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4a8dvb | Why big companies like Samsung don't create their own Operating Systems so they could compete with Mac OS X and Windows? | I disagree with your assertion of an operating system monopoly. You mention Windows and OSX. There is also the dozens of Linux distros. There is IBM AIX, and Oracle (formally Sun) Solaris UNIX. Having your own proprietary OS leaves you with the challenge to support it, make sure developers write apps for it, and otherwise convince hardware vendors to promote it for their systems. This is hugely expensive, and almost for sure not worth it for anyone. It is *applications* that drive adoption, not the bare OS. | a8c81447-055a-47d0-ad82-9a714c80768f |
2947lo | Why do all the people who comment on no sleep believe the stories? | > Why do all the people who comment on no sleep believe the stories?
They don't, but one of /r/nosleep's rules is that you have to pretend that you do for the purposes of your comments. It's essentially a sort of collaborative fiction-writing subreddit.
For instance, from their sidebar rules:
> Remember: everything is true here, even if it's not. Stories should be believable, but realistic fiction IS permitted. Readers are to assume everything is true and treat it as such. These stories are here for your entertainment. If a story is too unbelievable, please report it for mod review. | 2d8afdf9-78e6-4e78-b889-08f0fff290bf |
3n5y1v | Is Sharia Law a legitimate threat in the US? | Muslims form less than 3% of the US population. I don't see how such a tiny group could impose its own laws on the US, any more than tiny Christian populations can impose Christian laws on Islamic countries. Even when the British rules vast swathes of the Islamic world they could not impose Christian or even European common law on the populations. | 1070bb6a-26c2-4153-a266-78f31d0e0924 |
p1x56 | The subjunctive case in English and the difference between "were" and "was" | First, let's be clear what the subjunctive is *not*: (1) Minor quibble: it's not a "case" (case is something that substantives have; let's deal with that some other day), it's actually a "mood". Verbs take different moods depending on the relationship between the sentence and reality. (2) It's for special occasions; your average everyday sentence is "indicative" (the indicative is really the default mood for most verbs you use).
Just to give a very basic illustration:
> May the force be with you.
This sentence is effectively subjunctive. It's not *strictly speaking* subjunctive, but really it's close enough ("may" can sometimes stand in for the subjunctive). FWIW, a *true* subjunctive would be
> The force be with you.
Now, the bog-standard *indicative* form of this sentence would read like one of the following:
> The force is with you.
> The force will be with you.
In the *indicative* version, you're making a statement of fact. In the *subjunctive* version, you're expressing a *wish* for how things ought to be; it's a situation where the actuality of your sentence is either ambiguous (maybe the force won't feel like being with you!) or unfulfilled (the force will probably be with you at some point, but we don't know when; gee, I hope it's soon).
And this is really the key to when the subjunctive is used. It's mainly used in **situations where the actuality of the statement is unfulfilled** for whatever reason.
And now we can see why sometimes you say "If I was", and sometimes "If I were". Compare:
> Was I really at the steakhouse for dinner? **If I was**, I must have had fries on the side.
> **If I were** at the steakhouse right now, I'd be having fries on the side.
The first one is a simple yes-no situation: you lack the relevant knowledge, but there's no real ambiguity. In the second one, though, you're not just making a simple "if" statement: you're *also implying that you're not at the steakhouse*! And that makes it an "unfulfilled" condition.
There are other grammatical structures where you *can* use the subjunctive, but most people just don't bother. You can quite safely use the indicative ("if I was") instead, and I *guarantee* no one will object. The subjunctive is for people who feel like knowing a bit more about the historical intricacies of how words have been used; if you think you'd like to know when to use "thou" and when to use "thee" instead, you might like the subjunctive too. If not, it's probably not worth your time.
One exception: there is *one* construction in current English that I can think of that more or less *requires* the subjunctive, and that's anything that comes after "lest". Here are some examples -- see how odd you think the "wrong" version sounds:
> Subjunctive: He is afraid lest he fail the exam.
> Indicative: He is afraid lest he fails the exam. (Eww!)
> Subjunctive: I bought baby food lest the baby go hungry.
> Indicative: I bought baby food lest the baby goes hungry. (Bizarre!)
I suspect this may be the one remaining construction in English where the subjunctive is actually *required*. But even this is pretty rare (how often do you use "lest"?), so the subjunctive is definitely dying out in English. | 579751b2-be66-4174-9e10-22f5787467df |
1qbjqh | Why don't reptiles produce their own heat, physically how do they NOT and is this preferential to being warm blooded? | There are several advantages, as well as disadvantages, to being cold blooded. By not generating your own body heat, you get to save energy and don't need to eat as much food - which again saves energy because you don't have to hunt. A disadvantage would be that it takes a while to 'warm up' after a cold night. That's why reptiles are usually pretty sluggish early in the morning, and they have to sit in the sun for a while. This makes them more vulnerable to predators.
It also depends on where the animals live - many cold blooded animals can't survive in cold climates, because they can't get enough warmth from the sun to survive. In the desert, there's a lot of sunshine, so why not use it for body heat, instead of generating your own? | 8756062a-5275-433b-a757-5048e617e01a |
8hdjk6 | If you eat something that causes stomach cramps quickly, why is their often difficulty at the other end of the alimentary canal so quickly? | Food passing through your body is less like a car going down a road, and is instead more like a package moving along a conveyer belt. In this analogy peristalsis is the movement of the conveyer belt. When something is irritating to an earlier portion of this belt, the whole thing speeds up. While it still may take a while for the irritating substance to pass through, things already closer to the end of the system will begin to be expelled more rapidly. | 6687ecdc-a7ad-43b1-97e8-f50da8c2b23a |
1h9ts6 | Why does Colorado seem to catch fire every summer? | We have a very arid climate. Although we get more rain than parts of Nevada and Arizona, our state is very dry compared to most others. Most people don't know that about Colorado, I guess. It is a steppe climate, like New Mexico. Trees don't grow naturally in most parts of the state, except along creeks and rivers. We only get about 15 inches of precipitation the whole year in the Denver area. This past April was wetter than most years, but we still only got 1.87 inches--for the whole *month.* A lot of Midwestern cities got three times that amount in a single day in April. We don't get much rain in Colorado, but because we are at all altitude, we still will get a lot of lightning strikes. It is called dry lightning.
We have heavy water restrictions here. Lawns can't survive without watering (which is why many people do xeriscaping instead of lawns here),but people can only water twice a week. You have to request water at restaurants. There are fire bans (even fire pits, for example) as well as fireworks bans. Homes with dry lawns can increase the risk of a fire hazard. People's cigarette butts can start fires. My ngibhro's house burned down two years ago from them tossing a cigarette butt into a bush. Mulch also increases the risk of a house burning down in a wildfire. It's just so dry.
Add to that the pine beetle... This is a very serious problem in our state. The pine beetle is a beetle that kills trees up in the mountains (where trees do grow). They kill the tree and just leave the dead, dry tree behind. If you are ever up in the Colorado mountains, you will see large areas of dead, reddish looking trees standing among areas of live trees. Do an image search for pine beetle damage, and you will see what the mountain forests look like from these beetle kills. Those dead trees are very prone to fire. Dry land, dry trees, lots of scrub brush.... It's a huge fire hazard. Plus, we usually have 0 humidity here, and it gets really hot. We've been near and over 100 degrees a few times this week. Hot + dry
= fire danger | 4dcfa810-47da-42d4-b58e-ea87574b815b |
4zxfwo | how do websites know when you're on mobile? | Every device or browser you install has assigned to it what's called a "User Agent", which it announces to the web server, along with display dimensions, etc... (all this happens in microsecond).
Websites assume (typically) that anything under a certain dimension is mobile, which is why even on some smaller displays that aren't mobile (like an 8" display) you get the mobile layout of the web page. | b6b78854-0abd-49a9-8671-cec7583f445a |
1macw2 | Tim Ferriss' 'The 4-Hour Workweek' | Most people fuck off a lot which causes them to be really inefficient. We are too easily distracted by email, phone calls and the like during the course of a day and end up only getting about 45 real minutes of working every day. Tim advocates only returning email and phone calls during a set time and letting them go to the box until then. By eliminating the distractions you can get a full days work done in a fraction of the time.
That's overly simplified, but it carries the POINT.
