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What is the biological function of a coma? | There isn't a biological function of a coma. Without medical intervention a coma leads to death. A coma state is just where a person isn't dead but isn't showing signs of consciousness as we would usually expect. |
who were the original customers for computers like the Macintosh in the mid-80's? | You need to understand that the Macintosh was pretty competitively priced compared to an IBM PC. These class of computers did cost thousands of dollars before the prices started dropping significantly in the 90a. Apple has already ammassed a large home and education following years before they even introduced the Mac. The Apple ][ series computers were introduced in the late 70s and Apple's focus on getting them into schools led to many home sales. By the time Apple introduced the Mac in 1984, they were the dominant name in home and educational computing. Finally, understand that the Mac has always had a graphical operating system. We take it for granted now but it was novel at the time. This got the attention of creative professionals like artists and publishing, giving the platform an early lead that they've capitalized on for over 30 years. The Mac did a lot -- including things that most computers on the market at the time couldn't come close to doing. |
what is the difference between a men's mid range price haircut and an expensive mens hair cut? | When you buy a haircut, you're really buying time at a shop and a barber's time. A cheaper barber shop has basic barber chairs lined up in a row, minimal décor, and a barber who works at a lower pay rate. A higher end barber shop might have individual private stations, nice ambiance, a higher skilled/paid barber. |
How and why are student loans exempt from most bankruptcy claims? | > if you take out 100k debt and blow it all in Vegas, there's nothing to take back, either. I very much doubt any bank would lend someone 100K in cash. Mortgages are made directly with the bank; the bank buys the house, and you pay back the bank over the duration of the mortgage. You never get that kind of money just placed in your bank account.In addition to what has already been said I would like to add the "official" reason. Basically the government sees it that since you received the education and are therefore able to earn more money because of that education, you should have to pay for that education. In other words, they can re-possess the knowledge so you can't discharge it in bankruptcy. But really, it is because everyone would be doing it . |
Why isn't there a karma count for text posts? | Upvote if you wish they would bring back crunchy M & Ms", etc, posts being on the front page daily. Instead of new information, it lead this site to being an echo chamber. Removing karma for self posts did actually cut down on the \'poll\' type submissions, helped clean up some of the garbage that used to permeate the site, and doesn't seem to have had any negative consequences. |
- What happens in the mind when a person stutters? | What someone else said about the mind moving faster than your mouth reminds me of playing music. I play oboe. Sometimes my tongue and my hands are moving at different rates and what comes out is much like a stutter but out of the instrument. Also something that happens is if I get nervous and psych myself out before going through a run of 16ths, I'll just stop, like my fingers don't move and I don't go on to the next note. I don't know why. It's like I'm fearing not playing the next ones right and it just doesn't come out. So if I psych out and stop more than once that creates a pattern in my brain and it makes it easier to keep making that mistake. Interesting Edit- oh the someone else was you! Haha. |
Why do we pet animals and animals don't pet us or each other? | They do pet us and each other, in their own way. They nuzzle and knead and rub against us, and some do other lovey things. When I'm petting my cat, she'll grab my hand with her paw and lick it. I think she's reciprocating. My other cats groom each other. |
Why do AMD CPUs have way more GHz for the same price? And why is Intel still considered better? | GHz is how fast a CPU's legs move when it walks. Intel CPUs have much longer legs than AMD CPUs have. That means that an Intel CPU takes much longer steps, so even though its legs are moving slower than the AMD CPU, it is still moving faster. Like when a 5 year old is walking next to an adult. The 5 year old's legs have to step much faster to be able to keep up with the adults longer steps. |
Why do I have dark rings under my eyes? | you may want to see an ENT for allergies. I always have them and they are not that dark. but from time to time in a year they get really bad. Last time it happened, i wasn't sure why it happened. I went to my allergist on routine visit, She said that i have sinus problem and that's causing this. She treated me on spot with some spray and put me on medication for allergy, what you know after a week, it was a LOT better |
Why do we eat carnivouros fish, but not other carnivouros animals? | just because you don't doesn't mean other people don't. chickens eat meat as well as grains. i've eaten snake, gator , dog , |
Why is the drinking age in the US 21? | There's two big reasons, only one of which I personally agree with. 1. Lowering the age now that it's been decided would cause a morals outcry, especially from religious groups. In a lot of the US it's still only legal to buy alchohol on certain days or at certain times. If you pissed off these religious/convservative groups you risk losing their vote, and as a politician is this REALLY the hill you want to choose to die on? There's bigger fights to stake your reputation on. 2. Driving. The US is one of the driving-est countries in the world, our infrastructure is built around vehicles and in many areas they're essentially required. Kids get cars young, kids get cars often, everyone drives longer, further and faster. Drunk 18 year old are going to be stupid and obnoxious on foot, Drunk 18 year olds with access to wheels is a disaster recipe. You can't take away their car, so you take away their liquor. |
How to tell if a movie is either well directed, well acted or well written? What is the difference among them? | Think of a good story as the blue print of a great movie, a good story can make up for an uncreative director or less than dazzling acting performances. A bad story is going to be hard to recover no matter how talented the director and actors are. The director is the architect and foreman. The person that sees the vision of the story and builds it into reality. This is why directors can make very similar stories seem very different, through style and presentation. The director is in charge of how it looks and feels, bringing the story to life. The actors are there to make you believe the story and the world you are in are real. They are there to make you forget it's a movie and get you lost in their story. The details basically. |
How does all the trash fit in landfills? | It's not just sent to one place.By me, on long island, they dug a giant hole to fill with the islands garbage recently, it should have lasted another 10 -15 years, but it filled up so they just put sod on top of it planted some grass and trees and pretend its a hill from then on. |
Why Europe is willing to accept low educated immigrants from countries like Syria, Eritrea, Nigeria and Somalia but make it almost impossible for highly educated natives from western countries like Brazil to legally immigrate? | Like many have pointed out the immigrants aren't stupid. Most have higher level degrees but end up doing menial work due to necessity. Also if it makes you feel better prior to this war in Syria any immigrant had to have a higher level degree to get into Europe and America. |
What is the evolutionary reason for male pattern baldness? | There probably isn't one. It happens due to other things and there's been no evolutionary pressure to get rid of it. |
