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Why is it rude to ask a woman about her age? | Because, generally speaking, you don't need to know, so your motive for asking is questionable by default. |
Why is W called "double U" when it is clearly "double V"? | In Italian, it's called doppia vu which just means double v. I used to hear on the radio where the DJ would shorthand websites www as vu vu vu.In portuguese we say "Double V" , but its so ugly that nowadays everyone says "Da-blee-u" which sounds a lot better when u r spelling any website Despite good historical justifi... |
What is it about copyright law that lets CBS shutdown a fan production like Anaxar, but not Star Trek Continues | They can shut down either one. But Axanar is using Star Trek intellectual property to fund building a studio that the organizers can lease out for a profit. This makes it far less a fan film and more likely to earn CBS's ire. |
If identical twins are genetically identical, how can one be homosexual and not the other? | Homosexuality of twins correlates at 50% as opposed to the overall rate which is 2'ish%. This implies there is a highly recessive genetic component, however developmental mechanisms reduce this value by apparently half in predisposed recessive twins, but that same environmental randomness probably is the cause for domi... |
Why does the decibel value on my stereo decrease as I increase volume? | Your stereo is actually starting at a very large negative number. Probably around -30dB or -40dB. When you increase the volume, you are increasing the dB. Most people miss the minus sign so you think the number is decreasing. But in fact the number is getting larger as it goes from very negative towards zero. Decibel i... |
How are Nielsen homes selected for Nielsen ratings? If I watch a show and don't have a Nielsen box, am I helping that show's ratings at all? | The one thing I never understood about this kind of rating system is how the hell do they account for all the people that don't want this? I mean, what if 80% of the people offered this decline to do it? Wouldn't that mean that they are only finding the ratings for the 20% that do accept it? Wouldn't it be more efficie... |
How can drug research programs give somebody a placebo treatment for years, in lieu of actual treatment? For terminal illnesses, wouldn't this guarantee the person gets sicker or even dies? | Informed consent plays a role. That said though, many new drugs aren't tested against placebos perse. They are tested against the current standard treatment. So in those tests, no placebos are used. You have group A who has experimental drug, and group B who has standard treatment, and you see if the new experimental d... |
Besides being free, is there any benefit to a Linux-based OS over Windows to a casual PC user? | If you like fiddling with computer settings, it's a great hobby, there is an endless supply of that in Linux. All the programs you need are free, so it's not just the OS. Some people use it just out of protest of Microsoft. I put it on a computer because the computer was too old and wouldn't run Windows anymore. Linux ... |
How do we see the full moon? | The moon is not normally directly in line with the earth so the sun is shinning past the earth and lighting up the moon. It's a perspective trick that makes it seem like moon is always over earth but it's not. Most of the time it's off to the side. The lack of visual context makes this illusion happen.Think of all the ... |
If I bit into an apple still on a tree during its growing process, would it continue to grow? | If a shark bit into a child during the growing process and took off an arm and leg, would the child continue to grow? Yes, but, their arm and leg would look different. Same goes for other things. When you see an apple with brown on it - a hardened brown spot - that's typically where it was hurt.Small bites or scrapes c... |
Why does it take time for some people to have an appetite in the morning? | Your stomach shuts down during sleep for your body to be more efficient, you no longer produce saliva, swallow, produce less urine and digest less food in the intestine at a much slower rate. When you wake up, your digestive system turns on again. But it's not instant, so sometimes you don't feel hunger for a while aft... |
Why do sailors need to know knots? | I'm retired Navy. I spent 20 years on submarines. Despite this I still had to know knots. They are extremely useful for a multitude of things. A person that can't tie a knot is not a sailor. |
In C programming language, what does the expression a[i] do when dealing with arrays? | The line int a[N]; is declaring an array of 10 ints. An array is like a list of things that sit next to each other in memory. You access a particular entry in that list using []. So a[0] = 1; is setting entry 0 to the value 1. a[i] = 5; is setting entry 'i' to 5. 'i' being whatever you have set it to. ++a[i]; This line... |
why alcoholic beverages don't display nutritional information on the container. | I know what you mean. It is definintly very frustrating that they don't display the nute facts. **EDIT:** Feel free to use that, btw: nute facts.I wish they had nutrition and allergy information. There are just enough beers out there with some sort of nut that I get nervousSome beers list the info, but it is not in the... |
