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92agda | In footage of nuclear explosions, what are the white vertical stripes? | Those are rocket trails. Just before launch small rockets are launched which leave those plumes of white smoke as they go up. Scientists can watch how the plumes behave in the vicinity of the blast and get a nice visualization of how the air around the fireball is behaving.
It is possible that the specks of white light at the time of the blast were from the interaction of high energy gamma radiation with the retina of the viewers. Radiation interacting with photoreceptors often appears as a small white speck or flash. | 4b0526f4-b899-4f96-9f4c-34a61d7e0e4f |
40vyah | how do contact lenses stick to your eyes? | The surface tension of the liquid (mostly water) on your eye keeps them in place, but it doesn't really stop them from rotating.
For most people - those without astigmatism - it doesn't really matter if it does rotate. Your eye is pretty much symmetric thought the center (from your pupil to the back). Astigmatism is when your eye isn't symmetric like that. If you have astigmatism, it can be really annoying to wear contacts, because you actually notice when your contacts rotate - it messes your vision up.
They stay centered because your eye isn't an exact sphere. Your pupil (cornea, actually) pokes out a bit and the contact has an indented place for it to fit in. | b2960052-e2b7-400e-93a9-3dc70bba749f |
1arynr | Why does United states and Japan have a good relationship now even after Hiroshima? | Hiroshima was part of World War 2. After the war ended, Japan surrendered unconditionally, and the US basically came in and completely remade the Japanese state. This laid a new foundation for Japan's extraordinary growth through most of the rest of the 20th Century, and basically reset ties between the two countries. | 013a7597-9e6f-463a-8494-8cc0ca3d519b |
zrccg | Stars at nighttime. | It depends on where you live. Go [here](_URL_0_) to see where you can see the best stars.
As for the reason, it's not so much the smog as it is the *light pollution.* It's like being in a loud room and trying to hear a pin drop. It gets drowned out by all the other noise. Not even the best, high quality microphone and analyzing software could pick it up if it's noisy enough. The same goes for stars. | 9c493161-bf76-43e8-96b3-a75b5cd677d9 |
1wctdp | If food is sanatized in an oven or any heating device at a certain temperature, why do we take so many precautions beforehand with germs and bacteria? | Bacteria poop.
Even if you kill all the bacteria & viruses (which you can't be sure of) the bacteria might release chemicals that aren't healthy.
A great example is botulism - it's not the bacteria that make you sick, it's the toxins they release while they're reproducing that kill you. | 938fc7c2-2c6e-4986-b231-947e5c1a54b2 |
2mli2k | How did us mammals evolve into having emotions and specifically love? | Emotions evolved from communication. For example wolf who was able to bark when danger occured saved its pack members thus increasing it own chance of survival. Wolfs who didn't react / understand to react to danger more likely perished.
I think love is more primitive thing. It is just feeling that one should mate with another one. | 34f73b9e-02a4-4e2c-bb6e-900f582ba201 |
5iknin | How are idols and idol culture so popular in Japan? What are the inner workings? | Idols are basically boy bands.
Except girls, and for guys.
But it amounts to the same thing, get a bunch of attractive young ladies, with some dancing, some singing and the right attitude.
And if you can get the right publicity at the right time, they become famous. | 5b4f4ac9-3f0d-4e67-b21e-ec264e78861a |
2ii2fy | Seduction | You can approach this from a whole plethora of sciences, but here's a very 5 year old version of how it works. Humans have drives, which are a sort of chemical potential in the brain. If you have a really big potential, that means there is a better chance you'll do whatever the activity is.
Say you are a 5 year old who is sitting in front of a marshmallow and you really, really, really want to eat the marshmallow. Since you 'really, really, really' want it, we can say that you have a giant potential here (you are very likely to eat it.) Now let's add in that if you wait until the grown up who has just given you this marshmallow comes back into the room, you will not only get this one marshmallow but you'll also get a second!
Now what we see here is a conflict. You want the marshmallow, but being the clever 5 year old you are you know that two marshmallows is oh so very much better. So we have two potentials and both of them are very big so you are very likely to do either of them. You know that the smart choice is to just wait and get the second marshmallow, but there is a seduction here in the form of what's known as instant gratification (which is just a fancy way of saying "it's my marshmallow, and I want it NOW!").
So what do you do? Well that depends on a lot of things. Maybe you'd be patient and wait, or maybe you'd give into the seduction of having your one marshmallow now instead of two in the future.
When people give in to whatever version of just one marshmallow they have, they have given into seduction. | bb976e14-4ed9-4f4c-b146-48e459c47d85 |
1rjmdj | Why do most surveillance cameras have such low quality? I understand that it is expensive to have high quality cameras which will cost a lot of money, but if low-quality cameras fail to catch criminals, then they are worthless and a waste of money from the start anyways which would defeat the | There are a number of reasons.
Firstly, cost. A high quality system is hugely expensive. IT takes good quality optics and highly sensitive cameras to work well in low light conditions, and high definition is very memory intensive, meaning you need large arrays of hard discs. Whilst some organisations are willing (or legally obliged) to fit such system,s the vast majority aren't. Is a small store owner going to pay $10,000 or even $100,000 for a multi camera high definition system with 3 month recording? No. He'll buy the $1000 system.
Secondly, detail is inversely proportional to field of view. If I want a camera with a 90 degree field of vision, to cover a parking lot, for example, then it will necessarily be too low resolution to capture faces or numberplates - unless I spend a lot of money. If I want to capture numberplates or faces, then I need to place the camera accurately at a "choke point". Bear in mind that even 1 megapixel resolution, 1000x1000, if a persons face only ever occupies 1/10th of it, we will get a 100x100 pixel image of their face: This may not be enough to conclusively identify them especially in poor light.
So, to cover your last point:
> if low-quality cameras fail to catch criminals, then they are worthless and a waste of money from the start anyways which would defeat the purpose of installing the low-quality cameras in the first place.
CCTV is used primarily as a deterrent. You put in your $500 Home Depot chinese sytem, rig up some cameras, and stick up your stickers saying "You are on CCTV". This might just be enough to put off those who were thinking "should or shouldn't I rob this store?" And overtime hopefully your investment will pay itself back. IT may also be that your insurance stipulates that you must have a functioning CCTV system to be valid - but no mention of quality.
CCTV doesn't "Fail to catch cirminals" POlice caught Criminals before widespread CCTV, and they continue to catch criminals where there is no CCTV evidence. However, even if CCTV doesn't capture a recogniseable facial image, it can still be very useful in the investigation of crime and the prosecution of criminals. Things like timings, movements, the build up to an offence can all be deduced from shadowy blobs moving about on grainy low resolution footage. That information can be essential. | aa942172-16d3-417a-bdbf-6ce6227a6486 |
7fywoc | What is the difference between a router and a modem? | The modem is the device that converts input signals such as cable or land line phone signals from your ISP into digital data useable by a computer or similar device.
A router is a device that manages the flow of data to multiple connected devices.
So in your standard home, the outfacing connection (such as a cable line) is connected to a modem. That modem is then connected to a router which all of your computers, phones, or other devices connect to. | e10edf98-7818-41cb-8ff1-9e00137bfbec |
3bu9ck | How can games on the same console have gradually better graphics all the time if it's the same hardware? Why don't they just make the graphics that good when the console first comes out? Is there a max to how good graphics can get on a console? | Experience.
Developers learn the ins and outs of the system. Each subsequent project builds on that knowledge. There are some amazing new Atari 2600 games being written now, for example, that would have blown minds in 1984.
Each new console is usually so different from any other console or pc that it takes a while to build a nice library of techniques, tricks, and hardware exploits. | 6f764cc0-86fd-4c4e-a5de-f398cbb04ec8 |
15rsz8 | Intended Immigrant | There is tremendous competition to get a limited number of work visa in the US, so there is a big problem with people entering on tourist visas then just staying. So when someone who has just been denied a work visa suddenly wants to be a tourist, the US doesn't trust their intentions.
Also, many states have laws that make it illegal to presume someone is in the country illegally because they don't speak English or don't have proper ID, so once someone who intends to stay gets in, it is hard to get them out. Most of Europe does not have that problem. | b1ee55f8-d34d-490d-8ba4-c894406475ad |
p3e11 | Limits and derivatives | How well do you want to understand it? Is your intention so be able to do your homework? Or just to have a feeling of what the words mean?
A limit is what happens when you get close. An extreme example imagine something is constant, never changing, like a value that is always 1, except at one exactly time, say at noon, when for that instant is unknown. Now, what is the limit at noon? Well, remember the limit is what happens when you get close. No matter how close you get the value is always 1. That means the limit at noon is 1. The point is that the limit is a question about what happens when you get close, it is not a question about what happens at that point. It turns to be really nice IF the value at that point exists (in general values do not have to exist) AND it is the same as the limit. In this case, when the limit is the value we say the value is continuous at that point.
