id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
5q0wxf | why would a president not choose cabinet members with longtime experience in that's cabinet's area of governance? | [
{
"answer": "Usually that's what happens. However, Donald Trump is unique in his Presidency in that he's the first person in that office with no experience in either government or military. His experience is in business, and most in his circles have similar levels of experience. He's been picking people who are... | null |
5oz9vl | What were Hitler's ideas of succession? Who was to succeed Hitler should he die and what process would they have to go through to suceed as leader of his Reich? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\nUser u/searocksandtrees answered a similar question with a selection of answers from past threads. You should check them out. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "40548",
"title": "Paul von Hindenburg",
... | null |
yb87y | How do cells know what part of the DNA to read to function? | [
{
"answer": "There are regions in the DNA that attract or inhibit the enzymes which initiate transcription. These are known as promoters or suppressors.\n\nEdit: Also DNA packaging plays a role. There are 2 types of chromatin; heterochromatin and euchromatin. euchromatin is unwound and used in transcription... | null |
1lj5hx | why is it that most game developers don't include/allow modding support, when many other franchises are successful because of it? | [
{
"answer": "If it's mostly/entirely played on console, there's no point. Even if it's not there's the fact that modding tools can be a bitch and they don't predict enough of a payout in extra sales to cover those costs.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"... | null |
mjxd5 | Sound and Waves: How does a magnet pick up sound in an electric guitar? | [
{
"answer": "The strings are made of steel, right? So the magnet is attracted to the steel string. As the steel string vibrates up and down it pulls on the magnet up and down. And that vibration of the magnet inside of coils of wire (pick up coils) generates a small amount of voltage that has a waveform directl... | null |
18gjdv | How much water evaporates in an underwater nuclear explosion? | [
{
"answer": "Well, according to Wikipedia, the Tsar Bomba produced 240PJ, or 2.4x10^17 J. It looks like it was detonated over land, but we can ignore that and have some fun. If we make an assumption that ~10% of its energy is absorbed by the water, that would mean 2.4x10^16 J. If the water temp is 20ºC, it woul... | null |
drzthi | how exactly does sinus pressure build up when sick and why? | [
{
"answer": "If an infection reaches your sinuses it will cause inflammation and increased mucous secretion. This increased secretion together with the inflammation can clog the sinuses and thus lead to increased pressure and pain.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Imagine your sinuses are a wate... | null |
4d8b82 | how did the north star happen? does every star revolve around it? | [
{
"answer": "It's a star that happens to be mostly aligned with the Earth's axis. Watching from the surface, as the planet spins the star looks like it's stationary.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It is not a special star, and no stars revolve around it.\n\nBy dumb luck, our planet's north pol... | null |
3u20gf | US Congressional Uses of Sanctions Against a Foreign Nation? [research question] | [
{
"answer": "As you might guess from the flair, my speciality is labour history, so I can only offer you limited assistance with finding material that will help develop your thesis. Nonetheless, I have done quite a lot of work on South Africa, so I'm going to try and help point you in the direction of some usef... | null |
3m53ei | Why did the number of African American voters in the presidential election steadily decrease after the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965? | [
{
"answer": "One variable you're not taking into account is that voter turnout for *all* Americans was [steadily going down](_URL_0_) during this period. Whereas the percentage of the voting-age population who participated in the 1960 election was 63.1%, [by 1996 that number had fallen to 49.1%](_URL_2_).\n\nIn... | null |
6xf8kl | why are old people so small and short? | [
{
"answer": "Gravity. As people age, their bones start to lose mass, their spine begins to collapse on itself and there's usually less muscle mass. At least that's what my doctor tells me to explain why I'm nearly a half inch shorter than I was 40 years ago.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Ther... | null |
9s7x8x | What are the most revealing statistics that show the overwhelming progress made by modern medicine? | [
{
"answer": "My area of expertise is cancer statistics. By far, the most progress we’ve made is with childhood cancer. In the 1950s, fewer than 20% of children diagnosed survived more than 5 years. Today survival is over 80%. I’d still love to see that number rise, but I think our progress is astounding.\n\n[Ch... | null |
4b41zu | why is the combo of ibuprofen and alcohol so bad for you? | [
{
"answer": "I believe you're confusing ibuprofen with acetaminophen. Acetaminophen is associated with liver and kidney damage when consumed with alcohol. To my knowledge ibuprofen is not. \n\nAcetaminophen is also known in some countries as Paracetamol. \n\n_URL_0_\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
