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What is it that makes water-boarding so psychologically and/or physically terrifying? | Water boarding is torture. I don't know that it is any more terrifying than other forms of torture. It's just terrifying to be tortured. |
how did Asians get their squinty eyes? (I'm Asian) | It seems we [aren't quite sure]. What I do know is the evolutionary drive behind the races is climate based. Though sexual selection can't be ignored.Gobi desert, wind. This is why Northern Chinese have more squinty eyes than Southern Chinese.because those are the genes of Ghengis Khan's grandfather? |
Why can hospitals charge $50 a pill for Tylenol, but I can buy a whole bottle at the store for $5? | My local hospital charged $25000 for the birth of my daughter, a three day affair. That's a lot, but my daughter was severely breached, and my wife needed an emergency c section. They'd both likely be dead if we didn't go to a hospital. So if the choice is ludicrous prices or death, what choice do you have? |
Why do we urinate even when we are dehydrated/thirsty? | Even when you're dehydrated or thirsty, your body still needs to get rid of waste. You can't avoid that. |
What's the difference between adopting, rescuing, and buying pets? Isn't any pet without a home in need of one? | It's to try and cut down the puppy mills. They churn out puppies for profit. Sure those puppies deserve a home, but many people disagree with the forced breeding of animals . If you adopt a rescue then it's a dog that was not bred in a mill or from a breeder. It's a stray or accidental pregnancy from another animal. |
Cricket... What the heck is going on? | > I just don't get how scores can get so high In test cricket , a team's innings lasts until all the players are out. That usually takes a couple of days. At the end of one day's play the game is effectively paused, and play resumes the next day. So given that it's a game where people can be playing for the best part o... |
If your bladder is able to hold approximately 375ml, but you drink 1 liter of water - where does the other 625ml go, if it technically wouldn't fit in your bladder? | What you are asking about is called [Fluid Balance] and is an aspect of homeostasis in all living things. Urination is only one part of our osmoregulation, other factors include defecating, sweating, and salivating. At any given time your body maintains a healthy amount of water and excess is sent to the bladder. When ... |
Is there any benefit to having ice cream prepared on a marble slab? | Marble takes ages of compaction geologic formation. Basically, rock is preasurized under the earth under such conditions that it changes. The act of it compacting makes it denser, tougher, overall more resistant to damage and weathering. Rocks and minerals react under different temperatures. Typically you can note more... |
Why does metal feel cold at room temperature? | I think it's to do with the fact that delocalised electrons in metals are good conductors of heat. So when you touch a metal at room temperature, the delocalised electrons move through the metal and take the heat away from your hand and therefore makes the metal feel cold as the heat is being spread throughout the meta... |
If muscle growth is them tearing and re-growing tissue, why can't we invent a machine or procedure that artificially replicates this tearing in order to build up muscle mass without actually working out? | For starters, we simply don't understand all the mechanisms behind muscle growth, and the one you've mentioned isn't even necessarily the most important. |
Eric Garner [OFFICIAL THREAD] | 1) Innocent people are being murdered by our own police, the police are suppose to protect us from bad things, not be the bad thing. 2) There is an underlying race issue in this country and with humanity in general. Let's fix number one, and then talk about number two. We can't do both at once, and PEOPLE BEING MURDERE... |
What is going on when a plane ride gets bumpy? | No reason to be that worried. Look how far you'd have to fall before you hit the ground! More than enough time for your life to flash before your eyes, all those old disappointments and failures playing back as you plummet But really, it's like this. Air isn't just one smooth mass sitting there. It's a roiling sea of m... |
Why Mars, not Venus? | [PBS SpaceTime video on the subject] In short, Venus presents some great advantages; it is closer, so it would cost less to send people, hs a thick atmosphere that would offer better protection against radiation & meteorites, and higher gravity . So what's the issue with Venus ? We wouldn't be able to live on the surfa... |
Why are pay pal and ebay splitting ? what does this mean for me as a seller and buyer? | PayPal accounts for a majority of beats profits and revenue as such they're splitting as they're 'too big' to stay with eBay. Allowing both to proceed within their industries. As mentioned it allows eBay to make deals with other payment firms and PayPal to do likewise with retailers. Being held back by eBay is bad for ... |