Being continuous at a point brings up another question... how fast is the value changing at that point? This is basically a question about slope. Slope is a ratio of differences. You may have may have heard that slope is "change in y divided by change in x" or "delta y over delta x". For lines this slope is constant. They change is always the same and the line is straight. But most graphs are not straight, they go up and down and wiggle all over the place. As long as they do not have any jagged parts you can imagine you hand is a car driving up and down over the hills and through the valleys. You hand is pointing up and down like a little straight line, all the time changing. Question, what is the slope of that line at some fixed point? This line is called the tangent line at that point. So the directions you hand is pointing is like a bunch of tangent lines whose slopes are *continuously* changing. Since it is continuous you can find the value by finding the limit as you get close. So you compute a bunch of "delta y over delta x" values and let the "delta x" get smaller and smaller... the limit as delta x goes to zero is the derivative, the instantaneous rate of change.
tl.dr Limits are what happen when you get close and derivatives are limits of ratios of change. | 5af9fdf6-14d3-40bc-887a-e1b89e3a9f7c |
4b3ag4 | "cannabis is killing my apetite, I only eat after smoking, other than that I could go days without eating at all. which ends up with me feeling very tired/sleepy" | This isn't really an eli5 question. It probably isn't the weed "killing" your appetite when you don't smoke. It's just that marijuana stimulates your appetite when you *are* using it. I know a guy who has the exact same thing happen. Just doesn't eat really regularly if he doesn't take his medicine.
Lack of appetite can be a symptom of issues like depression- which is a common and very real problem for a lot of people. | cfc9ed5c-6d2a-45cf-b4e2-7b1a7398295d |
4epoco | Why is coming in under budget in the business world generally a bad thing? | Because forecasts are done under a certain logic with many objectives dictating. The idea is that a budget is there for a reason, and if all budgets are used correctly, then your overall business goals as a company will be met. If you aren't using your entire budget, the idea is that you're not 'planting enough seeds' if you will.
Source: senior level operations manager at fortune 50 company. | a85f5351-69e2-4f0d-87b0-95d01c593e42 |
4c8j0o | Why does entering *67 before your phone number block caller ID? What is the practical purpose of this? | The practical purpose is to provide privacy for the calling party by blocking the display of their number on the recipients phone. | e473fd0d-34af-48b7-8822-6819711fec92 |
4vm6z4 | Who invented the ringing sound that is heard waiting for a person to pick up? | That's the [ringback tone](_URL_0_) to indicate that a connection has been established and the phone you're calling is ringing. You can see the first people to patent it there, but that does not mean they were the first people to actually impement it. I tried to find when it was first used, but no luck. | e03e69f9-3b05-4b4b-b75d-f4326f8dd07a |
6xign7 | The phenomenon of when you are trying to think of the name of an actor/actress or song lyric and can't in the moment, but after you stop thinking of the answer, it comes automatically at some random point. | I think that there is a lot going on in your brain besides your conscious thinking process. It's as if your brain was two people. The conscious mind really wants to know the answer to a question and keeps asking and asking, and the other guy keeps saying "I don't know." When the asker finally shuts up, then the other guy opens his phone and looks it up. But he couldn't do that while the conscious mind kept asking. | 16ce34a8-ed0e-477b-8c62-ec1d5380d942 |
44uiw5 | Why aren't Democratic candidates proposing defense spending cuts? | Politicians are terrified still (post 9/11 thing, but also kinda always) of being seen as soft on "defense." Any proposed cuts to our military budget wil be portrayed as such, mostly by those pols who get lots of $$$ from military contractors, and the ever-compliant "liberal" media. | cb77b8e0-02ff-4815-83db-fed151590b5f |
3xw0rr | Does CISPA violate the 4th amendment? | That's currently up for debate, and I'm sure those who are more politically aware than I am could explain it better. Personally, I believe it is. | 3684a74b-75ba-4b95-a8d0-0b122cf4c09b |
27fya2 | Why is Obamacare/Affordable Care Act so harshly criticized? | Some people are against the philosophy of it, i.e. having the government involved in their health. Others have practical issues with introducing a new bureaucracy to our ever-growing government/deficit. Others still have both philosophical and practical problems with many aspects of the act. And then some people just don't like Obama.
This is a very politically motivated issue, though, so this is just like asking why any other policy is not popular: because not everyone is a member of the Democratic Party. (or Republican, if we were asking about the Patriot Act in the early 2000's. Although now Obama has been renewing it so...) | 363060c2-a382-41c7-afc0-d81ec55cd756 |
1s0th0 | If a venomous snake is injected with its own venom into its bloodstream, what will happen? | Depends on the snake. Many of them build up immunity in order to protect themselves in the case of an accidental bite. | 7c749581-fc2f-4fad-9d5e-6615b870842c |
1dhk9d | What are the basics of x ray diffraction and what kind of information does it give you? | A diffraction pattern is the shape light makes when it passes through objects that have "holes" or "slits" in them. Google image search "diffraction pattern" or "double slit experiment" to see what I mean. Basically, as light waves pass through the different gaps in an object, the waves recombine on the other side in patterns that are very much dependent on where the holes are, how they are spaced, and how big they are.
X-ray diffraction uses this idea to measure the shape and size of crystals. Crystals have an ordered pattern of atoms (which block or deflect light) and gaps (which let light through), so if you shine an X-ray through a crystal and measure the bright and dark spots on the other side, you can calculate how big the crystal's pattern is, what its shape is, and (I think) what atoms are where.
Think of it like shining a light and measuring the shadow, but the shadow ISN'T the same as the shape you are measuring. | 2d1c1b44-df6b-4261-bd6d-7c92887d7bd0 |
21854m | What is this "International law" that Obama and the US say Russia is breaking by annexing Crimea? | Well if you want something specific, there's the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that the Ukraine and the nuclear powers of the world signed. One of the tenets was that the other nations, in exchange for Ukraine giving up their nuclear weapons, was to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine's territories and refrain from using the threat of force against them. | fdb19414-a543-4fe4-8339-736bb61a6686 |
1vy302 | Why does gigabit even matter? | A home network is used for things other than downloading from the internet. If you copy files between two computers over the network or stream video, you'll be working at gigabit speeds. More importantly, if you're trying to copy files **and** stream video, you're sharing that gigabit between both jobs.
It makes a lot more sense if you think about an office with a central file server.
Why do you get it at home? Because it doesn't really cost more to make gigabit hardware, so they just make it standard on everything. | e96d61a8-ac44-4e4a-8d8c-ea5ec336b27c |
8ez3zl | How did people deal with Asthama before we invented inhalers? | Generally they died pretty young. If you have a bad enough attack with no way to treat it, you do what you can, but for the most part, there's not a whole lot they could do. | 5b20d999-199c-4b3e-9b01-33a6fa42acbc |
4ynsmh | Why are old recipes so vague? | Recipes were vague for 3 reasons.
1. No standard measurements existed.
2. Ingredients were of widely variable quality and availability.
3. The people making them were expected to know how to cook.
Modern recipes are mostly aimed at people who don't really know cooking that well, and are made simple enough that if you can read and follow directions you won't fuck it up. This is made possible by having a widespread standard of measurements and ingredients of near identical quality being available anywhere. | 700d0512-7008-4b31-b300-fca9f8e22fb8 |
21s054 | what's the difference between Subjective Vs. Objective? | Subjective = opinion, not factual.
Objective = factual and thus cannot be argued with.
**Edit:** words | 5664f9f2-ec83-4465-84a7-5aa165940d4c |
762jgp | How does the human body build up a tolerance to something? | One of the things that detoxifies alcohol is the smooth ER in cells. When you drink, for example, you increase the rate of produced smooth ER, this in turn will build tolerance for the next drug / alcohol you consume. It’s like training a muscle, the first time you lift 45s on ea side you’ll be tired, but subconsciously your muscles tear and rebuild stronger connections. | e56b8987-2497-4495-9acd-eecbeba3ff44 |
4zmzdj | ELI5: If someone is born Deaf and Blind, would they have dreams when sleeping? If so what would the dreams consist of: taste, smell, feeling something? Would be interesting to know. | They dream, but only dream in their known senses. So like you said, a collage of smell, touch, feelings, ideas, etc.
_URL_0_ | ee9ce97a-1fbd-420a-b39d-6313a5199682 |
650gxj | Is drinking an orange juice the same as eating an orange from a nutritional point of view? | No, orange juice lacks the nutritional fiber that whole fruit has. Fiber helps slow down sucrose absorption into your bloodstream. Because of this, drinking fruit juice increases blood sugar levels comparable to soda. | 6e7e91e1-4f6d-45a7-b67c-e59b7ce89929 |
1ogx0i | Why do boys have "boy handwriting" and girls have "girl handwriting" ? | First of, we are talking averages and generalizations here. I´ve seen boys writing neat like it was printed, as well as girls writing in hieroglyphes.
The stereotype suggests, that girls are silent, obidient and put more effort into what they do than boys. They also are a lot better when it comes to fine motorics, like knitting and drawing.
Boys are wild and the average stereotype boy is skilled at rough motorics, like soccer or football. To be cool as a boy, you best achieve your goals with the least effort possible. Take a math problem, for the boy only solving the problem counts. If the solution is correct, why bother if the process which leads there is readable at all. For the girl, the presentation of the solving process is as well a part as the solution itsself, every line is carefully written and the final solution underlined, twice.
