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Do international diplomats have full immunity to crimes as some movies portray? | Sort of. typically, only the highest level diplomats enjoy full diplomatic immunity. Lower level diplomatic staff typically only have immunity when acting in an official capacity. That means in theory, a high ranking diplomat could commit and confess to a murder, and evade prosecution, and the worst the host country co... |
How are the weight of massive structures such as the Great Pyramids measured? | You take the weight of one block of sandstone , and you multiply that by how many blocks there are in the entire thing, which you can estimate knowing the pyramid's dimensions and volume. You can always adjust that figure to accommodate any empty spaces inside, or parts of the tomb that are made of stuff besides sandst... |
Why some British/English folks (especially commentators) pronounce a simple -a ending word as -er. | I've spent some time observing this people. I've noticed that this peculiar trait of inserting an 'r' sound manifests itself most often when they attempt to say a word ending with a vowel sound followed immediately by a word that begins with a vowel sound. With seemingly paradoxical tradition, however, the pronunciatio... |
What's the deal with kissing? Why do we do it? Why does it feel good? | Lips are very sensitive. Presumably that's why kissing is an intimate thing- 2 people pressing a sensitive body part together. |
Why is snow and rainfall measured in units of distance, (inches, feet) rather than units of volume? (liters, gallons) | Distance from the ground, i.e. the height of the snow. We measure it by poking a measuring stick into the snow until it hits the ground. Or, in the case of rain, by leaving out a tube with measurements up its side, and seeing how far up the tube the water level gets. If you were to measure volume, you would have to kno... |
Why are taxes in the North generally higher than taxes in the South? | The North typically has a more prosperous population with more disposable income, and provides greater services to them. When more of your population is concentrated in cities, it is easier to provide services everyone will use. Also, winter. Winter is expensive, snow removal, snow damage, road damage, greater need for... |
Why do I sleep easier with a noise in the background? | I'd imagine it's just what you are used to. Back when I was about 8 or 9 I used to have this fan in my room. One of the fan's chains would repetitively hit the light cover since the fan wasn't fastened completely as tightly as it could have been. I slept with that constant dinking and the fans' whirring for 3 years. I ... |
Can you live with just a head and heart? | All those organs in your abdomen ..most of them do something essential. Even with artificial nutrition and dialysis, you can't live without a liver or lungs. |
Why can't we forget how to swim or to ride a bicycle? | I don't know why people even say this, I've definitely forgot how to ride a bike before. It was faster picking it up again the second time, but I definitely had to relearn. I'm also certain I'd revert to doggy paddle now if thrown into a body of water, since it's been years. |
Why are older veterans wearing hats stating the war they fought in? | It's a sign to others who served and a conversation opener for that group of fellow travelers. As an anecdote, some months ago I was in one of the D.C. airports and Sen. John McCain came off a U.S. Airways plane. He took a few steps, then spotted a couple of vets sporting Naval service caps with Vietnam era trim and ca... |
How can we be sure the universe is expanding? | > I assume our telescopes arent powerful enough to see everything in the universe. They are powerful enough to see to the edge of the observable universe. > how do we know that we aren't just in pocket of expanding galaxies while the rest of the universe moves differently. Its not just the red shift itself that matters... |
Why do some products say "known to the state of California to cause cancer" ? | California simply has higher reporting requirements than most states. So if you're buying a product that is also sold in Ca and it has one of these chemicals, you'll see that warning.This is due to a voter initiative in California in 1986. _URL_0_ The state of CA itself maintains a list of chemicals with a "1 in 100,00... |
How can liquid coffee creamer be left at room temperature without going bad? | Doesn't the creamer have to go in the fridge after opening it? The sealed creamer shots stuff lets in no oxygen and no chance to breed bacteria, but idk |
Can someone ELI5 America's involvement in Afghanistan? | The Soviets invaded in 1979, but they lost because of extremist guerilla fighters supported by the US. After they left, the extremists took power and a bloody civil war for control began. Essentially, the Taliban was in control until 2001 and other groups were allowed to sit there and chill, like Al Qaeda. After 9/11, ... |
