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Why cars like Toyotas cant look like Lamborghinis | [
"Because Lambos are form following function. \n\nTo put it another way, Lamborghinis are styled the way they are because of what they're designed to do. \n\nIf you want to build a car that goes from zero to fast in almost nothing flat you've got to put a huge engine into it and you've got to transfer a massive amount of power to the wheels using as little weight as possible.\n\nIf you want that same car to be able to go around tight corners in the Italian Alps at completely unreasonable speeds without flying off into space you need to put the engine smack dab in the middle of the vehicle, shove the passenger compartment forward, and muck about with the rest of the car to ensure that the balance isn't too terribly far off.\n\nIf you expect this thing to have any prayer of staying on the road at north of 150 miles per hour you need it to be low to the ground. A Lambo Gallardo is about 2 inches lower than a Camry is to the ground (and, as I understand it, when it's moving fast it's even lower).\n\nAll of that combines to make a car that has a very different kind of space available to it than a standard passenger sedan. The car must be lower, it will have a shorter hood, different transmission, and different weight distribution.\n\nAll of those things will force body designers to make certain decisions which someone designing a Toyota Camrey won't make.\n\nThen there's the market. Someone buying a Lambo will likely tolerate less leg room, lower head clearance, and limited trunk space if it means that the car performs better. People shop for different things when they're considering a family sedan versus a quarter-million-dollar super-car. As a result, Toyota can't get away with using all of its trunk space to house an engine and Lambo can afford to jack up the price by $10,000 to put in its characteristic doors. \n\nBut all that aside, it's marketing that really closes the deal.\n\nBecause when you're selling a super-car you're probably selling it to a wealthy guy who wants to spend his money on a sexy beast of a car: it has to **look** fast, exotic, and exciting. \n\nBut when you're selling a four-door family sedan you're selling it to a married guy and his wife. Fast, exotic, and exciting aren't selling points then; they're liabilities. Toyota wants people to look at a Camry and see \"safe,\" \"dependable,\" \"comfortable,\" and \"practical.\" A car that looks like a testosterone fueled star-fighter that runs on money isn't going to sell nearly as well to the audience their cars tend to target.\n\nBy the way, that's why lots of car companies own more than one car brand. Volkswagen, for example, is part of the same company that owns Audi (Luxury) and Bugatti (fast-sexy-supercars).",
"I believe body types are copyrighted or trademarked, so you can't just throw a lamborghini body on.\n\nAlso, the frame of the car would have to change, which means you'd be changing the seating, the engine mount, etc - and since the size of the space under the hood isn't the same, you'd be redesigning the engine also. \n\nNot to mention people buy Toyota for different reasons than they buy Lamborghini, aside from price. You have the Lamborghini to go fast on roads, show off your wealth, and make yourself attractive to the opposite sex. You have the Toyota to get the groceries, take the kids to school, and drive to work.",
"Supercars don't look awesome to everyone. The majority of the people who drive a Toyota Corolla wouldn't want to drive one. They're gaudy and flamboyant, annoying to get in and out of, have very little usable space. These are not the things that an average consumer wants.",
"There's a huge market in [body kits for the Pontiac Fiero](_URL_0_) that make it 'look like' a Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc.\n\nThey're not very popular."
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Why is it that even when I'm close to my router, i never have wifi speeds close to what I'm paying for on my internet plan? | [
"lets see\n\n1) Megabit vs Megabyte, 1 megabyte is 8 megabit, so if you have 10Mbps from your telco, you probobly have 1.25MBps\n\n2) Protocol overhead, the data dosnt go un a raw format, its usualy packaged in a protocol called TCP/IP which requires envalopes called \"packets\" with their own structure and inner detail, this usualy can take between 2 and 10% of your bandwidth. \n\n3) Wifi is very dependent on protocol used (A. B. G, N, AC...), interferance from local sources, sometimes some brands hate other brands and things like this. so for a perfect connection you would have to be on a \"clean channel\" (meaning no interference or anyone else using it), your antenna and equipment be 100% operational and your reciving device as well, using the same protocol and with a wifi standard that is able to provide speeds which are superior to the speed you get from a cabled connection. \n\n4) if you have a DSL connection, your distance from the nearest DSL exchange device where your line is plugged in (a DSLAM) will affect the connection, around 2/3 of a mile gives you 100% but from there you start to drop off, i use to live around 2 miles from the exchange and had around 45db of attunuation, my 20mbps ADSL2+ would end up being a 6mbps DSL link.",
"A common point of confusion for people when talking about internet speeds is that they are usually quoted in \"bits\" while the computer measures in \"bytes\". A bit is a single unit of binary information which is either a zero or a one. A byte is a standard functional unit of information composed of eight bits.\n\nAs a result the speed the computer will display will be 1/8th of that which your internet provider would be advertising. Obviously the provider prefers to advertise the bigger number and the only way you can tell the difference is by checking the units.",
"You could be faced with a multitude of reasons why. Do you get the speed you pay for when your computer is plugged in directly to the router? If that's the case, you need a better router that can handle the speed. \n\nIf you don't get the speed you pay for when directly plugged into the router, but you get the speed you pay for when directly plugged into the modem, you still have a bad router.\n\nIf you still don't get the speed you pay for when you're plugged directly into the modem, it's likely the fault of your ISP.\n\nMaybe, if your laptop/phone/etc is older, your wireless card in the machine isn't up to par to match the speeds (ac standard should allow you to top out). \n\nThere are a lot of factors going into this. I have gigabit and get the full tap through my router, but I also have a very nice router and my wireless devices can handle speeds that high. Maybe the situation for you has a broken link",
"There can be a couple of reasons.\n\n1) You're confusing mbps and MB/s. If you have 150mbps service, your maximum speed is going to be 18.75MB/s.\n\n2) Your router isn't capable of transmitting the full speed. If you have a B band router, the max speed is 11mbps. If you have a G band router, your max speed is 53mbps. Wireless N is 600-900mbps max. Wireless AC is up to 5300mbps.\n\n3) Your device that's on wireless isn't capable of receiving the full speed (see #2 above for speed limitations).\n\n4) There is signal degradation between the router and your device, preventing the top speed.\n\n5) Add in switches, hubs, cable lengths, wall and floor composition, data reflection, and other nearby wifi transmitters using the same channel range, and you can see major variances.",
"I think the one thing that many responses are missing is the key phrase \"I never have WIFI speeds...\" \n\n\nWifi is sent over radio waves to your computer, which is the key to why you may be having problems. If many routers are nearby and on the same frequency, or you or a neighbor are using a microwave, data transmission can be very spotty when sent over radio. This is especially bad if you are in an apartment setting, where 8+ people could all have their own wifi connections and be using microwaves at various times. And that is only in one building, nearby buildings could also cause interference! Even when you are feet from your router, you could still be receiving major interference from the many sources nearby. If many devices are trying to receive data from the same signal, you will have similar issues. For best speed over wifi, a single device needs to be connected to the router.\n\n\n So that's one of the major things, but the next major thing is that your router may be using a older transmission format which has a lower capped speed. Wireless-G has a max throughput of only 54 mbps (mega bits per second). These speeds are only reached if the router is practically in isolation with no other signals interfering. Wireless-N can a throughput of 600 - 900 mbps. So in order to receive better speed from your router, using N will help tremendously. In addition, a new format was recently developed called Wireless-AC, which is even faster and more reliable.\n\n\nThe takeaway from this is that wireless is a very variable (and sometimes unreliable) method of delivering internet. If you want max speed, you need a wired connection directly to your router. Only then can you really say that you are not receiving the speeds you are paying for. Speeds from internet companies are assuming you are using a wired direct connection to the modem. Its also important to note that most internet service providers do not guarantee the speeds you are paying for, but that is another topic entirely.",
"Surprised no one said this yet, bad/incompatible hardware. \n\nWhile yes the technology SHOULD be uniform it doesn't always work together. I had a WIFI USB Dongle, tested in the office and works fine, take it to a clients house, doesn't work, back in the office it does, tried it on a new computer again works in the office but not in the clients house. Took it to my home and same deal. \n\nOld laptop I had would get 3 Mbps even if it's touching the router, i swap out the Wifi card and now it's perfect.",
"Is the router wireless G or N? What about your pc's wireless card? What speeds are you expecting, and what are you getting? Wireless G is max 54mbps, so obviously you wouldn't get a full 100mbps if that's what you were expecting.",
"Do you have a dual band router? There is a large difference in 2.5 and 5Ghz bands. Or service is for 170Mbps, the 5Ghz band hits this easily where the 2.5Ghz band maxes out around 20 Mbps.",
"Because plans are advertised as \"Up To 250mbps\" and we need a law that says they have to advertise \"at least 250mbps\" and if they go under that speed, they have to refund you.",
"It depends on what wireless you're connecting to. B,G,N ?? B has the greatest range of the 3 but N carries more bandwidth. You are likely connected to a lower bandwidth WiFi connection",
"How are you testing it? Going to a website specifically for speed testing? If so, which one?"
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why didn't Bruce Jenner go to jail after the fatal car crash | [
"The investigation determined that it was an accident, not a criminal act. Sometimes shit just happens when people drive cars."
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Why does medical research need so much of donated money when pharmaceutical companies are super rich and can afford to do the research themselves? | [
"Pharmaceutical companies make drugs. They do not invent new surgical techniques, new equipment or new courses of treatment.\n\nEven in situations where the solution turns out to be different drugs, the reason pharmaceutical companies are super-rich in the first place is that they spend their money on those avenues best suited for a high return.\n\nErectile dysfunction drugs are high return. Curing obscure forms of cancer is not.",
"Because \"big pharma\" isn't one monolithic block, and even if it were, priorities are a thing. Companies exist to make money, so they're going to go for the easiest, biggest payback they can find. \n\nMedical research looking for donations is investigating things that don't fall in that \"easy and will make us rich\" bracket.",
"Because academic and industrial research are looking at very different things. A lot of academic research (like what I used to do) is \"basic science.\" It's focused on figuring out how life works and what is going wrong in diseases. It's absolutely critical to modern drug development, but in and of itself, unlikely to generate new treatments or valuable patents. Thus, academic research needs to seek funding from the government or private donors, in exchange for doing research for the benefit of humanity. \n\n Industry research is focused more on \"translational science.\" Industry takes the basic science done by academia and translates it into treatments. This process, including FDA trials, can be enormously expensive, and is not something academia can (or wants) to do. In exchange for taking these risks, industry can make substantial amounts of money."
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the evolutionary reasoning/theory behind menopause | [
"If we look at life as a game, we 'win' when we manage to pass on our genes to the next generation. The more we manage to do this, the higher our top score becomes. But, there is no use in passing on your genes if your children will die before they can reproduce. Especially for a species like humanity, where we have taken a quality over quantity approach to reproducing (we have relatively few children, but we put a lot of our resources into those children). So maybe it is better to say that you 'win' life when you have kids that have kids. \n\nNow as a woman gets older, her body deteriorates, including her eggs, meaning that kids that you have at an older age are less likely to survive to adulthood and be able to pass on their genes than kids you have at a young age. It still takes a lot of resources to create those children though. In a way you could see it as dumping resources into a bottomless pit that you get nothing out of. Lot of effort, but it doesn't work towards winning the game of life anymore.\n\nSo what a woman's body does, it shuts down the factory. It says, we are not going to put our effort into shovelling resources down a bottomless pit anymore without any pay off. Instead, we are going to put out efforts in making sure the kids we already have are more likely to have children so our genes can continue on. That is what the grandmother theory is: it is the idea that at some point in a woman's life, there is more evolutionary pay off to supporting her already existing kids over creating new kids that won't live long enough to have kids of their own."
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Are there gradual forms of depression or is it purely binary? | [
"As someone who is very depressed, it's gradual. Never binary. You have good days, you have bad days."
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How did popcorn become associated exclusively with watching movies? | [
"From the Smithsonian magazine: [Why Do We Eat Popcorn at the Movies?](_URL_0_)"
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How were the transatlantic network cables put in place? | [
"With a really big cable laying ship.\n\nThere's no need for weighing them down. The cables are quite heavy by themselves. If a cable breaks a specialty cable laying an maintenance ship goes out, finds the break, brings up the cable, and repairs it or splices in a new cable section.",
"[Modern Marvels] (_URL_0_) had a really good episode about this!",
"They lay them down by gradually unspooling them from the back of a specially designed ship. They sink to the ocean floor (yes all the way to the bottom, which may be miles) and stay there forever, unless a ship comes by dragging a hook to pull the cable back up for repair and then puts it down again.\n\nIn shallower water, rather than just dropping the cable, they drag a plow behind the ship that makes a trench and drops the cable into it, for protection."
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The difference between "Damnit", "Dammit", and "Damn it" | [
"\"Damn it\" is the proper spelling.\n\n\"Dammit\" is a colloquialism, showing how people tend to pronounce it as if it were one word.\n\n\"Damnit\" is a compromise between the two. I've rarely seen it spelled this way.\n\nAside from that, they all have the same meaning."
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When did lobsters become a hot food commodity for the wealthy when it used to be fed to slaves and servants? | [
"From what I understand, they used to be so plentiful that they could be gathered from the shore. When they had to start actually fishing for them their value increased because of the cost of traps, boats, and time."
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I am blind in one eye. Can you explain what 3D movies look like? | [
"In a person with normal sight, your brain can work out how far away something is because your two eyes see a different picture due to being a few inches apart.\n\nIf you are blind in one eye, I'd imagine (not being blind in one eye myself, I'm guessing a bit here) that if you move your head from side to side, you'd get a similar idea of how far away something is, because your brain works it out from how the picture changes as your head moves.\n\nWhen you watch a normal movie, you don't get this sense of distance, because both eyes see the same. Even if you move your head, both eyes see the same as each other.\n\nIn a 3D movie, each eye sees a different picture, so your brain can see distance - but only if you have sight in both eyes. But if you move your head, the picture doesn't change - your left eye sees the same picture, and your right eye sees the same picture.\n\nSo, if you're blind in one eye, you *won't* get a sense of distance by moving your head. But what a person with normal sight will see is similar to what you see when you move your head around outside the movie theatre.\n\nAs for wearing 3D glasses outside the movie theatre, they're like not-very-dark sunglasses. They work by filtering light depending on its polarisation, which is perhaps a subject for another thread - but the short version is that light waves normally \"wave\" in all directions. The glasses filter out all the waves except those in a certain direction - but what you end up seeing is exactly the same as normal only a bit dimmer."
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Last night I had a deep logical conversation with a character in my dream. How is this possible? | [
"Why would you presume it to be not possible? You are, presumably, capable of logic, and the 'you' and 'character' in your dream are manifested by you, so they are presumably capable of logic as well. The only means to measure the grasp of the logic is your own experience, so even if you have a poor grasp of logic, your poor grasp of logic doesn't necessarily permit you to evaluate the logic from the dream as being poor. And if you have a good grasp of logic, then there doesn't seem to be any particular reason why characters made up by you wouldn't also."
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Can I just fill up potholes? | [
"You can, but generally you are breaking a law. Or at least an ordinance.\n\nPlus, your patch *sucks* and will form another pothole shortly. DIY asphalt patching simply isn't capable of standing up to the sort of abuse that road get -- unless the person doing it themselves is a professional with professional-grade equipment.\n\nThe fastest way of getting it patched is to call the city/county and let them know there's a pothole there. If it's not reported, they'll never know it needs to be fixed.",
"Sure....But you will be accepting responsibility for any damage it causes in the future."
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Why is it when counting numbers teen comes after the number but every other number after that the number comes at the end ? | [
"The suffix [-teen](_URL_0_) originally meant \"ten more than\". So thirteen is 'ten more than three', fourteen is 'ten more than four', and so on.",
"Germans have it easiest. 15 fünfzehn means literally five-ten 25 fünf und zwanzig five-and-twenty. fünf und neunten is five and nine tens or 95 etc but from 30 to 90 is literally 3 tens, 4 tens etc dreiten, fierten, funften, sexten (pronounced zekstain lol, fail either way.)"
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When receiving a survey in regards to a customer service interaction, why is anything less than a perfect mark considered a complete and utter failure? | [
"There are a number of reasons for this, including the idea that \"world class\" or \"best-in-class\" customer service is a differentiator and source of competitive advantage. To that notion, anything less that \"mind-blowingly great\" can been seen as poor. Remember that customer service surveys assume - right or wrong - a comparison with other experiences. If a consumer believes that their experience was not perfect or better than everything else, that belief is predicated on recallable examples of better experiences. There's some psychology at work here.\n\nAlternatively, and this is the big one for me, consider the Pareto Principle - AKA the 80:20 rule. \nEighty percent of your criticism will come from 20 percent of your clientele; sixty-four percent of your criticism will come from four percent of your clientele. Does this mean that the large majority has different experiences? Probably not. In fact, they likely have the same experiences and do not bother to criticize the organization/experience. It is that vocal majority, offering criticism over the (seemingly) most trivial things which provides insight into actual performance, sends detailed feedback to the organization on how to drive experience improvements, and - if listened to - helps the service function avoid disruption. \n\nIn this sense, it is critical to take those slightly lower ratings as incredibly serious. When the vocal majority is informing an organization that its service model leaves something to be desired, it is actually doing the organization a favor. It is providing unvarnished feedback that the organization is sensitive to disruption and derailment if it does not improve its practices. Remember, the person filling out the survey is comparing the organization to an established condition, typically offered by an organization with, at the very least, the same general function. \n\nA four-out-of-five is telling the organization that there is some company, somewhere, that is measurably better in the surveyed realm. That is a threat to the organization under consideration and must be treated as such. After all, if you don't treat your customers right, someone else will.",
"They say there are no grey areas in customer service, or in sales; the experience is either positive, or negative."
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Why do so many African Americans have Welsh surnames? | [
"That former slaves took on their previous owners' surnames is a widespread myth: the one thing they didn't often do was to assume the names of their former oppressors. They usually named themselves after other famous Americans, especially those they regarded as heroes of the anti-slavery movement: thus African Americans called \"Brown\" are named not after the slave-owner Jerrett Brown, but the abolitionist John Brown.\n\nI don't know that Welsh surnames are particularly prevalent among black Americans. It's very difficult to judge, though, because the Welsh didn't have surnames until they were forced to adopt them by the English. As a result, the most common Welsh surname, Jones, is actually English in origin, and picked by many families simply because it was already a common surname in England. (In fact, the letter J is foreign to Welsh, used only for words borrowed from English.)\n\nLooking at [a list of the most common surnames among black Americans](_URL_0_), the first one that is undoubtedly Welsh in origin is Davis (referring to St David, the patron saint of Wales). That's an interesting one because the one Davis most closely connected with slavery is Jefferson Davis, who was a fierce advocate of slavery, so unless I'm missing something that does break the usual pattern. You have to go all the way down to the 38th most common, Evans, to find the next unambiguously Welsh name. Names like \"Williams\" and \"Thomas\" are *common* in Wales, but in origin they are English -- and in any case mean nothing more than \"son of William\" and \"son of Thomas\", so could simply have been chosen for that reason (alternatively, Thomas could refer to Thomas Jefferson). \"Davis\", of course, can also mean simply \"son of David\"."
