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2edvuh | How does a bidets work? | Hi sir I've used a bidet.
Most bidets these days are not things you sit on top of and have them lightly splash your anus while sitting down.
Most of them are hand held sprayers that you aim yourself. The water pressure is usually quite high, relative to a shower.
If a shower can get dirt off of you, a bidet can certainly spray off that little bit of poop.
I find them really uncomfortable to use compared to toilet paper... but at the same time my butt is cleaner.... so there's that. | f92ba8b9-4ef7-4cd8-8c41-0b06b9b760bc |
6b9mzd | How did worms get inside a mango seed if it didn't make any holes on the outside. | They burrow inside before the seed is fully matured.
> The newly hatched larva is about 1 mm long and burrows through the pulp and into the seed where it will remain until it becomes an adult. Minimum time from hatching to seed penetration is one day. There are at least five larval instars in Hawaii. Larvae can penetrate the seed coat easier on younger fruit of all varieties, and apparently find entry impossible on mature seed of some varieties (e.g., Itamaraca). As the fruits mature, the tunnels are eliminated and it is not possible to distinguish between infested and non-infested seeds, unless they are cut open (Pertanian 2004).
Assuming we're talking about mango seed weevil larvae. | a02bd1dd-a141-494f-9eba-65c767821332 |
4ke4bx | Why cant we just make up a number when we divide by 0 by 0 | You could define it to be anything you want, but such a definition isn't very useful. Suppose that you decided to define multiplication in such a way that zero has an inverse. Then for any number x you would have:
x=x\*1 (multiplication by 1 has no effect)
=x\*(0\*0^-1 ) (0*0^-1 =1 by assumption)
=(x\*0^-1 )\*0 (multiplication is associative)
=0 (anything multiplied by zero is zero)
Therefore, if you allow zero to have an inverse, then either the only number in your set is zero (which is not particularly interesting), or you lose some of the other useful properties of addition and multiplication on real numbers. | 5ffb0d6a-7e61-4530-aa37-1830420e3269 |
1jdffb | what is that noise we hear when we put our ear in an empty shell? | Cupped shapes focus noises. Think of the megaphone shape on an old phonograph, your ear, an owls face, or just turn a song on your phone, make a cup with your hand, put it between the speaker and your face and you'll hear the volume go up.
That shell is esentially that same shape. Background noises, like wind, air conditioners, distant talking, etc all get caught up in the cup shape and bounce around and mixing together into a static noise. They are then focused forward all exiting in the same direction towards you ear.
Short answer, your amplifying mixed background noise into a focused beam directly towards your ear. | 8b75a9f0-bae1-41fc-b31e-dfefdd8d35c5 |
6zpw3m | How can humans forget the benefits from vaccination? | What do they gain? Attention and money. The majority of the anti-vax movement was started by Andrew Wakefield in an effort to promote his business venture of selling nutritional supplements as a replacement for vaccinations. Then the pornstar-turned-selfproclaimed-medical-expert Jenny McCarthy started attention whoring when her son was diagnosed autistic. Despite the fact that both of these people have been thoroughly discredited or have retracted their statements, people who got suckered by the anti-vax industry don't want to admit that they're wrong, so they just double-down on the derp.
Keep in mind that your average person is an idiot and that a non-trivial portion of the population believes in flat earth, moon landing hoaxes, chemtrails, and fluoride mind control. | 1c45c606-44dc-4288-8203-2c8b0364e71f |
6rhmlt | Why to big rigs have different types of tires on the FRONT and REAR of the truck? | If you want another example, go to the drag strip. Even the street muscle cars swap out their rear tires for "slicks" which are big, specially formulated, and with little to no tread for racing purposes. When you don't have to worry about rotating your tires, you can tailor the kinds of tires for the application to increase performance or reduce cost. In the case of the race car, they get better performance. In the case of the big rig, the front wheels are probably cheaper because they don't need to be as big and tough as the rear ones which are supporting all the weight and engine power. Also, unlike a 4 wheeled passenger car, the big rig has many tires and the front wheels are not as important for maintaining grip and stopping power, they are kind of just there for steering.
In fact, many people, including myself, have staggered wheels on our sports cars, meaning the rear wheels are wider than the front. Same concept as the drag car but to a lesser degree. Theoretically this will give more grip to the driving wheels but unfortunately, since I don't actually race, I'm really just paying a premium to look cool without taking advantage of the performance gains.
You may notice some of the bigger pickup trucks like the f350s with the dual wheels in rear may have different tires as well to be compatible with that setup.
For the average driver, economy and safety are the usual priorities. Being able to rotate your tires means you are buying new tires less frequently, and with only 4 tires touching the pavement, proper tread and grip is important to have on all wheels for safety in all weather conditions. | 501ecead-51d1-40b7-b786-7c39c5f647c5 |
ryfax | Why do movies cost so much? | Script writers, editors, cameras, special effects, equipment, labor, power, transportation, CGI takes an extremely long time to make and often takes a lot of labor, actor fees and incomes, lawyers, logistics. Have you ever counted all the people on the credits? All those people get paid to do what they contributed. | 20dfed52-c9e3-4672-a403-5f155e372823 |
3tsaew | Why can't "superbacteria" live outside hospitals | It's not that they can't live outside of hospitals, it's just that hospitals are great places to go if you want to catch antibiotic resistant bugs. Everyone who goes there is sick, and if they have bacterial infections they are going to get dosed up, which can lead to resistant strains. Plus they are sticking needles into you, and performing surgery and all sorts of activities with a high risk of infection. | 855a8246-1bac-46c8-be98-d880766006af |
3kk59i | Why does garbage day getting pushed back a day actually change anything? Wouldn't this mean they work on some other day they normally have off? | Many places also have different days for garbage pick up in different areas. To save on the number of workers, they split their area and do pickups each day but in different areas.
If services was pushed back a day long term than the schedule readjusts. A one-time or short-term pickup change would result in either having to bring on extra workers or working on a previously scheduled day off. Doing either is expensive. | 763b88d6-601e-485d-bf25-8a64949a3ac8 |
17vj2s | Can one neuron produce a thought? | I don't think we have enough understanding to answer this question, we don't fully understand what a "thought" is so we can't specifically say what's required to create one. | 6e4906fd-2fb5-4c0b-8d91-3bec382900d6 |
76k8jh | What is matching? (Clothing) | Matching is just putting things together without clashing colors or patterns. Now the harder part- what clashes and doesn't . Starting with colors, generally things on opposite sides of the color wheel- (just search it) will go well together. Those next to each other on the color will as well. Those in some other position may not. You shouldn't put the same color on all the clothes because then it's just too much of one hue. As for patterns, usually only either the top or the bottom can have them as an easy way to stay out of trouble.
(There is a lot more like accessories which can add third color to make it more interesting but you are just trying to survive here not become a fashion designer)
Now for the easiest way: just use opposites.
Well if you start with the bottoms, let's assume no pattern just color. The easiest is black or white because nearly everything will match with it as a top. So black pants, white top. White pants, black top. If something has to have a pattern- choose only the top or bottom and the other is a plain color.
Oh and tell your gf - pick your own damn clothes out next time too | ee5c6414-a473-4163-972c-d6f2a713f852 |
kemhr | British Cricket for an American | [We've done this shit 11 fucking times in the last month.](_URL_0_)
[Here is the one with the most responses and information](_URL_1_)
I can do the following if you so request...
A) Copy and paste the responses into a Word Document and email it to you
B) Screenshot the whole thread, upload to imgur as an album
C) Teach you how to use the search function | 9725def6-e922-4b3a-98cb-f831c33166a6 |
7q8bh3 | The process for connecting new construction to already existing infrastructure. (i.e sewage, internet, power) | Permitting and code - you start by getting permission to make a physical connection. The process for a small user (like a home) is probably pretty simplified, but for a large users like industrial and comercial locations, you go through a review on how you would impact the rest of the distribution system. You may be required to upgrade things (new sub stations, pipes, etc)
Physically connections - Sewer, water, and natural gas are probably hot tapped. The means you put a saddle on the pipe, then a valve, then a drill assembly goes through the valve, drills a hole on the pipe, then retracts and you close the valve. the distribution system is also build with redundancy, so they can possibly isolate certain legs and drain them if need by.
Electricity is done by the utulility company, but can be done live with certain protective measures.
I do not have any direct experience with telecom, but i imagine its similiar.
I'm an engineer at a manufacturing plant, but i used to be a construction worker and i've actually hot tapped water and sewer.
They're building a large Bass Pro Shops in my area, but the opening date was delayed. I spoke with a friend at the local municipal utility authority, and he told me they realized the sewer pipes weren't big enough to handle all the water flow and made them run a new line.
