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when looking at a picture of the earth, why are some parts of the earth green? Am I literally looking at millions of little trees? | Well, or grass, or shrubs. But yes, it's green from space for the same reason it's green on the ground.Yes, a lot of the earth is either forest or plains, so you are looking at green plants. |
Why are we worried of leaving microorganisms/microbes on other planets? | If we ever in the future want to more closely study those planets and try to find evidence of current or past life then we need to be able to guarantee that any evidence we find wasn't accidentally brought there by us. The same goes for all kinds of other tests we might perform that analyze the environment. We want to ... |
How can a country survive without government? | Usually, they don't. Some other power asserts itself in the power vacuum, and/or the overall structure suffers serious and debilitating destruction. |
Why do "all-black" institutions still exist? Primarily, universities/colleges. | > why shun certain races? historically black colleges and universities don't shun other races. also i bet the people that attend them interact with tons people of other races/cultures seeing as how black universities are one of the only places black people are around only/mostly black people. in most other aspects of t... |
What am I actually "seeing" when my eyes are closed? | A blind man once told me that the things you see when you are in a 100% dark room is your eye pretending to see. It's not normal for a seeing eye that it just sees nothing but darkness so your nerves are sending signals to your brain telling it that you're still seeing stuff. He told me about 5 years ago so I can't rem... |
When people talk about going on "detox", what toxins, if any, are actually getting cleansed out..? | Toxin = organic material produced by other organisms which harm the body. Examples are botox, venom. Most people have none inside them unless they have an active infection which would be apparent. Things that are not toxins would be heavy metals or free radicals. So when these diets talk about detox, they're BS. |
How was Binary Code "discovered" in the 1600's? What were its applications? | Binary is just the name for a number system in base-2. There is nothing computer-related about that, rather, the way we build computers makes use of the simplicity of binary numbers, and this same simplicity lead to mathematicians in the past using it. The real fascination of binary number system is in that it's the si... |
If rounds can easily pass through car doors, why do police use them as protection? | The LAPD, and I'm sure other departments as well, put Kevlar plates in their vehicle doors. And even if the door is unarmored, it's better than nothing and also provides a rest for a gun to allow more accurate shooting. |
What caused college degrees to become equivalent, or have the perception of being equivalent, to what high school diplomas used to be? | Quite simply, [it has become much more common than it used to be.] It's about as common to have a bachelor's degree today, as to have a high school diploma several decades ago. |
how Saudi arabi managed to be chosen to head UN human rights panel. | They aren't. Germany is heading the council although their term ends in December. S.A are one of the members and they are standing for election. I hope the U.N. Have better judgement than the I.O.C. And FIFA.They are not the "head" of the HRC, they were elected a \'chair\' on key section the council. Germany is the cur... |
How are AR15 rifles any different than another semi-automatic firearm? | Your question is more or less the point. It isn't different than any other semi automatic weapon, at least not functionally. You could make arguments about ergonomics, I suppose, but the main issue is that people are hyper focusing on the one thing, not realizing it's actually not that uncommon. I guess in that sense, ... |
What does cold/flu medicine do if you don't have a cold or flu? | ask the crew at /r/drugnerds. I guarantee you'll get a ton of answers. About half will be unreadable for anyone without an advanced degree in chemistry. |
What are the white trails those planes leave on the sky and what's its purpose? | There's no purpose, it's just a natural result of burning jet fuel. When you burn any sort of hydrocarbon, the waste results are CO2 & water. That high up in the sky, the water vapor condenses into clouds. _URL_0_ |
Why was the US effort to rehabilitate Japan's economy after WW2 such a huge success? | Because of the efforts of the Japanese people themselves. Same for Europe and the Marshall plan.The US tried to do the same thing in Iraq, but all the Iraqi's wanted to do was kill each other. It comes down to the cultures involved. |
Could I live on a diet of protein shakes and vitamin supplements alone? Why not? | Protein shakes and vitamins might not be a good idea, but then there's [this] stuff, which is designed to be a food replacement. |
