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From a biological standpoint, what is happening to these guys? | They're faking it. This will make you light headed and dizzy, but it won't make you hallucinate. You can achieve the same thing by huffing co2, and it's because the buildup of c02 in your blood. (You said oxygen deprivation, close enough, but you don't actually feel that, when you're drowning or something, what you experience is caused by co2 buildup in your blood) |
How do corporations and wealthy individuals minimise their tax? Can a 'regular joe' use the same techniques? | Start a religion and build a church. Run your business in the name of your god. Tax free for eternity |
Why do people have favourite colours, and for what reason is my favourite colour different to someone else's? | personal aesthetics are a complex issue. why one person likes a song or color or food is not really explainable other than that it happens to be what they like. sometimes people have a reason for liking a color. "i like red because fire trucks" "i like blue because ocean" but for a lot of people it is "just because" so there is no answer to your question |
Why is Indian food so spicy? why people in hot climates tend to eat spicy food? | Spicy food in hot climates causes you to sweat, which, ironically, causes your body to feel cool. Spice was never used to cover the smell of old meat. If you were wealthy enough to afford spices, you can bet you weren't eating old meat. Besides, spices were too valuable to just dump on meat. What little you had would be used very selectively. "White people" have no special aversion to spicy food. However, spicy food is an acquired taste that you develop and Caucasians/Northern Europeans traditionally don't use a lot of spice so they often aren't used to it. |
How do Bionic limbs function? | The go to way is to take a bunch of sensor units, attach them to whatever muscles are left in the stump, and convert their muscle movements into electric signals. These signals are then used for rather rudimentary commands. Hand prostheses for example are either "pull to open" or "pull to close". If you don't pull, the prosthesis goes back into its default. Imagine that your hand was always closed, but would open when you flex your biceps. Something like this. Now, ever amputation is different. Not only does the prosthesis have to be fitted neatly on the stump of the patient, it also has to be done in a way that it stays in place, but without putting to much wear in the stump. That's one reason for why they are tailor made. Also, in each amputation different muscles in different places will be retained. You need to check where a clever place is to actually put those sensors mentioned above. |
Why do most single-vitamin supplements cost the same amount as a multivitamin containing the the same vitamin, plus many more? | My best guess is that 90% of costs is in the manufacture of product, packaging, and distribution. The cost of vitamins raw materials are very very minimal. |
Chrysler is currently requesting a subsidy from Canadian federal and provincial governments in return for expanding investment. Why do profitable private corporations need government subsidies? | Chrysler: We need a new factory, we could put in in Mexico, or we could put it in Canada....Mexico *is* cheaper... Canada: Here's some money, pick me! Pick me! Chrysler: Well, if were to put a factory in Canada, we could put in in Quebec, or we could put in in Ontario...Quebec is... Ontario: Here's some money, pick me! Pick me! |
What does the US spend tax money on? How does it compare to other countries? | First, some perspective. The total budget of Canada is 279.2 Billion Canadian dollars (249 Billion US Dollars). The US budget is 3.77 Trillion US Dollars. In other words, the US budget is more than 13 times the size of Canada's budget. The US spends more discretionary money (more on this in a second) on the Department of Defense (526 Billion) each year than the entire budget of Canada. We spend nearly 80 Billion on health services. 70 Billion to the Department of Education. 60 Billion to the Department of Veterans Affairs. The list goes on and on. And that is just discretionary. More than 60% of the US budget, or more than 2 Trillion Dollars, is "mandatory spending," or spending that does not need to be appropriated. The largest of these are Medicare and Social Security, which together account for about 1.5 trillion dollars. |
How is mandatory overtime legal? | The U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act does not limit the number of hours someone can work in general. There may be state laws ( [here is an example](_URL_0_) ) or occupation-specific laws (e.g. the number of hours an over-the-road truck driver may work) that do. The FLSA only requires time-and-a-half pay for hours worked over 40, if the employee is not "exempt" (basically, if they're salaried). The idea is that paying time-and-a-half is supposed to be economically disadvantageous to employers-- it would be cheaper to hire a new employee for less rather than to require employees to work for more. But sometimes that's not the case, or sometimes hiring someone else is not convenient. So employers can force employees to work overtime. If the employee is forced to work so much that they can no longer do their job safely, other entities, like OSHA, might get involved as well. |
If Amazon is estimated to be worth $175bl, why don't they choose to undercut Netflix on service and movie selection? What is stopping Amazon from outdoing Netflix for streaming? | Could Amazon do this? Sure, with enough money they could, though it would be a significant amount of money. Amazon is worth a lot of money not because it's sitting on huge reserves of cash, but because they have very high revenues and own a fair bit of land and facilities that make them a lot of money. In other words, they'd have to lose the stuff that makes them money, like distribution warehouses, in order to fight Netflix on their home turf (streaming). EDIT:spelling |
