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Why is there a static sound when you unplug earphones from your device? | When the headphone connector is all the way in, there are three metal contacts that line up with three metal contacts inside the device. As you slide the plug in or pull it out, the contacts touch the wrongs places briefly and cause a momentary short circuit. The short circuit causes the voltage to spike very briefly. Audio signals are just voltages that go up and down in level. So when the voltage spikes, it's literally the same as a really loud part of the music. |
why are u supposed to not ration water but ration food when you are stranded in the desert? | Because you lose water through sweat, the minimum water intake is a hard minimum. You can go longer without eating because your body can turn to fat stores/muscle mass for energy. |
Why don't clubs have a 'house set' of high quality drums so bands don't need to carry their own space mongering set? | Some clubs do. The problem is that these sets get a lot of use and hardly any maintenance, and so sound crap. It doesn't help that they're usually cheap to begin with. Whenever I've used a house set it's always been rubbish. Oh, and some drummers like crazy set ups with 18 cymbals and 4,231 toms and 3 kick drums or something. Obviously they can't use the house set. Also, drummers like differently set up drums, in terms of how they tighten the heads, and sizes of the drums (my old drummer had a habit of hitting his knee if the snare was too small), how the stick rebounds, the feel of the hi-hat, the feel of the kick... So many variables are in play that a house set - even a good quality one - is unlikely to work for most drummers. |
Why cant we order and buy new cars completely online, but are instead required to go to the dealership? | Tesla cars can be bought online! Otherwise due to state laws and stuff for regular cars you must go to a dealership. Personally the best way that secured car purchases with me is go to Edmunds Tmv, get that price with the specs you priced and go to a dealership.'if they don't even match it or come close walk out and go to another one. Every time they say wait and i get the TMV price |
With more People and less jobs, how will future generations all find employment? | More people means more demand means more production and civil service jobs. It's always been this way. If one task is eventually automated, hopefully the excess workforce will be put to performing more complex tasks. |
Why are crooked teeth considered so unattractive in the US? | Attractiveness is generally determined by how symmetrical someone's features are. Crooked teeth destroy symmetry. |
How do we know that conservation of energy is a law? How have we proved that energy cannot be created or destroyed? | A scientific law is simply a statement that holds up under repeated experimentation. The law of conservation of energy has held up with every experiment ever thrown at it across all parts of the universe we can observe. It is verifiable with math, measurements, and tests. Is it *possible* that it's wrong (or incomplete)? Sure, but just try to prove it. |
How does ISIS still exist and stay so strong although many nations have sent so much armed forces to hunt them down? | Much of the action against ISIS has taken the form of air strikes, special forces actions, and more conventional actions. To be effective against a guerrilla force, you need to have a large number of troops constantly occupying their power base areas to prevent them from moving and resupplying, while building good will with the local populace to prevent the guerrillas from recruiting. |
Why does love hurt ? | It's because you vest a degree of emotional trust and attachment to someone. Not only do you lose your love, but maybe your best friend too. |
Could I get a credit card and buy cheap items 1-3 times a month to build credit? | Yes, this is what you do when you have no credit. Don't buy things you can't pay off right now though. |
How does autofocus work in digital cameras? (particularly DSLRs) | When not in live view mode, DSLRs and film SLRs use phase detection autofocus, which uses optical triangulation to determine the distance between the camera focal plane and the focus target. See [this page](_URL_0_) from Stanford for further details and a demonstration applet. Most other types of cameras, including cell phones, P & S, mirrorless cameras, and DSLR cameras in live view mode, use [contrast detection autofocus](_URL_1_). CDAF works by measuring the level of contrast at the autofocus point and adjusting the lens position until the highest level of contrast is found. PDAF is almost always faster than CDAF. |
Why is it that new GPU's have to increase in size to become more powerful while CPU's have always stayed the same size? | It is partly that GPUs create significantly more heat than CPUs. Most of the room a GPU takes up is fans or copper heat sinks. |
Why is it that dreams are so weird? | Part of it is confirmation bias. You only remember the weird dreams and the not so weird dreams are just forgotten about. |
why the american corn taste different from middle eastern corn or Asian one? | They differ in species, soil composition, environment, exposure to the sun. These all could effect the taste. |
Why does urine feel hot after a workout? | Your body heats up while working out, and your pee is inside of you initially. Your skin cools down relatively quickly, but your internal organs stay warm for a while. On top of that, your heat-sensing nerves sense the change in heat, meaning if you stay in a warm environment for a while, you'll get used to it eventually and not notice it anymore. (this does have a limit, though, because your skin is also being warmed by your body, which tries to keep the temperature as stable as possible.) So if you pee after you work out, it's about the same temperature of your internals, which are warmer than your skin. Also, please don't tell me how you discovered this... |
Why are so many seedless fruits available such as watermelon, but not avocados? | *Most* fruits are not available seedless. In the example of watermelons, they have simply been bred to have very small, immature seeds. If you take an avocado and make its seed smaller, it'll still be a huge pit. |