what is a "reddit circlejerk"? | It's a subject that no matter how much it will be debated with facts wil be either massively upvoted or massively downvoted because the general thinking in that subreddit has already sided on this subject. So even if you were to show that x sports player isn't that great of a player the sub makes it, you will get downv... |
How are train engines able to pull enormous amounts of cargo? | If you are asking about the traction of steel on steel, it's about 25%. That is, a 200 ton locomotive can pull with about 50 tons of tractive effort. Most locomotives have all wheels driven as others have mentioned. Also locomotives can put sand on the rails when they need extra traction for starting or if there is a s... |
how do hunters do more for the conservation of species than anti-hunters? | Hunters usually have the most to gain from conservation. If species go extinct, that's one less thing they can hunt. Whether that actually translates to hunters actually going out and fighting the destruction of species, I couldn't tell you. |
Why is facebook stock falling? It's not like people have stopped using Facebook and they still make a profit. | This is a great question. People bought Facebook not because it was doing well at the time, but on the hopes that it would skyrocket in the near future like Google did in its early days. This is what we call 'speculation'. They were doing alright, they are still doing alright, but not incredibly amazing. This is causin... |
What determines the blood type you will be born with? Why do we have different blood types in the first place? | We have two proteins on our red blood cells. We call the first A, and the second B. So what happens? If you have just A, then you have A blood type etc. If you have both you have AB. If you have none of them, you have O. Now what happens with rh factor? You are either positive or negative. It is referring to another an... |
Why can STIs be transmitted by genetalia but not by hand to hand contact? | It depends on the STI, but some of them can. Chlamydia infections of the eye are recognized by the WHO as a public health crisis in 42 countries and cause blindness in close to 2 million people annually. It's commonly spread through hand to hand contact. Gonorrhea and herpes can also be spread through hand to hand cont... |
How does dyslexia affect people reading non-phonetic writing systems? eg. Chinese | It's sometimes perceived as being a lot worse to be dyslexic for those using languages such as Chinese. Dyslexia affects the component in the language system called phonology, which results in difficulty in both oral language and reading due to slower speed in retrieving and decoding words. It affects the fluency and a... |
why can a fly find it's way in to my house through a small crevice, but can't find it way back out even with doors/windows wide open? | The fly came in either following a scent or looking for warmth. As long as what it wants is still inside, its not looking for a way out. Take out your trash, empty the litter box, and clean your bathroom, and you'll have fewer flies. |
The controversy around the Kennedy assassination | It has never been definitely explained and at this point, with so much time passed, it may never be. You won't find it explained here. All you'll find are people repeating their favorite theories. Some people have devoted decades to proving exactly what happened and so far none have been successful. They have some inte... |
Why don't homeless people in places with extremely high cost of living just move to places where housing is more affordable? | Takes money to move and they'd still be homeless when they get there, so why would they? |
What is so interesting about a "moon eclipse"? | Simple because the phases of the moon you see are simply you looking at the moon from different angles in relation to the sun. If you look at the moon when it is completely facing the sun you see a full moon. If you look at it when the moon is inbetween the earth and moon you see a new moon. If you're looking at the mo... |
Cryptocurrencies. What's stopping anyone from claiming they have x amount of any cryptocurrency if they're not supposed to be traceable? | I can claim to have billions of dollars. If I want to buy something I'm going to have to put out the cash. It's exactly the same with any other form of payment. |
Why don't game developers usually have their multiplayer games go cross-platform? | You mean why can't MW3 players on the XBox play against MW3 players on the PS3? Just off the top of my head? It would require competing console manufacturers to cooperate with each other, which would be especially difficult given that most of the networking that enables online gaming runs on systems developed by the co... |
Why do we cover our mouths when we're shocked or upset? | We've been told to cover our mouths if it wide open, that it shows ill manners not to cover the inside of our mouths should it inevitably show.I agree with prollymarlee pretty much. There may also be a primitive protection response. The need to protect the face, while still being able to see, would bring that response.... |
