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How fish naturally end up in ponds | A common way is in the feces of birds. Some birds eat the fish eggs directly, and others eat a frog that ate an egg etc.. Frogs and birds don't really chew thier food so some fish eggs don't get crushed when they are eaten, and eggs can survive the acid environment of a bird tummy for a time. If an egg is lucky it will... |
why do we "hide under the covers" when we feel endangered. Why do we feel like it makes us Safer? | In theory, it would boil down to our ancestors preference: Way back when we the human race was first starting out, before fire, we needed ways to survive at night. Being able to cover yourself completely was advantageous: Nothing could see you, and it was unlikely that something was going to try and search for food und... |
How do restaurants get that "taste" that you can't get at home? | Lots of fat, salt, and heat. Commercial ranges get much hotter than residential ranges. A steak I cook at home I'll use two or three tbs. of butter for and salt lightly before searing. For the same steak at work I'd be using a generous scoop of clarified butter - half a cup or more - and salting liberally before searin... |
What can I do to fight/stand up against the Muslim ban? | Call you Congressmen and Senators and tell them how you feel and ask them to take action. They are our representatives in government and their job is to work on our behalf. You have every right to tell them how you feel about these issues and what you'd like them to do. But first stop calling it a Muslim ban. That migh... |
Why can I hear high frequency sounds like a TV whine but my regular hearing is awful. "Can you repeat that?" | There's also a thing called [Auditory Processing Disorder], where you can hear the sounds but have difficulty parsing them into meaningful structures like words. If you're having enough trouble hearing/understanding people that it's affecting your life, it's probably a good idea to talk to an audiologist.You might be m... |
How big would an ant need to be in order to carry a 200lb adult? | Because of the [square-cube law] it might not even be possible for an ant to be big enough to lift a human. Basically as an animal gets bigger their weight increases faster than their strength, so more of their strength is used just to hold their own body up. After a certain point it's just not physically possible for ... |
If Oil prices have dropped close to 40% per barrel, why has diesel only dropped 10% at the pump [UK] | Because the biggest cost to diesel and petrol isn't the raw material in the UK. It is the taxes imposed upon it. So you're paying what £1.32 a litre? 57.95 pence is fuel duty 22.98 pence is VAT .51.97p is the actual cost of the raw materials5p goes to the retailer. Therefore even if oil fell to £0 a barrel the governme... |
How the hell do our eyes move? Like they sort of just look in different places seemingly on their own | There are a few tiny muscles attached to the back of the eyeball. They can point it or even rotate it. Fun fact: you have 2 systems in your brain to control your eyeballs. Look at a moving object and you have no problem following it with your gaze. But try to look at a wall and smoothly move your gaze over it - that's ... |
Why are bananas the classic slipping cliché in most cartoons? | The banana peel gag actually grew out of a real problem in mid-19th century America. Prior to the late 19th century, it was quite common for people to throw their trash in or on the street. This was actually quite a crisis for early American cities - some cities attempted to keep the trash controlled with herd of pigs.... |
Why are there different types of screw heads? Why not use a universal screw head? | It's my understanding that the cross-head screw was made so that when too much torque is applied, the screwdriver slips out of the screw head, so that the screw can't be over-tightened. |
How are sport commentators able to keep with the action with such precision? | they're watching the game closely and they're very good at what they do. they've got decades of experience with the game. |
Why are sim cards still used? Couldn't they just be done in software with modern smartphones? | Sure, but the advantage of SIM cards is that they're user replaceable. I can buy a phone, and put my SIM card in it. I can buy a SIM card and use my existing phone with another network. It doesn't require flashing the firmware, and it isn't something on the disk that I could delete or which would be reset by a factory ... |
When taking a picture with flash on, why does it need to flash for a millisecond, instead of having the light just stay so you can better adjust the image? | In terms of why not leave a bright light on: well, at the most basic level it's because the flash is so the *camera* can see at the instant the picture is taken, not so *you* can see. It takes a lot of power to continuously light a scene brightly, and cameras/flashes generally don't have such large battery packs to be ... |
Why don't dogs have belly buttons? | As a child I had a Weimaraner that had a pretty pronounced outie belly button. [Pic Related: It's me and my bitch.]", 'The hair covers it up mostly, and the umbilical scar is less pronounced in dogs compared to us. If you examine your dog, feel around the midline of their abdomen. If your dog is male, it will be 2-5 in... |
