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what's the difference between a forest and a wood?	They're used interchangeably a lot. You'll get different answers from different resources, but the general consensus seems to be that woods are smaller than forests. > A wood is an area covered in trees, larger than a grove or a copse. A forest is also an area covered in trees, but it is larger than a wood > The U.S. National Vegetation Classification system differentiates them according to their densities: 25 to 60 percent of a a wood is covered by tree canopies, while 60 to 100 percent of a forest is canopied.	[ "Wood is divided, according to its botanical origin, into two kinds: softwoods, from coniferous trees, and hardwoods, from broad-leaved trees. Softwoods are lighter and generally simple in structure, whereas hardwoods are harder and more complex. However, in Australia, \"softwood\" generally describes rain forest t...
Are there any good source material on the Warsaw Ghetto to be had online?	Many of the relevant primary sources wont contain the those specific details in an aggregated way. There are a few great examples of diaries and reports coming from the Warsaw Ghetto. The statistics you are looking for would likely come from secondary sources. One great example is the Stroop Report. This is written by a commander (Stroop) and it documents the suppression of the uprising. I've included a link to the National Archive where you can get the the full report [here](_URL_1_). This document was used in the Nuremberg Trials. I would recommend you check out the [Yad Vashem site](_URL_2_). That is the Holocaust Museum in Israel. They have spent a lot of time collecting primary sources, photos, personal accounts etc, about the Holocaust of the Jews (Shoah). I've linked to the overview of the Warsaw Ghetto, but check out the digital collection at the top. A last little tip is diaries of the time. I don't know where you're located, or which libraries you have access to but here are a few WorldCat records for some notable ones: [The Warsaw diary of Adam Czerniakow](_URL_0_) and [Scroll of agony, the Warsaw diary of Chaim A. Kaplan](_URL_3_). Hope this help. Source: I'm an academic reference librarian and Jewish history specialist	[ "Engelking's book \"The Warsaw Ghetto: A Guide to the Perished City\" (2009), written with Jacek Leociak, provides detailed maps of the ghetto so that readers can locate the streets and former community structures. Michael Marrus described it as \"a stunning work, one of the most important books on the history of t...
we do we instinctively grab a part of our body after it is hurt?	A) instinct. To protect it from further damage (if the damaging agent is ongoing) or to prevent bleeding and such. B) pain. Our brain knows that pressure sensation blocks pain sensation from experience. So we reflexively grab the injury site because it alleviates the pain. Edit: English and clarity	[ "Bring the victim into a sitting position, making sure that both legs are free. Approach him from behind, putting both your arms under his armpits. Both your hands then grab one of the lower arms of the victim with all fingers and the thumbs being placed on top of that lower arm and parallel to each other (so calle...
Following the passing of the Thirteenth Amendment, were there any cases of slave-owners attempting to continue the practice illegally?	It was less a few dark corners, and more a concerted effort by large swathes of society, who attempted to keep slavery alive in all but name. Here is the Fourth Circuit discussing some of this history: > The South was far from wholly reconciled to the abandonment of the system of forced labor that contributed significantly to the economic success of its agriculture. See [R. Fogel and S. Engerman, Time on the Cross (1974)](_URL_1_). Many planters felt strongly that they simply could not work their fields without compulsory service. A Georgia Leader on Reconstruction and Conversation of Alabama Planters in R.N. Current, ed., Reconstruction [1865-1877], at 39, 46 (1969). Moreover, the war-torn South had large numbers of homeless uprooted people who today would probably be characterized as refugees but were then commonly seen as roaming, "dangerous" vagrants. > Some local authorities responded by permitting employers to engage laborers on a basis that essentially bound the worker for life. [C. V. Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow 23 (3d Rev.Ed.1974)](_URL_6_). Many states enacted so-called "Black Codes" that severely restricted the freedom of the former slaves and provided tough criminal sanctions for those who violated their "labor contracts" with employers. [J. H. Franklin, Reconstruction After the Civil War 48-50 (1961)](_URL_4_); [J. L. Roark, Masters Without Slaves 139-40 (1977)](_URL_3_). > ... > In [Bailey v. Alabama, 219 U.S. 219 (1911)](_URL_7_), the Supreme Court held invalid an Alabama statute that prescribed criminal penalties for laborers who breached their employment contracts without satisfying debts owed their employer. The statute established a presumption of criminal intent to defraud the employer by the fact of the mere breach of the contract. The Court ruled that the statute effectively required compulsory service impermissible under the thirteenth amendment because the compulsion inherent in the threat of criminal sanctions was as strong as that inherent in the use of physical force. > In [United States v. McClellan, 127 F. 971 (_URL_0_.1904)](_URL_2_), the district court refused to quash an indictment that charged several defendants with the sale of a man into forced labor, holding that the [federal statutes] broadly regulated behavior of this type and were neither unconstitutional nor were to be confined to the narrow circumstances of the particular evils which they were intended to redress. [United States v. Booker, 655 F. 2d 562 (4th Cir. 1981)](_URL_5_) (some citations omitted and some spacing added).	[ "Proponents of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution knew that without legislation that codified the 13th Amendment in the form of laws and statutes along with law enforcement agencies to uphold the laws, there would be no true end to slavery, and this is the reason for the inclusion of Section 2 of the 13th Amend...
