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The Electronic Signature of Money | In the end, it comes down to security. Financial systems are designed to make it really, really hard to tamper with data. Even if you were to somehow change an account balance, you would also have to fake a convincing audit trail to explain the change, and you would have to also somehow alter the backups, and every oth... |
Why does lifting weights lead to muscle growth? How does protein help with this? | First, muscle size doesn't necessarily correlate to strength. When you exert force that your muscles are unused to, microscopic tearing occurs throughout the utilized muscle group. Your body then repairs your muscles, rebuilding them more sturdily than they were built before, similar to how the healing of a broken bone... |
Why are reptiles (and amphibians?) more prone to having the genetic defect of two heads than say mammals or fish? | Mammals have very large brains relative to their body weight when compared to reptiles. Large brains require lots of energy, which means lots of blood flow. About 25% of the blood that gets pumped through your body goes right to your brain. If you had two heads, that would mean about 50% of the blood in your body would... |
Why are Tesla sales now banned in New Jersey? | There was a law passed like 80 years or so that prevented car manufacturers to sell directly to customers. From what I recall, it was to increase competition or something. Anyways, people are bringing up this law again to prevent Tesla from selling because they're scared of the profits that it's capable of generating. ... |
Non-profits. How do they work? | [Hooj already did a great basic explanation,] but I feel I should add just a little bit more. Hooj describes a company that re-invests its profits into itself which, indeed, is one way a non-profit can operate. This however, doesn't quite encapsulate the a very full spectrum of non-profits. For example, while a non-pro... |
What happens to current debt during times of great inflation? | Suppose you took out a loan of $500 with the agreement that, one year later, you'd pay $1000. Over the course of that subsequent year, inflation was 10% You still owe the $1000, but that money is only worth about $909 to the bank. That is unfortunate for the bank, but good for you. A low amount of steady inflation is g... |
Why don't we feel the pseudoforces from the acceleration of the solar system and the milky-way? | We do feel those forces. They are just minuscule. The main pseodoforce you feel is the centrifugal acceleration from the earth's rotation. Remember that the force you feel is inversely proportional to the radius of the rotation and the square of the velocity. The radius of our rotation around the milky way's center is ... |
Why are Greenpeace considered a 'bad' organisation/heavily criticised? | Green peace often trespass on peoples property, damage/destroy people's equipment, they have stolen property and animals in the past, and many other things that border terrorism. And for me the biggest thing is that they irreparably damaged a section he Nazca Lines in Peru by sneaking on it and setting up giant signs p... |
What things would be possible with 1 petabyte/sec download speeds that currently aren't? | People always think there's no point for greater bandwidth but then the technology gets better. Like for example the resolution gets higher. 400p was decent resolution 10 years ago. Now it's 1080p . People are very soon wanting 4k. You can't really know what future brings. Maybe Virtual reality movies for Oculus that n... |
How can we have pictures of our galaxy even though we're in it. | Our galaxy is what is called a spiral galaxy, which is basically shaped like an octopus having a good time. We're in one of the arms and can see the core and some of the other arms. We can take pictures of the other parts of the galaxy and generate images that are a good guess towards what our part of the galaxy would ... |
Why does a rising economy correlate with falling birthrates? | Do not quote me on this: The main reason is that when times are rough more children are needed to get jobs and help make $$ Also, when a couple has more money, contraception becomes more affordable - I don't know if this really is that much a factor, I made that up. |
How do giveaways work? | In the cases of actual giveaway, it's marketing for the products being given away, and increases viewership of the site/channel/whoever that's doing the giveaway. > Like how does a company benefit from a like,follow/subscribe? There are a ton of ways this can happen, but generally advertisers want to advertise places t... |
What defines a qualified candidate for US Government Cabinet Positions? | What you're asking is why we have a Senate confirmation hearing for. At a minimum they must be qualified to be president, > 35, and lived here for a while as all Cabinet members are in succession linage for the presidency On top of that basic requirement, job specific requirements such as the Secretary of Department of... |
couldn't something similar to TOR be made for cell phones to prevent police from spying? (text message encrypted and sent to various phones before reaching the final destination) | I could be wrong, but when most people say they are concerned about police spying on your cellphones, they aren't referring to police tapping and/or intercepting messages. That is mostly just the NSA. People are concerned with police opening and forcing you to unlock your phone to look for incriminating messages/photos... |
