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What its like being addicted to cigarettes. | you feel as though you're missing something from your life and that air is thinner than it should be. cigarette smoke thickens the air and for a fleeting moment makes you feel whole again. shortly afterwards however the air thins and you're missing that wholesome feeling again that only a cigarette can fix.Late night talks outside the bar with random folks were pretty sweet', "TL;DR Basically it's dehydration. Just switch water with smokes. Imagine the worst morning you ever had. Groggy, head hurts, can't think straight, barely capable of coherent speech; Much less Idle conversation. This is what withdrawal on a small scale is like. Basically every smoker goes through this until they get their morning cigarette. I haven't been without one for more than an hour for the past 5 years. But I still know what it's like to not give a single fuck about anything other than dragging yourself to the store and getting a fresh pack. Then sucking the thing down as fast as possible. After about 2-3 smokes I become a normal functioning human being again. So yeah. Not the kind of thing you want. It only gets worse to. You think not having a smoke when you really need one is rough, try having a need for speed and not being able to satisfy it. Jesus Don't fucking smoke. |
Why do the voices of people from the early 1900's sound so different to now? | I almost noticed from listening to Radio Classics on Sirius that men in the 40/50's seemed to have had more masculine voices. Stupid logic, but would if be from smoking being so popular? I know that smoking seems to deepen your voice. |
How has there been so much famine in Africa for such a long time? | To add to this: why do people keep having sex and babies in these countries if they know they can't support them? |
Comcast just quoted me $3,578/month for Gigabit internet for my small business. How is this a real number?! | That price isn't that absurd in the IT space. We just got a quote for 200/200 for about $2400 a month and /26 address space . Now, this provider is on-net in the building, and we'd be 2 hops away from One Wilshire in Los Angeles, making it very attractive to us. An additional tidbit that has yet to be mentioned is that with your home connection, you are getting a single usable IP address. With this quote, you very likely have at least a /29, probably a /28, giving you 5 or 13 available usable IP addresses for various services, respectively. As you may have heard, the IPv4 address space has been used up, so IP addresses are at a premium, and you will pay exponentially for the privilege of securing a larger block of addresses. |
why do Americans think that if a man carries a general-purpose bag with him on a regular basis, that he is gay? | I feel that people who can associate an item/personality trait as something even remotely feminine will blow it up out of proportion and assume you're gay because of it. It's silly, really. Especially living in the south. |
How does programming work in other languages? | Exit Date" and so forth. Except Catia was written in French, so I had to guess what French abbreviations those variable names stood for. It was slow going.When programming, you have parts that have to be called a certain way , parts where you can pick the name and comments. For most programming languages, the unchangeable part is in English, foreign programmers just learn when to use what words. . The parts where you can pick the name and comments might be in the programmer's native language, especially if they're just starting out with learning how to program. However, most people switch to writing completely English programs at some point to be able to work with people speaking other languages.There have been programming languages designed around natural languages other than English. None of them have been particularly successful _URL_1_Usually they just write in English. This is very common these days, because pretty much any programmer will end up talking to somebody from another country sooner or later anyway. Code is often reused, and while nothing stops you from say, writing a XML parsing library with russian function names, it wouldn't really get any traction outside of Russia, and possibly not even there . There are some upsides to working in another language though, as you get to avoid the reserved words. Eg, in English you wouldn't make a variable called "exit", because there's a function in that name. There's no problem with a variable called "salir", though. For langauages like russian there is the problem a lot of compilers don't accept cyrillic for variable and function names, so you 'd have to type it all in the english alphabet. |
What's happening when a commercial plays for a second or two before skipping to the next one? | When it happens here it usually is on a US channel which if it is showing a show at the same time as a Canadian channel, it will then be 'overlaid' by the Canadian channel so that the advertising is all Canadian. This often happens during the start of whatever commercial precedes the show. |
Why can't the federal budget be treated like a household budget? | Sometimes it's good to have debt. For example, if you owe me money, do I want you to succeed? Yes, or course, if you go bankrupt you can't pay me. This was integral in the formation of the US, Hamilton came up with a plan that the federal government would assume all state debts. Because of this, the states had to want for the government to succeed, otherwise their debts would be worthless. |
What makes a song sound like it's from the 60s? | The specific instruments, microphones, amplifiers used. The kinds of backing vocals used. The types of drum beats. Certain effects. The type of reverb alone could mark a song's decade to those of us who know the difference. Ideally, record on no more than 4 tracks with minimal overdubbing. It takes a mix of music theory and recording theory to really know how to do it. |
What exactly caused the Concorde fleet (the commercial super-sonic jets) to be discontinued for flying, and how come airlines don't look towards making jets that can cut travel time in half? | * they are very expensive to run, the Concorde cost about as much as a 747 to operate, and carried a third of the passengers* sonic booms means they can only be operated over the ocean* saving 4 hours on a transatlantic flight just isn't worth that much door to door, you are looking at 7 hours vs. 11 hours, and with the time change, you are pretty much blowing a whole day travelling either way", 'Super sonic objects produce a very loud noise known as a sonic boom. It is illegal to produce this over where people are so the Concord was restricted to flying over the ocean. It is also really expensive to fly at Super sonic speeds. The cost of a Concord ticket was about $10,000 when it was discontinued.They were too expensive. People are willing to pay $300 to fly across the country in 6 hours. They aren't as willing to pay $9400 to fly across the country in 3 hours. |
How does a computer determine a random number? | In addition to the other responses, here's the simple C standard implementation of rand, according to [this], which is a [linear congruential generator]: static unsigned long int next = 1; int rand // RAND_MAX assumed to be 32767 { next = next * 1103515245 + 12345; return % 32768; } void srand { next = seed; } The actual implementation may differ and depends on the platform and compiler. |
Why do some people believe we don't HAVE to pay taxes. (American) | Because they are fools or scammers selling hokum to fools. No, it isn't true. If you don't pay your taxes the IRS will fuck you up. |
What's so special about Minecraft? | I get to log in, struggle to gather supplies as if I were Robinson Crusoe, and go spelunking. I get to play with my friends, troll them with elaborate traps involving explosives, and get trolled right back the next day. Some of my friends prefer to do the interior decorating thing a la making a house in the Sims. My favourite thing is to explore worlds, hunting out the hidden strongholds, finding villages, and killing skeletons. It's so simplistic, but so satisfying. I don't know why it's as satisfying as it is.You have a game where you can modify everything you see. Every new scene is new as it is randomly generated. A lot of games like to focus on telling traditional stories, similar to movies. Other games focus on what defines a game real time interactivity. Minecraft excels at this because it is so simple yet fundamental to the human condition.Another huge part of what makes the game attractive that people haven't yet mentioned is that the community feels heavily involved in the game's development. Constant updates, features being implemmented from reddit's r/minecraft subreddit, and having the dev team be active members of the community makes it very exciting. Also, legos with baddies. |