How do people grow those super giant vegetables? | Some varieties are more suitable for growing abnormally large than others. When someone does end up with a massive veggie, they also keep and/or sell the seeds and control pollination to try and maintain the trait. Higher level record-breaking pumpkin seeds go for well over $100 each. There's a massive industry behind ... |
Why does the US have such a large defense budget | The Defense of Department is not only the largest employer in the US but it's also a key provider of R & D research. The scope of what the DoD does far exceeds just the military. Their logistics division alone is massive employee 26,000 employees. Here's a small list of what the DoD oversees: United States Department o... |
Is there a reason why lobsters are thrown into boiling water while alive? Wouldn't it be more humane to quickly kill them before boiling or is there a reason why this is not done? | It's believed that most invertebrates, including lobsters, are incapable of feeling pain. Nocioception is an extremely complex phenomenon that slowly evolved over time. It's unlikely that lobsters, with their primitive nervous system, are capable of nocioception, so boiling them alive isn't considered inhumane, yet is ... |
About those giant methane bubbles in the arctic that could cause a new mass extinction. | I'm going to assume you mean the methane trapped in the tundra and not the methane hydrate found on the sea floor. The short answer is that yes they absolutely could drill wells and begin capturing the methane as the permafrost warms. The economics however are very unclear. This option would almost certainly be very ex... |
How is 911 the phone number to every police station? | 911 is the standard telephone number to a center staffed 24/7. In cities it is a stand alone center with trained operators who will alert the services you need. They will dispatch fire, police, the sheriff's deputies, ambulance, water rescue, or any other emergency services available. They will also provide over the ph... |
Why exactly is it that 2 negatives make a positive? | The negative is the additive inverse. That is, if you have a number and you add another number to it, you can add the negative of the second number to the result to get the first number back again. An inverse is literally just the same thing in reverse. Imagine it like turning 180°. If you do it twice, you're facing th... |
Why are so many people "anti fur" but wear leather goods? | Leather often comes from cows, which would be killed for food regardless. Furs are often harvested from animals that have no other purpose than to provide furs. Often times furs are taken from wild animals. I think people just don't have as much of a problem killing cows than killing, say, a fox or a mink. We consider ... |
What's the benefit of football (as in soccer) players acting like they are dying at the slightest touch. Is there some kind of game theory behind it? | Sure, some players definitely 'cheat' with the obvious intent of drawing a foul or a penalty to gain an advantage that they are not entitled to, but in most cases a soccer/football player's motives are more innocuous than you might think. *Many players, especially toward the end of the game, may resort to going to grou... |
Why Doesnt Apple Make Computers Specifically For Video Games? | Most PC gamers build, or at least customize their own PC. Not only that, most games are Windows and not Mac. Apple computers are made for students, professionals and workstations. If they spent the money developing and producing a gaming PC, they wouldn't make it back. |
Why is Askreddit suddenly a private subreddit? | As far as I understand, a Reddit staffer whose job was primarily involved in coordinating the celebrity AMA's was abruptly fired. While the exact reasons are unknown and I am not going to risk speculation, the moderators of several prominent subreddits, including IAmA, AskReddit, and Science, among others, have taken t... |
When did humans start kissing each other & what was the initial purpose for? | Some scientists believe that kissing originated as a form of giving food to the kid. The mom chews the food for the kid and the kid eats it, just like how bird moms do. This creates antibodies in the mom which goes to the breast milk and that passes on to the child, making it stronger. Although today it's considered gr... |
The concept of e in mathematics. | What is it? Or why do we care? The exponential function y = e^x is the only function whose derivative is itself . This unique property means that exponential functions with base 'e' will end up being the solution to a lot of simple applied mathematics problems. Anytime the rate that something changes is proportional to... |
Why do censored TV versions of movies make up weird phrases to fill in for bad words instead of just using normal more mild phrases? | Have you ever found a stranger in the Alps? _URL_0_' I think they do it to be as ridiculous as possible in protest of censorship. |
what is the point of quarantine in antivirus software? | If your antivirus software is set to delete infected files, they are generally gone forever. If your antivirus is wrong in what it thought was a virus and it's set to delete a file, the file you wanted is gone forever. If your antivirus is set to quarantine files it suspects as being viruses, they are held in a storage... |
