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Why is it that Syrian rebels who are backed by several nations are waging war in sandals and Nike Jacket, whereas ISIS, which is not known to have any strong international funding, is tricked-out with EU/US uniforms and arms? | The thing to remember is ISIS hasn't just appeared out of nowhere, they've been [active in Iraq for over 10 years](_URL_0_). They've had many successes in the past, and each time they force out Iraqi soldiers from their bases they capture more equipment, which then makes them more effective, and so they can win more battles and capture even more equipment. After years of slow growth they've reached a critical mass where they can easily fight of Iraqi soldiers and capture their US provided gear. They've also raided many banks, which is where they have got their money from. The groups in Syria have not reached this point, and it would be dangerous to give these groups large amounts of weapons and funding because that could itself end up in terrorists hands by being captured by other "bad" rebel groups (remember that ISIS are themselves part of the rebel movement in Syria) |
Why Hotels need your address and phone # even if you pay by Cash? | Because if you trash the room or something happens they still need a way to contact you. |
Does 'closing your eyes' when fatally wounded have any impact if you die or not? | It's not more of a staying conscious at the time of your death, it's literally stay with me, don't give up, please show me you can still make it. I'm not a 100% accurate on this but when a person gets an injury, sometimes it is important to stay awake for the body to not get into something - I forgot if it was shock, or something else. |
Why does the dark side of the moon never face the earth? | Sometime the dark side of the moon *does* face us. It's called a [New Moon](_URL_0_). I believe your question is about the [far side of the moon](_URL_1_). |
What is an Oracle and why does it make solving the P vs. NP problem so much harder? | The oracle is just a metaphor used to express nondeterminism in an easier to understand matter. P is the set that contains problems whose solutions can be found in deterministic polynomial time. Just think of that as a special kind of fast. NP is the set of problems whose solutions can be found in nondeterministic polynomial time. There is no known fast way to find the solution, but if a magic oracle gave you the solution, there is a fast way to verify it is correct. If someone were able to find a fast solution to NP problems, P and NP would be the same set. None has been found yet. If someone were able to prove no fast solution is possible, P and NP would be different sets. No one has been able to prove that yet. Most people believe P != NP, enough so that most of modern cryptography is build on that assumption. But there is a tantalizing possibility that there is some fast solution out there that would make P = NP, greatly weakening computer secuirty world wide. |
Why is pain "painful?" Why don't I like feeling pain? | pain is bad mmkay. it's how your body lets you know something's going wrong with it. spice is the plant's defense, so it wont get eaten by animals, since they're not stupid enough to eat it twice if it burns their mouth for half an hour after. |
Please, ELI5: Why do grape-flavored things (soda, gum, etc.) NOT taste like grapes? | I refuse to call it grape. It's purple flavored. |
How software communicates with hardware? | As there are a couple of very good answers here already, I would just like to say that if you want more details, pick up the book Code by Charles Petzold. Its a very good read, and it goes from basically the ground up as to how computers actually carry out code. I would highly recommend it. |
Why can't people in the US sue individual police officers like we can doctors? | The state asserts "sovereign immunity". In other words, you can't sue the King (or the King's agents, etc.) unless the King agrees to let you. We don't have a King, but our government retains sovereign immunity. There are many times you can sue the state even when it doesn't want to let you. Exceptions to sovereign immunity have been carved out of many laws and are commonplace, but one place it is not is in the exercise of police power. It makes good sense for this to be so, or everyone who was arrested would sue, and the police force would be unable to operate. Typically the redress for issues with police misbehavior is through the ballot box, not the court system. The police are accountable to elected authorities, who can, will and do force them to alter their behavior and in some cases waive immunity so a lawsuit against truly egregious behavior can go forward. |
How can a 600W PSU supply 50 A on 12V, while the electrical wires in the wall would literally burst into flames at 50A? | A power supply pretty much conserves power, give or take a few losses. So the output power is 12 x 50 = 600W, as advertised. The input, from the wall, is at (say) 120V So the input current is 600/120 = 5A, well within the capacity of a standard 15A domestic circuit. Incidentally, the wires would not burst into flame at 50A, you would simply blow a fuse or pop a breaker. The whole point of fuses and breakers is to prevent this sort of fire. |
Why do spots stop hurting after we remove the puss from them? | For those of use who might not be aware, 'spots' is a term that aussies and brits use for pimples. |
When and why did basketball hoops become such a staple for American driveways? | Basketball is the second (or third depending on the poll) most popular sport in the US. It is easier to set up a hoop for simply play and practice than it is to get space to play football or soccer, and far less than practicing baseball (even with a batting or pitching cage). This means it is a common recreational activity for active/semi-active families. As for when it became popular. That would have been in the 50s-70s during the boom of suburbia. Cities would have public parks with full courts available, suburbia everyone had a driveway. |
Why isn't Robert E. Lee viewed as a traitor? | He probably gets let off the hook for being reluctant to go to war and rejection of his military life after the war. He became president of then Washington College (Now Washington and Lee University) and said his greatest mistake was a military education. |