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Isn't being a Nazi and being an American a conflict of interest? Didn't America fight against Nazis in WWII? Why are Nazis allowed to exist in America today if they weren't allowed here during WWII? | [
"In America we have very strong free speech laws which means that you can say whatever you want as long as you are not directly threatening someone. You can not ban a political opinion just because it it is deplorable, even if the whole country is against it. We fought Saddam Hussein too, it is not illigal to support him and what he stands for, again largely due to the first amendment of the U.S constitution which prohibits government from banning speech.",
"Nazism is a political ideology. In American culture, political ideologies are treated largely with a hands-off attitude, only being restricted when participants actively engage in actions that directly interfere with the rights and wellbeing of others (such as through attempted coercion, violence, or the illegal suppression of other political ideologies). They are \"allowed\" to exist as long as they don't engage in the aforementioned activities because the way American society is set up is to be quite tolerant to speech and beliefs even if they are widely believed to be negative overall. Note that America is one of the more tolerant western societies to these kind of political beliefs. For example, Germany has laws that specifically pertain to the violation of human dignity and thus restrict groups like neo-nazis solely on the basis of their dehumanizing beliefs.",
"During WWII the United States was at war with Nazi Germany. This is a different state of affairs from a country at peace. Freedom of Speech, and Association are an important part of our constitutionally guaranteed liberty. Just because most of us do not like them does not mean that they cannot organize.",
"America was never at war with \"national socialism\" they were at war with a Nation whose government/ruling party was the \"national socialists\". \n\nIf you banned any form of government you ever fought against you would have to ban a lot of stuff, such as representative democratic systems.",
"Youre allowed to believe whatever you want in the US. Freedom of speech is an important part of the constitution (and yes the government has opressed different groups of people at various times in our history), but there isn't a reason to disband a group of people based on their beliefs. You can protest, be hateful and a terrible person as long as you follow the law and don't hurt anyone."
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Why does sitting in a car or on a plane for over an hour without standing up put you at risk for blood clots, but laying in a bed for 8+ hours a night is perfectly okay? | [
"The main difference is that your legs are vertical in a car or plane. It takes a lot of effort to move blood from the legs to the heart, so there are little valves in the returning blood vessels to make sure that moving blood doesn't go back down when it stops moving.\n\nWhen you move your legs, the muscles help to squeeze the lower blood vessels and force the blood back up through the valves. Without the help of moving muscles, the blood hangs around and pools where it is. When you're lying down, your legs are at a similar height to your heart, so considerably less effort is required to pump blood back.\n\nWhich raises the question, why is pooled blood so bad?\n\nOur blood has a few checks and balances to make sure that blood flows properly -- the blood needs to stay liquid when it's in the body, but needs to lock up quickly (or clot) when it leaves the body. To get this to work, a clotting protein is always present in the blood, so that the blood can clot strait away when it needs to. Ordinarily, these clotting proteins are held in check by anti-clotting proteins (also in the blood). When a person bleeds, the anti-clotting proteins degrade, allowing the clotting proteins to do their work and clot the blood. The anti-clotting proteins naturally degrade in blood as well, but are usually replenished by the flow of blood through the body. Pooled blood is blood that is not being replenished properly by fresh blood, and after enough of the anti-clotting proteins degrade naturally, there's a high risk of a clot forming in the pooled blood.\n\nOnce you stand up and/or pump a few muscles, the clot gets pushed through the valves, up the body, through the heart, and gets wedged in a small blood vessel in the lungs. This blocks blood flow and causes a rapid unscheduled disassembly of the blood vessel as blood keeps entering in from the heart and having nowhere to go.",
"Reduced circulation is the main factor that increases the blood clot risk in this context.\n\n* For a person laying in bed the weight of the body is more evenly distributed across a larger surface. A person sitting in a seat has smaller contact area with greater weight applied to each contact area in addition to various pressure \"hot spots\". In the latter case the external compression forces have a greater chance to restrict blood flow in specific blood vessels thus reducing circulation in some part of the body (i.e. a \"sleeping leg\" effect and such).\n\n This effect might vary greatly depending on how well the seat matches your body. Of course, in an airplane you don't get much of a choice.\n\n* The body constantly changes its position while the person is sleeping in a regular bed. Sleeping people are not restrained to a single position, as is the case with sitting in a car or airplane seat. Sitting in a fairly restrained position results in prolonged restrictive effect on blood circulation in the same area of the body.\n\n This is the reason it is recommended to get out of the seat periodically during extended flights or drives.\n\n* Most people notice that the feet feel \"swollen\" after an extended period of time spent in sitting position (your own shoes might feel \"smaller\" after an extended flight). This is caused by gravity-induced fluid accumulation in motionless feet. That includes blood as well as other fluids. Depending on the severity of swelling (which varies greatly from person to person) it can also have restrictive impact on blood circulation.\n\n It might seem paradoxical at first, but drinking more fluids during flight can actually greatly alleviate this condition.\n\n* It is just harder to circulate blood in a vertical (or almost vertical) body than in a horizontal one. Feet are the parts of the body most distant from the \"pump\" - heart, which is why their position has a significant impact on the required circulation effort. (Basic fluid physics does not immediately explain this, since static head in a closed circulation system is supposed to be zero regardless of the position, but empirical evidence shows that the dependence is there, i.e. there are other factors involved.)\n\n The latter two are the reasons it is often recommended to rest with your feet slightly above your body after extended periods of sitting or walking.",
"Laying in a bed for 16+ hours a day will put you at risk for blood clots, along with numerous other maladies like bed sores. Big problem for patients that are confined to beds for extended periods.\n\nIt's just a matter of how long you're sitting around.",
"Due to gravity, when you sit down and don't move for long periods all the blood starts to pool in your feet. When you're lying down, it's spread more evenly throughout your whole body.",
"Gravity; it's harder for blood move up than horizontally.",
"Laying in a bed isn't much better. In fact, I had my first blood clot (pulmonary embolism) while I was sleeping. What happened for me was I was sleeping with my legs bent at the knee, and when I straightened my leg a blood clot broke free and traveled to my lungs. It felt like I was stabbed by an ice pick, and went to the ER, where they admitted me.\n\nThere are other risk factors which contributed in my case, which were a long car drive (14 hours in one day) and a sedentary lifestyle (desk job). Other risk factors include smoking (which negatively affects your blood flow), obesity, and some other stuff I forget.\n\nOne thing that no one mentioned, but my doctor told me, was that the soles of our feet act like blood pumps. So walking is literally helping to pump blood that pools in your feet and calves during the day.",
"Paramedic here, \n\nThe popleatal artery in the back of your knee can form clots after an extended period of time with constricted blood flow. The clot might be able to pass though the bent artery, or it might dislodge when you stand up. \n\nThere was once a girl who was left in an ER waiting room, with her legs folded under her, passed out drunk. 6 hours went by before the staff came to get her, but by that time her legs had both died from lack of oxygen due to lack of circulation. The legs were amputated.",
"Blood moves according to pressure. The veins are a low-pressure system so their flow can be easily overcome. Sitting upright makes the veins of your leg vertical, which increases the pressure necessary to move blood because it's fighting gravity. This pressure is large enough that these veins distend because their walls are thinner and weaker than arteries (because they function at low pressure). This opens the valves that normally prevent back flow of blood in the veins and the result is a vertical column of blood with very high pressure. That high pressure causes stasis of the blood, which lends to clot formation. This doesn't happen when you lie down because that return flow is largely unaffected by gravity.",
"Gravity. Blood pools in veins when sitting bc its hard for blood to go against gravity with the amount of pressure that's in veins.",
"I am in a car all day long. I have never heard this before. Am I going to die?",
"To add to some of the more complex responses here, I work in a hospital where patients are often bed-bound for days or even weeks at a time. If they are identified as high risk for blood clots, they are usually prescribed some type of anti-coagulant drug therapy (usually Lovenox or something similar) as well as devices called sequential compression devices (SCDs). These devices are a sleeve that go around each leg and pump air up and release it at varying rates. This essentially keeps the blood moving when patients aren't able to get up and move on their own. \n\nAll of this to say, being in bed can be JUST as dangerous, but the time it takes is much longer than one night of normal sleep.",
"Air travel is considered a \"weak risk factor\" in the whole scheme of things. Stronger risks include family history of dvt/pe, oral contraceptive pills, pregnancy, immobility of a lower extremity due to trauma / fracture, cancer, major medical illness or major surgery.\n\nAnd a large percentage of those with a travel related dvt or pe have a stronger risk PLUS the travel.\n\nAlso - these modest risks with travel occur mainly for flights over 8 hours, with some risk for flights 3-8 hrs as well.\n\n[Guideline on travel related dvt](_URL_0_)"
] |
Net Vertical Impulse with a drop jump AND a counter movement jump | [
"When the athlete drops 0.3m, he will land with a velocity.\n\nWhen the athlete jumps 0.45m, he has an initial velocity.\n\nWe seek the change in velocity first.\n\nWe know that position = velocity × time.\n\nWe know that position = acceleration × time × time\n\nAn athlete falling 0.3m will fall for:\n\n0.3 = 1/2 × 9.8 × time × time\n\n0.6 = 9.8 × time × time\n\n0.6/g = time × time\n\nSqrt(0.6/9.8) = time\n\nDuring which time, your athlete will accelerate:\n\n9.8 × time\n\nor \n\n9.8 × Sqrt(0.6/9.8)\n\nThat is how fast the athlete hits the ground.\n\nWhen the athlete jumps, he will leave the ground with a velocity sufficient to hit 0.45m. That is to say:\n\nUpward velocity - gravity's acceleration maxes at 0.45m\n\nGravity's acceleration will again be 1/2 × a × t × t\n\nSolving for t gives us sqrt(0.9/9.8) for the duration of the upward part of the jump, at which point, the athlete will have accelerated 9.8 × (0.9/9.8), giving you your starting velocity for the jump.\n\nSo, the total change in velocity from down to up is:\n\ngravity × sqrt(2 × distance down ÷ gravity) + gravity × sqrt(2 × distance up ÷ gravity)\n\nOr\n\ngravity × (sqrt(2×distance down÷gravity)+sqrt(2×distance up÷gravity))\n\nReduce as you see fit. Figure out the mass of your athlete, and solve your momentum.",
"Impulse is the change in momentum. The athlete begins with a velocity of sqrt(2*g*0.3) when she lands, and thus a momentum of msqrt(2*g*0.3). \n\nWhen she finishes falling, she will not be moving—her momentum will be 0. So there's one impulse.\n\nThen, in order to reach .45 m, she will need a velocity of sqrt(2*g*.45), and thus a corresponding momentum. That means another impulse. Her momentum must go from 0 to msqrt(2*g*.45)."
] |
The economics of C.H. Douglas' theory of Social Credit | [
"I've always struggled to understand social credit theory as well. Here in Alberta, Canada the social credit party formed the government for 34 years straight. They were a highly socially conservative christian party which left much of the social credit reforms unaddressed. For a time they issued \"prosperity credits\". These were essentially currency that decreased in value each week. They were designed to keep people from hoarding money during the great depression. They were extremely impractical at the time though and were barely used. The Socreds also tried to reform banking in the province, but I've never read how. It ultimately failed because a province doesn't have enough authority over banking practices to enact these changes.\n\nUltimately, from my interpretation, think of socialism as government programs funded by taxes, and social credit as laws that see workers paid a a minimum wage that they can live and grow with. It's goal wasn't financial equality so much as it was a guaranteed minimum standard from which people can flourish.\n\nI could be wrong though, my understanding is limited to the historical sentiments of one (failed) case study. Probably not the best perpective. Hope it lends a bit of insight at least, I'm probably going to look up more now."
] |
how does free shipping and handling work? | [
"There's still shipping and handling costs that are part of getting the product to your doorstop, but the company that's selling them pays for them and buries their costs in your product price.\n\nHere's the four cases for a $10-price product that costs the company $7 to make, with an extra $2 of cost for paying the delivery service and packaging up your product for delivery:\n\n* You pay a separate shipping and handling charge. The bill shows one $10 line for product cost, and a separate $2 line (or two lines) for shipping and handling fees. Profit = $3.\n\n* You pay no shipping and handling charges ever. The company's bill simply shows $12 on one line because they set the price at a level that covers shipping and handling ($10+$2) as part of their normal practice. Profit = $3.\n\n* They have a \"buy enough and you get free shipping and handling\". So you buy $100 worth of stuff to get the free shipping, which is more than you intended. The profit off the extra stuff you bought but otherwise wouldn't have bought covers the $2 cost to deliver that one item, and more. Profit = $1, but they sell a LOT more stuff.\n\n* They have a \"free shipping\" week. Again, a lot more sales are going to come in that week from people taking advantage, so the $2 of extra cost is just absorbed into all of the extra revenue that the sale creates. Profit = $1, but they sell a LOT more stuff."
] |
Why doesn't AAA kill all their useless perks and just make membership cheaper? | [
"Those discount deals don't cost AAA anything. In fact, they probably get paid by the partner companies: it's marketing (advertising) for the companies. AAA is essentially selling their customer list, and advertising directly to them.\n\nAnd of course, AAA gets a benefit as well, since their members feel they are getting something more for their membership fee."
] |
When astronauts are in space and they use trusters what are they trusting against to move forward? | [
"Thrusters don't work by thrusting \"against\" anything. They work based on the conservation of momentum. When you throw something in one direction, what remains has to move in the opposite direction for the momentum of the entire system to remain the same.\n\nImagine standing on a skating rink wearing ice skates and holding a bowling ball. Now throw the ball forward. That will cause you to slide backwards. That's not caused by the bowling ball pushing against anything; it's cause by the fact that, when you push against the bowling ball, you're pushing yourself backward just as much as you're pushing the bowling ball forward (Newton's 3nd law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction).\n\nRockets do the same thing, expect instead of one massive bowling ball being pushed slowly, it's trillions of low-mass molecules of burned fuel being pushed quickly.",
"They are not thrusting against anything to move forward. The force of the gases shooting out moves the vehicle in the opposite direction."
] |
why does an analog clock's second hand continue to move, but stay in the same position, when the batteries are low? | [
"It's not a feature, it's that the second hand requires a certain amount of force to be moved. If the motor running the clockwork doesn't have enough power to move the second hand all the way, it just keeps chugging ticking half seconds and falling back to its initial spot. \n\nThe reason it doesn't stop entirely is because it would cost more money to put in a device that figures out when the second hand isn't moving enough and stop the mechanism. It's not that they have enough juice to move the second hand, they don't. Just because you can lift 50lbs ten times doesn't mean you can lift 500lbs once."
] |
Magnetism allows objects to affect the velocity of other objects (pulling or repelling them). Where does the energy that creates that force exactly come from, since energy can't be created nor destroyed? | [
"In order to move the magnet and the thing it's pulling on to a place where they'll interact, you have to do work *against the magnetic field*. \nIf you put a bowling ball on top of a step ladder, you're doing work against the gravitational field. \nWhen the bowling ball rolls off and squashes a pumpkin or something, the energy comes from the work you expended putting the ball on top of the ladder. \n\nIt's the same thing with magnets. A magnet in a room has some potential energy with regards to all the magnetic things and fields in the universe. Physically moving the magnet to that place is like putting the ball on the ladder. \n\nHope this helps.",
"The energy comes from the potential energy the object has from its position relative to the magnet. For instance, if you pull a ball bearing with a magnet you're accelerating the ball bearing and increasing its kinetic energy, but you're also using up potential energy by moving it closer to the magnet. \n\n It's a lot more intuitive if you think about gravity first. If I lift a rock up a meter that takes energy because I'm fighting against gravity. However, the gravity isn't stealing the energy because I can get all of it back simply by letting the rock fall down a meter. By moving the rock upwards I'm adding potential energy to it and when the rock falls it is just converting this potential energy into kinetic energy. \n\nIts the same story with magnets, accelerating something with a magnet just means using energy that was already there, stored in the object's position relative to the magnet.",
"Credit goes to comments from when [a similar question was asked](_URL_0_).\n\n---\n\n[Here's a video of Richard Feynman trying to explain this](_URL_2_)\n\n > Magnetism is more or less at the bottom of our knowledge; it's fundamental.\n\n > Imagine if you're trying to learn more and more about how something works or what it is made of.\n\n > * What is this table made of? Wood\n* What is wood made of? Cells\n* What are cells made of? Molecules\n* What are molecules made of? Atoms and the forces that hold them together\n* What are atoms made of? Protons, neutrons, electrons and the forces that hold them together\n* What are protons made of? Quarks and the force that holds them together.\n\n > Eventually when you go small enough you get to the bottom, which either means we know it is the smallest thing or we don't know what is smaller.\n\n > As far as we know now, the bottom is made of a few fundamental particles and a couple fundamental forces. Magnetism is one of those forces.\n\n > Physicists actually know quite a bit about how they work, meaning what happens when you put particles and forces that interact with each other together (for example, see flabbergasted1's link on how particles and forces come together to make an \"everyday\" magnet). But nobody really knows why they work, or if that's even a meaningful question.\n\n \n\n > From the thread [IAmA Magnet Scientist, AMAA](_URL_1_).\n\n > Relevant LI12-ish part copy-pasted:\n\n > > You know how atoms have electrons? Do you remember how each of those electrons both orbits around the nucleus (think of the Earth rotating about the Sun every 365.25 days or so) and the electrons also have an intrinsic spin (think Earth rotating every 24 hours to make a complete day)? Well, in a magnetic material, the atom's electrons tend to line up their path with each other so they all spin in the same direction. What you also need to know is that any charged particle that moves will also create a magnetic field. If all of the electrons in a material are able to line up with each other, than their combined effect increases and so does the magnetic field that is created. These are how magnets operate.",
"The energy isn't created or destroyed, it's stored in the bond between the two magnetic objects. When the object accelerates and collides with the magnet, the same amount of energy that moved the object must be used to eventually separate it from the magnet. It's just like the example with the bowling ball and the ladder, only with magnetism, the \"ball\" falls before it is lifted onto the ladder and not after. A magnet is like a bowling ball that has already been placed onto the ladder, it's just waiting for something to align with so it can \"fall\".",
"Good question. I don't think the current answers explain it, it's really quite simple.\n\nThink of a battery; if you attach a battery to a lightbulb, the bulb will produce light until the battery runs out of energy. You can't get infinite energy out of that battery. However, you can recharge the battery, and it will once again supply energy for the bulb.\n\nMagnets are the same way; when they are far apart, they will want to be pulled back together. This process releases some energy. However, once the magnets are touching one another, there isn't any more energy to be released. As the magnets fall together, all of their potential energy is converted into kinetic energy (which ends up as sound, when they click back together, or heat).\n\nIf you pull the magnets apart again (which takes energy), you are basically \"charging them up\". You are giving them potential energy, the ability to get pulled back together by their interacting forces.\n\nThe important thing to note is that, in both scenarios, there's no way to get energy out for free. Whether you are charging a battery or pulling magnets apart, external energy is being added to the system.",
"Though not ELI5, it's kinda interesting to think of it in terms of base units, and to derive the Weber from these.\n\nAssuming you're familiar with F = m*a, we'll take that as our starting point - the Newton, which in base units is\n\nkg * m * s^-2 or alternatively kg * m/s^2\n\nThen we can get the unit of energy, the Joule, by saying W = F*d, giving\n\nkg * m^2 * s^-2 or alternatively kg * m^2/s^2\n\nThen we can say the Weber, the unit of magnetic flux, can be described as a Joule per Ampere, like so\n\nkg * m^2 * A^-1 * s^-2 or alternatively kg*m^2/A^-1*s^2\n\nProbably doesn't help explain things like, but it's interesting to see how magnetism relates to things like force and energy",
"One way to think about it is in terms of a rubber band. If a rubber band is stretched, it tries to return to a slack state by compressing itself. A physicist would explain this as 'seeking the low energy state'.\n\nMagnetism works pretty much the same way. Magnetism occurs because moving charges are out of alignment with other moving charges - and both sets of moving charges 'seek the low energy state'. The energy you get out of a system of misaligned moving charges is simply the energy that was put in by whatever misaligned them in the first place.",
"The several questions you guys posted were pretty good and complemented each other. Thanks a lot."
