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Why does sending group texts and pictures use up cellular data, when normal texts do not? And how does a text to an iMessage group text compare to a text to a non-iMessage group text in terms of how much data it uses? | When you send a multiple messages in group text it counts as an MMS, depending on your plan and data limits you would be charged outside of that. Most plans cover Text+MMS but some companies do Text only. There is no real way to calculate the exact use beside checking data use tools in the iPhone - sincerely an Ex AT & T Tech agent |
Why does the water in my bathtub always go down the drain in an anti-clockwise direction? | The short answer is: "no it doesn't!". Think of it like a long pole standing without support: In which direction does it fall? The answer is: That direction where it is slightly tilted already. The water in the sink works similar: it will go down in a direction based on a small amount of movement present in the water. Only if the water is almost perfectly calm (almost never under everyday conditions) the Coriolis effect determines the direction of the circle. You can read about an experiment which eliminated other effects than the Coriolis effect in [this wikipedia article](_URL_0_). |
Why do humans laugh? What physiological purpose does it serve and is there have an evolutionary reason behind laughter? | This is what I always think about when it comes to laughter. It's simple, a neat explanation, and it's Calvin and Hobbes so it's cool as shit. _URL_0_ |
Why are dogs so much more varied than cats? | Dogs can work for us, so we spent a lot more time and effort trying to breed specific characteristics. Sometimes these characteristics involve appearance as well. |
Does anything actually stop a foreign army from invading a 'Neutral' country? | The same reason you already said: money. If any developed country gets invaded, other countries have everything to lose. Also, politics don't work that way in developed countries. Allies, treaties, UN. The UN might not do much, but the countries in the UN will have something to say about it. So, you can invade, but when you try and get carpet bombed repeatedly, over and over by every other country, your country will be in a lot worse position than originally. Not quite worth it. |
; "Crony-Capitalism" | Capitalism, in its true form, finds efficient outcomes because it rewards the most efficient and effective operators, and punishes the worst by having them go bankrupt. Crony capitalism, also sometimes called lemon capitalism, refers to the practice of businesses forming personal relationships with politicians etc. to get them to give the business special treatments - they keep the profits when they do well, but the Government helps them when they fail. |
What does the little ball inside a whistle do? | The ball inside the whistle is not necessary for the whistle to work but serves a purpose. A whistle without a ball has a flat tone that may get "lost". In an American Whistle the ball rises and falls as it is pushed around by the turbulence. When the ball moves within the chamber, it creates variations within the pitch, or the trilling sound you associate with a quality whistle blast. [Source](_URL_0_) |
Why bad habits are so easy to start and good ones are so hard. | Most bad habits feel good instantly. Drinking, smoking, eating unhealthy food, drugs, whatever. That's not really the case with something like saving extra money or eating a more bland and healthy meal. The payoff for things like that are weeks/months away. Exercise is easy to start imo, provided you aren't very out of shape and have at least a decent amount motivation. |
Why is illegal immigration such a big deal? | Here's a test for you: Next time you leave your house, leave the door unlocked. Then, let people know your door is unlocked. Then, come back and see what your house is like a few hours later. |
Why are there so much rape in India? | Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why there seems to be so much rape in India ](_URL_3_) 1. [ELI5: Why is there so much gang raping in India? ](_URL_0_) 1. [ELI5: Why are there so many men raping women in india? ](_URL_5_) 1. [ELI5 INDIA: Why is there so much rape in India????? ](_URL_4_) 1. [ELI5: Why is rape so common in India? ](_URL_2_) 1. [ELI5: Why are men raping so many women in India? ](_URL_6_) 1. [[ELI5] What is there so much rape in India ](_URL_1_) |
Do service dogs know that they are helping? | They know they are doing what they are trained to do, and they know they get rewarded for it. I don't think that the concept of "helpful" is really fleshed out in a dog - they don't really understand those concepts like we do (though we like to anthropomorphise them) - but it doesn't really matter if they understand it. They do it, and it makes them happy (or whatever happy is for a dog). |
Why is it I can perceive light better in my peripheral vision? | This is due to the distribution of the photoreceptors in the retina (back of the eye). There are two types of receptors, cones and rods. Cones have color vision, but low sensitivity to light levels, whereas rods only "see" black and white, but are very sensitive to changes in light levels. Now look at this image: _URL_0_ It maps the receptor distribution along the retina. The fovea is the center. Notice how in the fovea (labelled as zero degrees), cones dominate while rods are non-existent - but rods are more prominent in the periphery. Hence the better ability to distinguish light in the peripheral vision. |
What causes the "zoom-in" feeling late at night, making it look like your room is 1/10th its size? | It's known as Alice in wonderland syndrome and I was absolutely amazed when I discovered it happened to other people too! |
Are infant deaths in hot cars on the rise, or is it this summer's "shark attack" news? | It's getting a lot of airplay this summer, most likely in the wake of one such fatality that [prosecutors think was intentional](_URL_0_). |
