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How does international law even work?
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Short answer, there isn't really a practical method of enforcing international law other than voluntary participation. Long answer, international law is a series of UN backed treaties, ranging from human rights and genocide (UDHR, Rome Statute) to business and patent law to environmental agreements. However, countries must both sign and ratify a treaty for it to legally bind them; North Korea is an easy example of a country that hasn't signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or any chemical weapons treaties, but they are not alone. E.g. Japan hasn't signed and ignores UN conventions on whaling and Antarctic fishing. There is an international court, in fact several. The ICC handles war crimes, OPCW monitors chemical weapons, ICJ handles trade and territory disputes, and many other long acronyms exist. However, just like the treaties, signing up for these courts is voluntary.
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If you're a diplomat, someone who works in country A representing country B's government, country A has no legal authority over you. If you break country A's laws, they can kick you out, but if they want to send you to jail or something they need your home country's agreement. It exists because if it didn't exist, diplomacy would be rarer. You wouldn't be able to send diplomats to a country if you didn't trust its legal system.
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Why is it so nice to go out in 70 degree weather but a pool with 70 degree water feels ball-chillingly cold?
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It's all about the speed that heat leaves your body. Heat leaves your body much more quickly in water than it does in air, so your temperature drops more quickly. Wearing some basic clothing, your body will naturally produce enough heat to replace what's lost to 70 degree air, but will have a very hard time keeping up in the water. According to [this](_URL_0_), 70 degrees can still get you hypothermia.
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This is one of those questions that is a good opportunity to get into a broader concept. Namely: Your brain is not a computer. It is not infallible, it is not even particularly reliable, and what you are experiencing is not some 100% truthful objective reality. A huge portion of what you experience is interpretive fiction created without your conscious control by the big squishy glob of fat in your head. So, why is 70 warm in the winter and cool in the summer? Because of your subjective experience of the temperature differential. When you expect to be cold 70 degrees is warm, and when you expect to be hot 70 degrees is cool.
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Why can you see better when you squint?
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When you focus on an object at a certain distance, your lens in your eye is adjusted so that all the light rays coming from a specific point of that object and that go through your pupil, are focused to a single point of your retina. When you're not focusing (or if you have bad eyesight) the different rays are projected at different points of your retina and you see a blurry image. Now, if you squint (or if you make a tiny hole with your fingers to look through), your drastically limit the amount of rays coming through your pupil, so even if your lens does not focus, the image will be less blurry because there are less places on your retina the light reaches. In the extreme case, there is only one ray of light per point of the object and the image will be crystal clear, even without a lens. This is the idea behind a [Camera obscura](_URL_0_).
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The reason you cant see clear is because your eye lens cant focus the light at the back of your eye ball. Squinting may help in giving your eye lens the curvature it needs to better focus the light
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Why does the peanut butter in a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup have a different texture?
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Oil and chocolate are quite buddy buddy and want to mingle together. Peanut butter contains peanut oil which makes it easier to spread. However, this oil will mix with the chocolate covering the peanut butter cup and cause the chocolate to get soggy and melt off. So, the peanut butter inside the cup is peanut butter with reduced peanut oil. If you get peanut butter brands with just peanut butter and no other additives, you'll often find a layer of oil on top of all the peanut butter. If you manage to scoop some of that peanut butter without mixing the oil, you will get a texture similar to that of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Regular mainbranded peanut butter (Skippy's, Jif, etc.) have added ingredients that prevent the peanut oil from separating from the peanut butter.
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So first off they have a different recipe. Even something like salt or sugar per unit will give a different flavor. I personally think their flavor is a little saltier and sweeter than other peanut butter, which goes well with the chocolate. They also have a different production process. I'm no food chemist but I imagine it's probably different given the challenges of putting it inside a chocolate than in a jar. It's also a bit drier, and I'd imagine they use some kind of starch to keep it firm rather than smooth like other brands.
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Does squid ink share any similarities to “real world” ink we use in our pens and printers? Or is it just a colloquialism?
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Squid ink, or more commonly *cuttlefish* ink, [*is* a real-world ink used in pens and printers](_URL_0_). Not all of them, or even most of them, but it’s a very stable pigment. So stable, in fact, that even fossilized ink sacs hundreds of millions of years old can be (and have been) powdered up, re-hydrated, and [used as fresh ink on paper](_URL_0_). (The Greek name for the cuttlefish is “sepia”, and it’s where we get our name for that warm orangey-brown color of ink today. True sepia pigment is cuttlefish ink.) But any ink is just a liquid suspending pigments that can usefully transfer those pigments to paper, and squid, octopus, or cuttlefish inks are perfectly suitable for that task. In the 1800s, you wouldn’t have looked out of place dipping your quill in a squid-ink inkwell, and if you go into a specialty art shop today you might find some sold for either pen or brush.
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I think what you're talking about here is the octopuses skin, and in that case the ink sacs have nothing to do with it, it's actually skin cells called chromatophores. These contain pigments that reflect back light to appear coloured, in the case of cephalopods and other organisms that can change colour these pigments can be switched out within the cell to change colours. In octopus a system of muscles control colour change. Different species have different "resolutions" - that is, some species are far better at mimicking their environment (see Mimic Octopus or most cuttlefish vs. Giant Pacific Octopus). Some species also alter their texture to better blend in. It's not really my area of expertise, so i hope that was clear enough, if theres something you don't understand feel free to ask more and i'll try be more clear! Here's some great extra viewing: [video 1](_URL_2_) [video 2](_URL_1_) [extra bonus video](_URL_0_)
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If a DNA sample is not available, can a close determination of a DNA profile be made of that person if there are DNA samples of blood relatives?
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Yes. That's how they caught the golden state killer. Police collected DNA from the crime scenes but didn't have a suspect to collect a sample from for comparison. Eventually, they tried comparing the DNA evidence against a database of people who had voluntarily published the results of a home DNA test (like ancestry or 23 and me). Police got a hit from this database, and upon further investigation determined that the person in the database was not the killer, but was a close blood relative.
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Sure, you could. The amounts of DNA collected at crime scenes is tiny, but the first step in using it is to "amplify" it (make many, many copies). So having enough DNA isn't an issue. But there generally isn't enough incentive to do what you suggest. First of all, at a crime scene, it is very likely that you'd pick up DNA from multiple people, not knowing which sample(s) belonged to the perpetrator. Then doing an _URL_0_-style analysis would teach you some things (the race of the person), but wouldn't necessarily give you enough to go on to find the right person. It's a lot more sensible to compare the DNA to databases that exist and look for an exact match. In an extremely high-priority case, doing what you suggest would probably be worth it, though.
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How is the QWERTY keyboard the most efficient keyboard?
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Google search the origins of QWERTY Its not about efficiency, its about preventing jams in typewriters back in the day. The QWERTY set up breaks up the most common letter pairs to prevent jams. Then when computers came into being the same system was used because everyone was used to it.
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We don't use all the keys with similar frequency while typing. In English ETA are the most used alphabets so ETA are pressed more times than other letters. In the past age of mechanical keyboards and typewriters, when two keys which are next to each other are pressed it caused typewriters to jam To prevent this the most used letters are placed far and requires one to alternate hands which reduced jamming of the keys and lesser used keys(like X) are placed at tricky positions which are not so easy to reach. Other keyboard layouts also exists like Dvorak and workman which are suitable for typing in other languages than English. **ALSO** Contrary to the popular belief QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist but rather to speed up typing by reducing jams and alternating hands(which is a desirable trait for good speed).
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Why do we sometimes have an urge to smell disgusting things?
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You mean like our poop? It's an evolutionary drive. Because animals often track other animals by scent, when we smelled our own poop we could gauge how strong the smell is and therefore gauge the level of danger we would be in after having defecated. The stronger the smell is, the further and faster it would travel and alert predators to our presence.
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Probably an evolutionary advantage. Some of the smells more unpleasant to us are linked to poison or unhealthy food (like rotten). If you start smelling something unpleasant, there is a higher than usual chance you may have eaten something recently that is poisonous. A quick purge may help you survive. Now, this system is far from perfect, there are plenty of unpleasant smells that bear no risks and some odourless dangerous stuff, but in general, it was probably good enough for natural selection to consider it a positive trait.
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How are we able to control Space Shuttles or Robots when they are in outer space?
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Mainly because there's someone IN the shuttle... But we also use radio waves (think "RC car", but way more powerful) to send it a signal to control movement, etc.
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They use powerful radio transmitters and receivers. They can't directly control it with instant feedback because there is a lightspeed delay of a number of minutes between Earth and Mars. Because of this, they have to work on AI so that they can give more general instructions to the the rover like "go over there and zap some rocks" rather than "move your left wheels at 7km/h" because they don't have the reaction time for "direct" remote control.
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Why do tv shows censor some curse words, but not others?
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Typically words that have a legitimate definition aside from being a curse word are not censored. For example, "bitch" is a term for a female dog, and "ass" is another word for a donkey.
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Profanity comes from the assumption that something upheld is being debased. Curse words can come from a few places, but using words with deep seated cultural connotations force you to see it as vulgar when used in certain situations. This is because it crosses a boundary, it's taboo, it shows disrespect and people find disrespect insulting. Hitler wouldn't have the same effect because we are not "bringing it down" when using it as an exclamation.
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Why does glitter sparkle?
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Because the glitter flakes are [relatively flat](_URL_0_), so the reflections are very directional. Example - take a hand mirror into a room with only one light. You should be able to shine the reflection on the wall. See how small it is? So when you shine it at somebody's eyes, it's only going to be bright when everything is lined up correctly. Glitter is like lots of very small versions of that mirror. If you hold your head very still the glitter will not sparkle - you will see individual pieces which are lined up properly. The rest will not be bright. As you move your head (or the glitter, like on clothing) , different pieces of glitter will come in and out of alignment, causing flashes that we call sparkles.
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think of it like a high pressure balloon full of really fine glitter. now pop it in the wind!!!
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How are we able to change the pitch of our voice consciously? And thus enable us to sing?
