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How can someone just walk away from a home loan? | It's largely a US thing, and only in some states which consider mortgages to be a "non-recourse debt". The debt is secured on the property, but the borrower isn't personally liable for the debt beyond that security. If foreclosing and selling the property doesn't cover the full debt then the lender can't pursue the borrower further. |
Why do we drink cow's milk instead of human milk? | Human females can't produce the same quantities of milk that female cows can. It wouldn't be very profitable. Plus, notice that we mostly drink milk that comes from animals that like to graze on grass, like cows, goat, and sheep. Humans eat a lot of junk food and other stuff that doesn't make for very good tasting milk. |
In Sci-fi movies, why are alien organisms almost always silicone based? | Silicon is the other element other than carbon that would form long complicated bonds that life could evolve around. Though it is almost certain that another life form would be carbon based this gives a way of creating a "totally new life form". |
LI5, the current patent controversy between the top tech companies Google, MSFT, Apple, etc. | This doesn't directly address any existing lawsuits between those companies, though they are involved: you might find this episode of This American Life extremely useful in getting a better understanding of what goes on in patent law concerning software - I know I did: _URL_0_ |
How are games cracked? | The executable files of a game are basically just a bunch of machine code. Machine code are instructions executed by your computer. By using a so called Dissassembler, you can turn the machine code into a somewhat human readable format called "Assembler language". If you are good, you can then analyse the code and modify to circumvent copy protection mechanisms, e.g. by taking the copy protection code out or jumping over it. |
How carbon dating works | Assume carbon ratios in living organisms within an environment are constant (perhaps it may vary for terrestrial vs. marine). The ratio only remains constant for that orgnanism while the organism is alive (just assume this is due to respiration). Any change in the "known constant" and the currently measured value yields a number of years since the organism died. |
Why is it taking them so long to come out with the oculus rift consumer version, when they developed it nearly a year ago, and came out with the development kits nearly two years before that? | My thoughts are because it is supposed to be a game changer(literally) and to release anything sub par could potentially hurt the concept and make it take even longer for people to get interested in it again, I for one would be extremely disappointed if it was clunky and didn't work as good as I'm imagining it will. |
Why do different cheeses made from the same type of milk have different Calcium values? | It basically comes down to pH value of the whey and it's drained. Casein is bonded by calcium phosphate (which is where the calcium comes from) and as the pH decreases it becomes soluble and is drained away. |
Why does water cause a near perfect hexagon bokeh on camera lenses? | > Basically, how is this caused, and why the hexagon bokeh is always perfectly shaped? Both of those answers are because it is the shape of the lens aperture of the camera. [This link shows what structure is causing the shape.](_URL_0_) |
How does insane Clown Posey have such large following, who are willing to do anything for the band? | Because persons are smart, people are dumb As some comedian said, imagine what average, I mean totally middle of the road intelligent, person is like. Now realize that HALF the population is dumber than that. |
- if pi is in between the number 3 and 4 how can it be infinite? | It is *not* an infinite amount. It is less than 4. In *does* take an infinite amount of digits to explain precisely what the amount is, but that's about being precise, not about being huge. |
ELI5:Why is it that a small animal will run up to a big animal and fight it and the bigger animal will run away? Do animals not know their size? | Because the question in the wild is not so much if you win, but if you get injured. If the large animal stands and fights, yes, it might kill the small animal, but maybe the small animal takes a chunk out of the big animal's leg. Then the big animal has a gimped leg, can't run, can't catch prey (or escape other predators), and it likely dies. |
How did the idea of weekends come to be? | Henry Ford has been credited with creating the weekend as we know it today. Apparently the normal work week used to be six days, and Sunday was the day of rest. When Ford was paying workers $2 per day (maybe $2.50, not sure), the going rate at the time, there was lots of turnover and constant hiring and training, so Ford decided to double the rate to $5 per day to reduce turnover and keep employees instead of constantly training new hires. At the same time, he also decided to make a five day work week to give his employees Saturday off, thinking they would buy more cars to ride around in for the weekend. The local business community told him he would bankrupt his business. The day after he ran a full page ad in the paper for the $5 per day jobs, there were massive lines of people applying for jobs with Ford. The idea was extremely successful, and the weekend was born. |
