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How do Jelly Fish avoid getting tangled with each other?
"_Jellyfish don’t get tangled up because the tentacles are slippery.  Their stinging cells don’t fire when they come in contact with their own tentacles or other jellies from their own species._" [Source](_URL_0_) Now imagine if they somehow applied this to earphones.
Is it possible to create artificial gravity?
It depends what you count as "artificial gravity". You could theoretically create such a dense layer of matter that it would create a noticeable amount of gravity, but that's not really artificial, and it's impractical to use in spaceships. A common design for space stations or large spacecraft would be to have it rotating, which would create centrifugal force from the occupant's frame of reference that would be somewhat indistinguishable from gravity. So perhaps that's "artificial gravity". I am not sure there's any theoretical basis for the kind of artificial gravity you see in, for example, Star Trek.
How does tickling work?
Originaly when you feel the "tickle" feeling you look and you whip off the bug and whatever made you feel like it beacuse its you nerve system saying "Hey,there is something weird over here clean it off" when you tickle yourself you dont feel anything beacuse your brain and your nerve system know its you and there is nothing to do about it and when someone tickle you you know its not something weird or bad so the laugh is kind of a nervous reaction to that feeling there is also a social aspects which i will not detail beacuse its realy simple and you can wikipedia that shit
Explain To Me Like I'm Five: Female Circumscision
There's several different kinds. The least severe involves making a small ceremonial cut in the clitoris or clitoral hood. The most severe - known as *infibulation* - involves digging out the entire clitoris, cutting off both sets of labia, and sewing what's left up, leaving only a pea-sized hole for urine / menstrual blood. Then on her wedding night, the groom takes a dagger and *opens* her in order to have sex. Warranty seal, void if removed. There's variations all the way between the two. Cutting off the clitoral hood is common, as is cutting off just the end of the clitoris. These procedures are common in Africa, especially north Africa, and a number of other predominantly Muslim countries I bet you're glad you asked. Oh, and cutting off the clitoris was commonplace in the US, too, until the 50s and 60s.
Why are so many YouTube accounts names like DuHJ5swkN5zrO6b9DFx7?
Is that the name displayed in the URL bar? If that is what you are talking about - since youtube transitioned to a system where you can change your youtube name and multiple people can have the same one, they've started assigning random strings of numbers to the actual URL where previously a name would have been.
If I cycle for 6 hours in a day will I really burn 3,000+ calories?
That's correct. Hardcore athletes have to eat an amazing amount just to maintain their stable weight. _URL_0_
Why is it that a rocking motion or a car ride puts my baby to sleep but when I'm in a similar situation it doesn't make me sleepy?
It's not just the rocking motion, it is the constriction of the car seat that doesn't allow him to move coupled with the sound of the car. A car's tires on the road would be a familiar sound to what a baby hears for the entire gestation period. For instance, cup your hands over your ears and you hear the blood rushing through... sound familiar to a car tire on the road? Those both allow the baby to feel back in the mother's womb.
How can a company like Vivendi take over a company without consent?
A hostile takeover is when one company buys up the company's stock to gain control without their management agreeing to a merger. For example, Ubisoft is a public company with a total market cap of $3.82 Billion. So if Vivendi wants to take over badly enough, they can just start buying up the Ubisoft stock... once they have 50% +1 share, they'd be the majority shareholder and would be able to control the company. But they wouldn't even need to buy that many shares if they had other allies who own shares, such as a mutual funds, hedge funds, etc. that has a significant stake.
If the pressure at the depths of the ocean can get up to 1,000kg, how can creautres survive without being crushed? (Or am I thinking about "pressure" incorrectly?)
The pressure inside the animals is the same pressure as outside. They are breathing water that is at the same pressure, inside and outside are in equilibrium. Things get crushed when the pressure inside is less than the pressure outside.
How is the Netherlands the world's second biggest exporter of food despite being so small and densely populated?
> More than half of the Netherlands' total land surface of 4.15 million hectares is used as farmland. 56 percent if used for arable and horticultural crops, 42 percent is permanent grassland and 2 percent is used for permanent crops. Did not know this. Kinda blows my mind.
Is it possible to block a specific frequency of sound
You can cancel out any wave by sending an inverse wave to it so that all the peaks and troughs match up against each other. That's how noise cancellation headphones work. Now, if you don't want to have to spend any energy, you would need a substance with a resonant frequency that matches the one you want to cancel out, but you could only do one frequency at a time and it is whatever the substance you have is good for, and that cannot easily be changed.
Why are weeds not considered regular plants?
A weed is just a wild plant we don't want. "wild plant" is just one that a person hasn't planted. So they are considered plants, they're just unwanted and wild, so we use "weed" to refer to them.
If an ATM machine breaks and gives you too much money or no money at all, what happens next?
