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4hcxqv | Why do we have two of some organs (e.g. lungs, kidneys, etc.) but not of others (e.g. liver, pancreas, etc.)? | Surface area. Our body is constantly filtering via the kidneys and exchanging gas via the lungs. Having twice the amount of alveoli and twice the amount of nephrons helps our body keep up with the amount of absorption, secretion, and exchange necessary to maintain homeostasis. You can technically live without one kidney and one lung, but it puts stress on that organ and requires you to make lifestyle changes to accommodate. | 9df58728-5348-4678-8de7-e51fb05e1aa1 |
90a5ql | How come there are fireplaces in the woods? Why not tear them down when tearing the house down? | The fireplace is immune to both rot and fire. So if either of those destroyed the rest of the house the fireplace will still be there. | a42e3828-1021-4363-b387-fd1194534ab7 |
ta0pn | - Why is it so hard to artificially replenish the ozone layer? | Volume, the amount of Ozone we'd have to create is extremely high and would have to placed in high atmosphere. | 769478e4-2ebd-4bb9-b412-bb3aadf069cd |
5qsk1l | Why exactly is it considered racist for white people to be proud of their heritage, but not any other race? | The basic idea is that 'white pride' has a history of including violent aggression toward POC, like the KKK lynchings, and it's part of a Western system of institutionalized racism against POC. When a Black person is participating in a 'black pride' thing like Black Lives Matter, they are trying to fight back against the system that produced slavery and race inequality, and the movement that they are part of does not endorse violence against white people. A bunch of people disagree with all of that, but that's what a BLM activist would tell you.
Now, there is a way for a white person to be proud of their heritage without it being considered racist – focus on culture, not race. If you're Scottish, go to a Scottish festival; if you're French, learn French cooking, and so on and so forth. That's totally fine, because it's about celebrating who you are without putting down anyone else.
Another way to think about it: if the average person of another race or culture would be able to participate in an event or movement, it's probably okay. I'm not Chinese, but I'm going to go to a Chinese New Year event in my town because it's open to everyone and it's about celebrating culture. My Filipina friend's not Scottish, but she went to the Scottish festival with a friend of ours who is, because it sounded fun to both of them. I've marched in anti-racism protests organized by Black activist groups even though I'm white, because I care about getting rid of institutional racism.
But would POC feel comfortable at a white pride event, with all the racist history that carries? Not many would. | db4cedd2-18de-4d0b-9712-9f02c5c0ae79 |
3prk00 | How come indigenous people have historically been affected by invaders diseases but the invaders weren't affected by some random disease that the natives had? | It's not always one way. Syphilis was one example of a new world disease that was definitely problematic for Europeans.
But often times the larger populations of more developed nations meant that there were larger infection pools, over time only the most infectious of diseases would be able to propagate.
Also many of the Europeans at the time lived in close proximity to livestock, meaning they learned to live with more diseases that could jump species. | b4b22e27-a256-4f93-a967-836a225121ae |
40kuht | ...If aliens put a satellite into earth orbit to observe us, would we even notice with all the other satellites up there? | Yes. Astronomers carefully track all sattelites - as do some world governments. Even space junk is tracked.
Astronomers need to know where sattelites and debris are so it does not interfere with looking at stars.
Governments want to know where spy sattelites are and who is looking at what.
NASA and other space agency's track space junk and sattelites so stuff they launch into space does not collide with it.
So, things orbiting our planet are carefully examined. | af80a63e-e140-481c-a74e-e2b4b7b883e0 |
3qyblt | What would have happened in China if you got pregnant with a second child? | You would pay a one time fine at the birth of your child (or when it was discovered) and you would pay extra taxes. | f5f71785-8286-49e2-a88e-5df363dad2e2 |
35mzh9 | What's the point of the "objection" part of a wedding? | It doesn't have a point anymore. Which is why lots of people are choosing to leave it out.
Nowadays, when you want to get married, you need to arrange the legal stuff beforehand - proof that you are legally able to marry this man or woman. Which generally comes down to showing that you are not blood related / that you are not already married.
In ye olden days, you didn't have to show so many records before trying to getting hitched and cross checking everything was a lot harder without computers. The objection part was so anyone who would know of a valid legal reason why these two people could not be wed could speak up. | 79393c98-3e6f-442d-9362-8af903233d9c |
5590nx | The whole world has been pumping trillions of dollars into Africa as charity since decades now. Why are malnutrition, poverty, etc. still an issue there? | It's a political problem. Large parts of sub-Saharan Africa are basically kleptocracies ruled by thieving dictators who only seek to enrich themselves and build prestige. | e06f2932-8adb-4c85-893c-56bc694d42e8 |
41dwwz | The Limits of the Filibuster | > Are there any protocols in place to forcibly end a filibuster? Does anyone or any majority have the authority to overrule a filibuster?
Yes, the process is called cloture (meaning the formal end of debate), in the US senate it requires a supermajority of 60 (of 100) votes. In practice, the metagame of the senate has shifted to both sides knowing (or having a high confidence in their ability to predict) whether a filibuster actually has 60 votes for cloture and simply not bringing up business that would have the potential to be filibustered.
Each legislature would have it's own rules for cloture and whatever rule voting majority is required. | ecb0111f-6f9d-4ce3-9a01-ccf354f15abc |
4uof50 | If I just drew up some random contract on a piece of paper torn from a notebook and it was signed by someone else would its contents be binding? | If it meets the requirements of a contract, sure:
1. All parties in the contract must be giving something. You can't just write "You will give me $100" and think it's a binding contract if I sign it. If you're not agreeing to do something for that $100, it isn't a contract.
2. The offers and acceptance must be clear and unambiguous.
3. It must not violate any laws.
4. Both parties must understand what it is they are agreeing to, and be of legal age to sign a contract.
5. There must be agreement among the parties as to the contents of the contract.
If it meets these requirements, it's a contract. | 36cd80ef-f803-4d02-8303-ee359f4dc6c4 |
1b2y0g | meta-analysis | Let's say that I want to work out whether 5 year olds like french fries. Lots of people have already done studies looking at how much kids like french fries but in all sorts of different ways. Also, any scientific study could be wrong. If some say that kids *do* like fries and others say they *don't*, how do I know which to believe? Instead of doing a new study and adding to the pile I could try and combine all of the studies that have already been done and seeing what I can find. How you actually do that is fairly complicated but that's the basic rationale. | 18889466-8da8-4376-9348-86e4e70ff370 |
3uadwa | Why is it when a US service member dies on active duty the family receives at most $400k, but when young man is murdered by police and the family receives $5mil. | Well, a service member expected to put their life on the line but a civilian doesn't expect to die at the hands of the people who should be protecting them. | a17c2026-6e3c-43a3-8beb-0e4204ccf0ad |
5ypbgc | Why does odd meter in music (e.g., time signatures in 9/8, 7/4, etc.) sound and feel so unnatural? | Music is much more acquired than you think. What sounds 'good' or 'normal' to you is the scales and the meters that you grew up listening to. The reason odd meter sounds weird to western ears is because...we don't hear it that often. 3/4 is an odd meter that we hear a lot so it sounds completely normal.
