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What is ethernet and how does it differ from regular internet?
Ethernet is just the particular type of port and network protocol which is used in wired ports to your computer. You probably know what it looks like: a larger, wider telephone connector. This is generally only used in local networks, and once it leaves the building changes to cable or fiber of some sort. The Internet as a whole uses very many different methods to move data, from fiber optics to cable to microwave to satellites.
Why are there no laws to stop lies in politics, like there are to stop lies in advertising?
there was a premier of Ontario (like a governor in the states) who signed a pledge publicly not to do 'x'. A few months after being elected, he did 'x'. The dude who initiated it took it to court where it was thrown out, because politicians can be expected to lie. True story.
Why are scars clearly a different pigment color than the rest of our skin?
Your normal skin was made slowly and precisely like a professional carpenter. Scar tissues was made in a hurry to plug a leak like an amateur DIY emergency bodger.
Why Japanese always do the "V for victory" symbol when totally not applicable(or just in every picture ever).
Its a cultural thing. Like how we say "say cheese" when we take a picture.
How is it that the US economy flourished and expanded so extraordinarily during the late 1940s and 1950s when the government was so burdened with war debt?
The USA was more or less the only fully intact industrial economy. We supplied everything. To everyone.
How does the pedometer know that I am walking and not just shaking my phone?
If you looked at a graph of what the phone was recording as it moves you would quickly see patterns that were unique to walking. The phone records how it's moving (accelerating) in 3 different directions. It also records the magnetic force in 3 directions like a 3 dimensional compass. A graph of this would look like 6 lines all waving around. When you're walking you have a very rhythmic movement and it only happens in certain directions relative to the direction your phone is orientated in your pocket or bag. The same for climbing stairs and a load of other actions. The graphs of these actions will all have unique things about them that the phone can pick out to tell what you're doing. It's like recognising your voice - it's not perfect but it's getting very good.
the contact rules in ice hockey
You cant hit (*check*) a guy if he is not actively involved in a play (*interference*). You can not use your stick to impede a players progress (*tripping* or *hooking*). You cannot elbow someone (*elbowing*). You cant intentionally push someone head first into the wall in an unnecessary manner (*boarding*). You cant smack someone with your stick to make them fall down (*slashing*). You rrally cant do anything the ref says was unnecessary. (*roughing*). Probably missing a few.
Why is 13 an unlucky number in Western culture?
The Last Supper, the last meal Jesus Christ shared with his 12 apostles, had 13 men total attending it, the 13th of which betrayed Jesus. So 13 was then felt to be an unlucky number by Christians because of it.
how does services like Instagram make profit?
There are three main revenue models online. Advertising, freemium and venture capital. Advertising = letting companies get access to your users for a fee (Facebook, google) Freemium - pay extra for more features like a mobile app, or other upgrades and purchases (think Facebook gifts) Venture capital - screw the business model, let's get big and hopefully sell it to google, yahoo or Facebook. Instagram is in number 3. They tried to use the pics for ads but that was after Facebook bought them for a lazy billion. In reality most transition from venture to either ads, or paid content and upgrades. A lot just want to get bought after getting massive and if they don't succeed with a massive audience they get shuttered.
What MUST be done to fix the water supply problems part of the world are having
Folks simply have to live elsewhere. By most theoretical guesses, we're in the final 25% of Earth's optimal capacity as far as human population. [1](_URL_0_) At a point, society will no longer care about who has an iPhone or what happens to Don Draper on Mad Men tonight. Food resources will be spread thin and masses will be forced to sustenance farm. This is expected to begin at around 25 billion humans. [2](_URL_0_) People located near abundant supplies of fresh water will prosper.
What is the point of those "Fowarding you to your download in 5.." pages
They basically either make you look at ads, or are there to convince you into paying for a premium service. There's a *slight* chance that they're actually load-balancing and just want you to have something to look at so you don't think it's frozen and hit reload constantly, too.
How did modern Americans come to lose the English accent?
It's not so much that Americans lost a English accent but that both accents changed over time. For hundreds of years, there was no regular voice communication between England and America so their accents naturally drifted. Amusingly, the closest modern equivalent to the English accent at time of early colonization only exists in America, now. In the rural areas of the Appalachian mountains.
how the heck does wireless charging work?
Pretty much the same way as wired charging works. When you plug something in, in the charger is a transformer. The transformer consists of 2 coils of wire. One it attached to the house electricity. 1 is attached (via the wire) to your phone. As current passes through the primary coil, it induces a current in the secondary coil. There is no direct electrical connection between your phone and the 120V/240V electricity in your house. With wireless charging the secondary coil is in your phone instead of in the charger. Current in the primary coil induces a current in the coil in your phone.
How long does it take for vitamin supplements do make a positive effect on your health after you take them?