Why is there so much apparent public criticism against labor unions when they empower mostly low to middle income workers; who make up the massive majority of workers? | The media is owned by corporate capital and has been shifting culture from progressive collectivism to ineffectual individualism for decades on purposes. The real opposition to Obamacare is not over its actual impact on the economy or personal freedom, it is about squashing any impulse towards collectivism or solidarity and replacing it with self-defeating individualism. "Organized capital and vertical monopoly GOOD and organized labor BAD." Progressive movements are floundering in iterative intersectionality and back-biting while capital prospers unopposed. |
Why do doctors stop applying a defibrillator after a couple of tries? | Same reason you don't keep turning the ignition key for hours in your car when it won't start -- there's no point in doing it, it won't get better. |
How is it possible to program a computer? How can a clunk of metal understand lines of code? | Computers run off of binary code which is basically a bunch of 0's and 1's. So when you write a program in any programming language or in terminal/command prompt you are really just typing in a bunch of 0's and 1's that the computer can easily read. |
How is it possible that we are able to find planets far away form the Earth (like Kepler-186 f or PSR B1257+12) but we don’t know if there are other planets in our solar system? | The way we find these planets is to monitor the amount of light coming from a star and then see if it drops slightly occasionally. If it does then that means the star is partially obscured by a planet transiting across the front of it. We do not have that perspective on planets beyond the orbit of earth as there is nothing bright for them to obscure. We cannot see them with telescopes because they are too dark and/or distant to detect, the best we can do is look for slight changes in the orbit of objects we can see (such as Pluto) to see if they are being affected by the gravity of something unknown. |
Smartphone "rooting" and "crapware." | "Crapware" refers to all of the pre-installed apps that you don't want, but the device will not allow you to uninstall. "Rooting" means basically taking control of the device in such a way that you can do things that it normally doesn't permit you to do, including uninstalling "uninstallable" apps. The term comes from UNIX operating systems, where, aside from the normal user accounts, there is a "root" account that has absolute permission to do anything it wants, and will not be restricted in any way by the operating system. |
; Bohr vs Einstein puzzle solution. | The correct answer is that you have the same amount of B in A as there is A in B. Consider this: each container has 100 units of liquids A and B. The ladle can carry 10 units. In the first scoop, you have 10 units of A in the ladle. You transferred it to container B. Now Container A has 90 units of A. Container B has 100 units of B and 10 units of A. When you take a scoop from container B, you have about 0.91 units of A, and 9.09 units of B (since that solution is 10/110 liquid A). You add this to container A. Now container A has 90.91 units of liquid A, and 9.09 units of B. However, container B still has the same proportion of liquid A and B after the first mixing - namely, 10/110 liquid A, and 100/110 liquid B. This translates to 9.09 units of liquid A, and 90.9 units of liquid B. |
What does repertoire area mean within classical music? | Your repertoire is the body of works that you have learnt and are able to perform. You may have one or many pieces in your repertoire. In this context, it sounds like you are being asked for pieces of contrasting style, or from different periods in the history of classical music. If you fulfill the latter, then you pretty much automatically fulfill the first - for instance you could have four sonatas from the Classical period, and you would have to strive hard to make sure they all offered contrasting elements. Or you could choose four different sorts of pieces from the Classical period and show the variety that was present in just one period. Or (and this seems like the safest bet), you could choose four pieces from different periods and they would almost certainly provide plenty of contrast. I'm thinking in terms of Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century, and Contemporary/Modern periods. There is no end to the variety of different styles and types of work since the 20th Century. |
Why won't Mitt Romney release his tax returns? | Probably because he ships his income overseas to swiss banks to avoid income tax here. |
When a small child cries, they often start with the initial cry followed by a long-ish pause, and then they start crying again. Why the long pause? | They need to take a breath for their next cry. Longer pauses adds more intensity when the second cry hits. |
How do brands manufacturing non-concentrated, natural fruit juice keep the taste constant? | I'm not so sure they do. I drink apple juice, grape juice, and orange juice and I notice they do change in taste year in and year out and also season in and season out as the source of the fruit changes as seasons change in different parts of the world. So answer is, they don't control it. Some batches are better than others. |
When people talk to animals or babies, why do they tend to talk in a high pitched cutsie manner, and never talk like they would normally? | The heck where are the comments? The behavior is called mirroring which we humans have accepted as affectionate behavior. When babies babble in their cute high pitch voices, we also babble back. When cats miaow, we miaow back. Same with kittens |