- How did China go from a poor country to the world's second biggest economy in 30 years? | This goes way over the head of 5 year olds, but I'll say this. An idea that is getting a lot of momentum is that European dominance of the world is just a fluke, a mistake. The true geographic winner is Asia, particularly, China. Think of them as finally bouncing back as opposed to catching up. |
How is it one can look at a movie and instantly tell it's from the eighties? | They eighties has some pretty distinctive hairstyles and fashions, especially for women. Seeing big hair and shoulder pads are a dead give away. Also, the 1980's represented the dead enough for a lot of technologies that got replaced as computers and cell phones took over in the 1990s. Landlines, answering machines, car phones, pay phones, big computers with blinking lights, all those things seem pretty natural in a 1960s or 1970s feature, but the 1980s are modern enough that you can kind of forget how old the show it, until you see one of those things and it jars you back. |
Why are there so many British stars in Hollywood. | They love the weather. Ask them. They'll confirm.Because they may be talented? Hollywood is the entertainment capital of the world. If an actor that is not in the US wants to make it really big, they typically will go to Hollywood. Plus British accents are pretty in demand. A person with a real British accent > an American faking one for a movie. Notice how tons of bad guys in movies are Brits?', "I've noticed that British actors can easily pass for American in movies but American actors almost never do this. |
Why do Girls Need Makeup to Look Good but Guys don't? | Just because men don't typically wear makeup doesn't mean they don't need it. Most men would look significantly better with at least a coat of foundation to even out their skin tone.From my understanding, makeup began in attempts to highlight and bring attention to the more feminine features of women Nowadays, it's more so dictated by inaccurate conceptions of what society deems "attractive" ) The thing is, we get our sense of what is attractive from what we see the most while growing up, so what objectively makes one learned perception of attractiveness more acceptable than another? IMO if a female enjoys wearing makeup and thinks they look better with it then I really don't see any problems Why don't you ask why guys style their facial hair while you're at it? Same concept basically. |
How do airlines often overbook flights? | Large planes use almost the same amount of fuel whether they're half empty or packed, and airline companies know this. They also know from experience that some small percentage of booked passengers don't show up. They maximize profit margins by booking 102 seats on a 100 seat plane and assuming that at least two aren't gonna show. Usually they're right, but occasionally all 102 people show up and someone's waiting for the next plane. |
How do they separate all my recyclables? | You'd be surprised how labour intensive it is. There is a lot of manual sorting by people on a conveyor line. The first step is to have all the recyclables spread out on a belt, so people can grab things off that don't belong there and do some basic front line sorting. This video shows it pretty well _URL_0_ After that, the properties of the rubbish determine how it is 'filtered' out of the line.IE paper and cardboards can be wetted to make them heavier than surrounding plastics, so they gather in one part of the process. Plastic may be recovered using air that can't move wet paper. Metal is removed by a magnet. The process is not perfect. There is a lot of contamination, so when the trash is packaged and sent off to be recycled, the first stage of the manufacturing process is to wash, clean, separate the desired product from similar stuff that tagged along for the ride. Penn & Teller did a Bullshit show on recycling that's pretty good. _URL_1_ TL:DR - yes some machines, but also lots of people just sorting it by hand . |
Why are wall outlets only limited to 2 plugs? | They're not limited to just 2, that's just the smallest format box you can install. If you put in a wider box, there's no stopping you from filling it up with outlets if you like. I think part of the reason there are usually only two is for convenience - it's better to have a lot of different locations to plug in such that you're not stretching cords across the room, rather than to put all the outlets for that room in one big box.Part of it is aesthetics, part is cost. Not all wall outlet locations are likely to have multiple devices used and power strips can easily be used where needed. The two-outlet configuration allows the same size mounting box/hardware as a switch and any other 2-port outlet, and the small box allows a bit more flexibility in location choice. Devices that would typically draw more power than a 110v outlet would allow are likely going to be using a dedicated circuit, often on a higher voltage, that can handle that loadI think the standard/code is out of date. I think almost every modern living room and office has outlet strips and extension cords. It may just be that when builders build a spec house they want to keep costs down, but outlets are cheap. I would love to see an actual study of what the actual outlet to plug ratio is. If I ever have a house custom built I will specify many extra outlets. |
Why music sounds distorted on telephones while voices don't | Imagine you have a river that is like one of those traffic-light drinks, except it has 7 colours. So on one bank of the river, it is purple and it goes through the colours until it gets to the other bank of the river. Now you stick a pipe in the river, say in the green section of water. The pipe carries all the green water and it comes out green at the other end. But if you want to put all the colours down the same sized pipe, then it's going to be a horrible, mixed up colour and it will be difficult to tell the individual colours. Now imagine the colours are the different sounds in music and the green section of the water is the range of human vocie.In the oldest phone networks , every call went through an operator who connected your line to another. You had the entire wire to yourself. As phone networks grew, this became unfeasible. At some point in the growth, they needed to find a way to cram multiple calls onto a single "trunk" line. They realized that if they filtered the frequencies the system could transmit to a narrow band & then shifted the pitch up or down, they could *multiplex* a number of conversations onto a single line . Music sounds like crap when you start filtering out all the high frequencies. This is also why dial-up modems never went faster than 56k. |
The Hubble Space Telescope, how does it capture images? | it just works like a regular camera. you focus the lens at what you want to see. orient the satellite towards it. then open the shutter, and let it collect some light. then you close it and you have your picture. of course we don't exactly use it like a regular camera. Hubble can point itself at something, and then spend hours collecting light. so it can find things that have barely any light. or is just really far away. this is how they got the famous [deep field] . they pointed the camera at the darkest spot they could find. where there was nothing to see. and they let the camera sit there and collect light for 10 days. what they found was 3000 galaxies really far away. giving us a true idea of just how big the universe is |
Why is it that a 7 year old console with only 512 MB of ram can run modern games with pretty decent graphics? | Two reasons: it's powerful enough to be able to show and color and light up enough shapes to look reasonable, and it's a console so it's entire job in life is just playing compatible games and nothing else, so all of its resources are intended specifically for that job. Say you wanted to make a first person shooter. If you get a reasonable texture on a decently defined human body shape and add a few basics like muzzle flashes , you can do the minimum to make a shooter. The rest is all programming that doesn't really use up as much of the console's resources. So it can do an adequate job and doesn't have to work that hard to show a decent image and give a decent gaming experience. It's when you want to really bump the resolution that you really start stressing your hardware, to get much crisper and more involved images. As an example, the Nintendo Wii only had 480p resolution, running 640x480 resolution, and your eye could easily make out all the shapes and colours despite the low resolution. Compare that to the newest consoles that have 1080p . The new console now has to paint a screen that has six times more content for each frame. The other reason is that's all consoles do. Because they're very very standard, game programmers can tweak their code so they take advantage of every single resource the console can make available. PC's with different graphics cards, operating systems, graphics cards and associated drivers, memory and so on are much more flexibly configured so they can't use all their resources as effectively. |
