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What is the scientific reason behind why pedophilia exists? | Don't believe any of the evolutionary just-so stories people here might try to sell you. The truth is that we don't quite understand why different types of what we used to consider "perversions/deviations" even exist, or how they even work. Perversion or deviation would now rightfully be considered a slur, used in place of paraphilia, pedophilia, and other unusual sexual attractions or compulsions. There are a few theories: some scientists suggest that they have to do with prenatal conditions, some have some pretty good evidence that it might be a conditioned behavior (stimulus reinforcement). I've worked with teens with sexually aggressive behavior, and with young men experiencing pedophilia. If there was a single answer out there, we'd know how to treat or prevent it, but the heartbreaking truth is that we just don't know. |
I need a very 5 year old explanation of what happens when normal poor people file bankruptcy. | Most poor people will file what is called a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. First, you list all of the debts you owe and who you owe them to. The fact that you're applying for bankruptcy is published, so any creditors who were unaware can come forward. First, the court stops everyone from being able to sue you or otherwise trying to collect the debt--they will have to go through the court.The court appoints an administrator who tries to determine who has priority in getting paid. Then, an administrator starts distributing your property and assets to creditors, except the law allows you to keep a certain amount. For example, if your house is below a certain value it can't be sold, and your retirement funds are protected as well. Once all of the excess assets you had are distributed, the remainder of your debt is cleared. Any creditors who didn't get back all of the money you owed them are out of luck. So you come out of the bankruptcy process poor, but debt-free. |
How come video compression is getting better all the time, but sound files are still the same size as ever? | Audio compression is already really good, and has been for ages. People tend to be a bit more picky about audio quality (real or perceived) than they are about video quality, for some reason. The bottom line is we don't really need better compression for audio files. |
How does lumens work? | Let's look at what a "40W" light bulb means first. "40W" means that the bulb consumes 40 Watts of power. Exactly what a "Watt" is doesn't much matter. The point is that it measures how much power the bulb *uses*. Incandescent bulbs waste about 90% of their energy as heat (which makes Easy Bake Ovens work). This makes about as much sense as comparing car engines based on how much gas they use, rather than how much horsepower they have. Lumens, however, are an actual measurement of how much light a bulb emits. It doesn't matter if you're a wasteful fluorescent bulb or a super-efficient LED - rating the bulb in lumens gives you the same result. The problem is that saying "40W equivalent" is a meaningless term and has no basis in reality - it doesn't measure the power consumption *OR* the actual light output. Just assume that they're lying to you. A 40W bulb generally puts out 4-500 lumens of light. Claiming a 100 lumen light is close to that is just **wrong**. |
Online Universities and their value over a traditional degree. Is a degree from one just as good from the other? | In the UK this depends entirely on the reputation of the University. We have the Open University, which was established in 1969 specifically for distance learning regardless of previous qualifications. In 2009/10 it enrolled 250,000 students and in 2011 was ranked in the top 40 UK Universities and top 500 globally - quite an achievement for such a junior establishment. As a result degrees from the OU are well thought of and, because they are often taken by students in full time work, are indicative of good self discipline, organisation, motivation and dedication. |
What is the IMF and what does it do? | The International Monetary Fund deals with money problems on a world-wide scale. Think of them like a bank, but for countries not people. It started by a bunch of countries putting in money, and other countries could borrow this money if they promised to change their economies to be more 'effective'. I put this in quotes because lots of people criticize the IMF's required changes (to get a loan) as being just in the interest of Western powers like the USA. |
Why should we keep funding NASA? | > So, what makes these investments worth while? We don't know ahead of time, which is the biggest reason. Advances made in the space program are both obvious (satellites) and subtle (enriched baby food, or structural analysis software). It leads to detecting threats to our infrastructure (solar storms) and insight into our environment (runaway greenhouse effect). The point of exploration is that we don't know what is out there. The USA was founded by explorers, everything we have is the result of someone forging into the unknown. If your friend cannot see the potential gain from exploration then they are simply shortsighted. |
What makes PewDiePie so popular? | > I find them incredibly childlish and pointless. That's his selling point. He is supposed to scream like young girl on a roller coaster. You simply don't expect wits and skills from PewDiePie, all you expect would be those exaggerated reactions. The following are also the factors. Bandwagon effect: He has the highest subscribers in youtube which makes more people to visit his channel simply due to the popularity. Attractiveness: Some may say PDP is hot and that would increase his number of subscribers. |
