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Given that the theory of innumerable alternate realities is true, why am I conscious in only one of them? | Because you're not in any of the others. You're in this one. There might be another version of you, but they're not you, just a person in another reality who shares your name and place in the world. |
I left a cup of water and plants out for a few days, when I came back it had tiny fish in it. How did that happen? | Don't forget that if your residential water uses chloramine, the fish would still die because chloramine doesn't evaporate as readily as chlorine . |
Why are there no comedic conservative pundits? | A lot of it has to do with the current culture that political parties are aligned with. For better or for worse, Republicans have distanced themselves from more artistic endeavors and diversity whereas Liberals have embraced them. In order to be a successful comedian, you're going to be working in an industry with a to... |
Why are you allowed to turn someone's life support machine off but not euthanise them like at Dignitas? | Because euthanasia is actively ending someone's life, whereas removing life support is more passive. That said, I believe that both are equal and should be allowed |
- Why is it legal for courts and police to lie to us, but it's a felony for us to lie to them? | The law is always about weighing the public good versus the rights of the public. The supreme court made a decision a long time ago that it's better for society to allow police to use deception to hunt criminals than to force them to be honest all the time. If the cops couldn't lie, it would be almost impossible to cat... |
How do people running for presidential office keep up with their current political office while spending a seemingly full-time job campaigning? | There is very little work that one must actually do as a politician. You don't have to propose bills. You don't have to show up to committee. You don't have to vote unless it's close. If you're a governor, all you really need to do is sign them. Staff can take care of the negotiations on your behalf. You lose clout and... |
What can hackers really do with just a person's social security number? | Identity theft with a SSN isn't usually about discovering secrets, but more about shoving the unwanted cost or burden of assets over to other people. This is usually by doing things like getting a bank account/credit card to charge and max out, signing a lease/buying a house, or using it as a way to facilitate launderi... |
If bending with my knees is supposedly more healthy for my bones, why is bending with my back so much easier and natural? | Actually bending down using your back is a habit learned--not necessarily natural. Watch any toddler bend down to pick something up and they'll squat. |
What is the societal differences between a republic and a federation? | They refer to different aspects of a country's government. It's possible for a country to be both, neither or any combination. In its broadest definition, a republic is a country which does not have a monarchy. So most countries are republics. There's also a more specific definition that says a republic is a country go... |
Why are Hospitals almost always religiously affiliated? | Prior to development of robust governmental social services, the vast majority of charity was provided by religious organizations. These organizations continue to provide a large amount of charity care, and the hospitals they founded are still named after them. In some cases they are still affiliated with a religious o... |
Why some video games allow in game, real time graphics changes, and why other video games require a restart before applying the graphics changes. | All depends on how the game is programmed for the most part. There's a few things that demand a restart like say a game had both DX10 and 12 versions then switching between is something that cant be done while the api is already running. Or if you have a 32 bit and 64 bit version for example. Otherwise though it's stra... |
How does the U.S. government read the FCC comments? | Real simple, they don't. They aggregate similar letters and count them up and weight them to get a concensus. Then they disregard the letters and do what they want anyway, they don't have enough to answer to us.We don't sign their checks so why would they listen to our baseless opinions? |
I have recently been able to smell what I ate in my urine. Is there something wrong with me or did I gain a superpower? | Tons of things can have an effect on the smell of urine. Maybe you're dehydrated. Maybe you ate something specific. Maybe you have diabetes. Maybe you have a urinary tract infection and your pee is cloudy and foul smelling. Maybe it's stones. A simple test at the doctor would really narrow it down. **One thing is for s... |
Why is it said that consuming burned foods cause cancer? | Here's a not quite ELI5 link from a government site on the topic: _URL_1_ Basically, specific chemicals formed in the cooking process are correlated to potentially damage DNA . |
How come rappers like Snoop Dogg is publicly known to smoke marijuana but never gets arrested or caught over it? | You know you can walk up to a cop and tell him you like smoking marijuana. As long as you don't currently have it on you and you are not visibly intoxicated, he cannot do anything to you at all. |
