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5jbhju | Is the time a spiral or a line? | The second law of thermodynamics says that enthropy always increases.
I believe we model time based on said law, because there's a clear distinction between lower and higher enthropy (past and future).
Whether time acts as a spiral or line depends on it's rate of change. Meaning if enthropy(time) increases in a linear fashion, then it acts as a line.
Not sure how we can describe time as a spiral in it's natural definition, although, as human beings we might experience time as a spiral. If I understand correctly, "spiral" in this context means that time progresses slower as it expands (distance between seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years are larger), assuming we start in the middle. This description might be correct for us earthlings, as space only gets colder and colder - meaning everything in the universe becomes a bit slower, including the earth's spin; so it might take a lot longer for us to witness dusk to dawn.
[MinutePhysics on time and enthropy](_URL_0_)
**This is mostly just what I come to think of at the top of my head** | c9632190-b0c9-447f-b70e-0d8fdd5e3395 |
3e6mim | When did a tax break ("we'll take less of your money") become synonymous with a subsidy ("we'll give you someone else's money")? | I cannot answer the "when" part but can address the "why" part.
People think of a subsidy as a deviation from the *status quo,* not from a baseline of zero. So if government has decided to tax everyone at 10% and this becomes the norm, and *then* government decides to cut a certain party's taxes, it can be thought of as mathematically equivalent to taxing that party at 10% and also giving them a payment.
Since this is ELI5 I will make no attempt to turn this into a discussion of right and wrong, etc., but that's why the term is seen by some people as valid in this usage. | 3b0cbcb1-1feb-4203-bb31-b832009496e4 |
34f3jt | Why do I often wake up a few seconds or minutes before my alarm goes off? | Your'e body recognizes patterns and acts accordingly. If you ever want to try to maximize your sleep schedule, try going to bed and waking up at the same time 7 days a week. I started around new years and haven't used an alarm since March. Humans are awesome. | 273e8352-dc91-4a87-a2d8-39d3dd6dfb0a |
2fc4jz | What happens to truck drivers when they're transporting consumable goods and they wreck destroying all of the content transported? | They have special insurance to cover the value of any goods being transported.
Meaning if there is a truck hauling a tank of cement dust, and it breaks open and it loses it all, their insurance covers it, but then they pay higher premiums, like auto insurance. | 6405a427-d69e-42eb-9291-dfce1448761e |
1zm24e | The four-color-map problem and how it was proven mathematically that a flat map on a plane will never need more than four colors | > [The use of a program to prove the 4-color theorem will not change mathematics - it merely demonstrates that the theorem, a challenge for a century, is probably not important to mathematics.](_URL_0_) | 93c6df74-24fc-4d75-a3d1-889d0ff8920a |
n7f8z | Whats going on with the euro?? | The Euro is a shared currency. Basically, a bunch of countries all use the Euro as their currency. This means that when these countries borrow money, they borrow Euros, and repay it in Euros. Now, a bit about the value of money - it's all based on how much there is in the market, and how much people want that money. The more Euros are out there, the less each one is worth, and the fewer people want Euros, the less each Euro is worth.
So, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Ireland have all borrowed heavily (in Euros). Way too heavily, by all appearances, and it looks like they'll be unable to save themselves from bankruptcy. Now, when this happens normally, the country just prints a ton of its currency, and pays the loans with that. Your currency value drops because there are so many of them out there now, but you survive without having to refuse to pay anyone back. That means you are marginally better to borrow from than if you had just let the loans default, so you can maybe get credit again if you institute the right policies.
The thing is, Greece et al. don't control how many Euros there are in the market. The European Central Bank does, and they don't want to make new Euros, for a bunch of reasons outside the scope of this question. So if Greece is going to pay its loans, it has to look to actual taxed Euros, not Euros it can create out of thin air.
This leaves Greece with a few options, when it can't pay: first, it could just not pay, in which case, they're totally screwed, financially. Banks stop lending to them, nobody wants to do business with the government, and other European nations' banks (who lent Greece all that money to begin with) get totaled by the losses. Second, they could get the money from someone else - this is the idea with getting France and Germany to give them a bailout. They pay their debts, but accept restrictions on spending in return, sorta like how you might have to turn over your spending to your mom if she just paid off all your credit cards. Third, they could leave the Euro, return to the drachma (their pre-Euro currency) and pay all their debts back in drachma, which will be basically worthless. This isn't much better than the first option, *but* it allows them the print-money option if they ever find themselves unable to repay loans they get later.
If Greece leaves the Euro, it means a bunch of things: first, all those people who were lending to Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Italy are suddenly terrified that *they* are going to make their own (worthless) currency to pay their debts, so they stop buying. Spain and Co. grind to a halt when they can no longer pay their debts. Meanwhile, the value of the Euro drops precipitously, because nobody wants to get Euros to loan to Spain and Co., and there's suddenly a whole country's worth of Euro-spenders gone from the market (Greece). This is bad for Germany and France and the other, more stable Euro partners, because they rely on a strong currency for buying power. | 6fd36f37-b382-4665-a713-ea14a6e1b75d |
1n07om | As a heavy alcoholic why my hands shake when I'm sober but don't shake when I drink. | Alcohol works by altering the level of neurotransmitters, or making them work better or worse in your system. There are two kinds of neurotransmitters, inhibitory and excitatory. The inhibitiory kind are enhanced by the alcohol, and the excitatory are diminished.
These alterations cause the nerves that are firing off your muscles to also calm down. This is why the shaking goes away, as well as the other calming effects that alcohol produces. | cd6e31a0-c2d7-4d61-bac2-92f7f1339ef4 |
4hw9zc | What is DNS cache poisoning? | So imagine you've got a massive phone book with everyone's names and phone numbers in.
If you think you might need a particular persons number often (say, your friend 'Bob'), you might write a copy of Bobs number down on a sticky note instead of going and taking the time to find their number in the phone book each time. It saves you time and effort. This is your 'cache'.
Now imagine that your evil house mate comes along and replaces that sticky note with a different one with the same name but a different phone number. Next time you go to call Bob, you don't bother with the book and just look at the sticky note that you thought you had. Only its been tampered with, and thus you end up calling someone else. And that person you call pretends to be Bob.
Now without realising it you could be telling someone else something you only originally intended to tell Bob. | 541912b6-0099-4951-90a0-4316a42c5572 |
4gcoro | how come some random people start singing the same song suddenly which iam humming inside my brain | The song you have in your head may be a song you heard on an advert on the television - and many people watch TV, so they might have seen the same advert as you.
It's the same radio and even some television shows. If there's a song on any of them that's catchy; it will have more than likely gotten stuck in some people's heads.
Advertising companies use catchy songs to get you to remember the advert. So even if you thought that the advert had no affect on you, or you heard it in passing, you may find yourself humming the song. | 6fab3f59-55ca-4b28-9e4e-0e9edf7e1526 |
65hyby | What's the Easter bunny got to do with Easter, they don't even lay eggs? | There isn't a known direct link there are ideas behind both and some theories why exactly they were linked.
The bunny was originally a hare. Early medieval people believed that hares were hermaphrodites and that they reproduced without having sex. Naturally the church jumped on this and loved the idea of hares since it was similar to the Virgin Mary.
Eggs come into it from fasting during Lent particularly in the Orthodox church and middle East traditions. While fasting to keep the eggs edible when they break the fast they would hard boil them. Painting them also became customary, normally red to symbolise the blood Jesus spilt but other colours would also be used.
As what they've both done to link up with each other then that's a bit up for debate. One theory is that the pagan goddess Ēostre (note the name) was what married the two ideas together. Early Christians wanted to spread their religion and wanted to find common ground with some of the larger Pagan traditions that were alive in Europe. The idea being it's easier to convert people by saying "Oh cool you guys worship X? That's funny the truth is Y but I guess overtime passing things down without writing you've changed Y into X. Let us tell you why Christianity and our Y is correct and why you should follow our practices, they're not totally against what you've said they're the same but we've kept records, just look at this awesome big latin book we have...". Ēostre who also had a feast AND had hares as one of her symbols was the ideal candidate to compare Jesus/resurrection to. Eggs also weren't too far out to link with Ēostre since both eggs and hares are symbols of fertility which she was a goddess of.
