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If someone has to go to the bathroom before falling asleep, but chooses to hold it until the morning, is their quality of sleep effected? | Speaking from personal experience, I usually wake up in the middle of the night if I drink a lot of water or otherwise don't pee before going to bed. If you're very young, you probably just wet the bed. |
How can websites put up free to watch movies, or free to download movies on their website, and not get sued and forced to remove it? | The copyright holders either haven't found it yet, or the site is being particularly stubborn in the face of takedown requests and it'll bite them in the ass later. |
You can get flea/tick/mosquito treatments for dogs and cats that last 3 months, how come there isn't the equivalent for humans? | Because your dog / cat only lives up to 20 years. So the deadly side effects aren't an issue. We people would suffer the side effects. |
The whole situation with FIFA and Garcia. | Basically, there were persistent allegations of corruption surrounding FIFA's award of the 2018 World Cup to Russian and particularly the award of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar. Fairly significant evidence of corrupt payments was uncovered by the press, particularly in the UK. FIFA decided to commission an investigation ... |
how can a building cost over 1 billion dollars? | buying materials, land, and machinery, hiring the labor and a major architecture firm to engineer the building, and there still has to be something left over for the developer to skim off the top. |
How are companies allowed to have "secret ingredient(s)" when allergies exist? | [Assuming you're in the United States, major food allergens are required to be labeled by the FDA.]", 'Do you mean "secret recipes", because that's different. When you see the ingredient list and it says "spices" or something, those are usually checked against a list of known spices which people can be allergic to. |
Where are all of the battery technology breakthroughs I keep reading about? | They are the result of journalists being terrible at science. Here is how it usually goes. 1. Scientist makes a small but significant discovery. 2. Journalists hypes one aspect of the discovery ignoring other aspects to spin it into a breakthrough. 3. Editor skims the article and adds a headline the amounts to an outri... |
Why do apple products supposedly have better malware/virus protection? | I like to explain this all the time with this analogy.Imagine you are a serial killer. You have access to a deadly virus that you can release into the air, and hope to do as much damage as possible. Would you then chose to go release it at, say, an international airport with thousands of people going to different count... |
Can you feel an earthquake while swimming in the ocean. | I lived on an anchor out boat when we had that big one is Seattle. The whole boat shook like crazyI have no science or proof to back this up, but intuitively I would think the feeling would be more pronounced underwater, as water transmits pressure more easily than a solid mass ie: earth. |
why do we feel the urge to chew/pick at/mess with sores in our mouth, even though we know doing so will make it worse? | Great question! Two important mechanisms: innervation and gate control theory. First, innervation. What's very different from the inside of the mouth and the tongue compared to skin elsewhere in the body , is that its greatly sensorily innervated! This means it is much more sensitive to physical stimuli. So abnormal se... |
Was the Iraq War a loss or a win? | Obviously the recent events in Iraq help show that it was a complete failure, and waste of a couple trillion dollars and thousands of lives. Not only did we not rid the world of a leader with WMD because there was none, but we couldn't even help the country become a functioning one. We'll probably be back over there so... |
How do some people eat a lot and still remain thin even without exercising? What exactly is a high metabolism? And why is obesity more common among the poor and less educated? | The brain does burn a fairly substantial amount of calories, although I'm not aware of any correlation between intelligence and weight. > And why is obesity more common among the poor and less educated? Eating properly can be expensive, and the less educated may not know how or be tricked by the millions of "lose 50 lb... |
what's the point of cell phones not having a microSD slot. Is internal storage that much faster, or is it simply a money grab | "Money grab" might be a bit harsh, but the manufacturers have found that many consumers just don't care about their phone having an memory card slot. Since putting one in costs some amount of money, and that amount is less than what they get back in increased purchases, they don't do it.Space. Internal storage requires... |
What is my microwave doing differently when it's in defrost mode? | The magnetron is cycled on and off. Usually it's something like 3 seconds on, 7 seconds off, for a "power level" of 30%. Listen to the microwave and you'll hear it cycle on and off. |
Why do I get a headache and feel ill when I decide to be lazy all day? | If I sit around I tend to not drink as much water as normal, and when I'm dehydrated I have these exact symptoms. Maybe it's that. |
