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What happens when a competitor in a cooking show doesn't know how to cook a certain dish? | In *Hell's Kitchen* there are two ways this can go. For the dinner services, all the standard dishes they cook are written recipes given to the contestants in advance. They're supposed to study them and have no excuse for getting them wrong. In the creative challenges, you see some contestants thrive doing things beyon... |
How Are Copper And Brass Doorknobs Able To Disinfect Themselves? | Lots of important metabolism processes in any living thing involve moving sodium and potassium ions or magnesium and calcium ions . Copper ions can carry both of these charges. So a key theory is that they can occasionally get in and take the place of the proper ions and either cause those chemical reactions to malfunc... |
If corporations are moving to different countries because the U.S. tax system sucks, why do politicians blame the corporations and not the U.S. tax system? | Because it's easier to complain about corporations who undergo inversion transactions than to actually enact tax legislation to either prevent it or make it less likely from happening. |
Do I really need an oil change every 3000 miles? | Mechanic here: It depends on the age of your car, what type of oil you use, and how you use your car. As a good rule of thumb with gas cars, if it needs 5W-30 or thicker viscosity, such as 10W-40, change your oil every 3k. If your standard viscosity is thinner, such as 5W-20, you can probably get away with 5K, assuming... |
When copying files, why does it always seem to start off really fast, but then slows down so much? | If I'm understanding your question, you're referring to the indicator on your computer that shows you how fast the files are being copied. This can either be a percentage or a time, and at first, the numbers seem to fly by! Once they slow to a crawl, you might be left wondering why. The files copy at the same rate; it ... |
How in WW2 the Germans were able to make tanks so much better than the British, Americans and Russians? | The best tank of WW2 was either the Russian T-34 or the German Tiger. The earlier German tanks were not all that great, but the Tiger was a lethal weapon. They just gave it massive armor up front and a huge powerful gun. That's all that really matters in tank battles. The Shermans were mauled horribly by the tigers. Th... |
Why are many toilet seats designed with only three sides instead of four? What is the advantage to removing the frontmost face? | Practical issues. If you sit and stand back up, the urinary tract in males will release a few more drops. It's a feature ;) When that happens, a drop or 2 might fall on the front. With this design, the drop falls on the enamel, instead of grossing out a clean seat. |
What happens when someone finds treasure? | There's a good chance the gold belongs to an existing government. And they often have a right to claim it. You can't really sell treasure like you would normal things, because by this point its likely more valuable for what it is than for the materials used in its construction. Museums will buy these things from you. B... |
Why aren't there many movies when the bad guy wins? | They don't test very well with audiences, so they don't get made. There have been many movies over the years where the bad guy originally won, but test audiences hated the ending so the were recut. People, generally, like the idea that the world is a just place. We want our entertainment to reinforce this idea - no mat... |
why are camera lenses round but the pictures rectangle. | The lens does produce a round image. But since the sensor/film is rectangular, obviously that's all that gets recorded. Your viewfinder is rectangular so you can match your composition on the actual recorded medium. Know how some images taken show strong vignetting? Well that's the dark areas of the circular image blee... |
Current vs. Voltage Sources? | Just wanted to add, neither exist in real life. They're useful analytical tools, and we can approximate real systems with them. A current source has no voltage across it because we define it to be so. |
How exactly do drugs and alcohol cause depression to the point where a person commits suicide? | Alcohol and drugs are depressants. They may make you feel good initially but the come down will worsen depression symptoms due to depleted dopamine and seratonin . Basically, when you take drugs your happy chemicals may rise. Therefore, when the drugs effects wear off then fun time is over because any of the seratonin ... |
Why are anti-virus programs pretty big in size? | Half of the size is because there's so many programs out there - to make their product more appealing than the competition, they add extra features to the product to make it seem better overall, and each new feature takes up more space. The other half is that they work mostly by keeping a list of identifying marks for ... |
What is an engine then, really? | Engines take some kind of power source and do work -- that's basically it. What kind of work? Well that depends If it's in a car, it'll turn the wheels. If it's in a drill, it'll turn the drill bit. If it's in a saw, it'll turn the saw blade. Etc. etc. > Don't engines go inside of things? Many times, yes, but not alway... |
