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what do robo callers gain from calling and then immediately hanging up when someone answers? | They've confirmed someone owns the phone and is available to pick up. Expect more spam calls in the future now that your number is a verified targetable number. |
Is imploding a real thing? If so, please explain how | When the pressure on the outside of something is sufficiently greater than the pressure inside, it will implode. If it's reversed -- the pressure inside is greater than the pressure outside -- then it will explode. |
What has Walmart actually done to our economy? | Walmart on its own is both a good and a bad thing. Wal-Mart keeps prices low, which is great for the consumer, but does not treat their employees well, which is bad for the employee. It sort of represents a 'tragedy of the commons,' in a corporate setting. The concept of a tragedy of the commons is pretty simple. Imagi... |
Why do people have fetishes, and why are some more extreme than others? | It's all part of human psychology. It's normal to have fetishes. People like different food, people have different fetishes. Don't let anyone tell you that your fetish is weird and disturbing because it's not. It's part of who you are |
Why is ''empty space'' in space not really empty? | > So I watched Kurzgesagt the other day and they mentioned something along the lines that empty space isn't really empty but actually particles colliding and then ceasing to exist. It sounds like a very common, hugely oversimplified explanation of virtual particles. It is not literally true, but it's a way of thinking ... |
What was believed before helical DNA was discovered by Watson and Crick | Well, we knew about the 4 nitrogenous bases of DNA, we were pretty sure it was a long polymer, as we know it today, we simply did not know the actual shape of it, so we knew how genes were organized, long polymers of alternating nitrogenous bases, we knew what they were for. People spent many years trying to figure out... |
why the value of so many western currencies is roughly equal? | That's a great question! I'm sure someone else can give a more complete answer, but it's in part due to the fact that several of these western countries had explicit currency pegs tying their currency to the price of gold at similar rates - read about the Bretton Woods system for more info about that: _URL_1_. For a ti... |
Why is space cold if the sun is supposedly so hot? | Nothing in space exists in any sizable amount to heat up. Typical thermometers aren't even able to produce meaningful results in space due to the vacuum, even though it is an incomplete vacuum. However, an astronaut floating in space would be heated by the Sun exactly as he would be heated lying in the sun on the surfa... |
why do people in extremely poor countries have children that they will not be able to feed or adequately look after? | The kind of extreme poverty you're talking about is actually pretty rare. Dying of hunger and thirst are usually caused by a period of bad weather, and are in a sense more like localised events than sustained realities of x country. Generally speaking people don't live in places that can't sustain life. /u/the_original... |
Why do people laugh when being tickled, even if they hate every second of it? | There's such a thing as *hysterical* laughter. The emotional response to tickling is best described as hysterical. You aren't laughing because getting tickled is funny. You laugh because you're experiencing unmanageable emotional excess as a result of an irrepressible physical response. And some people generally don't ... |
Why electric cars are better for the environment than gas-powered cars. | Coal Power plants let out a TINY fraction as much pollution per unit of energy then gasoline used in your cars engine. Especially when you consider cost of transferring oil to the gas station compared to electricity to your house. And that's the worst case power plant situation, some of your power likely comes from oth... |
Why do horses wear shoes if wild horses don't? | Horses in the wild don't carry heavy loads, and aren't asked to traverse rocks and pavement. _URL_1_ |
how is mail delivered internationally, especially from a country that uses one kind of alphabet to another? | Generally most countries have a postal service that handles post at the national level. In this case, USPS likely has agreements through the Universal Postal Union to collaborate with China Post on international shipments. Batches of post are often shipped out using a third-party international carrier . The nationally ... |
How can governments (such as the US Government in 1933) legally or ethically ban gold, and what is the objective of doing so? | [Let] me [just] say, the [gold standard] is STILL a [fucking terrible] idea. Let us bring it all into perspective, gold is just a yellow metal and has very little use. Banks create money [out of thin air] , and that's not necessarily a bad thing, either. The money system doesn't work the way most people thinks it does.... |
The process of finding a cure for a disease | Some of it comes down to simple trial and error and information used to treat symptoms of the disease or similar diseases. If a virus causes severe fever, diarrhea, or vomiting then it's a pretty safe bet that many of the victims die from dehydration rather than being killed by the virus itself. If you can keep the pat... |