Why are emulators so tricky to make? | Emulation does not improve as the technology gets older. Emulation's difficulty depends on how different the platform is that is being emulated from the platform you want to emulate on. In the end it all comes down to the fact that emulators are non-profit, unofficial projects. Creators don't have the necessary documentation and they also have to avoid using copyright methods. This is the reason why emulators usually don't come with a BIOS. That's why they never work perfectly and their development takes a lóng time. If Sony, for example, would make an official PS2/PS3 emulator for the PC, they could get it to work perfectly. |
With an inherently limited number of sources from past centuries to examine, will there come a time that we "run out of history?" | It's doubtful. The more we find out about history the more wrong we tend to discover we were about things. Even very recent history is full of misconceptions, falsehoods, and propaganda to dig through. |
Why do kittens go into a state of paralysis when grabbed by the scruff? | you can also use scruff training for teaching discipline, but only for kittens not adult cats. I wish I'd known this when I adopted mine as kittens. My 3 cats are all rescues, grew up with no mum so they have a bad habit of biting, nipping & generally bratty behavior that kitty mom would discipline out of them. _URL_0_ |
why did the fur on our bodies dissapear if some humans moved to colder climates? | The fur on our bodies was gone forever. Then we went north. We killed animals and stole their fur. Then we made big fire. Fire is warm. We live in north now. |
Why are batteries charge measured in mAh instead of Coulombs? | No real reason. It's just because that if you know that your circuit draws 100mA and your battery has a 1000mAh capacity then you know that your battery is going to last 10 hours. Easier than using C and then diving by 3600 second to get the number of hours. Same reason we measure energy in kWh instead of J |
Does exercise and eating healthy "unclog" our arteries? Or do our arteries build up plaque permanently? | Yes. Having a diet that's higher in HDL cholesterol and low in LDL cholesterol will see the macrophages that make up atherosclerosis (plaque) lose their LDL cholesterol and have it transported back to the liver to be excreted in bile. This will slowly reduce the volume of the plaque and start to bring the artery back to normal. |
How are phobias acquired? | It's kinda like a psychological allergy. With an allergy, your immune system is overdoing a normal healthy response. A phobia is when generally healthy fears are exaggerated. When you have a phobia of something you shouldn't be scared of, there's normally a situational association. Like if you got lost when you were young and when trying to find your mom you got really scared by a cat. Now your scared of cats. These phobias can often be treated with exposure therapy. Most interesting are non-associative phobias, which are thought to be genetic because they establish themselves the very first time you're exposed to something. |
What is this bizarre intersection? | It's called a [diverging diamond interchange](_URL_1_). It's considered one of the best recent innovations in interchange design because of all the [benefits it provides](_URL_0_). > It seems to make interchanging with I-77 easier Yep. That's just one of the benefits. > I imagine that it's super confusing for those unfamiliar with the intersection The first few times, maybe. But once you see them once or twice they're really no more complicated or confusing than any other intersection. |
using coffee grounds to filter out lead ions from water. | scientists tested whether or not coffee grounds could be used to filter lead out of water. they found some interesting things out, firstly if more coffee grounds are being used more lead is removed from the water. Secondly neither water temperature nor bean type have any effect on the amount of lead removed. If the coffee grounds were used first though they worked better than fresh grounds, and finally this method was made less effective if the beans were treated with perchloric acid and if the treatment solution contained 10% or more of the acid the grounds stopped absorbing lead at all. and while this study does suggest at some point that grounds can be used in home filtration systems at this point odds are it would be very risky as you don't know how much lead is in the water or how much is being absorbed. |
How do we know life on other planets will be of the same type as life on Earth? | I took a class in college about this actually, it had nothing to do with my major, but you don't pass up the chance to take a college class on aliens. It's been a few years, but from what I can remember, you're right, we don't know that life would be exactly like ours, but based on what we know now, that seems the most likely. As we understand it, life needs to have a solvent fluid. On Earth, this means water. There's a few other options that would work in theory (liquid methane if memory serves), but there's problems with each of these that seem to make water the best option. Because we have such limited resources dedicated to the search for ET intelligence, we pretty well limit our search to those places and conditions that seem the most likely. |
Why do I always feel like I need to piss right after I cum? | Because its your body's natural reflex to return your urethra to the proper pH to avoid bacteria growth and also to clean out and residual semen. If you fap, don't pee and go to bed. When you wake up to pee you might notice it splits in two streams, that's cause your piss is being blocked by a little bit of jism |
Why is when my body is freezing (like making snow balls without gloves) and I go and put them under a hot sink they ich like crazy? | When your hands get cold the blood vessels in them contract. When you run them under *hot* water they expand rapidly, stretching them and the area around them, causing discomfort. |
