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Where did the idea for blue raspberry come from? | There are actual fruits called blue raspberries, but they really look more purple or black . The bright blue color mostly came about to avoid having another red-colored flavor, since that color was already associated with cherry, strawberry, and to a lesser degree watermelon. |
If Apple slows down older iPhone models when the battery can’t keep up with the processor, then why are they still slow when plugged in? | Whilst its true that switching the iPhone to 100% mains power would alleviate any power stability concerns, allowing the processor to switch to full power, in practise, the mains power charges the battery, and then the processor draws from the battery. This arrangement allows for the phone to be unplugged suddenly with... |
How do paintings become so valuable? | You know who is into paintings? Rich people. They are happy to pay a huge amount for these works of art they consider great, the money isn't a big deal to them, and often they are bought as investments to sell at a later date . When the people who want it all have tons of money, the price is of course inflated as well,... |
Why can't I sneeze voluntarily? | Sneezes are caused when a a foreign particle irritates the hairs in your nose. They trigger the release of histamines to a specific nerve that starts up a reprogrammed response, a sneeze. Although you cannot voluntarily sneeze you can trick yourself into releasing histamines. Some people have a certain sensitivity to l... |
Why is "XXX" associated with sex, nudity, and porn? | The movie ratings organizations used to have an "X" rating for movies that were above and beyond "R" rated. IIRC, this has since been changed to NC17. Because X rated was associated with explicit scenes , it became a positive marketing point for pornografic films, who were specifically targetting an audience *seeking* ... |
the difference between DVD+R and DVD-R | DVD-R and DVD+R are just two different ways disc players read data from the disc. DVD+R is newer than DVD-R and uses new techniques to prevent discs from malfunctioning as often when the disc is being read. DVD+R is also better at reading data from scratched discs. What you heard is probably a good rule to follow becau... |
If large corporations aren't paying their taxes, why do we still get taxed on their products? | Sales tax is separate from the corporate income tax. The sales tax is applied at the register and then the store sends that to the state. Then, in an unrelated event, the corporation pays taxes on their income .Corporate tax and sales tax are two different things. Say it costs me $5 dollars to make a basketball, and se... |
Why do malls and businesses not have peaked roofs like you see on houses? | Flat roofing is cheaper to build, is accessible , and you can add another floor more easily if you want to. Providing you have a decent membrane on there and it doesn't need much maintenance, it will be cheaper in the longer run than a pitched roof, and gives you more options.If you put a peaked roof on a 3 acre buildi... |
The differences in the responsibilities of a producer and director. Where credit due for ____? | Directors direct the actors, cameras, and other details on a scene-by-scene basis. They are responsible for discerning useful shots and takes from garbage. The producer is the chief story-teller. They are responsible for putting together the various takes and deciding what subplots to include or exclude in order to con... |
Why do leftovers make a popping noise while being warmed up in the microwave? | Microwaves work by exciting water molecules in foods. So if you recall there was a commercial years ago of Velveeta and a popsicle being heated in the microwave. The cheese melts first. The water molecules in ice are locked in place pretty tightly. When heating up food the water heats up more in some spots than others.... |
If an older person is wealthy.. would it not be wiser for them to distribute some of that wealth the way they want BEFORE they die? | Yes. It's very common to do this. There are lawyers and accountants who specialize in it. It's not a magic pill. You can't give unlimited gifts to people without paying taxes, because to the government, that looks really suspicious. If I remember correctly, the present rules in the US are, you can give individuals up t... |
Is the existence of light NECESSARILY paired with heat, or is it just that that's how we've always observed it? | Pretty much everything is necessarily paired with heat, just because of how the universe is. Heat is basically just random motion, and since nothing's perfect, there's always energy that gets "wasted" in the form of heat when you try to do something. In theory, though, yes, you can produce light without generating heat... |
Why incandescent lightbulbs are bad. And CFL bulbs are good. | I can't find anything showing how much CFLs are still subsidized by the government. Everything recent-ish that references CFL subsidies talk about the power companies themselves subsidizing them. Also, the video is misleading about at least one thing: incandescent bulbs are not being completely banned. There are many c... |