How were Integrals, Derivatives, Limits, and other calculus concepts originally discovered and applied? | They were discovered thousands of years ago, but the methods for that were super complex. Someone ssked Newton how he knew that earth had an elliptical orbit and not circular. So he went home and invented Calculus to explain his reasoning. |
How do our bodies know to wake up right before an alarm or right before a bus/train stop? | So your brain has lots of nerves all smashed together in the center of you brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. It's a very accurate clock inside your brain! We naturally look for patterns all the time and so does the nucleus. So when you get in a pattern of sleeping and waking up at the same time the nucleus at those times release a chemical called cortisol and a few others to wake you up! An alarm clock actually causes a lot of stress, so your brain pushes those chemicals out before it thinks it will go off! |
Why are there so many claims of paranormal activities by people yet there had never been any evidence to support their claims ever in history. | 1. Because they're nice ideas. We die but we become ghosts, so it's a little like not dying at all, which terrifies us. 2. Because there are things we can't explain - like why do we sometimes get the chills ([Cracked did a great job](_URL_0_) explaining things that until very recently were inexplicable). Because we're inquisitive and intelligent creatures, we can't handle not knowing something, so we make something up. 3. Related to number 1, we just *want* to believe because wouldn't telepathy and aliens be cool and less boring than life? |
Whats the difference between theoretical physics and philosophy? | Science asks "how" and philosophy asks "why." Essentially the scientists make observations, and construct theories to explain how the laws of nature interact, what those laws are, and how that explains the observations. The philosopher looks at the scientists' work and asks, why are the laws of physics the way they are? What does that mean for our society and help us cope with the human condition? |
Why do Americans pay for so much for healthcare, yet other countries are able to get by without paying nearly as much? | It's not free in other countries. Those countries pay for medical services through higher taxes. That being said, the final cost of foreign procedures is usually only a fraction of the price. A large reason for this is because doctors and hospitals foreign countries with true universal coverage don't have to inflate their billings to cover those who don't pay and they don't have to deal with such large malpractice insurance. |
Where does all the rock salt for keeping the roads clear go? Why haven't so many areas near roads become too salty for grass, trees etc. ? | You're on the right track of thinking. The reason areas near roads don't become too salty right away is because when it rains most of that water enters a drainage system and makes its way towards rivers and lakes. That's where the biggest issues occur as you often see fish, algae, pretty much any aquatic organism get affected. Another factor to note is the frequency at which salt is being deposited. Salting the roads one time for a single snow storm won't have as much of an effect as areas further north (or south, depending) which require salting roads once a week or more. Some municipalities have started switching to beet juice for just this reason. |
The movie American Beauty | Regular message: People are happiest doing the things that make them happy, even if those things are simple or weird or unambitious. Much of modern suburban, upper-middle class life is designed to make us forget that fact, and the people most committed to keeping up appearances are in fact the least happy and most damaged. Meta Message: If the acting is good enough, and you sexualize enough young people, audiences will pay a lot of money to watch a super-pretentious version of Office Space. |
what is the point of the whole "fifth world" subreddits | This question might get better responses in /r/OutOfTheLoop. |
How does Winrar get companies to pay for it when they could do exactly what we are doing? | Why does anyone still use WinRAR when we could all just use 7-zip? |
When Windows first loads and everything is going extremely slowly for several minutes but task manager doesn't show anything taking up much CPU or RAM, what the hell is it doing? | Look at your I/O (Disk usage), most of the time, that is what is slowing down your windows startup the most. That's why so many people buy SSDs, they are much faster than regular hard drives (but obviously more expensive). |
What makes super powers impossible? | Most super powers violate the laws of physics. That's what makes them so "super", and it's also what makes them impossible. If there were possible, like the James Bond or Batman stuff, they wouldn't be super powers but just cool gadgets. |
Why do couples that are having trouble getting pregnant want a biological child so much when there are many children in need of adoption? | It is the innate human drive to carry on the individuals own genetic heritage. If you adopt, you and your partners DNA is not passed to future generations. This also plays into an individuals want/need to be genetically immortal via its offspring. |
You hear about top executives and CEOs reducing their salary to $1 a year. How is this not against minimum-wage laws? And if it isn't, why not just cut the dollar out? | These wage laws do not apply to [exempt workers, only non-exempt](_URL_0_). And...cutting the dollar out _would_ raise red flags since there would be value exchange without compensation. |
Why do people find PDA uncomfortable? | Swapping mouth juices is kinda gross. Other forms of PDA are less gross, but still can be pretty gross, especially if the two people are ALL OVER each other. Also, sometimes envy or jealousy play into it. Also, sometimes certain pairings of people/genders make people uncomfortable. |
Where exactly does money from paid bails go to? | If you show up for your trial, you get the money back. If you don't show up for your trial, it goes into the general fund for the courts. |