Depends on the vitamin. If you have scurvy (Vitamin C deficiency) and start taking vitamin C, it can make you substantially better in as little as 8-16 hours. If you have a Vitamin D deficiency, and start taking vitamin D, it might not have a noticeable affect for more than a week.
Why can't we mix firework colours like we can paint?
Because light doesn't mix the same as paint. To make purple you use metals that burn purple. Adding in magnesium can make it a lighter purple, or adding zinc oxide can make a forboding smokey purple. Think of it like this: when electricity is pulsed through hydrogen it looks white, but it's actually a few colors of light mixed together. Here's a guide for what colors different metals make: _URL_0_
What are the dangers/benifits in protein shakes and supplements concerning muscle development.
Dangers of protein? Basically none. A lot of people say protein is bad for your kidneys, but that's only if you have a preexisting kidney condition and/or are consuming an obscene amount of it. Benefits, in addition to the fact that higher protein consumption helps rebuild muscle after working out, shakes in particular can help your muscles replenish their stores of glycogen, a sugar that they use for energy. There are an immense amount of other supplements out there with their own sets of benefits and risks, I recommend _URL_0_ as a good resource to read up on them.
Why is everyone on reddit explaining their edits? Even when it is just a typo and they added 1 letter, they write: "Edit: Typo. I was on a phone" or something like that.
You can troll people by posting something, waiting for people to reply, then edit your post to something else so the replies no longer mean what they intended. E.g. You post something innocent like "noodles are the best food". Someone replies "I agree". Then you edit your post to say "Hitler was right". Now it looks like the other person is agreeing with that. To combat this, reddit shows a star next to posts that have been edited. So if you see that star, you know that the post could have said something very different originally. So when people edit for legitimate reasons, they say what they edited so you're not left wondering if the post originally said something completely different.
How can newborn animals instinctively know how to walk moments after birth, but humans take months to be able to even stand?
There are two reasons. One is that humans are born relatively early in development. That is, a dog or a horse might be 20% of the way to its adult form at birth, while a human might be born at 10% and take another year to reach 20%. If we were born at 20% we'd be much closer to walking around on day one, but we'd be so big that birth would be impossible. So this is our species' compromise. We're born early and small and have to be carried around for a while. The second reason is that humans are bipedal, we use two legs. This is really rare in nature. Being bipedal means we require practice, awareness, and muscle control to stand and move around without falling.
Why are birds such loud creatures? How come ground animals (squirrels, rabbits, deer, etc.) are generally so quiet while communicating compared to their flying wildlife friends?
Birds have the ultimate method of avoiding predators - flight. They simply fly away from anything dangerous. This also means they move around a lot and so they scream and yell to find each other. Ground animals have a lot more shit to worry about. They aren't as loud so that they can hide from predators, since they can't fly away.
Why is it common to see the flag of the Confederate States of America in states which were never members of the Confederacy?
Every state has Confederate apologists in it. It's the modern way to fly the Nazi flag without flying the Nazi flag. The Confederate flag, whatever it may have once represented, is now the flag of American White Supremacists, de facto Nazis, and other far right-wing extremists like the Bundy family, whose patron, Cliven "Let me tell you another thing I know about the Negroes" Bundy, doesn't "recognize the Federal Government as even existin'." I don't think most people who fly Confederate flags would continue doing so if they were ever to realize what it tells the world about them. They'd certainly still do it in secret, though.
(kind of NSFW) Why my testicles ache if I get sexually excited for long but do not ejaculate at the end?
Educated guess here. Lots of blood and lubricating fluid builds up in all the "tubes" of your genitals when you sexually excited, and the tubes expand a bit for better flow. The "plan" is all that fluid is expelled in an ejaculation, then all the blood flow goes back to the rest of your body and all your "tubes" constrict back to their normal size. When you don't ejaculate, the tubes eventually return back to their normal size, but all the pent up fluid is still there, so your body is trying to constrict around a mass that "shouldn't be there." It's a pressure ache, and your body has to manually clean it up, absorbing the water and destroying all those "foreign bodies" that are sitting there.
- What, exactly, is gravity?
The fundamental "What causes gravity to have a force" is unknown. It's one of physics' biggest questions. There are theories about where it comes from, which you can research by googling "gravity + space-time" or something like that. All mass has gravity. They all have a gravitational pull. The thing is, for any non-sufficiently large (like, moon to planet sized large) object, this force is so negligibly, extraordinarily small that we can't feel it. Buildings do hvae gravitational pull, but until we can build something the size of the moon, we'll never feel it.
Why do gas stations charge an additional 10 cents per gallon for card transactions and why is it legal?
Because it isn't illegal. They are a business, and as a business they have the right to charge what they want for their goods/services. Your method of payment places a burden on them, why should they have to eat that cost? You could pay in cash and pay a different price.
why does running just after eating cause cramps?
When you're digesting, a lot of your blood is directed to your stomach and intestines. Which means you have less available for your legs.