Where did the easter-bunny come from? | Spring is the season of rebirth. The pagans celebrated this by honoring their goddess of fertility named Eastre. The symbols of fertility for the pagans were bunnies and eggs. The pagans emigrated and spread their religion. Germany took the bunny image and combined it with their freaky Oschter Haws bunny that left eggs... |
What is with the sometime hours and hours or delay in having sore/dead/tired legs after over doing and pushing yourself with leg exercise/walking/running? | I believe it's somewhat to do with DOMS , in which your body begins to repair tiny microtears in the muscle fibres of your legs after long periods of exertion. Doing this makes your legs stronger and able to endure more physical activity. It's like how people build muscle in the gym. The delay must be due to inflammati... |
Why is the voting system in the USA so suboptimal? | It's because it is really old. compared to most modern democracies the US system is almost ancient. And new technologies allowed for new ways to handle the voting process. Also society changed. Many nations like France or Germany who "updated" their type of government after world war 2 decided against the "winner-takes... |
Why are car rides soothing for babies? | Some people will say it's because the car environment reminds babies of the womb. That may be true. It's not a testable hypothesis, though. The noise and vibration of the car's engine create a monotonous sound and vibration that allow a baby to relax; there is nothing new to see, hear, feel, or do because the car's int... |
What makes duck fat so special? | Duck fat simply has more flavour to begin with, any fat that you use to cook something will impart a level of flavour into whatever you cook with it. For example in the U.K., fish and chips used to be cooked in beef dripping. This gave much more of a meaty umami flavour to the batter which resulted in better taste in t... |
Why don't wind farms have bigger sails to collect more energy? | The blades of a turbine are not designed to catch wind. If they caught the wind, the turbine would be blown over by it. Instead, they are designed to be turned by the wind. The design is the one that will be turned by the wind, without being pushed backwards by the wind. And it so happens that we have been doing this f... |
How do TV shows and movies still get money when they're on Netflix and other online streaming websites? | You pay for the Netflix. Netflix pays studios to produce or make their shows available on their service. Fin.Netflix works out a contract with the copyright holder where they will pay $X per view of the item. The copyright holder will then pay the writers/actors/whatever of the show based on their contracts with them. ... |
Why do you feel faint after standing in the hot shower too long? | Most probably this happens due to having low blood pressure. Hot water raises your body temperature and then our termoregulation mechanics kick in. One of that mechanism is to vasodilate our arteries in order to widen the contact of the artery with the surface of the skin in order to lose some heat. When peripherical a... |
Why do we still require signatures when they can be easily forged? Wouldn't fingerprints be a more foolproof way of limiting ID theft? | Mostly just because courts and others have long agreed that signatures are good enough, they for the most part haven't totally accepted other things for legal documents. Also, from a legal perspective, the difficulty in recreating it isn't that much of an issue, it's the source that ultimately matters, not the correctn... |
why did the universe not just immediately collapse into a blackhole? | The matter and energy in the early universe was extremely smoothly distributed. If it had been lumpier, certain regions would've collapsed into black holes, but because the matter was so smoothly distributed the outwards pull was equal to the inwards pull, preventing a collapse In fact, the reason any regions collapsed... |
What is LiveLeak and why is it a thing? | Its like a YouTube without censorship. It is very useful for hosting content that would be too distasteful, gory or shocking on youtube. \rVery useful for people in oppressive regimes or in war zones to upload footage of war crimes and atrocities as they happen to get the word out quickly. |
H.P Lovecraft fanaticism and cult following | * An author who wrote pretty much only short stories set in New England and involving horror and mystery elements. * Those short stories are quite good, especially at capturing fear of the unknown. * The Call of Cthulhu influenced much of sci-fi design when it comes to "terror from the great beyond" style aliens, like ... |
How can parents keep adoptions secret from the adopted while in movies and TV shows it is shown that an 'officer' or overwatcher takes weekly/monthly visits to check if everything is alright?? | There are not officers or over-watchers who check on adopted children weekly or monthly. You are confusing a child who is in foster care with one who is adopted. Foster kids get checked on because they are officially wards of the State, but adopted kids are wards of those who adopt them and once all the paper work is f... |
What exactly happens when I poison an ant colony? | Ants have different jobs. Some of the worker ants bring food to the queen and move the eggs around. If no queens are alive, they just do their other tasks like making tunnels and bringing food to the nest. The ones who would be really sad about a dead queen are the drones whose job it is to mate with the queen. But I g... |
