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What constitutes being unemployed? | In the United States, people who are "unemployed" are those who are of legal working age and legal working status, who do not currently have a job, but are actively seeking one. If you 've given up looking for a job, do not feel the need to have one, or if you have a job but are only part time, you do not count as unem... |
What's this new attack on wifi networks? How does it work, and what do I do about it personally? | Here's a full article on the breach: _URL_0_ Tl;Dr, a malicious actor can spoof a router's entire configuration and trick your device into connecting to the spoof instead of the legit router. From there, they can copy all of the data going into and out of your device. If you're connected to services that don't properly... |
Why do we sometimes feel itches when there's nothing there ? | As I understand it is that your body has not received a "signal" from that area for a while and is "checking up" on it. Sorry for crappy terms as well as probably being full of shitSo when I see a bug in the bed, I will feel random phantom itches throughout the whole night. There is nothing there, but I will still feel... |
Why my dog HATES having his leash and harness put on him, even though it doesn't bother him once it's on and he knows it means he's going on a walk? | Dogs don't like wearing a leash or harness, and some dogs are more prone to mixed emotional response than others. Once the dogs leash is on, you'll find that the thought of going for a walk is distracting him from his dislike for the leash. I think calling it a trauma based response is a bit premature to be honest. It'... |
Why is superbowl so popular? As per my internet research skills, it is the most watched/biggest money making sporting event across the world. | Another point to add is that while the FIFA World Cup is broadcast on hundreds of channels around the world, the Super Bowl gets the vast majority of its views from one channel . And of those channels that broadcast the World Cup, many countries have laws that they must be free-to-air. That means channels cannot charge... |
Why do so many immigrants own convenience and liquor stores in particular? (in the USA) | They have low startup costs and there is immediate demand for them. They also don't have a problem working the store themselves most of the time to keep costs down. |
Explosions underwater, and why it explodes, implodes then explodes again. | This happens with normal explosions as well. When something explodes, it sends out a shockwave and blasts everything away. This includes air/water. So you're left with a vacuum, which the air/water will flood back into. |
Can a person proportionally lift more weight using two arms than using one arm? | I'm guessing it's because the two arms are connected by a very strong torso, which gets leveraged into the lift when both arms are used. A single arm probably uses less of this additional strength, but still some small amount.Yes you can. The reason is you use less muscle stabalising the weight and more of it to move i... |
How do civil engineers determine if a building is structurally sound after an earthquake? | They would assess the structural components for signs of failure or serviceability issues. If they were looking at steel they could check and see if members or connections had yielded or worse. This might be evident through several different methods such as bolt holes being larger than they should be or members having ... |
Why are many web-based systems support Internet Explorer only? | Part of it is a legacy thing from the days of the dotcom bubble and other parts are a active-x thing due to legal and technical reasons. In the early 2000s many companies build their own web-based Internet and Intranet portals and quite a lot of them were build to only work with IE. The portals often stuck around for m... |
When I choose the "skip" option on certain files in a torrent, why do some of them sometimes still download, often even 100% of the file? | The content of a torrent is split into blocks of a fixed size. That's the smallest unit your client can reliably download. Each block can contain one or more files . When you choose to skip a file, but the block containing this file also contains another file that you didn't choose to skip, the whole block has to be do... |
What would be the effects on a country's economy like the US if they were to have a surplus rather than be in debt? | It would be likely the government could either a) spend more money on projects that could help build the economy, like giving money to research new technology, or b) lower the amount of money it collects from people, giving them more money to spend on other things .which also stimulates the economy. Also, usually a cou... |
Protein supplements offer different things like 'Lean definition' and 'strength' versions. What makes the difference between them? | What's written on the box is the only difference. It's the fitness version of "all natural", or "totally healthy". It's not regulated, and these companies feed on insecurities. Protein is protein, and peoples are limited by their training and adherence to their diet and fitness regimen more than what's in the tub.You c... |