Stereotypically speaking, why do men play baseball and women play softball? | When we played softball in school (I'm a dude) our teacher explained to us that softball was first conceived as a variation of baseball for women, but that it then evolved as its own thing. Maybe not in the US but in Caribbean countries (including Colombia, where I'm from) softball is also very popular among men |
when the moon comes up, it's gravity is strong enough to rise the tide. How come small particles don't go flying as well? | Probably the biggest thing to understand is that the moon's gravity doesn't create the tides "all in one go". As the Earth rotates, the pull of the moon has a constant very small effect that over time builds up a sort of standing-wave front that we call the tides. It's the cumulative effect that causes the tides, not the 'instantaneous' gravitational pull. |
why are Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome so much better than Internet Explorer? What are the big problems with Explorer? If I have good anti virus software is there really a difference? | Historically you would be correct about IE being a bad browser. But it you use the Modern ones they are pretty equivalent to Chrome and Firefox. They all have add-on's to varying extents. They all confirm to standards pretty well. |
why prosthetic limbs cost almost twice as much as a car | Supply and demand. Money doesn't really have any "real" value, all the prices you see are imaginary, so to speak. That's why diamonds, for instance, cost so much. It's not that they have some kind of actual value, it's just that people are willing to buy them at a certain price, and the seller, seeing as people buy them, obviously continues to sell them. Ideally, one wants to work/spend as less as possible and to gain as much as possible. This idea is widely practiced and it has lots of very unfortunate consequences around the world, but that's another issue altogether. |
Why aren't there any HUGE bugs? | I believe that the reason for that is still under debate! though I could easily be wrong as I am basing this off of a discovery channel documentary I watched once, but there are 2 limiting factors that are likely culprits: - the strength and mass of exoskeletons. at a certain upper bound they are no longer able to support their own weight. this bound exists in animals with internal skeletal structures as well, though I believe it is higher - their respiratory system, which is less efficient. from what I remember a higher atmospheric oxygen level allowed bugs to be much larger in the past. - whoa these bullets are square - |
What is the point in hiding scores for comments for a certain amount of time? | People are most like to read only the first few comments...which are more likely to be upvoted...which are more likely to be upvoted...resulting in a kind of avalanche. People are also more likely to upvote comments that have already been upvoted. Vote hiding attempts to counter this. |
Why our voices sound so different than what we think they sound like | When something 'makes' a sound (a tree falling, or lightning striking), it does so by causing particles to bump into each other, then those particles bump into more particles, etc etc outward in all directions until they bounce off something. When you speak, the thing making the sound is your vocal cords vibrating. Other people only hear the sound that is created as the wave passes through the particles in the air. You, however, also hear the sound as it moves from your vocal chords through the solid/liquid mass inside your own head. |
What happens if someone needs an ambulance during a snow storm and the roads aren't plowed? | ambulances are extremely heavy and so are great on driving on bad roads compared to regular cars, but at some point with a bad enough storm the answer is 'you wait and maybe die" |
Why can't you fight dementia by training your brain? | You can, to an extent - it has been shown that (for example) bilingual people and people who keep their brain active can fight off the *effects* of dementia for longer. But a lot of types of dementia (like Alzheimer's disease) mean your brain is *physically* shrinking, and parts of it are lost forever. At some point too much of it is gone for you to be able to work around. |
The myth that humans only use 10% of the brain. How is it incorrect? | When you point at something, you only use 10% of your fingers. Obviously, that doesn't mean only 1 of your fingers is functional, just that your other nine fingers aren't needed for that activity. Also, it doesn't mean using 100% of your fingers to point at something would make you "better" at pointing, you would just look like a weirdo trying to cast some kind of wizard spell. |
What did the developers of HTML5 do to make things so much faster? | Can you be a little more specific? My guess is what you're noticing is improvements to the layout and JavaScript engines of browsers, and not anything to do with HTML. |
Will human colonization of other planets ever be possible? | Possible? Sure, as long as you're not too picky about how you define "colonization." If we wanted, we could send people to Mars for the rest of their lives right now. Trouble is, they couldn't survive there indefinitely. Between the radiation (which is not deadly by itself, but would induce health problems eventually, statistically speaking) and the *complete* lack of usable resources, it would be a very expensive, very protracted form of suicide. |
Why is communism bad? | Everyone gets everything equal in a communist society. Except those at the top who are usually corrupt and get lots. Also nobody is motivated to do anything since the outcome is the same. Its not bad in theory as we all want equality, however it fails when actually applied because of human nature. We need to be motivated and rewarded for our work. But its not really a "bad thing", just one way of running things which doesn't work so well. |
