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How do painkillers know where to look for pain in your body? | The short and sweet answer is that they don't. Most of the over the counter pain medications that you might buy basically act to decrease the levels of inflammatory chemicals in your body, called prostaglandins, which are typically released as a result of injury and are one of the causes of the sensation of pain. So ba... |
Why is public education acceptable but public healthcare a big no-no in the US? | Neither are fundamental human rights in the sense that they must be provided to individuals by the community. This doesn't necessarily mean that they shouldn't be provided, but claiming such as a fundamental human right makes you sound like a spoiled self-entitled brat. Additionally, education is run at the state level... |
If we were able to achieve such phenomenal speeds with the Concorde, why has commercial air travel not replicated this (without the fatal flaws)? | Because some of the integral, crucial problems still exist today. Technologically advanced as we may be, we're not capable of suppressing a sonic boom, nor suppressing the force of drag. The concorde had a very high maintenance cost, and a high fuel consumption. Take a look at the concorde's engines - without going int... |
Why is 2% volume not twice as loud as 1% volume? | Lets assume that the maximum volume of your speakers is 100db . In that case, every percent of volume is equal to 1db so, technically speaking, 1%- > 2%is in fact doubling the volume from 1db- > 2db. However, the average person detects an increase in volume only at around a level of 3db difference so you wouldn't hear ... |
How does smoking and curing meat work? | I work in a smoking factory. I'm actually the smoker. We put items like chicken and pork in a salt and sugar mix of water for a few days. The salt and sugar penetrate the meat through osmosis. Osmosis is when high concentration substance naturally diffuses into a low concentration basically the meat absorbs the salt in... |
How does posting bail work? Who gets the money? | bail is set according to the person's crime and how susceptible he is to run away. the higher the bail, the lower the chances of the accused running away, since he would be wasting a lot of money. The bail money is temporarily held until the court hearing. If the accused comes back, he gets the money back. If he doesn'... |
Is The Pirate Bay really now hosted in North Korea? And if it's fake, how is that done? | It should be noted nobody really knows if they're located in North Korea or not. The Pirate Bay is known for pulling pranks from time to time, and publicity is always a good thing when it comes to The Pirate Bay. At the moment, there are some people who are skeptical of the move, saying that it's IP spoofing . However,... |
What happens when you go to a website and it comes up as plain text on a white background instead of the normal layout and graphics? | the language of the web is HTML/CSS . HTML handles all the data on the website, while CSS handles the styling of the website. If there is an issue loading the HTML, you won't see anything but a blank page. If you see all the stuff on the page, but without any style, its due to the CSS not loading correctly. There are m... |
Ariel Sharon's life, legacy, what he did, why people hate/love him. | Ariel Sharon was a right wing Israeli politician with a very successful background as a general in several key wars before he went into politics. Several other commenters have written about that already. And there's another thread here regarding his role in the 1982-5 Lebanon war, sometimes nicknamed Sharon's war. A hu... |
The Difference between Feminism and Women's Rights. | Women's rights is a about equality, particularly legal equality and justice. Feminism is about advocacy of women's issues, which while a large part, is not limited to legal equality. |
The leap second and why it could cripple the Internet. | Our planet doesn't rotate at equal speed, sometime it rotates faster sometime rotates slower. For political reasons people want to adjust GMT time to by in sync with Earth's rotation. So they in an ad-hoc way based on observation declare a leap second. This currently can only happen on last day of June or last day of D... |
Why is it that paper can only be folded in half 7 times? | After the first fold, it is 2 pages thick.After the second fold, it is 4 pages thick.After the third fold, it is 8 pages thick.After the fourth fold, it is 16 pages thick.After the fifth fold, it is 32 pages thick.After the sixth fold, it is 64 pages thick.After the seventh fold, it is 128 pages thick. It is very hard ... |
Why are there so many languages in Europe? | It appears at first glance that Europe has an unusually large number of languages, but actually it isn't that exceptional. Because Europe has so many countries, a huge number have their own official language, making them more prominent. However there are many other countries with a vast number of languages. It's just t... |
Daylight Saving, why cant we just move the clock 30 minutes and leave it year round? | That is like having heating set to same medium value during whole year. During summer it doesn't make sense as it is warm enough and during winter it it is not enough. Same it is with daylight saving. Also having half hour offset against countries without daylight saving would be bit more complicated. |