Why is it when we push our hands into our eyes (hypnagogia), some people see different colours? | I believe the colors you're talking about are known as "phosphenes." Pressure on your eye causes your retinal ganglion cells to activate in a very similar way to how they activate as a response to light, so when you tightly shut, rub, or press on your eye, it stimulates your retina and causes the illusion that you are ... |
What's the difference between using mouthwash and brushing your teeth? Are there any benefits to doing both / neither? | What causes our teeth to decay is actually the excrement of bacteria. As we eat, food particles stick to our teeth and bacteria start eating on them. These bacteria poop acid on our teeth and that wears down the enamel. If you only use mouthwash, it would kill the bacteria, but leave most of the food particles and acid... |
What did we think about as a baby before we knew words? | Quick! Think about eating a bowl of cereal! Did you think in words? Did you say to yourself, "I am eating a bowl of cereal"? Almost certainly not. You probably had a non-verbal mental impression of the act of eating cereal. That's the kind of thought that you would have had before you acquired language. |
Why is the argument "if you don't have anything to hide, then you shouldn't be worried about censorship" argument flawed? | Maybe you're a closeted homosexual, or you're seeing a therapist, or you're having an affair, or you just won/inherited a large sum of money. These are all things which aren't illegal, but you still have legitimate reasons for people not wanting to know. If these things were known to somebody they could be used as leve... |
the new tip credit law being debated | > How exactly will it affect me? The tip credit is an amount of money an employer can count against their obligation to pay minimum wage. For example if you had to pay someone $10 an hour minimum with a $3 tip credit, if a given employee was tipped $6 over the course of that hour the employer could pay their employee $... |
the state of Iraq from Saddam's takeover to his capturing | Iraq had some prosperity after the 17 July Revolution, when the Ba'ath Party ousted the President and Prime Minister with the help of the military. At the time, Saddam Hussein was the party's chief of intelligence. Most of '68 was spent persecuting political and social opposition. Saddam became *de facto* president of ... |
Why do Americans say "Merry" Christmas while other English-speaking countries use the phrase "Happy Christmas"? | New Zealanders say Merry Christmas. Source: New Zealander, only ever heard Happy Christmas in Harry PotterSeems the Victorians may have objected to the connotation of "merry" meaning "drunk", so they started using "Happy Christmas" rather than "Merry Christmas", in the late 19th century: _URL_0_ > The alternative "Happ... |
if sites like Pirate Bay exist to let people illegally download media, why don’t ISP’s just block them (or why haven’t they been forced to)? | ISPs have blocked TPB in the UK, but it's not exactly a great business decision for an ISP to block access to certain sites because customers might consider it to be censorship and move to a different company. |
If it's so difficult for a fusion reactor to just break even, then why are they expected to someday be able to produce massive amounts of power? | The sun works on fusion, so we know it's a good source of power. Hydrogen is ridiculously easy to acquire compared to fissionable elements. The result of fusing hydrogen is helium, not the scary radioactive wastes resulting from fission. |
How can one die from not sleeping? What happens to the body if one stops sleeping? | You would love this video by AsapScience it's entitled: What if you stopped sleeping? It's only a couple minutes but really informative and easy to understand Link: _URL_0_ |
How could you slice your wrist deep enough and die but survive if you lost an entire limb? | When you're slitting your wrists as an act of suicide, you're not going to do anything to stop the bleeding. If you got medical attention soon enough, you could stem the bleeding and survive. If you lose a limb, it's very likely you'll die unless you get immediate medical attention. If a tourniquet is applied soon enou... |
Why is the night sky more clear after it rains? | The air is full of dust, pollen, dander, debris and dirt kicked up from the ground, haze from automobile exhaust, smoke, and factories, and the rain wipes it all clean as it falls the same way it washes your dishes. Dirt and debris cling to the drops and it delivers them to the ground clearing the air as it falls. |
How do we develop a dislike towards certain foods, even if we have never had it before? | Perhaps it's more of a psychological thing. Maybe a parent or a friend has shown disgust to a certain type of food and subconsciously you've picked it up and now show the same disgust. |
If all paper money says "this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private", how is lt legal for businesses to not accept bills above a certain denomination? | Before you exchange goods for money, no debt has been incurred. The merchant is not obliged to sell to you if you don't present payment in the form he desires. He could just as easily and legally refuse to sell unless paid only in chickens. |
