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Is there any merit to the idea that exposing yourself to germs strengthens your immune system? | Your immune system, every time it beats off an infection, stores information about that infection in it's "memory B-cells." That way, if you get reinfected, your immune system can say "aha it's you again! I remember your secret weakness from last time!" instead of having to figure it out all over again. It doesn't have to be a big infection for it to work; even a small infection will trigger and immune response. So yes, the more germs you are exposed to, the bigger your memory banks will be, and the less likely you are to get a serious infection from any of those germs. Edit: yes, I did say "beats off" |
Why does my skin itch when i've been sweating and touch grass? | Grass makes very small (near microscopic) cuts on the skin, and when those cuts are contacted with liquid (in your case, sweat) it itches. It's like salt in a wound, but much smaller. |
How does my fingerprint scanner on my iPhone work through a plastic bag? | Because it's not a fingerprint scanner, it's just a camera. Advanced fingerprint scanners use high resolution CMOS sensors, pressure and temperature sensors, and a myriad of other tricks to detect an actual finger against a simple printout of your print. The scanner on phones and laptops, and other cheap consumer scanners are barely more than a cheap CMOS and a cheap lenses, with some software to do the processing. If the plastic bag is clear, it should work as well. A printout of your fingerprint will most likely work as well. |
The reason why NSAIDS are ineffective at reducing symptoms of diseases like Psoriasis? | Not 100% sure, but I would say that's because Psoriasis is caused when your immune system ins't working properly and the chemicals involved in psoriasis are not affected by NSAIDS (they generally affect the COX enzymes that promote inflammation) |
why it always seems like people wake up before the best part or climax of their dreams. | Until a better answer shows up, I believe I've read on this very forum, that it has to do with the fact that the "best part" just so happens to excite you so much, that your brain activity increases and you therefore begin to awaken. Another aspect may be that you don't remember dreams in which you didn't wake up during the middle of them. However when you do wake up during a dream you are more likely to remember it. So you don't always wake up before the best part, you just don't remember the dream at all. |
How can someone be immune to the laws of a country simply because they have diplomatic immunity? | Because the country that they represent have been extended that courtesy for their diplomats by the host country. It's a common arrangement so that diplomats don't get blackmailed by local police or politicians. The host country can always expel a diplomat if they don't want them there. And the diplomats country can waive immunity if they think the diplomat should be tried for a crime. But it really doesn't cause many problems. It's a popular movie trope, but in the real world it's mostly used to get out of parking tickets. |
Why do the creatures at the deepest parts of the ocean look so different from that species we normally see? | A huge pressure. For anything to be able to withstand it you need either incredible skeletal structure, or massive skin and muscle mass. The former is almost non-existent, if it exist it's mostly in small organisms such as crabs, etc..., the latter is more common. Remember [this](_URL_0_) guy this is how he looks when he is not under extreme atmospheric pressure. [This](_URL_1_) is how he looks in his natural habitat Furthermore deep sea is dark and cold. Creature who live there doesn't need eyes, or really any other sensory abilities. They need better to regulate body temperatuer, they need a structure that works under extreme pressure. Coincidentaly that looks extremly alien to us. |
Why laptops still use differrent chargers, and why they dont follow the example of the mobile phones? | $$$$$$$$$$$ Same reason apple uses its own cords. You have to buy them from the company that makes the laptop. |
How does Google Maps know when there's little, medium or high traffic on roads? | I don't know if you noticed, but Google figures out pretty quickly where you live and where you work: that's because it activates the GPS on your phone in the background and registers your location quite frequently. If you are driving, Google can interpret the GPS location of your phone as an indication of no traffic (phone moves at speed close or past the speed limit for that road), light traffic (phone moves at reduced speed) or high traffic (phone doesn't move at all for prolonged periods of time). Using the data from many phones, the results are pretty reliable. The algorithm uses traffic status when selecting a route to try to reroute the incoming cars to other roads in which the traffic situation is better, both to help you get to where you're going faster and to help clear the traffic jam by not feeding it with other cars. |
Why and how are power plants designed so they can't power themselves? | The plant isn’t technically incapable of powering itself—it’s incapable of running without a grid connection. That might sound like a distinction without a difference, but the plant requires a connection to the grid not to *receive* power from the grid, but to *dispose* of power on the grid. The nuclear plant requires a fraction of a percent of its own power to run. It simply cannot throttle down that low. Without a million kettles eating 99% of its output, it must shut down. If it kept running, the excess electrical power has to go *somewhere*, and without the grid as a safe outlet, the generators would destroy themselves. Shutting down the reactors and turbines is generally generally okay, because it has back‐up diesel generators to power the cooling systems and whatnot, but then the generator room floods and you’re in trouble. |
If Physics states that we don't actually touch anything, how can we taste and smell? | We don't really touch things, but that doesn't mean they don't interact. Magnets, gravity, electrical charges all do not physically touch things, but they interact because of the force emanating from them. |
How did people figure out precisely which direction to build a railway in before GPS and modern technology? | You'd be surprised how accurate tools like sextants are. They were around for a while before we started building railroads. |