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You have a lot of muscles in your throat and neck that allow you to change the pitch of your voice. They do this by tightening or lengthening your focal folds (cords). It's somewhat similar to how a string instrument works actually. At that point, it's just a matter of coordinating between what you hear and adjusting the muscles to match the pitch that you want.
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Part of the reason we can match the pitch is because the sound we make when whistling is the sound we actually hear. Have you ever noticed that recordings of yourself don't seem to sound like you to you, even though everyone else says it does? When you speak or sing, a good portion of the sound we hear is actually going *through* our head, not around it.
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Monsanto Protection Act
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Genetically engineered crops are regulated. Once they get approved, farmers can grow them. However, if someone screws something up (like the environmental assessment), the approval can be revoked. This means farmers might be in the position of having crops that were legal when the planted them but illegal now. The thing everyone is up in arms about right now allows farmers to request that the USDA, if they deem it fit, to allow the planted crops to be grown as normal that season and not be destroyed until the GE crop in question can be officially cleared for cultivation again. td;dr This thing isn't to protect Monsanto, that's just sensationalist nonsense, it is to protect farmers.
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> I am basing my understanding of this situation on the various articles I have read here on reddit, and Food INC (feel free to tell me this is an accurate/inaccurate documentary too). It's not accurate, Monsanto does not sue farmers over accidental cross pollination, only willful and intentional isolation of their seed and the planting/selling of it.
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I have Norse heritage and I wanted to know more about the culture
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There's lots of great things out there. I've written up a few lists of recommendations in the past, and a quick search of my previous comments turned up [this one](_URL_2_) and [this one](_URL_1_). Admittedly, neither of these is really perfect for an initial introduction. Peter Sawyer's *Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings* might be one of the easiest places to start, but Brink and Price's *The Viking World* is probably the very best introductory resource, although it's written more like an encyclopedia than a cover-to-cover read. Price's *The Viking Way* is one of the most interesting introductions to pre-Christian Norse religion, and you can even see him lecture on it [for free](_URL_0_). Graham-Campbell's *Viking Art* is also a pretty cool read, though it only has a passing review of Viking Age history at the very beginning. Let me know if I can help you find anything more specific. Happy reading!
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hi! not discouraging more discussion here (there's *lots* of room for more feedback on *Vikings*), but fyi, you can get started on a bunch of previous threads in the FAQ (all related to season 1 IIRC) * [How historically accurate is the History Channel's "Vikings"?](_URL_0_) Also, just a recommendation that if there are particular aspects of the production that you're wondering about, asking a more specific question will likely attract more/better responses
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Why is it apparently accepted that different breeds of cats and dogs have certain personalities, abilities, and levels of aggressiveness, but not different races of humans?
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This is really a snakepit of a question and I don't know how to answer it completely. It's important to note, though, that dog and cat breeds are extensively inbred compared to human races, and are much less genetically diverse. This makes it a lot easier to predict how a puppy will turn out than how a child will turn out, and even then everyone know there's a lot of personality and morphological differences even within breeds. It's not a very accurate comparison.
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They're not. Persian cats and Maine coon cats are *breeds* - all of them are *Felis catus*. Asian people and Caucasian people are *races* - all of them are *Homo sapiens sapiens.*
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Why do Americans seem to hate socialism?
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Americans value the idea that each should prosper according to their own ability. Socialism and social welfare programs undercut that ideal. Many Americans believe that someone who is less fortunate should work hard to achieve social mobility rather than benefit from government programs funded by tax payers who are were able to achieve success. That's not to say all Americans feel this way. A vast majority of Americans approve many social welfare programs. Also, although OP defines his/her country as socialist, I suspect it is a country currently run by a socialist party, and not necessarily a socialist country. Using a Marxist-Leninist definition of socialism, Cuba and China barely even qualify as socialist. Unless the means of production are owned by the state (or cooperatively by the citizens), your country is not socialist, OP (even if it says so in your constitution).
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Socialism is a system of economics, not government. It's seen as preferable to capitalism (though not necessarily superior) because it allows for more even distribution of wealth and resources eg universal healthcare and tuition-free post-secondary education. This must obviously be funded somehow, and the solution most often proposed is a tax increase, generally applying most to the wealthiest members of a given society. The issue is that very few people honestly want to pay higher taxes regardless of the benefits.
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Do astronauts still experience "weightlessness" out of Earth's orbit?
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Yes you can think of it that astronauts experience weightlessness in orbit because they are in a freefall, and their sideways speed is so large that they are falling sideways which keeps them from entering the atmosphere (and slowing down). Astronauts travelling to Mars would be in orbit around the sun, so the same principle would apply (they would also be weightless). You said they would be at the same speed, which means no acceleration, but if there was then they would feel the force of their engines, which would feel like gravity.
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Any time you are in orbit you will be feeling weightless, at any height. This is because orbiting is actually free falling. The only difference is that you are not only falling down, you are also moving forward fast enough that you don't fall into the earth you miss it. _URL_0_ In this [image](_URL_1_) you can see a cannon shooting a ball off of a mountain. In the first few shots, the ball is not moving forward fast enough and it falls into the earth. But in the later shots, it is able to miss the earth and achieves orbit. It is still free falling, just it is constantly missing the earth. If you want to know more about gravity, just ask.
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As an American how do you play criket?
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The same way you play it as an Englishman.
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There's definitely several of us who play! (I myself have not yet been lured in....) As with any question on popular media, I'd recommend listing a couple of aspects you were particularly interested in to attract better answers.
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[QUANTUM MECHANICS] Is the famous double slit experiment widely accepted - does an observer really have an influence on physical reality? I just can't understand how a single particle can be in multiple places at the same time. My mind is raging with curiousity.
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It's not in multiple places at once, it just doesn't have a well defined location until it is forced to. The word observer here doesn't mean a dude looking at it, it's just something that forces it into a specific state.
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We essentially already have exactly this in quantum mechanics. Whilst we have a great mathematical framework that works very well, there are several (many?) different ways to interpret it physically. Are things truly random? Are there multiple universes? What if non-local hidden variables exist? In all these cases, the answer might lead to exactly the same physical measurement results, so we simply can't distinguish them without more experiments. Actually, more than that, the field has been stagnant for a while as it's proven extremely difficult to think of any such experiment. This being the case, nobody should ever say that one of these interpretations *is* correct, only that it works. That doesn't stop people getting the wrong idea (they frequently do...), but the important thing is that there's no controversy in science about their current indistinguishability - even if different people have different opinions on which is most likely, or may try to find ways to distinguish them.
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Why is it that the Sun is so bright when rising, but so 'dim' when it's setting?
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It has nothing to do with sun or atmosphere. It's about eye adaptation. Iris opens or closes to adjust amount of light that illuminates the retina. For this reason human eyes are quite incapable to tell how well illuminated scene is. Anything between 300 lux and 50,000 lux is fully iluminated. However eye can tell sudden change. If you look with eyes adapted to the dark on the rising sun it appears to be very bright and if you look with the eyes adapted to daylight on the setting sun it appears to be dim, even thou light intensity is the same.
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Because it contributes to the illusion that we are looking at someplace hot and dry where the sun is really bright.
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What is the fastest moving celestial object we have found?
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This is an extremely vague question. However, if you want to know what star in the Milky Way has the highest velocity relative to the Sun, it appears to be a star known as [SDSS J090745.0+024507](_URL_0_) moving away from us with a velocity of about 850 kilometers per second. Such hypervelocity stars are likely ejected from the nucleus of the Galaxy in 3-body interactions with the central supermassive black hole and another star. **edit**: see Silpion's comment below. Neutron stars have been found at even higher velocity.
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That would depend on how fast such a object is traveling at.
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Why can't Egypt take back their archaeological artifacts which have been stolen and are being displayed in the British Museum and elsewhere?
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They can't "take them back". I mean, they can't just march into the British museum and take them, right? They'd pretty much be arrested. They can *request* the artifacts be returned -- and the have -- but the British Museum (and government) would have to decide to actually do it. So far, they have not. But Egypt (and Greece, and India, and any other country that claims that Britain holds artifacts that belong to them) don't really have much of a legal recourse, let alone the physical power it would take to force the issue.
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I think the most salient way that they have been colored by biases is by access. Many near eastern ancient historical artifacts were discovered during the late 19th and early 20th century, which corresponded with the zenith of power for several European empires. This of course meant that lots of it ended up getting shipped back to Europe or America, rather than staying in the countries they were found in (see the British Museum, the Louvre, various archaeology museums at western Universities). This means that instead of being connected to the deeper history of a place, far ancient history was often treated as entirely disconnected from its place of origin. Only now is some of this being rectified, with several high profile repatriations of artifacts. Still, as the recent bombing of the archaeological museum in Cairo shows, there is (somewhat justified) hesitancy towards relinquishing some of these artifacts.
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Why does it feel so good to clean my ears with a QTip?
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The skin is very sensitive because there is a lot of nerve endings in the inner ear, these are easily stimulated, which makes it pleasurable to put a qtip in the ear.
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Ear wax is basically there to catch dirt and other particulates before they get too far into your head. Same purpose served by snot in the nose. So it's a part of your immune system. As for removal, it depends on your output really. I get clogged ears if I don't clean them semi-regularly. Most people won't, though, and cleaning is an aesthetic thing. I do know any doctor will tell you that cleaning with a Q-Tip is a bad idea. The recommended method is to use warm water or saline to flush out the ear.
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Why didn't the Asian Steppes develop more agriculturally?
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Depends on *where* you're talking about. _URL_3_ _URL_4_ _URL_5_ The Steppes have a fairly diverse range of climates, water retention and soil quality but *generally* the answer is going to be an intersection of those three factors and simple altitude. And take a look at average temperatures for a handful of regional cities- _URL_2_ _URL_1_ _URL_0_ Can you see why some parts would be less than ideal for agricultural development?
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As far back as we can reasonably record, India and China were massive civilizations containing the bulk of the world's population - they're both excellently suited for large-scale agriculture.
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If antibacterials don't kill virus', why do we wash our hands or use hand sanitizes to spread an illness to others when we're sick?
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The mechanical action of washing your hands with soapy water also physically removes much of the offending viruses and bacteria from the surface. They are less of a threat down the drain than on your fingers, even if they are alive.
