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How do we know that all snowflakes are different?
We really don't know. We base it on simple math and probability. It's so unlikely that we can say with high probability that every one of them is different.
Why do grocery stores let you do self-checkout when that makes it so easy to steal?
Grocery stores keep track of the estimated cost of theft. They have almost certainly determined that the cost savings associated with self-checkout are greater than any incremental increase in the cost of theft.
I understand why someone wouldn't want the government to ban gun sales, but what reasons do they have to be against stronger background checks prior to a purchase of a gun?
If the government tracks gun sales, they would by extension track gun ownership (or at least new gun ownership). People are uncomfortable with the government knowing what guns they own.
Why are we not harnessing solar energy from unpopulated areas?
Cost. Plus the further away the power generation is, the more is lost in transferring that power over long distances (and also the larger the cost to set up the power lines). Plus, solar panels can't run 100% of the time, so require a ton of batteries, and both the solar panels and the batteries require a lot of maintenance. There are actually many areas of the world where investments in solar energy are being done, but it isn't really a solution everywhere. Many places are cloudy often enough to make solar power only a mediocre long-term solution over other sources of power, with a larger upfront cost.
Why is the Wilhelm scream still used?
It's an inside joke among the audio mixing people in the business. They put it in every movie, tv show, cartoon, and commercial where it's even remotely appropriate just for laughs.
Why is it a problem that Cuba is communist?
The issue is not that they were communist, it is that they were allies with the USSR and are allies with Russia. Russia is still our biggest enemy and we are still having proxy wars against them. The Cold War officially ended when the USSR collapsed, but in most practical purposes it is still going.
Why do people hold their hands "palm up" when it is raining?
The palm of your hand is more sensative than the back.
can the body repair a rupture of a spinal disk?
So I ruptured the disk in my neck. The doctor explained it like this: The disk is like a krispy Kreme doughnut. When it ruptures the jam inside spills out. It could split on the inside or on the outside. On the outside is not such a problem. However on the inside it can directly apply pressure to the nerves it surrounds. After a while this jam can 'dry' out and can retract back inside. This is painful for obvious reasons. Now the non ELI5 bit. See a doctor if you can. If you loose feeling or get pins and needles in a limb see one immediately. This is, according to my doctor 'really bad'. Now I just had extreme pain, we are talking screaming and being taken away in an ambulance high on ketamine bad. The 'jam' was only 2.6mm according to the scans. It has healed but is weaker and occasionally happens again to a less serious degree each time.
How is the time relative ?
Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: What does "time is relative" actually mean, and how do we know that we all experience time in the same way? ](_URL_0_) 1. [ELI5: The meaning of "Time is relative" ](_URL_3_) 1. [ELI5 : Why is time "relative"? ](_URL_4_) 1. [ELI5: Why is time relative to speed? ](_URL_2_) 1. [ELI5: How is time relative? And how does it feel as if time is going at a normal rate on another planet but months if not years have passed on earth? ](_URL_1_)
Why does standing in one place for twenty minutes make my feet hurt more than walking for an hour?
Standing up straight still requires your muscles to do work. But it's "static' work which means it's the exact same muscles doing the exact same thing over and over again *without being given a chance to relax and recover* When you are walking around you are using a series of difference muscles. Even though there may only be a short gap between when each muscle gets used it's still enough to spread the load and give your muscles (some) time to recover.
why are some banks able to give different rates on things, ie. a higher yield percentage on savings accounts, as opposed to others?
Like any business, it's competition. There are certainly costs involved with running 1000's of branches that online banks don't have to deal with, so they do have some efficiencies they can pass along. But there are also concerns about online-only banks many consumers have, and higher rates are a way to entice more people to consider using them. Even if the expenses were equal, the online banks might be willing to forego profits today to grow their customer base, effectively using the higher rates as a marketing expense for customer acquisition.
Why aren't birds electrocuted when they stand on power lines?
Electricity wants to take the easiest way to the ground (earth) the wires that are used for the power lines have low resistance, meaning it is easy for the electricity to travel through it. whereas a bird has a high resistance so it is hard for the electricity to travel through it. therefore almost all the electricity will travel through the wire, and almost none would go through the bird. If the bird were really long and touched the ground as well as the cable, it would travel through the bird as it is the easiest way for it to get to the ground so the bird would be fried.
Why chickens are not protective of their eggs like other birds?
I grew up on a small farm. We always had laying hens. So I can tell you from experience that you are mistaken completely. It varies between chicken breeds. Some breeds of chickens are "broody." Meaning they do a good job of laying eggs and taking care of them until they hatch. Broody hens will peck and claw you to the point of drawing blood if you mess with the eggs or chicks. Others are not, because they have been bred to a point where they just don't give a shit. They will lay eggs and ignore them afterwards. We used to use a golf ball to try to encourage hens to lay in a particular spot because they'll think it's another egg and adopt it and lay more. I've ended up with bloody knuckles checking to see if a hen was laying only to discover she just tried to take on a predator 100X her size to protect a ratty old golf ball. tl;dr: depends on the breed of chicken edit: spelling
Why is it that each month, our country adds "250,000 jobs", but unemployment seems to remain the same?