How did America become the richest country in the world before it turned 100 and the most powerful country ever seen before it turned 200? | When are you starting the clock? If you are counting from the first European settlers, then it wasn't the richest country in the world before it turned 100. If you are counting from the signing of the constitution to get to an 1889 time, then the region had been developed for almost 300 years.Timing, and geography. The... |
Why do we prefer drinks such as Coffee or Tea either hot or cold but not at room temperature? | I guess I'm the odd man out I prefer Pepsi at room temperature, rather than cold, and certainly not hot. I like to drink my coffee black which is easier to manage if it's not fresh off the brewer. I'm a middle of the road drinker. Not too hot and not too cold just right for Goldilocks. |
Why doesn't Reddit simply hire the guy who makes Reddit Enhancement Suite (RES) and make those features part of Reddit? | I'm not sure how this fits into the niche Q/A community of ELI5, it seems better fit for AskReddit or maybe a subreddit more focused on Reddit itself?", 'When a person makes something for free, it seems silly to pay them for doing what they already do.Not everyone wants those features. Some may, especially the hardcore... |
Why do we have a space station when we could have a moon base? | The moon is significantly further away. The ISS is about 250 miles away from Earth. The moon is about 250,000 miles from Earth. Every planet in our solar system can fit between the Earth and moon. It's about 10 times the circumference of the Earth. |
Why do I sweat heavily and wake up feeling awful after a daytime nap but when I sleep at night this doesn't happen at all? | Not sure about the sweating, but the feel awful could be a result of [sleep inertia.] Basically when you sleep your body goes through cycles. If you wake up during deep, slow-wave sleep, you'll end up with more sleep inertia. Since during the day there's a lot more going on around you , it would be easier to accidental... |
What has changed that we frequently now throw away products instead of fixing them? | Plastics. If you take a look at a lot of older appliances, they were largely metal. And they were expensive. But it was thought that if you bought it, you pretty much bought it for life. You'd repair as needed, as the original large investment in the product meant it would be worth the cost of fixing it rather than buy... |
After accomplishing something very challenging why do we sometimes feel empty and emotionless about it immediately after? | This reminds me of the last scene in Zero Dark Thirty If you've devoted a significant amount of time to something, once you complete it, your primary purpose is gone. It takes a bit of time to find a new goal. |
Why when I'm hungover do I not seem to want water/food even though I need it and will make me feel better? | This is why I drink water while I drink, and also if need be, I eat some bread before going to sleep. Haven't had a hangover in a long time.Just make sure to not listen to your body in that instance; food and water are a great cure for hangovers.Cuz you're a rookie. I devour food and chug liquids when I'm hungover.I on... |
What does the Vice President even do? | Not much. Officially, the Vice President is President of the Senate. That sounds like a big deal. But it's really not. All the VP really does in that capacity is cast the tie-breaking vote if the Senate ever ties on something 50-50 which rarely happens. Realistically, the Vice President has very little power and many p... |
- Levels of government. Detail in text here. | Your mayor or city council is elected by the members of your city. They are responsible for executing local laws. Your governor and other state-wide officials are elected by the members of your state. They are responsible for executing state-wide laws. Your president is is elected by the entire country via the Electora... |
Why is it so hard to pirate videos, games etc? Why can't pirates just exactly copy the files from the disc and put it on anouter one? | Because console manufacturer's spend a lot of money developing technology that specifically disallows this. If it was that easy to copy games consoles would probably just stop being made entirely since most of their profit is from software. Each company and console has different ways of doing this but it generally just... |
How can we receive Hi-Res photos from Pluto but i need a wifi repeater for my flat | Because NASA spent more than $79 for their communications equipment and you didn't, so they get better performance. |
What is "citizen arrest" and when is it okay to use it | Oddly enough, one of the blogs I follow just made an informative post on this very subject. [Check it out here.] |
why is the Netflix interface so unbelievably awful on consoles but not computers? | Try Amazon instant in thy computer, then try it on a console, you'll have a new appreciation for netflix's interface. |
Why do parts of a product cost more to repair than the whole thing? | Because they're not made to be easily repairable, which adds labor cost, and the parts are expensive because of low supply. Most companies only make extra parts for internal repair services, not contractors. Also because they sell more TVs. It's easier to sell a TV because the distribution platform exists, similar plat... |