I've had an atm short me before. Transaction was processing and then the atm just kinda froze up and shut down. My account showed the money being withdrawn and the bank did an "audit" of the machine, which they of course said came back right on point. After a lot of headache and threats to sue I finally had my cash put back into my account. I switched banks that same day.
How can Apple products be smoother and faster than others with less hardware capability.
On paper, Apple's laptops, desktops, but most importantly phones, appear to be weaker. Less cores, lower clockspeeds, and less RAM. But Apple controls everything about their phone's hardware and software. Software is designed in tandem with hardware teams, so optimization is the highest. This is why Apple's A7 equipped iPhone's and iPads beat out the competition in almost every benchmark assessment, despite lower amount of cores and clockspeed. Apple's custom chipsets and integration of hardware and software teams allows them to produce greater results with unorthodox hardware. tldr: Optimization and quality engineering beat out pure specs.
How does a nuclear reactor work?
We fire little particles into very big atoms to make them split into much smaller atoms. This releases a bunch of energy, which we use to boil water, and drive the resulting steam through a turbine to actually generate electricity.
Why do mirrors' reflections turn green when they're faced against one another?
The glass itself must be slightly green. A single reflection through one layer of the glass won't have a noticeable color change, but bounce the image through more and more layers and it will.
How we find oil and then get it?
Modern scientist use sensitive gravity meters to measure tiny changes in the Earth's gravitational field that could indicate flowing oil, as well as sensitive magnetometers to measure tiny changes in the Earth's magnetic field caused by flowing oil. They can detect the smell of hydrocarbons using sensitive electronic noses called sniffers. Finally, and most commonly, they use seismology, creating shock waves that pass through hidden rock layers and interpreting the waves that are reflected back to the surface.
Why melting ice DOESN'T overflow a cup?
When ice is floating, it displaces its weight in water - so dropping some ice onto a glass of water causes the water level to raise proportional to the weight of the ice. When that ice melts, it turns into water, which technically still only displaces its weight in water, so the water level won't change. Sea level will rise when ice caps melt because the ice isn't just floating in the ocean. There is a significant amount of ice that's on land, but if melted the water will flow into the sea.
what causes the sound that we hear when a car passes by? And why does driving past stationary cars also make the same "whoosh" sound?
The sound that gets higher as the car approaches and then gets lower as it drives away is caused by something called the Doppler effect. As the car is driving it always products some sounds, as it goes towards an observer the sound waves it produces get scrunched together slightly, causes the pitch to go up. As the car goes away the same thing happens in reverse. If a vehicle goes so fast that all the sound waves going ahead of the vehicle bunch up directly on top of each other we get a sonic boom. This same thing can happen with light but then it causes the color to change (more blue coming towards, more red going away)
Why don't they fill my drinks up all the way at drive-throughs?
Speed. It takes minute sometimes for the suds to subside in your Coke. A minute that people sit and fuss about and corporate takes notice
Why a group of people sounds loud even if every single person is speaking at a normal volume?
Because it is louder. At least some of the sounds create "constructive interference" resulting in the actual sound wave to your ear being louder than each individual voice.
Why is Barack Obama going to vote against any Palestinian move towards statehood?
America has an influential Jewish/Israel lobby that can hurt any politician, including a President, who goes against Israel. More recently the pro-Israel base has expanded to include Christians who support Israel (people like Palin are very vocal about this). Added to this is 9/11 and the war on terror, which has made anti-arab sentiment easy to produce and capitalise on.
Why are babies seemingly unfazed by vomiting as compared to someone older?
Babys do not yet possess the mental capacity to "save all data". They forget things that aren't to bad pretty fast. The same with little children. They stumble, fall, cry and 20 seconds later have forgotten they fell in the first place. For a baby its *puke, wonder what was that, forget what happened, drool*
What makes rejection cause the brain to desire a person more? In what ways can you combat this responsive behavior?
It may help to be conscious of the fact that the brain is not a passive recipient of emotion. In fact, the brain doesn’t react to stimuli based on emotion at all, it is in a mode of constant prediction and then compares its prediction to the stimuli and adjusts or filters from there. It’s powerful to know that the brain is actively creating emotion on the go, and that this creation of emotion is largely influenced by affect, the bodies general sense of being. If you are interested in understanding the contemporary science behind emotion development I highly recommend “How emotions are made” by Lisa Barrett
Why is seeing others having sex arousing? Is there some sort of evolutionary basis behind it? (NSFW)
Yes. Group sex does different things for each gender. Group sex for males means they have a chance to pass their genes along when they otherwise wouldn't. For females it means their off-spring won't get killed. If an offspring isn't a males, then that male is likely to kill the offspring allowing more time for a female to raise *his* offspring. With group sex, nobody is sure whose offspring is whose, so we can't take the chance of kill babies that might be our own. Now, I should clarify these behaviors have been observed in certain primates which we are closely related to.
How common are traumatic 'triggers' in the general population? Are they really dangerous?