2u6w3n | what needs to happen for a plane to fly into other countries' airspaces? | [
{
"answer": "If it's playing nicely then it will have a filed a flight plan and be carrying a transponder which identifies it, so air traffic control are expecting it and know which plane it is when it appears on their radar.\n\nIf not, and it doesn't respond to air traffic control asking what it's doing, then ... | null |
1rk7o8 | Would a SETI program located in the Alpha Centauri System be able to detect radio signals from Earth? | [
{
"answer": "Let's say a station is broadcasting at a full Megawatt of power (the strongest, to my knowledge are usually in the half-megawatt range). Let's say they have a dish (or array of dishes with equivalent collection area equal to) of *d* meters in radius. Their collection area is pi *d*^2 , but our sign... | null |
2vpiv3 | During the times corsettes where worn where they worn during pregnancies as well? Is it known how a life of wearing corsettes affected pregnancies? | [
{
"answer": "hi! not discouraging other responses, but there was a similar question a month ago that's worth checking out\n\n* [Did pregnant women wear corsets in the Victorian era?](_URL_0_)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "924097",
... | null |
50nzoe | Why do stable compounds react? | [
{
"answer": "The key here is that \"stable\" is just a relative term. Thermodynamically, there MUST be an equilibrium between association and dissociation of a bond like R-Cl. Bringing energy to the system amounts to tilting the equilibrium closer towards the dissociated side. But it's still only a small fracti... | null |
4gis1q | What do antivirus scanners on your PC actually look for in a file? | [
{
"answer": "Virusscanners use two approaches: Signature-based scanning and heuristic scanning.\n\n**Signature-based** scanning involves looking for specific elements in a virus program. Some virus authors in the past left messages in their program which could be scanned for. Alternatively, certain filenames we... | null |
kilm6 | - the east vs west hip-hop feud | [
{
"answer": "This began a while ago, in the early 1990's.\n\nPretend there was a large african desert. In the desert, there are many different animals, but the strongest, and most powerful ones, were the Lions. The desert was kind of split into two, so you had the \"Right side\" and the \"left side\" . Each \"s... | null |
2ie51w | why do languages vary so widely? is any proven correlation between language and the geography of the native speaker? | [
{
"answer": "Languages can be made in many, many ways and so people more or less in isolation make really different ones.\n\nOnes that grew around many others tend to make a family where there are far more similarities. The Spanish can more or less understand the Portuguese and vice-versa for example. \n\nThe g... | null |
1yzqxb | why am i able to remember words to a song i haven't heard in 5 years but i can't remember the name of the person i just met 5 minutes ago? | [
{
"answer": "Repetition is the key here.\n\nWhen you repeat a task or something (such as hearing words to a song you like) over and over again the information gathered tends to move from the short-term memory into the long-term memory, therefore making it stick in your head.\n\nHope this helps.",
"provenanc... | null |
5q13pm | With MRI Magnets being ridiculously strong, Why don't they affect compasses, systems, animals, etc ? | [
{
"answer": "A colleague recently re-purposed an old medical MRI magnet for use in a detector system. The stray fields from the magnet are a big concern, with modern magnets taking great care to have both shielding and compensation coils so that outside the magnet no strong residual fields exist. The regulatio... | null |
21bojk | Does air resistance become harder to overcome the faster something goes? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, the concept involved is known as [parasitic drag](_URL_0_). It means that the energy required to maintain speed against resistance from the air increases at a higher rate than the speed. A rough example as clarification, actual ratios made up: It requires X amount of energy to maintain a spe... | null |
2j3umo | how is it possible in the usa for (former) lobbyists to be elected into chairmen positions of federal commissions, when there is an obvious conflict of interest? | [
{
"answer": "Big money runs the US government, so this kind of corruption is expected, and basically *intentional*.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " > Since I’ve heard of their election into those positions\n\nThat's because they were both appointed. \n\nAs for 'conflict of interest', that ge... | null |
env2cb | what’s a “war crime”? i hear people throw this word around so much it’s confusing. | [
{
"answer": "Basically there are things a country is not allowed to do during a war, like to fire against medical assistance or to civilians.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Years and years ago, All the leaders of the country got together and said \"we are civilized people, not cavemen. If war... | null |
81ug6t | Is there any evidence that prehistoric peoples had language? | [
{