The religion of the flying spaghetti monster | Pastafarianism was developed initially because religious teachings were being introduced as an alternative theory in science classes. To anyone with a brain, that's messed up. Science: Snakes evolved from lizards.Religion: God cut their limbs off because Sneks r bad. Pastafarianism teaches us that the FSM created the w... |
why do old pictures not have people with acne in them as opposed to today where it seems a lot of people have acne? | Another reason could be Max Factor pancake makeup. This was the primary foundation that was used by women and teenage girls for just about 20 years after WWII. It's extremely thick, and is still a favorite of theatre actors and professional make-up artists because it basically gives you a flesh-toned blank slate. It li... |
What does it mean to be a Shakespearean actor? | It means they specialize in Shakespeare. It's not really any different from comedy actors, or action stars, or any other subclass of actor. |
Why did monks have bald spots on the back of their heads as portrayed in old paintings? | It's called a [tonsure]. I'm sure the practice was sold to younger monks as a sign of religious devotion. But I'm willing to bet it actually started out as some bright spark's solution to male pattern boldness. |
Why are so many non-Catholics going crazy over Pope Francis when John Paul II was literally a saint? | He has a better PR team than Ratzinger - that's essentially it. They let him say a few sentences or two that sound liberalized, then roll it back later when nobody's paying attention. Oh, he didn't mean _that_. But he's the same sort of person. He has the same views and has done the same sorts of things. He wasn't vote... |
What are the big controversies with Putin? | He's former KGB, his enemies have a habit of suffering acute heavy metal poisoning , he's connected to a lot of government corruption to help his friends get rich, and he's pushing the invasion of Ukraine. I'm sure there's some specifics I've left out. |
Why isn't our sun and solar system slowly being sucked in to the black hole at the center of the Milky Way? | It's like why the earth doesn't fall into the sun. The solar system is orbiting the galaxy's center, including the black hole. |
How did banks work before computers? Couldn't you withdraw all your money from 2 different banks before they contacted each other? | You actually still can. It's called [check kiting] and it's super illegal, you will get caught, blah blah, disclaimer. Get three separate checking accounts. Write a check from account 1 to account 2 for whatever you would like. Go to bank 2 and cash it. Now you can either run like the full force of the FBI is on your t... |
What exactly causes a plane to stall when it's climbing? | The angle between the wing and the oncoming air is called the angle of attack. Stall occurs when the angle of attack gets too high. This is because a large region of separated air forms above the wing. This separated flow has a higher pressure than normal flow, which means the wing will create much less lift. Stall is ... |
If hot things have lots of energy... | What you're paying for is the difference in energy between the cold bit and the rest of the world. Energy on its own isn't much use - different levels from which you can extract work, now that's worth having. |
Is there any evidence that suggests covering your webcam is anything other than an act of paranoia? Can a webcam transmit video without the indicator light being on? | 'Sup! I work for a computer security and antivirus company. It can happen, but how *often* it actually happens is up for debate. In general, most people who are using computers for illegal spy-ish type things are trying to make money doing so. Targeting and watching **one** person is not a very efficient way to do so, ... |
How does retirement work? | It depends on what type of pay you're talking about. Social Security is established by the government and they keep track of that information through your tax forms every year. You can also establish a retirement savings plan through your company which creates an account at a bank that can transfer over if you switch c... |
Why during sleep paralysis do you see shadow figures? | Check this podcast out, OP: _URL_0_ Excellent ELI5 type explanation of sleep paralysis, including all the weird stuff. Also, if you don't already listen to Stuff You Should Know with Josh and Chuck, you should! |
The role of the U.S. in the Egyptian protests. | Without a doubt the US provides military aid and resources to Egypt. That's not to say the military coup would have been impossible without US military aid, but the US undoubtedly helps create a more powerful Egyptian military.Is it wrong to wish the answer to this was "absolutely nothing"? |
How does a popular free app with no ads make money? | They don't generate money, they're generating brand value and market value. When they are purchased by another company, the purchasing company must pay for the perceived value in brand or market. There are actually third party organizations that estimate large brand values. This is inherently much more risky as brand a... |
