query_id
stringlengths 3
6
| question
stringlengths 1
299
| goldenAnswer
stringlengths 3
35k
| doc_id
stringlengths 36
36
|
|---|---|---|---|
20pfwa | Why can drinking too much alcohol cause you to go blind and what is the biology/chemistry behind it? Is it specifically because you absorb too much too quickly (like with moonshine/liquor/spirits), or is there something else that causes it? | Drinkable alcohol is ethanol; it's what in the beer and spirits you buy at your liquor store. Moonshine that isn't distilled correctly builds methanol which the body metabolizes into formaldehyte (which is toxic) and then further into formic acid which will harm your nervous system, beginning with the eyes (causing blindness). | 34485f42-ca12-4102-97f2-616a65d958e0 |
1h5dvl | A Calabi–Yau manifold and other higher dimensional shapes. | You're not alone. Our brains evolved in a world with only three extended spatial dimensions and that means we simply don't have the mental wiring to be able to "visualise" more dimensions than that. Some scientists and mathematicians who've spent years working on concepts of multidimensional objects claim to be able to mentally "see" 4-dimensional (or even higher) shapes but I suspect even then they're using some kind of simplification. | 76a7d4ac-5381-4484-b156-65b26f556217 |
19raqx | how CRE can pass its drug-resistance to other bacteria | DNA can be stored as small, circular, independently replicating molecules called [plasmids](_URL_1_). These can be passed from one bacteria to another in a process called '[bacterial conjugation](_URL_2_)'.
Basically the plasmid has genes that code for proteins that build a [pilus](_URL_0_) which extends from the first bacteria and contacts the second. This then allows them to contact each other and build a bridge between them. A copy of the plasmid is nicked and a single strand of DNA is transferred. Each bacteria can use the single strand as a template to make the full double-stranded plasmid.
If the transferred plasmid has genes that provide resistance to antibiotics, that trait is transferred to the new bacteria. | 10e92359-132b-44a0-b749-fe55cb88ea11 |
5thf99 | Soccer youth academies | I've two sons at academies of professional clubs here in the UK.
Both were scouted at an early age playing for their grass roots local village teams, one at 9, one at 11. If you spend any amount of time at these junior games you'll see scouts looking for talent. If you go to a tournament in the summer there's frequently a dozen or so there. Some are there on top offs about a particular kid.
Above that age it's pretty unusual to get a place as the extra time and quality of training means that even kids with similar talent levels will start to diverge.
At professional clubs you don't have to pay subs for training/playing/kit.
Training time depends on age, under 16 and they train 2 hours Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, then play Sunday. Youth team U18 train full time, five days a week then play Saturday.
Number 2 son has just been given a scholarship for the next two years until he's 18, which means they'll be paying him, not much but still a wage. Following that he'll be looking for full time senior contract. He is 15, but has been playing for the U18s since last summer, so he's struggling to train enough given he's still at school. Only 2-3 will be given each year, so maybe a 1:3 chance.
It's pretty tough for English kids to make it unless you're the standout player of your generation. I remember elder son playing against Man Utd one year and him coming off saying all the defense were speaking French to each other, turns out they were from Senegal and the Ivory Coast. Big clubs scout around the world, and have enough money to bring whole families over, put them up and find dad a job etc | 4c8d7ae6-0ff0-4970-995f-962b43078f4c |
6gpe77 | Why is the age of consent in some countries such as Japan and Mexico so low compared to countries like the US? | In Japan, the national government leaves it up to municipalities, who enforce higher ages such as 17. To some degree this also happens at a state level in Mexico.
However, to answer your question more broadly: historically many societies have felt that sexual activity is permissible after puberty. It's only in the last century or so that many countries (such as the USA) have decided otherwise, based on ideas of *emotional maturity* or the need to get an education before parenting; these were not considered important factors historically. | ad2b7758-e3dc-460a-9876-617f9e3b4b53 |
3c3teb | how does the money I spend for a CD get to an artist? | Depends on the term of their record contract. If they're on a label that puts their music up on iTunes for example, the label gets a cut and so does Apple. My band was on a small independent label that was a subsidiary of a larger label and each of them got a percentage, so I think after all was said and done the band got 25% or so of total sales. For every dollar we made on iTunes we'd get about 25 cents, which ideally would've been split between the 5 of us but normally just went towards future expenses. If you're buying a CD at walmart or target the artist will receive pretty much nothing as the retailers cut is so high. If you want to support an artist and put money directly into their pockets, go to a show and buy something from their merch table or preorder their album from the labels website. Labels like preorders. | c27ad15c-c051-444d-8c84-6a7106856a6d |
1ugshq | Why is it better to start with cold water and boil it when making pasta or coffee, rather than starting with hot water? | It is a myth that cold water boils faster than hot water, but hot water can freeze more quickly than cool water due the [Mpemba effect.](_URL_0_) | 338b8757-3c58-43ab-b307-11f3ac032662 |
64njho | Why does the space shuttle or the soyuz need special tiles to reenter the atmosphere but spacex falcon does not? | Are you talking about the Falcon 9 first stage, or the actual Dragon capsule?
If you're talking about the Falcon 9 first stage, that's because it separates from the rest of the rocket at a relatively low altitude and speed, and thus there's less heat during reentry. It also burns it's engines to slow down to further reduce heating.
If you're talking about the Dragon capsule, it does have tiles. The shuttle and Dragon have reusable tiles since the shuttle was reusable and so is the Dragon. The Soyuz does not have tiles. It has a simple ablative heat shield because the capsule is not reusable. Once it lands back on earth, its job is done, so the heat shield does not need to reused either. | 0c5d99a2-aeb5-4277-8ead-2351f8d0dc2e |
38wp6o | How are record sales calculated now that there is music streaming and the ability to buy one song? | Streaming and downloading services record the number of plays individual songs get, and this time is broken down into "record equivalent plays" which basically says something like "10 song sales is worth 1 album sale" even if it's all 10 sales of the same song off the album.
Currently, Billboard equates 10 song purchases or 1500 streams as an album sale. | 1bc11cc1-f805-4883-a42f-c80b179a4063 |
2noj7p | Where do a lot of gay men get their lisp from? | I'm not a gay man but I am gay (female obviously), so I've spent a lot of time on the gay scene and tend to be friends with gay men more so than women.
It's the same as so-called "ebonics" - it's a learned behaviour, to fit in. There's no genetic reason for it, it's just a case of fitting in with the pack. If your circle of friends all said something a certain way or used a new word to describe something, you'd naturally start doing it too. | 545ff927-051f-463c-8fed-79bfb21ebe52 |
3jq9d5 | How does a hospital medically induce someone into a coma? | giving someone barbiturates will put them into a controlled coma where the body can heal itself until it is ready. For more information on coma - _URL_0_ | a8e0f7be-758d-4aa1-8c30-7763f41f0e75 |
6mfo7v | why did the universe "start"? | We do not know. We cannot even say with complete confidence that it *has* a start, although the leading theories of the day suggest it.
Current science is not capable of getting all the way back to "time zero," nor whatever occurred before that, if such a concept is even meaningful. | f1166099-1f3f-4460-8991-900ab8281944 |
4rgw2z | How do Interim championships in UFC work | So champions in fighting are decided linearly: you beat the current champion now you are the champion, you get beat the guy that beats you is now champion.
But if the champion is temporarily unable to fight because of something out of their control (medical, legal, etc) than the sanctioning body will allow two highly ranked competitors (preferably #1 and #2) to fight for the interim title so that there is still a champion. Once the linear champion returns they'll fight and reunify the championship | d7fcf78e-6d13-4412-98bc-e6e0ddb5d90e |
2p680g | How and why do men ejaculate with more velocity when they are more excited? | Welp, I just spent a good ten minutes reading about ejaculation on wikipedia, so now I'm an expert.
Here's what I think, based on this sentence:
> A prolonged stimulation either through foreplay (kissing, petting and direct stimulation of erogenous zones before penetration during intercourse) or stroking (during masturbation) leads to a good amount of arousal and production of pre-ejaculatory fluid.
