question stringlengths 3 301 | answer stringlengths 9 26.1k | context list |
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how does humidifier work? | So unlike boiling water where you have to heat the water to make it vaporize, humidifiers work differently.
What happens is there is an item inside the humidifier called a wick. The wick is almost like a sponge the just soaks up water. When you turn the humidifier on it sucks in air and blows it through the wick. Sma... | [
"A humidifier is a device, primarily an electrical appliance that increases humidity (moisture) in a single room or an entire building. In the home, point-of-use humidifiers are commonly used to humidify a single room, while whole-house or furnace humidifiers, which connect to a home's HVAC system, provide humidity... |
Why is it, whenever I look at snow for a lengthy period of time, my vision turns red? | what you're seeing is probably an [adaptation aftereffect] (_URL_0_) to bluish sky light reflected by all the white reflecting surfaces that are covering everything (the snow). over time, the retina (and the brain) acts to normalize stimulus distributions, so that if some stimulus is regularly over-represented it is re... | [
"Scheerer's phenomenon can be distinguished from visual snow because it appears only when looking into bright light, whereas visual snow is constantly present in all light conditions including the dark.\n",
"Although ice by itself is clear, snow usually appears white in color due to diffuse reflection of the whol... |
How much radiation do I get by opening the microwave door before it has finished? | It's hard to tell- Must likely the Magnetron will cut off quickly as you open the door.
But you certainly don't get any radiation of the kind people usually think about when referring to radiation. I.e. there is a huge difference between microwaves and the radiation, such as gamma rays, which is associated with nuclear... | [
"The first is that the device immediately ceases production of the microwave radiation when the door is opened, which checks that the safety interlock systems are functional; and the second is that any leakage when operating is less than 5 mWcm which indicates that the door and casing are not distorted and any seal... |
Are Palestinians to a significant extent Arabized Jews? | Apologies, but we have had to remove your submission. We ask that questions in this subreddit be limited to those asking about history, or for historical answers. This is not a judgement of your question, but to receive the answer you are looking for, it would be better suited to /r/AskScience.
If you are interested i... | [
"Israeli Arabs constitute roughly 20% of the population in Israel. Many Israeli-Arab groups claim continued institutional and social discrimination against them in Israel. Because they are not Jews and many identify ethnically with Palestinians their identity often clashes with their citizenship in the Jewish state... |
If instantaneous communication was possible between a person on Earth and a person accelerating near the speed of light in outer space (supposing this, too, was possible), what would the conversation look like since "time" is going much faster for the Earthbound person than it is for the traveler? | This question is invalid as stated - the moment you "pretend" instantaneous communication is possible, you throw relativity out the window, and thus can;t say anything about how perception of time differs between the two reference frames.
You cant have your cake and eat it too - the same theory that tells us how to re... | [
"BULLET::::- Point-to-point teleportation at the speed of light is possible with transfer booths (on Earth) and stepping disks (on the Puppeteer homeworld); on Earth, people's sense of place and global position has been lost due to instantaneous travel; cities and cultures have blended together.\n",
"BULLET::::- ... |
What common historical misconception do you find most irritating? | One of my biggest peeves, which will set me spinning off in a rage even at its mention, is the anti-Stratfordian conspiracy theory. This so-called "theory" is that Shakespeare either didn't exist, or was merely a front for some other "real" author.
This load of tripe was conceived in the 19th century by a bunch of cla... | [
"The history of misinformation, along with that of disinformation and propaganda, is tied up with the history of mass communication itself. Early examples cited in a 2017 article by Robert Darnton are the insults and smears spread among political rivals in Imperial and Renaissance Italy in the form of \"pasquinades... |
Why do humans react the way they to music/beats? And why don't other mammals react the same way? | Parrots dance! Just type "parrot dancing" in youtube and you will have a treasure trove of delightful dancing birds :)
My favorite:
_URL_0_ | [
"Listening to music and general audio is commonly not a task directed activity. People enjoy music for various poorly understood reasons, which are commonly referred to the emotional effect of music due to creation of expectations and their realization or violation. Animals attend to signs of danger in sounds, whic... |
Can you recommend me a couple of books on the history of the Holy Roman Empire, Reformation and the Thirty years war? | On the Reformation: Diarmaid MacCulloch, 'Reformation: Europe's house divided, 1490-1700', London 2004.
EDIT: This is an excellent read, very informative and entertaining
On the Thirty years war (and naturally with some information on the HRE): R.G. Asch, 'The thirty years war: The Holy Roman Empire and Europe, 1618-... | [
"BULLET::::- Philip Schaff. «History of the Christian Church» / Volume VIII / HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 1517 – 1648./ THIRD BOOK. THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND, OR THE CALVINISTIC MOVEMENT. / CHAPTER XV. THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. / § 122. Against the Worship of Relics. 1543.\n",
"\"Book I: The Holy Rom... |
Why is 0-14 used for the pH scale? What are the highest and lowest pH substances both in existence and theoretically possible? | The pH scale is related to the molar concentration of hydrogen ions. Normal water has a H+ concentration = 10\^-7, therefor the pH is 7. Technically, pH is the -log10 \[ hydrogen ion activity\]. The scale goes beyond 0 - 14, but only uncommon substances are outside this range. Battery acid is pH = 0, meaning the H+ ac... | [
"The pH scale is logarithmic and approximates the negative of the base 10 logarithm of the molar concentration (measured in units of moles per liter) of hydrogen ions in a solution. More precisely it is the negative of the base 10 logarithm of the activity of the hydrogen ion. At 25 °C, solutions with a pH less tha... |
This morning as I stirred my coffee it happened to be on a kitchen scale. I noticed that the weight of the spoon registered on the scale, even when I was holding it. Why? | The coffee provides a buoyant force to the spoon, pushing it up, making it lighter in your hand. The counter to this force is added weight on the scale. | [
"From 1743, the Celsius scale is based on 0 °C for the freezing point of water and 100 °C for the boiling point of water at 1 atm pressure. Prior to 1743, the scale was also based on the boiling and melting points of water, but the values were reversed (i.e. the boiling point was at 0 degrees and the melting point ... |
How do donated organs remain viable without blood flow? | Organs can usually last a few hours at very low temperatures (but not freezing). This is normally sufficient to get from the donor to the recipient.
Same goes with the heart muscle during a myocardium infarction. Serious damage to the heart muscle doesn't happen immediately but is progressive the longer the affected a... | [
"In living donors, the donor remains alive and donates a renewable tissue, cell, or fluid (e.g., blood, skin), or donates an organ or part of an organ in which the remaining organ can regenerate or take on the workload of the rest of the organ (primarily single kidney donation, partial donation of liver, lung lobe,... |
Why are all the planets on the ecliptic plane? Why are there other celestial objects orbiting the sun that are not on the ecliptic plane? | [This is a very frequently asked question](_URL_0_). | [
"Most large objects in orbit around the Sun lie near the plane of Earth's orbit, known as the ecliptic. The planets are very close to the ecliptic, whereas comets and Kuiper belt objects are frequently at significantly greater angles to it. All the planets, and most other objects, orbit the Sun in the same directio... |
despite intense competition and very small profit margins in the mobile phone market, how do companies like xiaomi manage to provide significantly better hardware specs than relatively larger & older companies like samsung and sony? | A few reasons.
