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4iseou | Why is the Panama Paper's leak not being extensively covered by American news media outlets? | Because it's difficult to understand and boring. Now how about that Trump!? It's like he's sayin' whut we all thinking! | 3fc32814-578b-4fd3-81ab-f9d1647b59b1 |
91xz4i | How can I set up a corporation to purchase my (and everyone else’s) student loan debt and then dissolve the corporation via bankruptcy? | Nice try, but that won't work. To buy up the debt, your corporation's going to need money. It doesn't have any, so it'll have to either take out a loan from a bank, or sell shares in the corporation to raise some. The bank and the investors are going to ask, "what's your business plan to pay us back?" When you as the CEO say you don't have one because you're planning on declaring bankruptcy and sticking them with the debt, they'll kick you out of their office. | 1337ddb9-48a0-4a4e-8e4d-b3d070c118d7 |
2kf19l | Why was rasputin hated so much in imperial Russia? | I think it's a good idea to ask /r/history :L | d283ea35-6ef0-43e2-9a58-5cbffc7e7e22 |
20l1lo | Why Australia is protesting right now and what are they protesting over? | There are a number of issues that people were protesting, but overall it was to show that they feel that the current government is malicious and incompetent due to their policies, comments, and broken promises.
This is to do with things like education funding, worker's rights, public assets, social security, and the environment.
It's not like what is happening to Turkey and Venezuela, no riots or clashes, just people showing that they are frustrated and scared with what the government intends to do. | 28d21b0d-1c6d-4fd5-ba42-883ec0a0ddd6 |
7ugmr6 | How can the US be trillions in debt but still able to spend over 600 billion in its army? | Most US debt is owed back to whoever owns it (mostly other parts of the US government and American citizens) on a set basis. The debt owners will be repaid according to a set schedule. There’s no super bank ready to foreclose on the US government or that controls all US debt. What this means is that the US has to set aside enough each year to pay its debt obligations for that year. This amount is less than what the US government brings in taxes each year, so the difference between the tax income and the amount used to service the debt is what pays for everything else (and there’s always borrowing more money if taxes aren’t enough). | 8191f980-06de-4de1-b498-b38f642730c7 |
2xy2cs | Why are you required to take the full course of antibiotics even if you start to feel better? | to ensure that the bacteria are all dead. if you take antibiotics, and stop once you feel better, that doesn't ensure they are all dead. those that survive, could develop resistances to the drugs. | 1728a52a-bf56-4707-9009-6d205c29d5cf |
7cz5b4 | 'Modern humans' have existed for 130 to 300 thousand years. Why then do nearly all modern cultures seem to stem back no more than 6,000 years in origin? | Because we spent a very long time pissing about in small little family units getting eaten by wolves and fornicating like primitive pre-civilization primates do.
Civilization, or something that we could reasonably call the start of it, occurred around 12,000 years ago when humans finally stopped roaming in an area of the Fertile Crescent and started building stuff. This marked the break point where humans started living in larger and larger communities in a single geographic area. Slowly that led to the development of farming as a primary means of food production and the increase in food availability allowed division of labor which fast forward 12,000 years is why we both have computers and can sit here and talk on the internet. | 3b85b194-e494-457e-854e-cd464d4a3014 |
778j39 | Why are most of the world's deserts covered in sand and not just dry soil? | Soil is largely made of sand (or other minerals), organic matter, water, and gas. When you don't have precipitation, you lose out on organic matter and water, so you're left with minerals and rocks that form sand. | 69e70562-1018-419a-ab6a-9b17c12ec8f2 |
xjwp3 | What's the deal with same-sex marriage in the US? | Every time I read a post starting "what's the deal with ..." I imagine it's by Jerry Seinfeld. | 3842826f-ddc7-469c-8260-70b5dd608d28 |
1k7vkv | How are we making higher capacity HDDs year over year while keeping them the same size (or even making them smaller)? | Don't think of it like storing water in a bucket - water is a physical thing that has a more or less fixed size.
We aren't storing a physical thing, we're storing data. Data is abstract and in theory doesn't have any density or size in physical dimensions. Because of this data doesn't have to be stored in a fixed-sized container.
It's like writing. When I write out 'Hello, Dave' I'm not storing a physical entity on the paper, I'm storing the thought. Since it's just symbols I don't actually lose anything by writing it as this size^or^this^size
As long as it can be read by my reader - so in this case I can see it myself - it's the same amount of data stored in different amounts of space.
HDD technology is allowing for smaller 'fonts' that can still be read by the HDD. | 722feebf-a2f1-4ed5-a17b-a73b4bcbf65f |
qgh3f | What's the best way to wash blueberries? | Stick 'em in the sieve, rinse 'em, an you're done. | 971a82a0-ba4c-4206-9b64-0250375eb617 |
6e4lx0 | Why do our mouths salivate right before throwing up? | Since stomach contents are highly acidic, vomiting can be quite harmful for the throat, mouth and teeth and salivating helps to reduce this by diluting and rinsing. Saliva is also weakly alkaline, which helps to neutralize acid. | c146bb31-f514-4378-ada0-7af4b244ed45 |
2v1z49 | Why are girls in middle school and high school almost always generally more mature than guys in high school and middle school? | They really are not. Girls tend to be socialized more so they may present the appearance of maturity more often, but they are in no way any more mature on average that boys their age are. | 62524dcf-9f0a-4f08-b6f6-93060683772d |
5w1aup | What biologically is happening inside trees that causes them to bloom after a week of warm weather? | you quite answered by yourself:
Normally we have modeled the phenomenon with the [Degree day](_URL_0_) which is somewhat the energy taken in a certain period of time.
Of course the answer is much more complex of this *because* in reality there are many ways plants adopted to control the blooming, depending on where the habitat of the plant is.
second question: yes. A frost can kill the buds and this agronomically speaking could be very dangerous.
a lesser known fact is that in temperate zones, plant have *usually* evolved a mechanism by which they don't bloom or sprout if they do not get [enough "cold"](_URL_1_). This is a defence mechanism exactly against early warm days. | 86e461ed-035c-4bc4-814a-718bbb0854f9 |
5xoods | why does urinating on a lemon tree help it grow? | Hold up.....WHA?????? lol
Ok I know nothing of this legend BUT i do know that urine will break down into Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium with many trace minerals. so in that respect it is actually one hell of a good fertilizer for any plant. If the salts were an issue there would be many a dead tree in dog parks....
Give you an example. I have some huge rose bushes and people are always commenting on the size of the blooms and the strength of the rose smell. they always ask what I do and I say nothing special. but in reality I make sure I take at least one wizz a night in my garden lol. in this way they are getting raw pure nitrogen no different then the chemicals in miracle grow, and has the benefit of being natural which doesnt kill the soil microbes like chemical fertilizers do.
It's safe, it's free, and it's potential can match any commercial chemical fertilizers. (the Romans even made cleaning solutions from Urine)
_URL_0_ | f4a80c81-672a-4cd8-80ff-9f8ba4452f7f |
2w1nkv | Is it truly possible to make a computer program that deletes its entire self and any evidence it was there in the first place? | Remember that the executing program is in memory, so it can delete any copy off the disk or whatever it loaded from, then reboot the system, which clears the memory. | 46e27c2d-967c-454d-a98a-e52ee85d1bc4 |
1ln5o3 | Why don't US citizens get to vote about entering Syria? | Because the United States federal government is a Republic, not a Democracy. In particular, it is not a direct democracy where citizens vote on everything. | c3f32577-2a9a-407c-bcae-2676bec5013e |
1rkigi | Coders/Developers of reddit. How exactly does my video game console detect that the disc a copy? | The pressed disk has data on it in special places that you can't write your own data to on a writeable disk. | 0947f795-d078-4cb5-87b7-2026e0e4bcfb |
3mhup4 | Movies and TV show cliche Cat and Dog as arch rival.e.g. Tom And Jerry. But, I see a lot of cat and dog living peacefully as pet in same house. What's behind rivalry cliche? | First, Tom and Jerry are a cat and mouse, not cat and dog (;
In the wild, dogs DO tend to chase cats. In the wild, dogs will also chase mice, rats, squirrels, rabbits, birds, raccoon and hell, anything else that runs away. They're hunters, it's what they do.