Why is Jesus often depicted as Caucasian when he was born in the Middle Eastern area. | Most artistic depictions of him are by Europeans. It's not uncommon for people all over the world to depict Jesus as their race. There have been images of Black Jesus and Korean Jesus .[A Bethlehem male today] and nothing in the Bible suggests that Jesus looked different from other people in that part of the world. |
- > Big O Notation | Here's an example I stole from another thread. Imagine you are mowing one strip of a lawn and you always mow at the same speed. If we double the length of the strip, it takes twice as long to mow it, right? In big O notation this is referred to as linear time, because for any input , the output is directly related to t... |
Why do we lose the ability to question things when we're dreaming? | Lucid dreamer reporting in. Been lucid dreaming for a few years now. I can't stand it anymore because your dreams start to get screwed up if you know you're dreaming, but your body is fighting you on it.One thing I 've noticed when I have dreams is that I occasionally have a single moment of rational thought, which alm... |
Why should we scan instead of photocopying? | Well, a good place to start might be to explain that you'll have a hard time finding a photocopier that still uses good old-fashioned xerography. Nowadays, they are just digital scanners with printers attached. So one way or the other they will end up being digitally scanned. If your wife's aunt wants to have copies in... |
How does the body decide "Well, that's enough rubbing. Time to orgasm." | As far as the neurological mechanism, I'm not sure, but the length of time to achieve orgasm is something that's been fine-tuned by evolution, as is the recovery time afterwards. The head of a man's penis is shaped so as to pump semen *out* of a woman's vagina if it was already in there , and his recovery time is just ... |
How does a jumbo jet turn on its reverse thrusters? Are they the same that give him forward thrust? Does it brake somehow and then turn on reverse? | [They redirect the thrust from their engines]. As you can see in the image, basically the forward thrust from the engine is redirected by the large metal flaps so that the overall thrust pushes the plane backwards. There's another method used in some turbofan jet engines but I'm not very familiar with it. |
What are the science protesters protesting? | mostly the fact that people are more and more willing to value personal anekdotes over scientific facts. this is a trend that's showing in many different fields and topics. Examples that come to mind would be anti-vaccination movements, the disbelief of climate change and similar anti-science groups. |
What would happen to the rest of the world if the US economy suddenly collapsed? | Like /u/Lokiorin said, very bad things. 1. US-bound exports would cease to be sold. There would be a massive surplus of consumer goods, automobiles, oil, and other commodities that the US imports. The prices for those would fall, devastating producers of those. Depression is not good for countries, stability, or peace,... |
Why are motorcycles so poor on gas compared to cars? | A car doesn't have 10x more wind resistance just because it's about 10x bigger by volume. Car's are much better shaped for better aerodynamics. And just because the engine is bigger doesn't mean you're using all of it. It takes serious power to get a multi-ton vehicle moving, but once it is, cars are generally very eff... |
Why does the tempo of a certain song seem so different depending on activity level when listening? | Most people have a cadence around 180spm while running , so it'd make sense that anything below 180bpm would sound slow in that context. Although once you got close to 90bpm, it'd sync up with your feet again and sound fine. |
Why doesn't the United States just lower the cost of medical treatment to the price the rest of the world pays instead of focusing so much on insurance? | In countries with fully nationalised healthcare, the national government sits down periodically and negotiates prices with providers. As an extremely large buyer, these governments enjoy considerable leverage in these negotiations, and the resulting 'economies of scale' allow providers to make competitive offers. It is... |
Why do we have to keep bailing Greece out? | Because the Greek people don't pay taxes, and haven't been for a very long time. _URL_0_ |
If there was a piece of was string from the U.S. to China and I pulled one end, would the other end move instantaneously? | Reminds me of a similar question in physics regarding faster than light travel, goes something like this: If I have a stick that's 1 light year long, and at the end of it it's up against a button, at the other end I've pushed the stuck. Does it immediately push the button? Because if so then information has just travel... |
- how much damage and I doing to my car by letting a synthetic oil go 30,000 miles before changing it? | I am surprised no one mentioned [Blackstone Labs]. This company will analyze your oil and tell you how it is doing. They can tell you for a fact how YOUR oil in YOUR engine is doing after however-many miles. But, I doubt you will pay for this analysis if you are too cheap to change your oil ;-) Standard Analysis costs ... |