Why do hospitals and asylums get abandoned? | Key point adding to the other comments here:Hospitals and asylums can get abandoned for all the reasons mentioned. But, lots of places get abandoned, schools, churches, houses, offices, outbuildings , factories, etc. You might think of hospitals and asylums getting abandoned more because you hear about more of them whi... |
How is a place like Dubai safe from the types of violence and terrorism taking place in the Middle-East? | Nowhere is immune from terrorism, but Dubai is relatively stable and is not involved in the conflicts currently happening in Iraq/Syria. The Middle East is a large and diverse place. Things happening in other countries don't necessarily impact on UAE. Even during the Arab Spring, there were no disturbances in UAE. The ... |
help me explain dropping the bombs on japan to a bunch of tweeners. | One point to consider: the USN had utterly destroyed Japanese coastal shipping by submarine warfare and mining the coastal routes, and the USAAF was in the process of firebombing all the cities and was systematically dismantling their rail network. The coming months would likely have seen a breakdown in food distributi... |
How do people own nice properties and vehicles and remain either out of debt or have very little debt. | Let's consider this problem logically. Here's our givens: people have expensive things and these people don't have debt. So logically, how can a person own something expensive and not have debt? I am going to assume that these people aren't criminals. A criminal could steal a Porsche and not go into debt. I see two opt... |
How do mobile/cell phone service providers deal with recycling phone numbers that have been lost or damaged ? | So you can't keep your number if you switch carriers in Ireland? I changed my number after I switched to a new carrier, as my old number was from another area code . The problem? People don't usually drop numbers voluntarily. The previous owner of my new number was apparently behind on his bills and being sued by every... |
What’s the difference between “election meddling” and “election marketing”? | Election marketing is business as usual. For example: doing opposition research, attack ads and targeted emails, all election marketing 101 and part of that sordid business. Perfectly legal. But the same actions performed by a foreign power or done in a way that constitutes illegal campaign contributions are election m... |
How is the fuel price for a particular gas station decided and who decides it? | Worked for a gas distributor; most of the gas stations in a certain area get their fuel from the same distribution places. The prices they purchase the fuel for isn't that different . So, once you buy the fuel for the same price as your competitor, and you add on profit $ similar to your competitor, you get the same pr... |
How are autopsy report able to find exact cause of death? | The often don't. CSI and other TV show autopsies is often a fantasy. If no foul play is suggested, there may not be an autopsy. If one is done, it may be very cursory. For such cases, the examiner may make a very cursory examination and then just guess if it's not obvious. Even when it is an important criminal case, th... |
How to add/subtract time? | You have to start getting him to understand the 12 vs 24 hour clock. Make sure he knows that 8:00pm = 8 o'clock in the evening = 20:00. Once he gets that, you can teach him adding and subtracting time by converting to a 24h clock and then back again.First of all explain that when counting time you have to count the tim... |
Why does an orchestra need a conductor but a rock band doesn't? | A rock band does have a conductor but he/she isn't standing in front with a baton. Classical string quartets are like a rock band. In different sections one of the players, usually the first violin, sets the pace for the piece. In a rock band that might be the drummer or bass or lead guitar. |
Why does the body suddenly detect itches as soon as it it thinks about itching? | It's a psychological reaction. The brain remembers being itchy and so when it's talked about you automatically get itchy. Happens to most people. You can stand in a group of people and talk about lice or scabies and people start itching like crazy. It's actually pretty funny. |
If 60% of US adults are infected with HSV-1, with some estimates closer to 80%, why aren't a lot more people walking around with cold-sores? | I have HSV-1 and I had some sores in my mouth hut they never happened again. I guess my immune system fights the virus. It's the same with genital herpes, which I don't have. Some people are plagued with sores and other people don't experience any, but are carriers of the virus.The immune system keeps the virus in chec... |
Why is dating a friend's ex-partner so looked down upon? | If it happens immediately following the end of the relationship, it leaves a person to wonder if there was an affair going on the whole time. Also, if I saw my ex-wife and best friend together and I didn't have a partner, it could potentially make me feel rather rejected and alone. In some cases it can work fine. It re... |