Why can't someone from the IRS come forward and present the public with Romney's tax records? | Other people have answered the question more articulately than I can, so I won't bother trying. I have a tangent question, though, that I don't think is worth making a whole separate post for. What are the chances that somebody from the IRS will try to do this? They could be paid a huge amount of money by somebody . Th... |
How can NASA so accurately pinpoint the location of a comet, and the trajectory of a satellite 10 years in advance, and land it without a hitch? | The n-body problem isn't solved. Which means we do not know exactly where anything will be with precision. In order to account for that, there are correcting maneuvers done during flight. |
Why are vanilla flavored items always white, when the bean itself is dark? | Vanilla is usually used to flavor things like icing, creams, iced cream, etc. Most of these things are white, and the vanilla doesn't change the color, so it is still white. For other products that should be dark, likely the manufacturers are dying it, because we associate vanilla with white |
Why does reading in a car make me feel sick? | It's because your various senses that gauge spatial awareness don't 'match up' as your eyes are focused on the book and suggest that you are in a stationary position, whereas your other senses can detect motion from the car speeding up, slowing down, turning etc. |
How does soap work? What does it do that water doesn't when getting my hands and body clean? (Ignoring anti-bacterial) | Soap molecules have a long, hydrophobic tail, and a small hydrophilic head. When added to water, this causes the molecules to rearrange themselves into spheres, called micelles. The hydrophilic heads are positioned on the surface of the sphere, while the tails become the inside of the sphere. Greases and oils will work... |
What makes student loan debt seemingly so much harder to deal with than other types of debt? | No where else can you take on so much debt with no collateral. You can take on $50,000 or $100,000 of debt for physically nothing. When you buy a house for $250,000 and you can't afford the house anymore, the bank takes the house. If you buy a car and can't pay it, it gets repossessed. If you accumulate $100,000 of cre... |
What is the acid attack phenomenon in developing countries? When and how did it start? Why has it come to be such a popular method of attack? | It's not just developing countries either. Acid attacks are not that uncommon in the UK, but they seem to be done more for revenge than honour reasons. Katie Piper was a UK model who was attacked with acid. She's recovered really well and has gone on to become a prominent charity campaigner and TV presenter. Apologies ... |
If Islam requires you to give to the poor, how is there so much inequality in Muslim countries? | Governments give billions to programs to wipe out poverty, yet there are poor in every country. The 2.5% Zakah Muslims give can't possible eradicate poverty. |
why do so many tables have uneven legs? | A school district buys a school desk because it's cheap. A desk manufacturer could make a desk that would not wobble, but it would be more expensive. Desks wobble because the materials they're made of change their shape. Wood, metal, and plastic can expand, contract, or warp unevenly, so that what was once a desk that ... |
Why is grunting much more common in female tennis players than in male tennis players? | Played tennis when I was a teenager. My coach would say the grunt is started as a side affect of maximum exertion. That's how grunting appears in the mens game. They often go for big shots employing the full use of their bodies strength causing a grunt, most often on serves. He said it started the same way in the Women... |
Why do we fire space shuttles straight up? | The answer is in the physics. In order to get an object to orbit the earth, it must be travelling at over 17,000 mph. Using today's technology, the only way to generate enough energy to get the shuttle to orbit is with engines that are more powerful then jet engines. Those engines use fuels like liquid oxygen, liquid h... |
why do people feel their rights are being taken away because of the Hobby Lobby decision? | I don't mean this in an insulting way! But are you sure that you understand the ACA/PPACA/Obamacare in regard to this question? --------------- It's basically: businesses have to offer a healthcare plan which covers basic services at a reduced or free cost to employees. One of those services includes contraceptives. Th... |
- How did our early ancestors know which foods are good for you and which ones were poisonous without any scientific knowledge. | They did have scientific knowledge. The old-school kind. They had a couple hundred thousand years or so of experiments of the 'if you eat that one, you die' variety. |
Why is pi repeating and how or why does this happen? | Pi is the ratio a circle's circumference to its diameter. Think of it like this: A circle does not have any sides, so how do you find its area? You draw a square inside the circle. Now you can find the area of that square. But wait, then you have that extra crescent like shape between the circle and square that has not... |