"answer": "Yes. Prehistoric just means before written records. We know for a fact that language existed before written records did because we've been able to reconstruct things like Old Chinese and Proto-Indo-European. It wasn't until later when PIE split into the many child languages like Ancient Greek and S... | null |
7rcvl6 | if the world is round and rotates, how do we appear to be standing upright at all times? | [
{
"answer": "Because gravity pulls us toward the center of the planet. Just like if you take a plunger and stick it on a beach ball, it doesn't matter the orientation of the ball, the stick of the plunger sticks away from the center.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
f3o98v | when we bend our elbows/knees why don’t our blood vessels flowing, like a hose? | [
{
"answer": "Our arms an legs bend, not fold. When a hose folds it cuts the liquid supply, when it bends the flow is uninterrupted.\n\nThere is too much going on in the limbs with bone, muscle, adamantium, cartilage, etc, to fold.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{... | null |
f8ko2k | superdelegates... | [
{
"answer": "In American politics, a superdelegate is an unpledged delegate to the Democratic National Convention who is seated automatically and chooses for themselves for whom they vote.\n\nBasically, if you’re an important person (Governor/mayor/etc) in the party, you get to have your vote counted independen... | null |
80duyl | what properties do cooking oils contain that make them beneficial for cooking? | [
{
"answer": "They should be cheap to produce in large quantities.\n\nThey need to withstand high temperatures without burning (despite what some other user said).\n\nThey must be non-toxic, not including any carcinogenic compounds they form when they're used.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "To ... | null |
289mn3 | Was there any form of public transport in the Roman Empire similar to what we find today in that it had standardised routes and fees? | [
{
"answer": "I have removed all of the comments below, including a lot of discussion about the History Channel. Please remember the Rules for Ask Historians before posting.\n\nThere is no need to \"fill the void\", if you don't really know the answer and are not ready to back it up. Someone knowledgeable will c... | null |
2vsisq | Why are ice cubes white towards the centre but transparent towards the edges? | [
{
"answer": "Check [this](_URL_0_) out: \"Regular ice comes out opaque when gasses dissolved in the water get trapped and forced into tiny bubbles, or when ice freezes in a way that doesn't allow large crystals to form\". Boiling the water before freezing it helps reduce the opacity, and the shape should have l... | null |
jooea | the mathematics behind the vanishing point (as best as you can) | [
{
"answer": "Objects are typically located in three dimensional space, but when they are displayed, like in a computer game, in two dimensions, you need to do a projection. This is like taking a picture, it takes a three dimensional object and spits out a two dimensional image.\n\nThis image is dependent on whe... | null |
bfg6ex | how do whales regulate their temperature in the vastly different seas they travel? | [
{
"answer": "The blood going to vessels in the skin (outside the blubber) is shut off to raise body temperature in the cold, and increased to cool off in the tropics.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "27900561",
"title": "Livyatan"... | null |
9fgszh | if everything in universe is made of lots different chemical elements, then how on earth exist things like human cell, flesh, neurotransmitter, heart, nucleus, etc? | [
{
"answer": " > like, does dna have structure like say N5H3O8, something like that\n\nOf course. After all, DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. [The wikipedia page has good images for the chemicals making it up.](_URL_0_)\n\nThe key is that chemistry is a bit more complex than it would seem at first. Its not ... | null |
2cfvf4 | how do celebrities get their "premium" usernames on social networks (like @justinbieber, etc...)? and if they pay for these usernames, how much? how does such a purchase usually pass off? | [
{
"answer": "If the \"premium\" username is not available at time of account creation they usually have to contact whoever made that account name and ask them if they would sell it.\n\nIf it is an inactive or poorly managed account, sometimes they can ask Admins to close the account and give them the account na... | null |
fb256t | why does it matter that fat cells don't ever go away when losing weight? | [
{
"answer": "The number of fat cells likely doesn't play a meaningful role in how easy or hard it is to get fat. Usually to add additional fat cells, one has to gain a lot of weight. \n\nThe type of people who become obese do so because they naturally want to and can eat a lot more than an average healthy perso... | null |
82cob0 | why are many english words used in asian culture? | [
{
"answer": "Speaking from the Chinese language, its because Chinese is a very old language, and new things are being invented in the West. So when something becomes new to them, and they learn the English name, most of the time they try and make it sound similar in their language.",
"provenance": null
},... | null |
3sscll | why are some atoms able to violate the octet rule in covalent bonding? | [
{
