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What is happening in your brain when a song "gets stuck" in your head? | IIRC this is due to the Zeignark effect. It basically means our mind seems to think of unfinished things very often in an attempt to complete it and in this case the unfinished thing is the song. Try completing the song the next time its stuck in your head. |
Why can't I have a fox or koala bear as a pet? | In some countries, you can! But there are several reasons for why it would be illegal. 1. An exotic pet that posses little immediate risk to human life can still get loose and cause damage to crops/wildlife.2. The animal is a protected species.3. It has been ruled that such an animal would not thrive as a pet.4. The an... |
Why does your hair fall out when you lose a lot of weight? | > Does the body just kind of freak out from the base loss of nutrients? The body is starving. There isn't enough nutrients to support the entire body so it starts to go into emergency mode, cannibalizing the body for nutrients to continue to operate. Some of that can be supplied by the fat which is trying to be lost an... |
Why are domestic cats so terrified of water but wild large cats aren't? | Large cats in the wild depending on location use water not just to bathe but to cool off especially in hot climates. I think too large wild cats have less fur usually which probably makes the water experience not as bad. Not too sure about domestic cats I've heard if you start bathing young and start with a washcloth o... |
What would happen if everyone in the U.S. stopped paying income tax? | Well, it's not voluntary, it was ratified a century ago. But on to your question For most people, the lion's share of their income taxes are paid through mandatory paycheck deductions. So, in order for everyone to stop paying income taxes completely, everyone would have to quit their jobs. But if you're talking about f... |
How are video game exploits discovered? | Are you referring to glitches? Most of them are discovered by accident. When you have millions of people playing the game and doing things the developers never thought of, some glitches will inevitably be found. |
Why manufactures for Flush-able wipes say that they are disposable while plumbers stated that they aren't. | They say they are flushable, because that sells wipes. But the problem is, many are made of a non-woven spun fiber material, similar to that used in disposable diapers. They tend to get caught on the rusty protuberances of cast-iron drain pipes. Worse yet, I 've heard from folks at sewage treatment plants that they clo... |
Why chargers (phone, tablet, computer) get so hot while charging. | Chargers must convert Alternating Current to Direct Current . Converting AC to DC is not 100% efficient; some energy is lost--as heat. Properly used and cared for, the chargers' heat output is not dangerous. |
How come my feet are often colder with my socks on than with them off? | This usually happens with cotton sock and it is because because your sock are slightly damp with sweat. The damp sock pulls heat out of your feet quicker than dry air. This is why in cold climates you wear two pairs of socks an inner cotton sock to wick moisture away from you skin and a outer wool sock for warmthCould ... |
The political philosophy of Ayn Rand? What exactly is objectivism? | Less political, more centered on human nature objective morality of "rational self-interest." Political implications, though. Posits notion that humans shouldn't sacrifice happiness of selves for each other; should actively seek out what makes them happy, bettering themselves and furthering society in process. Similar ... |
Why do some medications work quickly, while others need to be taken for weeks at a time until you start to feel the effects? | Certain medications need to reach a specific concentration in your system in order to be effective, like Lithium or Warfarin/Coumadin. The reverse is also true, that certain medications you should not stop taking all at once and need to wean off of. |
Why are some parts of the human body so sensitive to human touch even though they are in constant contact with clothing all day long? | Your brain gets used to sensory input and starts to ignore it. You can feel your sheets when you first get into be, but as time goes on, the sensation goes away. The brain can only focus on one thing at a time. Multi-tasking is just switching between many things quickly. By ignoring some inputs your brain is able to fo... |
Why aren't countries named universally in their native language? | Most of the countries\' names are that way for historical purposes. A prime example would be Georgia . Georgians actually call their country Sakartvelo, which can be approximated with Latin characters just fine. But since they spoke a unique language and wrote in unique text , people just started calling them "Those gu... |
How can satire shows (like the Daily Show) show clips from other news channels, and make fun of them without getting permission from the channels, or any financial compensation to them? | There is something called "[Fair use]" in US copyright law. It allows limited use of other people's work without prior permission or payment for the purpose of reporting on or making commentary on that work. There are other uses that qualify for "Fair use", but that's the relevant one here. |