When DJ's 'scratch', what exactly are they doing? How do they turn that into a song? | A vinyl record is one long groove etched into a disc. The different shapes of the groove vibrate the needle to make sounds as the record turns. You can stop the record at a specific point where there is a particular sound, such as a snare drum. Then if you move it back and forth while the needle is over that snare portion of the groove, it will create a cool scratching sound. You are using a sound that's on the record to create a unique vibration with your hand movements that plays through the needle. For electronic devices like cd players and computers, they are imitating this process. |
Why are chiropractors so controversial? | Chiropractic's belief that you can heal almost all maladies by manipulating the spine has no scientific evidence behind it or even any plausibility. However, many modern chiropractors only partially believe in its claim and combine the manipulations with some sort of physiotherapy. That physiotherapy part sometimes helps people and makes chiropractic 'effective'. But then, you'd be better off seeing an actual trained physiotherapist as you don't risk damaging your spine with them. |
Why does water evaporate faster outdoors than indoors? | Yes, temperature. But also other factors, such as humidity and wind. _URL_0_ There are definitely less wind indoor, so that's a big factor. If you have a puddle in a small room, as the puddle evaporate, the room gets more humid, thus slowing slowing down the evaporation. In the outdoors, the humidity quickly disperses. More importantly is surface area. A puddle and water in a glass, of the same volume, the puddle with evaporate faster, even when both are outdoors, or both are indoors.e |
Why does being paid for sex suddenly become acceptable when there is a camera involved? | Congratulations - you've found one of the million laws which base their legality on "intent" which is really impossible to prove... |
why do you have to "eject" USB drives before removing them from your computer? | I'm fairly sure this gets asked a lot, so I'm going with Short Answer: your operating system doesn't always write changes to files right away. This is intentional and for performance reasons. Telling the computer to eject a device forces any pending changes to be written right now. Basically, it's a precaution. |
How can someone incapable of speaking with a terrible stutter turn around and sing perfectly? | The parts of the brain that control speech are different than the ones that control singing. |
How the average net worth per person in America is more than $301,000, yet more than 80% of Americans are in debt? | There are some REALLY wealthy Americans who skew the numbers to a ludicrous degree. This is why average net worth isn't by itself a worthwhile statistic. |
Where does our head voice come from if it doesn't sound like our actual voice? | The psychological theory of [bicameralism](_URL_0_) is controversial, but interesting nonetheless. It basically states that humans developed consciousness with an intermediary step -- bicameralism. This involved two parts of the brain communicating, one is talking to the other and telling it what to do. The author states that this is where the concept of "god" came from, as early humans were literally hearing another voice giving them commands. Over time this evolved into true consciousness with an internal dialogue. Some of these themes are being addressed (via artificially-intelligent androids) in HBO's new series Westworld. |
what happens if someone eats enough protein and some other nutrients but not enough calories? | His reserves will be used to make up the difference. Initially this will be bloodsugar, next any excess body fat, and then his muscles will be converted to energy. |
ELI: What determines which emergency vehicles arrive when a call comes in (traffic accident, medical incident, etc)? | A lot of times they just send all of them if an emergency call comes in. |
If I dug a hole from the north pole to the south pole, would I fall halfway and then fly upwards for the second half? | If you're digging the hole, there'd be no fall, since you'd already be down there... Just sayin. (Unless you climbed back out, only to jump into the hole) |
How do my electronics know what time it is, even after I turn them off for a few hours? | Think about a digital wrist watch. It can keep time with one little battery for years. All your electronics need is a quartz oscillator and a chip and a little electricity. That's why if you turn on a computer even years after it was plugged in, it still has pretty accurate time. |
Why are the American presidential primary elections not riddled with voters registering with the opposite party and voting against the candidate most likely to beat their favorite? | Nothing stops it, and registering for the opposing party in order to vote for the candidate that you think will win a nomination, but lose an election is not an unheard of thing. The major downside is that you remove your ability to vote for the candidate that you think is best suited to lead your own party's bid for the presidency. |
Why did Sausage Party cost only $19 Million to make when movies like Finding Dory took $200 million? | i assume actors wages become a factor. seth rogen for sausage party called in all his friends, who id guess didnt charge a lot. also the wages of the animators. pixar are the world leaders in computer animation so i assume they get a decent wage too. |
The average bullet travels at 1700mph. So if you were to travel at 1700mph and simultaneously fire a bullet. What would happen? | If you were to fire it forward, from the point of view of someone stood on the ground, the bullet would be now be travelling at 3400MPH. If you were to fire it backwards, the speed would cancel out and to someone stationary the bullet would drop harmlessly to the ground like a stone. **EDIT** [Relevant Mythbusters experiment](_URL_0_) |
In popular TV Show Boston Legal, why do the lawyers from Crane,Pool and Schmidt always give their closing the last(2nd)? | Artistic license. The same goes for some shows/movies when the lawyer in the middle of cross examination suddenly stops questioning and makes an argument to the jury. As an attorney for 20+ years, I've learned to suspend disbelief and grant a certain amount of artistic license. |