If anything we sense is converted into electrical signals that are then interpreted by our brains, why can't we capture, analyse, and re-transmit those signals?
We can. Look at [cochlear implants](_URL_0_) which takes the sense of sound, captures it, bypasses the inner ear, and re-transmits that signal electronically to the nerve going to the brain. In regards to pain though - that's subjective, partly chemical, and not just a pure nerve/electrical thing. There could also be damage which blocks some of the signals or chemical responses to/in the brain. Different people experiencing the same injury will interpret it differently. That's why you have to ask - how much pain it is.
Why do we sneeze when plucking our eyebrows?
The nerves for this area are very close to the nerves carrying sensory data from your nose. The signals overlap accidentally.
How does the brain 'click' and come to a conclusion when it receives multiple pieces of information? Why does the brain 'click' for some people, but for others, not so much?
I'd say it depends on what information one has previously learned and trusts in. If I tell you that "the moon causes the tides" it may click for someone how the moon's gravity can effect a large fluid body on the earth. But for someone who doesn't know how gravity works or who's never heard of the concept it may not click for them how a big ball in the sky can move the ocean.
How is the Galaxy s7 IP68 waterproof rated? Even when it has open ports like the USB and headphone jack
The ports aren't open to the rest of the internals. Liquid and gunk can still get in the ports, but that's as far as it goes.
The latter part of the periodic table
> Why are the lanthanides (and actinides) down there? Because it's easier to print on a page than [this](_URL_0_). > Why are some masses in parentheses? Some large elements are really unstable and aren't observed in nature. Instead of putting a weighted average of the atomic masses of the isotopes we observe in the wild, we just list the atomic mass of the most stable isotope we've produced. > And what's with the elements like Uuo and stuff? Some elements have been made and observed but haven't received their fancy pants names from the IUPAC yet. They just have systematic names denoting their number on the table as a placeholder. > How are elements being made with a specific amount of protons? We launch smaller elements (of the appropriate size) in particle accelerators and ram them together. > If we have that control over protons how come we can't make materials like gold or silver? We can, but it's more expensive than just digging an equivalent amount out of the ground.
Why does dog poo come out in a swirl but human poo is usually a log?
Maybe it's because we shit in a bowl of water, and they shit directly on the ground.
How does Sodium Pentathol (Truth serum) work?
_URL_0_ It lowers your inhibitions like when you drink. This makes it easier for you to accidentally confess to something. But, as with being drunk, it also makes you more suggestible or nonsensical. There's no guarantee that what the person says is the truth.
Why don't they just make toilet pipes wider so they don't block?
Wider pipes require more water to push more material through, otherwise the water spreads out and drops everything it was carrying like a river delta. Also, I challenge you to make a pipe big enough that it can't clog.
What is the purpose of tenure? In practice, is it a positive or negative thing, why?
Its purpose originally was to allow professors and students to explore controversial ideas in an academic environment without fear of being fired for discussing them. As for positive/negative, theres no way to truly answer that as everyone and every study will tell you something different.
Why is Greenland called Greenland if it's all icy, but Iceland called Iceland if it's all green? What happened historically?
I believe I've read that scandinavian explorers gave them those names to discourage people from going to iceland so that they could settle it easily, and encourage them to go to Greenland, which would be very difficult for them to live in.
Why does audio sound deeper when slowed down, and higher pitched when sped up.
When audio is slowed down, you're stretching out the sound, effectively making the wavelength longer with a lower frequency. Speeding it up is squishing it, making wavelength shorter with a higher frequency.
Why/How is abortion still is a huge issue in America at this time?
Why would it not be? Anything that people have a fundamental disagreement on is going to be an issue.
Why do call-ins and phone interviews on radio and TV shows sound so much lower in quality than actual phone calls?
In audio engineering, there is a saying that goes 'anything louder sounds better' - it's something a producer has to take into account when mixing a track. In this case, it is likely that when you talk to someone on the phone, your ears are right beside the source(phone speakers), which is why it sounds better than if you were to hear it from a further(hence likely softer) source such as your TV or car speakers. Bonus: Phone communication audio quality is really bad. It generally runs on 14.4kpbs(kilobits per seconds) using old compression technology. For comparison, Youtube videos generally run on 128-256kbps & using .AAC codec(which is 10-20 times more space efficient than an old compression technology)
If the landscape was dominated by giant 20 foot tall mushrooms 350 million years ago, and mushrooms spread like wildfire if their caps are kicked off, where did they go?
You appear to be talking about Prototaxites, giant fossilized columns discovered in late Silurian to late Devonian strata. First, not all fungi are mushrooms. These probably looked more like asparagus spears than capped mushrooms. Second, there is some debate whether Prototaxites are fungi at all. But putting both of those issues aside, the simple answer to your question is that the species went extinct. The environment changes over time. In 350 million years the environment has changed so dramatically that species that were alive back then couldn't survive today. Change drives evolution and extinction is a part of that. This species went extinct as the conditions that allowed it to thrive changed allowing different species more well adapted to the new conditions to take over.