Why is abortion still a hotly debated topic when the Supreme Court ruled its legality in 1972 Roe v Wade, like 40 years ago? | Pro-life people believe that a fetus is a living person, like any other baby. Therefore they believe that abortion is murder and is killing an innocent child. If the Supreme Court made regular murder legal, don't you think it would continue to be a hotly debated topic even though it was legal? |
Why are pro-gun people opposed to smart guns? | a smart gun typically uses some mechanism to lockout the gun. whether it be a wireless bracelet, a fingerprint scanner, or other mechanism. such mechanisms require the use of batteries. it means that smart guns will have to rely on batteries. bad guy broke into your house and you need to use your gun? uhoh. WARNING: LO... |
Do most hospitals have dentists on call for emergencies? | I was playing a game of hockey once and I had a few teeth knocked out when my face met a stick. I called my private dentist for an emergency appointment, not the ER. I'm not sure if it was because I had been going there for a long time but I'd assume any issue like this would be deferred to a private doctor through the... |
How does gravity actually work? | Everyone here is giving examples of what's going on, but failing to explain why or how. The disappointing, annoying answer is: we just don't fucking know. We don't know how electromagnetism works, and we don't know why matter has mass either. We can tell you about a ball on a sheet being rolled in a circle or how space... |
If American Chinese food isn't anything like actual Chinese food, how did this cuisine come about? | It's not Chinese, many cultures do it. For instance, try to order Corn Beef and Cabbage in Dublin on St Patricks day and they will wonder why the hell you are ordering a Jewish Deli meat. Go to Boston or NYC and that dish will be blasted all over the menu of every restaurant in town on that day. Immigrants made due wit... |
Why don't western toilets have access to water so people can wash their genitals after doing their business? | Wet, soapy toilet paper falls apart so westerners would use big wads that clog the pipes. Just as Indians don't clean themselves with their right hand, we don't clean ourselves barehanded if we can possibly avoid it.Expense and sanitation. Some fancy establishments/hotels will have bidets though. Also most people are u... |
How does grass become milk after it has been processed by a cow? | The same way any mammal turns their food into milk. All female mammals produce milk for their babies. All female mammals produce milk using the same physiological mechanism. When the infant are born the mother produces two hormones, prolactin & oxytocin, which signal the cells in the mammary tissue to produce milk. The... |
- If there's no oxygen in space, how is the sun on fire? | 🌞 Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained: 1. [ELI5: how do stars, like our own sun, catch fire? ]1. [If there's no oxygen in space, how is the sun on fire? ]1. [ELI5: If there's no oxygen in space, how is the sun on fire? ]1. [ELI5 - if there is no oxygen in space how is the sun burning? ]1. [How i... |
Why did The Hobbit movies use so much cgi (like in the famous Ian McKellen Crying picture) instead of real sets/ actors? | I guess no one remembers how cgi intensive the lord of the rings were with the battle of Rohan. It would a lot more time and money to create those sets and hire the actors. The Lotr took a long time to film. While the hobbit wasn't that much compared respectively. So all in all many people wanted them quickly unlike Lo... |
Why do developers have dataminable content instead of adding it after its ready to be released? | When you're developing, you have different 'streams'. This allows two people to make modifications to the same file without conflicting with each other while they are doing their fixes, but when they want to actually get them together, they will have to merge them, and fix the conflicts. In order to prevent overly larg... |
Why can't I squat like an asian? | It just takes practice. You have not had this practice. It's supposed to be very good for the pelvic muscles, among other things. It might improve your love life. It will definitely improve your balance and flexibility. |
Why can't I just attach one of those canned air duster things to a fan and have something like AC? | They don't get cold when you shake them, they get cold when you release the compressed gas inside. When you do that and *then* shake, the cold liquid inside sloshes around and makes your hand cold. This would indeed work as an air conditioner, but only for as long as there was something inside the can for you to releas... |
If gmos aren't harmful, why do well developed countries continue to ban them? | According to the World Health Organization “Consumer confidence in the safety of food supplies in Europe has decreased significantly as a result of a number of food scares that took place in the second half of the 1990s that are unrelated to GM foods. This has also had an impact on discussions about the acceptability o... |
