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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 without the risk of power issues whilst the battery switches to outputting current instead of inputting current. Plus, it forces people who keep a spare phone around and use it to play games to buy a new battery to play their games at full speed
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, and add in the investment potential, the price gets jacked even higher. There's also showing off, they aren't buying these paintings solely because of their beauty, they are showing off their money.An object is only worth what people are willing to pay for it. Paintings and other works of art are usually unique with only 1 copy in existence with no hope of there ever being more, and some are greatly desired for their aesthetic and/or historical value. This can drive the price sky high.
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 light and when exposed to bright light very quickly they sneeze. This is called the [Photic Sneeze Reflex].I have a friend that actually sneezes every time she eats too much. I thought she was completely full of shit but finally looked it up and apparently it's an actual thing. Sneezing when you get full. Humans are weird.
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* explicit content. XXX was to denote even more explicit content than just "X". _URL_0_The way I heard it explained once was that: X meant melons and buns, XX meant hotdogs and clamsXXX meant lemonade and browniesWait Then why is it that in those older bugs bunny-esk cartoons, moonshine/liquor was labeled with XXX?I read that they used to censor covers of porn mags with X over the nipples, butts, vaginas So, boob only cover would have XX on the nipples, while full frontal nudity provides XXX censorship. Surely, pictures with full nudity are more desirable, so the XXX mark cought onI have always had the suspicsion that the city of Amsterdams crest had something to do with it. EDIT- sorry i should have elaborated a bit. The crest dates back a long a time and Amsterdams sex, drug and drink industry goes just as far. This explains the old bottles with it on and why its almost always been associated with forms of tabboo
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 because you'll have less issues copying DVD+R since it is more robust. **TLDR;** DVD+R is more reliable than DVD-R.
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 sell it to you for $10, but there's a 10% sales tax so you are charge $11. Now my profit is how much you paid, minus that sales tax and cost of goods. So my profit is $5. Now if there's a 10% corporate tax, that's on my profits so I pay another $0.50 on that item. So in total, there's a $1 sales tax and $0.50 corporate tax on the profit, or $1.50 total that the government gets off that sale. Companies obviously don't like this, so they try and circumvent it through loopholes.
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 building, there would be a whole lot of wasted space.Peaked roofs are great, because they channel rain and snow off the roof. But they don't scale well. Once a build gets much bigger than a house, it because prohibitively expensive to put a peaked roof on it. Instead, it is more cost effective to put drainage systems on flat roofs, and make them strong enough to handle the extra weight. There is always a change a freak snowstorm will collapse a poorly maintained roof, but for the most part it works out ok.
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 control pacing, tone, and what the audience knows at a given time.
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. When the water gets hot enough to it expands rapidly, like the bubbles in water boiling The volume of the pocket increases rapidly and causes a small explosion.
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 to $14k per year as gifts , and if you give any one person more than that, it counts toward a $5.5M lifetime gift limit. If you go over that lifetime gift limit, the giver has to pay a gift tax. There are also things you can do like owning land in common with someone else; in that case , when you die, the property stays with that person, instead of going into your estate to be divided up according to your will. Anyway, even if you do all that stuff, it doesn't necessarily prevent legal fighting afterwards. Inheritance law has ins and outs.
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. They're not necessarily linked, but in every practical situation, they are. To answer the last part, what we basically know is that light isn't really a "wave" or a "particle" by the standard definitions. That doesn't mean that we don't know what it is, it just means that the definitions we made for those terms way back in 1900 don't work. It's not a lack of understanding of the nature of light, because light is actually one of the things in physics we understand best. It's just a lack of terminology that communicates what "particle" means to a lay audiencePhotons transmit light Photons have energy Any method of detecting light involves the absorption of photons Absorbing photons increases the atomic kinetic energy of atoms/molecules, also known as heat. The existence of light in isolation is not tied to heat, however the detection or interaction of light is.
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 categories of incandescent bulbs that aren't affected at all, and the ones that are are only banned by wattage. So, if a company comes up with a more efficient incandescent bulb , they are free to sell them. The video's assertion that incandescent bulbs are being banned is akin to saying that cars are being banned because the government mandates better MPG ratings.