Why doesn't the ruling that The Patriots were deflating their footballs negate their superbowl win? | Tom Brady playing with his balls doesn't necessarily mean that the rest of the roster needs to be punished as well. The NCAA is a fan of vacating wins and titles, but that's extremely rare in the pro leagues. MLB teams don't lose old wins due to steroid allegations either. |
Why flies fly around people's faces and bump into them like on purpose? | Flies don't intend it, they're just looking for food. They mainly navigate by smell, and a very basic sense of sight. You smell like organic stuff. Organic stuff is edible. Therefore; Go to person It'll keep doing that, regardless of the fact that you aren't actually edible. |
Does it take the same amount of gas to keep my home (or commercial building) heated to 65 degrees as it would at 45 degrees? | Even if you have the best insulation possible, there is always going to be some heat loss. The greater the difference between the heated inside and the cold outside, the faster the heat will leave. So it takes more energy to maintain the higher temperature. The key thing here is the difference between the inside and ou... |
Why US public universities are so expensive compared to many (all?) European countries | In the UK the government sets the maximum amount that can be charged for an undergraduate degree per year. As I understand it, there is no such law in the US ; tuition fees are controlled by market forces only. Market forces means the university charges whatever people are willing to pay. I believe many other European ... |
Why does London have dozens of professional football clubs in its territory, but Paris only has five? | The same reason there are more baguette stores in France than London - one has something more socially and culturally ingrained than the other. Soccer in England has had a much larger social and cultural impact, which obviously resulted in more clubs. |
If GPUs are so powerful, why do we not simply replace CPUs with them? | Because GPUs are good at a specific type of computation: namely highly parallelized simple tasks. They have hundreds or thousands of "stream processors" that handle small simple tasks all independent of other pixels. CPUs are meant to be more generalized and handle complex single threaded tasks as fast as possible. The... |
why cant we spell out words phonetically? | As I understand it:The main reason is because of the different languages English arose from. We borrowed some words from Latin, some from Greek, some from German, etc., and as a result, our spellings often seem weird and nonintuitive.English has always borrowed lots of words from different languages. The problem is tha... |
Why do people like politicians announce that they'll announce something, rather than just announce it? | to build publicity. reporters aren't following them all the time. in order to get reporters to show up, the person has to announce that they're going to make a major announcement that'll make news. |
what the different types of troops in the US Army do. | * US Army Special Forces teams are primarily small, highly skilled teams that are supported to perform fairly exceptional missions. Like teach a village how to defend itself or sneak into an enemy compound. Highly unconventional stuff that might require special equipment or training. There is a heavy focus on working w... |
Why do small birds move their head with small quick movements, but large birds make slow sweeping movements? | Bigger birds tend to be predators. So they scan an area and try to find movement. Small birds are usually prey, so they dart around trying to stay alert. |
Why no IVF after a vasectomy? | It's a tradeoff. You need to compare the costs of collecting and freezing sperm samples for the years between your vasectomy and the time you want kids to the cost of what you propose. At $150/year to store sperm, the math doesn't check on other procedures. |
How do rooms end up covered in dust if no-one uses them? | > Dust consists of particles in the atmosphere that come from various sources such as soil dust lifted up by wind , volcanic eruptions, and pollution. Dust in homes, offices, and other human environments contains small amounts of plant pollen, human and animal hairs, textile fibers, paper fibers, minerals from outdoor ... |
How can stores refuse to accept some denominations of money (like not accepting $50 or $100 bills). Why aren't they required to accept it if it's legal tender? | Its legal tender for "all _debts_ public and private." There is no law which requires retailers to accept any specific form of payment.It's robbery prevention policy. To deter would be thieves many stores only keep a small allotment of money in their drawers and drop all extra money in a time locked safe. Many register... |
How the time scale of minutes, hours, 12 hour half days, and 24 hours in a day were chosen. | Notice they are all base 6? Just like 360 degrees in a circle. This is because the first ones to write about it had base six number system. _URL_0_', "Our system of time is based on 12. 12 can be divided by 2,3,4,6, and 60 can be divided by 2,3,4,5,6,10,12, ect. For normal every day use its extremely useful to be able ... |