In medieval and pre-modern times, political entities made marriage pacts between heirs in order to secure peace. Often times, this didn't last for more than 20 years, if not even less. Why did they even bother?	Twenty years of peace is much better than no peace at all. Twenty years is enough time for a generation of young men to forgo military service, time to build infrastructure, time to consolidate power, and time grow a treasury. There are also plenty of examples of peaces that last longer than twenty years, or even result in permanent peace and consolidation. The nation of Spain was formed from [the union of the Kingdom of Castile and the Kingdom of Aragon](_URL_0_), a union that was set in motion when Isabella of Castile, the future queen, married Ferdinand the Catholic, a future king of Aragon. Their grandson Charles V and great grandson Phillip II would later become kings of a united Spain. James the VI of Scotland similarly oversaw the personal union of England and Scotland when he inherited the crown of England, becoming James I, in 1603. England and Scotland would later formally join together to become the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. Your question also implies that it is particularly unusual for a peace treaty to last less than twenty years. There are numerous examples of more modern treaties that did not maintain peace for much longer than twenty years. There were only twenty-one years between the World Wars (1918 to 1939) and only twelve years between the Gulf War (ended 1991) and the Iraq War (began 2003). I can try to include better sources if asked, but I don't think anything I've said here is controversial.	[ "Regionally and across the time span of the Middle Ages, marriage could be formed differently. Marriage could be proclaimed in secret by the mutually consenting couple, or arranged between families as long as the man and woman were not forced and consented freely; but by the 12th century in western canon law, conse...
What happened to German and Italian volunteers in the International Brigades of the Spanish Civil War after they were disbanded in 1938?	I gave a relatively brief answer to this [here](_URL_0_), focusing more on the Germans (for whom I had a relevant source handy). If I get the chance later today, I'll try and expand on it!	[ "The Yugoslav volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, known as Spanish fighters (, , / \"Španski borci\") and Yugoslav brigadistas (), was a contingent of volunteers from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia that fought beside the Republican side (in support of the Second Spanish Republic) in the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). An ...
What (if anything) did Native Americans think lay beyond the Pacific and Atlantic oceans?	The desert people of the American Southwest generally understood the concept of oceans as not being fundamentally different from a large lake or stream. Among the [recorded] creation myths of the O'odham peoples, at least two contain gods or demigods turning small rivers into vast oceans, splitting apart the original peoples of the Earth, although the survival of remote peoples is left ambiguous. One of these stories later goes on to discuss the people who survived the flood on the other side of the ocean, who were conveniently white-skinned. Another passage from the same source states that another group of people over the ocean were in fact dark brown. Both of these groups were the result of mistakes in creation, after which the perfectly colored Hohokam groups were created. As prophetic as these may sound, our one source of these tales was recorded from a drunkard by a priest in the 1930s. Given that it is the only semi-complete history of the O'odham remaining today, we have no means to determine how far back the individual elements go. Among the Hopi and other Puebloan peoples, we have an understanding that the oceans were not the complete end of land. At the very least they understood that people lived in the islands off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts from trade with groups living nearer to the sea. Both groups had an accurate understanding of the geography of their continent between the oceans and an understanding that humans could live on the water as their neighbors did. It's not impossible that they conceived of other lands similar to their own across the water, which was understood to be similar to a large river or lake. The stories we have hint at this understanding, but the near-complete absence of historical records about the O'odham and Yuman people make that suggestion speculative at best. The situation among the Puebloans is little better. While they clearly understood the concept of sailing quite well, the myths make scarce mention of foreign lands that would not have been visible from shore. Bahr, Donald M., et al. The short, swift time of gods on earth: The Hohokam chronicles. Univ of California Press, 1994. Courlander, Harold, ed. The fourth world of the Hopis. UNM Press, 1971.	[ "The Pacific recognized: Europeans knew that there was a vast ocean to the west, and the Chinese knew that there was one to the east. Learned Europeans thought that the world was round and that the two oceans were one. In 1492 Columbus sailed west to what he thought was Asia. When Pedro Álvares Cabral, en route to ...