The real answer (rather than the other person's flippant response about new people being created) is that the official unemployment rate has long been deflated because it doesn't include people who have looked for a job for so long and not had any success that they have given up. Those people are considered to be "not in the work force" and are therefore not "unemployed and looking for a job", which is what the unemployment rate measures. As economic conditions improve and more people find jobs, those people who gave up are reentering the workforce at approximately the same rate, making the unemployment rate change slowly if at all.
Why is it in their nature for some animals to be so loyal and friendly towards humans while other animals despise us and are not friendly or loyal?
Generally the animals that are loyal and friendly have been bred and conditioned to be exactly that. Take dogs. We have spend thousands of years breeding them. We have selected certain traits that we enjoyed and bred them for that reason. Loyalty and friendliness were some of those reasons. And it is in the dog's best interest to be friendly too, cause dogs that aren't friendly or trustworthy are generally not fed and even put down. Then we take that natural inclination towards friendliness and loyalty and further compound it by teaching pups from the very start what behaviour we want them to have and what behaviours are bad. However that tiger you meet in the wild? He wasn't bred to be friendly. It isn't in his best interest to be friendly.
How do people become right handed or left handed?
I think it's still unknown. Scientists had a theory that it had to do with left or right brain dominance. But now it's pointing more towards genes. It is weird though. I'm right handed with writing, but left handed in sports (hockey, baseball, golf).
What do lobbyists do, and why are they bad?
They are paid to argue for a particular interest. They get face time with various congressmen and committees pushing their employers agenda. The problem is that their agenda may not be aligned with what is actually best for the people.
the difference between the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire
The Roman Empire started in Rome (modern day Italy) and lasted for hundreds of years. At it's height, it controlled almost all of Europe, the northern coast of Africa & parts of the Middle East. In the later days, the eastern portion of it became the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman Empire was founded by in Turkey and took much of the land that once belonged to the Byzantine empire. They were finally dismantled at the end of WW1.
How those little baby doll toy bottles work where you hold it upside down and the liquid seems to appear like he drank it, but when you hold it right side up, it refills...?
The bottle is actually two containers (one inside the other). There is a thin gap between the two which is filled with liquid. This allows a very small amount of liquid to appear to fill the entire bottle. When you tip it, the liquid flows through the gap and down into a resevoir in the top, making it appear empty.
Why does (fire) cooked food taste better than raw food (mostly)?
> Is it an evolutionary thing so that we cook our food more? Evolution works in a kind of after the fact way. Those who cooked more survived better and thus reproduced more.
Why do we only have Black Friday sales once a year? Why can't we have the deals all year long?
Some stores tried this. They found that they sell more if they have higher prices then drop them shortly for a sale than if they keep the sale-low prices all year. People just really like sales.
how to birds fly so in sync in a flock?
I don't have sources, but I have heard a few explanations. First, they make the decision to move in any one direction based on a sort of democratic system. One bird might tilt its tail or wings a certain way, and that is its 'vote'. When a majority of the birds in the vicinity agree on which direction to move, they all shift in unison. Then, birds further away in the flock have a 'chorus line' reaction. Much like a woman in a chorus line sees a leg kick up down the line and anticipates her own kick, birds see others changing direction and do so in a sort of wave.
Dogs have a fear of heights because it knows it can die if it fell off. If someone was with a dog and jumped off a high ledge, would the dog consciously know the person was going to die?
One thing I'd caution, while fear of heights is not necessarily a hardwired instinct, that does not, by that same token, mean that having a fear of heights actually equates to an understanding that you can die if you fall off. Studies with babies, for instance, suggest that they come to fear heights as their experience with movement increases, and they become better able to process how their body interacts with the environment, and increase their dependence on visual information. This does not mean, however, that they know "this fall can kill me." In fact, there's not necessarily a relationship at all between "I've experienced falling and it hurts" and "I'm afraid of heights." Even babies that don't fall gain this avoidance. Rather, as they come to rely on visual information, and come to a drop off, the information provided flatlines. There's no surface to orient against. "How will my body work here?" "No data" that seems to provoke wariness.
Why do pregnant women with Ebola have a 95% chance of dying, (rather than the 40% chance of dying)?
During pregnancy, the immune system is suppressed to prevent the woman from rejecting the fetus. This makes fighting virulent infections a bit difficult. This is also why many women with autoimmune conditions experience remission during pregnancy.