Who keeps maps up to date? | Google, and other mapping companies, of course have a group of workers to update their own maps system, but there is no way a small group of either can keep up, so that's why users can report bad/missing data. Google also has Map Maker, where people, like myself, can contribute to add and review roads, businesses, etc. I have added new roads in newly built subdivisions, I've added buildings, businesses, walkways at my university, etc. Now, the company that made the subdivision can add it to Google if they want to. If you own a business, you can upload your floor plans to Google so that you can see the layouts not Google Maps, from stores like Home Depot and Lowe's to whole shopping malls, no more need to wander around and look for a directory. For the property lines, Google gets this data from a 3rd party. |
How come we never taught birds of prey to fish for us? | We do. Chinese fisherman have been using comorants to fish for thousand years. But it's highly inefficient compared to netting. |
Cancer , how does it attack the body , and why haven't we found a cure yet ? | Cancer is when a part of your body grows uncontrollably. Normally the result is piece of your body that doesn't actually do what it should (the super growth part, often just flesh not functioning stuff like an extra heart or lung) called a tumor. There are LOTS of different cancers because "uncontrolled growth" is a pretty broad category. Because it presents in so many ways, and is rooted in our actual DNA being messed up and causing our own body to mess up we can't really apply cures what work in other fields. We cure bacteria by putting antibiotics in our body to kill it. We prevent some diseases by exposing our bodies to dead or weak versions so our built in defenses can get stronger. Cancer is our own body so these approaches don't work. Obviously more complicated but I don't know how to expand and still ELI5. |
Why do need to be taught to lift with our legs and not our back? Is lifting with our back a learned behaviour that we need to unlearn? | Upright standing is a very recent condition for humans on an evolutionary timescale. Our spine isn't that much different from our primate ancestors, who had horizontal backs, and therefore adapted to carry weight in a very different way. This is the root cause of most of our back problems. However, our instincts haven't changed much since then either. Bending over to pick something up feels natural because that's basically the position our ancestors were in all the time.. |
How do credit repair agencies work? | They negotiate on your behalf with the various places you owe money to set up payment plans than you can make. Example: You owe 10 companies money which totals out to $1000 per month. You can't afford it. You could just declare bankruptcy, which would ruin your credit, but you'd be off the hook for all the money you owed. The credit companies don't want you to do this, because they don't get their money. The repair agencies will go to the creidt company and say "hey, our client can't afford to pay you on time. However, if you let him pay only 50% of what he owed over 5 years, and you don't report him to the credit agencies and ruin his credit, he won't declare bankruptcy." Win-win... you keep OK credit, they get at least some of the money you owe them. |
- How can you make a profit on a tuna or bluefin when buyers bid up to $1 million for one fish? | If you were a millionaire, how much would you pay to eat just a meal of a species you know is about to become extinct? If money were no object and somebody offered you a bit of dodo, what would you pay? There's a cachet to it, even if it's a bit abhorrent to most people. So you have 200kgs or more of fish. You only need to sell it at $50,000/kg to make a profit. That for very, very high quality bluefin is not impossible, and even if you decided to take a loss on it, think what it says about your restaurant... |
Why is it on hot days, I can stick my hand out a car window while driving and feel a cool breeze? | The air outside the car isn't at 100% relative humidity. There's room for it to absorb more water by evaporation. So as you stick your sweaty disgusting paw out your window, the water on your nasty mitts gets evaporated quickly as it is exposed to a great deal of air in a hurry. Evaporation causes cooling, so your hand cools down. |
Why is the Lion so widely used in European Heraldy even though they are mostly found in Africa? | Well, the dragon is used a lot too, even though it's found... no where. It isn't about the actual, physical representation of the animal. It's about the symbolism and ideas it represents. Europeans thought of the Lion as "king of the jungle." A powerful, noble animal at the top of its food chain. There really isn't an analogous animal in Europe (aside from wolves, which always had a negative connotation). |
Why did we Americans name our sport "Football" when there was already a sport called that with entirely different rules? | The same reason Australians call their game football and Brits call their game football: they all developed from the same game, and each one became the dominant version in their home countries in terms of public interest. By the time the other versions became popular in other countries, the names were fully entrenched in the public psyche. |
Why drones are so prevalent right now. What tech breakthrough occurred to make them so common and versatile all of a sudden? | Probably the driving factor was the reduction in the price of accurate gyroscopes, which keep the drones oriented correctly. |
How does the Fight Club "soap-bomb" work? Is it really possible? | In the movie it was a fake way to make explosives but in the book it described a real way to do it. They changed it in the movie adaptation to keep peele from actually doing it |
