Whip out your maps, folks. Let’s start with pure geography: Great Britain (also known as Britain) is an island in between the North Sea and the English Channel. Ireland is an island to the west of Britain. Both Great Britain and Ireland are a part of the British Isles, a group of over 6,000 islands off the northwestern coast of Europe. Things get complicated when we start talking politics. The island of Great Britain is made up of the countries of England, Wales, and Scotland. The island read more

Whip out your maps, folks. Let’s start with pure geography: Great Britain (also known as Britain) is an is read more

Caramel, butterscotch, dulce de leche, and cajeta: all are sweet, golden, syrupy concoctions that are delicious things to eat. However, according to Mark Bittman’s How to Bake Everything and pastry chef Stella Parks over at Serious Eats, there are marked differences between the four: Caramel is made from slowly cooking down granulated sugar, simply by itself or with a splash of water. As the sugar melts and cooks, the caramel gets richer and toastier, and the color goes from a pale gold t read more

Caramel, butterscotch, dulce de leche, and cajeta: all are sweet, golden, syrupy concoctions that are deliciou read more

In the United States, the terms “lawyer” and “attorney” are usually used interchangeably. However, according to LawyerEdu, there is a small—but important—distinction. A lawyer is someone who has graduated law school, whereas an attorney is a lawyer who has passed the bar exam and is licensed to practice law in a given jurisdiction. An attorney is legally qualified to practice law in court; a lawyer may or may not. All attorneys are lawyers, but all lawyers are not read more

In the United States, the terms “lawyer” and “attorney” are usually used interchangeably. Howev read more

Lots to unpack here. The basics, according to Encyclopedia Britannica: Whiskey (or whisky) can be any of a variety of distilled liquors that are made from a fermented mash of cereal grains and aged in wooden containers, which are usually constructed of oak. Commonly used grains are corn, barley malt, rye, and wheat. The difference between whiskey and whisky is where the stuff is made: in the United States and Ireland, it’s spelled “whiskey”; in Scotland, Canada, and Japan, it’s “wh read more

Lots to unpack here. The basics, according to Encyclopedia Britannica: Whiskey (or whisky) can be any of a va read more

For today’s answer, we’re turning to Patrick Megonigal, an ecosystem ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. According to Megonigal, as told to Science News, soil is: the compilation of minerals, air, water, animals and other living matter (and their wastes or decaying bodies) that accumulate in layers and become compacted over time. These layers—or “horizons”—are defined as the topsoil, subsoil, and parent soil. And dirt? Megonigal defines dirt as “displ read more

For today’s answer, we’re turning to Patrick Megonigal, an ecosystem ecologist at the Smithsonian Environm read more

For today’s answer, we’re turning to Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking. According to McGee: The sweet potato is the true storage root of Ipomoea batatas, a member of the morning glory family. It is native to northern South America, and may have reached Polynesia in prehistoric times. Columbus brought the sweet potato to Europe, and by the end of the 15th century it was established in China and the Philippines. China now produces and consumes far more sweet potatoes than the Americas, en read more

For today’s answer, we’re turning to Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking. According to McGee: The sweet read more

To answer today's question, we’re turning to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and Encyclopedia Britannica. Sociopathy and psychopathy are both defined in the DSM as types of anti-social personality disorders, which are characterized by a “pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others.” When it comes to the differences between the two conditions, Encyclopedia Britannica writes: Among persons who display APD, those called ps read more

To answer today's question, we’re turning to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM read more