Why does it take several years for human babies to fully develop control over their bladder and sphincter muscles? | Are you sure smelly poop bring predators? I'm pretty sure that mammals have a strong aversion to waste, for obvious health reasons. And, are you sure the issue is an inability to control muscles? I always thought that the issue is the baby just doesn't care. When you need release, you need release. Baby doesn't make th... |
What is laughing and why do we do it? | Below is an explanation I recall. Laughing has a similar effect to panting, it helps increase our energy levels to perform a task.Panting out loud also lets others around us know that we've found something good like a fruit tree and that it's safe to approach it without risk. Over the course of many years it helped us ... |
How come Planes Don't Have a Horn, but Trains do? | At the speed planes fly and the distances from each other that they keep, a horn would be useless. They use radios and other electronic ways of staying safe. A train horn is for cross traffic and pedestrians, two things you don't have to worry about in the sky. |
Question from an actual 5yo: Why don't we let the smart monkeys live with us? | Imagine living with a 3-year-old that could tear any adult apart, limb-from-limb, anytime it didn't get it's way or got its feelings hurt. That's what it would be like living with a chimpanzee. |
How do scientists know that the earth has an unmet core and outer core if we have never dug that deep into earth? ELI5. | Imagine an earthquake is a drop of water and the earth is a pond. When an earthquake strikes it will send ripples out in all directions and anything they touch will change the shape. Now while we can't directly go to the core and see it with our own eyes, by looking at the ripples and how they change we can work out wh... |
What causes an Existential Crisis to trigger in our brain? | Change you weren't expecting, combined with moments of clarity and the realization that anything can seem terrifying if you look at it on your own for too long. Major brain chemistry changes will also do it. Also, it sometimes takes a few months to even realize you're having one. Edit: If you think you might be having ... |
When a person's spine is severed at the neck - paralyzing them - how does their brain continue to send signals to their heart and lungs to continue operating? | There is so much misinformation in this thread. Simply put, the heart continues to beat on its own because it has a couple of internal pace makers which beat independently of the brain. However, the vagus nerve which originates from the brainstem can *modulate* the hearts rhythm and slow it down . The sympathetic nervo... |
If a person had enough money to design and build a functional space ship, capable of traveling and landing and whatnot, would it be legal? Would the government be able to do anything? | If you had enough money to design and build a functional space ship, following all the safety regulations and permits and laws, the government would probably contract you to deliver some of the satellites and supplies and science projects / scientists to space. That's what SpaceX and other private companies are doing.T... |
why is HIV/AIDS more prevalent in homosexuals when it can be passed just as easily between heterosexuals? | - Less homosexuals use protection - dudes can't get pregnant. - It's easier to transfer HIV through anal sex than vaginal and oral sex. While straight couples do engage in anal sex, they do it less than homosexuals.HIV does not pass "just as easily between heterosexuals". I worked in healthcare and we always considered... |
Double Jeopardy, Can it be overturned if obvious evidence is produced? | In America, no. You get one shot. If I'm accused of murder and get found not guilty, i can tap dance out of the court room laughing about how I got away with everything, and there's nothing to be done about it. You can still go on to lose a civil case meaning you can lose some money, but you won't ever serve jail time. |
Why is cracking your knuckles viewed as a bad thing? | It does not cause real harm. But for some people it is not nice to hear. Especially if you're a compulsive knuckle cracker and you crack all knuckles and joints in your hands every five minutes. Picking your nose causes no harm, but it is not nice to see. So, please, don't do it in public. |
How do we manage to communicate with space shuttles and other objects that are SO far away? | all space communications are done by radio. as is alot of comms here on Earth. if you were Voyager 1 and aimed the antenna at Earth and tuned your receiver to an Earth radio station, you'd receive the radio transmission albeit with alot of noise. that is as long as you had light of sight with Earth. if there is a strai... |
Why is it illegal in the United States to collect rainwater? | East of the Misssissippi, it generally isn't. West of the Mississippi, it generally is. Reason? East temperate, plenty of rain for everyone to share at will. West desert, rain valuable limited resource.Local towns around Chicago encourage the use of rain barrows on gutters to collect water and prevent flooding. |