I'm trying to get more electricity into my manufacturing plant, I had to apply to the power company for a review of the new connection. They looked at the existing capacity on my leg of the grid and determined that i can take another 200A of the grid (at13.2kv) without impacting the other customers. they told me this is good because my 2nd option would be to run 5 miles of utility poles and install a new sub-station. option 1 is about $100,000 while option 2 would be about $4 million. | c97a2a46-49ec-4f8d-8880-680164d14dcc |
kljy3 | Why do your eyes get puffy after crying? | When you cry eye ocular muscles constrict and the salt in tears may cause fluid retention in the eye area. This is called ~~Pussy~~ Puffy eyes. | 84831e82-4081-43ea-97e3-90a4f97fd10d |
7im9dr | Why are the rules for elections for federal offices allowed to vary between different US states? | The country was formed from 13 States (hence the name of the country), and the Constitution preserves a lot of autonomy on their part. For most purposes, the federal government is very loose.
States establish and conduct the elections that send representatives to the federal House and Senate, and also that apportion electors to Presidential races. This was a huge problem in the century after the Civil War because the Southern states rigged their systems so that black people had no possibility of voting, and under the laws at the time, they were allowed to do so.
That changed in a big way only with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that allowed the federal government to stop race-based state discrimination in election procedures.
But the same forces are at it again, it seems, finding ways around those federal laws. | 39f5c6b3-452c-447f-86e4-08bb3211f3f5 |
3c5jbb | why is it woman and children first during natural disasters | For women:
Women are needed for reproduction and rebuilding of the human race. One male can impregnate a lot of females to ensure that life goes on. If there is only one female and hundreds of males, re-population isnt going anywhere fast.
For children:
They are the future of the human race and naturally have a longer life expectancy than older males. 10 year old will remain on earth much longer than a 50 year old on average, especially with care from all the women being saved.
Basically to make sure that the human race survives. | ccb35db0-38cd-49bb-967c-765c5a2a8d2c |
8q3iqk | What are the ramifications to the U.S. and the world if the United States were to stop trading with our closest allies? | Huge damage to our economy. A huge percentage of Americans are employed making things that are sold in other countries. A huge percentage of the things Americans buy are made in other countries. Quite a few of the products American companies make use components are tools from other countries. | 5d3b7df9-d8be-4def-a21f-240b9733b4f9 |
7i6d1h | Why does balding seem to occur exclusively in humans and not other mammals? | Elderley animals develop thin, scruffy fur; old ladies get thin hair like that. This is the result of the overall breakdown of the body due to age. Male pattern baldness is different, it happens in healthy men; it is related to testosterone level. Male pattern baldness *evolved*, presumably for a reason. [It is probably simply a matter of signaling maturity](_URL_0_). In a traditional hunter- gatherer society, maturity is synonymous with experience and wisdom. The world didn't change much for early humans, it is only in a fast changing modern world that old people are confused by technology.
If you are a fertile young cave woman, the 40 year old guy who is still strong enough to hunt is *attractive*. That young stud Ogg may be stronger, but old bald Grak brought the tribe through droughts, forest fires, and the hard winters when the mastodons never came. | 3f473840-8661-4685-9283-29fde34d83e6 |
3y1zed | With same sex marriage federally legalized in the US, why is there a big taboo against Polygamy (even if all parties consent)? | Legally, the grounds for one does not necessarily pave the way for the other.
Besides changing the wording of a few forms, all the legal structure was in place for gay marriages, gay divorce, gay parental rights, etc. If jenny could marry Steve there was no legally justifiable reason for Joe not to be able to enter into the same two person contact.
Polygamy would require a significant rethinking of several laws. Are a 1 vs 2 divorce handled differently than a 1 v 1 v 1 full divorce. Do employers have to provide healthcare for more than a single spouse. How do child support and visitation rights work.
Not saying they are insurmountable hurdles. But it is a much less straightforward move and less a "there's no difference" situation than gay marriage. | 34d3c644-efa6-4b83-aff8-0c3c073153ff |
kuwv7 | The difference between Sunni and Shi'a Islam. | The differences between Sunni and Shi'a Islam are based on beliefs, culture and history, though they share far more in common with each other than what makes them different. Sunnis comprise about 85% of the global Muslim population. Shiites comprise the remain 15% and are located mostly in Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Lebanon and Pakistan. Sunni translates roughly to "people of tradition," and Shi'a to "followers [of Ali]."
The split in Islam can be traced back to the early days of Islam. The year was 632CE, the prophet Muhammad had passed and his followers needed to chose a new leader. The first Caliph chosen (leader of the Muslim community) was a man named Abu Bakr. He was an older companion and the father-in-law of the prophet and was seen as one of the most loyal and righteous of Muhammad's followers. Yet many people were upset by the appointment of Abu Bakr to this role. They wanted Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali, to become the next Caliph. Those who supported Ali saw him as divinely chosen to be the successor, and they believed that the descendents of Muhammad were the rightful heirs.
During the years of the Rashidun (the first 4 Caliphs) Islam expanded rapidly across the world, gaining new territory and converts. Ali did eventually become a Caliph, the 4^th one. When he died in 661CE, his supporters believed that his son, Hasan should be the next Caliph. However, a powerful man named Muawiyah was able to force Hasan to remove himself as Caliph. After Hasan's death, his younger brother Hussein went to war with with Muawiyah's successors, but Hussein was defeated and killed shortly afterwards. His death became the moment when Sunni and Shi'a Islam split. Sunnis and Shiites ended up segregating themselves into different communities, which allowed for their beliefs and customs to evolve differently over time.
Shiites believe in a hierarchical order of religious leaders, much like the Catholic Church's priests, bishops, and cardinals. Sunnis are more like Protestant Christianity in that they have religious leaders and scholars, but only at local levels; not unlike a preacher or a pastor. Shiites believe that the descendants of Ali are the rightful leaders of Islam, which they call Imams, and treat their words as divine. Different Shi'a sects believe in a different number of descendants, but the most common sect is the Twelvers. They believe that there were 12 divinely ordained leaders, the last of which is call the Mahdi. The Mahdi is somewhat like the Messiah, as he will come on Judgement Day to right the wrongs of the world. Sunnis believe that the religion's leaders are chosen, not divinely ordained. They also have 5 different schools of thought concerning religious law, whereas Shiites only have one. Sunnis and Shiites also do not follow all of the same *hadiths*, or sayings of the Prophet. Methods of prayer, holidays, and religious clothing also differentiate the two groups. | 9aaa99ae-1d3c-49eb-aff2-ce04b434533c |
5pudbe | Why aren't people more accepting of nuclear power in the USA? | Basically things like Chernobyl and Fukushima have given nuclear energy a bad wrap. It really only takes one worst case scenario | 2771abe5-6f75-45b5-9f13-2a8578ea0f6d |
238qgb | How do clicky pens work, and what is the mechanism called?! | Here is a great animation: _URL_0_
As you can see from the animation, the inner surface of the pen is grooved. The button has a "holder", which holds the pen shaft in place and slides back and forth on the grooves. The shaft has a complementary part that fits into the holder. The holder is designed such that the shaft's part always wants to be one section over (it's hard to explain, but if you take apart one of the clicky pens you must have, you can infer from there). The shape of the holder, however, is such that the shaft has to fit in one of the spots in the holder. The spring forces the shaft into these spots. Once you push the button, however, you lift the shaft out of the spot, allowing it to go one spot over. These spots are elevated differently so that the pen has two modes: out and in. The difference in elevation is also why you have to push the button further to open the pen than to close it.
As for what it's called, I have no idea. | 644f9f23-f07d-4ae4-9466-53a64ee1c853 |
4pzfou | Why do bridges ice before the road? | I may be wrong about this, but I was always told it's because of cold air movement above/below causes it to freeze much quicker, whereas regular road is partially insulated by the ground | d87d49f0-0f0d-484a-a87c-9dbeb995ce0f |
58rj05 | Are vitamin pills beneficial for us to take, or are they a complete waste of money? Is eating healthy food the only real way to absorb nutrients? | Vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble, meaning that they dissolve in fat, rather than water. This means they tend to hang around in the body for a while. A large overdose of these vitamins can be dangerous, especially a chronic overdose since it will build up in your system (this is called hypervitaminosis), but what's in a single daily multivitamin dose isn't likely to hurt you.
The B vitamins, and vitamin C, are water soluble, and tend to flush out of the system quickly. These reek a bit if you take way too much, but again what's in a single daily multivitamin isn't going to hurt you.
Each of the vitamins does something specific, and can cause illness if you don't get enough of it. But this is unlikely; you can get what's needed by eating normally and healthy. An excess of vitamins doesn't really help, the vitamin C controversy notwithstanding.
There are a plethora of other minerals that are on the market. Iron, folic acid, omega-3 pills, calcium, the list goes on and on. But really, the only reason to take these is if your doctor tells you that you're deficient in something.
TL;DR: They're probably not going to hurt you but there's not really a need to take them unless you're deficient. | 26679eb1-eb48-4733-90af-36ba9794791d |
20ltvh | - how does someone get into whiskey/bourbons and able to pick up tastes? | Just like in beer, it takes training. You have to try a lot of different types and compare notes.
