsmanship for its era that ... | null |
1tqn9d | why did humans lose fur? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_ \n \nThis article brings up an interesting fact about humans and their long-distance running abilities. \n > “Ancient humans exploited the fact that humans are good runners in the heat,” Dr. Bramble said. “We have such a great cooling system” — many sweat glands, little body hair. \n ... | null |
2kua7f | Has any country that engaged in mass surveillance of its own citizens avoided becoming totalitarian? | [
{
"answer": " > > The question was raised by a famous cryptographer Bruce Schneier in this article, but was not answered.\n\nThis isn't as good or insightful a question as you might think it is.\n\nPre-modern governments tend not to have the power or technology to conduct surveillance of individuals en masse i... | null |
6qmliu | what's the difference between a strategist and a tactician? | [
{
"answer": "Strategy is big picture, tactics is more technical. A military example would be: \n\n\"let's move our armies to X area to damage the enemy's food supplies\" - strategy\n\n\"let's go this way and flank the enemy with our soldiers\" - tactics",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
3kpk1d | why do children so often cry on public transport whilst a private car sends them to sleep? | [
{
"answer": "Maybe its all the strangers comming off and on the bus. \nWhen its a car its just your family and you all the while. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "29196883",
"title": "Distracted driving",
"section": "Se... | null |
4rq6cc | the difference between curd and yogurt. | [
{
"answer": "I like both cheese (curds) and yogurt and no one has answered, so I'll have a go at this. \n\nMilk is made of water, sugars, fat and proteins. When they're all flowing together as a liquid, that's milk or cream.\n\nCurds are formed when the proteins in milk get bunched together and tangled up so th... | null |
6jhdnv | Could there be a noticeable change in heat on objects that are illuminated by a regular light bulb? | [
{
"answer": "After a couple google searches and some reading, it appears that there is a noticeable change depending on the type of bulb and the object that is being studied.\n\n 1. _URL_0_\n\nTake this website which goes into explaining how LED lights are more energy efficient and emit less heat because it doe... | null |
7ufqev | How were microprocessors made before automated robots (which use microprocessors) were invented? | [
{
"answer": "Microprocessors are really just integrated circuits (ICs). The first IC was fairly primative and was developed by Jack Kilby. You can see what it looked like [here](_URL_0_).\n\n\nKeep in mind, integrated circuits are really just circuits made out of semiconductor substrates (e.g. silicon). The act... | null |
97cz7c | why is it bad for our body to shower daily, but it's okay to wash our hands many times a day? | [
{
"answer": "I think I'll have to disagree with your premise. Can you show evidence that your claim of daily showers being bad?\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "253830",
"title": "Washing",
"section": "",
"sta... | null |
21i6vz | the difference between countries ruled by england (eg scotland/wales) and colonies of england (eg canada/australia) | [
{
"answer": "Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland are all constituent countries of the United Kingdom. Although England is the largest country and home to the capital, England does not rule the other countries. in fact its the other way around as the other countries each have thier own governments whil... | null |
1ncjk8 | Do more physically attractive people tend to have more pleasant (or even sexy) voices? What role does voice play in human mate selection? | [
{
"answer": "Not so much. The markers identified for physical attraction (facial symmetry) and voice preferences (vocal tract size) do not correlate in either direction. Furthermore, the studies that have discovered these preferences lack cross-cultural validation.\n\n**Voice:** Even within a population, these ... | null |
j3jz4 | can somebody please explain how the person betting $1billion that the united states will lose it's aaa rating will make money if that happens. | [
{
"answer": "You can [short sell](_URL_0_) anything. In this case, he shorted US government bonds.\n\nShort selling is the practice of borrowing a stock or bond (or anything) from person A and selling it to person B. Then after the price goes down (hopefully), you buy it from person C and sell it back to pers... | null |
srfvm | Red and blue images on my phone look 3D through my corrective glasses. What gives? | [
{
"answer": "It looks like the polarizer on your phone and the anti-glare coating on your glasses Real interacting to create a ChromaDepth effect.\n\nThis website explains the phenomenon quite well:\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_i... | null |
3qm851 | why do some pencil sharpeners work perfectly and others simply mutilate my pencil slowly without sharpening the lead? | [