About 60% of the population live through at least one traumatic life event. About 1 in 4 people develop PTSD after trauma. That's 15% of the population (assuming that everyone experiences only one trauma, and that traumas are even distributed equally across socio-economic groups, and that everyone has an equal likelihood of developing PTSD. None of these things is true, but pretending they are makes the statistics easier.) That's before you count people with eating disorders; people with OCD; people with bipolar disorder; people with any number of mental illnesses, where being triggered could result in panic attacks, disassociation or a psychotic break.
Why do we like to bother our siblings much more than other human beings around us ?
* familiarity - you know your sibling, what to expect from them in a way you don't with others * family bond - you are stuck with your siblings for the most part...friends might drift away, but you almost always will maintain a connection to close family * trust - you can "fight" with your siblings, knowing there isn't ill intent and there won't be lasting consequences...usually * culture - society is based on family unit acting together for their mutual interest...this notion has being impressed upon you from an early age. * genetics - children are not the only way to pass on your genes...your siblings share many of your genes, so helping them help you fulfill your genetic destiny
Why did Lance Armstrong confess?
From what I gather doing so may enable him to return to competition in other events that he cannot do with the ban. He's become a triathlon athlete and to go pro in it he needs the ban lifted.
How does the government of Eritrea work, and the current situation there?
Eritrea is a one party state. Nominally their constitution allows for other political parties and elections, but since gaining their independence from Ethiopia in 1993, they've never had an election. The government claims that because of their ongoing border disputes with Ethiopia, that there are extraordinary circumstances preventing them from holding elections. Eritrea has mandatory military service for anyone under the age of 50, and people serve for years. They get put to work "securing the borders," building roads, stuff like that. There isn't much freedom - freedom of the press, freedom of religion, freedom to leave the country or to refuse to join the military are all pretty heavily restricted.
what really happens in court cases where the evidence is illegally obtained?
Just because something was obtained illegally, doesn't mean it is automatically thrown out of court. Judges can consider factors like, "would it have been found anyways?" and "what where the conditions of the search?" when deciding to allow evidence.
When you get hit hard, why does the pain take a few seconds to be felt?
Think about it like this, our body is full of nerve ends that transmit signals from where they are being touched, like if we are holding something hot, they transmit the feeling to our brain which receives the signal, processes it and then sends the information it processed back to its respective area. So when you get hit hard, while you are still in the moments after the effect, your body is still registering the damage done. Have you ever had the moment where you were cut bleeding something of that sort, and you didn't realize you were in any pain until you saw it with your own eyes? It hadn't been fully processed in your mind that you were hurt, that is why it takes a few seconds to recognize and interpret the pain.
How is it that sites that offer paying with Bitcoin (like The Silkroad) can operate if the worth of Bitcoin can drop or jump tens of dollars in a matter of hours
They don't. People who do business in Bitcoin almost always set the price according to the current conversion rate, and convert the money to dollars quickly.
How were wheel alignments performed on automobiles before the modern wheel alignment computer machines came out?
You measure the space between the fronts of both tires and you measure the space between the backs and you adjust things until the two measurements line up
Why aren't the crazy cult pastors, who claim they've talked to god or are some sort of messias, placed in mental hospitals?
because they are not considered, or have produced a credible threat they are a danger to themselves or others. you are allowed to be crazy and not be hospitalized as long as you are safe
Housing prices have dropped like a lead balloon but property taxes have not been lowered accordingly. Why?
> Is there something I'm missing? Yeah, the government uses the *appraised* value of the house. Until someone pays to have an appraisal done on the house, the house's new lower value isn't "official", and the government continues to pretend like the old value is the correct one. The taxes stay high. > I ask because buying a comparatively cheap house for me is becoming unaffordable because of the exorbitant tax rates. If $4500 a year will make or break you, then you should not be getting into a mortgage. Period. Furthermore, why are they even letting 5 year olds sign mortgages anyway? ;]
For a country that's emphasized education for so long, why is the majority of India still mired in poverty?
because education only matters if you actually have a place to work where you can utilize what you learned. india simply has WAY too many people, there is just not enough work for everyone. beside that from my personal experiences in india people below your "wealth level" are treated poorly and its made extra hard for them to get out of their demise. also its shocking how fast you get used to the poor people and dirt around you, on the 2nd day it was already completely normal for me to see children collect plastic of the street to make a fire to warm up. Toxic fumes you say? doesn't matter better toxic fumes then freezing.
Why can women experience multiple orgasms, but men just go limp after one?
Evolutionarily, it is beneficial for a male to have a refractory period.the penis is shaped ina way that scoops out semen that is already in the vagina. if a man ejaculates and then immediately resumes intercourse, he will be removing his own semen from the _URL_0_ forcing the male to wait, the odds of this happening are decreased.
Amish are famous for barn-raising, but how often do they actually need to raise one?