DISCLAIMER - I have not read the book, only had a friend explain it to me. | fcb15e1f-193f-42cb-a3c3-c0ebd0b7f036 |
z8ly3 | Why are hockey players going to strike against the NHL? | The players are not going on strike. The owners (the employers of the players) are locking the players out, because they want the players to accept lower salary growth in future seasons. | f40dc6a6-3b21-4d7d-a799-b59a5566cfd4 |
5ejnr1 | Why can some people raise their right eyebrow independently of their left, but can't do it the other way around? | I can do both, and each one independently, should I call Prof. Xavier? | acd5f64f-68c8-4192-88e9-6e0ac192a81d |
4fv2so | why do jehovah's witnesses refuse medicine/medical treatment? | It's not modern medicine in general, it's specifically blood transfusions; they refuse blood transfusions, which precludes a ton of other treatments and surgeries where a blood transfusion may be necessary. | db880f7d-aedd-4097-87b6-af4920aa69be |
1c97p0 | Pasteurization | It's a process of rapidly heating and then cooling a food (such as milk) to kill any germs in it, making it safer to consume. It's similar to canning, but the point of pasteurization is to cook the food as little as possible. | dc7abaec-a94f-46bf-af7d-8548f1a61005 |
21xsmk | Jury decisions | > When a jury makes a seemingly stupid or erroneous decision and this seems obvious to judges/lawyers... Can it get overturned?
Yes. For civil cases, there is something called a judgment as a matter of law or judgment not withstanding verdict. This basically says that the judge can reverse the verdict if no reasonable jury would have any evidentiary basis for their verdict.
> For example is a grand jury's verdict a final decision?
Just to clarify, grand jury is only used in criminal cases to indict someone for a crime. A regular jury is used to convict them. For criminal cases, generally you can only appeal a guilty verdict, not an acquittal.
If you are worried about the usefulness of evidence, there are other motions you could bring before the court to exclude things that are confusing, unreliable, prejudicial, etc. | 1c242c03-d8d1-4885-80d3-2b45cd6495d5 |
5hp0re | What is holocytochrome C? | A protein in general can have cofactors, that are not aminoacids, in their structure. For example the hemoglobine has the heme group that interacts with the oxygen. The protein without the cofactors, just the aminoacid chain, is called holiprotein In your case the holocytochrome c is the Cytocrome C withoit the heme groups or the copper atoms, just the aminoacids. | 6b4aa9d1-8d2f-4052-acdc-89925b093add |
2v8dpc | If they really are the same thing, how can generic pharmaceuticals cost so much less than their name brand counterparts? | Name brand company will spend millions developing, testing, and approving a drug. Once they spend all of that time and money inventing the drug they start mass producing it. Actually making the drug is cheap, usually just a few cents to a couple bucks per pill. So the company has to charge enough to cover the cost to make the pill, plus the millions it spent inventing the pill. So they charge $2 for cost, plus $1000 to cover R & D, plus $20 for profit. Pill cost totals $1022 for $20 profit.
Generic just waits for the name brand to invent the pill, then copies how to make it. Since it only takes a couple bucks to make the pill. They charge $2 cost, $20 for profit. Pill costs total $22 for 20$ profit.
This is why the government doesn't allow generics for the first few years, to let the original company that put in the money charge more so they can make their money back. Then a few years go by and they let generics copy the recipe and the cost goes down. | b9eb534d-5227-4a97-9cea-0d5f6987575b |
3fozfu | What causes the phenomenon of wind? | Sorry for whoever thought they were cool for down voting your simple, straightforward, shameless question.
Anyway, as you may know, warm air rises because it is less dense. So when a pocket of air gets heated up, it rises higher up in the sky.
But as you also may know, nature doesn't like a vacuum (empty space), so something needs to fill in the empty space that the warm air left. What can fill it? A rush of cooler, denser air. That rush to fill in the gap is wind.
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EDIT: Wow, this blew up.
GET IT?!
Sorry.
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EDIT 2: Thanks for the gold! | 238f98aa-e073-4f7b-ac41-f4aa4105c0a5 |
3imktg | Commission on Net vs Gross. Whats the difference? | I don't know how this would apply to media, but generally these are the definitions:
Gross: the total amount of a transaction. You sell a $30,000 car, you get commission on $30,000.
Net: the total amount of a transaction, *reduced by expenses*. You sell a $30,000 car, you get commission on $8,000, which is $30k - $22k (what the dealership paid for the car.) | 1e6cd2a7-ee68-4948-9386-fdb6953870d9 |
l6787 | The difference between a URL, URN, and URI | The simplest explanation starts by categorizing: The first thing you should know is that an URL or a URN are **both** URIs.
An [**URI** (Uniform Resource Identifier)](_URL_4_), is a way to identify some type of resource on the Internet, they are handled by browsers and other network capable applications.
So the two types are the [**URL** (Uniform Resource Locator)](_URL_2_) which is the one you come across everywhere on the Internet.
It's divided into:
scheme://domain:port/path?query_string#fragment_id
You can see these parts explanation on the wikipedia link above. But you should recognize the format already...
And the [**URN** (Uniform Resource Name)](_URL_3_) which is a way to link to a particular item in a category. The examples seen on wikipedia you might recognize are the [ISBN](_URL_0_) (books) and [ISAN](_URL_1_) (audiovisuals).
I actually haven't seen these being used, which is a damn shame because they intended to be location independent. But what we usually see are the same ISBNs or ISANs identifier keys used as parts of the query string in URLs to some online retailer...
Hope that's clear enough kid :) | a5ab9c2e-e738-4aa5-bfff-d7e7a606faaf |
5yw4aq | How can a foreign diplomat lose there diplomatic immunity? | Diplomatic Immunity exists solely as an agreement between two nations to provide diplomatic immunity.
If the two nations no longer agree to provide immunity to their counterparts consular officials then it no longer exists. It is never done lightly though because it's considered vital for functioning diplomatic relations for diplomats to be able to travel freely in each others countries without fear of arrest or detainment.
For the sake of clarity though - what happened in Rotterdam is not quite at the state where diplomatic relations are being completely terminated. It wasn't a "diplomat", it was a minister. And they weren't arrested, just refused entry.
But it is escalating and may get worse. If it does happen though it's considered good form (almost vital) by the entire international community to allow all diplomats (and their attached staff) to return safely to their home country unhindered if diplomatic relations are suspended. | 537ad00a-49bb-4ffe-a1d8-63d3186e1a48 |
3excb8 | Why is sugar bad in soda/energy drinks but not juice? | Nothing. Sugar in juice is just as unhealthy as sugar in soda.
People just don't *think* that there's that much sugar in juice. | 4881ec77-0ab2-4d8a-a803-a7b5193584fe |
1m29dw | Why are we in a male dominate world? | Biology. Men are hard wired to seek dominance.
[In men, high levels of endogenous testosterone (T) seem to encourage behavior intended to dominate--to enhance one's status over--other people. Sometimes dominant behavior is aggressive, its apparent intent being to inflict harm on another person, but often dominance is expressed nonaggressively.](_URL_0_) | 43893c2a-0f30-4d38-b97c-6855fd336e98 |
7at4ch | Conditional probability (searched already. Other explanations posted are way too complex) | What's the probability of flipping two coins and they both turn up heads? That's pretty easy to calculate, it's 25%.
But what if you flipped one already, and it was heads? Now the probability of both being heads is 50%, it's just down to the second coin flip.
That's the idea behind conditional probability, you have additional information that affects your guess of the likelihood of something happening.
Your example doesn't really seem to be conditional probability related, but you need to be clear in what you're trying to calculate the probability of - is it the likelihood of someone with a peanut allergy saying they want peanut butter banned, or that banning peanut butter affects the probability of allergy attacks?
If you're going with the second one, you could compare the probability of an allergy attack within a certain time frame conditional on peanut butter being banned or not (it seems to be lower if it is banned). | 611927a5-a700-46a9-b492-850601c34b3a |
1xzuvt | The physical significance of some math terms | Eigenvectors, eigenvalues, and the determinant of a matrix don't necessarily have 'physical' meanings.
If you think of a matrix as a linear transformation (something that stretches or squeezes space) then the eigenvectors are the directions in which space is stretched or squeezed.
The eigenvalues (which pair off with eigenvectors) are how much stretching or squeezing happens.
The determinant is how much that stretching and squeezing will change a volume.
The dot product (roughly) indicates how 'in the same direction' two vectors are. The most familiar example is that the work done by a force is the dot product of the force and the displacement.
The cross product only exists in 3 dimensions, indicates 'how perpendicular' two vectors are, and gives a vector that's perpendicular to both. The simplest application is probably that torque is the cross product of the lever arm and the applied force.
Gradient is (roughly speaking) a multi-dimensional version of slope.