What is a brokered convention and what is Mitt Romney trying to do? | So far all the posts look correct to me so I'm going to ask for a few clarifications. What happened to the will of the people ? Were all the primary's in vain? Does the hoopla and energy of the convention add to selecting the best candidate? |
Many sharks and other large fish have been kept in captivity for long periods of time but why has this not succeeded with Great White Sharks? | From what I know it's because they have to keep moving constantly to get water through their gills fast enough. They would require a large amount of space in a particularl shaped tank that you wouldn't likely have left over from a previous shark. |
Do women experience a build up of estrogen if they don't masturbate like men? Why or why not? | Nah I usually feel horny near the time where I'm about to bleed from my vag.My experience as a trans woman is that I feel "girlier" if it's been a long-ish time since I last got off. I think this is because horniness brings out sexual instincts, so I move differently, unconsciously act a bit cuter, etc. Of course I don't have ovaries, my estrogen is controlled by taking pills, but it does basically feel like the opposite feminized version of what I used to feel from abstaining when I had male levels of testosterone in my systemIt seems like you're confusing some things, or the other people commenting are, or something. Men don't experience a build up of testosterone from not having sex. The opposite, actually. Semen != testosterone. Women who menstruate have a period whether they have sex or not, unless they get pregnant, but nothing other than frustration "builds up" in the way you seem to mean.I'm far from an expert, but from what I learned in Anatomy I would say no. The production of estrogen is controlled by the ovaries after ovulation from something called the corpus luteum, which is in preparation for implantation of an egg. If that doesn't happen the corpus luteum involutes and becomes a corpus albuginea, which is basically scar tissue. So there doesn't seem to be any relation between estrogen and sexual stimulation ultimately in my mind That's just my educated guess honestly.The questions five year old want to know the answer to these days! |
Why does using a tootbrush how we do not make us sick? It is never sanitised and sit in your bathroom all day. | A tooth brush is not a disinfecting agent. It's meant to scrape away excess food, not kill bacteria. Your mouth is ahead good enough at dealing with bacteria; removing excess carbohydrates by brushing just limits bacterial growth.Might not be relevant, but I dip my tooth brush in listerine for a minute every other week .. 99.9 percent effective', "Because there's nothing on your toothbrush that isn't already in your body. You know you can walk outside and eat dirt and be fine right? Kids do it all the time. Your body has a robust immune system.Not to mention every time you flush with the lid up the flushing motion causes tons of tiny poo particles to be thrown in the air which settles on anything nearby, such as a tooth brush. The immune system is fighting off infection 24/7. Not just when you contract a disease. Plus the bristles are plastic, designed to resist contamination. And you generally rinse it off before and after each use. But still is why you need a new one every couple months.A few things: * Toothbrushes are cleaner than you think; most dangerous bacteria needs moisture and nourishment to survive, and really only replicates quickly in warmth. Your toothbrush dries out, is rinsed thoroughly to limit resources for the bacteria to thrive on, etc. * Your immune system is amazing; it's a lot harder to get sick from exposure to bacteria than you imagine. If it *weren't*, you'd be constantly sick. * Most of the bacteria on your toothbrush isn't novel; the bacteria in the bathroom is mostly stuff you and your housemates have already been exposed to, and which your immune system is therefore already dealing with. Having a bit on your toothbrush isn't likely to significantly alter your risk. That said, it's pretty easy to disinfect a toothbrush by swishing it in an antiseptic mouthwash for 60 seconds, so if it's a worry, it's easy to mitigate the risk. |
Elements want 8 electrons in their valence shell to become stable. Why do atoms want exactly 8 valence electrons, and why is it impossible to have 9 valence electrons? | It's due to how the orbital shells work. the S-p orbitals work upwards in groups of two, not groups of three. You can think of it like buidling blocks working upwards in sets of two blocks. You need to go up in sets of two, because if you had a layer of two blocks, then put one block on it, you couldn't put two blocks on top of that. As those blocks build up, you come to an outlayer of the electron shells, where only the outwards ones can interact with the outwards ones of other atoms and molecules, which due to the way the orbitals works, gives you a set of eight to work with. However, not all atoms have eight valence electrons, hydrogen for example, only has one. That explanation isn't the best probably, but it's been a while and I hope that helps and fits the ELI5 format.If an element has 8 electrons that are shared in a covalent bond rather than a ionic bond, it can potentially make an additional covalent bond with an element with 2 valence electrons. [This answers ] your question by using phosphorus as an example because it is a period 3 element because it’s d orbital is large enough to support additional electrons, so really if it’s d orbital is large enough it can have more than 8 valence electrons. |
How is it we have such amazing pictures of galaxies millions of light years away, yet such low quality photos of Pluto? | Pluto is smaller than our moon and doesn't generate any light of its own. All the light we see has travelled from the sun, reflected off it, and bounced back here. Thus details are extremely hard to get. Galaxies are huge, composed of thousands of stars, many brighter than our own sun. We see the brightest ones, and because there are so many, we can see the shape of the galaxy itself. |
Why is there no thunder or lightning during winter? | It can happen but the conditions don't favor it. For the record though lightning during a snowstorm is one of the coolest fucking things I have ever seen. Every time a bolt would flash my entire field of vision would basically go neon blue for a second. 10 out of 10, would recommend. |
Geosynchronous Orbit vs. Geostationary Orbit vs. Low Earth Orbit | Geostationary is exactly that. Stationary. The satellite remains above the same spot above the equator at all times. Geosynchronous means the satellite will maintain an orbit around the Earth's equator and be in the same position at the same time each day. Read here to understand the types of orbits and their pros and cons. _URL_1_ If you don't mind answering, what spiked your curiousity in these space terms? |
Why do all hotel rooms have bibles? | Some hotels in Utah have copies of the Book of Mormon in their rooms. Wouldn't it be much better if they placed something more stimulating? A book of jokes, for example. Or a simple book of interesting facts about the world, its peoples, the universe, inventions, anecdotes, history Even a current copy of Guinness World Records would be so much better. |
Why is it not illegal to kill smaller animals such as rabbits, squirrels etc and insects when it is illegal to kill larger animals? | In the US Almost all the larger animals are either owned or have been hunted to the point that we have the need to regulate hunting them. Technically speaking if an animal isn't owned by an individual it is owned by the state. The state wants things like bears to be around forever so they will tell you when it is okay to hunt one. There are places where you can kill some larger animals willy-nilly. In the south you can and are encouraged to kill wild boar anyplace it is legal to fire a gun. If you can't use a gun run it over with a truck. Rodents are generally a pest that we wouldn't be able to wipe out if we tried.Well actually it is illegal to kill all of them, without a hunting license/ permit, or out of season. Only a few exceptions exist. Pests, self defense, livelihood defense being examplesDepends on the laws of your jurisdiction, and laws related to game vs varmint and pests. |
How can over 10gbs of Ashley Madison data be uploaded to the deep Web through TOR? | An average exit node runs at 15Mb/sec. That would take 89 hours. I'm sure there are faster and slower nodes. Since it's distributed as a torrent, perhaps multiple paths could shorten that time. |
