id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
6lpg6l | why do we sometimes get the urge to do violent things to cute things? | [
{
"answer": "I think it's probably along the same lines of why we think about jumping off a cliff when we get too close to the edge. We are analyzing outcomes and consequences. It's a totally normal thing to do, it likely keeps us from actually doing these things because we examine the situation and outcomes in... | null |
75jpwf | Most of the wild west shows that aired in the '50's and '60's always shows everyone drinking whiskey all the time. How accurate is that portrayal? | [
{
"answer": "This is a difficult question to answer because there were so many different people coming to and living in the West in the nineteenth century - and it was in itself an enormous place with \"many Wests\" as historians of the period and place like to say. Even the clichéd \"Wild West\" with a frontie... | null |
3dvim2 | why does it sometimes look like the numbers on my alarm clock are jumping up and down? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not familiar with the phenomenon you are describing, but I might have an explanation. \n\nWhen you look at an object within a space, your eyes don't look at one point. You see one point, and when you move your eyes to another point it seems your eyes move in one smooth action. What your eyes ar... | null |
ab52du | splitting infinitives??? | [
{
"answer": "An infinitive is just the phrase \"to *verb*\". A split infinitive is when you put an adverb in between the parts of an infinitive. So in your example, the word \"never\" is in the middle of the infinitive \"to grow up\", so it's a split infinitive. Having a split infinitive doesn't mean the sen... | null |
4w8cgx | Brazil is widely known to be the last country in the Americas to abolish slavery. Why did it last so long in Brazil and what pressures caused it to finally end? | [
{
"answer": "I'm Brazilian so I think I might help, though I'm a lawyer, not a historian. This is a topic that is really common knowledge in Brazil so I hope it's alright by the mods.\n\nOne of the reasons Brazil took very long to abolish slavery was because its economy was heavily reliant on the production of ... | null |
2894sm | why does a body pillow feel between my legs make sleeping more comfortable? | [
{
"answer": "My guess would be that it raises your leg which aligns your spine and reduces lower back tension.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Without it, your hips are in a stress position when you sleep on your side. With it, your knees are separated, putting your legs and hips in a more natu... | null |
53e1sg | what is happening at a biological level when someone mentions tequila and you can instantly taste it? | [
{
"answer": "Not an expert, just a guy who reads a lot of science-y stuff. But it's been four hours and you don't seem to have any other responses. I've read that memory recall in our brains doesn't work like a computer. A computer creates some kind of physical structure to store information, then comes back a... | null |
23c9kl | Were the United States of America set up for such power and success before the revolution or was their ascent to the top of the global hierarchy only possible because of what happened after the Revolution or the Revolution itself? | [
{
"answer": "I work on the history of Anglo-American relations and this question (or at least a variation on it) interests me greatly. At what point was the United States' rise to power perceived to be inevitable?\n\nFirstly, it all depends on what you mean by \"set up\". On the one hand, you could argue that A... | null |
1yyfqm | Can someone explain "Bleeding Kansas"? | [
{
"answer": "In 1820, Congress passed the [Missouri Compromise] (_URL_2_), which basically said that any territory in the once Louisiana Purchase north of the parallel 36°30' north was prohibited to have slavery. However, in 1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed with the [Kansas-Nebraska Act] (_URL_1_) whi... | null |
5m301z | how did humans create perfectly flat objects prior to the invention of advanced tools/machinery? | [
{
"answer": "If you just take two moderately flat stones and rub them against each other in random circles, they will wear away the highest points until they get quite flat.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There are no *perfectly* flat objects being made today.\n\nEven the mirrors on giant ... | null |
3isnsb | Are there valuable or highly useful resources which could potentially be harvested from mars? | [
{
"answer": "Mars has the same elements Earth does. You could build a gold mine or a titanium mine or whatever. Actually moving it from Mars to Earth would be absurdly expensive and isn't going to happen without something making space travel much, much cheaper. But settlers would use it, since getting it from E... | null |
2uawn1 | american tv shows compared to the rest of the world. | [
{
"answer": "They make it into a drama type show to get more people interested. Most Americans wouldn't watch it if it was like the British version because it's not \"interesting\" enough for them. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The amount of American hate / bashing on Reddit is amazing.\n",
... | null |
1mwxhk | why are some sports teams historically more successful (ny yankees) than others (cleveland browns)? | [
{
