query stringlengths 8 249 | answer stringlengths 45 7.8k |
|---|---|
Why everyone in the US isn't required to vote | Why should they be? You assume everyone voting would be somehow and improvement. It wouldn't be. Forcing people who dont care to vote to do so accomplishes nothing. You should be allowed not to vote if you dont want to. |
Why is the pay ratio of CEO to average employee such a big deal? Why do people care that CEOs make as much as they do? | Part of the deal is that CEOs receive this large pay even as their company does poorly. In general though, pay is always going to be a function of scarcity - the tougher it is for your skills to be replicated the more you're worth. There aren't many people out there who can do what a CEO does or is willing to do what he does. |
Why didn't the Titanic crew simply turn around and go unload people on to the iceberg? | Generally, you can't unload people onto an iceberg. Very rarely do they even have a flat horizontal surface. More often, they look [something like this.] Also, the amount of damage was not clear at the time. They couldn't turn around either. A ship that size takes a quite a long time to turn around, it's not like it can turn on a dime. |
How does our "new organ", the Mesentery, work? | It's basically the reverse of what happened to Pluto. Pluto got demoted while the Mesentery got promoted. Both do the same stuff they did before, they just have a different name. |
How did Batman go from the zany Adam West to the grim Dark Knight? | Evolution of comics as a medium. Superman also went from fairly silly to super-serious-business over the decades. Comics used to be for kids, nowadays they're, well not.Batman in the comic was always relatively dark. The TV show was the exception, and influenced the comics briefly. The campiness of the TV show was due to the times and the sort of TV that was popular back then. |
Why does it seem like so many people are depressed in America today? Is depression at an all time high? If so, why? | On the one hand, mental healthcare today is better than it once was. So it means depression can get recognised and diagnosed earlier. Sort of like how people notice that there's more asthmatics around today - it's not necessarily because asthma is more common - it's because 100 years ago, if you had asthma, you probably died at age 7, but we have inhalers and better care now. On the other hand - depression is something that can be triggered. Just like if you eat too much shit, the chemicals in your body get semi-permanently messed up and you get diabetes, if you're exposed to too much stress and certain other factors, your brain chemicals get semi-permanently messed up and you get depression. Certain factors that trigger depression are more common today in the educated classes than they were before. |
if the West spends almost a trillion every year on their military, why can't they easily neutralize organizations such as ISIS? | Because ISIL is an idea, not a person. It's a collection of people rallying to a common cause and fucking shit up. We could kill leaders that come up, but it would at best splinter the group into smaller, more radicalized subgroups. Which is exactly how ISIL was created in the first place. |
China's population was around .6 billion in 1960. How did it increase to ~1.4 in just 55 years, especially with the one child policy in effect? | I'm 54 years old. Most men my age are grandparents. Start with .6 billion people. Let each pair have 1 child. Now you have .9 billion people . They pair up and have children. Now you have 1.05 billion from just that .6 billion. It tapers off, but not instantly. Now, if some people have twins and some people remarry and have more kids, and some people cheat you have even more growth than expected. You still have less growth than if you did nothing. That's why they had to act in the 1960s, before it became critical. Population growth is like a big train that needs miles to come to a stop.My mom grew up around that time. The government made poor people who worked hard seem glorious and mothers with many children great. So people were encouraged to have many children at that time.In 1960, China's life expectancy was 43.47 years. As of 2015, China's life expectancy is 75.3. |
Why do life endangering jobs pay less? | You aren't paid for effort or danger, you are paid for high the demand for the job is, and how scarce the supply of labor is. Firefighting is a job most able-bodied young adults can without a lot of previous training, largely because it has so much downtime, on the job training is more feasible than with other jobs. Nor is it a big growth job, you don't see the numbers needed double in a short time, as compared to say, solar panel installation or wind turbine maintenance. Finally, it is usually a government job, which means decent pensions that keep people around longer. Large supply + low demand = less turnover. That said, all things being equal, you will get paid for a more dangerous job. Or a better way of saying that is danger will reduce supply and raise salaries. You will make more as a civilian truck driver for the US military in Afghanistan than in Montana. |
Why do Pixar movies take so long to make? | Well you've got to have your writers come up with a story. Spend time doing research. Have people come up with story boards. Concept artists and sculptures to further flesh out the ideas. Then you've got to plan all of this. Have modelers work on the models. Texture artists to work on the textures. Riggers working on the bones and weighting. Animators working on the animation. And various other artists working on the production. Then you also got the it crew working on set backs in the technical department. Then you got the voice actors to do their work. And have the final production rendered out which takes lot's of computing power. Then you got editions who have to put it all together. Not too mention plenty of revisions that the film may go through. There's lots and lots of Man hours that go with into making the films. As well as computing hours. As the technology progresses so does the complexity of the films |
Why are humans noses pointed down where nearly ever other animal's nose is pointed forward? | There is a lot of shit in these comments including the top rated one. Caucasian noses evolved to have a longer path into the body to warm the air you breath in colder regions. Just as paler skin evolved as people moved from their origin in West Africa. It's got nothing to do with smelling food unless you think Africans and Asians don't need to do that. EDIT: There is no such thing as power skin. |
Even with all of our current technology, why do women in developed countries still die in childbirth? | Two other things I would like to add. Just because the technology exists, does not mean everyone uses it. So some of that number of deaths come from people unable or unwilling to **use** the technology. Second, things that where always fatel before, are only risky now. Think about pregnancies in much later life. Or pregnancies with mother's who have other complications, like heart or blood illnesses. |
What classifies as a mental disorder, and why isn't homosexuality counted as one? | Mental disorders by and large are required to somehow be detrimental. Homosexuality isn't harmful. Sure you don't have kids, but at the same time it's not a mental disorder to be a priest. Things like schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, Body Dismorphic Disorder, addiction, are all inherently harmful. They cause you to go insane, to see/hear things that aren't real, they cause your perception of concrete reality to be warped and directly result in an inability to function healthily in society. |
What are the cognitive benefits of reading? | I feel these points just support the idea of a cognitive benefit to reading but don't really say why 'reading' and why not another medium. Reading is the only way of absorbing information that is truly at your own pace. You can read and reread a passage of text as many times as required until you understand. Sure, you can rewind video or audio but not nearly as easily of elegantly as you can with reading. Because of this quality, the content of things that are 'written' can be vastly more complex and detailed, meaning that those who read a lot are more likely to encounter such content. If you think about it, every piece of content that has extreme significance and or complexity in society is written down - and I don't think it's a just tradition.Reading, unlike passively watching tv shows and movies, requires more activity from the brain. Like working a muscle, the more of a mental task you do the easier it becomes to do it again. Reading exercises your linguistic skills making regular readers better able to understand new wordsA side from reading makes you better at reading and thus better at school. For me, reading gave me experiences I was not getting otherwise. Real or fake the writer brings you conflict, senarios, questions. They become part of your experiences1) Increases verbal/writing skills 2) Helps articulate thoughts - Reading improves your vocabulary and makes you a more creative thinker. 3) Enhances problem solving skills - The structure of fiction—with a beginning, middle and end—trains the brain to think in sequence, to link cause, effect and significance. 4) Increases concentration - Reading is more demanding on your brain than processing images or speech. This neurobiological workout keeps your brain sharp, and improves powers of concentration. 5) Improves memory - Modern life bombards us with too much information, which we learn to tune out. Reading reduces stress by allowing your brain to focus on one task. 6) Reading improves the relaxation response, lowering heartbeat and pulse rate. |