Why Are AMEX cards not allowed to be used as much as Visa and Mastercard? | Well I have a business and the fee isn't really the problem if I'm being honest; business owners will say it's the fees... but it's bullshit. That extra percent isn't going to kill most businesses. The real reason? Chargebacks. AMEX will process them for virtually any reason. You bought a laptop from me and thought the blue color would be lighter? Bam... refund, keep the item. Unless you habitually chargeback, and even then AMEX will let you do it a whole lot, you'll get a refund for any reason. Accepting AMEX means I risk giving away every item sold with AMEX. The good majority of AMEX holders also have some sort of Visa/Mastercard, usually a debit card at least. So the couple sales I'd lose is negotiable, most just go "I'll pay with another card". |
why we sell gas by the volume but not mass, unlike in avionics and auto racing? | Planes and race cars care about how much weight they're moving around as it has a significant impact on performance. A plane needs more power to get more weight off the ground so extra mass is a problem for it if you happen to fuel it on a cold day Passenger cars don't care as much about added mass, and people know they have a 10 or 12 or 15 gallon fuel tank, not a 64, 96, or 128 pound fuel tank. We generally measure liquids by volume not mass, you can see this with baking instructions too We also don't meticulously temperature control gasoline. Put it in a big underground tank and it'll stay around the same temperature all year long. Even if it does go through temperature swings, it doesn't change in density that much. At 0C gasoline is 1.8% denser than at 15C, and at 30C it is 2% less dense than at 15C, that's not a huge swing |
How and why do things get preserved in amber? | Amber is basically tree sap. Bug or animals chilling out near tress have some of it fall on them or they step in it and get stuck. The amber surrounds them and keeps them there. As far as getting preserved they are kept away from reactants, i think oxygen is the big one, which stops them from decaying or being broken down over great periods of time. Its like a can of food. It lasts forever becuase they are sealed up from everything outside. |
Why can I barely hear a siren when I'm driving and it's right behind me but they always wake me up in the middle of the night from far away? | Probably because in your car there's engine noise, road noise, and music, while at night it's quiet. Could that be it? |
The tax system (in broad terms) and why do we have to pay taxes on property we own, like houses or inheritances. | You have taxes to fund the government and the various services and programs it provides. Property tax is commonly used to fund schools. Inheritance is not a tax on property you own, you did not own it your family member did. It is a tax on the ownership of that property changing hands. The purpose of this is to limit the massive accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few families over generations. Something that can and will happen given enough time. |
What is a pentaquark? | A pentaquark is a combination of 5 quarks (or multiple quarks and antiquarks, but they still add up to 5). Quarks are subatomic particles smaller than the electron, and make up protons, neutrons, and other larger particles, called Hadrons. Quarks cannot exist alone, and must "partner" up in groups of 2 or 3. When quarks form particles in groups of 2, they're called mesons, and when they're formed by 3 quarks they're called baryons (like the proton and neutron). A pentaquark is significant because it shows that quarks can combine in ways that have never been observed. On a fundamental level, quarks, hadrons, and leptons (electrons, muons, taus) make up all visible matter, and this discovery helps us to learn more about how ordinary matter is made. |
How did those guys get stuck in the cave in Thailand in the first place? | Ok, so the group has traveled into that cave system a few times in the past. Decided to go again this time round. Usually it's safe to visit before the rainy season arrives but unfortunately a rainstorm came early and flooded the entrance of the cave, trapping the group inside. More rain, more water, so the group had to move deeper into the cave to find higher ground or risk drowning. |
Why the US prefers NASCAR to Formula One | NASCAR drivers work insanely hard to appear like "one of the guys" to their fans. In reality, they kind of are. Most drivers work their way up from driving go-karts on local tracks (again, full of NASCAR fans) to small stock cars to the big time if they're good enough. The cars themselves are made up to look close to normal off the street "stock" cars, even though everyone really knows they haven't been stock for decades now. In short, American racing fans identify more with stock car racing than F1. Of course there are Indy fans here, but NASCAR did a much better job of growing its fan base in the 90s. The Indy split didn't help their cause. |
Is my green the same as your green? | This is a philosophical concept called the inverted spectrum. It is impossible to know if we see the same colors, but it ultimately doesn't have any impact to most people. The one possible exception are people that may have a rare condition called tetrachromacy. Normally, we see color through the combination of three color receptors. Tetrachromats have four, and can see about 99 million more colors than most humans. But these humans have no idea they are unusual unless they are specifically tested for it. In this case, they most definitely do not see the same colors, but could hardly ever realize this. |
If everyone knows California is due for "the big one" earthquake along the San Andreas fault. Why do people seem to not care? | Because in California, nobody gives a fuck about shit |
How come when I'm drunk two eyes are screwed up but closing one eye allows me to see just fine? | Being inebriated impairs your depth perception, the coordination of both eyes working in unison. |
Why are there no national/state 911 apps (in the US)? | There has been. E911 system has been specced for years. But not all dispatch centers have upgrade their systems. The FCC has a timeframe at 2020 for full completion. And to add, even if the dispatcher got the address, cops wouldn't be there to help her. It'd take 5-10 minutes average in cities. In random lake or something expect more than 15-30 |