Why is it considered so bad that apps and websites collect our information? Can this have any real, negative effects? | Yes, yes it can. If you use location services, your location is logged every few seconds, accurate to just a few feet. If you've ever lied about where you are, tried to avoid someone, hide from a stalker, etc. that can be an issue. Posts/comments/messages/pictures that you think are private may become public. Whether i... |
Are any of our units of measure universal? | I believe that none of the ones you listed are universal. The alien race would very likely keep track of days and years just like us, but they'd be different lengths of time on their planet than on earth. There are some fundamental units that would be identical though - off the top of my head the electron-volt comes to... |
If my dog isn't self-aware, why doesn't she react to the other dog in the mirror? | Theres a difference between self awareness and abstract thought. She's aware she's a dog, and of her own body. Doesnt freak out when she sees her tail either, usually. Tho some dogs are particularly stupid and do in fact freak out over their own tail and reflection. Most of them are clever enough not to. |
I really like this girl and the other day she got with someone i know. What exactly is happening in my brain when i feel my stomach sink and feel completely empty inside? | I can't answer your real question, but I can say from experience that over time this happens less and less, and then one day you realize that it may never happen again. And then you get really sad. I call it a calloused soul. |
why is it legal to pay waitresses below minimum wage? | It's not . If a waiter/waitress's wages plus tips do not equal minimum wage for his/her hours worked, the restaurant is required to increase cash wages for that pay period until it equals.Tips. By law, though, if a waiter/waitress earns under the minimum wage after tips, the employer is required to pay the difference. |
Why are drug tests [for marijuana] still around? | You can get a breathalyzer test if they think you're drunk. If you can be drug tested, you signed an acknowledgment form at some point, probably. |
Why do airport vehicles look so different? | occasionally you see regular vehicles, but for the most part they're built differently because the range of terrain they have to be driven on is extremely reduced and so they are optimized exclusively for airport use, and they end up looking different. They only have to drive on a very large road that goes around the r... |
How can NATO ships fly under another NATO country's flag? | It's likely a courtesy flag. Ships will fly a smaller version of the host countries flag as a sign of respect while traveling through their waters. |
Why are eggs typically seen as a breakfast food? | Where I live in Bolivia, eggs are eaten at all times of the day. They're often fried and served over meat and rice, ie Silpancho |
Why is most surveillance footage still so shitty now that we have cheap HD cameras and data storage? | Because of the time it takes to build infrastructure in comparison to rapid technological change. Security systems are updated less frequently than they're improved upon by the companies making them and thus the majority of systems are already outdated in comparison to the phones that people replace every 6 months. |
Why can't we substitute the first stage of an ICBM with a high altitude ballon? | Part of what makes ICBMs such a dangerous weapon is that they're very hard to stop once they're launched. They move at such a high velocity and cover such a broad distance that even the most modern missile defense systems aren't super effective. A balloon, by comparison, is slow moving, has a huge target profile, and w... |
How does the Marvel universe connect all if its story lines? i.e. Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men. | Even in the comics it's hard to reconcile every decision all the different writers make, so often they have to spin off a new universe to accomdate it. _URL_0_ |
By all means, don't be afraid to really dumb it down. | As I've said elsewhere, I think it's important that we acknowledge that sometimes things are really complicated and can't dumbed down too far without losing essential parts of the meaning of something. Some concepts have to be understood in order. You have to know how to turn your television off and on before you can u... |
The debate on male circumcision | Replace male with female, and you and everyone else is suddenly speaking a different tune. And to anyone reading this who says these are different things, fuck you, too. My body; it should not have been someone else's right to chose to have my body mutilated. |
Why does time seem to go by quicker as you get older? | Because you get more affected by life's obligations that fill your daytime, and time in general. When you are a kid, you get all the free time you want, and most important, you are not afraid of time passing by quickly, a fear that is making you feel like time is flying.Your perception of time changes as you get older.... |
Why is it in some places the moon looks gigantic in the sky but where I live in Texas, the moon is always very small? | Because everything is bigger in Texas. The moon isn't actually in Texas; it's above it. So the moon looks smaller in comparison to all the big Texas things. |