Increased arousal or longer arousal time produces more fluid production, which builds up more pressure, which, upon release, splooges with more force.
[this](_URL_0_) article seems to express a similar opinion. [As does this post](_URL_2_) from some website I just found while googling.
So, like you're five, the more pumps you give your super soaker, the more pressure builds up, and the harder it [shoots](_URL_1_)
all links sfw | 3014fc14-2f9b-4af0-843c-f40164f3bf61 |
8gzpcb | How binary 1's and 0's translate into complex output? | 01000010 01100101 01100011 01100001 01110101 01110011 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101011 01100101 01100101 01110000 00100000 01100001 01100100 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01111010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01100101 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101101 01100001 01101011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100100 01100001 01110100 01100001 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00101110 00100000
The above translates to "Because you can keep adding ones and zeroes to make the data that you want".
Essentially a long enough string of ones and zeros can be made to represent any data. So with a long enough string of them, you can represent each pixel on your screen and the color it's supposed to be. This creates the image on your monitor. | fcb395a1-3b5d-4414-85da-500494008bf2 |
3ojbha | Why are doors much easier to close when my window is open? | Because by slamming your door you push a lot of air into the car. This causes additional air pressure to build up in the car, which pushes the door open.
Usually it takes at most a few seconds for the additional air to escape via various holes in the car, but that second is enough to hinder the door from closing.
If a window is open, the air in the car escapes immediatly through the open window and no pressure is build up. | 8b283dfd-45cd-40a9-a919-0250f804992e |
168zj1 | How muscle relaxers only affect skeletal muscles. (Not organs/muscles like the heart). | They don't?
What causes death on many of them (if you overdose) is that it shuts down your heart or lungs. | 1b19dc83-cfb9-419a-b368-28adc4503395 |
3pwiz5 | Why are black people in USA called "Afro-American" if most of them are actually not from Africa ? | You don't "have" to call these people something specific. I rarely hear "Afro-American" and mostly hear "black" and "African-America".
The reason we have these words is largely two fold:
The are a visible minority. If Irish-Americans were visibly different from others with European heritage, we might label them more often. As for those from Africa, they have vibrant culture, more melanin, and a distinct history and culture from many other people in the US. This has them singled out in some contexts. They deserve a term to describe themselves.
Second, their identities and histories were largely stolen from them. Slaves were not readily able to keep family histories, language or religion. So when these people of African descent were able to make their own choices, it made sense that they get to choose their own descriptors of this new shared identity.
Now that we have a lot of African immigrants, post slavery, it does complicate things. For instance, Obama probably shares no slave heritage but as a dark skinned man in the US he does share in some of the identity.
TL;DR just be respectful no matter what you are doing | c49cf403-ee9b-4dac-84e6-82fc34f9e1a3 |
2ilqy2 | Where does the skin on the body stop being skin and become something else? Openings in particular. In the case of the face does it end at: lips? tongue? throat? | Skin is a specific type of tissue- epithelial tissue. The other tissue types are connective tissue, nervous tissue, and muscle tissue.
Epithelial tissue covers body surfaces and lines most of our internal cavities. Connective tissues function for support and protection, such as bone, fat, cartilage, blood, and lymph. Nervous tissue receive stimuli and conduct impulses (neurons). Lastly, muscle tissue makes up, well, our muscles- skeletal muscle, smooth muscle, and cardiac muscle.
When considering the rectum to the anus, the rectum is lined with epithelium and the anal sphincter is made up of both a smooth muscle component and a skeletal muscle component. There are tissue transitions at these junctions, so the tissue will slowly become less epithelial in nature while also taking on more qualities of the smooth muscle until it is eventually all smooth muscle and no longer epithelium. | 62c8f8ab-7b7b-4334-addc-563f1cea702a |
23czn6 | What does a cat hear if I meow perfectly? | Your body language is probably wrong but if the meow itself is fine, your cat could find it amusing that you would meow and wonder what other secret talents you might have. | 2246ba77-639d-42e2-85bd-d33e5a2eddd2 |
80pc7j | What happens when lightning strikes a plane? | It flows through the most conductive parts (the aluminum outsides) and then down to the ground. Lightning protection is a mandatory part of the design of aircraft, so nothing bad should happen. It might leave a scorch mark, but maintenance can clean that off. | cfae9c16-a1c5-4891-aa9a-473db0104135 |
2yb9tp | What is Pedophilia exactly and why does it exist? | Paedophile here.
Paedophilia is the long-term romantic or sexual attraction towards prepubescent individuals by a post-pubescent individual.
It's unclear at present what contributes to its occurrence but recent neurological study suggests it may be a simple genetic anomaly such as those likely responsible for other sexual preferences on the edge of the bell curve.
It seems apparent that environmental/developmental conditions may contribute to the expression of a given potential sexual preference even though it is unlikely for them to be solely, or even largely, responsible for the existence of said potential.
Basically genetics loads a gun, circumstance hands it to you but it is upon the individual to decide when or upon who to pull the trigger.
Some choose poorly.
Many don't. | 0e0bc3fe-7825-4bbc-9126-4d2289ebf137 |
2pfi8e | Anti-Smoking Commercials | Tobacco companies actually fund a lot of the anti-smoking ads because they're legally required to. People know it's bad for them, but it takes constant exposure to that message for it to really sink in. | bfbc7cc8-d4d4-43a2-81da-1b0acc23df25 |
24iscj | Why does one feel better after vomiting when he/she is sick? | Because you've removed some or all of the element that was in your stomach and making you not feel well. That's the point of vomiting. | 795e4128-3252-4acf-8267-174adb7aeecc |
2j2yrn | How does changing your name work in the US? | You can change your name whenever you want. ~~In the article it seems the woman did not have 2 forms of ID with the same name~~. There is no restriction or requirement to change your name when you get married. | 3247cb3c-4e16-4d44-9d6f-62edee5c563d |
7rhf6d | What's the difference between osmolarity and osmolality? | The difference is that volume of the solvent is the denominator for [molarity](_URL_1_) and mass of the solvent is the denominator for [molality](_URL_0_).
This shouldn't be deleted as a simple answer, I hope. | fc02683e-30a3-4b71-8b29-9170df8ff248 |
1rnhn9 | Why lightning doesn't knock planes out of the sky. | Okay, here goes: electricity will always take the shortest path to the ground right? Well, since a airborne plane isn't grounded, lightening strikes generally don't hit planes for this reason. However, they do sometimes hit home and when they do... nothing happens. As ACrusaderA said, the light might flicker but it's very uncommon for something serious to go wrong. [NASA](_URL_0_) actually did a bunch of tests on this back in the 80's by flying a F-106 through violent electrical storms and determined that the most likely outcome of an airborne lightening strike is that the lightening will simply pass harmlessly through the plane and head to the ground (where it was trying to go anyway).
Source: NASA | b91bc370-6070-4b71-a5e7-6264807fcc7b |
86u7xo | How do cemeteries maintain upkeep after all the plots are sold | CPA Here... Mortuaries and Funeral homes essentially are left with a perpetual liability in maintaining the burial grounds after all of the lots are full. Because of this states have enacted laws that require a certain dollar amount for every plot sold to go into an endowment trust. The earnings from that endowment trust are to be used to maintain the burial grounds in future periods. | 7539152d-9fa3-46bb-8e0a-0dd23f145465 |
4m503z | What does the term blockbuster mean and why is it related to movies? | In WWII, militaries started using very large bombs that were capable of destroying an entire city block. They were called blockbusters. Later, the term was applied to extremely popular movies that could convince everyone who lives in an entire city block to go watch it. | 87e347f1-4b33-45d7-8523-a6a2a284b6f9 |
1t60o8 | Why does wind make it so much colder? | A person's body produces heat, which radiates off of them and warms the air around them. When the wind blows, it blows the warm air away and replaces it with colder air. Also, people lose heat when their sweat evaporates, and wind speeds that process. | 046fc0b5-1067-4cb9-863e-f3b8769117f3 |
3bf5z7 | Why do companies like Nikon sell cameras that around 16 megpixels but phone companies like sony and Nokia sell phones that have 20 to 40 megapixel cameras? | Resolution is only one aspect of what makes a picture good. And once you can't see the pixels any more, increasing the resolution doesn't help (for reference, the 4K "ultra-HD" TVs they're selling now are only 8 megapixel).