Xiaomi's business model is like that of Kuerig, or Xerox, or HP printers. They will practically *give* you the device, because that is not the actual product. What they sell is software, the device is just a means of getting it to you.Printers are cheap, but you have to keep buying toner. Kuerig ma... | [
"Several sources, including \"The Economist\", have identified Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft as the four platform cloud companies which will be the key competitors in the post-PC era of mobile computing. Tech companies with a heavy dependency on PC sales such as Hewlett-Packard and Dell have seen decreased pr... |
How did anti-miscegenation laws in the USA deal with mixed-race couples where neither partner was white? | The usual disclaimer is along these lines: These listings just indicate previous articles that may be applicable. This is not to discourage new questions.
A search for
> jim crow asian
(merely as likely terms to have been in an article) includes a reply, [When interracial marriages were illegal in some states in ... | [
"Anti-miscegenation laws or miscegenation laws enforced racial segregation through marriage and intimate relationships by criminalizing interracial marriage. Certain communities also prohibit having sexual intercourse with a person of another race. These laws have since been changed in all U.S. states - interracial... |
why do vacuum insulated containers insulate cold beverages longer than hot beverages? | They don't. It's a difference in your perception of what constitutes "hot" and "cold", and the way thermal transfer works.
Room temperature is ~70F; a hot beverage might be ~170F. A 100F difference. A cold beverage isn't going to be any colder than ~32F, about a 40F difference.
So you need to heat your ... | [
"A vacuum flask (also known as a Dewar flask, Dewar bottle or thermos) is an insulating storage vessel that greatly lengthens the time over which its contents remain hotter or cooler than the flask's surroundings. Invented by Sir James Dewar in 1892, the vacuum flask consists of two flasks, placed one within the ot... |
What caused the guitar, an instrument not found in a typical orchestra, to become the de-facto popular music instrument? | Hi, not discouraging further contributions here, but do check out these earlier answers
* /u/hillsonghoods on the hugely entertaining [AskHistorians Podcast 067 - 20th Century Popular Music and the Rise of Guitar Groups](_URL_1_); as well as in [How did the default set of instruments for modern bands come to be 2 guit... | [
"From the late 18th century the guitar achieved considerable general popularity though, as Ruggero Chiesa stated, subsequent scholars have largely ignored its place in classical music. It was the era of guitarist-composers such as Fernando Sor, Ferdinando Carulli, Mauro Giuliani and Matteo Carcassi. In addition sev... |
Why is it that when I eat from an aluminum container with a steel fork I get a similar taste sensation as when I put a battery on my tongue? Is there a reaction going on? | Potentially yes, assuming you cook with salt. When two dissimilar metals are connected together by an electrolyte, they form a galvanic cell.
See: _URL_0_
These were the first types of batteries.
It can also lead to corrosion of metals, if they are kept in contact for too long. This is a corrosion mechanism in the... | [
"Neurotoxic behavior of aluminum is known to occur upon entry into the circulatory system, where it can migrate to the brain and inhibit some of the crucial functions of the blood brain barrier (BBB). A loss of function in the BBB can produce significant damage to the neurons in the CNS, as the barrier protecting t... |
why do some antennas such as the kind for tv have such a rail-like design? | The series of parallel elements are called directors, and they, in effect, focus the signal.
A simple wire, sticking up, will have a sensitivity pattern which is circular with is centre around the wire, but this isn't much use for receiving faint signals and shutting out interfering signals. The [Yagi-Uda antenna](_U... | [
"Since directional antennas must be pointed at the transmitting antenna, this is a problem when the television stations to be received are located in different directions. In this case two or more directional rooftop antennas each pointed at a different transmitter are often mounted on the same mast and connected t... |
Are humans evolving to appear more physically attractive? | I have read that some scientists believe that beauty is an indicator of good health, and thus was probably important to mate selection, and yes, would thus consequently have lead to favoring that genetic trait.
However, you asked the question in the present tense, and the current reality is probably reversed. The bes... | [
"Physical attractiveness can have a significant effect on how people are judged in terms of employment or social opportunities, friendship, sexual behavior, and marriage. In many cases, humans attribute positive characteristics, such as intelligence and honesty, to attractive people without consciously realizing it... |
how come when i put the tip of an aux cable against my skin when its already plugged into another device, how come it appears to make a signal? | Going to take a rough while I am on the Thunder dome at work
You body will act like it is connected to the cable and because you body creates thousands of millions of small electromagnetic pulses throughout your nerves and what not, this then creates the "noise" signal
Like I said rough guess while I am pooping at wo... | [
"The device consists of a molded plastic housing that attaches to the end of an electrical conduit that carries the underground cables up the utility pole to the crossarm. Multiple bushing insulators project from the plastic body, each ending at an electrical terminal. Each overhead wire is connected to a bushing t... |
how do you have money to spend when "all your money is in stocks"? | "Heavily Invested" and "All In" are not the same thing. If Bill Gates invests 90% of his money in stocks he is still wealthier than you and I by a large margin.
Plus, stocks are pretty liquid assets. Its not hard to sell off some shares if you need some cash. | [
"When money or goods that have been kept are brought back into the economy, for example when people invest or spend money rather than save it. Or it can also be defined as the activity of investing money or selling gold, silver, etc. after a period during which investors have saved them.\n",
"Money also functions... |
Were Normans Vikings? | Most people living in Normandy were not descended from Vikings. Following Rollo's appointment as Duke there was no mass-migration of Scandinavians. It was primarily the elite that were descendants of the original Viking invaders, and they very often intermarried with French nobility to form alliances and entrench their... | [
"The Normans were descended from Vikings who had settled in Normandy, and although they had adopted the French language, their heritage and self-image were essentially Viking. In this manner, the Vikings ultimately (if indirectly) finally conquered and kept England after all. \n",
"The Normans (Norman: \"Normaund... |
how do they restore old videos to 60 fps? | I would say that either they had an original of the record in 60 FPS, which was not uploaded back then or recreated the "missing" frames by "averaging" of the frames before/after of some sort. | [
"Originally BD-ROMs stored video up to 1920×1080 pixel resolution at up to 60 (59.94) fields per second. Currently with UHD BD-ROM videos can be stored at a maximum of 3840×2160 pixel resolution at up to 60 (59.94) frames per second, progressively scanned. While most current Blu-ray players and recorders can read a... |
How far can electricity travel through our electrical grid? | For long distance transport, power is converted to a very high voltage and transported in high-diameter cables, usually Al for cost.