Why do chicken cock-a-doodle-doo in the morning? | It happens in the morning because it's the first thing roosters do after they wake up. And then they keep doing it every 15 minutes all damn day. What I'm trying to say is that roosters are real annoying. |
In most European countries, family culture is a massive factor in life, why is it so different in the US? Why do people avoid it and hate it so much? | I think op is asking why do a large amount of American families kick their kids out at age 18. Or once the kid turns 18 s/he peaces the f out.Individualism in America is considered a virtue and a trait indicative of success and leadership. It's like a baby bird leaving the nest and flying on its own and catching its ow... |
Why do mountains have a gray, hazy appearance from a distance? | Contrary to first appearance the air isn't perfectly transparant. Over large distances it starts to form a faint blue haze. Disturbances in the air or a heat current can further distort the view, which is why faint stars twinkle when viewed from earth. Their light gets slightly distorted as the athmosphere moves and fl... |
If a medicine has certain side effects (cancers or death) does that mean somebody has experienced these from the medicine? | My mom has been in a few clinical trials for psoriasis medicine. In the study on 1000 people, lasting 2 years, 3 of them, all old men, had a heart attack. It could not be proven that the heart attack was a result of the medicine, but a warning must be given to patients of the potential side effects. By the way, those 3... |
Why was Elon Musk crying in that one interview? What happened? | If your referring to the 60 minutes interview. It's because NASA astronauts that he regards as heroes growing up basically don't approve of SpaceX and Elon's view of commercial space flight. Imagine doing research in Physics, only to have Issac Newton tell you that what you did/doing is stupid and not important. It can... |
What Happens to Australia if the American Dollar Crashes? | The US buys less Australian goods and Australians buy more American goods. That's one thing.Crashes or depreciates? A crash would mean a major drop in the value of the American dollar. Since the USD is major reserve currency, the drop depending on the size would probably plunge the world into another recession like bac... |
Why don't we have hover craft yet? | At the surface of the Earth, the Earth's magnetic field has a strength of 58 microteslas. For comparison your average fridge magnet has roughly 100 times that strength at around 5 militeslas. This means that there is simply not enough magnetic force available to push off. It doesn't matter how much strength the magnet ... |
Why are Emergency Rooms so inefficient? Is there a way to make them see patients faster? | They are efficient, for emergencies. Whatever is wrong with you, if you're healthy enough to be complaining on Reddit you shouldn't be in the **emergency** room. |
Why does bread harden if I don't cover it up | The moisture in the bread evaporates into surrounding air if it's not sealed in by covering it. Unless you want a more detailed explanation of evaporation, it's just that. This comment will probably be deleted for not being long enough. |
Why are state-sponsored hackers so good, even when they come from places like North Korea? | Because it's not one guy in his parent's basement working on it part time, it's a professional team in a modern datacenter with way more resources. |
why are humans so fascinated by/drawn to running or falling water, such as streams or waterfalls? | It's likely very soothing, even in modern settings. Perhaps especially in modern settings, with constant bright lights and loud noises and work stress. The sound of water falling creates a natural 'white noise', a shapeless sound that drowns out or neutralises background sound. Listening to the sound of rushing water i... |
why can't we make up a number that is the result of a division by 0, just like we did with i? | We could make up a number like that. The question is, does it unlock any interesting new mathematics? When we defined the square root of -1 to be *i*, it enabled very rich, new mathematical fields, with broad applications to not only other fields of math but also physics and engineering. Underpinning all of this was th... |
Why do I have to download some version of directx everytime I buy a game and install it? | You shouldn't have to actually install it. You just run the installer, which quits because you already have it. It's bundled with every game to guarantee that even new PC gamers can run the game. |
In music, what are parallel fifths? | Power ChordsListen to Some good old Rock-in-roll, what's that rift in Smoke on the Water: Power Chords!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BANNANANANA BUM BUM BUM BAAAAAAAAAA. AKA perfect fifths being moved around. Essential if you knew nothing about music theory that's what they sound like but visualy ooo_ o see how there are count... |
Why is nuclear fusion considered the "holy grail" of nuclear power compared to fission? | > but I fail to understand why fusion is safer Because it requires extremely specific circumstances to occur. The second those conditions are lost, the reaction can't physically happen. If you don't have enough heat in the system, the fuel won't have enough energy in it to fuse. > cleaner It doesn't use radioactive fue... |