Now, since most of those are *not* well-established pets (yes, including rabbits) it doesn't surprise people when dogs chase them.
But when dogs *live* with another creature - be it a cat *or* a rabbit or a bird or whatever - they can easily accept them as part of the Pack and recognise they are *not* prey. Especially if the dog was introduced to them at an early age.
Note that this is not always true for every dog. Some dogs just never get along with any other animal - including other dogs. | 24d4335d-ff79-49e6-be55-d553e2d2023a |
2lblxm | Why does the post office have a key to the apt. building but UPS/FedEx don't? | depends on the building I would imagine as my Fedex and UPS guys have access to the buildings also. | ecf392b3-397b-4342-b5cb-d2e0c65965da |
2jsw99 | How do rappers like Wiz Khalifa who do drugs on occasion, even tweet and post pictures of their drugs manage to not get arrested? | A picture doesn't actually tell you that they're doing drugs - not even a video is actual proof. All they would need to do is say, "I have an image and I was just acting. That wasn't really cocaine/meth/weed." If it's a white powder it could sugar, flour, or chalk dust.
Tweets are the same way. Just because you say you're doing something doesn't mean you ARE doing something.
Basically, it'd be impossible to prove, without a doubt that they are, in fact, engaging in illegal drug use. | aeae9f7b-e1ab-4e36-bb0f-7568e4ea0535 |
4h1o4v | Why haven't Native Americans moved away from reservations and into cities where they might be better off? | Basically since the 1850s we have pushed them further and further (white encroachment) until in the 1890s when the Dawes Severalty Act was passed, the government paid them for land and separated tribes and what not.
Well years pass, and they gradually get less land, and finally permanent reservations are established, but by this time; native Americans haven't kept up with modern jobs. Most are vulnerable to poverty and many don't graduate high school so drug addicted teens typically won't make it past 30, and will stay on sight becuase there is literally no where to go. | b33be9f5-8e4f-4b72-8d04-3c951c24cf55 |
1hq1sx | Why all the planets are turning in the same direction | They dont (referring to planet rotation). Venus, Uranus (and Pluto) rotate clockwise, the rest rotate counter-clockwise.
When the solar system was first forming, it was nothing but a giant cloud of dust, and because of gravity and the Sun, it had a counter-clockwise spin to it, and as the planets began to form, they kept this rotation, which is why they all revolve around the sun in the same direction.
Venus and Uranus are theorized to have clockwise rotations because they were probably impacted by large planetoids early in their development, which shifted their rotational axis, and in the case of Uranus, completely shifted the axis to horizontal. | be9241bb-ff27-4534-9f91-9d0ac0749bb3 |
2ycjlh | Why are some pages "intentionally left blank" in some books? | Look at a book from the top of the spine sometime - you will see that the paper is glued in bundles - 8 sheet/16 pages per bundle.
It is very cheap to make books with these bundles, so almost all books are printed this way. This means that the final page count needs to be a multiple of 16.
Some of this can be taken up with "other books by this author" and other content, but sometimes, the pages are just left blank. | 0c2b41da-b230-46fc-85d3-1048dc9873f5 |
20o4np | Why is touching a computer screen such a big deal? | oil on fingers and all your finger shit gets on my pretty screen and I have to wipe it off.
My pretty screen takes a lot of maintanence and careful wiping to keep it smudge free. Then you come in with your cheeto fingers and now there are orange smudges where my spreadsheet folder is.
nerdhulk is angry but to beta to do anything about it, so nerdhulk complains on reddit.
TL;DR people who care about their equipment notice things like smudges and oil stains on a monitor, especially if you spend all damn day looking at it. therefore, touching a computer screen that isn't yours is kind of a shit thing to do.
As far as ones that are yours, well if you want a crappy smudgy computer screen, go for it. But there is no advantage to be gained from touching the screen in order to show where to click/go. Also if you poke it too hard you might break the screen. | bec85be5-aa32-4cc3-b334-da85343a1b14 |
1kzfrn | Why do we expect cats to come home after being let out but not dogs? | * cats don't have the same sense of territory that makes dogs roam and mark
* cats don't pose a serious danger to people, so letting them out doesn't threaten anyone
* cats can climb, jump over, or crawl through obstacles dogs can't | 77252624-10e4-4c60-a410-5a651288c803 |
1hkxk9 | The difference between HIV and AIDS | HIV is a virus, AIDS is a condition. HIV the virus destroy a certain kind of immune cells that helps make antibodies, molecules that identify and tag diseases so other cells can destroy them. So when cells die you can't make antibodies. When enough of these cells die (I think it's 90%), you are said to have AIDS. TLDR; HIV is a virus, AIDS is a condition caused by it | bb6add8f-fb72-440d-b65b-c727dd43a939 |
1yfkpk | Why aren't human races classified as species like animals are? | There is greater genetic difference between two individuals than there are between the "races", the concept of race is fundamentally superficial genetically speaking, in fact humans are one of the most homogeneous species known to exist
For two animals to be considered different species, they must not be able to produce successful offspring - this is clearly not the case with different races of human | 7810cb14-cf81-4d20-9ca0-b4458b41797d |
8qpodo | Why is Contemporary art held in museums but all other art is held and shown in galleries? | I think your straw poll may have misled you...the artists you describe generally have their art in museums, not galleries. For example, Da Vinci...art in museums (think of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre).
Contemporary art can be in both galleries and museums. I believe it has to do with the intent of the art. Museums are for viewing. Art Galleries are for purchasing. | 86e73c9a-e426-450b-801a-e67c6e6b13e5 |
3m3zri | What would happen if everyone maxed out all of their credit cards at once? | I like this question, generally banks or lending institutions extend lines of credit, but use statistical algorithms to decide how much money to keep available, so it's possible Visa might run out of money, since this is an essentially impossible occurrence, for which they are not prepared. | 3dfb85e0-33a8-47c4-bd9c-a14c3f400dba |
6wse23 | How do leggings keep somebody warm in the fall and winter months? | Short answer: Fashion is about making sacrifices, and its no wonder women always complain about being cold.
Long answer: Its a factor of a number of things. Women shave their legs, and hair is specifically designed to keep people warm. Leggings do a number of things. first, they act as insulation, by helping to trap heat in the body. They also have their own heat capacity, so that your body isn't affected by every little draft and breeze (the energy is pulled from the leggings, which can be replenished from other parts of leggings and from your body at a slower rate).
But for all of the above, it only works to a point. Try googling techniques on improving insolation if you're curious; there's some really cool stuff out there to learn. Girls are willing to freeze their butts off to look good when its cold enough. Also, if they're inside most of the time, its not as bad. Its only a problem if they're outside for longer periods of time, and not just walking from the car to the store. It all comes down to insulation and thermal storage. | b3aa417c-aec1-46c2-bb67-8d2df3e9576d |
3i3uqs | Why is it that anytime I'm interested/thinking about a certain thing, I find references to them in real life? | Basically you weren't looking for it before, but now that its in your subconscious, you notice and process it, giving the illusion of frequency. This is called the [Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon](_URL_0_). | 2be30704-6221-471b-8cd6-553c4942df8b |
74m5ai | How do spicy foods like wasabi kill bacteria? | The active ingredient is [Allyl isothiocyanate](_URL_0_) which is mainly to deter animals - caterpillars etc. and larger animals like grazers - from eating the plant.