What is preventing unscrupulous women from ruining high - profile men with false allegations of sexual misconduct? | I think there are a couple things preventing this from happening. First, it takes some work to do it and make it believable. If you say that a high profile man sexually assaulted you and have no additional details, no one is going to believe you on word alone. You need a connection and a good story. If, for example, yo... |
Why does sticking a knife in the toaster electrocute me but sticking a knife on an electric stovetop element does not? | A toaster, or stove top produces heat by running electricity through metal wires. When you touch the wires with an electric conductor, like a metal fork or spoon, you become the shortest path to ground. On a stove top, the wire/filament is insulated, electricity can't pass through a strong insulator, so it keeps runnin... |
Why is Spotify able to provide almost every artist and album out, yet Netflix is only able to provide a fraction of films? | Licensing and contracts. Its cheaper for Netflix and thus us the consumers if they don't have their entire movie catalogue avail for streaming along with the DVDs. |
Why Does The Gender Wage Gap Exist? | Ok, I'm going to go against the grain here and say that wage gaps do exist for some jobs. Across all jobs, the wage gap is easily explained by factors other commentors have covered, but individual institutions and careers can and do have mysteriously unexplained gaps between men and women. The ones I'm most familiar wi... |
Why is Helvetica the most used typeface? | The font was designed to be universal, it doesn't scream a certain style or genre so it can be used in almost any situation. It's also a font with a lot of different variations in its font family, from super thin to extra bold. You can easily pick two weights of Helvetica and not have to spend any time trying to think ... |
How can jocks be so good at physical exercise? | It's just what they do. They train for the sports they love, and getting the grades is a must if they want to stay on the teams. It's all about drive for their sport. |
Why are prime numbers so difficult to find? | Because they are defined by what they aren't, rather than what they are. Prime numbers are numbers which can not be factored. This means that there can not be a relation between them, because they are defined by standing apart, rather than being part of something. There is no sequence to them. The only way to find them... |
Why is suicide illegal in some places? | If someone is about to commit suicide and it is illegal, then the police would be allowed to intervene and stop the act. I don't believe the punishment is a fine or jail sentence or anything it is more to support the 'suicide is bad' ideal, and rightly so. |
With the negative views around dlc and preordering, how do Kickstarter games make so much money in such a short amount of time? | Apart from what others have said, it's also important to note that most of the kickstarter games are NOT successful. Obviously you only hear of the wildly successful ones because they make the news, but for each one of them, there are 20 that didn't make it, and 20 more than barely made it. |
Why did Rock Band and Guitar Hero die? Could they ever make a comeback? | As a big Guitar Hero fan, I always thought that getting rights for all these songs must be very expensive, making hard to get profit out of it. They could make it at first, when labels probably asked for less money and they could get more sales, but as the label fees increased and sales decreased, it became unsustainab... |
What is vision like for animals with eyes that face directly away from each other (i.e. fish, some birds)? | I'm pretty sure Chameleons brains process each picture of each eye independently, but I'm not too sure of that. |
Why meals ready to eat (MREs) take so long to leave the body or just cause incontinence? | A contributing factor to this may be that an MRE's aren't intended to be a 'three meals a day' thing. |
Why are cuban cigars illegal in the US? | Kennedy agreed to the embargo of Cuba as part of the Cuban missile crisis. Ironically, JFK was a connoisseur of Cubans and ordered his aides to buy out DC before the embargo went into effect. Long story short, come to canada and we'll hook you up", 'The trade embargo the US placed on Cuba. Supported with 6 statues, the... |
How do SWAT teams sneak up on houses with outside dogs and other security measures without being detected? | It's not so much as not being detected but getting in before any countermeasures can be set up park your car in the drive way, get out and run through your open door and run to any room in your bedroom, add like 10 seconds to that for room clearing and there's your basic time table, what can someone do in that amount o... |
How can a drink have 0 Calories? Does that mean it gives no energy when you drink it? | They don't have exactly 0 calories, but close to it. And yes it is possible for a drink to have 0 calories, pure water for example. |
Does the weight of large cities like LA, or New York City cause any problems to the earth with the large amount of weight on a small location? | maybe not those cities. but Chicago is built on a swamp. and the city has been gradually sinking. but it has more to do with plate tectonics than the miniscule weight of the buildings. Earth is measured in billion-billions of tons. a couple millions of tons won't do anything significant. |