"answer": "It's a vicious circle. Teams that do well earn more money (because they have more fans, have higher attendance, sell more merchandise) and have higher prestige, so they can attract better talent.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id... | null |
4o65yy | how can ebay sellers send something like 1$ phone cases with free delivery to the other side of the planet, when if i send a small letter to my neighbor it will cost 3$? do they still make profit? | [
{
"answer": "Postal systems in other countries can pay a LOT less than what us westerners pay, ditto manufacturers. The companies that are selling those phone cases pay postage out of the price they receive for their merchandise, and just include it in their markup. So that three dollar phone case consists of 3... | null |
7ctnp7 | why does basically no one speak latin anymore even though it is used in many popular countries? | [
{
"answer": "It is a very slow language with very complex grammar that isn't very intuitive. The sheer amount of declensions, verb tenses, gender words, and verb forms are staggering, and makes for a very cumbersome, formal language. \n\nThe trend for languages is to become less formal over time, which is proba... | null |
7rreex | What is the story behind Australia’s government shutdown in 1975 and subsequent elections? | [
{
"answer": "Australia has two Houses of Parliament: the House of Representatives, with members elected by locality, which originates legislation. The other is the Senate, with each state having an equal quota of Senators, which 'reviews' legislation and has to approve it. This includes approving the Budget to ... | null |
ztf6c | If the ISS was left abandoned now, will it still circle the planet in say a thousand years? | [
{
"answer": "No, without monitoring and adjustment its orbit would decay and it would eventually re-enter the atmosphere. \n\n > Even though the space station orbits in what most people on Earth would consider to be the “vacuum of space,” there still are enough atmospheric molecules that contact the surfaces of... | null |
7kza9a | How does a car lose horsepower from the engine to the wheels? | [
{
"answer": "Mechanical drag, and inefficiency with the driveline. Translating the rotational force produced by the engine and both gearing it down, and changing the direction of that force all consumes some of the engine's original power output.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Irreversibilties... | null |
3cps66 | where does the earth (or any other planet) find the energy to continue spinning on itself forever? | [
{
"answer": "Energy isn't required to continue spinning, or continue any sort of motion in fact. One of the laws of physics is that objects in motion stay in motion unless acted upon by something else.\n\nSince nothing is really stopping the earth from spinning, it spins.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
4hbugs | if animals can distinguish us from our smells, how do they not get confused by the smells of our soaps/colognes/deodorants/etc? | [
{
"answer": "You kind of answered your own question here. They can smell really well, so they're able to distinguish the difference between you and the Cologne/whatever.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "To an extent, they do. They could identify you from further away by smell if you didn't wash.... | null |
55iwja | Is it possible to find an effective infinity for all intents and purposes? | [
{
"answer": "Assuming humanity ends at some point, then we can look at the collection of all numbers practically used and this will be a finite set, so there is some number bigger than all of these. Paradoxically, though, if we were to *use* this number as an \"essential infinity\", then it would have a practi... | null |
axb964 | Is it true that concussions and even subconcussive impacts kill neurons? | [
{
"answer": "You've probably gotten a lot of mixed info because there is a *lot* of mixed info out there. [This paper](_URL_0_) would be a good read if you want a detailed and relatively recent description of what we currently understand about concussions.\n\nBut, in brief, after a (mild) concussion, the change... | null |
c7fofv | why do overweight people have higher basal metabolic rates than lean people? | [
{
"answer": " > Most BMR calculators, even on reliable websites, make no distinction between muscle and fat\n\nYes, this is why the calculation is an estimate and not 100% accurate. A bodybuilder is in a very different place metabolically than an obese person, and a simple calculation isn't going to reveal all... | null |
pnn7g | Why is a fast reentry from space back to earth a better option than a slow decent? | [
{
"answer": "Well, two issues, spacecraft in orbit are already moving at orbital speed, which is 7.8 KPS for LEO, and varies depending on the orbit. So, that speed has to be scrubbed in order for the spacecraft to intersect the surface at nearly zero velocity, otherwise, its a crash. The most efficient way to s... | null |
44ni6i | Zika virus has been known about for 70 years, why is it only now a big issues? Has it always caused microcephaly, or is this new? | [
{
"answer": "We don't know.\n\nCould be a recent mutation in ZV.\n\nCould be that there's always been a link to microcephaly, but that ZV didn't infect enough people for anyone to notice — there is some debate as to whether the sheer number of people infected with ZV is increased in the last few years.\n\n(Whic... | null |
