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What does it mean when the PM "forms a new government" in the UK political system? | The US equivalent is the "new administration". Different officials (in the UK, elected in their constituencies) are appointed to various positions in the 'new' government to replace those who lost their positions (by failing to get enough votes in their local elections, or because the current ruling majority party doesn't want them there). ETA: The reason that this is 'new' (despite having the same leader and same party controlling the biggest share of seats) is that they've had to rope in the winning MPs from another party to make up their majority. So this will be a minority government comprised of two parties to make a majority. It's the old political chop/change job after an election. This time, with more shoehorned whack jobs! |
How does Tilt-Shift photography work? What causes the change in the photos? | It's created by literally tilting the lens so part of the picture, that normally would be in focus, is now out of focus. In photography, [depth of field](_URL_0_) is the term that refers to how much of the scene is in focus. Close up pictures of small things will have a narrow depth of field and far away pictures of big things will have a wide depth of field. By tilting the lens and altering the depth of field unnaturally, your brain then processes the picture as if it is a close up of something small. So this is why a tilt-shift picture of a city looks like it's a small model city. edit: a word |
Why can't we drink seawater when we're dehyrdated? | Seawater has about three times the salt content of urine. That means for every cup of seawater you drink, you body has to come up with 2 more cups of water to eliminate it. |
Why do people get drunk quicker / easier in high altitudes? (Colorado, etc) | [You don't](_URL_0_). > In a series of studies for the Federal Aviation Administration, scientists simulated the effects of altitude, performing blood alcohol tests on groups of subjects who drank under ground-level and high-altitude conditions. They found no difference. |
Why did we nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki instead of hitting Japan's military bases? | > I don't see why hundreds of thousands of people had to pay the price for the actions of their government. In a sense, that's why we did it. The Japanese were basically too stubborn to give up, and the bombings were (in part) to terrify them into submission. Ruining the shit out of civilian populations is a good way to do something like that. We weren't just trying to cripple them militarily, we wanted maximum psychological impact. _URL_0_ |
Why does time of morning make it harder to get up? | It's likely because of a process called circadian rhythm. The chemicals in your body, the temperature of your body, and the amount of light causes you to either feel sleepy or alert. It's probably an evolutionary response, so the first humans could have the energy to gather food and everything else they needed when there was daylight and go to sleep when it was dark (when they wouldn't be able to see to work). It's also notable that teenagers bodies work differently, which is why they tend to stay up late and have a hard time getting up early. Usually, the sun isn't up at 6:30 a.m., so that could be your problem, but it could also be that you're simply not used to getting up early. I know people who can't sleep past 7 a.m. because that's when they always get up and I assume their body has adjusted to that schedule. |
Why does a vacuum 'suck'? | It's not actually that a vacuum sucks, but that any gas will spreed out as there is nothing to contain it. It's just something of higher pressure will move towards lower pressure to even it out. |
Where Hitler's ideologies came from | Many think they were at least, in part, derive from Herbert Spencer. Darwin’s contemporary, he fused Darwin’s ideas of evolution with sociology and politics, forming social Darwinism, the “belief popular in the late Victorian era in England, America, and elsewhere, which states that the strongest or fittest should survive and flourish in society, while the weak and unfit should be allowed to die” Similarities can be seen in Hitler's ideologies... "The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker, thus sacrificing his own greatness” (Hitler Chapter 11: Nation and Race). Hitler’s idealist race, the “Aryans,” fully encompasses this “survival of the fittest” attitude, where all of the "less fit" individuals are left to die. |
Why do TV shows sometimes have cast that are "featuring" or "with," and included as part of the main cast? | In addition to /u/Teekno's great response, last billing is often used when an older, more established actor takes on a non-leading role. It is important for both the show and the actor to give the impression they are more than just an ordinary cast member. Rich and famous Danny DeVito working on a small project he finds interesting artistically is a good story. Broke and pathetic Danny DeVito schlepping for a paycheck on basic cable is a downer. Giving him special mention lets viewers know which one it is. |
Why is it when oil prices were $110/barrel I paid $4/gallon at the pump, but now that they are $60/barrel I pay $3/gallon at the pump? | That is only the price of crude oil, which still needs to be refined in order to be used in your car. The price of crude oil is not going to be exactly proportional to the price of gasoline because the costs to process the crude oil haven't necessarily gone down. |
Why is the D.A.R.E program so ineffective? | Having experienced it as a child, I would say the number one reason it is ineffective is it paints all drugs as equally bad and immediate life destroyers. So when one of your friends smokes pot and is totally fine the next day/week/month you do not take what you were told seriously. |