My six year old daughter just asked what's beyond the edge of outer-space. I have no idea how to answer. Help? | A common misconception is that the universe is like a bubble or a balloon, this is due to the somewhat related analogies such as "The universe is expanding!" and so we think to ourselves, "Well, it must be expanding into something!" Or that we live in the world, which is in space, so "Space must be inside something!" It's a difficult thing to imagine. It is itself, it isn't inside anything. It is bound to itself so when we travel in one direction forever we can end up right where we started. There isn't a way to study anything 'outside' the universe as the question doesn't make sense. The concept of 'outside' can't apply here in the everyday sense. Also, remember that the universe is expanding, so for our intents and purposes, we study what is called the *observable* universe - this is the part of the universe that we can see, because its light has reached us. But there is more beyond that since the universe is expanding so fast. We can't see those parts and so it isn't dealt with normally. |
Can smoking related diseases be noticed before becoming full blown? | Most smoking-related diseases develop over many months or years, so their warning signs can be caught early if anything on a regular checkup of your vital signs, weight, blood gases, blood component tests, respiratory sounds, heart sounds, heart function, or lung volumes is abnormal. Your body will also tell you that your smoking habit is hurting it through things like coughing, shortness of breath, increased heart rate/blood pressure, prolonged bleeding time, pallor, accelerated aging, etc. so that you have a chance to stop smoking and let it heal long before a serious disease actually develops. It's just up to you to listen to it. |
Why would a company sell stock and buy it straight back? | Sell when it's high, stockholders may start selling too which can bring down stock price, buy it all back again. Profit. |
Why can you replace only the glass in some phones and you have to replace the full display on others? | On some phones, the screen is bonded (glued) to the glass. This was done supposedly to achieve a clearer image, having less material and an air gap between the top surface and the display. So rather than use a heat gun to carefully separate the screen from the glass (and put it back together with the same quality as manufacturing), I usually just opted to go the easiest route and replace the whole unit. It’s usually not that much more expensive anyway. |
if you need yogurt to make yogurt, how was the first ever yogurt made? | You don't actually need yogurt to make yogurt. The acidophilus bacteria needed to make it occur in the stomach linings of most young mammals. Cheese and yogurt could be made by accident if you carry milk in a bag made from a lamb, calf, or kid stomach and bump it around in the hot sun. Please don't try though! |
Why does a refrigerated can of juice take so long to return to room temperature after it has been removed from the refrigerator? | There are no stupid questions. Only stupid people. |
What stops someone from opening the emergency exit on a plane? | Their feeble human muscles. Doors on jets are designed so that they have to open inward before they swing outward. That means that to open them, you have to be strong enough to overcome not just the weight of the door, but also the difference between the pressurized atmosphere inside the plane and the low pressure air at 10 or 30 thousand feet. I've seen estimates as high as it being equivalent lifting 1,500 lbs. |
How come all these amazing breakthroughs I see in articals such as cancer treatments and battery advancements just seem to disappear and never to be heard from again | Because by adding the phrase 'amazing breakthrough' to an article, they've made you more likely to read it. But in most cases the article either describes an idea someone had that may or may not work and hasn't been tested yet, or a single step in the right direction on a path with millions of steps to go before that battery advances, that cancer gets cured, or that frikken shark gets a frikken laser on it's head. |
Why is it so much more expensive to send texts and make phone calls internationally? | The string that ties your tin cans together gets really expensive when you get further away. In reality, because they can. |
How do tribute bands not have to pay royalties? | Tribute bands that play only at venues that have contract with a licensing agency (such as BMI or ASCAP) are covered by that for licensing. Or, a really popular tribute band may have directly handled the licensing. Many cover bands, however, are performing illegally, and just hoping not to get caught. A small bar band isn't likely to be noticed. if anything, the venue is more likely to be fined. Here's an interesting paper done on this: _URL_0_ |
Difference between bisexuality and pansexuality. | Seems to me that the difference is very nuanced. Bisexual means being attracted to both males and females, while pansexual means being attracted to any human, the difference being that transgendered or in between gender people or whatever are included on the pansexual menu while they are not specifically included for a bisexual. It is confusing because we think of bisexual as being attracted to either men or women (gender), or males and females (sex), so I suppose there could be a bisexual person that is only attracted to men and women but only the male sex, while all pansexuals are attracted to men and women who are either males or females or in between. |
How did racism begin if no one is born/inherently racist? | Humans are immensely tribal in nature. We are comfortable in our own groups and hostile to people from outside our groups, because we don't know if they can be trusted. So, it's probably a more accurate statement to say that people are by nature xenophobic, and all sorts of hostility arises from that. Skin color is just a really easy way to label someone as different and allows a simple target for that hatred and fear. |
How does your body remain its form and know when to stop growing? | It sounds like someone found Reddit as an easy way to answer some Biology essay questions... |
why prostitution isn't legal. | The modern argument typically revolves around the kind of activities that surround prostitution, (eg. human trafficking, violence, drug use). and that legalizing it could be viewed as condoning the associated activity. |