How does refusing a resignation work? | Nothing. Not accepting someone's resignation is really just a symbolic gesture of support to express that you'd rather they didn't quit. It's really mostly a movie device. Edit: people under contractual obligations can't just go around submitting resignations, they'd need to apply to be released from their contract fir... |
What the heck is that long-ass piece of paper printing out at every airport gate for every flight? | I think it's the passenger manifest. Details about everyone on board, including names, assigned seats, meal preferences, wheelchair requests, food loaded on board, etc. I fly twice a week and often see gate staff printing them out.Because a physical copy is the audit trail. Problem with electronic copies is that its ed... |
why animals can breed with their own family without genetic problems but humans cant | Animals can't breed with their own family either, they have risks of genetic problems as well. Inbreeding is the main reason purebred dogs have so many problems and mutts are considered healthier.[Another thread about a Tiger with brother/sister parents] The first comment here is very helpful |
Why we don't have mini solar panels we can plug into an electrical outlet? | I believe the cost of any solar panel will be more than you will save on energy costs. [$35 for a 9x11 5W panel.] 730 Hours in a month, let's say 20 cents per kwh 73 cents a month for a 5w panel. Unless I bungled my math, it should take about 4 years to make up the original $35. And this is assuming good sunshine the e... |
What is the basic argument opposing net neutrality? Not from the corporations who stand to benefit, but from regular people. | It could drive up the price of internet services. For example, ISPs currently charge Netflix extra money because Netflix eats up a lot of bandwidth. If they no longer can get the money from Netflix, they'll pass the cost on to consumers. Another example is here: _URL_0_. A Canadian telecom company was prohibited from a... |
Why did NASA end the space shuttle program? Are they still doing other things? | The space shuttle program ended for many reasons. Firstly, the shuttle was supposed to be a cheap and fast way to get to space but it turned out to be much more complicated to maintain the 2 million parts that make up the shuttle than expected . Secondly, it wasn't as safe as promised, there were two major mission fail... |
Why does the East coast of the US have high humidity but the West coast doesnt? | It's the temperature of the ocean next to them. The east coast has the warm gulf current, while the wear coast has a cold one. |
Why can we not spot our own mistakes when proof reading our own work? | Familiarity - you just wrote it, and you've been looking at it for hours . Another person has the advantage of reading it for the first time, and that's key. |
why we could get to the moon in 1969 and yet in my lifetime nobody has gone back... | My guess would be because there's [nothing there]. Sure, manned missions to the moon are entertaining, but I feel it's probably best to hold off until we're ready to start colonizing the damned rock. |
Was there evidence of melted steel beams? | People also don't understand the physics behind an airliner filled with fuel crashing into a building at several hundred miles per hour.. the energy unleased is immense. That force alone could damage the beams to the point of failure add in a raging inferno fueled by jet fuel and high wind speeds and bam, down goes the... |
How is climate change caused by humans? | Think of how hot a car gets when it's in the sun. That's because the glass lets energy in in the form of light , but when that energy tries to escape in the form of heat, the glass blocks it. Carbon dioxide does the same thing in our atmosphere--it lets light in, then traps the heat. It's why the planet is warm enough ... |
Why cant the brain tell the diaphragm to stop hiccuping? | It has to do with how your nervous system works. It's quite complex, but I'll paint with broad strokes. Aside from your brain and spinal cord, which are in a group all their own, there are two main parallel systems of nerves in your body: the somatic nervous system, and the autonomic nervous system. The first is the on... |
Why does the rail infrastructure in the UK fall apart at the first sign of snow whereas other countries cope perfectly fine? | Boston, MA, USA is the same way. You'd think the MBTA had never seen snow before -- every commuter rail train and subway is instantly off schedule. |
Why does Planned Parenthood receive federal funding in the first place? | Sex-ed in this country sucks. We NEED planned parenthood, because they're there to fill in the gaps where our school systems fail our children. A girl gets pregnant and needs someone to talk to? Planned parenthood. Kids want to have safe sex and need contraceptives? Planned parenthood. STD/STI's? Planned parenthood. Al... |
Why does wind make temperature feel cooler? | Your body is basically a space heater. You warm stuff up. The air, water, clothing, etc. Blankets don't make you warm, they just trap the warmth that your body produces, same with jackets, hats, etc. When there is wind, the air that your body just warmed up is blown away and replaced with cooler air.The dry, cold air d... |