In natural childbirth, what is the mechanism that triggers the delivery process within the body? | We don't know what causes spontaneous labor. It certainly is an interesting question, but we do not know. |
Gambling Legality in the US? | Gambling is an issue concerning the states, not the federal US government. I'm pretty sure no state says gambling is entirely illegal.Gambling is a State level issue, not a Federal one. Each State determines the types and amount of gambling allowed within their borders.> How is gambling illegal in the US It isn't. |
Why cities didn't deveop a pipe network to collect rubbish, like there are sewerage and water pipes? | Economics and physics. Rubbish isn't a fluid. Sewage and water mostly are, with floaty or clumpy bits in the former. So you can use gravity and pumps to quite inexpensively make them "flow" from the source to the destination. Further, rubbish is very much irregularly shaped, with sticks and poles and things that can't ... |
The steampunk genre (I just don't understand.) | Science fiction set in a sort of alternate Victorian Britain. Technology is more advanced that it actually was in the 1890s, but in a different direction: there's no internal combustion engine, and everything is powered by steam. The science is quite "soft", and mostly relies on everything being cool enough that the re... |
How did this whole bacon thing get started? | The average American eats 18 pounds of bacon per year. No one had to start anything. The love was there from the startI think a huge part of it was Epic Meal Time and the more general rise of humor based on exaggerated manliness. Maybe it really began with the Chuck Norris jokes about ten years ago. But manliness, bear... |
When you 'smell the sex' on someone, are we literally smelling pheromones or we just gathering visual clues? | It's more the mixture of two people's sweat, stank, and juices that constitutes "the smell of sex" than pheromones. |
More likes than views on youtube | When a video gets a lot of views in a short amount of time, YouTube stops/slows the view counter to make sure the views are real and not the result of bots. |
Why is "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" considered a paradox? | It's not really a paradox, it's just a thought experiment about the difference between what we perceive and what is real.One of the definitions of the word "sound" is "vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear." If it can't be heard, is it reall... |
Why do we have an almost irresistable urge to place our hands on our hips when we are extremely winded? | The actual urge is to sit down, elbows on thighs and bent forward. It's called tripoding and assists with respiration by decreasing effort by providing a mechanical advantage. Hands on hips achieve a lesser but similarly enticing advantage. |
What if humans were raised to sleep during the day and be awake at night, would we ultimately evolve and become nocturnal? | Being raised to sleep during the day and be awake at night would be an acquired trait, and when you give birth to someone, DNA is passed down, not acquired traits.Another example of an acquired trait is strength. You can work out a lot and get really strong, but that doesn't mean your kid will be born stronger.Every so... |
how alcohol consumption leads to less restful sleep. | Ok so, one google search and 5 links later this is what I've learned. Alcohol is capable of acting as both a stimulant and a sedative depending on whether it is being added or removed from the body. According to one article I found, as the concentration of alcohol increases it acts as a stimulant but later as it is dig... |
Why does the Miranda warning contain the phrase "can *and will* be used against you"? It seems like that means they have to use whatever you say against you. | No, they *can* use it and they *will* use it . There's no obligation built in to use everything, but it is better to inform someone that everything they say can and will be used so hopefully they'll shut up. |
"yes means yes" | The important difference between "no means no" and "yes means yes" is that "yes means yes" clarifies that silence cannot be interpreted as a yes. Obviously, before having sex, you should get consent from your partner. The old "no means no" policy was causing problems because people weren't sure if a partner saying noth... |
Does colour effect temperature? | "If you see something red, you are seeing the colour being reflected. Which means it absorbs all the colours except red. When something looks white, it reflects all the colours. Not only does it reflect the visible colours, but it also reflects the invisible infrared radiation. When you see something black, you are not... |
Does alcohol taste better for adults tha it does for kids? if so, why? | In some ways. Before puberty the sensitivity to bitter is much much higher than it is after. This is an evolutionary defensive mechanism to keep us from consuming toxic things before we get to learn what they are and avoid them as many natural toxins are bitter. Alcohol is bitter so it does taste better after puberty. ... |
Why taxi drivers always want to be paid in cash | Cash they can keep off the books. Credit cards cost them money to process. Cash they get right now, today. Credit cards have to clear the bank, and go into a bank account, rather directly into their hands. Credit cards are susceptible to chargeback and fraud. Cash might be stolen or otherwise illicit, but it doesn't ma... |
