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why the concept of "I" ("me," etc.) is an illusion | What if I fail", etc. If there was an "I" that solves such problems, then the strong "I" should be capable of solving the problem in no time. However, we all know what really happens: the "I" thought consumes all resources and we fail miserably. Oops. This is because the "I" is exactly this: just another thought. When ... |
how people know where sounds are coming from | If it's to your right, the sound will hit your right ear before it hits your left. It will also be a little louder on that side.We know the direction of sound - a process called sound localization - because of: * Intensity - the loudness of sound detected is different for each ear. If sound is to the right then your he... |
Why is it unsafe to be on an unsecured wifi network? | Think of everything you send over the network; your banking information, your facebook page, private IM conversations. Now imagine walking out into a big room blind folded, there could be people listening could also not be, would you want to shout that information as loud as possible? Would you want to write that infor... |
If two partners have dominant genes that contradict each other, what would happen to the baby? | You can't have two different dominant alleles of the same gene. That is what 'dominant' means. If one is dominant, the other is recessive. If you did have such a system, you would use different terms to describe it. Like how ABO works in blood typing. |
Why is it bad to get punched or hit in the temple? | The temple is a weakspot in the skull due to the convergence of several different bones, and just inside of the skull, is the middle meningeal artery. So you have a double whammy of a weak spot with an artery right next to it. Any significant trauma, even blunt, to that spot risks rupturing that artery. A ruptured arte... |
How do we know how to spell and pronounce names from ancient Sumer and Egypt just from reading symbols etched in clay? | Egypt specifically had the Rosetta Stone. A tablet that had writing in hieroglyphs, phonetic Egyptian and Greek. This allowed us to learn what certain symbols mean. We don't know what it sounds like though. Ancient Egyptian is a dead language, like proper Latin. This means that no one knows what it is supposed to sound... |
When should I use the other gears on my automatic car? | Driving on snow or ice on untreated or unplowed roads. If your tires stop spinning you will slide in snow or ice. Hitting the brake can cause your tires to stop spinning and make your car slide. This is why they invented antilock brakes.If you drive in a lower gear the engine will keep the tires spinning and help slow ... |
Who actually owns the credit card companies Visa, Master Card, and American Express? | They are companies in their own right, and are owned by shareholders. MasterCard was created by a group of banks to compete with Bank of America's Visa . Discover was created by Sears, and Amex was founded by the same folks as Wells Fargo, as an express delivery company. Like Wells, they later expanded into financial s... |
Why do we have urinals in public but not in our homes? | Urinals main advantages are they are faster and use less water then a toliet. In a public place where a lot of people are using the restroom this is a big advantage over a toliet. At home speed of use isn't an issue and the cost of an additional piece in a bathroom would mean it would take decades to recoup in water sa... |
what is the difference between all types of soap. i.e. shampoo, hand wash. Body wash, bar soap, dish soap, detergent etc... | shaving soap specifically has high amounts of stearic acid in it. It's what makes the lather stable", 'It's all marketing fluff, plain and simple. The "beard cleanser" which I 've received as a gift is the same crap that you 'd otherwise see in body wash containers 2x the size, except that this "specially formulated" b... |
the difference between a CAT5 cable and a CAT6 cable, and how will it affect my bandwidth? | They're both twisted pairs of 8 wires, but, as was explained to me, the number of twists of each pair, and the number of twists of the pairs around each other in the sheath, plays a role in how much noise the cables can surpass/cancel/filter out. This makes for a cleaner signal, which means less packet loss or error re... |
Who contracts a groups like Blackwater and how exactly do they work comparing to armies belonging to countries? | Blackwater and other PMC's are operated by private individuals whereas the military of a country is operated by a political chain of command. Each PMC will have a wide range of missions, however they will not have the authority to declare war, whereas the military of a country is used for force projection and other mis... |
What does the FCC do? | The FCC regulates broadcasting and other communications technologies and businesses. If you want to broadcast on the EM spectrum in the US you need an FCC license. That means radio stations, TV stations, cellular providers, etc. The FCC also regulates any technology that broadcasts a signal to be sure it isn't dangerou... |
why have the uncountable ways of purifying water are not being implemented? | Money. It's always money. What ever is cheaper is what people do. It is cheaper to use a $100,000 filtration system or do drive a truck 1000 miles to a clean water source.Water is rarely purified in small quantities. Even a small difference in cost will be significant quickly. Carbon, RO & DI are all king for the buck. |