What will realistically happen in 20-30 years when the babyboom generation dies and their wealth is inherited/re-distributed?
You're making a lot of assumptions not necessarily tied to facts. You're assuming that a decent portion of that 4-10 trillion dollars are liquid assets just sitting in an account somewhere not being spent. A gigantic portion of that is guaranteed to be real estate and property that will simply be passed on as is. In addition, a huge portion of that is going to spent on nursing homes or medical care as they age, so it will go into the economy in a slower rate that way as well. In short, it's not as if there's going to be a 10 trillion dollar tidal wave of cash dropping on the younger generations.
Why does warm air rise?
Density. Warm air has more energy in each particle which means it expands in volume. Equal mass but a higher volume means lower density. Hence,, they rise. Similarly, cold air has less energy per particle and tend to stick closer to each another. Equal mass with lower volume means high density.
Why do I wake up tired after I've slept in?
If you wake up during the wrong stage of sleep you can feel extremely tired. This is why if you get up after your body wakes up normally you usually don't feel too exhasted, but getting woken up from an alarm can leave you devastatingly tired. This is just one possibility though, there are many others.
How will planting a wall of trees across Africa stop the spread of the Sahara desert?
One thing that can lead to desertification is the loss of plant roots that hold soil in place and make it better at retaining moisture. Part of the hope is that the trees will help hold and enrich the soil while also providing some measure of wind break to decrease the extent to which to soil is stripped away.
Do insects get hot from the sun? If so how do they cool down?
insects are cold blooded, so they generally prefer hot environments to colder ones. This is why there's suddenly millions of them around as spring turns into summer, and why most die off or 'hibernate' (not the technically accurate term, I know) through the winter. In extreme heat conditions lots of insects have tricks they can use to survive; lots of them become more nocturnal, some can harden their exoskeleton to retain more water, etc.
Why do tennis balls come in a sealed container?
The rubber that tennis balls are made of tends to dry out, stiffen, become brittle and less bouncy if they are left out too long. "Fresh" tennis balls bounce better, and are thus preferred for actual tennis play. If you're just buying them to play fetch with your dog it doesn't matter too much.
How is tax exemption for religious businesses such as churches not a violation of separation of church and state?
Non-profits are tax exempt, because most churches are run as non-profits, they don't pay taxes. It has nothing to do with the fact that they are religious institutions.
Why does breathing stop being a natural thing after we think about it
There is a part of our brain that controls heart beat, digestion muscles, everything we can't stop, is controlled by that part of our brain. He also controls blinking, breathing, and all things you don't have to control, but can choose to. Those functions have an override 'switch' that you can pull by thinking about it. This lets you close your eyes when you want to, or hold your breath before going under water. But as soon as we stop thinking about it, it goes right back to automatic.
Why can I be starving when going to sleep and not feel hungry at all when I wake up ?
Fasting State. When you're not actively digesting foods your liver regulates your blood sugar by exporting glucose into the bloodstream based on the amount of insulin in the blood. So you wake up with the hunger response sated and you don't feel hungry until you burn up that blood sugar. _URL_0_
The Bohemian Grove club?
Rich and powerful people drink a special juice that makes them happy then they dance in front of a giant owl statue in the forest.
Why do most people sleep better when it rains / thunderstorms ?
I can't say I know for certain, but I'm guessing it has something to do with it being a calming noise to some. Eg. Waves on the ocean, raindrops, piano. I definitely sleep better when it's raining, so there's that.
How did Mexico defeat France when they were clearly outnumbered?
At the battle of Puebla? The French weren't ready for a fight, and the Mexicans were. They had made much better defensive preparations than the French forces expected, so the French attacked expecting an easy victory and weren't able to react when they met stiff resistance.
The speed of light and relativity
anyone who measures the speed of light with their own instruments, will find it 300k/sec. From outside, it may look like they should measure a different value, because you expect them to measure the separation speed as seen from outside. answer to this is that the measuring instruments (clocks, rulers) change so that anyone always measures it 300k/sec.
How are these new chipped credit/debit cards offering more security when cashiers do not prompt us to enter a PIN, signature, or show ID?
While that is the case, most identity theft doesn't happen with your actual card. It happens when they get the card numbers. If you had your actual card stolen, you'd report that as soon as it happened. People using your card numbers isn't noticed until you see it on your bill.
Why/when did tea begin to lose its popularity in America?
Have you never stepped foot in the South? We drink gallons of sweet tea a day.
Why doesn't water burn?
Burning is the release of energy from combining oxygen with something. Water already has all the oxygen it can handle - you can't "burn" it. If you want to burn something, you can burn hydrogen to -get- water.
Why do women enjoy sex even if they don't climax yet men are left relatively unsatisfied when they don't "finish the job"?
just think about what's actually necessary in order to reproduce.
How do gameshows get the money to just give away day after day?