What allows our brain to "focus"? | The brain has a subconscious filtering system that decides which things are unimportant and which should be passed on to our conscious mind. |
why does resting my hand between my thighs warm me up? | You have a lot of nerve endings that control your hands. Perhaps warming them *tricks* your brain into thinking you are more warm than before. Check out this [homunculus](_URL_0_) to see the brain proportion that is dedicated to controlling certain body parts. As you can see, lips and hands require a lot of nerves and brain to control them (and to feel sensation from them). |
what is the difference between vague, ambiguous (semantic), ambiguous (syntactic), ambiguous (grouping), overgeneral, or both vague and overgeneral. | Kind of confused about what you're asking for. Is it assignment-specific jargon? The difference between 'vague' and 'ambiguous': Vague - Lacking detail but has specific meaning. e.g. Joe is tall. How tall? Joe is tall compared to what? Ambiguous - Several meanings or open to interpretation. e.g. The concert was cool. Does the speaker mean that the concert was enjoyable or do they mean something to do with the temperature? |
why isn't single serve coffee sold in tea bags? | Didn’t Folgers used to make “coffee singles” in the past? I’m not sure if it was instant or supposed to act like a brew, but I’m almost positive I’ve seen something like it. |
Why can we build 1TB SSD's but not 1TB of RAM and cut out the storage? | We can make a terabyte of RAM but it would be really expensive and couldn't store data when the computer was off. Also we really don't need the incredibly fast access for the vast majority of that data. |
Does a gas giant actually have a solid surface? | The "surface" of Jupiter is gaseous hydrogen. _URL_0_ What would happen if you went "on" the top of Earth's gaseous atmosphere? You'd fall, right? Jupiter is much more massive than Earth though, so you'd fall even faster, and probably burn up from friction with the atmosphere before anything more interesting happened (like getting to the level of metallic liquid hydrogen below). |
How does evolution explain an animal developing the ability of venom attacks? Like a Platypus? | As [this](_URL_0_) link will tell you, many venom systems started out as something entirely different whether they be digestive enzymes, proteins to help fight bacteria, etc. A mutation occurs and suddenly that enzyme/protein/etc is present in the mouth/claws/etc, and it gives them an edge to catch prey and just generally survive. Each instance of venom in an animal seems to have developed on its own, so you aren't going to find two for the exact same reason. We are still learning about the subject though. |
Why is gold valuable? For how long will it continue to be valuable? | Gold is valuable primarily because people believe that it is valuable. (It does have some practical uses in jewelry and electronics, but these things aren't nearly enough to support its current price). It will probably continue to be valuable, because gold being valuable is a significant part of our cultural identity. The question is whether or not gold will continue to be *as* valuable as it currently is. This is unlikely; eventually, the price is going to stop rising. Investing in gold is just betting that the price will rise enough before you cash in. e: I didn't answer "would it be smart to invest", and there's a good reason for that; any advice would necessarily be wrong. Remember, the price of gold is entirely dependent on what everyone thinks the price of gold ought to be. So if everyone knew that the price would drop when X, they would start trying to leave the market before X, and that itself would make the price drop. |
What gives massless particles a 'speed limit'? What stops them from traveling faster than 299,792,458 m / s? | Simply put, we don't know. It's a very well documented and solid physical constant, but why that happens to be the universal speed limit isn't clear. There's some speculation and models that attempt to describe it, but nothing verifiable as of yet. |
Why can I remember the conventions of a new programming language or the methods of a new library with ease but spend hours memorizing facts in biology class to no avail? | As a fellow student learning programming with ease and dying in biology, I feel your pain. I can't possibly explain for you without speculating, but for me it's because of the style. Biology is a very fact-oriented thing. You either know what allopatric means, or you don't. And you never get to actually use it, because you can't "use" biology terms. It's a field of science, not of engineering. For CS, you already know what these words mean, you're just learning new ways to apply them. It's about learning processes, not facts. And you use these processes constantly. Computer Science is a field of engineering, not science. Also, like RandomReddithead said, interest is incredibly important. And the method of learning is a pretty big deal. |
Why is the DEA so concerned about narcotics, barbiturates etc? | they are concerned that the drugs are being misused, resold to dealers and addicts. who become burdens on society. Thats the general reason for any drug to be illegal. These are not illegal, they are just often misappropriated to the black market to be used illegally. So it sounds like they have some red tape. though Im not certain the reasons your getting are legit. could just be the insurance company being a jerk, or some other self interest of one of the parties getting in your way. |
Allergies; and why the body develops them. | Your body's immune system often causes your body to do less-than-desirable things. For example, when it's fighting a cold, it's your immune system, not the cold virus, which causes you to have a runny nose and sneeze lots. When something gets into your body which doesn't belong there, your body's immune system recognises that and gets rid of it. This doesn't just apply to viruses and other nasties. It can apply to things like pollen, or dog hair. When you have an allergy, what that means is that there are certain types of foreign bodies which your immune system over-reacts to - it doesn't just get rid of them, but it causes you to display some symptoms, such as sneezing, developing a rash, or being short of breath. |
