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If wood pallets are in such demand, why are stores giving them away?
There are two types of wood pallet: hardwood and softwood. The hardwood ones are in true demand, and are reusable. These are generally painted. The softwood ones are, for the most part, considered disposable and those are the ones you will find for free. Be careful where you get your pallets. Many are loaded with various chemicals or bacteria that could potentially harm you.
Why are none of the major news websites reporting on the Ukraine riots?
I feel the Ukraine riots is well coverd in the media, but I have not visited many international news-sites. But the main reason for this is simply money. News-sites base their content on what "news" gets the most clicks on their website. The more clicks equal more advertisement money since each click on a article opens a new page with new advertisement. So the articles you see on many news-sites is simply a representation of what the people on the website wants to read about. The fact that Justin Bieber has more coverage that the Ukraine riots is because people find it more interesting (sadly enough). Justin Bieber articles may have 5000 clicks, while the Ukraine riots have 500 clicks, so then its natural for the news-site (who wants to make money) to make more stuff about Bieber and highlight his stuff insted of the Ukraine riots.
Why are carbon and oxygen so ubiquitous in living organisms
To be useful for life atoms need two somewhat opposite characteristics; they need to be reactive enough to be readily changed when needed, but not so reactive they degrade by themselves e.g with moisture. Carbon fills that role perfectly. Carbon based molecules will on average hang about a long time, but when called upon can be manipulated by say enzymes to change. Lead based compounds could stand in for carbon in some instances, but the bonds with other atoms are too weak and wouldnt last for the time needed. Carbon forms strong bonds with hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, which is why they are also widely found in life.
If most money is just numbers in a database, how come we don't hear of hackers who break in and just increase their account balance?
Accounting and balance sheets. Every debit has to have a credit, and every credit a debit...or it will show up as out of balance. If there were to be a balancing entry in the respective offset account, then maybe it would go undetected...but nonetheless it would still show up as an entry that someone is eventually responsible for reconciling.
How does a lightning strike crumble buildings even when they are made of meters and meters of non-conductive materials?
The amperage and voltage difference between the ground and clouds are so large that it doesn't really matter what the thing is made of. If the path is connected, the electricity flows. Resistance causes a big chunk of that energy to turn into heat, which spells out a thin cord-like volume that briefly reaches temperatures over 4000°. This is what makes things blow up or catch fire.
How does a headbutt work? Wouldn't it hurt you just as much? Is there any practical reason to utilize it?
You use your relatively strong forehead to strike in a less strong part of the head, ideally the bridge of the nose. Also, even if it does hurt you, you are expecting it, and can use that surprise to your advantage.
Is intermittent fasting healthy?
There is some evidence that intermittent fasting is beneficial in humans (e.g. improved insulin sensitivity), but the bulk of the work has been done in animals. The idea is that the longer your body is in a "starvation" state, the better. Valter Longo at USC has done a lot of work in this area, using what he calls the fasting-mimicking diet, which is a bit more intense than just intermittent fasting (in humans, the equivalent is eating 50% of normal for 5 days every month). You can Google some of his research pretty easily.
How do federal housing programs like FHA/USDA loans work and why do they exist?
A typical non-FHA/USDA loan usually requires 20% downpayment because the lender doesn't want to be too exposed in the event of a foreclosure. The government loans tend to be more forgiving in regards to credit. The two houses we've bought over the years have been FHA because we didn't have 800+ credit scores and 20% down. FHA loans generally require only 3-5% down and you can sometimes get a downpayment assistance program that will help you with that 3%. We bought our two houses with about $500 out of pocket per house.
Why is it the vast majority of rainbow flags do not have violet in them?
Newton was the one to popularize the division of colors in the rainbow thanks to his work with prisms. And Newton was very religious and superstitious, and saw a great significance in the number 7. So he decided that there should be 7 colors in the rainbow, which led to him breaking the blue end of the rainbow into extra, unnecessary colors.
Plea deals in the US - why are they used so much and how do they work?
Trials cost money, both for the accused and for the people who are represented by the prosecution. Meanwhile juries can be fickle creatures, and you really cannot count on them to reach the right conclusion (look at OJ Simpson, 99.9999% chance he did it, but walked away with an innocent verdict). Better to skip the expense of a trial, secure a guilty verdict, and enforce even a fraction of the prescribed punishment, then to waste a fortune and risk that the perpetrator walks. It's a fucked up a system, but that's how it works. To paint it simpler terms, better to be guaranteed that your boss thinks that you're a good employee, than to risk a 50/50 "you're great" vs. "you suck". Source: Life long American, degree in Criminal Justice
What does "HTTP 2.0 to be HTTPS only" mean and what are the implications of this?
HTTPS means that the web page and the requests for the web page are encrypted in transit, meaning that people listening in on your computer (or the remote servers) traffic can't analyze them and steal personal information. Standard traffic is done over HTTP which isn't encrypted and people can intercept these communications, HTTP 2.0 won't have HTTP and HTTPS, there will only be HTTP which will use the encryption protocol of HTTPS by default.