The problem with having tons of pixels is that it means very little light hits any portion of the camera, so you end up with a lot of noise- the camera can't quite tell what color the pixel is supposed to be. The reason Sony and Nokia are making 40MP cameras is that they want to be able to average the light that hit 8 pixels and give you a great looking 5MP image instead of a crappy looking 40MP image. Nikon just gives their cameras bigger sensors which allows more light to hit each pixel, so they can just straight up give you a 16MP camera that works better than the 40MP cameras on those phones.
EDIT: whoops, sensors not lenses. | 4195a69a-ff33-4d4f-a9aa-f4e08bbd1e4c |
1rzad0 | ; how does sound work? | Sound is waves, like you said. These waves overlap on each other and add up or subtract. This is called superposition. If you have several instruments, at every point in space, their sounds add up to one waveform. This is an example of two waveforms adding up: _URL_0_.
There are two waves that are similar but slightly off. If you look at each part, you will see how the add up or subtract to make the bottom waveform.
Because of this, the speaker only needs to make the waveform of the sounds added together, not each one separately. | 559d0f92-aa89-4646-9245-9891da316fea |
2d00zf | Why some nouns for "a person who performs a certain task" end with -er while some end with 'or? e.g. Baker - one who bakes. Traveler - one who travels. Actor - one who acts. Counselor - one who counsels. | The -er ending has one of its origins in the Germanic languages. English is a Germanic language, as is (obviously) German, as well as Dutch, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. These languages all evolved from the same language. This explains the -er in "baker" (compare with modern German "Bäcker").
But a lot of words from words that English borrowed from the French in the period during the Middle Ages. It's just coincidence that it looks like the Germanic -er and has nearly the same function. This is the case with "butcher" (the modern German is "Metzger", so "butcher" actually comes from the same origin as modern French "boucher". Languages evolve over time, and this ending actually comes from the Latin ending -arius.
The -or ending, though, also comes from Latin, but not from -arius; instead, it comes from -ator. An example is "imperator" which gives us English "emperor". | 0a1d6a47-9155-42c8-b15b-861ca72f6646 |
1ndflg | Why do people use complicated #hashtags? Doesn't it defeat the purpose? | A lot of hashtags are for the sake of reducing character usage and also to look cool.
Unless your friend is a very popular and influential person, he won't really be starting any hashtag trends. And there are some trending #tags that are pretty complicated, but these are started by popular people like music artists, etc. | 31ec88a9-83e4-458e-88fb-702479fd542d |
33dik1 | Why is police brutality against African Americans becoming so prevalent now? | It was always prevalent, it's just that with the advent of social media and similar things that the stories spread like wildfire instead of being local stories that aren't able to gain any traction. The advent of everyone having a phone with a camera on it as well is leading to the rise of mass awareness, as before there usually wasn't explicit proof. | 223b2160-8e84-4a29-b158-dfb453a86ea7 |
ntem6 | How are statistics like "children die every 16.3 seconds from hunger" determined? | Count the number of children who died over the last year and divide by the number of seconds in a year. | 38c9f2b5-3783-49f4-9a52-92e46bb04e34 |
33vehh | What happens to sea creatures (primarily larger animals like whales and sharks) when a tsunami hits? | Out in the open ocean, where whales and sharks mostly hang out, a tsunami is no big deal - it's just a momentary pressure wave moving through the water; the water isn't really "flowing" anywhere. But close to shore it's different; first the sea level drops which could strand them, and then the sea roars back in which could injure them in collisions with debris, etc.
Edit: they could also end up stranded on land when it's over. But I don't remember hearing anything about this kind of thing happening with the Japan or Indian ocean tsunamis. | 6f4667c8-5385-4323-84a2-7d6f090850b0 |
3fighm | Why is it you can sue drug companies for bad drugs but not the FDA who approved them to be sold on the market? Why are they not able to be punished if they were the ones that allowed it to be released to begin with? | As far as [I am aware of the process](_URL_0_), FDA just reviews the test results and other data supplied by the manufacturer. Test data can be colored to look better than it actually is, or due to limited sample size simply not exhibit the problem that leads to suing. | a97203d3-4344-48da-8028-fa845d7bc0b7 |
6gytwa | [Internet] How do the sign with google/Facebook options on many websites work, and is it truly safe to use it? | Google and Facebook uses something called OAuth2, when signing up with Google on another website, you get redirected to the Google sign in page, which is secure. The website you're signing up cannot get your password this way. On the sign in page, you'll see a list of what the website you're signing up for can do with your account (most of the time it just gets your email address and your name), make sure to read this list before accepting. After you've hit accept, you get redirected to the website again and the website reviews receives the information you accepted to give them.
This is a very secure and convenient way of signing in, I use it all the time. | fb9fbfdb-eb53-4ef6-a200-157836fa2499 |
3bdd1s | Why it is easier to see something in the dark with my peripherals than it is while staring directly at it. | The peripheral vision is more sensitive to movement and contrast. This trait was formed as a way to catch predators trying to sneak up on you. This might have something to do with it. | 472ebbbb-2151-48d0-892d-417f50cba632 |
5lseu6 | Why does massaging a sore muscle bring pain relief, but touching an acute injury hurts? | Hello! Here is as ELI5 as I can make it:
Imagine the spinal cord as a thin wire that branches into smaller wires at body side of things. The tip of each branched portion is responsible for delivering messages corresponding to different kinds of stimuli (touch/pain/temperature etc.). Because the spinal cord is thin (keep in mind this is simplified), different signals compete to travel up the spinal cord and be "felt."
To address your question directly, muscle soreness is helped by rubbing because rubbing introduces a new kind of stimuli. Before rubbing, dull pain stimulus from your muscle soreness was moving up the spinal cord uncontested. After rubbing, the dull pain is competing with your new touch input. Thus you "drown out" the pain signal with touch signal.
Rubbing a cut doesn't work the same way because your input is activating both the touch and the pain receptors in that area. In such regions, pain receptors are often hyperactive, which causes them to outcompete other input.
Hope that helps!
(Some of the more astute neuroscientists will realize that I left out Lateral Inhibition, but I'll let you Google that on your own)
Edit: grammar | dc184a3c-c684-4a11-bf20-4485d5f66f93 |
3twnxr | the difference in 1st, 2nd, 3rd degree burns | Think of it in terms of how many layers the burn affects. 1st degree burns affect the epidermis, top-most layer. Symptoms are redness, swelling, and pain. 2nd degree affects the dermis, the tissue under the epidermis. This is when burns look "shiny", because of exposed tissue fluid. 3rd degree penetrates the dermis and starts affecting deeper tissue, like muscle. | 588bd345-29ea-4762-9e24-c84426f205e4 |
54d9xe | Why do the have peanuts or some sort of nuts at bars? Do they taste good with beer, or maybe sobers people up? Or even the opposite? | It is to make you buy more drinks.
They are salty, which makes you thirsty, which makes you more likely to order more drinks. That is why bars will have nuts, pretzels, and other salty things. | 8e8557e4-466f-4446-a2b6-4614cef18201 |
m7zaq | How are TV Shows made? | It depends on the show and the format. Half hour sitcoms shot before a live audience (aka "three camera" shows) do tend to be put together in one week, although the script writing runs a bit ahead of that.
Normally, a half hour "one camera" (shot like a movie, no audience) show would be shot in five days, and a one hour in eight days -- but that's just the actual shooting. Pre-production, which includes writing the scripts (and creating the overall story for the season), necessary set, costume, etc., design, casting, getting clearances (music, names of people and things in the show, etc.) would ideally run about six weeks ahead of the shoot date -- sometimes more, sometimes less. Post production (editing the show together, getting producer and network approvals, making sure it fits within the allotted time) is usually about the same length as post.
