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Why do we close our eyes when we are afraid that something my hit/harm us?
> I understand that eyelids can protect your eyes from dust/dirt, but if something big and sharp hits your eye then your eyelids aren't really going to help Isn't it? Think back to our ancestors. If you're walking through a forest and out of the corner of your eye you see a tree branch falling, a sharp edge of a stick ...
why does it look like big (really big) things fall slower than smaller things?
They appear to move slower relative to themselves. Consider a ball 1 cm across, and one 10 meters across. In the first second of falling, each will fall the same distance; about 5 meters. But the first ball will have gone 500 times it's diameter, while the second will have traversed barely one of it's radii, appearing ...
If all polar caps melted, would we be able to consume seawater due to the reduced salinity?
nope, because even a few meters increase in Sea level is far less than a 1% increase in total ocean volume. The ocean is really really big. So we would still be fucked without the added benefit of extra drinking water. If anything it might reach some near coast lakes and ruin those.
Some people tell me I'm legally required to pay income taxes, and some tell me it's unconstitutional. Which person is correct and why?
It is constitutional until the courts rule it unconstitutional. Currently it is firmly on the side of "legally required"You are legally required to pay income taxes. Some people are politically opposed to taxes, so they claim that it is unconstitutional. This is 100% not true because taxes are directly mentioned in the...
How are syringe needles made?
Take a tube and yank on it. It stretches out to be very thin but the hole in the center doesn't collapse! Do this carefully a bunch of times and you can end up with good thin needles._URL_0_ This is a "How Things Are Made" video that goes into great detail on how hypodermic needles are made.
Why cant we just stop media outlets from covering terrorism? Wouldn't that effectively make it pointless?
Freedom of the press. If you prevent the media from reporting something, that opens room for abuse. Police beating that man to death? Fits most definitions of terrorism. That government crackdown on dissidents? Terrorism. Invading another country? Terrorism.There's a difference between reporting that something terrible...
Why do languages develop words with double meanings? (Like "right" in English)
Possibly because the 'same\' word came from two different places. More often, though, it's just a branching out from the original meaning. The word 'right\' is a good example given how many things it can mean, but really, in a certain sense, it means the same thing. [Check this out.] \'Right\' came from the original me...
The argument that Science can answer moral questions.
You watched his talk? Was there something in it you didn't understand? I thought he explained it pretty simply. What were some of the concepts or examples you didn't follow?
Why do countries exist?
They evolved, as powerful people organized armies to take control of areas of land. You could only control an area where you could send warriors to enforce your will, so each leader had a finite geographic area -- his country. In many cases these were quite small -- areas only a few km across could be independent count...
the second half of TLS/SSL
The public key isn't used to encrypt the data, it's only used for key exchange - the client uses this key to encrypt and send information that will be used by both parties to generate a shared key, just for this session. This key is then used for a symmetrical encryption such as AES.
How do physiologists differentiate between mental disorders and personality?
Psychiatrist and/or psychologist? There is a [manual] for it with the various criteria. One of the general criteria for personality disorders would be that it "lead to clinically significant distress or impairment in important areas of functioning," which is really the main difference between an odd personality and a p...
Assuming humans are still alive at the time, how close will andromeda have to be to the Milky Way before we notice changes such as gravity, weather, and other stuff.
Based on current calculations astrophysicists predict a 50% chance that in a merged galaxy, the Solar System will be swept out three times farther from the galactic core than its current distance.\xa0They also predict a 12% chance that the Solar System will be ejected from the new galaxy sometime during the collision. ...
How is it possible to self-plagiarize yourself?
The concept is poorly named by people with a limited vocabulary. Your instinct that the sin of plagiarism lies primarily in taking other people's work is right--that is the origin of the term. However, particularly in academia, reusing your previous work without properly identifying it as such is also wrong. This is be...
How can the Sun's gravitational pull be strong enough to keep Pluto in orbit but not just pull Mercury into it?
The Sun's gravity is pulling Mercury, but the planet is traveling so fast that it can't fall fast enough to ever hit the Sun. Mercury's orbit is elliptical though, so it does vary in distance from the Sun. As it gets closer to the Sun the pull from the Sun's gravity does increase, but so does the orbital velocity of Me...
How can or why would someone consider themselves being transgender without being pre-op or post-op?
