id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
5pagl7 | what happens if a president is elected and they do not have a so to take the first lady/gentleman position? | [
{
"answer": "There's only one or two cases of a president not having an SO. It's a campaigning thing. People will vote for the family man over the lecherous man. Presidents are also usually quite old.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In Thomas Jefferson's case, for example, Dolly Madison (his Se... | null |
13facs | how do google's driverless cars work? | [
{
"answer": "A system including cameras, GPS, proximity sensors all work together to drive the car. Pretty much every road in north america is mapped on GPS. The GPS gives the rough information on the route the car should take and what to expect in terms of directions. That information is few to the computer on... | null |
4yjn38 | how does up voting photos in reddit effect their visibility in google searches? | [
{
"answer": "I believe that every time you upvote an image a link to it is created in your users folder. For example you can see all of my upvotes here:\n_URL_0_\n\nEach upvote generates a new link. When a lot of users upvote an image it creates a lot of backlinks.\n\nGoogle uses the amount of backlinks as one ... | null |
2xo7aq | What nationalities were the Shock Troops of the British Empire during World War I? | [
{
"answer": "\"Shock Troops\" was a term liberally used in the First World War. Most notably, the Stosstruppen or Shock troops that the Germans experimented with in 1916, and finally began forming battalions and regiments by 1917, and whole divisions in 1918. What they involve were removing the best, most exper... | null |
4evn5p | How do rocket engines prevent back-flow of ignited fuel? | [
{
"answer": "The fuel *can't* burn in the fuel line.... there is no oxidizer in the fuel line.\n\nAs for why a fuel/oxidizer mix can't get back into one of the lines... too much pressure going the other way. Here's a description of rocket fuel injection from [wikipedia's article on liquid propellant rockets](_U... | null |
ws3dp | Are hitler and Stalin diagnosed as crazy today? | [
{
"answer": "Hey, cool question. I really like that you asked \"*Are Hitler and Stalin diagnosed as crazy* ***today***\" not \"Where they crazy?\".\n\nHitler is often diagnosed as crazy nowadays. Shit-/incest fetish, paranoia, being depressive - all those traits are often attributed to him. In my eyes that's **... | null |
1qitg6 | the religion of jehova's witness | [
{
"answer": "Using reddit search I found:\n\nELI5: Jehovah's Witnesses\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "82181",
"title": "Great Apostasy",
"section": "Section::::Restorationist perspective.:Jehovah's Witnesses.\... | null |
6298az | why aren't people in congress who took money from people not forced to abstain from a vote? | [
{
"answer": "Because then all I'd have to do to stop something from passing is donate small amounts of money to some people who supported a bill. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It is because the purpose of the legislature is to influenced by people.\n\nYour representatives are supposed to re... | null |
155l3i | when you flip your rear-view mirror down in the night time, why do the headlights behind you seem less bright? | [
{
"answer": "It's a second mirror that has a less reflective surface. If you take a flashlight to the mirrors at night, you can see where they each reflect to.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The mirror isn't flat; the glass is thicker at the top forming a wedge shape. The back of the glass i... | null |
sx5r4 | compression of video, photo and audio. | [
{
"answer": "Photo: Instead of recording the exact color of every pixel, either reduce the number of colors used (gif), or make a note that the next however number of pixels are the same color, followed by a bunch of pixels that are a different color, and so on.\n\nAudio: instead of recording every single tone ... | null |
9ptw3s | what does falconry actually involve? | [
{
"answer": "Im a falconer. There's kind of a difference between how we take the sport on and how they do it in the arab world. In north america we use trained raptors to hunt \"fur or feather\" meaning either small furry animals or gamebirds and water fowl. Our method is almost just like regular hunting but wi... | null |
e4dtua | How does a history post-grad student go about finding their thesis topic? | [
{
"answer": "It's really a case of thinking about what you find interesting, and what will hold your attention for however long you have to write the piece of work. I personally think that's the most important thing. There will be ups and downs in this time, and it will be much easier to get through it if you c... | null |
54fl8c | How did vegetarian cultures start? | [
{
"answer": "In ancient India, the brahmin (\"priest\") caste engaged in vegetarianism out of religious belief. The killing of animals was associated with bad karma, so brahmins maintained their diets as a sign of karmic purity. It's also important to note that the lush Indian subcontinent was uniquely suited t... | null |
28l5l1 | Can I make something float? | [