Again, these are complete stereotypes and will match only more or less the average of any given group with a lot of exeptions. But in this narrow range of average stereotypes, the same principles goes for handwriting too. Girls simply tend to put more effort into the look of their handwirting than boys. | 2733f777-8807-4125-abb8-96b4c57cc3d1 |
20jsa8 | The difference between horsepower and torque. | The power an engine produces is called horsepower. In mathematical terms, one horsepower is the power needed to move 550 pounds one foot in one second, or the power needed to move 33,000 pounds one foot in one minute. Power, in physics, is defined simply as the rate of doing work.
Engine horsepower is measured using a dynamometer. The dynamometer places a load on the engine and measures the twisting force the engine crankshaft places against the load. The load is usually a brake preventing the wheels from spinning.
What the dynamometer is really doing, however, is measuring the torque output of the engine. In a vehicle, torque is measured at various engine speeds, or revolutions per minute (RPM). These two numbers are fed into a formula -- torque times RPM divided by 5,252 -- to arrive at horsepower. The Society of Automotive Engineers has two standards for determining horsepower: net and gross. Gross horsepower removes most loads from the engine, including emission controls, before testing. Net horsepower is what's found by testing the same kind of stock vehicle you'd find at the showroom, and that's the measurement now used in advertising and manufacturer literature.
Horsepower is determined from torque because torque is easier to measure. Torque is defined specifically as a rotating force that may or may not result in motion. It's measured as the amount of force multiplied by the length of the lever through which it acts. For example, if you use a one-foot-long wrench to apply 10 pounds of force to a bolt head, you're generating 10-pound-feet of torque.
Torque, as mentioned above, can be generated without moving an object. However, when it does move an object, it then becomes "work," and this is what most people think of when they think of torque (usually in terms of towing). The more torque produced by an engine, the more work potential it has. | dfa7419e-4765-4b18-a814-46758c67049a |
585eim | Why do we have over 18,000 unaffiliated police departments in the United States? Why isn't there a single government agency that unites them? | Because there are lots of levels of legal authority in the US, and they are largely independent of each other (by Constitutional design). Federal laws are not the same as state laws, which are different from county or city ordinances. And sometimes they conflict. No single agency has the authority to enforce all those different laws, and even when the laws coincide, the heavy lifting is often left to the lowest level of authority that can effectively do it. For example, a murder investigation is generally done by the city PD where it happens, because they can do a local investigation best... the case will then be prosecuted by the locals _unless_ it's part of a bigger batch of crimes - like a multi-state crime spree - that needs interstate authority, and then the FBI or some other fed agency gets involved.
For the most part, a state trooper or FBI agent isn't going to write you a parking ticket. And a county sheriff's deputy isn't usually going to be running a murder investigation. Now, if a cop witnesses you breaking the law, they may be able to hold until the proper authorities do arrive, but maybe not. Each of those areas may cooperate with neighboring areas, but they might just as well jealously guard their independence.
A good example is the recent dustup in the South & Southwest over using local cops to do immigration enforcement. The short answer, from a legal perspective, is: they can't. State, county, or local cops are not authorized to make immigration busts for the simple fact that states, counties, and cities don't make immigration law. Only the federal gov't can do that, so only the federal gov't can enforce those laws. ICE may sometimes use local cops for additional manpower on larger raids, but the busts are all ultimately under the authority of ICE (or whoever). | 21692f13-c330-45bd-a595-0be82295640d |
7i22ef | How are the stars always in the same spot in the sky? | First, stars are really, really far away. So from our perspective it looks like they're in the same place every night...
But that's not true. Over thousands of years, stars *do* change position even from our perspective. They have in the past and will in the future. It's just that these time scales are *vastly* longer than our lifespans. | fe4c7a9e-0a08-416b-8dcb-ec8e9c0e215d |
1zaf4b | How can our eyes properly view both bright and dark areas, but a camera can only set exposure for one? | Filmmaker here. /u/Porrridginal is on the right track. Camera lenses are built like the human eye but camera *bodies* aren't built like the human brain. The **aperture** of a lens [(like that logo!)](_URL_0_) acts just like an iris. It expands and contracts to let specific amounts of light through.
Say you're walking around with your camera on a bright sunny day. You have more than enough light to see, so your irises contract to allow less light to hit your retina (your eyes are sensitive so too much light could cause damage). Your brain controls all of these processes automatically. Your camera, however, is not as complex. Therefore it is up to you set the aperture according to the **exposure**, the amount of light around you. This can be easily determined with [a device called a light meter.](_URL_2_)
A camera's aperture positions are labeled according to something called an **f-number** (or f-stop). It's the ratio of the lens' focal length (which distance it can see properly) and the size of its "pupil." Most cameras lenses range from the most light at f1.4 and the least light at 22. The higher the f-stop, the smaller the amount of light and vice versa.
So now imagine walking out of the sun and into a dark room. Your irises expand to allow more light while your camera stays the same. You could manually open the aperture in the lens to allow more light, but if you point the camera at a window the image will be [blown out like this.](_URL_1_)
So you try adjusting the camera to expose for the outside. Now the inside is too dark. What gives? The problem isn't processing power, it's selectivity. In real life your eyes can't see two different exposures perfectly. You can focus on the details of the bright parts, while the dark parts lose detail or focus on the dark parts while the bright parts lose detail. When forced to focus on both, your brain rapidly switches between the two choices and gives you a rough estimate.
Movies and still photography are able to get around this by using something called Neutral Density Filters (ND Filters). They come in big rolls and they're like sunglasses for your windows. Is the outside too bright compared to the room? Just slap some ND filters on there! Then your camera will read the outside and inside with the same detail.
**TL;DR:** Your brain processes all that information naturally. Cameras can't do that as fast, so we keep differences in exposure (amount of light) close to the same.
EDIT: I bet I missed some stuff. Someone please correct me if I didn't simplify it the right way. I'll add some pictures in sec. | 33301f9d-0953-4333-9f47-d29bf18ceb82 |
j9u0w | What bodily/survival function does crying fulfill? | It may not have a hunter/gatherer purpose, but I'm quite confident it has a purpose. At the very least, as children, it's a way to signal to our parents that something is wrong.
I don't know about you, but when I see someone cry, I feel bad for them and I want to help. Crying is a signal of emotional or physical distress, and we also have empathy. Combining a way to signal a problem with a desire to help others' problems would help foster communities.
And imagine two sets of early humans: one where they feel drawn to work together in groups, another where they tend to live independently. Which do you think would thrive? | 1c4ada6a-a429-4583-a91b-112f8efb3dc1 |
92cusr | What's the difference between kcal and kJ? | About 4
1 Kcal = 4.1868 KJ
or
1 cal = 4.1868 J
Both Joule and calorie are different units measuring the same thing. like yards and meters.
Joule is the SI (metric) measurement of energy while calories is an older unit also related to the SI-units but not part of it.
The amount of energy in food is usually given in Kcal (kilocalories), which are confusingly often called calories. (This is as stupid as calling kilometer meter for short, but commonly done.)
A calorie is defined as the energy needed to increase the temperature of a gram of water by one kelvin or to put it differently one Food calorie (kilocalorie) is enough to heat a liter of water by one degree Celsius.
A Joule is 1 newton times a Meter or 1 Watt for 1 Second
Food energy is sometimes given in kJ and sometimes in Kcal. You can estimate that a food calorie is about 4.2 times a kilojoule | 51ade0e3-0f9f-451c-be69-368ce9302dbe |
2rx543 | Why does all the research suggest that cats are indifferent to humans when my cat is clearly very affectionate beyond his basic feline needs? | Same here. When I'm upset, my cat comes sauntering up to me purring like a motorboat to comfort me. If I'm crying, he curls up next to me and wipes away my tears with his cheek. The purring is very soothing. If he didn't care about me, he wouldn't bother to do any of this. I think it just depends on the temperament of the cat? | 16c5bee8-688c-44ec-8032-a1ce5e7b2db1 |
503dme | Why do some men gain weight all over while others gain it only on their belly? | It's genetic. Your genes determine where your body places fat. There's other factors that get involved, mainly age and hormone levels, but beyond that, some folks just get fat all over, others just get fat in specific areas. | 7c886e27-2b7d-4836-9fc2-28033f4058c9 |
2geka7 | Why can't a computer program, program itself? | Here's one reason (among many). Human languages are very imprecise. If you tell a computer program what sort of program you want just by speaking to it in your natural language, it could only have a very vague idea of what you want. It's hard enough to tell a human what program you want.
You'd need a very advanced AI to do this. It would have to know a lot about the world to be able to "fill in the blanks" and figure out what you really want. Just like a human has to do.
There are experimental programs that do this kind of thing, but only in a really basic way. To make a computer program which could make any other computer program based on someone just speaking to it naturally would require an AI approaching the intelligence of a real human. And if you do that, what's to stop it taking over the world and destroying humanity?
Ok, that last sentence was a joke. Or was it? | 018711c1-c90f-40b0-848e-30e36028f9e0 |
2ue610 | Why when a crazy event the isps slowdown but when millions watch the superbowl the cable stream isn't effected? | Cable broadcasts are one-way communication which just means copying a single data stream and sending it down a bunch of wires. Internet communication is two-way communication with each exchange being unique to the user.