If dust is essentially just dead skin, why does it accumulate in places where people haven't been for long periods of time? | While it may be true that dust *in inhabited areas* contains a lot of skin, that's not the same as saying *all dust is skin*. From that, it follows that in areas where there's no source of skin, it must be something else. |
Why isn't everybody using the same currency? | I don't know much about this, but I'm guessing Bitcoin fits into this somewhere? Is it a universal kind of currency? |
what makes the sound of my tummy rumbling when I'm hungry? | Borborygmus is caused by peristalsis acting on the contents of your intestinal tract. Peristalsis is a constant series of waves of contraction that move the contents along towards the exit. It's like putting your fingers around one end of a ketchup packet and running them towards the open end to get the ketchup onto yo... |
Why does UKIP have so many MEPs as opposed to other government positions? | The First Past The Post system also does them no favours in the House of Commons. In 2015 they got plenty of votes, but you don't get anything for coming second in a constituency. Under a proportional system, they'd have had 80 or so MPs. Having said that, they still got a significantly larger share of the vote in the ... |
Why are I.Q. tests used as the primary standard for gauging intelligence? | To paraphrase Winston Churchill, IQ tests are the worst way to measure intelligence, except for all the others. We don't complete understand intelligence, but we don't have any better tools to measure it with, either. |
Why do airlines price tickets at a remarkable increase close to takeoff (next day flights) when they know they're likely not to sell? | Many people who book last minute have urgent matters/business and are willing to pay whatever to get there. Often it's business travel, where the person booking isn't the one paying in the end. So the airline might be better off selling 1-2 expensive seats than filling all 8 remaining at rock bottom -- same revenue and... |
Is there any science behind epsom salts efficiency as a pain reliever? | Epsom salts are basically magnesium, which helps relax muscles. And as a salt it's probably got some topical antiseptic properties too.When it comes to formal studies, there is very little published. While there are some reasonable-ish theories as to why it might work, there is exactly zero evidence it actually does. J... |
Why don't laptops use simcards? | The simcard doesn't work by itself, it requires a *cellular radio chip* and an antenna. These add significant cost to the product. Since most laptop users don't want it, it's not worth building in. A good option instead is to use your mobile phone, either as a mobile hotspot or tethered to your USB port. |
What are the genuine benefits, to you and me, of spending $1.75 Billion landing on a comet? | The effects might not affect me and you right now, but it builds upon our knowledge that might be useful in the future. For example, things that scientists learned in making this week's comet landing happen could very well be the precursor to things like asteroid mining. Or used to avert the potential disaster scenario... |
Why do more people live in places where it gets very hot compared to areas where it gets very cold? | Heat doesn't make extremities fall off from frost bite. If you wish to combat heat, just stay hydrated. |
How China has a middle class | After the Cold War and the fall of the USSR, it was clear that a communist country could not compete economically in a global market. China realized this and began taking steps to a more open economy while retaining their communist stance in politics. Today, China's market is similar to the US, but with more government... |
What was Italian food like in history before tomatoes were brought to Europe from the New World? | > The tomato being the main ingredient of Italian food, I suppose I always assumed the tomato was mainly from Italy or that part of Europe. This is slightly more true for [Italian-American cuisine] than [Italian cuisine], but point taken. Actually lot's of european dishes are pretty modern in origin. When you combine t... |
Why isn't Ukraine defending itself? They have an army. Why aren't they using it? | Ukraine's military is horribly underfunded, equipped, and staffed. The Ukrainians do not field a force capable of taking on the Russian military. It's obvious to all that a military engagement with the Russians would be a losing proposition and may give them the justification needed to launch operations sweeping up lar... |
How genius kids graduate from high school too soon? | Speaking as someone who graduated high school at 17 - it's honestly not that exceptional to get to graduating levels of competence in all subjects. Think about it this way - if you have kids taking a bunch of honors/college level classes , they'd probably do just fine a grade up in regular classes. There are probably a... |
In a movie or a TV show, I'm fully aware that the hero is a fictional character that didn't actually die. Then why did I cry and feel extremely sad afterwards? | > I'm fully aware that the hero is a fictional character that didn't actually die. Because you really aren't. In order to enjoy a fictional setting, you suspend your disbelief, and start reacting as though it were real. Without that, it would be difficult to enjoy any fiction. |