I'm no expert - but surely it's possible for someone who was born a man to feel like a woman, to chose to live her life as a woman, dress like a woman, and identify as a woman, but not want to undergo major surgery? And vice versa. All surgery is risky. I would imagine that your friend would have their genitals changed...
The difference between an enoteca, trattoria, etc. in Italian dining
An enoteca, in the original Italian sense is just a wine shop. It is usually a shop dedicated to regional wines. Now, of course, in most enoteche you can also eat. A trattoria is much like a restaurant, but is less formal: usually there isn't a real menu, and the available dishes change almost every day.No one wears a ...
I have mild asthma, if I can only spare 30 minutes to an hour a day to exercise, what should I do?
anything cardio is fine. or lifting weights. cardio directly burns fat, whereas lifting weights build muscles which burns fat and increase metabolism which burns fats. lifting is kind of an indirect way of losing weight.
Why do parts of your body involuntarily twitch/flutter repeatedly for short to medium periods of time?
As unsatisfying as this answer is, most of the time no one has any idea why it happens. There's usually no obvious physical cause, no diseases, and no tests to show that anything is wrong. And then just as randomly stops as if it'd never been there. And that's pretty much it. Sometimes such symptoms can be caused by in...
What happens to an embassy when the country it represents gets declared war on
International law would dictate they are given safe passage back to their home countries, but in practical terms, whatever the country they are in wants. It is not unheard of for diplomats to be made captive. Also, they would not be POWs, that is a status for soldiers. Another thing to consider is their relationship to...
What is the purpose of adding -eth to the ending of some verbs in older writings?
In Middle English, you 'd conjugate the verb "to think" like so: Singular | Plural---------|---------- think | think thinkest | think thinketh | think People just started using 'thinks\' instead of 'thinketh\' and dropped the 'thinkest\' altogetherI go, thou goest, she goeth. Modern English lost most of these inflectio...
How do standard BIC Lighters work? They appear to be a liquid, but are released as a gas.
Butane gas is contained within the body under pressure. This pressure condenses it into a liquid, dramatically increasing the quantity of fuel that can be stored in a given volume . When you push the activation nub it opens a valve allowing the butane to leave. When it leaves, the pressure drops and the butane converts...
What causes the tingling feeling in my arm/leg when the blood flow is restricted?
It is called [paresthesia]. You basically already explained it; it happens when there is in interruption of circulation to an area. Think of it like this: a hose is running with water, you begin to kink the hose, and all of a sudden, only a few drops are trickling out, or none at all. When you release the pressure, the...
Why does combining a gyroscope and an accelerometer only give me the pitch - roll orientation and not yaw?
You can measure yaw just fine. The issue is that based purely on accelerations, you can't have a stable yaw reference over time. What's being measured is only the _rate_ of rotation, not the orientation itself. Any errors or noise in the sensor data or the integration process will add up over time to wreck your referen...
Is it *actually* possible to change the size of your penis?
No it's a scam. From previous thread - What they don't tell you, is that with the pills you get also a pump. Which brings blood to your penis, and the pill being a chemical that temporary helps that process. So it is technically a penis enlargement pill, the same ways as Viagra is.
How does digestion work in zero gravity?
digestion still takes place even when you are upside down because our digestive system has many muscles that force things to the endYour muscles push the partially digested food along. Even on Earth, you can swallow something while being upside down - not to mention parts of your digestive track travel upwards against ...
Why is having money in tax havens like Swiss Bank accounts considered bad if it is not actually illegal? If it is illegal why is there a Swiss Bank?
Depositing income into Swiss Bank accounts for the purpose of avoiding taxes is illegal, but there may be other reasons for wanting to keep money overseas and secret/secure. Also, Swiss banks are governed by laws of Switzerland, so U.S. laws have no bearing on whether and why they exist their laws could be completely d...
What's the difference between a 10Mb/s connection and a 100Mb/s one when the "bits" travel at the speed of electricity in both cases?
Nobody is really giving a good answer. The difference is this: at 100 Mb, the bits are packed tighter together. So suppose you have a piece of wire such that it takes a [nanosecond] for the signal to travel from one end to the other. This is the same regardless of how fast you're sending data. What changes is how long ...