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Most hand sanitizers use alcohol, which kills indiscriminately. It would kill us if we didn't have livers to filter it, and in high enough doses will kill anyway. Some germs survive due to randomly being out of contact, in nooks and crannies and such, not due to any mechanism that might be selected for.
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What would happen to seasons if the Earth's axis was perfectly vertical?
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The seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth, so without the tilt, we wouldn't have seasons. The intensity of sunlight at your location would be whatever it is on spring or fall equinox. It would be very difficult to predict what the weather would be for any location because air flow patterns would completely change.
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You know how the arctic regions get extended periods of light and darkness? That would be most of the planet if earth had a ~90^o axial tilt. The polar region would cycle from blazing desert to deep freeze every year, which a thin band for temperate weather along the equator. Life would quite different on such a planet.
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why millions of dollars is donated to third world countries yet they are still so poor?
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National budgets range in the trillions. A million dollars is a millionth of a trillion. If you donated a million dollars to Ethiopia and it was perfectly distributed among the population, every person would get about a penny. We actually give many billions of dollars to third world countries, but there are still so many people that it can only have limited impact. For example, last year the US government gave around $600,000,000 to Ethiopia, which amounts to about $6 a person. $6 isn't going to make a poor person not be poor anymore. It's only $6. Many people will bring up the corruption and bureaucracy that prevents aid from reaching the people, and that may be a valid reason not to donate more aid. But regardless of the reasons, third world countries are not donated so much money that they should not be poor anymore.
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Because 99% of that aid never reaches the people who need it. When large donations of money and food are made to countries, it is left to the government to decide who gets the food or money, which means it won't get to the people who need it. Its basically a corrupt government that holds the country back.
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How did 15.6" become such a common laptop screen size? Seems pretty arbitrary.
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15.6" is 400mm, so it seems like a round number to me. Perhaps if you're not in a metric country it's confusing, but almost all countries that make laptop screens are metric.
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Well I think if 13.3" or 14" was the industry standard you'd be asking the same thing, no? Perhaps a great deal it all boils down to standards within an industry dominated by consumer needs and pricepoint. Usability studies and best practices lead the various manufacturing companies to come up with a few standard laptop sizes but we use the screen size to classify/label them for obvious simplicity reasons. I found a pretty good superuser thread that relates strongly to the manufacturing aspects of your question, I'll let you check it there instead of just aggregating another person's research- _URL_0_
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What happens when you plead no contest?
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Generally, pleading no contest allows someone to accept the penalty for a crime, without admitting guilt. This way, the plea cannot be held against them if they are later sued in civil court. Pleading no contest usually doesn't reduce the crimial penalty vs. pleading guilty.
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In regards to the sentence they get there is no difference. Technically pleading guilty is admitting that they did whatever they said the prosecution said they did. Pleading no contest means that they agree that the prosecution has enough evidence to convict them but they don't admit that they actually did the crime.
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Why are rain clouds darker than normal clouds?
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It's actually the same color. It's just that if a cloud is bigger, the lower part of the cloud is shadowed by the upper part of the cloud. And bigger and/or more dense clouds are more likely to rain.
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Thickness. When clouds hold a load of moisture, they appear darker. When they are whiter, they don't have as much moisture, so they aren't dark. If you see a green one, or greenish one, that means it is holding a lot of hail aloft. The sunshine acts as a prism and the light is bending towards the green.
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I read that if the universe dies of heat death, its temperature will never reach absolute zero no matter how much time passes. How is this possible?
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Take any positive number, and divide it by any impossibly big positive number. You'll never reach zero, but you'll get really close. The universe is always expanding, spreading out the temperature, but since there's no absolute zero to start with, it can't be reached.
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Yea, the eventual heat death of the universe. [From this article](_URL_1_): "Every star will die, nearly all matter will decay, and eventually all that will be left is a sparse soup of particles and radiation. Even the energy of that soup will be sapped away over time by the expansion of the universe, leaving everything just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero."
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How did doctors close internal injuries before the invention of dissolvable stitches?
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Dissolving sutures have been around for quite some time in some form or another. The Roman physician Galen writes about using sutures made from intestines in the 2nd century AD and while we can't be certain these are dissolving there is a high chance they were. By the 10th century though the "catgut" suture was definitely in existence, these sutures were made of the fibrous parts of animal intestines (generally sheep and not cat!). Catgut sutures had strength for ~7 days allowing a wound to be closed to heal but would be broken down by the body within 90 days. This remained the prevalent suture type until the development of artificial dissolving polymers beginning in the 1930s.
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If there internal stitches they can be self dissolving where in a few weeks your body absorbs them. Or in the case of external stitches snipped out with scissors. You can remove your own but the doctor usually wants to check on the healing/look for infection.
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How far can you see in space?
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On earth you can see million miles away yourself, right now!!! Just look at the stars. Remember the sun is ~93 million miles away, most of the stars you see are orders of magnitude further away. We can see the andromeda galaxy with our naked eyes, so that is 14,696,249,500,000,000,000 miles away! In space, you wouldn't have the atmosphere filtering photons coming from stars, so you'd be able to see even more. This is why we have the hubble telescope in space, to avoid earth's atmosphere.
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The most distant thing we can see is the Cosmic Microwave Background. The light from it traveled 13.7 billion light years to get to us. However, the matter that emitted that light is now 45 billion light years from us. This is because the metric expansion of space can result in the distance between two objects increasing at more than 299,792,458 meters per second.
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Why humans come down with minor illnesses all the time but when a pet gets sick it's typically a more serious problem.
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Typically one of the key ways that you tell a human has a minor ailment is they complain about it. Generally it is only serious medical conditions where you can walk into a room and instantly identify that a person is sick by sight alone. (source: EMT, and I walk into a lot of rooms with sick people in, and it nearly always requires questions to identify sometimes ailment). Animals can't complain about it if they have the sniffles, or indigestion, or even more serious condition like diverticulitis or rheumatic pain, or sciatica. You might notice a change in personality, you might not, but when they have kidney failure, or a twisted bowel, you will definitely see a significant behavioural change.
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In general, I think it's that they have just been exposed to a different host of organisms, and so they have developed immunity to things in their country that your immune system has never seen before. Thus, when you are exposed to these things that they encounter daily (but have developed immunity to), you get sick and they don't
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How does compounding interest actually work in terms of personal wealth accumulation?
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Imagine you have $100 in an investment. To be simple, let's say that it gives you a 5% return monthly. After month 1, you get a 5% return or $5. Rather than taking that money out of the account, you keep it in the account, so you now have $105. After month 2, you get another 5%. This time, you're taking 5% on $105, or $5.25. The amount of money you're returning continues to grow even though the interest rate stays the same.
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There's a concept in economics called the money multiplier. Basically, a bank is only required to keep 10% of the value of its deposits on hand, and loans out the other 90%. The money that's loaned out is spent, deposited in a bank, and loaned out again. For example, A bank has $100,000 in deposits. It keeps $10,000 on hand, and lends $90,000 to Bob for a new house. Bob gives that $90,000 to the house's previous owner, who deposits it in the bank. The bank keeps $9000 on hand and lends the other $81,000 to Jeff for a new sports car. The car dealer gets paid, the bank keeps $8100 on hand, and loans out the other 72,900 to Mike. At this point, on an initial deposit of $100,000, the bank has $244,000 lent out, and is collecting interest on it.
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Is it possible for a planet to be “flat”?
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Funnily, we can answer this definitely: No, because they are defined to be round! The criteria for a celestial body to be a planet are * Is in orbit around the ~~sound~~ sun * Is in hydrostatic equilibrium * Is the dominant object in its orbit It's the second property, hydrostatic equilibrium, that basically says "it's round". It is so massive that its gravity and the pressure of the matter it is made of are in a balance. This is most energetically stable when its in a round form. Rotation can flatten it a little bit, but not that much to deviate strongly from a sphere. *Edit*: Thanks, autocorrect.
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If you're reffering to why it is flat, see this [Minute Physics Video](_URL_0_)
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What causes white marks in fingernails?
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This is known as [Leukonychia] ( _URL_0_) and is caused by either a diet low in potassium or when the base of the fingernail is damaged. It is harmless, and the spot will continue to grow with the nail until you can clip it off.
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The keratin of your nails isn’t opaque so it looks white once it grows past your nail bed as there is no blood vessels making it look pink
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[Physics] How far can the human visual system semi-accurately detect range via only parallax?
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According to [this study](_URL_0_), 97.3% of subjects could detect a difference in depth at 2.3 minutes of arc or smaller. & #x200B; Converting that to degrees, we get 0.0383333 degrees. If we now consider a right triangle with one leg of 65mm (typical distance between pupils in a human), one angle of 90 deg, and another angle of 0.0383333deg, the distance of the longest leg comes out to 97.15 meters. & #x200B; So, it sounds like right around 100 meters is the point where our stero vision alone can no longer help us judge depth. Of course, there are other cues available to us, which is why we're able to see that a distant street sign is closer than the horizon.
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Actually, distances aren't calculated based on the speed of light, they're calculated with parallax for close things and brightness for more distant things.
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What is a 'beer belly'?
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It's actually a combination of fat from a poor diet and an inflamed liver. Alcohol causes inflammation of tissues, particularly in the liver. Add in a crappy diet with carb-heavy beer, and the gut takes on a swollen appearance. Just a plain old fat belly won't be as round and swollen looking as a beer belly because a beer belly is actually swollen.
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It's fat. It occurs for the same reason all fat does: You take in more calories than you use, and your body stores them as fat. Some people are more prone that others to store their excess fat in this particular layout (which is less colloquially known as "central obesity"). It has nothing to do specifically with beer or other alcohol. If your body is prone to store its excess fat in this layout, and you consume enough to get fat, you'll get fat in this way, regardless of whether what you tend to overconsume is beer or burgers or Twinkies.
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If Donald Trump "doesn't represent" the values of the GOP as some have stated, why is he leading the race for the GOP nomination? Don't his poll numbers show that he represents GOP values better than anyone else in the race?
