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339c2y | how do graffiti artists reach those seemingly impossible difficult spots, like the tops of high buildings or inside overpasses? | How to reach the ceiling? A ladder.
How to reach the top of a high wall? A bigger ladder.
How to reach a really really high wall? A bigger bigger ladder! | 1d3b685e-af49-4455-9b77-3f0cb229bacf |
1ww8cr | How the NFL Draft works. | 1. Any player who enters the draft is eligible to be picked, but if you enter the draft you forfeit your remaining college eligibility. Usually every senior who has graduated enters the draft since they're out of eligibility anyway. Also select underclassmen enter as well and forfeit eligibility. This is usually if they expect to be picked high.
The NFL does restrict you from entering the draft if you graduated high school less than 3 years earlier. So freshman as well as true (non-redshirt) sophomores are ineligible.
2. It's the reverse order of finish. Among the non-playoff teams, the team with the worst record during the previous season picks first, the second worst team picks second and so on. Once all non-playoff teams have picked, all playoff teams are ordered by how far they made it with the Super Bowl champ picking last.
Each round runs in the same basic order, so the 2nd round starts with the worst team again. This gives the worse teams a draft advantage.
3. Trade. Picks are traded very often. You often hear the terms "trade up" or "trade down/back". Trading up is trading multiple later picks and/or players to get a higher pick. Trading back is exactly the opposite. Teams often trade up when they have few needs and would rather get a stud player at one position, or they fall in love with one particular player. This is often done for quarterbacks. Teams trade back when they have multiple needs and would rather get multiple, lower-ranked players.
You can also trade picks from future years. For example the St. Louis Rams own the #2 pick this year as a result of a trade with the Washington Redskins that occured 2 years ago.
4. A stud QB generally. But if you have a stud QB already you want something different. Teams take several different strategies. Some teams take the best player on the board regardless of position. Some teams draft their weakest positions regardless of if the player is the best one (this is a good time to trade back! If you want a particular player but don't think anyone else would take him for awhile you try to trade back, get more picks, and get the same player!).
5. Yes. They can't sign with a different team and end up re-entering the draft next year. This very rarely happens. | 6be22d01-131c-4246-8301-bd82a7ce8c54 |
2b5qjo | Why do rainbows form on spilt oil on the ground? | It's actually not the oil itself but the oil and water. The uneven mixture creates a prism which reflects the light rays at differing angles. | 7e659021-e23a-4dcb-b9da-21ddaafb08a3 |
2v0hbj | "The higher the probability, the higher the entropy and the lower the information content." | > After all, it had been Wiener who discovered a precise mathematical definition of information: The higher the probability, the higher the entropy and the lower the information content.
Er, I think it was Boltzmann who came up with the definition and it was really Claude Shannon who popularized the concept.
No matter.
"Information entropy" is exactly the same as or has absolutely nothing to do with the concept of entropy used in physics depending on who you talk to. According to Shannon, the information of a message is a measure of its probability of occurrence. It has nothing to do with "meaning." A message you can predict in advance (probability = 1) contains zero information. If I already know what you're going to say, there's no point in you saying it (see: right-wing talk show hosts, left-wing talk show hosts, my mom).
Hence, "the higher the probability the higher the entropy and the lower the information content." | 91fa82af-ab04-4e95-b606-515bc071e3c8 |
5tig15 | Why is Golf the go to sports for rich and/or powerful people like Presidents, CEOs? What is special about it? | It costs a lot of money to play, it's played in a space that is exclusive, which allows for privacy, and it is a slow paced game that allows for conversation and socializing. The slower pace also allows people to play into much older age than other sports. It's basically the perfect game for wealthy people who want to have something to do while having an informal conversation. | 4a258f15-4ee6-4490-b5b1-b0b18195c244 |
3eeg4m | how does China go from an "overheated" economic perpetual powerhouse to an economic crisis seemingly in less than a year? | When the stock market has more investment in it than is justified by it's actual value, we call it a 'bubble'. The price of stocks is way too high, and people are profiting on it's rise, but eventually that bubble bursts.
Real growth happens in the 3%-5% range per year. Generally, growth past that is a bubble that will eventually pop. | f222021f-6359-4d34-a51b-606b76ee0a09 |
5aveq6 | Falling through the earth | Seriously?
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You couldn't be bothered by a search? | fb8afe61-2e50-4e75-9868-19c685b8dcc9 |
3vvvyo | Why is there darkness? | Light doesn't travel instantaneously. The universe is only ~14 billion years old so there's only a limited amount of stars we can see.
Additionally, the universe is expanding. As the space itself inflates the light starts to shift towards the red end of the spectrum, eventually dipping into the infrared portion which is invisible to the naked eye. | 25445897-1765-449b-8865-5ab8ff7fb3a9 |
5ynzmn | What are the historical/social reasons that cause Americans to tend to define their political affiliations as a fixed variable? | In the United States, the Democratic party has for decades been the party of coastal areas and big cities, where the Republicans have been the party of rural areas and non-coastal areas.
Regional affiliation rules the parties, rather than ideology, and whatever is popular in a region becomes the party platform. Party affiliation is usually based on the culture you find yourself in. The actual principles that the parties believe in change from election to election based on what these regions desire.
For example, Ronald Reagan is a Republican hero even though he created most of the national debt, because at the time the debt wasn't an issue that rural Americans cared about. Once hard times hit and they started caring about that, then balancing the budget became a conservative issue. | 053c26c9-a7d1-4912-ac84-1d247a03b630 |
3ngh5r | How is Kevin McCarthy a good choice for Speaker of the House? | It makes sense because the Republican party is overrun with lunatics at the moment. Boehner was run out of town for not being enough of a hardliner. Whoever replaces him doesn't need to be experienced, articulate, or anything you might think of as useful in a politician. As long as he agrees that Obama is Satan any that any sort of compromise with him is absolutely unacceptable then he is the man for the job. | 5e1776b0-9e92-4ff7-9314-2b76c3985ab5 |
5plkt4 | As a public figure, why can't Donald Trump's tax returns be released for him without his permission? | Because even public figures are allowed a certain level of privacy.
While I would not support the release of someone's information by coercion I **would** support a requirement that candidates must fully disclose their finances voluntarily in order to be allowed on the ballot. | 9a28c45e-a4e3-46a8-858d-66ef28817f26 |
5otks3 | Where does the "smack" come from when sending a kiss? | When you pucker up to kiss, you create a vacuum. When any opening is created i.e. any gap between your lips and teeth, air rushes in and creates a sharp whistle, which is the smack we hear. | 8e6b29ba-8d47-458f-9014-a6befcd95e3b |
8fg76n | If your intestines don't have pain receptors, why does having constipation or diarrhea hurt so much? | The intestines do have nerves, just not the normal pain receptors you are familiar with on your fingers and the like. Instead their receptors are more sensitive to pressure and stretching. Feeling the texture of your poop isn't really necessary. | b54112df-d7cb-4200-b920-26a3d5222043 |
67tj89 | Why are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript all separate languages? | First of all HTML and CSS are not programming languages. If you want to be able to do any programming within a browser's web page you need javascript. This includes everything where you want to say IF this, then do that. HTML is the way you format your page. For instance < b > Some text < /b > make 'some text' in a bold font. CSS is a way of uniformly applying styles to a web page or site. It could for instance change the behavior of that bold tag to always be in a large font. | 18813ef7-7a6e-43fb-82e3-400837c473ae |
54g9e0 | How big does a planet have to be for it to seem flat at ground level? | That entirely depends on how big of an area you want to seem flat. Also what you mean by "seem". The Earth seems pretty flat from ground level, to be honest, unless you're actually measuring something. | 3e97c614-75e4-4f9a-9edc-49dc5d82d628 |
3sc4nf | What is happening in the Missouri safe space video, from a legal standpoint. Specifically with the first and second reporters. | If I can tag along here, what would the repercussions be if people began to use drones to film the "safe zone?" I know there is some kind of "drone code of ethics" but I'm curious about the legality...