Why is it that in the ocean so many different species can live in such close proximity to each other but on land it seems like they live separately.
Volume of room. On land you have one flat plain while in the ocean layers. It boils down to volume vs. Surface area.
For those that remember VHS and audiocassette tapes - I think I understand how you can get pictures on a tape of plastic, but how the heck did they get sound on there? How is it audible?
I think you have the wrong idea of how they get images on the tape. There is nothing on there that resembles an image to the human eye (not even outside of the visible light spectrum) it's nothing like the reels they use in cinemas. The VHS tape is magnetic, kind of like hard drives (except VHS is analog and not digital). So you store stuff on there by magnetizing the tape in a certain way. You can do the same thing with audio.
Why did George Lucas make the last 3 movies instead of beggining with the 3 first movies?
When he made the first film (Episode IV), he didn't know it was going to be part of a 6-film franchise. He was just making a film. Sequels followed naturally, and I guess at some point he decided to do the prequels.
Why do rabies cause an increase in aggression in animals?
The rabies virus has evolved the ability to modify the behavior of its hosts - making them more aggressive to increase the likelihood that the host will spread the virus to another animal via biting. Rabies is [not the only pathogen](_URL_0_) to have evolved this behavior-altering ability. As for how exactly it increases aggression, I'm not sure. Likely by mimicking the action of certain neurotransmitters associated with aggression or promoting their release in the brain.
If the government actually shuts down what does that mean for me.
Probably the same thing it did when the government shut down 5 years ago. If you have to ask: probably nothing.
What is the sound that hurts my ears when there's only one window down in a car and where does it come from?
It's basically the same thing that happens when you blow over the top of a bottle and it makes a sound. When you "push" on the air inside a container, it will compress and then push back out in a certain amount of time based on how much air is in the container. Basically, the air moving over the edge of the open window forms little vortices which "push" against the air in your car at a certain rate. At a certain speed, the frequency of these vortices matches the speed at which the air compresses and expands again inside your car - this is called a *resonant* frequency. Just like when you push someone on a swing at the right time and they go higher and higher, this causes the pressure in your car to begin to oscillate to a larger and larger magnitude until it gets to the point where it hurts your ears. Hope that was clear!
Why did WWII bombers always fly in formation?
Formation allows for each bomber's guns to support the others. If a fighter takes on a bomber one-on-one, it's probably likely that the bomber will go down, if the fighter knows what he's doing. If ten fighters approach ten bombers in formation, it's going to be a lot harder to destroy the bombers, because there's going to be so much defensive fire coming at the fighters at all times. Also, since saturation bombing was "in style" in WWII, having bombers in formation made it a lot simpler to manage bombing runs. Instead of "Bomber 1 aims for Target A, Bomber 2 aims for Target B, etc.," they can just order "When you to Waypoint A over the city, everyone start dropping bombs." The formation will help concentrate bombs on the target, and reduce the demands on the bomber crew to find specific targets. EDIT: Reduced bomb dispersal, not increasing it.
why is some snow great for packing and fight with, while other snow just falls apart?
The amount of moisture (unfrozen water) inbetween the snowflakes determines how well the snow packs. Wetter snow makes better (and harder) snowballs -- drier snow does not.
How do people who aren't vacinated effect people who are?
It creates a breeding ground for the disease thus making it able to evolve. If there are no susceptible hosts, the disease will go extinct.
How does key-hole surgery work?
Much the same as regular surgery, except using a small incision to allow a camera with a light to be passed into the area of interest, which is used to guide the surgeon. Surgical implements adapted to be used in the small incision space are also used, hence minimising trauma to the patient and decreasing healing time.
The protective qualities of charcoal
It is extremely porous and has a large capacity for adsorption, meaning substances (often organic macromolecules in the situations you describe) can stick to its surface and be bound up. Its doesnt have as high a capacity as some other materials, but is cheap and can be made with varying pore sizes to suit the substance(s) being targeted.
Is there any particular reason beer bottles are brown? Or clear? Or green? Or is it purely aesthetic?
Sunlight causes some beer to get "skunky". Amber and green bottles help protect the beer from light and allow it to be stored longer.
- Why does Technetium not occur naturally?
It does occur naturally. It's created in supernovas (just like all other elements heavier than iron). But it's unstable, and even its most stable isotopes have a half-life of "only" 4.2 million years. Which means that, 4.2 million years after the creation of technetium in a supernova, only half will be left, and 4.2 million years later, only half of *that* will be left (a quarter of the original sample) etc. So almost all of the technetium that originated in the supernova that created the matter that our solar system was formed from has long sense decayed into other elements.