Why does driving fast on a dirt road create "washboarding"? | It happens because small potholes cause the wheels to bounce. During the time the wheels are up, they don't push on the road, and therefore don't wear it - but when they hit the ground, they push the dirt to the side. This will cause another pothole behind the first one to form, and the dirt accumulates in the middle. |
Why can’t dark matter/energy not just be an error in the theories? | Some physicists do consider the gravitational constant and the theory itself as flawed when considering something like dark matter. However, dark matter is popular because the good theories solve both the gravity puzzle *and* another puzzle in physics. Occam's razor and all that. |
What causes irrational fear? | I can imagine two causes for this. One is hereditary and has to do with evolution: some of our ancesters may have lived near dangerous spiders and the ones who had mutations that made them fear spiders survived more and reproduced, thus increasing the ammount of these genes in the population. The other has to do with a... |
Why are old people so small and short? | There are two factors at play. 1. As you age, gravity and cell degradation take a toll. [For every decade over the age of 40, you lose about 4/10 of an inch of height] due to the soft cushioning tissue in your spine compressing. The bones themselves can also shrink if you have osteoporosis. 2. Older generations, up unt... |
Why can things with equal mass be harder to lift sometimes? | In a lot of cases, it's down to either shape or rigidity. While an object may weigh the same, the shape may move the centre of mass into an unfavourable position that means you can't use your full force just to lift, but also to maintain an orientation or even just reach to acceptable grip points . With people, or othe... |
Why are voices so distinct and recognizable? | Even if voices vary a lot, I think that at least equally important is simply the way someone talks, little nuances. If people were recorded doing only very simple voices, not even words, it would be much more difficult to distinguish them. In anime, there are sometimes character archetypes with very distinct way of tal... |
How come when a 40 year old woman has sex with a 15 year old boy the reaction is "You go kid", but vice versa its "How did he rape you" | It's generally assumed that men pursue sex and women have to be talked into it, so if an older woman has sex with a teen boy, people will think that the kid was just a silver-tongued devil and the woman was led astray as if the kid had hypnotic powers or something. Feminist philosophy has defined rape as a male power t... |
If a plug socket is left switched on with nothing plugged into it, does it use electricity? | No appreciable current will flow. Someone will claim that the added capacitance will cause a minuscule current to flow, but at 50 or 60 hertz it is not going to add up to a penny's worth of electricity in your lifetime. |
Sleep vs unconscious vs coma vs vegetative state | Coma is what I do when I go to bed at night.Vegetative State is what I do when I go to work. Not sure what the other two are, haven't experienced either in a long time |
How do food advertisements that show unrealistic products work? | I think that the advertisement isn't realistic of the final product is a given. For instance, advertising can't provide the smell of the product which isn't realistic either. But advertising's purpose is to provide an impetus to buy a product which means that they'll put their best foot forward. As another instance, ta... |
Why can a younger person run faster in a road race than a fit person who is maybe 20 years older? | Maybe he's fitter, or better, or has better genetics for running. Why do you automatically assume it's age? You probably did better than someone younger |
If Global Warming results in an increase in temperature of less than 1 degrees per 100 years, what threat does it actually pose to humanity? | Because the issue isn't the difference between me sweating on a 100 degree day and me sweating on a 101 degree day. It's that on average, the temperature over the entire planet is increasing. This means places on the edge of desertification are pushed over that edge. Areas where glaciers are near to melting are now mel... |
Why does saltwater damage metal stuff more than fresh water? | Salt is an ionic compound, so the components are electrically charged. When you dissolve salts in water, the components separate and can move independently carrying electric current. If you have pure distilled water it won't conduct electricity very well at all, but when you have electrolytes in it, then it can. When m... |
Why does moving our mouth or sticking out our tongue make a difficult task seem easier? | Some people think better if they are doing something physical like pacing, walking, moving, tapping their fingers, sucking their teeth, etc. Some people just work better when they don't sit still which I wish some teachers would realize with children.As my dad would say when I wasn't doing something right. "you're not ... |