Why do deep burps sometimes sting the nostrils?
Because you've been drinking something carbonated. The CO2 gas from the carbonation continues to be released in your stomach, and actually speeds up its release since there are a lot of nucleation sites, which the glass/plastic didn't have. (Side note, nucleation sites is fancy talk for an irregular shape that gives the gas a helping had at becoming un-dissolved in the liquid.) When the pressure from the CO2 gas gets up there, your stomach releases the pressure, usually as a belch. But CO2 is fairly dissolvable in water, so as it passes over your wet tissues, some of it will convert back into carbonic acid. If that happens on extremely sensitive tissue like the inside of your nose, you can feel the acidic sting. If you get the same concentration of CO2 gas around your eyes you can feel the same kind of effect.
What about a base-10 numbering system makes it so good?
Keep in mind that any base system is base-10 (ONE ZERO). If we used a base 2 system we would describe it as base-10 as well. There is nothing mathematically special about a base-TEN system. Humans probably started using it because we have ten figures. Base 12 and base 60 systems were once very common because they divide evenly very well. 60=2x30=4x15=5x12 and 12=2x6=3x4. In fact we still use them in time keeping. The clock has 60 minutes, each consisting of 60 seconds. The year has 12 months made by 24 hour (2x12 hour parts).
How do air bubbles in a needle kill you if you don't get them all out before injecting?
I think that's mostly a Hollywood invention. A large amount of air injected into a vein can kill you, but a little bit won't. Imagine my surprise when I was in the hospital and saw a few air bubbles go into my vein. I freaked out and thought I was going to die, but absolutely nothing happened.
From 1954 to Blu ray
It's kinda a strange concept, but since old movies were taken on real film, the film itself is basically HD (It's not that hard to realize either, if you look at some film, it's very very high quality picture) As long as you have the old film, it'll be convertible into HD into at least the near future (Past the time that say, movies taken in 2000 will be directly convertible). However, it's worth noting that, even if this wasn't the case, you can still convert a very low-res movie into HD, that's what happens when you watch a non-HD movie or non-HD TV channel on an HD TV (basically). You probably wouldn't call it HD though just because it doesn't look very good compared to things which were made in HD. When converting in this way, as long as the producers are willing to put a little money into it, you can touch-up the quality a bit so it looks much more like it was made in HD rather then converted.
People who understand NSA stuff: why don't they have a better lead on Jim Dimaggio? (California Amber Alert)
IF he was trying to flee, he would have taken a different car, or disabled his GPS Nav system, and from that point he would stay off the grid. | They do use it for the domestic good, remember the Boston Marathon manhunt?
After time in the sun, why does my hair get lighter but my skin gets darker?
Your skin can react to a stimulus. It adds more pigments to protect you. Your hair is mostly dead cells and thus cannot react, so it gets bleached in the sun just like paint or plastic.
Inflation target is roughly 2-3%, is any lower than this bad? If so, why?
Moderate inflation provides incentives for people who have money to lend it out to borrowers. These borrowers generally spend this money in the short term, which fuels economic activity and all that comes with it (higher production, lower unemployment, etc.). In short, money is put to work rather than just sitting around. If the inflation rate is zero or near-zero, you can sit on your money and it won't lose value. Even worse, if inflation is negative (also known as deflation), you can actually profit from sitting on your money. In that scenario, you can end up with a lot of money sitting around without being used to drive economic activity.
If i deposit 1 dollar into a bank, what are all the options of where that 1 dollar could end up?
Do you mean the idea of the dollar or the physical currency? The dollar becomes two entities on the banks balance sheet: one dollar on deposit that they owe you (a liability) and one dollar in cash. They can then use their cash to buy securities (short and long term), as funding for a loan, to pay a depositors withdrawl, pay an expense (like rent or wages), or it can be deposited with the Federal Reserve (which is sort of like a wholesale bank or a bank's bank). The physical currency will likely be returned to depositors or sent back to the Fed (if it's for a reserve deposit or if it's damaged).
why people from the United States love to have guns that aren't just hunting rifles.
Same reason people have cars that can do double the speed limit. Fun.
How come it feels infinitely more perilous walking down an icy incline than it does walking up one?
My guess, going downhill if you slip you will fall backwards and won't be able to catch yourself and possibly hit your head, going up hill you will fall foreward and be able to use your hands to catch yourself
Why can't we artificially inseminate endangered species like pandas and rhinos in order to raise their numbers?
Increasing their numbers doesn't solve any problems. They're being wiped out in the wild, through habitat destruction, poaching, etc. Having 'more to die' doesn't fix the 'to die' part. Additionally, artificial insemination isn't a surefire mechanism, and once your population is low enough you run into problems with a lack of genetic diversity that you can't overcome with more of the same genes.
How does the Nuclear Fusion produce cheap, reliable energy and ELI5 how the new data produced in Livermore, CA help us?
_URL_0_ Original story in which I am inquiring..
Can anyone explain why when you sit for an extended period of time your knee will start to bounce up and down?