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 for good children. The idea once again moved, this time to America. Like many other holiday figures, the idea was cannibalized and implemented for commercial growth. TL;DR Pagans and their fertilitySource: _URL_0_
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 inflammation occurring in your leg tissue hours later as the body begins to repair them. Not inflammation in the sense that your legs are gonna swell up and become red and very hot, but bits of inflammation in the muscle fibres which add up to aching. There'd probably be lactic acid present as well which contributes to the aches, like how a stitch aches. Explained this out of my own idea of it, so if I'm a bit off what actually happens, I apologise.
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-all" principle and instead awards power according to the actual percentage of votes given for a certain party. The problem in the US is that they cant just fix it, because the system is defined in the constitution. And as a politician in the US .you cant touch that.
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 interior doesn't change. Visual, audible, and sensory stimulation are reduced making it much easier to fall asleep. There is also speculation that because a parent is in the car the baby may feel safe, too. However that's not a testable hypothesis, either.Because the combination of being in a confined space and the motion of the car with the droning noise is very similar to the experience in the womb, they often find this very comforting. Our little girl usually goes to sleep after a few miles. Source; 6 month old daughter at home.Not just babies. My 28 year old friend can't handle staying awake on any car ride longer than 20 minutes lol.
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 the finished product. As vegetable oil is commonplace nowadays the flavour profile is not as deep. Duck fat has much more flavour and therefore is preferred to give additional flavour as opposed to vegetable or rapeseed oil for instance which impart next to no flavour on the product being cooked in it.
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 for ages with aeroplanes - maximum lift upwards, and minimum drag backwards. So a wind turbine blades are designed like aeroplane wings - in particular, glider wings, which are built for maximum lift with minimum drag - long, and thin.You mean the blades? It's a matter of air resistance. If the blades were made bigger the tower and blades would have to be a lot stronger and that would be cost prohibitive and structurally there would be a point of diminishing returns. Look at the pictures in [this] article to see what the wind can do to regular blades, then imagine what it would do to ones twice that size.
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. This is how stuff works for shows/movies that aren't made by Netflix. When Netflix produces the shows/movies, then it's much more simple: Netflix pays the people involved in making it and recoups the cost with your subscription fee.
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 arteries dilate, blood pressure drops. Blood pressure depends on the peripherical vascular resistance. When peripherical arteries dilate, the vascular resistance lowers therefore blood pressure lowers. A low blood pressure means less blood may get to the brain, especially if you change position from laying down to standing .
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 correctness. So the perfect forgery is a forgery and not legally binding, proving that may be difficult though, an authentic signature is however legally binding for the most part, no matter how different it looks from their other signatures.
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 into stars and galaxies at all was because of tiny initial fluctuations in roughness that are predicted by cosmic inflation theory, which blows up tiny quantum fluctuations to huge size fluctuations in density. These would provide the initial roughness needed for the formation of all structure in the universe
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 the Xenomorph from AlienFor the last question, Cthulhu is his, and his influence can be seen in, for example, the Ood in Dr Who.
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 finished they are no longer checked on. So if a child is adopted as an infant or young they will not have been old enough to ever remember seeing an officer or overwatcher from the short period that they were a foster child prior to the paper work being completedI know in the UK, once an adoption is finalised, the visits stop. Adoptive parents can use social services if they want to but even then, they share the same status as birth parents and if there are no concerns within the home, they can engage or disengage with social services as much as they likeSocial services only visits during a probationary period. After that, there is no more oversight than with natural born children.
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 guess if they were necrophiliac drones it would be ok. Anyway, the ants natrually die off if there is no more poison, and there are no new ants because there's no queen to make eggs.Brought to mind this article I read last week:_URL_0_ You have to get a few paragraphs down, but thought it was a perfect case study for your question.
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 outside. It would take about the same amount of energy to keep the house at 65 degrees if it's 25 degrees outside as it would to keep it at 45 degrees if it was 5 degrees outside. The only reason it isn't exact is because there are other variables at play here ", '[The rate at which heat is lost from one mass to another is proportional to the difference in temperature between them]. The warmer your house, the faster it loses heat to the outdoors, and your furnace will have to work harder to keep up.