If pasta is made of the same things (flour, egg, water), whats the point of the dozens of shapes? | First, different shapes of pasta pick up sauce differently. Different sauces are best with certain shapes of pasta. Second, thicker pasta feels and tastes very different than thinner pasta, and the shape affects how evenly and how much the pasta gets cooked. Thick pasta can be cooked to be harder than thin pasta. This ... |
Why can we use controllers with PCs but not keyboard and mouse with consoles? | It all depends on whether support is there. On PS2 I am able to play Dirge of Cerberus: FF7 with a keyboard and mouse. On PS3 I am able to do the same with Unreal Tournament 3. If the game supports it, you're good. |
Why don't we use solid rubber tires on vehicles? | Rubber is expensive, and by having inflated tires, you can use less of it. Despite rubber's reputation for being bouncy, it can't absorb shock nearly as well as air. With a solid-rubber tire, you'd feel much more road texture. |
Why is it that some planets closer to the Sun are colder then planets further away? | On earth we have an atmosphere and a lot of water to trap heat from the sun during the day and retain some of it over night. This keeps our day-night temperature stable ish. Mercury has neither of these two things. During the day it takes a lot of heat in from the sun, but at night when it's pointed away it doesn't ret... |
In languages with grammatical genders, how are new words' genders get decided? | In some languages, like russian, there are fixed rules on what letter a word has to end to be a gender. But in some languages ,like german, it is decided by the sound of the expression, which sometimes leads to disagreements in the language itself.For example a mod for a game is Maskulin in german , but if you say it's... |
Why is a bullet so deadly? | It's all about energy, which is a calculation of mass and speed. A grain of rice will kill the hell out of you if it's traveling fast enough when it hits you. |
If there is not life on Mars and very little atmosphere, why is there crushed rock on the surface? Should there be solid rock or packed dirt? | What? First, a thin atmosphere is still an atmosphere. Second, there's still gravity, and wind, and *time*. Millions upon millions of years worth of time. Mars didn't always look the way it does now. |
Why does the U.S. primarily use "Letter" Paper size when the rest of the world uses "A4"? | It's a huge pain in the ass. I work in marketing for a global company. You essentially have to design the same documents in two different sizes. Letter size is 8.5 inches by 11 inches while A4 size is approximately 8.25 inches by 11.75 inches. Things like brochures and flyers don't scale between the standards well with... |
Why having one world currency would be a bad thing | OK, hmm. No one has actually attempted to explain this to a five year old, let me try. Ok, so say your friend Jimmy is really good at drawing, and people really want his drawings, so they're willing to give him things in exchange for his drawings. Well, Jimmy doesn't always want what some physical thing that people hav... |
How does someone reconcile multiple titles? Can someone be "Mr. Duke Doctor John Doe" ? Other than personnal choice, are there rules about mixing type of titles? | My old man is a PhD and honorary Kentucky colonel. We call him 'doctor colonel' shamelessly. Technically true is the best kind of true.In addition to the ranking of titles , you can choose the title based on the situation. For example, Dr. Smith, Assistant Professor would be called "Professor Smith" by people in class,... |
What happens from a chemical perspective when you're in love? Which reaction affects you in which way? | Others have stated, serotonin, dopamine and what not. I just wanted to input that ecstasy mimics serotonin and norepinephrine and thus creates the overwhelming feeling of love and happiness. Used in rave settings creates a group love effect where everybody cares about each other and it's so easy to pour your heart out ... |
Why does transparent materials like water act like mirrors? | Answer: It's not totally see-through. A part of the light reflects off the surface instead of going through.So basically, there are the laws of reflection and refraction . Those laws can be thought of as due to Huygen's Principle. _URL_0_ You don't have to go into that too deep. & nbsp; Water has a higher refractive in... |
Why can humans only hold their breath for a few minutes while, say, marine iguanas, with their tiny lungs, can hold it for about 30 minutes? | For the same reason iguanas can't build airplanes even though they have 5-fingered hands. Species adapt to their niche, and in our niche the huge brain with all its large oxygen demand is a competitive advantage over staying under water for 30 minutes.As for marine mammals many of them have massive spleens. One fun lit... |
Why is being black important and defining to some black Americans. | Mostly, it is important to them to hide behind, and use a stereotype for their failings at reaching the onward and upward dream standards of Americans. Now, there is much peer pressure put on all blacks to not 'act white', by their own kind. That's why the blacks that do escape their own, and do go onward/upward, almos... |
Why are the economically disadvantaged seemingly more socially conservative? | Interesting that this is a perception you have . Where I'm from , and my own preconceived notion, it seems that the poor are more likely to lean to the left of the political spectrum . |
