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What exactly is REALLY going on in the American political scene right now?
We have a controversial president. He didn't win the popular vote but because he won the right states to win, he beat his opponent. Some argue that he's crass, sexist, and racist and doesn't know what he's doing. Some argue that he's incredibly smart. Some argue that he won because of Russian hacking. Some argue that he has secret ties with Russia that dictate his actions. Some argue that the Russian story is made up by his opponents.
Why our bodies are more sensitive to wind when we are wet.
We sweat to release heat from our body. Sweat evaporating takes heat with it. When we are wet, the water is taking heat from our body, too. As it evaporates, it cools us down. Wind removes heat as well, as it is almost always colder than our body. Wind plus water just removes far more heat than either alone. If you were to be in a cold bath and get out into hot wind, they would cancel out a bit, and as the water evaporated you would start to feel warmer. In a hot bath getting out into hot wind, you would immediately feel warmer.
Why can't I use my Canadian passport in America when I have dual American-Canadian citizenship?
Most countries don't recognize dual citizenship. They don't outright ban it, but they don't care what other countries think...first and foremost, you are their citizen. So to the US, you are an American, how Canada feels about you is irrelevant. Americans must enter the US with a US passport. It is probably true they just assumed you were a Canadian, and since it is easy for Canadians to get into the US, they didn't hassle you. You could revoke your US citizenship, but it probably isn't a great idea: * it is a lot of hassle * it could make it harder for you to enter the US * you would lose the automatic right to work in the US, which could eventually be a big deal to you
Why does it take Android OEMs so long to get new versions of Android to their phones?
One of the biggest parts of it is that every phone has a slightly different kernel (the core of the OS). Yes, it's all Android, but the specifics are tailored to that specific phone's hardware. If you took the version of Android running on your Galaxy S5 and tried to run it on my Nexus 4, for example, it wouldn't work. That's why every device on the [factory image download page](_URL_0_) has a separate link. Thus, carriers have to make sure that the new version of Android is running well enough on their specific devices to warrant a release. Top that with the fact that release testing is hard. I was a software quality assurance intern for a company and I release tested apps, which was tedious enough. I couldn't imagine testing the entire operating system :(
How does 'getting used' to spicy food actually work?
When you repeated eat spicy food you're over stimulating the receptors that sense heat. The receptors deactivate themselves so they can better handle the heat. It's kind of like having an annoying younger brother who you eventually just decide to start ignoring instead of dealing with.
Why can't we dispose of nuclear waste by putting on a subduction tectonic plate to sink it into the earth's core?
It would work. But the subduction plates move at the same rate that your toenails grow, or thereabouts. So it would take years and years and years for the waste to disappear. Years that highly radioactive/toxic material is sitting on the ocean floor, polluting the water and killing nearby organisms. Not to mention the difficulty in getting the waste there, which is not a tivial task. It would have to be placed carefully by professionals, as well as transported safely to the location by ship. It's sort of like saying, "why can't we fire radioactive waste into the sun?" We can. There is no meaningful amount of crap we can shoot into the sun that would make it care. It's just getting it there is enormously expensive and if a rocket explodes in the atmosphere or on the launch pad (which they still do, from time to time), it'd be an enormous mess.
Why are foods associated with times of the day?
Not scientific at all, just a possible observation. Imagine it's 1910. You don't own a refrigerator. When you wake up in the morning, what seems fastest? Going out to get eggs from the chicken coop, milking a cow, and eating some leftover bread (or even baking some fresh bread). Slaughtering a chicken, defeathering said chicken then roasting the chicken for several hours. It's likely certain foods became morning foods just because of their ease of access in the morning. Since people didn't exactly have refrigerators, everything had to be eaten fresh. Wake up, get some eggs from the chickens for breakfast, pull a few potatoes out of the celler, grab the milk from the porch and that's your breakfast. Run down to the store and get some cheese, stop at the bakery for some bread, run to the butcher and grab a roast for dinner start cooking at one, five hours later serve dinner leave just a bit left over and make a quick sandwich to throw in a lunch pail for the next day.
How does a Tesla vehicle "see" the car AHEAD OF the car in front of it?
> Taking this one step further, a Tesla will also be able to bounce the radar signal under a vehicle in front - using the radar pulse signature and photon time of flight to distinguish the signal - and still brake even when trailing a car that is opaque to both vision and radar. source: _URL_0_
Why the Xbox One included what was used in 4Chan's latest exploit
This particular set of instructions is not a single feature of the Xbox One, but the linking of a couple of features together to prouce an undesired outcome. Access to a developer console is rather common and whether they intended to leave this access in the shipped product is unclear to me. It can be useful to have lower-level access to the system to repair problems which might occur, so having a strange method of accessing it (to keep people from screwing things up) is not too uncommon. The rest of it is simply asking you to add a command to reboot the system into the boot process making it impossible to fully start your system (and thus fix the error). Just like how having the ability to delete files from your computer is good and having access to your system files can help an expert fix your computer is good, using your file deletion on your system files is generally not a good idea.
