id stringlengths 5 6 | input stringlengths 3 301 | output list | meta null |
|---|---|---|---|
3e8nnt | Music Historians, how did the standard drum kit originate and what were previous incarnations of it? | [
{
"answer": "The modern drum kit began to emerge with early jazz and syncopated marching band music. Originally it was actually just a hodge-podge collection of various instruments. You'd probably find the evolution of the kit very interesting. Some of the instruments evolved into newer versions of themselves (... | null |
30x7s0 | is it possible to amputate your own leg/arm and use that as food? | [
{
"answer": "Vsauce explained this quite well in one of his videos, I'm on mobile so sorry for no source. But basically you shouldn't eat yourself.\n\nEdit: link: _URL_0_",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "There is at least one good written story about this. Also the movie about the self amputatio... | null |
5yr3pb | ! how can a country go bankrupt.? | [
{
"answer": "In most cases, it *can't* in quite the same way that a person or corporation does. A person can be made bankrupt and then whatever they own is taken and sold off to pay off the debts, and this is enforced by the country they live in. But there's no power to force a country itself into bankruptcy. R... | null |
m1u5r | What is the border between a program with an Artificial Intelligence, and one without? | [
{
"answer": "All sorts of things are considered to be 'artificial intelligence'. The most obvious example is AI for non-human players in computer games, but there is a whole field of Computer Science called Artificial Intelligence, which is related to things like [machine learning](_URL_1_), creating systems th... | null |
kka7s | Have any scientists here experienced "the decline effect" in their experiments? What do you theorize is going on? | [
{
"answer": "I've seen this many times. Most of it (in my experience) is regression to the mean, and part of it is just psychology. I know that the articles say nobody knows if it's regression or not, but I think it is. The way science is done is prone to this kind of effect; let me explain.\n\nWhen you start s... | null |
f4nj7y | what is the difference between a "good" and a "bad" bottle of wine? | [
{
"answer": "Honestly, whether or not you like it. There are a lot of complex factors that can go into it, like specific techniques for making the wine, other ingredients, what kind of grapes were used, where the grapes are from, etc. while all of that does have an impact on the taste of the wine, what makes an... | null |
2wrygw | why do companies such as nintendo region lock certain products? what exactly is region locking? | [
{
"answer": "Based on the Wikipedia article, it seems that region locking is when you make a product that's only usable using products available in a certain part of the world. For video games, this would mean that a game is only playable if the console (Wii, XBox, Playstation, etc.) is from the same region. ... | null |
bb1469 | How do astronomers calculate the orbits of planets? | [
{
"answer": "If you're asking how to describe the orbits, there are a couple ways.\n\nThe more generalized method is to write differential equations that describe all of the forces in the system given the current state, which can then be used to simulate the system numerically from the current state onwards. Th... | null |
3h657q | how my cpap senses my breathing in and out. | [
{
"answer": "A diaphragm (fabric that is suspended along an opening or a valve) will either be pushed or pulled based on the air flowing through it due to negative pressure. These diaphragms can be wired along a calibrated sensor that measures your breath. A reference voltage is applied along the circuit, and... | null |
bqtsqw | I saw on a horrible history channel that the Aztecs use chocolate as money. Wouldn't all the chocolate melt during the summer, thus crashing their economy? | [
{
"answer": "Aztec economy was much more complicated than just cocoa beans (chocolate) as currency. They also used cotton sheets and copper axes, and a lot of bartering. Here is a good thread on Aztec economy featuring answers by /u/DownvotingCorvo and /u/400-Rabbits\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_1_)",
"provenance": n... | null |
6kzbe1 | can you guys help me understand this paragraph | [
{
"answer": "It's saying that the tourism sector is responding to climate change by trying to reduce their impact on the climate, and by trying to adapt to a changing climate. One way to reduce the impact is to promote more slow travelling, which is staying in one place for a while and enjoying it rather than t... | null |
36v1sl | if my pc freezes why are my sound keeps playing? | [
{
"answer": "because sound data is still stored in the sound card buffer. The sound card runs seperately from the CPU so it will keep going over the same data over and over and over since it is not being updated by the CPU.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
... | null |
261ysa | Is there any possibility now or in the future that some form of solid light could exist? | [
{