Edit: It appears they are now handing out a PSA welcoming media: _URL_0_ | f0c451cd-8444-4e17-97af-5947259a623a |
23nb3l | alternation of generations | In most animals, all the generations look the same - diploid animals with haploid germ cells. In many plants, the generations alternate between diploid organisms and haploid organisms. Organisms in both generations are able to survive, they just look different and occupy different niches. | f8fca1bb-5a9c-4ea9-9715-f528c24c6a21 |
1o2vya | In the digital age, how will photographs be handed down to future generations? | My descendents can fb me if they really care to see.. | eb4eef2c-d73e-40bc-a980-e23c3490bc49 |
2p96qt | What is a Roth IRA? Why is it considered such a sound investment? | In a normal retirement plan, like a company sponsored 401k, taxes are deferred until you actually withdraw money in retirement. With a Roth IRA, you pay taxes up front, but can withdraw the money tax free. This makes sense if the taxes you pay now will be lower than when you retire. This will tend to be more true earlier in your career. | d474a0a4-b563-49ad-a4d4-83c03a4bc94f |
3eav5g | Why is female circumcision done by Muslims considered mutilation, but male circumcision commonly done in America completely fine? | There are several forms of female genital mutilation.
The more serious forms of it are like cutting your dick off, and then making it so that the stub will hurt if someone tries to fuck you.
There are also more minor forms which are comparable to male circumcision though many of them make the very sensitive clitoris painful.
It's about sexual purity/repression, and more a m middle eastern backcountry hick thing than an Islamic thing. | b2fafaa8-46a2-487c-b944-421d96aba3ee |
48q9rj | Why does it always seem like the world is falling apart? | Information isn't just at your fingertips, it's being shotgun blasted into your retinas.
Your attention span is a hot commodity, so everyone with something to say is going to radicalize it so you take notice.
We live in the most peaceful time in history, we have more control over diseases and better healthcare than mankind has ever known.
Don't worry, don't believe the hype. Go on and enjoy your life.
If need be, stay off social media and go out of your way to avoid the news for a few days... You'll feel better. | d90aaf44-020e-4966-9084-2cd1d650651e |
103g0y | how "wasting water" is even possible? | There are a couple of points that make it important.
* Droughts aren't the only issue. Many cities (e.g. Phoenix, Las Vegas) are located in areas where water is and always will be locally scarce.
* The water cycle replenishes a relatively fixed quantity of water. For cities that draw their water from rivers, reservoirs, or groundwater, it is very possible that they draw more water per year than is replenished naturally. This makes long term water scarcity likely.
* Not all water is sufficiently treated, making it more problematic to dump water back into nature. In some places, sewage is pumped raw or almost-raw into waterways, which surely should be minimized (though wasting 'clean' water wouldn't impact this, overusing things like soap could). | dda0d1d4-29d6-4cf1-af60-277cda1f1094 |
6caezc | Why Communism failed | Communism started as an academic exercise and some sound analysis went in to it, but it fundamentally goes against human nature. Given half a chance, people will try to bargain, make deals, and try to better their conditions even at the expense of others. To make Communism work, people would have to deny themselves in favour of the group, and people just don't do that.
The answer below talks about "governments incorrectly trying to implement a bastardized version of communism". If Communism made sense, it would not require governments to implement it at all. Any economic system that has to be imposed by a government is doomed to failure. | 014606e1-f49a-4c68-97f5-176f31602ac4 |
277jer | Why do veterans in the USA have a seperate hospital/healthcare system? | It was seen as an obligation that the citizens would pay for the healthcare of soldiers who were injured in the service of the country. | 52933d33-0d1e-46d7-9a80-3781b277a598 |
74rqjg | Does having a random alpha+numeric+symbol password reduce exposure in compromised email data breaches? | > I assume the hackers gained access to the salted hash password file.
This is the best case. If hackers breached the site's security to get the password, we have already established that the site does have its security flaws. Whether or not they salted, or even hashed your password (or if they just stored it in plain-text) is uncertain.
> does having a random string strong password reduce exposure of brute forcing via rainbow?
Depending on your meaning of strong. If you mean a variety of characters, intended to thwart dictionary attacks and the like, then no, that will have no effect on a rainbow table. If you mean the length of the password itself, then yes, that could help. If the rainbow table was designed for passwords of lengths shorter than your own, then they won't be able to find your password in the 'table'. Also, if the website did salt your password, then this will render their rainbow tables completely useless even if your password was something simple like "pa$$word". Rainbow tables are effectively compact, but slightly slower lookup tables computed of the 'standard', non-salted hash function. However, I should address that having a stronger password will help thwart regular brute force attacks (just trying every single password to see if its hash matches) and definitely helps against dictionary attacks (trying passwords composed of typical English words + a few added symbols / digits, and often l33t t3xt).
> does a password that's 10 character random gen password like "jD02j-#2Ao" make it less likely to be flagged as a positive password match as opposed to what has been toughted as more secure "1quickbrownfoxjumpsover1lazydog"
Usually yes. Enough added characters in the longpasswordofjoinedwords will make it harder to crack than a more complex shorter one, but only for enough characters. Looking at it in a simplified case, lets say we want to calculate how many passwords there are of each type (with specific length and character set). If you have a password 12 characters long but all lowercase, that would be 26^12 = 9.5e16 possible passwords since there are 26 possible characters and we choose 12 (possibly duplicates, otherwise we'd have 26! / (26-12)! ). For the complex password, lets say its 6 characters long, but can be uppercase, lowercase, digits, and any of 8 specific symbols (!@#$%^ & *). That means we have (26+26+10+8)^6 = 1.2e11 possible passwords. However, the actual number of possible 16-lowercase-letter 'passphrases' (as they call them) would be lower, since not ever combination of letters makes a word. So a hacker may just pull words from an English dictionary, and try combinations of those instead. There's about 9k 5-letter (commonly used) words in the English language, and 18k 6-letter words. It'd take about 3 of these words to produce a 16-letter passphrase, so if we just computed all pairs of 3 as an upper bound, we'd have (9,000+18,000)^3 = 2e13, which is 3 orders of magnitude lower than our previous estimate. Of course this is a very rough estimate, and of course has its flaws, but I think you see the point I'm making.
Anyways, in regards to your breached accounts- as always its a good idea to change your passwords on everything that used that same password, its even a good idea to have a different password for each website/app. Passphrases (as shown in my example) are stronger than complex passwords, and are easier to remember. If you do this, your main concern should then be what other personal info got leaked. Any phone numbers, full names, birth dates, that stuff. Getting your email address leaked can be a pain since you'll likely get lots of ads (due to them selling it to advertisers), but isn't as bad as potential identity theft. If any important info like that got leaked, definitely ask around (right away) and figure out how to handle that. I have no clue where to start on something like that, but I'm sure you could find someone who knows. | f07b149d-469f-4ee0-b0eb-2ff4137f24e6 |
492b4i | standard deviations. | There's a lot of great answers involving square roots and variance, but I think the simplest explanation is that it tells you how tightly grouped your data is.
For example, if I have five numbers: 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12:
* The average is 10.
Another five numbers: 2, 6, 10, 14, 18:
* The average again is 10.
However, these clearly aren't the same. The numbers are grouped much more closely around the average in the first example. As a result, the standard deviation will be smaller in the first example and larger in the second. The standard deviation honestly probably isn't very useful in such a small sample, but with a larger data set numbers, it can help provide good info how tightly grouped the numbers are.
Another cool thing about standard deviations is that you can use them to quickly determine how many of your data points fall within a certain range. By definition, 68.2% of your data falls within +/- one standard deviation of the average. So, if I told you that a certain data set had an average of 100 and a standard deviation of 5, you'd know right away that approximately 2/3 of the data points are between 95 and 105.
Edit: as /u/MartiniD mentioned, yes the last paragraph only applies if the data set is bell-shaped. I thought about mentioning that in my original comment, but didn't because I was trying to keep it simple. | bae6f3df-28d2-47cc-9c5c-3a77cc07f773 |
1u7ynh | Why is glass the most chemically stable thing... ever? | OP IS TALKING ABOUT HOW BEAKERS, TEST TUBES, AND MOST OTHER LAB EQUIPMENT IS MADE OF GLASS, NEVER REACTING WITH THE SUBSTANCES CHEMICALLY CHANGING WITHIN IT. | 476d7ecf-1767-44e4-9bf1-991c004b567f |
4gohoj | With so many ways to listen to an artists music for cheap or even free, how do musicians make any money? | Their main income is from touring and live performances.
Also, merchandise such as clothing (concert tees and such)
Many pop artists have secondary incomes like clothing lines (J. Lo) and perfumes (Brittney Spears), even dolls (Taylor Swift).
They do still sell albums via iTunes and physical CDs. They also get royalties when their music is played in streaming services and on the radio.