If people use VPNs for illegal things, why are VPNs owners not concerned about it? Are they not at risk of going to jail? | The provider of a service is not liable for what people use the service for. If you use a gun to kill someone, the gun company doesn't get in trouble. If you poison someone, the chemical company who made the poison doesn't get in trouble. Also, the best VPNs don't keep records, so they wouldn't be able to help law enforcement anyway.If somebody gets caught drink driving, they would be the one getting in trouble, not the company who made the alcohol. Same thing with VPNs. VPNs are useful and used legitimately like loads of people. If somebody want to use a VPN for shady purposes, they are the ones who will have to deal with the ramifications.If pressured heavily enough by the authorities the VPN provider will absolutely just give up their customers. They say they don't log but there is no way to verify that this is actually true. We are literally just taking their word for it that they don't. |
How do modern interpretations of Christianity reconcile their stances on bigomy and incest in light of Biblical characters such as Soloman and Adam and Eve? | I would say that they interpret it inconsistently through cases of special pleading. There are a lot of things like that such as the commandment to kill homosexuals in Lev. 20:13. No modern minded christian is going to do that. The question I would ask is if moral law from God is objective, why is it progressively changing through the bible? Obviously the real answer is that the biblical laws are more man-derived based on contemporary sensibilities that God-mandated. But that would involve treating the bible as a more mundane book. I don't know many Christians who are willing to do that. |
Could someone PLEASE ELI5 the brand new privacy settings for Facebook and how I can keep myself as private as I can be? | 1. Click 'Profile' on the top right 2. Click 'Edit Profile' at the top right of your profile 3. Now you'll be on the 'Basic Information' tab where you'll notice little icons with a drop down arrow sitting next to each piece of information; you now have much more granular control over the privacy of your information, and it's available as soon as you type in the information. This exists for every bit of information you share; you can scroll through these by clicking them one by one on the left hand navigation. |
Why are American schools so big? | There are a couple benefits to having bigger schools. One is that the cost of building a bigger school is cheaper on a per-student basis . A bigger school also allows you more opportunities in clubs and classes. For example, my high school had 1,700 people and the math club had maybe 7 members. If the school had fewer than 1,000 students we probably couldn't have done it. I also had an advanced Physics class that only had 3 people in it. |
Why do humans cry, with tears and loud sobbing noises, when they are sad? Why don't other animals do this when they're sad? | The noises are a physiological response to the mental desire to be comforted. You are calling for your mother. The tears that's harder to explain. You're feeling threatened. It must have its roots in the hind-brain somewhere. Maybe your body glands are flooding your system with fight-or-flight drugs and tears are a side-effect of that. |
how does moving your legs on a swing make you go faster? | My observations as a parent indicate our upper body and leg motions are opposing pendulum forces above and below the seat that initiate the pendulum action of the swing. At the start, shifting your upper body back from the center of the seat while extending your legs forward of the center of the seat starts the pendulum motion of the swing. Once the pendulum motion begins to enhance the task, shifting the weight of your legs back and forth while shifting your upper body weight back and forth in opposite directions past the center of the seat, and the bottom center of the arc created, further enhances the pendulum motion of the seat. As each pass reaches it apex, your weight shift initiates a move in the opposite direction. The higher the pendulum action reaches its apex, the faster it goes and the greater the impact of your weight shift. One's body weight may also impact the speed. |
Why is political lobbying an accepted practice? | It is a frustrating topic but from what I have understood is the issues are so complex and so in depth that the government doesn't have the man power to handle this so lobbyist almost work hand in hand. My source for this is Stuff You Should Know it's a great podcast funny and informative. They do an entire 1 hour podcast dedicated to this I can't recommend this enough and hopefully I didn't butcher their explanation. |
Why do websites make it a requirement to have a capital letter in your password? | > By making it essential to add a capital letter to my password, doesn't that narrow the amount of options a hacker has to go through to get my password? In theory, yes. But in practice, you'll find that on a side that doesn't require you to have a capital letter most people will not capitalize any letter in their password out of convenience - and those that do may put more effort in creating a hack-proof password anyways and are not really the main target of hackers then. So then you have the scenario where a hacker just needs to search through all uncapitalized passwords instead - which is a much more narrowed down set than any passwords with at least on capitalized letter.Because trying to crack your password means trying all different combinations of letters from A-Z, numbers from 0-9 and symbols. If you add capital letters, that makes two sets of letters from A-Z, those in lower case and those in upper case. It essentially makes it much harder to crack your passwordI think the increase in variables from having captalisation is far greater than the loss in variables of knowing that at least one letter must be capitalised. Without the requirement, the vast majority of users would use no capitalisation at all in a password, making it much easier to crack. |
The shortage of Organs for people who need them? | The minute you die, your organs start to die so even if you want to be an organ donor, you have to die in a specific way, being brain dead, on life support and have your organs harvested while you are technically still alive. That doesn't happen very often. |
If water needs to boil to evaporate, how come puddles evaporate just with sunlight? | Water evaporates when it turns into a gas. That process is called boiling. To do this, you need to add heat or reduce the existing air pressure. Put water in an airtight can that's at room temperature and start sucking the air out. The pressure will drop to the point that the water boils. Add air to the same pressure vessel and you can eventually freeze/crystallize the water due to so much pressure, but that's virtually impossible without special setups. Check out a [phase change diagram] for the specific mixes of pressure and temperature for your own mad sciences. |
Why are there numerous knots why cant we just use the most secure and strongest one for every application? | Each one fits a different situation. Depending on the knot depends on the amount of friction and where. There is a knot, the bowline, that you can make if you're hanging off the side of a cliff and do so with one arm. This one doesn't slip the hole which allows you to not get squeezed as your being pulled up. Need to attach two ends of different ropes? The square knot is the go to, pretty strong, and easily undone. |
what is the evolutionary benefit to having a hairy butthole? Seems like those living prior to modern sanitation would have been more prone to infection and therefore a shorter life / less offspring. | Not everything evolutionary is beneficial. It would seem it could lead to infection, but apparently not enough to affect the chance of reproduction being significantly hindered. So although not beneficial, it's just there. It could also protect the area from friction and sweat because it's sensitive down there. This is the same reason your pubic region and arm pits have hair . |
Why do websites comply with the laws of other countries? | > Google is US company operating on US servers Yes, in the US. And if this was the whole story, you'd be right that Google would have no obligation to follow EU law. Companies entirely based and operating in one country only need to follow the laws of that country. Google, however, also has European subsidiaries, European Offices , European staff, and European servers , which are all subject to EU law. Where there's no direct conflict between laws of different nations, it's simpler just to enforce that law across the company, rather than enforce different laws based on the server location: Google enforce some US laws in the EU which they wouldn't have to enforce, too, so it goes both ways. Where there's a conflict, you'll find some laws are indeed enforced locally only |