What is the purpose of continuing the Republican primary if there are no other candidates? | If Donald Trump doesn't receive at least 1237 delegates, then there will still be a contested convention in which a candidate who has dropped from the race can still become the nominee.There are *hundreds* of other candidates. People running for congress, for senate, for governor, and for dog catcher. The primaries are for them as well. |
Why do semi trucks leave so much space between themselves and the car in front of them during traffic jams? | Because Semis don't stop quickly, they have a lot of weight that needs a lot of time/space to slow down and stop. Not to mention that he isn't able to see right in front of his front end, just like he can't see right behind him or right beside him. Remember that if you can't see the mirrors or the driver, the driver can't see you. |
How did gladiators in Rome have so much muscle and strength eating what is portrayed as gruel? | They ate a lot of barley from what I understand, which has 23 grams of protein per cup. They also were well fed, from what I understand, receiving three meals a day. From depictions of gladiators in artwork, they were pretty muscular. The fact that they ate a vegetarian diet was a bit surprising, but I don't think they were deprived of protein.Gruel can provide plenty of calories, and through some meat or beans in, and it has protein, too. Also, big and strong is relative. Gladiators of old probably looked nothing like the oiled up bodybuilders you see in your typically gladiator movies. Even comparing a [1960 gladiator movie] to a [modern one], and the modern ones are way more buff> .8-1.5 grams of protein per pound you won't efficiently get stronger or bigger. While they probably did not look anything like what is portrayed today in movies/TV .the high protein being "necessary" for any muscle or strength gains is a myth. > INOUE, FUJITA and NIIYAMA showed that in young men the supply of an excess of energy resulted in a reduction of protein requirements for maintaining N balance. With maintenance energy , the egg protein requirement was estimated at 0.65 g/kg, whereas with excess energy , the minimum requirement was 0.46 g/kg. [Source] So even at @ 1 gram/KG of protein is more than enough when calories are sufficient. The rest is progressive training. |
Why is there not a cure for hangovers yet? | There is a cure for hang overs surprised all of you haven't heard of it. The problem is that it requires an iv injection involving a solution that rehydrate you and has a bunch of other vitamins to get you going again. The whole procedure costs around 160 dollars, not exactly the kind of money you want to spend just to get a day back. |
Australia's dollar is worth more than USA's yet we are still paying nearly double for almost everything, can someone explain this to me like i still wet the bed. | Please guys, there's a very easy way to settle this. It's called Purchasing Power Parity. So, there is this thing called currency exchange, and that's a market. So currencies become worth more and less and fluctuate regularly in the market. However, this has very little to do with what people actually pay for things in a country. Just because your dollar is worth more one day than the next compared to the USD, it doesn't mean that a big mac is going to fluctuate in cost as well. There's a PPP index. Hot damn! PPP indexes look at a basket of goods in a given country that should be about the same in all countries, and determines spending power. In this instance, a big mac gives a pretty good idea of what the cost of living is. Australia has a PPP of 1.12, and the US has a PPP of 1. If we compare that, at PPP modern warfare would cost 67.19. It doesn't. You guys get to unfairly pay more for the game. Damn. With that said, however, it means that the australian dollar is currently being overvalued compared to PPP whereas somewhere like china is being significantly undervalued. What does this mean? That Australia won't be able to export as much stuff, and so long-term overvaluation will lead to trade imbalance and net importing, which is widely regarded as bad.There are also 308 million consumers in the US versus 22 million in Australia. Assuming all else is equal, retailers in the US would buy roughly 10 times more of a given product than retailers in Australia. Those retailers should be able to offer their customers better prices due to this buying power. |
Cloud Computing; Explain it like I'm Five! | Up until recently, data has been stored physically on the hard drive in the computer you are using. This allows you to access those files when you are at your own personal computer, because all the data is right there with you. This traditional method is excellent if you only use one computer for everything. Solutions for moving data between computer has consisted of floppy discs, CDs, DVDs, email, and flash drives. Cloud computing's goal is make it convenient to use all your data at every computer with internet access. Take Google Docs for example. You have an email address and password that is your identity. When you sign into Google Docs, all of your files show up. This is nice, because now you dont have to worry about your home computer having an old version of spreadsheet, or the mess of not knowing which burned CD has the song you wanted. What Microsoft has even advertised is watching movie you have saved on your home computer anywhere that has internet. |
Why are there two different screwdrivers (Phillips and Flathead) Wouldn't it be much more useful to just only use Phillips head? | There are lots of different types of head, each with their own benefits. A flathead for example is very easy to machine compared to others. Other screw heads may be less likely to cam out, or be *designed* to cam out so as to protect against stripping the threads. Still others are just obscure so as to discourage unauthorized or unskilled persons poking around where they shouldn't. |
What causes programs to crash to desktop? Why isn't there an option to say "I don't care, keep going"? | The programmers *do* have an option like that when they're writing the software. And they often use it. But once in a while, something happens that they never prepared for. |
Why would a baseball pitcher use pine tar? | Pine tar scuffs the surface of the ball and makes fly in different directions when it is thrown. Sometimes the pitcher cannot control which way it flies after he has scuffed it, and people can get hurt, which is why it's a banned practice. |
Why don't artists explain their work? | I don't think this is as widespread a thing as you think it is. Prior to the establishment of the artist-writer archetype in the mid-20th century, the idea that the artist both creates work and actively participates in its discussion, sure there were *fewer* artists that explained their work. But writing about work is a very firmly established norm for artists. What artists are you thinking about?", 'Yes there are two parts in interpreting art. The first is what emotions, or experiences the artist is trying to convey, and the second and most important part is your interpretation. That is Mostly why they might not explain everything for you. But if you do really want to know the universal meaning, you can always e-mail them!', "The previous commenters, talking about the artists wanting to keep it open for interpretation are correct. But there are certainly many artists who don't explain their work because it's pointless garbage.Because sometimes people come up with more interesting interpretations than the artist intended. |
How does our brain choose 'random' things? | I don't believe it's random. I really believe these kind of choices are made based over a life time of experiences that shape who you are even if those experiences seem insignificant. |