] |
Why is there a lot of ruckus over how America is moving from an industrial economy to a service economy? | [
"Industrial jobs, due to their more skilled nature, are more likely to have higher wages and worker's rights(unionization is easy when it's harder to replace workers), where as in a service oriented economy, workers are unskilled and easily replaced, allowing them to be paid as little as possible with fewer rights. Since workers in an industrial economy have more money and rights, they tend to have a better standard of living."
] |
Why are so many video/computer games not available in Australia? | [
"Cost. \n\nNot just physical costs like shipping, which can be mitigated with digital distribution, but international trade/licensing agreements come into play. For many non AAA titles, it may just not be financially viable to distribute there."
] |
What is the difference between a nightmare, a night terror and sleep paralysis? | [
"Nightmare = a scary dream you have while asleep.\n\nNight terror = a scary feeling you have that remains equally terrifying even after you wake up.\n\nSleep paralysis = a side effect of being asleep (now or seconds ago), in which your body doesn't respond to signals from your brain telling it to move."
] |
Why is the human tongue so strong? Evolutionarily, how did it develop that way? | [
"The tongue is something that often gets taken for granted. When you think about it, it is incredibly important for eating. It's main job (beyond speech) is to move food around in your mouth to the optimal teeth for chewing. Moving a piece of food from one side of your mouth to the other is not in itself very difficult, but when you are eating, your tongue is constantly doing this over and over. It takes a good amount of muscle to be able to do this constantly for long periods of time, so your tongue needs to be strong.\n\nIn terms of evolution, it can be put pretty simply: Ability to get food is a very strong evolutionary force. They stronger your tongue, the more, different types of food you can eat, which leads to more caloric intake, which gives you a small edge over others with weaker tongues. Over millions of years, evolution will select for individuals with stronger tongues."
] |
Where did the idea of people becoming angels when we die come from, considering that bibically angels are another species altogether? | [
"Its just misunderstanding. Because the origins of the angels is rarely discussed. Honestly most people never talk about those early parts of the bible that explain the angels place in things because its kind of embarrassing.. Like how angels would rape human women because seeing their hair made them super horny. It led to a hybrid race of giants! Yeah... That's where the whole women covering the hair thing comes from...\n\nI think this causes some discomfort in discussing them in any detail so people just make up their own shit about them. Basically angels exist to serve. They are tools for God like a screwdriver would be for a person. They rank lower in the heavenly hierarchy than humans so becoming an angel would actually be a step down for a human.",
"Biblically, there is no mention of people becoming angels. However, like Jesus becoming white and the image of angels as fat little cherub babies it comes from Renaissance art. Loved ones depicted as angels, saints depicted as angels, popes... you get the picture. And now fast forward to modern times and there is a whole selection of children's books and movies depicting deceased family members and even pets as angels.",
"They don't. Catholic upbringing, here. Being with the angels is as close as you get. They are a separate creation from man, without the benefit of free will. You cannot become an angel any more than you can become God. \n\nVarious faiths which have separated from the mother church may couch their elders as becoming angels when they ascend to heaven, but that is, frankly, blasphemy. \n\nHuman politics and the use of money may get a church to angel-ize someone, but that would be a bastardization of the original great gift to mankind, that of free will. An angel with free will is not an angel at all. The only one that has had such was Lucifer, and you remember what happened to him?",
"I'm not familiar with this concept of people becoming angels, so I'll tell you what I know from the \"Luther Church of the Missouri Synod\" (LCMS) perspective.\n\nAngels are indeed a different species altogether. They are in fact soldiers. They're job, so far as we know, is to defend heaven. There is no section of the bible, that I am familiar with, stating we are transformed into angels upon our death.",
"Nothing to do with bible based facts. It is a man made tradition people use to cope with loss, usually. Like someone who has a miscarriage calls her baby an \"Angel baby\". \n\nIt's funny as it is stated directly in the bible that when you die you are \"conscious of nothing\" and that the dead will be resurrected to a paradise earth. Never does it say you will become an angel. Crazy times, folks.",
"There is one verse that could have been misinterpreted to mean this.\n\nIn the Acts of the Apostles, there is a time when Peter is in prison and an angel breaks him out. The other apostles are having a prayer meeting for him, praying he gets out. There's a knock on the door and the servant girl answering tells them it's Peter. They say, \"That's impossible! He's in jail! That's why we're praying!\" When she insists it's him, they say, \"it is not him, it is his angel.\" One could read this as saying they thought he died in jail and it was just an apparition at the door. (Acts 12:15)",
"Saints are thought of as particularly holy people (generally dead ones). Because they are so holy, some doctrines think they have a hotline to God - their prayers are more likely to be granted. Angels, on the other hand, are not human. They carry out God's directions, including performing miracles. But both dead saints and angels are nebulous spiritual beings who are often credited for miracles, so it is easy to see why they get conflated.\n\nThat's the theology behind it as I understand it, at least.",
"While it may not have been invented by cartoons, the idea of people becoming angels was made more popular because, in cartoons like Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, characters that died became angels.",
"The Bible never says that when people die they automatically go to heaven or hell. The concept of hell is even a misunderstanding. \n\nEcclesiastes 9:5 says \"For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.\" \n\nThe idea that people die and go to heaven is a man-made idea. According to the original scriptures, only a select few people go to heaven.",
"It is a common American folk belief and is doctrine of the Mormon church (_URL_0_), which may be why it is common in America to think this (The Mormon church being based in the US). However, I do not know how common this idea is abroad. There are several TV shows and movies that have portrayed it as such. These are just the three I can think of off the top of my head. \n\nThe Messengers (2015) \nHeart and Souls (1993) \nAlmost an Angel (1990) \n\nIt may also be because angels are often portrayed as having very human appearances and personalities. See It's a Wonderful Life (1946). This tendency goes back as least as far as the Renaissance in Europe and probably further (_URL_1_). This is likely due to the difficulty of portraying something like an angel as simultaneously weird and beautiful, or trying to tell a moving story about a creature with few human personality traits. Several angels in the Bible were literally portrayed as looking like men.\n\nLacking greater clarification, one can understand why someone who is not steeped in theology might think these humanistic angels were once humans.\n\nTl;DR: They often look and act like humans in stories, and some people believe they were once humans. It is not a huge leap to make.",
"I'm not entirely sure but the glorification of the dead has been going on since forever. Notice how many people change how they refer to someone once that person has passed. It's as if they're afraid they'll be haunted if they don't speak well of the person.\n\nI find it interesting to consider what the bible has to say abut Lucifer. Supposedly he was the best and brightest angel and when he rebelled he took 1/3 of the angels with him from heaven. What if we're one of those 1/3 and this life is our chance to get back to heaven? \n\nPerhaps someone else in history thought the same and developed the idea that once you die, you get your wings.",
"The Bible talks about Angels, but it appears over time people have interpreted them differently. An Angel is considered to be a beautiful, happy being in Heaven, therefore it is easy to see why people would consider lost family/friends as Angels or 'with the Angels'."
] |
Why does hot water set stains in cloth? Why does cold water help get them out? | [
"When cloth fibers get hot they expand, thus allowing the contents of the stain to get deeper into the cloth. The the cloth fibers are cold they constrict, thus pushing the stain out of the fibers."
] |
How is all of our poop disposed of when it is flushed down the toilet? | [
"When I was about 16 I worked on a private school campus where they had their own little waste treatment place. \n\nThere was a swimming pool sized... pool that had three or four sections. The first section had the raw sewage water in it and was constantly churning. There were plastic things that separated the sections and were just high enough to let some of the water over into the next section. Each section was progressively cleaner than the previous one. We would spray water on the sides to prevent buildup and my boss would measure out chemicals like lime to break down the sewage. They also had screens on poles (like pool cleaners) that we would use to pull out bits that didn't break up. (It didn't look like poop or anything)\n\n\nBy the time it was in the last section, the water would be clear.\n\nI realize this isn't a definitive answer but it should give you a general idea of how it works on a small scale.\n\nOn a side note, One of my friends had just started working on the maintenance team with me and we were going to go help out at the sewer place. I convinced him that he would have to put a suit on and actually get into the pools to help clean them.",
"To add a little more detail:\nBacteria is added to the pool that can eat the organic (formerly living) material out of the poop. After awhile, the food like stuff is eaten out of the poop. Then new bacteria (anaerobic) is added to the next pool. This new bacteria will eat anything that wasn't eaten before. The anaerobic bacteria is used, because in the next pond, a lot of air is added to the pool, which kills all the bacteria. Then the water is sprayed over charcoal usually to filter out anything else. Finally the water is collected and pushed out into a nearby stream."
] |
Why do energy drinks come in metal cans instead of plastic bottles? | [
"Ever seen a Rockstar or Monster in a clear container? they look really nasty. i always thought that's why they're in cans.",
"I have only seen [NOS](_URL_0_) sold in plastic bottles.",
"to convince you to pay $3.99 for $0.05 worth of sugar water and caffeine.",
"In my country they're sold in glass or plastic bottles almost as much as cans."
] |
If you buy a $999 computer online during Tax-Free Weekend, are you exempt from taxes? | [
"Under Georgia law, you won't pay sales tax on a computer costing under $1000 during the tax holiday. So, you should be able to go in with $1000 in cash, buy a $999 computer and walk out with a dollar.",
"I assume you're most likely asking about the online part. States can only collect sales tax from a retailer if the retailer has a physical presence in the state. This means, for example, that if Amazon has a warehouse in Georgia, then Amazon is supposed to charge Georgia sales tax to Georgia residents for purchases made on Amazon. If Amazon doesn't have any physical presence in Georgia, then it doesn't need to collect sales tax.\n\nIf Razer doesn't have a physical presence in Georgia, then the issue is moot. If Razer does have a physical presence in Georgia and has to generally collect sales tax, then the sales tax holiday should apply and you should be exempt."
] |
Why does the iPhone make you delete so many pictures in order to take a new one? | [
"50 sounds like an awful lot but anyway, it's like this: when you take a picture the raw data is recorded from the sensor, this raw file is a shitload bigger than your standard jpeg. The phone processes the raw data, compresses it, saves it and then discards the raw file. Therefore you need a lot more memory space than just one jpeg to process the new one. If you have saved other data on your phone since taking the last picture, the more photos you will need to delete."
] |
why is everybody mad about the Sodastream issue, but not Victoria's Secret which manufactures garments in Israel? | [
"What's so bad about having something made in Israel?",
"Sodastream's factory is in the West Bank, not in Israel proper. Big, big difference."
] |
Why is a lot of human effort directed towards space exploration and colonizing different planets while no serious attempts are made at ocean colonization? | [
"It is harder to explore the bottom of the ocean than it is to explore space. It is far easier to protect from a vacuum than to protect from intense pressure."
] |
Why do people hunt rhinos for their horns? What do the horns have that you can't get elsewhere? | [
"As in, what do they physically have that makes them desirable? Nothing. The horns don't contain any special chemicals that make them valuable. They look cool though, so they can be used for decoration (which is terrible really because you could make something that looks like rhino horn without killing rhinos. But people want the real thing). In east asian countries, there's also a belief that rhino horn has healing properties, especially for erectile dysfunction, which unfortunately simply isn't true.",
"In certain Asian countries it is considered male enhancement",
"In certain countries (particularly China) their is a belief that rhino horns have certain properties valued in herbal medicine. Heing properties, or fertility - things like that. It happens with a lot of other animals too (shark fin soup, tiger penis, seahorses, etc).\n\nRhinos are hunted because many wealthy people will pay a lot of money for these horns. In many places where rhinos live, poorer people can earn a lot of money from just killing one rhino and selling its horn. Really, the people funding the poachers are the root of the issue, but the poachers themselves are still a big factor even though they can be so poor that killing a rhino would be very important for their income.",
"The horn are actually made of keratin (the substance of nails and hair) and are like massive face nails that can grow back of cut off above the base. It is just mumbo-jumbo BS that is the reason people want them.",
"From what I've read, a large part of the demand for rhino horn is traditional Eastern medicine and as a status symbol. (Not so much male enhancement)\n\n_URL_0_",
"Made from the same shit as fingernails and hair. Nothing special, just good old keratin.\n\nFor whatever reason, chewing your nails isn't hailed as a miracle cure by chinese 'doctors'."
] |
How do people find the most off the chart random glitches where you have to do a certain thing to do it in a video game? | [
"Some of them are on purpose due to knowledge of the code. For example, Ghandi in Civilization.\n\nIn short; in some game code, if you make a number go below zero, sometimes it will circle around to a very high number instead.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nSome are done by trying over and over. Playtesters don't just play games to see if they're fun, but to see if they can break the game or cheat this way. A playtester might be told to try to make the game mess up in a certain level, so the tester might try weird things: running backwards, jumping constantly, running into corners where the computer might mess up and make them fall through the ground, trying to do things the game wouldn't normally allow you to do. This can take a lot of time, but by knowing how the game is made, the tester can try to break the game certain ways.",
"Accidentally. Or, for the more serious individuals, they might examine the code itself and/or the memory of the computer. Some things are the result of methods and functions interacting in weird and unexpected ways."
] |
how is it that my cellphone gps can still show my live position on a map if I lose cell reception? | [
"GPS does not have anything to do with your cell reception its a seperate radio that communicates with GPS satellites. Your phone talks to at least 3 of them to pinpoint itself and tell you where you are. This is how you can have signal and no GPS and vice versa. \n\nYour phone can also use tower triangulation to figure out your location if need be.",
"Your GPS knows it's location based on delays in communication with satellites, not cell towers. The map that your position is marked on uses your cellular data to load that GPS information in a way that is meaningful to you. The map itself can be cached which means it's accessible without needing a live connection. This isn't as useful as caching something like music which is static because when you're moving the map must continually be updated."
] |
Why are companies like Walmart and Apple considered American when they are owned and operated from The British Virgin Isles, Luxembourg, etc? Also, why are their incomes shown in billions when the taxable income is millions? | [
"Because it's an American company hiding on that island so it doesn't have to pay taxes equal to its earnings.",
"Because their headquarters are in the US and that also where they are incorporated. \n\nWalmart's HQ is in Arkansas*. It is incorporated in Delaware. - Here is Walmart's 10-K filing showing this:\n_URL_0_\n\nApple's HQ is in California. It is incorporated in California. Apple's 10-K: _URL_1_ \n\nedit: as meramec786 pointed out. Walmart's HQ is in Arkansas.",
"* Apple is owned by its shareholders - many Americans and foreigners, as well as institutions which in turn are owned by shareholders or investors from all over the workd\n\n* apple was founded by Americans, employs many (probably mostly) Americans, us listed on an american exchange, and despite having offices all over the world, is \"considered\" anerican - importantly it owns subsidiaries incorporated elsewhere from the USA\n\n* these subsidiaries are companies in their own right - with one shareholder - the company listed as AAPL. Each of these companies makes its own independent profits\n\n* by carefully adjusting costs in each subsidiary, AAPL can ensure the subsidiaries incorporated in countries that charge the best tax rates end up making most of the profits. This way the parent company pays little tax overall because small countries such as BVI only need to charge a trivial tax rate to ensure its handful of citizens get a tax income windfall",
"They're owned and operated by Americans, which use tax shelters.\n\nI would guess the income is based on net and gross(before and after overhead, salaries, etc.) Not to mention the 9 million loopholes their legal teams find besides tax shelters.",
"Tax law is amazingly complex.\n\nTo make it ELI5 simple... Apple sold their patents to a company in Luxembourg. The company in luxembourg rents those patents to apple's different divisions around the world. In return for getting use use those patents the Luxembourg company is paid the majority of the profits from these global operations.\n\nThus all of apple's profits are earned in Luxembourg, where they are taxed very very lightly.\n\nYou might be pissed with apple for doing this. But really the problem is having a tax code that tries to tax corporations instead of people. Corporations can move, shift profits, etc. etc. etc. People live in one place and when money goes to them it goes to them. If you printed out all tax laws 90% of the bulk is to do with corporations and 10% for actual people."
] |
When you read news articles about global warming such as "The hottest year on record in 80 years!", why was it so hot 80 years ago? | [
"This year being really hot isn't necessarily indicative of global warming, an article with that title is being sensationalist. If the running average temperature over the last 10 years was getting continuously warmer, that would be a better indication of a trend.\n\nTemperature is affected by a lot of different things so their are years that are extra hot and years that are extra cold. It becomes a (potential) problem when their are a lot more hot years than cold years in a 10, or 50, or 100 year period."
] |
How is cape town in South Africa running out of water? | [
"Desalinization is energy intensive, so it's quite expensive. You see it a lot in places that have little water but are on the ocean, and there's lost of money -- like the Arabian peninsula.\n\nThe problem with Cape Town is that it's experiencing a drought, which is a *temporary* reduction in rainfall. Desalinization is a bad solution because it's very expensive, and then at some point the drought ends, and the people who built the desalinization plant (and still haven't made a profit yet) have to compete with -- get this -- **free water from the sky**.\n\nIt is a very bad business plan to sell something that falls out of the sky for free.",
"Not only is desalination very expensive, it only solves half the problem. Most water distribution systems rely on gravity, it rains uphill. water flows downhill and is diverted to where it is needed. Desalinated water winds up at sea level, which is as downhill as you can. You still need to find a way to transport that water uphill to a million thirsty people.",
"Desalinization is super expensive, both to build the plant and to run/maintain it (lots of energy to run, lots of salt to dispose of, parts that the salt wears out quickly). And because droughts are often shorter than the time to get approval, design, fund, build such a plant they aren't often built -- especially given the costs to run them and how that would impact the cost of water. Hard to get everybody on board for something that might take a decade and billions to build for a problem that could end the next rainy season."