This actually doesn't happen to everyone. If it happens all the time and feels like it's out of your conscious control, and really severe, it might be Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), a neurological disorder which causes a strong urge to move your legs. It might also simply be a symptom of impatience or boredom or, in the extremes of those cases, a symptom of Attention Deficit Disorder. Here's a Wikipedia article about RLS: _URL_0_
what is going on with Adrian Peterson
He hit his kid with a "switch" (usually thin tree branch with the leaves ripped off) as a way of discipline, but apparently it left some pretty bad marks which makes it look like he went too far with corporal punishment and possibly crossed into abuse. Hard to say exactly what could happen with his career, but this coming the same week as the Ray Rice domestic abuse issue is probably going to make any suspensions he receives much stiffer.
How can services like Google Drive offer so much storage for no charge?
Google offer 'free' services to lock people into using Google, this in turns makes people use other services such as search and gmail, where they do make money for people clicking on advertisements. It's also another way of gathering as much information about people to enable them to target specific types of advertisement to that individual.
The Cheryl’s Birthday Logic Puzzle
/u/MultiFazed gives a great drill down. In general, these sorts of puzzles rely what is called *metaknowledge*, what you know about what someone knows. You aren't just using the clues Cheryl gives you, but the fact those clues are insufficient for one person to solve the problem. To look at a simpler example of how this works, let's say there are a bunch of black hats and only one red hat. You and a friend are given the hats in such a way you don't know the color of the hat you are wearing, but can see the other person's. You see your friend has a black hat, so you can't be sure if yours is red or black. But if your friend says "I don't know what color my hat is", you can now deduce your hat must not be red, otherwise they would have known their hat had to be black. The birthday problem works in essentially the same way, except it takes more than one step to narrow down the possibilities.
why do lightbulbs seem to go bad only when being turned on?
The filaments in the bulb get thinner and thinner with more use. At some point they are thin enough that the surge of electricity when turning on the bulb is more than the filament can take.
Why are most SQL error messages useless?
They're not useless. They give you the exact line the problem has occured on and the nature of the error. It is assumed that you know what you're doing and are competent enough to be aware of which keywords exist. Why did you cut off the rest of the error message you quoted: ERROR 1064 (42000): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (userID, tweetID), FOREIGN KEY (userID) REFERENCES User(' at line 4 References being capitalised is a pretty big clue. I don't mean to be rude but you're stupid.
Why do large semis shake your car when you drive past them?
[Vortex shedding](_URL_0_) Because semi's are not very streamlined the air rushing past them ends up in a series of vortices. As these vortices pass you, your car is alternately sucked toward and blown away from--hence the shaking motion.
How are cranes on the side if buildings built during construction? How is the last crane disassembled?
A crane can build and disassemble itself. They build what they can on the ground and then let the crane take over. There is no way I'd be able to explain it better than this video. _URL_0_
Why does everything you mix together turn brown?
Pigments absorb some colors and reflect others. Mix a bunch of different ones together and it ends up absorbing most of the color and then reflecting some of the light so you get a dark mass of brown
Why do we still have court reporters?
Transcripts. Every legal action is based on a transcript, the written word of what happened in court, and also at depositions (witness interviews taken under oath outside the courtroom). So anytime a hearing is at issue or deposition testimony is needed, the court or court of appeals needs a transcript to review what was said. And the easiest way to do that is by reading it. The written transcript is also very easy to reproduce, where an audio recording is not as easy to reference or excerpt in papers. The reporter actually will record the hearing in audio and use that recording to help correct the transcript, in case there are any errors in the first draft.
What is the difference between a voxel and a pixel?
A pixel is part of a 2-D image - like all the dots that make up your screen. A voxel is a 3-D element, like the cubes that make up Minecraft.
How can a person break cement blocks with a fist? Surely there is no training that makes bones as tough a concrete?
The dirty secret of concrete is that it's weak in *some* ways. Like natural rock, it's great at withstanding compression. However, it is very poor at withstanding tension (pulling). Which means that it's also poor at handing bending, which imposes compression and tension in different regions at the same time. To make concrete handle bending - e.g. to span a space between columns - you have to reinforce it. Depending on the composition of the concrete, e.g. the size and quantity of the gravel - it can also be poor at handling shear (slicing). This is the weakness most relevant to martial arts displays: the hand or fist imposes a sharp shear force peak, and the result can be a fracture along a plane. If the blocks are made specifically for the demonstration, I would expect the concrete composition to be suitably weak.
Why are college grades so test taking oriented instead of grading us on our ability to work in teams and research information on topics?
> Colleges claim to prepare us for the real world This is not in fact the objective of advanced colleges and universities. Their job is to teach you how to think and how to learn, and also to to provide you with a large foundation of background knowledge and general skills such as how to express yourself or organize information. Teaching you how to get things done in a practical workplace is not, officially, their main goal.
. If I watched 15 minutes from a 90 minute YouTube video, do I get charged data for the entire 90 minute file ? What about the ads .
you don't stream the entire file at once. Youtube doesn't stream the entire thing to you anymore, just sightly ahead of what you watch. They want to save data too, after all. yes, ads do use data too. they are not magical.