Why do most clocks make a "tic-toc" sound instead of an identical "tic" each time? | quartz clocks 'tic' mechanical clocks using a pendulum and gravity to pull a weight to provide torque on an axel which can be regulated by cogs make a 'tic' 'tok' sound |
When having diarrhea, why is it I can sit there for 20-30 minutes after going and nothing comes out. But when I get up, I immediately have to go again? | I don't see the rock-back-and-forth comment. rock back and forth about 10 times before getting up. You'll get the standing up sensation without standing up.When you sit down and lean forward slightly, you are actually decreasing the pressure on your abdominal cavity. This is why when you have a stomach ache or cramping... |
Is a BMI calculator a good indication of good/poor health? | BMI was designed for looking at populations. It works really well for measuring, say, middle-aged white women in the US. It was never meant to applied to individuals. But it is a really easy to use metric. Doctors already record your height and weight when you go in for a check up. That means it's really easy to get a ... |
Why do ppl in old movies always check for change in the coin slot when they are done using a pay phone? | I was born in the 90's and did that all the time. Lots of people did; especially vending machines. 25% of the time there was usually a dime or quarter. Big money when you're little or down on your luck.the payphone did give back change, and sometimes the previous caller didnt take their change for whatever reason, or m... |
What does it mean for an animal to "domesticate itself" (e.g cats) and why would any animal want to do it? | It means over time, the species developed a symbiotic relationship with humans, without humans intentionally cultivating it. Specifically, humans would store food to survive between growing cycles. Rats and mice would get into and eat the stored food, and threaten the humans' survival. Humans would try to kill them, bu... |
how does an atomic bomb produce so much energy? | It's a chain reaction: when you split a Uranium nucleus with a neutron, it creates some energy, some other stuff, and some more neutrons that fly off. If you have more Uranium nearby for those nuclei to hit , the same reaction happens again, started by those neutrons. So the number of reactions keeps multiplying, with ... |
Why are Russian fans and English fans fighting so much at the Euro Cup? | It's an excuse to fight. There is traditionally fighting at large football tournaments. So people who are looking for a fight know that if they go to the tournament, they can have someone to fight. So they turn up and have their fight. It has nothing to do with the game. Expect German fans to get involved as well.There... |
Why does the login page for Google or Microsoft accounts separate the username and password fields into different screens? | * 1- It's so you have more options in how you log in. If you have your Google account setup to use a phone authentication rather than a password, you shouldn't be prompted for the password in the first place.* 2- Security. While all major sites use HTTPS, encryption, and many more security tools, if the connection gets... |
Could a spaceship or other megastructure develop its own gravitational pull? | Everything has its own gravitational pull. That is how gravity works. You get pulled down by Earth's gravity, but Earth also gets pulled up towards you a tiny bit. With earth being so big we mostly don't notice the gravity of anything else. Most of the ships in the video would however be to small to generate enough gra... |
What is a VPN and what does it do? | Imagine you have a telephone that only lets you dial places that have not been prohibited by the company or government that controls that phone. You know someone who lives in the next city over who has multiple phones, some of which have no restrictions. You call them up, and from there you're able to forward your call... |
Why are people supporting Jeremy Clarkson when he punched his boss and threw a fit? | I'm torn on the topic. I don't want to see a show that I love watching lose all 3 of its hosts, but on the other hand, Clarkson punched a guy in the face over an absence of hot food. That's absurd. |
Why do most artists release an album every two years? | It's a cycle. Lets say you drop the album and single at the same time . So you spend a few months running around promoting the album. Hitting up radio shows, talk shows, play the song on late night, that kind of thing. This goes on for a few weeks as the single climbs the charts. As long as it's going up, you keep up w... |
In the US, why isn't a gag order a violation of the right to free speech? | Becasue absolutely no right is an unlimited one. For example the right to bear arms in the USA can have reasonable limits imposed. At the simple end, things like requiring background checks. At the ridiculous end, you can't own a fully operational main battle tank. Where's apparent for the public good, freedom of speec... |
How do drinks like Coke Zero and Pepsi One have no Calories? | The chemicals which are used as flavoring react with your tastebuds enough like sugar to taste sweet, but are not able to be metabolized by your body like sugar so they don't contribute many calories. The count is rounded such that if it is less than five calories it can be counted as zero, so it may actually be someth... |