Why is James Brady's death ruled a homicide? | I think the only point is that if you assault / attack someone and they later die of their wounds, then you have committed murder. If you try to put some kind of fixed timeline on that judgement, you're going to have a bad time. Should it be a month? A year? Nine years? Ten? It would not be helpful. The responsibility ... |
Why was fifa 2015 release in september 2014 instead of January 2015? | Because it covers the 2014-15 season, of which the vast majority takes place in 2015. It also means people don't instantly think it's outdated when the new year comes round. |
How/why do some women die during childbirth? | Most common causes of maternal mortality: * Uncontrolled bleeding * High blood pressure disorders * Postpartum infection and/or sepsis.* Blood clots * Unsafe abortion practices. It's notable that in the UK and Denmark, it's statistically more likely for the father to die during the labor term. Therefore If you don't mi... |
What happens to the tiny bugs who fly into your eye? | Most times your eyelashes bat them away. Sometimes if you're really unlucky they go under your eyelid and you have to dig them out. Related story below:", 'I used to think they got stuck in there forever, but then I realized I just have eye floaters. |
How is a construction truck that states "Not responsible for damage due to falling depris" not liable? | Law varies by jurisdiction, but I've never heard of a jurisdiction where you're allowed to drive to truck such that construction materials are falling off of it. Generally you'd be looking to prove negligence on the part of the truck company, which should be pretty easy if letting material fall off of your truck is exp... |
Priests are not allowed to tell anyone what goes on during confession. Are there any exceptions to this? | Something to keep in mind. If criminals knew they would be turned in if they confessed to a priest they wouldn't confess. If they confess to a priest there is an opportunity for the priest to encourage a change in behavior or turning themself in. The priest would work to prevent the issue from happening again.I remembe... |
How will the world's economy and every day life differ when robots start taking over so many jobs? | > If more machines take the jobs and make the companies more money, then won't that take away from everyone else thus less spending? Companies don't see it this way, for them its capex and opex. They spend on capex to reduce opex and that means a machine that doesnt demand wages, sick or holiday pay, make nearly as man... |
Why are green peppers less expensive to buy at a grocery store than red and yellow peppers? Are green ones easier to grow and harvest? | aren't they the same pepper harvested earlier? i'd guess they lose a few letting them mature so the price would be a combination of that and the extra labor involved in letting them ripen? ", 'Green, orange and red are all the same pepper. Similar to a tomato, the green ones are not ripe. They can last a lot longer and... |
How are currency prices determined? | Well, there are three things here: cost, price, value. I think you're asking about the value of a currency. A currency can be devalued by increasing the amount of it, thereby making each unit worth a bit less. The cost of money is the interest rate at which it is loaned. Markets determine that in free market systems by... |
Why does facial hair take so long to start growing, and what's it for, if anything? | It used to be for warmth and protection . Now it's just fashion. Sexy stubble.Biology major here. Secondary sex characteristics in males are weird. Sexual selection is driven entirely by the "scarce" or choosy gender . In many species, females will select for outwardly showy displays which are mediated by testosterone ... |
Why is healthcare such a huge topic in politics? | Because a well thought healthcare improves the society, doesn't punish people with less resources and it's collectively cheaper. |
Why i have a 20 megabit/second internet connection on speedtests but i cant stream a simple youtube video without buffering. | Your speed goes as fast as the slowest equipment. It's kind of like the slowest vehicle on a highway always gets in front of you. Sometimes you can go around them, but when they hit up in a pack, you get stuck behind them. In Youtube's case, your speed is dictated by what they can produce. You'll find much faster speed... |
Why did we go to Mars before Venus? | The reason why scientists are more interested in traveling to Mars than to Venus, is beacause Mars' surface shows/showed signs that there once existed water on the surface, which makes it much more likely to also have contained life. |
Would a Laser gun have recoil? | Part of Einstein's theory was proving that light has momentum. Because of conservation of momentum, that would push the person backwards. Edit: it wouldn't take light with significant momentum to significantly injure someone, however. |
Are survivors of Ebola, like the recent American Doctor, now immune to it? | After surviving an infection with the use of an experimental drug, monkeys were reinfected 13 weeks later and died. So probably not. The immune system isn't permanently remembering how to fight the disease. I imagine in the short term someone would be immune, but that is a relatively short window. |