Why is the decrease of population growth in countries like Japan considered a bad thing? Shouldn't it be the other way? | It is a good thing as long as it doesn't happen too fast. If the younger generation suddenly is significant smaller, you will have an imbalance of working age people compared to the too old to work people.One problem is that old age pensions, instead of being actual investments, are a type of ponzi scheme where new wor... |
Why can I carry my laptop around while it plays a DVD but if I move my Xbox while a game is running it will scratch the disk and render it unusable? | Microsoft cheaped out on the DVD reader on the xbox. The model that they used contains a rubber safety ring that keeps the laser a safe distance away from the disc. However, they realized that they could save 25¢ per unit if they didn't include this rubber safety ring, so it was removed. |
What does it mean to have "exclusive marketing rights"? | I'm a big sim racing fan. Some developers will pay companies like Ferrari so that they can use Ferraris cars in the game but nobody else can. So they're pretty much paying for their right to use Ferraris product AND the right for none of the game developer's competition to use Ferrari. This can be beneficial because if... |
How do birds (especially pigeons) determine what is edible and what not? | They are able to learn, just like us. It has surely been fed bread crumbs before and know it's namnam. It has probably tried a lot of random litter in the past too, and know it's not namnam. |
why no one develops an MMO for console gaming. | FFXI is the only current MMO that's multiplatform and lets you play with people on the different platforms. It's on Xbox Live, PS2 and PC. It's recommended to use a keyboard to play the game and it's very group based combat. It's spiritual successor, FFXIV, will be re-released later this year and will be on both PC and... |
How and why was Ellen Pao appointed as the interim CEO of Reddit? | its because she is GREAT at networking, and talking people into giving her things regardless of whether or not she is qualified. That she was totally under-qualified for this sort of job is without any doubt . but she has a certain social skill set, and an ability to convince others to act against their better judgemen... |
Why humans don't explain everything like the other person is 5? Shouldn't we strive to always simplify things down as far as possible? | If two knowledgeable people are talking, it is often more efficient to utilize language that fits the goal of communication the best even though it might not be the simplest explanation. As a professional, I'll assume that when talking with others in my profession have a certain amount of similar knowledge and thus I c... |
Why is it that when I'm tired things that normally wouldn't bother me (roommate chewing with his mouth open) suddenly make me unreasonably irritable/angry? | When you're tired your brain has trouble reading facial expressions and other social cues. This can lead it to confusing positive cues with negative ones and friends with enemies. In addition to that when you're tired your brain is just all around worse at making decisions and impulse control which can lead to you lash... |
What was so different about pre-9/11 America? | The Patriot Act. I was born in the early 70's. There was a lot of worry when I was a child about WWIII, nuclear attacks, Communism, etc Cold war things. After the Berlin Wall fell things settled for a bit, but not long. I was 27 when the towers fell. Before the towers fell and the introduction of the Patriot Act we led... |
why do we need to rake leaves? What is the harm in leaving them on the ground to be covered by snow? | Assuming that it's over a lawn, the shortest answer is that it kills the grass. Grass needs large amounts of sunlight so whenever snow is not covering it, it should be exposed. |
Why is Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the national anthem such a big deal? | He is a very rich and fairly middle-of-the-line qb in talent, but qb's tend to get attention as the 'leaders' of the team, so he has a larger platform than he otherwise would. He decided to speak out against historical and current issues relating to racial equality, starting with the national anthem having extra verses... |
Kid shampoo are made to not sting in the eyes. But why isn't grown-up shampoo the same? It seems like something that would be beneficial for all ages. | Adult shampoo are better at cleaning your hair. So there is a compromise in the design between different things like in most other things. a shampoo that can clean your hair faster but might sting your eyes a shampoo that you would need rub into you hair for longer time or perhaps multiple time to get the same result b... |
If nurses have to be so careful not to oversedate patients, why is it so hard for executioners to overdose a prisoner? | It's not, but the range of drugs allowed is small. Using different drugs would make the whole process much easier both on the condemned and on to executioners.I'm confused by the question The overdose part confuses me, an executioner gives the meds to an inmate in a certain order but the end result is always death, so ... |