Why do movies look smooth at 24 fps but video games look choppy under 60 fps?
A computer frame is a rendering of an exact point in time. A camera frame is a capture of everything over a short period of time . Lets say a baseball pitcher throws a ball to a catcher. A computer will render the ball as it leaves the pitchers hand, every new frame the ball will appear to "leap" a few feet closer to t...
why has my health insurance premium doubled in the last year while my plan has remained the same?
There are two factors, neither of which are about you or you have any control over. 1) Employer contribution. If this has gone down or has remained capped at previous years levels, the percentage of the premium cost you pay goes up. 2) Insurer Confidence This year insurance companies are very uncertain about what their...
what makes some drugs more expensive than the other?
* Expense and ease to manufacture - some drugs are very difficult to make, particularly when they involve very rare diseases or conditions, or have to be tailored for a specific individual each time like gene therapy can be. * Age of the drug - If it's been around for 25 years, odds are if it's highly profitable and th...
why won't world leaders recognize Crimea seceeding from Ukraine?
A referendum vote during a military takeover in which the Country being voted to join is occupying the region unlawfully is both unlawful and immoral. If Russia wasn't occupying the region and Crimea independently decided to vote on secession citing Ukraine's instability then the vote would have to be recognized.
If HTML 5 is smaller, faster, and more effecient, why don't GIF dependent sites such as Imgur and Tumblr use it already?
It's still fairly new. It's not supported on all devices, not everyone likes or uses them. And the process to make them is very different, so it's not like you can go "Alright, gifmakers, just hit the Html5 button at the end now."
Why does the USA government allow cable companies to have monopolies over a area?
Natural monopolies are not illegal. A monopoly is only illegal if you actively take actions to prevent or eliminate competition. One such action is buying out the competition, but competition choosing to not invest in the region you choose to invest is not illegal.It's hard enough to get one company to invest in servin...
How come certain vaccinations will last for your whole life, despite the fact that your body cells are continuously dying and regrowing anew?
Your immune system fights disease with chemicals called antibodies, found in your white blood cells. Each antibody type can kill a different virus, bacteria, or disease. If your white blood cells come into contact with a dangerous pathogen, your immune system creates the antibodies that it knows will work to stop the d...
Why is Comcast hated so much?
Customers expect better service for the money that they're paying. There are two ways to look at this: 1. The customer expects too much from comcast for what that customer actually pays. 2. Comcast is giving too little to customers for what the customer pays. These two views are independently held by comcast and the cu...
My Windows 95 computer from '96 can run Doom and stream music in the background, but my Windows 10 2016 Xbox can't. Why?
It can, technically speaking hardware wise. The thing is that its Operating System is not coded/configured to do it, as a choice from the developers. They probably want you to listen to the game music/sounds alone instead of listening to your music. Now, the reason why they would want that beats me.
How does dynamic cruise control and accident prevention braking work?
I believe these systems constantly monitor the field of view in front of the car. Imagine a camera with a green zone amber, and red. If it's in the green zone, the car cruises along as normal, when you get too close to the car it prepares its systems giving you chance to brake yourself based on it's recommended distanc...
How did Oprah get to be such a big deal?
She struck a chord with a lot of people because they could relate to her, for the fact that she had grown up poor, her struggles with her weight, and so on. She hit TV at a time when daytime talk shows were hugely popular, and she's very good at what she does: so good that her show was syndicated nationally extremely f...
I have a portable air conditioner. Is it more effective to direct the vents towards the floor or ceiling to cool a room?
Since cooler air sinks, aiming the vents up will result in more even cooling. If you're sitting on the floor, aiming the vents horizontal or down may be more comfortable.Hot air floats, cool air sinks.. thats why many heaters in a room are at the bottom. So facing it up would probably more effective.
Why does every shower, no matter how hot I have it set for, always have that initial burst of ICE COLD WATER?
I'm about to change your life. Turn the shower on and let it heat up before actually getting into it.Because the hot water comes from the water heater. There is water in the pipes between the water heater and the shower head. When the shower is not in use that water is sitting in the pipes. It is at room temperature, t...
How do clouds float if they are so heavy?
There are 2 aspects that allow clouds to stay up. 1) they're incredibly sparse: entire clouds are heavy but each drop is small, very small, about one micron, or one-hundred-thousandth of an inch across. Each individual particle is so small that 2) warm air currents keep clouds afloat: warm air rising from the earth’s s...