How can microsd cards be so much smaller then a 2.5" ssd and still store the same amount of data? | Also worth noting that SD cards often cant read/write as quick as SSD's. Alot of that is down to the controller and interface. |
Why do we call him Alexander the Great? | The Persians certainly did think of him to be something like a Hitler. His conquest devastated villages and cities, killed lots of people and destroyed the realm which to them was the center of the world. But, history is written by the victors. The successor states in the area were ruled by Greeks for quite some time, ... |
Will eating only one meal a day have any long term effects? | Any long term affects are probably more affected by what you're eating as opposed to when. As long as your weight is steady and you feel like you have enough energy, then you might be okay. I'm no expert tho so let's see if anyone else has a better answer |
Why does the U.S. government tax us on income that they have no way of knowing about? This includes gambling winnings, tips, etc. How can they even enforce such a tax? | A lot of people don't report it, and the government doesn't get tax on it, same with tips. The thing is if you get caught doing this it's going to cost you quite a bit more then the tax on it, so some people don't take that risk. It's like stealing from an open market, you could probably do it without much effort and g... |
What is the difference between a $300 watch and a $10,000 watch? Is it more than brand name? | it's brand, materials used used like diamonds, gold, silver, titanium. instead of steel or plastic. and precision. some watches loses 1 second every day. others lose .0001 second every day. not a big deal but big price difference. |
When we feed generations of pets "human food", are we impacting their evolution? | Dogs have been co-evolving with humans for around 40,000 years. So they've been eating human food for a very long time. The thing is that they aren't under natural selection. They are evolving under artificial selection. We have changed their cognitive capacity though. Poodles are remarkably smart, but bassets are surp... |
During the blitz of London and other major European Cities how comes major landmarks where not destroyed? i.e. House of Parliment, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace. | They took some damage, but it got repaired. The bombs used in WWII were certainly damaging, but it wasn't too common for only 1 or 2 hits to take out a decently large, well built structure. |
Why is it so difficult for some people to remember how to do simple "computer things" even though they've been shown it dozens of times? | Listen to a song in English 3-4 times. Read the lyrics and sing along. Easy right? You will probably remember most of the lyrics after a few times through the song. Now try the same thing with a German or Korea song. Even if you listen to the sing 25 times, you'll still struggle. Computers are like languages. If you do... |
How do Game Shows (Wheel of Fortune, Price is Right) "give" money and make money? | Game shows are actually incredibly cheap to make compared to a scripted show, even with the payouts to the winners. They make money from the commercials. And they don't need all of the set designers or actors or special effects guys that are needed to make those primetime action shows. |
Why do so many Pagan/Polytheism religions have so much in common even when the cultures never or rarely interacted? | You would probably like the writings and speaking of Joseph Campbell and Frazer's *The Golden Bough*. These both talk a lot about this similarity that you notice. However, having studied these myths and religions as a hobby for a couple decades now I can say that to a large extent, the similarities are actually pretty ... |
Why are drugs that you can get from a shelf called over the counter, when you don’t have to get them over the counter like you do for prescription drugs? | Idk if it is very different depending on what country you are in, but at least in Australia you can only get OTC medications from a pharmacy, and some require for you to see a dispensery assistant or a pharmacist, whereas prescription medication can only be acquired with a prescription. Other medications such as parace... |
Why are gay men generally effeminate? | This is a false generalization. But for those men that are effeminate I've heard that is because at a young age males associate with females and their time associated with girls forms their speech and behavioral patterns. But that could be an outdated explanation |
If science has made spectacular discoveries such as the newest "Cosmic Inflation" why do we have yet to officially discover extraterrestrial life? | Because you can't see the leg that fell from an ant in the park just by looking out of the window. |
How does a computer - which operates on fixed inputs/outputs create entropy to generate things like private keys? | On a very small scale, you can use a programmed random number generator - something originally programmed and following a script, and therefore possible to crack, but if you don't need absolute randomness , they are programmed to be practically random. As you need a more unpredictable form of random, you can start addi... |