Why can't we just admit that people like to get high? | Some people also like to murder, have sex with adolescents,.etc. This doesn't mean they are beneficial to society. I understand this is a poor comparison, and I do agree with your argument. I think the war on drugs is an utter failure and a complete joke in this day and age. It all comes down to money. The private pris... |
ELI5:Why aren't women allowed to play in MLB teams, even when they're good enough to compete? | Back then it was probably more sexism than anything. But one example from the 1930's doesn't prove anything. Women cannot compete with men in sports. It isn't a matter of women being good enough. It is a matter of physiology. A man's body is different from a woman's body. A man's body structure and hormones simply enab... |
Why is circumcision still a common practice in America? | Simply a 'cultural' thing. . It was done before so now it's expected, and most attempts to change it are met with bewilderment. |
Why Does a thermostat require the user to switch between heat and cool modes, as opposed to just setting the desired temperature? | State: the house is colder than the setpoint. Solution: turn the heat on. State: the house is now warmer than the setpoint. Solution: turn the AC on. That's being a bit facetious, of course. Some thermostats will handle heating and cooling without user involvement. They usually have a wide gap between the heating and c... |
Why is it that when I'm drinking or drunk, I have an intense desire to smoke tobacco? | I'm sure it for some people has something to do with a combination of muscular boredom and oral fixation. Like when you chew on top of a pen while you are studying. |
Why Japan's population is in such decline and no one wants to reproduce children | I really don't believe any of the explanations so far have fully captured what is actually going on in Japan, and are mostly just summaries of western stereotypes. Men have become disinterested in relationships, as women have made dating a precarious endeavour as traditional sex-based roles, and liberal-egalitarian ide... |
How a person who commits horrendous acts against humanity, such as Albert Speer get 20 year sentence while illegally downloading documents, such as done by Aaron Swartz, holds a potential for 35 years ? | Albert Speer was always known to have a 'silver tongue'. Lots of high ranking Nazis would joke he could talk his way out of anything. He knew the allies wanted confirmation for the legality of Nuremberg. He gave it to them by basically saying 'sorry we were in the wrong, you are the good guys'. The sentencing reflected... |
how can a baby be upside down in your stomach for months without all of the blood rushing to its head? | Your baby is much smaller than an adult, and so too then is the pressure column. There's much less distance 'above the head all the way to the feet' with blood pushing down. This means that the difference in pressure between top and bottom is also much less. Your body also has mechanisms to alter blood vessels to compe... |
What is the purpose of the turnable dial around the face of a watch? | On pilot's chronograph watches, the bezel is used as part of a slide rule, used for calculations. Aviators used to rely on these to handle range and other navigational computations. |
Why are Baby Boomers so disliked and credited with the downfall of the American economy? | The baby boom was at least in some part DUE to WWII, as the GI's returned home & wanted to get a little leg. Lots of kids born, lots of them survived due to medicine, lots of them got education, lots of them moved off the farm, into manufacturing. The factories that were built for tanks and bombers built cars & airline... |
Why do dreams always seem to reach their climax right as you are woken up or wake up? | This happens because when the climax of a dream is coming, it is normally something that will excite or scare you. Due to this your heart starts racing and your body will react by waking you up. If somehow you can stay calm throughout your dream you'll be able to sleep through it.The more aware you are of your dream, t... |
Double jointed people, and how they are able to do what they do. | Increased ligament laxity. Basically, some people's muscles are stretchier than others. This can be caused by genetics, disorders , there is also a correlation to being born prematurely. Underdeveloped antagonist muscles also allow for increased movement for a joint. Source: married to an OT.i can bend my pinky weirdly... |
Why do pieces of plastic sometimes become "magnetic"? | Like the other comments said, plastic cannot be magnetic. Due to it being an insulator, electric chargers have difficulty moving around on it. That means that any charge that lands on the plastic, say from rubbing it against fabric, will stick in that place. If another piece of plastic is also charged, the two pieces o... |
How do game producers keep getting better graphics in games played on consoles, that keep getting older? | It's all about optimization - you can't get more power from the hardware, but you can optimize the software to process things the most efficient way so they can then add more things . That's way oversimplified, but I guess you get the picture. edit: Don't reddit before coffee, kids. ", '5yo explanation - the developers... |
Are there more than 3 "conventional" dimensions? | There are just the three spacial ones, plus the arrow of time. A hole saw makes cylinders, so you can think of the shape you made as the intersection of three cylinders in each of the classical axes. As you demonstrated, that doesn't equal a sphere exactly. You can actually create a sphere with a hole saw by manipulati... |