Clive Bundy and his ranch
The big stand off last year with bundy and the government was over his use of public lands. Ranchers that want to use public lands like the one in question here are expected to pay a fee to the government and in exchange they can graze their cattle on it. Bundy had not paid the fee for (iirc) years and the government finally stopped sending him empty threats and moved to remove his cattle from the public lands. Bundy took advantage of anti-government sentiments to get a group of conservative "militia" to come help him fight the government agents sent to remove him.
Why do people have different skins tones, face shapes, body shapes etc from different continents?
Indications are that a lot of those features, the key reason Europeans and Asians are different is because of interbreeding with neanderthals and denisovans. The neanderthals and denisovans had lived in those regions for a long time and had gradually adapted to the environment of the climates, and the interbreeding enabled the people recently emigrated from Africa to draw on this. The dominance of fair skin, hair and to a lesser extent eyes in Europe is actually a fairly recent event. [As recently as 7-8000 years ago](_URL_0_) - a time when the first cities were rising in the Middle East - there remained groupings of people with more African traits, but blue eyes. There are indications this was still the norm in great parts of southern Europe. _URL_1_
If America has the best colleges in the world and some of the hardest working people in the world, how are foreigners able to take our jobs?
They will work for less money. It's primarily jobs for low skill workers that are leaving the US. A factory worker in China will cost about the equivalent of $1.36 hour. Even if they are slightly less productive, it's still more cost effective, even after shipping the goods to the US. It's about $2000 per shipping container from China to USA.
Every picture we take is a rectangle, so is the sensor inside our digital cameras. So why are the lenses of our cameras round?
It is not the case that every pixel have a single point on the lens collecting its light. Every pixel gets light from all parts of the lens. You can try this yourself by covering up parts of a lens and observe that the light in the other end of the optics only gets darker but not obscured. You can even try this on your eyes by squinting which will cover up parts of your eyelenses. So the shape of the lens does not correspond with the shape of the sensor. There is no part of the lens being wasted by being round. It is just the case that it is easier to make a round lens then a square lens with the same area. This also means it is easier to make the lens rotate to move the lenses when you are changing the focus or the zoom. However pictures, sensors and film is easier to make rectangular as this is the easiest shape you can tile together.
How does my penis know I’m looking at something sexual?
Your brain finds whatever you’re looking at arousing and as a result releases endorphins and sends blood to the penis to make it erect
Why did the communist structure of the USSR fail while China still continues to grow under the banner of the CCP?
The USSR tried to liberalize their politics without liberalizing their economy. China is allowing the economy to liberalize into a more capitalist system, but maintaining strict control of the politics. Freedom of politics tends towards freedom of economy, but freedom of economy doesn't always lead to freedom of politics (or at least hasn't so far) because everyone is happy making money. Edit: Correcting my own stupid.
How do people taste flavours in cigars and whiskey?
It's an acquired taste and it requires a fair bit of learning before you get it. It's not like normal tastes, it's not like a lemon tasting like lemon. It's really hard to explain, but it amounts to trying to look beyond the first, strong flavor and experiencing the nuances behind it. The reason it's so hard is because cigars, whisky, wine and the like have very strong "first hand flavors" that easily cover up the nuances, but once you start learning it becomes second nature to ignore that and find the subtle flavors instead.
In traffic, why do cyclists by default have to use the road instead of the sidewalk? Aren't motor vehicles and cyclists a bigger danger to each other than cyclists and pedestrians would be?
Bicycles and cars are supposed to follow the same rules, and both drivers and riders are responsible for maintaining situational awareness. This is intended to create a predictable flow. As others have mentioned, while there are notions about how best to walk on a sidewalk, there aren't really any rules or regulations. A bike coming up behind a car can make a fairly accurate assumption about what the car is going to do next based on signals used by the car and/or the lane the car is in. Sidewalks are pure chaos.
How is using someone else's Wi-fi not considered stealing?
It is; it probably falls under theft of services.
Do dogs have bonds within their families?
I am not at all an expert on this but I can say that I have seen two dog siblings go straight murder-mode on each other over a toy or food on several occasions. Maybe there is some explanation for this?
Why is it that before an orgasm you have a feeling willingness to do anything, but as soon as the orgasm passes you come to your "senses" (NSFW)
According to some studies about human psychology, our disgust response is literally reduced the hornier you are. Which makes sense. Sex isnt really the most hygienic thing in the world haha. But once you're done, your disgust feelings return to normal.
Was Bill Clinton impeached?
Yes he was impeached for perjury (lying under oath) and obstruction of justice. Impeachment refers to any official being accused of illegal activity. So while impeached he was not removed from office. Richard Nixon was also impeached though he resigned before the trial.
How is NASA able to download data from from satellite like Hubble telescope and Juno?
There are antennas on Juno that send out the information and giant dishes in different parts of the world that can pick it up no matter what side of Earth is facing Juno. It takes about 48 minutes for the signal to make if from Juno to Earth at the speed of light.