You'll find odd meters with more frequency in other cultures. 7/8 (septuple meter) is really common in Balkan countries. 5/8 (quintuple meter) is found all over the place: ancient greece, spain, aboriginal australians, native american populations, korean court music, hindustani songs, etc. | f708531c-c654-4576-a73a-9d46f67e8ac1 |
5gnh0p | / Why can't/don't we make toilets that don't clog? | We absolutely can, but there are a couple limits that we have to work within. First is the diameter of the outflow pipe beneath the toilet. This usually isn't much of an issue, because the toilet drain pipe is generally no less than 3 inches.
The other limitation is the amount of water and pressure we're using to flush. In a home, there's only about 1.6 gallons of water to flush with (older toilets can have considerably more), and the pressure is defined by the amount of water in the tank and gravity.
In a commercial toilet without a tank, the pressure is much greater and the amount of water can be greater as well, which is why you rarely get a stopped up commercial toilet. | 24fbb56e-12e5-41bd-be8b-133127ff11c1 |
3kgmgx | How do archaeologists know what noses look like? | The bone parts around the nose provide indicators of nose shape that they can use to create reasonable deductions of noses. | 8b116f0f-3b8d-4af5-814e-1c05cdddee5b |
20hvzc | Conservatism, Socialism and Liberalism | This is probably beyond the scope of ELI5, and is going to have a lot of loaded answers. There are as many definitions as people who care enough to have them.
My personal opinion: Conservatives tend to believe that tradition and the past are very valuable and deserving of respect. Socialists believe that people should work for a common good, without a desire for personal gain. Liberals tend to believe that change is the way to the future, and that people's attitudes towards each other should be marked by generosity, which should be enforced by a government.
I think most people, at least, can agree on this: whatever your alignment, most people honestly believe that their system is the best for the world; very, very few people are actually evil or malicious in their ideology. | 8bfb9741-e3ba-48d0-b9cb-6d453d691964 |
1snk2d | Why do my eyes water up when I pull out a nose hair? | Tears are a reaction to irritation, an attempt by your body to flush foreign particles out of your eyes. The pain of pulling out a nose hair is so close to eye pain, I imagine it causes the same reaction. Just speculation. | 0560bbc8-d9ff-44dc-b560-027f461c4757 |
2q2k07 | How come there can only be two sith but loads of Jedi | * Expanded universe history. The Sith fought a massive war with themselves long ago and the last Sith standing decreed the current system to keep them from destroying themselves again.
* Its a lie. Palpitate clearly keeps multiple force capable individuals under him through the series and expanded universe books and hides them from each other. He may not name them apprentices but the relationship is the same. | 5cd300f9-66c2-4bf2-8989-babc6d6c9be8 |
6ysust | how do wireless connections really work? | In short, in the late 1800's James Maxwell, amazingly without having to observe anything and with pure mathematics showed the existence of electromagnetic waves otherwise known as radio waves. Shortly after, Heinrich Hertz proved him correct with real life observations. | 257faade-e916-41cb-ac36-41a0669194ff |
4dqv55 | Why is Tai Lopez considered a scum bag for his "knowledge" videos? | The popular YouTube channel H3H3 made [this video](_URL_0_) describing it really well. Essentially, his "motivational" videos are clearly disingenuous and fake. This, tacked on to his annoying voice and arrogant attitude, makes him pretty fuckin' scummy | 556afcd4-f223-4bd8-9056-c6d5726ee0ef |
4peozy | How do civil engineers calculate how much weight a bridge can hold? | There's a class in college called "statics" and "dynamics". Where you learn about how much weight various materials can support and what happens if the weight is applied at an angle and how you can add support with cables and such. | 8fb1616f-b56c-446d-b7da-dac399997c0d |
5gvi7t | What makes wholesome memes as funny, despite them being very boring at face value? | A big factor of comedy is the unexpected. When you get so used to edgy jokes the opposite will throw you off and are more likely to find it funny. | 61681ed8-28cb-4846-9577-372c87f0f8f7 |
3f13ms | Why do we have different punishments for murder and attempted murder? | Because we decided that actually ending someone's life is worse than not ending their life.
You could rephrase the question as "Why do we have different punishments for assault and attempted murder? Why do we punish the criminal because their victim had a weak skull and it nearly gave out totally?" | 9f8693e7-a73c-47ad-8289-64e350e33365 |
1j9lx0 | Is countries printing more money a good sign or a bad one? Why? | Along with things like adjusting interest rates and taxes, printing more or less money is one of the things a government can do to steer their country's economy. So your question is a bit like "Is a car driver applying the brakes a good sign or a bad one?". Depends on the situation. It's something you normally do a bit from time to time in the course of keeping things under control. But if you see someone suddenly slam the brakes on, that's a bad sign. Same thing if a country suddenly starts printing enormous amounts money. | 2ab03005-0c58-48f3-b22e-635e000d0410 |
2pw0n5 | If Gandalf knew Bilbo has the ring, why did he let him keep it? | He didn't know it was The One Ring - it was thought to be destroyed. In The Hobbit the ring was nothing special (other than the invisibility), and in the Lord of the Rings books it took Gandalf 17 years from Bilbo's farewell party to discover that it was in fact Sauron's ring. | 4f10facc-d856-47a5-b820-aaedf7b96959 |
3ehls5 | Why newlyweds should get blood tests | I'm sure someone can explain this better than I can, but its basically to see if they can have children and what their children's immunities and what not would closely correlate too.
Again... I'm sure someone can explain this better than I, but it has more to do with the children they might have than an aids test, although those don't hurt to do either. | 2d29a400-a73d-4d8b-8f0b-727f96331722 |
5dss4r | What happens when we swallow our own blood? | You will expel it like anything else you eat. But the average human can only consume a little over a pint of blood before you get sick. Don't puke you will rip your stiches lol | e591d883-327c-4d25-b909-818abf5ebff9 |
7di3mo | If heat sanitises, why can getting a burn cause an infection? | Burning leads to an open wound. Your skin protects you from nasty things entering through your flesh, so if it's burned off it can no longer protect you. | 0ac50651-49ec-41da-8ad9-c1b2f3f0ae28 |
6ydezx | why do we bruise? | A bruise is caused by tiny blood vessels called capillaries breaking and allowing blood to leak into the surrounding tissue. This happens because we aren't invincible. | 2f9dd8f3-c731-43de-bd4f-efab78c81260 |
5ohaaw | How does encryption work? | Most simple explanation:
* I put a key (key A) in a box, and lock this box with my padlock using my other key (key B).
* I send this locked box to you. The "man in the middle" is unable to see this Key A. I never send Key B, so that key also stays secret.
* You put a second padlock on the box, using your key (key C). This key also stays on your side, so it's secret as well.
* You send the box with the 2 padlocks back. Again, the "man in the middle" is unable to see Key A, nor Key C.
* I remove my padlock using my Key B.
* I send the box back to you, it's still locked with your padlock.
* You open the box using Key C, and voila: You now have Key A. | 46e83701-f99e-45a6-b173-50b801e87d08 |
88r15p | Why do different regions have different tasting water? | Different mineral content in the source water will change the taste.