Why is it not OK to use the term Oriental when describing someone's ethnicity? | It has connotations of exoticism and otherness, of the 'mysterious East.' It does NOT just mean 'Eastern' in a neutral way, it carries the baggage of meaning 'a person of the East who can/will not assimilate fully in to Western culture' Look at the way the word was used at times of poor East-West relations such as the Korean war or even the Opium wars and you'll see why it causes some people hurt now. In the same way that the N word originally just meant 'black' but came to be pejorative, Oriental is a word with a shed load of historical complications which should cause any sensitive, sensible person to think twice before using it to describe a person. If you use that word I'm going to assume you don't know that there's a difference between a Chinese, Japanese, Korean etc person, I would not assume malice, but I would assume ignorance. You can talk about food or music being 'oriental' - which means it could come from anywhere within Central or East Asia, because it's okay to talk about food or music or fashion or art being 'exotic' but people are not exotic curiosities. People are not other, they are not mysterious, inscrutable, untrustworthy, seductive foreigners from strange lands. People are people and a Chinese Person is a Chinese Person, or an East Asian, or an Asian, but not an Oriental. Because it's not the 1970s and we no longer talk about other races in that way.Well thank you all for your input. I am marking this explained and going with these points: * This is a Western thing and is something other parts of the world seem to be OK with. * Adding a direction, like East Asian, makes a lot more sense and is more accurate. * This is a carry-over of "days of old" when Europe was viewed as the center of the world. Thanks again everyone! |
Why is it preferable to keep apps running on Android Lollipop instead of closing them frequently? | It's called context-switching. If you're cooking dinner and suddenly a guest arrives and rings the bell, naturally, you have to stop your current activity. Also naturally, you do not put the meat back into the fridge, or the utensils into the cupboard. If you know you are going to resume a suspended task, it is generally more beneficial to leave the resources alone. |
Why do older generations seemingly look older than newer generations during the same age range? | It wasn't until relatively late that we have learned the health issues associated with too much exposure to the sun. One of the many detriments is premature aging of your skin. |
How can a company profit from Black Friday if the prices are marked down so low? | A lot of good comments here. I'd like to ad that stores will often compare their prices to the MSRP. For instance, my TV last year was normally $1599.00 It went on sale 2 weeks before BF for $1459.00 and was reduced to $1179.00 for BF. They advertise the MSRP for this TV is ~$3000.00. They want you to think you're saving $1821.00 when in reality you're saving $420.00 Still a good deal, but not as good as they want you to think.The profit comes from the fact that most products in retail are made by cheap labor overseas and already are marked up before any Black Friday sale. Black Friday is just a gimmick to get impulse buyers in the door. The typical American will trample someone do for a $1.00 pair of towels at Walmart, for example. |
In the US, why do more politically conservative states tend to receive more federal funding than liberal states but their politicians tend to want to cut federal funding levels? | Cheap land. It's available in many more conservative areas, while less conservative, more urban areas tend to have relatively expensive land. When the government needs 15,000 acres to build a new nuclear test area, laboratory, or other program it's likely to build it in a state where it already owns land or can acquire the land inexpensively. Places with cheap land tend to have more families and married couples tend to be more conservative than singles. Further, an enormous amount of government spending goes to retirees a large number of whom work in high income/high cost of living areas and retire to low income/low cost of living areas . Retirees tend to be more conservative than younger people. |
Why do presidents wait until the very last week of their presidency to pardon convicted inmates, rather than doing it earlier on? | Pardons tend to be somewhat to very unpopular with at least one of the President's constituents . That means each pardon will make it incrementally harder to accomplish anything that requires congressional support or approval . So most presidents wait until they have no time left for other Presidential goals to begin the pardon/clemency process. |
50 years ago $20 was a lot of money, today it's almost spare change. Where does all the extra money come from? | Twenty Dollars is Spare Change? Are you rich? Twenty Dollars can buy you a lot even in today's world |
Why do people advise that the best rates on foreign currency exchange are at the airport upon your arrival into another country? | I've found the exchange areas in airports to be the worst way while international ATM's or no foreign transaction fee credit cards to be best.Seems you took the advice of someone who owns an airport money changing kiosk. |
Why do many Americans support a 2-term limit on presidents? | Mainly to honor George Washington and its not really that we all support it, its just the way it is, one of the Roosevelt's actually stayed for almost 3 terms cause there actually was no rule about it until after Roosevelt's 3rd term |
Why Collision Detection does fail so often in Videogames | There's two things to think about here, detecting the collision and handling it. Other comments have described detection better than I can do, so I'll talk about the other one. \r\rWhen you see that two entities is colliding, you need to have code that handles this in a good way, showing the player in the opposite direction would for example not let him walk up slopes anymore. Lets say a game uses a specific algorithm to handle the collision that is detected using some performance saving hax, it works fine and dandy until the detection screws up one time and let an object get inside another one, the computer can't see this easily, so most of the time it runs the same handling as always, which sometimes just makes things worse since it's not meant for it to get that far into something else in the first place. In 2D games collision detection can be pretty easy, even per pixel. But handling pixel collision for example is much harder if you're working with slopes and angle restrictions.\rDo note that I've only worked with 2D games as small projects, so this is mostly my own experience talking. |
Why do we say "On the plane", "On the train", but "In the car"? | Do people who own and fly personal planes say they're in' the plane, as opposed to 'on', referring to the personal possession explanation.The way I have always understood it is in terms of who decides the destination. A car or Taxi only travels to where we decide for it to go, whereas a train, bus or plane etc have pre-existing destinations that we choose to go on. For example, a bus or train will be making that trip regardless of if I am using it or not, where as a car will only travel to a location if I am in it.this is sort of meta, but I thought eli5 was about people asking for simplistic but detailed answers to questions they only know a little about to help them piece together their knowledge not just generic one-off questions that could be answered with one sentence and would fit better on /r/askreddit or something. I mean, you gotta ask yourself, is this something I want to have explained in laymen's terms, or just a factual answer that I need?", 'As a french-canadian, it's so obvious this is just cultural standards, no real answer can be given, for example, here **in Quebec we say "in the city"** while **in France they say "on the city"**, when visiting or living or whatever "in" the city As a long Islander, I always wondered why you can be "in New York" or "in Brooklyn" but we are always " on Long Island." Why is that?I think it all comes down to whether you need to duck or crouch to board the vehicle, or if you can simply walk on.In sorta relation to this topic. Why do we have a baby but take a shit? Wouldn't we be having a shit?", 'Because English is the second most ridiculous language on the planet. |
Why can't the police and military forces in places like El Salvador and Honduras control the gangs in their countries? | Police are very often untrained and not very professional. They will quite often not go after a bad person if it means that they will risk their life in doing so. Also note that in many places, police are sent into communities that they didn't grow up in and aren't a part of, with only a few other officers there as back up. In the case of the military, they don't act because you're talking about so e of the most corrupt governents in the world. |
Why are chemical weapons not ok, but depleted uranium bombs are? | DU did not exist at the time chemical weapons were originally prohibited, and doesn't really meet the definition adopted at the time. It's also worth noting that the country that uses it most has a security council veto. |
Why we can record sight and sound but not smell? | If you think about it .technically we can. Haven't you ever seen a scratch n' sniff. Or a scented candle? |