Why does YouTube, a website which such high account security, have so many spam bots while Reddit, a website that seems to have low account security, has almost none? | I'm guessing part of it is shadow bans. If the spammer knows they're banned, they try something different. If they spam reddit and get shadow banned, they think it's working and leave it like that for a while. |
If a shower heats up your core body temperature and a pool cools it down why are you cold when you come out of both? | I love how everyone here keeps saying evaporative cooling. That's only half of it really. When your skin is wet, it increases the convective heat transfer rate of your skin dramatically. If the outside temperature is below your body temperature, you will feel cold. If the water on your skin is cold, that transfer rate ... |
mini-nukes? Why would N. Korea waste time and resources developing anything less than a nuke capable of reaching it's enemies? What is the difference between a mini-nuke and a "regular"? | North Korea doesn't have the technology/resources to produce missiles capable of lifting their current nuclear weapons to any enemy target. Think of it like this. North Korea has developed a 50 pound cannon ball. If they could shoot that out of a cannon, the impact would do a lot of damage. However, the cannons they ha... |
Why tipping in the United States seems to be more commonplace and at a higher percentage that other countries? | The answer to this is actually in an answer to a question further down the page, waiters and waitresses have a much lower minimum wage in the US and if tips don't bring it up high enough to standard minimum wage the restaurant have to pay the difference. This is why in the US restaurants also want you to pay higher tip... |
Why don't people build their own cars, much like enthusiasts build their own computers? | Because building a computer don't require special skills or significant resources. A bunch of boxes show up from Newegg, you find a screwdriver and spend an afternoon putting it together on your kitchen table. With a car, even if you know *exactly* what you are doing, it requires specialized skills, lots of equipment, ... |
Why are the lanthanum and actinium series not left in with the traditional table of elements? | Those series are the start of new electron orbitals. Columns under Helium and Beryllium are the first set of orbitals. Columns starting with Boron through Neon and the next set. Then we have a gap in the periodic table in row 2 and 3 because the next set of orbitals under Selenium to Zinc don't start until row 4. Then,... |
What the heck is happening with all these explosions in China? | I think the idea is that these kinds of things happen all the time in china, it's jyst that you don't hear about most due to the state-controlled media.You mean all two of them? Did I miss some? |
Why does every big government project seem to go WAY over its budget? | Because *every* project goes way over budget, and government projects are more visible. Consider just IT as an example. Here's a study from 2004:_URL_1_ This study found that only 16% of all software projects - private *and* public - were found to be both on time and under budget. The *average* project would end up cos... |
I understand why plants produce flavorful fruits, but how do plants understand what would be flavorful to animals? | > Now can someone explain to me like I am five how the plant knows what would taste good to an animal? It doesn't. Random mutations results in fruits with various different tastes, some which taste good, and some which taste bad. The ones that taste bad eventually go extinct, because animals don't eat the fruit. |
Why are some hazardous items labeled: "Known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects or reprooductive harm?" Why is it worded in such a way? | California has legislation requiring labeling of certain materials on products sold in its state. Because it's cheaper and easier to produce a single package for the entire U.S. market than create something different for every state, they print it so that it will be legal if that particular box ends up in California. I... |
Why does applying pressure to your eye(s) (and other parts of your head, for that matter) help to alleviate pain when you have a pounding headache? | This is my first ever post! But I believe it's called gate Theory. Learnt about this in a neurology lecture probably almost 4 years back now! _URL_0_", 'Sinuses are the primary cause of this. They are air filled pockets and the closest to your eyes are your frontal and sphenoid. When they can not drain mucus properly, ... |
How could recycling be a scam? | **Aluminium recycling** is completely legit, it takes at least 20x as much energy to create new Aluminium vs recycling . Aluminium is at the point where it suddenly becomes hella expensive to recycle as you need to use electricity to extract it from the ore However **other trash recycling** isn't worth it. The short is... |
In movies, when a nurse gives a shot, s/he taps the syringe and squirts a little bit. Do real nurses do that? Why? | I think it's to get air bubbles out of the syringe. I don't think it happens IRL that often |