Why does memory come in specific sizes? (i.e.8 GB, 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB, etc)? | I'm no expert, but I'll give it a shot. Computers are based in binary, a system based on the number 2. These numbers are all exponents of 2, making them make sense in that regard. [Wikipedia might be able to explain better.] |
Why are we told to cut plants back so they grow better next season? But this would not happen in the wild. | Depends a bit on the plant. Some were specifically engineered by humans, and wouldn't have otherwise existed in the wild . Other plants would either die sooner in the wild, or eventually get out of control compared to how we prefer them to look in our garden. |
Why is it that the worst type of murder is "first degree" whereas the worst type of burn is "third degree"? | Just different semantics. However, a third-degree burn [isn't the most severe type of burn.] The scale ranges from 1st-6th degree burns.Edit: The link is clean. |
why do books have 4-5 pages left blank at the end | I'm just going to link you the [How It's Made of books], because she explains it as well as anyone can. Plus, you get to watch that shit happen, which is pretty awesome. |
If dust is mostly made from dead human skin cells, why are old abandoned houses/buildings dusty? | Dust *isn't* made mostly of dead human skin cells. Not outside, not inside. Not in your bedroom. Nope, just no. Some amount may be dead skin cells, but a lot of those are going down the drain in the shower or what have you, and humans aren't generally a walking glitter bomb of flaky material anyway, on a grand scale. L... |
Why is the inverse square law so universal? | The inverse square law is due to spherical symmetry in three dimensions. In order to write down a Lagrangian for a spherically symmetric field, you must include the gradient squared of the field. This leads to a differential equation that usually involves some sort of inverse distance squared factor in the solution. In... |
The different practical uses of the most used programming languages (i.e. Java, C++, Python, etc.) | A question that I've always had about this is what is making all this work? How come when you type code out and run it things happen? Why isn't the code just gibberish to the computer? |
How is marijuana not addicting, yet some people become dependent on it to the detriment of their health, social life, and career. | More information here at the CDC. _URL_7_ Here's a description of the difference between mental and physical addictions. _URL_6_ Clearly, if you feel uncontrollable physical side effects, it's a physical addiction. |
I want to design a video game. | I concur that Unreal editor is the way to go. The SDK is freely available and you pay nothing unless you make money. There are plenty of free assets you can use as long as you credit people and assets you can buy to use in your projects. Like more than any other kit that I know of currently. You can use the Unreal for ... |
Do different types of alcohol have different effects on people like tv shows and movies suggest? | They do, but not because of the alcohol, like it seems most are saying. A beer buzz is far different from a wine buzz, in my experience. If we think about it, wine has a far higher sugar content than beer, and a higher alcohol concentration. The amount of sugars in an alcohol can dramatically affect both how it feels n... |
Got a "subpoena to provide evidence" from the sheriff today, what is it? | Call the issuing lawyer. Ask them what it's about. Any lawyer worth their salt is going to want to know what you're going to say before you go in there.If you have legal questions, you should ask a lawyer, not fuckwits on the Internet.In most places the document you received will tell you the name of the person who iss... |
why do we need blankets and cant just sleep in clothes | you're covered completely. also, clothes can be made for covering up vs staying warm. blankets are warm |
Why do the biggest animals, like whales, eat the smallest ones, like krill? | Most of these animals are slow moving and require a lot of food per day to stay alive. Very small ocean animals are almost everywhere and don't need to be chased down to eat. |
why do people's face on this picture look weird when seen in your peripheral vision? | I am not a neurologist, but I think this is jamming our facial recognition software. We are really good at recognizing faces. Absurdly good. We've been trying to make computers that can do it for decades and our results so far are rudimentary at best, just to give some insight into how ludicrously difficult this is fro... |
Why do multiplayer video games have problem with NAT restrictions? Gaming seems like a harmless activity | I like to use the mail man analogy when discussing how computer networks work. Imagine that you live in a very small town . Each house in that town is given a house number that the mail men of other towns do not know. Now imagine that a letter came in from another town and the mail man recieved the letter. Since the le... |