They *can* sell the rights or grant permission for their music to be used in movies, commercials, TV shows, etc.
**Most importantly; if you like a band, go see them live! This really is the highest level of support you can give them. Plus, concerts are awesome. No one has ever died saying that regretted going to so many concerts!** | 5e13023f-5496-4ecb-a21d-232e7fca101a |
yxgr5 | Plutonium (Nuclear?) Power, specifically in the Curiosity rover | > I've been searching for an answer in earlier ELI5 posts, and nuclear power seems to be harnessing the energy to heat water and spin a turbine. Is this how Curiosity's reactor works?
The reactor on Curiosity converts a heat differential directly into electricity. As the radioisotope decays, it generates heat, which makes the inner chamber warmer than the outside chamber. This temperature differential is used to generate electricity directly, without the use of water and turbines. The phenomenon is called the [Seebeck effect](_URL_0_), although it is way beyond an ELI5 level.
> How can such a small system produce so much power?
It doesn't produce that much power - only about 110 W. The generator is used to slowly charge the battery, so when it's time to use a power-intensive instrument, there is an excess of charge available.
Keep in mind that when it says "more than a million watts of power in five-billionth-of-a-second burst," that is a _really really short burst_. Power is a term used to describe energy over some time, and you can obtain a very high _power_ by shortening the duration to a very small number, even if you keep energy constant.
To put it in perspective, a million watts of power over five nanoseconds only has 0.005 Joules of energy. It takes the 110 W power supply 45 milliseconds to provide the equivalent amount of energy. | 455bd382-5784-454c-96d1-a844baa8e5e1 |
4mnero | Why is pipe tobacco wet but cigarette (rollie) tobacco dry? | Def not interchangeable. I believe it is because generally pipe smokers want to puff on there pipe for awhile. If it was dry like cigarette tobacco it would burn up in a few puffs. The moist pipe tobacco burns and stays lit for a little while. | 599943cf-c819-41aa-bce1-df22c58d2f38 |
3lhdr8 | What is FM synthesis and what are the difference between FM, Subtractive, and Additive synthesis? | FM stands for "frequency modulation." In general it refers to any sort of time that we're changing the frequency of a signal. FM radio, for example, sends a signal by modulating (changing) the carrier frequency very slightly. When you tune into a radio station, the channel number is the carrier frequency at which they broadcast. The channel 100.7 WZLX Boston broadcasts at 100.7 MHz, which is a frequency. They send information by changing the carrier frequency ever so slightly: your receiver notices the slight changes and interprets that as a signal.
FM synthesis is when you make an entirely new sound by taking some original sound and modifying its frequency. A great example is a device called an "octaver," which is used by many guitarists. What the octaver does is copy the note the guitarist is playing, and then spit it out an octave higher. The first few notes of [Purple Haze](_URL_2_) is one of the earliest examples of octaver usage. You can hear how the note is sort of "doubled" both low and high: that's the octaver. A more modern example of an octaver - which is much more sophisticated than the one Hendrix was using - comes from [Cemetery Gates](_URL_0_) by Pantera. It basically SCREAMS the higher notes in that one, it's pretty easy to tell when he's turning it on and off. [Here](_URL_1_) is another example where the lead guitarist pretty much leaves the octaver on, which might be easier to hear.
The point here is that the way that an octaver works is to double the frequency of the original sound. That's FM synthesis: we're taking a sound and changing its frequency to get a new sound. It isn't just octavers: we can also make harmonizers, which do stuff like [this](_URL_3_): that's one guitar, even though it sounds like three. The harmonizer is a machine which is doing FM synthesis on his input, which allows him to sound like three guitarists playing in harmony. The frequency modulation on his input changes the note, which lets him play "with himself." It sounds like there's a bit of delay and chorus on it too (maybe some flange?), but those are other effects which are only partially related (technically chorus is FM synth too).
So far this is all *harmonic* FM synthesis. Essentially, we're doing FM synthesis which makes things fit together well musically. In general "harmonic" FM synthesis is when the output frequency is multiple of the input frequency. In the octaver, the output frequency was doubled (multiple of 2): in the harmonizer it's going to be some other multiple depending on what type of harmony we want. In the harmonizer example I gave you he's using 5x and 27x the input frequency, and then octaving them back down. If you're a musician, when he plays a C the harmonizer will put out an E and A as well (it's a weird chord).
In general we needn't use harmonic FM synthesis: there's no reason why I can't make a synth which multiples the input signal by π or *e* or 1.2043652046 or whatever the hell I want. It'll sound like shit in musical applications, but in general signal processing it'll be useful.
Additive and subtractive gets really complicated. I can go into it, but it's one of those questions where I have to check if you know calculus or not first: otherwise it makes no sense and you probably shouldn't care. It's not "additive" or "subtractive" in the way you would think, it has to do with integral transforms and abstract vector spaces and shit. | 64396092-7321-4618-aaef-dd31f04678f0 |
odp2y | Why is patient zero of such significance? | Viruses mutate as they travel to different hosts, so the first patient to get it has the most basic form of it that has the most in common with the daughter strains, which may evolve in completely different directions. Thus, if you find a cure based on the original patient, is has the highest likelihood of working on the daughter cases. | 95cffbde-52ad-4f05-978e-2912222b3916 |
5djfra | How does the aurora borealis form and why it is so hard to predict this phenomenon? | when the sun releases a stream of high energy particles from its surface, if it travels in the direction of earth it will strike the earth's atmospheric particles. then these particle's electrons will absorb the energy from the suns particles, they jump from their normal energy state to a higher energy state for sometime and slowly loose their energy and fall back to its original energy state, it is the part when they start loosing energy they emit photons of certain wavelength that creates the aurora borealis.
This happens especially on the poles of the earth because of our magnetic field, our magnetic field shields us from the suns high energy particles, these are the harmful rays. These rays are diverted from the center of the earth to the poles and away from us, when the rays enter the poles they interact with the particles
and this phenomenon happens as i explained above
to predict this phenomenon we should monitor and we should be able to predict the suns activity when it expels solar flares along with a high speed solar wind. So right now i guess we cant predict the sun's activity yet | 159b5788-8462-485b-b852-23edb2746ed7 |
3xwsr4 | Why do some substances melt, leaving behind the same substance, and some burn up, leaving ashes? | Well melting and burning are two different processes. Say you have an ice cube. It's made up of a bunch of water molecules which are made up of hydrogen and oxygen.
If we melt the cube, we are just turning the hard rigid structure of ice, into a loose pool of water molecules. We're just adding enough energy so that the water molecules don't want to stick to each other.
Burning is much more destructive. If we have the same ice cube and burn it, then we are ripping apart the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the water molecules and turning them into 2 individual gases. This fundamentally changes what you have. Your products are not the same as the ice cube. | 31c6e965-fb04-4a43-8afa-2dfea5943c49 |
1tvnsc | If all US currency states "Legal tender for ALL debts public or private" on it, can businesses legslly refuse to accept $100 bills? | > There is.... no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.
_URL_0_ | 4d6b0149-7d69-41a7-9114-6cc95fcc6680 |
7nqy2x | Why Do Styrofoam Leach Out Their Contents When It's Super Cold | It's not just when it's cold. Styrofoam is a bunch of little pellets squished together, the seal between pellets isn't perfect and will very slowly leak | a779bf08-d005-4fc7-a8d3-a326057bd7fe |
4qn3pg | Why do hard criminals (like murderers) become super religious during jailtime? | * joining up with others, regardless of the reason for affiliation, offers protection and community
* prison life sucks, and placing your hopes and energies in something beyond that can be a coping mechanism
* a lot of people are in prison because they shameless exploit and manipulate others...religion is an effective tool for doing this
* a lot of people are in prison because they feel they were special and the law doesn't apply to them...religion lets you construct a narrative where your are special and have been chosen to fulfill a divine plan
* people tend to be more sympathetic and deferential to those who share their religion, including prison guards and parole boards
* some prisons actively push religious activities, and give privileges to those who participate | 6c5b6ee3-9b2a-48ae-8fb2-37835328577e |
j5wds | Free birth control under Obama's plan, how does it work and how do I know if I qualify? | Apparently it's considered "preventative care" now... I'm not sure if it applies to existing plans though.
> The guidelines go into effect on Monday, requiring insurers to provide free coverage of preventive care services for women in all new plans beginning in August 2012.