Let that idea evolve over a few centuries, people forget about Ēostre and just think of Easter as a time for rabbits and eggs and the initial meaning is forgotten but the core Christian ideas still remain. | 1d748f83-79de-4b14-b94f-3494f48de2c2 |
41047z | How does the martian surface have pebbles? | Weathering still takes place on Mars, it just does so much more slowly than it does on Earth. That said, water is believed to have been active fairly recently (in geological terms) in Gale Crater (Curiosity's site), and those pebbles may very well be water-deposited (some are believed to have been, though I don't know if these particular pebbles were). | 36d21f6c-e0bc-4dae-af0f-dc7116b9d88f |
4208b1 | Why do most of African countries are still dirt poor despite having massive natural resources.? | * Corruption
* Neo colonialism (especially on the "strategic ressources")
* Instability
* Countries region vs ethnic region
* Not so much arable land (dryness, concentration in some places) and generally global harsh conditions.
You could check this [out.](_URL_0_) | ff354407-1a4e-48b4-99f0-7aeee29159a5 |
3adosl | Those websites that don't let you navigate away from, close, or go to a different page. | Web browsers have a few features that allow webmasters to program things to happen when someone tries to leave. They are *intended* to be used for *good*; for example, you have an online word processor, and if you leave before saving your work, it can warn you that it will be lost.
But they can also be used for *evil*. It massively pisses off users, so no reputable site would do it, but many sketchy sites have no reputation to lose, so they use it for one last chance to try to sell you something.
You may have to click "no" a few times, but the people that make web browsers are aware of this tactic, and after a few they give you an option to ignore any further attempts by the site to keep you there. | 429dfe27-af36-4500-a177-e56ad4f89281 |
6v4jt4 | Can someone explain this effect where a camera picks up the "reflection" of the eclipse, but not the eclipse itself? (Video and images inside) | It's lens flare.
Lens flare happens when you point a camera at a very bright light source, usually the sun. Some of the light from that source bounces around the lens, creating multiple images of the source along with rings, starbursts and other effects. A movie camera has a very complicated lens made up of many parts, so it can create pretty spectacular lens flare -- traditionally, directors and camera operators did everything they could to minimize lens flare, but these days it's often created deliberately to add atmosphere.
Your phone has a very simple lens, so you're only getting the one reflection. (There may be a couple of others that are just too faint to see.)
The light source itself -- the sun -- is still far too bright for the sensor, so it's overexposed and smudged out so you can't see the eclipse at all. But the reflection is much, much fainter so you can see the shape very clearly indeed. | 8a3bf894-5cd4-45ef-ba5a-1ed024addcca |
675ix9 | Why do fans cool us down if they're just moving the hot air around? | you make air hotter and wetter. Yes you, you stinky human. You're sweating. you're producing heat. These things move from you to the air. But they move slower, the closer you are to the heat and moisture of the air.
Heat and moisture transmit more readily to the air the greater the difference.
So the advantage of the fan, is it takes the hot wet air you've gone and contributed to, and moves it away. Instead you're left with new, cooler, dryer air. And so your body can move heat and wetness to it faster. Thus cooling you. | 3c6a08c6-b554-477f-b7a7-f94e5827b989 |
2enswa | Why does my brain prefer songs that rhyme to ones that don't? | It's probably a lot more to do with how you identify rhythm in song. You like the once that rhyme because that adds to the rhythm of the song, and is easier for you to identify. The language center in your brain might be slightly larger than the music one | 27a291aa-f27f-450d-b9be-0b1da31103fa |
61rthd | Why are eating disorders only classified as psychological? | An eating disorder--one of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder--is a psychiatric diagnosis. Food in an eating disorder is only the tip of the iceberg. It really centres on thoughts and feelings about control, self-worth, comfort, etc. The eating part is the *result* of the psychological part. | 3cf6a5fb-0b1b-4e65-9bf1-65b7007211e2 |
2g6wow | Why are dried spaghetti strands the length they are? | I always snap mine in half and so does eveybody i know. Why not make a half size version if many are doing this. Unless it really is just us | 8b21b4f7-9e20-419a-8425-0a85fba99bf8 |
4rlaem | How come China population is so huge if Mao's Great Leap Forward killed 45 Million just less than 60 years ago? | China's population had been in the hundreds of millions for [centuries](_URL_1_) before that. A lot of people died under Mao, but eventually they got things like food production under control, the [birth rate](_URL_0_) spiked and people didn't die of famine, so you had huge population increases.
In the end, their population roughly doubled over the second half of the 20th century, which isn't actually so far removed from the US, which saw it's own population grow by about 85% over the same period of time. | b266d3b4-2a6d-4ab3-b569-88291fd4fac1 |
5kgfwo | How come playing a game in split screen doesn't destroy performance? | Yes, and a lot of games that used to offer split screen don't anymore such as call of duty and Halo.
When splitting screens each display only is half the resolution as usual, which is easier to render. Also, many games actually cap the framerate when playing split screen resulting in a much less smooth game. Mario kart and Halo did this. | 2680b1c9-e8e3-458f-8567-8bcd3b97f27a |
7pb836 | When you eat animal fat, how does your body turn it into human fat? | It's not initially human fat. Everything we eat is broken down by enzymes into smaller bits. Proteins become amino acids, and fats become glycerol and fatty acids (sugars just become another kind of sugar).
Any of those can be used by cells to make energy. The thing about fatty acids is that if they're not used by our cells to make ATP at the time we eat and digest, they can simply become fat in our body when they are moved to our existing fat cells. | 58d8224e-8c84-41d9-a790-79b5385eeaa6 |
k663y | Image Files | The main difference is the compression method: lossless or lossy.
lossless: you don't lose information. PNG and GIF are lossless. These are usually used to save text, icons and geometric drawings. (Why has already been discussed [here](_URL_0_)).
GIF supports only 256 colors (out of 16.8 millions).
lossy: you lose information. But that's ok, because you won't notice. For example, if you have two very similar color in two very near regions, a lossy compression method will compress the two colors into one. The common lossy format is JPG = JPEG. A lossy compression method is most suited for images (over the internet, photographers and designers won't agree).
TIFF and JPEG2000 can be both lossy and lossless.
There are other things to say about the various compression method but requires a bit of mathematics. Feel free to ask, though. | b125c118-679a-4027-bd10-e7820c352efb |
35afjo | Why are John and Jane Doe used as names for unknown people? | Origin[edit]
The name "John Doe", often spelled "Doo," along with "Richard Roe" or "Roo" were regularly invoked in English legal instruments to satisfy technical requirements governing standing and jurisdiction, beginning perhaps as early as the reign of England's King Edward III (1312–1377).[8]
Other fictitious names for a person involved in litigation under English law were John-a-Noakes, or John Noakes/Nokes and John-a-Stiles/John Stiles.[9]
The Oxford English Dictionary states that John Doe is "the name given to the fictitious lessee of the plaintiff, in the (now obsolete in the UK) mixed action of ejectment, the fictitious defendant being called Richard Roe".
This particular use became obsolete in the UK in 1852:
As is well known, the device of involving real people as notional lessees and ejectors was used to enable freeholders to sue the real ejectors. These were then replaced by the fictional characters John Doe and Richard Roe. Eventually the medieval remedies were (mostly) abolished by the Real Property Limitation Act of 1833; the fictional characters of John Doe and Richard Roe by the Common Law Procedure Act 1852; and the forms of action themselves by the Judicature Acts 1873-75."