I don't know how to explain curl better than this: _URL_0_) | 671cbe1c-4227-4008-8760-1ceaa938c418 |
2gz1nd | how do companies like Gamestop etc. decide how much a used game is worth? | supply and demand.. the basic principles are maintained.. they probably have a tracking system for what they know they can sell it for and then have a formula that dictates what percentage they need to make.. things are worth what people will pay for them. | fb0112b5-1186-4a19-8af4-c141577c5af8 |
3zf42g | how does WiFi/radio/phone signal make its way through solid brick walls? | Same way visible light goes through glass. Glass is a solid. Different objects absorb, reflect and transmit different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation (emr). So glass is transparent to visible EMR and brick is transparent to radio waves (im pretty sure wifi uses radio waves) | fb193623-d0bb-4885-844a-95d0ec48e898 |
1iemup | Why does everyone believe everything Snowden leaks as truth? | When Snowden started releasing information, the US government got very upset. You know how sometimes you get upset, even though you don't mean to? Usually it's because there is some truth there. If somebody said something ridiculous, like your brother is a raptor, you wouldn't be mad because you can prove it's not true. Now if they said sometimes you eat boogers when you think nobody is watching, you might be upset and tell them to shut up, because you do eat boogers sometimes and if you do it again I'm sending you to bed. | 42388e1c-849e-4b79-a8bb-7b60418b3a82 |
607byw | Why do we frequently add the sound "ee" to the end of names, particularly children's names? | Many languages have a "diminutive" form, usually a suffix, for names and objects. In English, it happens to be -y (or rarely -ie, same sound); in German it's -lein and -chen; and so forth.
In other words, "Why?" "Because." It's a fairly common construct.
----
Now, if your question was actually "Why is the standard diminutive suffix in English -y", IDK. | 01c44d21-9490-4310-9e82-e49fbe27dd51 |
3ll14j | what is the logic behind letting someone go if you love them ? | The issue is that if you love someone, and genuinely love them, you want the best for them. Even if the best for them isn't you. You care about them enough that you just want them to be happy, and though it'd make you happy to have them with you, you know that you aren't the one who can give them the happiness and joy they deserve.
True love is putting the needs of someone else above your own. If you really love someone, then you'll make the decision that is best for them, even if it makes things hard for you.
Don't mistake love with infatuation. | 69f46947-57ba-4e49-97ea-1fdb56fed5bf |
17hhpz | What causes dandruff and how can it be removed permanently? | > Dandruff is thought to be due to a combination of an over production of skin oil and irritation from a yeast called malassezia.
> Stress, fatigue, weather extremes, oily skin, infrequent shampoos or skin cleaning, use of lotions that contain alcohol, skin disorders (such as acne), or obesity may increase the risk.
> You can treat flaking and dryness with over-the-counter dandruff or medicated shampoos. Shampoo the hair vigorously and frequently (preferably daily). Loosen scales with the fingers, scrub for at least 5 minutes, and rinse thoroughly.
> The severity of dandruff can be lessened by controlling the risk factors and by paying careful attention to skin care.
_URL_0_ | f3f9a915-7716-4036-afa9-658471b74785 |
2bxhbf | Why sprinter runners have their names, numbers on A4 paper, and not a branded shirts like football players? | starting number is given on the place. it would be wasteful to buy uniform for every event.
in football and almost every (or probably in every) other sport involving numbers it's just indicator of number in team. | c754a158-bb45-4407-a54b-0502b6796b28 |
248yza | ; Do vaccines cause autism? If so why? If not, where did this idea come from? | No, they do not. A surgeon named Andrew Wakefield wanted to make a name for himself, so he published a "study" that linked vaccines to autism. It caught on largely after a celebrity (Jenny McCarthy) became very vocal against vaccinations. Even though Wakefield was later revealed to have completely fabricated his results, the mystery surrounding the causes of autism and people's stubbornness keeps this idea around. | 137f7fd8-dcc2-4426-aa4a-9031c8e8995b |
20dhak | Liquor before beer, you're in the clear. | Basically bullshit that sounds funny when you are half drunk. | a0c57118-723a-46ac-aca6-f7021ae967a3 |
2vo8oj | Why does hitting a dim fluorescent lightbulb help make it bright? | I'm not sure of this mechanism. My guess is that the contact between the bulb terminals and the fixture is not very good. If the connection isn't snug, or if the contacts have built up a little oxidation, then there will be a high resistance connection. Flicking the bulb could break through this oxidation (which is usually thin and poor quality) and get you a better connection.
The easy way to test my hypothesis would be to try twisting/wiggling the light instead of flicking it with your finger. | 4e0a75e9-01e3-4daf-b08a-7acf6cea2718 |
3mr4um | Why are certain American movies released in some other countries before they're released in the USA? | There's a whole ton of math that goes into when a movie gets released, based on competition, based on local culture, based on how the reviews might go, based on various deals with the theaters, based on... well, you get the idea.
Suffice to say you and I will probably never know the reasons a specific movie was released sooner or later in other countries, but the distributor has a lot of experience on how to maximize their profits and for one reason or another decided releasing that particular movie earlier overseas is more profitable than any other release schedule. | 40f57a74-2f7b-4ba2-a46b-9476125df7c7 |
1zce07 | What did the 1% protesting actually accomplished if anything? | To deal with a problem, you first have to be aware that there is one, so accomplishing awareness is something. | c175e838-990f-4ba8-9ae4-720d2070fe54 |
2o1ucf | How does "muscle memory" actually work? | Your nervous system is all about connections. The more you use a connection, the stronger it gets. Muscle memory is imprinting movement patterns deeply on the neurons needed to control those movements so they can be repeated precisely. | d9482b95-3c72-4f90-b3e0-0f22a68a7b76 |
opdsb | How Megaupload can be held responsible for the files uploaded to it. | I believe it was because they made no attempt to moderate their servers for pirated content. They even admitted making money off of pirated content. | b86c6682-0095-4366-bf12-6e45510d5745 |
21shht | Help with Coefficients and Matrices | y/2 is (1/2) * y. The coefficient is 1/2
And no, higher degrees are nonlinear and matrices are strictly linear, and higher-degree equations have multiple solutions: x^2 = 4 is an easy example. | 02a8a00f-7e2a-4438-8958-ea039175c153 |
2irqyj | Why is Hydrogen fuel not being more readily pursued as an alternative fuel source? | Mostly because it is very costly to extract. Any energy used in the production of hydrogen would probably end up coming from fossil fuels anyway, making the energy savings moot.
There is also concern over the safety of hydrogen. It is very flammable and prone to leaking. Hydrogen fuel cells have been known to explode in car crashes. | 27fc23dd-cfaa-4729-a6cb-b53039e10f2a |
5v909p | Why wouldn't Americans want improved relations with Russia? Why have they been demonized by our media and politicians? | America would love improved relations with Russia. A number of things stand in the way of that, but mostly the tendency of Russia to invade its neighbors and take them over by force. Europe is separated into two groups: Those in NATO and those who should be worried about Russian invasion.
Putin sees NATO as Russia's largest obstacle to expanded power and influence, which means that the US as the military backbone of NATO is unlikely to become a close ally. | dfb4630b-c89b-4346-a6cf-420aedf52d64 |
1397l2 | I thought Jordan had a constitutional monarchy, yet it appears that democratic movements have flaired up in the region. ELI5 | Edit: I know this isn't a ELI5 but it isn't a ELI5 question :p If you want to talk more, reply and i'll be glad to respond :-)
I am Jordanian and have been living here for 21 years. All the riots you are seeing now happening all across the kingdom is mainly because of the government's recent decision to lift the aid they provide for oil, diesel, gasoline...etc. This was done in order to help the country pay for its increasing debt, if this action was not taken, the value of the JD (Jordanian Dinar) will collapse and the whole country will be in shambles.
Also, these "economic and political reforms" that the king implemented are mostly just a way to shut the crowds up. If you get into the nitty gritty of it, nothing has changed. In fact, economically, things have gotten much worse.
Just like at the beginning of the Arab Spring when there were protests asking for reforms and the overthrow of the monarchy, these protests were not started by the Muslim Brotherhood. They were started by regular low income folk (who make up about 70% of the population) who now can't find a way to bring food to the table. But today, the Muslim Brotherhood slowly started to seep into the protests and ask for the overthrow of the monarchy. I live fairly close to one of the "hotspots" for the protests in the capital and pass by there almost daily. When I went to see the protests today, there was a significant portion of the crowd that was from the Muslim Brotherhood and other tribal members that are well known to be against the monarchy. I can only imagine that number will increase.