An analogy would be using a megaphone to give a message to 10,000 people, vs. holding an individual conversation with 10,000 people simultaneously. | dd29a1c6-d06a-4bba-957b-8cca0459bb95 |
1jlh60 | How does the clock on my computer keep track of time and know the correct time even after it has been shut down? | It has a [real-time clock](_URL_0_) chip which is powered by a battery (and, generally, the computer can check what time it is when it has a network connection to adjust that clock). | 46793b33-7b31-4f95-953d-2ae75014eb2c |
19if91 | what 'alternative rock' is. | The easiest way of thinking of alternative rock is the "none of the above option".
What genre is your rock band?
[] Punk rock
[] Funk rock
[] Jazz rock
... etc. etc.
[X] None of the above (alternative)
Really this means that there really isn't any common style to alternative rock - although many bands have some similarities with each other (hello electric guitar fuzz!), to the best of my knowledge there's no common thing linking them together.
In my opinion, whether something is alternative rock or not depends a lot on the context of the song than the actual song itself. | aad017c3-88ce-4928-8fc2-e678748c89dd |
54umke | Can both polar and non-polar molecules have london-dispersion forces? | A London-Dispersion force is just a simple case of a Van der Waals force. So, what you may be referring to is that. The attraction between a polar molecule and an induced dipole is called a Debeye force. What's cool about London dispersion is that it is what is responsible for inert materials having a freezing point. | 0c64882c-307e-4961-976c-30464c01e5e7 |
1tvuyu | Why isn't Horse meat popular/eaten in America? | European here (Dutch). Even though horsemeat is legal it is not as common here as pork, chicken or beef. Big supermarkets usually have thin smoked slices of it for sale, for on bread, but not steak. For that you'd have to go to a butcher.
I personally know some people who don't like the idea of eating horse because they seem them more as pets than cattle. Perhaps that's the case in the US? But it's actually illegal there I think, which is taking it a step further than personal dislike. | e5be7ca9-21dd-4863-bf02-a2b0674772d0 |
66ryd9 | What is the psychology behind acquired taste; How does it work? | There are probably some other types of more physiological answers that would be appropriate, but I believe it is mediated mainly through social psychological mechanisms.
The current social psychological understanding of how we come into a new value or belief (unless anyone wants to correct my take on this) is that we take on beliefs and values by observing them in other people who we like and respect, and who we want to like and respect *us*. This is critically important in my field - learning and memory - because people learn things from other *people*, and do so much better if they have respect for that person (among many other variables, of course).
So, acquired tastes work similarly, with a sort of combination of social psychology and basic behaviorism. For example: One of your friends in high school gets ahold of a couple six packs. You really want to fit in with your friends, and they all seem to be saying it would be fun to drink this beer together. Think of the aversive social stimulus you'd receive if you were the only holdout! So you all crack one open. Everybody's laughing, having a good time, enjoying lots of great dopamine. But you don't like the bitterness of the hops. It's an aversive stimulus - like a punishment. But it comes along with all these really positive stimuli, and on net, the experience is enjoyable. And that taste becomes an integral part of your memory of that occasion.
Now, on future occasions, you will be conditioned through behaviorist learning mechanisms, with positive social stimuli as the reward, to *seek* that same flavor, because it's part and parcel with your idea of having a good time with friends and beers.
There's another social psychological mechanism that I also think is in play, which is called cognitive dissonance. When we invest heavily in something, we want to think of that thing as high in value, and tend to inflate its value. When we're presented with evidence that it's not high in value, we are capable of some mental gymnastics to rationalize why it really is important and we're not a dummy. By extension, we're invested in this experience - we underwent the trial of the hops, like some sort of rite of passage. And now we're invested in saying that it was good, that we would totally do it again, that we would encourage other people to do it, etc. This probably isn't the main contributing factor, but it at least sets the stage for continued exposure to the positive social stimuli that will be associated with the acquired taste over time, such that when we taste that thing, it *tastes like* those good times.
TL;DR - I understand it to be based on social motivations being associated with that stimulus over time, and that when we taste the acquired taste, it "tastes like" positive social experiences. | 7bc6dfdf-0a59-49d5-aef3-020336cff6f2 |
36mb2t | Why can't people smell their own breath? | They definitely can, at least I can. Try breathing out of your mouth and nose at the same time slowly. Then move your lips to close them, but don't change anything with your throat.
As to why you don't smell it as strongly, you get used to the taste of your own mouth, and smell is strongly tied to taste. | 6e45c248-adee-4a4e-b9ac-e7323824137a |
4lbxc1 | How can dreams that seem lengthy, actually be only a few minutes? | There is also the factor that the chemical released by your brain, dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, in more mild quantities when you dream is known for it's temporal dilation perceptual effect. The substance can be used recreationally, in concentrated form, where users have reported the sensation of being gone for years in a dream like euphoric state and coming back to realize only 15 minutes has passed. The chemical is released by the pineal gland at three different points in life: a flood dose at birth, when you dream, and a flood dose of all remaining left at death. | b1dd69ee-06f0-4980-b4a0-201201cb6ecb |
mqyk8 | Torrents | > What is a "swarm" (for example, saying 15 out of 15 seeds are connected when there's 150 in the swarm; why can't I connect to those other 135?)?
There are multiple factors at play here. They may include:
* The particular configuration of your torrent software. All clients have a limit of the number of peers per torrent and total number of peers that you can connect with at any given time. Perhaps you're hitting that threshold. If so, you can adjust it.
* Just like you have a maximum number of allowable connections, so does everybody else. And most have a specific number of upload slots per torrent, many times set quite low for the sake of providing tolerable speeds. So if person A has only three upload slots, they may have already connect to others in the swarm, and thus cannot connect to you to send you data.
* You may already have the same data. If you download a torrent containing three files, File A might be the "first" file (assuming you're downloading a miniseries or something like that). But you might first get half of B, then a bit of A, then more of B, then some of C, and back to A, and so forth. Invariably, especially if there are few seeds relative to the number of leechers, many leeching will already have the same parts of the torrent, and so no connection is made because you have no data they need, or vice versa.
* Not everybody is connectable. If you go to any private tracker and look at the peerlist, some peers will be listed as unconnectable. This is often because they're not properly port forwarding or their ISP is interfering.
* Maxing out transfer. The protocol is designed to be efficient, so it will want to max out as many connections as possible using as few peers as possible (special cases like superseeding aside). And it does this while your bandwidth is being competed for by other torrents you might have running, that youtube video you've got playing, ect. So when your overall connection is maxing out, it would be inefficient to split the 700 kbps you have available to torrent A between 150 peers instead of 15, provided the latter has sufficient upload to meet your availability. | b0c2ab72-ea79-4722-8a79-7e1ecd09751e |
20aqt7 | Could the Hubble Telescope locate the picture left on the moon by Charles Duke? | As impressive as hubble is, it doesn't have the sort of resolution that would pickup tiny objects.
A more interesting question is what sort of detail could the latest military satellites resolve - but only those working with them know that one :) Suffice to say they would be significantly superior to hubble, which relatively speaking is quite old. | aabae230-5480-401f-a549-7a964cec169d |
19im69 | North Korea vs. South Korea | Japan conquered Korea in 1910. In 1945, as World War II was ending, the US took the southern part of Korea from the Japanese while our allies the Russians invaded it from the north. When that war ended, neither the US nor Russia wanted to give up territory the other might benefit from, and so Korea was split into two countries: a Communist north and a democratic south. But the south hasn't really been very democratic and north is run by a dynasty of crazy people, so the situation isn't stable. In 1950, the North launched a war to reunite the country. The US and allied countries stepped in to protect the South, and Russia and China backed the North. The two sides fought each other for 3 years, nobody was winning, and so they finally agreed to a ceasefire. But not a peace treaty. The two sides of Korea still hate each other, each thinks it deserves to run the whole country, and both side are backed by outsiders who won't let their side of Korea lose, so the mess just sits there, threatening to erupt into war again. | 09fdb3e2-6dae-4afa-ba4e-e71833ffd26b |
3kxxux | How do weekly awards like the ones I see for $5000 a week for life work? | It's an annuity, which is kind of like a reverse loan. The contest has enough money to purchase an annuity, and when they have a winner, that's what they do. They will purchase it from a financial institution like a bank or insurance company. They pay them the money, and the institution uses the interest (and some of the principal) to pay that amount. | e10883f4-2044-4e55-8863-c6606bb944a0 |
24cxln | Where has all of the rubber missing from the tread of our billions of worn tires gone to over the years? | Non-snarky answer - it ends up in the soil, the groundwater, the rivers, lakes and seas and from there up the food chain. Bon appetit! | 2d54f6c3-7c1e-42a3-aa84-cd7206d021ec |
5j7uwo | Why do shroom clouds form after a nuke hits the ground? | It happens with any large enough explosion, not necessarily nuclear. The explosion pushes a lot of air out of the way, leaving a large, low-pressure zone filled with smoke. As air rushes back in from the sides, and hot air rises off the heated ground, the smoke cloud collapses into the "cap" of the mushroom.