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 countries also set a cap on tuition feesIn addition to paying more in taxes, going to university is a lot harder to get into in Europe. Take me for example. My 3.2 GPA in high school got me in at Michigan State. In Norway, where I live now, my GPA+foreign language test results qualify me for only a few programs, mostly those that have open admission In the US, almost everyone with a good enough GPA can get admitted to a bachelor's degree program either at a 4-year university, or combining it with community college to boost your GPA. So, if fewer people are going to university, it's easier to subsidize through tax paymentsIt is because people do not want to pay the additional taxesThe government pours billions of dollars into higher education and secures many billions more in student loans. This creates inflation. This also explains why health care prices are higher- the U.S. actually spends comparable amounts in GDP per capita for health care as many "socialized" systems of health care. More here: _URL_0_In Ireland college fees are capped at 2000 euro a year, but they are set to rise by 500. Yeah here college is heavily subsided by taxs, and alot of college professors are civil servants.Because the US and the states provide fewer subsidies. Students in the US are providing universities with most of their money. All universities also get endowments and research funding. The US also doesn't regulate tuition costs so you get programs like Virginia College that are extremely expensive and often not accredited; colleges that don't want anything except student financial aid money. The US actually has fewer college grads than countries with affordable tuition. _URL_1_.
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 version short answer: GPUs are focused on massively concurrent and parallel tasks and sub-optimal for general computing.
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 that we usually copy the *spellings* from those languages as well. So there's no way to determine how a word should be spelled from how it sounds; the same sound can be represented in multiple ways.
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 with foreign troops. * Army Rangers are special light infantry units. Nowadays they are commonly associated with Long range reconnaissance and patrol , which is like sitting under a rock behind enemy lines counting trucks on a road for a week. Boring, grueling, and extremely dangerous. * Paratroopers are service members with parachuting training in parachuting units. Often they are trained to do simple static line jumps at low altitude for the purposes of rapidly deploying into combat. Most special operations units have some paratrooper training, as it is relatively short and easy to grasp. So SF, SFOD , Rangers, MISO , SEALS, Civil Affairs, etc. are often trained in jumping. There are also regular units with paratrooping capabilities. SF and Seals are often trained in high-altitude parachuting, which requires more specialized equipment and training. * Navy SEALS are trained comparably to the Army Special Forces, but with an emphasis on Sea, Air, and Land guerrilla and anti-guerrilla combat. They have often worked with the CIA in covert missions.I'm an expert but some of the troop types seem to have an overlap in functions. Since each branch acts mostly independently, many branch specific special forces units will do similar things in their respective branches, they simply report to a different command structure. Paratroopers are specifically soldiers who parachute into action as their means of deployment. I'd looking into different wikipedia articles if you want to figure out the distinctions/you don't get a better answer than this.
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 soil, human skin cells, and many other materials which may be found in the local environment - [Wikipedia]Even without people, there are tiny living things in the room, most notably, loads of *dust mites* living in the upholstery.
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 registers are set up to MAKE you drop money if you want to proceed . Also, many stores can't do cash back or lottery pay outs if all their small bills get wiped out with big bills. Taking big bills means extra trips to the bank and many banks DO charge for making more than 5 visits a week for smaller increments I used to run a gas station. People used to get mad I wouldn't break 100 for a pack of gum. But if I only have 70 in my drawer I literally CANNOT. I would have no money for any other transaction. People shouldn't use 100's or 50's unless they are spending at least half that. Banks for large transaction denominations, stores are under no compulsion to do so because it risks their safety.
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 to break time into those segments, and there are lots of even cuts that can be made. There are other systems, however. Submarines use 18 hour days , but I'm not sure why.
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 bend at all around corners. So even if you could somehow construct some expensive technology that allowed you to convey your trash through them, your pipes would get jammed up at every curve or bend all of the time.
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 readers won't notice how infeasible most of the technology is. Arguably based off the works of Jules Verne, but taken in a completely different direction since. Some steampunk settings include fantasy elements as well. Edit: There's really no simple way to explain it. It's an entire genre and setting. The best way you could learn about it is to read some steampunk things.To understand steampunk, you must first understand cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is effectively film noir set in an 80s/90s concept of the high-tech near future in a society dominated by large corporations, with strong brand awareness as a recurring theme amid seamy tales of industrial espionage and corporate politics. Steampunk is a derivative of cyberpunk. Instead of an 80s/90s concept of a high-tech near future, it is set in a Victorian-Britain concept of one. Thus instead of neon, black plastic and Japanese kitsch, the aesthetics are dominated by riveted brass instrumentation everywhere, pneumatic tubes, oak paneling, zeppelins and occasionally fanciful ray-guns. The society depicted is typically more Victorian - dominated by the state and military rather than commercial interests, and the protagonists, while roughly fitting the noir genre, tend to be more accidental adventurers and slightly dashing engineers than the cynical, gritty anti-heroes that dominate cyberpunk. Steampunk as an aesthetic rather than literary genre simply consists of a design aesthetic based on a weird mix of art deco, Boy's Own Paper and early science fiction.