Why does everyone hate the sound of their own speaking voice on recording? | When you speak/sing, a lot of what you're hearing is the sound of your voice resonating the air and bones inside of your head. When you play back your recorded voice, you're hearing the external sound vibrations without the internal vibrations you hear while speaking. This difference sounds strange and foreign to many people. |
Why best-sellers adaptations and sequels are flooding Hollywood? | Money. Money. and more Money. Those adaptations and sequels are making lots of money. They are relatively easy to promote and often people become very fanatical about these sort of things. |
Is it actually bad to have your phone on during takeoff and landing? What is actually going on that would interfere with operations? | Cellphones interfering with avionics is kinda dubious, but the FAA always erred on the side of caution, especially because it's not one particular device they could test -- even if this year's cellphone is fine, who knows what they'll release next year. In the highly unlikely event that it does cause a problem, though, takeoff and landing are the time when a problem is most likely to lead to a disaster. If the avionics get screwed up when they are at 30000 feet, the pilots will have lots of time to do something about it before they hit anything. |
When people listen to the radio, do they all hear the song at the same time, or is there a delay when listening further away from the towers? | Yes there is a very tiny tiny delay as radio waves take time to travel through air but it's travelling at close to the speed of light. The signal processing in many devices adds delays and is much more likely to add the delays people could experience. This larger delay is the time taking to get the radio wave, turn it into a nice clear noise free audio.. Good example of this that most people can relate to is TV, if you put the same station on in two rooms the sound is clearly out, this is nothing to do with distance this is to do with signal processing delays.I once listened to a station on my iPod nano & on a physical radio, and there was a very slight delay on the iPod', "I'd like to refer to you the explanation of [Admiral Grace Hopper] |
When youre intoxicated, why do your eyes stutter back and forth when following a pen during a field sobriety test? | One thing to realize is that many of the assessments administered during the FST were created when the legal limit was much higher, and the science back then supporting their usefulness even at higher BALs ought to be considered questionable by today's standards. So the answer is it may not be useful at all in almost all cases of roadside tests, and it's certainly not useful at BALs close to 0.08. |
How is work divided in a communist country? | Follow-up question: why would anyone elect to do menial or unpleasant labor, like picking strawberries or cleaning toilets or washing dishes? The kind of work that's usually done by the lowest socio-economic strata in a market economy? |
How do people afford homes in Los Angeles? | It's mimicking what happened 10 years ago before the housing crash. Housing values went up fast, so people took the gains and used as a downpayment. Add in low interest loans and only putting 10% or less down, that's how you do it. Until the market crashes again because its unsustainable. Not that I'm bitter. |
Why is it that when there is a death in movies, there is sometimes the sound of a bell? What is the significance of the sound? | Theres a custom here for church bells to be rung slowly at a funeral service, maybe thats why? Look up 'funeral toll' on google. |
Is there any benefit in lining a public toilet before you sit on it? | Most places that offer the liners clean the toilets once a day or more. Which is more than most people in their own homes. In addition, if you're in a public place, you're putting your hands all over stuff that isn't sterilized daily anyway. If you're gonna catch something, it's going to be from touching a door handle or credit card scanner or something. The exception to this is if you have some kind of wound on your butt, and you shouldn't be using a public toilet in that situation anyway. |
Why do wireless routers "go bad" so quickly? | Mine's four years old, and still a champ. It also is still sold for only like 15$ less than when I bought it. Talk to some of the technology subreddits for advice on what to buy next time, and keep up with the warranties ! |
Why are some of us not hungry when we're heartbroken? What exactly causes this? | I'm not a scientist, but what I personally think that it is, is that your brain thinks that you're really injured and it makes you not hungry so the body doesn't have to use so much energy. That is just what I think, I don't know if I'm right or not. |
why has there not been another manned mission to the moon since 1972? | Because the moon is a boring, inhospitable place. Going to the moon was as much about Cold War politics as it was exploration. Once the US won the space race and went to the moon five more times, there really wasn't anything else to do. The missions were very expensive, and once public excitement died down, politicians found other things to do with those tax dollars. In the meantime, robotics and remote control technologies improved to the point where unmanned missions can do most anything a manned one could, for a lot less risk and expense. Why send a man to the moon when the same investment could send a dozen rovers?", 'We are no longer using the space program as a way to focus public interest and show off our ability to design and produce ICBMs for nuclear war. |
Only the biggest and strongest lions get to pass on their genes, so why do lions stay approximately the same size and strength? Why aren't they constantly getting bigger and stronger? | because that's not how it works. There are advantages to not being huge, like being able to hide in the Savannah Grass to sneak up on prey and such. So being a 1700lb 6ft tall Lion would actually not be advantageous |
What evolutionary benefit, if any, did steel feeling colder then wood (even though they are the same temperature) have for our species? | Why does it have to be beneficial for human evolution? Steel and wood have different physical properties, that's all. |
Even if Barrack Obama really was born in Kenya, wouldn't the Natural-born-citizen clause still make him a natural born U.S. citizen? | Obama wasn't born to US citizen parents. He was born to one US citizen parent, and one parent who was not a US citizen. A child born abroad to a mother who is a citizen and a father who is not, and whose parents are married, is entitled to citizenship if is mother has lived in the United States for a total of ten years, five of which must have been after her 14 birthday. As Obama's mother was only eighteen at the time of his birth, she did not meet that lat requirement. If Obama had been born outside of the United States, he would not have qualified for citizenship by birth. |
When the doctor says "the patients organs are shutting down. There is nothing we can do." | The organs that are shutting down in most cases are the kidneys and liver. These two organs are extremely important for ridding the body of toxins, creating proteins and other important things, and maintaining blood pressure. Both of these organs go through huge volumes of blood as well. A major disturbance in one of these two organs causes a cascade effect that will eventually kill the patient. If the kidneys can no longer remove toxins from the blood, they will build up and cause the liver to malfunction. If the liver can no longer perform its multitude of functions, the body lacks crucial proteins and will receive an extraordinary load of toxins, which will cause the kidneys to malfunction. Once the kidneys and liver are damaged and not working properly, all of the body's functions will go downhill. This is the cascade. When the primary problem with the patient is organ failure, kidneys/liver are the organs to watch. Once they go, there is no going back. Other responses have attempted to explain WHY a person might die from organ failure , but the kidney/liver organ failure cascade is the ultimate problem. |
