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How do you know if a picture is photoshopped, or just a really great picture? | some online software can digitally retrace modifications. usually though, there's other 'tells' for people that dabble with Photoshop themselves. it depends on the picture and what's in it really though. it can be rather difficult with pictures of people, unless you know what that person really normally looks like. |
what will humans do once most jobs become automated? | Supposing the majority of jobs become automated, humans will be left to pursue interests that they enjoy rather than interests that make them money. Labor jobs will be out the window, but artistic/creative jobs will remain. Humans will still make movies, literature, video games, music, etc. We'll probably see a big rise in recreational jobs like mountaineering guides, athletic coaches, and other such things. While robots could potentially do those jobs, I'm sure most people would be much more comfortable with a human teaching them those things, given the human has experience in the more dangerous fields. |
what happens if you take all the hydrogen and oxygen out of a glass of water via electrolysis? Would there be anything left in the glass? | Well unless the water is completely pure you're likely to have some small mineral residue left over. Same as if you left it out to evaporate. |
The effects of going to sleep at different times | A bit of misinformation in the replies here is a more detailed response: Natural humans sleep for 4-5 hour periods wake up for 15 mins to 2 hours then return for another 3-5 hour period. Generally this happens 'at night' because there is 'nothing to do' and humans sleep better when it's cool and no sources of much light . Various humans are born with different sleep/wake cycles. Generally the more intelligent you are the more likely you are to be nocturnal or twilight oriented as the brain functions substantially better at night. Further there is also 'non24' people for whom circadian rythems can be very different 16 hour day 30 hour day and the amount of sleep they require can be vastly different , or as little as 2 hours of sleep with 4 hours of sleep and 16-20 hours of waking being fairly common to be well rested). Some are quite extreme and their 'days' are many days weeks or years long. But you also don't actually require sleep as well. Certain biological conditions can alter your requirements for sleep such as depression , drugs like antipsychotics can heavily alter sleep patterns and dreaming LSD, diet high or low in mellinan, etc. You can also train your body to follow a different sleep pattern than your natural one, but the health consequences of this are quite severe . Some drugs like amphetamines can keep your brain refreshed and awake for weeks at a time . Militaries have done more research on sleep than most sources. |
If alcohol is in my blood, why do I feel way better / more sober after throwing up? | Vomiting actually helps produce endorphins in the brain, so you will feel better. Besides getting rid of stomach acids and fluids that remain, you are going to get brain chemicals to assist you. While your body hasn't actually rid itself of any toxins you ingested , the act of vomiting is supposed to make you feel better so you won't hesitate to do it in the future to rid yourself of another poisoning. And getting drunk is bad for you, mkay? |
Why are computer parts made in such stringent conditions when they will most likely spend most of their functioning life in less than ideal environments? | Thanks everyone for your awesome replies. I always wondered this and now I don't have to wonder anymore |
Why do I often start itching all over my body just as I'm about to fall asleep? | I suppose it's possible that the muscles that move your hair are relaxing and that may cause itching? |
Why does liquid at room temperature taste warm but food at room temperature tastes cold? | Room temperature ice cream would taste terrible. But then again, at room temperature you would be drinking it, so maybe it's the same point? |
Do batteries wear out evenly, or are we throwing away batteries with life left? | Most electronics have a minimum voltage that they cannot operate under . As batteries lose their charge, their voltage also decreases. When a battery's voltage reaches a certain low, the electronics will be forced to stop running / consuming power. This is when you change batteries, but at this point, the battery does still hold a charge . Edit: Also, in 99% of devices where you have batteries in series , the voltage is combined, meaning that you won't have one at 0% and one at 50%. However, batteries aren't all perfectly identical and so it is common for one to perhaps be at 5% and another at 2%. |
Why do we stop playing when we get older? | I'm in my 30's now and I still play everyday. The games I play have changed and how I think of the games have changed though. |
- Why / how does early voting and voting by mail "help" the Democratic candidate? | People who have more difficulty voting in person on election day tend to be those who are poor, as you don't always control your work or transport schedule. Poor people are more likely to vote democratic. Therefore early voting and voting by mail help democrats more than republicans.looking at the [age demographics] it seems that democrat voters are far more likely to be at work while the polls are open than republican voters, who are far more likely to be retired and just able to turn up any time they like. |