Why can a page take forever to load but as soon as I close it I catch a glimpse of the completed page? | I've wondered this forever!! Good question. The protagonist TL;DR is a great, concise answer from gejimayu! Thanks guys! |
How a Liquid Hydrogen/Oxygen rocket engine works. | When hydrogen and oxygen mix a chemical reaction occurs which one of the byproducts is heat/energy as well as water, H2O. It is like a controlled explosion. Here is a [_URL_0_] from Wikipedia that shows the overall layout of a liquid rocket engine. The pumps hold the liquid fuel that can be something other than oxygen ... |
What exactly is a major and minor chord? How does it make the same piece of music either cheery or dreadful? | At its heart, the difference between a major and minor chord is a major third or a minor third away form the root. Throw on a fifth to make it a chord and that's basically where it comes from. ELI10: From there, the only other big difference is the major sixth to a minor sixth. Other than that the scales are nearly ide... |
War of Currents; Did Edison screwed up Tesla? | Edison had DC, Tesla had ACAC was the better choice and Edison knew this, but he was also a better businessman . Because of this Edison did everything he could to slander Tesla's AC current. In the end the efficiency of AC current won out as with DC current you would need a power relay station every few miles which wou... |
If I break something apart, do I actually break the molecule structures apart or just overcome the forces which hold the molecules together? | It depends on the structure. Usually, no. Basically, there are three different types of bonding: Ionic, metallic and covalent. Ionic bonding involve electrons being 'stolen'. Take for example NaCl. The Cl steals an electron from the Na, which leave the Na with a charge of +1 and the Cl with a charge of -1. They then at... |
Why is it considered unsafe to refreeze food that has been thawed? | When you thaw flash-frozen meat and then re-freeze in a home freezer, the cell walls of the protein matter rupture due to the duration of the process. This can facilitate the spread of bacteria. Source: Health Inspector guy at my friend's restaurant |
Why when common people debate abortion it turns into "every sperm is sacred" vs "legalized infanticide" when there is an obvious gray area? | Because going to the extreme makes people make a choice. Either you are FOR the horrifying thing they are talking about, or are against it .. It makes people choose. Discussing things like reasonable adults doesn't make people angry and excited about an issue. |
How hard is it to implement a global standard of 120V or 240V? | Well, the global standard is 115V or 230V, so to change to a new global standard that's less than 10% higher shouldn't be a problem, most electronics can handle it. If you are instead asking to implement a global standard of 230V for everyone, that would mean getting everyon ein the USA to change every single electric ... |
Why does it happen that if I stop doing something and take a break for a month and then come back to doing it I actually am BETTER at doing it? | Golf is like this too to a certain extent. You're not over thinking your process and just letting your muscle memory take over, thus playing well the first few times out during the year. I assume this is similar with the guitar. |
After being involved in a hit and run fender bender, why would police officers advise me not to file a police report? | I think because they have no way to find who did it and they don't want a report that they can't close. They don't like those statistics. |
Why are completely unrelated issues (like abortion) able to be tacked on a bill about an unrelated issue like motor cycle safety to be voted on? Why is this legal? | The legislature has the authority to determine its own rules for what can and can't be allowed to be tacked onto a bill. |
Why is the MI6 building located in an open area where it is prone to attack? | It's not really prone to attack. It's in the centre of London, which is now one of the most tightly-secured locked-down cities in the world. Furthermore the MI6 building itself -- like other high-profile targets in London -- is extremely well protected with both visible deterrents and plenty that are less well publicis... |
Why are people dying from the flu? | First of all, there are people around the world that always die from the flu, mainly due to the lack of basic healthcare availability . The simple answer is that the flu is especially dangerous for the young and the elderly both in terms of its own pathology and the idea that having the flu lowers your immune system to... |
Why are we unable to reproduce Nikola Tesla's experiments and data today? | which technologies in particular? For the wireless transmission the reason it was never implemented was because it's impractical and wasteful. it would be like delivering water to people's houses by having a giant fountain in the middle of town spraying water everywhere 24/7 |
Why is the Sun's core so much hotter than its surface temperature? | For the same reason it is warmer under the covers than ontop of the covers. Part of the energy used to keep our bodies running or the sun and earth running is being converted to heat that gets insulated by the outer layers of its surroundings. Our heat energy comes from chemical reactions from the food we eat, the sun ... |
