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How blood is tested to identify the owner, given there are 7 billion potentials.
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You don't really use it to identify the owner, unless you already have their DNA on file. You would generally use it to compare one set of blood to another (ie, blood left at a crime scene compared to your suspects to find out whos blood it is)
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Can you domesticate bats? And if not, why?
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Given enough time, you could probably domesticate most animals. However, it might require centuries, or even longer. There are many features that can make a species suitable for domestication, but the most important one is being *useful*. Domestication takes a tremendous amount of effort, typically not the sort of effort you want to spend just to wind up with an exotic pet. The only species to be domesticated in modern times is the Russian red fox. The program started in the 1950's as a science experiment, used a particularly well-suited species, and today there are a few hundred animals running around with little value besides high maintenance pets. Bats are not nearly as well suited as foxes, and probably have less potential to be useful.
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Is there a good reason why we need to wear socks with shoes?
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Reduce friction. Absorb sweat. Keep insides of shoes cleaner, fresher. Adjust fit of loose shoes. I've searched tha seven seas fer an answer. Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: why do we wear socks with closed shoes? ](_URL_2_) ^(_5 comments_) 1. [ELI5: Why does putting socks, which cover around 5% of my body, make me feel significantly warmer? ](_URL_1_) ^(_ > 100 comments_) 1. [Why do we wear socks? ](_URL_0_) ^(_8 comments_)
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why is a ceiling fan virtually silent, but not box fans/stand up fans?
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It's speed. Box fans are smaller so you want them to go faster. When I turn my ceiling fan on top speed, I hear it.
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Why is it that some primetime shows have 20 episodes per season, whereas others only have 10 episodes, or two 8-episode "half seasons"?
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Because different shows have different scheduling needs and different paces at which they want to put the story out there. It's usually the network's decision.
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How have we been able to artificially make some fruit seedless while others not (grapes vs. cherries, for instance)?
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A farmer grows 10 apples trees. When the Apple stork arrives and drops off the baby apples, the farmer finds that one tree is growing apples without seeds. The farmer shoots the stork, and using its dead lifeless beak, grafts the right parts of the tree for use in planting more apple trees. These end up having less seeds/no seeds as well. The apple storks go out of business and turn to stripping and crack. TL;DR you need a naturally occurring version without seeds first
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If listening to music at high volumes is bad for your ears, why are headphone / PC amplifiers such a big deal?
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Headphone amplifiers are not merely just for increasing the volume. There are different specification for each headphones namely impedance (ohms) this value means it is harder to drive (or just harder to power). If you put a 600 ohm headphone on a soundcard/headphone amplifier that could only power a 300 ohm headphone, the volume that will come out of the headphone can be adequate but the volume knob will be up almost tonits maximum. Thus somewhat distorting the sound to increase volume. The sweet spot for volume to get the full quality of recording is at 50%.
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How can migratory birds cover such great distances, over such short periods of time? My friend said there are birds that can fly for 8 days straight. How do they do that with no sleep?
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Birds and other animals for that matter don't sleep exactly the same as humans do. Birds for example sleep sitting all the time. A human sitting on a branch would fall down the second he started sleeping. Most animals sleep standing on all fours. Dolphins sleep while swimming. And migratory birds sleep while flying. Or sailing in most cases. Their brains do not shut down all the way so parts of it sleep while the rest is awake.
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why haven't consoles offered the option for multi-monitor gaming? Hardware limitations?
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Less hardware limitations, more interest limitations. Like any device, consoles are going to be developed to meet the needs / wishes of most of the target market. And most of the people playing consoles do not care for multi-monitor gaming. Half of the advantage of a console is that you can easily plug it into your tv (a device nearly everybody has anyway) and there you go, you are ready to game. Multi-monitor gaming already takes a slightly more complicated set-up, more TVs and so on, and most people just aren't interested in it. And, as with any device you are making, you are going to aim for the least amount of costs when producing, and putting in extra hardware/software that most of your target market won't use will only make your device more expensive without really leading to more sales.
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Why do only mediocre bands participate in Eurovision?
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Because it's not relevant. It's not a measure of quality. It's not a prize that's respected in the music industry. It's just television entertainment.
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How did people translate languages accurately when they didn't understand a word the other person was saying?
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If you have a living person who speaks the other language, you can work together to figure out each other's language, especially if you know anything about linguistics. It might take some time, but you can work it out with another person. If there's no living speaker then you need some kind of reference that let's you place words in context. You've probably heard of the Rosetta Stone. Before we discovered the Rosetta Stone we didn't know much about Demotic script or Egyptian Hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone is a tablet with the same document written in Greek, Demotic script, and Egyptian Hieroglyphics. We did know Greek, so we were able to figure out the other 2 thanks to that reference. That was a HUUUUUUGE development for linguistics and opened up a ton of understanding. So you don't always have a reference like the RS, but the point is you need some kind of reference. Often just archaeological artifacts. edit: Demotic script, not Sanskrit. Also simplified some of the importance of the RS.
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Race, Breed, Subspecies: what are the differences?