Why do Muslims have such a hard time assimilating, even into successive generations, whereas individuals from other cultures/religions/races are essentially totally assimilated by the 2nd generation? | Don't know where your ad but they have done a really good job in the states specifically Ohio. They have jobs businesses college graduate and low crime rate in Columbus. Where no different to the other buckeyes here. Guess it depends on the immigrant group and how they are received. Read a ethnography called In Search of Respect. And you'll see Every imminent population gets the short end of the stick for a long time.As others have said the premise of your question is flawed. An obvious example of your assumptions being false would be Chinatowns. _URL_0_ |
If World War II era guns were so good, why did we replace them? What advancements have modern firearms made that warrants replacing standard issue weapons? | Another point besides the more bullets point, which is the impetus for the design it is also very important how much the weight of weapons has dropped. Modern weapons are by far lighter than the world war counter parts and one can carry far more ammo at the same weight. Which has allowed for the massive expansion of soldiers equipment sets, making them far more versatile and better prepared for unexpected situations. Also weapons have overall gotten smaller as combat has moved from largely rural environments to mostly urban, or close quarter environments like jungles, hilly terrain etc. Shorter weapons have a massive advantage because they can be held ready longer and they are easier to traverse doorways and tight gaps, which is why you wouldn't want a weapon like an M14 in house to house combat.Post WW2 certain weapons became obsolete. Take the M16/M4 rifle family. The 5.56 round allows for ammo commonality while the weapon platform can be adjusted for different roles. 5.56 is an intermediate round with more power than a pistol but less weight than a full power battle rifle round. The M16 assault rifle is fairly light, fires an intermediate round with good range and hits fairly hard. The M4 is a shorter barreled assault rifle, light, handy & more effective than a sub machine gun. The SDM-R is a more accurate M16 pattern rifle for designated marksmen. |
How does Russia have so much political clout when it's GDP is lower than the UK, Germany and France. | Not a full answer, but I live in the UK and we are already hearing that our energy costs could increase greatly because the UK is partly dependent on oil/gas from Russia. I assume at least some other European countries have the same problem. There is also the question of Russia's nuclear arsenal to take into account.It would be easier to answer this question if you can provide a reference to how this political clout is used. Are you possibly referring to the rising situation in Ukraine? |
Why do we see a bunch of strange colors and shapes when we press up against our eyelids? | Follow up. Why does this not happen when I close my eyes and press? Just black, maybe a little white but that's when I'm not pressing. |
How do animated films made entirely with CGI have production costs in the $150 - $200 million range? | For the same reason CGI is not worse than hand drawn art. Someone still has to make it. You don't type what you want in the computer and instantly get a detailed picture. |
why is it that after cooking with garlic or onion, my fingers will still subtly smell like it days after the fact despite multiple showers and hand washes. | Your question has been answered, so I'll add this - I started keeping a box of disposable gloves in my kitchen and it's been the best thing ever. Nothing ever smells on my hands, I don't worry about touching anything. In an involved meal I might use 3-4 pairs, but they're about the same price for 200 as one pair of reusable gloves for dish washing. No more cutting jalapenos and regretting not washing good enough when you masturbate later. I use em to wash dishes too! |
Is the sound we hear when we speak how we actually sound? | Your voice as you hear it when you speak is heavily affected by internal sound waves traveling through your flesh and bones directly to your ears, mixed together with the sound of your voice that travels from your mouth to your ears through the air around you. Because of this, it sounds like your voice is deeper than it actually sounds to those around you, who can only hear your voice as it travels through air. People usually find their voice weird when recorded because it's not what they're used to hearing. I think people who sing horribly without noticing might have a certain degree of tone-deafness.When we speak, the sound resonates in our skull, and loses pitch - our voice sounds deeper. To everyone else, our voice will have a higher pitch to it. This is also what you hear when your voice is recorded, which is why most people dislike it - it sounds foreign and strange. |
Do secret services actually do cool movie things or it's just office work and/or normal police operations? | It's just like a lot of other federal agencies like the CIA and NSA. While they still do things like carry automatic weapons/protect the president etc. it's not as dramatic as in the movies. Just like the CIA is mostly office work and the NSA is just a lot of people in cubicles or workstations on dell computers. |