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He doesn't represent the values of the party leadership and, more importantly, their top financial contributors. This doesn't matter to him, as he can finance his own campaign, but it definitely rustles the jimmies of anyone hoping for corporate handouts to their GOP campaign.
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Because he's saying what a lot of the base thinks. The people objecting to him aren't voters, they're legacy/establishment/organization figures. Sort of like how Sanders is massively popular, but establishment Dems consider Hillary the frontrunner.
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Why is the Book of Enoch not considered biblical canon?
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The book of Enoch in the Dead Sea Scrolls was discovered long after the canon was formed, and by that time the canon was a well defended tradition. So it was never properly considered as to whether or not it should be in the canon. Anyone who attempted to add it now would be labelled a heretic. There's also at least 3 books claiming to be Enoch, one of them is the Ethiopian Enoch, which is in the Ethiopian canon.
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This [archived article](_URL_0_) might shed *some* light. The most important points seem to be that canonicity is regarded loosely, the total of 81 is reached different ways, some of the books in the official canon were never even printed in Geez, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church never claimed posession of a complete edition of the Bible in Geez/Amharic. To me this implies that a notion of canonicity is a construct imposed upon their church and not an indigenous aspect. Historically it was probably a more fluid relationship to the status of various texts on the periphery with a tendency towards inclusion/reverence.
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Is the graphical fidelity of games limited by computational power available currently or is it very difficult to make a realistic looking game?
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It's both. You need a lot of data to represent all the realistic details, and that means either scanning them from real life objects (limited by scanner quality, issues with lighting, animation etc.), generating them procedurally (requires effort to make it look realistic), or creating them in the traditional ways (a lot of artists' work). It's further complicated by the "uncanny valley" issue: the closer you get to the realistic looks, the more discrepancies you notice with the real life, making it look "just a bit off", while those discrepancies are usually overlooked with stylized visuals. And as a game developer, I can say that when people want "realistic graphics" etc., they actually mean "like in a movie". And movies are not realistic, they use a lot of tricks to get a good looking picture, often fighting against realistic lighting etc.
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Because even high quality game graphics are nowhere near the quality that a 3D animation software outputs. Games take a lot of shortcuts to maintain framerate in double digits. For one thing animation software uses [ray tracing](_URL_0_) to render the image, whereas games use faster but less accurate methods that don't produce some of the effects you would see in the real world, such as reflections. These have to be faked using quick and dirty methods, which is why often in games reflections don't actually match the surrounding environment, because they're just a texture rather than a real reflection.
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Could positron emitting isotopes be used to generate energy?
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> Say you placed a positron emitter such as Oxygen 15 in a vacuum chamber under the presence of a magnetic field, and introduced electrons, annihilation would take place. From this, couldn't one use the heat produced as a source of energy? Sure. You could do this with any nuclear decay, you don't need positrons specifically. Radioactive nuclei decay, emitting energy. That energy can in principle be [taken and used](_URL_0_).
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There are a few naturally occurring isotopes that emit positrons (including K40, which you can find in bananas), and some exotic isotopes that are produced in particle accelerators. This is how the positron-emitting glucose for [positron emission tomography](_URL_0_) is made. For larger particles like antiprotons, it's generally done by smashing particles into walls really fast, and then siphoning off the relevant particles that are produced. They are however are a rare component of cosmic radiation.
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Can a possible cause for homosexuality be a mutation of the olfactory system in gay males and females and their response to the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC)?
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That sexual selection is affected by MHC molecules is a theory proposing we have a predisposition to choose mates with different MHC molecules to promote genetic diversity. Your hypothesis is that males are 'tuned' to female MHC and vice versa, however there is no difference between the frequency of MHC alleles in males and females so I do not believe this is possible. This 'tuning' is not for male or female MHC, rather simply for different MHC.
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Genetics isn't that simple. Most scientists don't believe that homosexuality is determined by a single gene. In fact, a great number of traits, especially complex ones relating to personality, behavior, etc. are determined by multiple genes. Or more accurately, the interplay of many genes with the environment. Remember that genes do not exist in a vacuum but interact with and are regulated by things like transcription factors or other proteins, meaning the genes that are expressed and what time they are expressed is determined by many factors, including environmental signals. EDIT: [Here's](_URL_0_) a paper on the subject.
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( sorta ) What does the liquid in female ejaculate ( squirt ) consist of and why / how does it happen? (NSFW )
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[A very recent study](_URL_0_) of the stuff finds that it comes from the bladder, shares properties with urine, and some women also had an enzyme present that is also produced in men when they ejaculate.
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When you ejaculate, semen travels through the urethra, in the same path urine takes. A bit of this semen will remain in the pathway afterwards. Having some fluid there reminds you of the sensation of peeing, and makes it feel like you're holding some in or need to go. You don't actually have any more urine there or anything, and ejaculation isn't affecting your bladder somehow. The bits of semen leftover will be flushed out when you pee. A lot of things can effect this, like how much semen you produce, the force of the ejaculation, general differences in anatomy, how much attention you pay to small feelings. So it happens more noticeably for some guys than others.
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Why does the human body go into anaphylaxis for an allergic reaction, but starts gasping when drowning?
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Anaphylaxis IS the allergic reaction. Its not a defense mechanism or anything. Gasping is part of the Instinctive Drowning Response in humans. It is what makes you flap your arms downward into the water and stretch your neck up and tilt your head back to breach the surface for a gasp of air. Unfortunately, many times you are too deep for the instinct's intended result to work.
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Anaphylaxis is an extreme allergic reaction. Basically, your body completely overreacts to a substance. Reactions that would normally be helpful will actually harm you when they go overboard. Your throat can seal up, your blood pressure drops, your heart can go into an irregular rhythm. Any of these things can kill you. EDIT: [Source](_URL_0_)
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At what age* do human babies start having their own bacteria in their stomachs? (*while in the mother's womb itself or after birth)
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Initial colonization occurs at birth; prior to birth, they are sterile. In the first few weeks and months the intestinal ecosystem gradually shifts from what was acquired from the mother at birth to one that is more adapted to digestion.
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The bacteria in feces come from your colon, which is colonized soon after birth. Urine is sterile until it reaches the meatus of the urethra, where it can be contaminated by common skin surface bacteria.
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When an artist/band's "Greatest Hits" or "Best Of" album is released, how does the process take shape?
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A Greatest Hits album is common in any record deal. After so many releases, the artist and the label (to varying degrees, of course) will get together to assemble the track listing and many times, the artist will be required to produce a number of exclusive tracks for the release. All of this will depend on the artist and their deal.
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What makes a good single and what makes a good album are different things. For the radio or MP3 shuffle, a song should be less than 4 minutes and make sense on its own. For an album, the songs are supposed to be played in a certain order, and combine to tell a story. A good example is Pink Floyd's *The Wall*. There are a lot of songs on that album that don't make a lot of sense out of context, and even the ones that became hit singles make more sense in context. A band not concerned with a narrative between songs is just going to make a bunch of singles without much thematic cohesions. When a band has a long-term dedicated audience, the rules change. As they get older, they don't really have much new to say, they are just given their audience more of the same.
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If a nuke explodes mid-air, does the mushroom cloud still form?
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Nuclear bombs are generally exploded in mid air, including the two that were used in world war two. Doing so increases the range of the explosion's impact. The mushroom cloud is formed from a combination of the ~~original circular shock wave and the upward force of the wave bouncing off the earth~~, heated air rising through the bombs smoke and water vapor which an atomic bomb can achieve in "mid air". Edited: More detailed.
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*~~Edit: [d4m1ty's response](_URL_0_) explains the actual mechanism that causes the mushroom shape.~~* A large enough conventional explosion also results in a mushroom cloud. You've got a mass of super-heated air that rises, carrying ash and dust skyward, resulting in a mushroom shape if the plume is large/hot enough.
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What is US Labor Day and what is it actually celebrating?
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It's a federal and state holiday that celebrates organized labor and the working class. Most other countries celebrate something similar on May 1.
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Supposedly it's to avoid the [socialist connotations](_URL_1_) of [May Day](_URL_2_). [This Slate article](_URL_0_) confirms that September was chosen for the US rather than May to avoid communist/anarchist/syndicalist associations. Despite the fact that the holiday still commemorates the labor movement and the September date was specifically proposed by the then-head of the CLU (Central Labor Union).
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Why is it so easy to heat a room but at the same time very difficult to cool it?
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It's mainly because of the second law of thermodynamics. In an isolated system, say for example a room. Any energy you put in will follow entropy and disperse until it reaches a balance. But to cool something down you need to create an imbalance, witch is directly fighting entropy and therefore requires more energy.
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The heat costs the same. All the energy that isn't immediately turned into waste heat through resistive dissipation and inefficient power supplies will eventually do so. Light and sonic energy warm the room. However, you may not get the heat you want where you want it, or in a reasonable amount of time. Appliances mostly heat the room they're in. For example, a server in your closet will not heat your living room that much.
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Are there any examples in the animal kingdom in which females will fight over a male mate?
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female antelopes: female topi antelopes (Damaliscus lunatus) compete aggressively for matings with preferred males on central lek territories. Females fight at higher rates and more likely disrupt mating attempts of others in the lek center than elsewhere. source: _URL_0_
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Female [Jacanas](_URL_0_) behave much like male lions. In species where both parents need to work together to raise offspring females may compete to partner desirable males, this happens in [kingfishers](_URL_1_) and of course in humans.
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Why is there a stereotype of Asians being smart?
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Their culture tends to be quite strict and success-oriented. Currently in most parts of China, you are only allowed to have one child. This "One-child policy" was implemented in 1979. And while there are negative effects to this (like many female babies being discarded since males are "better"), it is a decent form of population control, for now (obviously having 2 people make 1 forever is not going to carry the species). Parents tend to want them to succeed, so they push them and make them study hard. Not all Asians are like this (Asia is a big place with like 2/3rds of the world's population), stereotypes are in place because human brains are good at understanding patterns, and a blanket statement like "all Asians are smart" is a big shortcut.