Day Light savings time. No matter how much I read up on it I still can't get it. | Because the daylight hours get shorter on both sides, not just at the end. If the sun is coming up at 8 yesterday, tomorrow it's coming up at 7 It's not as important now that electric lights are easily portable for people work outside, but a long time ago that wasn't the case and everyone was starting work an hour late... |
Why is it that old people are hard of hearing, yet still complain about music being too loud? | Because you young whippersnappers think it's all about the base, and the thump-thump-thump still comes through, loud and clear.Most old people like my grandad are hard of hearing but certain tones are easier to hear than others. |
Japanese soldiers in WW2 movies are usually portrayed as stupid and tactless, fanatically charging towards heavily defended positions and only using bayonets, is this actually true or a media falsehood? | > usually portrayed as stupid and tactless What? That's a leading question. There haven't been many main stream films about the pacific theatre in the last twenty years. The only ones I can think off are Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, which are generally sympathetic to the Japanese side. |
why do a lot of countries have zero problems killing soldiers and civilians in war, but have huge oppositions to killing hardcore criminals? | During war, the choice is often kill or be killed. Many would prefer to kill rather than being killed. Death penalty is a different story. First of all, it is not kill or be killed. Second of all, there will be false positives which means murdering innocent people. On a side note, killing civilians is not something cou... |
How does a Supreme Court case flow? | Supreme court cases are decided by all the justices. It's not like any other court where one justice presides over one case. They essentially do function like a jury. After hearing a case, they can argue among themselves and then vote on it. |
Why shouldn't I pre-order games? | Your basically saying to the company that you will buy their game no matter what. Even though you have no idea what it even looks like you will buy it anyways. It could be crap when it comes out, but that doesn't matter sense they already have your money.Preordering almost always means that you buy an unfinished versio... |
The "free" Canadian healthcare system. | People pay taxes to the government. The government uses some of these taxes to build hospitals and to pay doctors and nurses. Citizens are issued health care cards. When they go to see the doctor, they show their health cards. The doctors and hospitals keep records of the people they treat. They use these records to bi... |
Why is it good to have good credit? | You don't need credit if you have the cash. Some people either never build credit or get into such bad debt that they stop using credit all together and only use cash. Cash will win over credit every time. With credit, you can take loans, buy high-ticket items without paying up front, and get better interest rates on m... |
Difference between lungs and gills. Why can't gills take oxigen from air and vice versa | Gills are an array of tiny filaments full of blood vessels suspended in the water. Water flows past, the cells on the surface exchange oxygen and CO2. If you take gills out of water, two things happen. First off, the filaments immediately clump up like the hair on a [wet cat]. This drastically reduces the surface area ... |
Video Series Round 2: How should we explain Bitcoin to actual 5 year olds and what other topics should we attempt? | I think Bitcoin might be too abstract to explain to actual 5 year old. Children don't handle abstraction very well until at least age 7. Things like ‘value’ are probably a bit of a stretch. I think at best you'd just have to call it ‘computer money’", 'Are you guys trying to get a spread of topics or are you considerin... |
Is holding the FIFA World Cup actually a detriment to brazil, or will it provide a boost to its economy. | It will probably be a detriment, especially because foreign corporations are getting all the best deals to sell food, liquor, and merchandise to the fans. Normal Brazilians are actually banned from a lot of the stadiums and can't sell beer and food to the fans. Plus the government spent billions on the stadiums while t... |
Why/How do we get freckles? | Freckles happen when your skin cells produce too much pigment, relative to your 'normal' skin tone. Freckles can happen naturally, occurring in your DNA, especially in the case of some redheads for example. Also it can happen when your skin is slightly damaged, like people that are heavily tanned. |
Why do pencils have that hard part in the graphite when you are writing? | that's the wood around the graphite. it happens when you write on one side of the pencil for too long |
I had an english exam today and I would like to know why one of my answers were incorrect | You're sentence is correct. Not sure why your teacher marked it wrong . Take it to the department head if you have to / |
