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How did white men come to be dominant on earth?
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Just about every white race can be traced back to Europe. The east/west geography of Europe allows for easier travel and sharing of ideas. When different groups of people travel more and share ideas, they develop their technology better, and in turn can take over other groups of people more easily. In the Americas and Africa, the landscape is more of a north/south orientation. Traveling in those lands would take you through vastly different climates...so people didn't travel as much, which meant less sharing of ideas and development. Source: I took a course on civilization when in college and this is one of the few things I remember from it. Of course, it all was a theory, but of all the theories we read trying to explain why Europe developed so much faster than the rest of the world, this made the most sense to me.
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How do peepholes work?
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So basically the peephole is fitted with a special type of convex lens, some call it a fish hook lens that takes a wide view on one side and condenses it. By nature a lens takes light rays and creates a fake image or real image depending on distance and other factors. The reason you are able to see clearly is because the light rays are actually intersecting on your side whereas for the guy on the outside, they aren't so the result is a distorted and blurry image.
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On some electronic devices, it will say something like "16GB of internal, expandable to 32GB" with a microSD card. Why the cap?
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It's likely because they didn't bother writing the software to index to that much memory. Meaning, on any given operating system it takes some thought as to how to store things in memory and get them back our again. It's a bit more complicated than just putting someone in a bin and getting it back out. It's likely that they simply didn't bother writing the software to use more than 32GB
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Why is CNN perceived as a bad network?
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CNN has a 24-hour news channel, and in order to get the ratings necessary to justify its existence, it has to do more than just repeat major headlines every ten minutes. So they try to find whatever they can to fill time and entice people to tune in multiple times a day for more than just a few minutes. What this means, though, is that they often have to stretch to find enough "news" to fill their time, and then their anchors have to talk about it, even if it's completely boring, uninteresting, and ridiculous. And they do this so much that it starts becoming habit to just blurt out stuff about a news story because they're afraid of having nothing to say and having dead-air. So despite the fact CNN has some good news anchors and often does a decent job of reporting, there are too many instances of gaffes, mistakes, and ridiculousness for people to take the whole network seriously. And it gives comedy shows enough material to make great jokes at their expense.
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Why do voices and some instruments vibrato?
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Why? Vibrato adds a lot of warmth to a musical note. By very slightly fluctuating your pitch, you are able to include more audio frequencies than just the single note's frequency by itself. So, the note you're projecting sounds a lot louder, warmer, fuller, etc. Also, vibrato is a clever way for many singers to slightly "auto-correct" their pitch. If you're slightly flat or sharp at the beginning of a longer note, you can use vibrato to sort of "shimmy" your voice into the right pitch before anyone really notices. Some people just have a great natural vibrato in their singing voice. Maybe they learned it as a kid by imitating other singers and unknowingly practiced it, but generally, it's a skill that's taught just like any other aspect of playing an instrument. With most musical instruments, they start teaching vibrato techniques as an intermediate-level skill.
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Why does a cold feel worse in the morning when you wake up?
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Mucus pooling in your head. Once you're upright it will start to drain out and your symptoms will diminish. Try sleeping on an incline (e.g. using a husband pillow) and it may mitigate some of the morning effect.
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how is "Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo." A correct sentence?
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First, it's "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." The capitals are important. Buffalo has three meanings in American English; the adjunct noun "Buffalo" is the city in New York, the noun "buffalo" is the plural and singular name of the American bison, and the verb "buffalo" means "to outwit or confuse". The sentence itself uses some trickery in order to remain grammatically correct. It uses two clauses in grammar, the reduced relative clause and the restrictive clause, that allow it to go without commas or joining words. The sentence means that the Buffalo buffalo (the bison in the city of Buffalo, New York) are intimidating other bison in their city through the use of bullying, and are in turn being bullied back. A more accurate sentence might be; "Buffalo buffalo, that Buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo Buffalo buffalo." Or "Bison from the city, that bully bison from the city, are being bullied by Bison in the city."
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The Sects of Different Religions
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There are people who think god is the sun in the morning. They don't play with people who think god is the moon at night.
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How do Nyquil and other sleep aids work?
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NyQuil is not a sleep aid. ZzzQuil is a sleep aid, while Nyquil is intended to reduce pain, fever, cough, and histamine response. NyQuil does have a side effect of drowsiness due to the action of diphenhydramine that binds to the histamine H1 receptor in the brain and acts as an inverse agonist. This means it binds to the receptor but does the opposite thing. The doxylamine in ZzzQuil is also an antihistamine which acts on the H1 receptor. Do not take NyQuil just for the sedative effects, there is a bunch of other stuff in it that you shouldn't be taking just because you want to feel sleepy.
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Why is the 2 party system so dominant in US politics? Will it change in the foreseeable future?
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The two party outcome is pretty much unavoidable in a "first past the post" system, and pretty much unavoidable when you have a small number of seats being contested (in this case, 1). CGP Grey to the rescue: _URL_0_
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Why/when did we start calling Emoticons Emojis?
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They're actually different! Emoticons are ~technically~ just these: :) :( < 3 etc. Made **just** with punctuation symbols. Some software **may** convert those symbols into pictures...but there is no defined standard. < 3 might become a heart, it might stay a less than three. Emojis have a defined standard in Unicode (the big rulebook of how computer treat and keep track of text). So if your computer supports full unicode, and it gets told to show character number U+1F618, it should show a smoochy emoji face.