A very naive calculation (300kV_RMS and 750mm^2 cross-section aluminum wire @ room temperature) assuming all the power of the Hoover dam is used (that's 2080MW) says that the maximum ab... | [
"As originally built, the line was 153.4 miles long, crossing the Continental Divide at Hagerman Pass (at altitude 12,055 feet), Fremont Pass (at altitude 11,346 feet) and Argentine Pass (at altitude 13,532 feet). For many years, this was the highest electric power transmission line in the world. The three-phase li... |
if air is a better insulator than water, why do clouds trap heat? | Heat is transferred in three ways
1. Radiation - This is IR and other energy which is emitted from something warm
2. Conduction - This is energy transferred between two objects that are physically touching
3. Convection - This is the movement of energy through currents like hot air rising and cold air sinking or run... | [
"A vapor barrier on the warm side of the envelope must be combined with a venting path on the cold side of the insulation. This is because no vapor barrier is perfect, and because water may get into the structure, typically from rain. In general, the better the vapor barrier and the drier the conditions, the less v... |
how can malt-o-meal blatantly rip off every brand-name cereal while apple and samsung have been in legal issues since the beginning of time? | You can't copyright a recipe for food and usually can't patent a food product. The specific form in which a recipe is presented can be copyrighted (the words and formatting), but as long as someone changes up the words they can use the same ingredients, measurements, and steps. Similarly, you can protect branding and f... | [
"Kellogg Co. v. National Biscuit Co., 305 U.S. 111 (1938), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that the Kellogg Company was not violating any trademark or unfair competition laws when it manufactured its own Shredded Wheat breakfast cereal, which had originally been invented by the Nation... |
[Physics] Considering that the photons would never be absorbed by the 100% reflective mirror, what would happen inside? It's in the realm of a thought experiment since you'll never be able to measure the result. | I think that he is asking about the inside of a perfectly reflective box. Yes it would bounce around forever, here's why:
The photon is an electromagnetic wave in a vaccum, and is classically defined as a pair of coupled wave equations: _URL_0_.
Imagine a mirror in 1-D propagation. A perfect mirror, (100% reflection)... | [
"Mirror matter could have been diluted to unobservably low densities during the inflation epoch. Sheldon Glashow has shown that if at some high energy scale particles exist which interact strongly with both ordinary and mirror particles, radiative corrections will lead to a mixing between photons and mirror photons... |
What is the effect of strength training on lifespan? | I think you need to be more specific. Anything that uses your muscles will build strength. Push-ups, pull-ups, and standing squats, all use your own body weight to strengthen muscles. If you use these exercises as aerobic activity you will get cardio health benefits.
If you are talking about anaerobic weight lift... | [
"Traditionally, strength training (the performance of exercises with resistance or added weight) was not deemed appropriate for endurance athletes due to potential interference in the adaptive response to the endurance elements of an athlete's training plan. There were also misconceptions regarding the addition of ... |
how are hand sanitizer companies able to claim their product is better or more effective than their competitors when they all kill 99.9% of all germs? | No government oversight or enforcement of false product claims. Assume all copy on products is a lie. | [
"The main difference between a sanitizer and a disinfectant is that at a specific use dilution, the disinfectant must have a higher kill capability for pathogenic bacteria than that of a sanitizer. If these micro-organisms are not destroyed, the bottled water being produced may be contaminated. \n",
"On April 30,... |
how do martial artists break huge stacks of bricks without their hand passing through every brick? | Dominos. The force is transfered from the top brick down by the breaking bricks themselves. | [
"Aspiring boxers undergo years of apprenticeship, toughening their fists against stone and other hard surfaces, until they are able to break coconuts and rocks with their bare hands. Any part of the body may be targeted, except the groin, but the prime targets are the head and chest. Techniques incorporate punches,... |
Why do you feel a jerk when a car comes to a complete stop? | [Jerk](_URL_0_) is actually a technical term, and part of the answer.
I'm sure you're familiar with that feeling of being pushed forward when you're just braking. That's a result of inertia but it feels as if there was some force pushing you forward a bit, and we can even think of it that way. The same happens to the ... | [
"Since forces, changing at a suitable rate in time (that is, \"suitable\" jerk) are the cause of vibrations, and vibrations significantly impair the quality of transportation, there is good reason to simply \"minimize\" jerk in transportation vehicles.\n",
"BULLET::::- High-powered sports cars offer the feeling o... |
what are magnet links? | They tell your PC to open up an application, then send that application some data.
Other uses include: Starting a skype call to a number, Opening up mumble and connecting it to a server, opening up steam to download a game, and more.
They are very useful, and need more use! | [
"Although magnet links can be used in a number of contexts, they are particularly useful in peer-to-peer file sharing networks because they allow resources to be referred to without the need for a continuously available host, and can be generated by anyone who already has the file, without the need for a central au... |
Can any bacteria survive the boiling point of water? | Yes, see [wikipedia](_URL_1_) for a list of examples, such as [this one](_URL_0_) which can survive and reproduce above boiling temperature. | [
"However, the observations proved that it is actually possible for life to exist at high temperatures and that some bacteria even prefer temperatures higher than the boiling point of water. Dozens of such bacteria are known.\n",
"BULLET::::1. Boiling: Bringing water to its boiling point (about 100 °C or 212 F at ... |
Why were Roman replicas of the bronze Greek statues made of marble? | They often did, but marble is cheaper than bronze, so *most* replicas were marble. The Roman use of Greek statues was very often a change in context from public to private--many of the most famous statues were originally set up in either official or religious spaces, while the Romans would often place these in private ... | [
"Many of the Greek statues well known from Roman marble copies were originally temple cult images, which in some cases, such as the Apollo Barberini, can be credibly identified. A very few actual originals survive, for example, the bronze Piraeus Athena ( high, including a helmet). The image stood on a base, from t... |
does fractional reserve banking cause all money to be created in the form of debt? | Fractional Reserve banking is not started from scratch in any of the economies. They simply plug it in to the system. So there is some extent of money already present in the system for the Fractional reserve banking to work.
> where is the money used to pay interest over and above the principal coming from?
The sy... | [
"Fractional reserve banking has resulted in a transfer of wealth from the holders of currency to investors. Under fractional reserve banking the money supply is allowed to be increased whenever new interest-bearing loans are issued and is often constrained by a reserve ratio, which mandates that banks hold a portio... |
why does fast air feel cold, if temperature is a measure of kinetic energy, even when i'm not sweaty? | Because the air temperature is lower than you body temperature when it blows past your skin it's still taking heat away from the body.
Causing the air to feel cool. | [
"At high speeds through the air, the object's kinetic energy is converted to heat through compression and friction. At lower speed, the object will lose heat to the air through which it is passing, if the air is cooler. The combined temperature effect of heat from the air and from passage through it is called the s... |
What causes light to slow when it travels through a medium? | Dielectric materials are full of electric charges (positive nuclei and negative electrons). The charges aren't free to move around, but they do get tugged around a bit by electric fields: the electrons and nuclei are pulled in opposite directions in an electric field, and so a tiny electric dipole is formed. This is ca... | [
"When light propagates through a material, it travels slower than the vacuum speed, . This is a change in the phase velocity of the light and is manifested in physical effects such as refraction. This reduction in speed is quantified by the ratio between and the phase velocity. This ratio is called the refractive i... |
why the martingale betting strategy doesn't work. | It does and it doesnt, in THEORY it does, as you explained, eventually your numbers come up and you will always be up your initial stake. you reset and start again.