It helps to find one or two you really like, drink them a bit to become very familiar with them, then compare others to your "base". | 3ffe4460-c55f-4979-90e0-475fc8507b86 |
26fb66 | Is it possible to make a battery with enough amperage to hook up to your house's main electrical box? | Yes. For example, you could just wire 10 car batteries together in series, and they'd made 120V DC.
The size of the battery doesn't really affect its voltage if you're making a single cell. You pretty much always get 1.5V for a zinc-carbon cell, for example, regardless of its size. To make a car battery, you put six 2V cells together (I'm not sure what type of cell they use).
The current is limited by the type of cell in the battery. So, my daisychained car battery system could only put out ~300-500 amps just like a single car battery, not that that's a small amount or anything.
If you daisychained 80 AA batteries together to make a 120V battery, you'd still be limited to around .5 A or something, so not very good.
What you can also do is wire two improvised 120V "batteries" in parallel, which won't change the voltage but will double the amount of current you can put out. Three in parallel will triple your current, and so on.
I should mention that the inverters (what converts DC to AC) are extremely inefficient if you need something rated for the load that a household needs. You actually need a mechanical inverter. It powers a DC motor which cranks an AC generator, essentially. Not good. | 003ca6bb-9414-4535-8e47-5bbfaab2f92b |
6w69t6 | Would the Attack on Titan 3D Maneuver gear work on Earth? If not, anywhere else? | No. 3DMG relies on rapid changes to momentum that would wreak havoc on a human body that weighs 150-200 lbs, especially since most of the force would be applied to one section of the body.
Your second question is the more important.
At 1.35 m/s^2 , there is a planetary body where the average human of the same dimensions would weigh only around 30 lbs, and furthermore large-scale monsters like the Titans could theoretically move around. Plus, it can be theoretically terraformed for human life.
That location is, of course, Saturn's moon, **Titan**. | 3e09e4f1-3d8d-4120-9953-7432d4ddd5e5 |
72l13h | What are the differences between alcohols (Isopropyl, stearyl, etc)? | It has to do with the other parts of the molecule. Alcohol just means it has an -OH group on the molecule, ethanol has two carbons attached to the OH, methanol has one. (They’ve also got hydrogens on the carbons, just to satisfy the octect rule, but that’s details).
The difference between propanol and isopropanol is the configuration of the extra bits. So propanol is just a straight chain of three Cs, while isopropanol has a split, where two Cs on the end bond to the carbon with the OH. (Or you can think of it like the OH is in the middle, rather than on the end) Google images is your frend here. Any alcohol you can think of is shown on images.
As far as the real differences, like the stuff you care about, that’s a bit harder to predict. In essence, it’s about how well it will mix with water. Somthing like ethanol, with only a few carbons, will mix well with water, and not so well with oils. As you add more carbons on, the better it will mix with oil, and the worse it’ll mix with water. The best “cleaning” alcohol will be one that hits the perfect balence between water and whatever you’re trying to cleen off. That way, it can bind to the dirt, but still be washed off with the water. | 3ee6b938-dca6-4ca8-b527-38344a6817c4 |
m6age | Why my eye twitches | I have to know! Mine has been going crazy. Then it stops for a few weeks before it comes back again. I just ate a banana, hopefully that will cure it. | 36fe450b-656b-437e-abee-a2e388e5be03 |
5pqx40 | How are stores like Dollar General able to stay in business despite selling things for a dollar? | Some of it's special made stuff targeted to be under a dollar, others is just stuff other stores are looking to get rid of (they bought too much), so they sell it at a loss to recoup some of their cost. Dollar stores just ensure they always spend less than a dollar per item and thus they can make money. | 84cba109-49c1-4b86-9371-f173cdca1d4c |
15x5mz | My co-pay is $20, but without insurance it's thousands of dollars. How does the insurance company make any money? | In part, because the insurance company doesn't actually pay that "uninsured rate": because they are a huge customer, they negotiate much better rates for the drugs/services. You will never see what they pay: they get an invoice for the face amount, and then get a discount off that.
It's somewhat the same for car dealers. There's an "invoice" with a price, but they don't actually pay that price. The manufacturer gives them all kinds of discounts and credits based on complex rules, like if they meet an overall sales goal they get an extra 5% off. | fbeefd57-0802-485f-ae28-0a1ee61f0c6e |
2oekqq | Gyroids. Because the wikipedia page was so non-layman that it hurt to look at. | > A gyroid is an infinitely connected triply periodic minimal surface discovered by Alan Schoen in 1970
A gyroid is a surface in space, just like a plane, the surface of a sphere, or the surface of an idealized doughnut are all surfaces in space.
Notice how a plane is unlike the surface of a sphere—the plane extends infinitely but the surface of the sphere is finite. A gyroid is infinite, like the plane.
Notice how the surface of a sphere is unlike the surface of a doughnut. If you have a sphere and you draw a line on that sphere that doesn't cross itself and ends where it started (e.g. draw a little loop, or a big loop, or a big squiggly loop) then you can always inch that line smaller and smaller until it collapses into a point (imagine a rubber band shrinking to zero size). With a doughnut shape (formally, a torus) you could draw a line following the same rules that would not collapse to a point (see [this](_URL_0_) picture; both of the colored lines have this property). A gyroid is like the torus, only *infinitely* so—there are infinitely many "holes" in the donut.
The next layer to add is that this surface is "triply periodic." That means that if you look at one region, then you shift over by some amount in the x direction then you'll see an exact copy of the surface. Same for the y and z directions. [This](_URL_1_) image shows a bit of another triply periodic surface that's a little easier on the eyes than the Gyroid.
The next layer to add is that the surface is a "minimal surface." That means that you can't make a small modification to the surface that reduces its surface area. It would be like making the surface out of stretchy fabric (woven on non-Euclidian looms, I might add) and the fabric pulls itself taut.
That describes the mathematical terminology used in the opening of the article. Technically there are lots of triply periodic minimal surfaces. | 5c3054ec-9559-46bf-84b4-0aedf68350b7 |
10ufnh | Why don't bugs flying inside fast moving vehicles smack against the back window? | Why would they?
The air in the car is moving along with them.
When you're coasting on the highway at 65 if you put your hand up in the air does it get thrown back behind your head? No because your arm is already moving at 65 MPH. | 68ab1e2b-a0fd-4b89-bad2-7fa3c0fe4b3a |
1h9e34 | When I'm walking I'm heels, why do the "clop" noises my feet make always seem like they are 2 different pitches? | They're coming from two different angles, and since they come from two different sources, the sound waves will bounce off two different sets of objects around you. It'll be a subtle, but noticeable difference. | b5f4b17f-31bc-411b-8f4c-46d581e46895 |
26xaqs | Is the center of a rotating circle at rest? | The very center of a CD it is rotating, but not moving in space (relative to the rest of the CD). | b4a7fffb-f4cc-4d2c-85b2-248d87886118 |
3mp2ku | How did WWII ship flak guns work? | At least for US ships, the classic flak burst comes from either the 40mm/56 Bofors, 3"/50 AA or the dual-purpose 5"/38. The biggest bursts would come from the 5", as you suspect.
The general idea is that the 5" guns shoot down the planes as they're coming at the ship, so rotation required is minimal. When they get close enough that you need to rotate faster, they're within range of the 40mm Bofors guns, and closer still the 20mm Oerlikon guns. It's a layered defense. | 46d5378f-035a-4870-a063-a4aba47d370a |
4062xu | What's to stop from getting the license, buying a gun, selling it to a criminal, and then just reporting it stolen? | That's a specific federal crime already, a straw purchase. It happens, but it's almost never prosecuted. Its what most gun owners mean when they say "Why not actually prosecute the laws already on the books instead of drafting new ones." | 129745e3-3ee7-43ca-9212-6bd0d03d0000 |
3lrpyd | Why does ice taste bad with milk, even though it is great with every other cold beverage? | Personally I enjoy ice in my milk, I like it to be ice cold and don't mind if it'd a tad watered down at the end | 4f480e0f-c3ca-4efa-bb98-ade48411c055 |
5x1jo2 | If you can create a smoke ring, could you make a regular air ring? | Yeah of course. Like you said though, it'd be invisible to us. There are underwater bubble rings with air though! It's all about fluid dynamics | fb743531-1a43-4f12-b439-f93b7066f73d |
35cc4o | How are old videos that were filmed in black & white converted to color? | There literally was a person/team of people who colored it in. As you can guess, it is very tedious work. It is also very difficult of beginners, I'm a semi-pro at most everything Photoshop, but I can't for the life of me realistically colorize a B & W photo, let alone an entire film. | cf48e18d-31a8-4073-b607-a32ca640d355 |
5cnml0 | 'Scandal' in UK Newspapers over funding Hate Speech, and why many companies are stopping adverts being shown in these papers | Several newspapers in the UK, most prominently the Daily Mail (which is the primary focus of this campaign), are considered by some to promote hate speech. For example, the Daily Mail often makes articles which aggressively target immigrants, foreigners, single mothers, people forced to make use of state benefits, etc for heavy criticism. If you're American, they're very much like Fox News. Dirty tricks like having huge frontpage bold-font headlines telling blatant lies, then when they're forced by law to apologise for telling said lies, they tuck it away on page 14 in tiny print in a little sidebox that nobody ever notices. But they're also one of the most-read publications in the country, so they hold considerable sway with what they print.