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Why do car batteries last a long time, but go flat if you leave the lights on over night?
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It's a rechargeable battery. When the engine is running, the alternator is able to use the power from the gasoline engine to recharge the battery. If the engine if off, the alternator is off, and the battery drains without being recharged.
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Why do professional fighters "hug"? Is that any kind of defense? Does that have something to do with any rule?
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I think you're referring to the clinch. In most forms of karate, the clinch is a position from which you perform a lot of throws or strikes (such as knees to the head, or elbows to the head). In boxing, it is a defensive move to make sure that you do not get an uppercut or hook to the face.
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Why do we blink in response to loud sounds we anticipate?
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A loud, sudden noise would indicate something has fallen, exploded, or occurred that could possibly cause you harm, many of times from shards or debris. Your eyes are delicate, and that's your body's response to keeping your eyesight functioning as well as possible - which was even more essential to surviving and thriving in earlier humans.
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How do physicists know that time exists?
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Thought experiment: if suddenly everything in the universe stopped moving, no atoms smashing into each other, no synaptic exchange in our minds -- would time still be moving? Probably not. Time is just a way to measure change. A label for motion.
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What make heart muscles different from leg muscles, et al. so that they never get fatigued?
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Practice. Repetition. The heart muscles are accustomed to their regular activity -- they've been doing that all their life, and although it doesn't seem like much of a rest to us, they get a bit of rest between each and every beat. Heart muscles do fatigue when they're asked to do more than normal. When your heart rate increases for some time, or when your blood pressure increases for some time... this is your heart working harder than normal, and it will fatigue. Your leg muscles just aren't used to the kind of regular work that the heart muscles do.
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Why is a repetitive motion, such as drumming a finger on the table, annoying for others but not for ourselves?
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Those type of actions are about soothing or entertaining yourself. You get positive feedback from the noise or motion. Other people just get an annoying click, tap, or track suit rustling as you bounce your leg up and down in 3rd period noise. Great for you as it works out your nerves, not for others because it's just a noise or motion.
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Why do people like to lean backwards in a chair to just before the point of tipping over?
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When you lean back in your chair you change your center of gravity. At the point just before falling forwards or backwards you are perfectly balanced over the central part of your body. This makes us feel centered, balanced, and grounded. So ultimately we are chasing the feeling of being stable when we'll most likely end up flat on our backs.
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Why is the new World Central Airport Dubai expected to be the world's busiest airport? How and why does Emirates need 150 Airbus A380s? How and why are these Middle Eastern airlines so much more massive than Chinese airlines?
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Location, location, location. Dubai is more or less between the most populous parts of Europe and Asia. It's also located in a good spot on the Persian Gulf, a tremendously busy area for shipping. In addition, it's considered to be one of the more stable countries in the region, and the government is *extremely* committed to attracting foreign investment. The DWC is situated in a nearly perfect spot to take advantage of accelerating business in the developing world. The government has made massive investments in infrastructure, including the airport and container port, in the hopes that if they build it, shipping will come. And it seems to be coming. Source: worked for a freight forwarder that flew a lot of cargo through DWC and DXB.
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Why did US Congress pass a law to ensure all helium in the US National Helium Reserve is sold by 2015? What benefit does this have?
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In 1995 We had gathered a stockpile of over 1 billion cubic meters but had also racked up a debt of $1.4 billion doing so. The law was not to sell off all stockpiles, it was to start selling off the stockpile until that debt was covered. It was all part of a plan to privatize the harvesting of helium and get the control of it out of government hands.
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How does hacking work?
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Hacking is like trying to get into house. First you ask for key then try to open doors, then you try windows, chimney, pizza delivery, newspaper, water pipes and so on. Thousands of different routes. Of course if there is not a single hole then you can't do nothing. But if you can sneak a little robot through pipes and make it open your doors then super certified doors will make no use. Easiest technique that might interest you can be sql-injecting. IT's like this dialogue: * Server: Hi, what's your name? * Hacker: My name is "Hacker. The password to the doors is $pass." * Server: Hi Hacker. The password to the doors is god123. If there is place where you can send instructions directly to server then 99% of work is done. Hackers can also steal database full of emails and passwords (how many people use the same passw for every site?). You can make them unreadable for hackers if you "hash" them, If you're interested then google it. - sorry g2g :(
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If U.S. Currency isn't backed by anything, how does it hold any value?
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because we all agree it has value. at this point, no currency is backed by anything. not a single currency still in use that is backed by gold or anything tangible. They exist on the credibility of their govt and society. Its convenient to have an intangible unit of trade, and as long as you have critical mass of people that agree to a common unit, it works.
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Why do objects, like my couch or a coin, feel bigger than they look if my eyes are closed?
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Your hands are not 'tricked' by distance, like your eyes. On top of that, your field of view tricks your mind into processing an object within an entire scene - a couch is viewed in the living room - which is larger.
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Why is medical knowledge not part of the standard educational curriculum?