Why do we choose to sleep on beds? Is there nothing better? | Sleeping in free fall is supposed to be pretty fantastic, but it's not really economical and the commute is pretty rough. |
Why do Americans fear socialism? Why is America so far to the right of the rest of the western world? | Because of the Red Scare. During the 1950s the US was terrified of China and the USSR, the two largest communist states. The reason is that communism is the polar opposite of capitalism, and the US has a good reputation of fearing what it doesn't know. During this time the government produced propaganda and generally i... |
Why is an Action Potential called an Action Potenial? | This isn't really a biology question, more of a physics one. Although I'm not a physicist I can take a shot at answering this, but anyone studying electrostatics ) will be able to define an electric potential better than I can. A membrane potential is simply the existence of a difference in the electric potential on tw... |
Why do MRI machines make so much noise? | The primary source for the acoustic noise created by an MRI machine is a result of the gradient magnetic field generated by the magnet. The gradient coils within the system create rapid alterations of current, which in turn produce significant force which acts upon the coils. This accumulation of events results in loud... |
Why do humans get diarrhea as a result of nervousness? | Pre-med student here. When a person gets nervous, their body prepares itself for whatever you're nervous about. For example, if you're nervous about performing in a sports game, your body will prepare for this. So, the combination of the preparation and the nervousness activates the fight or flight response. You may ha... |
How are these kind of space images captured? | Yah they are taken with the hubble space telescope or other ground based telescopes. None of the colors are real though. They colorize the spectrum so that we can see them and distinguish things. A lot of awesome space photos are taken in the microwave spectrum which we cant see at all so they just assign colors to eac... |
What is the difference between nationalized and private companies, and is it possible to tell which one is better? | A private company is owned by a single person/a family/a group of shareholders etc. A nationalized company on the other hand, is owned by the goverment, there are multiple reasons why they differ. For the most part, they have different goals, if you take a provider for example, who supplies households with electricity,... |
What makes things "cute" | This guy explains it well and his videos are awesome. _URL_0_', "[A page from an old cartoonist's manual explains it pretty well.] |
Why can't you consume grapefruit with some medications? | When you take medicine, it goes into your blood, and your liver processes it a little at a time and turns the drug into a metabolite that doesn't work. Then you pee it out. When drugs are made, they record how good on average the liver is at getting rid of the drug. There's a special enzyme in your liver called CYP3A4 ... |
What would it be like to swim in a pool in a 0 gravity environment? | Ignoring the problem of the pool holding the water, since water won't run off you like it does in gravity I predict high a probability of drowning.If you had scuba gear, it would probably be a lot like moving through air in zero g, just with more resistance. Of course, if you had scuba gear then you 'd be introducing a... |
Why do most of the products end in "X.Y9"? | Its a marketing trick. Its a mind game they play. They do it to try and make the item look cheaper. 29.99 appears cheaper to the regular idiot person than 30.00 Probably based on a bunch of research They even bloody do it with cars Especially if everyone else is doing itPeople subconsciously look at the first digit. $1... |
Why does my body get itchy when its hot outside? | Do you live in the southwest where it is hot and dry? It's possible that the hot dry air dries your skin out. |
Why did the police stop using water cannons and stuff to break apart protests and the like? | They stopped using them because they are not harmless. They cause a lot of damage to people and even killed people when used. |
Why does our pain threshold increase as we get older? | Our muscles get stronger as we get older. And our instincts are sharper. If you go to punch a man on the stomach, he will instinctively tense his stomach muscles and prepare for the punch. A child won't I dont think it increases with age, but only from a personal point of view. I used to run about and bruise and fall a... |
The age of light. | We use a few different techniques. One of them is called parallax. As the Earth moves from one side of its orbit to the other, the angle of distant stars and galaxies changes. We can do some basic trigonometry to determine their exact distance based on the change in angle. This generally only works for short distances,... |
When you wipe off a bottle with your shirt before you drink it, does it actually do anything? | Maybe --the mechanical removal of some of the bacteria -- but you're probably just adding more bacteria that landed on your shirt. Placebo effect baby.There is often a residue left by the rubber of the cap seal. Next time, try wiping it with a moistened white cloth or paper towel. It will probably come up yellowishMost... |