How does wireless phone charging work? | Electromagnetism. When electricity flows through a wire, it generates a magnetic field perpendicular to the wire. Basically to create a wireless charging system, you reverse the process: create a magnetic field that induces electric flow in the wireless charger on your phone and that electrical flow charges the battery. |
How come going a certain speed on a roller coaster feels more intense than traveling in a car at the same speed? | While the speed of a roller-coaster may be the same, the quicker change in the direction of the speed (a.k.a. change in velocity due to the centripetal and centrifugal acceleration) cause more G-forces to be felt by the rider than while travelling in a car. |
How do humans and other animals “feel” and predict changes in the weather? i.e rain. | The pressure changes with the weather, low pressure usually means rain. You know how you ears pop when you go up in a plane because of the high pressure. This is the same idea but with a change to low pressure. Some people who have achy joints can feel the pressure drop because there isn't as much pressure around their body from the air. Some people can "smell" rain if the wind is carrying it toward them. The same idea is for animals as well. |
Why moving air feels cold | The most energetic particles of water on your skin evaporate from liquid to gas, taking away their energy from your body and lowering the overall kinetic energy of the water on your skin. This is how heat transfers from skin to sweat, to water vapor. If the air is moving, it more effectively allows water to evaporate because it's constantly pushing the vapor away and replacing with new, dry air. It's easier to water to evaporate to dry than humid air. So a breeze in a super humid area won't feel so cold. |
Why does shampoo made in the US have English and French translations as opposed to English and Spanish? | Canada has laws that products must be labeled in English and in French. Most US manufacturers also want to sell their items in Canada, so they just make one label for both countries. Most US manufacturers aren't trying to sell their products in Mexico, so they don't have a Spanish translation. |
Why is my eyesight blurry when I first wake up in the morning? | Most likely they're very dry. Blinking a few times and creating tears should clear it up, if not, then artificial tears/saline should do the trick. |
Why do we touch our forehead when we did something stupid? | We don't all necessarily do that! Touching your forehead when you make a mistake is not universal, it is cultural! As a child, you may see your mother touch her forehead after an incident and you copy it! But for another child, say in a far off country, the child might observe his/her mother putting her hand on her waist, or stomping her feet, or a variety of different actions. That child will copy it and hold that as his/her cultural norm. Where I am from, we virtually all say "achoo!" when we sneeze! However, as I traveled the globe, I have learned that this is not universal. How you sneeze is cultural! Different societies make different noises when they sneeze! |
When the roof of your mouth and the inside of your ears get itchy from allergies, and you can never seem to reach the irritated area, what is it that is actually itchy? | Histamine release. Your body produces histamines, which causes redness and itching when it triggers from thinking your body is being invaded. That allows your white blood cells to travel easier to remove the invaders. Histamines are produced all over your body. It's like the redness you get from eating niacin on an empty stomach. It's why antihistamines prevent the issue, since they block the production. I don't know why it especially affects certain body parts; perhaps someone else can answer that. But that's what causes it. |
The division between Noam Chomsky and Daniel Everett regarding "universal grammar." | Chompsky points to the fact that no one ever sits you down as a child and says "verbs work like this, sentences work like this..." the way we do with math and such, but all kids learn language perfectly. Because of this, Chompsky believes that out brain has a set of grammar which we are born with, like settings on a new computer. When we hear our native language, it changes the "original settings" to the rules of the language we hear. Like, your computer needs a default font setting, and you set it when you boot it up for the first time, hearing your language for the first time tells your brain "Hey verbs conjugate like this". Hope that helps with Chompsky's stuff. |
Why is it that data is always unavailable for Greenland? | Greenland isn't an independent country, for starters. It's still part of Denmark. Considering that it has a population of 60,000 people, using the same data as for Denmark proper wouldn't be an accurate representation. |
Why Are certain areas said to be not habitable for "centuries" due to a nuclear accident, but places like Hiroshima are habitable? | Different kinds of radiation. Bombs like Hiroshima generated a lot of quickly dissipating radiation, and very little long-lasting radiation. The Chernobyl reactor, on the other hand, put out lots of long-lasting radiation and very little short-lived radiation. I don't know enough about the topic to be more specific, but that's my understanding of it. |
what exactly is a rape kit ? | Its used to collect physical evidence from the victim, sometimes done by the victim themselves, more commonly by a nurse. > Although a rape kit's contents may vary by location, it may include: > Instructions > Bags and sheets for evidence collection > Swabs for collecting fluids from the lips, cheeks, thighs, vagina, anus, and buttocks > Blood collection devices > Comb used to collect hair and fiber from the victim’s body > Clear glass slides > Envelopes for preserving the victim’s clothes, head hair, pubic hair, and blood samples > Nail pick for scraping debris from beneath the nails > White sheets to catch physical evidence stripped from the body > Documentation forms > Labels |
Where the term “late” to describe deceased came from | It's shorthand for "lately deceased". It's traditionally used to describe someone who has died recently, but as the abbreviated phrase eclipsed the full one in popular speech, it's come to describe anyone who is dead regardless of how recently they croaked. |