Why does the US have such a large prison population? | several reasons. for one, a lot of our prisoners are in there for non violent crimes such as drug possession. there is an increasingly mutual beneficial relationship between the justice system and for-profit prison corporations. prisons are being privatized in a capitalist economic system. more prisoners = more money h... |
When listening to music, it sometimes feels like I'm hearing it faster or slower than before? | You sure it wasn't a different recording of the same song where the artists performed in a slightly different tempo? |
How come the general public seems to deem men being associated with female-oriented activities as more abnormal than women being associated with male-oriented activities? | Answer A: Feminists have worked hard for generations for women's rights to do 'men things.' There hasn't been a parallel movement among men fighting for men's rights to do 'women things.' Answer B: In a society that still has a lot of sexist assumptions, 'men things' are assumed to be better than 'women things.' So it'... |
Why is the Dalai Lama so hated by the Chinese | China says that it owns Tibet and rules it. The Dalai Lama says that Tibet is its own country and China doesn't have the right to rule it. China doesn't like this opinion because it likes ruling Tibet, so it doesn't like the Dalai Lama for saying it. |
why do so many former drug/alcohol addicts turn to endurance exercising? | There's a phenomena known as a runner's high which is much more than mental. From [WebMD]:*When you exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins. These endorphins interact with the receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain. Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to... |
How do people afford to live in NYC when the median household income for the city is $50k? | Most people who live in NYC, and in Manhattan in particular, don't own a car, and accept they will never be able to own a home in the city. Not paying for a car or trying to save up for a down payment frees up more money for rent. On top of that, many people share an apartment with roommates. And the people who do buy ... |
Why does "Cotton Kill" but wool doesn't when wet? | Wool will keep you warm even if it's wet, it will also absorb up to 50% of it's weight in water before it even feels wet |
Why do electric/gas companies encourage you to save energy? | On a normal day a city uses 10 units of energy. Now, think about two or three hottest days of summer. People are going to use more energy to keep themselves cool. So, on the hottest days of summer a city uses 12 units of energy. It doesn't make sense for the power company to build a new power plant to makeup the differ... |
What exactly causes the feeling of "pins and needles" when blood circulation is lost? | I believe that loss of blood flow results in a lack of oxygen to the nerves present. I'm not sure about the causal link from no oxygen to pins and needles, but it results in the nerves misfiring and discharging electrical signals that are interpreted by the brain. The randomness causes the the spiky sensation . Also th... |
Can someone explain me why is so hard for US citizens to pay off their student loan? | Capitalism, baby! Over the last 50 years or so, education has become big business, so the cost of tuition, books, etc has skyrocketed. meanwhile, the number of good-paying jobs has not really kept pace. In addition to having to support more expensive administrators, universities have also come to pay more of the cost f... |
Why are prosthetic limbs so expensive? | It's a combination of the high cost of designing, developing, testing, and manufacturing prosthetic limbs and the inefficiencies of the American Healthcare System.Its simple healthcare system and insurance is fucked up. |
Why do we feel our pockets vibrate when our phones aren't in it? | I think this is usually caused by muscle spasms in your legs, especially your [hip flexors], which can become tight if you're someone who spends a lot of time sitting down. The spasms can feel like a small vibration on your hip, which is where you normally keep your phone, so you assume that's what is causing the vibra... |
The ending of No Country for Old Men, or even just the point of that movie. | The film is about people that are trapped within themselves to the point where they can't see anything beyond themselves and their limited vision. People become corrupt and distracted, unable to follow through with plans and ideas - they only see the small picture. Chiga is not like that. He is pure. Driven. He is the ... |
Why is there sign language on TV when subtitles exist? | There are all sorts of reasons but let's deal with your assumptions. Do not be embarrassed about the question. Ignorance of the problems facing deaf people is part of the problem. > I assume those who are deaf can read. This is your fundamental problem. Literacy is a serious problem for deaf populations in many countri... |
why some people believe that Ebola is a hoax? | Whenever there is a large and scary event, people try to attribute some kind of deeper meaning to the meaninglessness of it. Boston bombing, 9/11, JFK assassination, and now ebola. Its less scary to live in a world where the government planned all these terrible events than to live in a random and chaotic world where t... |