How can a lawn survive a full winter covered by snow, but start dying and turn bright green from 2 days of being covered by a tarp (or something similar)? | Snow actually insulates the ground, keeping the grass at a near constant temperature at which the grass can survive. Additionally, thin layers of snow do not block light very well, so the grass continues to use photosynthesis. Chemicals in the ground that the plant needs such as nitrates are still present in winter. A ... |
Is it possible for our brains to get tired from thinking or studying too much like our muscles do when we exercise? If yes, How? | Mental fatigue/cognitive fatigue is recognized but hard to describe, as thetreece mentioned. Part of the problem is that it's hard to tease out things like boredom, attention/focus challenges, motivation, distractions, etc. from cognitive fatigue. For example, If you don't like what you're studying, chances are your th... |
Why does grass make people itchy? | I'm allergic to grass. I can have severe allergic reactions to it if I come into contact with it. My alergist told me that it was an oil in the grass that is put under my skin by small sharp edges on the grass when I touch/rub/step on grass. Some people have allergic inflammation reactions to this oil because their bod... |
Why gasoline puddles are all rainbow-y | The best explanation I have seen for this is in Feynman's [QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter]; not ELI5, but a truly fascinating book. |
Please explain why you can't tickle yourself... | Tickling is an adverse reaction. It's closely linked to fear: Your brain wants to panic but it knows that it's no threat, so instead of you screaming or fighting you laugh. When you try to tickle yourself your brain knows it's just you. |
Why are there seemingly no sound restrictions on motorcycles? | In the UK there are vehicle checks called MOTs every year and motorcycle can fail if they are too noisy but it's ambiguous and up to the tester's subjective opinion. Some people only put their exhausts baffles in to pass it and remove it straight after. Police generally won't pull you over as long as you are riding sen... |
What is the exact moment a marriage becomes official? | The moment everyone signs. There doesn't even have to be a ceremony. Just an officiant and a witness. Source - I'm an Ordained Minister who has performed weddings. |
Why do depressed people cut themselves? | For me, it was something I had control over. Depression often brings a sense of helplessness- a feeling that no matter what you do, nothing changes and nothing gets better. Especially for depressed teenagers, whose lives are still largely controlled by their parents' decisions, this can be particularly overwhelming. So... |
Why do people get charged for not having Health Insurance in America? | It's not a charge it is a tax. If you do not have health insurance, then you have to pay the tax when filing your annual taxes. Other redditors commented on the why. My insurance costs increase more than standard annual raise at work. I lose every year. I was forced into high deductible plan. So I pay more in costs and... |
why is a building called a building and not a built | As someone who's been building their own house for 4 years, it's because the job is never finished! |
- When a belief system stops being a religon and become mythology. | Academically, they don't really refer to the same thing. In the public sphere, the words are used synonymously. I think 'mythology' has taken on a negative characteristic, and so modern religions don't like to refer to their mythological aspects as such. Mythology describes one aspect of religion: the stories with mean... |
Why is food that is bad for us so inherently tasty? | I assuming you're talking about foods with high levels of fat, salt, and sugar. It's not that those things are bad for you; it's quite the opposite. You *need* fats, salts, and sugars to survive. Back in caveman days, getting fats, salts, and sugars was difficult. Fats mostly came from game, which is quite lean; the on... |
Why are some cats "mousers" while others are not? Is there a genetic component to it, or is it all early-life socialization? | Mother cats teach their kittens. It's fascinating to watch. Mama will bring a mouse, and play with it in front of the kitten. Then she lets the kitten play with it, catching and bringing it back each time it starts to escape.Cats, like any other domesticated animals, are subject to selective breeding, though generally ... |
Why can't antiviral drugs be as prolific antibiotics? | Viruses are inactive until they invade a cell, that's what they do, invade a cell. Bacteria do not do this. The problem with viruses is that the medication used to kill them must not damage the cell they have invaded. That would be bad. Also, viruses mutate at an extremely fast rate, so by the time a cure is found for ... |