Please could you help me understand the causes (historically/socially/economically) of the current Police Brutality events in the USA. | Most of the issues is widespread media saturation. Stuff like cop shootings boost ratings, not cops doing their jobs. Most cops are doing their jobs perfectly and doing their best to keep all people safe. That said, Yes there are some issues. Some cops take the power to their heads and abuse their powers. There are also cases where cops just act inadequately. I think a large portion of the problems stem from the issues with escalation of force. Many times cops are told that if they are in danger they can use lethal force. Occasionally they are justified, many times they are overreacting. |
Why do different people like different music? | So I was just wandering around Google, looking up the whole "4 chord" theory -- which suggests that there are 4 main chords that morph into the most popular and "hit" songs. I read this really cool article a few years ago discussing the science behind manufacturing "hit music" in the pop genre. I'm going to keep searching for it and edit this post if I find it. But in the meantime -- I found [The Axis of Awesome's vid] (_URL_2_) where they sing little bits of a bunch of songs which all use the same chords. I also came across this interesting Cracked article labeled [5 Ways Your Taste in Music is Scientifically Programmed] (_URL_0_). EDIT: [Found it!!] (_URL_1_) |
Why is it that when I oversleep, it is harder to wake up naturally than say if I only get 4 or 5 hours of sleep? | You are waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle. |
Why do i wake up with a massive erection every morning? | Essentially your body has a use it or loose it principle. In terms of its reproductive capability, regardless of your daytime sex life, it goes through what I think of as a "systems check." The brain initiates the physiology - normal blood flow in by artery and constricting of the outflowing veins which creates penile vasocongestion, or an erection. You'll notice that the morning erection does not necessarily go with being turned on. It is just the mechanics of making an erection, not the hormones. Interestingly, there is a test for erectile dysfunction that involves placing (easy to rip) tape around the base of your flaccid penis before bed. If the tape is broken in the morning, it indicates that erectile dysfunction is not physiologic, that is, the body is physically capable; it is something else. |
What causes traffic in bad weather? | It's a combination of a lot of things - There are more cars, since less people take transportation that makes them wet. But this is only a small influence - The average speed is lower because people are afraid of slipping - People keep more distance, thus allowing less cars on the same stretch of road. - When you have an onramp, the people joinging traffic will fill the holes, causing more braking to keep that distance |
I know this is a bit outdated, but can someone explain Obama's Public Option to me LI5? | Right now all insurance (not medicare) is run by private companies, who earn a profit. Obama thought it would be beneficial if the goverment also provided health insurance as a public (government) option so people could select between the two. This is common in many European countries. Edit: Below comments expand in a useful way. |
Why can the US have thousands of nuclear warheads but simultaneously coerce other nations into denuclearization? | Most nations on the planet have signed the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty. The NPT says that those non nuclear states will not pursue a nuclear weapons program. In exchange, they get access to nuclear power generation technology -- and (more importantly), they know that their rivals/neighbors who have signed the NPT won't develop nukes either. That last part is key. The main reason any country ever had a nuclear program is because a rival or enemy had nukes or were developing nukes. As part of the treaty, the nuclear power signatories to the treaty (like the US, UK, Russia, etc) are required to take action to prevent a country from developing nuclear weapons in violation of the treaty. |
why is turning something off and on again the solution to basically every problem ever encountered? | It's not, but lets assume it is, and lets compare it to you giving someone directions to do something over the phone. If you screw up enough times and they screw up enough times, it's easier to start all over than it is to try and backtrack through your mistakes. |
Why are there so many new medical breakthroughs in the news, but practically none of them ever become legitimate cures. | Because a breakthrough towards a cure is just one brick in the road, but it's what gets highly touted by the media because it's easy to point out. A team of scientists working in lab conditions come up with something promising and release their findings. Someone in the media sees this paper and turns "Disease has possible vulnerability!" and turns it into "CURE IS IMMINENT!!!1!" What they don't say is that it will take another few years of research, plus another few years of study, then another few years to create a human-safe cure (doesn't do anyone any good to cure the disease if it kills the patient as well), and then a few more years to figure out how to produce it at profitable levels. |
How do Anonymous hack the systems of the government and big companies? | Think of it as a house with a 1000 doors. And hackers as locksmiths. By default you just need to turn the knob to open the doors, then depending on the wirewall or antivirus, you can see a brand on the door and the locksmith will say. Oh WEISER! I know hiw to crack them. An other might be an other brand that this hacker can't open but an other will. In the end, annonymous is a bunch of these hackers going at every door to see which one they can crack so he can open other doors to his friends who can open the door to the basement, then a room and then a safe. So as IT managers try to better the locks, hackers will find the weakest to get through a wall then open other doors from the inside so they can get access to other doors. |
How did we have “accurate” maps before we had satellites? | well, we used surveying tools to mark spots on the land, and we used protractors, and pencil compasses, and magnetic compasses. |