If a bite from a human requires a visit to a doctor because of the bacteria, why, if we were to lick our own open wound, does not the same risk apply | Our *natural* bacteria in our mouth has no threat to us. And our saliva has beneficial properties on wounds. However, if someone else bit you, who the fuck knows what illness he could have. If the person who bit you was perfectly healthy I don't think it would be a problem. But would you just take his word for it?", 'T... |
If all wine is just fermented grape juice, how does one winery make a bottle that's worth $1,000 while another winery makes a bottle that's only worth $2? | The quality of the grapes, the quality of the water, age, the barrels it is aged in, what yeast is used, how much sugar was added, the temperature, fermentation time, how it was racked, etc etc etc.. Source: Brew beer at home.Why does Hershey chocolate cost pennies and imported Swedish chocolate goes for $50 a bar? Are... |
How do they connect over water bridges and piers to the bottom of whatever body of water? | There are two ways: Pile Driver: Big machine that shoots giant metal rods from the surface, through the water, and into the seabed. Coffer Dam: Workers build a wall around the site and then pump out all the water. Then they climb down and pour concrete in the seabedThe columns holding up bridges and such over water are... |
How do channels like Cinemasins get their footage? | They usually review a film once it becomes available on Blu-ray, so they either rip it or get a decent quality torrent . |
Game of Thrones. Just the back story and all? | As far as background and backstory goes, you cannot do better than this video, narrated by the cast of the TV show _URL_0_ Absolutely the most comprehensive resource I've found. |
How do skin moles form, and why we haven't yet developed an efficient way of removing them? | Most moles can easily be removed in a physicians office. I had a few taken off me and some went deep, others were very superficial. The deep ones almost looked like a carrot, long dangly root-like structures. The superficial ones could have been scraped off with a razor blade. I consider a 30 minute office visit an eff... |
Why are other primates considered as non-human, and not as an indigenous tribe of humanity? | Some people have defined a *species* as a a group of organisms that naturally breed with each other and produce viable offspring^1. A viable offspring means that it can reproduce; i.e. have kids of its own, and its kids can have kids, and so on. Humans naturally breed with each other, even across races. However, this d... |
England and their relation to several countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc | This [video explains it]. Warning [shit gets bizarre.] The TL:DR of it is that at one point England ruled most of the world at point or another and these are remnants of that once huge empire |
If smells are tiny bits of matter, how is it that static electricity, being energy, has a scent? | You're smelling ozone. In the presence of an electrical discharge O-3 forms, which is what you're smelling. |
What does it mean to "master" a song/track? | A lot of people confuse mastering with mixing. Mixing is actually the part where you adjust levels on each track of the song. Most songs have a track for each instrument, sometimes recorded at the same time as other instruments, and sometimes recorded separately. Mixing is adjusting the levels on every track, adding so... |
Why don't Roombas/robot vacuums memorize furniture/take the same route when they clean? Why do many still get "lost" and die on the floor? Don't we have the technology? | Memorizing a room seems like a great plan, but how do you handle a chair in the middle of the room? What if you move the couch? Memorizing a room is very memory and computationally expensive and in the end, worthless It turns out a random walk like a roomba does can be about 90% as efficient as a perfectly optimized pa... |
I just saw a meme that asked the question "where are the doorbell speakers" how do doorbells work and why can we hear them all over the house | The button is an electric switch. It allows electricity to flow to a small noise-maker which is usually in a box on the wall in a very central location, so the sound can be heard everywhere. _URL_1_ _URL_0_ |
Why do most women need clitoral stimulation to orgasm? Wouldn't it make more sense evolutionarily for vaginal orgasms from penetration to be more achievable? | The selection pressure on achieving orgasm was probably not as strong as the ability to get pregnant. The genes that passed forward had no reason to preference one over the other, so one had to win. If orgasming was a requirement for impregnation I'm sure that the roles of the clit and vagina would be reversed.Orgasm i... |
Why did Spain not explore Africa sooner? | Largely because those pesky Muslims [were in the way] for a long time. Southern Europe and Northern Africa were occupied by non-Europeans for 700 years. By the time that ended, it was just about time to start looking for a westward route to Asia -- at which point the pesky New World got in the way, and it was a lot mor... |
Why do we always have stressful thoughts just before going to sleep? | "We" don't. You do, and other do as well. This is a common sign of anxiety. What most people experience is isolated thoughts, undisturbed by the noise of the day. You experience your "baseline". So, I 'd suggest that you are generally experiencing anxiety and that you really get in touch with that as you're falling off... |