And this is all enormously over-simplified. Depending on whether it's a new or established show, whether it's before the episodes have started airing or after, whether the producers know yet if they've been renewed and/or picked up for an entire season, which actor was just busted trying to sell meth to a fourteen year-old hooker, or some world event makes a story arc suddenly badly timed and tasteless... all of that can affect the timing, although the actual shooting time is pretty standard, because that's a contractual thing, mainly with the DGA and SAG.
TV is like the law and sausage, though -- if you enjoy it, you really don't want to see it being made. | 5643b2c4-8acc-4030-af47-34b2846547cc |
42q1kk | How do red light cameras know not to snap a picture when you can make a right turn on a red light? | They give you "clearance" to make that turn without a ticket once they detect your speed has dropped to zero within an assigned zone. If you just rolled through without stopping you'd get a ticket. | 0c6391ae-3279-4d3e-a82d-65a271d47fa7 |
5eeugd | If the common cold is so common, why haven't we developed something to make us immune? | My science teacher explained it so well when I was in 6th grade. Pathologists can feel free to correct me.
Basically, every cold you get is unique. Every single time you have a cold, it is caused by different germs and every time you get that cold, you are immune to it. However, there are so many types of cold causing bacteria that becoming immune to all of them is more a question of statistics. | 6b92d4ab-4014-4433-aa2c-634f13c307bf |
7zkg8j | Why can one slightly dripping tap keep me up all night but a thunderstorm allows me to sleep better? | Thunderstorms produce rain, producing white noise, that and other sounds that we find soothing lull some people to sleep. Noises are just annoying. | 3c8ed81a-9139-4be2-9f47-441e2a0a92f3 |
63zptm | What is the logic behind thinking that getting rid of Assad, something good will happen? | It turns out the guy who's been bombing his own people for 6 years may actually be the reason there's a civil war. There will not be an end to the civil war with Assad and his government in charge.
That doesn't mean the only two options are "Give him a high five and say 'keep it up, buddy.'" and "Invade Syria, depose him, and leave." IMO we should have tried to get Russia to put pressure on the Assad regime to back down in 2011 (Russia has had a lot more clout in Syria than the US for decades) on the condition that a replacement government remain amenable to hosting Russia's naval bases. Hard to do something like that these days. 6 years of brutal civil war have a way of hardening opinions. | ac88503d-9241-49df-95f1-6a158629648d |
1p411f | How did the casual pepper-spraying cop get $30k when any psychological distress from the event would have been directly his fault? | Workers Compensation is NOT normally about whose fault it is. (as opposed to normal civil actions). Instead, Workers Compensation is a statutory scheme that legally requires employers to pay for any and all injuries that arise out of the performance of the job.
Contrary to what other posters may have stated. This did not appear to be a settlement. And, as such, was not intended to be less than the cost of future legal proceedings.
While I don't know the specific details of this case. Generally, there are very few and limited defenses to a Workers Compensation action. So long as he was acting in his official capacity (whether right or wrong), he would ordinarily be eligible for benefits.
Usually each state has a set amount of compensation (normally based on a set number of weeks) that an injured employee could receive per injury. Thus, a back may be worth 1000 weeks and a pinky toe worth 10 weeks. The Workers Compensation board likely found the injury to be compensable, and then applied his salary to the requisite equation for formulating the total award for his distress. | 67d53b95-464c-419b-bf28-5913487f36cc |
26hrk7 | Why does razor burn happen? | Lots of reasons.
Senstive skin.
Skin's reaction to chemicals used.
Worn blade.
Pressing too hard.
Shaving "against the grain" (in the opposite direction of how the hair grows, which pulls the hair more as you shave it, causing irritation.)
Shaving too close, and winding up with ingrown hairs, although this is really razor bumps and not burn.
_URL_0_
Among others regarding the topic.
It is important to have a *clean* area, and to soften the hair being shorn. In my case, I shave my head in the shower after washing it completely first, then lather and shave. I then clean off the rest of me, then get out of the tub and immediately shave my beard, and this has helped to reduce my burn issues to zero. And hot water for rinsing the blades. I use just Dove soap for the head shaving, but use Edge Gel sensitive for the beard.
As far as the 'against the grain' problem, well... it would help if my hair all grew the same direction. :p | f809843e-641c-4cf7-939a-93f392ddfe56 |
1qv9o7 | the difference between how music was generated on old game consoles and new ones. | > ELI5: the difference between how music was generated on old game consoles and new ones.
Early video game systems used digital synthesizers on a chip, but the type of synthesizer usually depended on the system and its chip. For example, the NES soundchip generated approximations of pulse/square wavesforms and sawtooth waveforms using digital techniques. Composers were afforded some ability to change the amplitude and shape of these waveforms, and were able to sequence them to produce music. The Commodore 64 was able to generate approximations of various waveforms, but had the added benefit of a basic analogue filter to smooth out the resulting sound. The Sega Genesis, and some early arcade games and computer sound cards, used a synthesis technique called frequency modulation, where a sine wave is used to modulate another sine wave to produce complex timbres. Typically these soundchips were able to synthesize and sequence several different sounds simultaneously in order to produce the sense of multiple "instruments". Bear in mind the bitrate of the waveforms being produced by these synthesizers was typically low, resulting in a harsher sound.
During the early 1990s sampling technology become more accessible to microchip developers. For example, the SNES and Amiga computers were fitted with microchips which behaved like basic samplers, which allowed for the sequencing and pitch-shifting of small samples of digitally recorded audio. Usually these samples were individual notes from an instrument, and when several were played back at once in a musical sequence a full and varied musical composition was possible. Most PS1 and N64 games utilized sampling technology as well, although there are exceptions.
Music generated through either one of these means is typically called a "chiptune" by fans and musicians. Etymologically the word developed in relation to music made with "tracker" software on Amiga computers specifically, but it has since gained a wider meaning.
Newer video game consoles don't *generate* music at all. Rather, they have a chip for the *playback* of the digital audio recording of an entire songs, not unlike playing an MP3 or WAV file in WinAmp.
> On a retro console like an NES or Atari 2600, the game cartridge would be so small that it would impossible to store audio even if it were very compressed. So my understanding is... the cartridge contains midi data and the sounds are played and generated by chips on board the console?
The cartridges *don't* contain MIDI data, but rather a unique communication protocol used to control the console's digital synthesizers. Usually the protocol was developed by the game developer, rather than the console manufacturer. By comparison MIDI contains far more information (and thuse would take up more space on a ROM chip) than these unique communication protocols usually would.
> I have seen electronic artists actually wire up old Gameboys to get sounds from them. Are the sound chips effectively digital synthesizers?
Yes, but it's worth mentioning very few artists develop their own tools. For example, GameBoy musicians usually use [Little Sound DJ](_URL_0_) or a similar homebrew project. These types of tools are made possible by an incredibly *loosely-related* hacking community that is also responsible for ROM translations, ROM hacks and even video game piracy.
> then on newer consoles like the N64 it sounds like samples are being used, where are these stored? Is there a sound set then that every game soundtrack was limited to?
Indeed, *most* N64 games utilize an onboard sampler chip. Unfortunately very little is understood about the N64's sampling technology, unlike the SNES or PS1 sampler chips which are very thoroughly understood, but the data for N64 music is known to be held within the N64 ROM/cartridge. Playback of sound-rips from these ROMs is possible, but creating new music for playback on these consoles is met with varying degrees of success.