Why can't the government impose a fixed income tax percentage? | It depends. Those with extremely high incomes often have revenue streams from liquidating some stock options, or bonds, capital gains, investments and so on. Which are all taxes lower than high income. A standard six figure earner is still going to be paying a hell of a lot in taxes. It's the ultra rich who either have a different type of income, or can hire accountants that know all of the legal tax loopholes that can be used to avoid paying as many taxes as possible. Personally I think the overall tax rates should be significantly lowered for everyone, **however** I think the tax system should be completely overhauled to be simple and straightforward, with absolutely no loopholes. No credits, no deductions. No filing types. No income types . This way, the burdened is lowered for everyone, but no one can wiggle out of it unfairly.The US taxes income and not wealth . If you control a large amount of wealth you have a lot of options on when and how to have income. If you are working for wages you have almost no options for how and when to recognize income, and therefore have few options in avoiding tax. It is a misconception that high wage earners do not pay a lot in taxes. They pay the most in taxes, but they are not the .1% who really own most of the wealth. They are the doctors, lawyers, and successful business owners who may make $400k - $1M per year but probably have less than $10M in assets. |
Why are companies allowed to list the calories per serving in a bottled drink instead of listing the calories in the entire bottle? | Probably because the Nutrition Information appears to be standardized across all sorts of foods. Like, they wouldn't list the calories for an entire box of cereal. Still strange on things like beverage bottles, but they also tell you the number of servings per container, so, it ain't hard to do some math.because the same rules that apply to a 3 liter bottle apply to the 21oz. coming out of the vending machine. |
Why do cable boxes respond to TV remotes so poorly, but video game consoles respond to their controllers excellently? | A lot of people talking about the use of IR versus Bluetooth. This is not the issue at all. The reason they respond the way they do is the same reason that navigation systems built into cars respond much slower than using the GPS and maps on your phone. They are inherently slow and underpowered .or rather just powerful enough to perform the task at hand and they can get away with it. Modern cable boxes, such as the Xfinity X1 box, are purpose-built computers running an operating system not too much unlike a traditional desktop computer running Windows. A modern game console is also just a computer running an operating system but game consoles and desktop computers are expected to be highly responsive whereas cable boxes aren't. edit: typo", 'I have a remote in which the batteries last damn near a year but displays a mouse cursor on the screen, would that be using Bluetooth then ? the remote does appear to have IR on the top but does not need to be pointed at the TVBecause TV remotes use a little strobe light to flash the signal in bursts of infrared light for the cable box to "see", which requires line of sight, whereas game console controllers use radio which does not. |
What has changed in the last 40 years so that it now takes two incomes to maintain a household? | There are more things that are considered necessary or standard living items. We have more stuff and more variety. We also have much bigger houses. I live in an old as POS house. It's three bedrooms and two of them are incredibly small. There's one bathroom in it that's small enough I can stand in the middle of it and touch all four walls without moving. They raised 7 kids in that place. If that's the standard then it's much easier to make it work with less money. |
The difference between popular image formats (Jpeg, jpg, bmp, gif, ...) | there is a constant battle between the size of the file and the quality. generally the higher the quality the larger the file size.each file type is a different 'style' of compressing the file to make it as small as possible OR as high quality as possible, but usually an attempt to get the highest quality with an acceptable file size. basically apart from .gif which allows for animating sequential pictures like a mini movie. |
Can someone explain the specific mechanism for how we develop a resistance to the effectiveness of antibiotics? | OK buddy. You know how sometimes we take medicine to make us feel better? Well antibiotics are sometimes that medicine. But just because we feel better doesn't mean that allllll the yucky stuff in our body is gone yet. If we don't take our medicine for all the days the nice doctor tells us to, then some of the yucky stuff that we didn't get rid of will grow again. The yucky stuff left behind is like a boss battle, it was the hardest to beat. Well now when that yucky stuff grows again it's all bosses! So the weapons we have are way less effective against the yucky stuff now. It's resistant to the antibiotics. Now, let's go eat chocolate frosty sundaes.Usually bacteria are the ones that develop resistance to the antibiotic. By killing off the weak ones and therefore making everyone in the gene pool somewhat resistant, future generations can become even more resistant. Eventually they could possibly survive no matter what the dose is. |
I live in the low desert of California where it regularly reaches 105° during summer. Why did 12 people in Canada die from overheating in 93° heat? | Yes, people acclimate to different conditions. One piece of trivia I remember is that a heat-trained athlete has half the salt in their sweat as an athlete not trained in heat. That takes energy to achieve but helps conserve electrolytes and avoid cramping. I think from what I remember there's no known genetic adaptation to temperature tolerance. That seems surprising but then science doesn't know everything yet. Another dimension is just experience: people who've seen that kind of heat before have learned from experience when to just hang out in the shade, and when to go out and about. Local architects/builders/homeowners have figured out how to accommodate the heat in their constructions. Then there's the effect of humidity. Having experienced both myself, I'd rather have 110° dry than 90° humid. I'd expect Montreal has much higher humidity than Phoenix. |
When I give my social security number out to a legit organization needing that number, what do they do with it? | It's a little scary when you really think about it. I worked as a bank teller for a year, and the customer interface could give you literally any customer's SSN with just a name lookup. |
Why don't tech companies simply ignore the government's requests to allow backdoors or weakened encryption? | Apple and Google aren't like banks. Microsoft or Amazon or some new company would quickly step in and pick up the slack if one failed. If they refused to comply, they gov't could freeze bank accounts and charge the people who made that decisions with various crimes. |
Why Citizen Kane is often regarded to be the best film of all time? | I actually finished it for the first time about an hour ago. How 'bout that. What was with the cockatoo screeching out of nowhere about 3/4s of the way through? |
Why is it that we spend more on space exploration than on deep sea exploration? | I would think of it this way. First of all, as another person mentioned, space exploration often links to military development , which are often at the top of any country's agenda. Space exploration has a lot more potential than sea exploration, and also houses fewer risks . You wouldn't have to worry about pressure, nor would you have to worry about the damage to the ecology. Moreover, certain countries don't have deep seas worth exploring, while space is technically equivalent for everyone. |