Why can you not see deleted comments with a permalink, but you can see deleted threads with one? | Threads tend to be deleted because they break some subreddit rule (no joke posts, post must be a question). Comments tend to get deleted because they break Reddit rules (doxxing, copyright infringement). Of course, either can be removed for the other reason. |
Why do big bags of chips have zero trans fats but the smaller version of the exact same chips contains trans fats? | Because according to FDA regulations, any foods that has 0.5 g of trans fat or less PER SERVING can be labelled as trans fat free. In big bags of chips, the manufacturer can jiggle the serving size so that each serving will have less than 0.5 g. But small bags of chips are generally considered to contain only 1 serving, and so they can't divide out extra servings to screw with the numbers. |
Why does China, India, ect. have so many more people than the rest of the world? | Fertile river valleys that create a lot of good agricultural land. The same reason that the Nile delta is so much more populous than most of the rest of the area. There are lots of other similar examples around the world. It's also worth noting that China and India are *big*. In terms of land area, China is actually larger than Canada. |
How does electrical grounding work for ships? Why is it so complicated? | It's not about electrical safety directly. If you use a metal hull as ground, especially in salt water, electrolysis can cause corrosion. |
Poincaré recurrence theorem | You have a box of m & ms. You shake it and take them out one by one. Put them back in and repeat. If you keep doing this, eventually you will pull them out in the same order as the first time. |
Why does 2008 still feel like a couple of years ago? | Probably because with each year that goes by, you have a longer frame of reference to what time feels like? I don't think I phrased that well, but what I mean is that if you are 5, one year is 20% of your entire existence. If you are 50, one year is 2% of your life. So, to get the same feeling of "long ago", it takes more years, the older you get. Same concept as why summers seem to fly by compared to when you were a kid. |
What makes humans want to kiss one another? | Our lips have an inordinate amount of nerve endings in them. Touching them together will stimulate both partners quite a lot. |
How penny bidding sites (like QuiBids or Beezid) make their money? | As far as I know, QuiBids charges $0.60 a bid. So if they see something for $10, that's 1000 bids, and they've made $610. The person buying it gets a pretty good deal and everyone else who bid is screwed. |
Difference between Special and General Relativity | Special relativity describes flat space; general relativity describes curved space. Note that general relativity is a superset of special. It's not an evolutionary step - GR doesn't replace SR like GR replaced Newton. On a scale where the curvature of space is approximately zero, things behave just like SR says. Note that all other forces and particles inhabit space, so SR is really a statement about the geometry that applies to all forces and particles. Although it was first discovered in the context of electromagnetism, it's not unique to electromagnetism. |
Why do Western movies picture robots and cyborgs like evil beings, but Japan portraits them as the good guys? | This isn't correct at all. Western depictions of cyborgs/robot are often positive (Chappie, WallE, Short Circuit), and depictions in Japanese media are often negative (Bubblegum Crisis is the only one I can think of now because it's been a while since I watched anime). You are seeing a correlation where one does not exist. |
How are people colourblind? | Inside your eye are 3 different kinds of cells for detecting colors, one can see red, one can see green, and one can see blue. In colorblind individuals, one of those is either missing or not functioning properly, and so the number of combinations of colors you can distinguish is drastically lowered. You can still tell most colors apart because even if you may not see green properly, you'll detect the varying shades of red and blue in that color but you're missing some of the information. |
How does Southern and Northern US Border control work? | What's getting left out is where the border guards ask to see your passport, ask what you're bringing in to the country, and so on. |
Why do the front wheels of big trucks have such big convex hubcaps and lugnuts? | The commonality across all those big trucks having a doubled rear wheel. On a doubled wheel, you need to be able to bolt the two wheels together to be secure them. The rims budge out so they can touch each other. & nbsp; The front wheel can't be doubled because it would interfere with steering. In order to only need one spare tire, the truck using the same wheel across the entire trunk, meaning that the budged rim is used for the front wheels. edit: spelling |
What exactly is a G.E.D. and why do people keep making fun of people who take the test? | The GED is the "General Educational Development" test. It is the test that those who drop out of high school, or who fail out of high school take to show that they have learned the equivalent of a high school education. They are made fun of because they have already proven themselves failures by societal standards just having to take the test. It is not a kind thing, but society is seldom kind. |
Why is my original iPad completely useless after only a few years of ownership? | Because the software it's running is made for newer-gen models. > Is my new iPad going to do this in a couple years? Eventually, but not for much longer. The newer-gen models are magnitudes faster and more powerful than the first gen. |
how big is the internet? | _URL_0_ Check this out. Pretty much answers your questions. |