how did they have an apartheid in south africa since most the people living there are black? (sorry if dumb question) | The white minority introduced apartheid to keep themselves in power. They had more military and economic resources than the black majority and also relied on collaborators and compliance among them. |
why does Adobe Flash Player need to update so much? | Adobe (Originally, Macromedia) Flash is, by Internet standards, a very old format. It comes from the days where every byte and every CPU cycle was very important. This meant that it used various tricks to save space and computer effort. The programming to work with these tricks is complex, and complex programs have places for bugs to hide, and hide they do. There are bugs that have always been there, waiting for someone to send the program a strange flash file and make it do something wrong. There are bugs caused when modern programmers forget they are working with old code, and are not 'defensive' enough, assuming that the code will do checks that were too (computer-effort wise) expensive decades ago. There really is only one solution for this - flash has got to go. There is no longer a need for it, as javascript and HTML5 can do everything that Flash does. We just need everyone who makes websites to delete all their flash garbage. |
Is it better to brace your body or stay loose in an accident/fall? | Obviously every crash is different and some things will work better in one situation than they would in another, but the brace position in an aircraft crash, or bracing against a car seat have a very specific purpose. In any collision there are multiple impacts. In an aircraft crash there is the impact of the plane hitting the ground, you hitting the inside of the plane (seat, floor, controls, whatever the object is), and your internal organs (biggest concern being the brain) hitting the inside of your body. The brace position is an attempt to remove, or at least lessen, the second of those impacts: you hitting the inside of the plane. By placing your body against the seat in front of you, or against your legs (depending on the position used) you are already against the object you are likely to hit and will therefore push against it instead of impacting it. |
Why can e-cigarette companies advertise on TV while traditional cigarette companies can't? | E-cigarettes don't have tobacco in them, they're a smoking accessory. It's like advertising a cigarette lighter |
Why I can't look in different directions with my eyes. | You can. Back in 2006 while doing "How to [cross](_URL_1_) just One Eye" and "Speak with an Echo," I got ambitious and tried inducing [MartyFeldman-o-vision](_URL_0_). I had some fresnel prisms left from a failed toy design[1] which only deflect a couple degrees. Mount on eyeglass frames to bend light inward. They gave double vision, but I couldn't fuse stereo images. So I took one out. Success! After a few minutes (w/pain) my eyes compensated. I wore these glasses for about half an hour, then whipped them off while in front of a mirror. I could barely see the "walleye" effect. And my eyes returned to normal within seconds. Now try to teach yourself to aim one eye upwards, other one down. Or dilate just one pupil while contracting the other. Use it to fake brain damage. . [1]failed toy design: fresnel-prism glasses which make you feel tall by bending light vertically. They sorta work. More like, make gravity tilt backwards. |
what actually is that feeling when you're falling in a dream and you wake up? | The falling feeling is from a hypnic jerk. Your muscles may twitch or spasm and your mind is trying to make sense of it. You think that you're falling. I believe the heart beating and the shortness of breath is an emotional response. It's kinda not really clear why this happens. Even though you are sleeping, there is a part of you that is monitoring your situation. It's like sometimes hearing your alarm clock radio in your dreams. On wiki: _URL_0_ It says that a possible explanation is that it is a reflex we developed when humans slept in trees. |
Why is it more quiet when it's snowing? | Many things at once make this happen: 1) Snow on the ground absorbs the noise around us, where as the hard surface of the roads bounce it off. Just like a room with carpet and curtains does not echo, but an empty room with floorboards does echo. Absorbing the noise makes it quieter. 2) Snow is soft and makes sounds quieter - walking in soft snow is quieter than shoe heels clipping on pavement. 3) More people stay inside and less people drive, so less traffic noise. 4) People that do drive, drive slower and more carefully, meaning less engine noise. 5) Birds and other animals come out less and make less noise. |
Why does water feel much colder in your mouth when chewing mint gum? | The ingredient in mint gum that gives that cooling sensation is called Menthol. The tongue can not tell the difference between Menthol and actual cold temperatures so that's why they feel the same. As a side note, capsaicin (the active ingredient in spicy food) is why our mouths feel hot. Again, because this chemical tricks our tongue into thinking, it's on fire. |
NFL followers, why are there so many people on the sideline while the game is being played? What is their role? Novice at NFL here. | Media people, cameramen, sound people, the other 80odd players not on the field, the coaching staff, the athletic trainer staff, the medical team, NFL officiating crew, security... Add it all up and you usually have several hundred people on the sideline of a typical NFL game. It takes a lot of people to make that kind of televised spectacle happen. |
Why Won’t Obama Rein in the N.S.A.? | Because Obama doesn't really care about libertarian neckbeards over the internet getting butthurt. |
What's the significance and possible implications of all these nations joining this new China-led bank? (akin to the World Bank) | I guess we will wait and see. The obvious one is that there is an alternative bank for governments to turn to. Some countries can't get IMF and world bank loans. Other can only get them with a lot of strings attached, such as: reduce a country's debt to GDP ratio; reduce government spending; lower tariffs; allow imports in; enforce global copyright on pharmaceuticals and entertainment; pay back your previous loan; high interest rate. Now they have a new place to apply to, with different strings. Also IMF and world bank loan often bind the borrower to use western development companies for resource development and infrastructure building. With a Chinese lead bank, Chinese state owned resource companies and development companies will get a better shot at contracts. Edit: Another thing is China's foreign reserve is full of US treasury bonds, which is not paying any interest at all right now. Putting some of it in the new bank will probably get them a higher interest rate than 0, even if they lose some of it. |