Is alcoholism hereditary? If so, how? | Alcoholism isn't hereditary so much as there is a gene that cause one to be prone to addiction. My dad was an alcoholic I never was, but i am a recovering meth addict. I have been clean for 4 years |
Why do people tend to get colds during the winter months, but not the summer months? | Not exactly the cold, but there are some theories around flu transmission. Essentially the cold weather is believed to help the virus survive longer outside the host, while the lower humidity levels often found during winter may aid in aerosol transmission. Lower humidity also dries out the mucus membranes, possibly making them more susceptible to viral transmission as well as causing us to touch our noses more often. |
How has Magic Johnson been able to live so long with HIV? | HAART therapy combines a whole load of drugs that can reduce the rate at which HIV becomes aids. They target things like how the viruses genetic material becomes DNA, it can prevent binding of the virus to human cells, it can stop viral DNA from being integrated with our DNA so the building blocks of viruses can't be made and they can prevent those blocks from being put together. The virus evolves methods of beating these treatments though. Nowdays HIV suferers can have a life expectancy into their 70s. I am a microbiology student and have had this info drilled into me but this is ELI5 so i'll leave it at that. |
The difference between Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Life. | Coca Cola uses lots of sugar, and hence has lots of calories Diet Coke replaces the sugar with sweeteners such as aspartame, which are calorie-free. Therefore the drink is calorie-free. (It actually has a couple of calories, but it's so low that the rules allow these calories to be ignored.) Some people think aspartame is unnatural and therefore like to avoid it. So they introduced Coke Life, which uses Stevia as a sweetener. Stevia can be quite bitter by itself, so it's mixed with a little bit of sugar. This means it is not calorie-free, but is much lower in calories than regular Coca Cola. |
Why is CNN so widely disrespected? | Because they pretend to a serious news station, yet pander to the lowest common denominator US-centric gossip masquerading as news. For example, in 2009, there were pro-democracy demonstrations in Iran at the same time as there was a coup in Honduras. CNN gave us a week of 24/7 coverage of Michael Jackson's death. They also gave Nancy Grace her own show, for that alone they can never be forgiven. |
How does the heart receives blod for its cells, I know it is a pump, and it seems inneficient to use the one it is pumping | The heart pumps blood out to the aorta. From there, some of the blood actually routes back to the heart via 3 major arteries. If any of these 3 get blocked, that is a heart attack. I'm not sure what you mean by inefficient to use the one it's pumping |
How can scientists create measuring tools more accurate than the tools we already have? Doesn't the accuracy of new tools depend on the accuracy of the tools used to make it? | There are methods for creating accurate without already having an accurate thing. Like finding the mid-point between two points. Attach a pencil to a string and attach a string to a needle that you stick at point A. As long as the string is more than half the distance to the second point, you can can draw a large arc with it. Then repeat the process from the other point. There will be two points at which the arcs intersect. If you draw a line between those points and draw another line between the two original points, you will have accurately determined the mid-point using "in-accurate" tools. |
Why were pants mainly for men and skirts for women back in the olden days? | Victorian hoop skirts were intended to hide the woman's shape for modesty. Over time, the hoops went away and the hem line went up, so that now skirts serve the opposite purpose - to display the woman's body (relative to pants). But due to the Victorian legacy, skirts are somehow still considered modest in conservative/religious circles. The cognitive dissonance is most clear when these groups ask schoolgirls to wear skorts to gym instead of skirts. |
If 0.1 amps can be lethal to a human, then why don't I die when touching the contacts of a phone battery, which is 3.8 V and 1500-3200 mA? | When you touch the contacts of a battery, the current that flows through your body is governed by [Ohms law](_URL_0_). Because your body, and in particular your skin, has a high electrical resitance, the current that results from a 3.8 Volt potential difference is in the range of micro Amperes, which typically will not register with your nervous system. The number 1500-3200 that you mention is a measure for how much electrical energy can be stored in the battery, and it is usually expressed in milli Ampere hours (mAh). A capacity of 1500 mAh means that your battery is able to sustain a current of 1500 mA for the duration of one hour before it is depleted. Or 750 mA for a duration of two hours. Or 15 mA for a duration of 100 hours. |
The universe either started at one point, or has always been there. How are either possible? | > Point 1 seems illogical- it begs the question "what allowed the universe into being" You are approaching this from a standpoint of absolute reliance on causality. Our brains are wired and designed to think of everything in terms of cause and effect - if there is an effect then we assume there must be a cause. And indeed we constantly observe cause and effect everyday around us. But there is no fundamental logical reason why an effect *has* to have a cause. To say "what caused time to start" isn't a meaningful question as in order for something to *cause* something to start, time must exist. |
How does the UN General Assembly enforce its decisions? | It doesn't. The power to enforce UN resolutions belongs to the UN Security Council, and any of the 5 permanent members (US, Russia, China, UK, and France) can veto any action the security council might take. |