How do schools in Britain teach the Revolutionary war? Also, how do schools in Germany teach World War II | We touched upon it briefly. And what we were taught was basically what is in history books. The King was overbearing and the colonies revolted. Not sure if people expect schools in the UK to sugercoat the sordid history of our royals, but we don't. They're mostly thought of as insane bastards one way or another and the only ones respected are the current monarch and, to an extent, Victoria. |
How can Amazon make a profit off amazon prime, offering not only what Netflix offers, but free 2-day deliveries and all the other features ? | It's possible this is a 'war of attrition', in which one side uses its superior resources to wear down the other; in this case, to put the competition out of business. |
Would living on a constantly moving elevator be comparable to living with another planets gravity? | > How comparable is this is this to living on a planet with different gravity It is exactly the same as living on a planet with slightly higher gravity, as long as the elevator is accelerating at that speed. If you were in space you could be accelerating at 1G and it would be identical to living on Earth with respect to simulating gravitational force. However you couldn't accelerate at 1G for very long before you start to reach relativistic velocities, and smashing into a pebble while going 50% the speed of light is going to be a bad time. But if you tried to make a circle to stay in the same area, such as a big centrifuge, you would have slightly unbalanced acceleration and so inconsistencies in the simulation of gravitational force.No. An elevator accelerating produces a force that's in line with gravity and makes you feel "heavier". Once the elevator gets up to a constant speed, the force you feel is the same as when the elevator is stopped. Something like a centrifuge or a [chain carousel] would be a better way to feel constant "g" greater than 1.No, if the MOVEMENT is constant, then you won't notice anything. You would need to be on a constantly ACCELERATING elevator, which isn't practical. If you want to see a good example of bad science in gravity and elevators, then watch the 2012 Total Recall movie; They get absolutely everything wrong! |
Why aren't stethoscope tubes filled with liquid to allow sound to travel through them more effectively? | Even if it were better and you didn't have to relearn what everything sounds like, there is still the matter of money. Stethoscopes filled with any liquid would cost a lot more, and thus they would not be competetive as long as the current product is good enough. |
how can you tell through a picture that something is a miniture? | The hardest thing to simulate in a miniature environment is texture. For example: tree bark, wood grain, paint texture, hair, fabric weave I think our eyes can tell that the scale is off and that's what gives it away first. |
What is exactly happening when our bodies feel a "wave" of dread/anxiety? | We are very advanced beings, capable of responding to innumerable stimuli, we are not aware of most of our responses to said stimuli. Also, they can be both external or internal. Anything from a soft gust of wind that lightly caressed some hairs on the back of your neck, perhaps a random thought that you didn't even pay attention to, or perhaps Rhahadonx the one who preys is behind you in his astral form ready to devour your soul. . Basically, something you were not aware of, triggered a surge of adrenaline/epinephrine and other hormones , preparing your fight or flight reflex; However since you are not aware of the cause you are filled with dread/anxiety. You **know** an attack is coming, but you don't know from where, or when. Look behind you, NOW! |
What is the point of fonts like Wingdings and Webdings? | I believe it's use was for graphics back in the earlier days.. I could be totally off but I've heard that before |
Why do we especially honor the top 3 finishers in every sport? | I tried researching this and found no real definitive answers, but I think it's just traditional for a number of reasons. One of the main reasons I think is due to wanting to encourage a large pool of competitors. For example county fairs have traditionally given out grand prize, first runner up, and second runner up, for each category with each one getting a smaller slice of a prize pool or a lesser value item. One prize might encourage only high level competitors, but lesser prizes might encourage lesser talented ones. Same reason many competitions will have performance tiers so more people will compete. Another might be because many sports actually keep track of standings from competition to competition so the governing body notes competitors standings for that reason. In fact the olympics which I think you're really asking about awards the top 8 competitors. It's just that the top three are honored in a medal ceremony, the other 5 get an official Olympic diploma with their standing, and all competitors get a participation medal and diploma. When you consider that the very act of reaching that high a level requires a lot of dedication again it really attracts more competitors if you try to honor and celebrate as many competitor's accomplishments as you can. While the Olympics definitely have an element of national pride to them, the main aim is to promote friendship and good sportsmanship between countries. You'll find that the three or more levels is much more common in amature compations as well. Most likely to again promote good sportsmanship and celebrate everyone's accomplishments. At the professional level it's much less common, with a winner take all approach being more the norm. Most likely due to how it fuels team rivalries and fan feuds, encouraging more paying fans to attend games, which after all is the real aim of all pro level sports. |