What do you mean by mess up science experiments though? Any serious science experiments will use distilled water to remove the minerals, while most high school or lower science experiments shouldn’t be too dependent on mineral content/care about contamination. | 5a5beeb5-c260-43a7-bb0f-78a6417cf8f5 |
zaj4a | How do I create shirts based on existing properties without getting in trouble for copyright infringement? | You either don't do it, or change the source enough that you can claim it's a parody. Selling merchandise using copyrighted characters you do not own is an incredibly clear violation, and there isn't a court in the country that would rule in your favor. | 68a68d83-cb5b-42c8-ac8b-7ec4a687fedc |
7x6exg | Why does water bother our eyes so much? | This is dependent on the source obviously, but most water is not "clean", meaning it has particles of other things in it. Water in outdoor environments can have contaminants from farm runoff, dirt, algae, etc. Pool water can have chlorine, bromine, and salts that can cause irritation, and virtually all water, from taps, pools, bottles, the Atlantic ocean, you name it, has microbial life in it. The water isn't what usually bothers your eyes, it's all the microscopic bits of gunk in it that cause irritation by drying out the mucus membranes, stripping them, blocking the tear ducts, etc. | 67606a7b-0f3c-40f2-9928-d52da4b17848 |
3gq3ah | Why is it that Asians who come to America not knowing English do better, within a few years , than most Americans who lived here their whole life? | because the Asian immigrants that come here, at least the highly visible ones to mainstream american society, tend to be wealthy, highly educated, and highly motivated. If you compare them to the broad swathe of the American populace, then yeah, they seem to be doing better.
If you compare them to American born people with similar access to education and wealth, the native born Americans likely do better and the gap is certainly smaller. | 19758e1a-f96b-444c-9ce1-0f64eee092aa |
2a3q4e | Why do boobs from the 60's/70's look so much different than present day boobs? | As someone who has seen thirty year of boobs, the boobs themselves don't change. It is the boobs you see that do. I am assuming you are talking about the boobs you see in movies and on websites. Back in the 60's and 70's what a filmmaker saw as a perfect set of boobs was different than what you would see as a perfect set of boobs. Body doubles with cosmetic surgery are used now where natural tits would be used then. | 58888178-31b6-4c4b-9d02-b4d9007ec163 |
29ttvp | Why do mosquitoes prefer one person's blood over another? | Mosquitos prefer:
* [Type O Blood](_URL_3_). On the same note, most people secrete chemical signals through their skin that indicates blood type, but about 15% do not, so naturally mosquitos prefer the 85%.
* [People who exhale high levels of Carbon Dioxide](_URL_0_). Mosquitos use an organ called a maxillary palp to help detect targets, & it works by detecting Carbon Dioxide in the air. More Carbon Dioxide means mosquitos can detect you better.
* Sweaty people. Mosquitos also detect targets by smelling lactic acid, uric acid, ammonia & other chemicals in your sweat, so if you're sweaty, that'll help them find you.
* Hot people. They also detect body heat.
* [Pregnant Women](_URL_4_). Due to an increase of about 20% in Carbon Dioxide exhalation & an increase in body temperature, mosquitos like pregnant women.
* [Certain bacteria found on your skin](_URL_1_).
* Dark or red clothes. Mosquitos can see these colours better.
* [Beer](_URL_2_). One study has found that mosquitos prefer people who are drinking alcohol. It's possible this is due to increased body temperature or ethanol in your sweat, but we don't have an exact answer for this one yet! | e80518a4-aa26-4f5b-bc1d-3de763e2aaa9 |
27mm5v | What is the appeal of social networking services such as Snapchat or Instagram? | Snapchat and Instagram both allow text to be added as captions. For the sake of conversations, they have a similar appeal that a Skype video call has over a normal one - seeing the person's face.
Instagram is more like a Facebook newsfeed than a conversation tool. It's more to show off meals eaten, clothes bought and perhaps some visual experiences. Also, my generation seems to be allergic to reading anything more than a short paragraph. | 6307f7e0-b46c-4e97-9625-6ce0fe95b4a8 |
61eiwi | Why do fake phone numbers start with 555? | Because no real phone number start with that prefix. This means shows can use a number without accidentally giving out a real person's number - 8675309. | abd0437c-9c2d-45b7-be1a-7aa8066175bd |
256mgt | How does it make sense that WhatsApp sold for $16b while Beats only went for $3.2b? | BOTH acquisitions are ridiculously, excessively high. It's unlikely beats is even worth more than a $1.5B or so. Whatsapp, is probably worth maybe a couple billion, haha, maybe, probably not.--- Which doesn't answer your question.
So why did they go this high? Because they companies that bought them are throwing money around like crazy in a tech acquisition war. Yup, a war. The ones with money are trying to snatch up everyone else that could be a money maker, and willing to pay absurd amounts of money, just so no one else can have them and they will not compete with them. It's a war, they are willing to pay whatever it takes to win, even if its insane. And they can afford it.
For perspective. Star Wars, and everything Lucas Arts was valued at $4B, and that was considered an immense steal at that price. They basically gave it away. Sony, the massive industrial tech giant congolmorate beast of Japanese industry is valued around $18B. Think about that. Sony, an massive worldwide company with products used on every part of the earth costs less than whatsapp.
In other words, fuck that shit. | 30c00699-938e-4b6e-9d0c-063332301be7 |
4isvn7 | The Legitimate reasons for using off shore banking. | Let's pretend you are Apple, you have a lot of research and development offices in the US, a bunch of retail locations, maybe a few warehouses and repair centers. Company HQ all in the US.
A lot of your main bank accounts are here in the US. However you have a large accounting office in Ireland because of their tax laws, so you need an account in Europe to pay the Irish employees in Euros.
Then you have a lot of contracts with various factories in China to build parts, so you need to have accounts in China to pay people with the Yuan.
If you didn't have these various offshore accounts, you would have to pay an exchange fee every time you wrote a check, and worse, if the exchange rate was bad, the check would be for more money than you originally thought. | 9f53ebf2-a215-4f0f-ab49-98b466a8fdf6 |
4abjy8 | I see ads for the drug Humira on TV all the time, and it seems like every time I see a commercial for it, the drug is being advertised to treat a different disease whether it be depression, RA, plaque psoriasis, Crohn's Disease, etc.. How can one drug treat so many ailments? | Humira is a drug that reduces inflammation. Because Humira treats a symptom, rather than the root cause of a disease, it's useful in treating a wide range of diseases that share that symptom.
I don't think Humira is advertised as a treatment for depression, all I found online was people asking if depression was a side effect. | ffadfed4-a580-43d6-968f-9435361287c1 |
5mcuyl | What is science behind this ? | Circulation mostly.
When it's warm, our bodies circulate blood normally, sending oxygen, vitamins, minerals, all the things needed to grow nails.
When it's cold, our bodies preserve the heat by lowering circulation to our extremities, i.e fingers, toes...
Less circulation, less things to make nails with, slower growing nails. | ab4b6140-9da6-43e2-8bcb-7eb46c916914 |
1la99c | The Salem Witch Trials. | If you want a really good depiction of it I'd say check out the crucible. It is also an allegory for the red scare but it still does justice to the trials themselves. | 367270f4-273a-46cd-adce-51bd4c40ee42 |
3ggss8 | Why does the colour black attract and store heat? | You've got it slightly wrong. The reason why an object is even black in the first place is because it absorbs all the light.
In other words, the color of an object depends on how it absorbs, reflects and refracts light. When an objects absorbs a lot of light, it will, by definition, be a dark color. | 99bfdad6-36b0-4b09-b9de-085c66cb6605 |
2g707y | Why are some people smarter than others? | There is no single determining factor. Size of the brain makes a big difference but doesn't always have a direct correlation. You also have to remember that "smarter" is a very vague term. There is "artistic" intelligence, "mathematic" intelligence etc etc. Some people are great artists but can't do simple Algebra. I'm on the other side of that spectrum, I can't draw a stick figure but I'm great with math. So since it's not a single thing that determines overall intelligence it is very hard to pinpoint exactly which area of the brain is responsible for this function.