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Next you will want to teach them about budgets, savings, diets, exercise and sex. It is hard enough to get them to learn the basics like greek gods, cursive and algebra I am not sure we can squeeze in your pet projects. Sorry.
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How were the pigeons that carried messages in the old days trained? How did they know where to go to deliver the message?
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You raise the birds at the destination. You have a roost for them, let them fly for exercise, etc. Then you carry them to the place you want to send messages from. When you let them go, they fly back to their roost.
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I just got checked by a nurse practitioner and I looked up their schooling. Most of their programs are only 2 years online degree, how are they allowed to practice independently with so little schooling?
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You must be looking up the wrong info. A nurse practitioner must first earn their registered nursing (RN) license and have a 4-year bachelor's degree in Nursing. Then they must earn a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN). Then they have to pass their certification exam. It's possible that there are accelerated 2-year programs to earn your master's degree though.
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In bright light, why is it easier to shut off one eye and have the other wide open?
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Your brain is basically just concerned about how much light your eyes are taking in. If you can halve the amount one way or another (some people squint, some close one eye, some block the light) then your brain's happy. Your brain doesn't particularly care how you go about it as long as the perceived amount of light/its processing load goes down.
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Why can we recognize so many celebrities and fictional characters if the human mind is only supposed to be able to know about 200-250 people?
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So the first thing you have to understand is that it's not about 'knowing who they are'. It's about maintaining a certain level of relationship with people. The numbers were actually 100-250 initially (150 on average) and were called Dunbar numbers named after the psychologist who studied the phenomenon later other researchers, mostly anthropologists like Bernard-Killworth doubled the number but they are not as famous. This however is not the same as acquaintanceship volume; people you can recognise or name nor does this include fictional characters or celebrities either. To learn more about acquaintanceship volume click [here](_URL_2_) To learn more about Dunbar and his numbers click [here](_URL_0_) To understand more about how you recognise faces and recall people click [here](_URL_1_)
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Why are mixed blacks in the US considered black no matter how much they are mixed while this does not apply to other races?
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The answer is all political. For some though, it depends on how they grow up. I had a friend who was half black but grew up with this mothers side of the family who is white. He didn't really identify as black. Currently its very political. Black community don't like when half black people identify with a different race. These people tend to be the victims of black on black verbal hate, calling them race traitors or uncle Toms.
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Where did the stereotype that Canadians are always saying "sorry" come from?
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From Canadians saying sorry in places where it isn't needed. The Prime Minister just spent a week apologizing for accidentally brushing up against some member of Parliament. It dominated their news for the whole friggin' week. That is some serious 'Sorry' energy. Edit: typos.
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If child molesters or killer of children have a tougher time once in prison, why can't they lie about what they when asked by inmates?
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Word gets around. Criminal convictions are public records in most places, and it's not hard to get a friend outside to look up what a guy is in for if you're suspicious of him. A lot of people do try to lie about it, but if anyone really gets suspicious, it won't work well.
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How can eating half a pound of chocolate make you gain 2 pounds of fat?
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> How can eating x weight in food produce a greater number of weight gained in fat. Fat is made up of cells, and those cells are filled with water in order for their bits to move around and function. The chocolate bar isn't going to be stored as a raw chocolate deposit in your flesh. Chocolate is pretty complex a snack item but imagine if I was making a primative energy bar from suet or raw fat. We would take a big, jiggly portion of animal fat and break it apart into a smooth paste, then dehydrate that paste until we had a solid, soft bar. The resulting bar is much lighter than the fat from which it came and if you ate it and converted everything to fat, you would gain weight. But some of that weight is from retained water.
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Why is it that when you speed a video up, it gets higher pitched?
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Sound is vibration of the air interpreted by your eardrum. Fast frequencies are interpreted as being high pitched. Low frequencies are interpreted as low pitch. Speeding up a video increases the frequency of vibration relative to unsped up and raises the pitch.
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Why do they have to shut the subway down when there's a snowstorm, shouldn't the underground portions still be able to keep going?
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For one, you need people to drive the trains. You can't keep the subways running if you tell the drivers they can have the day off. For two, if you shut down the mass transit, you tend to keep people home. Keep people home, and you have less of a need to have cops, ambulance drivers, taxis, etc on the street.
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What is happening to our bodies when we see something that makes us "cringe"?
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Cringing is a form of empathy. If you see a child crying on the street because he lost his parents you feel bad, sometimes even physically, because you can imagine how it feels for the child. Empathy is our instinct to put ourself in somebody else's position. Watching a movie where something incredibly sad can make you cry. Watching a movie where something really embarrassing happens makes you cringe. It's a different reaction to the same thing, empathy.
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...I saw a news story tonight where a child had a double hand transplant; as a Biochemistry major in college I struggle to understand how is this possible?
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Arm transplants have happened as well, in general we haven't done a lot of limb transplants but conceptually it's just the same technology that lets us do any organ transplant plus the technique we use to reattach severed limbs in accidents. It's unlikely we will do any foot transplants any time soon, because the drugs you have to take after a transplant have a lot of serious side effects and most people wouldn't find the medical risks worth it for feet, or even a case where a person still has one hand. It's basically only worth the costs for a person that has no hands at all because of how debilitating that is.