] |
Why were revolvers created to generally have 6 shots? | [
"Ease of design, mostly. If you stack 7 circles in as close a shape possible, you get an hexagon with 2 on top, 3 in the middle, and 2 at the bottom. Use the centre as a rotating part, and you get 6 holes in a symmetrical way, without having to do weird complicated math.",
"It was the result of the best ratio of diameter of the cartridges in use at the time to the acceptable fatness and also expense of the gun.\n\nThe cartridges can only be placed around the perimeter or the cylinder, so you have to make it dramatically larger, heavier, and most importantly, more expensive and use more materials to make it hold more shots. There must be enough metal between each hole/chamber in the cylinder to contain the pressure of the powder going off so the gun doesn't blow up in your face. So adding more shots is a case of diminishing returns. There is nothing technically preventing anyone from doing it, and there wasn't even at the time. It's just impractical.\n\nIt's worth mentioning that not all revolvers were or are six shooters, either. Five is/was also common. Earlier \"pepperbox\" guns, the arguable precursor to revolvers, commonly held four. There were some small caliber revolvers at the time that held *more* shots as well, since the smaller diameter cartridges took up less space along the circumference of the cylinder.",
"Educated guess for a 5yo reddit child: I believe that the chosen caliber drives the design. Let's take a look at the boundary (extream) conditions and use between 20 & 2 bullets. Okay, grab your grapes and we will do this together.\n\nNot those grapes, the grapes in your lunchbox. Place 20 bullets (grapes) in a ring. Now place one grape in the middle for the central pivot. There is a lot of room in the middle! Much more than is needed.\n\nNow place two grapes side by side with one grape in between for the pivot. Now there is a lot of room around the ring. \n\nHow much room is on that ring? Room for 4 more bullets for a total of 6. \n\nCould there be 5 or 7, sure but from a machinists perspective, striking three equally spaced lines through a center point is much easier than 5 or 7 equally spaced lines. Durring the time of the iconic six shooter, machining was more difficult so anything that would save time/math was favorable. This leads us to a little history.\n\nHEY, pay attention you little shit!\n\nSamuel Colt was on the forefront of mass production, up to that point a firearm was made by a single worker/artisan start to finish. Due to advances in tolerancing, Colt could mass produce parts knowing that they would be a relatively close fit. This allowed for assembly by less skilled workers lowering costs and pushed revolvers into more hands.\n\nOkay, back to the design. In addition to holding the bullets, the cylinder is also the chamber where the ammunition fires so a certain amount of material is needed to contain the explosion.\n\nAlso, gearing is proportional to number of bullets and would be a thin ring about 1/4 bullet diameter which is why I chose a full grape rather than a raisin for the central pivot. And as I stated at the beginning, this is all reative to the caliber of the bullet as it can be scaled up or down. \n\nNow eat your grapes.\n\nEdit: Thank you kind stranger.",
"We don't use a base 10 system for measuring movement on a circle though. Revolvers are kind of clockwork devices. They require a precision in their design that is less complicated than the clocks I'm using as an analogy or the mechanisms of their more modern autoloader counterparts. Even the simplest of revolvers requires a gear calibrated to allow a cylinder to rotate enough to move the next round in between the barrel and the firing pin or \"hammer.\" You can see the complicated design of Samuel Colt's first revolving rifle [here.](_URL_0_) Other design concerns include the width of the round, the rod the cylinder moves around, and the amount of material needed to make sure the rod, cylinder, and frame can withstand multiple firings. All of that needs to fit onto a handle that will fit securely in the palm of your hand.\n\nEdited per editor's request.",
"Mostly convention based on experimentation. Designers tried all kinds of crazy things in the early 1800's until the sweet spot of 5 or 6 rounds was found. Theres a great youtube channel called \"forgotten weapons\" that chronicles some those very interesting ealry designs. \n\nIn general, more shots means a bigger cylinder, higher bore axis, and an overall heavier gun. There comes a point where people have trouble using it because of the size, weight and recoil characteristics.",
"Size and weight. A revolver cylinder would have to increase in diameter to add extra chambers and at some point it's just too much. Especially with larger bore rounds like say .44 and .45 calibre. Smith and Wesson managed to fit seven chambers into their 686 revolver, their smaller j-frame pocket guns use five round and the large n-frame like the trr8 have eight round chambers (all in .357). They also make a smaller 5 shot .44 mag and a regular size 10 shot .22.\n\nIt's all to do with the size of the gun, a fatter cylinder with extra chambers is more bulky and heavy",
"It's interesting you mention the 5 or 10. I don't know if that influenced the decision or not, as opposed to the size and weight considerations, but...early revolvers had 6 chambers, not necessarily shots. In most cases, one chamber was empty, giving you 5 shots and a safe place to lay the hammer.",
"Something that most people haven't addressed - maximizing area.\n\nA revolver cylinder is a circle by cross section, but if you think about it as more of a hexagon, you end up with a series of equilateral triangles. This means that circles - which the cross section of ammo also is, fits efficiently within them. The ammo size was functionally set.\n\nNow we can't maximize the entire area, originally there may have been some machining limitations but since the bullet is effectively fired from inside the cylinder chamber, it also needs to be tough enough to retain those forces so the wall of the chamber have to also be a certain size.\n\nHowever we could imagine trying to make revolvers with more chambers. As we add chambers, the interior angle of the section gets smaller to hold the width of a bullet and its required housing you have to move further from the center and the size of the entire construct gets much more unwieldy.\n\nI believe that because of these things, functionally 6 chambers is the point at which you don't have to make the cylinder much bigger than any previous numbers of chambers. I did some checking and there are plenty of other sizes made over time, but also it seems 6 was not immediately the standard. However there's enough advantages from an engineering standpoint, combined with 6 being pretty good from a number of shots standpoint for most of the realistic self defense needs, that I think people just settled on it.",
"Just seemed to work out that way as the best compromise between calibre, weight, size, etc. Other ones were made or tried, if you are a fan of the Forgotten Weapons channel Ian has covered [many revolvers](_URL_2_) with differing amounts of chambers, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12 and even a [ludicrous 20 shot one](_URL_2_).",
"It's a function of size, weight, caliber and chamber pressure. The chamber size, the overall cylinder size are factors and the chamber pressure is a factor because there must be adequate cylinder strength to keep it from exploding. \n\nAs the cylinder size increases, so does the gun's width and weight. \n\nContrary to the comments about 6 being the best number of rounds numerically, it's much more than that. \n\nFor example, I own a 10 shot revolver chambered in 22LR. This works because the chamber size for 22LR is much smaller as is the chamber pressure. There are 9 shot, 7 shot, 6 shot, 5 shot revolvers in 22LR. I believe the French made a 20 shot revolver but I don't know the caliber BUT it must have been small caliber or the gun would be huge. \n\nOn the other hand, I also own a 5 shot .357 magnum which has a a fairly high chamber pressure and caliber so you can't squeeze in many more rounds, 6 would likely be a good balance as the gun would get heavy or the cylinder would be too weak to be safe.",
"One of my favorite geometric coincidences here! (This is fun) Take 7 coins of the same size - 7 pennies, if you will. put one on the table, and arrange the other 6 in a circle touching and surrounding it. Perfect, eh? So, six shots is coincident with the order of the universe, and the setup of machinery.",
"There were 20 shot revolvers made. Google it. They had an inner and outer ring of chambers.\n\nI have a 5 shot revolver. 5 used to be quite common amongst small frame revolvers. Once you increase the frame size you can increase the cylinder size giving room for an extra bullet. Size and ability to be concealed is a factor for why the high capacity, large caliber revolvers fell out of favor.",
"There is nothing special about 6 shots, revolvers hold as many shots as can fit given the quality of steel the cylinder is made from and the size of the gun and bullets. \n\nNo one buying a gun for self defense has ever said they wanted fewer bullets and not more.",
"For the same reason that cell in a beehive are hexagons- that is the most efficient way to rotate holes (to put the bullets in) around a central shaft. Some revolvers have fewer in order to be smaller."
] |
Why is there a risk of a deformed child when brother and sister perfom incest? | [
"Basically, for some genetic defects, you need both parents to be carriers of that defect. If only one set of your genes (you have two idk how five you are) has the allele for this defect, you'll be a carrier but not show symptoms. So if there's a small chance of being a carrier, even if you're a carrier you're spouse probably isn't, so your kid should at worst be a carrier himself.\n\nIn the case of incest, if it turns out I'm a carrier, then it's highly probable my sibling is a carrier as well. So any genetic defects I'm carrying are way more likely to actually show up in my child.\n\nYou can look at it statistically: Say there's a 2% chance to have a giant head gene. So out of a random sample of the population, any couple has a .04% chance of both being carriers (2% * 2%) and making it possible that their kid will have a giant head. Now take a random incestuous couple. There's a 2% chance that one specific person will have it, and if one person has it there's a 25% chance their partner will have it. So with incestuous couples, there's now a .5% chance their child will have a giant head, which is a 1250% increase. \n\ntl;dr: Out of a random sample, there's a very low chance both members of a couple are both carriers for some defect. Out of random incestuous couples, the odds are much higher.",
"I don't think it's necessarily incest, but rather reproducing with someone that has a similar make up as you.\n\nIf you have a genetic defect and you reproduce with someone that has the defect, chances of your offspring getting it as well is very high. You want to reproduce with someone that doesn't have it so hopefully your child doesn't have it as well.\n\nIt just so happens that your siblings have almost the same genetic make up as you so if your family has a defect, the chances of your offspring have it, it is very high. If your family happens to be totally defect free, I don't think reproducing with your sibling will have any adverse effect.",
"Everyone carries defective genes, recessive genes that do not work properly. They are generally few and far between, and are made up for by a complementary dominant gene. The recessive useless one will be inherited from one of your parent, and the useful dominant from the other. Very rarely will both of your parents carry the same broken recessive genes, so everything works out OK because you get at least one good copy of everything you need.\n\nClosely related people are more likely to carry the same broken genes. So, if they reproduce together, they more likely to pass down a pair of broken genes to their offspring.\n\nThere is always the risk that unrelated people could, by chance, carry the same broken genes and have a deformed child, but the risk is less. After you get past the level of first cousins, the risk is close to nil. In fact, marrying first cousins is not unusual at all in many cultures. It can be risky after a couple of generations, though, when you start having people who are double-first cousins (on their father's side and mother's side) and the like.",
"Everyone's talking about genetics but skipping over one big point.\n\nFor (almost) every gene you have, there's 2 copies. One copy comes from your mother, one copy comes from your father.\n\nThere's two types of genes, dominant & recessive. A dominant gene \"works\" if there's one copy, regardless of what's on the other copy. A recessive gene only exhibits itself if *both* copies have the recessive gene.\n\nA lot of genetic problems tend to be recessive - if they were dominant, they wouldn't survive long enough to spread. Breeding with close family members makes it more likely that, if there's any dormant recessive genetic defects, a child would be born with two copies of a bad recessive gene."
] |
Why do white things turn yellow if they stay in light? | [
"It's not that they're white, it's that they're made of a type of plastic that, after prolong exposure to light, will degrade, becoming yellowed and brittle. UV is bad for that type of plastic, so the more time it spends in direct sunlight, the more it yellows.",
"Either ultraviolet rays from sunlight, or just oxygen in the atmosphere, or both, are bad for the white pigments included in many white objects, such as computer cases, paper, etc. In time, the white pigment degrades, and is less able to imbue the surface with a white color. The result is often a yellow-ish hue, although some kind of dirty gray is also possible."
] |
When dreaming, Why do we sometimes forget we are in one? How does our brain make it realistic? | [
"In some ways, you are living in an artificial simulation created by your brain at all times. Sometimes the simulation is based on information from your senses (like when you're awake and sober) and sometimes it's not. Noticing that you are in a dream requires you to realize that the reality that you are experiencing does not make sense. Some people train themselves to check if they are dreaming by using tricks like remembering to always look at their watch twice and make sure the time is consistent. Science doesn't really know how dreaming works, however. We barely know how being awake works, for that matter."
] |
If doctors prescribe medication, why do comercials for medication exist that are targeted toward patients? | [
"That's all about encouraging patients to ask for the drug by name, rather than the generic version. Brand awareness 101.",
"Just wanted to throw in that the U.S. and New Zealand are the only two western nations where these types of ads are legal.",
"Because a patient asks for a specific medication increasing the rate the medication gets prescribed. So the pharmacy companies get more money. Two scenarios. \n\nA patient walks in and says I have depression The doctor says, oh. Here are some things we can do that don't involved medication. The patient leaves and uses therapy to treat his depression and he gets better. The patient is happy and the doctor did his job and makes some money. \n\nOr\n\nA patient walk in and says I have depression. I saw a Comercial for Prozac and I want to try that. The doctor recommends other therapy but the patient wants Prozac. The doctor prescribes Prozac. The patient gets drugs the pharm company gets money and the doctor gets money. \n\n\nAlso. Pharmacy conpanies will give money to doctors to prescribe their pills.\n\n\nHope that helps.",
"Ads create demand. How many men would have opened up to their docs about sexual performance issues before all the ads for ED. An ED is psychologically so much nicer than having to actually say erectile dysfunction. I also agree with the other commenters thus far.",
"They want patients to ask for it at the doctors I think. I am British so seeing them when I moved to America was really strange. Only adverts for over the counter stuff like for hay fever exist there because the market is regulated for prescription drugs."
] |
the opioid epidemic | [
"* One of the earliest catchphrases for the more-or-less current opioid \"epidemic\" was \"hillbilly heroin\", the large supply of Oxycontin in Appalachia, which is a poorer region populated by many people who worked in the physically demanding job of coal mining. Poor ongoing healthcare combined with chronic orthopedic injuries among its population probably resulted in large-scale prescribing to this population as the only economical practical treatment option (versus major orthopedic surgery and long-term physical therapy for all). This likely was repeated among other populations sharing low incomes, poor long-term health care and high rates of significant illness either not easily solved or even solvable.\n* There have also been cycles in medicine of under-treating pain and anxiety, followed by over-treating pain and anxiety. AFAIK, they still haven't figured out why some people can get a prescription for opioids, use half and then forget about it in the medicine chest while for some others it becomes a rapid addiction, which I think feeds into the cycles of under/over treatment. At the peak of over treatment it becomes conventional wisdom that most get addicted easily, and under-treating becomes the norm. Under-treatment then gets studied and they find that people with serious pain who are given opioids generally don't get addicted, and doctors get encouraged to be more aggressive with pain management and the cycle starts up again.\n* I think historically doctors had patients they knew were addicted but could be more or less on a maintenance program, much like the current methadone/buprenorphine addiction treatments. My sense now is they are much less likely to do this now due to DEA monitoring of prescribing and other tracking laws.\n* I think prescription opioids are harder to get now than 10-20 years ago, and people who were pill abusers moved to heroin as the pill supplies became harder to obtain.\n\nMy general sense is that there was probably an over-prescription problem for very strong narcotic pills (Oxycontin in 30 or 60 mg doses) but not for low-dose opioids like the 5 mg oxycodone Percocets common with wisdom tooth extraction or other small procedures. The low dose pills were more common and more commonly abused, but efforts to combat abuse generally worked and reduced the supply diverted into the black market. People who had been abusing lower dose pills were now obtaining heroin instead, with all the chaos you might expect when going from predictable dosing to mystery powder dosing.\n\nI actually think that drug enforcement made the opioid problem worse, not better, which has sort of been the history of opioids in the US. Opium smoking was the preferred method of abuse in the US through the 1920s, despite heroin being legally available prior to 1915. US abusers only switched to heroin after significant effort went into stopping the import of raw opium. The trend generally seems to be that populations seem to generally prefer a weaker version of a substance and move to stronger versions only as weaker versions are made unavailable, and stronger versions are easier to traffic due to less bulk and higher effective concentrations.",
"Yes pharamacudical companies make lots of money off them, yes doctors are partially to blame for over prescribing, yes some doctors are continuing to prescribe them, and some stop and yes some people move to illegal avenues if their doctor believes their addicted and opts not to renew their prescription. \n\nOpioids are great pain reliever bad are very profitable for drug companies and always have been but a few decades ago the major drug companies managed to convince many doctors that they're perfectly safe to prescribe for just about any pain relief and as a first resort rather than a last resort as they probably should be. \n\nIt took a long time for doctors to realize that addiction was becoming a serious problem and not just something that happens to a few people every once in a while (which can be the case for just about anything).\n\nDrug companies still put a lot of money into convincing doctors they're perfectly safe and that the adiccitions levels aren't as high as they think they are. \n\nAnd once addicted, there are a lot of people who turn to illegal methods when their doctor won't prescribe it to them anymore or won't prescribe them a higher dosage.",
"Most of your questions boil down to the fact that opioids are commonly prescribed as a treatment for chronic pain, which is one of the main reasons there are so many pills in circulation. Opioids are incredibly effective at treating acute pain, such as pain following a surgery but aren't effective at treating chronic pain due to the long term side effects. The problem is, there really aren't any good alternatives for chronic pain treatment. \n\nDoctors are in a difficult position because pain is subjective. They don't really have a way of knowing how severe the chronic pain is. If it's debilitating, preventing someone from having a good night's sleep or impacting their performance at work, then they're expected to provide a solution for it. \n\nDoctor's aren't the only ones responsible for identifying people that have an opioid addiction either. Pharmacies share just as much responsibility because they act as the distributor. There's a lot of communication issues between pharmacies and doctors. Doctor's might prescribe opioids as a treatment for chronic pain, hoping that the pharmacy will step in if there's an addiction problem. Pharmacies might fill a prescription because a doctor wrote it, thinking the doctor already checked for signs of opioid addiction. It's a mess. \n\nPrescription opioids are a literal gateway drug. People prescribed opioids for chronic pain have a high risk of becoming addicted to the medication. As u/OperationMobocracy pointed out, opioids are one of the cheaper options for treating chronic pain among poor populations. There are a lot of reasons people might seek other opioids to get their fix, but if they need to obtain it illegally, it's easy to just switch to heroin. It's significantly cheaper and stronger than prescription opioids, which makes it very appealing to low income individuals. \n\nThe opioid epidemic has escalated lately due to heroin and counterfeit prescription opioids being cut with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, because it's cheap to manufacture and extremely potent. It's very easy to overdose on fentanyl, so people that switch to illegal sources of opioids might not know that their drugs are cut with fentanyl, which leads to overdoses.",
"[Most everything you want to know about, covered by a qualified doctor, explained well and with tons of sources.](_URL_0_) There are other videos on the matter (and tons of other health topics), including over-prescribing in general and big pharma. I highly recommend the channel."
] |
why everyone fled/hated Digg once v4 was implemented? | [
"Why I left, in a word, superusers. The way content was promoted was not even close to being democratic. This is a good read...\n\n_URL_0_\n\n > An ordinary user might post the most important story of the day on Tuesday and get three \"Diggs.\" But if MrBabyMan (King of the Digg Super Users) noticed the story on Friday and posted a duplicate link, it would be on the front page with 10,000 diggs in three hours"
] |
What happens in court if there is conflict between parents over homeschooling their child? | [
"Are the parents still married? In which case, do they want to get a divorce? Because this is how you get a divorce. A married person doesn't sue his spouse if he doesn't get his way. \n\nIt's impossible to say how it would go down. It really depends on a lot of circumstances: there will probably be a psychological evaluation which will have an impact on the ruling, and various state laws will have an influence as well.",
"Coming from a State that has passed a lot of anti-bullying laws lately, I would guess that the judge would listen the to child involved and make his/her decision based on the child's needs. The child's age would also be taken into consideration. Sad to think it would have to get that far.",
"In some states a court will appoint a \"child care expert\" who has a degree in some vague family studies area. The judge usually rubber stamps this \"experts\" opinion. Depending on the state, the \"expert's\" qualifications can even be seriously questionable. You also have to pay said expert thousands of dollars to make this serious life decision that you get little to zero say in.\n\nTL;DR: They fuck over your kids and make you foot the bill.\n\nYes, I am bitter. And I believe rightfully bitter.",
"If the parents are divorced, courts usually will decide in favor of the parent with primary custody as long as it is in the best interest of the child. \n\nIf they are still married, it's probable that the judge or mediator will ask to speak with the child at length to find the reason why it would be best to either switch to homeschooling or stay in public/private school which ever may be the case."
] |
What causes the earth's surface to spontaneously drop into sinkholes? | [
"It's caused by the surface collapsing into holes beneath the surface. It can be hard to determine the exact geology underlaying a site, and it's possible to simply not know about underground weak points that can eventually collapse into a sink hole.\n\nFlorida and some other parts of the South are really known for them; there are places where old salt mines have caved in and caused massive sinkholes, and Florida's geology is so cruddy to build on that you get sinkholes all the time down there."