Who owns the rights of a song/music?The person who created the it or the record company? | Record labels make the artists sign contracts giving away a lot of rights in return for money now. When we pirate we get what we probably wouldn't have bought. If we did pirate instead of buying, giving the record labels less money for the same exposure . If the labels have less money they take less risks with new artists and either go for 'boring' very likely to sell a lot or advertise the hell out of people even if they aren't much good. |
Why is it in most American college movies or tv shows, everyone is always drinking from a red plastic cup? | To add on to what others have said, due to contraversies surrounding drinking and higher insurance costs, fraternities, sororities, and other student organizations have made policies that require their members to drink out of non-identifiable, opaque containers when hosting organization sponsored parties with alcohol. It's a PR and risk reduction decision. For example, if the organization gets accused of allowing underage drinking, knowingly or unknowingly, having red cups instead of Miller Lite cans makes it much harder to prove since in photos of the party everyone is holding plastic cups and it can't be proven what is in those cups. So, if some 18 year old Chad sneaks past the ID checkers and gets drunk and breaks his neck, the organization has plausible deniability -- that's a lot harder if there are 50 pictures of Chad holding Keystone Lite cans. |
Why does Reddit obsess over the Jamaican bobsled team? | Some of the '88 team members make appearances at Sangster airport in Montego Bay often enough that I've seen them there a few times. Feel good story I suppose. |
what is the difference between borrowing a dvd my friend owns or pirating the content myself? | When you borrow a DVD from your friend, he no longer has the DVD. There's still only one copy of the movie. When you pirate the content, you create a new copy, and now you have the DVD, and the original owner also has the DVD. This is a violation of copyright law . |
Why do we grow old if our cells are continuously being replaced with new ones? | PhD Cancer biologist here. This is a great question, and the answer is vastly more complex and poorly understood than the answers here seem to suggest. Telomeres and telomerase are a small piece of a big puzzle. First, organisms whose somatic cells express telomerase still age and die normally . Second, the stem cells which replace cells that die or undergo irreversible arrest due to telomere shortening express telomerase. Therefore these cells should have the ability to regenerate lost cells forever, yet they clearly don't. Third, genetic systems entirely independent from telomeres have been proven to have huge effects on lifespan in many organisms. Caloric restriction has been shown to extend lifespan in pretty much every animal ever tested . The current thinking is that reduced caloric intake results in less oxidative damage , but as with most things in biology, its going to be way more complicated. So no, telomere shortening is not 'the right answer' as so many people are suggesting. Thinking a bit deeper clearly shows that telomeres cannot explain all, or even most, of the processes that control aging and lifespan. |
Why in the living hell do athletes get paid so much more than people who spend 8 years in college and sacrifice everything to save other's lives? | Because your pay is based more on how many people could do your job than on how important it is to society. Doctors are important, but there are hundreds of thousands of them. There's only 1 Lebron James or Tom Brady.First not all athletes do, only the best in sports that people demand to watch it and will pay to do so. Simply put athletes are paid so much because they are rare talents that only a small percentage of people can do and they play a sport that has enough people wanting to watch it where they are a highly demanded commodity that is in very low supply,', "Because the top sports leagues are hugely profitable business and the top athletes are highly valuable assets to the businesses. Also if the athletes weren't getting paid the money the money would just go into the billionaire owner's pocket. |
Why does it cost over 10,000 to bury someone in the US? | Depending on the type of service you want everything has a fee. For a traditional service you have fees for the following: Picking up of the body from place of death at home, hospital, nursing home or morgue. Also, if the person died far from home you have those transportation fees. Embalming Cosmetizing/makeup/dressing Casket Service/Viewing Limo's Grave Casket Vault Opening and Closing of the grave Flowers Grave Stone/Marker Reception following service If you are doing direct cremation with no services it's around $1k in most major cities. Even cremation is expensive though if you are planning on buying an Urn and/or having a burial of the cremains. You can do a hybrid service where you rent a casket for a viewing and have a funeral and then cremation following for less than a traditional service. You can of course pre plan your service and lock in at today's prices. Like others have said funerals are for the living to say good bye. If you have specific wishes for what happens when you die you need to have it in writing. Just get it notarized. |
Why can movie theaters change ticket prices based on time of day but not based on the individual film | Given that they actually don't make a ton from ticket sales it's probably just not worth the effort. When a theater agrees to show a movie they make an arrangement with the distributor on what percentage of the profits they theater gets over time. I think most of the time opening weekend, it's less than 25%. It gradually get's better, but unless a movie is still drawing in huge crowds by the time it hits 50/50 they're selling a handful of tickets per showing. Most profits that theaters get is from concession sales, which is why they cost so much. |
How does Earth's atmosphere not get sucked into the vacuum of space? | The earth's gravity. The same thing that prevents you from drifting off into space. There may be more mass out there in space, but the mass of planet earth is a lot closer. Remember, gravity varies inversely with the square of the distance of the mass. |
Why couldn't helicopters fly over the WTC and save people hanging out the windows with rope ladders or something? | Most helicopters don't carry rope ladders or anything like that to rescue people from windows on a typical flight. Besides that, most people wouldn't instinctively grab a rope ladder dangling from a helicopter, or have the physical ability to climb up it. I believe one of the WTC towers had a helipad that some choppers could have landed on, but I don't think anybody foresaw the towers collapsing in enough time to think about doing that to rescue people. Plus: from the time the planes struck the towers to the time they fell was about an hour and a half, not enough time to come up with and execute this idea.like others mentioned smoke could be a problem, but even if u got on from a different side, wind starts kicking in and there is like a big gap between the cockpit and building due to the rotor, and if u think, then i will just add a ladder or so better forget it, as it would imbalance the chopper very hard, so they would have maybe able to do it from the top, but then who would have thought that those towers could collapse at that time. |
Let's say I move to Australia from the US on an extended visit visa. Which country do I have to pay taxes to? | You will literally pay taxes to the US no matter where you live for however long you've been there, unless you die or renounce your citizenship. Source- some other redditor was explaining this well in another post. |
Why can't north korea/africa just plant crops to feed themselves ? | Well, a lot of aid is meant to help the givers more than the people in the receiving country. Aid money usually has to be spent on American or European goods/equipment, which are too costly to maintain. In other words, aid isn't designed to foster self-sufficiency, but to profit people in countries giving aid and to keep 3rd world countries dependent. In these countries you'll see a lot of tools, trucks, etc. abandoned. A car is useless if you can't afford the oil. Also things like the pacte colonial make things worse. If an African country with this agreement tries to socialize or get out of debt their president is overthrown in a coup. As for North Korea, I don't really know. Maybe its just easier to control starving people. |
- Why are you not supposed to squeeze a teabag after you let it steep in water? | I've practiced no squeeze for a long time, but now use PG Tip's which says to squeeze. It is good with no bitterness.Because it makes the tea taste bitter and awful. Have you tried not doing it once and see if there is a difference? |