What prevents some one from changing monetary numbers in a banks computers to get rich. | Do you mean what stops a hacker from entering the bank's records from outside and altering them? Or what stops a bank's employees from altering the records from inside. THe answer to the first is some excellent security. Basicly the inner workings are never accessible even through the banks website. What you are seeing is merely a copy or false face of the actual records. So in the case of a mismatch the bank defaults to the back end copy that can never be altered. In the case of an internal employee the answer is internal controls. It normally takes 2 people to do just about any significant action so you would have to get someone else in on it. Then all actions are tracked and reviewed, so you WOULD get caught, and the penalties are severe. |
Are paper toilet seat covers (aka ass gaskets) really more sanitary than naked seats or just another example of humans being wasteful? | Chances are, there's nothing particularly hazardous on the seat itself regardless. A toilet seat is not a hospitable place for bacteria to hang out. If anything, they're a peace-of-mind device. |
How exactly do hacks work in online gaming? | Most hacks involve either finding where an app stores data, and modifying that data, or decoding how an app communicates with a server and spoofing that communication. Unless the game is played with zero input from the player, then it is impossible to stop hacks, but you can make them harder to do, through the wonders of encryption. (This will also, generally, slow down communication between game and server) The most secure option is to have the game app just stream data from the server, and store none locally, but for many games, especially real time games, this requires far too much bandwidth. |
why do pictures taken with very good cameras show so much detail that we can't see on our own. | Imagine you have a grid that is 10 boxes high, and 10 boxes wide. In total there are 100 boxes. If you were to try and draw a perfectly round object, it would be difficult. There would be jagged edges. So you take each box, and divide it into 10 boxes high by 10 boxes wide... each single original box is now 100 boxes. This means you have 100 X 100 or 10,000 total boxes. Now you try to draw a circle, and it doesn't look half shabby... Our eyes have a certain number of "boxes" we can resolve too, depending on how far we are from something. Some camera are able to capture more light than our eyes, and can map that light to a grid of EXTREMELY small boxes. They capture so much detail that you can zoom into one box or region of the picture, and it is still enough "definition" to be considered "3d resolution" by our eyes. |
If we can have 5" 1080p displays why can't we have 20" 8k displays? | No one has demanded such a thing (i.e. mobile devices with this resolution), since 8k content is more of a novelty, "this is the future" thing right now, while 1080p is the mainstream standard. ~~It'd be 10", btw - as the screen is measured diagonally and it's "4 times bigger" as in 4 1080p screens arranged in a rectangle. It'd be perfectly possible to make a 8K 10" tablet by that logic.~~ was thinking about 4K. |
Why are some defenses not allowed in court? | When someone says "That's not a legal defense" they're not saying it's not allowed, they're saying that the defense won't absolve you under the law. "I was running late" isn't a legal defense for speeding, but that doesn't mean you can't try it. It just won't work. |
Why can't we clone endangered species to rejuvenate their population? | As /u/FixBayonetsLads said, it wouldn't produce diversity. Lack of diversity means the population would die out much more easily. There's also more risk for genetic mutation, i.e., Dolly the Sheep (link at the bottom). Dolly was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, however, her telomeres (sort of caps on the ends of a chromosome that control aging) where much shorter that normal, causing her to age more rapidly and die young. If this couldn't be corrected, animals would have less time to breed and repopulate. _URL_0_ |
How / When did SCOTUS judges become so partisan to predict a decision on the basis of party appointment rather than on the merits of each case? | They really aren't that partisan. The majority of cases are decided between 9-0 and 7-2. You hear about the 5-4 decisions because they are the most controversial, or it's an incredibly gray area of law, where the court has to set a precedent where none existed prior. All Federal Judges are lifetime appointments, not just the Supreme Court. Some States have elections for Judges. That's an issue for their State to decide. |
If a person has lung or stomach cancer, why can't the affected organ simply be removed? | Doctor do remove those organs sometimes as part of cancer treatment. There are serious side effects, but it's worth it to not die of cancer. However, a malignant cancer will eventually spread through the blood or lymph vessels and infect other organs. At that point, removing the lung or stomach won't eliminate the cancer, since it has seeded itself all over the body. |
Why do brittle things, like lead on the tip of my mechanical pencil, seem stronger when shorter? | Comes down to leverage, a longer piece means you can apply force further away from the breaking point, thus multiplying the force applied. |
how do phone card codes work? I know you punch in a number to call, but how does it bypass your phone carrier so you don't get charged by them too? | You dial a toll free number first to connect to the company that issued the card, then you type in the code and phone number to tell them who you are and who you want to call. |
What is the difference between delusions and hallucinations? | A hallucination is a sensory thing. You can see, hear, feel or I suppose taste something that's not actually there or the direct result of a stimulus on a sense organ like the eyes, ears, etc. A delusion is a belief that clearly disconnects with reality. If I think that the KGB has tapped my phone because I see people in red jackets regularly that'd be a delusion. One can be aware their hallucinations are not real, and therefore are not deluded. One can be deluded without having a direct sensory issue like hearing voices. |
Do the rubber "bristles" on certain toothbrushes actually have a positive effect on teeth cleanliness? | Those are not intended to get your teeth clean, but to stimulate your gums. |