How do generic or “store brands” get away with producing products, sometimes in the same factory as the name brand, that are identical to name brand products. | It is called "private label" production, and it actually occurs to the best interests of both companies. It works based on the principle that "name brands" are more desirable, so they cost more and have a higher profit margin than "store brands". However, the store and the producer both realize there are many people who would rather save money and buy the store brand, so they enter into an agreement where the producer makes extra product with the store's label on it and sells it to the store for less than the same product with the name brand. This allows the name brand producer to use its extra manufacturing capacity to create more revenue, without damaging its own brand's "worth" or "image" by dropping prices. |
How can we know of places that have almost no human rights i.e north korea but do nothing about it. | Because, contrary to what we tell five year olds, fixing problems is not always as simple as just Doing Something. If anyone knew how to deal with North Korea without causing even more harm, they'd do it. |
How do credit card companies force a return? | Sure, if they get a company that is giving them X too many returns (not sure what the critical mass would be) they can say "You'll need to honour these otherwise we withdraw our service". In any on-line business that would be back-breaking and certainly a pain for off-line at the very least. |
What does CCleaner do to your PC? | Basically CCleaner (CrapCleaner) removes old and unnecessary files from your system to free some space. For example old log files created by windows or all sort of temporary files. Also you can tell CCleaner to clear parts of your browser or most of installed applications. This includes cache, history, old files, reports, saved forms (autocomplete for browser) and much more based on the selected application. This are just some examples of the cleaning module. Just take a look for it and you see it is a powerfull and high configurable tool. There are also modules for scanning and fixing registry entries, managing autostarting applications and uninstalling software from your computer. Pro-Tip: With [CCEnhancer](_URL_0_) you can add add more than 1000 new program detection rules to CCleaner. |
How do gas stations determine their gas prices, while varying in cost anywhere from 10-45 cents per gallon? While being directly across the street from another? | Same way as any other business, supply and demand. When you see to gas stations with different prices, the high priced one might have better quality fuel, be easier to get to, a better convenience store, more pumps, or a have loyalty program. Or maybe their supply raised prices faster, and they would rather sell less gas than sell at it a loss. Note this is true with most products. The main difference is unlike most businesses, you see the price of their primary product a half a block away, and can easily choose to go somewhere else. If you have already walked into a store, it is not worth the bother to make another stop to save 45 cents on your potato chips. |
What prevents a person from lying about a degree they have and how is the validity checked? | > how can I be stopped? And how do you check to.see if someone really has a degree? Your employer can request that you have your university send them a transcript of your coursework. This is a physical copy of all the grades you earned for all the courses you took, and it's mailed/faxed to them directly from the university. If that can't be supplied, then it's obvious that you're lying. |
Why is it socially acceptable to spend so much money on your wedding day even if you are not financially stable? | Traditionally, the wife's family(father) pays for the wedding as part of her dowry. It's part of why you needed a fathers permission to marry his daughter. With the breakdown of the traditional family, and changing social norms, it now rests on unprepared couples to handle it themselves. |
why is dimensional lumber not actually sold in the dimensions it is named (ie: a 2x4 is actually 1.5 x 3.5 inches)? | Lumber is rough cut to the actual dimensions. It is then planed to be smooth and to make it more consistent. They take off 1/4" from all sides for the smaller stuff like 2x4's and more as it gets bigger (like a 2x12). You can actually buy "full dimension" lumber which is very rough but can look nice for some outdoor applications. |
Cities vs City Limits | Postal addresses are just there so the Post Office knows how to deliver your things - it used to refer to which office would handle your mail. City limits define the boundaries of political entity - the set of laws you operate under & who you pay taxes to. With things like taxes & laws, you need to be very specific about which one's you should be paying attention to - it could mean the difference between a prison sentence and being a free man. With mail, nobody cares if you're actually "1234 Washington St, Cityville" or "1234 Washington St, just-outside-of-Cityville" as long as the mail goes through. |
Why is the west aligned Shia Islam, but support Sunni Islam? | Whether they are Sunni, Shia, or any other religious denomination is purely incidental. The US Government does not lend support based on compatibility with western value systems. Foreign relations is about geopolitical strategy, not ideals. |
How big do waves in the middle of the ocean actually get? | 5m height (so 10m peak to valley) is quite common, but since there are many different sized waves traveling at different speeds, sometimes they come together and you get a brief but very large wave. These ["rogue waves" can reach 20-30m in height](_URL_0_). Some things like [high speed ferries make rogue waves more common](_URL_1_) because they produce soliton waves (they're mentioned in the article, but going into the details would take a while). |