Why arent any saudi royals on the top billionaire lists? are they not filthy rich from oil?
Those guys are also not particularly transparent. Since Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, the country's budget and state investment funds are also the royal family's own wallet, whereas "conventional" billionaires own far more easily detectable corporate assets.
How come when a TV station plays reruns of a show they don't play them in order but instead play the same few that repeat every few weeks or so?
Those episode have the highest ratings and attract most viewers, meaning the station can pull in more advertising revenue
Why do artist still release singles? Especially now that with streaming services, you can buy/listen to individual songs.
Publicity mainly. Big singles generate buzz for artists in the run up to an album release and can pump up sales.
Why are the letters on a QWERTY keyboard placed where they are?
It is related to how typewriters used to work. As I understand it, when some keys are pressed too soon after eachother, the typewriter gets stuck, and QWERTY was developed in order to minimise the cases where this would happen.
How does Intel physically link together billions of transistor's to work on computer chips?
As others have said, light and chemicals are used to "flash" the transistor pattern onto the silicon using light and chemicals, but do not think this is necessarily a foolproof process. This is why Intel has several different types of chips for each generation of iX. For example, when manufacturing an i7, something screws up and messes up one of the cores. Intel will take it, disable 2 cores, and call it an i3. If the connections are somewhat sketchy, for example they are manufacturing an i5, but the connections are too poor of quality to have a high clock speed for let's say a 6600K, they will down clock it, remove overclocking, and call it a 6500.
What led to the rise and fall of Ringtone Rap?
Maybe let's start with: what is ring tone rap?
What do fraternities and sororities actually do?
They do many things. 1) Set up a structured way for people with similar interests to become friends. 2) Provide student housing. 3) Network with Alumni giving professional contact points for after you graduate. 4) On most campuses they provide community outreach with various volunteer activities such as habitat for humanity, working soup kitchens, etc.
Why is the 40-yard dash the magical number for gauging a football player's speed (as opposed to some other metric)?
While coaching Ohio State University Buckeyes football team in 1941, Paul Brown emphasized team quickness. One way to calculate this was for him to time his players covering a punt. At the time, the average punt went about 40 yards from the line of scrimmage and had a hang time of about 4.5 seconds. He would then time his players to see if they would be able to cover an average punt, or run a 40 yard dash in 4.5 seconds. He continued with this strategy after becoming the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. The practice gained popularity from others as years went on and is the standard today.
How is international law actually enforced?
International law isn't technically enforced, though you'll become quite unpopular if you do break it. The UN is a diplomatic channel first and foremost. It's not and has never been anything even close to resembling a world government.
Why do black people and white people have distinctly different voices?
The great majority of differences between how people speak is cultural. Grow up without access to a culture and you aren't going to develop that culture's speech patterns. A smaller factor is that the structure of the organs which produce our speech does vary a bit between people with different recent ancestry (e.g. West African or European ancestry). Even then, the differences within these groups is usually greater than the differences between them.
Why do lightning strikes leave a branching pattern on whatever they strike?
In the air, lightning initially [branches out all over the place](_URL_1_) searching for a path to the ground. Air is normally a bad conductor of electricity, but once the electricity starts flowing the air becomes a plasma that conducts quite well. So all the lightning follows the first path that made a connection. Once it strikes, say, a tree however, the opposite happens: Normally, a tree is a better conductor of electricity than the air. But once electricity starts flowing, it burns the wood, increasing it's resistance. So path of least resistance keeps changing as the electricity flows through it, [creating a branching pattern](_URL_0_).
The history of the situation in Ukraine, beginning with the coup earlier this year.
First of all, there are two different narratives for what happened and the coup only happens in the Russian narrative. They are: Western narrative: The people of Ukraine rose up against their evil pro-Russian government. These people rising up might have included a few fascists, but they were an extreme minority and unimportant. Anyway, the Russian bear wasn't having it and annexed Crimea with a fake referendum and is now arming separatists to fight against Ukraine's wonderful pro-western government. Russian narrative: The evil West engineered a fascist coup against the legitimate government of Ukraine. Most people in Ukraine, especially ethnic Russians, are against this new government. The people of Crimea freely chose to join with Russia and now there are heroic freedom fighters wanting to separate from the scary western government and get back into the safety of Mother Russia's bosom.
Why I Hate Waking Up but Some People Love Mornings
Some people love mornings because they're fucking insane.
Why, in virtually every picture of the Earth taken from space, is North shown as being at the top of the picture?
Just by convention. That's what most people are used to seeing. Same reason why when you take a picture, you hold your camera so the top is on top. Nothing's stopping you from holding your camera upside down when you take the picture, or from showing people your upside-down pictures. It's just that by convention, we orient our pictures so that "up" is at the top.
Can you explain second and third sounds?