Why do so called "Neckbeard Redditors" spam YouTube videos that get posted on here? | I actually wanted to ask this same question but with a slight twist - Why don't I see those guys posting on fake profiles here like they do there? |
Official ELI5 thread: The Trial (and Acquittal) of George Zimmerman | I tried to find the answer to this but I couldn't anywhere. Since this is such a high-profile case many people know his full name and information. Now that he is not guilty, a lot of people say they are going to kill him, like on twitter and stuff. Does he get protection? Bodyguards? How does that work? |
after losing some blood, the body starts replacing that blood, how does it know that it has already finished replacing that lost blood so it could stop making more? | If you were to somehow trick the kidney's peritubular cells into thinking the oxygen level is too low all the time, would your body just keep making blood until you died from high blood pressure? |
Are Jurassic dinosaurs related to Triassic dinosaurs? There was a mass extinction between periods, did the Jurassic dinosaurs "start from scratch"? | A mass extinction has yet to cause all life to die off. While the extinction between the Triassic and Jurassic periods was still a mass extinction, it wasn't as bad as the mass extinction from the Permian to the Triassic period or the later Cretaceous to Tertiary Period. While a lot of species died in this transitional... |
As diseases like polio are eradicated why do we still need to vaccinate against them. | Many diseases that we vaccinate against are difficult to get rid of completely, because they can be carried by animals. Even if we vaccinate every human, the virus still could be kept alive in bat populations for example, and then passed back to humans if we stop vaccinating. Some viruses do only affect humans and are ... |
If oxygen is flamable then why doesn't the whole sky catch on fire? | Actually oxygen isn't flammable, it's an oxidizer. In order for something to burn you need three things, heat, fuel and an oxidizer. So when you light a campfire for example, it burns because you have fuel, wood, and an oxidizer, the oxygen in the atmosphere. The reason why the atmosphere doesn't suddenly catch fire is... |
How do crazy dictators like Kim Jong able to keep power? | Fear. If every one were to rise up against the dictator, he'd be removed. The problem is the first ones to do so, will suffer horribly for doing that. No one wants to be the martyr. |
why do jeep drivers and motorcycle drivers always wave at each other? What are some other vehicles that cause this random sense of community? | I own a [Series III Landrover] and will be waved at by and wave to: * Series I, II and III LandRovers* Land Rover 90, 110 and Defenders * But not by other models in the Land Rover range which are a much more common sight in my country. I also own an [MK1 MX-5 ] and have started to notice more people waving as, I imagin... |
Why are the males weaker than the females in the insect world? | It is not always a weaker vs stronger argument but more a what is required by that individual and species. For many colony insects the male comes from an unfertilized egg/embryo which would mean that it only carries one copy of the genetic material. The main purpose for these male insects is to introduce randomization ... |
UBER and all the controversy surrounding it | It's a modern day taxi service that's great. The controversy is that it's a lot better than the taxi companies that have a cabal in most cities, and they are losing tons of business so they end up trying to lobby uber away, instead of updating their business model for a modern world. In Miami, for example, the taxi com... |
How does your social security number contain so much information about you? | Technically the number itself has no value, but your continued use of it allow for a fairly accurate database to be generated surrounding it. Just imagine it's like a phone number that never changes. Fun fact, it's technically legal for up to 5 people to be issued the same SSN. And sometimes, your SS# itself, holds som... |
The concept of "parents kick their children out when they turned 18" in the US. | It's not that common in the US. At 18, you're legally an adult and your parents are no longer legally required to support you. Some people's families force them to start supporting themselves at that age but it's not the standard - most people would consider it *bad parenting* to do so.its not everyone by any stretch, ... |
why do viruses and other harmful micro organisms want to kill us? | They don't want to kill us. They just ~~want~~ have drives to survive and thrive. It's simply an unfortunate happenstance that bacteria, viral pathogens, parasites, and associated waste products often have a deleterious effect on the health of host organisms. |
I have $5000. I want to start investing. Where do I start? | Put it in a broad market, ETF and forget about it. It has low costs, it'll grow with the market and it won't turn into zero. Only a _very very very_ few people reliably beat the market. |