And now for my obligatory plug: I run a small subreddit dedicated to electronic music and instruments at /r/MusicGear I think you'll find some of the information in our online directory of resource -- the menu on the right-hand side of each page -- useful, particularly some of the "trackers" under the software directory. And I think you'll enjoy some of our submissions as well ;) | 76af6a7c-c2d3-4bd6-9755-1c59918dff6d |
2wugep | How do warring countries share borders? | The borders in question were sites of cross border raids and shellings in both directions for years, until an uneasy peace settled in as a result of larger conflicts. Today the borders are constantly patrolled. The border between Jordan and Israel was mostly quiet after 1967, and no major flare-ups until the peace treaty in 1993. Syria withdrew forces several km after 1973 and its border was mostly patrolled by the UN on the Syrian side, and the Israelis on theirs. When Israel finally withdrew from South Lebanon, the UN took on a role as an observation force (mostly ineffective) while Israel constantly patrols the border. The consensus between the two sides is that they have little to gain from bombing eachother, and are mostly in favor of an uneasy peace as opposed to another conflict. | 3d98b0f9-fe50-47ce-8c9c-ac4aba7f9060 |
4gfmdl | Why do tortilla chips not come in individual-sized bags? | Because regular tortilla chips are a bit too bland and dry to eat by themselves and are mostly consumed at parties or a home environment, where they can be dipped in salsa. | af1771ca-2652-4a83-8be6-1e22ae817a41 |
1mrm21 | How do people born blind perceive objects/things in their mind and how accurate are they in terms of shape, size and colour when compared to the actual object? | They did an experiment back in 2011 by taking people who had been blind since birth, giving them a cube and a sphere, restoring their sight, then telling them to distinguish between them. The results were supposedly as good as if they had just guessed, meaning that blind people probably have different perceptions of objects than we do.
[Source](_URL_0_) | 66291efa-a74d-4fb5-a2af-27ce16402d48 |
25km6s | What makes antibacterial soap different from regular soap? | Antibacterial soaps have chemical additives, like triclosan, that kill bacteria. Regular soap simply washes them away, which is typically just as effective. A quick google search says that the antibacterial agents in soap need to be left on for 2 minutes to be effective, so they are likely not doing anything beneficial in normal handwashing scenarios. | 84881ea8-9c88-40b8-b89a-622c5fa8cc7f |
4ukhch | How can we be confident that the leaked emails from the DNC are authentic? Couldn't anyone type up a bunch of incriminating emails, sign them "Debbie Schultz" and send them to Wikileaks? | People who work closely with DWS have confirmed that they are authentic.
[Before the announcement, Sanders on Sunday told Tapper the release of the DNC emails that show its staffers working against him underscores the position he's held for months: Wasserman Schultz needs to go. "I don't think she is qualified to be the chair of the DNC, not only for these awful emails, which revealed the prejudice of the DNC, but also because we need a party that reaches out to working people and young people, and I don't think her leadership style is doing that," Sanders told Tapper on "State of the Union," on the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia."](_URL_0_)
Sanders himself has commented on it, he has not tried to dispel them as a fabrication. Also, DWS has resigned because of the leak, further confirming that she felt it was inappropriate for her to continue to be the DNC due to her actions.
TL;DR: No-one has tried to disprove the emails as a fabrication and DWS's behavior reinforces the credibility of the leak. | 039c90dd-f488-4721-8c8a-7296bf9f2418 |
5yw0ma | What is the purpose in using film grain on TV shows or Movies? | Well it depends on how it was filmed.
If it's film, then well the film grain comes from that. They aren't adding it on purpose.
If it's digital, then it is being added to mimic film. | 3bbde7d9-5988-49d1-b944-768bcfd90bb8 |
3m7pxv | I throw a handful of sunflower seeds in my mouth. Some of them taste salty after I've cracked them open. Why? | Sunflowers, when under duress emit a "salty flavor" to discourage predators from eating further seeds. The reason they taste salty cracked open is that it comprises the integrity of the seed and therefore cannot reproduce. Predators that swallow the seed whole can then pass it on later through its feces. | 3d02e24e-3353-4d2f-9c1f-a489e9afd635 |
5xg5cc | If black Americans are called African-American...Why aren't white Americans called "European-Americans"? | I know you referenced forms and polls, but I think it is important to note that plenty of "white" people in America call themselves Irish-American, or Italian-American. I think the continent vs the country has more to do with the black people who's ancestors were brought over in slavery and therefore they likely have no knowledge of WHERE in Africa they originated from. | e2c908d2-d172-49e4-b25d-d32f6551f1bc |
4ewdja | When do we observe red shift? | RobusEtCaleritas is right. You can imagine it this way:
Imagine you're standing in the ocean at the beach, a short distance from the shore. Waves move toward you at a constant pace. Let's say you are hit by one swell every 10 seconds. If you start running towards the shore, you will be hit by less and less waves, maybe once every 20 seconds. The frequency of waves has decreased (redshift). If you run back out to the ocean, the frequency that you are hit by a wave will increase. Maybe once every 5 seconds. This is blueshift. | 51a75b98-dc76-4e9a-9bc8-9875e9dcc481 |
3f6p0v | How come my contact lenses are thin as paper, yet my glasses with same prescription have thick lenses | The contacts are closer to your eyes, so less refraction is necessary. There's a point when you can no longer where contacts because they'd be too big. There's also glass contacts. They're very painful though and you have to put them in with a special tool. They are a lot thicker. | 4552f217-a704-4801-9d0f-df6d9cc6c1ef |
2d5lky | Why do guys send dick pics? | I work for a porn site. We don't do any production, I'm rarely ever where a camera will shoot me (mostly an odd party). However, guys send me as many dick pics as they do the models themselves.
I guess it's just the thought of a girl opening it gets some of them off. Some probably think they might get some action? I don't know...someday I should start a dick pick site. LOL | f6038f9f-eb11-467b-bfbf-fac516cc9f8b |
1ikvwa | Why can aquatic animals grow to be so much larger than land animals | Because they don't have to life all that mass of the ground and trutch around with it. Buoyancy carries most of the weight. | 0d76e29d-03ee-42e0-8c35-089fb8a2e867 |
26p2eh | Why does everybody get mad at movies shot at 48 fps, but also a video games shot at below 60 fps? | Motion Blur.
As movies are filmed, the movement of the actors is recorded as still images. If they're moving fast enough, they blur slightly on the film. Our eyes interpret the blurring as motion more readily. At 48fps for a movie, the frames do not last long enough (1/48 of a second) to have recorded any significant motion blur due to the higher shutter speed. This makes them almost look video-game like and unnatural
Video games do not have motion blur. They are rendered directly as a series of still frames at full resolution with hard, crisp edges. Our eyes are good at seeing edges, and its easier to see the jumps from one frame to the next. At about 60fps, the still, fully rendered sharp images are coming fast enough that they appear as a smooth transition. | ec579fb5-6a53-49b6-8911-d57229ed8991 |
1gahpk | Latent heat | water- > ice
is an exothermic reaction. The water gives off heat energy to turn into the less energetic ice phase.
ice- > water
is an endothermic reaction. The ice needs to absorb heat energy to turn into the more energetic water phase
---
"How can you change the amount of energy in a system without in some way changing the temperature or pressure"
Because that energy goes into changing the phase of the molecules.
---
"Constant temperature and pressure."
Remember, **constant pressure=/=constant volume.** | a4762cef-d773-4224-bfb4-d01c8756dd6a |
42h5rh | If one of the arguments for the moon landing being faked is solar radiation sickness, how are the ISS astronauts alright? | Because the moon landing was real and its all bullshit? | 276cd6de-add3-4ad5-b204-293e50126e05 |
20va0k | What are fabergé eggs and why are they so expensive? | They are decorative eggs made by Peter Fabergé for the Russian Tsars. They were made out of precious metals and jewels, and were created solely in the Fabergé workshop and he only made 50 before the Russian Revolution. Only 42 are known to have survived (the newly found one should make it 43).