{
"answer": "There is 2 main factors to a good pencil sharpener. 1 - Blade sharpness, the sharper the blade the more smoothly you can sharpen your pen without the tip \"cracking\" and the sharper it is the sharper the maximum sharpness the tip can be. 2 - The plastic guider that guides the pencil into the blade... | null |
5gcajg | what happens if a wedding guest "speaks now" instead of "forever holding their peace"? | [
{
"answer": "Usually nothing. By that time if someone speaks up at that moment, they're drunk or delusional. \n\nBut, there is a good reason to do this. Marriage is a funny institution, so one cannot legally be married to two people at a time. I remember reading a case where a women had been trying to get her h... | null |
1vvhma | What exactly would Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels have been charged with had they been tried at Nuremberg? | [
{
"answer": "There were 4 indictments leveled against Goering and the other high ranking Nazi's in the first of the series of Nuremberg Trials. They were:\n\nA. Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace\n\nB. Planning, initiating and waging wars of aggressio... | null |
fgknil | what happens to my feces when it’s at the gates but i’m driving and can’t stop to defecate? it feels as though it simply goes away and i get a bit of stomach rumbles | [
{
"answer": "What makes you feel like you have to poop (or pee for that matter) is that there are muscles in your stomach which you don't have any control over. Those muscles try to push the poop/pee against muscles that you do have control over, so you have to push back to keep the poop/pee in.\n\nEven though... | null |
1al93m | Is there any scientific studies on the difference between children raised by gay parents vs. heterosexual or single parents? | [
{
"answer": "Not sure why this is getting downvotes, the question is valid, we are all shaped by our experiences and our environment it is not a controversial hypothesis that there could be differences between heterosexual parents and gay/lesbian parents. In the same way that there could also be a difference be... | null |
u9ca1 | Who were the major "sex symbols" of the 19th century? | [
{
"answer": "I have a feeling it would've been a more local thing than it is now without TV or other mediums that are as conducive to giving people national or international fame and exposure.\n\nI don't really know, I'm merely speculating that it's a very modern phenomenon.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
27t15e | Why are Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian (Uralic Languages) under the same language family and how did they become related? | [
{
"answer": "They didn't become related. The common roots of the 3 languages (with only about 200 related words) originated just west of the Ural Mountains and grew further and further apart with time. The first mention of any Uralic language was in 98 AD in Tacitus's \"Germania.\" The languages are very distan... | null |
ssr8y | burning wood to create energy does not create global warming? | [
{
"answer": "Our planet has not always been the same as it was now. It took a very long time for photosynthetic life to store all of the carbon currently sequestered. (It's also worth noting that not all carbon in the world is either in plants or the atmosphere.) The problem is that when people burn wood for fu... | null |
7ii4rn | beyond the protection of fame and money, how do serial sexual predators like cosby, weinstein, or spacey get away without serving any jail time? | [
{
"answer": "You can only get jail time of you're convicted of a crime. A lot of the people accused of sexual misconduct are accused of behaviors which aren't actually criminal. They might be unlawful civilly, where they could be sued over it, or they might just be severely frowned upon, but you only get jail i... | null |
4cu1dn | Why is hypoglycemia a symptom of diabetes? | [
{
"answer": "Future Med Student here!\n\nHypoglycemia, or low blood glucose, is a side effect of treating diabetes. There are 2 types of diabetes, insulin dependent or non-insulin dependent. In insulin dependent (type 1) the pancreas produces little or no insulin; in insulin independent (type 2) the pancreas pr... | null |
2l5pe1 | Why do we steer vehicles from the front, but aircraft (elevators/rudder) from the rear? | [
{
"answer": "That's a good question, but in short the way vehicles and aircraft are controlled aren't really related. I can explain why standard aircraft have the control surfaces at the back on the tail (the rudder/vertical stabilizer/elevator/horizontal stabilizer assembly being called the *empennage*).\n\nAl... | null |
yt865 | why can't they make space elevators with propellers on them to reduce tension forces? | [
{
"answer": "That would only work in the atmosphere, where the propellers have something to push: air. But the cable will experience the same amount of tension above the atmosphere, where there is no air for the propellers to push. The only real solution is to find a way to manufacture, in large quantity at r... | null |