Why do we only use sodium chloride in our food, when there are so many salts in the world? | Some are poisonous , they don't all taste the same, and sodium is a nutrient we need for several bodily processes. |
How do principal and interest payment work ? How to calculate them ? | It's because of an artificial restriction that people want to pay the exact same amount each month. Without that you could calculate it much easier. On a $96,000 loan at 5% yearly interest for 48 months you could pay $2,000 in principal the first month and $400 in interest . For a total of $2,400. Next month is another... |
Why not end the "War on Drugs"? | Oh yeah, the War on Drugs is bullshit and has failed and cost us a lot of money. The successes have been remarkably few and far between. The problem with ending it is, that would require the cooperation of elected officials and no one wants to appear soft on law enforcement or drug prevention. Also, they get a lot of k... |
Could the internet ever break, either permanently or temporarily, or has it ever done so before? | At the end of the day the internet is a physical presence. People talk about the internet like it's something that's just there. They act like it will always be there and nothing can take it away. In reality the internet is a large collection of fiber/copper cables and a lot of computers. If you cut power or cut the ri... |
Why does China, North Korea, and Cuba get more hate for being "Communist" than Vietnam? | Vietnam is now a fairly successful nation in SE Asia, and while they are technically Communist, the Vietnamese are a very pragmatic people and they've implemented capitalist policies without qualms about it , to great results. Dissidents are allowed to leave freely, and they do. They also aren't anti-Western and don't ... |
What does an "engine" entail in video games? (Such as Valve's 'source' engine) | The engine creates the game's graphics , sound, gameplay , basically everything that you see and hear in your games. It is the 'behind the scenes' software that the developer used to make the game. Different engines are required for different purposes, relating to the style of game . For example, an NFL game requires a... |
What is the difference between fruits and flowers? | Send flowers to your girlfriend or wife on her birthday. Send fruits to your grandma when she's in hospital. |
Why do whales, dolphins, and other aquatic animals jump out of the water? | Why do we jump or play in swimming pools and oceans? Obviously not a necessity just a fun past time. Maybe it's theirs too |
Why do men and women find specific parts of the body attractive depending on what era it is, for example the 50s were not a time for large breasts or a big butt | It's mainly about health, wealth, and fashion. In old china, wealth meant girls want bound feet and light skin to indicate they never worked a day in the field. In old Europe people would pluck their hairline far back to have a large forehead because they believed it indicated high social class. In many parts of the wo... |
Why do Argentina care so much about the Falklands? | It's politicians that think that bringing this up every time possible makes them more popular, that's pretty much it. |
Why pictures are not allowed to be taken within courtrooms and instead someone is paid to draw pictures of who is inside? | I wish they couldn't publicize the names of the people involved until a verdict was stated as well. A lot of people suffer from public ignorance and simply being in the spotlight.Video and pictures are not allowed in Federal court, but most lower courts allow videoHow come some trials can have cameras in it every secon... |
Is there a max size planets, stars and solar systems can be? | As for a minimum, the consensus is that Jupiter would need to be approximately 80x its current mass, for its core to become sufficiently hot and dense to start a fusion reaction. It wouldn't matter *what* it was made of: when the core is under such extreme conditions, larger atoms would have been smashed apart, leaving... |
Can dreams actually tell us something or are they just random head-noise | During the night your brain does garbage collection. It decides what to save and what to throw away -- essentially, it's copying stuff that it thinks is worth saving to your left side and setting up the right side for another day of sensory overload. As you don't have two brains, the process reuses the bits of brain th... |
why does it seem like retail bank locations are being built everywhere? | I don't have any evidence of this, so don't hold me to it, but I'd imagine because banks have so much damn money they can build as much as they like. |
How did we determine the order of operations in mathematics? | It is arbitrary, you could have a perfectly valid system with different rules of precedence. But there is a logic behind it. The idea is that operations that are likely to have the greatest impact on the magnitude of the result have the highest precedence. That way the operations are grouped in such a way that partial ... |
why do most people in the US drive automatics while most in Europe drive manuals? | Mostly, it's because virtually all trips to anywhere, even the local market, requires a car. The average American drives to work, to the store, to church, to visit friends, everywhere, simply because America is more spread out than Europe. We have to drive, because frankly our public transportation infrastructure is ne... |