Second sound isn't sound at all. When helium is super cooled (to about 2 Kelvin), heat is transfered in a wave-like motion rather than the more usual methods. It's called the Second Sound becauase the heat is transfered in a wave-like motion, similar to houw sound propogates through air. Third sound isn't a sound either (in case you hadn't guessed that already). It's another wierd quantum effect of super-chilled fluids, where waves propogate in a thin film that can creep up the walls of a vessel. [Second Sound.](_URL_1_) [Third Sound.](_URL_0_) **TL;DR:** They're not sound, but rather names given to strange quantum mechanical wave-like effects (that look a bit like how sound propogates in air) noticed in super-chilled fluids.
When an artist/band's "Greatest Hits" or "Best Of" album is released, how does the process take shape?
A Greatest Hits album is common in any record deal. After so many releases, the artist and the label (to varying degrees, of course) will get together to assemble the track listing and many times, the artist will be required to produce a number of exclusive tracks for the release. All of this will depend on the artist and their deal.
What would happen if Coke stopped advertising for a year?
I used to wonder why some companies, like McDonald's and Coke, don't just skip advertising for a while. Maybe only do it every other year. They'll save millions, and it's not like there's any people out there who aren't already familiar with their products. But you know, I think they have a very good reason to advertise so much, despite such good brand recognition. There's a reason they'll show you commercials with big burgers up close, and billboards of cold Coke bottles covered in droplets of condensation. And that reason is for impulse buys. They want you to suddenly think "Hey you know what, I could go for a burger right now" while you're driving home from work, or "Yeah some Coke sounds great" as you're driving to the grocery store. So yeah, I believe that if they stopped advertising, they would see a large drop in sales. No, nobody will suddenly not be aware that there is Coke out there, but a lot less people will suddenly buy Cokes on impulse.
Why are multi-billion dollar companies able to file for bankrupcy and why does the government bail them out?
Some companies (e.g. banks, car manufacturers etc.) may be considered 'too big to fail' because so many hundreds of thousands of people (e.g. employees) fully depend on these companies operating that it would arguably do more harm than good to the greater society to let the company fail as opposed to provide bail-outs to get them back on track. In other words, letting some of these companies fail may be seen as more disastrous and disruptive to the economy than the expense of providing financial assistance to prevent the company from failing.
why do your ears ring after loud noise and have been damaged?
The cochlea in each of your ears is a spiralling organ that contains a bunch of tiny little "hairs." When sound is transmitted from the air into your cochlea, it travels through the cochlea and depresses hairs corresponding to different frequencies. [The hairs further and further in the spiral](_URL_0_) correspond to lower-pitched sounds. The hairs right at the entrance correspond to high pitches, and are the most vulnerable as they take the bulk of the "impact." When something super loud hits your cochlea, those hairs are depressed, and they stay that way for a bit. This means that your brain constantly hears a high-pitched ringing noise until the hairs stand back up. When something is loud enough to permanently damage your hearing, those hairs corresponding to high pitches never fully recover and constantly send the signal to your brain that you're hearing a ringing sound. They persist indefinitely in the "on" position.
why is it that land that was hit by an atomic bomb (Hiroshima/Nagasaki) is fairly quickly re-inhabitable but sites like Chernobyl and Fukushima take decades to be radiation free?
The atom bombs in Japan were airbursts - they didn't blow up on the ground. This resulted in maximizing destructive potential, but very little fallout that spread radioactivity to debris. A nuclear power plant like Chernobyl has many, many times the amount of nuclear fuel in them. Then, the plant exploded, spewing radioactive material and debris everywhere. Not only that, but the radioactive core of the plant is *still there*, buried in rubble underground.
If weed is a depressant, why does my heart start to beat faster whenever I smoke?
> If weed is a depressant That's just it. It's not a depressant. At the high level it's a psychoactive compound - it can cross the blood brain barrier and can act on parts of the brain. Depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens are all psychoactive. Weed is basically in a category of it's own since it doesn't fit into any of those categories perfectly but rather can have effects from all three in varying combinations.
How do they blur moving things for TV shows, do they have to do it frame-by-frame?
Yes, or some software let you put a marker on the image. Let's say, a finger. Well, a finger is going to be a bunch of beige pixels. So when it moves, the computer only has to track a bunch of beige pixels around, it knows where to censor. It's a bit harder when you have to track something small, or something that changes color and shape. But even then, it helps, because instead of doing painfully slow frame by frame, you only have to click where to track every few seconds. (There may be more methods out there, those are the two I know of.)
Why does a battery decrease without being used?