Why do string cheese sticks taste so much better when eaten in slivers vs. chunks? | I'd guess that it's because the sliver has more exposed surface area per volume for the taste molecules to interact with the receptors on your tongue.Slivers melt in your mouth, chunks make you feel like your chewing on ballsacks', "It's all preference and therefore all in your head. **Source:** I prefer biting string ... |
What is the deal with the whole Lebron James thing? | LeBron is basically the supermodel that everyone wants to date. So he was together forever with Cleveland until he realized that he was dating a solid 4.5 when he could easily have a 10. So he bounces. In response, Cleveland digs their key into the side of his pretty little suped up four wheel drive and threw his stuff... |
What would it be like to be in the bottom of the Mariana Trench if the ocean was drained? | The air would be quite dense, about 4x that of sea level, and might result in a mild case of decompression sickness if an individual were returned to sea level without regular stops, but milder than an actual scuba dive. Breathing would be very efficient, though. It would be very cold, getting only a few hours of dayli... |
Whats the water situation in Cape Town? Was this expected? Will this happen to other cities? Should other countries be worried? | They have been in a state of drought for years and the city population has not met the restriction goals to ration the water that they do have. As such they have been running out of water faster than they can build facilities to treat waste water or filter salt water. They have a number of plants in production to attem... |
Earth's water in its natural form is 4.5 billion years old, but gets an expiration date when packaged | The plastic bottle deteriorates after a long time and renders the water undrinkable. That's also why water in emergency kits come in cans, as they last longer.There are other stuff in the water that goes bad after a while. Not all water on earth is drinkable. |
How does a cell phone call from mainland US to Hawaii work? | No, the cell network is plugged into fiber-optic cables that carry the traffic under the ocean. The cell network on the islands is plugged into the other end. |
What happens to light after it is absorbed, like how black "absorbs" ~99% of light? | > some kind of energy repository. It doesn't get to store the energy indefinitely. That energy in turn is exchanged with the environment, which is why the black object feels hot to the touch. If you remove the light source, the black object will reach equilibrium with its surroundings.Yes, when an item absorbs light, i... |
what exactly is Austrian economics? | Austrian economics could be seen as a philosophical take on economics that starts with a few simple assumptions and tries to see what can be reasoned based on them. Some of those assumptions are that people act , that value is subjective, and that people don't like to work. The subjective value thing is more like a def... |
How can top american universities, all of which have computer science departments, still have abysmal web portals and online student services pages? | Computer science is not graphic design. Computer science is not user experience design. Computer science is not even directly involved with the building of complex websites.Because the CS department isn't the IT dept. CS is a degree program tasked with teaching students about that subject and not running/designing the ... |
If lava is melted rock, why is it so fertile when it cools down? | It's not. Take a look at the [western coast of the island of Hawaii]. The land on the western coast is considerably more recent than the land on the eastern coast. The weather and mountain range plays a large role as well but the fresh land was so rocky and porous that it could not hold water sufficiently to make ferti... |
Why is there still a charge for video games that were made by developers that go out of business? | When studios go under, or are forced to fold their IP usually gets auctioned out. The owners of the IP would receive profits from all sales of products the IP they bought coversIt all depends on who has the right to distribute the game. The original copyright holder can give permission or transfer ownership altogether.... |
why do we use the letter "Z" to symbolize sleep? | Because the sound of snoring can be described as a buzzing sound, and Z is just the letter that fits bestIt is onomatopoeia for the sound that snoring makes. At least to English speakers that is what it sounds likeThis was posted a few months ago by /u/phd_dude and appears to be very well researched: One of the most de... |
Why is it cheaper to add phone service to a bundle? | It make their subscriber numbers look more impressive which helps their stock prices. It psychologically helps customers think they got a good deal, which makes them less likely to cancel service. It also makes it a bigger pain in the ass for you to cancel service because it adds hassle to you having to find replacemen... |
Who funds a radical group like ISIS? | Three sources of funding: 1) They control most of the Iraqi Oil field and have been selling Oil on the black market at a discounted rate. If I recall correctly they make 2 million a day just off of this. 2) A lot of the people they kidnap they get ransoms for. The US and UK are in the minority when it comes to "we don'... |