It harms bacteria too by damaging their cell membranes, which are the outer containers holding all the machinery inside their cells. When this membrane is damaged, they start leaking, stop working properly and die. The exact way it damages them isn't fully understood yet. | 4c230762-38f1-42dc-9823-c15204b3a0f3 |
1md59m | What is my belly button currently attached to, and does it serve a purpose anymore? | Your belly button is where your umbilical arteries/vein connected to the placenta via the umbilical cord. After birth they shrivel up and become ligaments (fibrous tisue), the arteries becoming the [medial umbilical ligament](_URL_0_) and vein becoming the [round ligament of the liver](_URL_1_). They don't do anything post-birth. | b137683f-a250-40a1-89b3-6234ec7d1ca5 |
j4hhc | In the US, what's the difference between manslaughter and murder? Also, why are there three "degrees" of murder? | if i understand correctly:
1st degree - you plan to kill someone and you kill them (ex: you find out your wife is cheating on you, so you go the store, buy a gun, hide in the bushes somewhere and kill your wife)
2nd degree - you kill someone in the "heat of the moment" (ex: walk in on you wife cheating, so you pull out your gun and shoot her)
3rd degree - manslaughter, you meant to hurt someone but not kill them, but they die anyway (ex: you confront your wife about cheating, slap her, she falls down, hits her head and croaks) | a18c80ab-3b02-4bbe-94f4-e2a8930a52bf |
4elsag | What the difference between a Democratic Socialist and a "traditional" Socialist is? | **Socialism**
Socialism is a big word that actually covers a VERY LARGE variety of political ideologies. Socialism can be ran by the state or anarchic, it can be national or a small community, it can be communist or have markets in it.
The IMPORTANT part, which frankly no "socialist" country has actually achieved, is that the Means of Production are owned not by any one individual, by by the communities themselves. Some forms of socialism are merely means to implement communism too, which is a very specific type of socialism.
So yeah, socialism is a huge over-arching term that covers a lot.
**Democratic Socialism**
So one of the first fracturing points in the socialist ideologies is HOW a society is going to implement socialism. You have some camps (Leninists) who advocate violently wrenching control of the state from the capitalist overlords and using it to implement socialism, and eventually communism.
It is now that I would like to point out most socialists, and ALL communists, think this is stupid as hell. You will scarcely see any of us advocating for a recreation of the USSR.
Now, Democratic Socialism is simply socialism that intends to implement itself by playing the governments rules. In the U.S.A. this would mean electing DemSoc politicians who will attempt to lay the groundwork for a socialist society. Democratic Socialism also likes to "Band-Aid" the current capitalist system by helping the disenfranchised and marginalized through welfare.
However, this is still a socialism that is ran by the state, and you have whole armies of socialists who think this is absolutely silly and will just lead to more Authoritative State Socialist bullshit.
And, for the record,
**SOCIALISM =/= GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS**
That so completely misses the point that it hurts... | 1edb8972-c3eb-49bc-9829-8eff91ceb078 |
2twzqz | How do unripe bananas develop at home? | They're fully grown before they start to ripen. The ripening process is caused by the plant growth regulator (like a plant hormone or plant neurotransmitter) 'ethylene', and begins to turn starch in the banana into sugar.
Bananas are not the only fruit to work this way (storage then ripening). It's a common survival strategy because it lets you make sure your seeds and fruit are fully mature before anything tries to eat it (as opposed to ripening while growing). | 0f20e758-bf9d-431e-9720-529f78ee46d3 |
25p0ky | why dont ants drown when it rains? | My understanding:
First, in a rainstorm, lots of ants drown. Even being well prepared for an event like a flood doesn't mean everyone survives, and not every plan is executed perfectly. The best laid plans of ants and men, etc . . .
Second, different species take different approaches. Some fire ants just link legs/arms, turn into living rafts, and float to somewhere new, where they can build a new nest. Same thing with some Amazonian ants when they need to cross rivers. Some construct the opening of their nests to resist penetration by water.
From what I've seen briefly researching, the most common strategy is just building in the right place. Ants build their nests in soil that dries quickly and water doesn't necessarily penetrate that far, so they can just go deeper and wait out the wetness.
Think of this last bit like adding water to flour when you're making bread. Even if the water "floods" the top layer of flour, unless you mix it, the bottom layer will stay quite dry. If the ants nest extends below that wet/dry barrier, than it will stay dry.
So, to sum up, Some ants just go with the flow. Some reinforce against water, and many build in places where flooding is likely to do only manageable damage. And, when these strategies don't work, they die. | b51e805d-470a-4d9d-931f-cda6cc3c9727 |
1zjtx5 | When a player gets injured in the NBA, what happens to his salary? Does he still get paid out the full amount? | > I don't really think it's fair to pay...
Since when did your concept of fairness enter into the equation? | 24c32f3c-d442-4815-8d0e-29d5b4055965 |
5a7n52 | How come anti-trust/monopoly laws are no longer pursued in the United States? | They are actually enforced more than they *ever* have been. Its just a much more complex and "known" situation now, that its very very uninteresting to report on for the media, so unless you're very inovolved in how this stuff works in specific industries of business, you'll probably never hear about all of the stuff going on.
Pretty much everyone in business, economics, and the govt agencies simply know how all of this stuff can work, and will work, and there isn't too many unknowns out there any more, which makes it so that all of these mergers and stuff, you simply don't do it unless its legitimate, because thats bad business to have stuff denied.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) who is the main US agency who deals with this type of stuff, is also considered to be crazy good at their job, and the world's gold standard-- basically, they know their shit, everyone knows they know their shit, so they make things very reasonable, enforceable, and known. In other words, no one is trying to do weird stuff, because their know the FTC isn't having any of that. | 65e062bd-ae45-43b3-bd10-f1fc91c151b2 |
2r8ry8 | If it's illegal to not have auto-insurance, why doesn't the government control and regulate auto-insurance as a Tax, rather than letting private companies sell you a mandatory service? | The government *does* regulate and control auto insurance. | 567a24cf-d44f-4dea-a763-c87bfbcb9aed |
7ee795 | Why does adding vanilla to boiling sugar (like when making fudge) cause it to bubble/boil rapidly? | Sugar-water has a higher boiling point than pure water, and the more sugar is dissolved, the higher that point is. So when you've got boiling syrup, it might be 230 or 240 degrees (F). When you pour vanilla extract onto something that hot, it's *going* to boil, since it's got an even lower boiling point than water, since it contains a lot of alcohol. | 2b600ab4-b616-4ce7-983c-eb2aef8219c7 |
1wwtt7 | Why is dip commonly used in sports? | nicotine is an upper similar to amphetamines that improve performance, and since tobacco is legal, a lot of people use it. dip just happens to be a more socially acceptable way of getting tobacco | bb20ab4e-6963-4af8-9cb6-3480d9530acb |
1jfnm3 | How does traction control on a car work? | You can think of traction control as basically ABS in reverse. When you accelerate, the car senses whether the tires are slipping on the pavement. If they are, it will automatically adjust the throttle to help them keep traction. | 03d48f26-fa33-4079-b0ee-95dc7f3ab003 |
1k8it7 | Why do fan power knobs go 0-3-2-1 | Things like well pumps have electric motors like fans do. They require a capacitor to get the motor going and then the normal current can sustain it. Like how you can't start in 5th gear but you can drive in fifth gear after you get going. Fans have this configuration to extend the life of the fan. They can normally start on one when they are new, but over time the lube wears down and dust gets in there and friction grows and this friction needs to be overcome to get the fan going. When it gets bad 1 won't work if you switch it directly to it. You need to start it on 3 and then it can keep going on 1. Putting 3 first allows for this to be done without most people noticing and allows the fan a longer lifespan before someone decides it's broken. | 0702d1d3-dbaf-411e-a20e-281d28510fd4 |
6br6c0 | Why do construction workers use big tall tower things to pour concrete? Pic Inside | That's called a [concrete pump](_URL_0_). It's used when you need to inject pressurized concrete someplace rather than just pouring it. If you're filling an underground hole with concrete to be the base of a pillar, for example, then if you just pour it into the hole it might not fill every nook and cranny. Pumping it in under high pressure ensures that the whole space gets filled. | 34dc6672-cc4c-4c0f-b3c9-21f606d2ea33 |
jnzzx | Anti-intellectualism in the US | You are just informed enough to realize you don't know things. You mistakenly believe that being less informed means you think you know less. This terms out to not be accurate. People who aren't informed about things actually tend to think they know quite a bit about something.