Where did dogs originate from? | They all originate from wolves and with selective breeding we now have all these breeds, I believe.Though I love the idea of of a southeast asian jungle populated by free roaming Shitzus, that isn't how it works. All dogs are descended from grey wolves, as opposed to foxes or coyotes. This has been proven through DNA t... |
If reincarnation is based on the recycling of souls, how does it account for population change? | Having actually studied Buddhism , the claim is that there are other realms with things you can be reincarnated as, including hell beings and demi-gods or whatever. Sorry I forget the actual names. Also things like bugs and other earth-animals are possibilities. Not rocks. Must actually have a lifespan with a clear sta... |
Why was American Pharoah slower than the previous triple crown winner? | The consensus seems to be that Secretariat was a genuine freak of nature. You'll notice that most of this year's horses finished faster than most of that year's horses, so on the whole the entire sport has gotten faster and more competitive. But Secretariat was a statistical anomaly. |
Why is it so incredibly annoying to have something stuck between your teeth? | Because your teeth are directly connected to your skull and your jawbone. Two bones move together all the time with the help of a joint but your teeth are directly rooted into their homes. There are also a ton of nerves in each tooth. So when when something small like a popcorn kernel gets wedged in, it changes the geo... |
Why in the military do some people get the best medical care in the country at places like Walter Reed while other military personnel and veterans get awful horrible care at VA hospitals? | A lot has to do with where and when your injured. Active duty and in combat: If it's sever enough you'll go to Walter Reed, otherwise you'll be in a different military hospital, some excellent, some okay, and some barely passable . No longer active duty but with service related injuries, you go to the VA. Now imagine t... |
What is LIFO, FIFO & FISH in accounting? | FIFO is First In, First Out. It means that your oldest transactions or items are to be processed first, to prevent overdue balances or spoiled stock LIFO is Last In, First Out. It means that your newest transactions or items are to be processed first. This is usually only in accounting, where the age of a transaction i... |
How does the US credit rating that went down from a AAA to AA affect me, the average consumer? | Your dad is the head of the household. He's is real good on paying back people and makes a lot of money and is rather wealthy, so people trust lending him money. In the last couple of years, your dad did some irresponsible things and even threatened to not pay even though he can. Finally, one of the community leaders/e... |
Why are men more prone to color blindness than women? | Color blindness results from a recessive mutation of a gene that lies on the X chromosome. Men only have one X chromosome , so if they get the mutated form they're always color blind. Women have two, so they can carry the gene, but because it's recessive, they won't be color blind unless both of their X chromosomes hav... |
What to give a shit about most. | You sound like you are twelve to nineteen years old, experiencing what the psychologist Erik Erikson labelled the '*role confusion* crisis'. Am I close? Either way, I don't think this is really a question that anyone but you can answer. My recommendation would be to follow what you enjoy and try and forge a career out ... |
Why do people end up developing specific sexual fetish's? | Fetishes can develop sutbly over time as a result of conditioning. We are fast learners and it generally only takes one experience to learn that hot stove = pain, pain, pain, don't touch that again. People who are bit by dogs when they are young might develop an irrational fear for dogs and despite being able to tell t... |
why do city signs on u.s. Highway list the population sizes of the cities they precede? | Cross-country travel was quite different before the internet, cell phones, and GPS navigation. You'd basically show up in a city and hope for the best. Hotels and restaurants you'd pick at random based on how they looked from the outside, and if you got lost, you hoped you could find a phone booth with an intact phone ... |
In a motorcycle transmission, why is Neutral almost always between 1st and 2nd gear? | So that when you're emergency braking and shift down you end up in 1st, rather than neutral. This way, once you're done braking and look behind you to see some guy in a truck that may not be able to stop as fast as you, you can go . |
Why are my pubes (and body hair in general) a different texture than the hair on my head? | Wild guess here, but I think it's because they serve different purposes. The hair on your head is meant to retain warmth, while other hair, such as pubic hair, is meant to prevent friction, and curly hair helps to prevent friction while also allowing heat to escape so your junk doesn't overheat. |
Why do so many law enforcers/military personnel support their governments during popular uprising? | I'm 61 years old. I served for six years in the United States Marine Corps. At no time in my life, under any but the most absolute circumstances would I fire upon students in my own country. If I were ordered to shoot students for standing in the streets shouting, I'd throw down my rifle. I'd bet that it was actually v... |