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Races only have small physical differences that aren't really reflected in the genetic makeup. It's very possible for there to be more genetic variation between two Germans than between a German and a Kenyan, but the two Germans are still of the same race just because of their skin color. Subspecies have more significant differences that are actually reflected in the genetic makeup, but they're still close enough that they can breed with the larger species as a whole, though typically their offspring aren't as fertile or viable as when they breed within their subspecies. The line between subspecies and species is pretty blurry as there are animals that we consider separate species than can also breed like lions and tigers. Breeds refer to differences that were selected artificially like dog, cats and horse breeds.
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When you're about to fall or spill something what is that feeling in your belly?
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It does have to do with adrenaline! When you become anxious or afraid, your body's stress hormones (including adrenaline) move blood from one place to another. Your digestive system needs blood to make it work. But if you're in danger, you don't need your digestive system to work as hard any more. The blood is sent to your brain, your nerves, and your muscles so that you can act faster. The warmth you feel comes from this movement of blood. When you're done dealing with the stressful situation, the blood goes back to where it belongs. Sometimes, people who stay stressed will lose weight because their body forgets to digest food and keeps blood flowing to other places for too long.
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How do they come up with the names for medicine?
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a lot of the time they are shortened versions of their very long and complex chemical names. for ex, Ibuprofen from **isobutylphenylpropanoic acid** (i bu phen pro)
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Isn't threatening to revealembarrasing videos of people for money extortion? How are people not prosecuted for it?
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It is indeed extortion and illegal. Many people end up going to jail for it. For example, [Autumn Jackson](_URL_0_) was sent to prison for trying to extort Bill Cosby.
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Why do flies come back to me after I try to swat them and miss? Doesn't it register into their fight or flight response?
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They can't really comprehend that you're actively targeting them. The most they deal with outside of humans are animal tails swinging in their general direction. Flies don't understand hatred, they are beautiful, shit-eating beings like that.
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How did weed strains become increasingly more potent since the 70s?
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Ever notice how friggin' gigantic some strawberries are? It's because of selective breeding. Take the biggest strawberry from a bunch of strawberries, pollinate it with the second-largest, and then plant its seeds, and hopefully the gene that caused it to be massive will be hereditary and be passed on to at least one of its offspring. Now take the biggest strawberry from that group, plant its seeds, and repeat until you have those fist-sized strawberries you can get from some grocery stores. Weed is the same idea, just apply it to the THCA content in mj leaves. Plant, identify, replant, identify, replant, identify, and so on.
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Why does 'republican' mean something completely different in Europe compared to what it means in the US?
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Because it is the name of the other major party of the US, so the political ideology and goals of that party greatly define what republican means in the US. In Europe on the other hand there are still a lot of monarchies (UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, Spain) so republican is more understood as the opposite of monarchist.
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When I was a kid, why was channel 3 the chosen AUX/input for most game systems or VHS players?
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Most devices that used RF adapters (what you used to plug your NES into your TV's antenna/cable jack) actually had switches on them to select between channel 3 or 4. See: _URL_0_ Most media markets did not have something broadcasting on *both* channel 3 and channel 4 because the frequencies that carried those particular channels were more likely to interfere with each other over the air (In my area, we had broadcast affiliates on channels 2, 4, and 5, but nothing on channel 3). Channel 1 was off-limits to US broadcasters, but it wasn't an option for AUX devices either because all but the earliest TVs couldn't even tune to it (it basically didn't exist). So, choosing Ch3 (or Ch4) for RF adapters was mainly a convenience, although, as you say, even if your area did have something on both 3 and 4, it would not limit your ability to use an AUX device on those channels when you wanted to.
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Why are chairs slightly incurved instead of the other way around ?
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Some busses and trains in sweden actually have chairs that make you sit with a straight back, but i think It's cause people find those types of chairs more comfortable
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Who become in charge if something happens to PM?
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The party in charge would meet as a party outside of its official capacity in the parliament. They would choose a new leader by voting among themselves. The result would then be brought forward in the full parliament, where if the ruling party has a majority, it's a pro forma vote. Since all of the ruling party votes for the new party leader as Prime Minister, that person is installed. If you're concerned about the minutes/hours/days before this happens, keep in mind that someone still has to inform the VP and he then must be sworn in in the U.S. The Vice President doesn't have the actual power of the presidency until he's sworn in as the actual President. It's just that he's automatically in line whereas in a parliamentary system they would re-vote if the situation ever came up.
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Why is that when someone spots me benching even if they just touch the bar with their finger tips, it all of a sudden feels like they are helping me lift a bunch of the weight even though in reality they are maybe supporting a pound?
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If you are able to hold the bar stationary, that means at that moment you're using exactly enough force to hold (but not lift) that amount of weight. Any more upward force on the bar at all and it will go up. It seems like a big difference because it's going from "not moving" to "moving".
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What is the connection between birds, reptiles, and dinosaurs?
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Dinosaurs are a diverse clade of reptiles. Birds are descendants of dinosaurs, and technically by the phylogenetic system (which classifies an organism based upon its ancestry) thus are dinosaurs and also reptiles. However, by that measure, humans are also reptiles (but not dinosaurs). As such, there are limits to the usefulness of applying such classifications too widely.
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why people while hugging in non-romantic situation are "tapping" each others backs with a palm?