Why is it that maps are all oriented with North at the top?
Polaris! While medieval maps were oriented toward Jerusalem , renaissance cartographers rediscovered Greek/Roman maps and liked their use of Polaris, the north star. Explorers used stars to navigate to the new world. So as they added to the maps, they did them in reference to the starsFunny you say north oriented. Orie...
Why don't hockey teams use extremely large men as goalies?
The rules limit how big a goalie's pads can be, so they don't show up with giant pads that block the goal. So a fat guy might take up a lot of space, but much of his body will be unprotected from 150+ km/h slap shots. He might block the first few, but he'll be leaving the ice on a stretcher before the game is over.
How do new medical techniques spread?
One of the main ways they spread are through residencies and fellowships. Residencies and the first thing med students do once they become doctors. They go work at a hospital in their chosen specialty and spend a few years learning the craft by working with skilled doctors. Obviously areas with the latest and greatest ...
How do international credit ratings work? Italy has never defaulted on its sovereign debt, Germany has defaulted over 5 times. Why does Germany have a better rating than Italy?
well, they are issued by companies that all have their own unique blend of reasons to issue them. but considering at least 4 of those 5 times "Germany" defaulted it was a different country, it is pretty obvious they will pay more attention to the current economic situation than how the country handled things several ce...
Can we go relatively faster than the speed of light?
No. ALL velocities are relative, so the prohibitions of relativity apply to any inertial reference frame. In this case, they would observe the other ship to be going very quickly, but still sub-light speed: at very high velocities, you can't simply add one ship's velocity to the other; there's a more complex formula.No...
Why do we swallow spit more often when we have a sore throat?
It probably just seems that you swallow more when you have a sore throat because it is painful. When you're feeling fine, you swallow without even thinking about it.
How do completely autonomous vehicles navigate parking lots?
Autonomous vehicles usually use a combination of stereoscopic cameras and LIDAR to build a 3D map of the local vicinity: Stereo cameras use the slight differences between the images perceived by two side-by-side cameras to determine how far away something is. LIDAR is a system that sends out a signal and uses the time ...
Why do my contacts stay on the front of my eyes?
Their shape. The front part of your eyes has slightly sharper curvature than the rest as a result of your natural lens. The contact lens is designed to hug this curvature, moving it away from that spot would cause it to flex in a way it wasn't designed to.
Why does my internet go so much faster when downloading from Steam or a torrent?
Your download speeds depend both on your connection to the server and the server's capacity. If you're connecting to a server on the other side of the world, you'll probably get a crappy download speed, even if both you and the server have a super fast connection to your ISP. Because of this, large networks like Steam ...
How did we find the equator and how do we know we actually pinpointed it exactly?
By measuring the height of the sun at noon during the summer solstice. At that time the sun is directly 90 degrees above you only if you are on the equator. Edit: equinoxes not solstice
When I put my hand/face out of the window of a car, why does the air come in quick gusts not a steadier flow?
The air around your car is a turbulent flow. This is the opposite of a steady flow. Fluids experience turbulent flow when flowing around an obstacle due to drag the obstacle exerts on the fluid.You know when you turn a small necked bottle upside down? it's two currents of matter meeting in one area. Pressure fluctuatio...
Why do my teet hurt when I eat sugary candy (Taffy, Tootsie Rolls...)
Almost certainly a cavity. Your saliva dissolves the sugar and the liquid sugar mix can get into the smallest of places, so it may only be a really really tiny cavity, but still something to get checked out.
Why do moonshiners always make the moonshine in the woods
You got it right, it's because it's illegal. If you have it in your home, then you have the evidence with you 24/7. There are also many witnesses around and nosy neighbors. However, if your setup is in the woods then you reduce your exposure. There is no one around to see you. Also if the cops find it, they have no way...
How come sometimes a commercial will come on TV for like 5 seconds, then immediately cut to a different one?
Most of the time, it's because you're watching a national feed, and the local stations have a right to broadcast local commercials at that time. The local station's master control doesn't switch over to playing its local commercial in time, so you get a bit of the national feed still spilling over.