Why are americans so obsessed with dinosaurs? | Aren't children *everywhere* obsessed with dinosaurs? Huge, weird animals that resemble monsters out of a SF movie are intrinsically interesting. |
Why does it sometimes take years to kill someone on death row in the States? Shouldn't it happen almost immediately after conviction? | The laws are set up to give the convicted individual a series of legal appeals even when they don't want them. These appeals take years. Furthermore the political climate in the United States means that executions are delayed due to outside legal challenges from anti-death penalty groups.A death sentence is the one pun... |
How can you "reuse" animation back when all cartoon were drawn? | A common technique was to use stills, basically layered pieces of glass. You paint the body on one layer, the arms on another, etc, which allows you to more easily move the arm or animate the frames of the arm. So you'd have the body movement panes which would shift underneath, then the arm movement panes changing on t... |
Why are flights delayed? | Well the airline company will try to account for this but it still won't be accurate because it's un predictable wether hundreds of planes every day will stay on schedule. It's the same with every scheduled event that has many components. Ex: My debate tournaments always run off schedule because each debate might last ... |
Why can phones make such a loud noise for an amber alert? Why can't they normally go this loud? | How else are you supposed to know to be on the lookout for a missing child , at 2am while you're asleep in bed? Obviously, it has to be loud enough to wake you up. |
How much information does the IT department have about what their coworkers are viewing during work hours? Are there any privacy laws or can they tattle on me? | Without knowing your company or even your local laws its a bit difficult to give a productive answer. However in theory, the IT department can record/view up to and including every keystroke and every button press made. Best protection? Don't do it |
How did it take 100 years to discover the happy birthday copyright was invalid? And do they have to repay the people they collected royalties from? | It's not like they've been trying to figure it out for a century. Warner claimed they had the copyright, and no one contested it. It was only recently that someone happened to find evidence that they didn't. |
Why is it that rivers are freshwater but oceans or seas that are supplied by them are saltwater, like the Nile and the Mediterranean? | When it rains, fresh water flows down rocks and dirt dissolving and collecting salts and other minerals which accumulate as it flows into the ocean. The energy from the sun evaporates ocean water to form clouds, but the salt and other minerals stay in the ocean. The clouds then rain down fresh water again as part of a ... |
Are all escort jets actually armed when they escort? What are the rules when they fly over foreign soil? Are any of them just ceremonial? | When I was a cop we were always told never wear a badge without a gun. The reason being if you look like a cop then you better be prepared to do your job wherever you may be. I would think the same about this. There's no such thing as just for show unless it is at an air show. That's just my assumption. |
How come my new 128 gb flash drive only has 116gb usable? | It's mostly due to the differences in numbers and units. It's the same capacity as in bytes, but hardware manufacturers use base 10 where there are 1000 megabytes in a gigabyte. Software, particularly Windows uses base 2 were there are 1024 mebibytes is 1 gibibyte . For example 128 GB is roughly equal to 119 GiB. Carve... |
Many people in NYC alone die from heroin, why is it such a big deal to arrest the 4 people who sold to Philip Seymour Hoffman? | It's just the media spinning BS as usual. No one actually cares about who sold him the heroin. News stations are going to have to repeat this small story over and over again so they just add more elements to make it interesting. It is 100% Hoffmans fault for OD'ing on heroin. He's been a self admited addict since 22. W... |
Why does the Holocaust have a high public awareness when their was a higher amount of genocide going on in the Far East at the same time? | The Nazi Holocaust happened in Europe. That's far closer and more relatable than China. Really the only reason I can think of. Don't try to assume things dealing with the general public are purely logical. Most of it is manipulating emotions. |
Why, with all our fancy technologies and stuff, are vacuum cleaners still so loud? | My wife has a Miele and it's vastly quieter than most cheaper vacuum cleaners. You can certainly design a quiet vacuum, but as others have noted here, people aren't willing to pay $300-400 for a vacuum.For all our advances in digital technology, vacuums are still mechanical. Spinning motors and parts designed to move l... |
How is College Board(SAT test company for the US) not considered a monopoly | I would assume the ACT would play a factor, a lot of high schoolers are taking the ACT instead of the SAT, mainly due to the Critical Reading section on the SAT. College Board also isn't stopping other competitors from existing. |
Why everybody hates