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Its a combination of confirmation bias and some unfortunate stereotypes. Asian women are stereotyped as being more submissive and/or exotic, while white males are more likely to be viewed favorably either financially or in a masculine way. Asia is also a slightly more classist society and caucasians side step the social standing criteria for relationships in most cases. There is a lot of historical and pop culture awfulness behind both stereotypes, but that is why they match up well. *I am a member of one myself and I fuckin hate when any of those stereotypes are assumed about my relationship, but if you are looking for loose overarching trends there it is. Also seriously a lot of confirmation bias, it isn't that one sided.
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Why do people without coeliac disease choose to eat gluten free?
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In general, people without who aren't sensitive to eating gluten will also find that they recieve health benefits from a low gluten diet, and not realize that the reason is because A) they are actually paying attention to what they are eating, making them less likely to snack on junk food or eat food without thinking about it and B) eating less carbohydrates in general can be healthier for many people who previously had a carb-heavy diet. So they attribute the better health to removing gluten from their system, not realizing that there are other reasons why their health is improving.
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Gluten bothers: -Celiac -Allergies -Gluten "Intolerant" people (intestinal discomfort, other symptoms) Apparently, from what I see, more people are gluten-intolerant than may realize it.
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Why people catch colds when the seasons change?
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Allergies happen in Spring and Fall due to plants blooming. Actual colds usually occur in the Winter because people choose to stay inside because it's cold outside. When people are inside, they're closer to each other. When people are closer to each other, it's easier for them to share germs, which is why "colds" spread more rapidly in the Winter.
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You don't get the same cold every year. The virus is always changing.
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Why small businesses are considered "good"
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There is a block with 10 lemonade stands, they all do pretty good business. One day, Big Ass Mega Lemonade opens. The original 10 go out of business and the former owners get jobs working for BAML. Those 10 owners make a lot less money - and the owner of BAML, who happens to live far away, takes all that money and invests it in a massive boat. Smaller businesses distribute wealth more equally, and keep the wealth in the community.
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> Back in, say the 40's and 50's it seemed companies took pride in making a product that lasted a long time and was made really well. That was mostly marketing. Throughout history, almost no business has actually sacrificed profit for quality. Instead, they strike a nice balance that'll keep their customers satisfied. In older days, a lot of people had to depend on a single store or business for a particular good. The biggest difference today is that we have a lot more competition between national sellers (such as Wal-Mart, Target, etc.), which means they have to work harder to compete. But they can't lower prices, and also continue to pay the same price for those same products from Company X - therefore, Company X has to figure out how to reduce the costs to maintain profitability.
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How are new graphics cards and similar technology made so quickly? Are advances in that area really being made that frequently?
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They aren’t really groundbreaking technology changes. They’re basically refinements on the same tech to make each individual part smaller, and as a result more power efficient and often faster. You can also fit more into the same size device which helps achieve even more power. They are not designed quickly. Designs are started *years* in advance based on the technology that is expected to be available and affordable by the time that design is finished. Sometimes the theories they’ve been working on for years are met with worse-than-expected ability to actually produce the design, and you get crazy high costs or low numbers of them available. These troubled designs are still produced and marketed however because it’s not like they can just spend a week tweaking the design and re-release it! They have to wait for the next project they’re already working on to be completed, which takes forever.
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A bit of both. The key component of some things, like the lenses themselves, are pretty much "locked in" at some point. We know we can build them today, and we know we'll find a better way to build them when we actually start manufacturing them. So, how they will actually be made is up in the air but we know the size and precision needed. The next thing is that no one wants to send the newest tech into orbit - first generation things tend to break, and so when scientists discover some lighter than air nanomaterial, it's not about to make it into a satellite a week later. But in 20 years, they've definitely improved a lot. Plans would have been generally drawn up, knowing that computers would change over time, and individual components would be tested and swapped out if they can work. Each time, someone would make sure that the weight, format, reliability, and everything else will keep working as planned.
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Chef Boyardee was a real person who ran an Italian restaurant in America. How similar was the food in his restaurant to the canned pasta sold by his brand now?
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Related question: how did chef Boyardee become so famous?
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Greetings prospective respondents! Everyone loves to talk about food, but just a reminder of which subreddit this is: it's /r/AskHistorians, so no anecdotes or urban myths, and don't just give examples of different pastas. Respondents here are expected to have *expertise* in the subject, offer *in-depth information* and *cite reputable sources*. Thanks!
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How do the sleeping patterns of modern westerners compare to people throughout history and people living in more primitive societies?
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Until someone qualified to answer comes by, I found the wiki section on the [Anthropology of Sleep](_URL_0_) quite interesting.
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Not directly related to your question, but the "good night's sleep" pattern we engage upon may also not really be the 'norm' for our human ancestors. While I haven't directly studied the anthropology of sleep, I'm aware of [studies](_URL_0_) of hunter gatherer cultures where sleep occurs in punctuated bouts throughout the day and night, reactive to events, rather than a lengthy single specific time as we typically observe.
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How is an ultra-sound tech able to calculate the weight of an unborn baby?
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Cardiac Sonographer here, with my little bit of experience in OB sonography I can tell you it's a calculation based on four measurements. Femur length (FL), head circumference (HC), abdominal circumference (AC), and the biparetal diameter (BPD) which all give you an estimated fetal weight (EFW). I don't remember the actual formula but there are calculators online to punch your info into to get your result. As with most measurements with height and weight (especially with children) there are standard deviations and percentiles Sonographer come up with based on an average bell curve.
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The doctor will measure the size of your baby's head, the length of her femur (the bone between the knee and the hip), and the circumference of her abdomen. Formulas then convert those numbers to a size and weight. It's really inaccurate though.
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Why is blood pressure measured in millimeters of Mercury?
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Pressure as a whole is measured in mm or cm or inches of mercury. It's because mercury is one of only a few materials that exists on earth as a liquid. Compared to water which boils at 212 F and freezes at 32 F, mercury boils at 674 F and freezes at -38 F. So Mercury is much better a material to use in a thermometer due to its wide temp range at which it remains a liquid making it more useful for all normal expected temperatures. At it's pretty stable, doesn't react with other materials much making it good to use.
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Other folks have mentioned the weight. Another benefit of mercury is that it's not prone to phase change at particularly low or high pressures. This is useful when you want to measure a vacuum; water for example would tend to boil or become water vapor when exposed to a vacuum, which would then feed into whatever it is you were measuring. Mercury comparably, remains in liquid form in a vacuum at normal temperatures.
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Why do I get a sting from the radiator?
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I don't quite understand the question, but the sting could be from one of two things. 1. The radiator is hot and touching it transfers a large amount of heat quickly, which feels like a sting. 2. The radiator is giving you a [static electric shock](_URL_0_). This part's a little more complex so I'll simplify it a bit. Your radiator is metal, the pipes which attach to it are metal and they run into the ground and touch water and all sorts of other conductive things which means they act as a [ground wire](_URL_1_). In this case, if you have gathered a net static charge, which you can do by moving around, then touching the radiator will allow that charge to flow away so that you become neutral again. The flow of charge is what gives you a shock, which feels like a sting. This may also apply to car radiators as they are connected to the rest of the metal in the car.
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The stinger is probably stuck in the one that got swollen, which would lead to a persistent localized inflammatory response you get it out of there.
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Why do launched missiles often fail?
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Try making something weighing several tons travel thousands of miles at hundreds of miles an hour and attempt to make sure it doesn't stray anymore than a dozen feet from its target. If you have little experience in physics, programming, and rocketry it's not going to be easy. Hell a large part of much of modern missile tech was from research done in Germany in WWII. If you don't have access to those resources you're already decades behind.
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First, control is distributed. If the capital were destroyed, there are other military control centers. Second, US and UK nuclear subs have been given written orders saying what to do if their whole command chain is destroyed. These are kept in a safe on board, and they don't require remote launch codes. An interesting second question is: what prevents one of these crews from opening the safe and performing a launch? Accessing the safe requires multiple people, and so does launching the missiles, so I think we are reliant on "not everyone will go insane at the same time".
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How are new elements discovered/created?
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They take two smaller atoms and smash them together. If they can do it with just enough force and hit it in just the right way, then the two atoms will overcome the electromagnetic force, and the strong nuclear force will takeover, and bind all the protons and neutrons into a new nucleus. So if you take a titanium atom (22 protons) and smash it into a berkelium atom (97 protons) you can end up with a new atom of 119 protons. The new atoms tend to be highly unstable and often only last a fraction of a second, so detecting them is a lot trickier, what they often do is look at what types of decay the elements underwent (alpha, beta), and verifying those observations against what the math is telling us should happen, and what previous chemistry experiments have taught us. But once one groups discovers a new element they will need their worked verified by an independent group of scientists to confirm if the results are real or not.
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Only h, he, and trace amounts of Li were created in the Big Bang. Everything else since then (especially gold, since it is so "heavy" in atomic number) was created either inside stars, or when stars went supernovae. Planets form around stars that already have lots of elements, and planets don't have the requisite temperatures or pressures to produce new elements through nuclear fusion.
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What is cocking a gun and why don't I see people cocking guns after every shot?
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That would be pulling the hammer back. With single action revolvers you had to pull the hammer back and the trigger just released it. with modern double action revolvers pulling the trigger cocks, or pulls back, the hammer and releases it. Manually cocking, whether single or double action is usually more accurate way to shoot since you use a lot less pressure to pull the trigger leading to a more accurate shot. What you see with semi-automatic pistols where they pull the top back is also cocking but it is usually done after a fresh magazine is put in to put a bullet in the chamber. After the first shot is fired the recoil loads the next round into the chamber.
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I think a key issue that nobody has addressed about your question is that the movies and TV shows want to emphasize when there is a change in the interaction. Poor gun handling and unnecessary gun cocking sounds can help indicate that someone is coming closer to performing a violent act. This helps increase the tension, without being very intrusive. In a realistic interaction involving a gun, the gun only makes two noises after it's been drawn. Immediately upon drawing, there will be a nearly inaudible click as the gun is taken off "safe". The next noise the gun will make is when it's fired. That is assuming an automatic pistol carried with a round in the chamber. In other situations you may have to cock it/load a round, but you would also do that as soon as you draw. So most gun handling and gun noises in cinema are there for story telling purposes, not realism.