Why aren't presidents held responsible for promises they fail to keep? | You can vow to do what you can to achieve an aim. But take guantanamo. Congress won't let him close it. At least not in a real way. They deny any attempt to build a US mainland prison. Well he is only one branch, he literally can not do anything if they oppose him on it. That's why nobody blames obama for guantanamo be... |
How does jumping off a bridge kill you? | Have you ever done a belly flop? It is into water, but it hurts like hell. Imagine doing one after falling 300 ft or so instead of a few inches. Also, even if you do survive the actual hit fall into the water, chances are you will be injured making it almost certain that you'll drown.Water has surface tension, basicall... |
Why is Crossfit so controversial? | [The biggest problem with Crossfit is that some people that teach it have no concept of proper workout processes. They'll continue to push and push the people in the class regardless of whether it's safe to do so. Rhabdomyolysis, a disease almost unheard of in other circles, even has cartoons about it in Crossfit liter... |
Why do we study space? Why do we send people there, how does it benefit us? | curiosity is one of the major factors really. we just want to know there is more out there than just what we see and know. Aside from that space offers a lot of clues to explain how the universe works, so by studying what is happening out in space it can help us figure out how the universe works at it's most fundamenta... |
Why is sexual orientation excluded as a possible mental illness? | I think it has more to do with natural variation in human preferences. Being heterosexual is 'useful' from an evolutionary stand point, yet variation of sexual orientation and preferences doesn't need to be assumed to be a mental illness . Mental illnesses are generally much more problematic in terms of general life fu... |
In TV and movies, when ever a police officer enters a dark house or room, they never turn on the light switch but instead they use their flashlights. Why is that? | Another reason is that messing around with light switches in an unfamiliar house might be too distracting when in a situation where you might be attacked. Light switches can also be triggers for bombs, or hold evidence; just shining a light doesn't disturb the scene. You would hate to smear the bloody fingerprint on th... |
What protects journalists from being interrogated by the government for information on illegal activity? | Unless you're being charged with a crime, they don't detained you for more than 24 hours. And there's no requirement to answer their questions. And then later you can file a complaint and Sue the dept. So all that paperwork and investigation and negative press coverage for the PD with no information gained. So why woul... |
There were more than 13 British colonies in North America at the time of the American Revolution. Why didn't Nova Scotia, Quebec and the rest of Canada join the Union? | /r/AskHistorians has dealt with this question a few times already: * [Why didn't the Canadian colonies join?]* [Why didn't other british colonies join?]* [Why didn't Quebec join?] A basic summary is that Quebec had recently been appeased by the Quebec Act, and Nova Scotia and Newfoundland were much more British and dep... |
How does the switch on an SD card keep it from being written to? | From the [wiki page], it seems to be that all SD card readers/writers check to see what position the switch is in before writing. If it's in the lock position, or the notch is there without a switch, it will refuse to write. |
Why isn't Google Fiber expanding faster? Is it not performing? Are people not switching service as fast as they anticipated? | Laying down fiber is expensive. Unlike at & t or comcast, Google can't rely on an existing infrastructure to deliver their service. Tapping into existing lines is much cheaper than laying the lines down yourself. |
As a shy person, how come it's easy to socialize with little kids but with people my age I feel uncomfortable and shy. | The same thing usually happens to me. My understanding of it is that with kids, you don't really have to worry about what they think of you, because most kids really don't care about who you are as a person with socioeconomic status, moreso how interesting the things you talk about are. |
Why do humans develop so much slower than other animals? | Some of the reason is the size of our brain. We are born much less developed than other animals, because otherwise our brain would be too big to fit though the cervix. I'm don't an educational background in this. So maybe someone more qualified can fill in the details. |
How are they able to have so many things in Scribblenauts? | I remember looking into this. The developers kind of took thousands of common words and kinda of 20 questions-ed it. They broke it down from simple categories to more complex ones that the computer could narrow down to the nearest synonym. You'll notice it recognizes a lot of words, but the art graphics aren't often ve... |