The air circulates something like this: _URL_0_ | dbc32b28-97fd-49fb-87d5-0f3c592b13bb |
4msk0o | How does an AI learn? | Your parents install a big green light in your bedroom, and inform you that you want to make the light turn on. You have no idea how to make the light turn on, but you start trying things. You fiddle with every single thing in the room, even flipping off and on the light switch. You try thousands of combinations of flipping light switches and kicking over the table until you hit the big red button and the green light comes on. You've done it!
It's so obvious now, the answer was in front of you the entire time. To turn on the green light, you must simply, do 17 backflips, kick over every table in the room, flick the light switch on and off to the pac man theme, and finally, press the big red button. Of course, this is the part where I should mention that you are not a human in this example, because a human would deduce quickly that the backflipping and such had nothing to do with creating the desired result.
A clever computer would begin analyzing the steps it took to produce the result it wanted, and begin eliminating or adding steps to save on time complexity (the number of steps taken in the worst case scenario), or space complexity (Trying to cut out the pac man theme because having to remember it to do the sequence would take too much space.).
Eventually, if left to your own devices (hehe) to analyze the problem, you would come up with the most optimal solution (Depending on the problem, and the method used, you could never come up with the most optimal solution. Just get really close.). You simply get up, walk to the red button, and press it.
The next day rolls around and your parents install a red light, and a blue light in your bedroom. Then they tell you that when the blue light and green light are turned on, and the red light is off, you have done well. You begin to fume because you just figured out the last problem, but you realize that the information that you learned the last time could help out. After all, you already know the best way to turn on a green light. As a bonus, your parents hand you a huge book full of writings from others like you that don't necissarily know how to turn on a blue light, or make sure that a red light stays off... But they have done similar experiments with lights that may be helpful to you. Based on what you already know about green lights, and what this book says about other lights, you may be able to quickly arrive at a solution. Or, at least be able to assume that backflips are not very useful for turning on lights. | 27c6b976-97f8-4730-8190-ab317e12cf3b |
3je1qv | Why is it that eating a lot of sour Skittles or other sour candy makes your tongue hurt? | They have citric acid. Eating a lot at a time will make your tongue hurt because your tongue's pH levels are compromised. Your nerve signals say "ow" so your tongue can do its thing back to a normal pH and heal those taste buds. | ee0bbbbf-76bd-4a6d-9063-369a38b06930 |
1cqpkr | Why is sugar bad for me and what does it actually DO to our health? | [This](_URL_2_) is the Long version. It's about 90 minutes
[This](_URL_1_) and [this](_URL_0_) if TL:DL on the first. It's about 20 minutes. | 9994b409-4071-4c19-8a05-aebae45fbce2 |
3i8jtq | Why are Netflix Original sitcoms not exactly 30 mintues? | Netflix doesn't have their own studios. They finance and greenlight these new series, and as a result, they get the exclusive rights for a period of time to them -- pretty much the exact same way a traditional television network works.
But after that time, the studio can sell the show to others, and most of their customers will want commercial time. So, this is almost certainly a concession that Netflix made with the studios so that they would be able to remarket the shows after they've appeared on Netflix. | 6775207c-a9ac-40e2-8fac-d18044958886 |
4hwqt5 | Is it a defense to the crime of Contempt of Court that the Court Order that the Defendant is accused of violating was unlawful or unconstitutional? | Yes, and there are two means of contesting this: An interlocutory (ie during the trial) appeal to a higher court can attempt to cancel an unlawful court order before they violate it or a habeas corpus petition afterwards. | d78849a9-18ac-4d94-89e4-2e7bc3b081ef |
5g0vm2 | Why do ISPs charge for different levels of bandwidth while cell phone companies charge for different levels of data usage? | because they can.
back in the day, AOL network access was also charged by the kb of usage as well as online time.
if cable/dsl providers could charge for the usage and still be competitive, they would gladly do it. | ca829b91-6644-4c3f-bf52-a4c5391373f9 |
67bi6n | How does the saying "buy low sell high" actually translate into business? | It really has to do specifically with Stocks.
In the stock market, you want to spend the least amount of money, and make the most possble. You do this by buying stock when it's at a low price, and sell it at its highest.
However with companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, etc, their price (at least for the time being) will continue to go up. However sometimes after a missed earning period it will dip, that is when you need to strike. Getting in on a lower price will allow you to buy more shares and then when the stock inevitably goes back up, you sell it, and make more monies.
Also sometimes things like ignorance, greed, as well as brand loyalty will make someone buy high, and then when the stock undergoes a "self correction" as I mentioned above, and the price slips a little, they sell, and they have taken a loss on that particular stock. | 148786a5-1021-4ed9-ab51-8b5b5b94e248 |
8achlr | why do nightmares cause you to snap awake quickly instead of waking up normally? | Nightmares are dreams that cause the stress response, otherwise known as “fight or flight”.
When you’re awake, the stress response is triggered because a threat is perceived through the senses (you see a car coming toward you, or hear a wolf howling in the woods at night). When you’re dreaming, your brain, at some level, is processing the dream as sensory input, so a nightmare can trigger that same stress response.
Physiologically, the sensory input is processed by the amygdala, which sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus, which engages the sympathetic nervous system. This triggers the adrenal glands to start producing epinephrine (a.k.a. adrenaline) into the bloodstream, causing increased pulse, blood pressure, and respiration, and releasing stored glucose and fats, which increases the available energy in the bloodstream, so that your muscles react quickly and immediately, if needed.
Depending on how long the threat (or for the nightmare, perceived threat) lasts, once the initial surge of adrenaline and glucose subsides, the hypothalamus triggers the pituitary gland to release adrenocorticotropin, which triggers the adrenal glands to release cortisol. Cortisol which keeps the stress response going by helping to break down fats / carbs / proteins, jacking the blood sugar back up.
While all of this is going on, you’re still dreaming, but since dreaming is REM sleep, which is very close to being awake, you'll eventually wake up. When you do, you'll wake up very quickly, all jacked up on adrenaline and cortisol and blood sugar, your heart racing, breathing heavily, ready to run hard or fight harder.
Sources:
Harvard: _URL_3_
Wikipedia: _URL_2_, _URL_0_, _URL_4_, _URL_1_ | c34d5ae7-a1db-4345-a6e2-2af095bfb637 |
1yh0fp | Why do genes want to reproduce? | They don't "care" about anything at all.
But if you have a gene that just tended to reproduce, an done that didn't, the one that didn't would die off and all you would have are genes that reproduce. This same principle goes all the way back to the stuff that floated around in oceans before "genes" even existed. | 0a0eb4e8-c8c2-47e2-ad1f-416122242e1e |
1q1cr7 | How do houses and estates get named? | You decide to name it and then insist that everyone refer to it by that name. You can do the same if you want to. Whether others will go along with it is another matter of course. | 0436c0e8-8d1e-4924-b30d-39f9b487093f |
1ni9h6 | If, say, a moon came too close to a planet, why does it get broken apart instead of colliding with the surface? | Gravity. When you are dealing with planets and moons, gravity is huge.
Gravity is stronger the closer the two bodies, the moon and the planet, get. When they get very close, then the forces on the parts of the moon nearest the planet are much greater than the parts further away. This tears the moon apart.
If the moon's motion or orbit brings it into contact with the surface, then it will collide with the surface, natch. If it comes close-ish to the surface, then it will be broken up instead. | 94940d27-2ba9-424e-9d92-6236bcbaf0f5 |
86s9hq | Why does it seem like bees are attracted to plastic children playgrounds? | Probably because bees are attracted to bright coloured flowers, therefore also attracted the bright colours of the plastic. | 4f1e560d-d1af-473b-baa4-cf61a0d5f89c |
33zjdy | Why is that families in the 1950's seemed to be more financially stable with only one parent working, while today many two income households are struggling to get by? | So imagine you have Owner and Twenty Employees.
The enterprise makes 30,000.
Owner pays himself 10,000.
He pays each employee 1,000.
Next year, they make 35,000.
Owner takes 1,000 and splits the difference to his employees. This is fairly normal way of doing things.
But, communications and shipping start becoming easier, faster, cheaper, better.
Now, Owner is able to buy the neighboring thing.
Now, he has fifty employees.
He says to one, "you manage."
That manager makes 2,000.
The rest still make their original 1,000 + the first windfall.
A few years later, Owner has ten of these places, with a dozen managers, and an infrastructure that he no longer is personally connected to. Owner sees his people, that used to be his co-workers, as parts of a machine rather than living breathing humans with their own dreams. He feels entitled to the money his *job* provides, and therefore all the output his employees create.
So, he keeps getting raises, but his employees... don't. At all.
Let's go to the 80s, where the worst thing in American financial history was pitched to the public: Trickle Down Economics.
The thinking goes, if we take Owner and say "I'm going to cut your tax rate by 10%" that Owner will take that 10% and reinvest it in the company, by increasing wages or making more jobs.