So Germany is mad about the US spying. What options does it realistically have? | Short answer: none. Long answer: none, unless they want to compromise their economy and global standings. Short of all of the NATO member nations banding together in a boycott against the U.S., it's diplomatic suicide to defy America; despite everything that the U.S. does wrong, it's still the leading political and mil... |
How did the US have jurisdiction over Japan's Unit 731 in terms of exchanging immunity for their research when most of the victims were Chinese or Russian? | Legally, universal jurisdiction seems to cover this. In the case of war crimes any state can claim jurisdiction, because the crimes are seen as a crime against all of humanity. Practically, when you've just demonstrated the ability and willingness to use the world's first atomic weapons, you can do whatever you want. |
Why are phone numbers laid out opposite to number key pads? | In a rotary phone the 0 is 10 'dits' or pulses, so it made sense to put 0 next to 9 instead of next to 1. On keypads the 0 and 1 are the most used for calculations and math stuff so they out those together on other keyboards and calculators.This screwed me up a few weeks ago when I had to go in and change my PIN number... |
How are synthetic materials (such as plastic) unnatural / toxic, if they are made from ingredients found on earth? | Naturally occuring chemicals can be used to make chemicals which do not occur in nature. Think of it like baking a cake. The main ingredients in cake are all naturally occuring but you would never a cake in nature. It's similar with plastics. While the chemicals used in plastic manufacturing are naturally occuring, you... |
Why are Gun Sounds in most action movies unrealistic/not the real sound of the weapon? | In addition to other good answers - capturing 'accurate' gunshot sounds is actually really difficult if the gun is up close to the microphone. It's just so loud that the sound you record isn't really the same as the sound you hear.They do it so because it adds to the scene to here distinctive expected sounds. They do i... |
Why do artists (musicians, photographers, graphic designers etc.) predominantly use Macs to produce their work? | The original Mac architecture was built around the idea that it would be used for graphics. This made the hardware and operating system more accommodating to graphics programs like Photoshop and Quark XPress. The original Mac displays had a resolution of 72 dpi because in typography the basic unit of measurement is the... |
Why does microwaving spoiled or left out food not make it safe to eat, but boiling water from a stream out in the wild makes it safe to drink? | If you're heating up already expired food you're just heating up the bacteria that is growing in the food. If you boil water you're killing almost all bacteria that's living in the water. Water doesn't expire the same way food does. |
Why can't you build really high rollercoasters? | They could do it but the people building the roller coaster would charge the people requesting the roller coaster so much money that they A) couldn't afford to pay for it and B) wouldn't make their money back within a reasonable time |
Why am I not supposed to use my left foot to apply the brake while I'm driving. | Real ELI5: Go on and try it. You'll notice that you won't be able to apply gentle pressure but instead will slam fully on. Still there are some who mastered the art of left-foot braking like Walter Röhrl, there're some nice videos of his footwork out there. |
How do small trinket stores/shops stay in business? | There are some that work on different business models, too. There are several stores that my mother sells at. These knick'knack stores rent out spaces for people to display and sell their goods. Some places even take a small percentage of the sales. The business owners really just need to pay the cost of owning and mai... |
What happens when the people who enforce the law dont agree with a specific law and decide to not enforce it? | It happens everyday. Cops let speeders get away with a warning all the time, even though it's pretty well defined when someone is speeding or not. |
What are the key differences between Al-Qaeda, Islamic State, the Taliban, and whatever other factions there are over in the middle east? | It's a case of a power struggle. Each group wants to have the most power and they want to further their cause the most. Although all of them are jihadist movements, there are slight differences in their ideologies that make them hate each other. For further reading you can look at the links below. _URL_4URL_4URL_4URL_4... |
How come the only fossil records we have of gigantopithecus's ever existing are their jaw bones? What happened to the rest of their bodies? | Fossilization is random, it's the exception to the rule, not the rule itself. It just so happened that the jaw bone of that particular animal was in the right environment for fossilization. Now, you may think that because of the this the rest of the animal should also be in the perfect place for fossilization, but that... |
How come something like 1000-1200 respondents to a survey can make for a statistically sound representation of a whole population? | Because math is pretty awesome, and lets us do things like this. Let's say you are organizing a party with 100 guests. You want to serve the ice cream the group likes the best, but asking all 100 is impractical. You ask 15 of them at random, and 7 say vanilla and 3 say chocolate. There are two possibilities here, eithe... |