Is it possible to become ambidextrous? | I highly suggest posting this over at /r/askscience to avoid hundreds a meaningless anecdotes being your answer. |
how does people you may know function on facebook work? Do people who have visited my profile pop up there? | Do you have their phone numbers or email addresses and have ever used the feature that allows Facebook to search your contacts for potential friends? If you've done that they will show up in your recommended friends. Sometimes it seems to be so sensitive as to suggest someone who I have only contacted once. |
How did some animals (lizards etc.) get an ability to regenerate limbs evolutionary? | All species have the capacity for regeneration, some to a higher extent than others. What you are referring to is called autonomy (self amputation) and in most cases it was developed as a defence mechanism that allowed an animal to escape by sacrificing a limb and then regrow a substitute one (albeit imperfect one in most cases, as they can and do regrow differently to the natural ones, e.g. Deformed in some way). A good example of this are certain lizards that will leave a part of their tail as a decoy (it will continue moving after becoming detached) to flee from a predator. The tail will grow back, however it will not have the same bone structure as the original one as it will be mostly replaced by cartilage. Edit: a very good example of this in humans is liver regeneration. A human liver will regenerate back to its original size even if 80% of it is removed. |
The difference between Whiskey, Scotch and Bourbon. | They are all whiskey. Traditionally bourbon comes from bourbon county, KY. Also must be distilled from the majority of corn. Scotch is whiskey from Scotland. There is also Irish whiskey and sourmash whisky. |
Why do marathon runners tape their nipples? | They chafe against your shirt, they can even bleed. I didnt really take that seriously until I ran my first half marathon. It is a thing. |
Why do our voices sound robotic when we speak into the fan? | Because the fan blades reflect the sound back at you, like any hard surface will. The difference is the fan has gaps in it that are are whizzing past. So you're getting hard surface, gap, hard surface, gap and so on many times a second, and your voice gets reflected back with a similar on/off/on/off pattern. Your voice as a result gains a weird sort of metallic trill to it. |
Minneapolis and St. Paul are two major cities of small land areas in the same state that border each other. Is there any good reason they can't combine like the New York Boroughs did in 1898? | No. There is no practical reason why they cannot combine. If you watch "Gangs of New York," you can see practical reasons why combining police forces and having uniform laws are a plus. Then again many urban areas have separate governments separated by bodies of water. State government has a lot to do with the decision to do this. State laws regulate a lot of things. A state legislature can make combining an advantage or a disadvantage. |
What actually prevents something from continuing to grow once matured and does any species max growth increase over the generations? | Genes usually stop growth when a pre-determined structure has completely formed. That is called determinate growth. Indeterminate growth means that the animal will grow all throughout its life, this is common with fish, mollusks (squids) and reptiles. |
Why did Walgreens end its partnership with Express Scripts? | Because they wanted to raise prices, while Express Scripts said no. |
Why is Broadway and musical theater in general associated with homosexuals? | I think that a lot of the aspects of theater in general (the elaborate costumes, the makeup, the dancing) are socially viewed as feminine, adding a sort of femininity to male actors/ theater professionals. Also, it may have been influenced by Castratos (eunuchs _URL_0_) in classical opera/other classical performance settings but that's 100% speculation. |
In America, why are most street signs green while others are blue? | It depends on the type of sign, and, in some cases, the specific sign. [Here](_URL_0_) is an overview of the different colors, while [here](_URL_1_) has specific signs that make for good examples. Specifically, green is "used as background color for guide and information signs, and for legend on permissive regulation and parking signs" and blue is "used as background color for traveler services information signs, emergency evacuation route signs, and as part of interstate and some state route markers". |
Why are ambulances at least in the US part of an outside company rather than owned by the hospital? | It is often more efficient that way. It costs money for hospitals to maintain a fleet of ambulances, and since their priority is running the hospital, the might not be very good at it. Let a single company specialize in ambulance service, and letting it serve all the surrounding hospitals eliminates redundancy and can save money for everyone. |
What constitutes a "side effect" in contrast to the effect in drugs? | A side effect is simply something outside the intended purpose of the drug. Even if it happened 100% of the time, it can be considered a side effect. For example, a common allergy drug (diphenhydramine) also has a side effect of making one drowsy. You're buying it to be relieved of allergy symptoms, so the drowsiness is a side effect. But the side effect here is strong enough that the same drug is repackaged and sold as a sleep aid, in which case allergy relief is a side effect. |
Why are video game prices dropping quickly this year | games industry has seasons. During summer there arent many releases and as the xmass is closing you have many "holidays" eg. days of free time but not friendly weather so people tend to stay at home and play games. And that means that sales (price reduction) is a good motivation for customers to buy that game and acquire some of the market share. also the industry is in the last decade starting to accelerate so you see every year more games that come out and that means a bigger competition so the publishers/developers need to release every 12-24 months a AAA game (CoD, AC, sport titles...) to hold their profits. the hardware industry (PCs components, PS, xbone...) is also relevant, because new technology means better graphics and performance so the game industry needs to innovate more eg. develop new games/versions (remaster, graphics dlc...) also black friday and whole december are times when this industry makes the most money (for instance book industry is most profitable during december) |