"answer": "Elements in the third row and below have access to d orbitals in which they can place the extra electrons needed to form more than 4 bonds, breaking the octet rule. There are actually very few elements that obey the octet rule. As they say...rules are meant to be broken. It is still taught because ... | null |
15ppt5 | How did the Japanese start the "kamikaze"/suicide ethos into its people? | [
{
"answer": "Hi! I don't feel like I have the knowledge to answer your question appropriately, but since nobody else has responded yet, I hope you don't mind me linking to information from similar topics from awhile back.\n\nIf you read the comments [from this question](_URL_1_), it mentions a few important pi... | null |
zyyv9 | if israel just vanished overnight, would the tensions in the middle east get better? what would happen? | [
{
"answer": "I'm willing to bet things would be worse world-wide is such an event happened. Mass panic would erupt since a nation, quite literally, disappeared and people would be wondering who would be next. Some would take it as a religious sign, signaling the apocalypse, no doubt leading to chaos and instabi... | null |
9q1svx | what are the differences between the functions of a president, chairman, ceo, cfo, and coo in the corporate structure? | [
{
"answer": "It completely depends on the company. \n\nChairman typically refers to someone who represents the interests of the board/investors but doesn't oversee the day to day operation or manage the company.\n\nThe CEO is the head of the company and only answers to the board. Their chief role is to make dec... | null |
3o3h46 | why are pencils hexagonal while pencil crayons, pens, and mechanical pencils are round? | [
{
"answer": "The way they are made. Crayons are basically extruded. They flood molds with colored wax and the crayons are cooled and solidified pushed out and wrapped. Mechanical pencils are melted plastic shoved into molds and then put together.\n\nPencils are made with two sandwiched, half pencil, pieces with... | null |
1q9xnh | Books about Steppe Warriors | [
{
"answer": "I can't recommend the following books enough:\n\n* *Early Riders: The Beginnings of Mounted Warfare in Asia and Europe* by Robert Drews\n\n* *Nomads of the Eurasian Steppes in the Early Iron Age* by The Kazakh/American Research Project\n\n* *The Horse The Wheel and Language - How Bronze-Age Riders ... | null |
2865x3 | the best soccer leagues, and players and what i should watch. | [
{
"answer": "Start watching the English Premier League...The season just ended a few weeks ago with a good finish. Manchester City won the season by only 2 points with Liverpool in 2nd place and Chelsea in 3rd. Its fast paced soccer that is the most popular league in the world. A lot of good players",
"prov... | null |
f9hnt | How/what does an electroencephalogram detect? | [
{
"answer": "You are correct in assuming that the EEG is a result of EPSP/IPSP contribution from pyramidal cortical cells. This is due to collective current sinks/sources resulting from these synaptic activities. Here's a simple [illustration](_URL_0_) detailing the phenomenon. \n\nAs for the specifics of crani... | null |
doyacq | how come cutscenes aren't preloaded in video games? like a 4k hd video? | [
{
"answer": "It depends on how the cutscene is rendered (how it is drawn in the game).\n\nIf it's a scripted cutscene, then everything is being shown in the actual game itself, which means everything has to be loaded as if you were playing the game even though you probably can't control anything except for the ... | null |
3298do | i don't really "feel" like a male. how come people experiencing gender dysphoria "feel" like the other gender? | [
{
"answer": "Look at yourself in the mirror. Look at your dick. Does that body part look and feel like something that is a part of you? Does it feel normal for it to be there? Because if you experience gender dysphoria you cannot answer yes to those questions. Your genitals will feel as wrong as having a second... | null |
5ztinc | if earth had rings like saturn, how would that affect sending satellites into orbit? | [
{
"answer": "Short answer: life would be very difficult trying to orbit satellites in the presence of rings.\n\nRings exist in circular orbits in a very flat plane exactly above the equator (the equatorial plane). Satellites would need to avoid passing through this plane at the same altitude as the rings or th... | null |
7bo2fh | if conjoined twins share a stomach, do they both feel full or hungry at the same time? | [
{
"answer": "It's hard to make general statement about conjoined twins because literally every case is different, but the feeling of hunger is regulated by hormones, most importantly Leptin and Ghrelin, which circulate in the blood. So if the conjoined twins share their circulatory system (which they *have to* ... | null |
20q2wz | if everyone says california is so expensive, how do people afford to live there? | [
{
"answer": "Some make so much money it doesn't matter -- if you make $200k/yr, it's not a big deal. \n\nOthers request and accept cost of living adjustments from their employers. -- in Kansas, a position might be worth $60k/yr. In SF, it might be $90k/yr\n\nOthers just live in small places, drive small cars, a... | null |
7j6yyh | why does the visible light spectrum appear cyclic to the human eye if the spectrum is based on specific linear wavelengths of light? | [