The funding thing is just about businesses. Lego, for a big example which has been in the news today, used to advertise extensively in the Daily Mail, giving out free Lego figures with the paper. As of late, a campaign came out pointing out that the Daily Mail is considered to be hateful and unpleasant by a lot of people, and that Lego, being a family friendly kind of company (and "foreign" to the UK) may not want to be associated with them.
The campaign was a success, and Lego decided not to advertise with the Mail anymore. | 874e0dca-640f-4bd1-82a7-d514b727a5b6 |
2i5uwl | What exactly happens chemically that causes your body temperature to rise when you're sick? | Your body releases signalling chemicals that cause your blood vessels to shrink and move deeper into your body, making your body less effective at getting rid of metabolic heat. It's kinda like a car turning off its radiator. | 0ad5373a-87ff-474a-a65b-e8054e414cdf |
2tbrtn | If the Senate doesn't have a germaneness rule and can combine two completely unrelated topics on a bill, but the House does have a germaneness rule, how can the House vote on those bills if they make it to the House? | Generally, House members can't invoke the germaneness requirement on nongermane Senate amendments until the House has reached a stage of disagreement with the Senate over the amendments. So basically, the House has to consider nongermane Senate amendments, but when debating those amendments that they disagree with, they can invoke the germaneness rule to make sure they stick to debating the subject matter in the amendment.
Source: _URL_1_ (towards the bottom of page 10) and _URL_0_ (specifically, clauses 9 and 10). | 9a892ea0-41b2-499e-91a0-9f74764bc1b3 |
6wx7bx | What's the difference between Body Wash & Shampoo? Why can't we use one for the other and visa versa..? | Not an expert, but I've read (a loooong time ago) that the scalp prefers a different pH than the body. But this may not be significant enough to matter.
OTOH, women tend to have longer hair than men and a shampoo may be better for longer hair. Lady Brienne of Tarth may ignore this. | 1fd0f48f-dcf6-4ea6-bb6c-991d60ea4cd4 |
j5nj2 | Can someone explain to me money markets to me like im 5? | It's no different than a regular savings account, just higher minimum balances which usually yield higher interest than a simply savings account. It is not linked to any external risks, most Money Market account's are FDIC insured. Rates are generally 25-50% better than the average savings. It differs from a Cetificate of Deposit (CD's) because you can take the money out when ever you like with no penalty on the interest, up to 2 times a month. | d0dd3d8d-5d45-47ad-a91f-0c899c773cd7 |
5o3340 | Why is it advisable to block your license plate when sharing a photo of your vehicle? | License plates can be used to find where the owner of the car lives. Unless you're completely comfortable with random strangers knowing that, it might be a good idea to block the plates. | 71fe1640-fa46-42fa-a0ac-6c6f728dc073 |
6e97mz | Why do lower frequencies in speakers require more power? Shouldn't it use less power since the speaker vibrates less? | Another way to think about this is the question: Why do treble sounds travel farther than bass frequencies? To answer this, take a look at the waveform of the frequency in question. The treble wavelength will be much shorter, meaning that for the same power, an audio source can achieve a higher total sound output due to the shorter wavelength. Let's say the treble frequency is around 13kHz, while the bass frequency is around 40Hz. This would mean that the treble frequency is 325 times shorter than the bass frequency, thus leading to the conclusion of both your question and the question I presented. Since a lower frequency has a longer wavelength, the speaker moves more to achieve the same output. This is why you can see speaker cones moving more during bassy music more than treble-y music. It travels farther because, again, less power is needed since it's a significantly shorter wavelength. Hope this helps! | d5dd364f-ff88-4ed8-bc47-3962ff46b731 |
8y3sa2 | How does one get ROMs from video game cartridges? | There's hardware you plug the cartridge into and then into your computer that can read the contents of the cartridge and send it to a ROM file. [Here's an example.](_URL_0_)
Emulation development is a very broad topic and I don't think I could do it justice here, but video game emulator developers will typically obtain or reverse engineer the instruction set for the hardware that a particular video game console uses. Once one developer has done this, the information is out there and others don't need to repeat this work. They then use that info to write software which will read the instructions and process them in the correct way. This isn't a perfect process and there can be a difference in the way an emulator performs compared to an actual console.
Here's some resources:
_URL_1_
_URL_2_ | 01a97b2f-2db4-4824-8ccd-cd8ab71d7934 |
jbdr1 | How to start a small business | Finally something I can help with.
First, you need an idea - what will your business do? Are you going to offer a service, like fixing your friend's toys, or are you going to sell goods - like new toys for your friend... or will you do both?
Once you have the idea you have to keep the government happy. In America there are two parts of the government who are most interested in you telling them about your business. Before you can make those two parts/areas of the government happy, you have to get permission from the united states federal government by getting a FEIN. A FEIN, or Federal employer identification number let the government and IRS track how much money your great new business will make. You can also use your social security number for a small business, but the FEIN is like a second SSN - one only for the business. Now you can go get your papers to make those two parts of the government we talked about happy.
The first is the state government, and they want you to get a paper that says you got their permission to do your business. The state will issue a retail licence, or other form of licence you need, depending on the business you will have. Some states make it easy, so get permission from your mommy or daddy to go online, and you can usually register for a state-level licence there. If you can't do it online, you can go to your local business complex, mine is located in the same place as my DMV, or you can call your city hall for more information.
The second part of the government/area you have to keep happy is your county. The county will issue a business licence, which can be found in the county complex (mine is also in the same building as my DMV) and you can apply at the county treasurer's office. They will want to know how much money your business will make in sales that year. Your first year will be a guess, but it's ok because they use the guess to calculate how much tax you will pay. Anything under 250,000 for your first year will be taxed the same - so no big deal here.
Once you tell both those parts of the government what you are doing, and apply for those licences, you wait for them... and when they arrive - you have an official business. You can then start your work whether it be a retail location, a home business, or an online business. You're ok as long as you got the correct licences.
Sometimes you might need more licenses, like if you want to sell daddy more of those icky cigarettes. These optional licences depend on the business... and sometimes, depending on where you live, you might not even need that county business licence we talked about.
Everything else from that point is up to you - just be sure to pay your taxes... or a big mean man named "Uncle Sam" will come ass-rape you when you're not looking.
**TL;DR:** Get a retail licence form the state, business licence from the county - and pay taxes to avoid those anal IRS penalties.
I hope that was clear enough. | 917addd1-be68-47f9-9344-7e6ca6fb4570 |
57hdvo | Why converting human power to electricity in gyms isn't worthwhile. | Because the amount of electricity humans can produce through mechanical exertion is extremely small.
A typical person on a bike generator can produce about 100 watts. Assuming someone is using the bike 24 hours per day, that would result in about 72 kilowatt-hours (kWH) of electricity per month (100 watts * 24 hours * 30 days / 1000 for kilo). A typical family uses something like 1000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month. So you’d have to have something like 13 or 14 electricity generating bikes constantly being used just to supply one family with electricity.
The cost of ordering special bikes that generate electricity and setting up the infrastructure so that you can provide power back to the grid would be far greater than any savings you would get from the electricity generated. | a28b55e1-f194-4ced-bce6-6bf63d7cc63d |
433snf | In terms of genetics, what is a 'library' | Basically it's a collection of genes that have been identified, that we know their purpose and we know the DNA sequence that codes them. | 523b2b8f-7b59-4fbc-b17e-9a516dc075f3 |
3e1ftb | Are there any rules about which company name appears on a credit card statement as the payee? | I am not 100% sure but I believe the written text is just a note field, the numeric references are the real information. I know that one UK credit card company actually offered the ability to change the text when they started experimenting with an online portal. | 1a2cf177-3190-4f49-8fa7-1a235cac895a |
7sjfhg | Why do electronic devices have a limit on the storage size of MicroSD cards that can be used? | Right now, we see a pretty strict limit around 32gb, the point where larger cards must follow the SDXC standard, which also mandates a different filesystem. While for many devices (but not all) this can be added in by a software/firmware, older devices that no longer see updates may never get that added in. While the 2-4gb limit between SD and SDHC did not require a new filesystem, there were still many cases where an update for SDHC support was never made.