The problem comes in that casinos predict people doing this, they have max bets, so say if the max bet is £40 (for ease), you start with £10, you lose, u... | [
"Originally, \"martingale\" referred to a class of betting strategies that was popular in 18th-century France. The simplest of these strategies was designed for a game in which the gambler wins their stake if a coin comes up heads and loses it if the coin comes up tails. The strategy had the gambler double their be... |
carbs, protein, fats - in which order are these used by the body and why? | Glucose is our staple energy source. If the body needs energy, glucose is broken down producing ATP and releasing CO2 and H20. If the body does not need energy, the glucose is built in to chains for easy storage in liver. These chain molecules are called glycogen. They are easily accessed and broken down to glucose whe... | [
"Molecules of carbohydrates and fats consist of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms. Carbohydrates range from simple monosaccharides (glucose, fructose and galactose) to complex polysaccharides (starch). Fats are triglycerides, made of assorted fatty acid monomers bound to a glycerol backbone. Some fatty acids, but ... |
Was the failure of communism due to inherit flaws in the ideology or because the countries that adopted it were poorer and fewer than their capitalist counterparts? | You seem to have a bunch of different questions here. For the questions in the last paragraph you might consider /r/HistoryWhatIf . | [
"While having been a relatively unknown system due to the failure of authoritarianism within the First World during the Cold War, with the transition of authoritarian countries such as China and Russia to capitalist economic models, authoritarian capitalism has recently rose into prominence. While it was initially ... |
why did people in places like africa develop darker skin when black absorbs the most light compared to lighter colors? | Dark skin is caused by melanin. When the sun hits your skin it gets absorbed by melanin and not by your skin cells. This is a good thing because if your skin cells absorb the sun it can cause damage that can possibly lead to skin cancer. | [
"Historically, the cause of skin lightening goes back to colonialism, where individuals with lighter skin received greater privilege than those of darker tones. This built a racial hierarchy and color ranking within colonized African nations, leaving psychological effects on many of the darker skinned individuals.\... |
in electromagnetic waves, how are photons produced, how does the electric force and magnetic force interact and what factors effect the energy of a photon/wave? | A photon is a little packet of energy in the form of oscillating electric and magnetic fields. They fly around at the speed of light. When certain photons hit our eyes, they tell our brain that we're seeing something.
The energy of a photon depends on its frequency (or its wavelength). The lowest energy photons are ra... | [
"Classical waves transfer energy without transporting matter through the medium (material). For example, waves in a pond do not carry the water molecules from place to place; rather the wave's energy travels through the water, leaving the water molecules in place. Additionally, charged particles, such as electrons ... |
How expensive were candles in the 18th century? Could only the rich afford to light their homes after dark? Was it a major expense to host a party at night considering candles were made of beeswax or the wax extracted from sperm whales? | You are forgetting about [tallow](_URL_0_) candles, which have also been around for a long time. They are made from rendered animal fat. Candles would not have been very expensive, though the very poor would not have been able to afford them. | [
"By the late 19th century, Price's Candles, based in London, was the largest candle manufacturer in the world. Founded by William Wilson in 1830, the company pioneered the implementation of the technique of steam distillation, and was thus able to manufacture candles from a wide range of raw materials, including sk... |
Why are some of the heavier elements more common than the lighter ones in the universe? | Different elements, different methods of formation.
Some of the heavier atoms [like iron] are made in every star, but a few of the lighter ones are only formed in cosmic ray collisions [ lithium, beryllium, and boron ].
If you are interested in this, track down this book: ["The Magic Furnace" by Marcus Chown](_URL... | [
"The presence of heavier elements hails from stellar nucleosynthesis, the theory that the majority of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in the Universe (\"metals\", hereafter) are formed in the cores of stars as they evolve. Over time, stellar winds and supernovae deposit the metals into the surrounding env... |
Are there any families from the Roman Republic period that survived into Late Antiquity? | There are plenty of claims, but there is no way for modern historians to confirm any of them. The Anicii only appear in 298, when Anicius Faustus became the consul and I don't think there's any indication that they publicised their Republican heritage - the late antique Anicii originally came from North Africa, whereas... | [
"After the fall of the Roman Empire, these families survived during the middle ages (c700-1200AD) perhaps under Papal rule in Rome. It is possible that branches of this family lived in Byzantine territories.\n",
"From these middle age families, originated the more modern families of the Roman nobility (1200-1600)... |
it’s so important that we keep our hands washed, but our housecats literally touch their waste and don’t wash their paws. why is this ok? | Until the 20th Century it was not common for people to wash their hands so often. But we have decided that we really don't like getting sick as much as older generations, or as cats do. | [
"Hand hygiene is defined as hand washing or washing hands and nails with soap and water or using a water less hand sanitizer. Hand hygiene is central to preventing spread of infectious diseases in home and everyday life settings.\n",
"For hand care they are designed to protect against the harm from detergents and... |
why do some people get off on being angry all of the time? what does it do for them? | Sometimes it is a defense mechanism. I've seen angry people use a general anger-filled disposition to hide insecurities and in doing so they become highly irrational. | [
"Anger causes a reduction in cognitive ability and the accurate processing of external stimuli. Dangers seem smaller, actions seem less risky, ventures seem more likely to succeed, and unfortunate events seem less likely. Angry people are more likely to make risky decisions, and make less realistic risk assessments... |
Is there a point as the temperature drops that it stops feeling colder? in other words, once a certain temperature is reached does it all just feel the same after that? | You don't feel temperature directly, you feel the rate at which heat leaves your body. So it really depends on the material's heat conductivity and how it's arranged as a heat sink.
Generally, the rate of heat transfer is inversely proportional to temperature, all else equal, and since you can't reach absolute zero, t... | [
"After a certain period, an equilibrium is reached: the drop has cooled to a point where the rate of heat carried away in evaporation is equal to the heat gain through convection. At this point, the following balance of energy per interface area is true:\n",
"Because of this effect, the lowering of temperature in... |
what happens to all the bleach and washing liquids and chemicals we use. is any of it filtered out or degrades once it goes down the drain or are we simply polluting the seas? | Most of the harmful stuff is removed at a [wastewater treatment](_URL_0_) plant. Things like bleach and soap are fairly reactive, so they get filtered out pretty easily. Some other things (like motor oil or plastics) are more resilient, so they survive through treatment, though. Don't pour motor oil down the drain.
Ed... | [
"A 1-in-5 dilution of household bleach with water (1 part bleach to 4 parts water) is effective against many bacteria and some viruses, and is often the disinfectant of choice in cleaning surfaces in hospitals (primarily in the United States). Even \"scientific-grade\", commercially produced disinfection solutions ... |
Were "perfume cones" a thing in ancient Egypt? | Yes, its pretty well accepted that the yellow and white cones seen in Egyptian art from the New Kingdom are cones of fat that were meant to perfume the person as they melted. However, they were only worn in scenes where people were meant to be enjoying themselves, like a feast or festival. They were also worn by both m... | [
"Traces of onions recovered from Bronze Age settlements in China suggest that onions were used as far back as 5000 BCE, not only for their flavour, but the bulb's durability in storage and transport. Ancient Egyptians revered the onion bulb, viewing its spherical shape and concentric rings as symbols of eternal lif... |
I've heard that the Y chromosome is shrinking. Is it true, and what does it mean for future generations? | talk presented by hhmi:
[youtube video](_URL_0_) | [
"By one estimate, the human Y chromosome has lost 1,393 of its 1,438 original genes over the course of its existence, and linear extrapolation of this 1,393-gene loss over 300 million years gives a rate of genetic loss of 4.6 genes per million years. Continued loss of genes at the rate of 4.6 genes per million year... |
How do we know this? - origins of elements from the periodic table. /physics/ | The Big Bang created everything. As it cooled down atoms formed. Most were hydrogen. Some helium and lithium fused as well.