When something like a wheel is spinning really fast, why does it look like it is not spinning? | To simplify: You see the world as a snapshot of images, like a camera. You take several photos every single second, so when something is moving slowly, you see it move because it has changed positions between camera shots. Snapshots of image taken by your eye at regular time intervals: O O O O O O O O O O O O Object po... |
"Super roots" or tetration in math | You can group towers of exponents in two ways. One if from the base up, giving the old rule "power to a power, multiply" or you can group from the "top down". *See Examples* 5^2^3 might be read as )^3 where you group terms from the base on up, and then use the rule "power to a power, multiply" to give 5^. However, you ... |
Why do some states have bans on Breed Specific Legislation, but breeds are still banned. | After Colorado banned BSL, Denver sued, and its ban was upheld in court. "Home-rule municipalities" can ban specific breeds, but other cities can't. Denver and Aurora, the only Colorado cities that ban pit bulls, are both home-rule municipalities. Florida's ban on BSL grandfathers previously existing law, so Miami-Dade... |
The stock exchange just hit 16000, why are we still in an "economic recession"? | In the strictest sense of the term, we're not. A recession is defined in economics as [two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth]. As [you can see here], the recession has been over since 2010. That doesn't mean the economy isn't still bad, though; wages and employment tend to lag behind GDP growth. And of course... |
How is it that the cereal in the plastic remains fresh while the ones that get outside of it (in the box) become stale? | There is more moisture outside of the bag than in the bag. Moisture is what makes things stale. |
How can someone have bad short term memory but good long term memory? | Different pathways in the brain are associated with different 'memories' as such. Someone with a brilliant long-term but rubbish short-term will have stronger brain pathways going from their long-term memories to everything else. Make sense? :) |
Why is the 'QWERTY' keyboard not arranged in alphabetical order? | The QWERTY layout originated with typewriters. They had mechanical arms which would swing up to place ink on the page. If two adjacent arms were hit in quick succession, there was a chance they would catch on each other and jam. So the layout was made to reduce the frequency of two adjacent arms being required while ty... |
How can we sometimes wake up a minute before our alarm clock goes off? | A combination of two factors: 1) Because we have a pretty damn accurate internal body clock ) that keeps time to within a few minutes of 24 hr, providing it gets 'trained' by daylight signals. The researchers who discovered and explored how the clock works won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017. 2) Confi... |
How does keeping a wound covered, benefit the healing process? | Keeping the wound covered pretty much just protects you from infection. The reason your covered one gets soggy and is taking longer to heal is most likely because you aren't changing your bandages often enough. |
How far can the human eye see without any "help" (binoculars etcs) | Our naked eye can actually see the Andromeda galaxy from a dark area, which is 2.6 million light years from Earth. That's considered the furthest object you can see with the naked eye I believe. |
How does the fire department find the origin from a big fire? | Fire tends to burn upwards so start by looking for the lowest damage. Then reject anything that look as if was caused by burning debris falling down or flashover from radiation heating from above. Looking at [this image] it is clear that the fire probably started low down on the left-hand side . They may also do simula... |
Why can't two individuals have identical fingerprints? | They can! Or at least they can have so similar prints that we can't tell the difference. That means that the case of the prosecution cannot be based solely on prints, but the prints can be strong supporting evidence. Suppose for example that there are twenty people in the country which could have similar enough prints.... |
As humans, what part of our mind stops us from wanting to harm others? (Biology) | Taught. Humans have no problem with killing other humans even without being what we call sociopaths/psychopaths. It's only a matter of what morals you were thought as a kid. Just think of how many people still have no problem with death penalty. |
why is pink considered a girl's color? | It is purely a result of culture. There used to be a significant amount of people who thought blue was a more feminine colour. [More info!]', "We made a concious effort with our daughter that we won't be specific on what colour toys / clothes etc she gets. Yet she prefers pink. I even bought her a green and blue scoote... |
Why can't humans survive off of only vitamins? | Vitamins don't have calories, which humans use for energy. They also lack many of the micronutrients we need to survive .Because while vitamins are *some* of the material necessary for your biological functions, they are not all of them. For instance, linoleic acid is used by the human body to synthesize several necess... |