Why didn't the Nazis attack Switzerland?
For a bunch of reasons: * It would have been difficult to drag their tanks in there because Switzerland is, mostly, surrounded by mountains. Mountain fighting alone is pretty deadly but one of the major advantages that Germany had early in the war was the speed of their tank attacks. * Swiss had a conscription process so every man was a trained soldier with their weapons at home. * The Swiss had set up every bridge and tunnel to be destroyed in case of attack. * It's not a fun air war in Switzerland. Crossing the alps requires lighter loads. * There isn't a lot of military benefit in owning Switzerland. The Swiss really couldn't go on the offensive and Germany had all of the surrounding land. * By the time that the Germans were operationally ready to attack Switzerland they were already fighting on both sides of Europe. They really didn't want a launching site in the middle.
How am I able to make it home safely after being blackout drunk?
As your car gets older, you can expect certain things to stop working, but you don't know the order in which they'll stop working. If you car's brakes stop working, that's bad, you're not going anywhere. But if your headlights stop working, it's not going to prevent you from getting home. Being blackout drunk means the mechanism to create memories stopped working, but most other things were still functional. You just couldn't create a memory of what you did. Maybe you're quite functional in that state. It's possible your memory shuts off after fewer drinks than others, and it takes more drinks to shut off your ability to walk or stay awake.
why are there so many reports of incidents involving incompetent police officers, what does it take to become one?
we only hear about the bad ones. in reality there are FAR more good cops than bad
Difference between United Kingdom, Britain and England
So if you look at [this map](_URL_0_), you will see that England is pink, Scotland is blue, Wales is red, Northern Ireland is yellow, and the Republic of Ireland is green. The United Kingdom is a country made up of England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland. Great Britain is the island that contains England, Wales, and Scotland. Ireland is its own country.
why fingertips hurt for a few days after cutting nails a little too short
The top of your nail is dead, so it doesn't hurt to cut it. If you cut too short (to the quick) you cut the part of the nail that is alive (and grows the nail), this will result in pain and possibly bleeding.
How did they do those human transformations at the end of Michael Jackson's 'Black or White' music video?
They used "[Morphing](_URL_0_)" software to take 2 images, plotted out the similar parts of each (nose, eyes, mouth, etc...) and blended them from one to the other.
Why, when baking, do you have to add different ingredients at different times, using different techniques?
Cooking is just science that makes you poop.
What is the Purpose of the Pad Part of a Water Lily?
Since it's a plant, it needs to get energy from the sun to live (through photosynthesis). It's easier to do this on the surface than underwater, especially in murky waters like are often found in ponds and lakes.
Why have the majority of men in recent history preferred shorter hair then women?
Hair that is very short cannot be grabbed in battle, so that's why the military uses short hair, traditionally. You might be surprised how much influence the military has on fashion. I believe the modern business suit is a reflection of officer uniforms.
Why do bugs seem to fly in circles around one when out hiking, particularly around the head?
Generally, they are either attracted to the carbon dioxide you are exhaling or the body heat you are giving off. For flies, it's the CO2, mosquitoes seek body heat. And the head is usually the hottest part of your body, and it's usually exposed, especially in the type of weather that mosquitoes are an issue.
Why do YouTube comments' dislike button exist? What does it do?
It does literally nothing. In fact, if you dislike a comment then hit f5 and it won't even show that you hit the dislike button.
Why do people post questions here that could easily be googled?
Because googling it wouldn't get you an answer that is dumbed down and simplistic. It also wouldn't give you the opportunity to ask follow-up questions of the answerer if you still don't understand the concept.
What is a "non-member observer state", and what does this mean for Palestinians?
Its a half-way step to becoming a full-blown member of the UN. It is recognized as an official country (State), which means they get to send a representative to sit in and listen to the goings-on in the UN (Observer), but not cast any votes (Non-Member).
How do they take crystal clear pictures of jets going supersonic speeds?
Two methods in combination: very fast shutter speeds, like 1/1000 of a second or less -- I've taken pictures of helicopters this way where it doesn't look like the rotors are moving. Also, follow along with the plane as it moves. Any background trees or whatever will probably end up blurry, but the plane will be sharp. You'd use this approach for taking pictures of birds in flight as well. Good cameras also have auto-focus features that can adjust focus on objects that are moving toward or away from you.
(Serious) The thought process that leads doctors to choose to become proctologists, gynecologists or urologists.