24dd16 | What are the margins of error in elections? If a study hasn't been done, how could we construct one? | [
{
"answer": "You can look at recounts to get a sense of how much the count varies on repeated measurements. I found some statistics here: _URL_0_\n\nBased on those 72 counties, the average relative change in Prosser's vote was 0.999877827 and the standard deviation over counties was 0.001448963.\n\nIn terms of... | null |
bzere2 | what makes some color combinations more aisthetically pleasing than others? | [
{
"answer": "Mostly it comes to personal preference. I would recommend watching this video by Kurzgesagt about what makes humans 'like pretty things.'",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "7397",
"title": "Color blindness",
"se... | null |
46p23j | When does a baby get its own blood type? | [
{
"answer": "Depending on what you mean, either a. immediately upon conception, because the blood type is genetically determined or b. around week five when first blood cells are formed according to those genetic instructions.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
boi28g | It's a common trope in 19th century fiction for a character to descend into insanity. What would 19th century "insanity" mean in modern medical terms? | [
{
"answer": "Edit: Thanks for your patience, everyone. I hope you will enjoy my answer: please scroll further down the page to find what became many hours of research for your amusement and edification.\n\nCould you please give some examples of the texts you mean? For example, a lot of research has been done on... | null |
2say64 | how do chinese speakers imply sarcasm? | [
{
"answer": "You can still stress syllables in Chinese without changing the tone. In addition in China people tend to be very creative with word choices and puns to imply sarcasm or even insults. \n\nSource: Native speaker. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Chinese speaker here, though not extre... | null |
y4jnf | Question about US Air Force rank structure during WWII | [
{
"answer": "Short answer. The Air Force was a branch of the army in WW2 and used Army ranks. It was known as [The United States Army Air Forces](_URL_0_).\n\nThe US Air Force was not active until 1947.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "80... | null |
19ba5o | How did ancient Greek and Roman sculptures survive in such good condition for so long? | [
{
"answer": "One of the larger factors in the survival for more than 2000+ years of Greek and Roman statues (and buildings) has been the relative lack of large scale heavy industry in their immediate vicinity. \n \nA great deal of damage was caused between circa 1940 and 1980 by [Acid Rain](_URL_0_) which, w... | null |
3q80e2 | why do people that play hockey or other sports left handed prefer to golf right handed? | [
{
"answer": "Canadian kids starting to learn hockey are taught to place their dominant hand on the end of the stick. This translates to playing golf \"left-handed\"",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "30533724",
"title": "Bias agains... | null |
3ia2xh | if we have enough grain and milk sitting in silos around the usa to feed the world why do we give farmers subsidizes to burn it instead of using that money to give it away? | [
{
"answer": "To stabilize the price. Too much supply will result in price drop which will drive lot of farms out of business which will decrease the supply and cause price spike. \n\nWe are doing this to stop volatility in prices. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Short answer is time and money.... | null |
1qpfiw | why did nature make us intelligent instead of strong? | [
{
"answer": "More efficient I guess. Work smart, not hard.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "We are actually quite large and strong. We are not as strong as some other primates, but we have a lot more stamina, and we can run farther (although not faster) than just about any land animal in exist... | null |
ro9xu | Is there an end to the obesity epidemic in sight? | [
{
"answer": "I found better data for overweight so I will make my arguments for overweight instead of obesity. The correlation is so high that it makes no difference.\n\n1) The adult population of some states in the US is now ~67% overweight (Mississippi, West Virginia) and the trend is still going up. So we ha... | null |
1ncbum | If fever is a common means of thwarting infection, why haven't bacteria and viruses evolved to tolerate a slightly higher body temperature? | [
{
"answer": "You've struck on a very interesting and \"hot\" topic in evolutionary medicine.\n\nOne interesting theory (and I may be biased, since it's been posited by my adviser) claims that it's a form of micro-selection. First, it should be noted that even one \"strain\" of a pathogen still exhibits slightly... | null |
2s6tuw | What does the word Way mean in The Milky Way? | [
{