Why are some people never able to get out of poverty no matter how hard they try? | Extended family responsibility and the number one reason why families become poor and remain so, catastrophic, ongoing illness. Sure, not every child who grows up hungry or poor fails to achieve success but lots of cognitive damage done early in childhood can lead to poor decision making. Judge not unless you've been there.Lack of money management skills, not wanting to leave, bad decision making doing unlawful activity, not getting a college degree even if they try, etc. |
Why does having bad credit cause things to be more expensive? | Your credit is a measure of how reliably you pay back debt. With debt, comes interest. Interest can be thought of as the loaner's insurance against potential loss of the loaned money. So, if someone has good credit, the party loaning the money has a higher chance of getting all their money back, so the interest on the loan will be lower. On the other hand, loaning to someone with bad credit means you have a higher chance of the person not paying you back, meaning higher interest is a must so you make up for more of the loss if the person doesn't make all your payments. Same reason good credit will get you lower deposits on things like phone plans, apartments, etc. It's a numerical indicator of how trustworthy you are with the money that you borrow, so people who don't know you personally can still get an idea on how much to trust you with. |
What does the US get from Israel that warrants such dogmatic support? And is Israel the only country the US can get that from? | There are about ~15 million Jews in this world. Roughly have live in Israel, half in the US, the other hundreds of thousands scattered elsewhere. It's also the only true democracy in the Middle East. So there's tremendous sympathy for a democratic and Jewish nation just on that ground. Though a little more practically, which is what I think you were looking for: * The Israeli economy is one of the largest of the Middle East. There's a lot of high tech trade and joint development between the US and Israel. Military tech, software, and medicine in particular. * Israeli intelligence is fantastic. What Mossad shares with US agencies we can only speculate, but it's certainly nontrivial.I once heard that should a ground war ever become necessary to protect our oil interests, we 'd have a guaranteed staging area in Israel. Our "friendly" relations with Gulf states are only friendly in the sense that an addict is "friends" with his drug dealer. |
How can someone plead the fifth and not be guilty? | The onus is on the prosecution to prove you are guilty. You are not required to assist them in doing so. Prosecutors are professionals at making you look guilty whether you are or not, most people stand zero chance of coming out on top of a verbal joust with someone who does it for a living. The vast majority of defendants don't take the stand for this reason, which is technically pleading the 5th", 'If the defense has a sub par case, they'll be looking for gotcha questions. Or if they have a good case, your lawyer may no some holes in their case you can exploit. Pleading the 5th is just a way of not incriminating yourself, you never know if something you say could be their missing piece. Say your a suspect in a crime. They ask where you were that day. You were 5 minutes from the scene, but you plead the 5th. Your not forced to say "Well I was in the right place at the right time", for all they know now you could have been in another town. Outside of court it is even more distinct. Let's say in a non-legalized state you just smoked some weed. You stop at a stop sign waiting for it to turn green and get pulled over. If the cop asks if you 've been on anything, you have no legal reason to tell them you just committed a crime. Play it off as being tired, and your set. |
Why could we clone a sheep in 1996 but we still cannot clone a human? | [This guy] has stated that we cloned ~ 40 animals already. We'll clone extinct mammals soon. Also, who is to say there are no cloned humans in dark projects that are not public. We already grew artificial kidneys, and 3d printed them! |
In this digital age of electronic transactions, how do I know that my money actually has value? Is it possible that money is just "made up"? | Money has value because people agree that it is a medium of exchange with value. In a sense, all money is made up. We use a fiat currency. That is a currency that's not backed by any particular commodity.It seems the "real" part has been addressed enough so I'll hit the other parts of your question. > I get the concept of a mint to back up the dollar with gold, but what's stopping the world from just printing cash, and never backing it up? Generally because printing more money reduced the value of the money in relation to other currencies. A sort of supply and demand. If the US printed a ton more money then people wouldn't want dollars as much as they do now and the price would fall. That means that an imported good from China that used to cost 75 cents now costs $1.25 which is basically inflation. If *everyone* did it then everyone would have inflation. So sure you 'd have twice as much money, but each dollar would only buy half as much, so you didn't get anywhere. > Further more, with everything electronic these days, what's stopping "the bank" from just typing in random bullshit numbers, and hitting a button? Because that would be illegal and banks generally don't like to do illegal things . |
Why do most domains on the internet begin with www? | WWW - World Wide Web The internet existed before websites. Once websites and the HTML language were invented websites started to become the most common place thing online. Basically WWW means a website as opposed to _URL_1_, _URL_2_ or _URL_0_ In reality it's a convention that most companies follow. It's not mandatory, it's just the standard. |
Babies take in nutrients through the umbilical cord, but what about the waste? Don't tell me they...? | The waste goes back to the placenta and into the mothers blood. The waste actually are different chemicals dissolved in the plasma of the blood . From mother's blood they are filtered away through the kidneys. When the baby is born it starts to use its own kidneys to filter away the waste. |
Why is fox news so conservative when Fox Channel tv series, such as glee are very liberal in their ideals? | News Corp is ultimately interested in what makes them money. So shows full of liberal ideas are fine if they're making money. But assuming he has any influence on Fox Channel programming, Rupert Murdoch identifies as a [libertarian]. So he's probably more socially liberal than not. |
Why is red meat considered bad? Didn't our ancestors eat it a lot? | It creates problems for you when you're older . Our ancestors did not need to live past their reproductive ages to reproduce , so their health problems went unnoticed to us. |
why is the response to an unidentified aircraft in restricted airspace to shoot the airplane down? | Outside of an active warzone nobody shoots at unidentified aircraft. Even in a war most countries that aren't tinpot dictatorships identify targets before firing. Aircraft in restricted airspace in most countries are intercepted by air defense fighters that will attempt several different means of communication and only shoot when it is absolutely necessary. In the US aircraft are intercepted in restricted airspace every day, and none have ever been shot down. |
Why is it that when you jump on an airplane, you land where you started? | When you're inside the plane, you, the plane, and the air inside it, are all moving at the same velocity. You have the same inertia as the plane, because it is propelling you forward with it. That's why when you jump, you appear to move with the plane, rather than separately from it. |
Why exactly do we need differential calculus? | Newton used differential calculus to calculate the gravitational forces of the solar system simply by observing the positions of the planets. Essentially it's a useful tool to study a dimension of a system which is hard to measure by measuring the change of something easy to measure. My guess is you'd be doing something similar |
How could Sylvia Plath commit suicide by sticking her head in the oven? | Same way people kill themselves by running the car with the garage door closed. if you turn only the gas on and don't actually light the oven, it produces poisonous carbon monoxide. |