Why can't I form a tight fist with my hands straight after waking up? | The brain uses chemicals to shut down many parts of the body during REM sleep, in order that we don't injure ourselves . It can take time to flush those chemicals, but it's not true to say 'no one can ' - a lot of people wake near-instantly. Don't be surprised to get a fist to the face occasionally if you suddenly wake... |
How is the integral the reverse form of the derivative, yet they are used for different things? | Consider a practical example. I have a car moving 10 mph, I plot that where the y-axis is speed and the x-axis is time. If I integrate from 0 hours to 1 hour, then the area of that rectangle is 10 miles. Also note what happens to the units: the integral of [miles/hours]*d[hours] = miles. We've multiplied the unit in th... |
Why doesn't the Maillard Reaction take place in microwaves? | Microwaves are very interesting things, used for a lot more than warming your food. 2450Mhz microwaves, the kind in your oven, are a very special kind of wave. This is a frequency that's particularly good at warming water molecules, and not also in use for something else. When you warm water molecules above 100˚C, they... |
Why can't we use heaters/radiators to cool our homes in the summer by running cold instead of hot water through them? | The radiators would have condensation dripping from them. Each would need a drip pan and drain. It would be a mildewy mess. It's much more efficient to blow air over one cold coil and distribute that air. |
Why Is Common Core Curriculum Bad? | It's not bad in that it tries to teach kids the concepts behind the math, but the approach it takes is horrendous. Turning a simple multiplication problem into an hours work of drawing diagrams and pictures just to illustrate the point is overkill. The other problem with it is that getting the right answer isn't the go... |
How does Steven Hawking talk with his device | He doesn't. His speeches are all written much earlier. He has very limited mobility but can still slowely type with a special interface. But it's often as slow as one letter per minute. When you see him talking. He is just sitting there while his pre prepared speech is played through the speakers. |
Why are you at risk of slipping into a coma after a serious concussion if you sleep for to many consecutive hours? | The risk is there whether you sleep or not. However, some of the symptoms that you may be slipping into a coma are impossible to notice of you're asleep. The party about waking up every few hours is to check and make sure there aren't any symptoms that the brain damage is severe enough to cause a coma |
Amongst chess masters, why don't all chess matches end the same way? | There isn't always one best choice. And even if there is, it's impossible to think too far forward. The possibilities quickly becomes too many for any human to keep track of. This is why a computer can beat even the best humans, as they can calculate millions of moves before making their decision. |
Is it possible to have more than 2 political parties in the USA? If yes, why are there just 2? | There is more then two political parties. It's just that they garner most of the vote and with a first past the post system and most of the money being spent on these parties you don't hear of them very much. _URL_1_", 'Possibly the best way of explaining it._URL_2_ |
Why do I need a pond liner for my pond, but lakes don't have one and they don't leak? | Ponds/lakes *do* leak. They're just called rivers instead.Because your pond is essentially a puddle. Its probably not deep enough to be a real pond. |
Why do the launches of space shuttles look like they're traveling so slow? | At the start of a launch, shuttles aren't moving that quickly. They can't. Air resistance increases with the square of your speed. You can see this with your car . Space shuttles needs their fuel for reaching orbital speed, not for fighting air resistance. So what they do is accelerate slowly at first. Then when they a... |
How was the International Space Station put into space? | As ZebZ said, the station was put together in sections over many years. Wikipedia has an awesome illustration showing what's up there and what each piece is called. _URL_0_ |
Were does money go? | > If we consistently make it but the value in the market place doesn't drop Are you talking about inflation? Because that's what inflation essentially is. When new money is introduced into a system, money that was held becomes less valuable than it was before. So the value does drop. Or do you mean paper money? Or how ... |
How powerful is a modest personal computer expected to be in 2020? | daisy, daisy, give me your answer do. i'm half crazy, oh for the love of you. |
Why do teachers who get hired to teach English in Asia have a hard time getting employment at home once they return? | Having experience teaching English as a second language does not make you qualified to teach English to American native speakers. My French teacher in middle school knows enough French to teach us American kids, but I don't see her teaching French in France. If you return home, you're not going to get that senior teach... |