Why does Nebraska DNC have both a caucus AND a primary? What's the benefit of doing that for them? | The state requires that primaries be held but the party decided to use a caucus for the presidential race. Essentially coming back to the whole 'political parties can decide things however they want' angle. However, while the Clinton/Sanders part is meaningless, the primary today still has local and state level votes .... |
What is the actual sound you hear coming out of a car exhaust, is it the sound of pistons moving, fuel being burnt or something else? | It's essentially the sound of hot gas expanding out through the exhaust valves of the engine at very high speed, dozens to hundreds of times per second depending on the speed of the engine and the number of cylinders, with the frequency being decided by the engine speed due to some funky things about acoustics and how ... |
Why are note harmonies, specifically chords, "more pleasing" when at a higher pitch? | They really aren't, not as a rule. It can depend pretty heavily on what instrument or instruments are playing each voice of the chord. |
The current "Cold War" that's going on between USA and Russia | Both sides want to have more influence in international affairs than the other is OK with. So, they to make each other look bad.Russia used to be the world's second largest superpower. It is now somewhere between 7th and 13th depending how you measure it and falling fast. They are not taking this well and so, much like... |
Why can't I 'wrap my head' around certain ideas, such as space-time or the shape of the universe, when others can? | It is not that people can 'wrap their heads around' these things. These things are all unintuitive, and no one really understands them. It is just that other people are fine with that - They recognize that these things are totally different from the 'normal world', and are OK with that. Reality isn't what you think it ... |
Why does this picture of computer pixels hurt my eyes? | I think it's because our eyes + brain are good at finding patterns, and finding edges to determine what we are looking at. Without you trying, your eyes are searching for a pattern or recognizable shape - trying to make sense of what you are seeing. But with a repeating pattern like this, there are patterns within pat... |
I can't donate blood because I was born in the UK over 25 years ago. How do people in UK get blood donations? Are they shipped in from other countries? | The reason why you can't give blood in the USA is due to Creuzfeldt-Jakob disease. This disease *can* be found in donated blood in the UK and the British Red Cross tests every single blood donation for this disease. _URL_0_ The American Red Cross has decided that it would be cheaper to not let people from the UK donate... |
What mechanisms do we have for getting big money out of politics? Like, practically, how do we make it happen? | The primary method for easy big money in the political system came from the Supreme Court. The Citizens United ruling included the concept that money = speech, so to restrict money = restricting speech. They turned it into a first amendment issue . Any proposed legal change that happens in the future that restricts pol... |
Why do we choke on water or at least feel like we are choking? | Edited for accuracy: Because there is a muscle that contracts to prevent things from going down the wrong tube. When you accidentally trigger it, you will feel like you are choking. Read this: _URL_0_ |
Why are services like uber and airbnb considered by some to be disruptive to the economy? | Hotels and cab companies are regulated and taxed, they have to follow certain rules in order to keep their operating license. If I rent you my house for a short stay or pick you up and drive you around the government doesn't get any tax revenue from that and I'm not bound by the same licensing requirements. Because the... |
In medical terms, when they say someone has, "lost a lot of blood," what does "a lot" mean? | Try to picture 5 litres of blood. That's about 13 or so regular cans of Pepsi, and also roughly the amount of blood in a person. Your average blood donation takes about 8% of that, so pretty much just one can of Pepsis worth. However should you find yourself unlucky enough to lose more than 20% they go into what is kno... |
why doesn't the president make every change he wishes to see an executive order? | An executive order is not a law. The president is the chief executive, and is thus responsible for executing the law--including overseeing the various departments that do so. An executive order is simply a formal instruction from the president to other parts of the executive branch. Accordingly, it does not have any sp... |
How do captcha systems prevent spam? | They don't prevent it entirely, but they do cut way down on it by requiring human intervention to interpret the pictures. What makes them harder to break is that there are so many different pictures and formats used that it's not simple, practical, or profitable to code something that automates the process.The basic id... |