How has Germany developed an extremely successful economy on manufacturing while maintaining first world wages for its blue collar workers? | The main reason Germany is successful at supporting their people is that their culture values their people. Big business in the U.S. just wants to suck up as much cash as possible and making sure their people are supported is not important to them. Germans are less psychotic when it comes to money. As far as competitio... |
Is it better to leave my desktop running all the time or to turn it off every night? | Some answers in here already. My 2 cents is I'm an IT guy and my computers both at work and home are never turned off. The hard disks can go to sleep when idle but otherwise I never shut it down. Only thing this ever wears out for me is fans, which are cheap. |
Why can't I 'unsend' an email? | Your email is basically data. When you send it your sending the data from your computer, to a sever, that send that data to another server, eventually going to a mail server where it is held until the person reads it. There is nothing stopping someone from writing a unsend mail function into a mail server but it's unli... |
Why does a $1 app seem more expensive than a $1 Arizona Iced Tea? | You'll probably never find a free iced tea. But free apps are everywhere. It seems like a huge burden when you're used to getting free apps and all of a sudden you have to pay for one, even if it's really cheap like $1. On the other hand, you're not used to getting free tea, you almost always have to pay. In that way $... |
What would happen if the moon was destroyed? | If it just ctl-alt-del'ed? We'd have much calmer seas, and animals that use the moon for navigation would be fucked. If it got blown up? We'd have a lot-lot of death/destruction from chunks falling to earth, and that which didn't fall to earth would make a cloud of debris that would eventually become ring-like due to g... |
Why is it common for developed western countries to hold snap elections but the US doesn't. | Because the Constitution doesn't have a means by which to hold a snap election. I guess you could technically have the equivalent if a boatload of senators and congressmen just resigned their posts all of a sudden, but that get's a little weird as they have to resign *before* the election can really occur. |
Why is it that sometimes an action becomes so deeply associated with something (a memory or imagined experience) that on the surface has no connection to it? | The two events are somehow related, no matter how far apart. Like it's a line, you think of start line and of that marathon. Or you may think about honey, go to bees, then The Bee Movie, then another unrelated movie. It all happens in your brain during that milisecond you thought about honey so you don't realize it |
How can we see the milky way in the sky if we're actually located inside it? | _URL_0_ If you look at this diagram you can see that the far side is missing. We actually can't see the far side of the milky way as it's blocked by the stuff in the middle. |
Why some front page posts get the upwards of 8000 up votes (like the Thanksgiving donut cop post) and hours later votes drop down to 2000-3000 votes? | Semi related, I notice a post of mine had 721 points, I got sub 550 karma for it however. What's up with that?", 'In addition, something that is not mentioned in the faq: On popular posts, a lot of those votes will "decay" or just fade away. The percentage won't change, but when many votes come in bery quickly, reddit ... |
Was fighting in Ice Hockey allowed since the beginning of this sport, or was it introduced later - and if so how that happened. | Fighting in most sports will get you ejected from the game. It will only get you a penalty in some hockey leagues, the NHL being the most famous. Many other hockey leagues won't allow any sort of fighting. The origins vary since people fight for all sorts of reasons. If you see a hockey fight today it might be because ... |
Can someone explain the saying, "If the product is free, you're the product." | Usually this refers to something you get online or on the Internet. An Web application for example may offer a service for free, but the company makes money off of you through selling your information to advertising companies. It's usually on the fine print of the terms and conditions. Facebook for example is free for ... |
Why do you get super exhausted after a day in the sun? | I worked outside for like 15 years. You get used to the weather, the cold is pretty bad but nothing's worse than wind. A day out in the wind just wears you out so bad. Working outside is horrible and awful. You have nowhere to piss and you're standing around all day. I don't miss it at all.Seems there also may be a rel... |
Why are eggs in America white shelled with a yellow yolk but in my country they have a peach colored shell and an orange yolk? | I'm in the US - I have a friend who keeps chickens, and we buy eggs from her. I've gotten eggs with shells in white, brown, peach, pink, green, blue and bluish-green . The yolks have varied from yellow to a deep sunset orange, depending on what they've been eating. |