How does the US government spending increase year after year when income and corporate tax rates have been dropping (based on charts found on google)? | Average person doesn't understand the Govt. gets money from the Federal Reserve which they borrow w/ interest. Your tax money pays their loans the Govt. is not spending the money they take in, they're spending the money they borrow.Because income is not tied to nor limited by spending in government books. In fact, many... |
Why does the *save* button of most computer programs is still a floppy disk? | Because that's what it has always been. If you change it, there are going to be a whole bunch of users who are used to looking for the floppy disk icon who can't find it and get frustrated with your software. |
How are modern microprocessors designed when they currently have upwards of 1.4 billion transistors. | Modern computer chips are made with a technology called **Photolithography** or also called **Nanophotolithography**.First a block of pure silicon is produced from sand. This is called the *silicon substrate* or *wafer*. Next hundreds of individual steps are used: add a layer on top, cut it into 1.4 billion pieces, add... |
Why does moving air feel colder than still air? | The feeling of cold or hot is all about heat transfer, more so than actual temperature. Let's say you're in a room with still air at 70 F. Your body temperature is just under 100 F. You rapidly shed body heat into the air around you, creating a little bubble of warmer air that tends not to go very far. The longer you s... |
How many people can earth actually support? And what can we do to stop reaching that amount of persons? | **ELI5:** In the mid 90s the estimate was around 10-12 billion people. --- There's actually a term for what you're asking. In ecology, the carrying capacity is the maximum population size that an ecosystem can sustain indefinitely . Since each species has a particular niche , the carrying capacity is different from spe... |
Why does McDonald's have such a bad reputation for having processed, unhealthy foods, when places like Taco Bell and Steak N Shake don't? | Last time I checked, Taco Bell and Steak N Shake weren't known for fresh, healthy food. I believe McDonald's has a pretty commanding lead when it comes to global representation . I think fast food in general has a bad reputation for having processed, unhealthy food. McDonald's just happens to be the biggest player in t... |
why does the majority of religious extremists that perform terrorist attacks seem to be mainly of the Islam religion | The middle east is an incubator of tension. Propaganda and isolationism in those countries has xenophobia as the standard, so it breeds violence and attacks on the west. Another commenter said that its what the media focuses on, but Islamic terrorists are the only group that kidnaps hundreds of girls for later sale. Si... |
Why is it so important for a patient to stay awake after serious injury? | There are a ton of symptoms, like dizziness, amnesia, slurred speech, confusion, etc that you can't really check for in an unconscious person. And these can start appearing hours after the injury itself. So if you can't check for brain swelling/injury directly, you want them to stay awake to check on these other sympto... |
Why do I find male comedians consistently funnier than female comedians, is there a reason behind this? | There's certainly a lot of unabashed sexist speculation in this thread and not a lot of good answers. |
why do cats and dogs have to touching me when they sleep next to me? | A while ago somewhere on Reddit, I read about a guy who wondered the same thing. He decided to see if his dog was actually paying attention, by holding his breath. Turns out, after a couple of seconds, the dog went crazy and started barking and jumping on his owner. So this could be an explanation. Cats I don't know. |
Why don't most Christians interpret the Bible literally? Who decides what is literal? | If they were to interpret the bible literally, their lives would suck. No bacon, no ham, no shrimp, no blended fabrics, women wouldn't be allowed in churches and would have to live in a separate house during their period. Women wouldn't be able to vote, marriage would involve basically being sold by one's father to one... |
How can something be a wave and a particle? | Look up the silicone bead version of the double slit experiment . It'll give you a new idea how something can be both a wave and particle at the same time, because it effectively is. |
what is Raspberry Pi what is it used for? | Raspberry Pis were designed to be low-cost full computers. They're not overly powerful but they are cheap and only need a keyboard, mouse, and monitor to be a full-fledged computer. Most are set up with a version of Linux which will give you a desktop experience like Windows as well as applications like web browers, me... |
Why reddit hates The Big Bang Theory (Show) | the humor is very lowest common denominator, very forced. there is also a large laugh track which detracts a LOT from what humor there is. the whole nerd thing is also really forced -- hey look, i play video games! hey look computer! hey look socially awkward! it's just not very funny.To me it always feels like the sho... |