Why does sand stick to everything even though it doesn't feel sticky? | Sand sticks to things in many ways just like flour does. Flour particles aren't sticky at all (while dry), but small enough to be caught in tangles of fabric fibers, attracted by even the slightest charges, or "grabbed" by microscopic droplets of water or oil (and the human body is literally covered with oil-drop and water-drop emitting organelles: sweat glands and sebaceous glands). Flour is many times smaller, so more sticks of course, but at the size level of a grain of sand a human body is covered in a rough shag of fibers, and sticky oil and water films. None of these hold on very tightly, but tight enough to resist gravity and most movement, so the sand doesn't just fall off when you stand up. Brushing the area is more forceful, and tends to knock off every grain of sand hit - but again, sand is so small it can "hide" in the fabric or get missed by a rough hand brushing. |
Why do so many celebrities become enamored by/join Scientiology? | Well, for those people it IS like a celebrity club; it's a relatively exclusive organization, it has vast contacts in the entertainment biz and associated businesses (because they have cultured members and allies and contacts for this purpose) so they also provide **networking** between different kinds of high profile people. It also makes for a handy tax deduction when making donations from their otherwise large salaries. These benefits allow them to attract yet more high profile, wealthy clientele from which to elicit donations. I'm probably on a list now. |
The Obamacare birth control mandate. | Put in place by the US government to force health insurance providers/employers to include different methods of birth control on their employees plans at no cost to the employee. It stated that the mandate required all health plans to cover all contraceptives approved by the FDA. It covers pretty well anything you can come up with |
When cars are towed, how does the owner know that it was towed rather than stolen? | Cop here: A lot of times there will be a sign that tells you what tow company tows from that area. We do still get a lot of calls about stolen cars that end up being towed, though. In my state, tow companies are required to submit every car they tow into a database that's searchable by police. 9 times out of 10 when you call 911 to report your car stolen and give the operator your license plate, they'll be able to tell you where your car was towed to. I've had a handful of cases where a car was towed and didn't get put in the tow file (usually repossessions). In those cases we'll do a report, the car will be entered into NCIC, and then we'll find out later it was towed and just have to close the case. Again, this is my state, I can't speak for states that don't have this system. |
How come steak can be rare but ground beef must be fully cooked | Steak is relatively dense, so bacteria tend to be on the surface, which you will be subjecting to a lot of direct heat. If you grind the meat up, then you potentially allow any present bacteria to spread throughout the material. |
- In the first Matrix, Neo asks for guns, how would he get to the other rows of guns? | > Are they just for show? It's a movie, it's all just for show. It looks cooler to have many rows, so that's what they did. |
I have heard that the Xbox One and PS4 are like high end gaming PCs. Why do they cost so much less? | They are not like high end gaming PCs. They will likely be as powerful as a current mid range PC. |
how come so many shows on Fox make fun of Fox so much? Why does Fox keep them on the channel? Shows like Simpsons and Family Guy. | Because they're popular. If the Simpsons bring in a lot of viewers, it would be a really bad business decision to cut them because they make fun of Fox. |
How do PC games have "bad ports" when the games themselves were made on them? | Games made for consoles: * Are using different technologies, so a lot of code has to be rewritten for PC. * Have fixed hardware that developers can optimize for. On the other side, PCs have a variety of different hardware with different performance, and software can vary too (operating systems, drivers, etc.) * Have fixed screen resolution and FPS, computer games that have to support many different monitors usually do not. * Have different controls. For PC version, keyboard+mouse must be added and it often sucks, because developers focus on gamepad (Dark Souls, I'm looking at you). In addition: * Many game studios do not care and they outsource ports to cheaper external companies, some of them really suck. * Ports often have to be done quick and have lower priority then console versions due to different revenues on platforms. But it is an infinite circle, revenues on PC are low because many ports suck. |
with glasses, can e.g. watching tv worsen your eyes? | No. The reason your vision goes bad is because they grow into an incorrect shape. Looking at a television isn't going to cause that to happen, and incorrect glasses are just going to cause eye strain. |
Why is it so easy to work yourself into an anxious tizzy, but it isn't as easy to calm down again. | My guess is that it's evolutionarily advantageous to be more scared and anxious than calm and happy. Fear can motivate you to do something now to save your life. Calming down quickly doesn't appear to benefit humans enough to have been favorably pressured by evolution. |
Why are drinks like coffee and tea gross when they are between luke warm and cold, but delicious when they are hot or iced? | I actually like the flavor of both at any temperature. It's probably just because I need the caffeine. According to [this](_URL_0_) we have certain "channels" in our taste buds that affect the way we perceive flavor at different temperatures. These channels are called TRPM5. There was a scientific study done on the topic. Look it up - "Influence of Stimulus Temperature on Orosensory Perception and Variation with Taste Phenotype" |
