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Planets that are gas giants.
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Gas giants keep their form the same way rocky planets do: gravity. But unlike Earth with its separate air and ocean, there are no concise borders between gas and liquid, or liquid and solid on gas planets. If you were to travel into a gas giant, you would notice gas in the atmosphere gradually thicken as you travel inward. This is due to atmospheric pressure (basically the weight of the gases above you) increasing. At some depth, the atmospheric pressure is so high, and gas is so thick and condensed, that it is no longer gas, it is liquid. At an even lower depth, the liquid is so condensed that it becomes something resembling a solid. Not solid like a rock, solid like an extremely thick pudding that you can't drive your spaceship through. But sorry to say you can't even define the surface of a gas giant, let alone land on it!
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Why do people try to time pictures instead of taking a video and capturing the parts they want?
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Pictures will typically have a higher image quality than frames of a video would have. Videos will often use the fact that we can't distinguish detail as much in a video as we can in a still.
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Why are places such as dentists' offices and banks only open when most of their customers are at work?
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Dentists: Because they're in demand enough to make *you* come to *their* preferred hours. If the US for some reason suddenly got 100 million more dentists (that couldn't swap jobs), you can probably expect more flexible hours. Banks: Joe Schmoe depositing and withdrawing his rent aren't how banks make money. Most of their income (from average citizens) is going to be home loans or other huge purchases with interest. They just put up with you until you decide to purchase a home, and at that point you've been with such-and-such bank for 20 years so the decision is to go with who you know. People applying for mortgages are willing to go during normal work hours. (Their other source of income is using your money sitting around to make more money, but that's automated and doesn't need any employees at a branch.)
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How do space ships, which are not so much larger than cars, preserve/contain the fuel needed to travel countless AU away, and preserve/contain the electrical power needed to snap images and send them back to Earth?
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[slate](_URL_0_) has a pretty good article on this, in regards to voyager-1. the tl;dr is that it doesn't move like a car at all. it doesn't need to keep its engines running - it's propelled by its own inertia, which it got from us launching it and the gravity assist that slingshotted it around jupiter and saturn. keep in mind, it's not facing a whole lot of friction, so there isn't anything to really slow it down. the only thing it's really using its hydrazine propellant for is making adjustments in its course. as for running its instruments, it's got a lump of plutonium in its generator which lets off heat naturally as it decays, and that heat is converted into electricity which gives it the power it needs.
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Why is did mike trout sign a deal for 1 million dollars in 2014 if he is arguably the best MLB player?
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He's a pre-arbitration player, meaning he has less than 3 years in the league. Pre-arbitration players don't get to shop around to different teams, they just take what their team gives them (minimum $400,000) or they don't play. Having said that, $1M is the most any pre-arbitration player has ever earned, so it's actually an impressive feat.
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How does radium store light?
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Radium can only really be said to "store" light in a very roundabout way. Like all heavy elements, it was formed in the vast stellar explosion of a supernova; that's where the energy came from that is now being emitted as light. Radium is a radioactive element - it gives off radiation. This radiation can hit a substance called a phosphor (zinc sulphide, with a small amount of another metal like silver) and give energy to an electron. When the electron drops back down again, it gives off that energy as light. But radium-based glow in the dark paints don't take in light if you leave them in the sun. The energy that lets you see the watch dial comes from another star, long dead.
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why it takes longer to search my windows computer for a file than to google something.
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Indexing. Google has a huge, highly optimised database designed for the sole purpose of searching quickly. Even with indexing switched on, your computer doesn't have anywhere near as good a system. Speed. Your query to Google is dealt with by an extremely fast computer - many times as powerful as your home PC. Caching. Chances are that whatever you're searching, other people are also searching too. As a result Google has these results ready even faster. Your PC doesn't need to do this with search results, so searches from scratch each time.
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How a diet of grass, hay, bugs and other things in a pasture can turn cows into huge animals made of protein, fat, and make rich milk.
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plant cells have a bunch of protein. but it's not digestable by humans. cows eat 25 pounds of hay a day. and they chew that 25 pounds over and over. and then swallow it and digest it in their stomach. then throw it up and chew it again and again. then swallow and digest it for the 2nd time...then 3rd..then 4th. and that's what they do all the waking hours of the day.
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"Prevent radiator boil-over, turn off air conditioner." How does that help when driving up a mountain pass?
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If your radiator is already close to boiling over, leaving the A/C on will cause the engine to do more work and generate more heat and push it over the edge. Just because it doesn't affect *your* vehicle doesn't mean it's not a problem for many others.
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When someone sues the government and wins, do tax payer dollars go towards the settlement? Do we pay for the actions of idiotic federal employees?
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Yes. Why *shouldn't* taxpayers have to cover it? They voted for the government officials whose job it was to keep the government from doing things it could get sued over.
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What is the process involved in joining the EU?
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The prospective state has to meet economic and social benchmarks. If the state has trouble meeting them the EU will help if the state seems serious. After the state meets the benchmarks the state hold a referendum to see if domestic audience wants to join the EU. EU votes to let state in. BTW, anything EU is a horrible ELI5 question because it is a bureaucratic nightmare.
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Why do the mouths of wild animals (bear, wolves, lions, etc.) smell so bad in comparison to humans?