Why would you sue someone who has no money for millions of dollars? | She didn't just sue the stalker. She sued the stalker and the hotel. I can assure you that the Nashville Marriott has a very, very big insurance policy. |
How did Greece get in such a bad financial situation ? | I barely know much about it but heres what I do know. They went from there currency to the Euro. When they switched to the Euro they ended up spending and borrowing like crazy. On money they didn't have and when the economy started going down they weren't able to pay the banks back. And that's pretty much all I know. H... |
When it comes to politicians, can someone explain to me how raising more money leads to more votes? | There's some debate over this as to what comes first: the votes, or the money. Traditionally, we think that money leads to votes because the money can be used for advertising that can sway undecided voters, or events that increase participation among voters within the politician's base demographic. However, there is so... |
Why do people want to laugh in a staring competition? | I mean, could it be that there is an inherent awkwardness in staring into someone's eyes for an extended period of time? I kind of wonder how present instinct is in this reaction. |
Why do we cover our mouth when we're shocked? | I've always assumed it had something to do with our instinctual reaction to fear and shock. By putting our hands over our face, we may feel as though we are creating a kind of protective barrier from whatever trauma we are witnessing. Perhaps we only cover the mouth and nose because, despite the fear, we don't want to ... |
How does our lungs clean the trash we inhale like flies or pieces of paper? | You lungs don't. Your nose does. Nose hair combined with nasal mucus is there to trap particulates before it reaches the lungs. Once it's in the lungs, more mucous catches stuff. And if there's a trigger, you cough out the lumps of mucous.Only very small things can make it as far as the lungs. if a fly was in your trac... |
- The Importance of the Theory of Relativity | If you see a car parked outside your house, and later in the day it is parked down the street, you know it moved. But can you prove that it was the car that moved, or the whole neighborhood? Relativity is a quirky thing - the idea is that two different people observing the same event will see different things happening... |
What is the OS X Keychain? How does it work? | [Here you go] Basically it is a system for storing all your credentials which the OS can look up to automatically log you in automatically to certain services so you don't have to manually input your credentials every time", 'its like a bank for all the passwords you use.. u can choose to keep it everytime a website as... |
Why would countries publicly display their military information? (infantry, tanks, nuclear warheads etc.) Doesn't that just help rival countries to make a plan of attack? | Believe me, the military thinks very hard about what can and can't be revealed to the public. There are reasons to show things. It reassures the public of their security, can be used as propaganda to try to attract new recruits, and the biggest one- it can be used as a deterrent to your foes. If anything, rather than h... |
If the cells that make up our body are completely renewed every 7 years, then why do we keep the same memories if our brain cells have died since they occurred? | We don't store memory in cells, not directly. We keep them in structures of neurons. The structures themselves remain.The 7-year thing is not true. You mostly retain your brain cells throughout your life. |
Why do humans need to be taught to swim and other land animals like a dog can naturally swim when put in water? | Ever seen a dog swim 100 yards? Most animals don't swim very efficiently. Even humans can usually move enough to keep their head up and move some distance if they had too. When you are taught how to swim what you are really learning is how to move in the water with something resembling efficiency. You get comfortable h... |
How does nature ensure randomness? What mechanism is in place for like selecting the sex of a child, its almost perfect 50/50. | The sex mechanism is actually pretty easy - it's all one set of genes that determine an animal's sex. Females have a pair of X chromosomes , while males have an X and a Y - making XY. So when two humans breed, the offspring will get one of those X's or Y's from each parent. Since the mother has 2 X's, it's guaranteed t... |
What are 'cookies' and what do they do? | HTML, the language of the web, is what is referred to as a Stateless Protocol. This just means that no data is saved from one page load to the next. That would make staying logged into a website impossible, if not for cookies. A website issues a cookie to your computer when you log-on that is saved to your computer. Yo... |
Why hasn't the US government closed down The Deep Web and or try to block it from users? | Why would they? People's searches are a great way to track them. Shutting it off would shut down access |
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