What causes internet outages? | From my personal experience as an internet tech support rep, there are several things that could go wrong. It could be a hardware issue at the central office, or hardware issue in one of the internet boxes for your neighbourhood (DSLAM), it could be the wiring running to your house, copper or fiber, being broken or worn down, it could be the box attached to your house that connects those wires to your modem, it could be your modem or router itself... lots of different issues. The most common issue would be the modem hasn't been restarted in awhile. Like any piece of smart technology, devices need to be restarted because over time bugs and error codes build up in the memory and bog it down. Restarting devices erases these bugs and gets the system working again. EDIT: for spelling and grammar. |
Why does the USA send billions of dollars to other countries when it's public schools are broke, healthcare is hurting, and infrastructure is crumbling? | Because humanity is important as a whole. We might have crumbled roads, but some places have none. |
What was Hitlers final goal? Was it to conquer all of Europe or just prove that Germany is a superpower not to be dealt with? | More than anything, Nazi Germany wanted space, or "living room" (aka in German: Lebensraum which translates to living space, but living room I think is easier to understand) to expand the German culture, heritage, and power. From a practical perspective this meant controlling continental Europe, North Africa, the Caucuses, and Western Russia. All under a single *German* state. This would allow Germany, and Germans plenty of resources and space to spread out and be more productive, as well as cementing Germany as the major world power. |
How do ATMs always dispense the crispiest of bills? Even if the bills are years old. | They can dispense nice-looking bills because that's what they are filled with. ATMs are filled with money that comes from the bank, and the banks remove worn and damaged bills from circulation. |
People who can see other people's aura's. | Little mix of crazy, too much pot, and some scammers in the mix as well. |
Can jury nullification work the other way too? As in, is it possible for a jury to purposely convict a provingly innocent person resulting in a legal conviction? | No, not in the same way. When a jury rules a man innocent despite the evidence against him, the state can't do anything about it. The Constitution protects him from being tried again for the same crime. That is what creates the institution of "jury nullification"--the acquittal can't be second-guessed. But when a jury rules a man guilty despite the evidence, a judge *can* rule otherwise. If the jury could not reasonably have reached a guilty verdict given the evidence, it will not stand. Even if the trial judge decides against it, the convict has the opportunity to appeal. Jury verdicts are rarely overturned in this way, but the verdict has to have at least some relation to the evidence, unlike with nullification. To be sure, a biased jury or judge can do a lot of harm. There are plenty of cases where, to outsiders, the verdict is questionable. But there is an important conceptual difference. |
Why did the Nazis house Jews and other minorities in concentration camps instead of simply killing them? | Nazis housed them for experiments as well as free labor. Many camps also contained political prisoners or intellectuals that they could exploit for information. This also ties in with the Final Solution, by gathering these undesirables, it made it easier for the Nazi's to systematically execute all of them. They'd use less ammunition, less gas, and less resources than hunting them all in the streets. |
Why does Israel spy on the US? | Everyone spies on everyone as much as they are able if they are smart. Making decisions requires information. If you don't have correct information then you are less capable of making the right decisions. Therefore if you value making the right decisions then you must also value pursuing accurate information, even if those people with the information don't really want you to know. You see, the people making the decisions swore an oath to their own people and owe it to them to make the right decisions, and they don't owe the people who want to keep secrets anything at all. This is why everyone has spies of varying ability, even if nobody wants to talk about it. |
Why does a bike balance while its moving? | Bikes use multiple things that keep the bike up and prevent it from going left to right a lot. The way the front wheel is build it makes the bike turn when you drop towards a side. Now the bike went from falling to turning. And while turning the centrifugal force (which is basically the forward momentum/inertia you mentioned) starts to push you back up. What could happen is that you get pushed to the other side and start to wobble. The mentioned angular momentum ( which is basically inertia for turning things, they don't want to change the way they are turning ) dampens the wobble. Even though it won't stop the wobble it makes it easier to handle. And all the friction in the turning parts of the bike and between the wheel and the street will eventually stop it completely. (Or the bike slows down too much and all those effects stop working) |
There are always campaigns to "stop global warming". Can we actually stop global warming, or are we just delaying it? | If everyone in the world was to cooperate, we absolutely could fix it. There's two things that need to happen. One is to replenish our carbon sinks which convert CO2 into oxygen. Basically this means re-planting the world's forests and cleaning up the oceans so the photosynthesizing plankton and algae can return. The second thing is to get off of fossil fuel energy sources, quickly. Even if we shut off every car and coal power plant in the world tomorrow, it still wouldn't be enough to prevent some pretty serious climate change (and God help us if we keep burning fossil fuels for much longer). This is why we need the carbon sinks, to give us that extra boost. But we need energy, and that's where renewable, clean energy comes in. Solar, wind, and tidal energy all need to be seriously increased and it needs to be done seriously fast. |