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It's just a friendly thing to do that stems from mothers burping their babies and then later on patting their kids on the back as a friendly good job or hello. Later on it just continues and people continue to do it. It's an old habit of society. Edit: had a typo and fixed it
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why do states like alabama not have a lottery
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I don't know this to be true, but it's probably BECAUSE of the casinos.
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Why are chips and salsa generally given for free at most Mexican restaurants?
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It's like bread and butter at an Italian restaurant. Something to snack on before your meal gets out, cheap and generally likable.
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How Virtualization works?
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Ahoy, matey! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Server Virtualization. ](_URL_5_) ^(_25 comments_) 1. [ELI5: Virtual Machines And Virtualization ](_URL_1_) ^(_7 comments_) 1. [ELI5: what exactly are virtualization technologies like Hyper-V, App-V, MED-V? What is a "hypervisor"? ](_URL_0_) ^(_10 comments_) 1. [ELI5: What is a Virtual Machine? How does it work? ](_URL_2_) ^(_6 comments_) 1. [ELI5: virtual servers ](_URL_3_) ^(_15 comments_) 1. [ELI5: What is Virtualization? How does it work under the hood? ](_URL_4_) ^(_17 comments_)
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Why has pizza delivery in "30 minutes or less" become uncommon?
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About 20 years ago, there was a multi-million dollar judgement against Domino's (who was most famous for the 30 minutes or less thing) when a woman was hit by a pizza delivery driver who was not operating the vehicle safely. This caused a lot of bad publicity for the "fast pizza delivery" deal, and as a result Domino's dropped it's "30 minutes or free" guarantee, and other pizza companies backed off delivery guarantees as well.
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Why are Mountains triangular in shape (or at least similar to a triangle
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It's the result of gravity and erosion. Mountains are shaped over millenia, and in that much time the force of wind and rain wears down and breaks apart the rock that makes up the mountain. As the mountain crumbles, gravity shapes it into a rough cone: the mountain falls away radially around the peak. The "triangle" image of a mountain is because looking at a cone from the side looks like a triangle.
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Why detox water if I am already having fruits, veggie and drinking water everyday?
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Detox is a scam. Your body does not accumulate "toxins" and there is no amount of drinking/fasting/pooping you can do to "detoxify" anything.
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In uncertain times, is it better to have your savings in the form of money? Or precious metals?
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during recession - currency during extreme meltdown of society - precious metals
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What getting a "tune-up" on your car consists of.
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The basics of a tune up are fluid changes of a majority of components such as oil, trans fluid, brake fluids, power steering, coolants, and window wash fluids. The filters for the components should also be replaced at the same time. Spark plugs should be checked and depending on the carbon buildup they may be changed or just be gaped. Most places check brake pads and rotors, wheel alignment and wheel balance are recommended if you want a perfect ride. The only thing you can check yourself would be the fluids. You can check the oil dipstick and measure how much oil you have as well as the power steering. If your going to check your coolant make sure the car hasn't been driven for at least 20 min because the heat build up causes the fluid to expand and its extremely hot. I would recommend you wear eye protection from rust and fluids Brakes should be done in the shop because if anything goes wrong you can mess your breaks up and you can get into a car accident.
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Why when I'm tired do I turn the TV down really low, but I'm still able to hear it?
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It's a combination of factors. When you're tired, you're not up and about causing noise in your immediate vicinity or distorting the sounds of the TV by moving around. You also lose your capacity to focus on several things at once when tired; you're focusing on the sounds coming from the TV and not simultaneously juggling some thoughts about your day, or diverting your gaze to another happening. Have you ever heard that tidbit about how blind or deaf people have heightened faculties as it pertains to their working senses? I think the concept is similar here.
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Why we are told to consume some medicines before food and some after food
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As well as the gastrointestinal pH affecting drug absorption some drugs are purposely given with or immediately after a meal to slow down absorption or to provide short term protection against the acidic nature of the stomach contents (the presence of food raises the stomach pH towards neutral). Drugs mixed with food pass into the small intestine more slowly than drug mixed in stomach secretions alone. For some drugs it is necessary to control the rate of absorption to stop large quantities of the drug entering the blood stream quickly and giving what are known as peak plasma level side effects (typically nausea and vomiting from high plasma levels being reached quickly). Slower absorption from mixing with food can still let the same amount of drug into the blood but the levels do not get so high as those that cause the nausea and vomiting experienced by some patients. This is a very simplified picture (source: pharmacist involved in drug development for more than 30 years).
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Why do soap operas look the way they do? What is the camera/production technique that makes them look different?
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nice video of a side-by-side comparison of it on and off. _URL_0_
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How do companies determine the cost of acquiring a customer?
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1) Time and material spent on sales & advertising. If you spend $1 million on an advertising campaign and it averages 10 new customers, then that's at least $100K to acquire the customer. 2) Time & Material getting the new customer set up. This covers any kind of material that you have to give the customer (such as a device to use your service), the time it takes to create the customer's back-office information (automation is a good thing here), and any time/material it takes training the customer on the use of your service before they can start giving you money on a regular basis.
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Why do businesses with double doors usually only unlock one?
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For the same reason a lot of convenience stores and gas stations modify their doors to be harder to push open (they seem heavier). It makes it harder for people to run out and take off in a snatch-and-grab or other criminal situation. You'll especially notice this in pawn shops that have two sets of doors and a little hallway in between -- they'll usually unlock only the doors diagonal from one another so that anyone who runs out has to go through one door and cut across to the one diagonal from it. This gives security more time to respond and apprehend.