How do people make high quality GIFs of live sporting events on TV only minutes after the action occurs? | The same way all gifs are made, just quickly. They probably have a capture card connected to their TV that they set to record the whole game, so after something "gifworthy" happens they just need to trim that part of the footage and convert it using any number of programs available online. |
the evidence for and against global warming | for: all the data against: fossil fuel interests |
Why are bodybuilders more ripped than powerlifters? | Lifters build up their body to lift. Bodybuilders build up their body to look ripped. |
What is the pump and dump method in stocks? | That's where you buy a bunch of worthless stocks at a very low price. This inflates their price a bit (pump) and gives the appearance of growth. Other people see the value increasing, and may buy more stocks, thinking the price will continue to rise. If enough suckers buy stock on top of yours, you can sell (dump) what you have for significantly more than you paid. This lowers the price of remaining stocks. You gain almost exactly what the other buyers lose. Edit: Sometimes a financial institution or investment banker will take this a step further and advise clients to buy stocks they've (the banker) already invested in. Theft and fraud. |
Wave-Particle Duality | From my [response to a similar question](_URL_0_): > Here's the thing. When you think of "particles", you're probably thinking of little balls whizzing around like billiard balls on a table. Stop doing that. A "particle" is a tiny little thing, but it doesn't behave at all like a billiard ball. It follows some fairly strange rules, one of which is that it doesn't, ever, have both a well defined position and momentum. The more accurately you measure one, the less accurately you can possibly, even in principle, know the other. Moreover, if you have a lot of particles that start out "the same", they will have different positions and momenta afterward. In particular, their positions will vary in a wave-like manner, so that you will, on average, find more of them in one place than in another. |
What happens to illegal drugs after they are seized by law enforcement? | They get stored in the police's evidence rooms and their files are put into archives. Then, they are sent to this big oven for incineration in a more central police station. My mom works with this stuff. |
Why is it that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump seem to be the leading presidential candidates when it seems that public opinion of both is very low? | First, this is how it always is this early in campaign season. Anyone with a little bit of name recognition immediately is at the forefront, regardless of their quality as a candidate or likelihood to do well long term. But more to the point, it's because we don't cast negative votes. If 20% of the people love you, but 80% hate you, you don't get a score of -60. You get a score of +20. Those 80% who hate you are going to be divided up among a bunch of other candidates, or will just be left undecided. +20 is enough to be the frontrunner early on in primary season. Note that general elections are different. A negative opinion often converts into a vote for the other guy. So now, those 80% who hate you vote for the one leading opponent and you easily lose. |
Why Australia has a notoriously bad internet connection? | Australia is going to be more distant from many servers simply because of where it is. Light speed is fast, but such distances do incur slight delays. |
why is my school so sensitive to religion amongst students, but also purposely doesn't serve meat on Fridays? | A lot of schools focus on creating an inclusive space for all students and staff. This includes recognizing traditions and cultural practises, such as 'meatless Fridays' during Lent. |
Where did smoking terms like "high" or "stoned" originate? | As far back as 1620, "high" meant "euphorically drunk" (i.e., on alcohol). It's that stage of drinking where you're still cheerful: your spirits are high. It didn't come to be used for other drugs until the 1930s. "Stoned" also originally meant "drunk" and was later transferred to being intoxicated on cannabis. I can find references to it in the first meaning to the late 18th century (as "stone drunk"), but why "stone" I'm not sure. One possibility is that it's connected with phrases like "stone-deaf", which means "completely unable to hear". Maybe "stone drunk" originally meant that you were so drunk, you were totally out of it, perhaps even unconscious. |
Is there a difference between things that "glow" and things that only show up under UV light? What is the mechanism for each? | Glow in the dark = Phosphorescence Show up under UV = Fluorescence From Wiki "The most striking example of fluorescence occurs when the absorbed radiation is in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum, and thus invisible to the human eye, while the emitted light is in the visible region, which gives the fluorescent substance a distinct color that can only be seen when exposed to UV light." So whats the mechanism? When the molecule absorbs the photon (light) it takes that light energy and gives it to an electron. The molecule then releases the energy by emitting a new photon. There is some energy loss through vibration relaxation so the 'new light' is longer in wavelength. Fluorescence happens faster than you can blink, like in real time. Phosphorescence can take hours to for the molecule to emit the new photon. This is because in Phosphorescence the electron goes into what is called a 'forbidden state'. See this [wiki] page(_URL_0_) |
Why does stretching when you wake up feel so good? | Your joints’ metabolism works through the liquid in the joints. When they are not moving and the fluid stays still, the process makes the liquid have the metabolites, which makes the cartilages somewhat sore. So when you stretch and the fluid gets stirred around, you feel the refreshment. A similar thing happens during pregnancy when the child’s metabolites gather in the woman’s body overnight causing morning sickness |