I can think of three reason: 1) Money - If these positions pay more money, doctors will follow. 2) Demand - Perhaps a lot of doctors do not want want to be urologists and such. However, since fewer doctors take these jobs, these positions will more available. So the doctor has the choice to compete against 100 other doctors to be become a neurosurgeon, or can take the guaranteed gynecologist job. 3) Personal motivation - Some doctor specialize in certain areas due to personal reasons. A doctor might choose to become a cardiologist because his father died of heart failure. I'm sure this type of motivation might exist for gynecologists as well.
Why are movies all 1.5~2 hours long?
It's an average at which a compromise occurs between holding the audience's interest and attention and the feeling of getting value for money paid. Any longer and the brain starts thinking about doing other things; any shorter and the brain starts thinking it's been ripped off because it paid for a certain "duration" of entertainment. A half-hour flick isn't interesting enough to invest in a trip to the movie theater. Kids movies are usually shorter than adult drama features because younger audiences have less of an attention span and have a much greater sense of the passing of time (which is why rainy afternoons lasted forever and killed us with boredom as toddlers but we barely remember them passing as adults). All of this can be overridden if you are really into something that immerses you like a videogame, and it's more about averages than about individual watchers.
I don't have a lisp speech impediment but can mimic one if I try, why can't someone that has a lisp speech impediment do the same in regards to speaking without one?
Sometimes, the lisp is the result of the shape of the mouth and teeth. In such a case, you may as well say "I don't need a wheelchair, but I can still use one. Why can't disabled people just walk?" Often, though, it's psychological, and can be trained away by a speech therapist. That's why lisps are more common in children than adults.
how gas planets form differently than terrestrial planets
Two major theories: 1: They form much like rocky planets and infact have a rock or ice core. Basically they just form earlier when there's more gas in the disk around teh star. 2: They form kinda like stars in that you get clumps of denser gas in places which can pull more gas toward itself and so on. They just form late enough that there isn't enough mass available for them to become stars or brown dwarfs.
How does Walmart justify its employees costing taxpayers $6+ Billion in government assistance a year? How (why) do they get away with it?
Why does Walmart in particular need to be held responsible for the government assistance its employees use? Is Walmart is inherently more evil because they pay people similar wages/benefits as other retail stores simply because they're larger? What about food service giants or other industries which predominantly keep people on part time hours for barely livable wages? Essentially, I'm not clear on exactly what you want answered because I do not understand the premise of your question. They get away with it because the entire industry gets away with it and the alternative is not economically feasible.
Why do some fermented drinks need yeast, and some other drinks need yeast and bacteria (scoby)?
Fermentation with yeast and without bacteria is alcoholic fermentation, with bacteria lacto fermentation. Kombucha (scoby) isn't intended to be an alcoholic drink, although it does contain some alcohol. But if you want an alcoholic drink you would use yeast and not a scoby to ferment the sugar water. If you want a drink with probiotics you can use a Kombucha culture (scoby) or Kefir grains.
Why aren't more laws created or changed by grandfathering them in years or even decades from now?
Because a grandfathered in law can still be changed before it goes into effect. Sure, *now* it won't hit hard, but in 10 years when it's about to happen? People in Congress *then* are going to be de-elected if it actually goes into effect. So, they'll put it off, or scrap it. Besides that, setting a policy to happen in 30 years is frankly stupid. No one has any idea what the state of the world will be in 30 years, and whether that'd be a sensible policy at all at that point.
Lewy Bodies and Parkinson’s Disease
Basically, there's this region in the brain called *substantia nigra pars compacta*. This region is rich in dopaminergic neurons and is, roughly speaking, responsible for fine motor movement. Parkinson's disease happens when dopaminergic neurons on this part of the brain begin to commit apoptosis (cell suicide, so to speak). Lewy bodies are protein aggregates that develop inside nerve cells and displace normal cell function, and can promote apoptosis. They're also related to other neurological disorders.
How do cold chills work and why do they make people involuntarily spaz out for a second?
Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: What causes us to get those random cold chills? ](_URL_5_) 1. [ELI5: What are "chills" and why do we experience them? ](_URL_3_) 1. [ELI5: Why do people get an involuntary shiver, or chill, at seemingly random moments? ](_URL_2_) 1. [ELI5: Why do people get the shivers when there's a sudden significant temperature change? ](_URL_1_) 1. [ELI5:What is happening when someone gets the shivers? ](_URL_4_) 1. [ELI5: Why do we get "chills" when something extremely moving or pleasing happens? ](_URL_0_)
Why do bees die when they lose their stingers?
Most bees will never reproduce, so sacrificing their lives for the colony does not effect the evolution. When a stinger is left in its victim it causes greater pain and incentive to stay away from the colony, effecting the evolution.
How does my car radio pick up digital details (station, artist, song) on just FM reception?