Can animals recognize music as music? | That's kind of like asking if animals recognize painting, architecture or poetry for what they are. As far as we know, animals don't have the capacity to appreciate or understand the concept of art. I mean we've all seen videos of pets watching tv and reacting to what's happening on screen, but they're not aware that what they're watching is a simulacra. A cat watching Star Wars isn't rooting for Luke. I'd imagine music is much the same |
Why is it worthwhile to separate colors from whites in laundry? | In the past, you would often add bleach to whites to help clean them. However, it would destroy colored dyes, so you would need to separate them first. |
Why does the TSA require a max limit per bottle of liquid/gel but no limit on the number of bottles? | Because the TSA's rules are arbitrary and meaningless. |
How do scientists determine the calorie content of a food item? And the nutrient content? | They literally burn it, as far as I can tell. We got to do this in Chemistry with Pringles and a can of water suspended above the burning Pringles. We used a butt load of foil to direct all the hear towards the can. _URL_0_ Edit* My guess is that they use lasers to burn a piece and then measure the heat given off. As far as nutrient content I am not sure of the methodology. |
How can people be convicted for offensive statements? | Are you American? I ask because this is really weird for many Americans. In the rest of the world, it's pretty much agreed that inflicting emotional distress through offensive comments should be illegal. There's room for debate about just *how* offensive the comments must be, but it's basically only the USA that doesn't accept the basic premise. |
Why does exposing factual information about a company lead to a successful lawsuit against you? | It depends on how that information was obtained and what kind of information you're talking about. If it's not public information, (i.e. a company secret), think of it like insider trading. This information is an asset of the company, and by making it public, you stole this asset of the company. If it's whistleblowing of illegal activities, that is different. There are laws to protect whistleblowers. If it's simply unethical, then it is like theft of company property to expose their business practices. |
Why aren't germicidal ultraviolet lights used everywhere, to prevent the spread of disease? | They use a wavelength of light that is cancer causing. Do you want to sit under a cancer causing light? Plus, they aren't all that effective to stop, say a sneeze from transmitting to another person. It takes some time to kill the germs. |
How is kilogram a unit or mass and not weight? (flair physics) | Mass is a unit of how much "stuff" is in something - if two objects have the same number of particles (subatomic stuff - protons, neutrons, electrons), then they'll have the same mass, anywhere in the universe. Weight is a little different, because it's actually a unit of force - in most cases, it's the force of gravity we're talking about. And that'll change anywhere - you weigh slightly less at the top of Mt. Everest than you do in Death Valley, CA, because of your distance from the Earth. On the Moon, you weigh even less. But since weight is a force, we can also use it to measure, say, the force of a punch. So in everyday use, "mass" and "weight" are mostly interchangeable, because we figure that gravity isn't changing much across the Earth. But they're not exactly the same thing, because weight is based on more than just the mass. |
Why wouldn't game developers make exact copies of good old games but with better graphics? | Well thats actually something that has been happening a lot in the game industry recently. There have been quite a few remakes / remasters. This year alone we got a re-releases of the last of us, kingdom hearts 2 and 4 Halo games so it's a thing that is happening. I think though that you more asking why don't they just create whole new games that just play like the old ones right? Well because people would get mad and not buy them. Consumers want to see some sort of improvement or progression when the see a sequel or newer version of a game. If you're not going to change the game in some way(for better or worse) why should they buy it? Many consumers would just stick to playing the older games. |
What is inflation and what causes it? | Inflation occurs when your currency looses its value. Because there is a finite number of money in the world it has a specific value. if you burn/ destroy half of it, its value doubles and if you print more bank notes, it will inflate again. When a countries economy collapses and the state starts to print more money to keep itself from getting bankrupt the money value decreases. abruptly this lead to so called hyperinflation in the past: Italy's Lire for example was worth roughly 1/1000 German Mark. Because the value decreases you need more money to buy the same stuff you bought before with less money: maybe your bread cost 2$ yesterday and today you have to pay 4$ |
Why is suspension from school a punishment? Isn't that just giving them what they want? | Suspending a disruptive child removes that child from disrupting other children, giving them a better learning environment. By having a kid at home at a time where he or she should've been at school inconveniences the parents and so (hopefully) forcing the parents to punish the kid in ways where the schools and teachers have limited authorities in. |
Why are button batteries so expensive? | Very often, miniaturisation *does* make things more expensive. However, I think you might simply be shopping in the wrong place. You can get packs of 20 LR44 button cells for well under $10 (or even 100 of them for slightly over $10) - it's a matter of shopping around. |
What is so enjoyable about tobacco? Explain the attraction or positive value of cigarettes, cigars, snuff, and etc. other tobacco products. | The bottom line is that it feels good. It can help keep you alert. It can help you focus. It can make friends out of strangers - if only for a few minutes. It can taste good. It can be a status symbol. It can provide a nice 3-4 minute break to clear your mind from whatever you're doing. |