Why do so many companies in the us have their distribution center/ship from California when most of the country lives on the Eastern half? | Because if the stuff is made in China, then it makes most sense for it to arrive in Oakland or LA's ports and then ship it from there, as opposed to having to go through the Panama Canal and still have to transport things all over the US from a more central port like Houston. |
why is it that now that I'm older I enjoy foods that would otherwise have been disgusting if I was a 5 year old e.g. pickles, wine, coffee etc. | I've heard that since there are very few sweet tasting poisons in nature, kids like sweets. When you get old enough not to put everything you see in your mouth, you no longer need that innate protection. |
If chimpanzees have entered the Stone Age and have begun domesticating dogs, have they achieved sentience? | All primates are sentient. I am pretty sure that all mammals are: I can't think of any that aren't.Sentience just means being able to perceive through senses, which basically all animals are and can do. As for self-aware, plenty of animals also fall under that - apes, dolphins, and elephants can all recognize themselve... |
What causes us to have a random "awkward" flashback, even though that flashback had nothing to do with what you were doing? | Actually, it's called state-dependent memory. Whatever emotions you're feeling increase the chances of you recalling memories with those specific emotions because your emotional state is very similar to when those memories were created.Your brain be like lol lets remember this for a bitMaybe smell? Your olfactory bulb ... |
Does it make a difference if I choose to stream a TV show vs. downloading a torrent. Is one safer for my computer? Is one easier for someone to track? | If you stream the content it downloads as you watch. When you torrent a television series, you can't watch instantly. What happens is you take a little bit of the television series from a bunch of people. That little bit you get from everyone will compile into the whole television series. Streaming is safer when it com... |
Why are mountain tops so cold if hot air rises? | In a small room, hot air rises. It rises because it is less dense than the surrounding air. But when you expand that out, to the size of a mountain, guess what else is less dense? Air at altitude. Thus you get an effect where the warm air stays closer to the ground, and it gets colder the higher up you go. This can be ... |
What makes an expensive product so expensive? Is it more related to the brand, or the materials? | Everyone prices their product at the maximum amount people are willing to pay for it. So, in one sense, what determines this price is the general perceived value and willingness to spend money on it by the products market. Now, there is some level of rationality in the world of customers - they do often value quality, ... |
If the Bible forbids idolism, what is the idea behind the crucifix? | I really love this question, because I think it's very perceptive. In my experience , the original purposes of many facets of the specifically catholic branch of the church tend to lose their meaning. There are so many beautiful things and ideas in the Catholic understanding of Christianity, but unfortunately the ball ... |
As a non-driver, what should I do if I am a passenger and the driver is suddenly unable to keep control of the car | Grab the steering wheel and try to steer off to the side of the road. Shift the car into neutral. Use the handbrake to slow down if you can reach it. Turn on the hazard lights if you can reach the button. I don't really know these are just the first things that came to mind. Just do anything to prevent an accident. |
Why is cannibalism detrimental to the body? What makes eating your own species's meat different than eating other species's? | If you're not eating the brains, its actually safe and don't eat people with diseases once again like any other animal but cannibalism is generally seen as bad because we've developed a disgust to it. This is likely because its easier for a society to flourish if the people aren't eating each other. To get messed up he... |
Why's the Wii U being phased out so early? | The Switch is **also** a replacement for the 3DS, which is early 2011. Nintendo has aligned their portable and console development teams, they said part of their problem previously is they were starting to do twice the work for not twice the sales. For example, Smash Bros and Super Mario Maker are both on 3DS and Wii U... |
How does intuition or instinct work? | This is an INCREDIBLY interesting topic I don't know if this was just an 'idle-curiousity' ELI5 or one that touched on something you really are passionate about if it is the latter, go to Amazon and purchase _URL_0_ |
Why would carbon dioxide cause a climate change? | By pretty transparent I take it you mean with your eyes? It isn't transparent though to thermal radiation though. This means it traps thermal energy. That raises the temperature. If you add heat to a system you change it. |