Why aren't humans able to stand completely motionless? | Because standing requires motion. At the very least, you need to be alive, and your heart and lungs (at minimum!) will be moving to do so. With more complexity, maintaining a standing posture requires constant adjustment to maintain balance in a system that's constantly changing (read: internal movement, muscles getting tired, etc) - the computational power and motor coordination required to do so is immense, and isn't really useful for humans beyond staying roughly still, so there's no reason for us to have evolved such an "expensive" *perfect* balancing system. |
Why do the back of roller-coasters experience more 'whip' as compared to the front? | "Whip" in kinematics is described as the rate of change of acceleration, also known as *jerk*. Since roller coasters are primarily gravity powered, the front starts going faster downhill while the back is still coming uphill. Which means the back changes from moving up, to moving down faster. |
Why can console games contain and directly portay extremely violent stuff that nobody would do irl, but be very subtle on sexual content which are perfectly legal | Because for whatever reason, western society has become more accepting of depictions of violence than it has of depictions of sex. You see the same thing in films, TV, book, and other entertainment media. |
why are emotions attributed to the heart instead of the brain? | Your chest can actually start to feel painful during a really emotionally traumatizing moment. I believe this is actually caused by your breathing muscles which is also why your breathing becomes sporadic Hence why they call it heartbreak. Because it feels like its your heart. This could be where some ideas of emotions being attributed to the heart while all of it is actually mental. |
How do chemical attacks work? ie. The one that recently happened in Syria? | Conventional weapons typically involve explosives as their payload. They explode, the pressure wave and shrapnel cause damage, but then it's done. Chemical weapons replace the explosive payload with one that spreads a specific chemical gas into the air. Once the chemical comes in contact with a person, it reacts in some way that causes pain and/or death. The specifics varies depending on what chemical is used. The news doesn't specify which chemical was used in today's attack in Syria, but it causes airways to close and leads to suffocation. |
Why do some planes leave trails in the sky but not others? | It's not the plane, it's the air the plane is travelling through. The more humid the air, the more trails you get. Dry air means fewer contrails. If you see two planes, one leaving a trail and the other not, they are probably travelling at different altitudes with different humidities. |
Why are some illnesses such as the common cold worse after waking up before improving throughout the day? | Your body produces more of its own steroids (cortisol) during daylight hours and levels reduce as the sun goes down. It’s why our kids are too sick for school in the morning but by lunch are amping to go play, and you’re sure they’re going to school the next day. Then their fever returns after dinner - 😤 |
How is it that our bodies don't leak the smells of our innards? | Your esophagus(link to the stomach) is closed by a the esophageal sphincter. Your other end is sealed by the anus muscle, sphincter. Of course you can smell it if your body lets it vent. It's called a burp and fart. Apparently, the seal is tight enough to hold in gas. EDIT: correction |
In British politics, what are the politicians with 'Shadow' in their title e.g Shadow chancellor, shadow foreign secretary. What is their purpose? | They are the official opposition, so the government will have a health minister, the opposition will have someone who "shadows" that minister and in debates etc. asks questions and generally holds that minister to account for decisions that they make. |
How come electrical plugs aren't hot when then come out the outlet? | Keeping it fairly ELI5: The heat generated by electricity is due to resistance. Copper has very low resistance. The law of conservation of energy essentially means that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. Only transferred/converted. By resisting the electrical flow, that energy must go somewhere. It is expressed as heat. Low resistance means more energy flows as electrical energy, leaving less to be expressed as heat energy. |
[US] What could happen if the executive branch just ignored the judicial branch? | > What would happen if Obama did the same thing today? Congress would impeach him. In record time. That's how the checks and balances works, if the president gets too out of line, congress can boot him. |
Is dangerously high volume of music as dangerous for people that has impaired hearing? | The perception of sound isn't what is dangerous, it is the impact of the associated pressure wave (what we register as sound) on the delicate apparatus of the ear. If the ear is structurally intact, then that impact can damage it whether you are able to perceive sound or not. In other words, whether you can hear or not, you can still blow out your eardrum. |
Why Does Water Soak Upwards, Appearing to Ignore Gravity? | So you understand that gravity is pulling it down. The 'problem' is that it isn't obvious what exactly is pulling the water up! Your answer is the capillary effect. In a very broad sense, water molecules have a negative end and a positive end. Opposite (charges) attract, so all those water molecules want to line themselves up so their positive end is next to another water molecule's negative end. This desire to rearrange molecules to have the neg-pos-neg-pos pattern is actually a little stronger than gravity sometimes! The molecules desire to have that arrangement pulls them up against even gravity. |
Why are divorce rates higher than ever? | Your perception. Divorce rates peaked in the 70s or 80s when all the old style marriage - man works, woman keeps house, love is nice if you have it - gave way to the current focus on love and happiness. The divorce rate has actually declined over the past few decades though it remains much higher in the south/midwest than the northeast or west coast. |