Not often, it's just an interesting sight to see a hundred men build a barn in a day instead of the usual three men taking thirty days. Since they're not paying for the labor, they can pull of the brute force build that a typical construction firm cant.
What is the typical economic model of an American police department?
Get tax money from government. Spend it on people and equipment.
why do animals poop so fast, but some humans take forever?
Try the squatting position. It just falls right out
Why is "100" the number we use for complete percentages?
Because Per-cent means "per hundred". You used to occasionally see the percent symbol with two zeros underneath instead of one - meaning per thousand, but it's rare.
Why can't our normal speech be assigned musical pitch, e.g. C, C# and D?
Normal speech does have pitch. Speaking with a single pitch throughout would sound very strange, so assigning a single pitch wouldn't work (monotone is a way to describe someone's speech for a reason), instead speech happens as a series of pitches. [Radiolab](_URL_0_) did a fun segment about how the spoken phrase "sometimes behaves so strangely" became obviously a song when looped. r/zappafied is all about taking speech and making the pitch obvious.
Why does Star Wars transcend typical Sci-Fi fandom and hit home for so many people.
Well it was first (sort of). Before Star Wars, Scifi in movies was very pulpy and bad. It was proof that it could be done well. It also has a lot of cultural significance beyond that. Since the success of Star Wars really was the moment when the 'summer blockbuster' aimed at the 15-20 male market became a thing. Also it just has a very traditional fantasy arch. Which many people find appealing, especially when looking for an 'escape' in media.
What is Nest and why did Google buy it?
It is a company that makes a high end smart thermostat and also a smoke detector. Google
Can you permanently lose feeling in your arm after sleeping on it?
The circulation doesn't stop unless your heart isn't beating or you have something clogging the pipes. If you put enough pressure on your arm then yes there would no longer be circulation, this is seen in the use of tourniquets to stop blood flow in emergencies. Lack of blood flow to part of your body can cause gangrene so I would suggest reducing the chance of sleeping on your arms if you have a history of blood pressure related diseases or do anything that could cause severe damage to your arteries.
In the US, why is it legal to brew beer and wine, but not legal to distill harder spirits?
Distilled spirits are heavily taxed & always have been. In the oldest days of the country, whiskey was seen as an efficient way for remote farmers to concentrate their grain & move it to market. It can easily take 5-10 pounds of grain to make a single bottle of whiskey. The other thing is that, unlike homebrewing, home distillation is not a terribly safe thing. From exploding stills to toxic booze, there's plenty of things that can go wrong with it. For safety reasons, the government prohibits it.
Why does sudden temperature change make us feel ill?
Your body needs to be at a fairly consistent temperature of 37C Your body has various mechanisms to control this temperature (such as restricting the size of blood vessels near the skin, increasing heart rate, sweating etc), as a result humans can survive in quite a range of temperatures, but your body will be behaving differently if it's 0C compared to if it's 40C These mechanisms in the body don't always adjust quickly, so if you've been somewhere hot and your body is trying to cool down, if you then step into somewhere cold your body will take time to shift this process, and your temperature will drop. On the other hand if the temperate change is more gradual your body will adjust more naturally and you'll be quite OK
What's the problem with kids lifting weights?
_URL_0_ > With both direct and indirect evidence suggesting that weightlifting may increase bone length and density, it seems as though this myth is untrue. Rather than stunt your growth, weightlifting when you are young may allow you to grow taller than you would without such exercise.
Why is it that our eyes cannot repair their vision? so we don't have to wear glasses or contacts etc...
This isn't a complete answer but they can, some people when they get glasses say their natural vision improves after a while. That may only apply to minor eyesight issues though.
what actually happens when you die from the flu?
Depends. Probably the simplest thing is viral pneumonia leading to severe respiratory failure leading to death. If you have other long term illnesses these can also be triggered (e.g. someone with coronary heart disease might possibly have a heart attack due to the various stresses of being very unwell). Source: ITU doctor.
Does climate change lead to an increase in extreme cold weather as well as extreme warm weather? If so, why is the average yearly temperature continuing to get warmer?
That's a little backwards. Global warming means all storm systems are larger, in addition to the obvious that average temperatures are very slightly higher. However, larger storm systems means that cold fronts that used to die out as they head south will go much farther, bringing freezing weather to places that infrequently freeze. Thus, a little warming can produce more extremes, including extremes of cold.
Difference between RAM and Cache Memory
Cache is your fridge/pantry - it stores things you've recently used or intend to use soon, and has a relatively low amount of storage. You can grab things in nearly real-time while trying to cook. RAM is the grocery store that's a mile away. Lots of storage for things you may or may not use frequently, but it takes orders of magnitude more time to go get something from the store than it does to grab it out of the fridge.