How is requiring someone to have an ID when voting racist? | The concept of requiring an ID to vote isn't inherently racist. However, the fact is that in-person voter fraud is incredibly rare. And when I say rare, I mean that 1 or 2 confirmed occurrences in a state would be considered typical for an election. In other words, fraud does exist, but it occurs at an insignificant le... |
How is it that those gigantic Cargo Boats can tackle those huge waves in the mist of a huge storm, but not tip over? | All ships are designed so that they can't tip over unless they run full of water. The trick is to make sure that the center of gravity moves in the opposite direction relative to the center of buoyancy if it starts tipping. Wikipedia has a good [graphic] to demonstrate that: On the left, you have a stable ship, where t... |
When exactly can a business refuse to serve someone? | > Like, what reasoning could they have that would avoid lawsuits/rights violations? Anything that is not a protected class: Race, color, religion, national origin, or disability. Additionally in some states it includes sexual orientation. The refusal to provide service cannot be arbitrary and cannot be applied just to ... |
When we die, where do bacteria and worms come from? | Bacteria are pretty much everywhere including inside and on your body. As soon as you die, your immune system stops working and the entire microcosm living in your body, on your body and your immediate environment starts 'eating' you now that your immune system is no longer stopping them. As your body begins to decompo... |
Why don't you have to charge an electric guitar? | Most of the power comes from the amp, which is plugged into the wall. Some electric guitars do have what's called active pickups, which will add power to the system. The ones I've had take a 9v battery every year or so. |
Is there a non-cynical explanation for rich people running for office? Or interested at all in cabinet positions and politics in general? | poor people have to worry about a steady paying job that pays the bills. rich people can afford to not work for a year or two that they're campaigning. that's pretty much only true for state and national politics. local and regional politics, you'll find some average folk running for positions |
Why would someone need standard reference peanut butter and why would they pay outrageous amounts for it? | Calibration. If you need to be sure that your measuring machine is giving you correct readings, you need to be able to measure something that you already have correct results for so you can compare them. The real cost isn't the peanut butter you get, it's the fact that you get the peanut butter, AND that peanut butter'... |
How Come Guys Aren't Aroused Anymore After They've Cum? | Imagine you've got a delicious cake. You eat your fill, but there's still a lot of cake left. You couldn't eat another bite, but the cake doesn't look any less appetizing you just need a minute before you want cake again. |
Why are people so critical of game development jobs? | From what I've read, you're likely to end up on a project that's got a clear deadline that'll require you to put in easily 12+ hours six days a week, with encouragement to devote more time when possible. That amount of time commitment would burn out anyone regardless of what job it occurs in, but in the video game indu... |
Why does Vimeo's 720p look better than YouTube's 1080p? | Compression ratio. Basically YouTube gets so many views per day the data rates would be astronomical to send uncompressed but vimeo is slightly less pouplar so can have a better bitrate of video. Basically it's all to do with bitrate compression. If I upload a 2gb video to YouTube and then download it again I'm not goi... |
What the fuck are war games? | We don't call them that anymore, but your description isn't too far off. One of the reasons we have such a strong military is because of the intensity of our training. We practice going to war every so often because it keeps our service members sharp, and you never know when you may need them to go to war for real. We ... |
Why does Seaworld get such a bad rap for keeping wild animals in captivity outside their natural habitat, but zoos rarely get the same negative attention for doing the same? | Well I know my local zoo has caretakers that are specifically trained to take care of certain types of animals. Just about everyone one of our animals is diabetic, or has a broken apendage or came from the circus or whatever. So, no, we're not as flashy or fancy as the memphis zoo or the omaha zoo. But we take care of ... |
Why every year thousands of people call for an independent investigation into 9/11 and it never happens? | Because idiot truther conspiracy theorists won't accept any investigation that doesn't reach their foregone conclusions. If the investigation doesn't say 9/11 was an inside job, they will never accept that it was independent.Because thousands of people wanting something to occur does not make it so. Compare, for exampl... |
why the Beatles' Abbey Road album cover is so iconic. | Because it's a Beatles album. Every album cover of a Beatles studio release is iconic, but especially the latter ones. Abbey Road is most iconic because it's simple, quirky,, and easy to emulate. This is why you see Abbey Road references in movies all the time. Every time you cross a street, you can pretend to be the B... |