[Source](_URL_0_) | b2c69d3f-3b6e-4120-98b3-f306b5540b15 |
6pgkry | Why does our brain tend to remember the bad things that happend to us more often and intense than the good stuff? | Probably because in history, remembering bad events would help you to avoid them in the future and aid your survival. E.g. if you were attacked by a bear near a cave and lived, you would remember not to go near that cave again. | 68e03bc2-5ca8-47b0-913f-530ca8dc6360 |
7qiv3d | how can a spacecraft calculate its speed in space? | The answer is, it depends on your reference point. Speed, unlike acceleration, is relative. You can only know the speed of an object when you compare it something. On earth, we measure the speed of an object based on the surface of the earth, or stationary objects. In space, any object you point to is moving at a phenomenal speed, but depending on your frame of reference, only certain ones will appear to be moving, or will appear to be moving at totally different speeds.
That's the cookie cutter response you'll see here regarding your question, and while it's correct it doesn't really answer you properly.
You are asking "if a spacecraft, launched from earth and moving to another star, wants to determine it's speed, how would it do so?"
first, depending on it's distance from earth, it could send a signal out and measure the time it took coming back. That would do it.
Measuring the your speed compared to another stellar body wouldn't work, unless you already knew the speed of that stellar body when compared to earth.
Another, sneaky method that would work even if you had no reference point, is to simply calculate your speed from the rate of acceleration your ship has. In your question, you talk about a solar sail propelled ship. A ship like that would have largely uniform acceleration, and most changes in acceleration could be accounted for. If you have an acceleration of 1 m/s^2 (or one metre per second increase, every second passed). Using the rate of acceleration, which you know, you can calculate the speed you are currently going. | ab6424fe-d669-4ebb-af0f-1cce837c3e50 |
2l7ypf | If a suppressor doesn't actually silence the sound of a gun that much, what role does it serve? | It reduces the sound enough that it won't damage your hearing which also makes it so that the report of the weapon isn't heard a mile away
*Edit: Integrated silencers actually do silence the weapon. Like the MP5SD. The bolt clicking is louder than the shot | 9a14760b-a0c1-4afb-a0a4-0dab5db45897 |
m0gkq | Why fish can pull oxygen from the water yet not from the air. | Fish pull oxygen out of the water using a body part called a *gill*. They have gills on either side of their heads (kind of where our ears are). Gills are made of lots and lots of little thin fins. That way they have lots and lots of surface that touches the water passing by, so there are lots of opportunities for some oxygen passing by to dissolve into them.
If you've ever seen someone with long hair underwater, you've seen how their hair kind of floats all around their heads, right? What happens when they come out of the pool? Their hair falls flat onto their heads and kind of all sticks together because it's wet.
That's exactly what happens to a fish's gills when you take a fish out of the water. All those little paper-thin fins collapse together and stick together because they're wet and have no water to float in. There isn't enough area left on the surface for them to get the oxygen they need, so they suffocate. | 1492f37a-127c-4de6-924b-4a52006d7382 |
3b16jz | Why do cars need transmissions but planes and boats don't? | Engines have a relatively narrow range of RPM where they perform efficiently.
Planes and boats propel themselves in a viscous atmosphere/fluid. As a result, plane and boat engines can operate in a fairly narrow range of RPM and still be effective. Within that narrow RPM range, the propeller/fan generates sufficient thrust into the viscous atmosphere/fluid to propel the aircraft/boat forward.
On the other hand, car engines are "rigidly" connected to the ground via ground- > tires- > wheels- > driveshaft- > transmission- > clutch- > engine. This means that without a transmission, a car's engine would have to operate on a much wider range of RPM's - including RPM's where the engine performs poorly or not at all. A transmission allows the car engine to remain in its efficient RPM range while the car can travel from a crawl to over 100mph. | 277b21d1-7ba9-4391-913c-04e55d9bdf18 |
3b8745 | Why were buildings such as schools made into fallout shelters? | Schools are large buildings, typically in the middle of population centers that typically have facilities built for large group of people (bathrooms, kitchens, etc.).
They make natural rally points for a population center and are built reasonably well to handle a crowd. | 81b41ccf-4e4a-45d4-9358-7714dd4c7766 |
4da5f5 | Why didn't the FCC allow television broadcasters to use the AM band, instead of FM/VHF/UHF? | The AM Band extends from 535- to 1,705-kHz, which takes up a little more than 1.1 Mhz. Each of the original TV channels used 6 Mhz. Thus, the entire AM band was incapable of handling even 1 single TV signal. | bdf66283-ac0e-49d5-98a2-496cd61fee60 |
6loeza | Why are many bathroom sink faucets so close to the back of the sink? | Depends on the design, but I think it's at least partly because of how older bathrooms did their bathroom sinks. Basically the sink was a bowl, and you filled it up with water from the faucet, hot water would be a separate faucet, and you would add that in to get the right temperature. Then you wash your hands in the sink, and pull the drain to empty it. The faucets were thus small so they don't get in the way of your hands. I know in the UK, many people still have this style of sink in the bathroom, [they look like this](_URL_0_).
In the US at least, we have gone away from that style of sink, and just wash our hands under the tap. But we still use faucets that look similar, probably for aesthetics reasons (putting a large kitchen sink style faucet would look odd), and partly because we still do wash things in the sink other than our hands, it may be useful to have a small faucet.
And finally, if you're hitting your hands on the sink, it's probably because they installed the wrong faucet. On many sinks, the holes for the faucet are pre-drilled, their location is meant for a faucet of a specific size (one that stretches some distance from the edge), sometimes people buy sinks with the holes set back and couple it with a faucet that is short meant for holes set forward resulting in a faucet that's too close to the edge. Sometimes the holes are not pre-drilled and the installer drills them too far back. Spout reach is a spec listed for the faucet on home depot, people forget to check it when picking parts sometimes. | 3137cf08-144f-4233-befc-c10dac9e3ded |
7ryntc | If Oseltamivir also helps prevent the flu, then why isn't it not prescribed as such? | > Couldn't one make the argument that if everyone in you household has a flu, then getting prescribed Oseltamivir should be the way to go?
If everyone in your household has the flu, then Oseltamivir isn't going to help all that much. From the article you linked:
> "On average patients who start taking Tamiflu within 48 hours of getting sick will recover one day faster than patients who do not take anything"
So you're looking at just one day of reduced symptoms, at the cost of risking many of the pretty terrible side effects of Oseltamivir, if you give it to people who already have the flu.
The only time it might make sense is if everyone in your household has been vaccinated, and *one* of your has the flu anyway (idicating that the vaccine might not have been effective against the strain in your household). In that case, it *might* be worth it to reduce the spread to other family members. | 6b929dd9-0960-49e6-9b29-063a0bc48d52 |
145je8 | How come at night when I change the angle of my rearview mirror it receives less light? | [Really old picture](_URL_0_), but it explains it nicely. | 8abe905d-e465-48da-b21e-ba5979fc7e6f |
4198nc | Mathematically, why can't a chair balance with 2 legs? | To see if something will balance, lay a string on the ground around its feet and tighten it. (That's called the "convex hull" of the feet.) The center of mass must be above the area outlined by the string for it to balance.
Of course when you tighten a string around two feet, it becomes a line with no area, which leaves a super tiny area that the center of mass must be in for it to balance. | 0302076d-757a-4cd7-a4e6-2b3366ccb032 |
2fm8fx | Why do we tip bartenders but not fast food workers for doing essentially the same task? | Bartenders pour drinks and can give you extra booze and not kick you out when you start getting drunk. The good ones will conversation with you at show times. | 4a0760ee-6644-4bc6-a9b3-1d700cd49e8f |
2607sr | Why has the federal government of South Korea (including the president and PM) taken so much heat over the ferry sinking? | Korean culture is huge on taking responsibility. The more power you have the more you profusely apologize for any and all mistakes. For example, when Cho Seung Hui massacred those kids at VTech, the Korean government and many korean religious leaders all apologized on behalf of the Korean population. It's a cultural thing where anyone associated with a tragedy must take blame for it, without hesitation and with humility. | 6de3f3fb-02fb-4549-b0fc-561c1e6922c6 |
1e1ovr | Why do headphones sound better when you press on them? | you get a better seal around your ear, making more sound go directly in the ear rather than floating off | add7f0f5-9808-4f08-9a6e-685ca2dffaf5 |
5pp4de | How and why does the human body generates heat? | When we burn calories, we actually burn (oxidize) calories. The oxygen we breathe in is used for cells to take the food we eat and turn it into energy. The leftovers are heat, carbon dioxide (which we then breathe out), and a bit of water. | 2a4e4149-9181-4793-83af-a34892e53e4d |
7h4yjy | How come animals today aren't as big as the dinosaurs were? | Keep in mind a few facts:
The biggest animal that ever lived is alive today. Bigger than any dinosaur, bigger than megalodon, bigger than all the ones you never heard of. Biggest animal ever is the blue whale.