Is it possible that in the distant future, an organism that exists right now on Earth, will evolve to the point that it can be considered intelligent life? Which animal comes the closest?	> Is it possible that in the distant future, an organism that exists right now on Earth, will evolve to the point that it can be considered intelligent life? Yes, it's possible, but by no means is it a sure thing. Evolution doesn't have a goal in mind, nor does it have specific end points that are inherently better than others. Evolution adapts to the environment, and what works works, what doesn't dies off. > Which animal comes the closest? We have a difficult time defining intelligence within our own species. The difficulty goes up astronomically when you look at other species. Are you talking about technic intelligence? It's unlikely anything in the ocean will ever develop technology (at least, as far as we can tell - without fire lots of tools are going to be difficult to make). Social intelligence? Well, insects seem to have a big advantage there... but they're probably a ways off on the tool front. etc, etc, etc. You see the difficulties?	[ "It is possible that even if complex life is common, intelligence (and consequently civilizations) is not. While there are remote sensing techniques that could perhaps detect life-bearing planets without relying on the signs of technology, none of them has any ability to tell if any detected life is intelligent. Th...
How much can you learn from someone's genome?	Well this is fun, we literally just covered this kind of stuff in my advanced molecular biology course. Your genome will contain variation depending on genetics that has been passed down from your parents. You may be homozygous for 11 copies of a short-tandem repeat (STR, 2-3 'letters' repeated over and over again in the sequence) where I will be heterozygous for 13 and 8 copies. Your "DNA fingerprint" that the FBI uses involves these regions, when the areas that contain them are amplified by PCR, they show up as different lengths. Furthermore, there are single-nucleotide-polymorphisms (SNPs) where you may have an A where I have a C (or C-A or T-G or T-A...you get the point). There are also "indels" - insersions or deletions relative to one genomre or another. These can serve as markers for disease or other traits, especially if they occur in protein coding genes. There are a very very large number of these variations, and I could predict (not even close to 100% certainty, though) some traits about you as well as heritable diseases you may carry. The debate on nature/nurture is how certain could I be given your genotype? [This database](_URL_0_) is called Online Mendellian Inheritance in Man and catalogs diseases/traits and contains a wealth of SNP and indel data about them. Doing some mining, you can find tables like [these](_URL_1_) that will list all known variants for a gene and link to more information about them. This example is the Von Willebrands Factor, mutations of which cause Von Willebrands Disease which is a mild bleeding disorder. I don't know your background, but this site contains a lot of very technical information. You may have heard of [23andMe](_URL_2_) which is a commercial service that will assay your genome for specific markers as well. EDIT: If your family has submitted their genomes to a database as well, we could ID them as well	[ "Over the course of the next three years, scientists at the Sanger Institute, BGI Shenzhen and the National Human Genome Research Institute’s Large-Scale Sequencing Network are planning to sequence a minimum of 1,000 human genomes. Due to the large amount of sequence data that need to be generated and analyzed it i...
why are hispanics included as whites in statistical polls instead of being considered their own independent demographic like blacks or native americans?	Hispanic is not a race. It's an ethnicity. There are white Hispanics, black Hispanics, Native American Hispanics, and even Asian Hispanics.	[ "In January 2016, CUNY sociologist Richard Alba wrote an article in the American Prospect arguing that the way in which majority-minority calculations are made by the Census are misleading. Anyone with any Hispanic, Asian, or Black ancestry is seen as non-white, even if they also have white ancestry. Alba argues th...
what causes "flashing lights", or blurry vision after strenuous physical activity?	NOTE: I am not a medical doctor, and this is not a diagnosis; just the best attempt I can at explaining it. It's likely caused by the gel inside of his eyes rubbing on or pulling at the retina. If he stood up after a car ride, it can cause a change in blood pressure as well, which would lead to less oxygen going to the brain and some experience flashes of light along with a narrowing of the field of vision.	[ "In some epileptics, flickering or flashing lights, such as strobe lights, can be responsible for the onset of a tonic clonic, absence, or myoclonic seizure. This condition is known as photosensitive epilepsy and, in some cases, the seizures can be triggered by activities that are harmless to others, such as watchi...
if an ambulance on its way to a call witnesses an accident, what do they do?	It depends on the severity of the accident compared to the severity of the call they're en route to. If they see a horrible car wreck, and they're on a call for a broken bone, they'll stop for the wreck and radio in to let the dispatcher know to send out a new ambulance for the initial call. However, if they were on their way to a heart attack victim, they'll likely radio in and request a new ambulance for the wreck.	[ "The refusal of medical assistance, or RMA, ensures the continuum of care that ambulance squads have a responsibility towards. In a typical emergency call, the ambulance service will assess and transport the patient to an appropriate facility. The ambulance squad's duty towards the patient begins with patient conta...
how do i know that i don't have depth perception?	Sure, if you've never experienced true binocularity (brain fusing each eye's image into one that is 3D), you might not realize you don't have it. It's possible to develop that skill so long as both eyes are physically intact and functional and so is your brain. Neuroscience ftw! A book that discusses this is "Stereo Sue" by Sue Barry about a lady scientist who didn't realize that very thing she was in her 50s and was able to regain it. It's an interesting story!	[ "Depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions (3D) and the distance of an object. Depth sensation is the corresponding term for animals, since although it is known that animals can sense the distance of an object (because of their ability to move accurately, or to respond consist...