Why does digital data have to be stored on a physical medium?
There is no such thing as "the digital space". Everything persistent is physical. Everything. The only non-physical things are signals such as radio or microwaves, but they too require amplification and boosting which again would require more hardware.
Why is the first episode of a series always called "Pilot"? Why not giving it a real title even though it serves as a pilot?
Most pilots do have a title, or at least a working title. But the word pilot is used as an adjective meaning "done as an experiment or test before introducing something more widely." It's importance to the series is in getting its foot in the door so to speak.
why big tech companies aren't using their lobbyists to stop SOPA.
I remember hearing on a podcast the idea that since many of these companies are quite new, they haven't had the time to lobby and make the connections the more established companies those in the RIAA/MPAA have formed.
why laptop charging cords have two parts.
The specifics of mains power differ greatly depending on where you are, so power bricks are usually made to handle a wide range of input voltages and frequencies (usually 100-240V at 50-60 Hz). This is because economies of scale make it less costly to make a whole lot of one slightly more expensive part that's much more flexible vs. a bunch of slightly different ones for a single region. Since different countries (and even different parts of the same country, e.g. Japan) have different connectors to go with the different voltages and frequencies, the AC end of the cord is removable so that only the cheapest part needs to be changed for different regions. As a bonus, this means you can take your laptop to most countries and need only a cheap AC cord to do it instead of a whole adapter or voltage converter.
How can we be certain that there isn't another 'Earth' on the opposite side of the sun, always out of view of our telescopes?
Its gravity would have an effect on our planet, the other planets in the system, and even(on a very small scale) the sun, as well as all the comets and asteroids constantly cutting through our solar system. As we have not observed any such gravitic effects(and we'd notice, because it would screw up trajectories for interplanetary probes and tracking asteroids, as well as screwing up the math for why the planets were acting the way they did), we conclude there is no such body.
Who owns a lot of the undeveloped land? Can someone just go off into the mountains, build a home off the grid with no repercussions?
All land (in the US) is owned by someone. Most of the undeveloped land like you described is owned by the government. Interestingly most of this land the government will sell you for dirt cheap. So you could purchase it and live off the grid, but that is a very hard way to live.
The Trayvon Martin shooting. Was out of the loop for a day or two.
Trayvon Martin was a young African-American male. His father lives in a gated community in Florida. Martin left the home to walk to a nearby convenience store. On the way back a community watch person(think neighborhood watch) called 911 to report him as suspicious. When officers arrived they found Martin dead of gunshot wounds and Zimmerman claiming self-defense. Martin's family claims that he was shot, basically, for Walking While Black(or, alternatively, being black in a white neighborhood). Zimmerman claims that Martin made an unspecified aggressive action and the shooting was self-defense.
Why does someone stricken with Alzheimer's forget names and memories, but retain math skills and advanced vocabulary?
They don't actually necessarily keep all of those. Vocabulary is *very* frequently affected by Alzheimer's, to the point that it can be part of the testing or a warning sign.
Copyright / "Fair use" - how does it work?
"Fair use" isn't something that is clearly defined. It is something that is determined in court if you are sued for copyright infringement. Only a qualified attorney could give you advice as to whether something could be considered "fair use," and even then, the final decision is up to the courts of law in the U.S. There are four factors that go into the consideration of whether use is fair: 1. Purpose and character—is it commercial use or nonprofit, educational use? 2. The nature of the copyrighted work. 3. How much of the copyrighted work you're using. 4. The effect of your use of the work on its market value (or potential market value). From the US Copyright Office: > The distinction between fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission. source: _URL_0_
Since a compass is a magnet, why do compasses always point towards magnetic north, but not a typical household ceramic magnet?
The needle is long and floats on a bearing. Put your ceramic magnet so the North and South poles are parallel to the ground. Float it on water somehow and wait. It will orient itself with the magnetic field in your vicinity. Compasses orient with the magnetic field. One end points to the North magnetic pole, the other towards the South magnetic pole. Unless you are near Magnet Cove Arkansas.
Why do publishers have to pay royalties to voice actors when re releasing a game those VAs performed in?
Because it's in their contract. A voice actor does voice acting in return for money. The terms of this are specified in the specific contract they sign. Contracts may be set up so that the voice actor forfeits all rights to their performance, or retains some rights, and they may be paid all at once, or per sale, or a combination of the two Even more specialized and complicated scenarios may be specified by the contract This is somewhat similar to how some screen actors are paid flat fees, and other royalties, and others a mix. Sometimes different actors in the same movie are paid different ways!
why do we sometimes wake up accidentally when our bodies are still obviously tired?
It's more important to be able to respond to threats than to get a good night's sleep, and while modern life may be safe, this was not always the case.
What happens behind the scenes when a person is clubbed and blacks out?