Everything else is understanding supernovae and how stars die.. Most of those percentages are calculated guesses, not exact values though. Different types of supernovae have different end result... | [
"There is currently no consensus on the placement of elements beyond atomic number 120 in the periodic table. The table below shows one possibility for the appearance of the eighth period, with placement of elements primarily based on their predicted chemistry.\n",
"The standard presentation of the chemical eleme... |
what is laveyan satanism | Anton LaVey basically made up a faith based on his Ideals. Taking the satan figure as a symbol of defiance from western religions.
Lavey did not believe in the existence of any god or gods, as such to him humans are animals that got smart, and should act in that way.
However he put into place 2 separate codes of cond... | [
"LaVeyan Satanism is a religion founded in 1966 by the American occultist and author Anton Szandor LaVey. Scholars of religion have classified it as a new religious movement and a form of Western esotericism. It is one of several different movements that describe themselves as forms of Satanism.\n",
"The Satanist... |
does software updates always increases its filesize? | No, sometimes a file is overwritten. So as long as the original file isn't saved as a backup, there's a chance that a 60gb game with a 12gb update will likely stay 60gb.
If a more efficient code is produced, you can get lower file sizes. Sometimes programs launch with really clunky code that works and is launched to m... | [
"A file's modification time describes when the content of the file most recently changed. Because most file systems do not compare data written to a file with what is already there, if a program overwrites part of a file with the same data as previously existed in that location, the modification time will be update... |
how is it possible that 50 cent who made $100 million from the sale of vitamin water, is bankrupt? | Saw a comment before that said some woman is trying to sue him for $5 million for who knows fucking what. They said its his business side and not his personal side. So he is still super rich, at least from what I know so far | [
"In May 2007, Vitamin Water was sold to The Coca-Cola Company for $4.1 billion. As part of his endorsement deal, Wright was given 0.5% of the company, and thus netted approximately $20 million from the deal.\n",
"In 2010, Null reported that he and six other consumers had been hospitalized for vitamin D poisoning ... |
How was lumber in the middle ages measured and cut? | Indeed, medievals liked their timber as square and smooth as we do.
I love [this manuscript illustration](_URL_12_), which comes from the [Bedford Hours](_URL_8_), a prayer book from ~1423 CE. It is supposed to depict the building of Noah's Ark, but it looks suspiciously like a timber-framed house. The artist clearly... | [
"Lumber's \"nominal\" dimensions are larger than the actual standard dimensions of finished lumber. Historically, the nominal dimensions were the size of the green (not dried), rough (unfinished) boards that eventually became smaller finished lumber through drying and planing (to smooth the wood). Today, the standa... |
how did "a/an" evolve from "one"? | It happened the other way around. Beyond that... let's talk about a few things about how the English Language developed. (This being ELI5, I'm oversimplifying a little bit because the *full* version is more complicated and, not being a specialist in the history of English, I don't even understand all of the details mys... | [
"A new \"ā\" was formed following the shift from \"ā\" to \"ō\" when intervocalic was lost in \"-aja-\" sequences. It was a rare phoneme, and occurred only in a handful of words, the most notable being the verbs of the third weak class. The agent noun suffix *\"-ārijaz\" (Modern English \"-er\") was likely borrowed... |
finding and moving specific genes between organisms | Biology PhD student here. In the interest in ELI5ness and not writing a wall of text no one wants to read, I'll write an overview and let you ask if you want to me elaborate more on how any particular part actually works.
**Finding the gene:**
You sequence the genome of the organism (or part of it), at which point yo... | [
"After the formation of the regionally specified anterior-posterior axis, genes must be turned \"on\" to form unique structures in specific regions. This is orchestrated via the homeobox (Hox) transcription factor signaling pathway. First identified in Drosophila by Edward Lewis who won a Nobel Prize for the discov... |
Who were the first Jamestown colonists? How were they selected? | While I can't speak to the specific members of the crew that first founded Jamestown, the initial motivations of colonists in the first half of the 17th century were as follows:
a) For the rich: A quick profit - either from gold or timber or soap manufacturing or exporting pitch, additionally many were hopeful of the... | [
"A project of the proprietary Virginia Company of London, Jamestown had been established by an initial group of settlers on 14 May 1607. This colony proved as troubled as earlier English settlements. Two return trips with supplies by Christopher Newport arrived in 1608, while another large relief fleet was dispatch... |
Does dust/particles on the glass affect space telescopes significantly and how is this problem addressed? | In general, no, dust on the mirror doesn't really affect the image produced by a telescope.
Most telescopes are focused at infinity, so a speck of dust sitting on the mirror won't actually be in the image plane. All it does is *very* slightly dim the entire image, since the tiny portion of the mirror covered by dust i... | [
"There is a further problem of glass defects, striae or small air bubbles trapped within the glass. In addition, glass is opaque to certain wavelengths, and even visible light is dimmed by reflection and absorption when it crosses the air-glass interfaces and passes through the glass itself. Most of these problems ... |
I've asked all over Reddit for help identifying this unknown object. Recently, someone said it was part of a WWII Cryptography Radio. Someone else commented that since it may have historical significance, I should ask for help here. | My father is a radio enthusiast who served as a 1st class radio operator during military service in 60ties' Czechoslovakia. Nowadays he likes to repair 20ties-40ties radios as a hobby.
He says that he's never seen anything like this in a radio and that he is sure that those objects were NOT a part of a radio. Since th... | [
"In July 1945, Captain Benjamin M. Bradin entered the \"Führerbunker\" and discovered an original carbon copy of the Göring Telegram marked with an 'F' in a group of Hitler's papers that in later years were given to Robert W. Rieke, a professor of history at the Citadel.\n",
"During the Second World War, a captur... |
why do web pages viewed on mobile devices keep changing layout as they load, and then change again just as you try to tap a link after it seems like they were finished loading? | Main reason is asymetric loading of elements and bad programming.
In detail: The main goal of a mobile page is to load as fast as possible.
There are certain methods to achieve this. The two most important (for your question) are:
1) Load visible stuff first:
The first things that will be loaded are things y... | [
"In many applications (e.g., web browsers), holding down the control key while rolling the scroll wheel causes the text size to increase or decrease, or an image in an image-editing or map-viewing program to zoom in or out, if such a feature is available.\n",
"Also, because the layout information may be stored ex... |
Why do amputees feel a part of the body even though it is physically not present? | It's called 'phantom limb syndrom' and is thought to be related to the the somatosensory system (the neuronal system that senses pain, amongst other things). It's currently thought that this system does not readjust appropriately when a limb is amputated. This results in the continued sensation of movement and pain in ... | [
"A large proportion of amputees (50–80%) experience the phenomenon of phantom limbs; they feel body parts that are no longer there. These limbs can itch, ache, burn, feel tense, dry or wet, locked in or trapped or they can feel as if they are moving. Some scientists believe it has to do with a kind of neural map th... |
The charger for my electric toothbrush has no metal parts that touch the toothbrush. How does it recharge? | Through [magnetic induction](_URL_0_). It's the same mechanism for [transformers](_URL_2_), the electrical circuits of which are not physically connected either. See [this diagram of a simple transformer](_URL_1_).