since oil & water don't mix, how are essential oil soaks helpful?	As far as I know there is no scientific proof that essential oils work anyway, but yes your skin can only absorb so much.	[ "Due to differences in physical properties, oil does not readily mix with water. Many food and non-food systems require stabilization of mixtures of oil and water in order to prevent phase separation. Therefore, additives are used to provide stability. Lactylates are such additives.\n", "The essential oil is obta...
if a nuclear bomb is dropped on other nuclear bombs that are idle on the ground, will it create a double explosion or do these weapons need to become 'activated' in order for them to be able to detonate?	Depends on a lot of things. Nuclear bombs work by changing the critical mass of the nuclear fuel. "Critical mass" is the amount of nuclear material you need to have a sustained nuclear reaction. You can artificially make a smaller-than-critical mass into a critical mass in several ways. One way is to cover it with a material that reflects neutrons (which would cause all the neutrons that would've escaped outwards from the material to reflect back inwards, generally used in nuclear reactors and research), but another way is to change the temperature and pressure of the material (which is done in nuclear weapons by using "explosive lenses" which is a fancy way of saying you surround it with conventional explosives). Without those explosives going off (and a few other things I'd guess) that nuclear weapon isn't actually fissile (able to undergo fission). A nuclear explosion above the silo where the bombs are stored is just as likely to vaporize the exposive as anything else, not to mention that unless that explosion is able to actually trigger the explosive correctly it's not going to explode. (C4 and TNT for example are completely safe to burn, and only explode with specific stimulii.)	[ "Many nuclear detonations have taken place using [[aerial bomb]]s. The [[B-29 Superfortress\|B-29]] aircraft that delivered the nuclear weapons at [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]] did not lose power from electrical damage, because [[electron]]s (ejected from the air by gamma rays) are stopped quickly in normal air for...
why do bottles of liquid have a dent/semi circle at the bottom of them?	Its to make the plastic stronger. Without it they would have to add much more plastic to make it stable, which is more expensive. The bottle wouldn't explode, but it would cause the thinner areas to sag and deform. That would increase the chance of it bursting apart when force is applied. But with the divot, that sort of outcome is essentially impossible.	[ "Some cans, such as those used for sardines, have a specially scored lid so that the user can break out the metal by the leverage of winding it around a slotted church key. Until the mid-20th century, some sardine tins had solder-attached lids, and the winding key worked by forcing the solder joint apart.\n", "Th...
the dow futures is reported to have dropped 700 points already. what does that mean for retirement funds, the market in general, etc...?	What u/Chumkil said but it is unlikely to be a long-lasting drop, the underlying economy is strong and, once the excitement has died down, the markets will return to their original state - i.e. rising. The BBC were talking about this yesterday, apparently these flash-crashes are more to do with computer algorithm trading more than human sentiment. Their analyst's advice to investors was "play the long game and sit tight, use any significant drop to expand your portfolio."	[ "On October 9, 2007, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high of 14,164.53. Two days later on October 11, the Dow traded at an intra-day level high of 14,198.10, a mark which would not be matched until March 2013. In what would normally take many years to accomplish; numerous reasons were cited for ...
During the Cold War period, was Able Archer and The Cuban Missle Crisis the peak of tensions?	I would see a distinct difference between "peak of tensions" and "closest we came to a nuclear exchange." The Berlin crisis of 1948 was potentially a higher "peak of tensions" than Able Archer 83, but because the nuclear situation was only one-sided, it is not cited as a "close call." I would not consider Able Archer 83 a "peak of tensions," as it was primarily one-sided, though it was definitely one of the top "close calls." (What made it so dangerous was that the USA/NATO was so utterly unaware of how tense the Soviets felt about it.) Similarly, there were other "close calls" that were not marked by "peaks of tensions" — such as the numerous "false alarm" scares that the US and USSR both suffered from errors in their early warning systems. I would disentangle these two categories. What makes the Cuban Missile Crisis so remarkable and interesting is that it is the rare confluence of the two — a peak of tension _and_ a close call. There were many other very tense moments that were not close calls, and many close calls that were not actually peaks of tensions.	[ "After the Cuban Missile Crisis had passed, the Cold War situation kept Fort Stewart in an active training role. During the late 1960s, another developing situation would bring about yet another change in Fort Stewart’s mission. With tensions growing in the divided country of Vietnam, the U.S. found itself becoming...