why have humans evolved to decrease hair on our bodies and increase hair on our heads even though apes do not have longer head hair? | There are a few schools of thought. The most likely is environmental pressures. A while back, before "humans" really we would have started losing our hair. This was in response to the changing climates in Africa. Things were getting warmer, and dryer. Our teeth changed a bit, and we adapted to be omnivorous scavengers.... |
What "secret" societies exist and what are their purpose? | Those are no secret societies since you can name them. And we can't tell you about the real secret societies because, well, that's a srcret that we don't know about. Now, as for their goal. The usual, global domination, power over the masses, controlled consumerism, money, power, and on rare occasions destruction of al... |
Why is the Holocaust studied more than the Japanese war crimes during WW2 | I assume you mean in the West. The Japanese crimes against humanity are well-studied in China. A few things should be kept in mind: 1. A LOT of people survived the German crimes against humanity, and many of those people sought refuge in the West. As a result, the experience of those refugees has been a subject of sign... |
What happens to the water content of an egg that has been hard-boiled? | Most of an egg white is water and most of what isn't water is protein. When you cook the egg white and it becomes opaque and semi solid, it's not because you dehyrdrated the egg white, but rather because the proteins were denatured and have unfolded and refolded in such a way as to trap the water it contains in a sort ... |
where did the video game term "boss" (referring to enemies much more difficult than average) come from and why is it still so prevalent? | Because the "boss" was generally the person in charge of the operations in a game or level. Much like a boss is in charge of employees in a workplace. This then came to mean any enemy that was significant to the story, completion of the level, or was simply significantly stronger and/or unique. For instance, there's th... |
why isn't there the same determination to relentlessly hunt down the people who shot down the plane over the Ukraine? | You must be watching mostly american-centric media if you don't think there wasn't a heap of determination in the countries most affected by the MH17 disaster for retribution. In fact, there was a lot of outrage world wide. That said, you cannot compare the situations. The attack in Paris was a planned, wilful attack. ... |
Wierdness of the binomial distribution | > Six heads out of ten coin tosses is a perfectly acceptable outcome. In my head, that would mean six hundred heads out of a thousand tosses is the same, Well, you can make a similar argument that leads to a ridiculous conclusion: *One heads out of one tosses is a perfectly normal outcome. In my head, that would mean a... |
Is it possible for humans to choose their own personalities? | There are some things you can't change. For instance, I am a very anxious person. I don't like that about myself, but I can't just stop being one. With a lot of personal effort and some counseling, I will become a slightly less anxious person, but it's still a root element of my personality that can't be chosen or unch... |
what are the origins of the names of the us coins. | The Coinage Act of 1792 specified that "The money of account of the United States dollars, etc. shall be expressed in dollars, or units, dismes or tenths, cents or hundredths, and the milles or thousandths, a disme being the tenth part of a dollar, a cent the hundredth part of a dollar, a mille the thousandth part of a... |
What is the OSI 7 layer model | - **Physical** - There's an electrical signal on the wire. How strong of a signal? How can you tell your 0s and 1s apart? This is where you differentiate wireless ethernet from wired or fiberoptic. - **Data Link**\xa0- Traffic control. Who gets those 0s and 1s? Who gets to talk now? This is your ethernet or token ring.... |
How does Antarctica appear to be growing in the face of continued climate change? | Warmer air is capable of containing more moisture than colder air. As the air cools, the excess water leaves the air in the form of rain or snow. What's happening here is likely a warmer atmosphere has increased moisture in it. That moisture then cools off enough when it reaches Antarctica to start snowing . Over time,... |
Why can't there be a game 'format' that is supported across all platforms similar to the way images and videos and audio formats? | A lot of games are very intensive. A big 3D game like Call of Duty will really stretch the capacity of your computer. It will use so much of the computer's power that there wouldn't really be any room for the "player" to work. Such games typically need to be snappy and responsive. Having to jump through the extra hoop ... |
Why is solar system is much or less like a plane but not a sphere? | When you've got a system forming you've got a huge cloud of stuff moving in many ways. If you add up all the ways 'everything' is moving, some way obviously comes out ahead. So you've got a direction with net motion. Now, a sphere with stuff moving every which way has a significant consequence, you have a lot of pathwa... |
how a cache works (in computing) | Imagine you're playing Solitaire at your cubical with physical cards. The stack of cards you draw from is on the other side of the cube farm, along with the discarded cards. Each time you want to look at the next card so you can decide whether to play it, you have to leave your cubical, walk across the cube farm, pick ... |