"Obamacare", Point-By-Point | Thank you thank you THANK YOU. Never thought I'd join reddit, but here I am. I joined so I could say thanks.Great job on this point-by-point and the original. Thank you for your time and effort on this information. Much appreciated. :)You are amazing! Thank you so much for this effort. It really is helping me understand what is going onPlease continue, I just had a friends grandma parrot faux news saying "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE 21 NEW TAXES?!"This is fantastic that you for all of your time putting this together. Bookmarked.lThis deserves to be on /r/bestof, but they only accept comments :(The best I have seen, please do continue ASAP. |
Why hasn't some company made printers that have cheap ink refills? Wouldn't they outperform the rest of the market? | You don't sell printers to make money selling printers, you sell printers to lock the consumers into having to buy your ink and your maintenance contracts. There is also the problem that if you give consumers the choice between something high quality that will cost less in the long run and something low quality that will cost less in the short term they will overwhelmingly go for the 'cheap' option not caring that it is actually the more expensive one.Because most companies who make printers also sell ink, and they want to make more money by charging you for the ink. |
why does the rest of the Middle East hate Israel? | The Israelis took what is now Israel from the Palestinians in the years following WWII through different means. Muslims and Jews didn't really hate each other prior to that, there significant numbers of Jews living in Palestine peacefully in increasing amounts until it started going downhill", 'Been hanging out in /r/lotr to long. Definitely read that as "why does the rest of Middle *Earth* hate Israel" |
Is it possible to forcibly deflate currency by removing it from circulation or is it going to inflate infinitely? | As far as I know, deflation can occur if there are negative interest rates or if there is a liquidity trap. However, you'd probably get a better answer from /r/Economics or /r/AskSocialScience. |
Why is the British Pound always more valuable than the U.S. Dollar even though America has higher GDP PPP and a much larger economy? | The relative value means nothing. One US dollar is worth 114 Japanese Yen, but that doesn't mean that the US is 114 times more awesome than Japan or something. It's totally arbitrary. Tomorrow the British government could decide to change their currency to a new one, called the British Dollar, where every British Dollar was worth 100 of the old pounds, and everyone could trade in their old money for the new money at the standard rate. This wouldn't change anything. |
What benefits, if any, does poison ivy have on this planet? | How are you defining benefit? It has the 'benefit' that its poison protects it and thus makes 'baby poison ivy' possible. That's really all that matters from the perspective of continued existence. |
Do cats know when they're playing with a toy or do they think they're actually on the hunt and that they're attacking a prey? | Commenting because I want to know the answer too and I don't know another way of finding this again easier |
why is is it so much easier to get food poisoning from chicken than other meats? | Birds harbour more salmonella than mammals, and poultry is less dense than red meat which allows bacteria to penetrate into the flesh. For something like beef or lamb, there might be contamination on the outside of the meat but you are cooking the outside of the meat more than the center. Those meats are more dense and do not allow as much bacteria to move through to the interior, and don't carry salmonella. |
Why Jamaicans are so good at Sprint races? | Edit: Previous omment content removed after OP edited post. OP: That's cool. And it doesn't seem like anyone was offended. |
Why don't drug cartels, street gangs and other criminal groups just merge instead of competing? | The Italian-American mob did just that. They created The Commission, mad up of the heads of all the families, particularly the 5 New York families. It ensures one family doesn't step on each other's rackets, and prevents war between the families. _URL_0_ |
Why does the gas reader in my car show full for so long and then just freefall after that? | The fuel monitor floats. If your tank is almost full, the bob touches the top of the tank. If you fill it completely, the bob is already at the top and therefor can't go higher, so the measurement doesn't increase. Now you have excess fuel to burn before the bob reads a lower level. This is also why you can drive on empty for so long . Once the fuel level has reached the point where the bob touches the bottom, it will read as absolutely empty despite having a fair bit of fuel left. |