Two, huge prehistoric animals like giant sauropods, megalodon, those kite-sized dragonflies, all existed at different times and were big for different reasons. It's not a case of "prehistoric = bigger". There were lots of small dinosaurs too.
Dinosaurs were adapted to grow extremely fast. Sauropods could grow 6 tons *a year*, based on estimates of age & weight. | 02717afb-9636-445b-b273-82db98e75bc1 |
3kcy7h | How in the hell did Arnold Schwarzenegger become the governor of California? | Everyone was pissed off at the guy before him. My car registration became like $1000! I mean wtf, what do they do for me to charge me $1000?? He promised to fix it and he did. | bce9c0bb-c24e-43b1-9a6c-f5e99aa5213e |
57r1jl | How did they print photos in old newspapers? | How old were the newspapers? The first newspapers used reusable type for the letters. To print a picture engraving were made. No there was no shading possible at first. Then engravings using multiple small lines were made to produce shadows.
As printing advanced the ability to print smaller and smaller lines, then dots, developed. Enough fine dots and you can print pixels. | c879c626-d9eb-442e-ae72-bb2e21a4e74d |
3cq8e1 | What is causing the troubles in Calais/The Channel Tunnel? | Migrants have been building up over the years, many of the asylum seekers are from Syria and other middle eastern countries affected by the voilence. Since the Strikes happened there was alot less staff causing a build up in queues bringing lorries to a stand still. This provides the perfect opportunity to get onto them. It's harder when the lorries are moving. More are trying to cross at this time since it's the best chance they will get thanks to the strikes | 09274d1e-9f49-4af5-a759-ca61c783fbb2 |
l1zi2 | the different denominations in Christianity and whats the difference between them | One of the early forms of Christianity that I know is "Arianism" (don't confuse it with Aryan, the fantasy race of the Nazis). The idea is that the Son, Jesus Christ, is inferior to the Father because the later created the former. And the Holy Spirit is inferior to the Son because Jesus created the Holy Spirit. The Roman Church believes that the Holy Trinity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one and the same AND equal. Arianism is very different to mainstream Christianity due to the Trinity issue and were branded as heretics.
The Roman Church then decided to be governed by a Pentarchy (meaning Rule of Five). The Roman emperor would be the Vice-Gerent of Christ, the head of the church, and five patriarchates would co-rule the entire Christianity and these were; Patriarch of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria. Later on, the Roman Empire split itself into two. Since Christianity is the state religion of the empire, the religion divided itself too. The Western half would be known as the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern half would be the Eastern Orthodox Church. The Patriarch of Rome proclaimed himself as the sole head of Christianity, which known as the Pope. The East still believes in the old idea.
The Protestant religion would later rise up on the Reformation. The Protestants differ from the Catholics to many things such as rejection of religious icons, the bible to be translate into any language not just Latin, rejection of the Pope as the head of the church.
Another break-away sect is Calvinism or Reformed but I don't know much about it. Sorry. Another one is Anglicanism (English Church) which is basically a Catholic Church by practice but nationalised. The English king acts as the head of the Church replacing the Pope. The English church later on starts to adopt Protestant ideas.
There are more less known sects like the Nestorian church which spans from the Middle East to China but where were cut off from mainstream Christianity due to geo-political reasons. Lastly, Coptic Orthodox Church. It's still disputed what makes them different to Eastern Orthodox or Catholicism. | c744c5c7-16c8-4311-85e5-94dc0ae9af3f |
18h7kt | What makes computer code inefficient or elegant? | Basically, it's a measurement of what a program is able to do contrasted by how much space the program takes up. Here is an extremely simplified example:
2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 20
or
2 x 2 x 2 x 2 = 16
or
2 ^4 = 16
All of these equations equal 16, but each successive version of the equation takes up less space. | 1ff2cde1-4983-4bac-9449-9e1315632cad |
2g7lmo | Why is there an age requirement (35) to be President of the United States? | There are a number of reasons.
First, the framers of the constitution believed that wisdom comes from experience and they must have believed that 35 was a sufficient age for a person to gain enough experience.
Second, they didn't want people to be elected merely because, say, their father was a good politician. They were trying to get away from a monarchy and if a son was elected merely because his father was a good politician, that seemed a little too close to monarchy.
Third, and possibly the most important, in [Federalist #64](_URL_0_) John Jay writes:
> By excluding men under thirty-five from the first office, and those under thirty from the second, it confines the electors to men of whom the people have had time to form a judgment, and with respect to whom they will not be liable to be deceived by those brilliant appearances of genius and patriotism, which, like transient meteors, sometimes mislead as well as dazzle. If the observation be well founded, that wise kings will always be served by able ministers, it is fair to argue, that as an assembly of select electors possess, in a greater degree than kings, the means of extensive and accurate information relative to men and characters, so will their appointments bear at least equal marks of discretion and discernment. The inference which naturally results from these considerations is this, that the President and senators so chosen will always be of the number of those who best understand our national interests, whether considered in relation to the several States or to foreign nations, who are best able to promote those interests, and whose reputation for integrity inspires and merits confidence. With such men the power of making treaties may be safely lodged.
In other words, by making people wait until they are 35, it gives the voters a chance to make a judgement as to how the candidate performs. It allows the voters to pick a wise candidate based on what the candidate has done in the past. If some flashy 21 year old ran for president and he or she just happened to be more eloquent than other candidates, voters would only have appearances, not substance, to base their vote on. | ee50bf03-4232-4073-811d-4028e8b1f12f |
8rxpsk | Why is that when an escalator is turned off and you walk on it you feel like you're losing balance? | Balance is one of our senses, and our senses are acclimated to our environment, so that the brain can simply tune out some of the inputs.
Some hard-wired examples would be that you can't usually hear your own blood pumping through your body or that you don't see the little veins in your eyes (there's actually spots you don't see but your brain fills them in, in some situations things in plain sight are hidden behind those.)
An addon is that your brain has learned to accept transportation and anticipate the forces that are applied to you, hence why you feel more inertia if you're just a passenger in a car instead of the driver.
It's similar for escalators but it's more of an always on switch. Whenever you're on an escalator, expect to be moved. If the escalator is turned off, your brain might understand the reasoning, the physics that are going on, but unless you're around escalators that are turned on and off a lot the association of a running and stopped escalator is broken. You moving on an escalator as you would on stairs confuses the brain. | 9abc0985-b1fe-4ee4-a620-e01ac5139b76 |
2arnx1 | how exactly does water ruin electronics, assuming that they are turned off after and dried throughly, what damage to hardware is done that is irreparable? | Different components react differently to water. Most ICs, for example, will dry just fine, but may end up with residual water stuck underneath the chip, unable to dry.
Capacitors can corrode from the inside out, and transistors do weird things when exposed to water, but immediate drying and cleansing with alcohol will usually prevent that.
Now, the unfixable stuff.
LCD screens are toast in water if water gets between the digitizer and the glass. Also, rechargeable batteries often use alkali or alkaline elements (think lithium ion batteries, among others) that are highly reactive to water. If exposed, very VERY small amounts of water can get into the battery and destroy it, either slowly or immediately.
Other than that, water with any kind of mineral content can short circuit boards and/or leave deposits that hinder the board's ability to function, and can even cause heat build up. Dropping a phone into distilled water, however, won't do much, except cause a physical mess inside the device. The components themselves would be fine for the most part (except the battery and screen.) | a5ed792e-16cf-4dfd-8461-0f847317a366 |
491wfu | What kind of relationship do lawyers actually have with their clients in terms of guilt? | My understanding... it isn't relevant if your client is innocent or guilty. A defense attorney's job is to make sure the prosecutor's job is being done correctly.
A prosecutor wants a conviction. They need to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that the defendant is guilty. A defense attorney needs to make sure that we don't starting doing "close enough" in a courtroom. That is a slippery slope, and one that would destroy our legal system. | 7f56c2af-5c6f-4e4b-aaf4-de95e52c268c |
520tsb | How does Spotify use so little mobile data? | They use a piece of technology called a codec, shorter for encoder - decoder. You may be familiar with some like mp4 for video and mp3 for audio, or its AAC successor m4a.