In addition, many manufacturers, at the time of device's release, will simply stated "up to [largest card currently made]". | 0e4148a8-f8d3-4cdb-8a30-57dc10def921 |
5m14x1 | How are some car radios capable of spelling out song titles and artist names when tuning into some FM stations? | Radio stations do a lot of clever work to fit more information in the audio stream then just the audio. Originally an FM station were just a simple mono audio signal. However they found out that the signal quality were good enough to deliver audio signals at much higher frequency then the humans can hear. So they composed the difference between the left and right audio channels and turned the pitch up higher then humans can hear and sent it out on the FM band. A stereo FM receiver were then able to split the audio signal based on pitch and turn the pitch down to its original pitch to then make stereo sound. Later on someone figured out that there were still a lot of unused signals above human hearing so they added a digital signal to a high pitch frequency so it can display the name of the radio station, what song is played and even codes for traffic information where it is supported.
So the name of the song title is just part of a high pitch audio signals on the FM signal. | f73c9a16-602d-48d2-b6be-e9f137249c53 |
4qr53w | How is the ozone hole "healing"? | Ozone is constantly being created in our upper atmosphere because of UV radiation from the sun. It's a good thing too, because otherwise that same UV radiation would cause all kinds of trouble for humans here on the ground.
But in the previous century we had a number of machines, chemical processes (and even fridges) releasing nasty chemicals into the atmosphere that would hurt this ozone layer. This was visible in a measurable lack of ozone in the most fragile spots, around the Earth's poles. These "holes" in the ozone layer grew to an alarming size.
Thankfully the use and release of these chemicals were banned, and now, slowly, we can see the ozone holes shrinking again. | f6fce05d-b4c3-45ef-acf4-8243623a3ad3 |
26mu67 | In Music why is B- > C a "half-step" and C- > D a "full-step?" | The musical scale was adapted and developed from what we had in the past to what sounded nice to the composers at different times. The major scale can be brought back to the pentatonic scale which has (in C) C D E G A C, this has no clashes and is characterized by the major third (C to E). This pentatonic scale is something that humans tend to sing innately and thus forms the basis for the major scale. Adding in the 4th and 7th degrees add clashes and more flavor to the major scale as well as allowing modal movement in music.
The piano was designed with the C major scale in mind and it was made such that the scale can be played with only white notes. The reason some notes don't have black keys (or half steps between the two notes) is that they are already half steps. This is because of the way the major scale is developed from the pentatonic.
I'll write the major scale in its step fashion form (T = whole tone = two semitone step.
H = half tone = one semitone step).
Major
T T H T T T H
As you can see with the major scale there are half steps where there are no notes in between. Looking at C major on the piano you can see this easily with the absence of black notes.
It seems illogical at first and could be done different ways but it works.
Edit:
My experience: Musician and music teacher, Bachelor in Music and Current Graduate Diploma of education. | 0ce9b748-ec93-4784-87ac-e85d0a9674a4 |
5ihjqb | Lightspeed | The absolute speed limit of the universe, very close to 300,000,000 meters per secend. It is the most accurately known physical constant. | 8dfd7a85-baf0-4a97-bf49-f1254f28f9b8 |
3n2uwm | How does my tv, which has no internet connection tell me what the next program will be? | Assuming you have cable, your cable provider subscribes to a service called an 'epg' which stands for electronic program guide. This is the electronic equivalent of the TV guide magazine. This is sent to the tv on a special channel along with all the regular shows. | 55cba587-f699-4d96-824e-0908ccb0bca5 |
5qt6ag | What are incredibly niche stock images actually produced for? Are they commissioned, if so by who? | Stock photos are taken by random photographers that then give the stock company the rights to the photos in exchange for payment when purchased. Having photos on a stock website does not guarantee it being purchased.
I've been a model for almost a decade and worked with hundreds of photographers. Some of them create photos with a purpose in mind, an example would be a novel cover or news article.
Photography is an art and a means to express ones creativity. As you can imagine, that would create some real weird stuff like an old lady licking two popsicles. Or the time I was dressed as a 50s housewife for a pin up shoot and the photographer decided to get "creative" and have me get on my hands and knees, make animal noises and angry faces while he took photos. This is what happens when you are paid for stock photo work sometimes.... I prefer to shoot fashion and lifestyle lol
But anyway, just because a stock photo exists doesn't mean it was ever bought and doesn't mean the creator made it for a specific purpose other than his own crazy ideas. | 8d4b878a-9cb2-4452-983e-eb716d7503c7 |
4jhtrx | What caused humans to outsmart other primates? | Well, humans developed symbolic thought- or the ability to attach meaning to symbols (sounds, gestures, pictures) and communicate complex ideas using those symbols. They used this to develop language, and with language they could speak of the future, and of the past, allowing them to learn from each others mistakes instead of just their own. They could also pass on information directly, allowing one person to discover that, say, those mushrooms over there are poisonous, and then save everyone else from the same mistake.
Additionally, language allows highly refined degrees of organization and strategy, allowing these humans to out-think and out-organize any enemy they happened to meet.
Finally, transcending the needs of the present and being able to conceptualize the future, humans were able to develop tools they might need, as well as to see the possible ways they might use a stick or rock, even if that use was not in their immediate environment. And so invention began, giving humans an ever-increasing storehouse of tools.
One of the most powerful advantages we have is that our knowledge and experience do not die at our death. We can teach our children our own tricks, teach them how to build tools and make fire, etc. And then they can spend their lives making further improvements on those ideas without devoting the time it took to come up with them to begin with. | 7da7dc4e-5ba1-4947-bfea-73ad8e01971e |
33uil8 | Why aren't there any dinosaur-sized creatures around today? | tl;dr - the ratio of food:dinosaurs was much higher, so they could afford to be big. After they were wiped out, that ratio would never be as high again.
___
In addition to the answers given, when the dinosaurs were around there were orders of magnitude fewer "creatures" on the planet and the Earth was covered with lush forests. The largest animals were herbivores because they could eat lots and lots of greens without much effort and competition. Carnivores needed to expend a lot more energy to hunt so they weren't as large, but one kill also provided a lot of meat - ie, dinosaurs were big because they COULD be.
Overtime, as populations of titanic herbivores expanded, it became evolutionarily beneficial to be smaller because there was less food to go around, so larger subspecies were more prone to starvation before breeding. When hunting and killing one of those creatures provided less meat/energy, it became evolutionarily beneficial for the carnivores to also be smaller.
Their massive sizes and the limited food supply at the bottom of the food chain (plants and herbivores) put a lot of stress on the entire ecosystem. When the asteroid hit, a lot of land was sundered. Tsunamis, earthquakes, acid rain and partial obstruction of the sun meant that there were even less plant-life. Herbivores started dying off en masse. Without their own prey, so did the carnivores.
Smaller creatures that required much less food to live managed to scavenge enough to survive to pass on their genes and continue the evolutionary process. The ratio of food:eaters would never be as high again, so "big" animals just never flourished. | 0649036a-7195-4961-9610-589f3a96c83a |
5cbdla | With #Calexit gaining traction the best argument for succession is that it has the worlds 6th largest economy. I find this oversimplified. How much of the CA economy actually benefits from being a state (e.g. importing/exporting American made goods)? | California certainly has a lot to lose. Californians would presumably lose the right to live and work in the other 49 states as they lost their US citizenship for CA citizenship. CA companies might have import tariffs slapped on their goods and services. It seems very unlikely under a Trump administration that California would get a free trade deal if they left.
California does, however, have a higher income per capita than the US as a whole at $63,763 vs $57,293. This means that Californians presumably pay more in taxes than average and if they left the US, they could get taxed at a lower rate while still raising the same money. For example, if you need $10,000 per person in taxes to run your government services and everyone earns $100,000, you only need to tax them at 10%. If they only earn $50,000, you need to tax them at 20%. However, given California's high state income tax and high property values leading to high property taxes (both of which are deducted off federal taxes), it's likely that Californians don't pay more than average taxes. Looking at Wikipedia, California is 21st in per-capita federal taxes (_URL_0_).
The only real way it makes sense is if you think California can govern itself better than the US as a whole will be governed. That's a hard claim to make for a liberal state. The way many US laws work is that they set a floor, but not a ceiling. So, the government sets a federal minimum wage, but states are allowed to override that with a higher minimum wage (but not a lower minimum wage). For some of the things that go against liberal states, the states have simply been ignoring the federal government. Pot is definitely illegal in all states, but many states have even gone so far as taxing, regulating, and licensing illegal businesses. Immigration is definitively under the power of the federal government, but some states have been issuing driver's licenses, in-state tuition, and other rights. I guess the question is: are there federal policies that, if changed, would result in a much better situation.
California could argue that it might be able to govern more efficiently. Singapore certainly governs more efficiently than most countries. However, the Californian government isn't exactly a model of efficiency.
Ultimately, Calexit is about people wanting a government they believe in chosen by the people around them who think in a similar manner. That's not a bad thing - in fact, that's a big part of the Republican "states' rights" thing. Why should the federal government do something when we might want slight variations in different states that might give people more of what they want? If Californians want trains and Alaskans want boats, why should the federal government set a policy of roads? A less contrived example might be health care. If the majority of our taxes went to state governments rather than the federal government, California might decide that it wants a single-payer health system while other states go with a market-based solution. Instead, we all get the Affordable Care Act which is okay, but not what anyone really wanted. And 10 years down the line, maybe California is doing great or terrible with their single-payer system compared to other states and we can see what works.