] |
If downloading packets is random, how come videos stream in a sequence? | [
"Downloading packets only has a random latency, and probably a smaller random loss rate. The actual packets and their order isn't often randomized.\n\nThe packets contain serial numbers, so they can be put back in order. Video streams aren't real-time, the player buffers up enough packets before the video starts to keep the screen busy if there is an unlucky delay or retransmission. You see this when the connection is too bad as the stream stops with the \"buffering\" icon.",
"Downloading packets isn't random. The very basis of most connections is the fact that the packets are sequenced and must be sent and received in the correct order. If a recipient computer receives and out-of-sequence packet it sends a request for the correct packet in the sequence.",
"Downloading packets isn't random. They are sent and received in order. If a packet is missed the receiving client informs the other of the packet it is missing for re-transmission and your computer puts them back together,\n\nIn the case of video streams, they generally use a different protocol (UDP) which simply ignores dropped packets. A drop in a packets of a video stream will results in a choppy playback, but will continue on when the client begins receiving the video stream again.\n\nWhen you say packets come in at random are you referring specifically to something like torrents?"
] |
What did Google "invent" that made their search engine so much better than earlier search engines like Yahoo? | [
"[Page Rank](_URL_0_) which was a good process to decide which pages were important. Prior to that it was easy for a computer to find a lot of pages that had some keyword, but hard for them to tell which were useful (and this was exploited by a huge number of pages that had an enormous list of keywords hidden in white text or the header of the page). \n\nIn simple terms, page rank borrows information from humans (links between pages) to determine which pages are more useful than others.",
"While PageRank was important its also important to recognize many of the other factors that have lead to google's success including a focus on making websites that are responsive to users and A/B testing.\n\nFor instance look at all these search engines: _URL_3_\n\nAnd then look at _URL_3_. \n\nWhich do you think would be faster to load? Which would be most likely to show results in an easier to read fashion?\n\nSo google's success is both from having good results, but also making it easier to get to those good results (than having to navigate _URL_3_ type \"front pages to the internet\").",
"They applied a little known algorithm developed in 1976 by Gabriel Pinski and Francis Narin to rank scientific journals to web pages. They both were solving the same kind of problem, link analysis. In the case of scientific journals, it was based on the citations...\n\nTheir algorithm was far more effective than their competitors who had implemented simpler keyword lookups."
] |
How can water/liquids in pipes and hoses go straight up and defy gravity. | [
"You defy gravity every time you lift your arm. Your muscles can apply enough force to overcome gravity and make your arm lift. Defying gravity is really easy.\n\nAs for how the water in your pipes can do it, it's because of water towers. They pump a large amount of water into the air and let it gravity feed back down into the pipes that eventually lead to your house. Your pipes are lower and much smaller than the water tower, so it pushes the water through them.",
"My man Bernoulli knows this. From a equation he creatively named, the Bernoulli equation, he shows that there are 3 factors that have the stay the same in both sides of the fluids: pressure, height, and velocity. \n\nSay that pipe is U shaped, for simplicity. Bernoulli said the pressure, height, and velocity on one end of the pipe have to be the same on the other end of the pipe. In this case, assume that the other end of the pipe, the output, has no pressure. If you put in a large amount of pressure to the input of the pipe, and the other pipe has 0 pressure, then it must produce a velocity upwards until it reaches a certain height.\n\nHow does pressure have to relate to this? Because pressure can create a force (It's pressure multiplied by the cross sectional area). The pressure is proportional to the force, so the more pressure you apply, the stronger the force will be.\n\nI hope I didn't go too in depth. I don't know how to explain rudimentary fluid mechanics, I'm only good with numbers and equations sadly.",
"It gets pushed from the liquid behind it. I'm not sure what the mystery is here. Fluid pressure can push against gravity just like any other force. Do you question why you can lift objects up with your arms too?"
] |
How do people who specialize in computer forensics retrieve data on a hard drive that has been formatted or magnet wiped? | [
"Reformatting can be as simple as deleting the file system and rewriting it. That won’t delete any of the data, just remove knowledge of where it is. Secure formatting will rewrite all the bits and is not recoverable. \n\nMagnets generally aren’t strong enough to ruin a drive, those that are will do so by physically bending the case or disk. \n\nThe easiest way to securely delete a drive is to encrypt it and throw out the key.",
"This is becoming increasingly impossible.\n\nSSD drives store data through what I'm going to simplify as a \"floating gate transistor\". These transistors can hold a charge, like a wool blanket in winter. And they can hold that charge for a looooooooooong time, it can easily be a decade. When a drive writes data to this medium, it will do so in whole blocks of them at a time, typically 4 KiB. Even if you're only writing 1 byte to a file, a 4 KiB block is getting zeroed, and then your non-zero bits are \"pulled up\" to store a charge.\n\nThat said, when you blank a block, that data is gone forever and there is absolutely no way of recovering it at all. There is nothing \"residual\" forensics can pick up on.\n\nThe only reason that's not entirely true is that to preserve the lifetime of these gates, and for performance, the drive won't blank a block just because you deleted a file. The \"record\" of the file is what gets removed, and the data contained in that file is left abandoned until the drive reuses that block for something else, some other file. Until that block is reused, your old data is still there.\n\nAs for magnetic disk drives, the good ol' hard drive as we've all known it, same thing - the drive isn't going to do work it doesn't have to, and will simply abandon blocks and sectors on the platter until it needs that space, it only deletes the record of the file having existed.\n\nNow, with these drives, even if you overwrite the block, forensics may still be able to recover the data. This was far more true of old drives than drives of even a decade ago. I mean old drives, pre-2000. Older even. The way this is *theoretically* possible is because you have an electromagnetic head that physically moves over the surface of the platter and emits an electromagnetic field to change the magnetic polarity of the surface of that disk. It's not perfect, and there could be surface area outside the intended trace along that path that also had it's surface area polarized. You would need millions of dollars in equipment and specialists to read across the surface of the disk with high precision probes looking for this slop.\n\nThe problem is, there's only 3 ways to increase data density on magnetic disks - more platters, smaller write areas, and more tracks. Manufacturers are doing all 3. So now you're writing data more precise, and more data densely packed on the platter. It's getting too hard to find the magnetic slop between the tracks because there is almost no wasted space on a platter these days.\n\nI remember an open challenge of a drive that had one text file on it with a simple phrase. The file was deleted and overwritten with zeros in a single pass. The challenge would tell you exactly where on the disk to look for the file. All anyone had to do, to win a few thousand dollars, is take the drive and recover the phrase. It stood for years and no one would byte, because no one could do it. This was 2006-ish. I don't know if that specific challenge remains open, but I'm sure others do. It should be forever only \"theoretical\" that data off such a drive is somehow recoverable.\n\nMost forensics out there use publicly available and free data recovery tools. These programs look at the abandoned and empty spaces, especially of magnetic drives, to find abandoned bytes, and the algorithms employed are able to deduce which groups of bytes belong together and in what order, to reconstruct documents and pictures. Notice that even shitty encryption can foil top agencies like the NSA, who had to beg Apple for a means of unlocking a phone of some criminal suspect (they said no, and a 3rd party had a hack for that specific make model, and software version - they were able to charge whatever they wanted because they were the only ones who could have done it, and it was by complete happenstance).\n\nSo it's not hard to defeat, and these so called \"forensics\" are really just IT guys who know nothing more than how to type in a command. 99% of them are stopped dead in their tracks by the inherent behavior of new technology and good, basic security practices that are increasingly becoming the default.",
"When you delete files, they aren't actually deleted. The location where those files are become labeled as safe to overwrite. Until your computer actually saves something new over that location, the \"deleted\" files will remain.\n\nFormatting your hard drive doesn't completely\"delete\" the data either."
] |
How is the Brexit divorce bill being calculated? | [
"The figure the EU came up with is the cost of the Uk's membership up to 2020 plus any funding or financial agreements already pledged by the UK (note these might be agreements from years and maybe decades ago), around £100 billion. The EU then took any rebates owed to the UK into account to come to around £50 billion."
] |
Why is it important to have buffer states? | [
"Buffer states aren't always about marching armies. North Korea, for example, is a buffer between China and South Korea. It's not about keeping out the South Korean Army.\n\nIt's about keeping out the South Korean Economy. If poor rural Chinese had rich, urban, capitalist, democratic, South Koreans just across the Yalu river - the border might not be secure. The cost to secure such a border is quite expensive (if you consider what a US/Mexico wall might cost) and China's had its \"great wall\" experiment. A buffer country with almost no electricity, where they kill people they don't like, is a better border solution.",
"It is an insurance policy. \n\nBuffer states prevent war because they prevent border friction. \n\nNo sworn enemies arguing over who's tree that is, no arrests for espionage because some hiker got lost, no dead sheep floating downriver and poisoning someone. \n\nEvery little thing can be cause for contention, but if you put a neutral country in between, these things stop.",
"Not the most professional person to talk about this but I play alot of games in the stratagy/conquer genre(Antiyoy is a fun game for mobile, thought its worth the shoutout because bufferstates can be a major part of winning.\n\n**What is a buffer state:** Buffer states are states that tend to be caught in between two stronger states, a good example would be Russia and Germany with Poland, or Russia and China with Mongolia.\n\nAs for why they are useful: They essentially create a no man's land/standoff between two nations due to how the the geography of it works, say in the terms of Russia and Germany, if Germany wanted to invade Russia, they would have to go through Poland in order attack, this means you got two options:\n\n > **1)** Take over Poland, ultimately working in Russia's favour since your front line troops are tired from the war with Poland, the attrition has got to them, and the supply lines are weak, ultimately making them an easy target to take land from.\n\n > **2)** you get permission to travel across Poland(which would be unlikely since Russia could get pissed and plough through Poland just to get Germany), therefore your supply line will be much weaker having to travel across the country, not to mention you can't take too many troops otherwise Poland will get paranoid(this is normally the reason most countries don't allow it in the first place)\n\nSo ultimately since this is the problem for both sides, there is essentially an unwritten agreement not to declare war on the buffer state or the other country(The only real way to maybe-win would be to full on spearhead into the bufferstate and try to secure a standing army and strong supply line before the other country knows whats happened, but that requires an extreme excess in soldiers and resources to do)\n\n**How does this apply to modern day:** Rather than attrition being the major problem, nowadays its more to do with the supply line and stuff like fuel, Planes need fuel, Tanks need fuel, and Rockets need fuel, so its still the same problems of \"war exhaustion\" when you plough through the buffer state, only to come up to having to fight the other country(also it should be noted that soldiers are still the main element of an army today).\n\nSo all and all, its still the same reasons as before, just that its a new tint so to speak",
"Short version before the long version - strategic arms like ICBMs, Aircraft Carriers, and long range bombers make buffer states less effective in the past, but still are very important in limiting the number of options available to an aggressor.\n\nThey are still important in that they limit the number of options an aggressor can bring to bear. Take Russia and Ukraine (or Russia and any of the various Caucus Republics they've had conflicts with in the past 30 years or so). Because the two nations shared a land border, it was simple and straight forward to funnel ground troops and weaponry into the area to achieve their aims. By contrast, in Syria, most Russian involvement has been more limited, and primarily constrained to air strikes. It takes a significant amount of resources to move men and material around the globe. While that's not exactly the same rationale as that of a buffer state, the same logic applies. \n\nRussia can't really apply direct pressure against Germany without using strategic assets - which they could do, but would likely either take an longer, more expensive, and more intercept-prone route through the Baltic, or violate a neutral countries air space (Poland for example). ICBM's and other weapons that would leave the atmosphere can get around that, but their use would open up a can of worms much larger than violating Polish airspace. So all of the hundreds of Russian tanks and thousands of soldiers are less effective than they would be otherwise at indimidating Western Europe (one of several reasons NATO has expanded to the East since the Cold War.) Even if the Kremlin decided it was acceptable to launch an attack through a buffer state toward Germany, the added time it would take to reach the German frontier (along with active resistance by the Poles and other allies) would allow the German army to mobilize more quickly.\nThe same likewise holds true for the reverse - establishing a buffer with East Germany and Poland allowed the Soviets to enhance their defensive depth in the event of a Western attack.\nThe ability to effectively bypass this restriction is one of the reasons the US has been so strong since the end of World War II. All of the same difficulties face the US as they do other countries, but America's massive sea-lift capability, the power projection capabilities of its navy, and the global reach of its Air Force mean that the US can effectively conduct operations anywhere in the world (though at a cost measured in dollars, cents, and lives spent). At the moment, only the British and French field Navies remotely capable of the same (at a smaller scale), while those nations, plus Russia and China maintain strategic air and rocket forces to at least effect events well beyond their borders. Other nations have similar ballistic missile capabilities (or are seeking them), but their arsenals are relatively small, and less significant at a truly global scale."
] |
Why does a humidifier (water vapor) keep my skin from getting dry while simply splashing water on my skin does not? | [
"Your skin gets dry because it loses water to the air. Unless you keep your skin constantly wet, it will lose water to the dry air. A humidifier makes the air more moist, which makes it harder for your skin to lose water to it."
] |
why if you try to sleep when not very tired, you stay awake way longer than if you waited until you were more tired | [
"Pressure/stress and (possibly) lack of routine. Here there are a myriad of things working against you. The first could be lack of routine. If you get in a habit of doing specific things before you go to bed, that allow you to relax, it signals the body \"time to sleep now\". \n\nSecondly, pressure/stress. These go together. You have to get to sleep now. You have to be up early so you need to sleep now. Thats a harsh demand to put on a body trying to relax. Because you feel the pressure to go to sleep now, if you don't, you start to stress. Then thoughts like I only have X more hours of sleep I can get pop up. So you put more pressure on yourself to sleep. It becomes a cycle that can be hard to get out of.\n\nOn a side note, don't surf reddit if you can't sleep. It stimulates you enough to keep you from truly relaxing. \n\nThe best trick I have learned to get to sleep when I need that extra boost is to put on music without lyrics on a low volume. Then allow your mind to create a \"silent movie\" about what the music. This forces you to be in quite atmosphere. Takes your mind off of other pressures and helps you relax. Soon, you movie runs into your dream and you are waking up the next morning.\n\nHope this helps.",
"The answer is circadian rhythm. \n\nHow are circadian rhythms related to sleep?\n\n > Circadian rhythms are important in determining human sleep patterns. The body's master clock, or SCN, controls the production of melatonin, a hormone that makes you sleepy. Since it is located just above the optic nerves, which relay information from the eyes to the brain, the SCN receives information about incoming light. When there is less light—like at night—the SCN tells the brain to make more melatonin so you get drowsy.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nTLDR: your body operates on a 24 hour cycle. If you try and go to sleep earlier than normal you will probably have a difficult time falling asleep."
] |
why can't heat be converted to electricity in a closed system? | [
"Because in any closed system, entropy always increases. Assume a uniformly warm room. Turning some of the heat to electricity would now give you a warm area and a cold area, thus *decreasing* entropy (sorting things out rather than mixing them together).\n\nHowever, if your room includes a warm zone and a cold zone, you *certainly can* convert that difference into an electricity source, for example, powering a Stirling engine that runs a generator.",
"You can.\n\nThat's what a [thermoelectric generator](_URL_0_) does.\n\nYou'd technically have to only heat half the room to ensure a heat differential.\n\nOf course, you'll never be able to put back into the battery every bit that came out of it. Not even close. Terribly, terribly inefficient."
] |
What is the point of showing the 'tropic' lines on a globe or world map? | [
"These lines represent the northern- and southern-most points of the sun's \"travel\" in the skies. The sun would be overhead during one of the solstice's were you to stand on each line--the northern one in June, the southern one in December. In between these lines and the sun may appear overhead some months, north of the viewer some months, south of the viewer some months.\n\nBeyond those lines and the sun will be visible but never overhead.\n\n(The Arctic and Antarctic Circles are the 'opposites' of these, being the points beyond which the sun dissapears/is always 'up' at least part of the year).\n\nClimate tendencies usually follow these rough \"lines\""
] |
Does running vs walking an equal distance use the same amount of energy? | [
"It depends what you mean by \"energy\".\n\nRunning and walking a mile are both going to move the same mass the same distance, so in terms of physics, you did the same amount of work and expended the same amount of energy.\n\nIn terms of calories, running is going to usually go burn a few more for a given distance. Running uses energy a little less efficiently, especially if you run fast enough to get into the anaerobic range. At that point, your body isn't getting enough oxygen, and has to rely on a much less efficient process to convert glucose into ATP. \n\nOn the other hand, your body will burn a certain amount of calories each hour, 50-100, just being alive. This is kind of a calorie tax on anything you do, so if you were very fit and walked very slowly, the tax you pay might be more than what you save in efficiency.\n\nFinally, there is our perception of energy and fatigue. Your cells burn glucose for energy, and glycogen is your bodies main short-term energy reserve, as it can be readily converted into glucose. Usually, there is enough in the muscles to do whatever you need them to do. When that is exhausted, there is glycogen in the bloodstream that can replenish it. When that is exhaust, more is stored in the liver. And when that is exhausted, your body has to start converting fat into glucose. \n\nEach of those steps represented an additional level of fatigue, as your body has to replenish the various reserves as they are exhausted. That is why sprinting a mile will leave you feeling more tired than walking five miles, even though it used fewer calories. Walking burns calories slowly enough glycogen can be replenished as you go, while running will result in a deficit.",
"The short answer is: it depends on the speed at which you're moving.\n\nIt may be intuitive to think that running uses more energy to cover a given distance (\"I'm really exhausted after running, but breathing just slightly more than during rest after walking\"). But this is most likely because you're moving faster, requiring you to use the required amount of energy over a shorter time. \n\nSo what about if we run and walk at the same speed? Here it becomes obvious that walking is more efficient at very low speeds (essentially the difference between standing still and jogging in place). At higher speeds, having at least one foot on the ground at all times (which is how we typically define 'walking' for two-legged creatures) becomes a limiting constraint rather than a support.\n\nSo if walking is more efficient at low speeds and running is more efficient at high speeds, there must be some point in between where the two meet, and use the same amount of energy to propel you a certain distance. \n\nAccording to [this quora answer](_URL_0_), that occurs somewhere around a pace of 8 minutes per kilometer (or around 12 min 50 sec per mile), but this will likely vary largely on an individual basis.\n\nNow, the *optimal* travel speed for energy-distance-efficiency is interesting. Comparing this, you would have to include the energy passively spent by your bodily functions during the time spend covering the distance. The answer to that question is likely a function of the distance covered, as well as a number of individual factors. My personal guess is fairly low, but as it is entirely speculative, I'm leaving it out.\n\nTL;DR: Running is more efficient at high speeds, walking is more efficient at low speeds.\n\nTrue ELI5: Decide how fast you want to go, then do whatever feels best at that speed.",
"Further to the other good comments, running is a series of small jumps \\(as in both your feet are in the air\\), whereas in walking you usually have one foot on the ground. So when you run you're having to repeatedly propel your entire body mass into the air \\- the energy requirements are very different to walking.",
"In physics - yes. The difference in energy expenditure is that you can go more distance while running so walking and running during the same amount of _time_ will lead to more energy expenditure when running.\n\nBiologically - no. We are not ideal physics machine and running and walking use different muscles and biological mechanisms. Walking is more efficient. Running the same distance requires about 1,5x the energy of walking (sources; _URL_2_, _URL_2_)",
"Yes and no. Depends on a lot of factors. As another has pointed out, the simplest way in which the answer is that running burns more energy is if you run at a rate that your intake of oxygen cannot meet the oxygen demands of your body and muscles begin to use \"anaerobic respiration\" which is getting energy from glucose without using oxygen. Anaerobic respiration only yields 1/17 as much energy from the same glucose as does aerobic respiration (which is the consumption of glucose for energy using oxygen). So, once you pass into anaerobic, you are consuming much more glucose, and therefore, in a sense, you are \"using more energy\".\n\nIf you do not exceed the limits of your oxygen intake, the amount of glucose or other energy reserves in your body *should* be roughly equal.",
"Avoiding all of the energy based reasoning, You could simply look at video's of ultramarathon runners to get the answer, because they don't run. They move as fast they can at the highest efficiency they can, which leads to things like the \"young shuffle\".\n\nIf all modes of movement were at the same cost, they would just run and take breaks."