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Does the probability in deal or no deal work similarly to The Monty Hall Problem? [Please see inside for details]
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no. the key about the monty hall problem is that he ALWAYS selects a non-winning case to identify. in your case, since you had a chance of selecting the million dollar to eliminate, there is instead a 50% chance that either case left has the 1 million. it's a subtle difference that has huge implications in the probability.
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[That's the Monty Hall Problem.](_URL_0_) The easiest way to think about it is to think of the same situation, except there are now 100 doors. You pick one door at first. What are the chances that you picked the wrong door (a penguin door)? 99/100. Same logic applies here. There are 3 doors. You pick one door at first. What are the chances you picked the wrong door? 2/3. Therefore, it increases your odds because the odds of you picking correctly at first were 1/3, while the odds of being wrong were 2/3.
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Could Tony Stark's Iron Man suit (or anything similar) ever be possible?
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Powered Exoskeleton: [Yeah.](_URL_1_) Pretty much just needs a battery that's powerful enough. Fly: Personal jetpacks have existed for a while. It would just need to be strong enough to lift the suit+battery, while also having a decent flight time. Shoot lasers: [Kind of.](_URL_0_) The exoskeleton above could carry that just fine. You could even mount two. Bullets would still be a better option for the near future. It's possible now. With the capabilities from the movies? Not soon.
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There wouldn't be a noticeable effect. Normal elemental iron is ferromagnetic, which gives the familiar attraction to magnets. The iron in blood is ligated with hemoglobin, which removes this property. In this form it is paramagnetic, with oxygenated blood slightly less paramagnetic. Paramagnetism is much weaker than ferromagnetism in this case, and the iron will be so weakly attracted it basically doesn't have any effect.
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What do DJs like Skrillex or Martin Garrix actually do in live performances?
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they get paid to play other peoples songs in a particular order/pattern that other people find pleasing.
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When DJ's go back to back they are taking turns playing songs. So they have a giant library of songs saved on their computer or on their CDJs. DJ 1 picks the first song, DJ 2 then has to figure out what song they want to play next and they handle the transition and mixing. Then DJ 1 comes up again and picks the tune he wants to play. It only really works well if the two DJs are a similar style. Calvin Harris doing a B2B with bassnectar probably wouldnt work becuase the songs and tempos are too different for each artist to work off of
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Are there any sources on the Soviet side of the space race? How did the space race affect the Soviets and the outcome of the Cold War?
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A book written by Dr. Asif Siddiqi of Fordham University was published by NASA in 2000. Titled "Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974" It's available as a two-part PDF, and it includes extensive bibilographic references: * [Part 1](_URL_0_) * [Part 2](_URL_4_) Dr. Siddiqi also wrote a book called ["The Red Rockets' Glare: Spaceflight and the Russian Imagination, 1857–1957](_URL_1_). Haven't read it yet, but it's on my to-read list. The good professor also has a number of [articles](_URL_3_) about aspects of the Soviet space program. When I was a boy, I *loved* the book "Red Star in Orbit" by James Oberg, but it hasn't been updated since the 1980s, though there was a multi-part BBC series in the early '90s that followed the book. In addition, there are several documents available from the National Security Archive at George Washington University, chronicled in a 2015 [article](_URL_2_).
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I don't want to come across as rude, but I think your question is based upon a false premise. The Space Race was not some kind of real "alternative way" of competition between the USSR and the USA. It was just an **additional** dimension of competition to show which socio-economic system was superior and to gain prestige among the world public and at home. Military and diplomatic rivalry continued throughout the Space Race period (how do we exactly define this time span anyway?). Remember which conflicts took place in this time, which placed Washington and Moscow head to head, just some examples off the top of my head: The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the Vietnam War until 1975, the Six-Day War in 1967, the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The perceived intensification of the rivalry during the last fifteen years of the Soviet Union's existence is owed to a number of other factors.
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What built structures and natural formations would have been considered as 'wonders of the world' in the Renaissance era?
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...The pyramids at Giza, the hanging gardens of Babylon, the Colossus, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the lighthouse of Alexandria, the mausoleum, the Temple of Artemis. No, really. Western Europe first gained access to the tradition of lists of world wonders in the very early Renaissance. The known-at-the-time surviving version of the *Greek Anthology*, containing the poem attributed to Antipater of Sidon with six wonders, was first published in the west in 1494. There were references in other classical texts prized by Renaissance scholars, too. Forty years later, the idea of the Seven Wonders had developed and cystallized in the Renaissance imagination to the point of Maarten van Heemskerck's [woodcut series.](_URL_0_) (Note that although the pyramids were/are very much still around, he clearly hasn't seen them firsthand.)
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The original "Seven Wonders of the World" is a list that was put together by ancient Greek scholars, listing the most amazing architectural feats of the world as they knew it (the Mediterranean and what's now the Middle East). That list is: -Pyramids of Giza -Hanging Gardens of Babylon -Colossus of Rhodes -Temple of Artemis at Ephesus -Temple of Zeus at Olympia -Mausoleum at Helicarnassus -Lighthouse of Alexandria Of those 7, only the pyramids have survived until today. In the modern age, people have compiled all kinds of 7 wonders lists - some of the ancient world (usually including Rome, as the Greek list was compiled a few hundred years before Rome's heyday, along with East Asia and the Americas), some of the modern world, some lists of only natural wonders (like the Grand Canyon, etc). But most often when it comes up, people are referring to the original 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, unless they clarify with some other word.
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Do monogamous animals get "divorces"? What about cheating?
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> [However, DNA-based paternity testing has overturned this intuition -- a 2002 review of such studies \[PDF\] estimated that "cheating" occurs in 90% of bird species, and an average of 11% of chicks are "illegitimate."](_URL_2_) _URL_1_ *Another study but you need access. _URL_0_
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No, because most animals don't have a concept of rape. Most animals don't go "Ok, you have earned have sex with me" and therefore all of it is relatively forced, as far as actual sex like we have. With lions, it's not "You're the king of the pride, you get this" it's "I'm the king of the pride, I get this"
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Why was Nixon forced to resign after spying on his political opponents, but Obama has faced no repercussions for spying on the American public?
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Because **Obama** isn't doing it personally. The NSA, **whose powers were expanded using laws under the Bush Administration** , is spying on people. Obama is not the US government, he is one part of a larger system. Edit: Corrected my history
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Nixon lied about his involvement, thus causing an impeachment for lying under oath. It really wasn't about the wiretaps, rather him lying about the woretaps.
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Watched Smokey and the Bandit. Was there actually a time in American history where blocker cars, caravans in defiance of the law, and groups of truckers could openly defy the law?
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In "The Northern Forest" (Dobbs and Ober, 1995), the authors describe a mass protest by residents of the Adirondack State Park in New York where they drove up the highway blocking all lanes, but going at the exact speed limit. This naturally caused quite a backup. Is this the sort of thing you are talking about?
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The Civil Rights Act did have provisions for private establishments. It outlawed "discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce." The commerce clause lets the federal government do a lot, and for what it can't cover state governments would have been able to make laws about that easily, which I imagine many did gradually over time. Another factor I'd like to bring to light, however, is the way - before the act - even nominally private segregation was coercively enforced. The Montgomery Bus Boycott, for instance, was private action against segregation which the state then tried to put down by coming up with laws they could use to rationalize preventing boycotters from car pooling etc.
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How can we perceive the Milky Way Galaxy, specifically, observe it, take pictures of it, if we're on the inside?
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At night, in areas without light pollution from cities, you can see part of the rest of our own galaxy. We're about midway out on just one of the arms. If I recall correctly, the only part we can't see at all is a wedge blocked by the cloudy galactic core. Pics of the whole galaxy are computer generated but we can use what we can see from here to extrapolate the "view from above." Map: _URL_0_ View at night: _URL_1_
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Imagine going outside to the nearest blacktop road, and standing in the middle of it. Let's pretend the road runs east-west. If you look north, you don't see the road (or not much of it, anyway). If you look south, same deal. If you look east, [you see the road stretching off into the distance](_URL_0_). Same deal if you look west. You see the road even though you're **on** the road. Same deal with our galaxy. We're **in** our galaxy, but what this means is that we can look into the disc edge-on and see it as a bright band of stars. (Think about looking at a pancake from the side. It would look like a line, precisely what you see when you look at our relatively flat spiral galaxy).
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If nuclear fallout is such a huge concern. How are nations able to test nuclear weapons within their borders.
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Nuclear fallout is very minimal from standard nuclear weapons, hence how people live in Hiroshima and Nagasaki just fine today. Nuclear tests will often be underground, underwater, or an airburst. The Japanese bombing was airbursts, which maximize destruction by create minimal fallout. Regardless, nuclear fallout is not a huge concern except in a full-scale nuclear war or reactor meltdowns. In that case, thousands of nuclear weapons would be dropped. It's not something that happens in any significant quantity from a single weapon. Chernobyl is an example of an instance that did cause consider nuclear fallout, and the reactor core is still humming away, buried in concrete underground.
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Who's threatening to use them? Having nuclear weapons is essentially just a deterrent for other countries using nuclear weapons. Trying to get nuclear weapons is basically just ensuring no ther country uses it on you.
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Would tattoos on someone with a weak immune system fade slower than on someone with a excellent immune system?
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A few weeks after you get the tattoo the pigments that remain have been eaten by immune cells which get stuck and stay in a layer of your skin. So the 'immune process' is over and done with in all individuals long before the tattoo degrades. The fading is (afaik) mostly due to unrelated breakdown of the pigments (sunlight being the biggest factor) and is not due to the immune system.
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The tattoo ink sits between layers of cells rather than staining the cells themselves. Little bits are cleaned up by the immune system over time, but mostly the ink just sits in a layer than the body doesn't pay too much attention to.
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What was student life like in Poland or Germany in 1755?
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As a student, you usually were a member of a "nation" or [Landsmannschaft](_URL_0_), i.e. a student corporation which gave you housing, had an uniform and also facilitated a behaviour code for their members. They also performed ritual duels and many students were injured during these practices. The nations were organized by the origin of the students and, in fact, this were the common-day usage of the word nation is derived from. At that time, you studied in Latin. This also meant that students travelled more and went often to universities outside their country. In the late medievals, Prague for example had students from Poland, Scandinavia and Germany. Sovereigns tried to counter that by erecting universities on their own (older universities had been erected by Catholic orders or the students themselves).