Why does the US require you to pay taxes even when you're working and paying taxes in another country? | The US allows many people working overseas to exclude a significant chuck of earned income from taxation. Alternatively, the US allows a credit against taxes paid to other countries. So while the issue of not getting many US services remains, the double taxation hinted at doesn't usually happen. |
Since liquid salt Thorium reactors are relativly cheap, easy to fuel, easy to opearte and safe then whats the catch ? | Thought I was on askscience here for a sec, may be a good idea to x-post this there? Might not be ELI5ing, but you'd have an answer? |
how does dementia eventually kill people? | One way is they stop eating & drinking. My grandma said it was painful and she wasn't going to do it anymore. So she just slept and never ate again. She withered away. Honestly though, once someone has dementia, they're pretty much dead. They're not the same person you ever knew - just a shell. |
Why is it impossible to access the source code of a downloaded app or program? | Because it's already compiled. You can think of it like this: * Write a program in a human-understandable programming language, such as C, Java or Python. * Compile that program-- removes all the understandable stuff, shrinks it down and coverts your program and instructions into machine code the computer can understand. * end user runs the program, which carries out the instructions and tasks you wrote it to do. Also it's not technically impossible. Go check out Github, there's plenty of open-source projects there and it's pretty easy to start coding. Addenum: It is possible to decompile something, however the result is usually unreadable. e.g when I write a java prog, I'll have something like this: // Comment: Don't use cats in this class or // aliens invade and kill everyone! public class Dog implements Animal { private integer doggieAge = 14; } In this case, decompiling would remove the comments and so someone might not know a lot of crucial information about how the program is written. It also changes a lot of other stuff, so it might look something like this: public class j254b implements a42 { private integer ddf4 = 14; Notice no comments, the names are all screwed up. There is a massive amount of other stuff that can change but for the purposes of ELI5 I think this should illustrate it well enough.Also, when the program is compiled, the compiler itself optimizes the software-- and anything the compiler adds will also be added in to the result when you decompile.What the computer executes is assembly language code, which is a set of very small and simple instructions like "get x from memory |
How do filmmakers make this effect? | You edited the post everyone here talking about how they used CGI and stuff but it's of a girl singing trololol", 'Soooooo OP edited his post. The original was asking how the Other Guys scene was made. He edited it to ask about little girls. Because of reasons? |
Why is it impossible for two humans to have the same fingerprint? | It's not impossible. It's just very, very, very unlikely -- so unlikely that it's very useful in law enforcement applications. |
So a New Hope is coming in 4K, how can they upscale a movie taken with cameras almost 40 years old? | They're not upscaling the movie, it's been downscaled for the past 40 years. Film technology has always greatly outpaced screen technology. |
How do we know that online poker and other forms of electronic gambling are not rigged? | How do you know that slots or tables aren't rigged? Or that there's no creative sleight of hand done by the dealers at a table? Either you trust the authorities that ensure fairness and the fear of the company getting caught by the authorities, or you don't. |
How can American restaurants legally pay their servers and delivery drivers less than minimum wage under the assumtion that they might get tips? | As an American waiter, I don't see why people from around the world despise tipping. First of all, the actual food is cheaper because the employers don't need to pay the employees as much. Secondly, knowing that you could get more money for giving better service gives an incentive for good service. I am also making more money myself than I would be if it were minimum wage so I'm happy. Feel free to reply with questions, but keep them nice please. Edit: as soon as I posted I realized I did not answer the question. Basically the tipping in america is standard. There's no rule that says you have to, but here it's a pretty not so nice thing to do. Also, employers need to pay minimum wage to those waiters who do not make minimum wage from tips. |
Why, in old movies, do they make light fall across an actor's or an actress' eyes? | This isa very cool lighting technique. Much better answers in the thread, but if you've ever seen Bela Lugosi's Dracula, any time he goes to mesmerize someone and take them under his power this technique is used. A heavy closeup on his eyes with a bright, shining stripe of light across them makes him seem even more supernatural and menacing. |
Why is produce at ethnic stores so cheap? | I just know the Asian Markets are the best, and the number one markets i like going to, and once i go to college i'll go there - i'll get a more traditional better and healthier ramen diet in college compared to everyone else |