Why are judges allowed to be biased toward topics/rulings? | First, we don't really know what unbiased looks like. The law has enough ambiguities that honest judges can have different opinions. Also, when listening to testimony, a judge has to make a subjective judgement call as to whether that testimony is credible, and weigh the facts provided by that testimony accordingly. Fi... |
How does my cat not get electrocuted when she chews completely through my phone charger, laptop charger, lamp cords, etc...? | I had a pet rabbit when I was 8 'gizmo' who lived in the house one Christmas he chewed through the Christmas tree lights and blew himself across the room. This kills the gizmo. :( |
There's 21% oxygen in air. When we breathe out, there's still 16% oxygen in the exhaled air. Why's our lung so inefficient? | Oxygen binds to the iron in our blood cells. Most people have 98% of their blood cells saturated with oxygen already. The efficiency is not how much we breath in/out, it's how efficient our body cells use the oxygen that has binded to our blood. |
Why is 60's and 70's style rock and roll, for the most part, dead? | To be fair, it is 40 to 50 yrs later. That's HUGE in musical terms. 50 years before Sabbath and Zeppelin was big band swing, ragtime and jazz. That's miles apart musically. It's true, Hard Rock is pretty dead right now (As far as radio play and popularity goes, but it'll be back. There are lots of bands doing that 70's... |
movie scenes in busy places like Times Square | Depends on what's required for the shot, they may close nothing and use the crowds as part of the shot, they may close just a portion of sidewalk, or yes they might just close the whole thing. They usually try to find a way to avoid closing large public areas, but if they have to they do it at a time that minimizes the... |
If voting is anonymous, how do people "buy" votes? If I pay someone to vote for me, can't that person take my money then vote for someone else? | An actual explanation of the process: You are given goods/services as a bribe, along with a voting paper that already has the candidate rounded. You go vote and give them back the blank voting sheet you are given at the place of voting. So when one voting paper is stolen it's a huge deal because it allows for a lot of ... |
How does law enforcement match a bullet to a specific gun? | It really isn't as precise as you might think. A gun with unique rifling or barrel damage might help. The other thing you are forgetting is that the cases also have markings. The firing pin leaves an impression in the primer which could help match to a gun type, or if it has a defect a specific gun. Also, semi-auto pis... |
Why does it take so long to learn how to be a sushi chef? | Great sushi chefs are not defined by *just* making good tasting sushi. They are defined by their craftsmanship. They do amazing things with knives, their presentation is phenomenal, and they are also good at only selecting the finest ingredients. Good sushi is not just food. It's art. And it takes time and skill to be ... |
Why do PC's need to be upgraded for newer games while consoles can handle newer games just fine? | You're all missing a key point here: Consoles do not have the levels of AA and high resolutions that PCs have. These two settings at higher levels will HEAVILY drain on your video card/FPS. My point: It looks better on PC because you have higher quality/settings and this requries more processing power. |
Why does it take so long to charge something? | > Couldn't Apple or any company make a charger that instantly charges a phone or battery? If you could find a way to do that, you could be rich beyond your wildest dreams. That problem is one of the Big Issues with battery technology today. People are working on it, but the simple fact is that charging batteries makes ... |
Why do large piles of corn cobs spontaneously combust? | It's what the people talking about organic matter decaying are saying. Places that have massive piles of compost are always ready to put out huge fires. Decomposing organic material releases heat as a result of the process of decomposition. When it's all piled up in gigantic mounds, the heat is retained and eventually ... |
It takes only a few seconds for the first popcorn kernel to pop but a lot longer for the rest of the kernels to. How come they don't all pop at the same time? | And not all the kernels pop by the end unless you continually mix it and cook it even longer. It's just a bell curve distribution. Some pop early, some don't pop, most pop within the given cooking time frame. |
Do countries which use U.S. dollars other than the 'States, such as Ecuador and El Salvador, import all their currency? If so are there big barges crammed with dollars floating around the ocean? | Why is no one talking about narcos and drug trade? Would they be a significant portion of the physical cash moving around or is it going to be mostly banks ordering money? What I'm saying is that even though the drug trade isn't most of the economy, it could account for a lot of the physical cash in circulation, becaus... |
How do Women's menstrual cycles synchronise? | Consider the mathematical aspect of it first. Think of a menstrual cycle like any other regularly-occurring event, such as a pendulum swinging. Here's a device in which balls of the same weight are hanging at different heights: _URL_1_ Think of each ball as a woman, and the length of that woman's menstrual cycle is rep... |