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4K quality (what seems to be the next step up from 1080p from what I have seen)
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It's the next-gen HD resolution. You had it right. Its not particularly important yet though as there is almost no 4K content being made, and very few things are capable of displaying 4K currently. In 5-10 years it'll probably be much more relevant.
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What happens when we generate more electricity than the grid is using?
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When too much electricity is being produced one of the first things done is reducing the amount of electricity used by scaling back "quick reacting" plants. Imagine angling the blades of a windmill so they aren't catching the wind anymore and supply is reduced. There aren't traditional batteries big enough to hold the amount of electricity produced by power plants. However, "non-traditional" batteries can be used. Some power plants have experimented with using excess power produced to pump water uphill or into a dam, where electricity would be "stored" as potential energy. When the energy is needed again the water is allowed to run back down the hill or out of a dam to power a turbine.
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How do different languages share the internet? Is there a Russian language internet, Chinese language internet, or is everything translated from one page?
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No, a website will be the same no matter where you load it (usually, and not talking about region specific sites like Google.ra or even _URL_0_ (Canada)). If you search through Reddit, you will find many subreddits where people communicate in their own languages, like Russian Cyrillic or Kanji. However, some sites have built-in translation (even Instagram does) and Google Translate can translate an entire webpage, just enter the URL into it.
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How do people who fast/don't eat or drink for longer than usual people not die?
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> Eg: like that indian bloke that didn't eat for 70 years. Spoiler alert: He eats just like anyone else. He *claims* not to eat, but that claim is ridiculous. There were two "tests" performed, but the first showed that he lost weight during the 10 days that he was being monitored, and the second test allowed him to gargle water and bathe, neither of which were sufficiently monitored to prevent him from drinking and urinating (which he also claims not to do). In short, the claim to not have eaten in 70 years is a lie.
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how does someone like bill gates keep all of his money?
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His net worth is largely tied to his investment holdings with Microsoft, although he more than likely has investments elsewhere. As the share price of Microsoft fluctuates daily on the market, his net worth fluctuates with it. If Microsoft has a particularly bad quarter, he publicly lost a lot of money.
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How are special effects (CGI) in movies created?
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What kind of effects, specifically? The eli5 version is that you use computers to animate something. There are very sophisticated programs that can help calculate exactly how those animations move to make them appear realistic. They don't draw it in frame by frame, they essentially animate all the parts and then use the computer programs to calculate how those parts should move and how quickly they should move. Depending on how much cgi there is it can take a few days to several months to animate a few minutes. I believe Gollum took something like twenty six hours to calculate the animations for *each frame.* If you ever wondered why you hear about a movie finishing shooting, and then it's like eight months later before it's released, now you know.
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what is the process of going into shock?
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There's a lot of good comments here describing what medical shock is, but OP is almost certainly asking about what most people think i called shock, i.e. an acute stress reaction, or ASR. Actual medical shock is a lack of oxygenated blood perfusing to tissue, but that isn't what people think shock is. That's because a bunch of movies/TV show someone who experiences a very intense event, like being shot, or seeing someone die, and they call that shock. That isn't medical shock (unless they bleed a lot from the bullet). That's a stress reaction, caused by the same soup of neurotransmitters that cause panic attacks and other such events.
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How effective was the Great Wall of China at keeping Mongolians out of China?
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The wall served two main purposes: stopping raids and providing warning of attacks. It wasn't really meant to hold back a large invading army. It was pretty easy for nomads to raid Chinese farming villages in the north with just a few men. The wall was someone effective in deterring that because it's hard to destroy a wall with a very small force and it only takes a couple people on a wall to fight you off. When it came to large invasions, the wall's main purpose was to provide warning and maybe slow invaders. In fact, the wall has signal towers all along it so that a warning could be sent to wherever it needed to go. The wall was too big to man with a large, permanent force that could repel an invading army, but an invading army would still either have to spend time getting through the wall or around the wall. While they were doing that, the warning signal would be making its way to the capital and/or army. [This](_URL_0_) thread from /r/askhistorians goes into some pretty good detail.
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What is the difference to my body if I eat 5000 calories one day and zero the next vs 2500 for two days?
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It has been suggested that the human metabolism has evolved two modes of operation, activated by calorie intake. The first is *grow mode* where plentiful nutrients are flung about the body and as suggested the body replenishes itself. The second is *repair mode.* Activated by a lack of calories, the body scavenges nutrients left behind from *grow mode,* such as from build-up on the walls of arteries. This may be a response to the failure of the hunt, when protein and calories are scarce but vitamins and minerals are still available from more plentiful vegetation. Modern humans in developed countries may be at risk of remaining in grow mode throughout their lives and never entering repair/scavenge mode, and then die of blockages caused by years of nutrient build up.
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How is NSA software undetectable?
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A properly designed root kit installs before the OS loads, so it controls everything the OS can see. It can perfectly disguise itself because it can block any information the OS might use to detect it.
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Why aren't professional body builders who take steroids arrested?
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To be arrested on any kind of a drug charge requires possession or buying/selling. The fact of having taken an illegal drug is not something a person can be arrested for.
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The New Internet Laws
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I don't know it in detail enough to write an entire explanation but from what I know they laws were written REALLY badly(Which at this point should not be a surprise) and as so broad that under them if say user43985734 submitted a copyrighted video to youtube, youtube would be the ones responsible for it. aka copyright lawyers could sue youtube and any other file sharing platform out of business.