Why does pressing in a X with your fingernail make a Mosquito bite stop itching? | I thought I was the only one that did this |
Is "sleep debt" a real thing? | Yes and no. Yes, if you sleep too little, you'll feel bad and incur various bad effects on your body and mind, and and an increased amount of sleep later can be necessary to get back to your full capabilities. No, this "debt" is not quantifiable and computable objectively in numbers. It's not the same for everyone, people have different sleep requirements, and they change (at 20 you can tolerate a sleep deficit much better than at 40). Also, the effects are not linear, not completely reversible, and not continuous - getting only half the necessary sleep is more than twice as bad as getting only 3/4, a bad sleep deficit can do permanent damage even if you sleep enough later, and the bad effects may be unnoticeable for some time until they cause a sudden complete breakdown. As an extreme example, if you don't sleep at all, to the best of our medical knowledge, you will die within weeks. |
How do impartiality laws work and are things like Twitter moment subject to them? | Laws vary hugely by country. What country are you asking about? |
The United States immigration process | Getting a Visa gets you into the country. There are different forms of visas, depending on why you actually came (work, student, travel, etc.). All must be maintained, and can be rescinded for bad behavior. Once your Visa expires, you're forced to leave. Once you have been in the country for 5-10 years (depending on what your Visa is), you are eligible to file for lawful permanent residency (LPR), which is what the green card is. At that point, you can live and work in the US without penalty, but you don't have the privileges of citizens. 5 years after you get LPR, you are eligible to become a citizen. It should be noted that the hard part is getting LPR; once you have LPR, you're essentially set so long as you don't do something worthy of deportation. Going from LPR to citizenship isn't particularly difficult. |
Why is it easier to remember the items on a few short lists than it is to remember the items on one long list? | Mostly because of chunking: which is a mnemonic device (in simpler words, a way of remembering things easier). Chunking basically means that you remember things placed in groups (‘chunked’ together) better then when it’s one larger thing. |
why can't we breed up animals for the sole purpose of using bits of them for our own use? ie we breed cows just to eat them why can't we breed elephants just for their tusks and other things, or whales for their meat and other things | Why can't we breed pandas? Why don't they procreate? Because some animals have a very hard time procreating in captivity. No matter how much "breeders" try to recreate their natural habitats, these pandas still feel constricted and aren't in the mood to procreate. For domestication in general, there are half a dozen generally accepted criteria that a species needs to fill for us to consider that said species actually can be domesticated. It includes things like docility, diverse diets, rapid maturity, social structures... |
when to use past vs. passed. | Past when you are talking about time. Passed when you are talking about objective or distance. e.g. "It is *past* my bedtime!" e.g. "I *passed* the test!" e.g. "You just *passed* the exit." |
What's SRS and why does everyone hate them? | /r/shitredditsays Because people see them as manipulating votes on subs they link to, acting aggressive and confrontational, and constantly railing against reddit despite being (obviously) part of it. Also, because, frankly, most redditors don't care one bit about what they have to say. |
how do people in Vancouver afford 1-3 million dollar houses that would sell for half the price anywhere else in Canada ? | Basically, you don't. Only people who make more than 60k a year live in Vancouver proper. Everyone else lives in the suburbs, like Burnaby or New Westminster. Middle class people who make 50k-80k before taxes can rent a multi-bedroom place in these areas or even a small house. People who make less than that just spend most of their income on rent and have room mates, with 2-3 couples sharing a house. |
Could a woman take testosterone supplements while pregnant to increase the chances of the child being a boy? | No. Sex is not a hormonal issue, it's a genetic one. Your sex is determined based upon whether the sperm cell that fertilized your mother's egg had an X or a Y chromosome. No amount of testosterone will change that. |
How do insects have such strong grip? | Because insects have a proportional larger surface area than volume, where volume equates to weight and surface area is proportional to muscles which equates to more strength. Also insects have "hooks" in their legs that allows them to stick to rough surfaces. |
Why the microwave has to be closed to start working? | Very little would happen if you operated a microwave with an open door. Microwaves are notoriously hard to get into the food that you're trying to cook, which is why most microwave ovens have a rotating tray, to try and align the food with as many microwave paths as possible. If the door were open, the energy would dissipate almost immediately. On Mythbusters, they once tried to make a microwave "gun" with the magnetrons from three microwave ovens, but were unsuccessful, even with that amount of overkill. Sticking your hand into an operating oven, though, is a different matter, so better safe than sorry. |
Why does the United States have more prisoners per capita than any other country? | While this is an extremely complicated question,the most significant contributing factors are "the war on drugs", mandatory minimum sentences, and three strikes laws. These function to incarcerate people for what would otherwise be considered less serious offences. |
Why is the VA (Veteran's Administration) so dysfunctional and inefficient? What are the reasons for the current scandals over patient care? | The people who run it have the wrong incentives. The Congressmen who oversee it all want more money spent in their district, so money doesn't get spent where its needed. In governmental agencies, image in the press matters a lot. Administrators worry about being the center of a new scandal, so covering things up can be easier than dealing with problems. Also, suing the federal government is hard, so when the VA messes up they're not as accountable to their patients. |