Does looking at something far but big have the same effect on yours eyes as looking at close but small? ELI18 would do as well | Nope! It's not the same. Your eyes are like a camera lens - it can change focus. Even with only one eye - closer things will look different. You have more depth of field with things farther away - which means that more things near it will be in focus. Also - if you're nearsighted or farsighted - you might not be able t... |
What happens to the inside of your body when turned upside down our sideways? | The inside of your body is much more compact than you would think. Things don't have that much room to move. |
Why do checkered fabrics in old movies have that rainbow glare effect? (Like Dorothy in the Kansas scenes of Wizard of Oz) | It's a moire effect. When displayed on a TV screen, the image is converted into hundreds of horizontal lines. Fine patterns can collide with those lines to produce an optical illusion called moire. |
What is everyone doing in the America's Cup? What are they spinning? Why do they switch sides? | If they turn the coil of rope it makes the angle of the small cloth sail change. When the boat changes direction you have to do this to keep the sail at the optimal angle to the wind. Also need to do it if the wind direction changes. When they run to the other side of the boat it makes the other side of the boat heavie... |
Why is China always referred to as a communist country when they are very capitalist? | China was conquered by a Communist army led by Mao Zedong in 1949. From 1949 to the late 1970s, it was run like a completely by the book Communist country, as other posters have described. Trouble was, Communism is a shitty way to run an economy, and by the late 70s Mao was dead and his successors were willing to open ... |
Why can musicians legally make and sell cover albums of popular music, but as an artist, if create a stylized rendition of an iconic character I am unable to do the same? | Copyright laws were written with live music performances in mind; so the law allows for *statutory royalties*. You can make a contract with the copyright holder to allow you to do live performances or recordings, or you can pay them the loyalties already set in law whether they want to do business with you or not. Ther... |
Why can I have a nearly instant video conversation with my family 1000 miles away, but there is a huge delay when a news person interviews someone in a remote studio? | a couple of factors here 1. TV studios are using a satellite and they do that because they are much more dependable than an internet connection. If that live truck has power there's a very good chance they can send and recieve a signal. 2. The delay most networks use is put in when the interview starts, not before. Tha... |
How are 100s to 1000s of surveillance cameras operated by corporations, universities, and the government? | Have you ever heard of the [panopticon]? If not, it's a theoretical prison design where any number of inmates could be observed by a single watchman because the inmates couldn't see the watchman. The idea was inmates would be discouraged from breaking rules or trying to escape, because even though they'd know there is ... |
Why is vegetable oil so bad for you if it's made of...well, vegetables? | Fructose can be bad for you, even though it's found in . fruit. Basically, any extract is going to be *isolated* from the rest of the source, and it's going to be *concentrated* compared to the source. If you eat a soybean, you're getting fiber, minerals, proteins, and just a bit of soybean oil. But if you take a few h... |
Why are Girl Scout Cookies not produced year round? | They're a fundraiser for Girl Scouts. Since you can't hire 12 year olds as full time salesmen, they only do it once a year. If they were made full time and sold in stores, they would no longer be any good as a fundraiser for a youth organization. They would just be another cookie on the shelf. |
How police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances are able to trigger stop lights. | Wait is that a thing? Here we just drive straight through them. Well, if it's safe to do so. It isn't strictly legal, but everyone's cool with it. |
How do extremist groups/rebels/separatists/militia get so many arms and so much ammunition? | It really depends on the region and group you're talking about. Isis for example has a supply of oil that they're selling to Shady buyers to purchase arms from equally shady buyers. Also they did take over a number of a Iraqi/US military bases early in the war and stole as much equipment as they could. Other groups lik... |
Why do video game patches always increase the game size? | Many items in a patch are simply replacements for existing files; it wouldn't do any good to just send you the bits of the files that have changed. In addition, you're usually also receiving new assets that isn't immediately relevant to the end-user. |
What is ride-sharing, and how is it different than a taxi? | From my understanding it's a fancy name for carpooling. You find a bunch of people who are going to and coming from roughly the same area and around the same time and have everyone chip in some gas money and call it good. It costs the driver less money for gas over time for a little inconvenience and gives any passenge... |