Is there any way the U.N. can hit back at Russia diplomatically? | Nope, Russia could just veto it since they are on the security council. It's a fundamentally broken system. |
How are wells built? | Wells are not technically built, they are drilled. In reference to a water well, a company will do some research to see if they can drill a well in the desired area. This all depends on location, ground type, and various other things. If a well is drillable they will bring out a truck, that is basically a small oil derrick, and begin drilling the well. Depending on you location and ground type the depth of the well will vary. Some places have underground "rivers" and can be relatively shallow wells, on the other had, some need to be deeper so that more water will seep into the vacant area that is created by the drilling. Once the well is drilled you can begin getting water from it using a bucket or a pump. This is all i know. I hope this answers your question. Resource: had a well drilled on old property. Please correct me if I'm wrong. |
What makes raindrops large sometimes but small other times? And is the size of raindrops indicative of how much longer the rain will fall? | Raindrops form when water vapour in the atmosphere clusters around microscopic solid particles (such as dust) in a process called nucleation. Nucleation is reversible. As water molecules attach themselves to cluster, other molecules are leaving. There is a point called the *critical nuclear size*, at which point the cluster of water molecules is stable. This is the point at which a raindrop forms. The critical nuclear size /critical radius is controlled by temperature. The mathematics tells us that as the temperature is lowered, the critical radius decreases. Hopefully this answers your first question, and if I'm wrong I'd very much like to be called out on it! Cunningham's Law and all that ;) Ultimately, though, the answer lies in thermodynamics. |
How are space agencies sure they are not contaminating Mars/TheMoon, and why do they care? | Well, they use very rigorous clean room techniques to minimize the amount of biological contamination that is on our probes. Beyond that, the harshness of the environment is likely to whittle down at least some of what small amount they miss. But they are not sure they are not contaminating the objects, they probably miss *some* stuff. Not that either environment is especially conducive to life as we know it. The Moon especially, although some things may be able to eek out at least survival on Mars, if not prosperity. They care because we don't want to substantially alter the environment we are studying before we study it, and just in case there could *be* anything alive there, it'd be a shame to accidentally destroy it with competition. Additionally, if we go to all the work to find life and then bring samples back to Earth, it'd be a real bummer if by the time they got here it as just good ole tardigrades or something of the sort. |
Why aren't we concerned with bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms developing resistance to alcohol, chlorine, and other substances used to sterilize medical equipment (and hands)? | It is a good question. The answer is how it works on the organism. Anti-biotics work by interfering with some important function of a bacteria cell. Think of throwing a wrench into a machine and watching it gum up the works. Cells that have different machine arrangements can be more resistant to wrenches. They'll have casings around important stuff or gears that can allow a wrench to slip through the teeth without stopping. Maybe they have extra redundant machines. Alcohol, chlorine and copper work by physically dismantling the machine. No amount of changing the machine will help when you shown up with a screw driver and start removing things. |
How did the commonality of "seeing the light" originate when people are "crossing over" or passing away? | When your brain is deprived of oxygen (which is generally happening whenever the thing that's killing you is, you know, killing you), your brain shuts down different parts of itself in a given order, in an attempt to keep you alive as long as possible. Turns out, when the visual centers of the brain begin losing oxygen, you start getting tunnel vision, plus you lose the ability to see color, which means whatever light source you look at starts looking like the "light as the end of the tunnel", even if you happen to be staring at a streetlight or something. |
Why does my stationary leg hurt when I ride a skateboard? | More to the point, it is almost like doing a one legged squat. In addition to holding all your weight up, you are lowering yourself several inches (with one leg) each time you kick/push with the other leg. I have a adult sized kick scooter where I experience the same thing. I could kick all day, but switch legs often because of the fatigue in the leg on the board. |
Why does electricity "want" to be grounded. If there was a bigger planet then Earth here would electricity jump to it instead ? | The more general rule is that a system will tend to minimize its potential energy. For example, a ball on the top of a hill "wants" to roll down to minimize its gravitational potential energy. Similarly, a circuit "wants" to minimize its electrical potential energy, or voltage (technically voltage is electric potential energy per charge aka electric potential). *Ground* is defined as voltage=0, so a circuit being grounded is like the ball reaching the bottom of the hill. |
Who REALLY foots the bill when a corporation goes bankrupt? The unpaid bills? | Whoever those bills are owed to, as the corporation does not have to pay them, so the debtors are shit outta luck on recouping that money. |