Why is hatred towards Jewish people so widespread? | The other comments make excellent points, but there is more to it than that. The Jewish people were given a ghetto in which they could live, and were basically gated in for not being Christian. As a result, they were forced to come up with their own means of making money. Christianity did not allow for money lending with interest, so they couldn't make money off of it, but the Jews could. The Jewish district developed a reputation for having money, since they were basically the only ones that could make a profit off of money management. The Jews got rich and people were jealous. Next came the black plague. This was a bad day, and a lot of people died from all over, no matter what their religion. Except the Jews. Their beliefs effectively kept them hygienic, and the gated community kept them sequestered from the rest of the city. The problem was, people looked at these Jewish communities and decided that they were clearly the cause of the plague. I'm sure there are other reasons, but this is what I remember off the top of my head. |
How does someone get an address that isn't listed anywhere? | I'm guessing county tax data if you are in the US. I can go onto our local government county website, enter a person's full name in the county, and get their current property information which has their mailing address. I used it to find addresses for my wedding when my MIL handed me a list of names with zero idea about the mailing addresses. As far as I know, you can't make that data anonymous which is why famous people will often purchase property with a company as the owner so their name isn't attached to the property.Someone just posted on justnoMiL about a family tree site. Scary amounts of info are listed. |
Why do we perceive the Earth's rotation so slow? | You are used to it. You don't notice your own breathing most the time. I had a mustache for 20 years and shaved it off. Then breathing through my nose kept me up at night because I could feel my breath on my lip. Also the Earth spins very smoothly so its like being in the back seat of a car with new tires and shocks driving down a new highway. |
How come any time you see depictions of early humans/cavemen, they're never shown as having long beards, even though they didn't have any razors at the time? | Our closest relatives, chimps and other apes, don't have long flowing facial hair. Maybe long beards evolved after upright walking and tool use.They had very, very sharp cutting tools. Flint was traded over long distances since the earliest times and apart from obsidian you cannot get a better edge than good flint. Metal tools ? Under a microscope they look like dull saw blades compared to flint and obsidianIn very cold climates, a beard could trap moisture that would then freeze. Avoiding frostbite to the face was a good reason to shave with a sharp rockSome american Indians cannot grow facial hair or chest hair. Maybe genetics had something to do with itThey are. A google search for "Neanderthal" shows figures with facial hair. |
When playing roulette at a casino, what's the strategy of those guys who are putting chips on a large portion of the individual numbers? | It's superstition and not a valid strategy. There is no statistically winning strategy at roulette, other than to double your bet over and over until you win . |
Why do diseases kill us? What's the benefit of a parasite killing its host? | It's not usually the bacteria itself which causes death, it's the body's attempts to kill it. A fever is caused by the body trying to cook the bacteria to death. A blocked nose is not the virus replicating, it's the blood vessels dilating to get more white blood cells to the area. _URL_1_ |
The vote in November has me a little concerned. How can I figure out who to intelligently vote for before walking into a booth? | Don't most local papers have a candidates' guide? Be on the lookout for one. I find them to be very helpful in the smaller races not getting attention. |
Why does mixing colors of paint work differently than mixing colors of light? | When colors mix, what you're really seeing is what wavelengths of light are hitting your eye. If they all hit your eye, you see white. or you could get just a red wavelength, or just a blue, or just a green. If you see no light, you see black Paint absorbs light. So if you shine a white light on white paint, it absorbs nothing and sends all the light to your eyes, so you see every wavelength and see white. If you Shine a white light on black paint, the black paint absorbs all the colors, so you get no light in your eye. If you shine a while light on green paint, it absorbs everything but green light, so your eye sees green light. Now the complex part is when you combine them. When you combine lights, your eyes are getting more and more light, so you're getting closer to white. But when you combine paints and then shine white light on them, the more paint you combine means the more light is absorbed by the paint, so the less light actually reaches your eye, so you get closer to black. Basically, when dealing with lights you're dealing with what colors actually reach your eye. When dealing with paints, you're dealing with what colors DONT reach your eye, so to figure out what DOES reach your eye, you do the opposite. _URL_0_ vs _URL_1_ |
Why is it difficult to get industry in Appalachia? | I live in a small town in WV and any time someone starts a business, whether it be a restaurant, ice cream store, or small shop, most of them are closed within a year. There really just aren't enough people around to give that business the money to stay open. People will normally go to the nearest city to do their shopping rather than shop small or local. I've lived here my whole life and the only businesses that have done well are the grocery store, dollar general, and gas station.There has to be a demand, or or some sort of incentive for companies to build there. This has happened in the mid-west and the auto industry. Many areas that were dependent on one economic sector get hit hard when that sector experiences a shift or change. |
With games like Counter Strike or Team Fortress 2, why do people buy purely cosmetic items for several hundred dollars? | It's because it's rare / uncommon. Looks way better and gives you some bragging rights to other players. There's no deep reason behind it. |
Why do cats follow their owners into the bathroom? | My own personal experience, here. Not a cat expert, I just have one. Cats naturally do not like stagnant water near their food sources and naturally like running water . So, cats love faucets, and love licking showers after their owners leave. Cats also love any motion or puzzles to figure out, and quite frankly toilet flushing is amazing. Where does the water go and how does it come back?! So it's possible that your cat is waiting for you to take a shower or turn on the faucet, if they want that water. Or it's possible they're waiting until you make the magic flush happen. Or they could just miss you. Mine follows me everywhere and never leaves me alone, bathroom or otherwise. |
How do people come to power? | Two ways, either by an established process or by force or the threat of force. Established process: elections, hereditary succession, designated successor . I'm sure there are others. This works because people gravitate towards the stability and safety of tradition. Force: the only other way to come to power is to either defeat the current ruler in conflict or gain the support of the military and/or population so that the current ruler realizes they would lose a conflict . You can gain this support in lots of ways , but in the end it comes down to the threat of force. |