what's in artificial food coloring that makes it so toxic to consume?	Food coloring is not considered toxic by most people. From Google: > > > While red dye #2 was subsequently banned from products sold in the United States, many health-conscious consumers continue to avoid foods with other artificial colors or dyes — even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) still considers them safe for human consumption. But that doesn't even tell the full story. Red Dye #2 might have never been particularly unsafe to humans. > > > In 1976, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded that, in high doses, Red No. 2 could cause cancer in female rats. The FDA declared it an ingredient non grata in the United States because although it had never been shown to pose health risks to humans, no one had been able to prove it safe, either. But the media painted a scary picture of Red Dye #2. > > > In 1971, however, Soviet scientists announced that Red No. 2 caused cancer. Public outcry in the U.S. against the dye quickly gained such fervor that the Mars candy company temporarily stopped producing red M & Ms despite the fact that they had never contained Red No. 2 in the first place. Red dye #2 was replaced in America by Red Dye #40, but #2 is still available and considered safe in Europe where one last bizarre fact enters the picture: > > > But in a twist of fate, the European Food Safety Authority recently recommended limiting children's intake of Red No. 40. As a result, while Red No. 2 is illegal in the U.S. but flows freely in the EU, the near-opposite is true for Red No. 40. You can read more about it [here](_URL_0_).	[ "In response to concerns about the safety of certain food additives, the UK FSA commissioned a study by researchers at Southampton University of the effect of a mixture of six food dyes (Tartrazine, Allura Red, Ponceau 4R, Quinoline Yellow WS, Sunset Yellow and Carmoisine (dubbed the \"Southampton 6\")) and sodium ...
why does it feel like your stomach drops when your adrenaline kicks in?	It's related to the fight-or-flight response. Your body prioritizes your extremities and blood is drawn away from "non-essentials" such as the digestive system. This leads to that uneasy stomach feeling you get.	[ "During states of excitement or stress, the body releases adrenaline. Adrenaline is known to cause physical symptoms that accompany test anxiety, such as increased heart rate, sweating, and rapid breathing. In many cases having adrenaline is a good thing. It is helpful when dealing with stressful situations, ensuri...
what happens to someone convicted of a felony that is going to die soon?	There are Hospitals/infirmaries in prisons. They'd likely just spend their final time in there. Or they might just be put in with the general population if they don't need constant medical care.	[ "If a person committing a predicate felony directly contributed to the death of the victim then the person will be charged with murder in the first degree - felony murder which is a capital felony. The only two sentences available for that statute are life in prison and the death penalty. \n", "If a person commit...
Why can a person safely receive platelets donated by anyone, but can only receive a particular type of whole blood?	Platelets don't have antigens (the things antibodies recognize) on them. What might be a good way to remember this is that they're not made from red blood cells where the ABO blood group antigens are, they're shed from cells in the bone marrow called megakaryocytes. That's not to say platelets are JUST floating bits of cytoplasm. They've got glycoproteins on the outside to recognize various signals that, if received, may then induce them to release granules filled with clotting factors. But why don't people have antibodies to these glycoproteins? People have antibodies against certain glycoproteins on red blood cells, right? Yes, they do. However, basically EVERYONE has the same platelet glycoproteins. Developing an immune reaction against them would almost certainly mean death. Super bad thrombocytopenia (low platelets) AND what's basically a bad transfusion reaction, which can kill a person in minutes. That being said, there are bleeding disorders where people lack some of these platelet factors (von Willebrand disease, for example). That's different from their bodies actively attacking any cell that has them, and they have problems with clotting and blood vessel damage, for the most part.	[ "Most platelet donations are given to patients who are unable to make enough platelets in their bone marrow. For example, patients with leukaemia or other cancers may have too few platelets as the result of their disease or treatment. Also after major surgery or extensive injury, patients may need platelet transfus...
why don't people get tolerance from orgasms like they do from drugs?	Well you can. Masturbate everyday, and compare it to not masturbating for a month. You do build up a tolerance if you will. It's less intense.	[ "Some forms of sexual dysfunction such as erectile dysfunction can be treated with drugs. Because of their effects, erectile dysfunction drugs are sometimes used for recreational purposes. Many drugs, both legal and illegal, some sold online, have side effects that affect the user's sexual function. Many drugs can ...
Is the shield wall fighting depicted on the show "Vikings" historically accurate?	Awesome thank you. I checked the FAQ and totally missed it.	[ "The term dates from at least 1000 AD and derives from Old English roots expressing the idea of a \"shield-troop\". Some researchers have also posited this etymological relation may show the schiltron is directly descended from the Anglo-Saxon shield wall, and still others give evidence \"schiltron\" is a name deri...
what is the difference between inches, millimeters and caliber when talking about guns?	Caliber is a measure of the internal diameter of a gun barrel. Inches are an SAE unit, and millimeters are a metric unit. Either can be used to describe the caliber, based on the manufacturer's preference.	[ "Modern firearms can be described by their caliber (i.e. their bore diameter; this is given in millimeters or inches e.g. 7.5 mm, .357 in.) or in the case of shotguns by their gauge (e.g. 12 ga.); by the type of action employed (muzzleloader, breechloader, lever, bolt, pump, revolver, semi-automatic, fully automati...
why is hydrogen so common on earth and helium quite rare?	Hydrogen is highly reactive, it bonds to oxygen, forming water. Water is quite dense, even as a vapor, and is therefore quite durable in the atmosphere. Helium is a noble gas and nearly perfectly inert. Being unbound to any heavier elements, it quickly rises to the top of the atmosphere and is lost to space by various mechanisms. Hydrogen is lost over time, but only slowly.	[ "The atmospheric proportions of hydrogen and helium are close to the theoretical composition of the primordial solar nebula. Neon in the upper atmosphere only consists of 20 parts per million by mass, which is about a tenth as abundant as in the Sun. Helium is also depleted to about 80% of the Sun's helium composit...