28jnjg | why is it so hard to get into medical school when there is so obviously a scarcity of doctors? | [
{
"answer": "doctors get paid a lot because medical school is retarded expensive and so is malpractice insurance. Not everyone is qualified to be a doctor and they are in charge of making life and death decisions regularly; the person you put through med school as to be the type of people that are entrusted wi... | null |
2w3mae | losing color perception when going from dark to light areas | [
{
"answer": "At a basic level, your eyes use two different types of cells to see: cones and rods.\n\nYou use cones primarily when you are in well lit areas. You use rods primarily when you are in poorly lit areas. Think of rods as what you use for 'night-vision'. However, only cones really see color (they're 3 ... | null |
en6d9u | Did the Romans practice Syncretism with Judaism and Christianity? | [
{
"answer": "There's quite a lot of Jewish and Christian influence in the so-called 'Greek Magical Papyri' - a modern collection of pagan magical spellbooks from Roman Egypt (mostly later than the 3rd century AD). These texts take inspiration from lots of different religious cultures - mostly Greek and Egyptian... | null |
267fn3 | What is the evolutionary advantage of stress? | [
{
"answer": "I'm a stress physiologist. We (stress researchers) take it as a given that *in the short term, the stress response is helpful*. (The stress response = sharp elevation of stress hormones - epinephrine, cortisol, and a few others - during a stressful event.) Those hormones redirect energy toward deal... | null |
21koqf | What do I have here? | [
{
"answer": "Not a car battery, it's an ignition coil from a Ford model T (missing the wooden cover panel). Every model T has four of these - one per spark plug. They take the low-voltage electricity generated by the flywheel magneto and convert it into the high voltage needed to jump the gap in the spark plug ... | null |
1x6nkl | What happens to liquids in a horizontal centrifuge? | [
{
"answer": "I don't really know how milk centrifuges work or what your construction looks like, so I have no idea if it will work. I could however imagine a whole lot of things that could go wrong when it comes to a self built device that combines a fast spinning lathe, a somewhat large container and liquid. N... | null |
2nuuk5 | Some of the diseases humans catch from animals have very serious symptoms. Do these symptoms present themselves in the animals too? | [
{
"answer": "Pathogens are actually not very interested in giving their host a hard time. Why? The more dangerous it acts, the stronger and quicker the host's (or its immune system's) reaction is, or worst when killing the host the pathogen can't benefit in the long term. Evolutionarily speaking it is a more fa... | null |
4yci5u | why does chewing (gum) increase concentration/productivity? | [
{
"answer": "The action of chewing involves the Temporalis muscle and the Masseter muscle. These cause blood to flow to your brain as you chew, bringing in more oxygen, which causes increased concentration.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id":... | null |
9bi5ol | The CIA is widely known to have used LSD and other drugs in experimental and research programmes on its own citizens (MK Ultra, Midnight Climax etc). Is there any evidence of them using these techniques in the field or on citizens of other countries? | [
{
"answer": "To get this out of the way - unfortunately nearly all of the documentation concerning the US Government's research into the weaponization of pharmaceuticals was destroyed in 1973 when the various programs were officially shut down. What we now know about these programs comes from the report and de... | null |
4k4wlp | Were Australian Aborigines in contact with the rest of the world before the arrival of European explorers? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, to a limited extent. Traders from Macassar in Sulawesi are known to have visited the north west coast in praus (small sailing boats) in search of trepang (sea cucumbers, an Asian delicacy which was in demand in China). The northernmost parts of the Australian coast are only about 90 miles sout... | null |
6112xg | Is a bird's singing learned, is it genetically determined or a mix? | [
{
"answer": "of course it's a mixture, birds learn their songs from their parents and other conspecifics - if you isolate chicks and start a new bird culture, their songs will start off very different from the wild type song; but after a few generations, the songs will have evolved back towards the wild type. s... | null |
4g803e | if water is always returned via the water cycle back to the earth, why are people getting concerned with "running out" of water? | [
{
"answer": "Because that water is mixed up with gross stuff- the totality of H2O on the planet is unchanged, but the amount of fresh water is rapidly diminishing from pollution, irrigation, and divertment. The natural processes that scrub and clean water have been disrupted, leading to less and less usable wat... | null |
286ef9 | why does sleeping regenerate/refresh/recharge is, while laying in bed awake without moving us does not? | [
{
"answer": "Because laying in bed awake is generally exactly the same as standing next to the bed awake, or sitting on the bus awake, or watching tv awake. Your brain needs you to actually be unconscious so it can have a moment of low activity to get its housecleaning done. It just can't do what it needs to do... | null |