Does anyone know where the "* * *** **** **" clap came from? | TIL I cannot convert starts into clap sounds in my head. I have no idea what's going on in this thread.Came here because I thought you meant the STD.Variant of this in the opening to John Fogerty's [Centerfield].My grandpa said it really took off when Kix cereal ran radio ads that used that to say/sing "You'll get a kick out, of Kix". He's old and cool so I'm sold on this one.I've been listening to both songs since they came out, and until this very moment I never realized that the Nightlife clap is the same as the beat in the Ramones' Rock'n'Roll Radio ", 'ELI5: Whats a * * *** **** ** clap?This whole post and top voted comment sound very much like a midnight tandem colluding karma train to meNot the exact rhythm, but it always reminds me of this song:_URL_4_ |
How does groups like Vice, get interviews with high profile criminals? | Lots of bribes. Though I would also think that since much of the VICE reporting is as close to neutral as you'll see these days, those criminals perhaps give them a bit more credit. |
The lack of affordable, intermediate mental healthcare between guidance counselors and psychiatrists who cost hundreds per hour? | Bit a context first : I live in France, and one a thing we're known for is Healthcare. One of the thing our healthcare does is standardise doctor fees : in France a doctor's appointment costs around 24€, it's the same cost for all doctors and you don't really pay it since the healthcare system refunds you the 24€. What this means is, doctors can't drive the prices up as if they don't adhere to this rule, they get banned from practice. Interestingly, psychiatrists are required to follow this rule, since they are considered doctors here, but now psychologists. Which means a consultation with a psychiatrists costs around 25€ and a consultation with a psychologist costs anywhere between 25€ to 400€, and is not refundable by the national healthcare. You can start to see why people prefer churning pills. I remember a few years back there was a big push to tie psychologists to the same rules as doctors, with a standardised fee, and refundable consultation by the national healthcare. Most psychologists were in favour of it, but it did not happen, because those who were working those 400€ consultation fees doused the politicians with money so that it would not happen, seeing this change as a threat to their lifestyle Also, as I learned studying psychology, governments think it's easier to drug someone so they forget their mental issues and send them back to work than recognise our current economic system and the work environment it enforces creates legitimate health problems that have to be dealt with by professionnels. |
What happens if a fire alarm goes off in a hospital during someone's surgery? | Zone control kicks in. The area of the hospital the fire is in is evacuated into a the most appropriate local zone that isn't currently on fire. Local zones around the burning one hear warning sounders to tell them to prepare to evacuate if necessary. All other zones continue as normal. You don't try and evacuate an entire hospital just because someone's burnt the toast. So unless it's actually the OR/theatres that's on fire your operation continues as normal |
The pros and cons of Obamacare | My doctor said his practice is suffering from Obamacare. He said he hasn't taken home a paycheck in months, and has had to open new lines of credit to keep the practice afloat. He summed it up as the system being a mess —not the whole website mess that happened at launch, but it's the information that Obamacare patients have. He said some patients think they have a $20 copay, but when the billing is done, it turns out it was a $50 copay, so the office needs to send a bill the $30. This, of course, is just one example of how it's messing with his cash flow. He also said that, for the most part, Obamacare plans look good on the surface, but when they're actually used, patients are paying *more* money. He said in some cases, patients would be paying less if they simply paid out of pocket. For example, some copays cost just as much as the out-of-pocket fee —not to mention the premiums they're already paying.So, this is what I've heard from my personal physician. |
What is the white stuff (I assume it's ice) that I always see falling off of space shuttles at take off and what does it do? | The fuel used in many rockets is made of liquid Hydrogen and Oxygen which have to be very cold to stay a liquid. So the skin of the rocket is below freezing which makes all of the water vapor in the air freeze onto itself. The stuff breaks off upon takeoff because it's not stuck on very well.Surrounding moisture in the air condenses and forms ice particles on the surface of the fuel tanks which contains liquefied hydrogen at the temperature of -423 degrees fahrenheit. When the shuttle takes off, the sheer vibration coming from the vehicle shakes/cracks off the ice from the surface of the fuel tanks. Because we have gravity on Earth, said ice particles drop onto the groundThe rocket carries liquid oxygen which is super duper cold. The outside of the rocket is then super duper cold. Florida is super duper humid and the humidity condenses on the outside of the super duper cold rocket. The ignition of the engines shakes the entire rocket really hard which shakes the ice right off the outside of the rocket.I'm pretty sure the ice forms because fuel tanks contain liquid oxygen whose temperature must be below 55K for it to stay liquid. |
Why does everyone everywhere charge a penny less than an even number? | This is even worse with gasoline, which is priced in to the mil So it's something like 3.89 9/10. |
Why have Asian-Americans flourished, while African-Americans remain under-educated & impoverished? Both were slaves here at one point, and both were heavily discriminated against throughout US history. | I don't think asians were slaves like africans were slaves. African americans were subjected to slavery, and sharecropping, and Jim Crow laws. They have more of a distrust of anything this country does to them. |
Why haven't we cured HIV, HPV, etc. yet? | Actually, HIV has been cured, a couple of different ways, it's just not practical on a large scale, yet _URL_0_ |
If being gay is genetic, how come it has not been removed from the gene pool by natural selection? | A couple things. First, we don't know whether homosexuality is genetic or not. Second, homosexuals can reproduce; my father is homosexual, for instance, and my sister and I exist.Third, even if it was genetic, and even if homosexuals couldn't reproduce, it could still occur as a mutation, or simply a response to a genetic predisposition . |
Why is the production and sale of GMO foods banned in many countries but not the US? | Mostly because of lobbying efforts from GMO producing companies and the farmers who plant them . Additionally, there's little to no scientific evidence that GMO's are harmful in a broad sense, and most of the arguments against using or eating them are emotional/psychological. As for why you wouldn't want to label them, even though they're safe: the actual safety of something doesn't matter, the perception of it's safety is what matters. Vaccines are exceptionally safe, and do not cause autism, but many individuals refuse to vaccinate themselves or their children out of misguided conceptions of fear and lack of an understanding of the safety of vaccines. Similarly, many individuals are unaware of the fact that GMO's are not unsafe, and would be swayed into not buying such products if they thought they were. Moving consumption away from existing GMO's would dramatically increase costs and reduce yields for farmers as they would be forced to switch to 'natural' crop production. This leads to increased prices and eventually would likely fuel starvation across the developing world, which would have an inability to cope with rising costs as food supply diminished. Considering that almost everyone is already consuming GMO crops or crop products , and there are no obvious negative health impacts, this isn't very productive. If you expand on that list, most animals are fed GMO foods , and other animal products are all GMO products. There are a lot of costs to labeling things like this. |
What is the problem between Greece and Germany? | Greece lied about their money situation in order to switch to the Euro. Switching to the Euro let them borrow money at the same interest rate as Germany . Greece went bankrupt because they spend much more than they make. Now Germany is trying to help them get back on track but all the people in Greece are mad at Germany because of all the spending cuts that have to be made to fix everything. Basically, Greece is a teenager that abused having an emergency credit card |
Why are we so tired throughout the day but when it's time to sleep we're wide awake? | Perhaps it's boredom. During the day, most do not have the chance to entertain themselves as they do at home, thus tend to procrastinate and entertain themselves with their leisure time which for most is at night. |
How you can 'project' the colour black onto a white movie screen | I suppose it's all relative to what's surrounding it. I'm sure as a redditor, you're familiar with the chessboard illusion, but here it is anyway. _URL_1_ I still find it incredibly hard to believe that A and B are the same color. But they are. |