Why do we believe that aliens are smarter than us? | - Any alien that reaches Earth would probably have to be more advanced than us because they developed interstellar travel before us. - Any alien that manages to communicate with us from a distance would have to have similar radio technology as us, and in fact had it many years ago due to how long it would take signals ... |
Who owns the United States Federal Reserve? If it is the government, explain why we need to pay interest on the created money? | We don't pay interest on the money. Or rather, we do--the Fed generally gets the money it's created into the economy by buying bonds, and we pay interest on the bonds that the Fed holds--but then the Fed gives all its profits back to the government. [Last year the Treasury got $75.4 billion of the Fed's $77 billion pro... |
Why dont poor countries allow tourists to stay indefinitely | Do you have an example of such country? Tourism is only beneficial when it brings external revenue. Eventually you will need a job and then you just become a burden on the poor country. That's what immigration rules are for, to separate the ones that want to move in and contribute to the society and the ones that won't... |
Do animals get any enjoyment out of watching a TV show or film? | Some great answers here, but let's not forget that their humans watch TV for hundreds of hours a year. There has got to be some learned behavior here.My dog goes crazy at the TV if there are any animals on it and goes up to it and barks loudlyMy German Shepherd gets up to bark anytime a dog appears on the tv screen Or ... |
What's the difference between the alcohol we drink vs. the alcohol we use as mouthwash? | The alcohol we drink is [ethanol]. The same stuff is used in mouthwash because you might accidentally drink it & they don't want people getting poisoned. For uses where people won't be drinking it, ethanol can be [denatured] by adding chemicals that make it taste *really* bad or are flat out poisonous. This makes sure ... |
Why are beauty pageants for little girls even legal and accepted by society? | Ostensibly, these beauty pageants don't judge these girls in a sexual context. Of course, the reality of it may suggest that's not true. But that's how it is legal and accepted in society. It's sold as a gloirified talent show. |
Why Is It A Big Deal That China Is Making Islands In the South China Sea? | Imagine that you and I are neighbors and you have a kick ass pool in your backyard and I don't, and this summer is a real scorcher. Now let's say that I take my big floating inflatable castle, and put it in your pool. And now I say that, because that castle is my property, that means your pool is also my property. Now ... |
How does a vasectomy work? | To add to what everyone else is saying, the fluid you ejaculate is not produced in the testicles--only the sperm in it. The total volume of sperm is about the size of a period on a printed page. The fluid is all produced in the prostate. A vasectomy severs the connection between the testicles and the prostate. The ends... |
Why are we able to put animals to sleep with little effort but it's extremely difficult to execute humans? Why not just use the same drugs the animals receive? | For one, doctors aren't allowed to take part in executions of humans, and two, we have to import the drugs necessary to put humans down, and a bunch of countries will refuse to export these drugs to us if they know we're going to use them to kill people. So we have to come up with crazy combinations that we can get wit... |
Why is internet explorer hated so much? | One other thing is that MS basically decided that IE was finished and didn't update it for years. It got passed by browsers that were being proactively developed. |
How can Banksy manage to stay completely anonymous all of these years? | It's well known who Banksy is, its been published in the papers - they're not wrong. I guess the question is more, why does his persona as Banksy stay around even though we know his identity? I guess it just adds to the whole graffiti artist image, people are willing to buy into it and don't want it to be over - that's... |
If a minor who was made to go to court to prove her competency to have an abortion fails how then is she competent to have/raise a baby? | Because those laws are not considering the welfare of the child or the mother. The only reason for those laws is so conservative lawmakers can shove their religious beliefs down everyone else's throats. |
What is the difference between regular, plus, and premium gas? | So every response so far is 99.9% incorrect. The difference between the gasoline types is the ROAD /2). Quick background knowledge:RON is a measure of the gasolines performance under idle conditionsMON is a measure of the gasoline performance under heavy load. Because this is ELI5, I won't give you the full meaning of ... |
Why is it that when you step onto a broken escalator your body still seems to expect it to be moving and you become completely off balance? | The standard size of a non-escalator step is different than the size of an escalator step. Your muscle memory is used to walking up steps that are all generally about the same size. Escalator steps are smaller, and your muscle memory isn't expecting it to be different than regular stairs. |