Basically, ignorant people think they aren't ignorant, therefore when they see people talking about college education (or any real education) they don't see the value, because they don't believe they are missing anything. Since they aren't missing anything, this talk about "experts" is just showing off, they are angry about what they see as people just trying to look smart. | ff687d03-09d5-4fb7-96f7-afc71b4da34a |
3bm01e | Why does it seem like video games from the newest generation seem to have far more bugs and glitches than previous generation games? | A few factors ...
* New games are way more complex. This means more code, and as the number of bugs per LoC is pretty static you get more bugs.
* Today it is pretty trivial to push patches to the users as they have fast internet.
* Deadlines have become a bigger factor esp. when it comes to franchise titles. | 65a28df7-b86b-4b4d-aa13-c65ed0c16c25 |
788r0x | Why do India and China have such massive populations in comparison to the rest of the world? | I'm almost certain this has been answered before, but it's largely due to geography. India and China both have exceptionally fertile river valleys capable of supporting large populations with pre-industrial technology. Even before the world population started exploding during the past two centuries, they were the two largest and richest civilizations on Earth - for example, in the early days of India being a part of the British Empire, it's 'GDP' was over half the productivity of the entire British Empire (including the British Isles themselves). | 05f8dde7-c6fc-4cfc-881c-4e366509cb84 |
3dfuyv | How do people build all those machines that carve different custom details? Do they invent them every time? | A machine like the one that makes the spring in your example is a collection of different technologies combined into a new system (pneumatic arms, motorized discs, etc. "Carving" would be more along the lines of a CNC mill or lathe, a laser cutter, or water jet machine that has programmable paths. | 357f7b6c-2c73-45c7-82d3-7d8313232c6f |
1c24ub | "this video is not available on mobile devices/in your country" on YouTube | One big factor: advertising. Say Burger King has a deal with the owner of the video that they will run an add before it every time it is played. However advertising laws vary from country to country and are very complex. For example, my country does not allow fast food advertising aimed at children. So it's simpler for the provider just to block the video outside of their country and avoid possible legal issues. | d4f8ea73-00b1-48bb-af1b-d16071722e9d |
1iowwa | What the whole "Cake is a lie" business was all about. | During Portal, the psychotic AI (GLaDOS) promises you cake after the test. However, as you go through the tests and discover the depth of corruption in the facility and GLaDOS herself, you see messages from a man named "Rattman". He leaves messages saying "The cake is a lie." This just sort of caught on with fans of Portal. The reason it's "a scourge" is because it was beaten into the ground. It's much like the "arrow in the knee" thing from a while back.
By the way, I *highly* recommend playing Portal. | 6635e4b9-f673-48e2-9126-555d1a2eb2ce |
3enc75 | If humans were to ever come in contact with colours beyond our colour receptive cones, what will we see ? | We come into contact with "colors" beyond our color receptive cones everyday. Your eyes are only able to pick up on certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, this is what we see as light. If the wavelengths are shorter (like x-rays) or longer (like radio waves) then you simply won't be able to see them. | 705a1677-8b25-48ac-83aa-2664f0e8aa2e |
5564ek | Can a business refuse to sell stock to a person or company? | If a company is publicly traded, like on one of the stock exchanges, they can't control who buys stock in them.
A closely held company, like a family business, generally can.
In between, there is lots of room for lawyers to argue. | 355b7330-4082-499f-866c-b56590cb4eff |
2xhdfb | What's going on with the DHS funding and why can't they come to an agreement? | Because the DHS department is the department that funds immigration-related activities.
Not too long ago, President Obama issued an executive order of moderately debatable constitutionality that would use DHS to quasi-legalize a large number of heretofore "illegal" immigrants, which republicans are opposed to.
Depending on your political bent, Obama's action was either a totally overdue and legitimate extension of Presidential authority to fill a much needed gap and the technical legal argument is much ado about nothing, or it was an abhorrent sacrelige against the Constitution and all other things righteous and holy.
Congress cannot directly stop Obama's executive order for 2 reasons: (1) Because democrats hold more than 40 seats in the seante, Republicans cannot overcome a filibuster, and (2) Because democrats hold more than 33 seats in the senate, republicans cannot overcome an inevitable Presidential veto, even if the Democrats don't filibuster.
However, republicans' ace in the hole in all this is that they have the "power of the purse", meaning they decide what gets funded and what doesn't. It's in the constitution specifically; the House of Representatives must initiate all spending bills. So their denying funding to the DHS is a backdoor way to fight the executive order where Republicans have more leverage. No money for DHS = Obama can't implement his executive order allowing immigration.
Alas, this means that the whole rest of the DHS and its workers are caught in the crossfire while Obama and Republicans wrangle it out. | 4dd9a0a6-f4a6-47ae-8556-105c35448602 |
1nyya2 | Why babies are capable of learning a language so easily | During early development, the brain is much more plastic, meaning making new connections, erasing old ones, and rearranging existing ones is much easier. Also, because babies don't have any language when they are born, it is believed it is much easier for them to identify and remember the vowel sounds used in a language. An adult can't even begin to make sense of a language they don't understand, because they can't hear the difference between the core sounds used in that language. | c6f47244-b331-4b04-9304-06b9d796ed6d |
3jjyi8 | Why are we so good at telling apart different people, but so bad at telling apart different animals of the same species? Do humans just have more variance in appearance? | We're biologically pre-disposed to be able to tell human faces apart (especially the ethnicities we grew up around). I'm not sure what studies have proved this to be the same in other animals, but they obviously can. Dogs can tell each other apart from their scent (and I imagine other species as well, given a strong scent).
I believe it's because due to natural selection, those who could tell different people apart (friend or foe) would have a survival advantage, and at this point it's just so ingrained in us. | 798cf3b6-08dd-4db2-b13f-466ec6cb3bf9 |
6k3ii1 | How is the routing number on a check used? | A check is an instruction by you to your bank: when the person named on the check requests it, pay them the amount indicated on the check, from the bank account of which the number is on the check.
This means that at the end of the day, it's always your bank cashing the check. But it's convenient if the person you want to pay can deposit the check at their own bank--and even better if this payment can be processed electronically. This means that the bank accepting the check needs an obvious, consistent way to identify the bank that will pay out.
The routing number is the solution. Each bank in the U.S. that participates in the Automated Clearinghouse is assigned a routing number. The bank that accepts the check can send the information to the ACH, which will identify the the bank on which the check is drawn, and ask it to make the payment. When the bank that originally accepted the check receives the payment, it's credited to the payee's account at that bank. | 05ae3c1d-db4c-49be-b4c7-6f8d1b5baac9 |
6aks74 | Why cant the internet version of youtube "minimize" the current video into the corner while I browse for another one, like it does on the app? | People are suggesting tons of alternatives to your problem, but not actually answering the question. Here's why:
Youtube has a bunch of different product and engineering teams. Some work on the mobile app, and some work on the desktop/mobile web product. YouTube, most likely, gets different usage on both of these platforms, so the amount of engineers assigned to each of these platforms (in order to make updates on each of these) vary based on said usage.
Additionally, there are also "endless" amounts of fixes and feature improvements YouTube can make at any given time. As a result, these bug fixes and feature improvements need to be "prioritized" (i.e., ordered by priority) since YouTube doesn't have "endless" engineers to work on them. The feature of a "minimized" player on the web/mobile web platform of YouTube probably hasn't been prioritized for various reasons:
1) It's probably not that big of a use case, especially given all the alternatives people have mentioned in this thread
2) there are other important features/bugs the team needs to work on before implementing something like this.
Source: I work in tech. Hopefully that helps! | f88ae814-b755-4fe1-a3b6-ff098a6871ce |
54vhej | The South Australian Statewide power outage and upstream transmission supply of power | It means all in-state power plants are offline and the lines that bring power in from out of state are down aswell, they may physically be damaged or they cant handle that amount of power so they shut them off so they dont burn up | 5c7e8476-87d3-425d-9e74-aee28d731cfa |
26mqt5 | What is it in most animals that makes them "shut down" with a blindfold on? | You try walking around with a blindfold on and see how long it takes for you to hurt yourself.