Hipsters? | Most hipsters don't like the word hipster. It is a sort of counter-culture, individualistic type of mentality, so the thought of thousands of people just like them doesn't sit well with them. None of them want to be called hipster because they don't want to be classified like that. They call other people hipsters as a ... |
How can it be that in Lasers, the photon(s) that lead to the stimulated emission within the resonator are unaffected in their energy? | Basically you're asking how the photons can stimulate emission without spending any energy? I would like to know this as well. |
ELI: Difference between "legal" and "decriminalized"? | In Colorado, where Marijuana is legal, you can walk into a store and buy some. In Oregon, where Marijuana is decriminalized, if a cop catches you with a small sack of weed, they'll take it away and give you a ticket . In Alabama, where Marijuana is illegal, if you get caught with *any* amount, you can spend up to a yea... |
How does wireless electricity work? | > How does wireless electricity work? Not very well. And it never will. For small, low-power applications like wireless chargers, all they've done is separated the two windings of a transformer. A transformer is a basic piece of electrical gear used with AC power, and consists of two coils of wire tightly wound around ... |
Why do bugs seem to always fly towards people / animals when they're around? | There are various reasons. In some cases they can sense your body heat and, be it for whatever reason decide to check you out. Another one is that some bugs are attracted to carbon dioxide, which we expel constantly. I'm sure there are other reasons, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. |
How people are able to walk across hot coals. | As the coals burn they get covered in ash. The ash is a fantastic insulator and it doesn't get too hot, if you walk over it at a decent pace none of the heat will be transferred through to your foot.The outer layer of your skin is almost entirely dead skin cells. Except if you wash yourself more than once a day. It can... |
Is there a certain material density where light and sound will have the same speed? | Lots of comments arguing semantics. OP wants to know if there's a material where he can shoot a light wave and a sound wave through it at the same time and have them arrive at the other end simultaneously, right? |
Why is Geneva the main place for peace talks? | Here is at least part of the answer: a) because it is in neutral territoryb) switzerland in general and the french part in particulair has quite a humanitarian tradition c) Basically everyone everywhere speaks english, placing it somewhere where people speak french covers a second very far spread languaged) historicall... |
How come lawyer fees are so extremely high? | Supply and demand. There is a huge demand, especially in America) because everybody keeps suing each other over stupid shit . There is a big supply of lawyers, but there's a much smaller supply of *good* lawyers. Since there's so many people who need lawyers and so few lawyers, the lawyers can charge whatever they want... |
Why should you buy insurance. | If you can save enough money to cover any bad thing that can happen, then what you described is a good idea. For example, it's almost never a good idea to buy insurance for household appliances, since they are relatively cheap to replace if broken and no longer under warranty. However, in the case where your house burn... |
What would happen to a person who has cancer but doesn't treat it? Would they feel it slowly killing them or would they drop dead one day? | My grandfather had pancreatic cancer. He didn't know about it until it was too late and the doctors decided not to do anything about it. Well, let's just say that he died after 1 month, while slowly dying and in pain. In the last week or so, he just kept his eyes open, didn't speak or didn't look at anyone. He also los... |
If taste buds are on the tongue, why can't I taste food until I chew/bite it? | Just learned about this in chemistry. When you bite and chew, you make a solution with your saliva. The chemicals in the solution have more freedom to move around and that way more of them come into contact with the taste buds. You can taste dry, unchewed food, but the flavor is less intense. |
When a virus infects your computer, how does that benefit the person who created the virus? | If the virus is slowing your computer it may be using it as part of a botnet, or may be using it to 'mine' cryptocurrencies for profit. **Botnets** are networks of infected computers that can be remotely controlled in some way by a command and control server, and directed to do tasks. One common task will be using it i... |
Why does it temporarily feel so good to procrastinate even though I'm aware that it is bad for me? | Distant rewards are less tangible than immediate rewards. The interesting thing is that you have to choose between a project that rewards you in 31 days and one that rewards you in 32 days, you won't treat them differently in the slightest. But that's the same time lapse as an immediate reward versus something due tomo... |