] |
What is going on with the US Secret Service | [
"It's likely mismanagement that is causing all of the commotion combined with the Internet putting everything in front of your face every single day. I'm sure there's always been some bad eggs in any organization. Previous management may have had a better grip on keeping issues in house. Having said that, any new secret service head that steps in should be in strict following of a less than zero tolerance policy meaning that even the implication of wrong doing of agents will result in their termination up to prosecution if necessary.",
"Mainly the latter. The SS runs in cycles. In the early 60s, they were every bit as lax and mismanaged as they are now. The JFK assassination was kind of a wakeup call, and they got their shit together for awhile, now they've been in decline since about the 90s or so.\n\nYou have to understand that, contrary to the carefully-propagated myth of them being \"the best of the best\" and so forth, they are really just average government employees with guns. The requirements to become a SS agent are a driver's license and a high school diploma. If you want to be a supervisor, you have to have a bachelor's degree (in any subject). Like every government agency, the guys at the top are only interested in their careers, and increasing their agency's budget and clout.\n\nThe madness wreaked on the government after 9/11 and the formation of the DHS has had a further toxic influence on any agency dealing with intelligence/security/law enforcement. The whole system is really seriously messed up now."
] |
Why does our perception of time disappear when we go to sleep? | [
"Our brains stop taking in external information when we sleep. Sleep also messes with memory, so we simply don't remember much of what happened. How much we take in and remember depends on the stage of sleep. If you're sleeping well and hitting REM/deep sleep, you won't remember much. If the quality of your sleep is poor and you spend much of the night in only early stages of sleep, you'll remember more and likely be quite aware of the passage of time.\n\nThe brain is still keep track of time in the sense that it is following its circadian rhythm.",
"It doesn't quite. Have been put under anesthesia and brought back up. It made time disappear in a really creepy way. And made me aware that even in sleep there is some part of my brain clocking the passing time.",
"Time is dilated dependent upon perspective. If one is awake, then the perception is of all stimuli. Time will also be dilated by certain factors within these stimuli, such as happiness and sadness. Negative emotions tend to create a longer, more drawn out time perception, while positive emotions tend to create the sensation of time moving quicker. I speculate that this is due to our lack of perception of details beyond our positivity; such that the tendency for positive emotion is subconsciously attributed to something of a flywheel. This fly wheel, when spun, allows us to hold onto and extrapolate the positive emotion and seems to blur the negative for a while. Negativity may work in a similar fashion, but rather than blurring the negative, it seems to blur the positive. Negative extrapolation is also more self driven and consciously forced, pushing us deeper into the detail of our woes. This extra detail in the extrapolation of negative emotions also dilates time perception. In short, time is dilated in tandem with the increase of conscious stimuli."
] |
Game Show questions for TV watchers | [
"The most likely reason is that if they didn't have a question, it would be considered gambling, and they'd need a gambling license. By having a question, it's not gambling, it's a competition. I have no idea about the law in Germany, but that's true in many countries."
] |
Juggalos | [
"Alright, real answer, trying not to be derisive even though they make it difficult.\n\nJuggalos are fans of Insane Clown Posse, a rap-rock group that's kind of like what would happen if you crossed Marilyn Manson with Lil Wayne and then poured in a container of bleach and some extra chromosomes scraped off the floor of a high school gym. They are for the most part blue collar [if they can afford a collar] and not too well educated.\n\nIt appeals to people who don't fit in, similar to any number of musical acts that provide outreach to listeners feeling ostracized however they also emphasize a style that encourages listeners to dress like trailer park goth clowns which in turn makes their listeners look ridiculous and be further ridiculed and therefore more likely to find solace with other goth-trailerclowns since most other self respecting goths, trailer park dwellers or clowns think that they look fucking ridiculous. This reinforces a sense of community or, as they put it, family.\n\nTogether they meet at gatherings and concerts and for that brief, shining, chemically-altered moment get to be with people like them before going back to whatever dismal life they have polishing the floors of CVS after midnight, raising their five year old daughter while waiting to be old enough to learn how to drive or managing hedge funds for Goldman Sachs or whatever.\n\nAnyway, to sum up, they're almost universally what would be qualified as \"white trash\" who form a sense of community and family that's reinforced by the fact that they aren't accepted by others which in turn is reinforced by their own encouragement of one another to act like ridiculously dressed nihilistic louts.",
"Basically a juggalo is a fan of the music produced by Michigan based record label, Psychopathic Records. Psychopathic Records was founded by the Insane Clown Posse and hosts several \"horror rap\" acts that have comic book-like personalities. The level of fandom of the Psychopathic Records fans goes far beyond the usual level to the point where an entire sub-culture has been spawned from the imagery, messages, lifestyle, and music associated with the record label. This sub-culture is known as Juggalos.\n\nThe closest comparison to the Juggalo culture may be akin to the Grateful Dead's \"Dead Heads\" albeit a more out spoken, urban, poorer, and sometimes violent version of them. It seems that the sub-culture appeals to lower class whites who can't seem to find anything in common with mainstream culture. However, the juggalo culture is an \"all inclusive\" one that accepts people of any race, sex, or any background that most people would deem bizarre, trashy, or unwanted.\n\nSo what's up with the strange imagery, campy music, face paint, Faygo, and \"trashy\" attitudes? Most of the imagery comes from horror mindset of the various bands on Psychpoathic records whose album covers, logos, and symbolism is represented by Juggalos in various ways. The music itself is a mix of Midwest rap, tongue-in-cheek humor, cheesy violence, and various gimmicks. The face paint has been a tradition of the sub-culture to emulate members of the bands on the label (mostly the Insane Clown Posse) and the Faygo is also a tradition as well. \n\nThe main gripe with Juggalos is that they're ignorant and backwards and that it's a common theme in each of them. However, since the culture attracts low income whites who are usually not educated, this is more of an observation of how poor uneducated Americans act rather than fans of a particular sub-section of music.",
"It's quite simple. The Juggalos are the followers of Ra, the sun god of the Incas. It's a caste of north americans surviving the ages as troubadors and bards, making a living traveling from city to city much like the gypsums. You will not be surprised to learn that they are also largely responsible for the rise and fall of the circus industry in the United States. \n\nMore modernly, the Juggalos have regrouped under the flag of the band Insane Clown Posse. They live a family-oriented lifestyle, living in medium sized groups of four to ten and working together to master & share their performance art. \n\nThe Juggalo lifestyle has the potential to revolutionize this country, teaching a path of harmony to all who seek to learn.",
"The main focus of their lifestyle is family. I think of their group as children who grew up as social outcasts in school, and found each other through music.\n\n[This documentary is a little long, but very interesting](_URL_0_)",
"They're outcasts, or at least those who identify themselves as such. Most who find themselves treated this way revert to a larger identity, their race, religion, where you're from, ect. A juggalo cannot attach to any of these, so they create their own larger identity. A lot of these people are uneducated and angry, so the resulting identity isn't very good.",
"If you were older than 5, I'd say just listen to their hit song \"What is a Juggalo?\" for your answer. However, since you are only 5, please don't listen to that song.",
"This is one of the smirkier ELI5s I've seen. The very question was intended to lead towards derision, and now we're all engaged in a circlejerk of how pathetic Juggalos are. C'mon folks, we can do better than this. \n\nEdit: TIL what a Juaggalo is!",
"You know the kid who eats glue in your kindergarten class? Yeah, Billy. Well imagine what Billy's going to be like after eating glue for 18 years.\n\nThat's what a Juggalo is.",
"All I know about them is that they do not know how magnets work.",
"A good friend of mine is a juggalo. He's a damn good dude and I'm glad I have him as a friend. We treat each other like brothers. He's been through a lot of fucked up shit and hasn't always made the best decisions but I think that comes from his past which I am not all that informed on. I met him in college. \n\nHe does not look like an average juggalo at all. He wears a \"hatchetman\" necklace under his shirt 24/7 but otherwise you would never know. He's been a bartender since I've known him and he basically just wants to start over in another part of the country, start fresh.\n\nHe takes that \"juggalo family\" thing seriously. He goes to the gatherings and has a good time apparently.\n\nI can't see the reasons in that shit. It's fucking stupidity, even when he explains it to me. I look at it as a bunch of excuses to be abnormal I guess.",
"Since there are not many real answers here, I will try to give one from an unbiased perspective.\n\nJuggalos, in the simplest terms, are fans of the music group Insane Clown Posse. ICP is to music what Edgar Allan Poe (or maybe Lovecraft) is to poetry. Their songs focus on horror through storytelling, death and the afterlife, and over the top carnival antics. They are vulgar and violent but ultimately laced a deeper message into their music that preached anti-bigotry, anti-greed and the journey to find god (see: \"Thy Unveiling\").\n\nSo while Juggalos are fans of this music, their ties to the \"juggalo community\" is much deeper. It exists as a subculture of sorts, with its own lingo, symbols, and values. I cannot generalize on the demographic of juggalos because I have no quantitative data, but as others have mentioned they are mostly lower-class white males, many of whom presumably have suffered with problems of poverty, family issues, or otherwise. Again though that is a generalization, there are some who are highly educated. Regardless, what they may all share in common is some feeling of alienation from some strata of society and a taste in peculiar music.\n\nAt some point in their lives juggalos came across the music of ICP. While to most the music is simply vulgar some related strongly to the messages of anti-bigotry and inclusion (see: \"We Belong\"). ICP thus created a community out of people who felt they belonged to no community, the \"outcasts\" of society. This has strengthened the ties between juggalos and given rise to the term \"juggalo family\" something often chanted at concerts and gatherings. To a juggalo other juggalos may truly be considered family- it may indeed be the only family that individual has. \n\nThe juggalo fan base is wide and varied- ICP's last album hit number 4 on the billboard 200. That said yes there are some juggalos who take their sense of community too far hence the FBI classifying juggalos as a gang. Still the cause of these behaviors are more likely most likely environmental rather than the result musical tastes.\n\ntl;dr a subculture that formed among people who shared feelings of alienation and a taste for music most deem vulgar.",
"Hey, steam boat. Have you ever been really lonely?\n\nYou know... when you wish you had a friend who was into Ninja Turtles, like you? Or someone... **anyone** who knew what a Pokemon was?\n\nEven when you had friends, were they still not quite as cool as you wanted them to be? Maybe they didn't get excited when the tune to Paw Paw Bears came on, or maybe they actually *liked* Kix. Either way, they were never quite the perfect friend. Not quite the type of person who is just... like... you.\n\nWell, imagine, now that you are walking around the mall with your mom when you see the most perfect store ever:\n\nThe Official Cross-Licensed Nintendo / Sega / TMNT / Nerf / Legos / Bill Cosby Warehouse Store\n-\n\nAfter wiping the drool from your chin, Mr. Faucet, you go inside and find a wonderland only worthy of your dreams. Once you're able to lower your eyes from the marvelously matte-painted ceiling (featuring every cross-over character in the store co-habitating peacefully), you also will notice that the store is full of kids that are just... like... *you*.\n\nYou wouldn't even care if they all painted themselves like clowns, and expected you to do the same, would you? Nah, not now that you're finally with the **perfect friends**.\n\n Legend\n--\n > Same tastes in cartoons / cereal: **Hatred for the common man** \n > The Mall: **This soulless, capitalist wasteland** \n > The Ultimate Store / Playland: **[Shangrila](_URL_3_)** \n > The Drool: **Playing [ICP's](_URL_3_) entire discography in order** \n > The Matte Painting: **The hope of Shangrila** \n > The Clowns: **[SWEET JESUS THE CLOWNS](_URL_3_)**",
"I never considered myself a juggalo but for a period of time I was called one often. I blasted icp because their songs made me laugh and get pumped (mostly carnival of carnage). I had a 5 inch Mohawk but was skinny as fuck, everyone thought for some reason I was crazy (icp gives you that look). I was just a small white dude joining a click to look hard so people wouldn't fuck with me. I did headbutt a shitload of people, I think that was because I had a Mohawk though and not because I listened to icp. This all took place between10-11 grade. If you read icp's book the only reason they did it was to look hard so they didn't get fucked with.",
"Recording artists, the Insane Clown Posse, had music that was extremely viral because of the way they raged in their music. It's a lot like Eminem's diatribes, except with this sort of extremist comical imagery. Example: they wrote a love song in which he describes killing a chick for cheating on him, and describing how the chick should have known something bad was about to happen because they were parked in a dark alley way, and he was howling at the moon. In another song, they describe fighting in the civil war, using mac 10s.\n\nSo kids downloaded this music and laughed at it, and told their friends to listen to it. To this end, without any radio, tv, or ad time, they were still the number 2 best selling album in 1998. \n\nNow, the topics they sung about are things that appeal to a very certain group of people. Almost every song mentions a hatred towards racists, police, judges, rich people, and beautiful/popular people -- basically, ICP would rage against anyone that may be in a position to reject someone. Because of this, any social outcast would latch on to their lyrics for support. So the main group of listeners ended up being social outcasts: the poor, the trashy, the uneducated, etc.\n\nAt some point, someone coined the term Juggalos. (Most likely not them, because they only adopted the term after a few albums were out. Previously, they used the word gigolo like everyone in the 90s did). But anyway, they called their fans Juggalos, and so that's why that happened.",
"A Juggalo is someone who enjoys and attributes themselves as 'hardcore' fans of the group: Insane Clown Posse (ICP). The music is mostly violence themed with sub-meanings about how outcasts need to band together. From where the group has started now they have gone off on a tangent more popularizing the idea of the \"Family\" which is what they call the collection of their fans. Now statistically it is shown that the people who enjoy ICP tend to be lesser educated compared to an average member of society, but the overall message is to reach out to all members who feel as if they don't belong. This could also be targeted at anarchists for wanting to do whatever they wish. A joke in the culture is how a lot of the music is insulting but the largest hate of their culture are Racists, and (or) trailer park trash.\n\nEdit: Will fill in more as time progresses.",
"I was/am a Juggalo, I have been to multiple gatherings, painted my face, all the nonsense that goes with it. Juggalos can be anyone from any walk of life, most people only see the dregs that are in the scene because they are in your face and loud but I've made some awesome friends who live normal lives through it. It's kind of an awkward teenage thing for most people and they grow out of it but you will always have a different view on life as any life experience will do for anyone. \n\nI personally first got into it because of the music, I enjoy a little horror and violence in my music so it appealed to me and I see it no different from someone who prefers horror films.",
"Unrelated, but I dated a guy for six months who had, what I thought to be the Joker from Batman tattooed on his arm.\nNOPE!\nTurns out, he's a Juggalo... and he was so embarrassed about it, he let me go on thinking it was a Batman tattoo.",
"Workaholics has a great episode on this. It's on Netflix streaming too!",
"everyone wants a scene to be part of. for some it's golf and yacht clubs, for others it's book clubs, for some its universities, and for others it's ultimate frisbee. juggalos is no different from any other group. they want to be with people who think, act, and look life them.. hmm... there's another club that i can think of that is quite similar... its called Reddit.\n\nthe point is, people like to eat, drink, and fuck together.. and juggalos are no different. ya sure, they dress funny, listen to shitty music, and dress like retards... but they are part of a big group that will pay money for festivals, albums, etc... it's real simple to write them off as white trash.. but while some of them are, there are many that are there for the (yes) family and community.. and for the ICP is a marketing opportunity.. \n\ncome to think of it, there is a similar group here on reddit that people don't like - they are called \"hipsters\"... it is a useless term just like juggalo. .\n\npeace out.\nso",
"I used to hangout with Juggalos, hell I used to date a juggalo and I almost was a juggalo. Most of the ones I knew I new since I was a kid, most came from trailer parks and bad hoods, or they got dragged down into it and realized it was more fun than the straight life. It was tribal, it was sexual, drug fueled, familial, and crazy. When they say they're a family, they mean it.\n\nJuggalos are a family of fucked up retards who know they're fucked up retards and will wreck your shit if you try anything.",
"A lot of the answer to this is regional. I've talked to people from the South who say that Juggalos have started acting like gangs, doing a lot of stupid shit. Around here, its not a huge deal, mostly they're just \"misunderstood\" kids who like to party and listen to derivative hip hop. And even though one juggalo friend of mine told me \"Its not about how much merch you own.\", he was wearing Twiztid sneakers at the time.",
"Watch this:\n\n_URL_4_ ((nsfw in parts))\n\nA nice little documentary about Juggalos filmed at the annual gathering of the Juggalos. Pretty, too, considering the subject matter. Let them explain themselves in their own words. Skeeves me out a little bit, but to each their own.",
"A group of people socially outcast from many normal walks of life who embrace their 'individuality' and generally enjoy falling outside of social norms. The phrase \"blissful ignorance\" comes to mind. I don't get the hate though.",
"Insane clown posse fans/wiggers/trailer trash/dirty caucasians/drug addicts. Don't down vote me for the truth. I am friends with a few juggalos but I never found ICP appealing",
"no fuckin' way...I JUST finished watching the juggalo episode of Workaholics...yeah fans of ICP (Insane Clown Posse)",
"A lot of these comments on juggalos remind me of Metallica fans, except ICP admits they suck.",
"If you have 20 minutes, this [documentary](_URL_5_) is very, very well made. NSFW.",
"There was an IamA on the subject last year, [check it out](_URL_6_).",
"Have you seen this?\n\n_URL_7_\n\nIf not, watch it. NOW.\n\nMind...blown.",
"This question is wack. You give no specifics. \n\n_URL_8_"
] |
Why is Hunter S. Thompson cool? | [
"Writing talent. Sociopolitical insight. Humor. Sports knowledge. The ability to make friends with almost anyone. The drug tolerance of an african elephant.",
"He's a unique character. He has always been a counter-cultural figure, but also has a number of conservative values. He's an avid and enthusiastic user of hallucinogenic drugs. He's been friends with many famous people. He also basically invented [a new style of journalism](_URL_1_). \n\nFinally, he wrote what is for me [one of the top-five all time openings to a book](_URL_0_.).",
"“Strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas. Five years later? Six? It seems like a lifetime, or at least a Main Era—the kind of peak that never comes again. San Francisco in the middle sixties was a very special time and place to be a part of. Maybe it meant something. Maybe not, in the long run . . . but no explanation, no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time and the world. Whatever it meant. . . .\n\nHistory is hard to know, because of all the hired bullshit, but even without being sure of “history” it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash, for reasons that nobody really understands at the time—and which never explain, in retrospect, what actually happened.\n\nMy central memory of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights—or very early mornings—when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and, instead of going home, aimed the big 650 Lightning across the Bay Bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing L. L. Bean shorts and a Butte sheepherder's jacket . . . booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond, not quite sure which turn-off to take when I got to the other end (always stalling at the toll-gate, too twisted to find neutral while I fumbled for change) . . . but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was: No doubt at all about that. . . .\n\nThere was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .\n\nAnd that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .\n\nSo now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.”\n\n― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"
] |
How does hydroplaning work? How can a dirtbike ride on a lake? | [
"Liquids acts like a solid the first millisecond you touch it. That's why you can slap the surface of a container of water."