Have you seen those videos where someone gets punched or slapped in slow motion? You ever notice how their face moves, then their skin kind of morphs trying to catch up with it? The same kind of thing can happen in your head too. If you get hit in the head really hard, your brain might squish a bit and actually bump into the inside of your skull! Your brain is pretty fragile, so a small tap might end up making it bruised, just like if you accidentally trip and hit your knee. Bruising your brain is really bad, because the bruise is a tiny leak of blood, and your brain needs that blood to work right. Not only that, but when your brain squishes like the skin in the slow motion slap video, it can start to rip a bit on the inside. That squishing and tearing is what usually causes you to pass out or have problems after you wake up. TL;DR Concussions and brain damage. Movies exaggerate how well your brain can handle these though, it's real bad for you to get knocked unconscious like that.
What do modern spies do?
OK, first, take whatever picture is in your mind, and make it about 50x more boring.
If I renounce my U.S citizenship where would i be deported to?
You cannot revoke your citizenship while inside the country. The first step would be to leave. Assuming you were just visiting somewhere and then renounced your citizenship, that country may still be able to deport you back to the USA, just as a noncitizen. This would make some things like travel and work very difficult.
U.S internet costs a lot due to lack of competition. Why aren't many competitors in the U.S opposed to places like Korea?
You have the cause and effect backwards here. It is expensive to be an internet provider because you have to physically run the lines and run the servers. In countries like South Korea the distance that you have to run things is short because the country is small. They also have a large percentage of the infrastructure built by their government. In the US the infrastructure is built by the company, and the country is huge so they have to run long distances. That means very few companies are able to spend the money to compete.
Why does crickets chirp at night?
They try to hide from their most common predators by staying quiet during daytime. And then come out during the night to attract a mate when it's too dark for birds to hunt.
Why would a British Candy bar have different nutrition facts when sold in the USA on the exact same bar?
1: they aren't the same bar, just because they're called the same thing. 2: different regulatory requirements for what needs to be listed and how accurate it needs to be. Maybe the US doesn't require decimal places but the UK does and so they round for the US?
Why can Red Bull still advertise that it "gives you wings" and not get sued for false advertising?
The legal doctrine is called "Puffery". If a claim is so absurd (like giving you wings) or un-verifiable (like X's best burger) that a reasonable person would not consider it to be an objective statement of fact, then it's not false advertising. _URL_0_
Why do people experience déjà vu?
If I remember correctly, it's a cognitive short circuit - so to speak. The brain working diligently, transferring visual and auditory stimulus to the subconscious for processing, when a few bits of data slated for 'real time' end up getting tagged as 'past memories'. When the data comes full circle and is processed by the conscious mind, the tags come up as expected, real time - real time - real time then all the sudden, past memories - real time - real time. The brain, being the powerful processing machine that it is, instantly recognizes the abnormality and in turn, tells the face to quickly form a dumb expression and instructs the neck to slowly turn the head around so the mouth can effectively project the words 'Well that was weird' to anyone near by.
Newbie reddit user doesn't know where to start?
Go back to lurking. its not safe here.
You're not suppose to use Band-aids/coverings for a scarless and well healed tattoo. So why are they used for every other cut, scrape, or puncture for extended periods of time?
For tattoos, the needle only goes a certain distance into your skin so it's not a full puncture. On top of this, the idea of a tattoo is to have the ink stay in your skin; if you cover it or use medicated ointment, you'll pull up the ink and ruin the tattoo in general. Since cuts, scrapes and punctures are wounds that you'd otherwise like to go away, using a bandaid to cover it is to prevent outside debris from entering the wound, seal the wound and to help speed up the healing process. You also use medicated ointments to help keep the wound closed and speed along the healing process and reduce scarring. It's actually one of the things discovered about vaseline and how neosporin got started.
Why do Jewish people make up just 2% of the US population, yet they are very dominant in many industries (i.e. banking, Hollywood, corporate, etc.)?
Connections, hard work and a cultural importance of a good education.
what is the process of translation (microbiology)
Translation is a very complex process.. anyway let me give you an outline Its like Lock and Key.. each set of 3 nucleotide corresponds to particular ammio acids..sometimes more that one type corresponds to particular ammio acid So ribosome starts to read your mRNA strand and accordinly you will get ammio acids attached one by one untill you reach an set of nucleotide which corresponds to no particlar ammio acid.. /// Okay sorry I cant explain like 5 any more..I dont know how much detail you want..better try [/r/askscience](/r/askscienc) or [/r/biology](/r/biology)
Reddit points, or why there are no posts with like 200,000, 500,000, or more upvotes
[Because of the 1% rule](_URL_0_) Simply put, only 1% of the community creates content, 9% modifies or edits, and the rest just lurk (hence the term "Reddit Lurkers"). This is compounded by 1. You don't need to upvote to view content 2. You need to take an extra step to upvote (creating an account/logging in) 3. People are just lazy
Why don't they run political debates like competitive debating, with rules and a panel of judges who deduct points for logical fallacies, factual errors, etc?
Because the candidates would not agree to that. They're not obligated to debate at all, they do so because they think it's an opportunity to show the voters how great they are. No candidate would agree to such a strict format.
Why does nearly every frozen food require the oven to be preheated at 400 Fahrenheit? What is it about 400 degrees that's such a sweet spot?