Why do names in Islam and Christianity differ? (for example: Jesus and Isa, Ibrahim and Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, Dawood and David etc). | Ishmael was Isaac's older half-brother, the son of Abraham and Sarah's handmaiden Hagar. Isaac was Sarah's only child.Most of the biblical names have roots closer to the Arabic pronunciation. Jesus, Abraham, David, etc, are all anglicized versions when translated to English', " In addition to things already mentioned, ... |
Why can we copy Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent so easily, but he can't copy an American accent? | Reportedly he can speak with a perfect American accent and has been able to for years. He doesn't because the accent is so identifiable. |
Why don't school buses require seat belts? | Most vehicles on the road won't even phase a school bus if it collided with it. Nothing short of another bus or a semi would be large enough to cause a collision big enough to injure anyone inside.Used to be like that in Ireland, then a school bus tipped over, and the kids fell out and got crushed. The brought a law in... |
Ferguson 2.0 [OFFICIAL THREAD] | ELI5: please summarize what we KNOW, with only facts/almost definitely facts, and what people are doing. Just everything, because I feel like I'm missing a lot of stuff. |
If I burn 1kg of paper in a closed environment, will this environment be as heavy as before? If yes, why/how? | As others have said, yes. To grossly oversimplify it you are taking the carbon and hydrogen in the paper structure and reacting it with oxygen. That creates water and carbon dioxide . The amount of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the volume hasn't changed - they're just rearranged from a solid and some light gas i... |
Why do some people get white hairs while they're still fairly young? | As soon as my facial hair grew in I realised I had white streaks in it already. I was a little bemused to begin with but it is quite cool when I grow it out. I've not really been able to account for it but stress has been suggested by a doctor in passing and I did have a fairly unusually stressful pre-teen and teenage ... |
If traditional locks are easily picked, why do we still use them? | The idea behind a lock isn't to make something completely secure, its to make it secure enough that anyone who might want to steal your stuff won't bother and instead try somewhere else. Think about it, why bother picking a lock and potentially setting off an automatic security system, when you could find somewhere wit... |
how is reddit's search engine so bad? | One factor might simply be that reddit has been experiencing a surge in popularity, and the hardware hasn't been able to keep up. Look at the sudden spurt in reddit's rankings over recent months: _URL_0_ |
US Presidential election 2016 megathread | ELI5:Why everyone seemed so frustrated/devastated about Trump's victory, yet he was elected on majority?", 'How easy/possible will it be for Trump to enact the things he said he would? Can he actually "build a wall and make Mexico pay for it" Or take any new measures to remove illegal immigrants? Will it be easy for hi... |
why do some animals walk so weird when booties are put on them? | I'm not even kind of an expert, but I assume it's because of weight distribution on the pads of their feet or their hooves feeling uneven due to the material. |
Why do people generally stick with people of their own "league", is that a subconscious effort? | It's pretty simple. Using the 1-10 system, everybody would prefer an 8 to a 6, but if you're an 8 why would you date a 6 when you could date an 8 instead? So the 6's tend to date other 6's since that's the best they can do. |
Why are electric cars less taxing on the environment than standard fuel-burning cars, if we still require fossil fuels to make the electricity for the cars? | I know I'm tossing this in VERY late, but one fact that a LOT of internal combustion folks fail to mention is the electricity that is needed to create your gasoline. It takes about [5kWh to refine one gallon of gasoline]. A biggish electric car can go 20 miles on that same energy, without burning that gallon of gasolin... |
Why is our own blood an irritant to our stomach? | There's also the fact that if you have blood in your stomach, then in most cases you probably didn't just drink it, but you're bleeding internally. In that case it's a good idea for the body to get rid of the blood and other contents of your gastric system. |
Why are horses used for crowd control? | they're big. they're tall. the officer is up high where he has good view. politics for a horse are much better than politics for an APC", 'All the points about intimidation, size, improved vision are all correct. Also, people tend to move when 1300 lbs of horse charges you. _URL_2_ _URL_2_ |
Could it be possible/practical to put some big springs on some shoes to absorb impact and be able to drop from really high distances? | This exists- though not enough to handle a 20 story fall. Google bocks or jumping stilts . There are even subreddits for them.They can be dangerous- you do have to compensate for the physics- no cartoon style bouncing. |