How do multi level marketing companies/schemes/pyramid schemes work, why are they bad, do they work, why are they illegal, and is Herbalife one of these? | You pay money to join an organization in which the only real way to make money is to hire more people. Therefore the people at the top make money and the further down you are the less you make. The owners literally rely on people's entrances fees to make money, the product is a facade. nowadays they call themselves mlm... |
If weed is illegal, how come people like Snoop Dogg, who is photographed often smoking weed, don't get in trouble? | I have irrefutable videotape evidence - hundreds of hours of it - that Arnold Schwarzenegger is a murderer who has killed hundreds of innocent people. Why isn't he in prison? A picture of someone doing a supposedly illegal act, in and of itself, is incredibly weak evidence that any bottom feeding defense attorney can e... |
why can't we produce synthetic gasoline ? | Germany did it during WW2, and their [Fischer-Tropsch process] is still used in several countries, including South Africa's [SASOL] industry.We have, it's called biofuels. There are also many other processes used for making all sorts of homogulus compounds. The problem is your standard "gasoline" is cheap and easy to m... |
What is deadly about cancer ? | Every cell in your body has a purpose, keeping your body alive. Cancer is a started when a cell grows incorrectly and doesn't serve that purpose but serves only to reproduce itself. This takes resources away from the other normal cells. Eventually as the cancer grows it can crowd out and either replace or starve the no... |
What's stopping counterfeit money makers from printing bills exactly like official bills? | There are a lot of security features that are very difficult to re-create. 1. Security strips: hold any bill larger than $1 up to the light and you'll see a thin metal strip embedded in the bill with writing on it. 2. Watermarks: Again, hold the bill up to the light and you'll see an image of the same face as the main ... |
Why had Reddit recently adopted 4chan's "OP is a faggot"? | I think reddit's median age has slipped from maybe 21 three years ago, to 18, then perhaps 15 last year, and now it's about 12. |
Why do molocules have such long and difficult names? | Depends on the molecule. However, organic molecules have long names because organic molecules are long. The molecule CH3-CHCl-CHCl-CH2-COOH is named 3,4-Dichloro pentanoic acid. This is because of the atoms present in the molecule. There are 2 chlorine atoms bonded to to carbon atoms, so their location is named at carb... |
Why do domestic (U.S.) cars have a reputation for being lower quality when compared to imported cars from Europe? | For what it's worth, in the UK at least the reputations are that Japanese and German cars are reliable and quality, whereas French and Italian stuff breaks down. The old bad British car companies, with workforces that spent a lot of time on strike, have pretty much all gone bust. American brands that make cars in Europ... |
Why are cellphone batteries now non-removable? | I think it's a way for the phone companies / makers to get more money out of consumers. If you need a battery changed, you have to pay them to do it, plus the price of the battery. To me, it's the same thing as newer phones not having an sd card. If you want extra storage, you'll have to buy a more expensive phone with... |
Why are there different blood types and what happens if someone receives the wrong blood? | If you get the wrong type, you get an acute hemolytic reaction. In other words, your antibodies see the foreign blood as an invader, and attempt to kill it. This results in several problems. The blood isn't doing its job getting oxygen around your body, because it's busy being murdered. You are forming clots in your bl... |
What stops large nations from annexing smaller micro states beyond international backlash? | Beyond backlash, it would set a dangerous precedent. Let's say the US gets mad Haiti, and just annexes it. Maybe China says, hey, if that's how were are playing, we're going to annex Mongolia. Russia annexes Lithuania, India annexes Bhutan, Brazil annexes Suriname, and suddenly rival countries are growing and getting m... |
Why are there so many counts of excessive force used by American police in recent years? | The big answer is that it's getting more coverage. If you ask many minority communities and other individuals in America, they'll tell you that this has been going on for decades, but one of the benefits that we have today that didn't exist back then, certainly not in the same capacity, is several devices that make rec... |
Why do people say "fly low so the radar won't see you"? Do radar detectors only work at high altitudes? | Typically they calibrate radar to not look below a certain height because there is a lot of activity that isn't what they are looking for and would trigger all kinds of false readings.Lookup "radar horizon". The explanation of that term, and how it's calculated will answer your question. |