"answer": "There has been some theoretical work done on suggesting of combining light particles together to form this kind of stuff. I believe recently, within the last year or so, they've started to make actual progress on getting light particles to interact and form a kind of \"molecule\" of light. I put th... | null |
s3oxz | Is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle connected to determinism? | [
{
"answer": "Quantum mechanics says that the results of experiments are subject to strict random distributions, and this prediction has been rigorously tested (and debated). It is thus both deterministic and nondeterministic, in a sense.\n\nIt is deterministic in that the prediction for two identical experiment... | null |
10pw78 | Are there any former SS members who worked at concentration camps that are still alive? | [
{
"answer": "Here's a list of the most wanted nazi war criminals according to the Simon Wiesenthal Center:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nSome of them are SS. Looking through their pages I can't see any that were in camps apart from Alois Brunner who is probably dead. He'd be 100 years old now.",
"provenance": null
},
{... | null |
3o3e3f | Is the Voyager probe orbiting the Galactic center? Is it orbiting anything? | [
{
"answer": "Although it's an unsupported claim, I'd say that Voyager is more attracted to the sun or even Proxima Centauri(our closest star) than it is to the center of the Galaxy. Considering the distance to and the mass of the black hole at \nthe center, you get a gravitational force of about 5.886e-12 Newto... | null |
t037d | How would you fix something like the Guatemala sinkhole? | [
{
"answer": "I was mostly convinced that was photoshopped, then googled it. Blimey. From the article I read on it: \n\nTypically, officials fill in sinkholes with large rocks and other debris. But the 2010 Guatemala sinkhole \"is so huge that it's going to take a lot of fill material to fill it,\" Currens said.... | null |
y4do5 | Are all the Pharaohs' tombs accounted for? | [
{
"answer": "Without checking, no, they have not all been found yet. Egyptology has very much moved on as a field, and has shifted towards settlement archaeology away from royal tombs and palaces in a very real way, and there are many Egyptologists who claim they would rather find a workers' cemetery than a roy... | null |
b6tot2 | why are humans so drawn to the water? (srivers, seas, ocean,...) | [
{
"answer": "I don't think its so much the view that attracts people as it is the activities available there. Fishing, boating, jet skiing, sunbathing, parasailing, seafood, swimming, the wildlife, the list goes on and on. \n\nThe change of scenery is nice every once in a while. If you live in a big city with t... | null |
hs9ii | Increasing mass of black holes and problem with relativity. | [
{
"answer": " > (because of relativism)\n\nRelativism says that Hitler wasn't a bad dude because all morals are relative. *Relativity* says that nothing travels faster than the speed of light.\n\nIf you're standing on the Earth's surface, and I ask you to tell from its gravitational field whether its mass is ev... | null |
3sdh8e | how hard is it to survive on minimum wage? | [
{
"answer": "Depending on where you are, it can be practically impossible. \n\nI'm in WI, where the minimum wage was set in 2009 at $7.25 an hour and hasn't changed since.\n\nAssuming you worked a 40 hour week, this would net you about $1000 a month after taxes.\n\nFor comparison as to what that will get you he... | null |
7gsnwe | Is the universe the same age everywhere? | [
{
"answer": "Essentially no. The pace of time depends on the gravitational potential. In the Earths core time runs a bit slower: _URL_0_\nThe effect would be largest for neutron stars. For black holes \"age of the universe\" does not really apply inside the event horizon.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"... | null |
235e4w | what defines a song's genre? | [
{
"answer": "Instrumentation used, beats per minute, type of singing, key,...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Genres are a way to categorize music based on similar traits and attributes. Their definitions are defined by musicians, consumers, critics, and scholars as a whole. There is no objecti... | null |
4kjd0x | what causes your vision to become gradually worse? are video games and/or continual staring at phones a factor in today's society? | [
{
"answer": "I read somewhere that there was a study done in Japan that the more time school children spend away from sunlight the worse their vision is. I have had terrible eyes since I was a child, it started about the time that I started reading books a lot and staying inside. Since I heard of that study I h... | null |
1lgr3j | how can photon travel at light speed with so less/negligible energy. | [
{
"answer": "Photons have literally 0 mass, as all massless particles they travel at light speed. No particle with mass can travel at light speed, no particle without mass can travel at any speed but light speed. The energy of a photon is irrelevant to it's speed, there is no mass to be moved.",
"provenance... | null |
308fqj | Could an astronaut go back to earth without spacecraft ? | [
{