Why aren't we using nuclear batteries? | Chernobyl happened and scared the shit out of enough people that it severely set back nuclear power.Though people say it is because it is not profitable because you only sell one to a consumer every thirty years, the main reason is that most people honestly don't want something nuclear powered powering their computer o... |
How does a 911 responder distinguish between a silent distress call and a butt dial? | I would assume they do not make such a distinction. They would/should send police to the location of the phone call to investigate. If it was a "butt dial" that is a false call and they could be given a warning or given a ticket depending on the discretion of the police. |
Why do french fries suck when reheated? | When you reheat them, they lose a lot of their water content. This makes them even more "starchy" than they already are, and changes their texture when you chew them.Microwaves work by heating up the water content in your food. Unfortunately with french fries, this destroys the texture and makes them very tough. They'r... |
Why on iPhone, when you take pictures it flips them around while on Snapchat it keeps them the way you took them? What’s the point of flipping it? | I believe _both_ are showing you a flipped version while you preview the picture. They show you the mirror version because that's the main way most people have looked at themselves in their life — otherwise most people would have a more difficult time arranging themselves for the photo because everything would be "back... |
The phrase "Down to a T". | Historically the phrase is known as a shortened form of "to a tittle", which was a common expression used frequently by the English around the early 17th century. Basically it means "to the smallest detail". TL;DR -- Evolution of popular/common phrases over the course of timeFurther to the other answers, a tittle is ac... |
Why do cross-country semi trucks constantly leapfrog / drive alongside each other on the highway thus impeding flow of traffic? | Well first off your comment is a bit of an over generalization considering the tens or hundreds of thousands of trucks and MILLIONS of cars on the roadways every day. Some trucks have limiters controlling their maximum speed, others don't, and not all limiters are set to the same speed, so some trucks go faster than ot... |
Why can’t scientists develop a drug like NARCAN to assist people to recover from drunkenness quickly? | Think of it this way. If a person takes opiates, there’s a little man inside that persons brain that is pushing the opiate symptoms button over and over. Narcan covers up that button so he can’t press it, relieving the symptoms. Eventually he can get the covers off the button, so you have to re-dose with narcan, until ... |
Why does chalking the cue in snooker or pool make a difference? | It is mainly due to friction. The chalk will increase it, in order for the club to make a good contact with the ball, otherwise it would slip.It makes you look like you know what you're doing thereby intimidating your opponent.It allows you to control the spin of the cue ball more accurately when hit it. If you have ev... |
Are those banner ads with ridiculous claims/prizes illegal? | It depends on if a prize is actually available. Most all of them require you to sign up for trials and give out information. They can sell your personal information to pay for a prize and they can also get kick-bak money from the companies you sign up for trials with. If you sign up for enough trials and give out enoug... |
Winter Solstice; is the shortest day of the year in the N. hemisphere before or after the longest night of the year? | it actually depends on when exactly the solstice occurs. It is actually an instant, not a day. It marks the point at which the suns direct rays reach their lowest point it depends on where you are on the earth in relation to the time of the solstice. If you are in the dark at the solstice then that was the longest nigh... |
Why is tuna the go-to canned fish when other species cost significantly less per pound? | Tuna is a very very firm fleshed fish that takes well to preservation. It holds it's shape, texture, and flavor very well. The canning process, which involves pressure cooking at 15psi and temperatures around 250 degrees Fahrenheit, is very detrimental to proteins found in other fish species. You could can any fish spe... |
why does a USB device need to install a driver for each different port it's plugged in to? | It's all down to a rarely used feature of USB, device serial numbers. If your device has a serial number, Windows will recognise it no matter what port you plug it into. However, if it has no serial number available via USB, then Windows will treat it like it was a brand new device and create a new device driver instan... |
What is a Double Envelopment? | An Envelopment in the context of a military move is to go around the left/right side of the bad guys to attack stuff at their back. A Double Envelopment is when you go around to both the left and the right sides of the bad guys at the same time. It's tricky to pull off because the bad guys might just decide to go forwa... |
how do people like Selena Gomez get a kidney when there is a 5-10 year waiting list for non-famous people? | The waiting list is for organs from strangers - like if someone is in a car accident and ends up brain dead, and if they consented to donate their organs, they go to whoever the most compatible recipient is closest to the top of the list. However, if someone is willingly giving up an organ, they can absolutely choose w... |