{
"answer": "It doesn't appear cyclic to the human eye. It appears cyclic to the human *brain*. \n\nOur eyes can detect 3 \"regions\" of color: red, green, and blue. If we detect some combinations of those, we typically perceive that as an \"in-between\" color. For example, orange light stimulates both the ... | null |
4buf29 | Do we have evidence to prove that the Pyramids in Bosnia were constructed 10,000 years ago to even 24,000 years ago? | [
{
"answer": "Hi, there are a few archaeologists here, but it might be worth x-posting to a sub with more eg /r/AskScience, /r/Archaeology or /r/AskAnthropology ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "They *are* just ordinary mountains. A few cranks (most definitely not archaeologists) have been trying... | null |
6fx1g4 | since a normal human can run 8-10 mph but top athletes can run over 20 mph, if a cheetah "trained", could it potentially sprint much faster? | [
{
"answer": "Almost all cheetahs are clones of each other. Theoretically every cheetah is already a top athlete since they are all pretty much identical. \n\n[source](_URL_0_) ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "not really... cheetahs are genetically born to run this fast. \ntheir whole life is al... | null |
a07mgz | why do you feel hot when you have a blanket on, cold when you take the blanket off but if you leave one leg out of the blanket, it’s perfect? | [
{
"answer": "When the blanket is on there is too much insulation so your body warms up. With the blanket off there is too little. So you need something in between. Having a leg out allows heat to leave your body. Therefore, you’ve achieved that in between that you needed.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"... | null |
1yczgt | if source code is readable, and executable programs are not, what happens to cause that? | [
{
"answer": "what is lost is variable names, method names that make the program human readable. \n\nwhile you can probably figure out what mystring.left(5) does just by looking at it, you probably won't be able to tell what \"on the object at memory location 0x12343, invoke method in library 0x342424 at loca... | null |
5h9kri | Prior to the US Civil War, was it common practice to euthanize slaves who were too old or sick to work? | [
{
"answer": "If I can expand - what about sterilizing slaves to control population? Or abortion?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I don't know about euthanizing slaves but it wasn't unheard of for older slaves to be manumitted (legally freed) so owners didn't have to continue their upkeep. Stat... | null |
nnpxd | Is there a psychological reason why people with NO attraction to their own family members, find incest so arousing? | [
{
"answer": "FWIW, saying taboo words has been found to alleviate pain. _URL_0_ \n\nHumans often use the word \"naughty\" as a positive descriptor of sexuality. This suggests that perhaps it's the actual 'forbidden' quality of profanity or taboo sexuality that some people find positive. \n\nIt's a little ... | null |
czekbm | what happens to all the water after a hurricane/flood? does it just recede back into a body of water? | [
{
"answer": "Not en expert but I know that some of the water gets infiltrated into the water table which can cause salt water intrusion which is bad",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Basically, yes. A good portion is absorbed into the ground and into the ground water system. In the case of a floo... | null |
2ctk7p | Why does buoyant force only work for fluids? | [
{
"answer": "There is no mechanism preventing it. In fact, if you gently shake the container, the larger pieces _will_ rise to the top. This is known as the [Brazil nut effect](_URL_0_).\n\nBuoyancy exists in fluids because they are free to flow and fill a container, which is what allows them to \"push out\" a ... | null |
19xrhw | How closely (i.e. distance from the surface) can something orbit the Earth? | [
{
"answer": "Below about 200 km (120 miles), orbits decay rapidly due to atmospheric friction. On the moon, where there is no atmosphere, there is really no minimum orbital altitude, though you couldn't really put something in orbit a foot off the ground since the ground isn't perfectly flat. Almost all satelli... | null |
2s5du3 | Around 400 before christ, when Greece became a democracy. What was the tasks of the king? | [
{
"answer": "I think you have the wrong view of how Greece worked in those days.\n\nGreece was divided into a multitude of city states, some of the allied in Legues, but not all. These city states were spread from the Crimea to Iberia, with Sicily and southern Italy (Magna Graecia, or larger Greece) as prominen... | null |
5ddqz3 | what forces, on a molecular level, hold together a solid object and how are those affected when the object breaks in separate pieces? | [
{
"answer": "It kind of depends on what sort of material you are talking about. I'll give you one example in (a bit of) detail, and then I will just name a couple of other forces that also could (not should per se) play a role. Here it goes:\n\nBasically every molecule has an interaction with it's neigboring mo... | null |
nepgx | Does the age at which someone begins puberty affect anything for the person's life later on down the line? | [
{