Why do many herbivore's horns point backwards instead of forwards? | Many herbivores with horns such as those use them to show who the better mate between the males is. Or would be better to lead the pack. It is a show of dominance, but the intent is usually not to kill. You are right, horns facing forward would be better for killing, but that isn't what they are intended for to begin with |
Why did people lose their retirement funds during the recession? Wasn't it protected or guaranteed? | Sensible investors didn't lose anything. The proper way to save for retirement is to automatically rebalance your portfolio as you get closer to retirement age. Basically there are some investments that grow faster, but can also lose faster in a recession - like stocks. Then other investments grow more slowly, but they're much safer and don't go down in a recession - like bonds. Finally there are other investments that tend to have different cycles than the stock market - like real estate and commodities. A correctly-set-up retirement account will be mostly stocks when you're young (so your account can grow the most) and then converted to mostly bonds by the time you're close to retirement age. When you hit retirement age, your account should be 100% safe investments like bonds Unfortunately, millions of people didn't invest this way - so if they had their retirement in stocks they gained more as they approached retirement but then suddenly saw their portfolio lose half its value. |
Do musicians get paid everytime one of their songs is played on any radio station at any given time? | They do get paid royalties, but it's not a one-to-one pay out (i.e. you typically do not get paid in relation to each time your song is played). Basically radio stations report which songs they've played during what programs to performing rights organizations which then decide how to divide up the royalties appropriately and give each (registered) composer/publisher/author a fair share based on play-time of their music during a given period. |
Why is the word ignorant used as an insult, when everyone is ignorant. | Ignorant is used as an insult regarding things you are supposed to know. |
If nature is so jagged, colorful, and seemingly random (yes, I know all about the golden ratio), why do us humans find straight lines, clean edges, and muted colors so aesthetically pleasing? | 2 things most likely. 1) We like these things because they are different from nature. We can get all the other stuff from nature easy enough, but we have to work at making a straight line. 2) Nature is dangerous. Disease, predators, poisons, and natural disasters are all natural, so why should we necessarily desire natural? Appeal to Nature is a fallacy. |
How does the 3DS work? | I assume you mean the 3D aspect? when the 3d is activated, the screen disaplays two slightly different images visible at different angles. one image is seen by your left eye, the other by your right. the images are such that they create the illusion of depth. |
how could the Romans build 220 ships in 45 days? | You really have to take into perspective of how massive the roman populations expanded to at that time. And it's not exactly to say they built cruise ships, but smaller more manageable ships and boats; *as well as* the high level of slave driving and forced prisoner labor that took place. |
Why do people tends to shift to the right (ie - adopt more conservative views) as they age? | The way it was put to me was somewhere along the lines of "You don't become conservative until you have something to conserve". |
What exactly gets lost when mass gets converted into energy? | Nothing gets 'lost' per se, that mass represents the energy (and some other stuff) that was originally bound up in the Hydrogen atoms. Helium atoms use less energy to keep everything together than two Hydrogen atoms, so some of that energy gets ejected from the newly minted helium atom. And that's how our sun shines. That little bit of mass that gets transferred into energy, times a very large number, per second. Bonus: [Why does the Sun Shine](_URL_0_) |
Why is it a bad idea to put dental glue for braces all over your teeth to prevent damage or for less maintenance? | It's easier and less expensive to just brush and floss, but even if you could encase your teeth in a protective shell, you would still need to brush and floss to protect your gums from disease. People with crowns, which cover the exposed tooth and cannot get cavities, can still develop cavities around the edge of the crown near the gumline. |
Why is that when we flick an ant with our finger, it continues to walk around unharmed, where as if a human were reduced to the size of an ant and flicked the same way, it would end up being killed by the physical damage alone? | Square-cube law. Ants have a sturdy structure which would immediately collapse if they were human-sized. |
How do they get the ketchup into those little drive-thru packages? | [Like this](_URL_0_). ^This ^useless ^sentence ^brought ^to ^you ^by ^AutoModerator's ^Nazi ^length ^requirements. |
Hollywood Pedophilia | Not an expert. But my understanding is that they have easy access to actors - actors need to please to get good parts: this includes handsome guys, cute girls, teens and kids. They have parties with a lot of drugs. They are often creative, sometimes deviant. Omerta: no one says anything even if everyone knows. |
Why does the human eye see more shades of green than any other colour? | this is due to the Spectral sensitivity of the eye it perceve a larger intencity of green and red light than it does for blue, the eye has 3 type of colour receptors called cones and rods that are associated to the 3 primary colours, the amount of cones and rods for the 3 colours are not equal so you might perceve more green than you would for blue. |
How can a telescope detect oxygen? | Spectroscopy. Different atoms and molecules absorb/emit light at different wavelengths. Spectroscopy is basically an analysis of the light we see coming from an object (an emission spectrum). We can compare that light to the emission patterns of elements and tell what a planet or star is made of. |