How does devaluing a currency "stimulate exports" in any real sense of the term? Doesn't the stimulation only occure because the exporters DON'T change their prices to account for their now weakend currency? | Good question. I think you are just missing one point, the value on the Canadian side. The assumption would be that if the price does not change on the US side (ie. still $100 USD) then their buying behaviour wouldn't change. They would still buy the same amount of product. On the Canadian side of the transaction, the company is now receiving $120 CAD instead of the $100 CAD they received when the exchange rate was at parity. It boils down to the fact that the Canadian company is making more money for selling their product in the exact same way they did before. EDIT: The other possiblity is that they can lower their selling price to out-compete a competitor with out losing profit. For example, a US company sells something for $100 USD, while a Canadian competitor can sell it for $85 USD and still make $100 CAD. Their profit is effectively the same as the US company but they are actually selling for a cheaper price in the US market. |
What's the difference between grey and gray? When should I use which? I've wondered for years. | Usually, "grey" is the British/Commonwealth spelling (like adding the "u" in color/colour), while "gray" is the American spelling. I remember it by grey has an "e" for English and gray has an "a" for American. |
or just explain normally] What is the history of Anonymous, LulzSec, and AntiSec? | I can only talk about Anonymous because that's all I know. Anonymous started back in 2008 when a video emerged of Tom Cruise talking about Scientology. 4chan (where Anonymous originated from) got angry about this, and saw this as proof Scientology was nothing but a bad thing for people. Anonymous said that the Church of Scientology (CoS) corrupted people, and was responsible for the murdering of ex-members. So people started talking in IRCs and on threads on 4chan about what to do. And eventually everyone agreed that they had to "raid" the CoS by means of protest. It was spontaneous. It was well planned. It just happened. Within only a few days, over 10,000 Anons took the streets to protest the CoS. And that's the simple beginning. |
Exactly what training does a dog so in order to became a service dog? What sets them apart from other dogs? | Basically the desired traits of service dogs are good temperament, trainability, good health and physical structure. Hence why labs, golden retrievers and German Shepherds are the most common service dogs you will see. Any dog can be trained yes but not all breeds have all the desired traits. Imagine a chuiauia trying to alert your family member that you have had a seizure. 'Oh there goes that fucking yapping yap yap again'. As for your other questions, the training of the dogs all depends on exactly what they are being used for, whether it be a 'seeing' dog or one that can detect seizures. As for the typo, I really can't help you there sorry. You will have to live with that for the rest of your life :( |
How can there be negative decibels? | It's not that simple, but there's a part of it that's actually very very simple. Sometimes we deal with extremely large numbers: millions, billions, trillions of billions. That gets tiresome, so a clever guy worked out how to make the numbers smaller, while still letting them be just as big. He invented the logarithm. Using the logarith, you just count how many zeroes are on a number, and then you use that, to say how large the number is. 10 has one zero, so log(10) = 1 100 has two zeroes, so log(100) = 2 10000000000000 has thirteen zeroes, so log(10000000000000) = 13. Pretty simple, right? But what about smaller numbers? 1 has no zeroes, so log(1) = 0 0,1 has zeroes, but they're on the wrong side, so we make them negative. log(0.1) = -1 log(0.00000001)=-7 So that's how you can have negative decibels - there's not negative sound, but there's just very little, and the logarithm makes it appear as a negative number, even though it's positive. |
behind the inside of a belly button? | The blood vessels and urachus (where urine the fetus produced leaves through umbilical cord) atrophy and become different rudimentary, ligament-like attachments. They don't serve any function in an adult. In the fetus, the urachus connected to the bladder, the two umbilical arteries connected to the aorta, and the umbilical vein connected to the liver. Fun fact: if the urachus fails to atrophy, a baby can leak urine out its bellybutton. These are the names of the three rudimentary structures in an adult human: _URL_2_ _URL_1_ _URL_0_ |
why are native american rights/issues not even factoring in this election (or in any popular discourse)? even when immigration is such a hot topic discussed by the descendants of immigrants? | /r/IndianCountry founder and mod reporting in. Actually, **Bernie Sanders** now makes a point to regularly mention Native American issues in his stump speeches. He courts the Native Vote, which can influence outcomes in some regions. Go ahead and search the Bernie subreddits for the words "Native American" and you'll see what I mean. Otherwise, Native American issues are occasionally part of the news cycle, but not necessarily in balanced ways; you have to be *really* careful about factoring in marginalized voices and properly understanding law, history, and context. Otherwise, you won't see how much you're being shilled at and marketed to. |
what do insects do during the winter and how do they come back every spring and summer? | Some of them, having laid eggs that will not hatch/mature until spring, simply die. Others migrate. Butterflies are a common example. The rest hibernate. |
Can someone explain to me the monty hall dilemma? Why does switching doors give you a higher probability of winning? | Imagine you have 100 doors, and there is a prize behind one. You pick one door and then 98 others are opened. The prize is either behind your door, or the other one that is unopened. Should you switch? Absolutely, because you had a 1/100 shot of guessing right with your first pick, and a 99/100 chance if you switch. Its the same idea with 3 doors. |