Secretary of State for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Respondent) v Meier and another(FC) (Appellant) and others and another (FC)(Appellant) and another (2009).[10]
The term 'John Doe Injunction' (or John Doe Order)[11] is used in the UK to describe an injunction sought against someone whose identity is not known at the time it is issued:
"8.02 If an unknown person has possession of the confidential personal information and is threatening to disclose it, a 'John Doe' injunction may be sought against that person. The first time this form of injunction was used since 1852 in the United Kingdom was in 2005 when lawyers acting for JK Rowling and her publishers obtained an interim order against an unidentified person who had offered to sell chapters of a stolen copy of an unpublished Harry Potter novel to the media".[12]
Unlike in the United States the name (John) Doe does not actually appear in the formal name of the case, for example: X & Y v Persons Unknown [2007] HRLR 4.[13] | 00fd8475-8c3d-40e2-9613-932dcbdb8d5d |
y2eo1 | Trapwire | supposedly it can recognize faces and people from all kinds of camera feeds. once identified they can track people through the country, this is then linked to a database so it knows where people are in space/time.
if it's really as centrally connected as they say intel can be cross-referenced with for example your credit card transactions, GSM cell data, social network profiles and everything else they can access. the profile they can build of people would be more exhaustive then the one Google or Facebook has on you.
**tl;dr** preparation for a 1984-style Big Brother | b5509751-719b-4866-8ef8-3dc54921e28e |
1jjquc | Why would people prefer life in prison without the possibility of parole, over the death penalty? | Everyone says, they would prefer dying over doing something. However, most people change their minds once death is an option | f7a19677-b765-4030-a43b-1544742f8724 |
1j6nyf | Pizza question | No it is not more pizza per dollar. The combined area of pizza for the 2 9-inch pizzas is 40.5pi inches squared (A=r*r*pi, 4.5*4.5*pi*2) and you would pay $13.50, where as the 13-inch you would be getting an area of 42.25pi inches squared for $12.50 | 3e208c06-ac32-4d42-8c9c-26ea4338dd3b |
26q450 | When a orchestra conductor is waving around his stick while the orchestra is playing, why does he do that and Is there a method as to how he does it. | There is a precise reason. It's to keep time for the musicians as well as give cues to perform certain actions. While it is possible to have everybody keep time on their own, having a conductor to maintain pace, give cues, etc is helpful. At least it's how I see it when I would conduct. | 86a5a1a3-81e0-4418-a288-9ef6d282b6aa |
21xvyo | Why don't police officers use rubber bullets? | Rubber bullets hurt, but they don't stop people who don't want to be stopped.
Lead bullets do. | a3efdfa2-022a-4ab9-8f33-7f45c472b677 |
6tophf | the point of changing your network's password if it can be hacked anyway. | What's the point of locking your door at night if someone can break it down or enter through the window anyways?
Why not leave your keys in the car if someone can break in and hotwire it anyways?
It's a deterrent. There's no point in a hacker to spend hours and hours trying to get into your home network when there's such little potential payoff if they were to break the encryption. So they're not going to bother.
If it's wide open and it's zero effort, or you're using default passwords which takes them 10 seconds to look up? Then you're making it a lot more appealing. | 4926cee2-3d71-4252-afe1-bd437bda3d89 |
1kf4ue | What do the two guys in the middle of the bobsled do? | They contribute to the initial acceleration of the bobsled, and help steer by leaning. | 47c509f1-71b9-4db6-a1a2-51c25df7cb3c |
3fj9vp | Are the chewing sounds you hear while you're chewing magnified or what you actually sound like chewing? | Not really amplified, but directly routed into your ears by your jawbone. While in contrast to third parties they get dampened by the meat around your mouth (i.e. cheeks and lips) ... so keep your pie hole shut while chewing.
EDIT: also obviously the volume gets greatly reduced simply by distance, considering sounds drop of with a square function with distance. | ecc015f5-e30d-45df-ae0e-4176c655f31e |
4x9g47 | Why are Japanese periods ( 。) different than English periods (.) -- | People are correct as to it being from Chinese. However, no one has really mentioned why. Chinese and Japanese were both originally written with brushes, not pens or quills. Thus, a circle was a more effective method of writing a full stop, since a period as we know of it could simply be an ink drop in the wrong place, which could render a sentence utterly unreadable if you weren't careful. | 9aa15c8e-14e0-4871-82b9-7129af4c0ea4 |
66suac | Do the eyes have a shutter speed? | Imagine a spinning wheel getting faster and faster. At some point, it looks like it's suddenly reversed direction, spinning backwards, right? And then as it keeps on accelerating, it looks like the wheel is stopped. (Of course, the wheel is blurry, since it's going fast -- your brain interprets this as a spinning wheel.)
This also works for fan blades, propellers, etcetc. You get the point. This is a similar idea to how a camera can match the shutter speed of a helicopter blade, making it seem like the helicopter is rising into the air without even spinning its rotors.
Eyes don't have something like a shutter speed (hypothetically you could blink... a LOT....). The reason for this behavior is still unknown, but one theory is that we see the world as a bunch of discrete images put together (this is similar to a shutter speed, potentially), and another is something known as the "Temporal Aliasing Theory" (now, an ELI5 for this would be pretty interesting too). | 8ed26421-e162-4cc2-a327-410a7649caca |
4ifdmf | Why is being anti-immigration considered racism | Being anti-immigration, in and of itself, is not racist.
However... there tends to be overlap. You don't hear a lot of people saying "We should limit immigration because our infrastructure can't handle it," for example... but you get a lot of "Those People are coming over to take our jobs" and "Those People are all criminals" and "Those People will ruin AMERICA!" and it is statements like those that cross the line into racism.
In general, it seems to be racism that's pushing anti-immigration, not the other way around. | 063b799f-73b7-4ced-ae36-635ad0874ed4 |
1q6tm5 | What is "Cultural Marxism"? | Understanding any Marxist idea through its definition is tricky. What it means in practice is that any social concept or policy is focused on issues emulating two of the core concepts of original Marxist thought i.e. (1)*class struggle* and (2)*exploitation*. Also very importantly in Marxist thought the solution to the problems is always state control and regulation aiming at re-shaping the society rather than simply fighting the symptoms. This is why Marxism fits so well with (among others):
* feminists - (1)men vs women, (2)discrimination
* green movements - (1)capitalism vs nature, (2)exploitation of resources ,
* race and minority activists - (1)majority vs minority, (2) discrimination.
Now look at what sort of goals those groups have - promoting political correctness, forcibly changing people's preferences etc, changing how people view things - rather than just focusing on protecting those violated rights of minorities, women etc. That is in essence the translation of Marxian ideas onto cultural grounds. The claim that cultural marxists want to introduce socialism through back door as someone else stated here is incorrect. Socialism is just the *expression of Marxist ideas in an economic dimension*. Marxism went far beyond that - it was a comprehensive view of how society should behave. There was Marxist art, Marxist science, Marxist language... a whole new Marxist reality.
If you don't want to dig into sources take it from someone who grew up with Marx and Lenin on a huge poster in a classroom. Also if I can have a personal recommendation: *avoid cultural (or any other kind ) Marxism like the plague*. It's a deeply flawed ~~philosophy~~ quasi-religious movement that will produce (and already is producing) the same disastrous results in culture and society as it did in economy. It's a very bad way of both understanding and solving very real issues.
EDIT: formatting | c1e1c3b9-7a80-47ca-8c60-aa825ac16c47 |
40w7qn | I understand "heat" but what creates "coldness"? What makes up the cold waves that I feel when I put my hand near an ice block? | The temperature of the ice block affects the air around it.
It cools the air immediately around it, which makes it more dense, and thus heavier, and it falls to ground. When it does this, it displaces other air.
Meanwhile, more hot air has taken the place of the cold air, which becomes cold and falls.
This creates a very small current of air around the ice block in very small waves. | c7e58ae8-90c4-4a8e-89c7-e2c6c95732e5 |
2r2cvf | How is a dead body disfigured after being submerged in water for a long period of time? | Typically, bacteria in the water rots in the body and emits gases. The gases usually bloat the body quite large, making it disfigured and smelly. | 3d51540a-53c3-43ad-bc56-803c816c87dd |
4vskph | How can you "feel" someone behind or near you? | There's no special ability to detect people outside of your line of sight other than your normal senses. These may not always be immediately apparent to you, for instance you might hear a disturbance and turn to look and see a human.