"answer": "This is just something I remember from a report I did on adolescent psychology but one of the most affected areas is self-esteem. Girls who hit puberty early are more likely to get male attention, negative and positive. It is usually from boys that are older than she is. The more negative attent... | null |
28d19y | Why is the derivative of the volume of a sphere equal to its surface area? | [
{
"answer": "This is not a coincidence! Try deriving for yourself the volume of a sphere by integration. You can start with a surface of a sphere with zero radius, and integrate that out to the radius of your sphere. Think of that as having a a series of infinitesimally thin concentric shells from the center of... | null |
1tx8v1 | why do i max out at around 3.2mbps wired and 2.5mbps wireless download speed when i pay for 30mbps? | [
{
"answer": "I'm pretty sure you know this already, but what they sell you is in mega bits per second, and when downloading it is displayed in mega bytes per second. \n\nEvery 8 bits is 1 byte, so a 30mbps connection is a 3.75 MB per second. \n\nIf you are downloading at 3.2 MB per second and not mbps like you ... | null |
2wp6sc | which is better for the environment on the small scale: using a plastic fork once to save water on cleaning silverware, or washing and reusing a stainless steel fork so a plastic fork won't end up in a landfill? | [
{
"answer": "Reusable cutlery is better for the environment. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Considering the resources that go into extracting, refining, and machining the material in the steel fork, you'd have to use the SS fork hundreds if not thousands of times before you came out ahead fro... | null |
5qr0sx | How Historically accurate is "Hellstorm-Death of Nazi Germany, 1944-1947" by Thomas Goodrich. It backs up all its claims with large amounts of detailed proofs, citations, sources on each and every page. However a lot of people call it Neo Nazi propoganda to gain sympathy for Nazi. What is the truth | [
{
"answer": "[This review](_URL_1_) should answer your question? Some of his sources are more than suspect, and it seems that where his facts are fine, his conclusions from them are not. [Ugh, it seems that he uses the IHR](_URL_0_) (Institute of Historical Review) and other hate groups for many of his sources.... | null |
3094em | If written to once and then left turned off (no power, in a dry temperature-regulated environment), how long would flash memory last until you can no longer read it? | [
{
"answer": "There is no one answer. Each manufacturer makes different claims about the shelf life of their flash memory products. A common estimates is [around 10 years](_URL_0_). A product sheet (from a company I won't mention) that I have next to me claims \"_25 years of daily usage_\", with daily usage clar... | null |
7xj6nk | why does water evaporate faster outdoors than indoors? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, temperature. But also other factors, such as humidity and wind.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThere are definitely less wind indoor, so that's a big factor.\n\nIf you have a puddle in a small room, as the puddle evaporate, the room gets more humid, thus slowing slowing down the evaporation. In the outdoors, t... | null |
aw7r6c | why do pharmacists complete 4 years of post-grad schooling learning about drugs but physicians actually pick the drugs to use. | [
{
"answer": "Pharmacists are the last line of defense against a patient taking a drug or combination of drug that may be harmful, especially if that patient is taking over the counter drugs/supplements or filling prescriptions from multiple doctors. \n\nBecause of this, knowledge of the function of many drugs ... | null |
5t33d1 | why is the president immune from the ethics laws, when the ethics in government act of 1978 expressly states otherwise? | [
{
"answer": "Standard disclaimer: political, keeping bias to a minimum.\n\nThe current President is immune to ethics laws because the majority party at the moment (the Republicans) aren't holding him to those ethics laws.\n\nSimply put: right now, they're a police officer who's blatantly looking the other way a... | null |
x0fib | What are some lesser known Genocides in World History? | [
{
"answer": "The definition of Genocide is VERY slippery and controversial, but if we can at least agree that it involves intentionally attempting to wholly eradicate a specific ethnic group, then I would mention the Zunghar Genocide perpetrated by the Qing Dynasty as one of the lesser known tragedies in world ... | null |
c3jenz | why, with all our advancements in telecommunications and phone technology, has phone call audio quality stayed virtually the same as ten or twenty years ago? | [
{
"answer": "If you talk about landlines or anything that is talking to landlines: That is a dead technology, don't expect anything there.\n\nIf you talk about VoIP: That is much better than years ago, with a better sampling rate and wider spectrum they capture.\n\nHowever, that is part of the problem, the bigg... | null |
2q82bn | How fictitious is the current modern perception of the samurai? | [
{
"answer": "Early days of the Meiji era? The 廃刀令 (Order to restrict carrying of sword) was issued in Meiji 9, 1876, with the earliest discussion to going all the way back in Meiji 3, 1870.\n\nThe order restricted carrying to sword to soldiers and police.\n\nOn top of that, the Meiji restoration had a important... | null |