Overall however, there is a general disdain for the people who are calling for the overthrow and in my opinion, the monarchy will continue to exist. | 094797df-4296-45b9-9263-0f04f89c8efe |
2g4igx | Why do some chef's knives cost so much? Why is Japanese steel considered so much better? Is it really impossible to "perfect" a knife? | Japanese steel isn't the best. They still make good stuff, but there is not single place that makes the best steel. With the advent of modern metallurgy and the sharing of knowledge, everyone is on an even playing field and the Japanese never were the best in terms of steel quality. The Indians and middle east has that one in regards to steel of antiquity. As for cost, materials and craftsmanship. Its really that simple. In regards to the perfect knife, define what perfect is. There is no single objective best knife because the capabilities will vary form taks to task. Even within the realm of cooking, an 8" Santoku will be great at general food processing, but fall behind something like a paring knife for cutting certain things, or not do as well as a filet knife for fileting fish. And similarly, those two knives wont do as well as the santoku for other things. To summarize, the Japanese make excellent knives with good steel, but aren't necessarily the best because that doesn't exist. Some knives cost what they do because of the materials and craftsmanship that goes into each, just like everything else. The perfect knife does not exist due to the huge number of variables that go into making each one. What is perfect for one person can be totally off for another. | 6099b47c-b618-410e-a958-8ea750ade2ef |
1kdqvn | Why do abnormal events that occur while dreaming seem perfectly normal in our dreams? | One dream theory states that our upper brains (cerebrum) receive random signals from the lower brain (brain stem, cerebellum etc.) and the upper brain tries to make sense of them. It takes the data, interprets it and then experiences what that interpretation states should be experienced. That isn't to say that you can't feel out of place in a dream. I sure have. Plenty of my dreams have freaked me out even whilst in the dream. | 5a986837-96ff-4421-9eaa-15a1a9594da7 |
6kuvou | How does cooking something cause it to gain more carbohydrates? | Fiber in foods represents inaccessible carbohydrates because your body can't break fiber down. However, when you cook fiber it can sometimes break down in the cooking process into something your body actually can use, and therefore increase the carbohydrates your body takes from the food. | c17328ee-0a2a-4aad-a0a8-294f46bfbc93 |
1om8on | Why do so many people not vote in the US? | I am educated (post grad degree). I don't vote because my vote only matters if the election is decided by one vote. This basically never happens, even in local elections.
I also try as much as possible not to pay attention to current affairs and the news. They can use up a lot of your mental resources and time, and there is basically no advantage to being informed about them unless you literally work in politics. I suppose they give you something to talk about with others, but politics is usually considered impolite conversation anyways. | 453d1ae6-02af-41f5-8dcf-363fce082ded |
4dzjga | Why is storage space for genomic data a big concern when all 3 billion base pairs from a human could be stored using only ~700 megabytes, given a 2-bit representation for each base pair? | Can you please point me to anything that says this is in any way a concern? | d5c94acb-0f58-457e-b44b-a5c3051eb068 |
20jjni | Why do we get hiccups? How to make it go? | One method i learned from Reddit.
just as you get your 1st hiccup, take a long deep breath and hold it as long you can.. hiccups gone!
worked for me. | acece885-cb55-48f4-9092-b8aec8a6ecfd |
5lvcs4 | Does religious tithing create any legal obligation for the church to the contributor? | Not unless they are made legally explicit by some contract.
Legally speaking, a tithe is a voluntary charitable contribution to a non-profit organization. Many churches claim they are required by the bible, and some even track them and deny you church services if you don't pay. But like any other charitable contributions, tithing does not grant legal rights. | f0611787-dc37-4e3b-adce-5016905f3774 |
4v63ej | What's it like to live in a tornado zone? People talk about warnings & safe areas at work - but I live in UK and have no frame of reference to imagine this. | There's not too much too it. You just drill for it like a fire drill. If one is coming try to get to a secure area that wouldn't be affected by super strong winds. That's why basements and bathrooms are typical places you're supposed to go.
In some towns in the mid-west where tornadoes are more frequent there might a municipal siren system and nowadays with smarthphones you can get emergency messages sent to you if you're in a particular location where something is happening.
But the odds of actually being caught in a tornado are low. It's much more about being in the wrong place at the wrong time rather than some sort of inevitability. The accompanying storms that create tornados can still be dangerous though. | 6d17e178-63d8-4b59-ad1e-9926d6af2a8d |
72dv4f | What are the controls on the Earth's crust floating? | It's mainly (2).
Viscosity certainly isn't the preventative factor, because that's essentially how plate tectonics works (where cool, dense oceanic crust is subducted beneath lighter continental or oceanic crust). The entire earth, apart from the outer core, is solid, but the outer mantle has a low enough viscosity to allow flow to occur over geological timespans.
There is a compositional difference between the upper mantle and crust. It's not *huge* and there is debate as to where this boundary actually is depending on whether you're a seismologist, geologist, geochemist or physicist, but the density without a doubt increases as you get deeper so apart from at plate boundaries, the [density structure is stable](_URL_0_).
As for why, it's because of the chemical differentiation that occurs when you melt the mantle. As you may be aware, the melting behaviour of systems with more than one component (e.g. mantle) is complex. The solid does not all melt at once. Instead, you form a liquid which often has a different composition from the melting stock.
In the case of the mantle, this liquid is more silica-rich than bulk mantle so as long as you only melt small fractions of the upper mantle ( > 30% melt only occurs very rarely), when that liquid crystalises, you form a rock with more silica-rich phases (e.g. more plagioclase, less olivine), which also happen to be less dense. This is the reason why oceanic crust, the densest part of the crust, is less dense than the upper mantle. | 0bad3eaa-ffd8-40f6-87c0-3a5f3e77062a |
52jc5c | How are the sellers on AliExpress able afford charging free shipping (to most places) on most items, without having a minimum order requirement? | _URL_0_
TL;DR - China provides artificially cheap shipping costs for businesses & they have agreements with the US Postal Service that require them to deliver the shit without charging extra money.
...and you're bypassing all taxes & duties on your purchases. | 33f3b3de-5a03-4de6-862b-1675b5789607 |
1rqa1q | How can the power company remotely shut off power to a single house? | I work for an electric company and currently we are installing Smart Meters on everybodys house. These meters will be somehow read 48 times a day (every half hour) and people who have the smart meters will be able to check their usage when ever they want through a website given by their power supplier, and yes they will be able to turn off the power remotely if the customer hast paid their bill. also they will be able to tell when you loose power for faster recovery time and it will be on a grid system so they know exactly where the problem is. they will also be able to tell when people are trying to tamper with their meter. Meter readers are slowly being not needed and are being absorbed into the company via promotions, but even when every houe system wide has a Smart Meter there will still be a need for meter readers because some state laws still require meters to be read by a person every so often
EDIT: added more about meter readers | a679f641-fae6-4e42-9721-1b756b956010 |
4dq8yk | How does shorting a stock work in it's entirety? | Normally you buy a stock at a low price, and hope you can sell it later for a higher price.
Selling short is basically the opposite. You "borrow" the stock from the brokerage, sell it and get the money. It's important to note they are not lending you money - they are lending you XX of shares in the stock, which you immediately sold for money.
Now, you owe them XX shares of the company's stock. If the price drops later, you can purchase the shares at a lower back and pay back the brokerage - making money in the process.
It works like this:
Company XYZ's current stock price is $10 per share. You want to sell short. You borrow 5 shares of Company XYZ from the brokerage, sell them, and have $50.
Three months from now, Company XYZ's stock has dropped to $7 per share. You purchase 5 shares for $35 and give these shares back to the brokerage, to cover your short. You made $15. | eaeaf8f4-2814-471a-9766-30af13b81750 |
63tc8o | What makes a superpower a superpower? | From [Wikipedia](_URL_0_) - Alice Lyman Miller defines a superpower as "a country that has the capacity to project dominating power and influence anywhere in the world, and sometimes, in more than one region of the globe at a time, and so may plausibly attain the status of global hegemony."