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How Do Hand Warmers Work?
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I'll try again. Pure powdered iron when it is oxidized or "rusts" releases heat. Yup, rusting releases heat it's just we never notice because it's the surface area of things like a car bumper are relatively small and the rust occurs slowly over time. Hand warmers are physically small but since the iron is very finely powdered the total surface area of all that iron dust is huge. So you have a lot of the "rusting" or oxidation of iron occurring and that releases heat which is noticeable.
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Did NASA disprove or set back global warming?
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First of all, an article can link back to any trustworthy source it wants, but it doesn't mean that the article is using that source correctly. It seem to me that the article is trying to say that since CO2 is reflective, it must be cooling off the earth. Is CO2 reflective? Yes. Does it cool off the earth? Heck to the no. Sure CO2 reflects some of the heat coming to the earth, but you have to think about the heat coming from the earth. **This is the ELI5 part**: Think of CO2 as a giant blanket. It'll keep some of the heat on the outside, but it will also keep a lot of the heat on the inside. When heat tries to escape the earth, it hits this blanket and keeps the Earth warm. The problem is that CO2 keeps in more heat than it reflects back into space.
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What makes it so that people with epilepsy cant look at rapidly flashing colors on a screen?
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Rapidly flashing lights cause a sort of "short circuit" in the brain, this produces a seizure. Its usually much faster rates than a flashing screen, but neurologists do tests with flashing lights to measure your tolerance to them in a sleep study. I know this since I've had epilepsy since I was 15 (now 23) and am relatively well controlled on anti-seizure medications. Hope this answers your question. Pm me if you have more. :)
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Why does meningitis always seem to kill people who are college aged and otherwise healthy?
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Bacterial meningitis is *extremely* deadly, able to kill in less than a day, often under 3 days. You often hear of it in college students simply because they are more exposed to the infection, as bacterial meningitis is usually transferred through saliva. Any age group can contract and die from it.
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If I were to write the address of where I wanted to send a letter in the "from" area, and my address in the "to" area without a stamp, where would the letter go?
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Nowhere at all. The post man would pick it up, write "No stamp" on it, and put it back. Or, he might not even write anything. He would just leave it. If you did put a stamp on it, it would go to your local post office, be filed, and then sent right back with the next day's mail.
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Why are some of the things that the horoscope says about some signs so accurate?
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Try reading some of the other signs and pretend they're yours. You'll find that they're written so generically that you can find something describing you in just about all of them. Short answer is Confirmation bias.
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Why is China still a developing country despite it's massive economy?
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Because most of its citizens are still poor, subsistence farmers or low skilled factory workers, etc. The economy is massive but their population is ALSO massive. Their per capita GDP is about 1/7 that of the U.S.
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After big plane crashes, do all pilots in the world learn from them?
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My father is a safety officer with the civil air patrol. He holds monthly safety meetings where they discuss the recent accidents and crashes(there are more than you might think) and how they could have been avoided. There was recently a crash that killed a man and his wife at our local airport, and just yesterday a plane nose dived into a neighborhood near here. Companies that employ pilots have their own safety programs and meetings. Private pilots learn about these things at their own discretion.
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How American Politics works.
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Large corporations send lobbyists to bribe people in Congress and the Senate to present and vote for bills that will be profitable to them. Politcians tell their base what they want to hear in order to get elected and then just continue to pander to corporate interests, because it's very profitable for them. All the while they have the media present "issues" for people to get worked up about and generate a whole circus stage show of "left" vs "right" and create the illusion of partisanship, but behind closed doors, the money is all coming from the same corporations into the pockets of both parties. So, these bills get passed and that's how a bill becomes a law.
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why is plastic a good insulator?
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In that specific case, it's because plastic film is non-porous. That is, it's a solid membrane that doesn't let air through. Fabric on the other hand has all these tiny holes in it between the threads (unless is is very thick, very dense, and very tightly woven) that can let air through.
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Why is there such a high concentration of religious conservatives in the South in the US?
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The reasons are complex. [Here](_URL_0_) is /r/AskHistorians on the subject.
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What is Socialism? And why do people think America is coming to that?
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It's maybe worth saying in addition to the responses you've had, that *nobody* at all, outside the US, thinks that America is going socialist. That some Americans think they are, is pretty funny and the result of what Europeans, in various languages, used to call propaganda. Of course there's no such thing as propaganda in the States. That would be ridiculous.
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Why couldn't Verizon's network handle simultaneous voice and data until relatively recently?
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That was a limitation of their non-LTE technology. CDMA is a different technology than GSM (the radios work different) and I think CDMA was more voice optimized. Their 3G technology was unable to handle things simultaneously - likely since data browsing wasn't as big of a priority - GSM has wider adoption and their implementation included that capability (CDMA being US only didn't care it seems). When Verizon started to go for 4G before everyone else, they made sure their implementation included that since it was now something that they could market and since consumers demanded it. AT & T as very particular in pointing out this difference as smartphones became more mainstream. It's important to remember that each company had different priorities when building their networks. Smartphones were not as big as they were today so less priority was placed on them.