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cause they don't floss and brush their teeth. that bit of tendon that come from the racoon a week ago is still stuck between his teeth. same like when you eat beef stew and that one sliver of meat just got between your teeth. except you use a toothpick or floss or brush it out.
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Why do peoples voices go really high pitched or really deep when videos of them are sped up or slowed down?
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Sound waves traveling at different speeds produce different pitches. Sorry, that's all I got
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Why is Hispanic/Latino treated as a race in the media and elsewhere?
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Race is largely a social construct in the country that defines it. In the US, people from Latin America and Mexico are seen to share enough biological, social, and physical characteristics to be considered a 'race'. It's important to understand that while racial categories include an element of biology, they are not solely based on biological characteristics. Countries like South Africa have very different categories of racial groups than the US, and different ways of determining who falls into said groups.
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Why are the search results when googling an unknown phone number so terrible?
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I actually think google intentionally obfuscates results. Back in the day, googling phone numbers worked *awesome*. It was one of the first "best answer" things at the top of the page. Quite suddenly it stopped working.
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What is Obama's reasoning behind drones, and why can't the US just pull its troops out of the Middle East? What will happen?
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Drones are typically used to target militant commanders in the hard to access tribal regions of Pakistan. They allow the US to conduct recon in the area for longer periods without the risk of losing a pilot. Drones have also been used in Yemen to target the growing influence of Al-Qaeda in the Arab peninsula. The US troop influence in the region is propping up friendly Middle Eastern governments. The sudden removal of these troops would likely create a power vacuum in which a variety of factions would seek to challenge the weak US backed governments. If these governments fall you would see the rise of a variety of governments that could threaten the stability of the region for a variety of reasons. The destabilization of the region would have economic consequences for the Western world.
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why does a car battery die if you leave your head lights on over night, but it can last no problem driving 12 hours straight/through the night with the head lights on and music playing?
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Because you have an alternator that powers the systems while the car is running. When the car is off, it's draining the battery.
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How does "the shot" (birth control) last so long?
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If you want to look at metabolism and excretion of any drug, check out the pharmacokinetics section. From the article, I'd guess * Because it binds well to proteins in blood plasma, it's harder for the kidneys to filter out the drug (proteins don't enter the filtrate in the nephron [the filtering unit of the kidney]) * Intramuscular (into the muscle) and subcutaneous (injected just under the skin) route avoid enterohepatic recirculation, where the drug is constantly run through the liver, with only a fraction of the drug entering the main bloodstream with each pass. I would guess this is why the oral half life is a matter of hours. * The drug also has a higher affinity for its cellular receptor than natural progesterone, which means that it stays in the cell, regulating DNA expression for longer than progesterone. There's probably way more to this that's above my head though. Source: Biomedical Sciences student that's forgotten his Pharmacology module already.
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How do we know Dinosaurs weren't purple with yellow polka dots?
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Pigments have been found in some fossilised dinosaur feathers, so we know the colour of a couple of birdlike dinosaurs. The rest is speculation, based on the reasoning "if lizards are green and brown now, then they probably were then".
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Why does most commercial airplanes are white painted and not a non-natural color ocurring in the sky (clouds)?
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Largely its for thermal protection. White reflects more of the sun, keeping the aircraft cooler sitting on the tarmac. (So why not leave the aircraft unpainted metal like American used to in the 80s?) Airplanes fly high enough you are marginally more exposed to radiation from the sun. Having a coat of paint protects against that. Also, lighter colours make it easier to see stress fractures or leaking fluids.
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How does anticipation alter my perception of the passing of time?
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Your perception of time comes after the time has past. If the whole way to a location you are constantly checking how much longer is left, you will remember a lot of the wait. On the way back, your thoughts are else where and you don't have as many memories of the ride.
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Why is the Australian dollar so weak against the British pound?
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No, the Aussie dollar is pretty strong against the pound, currently sitting at 55 pence. It is always a mistake to compare currencies absolute values, as these are a result of history. The difference in this case is because Australia switched to decimal currency back in 1966, and with currency being more valuable back then, they chose to make the new dollar equal to 10 shillings, or half the previous non-decimal currency, the Australian Pound. England changed to decimal currency in 1971, and retained the name 'pound' for their currency - which meant that they started with their decimal pound equal to 20 shillings. With ups and downs since then the relative values of the Australian dollar and the English Pound hasn't really changed.
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Instead of using voltage converters, why can't battery manufacturers create batteries to tailor the device? (or why is there no 5v battery but 1.2, 1.5, 9, 12, etc)
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The voltage a battery produces depends on the chemicals involved. A zinc/copper cell, for example, produces 1.1V. Doesn't matter how big or small it is, that's the voltage that you get when you make a liquid cell with those chemicals. A larger zinc/copper battery can generate more current than a smaller one, but the voltage is the same. You can make batteries of different voltages by layering cells. Two zinc/copper cells wired in series makes a 2.2V battery, three make a 3.3V battery, four make 4.4V, and so on. You're stuck with increments of 1.1V, though, unless you change what chemicals you're using, in which case you'll be stuck with increments of a different voltage. So, in general, we are limited to certain battery voltages because of the availability of materials. The engineers might want a 4V battery, but if zinc/copper is the most cost-effective material to use, they adjust and work with 4.4V or 3.3V or whatever instead.