"answer": "From space to Earth in a straight drop: probably yes. The edge of space is [arbitrarily defined as 100 km](_URL_0_) and there has been a dive [from 41 km](_URL_1_), so that seems feasible.\n\nFrom orbit: no. Things in orbit are going sideways very fast and when they come back to Earth they get ve... | null |
fhs3je | Graduate students and history professors, can you explain the common requirement to learn another language for grad school admissions? | [
{
"answer": "History programs at the grad level do, in the US at least, usually require at least one non-English language and there is usually the expectation that you will acquire another language during your time as a PhD candidate. The reason for this is that there is very little history where the primary so... | null |
4dcgd6 | how many of martin Luther's 95 theses were nitpicks? | [
{
"answer": "Could you be a little more specific as to what you mean by \"nitpick\"? I assume you mean \"criticism that, while valid, wouldn't require Luther to leave the Church\"?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "None of them / all of them. You are asking for a subjective answer.\n\nLuther's t... | null |
acxzk2 | why is john lennon's death generally referred to as an "assassination" and not just a murder? | [
{
"answer": "Assassination is the killing of a prominent person, either for political or religious reasons or for payment.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "I think it has to do with the nature of the killing.\n\nLennon was murdered, and so was JFK, and so was Trotsky...but so were thousands of p... | null |
20rjxj | How do random mutations result in naturally selected evolutionary traits across an entire species? | [
{
"answer": "It's a statistical thing. You're right, some organisms with beneficial mutations end up dying anyway because they got really unlucky. But on average they tend to be slightly more successful and pass on the mutation more often than not, and over very long spans of time, it becomes widespread in the ... | null |
29ln3y | how do texting apps generate a phone number that hasn't already been claimed? | [
{
"answer": "It doesn't exactly work like, phone companies arn't the only ones who can control phone numbers. Apps can use online services such as [Twilio](_URL_0_) that allow their systems to get phone assign phone numbers and access SMS. By chain the company who makes the SMS app is paying a service like Tw... | null |
16swpz | At the end of battles did medieval era knights kill the opposing sides archers ? | [
{
"answer": "So, I found an unsourced bit of wikipedia after some discussion with another person trying to answer your question. It states that summary execution was standard practice for prisoners of war. \n _URL_0_ \n\n\n > The bowman etymology is unlikely, since no evidence exists of French forces (o... | null |
3cajlp | why does drinking water on an empty stomach hurt? | [
{
"answer": "I drink warm water do you drink it cold? I won't pretend I know what I'm talking about but my mentor told me it's easier on your stomach to drink room temp.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "1639065",
"title": "Competi... | null |
ew4p7w | In WW1 why didn’t the English sail behind the front and land men to charge the Germans from the other side? | [
{
"answer": "While more can be said, I've previously discussed British plans for amphibious assaults during WWI in the following threads:\n\n* [\nI was listening to the podcast on the Battle of Jutland, and \"..Land a million Russians north of Berlin, and boom..The War's over in a few weeks\" caught my ear.](_U... | null |
27cgp8 | meta: why does it seem like the same questions get asked every hour? | [
{
"answer": "Because people don't follow the rules and don't search.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's a combination of two things: not searching and there's probably an article in the news or on a popular website that brings up the question.\n\nMultiple people see the same thing that inspir... | null |
44miox | How much was the Soviet's space program influenced by Nazi/Germany scientists and technology? | [
{
"answer": "Both the US and Soviet programs were essentially based on German rocketry in their early days, very explicitly using the V-2 as the basis of their work. The American Redstone missile was just a scaled-up V-2, and the Soviet R-7 was a clustered set of V-2-like rocket engines.\n\nBoth countries of co... | null |
1daray | why and how laundry detergents are used in the drug community. | [
{
"answer": "Some small non-chain stores will buy it from you at a fraction of retail price so they can resell it. They're also easier to steal than booze or other items that are more closely watched. If you were to steal 10 of them, and sell them at 1/4 price you could use that money to purchase drugs. Similar... | null |
a58adl | how did scientists identify humanity's common ancestor? | [
{
"answer": "Imagine evolution to be like a book, something written long before the invention of printing. Like the bible. So it was copied over and over by monks, who even though they worked very thoroughly, occasionally made a mistake. Since there are so many more words than mistakes, the chance that two monk... | null |