Why are most animals not afraid of bugs like humans
To most animals, bugs are either food , or just a normal fact of life . Most humans don't eat bugs, and don't live with them.
Why cant we add smells to carbon monoxide like we do to other gases?
We certainly could. But the dangerous sources of carbon monoxide aren't pre-bottled, where someone could add an odor. Instead they are the product of combustion. So there is no opportunity to add anything.CO is a byproduct of combustion , not a pre bottled product. All scented gases are manufactured pre-combustion prod...
ELIV: Can someone please explain to me why BitTorrent isn't illegal?
BitTorrent is not used ONLY for illegal downloading. That's like banning hammers because they can be used to break into homes.
It seems like every major news website, or newspaper find its sources from Reuters, then why don't people go read news from _URL_0_ directly ?
Reuters is a 'wire service' also called a 'news agency', their main role is to provide bare-bones news to other news outlets. However, they don't do much of the wider context stuff such as explanations, analysis and commentary, most people prefer to read their news from sources which are written to their demographic. _...
What is a lobotomy and what does it do?
Lobotomy is a called a surgical procedure in the brain. What they do its surgically disconnect the frontal part of the brain. This frontal cortex has has an important function in autonomy and personality. With lobotomy they tried to cure psychological disorders such as schizophrenia. The results appeared to be unpredic...
How does an imaginary number become an ordered pair?
First, your prof misspoke a little he should have said *complex* numbers can be used as ordered pair. All complex numbers are in the form *a + bi*, and it is sometimes useful to treat them as the ordered pair . When *a* = 0, you have an imaginary number in the form , and when *b* = 0, you have a realUsing complex numbe...
How do developers reverse engineer server software for "private servers" or emulators?
They look at when data is sent, what that data is, and what the expected result from the server is. From that, they can construct a working server.
How did we get our current meal pattern of eating 3 meals a day in the morning, afternoon, and evening?
Doing hard physical labor in the fields. When we were an agrarian society people spent a massive amount of calories in the effort of growing our food every day, and large percentages of the population did this work. Upwards of 6000 calories can be burned in a day for extreme physical labor such as was needed on farms b...
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Imagine your brain is like a light bulb. Off is your normal state. When something dangerous happens it turns on. When it's on you are in a heightened state of awareness, you notice everything, you're anxious and scared. This is useful because in a dangerous situation you need that fear and awareness to get somewhere sa...
Why are students considered more liberal than their contemporaries (both in modern and historical times)?
The young, which students tend to be, do not have as much invested with the current culture or status quo. They often do not yet have jobs or have only entry level/base level jobs, do not tend to own property, do not tend to have much savings or investments, do not have families that they have to care for, etc. They ba...
Why does the weather forecast indicate 100% humidity while we clearly aren't breathing in water?
100% is the *relative* humidity. So, the air contains as much humidity as it is possible for air to contain. At 50% relative humidity, the air contains half as much water as it is capable of containing100% humidity means that the air is saturated with water. This means that no more water can be absorbed in the air. Mor...
How do mirrors work for multiple users?
Imagine the mirror is a smooth floor and visible light is a bouncy ball, mirrors reflect light the same way a ball would bounce off a smooth floor. Meaning the angle the ball hits the ground is equal to the angle it bounces off. You throw the ball from different angles, it bounces off in different directions.When you s...
Why is it that 60° in air feels fine but when you get in a 60° swimming pool it feels cold and comfortable?
The reason why 60 degree air is so much more comfortable than 60 degree water is that water is about 25 times as thermally conductive as air is. This means that water at any temperature transmits its heat 25 times more quickly than air of the same temperature. It is this reason why it is possible to sit in a 240 degree...
What is the technology at work in the Power Balance Performance bracelets?
Nothing. It's a complete lie. There have been no peer reviewed and accepted scientific studies that have found Benefits from such products. magnets, rocks, crystals, etc do not affect your body in any way.
How is it determined whether an animal is red meat or not?
It depends if you're using it in a strict nutritional sense or in a more layman sense- pork, for instance, is technically *red meat* even tough it is quite light in colour and people will call it "the other white meat". Red meat is higher in myoglobin than white meat, which in a nutritional science sense white meat is ...
Why does every router I have ever owned need to be restarted so often?