Why is it whenever I decide to hydrate myself and drink a lot of water does it seem like 20 minutes later I'm just peeing it all out? Is my body even using it? | There's no point in drinking more than about 250ml within a 15-minute period. Drink more than that and you'll just piss it out. |
ELI: Why are fax machines still a thing? | There is an extremely outdated notion that a computer can't forge a fax or signature. The legal system is still in the stone age in this aspect. There's also a hangover from the stoneage that letterhead is also a form of verification, because there was a time, maybe 40 years ago, when printing letterhead was an expensi... |
Why do we have such high voltages in our homes? | Higher voltage means devices will draw less current. In Europe, usually houses are equipped with 16A fuses so a device could use up to about 3600 watts but some wall sockets are only rated for 10A. In US, they use 110v and 20A fuses, so the total power is a bit lower. The thinner the wires, the higher the voltage drop ... |
How did they put cables undersea in 1854? And how would they do it now? | For detailed info on the locations of the major undersea cables see [The interactive cable map] or [Greg's Cable Map]. In case you are wondering why you have never seen where the cables come on shore the terminations on land are hidden in plain sight. [Here is the termination building] for the cables in Manasquan, NJ a... |
Where does the energy come from that keeps a magnet floating? | It does not take energy to keep the magnet floating any more than a chair needs energy to support the weight of a person sitting on it. Force is not the same thing as energy. It does not take energy to resist a force, it takes energy to *move* an object *against* a force. You will find that there's no way to set up a m... |
How was VICE News able to make a documentary in ISIS territory and get out without being held hostage? | All terrorist cells need to spread their message and propaganda, which is best done in person and not by letting CNN tell your story. A reporter wrote a article fairly recently about his life reporting in war zones, with terrorists, and in areas Like parts of Africa where it's extremely dangerous and practically lawles... |
If money is not backed by gold, why does printing more money drop the value of the dollar? | Printing money drops it's value because the people who set prices are human beings looking out for their own interests. Detail: * You print more money* More people have money to spend* Person who sets prices recognizes that they can set their prices higher, and still get as many sales, due to more money being around, s... |
How in the world does a boomerang return after it is thrown? What features of the boomerang cause this? | Boomerangs have been used for hunting for thousands of years, because they can fly more accurately to a target than a different shaped projectile. They weren't designed to return to the thrower. It's possible for boomerangs to return to the thrower because they have a forward speed, and a rotating speed, this combined ... |
How does alimony work, and why does it exist? | Alimony was intended as compensation for women who were homemakers , and would have trouble finding gainful employment as divorcees. Keep in mind that most women's jobs used to be for young unmarried women specifically. It is available on a gender-neutral basis nowadays and is much more rarely awarded in most states th... |
Why does an orgasm feel better if you have gone a long time without having one? | I've always thought it's the same concept as an earthquake. The more buildup equals a stronger release. I'm on some brain meds for a medical issue and I usually feel clouded and not fully myself. But when I have certain orgasms, like one in 15 or so, I get such a large rush it almost blocks the medicine and I get to fe... |
Why does the US stereotypically and actually seem to have such terrible public transit? | During our periods of greatest growth, we directed public funding to automobile infrastructure, with private vehicle ownership being viewed in the public eye as a symbol of prosperity. Then during periods of economic contraction, we sold much of our public transportation infrastructure off to private interests which is... |
what is it exactly that sunlight "quality" (brightness, intensity, clearness, etc) cannot be completely/very closely replicated by man-made lightbulbs? | It's mainly a problem with brightness. At the brightest, sunlight provides 1050 Watts per square meter of area. That's about the power of a regular microwave for just for a square meter! If you plug two microwaves into the same circuit and turn them on, you'll most likely blow the breaker. It would take a great amount ... |
why traditional Catholics are upset with Pope Francis. | Catholics get their beliefs from the Bible and tradition, which are both seen as equally important. The feet washing and the mozetta are part of tradition I suppose. Tradition is important mainly because of Mass where we celebrate the Eucharist, which is literally the body and blood of Christ. He also kissed the people... |
