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Did human beings evolve in Africa or in many places simultaneously? | [
"The current prevailing theory is the out of africa hypothesis, that is a small number of humans i think the number may be as low as 600 breeding pairs evolved in africa and then spread out across the world. This is supported by the limited amount of genetic variability found in modern humans. If ama had evolved ac... | [
"Your asking essentially the chicken or the egg. Example, Did you stomach evolove first and create your brain and extremites to feed it. Or did your brain grow your stomach to power it. Har to say, as without something to feed the stomach, we would have no stomch. Without the brain to run everything, we wouldn't ha... |
When did the common Roman citizen figured out that the whole Roman civilization was collapsing? | [
"It obviously differs from region to region, as they were lost at different times. I'd interpret the question as \"when did almost every Roman citizen realize that the times, they are a' changing?\" While this is speculation on my part, I feel like the loss of the rich Eastern provinces and Egypt to the Arabs, and ... | [
"On a slightly related, yet mostly different note - where did people keep their money back in those times? For example a Roman solider gets his pay, where does he put it that isn't just easily stolen by somebody walking into their (potentially) unlocked house and taking it?"
] |
Why do people bot reddit accounts? Is Karma really worth something? | [
"Because it's fun, and good practice for programmers. Also a well made bot can be helpful."
] | [
"IIRC a captcha collects data such as mouse movements and speed of input and such. I may be wrong though"
] |
How do we get our spacecraft, like Voyager, beyond the asteroid belt without running into anything? | [
"While it's called the asteroid belt, the asteroids are not actually that close together. They are grouped relatively closely comparatively speaking, but given the volume of the asteroid belt, you'd basically have to aim in order to hit an asteroid there. [Here] (_URL_0_) is some more information, if you're interes... | [
"I'm sure there are more knowledgeable folks here who can provide a more comprehensive answer, but [there is evidence](_URL_1_) birds navigate over such long distances in part by being biologically sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field. In other words, they have a built in compass. As for where to go, in at leas... |
why do small animals / insects not take damage when they fall? | [
"The mass of an animal is a function of the mean density of its tissues times its volume. When increasing an animals size, its weight will grow as a cubic function. The weight comes into play when determining the momentum of the animal just before it hits the ground - a heavy animal dropped from the same height as ... | [
"Imagine a needle in a haystack that is 10 kilometers wide, and there are only 10 people designated to finding said needle. It would take them an insanely long time. They might find a few of the needles in their allotted time frame, but likely not all of them. When a game is released to the public, it's the same wa... |
When I'm walking to the throne room for a bowel movement, why does the urge suddenly increase ten fold during my walk there and when I'm trying to get my pants down? | [
"I'm not an expert my any means but I'm pretty sure its because you brain is trained to associate a toilet with going to the bathroom. So when you see the toilet, your brain tells you that its time to go."
] | [
"Think of it this way: clothes are made of threads that are wrapped around each other in a mildly organized tangle. Imagine say, a bag with a dozen headphones that are a bit tangled. Now shake the bag violently for five minutes, sometimes pulling on headphone loops. Are they more tangled or less tangled? Most often... |
How did pre-1900s scientists discover so much accurate info about atoms with relatively primitive technology? | [
"Most science is based on having a theory how something would work then saying \"well if it was like that then if I did X then Y should happen\" then doing X to see if Y happens. As long as you have enough technology to do X and check for Y you can do an experiment to see if your theory is right."
] | [
"The same way they do now: using satellite and microwave transmissions. Using the internet is kind of sketchy, because of a lack of control of the bandwidth that can cause the connection quality to drop, which is why other technologies are preferred when feasible."
] |
How did last names become a thing and how were they chosen? | [
"First names are quite easy to understand as people need a way to distinguish each other in a family or a village. But as communities grew larger you could get people with the same name or you may not know the first name of everyone. However this was not a big problem as you could just use a descriptive word or two... | [
"Everybody's front page is different, depending on which subreddits you subscribe to. If you never subscribe/unsubscribe manually or you view reddit without logging into an account, you will see the default subreddits. The default subreddits are determined by reddit staff (presumably based on quality & popularity).... |
Why do birds/squirrels not get electrocuted when they sit on power lines? | [
"Electricity has to complete a circuit - i.e. it has to go into them, and then back out. Think of a battery - they have two poles, one for the current to flow out of, and another for it to return. If something is sitting on just one wire, it's not completing that circuit, and the electricity has nowhere to go."
] | [
"> How does that happen with constant sunlight? Are the Sun's rays weaker due to the angle or something? Yes, the angle is the issue. Consider that there is a certain amount of energy per area of exposure to sunlight. Imagine a sheet of paper which is flat vs edge on to you. The more angled the sheet of paper is to... |
What is the significance of the order of the alphabet? | [
"In general, there is no reason it's in that order. It needs to be in some order, since having a consistent order is necessary for many tasks such as sorting. The order for the current alphabet was adapted from an alphabet written by a monk in 1011 (_URL_0_) I'm not sure where he got his ordering. But it doesn't ma... | [
"In general when planning new communities, they leave gaps in the numbers if there is a possibility of new houses being constructed between existing houses later on. If you have 100 right next to 102, and there are a few acres for new development between them, then you have to add 100a, 100b, and so on, which is me... |
There is a hot debate in France about the representation of the French revolution in Assassin's Creed Unity. What is your opinion on this matter? Could you expand on the history of the representations of the Revolution in France? | [
"Well this is one of the first and most famous historiographical debates. There are a variety of different views expressed by different historians, with most falling into a few camps. Marxists, such as Lefebvre and Soboul, argue that the Revolution was a bourgeois social revolution. Revisionists, like Cobban, argue... | [
"\"A History of Ukraine: The Land and Its Peoples - 2nd Edition\" by Paul Robert Magocsi This book has several chapters on the Bolshevik Revolution and the following Civil War, and how it specifically impacted Ukraine. This source does a great job at narrating the complexity of Ukraine, and how it was involved in ... |
how Gallium weakens Aluminium | [
"Gallium is a liquid at room temperature (or a little warmer). As a liquid, aluminum dissolves well in gallium. It's like salt in water. Salt seems like a pretty sturdy crystal, but if you had a cup made of salt and you filled it with water you'd see a pretty rapid failure."
] | [
"Where I'm from it happens to a lot of older buildings made of Limestone. It's acid from rain slowly reacting with the Calcite in the Limestone. Here's a site that explains it: _URL_0_ If it's the same building materials there, then that would explain it. If not, then I have no idea."