Why is there a dispute over labeling products from the West Bank and Golan Heights areas? They can't be labeled "Made in Israel" anymore. | Under international law, Israeli settlements are considered illegal and not part of Israel. Israel's government has repeatedly been urged to destroy all settlements and return political and judiciary control of disputed areas back to its rightful owners. The EU voted to ban imports of products from outside Israel's internationally recognised borders, if they are labelled as "Product of Israel". Imports are not banned outright, but they cannot be called "Israeli" products if they're from the settlements. This, and other policies, have been labelled as anti-Semite by the ultra-orthodox establishment in Israel which has a large influence on Israel's foreign policy. Resulting in the PM basically not giving a fuck about the illegality of the settlements. |
How do geologists determine how much water falls from a water fall? | The same way you measure volume of water that flows down a river. You go to where you can easily determine the cross sectional shape of the river. Then you measure how fast the water is moving. Do some math involving multiplication and perhaps integration over time and there you go. |
Where does the average human height (say 170cm) fit on the cosmic scale from the smallest known piece of matter to the largest known distance? | Planck length is roughly 10^-35, distances smaller than this are not described usefully by modern physics. The diameter of the observable universe is roughly 10^26. However this value is constantly changing so it's less fundamental than the planck length. Still, your height is about 26 orders of magnitude smaller than the largest distance, and 35 orders of magnitude larger than the smallest distance. |
How do my reflexes close my eyes before I can process what happened? | You're made aware of it *after* you've processed it. The bit of you that you're aware of, the bit you think is *you*, your conscious mind.. is actually the last link in the chain. You're brain registers what's happening, takes action *then* tells you what's just happened. This is a great clip from a BBC documentary about free will that explains it quite well ; _URL_0_ The presenter sits in an MRI scanner with a button in either hand. He's told to decide left or right and *immediately* press the corresponding button. To him it is instant, he's thought of a side and pressed it.. no delay. However analysing his brain activity shows you can predict which side he'd pick up to **6 seconds** before he's even aware that's what he'll choose. |
Why does a GPS unit require signal from at least 4 satellites in order to determine its position? | Essentially, the satellite tells the device how far apart they are. It's easier to visualize in [2d](_URL_0_), where you'd only need three satellites to pinpoint your location. The radius is your distance from the satellite, blue dot is the satellite and the red dots are your (possible) locations. |
I've seen crabs living under water and also living out of water in the sand on the beach .How can they breath in both environments? | "Crabs" is a huge category with many species. Aquatic crabs live permanently in water and have gills like fish. They can go out of water but only for short periods, but then again so can some fish. There are also terrestrial crabs that have lungs and live on land. These guys can swim around and actually hold a bubble of air in front of their face, but again they can only go under for a short time. Intertidal crabs have gills, and then also have cuticles on their legs that help them breathe on land. They have to stay moist though and can't live away from water, but they can breathe in air or water fairly well. |
Why do flies and other insects repetitively go into dangerous situations, such as the exact same spot after being swatted at, are they incapable of learning? | In short, yes, their brains are just far too simple to be capable of learning like this. A fly has very simple sense - > action pathways. While it's possible for certain pathways to be reinforced, this isn't going to happen just from a couple of swats. It's not even clear that the fly's internal map (if it has one) would cover a large enough area to record where they were swatted in relation to where they are now. As compensation, they have a relatively short generational period, so evolution can "do the learning" for the species as a whole. For example reinforcing that they should fly towards concentrations of diaminobutane and away from diethyltoluamide. |
Why do we wake up after falling down in a dream? | Dreams where you fall and die or similar deaths will trigger a response from your Brain sending signals to your body as a panic response. Think of those as "HEY WAKE UP WE CAN'T BE DEAD". Same thing happens when you're falling asleep and sometimes you get that reaction. Your body falls asleep faster than the brain and the brain panics and sends a wake up signal to verify that you're indeed still alive. TL;DR: Your brain panics thinking you died and sends wake up signals everywhere. |
Why do the Japanese like the USA even though 71 years ago they got nuked twice by the USA? | Because we then helped rebuild their country and became a significant trading partner for the next half century (also, don't forget that technically they started that war with us) In general though, the speed with which the beligerants of WWII became allies is pretty historically impressive. The unification against the USSR certainly helped. |
Why is it easier to look at the Sun with one eye than it is with two? | the total amount of light your brain says is safe to take in is averaged across both eyes. closing one reduces the perceived light intake to ~1/2 and said brain says, "it's cool fam you can look and not damage your retina." but your poor retina still gets the same amount of light and damage anyway. if you do look at the sun your retina will be like, "dude, you just burned me and now I won't work as good. you're a dumb ass." |
Why is it harder to open a refrigerator door the second time after closing the door to the refrigerator before hand? | The warm air that just flowed in when the door was open cools off quickly. That makes it shrink, creating a slight vacuum. Since the fridge is not totally air-tight, additional air is sucked in and the vacuum goes away after a few seconds. |