Why can't something get to absolute zero? | The matter will be in its ground state. This state has the highest ordering of structure and is as such also the least likely state . The uncertainty principle gives a trade-off to how precise you can determine a particle's position version its momentum. If you know it's position with 100% certainty you don't know anyt... |
Why do the months September, October, November, and December have prefixes for 7,8,9, and 10, but are the 9th,10th,11th, and 12th months, respectively? | The months are mostly named after the Roman Calendar. January is named after the Roman God Janus. The god of New beginnings. February is named after Februus. The god of purification festivals. This was basically the month when they celebrated the new year. The Romans had a ten month calendar. The first two months essen... |
Why were folks in the Middle Ages so violent and sadistic (e.g. various torture devices, public execution as entertainment, etc.)? | A lot of the various torture devices are actually fake or were never actually used. Also, it's not like torture devices aren't being used today. I mean, look at Abu Ghraib. Also, legal public executions were still around in America as late as 1936. This, of course, excludes the public lynchings that were popular until ... |
Why do cars in America live to 200-300k miles but cars in the UK generally only manage 100k? | While I'm not sure where you got those numbers from, I'd still offer a thought as to why, if these numbers are indeed correct: Density of population. The UK is very densely populated, and most people probably don't drive 40+ miles to work and back every day . But I would argue that driving 10 miles through a city and s... |
Lebanon history from first israel invasion to today. | Also, water. Much of the Middle East and most of Israel is desert, Lebanon is not. Most of the surface water in northern Israel originates in the beautiful Lebanon mountains, and flows down through famous rivers such as the Jordan. It used to flow into the Dead Sea but now none of this water does, it's all redirected a... |
What is the point of QR codes and why are they a thing on everything (but no-one ever seems to care or scan them?) | In Japan many people have qr codes on their business cards so that people can scan it and have all their contacts saved to their phone. They're also prominent in marketing in Japan and are actually used by people.Due to the QR Code’s unappealing appearance, they are often placed in the corner of an ad as if to say, ” D... |
Why is it legal for anyone to buy products like mouthwash with pretty significant alcohol content, but illegal for minors to buy alcoholic beverages? | I've known the most desperate drunks in lock up filter out alcohol from purell. If there's a will there's a way, no doubt. |
In movies set in the past, how do they get all of the period correct vehicles? | As said, collectors well either let producers like 20th Century Fox etc to use their cars, no doubt under contractual agreement over X year/years. On the flip side, companies like Apple pay producers to have their tech in films, which is why iPhones and Macs seem to be the only bloody phones or PCs in films these days.... |
Where does background radiation in space come from? | Our atmosphere protects us from the sun's radiation. When astronauts are floating around outside that atmosphere, they don't get the benefit of that protection so they have to bring their own. |
With the current high GPU and RAM prices, why aren't console prices affected? | My guess would be that no one is buying consoles or the graphics cards that are used in consoles for mining. As I understand it, only graphics cards that are effective at mining are effected. Plus, it could be that the consoles are already built, and so aren't affected by current pricing, as they were put together when... |
During a jury trial, why aren't jurors placed behind a two way mirror and blocked from view? | There's also the issue of trust. All involved should be able to see that the jury is listening and is alert. If we can't see them, how do we know that they aren't playing Candy Crush or simply is sleeping? |
How nasa can get clear undistorted images from satelittes and probes thousands of miles away but my radio signal or phone signal is shotty at best? | I think based on the collection of response, this can be answered on a higher level. It's way more important. So important NASA gets to spend a little bit of everybody's money to make it happen. This means they can do a lot of things to make it work. Your cell phone or the radio? No big D.A key to this is a *massive* a... |
How is veto power fair? | The Veto in the UN is a very powerful tool. Unfortunately, it results in resolutions being stuck in transition if it affects one of the 5 countries with veto rights. In light of Russia using their veto against the resolution of Crimea, one can tell that it isn't fair. Russia and any of the P5 are pretty much immune to ... |
Why is Prince Charles not the King of England? | King George was king . King George didn't have any sons. That means the crown went to his oldest daughter. If he had 40 daughters and one son, and the son was the youngest, even if he was an *infant* the crown would have skipped over all daughters straight to the son. But he never had a son, so they had to settle for t... |