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How can a hash, resulting from a fixed-length algorithm, always generate unique results if there are a limited number of possible results, but much more inputs?
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No, you're definitely correct. Because you can hash a message of any length down to a hash of a finite number of bits (e.g. 512), there are an infinite number of hash collisions. Part of the "security" of the hash is how difficult it is to go find a collision. A huge focus of modern cryptographical research is to find ways to collide hashes.
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The whole Charlie Manson/Manson family thing
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Charles Manson was a serial killer. But instead of killing people himself, he had his "family" do it for him. He brainwashed/manipulated/indoctrinated a bunch of women (18 of them iirc). They loved him and would do anything for him. Well, "anything" meant killing people, so they did. He's currently serving life in prison.
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Why do our bodies rock back and forth when we sit?
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Redistributing load on muscles and joints prevents harm and aches that would occur more frequently in a prolonged loading scenario. tl;dr feels good man
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Why spicy foods don't lose their heat when they're deep fried if capsaicin is fat soluble?
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Two reasons. First, the oil is never in contact with all that much capsaicin. Most of it is in the food, behind batter, or behind other capsaicin particles. So even if the oil does dissolve some of it, there is still a lot of capsaicin that is inaccessible to the oil. Second is kinetics. Soluble molecules can take their sweet time getting into solution. Try dumping a spoonful of sugar into room temp. water. The sugar will dissolve entirely, but not quickly.
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Why aren't rich nations closer to Syria, like Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates being pressured into taking in any refugees?
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It's hard to pressure a country that beheads people for sorcery in 2015. They aren't exactly rational actors.
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How is it people find out which towns are doing events on certain nights (trick-or-treating/fireworks a day early/late)
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Once upon a time, in an age before computers, people had to figure out a way to share information and let the town know about events. These were dark times and information was hard to come by, but every morning a boy on a bike would drop you off a bundle of information that would tell you about what had happened and what was soon to happen in your local area. There would be spots for upcoming events in all the near by towns so you'd know about events without just talking to people In the era of light and information it's now often posted on the town website or Facebook page, but many still get that bundle of news dropped off on their doorstep every morning TLDR - Newspapers, but now Facebook too
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Why do some planes leave a trail of condensation/mist behind? What causes these trails?
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It is water vapor. When the engines burn fuel, they put out exhaust gases, and part of these gases is steam (hot water vapor).
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Why is Slovakia's capital at Bratislava at the outskirts of the country?
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Slovakia wasn't always Slovakia. It used to belong to the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy, later Czechoslovakia. Bratislava has always been an important centre for education, religion, bureaucracy, trade etc. so when we became independent, it was chosen to be our capital. Also, it's not like we're the only ones... Ottawa, Washington or Canberra aren't that "central" either just to name a few.
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What were the Yugoslav wars about and why was America involved in them?
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If you want answers to questions like this that are "unbiased" and without conspiracy theories, one of your absolute best bets is to submit your question to /r/AskHistorians. They have very strict journalistic integrity and the moderators take it very seriously. Jokes and quack stuff gets deleted almost immediately.
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Why do scrapes and other injuries feel more painful when its cold outside?
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When it's cold, your body draws blood in from the limbs to conserve its warmth by constricting the veins in those limbs. This causes the skin and flesh to press on the nerves, increasing their sensitivity.
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How was it possible that OJ Simpson was not charged with either murder when the prosecutors had such compelling evidence against him?
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Charged with means the prosecutors formally begin a trial. OJ Simpson was charged with the murder of Nichole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. He was not convicted, meaning the jury voted unanimously that the prosecution could not prove its case (or charges) beyond a reasonable doubt. Some of jurors have provided details in [books](_URL_1_) (some points from the book in this [review](_URL_0_)) about their reasoning for coming to the decisions they did. They appeared to have substantial concnerns about the evidence collection and handling practices of the police (which were a major portion of the prosecution's case).
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So humans regenerate skin cells and all, and that's cool, but if we constantly make new skin cells, why do I still have freckles, when birthmarks might fade over time?
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Because freckles are constantly being created as the melanin(sp?) in your skin reacts to the sunlight Whereas a birthmark is more of a 1 time event and can be "overwritten" with fresh new cells. Much like a scar
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What is a web scraper and what can they be used for?
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A web scraper is a piece of software that goes to a website, grabs pages & then parses out the interesting/useful data. Let's say you want to follow the price of items at Amazon - your web scraper would request the page, find the item name & price and return that to you in a clean, easy to work with format. Some of them get more complicated because you have to handle form submissions or horrible HTML but the idea's still the same - an automated tool to extract information from a web page. These days, most sites that *want* you to have their data have some sort of public API for getting just the info out (eg - [here's the Reddit API](_URL_0_)). Scrapers are still needed when you're trying to get information that people don't really want to hand out or they're just too cheap/lazy to provide a clean view of the data.
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When they say that we move at a finite speed through space-time, what are the denominator and numerator of the rate?