But, Owner is already business savvy. He has had thirty years or so to figure out all the ins and outs of his business. He is running his operation efficiently. He has, in fact, hired cadres of schooled managers to make sure everything is done as cheaply as possible.
So, that 10% tax cut? He pockets it. Him, or his shareholders.
That is what happened, and that is where the problem kind of snowballs.
You see, each year, Americans do more with less. We make more wealth, but we don't see literally any of the increase. This is because businesses stopped operating as a family/human level, and because the government enacted policies which acted as HUGE giveways to the wealthy.
Over the last decade, the American economy has grown by a lot. There is almost twice as much money flowing through the systems as there was before. Literally none of that extra cash flow is in the hands of the consumers. It is all tied up into exotic money endeavors which have the sole function of extracting as much wealth as fast as possible from the poor and middle class. You see, once money has left the middle class, it never comes back.
The force of Government *should* be the balancing force. Basically, the Peoples Corporation. Private business interests often work hand in hand with the consumer, but globalization kills this. You need tough regulations to prevent them from doing exactly what they did: make more money, take it out of our hands, and place it square into their holdings.
Americans were pitched a series of false narratives.
1: That we are all born equal (we aren't)
2: That we can succeed if we work hard (you can't always)
3: That wealth is achievable (currently the biggest predictor of your wealth is that of your parents)
4: Anyone who makes a dollar owns that dollar, no matter what they did to make it.
Other things came into play with this.
The rich have dismantled various safety nets. That is, systems that prevent you from falling into poverty if you fail at a job. They are there to make sure that you don't become destitute, because crawling out of joblessness and homelessness is ridiculously hard and those that have had to do it have literally lost much of their actual productive earnings even if the period of poverty only lasted a few years. It is totally crippling.
So, take away all the nets, and it makes people less inclined to question or demand higher wages. You rally for more of the wealth you made? They will fire you and hire someone else. Some professions are mostly immune to this, and those are the professions which still pay pretty damn well. That will not always be the case.
So, in summary:
Wealth grew, and the rich take all of it.
We were taught to believe that the rich earned 'their' money so anything we do to take it back is communism.
Various political factions removed our safety nets, which removed our ability to bargain effectively.
And to repeat the point because how important it is, all new wealth goes to the wealthy. All of it. Literally, 100% of it. Every penny. Every dollar. All. Of. It.
Edit-
I'd like to point out one small thing in our thinking patterns:
If a statement of fact reads as an indictment of character, maybe the person being described isn't as wholesome as you thought they were.
Cultural inertia shouldn't excuse corrupt practices, even if those practices are common and wide spread. "It's just business" is a rhetorical tool that tries to eliminate any kind of personal blame from people who are directly or indirectly responsible for awful things.
I don't personally believe that "the rich" are evil on an individual level, but I also understand that they are people, and it is human to collect more, expand more, and add to your holdings even if you're already the wealthiest thing for a hundred miles around. What I do believe is that it is our right to take back what we made.
Consider the Town of Cap.
It has 1,000 people in it.
Each of them work 8 hours per day, except the babies of course.
At the end of the day, with all the goods sold, if the Mayor of Cap gets 50%, the Manager of Cap gets 30%, and the rest get 20%.
Dress that up any way you'd like. | 3b32d71f-6831-46a1-8bf5-80e697f1682e |
70h6g8 | What exactly happens in your body when you lose your voice? | Your voice is created by two flaps of tissue in your throat called vocal folds. Their primary functions are keeping food out of your lungs, phonation (making noise), and increasing thoracic pressure for lifting/shitting. These flaps are very small; only as big as your pinky nail. When they become swollen through infection and overuse the muscles in them can't bring the folds together to vibrate. Thus you cannot talk. Sometimes when the vocal folds cannot be brought together fully, small regions of the folds can come together to make incomplete vibrations and you get scratchy sounds. | 5a28d36a-d897-48e4-a7f9-6a77f9092905 |
44agrv | why is a building like the Sagrada Familia taking so long to finish despite the availability of modern engineering techniques? | Gaudi died, and then a fire and anarchists destroyed the plans and some models Gaudi had built. There's also that it's a really bizarre piece of architecture. Most of the problem is figuring out what it's supposed to look like.
It's also currently in use, which probably places a limit on how fast work can be done. | f444e6e7-2aeb-486c-b6e5-3d0134a183c5 |
8i84pn | Why hotdogs called “hotdogs”? | These immigrants brought not only sausages to America, but dachshund dogs. The name most likely began as a joke about the Germans' small, long, thin dogs. In fact, even Germans called the frankfurter a "little-dog" or "dachshund" sausage, thus linking the word "dog" to their popular concoction.
Hot Dog History | NHDSC | 7c102070-b925-4e87-8a24-7a6074d98070 |
84x9bv | Why is paper white when trees are brown? | The color of paper has to do with how it is processed at the plant and for what purpose.
When wood arrives at a paper plant, it is first shredded up ahead of pulping. Pulping is a process by which wood is dissolved into goop and cooked until only wood pulp remains. For ordinary printer paper, this stage also includes bleaching, which removes any coloring in the raw wood. Some paper, like that used for cardboard, may skip this step, and others may involve the addition of dyes after bleaching.
The pulp is rolled into sheets and dried into paper during the last stages. This stage allows the paper to retain its color or lack thereof.
TL;DR: The way that paper is made involves bleaching the wood it starts out from. | ae6a674b-ffca-495a-bd4a-9a7cd15d42d5 |
18mp8g | Modern history of Ireland, the IRA, Catholics vs. Protestants, etc. | I'm British, not Irish, and I have no specific education in Irish history, but this is (very, very roughly) how I understand it. I'll try to keep it at a level roughly suitable for a 5-10 year old, but this is going to be a long story and it requires at least some understanding of politics and national identity.
You have to go back before the 20th century to understand some of the current situation.
The English monarchy had laid claim to at least parts of Ireland ever since the 12th Century, and sporadically had sent over armies to capture parts of the country. There were various wars, uprisings and rebellions, but essentially by the mid-17th century the British had largely either bought out or slaughtered the native Irish clan leaders.
To try to limit any further Irish rebellions, the country was parcelled up into portions of land which were given to English and Scottish lords, they then implemented what was essentially a feudal system meaning that they had complete control over the lives of the Irish people living on that land. Additionally large numbers of Scottish farmers were ordered to move their entire families over to Ireland, especially settling in the province of Ulster in the north of the country.
The effect of all this was to create a strong "them and us" feeling amongst the Irish, who now saw their country effectively having been conquered by a foreign power. Importantly, the vast majority of native Irish (like most Europeans at the time) were Catholics, whereas the English aristocracy were mostly Church of England, i.e. Protestant. It's also important that the Scottish farmers who settled in Ulster were very strongly Protestant.
Let's now whizz forwards to the beginning of the 20th Century. Superficially not very much has changed: Ireland was still in its entirety part of the United Kingdom -- and of course at this time the British Empire was at its peak. The Ulster Scots families had now been living in the northern part of Ireland for many generations, but had not at all given up either their Protestantism or their allegiance to the British crown.
Then the First World War happened. The British Army suddenly found itself far busier than it had ever been before, and in 1916 a group of Irish nationalists took advantage of the situation to attempt an armed rebellion. This is known as the "Easter Rising" due to when it took place. For a week the rebels held out in Dublin but eventually the British army either killed or arrested them, and the leaders were executed.
But it had the effect of making people even more determined to resist British rule. At that time Ireland (like the rest of the UK) voted for MPs to sit in Westminster, and in 1918 they nearly all voted for MPs of a party called Sinn Fein, which had vowed for independence from the UK. The Irish Sinn Fein MPs refused to take their seats in Westminster and instead formed a separate Parliament in Dublin, where they declared independence from the UK.
Britain wasn't going to recognise this declaration of independence, and so a war broke out (this sentence might sound familiar to any American readers!) This wasn't a conventional war with tanks and vast armies, it was more like a couple of years of guerilla warfare and roadside bombs, very unpleasant for all concerned. Eventually the British Government decided they could never win against those tactics, and with the end of the First World War there was little enthusiasm in England or Scotland for further warfare, so a truce was called. In 1922 an agreement was drawn up and Ireland was partitioned, with the majority of the country becoming a separate country called the Irish Free State, but crucially six counties of the north, the areas populated by the Ulster Scots, remained part of the United Kingdom.
And that's where I'll leave this tale. It's long enough, and you can do another ELI5 for Irish history from the 1960s onwards and "The Troubles" if you want :)
Here's a quick glossary, because you asked for that too. Some of these terms are really applicable to more modern history, but you might well hear them if you're talking to your family.
* United Kingdom (UK): from the 18th Century until 1922 this was England, Scotland, Wales, and the whole of Ireland.
* Republic of Ireland: the majority of Ireland, which gained independence in 1922. Originally called the Irish Free State. The Irish Free State was a Commonwealth country, when it became the Republic of Ireland they left the Commonwealth, and they elect a president as Head of State.
* Northern Ireland / Ulster: the part of Ireland that remained as part of the UK after Irish independence. Unlike the rest of Ireland there are many Protestants in Northern Ireland who, for many reasons, generally want to remain part of the UK. However the Protestants are by no means an overwhelming majority, and there are also many Catholics who, for many reasons, generally want to be part of the Irish Republic.