Why did men domesticate cats? | Perhaps the most important breakthrough in human history was agriculture. This allowed us to produce surplus food, which could be stored long term. This made vermin like rats and mice a much more serious threat. A villages entire winter food supply could be lost if not protected. Cats are really good at killing rats and mice, and don't eat grain, so there were a very beneficial thing to have around.Not which gender is responsible for domestication, but I would imagine neither is directly responsible. Cats probably just got used to being around humans because we attract vermin, which is a good source of food. Humans tolerated it because they got rid of the verminThere is a lot of speculation that cats domesticated themselves by being adorable. Literally. Meowing mimics infants crying and triggers maternal responses. |
how exactly does medicine work? | To put it as simply as possible, most drugs work to either enhance or block chemicals interacting with receptors in the body, depending on the desired outcome. If you're trying to prevent something, they work to block specific receptors. If you're trying to boost something, they work to stimulate or enhance targeted receptors. They are picked due to their chemical structures. Depending on the medication in question, it's actually very specific. But in general, medicine works due to it's chemical structure and the relationship of that structure to specific receptors in the human body. |
Why do dogs wag their tails? | it's often hard to say when it comes to dogs because humans have had a huge impact on their evolution. the fact that you can point at something and even a puppy will actually look is *staggering*. I'm sure many of the answers here are good, one might even be right, but with dogs there's a distinct possibility that they do that because we wanted to be able to read our hunting companion's thoughts by looking at it. |
Why are images of people on Wikipedia so bad? | The Paterson Joseph one used to be hilariously bad: _URL_0_ There's a lot of talk on the discussion page about the reason for keeping it: basically it was freely licenced and better than nothing. |
Why are new smartphone processors hexa and octa-core, while consumer desktop CPUs are still often quad-core? | Mobile processor cores are very weak compared to desktop processor cores. A dual-core desktop processor is often faster than a quad-core or octa-core mobile processor. A single desktop core can handle multiple jobs at once just fine, while a weak mobile core can't. So instead of making them more powerful, which would produce more heat and require more power, they just divide the processor up into more of them, because mobile apps don't require lots of power to run, and more cores means more things can run at the same time.There are six and eight core desktop processors I am writing this comment on a desktop with 6 cores right now. In fact Intel even makes server processors with up to 18 cores. _URL_6_', "Marketing is the right answer. 8 cores sound better. In practice:Only 4 cores are ever used: the more efficient 4 when saving power, and faster 4 when speed is required. That's like buying a car and paying for 2 engines and only using 1 of them at a time. It's a waste. Proper design would've been to have cores that are efficient, yet scale to high performance, and just have 4 of them. Moreover, multi-core is more suited for multi-tasking purposes. Since 90% of the time, a phone is probably only handling 1-2 tasks, it really only needs 2 cores. i.e. Instead of spending silicon space for 6 extra cores, they should've just improved a dual core setup. This means making 8 cores is mostly because it sounds better for advertising. |
What the heck happened to Volvo? | They're still around but as they've moved upmarket a bit and a general shift toward SUVs has happened, you may see a good deal fewer of the traditional Volvo sedans. They've sold over [28,000 vehicles in the U.S. so far in 2016] but about 20,000 of those were SUV models. EDIT: Overall, there sales are down by about [50% since early 2000's], as they'd trimmed their model line-up down success of new XC90 and return of compact S40 model should help them grow again. |
Why has only the United States been to the moon? | Because it hasn't Russia have been there, Japan, India and China. Seriously, a simple lookup on Google and you'd find this information. The USA is NOT the center of the universe. |
Why is cutting spending to balance a budget during recession a bad thing? | Gross domestic product is a common economic indicator, or something that the news like to talk about. > GDP = Consumption+ Government Spending + Investment + Net Export. So in our current situation where Consumption and Investment is pretty low, if we cut government spending our GDP will take a further hit. Also, there's a ripple effect after the cuts where it further lower C and I. |
How is a nuclear missile flying over another sovereign nation's airspace not deemed an act of war? | Given this post is motivated by NK's missile launch, let's explore the subject: First, look at NK on the map. Now, say you are in charge of testing a missile in NK. You need to launch somewhere from the country in order to test it. What is the best direction to launch it? Anywhere North or West is out of the picture, since it will land on another country. What about South, towards South Korea, and ending up near Taiwan or Philippines? Due east, and go over Tokyo? Or NorthEast, and avoid largely populated areas and land on the pacific? The question about a country right to test arms is a different question. Are all countries on their right to develop and test their defense research? It's easy to say 'no' when you tested all your arms already. |
How does an animal's body know when to drop it's winter coat? | They should really hang it up, but they usually drop it on the floor as soon as they're inside. |
Why do some frozen products say to not refreeze once defrosted? | When you defrost meat, bacteria start reproducing. . Freezing meat doesn't kill bacteria: it just stops them from reproducing as quickly. . So if you defrost and refreeze, you have more bacteria overall. . Of course, heat kills bacteria, so, if you heat meat to a high enough temperature, it doesn't matter how often you defrost and re-freeze. However 1) it's not going to taste as good, and 2) most people don't heat meat to a sufficiently high temperature , so, with the added bacteria, the risk of bacterial infection increases. |
Who is Bernie Sanders and what's all this buzz about him? | I'm not a Democrat, but here are some bullet points straight from his voting record: He voted against the PATRIOT act. He voted against the use of force in Iraq. He voted against the 2008 bank bailout He voted against the repeal of the Glass-Steagall act . Basically, Bernie Sanders may or may not be the right candidate for you based on your views. We recommend researching the issues and voting for who represents you best. We just hope and think that it will be Bernie. :D I'd also recommend taking the _URL_4_ quiz to see if you're a Bernie fan without even knowing it. |
Why can the United States put a military base almost anywhere we want in the world. But if another country were to put a base on our land we would get Angry? | We can't put bases anywhere we want. When we want a base somewhere, we have to make a deal with the country where we're putting the base. However, since we have a lot of economic and military clout we're able to make deals more easily than a lot of countries. We also provide military protection for a lot of the countries where we have bases. There's also almost no reason for another country to have a military base in the US since we're not really near any other countries except Canada, Mexico, and Cuba. If Mexico started attacking France, then maybe we would entertain a French request to put a military base in Texas . We also don't really need any help protecting the country militarily so we wouldn't gain anything from it. Our bases in Germany, Japan, and Korea come from our post-war treaties with them. Our base in Turkey actually came out of the Second World War as well. Turkey actually kicked the US out for a couple of years in the '70s, but we made up and they let us back in the base. |
