What happened at Roanoke? Roanoke was the first permanent English colony founded in North America and within 3 years all of the colonists had vanished. It is still a mystery. There are five basic theories. The colonists were killed by Native Americans. They were killed by the Spanish. They returned to England. They assimilated with […]
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How would a brain machine interface work? A brain machine interface would work by reading the brain’s electrical signals and converting them into a signal that a machine can use. They could be worn on the head or implanted in the brain. At its simplest level, the brain machine interface is just reading the electricity
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How does an earthquake resistant building work? Architects and engineers can make buildings that resist earthquakes by reducing how much the buildings move horizontally when an earthquake occurs. Earthquakes are an unavoidable natural disaster. They can be caused by volcanic activity, collapsing mountains, or they can be caused by the motion of tectonic plates. When
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How do driverless cars navigate a city? Driverless cars use a whole mix of software and sensors to navigate through a city. They use Lidar, radar, cameras, and self-learning algorithms. Driverless cars are becoming more common these days, but they always have to have a driver paying attention at the wheel in case something goes
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What is the French Foreign Legion? It is a unit of highly trained foreign soldiers that form a part of the French army. Most countries generally only allow soldiers that have citizenship to join the armed forces. There are some exceptions. The US allows people with a US permanent resident card to sign up for
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Why do people procrastinate? The majority of people that procrastinate do so because they are trying to avoid the negative emotions that come with whatever task it is they are trying to do. The word “procrastinate” came into English via French, from Latin. The latin word was “procrastinare”. In Latin, “pro” means “forward” and “crastinus”
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What is a salt road? A salt road is a road that was used in ancient times to transport salt from where it was produced to where it was needed. We don’t think about salt so much these days. Maybe if our meal is a bit bland we might reach for the salt cellar and
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What is a tadpole shrimp? It is a species of crustacean and is actually one of the oldest known animal species. It is called a living fossil because it is so old. The Latin name for the tadpole shrimp is Notostraca, and their genus is triops, which means three eyes because they have two compound
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Why is the AK-47 so good? AK-47s are so good because they are easy to use, cheap to make, reliable, and they can function in extremely harsh conditions. The AK-47 is the most popular gun ever made. The AK-47 was designed in 1945, finalized in 1947 (hence its name), and went into production in 1948.
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Does the placebo effect work? The placebo effect works for things that are directly affected by the brain, but not for actual illnesses. Nobody understands exactly the mechanism behind the placebo effect, but there are some pretty good theories. The word “placebo” comes from Latin, and its origins give a clue to what it does.
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