why does an appendix need to be removed when infected and can't be treated? | Think of your appendix like a pinky finger. Attach your imaginary pinky finger to a sewage pipe going through your living room, but in such a way that nothing actually gets into it . except the one time it does. Now there's sewage in your pinky. And it's getting infected and swelling up and you didn't really have much extra room in your pinky in the first place KABOOM. Now not only is your living room splattered in exploded sewage-pinky, the sewage pipe is leaking into it. My brother's appendix blew up less than 12 hours after he started experiencing symptoms. I doubt that even if they'd gotten him to the hospital when he first started feeling bleurgy that antibiotics would have been fast enough. GreenStrong posted an interesting study, but I think I agree with him about just having it out.They remove the appendix because that's the most effective treatment, and you can live quite normally without an appendix. But recent studies indicate the appendix may not be useless after all--it appears to serve as a "refuge" for the intestinal flora that help you digest your food. When a disease like disentery, for example, "cleans you out," the bacteria in relative safety in the appendix might then re-populate your gut.But are we 100% sure it doesn't do anything??? Or are we building material for future Dark Matters: Twisted But True series . Just wondering |
If I turn on a fan in a room that's 70 degrees fahrenheit all through it, would it get hotter since I'm adding energy to the room (the fan is)? | Yes. The overall temperature would rise. However, for a short period of time, you might feel cooler, because the air currents would be moving stagnant air away from your body, and bringing in fresh air that your body heat hadn't increased yet. |
Why do we as Humans look different to each other whereas animals like fish, spiders, and elephants all look the same? | The question is based on a false premise. How do you think mammals are able to differentiate their offspring from other young mammals and continue looking after them for years? Answer: they don't all look the same. |
Is silicon or germanium-based life possible? | Anything is possible, but if that sort of life did exist it wouldn't look anything like life as we know it. Four valence electrons or not, you can't just replace carbon with silicon and expect everything to work the same. |
Why is it that I hear about people in the past dying of the common cold while I'm able to beat the common cold with no medication and/or major symptoms? | Most people in the past would survive the cold too, however in some cases the cold might develop into lung infection and you could die from that if you don't take antibiotics.Becuase back in those days people rarely showered and had poor hygiene, which causes the immune system to be compromised, making common illnesses dangerous |
How did Mayweather win that fight? | Mayweather is the greatest defensive boxer of all time. I don't like him, but he is a clever boxer. I wish neither him or manny played it safe, but that is the way it is. |
Why can't we prove climate change? | Mostly because all our facts are based on such a small period of time. We can prove that humans affect the environment what we can't prove is exactly how much we effect the environment. We can prove that carbon dioxide is causing climate change but we can't exactly prove that it's actually having a dramatic effect on the climate. We just don't have enough research or history to look at. For one, climate change is also natural. What we need to look at is how we change the natural course of the climate and unfortunately we don't have nearly enough research to do that.We can and we have. Next to no climate scientist will say that climate change is not taking place. It is almost exclusively in the US where people try to make sound as if climate change is a hoaxBecause the a lot of money can stir up the appearance of a small amount of doubt. And there is an ENORMOUS amount of money being thrown at generating doubt about climate science.Because we are talking about global trends over hundreds of years. It's very difficult to predict the trend at any given point, and even harder to prove why we are trending that way. The data isn't as clear as people profess. The global temperature has remained essentially flat for almost twenty years. When you go back 100 years, the temperature has only increased around 1.5°F . If you go back 5000 years to the Holocene maximum, the temperature has dropped around 2°F . When you are talking about climate and not just temperatures the data is even harder to decipher. How do you put a number on the climate? Doing a quick search I found several graphs of hurricane records that supported both sides of the argument. Note: I am not trying to argue for or against global climate change, nor am I arguing the cause. I am simply stating why the debate has not settled. |
when modern currency (coins and bills) was just invented. Why did people agreed to use it Instead of traditional trade ( cow for goat , chair for bench etc.) ? | The most valuable commodity on the planet is . gold well it used to be at some point. There have been a lot of currencies. But the first real international currency was the [Venitian Ducat]. It was made of gold so even if you didn't accept it as currency, you could melt down the gold and make jewelry. The Venitian traders were certainly accepting trades like cow for goat but in the abscence of a particular goat on their ship they would trade gold coins so that the person could get a future goat. |
Do cold temperatures affect the US's economy noticeably? | In some ways it does, snow slows down shipping which has a direct impact on almost every industry in the country. At the same time I'm guessing Salt, snow blower, snow shovel and, coat sales etc are all marginally higher this year. |
Why were past decades (e.g. 70s, 80s, 90s) so stylistically and culturally distinct, when the last two decades seem so "samey"? | This is totally subjective, I don't think there can be a genuine explanation. That said, I think time may show actual distinction, but at the moment it does seem like a big cultural smear for that time period. I think there is a cultural homogenization that coincides with media and corporate monopolies kind of taking over what we see and hear in terms of artistic expression. I don't see many cultures developing outside of corporate broadcasting mediums . I think we all need to put down our phones, says someone on their phone. |
Now that same sex marriage is legal, could a catholic church perform a gay wedding or are they restricted from orders from the vatican? | gay people were fighting for marriage to be recognized between them by the GOVERNMENT, not the religions. Which is what made arguing against it especially stupid, because it didnt change anyones religious beliefs/practices, it was purely so that gay people can have the same rights married straight people have. Thats it. It's still very much not allowed in religious organizations. |
Why are coffee and cigarettes such a popular combination around the world? Even in different cultures it's very common that they're enjoyed together; why is that? | As someone who for a while used to wake up to this combo, flavor is part of it, sure, but mostly it just feels literally orgasmic. It's a deep, dopey, contented feeling from a solid hit of nicotine combined with the coffee perking you up out of your morning grogginess. Since both do alter your brain chemistry, and after a full night's sleep it'll be the longest period of time since your last dose you usually go, and the morning cig/coffee has an especially pronounced effect. As you figured out too, the flavors are a perfect match, both smokey, deep, earthy, and complex with a spicy/tangy touch and finish. Heavenly. Typing this out isn't quite enough to make me want to smoke again, but goddamn do I miss waking up in the morning, brewing a pot of coffee, and sharing the bliss of a cup and a cigarette with my roommate before we both went about our day.They both affect a common receptor in the nervous system . It strengthens the response to both. In addition, as both substances have addicting potential and increase dopamine in the brain, the "reward / pleasure" aspect is amplified more than consuming each separately. Basically when the brain is in a state where dopamine has been increased above baseline, it is easier to form habits, associations, and experience reward from other things which also increase dopamine. Source - from my undergrad classes in Brain PsychEvery morning I have a cigarette and a cup of coffee. For me it does have something to do with the flavor. I think they compliment each other very well, and the combination helps to wake you up and jump start you for the day. As other commenters have said, both are stimulantsOne possible factor is that caffeine is a weak bronchodilator and it also reduces respiratory muscle fatigue. It is chemically related to the drug theophylline which is used to treat asthma. It opens up your lungs and makes it easier to breathe. That increases the effectiveness of the smoke because you can smoke more deeply and easily. |
Why do bartenders always put two straws in cocktails? | As a server at a comedy club, we're told to put in two straws so that the customer can drink their beverage faster and order more within a 2 hour time period. But I also use it to differentiate between regular and diet sometimes.Depending on the drink, glass it is to be served in, and ice content straws/stirrers should vary. |