Can electronic devices "overcool"? | Yes, although it's less common because electronic devices tend to produce heat as they run. For example, I've caused a phone to shut off by keeping it in a cooler full of dry ice . Battteries can release less and less electricity the colder they get. There were also some over-cooling issues with some of Intel's process... |
What were the different noises that dial-up internet used to make when connecting? | That would be the two modems - the one at your end and the one you 've dialled up to - connecting with each other, working out what each other's capabilities are, and agreeing how they're going to communicate - how fast they can communicate, what error checking they're going to use, etc. [This image] shows all the diff... |
Are there any long term implications of bruises, or is it a case of once they're gone they're gone. | This depends on how easily you bruise and where the bruise is. I'm assuming you're talking about normal bruises. They usually don't mean anything serious. When they're gone, they're gone. Its just a small blood vessel that exploded underneath the skin, blood vessel closed, blood has been cleaned away by the body. If it... |
- Why do ISP's broadband plans always give much lower upload than download speeds? | Imagine driving a car downloading is going forward and uploading is reverse. You don't reverse often and most people don't care how fast you go in it. So you prioritize going forward and over time this causes this huge difference. |
Why is Detroit out of water? | It's not that they are out of water, but their infrastructure for delivering clean water has many portions composed of lead-containing pipes, and some administrative fuckery has resulted in the pipes leaching lead out after a protective layer dissolved. The only way to truly resolve this issue involves replacing any pi... |
How are the Olive Garden servers able to hand burning hot plates to you? | Working in a restaurant builds up a tolerance for hot items due to callused skin. They also are required to tell you the plate is hot due to liability, in many cases it's an over exaggeration. |
In the US, is there a way to break up the two party system? | The two-party system is an inevitable consequence of Plurality Voting, aka "one man one vote." Smaller parties always either die off or get absorbed into one of the two biggest ones. If we switched to, say, Approval Voting or Instant Runoff Voting or almost _anything_ else, then this "vote splitting" behavior goes away... |
how my car's petrol meter knows how much petrol is in the tank? | Imagine a stick with a cork on one end The other end moves a variable resistor. How high the cork is floating determines how much resistance there is. Your petrol gauge is really just showing you the level of resistance. |
Why does 2g network on my phone sometimes not load a picture at all, or will not load a Web page until I stop it from loading | Your phone won't display the webpage until all the data is downloaded - telling it to stop forces it to render what you've already downloaded.Probably the #1 issue is dropped packets. The information is broken up into small chunks, and those chunks are transmitted over the air. If one of those packets fails to arrive, ... |
Why does some fashion shows have such ugly/impractical dresses that is sure to never sell to general public? | That stuff isn't meant to sell to the general public. It's meant to show off how avant garde and creative the designer is. They have other lines of so-called "ready to wear" clothing that is a lot more conventional in style. |
Why are liberals so despised in American politics? | You probably live in a mostly conservative area or are surrounded by some hardcore conservatives - or watch Fox News way too much. Liberals are not despised in American politics. They are despised by a significant minority of hard core Conservatives. In reality Conservatives and Liberals have equally valid, but differe... |
What is the purpose of bowling shoes? | In order to bowl properly, you need to slide on the polished wood floor when releasing the ball. Regular shoes have too much traction and will not slide. You will just fall on your face. Bowling shoes have very little traction and will slide nicely.Also the leather soles of bowling shoes won't leave black marks like so... |
do words actually look bad, or do we just refer to them as bad because of what they represent? | Some words look more or less attractive based on their syntactic appearance, or their phonetics . Some words force you to smile to say them, others you end up looking gloomy. Boobah and Keke are words that describe rounded letters and sounds, and sharp letters and sounds respectively. Even individual letters are boobah... |
How is Reddit karma calculated? | If you mean a user's karma: Comment Karma: how many people press upvote on your replies. Accumulates over all replies. Does NOT include submissions. Link Karma: How many people press upvote on your submissions that are links. Basically if someone clicks the title it brings them straight to another site. |
The water bottle puzzle from Die Hard With a Vengeance | Fill the five gallon jug. Three gallon jug is empty. Empty three gallons from the five gallon jug into the three gallon jug. There remains two gallons in the five gallon jug. Empty the three gallon jug. Pour the two gallons into the three gallon jug. Fill the five gallon jug and pour one gallon from it into the three ... |