iivu6 | Is there anything hindering the development of super long-lasting batteries? | [
{
"answer": "Battery life *has* improved quite a lot. Ten years ago, you'd be happy if your laptop lasted two hours, now the best easily last six hours on a battery of similar volume.\n\nWhen it comes to phones, it seems there hasn't been much improvement, but that's because mobile phones have gone from relativ... | null |
c8cx19 | May sound stupid but here goes , when we are in the womb and are slowly growing where do those atoms come from that make us or do we make those atoms in the womb ? | [
{
"answer": "They come from the food your mother eats while you're developing, as well as your mother herself. No new atoms are created, just rearranged cleverly from food and air and water.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I would add that you can't make atoms without an enormous amount of ener... | null |
2npcd2 | When horses were the main form of transportation, how did cities deal with all the waste? | [
{
"answer": "hi! you may be interested in these earlier posts\n\n* [why did medieval people put up with so much filth in their city streets? IF they didn't have the resources for modern plumbing, couldn't they at least hire armies of people to cart away waste?](_URL_3_)\n\n* [If I were to wake up in 1880 New Yo... | null |
q0o6q | the atomic bomb | [
{
"answer": "In chemistry, you about endo/exothermic reactions to make molecules. Normal explosives rely on chemical reactions that release large amounts of energy. All of this energy involves moving a few electrons around leaving your nuclei intact.\n\nWhen you get into atomic physics you're looking at *far ... | null |
2rj2th | Why do rockets use fuel with oxidises when taking off in the atmosphere instead of just using the oxygen in the air? | [
{
"answer": "As you increase in altitude the oxygen density in the atmosphere drops dramatically. Over 10000 feet, people need supplemental oxygen to fight off hypoxia.\n\nAt the rate a rocket burns fuel, there is nowhere near enough oxygen to maintain the burn. Basically the fire would fizzle and the rocket ... | null |
48dic4 | why is english so broken? | [
{
"answer": "English is a bit of a Frankenstein language, stitched together from bits of a couple Germanic languages, French, Celtic, Latin, and Greek. This leads to a hodgepodge of rules, spellings, and pronunciations borrowed from those languages.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Speakers of w... | null |
1lealp | what is preventing toronto from acquiring an nfl franchise? | [
{
"answer": "Football is the only major pro sport that has a viable and independent league in Canada. Toronto already has a CFL team. \n\nIn order for Toronto to have an NFL franchise, they'd have to figure out how to convince the NFL that they could have two viable pro football teams. Toronto is big but it's n... | null |
3d8lao | why don't we build a 'sturdy' camera and throw it into saturn, or jupiter, and transmit what it records back to a space station? | [
{
"answer": "It costs way too much to make and launch something here and there really isn't that much to record.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's been done with Jupiter, but any camera built would be destroyed by the immense heat, pressure, and gravity that the planets have.",
"provenan... | null |
2kuc8y | It is often thought that the "self", the individual, did not exist in pre-modern time. Religious officials who act as the spiritual intermediaries to the common person is one cited example. To me it sounds more like "middle age" than "pre-modern" though. How about in the antiquity? | [
{
"answer": "I'm a bit confused by your question regarding \"pre-modern time\" and \"middle age.\" However, Foucault explicitly addresses the self/individual (what he calls 'subjectivity') in ancient thought in his *Lectures on the Will to Know* as well as in *Subjectivity and Truth* (unpublished still in Engli... | null |
1rywko | when calculating digits of pi, why do we start at the beginning instead of calculating from the last known digit. | [
{
"answer": "For one thing, calculating digits of pi is, at this point, just an academic exercise. It's not really good for anything, except maybe as a way to benchmark computing speeds. So doing things the efficient way isn't really advantageous.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"pro... | null |
26azde | When a human breaks their spine, why is it always said that they're paralyzed "below the waist"? Why does it always happen specifically at the waist? | [
{
"answer": "The nervous system is severed at whatever spot they broke their spine. Since the nervous system is interconnected with the spine, it relies heavily on the spine's support. The brain sends signals through the nervous system from the top- > down. If the spine is severed, the nervous system is severed... | null |
bqfusb | why is there a disconnect between what we're trying to say vs what actually comes out of our mouth. especially when public speaking | [
{
"answer": "Only guessing, but i would say that we think about what we want so say and not how we say it. We dthink about the message, not the words...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "ELI5 answer: Your mouth sometimes moves faster than your brain. \n\nYou’ve heard grownups say “Think before yo... | null |