"answer": "In the night sky without light pollution, you'll see a white cloudy band, like a milky-colored road through the sky. Presumably because of this, this band was called in Latin the \"Via Lactea\" which we translate into English as \"the Milky Way\" -- *way* as in *road* or *path*. And this band is ... | null |
57mpde | when i'm watching satellite tv, is the satellite transmitting all the channels at once for my receiver to pick one or is my receiver requesting a channel to the satellite? | [
{
"answer": "The satellite transmits everything. Your home equipment certainly doesn't have any way to communicate with a satellite. \n\nYou tune to a frequency similar to regular broadcast. That tuning determines what information received from the satellite actually displays. ",
"provenance": null
... | null |
3u350z | why do first nations / native people in canada continue to live on reservations where they have poor housing, below par schools and medical access, few jobs, poor quality of life and limited prospects for their children? | [
{
"answer": "Partly culture but mainly land claims. If they all abandoned their reserves it'd be harder for them to claim their treaty rights on the land.\n\nI think this duality inside Canada is a shame though. It's basically apartheid. They live in squalor because of how remote they are but they can't real... | null |
66owsa | what's causing the very high pitched engine noise and bangs usually rally cars produce? | [
{
"answer": "The high pitched noise is the turbo (basically a vacuum cleaner to suck more air into the motor).\n\nThe bangs are excess gas/air igniting in the exhaust when they let off the gas, because when you are sucking that much air & gas through the motor, it can't stop following instantly when you lift ... | null |
5kij60 | why do pets play with/are scared of their own tails? do they not know they're their own? | [
{
"answer": "Young dogs and cats do it because it's fun. They like having fun just like we do. Slightly older pets might do it to get attention from humans since we tend to find the spectacle to be hilarious. If you have an elderly pet chasing their tail regularly, you might want to consider taking them to a... | null |
30y7yj | What was the long term ecological impact of the Narnian ice age? | [
{
"answer": "The Narnian ice age (which is more properly categorised as a pessimum, as Narnia was - still is - in an ice age during the entire time, an ice age being properly defined as a time when both the polar caps are full of ice year long, and when the sweet sea that rocks Aslan's realm drops below 10 degr... | null |
69y5jv | how to choose delicious watermelon? | [
{
"answer": "Weight and sound. The heaviest one per size means that they have more water, and usually more sweetness. When you tap on the watermelon it should be more of a dull/muffled thud rather than a higher pitched sound.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
acjjgd | Do Immunosuppressant medications cancel historical vaccinations? | [
{
"answer": "They don't make them defective, it's just that your immune system may have trouble responding to a disease even if it knows what it is. \n\nThey're not too certain of the effect of current vaccines. The disclaimer is, it might work, won't hurt to try.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer":... | null |
2bngzw | why am i so tired after flying, or other times where i sit all day? | [
{
"answer": "I know that, for me, I feel tired when I get off a plane because I just spent the past few hours scrunching in my shoulders and arms and keeping my legs together in order to not encroach on the space of the person sitting next to me. If I were sitting in a regular chair at my office for the same du... | null |
15h76l | Since the Earth and the Sun are constantly moving in their respective orbits, is it fair to say we'll never be in the same spot in the Universe again? | [
{
"answer": " > As I understand astronomy, the Earth is orbiting the Sun\n\nThat's one reference frame. There's also a reference frame in which Earth is stationary. Both are equally valid, though one may be preferable for various calculational purposes.\n\n > the Sun, which is in turn moving in the Milky Way\n\... | null |
44d4fw | is the human immune system "stronger" now than it was 1000+ years ago? (not including knowledge of simple things like hand washing, etc.) | [
{
"answer": "Evolution does not change a lot in a thousand years. There is a dance between infectious diseases and their hosts. A really deadly disease kills the host and therefore itself.\n\nWe have found antibiotics that work for a while.\n\nLet me relate a story about malaria.\n\nMalaria is the number one ki... | null |
7zrjef | What was Julius Caesar’s legacy as a politician? Was he remembered as an absolutist and a populist or as the demigod that tried to end the corrupted Senate? | [
{
"answer": "Not to discourage further answers but you might enjoy reading these:\n\n[Why when people hear Julius Caesar, do they think of a great historical figure and a tragedy in the form of his assassination, when he was so obviously a tyrant?](_URL_0_) by /u/Celebreth\n\n[Was Julius Caesar a reformist, a c... | null |