{
"answer": "First of all, just to clarify, gravity doesn't have a uniform strength of 9.8 Newtons. The acceleration due to gravity is 9.8 m/s^2, and because F=ma (for applications near the surface of the earth), the force of gravity on earth equals mg (or 9.8m).\n\nNow to answer your question, yes, objects can... | null |
2uvye3 | Economic Inequality between Northern and Southern Europe | [
{
"answer": "It actually has a lot to do with history.\n\nThe most important thing to understand, I think, is the way the Industrial Revolution spread through Europe. As you may have learned, England was the starting point. What made England special? Firstly, goods and people could be moved fairly cheaply compa... | null |
dtdou1 | Given Elon Musk's recent comments about finally being able to reuse rockets: Why is it so difficult to recover and reuse them? | [
{
"answer": "There are lots of ways to do some kind of rocket recovery and thus many reasons not to. I can only talk about a few. \n\nRecovery is the first problem. \n\nBoosters which detach early land in the ocean which can corrode the components to such a degree that it is not worth repairing them. You also h... | null |
5cctg1 | what has changed culturally/politically that people believed it when they were warned about the hole in the ozone, but not about climate change now? | [
{
"answer": "There's a belief that the Earth can balance itself to sustain environment. I've heard it hundreds of times, this idea is popular between climate change deniers and religious people. But it has nothing to do with reality. If you want to know if it's possible for planet to became inhospitable, take a... | null |
ak2q53 | German Grenades | [
{
"answer": "It's worth noting both sides experimented with a variety of grenade styles and types. You can see some [German](_URL_7_) and [French](_URL_2_) examples. The German \"discus\" design and the French \"hairbrush\" design nare especially interesting.\n\nAlthough ball-type grenades like the Mills Bomb c... | null |
emils6 | why do phone cameras seem more zoomed out than eyes when looking at the same thing | [
{
"answer": "Because they are taking the whole scene and representing it on a small screen. Then you look at the screen and it looks like a small duplication of the scene. Most camera lenses also capture a smaller field of view than your eyes do as well.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Your eye... | null |
12veh7 | why do international sporting organizations have french names? | [
{
"answer": "Historical reasons. The modern Olympics began in the late 1800's, and FIFA was founded in 1904. While England and Germany were major players at the time, France had been a dominant cultural and military force in Europe for the previous few centuries, and was the default accepted language for intern... | null |
2gcsty | when people gain weight rapidly, do they grow new hairs to cover all the skin, or do they have the same amount of hairs spaced farther apart? | [
{
"answer": "No, they get stretch marks bro. Hair follicles just spread out and you don't grow new ones.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Is this why really fat guys often have patchy beards?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I lost about 90 pounds in the last year (about 185 now)... | null |
hl7n7 | How loud would a sound have to be to be heard around the world? | [
{
"answer": "Can you clarify this? I'm sure others will have better responses, but do you mean that the transmitter of this sound wave is entirely through the atmosphere (as opposed to the ground?) Since we can hear earthquakes from all over the world quite well through the ground.\n\nIf you mean atmosphere, ... | null |
5toebp | the economics of the cost of private education. | [
{
"answer": "What school is claiming that? For $90k you could get every student their own private teacher, a computer, and all the supplies they need and still probably have $10k left over. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "4585857",
... | null |
apjzep | how come noise cancelling headphones don't increase hearing loss when there is actually more sound being produced around your ears? | [
{
"answer": "That's the whole point of the opposite amplitude, the two waves cancel each other out and the eardrum doesn't move at all as a result. So the additional sounds actually result in less movement of the eardrums, and thus are easier on your ears. People who work in noisy environments (like a data cent... | null |
dgfxp9 | Is there a maximum possible magnetic flux density? | [
{
"answer": "There is the [Schwinger limit](_URL_0_): Above 4 billion T things get strange.\n\nAnd then there is the Planck magnetic inductance, 2\\*10^53 T. That's at least the maximum where our known laws of physics have a chance to work.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance":... | null |
1iruk7 | Will listening to a recording of information while sleeping every night lead to me memorizing that information? Can the brain absorb information in a noticeable way during sleep? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_0_\n\n > Since the electroencephalography studies by Charles W. Simon and William H. Emmons in 1956, **learning by sleep has not been taken seriously**. The researchers concluded that learning during sleep was \"impractical and probably impossible.\" They reported that stimulus material pres... | null |