How are diamonds made from coal? | Diamonds aren't made from coal and pressure + coal does not make diamonds. They're both made from carbon but they are completely different. They don't even form in the same types of rock. Coal is dead plants turning into sedimentary rock whereas diamonds are from igneous rock and are formed in the mantle and brought up by volcanic eruptions. |
Why have elephants been tamed as war animals in the ancient world but never tamed for domestic things like farming? | But they have. In certain areas, such as India and SE Asia, they are routinely used for logging in mountainous terrain. But they eat a whole lot, and the upkeep is prohibitively high relative to the increased power available. And considering their size, it is much easier for them to do a lot of damage to people, as well as harder to contain, in the event they do get out of control. |
How are things named? | There are a lot of ways things get named. 1. Take its equivalent name in another language. This is what a lot of English is. Chair's origin was from the old french "chaiere". 2. Name it based on its function or origin. "Fireplace", "compact disc", "computer" are named based on their functions or appearances. "Nylon" (New York and London), "Kleenex", "reddit", etc. This is the typical approach with modern words or brand names, with one exception: 3. Be the first to call it something and let it catch on. People decide what a name is based on who propagates it. Companies market their brand name until it becomes synonymous with its product. Scientists coin new terms and name species and use it until it enters common parlance. Slang is invented and circulated until it becomes part of the local dialect. One thing's for sure, naming is not the responsibility of one person; everyone needs to know it for a name to work! |
How do I balance a checkbook? | 1) Start of the month - Figure out how much money is currently in your bank account 2) Through out the month - Keep track of every expense you use your bank account for (including withdrawals) 3) End of the Month - Figure out what your ending balance is and return to step 1. Your checkbook is now balanced. |
Why are we restricted by airport customs in the amount of cash we carry? | There is no such limit. Above $10,000 you have to declare it to them and fill out a form. It is to fight money laundering; same as the reporting requirements for large cash transactions at banks. |
SPOILER ALERT: Why is "50 Shades of Grey" so controversial? | It's a book based on a piece of *Twilight* fan fiction written by a random woman with no writing ability whatsoever. It's controversial because it displays a serious misunderstanding of S & M, consent, and healthy romantic relationships, while at the same time is directed at teen girls or younger and has the literary difficulty level of a 2nd graders book. In the book, Christian Grey (called Edward Cullen right up until release) is an stalker and rapist who takes a virgin and terrorizes her into continuing an abusive, one-sided relationship. He literally plants a tracking device on her without her consent and threatens her constantly if she ever disobeys him. In the end, she "changes his mind", is supposedly less creepy, and they live happily ever after. |
How does the government track people downloading illegal music? | I am not aware of any evidence of any western governments tracking 'illegal' downloads. Most file-sharing is not 'illegal' in the sense of committing a crime that harms society in general (such as theft or assault). But it does breach copyright laws. Breach of copyright is a *tort*, a civil crime in which an individual who is wronged can sue for damages. In order to sue for damages, evidence that meets certain standards must be acquired. Large trade organisations, copyright enforcement groups and smaller security firms seeking to earn a quick buck monitor file-sharing downloads in order to obtain the details of participants. |
Why do I feel tired after eating greasy food? | More than likely it's just the sheer amount of food that you're eating, not necessarily what it's composed of. You don't feel sluggish after eating broccoli and carrots because you aren't going to eat nearly as much. Your body just wants you to calm down for a bit while it works on digesting the giant pile of food you just asked it to deal with. |
Why is altitude (in regards to aircraft) still measured in feet, rather than metres? | Standardisation and inertia. The whole world basically agreed to the same sets of rules and measures and even language for flying. There's no real need to go to the expense and hassle of changing it. And no, there's no real benefit to measuring altitude in metres instead of feet. The benefit of the metric system is that the whole system is aligned. There's nothing special about a metre that makes it better than a foot. Kilofeet, centifeet etc. would work just as well if they'd been designed that way from scratch. |
If Netflix runs much better over VPN, why doesn't Netflix offer VPN service to their customers? | If traffic is being throttled from your provider to netflix, it doesn't matter if it is VPN traffic, it will still be throttled. The point of using a VPN is that you are getting to netflix through a remote gateway on a provider that doesn't throttle netflix. |
Why is it that when people shorten 'transgender,' they add an asterisk to it? | This is a highly educated guess, but I believe it's because an * , in computer lingo, is also a "wild card", meaning that it can take the place of one, or several letters. In this case, the person could be talking about transGENDER or transSEXUAL people, so they shorten it, to trans* |