If you are flying in an airplane and it is storming, can you get struck by lightning if you are flying above the clouds? | Lighting hits planes all the time as most of the time it just passes thru the plane but some times it can make the plane explode. [the plane explode ](_URL_0_) |
How has the US, which has been much more conservative towards pot than Canada, been able to make all these strides towards legalizing it? | The individual states control their own criminal law. Here in Canada, criminal law is a federal matter. You can't have some province just decide to amend the criminal code. |
Why did the US colonies form separately instead of just one big colony? | Why do you think Russia and China formed as a big single entity? China has a long history of being a bunch of different countries several times and there were several "Russias" until one of them conquered the others. This is true for just about every other country as well. |
What does it mean when one country refuses to acknowledge the existence of another country? | It can take all shapes and sizes. Most simply, think about it like a spat between lovers. They are physically there, bound by the same laws (i.e. UN and international law) but they refuse to talk (diplomacy), shopping (trade) or go to the cinema (cultural exchange). They may interact every now and again when necessary but its messy and often hushed up for the sake of keeping up the idea that they are fighting to the outside world. Ultimately, you have absurd situations like Taiwan refusing to recognise Mongolia's passports as they think that they have sovereignty over them, even when almost everyone recognises them. |
What happens to our bodies after we're buried? | It depends on the climate where the body is buried. In extremely dry places there have been almost perfectly preserved bodies found after thousands of years. In wetter climates, in a strong wooden coffin, it's more like 10-50 years depending on the type of coffin. |
when doing deep breathing exercises, why do we breath in through the nose and out through the mouth? | A guy asked my football couch back in high school why he always yelled "in through the nose out the mouth" when we ran during the start of practice. He told us one day to reverse it, half the team passed out before the first mile was done. |
What causes the urge to fidget? | Its a natural reaction through your nervous system little impulses and such almost like putting electricity through say a wet noodle, makes it move about. There's also a biological and evolutionary method, basically if you sit still for too long blood begins to pool, veins and arteries are cramped and clenched... So the more you fidget the less of a risk there is for developing a blood clot. Its basically a mini survival instinct. When its cold, fidgeting and shivering causes you to keep warm through movement and keeping your blood circulating. The reason this works is the same reason fidgeting helps you from forming a blood clot. |
What's happening when my muscle visually twitches? | If you mean like a spasm then it's an electrical signal sent to your muscle. Which leads to why was it sent. That is the real mystery. |
Why is it harder to swallow nothing in quick succession compared to swallowing liquid/food? | The muscles in your throat have to contract more when there is no food to push against, meaning each swallow involves more muscle work/movement and takes longer to complete. |
Why is it called an emergency brake if most people only use it for parking? | In the UK it's called a handbrake. Although in some cars it isn't hand operated. With an auto transmission most have a transmission lock when in park so the car is unlikely to move. The foot operate brake pedal is usually hydraulic. The parking or "emergency" brake is cable operated. If the hydraulic brake servo fails, i.e because the engine has stalled, you can use the hand operated brake to stop the vehicle. |
How do certain items like game consoles and apple products, have a fixed price which does not differ between retailers. | The authorization to sell a product is (can be) done via contract. Part of that contract can be that you cannot discount below MSRP, or can dictate the ways in which you can, how much you can etc. So..if you want to sell Apple products, you have to live by their distribution agreements and policies. This isn't a limit on competition for the price of the product (the iphone is not a competitor of the iphone, even when sold at different stores). If apple were to collude with samsung to fix prices, that would be a limit on competition. |
Why isn't it possible to reuse candles with the used wax? | You could take any leftover wax and reform it around a new wick if you wanted to. But most of the wax is gone because that is what actually burns. The wick is just a tool for keeping the fire close to the wax and for bringing the wax up to the flame like a straw. |
Guy Debord's concept of the 'spectacle' | It's like when someone is getting their picture taken just for facebook. The person does not act naturally but rather how he wants to appear to be. This translates into other aspects of life as well. The relationships to things have become represented by images in our heads -they were put their by advertising and film etc. It's like when you go camping and you feel like your in a beer commercial, or when you try to be a character you like at a party. The real is destroyed and is replaced by a representational image. You should also look into Jean Baudrillard. His famous line "The Image has murdered reality" goes well with Debord. He likens our world to a story where a map is made that is so life size that it replaces the real thing underneath. Only it is not as real -it is rather more like a commercial or Disneyland. While we live on this representational map, the real world underneath begins to die. Or rather our connection to reality is cheapened and cliched and stereotyped. Edit:Horrible grammar |