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, beards, excessive meat consumption, toughness, "not giving a single fuck
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 really sound? I say yes, because it *can* be heard, but it just isn't heard. Other people might disagreeOne of the definitions of "sound:" "Mechanical vibrations transmitted through an elastic medium, traveling in air at a speed of approximately 1087 feet per second at sea level." Nowhere does it say anything about being heard. To say it didn't make a sound because you didn't hear it, or a human didn't hear it is absurd. In fact, evolution tells us that the sensation of sound developed because there were sounds to hear, to warn us of danger, or to alert us where we could find water, etc. Sound came first, then hearing. So, obviously a tree makes a sound if it falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it. Does the sun make light if no one is there to see it? Does it make heat if no one is there to feel it? Same questions, much easier to answerIt isn't really a paradox. It is a question as to the nature of "sound". Is sound simple vibrations in the air, or is it our brain's interpretation of those vibrations?
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 often when people are born, there are mutations in the DNA, which cause a change in the human. If this mutation gives the human a better chance at surviving, then it will probably live long enough to give birth and pass the trait down through DNA to its child. Then the trait may be further passed on if it is beneficial and after thousands of years, permeate through the entire species. It would be a long process for humans to evolve to be nocturnal. Of course that's considering it's beneficial . But we wouldn't actually need to change anything to be nocturnal. As you said, you can just train yourself to be awake at night and asleep during day. The catch is, there needs to be a reason to do this. So at the very least we'd need to be able to see better at night than day or something along those lines.
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 digested and leaves the blood stream it acts as a sedative. So drinking alcohol can help you get to sleep if you drink it a while before you actually go to sleep. The thing is, after all the alcohol has been metabolized withdrawal symptoms start to kick in. At this point the amount of important and restful REM sleep is reduced and substituted for a fragmented a shallower sleep. Thus resulting in less restful sleep. TL;DR Alcohol withdrawal caused by drinking before sleeping results in less restful sleep article links 1. _URL_1_ 2. _URL_4_ 3. _URL_0_ 4. _URL_2_ 5. _URL_3_
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 nothing at all counts as consent. "Yes means yes" clarifies that.It's a law that says that regulates the ways in which consent is delivered before and during sexual activity. Without explicit consent, consistent with the requirements of the law, then the assumption is that consent was not given and that the act is assault and/or rape. The actual requirements are for a verbal consent, or a non-verbal consent prior to engage in sex acts, and an periodically during sex. This means that the absent of consent means that consent was not given.Let's be clear that this is not about criminal law, but rather a requirement for state funded colleges in California in how they handle cases of sexual assault . Affirmative consent or "yes means yes" means that both parties need to unambiguously consent to sex before and during sex for it to be okayIf you come in my yard to borrow my lawnmower, you still have to ask permission, and I have to say it is OK. Otherwise, you are a thief. Sex is the same wayBasically, The state says unless the the person you want to have sex with says yes, it can be considered rape.
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 seeing any colours. It absorbs all the colours. Black is simply the absence of any colour. Not only does it absorb the visible light, but it also absorbs the infrared radiation. So it really is true. You will feel cooler wearing white."
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. You also have the process of acquiring a taste for it from repeated consumption.
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 matter to the cabbie - it all spends the same. Credit cards make it easy to not tip, or to tip only a little. Cash makes it easy for the cabbie to keep the change.I would guess the lose a percentage of the toll. and the percentage goes to pay,ent for use of that machine.
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 proposes this at the moment though. Edit - Not the source I was looking for but good enough. _URL_0_", 'Spectacles were not always cheap, so if you had had them it likely meant your occupation required close work, such as reading or detailed crafts, which made it more likely that you had specialized skills that required education or training. Later, Hollywood kept the stereotype going.Back in the day most people didn't have the resources to be educated. Those that did were also rich enough to buy glasses. So, the association developed that glasses = educated, which means you have to be smart.