Why is it illegal to pass off unused days on Disney World tickets to someone else, even though you had paid for X days? | Just because Disney says you can't doesn't make it illegal. They may not honor it but i doubt you've broken any laws |
Why is there an initiative to split California into six different states? | It's basically gerrymandering at the state level. California is a very large state - and it votes Democratic consistently, even though it has a very large Republican population. By splitting it up into 6 states, 2 of them would have -heavy- Democratic majorities and the other 4 would be moderately Republican leaning. S... |
How can some people get addicted to exercise, yet no matter how hard I try it feels like torture to me? | No idea if this changes things over what others experience, but growing up I did a lot of heavy farm work and other physical labor. It's really good exercise too, I was probably in the best shape of my life back then. Now though, exercise is nothing but a chore and I hate it. There is no good feeling or anything associ... |
How did they solve trigonometric equations before calculators? | Basically, you memorized as many as you could and then they had books that listed all you needed to know 9or they might have been a few important ones listed on your sliderule) Source: My grandpa got an engineering degree in the 60's and when he retired I got his slide rule and old textbooks. _URL_0_ |
Why do ads on YouTube, no matter how long, stream so quickly but video does not? | The answer is two fold. Two different networks serve two different services. The reason is bandwidth costs. It costs Google money every time someone plays a video. They need to pay for it somehow. 1) ads are Google's revenue on YouTube and search, so they assure the content is loaded quickly and efficiently by using Co... |
the difference between regular, high-mileage, and synthetic motor oils. | The purpose of oil is to keep the engine parts that move slippery so they don't get stuck. Imagine a bucket full of balls being dumped on the ground. If the balls are all different sizes, basketballs, footballs, tennis balls, golf balls, then they will all roll at different speeds. If the balls are all the same size an... |
Why are cars shaped aerodynamically, but busses just flat without taking the shape into consideration? | There are more [aerodynamic buses]. However, as /u/armorsmith42 mentioned, buses aren't affected by air drag since they don't reach higher speeds. Once you hit about 75MPH+ drag's affects grow exponentially, which is why sedans and hatchbacks favor roominess over aerodynamics . |
What is the purpose of a hiccup? | So: both your lungs and stomach are connected to your throat. The epiglottis is a little flap that covers your windpipe when you swallow so you don't inhale food. The sound of a 'hiccup' is caused by the epiglottis slamming shut when you involuntarily take sharp breaths. A lot of hiccup triggers involve eating or stres... |
How does Google Maps account for size distortion due to the Mercator projection? | People seem to be missing one part of the explanation - the Mercator projection only matters if you're looking at the whole planet. Once you zoom in, it uses smaller bits of data, and so the distortion is much less. It's the same reason that a city map doesn't skew the north end of the city - once you zoom in on any pa... |
How come the dialogue on Netflix streaming is so quiet, but the music and effects are so loud? | That's probably because the distributor gave them a theater mix, which is amateuristic, to say the least. When audio for film is mixed, they first mix it for theater . Because a film theater is usually completely silent and very large, you have a great dynamic range for your audio. This means: the mixer can use both ve... |
Why do. American cities lack the tram and subway systems that are prevalent in Europe? | Many cities did. It was systematically killed off and purchased by companies like General Motors to sell cars. There's a good documentary on it on YouTube. _URL_1_ |
How many times would I have to listen to an artists album on Spotify for them to make the same amount of money they would have if I bought the physical album? | The question asks: > for them to make the same amount of money they would have if I bought the physical album. I'm certain the artist doesn't see anywhere near 100% of the $12 you're paying for an album. All of the answers saying 1000 plays = $12 = the cost of an album are missing the point. |
If laser light can blind you, how come no one ever has their eyes injured in dance clubs? | I'd say its a combination of the fact that the lasers in clubs are generally quite weak, they are constantly moving and rarely aim directly at your eyes and the fact that you don't go out of your way to stare at them. Even when they do hit your eyes it's usually for a very short period of time due to the constant movem... |
How come today IS Saturday? Is today's name determined by consensus? | Op, are you asking why we're at a given day in the order? Like when the first week began? When was the first Monday and who declared it so? Because I have no clue, but would also like to know. |
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