So my answer would be, there is too many variables to know for sure. And honestly we don't really know enough about the brain to know the answer to this complex question. | 042a8eb9-75da-49a9-a0d9-9a4a35427ece |
1w5p64 | Why is death by firing squad so bad? | I would think any experts would be unavailable for comment. Coming up with a best way to die is like debating what kind of dog crap tastes best.
I think the anticipation would be the worst. A shot to the heart would cause shock (feel no pain) and unconsciousness within seconds. Death would happen within minutes. If no bullet knocked your heart out, bleeding out could take awhile.
Chemical injection executions usually report burning sensations. | 71cc16d0-673f-4624-adfe-cc9417cc0de9 |
3bdcof | In the hypothetical Gray Goo doomsday scenario, wouldn't an EMP sort the problem? | If hypothetically we were to create a device that's not a nuke that was capable of generating a large EMP, then it would likely be able to destroy the hypothetical grey goo assuming your hypothetical nanobots worked in any way similarly to modern electronics. But since we have neither nanobots nor EMPs, speculating about the effectiveness of either is kind of difficult. | 3f31747a-c1f2-4acb-82a9-9d03e9ee9709 |
30wa6m | Why is reddit hivemind considered left and not center? | Young people are generally more left leaning, where older people are generally more right leaning. Young people are also more likely to be on an Internet forum such as reddit. | c45351ed-d321-4a32-86d2-1e71ebfa3706 |
6dpqba | Why are soft porn books so popular in America? | Are you talking about the so-called "romance novels"? There's not generally a large section at bookstores labeled "soft porn", so I'm not exactly sure what you're asking about.
Edit: And if you are talking about "romance novels", yes, [they are very popular](_URL_0_), and I suspect that the authors don't get paid particularly well in comparison to authors of more well-respected genres, which would make the margin on them greater, and therefore more likely to get published in the first place. | d8fa2c4d-165b-4cc9-a85c-e31bb3f297b4 |
44lu3z | Aside from tradition or belief, what are the benefits/drawbacks to female circumcision? | There are no known health benefits to female circumcision.
Drawbacks include recurrent infections, chronic pain, cysts, an inability to get pregnant, complications during childbirth, and fatal bleeding. | b2dc1e8d-0f34-4cbb-b1f4-b0a184cf3ce7 |
2m7j8u | So how did cows, chickens and pigs become the standard protein to consume? | Cows are large and don't fight back. They also provide milk daily.
Chickens can't fly, and lay eggs.
Pigs reproduce FAST, and will eat damn near anything. | 24586599-72ab-4d42-acd8-6b8b81e86d02 |
1p09h4 | Why are children allowed to agree to a user agreement online but are not allowed to sign contracts without a parent? | They can agree to terms and conditions online, sign contracts, and do all sorts of other stuff, but that doesn't mean its legal or valid for them to do so if challenged in court. A court could throw it out, or enforce the contract, or something in the middle. It starts getting a bit more complicated from there in legal contract terms on specific circumstances. | bbc0e80a-bd25-4e7a-9051-a262bb98b7e8 |
5mptwq | Why are there no navy battleships with multiple large cannons in the US Navy anymore? | Because they're obsolete.
They have been replaced by aircraft carriers and guided missile cruisers. Both of which can attack ships and land targets over-the-horizon more effectively than a gigantic artillery on a battleship. | 64879892-264e-4b8c-999a-313a7b7f30c6 |
342kcs | Instead of trying to be emotionless, why poker players don't exaggerate fake emotions to confuse the opponent? | Doing nothing all the time gives away nothing. Exaggerating fake emotions is you doing something, doing something can be tracked. In the case of poker where there are so many hands, you trying to mimic exaggerated movements will eventually lead to inaccuracies where your "tells" will become known. This technique may work while playing with friends but pros will be able to pick up on things. | e8940de1-3ae1-44de-98cf-e5187968be36 |
7y2uke | Why do you gain weight when you quit smoking? | Nicotine is an [appetite suppressant ](_URL_0_) , so it follows that people will want to eat more when they stop nicotine. Another side effect of nicotine withdrawal is anxiety, which causes some people to turn to food for comfort. Some people turn to snacking to stave off nicotine cravings as well, because it's a distraction and because it is something to do with your mouth that isn't smoking cigarettes. | 36fd6738-be29-418d-b7a1-9c29ba36d977 |
2u8ac4 | Why do employers set up their application processes the way they do? | The resume thing is so a bot can scan and look for pertinent information, then, if the application is approved it's forwarded to a real person. | fd59c72f-f4d0-4e16-ab9c-a9c30160d69f |
jewxe | I am five, explain who do we owe money to if all countries are in debt? | [This exact question asked and answered . . .](_URL_0_) | 2560c02e-ef80-4c70-9334-b82f6ec03e1a |
3fnl0n | Did YouTube just update its video player while I was watching a video...? Is that even possible? Windows 10 Pro btw...international law be darned | The player does look different than it did just a few minutes ago when I watched a different video. A simple change like that wouldn't be hard to push out. | 99c7d3cb-b056-4887-8f2d-80ab05fb2b08 |
64xxka | What is the Holy See? And why is it in the UN? | It is essentially the leadership of the Catholic Church, and is responsible for the governance of the church worldwide.
It's regarded as a sovereign entity, akin to a nation state. For most of history the Catholic Church has controlled territory, however between 1870 and 1929 it had no territory but nonetheless continued to have diplomatic relations with other nations. In 1929 it was granted the small territory of Vatican City, however diplomatic relations continue to be with the Holy See. The territory of the Vatican City is considered subordinate to the organisation of the Holy See.
EDIT: Also, the Holy See is not a full UN member, it's an observer. It gets involved but it doesn't get to vote. | 89d5f081-f993-4a8d-ada0-c2e86b137654 |
2ifvmc | why is it that when I have a cold and I blow my nose the junk inside only seems to be clear for a few seconds... Then after that I go back to a stuffy nose. | You get stuffed up not because of the snotty stuff, but because your sinuses get inflamed. So everything sort of expands temporarily. | 6ba6a41f-1ab5-4c8f-a1e0-962f80554db4 |
1mxidw | Why are fedoras considered "uncool?" | Layman speculation, but I think it may be because fedoras have started to become synonymous with nerdy kids trying to look cool. *Generally* the nerdy kids who wear them aren't textbook definition "attractive", and they'll often wear fedoras with jeans, t-shirts, and things that fedoras generally don't go with. This probably makes up 60+ percent of the times I see fedoras being worn. I can only guess that other people see that as often as I do, but I think that's created a stigma around fedoras. | 783a6135-8e18-4b82-a102-005e1ee60f0b |
3amx4t | What the heck is happening with this banana? 0_o | You can't reverse something from being rotten, to edible. The title is misleading. It's not a rotten banana, it's just a little bruised. If I ha to guess, I'd say all he's doing is removing the bruised look of the banana, but the taste and texture of the banana would likely remain the same. Softer and mushier than a more ripe banana. | faad39d2-ca58-4aed-abee-4bb42237eed9 |
571h60 | Why can antidepressants increase suicidal thoughts? | It's a bit of a strange thing to think about, but the most dangerous time in depression is often actually not at the lowest point: the most dangerous time is actually when you're just starting to improve.