It's also reasonable there's a degree of confirmation bias at work. If you think something is near you, look, and nothing is there, you forget about it. If you look and there's an unexpected person, then it sticks out in your memory. If you don't notice a person, and don't look, then there's nothing to remember in the first place. Thus when you review your memory, you see a string of unfailing human detection that doesn't really match the reality. | 4444b02a-e771-4cac-a7d8-5924b59019a7 |
3n7ou3 | Were there more serial killers in the 20th century or did the media just pay more attention to them? | Short answer is Yes.
Longer answer is, not, really:
We're only 15 Years into the 21th Century, so, yes of course there were more Serial Killers in the entire 20th Centuryas opposed to the (Beginning of the) 21th. But that doesn't mean that there will be less serial killers coming in the next 85 Years. | 282d0710-5d8b-4305-9e4a-4d8a6046b429 |
1vnocd | How did people get their hands on the terrain we live on? | Land used to be a free resource, just like air or sun light. When the first humans started traveling and settling around the world, they would pick grounds usually near rivers and settled there. Those grounds wouldn't belong to anybody as they would be the first ones there. After they've settled in and changed the landscape to their needs, they would need to protect them from others that wanted it. Once they've started to protect them you can say it belonged to them.
At some point communities started to unite with each other and gather more ground to increase their strength in front of others that wanted the land. Started with tribes and ended up with the European Union (more countries united for more economical strength). Long story short, all the land was taken by somebody (except Antarctica).
Across the history, getting new land meant taking it from someone else. That meant that the one with more soldiers or/and better guns would kill the other and take his land ( Ex: Early American history together with any colonisation or empire expansion ).
Because people always want MORE or what others have, a free resource became a private one. If air could be occupied in the same manner we would be in big big trouble. | c6a5ce6a-e6a2-491b-bdc9-f24878d423db |
6xfsyr | How come smoking weed for me intensifies my pain rather than masks it like it does for other people? | First off : you might simply be using the wrong strain. Different strains have (somewhat) different effects. It doesn't seem to be terribly clear cut - the genetics of sativa and indica strains have huge levels of crossovers, and are rarely exactly what they're claimed to be. But as a general rule look for an Indica (higher CBD) as opposed to a Sativa (higher THC).
The other possible reason, is that you naturally don't get as much benefit from it as other people. For some people weed helps mask pain, especially if it distracts them. On the other hand, if weed tends to make you slightly more alert, and slightly more aware of what's hurting, it may make the pain more noticeable, albeit not "intensified". It's like the opposite of using distraction for pain relief. | 76236ee9-8fc5-468a-96b6-a6eecca903c6 |
4d4xie | Are there any disorders that involve an altered perception of the rate of time? | [This might interest you.](_URL_0_)
I know at the least some disorders cause you to "lose" time in the sense that you blacked out and can't remember what you did.
I'm just adding useless text to my comment here because for some reason this sub thinks you cannot give a concise and meaningful answer. Must have long winded mods or something. I also think this might be better suited to /r/askscience. | eacc3407-ab84-4456-b4a9-d93ef195b5d5 |
5wgj3e | Why do some people like a certain taste/smell while others don't like it (or even hate it)? | That's a product of education, upbringing, customs, flavors and food you are familiar with... Also perseverance. Have you hear that "tonic water is an acquired taste"? You have to keep drinking it until you taste other things that the initial bitterness and end up liking it.
And there are certain tastes that can only be noticed by the bearers of a certain gene. _URL_0_ | bae39b09-8dfc-4d64-85aa-b2df1fca3189 |
1pyttv | Body Parts falling asleep; lack of oxygen or blood pressure too high? | > lack of oxygen or blood pressure too high?
Neither.
It's caused by compression of nerves to/from the affected limb, effectively cutting off communication between the limb and the brain. The "pins and needles" feeling is caused by the sensory neurons restoring their electrochemical gradients once the pressure is removed. | 05f67517-9a66-43af-b7ab-557874f5e32d |
5kay7p | I just had a full length dream about an insignificant person from school I talked to maybe once. Why is this? It's been 12 years | I'm not an expert in Psychology, but this can be answered with basic fundamentals. We believe dreams are your brains way of catagorizing and storing memories. This could be anything throughout your life. Think of your dreams as a collage of memories. Take someone you met 20 years ago, add that to a volcano documentary you watched last Christmas, finally sprinkle the Avengers saving New York. Your dream is now playing the floor is lava with that childhood friend while the Avengers are insulting your jumping skills. Just your brain going through these memories and throwing them in your subconscious. Our brains process hundreds or some believe thousands of memories (dreams) everytime we sleep. What you remember dreaming when you wake up can be entirely random. | e1862131-9493-49e3-bb0d-c78f1e7deb43 |
21rnn1 | Why does the combination of cigarettes and coffee seem to be a natural laxative? | Coffee (caffeine, specifically) *is* both a laxative and a diuretic, it doesn't just 'seem to be'. | 4b0181b1-cc14-4037-905f-6a54f3528bcc |
2imx9p | Why do we drop so much ordinance on targets? I know this sounds inhuman, but the ROI seems absurd after looking through combat footage. Shouldn't targets be eliminated in a more cost effective manner? | Its cheaper to shoot twice and make sure they're gone than to shoot once and find out a week later that you have to send somebody else to go shoot them again.
Bombs and missiles are expensive, but they're not the only cost to be factored into such decisions. Launching another sortie because the first one was insufficient means using more ordinance, but more importantly it means putting soldiers back into a hostile situation. Every time you send people out, there's a risk that some won't come back, so you want to minimize the number of sorties without compromising your objectives. If that means dropping more bombs, then you drop more bombs. Bombs can be replaced faster than the pilots who drop them. | c3e76195-54bc-45a2-8e36-ba2aee6a0677 |
3gh5a0 | Why is it so hard to find a free toilet in most European cities? | I would guess probably to keep homeless people from sleeping inside or druggies from shooting up in the bathroom or trashing it. I'm not super knowledgable about this but to me it seems like they charge a small amount of money to ensure proper care for the facility because who would pay money to trash a bathroom. | 99e72528-34d3-4186-91ec-34af6f601832 |
4e4kzs | the emotion 'annoyed' | It is a subtler form of anger, which is founded out of the desire for reality to be different from what it is (probably more complicated but thats the vernacular Ive heard). | 9a2d3dcc-ee96-4320-bbed-782bcd7b867d |
5kdybp | how does remembering a dream work? How does that fit with long term and short term memories? | There is a part of your brain that tests reality. You are walking down the street and see a man with three arms, and that part says, "whoa, that can't be right, let's take a closer look and figure that out." You do, it turns out to be two people standing at a funny angle, and all is well.
When you dream, that part of your brain operates at a reduced capacity, and doesn't question the implausible as much. You are an adult but still in elementary school, you are in a rocket to space, you are pitching for the Yankees, your brain just accepts it without asking too many questions.
This leads to dreams that seem to make sense when you are in them, but fall apart when your logical mind awakes. It might make perfect sense in your dream that you had to pitch for the Yankees because you lost your shoes on the bus, but when you wake up and try to put that into a logical framework within your memory, it all falls apart.
Also, when we dream, we often dream in impressions rather an actually sights and sounds. If you have every dreamed you were driving a car, what kind of car was it? Was it a stick or automatic? Two doors or four doors? What was playing on the radio? Chances are these details were left undefined, and the only parts of the car you were aware of were the steering wheel and pedals. The rest remained this abstract concept of a car, that left you impression the details were there, when they were not. Since it is those very details that help up build memories, their absence makes remembering dreams more difficult. | 977aa7c6-cafa-420d-b882-62636361221f |
26abm0 | What is the speed of electricity? | The speed of a signal(charge) through the wire is extremely fast - between 60% and 99% of the speed of light, depending on the material the wire is made out of and its construction.
The physical speed of the electrons themselves is very slow - in range of milimaters per hour for DC. For AC, the electrons don't move at all - they just "jiggle" both ways constantly. | b54c4524-c645-47ae-8285-a8eec7a7c295 |
3cqzcr | In finance, what does it mean when an investment group "bets" on an outcome? | A source would help, but I think I can be fairly certain that "bet" in this sense was just a euphemism.