The possibility of the world's nuclear powered submarines surviving an asteroid that would end humanity. | The strike, sure. The aftermath, like the loss of all higher life on the planet, not really. Where would they resupply? Where would they get more food? They would be fine, maybe for a year, but is that really "winning" this scenario? |
When people become paralyzed, why does it seem common that they retain control of their eyes and eyelids? | Facial muscles have their nerves connected directly to the brain. In Neurology you often do tests where you have the pasient make certain expressions, and this can be used to tell the location of the brain damage(to a certain degree) |
what causes nail biting and why is it such a difficult habit to break? | Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the chewing action of the jaw (when biting nails) releases endorphins (not sure why), which causes a positive feeling in your brain - this mainly happens when you are anxious, so your body is trying to find a way to relieve or comfort itself. It's also why some people find chewing gum (or to extreme cases, overconsumption of food) helps them relax. This becomes addictive not only because of those endorphins, but because you chew your nails it causes them to have a very rugged, imperfect shape. Most people who commonly chew nails (not out of anxiety) tend to show some symptoms of OCD, which means that they want to keep their nails in a symmetrical pretty shape, which causes their "perfectionism" to not stop biting until the nails look decent (of course, when they grow back they are still rugged, so this cycle continues). |
Why are boneless wings even called wings? | Because you can't walk into a restaurant and order 20 pieces of "that bomb ass shit". |
How do people "fail" to commit suicide? | Gun jams, rope snaps, they land into a truck of pillows and cake, etc. |
why is cursive writing the default writing style in Russia but phasing out in English? | It is easier to write Cyrillic in cursive than in print. Д for example is annoying as fuck to write in print for example. Some people write in a mixed fashion with some parts cursive and some parts written. Source: Know a Cyrillic language. |
why are these hot ass teachers hooking up with funny looking kids? | Because they are pedophiles and mentally ill. They are turned on not by the looks of the student, but by the teacher's position of authority over the student, and the innocence, naïveté, or "freshness" of the sexuality of a young teen. |
Why is everyone cautions about Salmonella, but sushi is okay? | Raw fish in sushi, called *sashimi*, can indeed contain bacteria or parasites. To get rid of parasites, some countries have laws saying that you must freeze the fish at [253 K](_URL_0_) for many hours. Many parasites freeze to death at such low temperatures. However, other foods, like ground beef, often do not have such laws about freezing, so there can be bacteria or parasites that survive. |
Why is noon 12PM rather than being 12AM? | AM means ante meridiem or before midday. So 12am is 12 hours before midday. PM means post meridiem or after midday. |
What is the difference between being intelligent and being intellectual? | To be an intellectual you have to be interested in certain things: art, politics, philosophy, science. Plenty of smart people don't give a hoot about those things, but interest in them tends to track with intelligence. |
Trying to understand vitamin D. There is a LOT of conflicting information out there. How many mins in sunlight do I need per day. Does it count if it comes in the window or if I am outside but in shade? I read somewhere that it washes off??? Please enlighten me!!! | I cant answer your other questions, but you cant wash away vitamins absorbed by your skin. That would require some serious osmosis, and isnt achieved by a swim or a regular bath. No science to back up my claims. Always research trusted sources. |
Why do most cartoon characters have four fingers on each hand instead of five? | Easier and faster to draw, and because early animators (Disney, Warner Bros) dit it, it was adopted as the style. Some cartoons do not do this, most recently noted in the AdultSwim show "Rick and Morty" where characters sport all 5 normal digits. *EDIT: I accidentally a words there. |
How do you make/manufacture glitter? | Colored foil and lots of little kids with scissors in china. |
If you got to build a machine that can throw coins the same way everytime, from the same height, in a controlled space, with no wind and with milimetric precission, would the coin always land the same face? | A team at Stanford did exactly that while investigating how random a coin toss is, building a machine that tossed coins so that they always landed the way they started. Put the coin in the machine heads-up and it would land as heads 100% of the time (or at least in 100% of their tests). They also concluded that a normal coin toss by a human isn't quite fair, and will land the way it started 51% of the time. |
Why did my black goldfish turn orange? | You could've just googled it, but here's my five cents. Source: Had lots of goldfish in my garden pond when I was younger. Goldfish hatch black and turn orange during the first years of their life. Some of them are "early" developers and turn gold within their second year, some of them take five years, occasionally even longer. And very few of them never turn gold. So that one fish of you just was a bit late, nothing wrong with that. |
Why do special effects and CGI cost so much money? | It's not just a program. It's the team of people needed to use those programs. Within the CG world, people tend to specialize. There are modelers, animators, texture and lighting people, compositors who put effects into footage, and so on. Each of those elements is hugely difficult and typically requires years of training to get to a professional level. Each of those people is a professional who receives a professional's salary for their expertise at what they do, and the long-ass hours they put in to do it. Plus, CG effects take a lot of processing power to properly render; you're looking at a lot of hardware, including huge render farms filled with computers tasked with taking those professionals' raw output and rendering it out as movie frames. There's a lot going on behind the effects you see in movies, even the short or simple ones that you don't even really notice. Source: SO is a 3D modeler. That shit's hard. |