The controversy surrounding the bell curve. | > My question has to do with the idea of Simply taking data points and finding out that they align along a bell curve where the average, the most common is in the middle and the extremes or at the end. The problem being pointed out isn't a problem with the bell curve, but a problem with taking any data set and presenti... |
Why can't magnets be used to create constant motion and electricity on their own? I get thermodynamics, but this still baffles me. | It takes a lot of energy to make magnets. Far more than a system like the one you linked could create. If making the system costs more energy than the system generates, you're operating at a loss.Magnets can be used to move something in one direction, but energy needs to be added to move in the other direction. With no... |
How can the Sentinelese people, who number ~250, and been living on the same island uncontacted for 60000 years, not number higher in population or be inbred to the point of severe consequence | I'm more interested in knowing how the hell they managed to survive a tsunami that swept right over their island.Peoples in this situation often work out unusual reproductive arrangements, the most common and effective being polyandry. |
How did MIT become internationally renowned compared to other state technical colleges and universities? | First off, MIT is private. The school was founded with a idea in mind that it would be an institution devoted to the sciences, as opposed to other schools at the time which were devoted to liberal arts educations, or military schools. It was basically the only one of its kind for a while, and ended up attracting a lot ... |
Why are we so attracted to looks? | The basic answer is that we associate good looks and good health together. We have a very biological bias towards beauty. Deep inside, though you may not know it, you attribute beautiful people with good health, niceness, wealth, and kindliness. Even babies have this biological bias, and will stare at 'beautiful' peopl... |
How do we know the inner layers of the Earth if nobody has ever been there? | Certain properties of the earth only work with certain compositions of the inside of the earth. One quick example is earthquake waves. Secondary waves can't travel through liquid, only solid matter. By tracking the propagation of waves through the earth, it becomes apparent that there's a big shadow on the opposite sid... |
Why does Steam Burn but Not Smoke? | Steam is the gaseous form of water, which means that it needs to by at least 100 degrees C . When it comes in contact with your skin, it transfers heat which causes the burn. If it cools from contact with the air, it is no longer steam. So any visible steam is likely over 100C. Smoke isn't that simple. It's a mixture o... |
Why are banks closed on Sundays? | Banks' biggest customers are businesses instead of just individual people, so it makes the most sense to operate during standard business hours. |
Why are rhythm games more popular in Japan than in America? | I'd like to direct you to a popular YouTube channel, Game Theory, that goes pretty deep into Japanese gaming culture compared to typical American gaming. _URL_0_ Arcades, and rhythm games are specifically brought up and talked about. It's actually a pretty interesting topic, and the 3D video/exploration is neat. |
Why do the majority of Indians and Pakistanis have very strong body odour? | This is one of the more insensitive questions I've seen on Reddit, but I'll answer it seriously anyway From my own personal experience travelling, it is less common to use deodorant in Asian countries. In fact, Asians have fewer apocrine sweat glands than Westerners do, so in general they smell better than Westerners w... |
differences between prostate milking and a prostate orgasm, and what are male anal orgasms | I've never seen a guy have the female type orgasm you describe. I can say though that my bf has very intense prostate orgasms just from receiving anal. But he always ejaculates, usually without any stimulation to his penis because it happens very quickly for him and then there's no touching him after that, so contact w... |
Why do so many animals, excluding humans, have retractable 'male genitalia'? | Humans have a foreskin which fufills a similar purpose. The glans retracts into it when not in use. And while it's not technically a retractable penis and you don't need it, it's the human equivalent to an animal sheath. Protecting the glans when not being used for sex. |
Why can gas stations charge 9/10s of a cent when there is no 1/10s denomination of coin? | About 5 years ago I bet my cousin $100 that gasoline would hit $3.00 per gallon of gas by the 4th of July. Gasoline made it's steady jump as the 4th neared but eventually it crested at $2.99 per gallon on Idependence day. So the five year ongoing debate still stands!!! It was eventually ruled a no contest by several fa... |
The incredibly low birth rate in Japan | There are a few factors that would cause a countries population to be on the decline. One would be infant mortality. In a country like Japan with good health care people don't need to worry about babies dying young, so they don't need to have more children to compensate for that. Another reason may be that in many poor... |