25hbwl | are there any laws against independent space travel without government consent? | [
{
"answer": "Sorry I don't know the answer to your question but please stop calling the moon a planet. Its not a planet its a planetary satellite. Planets are things that revolve around the sun, moons are things that revolve around planets.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Lawyer here! The answe... | null |
38bzih | do websites make absolutely no money off ad block users? | [
{
"answer": "Free websites that rely on ads make no money off any users, whether or not they use ad block. Instead they make users off businesses who buy their ad spaces. These business make extra money by attracting new users/customers to their paid services/products.\n\nPeople who use ad blocks are not expose... | null |
vgjze | Can swallowing gum act like fiber? | [
{
"answer": "Not really, it won't bind water or break down enough to add bulk to you faecal matter. Fiber also has many other dietary benefits such as cholesterol regulation and nutrient absorption of which gum would obviously not help, but I'm assuming you meant mostly with respect to bowel movements.",
"p... | null |
8jmlln | is the air around me packed full of atoms, like peas in a can, or is there space between? how can i see through it? are atoms transparent? | [
{
"answer": "It's like looking through a screen door, but much, much farther apart. They aren't transparent, but when spread out, you have no issue seeing through it.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "When we say mostly empty space we mean that dense center is a baseball sitting in the center of ... | null |
49qq7g | Questions about Longstreet's plan of disengaging at Gettysburg and matching to the right. | [
{
"answer": "its hard to say exactly which ground L. is talking about. Obviously the Pipe Creek area is what Meade had in mind but that presumably would already be taken. The area around Emittsburg has some high hills, you can see them from route 15; they must be some sort of extension of the Cactoctin Mountai... | null |
4nthjg | why does weather move from west to east, but wind can be blowing from any direction? | [
{
"answer": "Winds also flow differently between pressure systems. \n\nLow pressure system, wind tends to flow counter-clockwise\n\nHigh pressure system, wind tends to flow clockwise",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Weather doesn't have to move west to east. Look at the Hurricanes! They move ... | null |
d53zhy | how does the electric company categorize my usage? | [
{
"answer": "They use something called Power Signature Analysis. Basically, you have to imagine your homes power usage as a graph. When you turn something on, there will be a small increase in the graph, and decrease when it's turned off. Certain devices create patterns in usage. This data includes both voltage... | null |
24qm2u | Why didn't artillery in WW1 render trench warfare useless? | [
{
"answer": "There are two main reasons that I can think of as to why artillery didn't render trench warfare useless. \n\nEarly in the war an issue that the British in particular faced was the reliability of shell fuses. Leading up to an assault like the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, artillery was easil... | null |
1h0xnk | how can you measure the speed of light if nothing goes faster than its speed? | [
{
"answer": "Speed = Distance / Time\n\nYou don't need a on object with a similar or greater velocity to compare it to. \n\nNow here's a fun way you can confirm it at home:\n\nRemove the rotating plate from your microwave, and place an upturned plate over the rotor in the middle. Butter about 4 slices of bread ... | null |
3v8u54 | What is "real politik" and how was it applied in Europe? | [
{
"answer": "This is a very broad question and so I'll do my best to supply you with a general definition and then a specific example. You might get an answer closer to what you're looking for by narrowing down the question on time period and geography.\n\nRealpolitik is at its heart the setting aside of \"ideo... | null |
1p4kw2 | Why were poor whites in the Southern States usually pro-slavery, when in all likelihood, it made their lives more difficult? | [
{
"answer": "Think of the antebellum South as a hierarchy, with the planter elite at the top, and the black slave at the very bottom. Directly above the slaves were the poorest white people. Regardless of how they fit into the rest of white society, they still exerted power over the lowest group in the pyramid.... | null |
1lchfc | what determines if you are burning fat, muscles or calories? | [
{
"answer": "a calorie is a measure of energy. the food you eat provides a certain amount of energy, measured in calories. your body uses a certain amount of energy (calories) every day just to support regular functions. at the end of the day, any unused energy gets stored in your body as fat. when you work out... | null |
4swooy | Why would water push larger and heavier rocks/boulders farther up shore than smaller and lighter rocks? | [
{