Why are we so quick to impeach politicians for a sexual escapade, but they remain in office for a myriad of other slip-ups? | we dont impeach them for sexual escapades we impeach them for lying about it in congress big difference, well documented, go read a little bitThe issue is with all of those other things, the politician may not have full control over whatever they pledged to change. Most politicians cannot enact policies completely on t... |
Why's the "funny" accent always from the south (as observed in US, England, Japan, Philippines etc.)? | Not so, the "funny" accents in England are from the North. In other words, anything that sounds different sounds "funny". Scoucer accents, Scottish , and Birmingham are "funny". Welsh, for example, have funny accents apart from their capital which is in the south of Wales! TL:DR; they're not.I'm confused. When you say ... |
Why do we feel like pinching, biting and squeezing our partner when making out? | It is a way of showing intimacy - letting someone else inflict some small amount if pain on you shows you trust them and know they won't actually hurt you. BDSM Lite, essentially. |
Why do most recipes and appliances ask specifically for cold water when the water will just be heated up? | Hot water can be sitting in water heaters for a while & pick up all sorts of metals & minerals. This may alter the chemistry of what's going on or it might just increase the rate at which mineral buildup occurs inside the appliance. Using cold water avoids the problems. |
When looking at cell phone coverage maps, why is there always a drastic line that cuts vertically across the US? | Population density. Notice the vertical line on [this map.] It's not cost effective to provide dense coverage where the population isn't also dense. Typically you'll see coverage over major roadways or cities or pockets of population. Coverage resumes on the west coast. |
How can cell phone companies raise our rates in the middle of a contract, but we can't change anything without fees, penalties etc? | Yes, somewhere in your contract there is almost definitely a clause that allows this. Pretty standard, actually.Not American, but in Europe it's standard that if they change your plan in the middle of your contract that you can cancel the contract without any extra fees or penalties. That doesn't mean you get to keep y... |
1 ELI5: How do you instantly get knocked out when someone hits the 'sweet spot' of your jaw? | Simple physics, the jaw is furthest from the head center of mass. Hitting the jaw is like hitting the end of a lever that will cause the fastest acceleration to the brain. Boxers will tell you people with long narrow jaws get ko'd more than those with short, stout jaws for what it's worth. Someone will probably say it'... |
Why dont people have a problem with Cuba being a problem? | There isn't a sort of flicked switch between free and oppressive. As countries go, Cuba isn't *that bad.* It's also poor, yes, but arguably because of US-imposed trade embargoes. All the money it spends on medical aid is also a very good PR move - it sends hundreds of doctors to developing countries. It also has free h... |
If brain does not feel, why do people experience headache when having a stroke? | The brain itself has no pain receptors so it can't feel pain. The arteries, veins, tissues that surround the brain, etc. all do feel pain. They are what hurts when someone has a headache or stroke.The brain does not have sensory fibers, however the meninges, which are tissue that wrap around the brain, do have sensory ... |
"Microsoft will receive royalties for Samsung’s mobile phones and tablets running the Android mobile platform." | > What does Microsoft have to do with Android? Nothing. This deal wasn't done on the basis of that. > How does this work? MicroSoft is being what's known as a "patent troll". Basically, they thought up ways to do things, and then patented them. If anyone else does the same thing the same way, they have to pay MicroSoft... |
why we need meat in our diets? | Well, you don't necessarily. It's just that meat is a very readily available source of protein. It's possible now to obtain enough protein from plant-based supplements, but for our ancient ancestors, it wasn't really possible to get enough protein without eating meat |
How is weather forcasted 2+ weeks out? | It's done by running "mathematical models". They are basically a set of highly sophisticated algorithms which process all input data. We're talking about a lot of data; every single measurable property of the atmosphere on tens of thousands of places on Earth are input here. The more improved those mathematical models ... |
since whales and dolphins breath air, why do they die so quickly when "beached"? | depending on what you mean by quick - they can live for at least a few hours outside the water , so that's not really what i would consider a quick death. the factors are weight , temperature , and hydration . when you see people on a beach throwing water on them, its to help with the body temperature issue. |