What are the origins of the Baptist church? | The original baptist church was started by a minister who had split from the Anglican church (the Church of England). From there it grew and spread, came to the new world, and became very diverse. Today it is not a guarantee that two baptists from different congregations (this means a church community) will believe the same thing. The most unifying theology (belief) of baptists, and what they get their name from, is their believe in "believer's baptism". In the Catholic church a person is baptized as a baby, here the belief is that the act of being baptized forgives the original sin that human beings are born with. The belief of many protestants, including baptists, is that one should be baptized after they are old enough to express personal belief in the church's teachings. |
How does Albert Einstein's equation E=MC^2 relate to the creation of the atomic bomb? | Atomic bombs, you see, work on a very complicated principle. To put it simply, a more-or-less "normal" explosion, but a VERY precise one, is used to start a chain reaction in a metal like uranium or plutonium(a radioactive, and thus unstable, metal.) The actual chain reaction...well, even I don't know much about the specifics, so with any luck someone else will fill you in. But what really happens at the end of the chain reaction is, a very very small amount of the _mass_ of the metal is transferred into energy. Einstein's equation, E = MC^2, is the equation that tells you how much energy this tiny mass gives you. In the equation, E is energy, M is mass, and C is the speed of light, and if you notice, C is _squared._ Since the speed of light is so unimaginably high, this means that even a tiny amount of mass would give you an unimaginably high amount of energy. So, it's not so much the creation of the atomic bomb, but how they work. |
Why can I never remember falling asleep? | Here's the scary thing: This must be what it's like to die, except you never wake up and have the memory of attempting to go to sleep. |
why we get goosebumps when we hear a particularly beautiful voice or a certain scene in a movie? | The human brain is pretty amazing; it doesn't have to actually experience something to respond to it. Some external stimuli (e.g. a scene in a movie) can lead your brain to start acting like you are experiencing that scene in real life. This leads to the release of chemicals in the brain (neurotransmitters, hormones) which cause the body to physically react. The reason you get goosebumps comes down to evolution. A common response to fear, surprise, danger, and other strong emotions in mammals is to "puff up" their fur. This makes the mammal appear larger, and therefore more intimidating to what ever is making it afraid, surprised, etc. Do you have a cat nearby? Go scare it and you can see this in action. Now, humans have lost most of our hair, but we still have the brain pathways that say "strong emotion = raise hair." So when we expose ourselves to something the evokes strong feelings, our body tries to puff us up like a terrified cat. |
How do we know that a machine isn't deceiving us during a Turing test by simulating detectable machine answers so the AI remains undetected? | Theoretically it's possible that someday there could be an intelligent machine that tried to hide its own intelligence. Today we know that's not the case because we understand how all of the machines that have ever competed in Turing tests actually work. They're all designed to fool an unsuspecting human for a few minutes or otherwise say human-like things, but not to have real intelligence. |
why do your pupils dilate when you take Psychedelic drugs? | depends on the drugs or your definition of psychedelic. if you mean sensory hallucinations (drugs known as hallucinogens) then its because they generally act as stimulants (another word for drugs that overclock your brain) and since your eyes are now processing more light back at the cerebral end and your heart rate is up to feed your brain (as well as your eyes coincidentally), then you dilate (vasodilator and pupillary dilate) this dilation is therefore twofold - your eyes are literally able to take more light on, and also the nerves that stimulate your heart are closely related to the nerves that dilate your eyes. i would go so far as to say that the phrase "you need to open up" has a very literal meaning here, because your emotional openness is almost a gradient of how much you can activate and control/digest the info from this cluster of nerves, called your sympathetic and parasymphatetic nerves |
How much effect does Central Park have on New York City's air quality? | Ever spit into the ocean? It's about that much effect. |
Why are some former presidents referred to as former President and some referred to as President? | "President" is an official title, but it is also a job. If you were ever the President of the United States, you are entitled to use the title President for the rest of your life. Thus, everyone who was ever President is titled "President", but every one except Barack Obama is also a "former President". |
How do divers that don't have an oxygen tank not get brain damage from lack of air? | Mammals have bodily reflexes to being underwater known as [mammalian diving reflex](_URL_0_). Heart rates are reduced and our bodies let the outer layers cool(by not delivering blood) so that it can conserve oxygen. As babies fresh out of the womb this reflex is generally very strong but we lose it overtime, free divers train to build this back up. Having said that, there is still a lot of risk involved. People blackout before they start to suffer brain damage and blacking out underwater can very quickly be a death sentence. |
Why must an FCC approved device accept interference that may cause "undesired operation"? | It means that the device has a low priority on the hierarchy of communications, so if something is interfering with it, tough titty. As an example posted on a thread I found about this, someone pointed out that amateur radio and wireless LANs share a frequency band. Because amateur radio is on a higher priority than your wireless LAN, if your LAN gets shut down by the radio transmitter, you have no recourse. If your LAN is malfunctioning and messes up the radio transmitter, however, they can petition the FCC to order your WLAN shut down, because a lower-priority system is interfering with a higher-priority one. |
what does it mean to wear your heart on your sleeve? | It is a metaphor. It means that you allow your emotions to show- people can tell easily if you are happy, sad, angry, etc- ether by what you say, or how you act/compose yourself. |