Why was America reluctant to join the allies in WWII before Pearl Harbour? | The US was a lot more isolationist back then. Not only that, but they weren't the military powerhouse that they are today. The military might of the US was mostly untested. WWII is really when the US came into the forefront in that arena. It also wasn't that long after WWI; the US wasn't keen on getting themselves into something like that again. The US was also recovering from the great depression -- there were bigger things to worry about. I'm sure they thought it was a terrible idea, but they weren't in the business of involving themselves into affairs that did not directly affect them. Obviously, that has changed. :) |
Why don't seizures cause the heart to spasm erratically like other muscles? | Seizures start in the brain and send electrical signals to the muscles. But the heart has its own separate electrical system. |
Coughed up a tiny tooth? | Try to break it open. If it's tooth or bone, it'll have a soft (most likely degraded) interior where the marrow or pulp was. More likely is that it's either a tonsil stone that somehow didn't get stinky, or it's a piece of gravel that got kicked up into her mouth. If you can't break it, it's probably gravel, as a bone or tooth of that size will fracture relatively easily. |
Masturbation, oral sex, and other non-intercourse from an evolutionary perspective | its a way to bond and resolve conflict within groups. like with the bonobos. |
How is love any different to being overly-attached? | Love is about wanting what is best for *them.* Being overly attached is all about *you.* |
Why do we always think that dreams are real life despite them usually being obscure and unrealistic? | While dreaming, the part of your brain that determines if things are obscure and unrealistic is operating at a diminished capacity. In a sense, you are just not smart enough to realize there is anything wrong with an illogical situation. |
Why is the Mona Lisa worth so much money? | Think of it this way, little 5-year-old Billy/Sally: you have a really cool toy. All your friends look at that toy and want it. But you hold on to it, because it's special to you. Over the years, far into the future when you grow old, people still look at your toy and wish it was theirs, and think it looks really cool. After you pass away, people write songs about the toy and movies are written and watched with your toy in it. Suddenly, more and more people like your toy and want it. Some people are willing to pay a lot of money for your toy, but it's in a museum instead where everybody can see it. They can't touch it or play with it, but they can look at it. So people keep trying to buy it for more and more money, and this makes it cost a lot. Now stop chewing on the couch cushions and go clean your room. |
why is it that big dogs drool alot while small dogs tend not to drool at all? | Larger animals have to work harder to keep cool. Volume, which determines the amount of heat produced, goes up with the cube of the length of the animal but surface area, which determines the rate that heat is lost, goes up with the square. Dogs cool off by panting while producing drool instead of sweating. Large dogs have to drool more to maintain their body temperature in the same way that overweight humans sweat more to keep cool. |
Why are springy doorstops made with maximum compression? Wouldn't they be more effective if they could be compressed to cushion the door's impact? | The coil is just for flexibility (as others have said). If the spring was not compressed though when the door was pushed into it the spring would compress, absorbing the impact (good), however it would the release this compression, flinging the door back towards the person opening it (bad). The more force the door was opened with potentially the faster the door would be returned towards the opener. This would probably cause a lot of accidents. However you would get some great YouTube compilations. |
How is fire able to be on the surface of water? | There's something else on top of the water that is burning, like oil or fuel or flotsam. |
Why are taxes on gasoline a fixed dollar amount when nearly every other tax is a percent of the sale? | The price of oil (and by extension, gas) fluctuates wildly in response to geopolitical events and supply factors that state governments have no control over. Rather than try to budget in advance for such an impossibly unpredictable revenue source many governing bodies opt to impose a tax on volume instead. It's not perfectly predictable either, but it's a lot easier to plan for. You'd hate to budget for a 10% tax on $5 a gallon gas and then have the price crash to $1.30 a gallon for nine months. |
If steroids were around since the 1930's how do we know older players didn't use them? | Older players didn't use steroids because they used much stronger performance enhancing drugs such as speed. |
Why Do Most Games These Days Indicate Loading With An Icon Instead of a Bar? | One less feature to support. Loading bars are actually pretty hard to do correctly. How much work is left to be done? What percentage of it is done? Keeping track of that adds development overhead to some overworked teams, and usually isn't particularly accurate. Modern game UIs tend to be heavyweight, too. Many of them involve libraries such as Scaleform (Flash), or even full 3D rendering, and it can be easier to skip all that and just throw an image up -- both in terms of development and runtime performance. Also, many games try to have shorter loading times, now. In my experience, the main thing people need to know is that the application hasn't crashed. A "throbber" can usually accomplish that. |