A top network show like *NCIS* is paying about $2 million in episode in actors' salaries alone. A premium cable show like *Game of Thrones* runs $6 million an episode. Games shows are cheap by comparison...no actors, no writers, no car chases, just a single set, a washed up actor and a few bimbos. They do it all in one take, and can bang out a week's worth of episodes in an afternoon. If they give out $100,000 in prizes, they are still coming out way ahead.
Why doesn't the military/police use full body, completely enclosed, bullet proof armor?
It's called a tank. They put wheels on it. It would be more expensive than you're worth. stupid heavy, slow. Every shooter is taught to shoot center mass.
- The East vs West Hip-Hop feud
Tupac and Biggie used to be friends. Tupac got shot, and thought it was Biggie partially because of his song "Who Shot Ya?" Tupac made the song "Hit em Up." Thus the feud.
How is possible to watch a video file whilst downloading it at the same time?
Let's compare this to an highway in a building-process: On the start you've got the informations about the highway like the name and the length (data size or number of frames). Now the construction workers (your computer/decoder) are getting the plans and the material (data) from somewhere (the server in this case). With this information they build the street kilometer per kilometer (frame per frame). Once one more kilometer is built you can actually drive on it (watch it). And because the contruction wrokers also know how long the highway is going to be, they know when to stop. If the company supplying the materials and plans for the highway or the construction workers are too slow, you have to stop at the last finished kilometer (video is buffering). So, it's possible because there's a data stream containing frame per frame. And hence you only need the latest frame and maybe some of the previous ones, you can show the latest fully downloaded frame.
Why does it feel so much better waking up after 8 hours of sleep at 9, rather than 7 or 5?
Your pineal gland releases melatonin when it is dark. This neurotransmitter tells your brain and body to regenerate. When you wake up while too much is still in your system, you feel bad because you are busy regenerating. After 7, when the sun starts shining, your pineal gland will be releasing seratonin, the same stuff that gets triggered for release by MDMA / ecstasy. Thus you feel better at 9 when your system has more seratonin.
Why sand/salt melts ice?
The sand is for traction, not so much to assist in melting. It helps cars grip the ice better. Ice is used because it lowers the freezing point of water. Water normally freezes at 32f, while salted water can stay liquid at 0f.
Beep sound used for censorship
It's normally 1k tone, which is a standard for testing audio in broadcast. Basically it's used because broadcasters have always had it available. Many times silence is used, but you notice it less. There may be rules in place that I am not aware of, but generally tone is used when the person's mouth is visible. 'Audio drops' are used when the mouth is not visible. It is (usually) possible to adjust the level of the tone to match the dialogue, but it adds another step that no one (except the viewer apparently) cares about. _URL_0_ _URL_1_
How does a plane crash into an ocean kill all people on board?
It is very difficult to land a plane even relatively safely on water. Especially when that water is rough or moving like the ocean is. So when an airplane, which is moving at a high rate of speed, attempts to land in the ocean, it will likely break up on impact. Many of those on board are often killed by the force of the impact alone. Others are knocked unconscious (which is a bad situation considering they are now being pulled under water) and others are injured and or disoriented all while trying to quickly find a way out of this massive aircraft that is sinking deeper into the ocean with each passing second. Believe it or not, crashing into the ocean offers those on an airplane a far smaller chance of survival than crashing on land because even when a plane loses all of its engines, the pilots still have a chance at landing an aircraft relatively safely as long as they can find a large enough area to do so on land.
How are dental records used to identify bodies?
Teeth are one of the toughest parts of the body and everybody's history is different. In cases where the body is badly damaged/disfigured teeth may be the only recognizable remains.
In the event of mankind being wiped out (nuclear, asteroid, virus, zombies etc) what do the people aboard the ISS (and any manned spacecraft in orbit) do?
Die. Nothing else for it, it'll come sooner or later when they run out of the relevant resources needed to live. There wouldn't be any specific plans for the crew to follow, and even if there were everybody on board would know it doesn't matter anymore if there's nothing else to do but choose how they die. There's a firearm kept in the Soyuz capsule in case they land in a remote region after getting off-course. Meant to protect against wildlife that might get over-interested. It'd work just as well if anybody on board wanted to just end their life then and there. You've also got the airlock, of course. If you want to try and wait it out, see if maybe there is some hope sooner or later the atmosphere can't be kept breathable, the ISS relies on resupply ships to bring, among other things, oxygen. Sooner or later the food and water supply will fail. Even if you got over those, somehow, it's just a waiting game against something breaking you can't fix without a specialist and/or parts you don't have.
The aftermath of a sneeze.
Everyone gets the feeling, I don't know what causes it, probably something to do with blood pressure and heart rate stimulation
Why do the Oscars award movies from the previous year?