How do big companies prevent petty theft from employees? | Registers are computerized and have a log of all the transactions. Each clerk starts with a fixed quantity of cash and it gets counted at the end of the shift. This is part of why so many stores have strict policies about giving a receipt with every purchase. It forces employees to put every order into the system. |
Why does the the human mind ignore the second "the"? | There's a phenomenon called [attentional blink](_URL_0_) where, when you're rapidly presented with stimuli, your brain will perceive two identical stimuli in a row as a single stimulus. Basically, your brain sees "the the" and assumes there was only one. In nature, identical stimuli in rapid succession are vanishingly rare - if you see two crouching tigers from the same angle and in the same position in a quarter of a second, it's much more likely there was only one tiger and you just blinked; so your brain edits your perceptions with that in mind. |
why do cats have to smell everything? Why can't they just look at the things? | ELI5 : Cats have really poor vision for details, everything they look at is fuzzy and doesn't have as many colours as we have. Their eyes are however good at tracking motion (think T-Rex from the first Jurassic Park), which is why they can chase things so well. So when things are just being lazy & relaxed, a cat can survey its territory using it's awesome nose to find out if anything has been nearby recently, if there are any little mice to eat or if another cat has been trespassing on it's territory. They also have awesome hearing which you will notice every time you try to open a can of tuna. |
Which virus scanners to avoid, which to use, what should I look out for. | Let me fix your account with Webroot. PM me your e-mail address you used to register and I will see what I can do. |
Why isn't there a spending limit in US political campaigns like a salary cap in sports? | [There are.](_URL_0_) Problem is they have so many loopholes, candidates still amass over 500 million USD. |
Why Gluten-Free diets are so popular now | Eating a gluten-free diet is both extremely strict and generally devoid of foods that the average American binge eats. Most of the success of the diet isn't specifically due to the absence of gluten, but due to the dieter's restricted calorie intake and avoidance of nutrient-deficient foods. Basically, you aren't healthy being gluten free because of the gluten- you're healthy because you stopped eating so much crap. |
Why don't any animals have to wipe their ass, but humans do? | Animals don't need to *wipe* their ass, because they lick it or rub it to the ground. Some animals don't feel the need to clean anus at all, because their shit is dry enough to not make a mess. If humananimal wants to clean their ass, and they don't want to rub it to ground, hand need to be used, because tongue can't reach the hole. |
What is a quantam entanglement? | Let's say you have two pieces of chocolate. You know that one of them has caramel inside and one has nougat inside, but they look the same and there's no way to tell the difference. You give one to your friend. Your friend takes it on a trip far away. Later you bite into your chocolate and find out that it has caramel inside. You instantly know, without needing to communicate, that your friend's chocolate has nougat inside. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think this is essentially what quantum entanglement is about. |
Why is fiberglass so itchy? | Fiberglass is literally made of glass fibers. Like tiny threads. Glass is sharp, especially if it's the size of thread. So if it pokes you, it penetrates the top layers of the skin a little, and this causes irritation. The fibers aren't thick or heavy enough to press in deeper so there's not much risk of them getting completely embedded in your skin. However if you're exposed to fiberglass all the time, like you work with it, fibers ending up all over your body and face can eventually get rubbed down deep into tissue and interfere with where new cells are made and this can cause problems, such as cancer. It's why if you touch a piece of broken fiberglass it feels itchy, but people who work on fiberglass production lines cover themselves in full body suits and masks as if it's toxic. |
Why are the majority of the reddit population male? | Why are most subreddit populations comprised of men moreso than women? Check out the history of reddit: [Here](_URL_2_) It's a lot of good content to read through. For example, check out the growth and popularity of subreddits over the history of reddit: [Here](_URL_0_) Or here, take a look at reddit in [2007](_URL_1_). Now, if you look at the data, the earliest popular subreddits were programming, science, politics, and porn. I won't get into why men are more likely to be discussing these topics/professions, that's a whole different ELI5, but because that tends to be the case, it is not rocket science to figure out why Reddit tends to be populated my men. It's been cool that reddit has grown SOOOO much and now has better representation of women, but to understand why things are the way they are, you have to appreciate the history of a thing. Reddit began as a place to talk about computers, science, and boobs. That drew in a predominately male population for obvious reasons. |
How did something like the holocaust and nazi's happen without the law finding out? | The Nazi's happened through the law, then they were the law, then the holocaust happened when there was no law, but nazi law. |
Why does a computer screen look pixelated and wavy on a digital camera shot? | The PPI (Pixels Per Inch) of the camera's sensor is battling with the PPI of the computer's screen. This is known as [Moire](_URL_0_). |
How does money laundering work? | You stole $5 from Mom. Mom will definitely know if you buy something from it. You tell Mom you walk the neighbor's dog for the weekend. You walk the dog, earn $5. Tell Mom you earned $10 walking the dog. |