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How fast does new fat form after you've eaten a big meal?
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I'll answer your original question... 12-24 hours and you'll have stored the excess calories as fat. Depending on the source of those calories (sugars are processed fast, then things like complex carbs and protein take longer with fat taking the longest to digest) the amount of time it take for your body to break down the nutrients differs. If you consume enough calories to gain weight (which would be impressive in one meal. It takes 3500 excess calories to gain 1 lb) you'll see the weight gain on the scale by the same time the next day. I can go into more depth later if you would like. Source- double majored in Exercise Science and Nutrition for undergrad and am working on my masters in nutrition right now. I should actually be reading now... Edit-since this post is at the top here are some helpful nutrition links. [Nutrition Data website](_URL_0_) [Journal of the International Society on Sports Nutrition](_URL_2_) [AMA with Gary Taubes on sugar](_URL_1_)
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How does charging a phone for too long make the battery life significantly shorter?
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In modern phones, it doesn't. They have smart systems that stop charging at 100% and let the battery drop some before charging again. It keeps the battery from being damaged. But phone batteries do like to be "exercised" and discharged down to 20 or 30% and recharged from there.
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Exponential functions
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/r/homeworkhelp would beuch better suited to help you out here.
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Why do we feel weak when we haven't eaten?
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Once your body kicks into starvation mode (which varies in onset time per individual - for super skinny/low caloric intake folks it can be as low as 8 hours, but on average its around 12-16), a lot of hormonal changes start. Your liver and muscles start consuming glycogen (sugar) stores, and then start metabolizing fats and proteins. Your body starts to get really conservative in how it expends its energy - without an epinephrine (adrenaline) kick, it won't really commit to most actions, resulting in that "weak" feeling. tl;dr - you're low on gas, and your body doesn't wanna spend what it has left.
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If protein is what builds muscle, why do we need to eat at a caloric surplus?
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Your body can convert proteins into glucose. If you are in a caloric deficit, then this will be going on. Proteins turned into glucose is protein that cannot be used for muscle. Having a caloric surplus ensures that you do not have a caloric deficit, so very little of the protein gets turned into glucose, so it can be used for other bodily functions, like repairing and building muscle tissue. [This article](_URL_0_) talks about a study that tested this. Two groups in rough shape (ie fat) put on a 40% caloric deficit. One group on high protein diet, the other on a normal diet. The high protein group put on ~2.5lbs of muscle while losing 10.5 lbs of fat.
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What's a "Basic Bitch"?
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Mainstream; kind of the opposite of a hipster. The typical Basic Bitch is the Ugg and yoga pant wearing girl in her 20s with a Starbucks coffee.
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- If intelligent life visited Earth, how would we communicate if we assume the scenario that they spoke another language?
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A good way is through maths. They won't know Pythagoras but they will know his theorem. They will certainly know what pi is, though they might know it in base 12 not base 10 like we do. Using symbols like dots and lines to represent these numbers will communicate to them that we know them too.
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When someone tells you to see "a doctor," how do you know which kind?
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Typically, you'll go to your main doctor, who is a General Practitioner. They're the general "doctor," who have a wide knowledge of many medical things. If that doctor sees something wrong, they might refer you to a specialist. Specialists are doctors, too, but they have a *very* deep knowledge of a fairly limited field. So if someone says "go see a doctor" about, say, losing vision in one eye coupled with migraines... You'll see your GP, who will probably refer you to a neurologist (nerve doctor), and possibly an ophthalmologist (eye doctor). The eye doctor may determine that there's nothing wrong with your eye, which the neurologist will read about and then determine that you need more testing, at which point you might end up with an oncologist (cancer doctor). In the medical field, everyone knows their limits and knows how to send you to someone who can help you further. Or they're supposed to, anyway.
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How does the Volkswagen exhaust gas scam work?
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From what I have read (I have a 2013 Golf TDI), VW knowingly added in a defeat device to their diesel vehicles to turn on the clean filtering system for the exhaust when monitoring equipment was hooked up to the cars. When the testing equipment is not hooked up, the cars give off emissions that are WAY above the legal limit. Some initial estimates are that the emissions are 10-40x the legal limits when the filters aren't running. The reason they did this, from what I understand, is that the cars are actually FAR less efficient when they are filtering properly, making their EPA fuel economy estimates completely bogus and giving people no reason to purchase a diesel vehicle in the first place. I bought mine because it was supposedly a super low emissions vehicle that had great fuel economy (42 hwy, 33 city IRL). Turns out this was a big lie and now I'm stuck with a car that no one will want and will no longer have good fuel economy once I get this issue fixed. Sucks.
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Why does being lazy feel so good? shouldn't we naturally feel better working?
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Being lazy means we're spending fewer calories. Which is good for an animal which may not get to eat. If you were that hungry, you naturally wouldn't be lazy.
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- Why aren't all of the months in numerical sequence from most to least?