Since credit cards are 16 digits, the first 6 of which identifying the owning bank, how have we not run out of valid card numbers? | Nine digits, if my math is correct, is 1 shy of a billion credit cards per credit card company. Shouldn't that be enough for the 7 billion men, women and children on the planet, many of whom are too young or too poor to have a card.> which leaves only 9 usable digits. So how have we not run out of numbers? Because 9 di... |
Why race car drivers prefer manual cars over automatic? | What OP doesn't specify is what TYPE of racing they're talking about. If we consider drag racing; in particular [top fuel] racing; then *automatics* are the norm; because the shifting is predictable. When you're talking about a race that is **over** in < 5 seconds, you don't want to lose a tenth because you hesitated o... |
What happens in your body at concerts when it feels like your heart is about to vibrate out of your chest when they hit super low bass notes? | Sound is, quite simply, a wave of pressure traveling through a medium . What you're feeling are very large pressure waves flowing through the air and through you. Your chest has a lot of mass, therefore, will absorb a lot of the wave as it hits you compared to your ligaments. The more you absorb, the more you feel. The... |
Does Coke Zero really have zero calories? If so, what gets put in it that has zero calories? | No it doesn't really have zero calories. Your body does metabolize the artificial sweetener. A teaspoon of pure artificial sweetener has roughly similar calories to a teaspoon of sugar, the key difference is that they are a lot sweeter . This means that instead of a large amount of sweetener in the drink, only a very v... |
Why is there a small part of Russia in Europe? | That is the Kaliningrad Oblast.Originally it was part of Northern Eastern Prussia. During WWII the Soviet Union captured the area and during that time what is now the Oblast would eventually be annexed by Soviet Union and given to Soviet Russia. It's indigenous German population was expelled and killed and the land wou... |
Request: How does an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) work? | The world's largest UPS supplies Fairbanks, AK: _URL_0_ This giant bank of batteries can supply the city with 7-10 minutes of power while diesel backup generators come online if the primary supply is interrupted. |
How did knowing Einstein's theory of relativity lead scientists to make the first atom bomb? | I would argue that Rutherford's experiments had more to do with the development of nuclear bombs than Einstein's theory. > It was quickly noted after the discovery of radioactivity in 1897, that the total energy due to radioactive processes is about one million times greater than that involved in any known molecular ch... |
Why is it fairly easy to count backwards but somewhat difficult to say the alphabet backwards? | Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: Why is it easy to count backwards, but difficult to say the alphabet backwards? ]1. [ELI5: Why is it easier to count numbers backwards than saying the alphabet backwards? ]1. [ELI5: Why can so many people count backwards with ease, but can't say thei... |
Why did television start becoming so much more cynical? | As mentioned by other posters, there are still many light-hearted family-style sitcoms. As there are so many shows on so many channels, it's easy to miss a few. Hell, Tim Allen managed to have another sitcom now going into its 6th season. Similarly, you may remember shows those family-style sitcoms more, but there were... |
Why is Kahn considered one of, if not THE, greatest Star Trek villian? | Star Trek villains are largely forgettable. I can't name one off the top of my head! Except Khan. He killed Spock, and is the only one to get one over on Captain Kirk! And, I mean, KHAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!!!! |
How come most games on PC only run through Windows only? Shouldn’t it be easy for games to run across all platforms? | Why should it be easy? Programs generally assume your system has core drivers and libraries that it needs. Most PC games need DirectX to be able to draw anything on the screen in a timely manner, only Windows comes with DirectX. No DirectX means they have to rewrite all of their graphics to use OpenGL or another librar... |
Explain the rules of Rugby. | People have already explained the rules so I'll say this: Try it! I started playing as a freshman in high-school, it's an amazing sport and I've encountered very few jerks while playing, there's nothing quite like laughing with the other team and just enjoying the game. A local club would probably love to have you. |
If a quasar is 29 billion light years away, how is it possible, considering the universe is 14 billion years old | When talking about the distance of a moving object, we mean the spatial separation NOW, with the positions of both objects specified at the current time. In an expanding Universe this distance NOW is larger than the speed of light times the light travel time due to the increase of separations between objects as the Uni... |
Why does North Korea/Kim Jong Un constantly make blantantly untrue claims? | It may be obvious to you, but only because you have access to the world's media and the Internet. North Koreans do not. Guess who he's really speaking to when he makes these statements. |