That's all investing is, really. When you invest in something, you're taking a calculated risk that it will pay off. Nothing is certain. It isn't exactly gambling in the sense that the payouts are not up to random chance (although it is almost totally unpredictable, in the sense that you can never be *completely* sure of a particular outcome).
Goldman Sachs probably made some investment or acquisition in Greece that will heavily depend on the outcome of the bailout (again, context would help here; I'm just guessing) because they strongly believe it will go one way or the other. | 33e808de-a9e5-4e00-b85c-dc732ade235f |
1sr6m1 | How come when I sing along with a song I sound awesome but when you take away the vocal track I sound ridiculously horrible? | I think your ears are blending the two voices. It also might be that you feel more confident in singing it with the vocals. Two things I do to tell how well I'm really doing: first, gradually decrease the volume of the song, but keep your singing voice the same. Second, take a finger and plug one ear while singing. It helps drown out the outside sound, but still hear your own vocal vibrations.
I have the same problem too, if you can't tell. XP | 7096e7ac-1162-40f2-bee3-3cfedd52dfa3 |
1a43pj | Bridge, Pinocle, Hearts, and other "bidding" type card games | I've maybe played bridge or pinocle a couple times. I played Hearts and Spades quite a bit in college, however. The strategies of the two games are fundamentally opposite. In Hearts you want to lose "tricks" and in Spades you want to win "tricks".
A trick is where everyone throws one card from their hand and the highest card wins. Kind of like when you played "War" as a kid, queen beats a jack, 10 beats an 8, etc.
In Spades, spades are "trumps". A trump means that suit will beat any other card regardless of value. e.g. Four players: P1 throws 10 of clubs, P2 throws Jack of clubs, P3 throws 6 of hearts, P4 throws 4 of spades. The spade wins. If he'd thrown the 4 of clubs, P2 would have won the trick, he had the highest card in the suit that was led (clubs). P3 threw a heart, not the led suit, but not a spade which is trump, so he was just ditching a low card because he didn't have any clubs.
Play continues around the table until everyone is out of cards. Then partners count their tricks to see who took the most.
**OK, down to bidding.** All the cards are dealt, each player receiving 12 cards, (note 4 cards are left and are placed in the middle as the "Kitty"). Players look at the cards they have and decide how many tricks they think they can win, based on how many high cards/trumps (spades) they have. The highest bidder wins the kitty and gets to exchange any of his cards for ones in the kitty.
So, it's an advantage to winning the bid, you get 4 more cards to select from, and ditch the lowest 4 cards in your hand. It usually makes the winning bidder the strongest player for that hand.
*edit - "So why not just keep bidding and always win the bid?" If you bid too high and don't get all the tricks you bid, you get "set" which means you lose points. So it's a delicate balance, you want the kitty, but you don't want to lose points by being overconfident.
Feel free to ask questions. | 90b6ead8-8ca2-4c44-b506-98280466ba6d |
2b3ano | what does a military or terrorist organisation gain by shooting down a civilian plane and then denying it? | Because they didn't intend to shoot down a civilian airliner. They thought they were shooting down a Ukrainian military transport aircraft.
No one has anything to gain from shooting down a bunch of civilians. That's why they are attempting to deny it. | d6bda99c-952c-4c86-aad9-eb6229491fc9 |
2rqgo7 | Whats the point in war? | You have something I want. I shoot you and take it. That's robbery.
You and your 99 friends have something me and my 99 friends want. We shoot you and take it. That's war. | 7ca49e35-7f36-480c-ad9c-69dfc569c64e |
6f17rp | why is a lieutenant general Senior to a major general? It seems backwards because a major his senior to a lieutenant. | The rank of Major General is a shortened title. Historically it was Sergeant-Major General. Somewhere along the way in the 18th century, the sergeant part of the name was dropped. It could easily have been the major part that was dropped and that would have made more sense.
Sergeant-Major means "sergeant-leader" or "greater sergeant" and is an enlisted rank, greater than a sergeant but junior to a Lieutenant.
As the Major-General rank is named after the enlisted rank of Sergeant-Major and not the commissioned rank of Major, it is the most junior of General ranks.
So next time, think "Sergeant General" instead and it will make more sense.
Edit: a word as I can't grammar today | 0a33956b-f0c9-4080-8b44-fa24468fa32e |
6b7lwz | Why do people in war movies always not seem to notice their excessive sweating | Well I'd imagine there are greater worries than how much you are sweating such as surviving. And since many of these movies take place in hot climates they just got used to sweating heavily all the time. | e71bf0c5-e689-4a55-a3f2-88f379ff2bc6 |
3ae3mg | In US TV and film why do people always seems to chew tablets | It's cinema short hand for someone being a bad ass, or an addict depending on the situation. An addict may chew time release pills in order to get all of the high at once, and a bad ass might chew pills because they're too cool to suffer visibly but they're in severe pain and want the medicine to kick in now. Addicts chew pills a lot in real life, I've rarely if ever actually seen someone do it in person. I did it once with aspirin or something when I was younger after reading too many pulpy comic books, and all I got for the experience was a bitter, chalky powder in my mouth and a headache that went away in the same amount of time. | ba2a31ff-18b2-40c6-8a3e-1755eb1adb4f |
31nlqu | Why do different car engines need a different oil viscosity? | Because oil need to penetrate very small niches inside engine. But size of these niches varies between different engines. Viscosity needs to be low enough to penetrate niche (not to stop at the edge) but high enough to stay inside and lubricate instead of just going through without much effect. | f9ff3a6c-643e-4cba-9c58-0024cad9a3fd |
5v4hzt | How does a paint roller hold so much paint? | It's literally a sponge, but for paint. The paint roller is full of tons of little holes (most you can't see) that the paint goes into. This is why most sponges (and paint rollers) are very squishy, they're mostly air. | 5c5bf5a4-d871-4062-a1a2-8b60246d4e27 |
52e38u | Why Does Plucking My Eyebrows Make Me Sneeze? | Plucking my eyebrows doesn't make me sneeze, but pulling out nose hairs does. I'm purely speculating, but I would imagine your body thinks there is a foreign object causing pain, and so your reflex is to get it out. A sneeze can be measured at 100mph/160kmh. So, a sneeze is pretty effective at removing what the body recognizes as a foreign object. | cd118c24-4a49-4af6-8e81-394fd4004388 |
3oc2uz | The current fracturing of the Republican Party. | The GOP currently has two main factions: the Tea Party and the Establishment. The Tea Party is a minority, but also represents a fairly large and well-funded faction. And they are large enough that the establishment Republicans can't simply ignore them.
There's also a lot of Establishment Republicans who are sympathetic to the Tea Party (or, more likely, their constituents are), and there are a lot of Tea Party members whose constituents are starting to get weary of the more extreme positions. So it's not all black and white.
Chances are, this is all bluster for their own constituents, and some compromise candidate who is generally moderate but has a few positions important to the Tea Party will win. Which is how it's supposed to work.
For the record, this is hardly unusual. The Democrats had their own fracturing in the late-80s early 90s; a *lot* of Democrats weren't happy with Bill Clinton because he was too *moderate* (he was pro-death penalty, tough on crime, and wasn't averse to welfare reform, all things that at the time were anathema to "establishment" Democrats). In fact, both parties tend to have their own fracturing every 20 years or so. | 6b2b3524-99e6-40b0-865e-c707505202af |
4r3puh | When getting a tattoo, how come the ink from the stencil or pen doesn't contaminate the skin? | I have 6 tattoos from 4 different artists and have never seen anyone freehand with a sharpie on a person and tattoo on that. | 87c9d87b-b106-4bf2-9bff-9c6791c949d5 |
2bb17p | Why does it seem like I have to change my deodorant brand every year or so to avoid body odor? | The smell that emanates from your armpits is largely caused by the bacteria that makes its home there. Deodorants, in addition to smelling pleasant, discourage bacterial growth.
Over time bacteria may grow resistant to some extent if you always use the same type of deodorant. Occasionally switching can help combat that problem. | dfd9c249-3a11-448f-80a7-80a3a295f6c3 |
2cfdsx | What is the technology and strategies involved in developing and marketing a triple A game? | Hop over to r/gamedev for a better answer. Almost everything can be found in their guides.