But ultimately, people only want states' rights when they're going to lose federally. Republicans don't cry out for states' rights on pot or immigration where they've won federally and can impose their will. Likewise, Democrats want states' rights on those issues since they've lost federally. On the other hand, Democrats want the pieces they've been able to force through federally. When Obama was in power, it's all about pushing federal power. Obama should be able to write policies by fiat. Now that Trump will be in power, states' rights to the point of leaving.
In terms of California being a large economy, that can help in terms of smoothing risk, but in our modern world, it's not that much of a benefit. In the old days before globalization, let's say you're a software engineer and software is doing really well while manufacturing isn't so hot. Well, you still want a smartphone and will have to employ local labor to make that smartphone and so there's a certain smoothing in a large and diverse economy. However, today, you're a software engineer and you get labor from anywhere and the manufacturer doesn't get boosted by you. Manufacturing gets boosted, but not local manufacturing. Trade is a lot more open than it used to be and even large nations like the US require trade to remain healthy. Small economies like Ireland and Singapore have access to markets much the same way that large nations do. Being a big or very diverse economy simply isn't that important in the modern world.
Calexit is about people who don't want to be under President Trump for 4 years. It's simply cathartic since the US has no mechanism for leaving. Lots of right-wing states wanted to leave when Obama was elected. You know that the federal government is going to be pushing things you don't like on you. The federal government is only fun when you're pushing the things you like onto others!
*None of this is meant as a judgement on the goodness of the federal government as much as to point out that people's opinions on the federal government vs states' rights is usually just about where they're more likely to get their way on something. Liberals were all about states' rights for gay marriage while conservatives were pushing for the federal government to intervene. Now that the federal government has come down on the side of gay marriage, liberals and conservatives have swapped sides on the issue! And there are certainly nuances (especially where civil rights are concerned), but I think the idea of people wanting to get their way is salient. The true test of Calexit is whether they would have wanted it if Hillary had been elected (or in 4 years if a Democrat is elected). If the answer is no, then it's kinda bullshit. | b7515c45-639d-4de6-9190-3d3822460f0a |
2lu4fd | Are nuclear missiles "easy" to launch? If Russia were to go into civil war how easy would it be for terrorists to find, target, and launch a weapon? | No, they are not easy to launch at all. They require secret codes which are not available at the launch site; you don't want a commando team to take a nuclear silo and be able to launch and detonate a missile. | 7ba007b7-2844-4684-a2af-5e0f5d942371 |
ll99p | What is a Sievert and its SI multiples? How much is dangerous? | > For example, 3.58 µSv, is that a lot of radiation, or not so much? Would I, or any other body, be in danger around that?
That's quite a small amount of radiation. We all get a little radiation when we go about living our lives. For example those who live in Princeton gets a little under 3 millisieverts/year from natural sources (non-ELI5 [wikipedia link](_URL_0_) ). And the upper limit for people that work in radiation rich enviroments is set to 50 millisieverts per year.
And I guess you know that there is 1000 µSv (microsievert) in one millisievert (mSv).
XKCD made a very very nice [graphic of radiaition levels](_URL_1_) that I think you will find interesting and informative. | d0410cf2-014c-471c-acd7-b226362bc23d |
6gkn46 | How do names work in sign language? | Just as all other communication occurs in this language, names are expressed visually. Sure they can be spelled out using signed alphabet letters, but that's so phonetic and not really how sign language works.
If my hearing name is Roxanne and my right eye is a lazy eye, I can almost guarantee you my signed name will have something to do with an "R" pressing against my right eye. Or, if my hearing name is Ashley and I have huge breasts, my signed name might honestly be something like an "A" in each hand motioned around the chest area.
Dat shit be visual. | 25854241-07b0-4d67-b418-218187e25ab4 |
8kwpxk | Why is marijuana officially classified as a hallucinogen if you dont actually “hallucinate?” | There are tons of psychoactive chemicals in cannabis. They vary greatly from strain to strain. Some strains are bread specifically for their high or low levels of this chemicals.
Some of these chemicals are in fact hallucinogens. Most of them subside after regular smoking due to building a tolerance. It's much more mild than DMT psilocybin or LSD. | e37418cd-44b4-45ea-a4c9-07d312482b17 |
1e6c63 | Heterosexuality - Why, exactly, are men attracted to women, and vice versa? | Men and women can breed with each other. That's why. It's a primal instinct every living thing has. | 432c0ff1-daf7-492d-b13b-5dd8cc2a76d7 |
4rws3l | Do the signs on the backs of trucks that say, "warning stay back 200ft, not responsible for broken windshields" carry legal weight? | They carry zero legal weight in cases where something falls from the truck. You can't unilaterally disclaim liability for negligence. Loads are required to be secured in every state. The driver would be negligent by either not securing the load or improperly doing so, and a single stone falling from a truck is an unsecured load. They generally would not be liable if they truck were to kick up and object from the road that did not originate from the truck.
Now getting them to pay is a another matter. First off, you have to prove that the item came from their truck, then you have to deal with their internal claims departments in many cases which will often stonewall, even for provable cases. | 01824629-3276-4cc1-a0b8-b30110fca4a2 |
3g2pxt | How do traffic lights 'know' when to change, etc.? | Some traffic lights are on a timer. Those are the lights that seem to take forever to change. Other signals are triggered by a pressure plate under the asphalt, you can usually spot these by a square "patch" looking piece of asphalt at the stop line. The mechanism used usually depends on the amount of traffic at that intersection. | 2d639c6c-1791-4457-bcf8-6730a13bd22b |
7gh4f2 | In the USA, what is life (in practical terms) actually like for illegal immigrants? Can they get jobs, legally drive, get healthcare, etc? | They cannot legally get jobs, they cannot legally drive as they cannot legally get a driver's license, they can get treatment at an ER but they cannot get health insurance, they cannot legally get an apartment because they lack the proper documents, etc.
What this means is that everything they do is under the table. They get paid in cash, and pay for everything in cash. The people that are providing these things are criminal (technically) and are shady. They do not have any legal protections from these people taking advantage of them (underpaying, overcharging, etc). | 563e401a-29c9-4ab7-ab55-c00418600d45 |
2en8zy | What are E-cigs, and what is the controversy about them? | As others have said, E-cigs are devices that vaporize a liquid containing nicotine and other substances for you to inhale. There has been some testing done on these, but most of that is just understanding what chemicals are present in the vapor, as compared to the smoke of traditional cigarettes. There have been no long-term studies completed as of yet.
But, the conclusions so far are that E-cig vapor is likely to be much safer than a traditional cigarette. E-cigs are certainly not safe - a variety of chemicals including formaldehyde, can be detected in the vapor. But these are at much lower concentrations than in traditional cigarette smoke. Keep it in perspective though - using an E-cig is probably less harmful than living in Beijing with all of the pollution there. But you can't say they are "safe", just "safer" (and probably much, much safer) than traditional cigarettes.
Source: Ph.D. respiratory infectious disease researcher | 9d4a059d-13a4-43fc-b084-8a5ac5eeb378 |
m6zli | How are they making technology so damn small? | I hate to be linking wikipedia as a source, but this article does contain fair bit of information surrounding this: [Moore's Law](_URL_0_). Since this is ELI5, I'll elaborate on key points.
A little bit of background: I am a computer architect, which is to say I'm the one who comes up with blue prints for buildings (CPUs and GPUs) to be built using ever smaller and more number of bricks (transistors). I know a fair bit about designing chips and how to program them, with the goal of making programs execute faster, but the actual physics/manufacturing techniques involved in shrinking the transistor is just outside the limits of my expertise. What I know are characteristics and limitations of the smaller transistors of the future, since that information directly impacts my work.
- How do they do it?
There are many enabling factors, but I think the answer you are looking for in terms of what actually does the shrinkage is what's called "photolithography." A simple way to explain this is how projectors in movie theaters show large pictures "projected" from much smaller original images (films). If you reverse this process, you can imagine shrinking a large photo into an extremely tiny one. Photolithography basically does this using extremely precise form of light: lasers. So, computer architects come up with new blue prints, and then manufacturers print them out on transparent film and shines laser through to shrink them. I believe they do this many times (shrink - > shrink - > shrink, etc) to achieve the current level of concentration. Once they have the blueprint in a sufficiently small scale, they switch to shining UV light on a specially treated very flat piece of silicon to "print" its image onto it. Then they use acid to eat away the portions that the light hadn't reached to create tiny transistors on the surface of the silicon.
- Physical limit
Yes. This is actually a very interesting topic. One of the fundamental limits that's easy to grasp is related to the fact that the absolute size of atom (silicon atoms) is fixed. Once you reach the level of shrinkage where transistors consist of only several atoms, the inevitable errors in the process will lead to too many of the chips being faulty in the end, which makes this whole business economically unviable. [ITRS](_URL_1_) is the definitive source in this matter, particularly the "roadmap" they publish frequently.