Why do antidepressants take several weeks to "kick in"? | After you take a drug, it starts getting eliminated from the body. When you take repeated doses before the drug is completely eliminated from your body, the concentration in your blood keeps increasing until you reach the desired "steady state", where there's a certain amount, and each time you take a dose, it replaces what had been lost between doses. The amount of time each particular drug takes to reach that steady state varies and is relative to it's half-life in the body. [There's a chart on this page that visualizes what's going on.](_URL_0_) |
How can we see the Milky Way if we are inside it? | We are on one of the spiral arms, about two-thirds of the way out. [This image](_URL_0_) should do a good job of giving you an idea of where we are. When we "see the Milky Way", we're actually seeing the rest of it from our position in the galaxy. That is, we're seeing the centre. In that image I linked, imagine that you were looking upwards. You can see other spiral arms from the galaxy, but most of it is the star cluster at the centre. Edit: [Here](_URL_1_) is a really great image of what the Milky Way "looks like" from Earth. You can see the very shape of the centre of the galaxy, as well as the edges stretching away either side. We are just part of its edge. |
if outerspace is a vacuum what stops it from sucking up our atmosphere? | The gravity of earth is stronger than the vacuum of space. One example of an element that is not, is helium. Its too light and after it has been released into the air, it rises and exits out atmosspere (which is why weather balloons use helium). The rest of the elements are too heavy ro escape without propulsion. |
Why must my college books cost so much? The entire system is corrupt. There is now way a hardcover book should cost $199.98, and I've even seen more expensive than that. There has got to be a way to stop this. I want to change this.. Can we find a way? | Do you have a question you want explained like you're 5? Because all I see is a rant. |
Why does China defend North Korea so often at the international level? | North Korea has one of the largest, if not the largest, deposits of rare earth elements in the world. These minerals are not only used in televisions and mobile devices, but missiles and advanced defense systems as well. Some estimate that there is $6 Trillion worth in North Korea. With China already having a monopoly on rare earth elements, producing around 95% of the current supply, and their trade relationship with the DPRK, this creates an economic boon for China. It also aids the DPRK, because they don't have the infrastructure to mine for REEs, as they are very costly to extract. China's monopoly of REE's is in fact considered a national security issue by the Worldwide Threat Assessment. Imagine if they begin to mine for them in the DPRK. I didn't even mention the amount of other minerals in North Korea. Sources: _URL_1_ _URL_0_ |
Why did the guitar become the go-to instrument for rock and the blues? | I think it's because the guitar, and it's variations, are one of the few instruments you can sing with while playing. Try doing that with a saxophone or violin. Adding on to that, it's a fairly easy instrument to learn and allows for easy of movement and performance, so its an easy fit. |
Some ads say tooth enamel cannot be restored, but others claim their paste repairs it. Which is true? | Tooth enamel that's gone is gone forever. Softened tooth enamel however can be chemically hardened to prevent it from being eaten away by further acid erosion. |
Now that nano engineering of carbon is becoming a reality, are there any other materials which the properties can be nano engineered? | Realistically there are a lot of elements and molecules that can be produced on the nanoscale. The problem than comes from the property of the elements change drastically. One example being colloidal silver (nano particles of silver in solution) when silver is shrunk to the nano level it changes color to yellow and has properties that allow it to prevent the spread of bacteria for medical applications in the future. We already use layering of materials at the nano level with processes called CVD(chemical vapor deposition) and ALD(atomic layer deposition). The processes simply puts on a layer of some molecule onto some material, ALD produces a surface that is just one molecule thick which is so cool by the way. The problem is that there are so many applications of engineering at the nanoscale and we simply don't know enough yet, we are learning more every day but we need to understand it better. Source: I'm a student studying at a college specializing in nanoscale engineering and science |
If energy can't be created or destroyed, what happens to the energy during radioactive decay? | The energy released comes from the nucleus undergoing a transition (decay) to a more energy efficient state. Since the new nucleus is more energy efficient, we'll end up with some spare energy. This is the energy that's released in form of radiation. |
Why are some letters basically the same capital and lowercase (O, W, P) and some vastly different (G, E, Q)? | Our alphabet is derived from the Latin alphabet. The Upper case is essential the Latin. The lower case alphabet is derived from the Latin through an intermediate font called Carolinian minuscule. This is a smaller font derived from the Latin alphabet designed to be easy to read and quick to write. Changes were made to some letters to make it easier to distinquish them. |
Tax brackets and how it affects tax returns | Your coworkers likely don't know how tax brackets work. That's unfortunately common. Here's a basic example of how they work and how your coworkers think they work. Let's say income between $0 and $50,000 is taxed at 20% and income over $50,000 is taxed at 30% - So if you earn $40,000 you will pay $8000 in income tax. - And if you earn $60,000 you will pay $13,000 in income tax. For the first $50,000 you'll pay $10,000 and for the next $10,000 you'll pay $3,000. However many people incorrectly believe they work like this: - Say you earn $49,000. You pay 20% tax on your income. - But if you work overtime and your total income becomes more than $50,000 you'll pay 30% on **all** your income. This is incorrect. You'll only pay 30% on the amount over $50,000. However you'll be amazed by the amount of people who think you pay the higher tax rate on all of your income and avoid working overtime or try not to get a raise because of it. |