5knfro | are more celebrities dying this year than average? or is it just observe bias or something? | [
{
"answer": "Statistically more celebrities are probably not dying more than in previous years, but there may be a connection based in how popular / unique these celebrities were.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "32642",
"title": ... | null |
jiklb | where do/did words come from? | [
{
"answer": "There are a *lot* of answers to that. Here are some:\n\n* Some people believe the first words were caveman grunts or warning calls. It's easy to see how \"gaaah!\" for \"there's a tiger coming, let's run!\" could become a word *meaning* 'tiger' or 'run'.\n* It's not interesting, but the main way a ... | null |
7civ6o | To what degree did the Allies and the USSR cooperate in WW2? | [
{
"answer": "They absolutely collaborated during the war, and while it's hard to say that they would have lost or exactly how the war would have been different, it would nevertheless have made the fighting substantially more difficult. I would say it's a misnomer to think of the USSR as separate from the Allies... | null |
6rajcm | How are we so sure about the fate of different types of stars when the Universe is not yet old enough for us to witness the death of certain stars? | [
{
"answer": "We're not absolutely certain, you're right. Observations would help us be more accurate, and there's a lot of detail we don't have, even hypothetically.\n\nHowever, all of our observations of white dwarves are pretty consistent: there are not continuing nuclear reactions happening there. Without an... | null |
b6cadm | the difference between the degrees and the warm/cold settings on a split system air-conditioner. | [
{
"answer": "Warm=keeping room temp above set temp\n\nCool=keeping room temp below set temp\n\nThe temp you set the thermostat to isn't necessarily going to be the room temp, it's just the temp that activates the system. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "22C cool tells the system that when the a... | null |
1cgdpq | Why are airships/blimps/zeppelins not used for transporting freight? | [
{
"answer": "Mostly for economic reasons. The leakage is not a major issue, as there are commerically operated airships right now. We used to fill these airships with hydrogen, but that went awfully wrong. Helium does not provide the same lift, is a lot more expensive, but easier to contain and does not react. ... | null |
1x3sps | What's happening in batteries when they seemingly run out of charge but hours later they have "residual charge" enough to power on again? | [
{
"answer": "The \"self-recharging\" features of batteries is most noticeable in a car battery. In some cases you can crank the engine until the battery seems totally dead, then come back an hour later and crank it again. The higher the drain on the battery (a car's starter motor is an incredibly high-drain dev... | null |
3mz541 | After splitting a magnet in half you cannot reconnect the two pieces back together at the original break point, why? | [
{
"answer": "For most metals, it's because an oxidation layer forms once broken that prevents the metal from being reconstituted. There are ways around that, however, that involve stripping off that layer, applying a vacuum, and applying pressure that can rebuild the joint.",
"provenance": null
},
{
... | null |
861cqc | why do pigments look like another colour when they’re a powder? | [
{
"answer": "Well, I can't say I've noticed what you describe, but the explanation would be the following:\n\nLet's start with electromagnetic radiation: Electromagnetic radiation consists of electromagnetic waves, which are synchronized oscillations of electric and magnetic fields. It has a property called wav... | null |
2xovey | when the supreme court rules on gay marriage, what will happen to the lower court rulings, and the states, if the supreme court decides that states can constitutionally ban gay marriages? | [
{
"answer": "In the past when a gay marriage ban has been lifted then applied again those who legally married still were married. It's possible this would happen nationally if the SCOTUS ruled that way. But further marriages would still be illegal where the state bans being considered had made them illegal.\n... | null |
49c375 | why is mp3's still ripped in 128kbp/s and not simply in either 320kbp/s or straight flac? | [
{
"answer": "Most people aren't audiophile nerds and 128kb/s is perfectly fine for listening with the cheap earbuds that 99% of the population uses. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "While hard drive space is irrelevant for desktops and laptops, it is still an issue for smaller devices like smar... | null |
6lajev | how does facebook (and other social media sites) compile a creepily accurate suggested friends list even when you are a new user and have given the site minimal personal information? | [
{