Why does Jury Duty pay so little? | in canada, part of the reason is that they haven't reviewed the pay rate since the 60s or something. and if you talk to you parents, you'll know that back then you could go the pictures for a nickel and still have change left", 'Here in the UK you get your travel, food and wages covered. I was on jury for a month and took almost exactly what I normally would take. probably a little less asI underestimated the transport allowance |
Are these statistics of crime/poverty in the Black community skewed somehow? | ELI5 is for explanations to concepts, not yes/no questions, so this post has been removed. That doesn't mean it's bad, it just belongs in another subreddit, like /r/Askreddit, /r/nostupidquestions, /r/answers, /r/asksocialscience, or maybe a statistics subreddit of some kind. |
How are Christians allowed to dismiss the Old Testament? | Its because the Old testament laws were for the Jewish people. People that came to believe in God after Jesus' death were referred to as Gentiles. And even then they didn't have the same laws as the Jewish christians and weren't bound by their laws, such as as eating unclean animals like pigs and even shrimp. But now days it really is what people consider to be convenient. For example, my grandmother belongs to the nazarene church, and I understand that they do not believe in speaking in tongues and in the New Testament pretty much all of the remaining apostles spoke in tongues. I'm not sure why they choose not to believe that, as it is in the bible, but that's their thing. Whatever, i'm not a judge and executioner, it's none of my business. |
Why do some cultures traditionally use silverware, others use chopsticks, and others use just their hands? | It's the cuisine and the way the food is prepped. Asian food is essentially cut into bite sized pieces prior to cooking. Large steaks do not feature predominantly, hence no need for knife.Western Style cooking is the opposite.Just worth mentioning that the oldest existing record of someone using a fork comes from China, but they moved on to using chopsticks as they found them more civilized.And table cloths weren't invented to keep to keep men from getting boners from the table legs, they were in entry partly so the guests would wipe their hands on this new expensive upholstery thing or even worse, the dress of the lady next to them. Basically everyone should go read At Home, Consider the Fork, and Salt: A World History |
Why are so many people against genetically modified foods? | I can only speak for myself, and I apologize in advance for the wall of text. The worries I have are not related to the food, but to what happens to the food afterwards, and to the greed of the companies controlling the food. From what I understand, one of the modifications is so that certain grain plants are not killed by certain plant killer chemicals. The point of this being to make it easier to apply the plant killer chemical to the area and not damage the crop. What worries me is the possibility that the plant killer chemical will then be on the plant that is harvested and I eat. Yes, I can wash apples and the like, but I cannot wash flour. Another modification is that some of the plants are being altered to discourage bugs from eating them. How do they do this? Is there something about the plant that isn't digestible? Or is there something about the plant that kills the bugs? How does this affect me when I eat them? Then there is the greed. There is much talk about using the manipulation to make foods easier to grow in areas that are dealing with famine. This is a great idea. However, those companies that make the plants have already shown that they want complete and absolute control over who grows it. This has been shown in many lawsuits the companies have set against farmers that have grown the crops without going through the companies, . Any company that is going to go to these lengths to control their product comes across to me as highly unlikely to produce a product that will be allowed to be controlled by the farmers, which is necessary for those in the famine conditions. **tl;dr** GMO worries me because of possible digestive problems and corporate asshole behavior.Because they hate Monsanto . . . And are probably anti-corporate in general |
Why are certain expletives, such as "fuck," censored/never used on cable shows, but the "n-word," arguably more offensive, is used in shows without issue? | There is no official censor for cable networks. The FCC only regulates airwaves before 9PM, so cable and network television after 9 PM can broadcast anything they want. Cable networks usually self-censor their own material though. They can pick and choose what they want to censor. It's pretty arbitrary what words are ok to say, and when to say them. |
If electricity speed is about 300,000 km/s, why does ping of internet depend so much on the distance? | For the same reason it takes only 4-5 hours to fly from Los Angeles to Chicago, but you can sit there waiting for a connecting flight in Denver for 4 more hours if there's no directs available. |
The IRS scandal and Obama's connection | Just a heads up Appleshaush - this subreddit is notoriously unreliable when it comes to *current* political events. It'd be better to look at the same story from different networks - start with Reuters, then corroborate it the BBC . _URL_0_ |