6ktl0f | how does uber lose so much money annually? | [
{
"answer": "Because Uber is undercharging for rides (charging customers less then the net amount being paid to the drivers) in an attempt to force the competition out of business and gain a monopoly, after which they can charge what they want because they'll be the only choice.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
52xvqr | why are flames pointy? | [
{
"answer": "A flame rises because it is warmer than the air around it. The cool air rushes in to push the hot air upwards. However, as the air rises it also cools down. It cools down from the outside inwards. \n\nA flame glows because it is hot enough to generate light. So as the flame cools down, the par... | null |
1039o2 | why can you only use your thumb/ finger on the iphone's screen? as opposed to your nails or a more traditional stylus? | [
{
"answer": "iPhones and all modern smartphones use Capacitive touch screens. Rather then detect touch by pressure they use electricity, there is an electric field on the screen of your phone and when you touch it the electricity runs up your hand, through your body, and back down.\n\nThe phone can detect this ... | null |
nwbc2 | Why does adiabatic processes change the temperature of a gas? | [
{
"answer": "Adiabatic processes are those where the entropy doesn't change. Remember that and it makes sense.\n\nThe entropy in that gas can be thought of qualitatively as this: make a list of all of the positions of all the particles in your system (the gas molecules, here). Wait some short time. Recheck ... | null |
go4i4 | Have there been experiments of keeping [wood frogs](_URL_0_) frozen for longer periods of time? How long can they stay frozen and then successfully thawed? | [
{
"answer": "**Regarding length of freeze:**\n\nLayne et al investigated this and found that anywhere from 3 to 9 days was generally fine, but that mortality rose to 50% as you approached the 28 day mark (all at -1.5C). They then loaded some of the frogs with additional glucose (the cryoprotectant) and saw \"ex... | null |
5xgc2t | what are bonds, and what is the difference between stocks and bonds? | [
{
"answer": "A Bond is a certification of a debt. Where as a stock is a certification of ownership. So when you buy a stock you become a partial owner of that business. But when you buy a bond, you are buying a certificate that says the bond issuer will pay you back both your money and interest. ",
"proven... | null |
2on4oa | Is it possible to represent imaginary numbers on a plane? | [
{
"answer": "[Yes, it's called the complex plane and it's amazing.](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Yup, half of a senior level complex analysis course goes over the complex plane which is exactly that and it is insanely useful.\n\nFor instance in quantum mechanics we use it for emissi... | null |
fxh4am | Washing one's hands with soap kills viruses because pulling apart their lipid bi-layer membranes, right? Why doesn't soap dissolve our flesh? Our own cells have membranes are made of lipid bi-layers. | [
{
"answer": "It actually does in a very minute way. We grow extra skin all the time and are constantly flaking it off. That's why we wash our hands. And it's why we shower. That skin is most of what the dust in your house is made of.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
agtscd | Is it actually possible for an opera singer to shatter a glass with their voice? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. It's not about their \"power\" or more precisely, their amplitude.... It's about the frequency. A lot of solid materials have a sonic frequency at which the atoms no longer hold together. Glass breaks apart when vibrated at this frequency. I don't remember all the fancy words for explaining i... | null |
fvris9 | how do "multiple year" copyrights work? | [
{
"answer": "However, publishers of frequently-updated works, such as software, apparently desire to convey the idea that different versions of their works appear over time, and each is subject to copyright protection. So they provide a copyright notice with multiple years, the first year being the year of firs... | null |
1qwd5u | why don't above-18s (adults) in usa have the right to determine their choice on alcohol consumption? | [
{
"answer": "While I don't agree with it, the thought process is this:\n\n18 year old brains are not fully developed. One of the key features missing is risk management. \n\nDrinking creates a lot of risk (Drunk Driving being just one). \n\nTherefore its better to force young Americans to grow/mature more bef... | null |
fjt5tg | Why are coronaviruses coronaviruses? | [
{
"answer": "The organization of their surface envelope proteins forms a ring which looks like a crown. Viruses from different families look wildly different, some have lipid envelopes like corona, some do not like polio. HIV has fewer number of envelope proteins on it’s surface and they are irregularly spaced,... | null |
832rt5 | Does the entropy of a system sometimes randomly decrease if its macrostate deviates from equilibrium? | [
{
"answer": " > Does this mean it is possible (however unlikely) that if you waited around long enough a system would randomly appreciably deviate from equilibrium and briefly lower its own entropy?\n\nYes.\n\nThe probability is **much** higher that the entropy will increase (or at least stay the same), but it ... | null |