Why do the Russian scientists have to wait till December to study the water they took from Lake Vostok? (Lake under Antartica)	Vostok Station is one of the most [inhospitable places for humans to work](_URL_0_). December is the Antarctic summer, so the weather will be better, temperatures warmer, and up to 24 hours of daylight.	[ "By plan, the following summer, the team was to drill down again to take a sample of that ice and analyze it. The Russians resumed drilling into the lake in January 2012 and reached the upper surface of the water on 6 February 2012. The researchers allowed the rushing lake water to freeze within the bore hole and m...
I hear a lot about rape from the Red Army in Berlin during WWII. Did the German army (and SS) rape women too? If so, why isn't it talked about as much?	This topic is very well covered in two Russian books: [this one](_URL_3_), called "For What the Soviet People Were Fighting" and [this one](_URL_2_), called "Unknown Faces of War". The Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in WWII with the overall mindset of creating Lebensraum and the getting rid of most of the local population (keeping some for slave labour), since Russians, Belorussians, Ukranians and Jews alike were all considered Untermenschen. When the Soviet Army was pushing the Nazis back and liberating captured towns and villages it was very often the case that they were discovered entirely empty. Houses were burnt, wells were filled with bodies and trenches filled with bodies were all over the place. Rape of the local populace by the advancing Nazis was as commonplace as the fighting itself and in addition to the "unorganised" rape carried out normally, organised brothels were set up to service the officers and soldiers. [Here](_URL_0_) and [here](_URL_1_) are fragments from the respective two books which summarise the extent of what was going on. The sources for the books are Nuremberg trial materials and eyewitness accounts from both sides. EDIT: The following is a particularly telling excerpt: "We went to the village near the town of Gatchina Rozhdestvenno - told who served on the Seversky airport Private Peter Shuber. - We had a mission: to bring the girls the officers. We have successfully carried out the operation, all cordoned off the house. We collected a truckload of girls. All night the girls kept the officers, but in the morning they gave us - the soldiers. In large cities, organized stationary brothels. It was standard practice Wehrmacht. "There were soldiers' brothels," puffs "were called - remember shturmbannfyurera SS Avenir Bennigsen. - Almost all fronts. Girls from all over Europe, of all nationalities, from all camps collected. By the way, an indispensable accessory of a German soldier and an officer were two condoms, which are regularly issued in the army. " But while in Europe the Wehrmacht brothels staffed with more or less voluntarily, on Soviet soil invaders such delicacy is not going to show. Girls and women for the German soldiers for the most part collected by force - a scene that will forever remember the people trapped under the occupation. In Smolensk, for example, women dragged by the arms and hair, dragged on the pavement - in the officer's brothel, organized in one of the hotels. In case of refusal to stay in a brothel followed the shooting. After the Red Army drove the Germans out of Kerch, views of Red terrible sight presented itself: "In the prison yard was found mutilated shapeless pile of naked girls' bodies, wild and tortured by the Nazis cynically." The way the advancing Nazi army treated the captured territories was known to the people fighting in the Soviet Army, and after the turning point occurred and the captured territories were liberated, the extent of the brutailty only served to increase the anger felt by the Soviets, resulting in the mass rape that occurred in East Germany when the war came there. The Soviet materials regarding the matter are still classified, but the German director, Helke Sander, states that a million women were raped by the Soviets in [this film](_URL_4_). However, reading the accounts of what the Germans did, it's really no wonder that the Soviets responded in kind, and helps explain why Victory Day (VE Day) is marked on a much larger scale in Russia today than in the Western Allied countries.	[ "As Allied troops entered and occupied German territory during the later stages of World War II, mass rapes of women took place both in connection with combat operations and during the subsequent occupation. Most Western scholars agree that the majority of the rapes were committed by Soviet servicemen, while some R...
Do different types of wood have different specific heats?	Wood in general is a very complicated material. The specific heat of any particular piece of wood is going to be dominated by the amount of water in that wood. So it can vary significantly not only from species to species but also within species according to what treatment, if any, the wood has undergone.	[ "The energy content of a measure of wood depends on the tree species. For example, it can range from per cord. The higher the moisture content, the more energy that must be used to evaporate (boil) the water in the wood before it will burn. Dry wood delivers more energy for heating than green wood of the same speci...
why is the greek language used in science so much?	Most of what we consider 'Science' was developed in the European university system post-Renaissance. Since such universities were almost always affiliated with the Church, they created a common course of study that included Latin and Greek. As a result, while scientists in different nations spoke different native languages, they all had familiarity with Latin (and, to a lesser extent, Greek). The Greek letters in particularly came to be used for many mathematical formulas because they were distinct from the standard alphabet, but still recognizable.	[ "The discussion on the Greek language question began at the end of the 18th century. Because western Europeans were familiar with, and valued, the ancient Greek language, Eugenios Voulgaris, along with Lambros Photiadis, Stephanos Commitas (1770–1832) and Neophytos Doukas, proposed that the modern Greek language sh...