The hotter the oven, the faster it transfers heat into the food. Water requires a large amount of energy to melt, and a huge amount of energy to change its temperature regardless of what state it's in. A cool oven won't melt the food fast enough to avoid drying out or overcooking the outside. A hotter oven will dump more heat into the outer layer of food, melting it faster, but the inside will probably still be frozen because the heat is still going into melting the interior, which stays its melting point until it's completely melted. This results in an overcooked exterior with an icy interior, whereupon the diner will likely curse the manufacturer for providing poor food and/or poor cooking directions. The suggested cooking temperature will likely result in adequate cooking in a wide variety of ovens, some of which might be improperly set up (rack position vs. heating elements), out of calibration, or otherwise less than ideal.
suggestion for the mods: Please add a current events section to the sidebar.
Interesting idea. But also remember: the first answer to a question isn't always the right answer. But reddit voting tends to push one answer to the top, and then it tends to stay, even if it's wrong. It's good to have a little turnover.
Why do flies always land on my monitor?
Confirmation bias. They may well land on your light bulb. But you're not staring at your light bulb for hours and hours on end, so you wouldn't notice it as much.
I don't understand the federal assualt weapons ban expiring and now possibly being re-introduced. What did it do? What was then allowed after it expired? If it's brought back, what then?
The ban put some superficial limits on new weapons purchases, such as placement of grips, folding stock, extended magazines, etc. Essentially weapons that were "souped up" and/or gave a more dangerous appearance. If you already owned weaponry that met the "assault weapon" definition prior to the ban going in to effect you were allowed to keep it. The ban expired after 10(?) years. If a new ban is put in place it will likely have more effective language, since the original assault weapons ban did very little, other than drive up the prices of existing assault weapons.
Is it possible to have a solar panels system on a roof of a house and be fully energy self-sufficient?
Absolutely. In some states you can even sell power back to the electric company for tax credits.
If sounds passing through an object cause it to vibrate is it possible to create sounds such as the chirping of birds just by vibrating an object at the right speed or frequency?
Yes. That is how speakers work. You induce them to vibrate in JUST the right way to produce the exact sound you want. You can turn any object into a speaker, but speakers are specially designed to not distort sound. If you try to turn a glass cup into a speaker, you will have distortions due to the natural frequencies of that glass. Every sound can be broken up into a bunch of individual sine waves at different frequencies (tones) and amplitudes (volumes), including a bird chirping.
How do Fast Food Restaurants like KFC keep their recipes a secret, if they're distributed worldwide?
They don't make everything from scratch in each restaurant. Things are made in a factory and shipped to the stores, similar to how you'd buy a box of Mac and Cheese. Inside they have a packet of "cheese" powder. You make Mac and Cheese at home when you open the box and follow the instructions, but that doesn't mean that you know what's in the powder.
Why do shoelaces lose their ability to stay tied up over time?
The same parts of the lace always are in the knot so they get worn smooth by the action of tying and movement while beinng worn. The smooth parts don't grip each other as well.
Why is buying things in bulk cheaper?
From a purely economic stand point, there are two types of costs: Fixed and Variable. Fixed is say your rent, or start up costs, so for example to buy a teddy bear factory costs 100 dollars, while variable costs for example are a teddy bears costing 4 dollars per bear to produce. So in order to make one bear your total cost is 104, for two bears its 108 because the factory always costs 100, for three bears it costs 112, and so on (assuming it has an unlimited production capacity). Now while for each additional bear you produce your total cost increases, but if you look at the total cost per bear (average total cost), it drops. So while one bear costs you 104, two bears costs 54, and so on. This is called economies of scale, and this is the main reason buying in bulk results in a lower cost, although other factors do contribute: shipping, packaging etc.
Are gatorade-like sport drinks actually effective as it seems they are? If so, how do they contribute to the athlete?
Gatorade is basically salt water with a bunch of sugar and flavorants added to make it not taste terrible. When you sweat you lose water and salt. Sodium and potassium ions in the blood are necessary for nerve and muscle function. Gatorade and other sports drinks replenish them and rehydrate you.
Why do small dogs start to "swim" if you hold them above water?
He's warming up for the eventual possibility that you are going to drop him in water. Why else are you holding him over the water anyways.
Why does the government permit lethal habits like alcoholism and sometimes drug addiction?
The government has no power to prevent alcoholism or drug addiction. They can make these things illegal, but anti-alcohol/drug laws have been shown to be ineffective. Prohibition didn't work and created a great deal of violent well-funded gangs and corruption. Today lots of drugs are illegal, but people still use illegal drugs if they choose to.
If the human mouth has so much bacteria that a bite is almost guaranteed to get infected, why do we want to put a fresh cut in our mouths?
From what i'm aware of, the bacteria in our own bodies is safe for our body, so it wouldn't matter whether it got inside our own body. The reason we put the cut in our mouths is because it's an instinctual action because saliva has healing properties. Same reason why animals like dogs lick wounds.
How do large sea animals leap so high out of water?