3ep7ig | why is it considered moral to put a dog down when it gets rabies or becomes too vicious and endangers others, but immoral when we do the same to a vicious person whose existence endangers others? | [
{
"answer": "the issue for humans is where to draw that line of \"to be killed\". some people would put that line at drug use, some people not even for mass murderers. Along with that, how do you make sure the process is completely unbaised and 100% right? there have been many cases of the death penalty being u... | null |
qyv3s | If you looked at the earth from 1000 lightyears away through some kind of ultra magnifying glass, would you see events that happened 1000 years ago? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, you are right. The way we see the stars, we see them how and where they existed long ago. If you're observing the sun from the Earth, and witness a coronal mass ejection, that ejection actually occurred about 8 minutes ago, and the light from it is just now reaching us.",
"provenance": n... | null |
6j4ruv | What role (if any) did the United States play in China's Taiping Rebellion? | [
{
"answer": "If we set aside the missionaries, the answer is not much of one. Remember that the Taiping Civil War was largely concurrent with the Arrow War in addition to the US Civil War. You had various individual Americans such as Frederick Ward who were there as independent soldiers of fortune (see [this po... | null |
2rm3cb | why hasn't life been replicated in the lab yet? | [
{
"answer": "I got 2 answers;\n\n1) the ethical ramifications. \n\n2) there's always the possibility that someone has done it, and just not come forward because (see 1)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "You're right, we can replicate life (e.g. cloning) but we can't create life from scratch. That... | null |
2dngwt | During the 18th and 19th centuries, most armies had a standardised coat colour - red for Britain, green for Russia, white for Austria. How were the colours determined and was consideration given to not using the same as a likely opponent? | [
{
"answer": "So, generally during this time period, the color of the uniform would vary. While Britain became famous for their red coats, up until the Napoleonic era and afterward, the regimental uniforms would be up to the decision of the regimental officer, and the same for foreign regiments in the French ser... | null |
zvo8d | Can anyone recommend any good books on the reign of Henry VIII? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not a historian, but I read The Tudors: The Complete Story of Europe's Most Notorious Dynasty by G. J. Myer, and I really enjoyed it. A large part is about Henry VIII",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It depends; how academic/dry/scholarly are you willing to go? Geoffrey Elton w... | null |
2j2nsh | bush v. gore. why did the supreme court stop the recount? | [
{
"answer": "The Court cited the Equal Protection Clause because each county's methods and standards for determining \"the voter's intent\" could vary. Two identical inconclusive ballots could be counted in two different ways if one was in Miami-Dade County and the other was in Broward County, so they ruled tha... | null |
4kdsuq | how can the 35-year-old hp-12c calculator still be in production and selling for over $50? | [
{
"answer": "Basic math hasn't changed much in a few hundred years, so the calculator probably wouldn't either.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "952015",
"title": "HP-12C",
"section": "Section::::Functionality.\n",
... | null |
3dytx9 | What are the main differences between Ancient British Cultures (Picts, Celts, Gauls etc)? | [
{
"answer": "OK, so this is a complicated question because with Britain we have an incredible level of archaeological detail. I'll give a *very* simplified version and am happy to expand on anything you would like.\n\nOK, so broadly speaking \"Celtic\" is a language group which incorporates the modern languages... | null |
3namn5 | how does formalin preserve dead organs? | [
{
"answer": "It stops decomposition. There are a lot of microbes and bacteria that would love to eat up those organs (destroying them in the process). There are plenty of other chemicals that could do that (like bleach). But bleach would also rip apart the cells and, as you might imagine, bleach the pigment ... | null |
8ndqgo | I have this theory that a lot of "traditional British food" became popular due to rationing in WW2. I am thinking of foods like Baked Beanz and tinned tomatoes. How accurate is this, and how big is the lasting impact of WW2 rationing on British cuisine? | [
{
"answer": "Rationing didn't have much of a long-term impact on British cuisine, \"traditional British\" dishes tend to either pre-date the 20th century (fish & chips, various pies, stews, hotpots, roasts, puddings etc.) or post-date rationing (when \"traditional\" becomes more problematic, e.g. chicken tikk... | null |
aplm1o | why are sperm count in men decreasing? | [
{
"answer": "From _URL_0_:\n\n > The analysis did not explore reasons for the decline, but researchers said falling sperm counts have previously been linked to various factors such as exposure to certain chemicals and pesticides, smoking, stress and obesity.\n\n > In contrast, no significant decline was seen ... | null |