Why are textbooks so expensive? | Because only a small number are printed. If you print a million of something, the costs are divided across that large number and it can be cheaper. Print only 10,000 and the "fixed" costs are now divided across 1/100 the number of books. |
Why do we have to pay for internet? And why is there a limit? | You're not paying for "the internet". You're paying for a company to *connect* you to the internet. They build the infrastructure, they run a lot of very high-end, very specialised equipment, and they spent a *lot* of money on it. They're not going to let you use those for free. |
What and how can start a natural bushfire? | Lighting mainly. When a volcano is conveniently located that will suffice. Plus if you have a decent damp pile of plant matter as it decays it can just get hot enough to burn. |
Why must we let a steak "rest" for best flavor, but that just makes it cold? | You just need to let it rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting into it. When you cut it right away after removing from heat, you will notice the plate will fill with liquid. That liquid is full of flavor that the steak loses. |
How do food companies determine the expiration date for a product? | It is calculated by measuring the rates of breakdown under less than ideal storage conditions. With ice cream, the limiting factor is likely to be the time it takes for ice crystals to grow, as well as the oxidation of some fats, degrading the taste and texture of the product. Because of this, it is likely to be called a 'Best Before' than an 'Expiry' date. All of this is very complex, but is reduced to a certain number of days, from which is subtracted a safety margin, again carefully calculated. This is added to the date of production to give an expiry date. If it has been in your properly functioning freezer, and is a few days over, then chow down and enjoy. |
Why can you hear the voices in the apartment above you so easily, but not the voices in the apartment below you? | Because sound travels through the solid medium ( the floor slab). On the floor above, people are directly in contact with the surface; while on the floor below, you're only depending on the noise traveling through air and noise traveling in air is divided into reflected, absorbed and transferred, major percentage of which, is reflected. |
If you were confined in a small space with limited oxygen that you were trying to conserve, would it be more efficient to take continuous short breaths, or fewer breaths while holding your breath for longer periods of time? | You would want to lower your metabolic rate. Decrease heart rate. Calm down. Take long deep breaths. Make each breath last as long as possible....... I think. |
How comes different phone chargers take widely different time to charge the same phone,despite all being rated 5V 1A? | Chargers also need to tell the phone - in some way - how much power is available. The 1A wall charger provided with your device has the circuitry there to properly communicate with device. The third-party car charger doesn't, so the device might assume it is an overloaded version 1 USB port, and draw the minimum 1/10th of an amp. An interesting point is the Samsung chargers. Although they will provide 1 amp at 5 volts to anything that plugs into them, plug a Samsung device in and it will negotiate up to 20 volts to charge the device quickly. |
Why is mace (pepper spray) illegal in the UK? | There is no such concept as "defensive weapon" in any of the UK legal systems. Anything carried with the sole or primary intent of causing injury upon another is always considered an offensive weapon in the UK. Note that the perceived intent of usage is important. If you were carrying a baseball bat outside a town park at 11 o'clock on a Sunday morning you'd be highly unlikely to be stopped by the police. If you had the same bat outside the same park at 2am the police would almost certainly consider it an offensive weapon. Also note that defending yourself in a threatening situation is perfectly legal in the UK, as long as you use "proportional force" and that you haven't pre-armed yourself with a weapon. |
What is the force that causes you to think of someone moments before they call or text you? | Confirmation bias: You don't notice all the times you didn't think of someone before they called you but the coincidence times you do stick in your mind more. |
What are the differences between the North and the South Pole? | The North Pole is in the middle of the water, usually covered by ice (less so nowadays because of climate change), and has polar bears, but no penguins. The South Pole is on land (Antarctica) and has penguins, but no polar bears. Also, the North Pole is in the Northern Hemisphere and the South Pole is in the Southern Hemisphere. |
How a recession causes lower gas prices. | Gas prices are largely driven by gas demand. The *demand* for gas however isn't usually driven by prices. That is, most people don't travel less just because gas costs more, they have a set number of miles they *have to* travel to live their lives. Well, if a bunch of people don't have jobs, and don't have any reason to shop, and can't afford to travel, suddenly they use less gas. Gas has to become cheaper to sell all the gas they can make that isn't being used. |
Why trees produce different shapes/sizes of leaves. | A thing to remember about evolution (that I often see is either forgotten or never realized) is that so long as a trait works well enough, and doesn't kill an organism or weaken it to the point of applying direct evolutionary pressure, it will remain. Leaves are a balance between energy expenditure (to grow) and energy production. Trial and error from mutation and different plant branches of the evolutionary tree will lead to variety. |