How can drug companies put instructions and warnings on the back of their tablet packaging (like ibuprofen and aspirin) for how many someone should take at a time/within 24 hours etc. when everybody has a different body weight/size? | If a medication isn't fat soluble, then your body weight will have little effect on how it's absorbed. Particularly with painkillers, they're concerned with liver and kidney damage - and the liver and kidneys don't vary much in size. |
Why isn't Edward Snowden protected under the Whistleblower Protection Programs? | * First, the government says, he did not expose the kinds of actions covered by whistle-blower protections — illegal conduct, fraud, waste or abuse. * Other officials have argued that the programs revealed by Snowden are illegal or unconstitutional. For now, they are presumptively legal, given the assent of members of Congress and the special court known as FISA that oversees intelligence operations. But suppose Snowden’s supporters are right, and what he exposed was illegal conduct after all. * Then he would face a second problem: The Federal Whistle-blower Protection Act protects the public disclosure of “a violation of any law, rule, or regulation” only “if such disclosure is not specifically prohibited by law.” In other words, Snowden could claim whistle-blower protection only if he took his concerns to the NSA’s inspector general or to a member of one of the congressional intelligence committees with the proper security clearances. _URL_0_ |
Why does a li-ion/lipo battery explode when shorted out? | The lithium atoms can crystallise and form a chain, that chain can short circuit the poles and it is this short circuit which can cause a fire. - _URL_0_ |
why is genital skin always darker than normal skin? | Copied from askscience: > The expression of Androgen receptors is greater in melanocytes located in the areolas and genital area. Thus, Androgen stimulation promotes the synthesis of melanin and pigmentation in these areas. This is a relevant paper: _URL_0_ > There are other hormonal stimuli that promote melanogenesis and their excessive activity causes excessive genital pigmentation (e.g Addison's disease causes excessive synthesis of POMC/MSH). **ELI5 translation:** The chemicals that turn you into adult also make you darker. The skin at your genitals reacts more from those chemicals. We evolved this way likely to protect the areas more from harmful sunlight radiation. |
Why don't we rebuild ancient structures to there former glory rather then leave them as they are? | Partly it's because we're not 100% sure what their former glory was, and are worried that if we were to rebuild them that we'd get it wrong and thus ruin an important part of human history. |
Why is it "Ladies and Gentlemen" and "Boys and Girls"? Is there a reason for the order and the difference in order when addressing different ages? | They're called frozen binomials; like how we say "pots and pans" not "pans and pots". It has to do with syllables (smallest to largest), complexity of the word, and what just rolls off the tongue easiest. Some argue a gender bias, but for every "man and woman" binomial there is an "aunt and uncle"; for every "boys and girls" there is a "mum and dad". |
Why does light have speed? Why isn't it instantaneous? | Light is still an electromagnetic wave and takes time to propagate through space. It is more technically accurate to think of c as the universal speed limit and just know that lights *happens* to travel at c. If you assume c to be infinite, you get Newtonian physics. Because Einstein recognized that all inertial reference frames view c identically, it redefined our coordinates for mapping the universe. |
How did societies enforce the law before police were a thing? | There were always enforcers, members of the tribe that enforced the rules, they just didn't have job titles. |
Taiwan and China's relationship in the past and now. | Taiwan used to be a small native-held island, in China's sphere of influence but not considered very important. In the 17th century or so, Chinese colonists started showing up. When Japan gained control over the island in 1895, a majority of its inhabitants were (Han) Chinese. After World War II, Japan gave the island to the Republic of China. The Republic of China was the Chinese government formed in about 1912. They lost a war against the People's Republic of China (the current government of mainland China), and now rule only the island of Taiwan. Both governments claim that they *should* own both Taiwan and mainland China. This used to be a huge diplomatic issue, but it has mostly calmed down; both sides have made it clear they don't want to attack the other. There's still some tension, especially since China has prevented Taiwan from being recognized as a country in most international affairs. |
do we lose our imagination or do we suppress it as we get older ? | Neither, really. Some people maintain very active imaginations for much of their lives. However consider *why* a child has a need for a greater scope of imagination. Much of their world is still a mystery to them. They might know that something works a certain way, but they don't know how. So perhaps that little light in the refrigerator is indeed turned on by a tiny and very fast moving elf. Maybe that shadow in the dark hallway is really a monster. Maybe the old guy next door is Santa Claus in disguise the rest of the year. Children have active imaginations because it helps them to come to grips with the world around them. As you get older and you come to understand the 'reality' behind your environment, the things you imagined as a kid become nonsense and are discarded. |
Why are clothes hangers not shaped like human shoulders? | They are designed to be in the shape of human shoulders. From the Wikipedia page on clothes hangers; > A clothes hanger, coat hanger, or coathanger, is a device in the shape of: > * **Human shoulders** designed to facilitate the hanging of a coat, jacket, sweater, shirt, blouse or dress in a manner that prevents wrinkles, with a lower bar for the hanging of trousers or skirts. |