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 Windows NT was based on IBM OS/2. OS/2 itself was a successor to IBM PC-DOS, which had originally been based on MS-DOS. Microsoft and IBM worked collaboratively on this product, until Microsoft decided to abandon the OS/2 API and use the Win32 API exclusively. IBM continued to work on OS/2 and PC-DOS independent of Microsoft after that, but, well . . . you know how that turned out. Don't see many OS/2 machines at Best Buy these days! Windows NT is the baseline for all of the "modern" versions of Windows, i.e. Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows 10.It's not really based off of anything. It was developed in-house at Microsoft from day 1. It is however _inspired_ by the design of VMS and RSX-11
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 managing the capital. Meaning they make rich people richer with their own money and take a large chunk of the profits.Hedge funds got their reason for being from the stock market crash that led to the great depression. After the crash congress passed many laws designed to protect investors from corrupt or incompotent investment fund managers . A few decades later rich, knowledgeable investors wanted to hire managers to explore more complex investments than were legal. So the governmenr allowed them to do this, but set up strict rules to qualify investors so managers couldn't go back to defrauding small investors. The new fund was called a hedge fund because the guy who set the first one up wanted to hedge his bets . Because the new fund depended heavily on the manager's skill, the manager got paid a portion of the gain the fund generated rather than a fixed maangement fee. Today hedge funds are available in an enormous number of varieties. The main things that link the varieties are still requiring qualified investors who won't be wiped out if the fund is and paying the managers a share of the earnings of the fund. Hedge fund managers who are rich become rich because their performance fees can be massive. A billion dollar mutual fund might earn $5 to $20 million in management fees, while a similarly performing hedge fund might earn $40 to $50 million .
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 innate to how our species evolved.
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 much data to actively monitor and correlate. So they don't monitor it, they store it, and they only pull it up when they already have their target in mind.Theoretically, the more information they have, the harder it is to secretly plot to do bad things. Of course, this assumes they have the ability to process the information, and ignores the balancing act with the right to privacy.They claim that if they can gather and analyze mountains of data they'll be able to find connections and networks terrorists use to kill Americans.
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 difference is that since our brains are massively adaptive, we can essentially extrapolate the missing information given enough time. Not a neuroscientist, but I think this is a plausible explanation. Maybe someone with more research experience in the area can comment on this further.Great description! It’s actually called the Tip of the Tongue phenomenon and it’s exact origin is up for debate. The most commonly accepted reason is it is a partial recall where one cannot recall exactly the word, but maybe a first letter, the circumstances where the word applies, or it’s syllabic stresses. It’s an issue of memory retrieval so it’s in there somewhere, it’s just a matter of retrieving it successfully!
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 thought was private information is made public. It's there to distract from the other two points, just more potentially damaging if Google doesn't explain what they are doing and why.A friend of mine just ordered a "wand" for his girlfriend and when prompted gave it a positive review in the email survey. I am just waiting for an ad to show up with his picture, this wand and a 5 star rating with some generic text about how great this wand feels. LOL.
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 young folk then there may not be enough money to do so. This is because when they were designed they assumed a population growth.First of all, the world as a whole will probably not grow exponentially and become overpopulated. As medicine has gotten better, more children have survived and the population has grown a lot, but now that children survive people have less of them. Thats the story in the developing world, that story already played out in the west a long time ago and now we have too few children. Many places in Europe couples have on average less than 2 children, which means the population is decreasing, not increasing . This means as the older generations retire and receive benefits, there won't be enough young people working to support them, obviously causing economic problems. This is also one of the big arguments in favor of immigration, young immigrants replacing natural born citizens as workers.
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. Source:_URL_0_', "Doing it too much can cause strain or even a pinched nerve. I used to do it a lot with my wrists and shoulders one day I rotated my left shoulder and when I brought it back into place it felt like someone was stabbing me, I moved around some more the best I could but the pain would fully go away. Saw my doc 2 days later and he told me it was a pinched nerve. Happens all the time apperently, and it's frequent in people who snap their appendages frequently.
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 airline and looking at your flights . so essentially, they're spending that potential revenue on advertising.They aren't making much money on those cheap tickets, those are purely there for marketing purposes but they also don't sell very many tickets at that price on each flight. They sell most of the tickets at substantially higher prices, plus adding on fees for things like baggage, early boarding, and so on.In addition to the marketing angle - remember that these planes have to go there anyway. The entire airline system is an EXTREMELY complicated ballet of planes traveling to locations at specific times and then going somewhere else. Every empty seat is wasted revenue and even getting £10 for a seat is preferably to getting 0.