The physics of antennas. | In probably less than you're looking for but here goes. Broadcast antennas are a device designed to convert an electrical signal into literally a series of pulse waves that are pushed out into the atmosphere by charging the antenna off and on. The higher the voltage the more air/space that is displaced for a longer ran... |
How does watching tv or playing video games "rot" your brain? | It doesn't. That's an old-school concept that stems from a generation where sitting in front of the tv was labeled inappropriate leisure activity, unlile going to a play or the theater. But fact of the matter is before tv, there was radio, and listening to too much radio was considered bad, when compared to listening t... |
How does internet traffic generate revenue for a website? | Companies like Snapchat and Instagram focused their efforts entirely on capturing a large user base before implementing an actual business model. Once they had hundreds of millions of users who use the apps many times a day, they became very valuable to advertisers. Not sure if you've noticed on Instagram, but in the p... |
Do planets all orbit the sun on the same plane as models seem to suggest? | Not exactly the same plane, but it's pretty close. Relative to the Earth's orbit, Mercury's is at the greatest angle at about 7º . The next biggest angle is 3.5º for Venus. |
Why are cinnamon-flavored candy/liquors flavors usually "hot" or "spicy" (like Big Red gum, Fireballs, cinnamon liquor) when actual cinnamon is not? | There's actually *two* types of cinnamon, and many people think they're interchangeable due to the lack of differentiation in most cases. Ceylon cinnamon is from Sri Lanka, and is also known as 'true' cinnamon. It has a lighter, more delicate flavor. It's not really the most common type of cinnamon you're likely to see... |
Why don't video games come out when they're finished? | Because consumer willingness to buy is different every season.You also need count preperations. The marketing campaign has to start and hype people up, the game needs to be printed and shipped to stores, the servers need to be put up in case of patches/online funcionalities, debugging/polishing needs to be done, even t... |
Why is the price gap between grades of gasolene so much greater today than it was in the 80's and 90's and 2000's? | You are comparing similar nominal costs for the 87 octane gasoline, but forgetting that there's been inflation for *everything else* since then, including the labor and additives needed for higher octane gasoline. So, we would expect the gap to be wider. |
Can you damage the inside of your body if you constantly eat hot food and drink hot beverages? | Hot as in spicy food can cause distress in your GI tract, due to the chemicals irritating the tissues lining it. Otherwise, you should be fine as long as the food isn't hot enough to cause physical damage. If you experience persistent discomfort when eating certain foods, it might not be temperature that is the issue b... |
Why is it so hard to transfer money in the US? Why are checks still a normal thing? Why can't you just send money to each others bank accounts? | Heh, this just reminded me of the last time I visited Melbourne and was shocked that places had minimum purchases before they'd take EFTPOS. That's basically unheard of over here. |
How do electronics switch things on and off? | so, imagine you have a pipe, and you want to open or close the pipe, you you add a button to the pipe, the button pushes a rod which has a hole through which water can travel, but suppose you want to operate this button without a human being involved, so you hook a pipe up to the button, when water flows through that p... |
How are doctors allowed to charge so much for even the smallest appointments? Why aren't there laws to limit how much they can charge? | It's a complex issue, but the last thing that should be cut is a doctor's salaries. They're the one's doing the work, missing family time, making the investment of 7+ years and 250-350K in debt. This was their choice to pursue this career so you can't feel too bad, but they're essentially a drop in the bucket in the co... |
How Do Great Apes And and Chips assign meaning to sign language? | They learn it the same way we do: by being taught. They might not know exactly the same way we do, but they're smart enough to communicate if they have a way to do that. |
Why do digital time displays, such as a microwave or oven, seem to flash constantly on video? | A digital time display has lots of individual elements. A single digit needs 7 elements, and with 4 digits you would need 28. If you wanted to individually control each element, you would need 28 separate outputs. This costs money. To make things cheaper, you can use 7 outputs connected in common to all the digits, and... |
Why does a radio play "static" when there's no signal instead of just silence? | Your radio has an automatic gain control circuit in it. This is there to deal with the fact that some radio signals are much, much stronger than others . The AGC cranks up or down the radio's sensitivity depending on how strong the signal is. If there's no signal, it'll crank up the sensitivity until the background sta... |