how come we are legally adults and we can be tried as adults if we can't still buy alcohol? | It's worth noting that the drinking age typically varies from 16 to 18. Only the USA, Egypt, and one or two other outliers have a 21 drinking age, and India has state laws varying up to 25. |
why republicans are infatuated with Ronald Regan's economic policies. | As a former Republican who made good money .because I get to keep more money. There's this underlying idea that it's better for the economy and all evidence that refutes that is dismissed. Basically the government can't spend money correctly so obviously it's better if I keep it. To be fair I think this was an OK senti... |
How did the first watchmakers know how long a minute, second, hour, etc. was? | Not OP but I'm unsatisfied with the answers so far. They're all based on knowledge of a day being 24 hours. How did they determine there are 24 hours in a day and not 4 or 6 or 8?", 'the etc. in this case is a day, that's the key, the sun will tell you how long that is, just make a mark of a shadow and the next day the... |
Why is the US Supreme Court so partisan if justices don't have elections to win or constituents to please? | It isn't. It only appears partisan because the partisan cases are the only ones that the average person would care about; the majority of their decisions are boring 9-0 legal judgments.Politicians specifically select judges who are partisan. Occasionally a judge will flip from the original stance, but its not too commo... |
Why do they serve Wings with Celery Sticks? | They give you celery so you have half a chance of not spending an eternity on the toilet in excruciating pain. It's just fiber to keep the wings moving. |
Why is nobody making a a huge deal about the helium shortage in mainstream media? | The media made the sensationalist stuff up in the first place. We're not running out of helium, we're just [running out of cheap helium.] |
Why do many gaming companies make new game engines, rather than continue to work on and improve the current one in use? | Isn't that what many of them still do? Improve the previous engine.Because new hardware and new API's open up possibilities. So AMD has Ryzen, Intel has their core i7/i5 family. AMD and Nvidia have new graphics cards etc. More power than what we had,1,2 or eve 3 years ago. The old engine may have hit a brickwall with p... |
How come Asian countries that were relived from European colonial rule have been somewhat better off than Africa ones? | I was discussing this with a friend the other day, and we noted two factors that might have been of importance: 1. The borders in Africa were more arbitrary. In places like Sudan, for example, you have many tribes/political entities that did not get along placed together into one country based upon the whims of colonia... |
My 6 year old niece just asked 'How can you press your phones screen but it knows that you've pressed it?' | Why is the top comment basically the same as those that were downvoted into oblivion? Explain THAT like I'm 5. |
Why (in the US) gasoline has gone from ~$0.99 to ~$3.50 in less than a decade. | You were fortunate enough to get your license near a historical low. [Inflation adjusted], gas costs about as much as it did in the early 80's.You should find this an interesting read: _URL_1_ |
Why does everybody eventually die of old age if something else hasn't killed them first? | There's a theory that its also in part to help our offspring survive. Basically stating that if we stayed healthy there would be much more competition and most of our offspring wouldn't have a chance to live. So we essentially kill ourselves off for future generations to succeed. |
Why do i hear a popping sound in my ears everytime I swallow? | Thanks a lot. Now I'm conscience to it.. Ninja edit: Can't. Stop. Swallowing.Are you eating bubble wrap? If so, why are you eating bubble wrap? |
Why is the back of my tongue a greyish yellow color? | Actually, different tongues can be fairly different. I am a medical doctor and see quite a few. Some are pretty much pink without buildup, some have considerable whitish/grey buildup, some look different. From a Western Medical point of view, other than in specific disease states I'm not sure we have a great grasp of w... |
Why aren't [can't] TV manufactures make 4K 3D TVs? | Sales of 3dtv have not met expectations, and I believe it's on its way out. Although I do remember reading about an 8k no glasses 3d TV being shown off at CES. |
Why are cable boxes so big, yet more technologically advanced devices such as smart phones can fit in the palm of our hands? | There's no technical reason, but there is an economic one. Devices like [SimpleTV and TabloTV] are smaller and do more, faster, than cable boxes. Those two don't have hard drives but [Channelmaster sells a DVR] that has the footprint of a cable DVR but is thin, and [has a laptop hard drive inside of it]. The reason cab... |
Why can't we just make cellphone and other chargers high powered, so they can charge in a matter of minutes? | Batteries work by means of chemical reaction that releases electrons, generating a current. Rechargable batteries have a reversable chemical reaction. Charging such a battery involves forcing the chemical reaction to go into reverse, to change the chemicals back to their original state , by forcing electrons back into ... |
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