Why are colossal (eg. Godzilla) things depicted as moving so slowly? | As things get larger they may appear to move slower, but that is just because they are far away. Godzilla would be walking much faster than an insect could fly, but not in comparison to its size. If it was matching speed to size it would probably be breaking the sound barrier. |
The difference between a wireless access point and a network switch | Think of a network switch as a telephone operator. When you pick up a telephone, and call a number, the telephone operator will connect you to the number you want to call. A wireless access point is like the base on your wireless phone that is connected to the phone switch. It allows your wireless phone to make calls. When you use your wireless phone, it connects to the base, in which the base is connected to the telephone network. -- TL;DR: A network switch will relay data between two computers connected on the switch. A wireless access point connects a wireless device to the network it's connected to. |
what is going on when you feel a tickle on your skin like a tiny bug is moving on you but your closest examinations reveal nothing is there. | There are very tiny nerve receptors in your skin if two or more of them are stimulated at the same time you get this sensation, sometimes the bug moved before you saw it, sometimes it can be dust or other debris, sometimes it can be a phantom response. For more on the nerves in your skin - _URL_0_ |
Why does the connection strength between a phone and a wifi router fluxuate, even when neither are being touched? | Your connection strength isn't just determined by the strength of the signal between you and your phone, it is also impacted by the noise in the environment While the signal strength may remain constant, if the noise increases because of a leaky microwave or increased WiFi traffic from your neighbor's router then the signal to noise ratio drops and you router may need to send messages slower to ensure that they get through to your phone |
Whats the difference between 4G and 3G? And is there a 2G or just a G? | [Use the search function please](_URL_0_) Edit: Before downvoting (which I don't really understand), remember the subreddit rules: > •Search first. Use the handy search bar to see if your question has already been answered satisfactorily. |
What harm does having a large debt do? | We have to pay interest on our debt. So having a huge debt means we have to pay a lot of interest, which means we either have less money to spend on things we want/need or have to borrow even more money. |
Why do we have to buy domain names from companies instead of just claiming it ourselves for free? | Back in the day, before everyone and his uncle wanted a domain name, before the world wide web, before google, you *could* just ask for a domain name and get it for free. Who did you ask? The National Science Foundation, of all things. When domains started getting more popular, the National Science Foundation got tired of doing it, and farmed the process out to anyone who wanted to be a "domain registrar." Turns out it's quite a bit of work. |
What is the Standard Model? Why does it matter? | The Standard Model is our current best theory of particle physics. It contains all the particles and all the forces necessary to explain everyday life. There are six quarks and six leptons that make up pretty much everything we usually refer to as "matter." Then there are the four fundamental forces that govern every single interaction in the entire universe (that we know of so far), and the gauge bosons (or force carriers) for each of those forces. It matters because it pretty much explains all of physics. There are a few exceptions. For example, the Standard Model doesn't really say much about gravity. There exists a theorized gauge boson for gravity, called the graviton, in the Standard Model, but it's never been seen experimentally. |
What is the difference between investors and shareholders? | In a publicly traded company, anyone can buy shares. They are thus investing in the company. Their say in how the company is actually run is limited. Usually virtually the only say they have is in the election of the Board of Directors. Investors in a privately held company sometimes invest in return for shares, but that isn't the only possible model. They may simply own a percentage of the company. In rare cases, they don't own any part of the company, but invest in return for something else, such as a fixed return on their investment or rights to use some asset of the company. Private investors, if they are large investors, often have a substantial say in the running of the company. They can demand a seat on the Board (and often do). |
How much progression do we have into time travel possibilities? | All the advancements in modern physics have progressed us away from the possibility of time travel. Since Einstein's work on relativity, we've found more and more evidence indicating that nothing can go faster than the speed of light, and this severely limits theoretical avenues for the discovery of time travel. Of course we might have it all wrong (we've been wrong before) but we'd need an epic revolution in physics to get the possibility of time travel back on the table, and that's not the sort of thing you can count on. |
Everyone says that if Pakistan and India go to war, there will be global consequences. What are they? | Both have nuclear weapons and would probably use them if faced with an existential threat such as actually losing a conventional war to their deadly enemy. The rest of the world has an interest in avoiding a nuclear war, wouldn't you say? |
How come I can get really tired reading a book or watching tv, but when I try to go to sleep immediately after I toss and turn for hours before finally falling asleep? | If you're like me, it's because your mind races. Reading or watching TV means something is effectively doing a lot of the "thinking" for you. You can start to doze and still have the thoughts be fed to you. When thinking in bed, some thoughts lead to more and it just spirals out of control. Funny thing is, when you're in bed and can't sleep and your mom texts you to take out the trash. Sleeping is almost instantaneous. |