Dont buy a cheap router. Buy a nice $70-120 router and youll be much happier.It's probably a piece of steaming shit. Put DD-WRT on your router if it supports it. It has kept me from having to restart my router on a regular basis. This indicates poor software on the manufacturers part rather than the hardware.
What does filing for bankruptcy mean?
It essentially means "I don't have the money to pay back my debts". Filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. When an application for chapter 7 bankruptcy is approved by a federal judge, you are allowed to keep certain property, as exempt by federal bankruptcy law, a car, and some cash, between $10,000-$30,000. However, liens s...
Why do our teeth need constant maintenance during our lives but are preserved for decades after death with no maintenance?
Pretty much because we don't eat or drink when we're dead. It's the acids in food and drink that do the most damage to teeth, also the mechanical grinding when we chew. After death, none of this happens anymore, so the teeth aren't subject to the same stresses.
Was President Bill Clinton completely impeached, and if so who took over control of the White House?
In order for the President to be removed through impeachment: 1. The House votes to impeach the President. Then,2. The Senate has a trial and votes on whether to find the President guilty or not Clinton was impeached. That is, the first part happened: the House voted to impeach him. However he was acquitted by the Sena...
Why are fat people unattractive to the general population?
Programming. The ideals of attractiveness have changed dramatically over the centuries; in fact, a nice pot belly was the sign of a healthy woman not 100 years ago. Thin people didn't make it through the winter when the food ran out and evolution has taught us to seek the healthiest mates; thus, fat = healthy = attract...
Why are progress bars when installing or downloading software so wildly inaccurate? Why is it difficult to estimate this?
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 so you can drive only 50mph. You don't know if the road stays that bad, so you just assume...
What happens to a roach when you spray Raid on it?
It's basically the equivalent of nerve gas on a human or other mammal. The reason it doesn't hurt us like that is because we are physiologically different enough that it doesn't react the same way It basically keeps their nerves from being able to fire , paralyzing them and killing them.
How are parrots and other bird mimics able to copy such a range of sound despite not having lips to make plosives and having a very different shape palate?
I don't know the answer to this, but I know that birds have a very different voice box to humans located at the bottom of their windpipe . I would guess that they don't use their tongues to modify sound as we do, but just use their syrinx. Edit: Wikipedia indicates this is the case _URL_0_
Why do saltine crackers get rid of aftertastes?
Saltines are fairly bland, just white flour and salt. It forms a paste in your mouth, and when you swallow or rinse with water it washes away any other food particles or residual odor compounds that might still be in the mouth. It resets the nerves. Similar to how you smell a jar of coffee grounds between smelling vari...
Why is everything so cheap in USA compared to Scandinavia?
Costs of imports including both transportation costs, duties and the like, sales tax, higher wages for workers, more stringent laws about what can or can't be in food/products, etc.
How do some posts get thousands of points in Karma before being removed for rule violation?
This probably happens because the mods of default subs cannot possibly keep up with the amount of new posts that are constantly being added. Look at the number of subscribers and compare it to the number of mods for that sub for a visual.
ELI: Why are parts of our body, such as the bottom of our feet so ticklish?
Possibly not just because they are more sensitive. The most likely theory is that being ticklish is a defensive mechanism, ticklish areas seem to be vulnerable places and so we have this defensive mechanism when they are touched. This could be _why_ there are more nerve endings there. Older people tend to be less tickl...
If you were inside the compartment of a moving vehicle, (airplane, train ect.) And you jumped, what stops you from ending up in the back of that compartment?
Even though you may not have been physically moving your body, your body is still moving at around the same rate of speed as the vehicle. When you jump, your body continues moving at that speed, keeping you from moving backward from where you initially jumped.
Why is it so hard for large amounts of Tylenol to pass through the liver?
Tylenol is paracetamol/acetaminophen. Medications within the body are broken down and produce metabolites. In the case of Paracetamol it is metabolised within the liver . Specifically, NAPQI is the metabolite responsible for the liver damage . Glutathione exists within the liver and NAPQI reduces its levels At normal d...
How does a tattoo stay permanent?
The ink is deep enough that it is under the cells that are shed. However, if it's too deep, the ink will spread a little.
where do the bugs appear from?