The FM signal actually contains different parts separated from eachother and one of those is the [RDS or Radio Data System](_URL_1_) (regular wikipedia) used to send program information. [Here](_URL_0_) is an illustration of different parts of a FM signal. The green to the left if the mono signal, after that comes the pilot tone that tells the reciever it is a stereo transmission and then the stereo signal information followed by the RDS data. And the radio does know what to do with these different parts.
If we (the human race) somehow become immortal, aren't we basically dooming ourselves?
If we were to become immortal, there wouldn't be a need to adapt. If the end game of evolution is to create something that is able to survive as long as possible, then immortality would be the endgame.
why does hearing and balance happen in the same organ?
Evolution often creates the simplest system that works the most efficiently. In order to hear, your body has a complex series of physical reactions that happen in your ear transcribing sound waves. The last stage of this transcription, which converts the sound wave messages into neural signals, takes place in fluid-filled tubes deep in your inner ear. The reason that this is usable to find balance is that fluids are, when at rest, always level with the plane of gravity. For example, when you have water in a cup, and tilt the cup, the water remains level with the ground. Your inner ear uses the same property of fluids to create a sense of balance. Construction levels use the same property. This is why very loud sounds are disorienting to your sense of balance. When your inner ear is strongly disrupted, the fluids are moving in a way that doesn't actually reflect your body's position in relation to the ground.
Why are domestic or shorthaul flights in the USA/Canada so much more expensive that comparable distance air travel in Europe?
A main reason: more competition not only by other airlines but also trains, as Europe has a resonabley fine rail network including highspeed trains between mayor centers. Also you have to be carefull with airfare quotes as they often do not include various fees.
How do animators match up the characters' mouths with the voice actors' words?
They record the voices first, almost always. They time out the syllables by listening to the audio, and figuring out when each syllable hits what frame in the timeline. They then animate the mouth syllable at a time, and then fill in "half-way" drawings between the syllables, as necessary. In computer animation, it can be done similar to traditional animation, but they'd be changing the CG model rather than drawing. Conversely, they could use other techniques, such as motion capture or even automated systems that understand the sounds being made and match up the lips.
Why can't I tickle myself but can sexually stimulate myself?
Ticklish-ness is thought to be a warning system against spiders and insects that could present a bigger risk that their actual size/touch would indicate. This is why a light, unexpected touch causes an overreaction from the nervous system - tingles everywhere. Sex is different - it's not a reflex sensation, and is largely mental/hormonal in nature. Touch/friction is a huge component, but it's a conscious act rather than an involuntary warning system.
Why are movies able to break record sales in box office when the price of tickets are different from other movies before? Why are movies not based on the actual number of tickets sold to have a fair comparison?
Mostly because it doesn't sound as good. The movie that has sold the most tickets ever was Gone With the Wind (1939), followed by Star Wars (1975); ET (1982) or The Sound of Music (1965) (my two sources disagree on the order); and Titanic (1997) or Ten Commandments (1956) (another disagreement). If you look at recent movies, Star Wars: the Force Awakens is only 11th; Avatar was 14th when it came out (15th now), and The Phantom Menace was 16th when it came out (18th now). Sources: - _URL_1_ (sorts by tickets sold) - _URL_0_ (sorts by income adjusted for inflation).
Why is it really necessary to blur out product names on some shows?
There are quite a few different reasons why they'd block out the logo on a can of cola, for example, but there are 3 primary ones I can think of: A) They want to avoid conflict with companies whose advertisements run during the commercial break (ie Coke is a "sponsor" by running an ad during break, but a can be Pepsi is shown during the episode) B) They want to avoid legal action if the content of the show is potentially offensive and the company doesn't want their product associated with it. C) "There are no free lunches" - why show a character drinking a Coke during an episode for free when you can potentially get a brand to pay for product placement?
Why are there no national referendums in the United States like there are in other countries?
The US constitution simply does not have any procedures in place or allowance for a national referendum, so there isn't one. There have been amendments proposed to do just this, usually with a specific case in mind, but they have never gotten anywhere. This makes tremendous sense that the framers of the constitution specifically (intentionally or not) did not include a national referendum or any national votes into the constitution and laws. At the time, the US was still viewed as a collection of states who were sorta independent little countries, but agreed to have connections for the better of them all, but they were not really a unified country as today (this did not really happen until the Civil War). Having a national vote is a bit contrary to this, even the presidential election process was state based, not national.
Why can programmers write code easily but have difficulty reading it?
It's very easy to write code that is unreadable. Some programmers test every 15-30 lines or whatever of code, so they work on their own momentary memory of what is supposed to happen. On top of that some don't have a good sense of organization or how much responsibility to give one method or function or class. So you get 15k lines doing 70 jobs with variable names like "s++; doOtherStuff(s);" The programmer reads his own code 2 months later and asks himself "WTF is s???"