Why are there so many different types of skin problems (i.e. pimple, cyst, acne) that are all a result of the same issue of a clogged pore? | I'm no expert but I think it has to do at least partially with how deep the pore is clogged and whether or not it's open to the air. Blackhead: clogged at the surface and open to air Whitehead/standard pimple: clogged at the surface but not open to air Cyst: deeper clog that develops a thicker wall as skin cells keep s... |
How can open source software be considered "more secure" if everyone has access to the source? wouldn't that make it inherently LESS secure? | Boring I know, but most security exploits are aimed at a very specific bugs in the software - not the crazy shit they describe in TV and Movies. The more eyes you have on the software, the more likely it is that those kinds of flaws are uncovered and quickly resolved. The speed at which they get resolved, as well as th... |
How can a judge order a man to pay child support for a child that is demonstrably not the man's own (and with whom there has never even been a nominal custodial relationship)? | > Alexander says he didn't learn of this until years later when he was stopped for a traffic violation and was told that he was being arrested for back child support. This happened in the early 90s, according to other articles on the topic. Even if you start the timeline there instead of when he was supposedly served w... |
Why do we need separate file compression software? | A lot of common file-types are already compressed. Photos, videos, and audio are almost always in compressed formats. Apple's Pages word processing software saves files with a .pages extension, but they're actually are just straight up ZIP that then contain the real Pages document inside. |
How do car transmissions work, and what do they do? | They work by converting the high RPM, low torque input of the engine to lower RPM, higher torque output to the wheels. They use a gear reduction system to accomplish this. If you were to hook an engine directly to the driveshaft which powers the wheels you would not be able to accelerate as easily and would have proble... |
What's the use of the .nfo file that comes with every single torrent? | Are you using Windows? If so, double-clicking an .nfo file will, by default, attempt to open the file with the System Information tool, and it will fail to do so because it isn't designed for that use. The .nfo file is actually a text file, which you need to open with Notepad. It contains information about the warez gr... |
Why do we feel as if an insect is crawling on us after we see one? | I would argue it's an instinct kickback to when we were more prone to insect diseases and death. Our ancestors that were more likely to be aware and over aware of something potentially dangerous crawling on them were more likely to survive and pass on this paranoia to their descendants than the ones who did not and wou... |
Why has it only been in the recent decade that the public has cared about Global Warming/Climate Change? | Global warming has been known about and publicized since at least the 1970s, it's just fluctuated in how seriously the general public takes it. |
How are modern buildings designed to be earthquake-resistant? | Hello, structural engineer here. I do seismic design on the west coast . First of all we have to pick a level of earthquake to design for. Generally the building codes specify an earthquake that has a 1 in 2500 year chance of occurring . This means that for a 50 year structure life, there is a 2% chance of the earthqua... |
Why do fire trucks accompany ambulances to a medical emergency when there's no threat of fire? | Many medical emergencies require more people than ride on an ambulance. A typical advanced life support ambulance will carry 2 paramedics, or 1 paramedic and 1 EMT. A larger crew is better for serious medical emergencies needing advanced life support; four-person crew is better than three-person is better than two-pers... |
What is the rule behind does and do, and why do exceptions to this rule exist? | she", or "it". I do it.You do it.He/she/it does it.We do it.You do it.They do it. Future: will do it.Past: did it. Can you think of any exceptions? |
What is the problem, if any, with day old doughnuts and bagels? | You don't even have to put them in a refrigerator. Just put them in an air tight container. |
What exactly is the purpose of the chip on credit cards now. It's more secure, but how? | Just a slight PSA addition to these answers, which are excellent so far. The security in chip and pin is generally recognised to be superior to swipe and sign. However, it does have one major flaw - the message from the chip to the reader acknowledging that the PIN entered is correct is vulnerable to a man-in-the-middl... |
Why can´t humans consume raw meats like other animals can? | We can, it's just that we care more about out own health than the health of animals and raw meat carries a higher risk of disease. |