Why do the US Armed Forces station their members somewhere else every 2-3 years? | 1. It helps mitigate nepotism 2. It's not always a forced thing, you can stay in one place, but, much like a civilian job, it's in a service member's best interest to go where the best professional opportunity is. For example, in the army, if you're an officer you need experience as a commander to get promoted, but a command can't last longer than three years, so once that command is up it's time to move on. 3. To meet the needs of the military. South Korea is a great example, in the army orders could come down at any time sending you to Korea because the army needed a soldier with your qualifications 4. Not every SM has the same training and experience and it helps to move them around to spread the experience and cross-train Those are the primary reasons source: I'm an 8 year combat medic |
Why are the survival methods when encountering a black bear different from encountering a brown bear? | They are different species with different behavior. It's not like Black and White people, same species with different colors adapted to their environment, it's more like humans compared to gorillas. Major differences in size and behavior. Black bears are smaller and more timid than grizzly bears. They are still big and strong enough to wreck an unarmed human though. Perhaps they had more competition from other big predators in their evolution and developed more cautious instincts as a result. Most problems with black bears come from ones who've become accustomed to humans and lost their fear but even then attacks are rare. Grizzly bears on the other hand are much bigger and stronger making them the undisputed top of the food chain when compared to anything not packing a high power rifle and they know it.They are different species. They live in different territories, have slightly different diets, are of different sizes, and have different behaviors. |
Why are credit cards and credit so important? What's wrong with just a debt card? | Credit, as in your credit score is basically a record of how good you are at borrowing money. If you come to a point where you want to borrow money, having a good record makes it easier to get a loan with affordable payments or even lower intrest. Good credit basically gives you more options for borrowing money. As far as the cards are concerned, a credit card lets you borrow money whereas a debit card lets you spend your own money. If you are spending your own money, you aren't building a record of how well you repay loans. If you use a credit card, it builds a record of you taking out loans and repaying them, which is useful to lenders. |
How is the thickness of borders between states/provinces and countries measured? | It's as thick as the line between the ocean and ocean floor. It's as thick as the line between a tree root and the soil. It's as thick as the line between your skin and the air.Canada and the united states have a 20 foot border, which is completely mowed to the ground. lots of the border runs through forests and wilderness, so many trees start growing in the 20 foot border, all of which get cut down constantly. take a look at this photo _URL_3_', "As someone who lived on a double border town. There are lines where the trees are cut down, they are about 15' wide but the border is, as others have started, literally infinitely thin.Surveyor here. Points along property lines and state/country lines are defined by "pinpoint" accuracy lines. A property corner set by a good surveyor will be within a few hundredths and even thousandths of an inch. So as you zoom closer and closer to the actual boundary line the thickness becomes smaller and smaller. Generally, you can expect a state/country boundary line thickness to probably be about 1/4 of an inch in layman's terms based on the tolerance of the end points set.Here in Canada /USA they felled many thousands of km of trees to separate the countries - ironically if yoh ever wanted to 'walk the line' you would inevitably be walking on the 'no touching' zone as there is ridiculously thick forest on either side. |
with all the high tech non stick and ceramic coatings available for pans, why do restaurants and cook shows like masterchef use cast iron skillets for cooking? | Nonstick coatings cannot sustain high temperatures or acidic ingredients for extended periods of time . They are also not going to stand up to the frequent use in a commercial kitchen . To be honest, for anyone considering getting a nonstick pan, I would recommend only buying one or two for eggs and crepes, and that's about it. Don't use them for anything else, and don't buy an entire cookware set of them. That's what I did years ago, and I'm regretting it as the coating degrades and I have to retire the pans |
Why do people think it is so bad that people in the "1%" are wealthier than "X" number of poor people? | Economically: Money moving around the economy is, very broadly speaking, good. Poor people spend most of their money, as they need to to stay alive. Rich people spend some of their money, can choose to circulate it in the economy by investing it, or can do nothing with it. The more money is in the hands of the very rich people, the more likely it won't be usefully used in the economy. Morally: Money can drastically change a person's quality of life. Are the very rich people that more deserving of a high quality of life than the very poor people? The more money the very rich have compared to the poor , the more their income may be perceived as being unfair compared to how they earned it.Income equality is bad for long term growth, crime, and health. I like these things to get better, not get worse. No less so, as I am not part of the 1%, and so it will affect me more rapidly than it will they, just as it affects the poorest more rapidly than it affects me. |
Official Thread: Hugo Chavez and Venezuela | As an American, you can't explain our politics to a five year old. It is soul crushing. How you take this death really depends on your values or how well you know the oil business. Money over everything.Wait - so is the embassy official being expelled actually related to the death of Chavez? The article made it sound like it was only based on alleged espionage. ', "Explain like I'm five the meaning of [this graph] for the venezuelan economy and its relation with Chavez's economic program. |
What does a girl mean when she says she wants to be friends but not begin a relationship? | This is more of a question for /r/datingadvice But, a bit of my perspective anyway. Maybe she changed her mind. Maybe she never wanted a relationship in the first place, but just didn't have the heart to tell you. It could be any number of things. As a guy, I admittedly have done this to girls before, and usually it's because I like them but see some major obstacle that I feel would make a relationship infeasible. With one girl it was because I was still dealing with some issues from a girl I'd dated a few months earlier. With another, it was because I felt she was being too pushy, and it would have become a much larger problem in the long run. |
are people born with a tendency to be introverted/extroverted, or is that a learned behavior? | Babies can't tell us much about their personalities, so all we have to go on is observations, usually gathered in artificial conditions. Anecdotally parents will tell you that their baby is shy or outgoing, but that's hardly scientific data so we don't really know. |
Why do candidates announce that they will announce their planned run? Why not just one announcement? | They have to announce the announcement so that news cameras and journalists will show up, giving them publicity. If you don't announce the announcement, who's gonna show up? |
Why does this dress appear white/gold to some people and black/blue to others? | It's both, it's a matter of perception and depends on the person or rather how they perceive the color with respect to the reflection of light. People either see white/blue and gold/black. People who see white don't actually see a pure white color but rather a white that looks light blue in the picture due to the lighting which makes white appear light blue. In people who see the white color, the visual system acknowledges the lighting conditions and compensates for this by perceiving the light bluish color as white . People who see it as blue see the color for what it is without this compensation.Similarly, people who see black don't actually see a pure black but rather a black which looks gold in the picture due to the reflection of light off the black. People who see gold see the color for its actual color in the picture. Tldr Depends on the person and whether they see it as a white that only look blue in the picture due to the lighting or a black that only looks gold due to the lighting |