The theory that black holes can be used for time travel. | _URL_0_ The 3 red lines in this image are all the same length.They represent the speed you can move thru Space-Time. * A is moving thru space slowly, thru time quickly.* B is moving equally thru space and time.* C is moving thru space quickly, and thru time slowly. As you move faster thru space, your speed thru time de... |
How would some people get rich under a communist government? I don't know much about communism, but isn't everyone is supposed to have equal income/standards of living? | To answer your question. To get rich in communism is theoretically impossible; everyone receives their fair share no more or less. However, as many have pointed out political elites with absolute power become absolutely corrupted. This spreads wealth among the upper and inner circles of government and enterprise. Not t... |
Why is liver cancer a big problem, considering it can regenerate? Couldn't you just have the afflicted portion removed? | The liver does not have unlimited regenerative capability, you don't have redundancy for its functions, and the cancer has frequently grown and spread by the time it is showing obvious symptoms. _URL_1_ |
How does anxiety stop someone from being able to work or function like a normal person? | Anxiety affects everyone differently, but for me it's a plague of the what if's. My biggest fear is looking out of place in society or being unprepared for something. So say, for example, I need to drive to the store. What if I forget my wallet? What if I lock my keys in the car? What if I get the wrong items? What if ... |
The meaning of '¿' | In English and many related languages, a question mark '?' marks the end of a question. In Spanish, and a few other languages, an inverted question mark '¿' marks the *beginning* of a question. This can help readers to understand long or complex sentences. The conventional question mark lets you know that something is ... |
What makes the confederate flag so controversial? | One thing that hasn't been touched on by people here yet, is that some of the modern usage of the flag was specifically done to protest against civil rights. The confederate flag was reintroduced in Georgia in 1956 after it became illegal to segregate schools and flown on public buildings to protest that decision. The ... |
What is Final Fantasy? What is the plot, and why is it so damn famous? | Final Fantasy is a collection of games that share a few themes, but almost always occur in completely separate universes. These games are role playing games that are like stories/books/movies where you control the characters. Character development is central to the games. Character development occurs both in the story ... |
What are the main reasons for the lack of state-on-state warfare today? | According to Dan Carlin in show #59 'The Destroyer of Worlds', an exchange between the great powers today would likely have tens of millions of casualties within the first few hours. This is due to the greatly increased power of weaponry in the 20th century. |
Why people say "pardon my French" right before/after they swear | My french professor said it is because several words in French sound a lot like several cuss words in english. Sadly, I can't remember any of those words, but at least now you have something to google. |
Do nutrients that are awaiting evacuation from our bladders, ever get reabsorbed? | Nope, once it becomes a waste product it is expelled from the body, when it mixes with the urine there's no getting it back because it would be a waste to store it or try and process it, and urine is mostly toxic so once its in, its out.After doing a little bit of digging I have this to share: Parts of the body that ho... |
How are Mormons able to learn a language so quickly before their missions? | Most missionaries go to a place called an MTC for up to a month where they are taught the sales tactics needed to convert people. If you are not serving in a new language you then head out. If you are they sometimes keep you longer. They do a lot of exposure teaching where the teacher and whole class are only allowed t... |
If I'm trying to get the ace of spades, does picking 5 cards out of a fresh deck, have the same odds as picking 1 card 5 times - reshuffling in-between? | No. Let's simplify it. There is a bag with 3 balls: red, yellow, blue. You want to red one. If you pick 3 balls out of the bag, you just picked up all of them. You obviously have the red one. Anything else is impossible. If you pick 1 ball out 3 times, reshuffling in between, it's possible that you draw blue, blue, yel... |
Why do males get morning wood? | I'll relate what I've heard. My only expert credentials are having woken up with an erection almost every morning since puberty. As I understand it, while a person sleeps all the systems slow down. Respiration slows, circulation slows, and blood pressure drops. When a person wakes, the blood pressure and circulation cl... |
why are all colors together considered white and absence of color considered black, and not the other way around? | It's not a matter of consideration, it's a matter of fact. White light can be divided into all colors of light, with a prism, for instance. Blackness is simply the absence of any light. Now, the opposite is kind of true, if you're thinking of pigments. If something appears white, then it is reflecting all wavelengths o... |