] |
How can computers just be a whole bunch of "1's and 0's" when they can seemingly do many more things than that? | [
"You are just a whole bunch of carbons, oxygens and hydrogens. But here you are reflecting on the nature of computers."
] | [
"Because our bodies are electrochemical pathways that can be 'hacked'. The proper dose of chemical here, and suddenly you're having an epileptic seizure. A splash of a different chemical there, and you have the sudden feeling that something's biting your feet, so you climb a tree to escape it. Another chemical, and... |
What is homeopathy and does it work? Also, is it the same as traditional chinese medicine? | [
"Homeopathy operates on the following fallacious beliefs: 1. That you can cure a disease or ailment by ingesting material which produces in a healthy person the same symptoms as the disease or ailment. That is, if you have a disease which gives you a fever, you should ingest something that would give a normal perso... | [
"Because they displace that weight with the sheer size of the hollowed out size of the ship. The volume of water moved by the hull matches the weight of the hull. Archimedes principle - _URL_0_"
] |
After the disaster at Gettysburg, why did the confederate soldiers still hold Robert E Lee in such high esteem? | [
"why did Napoleon's troops love him after Russia and Leipzig? one battle does not destroy a reputation such as the one Lee built. The post war \"soldier's peace,\" Lee's post war apolitical role and Longstreet's republicanism (opening himself up to unfair criticism by the virginia school) helped post war romantici... | [
"I have a question/observation that is mostly addressed to /u/khosikulu and /u/profrhodes. Though if other post-colonial scholars feel moved to answer, I am all ears. In conversations with Ghanaians that I have met, they have strongly positive attitudes toward Kwame Nkrumah, both from those old enough to remember h... |
Why do some mobile phones have a replaceable battery and some don't? | [
"I suspect it's down to size. Adding clips and removable backs. Adding battery contacts etc are much harder than just a small snap on connection that never moves. It probably helps sell more phones as when your batteries dead your probably going to buy a new phone rather than try and get into an iPhone."
] | [
"In the United States, the President is elected by the Electoral College for a fixed term and can only be removed from office for specific reasons. In parliamentary systems, a prime minister is a member of parliament chosen by other members of parliament to be PM only as long as they want that person there (or they... |
When a program/game crashes, why does it always ask to boot back up into safe mode? | [
"Windows safe mode is a version of the OS that is useful when the OS can't run anymore in normal mode. For example if you made an update to your graphics card driver that crashed the system and restarted it in normal mode it would just crash again as soon as it loaded the graphics card driver while booting. You wou... | [
"- If you want to predict the weather for Nov 1st, and the simulation gets you the result on Nov 23rd, it's pretty useless. - While the simulation runs, people wait for the results. Salaries are expensive; computers, less so. So, you want the computers to give the results quickly so that highly-paid people can cont... |
Do I have higher chance of winning the lottery by picking the same numbers daily versus picking random numbers 365 days? | [
"The chances are the same every single time. You don't narrow your chances each time you play."
] | [
"Your employer takes money out of your paycheck throughout the year to pay your local, state, and federal taxes. The amount they take out, however, is just an estimate how much tax you will probably owe at the end of the year. There's no way for the state, local, and federal governments to know what you actually do... |
The French Revolution - good books to read? | [
"Though I'm not a historian - *The Old Regime and the Revolution* by Alexis de Tocqueville is probably the most significant secondary source to have been written about the French revolution. It doesn't tell the story of the revolution in the way a historian like Andress or Hunt does, but its a work that has left a ... | [
"Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_... |
What part of your Appendix bursting is actually dangerous to humans? | [
"Uh, all of it? You don't want your organs to burst. Pretty much any organ, if it bursts, is going to be life-threatening. Regarding the appendix specifically: for one thing, it means that the blood and lymph vessels that supply the appendix are now severed and spilling blood/lymph into your abdomen. For another th... | [
"Because the secondary charge is packed in the shape of a star or a smiley and a small charge ignites and inflates the shape before the secondary charge blows up. _URL_0_"
] |
What makes so many water fountains function so poorly? | [
"Probably a lack of water pressure, which makes the water come out much less efficiently. Or a lack of water."
] | [
"the heat would require a heat source, electricity or natural gas. Some places may not have the infrastructure to handle that currently, so it would cost a hefty sum just to get that working, and a pretty penny to keep it working. Secondly you would need to collect the waste water, which again, would require infras... |
How do people that lose all memory due to an accident or something of the sort retain the use of language and other things? | [
"The type of memory they lose is called [episodic memory](_URL_0_), which is stored differently in the brain than language or learned skills."
] | [
"An accepted academic philosophy states that as we age, we gain a form of \"crystalized intelligence\" which is formed through the brain's natural assimilation of lived experiences. But although we gain this \"intelligence\" other variants such as kinesthetic and operational intelligences greatly diminish. This is ... |
Have there been any serious naval battles since World War II? | [
"There were some battles during the [Yom-Kippur-War](_URL_0_), and in the [Falkland War](_URL_1_), as quick examples, and I believe the most sweeping changes were brought about by the advent of targeting missiles."
] | [
"To give a slightly different example that /u/Vampire_Seraphin's a current excavation off of the coast of Sri Lanka at a fishing village called Gotavaya is the first marine excavation of an ancient shipwreck in Indian waters. It is dated from the first century BCE/CE, which was the peak of the ancient trade, but as... |
What gives us the ability to perfectly recreate a sound in our heads without being able to actually vocalize that sound? | [
"How do you know you are perfectly recreating a sound in your head? Your head tells you it is."
] | [
"My LI5 explanation - You work out where you are and how you are moving from both your eyes, and the motion detection organs in your ears. When you are in a car, your eyes see the device in front of you, and it does not appear to be moving. But your ears pick up all the movement of the car. So your eyes are saying... |
Why are us humans naturally afraid of the dark? | [
"Because the night is long and full of terrors. At least it used to be. For the major part of our evolution as species, remaining alone in the dark long was a huge increase of chance of being horribly killed and eaten by a predator. It's also less safe to travel or do pretty much anything else whe you can't see. Bo... | [
"Read Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko. It deosn't give an actual reason, but the made up one is pretty cool. Russian distopic modern fantasy. Seriously though, my guess would be either: 1. Extra energy (I sometimes just start running places too.) 2. Seeing a little critter or something that you don't."
] |
Why do cats go limp when their scruff is grabbed? | [
"The scruff is primarily used in two situations. 1) when a mother cat moves her babies and 2) mating. It's easy to see how injury to wigglers in the first case and lack of reproductive success in the second case may have influenced the strengthening of this response among the cat population."