Why does society often associate wearing glasses to being smart? | There is a correlation between long hours of study as a child and nearsightedness. Last I read it wasn't the reading itself that was causing the issue but may have something to do with spending too much time indoors, not getting enough sunlight may cause changes in the eye. I'm having trouble finding the paper that pro... |
The concept of parallel universes. | It would be really awesome if someone could give an explanation via a metaphor. Real simple terms because I too struggle with grasping this concept. |
OSX and Linux are UNIX based. What is Windows based off? | There are two branches of Windows: Windows 9x and Windows NT. Windows 9x is the series of operating systems based on the Windows 95 kernel and still had MS-DOS at its core. This includes Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME. Windows NT is a separate operating system, not based on MS-DOS. Originally, the API for Windo... |
What is a hedge fund and why are hedge fund managers rich? | A hedgefund requires x amount of capital to invest in, meaning it's not open for anyone to put their capital in like a "normal" fund. They invest in whatever they feel like and often leverage with borrowed capital to make larger returns. They are rich because they take like 20% cut of the profits and a few % for managi... |
Why is so easy to eat unhealthy food but so hard to eat healthy? | We crave, and are easily addicted to, sugar, salt, and fat. These are essential components of our diet. Our ancient ancestors couldn't get them as readily as we can, so whenever it was available they ate it. The problem for us is it's highly available now, but this urge to "eat it whenever it's available" is still inna... |
Why do the NSA and FBI actually need to gather our data? | They need to be able to have a file on everybody containing all of their transgressions . This way when they want to get rid of someone they can just pull up the file and have them arrested/blackmailed for whatever is in there. This is the only thing that really makes sense. By their own admission, they gather much too... |
Why is it late SUVs consume more fuel than early ones despite the availability of fuel efficient engines? | The vehicles are heavier and more powerful, that's why. The reason they are is because regulations require more and more safety gear, and people want more power. The people who buy range rovers don't care about fuel economy. |
why is it sometimes we can't say a word or name even though we know it? When it's 'on the end of our tongue' but we literally just can't say it | Error: Segmentation Fault Seriously though, I think that this is really what's going on. Our brains are constantly overwriting old information with new information. When it does so, there are some lingering neural pathways to concepts that were recently overwritten, akin to a dangling pointer in programming. The differ... |
What do I need to know about the new Google Terms of Service Update that their TL;DR didn't express? | They both refer to much more boring legal developments where changes were needed to cover their ass. For example, updating their language about using your phone while driving a car or practicing poor account security. The name and picture thing is getting all the attention because people freak out when what they though... |
Why do governments and economists favour ever increasing birth rates when the earth's population is already growing exponentially and is in very real danger of becoming over-populated? | 1. population growth is NOT growing exponentially.2. most of the developed world has negative population growth.3. if you want an economy to grow having more labor and more consumers is a good way to achieve that. 4. Many social welfare systems depend upon the young workers to support the elderly and if you have fewer ... |
Can clicking your neck (or any other part for that matter) be dangerous? | > Medical\xa0doctor\xa0Donald Unger\xa0crackedthe\xa0knuckles\xa0of his left\xa0hand\xa0every day for more than sixty years, but did notcrack\xa0the\xa0knuckles\xa0of his right\xa0hand. No arthritis or other ailments formed in either\xa0hand, earning him the 2009 Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine, a parody of the Nobel Prize.... |
How can it possibly be profitable for airlines to allow you to fly from the UK to France, Poland, Denmark, etc, for £10 both ways? | Can you link us to one of these flights or the promo/ad about it? It 'd help What's **probably** happening is that they're not turning a profit on those £10 seats. But only a few seats on the flight are that cheap, the rest are the usual fare. But "Wow you can fly to Europe for £10" gets people talking about your airli... |
Why is alternating current more efficient than direct current at transferring energy on long distances? | When we transmit electrical power, there are two things going on. We have voltage, which is how "hard" the electricity is being pushed, and current, which is how much charge is flowing through the wire. The amount of electrical power is the current multiplied by the voltage. So, that means that if we want to transmit 1... |
The US is training Syrian rebels to fight ISIS. We call them "fighters" why? Why don't we call them "soldiers"? | They're learning fighting tactics, not structure and regulation. They're not recognized as being a formal military, so they won't be referred to as soldiers. |