How does a web developer create a website? | At the base of everything, you have a server and a domain name. The domain name simply POINTS to a given server, the same way a street adress points to your home. This way, you can change servers by pointing it elsewhere. A URL is just a file located at the root folder of that web server. A server is just a computer th... |
If beverage labels must contain the amount of sugar a drink contains then why don't they have to list the amount of aspartame they contain. | Aspartame has extremely low digestible energy content. And aspartame is harmless unless you're a what's it called. Phenylketoneurotic? Sounds right. |
Heuristic algorithms for the travelling salesman problem | It's impossible to try out every solution, so you try down approaches that lead you to better results in the short term more. The hope is, sooner or later you'll go down a path that leads you to something really good, and that you'll ignore trying out cases that lead nowhere. |
Why can't we just print money and pay off our debt? 13 trillion dollars would be 130 billion $100 bills. Too many trees? | Thanks everyone, I've always been wondering this. I fully understand now. This subreddit is great. I feel like I can ask questions like this. |
Operating systems tend to throw very general errors at times. What are the complications behind making an OS tell you exactly where the bug is and how it can be solved? | Theres nothing stopping them. They could do it, but it would increase the overhead of the os, and further restrict the machines it could run effectively on. It's just probably not cost effective. Coderes aren't free and manhours aren't infinite. |
Why is the 1TB Hard Drive I bought only 930GB? | There are a number of different reasons, but the main ones are that the way the drive is measured, I'm tired right now so this may not be 100% accurate but it has something to do with bits and bytes, with one being 1000 and the other being 1024, Windows sees the 1000 and the manufacturer advertises it as 1024, neither ... |
Why do we see sharp and not diffused images with our eyes? | The lens in your eye turns it into directional light. Basically light radiates from an object in all directions, but once it hits your lens [only the light rays going in the right direction actually make it to your retina]. Camera lenses actually work the same way, again the diagrams just don't show all the other light... |
how does fuel injector inject fuel into the engine without lighting on fire? Since the engine is under combustion. | Unless you're looking at a direct injection engine, the fuel injection doesn't happen at the place where the combustion happens . The injection happens at the intake plenum. In direct injection engines, like some Honda and Toyota gas engines, and diesel engines, the previous combusted mixture is already expelled from t... |
How can hurricane hunters fly into Irma and not get torn apart or thrown into the ocean in the 175+ mph winds? | Hurricanes have very strong winds, but those winds are basically parallel to the ground. There's no downward draft that makes flying through other storms so dangerous. So while the plane's path will be offset by the strong winds, there's not as much risk about the winds forcing the plane into the sea. And remember that... |
Where did blacksmiths go after industrialization? | There are still blacksmiths making artisan products, and they sometimes make a fair bit of money. Granted, this isn't very common.Someone has to tell people how to run those machines that took their jobs |
Why don't the coils of an electric stove shock me if I touch them while turned on? | I don't think being sexually aroused has anything to do with electricity, man. Sorry if I disappointed you. |
What happens if you're sued for money you don't have? | Depending on the details, it may be possible for them to attach a lien to your property or your paychecks. That means that they get to take your stuff, including part of what you earn, if you don't pay them. Again, this depends on where you are. But as a general rule liens will expire after 7-10 years, although they ca... |
If leptin is a hormone that supresses hunger, why isn't it (or a synthetic version) available as a medication? | From what I have read there is some sort of feedback mechinism that goes in reverse is people over weight. They get sort of desensitized to it and when they loose weight the change in leves cause the opposite reaction in people desensitized to it. I'm sure I butcherd that answer. Give me a few and I'll find the artical... |
So my SO got a brand new laptop for Xmas. What kind of stuff should we download/avoid/uninstall to make it last as long as possible? | *Before you start, make a backup of how your setup is now.* * As everyone said, **Ninite** is an amazing tool, great for packaging all the programs you need in one installer, skipping all the toolbars offered, etc. * For anti-virus, I remember recently reading that **Microsoft Security Essentials** is a much better, mo... |
How can spiders contain so much web when their body's are so small? | Not sure if this is an explanation suitable for a five year old, but I'll try to keep it simple. Spider silk is a protein fiber that's produced on demand from a liquid silk precursor out of specialized glands. There are various different types of silk glands, the number varying depending on the species and sex. The flu... |