Why does breathing into a bag help when hyperventilating? | When you hyperventilate your breathing pattern causes you to breath out too much carbon dioxide. (Your body doesn't really use it like it does oxygen, but it's adapted to it being there and requires it to be there in a certain concentration) If you breath in a closed environment the excess carbon dioxide you exhale will come right back into the lungs when you breath in the air again. |
Why do Dryer Sheets work so well at negating Static Cling? | The dryer sheet has chemicals which are attracted to the electrically charged fibers; once a particle of fabric "clings" to a particle of the chemical, the two together have a neutral charge, so they won't cling to other fabric particles. |
Why Steam games are so cheap compared to Xbox and PS? | Because of a wide distribution chain. You can set the monetary bar high on consoles because the people who buy then have no choice. |
How did people in the Stone Age deal with diseases (viruses, bacteria, parasites)? | > How did people in the Stone Age deal with diseases and mental disorders? They either got over it, lived with it, or died. People died a lot back then. > Wouldn't they have died out at a certain time? Individuals did but overall they reproduced more. > Considering countries today are very developed and still thousands of people die out from a virus in developed countries how did people in the Stone Age cope? Wouldn't they all have died out? They didn't live nearly as close together back then. Even if an isolated tribe or family group caught some terrible sickness they would just all die and maybe never be found by other humans. This tended to weed out illnesses that were incredibly fatal and left those which were highly contagious but didn't actually kill their victims. Being too deadly would limit the survival potential of the illness itself. |
If we don't know when Jesus was born how did Christmas become a celebration? | There are many December holidays that take place during this time, and December 25th was intentionally chosen to mimic them. Both to draw attention away from them, and make it easier for converts to switch over. Saturnalia, the Winter Solstice celebrations, and the birth day of Mithra, Mothers' Night, Yule, Yalda and Dies Natalis Solis Invicti are all in this same time frame ... and all pre-date Christianity. |
What is a half-life? | Imagine it like this. Lets say a radioactive material exposes 100 units of 'energy' or 'danger'. This gets weaker with time. Half-time is the time it takes to half it, to 50. From there on, it takes the same amount of time to reduce to 25. 12.5, 6.75. It always gets reduced by 50%, but the time frame stays the same. You get the pattern. And as you can see, it will never reach zero. So in your example: After lets say 400,000 years (half-time) still half of the amount is left. Frightening, isn't it? |
Waist size vs pants size vs belt size. | There is no standard for sizing. It only is *very roughly* related to your actual waist size. For example, a Levis 501 in 34 waist will fit quite differently from a Levis 511. Across different brands, it is much worse. I suggest you find a particular pair of pants that fit you nicely, and get others in the same style. For example, Levis 511 comes in jeans and every imaginable color of chinos. With belts it's even worse since some brands measure it from tip to tip, some measure from Buckle to last hole, some brands measure it from buckle to middle hole, etc. You have to just try it on or find where they actually say their measuring method. |
Why can I control an erect penis with my muscles and not a flaccid one? | You're actually controlling muscles at the base. You can control it flaccid, it's just nit as noticeable because the lack of rigidity. |
What's the deal with hot-wiring cars and how has it changed over time with advances in technology? | Traditionally cars operated on a pretty simple start up mechanism wherein a circuit was completed and the engine. As long as the circuit could be maintained then so could the car. This is actually still the primary principle however the safeguards to prevent a false start up are increased such as protecting from opening the starting mechanism; a two-trigger device wherein a device is located inside the key which communicated to the car that 'I am the real deal' while starting the engine; a more secure key-lock mechanism to prevent someone from just rigging it to turn; and more automated systems which detect when the car may be operated on under a false start (such as the wrong alloy for the key). Hot wiring isn't really a thing in new cars as they are either too secure or their alarm signals when this happens making it impossible for a covert escape. It can still happen but it takes more skill than ramming a screwdriver in and turning. |
what has happened to Cartoon Network? | That's a really good question. I feel like adult swim is the only thing keeping them around. Ive found myself watching Boomerang more and more lately because they have more variety like old cartoon network used to have. |
How come human infants are so helpless, compared to other mammal offsprings? | One of the current theories is that it was evolutionarily favorable for human offspring to be born earlier in their cognitive development compared with other mammals so that their head would be small enough for a natural birth. Instead of the brain growing larger during pregnancy and the baby being born with more cognitive abilities, the smaller undeveloped head allowed the baby to be delivered, and then the rest of the development occurred outside the womb. Another reason is that human's can be born helpless and still survive till maturity is that humans, for the most part, don't have to worry about predators or the elements. If other mammals were born as dependent as humans are they would never survive. |