When you and I jump straight up, we can push ourselves upwards over the span of a few feet if we crouch down first. When a whale or a dolphin jumps, they can start off deep and get a "running start" towards the surface to build up speed. Humans can do this too, but only horizontally, which is why the world record long jump is almost 30 horizontal feet, while the records for standing and running vertical jumps are less than 8 feet.
How it is possible that we haven't ran out of possible melodies in music?
The total number of possible melodies is finite, so we could theoretically run out of melodies, but it's a very big number. Define how long a sequence of intervals needs to be to be called a "melody". Let's say seven intervals, making the song eight notes long. There are twelve intervals, so 7^12 = 13.8 billion possible songs. However, this assumes every note has the same duration, which they haven't. Let's say you use four different note durations in your song, the number of possible songs is 40 digits long.
The reasoning behind the United States choosing to not ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
At the time, the US position was that since certain developing countries such as China and India weren't being asked to sacrifice more that the US shouldn't have to sacrifice either.
Why can't the weather be predicted with 100% accuracy?
Greetings from your friendly neighborhood meteorologist: The short answer is chaos. The weather is physics, and the only way you can perfectly predict physical outcomes is if you can be sure of practically everything going INTO them. For example, the rise and set of the sun every day. We know what dictates that, and we know that it's not changing hardly at all. So, simple math means we can tell exactly when it'll come up tomorrow. The weather, though, is affected by a lot more stuff. It's affected by a certain hot spot on the ground, or a volcano erupting, or a jet taking a certain path through the sky. Most of those things have tiny tiny impacts, but they add up, and then that changes the weather a few seconds from now, which changes the weather a few seconds after THAT, and so on. Too many of the things that drive the weather are unpredictable (how many cars will drive on this bridge today), so the weather itself is unpredictable more than a couple of days in advance.
why does the Republican Party want less government intervention economically but more government intervention socially (and the opposite for Democrats)? Why isn't there a consistent "more government" party?
The Republican Party does not, categorically, want more social intervention--it is host to both libertarians and social conservatives, whose views widely differ. Some Democrats, for their part, advocate for some reduced forms of intervention as well (such as decriminalization of marijuana), but the party also has a conservative faction. Your view of the parties is a bit too simplistic.
What causes an Ovarian Cyst?
There's a large number of things that can cause a cyst, which are, simply put, an abnormal sack of fluid that collects and grows. Most ovarian cysts are benign, but they can also arise as a secondary effect from other conditions such as endometriosis. Cysts can also occur from menstruation where the follicle containing the ovum (the immature egg) fails to rupture and instead remains swollen on the ovary. An ovarian cyst is a growth...its difficult to pin down what exactly caused it without more information. And even then it could still be something as vague as a genetic predisposition to them.
Why can't people who have had cancer in the past donate blood?
Some cancers (like leukemia) go into remission. Other cancers (like melanoma) don’t go into remission; patients are considered “NED” meaning no evidence of disease. Doctors don’t see any cancer but it could, in theory, still be present. Cancers like melanoma can travel through the vascular (blood) system, so cancer patients cannot donate. My son was diagnosed with melanoma when he was 3. It’s super rare in kids, and unlike adult melanomas it’s due to genetics rather than sun exposure. Protect your skin, and see a dermatologist regularly!
please ELI5 ... why is the headrest part of most car's seats designed to be so angled forward?
Headrests aren't there to rest your head against, but to protect you from whiplash or worse if you're in an accident. When a car decelerates VERY quickly (like in a head-on collision) and you are wearing your seat belt, then your arms and upper torso will fly forward very quickly. The three-point seat belt keeps you from flying through the windshield or splattering over the dashboard, but after it catches you, your body snaps backward very quickly. The quickest part to snap backwards is your head. Your body from the shoulders down is caught by the seat itself, but without the "headrest", your head would snap backwards over the seat while the rest of your body stays put. This would be really bad for obvious reasons. The headrest is angled forward so that when your head slams back against it at 60 mph, the headrest compressess, and your head stops when it is more or less over top of your shoulders.
Where does the color in food go once we consume it?
Remember when you played with play dough as a kid. If you mixed all the colors up you just end up with a big brown lump?
Why do some fruits have pits or seeds with cyanide in them?
To discourage animals able to digest the seed (rather than just pooping it out) from eating the seed. In this way it is more likely to have the offspring survive, and thus reproduce themselves.
How does one get from observing the present universe to deciding how things must have happened in the past and how things are going to happen in the future?
Well, we aren't observing the present universe. The farther out we look, the farther back in time we see because it's taken the light that long to reach us. When astronomers look at a galaxy 13 billion light years away, they're seeing it as it was about 13 billion years ago. This also means that we have a window through time, so we can see parts of the universe 13 billion years ago, 10 billion years ago, 4 billion years ago, etc. By comparing how things looked at different times in the past, astrophysicists can construct a fairly accurate picture of how the universe began and how stars, galaxies, and other structures in it formed. From there, they can extrapolate forward -- meaning make educated guesses and calculations to determine what's likely to happen.