Are there any U.S. documents that are so top-secret that the president doesn't even know about them? | The President holds the highest security level so, no, but he can't just demand to see anything he wants. Top Secret is the highest level of clearance but that only lets you view Top Secret documents relevant to your job. If you work on jet engines for fighters you don't also get to look at troop deployments in the Mid... |
How could Mt. Gox lose $478 million dollars in bitcoins, almost everything they had, and not realize it? | Keep in mind that nobody knows the answer to this question except for Mt.Gox themselves. People on /r/bitcoin are just as confused as you are. It shouldn't be possible for many reasons. A lot of people think that the money wasn't stolen, Mt.Gox just lost the private keys for their cold storage system and are pretending... |
How can banks charge overdraft fees for money I don't even have? | Chase does that shit all the time. They always find a way to put charges in so that they can guarantee an overdraft. I had them for years and they did that countless times. I'd recommend canceling them if you can.Not all charges are instantly posted to your account. In this fashion you can charge more than you have bef... |
How more CPU cores improve performance | Each core is essentially its own CPU. Some stuff is shared between them sometimes, but still, each one can run programs at the same time as the others. So with fewer cores, all the programs you're running are sharing the cores more. When two programs run on a single core, it can't actually run them at the same time. So... |
Why are the quality of computer monitors better than tvs ? | I thought it's just that you generally sit closer to your monitor than your TV, so it has to have higher resolution. |
Regular vs Premium vs Ultimate gasoline | Octane is defined as a fuel's resistance to knocking. The higher the number, the more it can be compressed before igniting. Engine knock occurs when fuel in a combustion chamber ignites before it should, which disrupts the engine's operation. Most engines are designed to operate on relatively low-octane, regular, unlea... |
Isn't cheap oil a good thing ? | It's good for the consumer, but the stock market sees it as an oversupply caused by weakening industry. I think the market will wake up by the end of the year and realize things aren't so bad. |
What is the difference between an electric field and an electric potential? | The field is just how quickly the potential is changing through space . The electric field is a vector whereas the potential is a scalar. So given a charge distribution, it's often easier to calculate the potential first and then find the field from that. |
What is the difference between the third and fourth dimension? Also, where would a fourth axis (like the x,y and z axes) point to? | I'll explain the difference between n-th dimensions generally and how to plot a 4th dimension with an example reassembling plots and 3d words you already know. Basically, a 2 dimension world means that everything existing in this word can be decomposed between 2 parts independent from each other . In this 2d world you ... |
Why do orthodontists put a permanent retainer on your bottom teeth, but not your top teeth? | my sisters got their retainers on top and bottom, but mines just bottom. the orthodontist said it was because there wasn't enough room to comfortably fit on top. |
If a country such as North Korea were to launch a nuke at South Korea, Japan, or the US, is there anyway for it to be stopped before detonation? | North Korea could basically lob a nuke at Seoul using a trebuchet so no, there's no practical way of intercepting that. Japan would be tough as well because the flight time is so short. If they launched against the US we'd have fair notice and a chance of downing it.Navel vessels armed with Aegis Ballistic missile defe... |
If you were travelling faster than the speed of sound, what would happen if you screamed? | Basically, nothing special. If you clapped your hands, you'd be displaced far enough that the sound will never reach your ear. If you screamed, some of the sound would reach your ear so it would be muffled.. This is assuming you weren't deaf from the air blowing past your face. |
Why does Japan have such a high suicide rate? | Although there are a lot of valuable observations here, there is quite a lot of speculation going on in this thread. I'll be downvoted for this, but the truth is suicide is complex. We have to understand all sides, such as whether or nor suicide is viewed in Eastern culture the same way it is in Western culture as anot... |
How do rockets fly through space if they have no atmosphere to push against? | Rockets eject exhaust, which flows out of the nozzle. The equal and opposite reaction is for the rocket to be propelled away from the exhaust. It's pushing against itself. |
Why shouldn't I eat ice cream for breakfast? | Having an unstable blood sugar level increases the risk of developing type II diabetes, as it puts a lot of stress on the pancreas, which produces insulin, the signal hormone responsible for activating sugar metabolism inside cells. If you stress the pancreas by having a generally high or unstable blood sugar, it has a... |