The process that got the number "65 million", when it comes to dinosaur extinction, and why the process can be trusted. | The underlying science is based on dating various layers of rock found around the earth. (see [this wiki](_URL_0_)) Basically, scientists uses various methods to determine ranges for layers of rock that they find around the earth. These are then cross compared to come up with a basic timeline of large scale geographic events in earth's history. For the dinosaur extinction, basically the fossil record in layers older than 65 million years (but post emergence of the dinosaurs) shows dinosaurs. Then there's a thin layer that has a lot of material that you'd expect to find in the event of a large meteor strike, and then there's no more dinosaurs above that layer (except for birds.) |
The Watergate scandal and why it brought down a president. | There were offices in the Watergate complex in Washington DC. One of those offices was used by the Democratic party in the 1972 election. People working for people who worked for Nixon's Committee to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) broke into that office but were caught. Subsequently there was a coverup to attempt to hide the link. That coverup included improper suggestions from the President that the CIA interfere with the FBI's investigation. In the end the House of Representatives Judicial Committee voted to send Articles of Impeachment against President Nixon to the full House for consideration. The articles were based on abuses of power and interference with the legal system. They were virtually guaranteed to pass in the full House, and Nixon was informed that he did not have enough allies in the Senate to win the trial that would follow the articles being voted out of the House. Rather than fight the trial and lose, Nixon elected to resign. |
Historically, what happens to people of country X who live in country Y, when X and Y go to war? | Usually most civilians try to vacate. War is not always an overnight start, and people with a strong survival instinct try to book it. Otherwise they could have thier lives leveraged as a negotiation tactic, put in internment camps, or just plain be casualties of hate crimes. Thats just scratching the surface of what can go bad, without even looking into the regulr atrocities of war. The safest place to be of countries X and Y are at war is to find country Z to hang out in until its resolved. Going home to country X you could be treated as a spy, and you could get the same suspicion by staying in country Y. Being in an area about to erupt in a war when you are from the country about to attack is just dangerous. |
Why do we want to survive? | This question is sort of breaking into the realm of philosophy, but from the standpoint of natural selection, organisms with a natural impetus to survive are more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass those traits onto their offspring. It's just as true for humans as it is for any other living thing. |
How do coroners identify a body during an autopsy? | If police series are relatively accurate, there are a few ways this can happen. 1) The body has some sort of identification on them (drivers license, passport,...) 2) Using specific body traits, like dental records, fingerprints, DNA, traceable implants,... But these require them being in a database. 3) Someone recognised the victim (if I'm not mistaken a positive identification from a family member is often required) 4) Comparing a picture of the victims face with a database (missing persons, people with criminal records,...) |
In games like Fallout and Skyrim ; why does fast travel always work outside but not once I go inside a building? | To prevent you from going into a dungeon, completing the quest objective, and fast travelling out of there. It means you have to complete the dungeon before leaving. Add to that the fact that all the game checks for is a flag on the cell/module that says it's indoors, and you also can't travel from Breezehome to Dragonsreach without schlepping all the way up there on foot. |
Why is subtraction so much more difficult than addition? | **Psychologically, we are "programmed" to accumulate rather than divest. As such, we start with accumulating and then learn to take away. Algorithmically, i.e., arithmetically, there is no difference.** |
How does your tongue heal automatically after it gets burnt from hot food? | Heals automatically...it takes me 2-3 days for my tounge to stop hurting when it gets burned |
How comes games for consoles lack mod support that their pc versions have? | Modding a game generally goes against the policies that developers have to agree to to get their games on the console. Making a game moddable generally opens up possibilities for exploits that enable piracy and unwanted use of the system. On top of that, games for consoles are very streamlined and made to be perfect on that system. They have to be like this since consoles lack the raw power of a PC. They need to cut corners, compress, optimize in order to run right. If you add in all of these mods that aren't made to run perfectly on one console, you're going to end up with a very sluggish and broken game very quickly. |
Why didn't coffee evolve the same way as tea, with everyone using little one-use bags of grinds just like tea? | Yes, it is a taste issue, but coffee bags do exist. They're just not as good as other methods of coffee making, although they are better than instant. |
Can charge from lightning rods be converted to usable electricity, and if so why don't we do it (that I've heard of)? | The main problem with lightning is that it happens so quickly. A bolt of lightning can strike and transfer all of its energy in mere fractions of a second... and then it's over. We currently don't have any technology that can effectively capture that kind of power (without damage) in that short amount of time. Each bolt carries with it enough energy to power a single 100-watt light bulb for about 6 hours. Additionally, lightning is too sporadic and infrequent to provide a reliable source of power. |