Why don't they make 2 liter soda bottles rectangular? | Storage containers for items under pressure (soda, propane), are round because the items inside are pushing outward. Corners and seams are weak points, so a round shape minimizes those places, to help prevent blowouts. |
How do scratch and sniff stickers work | An adhesive mixed with an ester (a chemical that can smell like various organic substances, such as strawberries) is stuck onto a piece of paper. Then, the smelly area is sprayed with an easily-scratched substance, which also blocks the scent until the smelly patch is uncovered. |
Why does sleeping feel so good shortly after waking up? | During sleep, a horomone called melatonin is released throughout the night to induce a relaxing sensation throughout the body. Once the body is triggered to wake up (I.e. sunlight or an alarm clock) the body stops producing melatonin. The problem is that even though melatonin is not being produced anymore, the remaining melatonin in the body lingers for about 35-50 min which is the half-life of melatonin. Edit: since im the top post which is awesome sauce btw!, ill add some info Melatonin production is halted by blue light, thats why it is beneficial to use a program like f.lux to reduce blue light from electronic screens Melatonin has little to no role in depression, depression normally has to do with neurotransmitters in the CNS Source: Endocrine class I took |
A presidential pardon decades after death | Basically it's just to officially acknowledge that the person was innocent. It brings some justice to the family |
How can American Airlines file for bankruptcy but continue to buy brand new planes? | They're in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In a Chapter 11, a business continues to operate as usual, it just goes through a judicial proceeding to create a "plan" to restructure its debt. There are certain restrictions on what a business in Chapter 11 can or can't do, but for the most part it's business as usual. |
What is the science behind ICBMs? | The B stands for Ballistic, which means that the missile is boosted by rockets to a high altitude, then falls back down unpowered at an extremely high speed - something like 7 km (4.3 miles) per *second*. The sheer speed, combined with the lack of flames out the back, makes an ICBM extremely hard to track and intercept, by design. So the missile itself is fairly simple in principle, but getting it all to work is harder. If the missile's trajectory is set correctly during the boost phase, it means little or no correction is required during the terminal phase. Modern ICBMs have multiple independently-targeted re-entry vehicles - MIRVs -which separate from the missile and have their own rockets and guidance systems. The sheer speed of re-entry can't be over-stated. At 7 km/s, that means the warhead goes from 14 km up - 46,000 ft, higher than any commercial airliner - to the ground, in *two seconds*. |
Why U.S. conservatives are so against abortion but generally the first to gripe about families with multiple children on welfare. | It generally goes to a perception of responsibility. A key conservative principle is that people should be responsible for their own actions and behavior. And children are a part of this; if a woman becomes pregnant, she should carry the child to term and ensure for its future. If you have children, you should be able to support them. That is the key conservative view on this. |
The theory that drinking *more* alcohol will cure a hangover. | Hair of the Dog, as it's called. It's simple. You get drunk enough to not feel the pain of the hangover. Physically, your brain stem is still dehydrated. You've addressed the symptoms, but not the cause. |
How can states legalize marijuana when using/having it is a federal offence? | Through the 10th amendment. Powers not expressly delegated to the federal government in the constitution are reserved for the states. The only way to (legally) grant the federal government additional powers is by constitutional amendment. States with marijuana initiatives are asserting that the federal drug laws are unconstitutional since there was never an amendment to the constitution (as there was with alcohol prohibition) and are reasserting their state sovereignty on that issue. |
Why is so common in the NFL to make the Super Bowl or at least make the Playoffs without making the Playoffs the previous year as opposed to the NBA? | 1. Football is a more team oriented sport. A good Quarterback can't do much on his own, nor can a good Cornerback prevent an entire team from scoring. 2. You're only competing against 3 other teams for an "easy" playoff spot, since the top teams from each division automatically make it to the playoffs. And then you have two wildcard spots in the primary conferences. While a smaller percentage of teams get in (12 out of 32, vs 16 out of 30), you have less local competition. 3. There's only 16 games in a season (vs the 82 in the NBA), so each game counts for more. A few lucky wins for your team or bad losses for your rivals influences your playoff chances more. |
If Radio waves are omni-directional, why does a station go from clear to garbled and back again in a matter of inches? | The cause is **multipath interference**. Radio waves reflect off of things like buildings and the ground. As the waves expand out from the transmitter, part of the signal gets reflected and part travels directly to your receiver. The reflected part travels a longer path than the direct part so it when it arrives at the receiver it's out of phase with the direct part. Because the signal is a repeating wave, *sometimes* the reflected part is perfectly opposite phase as the direct part and it cancels the direct part out. Most of the time it's somewhere in between which doesn't totally cancel but interferes with it. |