] | [
"One fundamental example is the [*asymptotic freedom*](_URL_0_) of the strong force. At very short distance scales, the strong force (the force by which quarks and antiquarks and gluons interact) becomes much weaker at very short distance scales. The increasing strength of the strong force at larger distance scale... |
Why do interference patterns show up in the double slit experiment but laser pointers can still shoot in a straight line? | [
"Laser pointers are also subject to diffraction. The most highly collimated lasers in the world are called \"diffraction limited.\" In other words, their beam divergence is almost solely dependent on the diffraction at the exit aperture. A typical red laser pointer is actually very divergent straight out of the di... | [
"Think of a marbel in a field at night, you know it is somewhere on the field but you just cannot make it out. Now imagine it's moving. On the other hand, imagine a street light with a fly buzzing around it. You cannot see the fly but if you look at the light long enough you can just make out something changing in ... |
Why can't student loan debt be paid pre-tax? | [
"Can't you deduct your student loan interest on your tax return? That's same effect as paying pre-tax because it drops your taxable income, and just comes back to you as a tax refund. All the pre-tax items you mentioned are typically employer administered, but your student loans are not."
] | [
"YouTube started doing this a while ago, many people would pre-load minutes/hours of content without ever watching it, which is wasting YouTube's bandwidth. So, they now only stream video in segments, like 5-sec each. As for why the already played content isn't cached on your browser, these sites simply didn't allo... |
Is chili a type of soup? | [
"NO!!!! My mother and I often have this argument. Chilli is more like a stew than a soup. She always wants me to add water and make it more liquid. I insist that chilli be eaten with a fork"
] | [
"Your answer was removed shortly before you posted this question. It did not meet our standards. We ask that answers in this subreddit be in-depth and comprehensive, and highly suggest that comments include citations for the information. In the future, please take the time to better familiarize yourself with [the ... |
Why do people with iron deficiencies crave ice? | [
"_URL_4_ In people, pica is related to iron deficiencies, but in pregnant women eating dirt still isn't will explained. All we know it's there's more than one reason different animals eat dirt, we just haven't found the one that applies to people yet"
] | [
"Upbringing bias? If you always drink cold water you will prefer it. My daughter doesn't like cold water, she likes room temp."
] |
How easy is it to knock someone unconscious by hitting their head with something hard? How about to kill them? | [
"You can knock people out by hitting them over the head, but it's not like in movies. There's a pretty fine line between knocking them out and causing permanent damage, and it's not like they're out for hours so you can stuff them in a cupboard while you go off robbing the place. People that are knocked out from he... | [
"Not a huge amount, really. We already pretty much know what's in these products (I mean, with Coke, you can basically just read the label). The difficulty is only getting the exact formulation and mixing right. For most people, the prohibitive part of that is not knowing how it's done - it's having access to the k... |
How did fountains function before the invention of electricity? | [
"One example would be with hydraulics. For example, if you have a U shaped pipe, with one end that is shorter than the other. If water is piped in from the higher end, it will naturally shoot out the short end. This is because water wants to equalize in height. Another example would be if greater force is applied t... | [
"A village well's. There is enough water deep undeground, just not at the surface. And most beduins today have satelite dishes and internet, So i think they are managing just fine :D"
] |
Why were snakes and aspics so used in history as symbols ? | [
"Do you mean 'asp'? An aspic is a savoury jelly."
] | [
"Horse meat isn't rare at all. You can get it in many parts of europe. Tastes ok too. Anyway, that's culture. The same reason we think that bacon and eggs is a breakfast food, and don't eat grasshoppers."
] |
Why is belly fat different from other fat? | [
"abdominal fat is more correlated with insulin resistance. We don't know if the belly fat causes insulin resistance or if insulin resistance makes you more likely to store belly fat. _URL_0_"
] | [
"Probably because the change in temp is less severe. 120 degree water is closer to your body temp than 50 degree water."
] |
What specifically about sugar causes pain in a dental cavity? | [
"Well let's first start out with the question \"what is a cavity\"? It's a hole in your tooth and these holes reveal the nerve endings in your teeth. When you eat foods now, and if they touch the nerve endings, it will depolarize (basically fire off) the nerve cell, giving that sharp sensation of pain. When a nerve... | [
"On a toilet, all your weight is supported on a thin strip of porcelain, while on a flat surface it is distributed evenly. So the thin strip will put more pressure on your nerves."
] |
What is confirmation bias? | [
"When people embrace evidence that support their beliefs and ignore evidence that contradict it. For example, a person who is against vaccines might read news about a person who suffered from a nasty side effect of a certain vaccine, while ignoring news about people who got sick because they didn't vaccinate."
] | [
"General follow up question, is the Bible Belt a geographical area?"
] |
How did the big bang theory came into existence? What were the factors leading to it, and currently, what are the facts that support it? | [
"> Please DO NOT COMMENT about the TV series Damn you, OP! We used to think the universe was timeless and static. However, we began to think that galaxies were all moving away from each other. Georges Lemaitre, a Belgian physicist, posited in 1927 that, if you went far enough back in time, the whole universe would ... | [
"You know how a train horn changes pitch when it is coming towards you fast compared to going away fast? That is the Dopler Effect. Light does that, too. If we look at light from stars, the farther away a star is, more the light appears to be coming from something going away fast. The farther away, the faster the s... |
Does a higher t-cell count mean a stronger immune system? | [
"The elevated T cell numbers in an autoimmune disease represent an increase in the number of T cells that are reacting specifically to the self antigen. T cells that recognize something the flu should not really be increased in number. Also, in a steady, non-infection state, the number of T cells you have above no... | [
"We weren't always obsessed with terrorists; that's the biggest difference. When we had military engagements, we went in, took care of business, and left. While there might have been government spying then as well, it would have been an even bigger deal when it was uncovered, instead of even somewhat justified. So ... |
How can chickens "survive" for several minutes with the head cut off. | [
"It's because the farmer removing the head cuts too high, meaning there's still some brain stem and cerebellum left, which allows the chicken to continue living for (usually) a short period of time. A properly decapitated chicken dies almost instantly. If you pictured it on a person, rather than cutting straight ho... | [
"This has been done before, with animals. Here is a video **allegedly** showing an old Russian experiment done with a dog. It looks real to me, but, then so did *The Wizard of Oz*. Warning, it might be disturbing and upsetting to watch. _URL_0_"
] |
Why can't games and other graphics programs use a circle? | [
"A computer screen is composed of a bunch of tiny square pixels. Circles end up looking jagged. Through anti aliasing, you can make the circle appear much smoother, but it takes much more rendering power than polygons. If you have plenty of computing power to spare circles look pretty good. But if not, its the firs... | [
"I believe they made some realistic CGI films a few years ago. People found them unsettling. They weren't quite 100% realistic, but very very close, and people found that when they saw slightly odd behaviour in characters that looked that realistic, it was just \"wrong\". I'll try to find a reference..... Edit: fou... |
What characteristics make a certain liquid/solid "flammable"? | [
"Volatility, or the tendency of the substance to vaporize and form a gas. Liquid gasoline, for instance, is very hard to burn. However, the vapors coming off of the gas are easy to burn, because they have enough access to oxygen to easily complete the combustion reaction. As for solids, such as wood, the same princ... | [
"When taken out of the freezer they are actually well below freezing. If you pour liquid water on them, it will freeze. If two are touching and you pour water on them, it will freeze onto both of them, attaching them together."