How are gut bacteria established in infants? | The truth is, we don't know for sure. We know it *shouldn't* come through the placenta, because among other things the placenta protects the baby from infections coming from mom . And a lot of your gut flora does nasty things if it's somewhere other than your gut, raising the questions: how would mom safely get it from... |
Déjà vu's, can anyone explain them for me? | I'm not sure how true it is, but I remember hearing about how it is in fact your brain encoding the memory of that moment incorrectly and so it feels like you have been there or done that before. |
How do scientists date fossils that are millennia old? | To find out the age of a fossil, you need to use an absolute dating technique, either on the fossil itself or on the sediment it has been deposited in or that you know is the same age. The most common form of radiometric dating uses radioactive isotopes. There are dozens upon dozens of radioisotope systems that are use... |
Why people are saying that the Iranian Arms deal may be the "worst deal in history"? | Israel is unhappy about it, because Israel is paranoid about Iran attacking them with nuclear weapons, and will only be content when Iran has no nuclear capability whatsoever. The treaty lifts sanctions on Iran in exchange for more oversight of Iranian nuclear facilities and the reduction of their capability to theoret... |
How cold would it have to be outside to literally "freeze" the internet. | All the servers are in climate controlled buildings, so unless the temperature freezes the heating/cooling equipment, there isn't a temperature to freeze the Internet. All the fiber optic cables are greatly shielded, so they shouldn't be affected.You need to be a lot more specific about what you mean by "literally" fre... |
How is it legal that money exchange is allowed while lobbying for Congress? | It is bribing if you do what is give money in exchange for some action . That is called a *quid pro quo* and it is as illegal for a lobbyist as for anyone else. But, the law sees a difference between that and donating to people who are already likely to support what you want"Lobbying" is just the logical extension of l... |
why are some electric toothbrushes cheap and others in triple figures ? Do they actually provide a oral hygienic difference? | I currently use a Philips Sonicare. It cleans better than a cheap electric tooth brush and the vibrations are less course. So the difference between a cheaper and more expensive electric toothbrush is the method it uses move the bristles and the cheaper ones tend to be cruder. my dental hygienist noticed when I switche... |
Why are certain parts in cartoons lighter? | Sometimes to save time and money the animator will use a still image duplicated over and over for the parts of the frame which never move. Then they do their individual frame by frame animation for the parts that do move. Modern cartoons are a lot better at blending the two images, while older cartoons using older equi... |
How did game developers fit N64 games to cartridges with maximum capacity of 64 MB? | At the time, that was a great deal of space. And really, it still is, when you're not displaying photo-realistic animation. |
What happens when light is "absorbed" by an object? Is it always converted into heat energy? | It _is_ energy already, so it is converted to another form of energy if it is not reflected. The most common is conversion into thermal energy - like when you're wearing a black shirt on a sunny day. This is the most common interaction we see around us. A photovoltaic cell converts to electricity. |
How do Astronomers/space-people measure distances in deep space? | For close stars the easy way to measure them is using parallax. Basically it is just one big trig problem as the stars move in the night sky based on how far away you are from them. _URL_0_ For more distant objects you can measure using different variables such as Cephids and Supernovae where we know how bright the obj... |
5 How are the flights at an airport scheduled? | Depends on the airport. At small airports, the airline says "We 'd like to arrive at 14.20 and depart at 15.10 every Monday and Thursday", and the airport say "That will be great!" At bigger airports, there are many more factors to take into account, to ensure that not too many aircraft try to arrive and depart at the ... |
Why don't school buses require children to wear seatbelts? | so, a seatbelt is to keep you from flying away when you're hit. This level of impact is generally because a vehicle of similar sizes hit you. A schoolbus however, is absolutely massive and VERY heavy. This means that if its just hit by a car, the people in the bus wont be heavily effected. This is the reason why theres... |
Literally, what is a thought? | As best as we know our brains are comprised of a massive collection of small storage devices known as "neurons". We are not sure of how much information each neuron stores, but we do know that each storage device is connected to the entire network of storage devices through neural synapses which are chemical transmitte... |
What are the orange balls on telephone/power lines? | They're high visibility markers for pilots. It usually means these lines are across paths frequented by low flying aircraft . so across water, or around flight paths to/from airports, heliports. |