Of the original 3 superpowers (Britain, Soviet Union, and United States) only the US has the kind of political, military, and economic influence on a global scale anymore. However, Russia is slowly returning to that state, as it shows capability to invade/occupy surrounding nations, and China is also rapidly rising in power economically and as they flex political/military power in surrounding nations. | ae8773e1-736c-40c6-a3db-300464605f17 |
nw447 | Why Muhammad is such a popular Muslim name, Even though Its the name of their Prophet (I'm 5 years old) | Muslims have great admiration for all the prophets, so they name their children after them
Muhammad is the most common, but there are a lot more
Ibrahim (Abraham) is very common
Musa (Moses) is also common
Isa (Jesus) less common, no particular reason
And girls are also given names of honorable woman
Maryam (Mary) is very common
Aisha and Khadija are also common | d07da65e-bfc7-42c0-ae5f-130ad172ad3d |
5wiz5t | What is the difference between an Internet Usage Policy and an Online Safety Policy? | Internet Usage Policy - here are the things you can use the internet for at work...wikipedia good, porn bad
Online Safety Policy - here is some common mistakes you can make that will get you or the company in trouble, like malware, phishing, and Nigerian princes
If you were caught playing fantasy football at work, that could be a violation of the IUP.
If a work related web search led you to a fake popup and you wound up installing malware, that would be a violation of the OSP. | 508acfc8-b01a-4012-bc35-77e29b2d9570 |
1lshzg | How do hot air balloons control which way they go, why are they not just swept away by the wind? | Wind blows in different directions at different heights. So they raise or lower the altitude of the balloon to find a current that is going the way they want to head. | 085ea0e9-61c9-438d-9999-b1a0752302bc |
1wlfjx | Amanda Knox has been found guilty of murder (again). Should I believe it? | I recommend this article from Rolling Stone _URL_0_ which outlines the absurdity of the allegations against her very well. | c7422c34-b35d-4026-a123-fd23062b68af |
6z6xf7 | How does high and low tide work. I know it has to do with 'gravity' and the moon, but how does the moon influence the tide? | A lot of explanations say that it is because it is because the moon is "pulling" on the water however this is only partially true as this does not completely explain why there is a high tide on the opposite side of the planet. You must not think of it as the moon pulling the water but instead the water being attracted from all points including the poles that the cumulative vector of the water closest to the poles squeezing and pushing the water at the equators outwards. Imagine taking a spherical balloon and placing your hands on top and bottom and squeezing the balloon, as you apply this pressure the balloon becomes more oblong, but in the case of the moon it becomes this shape in the direction of the moon. The reason for the squeezing is because the summation of all the waters vectors over a large area, the tidal effects is very pronounced. So technically there could be this tide in a lake but because a lake is so much smaller than all the oceans combined, the effect is immeasurable. | da18d170-d5af-4bf1-a3aa-fa11962e5879 |
15gxdb | The Fiscal Cliff. | Aljazeera breaks this down in a really easy-to-understand sort of way. Hopefully this helps: _URL_0_ | 6fc54d4a-1abd-4d8f-a75a-1e0df1d41928 |
4i1d1n | What are ocean currents? How do they work? | I am not an oceanologist, but I'll do by best.
The main factors as far as I know are temperature (like in air currents) and salinity.
Water in the northern areas cools and becomes more dense, causing it to sink. This sinking action causes warm water from the equator to displace it. The cold water is slowly pushed back to the ewuator, where it warms and rises again.
Water also loses the ability to hold salt as it cools - and water with salt in it is more dense. How this effects the cycle, I'm not sure, but it is a factor.
The point is there are different mechanisms that cause the density of water to change subtley, and even a subtle change has a profound effect when you're dealing with millions of tons of water. | fc5e7943-6b04-418c-bf64-eff229f513b7 |
2qrraa | How does sleepwalking work? | When you fall asleep, your brain paralyses your body so you can't move or hurt yourself by acting out your dreams. Sometimes, that paralysis fails to occur, and you end up acting out a dream, or something you commonly do when awake. If you are a sleepwalker, It's important to prep your house so you won't hurt yourself walking around. | 48ead2f3-5ed4-4690-a5a2-05b52e4de2f7 |
1obtam | How does a coup work? | It's just a revolution. The only difference is that a coup is often run by someone who's already in power, like a military leader leading a coup against the President. | 41034304-f456-4863-95b7-02bb143125c9 |
2xxsqn | Why do Kim Jong Uns top military leaders always follow him around and take notes? | Because the Kim (Kim IL sung, kim jong il, kim jong un) dynasty are considered to be God-like and have the infinite wisdom. They take notes because anything Kim Jong un says is the truth and he is giving them direction and guidance. | db698b71-ba68-4d56-8a8b-1d54ddbc42e7 |
scf53 | Why does abstract math have so much history and application to computing, but computers are so new? | This is the whole point of basic research. Mathematicians concern themselves with studying the properties of interesting internally consistent systems.
But somehow, these systems tend to also be valuable for modelling things from the real world. The reason this happens is not very well understood as far as I know. It just seems that there is a connection between our intuitive conception of beauty and applicability.
For a five-year old: Imagine an artist that has a specific system, a school of thought about what art is. He is always producing sculptures according to this system and putting them on display for all to see. People look at these sculptures and once in a while realise that one of them can be used in their work. For example, a hunter looks at one of these sculptures and realises it's the perfect design for a bow.
Now, is this a testament to some higher truth the artist has discovered that makes things produced by his system to be valuable? Or is it a matter of volume, that he's just producing so much stuff in a consistent manner that some of them happen to be recognised as useful? We don't really know.
*Edit:* A third interpretation is that no one really understands mathematics except mathematicians. To extend the above story, imagine that no one in the world can sculpt to save their lives except for the artist. Then, even though they can sort of imagine what kind of tools they need, they can't design or build them themselves. So, their best bet is to go through the artist's exhibition and find the sculpture that best matches their needs. | 90f41f10-fb6b-4766-80a8-4ba89a98e1d4 |
3h98dx | How come black coffee has a laxative effect while most other stimulants make people constipated? | Which other stimulants cause constipation? Are you talking about rebound constipation? | f73d5010-528e-457f-afb5-052f716358bc |
2flnk2 | How do limousine services bypass the open container laws? | Sometimes there's an exception in the laws regarding commercial type transports. [California example:](_URL_0_):
No drinking:
> 23221
> (a) No driver shall drink any alcoholic beverage while in a
motor vehicle upon a highway.
(b) No passenger shall drink any alcoholic beverage while in a
motor vehicle upon a highway.
No open containers:
> 23223
> (a) No driver shall have in his or her possession, while in
a motor vehicle upon a highway or on lands, as described in
subdivision (b) of Section 23220, any bottle, can, or other
receptacle, containing any alcoholic beverage that has been opened,
or a seal broken, or the contents of which have been partially
removed.
'
Except when:
> 23229
> (a) Except as provided in Section 23229.1, Sections 23221
and 23223 do not apply to passengers in any bus, taxicab, or
limousine for hire licensed to transport passengers pursuant to the
Public Utilities Code or proper local authority, or the living
quarters of a housecar or camper.
This of course doesn't mean you're entitled to drink in a commercial vehicle, just that it's allowed by law under certain circumstances. | c54bf506-2e06-47b8-8441-db71ea2d7bb7 |
46uofo | Is there a pleasure-related reason to eat ass? | Sometimes it can be as much for the giver as the receiver. There's something primal, taboo and sweaty about burying your face and tongue into someone's anus that can't be topped. This is definitely one of those "your mileage may vary" kind of topics. | b14591de-7472-4695-929a-1e155f0a4975 |
j3ia8 | Can someone explain SQL to me? | Think of SQL as a way to manage a huge set of index cards with a bunch of information on them (this is your database). Maintaining a huge pile of index cards is a pain in the butt, so SQL gives you an English-like language you can use to control an index-card-maintaing robot. The key concepts are:
* A single colour of index cards [table]
* Each colour has a defined set of things you're going to note on the cards - so to keep track of football stats, you might say 'on each pink card, I'll write the "name", "height", "weight", "age" and "team" of a player; on each yellow card, I'll write the "venue", "home team", "away team", and "score" of a single football game' [these pieces of information are the columns; the description of each is the schema].
* Each individual card is a [row]
* SQL gives you some very basic operations which can be composed to do complex things to your information
* SELECT queries the data ("hey robot, look through all the pink cards, find each player whose first name is Henry" might look something like "SELECT * FROM players WHERE firstname = 'Henry'")
* UPDATE changes each row in a table ("Hey robot, I'm ready for the 2012 season; go through each pink card and mark each person as one year older" might be "UPDATE players SET age = age + 1")
* INSERT fills out a new index card ("Hey robot, the Myhometown Boll Weevils have a new Center Quarterforwardstop, better fill out a new pink card" might become "INSERT INTO players (firstname, lastname, height ...etc) VALUES ('Abdullah', 'McTavish', '230cm' ...etc)"
* DELETE throws away an index card ("Hey robot, Abdullah McTavish quit after a cockfighting scandal, don't need that card any more' becomes "DELETE FROM players WHERE firstname = 'Abdullah' AND lastname = 'McTavish')
* Where SQL gets useful is that you can do much more complex manipulations. We already saw WHERE above (where you're getting your robot to give you a list only of players meeting certain criteria).