"answer": "Using a mixture of IP addresses and cookies for identification purposes, throughout various websites and ads they keep track of and build a profile on you.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Phone contacts.\n\nOnce, i added to my phone a guy from other city (he was on vacation) and we... | null |
khqen | why we use rms to express ac voltages | [
{
"answer": "I started to type up a complicated response to this, but then I realized this was ELI5. If you want the full answer Like You Are An Electrical Engineering Student I can actually explain the math behind it.\n\nBasically, an AC voltage is almost always less than its peak value. Think of a wave in the... | null |
1qvipm | This may be a dumb question, but if losing weight requires simply eating less calories than your body burns, what are the biggest differences from eating healthy or poorly? | [
{
"answer": "This is complicated because your question isn't entirely clear. If by \"health\", you mean weight gain/loss, it is very hard to overeat truly healthy food. have you ever tried eating 3000 calories of meat and vegetation? your stomach and satiety hormones simply won't let you. healthier food also te... | null |
7fjm2c | why does the us federal reserve want to raise intrest rates if unemployment falls below 4%? | [
{
"answer": "The Fed has a dual-mandate: keep unemployment low and keep inflation low. Generally economists think that the US is at full employment if the unemployment rate is around 4%. This is because you figure that at any point in time you have about that many people \"frictionally\" unemployed. Meaning the... | null |
5f6xej | how are not-for-profits/nonprofits allowed to pay their workers? isn't salary profit? | [
{
"answer": "Profit is made after all of your overheads and expenses have been paid, so wages/bills/insurance etc have to be taken cared for first. Anything else that is left is profit :)",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "No, profit is everything after expenses that normally goes into the pockets... | null |
2kcts8 | why do american's take halloween and costumes so serious? why is it such an important event in the year? | [
{
"answer": "The simple answer is that it's fun. A lot of people like to get artistic with their costumes and have fun dressing up with family and friends.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It is not exactly important. It is a fun holiday where children get to dress up and go get candy and adults... | null |
1uata8 | what is happening when i can tell someone is looking at me from across a busy room? | [
{
"answer": "was just speaking to a friend about this, also how is it that the reaction to this causes my eyes know how and where to look precisely into the other persons eyes once you know there looking at you in a reflex type manner.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Well, I'm certainly no exp... | null |
b1212j | Given that uranium 235 has a half life of 703.8 million years, now long would all nuclear weapons have to be left alone before they would be considered inert? | [
{
"answer": "The circuitry, chemical explosives, and probably even the structural integrity of the weapons would likely fail before the U-235 decayed to the point where it was no longer a viable weapon. It should be noted there are other long-term effects, esp. with plutonium, which \"self-irradiates\" and can ... | null |
446mww | why do gas stoves start at the highest heat setting instead of the lowest? | [
{
"answer": "For lighting. The gas comes out at maximum so it will reach the pilot flame and ignite right away.\n\n",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "174818",
"title": "Wood gas",
"section": "Section::::Usage.:Stoves, coo... | null |
1ojad6 | how does land/property pass from public too private ownership? | [
{
"answer": "Unless the public body is prohibited from selling its land, it can sell it whenever it wants to. Generally governments try to stick to the market rate, unless there's an ulterior motive (like land redistribution in Africa, in which case it might be sold below market value). Government doesn't sell ... | null |
2req40 | if we can do our own taxes online, why can't we register a new car, transfer a tag to a new vehicle online? or any other dmv task for that matter?? (besides issuing licenses...) | [
{
"answer": "Because the DMV didn't build a web portal and the IRS did. If you want to know WHY the DMV didn't build one....well that's a different question altogether.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "In some states you can do many things online. It's up to your state's secretary of state to es... | null |
21xuwd | why it's legal for fox news to make stuff up and sell it as news? | [
{
"answer": "The step after regulating \"integrity\" is regulating free speech -- so it's a slippery slope.\n\nAnd in a sense, there is regulation. Rather was canned for what he did and the damage it caused to his company. If people decide they want the same out of Fox, they'll vote with their wallets.\n\nAlso,... | null |
c4ihfp | what is the sun's spectrum and how does it work? | [
{