8iza3q | why can't the human heart "get used to" having to work harder in an individual with restricted arteries, causing it to get stronger under the increased work load like normal muscles? | [
{
"answer": "well uuuh, it does... If you suffer from high blood pressure or clogged arteries your heart will grow to compensate for it. The issue is that youe heart is a muscle that is constantly active and having high BP or clogged arteries means your heart has to beat stronger which it can do for a while but... | null |
1c9f7p | Are there parts of the brain that can be physically damaged without immediate catastrophic effect? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, there are many areas of the brain that can be damaged without causing death/unconsciousness. The bizarre effects that have resulted from some such brain injuries has actually provided a huge amount of information about the brain. The most famous case is [Phineas Gage](_URL_0_)",
"provenanc... | null |
td3mj | Why does adding water to whiskey open up the flavor? | [
{
"answer": "Adding water to whiskey affects two things.\n\n1. Cuts down on the alcohol content, so you're burned less by the alcohol and can taste more of the other flavors.\n\n2. It releases more of the aromatics in the whiskey that are not water soluble. Smell has a huge impact on taste, so getting a bigger ... | null |
eloimr | How much variation tends to exist between fingerprints, assuming no two fingerprints are the same? | [
{
"answer": "So at first level detail you have four basic ‘shapes’ within fingerprints - arches, tented arches, loops and whorls. You can have just a single one of these on each finger or occasionally you will get combinations such as two interlocked loops etc... Each person will have one of these on each finge... | null |
1c048q | how are online games (say wow or guild wars, etc) synchronized over all the players' individual games? | [
{
"answer": "1. They're not synchronized over *all* players' games. The players are distributed across different \"realms\" or \"worlds\", that are actually different physical servers, and your game is (usually, barring specific cross-server interactions) never updated about players on other server.\n\n2. The ... | null |
9xe3vo | why do humans feel the need to do things that are bad for us? | [
{
"answer": "The majority of those things \"feel\" good. I don't think humans as a whole feel the need to be self destructive. Its more of a byproduct of the things they enjoy. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because unfortunately our lifestyles have evolved faster than our genes. If you look ... | null |
216003 | why are so many people struggling with basic grammar - you're/your, it's/its, there/they're, etc. | [
{
"answer": "Maybe it's because a lot of people now don't read actual books or online stories that are edited and have to have proper grammar. They read text messages, blog posts, and reddit articles that are probably not grammatically correct and either never learn the correct way or just see that other peopl... | null |
10a8w6 | How many nukes would it take to end the world? | [
{
"answer": "That could depend entirely on your intent, you could potentially do tremendous damage by targeting something specifically in order to damage the environment instead of humans. There have also been hypothetical \"doomsday devices\" that could kill most life on Earth with a single weapon by polluting... | null |
37f24e | water vapor vs. steam vs. mist vs. fog vs. cloud | [
{
"answer": "In a sense, they do just describe water in air, but they also provide you an idea of what that water is like. Basically, different connotations\n\nVapor: gaseous and dispersed\n\nSteam: high pressure/temperature, maybe more tightly packed (Vapor you might not see, steam you would see)\n\nMist: ambi... | null |
333vhg | say i have a bad cold with an impossibly stuffed up nose. no way to breathe through my nostrils. now say i get kidnapped, and they put duct tape over my mouth. would my body react to un-stuff my nose so i could breathe to live? | [
{
"answer": "Not quickly enough, I don't think. One thing I've found that sometimes helps is to just put a finger on one nostril and collapse it for about 30 seconds. Sometimes that clears it up. Assuming they tied your hands behind your back, you might be able to push your nose against a table leg or something... | null |
d5wqkj | would it be possible to divert the nile to irrigate the sahara? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. But then the rest of lower Egypt would have to go without the Nile which would make it a desert.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "43491690",
"title": "Leopold Kessler (Zionist)",
"section": "Section::::El... | null |
2vb0b0 | when countries like north korea spend money on war supplies like missiles, nukes, guns, planes etc. who sells it to them? | [
{
"answer": "The North Koreans have purchased weapons largely from the Soviets/Russians and Chinese over the decades as well as having left overs going back as far as WWII from American and Western manufacturers. They have their own arms manufacturing industry which produces two Main Battle Tanks based on Russi... | null |
2hp03b | Are there any animals who stay strictly in the air? | [
{
"answer": "The closest there is to an animal that spends their entire life in the air is probably the Alpine Swift. They have recently been found to spend upwards of 200 days in a row airborne and only land at their breeding ground. They eat, sleep, and drink all while airborne.\n\nNature Paper:\n_URL_0_\n\... | null |