5sf2td | why can soup (with meat) be stored at room temperature? | [
{
"answer": "If it is in a sealed can, it is safe because the cans were superheated to kill all bacteria they might have had in them and since then have had no way to get outside bacteria in.\n\nThe issue with keeping food warm too long is that it allows bacteria to thrive. But if there are no bacteria to begin... | null |
b7urog | why do gas giants have such strong gravities? | [
{
"answer": "Their density might be low, but they are still massive. The \"force\" of an object's gravitational field depends not on density of an object but on raw mass. For example, if you crushed the earth down to a black hole maybe a few meters across the orbit of the moon and any other satellites would st... | null |
flpi85 | How does a respiratory infection spread from cell to cell inside of a host? | [
{
"answer": "You almost had it in the first section. After the cell produces many copies of the virus, the new virus particles head toward the membrane of the cell and push out, taking part of the membrane with them to provide a protective layer. Those new virus particles then all go out and infect new cells ... | null |
5h1u0f | why is the bell pepper so big, while it's mostly empty on the inside? | [
{
"answer": "It's the skin and outer flesh of the pepper that you use to cook with. People are more likely to buy larger peppers because it gives them most flesh to cook with, even though it's just empty space inside. Bell peppers are cultivated by humans, they were bred to be as plump and big looking as poss... | null |
2gm99i | What was the plan for Nunavik (northern Quebec region governed by the Inuit) if Quebec had gained independence in the 1980 referendum? Did the separatists say what they would do about the JBNQA (the 1975 agreement giving the Inuit control over the northern third of the province)? | [
{
"answer": "The question is a bit vague, inasmuch as it does not specify who was doing the planning.\n\nOn the side of the PQ, the notion of Québec partition was simply deemed untenable, and that international law was a sufficient garantee against it ([source](_URL_4_)).\n\nHowever, at the federal level, the o... | null |
4dwuxg | why is ancestry from spain important to the u.s. census (hispanic) but ancestry from other latin cultures like italy or portugal isn't? | [
{
"answer": "With regard to the U.S. Census, Hispanic doesn't mean from Spain -- it means people from Mexico and Latin America, ie. Spanish speakers. Hispanics make up about 17% of the U.S. population currently.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The significant portion of the population that woul... | null |
12g3zr | why do i need glasses if i've got irises? | [
{
"answer": "The Iris doesn't focus, it controls how much light enters your pupil. The lens focuses by changing shape with tiny little muscles. You need glasses because the lens is too rigid and the muscles are too weak.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "To answer your question, I'm going to need... | null |
1bu8t9 | how google stores caches of so many websites | [
{
"answer": "There are a few methods that Google uses.\n\nThe primary one is that Google spends plenty on continually adding more servers, server space, and improving their ability to manage that ever-growing space.\n\nAlso, copies of crawled websites compress better than many types of data. Google once release... | null |
44w34j | if alcohol helps kill bacteria and fights bad breathe (like mouthwash), why does your breathe smell like death after a night of drinking ? | [
{
"answer": "Because the alcohol doesn't kill ALL of the bacteria in there and those little greebly bastards reproduce right quickly. \n\nThen there's good odds that you didn't brush your teeth before passing out into a drunken stupor. That means there's all sorts of dilute sugar solution from the beer or wine ... | null |
hhjeo | How do water-powered batteries like this work? Are they pretty much useless? | [
{
"answer": "take a look at [this](_URL_0_) - it's not powered by the water, that's just the electrolyte. the power comes from the dissimilar metals which make up the anode & cathode, at least one of which will be consumed by the reaction. they're not useless, but yeah, there are more efficient ways of maki... | null |
cqy2cw | how did “hello” become the default greeting when you answer the phone? | [
{
"answer": "Nobody liked 'Ahoy!' which is what the creator of the telephone wanted the standard greeting to be.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": " > The use of hello as a telephone greeting has been credited to Thomas Edison; according to one source, he expressed his surprise with a misheard Hul... | null |
1p8yyx | What are some salient points about the West Coast Salish peoples and associated cultures that should be more well known? | [
{
"answer": "What really differentiated the people of the PNW (Kwakiutle, Haida, Coast Salish, Squamish, ect. ect.) from many of the other tribes around North America was how settled they were, compared to even the most agriculturally based Aboriginal societies such as the Iriqouis in the east. \n\nBecause the... | null |
7mh1k1 | i'm told that my daughter (14 months) shouldn't have red meat, because it's hard for her body to process. why is red meat harder to digest than other meats? | [