wp74v | why people enjoy the bitter taste of alcohol | [
{
"answer": "You know how sometimes you prefer apple juice over orange juice? People also prefer some beers over others. The great thing about beer is that the flavors of it range so much. You can have a nice, smooth beer without any bitterness or you can get a really bitter beer depending on your tastes or the... | null |
1576zn | What the rationale for the Soviets letting the East German army keep it's Prussian tradition? | [
{
"answer": "Though I'm not an expert, I think the assumption you're making is incorrect. The East German army didn't keep Prussian military traditions, they adopted Prussian military traditions. \n\nThe National People's Army was established in 1956. East Germany didn't have an army before then. Post World War... | null |
fossrl | how does morse code work | [
{
"answer": "With silences. A silence the duration of three dots separates between letters, while a silence with the duration of 7 dots separates between words.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Morse code comes from a time when we couldn't transmit voice or video over wired and wireless links ye... | null |
2iqj4s | [META] Is it just me or are there way more [deleted] comments in this sub as compared to other popular subs? Why is that? | [
{
"answer": "This subreddit has quite clear rules and they are enforced well. This results in a very quality sub, and in turn a reasonably popular one. It also results in some posts being graveyards of deleted comments. This is a testimony to the greatness of our all powerful overlord moderators. Long may they ... | null |
3ypvwa | who owns the land that roads are on? can you purchase that land? | [
{
"answer": "The exact arrangement varies by location. In some places, the land is owned by the adjacent landowners, but the city, county or state government has a right of way permitting it to build the road. This means that if it were ever stricken as a public road, it would revert ownership to the adjacent o... | null |
2rrqjr | the sports and competition seeding system for playoffs or things like octa/quarterfinals | [
{
"answer": "In some activities this is called the \"power protect\" tournament system. It is to reward the players/teams/competitor with the best regular season or preliminary rounds performance. \n\nThis system is the most likely to produce the two best teams in the final round... Notice that the only way t... | null |
1hnsh4 | If I went to 1st century Rome with 100 pounds of salt, how rich would I be? | [
{
"answer": "Are you sure you didn't mean to write pepper or some other (for that age) luxury spice? At that time the Mediterranean cultures already knew how to extract salt from the sea and salt mines were abundant. 100 pounds of salt wouldn't get you very far. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": ... | null |
1x3r17 | Does the flight from Europe and USA (and in the other way) lasts longer/shorter because of Earth movement beneath the plane? | [
{
"answer": "It doesn't create any real effect on travel time; Air in our atmosphere tends to rotate with the earth. A small headwind however can change flight times by hours. These winds tend to blow in one direction, so traveling one way you'll have a tailwind, reducing your travel time.\n\n_URL_0_",
"p... | null |
33pud5 | Some modern animals look just like their long-extinct ancestors. Have these "living fossils" really not changed in millions of years? | [
{
"answer": "It might be easiest to explain using a specific example. I'll use one of the poster boys of living fossils, the horseshoe crab, the best studied of which is the atlantic horseshoe crab, *Limulus polyphemus*.\n\nAlthough \"horseshoe crabs\" may have been extant as early as 450 million years ago, *L.... | null |
b5pk01 | what does a non compete clause stop workers from doing? | [
{
"answer": "It means you can't go work for a competing company either durring employment and usually for a set period after you leave the company.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "And it is not legal in many areas.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'm a consultant. I signed a no... | null |
6b6wwa | why are mortgages so much more common in the u.s. than in other countries? | [
{
"answer": "Why do you think this is?\n\nPeople take out loans for homes in every corner of the globe, they usually cannot purchase them straight up.\n\nA mortgage is just the name of a loan you get to buy a home.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipe... | null |
18ien7 | how do women in burqas pass through customs in an airport? | [
{
"answer": "Honestly women in full burqas are a small fraction of all Muslim women. And usually from the poorest Islamic nations. I doubt many of this already small population actually fly. But if they did I'm guessing a female security officer would ask to see them unveiled. ",
"provenance": null
},
{... | null |
q9jlk | Are hormones passed from the donor to the recipient in a blood transfer? How do they treat the blood before it's ready for use? | [