* JOIN is like telling the robot 'for every card you bring back, also bring back a photocopy of the relevant card of another colour'. So 'bring me all the players whose height is greater than 200cm; attached to each one, bring me a copy of the green index card representing their team'. This way from looking at each result, you can find out the team's sponsor (say) without needing to go and do a separate lookup. If one team has 10 players over 200cm, you'll get a copy of that team's card attached to each player card.
* GROUP BY is a way of saying 'once you've collected the cards, summarize the information in some way' - group some columns together, and either throw away the other columns, add them up, average them. For example you might JOIN 'players' to 'teams' (per the above) but then want to summarize per team.
So a complex example might be: 'hey robot, get me all players over 210cm, attaching a copy of the team card to each. Then go through, group all the teams together, and just bring me the sponsor of each team, along with the tallest height and average age for each over-210cm player'
So the robot brings back a bunch of cards:
* John Smith, 214cm, 30 years old, MyHomeTown Bollweevils (with a copy of the Bollwevils card attached, listing the sponsor 'AwesomeCo')
* Jack Johnson, 220cm, 20 years old, MyHomeTown Bollweevils (with ANOTHER copy of the Bollweevils card)
* Jean-Francois Miyazaki, 211cm, 21 years old, Someothertown Honey Badgers (with a copy of the Honey Badgers' team card, showing their sponsor as "Crappystuff Inc")
So your robot summarizes that for you:
Sponsor: AwesomeCo, Tallest: 220cm, Average age: 25
Sponsor: Crappystuff inc, Tallest: 211cm, Oldest: 21
The SQL for that might look like:
SELECT teams.sponsorName, MAX(players.height), AVG(players.age)
FROM players INNER JOIN teams ON (players.teamName = teams.teamName)
WHERE players.height > 210
GROUP BY teams.sponsorName
there are other variants but that's a decent start. | 45769a5f-715c-4f86-b677-aa404b64a7e4 |
4w3usz | Why are most sweat glands in the armpits ? | They are not. You have sweat glands all over your body and while there may be a slightly higher concentration of them in your armpits than the average density on say your stomach it is not anywhere close to having most of the sweat glands that your body has. | e8d8aa7a-7990-4c7f-9258-7747b8f1b282 |
8zirm6 | Why is there a need of an additional checkin process in flight travel. Why cant we just use the tickets to board the plane? | Having passengers check in before boarding allows the airline to confirm which passengers have actually shown up for the flight. This can be important if a flight is overbooked (too many passengers), or if a flight has open seats that could be filled by standby passengers.
If they waited until boarding to check all of that, that would be quite a time crunch at the last minute. | 1d6c2731-57bc-4b33-aabb-495d8637eb30 |
2eva37 | the differences between Whiskey, Bourbon, Scotch, and single malt / multiple malt (?) | Whiskey is a general term for aged liquor made with grains (depending on where the term is used it can be spelled as whisky) and aged in oak barrels or casks. Bourbon is a legal term for whiskeys made in the US from a majority corn grain mix and there are other requirements. Scotch is whisky made in Scotland (and other requirements, as well). One key part of Scottish style whisky is they roast the grain malt over peat moss which adds a very distinct flavor to the final product.
Single malt is a term primarily associated with Scotch that means the product was made from a single distillery and with malted barley as the grain (blended is the opposite, it means that the final product is made from a blend of different distilleries products). | 01d9f285-925e-4a15-b343-87e62425a595 |
21pq9a | How come digital videos take up less memory than the sum of their individual frames. | Videos aren't stored as a series of images. It's closer to being stored as a series of **changes** in frames. Since most pixels on most frames are the same as the previous one, this saves an enormous amount of space. It doesn't work exactly like that, but that's an easy way to imagine how it could be much smaller. | 93120917-5c7b-415f-ba75-a6cb8a40b38b |
8capog | Why does travelling make you feel so tired when you've just sat there for hours doing nothing? | Former flight medic here. There is lots of data on the "stressors of flight" (many of these stressors are also present in automobiles). As the vehicle moves, the sway and direction change cause you to have to keep yourself upright. These micro movements cause your muscles to be continuously working (even if you don't realize it). The US Air Force has done studies report conistent exposure to aircraft vibrations can lead to fatuige and increased chance of health problems. | d05628de-5e22-4071-be7f-63fe46df0c8b |
1dntij | Implementation of Anarcho-Communism/Libertarian Communism | I don't have time to type out a whole history of attempts at implementing libertarian communism so I'll just point you to [*The Anarchist Collectives: Workers' Self-Management in Spain 1936-39* by Sam Dolgoff.](_URL_0_) There were similar attempts elsewhere but the effort in Spain is the one with the best documentation in English.
The long and short of it is that the workers called a general strike and began raising militias to fight the fascists, who had declared open rebellion on the government. They then set about bringing industry and land under collective ownership while the government of the Second Republic waned in actual power to the point of irrelevancy. The libertarian communism that was achieved evidently functioned pretty well. It only failed because they were unable to fend off the much better equipped fascists, who had international support from Hitler, Mussolini, and foreign capitalists like Henry Ford. Also because Stalinists inevitably stab anarchists and Trots in the back. Definitely read Orwell's *Homage to Catalonia* to get a better view of the politics and Antony Beevor's *Battle for Spain* to get a detailed history of the war.
As for implementing libertarian communism in the US today, it's not even really worth answering. I did the math once. We'd need an anarchist labor union in the US to have nearly 20 million members to have the same proportion of the population that the anarchist union in Spain had at the time of the revolution. The closest we have right now is the IWW, which has *maybe* 2,000 members. | ec30d303-b651-46d8-8e78-e786b53ce7b2 |
6allev | - how do you know when it is a good time to buy a home...how do you know when it is a buyers market? | Generally low interest rates are a good time to buy as well as more sellers than buyers. For you personally it doesn't matter what the U.S. housing market looks like, it matters what the specific house/area looks like.
For you to figure this out I'd recommend a site like Zillow for houses you are looking at. They post previous sale prices and an estimate of the houses worth. In general if its price is in decline it's a buyers market, if the price is inflating it's a sellers market. However buy a house at a specific time is a gamble. If you wait the price may fall even more or the price may rise, it's hard even for trained economists to time it perfectly. | 998f6739-2b4c-45f6-94d7-6027a6340fb2 |
3c5z3c | Biologically, why do humans feel sentimental about things, (places, objects) and how has this helped us? | Being sentimental is just another way of saying we experience feelings or emotions. Emotions are a reaction to our environment and help us to differentiate between positive experiences that we would like to repeat and negative experiences we wish to avoid. It also helps us to know what feels good and bad at an emotional level. That allows us to better communicate in a social setting by avoiding causing bad feelings for others and seeking to enable or be part of the experience of good feelings in others. | fc7fb0b9-8c1a-4fde-ab8d-3bb7af6318a1 |
rr3w0 | What the difference is between having to pay property taxes and having to pay into the healthcare system. | There are many differences between property taxes and federally mandated health insurance. First, the federal government doesn't collect property taxes, nor does it have the power to do so, as far as I know. Property taxation happens at the local (not at the state or federal) level. One of the biggest misconceptions that many people have is that government is just government, and it doesn't matter at what level that government operates. However, the US system was designed to give most governing power to the individual states, and the federal government was supposed to have more limited power. That changed a lot with the Civil War and then again with the New Deal, but the original structure, with its fundamental limits on federal power, is still there. This is the reason that many people who believe that the federal health insurance mandate is unconstitutional would say that Massachusetts' mandate is constitutional. As another example of the limitation on federal power, the federal government couldn't directly legislate a 55 MPH speed limit nationally, nor a minimum drinking age, nor a seat belt law. Instead, they used inducements: if you, as a state, implement a law requiring seat belts, then we'll give you more highway funds. So, while the states could make those laws, the federal government couldn't do it directly.