Now amplify the fear you should feel by a million because animals don't have hospitals and minor injuries can easily be fatal. Also, there are things that will eat them. There aren't things that would eat humans really.
They do it because it is much safer to stop moving when eyesight is your main sensory ability. | e52eebb4-ad6e-49be-81ef-2e52ee12cc4a |
14e8yv | What are the causes of the Great Depression? | The Great Depression was caused by many factors but one of the largest was a gross misuse of credit.
Basically in the 1920s people began buying things on credit (I buy this cheeseburger for you today but don't pay you until next week)
This was all well and good but there where no real safety measures in place and people spent much MUCH more then they actually had.
The result was an incredibly boosted economy (known as the roaring 20s) but it just couldn't last.
So on Black Tuesday the house of cards collapsed, the Stock Market crashed spectacularly, overnight people lost millions. This caused a panic as people rushed to the bank to withdraw their cash, but since the banks use the money given to them to invest they did not have it on hand and much of it died in the stock market crash as well. The result was that the bank could not provide people with all of their money.
A double whammy also occurred in the Midwest where the Dust Bowl hit, a disaster caused from overfarming and drought, the dust bowl would go on to decimate US crops and utterly destroy the lives of many farmers. | f3f5afbd-0361-4f10-a557-62950a3ea6a9 |
3a58cw | Why don't the radio waves used to transmit information all superpose? | They do superpose in the most general sense, but a radio receiver has a circuit that filters out everything but the frequency it wants. | eec46385-c054-4707-acb2-ae592b29ec13 |
2s3ncf | Short of shutting down entire city blocks, how do they film street/public setting movie scenes without getting the crowds of gawking people in the shot? | I know the question states "short of shutting down entire city blocks" but I think the best answer is they shut down entire city blocks. | 061daf63-30d4-469b-a9ea-7c6b0b04568d |
2609xz | Why does my cat sometimes run around the house like a maniac? | Cats are made for a world that punishes unecessary use of energy. They sleep to save up energy for their hunt, usually hunting is done at night. In a domestic enviroment the cat doesnt "need" to hunt but its energysaving ways are hardwired.
All that energy needs to go somewhere and they will handle it by running around like crazy furballs on speed. In some cases it will help to play more with your cat, letting it use its huntingreserves. | 1913efe0-ddff-4c3d-bd92-93f8671866d9 |
lluk1 | What ending the Fed would do. | It depends entirely on what you replaced it with.
There are, broadly speaking, two kinds of people in the world. There are those who say we should abolish the central bank system … and there are those who know what the central bank system is and does. There is no overlap between these two groups, so far as I've seen.
A modern economy consists — in very simplified terms — of five interacting parts. They are:
* The treasury
* The central bank
* The lending banks
* The depositors
* The consumers of capital
Note that there's some blurriness between the fourth and fifth parts: The same individual can be both a depositor and a consumer of capital. But we're ignoring that to keep things simple.
The treasury is an institution of consensus; it exists because the people agree that it exists. The treasury has only two powers: To sell bonds, and to spend money. That's all the treasury can do.
The central bank is another institution of consensus, and it also has two powers: It can buy and sell bonds. To carry out these two powers, we give the central bank two special accounts, which we sometimes call the source account and the sink account. Credits applied to the source account never clear; debits applied to the source account always clear. That's rule one. What this means is that you can never put money *into* the source account, but you can always take money out. The source account is, in other words, an endless *source* of money, hence the nickname. Rule two is the opposite: Debits applied to the sink account never clear, but credits always do. The sink account, then, is the money *sink*, the place where money disappears.
The lending bank is a chartered business institution. It's started by a private individual using initial lending capital. It takes on deposits from the depositors, and it lends capital to the consumers of capital. The central bank acts as the lending bank's *bank.* In other words, just as a depositor wants to keep money in his lending bank and then use that account for transactions, the lending bank keeps its reserve in an account at the central bank. The central bank, then, acts as a mediator of transactions between lending banks, because all the lending banks are customers of the central bank, in a sort of hub-and-spoke arrangement. (That's why the central bank is called the *central* bank. It's the bank at the center of the hub-and-spoke arrangement of banks.)
Depositors are people who put money into a lending bank. The lending bank then lends out those deposits (minus a required reserve) as capital.
Consumers of capital are people who take loans out from banks. Here we're talking specifically about *secured* loans; that is, loans which are backed by a lien on some kind of real property. You know how if you take out a car loan and fail to make your payments, the bank gets your car? Same thing, except it doesn't have to be a car.
So those are the pieces. How they work is like this: The treasury issues a series of bonds, which are bought by the central bank, debiting the source account — creating money, in other words. The money goes to the treasury, which spends it, giving it to private citizens. Those private citizens go to the lending banks and deposit their money, thus becoming depositors; the lending banks then make that money available as capital. Other private citizens come to the lending banks and borrow that money, backed by some kind of assets, thus become consumers of capital. The consumers of capital then spend the money they borrowed, which means it ends up in the hands of other private citizens, who turn around and deposit it into the lending banks again.
Each time a lending bank takes on a deposit and lends it out as capital, wealth is created. In general, this is a good thing, but as with anything else it can happen too slowly or it can happen too quickly. The central bank, then, *moderates* the movement of capital, by encouraging more lending when capital is moving too slowly, or discouraging lending when capital is moving too quickly. The central bank can also increase or decrease the size of the money supply directly, which controls the value of money. Remember those bonds the central bank bought from the treasury? The central bank can sell those bonds to lending banks in exchange for money which is then credited to the sink account, thus *destroying* money, making it more scarce, and consequently more valuable. The central bank can also buy bonds back from the lending banks in exchange for money, thus making money *less* scarce and less valuable.
Finally, remember how we said loans made by the lending banks are backed by something? That something that backs a loan is generically called an *asset*. An asset is something that's worth money but which is not, itself, money. It can't be spent, in other words, without converting it to money. One way to convert an asset into money is to sell it, but a better way is to borrow against it. Banks manage their *liquidity* — that is, how much of their assets are spendable as money — by borrowing against their assets through the central bank. Not *from* the central bank; the actual creditor of the loan is another lending bank. But the loans are mediated *by* the central bank, because again, the central bank is *at the center* of the system. A bank that's short on liquidity right now — because a big depositor came in and asked for a withdrawal in the millions of dollars, say — can take out an overnight loan against its assets through the central bank, then repay that loan the next day from liquidity made up by new deposits. So a bank that's connected to the central bank, therefore, can never have a liquidity crisis as long as that bank is solvent. (You're solvent as long as your assets are worth more than your liabilities.)
Okay, so the central bank then performs three *basic* core functions:
* It controls the money supply by buying and selling bonds.
* It controls the flow of capital by encouraging and discouraging lending.
* It ensures liquidity by facilitating overnight loans between lending banks.
So if you want to abolish an existing central bank, you need to replace it with something that performs those functions. If you just replace it with another institution that does the same functions … well, then you haven't actually done anything, have you? You've just torn down one perfectly good barn and built an identical barn on the same spot. Wasted effort, in other words.
Other than that, though, the effects of making a change to an economic system would depend entirely on what shape that change takes. You cannot simply propose abolishing a central bank, because the role the central bank plays in a modern economy is not optional. *Something* must perform that role in order for an economy to work. Whatever thing performs that role, that's your central bank, whether you call it by that name or some other. The question of whether tearing down an existing central bank and replacing it with something else that performs the same role is good or bad depends entirely on what that other thing is. | f72070bc-e6cf-478b-baff-7177e64f8b48 |
3l2yvi | Why do we eat different foods depending on the time of the day? i.e. cereal for breakfast, burgers for lunch/dinner | It's purely cultural. Check out these [articles](_URL_2_) on [breakfast around the world](_URL_0_) --- people in different places eat lots of different stuff for breakfast. There are some trends --- pretty much everybody wants something easy to prepare (eggs are popular everywhere), people in cold weather places tend to eat hot, filling things (oatmeal, porridge, congee) people in hot weather places tend to eat lighter (coffee and toast, fruit, yogurt, cheese). But nothing hard and fast --- France is temperate weather wise, but people there eat very light breakfasts.