The eggs were basically these egg shaped objects that would sit on a table, some opened some had miniature portraits of the Tsars, all were extremely tedious to manufacture. They were all pieces of amazing jewelry, and were intended to inspire wonder and beauty to the Tsars, who were difficult to impress. | b2ce014a-7c25-4ba2-b8c8-ac3ac2886c02 |
7942al | How do analog synthesizers make sound? | synthesizers are one thing, making sound is another.
synthesizers "synthesize" signals. they basically generate all sorts of different wave patterns and signals and allow you to play with them.
a speaker is a device that takes in an electrical signal and transfers it into a mechanical signal. how he does that you might ask? in the same way an electromagnet works. when current rushes in a coil, it creates a magnetic field in the middle of the coil towards one of the openings of the coil with strength depending on the current's strength.
in the middle of the coil rests a magnet connected to a membrane that pushes air, and once the magnet sense that magnetic fiend it is pushed one side or the other, causing the membrane to either push or pull the air.
do that push-pull thingy fast enough (around 20-50 times per second) and you will start to hear a sound. once you reach a couple of thousand of these push-pull cycles per second, you get your average speaker. | c067d79a-30fd-4098-850a-d7655dec2af6 |
54hda6 | What happens to a person's debt when they are the last person of a family line and die? | It doesn't matter if you have family or not, debt cannot be inherited. If you do have debt when you die, your creditors can take from your estate to pay it off. If your estate is not large enough to pay the whole debt, the debt just goes away. | 7a8ef1c0-0c01-4517-a84c-030dd374d6b1 |
1eboix | Why does heating up food make it taste better? | Part of your sense of taste comes from the smell sensors in your nose. This is why you can't taste much when you have a cold.
Heating food causes it to give off more steam and various vapors which can then get to your nose quicker and easier. | ea25e82b-ea54-4cc7-8e89-ded7c451f5ab |
1ugf35 | If God sent His only son to earth and then people killed him, how did that mend the relationship between humanity and God? Surely it would only make God more pissed at us? | The coming of Jesus was, according to christian teachings, the fulfillment of prophecies that had been made generations earlier in Jewish history. According to the Old Law, given to Moses, the Hebrew people had to constantly make sacrifices (burnt offerings of their finest animals) to atone for their wrongdoings. There were established sacrifices for certain sins, and some sins could only be paid for through penalty of death (women caught in adultery were stoned). The purpose of this Old Law was to show the Hebrew people how in need of a savior they were; that they simply could not achieve righteousness without aid from God after their initial fall from grace in Eden. There were hundreds of prophecies telling of the coming of just such a savior, who would redeem the Israelite people and atone for all of their sins and make them clean and reconciled to God once again.
When Jesus came and died, he acted as the single greatest atonement sacrifice of all. He took on the sins of the entire world and "paid the toll" for humanity's sins, now and forever. Jesus was sent TO die; it was an established, known conclusion. Before he was arrested to be taken away to be tried and killed, he prayed to God, asking him to "take this cup from my hands, if it be Your will" for though he was fully God, he was also fully man (this is a confusing concept that takes some serious theology to explain). Any human being would be terrified of enduring what Jesus was about to do, and in fear and desperation he pleaded that God find another way to bring reconciliation to humanity. But he was obedient unto death, and in doing so redeemed the entire human race from our legacy of sin.
He then also rose to life, as christians believe, and "conquered death". Does this adequately answer your question? | f340c3a6-b5ad-419f-9121-c03e99e23cf9 |
4o5wk4 | How have denim blue jeans maintained their popularity while pretty much every other type of clothing has gone in and out of fashion? | Cuts and styles of jeans have come and gone over the years. Sure, denim's been a staple of fashion since the 60s (when they became acceptable to wear off the farm) but we've seen...
Different cuts: bell bottoms, boot cut, straight leg, skinny jeans, pipe legs (eg - JNCO), low-rider waist, normal waist, high-cut waist, etc
Different finishes: Indigo, stone washed, acid washed, galaxy washed, distressed, etc
Denim's a comfortable, durable, (originally) inexpensive fabric to work with. It's no surprise that it's had a long life as typical American casual/semi-casual wear. | e7dad61f-f0a7-42ba-aaa1-dbfe27db4d67 |
1mwf7o | Why are NFL quarterbacks overwhelmingly white while most other positions are held by black men? | The percentage of white quarterbacks in the NFL is 78. The percentage white americans is 72. | a383b2b2-be28-407b-8570-afea1c0673eb |
5c5l6r | Why can animals drink dirty water where as humans cannot? | This is a bit of a myth. Animals are just as susceptible to waterborne diseases as humans, and they can get sick and die from them. Deer in North America have been documented with giardia, a common waterborne illness.
On the other hand, waterborne diseases aren't as deadly as you might think. After all, all animals evolved drinking unfiltered water and they haven't gone extinct from waterborne illness. If you drink from an open water source you won't keel over and die; you probably won't even get sick from drinking it once. However humans are sedentary and drinking from a single unclean water source all your life means that you will get sick eventually. Also even if you won't die from a waterborne illness, it does mean that you might be off your feet for a few days or weeks; in public health the economic impact of disease is much more than just people actually dying. Animals, not having to work and earn a living for themselves, don't have this problem.
And also, humans are smart and have an understanding of risk. Even if there's a 1% chance that you'll get sick from drinking dirty water, and then a further 1% chance of dying, would you take those odds? Not many people would actually die but we generally don't like to tolerate any preventable death. | d906c59f-b097-459e-8bf0-95f7ecd36554 |
4a6ei4 | What is the point to things like Origami Owl, Scentsy, Paparazzi Jewelry, etc. that use a consultant to sell? | It helps spread the word about the product without costly marketing fees. Consultants earn an income and sell the stuff to their friends and acquaintances. It's a good process for the company because they only have to pay a commission rather than employ people full-time and have to provide benefits. | e709113f-ea5f-40bb-a0fb-1d52fbb1efa0 |
3lxzb8 | How do people who colorize photos know what color to make things? | Depends on the source photo. For example old photos with advertisement or firetrucks or uniforms, it can be deduced from modern colors what their original color was. Otherwise the colors are just chosen arbitrarily so that they seem realistic and suitable for the given time the photo was taken. | b7cfceaf-76ea-4ee1-9b76-2920cfe1a414 |
23hzf4 | Are humans still being naturally selected? | Natural selection works that individuals who have genes which improve their capability to reproduce are more likely to survive and thus the traits are kept (of course being more likely to be alive affects the chances of you reproducing) the thing is, humans are so at the top of their game that we no longer need to adapt to specific environments, just look, humans are **all around the globe**, and pretty much most men eventually find a wife, natural selection does work though in a way that someone who appears unattractive is less likely to find a women or a wife, but this is sexual selection, in my opinion Natural selection is no longer an impact on civilized man because even cripples and people with mental deficits manage to survive until they die of old age.
But, some cases do remain where natural selection is strong, such as HIV and disease resistance in africa or other tribes.
**TL;DR:** Humans find it way too easy now to survive thus natural selection is not very strong to us besides disease resistance in areas where medicine is rarely easily provided, instead sexual selection is still here but more in a form of ''Cultural selection''. | e554c427-663c-4698-9639-3c08300ac418 |
2b8kn5 | Why do my earplugs tangle up all the time? | Someone published a
[paper](_URL_0_) on this in PNAS quite some time back. It's kind of cool.
As a quick and dirty summary, what they found was that when jostled, strings tend to form coils, which then form loose weaves though the other strands. I guess it's similar to braiding and weaving. At that point they're pretty well tangled, and you're pretty well pissed off. | 3475dd08-b708-4bc3-9f8b-5291dab7fab5 |
38wnb1 | How our internal clocks work | I'm not an expert in the field, so if there's anyone who can correct me, please do.
But if I remember rightly, when light is detected by the eyes, the hormone melatonin is released - this is a stress hormone. For example, when you wake up on a winter morning, melatonin levels are lower(since its darker at around 7, compared to summer); you'll feel groggy and sleepy. When you take a shower with the light on (or even use your phone or whatever) light is detected, thus melatonin is released, and you'll feel more awake. I also believe there's something about humans having "day cycles" of "about 24hours", but I can't remember exactly what happens here. | ededd6d2-7fbc-4f3a-9408-2d7e7dc17682 |
30qfk4 | Why is Australia just NOW getting Netflix? | Netflix has wanted to go to Australia for a long time. [Last year](_URL_0_) was the first time they mentioned it publicly, but if previous markets are anything to go by then the negotiation process started long before that.