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What is the difference between the titles Great Britain, England and the United Kingdom and is it proper to refer to someone as English or British?
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England is, well, England; Great Britain includes England, Scotland and Wales; the United Kingdom includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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Hindu deities, how are there so many versions of the same gods?
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All the Hindu deities are part of the same ultimate divine power, known as Brahman. There are three main divisions from there, known as Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. These can be looked at in a similar way to the Christian Trinity. One being, three bodies. From there, it gets more complex and there are a thousand more divisions and fractals, each representing a slightly different aspect. For me, when I was studying them, the easiest way for me to picture it was each God as a different facet of the same gem. Each has its own qualities, but they're still all part of one Whole.
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Why did Bill Clinton remain in office after being impeached?
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Impeachment just means that Clinton was officially accused of misconduct. It does not mean that he was actually found guilty of such misconduct. Remember, in the US, the House of Representatives determines if the President should be put on trial. If the House of Representatives determines that this is the case, the President is considered to have been impeached. After that, the Senate listens to a trial and determine if the President is guilty. Clinton was never actually found guilty by the Senate, so no punishment was carried out by them.
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When I plug my headphones into the microphone port, why does it work?
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Headphones and microphones are remarkably similar in design. The headphone's speaker diaphragm moves in response to sound and this drives a current which moves through the cable. This is also how basic microphones are designed.
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What exactly is Nihilism?
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In general it is the belief that there is no inherent purpose or value in existence.
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I have to empty my 5 gallon dehumidifier in the basement every day. Where is all that water coming from? And if I didn't have a dehumidifier where would it all go?
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In the air. The air is full of water vapour. Water vapour is transparent to the human eye, so we can't see it. And no, the steam from the kettle is not vapour, it's tiny droplets of liquid water, that's why you see it. Same happens with the clouds, btw. So, the vapour is in the air. If you didn't have a dehumidifier, it would be in the air. Have you ever heard of relative humidity? You could have a basement with a 90% relative humidity that is cold and stinks with mold, or you could have a basement with 20% relative humidity with an air so dry that makes your nose bleed.
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What was/is so special about the Vitruvian Man?
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It connects the "natural" with an idea of "math and science". This is significant as it represents a key concept in the renaissance - we begin to see a connection between the fabricated world of math and science and its ability to describe and model the real world.
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Why don't you wake up sleepwalker?
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A lot of people believe if you wake them up, they'll have a heart attack or something else horrible. These claims are overstated. A normal healthy person is very unlikely to have anything bad happen to them. It will probably confuse or disorient them. Depending on how they react, they might try to defend themselves and fight you or they might injure themselves before they're aware of what they're doing. The best case scenario is probably to guide them back to bed.
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What can the military do if the president attempts a hostile takeover?
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How would the president conduct a hostile takeover without the military? Also a takeover of what?
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How does one get college scholarships and how do they work?
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There are multiple kinds of scholarships. Many scholarships are applied for. If you google "scholarship search" it will pop up several tools that will help you locate scholarships that you may qualify for. These require you to fill out applications and say why you deserve the scholarship, but they can be quite helpful. Some scholarships are automatically awarded, either because of need or merit. If you are in financial need, scholarships are sometimes offered. If you have incredibly good grades and test scores, some schools may offer you a scholarship as a way to entice you to go there.
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Why does checking your credit score lower it?
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Merely checking your score for personal reasons does **not** lower it. That's what's known as a "soft" check and it harmless. When your score is checked for *purposes of lending you money*, that's a "hard" check and counts against you. The logic is that if you're asking lots of people for loans in a short period of time, you might have some upcoming financial problems that make your a poor credit risk. Let's say you've got a friend that wants to borrow $20. It's not that big of a deal so you'll probably lend him the money. If you find out that he's been going around asking everyone he knows if he can borrow money, it's going be suspicious and a reasonable person might wonder if they'll get their money back.
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As a man, why does all sexual desire disappear after an orgasm? It's almost to the point where I think sex is disgusting for a while (NSFW)
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The part about this not being the same for women is not accurate. As a woman, I actually used to go through this exact same thing.. I always thought it was so strange- especially because I could be turned on by the simplest of things or the strangest of things and they all elicited the same response once I had orgasmed.. A kind of disgust. However, as my comfort level with my own sexuality grew, I began to slowly grow away from those feelings.
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what black heads are made of, and why some people get them more than others
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Your skin has millions of glands on its surface that secrete an oily wax known as sebum. This is completely natural, and serves a natural lubricant for your skin to prevent chafing and dryness. Many plants have a similar waxy coating on their leaves, which helps prevent dehydration as well. These glands can sometimes get clogged with an excess of sebum. The propensity or chance of this happening is not actually related to hygiene, as some people believe. It's just a genetic disposition - some people have oilier skin than others. They are more likely to experience blackheads. The reason they are black is that they usually clog hair follicles, and the hair root reflects light irregularly to make them seem black. If you've ever removed blackheads using a Biore strip or something, you'll see that they're yellowish in color.
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Why are train tracks covered in stones?
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Not all are. A great deal are, but there are some areas where it's dirt, and other where it's cement. But it's because stone offer the most support. Dirt can get washed away as mud after a torrential downpour, stones don't do that as often. You even still see trains have trouble with areas that have a lot of dirt around the tracks, as the tracks get washed out.