How does a toilet/sink function as both a sink and a toilet at the same time? | The water from the sink drain flows into the reservoir for the toilet flushing. Not very complicated at all, and honestly grey water systems like that should be more common |
Why is "forbidden" sex or sex in unusual/public places so exciting? | When you're afraid, or sexually aroused, or angry, or excited, your body goes into an aroused state They're pretty closely related physically, so it's easy to misunderstand what caused the arousal. [There's a theory that when we experience physical arousal, we look for an emotional explanation, unless we know what's ca... |
If you were shot in the back of the head from close range (completely unaware) and died, how much of the gunshot noise would you hear before you passed away? | You'd never know anything about it. Never mind how fast the sound travels, it takes your brain a substantial amount of time to hear and react to the sound, even if we're talking just the startle reflex reaction to a loud noise. |
Why is it bad to defrag an SSD? | SSDs have only so many writes that are possible on any given bit on them. So defragging one is causing more data movement than you'd want on them, which will reduce their longevity of the bits. Also, they are really REALLY fast, so defragging is just a waste of time on top of it all there is no benefit to it, you will ... |
Who are the freemasons? | A man , and depending on where, 18-21 years old, who expresses an interest in the fraternity, and has the recommendation of another Freemason.It is NOT a religious order, in fact members are prohibited from discussing religion inside lodge meetings .Membership has declined greatly in the last 5 decades, and few areas o... |
Would it ever be possible to have a person remain conscious and mentally "active" if their brain were put into a jar after their heart stops (like Futurama depicts)? | I believe it can be, but in a different way. I believe we will beable to download our counsciouness on to computers one day. The question then becomes do "you" die and the machine is just a perfect copy of you.No. If the human heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing. If no new blood, full of vital oxygen, is pumpe... |
Why doesn't Unit 731 ever get recognized when discussing the horrors of World War II? | Unfortunately events like this aren't talked about as much as they should be because very few people in the West knew about them at the time, because we never really put any forces into China. Plus the world was focused on the Nazi Horror because of the Nuremberg Trials being televised, and the Final Solution dwarfed t... |
Why do bubbles form in a cup of water when left untouched? | Water at lower temperature is able to hold more dissolved gases compared to water at higher temperature. When you let a cup of tap water sit out, it warms up, and the dissolved gases come out of solution and form bubbles. |
How did they crack codes in WWII? | Here is a video on the enigma machine 158,962,555,217,826,360,000 - Numberphile: _URL_1_ And here is a video on how it was cracked Flaw in the Enigma Code - Numberphile: _URL_0_ The flaw in the machine was that it could not equal itself. The British built a machine that could exploit this flaw and work out the settings... |
How do batteries mess up from excessive charging? | It depends on the chemistry. But it's probably Li-Ion that's relevant for you. That's what's being used in phones, tablets and laptops. Li-Ion doesn't like extremes. They don't like to be charged or discharged too much. The more charged or discharged they are, and the longer they are that, the more worn or damaged they... |
How can speed trap cameras prove you were speeding? | Look for markings across the road. The time it takes you to get from the first mark to the second mark reveals your speed. |
How are companies able to determine that electronic proofs of purchase are legitimate when receiving warranty repair requests? | Unless the vendor allows cross reference , not much. That said, faking an electronic proof of purchase to get a benefit of economic value has a name: fraud. |
If RAM (in typical computers) is memory used for temporary storage and is the fastest form of processor-storage transfer, what is Video RAM for? | Same thing but for the graphics processor instead of the normal one. There are two primary processors in a computer, the GPU and the CPU. One is for graphics and one is for data, speaking simply.Your assumption is incorrect. RAM is a very middle-of-the-road type of memory in terms of speed - it's only fast compared to ... |
What will happen when my student loan rates double? | A student loan works the same any other regular loan, except in many places in NA, some governments are opting to make student loans excempt from bankruptcy. You take a loan, which is a large sum of money to pay your education. When your education is done, you have to pay back all the money you borrowed, plus interest.... |
If electricity is made from mostly fossil fuels, how is it considered a clean energy source? (e.g. Electric cars) | Three main reasons. First, you can get electricity from things like nuclear power, wind, hydroelectric, and solar power. It might come from fossil fuel or it might not. Second, converting fuel into energy with low emissions is performed better with more specialized equipment. A coal power plant can scrub exhaust air wi... |