There are ways a codec can reduce bit rate, or how much bandwidth is consumed in transmission without losing any information. The most common way is akin to zip compression where the encoder looks for patterns in the bits of the data (repeated 1s and 0s) and transmits the pattern and how often it occurs rather than the bits themselves. It's easier to say "transmit 10 zeros" instead of sending the literal 100 zeros. Just like it's shorter for me to write "10, 0" instead of "0000000000."
There are also perceptual tricks. The biggest one is called Dynamic Bit Allocation, or DBA. The idea is that if I send the same audio signal with 16 bits per chunk of audio instead of 24 bits, there will be more noise on the 16 bit signal. However humans can't hear the noise if it's covered up by the audio. So the codec can look at the audio signal and use less bits for loud sections and more bits for quiet sections to reduce data without decreasing perceived audio quality. DBA is a part of the mp3 standard and many codecs but the actual method for doing it can vary greatly.
Finally there are more perceptual tricks. For example most people can't hear above a certain frequency like say, 17kHz. Codecs can filter out all that unnecessary information to reduce file size. They can get even more clever about it and say, there's no energy at this particular band, or there's a lot of energy below it so you won't be able to perceive it, so let's get rid of it. Like DBA this method is standard in many codecs but the implementation can vary greatly. Essentially it says, this information isn't important for human perception of this sound, so fuck it. | af4f11d8-e55b-457e-b5d2-a20d908d4ac0 |
35nzmh | How do shaving creams make shaving easier? | To save you a chemistry lesson with lots of long words, let’s break it down to four basic ingredients:
Stearic acid – one of the main ingredients in soap-making. This puppy attracts dirt and grease and cleans your skin.
Surfactants – or “surface-acting agents.” They attract water to your skin, making it moist.
Emulsifiers – hold the water on our skin, keeping it soft and pliable.
Glycerin – it keeps skin supple long enough for you to do your thing. | fa1c412f-b002-4a28-9229-f2c37cf0eb04 |
69dxtu | Why do nipples go hard when they are hit? | It's easier for newborn to latch onto a stiff nipple than a flaccid soft one. It's theorized thats why they stiffen upon contact.
The other reason is cold. In the same way you get goosebumps on your arms in the cold because your body is trying to keep you warm with your "fur". The hair follicles around your nipples stiffen causing the "nipply weather effect" to occur | e1fa70fc-bf02-401d-a2cc-858408b4b8d5 |
5subin | Biologist and Doctors | Antibiotics generally start to take effect pretty quickly, but there's a lot of stuff that has to happen between "antibiotic starts working" and "you feel normal again." Basically, you've got to kill off the bacteria, then turn off your body's response to them. Both of those take time.
Let's say you're taking penicillin or amoxicillin (which for ELI5 are basically the same thing) for tonsillitis. The drug molecules have a specific structure called a beta-lactam ring, which screws up the process of making new bacterial cell walls. When the bacteria keep trying to make cell walls, they don't work right and the bacteria blow up. Beta-lactams are about the fastest way we have to kill bacteria in your body, but since bacteria take some time to make new cell walls, it's not instant. For common antibiotics at standard doses, it takes a few doses to really hit the bacteria hard enough. Some other antibiotics don't kill bacteria at all, but just stop them from growing, making them sitting ducks for your immune system.
The "itis" in "tonsillitis" means inflammation, which is your body's response to infection (and lots of other things.) It's a very complicated process involving blood vessels, cells, and a lot of different chemicals. Some parts of inflammation just fade away on their own, but other parts have to be turned off. | 6419d3bb-f50c-42f0-80b8-c7f6fdb10113 |
6r81oq | Why do your palms get sweaty when you're nervous/scared? | Your palms get sweaty when you're nervous or scared because of a system called the sympathetic system, triggering the fight or flight response. Or in ELI5:
When you get scared, your body releases a chemical, which among other things, makes you sweat more in anticipation of the extra heat your body created while trying to get extra energy to fight or run away whatever made you scared. The reason you feel it in your palms more is probably because the palm has more nerve endings relative to other parts of your body.
In not ELI5:
Your adrenal glands release adrenaline, among other things, that increase the rate of gluconeogenesis (sugar production) so that you will have more energy to fight/flee. However, this process is exothermic (releases heat), and your body is anticipating intense and sudden exercise so your body prepares itself by sweating. You'll feel the sweat in your palms probably because of the increased number of peripheral nerves in your palms and fingertips relative to other body parts. | 6663a422-1bfd-4a5e-ba6b-527a29820eec |
2tncxy | How would a basic income system work, how would it be implemented, and how might it affect taxation, industries and the economy? | Basic income is the government giving a set income to everyone in the country. This is funded by taxes as any other government program.
You can still work and earn money on top of your basic income. And the more you earn the more taxed you are, so if you earn quite a bit you will payback your basic income through taxes.
Basic income also means the governments can remove other forms of welfare completely. You no longer need unemployment aid, food stamps, pensions and help for the poor. As everyone has an income. | ccf84aff-f024-456b-ac5d-8efa5533520f |
3lp9px | Do astronauts on the ISS just not fap? | Why would you think that? They're up their for awhile, if they're not having sex with eachother, masturbation seems like an obvious thing that would happen | f8b8b7d3-6f4b-4a88-ab39-5473c75ebf0b |
5n2s6b | why is celery frequently served with chicken wings? | It acts as a vehicle for ranch or blue cheese to cool the mouth off without having to take more hot sauce to get the cooling relief. | fb542613-1031-49c0-acc7-1d8b90c0b05b |
6qw73k | Why is it that electric charges in a magnetic field don't experience a force unless they are moving? | This is actually a scenario experiencing quantum/time relativity.
In the magnetic field, if you take the field as an observer, the charged object you see moves through and has a flux in the field enough to produce a change in the system. Through the particles end, when the particle is the observer, instead the field is unpertrubed until that particle goes through and /behind/ the particle does the field get pertrubed. Its moving through the field super fucking fast.
When the time dilation syncs things up through the constant of causation (c), what is experienced is a total pertribution in the entire system, resulting in a changed up field dynamic. Its a combination of the field observing the particle, and changing properties with the act of adding a charged particle, along with things syncing up. This causes a constant flux state in the field, as if the yniverse is vonstantly trying to re-update the state of the field as charged particles fly through the field and change it.
PBS spacetime has a good explanation of this, and the old host (almost bald guy) explains the concept well. | e5da0873-a354-4fe6-bfa4-7764ae18779f |
6m6hvg | Why must Inflation happen in an economic system? Why can't we just ignore it and say that money is worth the same? | It's not a guarantee that inflation will happen, or that the inflation will be a good thing. You can have deflation where a dollar is gaining in value over time. This encourages people to save money instead of spending it, and you have less dollars flowing through your economy. You can also have hyperinflation where your currency spirals out of control, and ultimately gets replaced by bartering/foreign currency. A low inflation rate encourages spending/investing, because your money is losing value if you stuff it in a matress. More money flowing through the economy equals a better economy. | 0b34aa4f-7cd3-41b8-a67f-408af5a14a07 |
43fsfy | Why is the cost of groceries still high when the price of gas has fallen back down? | What /u/Teekno said, water, is a huge part of it, and not limited to just California - reports were that last summer was so dry in the midwest that grains and corn were also going to have a much smaller crop this past fall, on top of the pork shortage, and this past winter [has killed over 30k dairy cattle,](_URL_0_) which will lead to milk/butter/cheese shortages as well.
In short: Blame the weather : <
But also, as they raise prices, folks get used to them, and even if the base costs went back down, that doesn't mean that manufacturers/grocers have to lower the prices back down, it just means that they can profit more. | 51e54fe6-c4e6-4997-908a-e15278d0dd8c |
35ys4g | Why can routers only use 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz if they're so congested? | Radio spectrums are like a broad highway. Consider 2.4 and 5 as like the 2 far left lanes on a highway, but there are maybe 6 more lanes.
These 6 lanes are reserved for military communications(2 lanes), emergency responders radios(1 lane), aircraft radio communications(1 lane), and cell phone companies(2 lanes).