Other limits do exist, which were significant enough that made changes in the architecture design. In the late 80s, there was a growing interest in parallel computing, but manufacturers were able to simply run things faster with smaller transistors by feeding more power and operating them at faster frequency (Mhz to Ghz). That was the case all through 90s but around 2004 it became clear that making them operate faster is no longer an option because they started taking in too much power and therefore things got too hot. That's why they started making multicore chips, which require significant changes in how they are programmed.
I tried to make it easy for a 5 year to understand, but I'm sure I've already lost their interest by the end of this long rambling.... Hope this helps! | 53b8f537-3866-4df8-9b7b-c2056c17294a |
zt1az | If no country is on the gold standard, why does paper money have any value at all? | Because we say it does.
Gold does not hold any value either, if no one wanted gold it would be worthless. So long as people want paper money they will ascribe value to it. | 909995d4-6ece-435d-b8c1-c58ada462d80 |
1clxum | Difference between speculation and investment? | Investment is a general commitment of resources to whatever you decided.
Specullation as a financial investment colloquialism in general means acting on an expectation, often with the aid of a loan of sorts.
That practically means that any investment in a development over the result of which you do not have complete control is a specullation, strictly speaking.
The line is blurry because the definitions and perceptions of this control vary. | b66da2bc-0603-47a8-8cfe-fee27d7e4ba0 |
7nvn9a | System of Linear Equations/Inequalities? | Let's say you don't get an itemized bill but you want to figure out the prices at the restauraunt:
You order a hamburger and a beer totaling $15 and on the second visit you order a hamburger and 2 beers totaling $20. How much does a hamburger cost and how much does a beer cost?
h + b = 15
h + 2b = 20
We subtract the first equation from the second one:
h - h + 2b - b = 20 - 15
b = 5
Now we know the beer is $5. We plug that into the first equation:
h + 5 = 15
h = 15 - 5
h = 10
Now we know the hamburger is $10.
This is basically the most intuitive, practical and useful field of mathematics there is. A lot of things can be expressed as a set of linear equations and linear algebra (which this is all about) is basically how we manipulate all data. | 07d7cd6b-0adc-45e2-b497-5ee590bb9b50 |
6a3u03 | What an 'Epipen' is and how it works? | An epipen is an easy to use syringe filled with epinephrine, an artificial form of adrenaline, and a few other drugs. It is one of the most efficient ways to delay an acute allergic reaction until you can seek medical treatment. If someone gets an allergic reaction and have problems breathing so you are not able to communicate with them. Then call the emergency number and look if they have an epipen with them. The instructions on the epipen should be simple to follow. When you inject them with the epipen the symptoms change as they go from an acute allergic reaction into adrenaline shock. Just keep them breathing until medical services arrive and can help out. | 111364c9-32fe-448c-84b5-9ba08b3ae52e |
1bum5n | In evolution how did sexual differentiation come about, like males and females? | [Ah, wikipedia :)](_URL_0_). The reason is genetic diversity. If you have two genders, that's twice the genes to one specimen (baby), which allows helpful gene selection to occur. The species then evolves quicker. | b7fd14c3-9d0b-4411-b315-b3dd2e2422d7 |
8uyfib | Why does wind or moving air feel cool to animals and humans? | When it is hot you sweat. Moving air makes sweat evaporate faster and evaporation absorbs heat making it cooler. Also, when the air is still your body creates a sort of "heat bubble" around you (the air closest to your body absorbs the heat of your body). When it is windy, a steady supply of cooler air is able to absorb more of your body heat. Heat transfers more quickly to colder things. | 0db0edb4-bd94-4c6c-9c7e-bd6eaaeb5745 |
13sah7 | Why do I feel like smoking about 13 cigarettes a minute when I'm drinking alcohol? | Alcohol gives you very poor impulse control. Nicotine is highly addictive, which means it gives you a strong impulse to smoke. | cf95c1c7-8c0e-4747-af1c-41c697a972bb |
lub4h | Private vs. Public Companies | "Going public" and issuing shares is a good way to raise money. It opens your pool of potential investors from a select few, to nearly everybody, as well as giant investment instutions. More investors = easier to raise more money. This money is then used to build the company's business operations.
For example, let's say you have a privately held company, and you want to expand your operations into Canada. This requires opening up a new store, which requires money, lots of money. Your only real option is to go beg for a loan from various banks.
Now if you were publicly traded, you could get a loan from banks, OR you could also issue more shares of stock, and not be indebted to anybody. The catch is that issuing more shares of stock means that you now are beholden to those new shareholders: they will have a say in how your business is run.
Good idea? Many companies think so. Others, like Cargill or Koch Industries, continue to be privately held. | d55d2ee9-7c6c-42c0-a3f9-5ff573a230c8 |
2jtlic | freudian theory; id, ego and super ego | The Id is the primal, uninhibited part of oneself, which bases all of its actions on instincts and urges. The Superego is the part that bases its actions on social norms and expectations. Basically, the Superego is one's idealized version of how he or she should behave in a civilized society, while the Id is the caveman version. The Ego is a combination of the two, or the version of oneself that manifests in one's everyday life, due to the competing influence of the Id and Superego | 4fb169e4-e9d0-4981-abf5-040a57d8ad2b |
20t9ut | If there is no matter in space, what do the rockets push on to accelerate a ship? | That's not how rockets work. Rockets don't "push on" anything. They're not sneakers. By igniting a chemical reaction, they cause an action, i.e., projecting a stream of expanding gas in a particular direction. The reaction is moving the rocket in the opposite direction. Whether the surrounding environment is a vacuum or not is entirely irrelevant to that analysis. Indeed, rockets work *better* in a vacuum, as there is no atmosphere to resist the motion of the engine. | 8fe12291-1bc7-465e-83c6-f66913d9de37 |
204xt1 | How do geese seem to know exactly when to return? | They don't. They are actually pretty terrible at it oftentimes. I've been seeing small groups of geese flying north for about a month now, as Ontario has been gripped by The Winter That Shall Not Die. It's only in the aggregate that geese are good at this, but that makes sense, and is a fairly common pattern in nathoseture. Those who are less good at their timing won't have the sort of reproductive success that those better at it will find, all else being equal. | c5628096-7ee5-4d65-a2ae-28112bdb40ca |
rhu3r | Why do we start to salivate when thinking or about to eat spicy or sour foods? | It's a Pavlov's dog effect. We're conditioned to associate the smell of spicy and sour and even the thought of it with eating food, and so our body physically reacts. It's not specific to spicy foods at all. If you walked into a bakery every day and ordered a loaf of bread and then ate it, the smell of bread would probably cause the same effect for you after a while. | fec08b06-531b-4fe3-ad35-79322c765e69 |
1q7eyx | What happens when you get that little knot in your throat when you're about to cry? | It's an inflammation in the throat because you're about to cry. It's called globus. | 188c9be1-8856-4ad2-b1c4-fc745a4e6b5d |
4obcj0 | Why do postage stamps have curvy edges? | In the old days, stamps were printed on a big sheet of paper, and they'd use a machine to poke rows of tiny holes in the paper so that it would be easy to tear off individual stamps. Those "perforations" would make the edges of the torn off stamp look wavy.
Modern stamps are printed on strips of sticky paper with a waxy backing so you can peal them off. Instead of poking holes through, they use a thing that looks like a cookie cutter to make cuts in the sticky paper and, usually, leave the backing paper uncut. Since people are so used to the wavy edges, the cutter has wavy edges to imitate the stamps from long ago. It no longer serves a function though.
When you have something with a shape that mimics the shape of something older, but no longer serves the original, or any, purpose, that's called skeumorphism. | 22c42166-031d-4644-a3ae-71d4e1b50bde |
7vfvxe | How can healthy individuals with no symptoms initially develop allergies later in life? | Also want to know this. Used to be allergic to cats and fine around dogs. Now it's the opposite. | c6dd3fff-87c9-4a45-80b1-6a0814822ecb |
3z5es8 | Why don't you see rain in sports tv broadcasts? | My guess is that it's the focal length. When they show the field they have to use a rather large focal length since the players are rather far away. When they show the bench they would use a smaller focal length which would include the rain.
Depth of field is probably also in play (no pun intended) here. Wider aperture for they players, since they move so much, but it can be narrower for the bench. | 0e9b573c-d1c4-46b6-b3ef-144990cd0ad8 |
5pwz3y | Can the POTUS issue Executive Order on withdrawing from NATO? | No. NATO is part of a treaty (the North Atlantic Treaty), and only the Senate can make or break treaties. Withdrawing from any organization that we are members of by treaty, like NATO or the UN, isn't something that the president can do unilaterally. | 03a84de8-a5f5-4eac-b140-ca3592d9bf14 |
2jo2qc | what the parts of the scientific name (species, family, genus, tribe, etc) mean. | It's used to show how things are classed and how closely related they are.