How do companies know your credit card is valid without charging them? (For free-trials and what-not) | It's possible to "pre-authorize" a charge, which is done when you place an order that won't be shipped immediately. So they can effectively ask the card issuer "if I were to ask for $1 from this card, would you say yes?" without then charging the card. |
Why are the people commenting on youtube are such troll and rude in general in comparison to other sites? | Part of it is that Youtube is such a massive site used by people of all ages and maturity levels, and part of it is the way Youtube sorts comments - the ones that get the most responses are ballooned to the top. So while on reddit, for example, troll comments are downvoted until they're at the bottom of the list and hi... |
why is red wine recommended with beef? What does it add that say water or soft drinks don't? | It's a flavor pairing. Take a great steak, pepper it, and the flavors of that steak will be complimented by an earthy, peppery, hot Zin. As you're chewing the steak, take a sip of wine, and the flavors in the wine will work with the flavors in the steak, and both things will taste better. Ever paired any other food, an... |
Does wearing glasses make your eyes 'lazy' or 'dependent on glasses', and worsen eyesight over time? | Nope, that would be completely impossible. What happens is that as people age, eyesight diminishes. for most of us, this is not an amount that will cause problems ever. But for people with vision problems it gets much worse, and so they need to get better glasses as they age.Wearing glasses doesn't worsen vision, and i... |
What are those white spots on your fingernails and what causes them? | I've had those all my life. I've heard everything from too much calcium to not enough vitamin E. Googling it reveals that it's the result to trauma to the fingernail. Maybe we have fragile fingernails. For the first time in a long time, I don't have any of those spots. I kinda miss them. Also, [what the fuck, Isma]? |
What is Broadband Accessibility Act of 2017? | > What is Broadband Accessibility Act of 2017? Basically? It's a $45 million bribe being paid to AT & T and Comcast to get them to stop blocking EPB expansion in Tennessee. EPB is an electric power cooperative in Tennessee that started offering gigabit internet service to customers in Chattanooga, but has subsequently ... |
How does a battery know when to stop charging? | Batteries themselves are "dumb" things, they would not know when to stop charging. It's the job of the charger to constantly check how well the battery is charged and stop sending electricity to the battery once it's full. Basically, let's take as an example a simple AA battery, which has written on it 1.2v. It has a v... |
what is today XKCD (_URL_0_) comic supposed to be? | There is a neat little site useful for the more obscure posts: _URL_0_', "It's a garden. You can add and remove lights, reposition them, change their orientation and the breadth of the beam and also its color. After some time, stuff will grow. |
Why is the U.S. presidential primary election schedule staggered over 5-6 months? | If all states voted on the same day, that would ensure that the candidates would be campaigning in only the largest states. By spreading it out, more people have an opportunity to see and hear the candidates and , there's more opportunity for fundraising for the candidates. |
Where does all the water come from to create huge waterfalls toward the top of a mountain? | From the same place all fresh water comes from, the water cycle. Water from the ocean evaporates into the atmosphere, forms clouds, and travels in weather patterns. Mountains, being the tall obstacles they are, catch a lot of that moisture and it is deposited as snow. When the weather warms up, the snow melts and forms... |
Why do Japanese, Chinese, and Korean music have english lines in them? | For the same reason Avril Lavigne recorded a song [partly in Japanese], and Madonna recorded songs with hebrew or spanish in them. Or Goldfinger recording the german version of 99 Red Balloons instead of the English one [for a verse], even though he doesn't speak German at all. Or how Falco would [switch between German... |
why diet soda is bad for you | Some people think, that artificial sweeteners are bad for you. However no one has yet presented a scientific study that would show that these additives are toxic or in any way harmful. As personal opinion: I think that normal soda will damage your health quicker, due to very high sugar content .It's not. There have bee... |
How is sweetness measured? | Sweetness is measured relative to sucrose. So a solution of Sucrose is 1.0, another solution with the same concentration of fructose is about 1.7. The scoville heat scale is also based on a taste test. _URL_0_ |
How they control the Curiosity rover? | Correct. They come up with a bundle of commands which the Rover will execute in the Martian day. The team figures out the commands in the Martian night. . The Rover executes the commands and reports back as it does, with another team keeping an eye on things. If the Rover looks like it might run into trouble or they sp... |
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