How does our taste in music develop? | There are many great answers here and even some very interesting studies but something I see missing from the discussion is that we really don't have the whole picture yet. We know that exposure and familiarity are factors and that age at the time of exposure matters but we still have many other questions. As far as I have seen no answers have been found for why members of a family can have such dramatically different tastes in music as well as why our music tastes can completely change as we get older. |
Is there any particular reason that water bottles have a 'flat' bottom and pop/soda bottles have a 'five pointed' bottom? | I can contribute to this. When they started selling bigger soda bottles, a flat bottle couldn't support the weight. They would tip and spill easily, and needed a new design in order to distribute the weight equally. EDIT: but wait, there's more! There used to be a cap on the BOTTOM of the soda bottle in order for it to stand, because it couldn't on its own. Also, the more expensive the water, the less likely you are to see a flat bottom. Dasani, Evian, Fiji, and Aquafina have nubs or square bottoms.Pop/soda is carbonated, which causes pressure on the bottle. The bottle is made to account for this pressure so the bottle can stand up.If you have a sodastream machine you can actually see why they do this. Flat bottoms under pressure turn into round bottoms, the star shaped ones on pop bottles keep their shape under pressure. If you have a sodastream just carbonate some water and fill up an empty water bottle, then fill up an empty pop bottle. The water bottle will tip over after a few minutes from the bottom ballooning out, the pop won't move. |
How fragile is the European Union? And what's going on with Iran and Syria right now? | The Eurozone issues are complicated and cannot be concisely summarized by a probabilistic measure of fragility. The EU lacks several key policy instruments that are essential for a functional federal system. When 'times' where good and credit was cheap, the backstop mechanisms were enough. But, now, not so much. |
- What is the racial situation in South Africa post-Apartheid? | What people seem to neglect when we discuss this issue, is the opinions of other minority groups in south Africa, such as the coloured or the indian communities. It has been my experience that coloured people in South Africa are very disappointed with how the transition to democracy is turning out. I've had many conversations with my coloured friends and my housekeeper and her friends where they complain that previously they weren't white enough, and now they aren't black enough. They are also dismayed by the fact that it is generally more dangerous to live here and government corruption always seems to be on the rise. My housekeeper is openly racist about black people. Just thought I'd add that to the conversation, seeing as it usually ends up being a white/black discussion. |
How does the 2nd law of thermodynamic "disprove" evolution? | People really need to learn the difference between an isolated system and a closed system. A closed system allows energy in and out. An isolated system doesn't let energy in or out. Earth is an open system because it allows energy and mass in and out.To add to other responses: 2nd law of thermodynamics states what is the end state of a system but says nothing about the speed at which it reaches it. In the meantime all crazy things might happen. |
If our brain doesn't have pain receptors, what is a headache? | The cause of headaches is actually still not fully understood . But even though the brain tissue itself does not have pain receptors, the surrounding tissue does . |
Are all of the cars in NASCAR the same? If each driver isn't driving the same type car, is it considered fair? | Motor racing isn't about who is the best *driver*. It is also a competition of: * technology - who can design and build the best machine. * teamwork - who can work the best to ensure the car is running* strategy - who can plan a race the best among other thing.In general, racing sanctioning bodies work very hard to make cars competitive. They'll set power limitations, minimum weight limits, tire size limits, fuel tank limits, etc that work to make cars competitive, but not the same. There are what's known as "spec" racing classes where the cars are identical, and it's entirely a drivers race, but in my opinion, removing the technical aspect makes racing less interesting. At the higher levels, racing is just as much an engineering contest as a driving contest.By the rules all NASCAR cars have to fit the same specifications, though there is slight wiggle room to be exploited. The big teams can afford to push every part of the car to the edge of the boundaries. If a wheel bearing is only good for 2000 miles, the big teams will make sure they use the newest and best every race where smaller teams may have to use it until it's completely worn out. The difference in drag might only save fractions of a second in lap times, but when multiplied by every part it adds up. |
what makes one's mentality capable of pushing them further past fatigue or physical adversity than someone else? | I don't know the answer, but when I see my 50 year old friend complete 100 mile races in less than 24 hours, and half the night it was cold and raining, I realize that people are just plain different. |
Why are there so many nazis in the US and russia? | They are at most an oddity and a curiosity. Super small number. What you saw recently was how weak willed a huge number of people are here. They imploded over a nothing event. Usually it's a handful of morons spewing their nonsense to basically nobody listening. Instead the extremist left mobilized to throw gasoline on the embers. In contrast, in parks in Brooklyn for about 25 years now the New Hebrew Israelites yell about genocide against the white race daily at lunch hour. Nobody cares. It's just a tiny handful of nut jobs. |
Counting cards - how does it work and why is it illegal/frowned upon? | It's not illegal, but a casino can kick you out for whatever reason they want to, and that is one of them. Many card games are almost 50/50 chance of winning, with a little nudge to the house. If you can know that it's impossible for a specific card to be played, then you can know the odds and make what would be a risky bet against a full set of decks in a less risky way because you know some of the values of the cards that have been played. For example, if you know that anything below an 8 will have you winning the hand, and you kept track of the fact that the vast majority of played cards have been above 8, then you've changed the odds in your favor and your bet is less risky. |
Whats so bad about new jersey ? | All I have to say is, the only national park with a nude beach so far as I've found . Give me the shore Give me proximity to NYC and Philly without actually having to have the slums Holly and Pine forests? Sure!Small farms, cranberry bogs and 24 hour diners? Love 'em As for those that say there's no creativity in NJ I'd say that Springsteen, Kevin Smith, Count Basie, Edison, Bon Jovi would disagree. I will say that the one thing NY and PA have that NJ doesn't is nice neighbors. /edit interesting fact found: NJ has the largest wilderness area east of the Mississippi |
How is money made for the publishers from borrowing library books when they are borrowed for free? | Librarian here. Libraries buy a fuck-ton of books, and as a result steer a proportional fuck-ton of money to publishers. I don't have the retail sales figures to compare, but would not be the least bit surprised to learn that publishers make more from sales to libraries than they do from retail sales. What's more, eliminating libraries would not offset the massive loss of income. Most people would not simply purchase the items they obtain from libraries. |