These other 6 lanes are vital to be restricted - what would happen if a bunch of people clogged up the aircraft lane and people flying couldn't get through to the air traffic control! That would be bad! So the FCC makes sure these important lanes stay clear as possible. Sure there are more reserved lanes - but I cut the example to just a few. | 67b0f746-ce83-47a0-9730-661dbd07ad11 |
1x9w0b | Why do people think that US income tax is unconstitutional? If so, why isn't this bigger news? | > Why do people think that US income tax is unconstitutional?
Because people don't want to pay income tax, so they grasp at straws to try to find a way out of it. For instance, some people claim that, because the versions of 16th amendment that were ratified by the states have slight differences in the spelling of words, capitalization, and punctuation, it was never properly ratified, and is thus invalid.
Another argument is that, since congress didn't pass an official proclamation of Ohio's 1803 admission to statehood until 1953, that Ohio wasn't a state until 1953, and thus the whole ratification process is invalid. This despite the fact that a) it's ridiculous, and b) the amendment still would have passed even without Ohio's ratification. | b94dcd7d-0ffb-43ce-a01f-50fabfccdb01 |
753p86 | Binary Options | Binary options are a type of financial instrument which can be exercised based on the value of some asset at or after some point in time.
For example, a given option may pay the option holder 10$ if the value of a single share of ACME exceeds $100 on July 13th 2018 at the close of market.
If I am the option holder, and I believe that the price will exceed $100 on that date, I should keep the option.
If I am the option holder, and I believe that the price will fall below $100 on that date, I should sell the option.
If I am not an option holder, and I believe that the price will exceed $100 on that date, I should buy the option for less than $10.
If I am not an option holder, and I do not believe that the price will exceed $100 on that date, I should not buy the option at all.
The binary option industry is absolutely rife with fraud and sketchy practices, so they should be avoided like the plague. | d26ca0c2-1860-4ffa-8901-70b8b1f71e43 |
6qv2u3 | the difference between the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Homeland Security. | The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a police force that is run by the federal government. This means they investigate and respond to crimes within the US. They also happen to be responsible for counter-intelligence, or put another way, they are responsible for investigating the crime of espionage inside the US.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is just that; a central agency for gathering intelligence on other countries. It was originally meant to just gather and analyze intelligence from the US's other intelligence services (mostly military and state department) and put it in one place for the administration to use, instead of collecting its own intelligence. However, around the time of the Korean War it was given the authority to collect its own intelligence and conduct covert action.
The National Security Agency (NSA) is responsible for collecting and analyzing signals intelligence, meaning any information on foreign countries that is transmitted by wire or radio. It started as a codebreaking unit in WWI. The name is a carryover from the various names of the agencies it came from (Signal Security Agency, then Army Security Agency, then Armed Forces Security Agency, then National Security Agency).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was created as a response to the terrorist attacks of 9-11, and particularly the disorganization of and lack of communication between various security and intelligence agencies in the US that allowed the attacks to happen. The DHS was created to take a number of different security agencies and roles, which were spread across a large number of different agencies, and put them all under one organization. It is more "proactive" than the FBI, in the sense it is supposed to actively prevent terrorist attacks, instead of solving crimes after the fact, and it also has a wider scope than the other agencies, since border protection and disaster preparedness and response also fall under their umbrella.
Edit: It should be noted that the FBI and DHS are internal agencies and have police authority; they can conduct arrests and prosecute US citizens, given the proper warrants, etc. The CIA and the NSA are foreign intelligence agencies and explicitly do not have the authority to arrest US citizens, or spy on them. This is why leaks about the NSA's monitoring programs are such a big deal; essentially, by using the excuse that the communications were with foreigners, the NSA has been wiretapping *everyone* without a warrant. | 3fff2eea-5a50-46ba-9e9a-29f5b60a4089 |
4d91v0 | If you are deaf do you need to be concerned about your ears? In terms out volume | Yes.
While you may be deaf loud noises can still cause both pain and physical damage to your ears. | b04119d2-c87b-4992-97b7-01dce76583c6 |
34z60e | Why is the plastic no longer opaque on this sticker? | Because one side of that plastic has lots of bumps, so when light passes through it, the light is refracted and scattered in random directions. However, the sticker fills in these bumps and leaves a smooth surface for light to pass straight through unobstructed. | e46f7f81-345e-4cf1-b789-de3614b126dd |
5kii7h | Why do most devices that use multiple batteries need to have them alternated? | Efficiency.
Most devices require more voltage than a single battery produces. For example, a AA battery produces 1.5 volts. If you need 3 volts, you need to connect two AA batteries in a series. That means you need to join the positive end of one battery to the negative end of of the next battery.
The easiest way to do that is for the batteries to be placed in alternating directions. That makes it really easy to join the positive end of one battery to the negative end of the other. If the two batteries were in the same direction you would need much more wiring, which would take up more space and waste more material. | fbf6969e-fed8-46b6-a4e5-6f9217be410f |
4fll28 | If Republicans are for small government why are they introducing so many laws thrusting their religion on to others? | Mostly because Republicans haven't been for small government in several years. Republicans and Democrats just have different opinions on which parts of government should be bigger or smaller. In general, Democrats want to control what you do outside of your house, Republicans want to control what you do inside of it. | d4bd0539-c29f-493f-8a34-79fdc6b49b61 |
5yj5qb | What function do Tinder bots serve? | It's selling porn. That's it. Those sketchy links you end up getting sent by a tinder bot or anything else are just porn. The one reaping the benefit is the person selling the porn. | 36aafd02-d381-460f-9a10-64df01685629 |
4thm0m | do sperms come with pre-installed intelligence and character or are all sperms the same and develop these traits later? | I like to compare intelligence to a glass of water. You can think of the size of the glass as your genetic contribution (the instructions encoded within sperm and egg cells) and the water itself as your environment. The size of your glass determines how much water you can hold, and obviously a larger glass will hold more water.
However, the amount of water you can hold also depends upon how much water is available (the quality of your family life, education, and personal experiences). If you're experiencing a drought, it doesn't matter how large your glass is--you'll end up with the same amount of water. Conversely, if you have a small cup you won't be able to hold much water no matter how much water is available. In the end, you need both an adequately sized cup (healthy genes) and lots of water (an enriched environment with diversified experiences) to be intelligent.
Now given that both genetics and environment are mutually dependent upon each other, the questions then becomes: which factor is more powerful? And though this question is still up for debate, [recent studies](_URL_0_) have estimated intelligence to be between 22% and 46% due to genetic inheritance.
***tl;dr:*** *Sperm and egg cells carry genetic information which places limits on intelligence (about 1/3rd of overall intellectual ability). However, sufficient experience is also required for that intelligence to develop and seems to play a larger role (about 2/3rds of overall intellectual ability).* | ecb6f5fa-fba1-4f9f-afa5-bab69a7df804 |
6u688p | How do high areas of heat ripple our vision? | Hot air is less dense than cold air, and light travels through them at slightly different speeds. At the boundaries between hot and cold air, the difference causes light to refract (aka bend) as it passes from one to the other. As the hot air rises and circulates with cold air, the boundaries between hot and cold constantly change as well as does the direction of light passing through. This creates the moving, ripple effect. | cdf26bd4-ecd8-4670-bc7c-1776aebe29d6 |
4va4zx | Do additives in gasoline from petroleum companies such as Invigorate or Triclean actually do anything? Or are they just a gimic to attract unaware customers? Or maybe they do a little but are essentially negligible. Please explain what they are and if they are worth a damn. | Ok you have 2 blends of gas, summer and winter, each blends has additives required from your country mandated as law, these are mainly detergents to keep your fuel system clean and THEY WORK GREAT! Every gas station has the minimum guaranteed.
Problem comes with the "special additives" such as shell, to be completely honest? It's not worth the extra money. Top tier gas included. You are more likely to spin a bearing, throw a rod, blow a gasket, bend a valve, burn a valve, placing "octane boost" on top of premium in a recommended 87 octane car because "it was running rough" (pro tip: if it says premium, get premium, if it says regular get regular!) on top of a host of other issues that is easy preventive maintenance than to "gunk up" your fuel injectors, even then a bottle of seafoam and your set (fixes most fuel injector issues outside of wiring/failing) and even then it's extremely uncommon to see.