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I think what you're asking for is what units we use, as in "kilometers per hour". If that's correct, you could separate the space and times components and say "meters per second" for space and "seconds per second" for time, although this is simplistic. This may not be the best ELI5, but I'm not sure how else to explain it without talking about things like worldlines, relativity, and proper time, which are definitely not ELI5. You should ask this in r/askscience. You'll probably get a much better explanation.
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Why do Homeowner Associations hold such tremendous power?
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HOAs are entirely voluntary. If you don't want to join one, you simply don't purchase property governed by an association. That'll be pretty hard to do if you want to live in a place with shared property (like a condo building), but it's quite easy if you want to live in a house. There are plenty of horror stories about HOAs on reddit, but the good that a lot of them do goes mostly unnoticed.
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Keep Calm and Carry On
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I don't think those particular posters were publicy used, but they were certainly prepared and would have been used, I think, in the event of an invasion. They've got popular because they're pretty indicative of the British attitude towards any crisis - not to fuss or panic, just tut and go about our business. They also lend themselves to amusing variants, such as "Now Panic and Freak Out"
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Was WW2 propaganda (posters, movies, etc.) blatantly and widely referred to as "propaganda" at the time or is that just the description we give it in retrospect?
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The enemy's propaganda is always called propaganda. Although, its interesting that the word didn't always have such negative connotations. The root of the word is the same as 'propagation', and it began in a religious context. Even as recently as WW1 the British would charmingly refer to their own propaganda coming out of the Ministry of Information, though lately the use implies a negative.
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What is the unit of viscosity and how is it measured?
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The SI unit is the Poise, and it's measured by applying shear stress to the liquid. A typical viscometer has the liquid sandwiched between two concentric plates that the fluid sticks to, and measures the torque needed to turn one of them, then you calculate the viscosity from that. The plates can't be smooth, of course - the liquid needs to stick, not slide over them. There are different types of viscometer.
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How fast will transactions be once all the bitcoins have been mined? Also, will miners have any purpose after that?
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The last bitcoin is scheduled to be mined in the year 2140, I don't think you need to think about it too much.
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What is the purpose of the spirals painted on airplane engines?
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So that people (ground crew) will know if the engines are turning.
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How are chip-readers more secure than magnetic strips?
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It's not necessarily the reader, but the card itself. In an eli5 sense, a magnetic stripe says "I am X" when swiped. It is extremely easy to create a copy of the card that also says "I am X". A chip card, when read, initiates a conversation like "If you say you are card X, please complete this math problem using your secret ID number and give me the result". Because the whole card's information is not transmitted during a transaction, it is much harder to create a copy. If a second authentication factor (such as a PIN) is not used, chip cards are still weak to physical theft and malicious usage of a card, neither do they protect against fradulent online usage.
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Why Can't We Tell Our Bodies to Ignore Pain During Torture?
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Pain is your bodies way of telling you something is wrong. When you're being tortured your body is being damaged, so your body is letting you know. If people were able to turn off pain then the body could be seriously damaged and can cause death
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why can't we bundle our health insurance with our other mandatory insurances like car, home and renters? Or even combine it with life insurance and other insurances?
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There would be no real benefit. The money you pay for your car and home insurance premiums doesn't go in some account with your name on it. "This is Yolo20152016's unused insurance money" It goes towards the profit and operating costs of the insurance company. Most importantly It pays the claims of other people that also have insurance. Poof, it's gone.
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Why don't horsepower and torque correlate? ELI5
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Horsepower and torque do correlate. The formula for horsepower is: HP = (Torque * RPM) / 5252 (This assumes torque is measured in ft-lbs.) "Horsepower is torque corrected for RPM."
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What happens to all the extra food in shows like "MasterChef"?
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It depends on the show. Usually, the crews get first pick of the food. MasterChef specifically donates leftovers to OzHarvest, and many other shows have similar arrangements with charities. Iron Chef (the original one) would let the chefs take home food, so occasionally competitors would "accidentally" open packages containing expensive ingredients and then take them back to their restaurants.
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high-end celebrity endorsements
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Scale it down - would you help a friend move for a case of beer? What about helping a stranger move for $100? What about gardening? Or driving a friend around a city for the day? If you'd do that, why not become an Uber driver? We're all different. Some need the money, or at least think they do. Others see an opportunity to do something that looks fun. Sometimes, it's about asking at the right time - maybe someone at Nespresso met Clooney at a bar after a few drinks, and he thought it would be fun to say yes... and then it was so fun, he's committed to a few more.
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Why there are really absurd laws in different countries?
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There are really absurd laws here too. Most of them come from silly things, like a court case that boiled down to "I'm innocent because it's not illegal to walk your pet alligator on the sidewalk" so the guy gets off free, and they pass a law making that illegal so that defense won't work again. Usually started on a very small scale.
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What is a joke, how do you classify a “joke”?
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It sounds like she's doing fine figuring out jokes on her own, I think what's most important is your response. If she says something that you don't think counts as a joke just say something along the lines of "interesting but I don't quite think it's for me" Try explaining it as "a joke is something that catches you off guard to alleviate stress and worry"
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What is a Flexible Spending Account, and how can I take advantage of it?