] |
To save the most money on a heating bill, what should I set the temperature at when nobody is in the apartment? | [
"Be careful turning it off / too low during the winter as prolonged cold can damage certain electronics and freeze pipes; either of which will cost you far more than you'll save on energy bills."
] | [
"It really depends on what type of components are in the computer and what sort of power state they are in during the break (eg. standby mode, or just running with a screen saver). But in general the components in computers don't work like that. They use relatively constant amounts of power. Using a theoretical com... |
How do stars explode and create new stars if the reason they exploded was because they ran out of fuel? | [
"They fuse elements together until the core is too heavy. Think of fusion pushing out from the star, and gravity pulling the star together. Once the core gets too heavy the star collapses under its own weight and the remnants of that star are scattered into space. This has and dust can then coalesce and form other ... | [
"It uses a principle called the Venturi effect to suck air through a little pipe in the nozzle. Think about it like sucking on a straw in the air. It's really easy, since you're just sucking in air. Now stick that straw in a milkshake while still sucking on it. If the milkshake is think enough, now you're sucking s... |
The Streisand Effect | [
"HEY EVERYONE! SEE THIS THING RIGHT HERE? WELL, NOBODY LOOK AT IT, OKAY? IT'S VERY IMPORTANT THAT NOBODY EVEN KNOW ABOUT IT. WE'VE EVEN PUT UP A BIG FLASHING NEON **DON'T LOOK AT THIS** SIGN NEXT TO IT, IN FACT. EVERYBODY CLEAR ON THAT? JUST DON'T LOOK OVER THERE."
] | [
"It just means the score is hidden. Usually for about an hour after posting but I'm not sure; that has been my experience. It prevents mass up/down votes probably."
] |
How much cytoplasm does the average animal cell contain? | [
"About 100-1000 femtoliters. & #x200B; But it's a pretty hard thing to answer. The cell with the smallest volume that I know of is the sperm cell, with about 20 femtoliters (fL). The most numerous cell in your body is the red blood cell, and it has a cytoplasmic volume of about 100 fL. But a fibroblast has a volum... | [
"Where is your room exactly that it has two poinds of dust a month?"
] |
I am a non Roman citizen in the year 50 a.d in the Roman empire. What's to prevent me from claiming that I'm a Roman citizen? What kind of proof would people ask for? If I was to go to a different city will they just take my word for it? | [
"This question is asked pretty frequently; one of the more comprehensive answers (by u/Astrogator) can be found [here](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"Most of the main milestones happened in the 19th Century. But it perhaps started in the Romantic Era with Goethe etc in the 18th. Goethe, Schiller, Kant all pushed the idea of a German culture. It was a nationalistic idea based in romanticism. There was a weak German Confederation set up in 1815 By the Revolutions... |
When you leave food out, why does it become cold instead of room temperature? | [
"If you leave wet food out, it will get a little colder than room temperature by evaporative cooling: water molecules in room temperature food aren't all at the same energy, they have a distribution with some being warmer than others, with room temperature being the average. The hotter water molecules escape easier... | [
"It means that physics, as we know it now, is actually a low energy solution to a more general high energy theory. The common analogy is the ferromagnet. Above a high temperature (the Curie Temperature) the magnetic domains are all randomly aligned. But as the ferromagnet cools, the solution will snap into an align... |
Why is it so rewarding/addicting to progress in video games when there is no true benefit? | [
"Because psychologically, people like earning rewards. It makes us feel good to get experience points, advance in levels, unlock achievements, and generally have fun. Video games provide this to us quite easily because they communicate advancement with direct, perceivable results; it's way easier to see Pikachu gai... | [
"Particle on skin may cause danger, scratching removes particle (hopefully), relief of the damaging particle releases feel good chemicals into blood. At the same time scratching slightly damages skin, skin damage releases feel good chemical into blood to counteract pain. So kind of a mix of both."
] |
Would it be legal for me to open up, say, a bar and call it Apple? | [
"In theory, yes. However, large corporations tend to be protective of their brand image so they'll probably come after you if there is any possibility for confusion. For a company like 'Apple', which is merely a common word, it would be very hard for them to argue that you're stealing their brand by opening a bar t... | [
"The company that makes the mug pays a license fee to the owner of the logo and it is rolled into the price of the mug when it is sold to the vender."
] |
Male pattern baldness is usually determined by the mothers side. Are there any other traits that are dominated by one parent or the other? | [
"A rather dramatic example of a syndrome (actually a pair) that depends on which parent a chromosomal anomaly is inherited from is [Prader-Willi](_URL_1_) vs [Angelman](_URL_0_). In either case, genes on chromosome 15 from one parent are deleted or inactivated, while the genes from the other parent are suppressed t... | [
"Straight hair that lies flat tends to hold in heat. That's an advantage in cold climates. Curly hair allows heat to escape while still providing protection from the sun to the skin underneath. That's an advantage in hot climates. Melanin in skin (the part that makes it dark) tends to block what's needed to make vi... |
when water/spit (any clear liquid) goes onto a computer screen, why is it rainbow/multicoloured even if the screen is on a white page? | [
"Because all displays are a mixture of red green and blue pixels (really small dots) and the liquid acts like a microscope so you see these small pixels"
] | [
"_URL_0_ The TL;DR version is that our throats are lined with special cells that use the wet mucus to trap the dust particles and little cellular \"hairs\" called \"cilia\" to transport them back up the windpipe and into the mouth, where we swallow them."