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I'm not sure about this 100%, but this is how I understand it: Originally, there were ten months. January and February were originally a monthless period because no crops would grow. This is why September - December are named the way they are (Sept = 7, Oct = 8, etc). So, February was the "last" month created, and therefore has the least amount of days, and the whole leap day thing. Apart from that, the length of days in each month alternates from 31 to 30, with the exception of July and August which both have 31. Legend has it that Augustus Caesar refused to lend his name to a month that had fewer days than that of Julius Caesar's, forcing calendar makers to break the sequence.
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Why does putting a wooden spoon over a boiling pot prevent the water from spilling over?
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It breaks the surface tension of the water before it spills over the edges.
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What causes economic inflation?
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Demand causes inflation. People want things. Since there is a fixed amount of things, the price for those things goes up. This rising of prices is called "inflation". A low amount of inflation (1-3%) is considered "normal and healthy" for an economic, indicating growth of demand that is controlled.
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Why do strangers want to follow me on Twitter?
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They don't have an interest in following you, they're either ways of getting you to go to some site (like the latter group) or they're people who follow you in hopes you'll follow them so they can up their number of followers... for some reason this is valuable to people.
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How is it at all possible that a criminal could sue if they get hurt in the process of trying to steal/commit crime?
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The frequency in which is happens is highly overstated, and even when a lawsuit is successful, it is usually overturned on appeal. Criminals actually seeing a dime from a lawsuit like this is very rare. I can think of two situations where the criminal might have a case: * A non-criminal could have hurt in the same way - if you slipped and fell on a wet spot while just walking along, it doesn't make a difference if you were carrying a bunch of shoplifted loot * Reckless disregard for human life - after being robbed, the property owner intentionally loosened the skylight, hoping the next thief would fall
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Why does diarrhea need to come out RIGHT F*CKIN' NOW, but regular poo is cool to chill for a lil bit?
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Because you only get the urge to poop when the feces pushes on the internal anal sphincter. Most of the time, feces is stored in the descending portion of the large intestine, far away from the sphincter, but every once in a while, intestine muscles will push the feces into the rectum where it will push against the sphincter and you get an urge to poop. However, if you hold it and don't poop, the intestine muscles pushes the feces back into the colon, and that urge to poop passes. However, with watery diarrhea, it pools right into the rectum, where it produces a continuous poop signal (your body think your colon is *completely full* and freaks out).
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How do atomic clocks work and why is their time considered the most accurate?
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I know this is an eli5, but before I try and explain how an atomic clock works I'd like to ask you how great your understanding of physics is? Mainly in regards to atoms, electrons, magnetic fields etc
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this may belong in an NFL subreddit, but: In the NFL, why do kickers for a field goal have a hard time getting it 50 60 yards when they routinely kick more than 70 80 yards for kickoffs?
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On kickoffs, they're kicking off of a tee, they're not being rushed by the opposing team, and they're only trying to keep the ball within the sidelines. For a field goal attempt, their run-up to the ball is only three or four strides because otherwise the kick will be blocked, the ball itself is being stood up on its end and held by hand, and the kicker is trying to kick it between the uprights.
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How do bank stress tests work?
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Basically, they take the bank's account/spreadsheet info and run some simulations - stuff like "what if 10% of your customers default on loan payments?". These simulations are able to show whether the bank can cope with a mini-crisis, or whether they should have more money reserved for a mini-crisis.
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Why is it common for bears to be hit by trains?
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Oh there is a simple explanation for this. Bears are the king of their land. They grow up being able to fight and kill anything in there area. Think about. Ever try to fight a bear? You will lose. It is a matter of pride to defeat any foe before them. Eventually some mature veteran fighting bears will run out of victims. Thus they find the train as the ultimate competition and try to fight the trains in there land.
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what is Modernism and what is Postmodernism
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Pre-modernism: We have the truth. Modernism: We can find the truth. Post-modernism: There is no truth.
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Why does the urge to pee increases the closer you come to your home?
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It’s psychological. Compare it with craving a cigarette. You want it more if you see a person smoking, hear the word “smoking”, or get a random association with the act (a trigger). Getting closer to home makes you think about peeing, which increases the urge.
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If my parents had sex to conceive me 3 hours earlier than they did, would I have then been born 3 hours earlier?
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There's more of a chance of you not being you than anything else.
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why do some rap artists have 'skit' tracks on their cd's?
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So everybody knows that Paul Rosenberg has Slim's back
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Why does global warming cause the sea levels to rise, if water takes up more space as ice anyway?
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Two factors. One, ice on land is melting, and that water runs downhill into the ocean. Two, and more important, while ice takes up more space than an equivalent amount of water, warmer water takes up more space (expands) than cooler water. The contribution of ice in the ocean 'shrinking' as it becomes water, is far less than what would be needed to offset the expansion of the liquid ocean itself as it warms.
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What's the difference between the ("th-uh") and the ("thee")?
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There is no meaning difference. They are both the same word. It is just different pronunciations. Most of the time "thee" is going to be used before a vowel sound and "thuh" otherwise ("thee" egg, "thuh" boat). People also use the "thee" pronunciation before non-vowel sounds to indicate emphasis on the fact that it is a definite article ("He is *"thee"* best" to emphasize that there is only one)
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Why is it when I have a cold or flu, I sometimes feel really cold and start shivering violently, even though when I feel my skin I'm warm?