**Warning: generalizations ahead** This doesn't apply to everyone, everyone reacts differently to depression itself and anti-depressants. Anything from this point on is "some people" focusing on those who are probably most likely to experience suicidal thoughts while on anti-depressants.
Firstly, then, let's address: **Why don't people commit suicide when they're at their most depressed?**
When you're at the lowest point of depression, most people literally couldn't give a fuck. About anything, anything at all. They want to stay in bed and hide away from the world. At that point, most people aren't actually thinking about suicide: their brain isn't even functioning at a high enough level to consider it.
At the super depressed stage, they'll tend to avoid friends and family, withdraw from the world: miss school, not go to work - things that can really put your life into a negative spiral. Again though, at the time that isn't on the person's mind: all they're thinking is that they can't deal with those things right now. It's actually later this starts to matter.
So what am I saying? Mostly, that when someone starts taking anti-depressants, that can start to (slowly) lift their mood from "super-depressed" lows, and help their brain, well, start working again.
**Why does that matter?**
So now you've got somebody who's just been at the lowest point, with very clear memories of that low point. They're starting to think about the consequences of that low point: problems at work, arguments with family, missing friends birthdays, failed exams. They may even have lost their job and have bills to worry about.
A few weeks ago, that stuff didn't matter "inside": they were too depressed for it to even make sense, never mind be something they cared about: but now suddenly they're starting to think more clearly and... oh, shit. I've lost my job, I've not seen my friends for 6 months, my girlfriend left me, I've got a mortgage payment to go out.
All those things hit, along with the memories of the crippling depression itself (which is a pretty shit thing to think back on)... and suddenly the world is looking like a pretty bad place to be. And remember, you're only **starting** to recover, you're not suddenly a happy clappy toddler: your emotions are only a level or two above severely depressed, so you're not exactly in the best state of mind, and now you have more of an awareness of how bad things can be.
That feeling of "I'm worthless because I've been depressed", "I've fucked up my life" and "I'm a burden on my family" is often what triggers the suicidal thoughts, not the depression itself. Depression doesn't kill you, the consequences of depression kill you.
That's why anti-depressants can increase suicidal thoughts. But of course, the alternative is to leave people at the most depressed stage: in which case the above thoughts will likely come through *eventually* anyway. So it's not even like there's an option to, well, just leave people depressed.
After taking anti-depressants, it can take a little while to get your emotions and life back on track: and that middle period is the dangerous time. I just wish that was more publicized so people would know to watch out for it, and to look out for each other. | 1100c451-0851-4f0c-9238-02f31763468b |
1sja3z | In Asian countries it's customary to remove ones shoes before entering the house. It's seems like a very common sense and practical thing to do. And yet in America most people wear their shoes in their home. Why? | It stems from classical Asian (particularly Chinese) thought and perceptions on order. "Inside" is separate from "outside." "Inside" is clean and orderly while "outside" is dirty (this also helps explain why it's viewed as OK in many Asian city for small children to go the bathroom in the gutter, for adults to spit on the sidewalks, trash in the alleys, etc... Outside's just dirty) Naturally, when you transition from "outside" to "inside" you want to remove the dirty shoes and change into your "clean" slippers. | f00d6031-81e6-42b4-b0dc-64ecec6d6258 |
73srkh | Why does it feel so much better when another person massages your head as opposed to when you use your own hand to massage your head? | This is based on my own experience, not scientifically-proved. But as someone who loves massaging very much, when massaged by others, I cannot predict which part of my organ (like head, feet) is going to be massaged and I feel really pleased. I guess this can also answer why you cannot tickle yourself, as your brain has already expected your own act. | b89e13ff-f9f2-4be9-9b18-0bbb891e24db |
64y9ov | Are some humans inherently more intelligent than others, or do we all pretty much have the same potential for brilliance if we work our brains out enough? (ignoring birth defects) | Intelligence is highly heritable. It has a heritability of ~0.5-0.75, more or less the same as the heritability of height (0.6-0.8 heritability).
IQ is a little complicated, because we aren't exactly sure what we're measuring. Theres plenty of decent theories, including speed of neuronal transmission, more efficient synaptic linkages, and a more efficient oxygen transport system in the brain. However, best as we can work out it simply reflects an organisms 'genetic fitness'. If you have a very bad illness as a child, that illness alone probably shaves whole IQ points off you final IQ. Not many, but some. A serious, months long illness might cost as many as 3-5 IQ points by the time you're an adult. This probably accounts for some of why IQ appears to rise over time in populations - we're getting increasingly better at providing good, disease free environments for our children, and that helps the end stage IQ.
IQ isn't actually shockingly helpful for working out 'brilliance' though. It's much more helpful in terms of working out if you suffer mental retardation. The lower the score, the more significant it is, and the more difference in scores matters. For example, someone with an IQ of 70 (borderline mental retardation) is quite definitively, and noticeably more dumb than someone with an IQ of 85 (a normal IQ), and very noticeably more intelligent than someone with an IQ of 55 (barely functional). At 70 IQ points, even an extra 5 points either way is a significant difference. On the other hand, telling the difference between say IQ 115 (average for University students) and IQ 130 (low end genius, high end PHD students average) is actually quite tricky.
You probably can work it out consistently, but its not going to make as big a difference in their lives. Someone with IQ 115 may well work out something the IQ 130 couldn't, or have a much more important, influential scientific career. At a high IQ level, IQ simply stops being relevant. You're smart enough to do basically whatever you'd like, and it becomes other factors (how conscientious are you, do you seek out new knowledge etc) that determines what a persons 'brilliance' appears to be. IQ ceases to matter particularly - the general rule I learnt at university was that up to around 130, IQ has some meaning, past 130 it simply stops being a useful benchmark.
There are changes, you do get people with IQ > 130, and do tend to be slightly more 'brilliant' than people with lower IQ's. But its more to do with a very 'well made' brain (very few growth issues or illnesses), and a whole range of non IQ factors, like level of / access too education. But some humans are inherently more intelligent than others, and genetics probably plays the most important role | dcc0270c-d833-46b4-8046-61a901a0683e |
6870qf | Has human intelligence changed drastically over time? | There's multiple types of intelligence. Also, if you were to try to debate Socrates, you'd have problems of language and culture, religious and scientific understanding that's developed over 2,000 years.
If you just want to know about intelligence, there's something called the Flynn Effect. When we've looked at the results from all sorts of intelligence tests all over the world, from 1939 to today, we've seen that the intelligence of the world (as far as we're able to understand and measure it) has significantly increased over time. There's factors of increased education, increased efficacy of education, nutrition, iodine in salt (iodine in salt has drastically reduced the rate of mental retardation throughout the world), and an overall better health among other things.
So we don't know how well Socrates would fare in modern society, it was so different in so many ways that there's probably not a way to compare the two. He might have been a genius in his field, especially considering he's still being taught and studied today, but outside his field or compared to modern day, it's probably impossible to know. | 6c0b4e8c-14ab-4e0e-85d6-8d3533cae562 |
2in5ok | How do spiders walk on walls and pretty much any other surface? | They use the force, specifically the [van der waal force](_URL_0_). Like geckos, the bottom of a spiders foot branches out into ever finer little hairs until they are so fine they are able to interact with the surface they are walking on at a molecular level, loosely bonding with it to the point that they almost become part of it.