{
"answer": "A well respected pediatrician at my medical school taught me that all types of meat were appropriate early foods (or beikost) as they tend to be rich in nutrients that complement breast milk, especially iron. She recommended meat puree in particular.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": ... | null |
10brzr | Why didn't the French just give Winston Churchill their Navy, instead of forcing his hand to destroy it? | [
{
"answer": "By the terms of the armistice France signed with Germany the French Fleet was supposed to be demiliterized in a French port. Admiral Darlan scattered the French navy to French ports in Africa that were loyal to the Vichy French. The incomplete Jean Bart w... | null |
1ygmfg | what does it mean that the eu is "imposing sanctions" on ukrainian official? | [
{
"answer": "**What do sanctions do?**\n\nThe sanctions are:\n\n* Ukrainian officials are not allowed to enter Europe anymore.\n* Assets of Ukranian officials are frozen at the moment. They can't access their European bank account any more, they can't sell European stock anymore, ...\n\nThe basic message from E... | null |
21j0p6 | do dogs have a sense of right or wrong? | [
{
"answer": "They don't have a sense of guilt like we might sometimes think they do. Rather, they know something they did was bad because they know that will be punished (because it's happened before... same way they know how to sit on command). They do it for the same reason any human misbehaves - they either ... | null |
3igkl5 | how can a seemingly small amount of poison or venom be so eefective. 100 mg of venom from a black mamba snake is enough to kill a 100kg adult human. how is this possible? | [
{
"answer": "The biggest reason why black mamba venom is so effective is because, compared to other venom, the molecules in black mamba venom are very light allowing it to spread through the body quickly. Before your body has a chance to react and heal damaged cells there are too many cells being effected and y... | null |
35g6aq | How is glass made? | [
{
"answer": "There are many different compositions of glass. In scientific terms, a glass is a solid that lacks any well-defined crystal structure. \n\nBy far the most common is Soda-lime glass. The raw ingredients for which are silica sand (silicon dioxide, SiO2), sodium oxide, and calcium oxide. Small amounts... | null |
1klspf | When did Bank Heists become a thing? | [
{
"answer": "I'll let the experts elaborate but simple answer is \"when banks were invented\" ... \n\nWhile that might an exaggeration, highway-robbery and highwaymen are certainly a very old \"tradition\" and a driving force behind banks - ie not carrying money/valuables around\n\nSeems by 1880's in USA bank r... | null |
1n3vwo | Do holocaust deniers have any valid points? | [
{
"answer": "There is a hell of a lot of evidence that it happened. There are photos of the camps, and the graves there are testimonials from all sides involved confirming what happened. The Allies made damn sure everything was recorded and brought up at the Nuremberg trials because it was so horrendous. I real... | null |
96ct12 | Where were the marines during the Wild West time period? | [
{
"answer": "In short, yes, the Marines were utilized for amphibious landings. \n\nIn a bit more length, the Marine Corps was declining. The U.S. Civil War, shortly before the Wild West time period (1865-1895) delegated the Marine Corps to blockade duty. They were poorly, if ever, utilized in battle for the Nor... | null |
65pztk | what's the difference between amd and nvidia gpus? | [
{
"answer": "Ford and Chrysler both make cars. The cars have four tires, steering wheel and a horn!\n\nBoth Ford and Chrysler vehicles get you from point A to point B.\n\nVideo cards all share a primary goal. Deliver video information to a display port.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
... | null |
52olvl | why, when we are being put under anesthesia, does it give you a burning sensation up your arm, or from the point in which the anesthesia was administered. | [
{
"answer": "If you're talking about getting it through an IV it's actually the cool temperature of the fluid going through your veins. Even lukewarm water can give that sensation since we have such a high body temp",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikip... | null |
33z5pz | For all those b & w photos of construction workers at death-defying heights, how often did we actually lose workers on the job? | [
{
"answer": " > Did *we* lose a lot of workers\n\ncould you confirm: are you asking for info/stats from the USA? thx!",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Fatalities certainly did occur. During the five years of construction of Hoover Dam for example there were [96 fatalities directly related to co... | null |
78e5tk | how come glass breaks when it hits the ground, but marbles bounce and hardly take damage? | [
{
"answer": "Spheres.\n\nSpheres distribute the shock of hitting the ground very evenly. A marble can still break, but it's less likely to than a cube, prism, or sheet.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The shape of the marble helps, but it is less significant than the material properties. Th... | null |
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