Does an engine use twice as much fuel at 4000 rpm than it does at 2000 rpm? | The short answer is no. It has to do with how much you've pressed the gas pedal. It is a common misconception that x amount of fuel is used per revolution. This is false. Instead, it's directly related to how much you press the gas pedal, which opens the throttle. The throttle determines how much air is sucked into the... |
Why do restaurants refuse service to people that are not wearing shoes? | There are a number of communicable diseases that can be transferred from a bare foot to a floor and then to another bare foot. Ringworm, for example. While most of these diseases aren't serious, most people find that fungal infections and the like are irritating and prefer to avoid them. Now, if you could count on ever... |
How does WINRAR stay alive? | Companies pay for it. But supporting Winrar is not expensive anymore. I don't think they have hundreds of programmers working on it full time. WinRar doesn't change that much after each release |
Why did British people hate Margaret Thatcher? | You're never going to get an objective view on this but I'll try my best: As a Conservative, she was very much against unions, nationalisation, Government interference, etc. Therefore, she privatised many of the previous nationalised industries and reduced Government interference. She also closed mines which angered lo... |
How do the people on Wall Street make so much money if it's been proven that a trader can't out perform a random agent. | 1) There are many types of trading i.e Derivatives, Bonds, Futures, etc- and each has diff methods of making a profit from your trades. 2) Trading is just one component of wall street. There are also those that work in: * Mergers & Aquisitions: They help companies buy out/merge with other companies in multi-billion dol... |
Why Jurors aren't told about Jury Nullification Prior to Trials? | everyone has been providing pretty great answers, but i'm surprised no one has referenced this yet, so i'm just gonna leave this here [CGP Grey] |
How do you discern between good acting, and great, Oscar Winning acting. | As others have said it comes down to forgetting the fact that an actor played a role and the character is what you remember. Good example: Jack Nicholson as The Joker. Good performance, good take, but we still know it's Jack. Heath Ledger as the Joker- That's a character and yes, makeup makes us forget it's Ledger, but... |
Why do some developed nations (UK, France, Germany, etc) have large populations of migrants, but other developed nations (e.g. Japan) have very little? | I always thought it was because all the war torn countries these people are fleeing from are within sailing distance of Europe. Naturally they end up in Greece, Macedonia etc but as these countries don't have the 'great things' promised to them, the migrants Migrate to wealthier countries ie the UK, France, Italy, Germ... |
Why do people start smoking when they know they can get cancer and whatnot? | People have a strong tendency to prioritize short term pleasure over long term consequences. Cigarettes are the obvious example but there are many others. Red and processed meat, for example is pretty much unequivocally linked to cancer now, but people are still eating burgers and packaged ham. Coffee contains known ca... |
Did we start calling World War 1 after WW1, or did we have to wait for a second world war to give it a number? | It was called a number of things depending where you were from, but my great grandfather's referred to it as *The Great War*. |
how do some kids hit high school barely literate? | Being able to read and write well means that you have to spend a lot of time reading and writing. It's not something that can be explained or memorized. The kids that make it to high school with poor literacy either haven't spent the time or they have a learning disability . Teachers are limited because they have a lot... |
How is Radioshack still in business? | If it costs more to shut down a business than it does to keep it running, it's a better business decision to keep it running. Look at kmart.Radio Shack stores exist in lots of small places where access to electronics of any kind is very limited. Not sure if still true but for many years they were the number one seller ... |
Why is male and female handwriting distinct? | Confirming psychology, based on personal experience. I used to crave any affirmation or attention from my dad and I remember he once commented on my good handwriting as a child. I soaked it up so much that I became obsessed with perfecting it. If I started a book report and it wasn't perfect, I'd rewrite the whole thin... |
Why is Halloween so huge in America? | Escapism. Make believe. Pretend. It's acceptable for adults on Halloween night. You get to be a kid again. |
What happens if someone tries to sue you and you just don't show up to court? | The person suing you can move for a default judgement on their claims. Basically they tell the court their side, and having nobody present to contest their version, the court then rules on the facts is has. This almost always leads to judgement agaisnt the person who didn't show up. However, theoretically, if the perso... |