On the development side, there are 3 types of developers, Artists, Programmers and Designers. There are more roles(writers, Audio Engineers, etc) but lets focus on the main ones.
Strategy wise: Artists develop what you see, from concept art to 3D models. Programmers develop what you don't see, from a simple score mechanic to A.I. Designers are basically the designers of the game, they come up with mechanics, level designs, etc. And they all get given a schedule and on what to do and needs to get done by the higher ups. Within that, ideally they work coherently and unproblematic. However that is mostly not going to happen.
Technology wise; It depends on the game, for 3D models, software like, Maya or 3dsMax or ZBrush are industry standard. As well as Photoshop and illustrator for 2D images. Game engines will vary depending on the studio, big companies tend to use their own in house game engine, for example, UDK for Epic games. Then there's programming language, again industry standard is C++ or C#. But there are many more to choose from.
The basic fact of the matter there are a lot of different technologies, different strategies and different studios, that there are too many to write on about in one sitting. Even great titles can be developed with cheap tools. However the basic rule is more money, the more people you can hire, the more can get done and the more overall development time can be done on the game. Also most of the time, big studios tend to keep their industry secrets to themselves.
Marketing wise, I don't know much, but the idea is to get your game advertised on different social media, twitter, Facebook, YouTube, conventions etc. | 9ec7fe70-895e-48a1-bbb5-dc914105ef68 |
2c84lh | How did we come to the conclusion about the number of days in the calendar? Why are some 30 and some 31? Why did they choose February as 29 or 28? | It's an endless rabbit hole of a question, but the basic root is that the rate of rotation of the earth has nothing to do with the time it takes to go around the sun. So a year is not a nice round number of days (it is 365.2425 days long) and can't be neatly divided into a calendar. Some system is needed to correct for the inevitable drift between calendar time and seasonal time.
The calendar we use today comes from the Roman Empire. Before Julius Caesar the Romans used to have 12 months a year, with either 29 or 31 days each, to give a 355-day year. Every once in a while they would add an extra month to the year, called a intercalary month, to make up for lost days. This month would be added after February. Why here? Probably because it's the end of winter.
However, the Romans fought a lot of wars and would sometimes forget to add the extra month because they were too busy fighting, so the Roman calendar got out of sync with the seasons. Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar, which got rid of the intercalary month, made each month 30 or 31 days long, made February 28 days, and added the leap year rule. It's still quite arbitrary, but it's better than the system that came before.
Later, in the 16th century, a further refinement was made to the calculation of leap years to correct for a tiny (0.002%) remaining drift, to give us the Gregorian calendar. These days we use the Gregorian calendar, with occasional leap seconds added to correct for any remaining drift.
Sources:
_URL_1_
_URL_0_ | 42ce02c1-20a7-46bb-b923-41b12be45ade |
6tqmlq | What are differences between RAR vs. RAR5? | Basically an added better encryption method and better compression but only for very large files | adce56e4-6d3f-4fcd-84aa-b8e3fe8fc3d2 |
1z53ah | Why can't I just eat gummy vitamins, protein supplements, iron supplements, etc. and survive? | Apart from the supplements lacking many vital components that are found in actual food, the rate at which you absorb the vitamins and the rate at which the actual solids pass through your body do not allow for adequate intake of the nutrients. Eating just supplements and not any solid food will just give you very nutrient rich urine and poop. | 53f8fd66-f110-49db-bac0-67304aa37ebf |
1ndog5 | How do boats like this stay afloat? | Pretty sure the have hydrofoils on the fins, wich work like an airplane wing only with water. Essentially creating lift and allowing them to glide above the waves. It probably helps that the entire boat is made of carbon fiber and other lightweight materials. | 01a7a9d3-e239-461e-93cc-874998fc7f7a |
1amnfj | Why in the United States, with the exception of soccer, are there not sponsors or advertisements on professional sports team's uniforms? | Soccer is played without any breaks during either half. Because the clock never stops running, there is rarely an opportunity for television broadcasters to play commercials. Jersey sponsors are a way to earn revenue in spite of this constraint.
American Football, baseball, and basketball by contrast have many breaks and/or instances when the clock is stopped. Therefore, broadcasters are able to schedule commercials throughout the games rather than just during half time.
Since these sports are already commercialized to such a great extent, the teams could be seen as overreaching by also introducing jersey sponsors. Fans are accustomed to jerseys with team names and logos, and could be upset at those insignias being replaced by jersey sponsors. | 35c2a852-47a3-4a4c-a410-ba3289a7ae24 |
1ufk0g | How come when I punch in my dreams, it feels like I am punching underwater? | As answered [here](_URL_0_),
> It's because punching (like running) is a highly-coordinated activity that relies on proprioceptive feedback throughout the motion to work. Since the thalamus clamps down both on the transmission of the motor signals you'd need to effectively complete the motion and the perception of joint-motion data while you're asleep, everything feels bogged down and slow.
> Compare that to 'flying', which is a), something we can't do normally, so we have no basis for comparison to see if it feels right or not, and b) superman-style flying about doesn't require significant body motion anyway. | 01416d9a-cf89-439c-833d-f784fdd86edd |
2kn9dm | As an Australian, what do the words "middle class" v. "working class" mean in America? | Kind of. There are really thee kinds of middle class: lower middle, middle, and upper middle. Lower middle is probably what you would call "the working class." The middle class is a household with bachelor's degrees and what not (typically). They are the "American dream" families: the white-picket fence, 2 kids, steady jobs, etc. The upper middle class are the people pulling 6 figures or close to it. *They* are the ones that send their kids to private schools, and all the things you listed. Then there are the Upper class and the Super rich. I think those terms are the same in both countries. | d60801fd-6079-4b6e-aed4-3b9669563d8e |
1ua54l | Why Japanese culture is really unique? (read : weird) | Alright, so first of all, most of the things you see as weird about Japanese culture don't really occur too often.
You can reply to this with specific things if you like, and I will try my best to explain it. (Reference, I lived in Japan for a while).
Some things people say are weird about Japan is stuff like used panty vending machines, otaku culture, etc.
1. Used Panty machines are not common at all, at might have been made illegal. The only one I ever saw was in Akihabara.
2. Otaku Culture. The main reason for this is because many young men, and some girls, view the whole dating game as not worth it when they can get satisfaction from their favorite anime/manga/etc. characters and the stuff they can buy. There seems to be a disillusionment among guys of the younger generation that they do not want to spend all the money on girls and/or deal with rejection.
These answers might not be completely correct, but they are based on my experiences from living there. Any other specific things you find weird I can try to explain, if you like. | b59d8543-4847-4202-9a32-9740e92fe8a8 |
4vta2b | Why are some instruments (presumably) harder to synthesize than others? Why do, say, MIDI pianos usually sound better than MIDI horns? | Pianos make noise one way- by hitting a string with a hammer. You can control how hard or soft you press the key, but you can't change anything besides that. Brass instruments derive their sound from the vibrations of your lips, which have far more minute detail and control which is extremely complicated for a computer to simulate. | e549a4b2-837b-47b9-9088-8d564848a89c |
3tp2wz | If bruising is the body's way of protecting itself, why do we try to reduce swelling when treating an injured person? | Bruising is not the body's way of protecting itself. A bruise is the result of a trauma that ruptures capillaries/blood vessels. The resulting swelling is blood "leaking" into the surrounding tissue.
The treatment for swelling is applying something cold to the bruised area. The cold causes blood vessels to constrict which reduces blood flow to the area. This allows the capillaries to heal more quickly. | 863da19b-5f97-4656-a234-924d7c5bd82a |
26i8zx | What is UKIP and why is their victory so controversial? | Basically they want withdrawal from the European Union, membership of which they say costs the UK £120bn per year.
Along with that they would remove EU fishing quotas, withdraw from the Common Agricultural Policy and enforce much tighter controls on immigration.
Basically UKIP is seen as an isolationist and racist party, a magnet to all sorts of crazy and scary people, as well as leaning well to the right, being friends with all sorts of nasty parties in Europe.