But it was a much more complicated process than they anticipated. Securing the rights to distribute the content in AU was a major PITA. Apparently the entire world has decided to fuck over Australia, where media costs are astronomical compared to the rest of the world. I'm not sure if that has to do with the strength of the Australian censorship/ratings process or simply a case of "because they can". Either way, that's why Netflix AU is focused mostly on Australian shows (that aren't available on Netflix in other countries). It will take them time to build up an international catalog, while at the same time slowly letting Australian shows "out of the box" so to speak, so that international viewers can check them out.
The few who did agree to join Netflix AU, Netflix had to fight to get the rights and it was an uphill battle. The content's owners were afraid of "diluting the market" with a reasonably priced alternative.
So don't blame Netflix for waiting so long. They are in the business of making money, and they are focused on growth. Expanding to new markets is a priority for them. It's just that not all of their partners were ready to allow it. | a2f615d7-0dd4-4841-83cf-2db10f8827dc |
2l1el2 | Glycemic Index & Glycemic Load of foods. | Ok, so we start with carbohydrates, an essential macronutrient. No matter that form your carbs take, your body will digest it into sugar.
Glycemic INDEX is a measure of how FAST your body will digest the carbs into sugar, and thus how it will spike your blood sugar. A high index makes your blood sugar rise and then drop relatively quickly. The are often foods that leave you feeling hungry again soon, like white rice and noodles.
Something with a low index takes longer to digest. Blood sugar takes a longer time, rising and dropping smoothly, and you feel full longer. Beans and oatmeal for instance.
Glycemic LOAD is basically the "load" (amount) of carbs in a serving of food - how "hard" it will hit you. The line labeled Carbohydrates on the label mostly covers it. You take that, and cross reference with glycemic index to get load.
Some foods like watermelon have a high Index, but a small number of carbs per serving, so the Load is considered low. | de81c12b-85d5-471b-b40c-51c7ecfc5b88 |
3kxtu6 | Why are my parents so scared of Jeremy Corbyn's rise? (UK) | I am assuming that your parents come from a Conservative background, but they could be Labour supporters too.
In the 70s, the UK had lots of problems with industrial action. There were frequent power cuts. Edward Heath's Conservative government introduced a three-day working week so that we wouldn't run out of coal when the miners were on strike.
Things reached a peak in 1978, when James Callaghan's Labour (the last British government that could be considered left wing) proposed a cap on public sector pay rises. Hospital staff went on strike, so only emergency patients could be treated. Bins were not emptied. There were power cuts, and the cold weather further harmed the economy.
Thatcher came in, made the public sector much smaller, and stopped strikes from really affecting daily life. Labour remained left wing, particularly under Neil Kinnock but also Michael Foot. It was only when Tony Blair took the leadership following John Smith's sudden death that the party looked electable again. In the intervening time, the Conservatives could basically do whatever they wanted.
tl;dr: the most recent left-wing Labour government was pretty weak, but no worse than their Conservative contemporaries; when Labour are weak, the Tories can do whatever they want. | e94d3e76-6e60-4cef-98b8-dc3f8cdcfc2a |
5okb2u | Why are there people against the development of renewable fuels and energy sources? | pretend you have a lemonade stand, you have to go out, find the ingredients, mix it, and you make a product that people need because it's hot. You open several lemonade stands because more and more people want/need your lemonade. Then, someone comes along with a lemonade stand and all they have to do is hold up a bucket and lemonade just falls in, you'd be mad because they would soon take your business especially since everyone finds out that while you're collecting and mixing ingredients you're shitting all over the sidewalk, the store, the lemonade stand and them and they only found out because the person who opened the other lemonade stand pointed it out | d9d67bbe-a310-4d0c-8eea-02cf2d5446f7 |
3ewk92 | Graham's number | I know you're asking about how massive it is, but it's important to understand that most of the time in everyday life we use numbers to *measure* things or *count* things - how much money do we have? How tall is that building? How many days until I graduate?
In a sense, Graham's number was invented to count something - but it was so hard to count that it ended up being a number larger than anything anyone every tried to do something with before.
A Googol is 1 followed by a hundred zeros, or 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000.
That's a big number! In fact, a Googol is more than the number of atoms in the universe, as best as we can determine. It's more than the number of times a Quartz crystal has oscillated since the beginning of the universe. It's bigger than the number of Chess games.
Basically a Googol is already a big enough number, but you can write it down in a minute or two.
Graham's number is so large that you couldn't even write down its digits given all the time in the universe!
More history:
A mathematician named Ron Graham was trying to solve a particular type of mathematical question of the form "how many X's would you need in order to guarantee that Y is true"?
A simple example of this type of question is: how many people would you need to have at a party such that there's guaranteed to be at least one group of 3 people who all mutually know each other, or one group of 3 people who all are mutual strangers (or both)? The answer turns out to be 6.
Now if you ask how many people would you need to have at a party such that there's guaranteed to be at least one group of 4 people who all mutually know each other, or one group of 4 people who all are mutual strangers? It turns out that this is a very hard problem, and nobody has figured out the exact answer yet.
Ron Graham was working on a similar type of problem. He suspected that the answer was small, but he couldn't prove it. However, he could prove that the answer did exist by proving that it couldn't possible be larger than this one number, the number we now call Graham's number.
It's surprising because the number is ridiculously, absurdly large, and yet it's absolutely required in order for his proof to work. Therefore it's the largest number that was used to prove something in mathematics.
Nobody uses the number for anything practical, but people study it as a useful technique sometimes. Often in mathematics proving that an answer exists and giving a really large bound for it helps others to estimate the answer more accurately later. | 5ee5747d-cdff-412e-99c8-8aa2e362e9db |
2bccz7 | What is credit and why is it necessary? | * I'd say yes but the better answer is it can be, because people with bad credit will be able to get (very high interest) options that people with no credit might not be able to.
* You build credit by getting credit. You have to get a first card from someone, usually a $250 or $500 limit. If you, for whatever reason, absolutely can't get one, you can get a secured credit card where you have to put down a deposit upfront and that will build your credit.
* Having a credit card will cause you to have a credit score to begin with, and paying it on time and keeping the balance reasonable will cause it to go up, which will allow you to have access to more credit.
Credit's necessary if you ever want to finance a house or car purchase. If you pay for things with cash, truth is, you can go through your whole life without it. But I don't mind the idea of other people letting me use their money as long as it's cheap enough.
/r/personalfinance can go into far more extreme detail but it's closer to ELI45. | cfde8d90-cc7b-4773-8e4a-3f42cba2b366 |
40o9qf | Why do low pressure systems produce unsettled weather whereas high pressure produces calm conditions? | Take a look at a picture like this:_URL_1_
Basically, (ignoring the orange line) the air mass UNDER the blue line is spinning clockwise while the airmass ABOVE it is spinning counterclockwise. Now, I might be mixing these up so please someone correct me if I'm wrong, but clockwise spinning air pulls air up, sort of like a hurricane does :_URL_0_ SO, this spinning air starts lifting (hence creating Low Pressure) moist air from the surface. The moist air turns into clouds and the clouds rain. Counterclockwise motion pushes air down, creating high pressure. The air is pushes down is dry, so it tends to be clear and sunny. | d0a1c88d-e451-4d1b-8b1a-d9511c739512 |
23h0dx | How do mechanical pool tables recognize the cue ball? | Pool tables were invented a while back in less enlightened times. There's a white entrance & a coloured entrance. | 416f71b1-bc94-4e00-8420-36c3e5cf622f |
3cure4 | What exactly is the issue with money in politics? | The issue isn't really money in politics. The issue is a disproportionate amount of money coming from select special interests. Compared to how much money this country spends advertising toothpaste or cars or beer, the Presidential election cycle is cheap.