TL;DR spiders, fuckin ninja's man. | 3312c6be-d61a-4a8e-b59c-0196efe8ca24 |
1qnbm8 | How did the ancient civilizations/kingdoms "die out" | Each civilization died out in a different way. Some slowly and over time, some relatively quickly. It almost always comes to some fundamental flaw in said country's system of government; the Roman Empire fell because they could not supplement their armies, and had to rely on mercenaries, and as you might guess, hiring your enemies to defend you from your other enemies can often be a problem.
It's also worth noting that almost no civilization "dies out;" rather, more often than not, they transition to a new government or are annexed by another country, but the people living there still remain. For example, you could say the English Colonies died out, but in reality we simply broke away from the British Empire. When Rome transitioned from a Republic into an Empire, that was the "dying out" of the Roman Republic; but the people living there didn't go anywhere themselves. And when America went to war with Mexico, won, and then claimed the lands of Arizona, New Mexico and California, the people already living there weren't killed... do you get the idea?
Even the Mayans and Inca, who we are taught were "killed off" by evil conquistadors, didn't actually die out. Their civilization vanished, but the Mayans themselves still live on - many of the Spanish who moved to the Americas had relations with the locals and produced offspring. People of Mexican ethnicity are descendants of the Mayans.
It's worth noting that civilizations are still "dying out" frequently, even in the Modern World. The USSR collapsed in the 1980's, to name just one.
So, hopefully that answers your question. If you have a specific question about a specific civilization/kingdom, feel free to ask, although Google and Wikipedia can probably give you better answers in those scenarios. | cee92bb5-6255-45ea-9039-08e0f673db35 |
40e5le | why is it that the age a person can legally appear in porn is universally at least 18 (in some countries older) but age of consent varies so much? | Just a guess I would think that we hold a child at a sexually mature age competent to engage in an intimate relationship. We do not see them competent to understand the ramifications of what appearing in porn can do to you in the future | 85cc2883-7205-4a14-bf6b-753b3b215b3a |
3kybtj | Why do arguments involving racial bias in the US rarely take into account the fact that the white population is much higher than people of color? | These things are often taken into account, but even when you take that into account it still turns out that white people are over represented. The US Census says that non-Hispanic white people are about 62% of the US population. However, more than 62% of actors on major TV shows are white (from my experience. I haven't counted it all up).
Given the population disparity, one would still expect a majority white world, but it would be significantly less white than what is usually shown.
I realize that's answered largely in terms of TV, but the same logic applies to the office example (though you would have to examine the demographics more locally in that case). | d48dae52-a3d1-4561-9054-756bd75dfd03 |
78pprh | How do TV programmes like The Simpsons make money from being aired? | Fox pays the creators of The Simpsons to create 1 or more seasons (depending on the contract). They use this money to pay the writers, animators, voice actors, creative staff, and everyone else involved with making the actual show.
Fox is paying the creators because a certain number of viewers will watch the show which means that companies are paying Fox to air commercials during the time slot The Simpsons is airing. The more viewers, the more ad revenue can be asked for. Depending on the contract, Fox might also get a cut of any DVD/digital, merchandise sales. | c2d4484a-b73a-48af-a43c-97d688042079 |
2308te | pushing a car to start it? | If the car is in gear and you're pushing it, then the rotation of the wheels will rotate the drive shaft (transmission, which then rotates the piston shaft (engine) (none of that is accurate terminology, by the way). If you get the piston shaft rotating, it can help you start the car because it will expand and compress the engine cylinders as if the car were already running. All you need to do is to feed some fuel in (gas pedal) and have enough electricity to run the spark plug ~~(battery)~~ (see /u/mike_pants below).
The key-start method requires more power, because it has to run the starter motor, which tries to start the entire engine by rotating all the pistons. By pushing the car and turning the pistons already, the load on the starter motor is lessened. | 075092dc-8097-4765-90dd-f583bf790373 |
7vsyr5 | What is maximum dynamic pressure, or "max-q" in aerospace engineering? | When a rocket takes off, it has to force its way through the air. If a rocket was launched horizontally (going sideways at the same height above the Earth the entire time), the air resistance would just get higher and higher as the rocket got faster and faster.
Rockets don't launch horizontally though. They rise vertically going up in the atmosphere. The higher the rocket goes, the is less air it needs to force itself through. There is less air the higher you go.
At the same time the air it needs to force itself through is lessening (because the rocket is getting higher), it's also encountering more resistance because the rocket is going faster and faster while it climbs. The faster you go through the air, at any altitude, the harder it is at any given speed.
So -- we have two things determining the total air the rocket needs to push itself through: how high it is, and how fast it's going. Those are both changing constantly. It's getting higher-and-higher in altitude (lowering the force needed to push through the air), but at the same time going faster-and-faster (increasing the force needed to push through the air).
At one point in the rocket's flight, those decreasing and increasing numbers converge on a number that is the most work the rocket has to do to get through the air (so this is where things exposed to the forces are most likely to fail).
In engineering shorthand, it's called Max Q. | 2e8d3461-5874-432b-a595-38e010a75a8d |
5heywy | Why are memory storage options set up on increments based on the power of two (16gb, 32gb, 64gb etc...)? | When you store something in a memory, you have to remember where you saved it, i.e. the index of the starting byte. E.g. you save a file, it is at index 1000. And remember you need to store that index somewhere, so that next time you are looking for yoir your file you can find it. Computer saves the address in memory too, e.g. keeps "porn.jpg at address 1000". That number 1000 is saved in bytes, right? So let's say your computer uses 4 bytes to keep the index. 4 bytes = 4*8 bits = 32 bits and with 32 bits you can store 2^32 numbers. So it makes more sense if memories have powers of 2 bytes, because then when we're saving addresses we can use all the bits assigned to it.
Update: fixed a typo | 69c3cf57-11ee-4937-8e2f-39fe4052efca |
3lxlo6 | Why do Republican candidates want to defund planned parenthood? | 1. Being against abortion is a winning strategy for Republicans wanting other Republicans to vote for them. Planned Parenthood is an abortion provider.
2. Republicans want to control women's sexuality and Planned Parenthood provides basic health care for women by providing birth control advice, contraceptives, cervical cancer screening, pap smears, breast exams and pregnancy care. We can't have those uppity women thinking they have rights to healthcare or birth control! | 33a1fb97-71ed-40a1-aa31-24b90a268f4c |
4it8nv | why did commanders throughout history fight in the front lines? | Because they were often the the most effective fighting force in the field of battle. Your typical commander was a noble, which meant:
* they had ample food and medical care as a child, making them bigger and stronger than most men
* they were trained in sword and horse almost from birth
* they had the best equipment money could buy
* they were surrounded by similarly well equipped and well trained bodyguards
So the commander didn't just lead the battle, they often served as shock troops who could turn the tide of the battle. | 4a11ef66-3d5c-4032-95bf-ef5c2c4f2823 |
6q6ftg | How can companies give away free products and still make money? | The actual cost of *producing* those products is only a fraction of the cost the average consumer will usually end up paying for them. Meanwhile, marketing is actually a huge expense for businesses.
i.e. Let's say a vibrator costs $10 to make. The company usually sells for $20. You get one for free - to you, it's a savings of $20, but to the company, it's a loss of only $10. It's risky, but people are creatures of habit.