Why do most bigger men, i.e. bodybuilders, have deeper voices? | They don't. There's no correlation between the size of a person and the size of their vocal chords, which is what determines vocal pitch and timbre. |
Meditation and how you would go about learning to understand and practise it? | when you are just starting out, audio recordings of guided meditation can be fantastic. few people have the mindfulness to just up and do it alone. it's kind of like riding a bike. takes practice and trust with yourself. there's a lot of options and [\(unlike this recommendation\)](_URL_0_), they don't have to cost much / anything as they are [readily available online](_URL_1_). the trick, i think, is to find the voice in the guided meditation to your liking. that alone can make or break the whole thing! ps. it's totally okay to fall asleep at first. no big deal. |
How almost every book in a bookstore is written by 'New York Times Best-Selling author' | Confirmation bias. When you see that, you go "Huh, another one." When you don't, you ignore it. Most books are *not* written by authors who've had books on the New York Times best-seller list. |
Why Does Conservation of Angular Momentum Happen? | Conservation laws are ultimately due to symmetries. Since physical situations do not depend on how a system is orientated, this *rotational invariance* gives rise to the conservation of angular momentum. |
How does the whiskey and water trick work? | Density. The water is more dense than the whisky. So water will weigh more than the whisky. They switch places since they are the same volume. The heavier water fills up the entire bottom glass, leaving the lighter whisky nowhere to go except up into the top glass. |
How can glass get fogged up from steam and frost but our eyes can't? | Fogged up glass happens when humid air gets in contact with a cold surface and condensates there. Our eyes have a. a layer of water in front of them, that's because you keep blinking, and b. are not cold enough to cause the humid air to condensate. |
How do GPS systems enter all their road data? | A lot of it is pre-existing database information from municipalities and private firms. You can buy most of it for yourself too if you know where. Some systems also integrate a user updated database that can quickly track changes based on individual reports and third party tracking. |
Why is the percentage of kids diagnosed with ADHD so high in places like America, but almost 0 in places like France? | We view it as a medical disorder, they view it at a personality trait. |
Military Patents, how are they enforced and why bother to make a patent? | These things are often designed and manufactured by private companies, and then sold to government customers. The government manufactures almost nothing itself. So all those tanks and planes and weapons are made by businesses like Boeing, Chrysler, Colt, etc. For example, for many decades Colt held the exclusive rights to manufacture M16 and M4 rifles for the military. Other manufacturers could not make a duplicate weapon without violating patent laws and the military's licensing agreement. However, you are correct that any hostile country that really wanted to could copy our equipment. China and Russia don't care about things like patents and copyright laws in the first place, so nothing is really stopping them. |
Why do the Alps have more glaciers than the Rocky mountains if the Rocky Mountains have a comparable number of peaks at or over 13,000 Feet/4,000 meters? | There's an enormous difference in rainfall between the Rocky Mountains and the Alps. While these maps are pretty general, the difference is enough to be obvious. [The Rockies](_URL_0_) are almost entirely in the 200-400mm range with only the Northern part of the chain in the 400-800mm range. [The Alps](_URL_1_) appear to fall mostly in the ranges from 1000mm to 2000mm. That's several times more precipitation (on average 3-4x). Glaciers are formed from precipitation that remains through the year, so with less precipitation, there's less snow and as a result fewer glaciers forming. |
What in the world is Half Life 3? | Half-Life is a series of video games by Valve. The first game came out in 1998, and was a huge success. The second game came out in 2004 (after being delayed for over a year) and was also a huge success. After the seconds game, Valve decided to create new sequels as three "episodes" (which were more like expansion to the second game). The first episode, titled "Half-Life 2: Episode 1", came out in 2006, and the next episode came out in 2007. They were both also very successful. However, the third episode never saw the light of day, and fans are still expecting it or Half-Life 3. Since Valve are very hush-hush about this, fans try to look for anything that might hint on a new game being developed. You can read more here: _URL_0_ |
the basics of the Mac vs. Pc debate, as unbiased as possible | *Mac* Pros: relatively malware free, reliable, "easy" to use, looks nice Cons: Expensive, closed garden, software limited *PC* Pros: Inexpensive, infinitely upgradeable, easily modified Cons: Windows is susceptible to malware, bloatware is often preinstalled, hardware isn't "pretty" |
Why are Americans forced to purchase pharmaceutical prescription drugs from America? | American's go to Canada all the time to buy drugs. It's technically illegal but the FDA generally turns a blind eye and I've never had a border guard ask me about prescription drugs. You generally need a Canadian Doctor to write the script for you but that is easy enough to get especially if you already have a script from a US doctor. _URL_0_ |
Where does the stereotype of Canadians being very polite come from? | It comes from reality. Canadians really are very polite. Source: I'm from Scotland, I moved to Canada a few years ago. |
Why is weatherstripping for doors/windows hollow? | Combination of reasons, it uses less product and therefore cheaper. A large hollow foam tube can be squished when the door closes and make a good seal. A smaller solid tube will leave gaps and won't squish as easily. |
How can newspapers publicly endorse political candidates and remain an unbiased source of information? | Newspapers have had editorials and opinion pieces of various kinds for centuries. Separated as much as possible/practical from the news side |