"answer": "Heated matter emits radiation. Most commonly as infrared radiation which we can't see but can feel on our skin. When the heat exceeds a certain value, it starts glowing red. Keep heating up and it becomes yellow, then white, which means that all visible wavelengths are emitted - like a very hot pie... | null |
53hj8n | Anthem Protests and Francis Scott Key's Third Verse. Is it actually racist? | [
{
"answer": " > Slave almost certainly refers to conscripts, as the British Army fielded thousands of them in America during the War of 1812.\n\nThey also fielded thousands of freed slaves, who the Americans demanded be returned to their \"owners\" after the war. So it doesn't \"almost certainly\" refer to co... | null |
2ch2f8 | why is katsaridaphobia (fear of cockroaches) so common? | [
{
"answer": "Cockroaches are generally considered a sign of uncleanliness, even squalor. That's not strictly true, but it's a connotation that has remained. They also carry diseases. Many things like this aren't even an instinctual fear. Babies reach for hot stoves. We *learn* over time that cockroaches are ind... | null |
9e5ybd | what's preventing me from randomly guessing someone else's software product key, especially for physical copies of stuff? | [
{
"answer": "You seem to understand the concept of brute force. I think the reason it's not more common is just the amount of work that entails for relatively little gain. It would be more lucrative to use that program and computational power to guess windows keys or something more valuable than the new CoD DLC... | null |
2iqzlf | Is it in the nature of gravity to cluster things even in the largest scale? | [
{
"answer": " > Is it in the nature of gravity to cluster things even in the largest scale? \n\nThe word *even* is inappropriate here, because the force of gravity almost only shapes the universe on large scales. It is to weak to have an relevant effect on small scales, like the nuclear forces have. So yeah, ... | null |
f6m1yo | how did someone as insane as nero become emperor? | [
{
"answer": "Nero was raised in a Roman imperial governance tutoring system after being adopted by Claudius. \n\nKeep in mind that when looking at the historic past, behaviour considered loathsome now was more common place then. Additionally, the tenets of human emancipation weren’t yet a thing so life was chea... | null |
3yup9h | Why Were Chess Players in the 60s-70s Treated like Celebrities and Not in Todays Society? | [
{
"answer": "Magnus Carlson is treated like a celebrity, even in the United States he make appearances on talk shows and news programs. In other countries he is even more well known. He makes well over a million dollars a year and has sponsors. \n\nBut the reason Bobby Fischer was so much more popular than Ches... | null |
2xngf6 | if scientists can tell that their best atomic clock loses 1s every 16 million year, why not use what ever they're using to measure the clock's accuracy as a clock itself? | [
{
"answer": "They're not measuring the atomic clock, they're using the science behind it to judge it's statistical likelihood of accuracy. They're measuring it's \"margin or error.\"",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Also what can happen is that they actually make several clocks working by the sa... | null |
blhqcn | Why does pressure relax tensed muscle? | [
{
"answer": "Hello! I just wanted to let you know that I don’t have an answer, but that I did just read several reviews to see if there was an answer, and that surprisingly it’s still unknown how (and if) massages work on tensed muscles. This British Medical Journal review (_URL_0_) summarizes several studies o... | null |
2rhw56 | What primary sources do we have for the history of England prior to the Norman invasion? | [
{
"answer": "You'd probably like the [Anglo-Saxon chronicle](_URL_1_), which contains entries from the 9th-11th Century.\n\nThere's some other British annals as well - there's a [short list](_URL_0_) on Wikipedia (mods, I hope this is okay as a source?).",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Life of ... | null |
4ybtrq | Is oxygen distributed uniformly in a closed system? | [
{
"answer": "It would ultimately diffuse uniformly, but if you have people respirating the whole time, then it would depend on the volume of air, the total rate of oxygen consumption, how the people are distributed, and whether diffusion is being aided by things like fans and people moving around.\n\nThis is ac... | null |
8v3u1w | The usual test for a witch was to drown them, if they floated they were a witch if not they were dead. What was the origin of this test and were there ever any cases in which the “witch” actually floated? | [
{
"answer": "There is always more to write, but in the meantime you might want to check out this answer I wrote about Trials By Ordeal that discusses the \"trial by water\".\n\n_URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "264510",
"ti... | null |
6i0vjx | What was life like for a university student in the 1650s? | [
{
"answer": "I don't have an answer but a clarifying question... What country or region are you asking about?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "17972473",
"title": "Jagiellonian University Medical College",
"section": "Sect... | null |
jrap5 | why food cools off faster in my 98.6 degree mouth than at room temperature. | [