How exactly do Internet service providers "monitor" for illegal downloads/torrenting/etc.? | ISPs for the most part only respond to 3rd party complaints or if your connection is causing technical issues to their network. Using a VPN or peerblock can prevent a ton of hassle for you and them. It's also dependent on the torrent itself. If you download a free Linux distro DVD via torrent or something public domain... |
How is it possible to have unknown elements on the periodic table where the atomic number is known but not the actual element? | We don't discover a new element, then measure its atomic number. An element is **defined** by its atomic number, even if it doesn't yet exist. It is kind of like knowing there has to be a mile marker 118 on 200-mile highway, even if you've never been that far. The marker itself might be missing, but there will be place... |
why do poachers have to kill an elephant to get its ivory? | As /u/FoneTap correctly [pointed out earlier today], a large portion of the tusk remains inside the elephant's head, meaning that there is a lot of valuable ivory that a poacher would leave behind if he just sawed off the external tusk. And in addition, poachers find it more convenient, more safe, and more cheap to kil... |
Why do so many people hate Israel? | Because Israel terrorizes the Middle East with the military and financial support of its mighty ally, the U.S. While everyone questioned the U.S. support for our NATO alies in Libya, no one in Congress or the White House would ever question the U.S. supporting Israel in any military conflict. Israel is basically a spoi... |
Is the electricity from the lighter in my car essentially free? | Would you like to know how little it matters? The highest cost of electricity in the Continental US is less than $0.20/KWh. 1 KWh could completely charge the battery in my phone over 300 times. Even using very large numbers for inefficiencies in the process, that's still only like a penny for a full charge. It's litera... |
What does f(x) mean? | f is a machine. Put something inside the brackets aka. substitute 'x', and the machine gives you another value. So in your example of graphs, put in one coordinate and you get a other coordinate. In R2 that would be your x and y values. |
The US Treasury has 8,133 metric tons of gold stored. What good does it do for us? | It almost certainly doesn't do us any good in the present. But at the time the repositories were set up, the US was officially on the gold standard. There was no provision that the gold be liquidated if we ever left the gold standard. So while there is no longer an urgent reason to have them, there is also no urgent re... |
How come we wake up skinnier than when we fall asleep? | OK this is form my Biochem course:When you eat, your body says; 'Yay, resources let's store them!!!'So it stores them in the form of Glycogen - long branched chain of glucose. Glycogen is stored in Liver and Muscles! Glycogen is used when, generally speaking, you're not eating. You don't eat at night. You wake a bit sk... |
In India, what happens if lower caste person becomes suddenly rich? | > As caste system is permanent from the day you were born to the day you die. That's pretty much what defines a caste system, that degree or permanence. Note this kind of class divisions are not unique to caste systems. In countries with an entrenched aristocracy, the noble classes tended to look down up and tried to e... |
Why are "-ese" used to describe only Asian people? | > But i can't think of a western country that uses that ending for its people. Portuguese, Maltese, Faroese.Your assertion is incorrect. There are more -ese outside of Asia than in it. Examples include Maltese, Sudanese, Congolese, Portuguese and Guyanese. Most Asian countries are not -ese. Examples include Korean, Ind... |
Why doesn't Target get hate to the level Walmart does for employee wages? | I think a large part of it is that the Walton *family* [is one of the richest families in the world]: > Sam Walton and his brother Bud opened their first Walmart discount store in 1962. Today three family members serve on Walmart’s board of directors; Rob is the chair, and sits on the board with his brother Jim and his... |
How are racing competitions fair if the competing cars don't match up at the starting point? | A few hundred feet doesn't make that much difference in a 500 mile race. It might not be perfectly fair, but it is fair enough. |
How can journalist legally interview wanted criminals without having to disclose their location? | They most likely come to an agreement or there is some law. Kind of like how a lawyer can know all of the crimes you've commited but by law cannot tell anyone. |
Why is there a limit to how fast we can actually run? Why can't we run as fast as cars? | Your electric board might go faster, but it doesn't accelerate forever--there's an upper bound to how fast it will go. It's limited by the power of the motor & the weight of whatever is on the board. In the same way, you can run really fast for 1 minute, and maybe if you got a better motor or had less to transport you ... |