Why is it illegal to feed or provide necessities to the homeless in certain areas/states/cities? | It's not like it's against the law to give your leftovers to a beggar when you leave a restaurant. What's illegal is setting up a large-scale food distribution scheme and going around feeding dozens/hundreds of people **without getting food service permits**. Once you start feeding large numbers of people, you're expected to have the same licences and sanitation standards as a restaurant. |
Why do people learn differently, i.e, by hearing, by visual, and by touching? | They don't. It's just an old myth. > There have been systematic studies of the effectiveness of learning styles that have consistently found either no evidence or very weak evidence to support the hypothesis that matching or “meshing” material in the appropriate format to an individual’s learning style is selectively more effective for educational attainment. Students will improve if they think about how they learn but not because material is matched to their supposed learning style. _URL_0_ |
When you get tan/sunburnt, why do you mainly peel on your shoulders and rarely your legs? | Because your shoulders are more aimed towards the sun than your legs, which are kind of at an angle, and soak up a greater proportion of UV rays. If you laid on your back all day facing the sun, your legs and chest would then burn a lot more than your shoulders would. Imagine pointing a torch straight down at the ground, and then pointing it in front of you. Right under you is your shoulders, your legs are off in front of you, and the torch is acting as the sun. It's a lot brighter when it's not spread out more. |
Christmas. How did it originate and how did it come to be what it is today? | The History Channel has a great show they play like 100 times in December that shows the origins of all the current Christmas traditions (Santa Claus, Christmas Tree, Gift Giving, etc.) It's amazing how relatively new most of them are. You should really check it out... |
How does the processor know what to do with input and code? | > How does the machine even know what to do with programming code? Inside the Central Processing Unit are millions of transistors. These transistors are grouped together to build logic gates - simple electric circuits that can do things with binary 1s and 0s, like determine if Bit 1 AND Bit 2 are both set to 1, for example. These logic gates are grouped together to do useful things. For example, with a couple of dozen of these, you can add two binary numbers together. Further logic gates are set to look for specific binary codes that represent specific instructions. Then, if they see the code which represents "add", for example, they trigger the circuit that adds numbers into action. All of these sections are tied together by a clock that makes sure one action happens, then the next, then the next. |
Why does my car have a spare tire, but not a spare battery? | Your spare battery would go dead as well. You can't have a spare car battery sitting in a car for years without it dying while a spare tire will last a long time without compromise |
;Why is it so easy to doze off during the day after(or at) work or class,but downright impossible at night? | Probably because you have the variation your PER1 gene expression (part of the gene group that controls circadian rhythm) that makes you a night owl rather than early bird / day lark. In prehistoric times, you would have been the one of the people watching over the village at night, keeping your family safe from predators. Unfortunately modern society was set up by a bunch of prudes that thought nocturnal activity was inherently wrong, and so the 9-5 working day became enshrined as the normal/healthy time to be awake and alert. |
How does first past the post voting work, and what other voting methods are there? | In First Past The Post voting, for every election, each constituency elects exactly one representative for some body. It literally becomes a winner-takes-all thing for each kind of election. For instance if you live in a State that has a 30 seat parliament, then there would be 30 districts and in each district, one seat for that parliament would be up for grabs. The typical system used in Europe (bar the UK which is also First Past the Post), is proportional representation. In proportional representation you use bigger voting districts which each elect a larger number of people to some body. For instance, in that same state as earlier there may be only 5 districts where each district elects 6 people. In such a district then, if for instance Party A gets 50% of the vote, party B gets 33% of the vote and party C gets 16% of the vote, then the seats in that parliament for that district would got to: Party A: 3 seats, party B: 2 seats and party C : 1 seat. |
How does it work when someone wins a new home from a television show? | They will probably end up having to sell the home. Since they didn't pay for the home, and instead received it as a gift, the home is considered income. If the home is worth 250k dollars(average price of a home in the US), then they owe taxes on all of that which is about 57k dollars for a married couple, before deductions and other income is taken into account. If they pay the taxes, they will be on the hook for all bills associated with home going forward(property tax, insurance, maintenance, utilities etc) |
Why aren't half dollar and dollar coins in greater circulation in the US, and why don't we have larger coin denominations in general (i.e. a $2 coin)? | No one I know likes to carry around coins, especially 20 dollars worth of larger dollar-sized coins. Bills are lighter and take up less space. |
Why do prisms split apart the different colors of light, but lenses don't? | Lenses do too. The phenomenon is called chromatic aberration. Good lenses, like camera lenses, have corrective doublet elements glued to them to compensate for the effect. If you have high index eyeglasses, you can see the effect by looking at a thick black line on white paper. It will be blue on one side and red on the other. |
How does my car radio can display the song that it's currently being broadcasting. | It uses the [Radio Data System (RDS)](_URL_0_). Basically the data is intermixed with the other data on the signal, but the radio knows how to read it and display it to you. |