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This is a side effect of fever. Your body temperature is above normal, but your brain wants you running hot in order to help kill the infection, so encourages you to seek warmth. This is on top of the fact that because of your increased body temperature, surrounding air feels that much colder compared to your skin temperature. There are many fever-reducing medications available OTC like ibuprofen and acetaminophen
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What is actually going on when you hit your funny bone?
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You're hitting the ulnar nerve, which is a big honkin' nerve that runs down your arm. Most of the time, it is cushioned beneath lots of fat and muscles, but at the elbow joint, it is exposed and relatively close to the surface of your skin. As such, it is vulnerable to impact which makes your arm feel all tingly as the impact causes it to fire off impulses.
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what is quantum internet and why is it so important?
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This is a bit of a stab in the dark, but I'm pretty sure it's a network that rests on top of extremely dense encryption that takes quantum processors to encrypt and decrypt. The physical internet itself is no different but the hosts/servers communicating with each other are using encryption that apparently requires quantum processors in order to send and receive data. One need for this stems from, of course, the government security agencies looking for new ways to transmit information to itself in other parts of the world in such a way as to prevent foreign entities (e.g., enemies, etc.) from intercepting and decryption said data. There are of course commercial applications. Who knows, perhaps one day we'll all have quantum processors in our smart phones, but that's a LONG ways down the road.
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How is the White House over 200 years old but still able to keep up with modern security standards?
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It has been updated and renovated on several occasions since it was last burnt by the British.
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Why can you download entire YouTube videos by copying/paste the URL into a website but not do the same with Netflix?
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Netflix has protections in place to prevent this, since its content is 100% copyrighted. YouTube, on the other hand, is not always such sensitive material and therefore doesn't have as much security against downloading its content.
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Why do tears come out while yawning when we are really tired?
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When we open our mouths to yawn, the muscles around our eyes put pressure on our tear ducts; when the yawn is particularly wide, the pressure is great enough that our facial muscles literally 'squeeze' tears out of the ducts.
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If Almonds contain all of the essential Amino Acids to form complete proteins, why are they considered incomplete protein sources?
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Technically yes you could eat 1000 calories worth of almonds to reach your essential amino acid requirement across the board. However it is much more reasonable to combine almonds with a grain which is higher in methionine and leucine, this is called complementary protein intake. So when they are talking about a complete protein they are limiting it to a certain amount of such a protein and it's ability to meet the necessary requirements. With animal protein (complete proteins) it is very easy to reach the needed amount of the 9 essential amino acids but using the equivalent amount of almonds would not be possible. This is why they stress for vegetarians to pair complementary proteins to fulfill their essential amino acid requirements. However as mentioned theoretically since almonds do contain all 9 essentials in varying amounts it would be possible to consume a great deal of almonds to fulfill that need but not really necessary when certain grains are available to complement.
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ELI: Why are sales taxes only enforced when shopping stores and online?
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You are. You are supposed to write the person a receipt, which they then show while registering the vehicle, and then pay the tax there in order to have ownership transferred to them.
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Is burning fecal waste beneficial in one way or another such as generating power to using the ashes as fertilizer?
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One of best things about burning the waste is that you've reduced it's volume, so it's easier to transport and store, and it's probably safer than it was before burning. Regarding other benefits, if the waste is dry enough you can generate power from burning it (otherwise it's wasted for evaporating the water) and I'm not sure if the ashes are viable as a fertilizer at all, and generally ash from burning waste is rather undesirable (at least in my country) and just stored at landfills. Though I doubt fecal waste is just burned here, because it's most likely better to use the waste for generating biogas, basically you stockpile the dung in favorable conditions, initiate fermentation and get methane. This time I know that what's left of the waste is indeed usable as a fertillizer.
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If Flash Storage is so useful, why do we still use Hard Drives?
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USB flash drives average $1 per gigabyte. Magnetic hard drives average 5.3 cents per gigabyte. Additionally, a magnetic hard drive is typically 2-4 times as fast as a USB flash drive, or even faster. USB flash drives also have write limitations; there are only so many times you can write to them. If we're talking *solid state* hard drives, then those are faster than magnetic hard drives, and they cost about 81 cents a megabyte -- cheaper than USB flash, but much more expensive than magnetic. Those *do* require a power source, though. So basically, flash storage is tougher and more resistant to water and dirt, but it's much slower and much more expensive.
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What are the pros and cons of mp4, webm and HTML5 video formats? When to use one over the other?
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A little add-on in addition to what everyone else has posted, Apple's QuickTime player codec doesn't support webm. So Apple/iphone users can't view webm videos natively on their device. They need mp4 to fall back to when available. That's why most sites offer their media in both webm and mp4.
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EIL5: What's the real difference between AA, AAA, 9v, D, etc. batteries? And why did Dildos/Vibrators take only C's for so long?
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AA, AAA, C, and D batteries are all 1.5 volts. But they differ considerably in the amount of current and time they can produce. A bigger battery can produce more power over time. A 9V battery is just that - 9 volts. But it has a lower current throughput. As for why a vibrator takes a C battery I can only conjecture that it is a very power-hungry device so needs the largest practicable battery. And because the device has a width limitation (because of the nature of the environment in which it is required to operate) the maximum diameter acceptable is probably that of a C battery but not a D.
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What really happens when people die of "old age" or "natural causes" ?