Why is suicide frowned upon and why is it considered selfish? | It is considered selfish because you are doing it for yourself. The end of Armageddon is technically suicide, but because it was done for everyone else, it was approved of. Also people feel morally obligated to honor the dead with a ritual, as it has been a tradition for some time now. That's why there is a money issue. Also it is frowned upon because life is suffering, and while everyone is dealing with it, some people give up. no one likes a quitter. |
why is it so hard to find a cure for cancer despite the money that has been poured into cancer research? | Because it's your own cells going haywire and taking over your body. It's like trying to stop an enemy that hides among innocent civilians. Yeah, it's easy to kill them if you have overwhelming firepower, the hard part is doing so without killing all the innocent bystanders. The innocent bystanders, in the case of cancer, being your healthy cells you need to survive. The methods we use to kill cancer, chemotherapy and radiation, also kill your healthy cells. It's hard to find a method which distinguishes between healthy cells and cancerous cells, whereas with something like a bacterial infection, you just flood your body with chemicals that kill bacteria without affecting your human cells. Because of slight differences between our cells and bacteria cells, there are chemicals that kill bacteria while leaving us alive. There are slight differences between your healthy cells and cancerous cells, such as the cancerous cells being slightly weaker than your healthy cells, so they can be killed with a certain concentration of poison that leaves your healthy cells alive . If the cancerous cells are all located in one spot that can be operated on, you can simply cut out the blob of cells, or target it with radiation. Unfortunately, there's lots of types of cancer, and sometimes they aren't weak enough to be killed by these methods or they've spread throughout the body and can't be killed without killing all the healthy cells, or originated in an inoperable area where surgery or radiation would kill some vital organ. |
Why does our brain prefer to have nightmares or weird dreams, rather than pleasant ones? | Do they? It's very rare I have nightmares, and if I do they're only about spiders . Most days I have quite pleasant dreams and I'm quite good at remembering them. |
When a currency's value goes down after a major political decision, like Brexit, what exactly is causing it to go down? | Fear and uncertainty. Currency traders like things to be predictable and follow established patterns of behavior. When something happens that falls outside those patterns it sets off the 'oh shit oh shit oh shit' reaction and they unwind overexposed positions. |
Why are the Clintons still together after Lewinsky? | There is a popular theory that Bill and Hillary had an agreement about his extramarital activities, so any anger she demonstrated afterwards was about his getting caught, not the actual behavior. Only the two of them know for sure. Even if it's not true, there are many couples who stay together post-infidelity. We're going on almost twenty years since the incident. Regardless of anyone's opinion of the Clinton's, it's clear they enjoy each other's company, have a shared passion for politics and public service, and are proud of their shared life together. In their case, that has been enough to overcome the perceived indiscretion. |
Why people are so happy to get a Tax refund? Doesn't that mean the government has taken more money from you than they should have? | Yes. Many people use it as a forced savings plan. They could get a little more money if they had the proper amount of withholding and put it into an interest-bearing account, but many people don't have the discipline to make that work, and enjoy the annual windfall of cash.Not always. If your income is low enough relative to your credits, you can get back more than was withheld. Mostly this is seen with child tax credits and earned income credits.There are two things at play. People who don't realize that they're letting the government take out too much money, or people that are using the tax laws and programs to get more money than they otherwise would have. The US government tends to use tax law to push and reward certain behaviors, such as donating to charity, getting an education , having a child, buying a home for the first time or making eco-friendly improvements to your home. People tend to get happy because it's a check and a credit. It may be used as a forced savings or a way to splurge due to having unexpected cash. |
How can In-N-Out Burger offer a double-double animal style for ~$3 but a Big Mac averages ~$5? | I'm also pretty sure that In-n-Out is underpricing their burgers, though that's apparently part of their business model. When the drive-thru line at your burger joint is that long every night, you may not be meeting demand. |
What would happen if the moon suddenly fell into the earth? | Our theoretical physicists would have a field day. But, they'd be exterminated. See the other posts. |
How does a health insurance deductible work? | 1) The deductible is the amount YOU have to pay before your insurance kicks in. It's put in place so people don't nickel-and-dime their insurance companies into the ground. 2) as with all insurance, it depends on the level of coverage that you need, your circumstances, and individual level of risk 3) If you haven't met your deductible, you pay until your deductible has been reached, then your insurance kicks in. Say you have a $2000 deductible, and you've already spent $500 on healthcare for the year. If you break your arm, the first $1500 of the bill will be paid by you, with the remainder being picked up by your insurance . 4) You don't use a deductible, you pay it out of pocket. At the end of the year, your deductible resets, and based on medical care you need, you start paying it all over for the new calendar year. |
Why is Africa, as a whole, such an impoverished continent? | The book *Prisoners of Geography* does a good job at explaining sub-Saharan African poverty. Basically, it's because the interior of the continent has historically been full of people who literally, because of geographic factors have been cut off from most of the world. If you think in the 21st century, we would be over geographic limitations you'd be wrong. We absolutely are not. TL;DR - geography matters, A LOT. It's not the only thing, but it can really set a region back.During the time Europeans were colonizing, they either set up an "extraction state" where the goal was to get as many resources back to their motherland as fast as possible or an "investment state" where they would develop institutions like railroads and education systems since they planned on settling there. These institutions usually help countries e.g India prosper through trade later on. Europeans decided what type of state to set up greatly based on mortality rate. Africa had especially high mortality rates because of many fatal diseases, so the Europeans extracted their resources and hightailed the fuck out of there ! You can see the effects of whether an "extraction" or "investment" state was set up by looking at the GDP of those countries today. Fascinating stuff!', "To be very brief, one of the biggest reasons is Colonialism and Imperialism. European countries realized many African countries were rich in natural resources and they wanted access to them. To name a few - England, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium used military force to establish colonial settlements in almost all African country's which were governed by military, authoritative rule. What happened in Africa during the Industrial Revolution was genocide. Tens of thousands were killed, their culture was demolished, they were forced to live in abject poverty with no access to education, no rights, they were property. A means to an end. It's been less than a hundred years since African countries were given their independence. That's not a long time to recover. |
Why is America so afraid of the word socialism? | Because everyone thinks they're going to be a millionaire and when that time comes, ain't nobody getting a piece of theirs! |
Why does medicine have unnecessarily large packaging? | So you're less likely to put in the effort of taking them all and having an adverse reaction. When bottles went to blister packs overdoses dropped considerably. |
Why does bottled water 'seem to' taste better than tap? | It all comes down to marketing. Pepsi ran a competition in the late 70's called the Pepsi challenge, part of it included a taste test between Coca Cola and Pepsi. The beverages were in blank cups. The results leaned towards Pepsi tasting better. However when taste test's are run featuring brand labels, then the results are skewed towards the more popular brand. |