If water makes up 70% of our earth and we have things such as water purifiers, why are we running out of drinking water on our planet? | We're *not* running out. The problem isn't the amount of drinking water, it's the *distribution* of the water. Most developed countries could probably hydrate their population 50 times over, if they wanted (assuming there's no drought). Whereas, for example, in hot African countries where water is scarce, contains diseases and there is little technology available to purify the water, *then* you get dehydration problems.. |
What would happen if the Yellowstone super volcano erupted? | Since this is a science question, I figured I'd use the search function of r/askscience to find you some relevant submissions there. Look what I found! - [This thread](_URL_0_). - [This thread](_URL_2_). - [This thread](_URL_1_). And you know what? None of them are complicated. Enjoy your reading. :-) |
why is it that we are able to subconsciously control our bladders when we sleep? How is it that we manage not to piss ourselves? | Your body releases a hormone while you sleep called vasopressin which inhibits the production of urine. You produce less urine while you sleep, and it's a thicker, more dense liquid (partly because of the hormone, partly because you're not drinking while you're asleep). People who have lower naturally occurring levels of vasopressin have to take a synthetic form of it called desmopressin before they go to sleep. And that's why we don't piss ourselves! |
Why are dinosaurs marketed so much toward kids instead of other animals? | Dinosaurs only exist in the toy aisle of the store. For contrast, ponies are a real thing. You can actually buy your kid a pony, and teach it all about how much a pony eats and the work involved in picking up after a pony. There is a mix of upside and downside with a pony. Where I grew up, many kids had a "pet" cow as part of a 4H project. They took wonderful care of their cow, and showed them off in competitions. Then their took their cow down to the slaughterhouse and saw it converted into sides of beef they could sell or bring home and eat. That last step is a bittersweet experience for most young ranch children. It's an essential aspect of why cows are so numerous in the area, but it's very different that their relationship with the family dog. With dinos you never have to risk breaking the fantasy. |
Why do Americas call "Back Bacon", "Canadian Bacon" and when did that start? | It is called both Canadian Bacon and to a far lesser degree Irish Bacon or Back Bacon in the US. This is because they are the cuts that the Canadians and Irish (as well as the UK) call bacon. They are from the pork loin which is the back muscles toward the rear of the pig. But what we Americans call bacon is from the belly of the pig. Canada, Ireland, and the UK call it "American Bacon", "Streaky Bacon", and sometimes "Belly Bacon". But they call "Back Bacon" just Bacon there. Edit: correcting stringy to streaky. |
Why do we use the word "late" when talking about deceased people? | One lesser-known meaning of "late" is "recently, but not any more". If, for example, you say, "A man late of London," you mean he used to live in London until just a short time ago, but now he lives somewhere else. From that came the expression "The late Mrs Smith," which was used as a euphemism to avoid using the word "dead". It basically means: "Mrs Smith, who used to exist until just a short time ago, but now no longer does." |
Why isn't a Bluetooth connection instant? | Whenever two electronic devices talk to each other they go through what's called a "handshake" - basically it's the two devices trying to negotiate a common ground and make sure they can continue speaking in a stable fashion. > Device A: "Hey! Hey is anyone there?" > Device B: "Yeah, I'm here. Hi, I'm B. Wanna talk?" > Device A: "Hey B. Yeah I want to talk... I'm on Bluetooth v. 2 and can talk at 2.1Mbit/s, how about you?" > Device B: "oooh... no I can't do that... I'm on Bluetooth v. 1.2 and can only talk at .7Mbit/s, is that ok?" > Device A: "Yeah that's not a problem I can handle that. Ok so we'll use v1.2 and talk at .7Mbit/s, deal?" > Device B: "Deal." > Devices are now officially connected. |
Why is shampoo almost always colored but conditioner is almost always white? | Hm, I guess that hasn't been my experience. Besides white I've had pink, blue, and yellow conditioner. Maybe it's just the brand you're buying? |
Who notifies Google about newly made roads for their maps? | There are companies specialized in this sort of thing. They monitor local government announcements, planning permissions, etc., and when they see a new road is being constructed, they will go and collect the data. Google's maps business is big enough for them to own some companies like that as a subsidiary, but sometimes they might just hire external companies to gather the data and provide it in a format that's easy to plug into the Maps database. |
What is the difference between being a line cook and a chef? | Cool, that makes sense. I recently became the kitchen manager of my restaurant six months ago, the only reason why is because everyone else who worked there quit. But I make new recipes constantly and everyone calls me chef, but it feels weird. |
What's the difference between the words 'Muslim' and 'Islamic'? | "Muslim" refers to people. "Islamic" refers to everything *but* people: "Islamic art" "Islamic architecture" "the Islamic world." Like that. |
Why does the U.S. always side with Israel over Palestine? | There's no diplomatic way to say this — Israel is considered to be culturally similar to the US, it has a representative government with stable political institutions, and American Jews (who tend to support Israel) are an important domestic political constituency. |
Why do those cheesy pictures that get shared on Facebook always looks so grainy and pixelated? | They tend to pick up artifacts because the original image has gone through a chain of hundreds of computing devices which used different file formats and resolutions and so on. People do stupid shit with their files like opening them in Paint to edit them (adding/removing watermarks, resizing, adding/removing text, messing with color depth) and then saving them in a different format. A lot of image formats, like jpeg, are "lossy." To save file size, a jpeg will essentially smooth out some of the fine details of the image, which gives you [artifacting](_URL_0_). If you pass an image around from one lossy file format to the next, it will artifact more and more each time its format changes, so the quality gets worse and worse. |
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