is it really true that 10 strategic atomic bombs could wipe out the human life on earth? | What type of nukes were you comparing? I know the ICBM's of today pack a much delivery than what was dropped on Japan.Hi — I made the NUKEMAP. I'm glad it was useful to you in thinking about this question. One can, I think, categorically say that it would take more than 10 bombs of any size actually ever built to wipe out all of human life. Ten "Tsar Bomba" bombs at 100 Mt apiece, while very large, still could only produce only so much destruction, even taking into account the possibilities of nuclear fallout, and nuclear winter. Now, if you don't limit yourself to bombs that were actually built, you can make them pretty much as large as you want. Let's just limit ourselves to bombs that were actually _contemplated_ when considering the high-end of the megaton scale. There were plans during the 1950s for bombs as large as 10,000 Megatons. Ten 10,000 Mt bombs might get you into "wild disruptions of climate" ), and impressive amounts of fission product dispersals if they were detonated on the ground . Would that wipe out human life on Earth? Maybe, maybe not — there are a lot of people and we're a pretty tough species to kill out. But it would be pretty terrible; the world would not be the same one as existed before the detonations in question.The thing with nukes, is that the devastation continues long after the initial blast. Those who aren't killed in the blast wave would be subjected to radiation poisoning. I'm still not sure 10 would be enough, but with modern day yields in the megaton, who knows? |
How can some companies like Lunar Lands sell lands on other planets? how did they come to own them in the first place ? | I believe it's all false. You buy a planet, but no actual scientific or governing body will ever recognise it as yours. You just get a certificate saying it's yours. It's completely worthless and meaningless, and wouldn't hold up in court if any aliens set up shop on your planet. |
What's the process for a modern ground campaign in a war? | You're forgetting the months of planning for your main asault as well as infiltrating the enemies government. Most of the time you can take down another countries government if you've got the right connections into their internal policies as well as money to finance your targets own personal intrests. Intelligence from these operations will give you an insight into your opponents capabilities both economically and militarily and will layout your attack strategy. Once you've gotten a clear assessment on their abilities and what they can't function without militarily you hit them with specialised forces and cripple their infrastructure. After months of operations you send in your paratroopers to obtain key areas so that a larger force come in and maintain your threats dominance. |
Why did English overtake French as the lingua franca of the world? | French was never the lingua franca of the world, period. It was definitely a prestige language in many places, particularly in Europe, but it never came close to the dominance English holds today. Controlling trade is certainly a big part of the answer, but it is not a sufficient precondition. The use of Portuguese continued long after the Dutch took over the Indian ocean trade routes. The Dutch and their trading partners were happy to continue using Portuguese as a trade language. Let's not also forget that the British Empire controlled roughly 25% of the world's territory at the zenith of its power. This, in addition to mastery of the seas for over 100 years during the first wave of globalization is very much a contributing factor. |
Four states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, how is this possible since the federal law still prohibits it? | Basically the state won't arrest you for it, but the federal government can if they want to. |
Why is 24 FPS unplayable in video games, but looks fine to me in movies/TV shows? | Movies don't look fine. Watch the edge of the screen, let's say of an aerial fly by shot of mountains. They look so jittery as they pass off the screen.When you play a video game, you are thinking of an action to take, you take the action, and you expect instantaneous response from the game. When I'm playing rocket league, I think "hit the ball now." I press the A button and move my thumb stick forward. If the car doesn't instantly flip forward due to lag or whatever else, it's incredibly obvious that something didn't work out. In a movie, you probably don't have any idea what's about to happen and there is no input required from you, so you are a passive observer.You watch movies but play video games. A movie doesn't matter because you just have to sit there and take it in. Video games you need to control. And the faster you are able to receive the information the faster and more accurately you can respond to it", 'The huge difference between fps in film vs games is that film is capturing motion at their framerate while video games are creating motion at their framerate. Film is capturing actual motion while video games are pretending to show motion. If games created motion at 60 fps then showed you that motion in 24 fps it would seem natural like film |
Why was the US government not prosecuted as being war criminals after the nuclear bombing of Japan, considering the indiscriminate nature of the weapon and the civilian casualties/ deaths involved? | Well, the simple answer is because we won the war. Then again, while it was a US plane that dropped the bomb, other countries, like Great Britain contributed to the development of the bombs and knew what they would be used for. Anyway, you can't really prosecute a 'government'. You prosecute individuals, and most everyone involved in the bombing is dead by this point, so there isn't really anyone to go after. Plus, at the time, it was apparent that the scale of atrocities committed by the Axis, like the Holocaust, and the Rape of Nanjing, were so much higher than anything the allies might have done, that it wasn't foremost on peoples minds. Another example is the Dresden bombings, which many question the ethics of, but the Nazi bombings of London killed way more civilians than were killed in the Dresden. |
Why is air travel safe? | I don't know how to answer this question. Why *wouldn't* it be safe? Why should we treat unsafe air travel as the natural order of things? |
Male Pattern Baldness. What gives? | When you get older, little guy, your body will create something called Testosterone. Normally, this is a good thing -- it helps you grow big and strong. But a small amount of that Testosterone in your body, for reasons we don't quite know yet, turns into something slightly different, into something called 'Dihydrotestosterone' instead. For some men this isn't a problem, but for others who are sensitive to DHT their body doesn't know what to do with all of this sticky stuff. And so, if you are sensitive to DHT it can build up in the top of your head, in the tiny holes where each of your hairs grow out of. In these holes each and every hair on your head has a 'root', what we call a 'follicle' . Some people believe that the DHT builds up *so much* that it forms a plug that stops the follicle from being able to get fresh food. Without fresh food, the follicle cannot eat and so it dies and the hair will not grow any more. For people who have no more hair, all of their follicles have died and, unless they have very special surgery, they will not grow any more. |
What am I seeing when I look at a 2D molecule diagram? What are those hexagons and the lines coming off of them? | The dots are atoms. The lines represent electrons shared between atoms. The structure of the diagram won't accurately reflect the physical structure of the molecule once that structure becomes even slightly complex, but the diagrams are useful when thinking about how chemical reactions can occur. |
Where does the 'thought' voice in my head come from ? | I can't work out if the voice in my head is me or something else cause its usually negative and constant does my head in sometimes and also makes me paranoid then i start to believe it and next thing you know i have issues with people for no reason. |