How come all those gift cards for Steam, iTunes, Google Play, etc. have the exact same proportions and layout? | It's probably the same size as most credit cards, drivers licenses and so on. That size is normed as "ID-1": _URL_0_ Valve, Apple and Google just decided to use that, because they fit well in wallets and it's a nice know size. |
How did Kirby Dick's documentary "This Film Is Not Yet Rated" show him appealing and discussing the movie with the MPAA,in the movie? | The film the MPAA reviews often is not completely finished. MPAA rating can be time consuming, so they send the movie early and finish up special effects and such, or even added scenes. |
why did some men have misstresses in the past but now the term isn't used much? | Women didn't like it back then either, but it wasn't easy for women to get jobs, or at least good paying jobs. A lot of social stigma for a divorced or separated woman. So they had to put up with a lot of men being jerks. Cheating, physical and metal abuse, etc. Today women are more educated and independent, treat a woman badly and it's much easier for her to leave. So now there's a greater penalty for cheating. |
Why do we hear new songs on repeat and love them but after a while we hate them? | Your brain is full of synapses--connections that fire when activated by stimuli, in this case, a song. You can think of it as a movie. The first few times you watch it you notice things you didn't the previous time. Once you watch it enough, you know each line of the characters. The same goes for a song. When your brain remembers each note and line in a song, the synapses have been cemented into your brain and you know what happens in the song. And in this, it is just like a movie where there is no adventure or excitement in watching it because you already know what happens. *note: I don't know anything but this sounds right* |
How does a roomba work without damaging itself, such as falling down stairs etc? | The roomba has proximity sensors and spends its time mapping the room. It knows where hazards are and can avoid them. Just don't pick them up, or they might accidentally fall down stairs if it's not where they expect itself to be. And yes, they do actually clean, although not as well as a traditional vacuum. It's good for a daily cleaning so that dirt doesn't accumulate, but it won't get rid of deeply embedded dirt. |
why does a scissor not work for left handed people but does for right handed? | scissors are actually made for right handed people typically, it's the way the right hand applies pressure on the handle aligns the blades. When you try and use your left hand, the blades separate and nothing cuts. |
Why is tear gas internationally banned for use in warfare, but not for use by police? | All chemical weapons are banned for use in warfare, not just tear gas. If the police are firing gas canisters at a rioting crowd, I (unlike a soldier in the field) can be pretty sure it doesn't contain VX. |
Do fish drink water? | This seems like a legitimate question a five year old would ask. |
Why do adults need less sleep than children? | ^ All of this about brains, plus their bones and muscles are growing all the time which means they need more sleep to cope with the physical building work |
Why are people from Manchester called Mancunians? | Manchester's original Latin place name was either *Mamucium* or *Mancunium*, depending on the source and time. Over many centuries, this ended up becoming the name *Manchester* that's used today. *Mancunian* is simply derived from the older place name. A side note, but it's not uncommon in the UK for demonyms to be derived from an older root: * Liverpool: Liverpudlian. * Manchester: Mancunian. * Newcastle: Novocastrian. |
Do other languages need the use of a Thesarus or is it only English that has so many synonyms? | Thesauruses and synonyms exist pretty much in every language. Synonyms are there to describe very similar objects or situations in slightly different ways to give a more precise picture. Most languages have some space to allow for such variations. |
How do people with Alzheimer's suddenly remember a fact about their lives, but forget it a moment/day later? | Alzheimer's messes with the neural connections in the brain. Think of it like a shorting wire. Sometimes the signal will get through, sometimes it won't. |
Why when you get sunburnt is drinking a lot of water a huge importance? | Basically sunburn is inflamed skin and its going through the healing process. Our body uses water as a transport mechanism to provide nutrients and remove waste products. Sun burnt skin needs to be replenished with nutrients and have the injured skin bi products removed. More water means more transport and removal of this critical healing process. |
Why do you feel cold and nauseous after breaking a bone? | Shock. You both is redirecting your blood to your vital organs, which drops your blood pressure. Shutting down your digestive system and flooding your body with hormones such as adrenaline enables it to have the resources it needs to deal with the problem once it knows what it is. |
How do TV companies record viewing figures? | UK TV Production student here! In the UK we use an organisation called the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB). They select a broad range of different people from the general public and install technology in their home that records what they're watching. They even have systems which detect how many people are in the room at the same time watching a given TV programme. They then estimate how many people may have watched a programme in the country using the data collected from the people participating in the BARB panel. The BARB website states their "reporting panel is 5,100 homes. The panel homes are located across the UK and represent the viewing of all individuals aged 4 and over within the household (plus their guests) and return data on a daily basis from around 11,500 people. All digital terrestrial, satellite and cable platforms are represented". _URL_0_ |