Women's excessive grunting in tennis
Vocalizing while hitting the ball can help a player focus, and it can throw off their opponent's timing. Also, opponents can get clues about how the ball was hit based on the sound the racquet makes...grunting is supposed to obscure it. When there was no rule against it, tennis players have been gradually getting louder and louder. Men grunt too, but with their lower pitched voices, it doesn't travel as well. There is a rule against it, but right now it is at the umpires descretion, and rarely used. It remains a controversial topic in tennis.
What is happening when we hit our funny bone?
You have the [ulnar nerve](_URL_0_) (in yellow) passing just below the skin at the elbow with bone under and when you hit a nerve that exposed it hurts.
What is a memory leak in the context of poorly optimized games?
ELI5: Memory Leak: "You go to a bar and ask for a glass of water, you drink the water but you never give up the glass, then you ask for another glass of water and so on until the bar runs out of glasses." Glasses = Block of memory Water = Whatever is in it. Accepted Behaviour: "You go to a bar and ask for a glass of water, barman go gets you a glass fills you with water and gives it to you. After that you don't ask the barman for another glass, you just fill the one you have unless you need a new one for w/e reasons.". Bad Behaviour but not a memory leak but a garbage collector problem: "You go to a bar and ask for a glass of water, you drink the water and give the glass back asking for another glass of water. At the end of the day if there are 1000 of customers and all customers drank 2 glasses of water, barman needed to wash 2000 glasses instead of 1000". This is very very crude and very very simple.
Why are some things invented (touchscreens for example, 40 years ago) but it takes so long for consumers to accept them? Price?
Well the touch screen is kind of a bad example here. While it was invented in the 70s, there was nothing for it to be controlled with. Computers were mostly text based until 1992 when windows 3.1 was published. And even then the computers were mostly to slow to have a real benefit from touchscreens. Even today apart from tablets and smartphones touchscreens are more toy than of real use. And tablets and smartphones were simply not possible so long ago due to non existing miniaturization processes. There are a lot of things developed "ahead of their time". Mostly it simply is a matter of cost/effect ratio thats missing in the end.
Why do we get tired when we oversleep?
Sleep is a cycle. If you wake up in the wrong part of the cycle, you will probably be VERY groggy and slow to wake up. If you're sleeping outside of your normal pattern, your body doesn't know how to plan the cycles. So you actually wake up more tired than you would have if you had woken up earlier. Generally speaking, try to plan for ~90 minute intervals for sleep per cycle. So 7.5 hours of sleep would be more likely to have you waking up at the "right" time. 9 would be good as well. 8.25 is probably gonna leave you groggy, as would 10.
I literally live in the other side of the American continent, explain me briefly about what's currently happening on America's politic.
A fellow that quite a lot of people dislike is surprisingly in a position to upset a fellow that a lot of people dislike a bit less. You know sports movies? How there's always an underdog team, full of likable kids who band together to beat the odds and defeat the team full of jerks? In this case, the jerk is both the underdog and poised to win. This is just a primary, where the guys running are all pretty similar in how they think. In the fall the last guy standing will get to go up against the current winner, who has a slightly different mentality. But in the end, to quote South Park, it's still a choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich.
What is causing the current rise of authoritarian regimes in richer countries around the world?
This is often attributed to *populism,* which basically means that average people believe the system is being rigged against them by the elites, so they want to create a super-elite (a powerful central government) that in theory shares their values and can stand up for their interests.
Why is alcohol and tobacco regulated by the same agency as firearms? Why aren't liquor and cigarettes regulated by the FDA?
The ATF was formed to deal with gun running & smuggling of alcohol & tobacco. They were originally part of the Department of the Treasury and concerned with securing tax revenue, not safety or purity of the product.
How would a radio transmission from a planet with a significant gravitational field work?
I haven't seen the movie. Was the planet the other crew was on in motion relative to the Earth to cause time dilation, or was it a difference in gravity? Either way, what they'd experience is some sort of "redshift" or "blueshift." The radio message would not be lost, but its frequency would either be lower (planet moving away/in a stronger gravitational field) or higher (planet moving towards Earth). This is something we have to deal with when we use GPS satellites, though the effect is much less drastic. Basically, though, you just calculate how much the frequency of the original message will have shifted by the time it reaches you, and tune your receiver accordingly. No information would be lost. edit: Realized from context that it's a gravitational field. The way to think about it is that if the radio signal oscillates once an hour to the crew out on the planet, it'll oscillate once every 20 years to someone on Earth receiving it. Hence, lower frequency.
Why in a room with 24 people do two people probably share the same birthday?
First off there is 1 in 365 chance that two people share a birthday. That means there is a 364 in 365 chance they do not share a birthday. If you have a third man then the chance of him also having a different birthday then the two men is 363 in 365 so the combined chance is (364*363)/(365^2). You then continue adding more people until you get to 24 people. At this point you have a less then 50% chance that none of the people in the room shares a birthday. Flip that around and that means that there is over 50% chance that at least two people share birthdays.
Why do some people seem to retain "useless information" without effort, yet recalling someone's phone number can be so difficult while exerting effort to memorize it?