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 1000 watts of power, we could do it in multiple ways. For example, we could transmit it at 1 volt with 1000 amps of current, or we could transmit at 1000 volts and 1 amp. Energy is naturally lost when it goes through a wire. We call it "resistive loss," and it's when the wire gets hot. Heat is energy, so the hotter the wire, the more energy is being lost. Resistive losses are proportional to the current, but not the voltage. So, the 1000 amp/1 volt wire will have much more resistive loss than a 1 amp/1000 volt wire. So, clearly it's better to distribute electricity at high voltage and low current. We can then lower the voltage before it actually reaches your home: it would be dangerous if our power outlets were at 100,000 volts or whatever. It's very easy to change an AC voltage. You use a device called a transformer, which I can explain in more detail if you want. Simply put, we can have 100,000 V on one side and 120 V on the other side of the transformer, and only a fairly small amount of power is lost. There's no good way to change DC voltages. If I want to turn 100,000 V DC into 120 V, I have to use something like a voltage divider, which wastes an astronomical amount of power .
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 causing the arousal. There were some interesting experiments done in that vein.]", 'Adrenaline. Knowing you could get caught at any moment. Im not smart enough to give a psychological explanation.
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 see no time savings whatsoever.
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 of business and politics have any connection.Freemasons basically don't admit women or anyone they feel lacks moral character. Anyone else can join. The question isn't what Freemasons do, but who they are.
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 pumped to the brain continuously, meaning every single second of your life, braincells will start dying. If you had some kind of fake blood pumping through tubes attached to the head, and that blood was being replenished with oxygen then theoretically yes, that could work. In theory, a human brain can live much longer, maybe for several hundred years, than the rest of the body. Side note: in Futurama, they explain this wacky head in a jar thing with the quasi-magical concept of *opalescence* in the episode [All the Presidents' Heads], which keeps the heads alive through time-manipulation.
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 the activities of Unit 731 and the sister units in Germany conducting similar work.
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. The polls were also extremely important in breaking the code as they had it almost entirely worked out and were even able to work out the machines wiring entirely on the codes sent. Before the war even started', "In the late 30's, agents in Poland knew about the German Enigma coding system and had acquired a good deal of information about it. Working with them was a British naval officer who, a few days before Poland was invaded, took all the data back to the UK and became a co-founder of Bletchley Park. He then recruited Alan Turing and they set themselves the goal of cracking the Enigma code. The created a computer which was able to run many trial keys in an attempt to crack each message. It was slow and laborious and often the results came too late. However, the breakthrough came when the British captured a German U-Boat along with an Enigma machine and a book with the chronological keys. From there on the British were able to read all German comms at will.
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 are. There isn't really a point where they are "fully charged" or "fully discharged". It's a compromise. * So a typical Li-Ion prefers to be at 3.7 V. That's about 50% full.* You can charge it to 4.0 V and it's almost as happy, and about 80% full. * You can charge to 4.2 V. This is okay, if you discharge it soon-ish. This is maybe 98% full. * You can charge to 4.3 V. This is so bad that a bit of damage occurs immediately. This is probaly 99.9% full.* You can charge to 4.4 V. This is very bad. Now you risk damage so bad, that the battery shorts internally, and releases all the energy very quickly. This means dangerous chemicals starts boiling, and large flames probably appears. Normally they are charged to 4.2V. Lets say the battery will last for 1 000 charge cycles this way. Some people choose to charge to 4.0 V. They get less energy in a charge, but now the battery lasts maybe 5 000 or 10 000 cycles. Some people charge to 4.3 V to get as much energy as possible, but they get maybe 200 cycles from the same battery.The specifics depend on the type of battery, but in general when they're overcharged it causes reactions to occur within the chemicals which make up the battery which generally release some sort of gas, causing the battery to swell and eventually rupture, as well as producing a lot of excess heat.
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 hard drives or optical storage. Cache memory is magnitudes faster than that, and information kept in processor registers is still faster than cache. Special Video RAM is built into GPUs because it takes too much time to retrieve the information from main system RAM on high performance GPUs - it alleviates a bottleneck. That is not to say GPUs can't work off main system memory. In fact, if you completely fill up a GPU's Video RAM, it starts using main system RAM thanks to clever drivers, but at that point performance degrades very noticeably. Integrated GPUs use system RAM and work just fine, though they don't perform very well in terms of gaming. So do consoles, but those are specially designed to provide fast access to system RAM for the GPU.