Medically, what's the best age for a transsexual person to begin transitioning? | A lot of bone growth occurs during and after puberty that is irreversible. Hormone-replacement therapy can change soft tissue in your body , but cannot change the size and shape of your bones. So once your bones have stopped growing, you're stuck with what you 've got. A lot of gender characteristics are based on your ... |
Why nobody likes Piers Morgan. | He is obnoxious and condescending both personally to his guests and toward their viewpoints if he disagrees with their conclusion. This is something that obviously makes people not fond of him.I wonder how many people know his history? Here in England he was editor of the Daily Mirror, which is the labour supporting ta... |
How do fishermen on those large trawlers with nets catch the exact fish they are looking for? | The fishing spots are not randomly chosen. They are chosen because there is a lot of the desired fish there. Different fish will have specialized themselves to feed on different food, swim at different depths and handle different ocean conditions. So if you go to the place that best fits the fish you are after and thro... |
Why do groups choose to boycott elections and has this ever been effective? | Voter turnout says a lot about the legitimacy of a process. If turnout for a vote is quite low, then nobody can really be sure of what the people actually want. If one side believes the system is rigged against them, then they should boycott a vote instead of going to vote "no". Heck, let's take the Catalan independenc... |
Are we any closer to curing cancer? | [This comic] explains it well. "Cancer is not one disease"', "Cancer isn't one thing that can magically be erased. There are as many types of cancer as there are types of cells in the body. The way each type develops, and the way to combat each are vastly different. New medications and ways to combat cancerous cells ar... |
why the US spends 1.4 million dollars using a tomahawk to blow up a pickup truck when it might keep a squadron of propeller attack planes (like the Super T) going for years? | 1. The missiles have a "shelf life" during which time they must either be used or be overhauled at significant cost. Sometimes it's cheaper to fire the missile than it is to have it maintained, especially if it's near it's maintenance date. And in some cases the missiles cannot be maintained economically any more and i... |
When feeling sad or happy, why does hugging someone that means something to us make it all feel better? | I have no links to back this up but I'm fairly certain that embracing someone boosts oxytocin in your brain. That oxytocin makes you feel calm and connected to other people. |
How military aircraft knows something is targeting them. | The classic warning you see in films is a radar lock warning. You can think of it like someone searching for you at night with a spotlight . At first they're just sweeping the light around the area in a regular pattern to find you. Once they spot you and are about to shoot you, they hold the light on you constantly and... |
The algorithm the Banker to come up with an offer on the popular show "Deal or No Deal" | The value offered by the banker is usually just below the expected value of your case. Expected value is fairly easy to compute. Let's say 3 cases are in play :$1 million, $10,000, and $1. The expected value is $336,667. The Banker would likely offer $320,000 in this case. The trick to playing though is not to compare ... |
how screaming helps us to relieve pain? I mean, if we break a finger or we're just angry, screming makes us fell better. Is there a reason for this? | Saying "ow" helps people to tolerate pain by disrupting messages being sent to the brain about the discomfort, scientists have discovered. |
what is the atomic radius and is there a formula to calculate it? | Simply google atomic radius, you’ll see what’s known as a “trend”. That’s how you calculate it. |
What happens if neither presidential candidate can continue to run? | The parties would probably each hold another convention. In fact, that's probably what would happen if only one of the two nominees could no longer run, provided there was sufficient time. Political parties are private entities, so there isn't a specific clause in the Constitution or anything to tell us exactly what th... |
How can there be HD version of movies from when HD wasn't even a "thing"? | Film is just a bunch of photographs, they have higher picture quality than pretty much any digital picture does. A pixel in a digital photo needs a whole little man made sensor and wiring, a photograph is just a little bit of chemical. We are getting to the point the visual difference between digital and analog isn't r... |
Why does it feel so uncomfortable when sound only comes out of one headphone channel | It’s a disparity between two senses. take for example spinning with your eyes closed, you feel that the you’re spinning but you can’t see so the effect is worsened. For headphones it is much the same if you wear both cups you expect to hear from both cups and when you don’t the experience is jarring, this is further pr... |