Basically, the electricity from the outlet is used to generate a magnetic field, which generates a curre... | [
"Modern electric toothbrushes run on low voltage, 12v or less. A few units use a step-down transformer to power the brush, but most use a battery, usually but not always rechargeable and non-replaceable, fitted inside the handle, which is hermetically sealed to prevent water damage. While early NiCd battery toothbr... |
Do you get your memories back after electroconvulsive therapy? | With our current methods of ECT, memory loss is quite common. There are a lot of complex idiosyncrasies and variables that play into the pattern and permanence of memory loss (i.e., age, bilateral vs. unilateral ECT, number of ECT treatments, psychiatric diagnosis, length of the seizures, interval between ECT treatmen... | [
"Therapists who subscribe to recovered memory theory point to a wide variety of common problems, ranging from eating disorders to sleeplessness, as evidence of repressed memories of sexual abuse. Psychotherapists tried to reveal “repressed memories” in mental therapy patients through “hypnosis, guided imagery, drea... |
How did the early advocates for LGBTQ rights in the US begin pushing their case? What were the methods of the earliest advocacy groups? | Great question! Before I get into it, I want to provide a little context. I've talked quite a bit on here about different understandings of 'homosexuality' throughout history. How sexuality was understood and conceptualized has changed dramatically over the course of history, although not in a linear or teleological fa... | [
"The first LGBT rights organizations began to emerge in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Early LGBT rights organizations were primarily research-oriented psychiatric organizations that took a sympathetic, rather than corrective approach to homosexuality. such as the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (Wissens... |
how did the original mathematicians prove their formulas and theories, and to who? | To their own community of academics. But how far back are we talking? Ancient greece? Renaissance? Isaac Newton era? | [
"The formula was discovered independently by Leonhard Euler and Colin Maclaurin around 1735. Euler needed it to compute slowly converging infinite series while Maclaurin used it to calculate integrals. It was later generalized to Darboux's formula.\n",
"Mathematical analysis formally developed in the 17th century... |
How are we self aware? What does our self awareness come from? | This is an awesome question, and one that straddles the line between science and philosophy. The real answer is "we don't know" and there are fascinating arguments for multiple viewpoints (including arguments that run the spectrum from pure spirituality all the way to quantum physics.)
I'd recommend [this Wikipedia a... | [
"Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to recognize oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals. It is not to be confused with consciousness in the sense of qualia. While consciousness is being aware of one's environment and body and lifestyle, self-awaren... |
why guitar hero / rockband died. | IMO it's because there isn't much room to expand on the core gameplay. Sure you can add more songs, but are you willing to spend another $50+ dollars on basically the same game? Not to mention that the equipment (guitar, drumset, etc.) can also rack up the price (some may say unnecessarily). Once everybody played Gu... | [
"\"Guitar Hero II\" is the centerpiece of an episode of \"South Park\" titled \"Guitar Queer-O\", in which Stan and Kyle overindulge in \"Guitar Hero II\" and become treated as though they were real-life rock stars. The episode was first broadcast on November 7, 2007, ten days after the American release of \"Guitar... |
Were the Romans cynical about their downfall (or perceived downfall) as (some) tend to be today in America? Was there any "sky is falling" moments or movements? | Augustine's *City of God* was written as a response to the seemingly imminent collapse of the Roman Empire. The sack of Rome in 410 was traumatic to an extent that I think it is difficult for us to comprehend. Today we tend to shy away from pronouncement's like this one from 1905 that said "the Roman Empire was the civ... | [
"The popular view is that the fall of the Western Roman Empire caused a \"dark age\" in western Europe in which \"knowledge and civility\", the \"arts of elegance,\" and \"many of the useful arts\" were neglected or lost. Conversely, however, the lot of the farmers who made up 80 percent or more of the total popula... |
Was classical music by German composers less popular after World War II? | Not talking about symphony, because the real drama is at the opera, c'mon! The Metropolitan opera had been performing German-language opera since the 1880s. During 1914-17 the Met did German opera as usual, but when the US entered WWI in late 1917 they did cancel all German operas. [Check out the 1917-18 season.](_URL_... | [
"Composers writing after World War II had to find a way of coming to terms with the destruction caused by the Third Reich. The modernism of Schoenberg and Berg proved attractive to young composers, since their works had been banned by the Nazis and were free of any taint of the former regime. Bernd Alois Zimmermann... |
how did calling shotgun for a vehicle's front passenger seat begin? where did it come from? | The term calling "Shotgun" came from when stage coaches would transport money from bank to bank like in the old west movies. The person in the passenger seat would be holding a shotgun for defense against robbers. | [
"The expression \"riding shotgun\" is derived from \"shotgun messenger\", a colloquial term for \"express messenger\", when stagecoach travel was popular during the American Wild West and the Colonial period in Australia. The person rode alongside the driver. The first known use of the phrase \"riding shotgun\" was... |
how can my computer distinguish between my wifi and my neighbors wifi if they are both running on 2.4 ghz? | It isn't just your router! every Wifi device is listening and broadcasting to everything! It is really chaotic at the signal level. There are several tricks wifi routers use to get around this
1 collision avoidance - the devices actively try to avoid disturbing each other, and N routers (and high end N NICS) active... | [
"One of the most common ways of creating a home network is by using wireless radio signal technology; the 802.11 network as certified by the IEEE. Most wireless-capable residential devices operate at a frequency of 2.4 GHz under 802.11b and 802.11g or 5 GHz under 802.11a. Some home networking devices operate in bot... |
Can humans be predisposed to enjoying warmer or cooler environments? | I've coupled several articles to get this conclusion, and therefore it could be a simplified conclusion: A person with two short (homozygotes) alleles of the upstream regulating region of the serotoninreceptor encoding gene (5-HTT) are likely to be more sensitive to all kind of stimuli, eg. cold temperatures. However, ... | [
"Humans inhabit hot climates, both dry and humid, and have done so for thousands of years. Selective use of clothing and technological inventions such as air conditioning allows humans to thrive in hot climates.\n",
"As in other mammals, thermoregulation in humans is an important aspect of homeostasis. In thermor... |
Under what conditions does matter emit light? | As far as I'm aware, in order for light (or other electromagnetic radiation) to come into being, an electrostatically charged particle needs to either *a) accelerate*, or *b) transition between states with different energies*.
I'm not very clear on how big the overlap between *a)* and *b)* is, but for a) I'm thinking ... | [
"At the end of the 19th century, light was thought to consist of waves of electromagnetic fields which propagated according to Maxwell's equations, while matter was thought to consist of localized particles (See History of wave and particle duality). In 1900, this division was exposed to doubt, when, investigating ... |
How much was crusader governance and culture in the Kingdom of Jerusalem influenced by local customs? | This is what I study in the real world, and partially what my thesis is about, so there’s a lot to say about it! Hopefully this answer doesn’t go on and on forever…I think I've written most of this in previous answers, so here they are, all collected in one spot.