{
"answer": "because air does not conduct heat as fast as water (or your saliva) does. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Both the air and your saliva are made of tiny parts called molecules. Heat is actually the back-and-forth motion of those little parts. The molecules that make up your saliva... | null |
lxik2 | what digital technology is and how it differs from whatever we used (analog?) before it | [
{
"answer": "Both technologies use electronic circuits, but digital ones have 'digital' data running through it. \n\nA signal running through a wire can be high or low. When it's high, we say that it represents the number 1 and when it is low we say that it represents the number 0. This is digital (digit-al) da... | null |
7oc5lx | Why do some vaccines use live viruses over dead (inactive) ones? | [
{
"answer": "This might not be the proper answer, but from what I understand is that if it has a live virus, that virus is generally in a weakened state. With a weakened virus, the virus is still able to do stuff, but it also allows your immune system to learn how to fight the virus better",
"provenance": n... | null |
26ohjm | why doesn't society like loners? | [
{
"answer": "This is because the people that talk in public are extroverts. An introvert isn't as likely to take a public stance on any of this, so we have less of a defense.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I'd say it has to do with the fact that humans are pack animals, we live in flocks and a... | null |
9zgs5e | why can’t people sue internet and financial companies for data breaches and why aren’t people behind bars? | [
{
"answer": "Your premise is false. People can, and do, sue companies for data breaches. In fact many companies buy special insurance just for this issue.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "17182301",
"title": "Credit card",
... | null |
3k4o9i | How did the Holocaust affect the field of psychology and philosophy? | [
{
"answer": "The persecution of Jews in Germany and the Holocaust had several distinct effects upon psychology: a major geographical shift in the epicenter of the scientific psychology world, an influx of Jewish psychologists into American universities, and a major change in focus from behavior to social issues... | null |
2se078 | Did the British really pretend that carrots derived night vision were the source of their radar-derived intelligence? | [
{
"answer": "Yes and no; it wasn't exactly a planned deception, but carrots were mentioned in publicity around John \"Cat's Eyes\" Cunningham, a night fighter pilot, in early 1941. \n\nThe Luftwaffe's switch to night bombing in September 1940 had caused serious problems for the RAF, night defence having a low ... | null |
4gs513 | why does boiling point of noble gases change as you go down the group? | [
{
"answer": "All atoms, even noble gases like Neon, Argon, etc., experience a type of attractive interaction amongst themselves called \"dispersion forces.\" As a useful oversimplification, the magnitude of this attractive force depends on the number of electrons that the atoms have. Going down a group in the p... | null |
2a0sl5 | why is calling obama a socialist considered an insult? what's so wrong about that type of government anyways? | [
{
"answer": "Because \"socialist\" is a loaded term in American politics, as illustrated by /u/quasiplumber 's response. It inevitably leads to a false equivalence between \"socialist\" policies like progressive tax rates, social spending, and government assistance and \"socialism/communism,\" absence of priv... | null |
a01chp | How did stories of elves, mates, dwarves, etc. come about throughout the world? Is there any proof that they may have existed at one time? | [
{
"answer": "Belief in the supernatural is international. Your question touches on several topics, each of which have generated many books, but it is possible to take this apart carefully and attempt to present a few concise answers.\n\nAlthough many folk stories were/are told to children, and many more were to... | null |
1xj0z1 | what is the onion magazine? | [
{
"answer": "The Onion is a humor and parody newspaper that makes fun of political, social and economic events in the world through parody and exaggeration. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "30813",
"title": "The Onion",
"... | null |
6jc1qa | so i bought 'new' listerine with no alcohol. what's left in it that kills germs? do i need the alcohol? | [
{
"answer": "Alcohol isn't actually the ingredient used to kill mouth germs, its primary purpose is to keep the actual active ingredients in solution. Alcohol free Listerine, according to their site, uses essential oils with antibacterial and anti-fungal properties. I'm unsure what ingredient in the Zero Alcoho... | null |
dmyn5t | How good is the sense of smell in insects such as flies? | [
{
"answer": "Well, they don't have noses or olfactory organs, just chemoreceptors on their antennae. How well they detect airborn compounds depends on the type of insect, and the specificity with which they detect certain molecules but potentially not others. Certain insects will be very good at detecting organ... | null |