Second, the basic educated argument against the federal mandate is that it is requires individual citizens to purchase something from a private health insurance company. This is the thing that's really new and weird from a constitutional standpoint. Post New Deal, there is probably no constitutional impediment to something like a single payer health plan (no private insurance for most regular care) or even a public option (a government-run insurance plan that competes alongside of private insurance). In those cases, the government is providing the services and paying for it through taxes, without forcing individuals to buy something directly from a private business. The problem with forcing individuals to buy something from a private business is that opens up a lot of powers to the federal government. People like to make fun of the broccoli argument as being silly ("If the insurance mandate is okay because it increases the overall health of the population, then why can't we make a law to force people to buy broccoli, since it would also increase the health of the population?"), but that's the point. The federal government already has a lot of power to regulate private transactions, including telling people that they can't buy certain products, but it isn't yet established that the government has the power to require individuals to make certain transactions to buy specific products. If it gains that power, it can pass laws to mandate nearly anything, and that's something that could give pause to people of any political persuasion.
Outside of the explanation, I personally think that the federal mandate is unconstitutional. That doesn't mean I like our current health care system. Costs are simply too high to be sustainable. The system is too complex, and there isn't time or incentive for comparison shopping when you're in an emergency situation (and frequently not even non-emergencies). That makes the the market wildly inefficient. My preference is for a single payer plan, basically an expansion of Medicare to cover everyone, that also allows private insurance alongside it. | b4ce4d13-09b2-4f3e-92cf-a13332033d58 |
4ljoes | Why do we make solid and liquid waste? How does our body know which to make of what? | The solid waste is what didn't get absorbed in your intestines.
The "liquid" waste is all the stuff that was absorbed and needs to be flushed out again or the waste products of using the absorbed stuff. And it's only liquid because water is used as a transport medium.
So imagine you have a bag of apples. And you only take out the things you really need in your body. The water, the sugars and vitamins. To get these out you mash the apples to a pulp and add some chemicals and then squeeze the bag. What comes out is what your body would absorb. What is left behind is what your body will poop out.
Now you use the absorbed things as fuel. So imagine you take the sugars and burn them. After they have burned (reacted) there is slag that is left behind. And to get this slag out of your body again you dissolve it in water. That's what you pee out. (This is of course dumbed down quite a bit.) | 9da4d294-22ca-447d-8e1a-6d4a75d7bc36 |
40r432 | The drastic drop in the price of oil. | * The oil price went over $100 a barrel.
* At that price, expensive-to-extract oil such as fracked/oil shale became profitable to mine for the first time.
* It takes a really long time to set up a new oil well.
* There was an Oil Rush (like a gold rush)
* Where thousands of people/companies wanted to get in on $100 a barrel oil, but weren't accurately judging how much competition they had from other frackers because so many were still in the process of getting their wells up.
* [EDIT I better correct this point so I don't spread misinformation. Fracking wells can be turned off and on.]
* Tens of thousands of new wells came online, and flooded the market with oversupply.
* The oil price plunged.
* All those fracking wells started making a horrible loss.
* American fracking companies could not shut off their fracking wells without [EDIT...] making an even worse loss.
* The Middle East, with traditional low-cost Sweet Oil wells, have the option to temporarily slow their own production, but chose not to because it is in their long term interest to keep their own market share.
* The existing high-cost/fracking wells which are now unprofitable will be producing more oil for around another year.
* No new oil wells are in the pipeline because of the low price, so in a few years time, oil supply is going to drop drastically.
TL;DR
The oil price at $100 made expensive oil profitable to mine, there was a massive Oil Rush, now the market is so oversupplied the price has plunged, and the oversupply cannot shut down for a long time because of the nature of [Edit the economics of many] fracking wells. | c86a96a2-ae0f-4144-afe6-56c65fc412db |
161t3c | Why do some people fall asleep instantly, while it takes others hours to? | In order to go into sleep your brain activity has to slow, if you've got too many thoughts going on, keep opening your eyes, moving, etc, you're sending conflicting signals to your brain. Your brain waits for cues to go into "standby" and by doing these things, you're confusing it. Aches can do this too, since they're keeping your nervous system active. So typically, someone who can clear their mind easily, and doesn't have any sore body parts, can go to sleep rather quick simply by laying down and closing their eyes. Someone who has a lot on their mind or has a restless leg, etc, might not be so lucky. | 7803bbd5-5cf4-453f-8c1a-f47753c0648b |
35evcf | Why does using cellular data have such a big hit on battery life? | To get more data the radio needs to work harder, which takes more power. The radio is the second largest power consumer in your phone behind the screen, so if you're say streaming netflix you're killing your battery because you're asking the radio to do a ton of work and then using it to watch a movie. | 2a876256-05ee-4abb-bd3a-c1d848fac6e5 |
7fr4dp | What exactly is the true north? | True north is based on geometry, and points directly to the geographic/geodetic North Pole (i.e. [the axis that passes through the Earth, around which the Earth rotates](_URL_0_)). The magnetic and geodetic north poles aren't at the same geographic spot (and, as you say, the magnetic north moves around over time), so true north and magnetic north don't end up pointing in the same direction most of the time.
We just use magnetic north because it's much easier to measure and requires significantly fewer and less expensive tools (i.e. a compass, or even just a bit of [magnetized metal, a leaf, and some calm water](_URL_1_) as opposed to access to a GPS system, or a sextant and some astronomical charts). | 02c3e2fd-9c0e-47e5-8c5b-b052082c7c7e |
3kw5f6 | American Censorship on TV | The FCC regulates free, public air channels. Cable channels are not part of that since you choose receive those.
Many cable channels will voluntarily censor swearing, sex, violence, etc because their advertisers may not want to be associated with those things. Premium channels like HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Showtime, EPIX and so on don't rely on advertising so there's no reason to self-censor. They even show straight-up porn on some and can because nobody's forced to watch those if they don't want to. Even the premium channels self-censor to a degree in that they typically show the most "adult" content at night after 9pm or so. There's no regulations forcing them to but it's a business and public relations choice. | cd01d769-e7e8-4143-be48-d3f45211554f |
3mttc5 | Why are entire cornfields left intentionally unharvested? | First, the corn you are seeing in is not what we humans generally eat. Humans generally each "sweet corn". What you are seeing is "field corn" - stuff that animals eat and stuff that is turned into various manufactured products. Basically you don't want to harvest the corn until it is really, really brown. The reason is because you want the corn to be really, really dry. So no, the food is not going to waste. | 523d395c-c6f4-4c05-80af-ec4ed2e7e177 |
6dnlg5 | Why does being angry/annoyed for an extended period make your stomach hurt? | When you are angry or annoyed you are likely stressed, meaning you are producing the stress hormone (cortisol). Cortisol is released when the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) is activated. The system temporarily stops digestion and absorption. Frequent and excessive release of cortisol can cause inflammation (instead of doing what it's supposed to do, which would be regulating it). Combined, this causes stomach pain. On a side note, magnesium can inhibit excess cortisol production, so the magnesium pills you can find at a local health food store, for example, can help you if you suffer from anxiety or are constantly stressed. Excessive cortisol production is unhealthy and has cardiovascular, immune, and blood sugar effects. | 8cb00754-c58d-4b1c-bcc1-b73d98a5f17c |
4g1rpd | Do animals experience similar symptoms of periods (cramps, mood swings, sleepiness, overall blah?) | Sort of, if you've ever seen a pet in heat you can tell that they aren't themselves. I've had rats that got ratty, and a cat that got catty, even by the standards of their species. The rats were especially notable because they're sweet, gentle beasts, but they turned into little bitches who would nip your fingers if you tried to drag them out of their house.
Humans are somewhat different because unlike most animals that are only fertile a few times a year, we are always fertile. Our reproductive systems work round the clock, which causes a lot of stress on the body. Consider it to be like a computer: most animals have binary states, either "fertile" or "infertile", whereas we (and a few species such as rats) are analogue, and are either "more fertile" or "less fertile" along a spectrum, but it is unnatural for us to be both infertile and in childrearing age. Maintaining our reproductive system is very stressful on the body, and the flood of hormones can cause discomfort, mood swings, irritability, physical pain, etc., but that all depends on the individual. Some women don't get any side effects from their menstrual cycles whatsoever, others need to dose themselves with powerful painkillers to survive it. | 14cc2f4d-ee27-4762-a1f3-78508b05d7b1 |
4emmmb | Why is there an attendance policy for many classes in college when I'm the one paying for the classes? | Being the customer does not entitle you to dictate the nature of the product - all it entitles you to is the choice whether or not to purchase said product. The professor, as the provider of said product, retain the ability to dictate what type of service they will provide and how that service will be provided.
In this case, they feel that in order to earn a decent grade and grasp the material fully, you need to attend a certain number of classes. That is their prerogative as the teacher. If you disagree, you are free to enroll in a different course or another institution which has requirements more to your liking. | 528adcf1-d3a3-447b-8791-8fbe5df56536 |
441p40 | DnD Morality Alignments | The best way to explain alignments is to frame them with other media you might know, with a bit of peppering of a few things.