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what happens is the family and doctors agree it is not worth determining what the actual cause of death was. actual cause is often heart failure, but frankly could be almost anything that isn't blatantly obvious from an external inspection. edit: stroke is another common cause. may actually be even more common that heart attack for "old age" deaths, as it can hit suddenly with less obvious symptoms.
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- what is the "nails on a chalkboard" sensation?
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We don't exactly know, but there are some good ideas on it. The most prevalent theories say that the sounds which cause this reaction (nails on a chalkboard, fork on a plate, ect) do so for reasons related to evolutionary biology. Specifically, the sound has strong similarities to some warning calls given by certain primates. It's possible that we still are unnerved by this because our ancestors had similar warning calls, or perhaps some predators made a sound like it. There are also some theories that relate the intensity of the sound to the shape of our ears. it's possible the frequency is affected by ear canal shapes and that frequency increases when the sound goes through your ears, to the point of being very painful or unnerving compared to other noises. I personally find the sound extremely irritating and unnerving, but not painful, so the former theory seems more likely to me. We really just don't know for sure yet.
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Why why when Russia invade a country all the people from america stand up shouting for violation of right of Sovereignty and why when the US do the same American people show a lot of support ?
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Let me explain it to you: The US is the bestest most amazing country ever in the history of the universe. We were singled out by god to be mankind's only hope, a shining example of awesomeness that every other country on Earth envies and wishes they could be like. Therefore, anything we ever do is by definition perfect. That's why we can criticize other countries for behavior that we engage in ourselves: when we do it, it's right because we're awesome, but when other countries do it, it's wrong because they suck.
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Why it is more common for men to go bald
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It's the male hormone testosterone that does that and since women don't have that much of it men goes bald and women don't. The less hair you've got the more testosterone you have in your body. Bald men usually have higher levels of testosterone than in women.
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the theory that cutting taxes on the rich increases overall tax revenue
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Imagine if the govt taxed everyone's income at 100%. Although the rate is very high, the tax revenue they'd get from it would be $0. This is because when people don't get to keep any of their earnings, they won't bother to work. So we can see that in this situation a "tax cut" would certainly increase tax revenue. Alternatively, however, if you tax income at 0%, the govt will also receive $0 in revenue, obviously. Anyone can now see that there is a "curve" which shows the amount of tax revenue generated at each rate. This is called the [Laffer Curve](_URL_0_) It's impossible to tell what the curve looks like, but we can see that at some places on the curve, tax revenue would increase at lower rates. It's up for debate where the "optimal" place is on the curve, but that's the theory behind these cuts.
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How would you go about making metal tools from scratch? Assume you're stranded on an island and can only use what nature has given you.
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you should watch this video, this guy decided he was going to make a toaster from scratch. _URL_0_
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What’s bad about dystopia if everyone lives in the society truly think and feel they are happy?
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If they are *truly* happy, I'm not sure it can be a dystopia. If it's enforced/artificial happiness, then you're encroaching on people's free feelings.
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Why didn't evolution decide our teeth can only be maintained through dental chemicals and treatment?
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During most of human history, we ate almost no sugars at all (hunter gatherer societies have very few sources of carbohydrates, i.e. complex sugars). It is carbohydrates and sugars that feed the bacteria that cases tooth decay (the bacteria converts sugar to acids, which dissolve the calcium in the enamel), and stone age people rarely ate enough sugars for this to become a problem. What stone age societies actually have a problem with is constantly chewing tough meats and roots causing teeth to wear away and fall out. And that's why adults grow wisdom teeth, to replace those fallen teeth.
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How will the closing of so many Wal Mart stores affect local economies?
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Because the way WalMart moved in on those communities in the first place was to steamroll into town and undercut all local businesses, forcing them to go under. Pretty soon, WalMart becomes The Only Game in Town, and if it pulls out, all that's left is a big muddy hole. No local commerce, no local jobs, a huge hit to the tax base. It costs money to start up a business from scratch, and a lot of the people who owned mom & pop stores and were flattened retired or moved on.
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Why does the back button on the browser work and other times does not?
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Hitting the 'Back' button in a browser reloads the previous html file. That worked great for a long time because websites were structured as a series of files. But since JavaScript was developed, many sites will load one file and then dynamically change the content being shown to user *without loading a new file*. Hitting back no longer works as you would expect because the previous content isn't from the previous file. The way it used to work is like a book. If you wanted new content, you would just turn the page. If you wanted to see the previous content, you'd turn the page back. But now it's like a book made out of video screens. The content on each page can change now. If you want to go back to what you just watched, turning to the previous page won't work. You need to rely on the current page's own navigation system.
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What is at the center of Gas Giant planets and what holds them together? Why do they have an atmosphere?
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What holds them together is gravity. As you go into a gas giant the atmosphere which is mostly hydrogen gets thicker. Eventually you get so much pressure that you get liquid hydrogen, and then at the very core you will have solid hydrogen/whatever heavier elements the planet has absorbed.
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How does public-key cryptography work?