why do we read closed captioning even when we can understand what they are saying? | I need it because I am gradually losing my hearing. sometimes the sound mixing on the show or movie is shitty, or the actor is just mumbling and I really need the subtitles to know what's being said. I need it very badly for the current seasons of Doctor Who because Peter Capaldi's scottish accent is really hard to fol... |
Why did the War in Iraq fall apart? | The main reason is the U.S. didn't have a good replacement for Saddam. There were a few Iraqi defectors that were considered leading candidates for leading the new government, but it turned out they didn't have any real support inside Iraq. |
ELI5: Why does school primarily focus on impractical textbook knowledge rather than teaching practical skills like fixing computers, hunting, or self defense? | In most countries, there are two different streams of schools available for students during the upper years. One stream is academic . The other stream is vocational . In some countries, you may be expected to graduate from an academic school before transitioning to a vocational college or trade-school later on whereas ... |
What happens to illegal immigrants if they have no documentation and their identity home country cannot be found? | Isn't this kinda like what happened in that movie *Terminal*? I imagine they'd detain the guy until they found answers. Or, they'd just detain him and inform him that he needs to provide them some information if he wants to get out.This is the basic plot of a play called de donde. Ice basically scares the shit out of s... |
Why don't we treat addictions by putting the addicted people into medically induced coma for a long time? | * medically induced comas are expensive and cost more than the harm addiction causes* long term comas have very serious side effects* they don't treat psychological addiction* they don't treat the mental illnesses that lead to addiction* they don't treat the environment and economic conditions that lead to addiction |
Why do wealthy websites, like Yahoo, MSN, etc., need those crappy clickbait "Sponsered Ads" all over their website? Do they really need the revenue from these? | As I understand it, the website sells space to an ad company and not to a specific ad. Which ad is served to you usually depends on the viewer's browsing history. |
Could someone explain LI5 'The Catcher in the Rye' and why it's so controversial? | I'm being totally serious and haven't read the book: Isn't this one banned because of blatant racism against black people? If its not this book, what is the book I'm thinking about that's required for school?", 'The killer of John Lennon claimed he was inspired by Catcher in the Rye I predict a lot of homework assignme... |
How did 4chan become so heavily affiliated with/occupied by members of the alt-right? | I wouldn't say 4chan is right winged. I would say a lot of their political beliefs are just about right in the middle of the spectrum. The thing is, though, that 4chan does something few other places do. They allow dissenting opinions. 4chan may seem like it is right sided but that's mainly because they have nowhere el... |
Whats going on with your brain when you stutter? | According to Nova Now, Stutterers have less activity in an area of the brain used to process sound than normal speakers have. What's *really* interesting is birds can have the same problem. Birds can stutter. _URL_0_ |
The evolution of organs and organ systems | Just look at other animals and you can see precursors. Another thing to keep in mind is what parts are accessory and what parts aren't. For instance, a pancreas, liver, gall bladder, salivary glands, etc. are not essential for a digestive system, thus it is trivial to imagine them developing over time. |
How can corporations like BK and McD's afford to only charge $1 for a burger? | I think it's because they assume you're gonna buy a drink and a side with that. A soft drink costs the compaby pennies while costing the consumer dollars. Same goes for fries, a small side of fries costs the same as a 10 lb bag of potatoes does at the market. |
Why is the "C Word" so offensive? | Words are only offensive because people make them out to be so. Empowering a word with an offensive load is only able to happen because people take offense. In any case offense is taken and not given, and I guess when it comes to this specific word there have been a couple of hyper sensitive people who decided this wor... |
Why does everybody say Detroit is a terrible place? | Lots of people pick on Detroit because it's the popular thing to do and they want to fit in. Much like how some people pick on the fat/nerdy kid in school because it's the popular thing to do and they want to fit in. As a Metro Detroiter, it is maddening, mainly because **every** major city has seedy parts. I love my c... |
What is a root canal procedure? | I just had this procedure in January and crowned about a month ago. I was very diligent in having my dentist explain the procedure as he was doing it. What can I say? I'm a dork and find medical procedures fascinating when in the moment. My dentist started with strong injection anesthetic in my gums on either side of t... |
Why do "slips" happen, where you're sure you said one thing but actually said another? | What's happening here with the memory is that you don't remember words per se. You translate words into concepts for memory, then back into words with recall. You remember what you intend to do, rather than what you did do. This is very common. Also, saying the wrong thing happens. Usually when you're not focusing on t... |