Why can't we move our toes independently like our fingers?
Human here: You can, it's just harder. Your fingers are easier to move because they have 3 bones connecting them to your hand but your foot only has 1. If you try hard enough you can move only 1 toe at a time. At least I can.
What is the financial benefit to EA for not selling games on Steam?
Valve takes a ~30% cut of every game sold on Steam. That 30% is a whole lot of money when you're settling millions of every game you put out. It's so much money that the expense of creating and maintaining your own distribution platform STILL saves you money.
Do you need to have some sort of condition for euthanasia/assisted suicide?
Well, the laws vary considerably based on where you're planning on doing it.
Why do human bodies build up tolerance to alcohol/drugs but not daily medications like antidepressants/cardiac​/etc meds?
I can't speak for the other meds, but you absolutely can build up a tolerance to antidepressants and painkillers and the like
We make leather from cows, sheep and pigs. Why not horses?
We can. A horsewhipping is not just an expression. The other animals are food animals. While horses are eaten, they were a delicacy for stone age people, horses are not meat animals the way the others are. The other hides are products of food production. Most likely an old horse is an old friend and just buried.
Why is it so much harder to read a phone when someone else is holding it, as opposed to when you are holding it yourself?
We can't hold our body completely still. When you're holding the phone yourself, it moves together with your body - your movement is synchronized with the phone's movement. When someone else holds the phone, that's no longer the case - the phone swings together with the other person's body, not with your's.
If 'white' and 'black' are politically correct terms for Caucasian and dark-skinned people, how come using 'yellow' and 'red' to describe Asians and Native Americans is considered offensive?
Because black was used less as a derogatory, and more as a descriptor, maybe? For the record, in social activism circles, the politically correct term to use is "people of color", or POC. Not "colored people", but you put the person first with "person of". Yellow and red as descriptors have also been used in more derogatory, objectifying ways than "black" and "white", if I'm right. Feel free to correct me.
Is "quark" really a nonce word?
It is a type of cheese, but the name likely comes from Late Middle High German. So it could have been a nonsense word *in English* at the time.
What happens to my iris when my pupil dilates? Where does it go? Does it compress? Is the pupil in front?? I must know!!
The pupil is the hole; that's like asking if a donut hole is on the front or the back of the donut. The iris is a muscular ring -- the "donut" -- which just gets "squished" into a thinner ring when the iris dilates, it's still there, it's just smaller, which causes the pupil to get bigger, because it's the hole in the middle.
why do humans love spicy food
The molecule that causes the sensation of spiciness is capsaicin, which binds to the nerves responsible for registering heat and more importantly pain. This causes these nerves to fire, making us feel these sensations. In response to pain, our bodies release endorphins, which help to nullify the pain and create a mildly pleasant feeling. It is likely that we are attracted to spicy foods for this reason, because it creates a mild euphoric sensation as a side effect of the pain. Of course, the pain response can override the numbing effect of the endorphins, so we have a certain threshold of tolerance, which can vary.
Why are so many people "excited" about the Fifty Shades of Grey movie if everyone seems to be (rightfully) making fun of the book?
There's two "everyone" out there. One is the "everyone" that makes fun of Justin Bieber, Nickleback and Twilight. The other is the "everyone" that throws money at that shit and makes it insanely popular.
How is it that Singapore, UK and the US found Nestle India's noodles safe to eat, but India found the opposite?
There's a possibility Nestle manufactures the noodles differently for exporting to countries which are more stringent with their checking. However, there's also the possibility that it was a shakedown by the government, possibly due to some bribe that Nestle refused to pay. That's the sorry state of politics around here.
Why are so many freekicks in professional football/soccer shot so badly?
Perfection is what they are going for. They are aiming for the very edge of the net, the furthest distance from the goal keeper because anything aimed in the middle of the net is easily going to be blocked. Being just a little bit off will cause their shot to miss the net but missing a little bit the other way is no different, as the shot goes to the goal keeper and is blocked. Same result, no score. A perfect shot is just out of the reach and still inside the net.
single camera vs multi camera setups for filming TV and movies
Multi-camera is often used in sitcoms. It's a cheaper way to shoot the show because you have multiple cameras filming things. Single camera is just what it sounds like -- just one camera. If you have a scene where you see three different camera perspectives, that means they re-positioned the camera for each perspective and redid the scene. Single camera results in a better product, because you can adjust the lighting and everything to make each shot look perfect. With multicamera, you have to have the entire set lit up so that it looks adequate for all cameras. So, with single camera you can get a lot more depth and detail in the shots. Of course, single camera takes longer to shoot, and time is money, so it's far more expensive.