"answer": "If I'm reading the info you provided right, you might be looking at this backwards.\n\nYou say the mouth of this river is established in a layer of glacial sediments. Now, there are a lot of different kinds of glacial seds, but one of the most important ones is Till. \n\nTill is interesting in that... | null |
d8kigz | Why Descendants of those who survived the plague in europe are immune to HIV? | [
{
"answer": "Here's a nice little [article](_URL_0_) that summarizes it and also cites the two studies done on the subject. \n\nTL;DR: Protection from HIV is transfered through mutation in gene for CCR5 receptor which is necessary for HIV uptake into cells. Studies suggest epidemic in the past has selected for ... | null |
426386 | Are there any recordings of Hitler where he's *not* screaming and yelling? | [
{
"answer": "Hitler was amazingly guarded about his public image, and because of this, there is very little out there in terms of candid recordings. The one extant recording we have was made June 4, 1942, during a visit to Finland. Ostensibly, he was there to greet Mannerheim, the Finnish supreme commander, for... | null |
2hwkdf | If in-breeding produces weak/deficient/deformed offspring, why doesn't asexual reproduction do the same? | [
{
"answer": "In breeding results in homozygosity (the same allele in both positions). This means that conditions which are autosomal recessive are brought to the fore where before there was enough genetic diversity for this not to happen. \n\nAsexual reproduction is just cloning - there's no genetic crossover -... | null |
2vhig6 | what is a computer script? | [
{
"answer": "One way of categorizing programming languages is according to whether they are interpreted or compiled. In an interpreted language, a program is simply a plain-text file containing the commands that you want to run. This file is called a *script*. You feed this file to a program called an *interp... | null |
flhogm | how do 'dry' wines taste dry when they're a liquid? | [
{
"answer": "Dry is simply the opposite of sweet. Dry wine means it has a low sugar content. They tend to be quite sharp, the same way lemon juice is, and I suppose that could taste \"dry\".",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "\"Dry\" is just the wine lingo word for \"not sweet.\" Sugar tends to m... | null |
1huxi9 | why singapore is doing better (economically) than its neighboring countries | [
{
"answer": "It is a former British trading port which achieved independence but retained its importance as a trading hub.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Initially, right after independence, the geographical location of Singapore as a free port was the main thing that boosted its economy. As t... | null |
1pt6qp | how are weather percentages determined? | [
{
"answer": "Its a combination of likelihood and area of prediction (and they use things like Hygrometers to measure Humidity).\n\nIf they predict 60% chance of rain, but over 100% of the area they show, then it is a 60% chance. Conversely, if they predict 100% chance of rain, but in scattered showers over only... | null |
bx1c7g | Is it accurate to say that in wwII Mexico was approached by the nazis to attack the US but instead joined the fight in opposition. | [
{
"answer": "Are you sure you are thinking about World War II? Most of this sounds like it is a description of World War I and the Zimmerman Telegram. Give a look at [this older thread](_URL_1_) or [this one](_URL_0_), or [this one](_URL_2_). (Although to be sure, Mexico never joined in for either side there)",... | null |
24glzo | what are "zoning laws" and "neighbourhood commities". they're either a tiny thing or not a thing at all in the uk | [
{
"answer": "Zoning laws designate what type of structure and/or business can be located in a certain area. For instance, a city may not want a car repair shop plopped right down in the middle of a neighborhood.\n\nIf by *neighborhood communities* you mean Home Owner Associations, these are collective organizat... | null |
3p0fzp | What causes the aftertaste one gets when administered certain anesthetics and illicit IV drugs? | [
{
"answer": "This happens frequently with IV medications. It seems to be especially common with prefilled saline syringes. \n\nThe mechanism is that when certain volatile compounds enter a vein and get circulated, within a few seconds they pass through the lungs. The compounds evaporate into the lung airspace a... | null |
1jorh5 | lbw in cricket | [
{
"answer": "Leg Before Wicket: it's the simplest way for a batter to get put out in cricket. If he stands in front of the wicket and gets hit by a pitched ball that would have hit the wicket but for his body block, he's out. If you know baseball, it's like leaning into the strike zone. In baseball, such a pitc... | null |
5352eo | how can idle clicker games that offer little to no gameplay become popular? | [
{
"answer": "People like to micromanage and people like easy on-the-go games to play while they're taking breaks at work or are on the shitter.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
{
"wikipedia_id": "43080234",
"title": "Incremental game",
"sect... | null |
68077h | Why did the Harlem Globetrotters never join the NBA? | [
{