{
"answer": "Yes hormones exist in transfused blood. Whole blood or plazma will contain [hormones from the donor](_URL_2_).\n\nIn most cases the hormone levels are insignificant so they aren't a consideration. However, in some cases the remaining hormones are used for [therapeutic purposes](_URL_0_).\n\nThe hor... | null |
9iw7pm | are there any negative side effects to eating a tumor? | [
{
"answer": "When you say eat, do you mean like eating with your mouth and digestive system or like with your immune system attacking something?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I’m honestly not sure how much nutritional benefit could be gained, but it wouldn’t be poisonous nor give you cancer. ... | null |
1zf3mn | How close do atoms in a given space have to be in order for sound to be able to travel across them? | [
{
"answer": "The is no distinct line. The average distance between atoms in a gas (ideal gas really, but it's the same at the low-pressure limit) is inversely proportional to the pressure. \n\nSo what you're asking is the same thing as what the lowest pressure is, at which you can have sound. But sound is a pro... | null |
38hx6h | How does β-NMR-spectroscopy work? | [
{
"answer": "I'm surprised nobodies said anything yet, so I guess i'll try to give it a shot.\n\nBasically any NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) application is using the nuclear spin of the material to identify what the material is. It's done by using magnets to orient the direction of the spin, then using anoth... | null |
16qz2b | How close exactly was India to the USSR? What was the nature of the Indo-Soviet friendship, and were the Indo-Pakistani wars actually proxy wars? | [
{
"answer": "Enemy of my enemy is my friend. USA was afraid of the potential impact of USSR having access to Arabian sea. So they had strong point in endorsing Pak, and provided aid/arms. Indo-soviet ties became a natural consequence. Two non-aligned nations thus sided with major powers. There are few stranger ... | null |
1grwsb | why is muhammed ali considered the greatest (or one of the greatest) boxers of all time if he lost five times? | [
{
"answer": "Because he was an incredibly polarizing personality and a very, very dominant boxer in his prime. I would suggest watching his fights to understand.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's how you wiin, who you win against and how you come back. Ali did it all in style, entertained an... | null |
dghk3k | what does the secretary general of the united nations do? | [
{
"answer": "He or she expresses concerns... sometimes, on rare occasions, they express deep concerns. That’s about it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The title is pretty explanatory. The UN itself is mostly consisting of clerical and administrative staff as it is the member nations who make a... | null |
1rdonn | why schrödinger's cat needs to be observed, and why someone/thing needs to be observing everything around us? | [
{
"answer": "It is a bit different than that. In normal physics, when you don't measure something you don't know the value of whatever it was that you did not measure.\n\nWhen you *do* decide to measure the value (you *observe the system*) you find one single value. You deduce that it did have that particular v... | null |
4t71v2 | Books about US Covert Activity? | [
{
"answer": "While not a strictly CIA operation \"Blind Man's Bluff\" was a good read on submarine operations during the Cold War, specifically Operation Ivy Bells which detailed the tapping of undersea cables between Petropavlovsk and Vladivostok.\n\nAs a former spook, this book still feels wrong to read becau... | null |
3vum24 | how can the distance of a light year be consistent? | [
{
"answer": "This is actually a good question.\n\nAnd the problem isn't with just \"light years\". You can apply that argument to any distance.\n\nThe answer is that part of the relativistic effects along with time dilation is length contraction. That is, the closer you are to the speed of light, the more dista... | null |
49f601 | when trying to regain balance, why do we lean towards the side that is off balance? | [
{
"answer": "Your upper body/head/chest seem to move to the left; this is so that your hips/center of mass will move to the right. Your hips/waist/belly easily counteract the tilt. It is impossible, however, to move your waist to the right quickly without moving your upper body to the left. Does that make sense... | null |
3280bw | countries with a president and a prime minister | [
{
"answer": " It goes back to the idea that it has been found by experience that a country needs both a head of state and a head of government. A head of state personifies the nation, acts as a focus of national unity, acts as diplomatic host, and is generally just \"there\". A head of government actually runs ... | null |
54allt | how were modern day scholars able to translate works written in archaic english (e.g. the canterbury tales) so accurately when the language used is so different from the english today? | [