What causes "pins and needles" in feet and why? | It's pain from return of circulation to the nerves. If you sit or lie in certain positions you can occlude the blood supply to a limb, or just to its nerves. Once circulation is returned they send out signals of distress to indicate a potential problem. When the blood has had time to oxygenate the tissues and remove toxins they go away. Flexing the area improves circulation and solves this quickly. |
Why is it so difficult to have automatic translations? | > I know it has something to do with context and the different meanings of words This is pretty much it. When you use the word "crown", how do I know if you mean a "fake tooth", "the thing that a king wears on top of his head", or "the top of a hill". It's very hard for computers to pick up on context. So if I say a phrase like, "that is tight", the computer doesn;t know if I'm talking about "something being cool" or "something that is bad fitting". EDIT: And we don't have a limited amount of phrasal verbs and idioms. Language is a living thing, it changes all the time. This is the reason that words and meanings are constantly being added to Websters dictionary. |
On a computer why can the cursor be hidden when moved all the way to the right and bottom but hits a "wall" when moved to the top or left side of the screen? | because its only the very point that's your actual cursor. the rest is just a graphical representation to help the user. Thats why you can drag it "off" the right but not the left |
How does YouTube's auto-generated subtitles work? | Google took hundreds of hours of accurately subtitled video and fed it to a machine learning program that linked sound snippets to written words statistically. Then they had it run through YouTube matching sounds in videos to words, creating subtitles. They then flagged incorrect subtitles and fed that information back into the program. They continue to do this, refining and improving the program over time. I didn't actually look any of this up. But I'm familiar with the technology, and it's kind of what Google does. |
How do corporations let themselves get to the point where they need to close 10s-100s of stores and lay off 1000s? Shouldn't they scale back slowly/over time? | For large corporations 100 stores is a little at a time. Closing stores actually costs money, it is more efficient to cut off 100 property costs at once |
Why do certain vibrant colours make your eyes hurt when looking at them? | Ever since the blue LED x-mas lights came out I have called them "hurtyoureyes" blue. I wouldn't even mind a ELI25 as to why they are so vibrant. |
Negative gearing and the Australian real estate market | There was a recent episode of Four Corners that discusses negative gearing. It can be viewed on ABC iview here: _URL_0_ |
How did the first being(creature/species) came into existence? | There is a lot of debate on the subject. And it very strongly depends on what you define as a creature. Evolution from microbes and proteins in the ocean is the answer to where larger creatures come from. Where the proteins came from is up for debate. |
Why does Amazon allow users to write reviews for products they have never purchased? | If I'm not mistaken you can see if the reviewer has purchased the item or not so you can take the review itself with a grain of salt. They allow people to do this because they realize people can purchase items outside and Amazon, they want to give these people a voice as well, whether it is to warn someone or praise a product. |
How do surgeons prevent major blood loss during coronary artery bypasses? | It is clamped. The heart is then stopped with a potassium solution (many potassium solutions such as KCl can cause cardiac arrest, which is used in lethal injections!). The sewing of another vessel is performed, then the heart is eventually started once again. |
Why were Milkmen once a thing in America, and why did they stop being a thing? | Milkmen have been a thing since long before refrigeration existed. You can even see it in things like "Fiddler on the Roof" which is set in the early 1900s and it was a well established job for a long time before that point. The local dairy would deliver milk every day to people who could not raise their own cows (such as city folk) and they would also sell things like butter to them. After refrigeration was developed the job still remained a fixture for a few decades because stores were not built to have large refrigerated and freezer sections. But after enough time passed new Stores were designed to have a lot of refrigerated stuff and people started to buy their milk from stores and the home delivery model became too expensive for the dairy to use as it used too many workers. |
Why do our bones crack? | Do you mean like when people 'crack' their knuckles? If so, they're not actually cracking. It's the space in the joint expanding and synovial fluid rushing into that space. That creates the feeling and 'popping' noise. |
How do cats always land on their feet | They do it by simultaneously manipulating the moment of inertia of their front and back haves. SmarterEveryDay has an excellent video with slow-motion explaining this [Cat Physics](_URL_0_) |
Why do we feel nauseous when we watch someone else vomiting? | In the social environment in which humans developed if one member ate something poisonous then likely the others did as well. It would then be helpful to also vomit to avoid being sickened too. |
The concept of women "syncing up" their periods. | They don't, it's a myth. Considering cycles range from 25-30 days and can last from 3-9 days (sometimes more) in duration, they don't actually sync up, they just gradually overlap for a time and then they go back to being at different times. Think of it like being in the left hand turn lane. You watch all the blinkers and for a few seconds they seem to be in sync, but before long they go back to blinking at different times due to duration. |
Why is the NRA so powerful? | Any special-interest group (e.g. National Rifle Association (NRA), National Organization for Women (NOW), United Auto Workers (UAW)) gains power from membership. The more members an organization has, the more money it has to promote its cause and the more voting power it can wield at the ballot. |