How can animals that eat spiders for sustenance not get bitten inside their mouth/throat sometimes? (Or do they?) | There are lots of different adaptations that depend on the predator. In general, spiders actually have to try pretty hard to bite something, and the spider is probably dead pretty quickly upon being eaten. It'd be quite difficult for a spider to accidentally bite anything. It's a bigger issue for predators of stinging insects like bees. If you look up videos of bee-eaters they actually bash the stinger off before they swallow them . Other predators of venomous animals like secretary birds have incredibly thick scales on their legs that make it hard for snakes to bite them, plus they're generally quick enough to stomp/peck snakes to death.I worked at a horse farm once. One time the shipment of hay was just absolutely full of prickers. I was constantly bleeding and getting pricked, it was miserable. The horses did not give one flying fuck.Can't comment on all species of spiders, but by a quirk of nature, the [Sydney funnel-web spider] is extremely deadly to primates but no other animals. It's not that nature intended that these spiders needed a mechanism to defend against us, it's just that their venom is an extremely effective neurotoxin against us but no other animal. I had a cat that frequently would carry funnel-web spiders inside in her mouth and then proceed to play with them on the floor in front of us. No sooner had we disposed of one spider, then she would reappear with another.In mexico our cats would hunt scorpions all the time. They would somehow know to tear off their stingers and then would eat them. Crazy instincts', "Ancillary answer: possums are immune to snake venom and they're testing a universal antivenom now _URL_3_", 'Biology student here! There are a few answers depending on the animal in question, but the most basic answer is that they do get bitten, at first. But most animals that get bitten only have to get bitten once, then they figure out they have to make sure that bitey/stingy thing must be VERY VERY DEAD before eating. |
Considering how many stars are out in space, why is it that we aren't constantly seeing supernovas in the sky? | All of the stars you see in the night sky are relatively close to us. In fact, many if not all of them are still alive now, in all probability. Their distance is so close that you are seeing them hundreds to tens of thousands of years in the past. While that sounds like a big number, it's peanuts on the age of a star. If you factor in supernova visible by telescope, then you can see much further and in fact we do see more common supernovae. Fritz Zwicky started organized supernovae hunts, and in their first survey, for instance, they found 12 in 3 years. And that was back in the 30's. More recently, the Lick Observatory has found around 100, our finding of them increases as our technology and capacity does. But it's important to note that stars last a long time, and supernovae are still, relatively speaking, rare events.Actually, we are, we see a handful each year. It's just that the vast majority of them are so far away--mostly in other galaxies--that they're not visible to the naked eye, but astronomers see them all the time. I myself saw a supernova in another galaxy through my 8" scope once, which is pretty mind-blowing, if you think about it: I could see ONE STAR in a galaxy that was *millions of light years away* with a small amateur telescope. Local supernovae are somewhat rare, the last one visible to the naked eye happened in 1604, the star was about 20,000 ly from Earth.We do see them pretty often, several a year in fact with today's technologies. There are lists online you can Google. We haven't had on in our own galaxy for quite some time though. |
Is what the NSA did/is doing that different from spy programs in other countries? | It's also important to note that because the internet was invented in the US and most of the world's major internet companies are based in the US that it's easier for the NSA to access the world's internet traffic because so much of it has to get routed to or through the US. |
The business model for pallets and shipping containers. | A lot of pallet companies hire pallets out to warehouse/distribution companies at a couple cents per day. When these pallets are transferred to other companies, ownership is also transferred and the new owner is charged by the pallet company. It is a massive business and if you don't have a pallet controller that is on top of things you can be in serious trouble. |
How, through out evolution, did cats learn to fall in their feet so perfectly, if historicaly they aren't so often thrown to the ground with their feet up? | Probably has something to do with the fact that most of our cats' ancestors were perpetually climbing things. Wild cats, the distant cousins of our domesticated cats, are often found climbing trees and mountains. Good climbers need to be good fallers too, if the species is to survive. |