Cereal is so popular in the U.S. because a couple of health nut brothers (the [Kelloggs](_URL_1_)) started a fad for it in the 19th century, convincing people that it was better for you. People used to eat steak and ham and eggs for breakfast and stuff before that. | efb5c3d5-2456-4a7c-810c-93f86b602d35 |
1p0pug | What is a lame-duck Congress (United States) | In politics, "Lame Duck" is used to describe to period of time between an Election and when the winners of that election assume office. A President who lost or did not campaign for a Second Term in November, for example, is called a "Lame Duck President" until the new President takes office in January.
A Lame-Duck Congress, therefore, is Congress between when the General Election takes place (once every two years) and when the New Congress takes office (Every Two Years, every Representive and 1/3 of all Senators are up for Re-Election, so there is a "new" Congress every 2 years; we're on the 113th right Now). | fc1769ab-ff6a-4035-8d60-f5d978481705 |
oo7tt | ELIS I know it's a bit late but how exactly did the Lehman Brothers go bankrupt? | the housing market crashed happened when people agreed to adjustable rate mortgages that they couldn't afford. before these mortgages defaulted, lehman brothers (among other finance companies) bought these mortgages that were lumped in with other debt and rated higher that they actually were. standards & poor's (who does the rating) was basically bribed into doing so (by the people who were short selling the bad mortgages) and then said "we just rate it, we don't force you to buy it".
For more info read the book "the big short" by michael lewis | 4a4c7f8f-eafb-4511-9475-7ea79516d57e |
6vfbq7 | Why is fire used to make land fertile? Wouldn't the heat from the flames cause a dust bowl effect? | Fire is GOOD for nature for many reasons; you may have heard that coniferous trees (trees with cones) will only spread their seeds when the heat from a fire melts the resins in the cones and allows them to open up.
Fire is also beneficial in that, once the trees are burned, the remaining ashes contain lots of nutrients that will aid in the regrowth of the area.
Mountainous areas with lots of trees aren't as prone to the dust bowl effect because the dead trees still prevent the wind from blowing at gale forces. Not to mention that dead trees still have plenty of roots to hold the soil in place. | 4f2f5288-6594-4641-a640-5d7cbda44d1d |
2r5f4e | Why is blood red but do our veins look blue? | The fat under your skin absorbs low frequency light. The higher frequency blue wavelengths are what you see while the lower reds are filtered out.
Some people try to spread the old wives tale that blood is blue when it's in your veins, but that is not the case. | 7dc33f96-2dad-406c-b7df-2c92348a8875 |
2rctgj | Why do people's personalities change when they experience memory loss or brain damage? | Because your brain has your personality in it. If a bullet goes through your brain and damages it, you'll be missing a significant amount of pathways that were present before. | d6227aa3-f874-4493-89c7-14f7289e8955 |
4ciai8 | Why isn't car bodywork made from stainless steel? | Because its too expensive.
But that didn't stop DMC from building the deLorean. Thank goodness for poor business decisions. | 77f580b8-abd2-409e-b677-923a1fc74d65 |
4cgo51 | What would happen if all bacteria was removed from my body? | The vast majority of cells in your body are bacterial cells (something like 90-99% of all cells are bacteria), so the effects of removing all bacteria would be widespread and effectively leave us unable to survive.
Removing bacteria from the gut would prevent absorption of many vital nutrients. This is actually one of the dangers of taking antibiotics too aggressively: they kill all bacteria, good and bad, and can lead to malnutrition and other complications.
Bacteria also utterly occupy our skin and actually out-compete many dangerous species of bacteria. Without these benign bacteria growing on your skin, you'd be more prone to infection. This is a major reason why doctors don't recommend constantly using antibacterial creams and the like.
[Source](_URL_0_) | 0a6f9405-aaa9-4388-ab23-aaf8b6536d39 |
20n7v8 | When high-level world leaders (like Obama and Putin) talk to each other on the phone, do they speak in the same language or do they need a translator? And if they need a translator, isn't that a serious security concern that someone knows everything they're saying? | The translator only has to be trusted by the party that hires him. Usually Obama brings a Russian translator, and Putin brings and English translator. The translators work together and check each other to verify what the other is saying is accurate.
A Presidential translator has passed the requisite security clearances and background checks to have access to the sensitive information that a President does. With those clearances and background checks comes an inherent trust and professionalism that the translator will accurately and faithfully represent what's being said.
Also, many foreign officials also speak English. I don't think Putin fluently speaks English, but many others do. | c5690a08-e9e7-45df-8f8a-2ce778eb4753 |
3j04ts | How does radiation do damage to your body? | Low-energy radiation (visible light, radio waves) isn't dangerous because it has so little energy. Getting pelted by photons from a lamp is like having sand thrown at you, it simply cannot harm you.
If radio waves are comparable to sand then the other end of the spectrum (gamma rays, x-rays) are .50cal rounds. They impart enough energy to physically break down your cells.
If you're subjected to that kind of radiation it's strong enough to damage your DNA which can lead to mutations and cancer. Past certain point the radiation doesn't just damage the cells, it just plain kills them by breaking down the structures they are made of. Extreme exposure leads to what you see in the picture. | 33957add-0727-43b0-ab16-0d8e370ee322 |
711ftb | The inter-universal teichmuller theory | You should consider posting this to some other subreddit, like r/askscience or r/askmath .
Really not a topic you can ELI5. | b99db273-95ca-4303-a64d-89311fb0a028 |
23x1wb | Want to learn C#; can someone explain the different versions of C#, .NET, and Visual Studio, and how the parts relate to each other? | Let's start by defining some things. .NET is a framework. It isn't a specific language, but rather a large set of libraries that performs a bunch of useful tasks. These libraries can be used by a variety of programming languages, including C#. The reason for this is because code written in these languages is compiled into an intermediate language that is common between all of the languages, and this intermediate language is executed by the Common Language Runtime (CLR). This is similar to how Java code is compiled into bytecode that is executed by the JVM.
Hopefully that will help you understand the differences a bit better. The reason why you can have different versions of .NET and C# and whatnot is because they can be developed independently. Each one of the .NET languages is required to have a baseline level of support for the basic .NET framework, but can also support additional features that other .NET languages do not support. Thus, you should be able to see how they can be on different version numbers. The latest C# version is 6.0, the latest .NET version is 4.5 (I believe).
In truth, the actual version numbers aren't insanely important if you are just starting out. When you download Visual Studio, every version of .NET and every compiler for every version of C# should be downloaded. When you create a project, it should default to the latest, which is probably your best bet to use. You want Express 2013 for Windows Desktop. | 3f6a0365-6cc1-4231-a69c-33277af55487 |
rn3c2 | how a "stimulus package" helps out the economy. | What you have described is known as "quantitative easing". A stimulus is when the government takes out a bunch of loans (financed by selling bonds usually) and uses that money to buy things, often paying for infrastructure improvements (fixing bridges, repaving roads etc.). You may have noticed a lot of road work on the highway recently... This is likely stimulus money at work.
**ELI5 Part:**
Think about it this way: What happens when you buy something from a friend? You give the friend a twenty dollar bill, and you get your item (we'll say you're buying two hotdogs, because I haven't eaten yet). Then, he/she goes out and buys two sodas from another friend, and so on and so forth. Now, imagine that instead of a twenty, you use a fifty. Now, you can buy 2.5x more stuff. To fill that want, your friend makes five hotdogs to sell to you instead of two. But, in order to make five hotdogs, he/she has to hire another person to help him/her make more hotdogs. This is a concept known as circular flow, and it is a central tenet of macroeconomics.
In reality, it is a bit more complicated than this (some people will save part of the $50 instead of spending it all, they will put it in a bank that will give out loans, etc.) but this is supposed to be an ELI5, after all.