Venn x Euler Diagram, what is the difference? | One of them is pronounced just as you expect it to be. |
Why isn't it possible for a counterfeit bill to perfectly emulate a real bill? | It is possible. If you had access to every piece of equipment that the government uses to produce currency, you can make the exact same currency. They do make it extremely hard to get certain materials and certain machinery (presses for instance) that makes this hard. |
Why are benzodiazepines (chill pills) so bad for you, but work so well? | Benzos really aren't that bad for you, except for the addiction risk. They're particularly safe when compared to what used to be prescribed beforehand, usually barbiturates. (Mixing barbiturates with alcohol is a VERY easy way to die.) You actually have to go well out of your way to manage to OD on benzos. Anyway, as far as benzodiazepines go, Ativan is pretty weak sauce, so if you're only getting occasional scripts for that or Xanax and the scripts don't even have refills on them, you aren't running any real risk of addiction, so I wouldn't worry about that. Why hasn't anyone come up with anything better? Just bad luck. They're always trying; a drug company that could come up with something to treat anxiety that actually *worked* and didn't have any sort of addiction risk would make them literally billions in profits. You may want to check out /r/nootropics too; there's lots of GAD sufferers there always keeping an eye out on the latest research. |
Why was torture used in the past? | If you are asking from a moral standpoint, this was never a factor to the people looking for information, or to do experiments. Physical torture, or the threat of physical torture could coax info from somebody much the same as psychological could. And for experiments, definitely a controversial topic, but it has gotten us plenty of valuable medical break-throughs. |
Why are Russians considered "Eastern European," when they're technically North Asians (geographically). | The western boundary of Asia, in this area, is the Ural Mountains. Most of the major cities in Russia (including Moscow) are west of that, and therefore are part of Europe. |
Why does weed make some people super paranoid and others not? | No, it's more a matter of how the user interprets the experience of being high than something about the high itself. It has a lot to do with the user's state of mind going in, how they generally feel about themselves and their lives, and how they feel about the people around them. |
What's the psychology behind serial rape? Do serial rapists genuinely think they won't get caught? | Not an expert, but I'm going to guess that getting away with it once leads to the belief that he will continue to get away with it. I knew a guy who was running some type of credit scam through his employer (a retailer). It began as 100 or 200 dollars. When there were no consequences, it was easy to do again and again and again. When the owners finally figured-out what was going on an who was responsible, he'd frauded more than 20k. |
why do pro gamers retire in their early 20's? Do your reflexes really drop so significantly that early in life? | It's more social pressures, really. There are some relatively old eSports players still at the top of their games. Polt is 28, Taz is 30. But most retire before then. South Korean players get a special mention here, as they always have the looming threat of mandatory military service. They can postpone it, but eventually they'll have to take it, and many would rather do it early than late. eSports has gotten much bigger recently, but it's still new and much less stable than sports. And being a competitive player is an exhausting and stressful job. In many cases, prize pools still make up a good chunk of player's incomes. So you always have the stress to be the best. In a normal day job, you're not at constant competition with your peers. If you don't "perform" well for a while, you don't get kicked from your team. You still get payed the same. Eventually, people want to settle down. |
In the Jared Fogle case, the charges always emphasize that he "crossed state lines" to commit certain crimes. Why does this matter so much? | The fact that he crossed state lines makes this a federal case, rather than a state case. Federal courts have a few different rules and punishments and such, and a lot of resources for the investigation. From a legal standpoint, it's a pretty big difference, since he'll be in a whole different court and prison system. |
What is the "Deep State" in the U.S.? | Deep State refers to the people and organizations that *actually* control the politicians that control the government. Who/what the Deep State is depends on whom you ask. For some it is the [Military Industrial Complex](_URL_0_); for others it is a collection of [oligarchs](_URL_1_) and plutocrats. Others use the term to refer to the large number of bureaucrats who make policy that has the force of law, but neither the policymaker nor the policy that they come up with is from an elected official. Like many terms used today, it has no clear, single definition. |
What does the Kantian phrase 'end in itself' mean? | That's not just a Kantian phrase, but it means exactly what it says. End in this context means purpose or cause. It is an end goal in it's own right. It's not a step to some other goal (means to an end). Art as a hobby is often viewed as an end, something people do because they derive enjoyment from it with no goal beyond that. Art as a job could be viewed as a *means* to an end. The end goal is to make money, art is how that is achieved. |
Why isn't it false advertising to advertise a price, to then add inseparable, mandatory fees? | They always mention the fees when advertising their price. Usually it's in small print. Or if it's spoken then they say "prices starting at $49.99". |
Why is the alphabet in the order it is, theoretically, does it have to be in this order, and why cant it be in just any order? | There is no reason for it to be in the order it is. There is even less reason to change its order. |
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