Why is the filming and distribution of pornography legal, while prostitution is illegal? | I'm not the expert or anything but my guess is that porn actors and actresses go through severe and mandatory regulations, policies and laws in order to be hired. They need to do weekly tests as proof that they are healthy and have no diseases. On the other hand, prostitutes don't have any regulations at all and they probably won't care if they give you a disease or not. |
how can some people have a fetish that they only fantasies about while finding it disgusting in real life. Incest is one example where many claim they would never do it in real life however it is still a turn on for them in form of a fantasy. | For a lot of people the taboo is part of the turn on. In fantasy, though, you can ignore the complicated realities of the situation. So in real life it might not be fun, but if you ignore all of the other stuff, it might turn you on. |
Can I fire a gun in space? | Yes, it will fire at normal bullet speeds. The bullet contains everything it needs to fire, so you don't need to worry about that. The only difference would be that the bullet would not lose speed to friction with an atmosphere and the trajectory wouldn't be curved (or as curved) due to gravity. |
The difference between Prussia and Germany | After the Holy Roman Empire fell apart the area of modern day Germany was home to a large collection of independent states in a confederation. By the 19th century Prussia had become the most prominent and militarily skilled of the german states, which lead to them forming a unified German state in 1871. |
Why are some countries' military independent from the government? | There is no single answer to this but in some countries the military have managed to own land which they can get income from instead of getting income through taxes. This makes it much harder for the government to control the army as they can not reduce their income. Of course there is a lot of politics and culture as well. If the leaders of Pentagon ordered an invasion of the White House and capitol hill they would have to be sure the men were willing to comply with the order. On 23 February 1981 the Spanish Congress were invaded by the Civil Guard and the rest of the army and police were unsure of what orders they should follow until the king made a televised speech condemning the coup. |
why do we treat/accept Monday as the first day of the week, but almost all calendars show Sunday as the first day of the week? | I don't know about Monday being the first day of the week. It's moreso the first day of the workweek, and why its treated like the first day of the week probably originates with that. In fact, in Vietnamese, Sunday is literally translated to "First day" and Monday is "Day two" and so on for the rest of the days. |
Why do we have registries for sex offenders but not for murderers? | [Recidivism Rates](_URL_0_) - the statistics and likelihood of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences. Sex Offenders are statistically more likely to offend again than murders are. Furthermore Sex Offenders are really easy targets for politicians to use to their advantage with their voting base. (you'd never vote for someone that *doesn't want to track sex offenders*, right?) |
What happened to the new CEO's weekly AMAs? | They got tired of lying and having to backtrack on everything they bullshit about. So it's best to avoid questions. |
How do natural wildfires start? | Lightning is natural, and starts a surprising number of fires. At our annual campout this year we watched smoke jumpers and helicopters spend the night putting out a lightning-spawned fire on a ridge only two or three miles away. AFAIK, everything else is man made. |
How are wooden barrels made to not leak? | It takes a long time to build a barrel, but the longest time is simply letting the wood air dry for a few years. The easiest simple explanation is that they use the two iron bands and a big old hammer to bang the wooden slats in so that they fit VERY tightly to each other. Like we're talking massive pressure. Water won't get through that (or wine or whiskey). It's just super tight and they use a hammer, a winch and the iron bands to achieve that. |
Why do people assume that a guy driving a big truck is overcompensating? | Because very few people actually ***need*** a big truck, especially in cities. They don't typically tow large loads, or haul three refrigerators at the same time very often, so people assume it's a macho thing. |
Is the Human Brain faster than a computer? | It depends on what you mean by "faster". Can the human brain show a correct response to a simple external stimulus or output a simple computation more rapidly than a computer? No. Are there tasks that the human brain can do more rapidly than a computer? Yes. Mostly because there currently are tasks that cannot be done by computers *at all*. If a computer is capable of doing a task, it is generally possible to speed it up by using more resources, so it is almost always possible for the computer to beat humans in terms of speed for those kinds of tasks. I can't think of a task that a computer is capable of doing which it cannot do faster than humans. |
Why orange juice tastes so bad after I brush my teeth? | I read somewhere that one of the ingredients in toothpaste kind of deactivates the part of your tongue that tastes sweet things. So OJ minus the sweetness is that sour icky taste you're thinking of. Here it is: _URL_0_ |
Europe and North American culture and civilization is refered to as "western". Why is that? | The term 'West' (as opposed to 'East' in the sense of China or the like) developed before the Americas were known. At the time, the known world was Eurasia, and Europe was on the western edge of that world. So the 'West' came to mean 'European-influenced'. |