For more on the topic take Macroeconomics 101, or watch these videos on Khanacademy: _URL_2_
_URL_1_
_URL_0_ | 50a105c4-920e-4f56-b480-51b794e5a6a9 |
217r40 | What are the students protesting against in Taiwan currently which resorted to them "invading" the cabinet compound of their Government? | i really dont have a good enough handle to be doing this on ELI5, but here goes:
1) the main issue at hand which most directly sparked the sit-in protest was Service Agreement with China that Gigatergar mentioned.
having promised the public last June that it would be reviewed article by article, the KMT ruling party instead rushed the Agreement using multiple covert meeting daily, and actually WHISPERED into a body mic that the Agreement had been passed.
the students are mainly demanding that the Service Agreement be rejected and re-reviewed by a different committee, as well as an apology from President Ma.
the other 2 more covert issues are
2) the fact that the Service Agreement is feared to mean the demise of small businesses in Taiwan, as well as being the beginning of the end of a autonomous Taiwan, knowing that China is doing this mainly for the purpose of one day unifying Taiwan. most Taiwanese neither believe in unification with China, nor complete Indepedence, but support keeping the Status Quo, and any move leaning towards one or the other would make them nervous.
and 3) that President Ma has done a terrible job, with the economy not improving even after a similar controversial agreement with China (the ECFA) signed last year, resulting in a popularity poll in the single digits. discontent with the government is at an all-time high.
Edit: missing a few words. Probably lots of spelling mistakes, typing from my mobile. | 4b2675c3-6cb8-4fdf-8dff-8fff4a1c2fd8 |
2lrx7h | Why does Japan seem to have such a low proportion of immigrants when compared to other developed countries? | Japan is a very (ethnically) homogeneous society and was essentially closed to foreigners for more than 250 years. Foreigners are not made to feel particularly welcome there. Anyone "different" stands out like a sore thumb. | 68a16b92-6fd6-4e21-a9b9-1336797dcf7b |
1xanwf | Does laying in bed resting before you sleep actually do anything to rejuvinate your body for the upcoming day? | Sleep is mostly important to renew the brain neurotransmitters and do some housekeeping around the brain. When you think about it, sleep is mostly about shutting down your consciousness. We are only starting to understand what really happens in the brain during sleep.
Conclusion: laying in bed is rejuvenating your body without doing much for your brain. | 878e794c-f8eb-4ef7-8a9b-2d6c809d0e5c |
6rzqjv | Why does our fingernails have faint lines going up and down? | well first you should know that its normal. Evenly spaced vertical lines are never a sign of a problem (But horizontal lines, you should see a doctor.)
What happens is that as you get older, parts of the nail matrix (the part of your fingers that the nail grows out of) atrophy. They become weak and dont function quite as well. This results in the increasingly prominent vertical ridges.
They're very similar in this way to skin wrinkles. Just the natural result of the aging process. | 1429f667-c0e2-42c3-b077-005b284e219f |
21kez3 | (Serious) Can a person get rid of their freckles? | Just as a reminder, the [Serious] tag isn't required here on ELI5. All questions here are assumed serious.
/uncalled for mod | 8128fe39-d885-4c59-8a33-2c8d5a344f05 |
795v2e | Software Installation | Apps that can be run off a flash drive, or without an installation, are referred to as "portable". What this means is the .exe file (sometimes they might need other files in that directory, too) contain everything needed to run the program.
More complex programs have different needs and need to be installed. Some of the things that might require an installation (I'm using Windows as an example here) are because they need DLL (Dynamic Link Libraries) installed in to Windows, may need a configuration file stored somewhere accessible, may need to have things put in to the registry for configuration or file associations, etc.
DLLs can be specific to the programming software that the program was written in, and may already be installed on your computer, so an installer will often check for that. They are files with some standard information in them that the executable will use to be able to run itself - because these are standard files from the programming language used to write the executable, they are stored externally to help reduce the size of the program.
There are lots of other things an installer can do. Some times these things could be skipped, which is why you will sometimes see an installer version and a portable version of the same program offered. | db5d79de-32e3-4e63-9d50-f84e19c3c5f1 |
1lr9oc | Why do(almost) all police cars use the same car/model? | Only a few cars are designed to be turned into police cars. They have to have more powerful engines, brakes, electrical systems, alternators, plus they have to have adjustments you may not even think of.
For example, my Charger has a really wide center console because standard police equipment like radios are 9" wide. And the cruise control is on the wheel instead of on the steering column, because the police model has a column mounted shifter. | 5f4c81c1-2577-4e96-b32a-4c25f764581a |
20kp6l | When floating in space, or any zero gravity environment, would a person always feel as if they were standing upright? | You would feel as though you were falling. "Zero-gravity" actually means you are in free fall, or in a motion that imitates free fall, such as the planes that fly in steep parabolic arcs to simulate zero-g for short periods of time without having to go into orbit.
Imagine you jump down an elevator shaft that just goes on forever. That's what being in zero-g feels like, and that is why people often feel sick/throw up when experiencing it. | 5cbc8ad2-65d6-4e84-b8ef-5e775e67896d |
7woflw | How does a child get a recessive gene if both parents have dominant? | Passing on a recessive gene means that they are both carriers, giving you the lucky 25% of cases that would have the thumb. | 7014f727-557d-4128-a634-cd0ba9f87003 |
5mlv5d | what happens if you leave the microwave door open and it's turned on? | Microwaves are electromagnetic radiation with fairly large wavelength. If you take away the spinning mechanism and put in something like a block of cheese, you'll pretty reliably be able to see that the heat will most be applied in certain sections. If you measure the distance between those sections, you'll be able to tell the wavelength of the microwaves.
What'll happen if you leave the door open? Microwaves will leak out. What does this do to you? Well it affects the water in your system which definitely can't be good for you, but it isn't a HUGE deal. It'll also really fuck with the wifi at your house so long as the microwaves are leaking out | 0f59c8af-70df-4ce5-8c2d-e43cb3f11bc3 |
3cua0v | "Happy" music versus "Dark, depressing" music. Why do we see either as being such? What makes a certain combination of notes fit in either category? | There is a learned history involved. Music and language are very closely related. Think of someone expressing sorrow or sympathy in a western language. Often there is a sigh, which falls down slightly with the sound going softer. Now listen to the lachrymosa from the Requiem by Mozart and you can hear this sigh in the violins. Mozart plays with the sigh by inverting the shape etc...but that affect is present through that movement. And if you look at music that evokes sadness you will find this sigh figure. Check out Barbers adagio, it occurs over and over again. Or listen to the Bach violin sonata in G Minor, the adagio.
Now for keys and their relationship to sadness. Before pianos and in the early renaissance, the modes were popular tools for composing. Today, modes that we would define as sad, were used as modes for things that were happy or calming. But as music started to have a stronger relationship with vertical function over horizontal counterpoint, you start to see the modes shift roles. It was a long evolution, and part of it is based on these emotive gestures becoming a part of the western music dialect.
The key that fit really well with that sigh figure happens to be minor. And there are a great deal more gestures. Like something joyous often has a jump up of a fourth and sixth. Take for example happy birthday or the wedding march by Wagner. Now relate that what your voice naturally does when you get excited by seeing a friend you like "oh hey!" Or when you win a game and get excited and yell "hell yes!"
This is a very brief survey answer to your question and if you like I could try and find some examples for you. | 4973c5c1-2c1d-4304-ace0-29793a2025d2 |
15ihoh | Great Circles | **A 2D TRIANGLE**
Start with flat 2D geometry: Put 2 points, A and B, on a piece of paper, and draw a straight line between them, and measure length of line from A to B.
Next, add a 3rd point, C, anywhere on the paper, and connect that to points A and B to make a triangle. Can you make the line from A to C to B as short as the line from A to B?
The only way to do that is to put C on the line between A and B. At that point, though, it ceases to be a triangle, and is really just the line from A to B with another mark on it.