Edit: Here is a Guardian article, [10 good reasons not to vote UKIP](_URL_0_). | 3ca7983a-2b16-4b7f-beb5-c4591fbe5240 |
81c55a | grand unified theory | With things such as General and Special Relatively we can get really good explanations of macroscopic things. How a rock moves when you throw it, clouds of dust in space, planets and stars, giant superclusters of galaxies, we can all predict how they'll act with a very high degree of accuracy.
With the Standard Model of particle physics, we can also accurately predict stuff at the quantum level. How electrons interact, what happens when a photon hits a proton, what Higgs Boson should look like and how to find it, etc.
Problem is, these two scales don't work together. The math we use to describe the big stuff doesn't describe the small stuff, and vice versa. But clearly the universe works and there's no reason to think the fundamental laws of physics work completely different in one part of the universe than they do in another, so clearly we have it wrong somewhere. We don't want to completely throw out one or the other of these theories, since they work so well for so many things, so most scientists are looking for ways to make changes here and there so they work together. This is called a Theory of Everything, a single set of models and equations that can accurately explain how all the physics works.
One of the ways to do this that is looking like it will work is to find a way for the four fundamental forces to all be aspects of a single force. Weak nuclear force (the force that holds atomic nuclei together), strong nuclear force (holds quarks together into protons, neutrons, and other particles), electromagnetism (light, electricity, magnetic fields, etc.), and gravity. We're pretty sure that at very small scales, with very high energy levels, these are all actually the same force, but we can't prove it yet and we don't know what the math would look like.
The Grand Unified Theory is a theory we don't actually have yet that would basically be the math of weak, strong and electromagnetism all being the same. It's seen as a very significant stepping stone towards an actual ToE, and we actually already have the math behind the weak force and electromagnetism being unified, so we have that going for us.
Gravity isn't included in the GUT since it's proving to be way more difficult to get it to unite with the other three. Those three mostly work at close ranges and do kinda similar things, but then gravity is off doing it's own weird shit like causing things to tug on other things that are millions of light years away, or become so dense they start twisting spacetime into circles. | 749f19af-0c94-4634-9bcf-848fc1e9f1a5 |
3czbxl | What is the white foamy stuff when you put Hydrogen Peroxide on an infection and why does it become foamy? | There are enzymes in your blood that attack the peroxide and turn it into water and oxygen. The bubbles are what that looks like.
As a sidenote, though, you should **not** put peroxide on wounds. It kills germs, but it kills everything else it touches, too, including healthy tissue. And since you have a cut you're letting the peroxide in pretty deep. It'll actually impede the healing. Same goes for alcohol, by the way.
Warm water and soap are the best thing for a wound. After that, put some antibiotic lotion on it. | f9b159b1-5a12-436c-a84b-75b6f073f11b |
4mi82z | Why wind speed on land is measured in mph while wind speed on the ocean is measured in kn(ots) | Using knots as a measurement makes sense on the ocean. 1 knot is 1 nautical mile per hour.
1 nautical mile also represents one minute of longitude at the equator. When sailing was easier to use knots to determine distance traveled when using a chart. One degree of longitude is 60 nautical miles at the equator. The math gets a bit more complex away from the equator, but If I know my latitude, and know I have to travel 5 degrees east, I can calculate the distance required to go in knots much easier.
Knots are not needed today with GPS and all the other technology, but due to tradition it is still used.
Also, the way to determine speed originally was to throw a piece of wood or something overboard with a rope attached to it. You would have a knot tied at certain intervals, and you would count how many knots passed through your hand in 30 seconds. | 80563c96-093c-4806-9f98-2d5f48065c0b |
6jw8ik | why isn't inflation in America based on bread/sugar (past) and why is it based on things like price of iPad (present)? | Well, it's based on all of those things. It's based on what the average consumer buys and then it's the percentage difference in price between each good. However each good has a weighting on how important they are, bread and sugar being more important than iPads. A rise in the price of bread and sugar leads to a greater increase in inflation percentages than the same rise in iPads.
Atleast, that's what I learnt in school I believe
Edit: also the goods that are measured change every year or so, items are removed if their popularity drops and are added if they become popular.
This year they'll probably remove selfie sticks and add fidget spinners... | bdb3c1ad-c9c6-4576-9217-da3b9e6d124a |
4skk1i | Why would someone want to buy a manual car over an automatic car other than for then reason of it "being fun" or feeling "like a race car"? | A manual transmission *is* a ton of fun, there's no doubt about it.
But a very real, core reason for owning one is that you can better control the vehicle's speed and power to suit the sort of driving you are trying to do, in a way that computers haven't yet been designed to fully master.
Manuals also give you a substantial advantage in poor weather. If you're in a situation with slick roads, a manual transmission gives you the ability to apply power as prescribed to reduce slipping - or to rapidly take power completely off the wheels to complete a rocking motion to get unstuck.
Manuals have a very real impact on *driver habits* as well - because driving is more involved, and because reading traffic and signal situations means you have to make specific choices, you're much more likely to pay attention to what's going on around you to understand what choice you may have to make, with respect to gearing. For this reason, driving a manual is much safer, because to do so is to be forced into situational awareness in order to effectively operate the vehicle with a minimal amount of hassle or discomfort. | 14db74da-a168-4833-9e84-7da8070c18c3 |
1do40x | How do dogs smell/sense a persons they know without seeing them? | Dogs also have really good hearing it could be anything from the particular sound of their car to the rustling of keys. Dogs are very good at recognizing certain patterns. | 816cc610-500a-4ff4-8d0a-a1d74e5f8f24 |
m2hhe | the OJ Simpson trial and why it was a big deal | 1. It involved a celebrity
2. It involved a black man who was accused of murdering a white woman, lots of racial tension
3. Despite overwhelming evidence, a team of very expensive lawyers were able manipulate a less competent prosecutor and judge, and allow their client to get away with murder
4. Both before and after the trial, consensus about his guilt or innocence ran along racial lines | 7d9a0ec7-da24-4096-b5e3-c32a98fc587a |
46vzik | What does it mean to 'take the 5th'? | The American constitution codifies what rights the citizens of the country are entitled to. Written up in 1789, the Fifth Amendment of this constitution consists of the following:
> No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Pleading the fifth therefore means that a person does not have to be a 'witness against himself'. Even if they're just a witness in a trial, if they believe information they're being asked to tell a jury is self-incriminating in any way, they can 'plead the fifth' and legally avoid having to speak. However, prosecutors can argue against the contextual relevance of this move in court, so the presiding judge decides upon whether or not it's a valid usage of the fifth amendment.
Other things this amendment prevents is 'double jeopardy' (being tried of the same crime twice... even if they're acquitted for a murder they later admit to), and a grand jury must agree a charge is realistic before it even goes to trial. | 1906cbf0-15ac-4f5d-a3ad-3741d4fc30b9 |
2cy503 | Why are humans unable to consume raw meat such as poultry and beef without becoming sick but many animals are able to? | * Humans can eat all food types raw - there is nothing "wrong" with our digestive system. You can eat veggies, meat, and fish raw but it carries the risk of you contracting a [foodborne illness](_URL_0_) (e.g. bacteria, parasite, or fungal contamination of food). The issue isn't the raw-ness per se, but rather the increased risk of getting a foodborne illness.
* ALL foods carry the risk of contracting a foodborne illness if eaten raw. Same thing goes for untreated water, in which case you carry the risk of contracting a [waterborne illness](_URL_4_) like [giardia](_URL_1_).
* Modern food distribution and water treatment systems make it harder for these foodborne/waterborne illnesses to get to you. However, we still have foodborne illness outbreaks on raw food because our system is not 100% safe. For example, when recalls are made for *E. coli* or [salmonella outbreaks on tomatoes](_URL_2_), lettuces, etc. Always try to prepare your food before eating it, this can save your life or at the very least save you from a very unpleasant couple of days.
* Preparing food (e.g. cooking, boiling, washing, peeling, freezing, smoking) all help reduce the risk of contracting a foodborne illness. Cooking specifically also has the added benefit of being easier to digest and enables us to extract more calories from cooked food. A double win.