When oligarchs like the Koch brothers die, where is all that power gonna go? | Both of them have children. Whether the children can exercise the power is a thing yet to be seen. Just like it was not known at the time when Fred Chase kicked it which of his four sons would do what. |
Why do we say 'the NSA' but rarely 'the NASA'? | "NSA" is an initialism, like FBI or most 3-letter agencies. "NASA" is an acronym and linguistically treated like a noun. |
How do they decaffeinate coffee and soda (pop)? | The [International Coffee Organization](_URL_0_) actually has a decently ELI5 worth explanation on how they do it. |
what makes "neon" colors so bright? | > Sometimes instead of being called neon colors they are called "fluorescent" colors. What makes them fluorescent is that they absorb light you normally can't see (UV light) and then release that energy as visible light. The result is that if you shine light that has UV in it (like sunlight or a blacklight) instead of just reflecting light like normal colors do, they actually glow as if they were a weak light bulb. The end result is that there is actually more light of those colors hitting your eyes so they seem brighter. > As for why you can't think of "dark" neon colors, it's because what makes them distinct is that they add more light, while darkness is actually the absence of light. _URL_0_ |
Why are chocolate stains so hard to get out while other stains aren't? | Part of it is that chocolate is super dark, of course. It's also ground very fine too make, so it gets everywhere. And the bits that are not tiny teeny chocolate powder are brown cacao oil. So you've got those three things (each of them a hard stain alone) to make the perfect storm of stains. |
how come we couldn't use built up pressure to launch objects into space? | It's actually an idea, called the Verne Gun after Jules Verne's classic book *From the Earth to the Moon* and like you said, the initial object would be fired into near earth before propulsion or other means are used. The problem is pesky G forces. In a rocked it's a somewhat slow build up, but firing shit out of a massive cannon is going from 0 to hypersonic instantly. This would likely turn any astronaut into fine paste while the rest of the craft is torn apart by the atmosphere resistance. |
Why is the scandal with Chris Christie and the lane closures a big deal? | It isn't just that someone died in an ambulance. Granted, that is the worst possible outcome for the situation, but what makes those responsible for this situation reprehensible is the fact that the lane closure was designed to cripple the city of Fort Lee. People would not be able to get to work on time, stores are going to see decreased sales, a lot of traffic, if at all possible, was diverted. And this was done with the callousness of a 15YO playing Sim City and trying to punish the people of the town by creating a volcano on the only road out of town. Look, Christie is a bad ass. He presents himself that way and that is what the citizens of Jersey want to represent them. But you can be a bad ass and not be a bully and Christie crossed that line. |
how do scientists fire just a single elementary particle? | Usually they do not. For example the Large Hadron Collider emits protons in bunches of 100 billion. [source.](_URL_0_) |
Why do we "hallucinate" while reading? | Go to a doctor. There might be something wrong with you. Or perhaps stop chewing on the book. Thanks. |
How can someone sue over potential profits? | There is precedence in the concept of tortious interference. Let's say you arrange to sell some product to a potential buyer. But, before they actually buy the product, they bow out of the deal. You find out that some third party was spreading rumors or lies about you, and that directly led to the buyer not following through with the deal. This is tortious interference. In this case, the sale that never happened would be the lost "potential profit" and the victim could stand to recover that in damages from a suit. It'd be upon the plaintiff to demonstrate and validate what those loses were (that is, what they would have earned if the sale had went through). All that said, it is never a requirement in a court of law to prove things "unequivocally." Given that this is a civil matter, the bar would be the "preponderance of evidence." Basically you have to just show that it is more likely to be true than not true. That is, if you demonstrate that it is 51% likely to be true, you've met that burden. |
Why is "18 years old" most desirable in porn films? (NSFW) | They know their market. Who doesn't like the idea of watching some 18 year old girl get pounded? The funny thing is a lot of them probably aren't even 18. Who the hell cares? Who would be able to tell? Just give her some pigtails and a cheerleader outfit and you're good. They'd say 16 if it were legal. Also, this is a very inappropriate question for a 5 year old. |
Why do we say our descriptive words in a particular order? For example: "Big red ball," not "Red big ball." | There actually is a "correct" order, although most people don't learn it. We often pick it up without realizing it, but that's why certain orders sound "weird" _URL_1_ _URL_0_ |
Why do emergency vehicles sirens in the US also have the strange sounding siren that almost sounds like a bubble or being underwater? | The thumper? It is a really low tone that deaf people can feel approaching. |
If water boils at 212°, then why is there water in the air? | There is water in a gas form in the air due to a process called evaporation. Evaporation creates water vapour. Evaporation is different to boiling water. When water reaches 212F it turns into steam. There is only so much water that can stay suspended in the air as a gas (the water vapour) through evaporation. It will go higher than this level in the event of boiling. When you boil water, you get steam, which will increase the water in the air, to above this level. When this happens the water will start to condense back into liquid water, forming 'mist' which is visible to the eye. |