Why are .jpg's so bad? | Jpeg is good for for photographs or other things that have lots of subtly different color gradients, but aren't great for things like logos or line drawings, or other things with sharp color transitions, or things that require transparancy, which jpeg doesn't support. Use JPEG for photographs and PNG for logos or drawings. |
why can't we bring in sealed beverages through TSA checkpoints but we can buy those same beverages on the other side at 200% markup? | For the fear that you might have sealed the beverage yourself and it might actually contain gasoline or other dangerous substances instead of an actual can of coke. |
How can we feel tense / bad atmospheres in certain places? | It's a purely psychological effect. The "atmosphere" isn't real, but lots of symptoms are -- these can include an odd smell, an unusual quiet, the presence of nervous-acting people, or objects arranged in a manner that's unusually messed up or unusually tidied up. |
If drawing Mohammed is disliked in the muslim community because one should not attempt to capture god's work in such a way, how come it is ok for so many to name their children mohammed? | Islam is very against idols. It is okay to name your child in hope that they will share similar attributes, but depiction leads to false idols. So Christianity with their statues of saints would be considered to be promoting gods other than god. |
Why does Islam prohibit the consumption of pork? | Pigs can pose a considerable health risk and are not always safe to eat. Officially they're unclean animals, but the more probable and sane reason behind banning the consumption would be to try to discourage people from eating things that'll make them sick. Undercooked pork can be very dangerous if the pig was carrying parasites like trichinosis, which can cause vomiting, nausea, diarrhea etc - things you don't want in arid climates. Moreover, pigs digest things VERY quickly and don't always properly get rid of toxins and other stuff we don't want in us. As far as I know the European climate didn't make these health risks as prominent for the Europeans so eating pork isn't forbidden in Christianity unlike it's two other Abrahamic counterparts. |
safest position to take in an electrical storm | If there is no possibility of shelter, I believe the best advice is to crouch down, as low as possible, arms round knees so you're presenting a round profile. That prevents any narrow projections that concentrate charge. Remember that the leader goes upwards first. Feet together so there is only one small area of contact with the ground. If a strike hits nearby, there can be a charge gradient across the ground which would preferentially go through you if you had spaced out points of contact. |
What is the difference between the credit card choices (MasterCard, Visa, American Express?) | One difference is: Visa starts with 4xxx MasterCard with 5xxx and Amex with 3xxx, usually 37xx |
If Anxiety is just the response to danger manifested by producing adrenaline (Epinephrine), why is it not possible to create drugs that stops production of Epinephrine? | MD here. In general anxiety has lots of causes(genetic factors, substance abuse, injuty etc.) but all of them lead to neurotransmitters inbalance(norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine). To treat this imbalance we use mainly antidepressants(they inhibit destroy of neurotransmitters therefore bringing back the balance). We also use bensodiasepines for acute panic attacks to slow down our central nervous system by increasing GABA in CNS(that's a type of slowing neurotransmitter). Cognitive behavioral therapy is the third(and effective) option of treatment. For your question. There are drugs that block epi receptors in tissues(blood vessels, heart, uterus, bronchi). But these receptors are crucial for survival(speeding up the heart, constricting blood vessels, dilating bronchi) so blocking them in otherwise healthy human can cause them to even die. So that's not an option. Sorry for my English(not native language). |
Why can authorities seize the .se ccTLD for The Pirate Bay but not the .org gTLD? | Different TLDs follow different countries' rules. In both Sweden and the US, the government isn't allowed to arbitrarily seize domain names- they have to follow some procedure, probably involving the courts, to do so. Swedish law and legal procedure allowed the government to get an order to seize the .se domain. US laws did not allow them to seize the .org domain. |
Fundamental differences that set us apart from other animals? | Humans are the only species who can understand abstract information. For example I could point to a door and tell you what is on the other side of it. You would understand without having to open the door. You would know if it was safe to open the door. No other species has this ability, yet all human cultures have this ability. The only other exclusively human trait I can think of, is the ability to control fire. |
Why do people become workaholics? | I have been working 60 hr weeks the last two months. Took a 4 day weekend and spent half the time on phone calls for work. I don't know why... |
Theorems, Postulates, and Laws...what's the difference? | And oh yes, as to properties. A property is a sort of "truth;" a sort of quality of an object or a mathematical formula or anything that makes that thing what it is; that makes it behave the way it does. As to "the quadratic property," the answer is a little tricky. Perhaps you are thinking of the Quadratic Formula? Which is a mathematical statement that when you plug in certain values, gives you an answer to a quadratic equation, which itself is a certain format of an equation (ax^2 + bx + c = 0, where you're solving for x and a, b and c are just simple numbers). However, you sometimes hear the phrase "quadratic properties"--such as "this graph has quadratic properties" or "this equation has quadratic properties"--which means that the graph or equation in question has properties of a quadratic equation. |
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