why do celebrities such as Kevin James, real last name Knipfing, change their names? | Michael Fox" and "Emily Stone," respectively, were already in use. Even in som cases when int was not a requirementKaty Perry is born Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson and would be confused with Kate Hudson People with famous relative can change name to succeed on their on merit/ always be taught of as Xs son etc.Nicolas Cage,... |
Why did pirates get scurvy but Eskimos don't | Also eskimos ate a lot of liver, one bite of a polar bear liver and boom you are set nutritionally , I know this sounds like a joke but I'm serious haha source: literally just went over this today in nutrition class |
How exactly Scarlett Johansson's phone was "hacked" and pictures stolen from it. | My absolute best guess is rogue/malware applications installed from the various app stores/markets. They have the ability to view and send your texts back-home, so why not pictures located on the device? I doubt that one of these celebrities is installing an FTP service on their phones to transfer files from their phon... |
Could there ever be a country where everybody lives a rich and lavish lifestyle? | It really depends heavily on what you mean by a rich & lavish lifestyle. If you're talking about everyone being able to afford expensive stuff, then yes it could certainly happen, but much of a lavish lifestyle is based on having the money to pay people do do the day to day drudgeries and undesirable jobs. A highly pai... |
Why do unions protect bad workers? | The union protects all of the workers. As a result, the bad workers are protected along with the good ones sometimes. There are times when unions get bad press for protecting bad workers with the rules. And that's ok, but the reality is that the bad worker shouldn't have been there in the first place. In places where m... |
Why did the US storm heavily defensed Normandy why not somewhere else? | Normandy wasn't THAT heavily defended. The Omaha beach you see in movies like Saving Private Ryan was much tougher than other beaches, so it is not a good representation of how heavily defended the area was. Another thing that made it tougher than it should have been is that bombers missed their targets the day before ... |
Why are toilets in North America different from their European counterparts? Is it possible to purchase a "European" toilet in NA? | The 'european' toilet a has the shelf to examine your stool. These tend to be more common in Austria/Germany than other European countries. The 'american toilet' is most similar to those used in the UK.Why would you want waste to be held and "exhausted" in the front of the toilet? What is the advantage to it?Your USA o... |
/ELI15: It's the Volts that thrill, but the Amps that kill! | You don't die if a single penny dropped from a empire state building by a tourist hits you. You could die if a truckload of pennies were dropped. |
What the hell is going on in India right now? | > How the hell did it get here? Has it always been like this? WHY? Good question. Yes, it has always been like this and it is not sudden at all. I am a woman who grew up in India and 99% of the Indian women I know have been sexually harassed in India. Seriously. No part of India is truly safe for women but Delhi , is i... |
Why do we just throw away aluminum foil? It seems odd we produces massive amounts of metal and just use it in a disposable manner. How is this economical? | Aluminum foil is expensive enough at the store to cover more than enough profit for all of the chains of companies that brought it from out of the ground to your home in its final processed format, so there's no economic argument for recycling it. But the other reason why nobody demands that you recycle it, unlike beve... |
How severe are "Lashes" as a punishment, like the ones given out in Saudi Arabia? | I was wondering this too. In the Sharpe books, Sharpe gets sentenced to 2,000 lashes, which was considered a virtual death sentence. I'm guessing British Army lashes in the Napoleonic Wars were a bit severe. |
Why can we not make an electric vehicle that recharges itself indefinitely as it rolls, like with alternators in each wheel? | Where would you be getting to motive power to make the vehicle roll? Both electric motors and electrical generators are less than 100% efficient. To pick some numbers out of the air for the purpose of illustration, if your motor is 80% efficient you lose 20% of the energy you put into it right there, then if the genera... |
Assuming the giant-impact hypothesis is correct, is there an identifiable remnant of the crater from which the moon formed? Or is it so ancient that it's been long unidentifiable/covered? | [Look at Mars's entire northern hemisphere]. Notice how it's much lower than the southern one? It's probably a crater. Ours would be even bigger. Given that Earth is much more geologically active than Mars and it was likely mostly liquid at the time of the impact, there won't be a structure to go around looking for.The... |
Why would you remain silent if you are innocent? | If you say something stupid, they can nail you to the wall with it. That's why you need a lawyer to speak for you *especially* if you're innocent.Legal codes--municipal, state and federal--have become so massive and complex that each of us is surely "guilty" of some crime, no matter how ethically we try to live. And yo... |
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