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I'm going to assume you're talking about a medical flex spending account (though they often offer childcare ones too) offered to you by the company you're working at. If that's not the case, feel free to ignore me. These are accounts that you can send a certain portion of your money each paycheck into tax free. The trick is that this money can only be spent on certain things (Medical expenses or child care). The basic idea is that you don't pay taxes on money you spend on medical expenses. Flex spending accounts help you do this quickly and easily.
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My Almost 5 year old brother wants to know what the internet and a website IS
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The internet is a bunch of computers, wires and software all working together. Some computers do different kind of things. A website is a page that is written in a special language so people can show videos music write things and show cool applications. To get to a website we use a web browser that talks to computers that are especially made to find things(Servers) You can send this request by either typing in a websites address directly or using a search engine that will help you find it. That shouldn't be too hard to understand
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Why do different operating systems require different versions of the same software?
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Software developer here, There is a thing called a system call, and this is basically the program asking the operating system to perform some work, for example, reading data from a file. A program doesn't know how to do this, it's not part of its program to know what a hard drive is, or how different manufacturer hard drives work, or what a file system is - all that is abstracted away. Most operating systems offer a fairly standard complement of system calls, but there are minor variations and different conventions behind how they are called. The majority of the binary instructions in a program from one OS platform to the next will mostly be the same for a given hardware architecture, but program setup, tear down, and when the program has to reach outside itself for resources, these things are different between operating systems.
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Do air marshals really spend most of their time flying around in random planes? How are they assigned? Or is that just something for the movies?
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There are also other federal LEOs that have air marshal qualification/certification/status (e.g. FBI agents or DoD employees) who are used as kind of air marshal militia. Say a major holiday is coming up, they get a call/email and are told they can leave for X holiday early, go see some family, but they have to take 20 flights to get there and carry a gun. I have a relative who used to act in this role. He was a federal LEO, but had gotten air marshal qualified at some point. He'd randomly come visit for thanksgiving, xmas, 4th of july on short notice (a few days, maybe a week or two). We'd pick him up at the airport and he'd be strapping. Pretty crazy, but pretty smart. I mean, he was not your average federal LEO... more like walter from Big Lebowski. Fat older guy that worked as an administrator day to day, but yeah he was qual'd to pop a would-be terrorist if they tried anything. He did a career with the feds and only started acting in this role post 9/11. We also lived in a major city.
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What does our body use trace metals (eg: iron) for?
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Iron is used in haemoglobin, for binding oxygen in our erythrocytes (red blood cells). Magnesium is used as a regulator in hundreds of biological reactions in the body. They are mainly used to help other reactions either happen at all, or progress faster.
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Why do video game companies make games that you can't pause offline? Mainly zombies in black ops 3
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To make the game more tense. They could easily add pause, but but bring able to gets some people more immersed. Dark Souls did that to me.
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How is it that the distance between Earth and the moon can supposedly fit all of the planets, but pictures show the moon relatively close to Earth?
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[Well here's a picture of the Moon and Earth drawn to scale.](_URL_0_) Most of the picture is just black space, which is useful in situations like this where you want to gauge the distance between them, but for most illustrating purposes you usually just want to show the two bodies together with the moon slightly further away to represent orbit. Distances in space are *crazy.* [This is a map](_URL_1_) showing the distance of planets and moons in our solar system, scaled down so that the moon is displayed at a size of 1 pixel. Since that's the smallest a computer monitor can show, this website is the smallest map of the solar system that can be drawn at scale while still showing the moon. That's why we usually have to get a bit abstract with the pictures, because any scaled map of celestial bodies is going to be almost exclusively empty space.
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tea bags in the US politics
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There is a party in American politics called the [Tea Party](_URL_0_). Making fun of them by calling them tea bags tea baggers. I can elaborate on tea bagging if you want.
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how long does person have to be dead before it’s considered archaeology instead of grave robbing?
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It is not a matter of time, it is a matter of intent and legality. A graverobber illegal takes objects from graves to sell them. An archaeologist legally (usually) takes objects from graves to study them.
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What makes the Millennium problems so difficult?
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There are several different types of problem there. Like any problem the solution seems hard until someone figures it out the first time. Unless many people try and nobody comes upon the key. Then they get noticed, and in the case of the millennium prizes, they get collected together and publicized by people willing to pay just to know someone has solved them. More directly, it's usually a case of there not being the right kind of math invented to solve them yet. Which is another way of saying we can logically understand the question but we can't symbolically get from there to the answer. Until someone does. And then we add a course to graduate science or mathematics programs and move on to wondering why we can't solve the other problems so simply...
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What do Ant & Roach killers that kill on contact such as Ultra-Kill or Raid actually do to the ants?
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It is a matter of debate whether insects like ants feel 'pain' in the sense that we do. Their nervous systems are much simpler and, in a lot of cases, much more autonomic than ours. Cockroaches have [hairlike appendages on their bodies which act as sensors](_URL_0_) and detect air flow changes, alerting them to impending danger; the impulse to run moves directly from these sensors (called *cerci*) to their legs without traveling to their brains, which is why they're so fucking fast to zip out of the way of a shoe or newspaper. Flies and many other insects are similarly equipped. As others have explained, the sprays and foams act as nerve agents, disrupting the insects' nervous systems. What you are interpreting as "writhing in pain" is more likely just their nervous systems misfiring as they collapse.