* Nationalist: someone who believes that all of Ireland (including Ulster) should be ruled by the Irish, not the UK
* Republican: essentially a more militant Nationalist. In the context of the Troubles, the Republicans would be part of an armed movement, the Nationalists would look for a political solution
* Unionist. someone who believes that Ireland (or these days Northern Ireland) should remain part of the UK
* Loyalist: essentially a more militant Unionist. In the context of the Troubles, the Loyalists would be part of an armed movement, the Unionists would look for a political solution
* Black and Tans: an armed unit formed from British volunteers during the Irish War of Independence. They were notorious for their anti-Irish sentiment and brutality towards civilians.
* RUC: the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The police force in Ireland (and then Northern Ireland) until 2000. Gained a strong reputation for brutality and suppression of Nationalist sentiment.
* Sinn Fein: a Nationalist political party. They were the leading group in the first Irish Parliament, and today they exist as a party both in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland.
* IRA: the Irish Republican Army. There have been a number of IRAs, but the key feature is that none has been a regular army run by a government, they have all been to a greater or lesser extent an unofficial guerilla warfare organisation. There are various paramilitary groups active today that call themselves the IRA, all of which are classed as terrorist organisations by most Governments in the world. One of the most active IRAs of the last 50 years, the Provisional IRA, has always had close ties to Sinn Fein.
* UVF and UDF: the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Force. Both of these are Loyalist paramilitary groups, both are classed as terrorist organisations by most Governments in the world. | a3f9b0e3-44d4-4128-80ab-653c770db9e4 |
1wkp3l | How does this person not die after all this? | _URL_0_
People can be incredibly resilient. No doubt he felt a bit crappy for a while afterwards. Provided he didn't overstretch his stomach, he's just got one hell of a bowel movement waiting down the line. | 5a0a3f2e-4290-4268-b96e-e5ee8b67a9f5 |
33yegb | why does eating certain foods after a heavy night of drinking help prevent a hangover? | Fatty foods especially will help because fat, a complex molecule that takes longer to digest than carbs or protein, keeps your duodenal sphincter closed off for longer, which keeps the alcohol in your stomach longer. This helps because the enzymes that help your body neutralize alcohol are pretty much exclusively located in your stomach, so that's where the alcohol needs to be to be worked on by these enzymes. Hangovers are caused in large part by the presence of a mid-product of alcohol metabolism, acetaldehyde (a poison, basically) which is alcohol that has been partially catalyzed and then left the stomach before the process could be completed and the alcohol could be processed into vinegar and water.
Vitamin C will also help, because the liver requires it to metabolize the alcohol (Krebs cycle) | 1a89c362-dee6-45d4-9844-933e2d1df9f5 |
29tfts | What's the difference between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, and why is there so much hostility between them? | The Shiite group believes that only descendants of Muhammed should be leaders in/of the religion. The Sunni group believes that "good" ("good" meaning following the Quran and doing their religious duties well, etc.) should be the elected leaders in/of the religion. That's the main difference between the two, historically. A few differences in religious practices and and beliefs have fed fuel to that fire, probably leading to the relationship the groups currently have with each other after centuries of being at odds with each other.
Edit/Note: This was an extremely general, broad answer, which I am aware of. Also, there were a few mistakes in the statement, and I apologize for that. The knowledge I have on Islam is not extensive by any means, so this was just me trying to offer an answer without being entirely incorrect. Thanks guys! | c05f1bc3-0f1c-4ff8-9140-df515865908c |
8oq7ki | How does Google keep their map updated? | There are a lot of sources that Google can pull from, and obviously they don't really disclose all of them. They own Waze so a lot of the closure data is sourced from the users submitting real time info there. Users running Maps on mobile devices or in Android Auto that are still opted in to data sharing will also allow Maps to gather real time data about detours, traffic issues, and the like.
Before the [Maps vandalism incident](_URL_0_) there was a system called Map Maker where trusted users could directly edit the map itself in near real time. With high enough trust levels changes were published instantly. Old trusted users from that system still have some level of ability to publish changes quicker in the updated Maps interface. There are also the Local Guides program still in place where again trusted users can submit info.
Changes to roads and boundaries are handled by a much smaller team now, but with better community hive mind input, they can spend time validating road updates and not as much time dealing with correcting point of interest edits like hours, phone numbers, websites, and closed businesses that all rely on community consensus to publish to the map more or less automatically. | 35bb5eac-0ba5-47a1-b2b5-157530a9ae83 |
1j3lny | Oracle v. Google Law Suit | Oracle bought a company called Sun. Sun had developed a programming language called Java. Google had introduced an operating system for mobile phones called Andorid. Android is built on top of a variant of Java. Android started to become very valuable and Oracle wanted to get some of that money. Oracle claimed that Android used some things from Java that Oracle didn't explicitly license them to use. Google disagreed. A court decided, largely in favor of Google. | b7a1d3bb-b35d-471b-8d1d-18adfa07815b |
560xit | Can a substances toxicity be determined by its chemical structure? | Yes and no.
If you were to give a PhD in human toxicology a brand new molecule they'd never seen before and asked them "could this be harmful to a human", they could probably make a fairly educated guess. They may have to ask some qualifying questions first, like:
* How much of it?
* What form is it in? Diluted in water? At what concentration?
* How is a human being exposed to it? Rubbed on the skin? Injected? Swallowed?
* Who is being exposed to it? Age, gender, pre-existing conditions? Any allergies?
With all this information, they *may* be able to craft a reasonably justified theory as to how such a chemical may interact with and potentially harm a human. That's probably the best they could do, however; the human body is *nightmarishly* complex, so trying to figure out exactly what will happen without experimental evidence can be an exercise in frustration. Hell, there are toxic chemicals we know about that we still aren't clear on their mechanism of action, or how exactly they do damage.
The reason is that things that *should* be toxic often aren't (because our bodies have defenses against them, or because they simply have no way of reaching the areas that are sensitive) while things that *shouldn't* be toxic often are (because they're somehow able to bypass defenses, or react in a really weird way in a really sensitive area).
Look at organophosphates, for example. These chemicals, on the surface, don't seem too harmful; they don't mess with your skin, your GI tract, your heart, your lungs, or any of that. However, it turns out that if these organophosphates manage to reach your synapses (the spot where nerves connect), they can very easily and painfully kill you, or, failing that, leave you permanently crippled. Why? Because it turns out organophosphates can react with a very specific protein that's responsible for turning your muscles "off". Without this very specific protein, your muscles contract and then can't release. People typically die due to asphyxiation, because they suddenly can't exhale.
Organophosphates can interact with 99.99% of the different proteins in your body without incident, but that one random thing in your synapses means total system failure. These sorts of specific interactions are what make toxicity so difficult to predict.
Source: Took a class on mammalian toxicity. | 39f7832c-96cf-484e-88df-2d09fd89b910 |
23zjgs | Why is the air blown from a fan cooler then the air in the room it occupies? | It isn't. You *feel* cooler, for two reasons: (a) it blows away the thin layer of air around your body that has been warmed by your body heat and (b) it increases evaporation from your skin, which cools you off. | aec08f00-4055-4618-a740-fc9c8be81585 |
3ubobf | Workers Comp | If you are actually injured while doing your job your employer has paid into an insurance fund that is either a government run program or privately funded. The company I work for is "Self Insured" and if someone is injured our specific store has a fine of up to $32,000 (depending on circumstance) deducted from our profit and that fine is used to pay for the care of the employee regardless of the actual cost of treatment. If an employee cuts a finger and needs stiches we are fined almost $10,000.00 even though the treatment may have only cost $1000.00. This encourages a safe workplace and provides coverage for people that are seriously injured and can not return to work the next day. | 782585f5-9904-4e8d-bee7-bb3628a365d6 |
27ffci | In quantum physics, how does witnessing (or observing) something cause you interfere with it? | "Observed" in science doesn't necessarily mean "seen," but it can also mean measured. Often times, trying to take a measurement of something means that you have to interact with it. On a larger scale, it's like putting a temperature probe in a glass of water. Unless the probe was the exact temperature as the water, then there will be heat exchange between the two and thus measuring that temperature had an effect on it.
When you're on the quantum scale, there's now way for us to see what we're trying to observe what we want to see, so we have to use energy or other particles and see how those are affected by the one we're observing. But, for example, if you're firing an electron at a particle to see where it's at or what it's doing, then you're also making the particles to interact which will affect the one you're trying to observe. | 35b18d6b-ef44-4ee9-9e89-9b8d16226280 |
2s7ufh | on a flight I was on today, the pikot asked all passengers to shut their phone off, not just airplane mode but completely off, for the "specific type of landing necessary." What type of landing was this? Why was shutting phones off requested? | Was it foggy? It might have been an auto-land, which requires more protection than other approaches (there's a bigger area on the ground which must be kept clear of vehicles and other aircraft).