Why do I hear so many radio ads for companies hiring truck drivers?
It's because truckers spend a lot of time on the radio The marketing ppl did a study and found out that truckers spend a lot of time on the radio so they put their ads targeting truckers on the radio The problem is that truckers don't listen to the radio, the radio they spend so much time on is their CB radios. Since truckers don't listen to the radio that has the ads that target them, they don't get to hear about all the jobs that the marketing ppl are advertising. Because of this mix-up, the jobs don't get filled and the ads keep running. And that is why you hear so many ads for companies hiring truck drivers.
What does a Master Sushi Chef to better/differently than a mediocre one
If you haven't seen it, I **strongly** recommend watching the documentary *Jiro Dreams of Sushi*
Is there a condition that causes temporary super normal hearing?
Any particular triggers? I get something like that occasionally, but usually in a situation like being in a very quiet house and trying not to wake people up.
What are the cultural and social reasons to throw a sexual bachelor/bachelorette party?
Most major events in life have some kind of celebration tied with them. The Bachelor/Bachelorette party is a celebration with your close friends as you are ending the period of time that you have a massive amount of time to hang out with them and transition into one where you have less as you will be spending that time with your newly formed family. If there is risk of infidelity then you are not mature enough to be married and you really shouldn't be be doing it. Also many if not most do not include sexual component. The most recent one that I was involved with we went camping for a weekend.
Would an object fully submerged in water be considered wet?
This is more of a philosophical question than a chemical one. What makes something "wet"? I'd say that objects that don't absorb water can't be wet, but surfaces with water on them are wet. So a caught fish can be wet (if it has not been dried), or a person can be wet, though when we say that we really mean their skin. However, the word loses its meaning when you describe something completely immersed in water. The quality of being submerged takes precedence over being wet.
Does it take more energy to heat things up or cool them down?
Assuming your question implies that heating things is raising them higher than the room temperature and cooling them down is lowering them from the room temperature. The second law of thermodynamics says that you cannot transfer heat from a cooler body to a hotter body without some additional work(energy) involved. So if you want to heat a body, you simply supply it with energy, but if you want to cool a body by the same temperature difference as the heated body, you'd have to first create a colder body to which heat could be transferred to and which would require higher energy transfer than in the heating case.
Why do commercial airlines rarely have accidents whereas private jets and planes are frequently involved in accidents?
Because the commercial airlines usually have the stricter training requirements, the higher cutoff point and their pilots fly even more regularly.
What are pressure points? Do they work like they do in movies? Can you really disable someone by tapping or pinching specific places?
Best I can tell they are nerve bundles, and yes you can. Generally, it's not a 'incapacitate' but rather can cause intense pain which most people react to. Some people you, can it fact hit them and they can take the pain.
Why do some drinks need foil seals bellow their caps and others don’t?
If you can open the lid/cap and replace it without out someone knowing, it needs a seal underneath. If the lid had a plastic piece that breaks, or you have to rip a wrapping to get to it, it doesn't need a seal underneath. It's all about whether you can detect tampering or not.
Why must our vote for president have to be private? Wouldn't E-voting be alot easier if we didn't care who saw?
The challenges with e-voting have nothing to do with preserving the secrecy of a voter's choice. Also the reason to protect that secrecy are very important. Being forced to reveal your vote can lead to voter intimidation which is disastrous for democracy. It might seem counter intuitive because so many people openly share their voting choices but just having the choice to keep it a secret is enough to prevent the kind of election rigging that happens all the time in dictatorship countries.
why is it bad to ask a woman's age?
Ask her if she knows what VHS is, if yes, she's old enough.
How do mail-in rebates work?
The benefit is the perception of a deal. Only a small percentage of the consumers follow through on. So many times a consumer will purchase something with a mail-in rebate and either be too lazy or forgetful to go through the steps of mailing it in. So, while the company has offered the money back to all, it only has to make good on that for a select few.
When scientist clone animal the clone is fully grown up or is it start as a baby and then grow up?
The animal starts as a baby. They aren't cloning the animal in the science fiction sense where they make an exact duplicate at the same age - what they're doing is creating a new animal embryo with the exact same genetic code as the one they're cloning. The result is that when it grows up, it's identical to the first one. Scientists have made embryonic clones of humans, which is to say, an embryo that has the same genetic makeup as an adult human subject, but this was more of a 'proof of concept' - there are no human clones walking around anywhere.
How do popular highways get backed up even though everyone is going in the same direction?
The volume of vehicles is the biggest issue. Only so many cars can travel on a given lane in a given time period before the car spacing is too close for the perceived comfort of the drivers. That gets compounded by lane merges, exits and entrances.
Why do numbers in digital clocks jiggle when we chew something crunchy?