Why people sell to the pawn stars when the item is way more valuable than the money they are getting. | 1. **Connections.** Owners of items might not know where to go, what to sell it for, where to find buyers, how to verify that it's legitimate, and so on. The Pawn Stars have connections that an owner might not, especially if the owner is not a collector and just inherited or found the item. It sounds easy to turn aroun... |
Why did so few Genesis/SNES games allow you to save your game progress? | Sega genesis carts had the save memory on an extra chip on the cart. This cost money.Leaving it out means it's cheaper. |
How is your eyesight damaged if you read in the dark? | It's doesn't. It's a myth that just won't go away. It can cause temporary eye strain but that's it. |
How debt causes homelessness. | I'll give you a job" you think to yourself as your fondle the knife in your pocket. A young child comes up and drops a few notes in your can. That's enough, I can get what I want now. You pick up your cardboard and take your can. you walk down around the corner and score some meth. For the next few hours your life is a... |
How do extremely mentally ill homeless people survive? | Here in Portugal the heath care is free, There is place with people who help others, who cooked veggies soup and breads and fruits. The dumpster near the supermarkets are full of almost experied but still good food. Once I found like 20 baked chickens in a plastic box The weather here is pretty good, you can survive th... |
What's a Rockefeller Republican? | They, unlike other republicans, care nothing for the moralism and religiosity as touted by the religious right. They have no long term goals or visions of America being the land of the free or the shining city on the hill. They're fucking reapers, all their wants are short term and related to their appetite for *more*.... |
Why aren't corporations reluctant to hire men with the wage gap? Wouldn't it be cheaper to fire the men and replace them with women? | That's not how the wage gap works . Two workers, one man and one woman, performing the same job function are typically paid the about the same. The average earnings of women tends to be lower due corporate environments that promote men more often than women or hire men more often for higher-paying positions than women. |
why are neutrons necessary? | I'm no expert, but my limited understanding is that neutrons help bond the nucleus together by giving the protons something to bind to. Protons are attracted to each other due to nuclear force, but they are repulsed more strongly because they both have a positive charge. They are also attracted to neutrons due to nucle... |
Why do cats like to sit/sleep in boxes, even when its clearly not very comfortable? | Clearly to you. but..quite comfy for the cat. the box gives them protection on all sides. if you were in the wild and you found a box, you'd be psyched. Now .they may be a little overzealous in applying this instinct to small cardboard boxes with 1 inch sides, but the instinct worked well enough for them to survive. |
Where did the "incest in the South" stereotype come from? | I think it stemmed from the late 1800's when missionaries and writers wrote of Appalachian isolated communities; 'hill/mountain people' who were poor and lived together in rundown shacks. It was assumed that their communities were populated through inbreeding. This was perpetuated in the 1920's or 30's when Elenor Roos... |
How does someone become a modern artist? | Contemporary might be a better term since Modern Art/Modernism is a distinct artistic period. Anyway, there's nothing preventing you from being an artist but art is not just about technique. You need to be original as well and the famous artists are famous not just because they're technically proficient but because the... |
Japan has by far the highest debt-to-GDP ratio at 226%. Why is Japan not in an economic crisis? | Because the amount of debt you have doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is whether you can finance it. Countries never have to pay down their debts, they just need to be able to keep rolling it over at reasonable cost. The market for Japanese government bonds is such that the government can afford to continue t... |
why does the French presidential election matter so much to the world? | Because one of the candidate is running on a platform of frexit. AKA, taking France out of the EU. There is no way that wouldn't lead to huge changes in the EU, if not the complete dissolving of the union. So people on both sides of the spectrum are going to watch these elections with interest.France is the 6th largest... |
What is a credit score and how do I win? | A credit score is a number assigned by three companies which is supposed to represent your trustworthiness in repaying debt. It's typically used when applying for a loan or credit card. Since you have no credit history, your score won't be great, but it won't be terrible. To improve your credit score, you need to estab... |
Why do movies always use paper bags with no handles for shopping? | It used to be that the paper bag was the only bag used in grocery stores so any movie set before the 90s would use a paper bag to indicate grocery shopping. Secondly, a paper bag makes a nice prop--you can't see in it, and it has to be carried from the bottom, so an empty box inside the bag can make the bag seem full, ... |
Why don't we have supersonic passenger jets? | Because in order to make money or even break even, the cost to passengers would be enormous. There's just no way to make it economically feasible for airlines right now. |