How does my cat know to look at my eyes/face when communicating something? | It's been a common thing for workers in parts of the world to have to wear face masks on the back of their head because tigers won't attack if they think a person is looking at them. So this goes past domestication and is a hunter instinct. _URL_0_ And just as a tip for owning cats, look them int he eyes every now and then and deliberately blink. It's a sign of trust, as cats stare unblinkingly at people they don't trust. |
OJ and the recently discovered knife can we still prosecute him or no since double jeopardy? | Without considering the Double Jeopardy, the knife was supposedly found years ago and kept by as a souvenir by a cop. It was only recently brought forward as evidence. Pure speculation, but it could be real hard to use it as evidence in court since it was handled improperly. Edit: improperly |
Why do the body-cells age? | A few reasons. The most straightforward is that every time a cell copies it's DNA, it uses up a piece of the tail at the end of the DNA called the *telomere*. When a cell is out of telomere, fragments of the DNA itself start getting used and the cell goes into *telomere panic*. Each copy does damage to the DNA after that. |
Why does the water spray from the shower feel cold when you're standing next to the beam itself, even if the water is warm? | I believe you are feeling tiny borderline microscopic droplets of water which due to their size lose their heat to the environment extremely quickly |
why do empty folders contain 0 bytes of data? Don't folder names contain (even a few) bytes of data? | The contents of the folders are 0 bytes of data (no contents). It's like saying a real-life box contains 0 pounds. But the box itself isn't 0 pounds. |
Do caterpillars know they they are going to become butterflies? Or do they just get in a cocoon thinking, what the fuck am I doing? | You're giving them too much credit. When you get to insects that small, and insects in general, scientist aren't even sure they're capable of abstract thought like that, they're closer to biological machine, who just do what they do on instinct alone, their brains aren't really complicated enough to make it seem credible that they can think like we can. Also, whoever commented bfore me, I'm pretty sure you've been shadow banned. |
Why do a majority of films that have action scenes usually have the action extremely loud and have all the talking quiet? | Action scenes (explosions, revving engines, guns) are, in fact, a lot louder than speech. We're just used to most TV programs applying a generous level of dynamic compression so that speech is about the same volume as an explosion. So when a movie does it right it seems too loud. |
Why does food (meat, cheese, bread, vegetables) taste different when sliced thin vs thick? | I would guess it's because there's a greater surface area to volume ratio, so comparatively more of the food gets exposed to the air. The surface of the food will interact with oxygen in the air, affecting the flavor of whatever you are eating. |
Who pays for anti-smoking ads, and why do they want us to quit? | Fun fact: the Truth anti-smoking ads are actually funded (unwillingly) by the big tobacco comapnies. In the late 90's 47 states sued the tobacco industry for the medical financial burden their products put on the state's healthcare systems. Part of the settlement was that the tobacco companies had to fund the [American Legacy Foundation](_URL_0_), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of smoking. The ALF is responsible for the Truth advertising campaign. |
Why is the camera on the Mars rover so low quality? | We can, just not yet. These cameras are the initial landing cameras to make sure it survived the landing. Later this week, the fancy dancey cameras will spring up and give us lovely, awesome (like, literally awe-inspiring) imagery. Although it's pretty awesome already in my opinion :) |
Expiration dates for painkillers (details inside) | You are looking at date Filled vs date expired. Not date manufactured vs date expired. These drugs are created in large quantities but that doesnt mean they all get distributed at the same time. So the ones you got in 2013 and the ones you got in 2015 could have all been made in 2013. Drugs do expire. |
why are there only ever 2 or 3 NFL games available on tv each Sunday, instead of 5-10 like for college games? | > many games available on standard cable packages like college? Because they make more money the way it is currently setup. It's pretty simple at that. They have limited games on broadcast TV which they charge crazy rates for, which in turn is a limited amount of games people can watch which means everyone is watching them and the networks can charge crazy rates for ads. The NFL then sells exclusive access to Sunday Ticket to DirecTV for a giant rate (DirecTV paid way too much) to make even more money. The NFL is unarguably the best league in the world of sports at crafting and learning how to extract maximum value from their TV rights. Other leagues like the English Premier League, UEFA, NBA and such are all learning from the NFL's examples on how to craft TV deals, the NFL is just the best at it. |
How come old people sound "old". I'm not sure how else to explain it but they just sound different and harder to understand? | The cartilages in the vocal tract calcify and stiffen and the muscles get weaker. It makes their voice breathier and makes it more difficult to keep the pitch and loudness steady. |