We don't really live in the environment we evolved for. The things we find easy to memorize are the things we find 'cool'. Something like a phone number doesn't trip our primate senses into thinking it's information worth storing, but the destructive power of a photon torpedo? That's kind of like remembering how strong a warrior is, which is definitely primal-level information.
With virtually infinite time, could we use selective breeding to bring out crazy traits in animals?
Provided that those traits appeared at some point, yes. We couldn't breed dogs to have horns unless at some point there was a dog who had the mutation to have horns. The same way that we can't breed humans to have gills, gills have to come around on their own, we can breed humans to all have gills once the mutation presents itself, but not until then.
what are once removed, and twice removed cousins
The "level" of cousin (first cousin, second cousin, etc.) is dependent upon how many generations you are from your nearest common ancestor. So "first cousins" have 1 generation between them and their nearest common ancestor, that ancestor being their grandparents (cousins - parents - grandparents). "Second cousins" have 2 generations between them and their nearest common ancestor, that ancestor being their great grandparents (cousins - parents - grandparents - great grandparents). The once, twice "removed" is when the cousins aren't both at the same "level." And you remove 1 for each "level" further back one cousin is. So go back to "first cousins." Your first cousin has a kid. Your grandparent is still the most common ancestor, so you are still first cousins, but that kid is another generation removed from that ancestor (your grandparent is his great grandparent) so he is your first cousin, once removed.
Why does it take at least 15 minutes to fill a prescription? What's going on back there?
The pharmacist is ensuring that the prescribed medication is appropriate and safe before it is handed to you. Is it the right drug for the condition? Is the strength and regimen appropriate? Are there interactions with the patient's other medications to be aware of? Physicians also do make prescribing errors from time to time (they are humans too), and a large part of a pharmacist's role is to catch those mistakes before it reaches the patient. Also note that while your particular prescription may be relatively straight forward to check, it is likely that there are others which aren't, causing a wait time of 15-20 minutes.
How come that when you go to bed at 11PM you have a hard time to leave your bed at 7AM, but when you go to bed at 3AM you dont have any problems waking up at 11AM while you had the same hours of sleep?
Might be a number of things. 1) You aren't used to waking up early, so your body isn't ready for it. If you don't usually wake up at 7am and then suddenly do, it'll be hard. 2) It's often colder in the morning, especially in the winter. Getting out of bed in the cold is hard. 3) It's much brighter at 11am than 7am and our body responds to sunlight. This is why we get tired at night, because your body release melatonin to help get ready for sleep.
You know how car windshield glass doesn't shatter, it just cracks? And even then, you have to put a lot of force into it? Why not make kitchenware out of that type of glass?
Kitchen glassware used to be almost indestructible (ie, FireKing, Pyrex). It was the same stuff they use in labs. They stopped selling it so durable, because people were using to cook meth.
The relevant differences between totalitarian and an authoritarian regimes.
Authoritarian regimes want to consolidate and centralize power so that governments have all of it. They avoid checks and balances or anything to maintain the government's control. Totalitarianism goes further than that. In an totalitarian regime, checks and balances don't even exist. The state is all that really matters. It seeks to penetrate and control every layer and aspect of society.
How do music artists split the profit when featuring each other on a single track?
Sometimes they don't. Smaller artists often want to be featured on larger artists tracks and are paid a flat fee. Other times, it is an exchange. (1 for 1) Nicki Minaj: "50k for a verse, no album out" implies that Kanye paid her $50,000 for her verse on Monster.
How does propulsion work in a vacuum. For instance, how would a space craft propel itself when there's nothing to push against?
Rocket engines in a vacuum operate based on conservation of momentum. The total momentum of any system must remain the same. So if you expel something with momentum in one direction, the rest of the mass *must* move in the other direction (or else the momentum of the ship-plus-exhaust will have changed). As a simple example, imagine sitting in a sled on very slick ice, and throwing a heavy bowling ball forward. You will slide backward, and not because the bowling ball is pushing off the air, but because *you're pushing off the bowling ball*. This causes the total momentum of bowling-ball-plus-sled to remain unchanged. Likewise, the rocket is essentially pushing off its own exhaust.
What makes Cape Horn so treacherous?
High winds, strong currents, and large storms all combine to make for especially treacherous sailing. Keep in mind that treacherous seas were usually named when people forecast by *red in the morning sailor take warning red in the evenin' sailor a pleasin'* Imagine sailing through [seas like this](_URL_0_).
When I was 5, those who were 10 looks old and mature. However, once I was 11, those who were 10 looks young and immature. Why?
i have always wondered this i remember being like 5 or 6 and my brother who was 13 or 14 seemed like a grown ass man. and now a days 13 or 14 year olds look lile babies.
Why are there so many third world countries in Africa when the continent is considered the cradle of civilization?