If Pi never ends then how does it have a square root? | Do not mistake pi's decimal expansion never ending for pi not having a precise value. There are many ways we can express pi exactly, decimal representation just doesn't happen to be one of them. |
Why is there a gazillion of distros? | I'd just like to interject for a moment etc. etc . One of the main attractions of Linux is its adaptability to myriad different usage scenarios. E.g., you'd be unlikely to run a server on a stock Ubuntu install, because it has a load of extra stuff that a server would never use. Linux also has a lot of alternatives for... |
why I'm better at video games when I'm leaning forward at the edge of my chair as opposed to sitting back with my feet up. | Leaning forward causes you to focus more on what you're doing. So simply put, you're focusing more on your game, which makes you better. This was asked a while back. Lemme see if I can find the link to it. |
Why hasn't the teacher who called the police for the "hoax bomb" been arrested for filling a false police report? | It wasn't false, because the teacher legitimately thought it looked like a bomb. They clearly had never seen a bomb before and were incredibly fucking stupid, but a stupid police report is not the same as a false police report. |
why can a 17 year old be tried as an adult if they're considered mature enough, but an 18 year old can't be tried as a child if they're immature enough? | Waiving a juvenile to adult court has nothing to do with maturity. The thinking is that this person has been given numerous chances at rehabilitation and continues to ignore treatment options and has graduated to more violent crimes. Along with the crime where they may be judged as an adult, you're looking at their pas... |
Why can't humans control their organs and tell them to stop working? It's like our conscious mind is imprisoned by our subconscious mind | Living bodies are incredibly complex machines. Each part of these machines perform functions which we have no innate understanding of. Having the conscious ability to flip switches on things that we do not understand would be much like yanking out wires or tubes from under your car's hood. It may not instantly kill the... |
Are there any technologies that were invented before the science behind them was understood? | Well it depends completely on what you class as a technology, and adequate 'science' really. For example the fireworks made in ancient china were understood to the extent that a naked flame, or enough heat could ignite certain ground rocks in bright colours. However, is that an adequate explanation? To them it was, yes... |
If you have cancer of the blood, why can't they give new blood via blood transfusion to cure it? Surely new blood that hasn't got cancer would solve the issue? | Blood cancer is actually a cancer of the part of the bone that makes your blood . Blood cells don't reproduce on their own; they're made by other tissue. It is those tissues that need to be replaced. A blood transfusion would only temporarily relieve the symptoms, not cure the disease. |
if fentanyl is so lethal, why are drug dealers selling it? Won't it kill off all their customers? | I've recently learned that it may be 'trendy' for heroin addicts to locate the stuff people die from then look for the person selling it; expecting 'good stuff'. |
What would happen if a plane tried taking off in an extremely hot atmosphere? Like surrounded by fire | A plane certainly couldn't operate inside a fireball, and it probably wouldn't go very far in a hot atmosphere like the one you described either. Looking just at the engine, the fuel would likely break down fairly quickly due to the increased heat which would mean the engines would not be able to produce enough thrust ... |
How do ground-only animals such as deer handle sudden dramatic snowfall, like the 7 or so feet of snow that fell in this last storm in Buffalo, NY? | Northern Minnesota here and the worst winter in history last year if you factor the 2nd coldest with the 3rd snowiest. This year's deer count was down anywhere from 30 to 50 percent and a lot of restrictions on the deer hunting season were put in place. Moose also suffered and with high snow and a crust that often form... |
How do the detectors at Walmart or other stores work? | It is very possible. At a certain point when I was younger I had a bit of a shoplifting habit. I won't lie and say I needed to steal because it was totally just a self destructive habit I did for the rush. But yeah, self checkout was great. I would just have a full cart, and bag everything and click that it was going i... |
Why does having your back scratched feel so damn good? | Everything feels better when someone else does it .playing with hair, that knee tickle thing, etc .it's that and the fact that we can't touch our backs. Like the way dogs love having their belly's rubbed .since they can't reach them. Woop! |
Why are polygraph tests carried out by police if it's not sufficient evidence in the court and are often inaccurate? | A lot of wishful thinking. Police really, really want a magic box that can tell when people are lying, and that often clouds their judgment. The fact polygraph operators have a cozy relationship with law enforcement or even work for them doesn't help. It is the same reason they sometimes listen to psychics. They also h... |
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