How do earphones know which sounds to play in the right ear and which to play in the left? | Take a look at this picture of earbuds: _URL_0_ Notice the jack is separated into 3 sections. This is how the stereo sound gets split into right and left. One section carries the signal for the right ear; one section carries the signal for the left ear. The third section is what is called a common wire. The common wire doesn't carry a signal to the earbuds, it's merely the path back to your phone/mp3 player/sound system to complete the electrical circuit. Both the left and right earbuds use this common wire. |
If we can control our breathing manually when we think about it, why can't we control other things manually like our heartbeat? | But you can control your heart rate. Just because you never learned dosen't mean you can't. There are many stage performers, yoga, martial arts enthusients who have demonstrated the ability to control their heart rate. The quickest that comes to mind is people who train to hold their breath underwater ~ they slow their heart rate to achive the many minutes underwater without brain damage. |
Why do we die instantly when our heart stops? Why don't we asphyxiate from lack of oxygen from blood no longer circulating? | You don't die instantly; people with a totally stopped heart often die, but it is possible if the heart resumes in a timely manner you'll survive. There's a distinction between alive and conscious, though. A total stop in blood flow will make you pass out really quickly; in fact a sudden decrease in blood flow to the brain can easily cause one to faint even without the heart stopping. |
How are doctors able to so accurately estimate how much time terminal patients have left to live? | This isn't biology, it's math. To be specific, it's statistics. Doctors know the percentages, basically. They know that, out of 1,000 patients with a specific diagnosis, all were dead within a year, and the average life expectancy *was* 6 months. So when a *new* patient is diagnosed with the same condition, they'll say "This person has 4-8 months to live, a year at the outside." |
How did the diet commonly associated with breakfast remain so much less diverse than that associated with dinner? | Traditionally, breakfast foods are things that can be made quickly with little or no preparation time -- important because it's the first meal of the day. As a result, they are generally not very complicated dishes. For example, I wouldn't want to prepare a lasagna for breakfast. Bacon, eggs and toast cook much much faster. |
Suffered with severe acne for 5 years trying everything. I gave up and stopped washing my face at all. 1 week later it stopped. I haven't washed my face in years and haven't seen any acne. Why has not washing my face worked better than any other product on the market? | Many things could be going on. You may have been allergic to an ingredient in common facial cleansers (like salicylic acid). More likely is that these products were drying out your face too much, so you skin responded by producing too much sebum (oil), which in turn clogged you pores. I have battled terrible acne all my life. I have been on Accutane four times -- the drug worked wonders while I was taking it, but the acne returned when my course was complete. Now, I use a product line from La Roche Posay called "Effaclar." It's pretty much just benzoyl peroxide, and it's amazing. |
Why is it that when you drink water your pee become clear and thats a sign that you're hydrated, but when you drink beer you become dehydrated but your pee is still clear? | Clear urine simply means that you have a lot of water in your urine and the urine is dilute. When you're well hydrated, you pee out excess water and the urine is clear. When you drink alcohol, the alcohol inhibits a hormone that helps the kidneys reabsorb water. As a result, you pee out excess water making the urine clear...and you're peeing out more dilute urine than you should. This is what makes you dehydrated when you drink alcohol (and beer is mostly water, so now you're drinking water and stopping it from being reabsorbed so...even more water in the urine). |
Why is marriage "hard work"? | Life is hard work. Marriage, or any situation where another person lives with you, complicates things because you can't just think about what is best for you in order to solve all the problems one encounters through life. Someone with a family has many more considerations to take into account when making a decision, and are not the only decision maker. There is much more compromise, and selfish actions usually cannot be taken. |
How do some business make profit out of a huge discount on products? | They're not losing $1440, they're getting $60 and claiming that you could find other classes that would charge $1500 for similar a similar class. Let's say the company offers a week of one on one training and gives the certification test, vs what's likely to be a set of videos posted online and a test. While you get the certification both ways, the product (and price) are likely to be quite different. If one-on-one training is $1,500, they're not wrong in that you can pay that much for a certification class. |
Why old videos always are messed up at the bottom | It's not the the original recording that's messed up, it's the result of the tracking not being correct when the VCR recording is being played back. Tracking is what syncs the speed of playback with the speed of the recording. When the tracking isn't correct, you get distortion in the image displayed on the screen. |
The new Snapchat privacy policy. How invasive is it really? | The problem is no one really knows what they plan on doing with this. It could be nothing, it could be horrible. Its the precedent of them saying "we are openly going to do whatever we want with all this" thats concerning |
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