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Public (also known as Asymmetric) encryption is best explained by [this picture](_URL_0_). Just take a second to digest each step and realize how both parties do indeed come to the same result and that if you were spying on them in public, it would be difficult to determine their private colors. Now replace the ideas with colors with keys (large primes) and the act of un-mixing paint as factoring very large semi-prime numbers. That's generally how the Diffie-Hellman key exchange works today. It wasn't even thought to be possible until the 70s. Once both parties has this shared key (same color), they can use that as a key for further communication since it's a secret that only they know of. Pretty neat! There are variations of this idea that use moduli, group theory, and advanced number theory to do the same basic thing but it's all the same idea. This is only a basic explanation of modern public-key cryptography.
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How and why do does the WestBoro Baptist Church make money?
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They did and iama recently. They all hold down regular jobs and some are lawyers, so they are not poor. In any case, what do they need money for? The only expenses they have are travel costs and it's not like they do it for the money. Useful info from the inside: _URL_1_ _URL_0_
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What the hell do we need the stock market for, /explainlikeimfive
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It allows publicly traded corporations to raise capital (money) without taking out a loan (which they would have to pay back). More capital allows companies to invest in new things, like research and development. The downside is that the corporation becomes accountable to shareholders, who generally only care about their earnings and dividends. This frequently leads to corporations committing illegal, immoral, or otherwise morally dubious acts to boost profits and please shareholders.
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Why is sign language different in different parts of the world?
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if you learn sign language you will notice it's basically a sign for each word. if you learn a second language you will learn that each language has different rules for words, like the order of noun/verb might be flipped or one language will use a second word while another will change the ending of a word. so each spoken language kind of needs its own sign language to match how the spoken language works.
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Why do we get drunk, when we drink alcohol?
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Alcohol is a friendly guy. He loves to hug things, like your brain cells. When you drink a lot of alcohol your brain winds up being too busy hugging alcohol to work right. Alcohol is also a very thirsty guy. That's why you wake up dehydrated.
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How does electrical current "know" which path offers the least resistance?
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They don't. Electrons follow the path of least resistance in the same way that water flows downhill. The electrons do not act collectively, each individual electron is driven away from other electrons, and driven toward positive charges. The collective result is well described by the statement that they follow the path of least resistence.
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how do actors do smoking scenes?
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They often smoke herbal cigarettes that don't contain tobacco _URL_0_
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Why is air generally colder in the upper atmosphere, even though hot air rises, and it receives more direct sunlight?
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Air pressure is equal to the weight of all the air above in the atmosphere, so it decreases with altitude. Therefore when hot air rises, its pressure decreases and it expands and gets colder. The reason why it cools down is hard to explain without using math, but it's the same as when you open a compressed air bottle for example. (The math is based on the assumptions that there is no heat exchanged with the rest of the atmosphere and that the transformation is reversible, so the entropy is constant). Since in the troposphere (lower part of the atmosphere, below approximately 10000 m) air moves a lot with weather phenomenons, it gets colder with increasing altitude. This is not the case above (in the stratosphere) as this layer is stable and heat conduction makes the temperature close to constant.
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Who decides if art is 'good' and what it's worth?
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If someone wants it they'll buy it. If someone else wants it more they'll pay more for it. Eventually you've got an expensive work of art. As for why people want it, preferences are impossible to determine across a population.
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How are we able to type fast without thinking about the key placement, yet probably wouldn't be able to recollect where the keys are without a keyboard
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Muscle memory versus actual memorization. They are stored differently than regular learned memories. Therefore accessed differently. Which is why when you need a key you very seldom use you still look.
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The difference between republican and democrat and what they believe in.
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Difficult to find one, but we need a non bias person to explain it. All the previous searches appear to say the same thing. Republicans want little government, Democrats want big government. But I'm betting the OP wants details on their specific beliefs on the bug issues.
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How can such a huge company, like yahoo, afford to rebrand themselves after becoming so prominent under their current brand?
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simple answer... they cant afford not to. yahoo is not a sustainable business, as proven by years of losses and failed remedies. they need cash, and if selling the yahoo brand to verizon provides that cash, so be it. Just as sears recently sold craftsman to black and decker. chances are yahoo is positioning to turn out the lights anyway, so I am not sure if there are any legitimate plans to actually sustain the remainco/altaba name.
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How did J. R. R. Tolkien invent his elvish language?
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He was a linguist who was very talented and very imaginative.
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If you flew a spacecraft into a gas planet, would you go straight through it or would you hit some form of ground?
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That's pretty much why we've sent Juno up to Jupiter; I understand that it's going to be firing some kind of radar through the atmosphere to see what reflections come back. There are also theories that due to the extreme pressure, the core may contain phase 5 hydrogen, a state in which it forms into a metallic structure. _URL_0_
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How have we come so far with visual technology like 4k and 8k screens but a phone call still sounds like am radio?
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Also: it's got to be compatible with all phones on the network; theoretically your call might be digitised then turned analogue then digitised then turned analogue then digitised then sent analogue down a 100-year-old rusty copper line into a 50 year old handset. Lower common denominator.
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Why are there different sockets on motherboard for CPUs? Why isn't there a universal socket to fit all CPUs?
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Part of it forces you to upgrade your entire computer at a certain points and part of it is due to compatibility. As for the compatibility part, when a socket is designed it has certain features they are trying to support, DDR2, PCI-E 2.0, Sata 2.0, ect. In the future this same design may not work for newer features such as PCI-E 3.0, DDR3, Sata 3.0 ect. If you look at the AMD side where they have used the same AM3 socket for their high end chips, it's due to them not supporting all of the latest features.