For example, there are a handful of extremely high net worth individuals who have the power to determine who will have a real shot at winning the primary and becoming the nominee of the party. That control is by no means absolute - they proved (again) in 2012 that they can bankroll fringe candidates until their checkbooks bleed and the primary voters won't endorse those candidates, but it is pretty clear that they can select from amongst a group of moderate candidates which will and which will not seriously contest the primary and the money they make available can be the factor that determines if a person runs, or not, and if they run, how seriously their candidacy is taken by the media and party infrastructure.
This may or may not bother you depending on how much you believe the winnowing process of the primary contest is actually being impacted by this money (the alternative is that it's just amplifying a contest that would likely play out roughly the same regardless of the injection of high net worth money but of course it's impossible to see the counter-factual world where that happens.)
In the general election a select group of special interest groups can substantially influence the outcome of a presidential election, and often statewide elections for Senators and Governors. They get less traction but still have an impact on Congressional races - enough traction that the people who run for Congress ignore them at their peril.
These interests are the AARP (retired people), the Teacher's unions (and organized labor in general, although the Teachers provide the bulk of the cash and the grassroots effort), evangelical religious leaders, the NRA, and an amorphous network of large business interests who aren't dumb enough to cluster into a visibly addressable target.
Generally speaking in the Presidential election, 45% of the voters split for each candidate based on party and the election is decided by the 10% who are willing to pick a candidate based on the campaign. Sometimes those ratios are distorted by historical events or by turnout but that's pretty close to the overall average for the past several decades of Presidential campaigns.
That 10% isn't evenly distributed. Because of a quirk in the Constitution, states, not the popular vote, frame the election. Most states award their electors winner-take-all (although a few do proportionate representation). Due to this system and due to the demographics of where people live who vote strongly by party, only a small number of states actually determine the victor. Those states are usually Florida, Ohio, Virginia and to a lesser degree New Mexico and Nevada.
THAT means that concentrating the money into a handful of states has the potential to significantly influence the outcome of an election, and it generates an arms-race mentality where both parties assume that if they fall materially behind in spending, they'll automatically lose. So they'll make whatever deals are required to get the funding they think they need since "any price" is the right price in a winner-take-all election. | a4f78189-389a-4cfc-b497-ee401ecbe491 |
39sk84 | Since black absorbs light, exactly how much warmer will you be in a black shirt, contra a white one? And also, are black people on average hotter than the rest? | Can I add to you question why women in Arabic countries wear black robes (burqas)? Wouldn't it make more sense to wear white ones? | 272e24cc-eb96-4e4e-942d-1bc4cafb54c4 |
7txw21 | difference between a lunar eclipse and a new moon. | A new moon simply isn't being lit by the sun from our point of view.
A lunar eclipse has the moon in the earth's shadow.
_URL_0_ | d41052ec-7cf0-4497-98d7-db39b4fd573c |
353coi | What is a Grand Duchess/Duke, who is eligible to become one, and what do they do? | A Grand Duke, is usually the ruling monarch of a minor nation. The title is less of senior Duke and more of a junior King.
Small provinces changed hands frequently in Europe, often without changing nobility, and often found themselves as independent states. That noble would find themselves as the head of state, more than a mere Duke, but did not want to presume themselves to be the equals of the true European powers.
In addition, the nobles under a Grand Duke often enjoyed greater freedom than they would under a King, and would use the title to limit their monarch's power.
To become a Grand Duke, you start of as a Duke, wait for your country to go to war, then have your province made into an independent state. | e13761ce-e18e-4ac9-b991-cb3d2aaa5df0 |
3s1kdf | How do trees produce oxygen in the winter? | 1. not all trees drop leaves (eg. conifers)
2. not all regions got cold season where trees need to drop the leaves | 82845fc1-d8de-4824-ad3f-7ab767babaf2 |
45sw56 | Does bank account with all money which my country hold exist ? | I once heard a guy on the radio who told that he performed transactions on the Dutch government national bank account, account number "1" at The Netherlands Bank. For instance, when the Netherlands needs to pay fees to the European Union, it is done from this bank account. I'm not sure if this account "holds all the country's money", but these kind of national bank accounts exist. | 5de3731d-b355-4ebd-897a-195ae4ef1268 |
3rpuzg | Flatness | There is nothing tangible that we humans have that is perfectly 2 dimensional, but it is rather a concept. Atoms themselves, as far as we know, have a definite thre dimensional shape. Most sufaces that seem flat to us are actually very not flat. A sheet of glass probably is quite bumpy, atomically at least.
The best way I can think of getting something as flat as possible would be to get a nonpolar liquid (lets say mercury) and put it on a "flat surface". The gravity would force the mercury to spread around evenly.
About your mom... No comment | 7a50f380-c36d-4e7f-be8a-bd1146d0b06e |
2eubhm | Since cats and dogs have multiple offspring at once, are they considered genetic twins? If not, can dogs and/or cats have twins? | yes and or no. So twins are born at the same time and can be identical or fraternal. fraternal twins are genetically siblings, while identical twins have identical DNA.
Fraternal twins happen when two separate eggs are released and fertilized very close in time to each other so they both attach to the womb and are born at the same time. This often happens for dogs and cats since their bodies almost always release multiple eggs at the same time.
Identical twins happen when one fertilized eggs splits early in development into two eggs and they each grow seperately into a fetus (baby). This can happen with one egg in the womb in the presence of others. So it is possible for a dog or cat to release say 2 eggs both to be fertilized, one of those eggs to split into two, and.....give birth to one fraternal triplet and a pair of identical twins. in this case the first puppy is genetically a sibling to it's two siblings, and the twin puppies are identical genetically to each other. | 966ae40d-8979-4864-a817-bb9841fcc872 |
6w5b9y | Why do trips seem to last longer while going than while coming back? | I feel like it's more because of the anticipation/ possible fear of actually reaching your destination. After you arrive and do what you're there to do I'd say the journey back to where you came from is spent more thinking about what you did. Example: An 8 year old on its way to Disneyland (no sponsorship intended) all excited and hyper thinking about all the things it'd do so the anticipation is killer. But I'm not a psychologist 🤷♂️ | 4cab6831-bb9c-4246-b768-fbe9710cf2f0 |
1t4udq | Why am I so ticklish? | You are ticklish because humans often find the unexpected funny. You did not expect someone to touch you, but your skin's nerves were stimulated. The same goes for most humor - jokes are funny because you were told A, so expect B; but the punchline/followup is H. This is also why it is not possible to tickle oneself, you expect the contact. | e6034cad-0cb5-46b1-aabb-551348fd3443 |
2xg5zj | How are scholarships with ethnicity requirements legal? | It's called affirmative action or positive discrimination. Basically discriminating in favour of certain disadvantaged groups that have possibly suffered as a result of discrimination. | db47ea17-82d6-4c9d-b7e6-8aa0b5fef248 |
27p11b | How does this even work from a structural engineering standpoint? | I can't comment on that specific structure since it could be a cheat such as you described using internal support of some type. However, such a structure is possible in theory. It is a complex looking version of an arch.
Notice how the bricks are higher in the middle? Those bricks rest on the ones below them just like a regular arch. The twist makes it seem more impressive but the idea is the same.
The hardest part to keep from falling is the almost straight section at the bottom near the central pillar but if you look you will see that the twist means that the bricks arch up more than any other section as they approach the centre. This gives more stability where it is needed. | 9e0660df-d4b2-415e-b91c-7f7625ec5aa4 |
36w5a6 | Why is Japan, a country spread across multiple Islands so much more united than the UK, a country spread across multiple Islands. | They both *did* have regional identities. The difference is that the UK said "Ok, you can be Scottish, whatever, as long as you help with the Empire and whatnot", but the Japanese said "No. You are Japanese. This is your culture. Now speak Japanese and follows Japanese customs. Do it."
There are benefits and drawbacks to each strategy. | eef3d9b6-7ee5-4c71-8cc9-acdeceda132b |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.