13qo6b | grover norquist is just some guy. why do politicians behave as if a pledge to him is sacred? | [
{
"answer": "Norquist is an incredibly influential \"just some guy,\" and his tax pledge is technically a pledge to the *voters* not to raise total taxes, not to Grover.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "45596",
"title": "Thomas E.... | null |
6xgixf | why was cavalry so effective against infantry without spears? | [
{
"answer": "I think this is pretty self a explanatory, but I'll do my best. As far as I know, earlier armies were focused around phalanxes or turtle formations, think Greeks or romans, pretty much meaning they'd make walls out of living bodies and see which side broke first. Early cavalry was more mobile, bu... | null |
6f3wvd | what does it mean for an actor to be executive producer on a tv show? | [
{
"answer": "I work in the film industry and am an 'executive producer' on smaller productions. Simply that means I work with the client stakeholder to hire any and all staff (either directly or indirectly) for a production. I also handle budgeting and empower a director to execute the project vision, etc.\n\nI... | null |
22a9sb | In feudal times did the nobility of europe have a distinct ethnicity that seperated them from the rest of the population? | [
{
"answer": "In some instances there could be. For instance; after the Normans invaded England, the nobility was Nordic (Norman) whereas most of the rest of the population was not. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "28978421",
"tit... | null |
11q5f8 | Is there a "genetic peak"of attractiveness in humans? | [
{
"answer": "There is no molecular definition of attractiveness, so I'm not sure what kind of answer you're looking for here.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I don't think you'll find a real scientific answer to this. I might be able to give you something that might be of interest to you. I rea... | null |
9gwxcj | why are we certain there wasn't a technological civilization before humans here on earth? | [
{
"answer": "We can't. Just like we can't be certain the universe wasn't created by an invisible purple teapot orbiting Jupiter. \n\nWe *can* be certain they didn't use large amounts of plastics, as those show up clearly in fossil records. They also didn't use any carbon or soot producing technology on an indus... | null |
64786i | What do historians think of Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities? | [
{
"answer": "Hi there -- this is a question that's come up here a few times before. Not discouraging any further discussion on it, but these older threads may be of interest to you: \n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_2_\n\n_URL_3_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
5b289m | gradient descent algorithm | [
{
"answer": "Imagine you're stranded in a mountainous area, and you're blindfolded. \nYou'll be rescued if you reach the lowest point in a valley. \nYour only knowledge of your immediate surroundings comes from placing your foot one step away from yourself, and estimating which direction takes you the furthest ... | null |
6dfh7c | Who lived in Britain before the Britons? | [
{
"answer": "Well, Britain has seen activity from Palaeolithic times and you can see an example of the continuity at work here in Norman Davies' *The Isles*, which speaks of continuity in DNA from a Stone Age body to a living member of the town where the body was found.\n\nIn among this continuity however there... | null |
2epd0f | If photons are massless, could an infinite amount of them fit into an infinitely small space? | [
{
"answer": "Someone correct me if I'm wrong. But doesn't that Pauli Exclusion Principle say that, in fact, you could fit as many photons into as small of a space as you want and keep adding them up until their collective energy starts becoming a GR-type problem?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": ... | null |
2h87ob | why did the us government have no trouble prosecuting microsoft under antitrust law but doesn't consider the comcast/twc merger to be a similar antitrust violation? | [
{
"answer": "The DOJ has not yet ruled on whether or not the merger will be a violation of antitrust rules.\n\nNow, once they have, and if they say it isn't, then you have a really good question. But at this point, it's premature.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Comcast and Time Warner don't co... | null |
66kr94 | - recently scientists observed negative mass. what is the significance of this? is this anti-matter? | [
{
"answer": "No, it's regular old matter, with regular old positive mass. What they did, was through difficult techniques, induce the bulk of the material to behave *as though it has* negative mass. It does not, however. Additionally, anti-matter has positive mass. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer... | null |
5zgszh | after a snow storm, why does the sky emanate a pink/gray hue throughout the entire night? | [
{
"answer": "In dry conditions, the light from sodium vapor street lamps is mostly absorbed by the dark pavement or soil/grass.\n\nWhen the ground is snow-covered, much of that light is reflected upward, where it illuminates the cloud cover or even the water vapor in the atmosphere.\n\nEdit: Made longer to sati... | null |