Bad climate, terrible leaders, heavily sought after resources, cultural barriers, foreign invaders taking sought after resources, constant border wars, lack of industrialization, anyone got any other reasons?
why can my heaters easily keep my house at a nice 75 when its 15 degrees outside, but my AC struggles to dip below 70 when its 100 outside?
Your heaters are a hell of a lot more powerful than your Air Conditioners An AC unit can move 4-10 watts of heat per watt of power used, but it'll only use a few hundred watts. A big window AC unit might be rated at 10,000 BTU/hour or about 2.9 kW of heat removal which sounds pretty good, until you consider that a 6 foot electric baseboard can be a 1.5 kW heater and you'll likely have significantly more of them than you will air conditioners Your house likely has the ability to add 10 kW of heat to the space but is only able to remove 2-4 kW
How quad core (multi core?) works.
It's like having more than one cook in a kitchen, instead of one really, really fast cook. Well, the problem is actually a little more complex: for years and years, they were training cooks just to work faster, but realized that they were getting towards the top of how fast one cook could work, so they decided they'd start working on having multiple cooks at a time, even if they didn't work quite as fast. It should be noted that you get the usual problems associated with this: one cook will have something another cook needs, and time is taken up handing it from one to the other; it doesn't make any particular dish get cooked faster unless you teach the cooks how to work on different parts of it at the same time; no particular task goes any faster, since it only takes one cook to make a steak; etc. However, if you have many dishes that all need to get cooked at roughly the same time, having more than one cook is a big help.
Why do some restaurants charge a service fee for larger groups?
Generally because big groups are poor tippers, and are more work for the servers, bussers, and kitchen. It's easier to take and prepare 20 orders from 10 tables spread out over 15 minutes than it is to deal with 20 orders from the same table all at the same time.
Why do females on average, live longer than men?
There's a few reasons. First men tend to do more risky jobs then women. I can't quote a source right now but I recall something like 98% of all workplace deaths being men. Secondly there seems to be an evolutionary aspect. It's related to the first reason. Men hunted and did dangerous things which got them killed. Women stayed 'at home' and raised the next generation. Their own children and grandchildren. And having those extra hands around to help raise these kids turned out to be advantageous. So the offspring of women that lived longer where more likely to grow up and make baby humans of their own allowing the trait to be passed on.
Why is fruit better for you than candy in terms of sugar (if it really is)?
Sugar is sugar. However, a fruit has many other things: lots of water, some fiber, some vitamins, etc. These things fill you up and generally take a lot longer to eat. Candy is not filling, and basically pure sugar so if someone is pigging out on apples vs. candy, they can likely eat a TON more sugar eating candy.
What would happen if the earth slowly began to rotate the other direction?
Assuming the transition were slow enough to not throw everybody down (which would be pretty slow), the biggest difference I could see would be weather. All the prevailing winds would flip direction, rain shadows would move to the other side of mountains, and so on. You can see the effect [in South America](_URL_0_), where the reversal of the trade winds causes jungle and desert to swap places.
How is the average lifespan decided for newborns?
Basically it's a best case scenario of statistical projection. So if people are easily living to their 80s/90s now and medicine is improving and other factors like access to food, water, hygiene are improving you can make a projection based off of that. The problem is they don't account for things like the emergence of superevolved diseases we can't treat yet or breakdown of society or our pending inevitable nuclear war or psychological fall out and things you just can't predict. Ultimately it's statistics that you should take with a grain of salt, but understand are still likely accurate without cataclysmic events.
Why do donuts have holes in them?
Well, the first thing to note is that not all donuts have holes. There are "filled donuts" which are essentially donuts without the hole (as well as some filling). As for why donuts with holes have holes, there are a number of explanations, but as far as I'm aware, noone actually knows for sure. One explanation that's commonly brought up is that before they were made with a hole, the center would end up undercooked and doughy, so the hole was made to ensure that it got baked properly.
Why does my mouth feel cleaner the morning after eating something garlic heavy the night before?
I think it's a coincidence. I'm a dentist. If you brushed properly before you slept you probably shouldn't have had much plaque in your mouth overnight which would 'grow'. It could be the fact your breath was very garlic strong, so you noticed you didn't have plaque when you investigated why.
Wikipedia says that the ISS orbits the Earth "at an altitude of between 330 and 435 km". Why is the altitude not fixed?
At that altitude, there is actually still a little atmosphere and so the orbit will slowly degrade (get closer to the ground). Every once in a while they use boosters to raise it back into a higher orbit. The range of altitudes given are the range of altitudes that are considered okay. Plus, orbits are not perfect circles. They are a little bit elliptical so there is a high point and low point in every orbit.
Why are some mathematical abstractions so much harder than others for humans to grasp?