What exactly does a producer do on a film, tv show or cartoon? | Picture a lord in medieval times. He doesn't do anything, but he's responsible for the work of many highly skilled specialists, and leads them through promises of gold.A few days ago, I described a producer as "someone who keeps the artists in check"You should watch "Wag the Dog". Depicts one fairly well. |
How exactly do people learn the more complex sports like pole vault and ski jumping?? | It isn't unusual for a top high school track athlete to compete in several events. If you are a good sprinter, pure athleticism and hard work will make you a good enough hurdler or long jumper or high jumper or pole vaulter to compete on the high school level. As you move on the the collegiate level, you start to specialism more. At the higher level of competition, you might not be quite fast enough for the 100m, but still excel at other events, like the pole vault. |
how does the AI in games work? | retreating", or "searching". You can get an extremely robust and elaborate personality out of state machines alone, where one AI will stalk, another won't attack without adequate resources, another is a coward That covers a high level of what the AI is doing, now how does it do it? If an AI is moving, how does it get from A to B? The state machine isn't responsible for that. An AI uses what is called a Pathing Algorithm, which calculates a path from the present position to it's destination. Shortest Path First is one such algorithm and it does what it says, the AI will use the shortest possible path. A* is another such algorithm, and it takes into account weights, so some paths are more desirable than others; the path over lava is going to be more expensive than the path over the bridge. There are all sorts of algorithms that compose an AI, you have algorithms to determine how accurate an AI is, different search algorithms, there can be code that simulates hearing and vision to make the AI more human like, and so on. |
What's that feeling in the middle of the night where the thirst is intolerable? | No idea, I've never had a this, though I often wake up feeling like the skin on the soles of my feet are getting really tight, it's painful, but goes away if I put water on my feet. It happens every other night. I'm well hydrated most days but I have issues maintaining my hydration due to a collagen disorder.Are you a vampire? You probably just need to drink more water during the daySince just the word "hangover" gets deleted, here is a sentence. The feeling is called a hangover.I suspect you're mistaking dry mouth with thirst. If you breathe through your mouth when you sleep , your mouth will dry out. If you drink water normally during the day and still wake up feeling truly intolerably thirst, you need to talk to a doctor. ETA a dry mouth can cause dental problems. If it happens often, you still might want to bring it up with a doctor or dentist. Many medications can also cause dry mouth. |
In movies when a character is dying, a loved one always begs them not to "let go". Can they continue to "hold on", solely on will power? | Guy I know had a friend who was dying from blood lose in front of him. The guy would start passing out so he would slap ilhis friend to wake him up. And he kept passing out. He started calling the guys mother a whore. The dude would wake up pissed off for a sec and start to pass out again. And this kept going until he died. Edit: it is funny and made me chuckle writing it. Wasn't a joke though. This happened when the guy I know crashed a plane that a small time Mexican cartel over loaded so he ran out of gas. He then 'fled' to Canada for 25 years or so because there was a bunch of drugs in his crashed plane. He came back to the states to see his mother before she died and expected to get arrested but nothing. Met him in a creative writing class in Jr college. He was trying to get a bunch of crazy stories in his life on paper. |
There are seals in Arctica and in Antarctica. How can 1 species evolve exactly the same in 2 different places that far apart? | Well, seals aren't just frigid weather animals. The Galapogos Fur Seal, for example, lives in a tropical climate, as do the closely-related California Sea Lions. Go to any zoo, and you'll see the seals outdoors all year along. They get along just fine, and you'll find populations of one type of seal or another at just about any latitude. The first true seals we know about were found in California . That was around 30 million years ago, and California was more-or-less in its current position. As such, it's quite easy to see them migrating north and south from there. |
How can the USA be the world's #1 oil producer ? | Fracking. There are great oil reserves in Texas and North Dakota that are locked up in shale. The shales do not easily let go of the oil, and it wasn't until the adaptation of Fracking technology to liquid oil recovery that the US was able to out produce the individual Middle East countries. Add the shale oil to the crude extracted in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, California, and a large part of Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and it's entirely possible we out-produce Saudi. |
Why is Chairman Mao revered in China? Millions of his people died under his rule and his policies screwed China's economy so badly. | Publicly, the Communist Party still reveres him. Privately, though, they are more ambivalent. The problem is that Mao is considered the father of modern China, and if the full truth of his brutality and mismanagement was acknowledged, it would discredit the ruling party. Deng Xiaoping, the man who sparked China's economic boom with his reforms, was a political enemy of Mao. He was twice purged from office by Mao because Mao didn't like the reforms he was trying to introduce. It's an awkward subject. |
How does the TSA continue to function despite the 4th amendment? | Because it's an elective procedure. You can decline the search. I mean, you also decline the privilege to fly in doing so. |
How do movies afford to destroy expensive cars in films? | Possibly the most famous of destroyed cars is the Ferrari 250 GT California in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. This would be worth $10 million + today if it was real . However it was one of 3 replicas that they paid $25k for. The car they destroyed was just a body and was worth even less. |
Why is the sea level rising two metres so bad? | It's really bad because a very large slice of the world's population lives in coastal areas. In your particular area a 2 meter rise in average sea level may not look like much, but there are many other coastal areas that are much flatter and still highly populated. Even at just a 2 meter rise, large parts of Florida and the US east coast, parts of India and Bangladesh, London, and some coastal Chinese cities would be devastated. |
How are ICBMs detected? | Generally in conflict areas the area is already under the national surveillance systems lens. Generally, it's important to identify and keep tabs on a problem nations threatening assets. A combination of intelligence gathering, satellite, sensor, radar and good ol boots on the ground helps with surveillance. |
Why do surgeons have nurses hand them tools? | In addition to what everyone else described Imagine looking at a bowl of fried noodles. Noodles all mixed among with leafy vegetables, corn, pieces of meat, carrots, etc. Suddenly, you spotted one particular strand of noodle that you really want. You look away to pick up a pair of chopsticks. When you look back, you can't see that piece of elusive noodle anymore! It just blends in with the rest of them. Surgery can sometimes be like that. There are strands of long tubular looking structures, all looking quite similar. Sometimes we look hard for one particular artery/nerve/vein we want to divide. If we look away just for a split second to pick up an instrument, we might loose our focus on it and have to look for it all over again. |