Life - A characteristic distinguishing physical entities having signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not
Domain - the tree of life consists of three domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya. The first two are all prokaryotic microorganisms, or single-celled organisms whose cells have no nucleus.
Kingdom - Essentially what type of life form it is. The USA traditionally uses a 6 kingdom system (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Archaea, and Bacteria) while other countries use 5 (Animalia, Plantae, Fungi, Protista, Prokaryota/Monera)
Phylum - Groupings within each kingdom based on other physical/developmental similarities (phenetic definition) or evolutionary relatedness (phylogenetic definition)
Class - The composition of each class is determined by a taxonomist. Often there is no exact agreement, with different taxonomists taking different positions. There are no hard rules that a taxonomist needs to follow in describing a class, but for well-known animals there is likely to be consensus. For example, dogs are usually assigned to the phylum Chordata (animals with notochords); in the class Mammalia; in the order Carnivora. They are based around broad, but defining traits. Mammalia includes animals with hair, mammary glands and the neocortex (part of the brain), whereas avialae are feathered, winged, two-legged, warm-blooded, egg-laying vertebrates, more commonly known as birds.
Order - Similar to class, there is no absolute ruling, and things can change depending on location and education. And is generally used to show close similarities between different species and families. They are generally organized around similar constructs, dogs are carnivores so they are placed with bears, cats, etc in Carnivora. White-tailed deer are even-toed ungulates (cloven hoofed animals) such as pigs, giraffes and cattle.
Family - This is where we start to get down to brass tacks. These are used to show even closer similarities, such as the family Canidae, also knowns as "canids" or dog-like animals. They are in two tribes/families, wolf-like (canini) and fox-like (vulpini) all of these are physically and socially similar
Genus - Often used to show a common ancestry, for instance, dogs, wolves, jackals and coyotes are all part of "canis" and this can be seen as they are all very wolf-like
Species - Possibly one of the easiest to determine. They are of the same species if they can mate with eachother and produce viable offspring. Hence, all members of Canis Lupus can mate and have their children mate as well, since they all have similar DNA. Of course it wouldn't be science if they didn't throw a few wrenches into the mix. When a donkey and a horse mate, they create a mule. Male mules are sterile, but female mules are fertile, leaving the debate up as to whether horses and donkeys are really the same species or not.
Subspecies - Throwing this in here for good measure. Subspecies are essentially when all the animals are the same species, they can interbreed and be healthy and are similar, but they are still notably different. Going back to dogs, we see the difference between Eurasian Wolves, Pet Dogs and Dingoes (Canis Lupus Lupus, Canis Lupus Familiarus and Canis Lupus Dingo respectively) they are all technically wolves, but evolving separately over the past few thousand years, we see that they have change, but are all the same species. In humans you can see this with differences between Europeans, Africans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, etc.
You could go further and do subsubspecies with Can.Lup.Fam.Shepherd (Shepherd Dogs) and Can.Lup.Fam.Hound (Hound Dogs). Or even subsubsubspecies with Can.Lup.Fam.Shep.Germanus (German Shepherd) and Can.Lup.Fam.Shep.Britainus (English Shepherd). Though at this point we would call them breeds. | cc9d4006-a525-49a1-ab6f-38ac80cb6c48 |
74alwt | Why do electronics which have gotten wet, stop working even when they completely dry? | In addition to the damage being done on contact (i.e. creating short circuits leading to immediate or near-immediate failure); tap water, rain/flood water, etc contain a lot of impurities. The evaporated water leaves these behind which may create a delayed onset of corrosion, which can cause poor contact between components and connectors.
Distilled water is actually safe for most printed circuit boards (at least those with sealed components) as long as it is applied and completely dried before power is given to the device. | 2d966d6d-b3c6-400f-99a2-e2c681d59d5b |
7j0m1h | How do antidepressants work in the human brain? | I'll just touch on the most common type of antidepressant, which are SSRIs, or "selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors."
Serotonin is a chemical transmitter that we understand to be important for regulating mood and other "higher" functions. It's released from neurons in certain parts of the brain, where it binds to neurons elsewhere and tells them to do things. Without getting too complicated, this brain activity helps make us feel "normal," or not depressed. People with depression tend to have low stores of serotonin to release, or don't release as much as they should.
The purpose of an SSRI is to make that available serotonin last longer. Naturally, the brain recovers serotonin that's been released, and recycles it for later. As the name implies, a "reuptake inhibitor" will stop the brain from recovering that serotonin, so it has more time to float around and do its job.
**True ELI5 Answer:** If you imagine serotonin as kids running around being happy in a playground, SSRIs are equivalent to giving them snacks and water so they can play all day. That, or like slashing their parent's tires so they literally can't leave. | 7d17306d-210c-4acb-8206-0129f6af6acb |
5z5zd9 | Why do humans still have to do their own taxes? Why isn't this process automated? | It is automated. ...In other countries. Lots of countries don't force their citizen to do their own taxes, although they're still allowed to if they really want to (for example if they don't trust the government instances to get it right). It's fully possible to do, if your nation just wants to develop the tools to automate it.
I'm 32 and I've never even once done my taxes, just glanced over the work that's been automatically done to see if there were some obvious errors. | 82104444-f464-46b8-ab9a-084c2c02167b |
6i3ily | What happens when you have a 'pinched nerve'? | When pressure is applied on a nerve it gets activated, that's how nerves work, you will feel the pressure, pain, etc. However, when too much pressure is applied to a nerve by surrounding tissues, such as bones, cartilage, tumors, muscles, overgrowth of bone or tendons. This pressure disrupts the nerve's function, causing pain, tingling, numbness or weakness. | a3f6d796-2c37-44a5-a7be-5f124183b567 |
7fzg5o | We are all probably glued to a computer screen for way too long each day, whether it be Netflix, video games, homework, instagram, whatever. How bad is this for your eyes, and what’s the most healthy way to minimize eye damage? | There's nothing "bad" about it - from an eye health perspective. Your eyes take in light, and have been doing so your whole life. Just because that light comes from a monitor does not make the light worse or more dangerous.
Eye strain and eye fatigue can give you a headache. Rest your eyes by closing them once a day for, say, 8 hours. | bea20b23-4037-4c3c-a4bf-a81a73b52b01 |
2ub1g3 | Why is it that when a couple gets divorced the guy is usualy the one who gets screwed over the most? | Households that had a traditional gender role split then have a traditional gender role split in divorce.
If a married couple choose to have children, and decide to divide the labour of raising the family such that one person sacrifices a career, while the other maintains their's with minimal interruption to provide the financial needs of the household, it makes sense that, were the household to split, the one who had historically been the caregiver would continue to be the caregiver, and the one who had been the financial giver would continue to be the financial giver.
This heads off problems where the one who gave up career nurturing would not be up shits creek because they had no resume to show for the time that they committed to the nurturing of the children in the household. It also heads off the (less complained about) problem wherein the one who had traditionally been available and dependable in their career, suddenly might have to take off way more time, and become way less dependable, in service of nurturing and raising children.
Finally, its head off the consequent, were the two less-desirable outcomes to happen (wherein the one who sacrificed resume-building must find a shit job, and the one who has a job requires more time off) in which the first cannot actually find a job (and can therefore no longer provide well enough for the children) and the second DOESN'T sacrifice time from their job, therefore not providing well enough for the children. | 834ac7aa-e9f2-4389-a08c-0370d0b42e46 |
4krjuw | How are crimes solved years after the fact using DNA evidence? | DNA, kept in reasonable decent conditions (which boils down to not exposing it to lots of ionizing radiation ) lasts of several years. While it does degrade over time, it's half life (the point at which half of the DNA in a sample will no longer be useable) is somewhere north of 500 years. | 45c9b803-fde2-4c7a-9f2b-820e6cb6e6af |
1r54zk | Why does it take so long for major reform to happen if most of the general public agrees that change needs to be made? e.g. Marijuana and Gay Marriage | The government is designed to be slow to save us from ourselves. Having to go through the process theoretically vets new ideas and changes so they're not implemented hastily with no thought to the consequences. It may be inconvenient when the changes are positive, but it's there to prevent bad ideas from being enacted without having the time to think over them. | 1057bc43-a3fc-4c74-a218-12ab98a22139 |
5q4wp7 | What happens when people die? | She is in you, and in your siblings (if you have any).
You carry her genes, she told you her memories, she taught you how to live your life. | f8f55cd3-99eb-4c82-9024-360daa5ac287 |
8rkx2e | How do we get songs stuck in our heads? | Short term memory has an audio component. When you rehearse something in your head it gets recycled into short term memory and reinforced. So you hear the song, your STM registers it, you rehearse it in your head a few times, it gets stuck!
If you want a more in depth answer I would suggest googling “short term memory components” | cd1c204c-c5b0-4e5b-97b2-b91055bbd5ee |
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