UK redditors, what happens when Royal Mail becomes private? Do we not get letters anymore/have to pay for it? | There are already multiple companies you can use to send letters in the UK. However most of them only market themselves to businesses -- you've probably received many letters from banks, utility companies etc where the frank-mark in the top right has a logo of some kind. However the Royal Mail has a number of things th... |
If people died of the common cold in the prior to modern medicine, how come I can survive without taking any medication now? | People didn't die of the common cold, they died of more serious infections. In fact, the common cold is probably more deadly these days, as people are living to an older age, where they may be more susceptible to even minor complications.Vaccines and the general state of your health has probably been pretty good since ... |
Why do we still use twist-off caps AND ones that require an opener for beer bottles? | I think there's an idea of sophistication for pry-off tops. I might be wrong, but it seems like cheaper beers tend to have twist-off. |
Why hasn't evolution made birth easier/safer/painless? | Humans have two characteristics that give them tremendous advantage: large brains and upright gait. The problem, known as the obstetrical dilemma, is that those two trends are in opposition to each other. If our brains were much bigger, the pelvis of a pregnant mother would have to be so big that she couldn’t walk. So ... |
Why are statute of limitations a thing? | Because, if I accuse you today of assaulting me on Jan 27th 2004 , most likely you won't even remember what you were doing 10 years ago in January. And nobody is expected to. |
Why is a goods lorry's container rectangular, but a petrol tanker's is cylindrical? | Spherical objects are good storage containers because they are generally stronger than their rectangular counterparts and have a higher volume to surface area ratio which means more efficient storage. However, spheres can be bad for storage because they don't stack well and it's hard to fit a sphere onto a surface with... |
What happens if you split a proton? | Splitting a proton would get you a down quark and a pair of up quarks, but it's impossible to split it any further because quarks are fundamental particles, meaning nothing comprises them, they just exist. |
How does tilt-shifting photography work? | The other users explained how do to it, but if you're asking why the picture look the way they do, i.e. like miniature things close up. It's because the there part of the picture that is in focus is smaller that we expect. For example, if you look at a mountain range off in the distance, the whole thing is in focus, ev... |
Why are TV shows like The Wire so rare? | Because it takes great skill to take real-life situations and turn them into genuinely enjoyable and engaging TV. So even if you find and uncover some really interesting real-life plots you've now got to find a way to tell the story in an engaging way. Secondly - it's not just finding one story or plot that's real and ... |
How did Google convince the rest of the world to let me them map and photograph the globe. | Google didn't go and fly a plane around. They just went to the various companies that did this already and buy their pictures. Google DOES drive a car around for street level pictures. There's no law that prevents you from driving around with a camera. Anyone can do it. You don't need permission |
How do we know animals are not as self-conscious as humans? | Do you mean self-aware? Or self-conscious? /u/open_door_policy interpreted your question as self-aware, meaning an animal understanding that it's a thing by itself, distinct from others. It's difficult to define clearly, so it's easier to just say that it's what the [mirror test] and similar tests show. Self-conscious ... |
what will happen if I put a new battery alongside an almost dead battery in a toy or remote? | Here's the thing about an almost dead battery. Whenever you put a load on a battery there is a voltage drop. The closer to dead the battery is, the larger the drop. So if a new battery is 1.5V it may be 1.4 when under load. A dead battery may have 1V but drop to nearly 0 under load. So 2 new batteries in series would b... |
Would it be possible or plausible to add a letter to the Alphabet? | two", and "too". In a loose sense, the number 2 has become a new "letter" in the alphabet, and others.In 1955 the letter å was officially added to the Danish alfabet. It represents the sound that 'aa' makes in the Danish language.Many people have proposed revisions to the English alphabet, including playwright George B... |
A lot of dinosaurs seemed to be armored. Why is armor rare on large animals today, when it was de regueur for hundreds of millions of years? | The extra weight is not as beneficial as other methods of protection, e.g. stealth and speed. Also, most dinosaurs weren't armored. Many had feathers or scales. |
Why don't we just use the term "pollution" instead of "climate change" or "global warming"? | Plenty of people will be fine with pollution for the same reason they're fighting climate change, because pollution is produced by industries that support the economy/country/defense/security/etc etc. Part of the emphasis on the climate change debate is pointing out that these processes are believed to be unsustainable... |
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