why is there a universal limit for speed, c, when there aren't any resistive forces in space? | Relativity occurs. Time and space are not universal. They depend upon the person viewing, and the speed at which that person is travelling. So, we have to define a few times. Imagine 2 observers. Observer A stands on Earth, looking at your rocket. Observer B sits in the rocket. The rocket takes off, and observer puts in a constant acceleration of 1G. However, as the rocket increases in velocity, time for person B starts to slow down. What takes 1 second for person B in the rocket, takes 2 for person A on Earth. To person B, the rocket appears to be arcelerating just fine. To person A however, time is slowed, and it looks like the rocket is slowing down it's arceleration. This effect will continue to worsen as Person B approaches the speed of light ensuring that he can never reach it. This is a simplified explanation. Length contraction is involved as well.Everyone's making it super complicated. The simple answer is the faster you go, the heavier you get and the more energy it requires to move you faster. After a certain point anything with mass will require infinite energy to move close to light speed and that's impossible. So the best outcome is a "massless" particle given lots of energy, and that's pretty much as fast as things are allowed to go', "The problem is that mass and speed are interlocked. The faster you are going, the more mass you have. I am not totally sure of the detailed physics behind that, though.If you accelerate something with mass 1 to close to the speed of light, it suddenly weights 10000. But to accelerate 10000 you need much more energy. And as closer you get to c, the more mass you have, the more energy you need. In fact your mass is approaching infinit when you approach c. So the resistance is basically the increase in mass itself that is cause by the speed you're going at. |
Why is microwaved food believed to be unhealthy? | Because microwaves cook things fast, but differently than on the stove, and use radiation to cook. Of course, the radiation is non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation, and is pretty well-contained within the microwave. And the way they cook differently than a stove is basically the microwaves cause pretty much just the water molecules in food to heat up. That's why you can't sear a steak in the microwave, or bake bread, but in terms of just heating up something it's not terribly different than a stove or oven. |
Why do we know so little about ancient Egyptian technology? | Trade secrets. Guilds protected their methods with strict secrecy for their members. Secret organisations like the Free Masons have their roots in such trade groups. Only by apprenticing to a master would you eventually learn all the methods of the trade. It wasn't good business sense to let outsiders know the way you earned your living. If you wanted a castle built you hired a master mason from the guild and if there was a few castles being built already you might have to wait for enough skilled trades people to be available.Bad record keeping caused by low literacy rates, lack of dissemination of information, poor printing technology and the stuff drawn is mostly cultural, not technological. |
Why do young people kill themselves so much more than other age groups? | I don't think it's a case of younger people killing themselves more than older people, but it's more of a shock for younger people to commit suicide, hence why it will get more media coverage. |
Why do humans perceive logarithmically? | Because there is such a great range of intensities. Between a cracking branch and a loud scream of an animal, there can be 10,000 fold or even 100,000 fold increase in sound pressure. Both are important, and we need to be able to hear both of them. Similarly, we need to be able to see our surrounding in dim moonlight, and we need to be able to see in the blazing sun. Between the two, there are orders of magnitude of intensity. That's why our senses evolved to distinguish on a logarithmic scale. It allows to differentiate between vastly different intensities. Other senses operate on a very narrow scale though, for example our heat receptors are notoriously finicky - as you sure notice when you take a shower in the morning, and try to get the heat just right. |
Why is it so important to have a lawyer after winning the lottery? Why not just put it in the bank? | Because there are lots of legal implications to receiving such a large sum of money in one go. Lawyers will have the knowledge and experience in order to make sure you get all of your money and don't get in trouble with the law. |
What is Radiation, how does it affect the body and how would it feel to be affected by it? | The radiation breaks the vital chemical compounds in our body just like the heat, acid, other chemicals do. DNA of course is the most vital compound. The difference is that radiation does small damage in numerous points spread out more or less evenly throughout the whole body and cell - a damage of thousand needles. We don't have the cells specialized to detect the radiation and immediately warn the brain. So it's just the after effects of damage all over the body and the clean up effort that are felt. Just like recovering from some major infectious disease. Some of that damage may be done in such a way that some cancerous process starts. Which is a wholly different issue. And sometimes there is just too much damage for the body to cope. It's a bit different for alpha radiation. It can't really penetrate your skin, but once the radiation source is inside your body the effects are similar to poisoning. |
Why is it bad to maintain a 3 hr/night sleep schedule like Gordon Ramsay? | I generally have a hard time sleeping more than 6 hours unless I'm completely all yhexhausted. In which case I'll sleep 12. When I used to do heavy sleep dep in the military. I often found that a 15 minute nap was more rejuvenating than sleeping 2 hours. This was also when I learned how to sleep no matter what was going on. The best was being able to march and just follow the man in front and totally turn my brain off, even though I was still taxing my body physically I'd feel more rested mentally after. Although that sleep on day 4 - 5 was always pure heaven |
What cause that "heart throb"/"tighten up lung" feeling when you are extremely sad/ heart broken? | I always thought this was strange, but whenever I get that broken heart feeling, I'd also feel a similar pain in my hands as well.A shortening of the intercostal musculature. |
Why do some people have such a difficulty remembering names? | God its so good to know I'm not the only one that can't remember names of people . I like to socialize but it's so awkward at times. Been this way my whole life. Wife's friends, kids friends, coworkers you name it I can forget it. Hey Bud good to see you again. |
Why do some of us "block out" traumatic experiences while other people retain all memory of their traumas (even if those traumas are sometimes much worse)? | So I had emotionally abusive parents And I have removed that relationship from my life. And the way I dealt with it is by repressing those memories. I don't recall them but I have all these word documents full of the events. Anyway I don't think it's a rare thing to repress life events |
Why do people still choose to start smoking? | I started smoking because I dated a smoker. I learned to like the taste from his mouth, because of positive associations. Then, the only way I could stand to be around smoke was if I was actually smoking myself. Then, I worked at a job where smokers got to take breaks, but no one else did. We all started smoking at work so that we could take 5. The association became stress=smoking. To this day, I smoke when I am: 1) Stressed out or 2) Around other smokers tldr: It's about the associations. |
Why is it profitable for executives to bankrupt their own company? | In many cases the companies aren't going bankrupt. They're going through chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which allows them to reorganize the company, negotiate debt and contracts, etc. to prevent them from going bankrupt. This usually benefits the company and the debt holders because nobody gets paid if a company goes bankrupt. After this companies are almost always in a more profitable position. I don't know if this is what you were asking, but it might be.In too many companies I see: We have a new CEO! He comes in, fires a bunch of people and maybe sells off parts. Company shows better books. CEO leaves, taking his $40mil. Rinse. Repeat.Options can make it seem that way. Business owners want executives to do their best to make the company do well. How well a company performs is reflected in the stock price. So they give the CEO stock options, which pay no money if the stock price remains below some value and more and more money if the stock price gets above. In any case the CEO gets his base salary, but it might be small compared to the worth of the options if the stock price increases by 50%. Now if the CEO plays it safe and does a good job, the stock might rise predictably by 5-10%. This is great for the company, but not enough for the CEO to get option money. Alternatively the CEO can make a wild bet that will double the stock price with a 10% chance and half the stock price with a 90% chance. This is terrible for the company, but the CEO can't loose anything , but has a 10% chance of winning the lottery. So this makes the CEO want to engage in the risky business even though it's terrible for company. This mechanism can make CEO's engage in very risky bets that might cause the company to go bankrupt, even though the CEO does not gain from the bankruptcy. It was just the unfortunate result of a bet she was willing to take. |
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