Why is it that humans tend to be most attracted to food that is unhealthy? (find it better tasting, etc). | It's not unhealthy - it's only unhealthy if you have unlimited access to it. For much of human history, food was hard to get. When food is hard to get, you want the most bang for your buck, so you should be drawn to sugary & fatty foods, as those have the most energy in them. It's only in the last hundred years or so t... |
So USA is is reconnecting with cuba , what does this mean for the average american citizen? | There will be a pretty good resource for parts for a lot of classic car enthusiasts. There could be an influx of medically qualified personnel. IIRC Cuba has a high doctor to citizen ratio. If America and Cuba lax up the immigration situation we could be seeing more doctors that aren't carrying student debts and are wi... |
In Firefighting, why does the steam (212 degrees) created from hitting the fire with a hose seem so much hotter than the super-heated air and gasses which are actually much hotter? | Steam can go above 212 degrees without being pressurized. That's simply the temperature at which water will boil at STP. Similarly, ice can be colder than 32 degrees. If the surroundings are hotter, they will continue to heat the steam. So it may initially form at 100 degrees but can certainly get hotter in a raging in... |
What do liters mean in terms of cars? | It's the total volume of displacement of the engine cylinders Like jeep has a v6 4.0L . so each cylinders volume is 1/6 × 4.0L |
If your wife/girlfriend cheated on you with your identical twin brother and conceived, could you prove the child wasn't yours? | As others have stated, there will be small differences between each twin, similar to the differences that are exploited by DNA tests. However, because these differences will be specific to these two people, you will need to sequence the entire genomes of each twin and the kid to find these differences. When you see the... |
Is it Possible that Iran has a Legitimate Need for Nuclear Power? | The entire world has a legitimate need since we are supposed to be getting of petroleum because of the whole climate change thing. Looking at Iran and saying, oh well you have reserves of petroleum so just burn it isn't going to help the climate change problem. |
Why do newspapers get basic facts wrong so often? | It's surprisingly easy to make mistakes when you are just reporting something and it's something you are not personally familiar with. For sure if you know the people in a photo you will identify them correctly and spell their names right, but if you don't it's easy to make a mistakes. The same with facts, you are like... |
I had this thought the other night, why are humans so distinct from any other animal/primate? Although we are primates we really don’t look like any other primates. | We're extremely similar to our closest genetic relatives--African apes. We just have two key differences: larger brains and we are bipedal. Everything else is mostly cosmetic. Other apes have hair and we don't have hair on most of our body, so that makes us have a superficial difference. Their arms are longer and legs ... |
Why radio stations/mobile apps/websites are free with ads, but we still pay monthly for cable TV with ads? | The reason Google doesn't charge is because you are not a customer. They are using you for data, you provide all your private info and they sell it to advertisers. Google is using you way more than you are using them, that's why its free. |
Why do links sometimes redirect to the wrong place such as porn or a random image, but only for some users? | This sounds an aweful lot like malware infected computers. There are multiple ways, from a malware browser plugin/addon which randomly redirects to another URL up to real malware tempering with your the DNS client of the infected computers. The first thing is fairly simple as it really just exchanges the URL. The secon... |
Why are there yearly limits in place for 401k and IRA contributions? | People use those investments types to put off paying taxes. By placing a limit, we insure that tax revenues don't shrink. |
Does lightning never actually strike in the same place twice or are the odds so astronomically improbable that it's not considered? | It's just a saying based on the very improbable odds of it happening, in most cases. Of course, if you've got something very tall and conductive, that rule sort of goes out the window. The Empire State Building, for example, is struck [dozens of times a year, sometimes even several times a day]. |
The U.S. National Debt and what happens if they can't pay it. | Arguably the US suddenly declaring bankruptcy would seriously and permanently change the world economy. Most of the world would be mired in serious poverty for a generation or two and it may well destablize a number of otherwise stable governments, including the US. The only real way for bankruptcy to happen is if no o... |
How are fecal transplants safe? | Tests are performed for different kinds of pathogens that cause intestinal infections such as Salmonella, Shigella, or rotavirus. Concern about feces and sanitation generally has to do with transmission of intestinal diseases. But if you're reasonably healthy and haven't had some kind of intestinal infection in the rec... |
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