If it wasn't foggy, then it was probably just a way of getting your attention and making it more likely you'd turn everything off. | 839d116c-7be0-4be0-ab4d-35ac09cbc939 |
2dtewy | Why don't dogs have a belly button? | They do - but they are usually much smaller than human navels, and usually hidden by fur. | ac1f5dab-aa3c-481f-8016-4a779c5f6bba |
j2xcs | Can someone explain Post-Modernism like I'm 5, please? | What does it even matter? Nothing has any meaning anyhow. Even the meaning we project on things is a construct of the mind and the only thing that is worthy of attention is the richness of the individual experience, each of which differs from every other. | e584aadc-2987-43e5-9ee9-7e0bbf807a50 |
5e0qvf | Why is deep frying so much faster than baking? | Heat transfers faster through liquids then through gasses. You can be in a sauna without any harm to your body, but if you get covered with boiling water for a few minuites you at best will be covered in scar tissue and in pain for the rest of your life. | 74dacfd1-de10-4537-95c6-8113281e98ed |
5fymjd | the positive and negative effects of the privatization of Medicare. | It's hard to imagine something that would impact today's seniors.
Future seniors (today's young people) might have an option (or get forced) to get their Medicare benefits from a private insurance company. That company would get a cut of the taxes that fund Medicare in exchange for providing coverage for a chunk of Medicare beneficiaries.
All the real pros and cons depend on the details. If the insurance lobby gets to write the law, then they will be guaranteed profits and beneficiaries will bear all the risks. If the doctors lobby gets to write the law, then patients will get whatever they want and we'll see a trend toward fewer and fewer providers in the program (like we see with ObamaCare today). | 9e1238b8-c71b-40bb-bb82-8013585aecb1 |
56k0n8 | why does the outlier exist in many languages that the number 11-19 follow a different pattern of construction that doesn't fall in line with 21-29, 31-39 and etc? | > Like 11-19 aren't said Onety-one, onety-two, onety-three and so forth
11-19 *do* follow the same pattern of construction, it's just the order that isn't quite the same. The suffix '-teen' comes from the same etymological root as 'ten'; 'teen' means 'ten'. 'Thirteen' quite literally just means "three (and) ten". Fourteen = "four (and) ten", fifteen = "five (and) ten", etc. It's more obvious in languages closely related to English, like Dutch, where spelling and pronunciation of ten/teen haven't diverged. In Dutch, 10 = 'tien'; 13 = 'dertien', 14 = 'veertien', and so on.
Okay, so that takes care of 13-19, but what about 11 and 12 you ask? As best anyone can surmise, eleven comes from a Proto-Germanic word meaning "ten-and-one-left-over". Twelve similarly meaning "ten-and-two-left-over". Again, Germanic languages closely related to English have similar names for these numbers. In Dutch it's 'elf' and 'twaalf'. In German it's 'elf' and 'zwölf'. In Icelandic is 'ellefu' and 'tólf'.
Why do we not say 'onety'? Because where do you think the '-ty' suffix comes from? What do you think it means? Sound it out. '-ty'... 'tee'... tee*n*... *ten*... Etymologically, '-ty' just means 'tens'. "Onety" would hypothetically just mean "one ten"; it's superfluous. Twenty = "two tens". Thirty = "three tens". Forty-one = "four-tens(-and)-one". | dd8e2253-cabc-4b52-a438-fae836b8347a |
15l019 | What does the 'plastic' mean in "plastic surgery"? | "Rhino*plasty*" from the greek rhis: nose & plassein: to shape | 9638afd2-0683-4ba6-b26a-67dee3002db0 |
1qmn2v | How can Obama unilaterally change a law | The law actually allows insurers to continue offering some plans as long as they aren't changed. And those that are changed can be kept for another year (til 2015). But most insurers are just cancelling plans instead of extending them for another year to simplify their own process.
But he can't "change a law" unilaterally. A change to law requires congressional action. But implementation of the law is up to the executive (the president) and where there isn't clear process for something, the president can decide how to handle it. | 8a5f71ed-bcd4-4e0a-a3d2-0cf0e86856ef |
7jfh7d | What would happen if you blocked the little equalizing hole in airplane windows? | A small crack could develop in the inner pane, which was not designed to handle the pressure load. (The outer pane is supposed to.) But probably not even that. | 97ad69e6-1b31-4429-ab07-476cc4a6f8d9 |
1qhn91 | What exactly is buying debt, and how did Occupy Wall Street just do it? | Say I have a deadbeat friend who owes me $300 for rent money. He keeps saying he's gonna pay me, but he never does. After a while, I sort of give up on the idea that he'll ever pay me back for the full amount. I consider that $300 to be "bad debt," as in a debt that will never actually get paid. For all intents and purposes, my money is gone.
I know that I can't get the money from this guy, but maybe someone else can. I approach you, and tell you that if you give me $50 cash right now, you can keep whatever portion of the $300 that my deadbeat friend actually pays back, since you will now own his debt. You agree, and give me the $50 cash.
Now, I have $50 more than I ever thought I'd get back, and you are holding the I.O.U for the $300. You can now either bug the deadbeat and try to get money out of him, or give up entirely and let him get away with it. If you wanted to be like Occupy Wall Street, you'd never bother him again, and be happy knowing that your paying $50 saved some poor bastard from $300 worth of debt. | 00b800fb-95c8-4f6b-992f-506cb9203754 |
34lnpk | Why aren't there ever any windows at bowling alleys or casinos? | Bowling alley: the ones windowless I know are underground, plus I think it reduces noise. Casinos, that's actually funny and sad. Imagine yourself immerse in a game, you won't be looking at your watch or phone. So, how do you know it's already night? If you have a window you'll see the light contrast. However, inside a casino, light doesn't change. You don't know if it's still day or not. You'll keep playing until you quit or you lose all your money (in a 24 hours one). It's a trick to keep you inside. | 60b48a54-803b-4f5e-bfe3-85c815e2e8b1 |
6czcie | safe to eat raw chicken. | Most meat is fairly sterile immediately after slaughter, but the slaughter environment quickly taints the meat. Beef slaughter is not quite as dirty because you get so much off a single animal that you can afford some overhead. Chickens are *notoriously* dirty animals ( I own 20). And worse they are omnivores. Which means their bowels may contain dangerous bacteria, whereas cattle are herbivores and their bowels are basically just compost piles. All this basically means that the sheer disgusting nature of commercial chicken slaughter means you should never attempt to eat raw chicken, because the meat passed through an environment that was teeming with dangerous bacteria. The type that breed on rotting meat. | fc9a6346-a13c-47fc-b13c-607138460791 |
2ns5uy | Negative effects of raising the U.S. minimum wage? | When labor costs go up costs for everything goes up. This is called inflation. You can raise minimum wage all you want, at the end of the day there are only so many resources on earth. A maximum wage would be more effective. It would also be un-American. Our society is based on capitalism. If you want to make more than minimum wage you have to have a skill that is in demand and that there is a relatively lower supply of. A chimpanzee can be trained to flip burgers. I wouldn't let a chimp fly my plane or perform brain surgery. | 5bc743ff-d862-4830-84ac-d0ec9fc3634c |
5n1ye7 | Please explain to me the mythos created by HP Lovecraft | The point of Cthulhu and the rest of Love craft works is about the fear of the unknown. Nothing is ever fully explained which is kind of the point.
I would suggest getting a hold of the penguin publication "Call of Cthulu and other weird stories". Because the stories were written at the turn of the century it can be difficult to follow l. This version has lots of notes with it that give a lot of further insight. | 4cced423-f256-4afb-947d-075da807b592 |
8pzmet | Why can't shows like NCIS, Law and Order SVU, and Criminal Minds reference real world things? | Either to avoid it looking like a paid product placement, or to avoid the owner of the trademark complaining or even suing.
For example, if a show revolves around a terrorist attack which was organized by the terrorists using, say, WhatsApp, then the makers of WhatsApp might not be too happy about their trademark being linked to criminal activities in this way. | 3d162723-96d0-4d31-8224-f26dfb1395dc |
253yz5 | What causes random hairs to grow so long and fast overnight and that are not normal hair color. | I know that in women it's sometimes hormones. I am not hairy in any way shape or form but when I was pregnant I had a super fine blonde strand of hair on my cheek. It never came back but I was obsessed about it. Hopefully someone has a better answer because I want to know as well! | 8e3da361-c649-4620-a5bd-e7ec5cd384bc |
2j3b16 | Why does a cat seemingly "turn off" when the back of their neck is pinched? | It's instinct. Mother cats will use the skin on the back of a kitten's neck to carry it (in her teeth) if she needs to move it. Cats instinctually go limp when this happens (which prevents it from potentially hurting one cat or the other), and you're triggering that same instinctual response when you grab a cat there. | 283be9df-b087-49cb-839b-83886b92313f |
4fo7ij | Why do dogs, with their amazing sense of smell, choose butts, old socks, and urine to smell? | It's not just a unique smell or marking territory. Specifically for butts, in other dogs there is a little gland there right near the anus that secretes the unique odors they use to identify each other. That is why they specifically smell in that area on other dogs. As for humans, they do it because that's how they are used to identifying beings, even if the human doesn't have an anal gland | 1ed68b3a-4b6c-41fa-a866-75aceec0b1e7 |
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