Why does opening the oven door while a cake is baking ruins the cake? | heat gets let out, lowering the temperature, then the oven has to get back up to the original temp. the temp needs to be consistent. the cold air going in will make the uncooked portion, the middle, lose it's air or structure because the cold has caused it to stop rising. rising agents do not like the cold. in short, h... |
Why does the last minute on the washing machine always take several minutes? | Those minutes are used to compensate for the moments when time flies. It's a relativity thing. Socks fuel this process, but only right ones. |
What "Catholicism" is and how it's different to Christianity | It's a subset. The main two subsets of Christianity are Catholics and Protestants, and those break further down into more specific flavors. All Catholics are Christians, but not all Christians are Catholics. Catholicism is further divided into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Catholic, and Protestants are divided in... |
what is the purpose of super computers in the oil industry ? | There's also a lot of remote sensing in oil exploration. You fly an aircraft with a complex camera that examines the ground below. Rather than just color images, a lot of these instruments are hyperspectral, where they have hundreds or thousands of color bands. They can slo extend into the infra-red. With complex math ... |
why has sex become such a negative/taboo topic in our society, and in most religions? | Paternity. Before DNA tests, the easiest way to determine a child's father was by creating a culture that demanded sexual fidelity. Sex was terribly wrong unless you were married, like many others pointed out. |
How do locksmiths verify that you own a key before making a copy of it? | They don't it's up to you to protect your keys and restrict access to them. If you ever lose them or someone steals them you need to be changing your locks. |
Why is skipping such a comfortable way to get around? And why is it socially unexpectable? | Skipping is a whimsical and carefree method of movement. Being whimsical and carefree is aparently antithetical to the idea of a serious and productive adult. Just goes to show how immature most adults are. As for it's efficiency well you have inspired me to do some science later today. |
What exactly is a game "engine" and what is its purpose? | The engine is a base on which to build the game. All of the code for interacting with the assorted graphics, sound, physics, and AI subsystems is already written. It means you can focus more on developing the gameplay rather than getting mired in the specifics on building 3D textures, worrying about graphics drivers, m... |
How can we differentiate sounds that are quiet but close, and loud but far away. | here's an easy experiment to try: get something that makes a repeatable noise. listen to it. then take a paper towel tube and put one end up to one ear so it's pointed away from your head. listen to the sound again and it will seem like the source has moved because it takes longer for the sound to get to the ear with t... |
why are Aircraft Carriers so important to a super power? | Yes. They operate in Carrier strike groups, with a large part of the group there to defend the carrier. But the Carrier is extremely valuable in a war. It can operate pretty much independently if they need to, and can project the nation's air power pretty much anywhere. |
Where do illegal drug chemists get the skills to make hard drugs such as meth or krokodil? | Some people have taken college level chemistry. Drugs aren't really special in the sense that they need a highly specialized skill set to produce . if you can follow a recipe and know how to work in a lab, you're 95% of the way there. Other people just blow themselves up.In some countries working as chemist for organiz... |
Why are short answers not allowed in this sub-reddit when sometimes a short answer is the best answer? | This subreddit is for explanations. If a question can be answered with a short answer, then it's not meant to be in this sub in the first place, and should be reported to the mods and removed.Short answers are not a big enough learning opportunity for five year olds. Any excuse that gets a 5 year old to read is a good ... |
Does the family of people who started old corporations (like Exxon) still receive some sort of monetary benefits? | ExxonMobil is a descendant of Standard Oil, which was founded by John D. Rockefeller, Sr. The Rockefeller family is still a wealthy family. Its most prominent member is probably Jay Rockefeller, who was the Senator from WV until this year. Whether or not any members of the family still own stock in ExxonMobil or any of... |
Why do taste buds cease to function when you're sick? | Usually it's when your suffering from a cold, when your nose is all stuffed up and you can't smell anything. The taste of food is mostly experienced through smell. Obviously there's other flavors that are strong enough to cut through that, like salty, and spicy. Spicy is a reaction more than a flavor but you get my poi... |
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