Mealy bugs are a special kind of case actually. Females are mostly totally sedentary as adults and only disburse as [juveniles.] But males develop into much [more insect-looking insects] and they leave the host plant to go find new females. Mealy bugs are also sometimes transported around by ants that associate with th...
What's the difference between being depressed and having depression?
These two terms are synonyms. I think what you're *actually* trying to ask is: how do I know if I'm clinically depressed, or just legitimately sad. There are actually diagnostic criteria to determine this. [Here's an easy-to-read summary.]
Why the American government is apprehensive about raising taxes on the rich
Two answers:1) Some People say that if you overtax the rich people will stop investing and working towards becoming more wealthy and that we don't have a revenue problem we have a spending problem.2) Other people say that rich people are the major contributors in most cases to political candidates and that if you raise...
What is the purpose of "aerating"/agitating liquids in areas such as factory holding ponds or wastewater evaporators/boilers etc.?
When they release it back to nature, they want the micro-organisms to have a head start, so that it is digested as soon as possible. Air lines are a really cheap way to increase this effect.
If a wound has recently stopped bleeding and you wash it, how come it starts bleeding again?
You haven't actually stopped bleeding when it first looks like it. Your blood carries fragile balls in it that explode when they hit broken skin, which makes the blood go hard. When the blood on the outside starts to harden a little bit, you just bleed under the hard bit to try and make more hard blood. This is when it...
Why does salt make other flavours stand out more?
Here's a nifty history on salt : _URL_0_ So basically, we should distinguish taste from flavor. Taste is usually defined as the intensity of a sensory reaction to a food on the anatomical tongue. Flavor is one of the five: sweet, salty, ugami, bitter, or spicy. Taste is almost always used the same way flavor is used so...
How is it possible that we are heading into a mini ice age in 15 years?
The link given below details what may be a better model of the behavior of the sun. Solar output varies in ways not well understood. Yes we are altering the atmosphere of the Earth which is producing climate change. Climate change has occurred in the past. The evolution of human intelligence and our species has been at...
How can something be unnatural when everything comes from the nature itself?
I think the term *unnatural* is a description of something that would not occur in nature if it were not from human intervention. I understand that we are also natural and perhaps you could argue that technology is just a *natural* process in our evolution therefore nothing is unnatural. However, we tend to think of ou...
Jazz has a long history of contrafact. How does copyright law handle this?
The whole point of a contrafact is to avoid copyright and royalty concerns. A chord progression can't be copywritten.
why does putting my headphones in the wrong ears make the mix sound like it has less bass?
If you're talking about "ear" phones, manufacturers generally mold each bud to fit in a specific L or R auditory canal. If you put them on the wrong way, they do not seal the canal, allowing the pressure waves to travel out instead of to your drum.
How come some liquids(like milk) can be held in paper cartons, and some can not(like toothpaste)?
Toothpaste isn't a liquid. It's a paste. And the easiest way to dispense a thicker substance like that is in a tube you can squeeze. Also, nobody needs a 1L carton of toothpaste.Well, in the specific case of toothpaste, a paper container wouldn't be as convenient for getting it out. Current toothpaste containers make i...
What it would be like to see into the infrared and ultraviolet bands of the electromagnetic spectrum?
You know colours of the rainbow? There would be more of them. Some colours pass through walls and some are blocked by glass , so you would see some cool stuff going on.
How does a vacuum tube work? Those tiny dim bulbs that are in guitar amps and high-end audio gear.
The hot wire at one end gets hot enough to randomly spit out free electrons. the electrode the other end is given a voltage to attract those free electrons. The grid in the middle can be varied in voltage to attract or repel the free electron, But because it's a mesh at lot of the free electrons won't hit it and instea...
What is all the drama going on with Reddit right now?
_URL_0_ pretty much explains everything. /u/chooter a moderator and IAMA's talent coordinator was fired out of the blue and only a few people with tight lips knows why. There has been very little communication between the volunteer mods that keep reddit running and the admins. /u/chooter's firing upset a bunch of mods ...
When someone is killed by execution, why is the proper term 'hanged' instead of 'hung'?
Here's the top comment by /u/xtremity from when this was [asked a year ago]: > As far as modern British English is concerned, *hung* is the normal form in most general uses, e.g. they hung out the washing; but *hanged* is the form normally used in reference to execution by hanging: the prisoner was hanged. > The reason...