Why do Humans (and most mammals) have individual teeth instead of a beak or solid bony structure? | Only reason I can think of is, if one of em breaks, we can still chew |
Why do people look away from the point of focus to think? | If you look away there's no stimuli trying to get your attention. You can look at a blank wall and not have anything stimulating you while you search your head for the answer. |
I've heard that no matter where you are in the universe, you're still equidistant from the universe's "edges" as it expands. How is this so? Or am I getting this wrong? | The "edges" of the universe are just as far as we can see, not physical edges, because the light at the edges is from the beginning of the universe and there can't be any light from before the universe. It's like two ships on the ocean, which both see the horizon equidistant from themselves no matter where they are. |
Why are there ashtrays on planes? | The average lifespan of a commercial jet is 30 years. Smoking was banned on planes in the US in 1988, 24 years ago. |
How come humans generally get into cold water slowly and uncomfortably, but animals jump in with no hesitation? | If you think animals are not afraid of water you have never tried to bath a horse or take one through a puddle. lol. Humans know there is a choice, that water can be warm or cold.. or even too hot. Animals know the temperature of the lakes/streams as being what they are.. they don't see any reason to be silly and enter it slowly if they need to cross, but sometimes you will see them entering water slowly when they are not in a hurry. Maybe you need to be around nature more. |
What's the difference between tornadoes, hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons etc? | All are spinning masses of air. Tornadoes are much smaller than the others being only a matter of yards across. A cyclone is air spinning around a low pressure system and can be used regardless of the size. Cyclone is also used for a violent tropical storm, especially one originating in the southwestern Pacific Ocean or Indian Ocean. Hurricanes and typhoons are the same thing. If it's in the Atlantic it's called a hurricane and if it's in the Pacific around south East Asia china and Japan it's called a typhoon. Hurricane can also be used for any wind with a speed over 73mph. |
Why are pregnant women restricted from roller coasters, hot tubs, flights, etc? | Something tells me that subjecting a fragile developing fetus to large gravitational forces isn't a great idea. Nor is the general large increase in blood pressure. |
EILI5: The whole Viva Revolution with Che Guevara? | Che Guevara was one of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s with Fidel Castro. He now enjoys immense popularity as a t-shirt. |
Why do they bother to try and "hide" cell phone towers? | Because it simply looks more aesthetically pleasing. Cell phone towers are an eyesore |
Full Faith and Credit in the US | US states can't deny the validity of legal documents in other states. So if I own some property in Texas, and I bring that up as evidence in an Oklahoma court case, the court can't decide it doesn't count because it's from the wrong state. |
How much of the music does a songwriter actually write? | It is sort of complicated. Generally, the person credited as the "writer" comes up with the main composition, or chord structure and melody for the song. For instance- Sting is listed as the sole composer for "Every Breath You Take", because he came up with the chord structure- but when you think about that song, it is Andy Summers' guitar riff that probably comes to mind. However- Sting pulls in a reported $2k per day in royalties, while Summers gets squat. The thought being that the other musicians (bass, drums, horns, etc) are merely playing along to the already "composed" structure of the song. Yes- they are still "writing" their parts- but the structure already existed. |
Dress sizes? What do they mean? | Men's sizes are based on measurements. [Women's sizes are based on lies.](_URL_0_) |
Why do we use implants for breast enlargement instead of something biological like stomache fat? | Fat is a living tissue. Transplants of living tissue are more expensive and have higher risk of complications. Implants are biologically inert and relatively easy to implant. |
Why does the svartifoss waterfall cliff have squares | It looks like [basalt pillars](_URL_0_) erroded from the bottom. Basalt, due to the crystalline structure or something like that, naturally forms these shapes. |
How to catch up/develop a well informed opinion on world news and politics? | Personally, I like Christian Science Monitor (even though I'm an atheist. They do good reporting) and The Economist. The BBC is also good for factual stories on world events. |
Tomatoes and peppers are native to the Americas. Why are they identified with traditional Italian/Indian/Chinese/etc food? | A handful of centuries is an extremely long time. I wouldn't be surprised if the foods you mention almost completely supplanted traditional foods in Asia and Europe. Many New World crops offered vastly superior yields and nutritional value -- the introduction of potatoes to northern Europe caused an increase in available food which was followed by an increase in population which in turn necessitated the growing of more and more potatoes to feed the area's population. If I recall correctly the yam or possibly the sweet potato had the same effect in China. Regarding your original question, though; try Google or Wikipedia. |