{
"answer": "It's actually pretty straightforward, because we have lots of text from the intervening periods. If all you know is modern English and you have to read a text from the 1300s, it's hard, but if you also have studied what English looked like in the 1400s, the 1500s, the 1600s, the 1700s, etc, you ca... | null |
hy6sp | What causes the planets to align the way they do? | [
{
"answer": "This is answered in the sciencefaqs.\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well, one, an atom in no way looks like that. Two, [this](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because they're formed from a rotating cloud of gas and dust, and things that rotate t... | null |
88svql | Did civilization recede in China in periods of disorder between dynasties? | [
{
"answer": "Well, let me start by saying that, as I sit here in an at-least-nominally-republican society, typing away in a Latin script, and using a language deeply infused with Romantic vocabulary, and speaking from a high Judeo-Christian social perspective… that reports of fall of Roman Civilization remain s... | null |
1xpdp2 | how does opening a beer with just a refrigerator magnet and a quarter work | [
{
"answer": "It's a trick - a normal fridge magnet and bottle of beer wouldn't do that. I strongly suspect the bottle is rigged before the video starts and the magnet is just a red herring.\n\nIt might even be completely fake.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
1ak6bi | Did Spartacus ever truly threaten Rome / the Republic? | [
{
"answer": "To the Romans of the time, he was at least an existential threat. Here was a slave leading a slave army plundering a pillaging right through the heart of Roman territory, teasing Rome itself. As to what the slave army was capable of, that is up for speculation. Certainly the initial campaigns again... | null |
e8wh8k | - i saw a ted video today about altering the dna in bacteria to fight cancer. how does one "edit" the dna in something?? | [
{
"answer": "Kurzgesagt made [the most clear and amazing video](_URL_0_) about how we can use CRISPR to edit DNA",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "So the most common and promising method, which is still pretty early on, is called CRISPR-Cas9. \n\nBasically it’s a modified version of a bacterial d... | null |
1biiob | How can a complex protein fold in milliseconds, yet it takes current supercomputers an immense time to find the lowest energy state? How do they know how to fold? | [
{
"answer": "They can actually fold even faster than that.\n\nI don't know specifically about protein folding, but I can give it a try.\n\nThink of a molecule and the charge interactions, bond angle restrictions, etc., as a complicated differential equation. All the interactions impact all the other interaction... | null |
1yl8u8 | why does the us have less money now than it did in the mid-20th century? | [
{
"answer": "1. WW2 created a post-war boom for us. We spent enough to stimulate industry and manufacturing, without spending so much that we crippled ourselves with debt.\n\n2. Cold War. We were willing to spend much more because Communism.\n\nEdit: for some reason I thought OP was talking about post-war era. ... | null |
7d6mv0 | How could the "stab in the back" myth have formed if Germany had essentially become a military dictatorship under von Hindenburg and Ludendorff? | [
{
"answer": "The key words here are \"essentially military dictators.\" The Hindenburg and Ludendorff duo had broad powers within in Germany, but the civilian government conferred these powers on them. The duo operated within *Oberste Heeresleitung* (Supreme Army Command/OHL) which nominally was under the leade... | null |
1gkp6i | why are there flights that take longer than 12 hours? | [
{
"answer": "Earth may spin 1 rev/day, but planes spin with it so the spin of Earth doesn't matter at all. Its just about the speed to get from A to B.\n\ni.e. Why doesn't a boat just take 12 hours around the world?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " > I think it might be because the atmosphere ... | null |
tr4hx | Is is any more likely that the universe is not expanding, but that every point or particle in it is shrinking in size? Does the distinction even matter? | [
{
"answer": "You are misunderstanding why we think the universe is expanding. The expanding universe is inferred by analyzing the redshift of distant galaxies. Redshift is caused by the doppler effect, meaning that as objects move away from the observer, the light waves decrease in frequency, and thus energy, t... | null |
12zgm0 | Why isn't Guy Fawkes night celebrated in the Republic of Ireland? | [
{
"answer": "Guy Fawkes Day is a day of celebration of the fact that King James I *survived* the attempt on his life; not that the attempt was made. The day was enacted by Parliament specifically in thanks that the Protestant Monarch was alive. \n\nThe day also mobilised significant anti-Catholic feeling. [Wi... | null |
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