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. Where I live, the interest rate is 18% , which means if I borrow money, I pay back the sum+an extra 18%. This means, if someone wants to double your student loan rate, you now will pay much more to go school, which typically means your life debt will be much higher, and you will be in debt for more of your life, to the government. However, how much you pay on the principle makes a huge difference against how much you pay of the interest. So, for eg. for my loan, I will pay it back completely when I'm 36. If they doubled my rate, I'd die before making any more dents in my actual debt.
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 with mechanisms that are impractical to carry around in every car. Finally the third and one of the most important reasons is *where* the emissions are released. If you are dumping car exhaust downtown then air quality suffers locally, but if you dump it from smokestacks on the edge of town it is much less of a problem because people aren't breathing it in as much.
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 hidden, Youtube sees that the troll comment is getting a lot of replies and makes it even more visible to people, starting a vicious cycle that puts the crap comments on top.They're not. You get these assholes everywhere. Youtube just does a horrible job of letting the community moderate itself their backseat driving has only made comments harder to use properly lately, and their auto-filtering is borderline censorship.
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, and the sum of both things together taste better than either one did by itself? It's the same thing. Water doesn't really have a flavor to add to steak. If anything, it'll dilute the flavors of the meat and seasoning. Soda with all of the sugar is too sweet and over powering, and it's flavor doesn't have similarity to the steak, so it doesn't pair well.
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 in fact kids given the correct prescription glasses have less deterioration in eyesight compared with slight under correction in one large study The idea was that in children perhaps one should not fully correct vision - the study was halted early as the opposite appeared to be the case. This may not actually be true - but certainly no findings that wearing correct prescription glasses worsen vision. [Article] here, with references to both the study described above and a Cochrane review.
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 faced restrictions on its ability to expand due to heavy lobbying by AT & T and Comcast. The Broadband Accessibility Act is becoming law in Tennessee to effectively bribe AT & T and Comcast with "a rural development fund" to get them to step out of the way. > Is this all related to Net Neutrality thing happening in U.S right now? Not really, though EPB will be required to give AT & T and Comcast access to its power poles which is part of what common carriers are expected to do. > Who is winning in this situation? Comcast and AT & T.
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 very low voltage when it's empty, let's say 0.8v. As they charge, the voltage goes very fast to 1.3-1.5v. Once the voltage goes up to this level, the battery will continue to accept electricity but at a much reduced rate and once it's at 1.5 or somewhere around the value it goes up a bit in a very short time and then it almost stops completely it's as if the battery is "fed up". Simply put, the chemical material inside the battery is saturated with electrons. Here's a typical graph of how battery takes electricity from a charger: _URL_0_ As you can see, a smart charger can detect that the voltage no longer increases, it remains at a high level for a long time, and it will either stop or reduce the amount of electricity it sends into the battery, to a very low level, that doesn't hurt the battery. Lithium batteries, the ones in laptops and cell phones, are a bit of a special case they're more sensitive to heat and to over-charging, so they usually have attached to them a small circuit which disconnects the battery from the charger when it detects something is bad. You can read more about how lithium batteries are charged here: _URL_1_
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 rivers, some of which become waterfalls.
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 and English] in practically every song. Sometimes it's fun for the songwriter / singer to do so, or it makes the song sound more "exotic" to the intended audience, or expresses the emotion of that part of the song better, or better tells the story that the song is meant to conveyWhen a song has some foreign phrase in it, no matter how hilariously grammatically incorrect, people love it. It makes the song more unique. Just like how English songs sometimes have French /Hebrew /German bitsI think it adds as a *Fashion* or *Syle* to the song. like adding some chocolate syrup to your regular banana.
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 been no studies to show it's bad for you. People are afraid of non "natural" ingredients . Truth is, our bodies can't digest sweeteners, it literally just passes right through us.As far as I know, there have been no studies that have shown any unhealthy effects of diet soda. The sweeteners they use don't have any caloric value, so you're not getting any extra sugar or anything. That said, drinking diet soda stimulates your appetite without giving you anything to satisfy it, which is why some studies have found a link between it and being overweight. So if you drink diet, just make sure you're not eating more food than you would otherwise. I'd also stay away from any salty snacks you might be tempted by, too.
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 spot something interesting they can stop it and proceed slowly.