Just finished watching "12 Years a Slave": Was life for slaves in the southern U.S. during the 1800's really as bad as these movies depict? What was the average life like for an average slave on an average plantation?	> but people don't beat their horses to within one inch of their life. Of course they do. In the 1930s the WPA interviewed more than 2000 slaves, who describe their treatment in detail. These are available [online](_URL_1_). [Here](_URL_0_) is a selection with brief descriptions of their contents. The first link takes you to a master link of narratives. They're quite brutal. It is not pleasant reading in any sense. Of course, Solomon Northrup's own account can also be found online, [here](_URL_1_) for example.	[ "On November 4, 2013, Cohen published a column about the film \"12 Years a Slave\", in which he wrote: \"Instead, beginning with school, I got a gauzy version. I learned that slavery was wrong, yes, that it was evil, no doubt, but really, that many blacks were sort of content. Slave owners were mostly nice people —...
why does sunset time sometimes decrease or increase by 2 minutes instead of 1?	Daylight time changes vary by latitude; in July the North pole experiences 24 hours of daylight while in December it experiences 0, so there must be a change of at least 24 hours daylight time in 180 days, which turns out to average about 8 minutes a day change. At the equator no change is perceived at all (0 minutes per day). More than that, the rate of change varies through the year. At the winter and summer solstices the changes are relatively slow. At the autumn and spring equinoxes the rates of change are at their highest. This is because during winter and summer the earths pole is pointing directly away or toward the sun (depending on hemisphere and season), while at spring and autumn the earths axis is perpendicular to the sun. As a result the daily change in daylight hours varies by how North or South you are, as well as the time of year. You can explore the range of impact here: _URL_0_	[ "The time of sunset varies throughout the year, and is determined by the viewer's position on Earth, specified by longitude and latitude, and elevation. Small daily changes and noticeable semi-annual changes in the timing of sunsets are driven by the axial tilt of Earth, daily rotation of the Earth, the planet's mo...
why do humans have fetishes and animals appear to do not?	Depends on what you call a fetish. Male goats have been shown to like pee play and seeing female goats simulate sex.	[ "This may be greatly affected by masculine people being less inhibited by social norms for expressing their desire, being more aware of their sexual desire or succumbing to the expectation of their gender culture. When feminine people employ tactics to show their sexual desire, they are typically more indirect in n...
Can you transmit the flu through semen? What about sweat?	It is primarily an infection involving the upper respiratory tract. The virus is primarily shed through coughing/sneezing. The likelihood of semen or sweat containing the virus is low and unless those fluids are inhaled it wouldn't cause an infection.	[ "Semen can transmit many sexually transmitted diseases and pathogens, including viruses like HIV and Ebola. Swallowing semen carries no additional risk other than those inherent in fellatio. This includes transmission risk for sexually transmitted diseases such as human papillomavirus (HPV) or herpes, especially fo...
Why are pipe organs used to play songs or jingles at hockey games?	For the same reason that they're used (or used to be used) at baseball games: volume. Even a small hockey stadium is a huge place, filled with screaming fans, and the pipe organ has the oomph to be heard in that environment. Nowadays, most use "electronic pipe organs." The one in Chicago's United Center, for example, uses recorded pipe organ sound, and cost something near $150,000. It's not as fun as the one that was demolished with "The Madhouse on Madison," but it still sounds good.	[ "A pitch pipe is a small device used to provide a pitch reference for musicians without absolute pitch. Although it may be described as a musical instrument, it is not typically used to play music as such. Technically, it is a harmonica; however, it lacks many characteristics of harmonicas.\n", "It is played by b...
What was the Roman Empire's opinion of the crusades, and how did they feel about the outcomes?	I'm not well versed on their reaction to all of the Crusades, but their opinion of the First Crusade was initially very positive. Emperor Alexius had extracted oaths of loyalty from the prominent Crusader leaders, and promises to restore reconquered territory in Anatolia to the Romans, and this is what happened initially. Alexius gave the Crusader armies extensive supplies for their journey, as well as knowledgeable guides. He sent his navy along the coasts to help them whenever possible, and eventually sent armies in their wake to protect the conquests of the Crusaders (which, naturally, he wanted to see restored to his empire). Cooperation between the Romans and the Crusaders was effective and relation were relatively positive - both parties had the same objectives; to defeat the Seljuks and restore land to the Christians. However, things took a sharp turn when the Crusaders refused to hand over Antioch to the Romans following its capture in 1098. Alexius was understandably angry, since it was in direct violation of their previous agreements. Things took a further negative turn when the Crusaders revealed their intention of invading the Fatamid Caliphate and retaking the Holy Land. Alexius was on good terms with the Fatamids, since both of them viewed the Seljuks as a more serious threat than each other, and they agreed that it was in both of their best interests to focus their attention on defending against the Seljuks rather than fighting each other. Alexius warned the Crusaders not