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Whats the point of circumcision?
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This is an episode of Penn & Teller - Bullshit - Circumcision. _URL_0_
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Why do men get morning wood (even if they didn't have erotic dreams)?
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Morning wood (aka [nocturnal penile tumescence](_URL_0_)) occurs in healthy men 3-5 times a night regardless of what kind of dream they have. NPT is theorized to help prevent bed-wetting and stretch out the cavernosum muscles (what fills with blood to cause erection) to prevent erectile dysfunction.
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Why do movie/music/book critics revise their original rating of a particular film/album/book and give it a better score than they originally did?
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Sometimes it's hard to realise the true worth of a work after a single viewing, which is what the majority of journalists will see of a film before having to do a write up. They're working to a tight schedule, so often they'll watch it once and do a write-up on their initial response. Some films/albums/books need to be experienced a few times before being fully understood and appreciated. Also, some works are better when viewed in retrospect. The works of H.P. Lovecraft for instance, when they were released in the 20s, received next to no praise or appreciation simply because it was too different from the contemporary trends. These days, now that we can look at his work in a historical context without our judgement being clouded by current fads, he is regarded as a genius.
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Why does audio rapidly repeat itself when a computer crashes?
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At a high level, sound cards playback sound by reading digital data from a buffer and converting it into an analog signal to transmit to the speaker. When a normal stream of audio is being played back, its data is written into the buffer as a stream so there's no hops or skips - as the digital audio converter scans back and forth over the buffer, the buffer data is overwritten as its being played. If the audio controller crashes but the hardware is still going strong, it begins to simply replay what happened to be in the buffer at the point of the crash, causing the effect you describe. The audio will fully stop if the OS can catch the program going unresponsive and eject it from memory, which frees the audio controller.
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What is a magic eraser and why does it work?
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It's melamine foam, which is a really hard material made into a sponge. It's basically really fine sandpaper, so be careful what you clean with it (shiny things like mirrors or chrome will dull after a few uses).
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How is it that we are the most advanced species on the planet, yet our young take so long (much longer than most species) to be self-sufficient?
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That's just it. It takes a while to amass information and use it. An animal just does whatever comes natural, aka 'instinct'. But humans are taught and trained and learn and practice and... and... Layers and layers of information and training to get us to the point where we can actually achieve more than the previous generation. None of that comes easily, nor quickly. For to run, one must learn to walk. Apply that to any activity in life. Building. Theorizing. Testing. Proving. All these require layers of previous knowledge. For we are not animals, just here to eat and procreate. We are more than animals. But it takes practice to stay that way. Years of it.
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wtf is a 'noun clause'' and why would I use it?
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It's a dependent clause that acts as a noun. For example: "Whoever thought of that idea is a genius" The noun clause in that is "whoever thought of that idea" this entire phrase is subject of that sentence.
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When looking into a mirror the reflection is effected by my glasses. glasses on = far away objects are clear, glasses off = far away objects blurry. The image in the mirror is close to me so why does distance in the reflection matter?
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It's the difference between looking at a mirror, and looking at a TV. With a mirror, you are looking at the actual light waves coming from the distant object, so your eyes must focus distantly.
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Why are earthquakes with a high magnitude appearing frequently?
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They're not? Earthquake frequency has not noticeably increased. Here's [all 7.0+ earthquakes in the last 5 years](_URL_0_). They're pretty evenly spread over that time. Yeah, there were several big ones today, but random events clump up... it's the nature of randomness.
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What does one have to do to be able to make a subreddit
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You have to have a 30-day-old account and an (unknown) amount of positive karma. You basically have no karma at the moment, so I would say that you should comment on some threads to build it up.
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Can someone explain to me Quantum Mechanics/The string theory
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This question is better suited for /r/askscience (unless you're not at all interested in actually understanding QM at any level.) *"I'm not going to simplify it, I'm not gonna fake it. I'm not gonna tell you it's something like a ball bearing on a spring."* This was said by Richard Feynman during one of this introductory lectures to Quantum Electrodynamics, and there's a lot of truth to it. The thing is, no one understands QM in the sense that they can clearly picture what it is, and how it affects the world. Scientists understand it in terms of mathematics. By all means, it's not a bad question. Sure, you wont really understand QM from reading a Reddit post, but it's possible to get a general idea of what it entails. However, it's much better suited for /r/askscience, where legitimate scientists can answer the questions in a better way.
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How come this scan of the chromosomes are in multiple colors?
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False-color image. Its colored with the intent of making parts more easy to tell apart, to highlight certian features, etc. that would be unclear in just its normal color. Edit: here's a good example: _URL_0_ Normally it'd be very tricky to see which mountains were which sizes on a picture of Mars. but using false color it becomes obvious.
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Why are Gatling Guns called "Miniguns"?
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The "Mini" in the name is in comparison to designs that use a similar firing mechanism but larger shells, such as General Electric's earlier 20-millimeter M61 Vulcan, and "gun" for a caliber size smaller than that of a cannon, typically 20 mm and higher. "Minigun" refers to a specific model of weapon that General Electric originally produced, but the term "minigun" has popularly come to refer to any externally powered Gatling gun of rifle caliber. The term is also used to refer to guns of similar rates of fire and configuration regardless of power source and caliber.