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ISIS seems to be growing every passing day, but it seems like no nation is obviously taking them seriously, why is that?
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We are not in an era of televised war. There's nobody on the ground filming western nations deploying troops because that's not how ISIS is being engaged. There's no warning for the press to get some great action shots of a drone strike, which is how the US primarily is fighting ISIS. Nobody wants a ground war after "Mission Accomplished." This is not a fight that can dominate the airwaves in the same way as previous wars; instead we *hear* about Drone Strike success days after they happen. The real media coverage is coming from terrorist attacks conducted by ISIS. I assure you they are being taken seriously, but nobody has engaged in a ground war with them.
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How exactly do we know what human-based climate change is a major reason for heavier storm seasons, and not the planet heating up naturally?
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That is a pretty meaningless question. If you had to load up a shelf with 50 pounds of rocks and 50 pounds of jellybeans and then the shelf broke because it could only handle 75 pounds how can you be sure if it was the rocks or jellybeans that broke it? You can't, that doesn't mean anything. There is natural heating of the air and water and there is unnatural heating and both together make a certain amount of energy available to storms. The more energy available the bigger and harder they can hit things. You can't separate out that "some of that energy is human caused and some is natural, which did it?" because both things add up to do it.
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What would happen to the body if it is continually electrocuted, like the guy from "Taken?"
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Electrocution, by definition, means "death by electric shock". So it is impossible to continually electrocute someone. Either they are electrocuted, or not.
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Why does cheese go hard when you melt it then let it go cold?
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When you heat the cheese up past a certain point, moisture is released, which when it cools down, makes it harder as it is more dense. Water in cheese makes it softer.
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Why was Spelling a Core subject in Elementary school but no longer in Middle and High school?
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Spelling never really gets any harder. Vocabulary just expands. It would be like having addition class.
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How does a toilet actually flush from water being added to the bowl?
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[Toilet Crossview](_URL_0_) for reference. As water is added to the bowl, it rises up the pipe following that blue line. When enough water is added, it overflows the other side and gravity takes over. That water overflowing creates a chain of negative pressure and the remaining water/contents of the bowl are basically sucked out through the pipe. Edit: [Video of the process in action](_URL_1_). When the video mentions the siphon created in the back/pipe of the toilet, it's the negative pressure I was referring to.
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How can North Korea treat it's people in such horrible conditions without the UN or another country intervening?
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There are many complexities involved in UN intervention or any global intervention. Many of these are political and economical in nature, but in North Korea's case, there is one single factor that trumps all of these: Less than 40 miles from a number of major North Korean military bases is a Seoul, South Korea's capital. It is ranked in global importance equivalent to Los Angeles, San Fransisco, Moscow, Mexico City, and Beijing. This city, including its larger regional population, contains a quarter of South Korea's population. North Korea has made it very clear that any military intervention would result in the end of Seoul - and therefore South Korea, as we know it.
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Why hasn't David Miscavige (and the rest of Scientology for that matter) been investigated by the police yet?
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Scientology in the past have made it a point to go after people personally if they don't get what they want. (google how they got their tax exemption status). They even tried to infiltrate law enforcement (operation show white). This hasn't stopped the FBI though. However, since they are classed as a religious group, a lot of their actions are viewed as 'religious practices'. Not to mention that everyone 'volunteers' to undergo these actions. Like his wife took the fall for Ron L Hubbard, every scientology member will take the fall for Miscavige.
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Why can't you be born with dark skin colour if your parents are white (and vice versa)?
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Skin color is genetic, like hair or eye color. If your parents aren't coded for it they can't pass it on to you.
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Timbre, or how I know the difference between the sound of a piano and the sound of a violin
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Ordinary musical sounds are actually quite complex. We think of a trumpet as playing one note at a time. But it really plays one "fundamental tone" (the lowest) with many "overtones" due to the way that it resonates. This gives a trumpet much of its distinctive sound...its "timbre". The overtones are multiples of the fundamental frequency, but different instruments make different overtones. You can electronically recreate a trumpet note by combining a fundamental sound with the right set of overtones. You then just add them together and you get a trumpet-like sound. Or mix together a fundamental and a different set of overtones and you get a flute. But there's more to a trumpet sound to that. It also has a distinctive way that the sound starts (the "attack") and trails off (the "decay"). If you can change how rapidly the trumpet note (fundamental plus overtones) go from zero to full amplitude and then back again, you can fake that, too.
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Is it just a coincidence that 'Who', 'What', 'When', 'Where', and 'Why' all start with 'Wh' or is there a reason?
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There is a reason. Specifically the grammar of PIE (the earliest ancestor language of modern English that we have a fair working knowledge of) marked interrogatives (words like who, what, when etc) with a prefix that sounded like 'kw'. (I'm no linguist, but I suppose this is kind of like the way English marks questions with a rising final intonation). As PIE morphed into English (via German) the 'kw' prefix became 'hw'. Say both sounds together and notice how similar they are to actually say. Over time the order of the hw got swapped around, and the pronunciation simplified to 'w' in most cases and 'h' in a few words eg. 'how'. Interestingly, PIE also developed along parallel lines into other languages like Latin. And in Latin, interrogatives mostly all start with the letter 'q', another obvious descendant from the 'kw' sound. (For example English 'what' and Latin 'quod').