What caused the Soviet Union to collapse? | Communism does not actually work. No agency, no matter how well intentioned, can really control all production in a country. It's easy to try to gauge how many pairs of shoes you're going to need, sure - just figure out the average lifespan of the shoe, the proportion of shoe sizes, and produce a little more than the calculation shows. But how many Rihanna CDs do you need? How many cell phones does a society need? What proportion of pasta to hamburgers should your society make? Pogs - should the government produce pogs? How many pogs? For how many years? The state cannot possibly guess what people will want and how society will progress. Errors, cut corners, and budget restrictions aside, no group of people can perfectly predict trends and the needs of a population over a 5 year span. Communism produces large inefficiencies because a single person's mistaken opinion can lead to large-scale overproduction or underproduction of a critical good. The free market is more adaptable to sudden shifts and produces better overall outcomes as a result. The state can still engage in social projects to try to boost some areas, like agricultural subsidies or public housing, but it performs best alongside the free market.It was not the inefficiency of the system itself that brought Soviet Union down but the competition with USA in the Cold War. USA suffered from it too but was better at distributing the pain around the world instead of suffering alone.The motherland was under a lot of pressure internally because their economy wasn't great, and there was a schism politically to allow democracy as the satellite states were falling. Money ruled and the oligarchs as we know them today are rich. |
If everyone using the internet used ad blockers, is it plausible to believe that a large portion of the internet could be lost? | Quite possibly. Most of the free services we depend on rely on Ads for income. These services wouldn't just vanish without ads if people still wanted to use them, but expect membership fees to be more common just pike we killed TV ads by paying for Netflix. |
Why do many Americans think Obama is a terrible president and Bush was amazing? From my view (uk) it easily seems the other way around? | Yeah, I'm Canadian and I don't understand why Republicans hate Obama so much. I tend to think Americans treat politics in part like a football game. It's like a Giants vs Cowboys rivalry gone amok. Or to treat it with more poignancy like Yankees vs Red Sox. A fan of one team wouldn't be caught dead cheering for the other. Political affiliation isn't something you choose, you're born into it. We seem to have a similar thing happening in Canada, and I don't like it. |
Why can't you dispose of a bomb by simply cutting the wire(s)? | In real life, bombs aren't built by highly advanced engineers with nifty digital timers indicating how much time is left till they explode. Often they're crude, unstable devices, built by angry, unstable people. In fact, most bomb makers are killed accidentally by their own devices. Because of this, the safest way to destroy them is to blow them up in a controlled environment where we can be sure that they won't hurt anybody.This entire thread is being watched by the NSA[This is how I imagine] a simple TV bomb with a timer. Can some electrical engineer fix it to make it a bomb that detonates upon cutting some wire?', "Quick and easy answer: you can generate magnetic energy with electricity. You can use this magnetism to hold a button open. If you cut the wires, electricity gone, magnetism gone, button closes. Closed button conducts electricity along the wire that sets the bomb off. BOOM! n00bombers don't generally do this though. Either they hide it well enough, or they figure fear will prevent people from even going near the thing. |
Why Dogs within 5 seconds of meeting each other know if they are friends or enemies. | Mostly it's body language as they see each other. As an ACO we're trained to mimic it to raise the possibility of a positive encounter. Last week I picked up a 136.5 pound Presa and my training probably saved me from a very messy fight. He was behind the house and came around the corner because he heard me coming. He immediately tensed up . I quickly squatted down turning slightly away from him and put my pole down on the ground. Within a few seconds he came right over and I got him on a leash. Getting him into the truck was another battle but he was never aggressive towards me. Something to keep in mind is that two dogs greeting each other face to face on leashes is a very unnatural way for it to happen. Also any cosmetic changes make it harder for other dogs to read the body language of the cosmetically altered dog.Possibly related question: Is it true that a dog's tail, and the way that it moves, serves as a non verbal cue for other dogs? If so, does that mean that dogs that traditionally have docked tails get "misread" by other dogs?', "Short answer, they don't. All they know within five seconds of meeting each other is how comfortable they are with that interaction in that particular moment. Relationships take time to develop. |
Were the Space Shuttles really so bad that its easier to start from scratch and de-evolve back to capsule designs again rather than just fix them? | Hi, Folks. Former Researcher from MIT here. I helped work on Constellation. Here's what I learned from the engineers around me about the shuttle. The shuttle was a pretty big failure in terms of it's original requirements. That may sound surprising and it upset me when I heard it too, but this was the reasoning: It was supposed to launch 52 times a year. We know it failed that milestone and launched about 3 times a year on a good year. It was supposed to have a reliability rating of 1/100 and from Challenger and Columbia we learned it was more like 1/50. Also, the shuttle was never meant to go higher than Low Earth Orbit. Capsules, however, are great for traveling to the Moon and are our best bet to get us to Mars. Also, since NASA had less experience than the USAF at the time, USAF offered to help, but only on the grounds that the shuttle could carry clandestine payloads. Up to 4 satellites could be packed into the cargo bay. Not great for payload to be so close together when a launch vibrates the frak out of everything. The statement about landing a brick with wings is spot on and we used to say that plenty of times ourselves. It has to have no fuel to be safe for reentry. Capsules are also bricks but the commenter rightly pointed out that they have parachutes. Also, the Orion does have the first of it's kind launch abort system. So if something goes wrong during launch it will be able to save the crew. Hope that helps answer. A lot of this is from memory, so if I'm wrong about anything, feel free to correct me. Happy more people are gaining interest in space programs again! It's an exciting time! |
How does "Diplomatic Immunity" work? | Diplomayic immunity Quick walkthrough: Meet\xa0Delphine\xa0in\xa0Riverwood. Meet\xa0Malborn\xa0in\xa0Solitude. Give Malborn any equipment to smuggle into the Thalmor Embassy. Meet Delphine at\xa0Katla's Farm\xa0in Solitude. Create a distraction and get away from the party. Retrieve the\xa0Dragonborn's\xa0gear. Search for information about the\xa0dragons\xa0returning. Escape the\xa0Thalmor Embassy.Talk to Delphine. |
Why Do People Hate Episode I? | Watch [The People vs. George Lucas]. It honestly changed my opinion of George. Basically because it's devoid of acting, plot, and character development; and basically made Anakin look like a child when he didn't have to. You can tell a great Anakin-to-Darth-Vader trilogy that doesn't involve him as a small child at all. My opinion on Lucas and episodes 1-3 is that George felt a little vindictive toward the community that made Lucas synonymous with Star Wars and basically limited his creative output. When producing episodes 1-3, George made virtually every creative decision thus not allowing people to question whether this or that character worked. Star Wars is George's baby, so he has every right to create it in his image, but many of his decisions may have been him actively trying to separate himself from the community. The movies, however, are beloved by kids everywhere. Ask a five year old his opinion on Jar Jar, and it will usually be much different from a person who grew up on 4-6. Essentially, episodes 1-3 is George trolling fans of 4-6 while still making a movie kids will adore. And will make trillions upon trillions of dollars for decades to come. |
What exactly is an imaginary number and how is it useful? | Hi, This has been asked before. You can find previous threads on the topic [by searching]. If you feel the previous threads don't answer your question, and you can't find anything using the search, please [message the mods] to make your case and ask for a review. All the best, and remember your towel. |
Can we become resistant to constant pain the same way we become resistant to constant pleasure stimuli? | DefinitelyBeen getting migraines since I was eight years old and I am now 46. They still hurt but you learn to deal with it and it doesn't seem to affect my performance at work", 'Certainly. Ever see a baby/toddler fall down and cry? We naturally develop coping skills and adapt to a repeated stimulus good or bad. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.