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How The Geneva Convention relates to war crimes.
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The Geneva convention exists to stop war crimes. Lets say I was a nation, and I declared war on you. My troops massacre some civilians, or I use WMDs, The Geneva convention exists to stop that happening. Simply put, the Geneva convention exists to stop cruel or excessively damaging (on infrastructure and civilians), and guarantees Prisoners of war fair treatment. A war crime is when a nation's military breaks the rules laid out by the Geneva convention.
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Why is YouTube getting steadily worse?
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I'm sure there is someone who can explain it better but I'll try. Youtube uses DASH playback, it loads the video you watch in chunks. When you watch till a certain point, they will load the next chunk. What it does is save Youtube bandwidth so they won't waste it when you buffer the whole video but only watch part of it. At least, this is to my knowledge on how the new Youtube buffering works. What you can do is install Youtube Centre on your browser to disable DASH playback but you will be limited to a maximum video quality of 720p, which I find rather acceptable. That way, you can buffer the entire video then watch it, instead of having to pause and let the video load every few seconds when on a bad internet connection. I am no expert but this is what I could gather. I hope it helps!
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Why do balloons explode, there is a loud sound like gun shot?
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The air is under pressure in the balloon, because the skin of the balloon is tight. When it pops, the compressed air starts to expand. This generates a compression wave, what we call sound. Guns burn gunpowder in a confined space, and when the bullet leaves the barrel the pressure is released in a similar (though much louder) sound wave.
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Why are they still making cars with manually rolled up windows?
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They: * break less often * Are cheaper to fix/replace when they do break * Are cheaper to produce * Are cheaper to fit into a car Inexpensive maintainability isn't always the selling point car manufacturers go for, but it's certainly a selling point....
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Why do some job applications require a questionnaire with the same "strongly agree/disagree" questions that make me feel like they're all trick questions?
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They ask you the same questions in different ways to see if, after scoring, they were all answered the same way. "I don't lie" "It's always important to tell the truth" "If little Timmy asks if Santa is real, I tell him No" If you're not consistent, they score you lower.
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Why/how does covering a bomb with one's own body 'muffle' the explosion?
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The most deadly aspect of a grenade is the shrapnel, the metal case of the grenade that is sent flying away at high speed, essentially thousands of little sharp metallic bullets. Jumping on the grenade is going to cause most if not all of that shrapnel to get sent into you, if any does manage to make it through you it will likely be traveling at less than lethal speeds.
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is there a scientific explanation for homosexuality?
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Not really. There have been various hypothesis but none of them has stood the test of time. At this point in time (Western) society has accepted homosexuality as a "you are what you are", just like your skin colour and the colour of your hair. According to _URL_0_, searching for the cause of it is not a path we should take: If we find it a single cause in during development in the womb, then it's a birth defect and the choice of a (possible) gay/lesbian child becomes suddenly choice of the parent. If we find a cause after birth, then it's a learned habit and people are going to offer solutions for it. As a last, enjoy who you are and who you love. It's that part which counts.
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What causes that feeling in joints that makes you want to crack your neck? Why is cracking your neck so satisfying and addicting?
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Yo ho ho! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [Why does cracking / popping your back feel so good? ](_URL_4_) ^(_47 comments_) 1. [ELI5: Why does cracking your knuckles/back/neck feel good? ](_URL_7_) ^(_29 comments_) 1. [ELI5: why does cracking your neck and fingers feel so good? ](_URL_8_) ^(_4 comments_) 1. [ELI5: What cracking your neck actually does. ](_URL_1_) ^(_2 comments_) 1. [ELI5: What happens when you pop your neck and is it dangerous to do to yourself? ](_URL_5_) ^(_5 comments_) 1. [ELI5: What exactly happens when you "pop" your neck or any other body part? ](_URL_3_) ^(_26 comments_) 1. [ELI5:What happens when I crack my neck/back, and why does it give me relief? ](_URL_6_) ^(_2 comments_) 1. [ELI5: Why do we feel relief when we "crack" our knuckles/joints? ](_URL_0_) ^(_20 comments_) 1. [ELI5:What happens when I crack my neck? Why does it feel better than just stretching? Is it harmful or helpful?? ](_URL_2_) ^(_1 comment_)
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How did eunuchs urinate?
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Castration generally only removes the testicles, not the penis. So they would urinate the same way as any other man. In the odd case that the penis was removed, there would still be urethral opening that they'd pee out of sort of like a woman pees.
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Why do we get bored?
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I know you didn't ask for this, but [here](_URL_1_) is an emotion chart. I thought it was peculiar that boredom was described as a very mild form of disgust. At first I thought it was untrue, but the more i think about it, this chart is very accurate. I had never thought of boredom as a negative emotion, just kinda, you know, *boring*. But whenever you're bored you feel ever so slightly disgusted in the fact that you're wasting time and doing nothing entertaining or peoductive.
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Why doesn't reddit utilize 'search internet for this image' functionality to prevent numerous reposts of the same image?
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A) A lot of people like or don't mind reposts, as is evidenced by the shitload of upvotes they get. B) The people posting them often know that they're reposts. C) If you really think this needs to be done, you should be posting in /r/ideasfortheadmins/
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