Why don't airlines board passengers from back to front? | I'm surprised they don't board first class from the front and have the peasants board from the back. No self-respecting first classer really likes having to make eye contact with the tuburculars as they parade past to be sandwiched into coach .[Here] is a study with animated examples comparing ways to board passengers. Basicly it comes down to people blocking passage ways, especially when boarding with luggageThe simple answer is weight and balance. If the average person weighs 200 pounds, then if you load 20 people into the aft most seats first, you have added 2 tons of weight to the unsupported end of the aircraft, turning it into a seesaw pivoting it on the main landing gear. If you load front to back, the passengers in the front provide ballast to keep the nose landing gear on the groundEveryone seems to assume "back to front" means inviting the backseat passengers to board first. What if the jet-way attached to the rear of the plane, then you still boarded the front-row passengers first? They 'd walk from the back to the front and would be out of everyone's way while they stowed their luggage overhead, allowing subsequent rows a chance to board.Helps with weight distribution. You wouldn't want all that weight in the back of the plane because it could cause the nose to raise up. |
Why do pro baseball players require so much more minor league time and levels compared to other major sports? | I remember taking a sports econ class and the professor went over a theory of this a little. It was a while back but the jist of it was that college football and basketball were very big before they were pro sports so the highest level of play for those sports would be at the college levels. For baseball the college level was never very popular so less money and training would go into it. Because of the the major leagues had to develop their own training program which was the minor leagues. Again this was a while back and there obviously are a ton of other factors but there is no denying that college basketball and football provide a minor league training feel for the professional levels. Baseball just simply doesn't have that. |
hacking in movies vs hacking IRL | Hacking in movies will generally be loaaads of code flying across the screen, when I've pen tested it is the occasional line of code now and then which establishes your next move. As /u/ameoba stated it can take a long time and actual hacking is only a small part of the actual process. Social engineering is a much easier way to hack a system, don't even have to write any code if they just hand you the password. |
why scientists don't strap a heavy duty camera onto a sperm whale and see what's at the bottom of the sea? | Why use a whale, when we can use a submarine? We have no control over where a whale goes, as opposed to a sub, which we can control. Also a sub can have lights, sensors, scopes to take samples and we don't have to catch a whale. |
Why do we sometimes have these "nuts" thoughts of braking something or hurting someone for no apparent reason? | Coming from someone who struggles with this everyday and just recently opened up about in therapy. I want you to know these are entirely normal. Almost everyone experiences intrusive thoughts one way or another and can include thoughts thoughts which may be violent, blasphemous, or sexual in nature. it's entirey normal to worry about whether or not you'll act upon these thoughts and In no way, shape or form does it insinuate that you may be psychotic in any form. These thoughts are entirely normal and you are NOT the only one experiencing these thoughts.I actually struggle really badly with them. Constantly having to walk on the inside of the pavement because my brain is screaming for me to throw myself into traffic. I have a marble charm that I fiddle with when I walk and that helps to keep me distracted. I do have MH issues though.Because you tell yourself it's wrong to have them so you're more aware when they come up. Try making the feelings into jokes and it's like seeing the zipper on a monster costume when you're a kid. |
Why aren't digital movies way cheaper than dvd's? | People will pay the same for a digital copy as for a dvd. If they devalue the digital copies, then no one will buy the DVDs anymore, in favor of cheaper digital movies. Now they've lost money on their digital copies, and they've lost money on their dvds. They are for-profit companies, so their business is making money, so that's a bad decision for them. |
Why do people become less empathetic and cause-driven as they get older? | Because life is hard, and if you've been over-protected most of your life and really try to make it on your own without relying on a safety net of family, you learn very quickly how easily you can fall through the cracks, and how quickly No One Gives A Fuck. All it takes is 6+ months of unemployment, or a serious medical emergency with lots of bills, and you can truly run the risk of Not Being A Productive Part Of Society Ever, Ever Again. Source: Still recovering from 2009-2011, none of my change is spare, because I could easily have been the gal sleeping under a bridge. |
Why smuggling drugs is hard? Aren't there numerous things to put drugs in that can't be x-rayed, sniffed, or searched? How about a barrel of oil? | The difficulty doesn't come from a one-time trip across a border. It comes with making numerous multiple trips across a border. As for a barrel of oil, how many normal people buy a barrel of oil? It's something unusual that would warrant an extra look by customs agents.National Geographic did a pretty cool series on smuggling. Not just of drugs, but exotic animals and other fun stuff _URL_1_', "The problem is getting the drugs in and out of the carrier. With a suitcase or something, that's easy; just tell the person to bring it over to put drugs in, and bring it over to take drugs out. With a barrel of oil, you have to either create some excuse for your guy to go off alone with it or get access to where the barrel is being stored. |
Why do animals farms that treat animals badly not face animal cruelty charges? | Its very difficult to create legislation that prevents cruelty while allowing you to be in the business of farming animals. The entire point is they're going to kill the animal, which a sufficiently loose definition of cruel would prevent, for example |
Now that marijuana is legal in Colorado, can employers still refuse employment. | You kind of answered your own question. Yes, private employers can require testing for and denial of employment for any reason they want, so even if the state says it's not a crime, an employer could say they don't want to hire anyone who smokes pot. In application, I suspect you'll see the same rules applied to marijuana that you would alcohol. Things like: cant be drunk/high on the job, can't have smoked within X number of hours/days before your shift .Not just marijuana, but legal prescription drugs can keep you from getting hired or cause you to get fired from your current job. People have been fired from factory jobs for testing positive for hydrocodone even though they were prescribed the medication to help with pain from an injury. Legality of a substance has nothing to do with whether an employer can employ you or not.Throwaway I work in Health and Safety for company that has operations in multiple states, Colorado is one of the states, we have both union and non-union employees. We are still drug testing and we are following Federal Law regarding the use and possession of Marijuana. Because we operate in multiple states it's important to the organization to have consistency regarding policy when and where it's possible. Our approach has been reviewed by multiple law firms as well as our insurance carriers all parties feel that we are on rock solid ground, everyone feels that our policy will survive any challenges. |
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