How can a comet 6 miles wide wipe out all of humanity? | When it hits, it's going very, *very* fast. Which means it hits very, *very* hard. Assuming a mixed ice-and-rock composition and a head-on impact in their orbits, a 6 mile diameter object would release [1.7 x 10^24 Joules] of energy upon impact. Now, you probably have no sense of how big that is. That's roughly the tot... |
Why is removing your hat is considered a sign of respect? | It all comes from knights. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance, it was customary for knights to show their faces during formal events in which they wore their helmets. This meant that tournaments, appearances at court, etc would require the visor to be lifted or the whole helmet to be removed. It became customary to do ... |
How can my phone receive notifications from blocked apps, e.g. Instagram and Facebook, but I still need a VPN to use the apps?(China) | I'm not so sure about how Android works, but if you're using an iPhone, the company that provides the app doesn't actually send notifications to your phone. Instead, it tells Apple that it wants to notify you, and the notification message actually comes from Apple's servers. |
Why don't hate preachers get charged with harassment? | Harassment has a specific legal definition that goes beyond the common use of the word. It varies with jurisdiction, but typically there has to be some sort of threatening or coercive element targeted at a specific person. |
what are neural networks and how do they create trippy images and beat Super Mario Bros? | > How does a basic neural networ work? [This] is an image of a "basic neural network" called a multilayer perceptron. The input layer is where the perceptron is presented the data it's supposed to act on, for example, an image. The output layer is its "result", for example, the name of an object it identified on the im... |
Why can't we just compress hydrogen very hard to make nuclear fusion? | That's how modern fusion techniques work, they just use lasers or magnetic fields to compress the hydrogen because a piston would just melt and wouldn't get the hydrogen hot enough. |
The reasons why the colonies sought independence from England. | The American colonies fought for several reasons. 1. They didn't want to pay taxes on goods such as paper and tea. Those taxes were meant to pay off the 7 years war, but the colonists figured that they didn't ask for the war. 2. King George refused to listen to the colonists' problems. They tried to raise issues, but t... |
How does food cost fluctuate in a restaurant environment? | Large chains actually mitigate food costs by buying in bulk, pre-packaging meals, and by warehousing and distribution. Most large chains are parts of larger conglomerates . Small restaurants, and family owned restaurants do this to an extent. These smaller operations purchase from wholesalers who specialize in servicin... |
What are stores doing when they accept other store's gift cards for equal or less value? | The actual value stored by a stored value card is handled by a third party. One of the more popular ones is called "ValueLink." Since Wal Mart and Starbucks both use ValueLink to back end their "stored value cards," it's easy for them to make arrangements to "buy" the value off of a Starbucks card and place it instead ... |
How do pharmaceutical companies come up with the random sounding names for OTC prescriptions? | You may already know this and simply made an error, but OTC stands for "over the counter," which means drugs that can be purchased without a prescription, such as Advil or Claritin. So the phrase "OTC prescription" is a contradiction. :)Marketing tests these names with focus groups first. The ones that score the highes... |
How did the different American accents develop from the original British settlers? Did someone just invent a new trend? | The settlers from England spoke in an accent about as different from the modern American accents as it is different from the modern English accents. Populations just have a constant drift in how they speak. New words added, old ones pruned and subtle changes in pronunciation add up.The British settlers didn't all speak... |
Why are the bottoms of some clouds flat? [other] | Clouds form when temperature drops below a point, causing water vapor to condense into liquid droplets. Temperature drops as elevation rises, so the flat bottom is the elevation where temperature drops below the threshold causing the water to condense.Check out minuteearth on YouTube, it's titled 'why are there clouds'... |
Why does time feel slower when you’re suffering? | Why does time feel slower when you’re in a painfully boring class? And why does an hour pass in like.. a fraction of a second when we’re talking with someone we’re in love with? Because time is relative, when you’re happy you won’t feel the need to check the time, you just forget about this concept of time and become t... |
Why does getting hit in the shin hurt far more than say your forearm? | The "sharp" edge of the shin is the part which hurts the most. This is because there is almost no muscle over the bone, just a thin layer of skin and fat which makes any hit go directly against the periostium, the tissue covering the bones, which has A LOT of nervous endings. Also, as it is a sharp area, most of the st... |
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