When this vibrator breaks or no longer satisfies you, you'll likely go back to that particular company. Assuming every vibrator costs $20, then just buying one will recoup costs for the company (since you've paid $20, and the company has given you two vibrators that cost them $10 each to make). Then, any *more* you buy will be more profitable for them.
Especially since word of mouth from your friends is often one of the biggest influences on a consumer. You happen to brag about how awesome that vibrator is to your friend, and when their boyfriend dumps them and they need something to get them through the day, they'll go the company you were bragging about. And then they'll form a habit or positive association with this company, so when their vibrator gets stolen by that creepy one-night stand and they need a new one, they'll also go back to this same company.
So in this hypothetical, the company gives away one free vibrator, which only costs them $10, and in return guarantee four more vibrators bought, each of which brings the company a $10 net profit (-$10 cost of production + $20 sale of vibrator = $10 profit). So that's $40 in profit off of the vibrators directly resulting from this one freebie. Subtract the cost of the freebie, and they just $30 profit.
**tl;dr - Company gives you a $10 vibrator for free because they'll get a $30 net profit from it.** | 09c98893-43c8-44c1-80f1-59ee5dfbbe1f |
5qcf4r | How time signatures work and why songs in unusual time signatures are notable. | Consider the time signature to be like a language. Most pop music is written in the language of 4/4. This is when the emphasis is on the fourth beat, and everything is written nicely to fit into grouping of four. In this language there are many chords, scales, and note progressions that we've used to hearing. These are the words and sentences that make up the 4/4 language. Since birth, most of the music you listen to is written in 4/4, so everything seems natural and normal. Think of 1 2 3 **4**, 1 2 3 **4**, 1 2 3 **4**, 1 2 3 **4**.
There are other time signatures used in music such as 7/4 (used in a lot of Prog Rock or IDM). This time signature would sound "weird" to the average person because it features many patterns, chords, scales etc that make up the 7/4 language. It takes a little bit of practice to get into it's rhythm. Check out the song Money by Pink Floyd for an example of this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 **7**, 1 2 3 4 5 6 **7**, 1 2 3 4 5 6 **7**, 1 2 3 4 5 6 **7**. This can seem off to us because we're expecting the typical 4/4 beat and instead we get a little bit of tension hearing something different.
Finally classical music tends to be in a huge assortment of time signatures. Another language we could recognize is 3/4. This is normally reserved for waltz. This would be **1** 2 3, **1** 2 3, **1** 2 3, **1** 2 3.
Avante-garde jazz music can often change time signature requiring knowledge of multiple time signature "languages": to be able to play on the fly. | 8ee54c40-ff77-4d46-8963-241a428a42d3 |
68ld87 | Everyone wants to cut the defense budget, but what would actually happen if USA removed half of its defenses around the world? | If that actually happened, there would probably be a lot of geopolitical chaos, but it's not that simple. The US wastes billions of dollars in wasteful spending contracts that ends up in the pockets of CEO's of military supply companies, rather than actually going toward defense.
So cutting the defense budget and literally reducing the size of the military are not the same thing. | 9ad9b00a-1298-45b3-95ac-97791c70efa4 |
8u1hjs | How do screens that you can only see when facing them from straight on work? | Polarizing filters.
Think of shining a flashlight beam. It comes off like a cone, right?
A polarizing filter only allows certain light rays through. So picture a piece of cardboard with a narrow slit cut in it. Shine the flashlight through that. Only a little bit of the light comes out, straight through.
A privacy screen only lets the light rays traveling straight ahead to come through, like its coming out of a little tiny slot. The rays off to the side and blocked by the polarization, or the “cardboard.”
EDIT: The light rays that get through have to match up with the filter’s orientation axis. Think again of that sit in the cardboard. If it’s up and down, the light waves up and down get through. The waves side to side do not. The ones at an angle...only some get through. | c252ff81-cc22-4e9a-b0f4-ac2f6578acf6 |
7lwqnx | Why does the stream of water from a faucet get thinner as it gets lower? | The rate of flow (liters per minute or whatever) depends on the width of the flow and its speed: a high-speed narrow stream can carry the same volume as a slow wide one. Gravity causes the speed to increase as the water falls, so it must get narrower in order to maintain the same flow rate everywhere along the stream. | 17c69f61-eb10-4f60-9e4a-61357cab92d2 |
2u3xj2 | Why do so many of my local (Californian) marijuana dispensaries get shut down if marijuana is legal through a Dr's. Reccomendation? | The state has decreed they are legal, the federal government has not. So the feds can still raid/shut down these dispensaries. | b888bcf0-bc5e-4274-b728-eff537cd4781 |
673fzw | How does percentage grade work in regards to terrain? | It means that for every 100 feet you travel horizontally, you move up 20 feet vertically. The percentage change is the percent increase in elevation as you move horizontally | bea06be4-0529-4426-a382-10f42aee4ab6 |
5d47ta | If the human race originated from Africa and spread across the world, how do we all have different complexions and facial features compared to our African counterparts? | Basically, what you have is natural selection producing different traits: for example, if you live in Northern Europe, and you have dark skin, you may not get enough Vitamin D, and you won't live to produce offspring. Thus, in Northern Europe, having paler skin, and less natural protection from Vitamin D production and the sun's rays meant you were more likely to produce offspring if you were white. (Which is why most of the population of England, is the color of typing paper.) | 5cc0b1af-76e9-4bbb-a17f-259d992b89cd |
jcvp6 | Heartburn | Like you're 5: Basically, different foods react differently in different people. Heartburn can be caused by a wide variety of food, but it's usually a food the is high in acidic content or is spicy. When eaten, that food doesn't sit well in the stomach and causes stomach acid to react, often 'climbing up' the esophagus during a burp. When this happens, the left over acid in the esophagus creates a 'burn' in the chest or throat, usually in the area around the heart or just above.
This is heartburn.
There's a lot more to it, and the way I described it may not be 100% accurate sounding, but that's the basics of it.
not so ninja edit: you're* | 0ace8f6c-1f0a-4f0e-a5a1-d0389cac8aa3 |
3ib25e | Why doesn't America, Britain or "the free world" send an army to just take ISIS out? | Let's assume we did this. Who do we target ? How do you tell an ISIS member from a local ? Answer is you can't unless they do something. We could probably enforce martial law but then we are an occupying force in a country (Mostly Syria) that hasn't asked for us. That's a recipe for guerrilla warfare - something these guys are good at. They can simply wait until we get tired of the attrition (slow loss of life over time) and give up. This is the lesson of Afghanistan. | 3477bc5a-54cf-45e0-a5e0-8a414abad822 |
1xczph | Why do you feel like you're burning when in contact with something extremely cold? | The extreme cold is sending your pain receptors into overdrive. At the end of the day tissue death feels horrible whether by heat or cold. Fire is generally much hot than the cold we feel is cold. So the "burning" feeling is not really a literal burning feeling but most associated with extreme heat applied to tissue. | 4e6cacc2-8aeb-48c0-980e-fdbe4dfe078f |
3b4tqc | Why does going into hot tubs make you want to pee? | Looks like it has to do with a change in blood pressure when you get in the tub. The hot water raises your blood pressure which triggers a chemical called atrial natriuretic peptide which directs your kidneys to produce salt which then your body wants to get rid of. So you need to pee. | de05e23e-9076-4029-be9d-3c1c44761173 |
34sqn6 | Why does it matter when I take medicine ? (day, night, after/before meal) | Some of it's to do with absorption process. Some drugs are designed to be absorbed in the stomach. If you want a drug to break down in your stomach, then it needs to be taken with food so that the stomach is ready to break things down. Food can also help avoid nausea, and can slow down the actual absorption since the food has to be absorbed alongside the drugs.