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First image: Work Card for Polish workers from the Generalgouvernement Poland (the part of Poland that was under German occupation - as opposed to the part that was outright annexed to Germany) and Certificate of the payment of wages. I can't quite read the second image, so your notes would be appreciated. This is not from a labour camp, your grandfather worked in Germany "voluntarily", as in, he was paid. Often these people were coerced to go work in Germany, though, so there is no need to worry about your grandfather's loyalties.
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Was poor dental health really the main cause of death for people living before the advent of modern medicine?
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Is there any way you could narrow this down a bit? Are we talking antiquity? The Middle Ages? And where? These are all incredibly important when discussing the history of medicine. I think you might have a hard time getting a good answer until you can narrow the question down a bit. That being said, dental health varied widely and depended on social status, access to treatment, genetics, etc. People certainly died from tooth abscesses and infections, but not always. The ancients knew how to pull teeth, although I can imagine that created complications for many patients. Most people died from disease or injury, especially before surgery really grew as a field in the Early Modern period (at least in Europe). Did some of these diseases originate from poor dental hygiene? Absolutely. But to call it the "main cause" I think might be a stretch.
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Improvements in dental care have significantly extended the lifespan of humans. The wealthy in pre-modern-medicine times very frequently died from cavities, as only the wealthy were able to afford sugar. In fact even nowadays, there are instances where people get cavities in a molar that eventually extends back through the mandible and into the brain, causing infection and later, death.
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Why is The Great Wave off Kanagawa such a famous painting?
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ELI5 version: It was pretty and new and fascinating during that time in history. Elaborative version: It's not actually a painting, it's a woodblock print made with paints. The Great Wave of Kanagawa was published during the Enlightenment, when Western European countries were fascinated with travelling and discovery for the sake of furthering knowledge. The piece was published after a span of time during which Japan was closed off to trade, which made the art more appealing and exotic. The style (ukiyo-e) was completely new to Europeans, as they had previously emphasised a high degree of illusionism in art. The ukiyo-e style, along with other discoveries made around the 1800s (invention of photography, tribal masks from Africa & the Americas) went on to influence Modern art.
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Not so famous? Very famous. There are many reasons why this happens. Certain painters become very famous and so you can use their painting like investment pieces, like gold but with a better interest. I don´t know how to explain why Gauguin is a great painter, but he is. Trust me.
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Why are CD's stalled in a relatively small capacity at 700 Megabytes, and only 80 minutes per disc?
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The reason they are that size is largely [because that's how long](_URL_1_) Beethoven's [Symphony No. 9 in D minor (Op. 125)](_URL_0_) happens to be. The reason they haven't increased is because there's a whole infrastructure around that CD standard now. Think of it as something akin to technological inertia.
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Because of vinyl. When records were the standard for recorded music, the standard size for a record of a single was just large enough for, at most, four minutes of audio. To make the records much larger would have made them more costly and thus the music industry would not have been able to sell as many due to increased costs to the purchaser. A lot of space was needed to mark the complex sounds of music on records, after all. So in the interests of music being affordable and thus ensure that records became widespread, they were kept to a maximum size that didn't allow for much more than 4 minutes of sound. At this point though, when recorded music can be downloaded easily and with relatively small file sizes. It's more tradition than anything now, though, since for so many decades 3.5-4 minutes have been the norm, nobody wants to change what works and what sells.
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How are trains able to stay on a track while going around a curve.
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The answer to this is actually kind of interesting. Now, when a car turns a corner, the differential allows the wheels to spin at different speeds, which is necessary, since the outer wheel travels a farther distance than the inner wheel, but in the same amount of time. But trains have the wheels on either side connected by a solid axle, so how do they do it? The answer is that the wheels are slightly cone-shaped, being thicker on the inside and tapering off to be thinner on the outside. So when the train starts to curve, it's pushed in the direction of the outside of the curve. This causes the wheel on the outside to be moved in such a way that the inner part of the wheel (with a larger circumference) touches the track. Likewise, the wheel on the inside of the curve is pushed so that the part of the wheel with a *smaller* circumference is in contact with the track. This means that the train effectively has a large wheel on the outside of the turn, and a small wheel on the inside, allowing it to turn.
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The weight of any train going over them pushes down on them, in addition to their own weight and the static friction coefficient between sleepers and ground is higher than the rolling or sliding friction coefficient between train and track. Combined with the structural strength of the tracks this means they won't be moved significantly by the train under normal operation. If the train gets pushed sideways, they do move.
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Where do "bad words" come from and when were they first recognized as rude?
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I remember an earlier ELI5/Askreddit comment that said we get a couple of our swear words from Roman Empire-era "barbarian" languages. The only example I can remember is that the "more refined" latin word for a female's genitals was "vagina" but the Germanics called it a "cunt". Therefore it's a bad word because it was used by the filthy barbarians and not the refined Roman/Greek peoples.
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In response to the second part of your question, "How did they become offensive?", this has more to do with intention behind the words, than with any word in particular. All of these words represent a label being forced onto a culture, race, religion, gender, group etc. through assumption and judgment rather than using a self selected label/identity preferred by that group. As an example, (although far less offensive) consider being called "child" by a random adult if you are past an age to be considered a child. As in, "Look, child..." or "Now, child..." That adult has, with one word, completely dismissed something about you and forced a label onto you that shows a general assumption about who you are and how they are allowed to treat you.
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What is the flavour that makes the "original" gum taste?
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Bubblegum flavor" is a combination of strawberry and banana. Or rather, it's a combination of two chemicals that are key characterizing ingredients in strawberries and bananas, yielding a kind of one-dimensional caricature of those flavors. Together, they are instantly recognizable as "bubblegum flavor", though the actual implementation of it will vary from product to product.
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Bubblegum is about 50% vanilla flavor, 35% berry flavor, and 15% citrus flavor. I actually had a project where I had to flavor a fish oil supplement for kids to be bubblegum flavor; I used oil soluble flavors.
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How is NASCAR "stock car racing" when the cars are 90%+ not stock?
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Because the cars were quite literally stock+a roll cage until the 80's. At that point they started to introduce standards due to competition and safety reasons. It morphed into what they have now. Which as you notice, is not remotely stock. They weren't going to change the name of the racing when they decided to use common cars for all. Also, if you think a rally prepped Focus is remotely stock I have a bridge to sell you.
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They're not *exactly* the same but there's strict regulations on pretty much every aspect of the car so no one car should really have any significant performance advantage. OTOH, how the teams choose to tune their car for a particular track and racing conditions can give the team an advantage. That's part of the sport.
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What is the difference between sugar and sugar alcohol?
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Sugar alcohols are simply sugars that have had their ketone/aldehyde group reduced to an alcohol. They're often used as artificial sweeteners, especially in gum. Normally, the bacteria in mouth use sugar for metabolism, producing acidic byproducts that cause tooth decay. However, the bacteria aren't able to utilize sugar alcohol. While sugar alcohols aren't completely absorbed in the intestine, studies are showing they can raise blood sugar levels. Large amounts can cause bloating and diarrhea as well.
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Erythritol. Sugar alcohols are carbohydrates, but erythritol has a caloric value of 0.2kcal/g which allows the Monsters to be labelled as sugar-free and 0 calorie.
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- Why don't we clean up satellite debris?
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Cleaning up satellite debris is a touchy subject because each country would have to be responsible for it. The most recent satellite debri issue was when a Chinese missile blew up an old satellite of theirs as a "test". Either it was legitimately a test or a show of "hey, we can knock your spy satellites out!" is debatable. No country would agree to allow anyone else to clean up their satellites regardless of who owned the cleanup process. For example, if Russia had a private company that offered to clean up a downed DirecTV satellite, the US government would put a HUGE stop to that. Without going to great details, the US government piggybacks off commercial satellites for security reasons. IIRC, some satellites have a slingshot-out-of-orbit protocol to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands as opposed to a controlled Earth reentry like most other satellites. Older ones just perpetually orbit the Earth near indefinitely.
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Yes. There is a point of where there will be too much. Also, yes. There are ways to clean it up. Recently China made some sort of announcement about wanting to use lasers to vaporize some of the space junk. Japan, a few years ago thought about using a jello like net to collect small debris. There is a bunch of ways that people have come up with, but there hasn't really been a big effort to do anything yet.
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In a court of law, why are diaries of the accused admissible? Isn't that just a form of being forced to testify against yourself?
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The production of the diary is considered voluntary testimony; you can't force someone to make statements, written or verbal, but if they choose to do so themselves they can be entered as evidence. The prohibition of forced incrimination doesn't mean someone can't do it themselves.
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They can be evidence as much as any other written document can be. Yes, a diary could have been forged. But so could any other written document. Just like a witness might be lying, computer evidence falsified or any other kind of evidence corrupted. Evidence has to be critically examined to ensure that, as best as can be determined, it's genuine. For example, if the relevant diary entry was in a different hand, different pen and on a page stapled into the rest of the diary, there would be good grounds for assuming it was false.
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How did the restaurant industry convince the American population to pay their employees for them?
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A local brew pub recently switched to a "no tip" model here in the US and received quite a bit of backlash about it. The owner wrote a pretty extensive [blog post](_URL_0_) about why he did it and how he hopes to see it play out. Some of his key reasons: * There is enormous inequity in pay between the servers and the kitchen staff. * Tipping promotes discrimination and harassment. * Tipping has an ugly history rooted in classism and racism. * Tipping has very little if any influence on the quality of service * Earning tips is the source of motivation is only half the truth * A major cost for any restaurant is turnover * Working in hospitality is a respectable career that deserves a respectable pay Edit: I know this doesn't directly explain the OP's question, but if you read the blog post it does a good job explaining some of the history and why America should change it's ways.