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Why is that computers connect to just one wifi connection and not multiple ones at the same time?
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Wifi cards only have one tuner and transmitter, think of it like a standard radio. You cant tune to 2 stations at the same time, a transmitter can only transmit on one station at a time as well.
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why is it called lake michigan and not michigan sea? lake superior and not superior sea?
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Geologically speaking, altitude. 200' above present sea level is, by definition, always a lake. Inland seas are low enough that at maximum sea level (when there is no ice) they are part of the ocean. But during an ice age (like now, we have some ice but not a lot), sea level falls enough that inland seas become independent bodies of water. Lake Superior is 600' above present sea level, Lake Ontario is 246'. Lake Bonneville was a salt lake with a shore at 5100'. Once upon 17,000 years ago, [it burst through Red Rock Pass and flooded the Snake](_URL_0_); it's now Great Salt Lake, elevation 1200'. Seas are places like the Dead Sea is at −1,401', Caspian Sea −92' and Persian Gulf (currently part of the ocean).
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If lightning is very short, how does it create a long continuous sound as thunder?
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In addition to what others have said, while the *event* of lightning can be very short, the actual bolt itself, can be several miles in length. While this distance is pretty insignificant in terms of the speed of light, it *is* significant in terms of the speed of sound. So not only do you have multiple reverberations, and echos off the surrounding landscape, but additionally, the initial sound does not reach you all at the same time.
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Why does my air mattress always go flat after I use it?
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You know when you lay on your arm too long and you get that 'pins and needles' feeling? That's not just a feeling. Your body hair really turns to pins and needles. Now, in a regular polyester-fill mattress, this is no problem. But in an air mattress, you compromise the integrity of the mattress over time. This is why water beds are never as cool as you think they are.
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Does space go on forever or is there an end?
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Current models suggest that space is infinite in extent, and that the universe essentially goes forever in any direction. The most popular model is called the [Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker (FLRW) ](_URL_0_) model, which suggests that the universe is infinite and flat, based largely upon the data that the universe appears isotropic and homogeneous in all directions. What this essentially means is it is thought to have no boundaries/edges, and parallel lines can go through space indefinitely and will never cross (space doesn't have a curvature). However, there as of yet does not exist an experiment that can conclusively prove this to be the case. But it is consistent with our current measurements.
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Why do we have so little control over our bodies?
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From an evolutionary point of view, free will is not needed. While pumping blood, breathing and even feeling pain is very much required for survival, so throughout evolution the automatic systems our brain control has always been required while only some species has developed some part of free will, and indeed not even humans have developed free will over everything. Luckily, because it'd be quite tiring to have to remember to beat the heart every second!
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If staring at screens for long periods of time doesn't cause nearsightedness (myopia), why has myopia increased from 10% to 41% of the US population in the last 30 years?
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It’s not staring at screens that causes it, but a lack of exposure to sunlight and of staring into the mid-distance. So if you spend a lot of your time staring at a screen but still get/look outside for an hour or two every day, your eyes get the full spectrum exposure and exercise they need. Not much different than physical fitness really.
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Richter magnitude scale
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It's a logarithmic scale measuring the energy released by an earthquake. Starts at 0, but is technically openended (thankfully, we've never had a 10.0 or higher). Each increase in the scale number indicates a 10x increase in the amount of energy released by the quake. A 5.0 is 10 times stronger than a 4.0. A 6.0 is 10 times stronger than the 5.0.
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; Why did Blackberries stop being popular?
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Blackberry was focused on the business market. Originally it was only a business that could justify the expense of a smart phone so the apps were focused on the concerns of businesses. Apple came along and decided that hardware prices have come down enough that justified a consumer level smart phone. Apple focused on the general public and their phones were successful. Very successful. Blackberry stuck with the idea that there were going to be 2 markets, a business market and a general consumer market because business contract are very lucrative. The problem is that many business discovered that an Iphone more than met their needs and they switched. It's been very hard for Blackberry to switch gears and it's been a slow decline ever since.
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Why doesnt Harry destroy the third deathly hallow, the invisibility cloak?
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He destroyed the stone because it drove people crazy, he destroyed the wand because it was used for harming others. The invisibility cloak didn't really cause any harms, and so he didn't see any reason to destroy it. That being said, in the books he didn't destroy the elder wand, he placed it in Dumbledore's tomb, and when harry died a natural death the wands power would be broken. He also didn't really destroy the stone, he just dropped it in the woods to be lost forever, and it seems like that's what happened.
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Why drug dealers would agree to be on those VICE shows
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Journalistic integrity has existed throughout the centuries, protecting sources to get to the truth. Vice is offering anonymity to get the story. Ego is what likely keeps the dealers willing to tell their story in disguise just to be on television. I imagine it appeals to the rush of the drug dealer lifestyle some people who thrive in that community come to expect and enjoy on some level.
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Why do small flies congregate in small swarms in the same place night after night during spring/summer?
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They are banging. That is pretty much it. Flies swarm in order to mate, so you are basically running through a night club where everyone is DTF.
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