It's 92 degrees. Why do furry animals, like my dog and cat, like to lay in the heat and how are they not uncomfortable? | Cats have a higher average body temperature than we do! We are 98.6 and they are at 101.5. Because of this, what is "room temperature" for humans is actually a bit nippy for cats. That's why cats like to hide in insulated spaces like boxes, or lay in the sun. Cats are perfectly comfortable in 85 degree weather while it... |
Why does my new computer end up lagging just like all my other older ones, despite having unprecedented computing speed and capacity? | Raw speed and raw capacity are valid measures of a computer, but not the only measures one must use to guage 'overall speed' or 'seat of your pants' speed. There are many different speeds within a computer. Prior to [Solid State Drives], hard disk technology really hadn't been changing in it's fundamental workings. Sur... |
what's the difference between cigarette types ex white, blue, red | Reds are your standard cigarette. Full-flavor tobacco and that's it. Blues or golds are usually lights. They have a milder flavor than reds. Greens are almost always menthols. They have a minty flavor and cool your throat as you smoke them. Beyond that it varies from brand to brand. I usually smoke blue American Spirit... |
Would every one of my individual sperm create a totally different human being? | You only have a finite amount of DNA, so there's an infinitesimally small chance that two sperm could have the same exact DNA and therefore create two genetically identical, non-twin offspring . About why: As you know, you have two copies of your DNA because you inherit one of each chromosome from your 2 parents. When ... |
Why are some animals easier to domesticate for farming/pets? | They're easier to domesticate if they're easier to breed. Domesticating an animal is selectively breeding it for some traits. One of those traits is docility. This means animals with either faster breeding or animals with more offspring are *usually* easier. With those conditions we're able to bottleneck faster and mor... |
Why can't we use technology and innovation to break our dependence on oil? | We can. We are. It takes time. Let's just talk about Autos. It'll take years for the technology to be developed and for it to catch up to what gas powered technology does very well. |
When were blood types discovered? | Karl Landsteiner discovered their existence in 1901, so absolutely they knew about blood typing by WWI, never mind WWII. It's a good thing too, since a field transfusion was often necessary for the wounded in those newly destructive wars. Here's a good article if you want some more about the history that doesn't relate... |
Why do I have the urge to squeeze very cute things (animals, babies, etc.) to death? | *Degree in Kinesiology with emphasis in human physiology* I have the same problem. It's likely genotype that determines your reaction to high energy situations. It seems within some people's ancestry it was favorable to react to high anxiety sympathetic responses with extreme violence . For example, I have certain tend... |
Why does my phone charge so much quicker when it's charging in my car (12V DC) compared to a wall charger at home (240V AC)? | Voltage ahs nothing to do with that. You should look at the Ampere output . The bigger the better.The input is not the same as the output. Some chargers are better than others. You're probably using a crap after market one at home or one that wasn't designed for your device. For example iphone 3 chargers were 5 volts a... |
Why do we get eye crust when we wake up in the morning? | Finally when I can answer, so if you look closely at the corner of your eye where your eye boogers form there's a small hole that hole is called a punctum it is directly connected to your sinuses that's why if you pinch your nose and close your mouth and forced air up from your lungs air will come out of your eyes so a... |
How do warm-blooded animals actually produce body heat? | using "exothermic" chemistery and by muscle movement Energy is usually stored as fat. Fat gets converted back into glucose which your body can use to get "Adenintriphosphate" . Your body then can use that molecule for energy delivery by transforming the TRIphosphate into a DIphosphate which again is a very energy rich,... |
Why is the german economy so much more robust than in other EU countries? | I believe Tony Blair asked This very question to the current PM of Germany. The answer was ' because, Mr. Prime Minister, we still make things in Germany.' This anecdote goes a long way towards explaining why Germany is such a powerhouse in Europe. German exports are highly prized for their quality, even though their p... |
Why doesn’t the judge decide verdicts in major cases, leaving it up to a jury, but in minor cases they do? | In the US any accused person always has the right to a jury trial in a criminal case, regardless of the severity of the chargeProbably to speed up the process, and to prevent the inconvenience to businesses and individuals having to miss so much work. Plus a lot of the minor cases are not always determining guilt or in... |
How do e-signatures work? Couldn't anyone type anyone's name? | Sure, almost anyone could write down someone else's name. Just like almost anyone can write down someone else's name on a paper contract. But when you check the box saying that you are signing your name, and then you type in Barack Obama instead of Cody6781, you have little defense. You can't plausibly claim you were j... |