Why are nike shoes $150 or more and how do they enhance performance in sports? | It's a fashion statement mostly. Don't get me wrong - there's some technology and research there, but not nearly enough to really affect, well, anything that much. You may jump a few millimeters higher through some new bouncy sole and lighter material. And there is some stability enhancements that will slightly reduce the risk of a rolled ankle. And some fabric may allow the foot to "breathe" a hair better. But in the end, it's clever marketing. |
How all these big websites lately have been getting their data hacked. | Properly securing websites is one of those things where if you're doing your job right, no one notices. If you're doing it wrong, no one notices until you get compromised. This is why it often doesn't get enough attention. In addition, because various sites are architected in many different ways in terms of software and topology, there's no one "right way" to secure things. Whereas there exist best practices for Wordpress blogs for example, time must be spent to determine where more complex systems are vulnerable. That doesn't excuse basic mistakes like not salting passwords or leaving database ports open, however. Some of the recent attacks are not technological, but rather are social engineering. If users are giving away their credentials, there's no foolproof solution. |
The "Economic gap" between the "1%" and the "99%" | This is obviously a very complicated question, ~~Nobel Prize winning~~ economist Thomas Piketty set out to explore it in his book Capital. What it comes down to is this: If you make enough money (and only enough) to keep you alive, you will never get any richer. Every day you will earn $5 and at the end of the day you will have $0 left, and so the cycle repeats until you die. But if you earn $6, you can put away some of that money. You can save $1 a day and put it in a bank account. You can set the money to work, *to make you more money*. For the super-rich, this is even more extreme. The more money you make, the more you can invest, and the more you make off of those investments that you can then re-invest. It's a positive feedback loop. |
What would happen if you were quiet for years? | The vocal folds (also known as your vocal cords) are mucous membranes. Unlike muscles, which can atrophy and deteriorate from lack of use, using or not using the vocal cords doesn't really make a huge difference in their well-being. You might have some voice breaking or stammering when you try to speak again after a long time, but it's not like they would waste away from lack of use. I believe that the biggest impact from lack of speaking would be more psychological. If you're in a situation where you can manage to not speak for any reason, you probably will not have a lot of human contact, which can affect your mental health in various different ways. |
Can imaginary numbers be represented visually? | One very helpful concept that helped me understand complex numbers is [this](_URL_0_). It makes a lot more sense when you think about it in the way described above. Real numbers lie on a real number line, going forward for positive numbers and going backward for negative numbers. But imaginary numbers force you to deviate off the real number line by rotating about the origin and going off in that direction. |
The difference between race versus ethnicity. | Simplistically and quite generally, race is what most people think of as one's physical form, and is based on outward appearance. Ethnicity is what most people think of as one's background, and is based on things like language, clothing, religious customs, etc. There are no hard lines between these designations, some overlap, and their definition is also very fluid, depending on the preconceptions and background of the observer themselves. Generally, when thinking of race, an observer will describe someone as being Black, or Asian, or White. This same observer might describe that persons ethnicity as being Jamaican, Vietnamese, or Polish. There are all sorts of problems with these kinds of artificial designations, the most important of which is that there really is no such thing as ["race](_URL_0_)" *per sé*. |
Why do we get so much satisfaction out of popping things? | It's actually pretty simple. When we get surprised or something happens suddenly, our brains send blood and endorphins through our body. Popping something provides us with a "controlled" surprise where we know we are going to be surprised and we also know that we wont be harmed. So we get the benefits of being surprised without the risk. |
Why is the measurement of time (seconds, minutes, hours) based around the number 60? Why not a more common base, like 10 or 100? | 60 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30. Lots of options for splitting time into neat segments. You can divide 60 into halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, tenths, twelfths, fifteenths, twentieths, and thirtieths. 10 is only divisible by 2 and 5. So you can only divide it neatly into halves and fifths. It's just not as flexible. Edit: I'm a political junkie, so I comment on a lot of threads featuring hot-button issues. But according to my inbox, this is the most incendiary comment I've ever made. |
Why do we, and all other animals, breath and use oxygen when nitrogen is so much more available in the atmosphere? | The nitrogen gas molecule (N2) is extremely stable and hard to crack apart. Most living organisms can't do it - most of the biological nitrogen in existence came from specialized bacteria. On the other hand, the oxygen gas molecule (O2) is highly reactive, meaning its energy can be harnessed for useful chemical reactions, like those that support life. |