They're held around the end of February. If they held Oscar's 2017, awarding only movies from 2017, they would only have two months of movies to award. Then, when February 2018 came around, they would miss the other 10 months of films of 2017 because they could only focus on films released in 2018 (a 2 month span)
When a car is moving on TV or a movie the wheels look like they're moving backwards...
If you take a picture of a clock every minute, then show the pictures in rapid succession, it will go from 12:00 to 12:01 to 12:02... and it'll look like it's going forward. If you take a picture of a clock every 23 hours and 59 minutes, then show the pictures in rapid succession, it will go from 12:00 to 11:59 to 11:58... and it'll look like it's going backwards. Motion picture cameras take pictures much faster than once a minute, but the same thing can apply. If the wheel is spinning at a speed where it rotates 90% of the way between frames, it will look like it's spinning backwards.
Why are some people very light sleepers and will wake up at the drop of a pin, while other people are extremely heavy sleepers and can sleep through a brass band? Why aren't all adults roughly similar in their ability (or inability) to sleep through noises?
_URL_0_ Basically some peoples brains are just better at blocking out noise then others.
What is the concept of a nation-state, and how is it different from pre-WW1 concepts of soveirgnty?
Before nation states, countries were mostly owned by dynasties (long lines of royalty) and/or aristocrats (the ruling elites that owned vast property). Once countries converted into “war machines”, it became a sort of social contract between the state and the people, where the men would be conscripted into the war machine in exchange for a stake in the country’s management in the form of votes. Nation states were a way to give “peasants” or the none-ruling class a stake in the future of the country.
Why do people hold their hand on a bible when making an oath? What if the person isn't Christian?
The "hand on the bible" gesture is purely symbolic. Meant to express that your words are all honest. If you are not Christian, you can ask for another religious text or governmentally binding, secular text where you will be asked to perform the same gesture.
What exactly is DDOS
its when someone denies your internet connection by clogging it up with spam. imagine the driveway to your house. you can usually drive in and out of it fine when theres no traffic. if theres a few hundred cars of traffic on your street, its going to be hard and time consuming to get out of your driveway. DDOS is when some mean person sends those 100 cars of traffic to drive in front of your house for the sole purpose of not letting you out. your driveway is your internet
Why and how does flour/dust explode?
It doesn't really explode, it burns. Explosives turn to gas almost entirely and this *new* gas causes a shockwave as it makes space for itself and pushes air away. Flour/dust burns, because it's dispersed fine particles it causes a huge fireball where entire volume is on fire, heating up the atmosphere air already there and causing it to expand. It burns way better in the air than while piled up, because it's surrounded by lots of air and can burn from any side. So if there's enough combustible dust floating in the air and an ignition source appears it can start a chain reaction where flames and heat from one grain of dust ignite the other particles nearby until the entire dust cloud is on fire.
Different writers for Star Wars VII-IX.
The writers and Disney have worked out a basic framework for the films. All the writers and directors know how the broad strokes of the stories the films are going to tell, but the writers/directors will fill in many of the details and decide what is the best way to actually tell the story. A lot gets added and dropped over the process of making the films. J.J. Abrams didn't even have a final cut of the Force Awakens until about a month before the film was released. In Star Wars Rebels, there is a character named Katsue. [Her design an abandoned piece of concept art for the Force Awakens](_URL_0_).
what's actually happening to us when we "burnout"?
Will power is finite. It's not an unending well like some people would like you to think. For those that willpower comes easy to, they can by very dismissive of those for whom it comes very difficult. Might take you 5 will powers to not eat that cookie. Might take someone else 50 will powers. There are things that can motivate you, or recharge your will powers battery. But over time... Over a long enough timeline, everyone can and will burn out eventually. * Repetition (the sheer repetitive nature of most tasks can be mind numbing) * Lack of motivation (both internal and external) * Lack of results over the long term while others excel (If you're built in a way that you're not getting results, like stubby fingers for a piano player, shortness for a basketball player) * The desire for change / newness. (Newness is exciting and refreshing. It can recharge us for a while until it wears off) This phenomena basically works for everything. Careers, goals, school, fitness.
the rise and fall of KODAK, and why won't it ever be a 'giant' again
They put all of their eggs in the film basket. They even invented digital cameras (well, Steve Sasson did while working for Kodak), but because they made the money when you bought the cameras, the flash cubes, the film, AND the processing, Kodak had it very good. They saw the digital camera as their enemy (they did still make a lot of money off of the patent though). Because they didn't move their business model to go with the times (they thought they could dictate how people took pictures), it eventually ended them. You could say they had no way to survive it anyway, but hey, maybe they could have gotten into the mobile phone business (or at least integrated with them)
How does the website _URL_0_ make money?