"answer": "You honestly might have better luck asking in /r/NBA",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "1927-1950 the globetrotters did play real competitive basketball and were one of the best teams in the world. However, they were based out of Chicago and only used the Harlem moniker to reference ... | null |
2k32an | Why were women considered bad luck to be on a ship? When and how did the superstition start? | [
{
"answer": "It's been years since I've actively studied anything related to the Age of Sail but once a fangirl, always a fangirl, I suppose. So, to answer your question, women were considered bad luck on ships because they were believed to be too physically inferior to be of any use in actually sailing the ves... | null |
wgith | Why are some people able to bend their pinky finger without moving the rest of their fingers, while other people cannot? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not sure but sitting here bending my pinkie reminded me of the time some redditor had me trying to taste the salt at work",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It has to do with the innervation and muscles that extend and flex your fingers. Your pinky and ring finger share common ten... | null |
1pjp8z | In the Middle Ages, how common was literacy in one's own language as opposed to literacy in Latin or Greek? | [
{
"answer": "Vernacular literacy in 13th to 14th century England was on the way up, so that some estimates say that as many as half of the adult male population was literate enough to transact business in writing. This link has [more information,](_URL_0_) with interesting insights into just what we mean by \"l... | null |
20hr0n | Peerage Titles and Military Ranks | [
{
"answer": "Formally it's military rank followed by the honorific or title, for example Admiral the Viscount Nelson, Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington or Marshal of the Royal Air Force the Viscount Trenchard. Informally these may be shortened to Lord Nelson, The Duke of Wellington or Lord Trenchard respe... | null |
142kef | Would a thimbleful of a neutron star which weighs approximately 100 million tons on earth, remain the size of a thimble if it were removed from its neutron star? | [
{
"answer": "The star's gravity is the reason that we conclude it has such high density. It is unknown if a smaller amount of this dense neutron material would be stable in that form, as a neutron star is only about 10 km in diameter, and it's obviously stable.\n\nSome theories hold that this amount of neutron... | null |
1pnc0d | the reddit policy against self promotion | [
{
"answer": "Reddit has very few hard rules (i.e. rules which may cause your account to be shadow-banned if broken), however there are a number of soft rules (primarily outlined on the [reddiquette](_URL_0_) page) that guide 'proper' behavior on the site.\n\nIn terms of hard rules, the only one which is relevan... | null |
6pnjxi | Looking for resources on Mesopotamia during the Early Dynastic period | [
{
"answer": "I recommend beginning with Harriet Crawford's *Sumer and the Sumerians* and Postgate's *Early Mesopotamia: Society and Economy at the Dawn of History*. Susan Pollock's *Ancient Mesopotamia* is excellent but very dry, as is Crawford's edited volume *The Sumerian World*.\n\nI also highly recommend *A... | null |
34kske | I'm an able bodied man from East Germany during the cold war, if I really wanted to, how hard would it be for me to get to west Germany and how likely would I be to succeed? | [
{
"answer": "Acording to [this table](_URL_0_) your chances of succes would have been like 20-25%. The 2nd collumn is all succesful attempts of that year and the 5th collum are all unsuccesful attempts. How hard it would have been is dependent on a lot of factors, it could be easy for instance: you are allowed ... | null |
3vq5dl | Why did Ashkenazi Jews who lived outside of German-speaking areas speak Yiddish? | [
{
"answer": "Short answer:\n\nBecause they lived in Yiddish-speaking areas, doh. \n\n\nLong answer: \n\nThe Yiddish language is indeed related to some German dialects currently spoken in what used to be Roman Germany but doesn't share the innovations that appeared in German after the 15th century. What might be... | null |
28yjek | can blind people even understand the concept of color? | [
{
"answer": "Check out Tommy Edison on youtube. He's a blind comedian, and he's got a whole series of videos on being blind...and he's hilarious. One specifically where he's trying to guess the color of a Magic Marker by smelling them...",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"provenance": [
... | null |
33cyz0 | Why are male ligers "sterile", but not the females? | [
{
"answer": "This is called \"Haldane's rule\": if there is sterility in a hybrid population, it is more likely that the heterogametic sex (that is, the one carrying XY) will be the sterile one. In mammals, the male is XY, while in birds, it's the female that's XY (called ZW, but that's just terminology), and ... | null |
5nbd6g | why is taking an aspirin before the surgery harmful? | [
{