All batteries slowly lose charge over time. This is because all batteries use a chemical reaction to store energy. Over time this reaction breaks down inside the battery. Without getting too deep into the chemistry the reactions in batteries are non-spontaneous, meaning they won't just happen in the world on their own. They require energy (the charging) to happen. When this energy is not there it will try and get back to the way it was before the energy was there. Each battery has a different self discharge rate different depending on the type. Here are a few in "normal" temperature range. The higher the temperature the greater the rate. Primary lithium-metal 10% in 5 years Alkaline 2–3% per year (7-10 years shelf life) Lead-acid 5% per month Nickel-based 10–15% in 24 hours, then 10-15% per month Lithium-ion 5% in 24hours, then 1–2% per month (plus 3% for safety circuit)
Would the predator on to Catch a Predator still get arrested if they never ended up showing up?
Likely not since you can't prove they were ever actually going to show up at all. You can't arrest someone for thinking about committing a crime.
Why do we still take test and learn the same as how people did in the whole of history when technology has advanced so far?
Learning has advanced a great deal since formal education began. There are some things that have become redundant, and some things may seem useless. For instance, why bother learning that there are 4 quarts in a gallon when I can just look it up? But many people, myself included, would argue that a fundamental understanding of the simple elements is necessary for an understanding of the complex. Albert Einstein wouldn't have been able to come up with the things he had if he hadn't been good at math (he didn't actually fail math, that's an urban legend). Facts tend to rest on other facts in our minds, and rote memorization doesn't lead to understanding; a book can contain all the facts in the world, but it doesn't come up with new ideas.
why do we lose our appetite when we see/hear something unpleasant?
It's an evolutionary thing. What if every time you saw a piece of poop, it made you hungry? You would be much more likely to eat poop. And people who eat poop tend to get diseases and die. So we're programmed to be disgusted by it. It's the same reason why people like unhealthy food. We're biologically programmed to go for the more calorically dense food because it would keep us alive.
Why do we enjoy watching televisions shows that involve drugs/killing/relationship drama/anything else that we would never want to happen to us in real life?
The same reason we have nightmares. It's emotionally healthy to explore dangerous and upsetting situations in a healthy and safe setting.
Why can't you remember when you were a baby?
If you don't have storage space, where do you put stuff? The neural structures that store memories and things literally don't exist in a newborn's head. They've got no storage space. They literally don't possess a conscious memory yet.
Why do we have to eat and urinate throughout the day, but can make it through 8+ hours of sleep just fine?
During sleep, your metabolism slows. Your digestive and renal systems shift into a slow mode so they produce less waste.
why do a lot of part-time jobs require you to fill out a questionnaire that asks you many questions that are seemingly irrelevant to the job itself?
What sort of questions do you mean exactly? Usually just because it doesn't look like it is job related, it might very well be, but it will be easier to be more precise in answering your question if you could give some example of the questions you have encountered.
Why do even videos from the 2000's appear to be very old/low quality when we remember viewing them in higher resolution.
You said it, higher resolution. They'd look just fine if you were viewing them in 800x600 or 1024x768, but you're not. You're viewing them in 1920x1080 or higher, stretching the video onto an area several times bigger than intended.
Why don't we experiment with colonizing new worlds by building on the Moon first before going to Mars?
That was exactly the plan with the [Constellation Program](_URL_0_) but then the financial crisis hit and suddenly no-more moon money.
What is the difference between watts, volts and amps? Amp hours?
Watts is power. It's how much work you can do in a given amount of time. Work is energy, usually expressed in Joules. Amps is current. It's how much charge is going through in a given amount of time. Voltage is potential. It's how much energy can be released per unit charge. Volts * amps = watts. Amp hours is current * time. It's how much charge it can provide before going flat. Multiplying by voltage will get you energy, but voltage doesn't stay constant so it's a little more complicated. To use the good old water analogy, voltage is pressure, amperage is how much water is flowing. amp hours is the volume of the water tower.
Why do we sound different to ourselves on camera or audio recording?
Sound reverberates around inside our head through numerous large sinuses before we "hear" it. This distorts what our voices actually sound like. Assuming proper recording tools, what you hear on an audio recording is exactly what you sound like to other people.
Why do we have to go through US customs in Canada, but not the Canadian customs in the US?
It used to be that you went though US customs in the US, and Canadian customs in Canada. Some smaller airports continue to work this way. But then the US introduced customs pre-clearing, so instead of checking after you've arrived in the USA, the check everything before you get there.
Why do trees have rings?
Trees grow slower in winter and faster in summer. In winter the wood that is grown slowly is denser and has a darker tint.
What causes the blacked out eyesight when people stand up to fast?
[Orthostatic hypotension](_URL_0_). The blood literally drains out of your brain as you stand up, before your heart can adjust to your new posture and up the pressure enough to keep you functioning normally. As a result, you go a bit woozy, see stars, and sometimes even pass out.
What causes the jumping feeling in your stomach when you go down a quick hill while driving?