] |
Why do humans like white noise like rain so much? | [
"The brain likes to use its senses. In dead silence the brain goes as far as making up noises for itself to process. White noise is less crazy person, more natural feeling. \n\nEdit to add: This also tricks your mind out of *super sense* mode. A uniform noise throughout the night is predictable, easy for the brain to write off as just noise and go about it's brainy business. Dead silence with the occasional bark fest at three am will set off all kinds of fight or flight triggers.",
"Silence is a somewhat new invention. The outdoors - where our brain and senses were evolved to function - usually has some level of background noise (streams, crickets, birds, wind, etc.). Your brain freaks out a little bit when it doesn't get the white noise it expects.",
"White noise is essentially just a combination of all audible frequencies played at the same time. The random and even distribution of those frequencies make isolating any individual sound (pitch) impossible, thereby ensuring your focus doesn't attach to one particular sound and heightening your awareness/alertness, while the noise in general allows you to occupy the auditory processes in your brain that would otherwise be focused on the clink of the chain on your ceiling fan or the thoughts in your head. \n\nOur brains are constantly trying to focus on stuff. White noise allows us to focus on something that doesn't peak our interest, annoy us, or arise much of any feeling at all, which helps us relax."
] |
When you visit a fancy restaurant, why are the pepper shakers so large? What does the length add? | [
"* they are pepper grinders, not shakers...they grind up whole peppercorns to give you tasty fresh pepper\n* the bigger they are, the more peppercorns they can hold\n* the longer they are, the more easily they can reach across a table",
"I'm guessing you're referring to those huge foot-long pepper grinders (or pepper mills as they're also known). Something like [this gentleman](_URL_0_) is holding, right?\n\nI assume they are that big because restaurants get through pepper a lot faster than a single household would do, so it makes sense to have a big grinder that you're not always having to refill.",
"They're also long so that the server doesn't have to get all up in your face while peppering your salad/steak/whatever, they can just position it over your plate and their hands are above your head.",
"They're actually pepper grinders. They have the whole peppercorn in them and it is used to grind fresh pepper, which tastes better and isn't as stale as pepper already ground. \n\n_URL_1_"
] |
Tiktaalik | [
"It's a fish with feet! It lived in Greenland! It was a badass motherfucker! It was three feet long! It demonstrates that tetrapods evolved even before the conquest of land! It shows that feet might have useful purposes even if you're just hanging around in shallow pools and don't feel like walking around on dry soil! It is one of the few transitional fossils we have between fish and amphibians!"
] |
Why aren't meteorite fragments more valuable and treasured than diamonds and other rare earth minerals? | [
"They're ugly, they're almost impossible to distinguish from regular rocks, and they're far too rare to collect enough to sell regularly.",
"Supply and demand. And skillful advertising. There are large gem companies that work very hard and spend a lot of money to convince people that gems are beautiful and rare--particularly diamonds, even though diamonds aren't all that rare. This helps to create demand. They've brainwashed everyone through skillful advertising to believe it is necessary for every woman to have the biggest diamond possible because that shows how much they are loved. Then, most of the diamond business in the world is controlled by one company, DeBeers. They work hard to keep supply low. Meanwhile, no one is marketing meteors. Meanwhile, Amber has been a relatively inexpensive gem, and the more clear and without things in it, the more valuable. Then Jurassic Park comes along and people hear about how Amber with prehistoric bugs trapped in it is super cool. Suddenly. Amber with bugs becomes much more expensive as demand increases.",
"They are often worth several thousands of dollars do that does put them in the same ballpark as diamonds and rare earth minerals."
] |
Triangles in our Skin | [
"If you take any surface and cover it somewhat uniformly with dots, and then connect all the dots to their nearest neighbors, you automatically get a pattern that's almost all triangles (or diamonds, which are just double triangles).\n\n_URL_2_\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_"
] |
How are space probes from millions of miles away able to send/receive signals and HD images back to Earth, but people still have network problems on their mobile phones? | [
"With a lot of expensive technology, [huge antennas](_URL_0_), laws to ensure lack of interference, cooperation with other countries, and the transmission rates are still glacially slow due to the enormous distance.\n\nI think New Horizons is transmitting at 1 Kb/s. \n\n**Edit:** Then there's that there are much fewer probes than there are cell phones. You'd have excellent network performance if you had a tower all for yourself.",
"1. Power: Your phone lasts all day (more or less) on a single charge. It can't be using several dozen watts of power for its antenna. A spacecraft can, because that's what it takes.\n\n2. Size: Your phone fits in your pocket. New Horizons decidedly does not. Its largest antenna is 2.1 meters in diameter, and the ones it is communicating with are even larger.\n\n3. Directionality: You can walk around with your phone, pointing it all different directions and it works just fine. If New Horizons gets nudged 0.4 degrees then it loses communication.\n\n4. Data throughput: You only need a few bits per second to send commands, and a few hundred thousand to send back pictures. New Horizons can send up to 1,000 bits per second. A phone can receive several million bits per second.\n\n5. Number of connections: NASA has a handful of missions they're dealing with. They can send very \"loud,\" focused beams at each of them. In a city there may be millions of people with a cell phone in a small area. A sporting event may draw 100,000 people to the space of a city block. Handling all of this is a serious logistics problem for the cell network.",
"New Horizon is sending a directional, focused signal being tracked by many terrestial sites, and it takes 4.5 hours due to distance. Phone signals go out when they don't have line of sight to the signal tower that they need to contact to transmit. Satellite phones using a GPS-like array wouldn't have that issue, since they'd always be visible to the transmitter. It'd also cost a whole lot more than normal cell phone carriers. \nTo make it really simple, there are no trees between here and Pluto to block the signal.",
"Two different types of problems.\n\nAt Pluto the problem is just power and sensitivity, more of either will help. \n\n\n\nOn earth the problem is congestion. Too many people trying to use \n the same frequencies/channels. More power makes it worse, more sensitivity doesn't help.\n\nThis is similar to cars being wonderful solutions for country roads where no one is around, but terrible solutions for city's streets shared with millions."
] |
Why is crispbread stored in paper and not plastic? | [
"Plastic seals in moisture, so as water evaporates out of the bread, it gets trapped and eventually reabsorbed by the crust. This makes it not crisp, so it would just be bread, and not crispbread. \n\nPaper absorbs the moisture as it evaporates, so that the crust stays crisp."
] |
The lighter your skin, the more prone you are to getting sunburn... considering that light colors reflect more light, and dark colors absorb more light? | [
"Because sunburn isn't about heat: it's about UV light causing the same kind of damage that heat does to our skin.\n\nMelanin is a protein human bodies produce that protects against UV light; and is dark in color: basically, it absorbs UV (preventing it from damaging us) and some visible light (causing the darker appearance).\n\nSo while dark-skinned people heat up faster in sunlight, they ~~don't~~ **take longer to** burn because UV light ~~isn't damaging~~ **causes less damage to** their skin.\n\nedit: Corrected the last sentence based on feedback from /u/darkhorse_defender and /u/mschwartz33. Thank you for the corrections. [This website](_URL_0_) says that dark skin is roughly equivalent to SPF 13 sunscreen; meaning they can be in the sun ~13 times longer without burning.",
"The biggest damage that sunlight does to your skin is that the UV light can strike the nucleus of cells and damage the DNA inside of it. This could just kill the cell, or could damage it in just the wrong way, causing it to become cancerous.\n\nWhen your skin darkens (either due to naturally having dark skin or due to getting a tan) your cells produce melanin which absorbs UV light before it can hit the nucleus—think Secret Service throwing themselves in front of the President to take a bullet. The goal isn't to keep the UV/bullet from hitting anything as that isn't a viable goal. The goal is to make it hit something less important."
] |
How do social networks like Facebook defend themselves against DDoS attacks? | [
"They are really really big.\n\nDDoS is all about overwhelming a server. When your servers are capable of handing a few billion pings a second, a couple extra hundred million doesn't make a noticeable impact. Few people have the resources to compete against Facebook's servers.\n\nAdditionally, they have (probably) spent considerable money on various defensive programs and equipment. I'm less familiar with this gear so I'll leave that to someone else."
] |
Why are car designs today so mundane opposed to car designs of the past (1930s-1990s)? | [
"From 1930 to 1990 ish oil especially in America was very cheap so they made all kind of designs and now oil is more expensive so cars have to have aerodynamic designs to save oil."
] |
Why are drug stores selling products that have a disclaimer saying "No Approved Therapeutic Claim"? | [
"They are believed to have beneficial effects but haven't gone through the testing needed to prove it, or haven't conclusively showed any benefits during testing. It can also mean that the company selling the product just doesn't have permission to say it does have approved therapeutic properties. As for why stores are selling them, that's because they still make money off the product. Lots of people still believe there are benefits to supplements and such, despite labels like that, and many supplements do have a legitamate effect",
"The simple answer: There's a demand for said products.\n\nThere's a demand for those products, even if there is no proof that the products actually work.\n\nThere are tons of people using treatments that science hasn't prooved to be working (e.g. homeopathy). \n\nThe other side of the simple answer: Legal obligations. If you sell a non-approved product, you are legally obliged to say so on the label.",
"Because they sell.\n\nThere is no better explanation. Drug stores have the right to sell anything that is legal, and that disclaimer just means it doesn't claim to be medicine; this means it doesn't go through incredibly stringent (and costly) testing regimens. And a lot of people are after \"alternative medicine\" and other bullshit, so that stuff sells."
] |
How did we determine the composition of the Earth's core? | [
"We haven't actually \"detected\" the presence of iron/nickel in the core, or even measured its actual temperature. Seismology allows for measuring the core's density, as well as the inner/outer core boundary because the outer core is liquid.\n\nAssuming that the core is made of iron/nickel is basically a very safe guess based on elemental abundance in the solar system and measured density.\n\n[Here](_URL_0_) is a paper discussing that the actual calculated density of an iron/nickel core is higher than the seismologically estimated density of the core, therefore it must contain lighter elements as well. As for which elements, that's also speculatively based on elemental abundance (oxygen, silicon etc)."
] |
Why do we "jump" a bit when we are scared sometimes? | [
"It's called the startle response.\n\nIt's not just humans. Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it.\n\nIt's a hardwired reflex that your brain stem initiates in order to protect extremely vital areas of your body (Like your brain stem). This usually comes from a sudden unexpected sound, something that's unnatural or simply sudden.\n\nYour brain is fast, but it can't figure everything out all the time. When it hears a loud noise that it can't identify as good, it takes a shortcut and assumes that whatever it is, is probably going to kill you. So it jerks you awake by sending a signal from your brain stem to your entire body. That's what ends up startling you and can make you jump.\n\nAn offshoot of this is a slightly delayed response of adrenaline. Keep in mind that it takes at least 8 seconds for blood from your arm to return to your heart and reach your brain. So hormones like adrenaline and noradrenaline don't add to this response, but they can heighten your sensitivity and make you jumpy once it kicks in.\n\nThe safest place from danger is any distance further away from it. So jumping or just moving in the opposite direction is one of those natural, instinctive things that were built into your body.",
"It's called the fight or flight response. You get scared and your brain throws your pituitary gland into action. You get adrenaline pumped into the blood stream, your brain and body become hyperactive. You have little to no control over this, your body is ready to flee (flight) the situation and you jump. You also get a boost in brain activity, bodily strength, your brain and body are prepared to fight, or run."
] |
How and why did mead lose it's popularity? | [
"Beer and wine from fruits can be produced in higher quantities than meads. Honey production is much more limited in volume than the crops used to make other beverages."
] |
Diffference between DPI and sensitivity? | [
"Dpi is how many discrete points per inch your sensor will resolve. Sensitivity is how far the mouse will move per discrete point.\n\nIn some sense they do the same but if turn up your Dpi to extreme levels small mouse twitches and noise from unhomogenous surfaces will be amplified. Many mouse are also advertised with extreme DPI values in the several thousand range. Those numbers often don't mean a lot if the sensor isn't actually that accurate."
] |
How/where are heavy elements created? | [
"Stars can produce atoms up to iron, although they produce these elements very late in the life cycle. Any atoms heavier than that are produced in supernovas.",
"Stars go through cycles. As one fuel runs out they start to burn out which causes them to start compressing due to gravity which then raises the pressure and temperature in the core and allows the star to fuse the next element. In massive enough stars this continues until the star makes iron. This process takes a fraction of a second and the star can't fuse the iron and so the core collapses under its own gravity. The rebound causes a supernova explosion. The pressure in the supernova is enough to fuse beyond iron."
] |
When did sexual reproduction come into play with evolution? | [
"Today we're going to go painting!\n\nI have 10 cans of black paint so the best I can do is to paint my entire house black. Since the black paint absorbs rays from the sun, the house gets very warm during the summer. One day it burns down from the heat. \n\nThat winter I live at my next-door neighbor's place. Her house is painted white (she only has white paint) and it is very cold during the winter because the white paint reflects sun rays. We wear heavy coats even inside the house because it is so cold.\n\nDuring the next spring after I rebuild my house, I decide to paint both my and my neighbor's house as repayment. To make it fair, we decide to mix 5 cans of my paint and 5 cans of her paint together. The new gray paint job keeps both our houses cold enough during the summer and warm enough during the winter. \n\nBecause I was able to get paint from my neighbor, I was able to paint my house an acceptable color. If I never got that paint, I would've continued using black paint and my house would've burned down again. This is why sexual reproduction is better than asexual reproduction. An organism that undergoes asexual reproduction is stuck with the same cans of paint (genes) forever, but an organism that undergoes sexual reproduction will get different cans of paint to help deal with the weather (and any other environmental problems). Soon, the houses on our street will all have the same paint colors.\n\nMy neighbor and I are now both super-happy. We start dating, and get married.\n\n**tl;dr** Had sex with my neighbor for paint cans.\n\nEDIT: for spelling fails",
"You've asked two questions:\n\n1. When did sexual reproduction come into play?\n\nAs far as I can see, the [earliest](_URL_0_) recorded sexually reproducing species lived about 1.2 billion years ago. Because of the spottiness of the fossil record and because such small, soft organisms don't fossilise very well, it's entirely possible that sexually reproducing organisms existed well before that time.\n\nThe question of how it arose is still open but current thinking tends to revolve around the processes of DNA repair being co-opted into sex.\n\nSo the answer is *at least* 1.2 billion years ago.\n\n2. What is the advantage of sexual over asexual reproduction?\n\nThe main advantage is thought to be summarised by the **Red Queen hypothesis** inspired by the lines from Alice in Wonderland:\n\n*Well, in our country,\" said Alice, still panting a little, \"you'd generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we've been doing.\"\n\"A slow sort of country!\" said the Queen. \"Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!\"*\n\nWhat it means is that, when species are evolving to compete with each other (like an arms race), all of the improvements just keep things equal. If they didn't, one species would \"win\" and the other would go extinct. Predator/prey interactions (cheetah/gazelle for example) and host/parasite interactions are good examples of this.\n\nNow, what sex does, is allow organisms to *recombine* genes in different varieties which will always present a parasite with a different set of challenges to overcome. It is in this way that long-lived, long generation species like humans can even survive against the fast breeding parasites. By contrast, asexually reproducing organisms can't mix & match their genes and must develop other ways of dealing with parasites.\n\nSex also allows more gene combinations to be tried which can increase the spread of **helpful** genes because they can be de-linked from unhelpful genes. Asexual organisms cannot do this.\n\nHope that helps, sorry it wasn't ELI5"
] |
What is this thing on the bottom of all airplane windows? (Pics) | [
"It's a hole. There are two panes of plastic separating you from the outside, creating an air pocket. With the pressure change varying so much with altitude, if the air pocket were sealed in, it would more than likely explode. The reason the pocket exists in the first place is to create an insulating cushion to minimize heat loss in the plane.",
"This question intrigued me and so I did a bit of digging, following a concise answer on Quora, led me to this quote on an _URL_0_ forum, it seems to explain things quite well -\n\n > The small hole is located on the lower part of the inner or secondary pane. The purpose of the hole is to transfer pressurisation loads to the outer or primary pane. If the outer primary pane fails, the pressurisation loads are then automatically transferred to the inner or secondary pane. I seem to remember that the 747 had a third pane that was part of the plastic reveal located on the cabin sidewall panels. This inner-most pane was known as the \"scratch pane\", and it was this one that prevented scratches and damaged to the two pressure panes."
] |
what's the fascination that people have watching videos of maggot removal, zit popping, ear dirt extraction, etc. ? | [
"Talking completely out of my ass here, maybe it has to do with some instinctive grooming drive that we inherited from our ancestors.\n\nIf you go to the zoo or watch a documentary, you can see that apes/etc. instinctively groom each other; so some people probably get a sense of pleasure from seeing such things because there's an instinctive drive (and psychological reward) to remove/pop/clean such things.",
"I'd say it has something to do with the universal positive feeling of release/relief. \n\nI'm sure everyone at some point has had a big, ugly, uncomfortable zit that once they popped it, felt amazing. \n\nA splinter or thorn pulled out with tweezers in one piece. No more pain and a sense of satisfaction and relief. \n\nThat magical feeling you get after taking a huge dump. Maybe it's that feeling people like to relive by watching a foreign item being expelled from the body.",
"Pretty sure it's just a morbid curiosity or as you said, a fascination. These are the sorts of things people link to their friends, who watch between fingers but can't look away. It's probably the same reason some people watch bad movies."
] |
Hypothetically if everyone on earth was quarantined individually for 1 month could we irradicate most airborne illnesses? | [
"No.\n\nHumans aren't the only people who have diseases. Animals and plants get them too. Every so often, bacteria or viruses will \"cross\" from animal to human, infecting humans for the first time and starting the disease. This is what is believed to have happened with Ebola (their natural host is the fruit bat) and HIV (believed to have begun in a type of primate), and why things like bird flu are concerning to public health officials. Ebola and HIV aren't examples of airborne transmission, thankfully, but any type of flu virus is.\n\nIn fact, you might do more harm than good with the quarantine by making the human population more susceptible to viruses in the outside world.\n\n*^Edit: ^Added ^examples*"
] |
How does one country make threats to another country? | [
"Who says they don't just call the other country and threaten them? What do you think diplomats do behind closed doors?",
"1. Through formal channels. President A orders his ambassador to country B to officially deliver the message \"i'm gonna toss your salad\"\n\n2. Through indirect channels. Country A doesn't speak to country B, but country C does. Country A has their ambassador to C ask them to tell country B \"i'm gonna toss your salad\". This is how the US deals with North Korea. I think Sweden is pur country C.\n\n3. Through the press. Country A knows country B watches Colbert, so their pres goes on the show and brags about how he's gonna toss Bs salad.\n\n4. Through spies. Country A knows their spy in country B has been compromised, but they pretend he hasn't been, and send him info they want leaked.\n\n5. With bombs. If you're bombing them, they know you want to bomb them."