The Frankish crusaders did try to import a European-sty... | [
"The Crusader period in the history of Jerusalem decisively influenced the history of the whole Middle East, radiating beyond the region into the Islamic World and Christian Europe. The Crusades elevated the position of Jerusalem in the hierarchy of places holy to Islam, but it did not become a spiritual or politic... |
What would it take for scientists or doctors to be able to see what a human is currently thinking? | We don't know yet -- that's what makes it research!
There are many people working on [brain-computer interfaces](_URL_1_) to try to develop algorithms to 'decode' brain activity. At this point, however, the outputs that can be measured are relatively crude, e.g., sending a signal of "up", "down", "left", or "right".
... | [
"Developments in technology and medicine mean that doctors and scientists can examine our brains in more ways and more detail than ever before, all without having to open up the body. In this issue, we explore how imaging research has changed the way we can look inside the human brain.\n",
"It has become possible... |
why is president obamas amnesty executive order being brought before the supreme court? | Reagan amnesty was a lawful compromise with Congress, tax cuts for so many immigrants. I am not familiar with any Bush amnesty so I decline to remark. Obama's executive amnesty otoh is a complete go around of Congress. Executive orders bear no legal weight, they are not law. They are directives to agencies of the... | [
"Brown's dissenting opinion in \"Omar v. Harvey\" sets forth her judicial outlook on the constitutional balance of powers. The United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld an injunction that forbade the U.S. military to transfer Omar, a suspected insurgent, out of U.S. custody while his \"habeas corpu... |
what incentivizes companies to raise wages? | When labor is short in supply, companies must increase wages to attract workers.
You can see this in (pre-oil-bust) Alberta, Canada. You can get paid $15/hr to be a Barista in Fort McMurray, while a few hundred kilometers away, in Calgary or Edmonton, they only make $10. Willing to do unskilled or trained-on-site phys... | [
"Advocates of unions claim that the higher wages that unions demand can be paid for through company profits. However, as Milton Friedman pointed out, profits are only very rarely high enough. 80% of national income is wages, and only about 6% is profits after tax, providing very little room for higher wages, even i... |
how does executive order qualify as constitutional and fall in line with the system of checks and balances? | Executive orders (at least in theory) don't grant the executive branch more powers, they work within the powers already granted to the President by the Constitution or by Congress. The courts can overrule an EO if it's overstepped its bounds, and Congress can pass a law overruling an EO if it's based in powers they del... | [
"The U.S. Supreme Court has held that all executive orders from the president of the United States must be supported by the Constitution, whether from a clause granting specific power, or by Congress delegating such to the executive branch. Specifically, such orders must be rooted in Article II of the US Constituti... |
why does the face of a golf club have lines on it? | The grooves are cut into the face of the club to increase the grip between the ball and the face. The puts a controlled spin on the ball, which makes the ball travel in a predictable path.
If the ball does not have a controlled spin, it will move in a random path as spin is created and lost as the ball moves through t... | [
"According to the rules of golf, all club grips must have the same cross-section shape along their entire length (the diameter can vary), and with the exception of the putter, must have a circular cross-section. The putter may have any cross section that is symmetrical along the length of the grip through at least ... |
what's the difference when a medication commercial says a child under 6 can't take it, and kids 6-18 should not take it? | Pediatric medication is weight-based, so for many medications, the dosage strength would have to be severely diluted to be usable for young children to avoid overdose. This is why certain drugs are good for certain age groups of children - the weight difference between an 11 yr old and a 5 yr old, for example.
Other f... | [
"While they have been used by 10% of American children in any given week, they are not recommended in Canada or the United States in children 6 years or younger because of lack of evidence showing effect and concerns of harm. One version with codeine, guaifenesin, and pseudoephedrine was the 241st most prescribed m... |
why do my ears tickle/itch when listening with headphones? | I'm not a doctor, yet, but every time I have experienced something similar to this, and found that I have the option of "scratching" it as best I can or turning down the volume. I think that the itch is a response to inner ear damage, because every time I have turned down the volume the itch goes away on its own after ... | [
"Supra-aural headphones or on-ear headphones have pads that press against the ears, rather than around them. They were commonly bundled with personal stereos during the 1980s. This type of headphone generally tends to be smaller and lighter than circumaural headphones, resulting in less attenuation of outside noise... |
why do you say "a european" and not "an european" | You use an when the beginning *sounds* like a vowel regardless of if it is one. European starts with a "y" sound which in this case counts as a consonant.
Edit: another example you would say "an hour" because the h is silent. | [
"The term \"Europe\" may be used in one of several different contexts by British and Irish people: either to refer to the whole of the European continent, to refer to only to Mainland Europe, sometimes called \"continental Europe\" or simply \"the Continent\" by some people in the archipelago. \"Europe\" may also b... |
why is pre-made food cheaper than the ingredients? | Especially when talking about fresh ingredients, it's because there's a lot of waste.
Frozen pizza has a huge shelf life, so if a store buys 100 of them, they're going to sell 100 of them. If a store buys 100 tomatoes, they're probably going to sell 60-70, and the rest will end up in the trash because they're not pret... | [
"As often happens with gourmet recipes which become popular, the ingredients that were rare, expensive, seasonal, or difficult to prepare were gradually replaced with cheaper and more readily available foods.\n",
"Bread, cheese, salted food and other prepared foods have been sold for thousands of years. Other kin... |
how long do you have to stop drinking for your tolerance to alcohol to go down to that of a new drinker's? | I ACTUALLY KNOW THE ANSWER!!! It will never go back down to that tolerance. Tolerance is built by your brain being conditioned to react to alcohol. The time varies from person to person to get close, but that could be 6 months to 5 years.
So let's say the first drink you ever had was in a bar, when you were wearing a ... | [
"The Ministry of Health and Medical Education has developed a national programme to reduce alcohol consumption by 10% between 2015 and 2025, but the religious-driven zero-tolerance alcohol policy impedes the development of an effective harm-reduction approach.\n",
"The consumption of alcohol itself is not conside... |
in determining blood type, the o allele is recessive to both the a and b alleles. why is it then that o is the most common blood type and it's prevalence hasn't declined? | So this is an interesting question. If I recall correctly from school, type O is what the earliest people had (postulated). Over time mutations have occurred leading to difference surface antigens like the A and B antigen. So while they are recessive, there are still many people with this. If two people who are both O ... | [
"Some evolutionary biologists theorize that there are four main lineages of the ABO gene and that mutations creating type O have occurred at least three times in humans. From oldest to youngest, these lineages comprise the following alleles: \"A101/A201/O09\", \"B101\", \"O02\" and \"O01\". The continued presence o... |
The big bang theory is the accepted theory for the genesis of the universe. I've always accepted and (I thought) understood this as a scientific theory. How does this theory justify/explain the creation of something (spacetime, matter) out of essentially nothing? | No, that is not what Big Bang Theory is. It's a common misconception. Big Bang Theory is about the state of the very (very) early universe and how it evolved from that. It is *not* a theory about how or why the universe got here in the first place. I'm not saying that's not a valid question, I'm just saying that's not ... | [
"The Big Bang itself is a scientific theory and as such stands or falls by its agreement with observations. However, as a theory which addresses the nature of the universe since its earliest discernible existence, the Big Bang carries possible theological implications regarding the concept of creation out of nothin... |
what does it mean when a cough “moves into your chest”? was it somewhere else before? | People generally say that in references to colds.A “cold” is a blanket term for any viral infection of the nose and throat. In the early stages of a cold, your body is fighting the cold directly and most of the symptoms are in your sinuses, nose, and throat.