2rn1ec | What percentage, roughly, of settlers in what is now the US prior to the War of Independence were indentured servants? | [
{
"answer": "Across the total area of the future United States, indentured servants probably made up roughly 40 - 45% of all European migration before independence. In the early period of colonisation, this figure would have been much higher; as many as two-thirds of all free European migrants may have been ind... | null |
87ixvq | what's happening when my back "pops" and is it bad? | [
{
"answer": "Usually, when bones 'pop', you're basically popping very small air bubbles between your bones (or at least that's the best theory we've come up with). Your back popping is not a big deal if it happens rarely, but if it happens regularly it could be a sign of back problems, especially if it hurts.\n... | null |
bvig0h | why can my laptop pick up my wifi very well, but my phone, on the same desk, hardly connect at all? | [
{
"answer": "I would only assume better hardware in the laptop given its increased form factor.\n\nSame reason you won't get a core i9 and 32gb ram in a smartphone.\n\nEdit - forgot to add phones are more power conscious so reduce performance of areas to prolong life.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answ... | null |
1xatm8 | why lack of genuine industrialization in Argentina? | [
{
"answer": "This is a very good question, but it is challenging (perhaps impossible) to answer. Before delving into a response, I would like to point out some pragmatic challenges that make answering it especially difficult. First, historians and economists have been debating your question for almost a centu... | null |
25w87m | What was the significance, politically, of Israel instigating the '67 War with a preemptive strike on Egypt? | [
{
"answer": "I'd love to answer, but I want to make sure I know what you're asking for before I get into it. Are you referring to the significance in terms of how other nations perceived it, how it affected Israel's relations with other nations, or how it was perceived in Israel? Or is it some combination of th... | null |
agakop | Why do we need bigger 'colliders' to smash particles together harder? | [
{
"answer": " > why can't they be accelerated faster around a smaller ring?\n\nWe are technologically limited. The faster the beam particles are moving, the stronger bending magnets are needed to curve the beam at a given radius. This is what limits ion beams, the strength of the magnets. For electron beams, t... | null |
3tb3yr | what policies and systems are (or aren't) in place to help veterans? who is responsible for the aid and implementation? why do so many vets seem to end up homeless or worse? how can people help them? | [
{
"answer": "We have programs and tools in place to help veterans. The GI Bill pays for school, there are housing vouchers, and many companies are actively seeking to hire veterans. Reducing veteran homelessness and unemployment is something that requires a little (not even much) effort on the part of the veter... | null |
zzwin | - how does my body know how to do things that i can't control? | [
{
"answer": "There is a part of the brain dedicated to \"automated\" functions of your body. Like a separate computer processor, it keeps track of things like the heart beating, intestines constricting to digest and move food, etc. Some things you can control to a certain extent; controlling your breathing ca... | null |
35uoc5 | in what order should you brush, floss and mouth wash? | [
{
"answer": "Just doing them in any order is better than not at all, but according to my dentist:\n\nFloss\n\nBrush (spit, don't rinse)\n\nSkip mouthwash, especially if it has alcohol. Use it in the middle of the day to \"freshen up\" in need be.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "[According to th... | null |
qd2dt | Can anybody help me identify a type of helmet? | [
{
"answer": "_URL_1_\n\nIt does indeed look a bit like a Morion, albeit a stylized one. It also looks a bit like the top of a [pikeman's helmet](_URL_0_), which were common for footsoldiers.\n\nI think there is an early modern warfare tag somewhere in here, but I do not believe you can link these to a specific ... | null |
23l5do | When did women begin painting their nails? | [
{
"answer": "If you're interested in nail *polish*, you're on the right track with the automotive paint thing. Clear nail polish was invented in the 20s, and colored nail polish developed in 1930. From [\"COSMETICS AND SKIN CARE PRODUCTS : A Historical Perspective\"](_URL_0_):\n\n > Nail enamel or polish is use... | null |
his8s | Thermodynamics, adiabatic expansion. (Joule-Thomson effect) | [
{
"answer": "In an expansion such as you described, it is indeed adiabatic as Q=0 (no heat flow).\nAlso as you described, the change in internal energy would be zero because the gas is expanding against a vacuum and if ideal by definition requires no work to accomplish.\n\nThink of it this way, the gas is not e... | null |
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