"answer": "It prevents your blood from clotting properly! Hence, if you want to walk out of the surgery without blood gushing from your wounds you shouldn't take an aspirin right before it :)\n\nEDIT: words",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Because aspirin is the only NSAID with blood thinning ... | null |
1fue3b | Does exercise burn more calories at different parts of the day? What time of day is the body most efficient at fat burning? | [
{
"answer": "You'll burn more fat at times when less carbohydrates are available for energy, it's that simple, and the first article says exactly that. Second article is not about cardio, it's about resistance training, so I don't know why you are trying to apply its facts to cardio.",
"provenance": null
... | null |
6j1smj | How was the Electoral College in the US related to slavery? | [
{
"answer": "- The voting population of slave states was small compared to it's total population, free and slave.\n- Due to the 3/5 compromise slaves counted for the purposes of apportionment.\n- Congressional representation determines the number of electoral votes a state has.\n- The North had a larger populat... | null |
58j9ts | what exactly makes ramen noodles so unhealthy, and if you eat ramen often, will you have a shorter life expectancy? | [
{
"answer": "Ramen in and of itself is just noodles in soup. But instant Ramen, the kind you buy in a store, has a lot of salt. Too much salt is bad for you.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "It's not that it's bad for you, it's that it's not \"good enough for you to live on\". Noodles are to sta... | null |
2a1c1w | Are the planets really in a ring around the sun? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, the planets orbit the Sun on the same plane, more or less. \n\nThis question has been answered before. Be sure to check out the [FAQ's](_URL_0_) next time. Quoting my answer from the FAQ's on this subject:\n\n > The reason is the physical principle known as conservation of angular momentum.\n... | null |
95241n | During WWII were elderly or vulnerable adults evacuated out of London in the Blitz? | [
{
"answer": "Evacuees were mostly children, either unaccompanied or with their mothers, but others were also included in the government scheme including \"homeless persons, expectant mothers, children in nurseries, camps and hostels, invalids, old people, the crippled, and the blind\" (Richard M. Titmuss, *Prob... | null |
3uphh2 | why is the media so selective about the things they report? | [
{
"answer": "They have to be.\n\nThey only have so many reporters, so many photographers, so many pages or minutes of airtime... They can't report on everything.\n\nAs a result, they must pick & choose.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "1. Firstly most news sources' main source of revenue is f... | null |
a042fu | How did the Fleur de Lis and the color blue become integral to the symbology of Royal France? | [
{
"answer": "Fleur-de-lis was at first a religious symbol. It is believed that the flower of lily was used to baptize King Clovis I. It is likely that the kings of France therefore kept this flower to commemorate their ancestor's (all kings of France were his descendants) conversion to Christianity. During the ... | null |
5057wz | why is ac better than dc ? | [
{
"answer": "Well, it depends on the application. For some things AC is better, for some DC is better.\n\nThe main advantage of AC is the ability to move it over large distances, which means you don't have to live within a mile of a power plant to have electricity in your house.",
"provenance": null
},
... | null |
1vms04 | Where cannon balls explosive as seen in movies or where they just balls of metal? | [
{
"answer": "The other post is wrong, as far as I understand - the word cannonball refers to things that weren't rockets, grapeshot, or exotics like carcasses. However, there are 'shot' cannonballs and 'shell' cannonballs. The Huolongjing, a famous 14th century Chinese treatise, references both, specifically ta... | null |
3sssxi | how come light doesn't go through objects like walls of their atoms are made of mostly empty space as proved by the gold foil experiment? | [
{
"answer": "I would think it has to do with the photons being blocked by the cloud of electrons surrounding the atom, so even though by volume it is mostly space, it's more like an opaque hollow sphere. ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The difference is that the gold foil experiment fired *alp... | null |
20cvo8 | Why do males have two testicals as opposed to one? | [
{
"answer": "Bilateral symmetry. Humans, at least, begin life as female in the womb. After a certain point of development, If you are meant to be male, you differentiate into a male. Labia fuse to form the scrotum, ovaries differentiate into testes, and the clitoris becomes a penis.",
"provenance": null
}... | null |
4llejw | Why are we able to feel any part of our body when we think about that certain part? | [
{
"answer": "Well technically your brain ignores certain feelings until they surpass a signal threshold and or you stop blocking the signals. Imagine you live near a busy street. After a while of constant noise you will begin to block it out until you think about it, then it's obvious. So the brain is constantl... | null |
50hzlv | what is data mining? | [