to start a war with the Fatamids, but they ignored him and marched down the Levant coast. The Emperor was furious and promptly cut off all aid he was giving them, including supplies and naval assistance. For the rest of the First Crusade (which at that point continued for only a few more months) there was no cooperation between the Romans and Crusaders. Alexius saw the invasion of the Holy Land as pointless from a strategic perspective and in nobody's best interests, and quickly distanced himself from the Crusaders and tried to maintain positive relations with the Fatamids, telling them he had nothing to do with it. The only Crusader state that the Romans had somewhat positive (or at least not overtly negative) relations with was the Principality of Antioch, since its prince, Bohemund, swore fealty to Alexius as his overlord. This took some of the sting off the Crusaders' refusal to hand over the city, although Roman control of the principality was minimal and tensions were always high, since the princes simultaneously were influenced by the Kingdom of Jerusalem as well. Source: God's War: A New History of the Crusades by Christopher Tyreman	[ "Crusades against Christians in the East by Roman Catholic crusaders were not exclusive to the fourth crusade nor the Mediterranean. The sacking of Constantinople and the Church of Holy Wisdom, the destruction of the Monastery of Stoudios, Library of Constantinople and the establishment of the Latin Empire in Const...
how are you assigned to classes in college?	You'll talk to an advisor who will give you a schedule based on the program you are enrolling in.	[ "Online courses are typically divided into units of class discussions (ongoing posts of classmate queries and comments), downloadable assignments and quizzes. What students are actually graded on is based on the course and the professor, however, class participation is usually required in the form of threaded discu...
why does throwing an extremely light object, for example a golf ball, strain the arm as opposed to a baseball that is relative in mass?	The same reason you should never dry fire a bow (shooting a bow without an arrow in place). If there is no arrow to transfer the energy of the pulled bowstring, all of that energy will go into the bow itself and can damage or shatter the bow. Your arm functions the same way as a bow: transfering energy into the ball (arrow). A lighter or smaller ball doesn't require as much energy to launch. If you perform your normal throw on the lighter ball, the excess energy not transferred to the ball will travel back through your arm and can strain it especially if you don't do a full follow-through to help release the energy.	[ "Further refinements to the motion of the ball can be made by taking into account air resistance (and related effects such as drag and wind), the Magnus effect, and buoyancy. Because lighter balls accelerate more readily, their motion tends to be affected more by such forces.\n", "The swing weight of a baseball b...
Why is there so much Carbon-14 in these fossils?	There's a lot of crap on that page. First, carbon dating doesn't work for things like dinosaur fossils. They're too old. The number 22,380 has no reference next to it so I'm not sure which reference at the bottom they're referring to. The premise of the article is that in 2005 a fossil was dated to 20-30k years. None of their references seems to point to this event, nor does Google come up with anything that's not a blog or some anti-evolution web site. Hugh Miller comes up a few times, he's apparently a creationist. There's nothing on that page that can be responded to without vomiting.	[ "Carbon-14 (C) is a naturally occurring radioisotope, created in the upper atmosphere (lower stratosphere and upper troposphere) by interaction of nitrogen with cosmic rays. It is found in trace amounts on Earth of 1 part per trillion (0.0000000001%) or more, mostly confined to the atmosphere and superficial deposi...
As the needle approaches the centre of a record, its speed increases, right? Are the grooves cut differently towards the middle of a record to account for this?	The grooves aren't intentionally cut differently, but the wavelength representation is longer near the edge compared to the center because the speed of the track increases from the center to the edge. Since the grooves are cut directly into the recording material, no external adjustment is necessary, since it's always going to be a 1 to 1 correspondence when played back at the same speed it was cut.	[ "Examining a vertically-cut groove along its length reveals a continuous wavy line as the needle cuts at different depths according to the tone and the loudness of the audio being recorded. These grooves show a transition from high to low peak as a smooth curve, giving the characteristic rounded 'hill and dale' eff...

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Dataset Card for "lfqa_preprocessed"

Dataset Summary

This is a simplified version of vblagoje's lfqa_support_docs and lfqa datasets. It was generated by me to have a more straight forward way to train Seq2Seq models on context based long form question answering tasks.

Dataset Structure

Data Instances

An example of 'train' looks as follows.

{
    "question": "what's the difference between a forest and a wood?",
    "answer": "They're used interchangeably a lot. You'll get different answers from different resources, but the ...",
    "context": [
        "Wood is divided, according to its botanical origin, into two kinds: softwoods, ...",
        "Processing and products differs especially with regard to the distinction between softwood and hardwood ..."
    ]
}

Data Fields

The data fields are the same among all splits.

question: a string feature.
answer: a string feature.
context: a list feature containing string features.

Data Splits

name	train	validation
	226147	3020

Additional Information

Licensing Information

This dataset is distributed under the MIT licence.

Downloads last month: 41

Homepage:

towardsdatascience.com

Size of downloaded dataset files:

1.17 GB

Size of the auto-converted Parquet files:

702 MB

Number of rows:

229,167