2jafnu | Question about Saladin and King Richard's relationship during the Third Crusade. | [
{
"answer": "To my knowledge, none of the letters supposedly exchanged between Saladin and Richard I survive to this day. However, one of our best sources for the Third Crusade is chronicle evidence, supplied from both the Latin and Arabic traditions. Some of these have been (mercifully) translated into English... | null |
bpj1st | how do printers work so accurately and fast? | [
{
"answer": "I don’t know what exactly you are looking for as an answer... \n\nThey work accurately because the motor that controls the printing head works in very small increments (typically 96 positions per inch) and the ink injectors can inject extremely small quantities of ink.\n\nThey work fast because the... | null |
2r3wve | all the types of steaks, such as sirloin, prime rib, filet, ribeye etc. what should i consider when choosing which one to order in a restaurant? | [
{
"answer": "Personally, i think ribeye is the best all around for flavor, tenderness, texture and reasonable pricing. Of course, some of that depends on where you buy it, and how you have it cooked.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In the US, Beef has 3 unofficial ratings, Select, Choice, and P... | null |
2ph9rv | If there are only 5 white rhinos left is there enough diversity in the gene pool to breed them back to non borderline extinction levels? | [
{
"answer": "It's hard to say, since inbreeding problems are quite specific to each species and context. For example, pretty much all the golden hamsters in captivity are descended from one batch of siblings captured in the 30's, and they seem to be doing ok. But other species don't do so well in similar situ... | null |
2ahzhh | how do genders like genderqueer, genderfluid, etc work? do any scientists believe in them or are they just teens online trying to be special? | [
{
"answer": "It is actually recognized as being something that legitimately happens to people, not just something they're making up. Gender Identity Disorder or Gender Dysphoria are the names given to it in medical and psychological terms.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Being a hermaphrodite i... | null |
8tq1hf | why does breathing on glasses before wiping them clean off fingerprints so much better than wiping alone? | [
{
"answer": "Breath contains small amounts of water vapour, so when you breathe on the glass you moisturise the glass before whipping it to off. It's like using water to clean glass, but in very small amounts ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It’s not the act of breathing, it’s the moisture from... | null |
3tljlg | how does [family member] once, twice, (etc) removed worked? | [
{
"answer": "[Here's a good visual.](_URL_0_)\n\nSo your sibling shares the same parents as you. Your first cousins share the same grandparents as you. Your second cousins share the same GREAT grandparents as you.\n\nYour cousin-once-removed is the parent of your second cousins. So their GRANDPARENTS are you... | null |
2sv86k | can some explain the differences in handgun ammunition calibers? | [
{
"answer": "[This is a decent article on ammo type](_URL_0_). Basically the grain count is referring to the amount in weight of gun powder in each round. A grain being 0.002 ounces (or just under 65 mg). The higher grain count, the bigger the boom (and subsequently more recoil experienced by the user).\n\nAs f... | null |
1vuic1 | Why don't I feel a shock when touching both ends of a household battery? Or even a car battery? | [
{
"answer": "Humans are not that good of a conductor. They are better conductors than plastic but not better than for instance metal. When you measure the resistance between your left and right hand you might find something like 1MOhm. With a car battery of 12 volt there will only flow 12 microampere(12x10^-6) ... | null |
ftg7vc | Book recommendation for history of the U.S. 14th Armored Division in the Second World War | [
{
"answer": "So, of a fairly minor note- your great-uncle’s discharge papers list him as a member of Able Company, 14th Armored Infantry [Battalion], which is a subordinate unit of the 1st Armored Division- which fought in Africa and Italy. Are you sure that he fought as a member of the 14th AD during his time ... | null |
f9bfxz | why do cellphone companies pay x dollars for the trade in of y phones when buying a new phone? marketshare? | [
{
"answer": "A lot of companies probably get loads of phones at various prices, then mass sell them for their gold inside them, Get more bang for ya buck that way",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The goal is always to get you to re-up your contract. The trade in terms almost always require you ... | null |
2uxj7e | When did humans first figure out that other planets existed and weren't just stars? What was the reaction to this idea when it was proposed? | [
{
"answer": "hi! fyi, one or more of these threads may be relevant\n\n* [What is the earliest record of a person theorizing that stars are suns and planets?](_URL_2_)\n\n* [When did scientists recognize the planets in our solar system as (relatively) nearby planets, and not as other stars. How did they know tha... | null |
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