There are levels of abstraction, because certain abstract concepts rely on others, and thus must be presented later in schools. Can't do calculus without understanding numbers, operators, and algebra, basically. When you first learn an abstract concept, you translate. First few multiplications are indeed consecutive additions. But after a while you stop translating and use the concept itself, and at that point you're ready for the next level of abstraction that uses the previous abstraction as its building blocks. The difficulty between daily activities (decisions = logic, perception and reflexes = geometry) and the various formal sciences (actual logic, geometry) is in being able to accept and work with the abstract basic blocks of each science. I'd expect an (art) painter to be better than average at geometry, but that doesn't always hold true.
What differences are there between male and female brains? Of those which (so far) have been tested to always been the case and which vary depending on the subjects?
Here is a page describing some of the difference between male and female brains, specifically an very interesting brain structure call the anterior hypothalamus. _URL_0_ I think the differences are pretty well established,.. I recall this being discussed during my undergrad back in the 90's. The article explains pretty well the 'severity' of the differences, how it related to hormonal development, sexual orientation. etc.
Bug people, what exactly is going on here?
Dragonflies are predators. It looks like that one caught a fly and is feasting on its tasty inner goo.
why do some people have curly hair while others don't.
It's just a gene trait, along with many others as far as skin tone, texture, facial composition, height, etc.
Why doesn't air separate into layers of each of its individual components based on density?
It would but air is far to volatile to stay separated. The sun heats the earth as the earth rotates on an axis as it orbits the sun. Everything is constantly changing as warm air rises creating winds that constantly mix the atmosphere.
What is true socialism, and why do people think it will save America?
Socialism is a system of economics, not government. It's seen as preferable to capitalism (though not necessarily superior) because it allows for more even distribution of wealth and resources eg universal healthcare and tuition-free post-secondary education. This must obviously be funded somehow, and the solution most often proposed is a tax increase, generally applying most to the wealthiest members of a given society. The issue is that very few people honestly want to pay higher taxes regardless of the benefits.
Why can some people sing well, but others can't hit a note to save their life?
I would like to know why people always sound much better to themselves. I can *think* I'm singing along perfectly to a song, then hear a recording and it sounds like someone fisting a bull.
Why my head gets foggy/buzzy for a few seconds after I have a really good stretch.
Sounds like you're talking about head rush (orthostatic hypotension). Basically, if you've been sitting in one location for a while and then move, the blood pressure in your head drops because gravity pulls a lot of blood into your legs and feet when you stand. This takes a moment to correct itself, and during this time you can lose your vision and balance.
Why does it "smell" like winter or rain
Because the particles in the air change. spring smells like pollen. Winter cold will suppress a lot of lighter smells but you get smoke from chimneys.
Why is it harder and harder to get a full night sleep the older you get?
The cumulative effect of a life-time of alcohol, stimulants, sedentary life-style, overeating, rumination, rejection, heart break, loss, regret, humilation, meaninglessness, sadness, rage and the creeping fear of impending death.
How are vitamins and supplements, that the body makes naturally, man-made?
Firstly, your body doesn't naturally make vitamins, that's why you need to eat them. Secondly, most of them are just extracted. Most of the things we grow or produce for food, of necessity, have those vitamins in. Sometimes it's easier to just take them out. Thirdly, you can make almost all of them artificially, but its a different process for each of them. It's usually a complicated process requiring multiple steps and a deep knowledge of organic chemistry.
What actually caused the Great Depression?
A lot of things: * In the 1920's low food prices supported by WWI price floors caused a mass wave of farm foreclosures. * The crash of 1929 shook confidence for lenders (though the stock market recovered briefly before plunging again). * The Fed constrained liquidity rather than easing borrowing, so the economy experienced widespread deflation and a loss of demand. * A few bank failures led to runs on more and more banks, paralyzing the financial sector.
Why is it ok to advertise alcohol on television, but not tobacco?
Tobacco receives a lot of government oversight because its use, *as intended*, without any overuse or abuse, is *absolutely known* to cause any number of long-term health issues. Alcohol can also be dangerous, but moderate, responsible use has no long-lasting health effects, and it takes legitimate *abuse* of alcohol before it becomes a risk factor for health issues. **TL;DR: Cigarettes, used "responsibly" as intended, will kill you. A drink or two a day will not.**
What does Russia (and other countries) gains from being part of the G8?
G8 is basically a meeting of the most important industrial Nations to get together talk strategie make deals... So everyone benefits who is part of. But as far as I know it is less formal than the G20.
the importance of landing a rocket on a barge
You can launch it again without having to build a new one, or clean salt water residue out of it. It reduces the cost of going to space by a lot.
Why do we get dizzy when we spin around?
Your orientation in space is detected by fluid and calcium deposit movements in your inner ear. When you spin around and then stop, the fluid and stuff in your inner ear keep moving for a little while. (like how water in a cup keeps moving after you stopped stirring it). So your inner ear is telling your brain that you're still moving. Your eyes are telling your brain that you're standing still. Your brain is getting two conflicting inputs and it goes 'lol wut' and you get dizzy and sick.