The digits are multiplexed. That means that each is driven in turn at high brightness for 1/6 of the time. Then the next one is turned on and so forth. It isn't normally noticed but sudden movement causes the on/off cycles to be noticed as your eyes get a slightly different image position each time. Multiplexing is used to reduce the wiring needed. Without multiplexing, you would need 6x7 or 42 signals to drive the display. (six digits and seven segments/digit). With multiplexing only 6+7 or 13 signals are needed.
Why do Flights from NYC to China go North above Alaska then back down, rather than Bee line to China
Because that's the shorter route. Flat maps sometimes don't do a good job of representing a spherical earth, especially at the poles. If you look at a globe, you can easily see that this is true.
Why does tap water from the kitchen sink taste slightly different than tap water from the bathroom sink, despite having the same source?
First step is a blind taste test to see if the effect is real or only in your head. Get someone to fill two glasses, one filled from each source. Then see if you can identify which glass was from which source. If there is an effect, repeat it at other people's houses to make sure that it isnt your house's pipes specifically.
Scientists say by 2050 there will be up to a 30% increase in world population, causing a 70% increase in necessary food production. Why won't there be a proportional increase in required food?
Because there is a trend to move from grains and veg towards meat which require crops to be grown to fed to the animals before they can be turned into meat.
How is this new forged carbon stuff stronger than traditional carbon fiber?
Without going and reading about this 'stronger' typically means a specfic type of strength - how hard you have to pull on both ends to tear it. In which case an obvious example is plastic. Plastic polymers look like a heap of tangled worms at an atomic level, and this gives them much more of a specific type of strength than could be obtained by lining them all up. It's also responsible for the ability to bend back into the original strength, and I would suspect this forged carbon also has shape memory. In contrast -edit- graphite is composed of parallel sheets of perfectly aligned carbon atoms and it's very easy to sheer off a chip or cut it in half because the sheets of carbon don't attract each other as much as they attract atoms in the same sheet.
What is the benefit of "pre-purchasing" a game?
PC games: if the game is bought on Steam or some other DRM manager, the game is downloaded beforehand and installed, and the game is ready to be played the very minute it is released. Console games: games bought in store have the possibility of being sold out before you have the chance to buy itit, even if you go in on the release date. Youpre-purchased copy is added to the numbers ordered by the store, and your name is written on it, so it is not sold to anyone but you. In reality, and in most cases, the company will order plenty for release. Source - worked for EB Games AU. Never again.
Why do men have nipples
Its simple. The default human state is female, so when the fetus is in the womb, it starts developing as if it was a female, and builds nipples. Only later do male hormones kick in and build decidedly male structures. There is no real evolutionary advantage to NOT having nipples, and they don't cost that much to build, so natural selection has not selected against men having them.
Can someone explain to me who typically chooses the codenames for military operations?
General: Why are you requesting 100,000 pairs of green tights!? Acquisitions Officer: It's for Operation Peter Pan sir, and it's top secret. General: I like the cut of your jib sergeant... Approved!
Why do most cakes and dessert recipes call for eggs?
In a cake, eggs act as a leavening agent, thus making cake light and fluffy. In baked foods like cookies, muffins, etc, eggs add moisture and act as a binder. I don't eat eggs, so I always look for the eggless version of things. There are substitutes for eggs depending on what you are baking.
The relationship between Monks and beer
Monks need money, people like beer, beer making is a lot sitting around in silence, monks do a lot of sitting around in silence. It's a match made in heaven.
How does scam message stay open?
When you click the red X, you ask the program politely to close. It's supposed to be used so programs can clean up after themselves and save your work before they quit. Poorly behaved programs, like the scam messages, can just not close down when they receive the polite request. When you use "end task" through task manager (or through a "this program is not responding" message), your computer stops asking nicely. It just kicks it out the door and throws whatever the program was working on in the trash, which is why that will always work.
How can movies be remastered into HD when they were originally recorded in standard definition?
All "old" films are still saved on their original film reels. Film is actually extremely high quality and still better resolution than any current digital resolution. The original reels are scanned into computer files at a high resolution, nowadays probably at 4k , and the entire movie goes through the post-production process again using current techniques. Things like scratch removal (small scratches on the physical film), color correction, visual effects, etc. Stuff that just wasn't available 20+ years ago. This gives the movie that modern look that we all are used to.
Why do most foods taste completely different when hot or cold?
1/2 of the time we eat, what we smell usually helps us define what we taste. If the food is hot, naturally it’s scent would be more present opposed to being cold. Try pinching your nose when you eat. Not the same exact effect but close. Also, you know. Your brain and shit.
Are organs the same size for everyone or are they bigger for naturally bigger people and vise versa?