] |
Why is it impossible to travel faster than the speed of light? | [
"The issue is relativistic mass, time dilation and other stuff. To put it simple, an object going fast is heavier than an object going slow. So, if we have a rocket engine with constant thrust, the arceleration will appear to slow down as it approaches the speed of light, because the mass of the object increases an... | [
"To say what would happen, you need a reliable theory. But there are no reliable theories in which ftl travel is possible. There are plenty of crazy theories with ftl travel, so I guess you could pick one and use that, but it would be no less scientific to save yourself the effort and just make it up :)"
] |
How much do we know about Muhammad? | [
"There are several sources you can go to. The Qur’an isn’t really a good source for Muhammad’s life, it’s not a biography like the Gospels are and usually only contains allusions to events that were occurring. The main chunk of information we have comes from the hadith. These are sayings of Muhammad which come from... | [
"Robert kardashian (the OG patriarch) was a high profile lawyer who was a part of OJ Simpsons defense team. Then he died of cancer, his wife remarried and his daughter fucked a c list celebrity and released the tape of it."
] |
If I throw a diamond from the top of a tower, will it shatter? | [
"That would depend on both the tower, the ground and the diamond. Despite being very hard diamonds are quite brittle, which is their main mechanical disadvantage. A whack with a hammer is enough to shatter one, so any drop comparable to that will do the trick as well."
] | [
"There are a lot of people in the world who don't care about laws, or the laws of other countries, or the property rights of other people. For example if you stole a piece of art from someone in England that a wealthy member of the royal family in Saudi Arabia wanted they probably don't care at all that it was stol... |
Can someone explain the Illuminati to me? And why people are so conspiracy crazy about it? | [
"[Look over here. We did this one already.](_URL_0_)"
] | [
"When they first formed in the 1800s and early 1900s they were elite social clubs for professional networking within a college (not party club). They wanted to show off that elite educational status of things by having names and mottos based in Latin and Greek. Two languages associated for centuries with the highly... |
Is there a blob of particles that only loosely interact with matter at the 'bottom' of gravity wells, such as Earths? | [
"Neutrinos are generally very long lived - we observe a background of neutrinos from the very early universe. But they don't collect at the bottom of gravity wells, precisely because they don't interact much with other forces. It takes friction (or some other force) to slow something down, an object will otherwise ... | [
"The collapse of the wavefunction is a claim made by some interpretations of QM. Your thinking assumes QM describes some objective reality. That is, there is some real physical entity, 'the wavefunction', that undergoes some real physical change 'collapse'. The most famous interpretation that talks of a collapse i... |
ELIM: Why am I afraid of spiders, when I know that they are not going to harm me? | [
"Some spiders are poisonous. Some are not. If someone is instinctively afraid of all spiders, it means they're going to avoid all spiders, and are less likely to get bit and killed by a poisonous one than someone who instinctively like to poke spiders with their fingers. If the pokers keep dying from spider bites, ... | [
"I feel like this should be in /r/answers. I can't imagine this is a complicated concept that needs to be simplified. This is a subreddit for explaining complex things as simply as possible, not a subreddit for asking questions a five-year-old would ask."
] |
Why did Humans and Great Apes lose their tails? | [
"Shorter, less mobile spines are thought to be beneficial to brachiation (swinging by arms) and bipedal locomotion. These are more efficient forms of movement, so the tails were just dragging us down after a point."
] | [
"Your question presupposes that the behavior of pinching cheeks is an evolved behavior. Have you considered it might be a culturally learned behavior?"
] |
- Why can't street signs, street lights, utility poles all be integrated to make a more pleasing aesthetic and eliminate clutter on American roads. | [
"Lights need to be at a certain interval, power poles at another interval, and signs at specific locations. So it's not *always* possible to combine them. However, often they are uncombined simply because of a lack of coordination -- they are installed and operated by separate teams, working to separate plans, who'... | [
"Because they use a separate company to provide ads, which come from different web servers. Imagine they're people. Dave works for the pizza company, he delivers your pizza. Sarah works for marketing company, she delivers the ads. Now, you could put a camera on your porch. Then you only open the door for Dave, but ... |
Do fish not feel pain? Why is it generally accepted as being ok to put a hook through a fish's cheek for catch and release? | [
"I think people on this thread have done a good job addressing the pain aspect of things. As for why people think it's OK to harm fish by hooking them - when it comes to judging the \"right\" treatment of animals we tend to think of their ability to suffer. Pain is a physical stimulus, but suffering is an emotion (... | [
"The video shows every step. The fish, crab, and eels, have millions of years of evolution where finding holes in the bank to hide in resulted in fewer deaths from predation. So they seek the holes. They seek dark holes with the scent of prey. Humans come along. They imitate the dark holes with bamboo. They put ou... |
Blood types and donation | [
"If you have \"A\" \"B\" or \"O\" blood group you have antibodies in your blood plasma that destroy some of the other blood groups. So if you have \"A\" you can't donate to \"B\" and vice versa. However, if you have \"O\", you will produce antibodies to fight \"A\" and \"B\". If you have \"AB\" your blood will not ... | [
"Each of the bills have slightly different details the machine can read. As far as coins, it's done by weight and, if you can get a slug the same size/weight as a quarter, you can probably \"fool\" the machine."
] |
the 9 realms and the marvel universe | [
"See, this is what happens when you don't make an effort to get everyone on the same page when you're world-building. The best you can really do is \"just go with it.\" According to my (incredibly flawed) understanding of norse mythology, the 9 realms could be considered like alternate dimensions, or they could be ... | [
"As many as you choose to include in your theory. Do you have a specific QFT in mind, like the Standard Model?"
] |
Why has the US historically had trouble winning wars with Asian countries? | [
"Korea was [crazy all-around](_URL_0_); the US was literally *about* to win it (Communist forces had been pushed all the way north to the Chinese border) when the Chinese stepped in on North Korea's behalf, and the US was unwilling to actually fight the Chinese because we thought it would trigger World War III. Vie... | [
"I'm no expert, but I think it stems from how the human pelvis is still too similar to the pelvis of 4-legged animals. In order to stand upright without getting hip problems, we have evolved a more narrow pelvis. That would be fine except that we also get a huge advantage from having a huge brain. The conflicting g... |
If secular humanists have religious tax-exemption, how is any gay marriage ban not a violation of their first amendment rights? | [
"While they are intertwined, marriage as a religious ceremony and marriage as a legal contract are separable. You can perform a marriage ceremony for anyone you want, people even do it for their pets and to inanimate objects. But gay marriage bans only apply to the civil contract."