How do we weigh astronomical objects? | The most precise measures come from objects that are orbited by other objects. Measuring the size and period of the orbit allows the direct calculation of an object's mass. The calculation relies on the gravitational constant *G* to produce an answer in kilograms, and the constant is only known to relatively limited pr... |
Why do computer duster cans get so cold after continuous use and why do they spray an almost frost like substance when sprayed upside down? | It has to do with expansion of gases. It's the same principle that your fridge works on. If you force a gas to expand into a larger area, like when you expel some of the air from the can, that requires energy for the expansion. This energy has to come from somewhere, which in this case is temperature. The liquid coming... |
Why haven't we figured out a better method for storing data? | Making a switch or device which can have two, discernable states is much easier than making one with more than two possible states. We have been getting better at making them very small and inexpensive so the drive to completely change our system hasn't been high enough to overcome the cost. |
How can we put a man on the moon, a robot on Mars, and travel to the deepest depths of the ocean, yet we have no way to rescue people from Mount Everest? | The air is too thin for most standard helicopter blades to sustain flight. There may be certain military models capable, but who will rent them? At what cost? What's the profit incentive to recovering the bodies? A mercy flight can cost $100k but will be covered by insurance. Dead bodies would not pay. The bodies can b... |
If I left on all the taps and water sources in my house on, how long would it take for water to stop coming out? What would cause this? | Let's say each faucet in a house runs an average of 5 minutes of day. If you upped that to 24 hours a day, you would be using the same amount of water as 288 people. That's a lot, but not enough to overwhelm a water system designed to support a city. So unless the water dept. decided there was something wrong and shut ... |
Why do some flavors combine well and others do not? | One of the theories is that foods that taste well together have a lot of similar molecules. Caviar and white chocolate for examples have selected amines in common and taste well together. Basil and coffee don't and don't taste well together. |
Why have male testosterone levels been dropping for the last 60 years? | There are several competing theories. Most of them tend to focus on environmental factors, such as BPA. BPA still common in many Plastics and there are other chemicals that are less publicized that have similar effects on the human body. Basically, it acts as synthetic estrogen in the human body and therefore has a sma... |
How did they create the first Computer OS? | Like Morse code you can program a computer with a simple one-zero sequence. At the very base level of hardware that's how code is interpreted, in one's and zeros or on-off. |
What's stopping someone with high levels of body fat to get on a treadmill and run for (X) hours straight until it's all gone? | You have glycogen energy depots stored in your liver and muscles. For the first few hours you'll be burning them and only after that you can start to burn the fats. The problem is that after several hours on treadmill most of these people will be extremely tired . Do not forget that they must move a body often well abo... |
How do we bloat and what organ/body part is bloating? | cramping" abdominal pain is due to the bowel contracting against some sort of resistance. Irritation of the bowel wall from infection, mechanical strain, blockages, etc, can all induce increased contraction of the muscle of the bowel wall, producing this sort of uncomfortable cramping pain. |
Why do so many swimming pools not allow children to wear life vests, even if they are coast guard approved? | One of the reasons I know of is that it's against bad parents thinking that if their kid wears a life vest they can leave them in the pool unsupervised. At least, that's what the lifeguard at my local pool said. |
How did "Chinese" food in the U.S. get so standardized? | Most Chinese food in the US is Cantonese food. One region of China has come to represent all of China in its cuisine. It's like if Creole food represented all of the US's cuisine.Side hijack question Why is Chinese food in north america so different from real chinese food yet Japanese food is very close to the real dea... |
With all the free porn out there, how do adult actors and actresses get paid? | Seriously? You're 5. I'm not explaining how porn works, kid.The trick is to buy a month to that website, download as much as possible. Rinse, repeat for any other websites.I work for the 7th largest straight and third largest gay porn conglomerate. We run 3 free porn sites to generate traffic back to our paid sites. Pa... |
why did some people die holding breath after hyperventilating (choking game) ? Isn't the body supposed to auto-start breathing after you pass out? | They don't die from not breathing, they usually die from from losing consciousness and being unable to support their own weight against the ligature strangling them. |
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