They basically sell you to advertisers. Either they are selling your info to them (read that fine print), or they are selling access to your eyeballs to credit card companies. > Does this jeopardize the truthfulness of your credit report since it can be a conflict of interest? Not really. If your credit score is inaccurately high, then you won't be able to get that nice credit card deal you applied for. So they have limited incentive to lie to you.
How are companies going to make money from Automation when their customers are all unemployed?
Companies don't know and generally don't care: as long as automation can increase profits in the short term -- the current and next quarter -- it's a good decision and usually provides a competitive advantage. The long term problem of having no middle class buyers is beyond the planning horizon of most companies and governments. Until we can get our heads out of our collective asses and understand that we are rapidly approaching a post scarcity economy where only the business owners and engineers will have "good jobs" and implement a workable form of universal basic income, economies will slowly grind to a halt as the wealthy hoard capital. Economies work best when money freely flows.
Since a country can print its own currency indefinitely, why can't the US for example just arbitrarily pay off all its debt that way?
Yes. The more money in circulation, the less it's really worth, period.
What are gimmicks, and why are they often considered bad?
A gimmick is something that makes something appeal better, without adding anything in general.
Why does cooked fish irritate an allergy but sushi/sashimi does not?
There was a study done with raw vs cooked pea allergies, that found there were cases where those allergic to the raw pea were not the cooked version. It was found that cooking the pea altered the allergen enough that the patients no longer caused a reaction. My hypothesis from this is the cooked allergen in fish is what your allergic to, and it's uncooked form your not. This would be impossible to say for 100% certian without actually testing you and ruling out any cooking material aswell.
Official ELI5 Bitcoin Thread - Round II
I don't think I understand bitcoins enough to even know what kind of questions to ask. Hmm.
How could humans realistically colonize a planet with modern technology (assuming that getting there isn't an issue)?
Mining tunnels seems the best option today. We can move huge drills to cut large habitation tunnels into the crust. These tunnels would provide shielding from radiation and meteorite impacts. Multiple tunnels can be combined to make large areas for food growth.
The eurozone crisis. Whats going on?
Greece accumulated a shit load of debt. They can't cover that debt. They need the rest of the eurozone to bail them out. Other countries(Germany) don't want to, but they share the same currency as Greece, so Greece failing would also hurt them.
How are guns/bullets traceable
Guns have an individual id number stamped on them. As far as bullets go, when they are fired the barrel leaves unique markings on the shell which can be traced to the gun that fired it. This only works if the investigator has access to the offending gun and does not work for shotguns.
Why are so many retail stores uniforms a blue shirt and khaki pants?
The khaki's represent a laid-back atmosphere to make customers feel welcome and comfortable. The color blue is meant to represent loyalty, trust and intelligence.
Why is it easier for non-native English speakers to sing, than to speak, with good pronunciation?
That's because we repeat the sounds we hear, instead of processing the sound from scratch. Imagine speaking like drawing a horse, isn't it easier to copy one from your drawing book than drawing one from a blank piece of paper?
Considering the amount of crap we cram into our bodies, why is urine commonly shades of yellow to brown and not purple or green?
There's a few reasons. 1) artificial dies and food colorings can't always survive the digestive tract intact, so they break down into their constituent parts, which aren't always as vibrantly colored. 2) The digestive tract may not pass the dyes into the bloodstream, so the kidneys may never have the opportunity to filter it into the urine stream. 3) Your poop can easily be multicolored. Just eat a heavily dyed cake, and see what happens 6-8bhours later.
Why does some cheese have holes?
Well, it's because bacteria in your cheese fart while it's made.
Why do websites like Facebook and Youtube feel a constant need to change format?
'If it ain't broke dont fix it' means nothing to executives. If they aren't changing anything, what is their purpose within the company? They have to prove their worth with new innovative changes to boost revenue and other bullshit.
Why aren't the oceans getting saltier?
They are getting saltier. The reason we do not notice is that there is a very small percentage change even over millions of years. The dead sea is a very small body of water compared to the rest of the ocean and its relatively isolated compared to the most oceans/seas. the dead see also would not of gotten that much saltier in recent times if it was not due to the sea being evaporated in human made basins.
I'm aware of optical and auditory illusions...are there illusions for the other senses i.e. smell and taste?
There are but there probably are not as many because sight and hearing can be replicated easily (as easy as looking and listening to your computer/smartphone), while smell and taste require actual physical particles. For taste, there is a fruit called the miracle fruit or miracle berry that after eating them, it causes sour foods to taste sweet. This is due to a chemical in the fruit called miraculin, a natural sugar substitute. Although the method is not completely known, it is suspected that the miraculin changes our sweet taste receptors to also react to sour, causing this effect. For smell, it's possible to overload your smell senses. If you smell more than 30 different smells at once, you end up smelling the same thing as if it were a different set of 30 other smells: _URL_0_
Two objets at certanly distence. Can we put them closer each other by the half distance indefinitely? . I mean the half of the distance, then the half of that distance ......thx
Theoretically, in abstract terms yes. There will mathematically always be another half distance you can divide by. But real world physics don't permit for this. There is a phenomenon called the Planck Unit, which I suppose you could think of as the "resolution of the universe". Much like a screen cannot show something smaller than a single pixel, the Planck unit is the smallest measure of spacetime anything can occupy. You literally cannot break spacetime into a smaller amount in real world applications.