* [Wild animals](_URL_3_) and domestic animals can also and often do contract foodborne and waterborne illnessess. You shouldn't let your dog drink from an untreated stream because [they can get giardia just like you](_URL_5_). Any wildlife biologist, parasitologist, or veterinarian will tell you that wild animals and domestic animals (if left untreated or in unsanitary/crowded conditions) are/can be rife with parasites, foodborne, or waterborne illnesses. My point is animals are also susceptible to the same, and sometimes different, foodborne illness that we are.
* The only animals that have a much stronger (but not perfect) digestive system are carrion eaters like buzzards or vultures. They have very strong digestive systems that make it hard for foodborne illnesses to take hold. | 3d2688ee-7284-4341-bd03-e748ddcb9de3 |
208no9 | How do I set the office thermostats to make the most number of people happy? | Set it cool to keep the men happy, hand out sweaters to the females. | 260f4e45-f250-46ba-9b25-6752b54f0112 |
502h6c | What is the technical difference between home video, reality TV, TV drama, sitcoms and movie film? | Home video is made by people showing other people they know or their own activities (like vacations), and is generally to be shown to only people they know.
Reality TV shows are TV shows that show people who aren't paid actors and who are not told what to say.
TV drama shows people who aren't real. They are actors pretending to be someone else that has a different name, saying words someone else wrote for them to say.
Sitcoms are like a TV drama, except they are meant to be funny and the people in them say funny things. Sitcom comes from *situation comedy*.
A movie film is a long drama made to be shown in a cinema first, not made to be shown on TV.
All the above can be made using either video or film. Video is most common for home movies. Film most common for cinema movies. | 20807bcd-3ba4-436c-aa80-9394595e3c80 |
65d39s | Why power buttons on power strips say "off" and "reset" instead of "off" and "on" | That is a surge protector, not just a power strip. Reset means "reset the breaker", like if too much power goes through it it'll turn off but if you flip it on and off again after fixing the power issue it'll come back on, instead of being just a fuse that breaks once and is dead. | 7a1c200a-2d5a-4b8f-8d66-af96c0dbebbb |
44r76g | Why doesn't the world have a global currency? | This gets asked an awful lot - [please use the search function for a complete answer](_URL_0_).
The short version is it would involve relinquishing sovereignty, and we can't really get the entire world to agree on *anything*. | eb19385d-297a-4c28-9f7f-0dcd45697f10 |
8yqyfn | Why do certain foods like pancakes or cake icing taste amazing at first but quickly become disgusting after I've had a certain amount? | Food scientists have found there is a "bliss point" at which food tastes the best. It's a particular amount of sugar and fat. If you consume it for a certain amount of time, then you'll become sated and not want any more. This is not good from the perspective of food companies, who want you to keep eating more and more. So they've found that they can increase the amount you consume in several ways, one of which is that you can endure sweeter foods for longer at the bliss point if there is more fat in the food. So if you want to eat more pancakes, drink whole milk with it. Cake icing already has a lot of fat in it so that won't be a help. But a palate cleanser might help--something not sweet or fat. | e402b076-6596-497c-80bd-59a4fe8143b1 |
18m48b | ELI'veonlyexperienced1season: How does the 4 seasons feel like? | In New Jersey, our summers can get up to around 37C, and our winters can get to -17C.
Spring and fall are basically the perfect temperatures (fall is a little chillier) but you're really only missing out on one season: winter. And you're not missing out. | dd2ba50e-b884-4c94-bcb5-4b932d7c7c2c |
6fo4kl | What's the difference between singing and speaking and are you actually producing a note when you speak? | There is no difference. Singing is just speaking in a different pitch. If you look at languages where the pitch of the pronounciation affects the meaning (e.g. Chinese), the music in these languages have lyrics written in a way so that the spoken lyrics follows the song's progression. If you read these lyrics out through normal speaking, it is almost like singing the song simply by following the correct pronounciation of the lyrics.
A note is just a sound at a particular frequency, which is the same as a spoken syllable. Whether or not speech sounds like an instrument depends on how different the waveforms are that generate the sound. An easy way to see this is to listen to the sounds of a sine wave and a sawtooth wave of the same frequency and compare their difference. Of course, speaking and singing have far more complicated waveforms, but the general idea is the same. | c90dbb72-6a06-4332-bb73-5c761f6c7f80 |
33jnpu | Why do my balls (crotch area) have a distinct smell to them? | Bacteria multiplying with moisture retention, said bacteria creating odor as its trapped in hair follicles And friction from movement continuing to keep the conditions favorable for bacteria to thrive/ maintain comfortable existence. (Very oversimplified explanation though). | b24a2e10-072d-435a-a8bf-5337d3bf1e20 |
25mfg5 | Is it possible to become physically addicted to weed? | No. Marijuana is not physically addictive, but it is possible to become psychologically addicted to it. | e6b4de6c-9d1d-43f0-90f2-82dbe0a82bec |
1l0m7f | How can 0's and 1's tell different pieces of hardware in a computer to do certain things? | 1 and 0 correspond to "voltage" and "no voltage" on a hardware level. So, for example, when "1001" is stored in RAM, it's put in a bank of four capacitors, which go
(voltage) (no voltage) (no voltage) (voltage)
The voltage (or lack thereof) can then be used to control transistors, which act like little switches. Lots of transistors together can be used to build logic circuits, which do the computing and stuff. | fec18043-d72e-4226-b1e1-35f8cac4dd47 |
2w34cp | Does an ad blocker prevent your bandwidth from being wasted on the ads? | Normally, an ad blocker works by blacklisting certain domains, so that stuff embedded from them isn't even loaded. So yes, they do save bandwidth. | dc489e49-d8e9-4c99-9634-66c527226727 |
j8kqs | How in the fuck does manual driving work, and why is it considered better than automatic? | * Good things about manual transmission:
A manual transmission allows you to have more control.
* Bad things about manual transmission:
A manual transmission *requires* you to have more control.
More control is usually a good thing if you're driving a sports car. It can be a hassle if you're just driving a regular car to get from place to place.
If you drive a manual transmission, you can expect to get about one more mile per gallon than an automatic transmission if you drive roughly the same. If you learn how to specifically drive a manual transmission to save gas, you may be able to get up to four more miles per gallon. At current gas prices, and depending on what your MPG already is, that's going to save you almost $80 a year for every average mpg you gain on a regular sedan.
* Bad things about automatic transmission:
Less feeling of being "in control" of the car's performance.
Slightly more fuel use.
If you are a guy, every one of your male friends will roll their eyes if you tell them you don't know how to drive a manual. So what.
* Good things about automatic transmission:
Much easier to drive.
You're not constantly fussing with a gearshift, and let's face it, you now have that extra hand free to check the map on your smartphone, to take a call, or to eat a burrito.
It all comes down to whether saving $80 (typical) to $350 (very rare) a year is worth the hassle of driving a manual. | 568becc6-1b56-40b1-9176-c71c413c7f23 |
2ijtvs | How does a micro chip, which is seemingly just a bunch of metal and plastic, actually remember things and perform tasks? | What all that metal and plastic make are a huge amount of transistors which are then used to make what are called logic gates. A logic gate takes two inputs (electrical currents) and produces one output. The two most basic logic gates are the "and gate" and the "or gate". With "and" if both inputs are true (usually a certain voltage of electrical signal like +5v) you get a true output otherwise you get a alse output (usually 0v), with or if either one of the inputs is true you get a true output otherwise you get a false. Using this most basic logic you can build amazingly complex systems including memory. The key is you have a huge number of these gates and they work incredibly fast. | 0ff98243-84b9-450f-a291-e090fbd890d9 |
2zjm68 | What is happening in California that is causing such a lack of water? | Basically: California gets its rainfall from the ocean. The ocean has been giving less, just as there is escalating demand for water from cities and agriculture. The ocean is providing less rain because of a persistent high pressure "bar" off the coast of California preventing rain clouds from forming. This high pressure is associated with a La Niña event, where the Pacific ocean is unusually warm on the Australasian side. | 2252a2fe-7b08-4214-9954-d4171f0e37ca |
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