**DEFINING "GREAT CIRCLE"**
Now, let's try the same experiment on a 3D sphere. When working in 2D, we only needed 2 starting points. With 3D, we need 3 starting points.
If point A is Sydney, point B is Johannesburg (A and B could be any other two different points on the sphere, as well), and point C is the center of the sphere (Hey! C for center! That works out well!), you can imagine 1 flat surface going through each of those points, dividing the sphere into 2 parts.
Further, because this flat surface goes through the center of the sphere, you also know that the flat surface is dividing the Earth exactly in half.
In other words, if you took the sphere apart where its cut by that flat surface, the edge would not only be circular, but it would be the largest possible circle you could make with that sphere. It's the greatest possible circle size, or "great circle" for short.
The shortest distance between any two points on that circle, is along that great circle itself.
**SHORTEST POSSIBLE DISTANCE PROOF**
Want proof? OK, we're going to do that triangle experiment again, but this time on the surface of the sphere!
Points A (Sydney) and B (Johannesburg) are already on the great circle, of course, because that's how we started.
Choose a point D that's on the surface of the sphere, but not on the great circle. Points A, B, and D now form a spherical triangle (a triangle on the surface of a sphere).
Just like in the flat triangle version, the only way to get the line from A to D to B to be as short as the line from A to B is to move D so that it's on the line from A to B.
There's your proof that the shortest distance along the surface of a sphere between any two points on that surface is along the great circle!
**BONUS TRIVIA**
Planes flying from San Francisco to Tokyo fly a great circle path, but planes flying from Tokyo to San Francisco do not. Planes flying from Tokyo to San Francisco can save fuel by taking advantage of the jet stream over the Pacific. | 3784af66-6e52-4f25-904d-67d1a6ebe729 |
78vc5m | What's the opioid crisis? | I work in healthcare. The opioid crisis is this situation in America where it is seen that providers are prescribing opioids (think painkillers) much more liberally than how they should. There are several studies that show how addictive these opioids can be and that innocent people can become addicted with a simple 5-7 day dose following surgery. The problem that laypeople fail to realize is that medicine has become a patient satisfaction industry.
If I feel pressured by a patient to write them opioids, I know I’m about to run into trouble. They are more likely to be dissatisfied when I refuse to give them opioids that I feel are not indicated, with the possibility of taking me to court. Now this is where the fun begins. They may win a suit against me for “not being compassionate to help them alleviate their pain while I have the power to do so”. On the flip side, if I prescribe opioids (even when I feel it is appropriate), I can be sued for them becoming addicted. Honestly there is no way to win even with perfect medical judgement.
Most people aren’t doctors though and they dont think or even care how it affects us, but really the doctors need more legal protection than what we currently have. We can lose our livelihood any day despite having perfect judgement with prescriptions. | a4033920-9278-4bea-a6f0-547b738803be |
8oh35s | Sometimes my rings feel more loose on my fingers then other times, why? | Finger tissue swelling/shrinkage. Rings will allwsys be looser in cold conditions. Somebody else wanna take the "it must be cold in here" dick joke?? | 61a0b938-224e-48a2-b25c-9036870acfd8 |
nccji | How does a vinyl record work? | Vinyl should be the easiest to understand - the waveforms are etched directly into the vinyl.
Open up a music file in a viewer like Audacity - you see that waveform? That's what is etched into the vinyl. The needle gets moved up and down (and left-to-right as well for stereo records) and the vibrations are carried to some electronics that amplify them.
In fact, if you take a record player with no power whatsoever and spin a record, you'll be able to hear the music directly from the needle (but it'll be very very quiet). | ca947e40-adac-4010-8c4f-35940db73cab |
49vxup | What happens when you "see stars"? | When you hit the back of your head, you're hitting the part of your brain that perceives vision, this can temporarily disorient you and cause little "stars" to appear in your vision | e06e9877-bb45-4090-a9c4-0161cedf2867 |
8bolej | Why do our faces turn red when we are embarrassed? | Your body thinks embarassment is a threat. It triggers adrenaline to help you fight the threat. Adrenaline dilates your blood vessels so you get more oxygen and blood to use so you can fight or run. Blood rushing to your face makes you look red. | b3c2b6ad-2704-4467-8457-8a42480f8428 |
j3vlo | Can someone explain hockey rules to me like I am a five year old Californian? | 5 guys per team try to skate on ice and put a small cylinder (puck) into a goal of the other team only using a stick with a flat blade on the end.
Lines:
- There's 2 blue lines. Each are about a 1/3 of the way from a goal.
- There's a red line in the middle of the rink.
- There's 2 additional red lines where each goalie is.
Can't go over the blue line towards the enemy's goal without the puck going there first. If you are in that area when the puck goes in, you're offside and you have to have a faceoff (ref throws the puck down and 2 players try to get it).
Can't pass the puck over a the middle red and one of the blue lines to a teammate. This is called a 2-line pass - it's not in all version of hockey.
Can't shoot the puck over 2 red lines without a teammate touching it (the 2 red lines being the middle, and the opposing goalie's red line). This is called icing.
Hitting people is ok, but there's rules to stop players from obviously trying to hurt someone. If, however, you're not paying attention and you get your clock cleaned it can be considered a "clean hit" (ie. legitimate, even though you got hurt).
Goalie has a semi-circle that other players aren't allowed to be in. Messing with the goalie is called interference.
If you break any rules about being mean to other players (pulling them with your stick, hitting them with your stick, fighting and so forth) then you get penalized by sitting for 2-5 minutes in a box while the rest of your team has to play without you. A team can be down up to 2 players at a time. Additional penalties just add time to the total length that people are in the penalty box for.
That should about do it for the major rules. | ff1c8164-8406-40e2-adcb-06c972a3a187 |
6tuxpl | why do people constantly compare communists and nazis? Aren't they diametrically opposed ideologies and didn't the communists defeat the nazis? | Both systems result in the deaths of millions.
By shear numbers, communist russia killed way more people than the Nazis did.
Politics is a horseshoe, as you get closer to the extreme edges, they start to look a lot like each other. | 75859180-bb5a-4d21-9a40-6253ccbe6497 |
1amfyf | Why are cops in the US allowed to break into your house without a warrant when there's a party? | They aren't. They do not have the lawful authority to break into *any* private structure, business or residential, in the absence of something called *exigent circumstances.*
Basically, an exigent circumstance is any situation in which *not* acting creates an unreasonable risk of harm to something or somebody. If a policeman were walking down the street and heard cries of "Help! Help!" coming from within a private residence, that policeman would (probably; depends on the exact circumstances) have the lawful authority to make entry to that residence, up to and including breaking the door in. That's because under that circumstance, the policeman would reasonably suspect that somebody was *actively coming to harm* in the residence at that time, and that waiting could cause that person to come to still greater harm.
But a noise complaint does not create an exigent circumstance. If somebody calls in a noise complaint on you, the police will come to your house, knock on the door, and *ask* to be invited inside so they can check things out. They will not break your door in, because there's no reason to believe it's an exigent circumstance.
However, there is also the matter of what's called *probable cause.* Probable cause is the legal doctrine that says sometimes peace officers — policemen, sheriffs and so on — have the lawful authority to conduct an arrest or a search right there on the spur of the moment, without getting explicit judicial approval (i.e., a warrant). If a policeman comes to your door in response to a noise complaint, looks past you into your residence and *sees people snorting white powder,* that policeman will have the lawful authority to enter your home with or without permission and determine whether that white powder is a controlled substance.
So the short answer to your question is that police cannot break into your home except under exigent circumstances, and they can't even enter your home without permission without probable cause, and a noise complaint *by itself* creates neither. | 20d8008f-6eec-4320-85d0-a107251a6d07 |
1ddhb0 | The reasoning behind Mormon polygamy. | For what it's worth, here's [the Church's official explanation](_URL_0_). Consider the source, obviously, but you sometimes see claims of one official reason or another and this is the only real official answer I suspect you'll find. | a9d117a7-1c95-4652-926c-1f9666dfde16 |
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