While there is some amount of variance, the average dimensions and weight of organs are the same throughout all of humanity according to a rough *height* metric. A 6'5" adult male would have about 30% larger lung size than a 5'10 adult male, assuming all other factors are "average". Fatter people will have heavier organs due to fat deposits, but the overall size of the organs won't change based on their current weight. A 5'10" fat person will have the same rough size/shape organs as a 5'10" anorexic, just with extra fat.
Why haven't we evolved to require less sleep?
Because that isn't how evolution works. Something we don't need anymore doesn't just go away as soon as we don't need it. Something better needs to come along to replace it. The people able to function on less work may be more successful in life, but it doesn't necessarily mean they will be able to reproduce better or more.
What actually is snot (nose mucus)?
Really glad you put nose mucus. I was baffled as to what this 'snot' concept was...
What is the difference between Smiley Smile (1967), Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE (2004), and The Smile Sessions (2011)?
Pet Sounds isn't like SMilE in the least. But...you'll probably end up liking it anyway. Go with The SMiLE Sessions. Pet Sounds is grounded in reality - SMiLE is a colorful fantasy trip. And hey. Try Sunflower. Also Friends.
Why words stop looking like words after you type them repeatedly.
_URL_0_ From what I can tell, your brain recognizes the same word over and over again and gets bored.
If it takes 3 hours for the sun to set in NY to LA, why doesn't the line of shadow move at 1000 mph?
I think you might be asking about the [**Solar Terminator**](_URL_0_) which does move across the Earth (at the equator) at about 1000 MPH, but due to the scattering of light in our atmosphere (the same reason you can see inside shadows and they are not completely black) the terminator line is not clearly visible on the surface of the Earth.
What is deconstructive criticism and it's role in group assessments?
It is when you just say things like "That's stupid and you're shit at everything" and it totally hurts morale and discourages people.
If the same animal with different fur color is considered a different species, why aren't humans classified as different species based on hair color or other varying traits?
Physical features have nothing to do with being a species. Being a part of the same species is defined as being able to breed and produce offspring that can then produce more offspring.
The EU's Immigration Policy. Can EU Members Travel Freely Without Being Documented?
There are two factors to this: The Schengen area: A political agreement between a bunch of European nations (most of which are in the EU) that borders are open and no special documentation is required to pass over them. You can drive from the southern tip of Spain to Finland without ever having to present a passport. The EU (And the EEA): All citizens with a EU or EEA nationality (with certain exceptions) can move, live and work in any of the other EU or EEA countries with *minimal* effort.
How is it possible to track down the owners of illegal websites?
Unless they mess up and do something silly and self identifying. That's especially easy if the FBI or whoever can compel the hosting service to give them access to the server and plant some things to try and weasel identifying information out of the connection. (Which, if you're using a browser without noscript, is quite likely to work.) Even with TOR you have to take a lot of additional steps to ensure anonymity.
How is point Nemo, a sea point which is the farthest from any land mass, calculated?
Here is how I would do it manually: For a start, much of the sea can be dismissed as a matter of course. E.g. the entire Mediterranean Sea is nearer to land than a point in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The next step would be to take a compass set at some set range (say 1000 miles) and draw outlines from prominent points - Western Australia or Hawaii for example. Point Nemo must be outside these lines. By increasing this in steps, the area where point Nemo can be decreases. Eventually you get down to a single point. You would need to use a globe for this method due to the inaccuracies in flat projections.
Why do cabbage leaves grow rolled up in a ball where they're guaranteed not to get any sunlight?
Cabbage are artificially selected and bred. The wild cabbage leaves are not not balled up like that. In fact the cabbage is the same plant as broccoli and cauliflower.
How are dogs bred for specific purposes?
Over generations breeders select for traits that make the dog better suited to a certain task. Your dog won't inherently know how to "rat", but will probably enjoy chasing small critters and he/she is physically suited to digging and pushing into small crevices/tunnels in which rodents may live.
How does Candy Crush recommend your next move?
This is haRd to answer because I don't have source code for it, but my guess is it does not know what is coming (this is easier to code, if it randomly picks instead of figuring out ahead of time) and it determines the "best" move by looking at all available legal moves and picking one by some method (likely the highest scoring move or, the easier way, the move closest to the bottom of the screen that is clearing a horizontal group)
why do car rental companies give you both sets of car keys attached to one keyring, where they can't be removed and used separately?
I feel like this is specific to the rental company you are using; cars I've rented have always given me two separate keychains :/
What is quantum tunneling?
Particles that shouldn't be able to go through stuff, go through stuff. It's like if you kept throwing a ball against a wall and eventually it just went right through it. It's sort of like a leak. See quantum mechanics is based on a concept that quantum particles exist in two different forms - a wave and a particle. So sometimes they're like hard balls and can't go through stuff while other times they're all wavy and shit so they can zoom through.