I'm sure you've seen the "valve" that shell gas prevented correct? It's a leaky valve stem o-ring leaking oil down, the problem only corrects itself with a replacement seal and a possible new valve, at high rpms it can cause a misfire from valve float | b05f91fa-020a-4d7c-bdb4-5c90b3792e17 |
137lq6 | Why do some TV shows like TBBT and Homeland make it over to prime time British TV, but Parks and Recreation and Breaking Bad don't? | Either the networks there believe that they will not be popular enough to justify acquiring the rights to, or the rights holders in the US are asking for more money than the British networks are willing to pay. | f8080627-db84-4847-bacd-d45c5ef1d52a |
2ks6zd | Why do worldleaders even think about going to war with eachother even though they know that it will cost incredible amounts of money and many innocent lives? | War is usually about land and resources. If one country needs land for farming and it's taken by another country, they will not have the ability to feed their people. If land with valuable minerals or oil is taken, the country losing that land will have less ability to progress by using those resources. If a shipping lane is taken, some countries might even become trapped, unable to import or export goods. | dcd8be80-3b27-43c2-a520-660fe012e103 |
4mqonp | Is there a finite amount of potable water? If so, what terms would completely deplete it? Can the finite amount be used to make more? | There is a finite amount of water. Saltwater can be treated to make potable water but it's still limited. We couldn't make more unless we utilized chemical reactions like hydrogen peroxide, etc. | 6f2b28bb-0220-4572-a54f-334ec84e1d49 |
3xx4hh | El Niño. What the FUCK happened to winter? | Okay, so, the pacific ocean is really big, and really windy. The winds push all of the water to the west, and it wells up warm surface water along the western pacific. Every once in a while, for reasons we don't yet fully understand, the wind gets a little weaker, and the pacific ocean has a crazy backwash. Then that flops against the far coast, and washes back again.
That wave of warm water crossing the pacific twice creates El Nino and La Nina, these periods of bizarre weather.
We're not sure if El Nino is happening more often than it used to or not. We're definitely in a rough patch, but we don't have enough historical data to say if it's just a rough patch or connected to climate change. But it'll happen again in 2-7 years if the rough patch doesn't subside. | df6f0274-c7e7-4053-a49c-b3a611e448c7 |
4rh8e8 | How are young birds and eggs safe in nests? Aren't they sitting ducks? | First and foremost. Did you just make this post for a sitting ducks pun?
Second, that is why a great many birds build nests way up on the top of trees. Those that don't generally try to disguise it in the underbrush.
But yes, at the end of the day, eggs do get eaten. Nature doesn't care that much about the death rate, so long as the survival rate is enough to keep the species going. | cc8e3c38-15cf-426e-9992-88709d40a4d7 |
85v8dt | Why are gasoline prices so volatile especially compared to other staples like bread or milk? | Because the markup on gasoline is much smaller than the markup on more processed goods like bread. [Wheat prices](_URL_0_) are similarly volatile as [oil prices](_URL_2_), but there's about a nickel of wheat in a loaf of bread, so when the price of wheat moves by 50% it impacts the total cost of the loaf by only a couple percent (and most of the other costs are much more stable).
Oil is the majority of the cost of gasoline, so when oil prices move gasoline prices often rapidly follow.
Milk is unique because dairy prices are heavily influenced [by the government](_URL_1_). | 65440385-d888-4cb4-ac9f-3ab99c7ce414 |
6i2jft | How can an advanced US destroyer collide with a tanker in open waters? Are there no alarms or nobody steering? How can something like that go unnoticed? | The most common reason is human error:
– Insufficient watch-keeping.
– Lack of situational awareness.
– Failure to set priorities – lack of positive action.
– Preoccupation with administrative tasks.
– Failure to communicate intentions (officer/master/pilot).
– Lack of assertiveness – failure to challenge incorrect decisions (officer/master/pilot).
– Failure to comply with standard procedures and international regulations.
– Failure to utilise available data and resources.
– Lack of training – “human-technology” interface.
With all these causes though there may well be systemic causes behind the human errors, such as inadequate training, ambiguous responsibilities, stressful job, etc.
Collisions are fairly common though. | e0ab4019-529e-4222-a6ed-262f75e06b66 |
34839d | Why do drive-thru fast food places have two Windows even though only one is used? | When order volumes are high enough, and when they have staff for it, they can run both windows, which makes the drive-thru a little more efficient. But it doesn't make sense to run it that way when order volumes are lower. | a5aed319-fe64-4401-be20-e64275b02bd0 |
6333gf | Why do guys feel it in their stomach when they get hit in then balls? | In humans, the testicles start out life in the abdomen and descend through its lower wall, eventually ending up external to the body. This gives them a number of connections to the abdomen; they're basically wrapped in every layer of the abdominal wall. Their nerve supply comes from the abdomen as well, apparently resulting in what's called "referred pain," where pain is felt in places not involved in the injury. | f65768e3-7651-421b-90f1-3d52144e0893 |
6sqzjl | How can we assume that people recycle properly? What happens if someone accidentally throws a non-recyclable item into the recycling? | The recycling plant has machines and people to split recycling. Even if it where all recycled properly you still need to put the coke can in the aluminum recycling machine and the coke bottle into the glass recycling machine. | 090b1170-9126-45d7-a8e9-0fb74c79c5d7 |
3vwnza | Why are there no gray people? | There are in-between colored people; they’re brown, not grey. White people aren’t ivory white, and black people aren’t ebony black; we’ve got some reddish hue that shows through our skin. Black people from Africa are very dark skinned – in American and many European nations, we often see someone with brown skin and consider them with black, but they’re of mixed skin town. A lot of people in other nations have skin so black that they’ll make you wonder why we chose the word ‘black’ to describe people that are actually Crayola brown; brown is what you’re wondering why it doesn’t exist, and it does. | f4fd5c7b-205c-4ba5-8e46-a5de4dd443b4 |
10vcuw | Why when I put my banana in my lunch bag, does everything taste like banana? | Whilst I can't really answer your question, have you tried a "banana guard" or similar product? Covering it would reduce contact with the rest of your lunch (potentially helping with the flavour problem) and protect the fruit from bruising at the same time.
I do know that bananas release ethylene as they ripen but according to Wikipedia it is a "colorless flammable gas with a faint 'sweet and musky' odor when pure".
Unlike orange oil which can be found in orange peel, bananas don't contain any banana oil. Amyl acetate, a synthetic chemical commonly called banana oil, actually gets its nickname from the strong banana-like scent, so none can be found in bananas.
Taste does have a lot to do with smell though. Perhaps the natural banana smell is enough to make things taste a bit like banana. | 54065196-6185-4ecd-bb54-132c52ea338b |
2xqv6a | Would it be possible to change a planet's atmosphere, terrain, etc enough to make it capable of supporting life | The process that you are referring to is called Terra forming. Theoretically it would be possible, though at current times, we struggle just to manage maintaining little national parks. The process of changing another planets atmosphere without drastically changing it too much might be more than we could ever manage. | 88271d9a-d4d8-4e55-94ee-95f24d5a00b0 |
26uzgu | Quantum Mechanics Superpositions | The superposition principle is a property of waves (more precisely it's a
property of a linear system, and most wave equations are linear) that
says if you add two waves together you get another wave.
You are most likely familiar with superpositions even if you don't know it,
for example a C note on a piano is a sound wave, as are the notes E and G.
If you combine these three sound waves you get another sound wave - a chord.
What about Quantum Mechanics? Well in QM a particle such as an electron is
described by the Schrödinger equation, which is a linear wave equation. The
QM wave describes the state, a combination of properties like energy and position,
of the particle. Because it's a linear wave then the superposition principle
also applies to it: the electron with 1 MeV of energy is a wave, and the electron
with 2 MeV of energy is a wave, and so the combination of these two waves is also
a wave describing the electron. Much like the chord wave has both a C note and an E note, we
can have a wave where the electron has both 1 MeV of energy and 2 MeV of energy.
The question then is does this mean anything and if so what? It turns out these
superpositions can exist, and you can do experiments to prove it. (The electron
double-slit is a famous one, where an electron interferes with itself just
like sound waves or light waves can do). But it gets weird when you want to
measure the properties of this superposition wave. It turns out that when you
measure the property of a superposition wave it 'collapses' into a wave that
is not a superposition of that property. So for example the electron
superposition of both 1 MeV and 2 MeV collapses into a wave
which is either 1 MeV or 2 MeV. Whether it'll collapse to the 1 MeV wave or 2 MeV wave is random
and depends on the relative strength of the two waves. | bc23e1c2-4882-46eb-a32d-cd3e5ea94351 |
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