There are some drugs which need to be taken on an empty stomach, just before food. Again, this is to ensure that it's in the correct place in the absorption process when it starts being broken - to ensure its in the stomach, and not the oesophagus. These drugs often tell you to eat 30 minutes after taking the drugs to start the digestive process.
As for time of day, anything which makes you sleepy would normally need to be taken at bed time.
And there are some drugs, like the contraceptive pill, which need to be taken at the same time of day each day so that they work with the body's natural daily cycle to produce hormones,
Source: my girlfriend is a nurse, and I just asked her. | a1ac4464-129c-4fb4-b82d-b47a10cb86e1 |
1vdjnb | How does investing in a startup work? And how do you make a profit as an investor? | It just depends on the deal you make with the business you are investing in.
You could, for example, invest some start up money, and buy a share in the business. you will then make what ever % you decided on of the profits the business makes. So, for example, you invest $10,000 and own 40% of the business and will earn 40% of all their profits.
You could also have also have a deal where you lend them $10,000 and they have to pay it back to you + interest. So you make profit on whatever interest rate you decide on. | 8c7f341e-8f41-438a-a2a5-b0e90b9b64a2 |
k4zna | how are plants related to animals? Which evolved first? | A lot of different sorts of life evolved before either plants or animals even existed. At some point way back when, the Tree of Life split into two groups. Group A comprises organisms we now call "Bacteria," while Group B includes everything else: lots of single-celled stuff, algae, plants, fungi, animals, and other characters.
Many years later, Group B split again into two groups: "Archaea" (a bunch of single-celled dudes) and "Eukaryota."
Yet later, Eukaryota split again, leading to "Bikonta" (some protists, algae, and **land plants**) and "Unikonta" (some protists, fungi, and **animals**).
Which came first is a more complicated matter, depending on what you want to consider "plants." If you mean land plants, which I indicated above, then animals came first. Single-celled animals filled the seas before anything lived on land at all. However, photosynthesis has been around for much longer than any animals, and land plants existed before land animals. [This](_URL_0_) might be useful. Hope this helps! | 02eaa2d5-0621-422c-9ac1-556d235e2e69 |
3tq93i | How do plants that don't have seeds reproduce? | Naturally Roses do reproduce with seeds, but many plants also reproduce vegetatively, this means they can spread through the soil with roots, or over the ground rather than spread through the air.
If you take a cutting, many plants can detect that they could grow roots by having contact with soil and not light on one side, and sunlight but not soil on the other, they can then grow roots themselves as a clone of the parent. | 8b12a3cc-4b3f-40aa-8441-77320471fa07 |
6jktit | Why does background prove/give evidence that there was a big bang? | 1) By looking at the stars we realised that they are all going away from us in all direction. And not only that, the farther they are from us, the faster they are going away. This point to an expansion of the universe.
2) Speculation time. If we are currently expanding, that mean that in that past the universe was denser. So we can imagine what the universe should look like if we look at what matter look like when it's denser and denser.
3) When matter and energy is denser you get plasma (like in a star). Atoms move around too fast and less their electron. Light don't travel very much through plasma. But if you decrease the density a bit, electron attach to atoms and then light can go through. So we can speculate that in the past there was a point when light count really travel through the universe, it was bumping into electron all the time. But the universe cooled and then light could travel. We know what the universe is made off, it's mostly hydrogen and helium. So we can test at which point hydrogen and helium become a plasma. So now we know that If our speculation is true, at some point in the past there was a point where light was finally able to travel and we know that would be the temperature of the hydrogen/helium.
4) Matter ''leak'' energy through radiation. That's true of all matter at all energy level. And the wavelength at which that matter ''leak'' energy depend on the temperature. So if you know the wavelength, you know the temperature and if you know the temperature you know the wavelength. Like I said, IF our speculation is true, then we know the temperature at which that should happen, so we know the wavelength of the first light that could travel through the universe.
5) But when light travel through an expanding universe, it lose energy. That's the Doppler effect. It's the same thing happening when you hear an ambulance or a F1 car passing by. The sound change as it pass by you. Light do the same. Depending is the source of the light is going away or toward you, the wavelength will change.
6) So again. IF our speculation is right. We should at a specific distance from us, see a specific wavelength of microwave that was red shifted from the original wavelength of the first light to travel through the universe after it went from a plasma to a gas.
7) And that's exactly what we see. The CMB is first light that could travel through the universe, red shifted by billions of years of travelling through an expanding universe until it reached us. | 46a250b9-05d4-45a9-8d28-cbe156214ac9 |
2e083f | What did Rick Perry actually do? | He told a person that she should resign.
She said, no, she didn't want to resign.
He said that if she didn't resign, he would veto all funding to her office.
She didn't. He did.
He was indicted for using his veto power inappropriately and coercively. | 91777912-8441-41af-9f09-e800015f6e02 |
5pcq6u | what does it mean to be a "neckbeard"? | a "neckbeard" is shorthand for the stereotype of the "live in their parents basement"-internet user who is long on obscure knowledge and short on social skills and hygiene. The term itself comes from a particular type of beard, the neckbeard, that most people consider unstylish, but that many people who don't care enough to shave end up with.
It isn't really related to MRA/Redpill stuff, except that some people see an overlap between the opinions of MRA/redpill people and "neckbeards," because the neckbear stereotype often includes anger at or dislike of women. | f85df8b2-4785-4d93-acdd-8bbb0851c195 |
4vsou6 | How do we hear where sound comes from? | Several ways. First, we have two ears and the closest one which is pointing toward a sound will perceive it as being slightly louder. There is also a travel time for sound and it will arrive at one ear slightly before the other, and our brains can detect that and translate it to approximate direction.
Another factor is the pinna of the ear, which is basically the outer structure. This shape changes how sounds from different directions reflect off it and so slightly changes the sound. Our brains can adapt to that and use it to determine where a sound comes from; change that ear shape and your brain loses that direction sense until it can adapt to the new shape. | 7b1bbf09-de27-41d7-9b18-9436ee5e8410 |
1pjbr8 | Other than going splat, what are some potential health risks to Skydiving? | Similar risks to riding a roller coaster- the excitement could mix poorly with certain health conditions. Heart conditions in particular come to mind- your heart will probably beat like crazy.
It's also possible to injure yourself on the landing even with a fully deployed parachute. | 83b7f108-5366-4af8-a71a-1407eb9d6424 |
1u0zr4 | Why is amateur acting (like films made by students for a class presentation or something) so unnatural, awkward, and different from movies/tv shows? | The quality of acting gets better with experience, and often times the editing and scheduling does as well. An amateur film for a class presentation might have two or three people working on it for a few weeks...and they're splitting their time between filming and the rest of their life. A "real" show has teams of professionals working on different aspects for months at a time. | 90e98e54-93d4-4907-af90-6231af5708b2 |
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