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Why can't the world have one currency?
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There is no reason we couldn't, it wouldn't even be hard to implement if we got 100% buy in from all countries. The problem is that having your own currency is awesome. You can manipulate it to control inflation, interest rates, and other economic factors. You are somewhat detached from other countries, so their economic troubles don't necessarily become yours (Example - Germany and Greece). Given the benefits of having your own currency (along with a certain amount of national pride) it is unlikely we will have a global currency for the foreseeable future.
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shaped charges. I read a little about it but I just don't understand them
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An explosion is basically a shockwave. For a uniform, round explosive, the wave is more or less spherical. However, you can change the shape of the shockwave by changing the shape and material of the explosive. Just like light, shockwaves move slower through some materials. By creating a lens shape using a different material, the wave can be bent and focused in the same way a glass lens will bend light. The material used to make the lens can be anything, but is usually either air or an explosive with a different shockwave velocity.
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My nearest major city has a road grid that is *slightly* angled off East West. Is there a practical reason for this?
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From what I can tell of the [article on the "Hoddle Grid"](_URL_0_), it's not a continuation of the original infrastructure, which has a different angle meant to match with the Yarra River. That same article implies that the *slightly* off angle of the rest of the city is aligned with what magnetic north used to be, 8 degrees off true north. But that's not really cited so I don't know if it's definitive or just a guess.
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As a German with not much knowledge about the US, please explain why Florida is so often made fun of/spoken badly about
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There are laws in Florida that arrests are a matter of public record so they end up in the newspaper. Every state and country has idiots doing stupid things but in Florida if they get arrested it goes in the newspaper for everyone to see. This makes it seem like these things happen way more often in Florida when really its just about reporting.
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How are torrent-hosting sites simply not shut down for copyright violations?
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Generally because there is nothing hosted on a torrent site. The street equivalent is knowing a guy that can get access to anything. You walk up to him and say, I want some weed. He tells you to go into that red door. Someone else wants to buy booze. He tells them to go into that blue door. Cops come up and try to arrest him for selling drugs. They search him but he has nothing on him. They have to let him go because he doesn't have anything on him and knowing were to get certain drugs is not a crime. Also most hosting sites are not not hosted on American soil so they can tell the DMCA to fuck right off.
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. How do news organizations benefit from being biased?
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Being partisan can build them a loyal following. People like having their preconceived notions affirmed. Going to a news source where they have their notions affirmed over and over can gain them very loyal watchers. Plus, it allows advertisers to to very specifically target their advertisements. Go to Fox News and see how many people you see selling Gold type investments and compare it to how much you see them on more general TV.
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If a sizable spacecraft was hovering over earth, would we be able to see it?
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You can spot satellites and the ISS from the ground already. They look like shooting stars, but you can see them.
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Why does a hearing a recording of my voice sound different to me then when I hear myself talk?
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We hear sounds as vibrations hitting our ear drums. When we hear most sounds, these vibrations travel through the air and into the ear canal. Our own voices also vibrate through our bodies, creating a slightly lower pitch. When you hear a recording of your voice you are missing this extra level of vibration that lowers the sound, so your voice sounds higher than what you are used to. Source: _URL_0_
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How did the asterisk end up being used for correcting an incorrectly spelled word?
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I think that relates to their use as footnotes. An asterisk* after a word refers to a passage at the bottom of the page which has clarification or extra information regarding the word. I think that with the advent of instant messaging, the method gained popularity as a corrective footnote. The first asterisk of the pair is obviously missing because you can't plan for typos in advance. --- ^(*which, FYI, comes from Latin "aster" which means star)
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Why do most dogs seem to love beer?
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My dog isn't picky. She likes anything even vaguely edible, including paper. I've also known dogs that would eat dirt and rocks, so beer really isn't that weird in comparison.
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How does your brain change from when you are a kid to when you are an adult?
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Some recent studies have indicated that the prefrontal cortex does not finish it's development until much later than the rest of the brain, in young adulthood. This apparently has a lot to do with "idiot teen syndrome" (my term) where teenagers don't really understand their limitations and the consequences of their actions since these functions are done in the prefrontal cortex.
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What makes Cuban cigars so sought after? Can they not be grown on another Caribbean country?
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Some of it is the "Coors Beer" effect: when you couldn't get Coors Beer in the eastern US it was the best beer in the world. Now that it's everywhere it's just another beer. Cuban cigars were always available in the US by buying them in Canada. They are good cigars but Honduran cigars can be every bit as good or better. Once Cubans are common they will lose a lot of their mystique
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How can you watch a video while you are still downloading it?
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Essentially a torrent is just downloading your file in lots of little fragments from other computers. If your torrenter is set up to request and download these fragments in order, assemble them, and then you play them almost immediately after that, then it does give the impression you're watching it as it's being downloaded. i.e. It downloads the first minute, plays it while it's downloading the second minute, and so on. Of course this is limited on you downloading faster than you can watch, but that's essentially how it all works.
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Why does IT not have apprenticeship programs?
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There are. Germany introduced IT apprenticeship in 1997.
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