If a plane went above, then below, then above the speed of sound a bunch of times would it create a bunch of sonic booms? | An object travelling faster than the speed of sound is *continuously generating a shockwave* for as a long as it exceeds the speed of sound. It only sounds like a brief 'boom' to a distant listener because the plane has already flown past- to hear another one, it would have to turn around and fly past you again. If you're having trouble visualizing it, imagine it like the [wake](_URL_0_) of a boat. Instead of waves of water, a plane makes waves of air. |
Why do companies pay money to create stock photography that is extremely unlikely to be used? | People take photos of things they think are not already available. They upload them on stock photo sites, hoping some day someone wants to use that photo and buys it off them. The photographer gets paid and the site makes a commission. This image may look very weird and make you wonder how someone thought of that and more importantly who the hell would buy it. Who knows, a company might someday want this as a background for "Confused by your career options? Let Devry help you decide" |
Why is it cheaper to fly to different countries in Europe as opposed to it being expensive to fly to other states in the US? | Europe has a well developed train system which competes with the airlines. This drives down prices, and eliminates routes that are not profitable enough. The flights that do exist will be cheaper, but there will be fewer of them. Also, some European countries have national airlines that are subsidized. |
Where does the heat in our body come from? | When you consume food, all that food gets broken down and absorbed by your body at a molecular level. You're turning a piece of food into it's molecules. Then your body breaks the bonds which releases heat. Breaking bonds is where that energy (heat) comes from. |
What is a URL and how does it work? | A URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, which is generally just a fancy way of saying a web address. The various parts of the URL are used by all of the systems between you and what you're trying to access to figure out how to get you what you need. It gives you a protocol (how to access it) and the domain (where it is on the Internet) as well as the server address (where it is once you get to the right computer). |
Why do hotels skip seemingly random room numbers? | Could be for any number of reasons. How does the layout of rooms on floor 2 and 3 compare to each other and floor 1/4? The hotel may opt to keep each floor's numbering as similar as possible vertically, even when one floor has more or less rooms Room #233 could still be a room, just not a guest room. For consistency sake a lot of buildings that number rooms will assign a number to every room, including storage and utility areas. Room #233 may have existed at one point but during a remodel was merged into an adjoining room or converted into something else. It doesn't apply in your case but because 13 is considered unlucky by many people a lot of high-rise building don't have a "floor 13", and/or will only have rooms #1-12 and #14- on each floor. Edit: Formatting |
how underwater pressure works | There's water on top of you, that's what causes the pressure, just like normal pressure is caused by air on top of you, go up the mountain and there'll be less pressure. Water is much heavier than air though, so going just 10 meters deep will double the pressure compared to surface. The extra pressure is dangerous because you start with air at regular pressure inside your lungs, nose, ear canals and so on. When you double this pressure air reduces in size so it feels like you're getting crushed. If you increase the air pressure inside yourself you can dive without getting crushed, but you have to go down and up slowly to let body adjust to new air pressure. Also at much higher pressure transferring gases through blood starts working differently so trying to use regular air becomes toxic, that limits how deep you can go by equalizing pressures. |
Why do some doors open inward, and some open outward? | Different building codes for safety. Exterior doors have to open inwards do that in emergency if you need to get out, something places on the outside doesn't block the door from opening. Its also a safety thing so that if you push open a door, it doesn't smash someone's face whose trying to get in. |
Why do some companies make Solid State Drives (SSD) that are slightly different from one another in size (i.e. 480GB vs. 500GB vs. 512GB)? | They don't. They're using the same size chip, it's that ssds lose a fraction of a percent of their space every write cycle, and different manufacturers reserve a certain amount of space in the drive to make up for those losses, so your total value doesn't change over time, and so if you fill up the drive completely, there's still room to fit data as its storage gets destroyed, rather than your file getting corrupted, as would happen if it didn't have hidden room to fit it. For example, two companies might be using the same say, 600 GB chip in their ssds, but one rates theirs at 500 GB while the other at 480 - the one with its storage rated at 480 is going to survive 20% more read/write cycles, as it has 120 GBS reserved to burn, whole the 500 GB one only has 100 . |
If the president was of another religion, would they take oath over the book of their faith. (For example, if the president was Jewish, would they take oath over the Torah)? | The president has a choice of what they want to be sworn in on. The book doesn't even have to be a religious text. Some presidents were sworn in on copies of the constitution. |
Why do people blame Republicans' success in Congressional races on district gerrymandering? Can't Democrats redistrict just the same? | They can and do. Illinois' 4th and Florida's 5th are prime examples of the dems gerrymandering. Unfortunately the only way our government tries to fix gerrymandering is with more gerrymandering. Edit: got my districts mixed up |
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