what's the purpose of nuclear retaliation? (more details inside) | The concept you're referring to is Mutually Assured Destruction. The point of country b retaliating, even though they'll be wiped out anyway, is to deter country a from firing in the first place. If a knows that b had systems in place that will fire, even if everyone in b is dead, then a doesn't stand to gain anything ... |
How come the sun doesn't warm up Winter air even though the rays are still warm? | The sun does warm up winter air. Thanks to Earth's close proximity to the sun most temperate zones in winter sit around a balmy zero degrees centigrade. Mars, for instance, which has no such luxuries sits usually around sixty below. During winter, temperate zones are exposed to less direct exposure to the sun, which ma... |
Game glitches where something starts to twitch or vibrate around in mid air like crazy | It's a cascade effect, like throwing a thousand superballs into a room made of concrete. Video game objects are made up of polygons, and when two polygons intersect, the engine violently throws them apart because they're not supposed to do that. This in turn causes those two polygons to intersect nearby polygons, when ... |
Why is a PC faster when it has an emptier memory? | It's not, if you have maintained your HDD properly by keeping adequate free space and your data is not fragmented a lot of people don't do that, though |
Why doesn't Greece want Europe to bail them out? Also, what made them be in so much debt in the first place? | Imagine you're a taxi driver, but have debt because you had to get a loan to buy a car. Most of the time, you're fine, but for two years now, tourism has been down so you're not earning as much; and now your bank wants you to pay back the loan rather than paying for the repairs to keep your taxi running. That's the pro... |
Why are some people's sneezes really violent while others are barely audible. | Your questions refers to a violent sneeze and a loud sneeze, which are two different things. Others have discussed the reason for a violent sneeze. However, the noise we make when sneezing is entirely social. We mimic what other peoples sneezes sound like, or at least what we think it should sound like. More than likel... |
How do refrigerators, air conditioners, etc. remove heat (and therefore energy) from the air? | They don't actually remove heat. They just move it somewhere different - outside the refrigerator, or outside the building. |
Is there a scientific or psychological reason why knowing we are going to die doesn't drive us crazy? | You've asked a deeply philosophical question more than a scientific one. I'd refer you to this video on [Optimistic nihilism] by Kurzgesagt. They present just one of many ways of approaching this problem of death and finality, and ultimately how you deal with the reality of death will be your own -- be it through relig... |
What makes someone a philosopher? | Philosophers are almost always scholars, that is, they are people who read, study, and teach at a university. In other words, they are professors. Philosophers write books about large, complex questions. Here are some examples of such questions: how do we know what's true? How should society be organized? What exactly ... |
When someone feels satisfied with their life and are comfortable with dying, why do we deny them the means to do so with dignity? | I really think the only answer here is because it's the law. And I personally disagree with that law. |
Why does toilet water never appear as rising in the bowl, no matter how much urine you put in it? | It's called a U-bend. Imagine pouring water into the top of the 'leg' of a U. It would go round and come out of the top of the other 'leg'. When you stop pouring, the water would equalise levels on either side. The purpose of this is to stop smells coming up from the drain. It's hard to explain without a diagram, but t... |
Why does an EMP knock out a car? | Presumably the engine control unit, the small computer that controls ignition timing and fuel air mixture and other stuff. It would likely be the main cause of failure. Older cars that controlled those things mechanically would likely be fine. I doubt the battery would be dead, or the spark plugs burned out by the way.... |
How do professional mountain bikers avoid hurting their genitals? | Some shorts have padding in them, but mostly it's a case of standing slightly when things get bumpy and trying to avoid genitals hitting anything at all costs. If you look at downhill mountain bikers, you'll notice they have their seat really low, and often the top tube will be angled such that you can have your feet o... |
if food is meant to give you energy why do you feel exhausted after eating large amounts of food? | You don't. you feel bloated and/or sleepy. And that's how you know you have eaten far too much and/or too much carb heavy, unhealthy food. Loading up on carbs causes a complicated chain reaction that leads to a serotonin spike in the brain. If you get sleepy after lunch, switch from stake & potatoes or hamburgers to sa... |
Why is Pork so Cheap? | As others have noted, pigs have large litters while cows have individual calves. Also a hog will be ready to slaughter in half a year, where cattle take three times as long to mature. Cattle spend more time finishing confined in a feedlot than a hog's entire lifespan, eating expensive high-protein feed that whole time. |
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