Why have Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter during the past year gone from chronological newsfeeds to “customized” newsfeeds?
[Filter bubbles](_URL_0_), by encouraging you to engage only with content you already engage with regularly, maximize engagement with their services and thus shareholder value and ad revenue. It also "sanitizes" the content, since censoring controversial or offensive content is taken as part of the tailoring, so it's more friendly and non-controversial for advertisers. In other words, by tailoring the content you see to be only naively what's "relevant" to you, they create a welcoming and non-challenging content environment where everything is in agreement with you and your personality profile, so you feel rewarded and comfortable in that environment, and thus spend more time in the platforms. This directly rewards them by increasing profit potential. (In my opinion, it's a really messed up thing based on entirely misguided motivations, but our society is based on misguided incentives anyway, so it's not surprising.)
How does the Home Owners Association (or HOA) Function?
The idea behind a HOA is to get the neighborhood working together for their own benefit. A lot of things is shared between the owners of a neighborhood such as parking spaces, sidewalks, fences or even walls and roofs. The HOA is the owners who join together to maintain these things. They also might help each other when things needs to be done, for example when it is time to paint or do maintenance on the properties it is cheaper and better to do on a larger scale. The disadvantage of a HOA is that it attracts people who want power.
How does Netflix make money/earn a profit off of Netflix Original TV and Films?
The same way any channel makes money by producing shows. They produce something because they want you to subscribe to their channel. They license stuff out based on the show. They make a dvd and blu ray of the season. They sell it to syndication on cable channels. If it's not fantasy stuff like Game of Thrones they can get advertisements in the show like characters using an iPhone or something. It's really no different from HBO, Showtime, etc. (other places that have been commercial free a long time) except Netflix isn't there on your regular T.V. when you go to channel 601 or whatever. Even that line is getting blurry.
Why do some games run on a mac but not on linux if both are unix based os.
They're not UNIX-*based*, they're UNIX-*like*. MacOS is based on FreeBSD, which i a very different operating system than Linux. Furthermore, MacOS has it's own *completely* custom GUI and graphics APIs than Linux does. Only the very, very basic components of a game would be easy to port over.
When copying files from one device to another, why does the transfer speed slowly decrease over time?
Your computer can only create and allocate files on a device just *so* fast, so if you have lots of little files there will be a lot of overhead of creating the files themselves (naming, extension, permissions, all that) on the destination drive. You will see a speed increase if you're copying larger files (compared to copying lots of small ones) as your computer doesn't have to worry about naming etc and can just focus on transferring the bits that make up the file itself. If you are copying a large-ish file (try one at ~3-4gb) and you are seeing a definite decrease in speed first try another copying program (I use [Teracopy](_URL_0_)). Still an issue? Try copying the same file to the same device from another computer. If it is a decently stable speed the whole way using their computer your USB controller may be out of whack - try reinstalling the drivers for it. Otherwise it could very well be the cable or even the destination device itself.
Why can't U.S. citizens 'veto' an election?
The candidates are who they are because the American public voted for them. The time to decide who are candidates will be has long passed.
Why do humans find eyeless or pitch black eyes scary/unsettling?
It's called The [Uncanny Valley](_URL_0_), and it's not limited to eyes. Basically, the closer something gets to looking human, the more we can sympathise with it - until it gets to be about 95%-99% human. Then it *freaks us the hell out*. Basically if something is just a bit... off. Eyes may have the additional trigger of us being A. Very attuned to identifying Human faces, B. Vision being our primary sense, and C. Knowing how sensitive eyes are.
Why do lakes freeze but rivers don't, in the same temperature?
Water in lakes is still, so it has time to freeze. Rivers are flowing, so water is constantly moving, making freezing much more difficult.
Why can’t we capitalize numbers like how we capitalize letters?
We do; we just stopped mostly using the “lowercase” numerals. [This](_URL_0_) is what numerals used to look like. Some typefaces still provide such “old-style numerals” or “text figures” instead of or in addition to the newer “lining figures”.
How/ can people be sentenced to multiple 'life-sentences' in prison?
People are given a sentence for each charge they are guilty of. If you commit 4 murders you can be sentenced to 4 separate life sentences. It's largely redundant but allows prosecutors to stack charges against people and allow justice in each of the cases of the criminals victim.
What's the biological purpose of males getting sleepy after ejaculation?