] |
How can any style be considered "modern" (like modern architecture)? Wouldn't any style be considered modern during its time? | [
"There is \"modern\" meaning contemporary and then \"[Modernism](_URL_0_)\" (or Modern) with a capital M referring to a specific artistic movement in the early to mid 1900s"
] |
How do multi-million dollar companies end up paying $0 tax? | [
"A few ways. First thing to know is Company's only pay tax on profits, not revenue.\n\n1. Setup headquarters in low taxing country and shift profits there. One of the big mining company's in Australia sells it's own coal to a Singapore based company they own. In Australia then pay tax on the heavily discounted rate they sold it for or possibly make a loss and pay no tax. The coal is then on sold at full rate out of the Singapore company and hey presto you've got taxed in Singapore at a lower rate.\n\n2. There is a thing called \"carried forward losses\". If you make no profit in a year then you pay no tax but if you made a loss then you can use that loss in future years to offset your tax. So if a company lost $500m in a year and have taxes of $100m for the next 5 years they pay no tax.",
"Many ways, but the most basic is using deductions and unexplained \"fees\". Generally, value-added taxes aren't really escapable, and businesses have to pay them. But many corporate taxes are only paid per profits (excess money), not per sales. You can manipulate the balance sheet so that it doesn't show a profit, deliberately \"unwisely spending\" the money by payments to a company that you also control.\n\n[IKEA](_URL_0_) does it like this. Ikea Group is owned through a holding company by a non-profit, tax-free foundation. This foundation maintains the capital but pays very little in actual donations. Now, Ikea Group makes profits on this capital. They pay a \"franchising fee\" to a company called Inter Ikea Systems, which disappears through various intervening companies into a company called I.I. Holding in Luxembourg, which is presumably controlled by Kamprad. This is allegedly how Kamprad can get the money out without the profit ending up on the balance sheet of the main company, where it could be taxed. The capital and the profit go separate ways and go through different tax regimes.",
"You are probably referring to corporation tax, which is paid on profits.\n\nAmazon makes very little profit as all the revenue is reinvested to grow the company. The billions of revenue doesn't just sit in a vault with the employees diving in like Scrooge McDuck, its all used to build the company, which is how it became a multi-million dollar company.\n\nThis then alludes to a further question, why don't all companies reinvest all their profits?",
"They do pax taxes. Do you think they dont pay taxes on all the supplies, goods and services they use in the course of business? A large organization like Amazon probably pays millions in taxes a year just buying their office supplies as a simple example. Saying corps dont pay taxes is a bit misleading."
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IPO's (Initial Public Offerings on the stock market) | [
"> How do they determine what the initial price is?\n\nThey go off the [Market Capitalization](_URL_1_) of the company. \n\nThis is a complex calculation but roughly they look at what assets the company has as well as other factors (proftability, future expectations and so on). In the _URL_0_ boom companies that had only a few hundred employees had market caps bigger than IBM (it was insane but everyone saw what Microsoft did and wanted to be on the next gravy train...most got taken to the cleaners when that bubble burst).\n\nStill, in general there is an attempt to value the company and put a dollar figure to it.\n\nUnderwriters will guarantee a price for the stock to the company (e.g. they promise the shares will hit the market and sell at [say] $25/share...once on the market it will go up or down). This goes with the question below.\n\nPrior to the shares hitting the market people start expressing a desire to buy the shares. Those who get in on it will have the shares divvied up between them at a given price. The company wants full subscription...that is all shares floated are spoken for. If more people want them then there are shares the price rises. If not enough the price lowers. The underwriters want to float the shares close to the sweet spot as possible.\n\n > How do they determine how many shares to offer?\n\nThe company is floating shares to raise money. They will want to raise X-amount of cash. They cannot go for any crazy amount. It is limited by their market cap as noted above. Selling a share is selling ownership in your company. You can sell 1% or 100% or anything you want (realizing you are now giving others rights in saying how your company should be run...the less you own the less control you retain). How many shares you sell depends how liquid you want your shares to be. Say you want to raise $100. You can sell two shares for $50 or ten shares for $10. What you choose to do is again a complex decision.\n\n > How does it benefit a company to move from private ownership to stockholder ownership?\n\nIt is the best way for a company to raise money.\n\nImagine you start a business in your garage. You can make 10 widgets/week. People LOVE your widgets and orders are rolling in. You are making money but you cannot keep up even with hiring employees. You need a factory.\n\nThing is your factory may cost $50 million to build. You have nowhere near $50 million. You could approach a bank for a loan but they are going to demand interest payment which cut deeply into your profits.\n\nInstead you can sell ownership in your company. If other people think you have a good thing going they will want a piece of it. In this way you can raise the $50 million and pay no interest. If your company goes gang busters then the shares people own will become more valuable and everyone makes money.\n\n > Can a company that is stockholder owned ever go back to private?\n\nI am not sure. \n\nCompanies do buy back their own stock frequently (if nothing else it helps buoy the price of the stock). \n\nI suppose they could but it would be very expensive. Stock holders are not required to sell. If it becomes apparent you want all your stock back some will hold out till you give them a very sweet deal. So, if your stock is trading at (say) $50/share and you try to buy it all back you will quickly find the cost per share runs to $150 or more.\n\nChances are your company cannot afford it."
] |
How different regions acquire different dialects. | [
"**tl;dr** Languages constantly change. Changes can be motivated by time, geographical separation, social stratification, influence from other languages, etc.\n\nBefore I start, there are two important things to keep in mind: \n\n* Languages constantly change.\n* There is no good point where a dialect becomes a language and vice versa.\n\nTake an original group of speakers of language *A.* Split this group in two geographically, group *X* and group *Y*. Some of the constant changes the language these groups use would be the same (let's say in both [p] (the first consonant in \"put\") went to [f] (the initial consonant in \"face\")), but others would not (group *X* had [e] (the vowel in \"vein\") go to [i] (the vowel in \"see\") and [o] (the vowel in \"go\") go to [u] (the vowel in \"food\"), while group *Y* didn't have these changes). Over time, these changes build up, leading to two new dialects, dialect *X* and dialect *Y* of language *A*.\n\nIt is important to note, too, that *neither* are the same as language *A* originally was. This kind of change applies equally well to languages as well as dialects. In fact, the changes I gave were some of those that distinguish Okinawan (\"dialect *X*\") from Japanese (\"dialect *Y*\"), and their common ancestor, Proto-Japonic (\"language *A*\").\n\nThis process of gradual change is called *drift.*\n\nGeographical isolation, however, is not the only motivating factor. Social stratification can be another motivation for drift to progress.\n\nFor example, in New York City, we find that among the \"Upper Middle Class\" people (as Labov (2008) called them) say \"in'\" rather than \"ing\" about 10% of the time when they're talking, but \"Lower Working Class\" people (again, as Labov (2008) called them) drop the \"g\" from the end a little over 80% of the time. The only difference is their socioeconomic class. Otherwise, they're very similar to one another; they speak the same language, the same dialect, they grew up in the same city, etc.\n\nLanguages and dialects can also change due to external influences. If a group that speaks one language moves into an area where another language is either equal socially or the prestige standard, it might change to reflect that.\n\nThis is the reason, for example, Romanian and Aromanian look so different than the rest of the Romance languages. Not only were they geographically isolated, they borrowed words and features from Slavic languages (primarily in Romanian), Greek (primarily in Aromanian), and Albanian, the other large languages of the Balkans. \n\nFor example, the word for \"glass (as a substance)\" in Romanian is *sticlă,* a Slavic word, while in Spanish it's *vidrio,* Italian it's *vetro,* and French it's *verre,* all from Latin *vitrum*."
] |
Why is the Upvote system flawed? | [
"One major problem is that any people don't really bother reading more than the first page or two of comments.\n\nThis means they're only seeing the top-rated comments, and upvoting those. Any comments that come later never get read or ever have a chance to get upvoted, regardless of quality.\n\nYou can see this effect by looking at how many points the comments in a busy thread get. It'll be something like 2500, 1000, 200, 150, 100...\n\nFurthermore, upvotes just mean that people like it. It doesn't mean the post is *right*, especially if it's a subject that most people don't understand well enough to tell if something is right or wrong.\n\nThat said, there's even more potential problems with *downvotes*.",
"In theory, people are supposed to upvote comments that contribute to the conversation, and downvote ones that don't. However, it's much more likely that they'll do it based on how much they like the post.\n\nA good example from my experience: There was a thread on /r/AskReddit about whether gif was pronounced like \"jif\" or like \"gift.\" I posted a link to an article about how the person who invented the format said it should be pronounced, and everyone who pronounced it the other way downvoted me.\n\nConversely, I've gotten hundreds of upvotes for posts I've made which I honestly didn't think were anything special.",
"Its flawed because people use it as an agree/disagree system. The people behind reddit were extremely naive to think this wouldn't happen.\n\nComment voting in general is flawed because it's highly conducive to groupthink. It absolves readers of having to actually use reason and critical thinking to judge a statement on it's own merit and instead lets them just believe a position or an argument simply based on the number of votes it has (i.e. the argument with the most votes must be the correct one). This means unpopular truths get buried and/or hidden and ignored while popular fallacies get promoted. Imagine what would have happened if the internet and comment voting existed in Galileo or Pythagoras' time. \n\nAs well, voting comments down (disagree voting) is dishonest. It amounts to yelling \"you're wrong!\" and running away. Only articulated arguments should ever be counted in a discussion. That way if the disagreement is fallacious, the reader can know that. An anonymous, drive-by downvote is afforded credence that it doesn't deserve. \n\nAnd reddit's system is even more flawed than most, because if someone posts an unpopular truth enough times, not only does his comment get buried and/or hidden, eventually his ability to comment at all is affected because having a negative karma score limits how often you can post in a sub. This is retarded and absolutely conducive to groupthink."
] |
The war on drugs in America | [
"I really like the book \"Chasing the Scream\" and that can provide you more insight. With that said, it is one book, and looking at many sources is encouraged.\n\nI am going to try to do this is a fair and balanced way, and I will also give people the benefit of the doubt. \n\nAbout 100 years ago, there was a major concern that people taking drugs and alcohol were causing significant issues for society. I do not think I need to explain why. The decision was then made that the best way to deal with drugs and alcohol was to completely ban them. The idea being that if it is banned, people will not use them, and it will no longer be a problem.\n\nOver time, it was found that for alcohol, the ban was not working, and enough pressure was put on to remove prohibition. It was also found that the use of drugs was only dropping marginally, and thus efforts were not great enough. \n\nSo the governments decided to amp up pressure more by putting more money against fighting against drugs, stricter prison sentences, etc.\n\nNow, only the problems. Before prohibition on drugs and alcohol, both were pretty easy to attain. You can get it from a bar or a pharmacy. After the bans were put in place, you could not longer get the drugs from these sources. Thus, the black market was created. The \"mafia\" was soon empowered to deliver these goods and grew greatly. Cartels in Mexico and other nations began to develop to ship the goods. Crime soared.\n\nIn addition, it became a lot more dangerous to get the drugs. Sexual favours (have you ever had to give your pharmacist a blow job to get your diabetes medication?), high prices, and such further damaged users versus the typical negative effects of the drugs. The drugs and alcohol also became more dangerous, as there was no regulation on the quality of them, and thus you may get a more dangerous version of what you want or something completely different.\n\nThink about bars. While I have been drunk at them many of times, their job is to try to make sure the place is safe and that you do not over drink. In addition, 5% beer is a lot more difficult to get destroyed off of than moonshine. These legal, regulated premises do reduce harm.\n\nSo now we have a situation, 100 years later, where the ban on drugs has increased crime, increased death from the drug (other through unregulated use or through procurement), and the rate of drug use has not really dropped.\n\nThus, I will say that those involved in developing the war on drugs probably did think it would make society better, but it hasn't. There is evidence it has made it much worse. It was a policy and it hasn't worked, so it is time to try something else.",
"Criminal organizations develop and produce drugs to get people addicted. When people get addicted, they compulsively buy the drug at any cost, allowing the criminals to make massive amounts of money while severely degrading quality of life for the addicted. \n\nAddictive drugs make society worse by reducing quality of life and making people dysfunctional. \n\nA primary responsibility of any government is to protect its people. Therefore, governments may decide to fight these criminal organizations and ban addictive drugs to prevent them from damaging society at large. \n\nThe problems are when people argue that the government has no place regulating drug use, that innocent people get arrested, and that drug use occurs regardless. \n\nProposed solutions include legalizing all drugs and treating addiction as a mental illness and regulating drug trade as a proper industry, but neither address the influence of criminal organizations."
] |
How a cut on the body is healed? | [
"So there are 4 ish (it's debatable) phases of wound healing. \n\nThe first is hemostasis (this is the debatable phase). After your skin is broken, the vessels around the cut constrict (this is called vascular spasm). Then platelets (special cells in your blood that form clots) adhere to the exposed collagen around the wound, then the mobilization of a few chemicals causes the platelets to become sticky, forming a clot or platelet pug. At the same time the blood exposed to the air clots, aiding in the formation of a scab. \n\nNext is the inflammatory phase. The damaged tissues release inflammatory factors, such as histimines (the chemical involved in allergic rections, think of anti-histimines), causing the vessels around the wound to dilate and become porous to facilitate the movement of white blood cells in and out of tissues to remove debris and kill bacteria. This is why cuts turn red and hot a day or two after they happen. \n\nGradually the histimines start decreasing and the wound enters the proliferative phase, where tissues are rebuilt. Fibroblasts (specialized cells that create collagen) enter the area, laying down collagen to close up the gaps in tissue. This process is not precise because the body is more concerned with closing the gaps than being meticulous at this point in time. What is produced is called granulation tissue, which contains new blood vessles and the workings of a new extracellular matrix (I think of it as proto-skin). At this point in time the skin cells around the wound start to replicate and cover the \"proto-skin\" with healthy, functioning tissue. It's around here that any scab that has formed falls off. \n\nFinally, the wound enters remodelling or maturation. Here the collagen that was hastily laid down the proliferative phase is tweaked so that it all lines up with the surrounding collagen so that it can properly support the skin. \n\nAnd there you go. Wound healing, more complex than you thought. If you want to learn more, you can read this [wiki article](_URL_0_).",
"Well our blood is made up of different cells with different functions. One type of cell present is labelled as [platelets](_URL_1_), this cell's purpose is formation of *thrombus*. Thrombus are thin, thread-like substances that slowly builds up and forms blood clots. You can see this on your wound once it all healed up, it basically stitches the wound together. \n\nThe bad side of this is that thrombus sometimes forms *inside* blood vessels, clogging up arteries/veins. These clots inside the body would often be dislodged, travels up to sensitive organs (brains, hearts) and blocking off the necessary blood flow needed causing stroke etc..\n\nIf you're interested in what the other main blood cells are they are the *red blood cells*, which carries oxygen and distributes it to the body. And the *white blood cells* which is part of our immune system responsible for fighting off infections."
] |
What causes me to wake up minutes before my alarm goes off, even when I've barely slept? | [
"There is something in our body called a biological clock. If your body is used to doing some things at a certain time, be it waking up or maybe using the restroom. You will generally do these things at those times even when its pointless to do so otherwise. Since you work your body does this to help you not oversleep when its time for you to work. \n\nI hope this helps you.",
"Happens to me as well. But I suffer from anxiety disorders, so if you don't, I wonder what else it could be.",
"As I understand it, it's because you know what time your alarm is set for. I'd try setting it for an odd time (6:12 or something), so it's more difficult for your brain to time it accurately. Unless you don't mind. Waking up yourself is better for you anyway."
] |
Why do rockets level off horizontally rather than maintaining a vertical path? | [
"All the other commenters are correct, but no one has linked [this classic xkcd what if](_URL_0_) that explains and illustrates the concept very well.",
"Orbit is not a function of altitude, it's all about velocity.\n\nObviously reaching orbital velocity at ground level is tough. Lots of air to push through, lots of trees in the way. So rockets burn more or less straight up until they clear the majority of the atmosphere, and then roll over into a more horizontal (relative to the ground) path to start building up speed and reach orbital velocity. \n\nIf they went straight up they'd come straight back down as soon as the engine shut off.",
"In order to enter orbit, they need to do two things\n\n1. Reach a high enough altitude that friction from atmosphere is low enough to have a minimal effect on the craft\n\n2. Gain enough horizontal velocity so that they fall AROUND the Earth, not back to the surface. For most low-Earth orbits, that is a 17,500 mph horizontal velocity to the ground.\n\nGetting the altitude, about 100 miles or so, is not the hard part. Getting that 17,500 mph is. So the rockets lean over fairly soon so they can use as much fuel as possible gaining speed while also climbing at a decent-enough rate.",
"> this is a popular flat Earth claim\n\nWow really? Something simple enough to be understood by anyone who has played a few hours of Kerbal Space Program is enough to confuse these people? That makes me really sad.",
"Sorry to join in on eli5. Can someone please explain the difference in how a weather balloon goes into \"space\"(Im sorry for my lack of knowing space terms), but we need 18.5k mph for a rocket?\n\nEDIT: Nvm. \"The Space Station hasn't escaped Earth's gravity at all; it's experiencing about 90% the pull that we feel on the surface.\"\n\nreading the xkcd now :P"
] |
How does a lawyer defend his client, if there is concrete evidence that they actually committed the crime? | [
"When there's concrete evidence that they did it, the lawyer will work for a lower punishment. They'll find whatever excuse they can to get a shorter jail time, avoid death penalty, whatever the case may be.",
"Theoretically, a lawyer isn't supposed to just get his client free. He is supposed to represent the law for his client, having a good knowledge of it so that his client isn't tricked or bullied or put into any circumstance where he could be punished without due process. That means keeping an innocent man out of prison, or making sure that a thief isn't put away for the same time as a murderer. \n\nIn practice, lawyers just try to win.",
"Pretty much in any way that you can. That's what a good lawyer does, and that's why wealthy people can get off easier - they can pay for the team of lawyers to come up with whatever alternative theories are necessary, pay the experts to tear the evidence apart. \n\nIt depends on the type of evidence the lawyer is aware of; for example, if the lawyer actually *knows* that their client is guilty (as in, their client has told them that), they're not allowed to let their client go on the stand and perjure themselves.\n\nI'm not sure if *American Crime Story* is what inspired this question (but I just finished watching it, so it's on my mind), so like in the OJ Simpson trial, there's mounds of concrete evidence (largely blood, but also physical evidence such as the gloves and hat, and also hair). This all ties OJ to the scene of the crimes, and the victims to OJ's house and car. So what does his team of lawyers do? Admit that it's OJ's blood, but that it was planted. Turn it into a race issue to try to prove that one racist cop planted the gloves.\n\nOr another celebrity found not guilty, Robert Blake. Two key witnesses for the prosecution said that Blake had tried to hire them to kill his wife. That sounds like strong evidence, until the defence introduces evidence about the effects of chronic drug abuse on the brain, and then the jury starts to doubt what those witnesses remember and what they're saying.\n\nCasey Anthony's defence lawyers found expert witnesses to attack just about every piece of forensic evidence that the prosecution had.\n\nThere is also the option, depending on the client, of admitting that they did it, but say that they weren't mentally fit at the time of the crime. Andrea Yates confessed to her crimes, so she wasn't getting away with anything, so she argued insanity (and I know a lot of people disagree with it, but I do think she was actually insane at the time of the murders, so I'm glad they proved it). But some people do try to fake it, or fake some sort of illness (like sleepwalking) to explain why the evidence was there but why they weren't responsible.\n\nOr try to change the narrative. When the evidence against Jodi Arias got too strong, the defence argued self-defence (of course, it didn't work, though, but it is just an example). When the evidence against Christian Longo built up, he confessed to murdering his wife and daughter, but claimed he did it out of anger and mercy after finding his wife had murdered their other two children. Again, didn't work, but it was the defence attempt to shift the story, give an explanation for the evidence while trying to get him a lesser sentence.\n\nBefore I got into law, I didn't really understand how high of a burden reasonable doubt is on the jury. The defence can do a lot to create that doubt in the mind of a juror."
] |
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