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Because American restaurant service involves payment of tips: 1. [Why do people tip in america, and what happens if you don't tip? ](_URL_8_) ^(_._) 1. [ELI5: Why do we tip waiters at restaurants? ](_URL_0_) ^(_4 comments_) 1. [ELI5: Why do you have to tip in an American restaurant? ](_URL_3_) ^(_15 comments_) 1. [ELI5: Why do we tip waiters? ](_URL_6_) ^(_7 comments_) 1. [ELI5: How did the restaurant industry convince the American population to pay their employees for them? ](_URL_1_) ^(_ > 100 comments_) 1. [Why do people get mad when no tip is left even though it isn't required? ](_URL_4_) ^(_30 comments_) 1. [ELI5: Tipping at Restaurants ](_URL_2_) ^(_6 comments_) 1. [ELI5: How is it legal for restaurants and other tip based jobs to pay below minimum wage? ](_URL_7_) ^(_15 comments_) 1. [ELI5:Since restaurant employers have to make up the difference if servers tips are less than minimum wage, why is it such a big deal if people don't tip? ](_URL_5_) ^(_18 comments_)
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Why can't we just drill holes into the ground and use geothermal energy instead of solar/wind/fossil fuel etc.?
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You can. However, in most places there isn't sufficient geothermal energy to power a lot of stuff unless you are digging an impractically far distance. In those places where lots of heat energy is close to the surface, we absolutely do this. [Iceland](_URL_0_) is good example.
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Yes. This is called Geothermal Energy and we are already doing it: _URL_0_ You don't even have to dig that deep!
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why do babies spit up and vomit a lot but adults and older children do not?
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Because they learn how to burp instead. The problem is that there is air trapped in the stomach but on it's way out it pushes the other stomach contents up as well. With experience, you learn how to control that reflex so that the air is the only thing that comes up.
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It's a purely psychological effect. Spitting out food is considered gross and is mostly asociated with bad food (bad as in 'gone bad' not as in 'unhealthy but tasty'). This is programmed deeply into our self so you can't get rid of it completely. Thus, if you just taste the food in your mouth and spit it out, it'll 'go bad' in your mind - because why else would you spit it out, if it wasn't a danger to your health? That's why we 'need' to swallow the food to enjoy it. And it's the reason why the Romans casually threw up during orgies so they could eat more. Pff, Weirdos. edit: Oh and to answer your question completely: there IS more than your taste buds involved. The sensation of taste largely relies on your sense of smell.
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Why does smoking cigars making people have to spit so much?
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After just enjoying an Oliva Serie V, I hope to be able to answer your question, which coincidentally I discussed with my friend tonight. The nicotine, chemicals and heat in a cigar's smoke causes you salivary glands to produce more spit. Some find what is produced to be harsh or gross. It can mess up your stomach. You can either swallow it or spit it out. I smoke almost exclusively outdoors when I'm hunting, fishing, golfing, or bullshitting. I spit. Most of the guys I smoke with do too. It's a habit. Part of the experience. But if you are smoking indoors, that may may not be an option. That's where a cold, fizzy beverage comes in handy. Or a smooth whiskey. When you feel the urge to spit, just take a sip and it will mix with the saliva and go down unnoticed. Also, having food in you stomach may help ease the upset. Or just get a cup, but be prepared to be picked on a little.
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You can inhale *some* cigars, otherwise it's a matter of puffing, enjoying the taste and looking damn cool while doing so.
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According to the Theory of Evolution and the Theory of Plate Tectonics and Continental Drift, how did humans get all throughout the world?
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Humans spread throughout the Earth fairly recently on a geologic and evolutionary time-scale. The humans that left Africa were genetically about the same as modern humans, and spread through a world where the continents are in about the same position as they are today. The only differences were from the changing sea levels due to ice ages etc. In particular, the lower sea level meant that the Bering Strait was a connected "bridge" of land, which is how humans could cross from Asia to North America. So these are "modern" technology-using humans that are spreading throughout the world, capable of using stone weapons to hunt, of building boats to travel the ocean, of making clothing from furs, and building fires. Essentially, ancient humans survived in extreme climates in the same way that modern humans did - by using technology and ingenuity to make themselves comfortable and well-fed.
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There is no doubt that Europeans were not the first people to discover the new world, but they did "discover" it. This "discovery" was when the most advanced and connected civilizations began occupying land and bringing the most advanced technology to this new area. This isn't to say the Europeans didn't learn anything from the natives, but its very hard to say that the Europeans were less advanced. Europe, Asia, and Africa were already trading with each other and had many interconnecting civilizations. When the "new" world was "discovered" it was thrust into the global network of countries and for the first time in history since Pangaea broke up, all the humans, all over the planet were linked. If you want to be cynical, you could say its because Europeans raped and killed everything and only the victors records are adhered too. I think both are true on some level.
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"if you stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss will stare back at you."
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The *entire* quote makes a bit more sense: > Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
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You have to hear the whole aphorism for it to make sense. Here it is... > "Whoever fights with monsters should see to it that he does not become a monster in the process. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. If you seek to fight the "monsters", then you shouldn't do it using their methods, or you'll be as bad as the thing you want to destroy. And the next part is just a reiteration almost... If you surround yourself with negativity, that's what you'll become. Negative.
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Why is a conductor necessary for an orchestra?
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99% of what the conductor does happens outside of the performance. He selects the music, arranges the music, organizes rehearsal, manages the musicians and basically does everything required to put on the performance. The part where he waves his arms around, that's just the culmination of many months of works. That is important too, he set the tempo and cues the musicians, but compared to the rest of what goes into preparation, that part is minor. If the conductor was ill, an reasonably skilled assistant who has been involved in the process could take over baton duties without losing much.
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A lot of the maestros work was done at rehearsal time. As found in Wikipedia > The conductor also prepares the orchestra by leading rehearsals before the public concert, in which the conductor provides instructions to the musicians on their interpretation of the music being performed. Hopefully someone with more knowledge will let me know: who typically arranges the music if the original arrangement wasn't for symphony orchestra?
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How did people avoid getting ill in Roman public baths?
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How do you mean, exactly? The *thermae* were quite hygenic. In fact, you were much more likely to get ill *outside* the baths than in it. They were fed by a constantly-flowing supply of water from an aqueduct, and the larger (Imperial) *thermae* had an army of slave attendants to keep them scrubbed, heated, supplied, and running smoothly. The large baths in Rome and the major cities were extremely opulent, paved with elaborate mosaics and adorned with expensive statuary and art. They were emblems of the Emperor's largess to the urban plebs, my point being: they weren't dirty, shabby operations.
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Also if I could piggy back on this question. How often did injuries occur at baths? Did they ever try to fix those issues that cause injuries?
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If heat rises, then why does it get colder as you get higher on mountains?
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Because air expands as it reaches areas of less pressure (altitude), and expanding air cools down. Changes in heat with pressure are exactly how air conditioners, fridges, etc work. They compress "air" (actually a special chemical) so it gets hot, dump the heat outside where it isn't wanted, then let it expand and therefore cool, next to the area where you want it cold. Air doesn't "un-rise" when it cools because the lower pressure means it can cool without actually becoming heavier-- the actual reason it would rise/sink in the first place.
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The upper atmosphere is cold because the air has a lower density, which means that there are less collisions between molecules = lower temperature. The hot air rises initially because it is less dense than the surrounding air, and as it rises the decreasing pressure and a reduced kinetic energy lead to a decrease in temperature, until it reaches equilibrium and stops rising.
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Why is the top bun of a burger normally thicker than the bottom, when the bottom holds all the weight?
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Bread rises when baked. The flat bottom portion was on the bottom of the pan, and the "fluffy" top was allowed to rise up in the over. The same thing happens with muffins, and loaf bread, and lots of baked goods. You could flip it upside down, but it generally makes sense for the flat portion to be the bottom.
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The gas, which is carbon dioxide, escapes, and cooked bread weighs less.
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How does impact to the jaw cause unconsciousness?
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[We don't know!](_URL_0_) As for the question of why the jaw, specifically, seems to produce knockouts, that has to do with the fact that the jaw bone acts as a lever. When you hit someone on "the button" (the chin), the jaw multiplies the force by causing the head to rotate. In this respect, it's just like jumping on a see-saw. The guy on the other end is in for a ride!
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Knock outs are less about absolute force from the punch and more about the forces acting on different parts of the brain. Specifically, a strike that causes the head to twist either down up or side to side can place sufficient stress on the brain stem leading to loss of consciousness. Not surprisingly, variables associated with loosing consciousness are related to neck length, and neck muscle strength which can absorb some of the twisting forces.
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How does the mechanism for 'locking' something by pressing it into a slot and 'unlocking' by pressing back down work on devices like a nintendo ds?
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It works in a similar way to a retractable pen. In them, a piece rotates to catch the button and prevent the spring from pushing it out; In one of those catches, a piece of bent spring wire runs through a carefully shaped grove that first catches the structure and holds it in, and then releases it on the next press. As for how it holds it closed - you have a c-shaped catch that moves in and out of the hole, and a knob on the lid that fits in the catch. When the catch is out of the hole, the c-shaped catch is allowed to spring open, releasing the knob. When depressed and caught in the hole, the catch is held closed by the sides of the hole, retaining the knob.
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In a key and tumbler lock, the teeth on the key raise the pins to a certain position where they have a cut in them which allows the key to rotate and unlock the door. Master key enabled locks have multiple cuts in the pins which allows for different keys to work.
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What is the difference between a department (eg. NC Department of Motor Vehicle) and a commission (eg. NJ Motor Vehicle Commission)
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Every state is different. They can name the department anything they want. So essentially there's no difference except for what each individual state allows.
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An NCO is an enlisted person who joined at the bottom level, stayed in and gained practical experience in their field, and is in a position as a direct supervisor to the lower enlisted under them, running a particular squad, workshop, or office. A commissioned officer went through a commissioning process typically involving a great deal of scholarly education, and has a more "big picture" leadership and management role. In terms of the civilian workforce, think of an NCO as being similar to a factory foreman or a store manager who makes sure things get done and run smoothly at the ground level, and an officer as a higher-level manager or executive who keeps the enterprise running across all angles. This is the widest and most broad-brush description possible, since the exact details can vary widely across services and particular job fields.
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