] | [
"As to the stereotype that Buddhists are somehow exceptions, I'd ask anyone holding that view to look at Burma and the fate of the Rohingya Muslims who the UN describes as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Despite hundreds of years of history of living in Burma they still are very often treated as... |
Mali Empire's expedition to South America? | [
"Mansa is a military title, originally meaning something like \"supreme commander\" but evolving to have connotations making it similar to a royal title. So, calling him \"Emperor Mansa\" is a bit redundant. To answer your question, no, there is not evidence to suggest that a Malian fleet reached the Americas. In f... | [
"Just to clarify your question, when you say \"any middle ages nation\" do you mean \"any random one of them,\" as in, say \"could the Kingdom of Hungary or the Buyids have sailed to the new world?\", or do you mean would it have been possible for, say, the single most advanced among them to have sailed to the new ... |
How do youtubers make a living? | [
"Well they get ad revenue from their videos. They might get pennies per hundred clicks, but if you have millions of people lining up to watch your videos, that number adds up. In addition to that they start to do promotional things, either with YouTube or other companies. Things like YouTube conventions/events wher... | [
"They use this - _URL_1_ It records all of the major news channels and indexes the closed captioning data so that it's searchable. _URL_0_"
] |
Why is it that burps don't taste/smell like throw-up? | [
"Depending on when you burp (how far along the food has been digested). Some burps actually do smell like vomit."
] | [
"A few reasons, first you may remember from high school chemistry the ideal gas law. PV=nRT, where P=pressure, V=volume, n= number of moles, R is a constant and T is temperature. If you spray a pressurized gas (the propellant in the can), which is typically butane or propane, as the gas comes out of the spray nozz... |
Why are Cinematic movies shot in only 24fps? | [
"It's for historical reasons. In the very early days, over 100 years ago now, a range of frame rates were tried before a standard emerged. Film was expensive and not very light sensitive so they basically went with the lowest acceptable rate. Even so, projectors display each frame twice, fudging a 48fps rate, to re... | [
"My guess? When you're dealing with a lot of makeup, prosthesis, special effects its easier to hide flaws. You can see acne under makeup in high def, you couldn't really see that back in the day. Just a guess."
] |
Why do multiples of 9, always come back to 9 when their digits are added together? | [
"A proof by induction: Every time you add 9 to a number whose digits already add up to a multiple of 9 (say, 9, for example!), then you do one of two things: If the number ends in a 0, that 0 changes to a 9, and all other digits stay the same. Otherwise, the last digit goes down by 1 and the next digit goes up by 1... | [
"I don't know where you experienced this but I do it all the time. I bought a tv one day. It came up to $500 and something. I handed the dude 4 100 dollar bills, and told him I was going to put the rest on a card. He punched in the $400 and got my new Total of $100 something. Then I ran my card like normal."
] |
Why is Latin a 'dead' language? | [
"You can learn and speak it. It's \"dead\" because there are no native speakers in it anymore. No country or culture speaks it as a native language, teaching it to their young as a native first-language."
] | [
"Usually, lack of interest over time. These kind of projects don't have many funds (even not at all) to promote themselves. People who join don't compensate for the people who left. However most of these projects are still active due to a dedicated community with a lot of computing power - and a good part of them ... |
What exactly is a strawman argument? | [
"Basically, instead of responding to your argument, I make up an easier argument to fight, pretend that it's what you mean, and respond to that instead. Typically the fake argument (the \"straw man\") is a more extreme version of the original argument, but not always. So if you said something like \"I think we shou... | [
"This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_"
] |
Why is standardized testing still the norm when a lot of studies say that it is negative for the learning system? | [
"First, its hard to drop a system that appears to be doing its job just fine. We've built our educational systems around it and its not that simple to just make it go away. Universities like it because it lets them evaluate candidates much more smoothly. What will replace it? Secondly, politics."
] | [
"Sugar tastes good. When faced with a choice between that which is smart and that which is pleasing, most people will spend their money on the latter. A business exists to sell people what they *want* to buy, not what some might feel they *should* buy."
] |
If all the cells and molecules in our skin change, then why do we keep bruises and marks from our childhood? | [
"[Here](_URL_0_) is an image of the layers of the epidermis. The bottom-most layer, the stratum basale, mostly contains epidermal stem cells. These cells divide and slowly make their way through all 5 layers eventually dying and being scraped off. The stratum basale is what allows our skin to regenerate and continu... | [
"commercialism. if you were happy with your old stuff, you wouldn't need to buy new stuff. all the designers and manufacturers come out with new looking stuff and market the old stuff as ugly and new stuff as pretty in order to make money. our tastes are hugely influenced by others."
] |
What is the “star” system of Reddit? | [
"Those stars are Reddit Gold. If you've got money to spare and someone makes a particularly good post/comment, you can gift them a month of Reddit Gold (also known as \"gilding\" the post). Reddit Gold is the premium subscription to Reddit and it allows extra features and exclusive subreddits, while also supporting... | [
"This is a very common question. You can use search to find [all the other really good answers](_URL_0_ ). This is instant, and faster than ust typing in your question every time. It's a way of cheating elections. Read the others, and then ask a more specific question."
] |
Why do planes shake when going through clouds? | [
"Usually it's cumuliform (puffy) clouds that do this. While enough moisture in the air will cause clouds to form, any source of lifting will cause these clouds to fluff up. That air movement will, obviously, also effect the airplane and push it around. It's basically the same as turbulence you get in clear air. Th... | [
"They're called [contrails](_URL_0_), and they're the result of water condensation."
] |
Why do surgeons inflate the body cavity with CO2 during Laparoscopic surgery, if CO2 is a waste gas? | [
"You're right that CO2 can dissolve in the blood and cause a mild hypercapnia and acidemia. However, of the gases that have been used, [CO2 is the safest because of its high solubility and thus low likelihood of gas embolism](_URL_1_), which may result in serious complications. Oxygen is a bad idea because of the ... | [
"Negative air pressure. Warmer air takes up more volume than cooler air. When food is hot, and you seal it in an airtight container, the remaining air in the airtight container is warmed by the hot food. As the food cools -- even a little -- the air temperature also cools. As the air temperature decreases, the co... |
Why does the English language have a different word for prepared meat and the animal it comes from? (Eg. Pork and pig, venison and deer, beef and cow) | [
"It comes from when England was invaded and conquered by the Normans from France in 1066. Being from France the Normans spoke French while the rest of the country being English spoke English. The English were mostly poor and did not eat a lot of meat though they did raise the animals. The Normans being the conquere... | [
"Dogs and cats are better suited for the tasks we give them. There is not a lot that a deer can do that something else we have tamed could do more efficiently. Although reindeer are used in extremely cold environments that would not be good for horses."