It's split between two axes -- we can regard these as ACTION and INTENT.
So, take the quintessential Paladin. They are honor bound, DUTY bound, to do what is right. But who decides what is right? Is it always good to follow the law to the letter? Since their ACTIONS follow the social grain, the Paladin is considered LAWFUL. What about the 'good?' Surely the Paladin's intent is good. By believing and following the letter of the law, he seeks order and protection for the weakest among them. In a sense, he seeks the sustainability of society, and the people inside it. This is why he's GOOD. Thus, Lawful Good.
But what about something different? How about Robin Hood? He doesn't follow the letter of the law, at all. In fact, he's stalwart against it. He can see that the law is oppressing, damaging the citizenry, and fights against it. His actions, then, make him CHAOTIC. Against the grain, against order, itself. Entropy. However, his INTENT, to do what is best for the citizenry, is what makes him GOOD. Thus, Chaotic Good!
If I were a mercenary, who switched sides in a conflict because it paid better, I might be Neutral Evil. In the broad spectrum, I would be doing MY JOB, but my intent, MONEY, is selfish. Evil. What about a soldier switching sides because his country is committing war crimes? At this point, the bureaucracy has failed, and he is going against the grain. Chaotic. But he's doing so not for himself, but for his country. Smaller details could mean the difference between Chaotic GOOD and Chaotic NEUTRAL.
This alignment system works relatively well on a meta level. However, some specific circumstances can buck this trend. Take Hitler, for example. He's a monster, right? His actions were terrible, to a tremendous degree, but what was his intent? Was it power, pride, righteousness? It could be argued from this perspective that Hitler was 'Chaotic Good,' because what he did, he did for his country, 'Chaotic Neutral,' because Country First, above self and others, merely stacks onto the action, or 'Chaotic Evil,' because his actions belied the intent.
This is why, when creating a character, their alignment is based on their surroundings -- not our world, THEIR world. In THEIR time, not ours. It is possible, for instance, in a world where there exists an open slave trade, for a Lawful Good character to treat slaves as slaves. It all begins to fall apart if you look at it through the lens of our own society. | 65ce4ac3-7e83-45a6-b80b-6a6837d14fd5 |
4i3e25 | Difference between Medicare and Medicaid | Medicare is for people on social security (mostly retirees) it tends to offer more generous coverage.
Medicaid is for those with low income. Most of it's funds come from the federal government, but administered by each state so the program varies rather widely by state. In general, Medicaid doesn't tend to reimburse doctors that well as Medicare so it isn't always widely accepted by doctors. | bb2cce40-f6b8-4cba-8fb0-54e4255600b6 |
6jpozt | How were they able to make such precise world maps 300 years before, when nobody had the possibility to get on anything higher than a mountain? | Making maps isn't about getting to a high point and drawing what you see. Map making, perhaps more technically *surveying*, is about taking measurements of things like distances and angles, recording them in a big list, and then using that list of numbers to draw a map. A bit of imagination was often used to fill in coastlines or other details but the overall shape and distances where all derived by measurement and math.
Have you ever seen people in high visibility vests peering into some sort of box/tiny telescope on a tripod while another guy a distance away is standing next to a pole? They're surveying an area (by measuring distances and angles) to create a very accurate map needed for construction or some other project. While todays tools have little digital readouts and lasers the old tools looked very similar and simply used protractors, weights on a string, compasses and measured lengths of rope (or for larger distances or at sea they used the stars to help plot positions). | 0fcb7ff6-95f7-47d0-814d-18859e1222ac |
kjc79 | What exactly are goosebumps and why do we get them from a variety of emotions? | This one is fun!
You know when a cat gets angry? Its fur puffs up and it looks like a big Tribble? That's it. The cat is getting goosebumps. It just has fur on top of the bumps.
Now, this reaction is used for a variety of things. We often notice it when we are cold. On mammals who do have fur, puffing it up traps a layer of warm air next their skin. To a degree, this does still work with us - especially for the hairier among us.
The variety of emotions which can trigger puffy hair vary from species to species and individual to individual. (Do you get goosebumps when your about to throw-down with your local alley cat?) This is speculation, but emotionally triggered goosebumps probably exist because looking bigger never hurts when emotions are high. | 1e549652-bd62-4e68-9fef-e8133fe4b708 |
5m7cno | Why do you pee more when you're in a cold environment than in a warm one? | Sweat doesn't magically come from nowhere. It is water coming from your body, same as evaporation from your breath. Water you sweat out is water you won't urinate out. If you are dehydrating you will barely urinate if you do at all. | bf53094c-93b3-46a3-ae94-8a2402024c96 |
8yrwq0 | When a specific noise wakes you up, how come you can recognise the noise even though you were just asleep? | Bias. You are only aware of noise when it wakes you up. You aren't aware of the noise you slept through.
When you are in deep sleep (N3 and REM sleep), you are very hard to wake up. Your brain takes in a relatively tiny amount of environmental information. Your brain prioritizes keeping you asleep. You generally feel like crap when you wake up directly out of deep sleep. When you are in lighter stages of sleep (N1 and N2), you take in more environmental information and are also at a point where you wake up more easily. You cycle through these stages during the night, so there are a few points during the night when you are likely to wake up if you are disturbed.
Sleep isn't an off/on switch. Think of it as a spectrum. | 28d354ea-2f6d-43cd-9471-893428104b04 |
32rmwb | When posting a link into a comment how do you edit it to appear as different text instead of the actual web address link? | You can also use the "formatting help" link right below the input box (where you type in the message). When you click it, it brings up all of the formatting syntax (what to type) without refreshing the page or changing anything you've typed so far. | 0a459327-f63f-425e-92f2-7907ac555874 |
uiasp | what happens when I click on "Safely Eject Hardware" in the Windows Tray? | If you're asking what happens when you click on the icon, it is just giving you a list of removable storage devices that you can disconnect. The repetition is to make it easier to identify which device you want to disconnect. If you want to disconnect fappy's device, you can do it by type *or* name.
If you're asking why you need to disconnect it, that's because the data essentially exists in two places. And all changes are not made until you eject the device. Imagine you have two buckets, bucket A and bucket B. In bucket A you have some water. You want to pour the water into the bucket B, but instead of waiting to make sure you're finished pouring all of the water from A to B, someone randomly snatches bucket B away. Now, all the water may have been poured into bucket B, and it probably has been because that bit of water pours fast, but then again there may be a bit of a mess to clean up. And water on the floor is very corrupt water. | 52a435d9-4029-4c65-a904-5e3f66e23702 |
6b5vo6 | Why is it that when some people read while reading in a car it can make people sick? | You brain is receiving two separate signals. Your eyes are telling you that you are stationary while your ears are telling you you're moving. This co fuses the brain and generally causes motion sickness. | c20efcc7-dd64-4527-8d46-81cc9b34a65e |
64og67 | How does an antibiotic know how to destroy infections in random places in the body? | It affects your whole body. Some people suffer adverse affects after taking antibiotics because they can throw off your entire system. We've got plenty of organisms in our bodies that are good for us. Sometimes, they get caught in the crossfire. | c32fec93-0817-4131-9e32-2da96115fc44 |
1pvago | Why is it impossible to achieve total Game Balance in RPGS/MMORPGS games in general? | Imagine that you are playing tag in the playground. Johnny and his friends all play tag together, The school has just released a whole new set of equipment for the playground and this included a whole set of shoes!
Now to start with everyone just wears the things that are most fun. But Johnny figures out that the red shoes are actually 2% faster than any of the other shoes!
Johnny is actually very good at Tag and plays a lot of tag after school as well so uses these shoes all the time. All the other players that were good at tag are now not as good as Johnny because of his shoes. So they all buy the red shoes until over 50% of people are wearing the red shoes!
Now Billy, who only sometimes plays tag and isn't as good as everyone else, but he doesn't mind, because he has fun. But now, most times he gets tagged it is by someone wearing red shoes! Johnny begins to think that it isnt fair and he should buy some red shoes as well and is upset every time he gets caught.
In his mind, the red shoes are totally over powered because he only ever gets caught by people in red shoes, but in reality they are only 2% better, just everyone has adopted them!
Basically: There will always be one item that is the best. And people that are trying to be #1 will always use that item. Even if it was 0.001% better, it would still be used! | f9d7c28e-9f59-454d-9128-af7951b89022 |
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