What does defragging your hard drive actually do? | So when you delete something from your hard drive, really all you've done is removed a pointer in the computer that tells it "hey there is something here." Subsequently, when new files are added, it sees that space as available, and writes into it. Sometimes, the space being written into does not match the space of what is being written. For instance, you delete a 1kb file, and are creating a 2 mb file. So the system writes 1kb to that spot. Then it writes the remaining in other spots. This slows the read time down as now the computer has to look in several different places to put together this one file. Defragging says "ok, look at the files I have, and arrange them so they're all together in one piece as much as possible" |
Why would a drug dealer mix a powerful opioid and deadly drug (fentanyl) with heroin, rather than a weaker substance, knowing that it could negatively impact future business? | Because it's extremely addictive and powerful so will give the impression that their product is much better value. If you find a heroin dealer selling the same amount at about the same price, and it seems much stronger, of course that's what people will keep going back to. As if heroin wasn't already strong and addictive enough as it is. |
Why does the word 'unisex' mean both sexes? | From what I read from Oxford, it's not "uni" meaning "one," it's uni as short for universal (or united). |
How does a car engine (or any engine) works, and what is the difference between a turbo charger and a super charger? | Turbochargers and superchargers are basically the same thing: air compressors. In a turbocharger, the compressor impeller is spun using exhaust gasses that are being pushed out of the engine. In a supercharger, the compressor is spun using a belt and pulley mounted on the front of the engine. The idea behind these two is that to work correctly, an engine needs to maintain a ratio of air to fuel (gasoline, diesel, etc). It's easy to put more fuel in an engine cylinder, but not nearly as easy to put air in there unless it's compressed. The more air that an engine can put in the cylinder, the more fuel you can add (while maintaining your air/fuel ratio), and the bigger your explosion resulting in more power the engine can make. A wise man once told me, "There is no replacement for displacement [meaning larger engine cylinders] except manifold pressure [meaning compressed intake air from a turbocharger or supercharger]." |
Why didn't our taste buds evolve to make healthy foods taste good? | fatty foods are high in calories. you need ALOT of calories to survive. you need relatively few vitamins to survive. |
Why is the shower curtain rod in hotels bowed out? | Because shower curtains tend to get pulled inward when you're taking a shower thanks to the hot air inside the shower rising and creating a zone of reduced pressure. To keep the curtain from getting annoyingly close, the rod is bowed outward. |
Why does citrus taste so bad after brushing my teeth? | You tongue can detect different tastes. It detects salty, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. When you brush your teeth, the toothpaste becomes foamy. The foam is made by a chemical called sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS). SLS makes lots of foam and bubbles that make your teeth feel clean. SLS makes your sweet taste buds stop working so well. SLS also destroys fats that block your bitter taste buds. SLS hides the sweetness of orange juice and makes it taste bitterer. That's why it tastes horrible after brushing your teeth. SLS is in most toothpastes. |
How come dogs shiver even though when you cuddle with them, they're super warm? | My parents' poodle has had the shakes before -- the vet said it was because he was really anxious and stressed out. This happened while my parents were on vacation and I was dog-sitting. My friend had a dog - I think a terrier - and when he got older, he started to shake/tremble whenever he was sitting (hind legs down, front legs propping him up). The vet told the family it was just old age (maybe because of his breed?) & nothing to worry about. |
The difference between Rap and Hip-Hop | Hip hop is a culture. Rapping is an element of that culture. |
Why don't we have cones at high concentrations throughout our whole retina, not just the fovea? | Because evolution isn't out to make a perfect biological machine. Only make a biological machine that works for the pressures put against it right now. It it figuratively the kid who doesn't want to be in school doing just barely enough work to get that D and pass the class. |
Why doesn't the FBI (or any criminal investigative service) immediately shut down any illegal streaming service (or pirating) upon finding it? | Most of the time these sites originate outside of the US, therefore outside their jurisdictional area. |
Why does the US have a rule that no President can do more than two terms? | George Washington was revered by Americans after commanding us to victory in our revolution. He could have been president for life, or something like a king, but chose to serve two terms and retire. This was an American tradition, until Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who served three terms and won a fourth, but passed away before he could serve it. A lot of people thought that it was not a good idea to defy that tradition, and made it into a law. |
How did we figure out what each of our organs do? | Partially by luck or accident and partially by careful observation. Like, if there was a machine in your basement that was constantly running, and one day it stopped, and the house got really cold, you could probably figure out that it was responsible for heating the place. Or, if you got curious, and inspected the machine, and noted that it sucked in cool air from a return and blew warm air to the vents in the floors, you could probably deduce the same thing. |
Why do things physically hurt more when we are cold? | Your body is filed with thermoreceptors to detect the temperature. You have 2 main thermoreceptors for cold: regular cold thermoreceptors and extreme cold thermoreceptors. The second one, extreme cold, sends pain signals to your brain. So when it's cold and something hurts you, your brain is getting 2 different pain signals that compound with each other |
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