] |
Are there any examples of sexual reproduction that involves more than 2 gametes? | [
"While there are some organisms with more than 2 sexes, like [Tetrahymena,](_URL_0_) no organisms combine more than 2 gametes at a time. Plants do something sort of close though. Most species of flowering plants use a process called double fertilization. When the sperm (delivered by a pollen grain) arrive at the eg... | [
"Because this is how it works... Every animal seeks to survive to pass on it's genetical code. This is why in a bank robbery one man with a pistol (let's say 13 rounds) can hold down 30 people, because no one wants to be one of the (worst case) 13 people who get shot before taking the bad guy down."
] |
Why are Neanderthals classified as a different species from Homo Sapiens? | [
"Speciation can happen both from inability to have viable offspring and from behaviors or geographic locations that create barriers to having viable offspring. Speciation is also considered a more gradual thing than a lot of people realize. Finally, there is evidence that surviving Neanderthal genes in modern human... | [
"Better food access. This is most notably seen in Korea--North Korean men are, on average, at least an inch shorter than their counterparts in South Korea. _URL_0_"
] |
What is the smell of static on old tv's? | [
"Do you get a similar smell from photocopiers/laser printers? Some electrical equipment (especially that using high voltages) can generate ozone to the levels where you'll detect it by nose.. I've never heard of a TV doing it specifically, but there are some moderate to high voltages in the cathode ray tube of old... | [
"That film is usually chemicals leaching out of the plastic! When plastic or rubber are made they use a variety of binders, stabilizers, blending agents etc, and not all of them are proving to be very shelf stable after all these years."
] |
how do we recognize songs playing that we can't consciously hear? | [
"Your brain is recognizing the bass line from the song. At those lower frequencies, they'll be more likely to reach your brain at a distance, but you might not consciously tune in on it since you can't hear the melody, which are in higher frequency ranges."
] | [
"It's caused by the speakers picking up the radio transmissions from the phone. The frequency band of 3G and older caused this more effectively than newer LTE stuff, so it doesn't happen on a lot of new phones."
] |
Why are "Not Responding" programs unable to close immediately when pressing "End Now", but do so when ending from Task Manager? | [
"End now essentially means the following Os: program, please close now. finish what you're doing and stop. program: < ignores the OS being unresponsive and stuck and all > Os: program, please stop. program: < ignores the OS > **repeat ad infinitum** . terminate means Os: program, please close now. Program: < i... | [
"Imagine driving a long distance on the road. Your destination is 160 miles away, so you drive along the highway at about 80mph and figure that you need about 2hours total. Then, in the middle of that 160mi, the road gets very bad (you had no chance of knowing that) so you can drive only 50mph. You don't know if th... |
Why 78 degrees inside the house feels much less comfortable than 78 degrees outside | [
"There is little to no air movements in most homes which means your body does not cool as efficiently as warm air forms a pocket around you and stops easily absorbing body heat. As such temperatures have to be colder indoors to be the same level of comfort."
] | [
"I found this basic experiment after a quick google search: _URL_2_ TL;DR: Measurements after a 1h exposure in the sun: Black shirt: 130 °F, white shirt: 107 °F (Difference: 23 °F or 15 °C). Admittedly not the most rigorous of experiments, but it shows that the phenomenon is real and that the difference can be mor... |
How can a few satellites can manage hundred of millions of users ? | [
"> does the satellite emits one signal that is interpred by every single user on his own or do the satellite do any calculus that it send to the user. The satellite emits one signal. This signal contains, among other things, information on the time that it was emitted. GPS receivers collect this signal from multipl... | [
"New apps that acquired a large player base does so by creating very big advertisement campaigns for example travago and line 'messenger\" ads almost went on tv everyday for an entire month. By paying alot for advertisement these app makers increases their market share in a given market which is potencial very rewa... |
Why is infertility such a problem in humans, but not an issue with the animal kingdom? | [
"Usually enough animals are able to reproduce to keep the species going, but then that's true of humans too. Infertility is a problem for individual humans, but not for humans as a species. Individual animals may be infertile too, but they are not able to complain about it."
] | [
"Yes, there are many examples. These are just a few: * Chimpanzees: [Ex. 1](_URL_2_), [Ex. 2](_URL_3_), [Ex. 3](_URL_0_); there are [many more](_URL_1_). * [Monkeys](_URL_6_) * Whales: [Ex. 1](_URL_5_), [Ex. 2](_URL_4_) * Birds: [Ex. 1](_URL_8_), [Ex. 2](_URL_7_)"
] |
Is it possible to build up enough static electricity to seriously harm yourself? | [
"Lightning is an example of static electricity which can harm you, but it is built up by systems much larger than your body is capable of replicating. If you were to try to build up enough static electricity by doing something like shuffling wool socks against carpet, your feet would melt off long before you could ... | [
"Hi, this question was asked not too long ago, I recommend you check out this link: _URL_0_ That should answer your question. In short, I believe you would nut suffer from dehydration in the traditional sense, but various other problems arise, which I suggest you explore that link for more info."
] |
why is it that more serious injuries (broken legs, etc) often feel less painful immediately than a stubbed toe or pinching your finger in a door? | [
"Some superficial injuries hurt more because nerve cells are more numerous on the surface of the skin. Additionally, smaller injuries may hurt more as a warning signal: \"don't do that again!\" Once you sustain a serious injury, the autonomic nervous system kicks into serious endorphin/injury recovery mode. There'... | [
"Simply put for the same reason drinking water when you're not thirsty isn't as refreshing as when you're REALLY thirsty. Anticipating the bodies' needs doesn't trigger the same reward responses in the brain as fulfilling a need that is already present. Your muscles don't NEED to stretch right now, so you can't ant... |
Are there any writings from someone who was alive during both the American Revolutionary War and American Civil War? | [
"Martin Van Buren and Josiah Quincy are the two most prominent politicians who come to mind who were alive for both wars. However Van Buren wasn't born until 1782, and Josiah Quincy wasn't born until 1772 making him extremely young for the duration of the revolutionary war. Quincy is notable for continuing to claim... | [
"Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_... |
How can fast food companies (McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's etc.) make a profit on a $0.99 cheeseburger? | [
"Everyone here is assuming McDonalds take a loss, they dont. _URL_0_"
] | [
"I'm Saudi Arabia. I have a crap ton of oil, and some sand. I want to buy wood to build with. Since no one wants the sand, I have oil, which is valuable, I'll sell that to the U.S. for dollars. Then I'll use those dollars I just earned to buy wood from Zaire. Before, I couldn't build things, which was bad for me. N... |
How do passwords obtained from iBanking tokens have a timeout, when they are not wirelessly connected to the internet in real time? | [
"They are based on an algorithm that uses a secret pre agreed key and the clock in the device. After some time has elapsed the code you have no longer matches the current time."