After a few days the virus is pretty much dead and the nose... | [
"A cough is a sudden, and often repetitively occurring, protective reflex which helps to clear the large breathing passages from fluids, irritants, foreign particles and microbes. The cough reflex consists of three phases: an inhalation, a forced exhalation against a closed glottis, and a violent release of air fro... |
Is there any evolutionary benefits other than sexual selection in having blue or green eyes instead of brown? | Like skin tone, lighter eye color is simply a reflection of lower pigmentation (less melanin). As with many genes, if those genes that influence eye color can mutate to less active forms without dicouraging the survival of a given organism, they may continue to mutate to less and less active forms. This means that if h... | [
"All three colours have evolutionary advantages in different ways. While yellow females have higher fitness due to their large clutch sizes, orange females enjoy high fitness due to their large body size and increase competitive advantages. Mixed females exhibit both of these advantages.\n",
"While sexual selecti... |
why do these videos of opening kinder eggs receive hundreds of millions of views. | Because kids love to watch them being open and seeing what surprises are in them, even if they aren't getting the toy. | [
"The Eggs is an Australian children's animated television program that first screened on the Nine Network in 2004. There are 52 episodes of 12 minutes duration. Two episodes are usually screened together in a half hour timeslot.\n",
"Numerous easter eggs have been found in the digital files for \"Mouth Sounds\" a... |
what's the difference between embezzlement and theft? | Embezzlement is taking funds that you been entrusted with, and converting them to your own use. Theft is just taking property to which you are not entitled.
So, Janice is a teller at a bank. She's required to keep a drawer full of cash, count it, dispense it to customers as needed, etc. That money has been entrusted t... | [
"It is important to make clear that embezzlement is not always a form of theft or an act of stealing, since those definitions specifically deal with taking something that does not belong to the perpetrators. Instead, embezzlement is, more generically, an act of deceitfully secreting assets by one or more persons th... |
Would I measure the generated magnetic field of a charged particle, if I am moving alongside with it? | The fields produced by a point electric charge moving arbitrarily are given [here](_URL_0_). If you assume that the particle has no magnetic moments, these are the only fields it will produce. If you look at the magnetic field equation, it looks complicated, but you can see that the whole thing is zero if the speed of ... | [
"A charged particle moving in a -field experiences a \"sideways\" force that is proportional to the strength of the magnetic field, the component of the velocity that is perpendicular to the magnetic field and the charge of the particle. This force is known as the \"Lorentz force\", and is given by\n",
"Any charg... |
What are the best books or online resources for acquiring a pre-Federalist Papers understanding of the debates of the United States Constitutional Convention? | The [Avalon Project](_URL_2_) at Yale is one place where you can find many of primary sources related to the topic you are interested in.
In addition, [this website](_URL_0_) also provides numerous documents.
Lastly, the [Liberty Fund](_URL_1_) also contains numerous sources that touch on the Revolutionary period. ... | [
"BULLET::::- Story, Joseph (Mar 26, 2008) \"Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States Before the Adoption of the Constitution 4th Edition\" (2 volumes) (March 26, 2008) with Notes and Commentaries by Cooley, Thomas M. (C... |
why are france and spain 1 hour ahead of the uk when part of those countries are directly below us? | Because Nazis.
They used to be in the same time zone as the UK. But then when the Nazis took over France in WW2, they switched them to the same time zone as Germany.
Spain wasn't directly involved in WW2, but were on fairly good terms with the Nazis so also switched to have a matching time zone to aid cooperation.
F... | [
"Tourist links between the two countries are significant, with over 400,000 Australians visiting France each year. Almost 98,000 visitor visas were granted to French nationals to visit Australia in 2005–06, making France the 10th largest source of visitor visa grants, and 1,867 student visas were granted. A working... |
if we can achieve every existing color by mixing the basic ones, why do cymk and rgb look different? | Red, green, and blue (RGB) are the primary colors for **light (i.e., additive color)**. In this case, "black" is the absence of any light, and "white" is 100% of all three colors.
Cyan, yellow, and magenta (CYM) are the primary colors for **pigment (i.e., substractive color)**. In this case, "white" is the absence o... | [
"In modern color theory, also known as the RGB color model, red, green and blue are additive primary colors. Red, green and blue light combined together makes white light, and these three colors, combined in different mixtures, can produce nearly any other color. This is the principle that is used to make all of th... |
Any good books on Stone Age? | Although it is not a book about the Stone Age, Ian Morris's book *Why the West Rules -- for Now* spends several chapters on prehistory as part of a sweeping treatment of the entire history of East and West.
Otherwise, I suggest asking this on /r/AskAnthropology. | [
"Other depictions of the Stone Age include the best-selling \"Earth's Children\" series of books by Jean M. Auel, which are set in the Paleolithic and are loosely based on archaeological and anthropological findings.\n",
"Back to the Stone Age is a novel by American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, the fifth in his s... |
why do people have the urge to grab cute babies' cheeks and smush their face? | [This article explains why.](_URL_0_) TL;DR "Cute Aggression" is the brains response that could be protective, or a way of venting extreme feelings of giddiness and happiness | [
"A \"kunik\" is a form of expressing affection, usually between family members and loved ones, that involves pressing the nose and upper lip against the skin (commonly of the cheeks or forehead) and breathing in, causing the loved one's skin or hair to be suctioned against the nose and upper lip. A common misconcep... |
the concept of wells/underground water. is there just water everywhere beneath our feet that we can access as long as we dig/drill far enough down? | Technically yes. There are a few types of underground water supplies. The first is the water table.
When it rains where does that water go? Well you do see most of it run down the sidewalks, and streets. Where does the rest go? Underground of course. It drains through cracks, and soft soil till it reaches the point o... | [
"A water well is a mechanism for bringing groundwater to the surface by drilling or digging and bringing it up to the surface with a pump or by hand using buckets or similar devices. The first historical instance of water wells was in the 52nd century BC in modern-day Austria. Today, wells are used all over the wor... |
was there a large difference between various Native American tribe creation myths? | Most tribes had their own unique myths but most of these myths shared many common themes. In North America in particular, a common theme is the idea of humans climing out of a dark, shadowy underworld into the earth. In this view life originated in the underworld and at some point for some reason they found their way o... | [
"Native American cultures are numerous and diverse. Though some neighboring cultures hold similar beliefs, others can be quite different from one another. The most common myths are the creation myths, that tell a story to explain how the earth was formed, and where humans and other beings came from. Others may incl... |
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