Why is saffron so expensive? | Saffron comes from the stigmas of a flower called the purple crocus. There's only a few stigmas in each flower. So it takes a lot of flowers and a lot of hard labor to harvest and prepare even a small amount of saffron. I think it's cheaper if you buy saffron threads instead of in ground powder form, though. |
Why is it that we sometimes remember seemingly insignificant things we don't try to remember. ex: when I was 6 I specifically remember tying my shoe on my birthday, but I don't remember anything else. What's the trigger? | They're called flash memories, it's when something significant happened to you ( or at least you perceived it as important ). It's the same as "that one time I accidentally shit myself before school in sixth grade and had to wipe it off and wear that same pair of underwear at school that day". The memory may not even be significant, it may have just triggered enhanced brain activity causing the brain to believe that this event is important. |
when skydiving, is the gravity of the earth's core pulling me down or the air molecules I am in contact with? | Everything attracts everything. However, the heavier the object, the more force it will exert on you. Imagine all the weight of the air above you when jumping (pulling you up); that weight is negligible compared to the weight of the earth + the air beneath you (pulling you down). Side note: the distance is also very important. If you double the distance, the force is divided by 4. This is why you wouldn't fall off the moon if you stood on it and the earth passed by overhead. But this isn't important while you are still in the atmosphere. |
What is Net Neutrality? Why does it matter? Or why should i care? | It's the concept that all Internet Service Providers (ISP) should treat all traffic on their network as equal. It prevents a "pay-to-play" scenario where ISPs charge fees for priority treatment. So large companies who can pay the fees get a higher priority over smaller companies who can't afford the fees. It allows small businesses and large businesses to compete on an equal playing field on the internet. Also prevents ISPs from blocking any content that doesn't pay, granting users access to all corners of the internet, for just the monthly payment for the service itself. |
How do internet companies that offer large amounts of data storage turn a profit? | Ever since GMail, companies have found that this model can work. The thing is that huge capacities are a powerful selling point (it instantly made GMail the top free mail brand in what was a crowded market) but most people don't use much of that capacity. I have had my gmail account since 2006, sending and getting mail actively all that time, and use 370 MB (2%) now. Note that these services usually go aggressively after misusers of their service. Anyone who has tried to run some sort of a remote storage system over GMail has found themselves banned in a hurry. So as long as you keep out those users who will use up 100% of their storage, you're left with legitimate users who use 2-5% or so, not that expensive to provide for, and since they're legitimately using the service, potentially a good source of profit (ads usually). |
How does the screen of your car know the name of the current playing song when you are just listening to the radio? | It's called RBDS. They just send the data along with the regular signal. Your radio gets the extra info and it tells you what song is playing. Edit: a word |
The Planned Parenthood Fetal Organ Donation Program | Yes, the fetal tissue is harvested after abortion only with the mother's consent. If the mother does not consent, the tissue is destroyed in the same way all medical waste is destroyed. The tissue can come from any sort of abortion, whether that is a fetus that is not viable, one that threatens the life of the mother or simply a child that the mother does not want. I do believe it needs to be a surgical abortion and the mother needs to be along a certain amount of weeks, but please don't quote me on that. I've tried to find a source for that, but it is sadly very hard to find anything in terms of sensible information out there right now with all the conservative lying and fear mongering. As long as the tissue is well enough intact, it can be donated to companies that do medical research. PP is not allowed to sell fetal tissue, however the companies that receive said tissues can make donations to PP. Usually there is an agreement to donate enough to cover the cost of handling and transportation. |
Why so many Native American tribes seem to own casinos | Gambling is illegal in a lot of the United States, but on Native American Reservations, they don't have to follow those rules as much. So casinos get built because they don't have many laws to say no casinos |
Why are there 'LATEST Snowden leaks'? | From the sources I've seen it's being released in chunks to keep it on people's minds and in the media longer. |
If you have a pile of mulch/woodchips/etc and leave it long enough it can start to smoke. How? | A large enough pile will be generating heat all through it, and the stuff in the middle has nowhere for the heat to go, so it builds up. Eventually, you'll hit the smoke point for something in the pile (the wood, the resins in the sap, small children, you know) and voila! Smoke! |
How scientists determine the composition of each planet/ Star? | Different elements have different light emissions, so by analyzing the light coming from a star or reflecting off a planet, you can tell what it is mostly composed of. Edit: the light spectrum analysis looks like this: _URL_0_ |
Why haven't foreign Armies gone to stop the ISIS? | I can't answer for either different countries or the United States government, since I'm not apart of either; but from the American people there is a huge sense of "war-weariness". The people are tired of fighting long, bloody, expensive, and often unnecessary wars on the other side of the globe. There is already a huge resentment of the Bush administration for lying to goad the United States into war; and a sense of disillusionment as Obama continues the war in Afghanistan (along with a large scale campaign of drone strikes across the Middle East). We know what is happening is awful, but honestly, would another 7,000 American dead be worth fighting another "War on Terror"; which would just bring more bloodshed to the region after we left? |
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