Why does tobasco or products like tobasco stop congestion of the sinuses? | Spicy things are measured in Scoville heat units or SHUS. When something is spicy to us our body tries to cool the internal heat the only way it knows how, mucus. Much like when hot wings make your nose run, so will Tabasco and water help loosen your sinus. The higher the SHU, the more intense the heat and the more muc... |
How does VR work? How is the piece of cardboard, lens and magnet allowing me to see a virtual world? | To add a bit to the explanation of /u/ConciselyVerbose the headtracking adds a bit to it. When in a VR world, your mind starts to see all kinds of weird things which don't check out. Just having 3D is not enough. But when you turn your head and the world you see turns with you, that is confirmation for your mind that y... |
Why don't countries have a universal name in all languages? | I guess these questions are going to be raised more and more now that we're in such an interconnected world and we can talk so easily to people from different nations. But historically we tended to talk to people within our own locality, so nomenclature only had to be locally agreed in order for us to be understood. An... |
Why do we feel pleasure when scratching things like mosquito bites? | Itching is caused by irritation of the skin, bugs landing on it, etc. These things can in certain situations be dangerous. Bugs can be poisonous, carry disease. Massive skin irritation can make it easier for infections to take root there, etc. So animals that liked to scratch itches avoided these increased danger and w... |
Are sanctions against individuals, eg the Magnitsky Act, bills of attainder? | No. A bill of attainder is like a criminal conviction by the legislature; they were made unlawful in the U.S. Constitution because it was thought such a power denied a person due process and was subject to political abuse. The Magnitsky Act deals with who is eligible for a visa, which is a different area of law; it is ... |
What are the physics involved in jumping off a bridge? | Earth accelerates you downward at 9.81m/s^2 , so the higher the bridge, the faster you are moving upon impact. At impact, you slow to zero. How *quickly* that happens determines the survivability. Hitting concrete head first slows you down effectively instantly, and the tremendous deceleration overwhelms the strength o... |
How do pocket calculators compute complex functions like logarithms and hyperbolic trig? | Modern computers and calculators use a variety of techniques to provide trigonometric function values on demand for arbitrary angles. One common method, especially on higher-end processors with floating-point units, is to combine a polynomial or rational approximation , best uniform approximation, and Padé approximatio... |
Why did Jimmy Fallon's surgery require a 10 day ICU stay? | ICU is less about keeping you alive minute by minute, and more about increased monitoring and having people available who can react quickly. They also have increased infection control. Also, Fallon is a wealthy celebrity whose physical appearance is important to his job. It is quite likely he or his employer is paying ... |
Are signatures a legal thing? | Signature has no inherit legal power in the US. It is not even required for a contract to be valid. However, it is commonly used for evidentiary purposes in a dispute to show you authorized the action. You may change your signature at any time or use multiple signatures concurrently. The latter is rare, but recommended... |
How scents are derived from different woods and used in fragrances | In general you put wood in some kind of carrier for fragrances. It may be oil or another liquid which suits you. “Fragrance” flows from wood to your oil. Oil smells. Thats it. You can later purify it, extract certain chemicals from your oil etc. |
Why doesn't email cost a very small amount to stop spam? | Because that would put a barrier on entry for people who want to use email. Whichever email service starts charging for people to send emails will lose a lot of users. In addition, why is the responsibility for stopping spam borne by the email providers?Because no one would use it. Why use a service that costs money wh... |
Why do most games don't support SLI? | The difficulty is that it's really damn hard to develop for. I'm not sure it's possible to explain this to a layman without providing a couple of years of programming knowledge first |
Why is bearing teeth a sign of aggression in animals, but a sign of friendship in humans? | Eyes and ears also tell a story. When creatures bare teeth, usually growls accompany. As well as eyes tighten and ears splay back. Indicating aggression and or defensive intent. Bearing teeth can so the same. Get upset next time and raise your lower lip, then tuck it back and lower bottom lip a bit. But maintain an ang... |
(if possible) How bitcoins are given worth, who creates them, and how they are "created" or added into circulation? | How are they given worth? People wanting them, people trading things for them, just general hype around it. ; the network creates them as a reward for mining a block, they are created/added into circulation by people using computers/hardware/gpus to "mine" a block, once the right answer to the block is found its then s... |
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