It's about pair bonding. If you fall asleep next to your partner you are likely to wake up next to them. It's to promote bonding.
How did Dubai become so rich and prosperous so "quickly"
First they discovered oil, then they started selling oil. Then they formed the UAE and aligned with the western world rather than the lunatic dictators in the middle east. they also arranged their city in such a way that made it very attractive for foreigners to do business/live there. tldr: oil
Why is it when you put room temperature items in a refridgerator, does it seem to make the other items inside less cold over time until everything has cooled down tothe same temperature? Or is this all in my head? (explanation in text)
Technically, things can't give or take "cold" from objects, they only give or take heat. Cold is simply the word to describe when something is colder than another thing (usually our hand). Cold objects actually still have a lot of heat in them. But anyways, a mini fridge doesn't have very much power, so it takes a long time for it to cool down the inside of the fridge. If you put a lot of room temperature stuff inside, it will often take many hours to remove all the heat from those items. In the meantime, the temperatures of everything inside the fridge will try to equalize - the hot things will spread their heat around to the cold things and, if there was no fridge, everything would become equally luke-warm eventually. Since the mini fridge is so weak and takes so long to re-chill everything, there's plenty of time for at least *some* of the heat to spread around inside.
Why have they not started issuing social security cards in plastic form like the DMV does with drivers licenses?
Oh god somebody please answer this. I never understood using that damn piece of paper as an item for your I-9 verification. It looks like something a half baked forger can copy.
How do some people sleep with their eyes open?
You do not want to learn. I have this, and it's a disease. I have no control over it. I don't even have it severely and have to put a jelly paste in my eyes multiple times a night which is also a pain in the ass in the morning. If I don't put the paste in my eyes I wake up with a horrible burning sensation from my eyes drying out. It has taken as long as 48 hours to recover from not using my jelly.
Who is a bigger drag on healthcare premiums: The uninsured or the insured sick?
both? neither? In the US you're going to struggle to find someone who actually turns away a person in need of healthcare, even if they're uninsured. They will go the the ER, the ER will process them, and try to bill them for whatever they can. In light of the fact that this uninsured person can't afford insurance, they also can't afford to pay the ER, so the hospital takes that patient's cost as a loss, but then in the bigger picture, adjusts it's cost of business to take into account that patient, and all the others like him. This translates over to insurance costs, even tho he wasn't insured. Now, lets say he had insurance, well he only will use it if he's sick, in which case, he's incurring expense to the insurance company. To answer your question, the only people who make insurance premiums go down are the insured, healthy people. if there were a larger distribution of healthy people who still paid for insurance, the cost would (well....could) go down.
I understand that in most criminal gangs the leader gets to the top by being ruthless and fearless but it would seem that in mexico regarding the cartels that there would be no shortage of machete wielding psychos to take top spot,so how do these people make it to be the boss of these cartels ?
Really, really depends on the cartel. A lot of the time it's smarts. Who's the man with the plan? Who knows all of the best ways to do things. More often than that it's status and networking. Some of these cartels are made up of military and police defectors. Rank carries over. Other times its who knows who: who has the most contacts to get the drugs across, who's been in the game longest? Experience and notoriety is probably the biggest factor Loyalty can be earned in ways other than brutality, and when it has been earned over decades (as in the case of most cartel leaders) it is very, very difficult to break.
What's the legitimate purpose of a water tower?
It regulates water pressure for an entire area with a single control, by using gravity to create water pressure. You fill up the water tower, and the water coming out of the tower is under pressure from the weight of the water above it. Otherwise you would need to have a pump that keeps the pressure up, and it would have to quickly respond to changing water demands. The water tower handles all of that by itself without anything complicated.
What gives a person their own unique tone or pitch in their voice, and why are men and women voices so vastly different?
There are actually quite a few factors. The larynx is the primary organ in vocalizing. It's where the vocal chords are located, and different shapes will result in different tones. Men tend to have a larger larynx with longer vocal chords, giving them a deeper voice than women. In addition to the larynx, the shape of the pharynx (the connector between the mouth and larynx), mouth, tongue, and nasal cavity all influence the outgoing sound.
How is it legal for a Greyhound bus to allow people to stand up in the middle of the aisle going 65 on the highway when seatbelt laws are so enforced?
[The answer to your question](_URL_0_), and [a story from a kid inside a flipping bus](_URL_1_).
If Ant Man just shrinks but stays the same mass, how come when he runs on a bad guys weapon it doesn't tilt forward with 150lbs pressing down?
OH SHIT! YOU SIR, youuuuuuuuuuuuu should not say such things if I were you...that is uhhh....very observant of you...does he stay the same mass? So he's just more dense....I feel like that opens a HUGE can of worms for this scientifically...oh well comics, super heroes, what you gonna do