{
"answer": "Gold mining is digging though rock and dirt looking for clumps of gold that is worth anything. Data mining is digging though tons of random looking data looking for the pieces of information that is worth anything.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Suppose that every school day your ... | null |
3g515p | Why did American revolutionaries keep place names like "New England" and "New London" after the expulsion of the British? | [
{
"answer": "I'm not sure if anyone has examined this subject in a conclusive or comprehensive way, but the few examples of names either changing or staying the same during and after the Revolution tend to depend on local politics more than a centrally-planned national campaign to change names. Most of my examp... | null |
2v904m | why can't spacex let the used rockets land in the ocean, then retrieve them rather than trying to land on a barge? | [
{
"answer": "Cleaning the salt and other ocean contaminants off of the rockets is expensive.\n\nWhat you propose is what the [Space Shuttle rockets did](_URL_0_). While a reliable system at the time, the same benefits could be achieved for less cost by landing the rockets on a barge or other area such that the ... | null |
zw8mj | why can places like newegg ship ups for free when it costs regular people so much money? | [
{
"answer": "Volume.\n\nCarriers like UPS commonly offer discounted rates to companies that do a lot of business with them. It's not hard to see why; a company that does a *lot* of shipping can choose among several worldwide shipping companies, and not getting that business means losing a lot of revenue. So car... | null |
84n0oz | what would be the environmental issues with sinking large quantities of trash into the mariana trench? | [
{
"answer": "You didn’t deal with the problem you just dumped it out of sight. It’s like sweeping dirt under the rug. Eventually you’re going to have to pull up the rug and clean that up too. So you just delayed the problem and potentially made it worse from pollutants leaking out of the garbage. ",
"proven... | null |
1rl7wk | Were the Republican forces in the Spanish Civil War thankful for the help of the International Brigades, or were they viewed as a nuisance? | [
{
"answer": "According to George Orwell in \"Homage to Catalonia\", who himself was a volunteer for the Republicans, the International Brigades were viewed quite positively by them. They would fight side by side with each other and were usually treated as equals.\n\nI would highly recommend reading it, it is p... | null |
1n17fc | Are there any millionaires alive today who's only source of wealth is inheritance from slave owners. | [
{
"answer": "You may be interested in the [Legacies of British Slavery](_URL_0_) project. When Britain emancipated its slaves, it paid compensation to the slaveowners. This project traces the families and institutions that benefited from that payout.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"pr... | null |
xvihd | Could you clone a woman by transplanting the nucleus from one of her normal cells into one of her own egg cells? | [
{
"answer": "Yes, it is definitely possible. This, in fact, is how most animal cloning is done. Except that the egg donor is usually a different animal from the nucleus donor. See [this description](_URL_0_) of the first successful cloning of a mammal.",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": null,
"... | null |
3o261t | if drunk people are unable to consent, what happens when both parties are equally drunk and have sex? | [
{
"answer": "Usually yes. However, it is possible for people to give consent beforehand. For instance, an established couple might consume drugs and then have sex while under the effects. Because they have an established relationship, and previously consented, I think it would avoid the definition of rape.",
... | null |
32wxcx | why were people like the nazi ss able to such horrible things without remorse? | [
{
"answer": "1. Some people are really fucked up\n2. They were following orders and only did it out of fear for their own lives ",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "Desperation leading to ingrained de-humanization of their enemies.\n\nPeople have, for the entirety of humanity, done things similar t... | null |
tj7ik | Can Anyone Point to a Time in History When Trickle Down Economics Worked? | [
{
"answer": "Define worked. In terms of raw economic growth? Do you consider that mitigated by other factors, and if so, by what? Are you pursuing numerical aggregate as the indicator of good function? Or a more Sen-esque approach?",
"provenance": null
},
{
"answer": "The gilded age was define by ha... | null |
5ij57u | if the energy is consumed at the time it is produced how come there is always electricity at the electrical outlets ? | [
{
"answer": "Because it is produced in anticipation of you using it. And with a million people using it at the same time, you turning on your blender is balanced out by someone else turning off their blow dryer.\n\nAlso, there is enough \"slack\" in the system that what one or two households so isn't going cha... | null |
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