Why is the majority of girls handwriting nicer looking than boys? | As far as I am aware, girls tend to practice their writing in youth much more then boys do. This leads to prolonged handwriting improvement. Some other commenters suggested biological differences but I don't think the effect would be big enough. |
Why are all of the downs syndrome people I see overweight? | Not all people with Downs are overweight. I've cared for many children with special needs, and I can tell you that a lot of them are very physically healthy. The only correlation I can draw between being overweight and any mental/behavioral disorders is that children with Downs and other disorders sometimes don't have ... |
when people that speak sign language is it the same or similar when you go to another country? | There are even different sign languages within the United States. ASL--American Sign Language --is the main sign language for the US, but there's also SEE - Signed English Exact. |
Why do people tend to idealize the past and catastrophize the future? | Mainly because humans have a selective memory. They tend to forget bad things over a long period of time, or at least convince themself the bad things wern't that bad. At the same time, humans are way better to remember good things. This doesn't happen over night tho, so memorys close to the present time are more accur... |
What's the difference between a framework, a language, an engine, and assembly in programming? | move arm up". This is because a computer is actually really stupid and only knows how to do a few things like adding numbers or shifting a 1 to a 0. Everything advanced a computer can do is really just a long list of small easy tasks like this. Assembly lets you write these lists. More high level languages are compiled... |
Why are all planets, moons and suns spherical? Why not various other shapes? | Because gravity. Gravity pulls on all directions equally, and so you don't have the corners necessary to make, say, a cube. Eventually gravity will wear everything down to the point where it's a fairly equal sphere. |
Can someone explain the differences between "Left Wing" & "Right Wing" in regards to politics? | These distinctions are actually pretty arbitrary. Their definitions vary from country to country and from decade to decade. Ideas that are left wing in one particular place and time are right wing in another. The best example of this is the idea of free trade. Originally, this was a left wing idea, and today it's a rig... |
When a food has an "acquired taste" , what is actually happening when we begin to enjoy it? | Many foods that are acquired tastes have strong flavors at first bite. As the oils and food particles coat your tongue, your taste buds recalibrate as you get used to it. When you take the next bite, the strong flavors won't be as noticeable and the more delicate aromatic compounds will begin to stand out. You can try ... |
How did geese learn they can cross the road and cars will stop for them? | I've watched crows try the same thing after seeing the geese. Doesn't work as we'll. |
How do ships or any marine entities float? | Water actually pushes stuff up. If it didn't, belly flopping off a high dive wouldn't hurt. Big boats push stuff down. What makes them float is that they push down less than the water pushes up, because their weight is all spread out over a wide area. If you melted down an aircraft carrier into a ball of metal, it woul... |
How could a cup of hot cocoa and an iceberg have the same thermal energy? | When you measure the thermal energy in something, it doesn't immediately make sense with our normal temperature scales, Celsius & Fahrenheit, which put frozen water at 0C & -32F. You want to measure the differences from *absolute zero*, the lack of any energy. Absolute Zero is at -273C or -459F - or we can use the Kelv... |
how people can go Ass to mouth without getting sick? Possible [NSFW] | I remember reading somewhere that the 'performers' would have an enema, then only eat cookie dough for about a day before the scene. It's still poop, but at least not black, smelly hangover poop or anything. Edit: This pertains to the world of 'scat' pornography, obviously. I really don't know about private poop-party ... |
Why is the U.S. so outraged that N.K. continues to test missiles? | At the moment, all nuclear countries have a lot to loose if they enter a nuclear war. The US, Russia and China don't want to suffer the consequences of firing a nuclear weapon, the retaliation from the enemy country and possiblle damage to international trade would be too great. In the case of NK there is a big chance ... |
If my parents were millionaires could I avoid inheritance tax by going to a casino and winning their money off them in a poker game? | If you're in the UK, you wouldn't even need to go to a casino. You could potentially have your parents take silly bets on something like Betfair and you take them up on it. It'd need to be done at a time and on an event where no one else would realistically try to match such a bet. But who knows, maybe you could mainta... |
If time is revolutions around the sun, how can we measure the universe in years before there even was a sun? | The second is the duration of 9 192 631\xa0770 periods\xa0of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the cesium 133 atom. That's how we actually define time. |
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