] | [
"ATC here checking in, the system you are talking about is a transponder and there are a ton of reasons for it to be turned off, in congested areas like an airport we have pilots squawk standby so that our radar displays don't get overcrowded, also when in a flight (multiple aircraft flying as one, think blue angel... |
why does shipping to China only take a week or so but shipping out of China takes a month? | [
"You know those ridiculously low shipping prices you sometime get on items from China? They get that low because they ship in bulk, so they have to wait until enough items are ordered and they can send it to the local (American, European etc) sorting station. Which results in low prices but takes a long time."
] | [
"Your lightening cable is more than just a cable. It actually contains a small chip, which communicates with the device. Companies can get around this by \"reverse-engineering\" the chip - trying to figure out what it does, then building their own chip which does the same thing. In theory this ought to work - but s... |
Why is the front of a bus flat, as opposed to the pointed fronts of cars? | [
"Buses typically have a lot of people walking in front of the bus while getting on/off at a stop. Having the flat front and a large windshield helps the driver see if any people (especially small children) are in front of the bus."
] | [
"Someone correct me if I am wrong but it goes back to when we had much hairier bodies and when alarmed we as well as a lot of other mammals would puff up our hair to make ourselves look bigger. Think of how when you scare a dog or a cat it hunches up and its hair stands on end, same thing happens to us just we dont... |
What would it feel like to be in an extreme low-pressure environment, such as the eye of a hurricane? (ignoring other hurricane effects) | [
"You might feel slightly out of breath more quickly if you were exercising. For comparison, the pressure in the middle of record setting Patricia is about 26 inches Hg. Average pressure in Denver is about 25 inches Hg."
] | [
"The Cor**iolis** force doesn't depend *directly* on where you are. Rather, it depends on *how fast* and *in what direction* you're moving. Some illustrative examples: If you're moving in the N-S direction *exactly* at the equator, the Coriolis force is zero. If you're moving in the W-E direction *exactly* at the e... |
When switching from one WiFi to another, how come it shuts off the internet while switching, and can’t pass it over without an interruption? | [
"That's because your device has to \"prep\" a lot of configurations such as encryption keys, protocols etc. Think of it as switching the battery in your car, you first gotta unplug it, check which wire goes well, reassure you did it correctly and then proceed to turn your car on. It took you time to do all that, ... | [
"I learned about this researching how to help my kid be a better sleeper. Essentially, you are over-tired. There is a \"sweet spot\" for everyone regarding the time they should go to bed (just the right level of drowsy). Once you get past that, your brain thinks there must be an important reason for you to continue... |
Why do candles smoke more just after being blown out? | [
"[This video](_URL_0_) has some nice slow motion close-ups. The \"smoke\" is tiny droplets of wax vaporizing from the hot wick. While the candle is burning, they are consumed by the combustion process into gases like CO2 and H2O, among other things. With the flame extinguished, the unburned wax droplets remain, an... | [
"Someone correct me if I am wrong but it goes back to when we had much hairier bodies and when alarmed we as well as a lot of other mammals would puff up our hair to make ourselves look bigger. Think of how when you scare a dog or a cat it hunches up and its hair stands on end, same thing happens to us just we dont... |
Can someone explain what the basic concept is behind multiplexing? | [
"As far as I understand it, multiplexing depends on packetized protocols, and letting you put many streams of packets in a single stream by somehow identifying which packet belongs to which stream so that you later can \"demux\" them, for instance by tagging the packets or knowing the order they come in or by type.... | [
"Pictures on TV screens and computer screens are made from a whole bunch of teeny-tiny dots of lots of different colours. More dots, all jammed really, really close together, means the picture looks better. 'Cause the dots are less noticeable. And there's way more details. That's hi-def. More dots."
] |
if my hand moves the same speed as a flyswatter, why does a fly almost always see my hand, but never sees the flyswatter? | [
"- The flyswatter is moving faster than Your hand - the flyswatter has holes in it to allow air to move through it unlike your pancake hand which air had to move around it so even if the fly never saw your hand rapidly approaching the pressure wave could blue it out of the way. Pro Tip, instead of striking the fly ... | [
"Think of it like a hose... and a room made of sponge. The light bulb is a hose, spraying water (light) everywhere. The room is a sponge, absorbing the water (light) all the time. The moment you turn the light off, it's like closing the faucet to which the hose is attached. It stops spraying water (light) everywhe... |
Why do cars with automatic transmission give a jerk in the forward direction whenever the ignition is turned off? | [
"When you put an automatic transmission in park, a small pin known as the pawl drops into place to keep the transmission (and thus the vehicle) from moving. If a car moves after being put it in park, the vehicle is rolling due to gravity (or inertia) and you are witnessing slop in the transmission move slightly (be... | [
"Software can often store information in temporary places. When you go through a shutdown/quit/exit process, it's not just stopping that program, it should also be reverting any of those file/directory locks and bringing the 'temporary' information back to a 'permanent' state. When you just pull the cord out of th... |
Why people aren't allowed to enter in Vatican's Library? What is hidden in those secret Libraries? | [
"I'd think that the Vatican's library is home to many ancient books that the normal person wouldn't know how to handle without damaging them"
] | [
"I *think* what it is supposed to be is a twisting of the word \"opera\" to rhyme with \"foppery\" in the previous line: By fashion and foppery, I'm never discussed Attending the opry, my box would be a bust I think she's saying if she were to dress up all fancy in a box seat in an opera, her relatively poor (never... |
Why girl's handwriting is almost always neater than boys. | [
"A few of the explanations I've seen out there * Women have more *in utero* exposure to progesterone, which may be correlated with more traditionally feminine characteristics such as attention to neatness * Women tend to receive more praise for compliant behaviour at a young age, whereas young boys will often only ... | [
"There two factors, environmental and genetic. First Genetic: Taller people tend to live shorter lives, _URL_5_ _URL_2_ _URL_1_ People who consume more calories live shorter lives _URL_4_ _URL_3_ _URL_0_ So men are on average taller, eat more, \"burn more\". So this is just pure physics a bigger body ages faster a... |
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