Why new student loan interest rates in U.S. doubled July 1st? In other words, who determined they would rise from 3.4% to 6.8%? | There was a law that artificially held the interest rate low at 3.4% until July 1st. It was meant to help during the poor economy of the last few years. The law was always set to expire July 1st, at which point the government can either let it expire, or agree to extend it. They have decided to let it expire as origina... |
A priori and A posteriori knowledge. | Mathematics is often given as an example of A priori knowledge. A priori is knowledge that is internally consistent, without the need for any outside measurements. In maths we know 1+1=2, because we explicitly define 2 to be twice that of one. Other a priori knowledge are facts of definition, such as "redditors browse ... |
Why do negative experiences and emotions seem to hang around in the mind longer than positive ones? | You can be happy a hundred times and survive, it just takes one real harm to die. We remember the negatives to protect ourselves from the risks. |
is the singularity different in a small vs supermassive black hole | Not really, just more massive. In fact, one of the classical theories of black holes is that they have only three properties: mass, spin, and electric charge. OTOH, with some of the new black hole theories such as "fuzzballs" , who knows. |
What biological role do psychedelic molecules e.g Salvianorium A, Psilocybin, LSA etc ect actually play. | Terrence McKenna a long time proponent of psilocybin, believed psilocybin gave man an evolutionary advantage on the plains of Africa: _URL_0_ _URL_1_ under psilocybin, activity in the more primitive brain network linked to emotional thinking became more pronounced, with several different areas in this network - such as... |
why do words start to sound distorted/foreign when repeated multiple times? | /u/kimba55 has it wrong. It's not called jamais vu; what you're looking for is the phenomenon called [semantic satiation]. *Edit: it appears semantic satiation is a subset of jamais vu specific to words and phrases. Essentially, when you hear a word, neurons in your brain fire off to connect "word" to "meaning." If you... |
why does my pee turn clear when I'm drunk? | Because alcohol is a diuretic and it causes you to expel more liquid than you normally would. Since you're drinking a lot of beer your urine is really dilute and is expelled before more of the water absorbs into your system. |
How Photoshopping something out of a picture works. | Pretty much, yeah. What exactly was back there was not encoded in the original image, so you have to either paste it in from another photo, or try to rebuild it from the surrounding area. Photoshop has a lot of tools for automating this, like content aware fill, but usually you have to do some manual cleanup afterward.... |
What makes coming to America legally difficult? | If it weren't legally difficult, a great many foreigners thinking they 'd have a better life in America would do so. In some Americans\' eyes this isn't desirable because it would place great stress on social systems, possibly increasing crime, taking jobs away from those that were born and live in America, and having ... |
Why do my legs fall asleep after a few minutes on the toilet? | I answered a [similar question] yesterday with the following response: While commonly thought to be caused by restriction of blood flow, a limb "falling asleep" is actually a [Transient Paresthesia] , which simply means that the "sleeping" part of your body feels numb or tingly. Transient Paresthesias are caused by the... |
What makes something "funny"? What makes our bodies laugh? And why is something less "funny" once we know the punchline? | There was an interesting documentary about this on the BBC recently . They boiled it down to two kinds of laughter: involuntary and voluntary. From what I remember, involuntary laughter is a very basic sound, very primeval and is a form of communication. It allows large groups of people to bond quickly and is much more... |
Why are revealed female breasts/nipples considered erotic? | They're [secondary sexual characteristics]. Essentially characteristics that appear during puberty to say that the person is able to reproduce. It's important for mate selection, as mating with one unable to reproduce is evolutionarily a bad idea. It's interesting to me because it shows just how important biology is to... |
why does it feel like im biking faster at night? | Because you can't see as far. We judge speed mostly by sight. During the day your reference points are pretty far away most of the time. At night your vision is limited, and your reference points are much closer, and go by much more quickly. |
How come junk food tastes so good? | High fat, sugar, and sodium content activates dopamine receptors in the brain that promote stimulation which creates the sensation of happiness and satisfaction. This effect is almost immediate, but certainly not lasting. |
What happens to the plastic surrounding the tablet that we swallow? | They are specially designed based on the drug to dissolve while in your body. For instance, if the drug needs to get to your intestines for it to work, the casing may be thick enough to fully dissolve only after it has traveled until your intestinesThe entire coating dissolves eventually. This is used to ensure that th... |
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