Your innards/gut is used to gravity. It doesn't have the normal sensory nerves that your skin has. Upon traversing a sudden drop/hill, for microseconds you experience a "less than 1g" environment. Your body reacts but bones and muscle react differently than inner squishy, liquidy guts. They probably rise a bit and rather quickly. The "sensation" is how your body interprets this sudden loss of weight and shifting that occurs in the gut soft tissue. If you ask men, they also feel it in their testicles and its a much more, um, exhilarating? feeling. :D
Why doesn't our vomit contain the strong acids in our stomach and react (burn/melt) with things once it leaves our body.
It does. But the acid in our stomach is dilute, it is not like some kind of super acid you see in movies. If you vomit on some metal and leave it there/keep vomiting on it, you will see that it erodes. This is also why people who have bulimia damage their esophagus and teeth. The acid from their vomit is constantly eroding them.
1000 years frozen in Futurama
If you're wondering how he eats and breathes, and other science facts, just repeat to yourself "It's just a show, I should really just relax."
What led game designers away from Mac as a viable platform for their content?
The most likely reason is market share. If you have a set amount of resources, do you design for the 95% or the 5%.
Why does the right hand rule exist? Why don't the laws of the universe result in a left hand rule instead?
The right hand rule could totally have been the left hand rule. You just need to use different fingers with a different gestures if you think about it. The right hand rule does not define the laws of nature. It is just a way people come up with to visualize the relations of all of those forces and directions of movement. It is purely a product of convention. As to why the relation between all the elements that compose the right hand rule is this way, that really is a similar question to why the earth goes around the sun, and why birds can fly.
Why are most corporations considered evil?
A company's reason for existing is to make money for the owner(s) and shareholders. They have no social responsibility except to obey applicable laws. Some of the things some of them do to make money may be considered questionable or even evil. Take for example Myriad Genetics which owned a patent on methods of testing for genes associated with breast cancer. They could prevent anybody from performing those tests without paying them, despite that those tests were likely to save lives. It also made it difficult to get second opinions from other labs not licensing their technology. It did, however, make them a lot of money, and was perfectly legal until a court case decided otherwise. Edit: the court case was decided against them because the genes were naturally occurring and their tests were not novel except as they applied to the naturally-occurring genes. The court held that naturally-occurring genes could not be patented.
How do people get a Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) badge to put by their vehicle's license plate? Do these badges afford preferential treatment?
For the same reason that people put any sort of "I support the police" bumper sticker, license plate frames, badges, etc... They don't necessarily automatically earn you preferential treatment, and the police certainly don't condone any sort of official policy of preferential treatment, but police officers are human beings just like anyone else, and they will obviously be swayed about their opinion of you if you have pro-police paraphernalia displayed.
I know this is bad but what is karma? (On reddit)
Basically what karma is, is a form of virtual pat on the back or scolding. You post a witty, funny or factual comment or post (depending on the situation) and users can give you karma if they like it. If you don't add to the discussion, or troll or say something they don't agree with (or they are a general ass) they downvote you. From my experience in reddit, don't expect a lot of upvotes unless you can make a really funny comment or post.
why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor if America was minding its own business
The US wasn't really minding it's own business, and it inevitably was going to start minding its business less. It was supplying arms and finance to the enemy if Japan's allies, it was helping embargo fuel against Japan, and it was unlikely to go very long without entering. Japan actually was able to temporarily cripple the fleet (if they'd realized how badly and made a second pass they could have made it even worse). They just underestimated how quickly we could devote our resources to rebuilding.
What are the key differences between endangered native New Zealand birds and birds from basically every other country that makes them so vulnerable to mammalian predators?
That evolution is exactly what's screwing them over. Not only were there no mammals but a few bats, there are also no snakes, very few poisonous spiders, no lizards that could eat a bird... no natural predators whatsoever. Correct me if I'm wrong, folks from other countries, but that's a pretty unique position for birds to find themselves in. As a result, a huge proportion of birds here (I think about a third) either can't fly for shit or can't fly at all, and either can't defend themselves for shit or can't defend themselves at all, because they never really needed to do either. Also, many resorted to living on the ground, which is obviously very hazardous now. The only predator the birds had to worry about was a gigantimongous fucking eagle called the Haast's Eagle, and the best defence most birds could come up with against it was to become nocturnal. Which doesn't help them against rats/stoats/cats today, especially when they live on the ground.
Why is 12:00 the beginning of the 12-hour cycle, instead of 1:00?
Think in military time. There are 24 hours in a day. In military time midnight/12am is 0000 time. then from 0 it goes to 1. so in the 12 hour am/pm system the 12 acts as our 0 and is a placemarker telling if we are in the am or pm section of the day. 12:00 AM is the beginning of the first half - am half of the day. 12pm is the beginning of the second half - pm half of the day.
if you tell me your name, I forget immediately yet I remember every lyric to 1000 songs on my Ipod?
You have heard those songs 100's of times and the music helps you remember plus the singer is filling in the blanks helping you remember too. Where as a name is just one word with nothing for you to connect it to, to help you remember it.