Why is there such a negative stigma against nuclear reactors? | Nuclear made a lot of promises at the start of the nuclear age, but ended up being rather expensive to build and operate. The public now has a greater fear of them because of issues with poorly stored nuclear waste from the early ages of the work , and then the high profile disasters since . Entire towns and regions had to be evacuated and are now 'no go' zones for people . No coal or gas plant disaster has ever caused that. No windmill or solar plant has that. And thanks to media portrayals of nuclear disasters and of nuclear bombs, and people thinking that a plant disaster will be like a nuclear explosion, there is a strong NIMBY feeling around both the plants and around any storage of the nuclear waste.Because people hear "nuclear" and immediately think "bomb" or "Chernobyl". The negative uses of atomic energy, and the failures to use atomic energy safely get the headlines, the films, and the footnotes in the history books, while the countless kilowatt-hours nuke plants produce while humming along efficiently and quietly are easy to overlook. That, and plant failure is a lot like an airliner crash; they occur less than once in a blue moon, but they are highly dramatic when they happen, with a shit ton of dollar value in damage just to the plant alone and the potential for significant disruption of civilian life.People do not understand the difference between a nuclear reactor and a nuclear bomb. I've talked to people who have protested nuclear power plants and the main consensus I've found is that none of them understand how it works, and all assume it's EXACTLY like having a bomb go off and containing the explosion magically. |
Let's assume I'm a regular fish in the Pacific Ocean, what's keeping me from going to the bottom? | They are fully capable of going up and down as they desire they stay at certain depths because that's where their food is", 'Water greatly attenuates visible light the deeper you go. Higher wavelengths like red are attenuated faster while lower wavelengths such as blue attenuate slower which is why deep water appears dark blue. If you were a fish that relied on eyesight to see food and avoid predators, you would have to live close to the surface so that there is actually visible light for you to seeYour air bladder, the pressure, the temperature, the food supply. |
Why does lemonade and other more sugary beverages seem to "go right though me" and make me have to urinate twice as fast as opposed to water or milk? | Your kidneys remove excess blood sugar. Also you might have diabetes if it's that noticeable. See a doctor.Lemons are a natural diuretic. Diuretics cause biochemical processes that make your body retain less water. Simply put, they make you pee more. _URL_0_', "That's the body saying to quit drinking that crap |
How are Confederate flags still so widely accepted when compared to, say, Nazi symbols? | Because we as a society aren't vocal enough about shaming those who fly the flag. See the political cowardice on display over the last week by those who defend the flag. Such a profile in leadership. Says something about Mitt and Jeb and Haley that they called for it to be taken down . |
Why are banks allowed to lend you money for which there is no actual equivalent value (means they don't actually have it), and collect interests for it? | They have the assets on their balance sheet. They legally own the money still, it's just being used by other people. If I own a rental car company and I go to the bank to get a loan I have to show I have something of value to back up my promise to pay it back. The cars I own for my business are things of value, even if they are out being used by customers so I don't physically have them with me. For example", 'Because if banks weren't allowed to "create money", the economy as we know it would collapse. |
What is wrong with video surveillance in public? | For me, it's because the governments of the world historically do not have the best intentions, even toward their own citizens. The US is nowhere near immune to this . Frankly, they've abused trust in the government so far that it's hard to believe this data wouldn't be used in very negative ways, far beyond any crime or terrorism prevention.I think one good camera at one good height in troubled areas to start with would be nice. Just for that watchful eye effect.Do you like paying for things you neither want nor need? I don't.Nothing, as long as the unedited video is also easily available to the public. The problem with video surveillance is that it can be selectively edited to suit the watcher's purposes. Kind of like how dashcam videos of police officers sometimes mysteriously "malfunction" or get "lost" when there are allegations of abuseIt matters what the information is used for, if it falls into the wrong hands. Everyone deserves a certain amount of privacy, even in public locations. |
Why the fruit cake hate? | Fruitcake has become a joke because what most people associate with fruitcake is terrible. I grew up with relatives that candied the fruit themselves, baked the cake using real butter and aged the cake properly. It was delicious. Then I had a piece of some random mass-produced cake. It was terrible. The candied fruit was rubbery, there was only enough cake to act as mortar for the rubbery fruit. It was nothing like I had growing up. There are fruitcakes made by [Trappist monks] and [others] that replicate the fruitcakes of my youth. These are nothing like the mass-produced bricks passed around as jokes at holiday time. When you hear fruitcake being disparaged, the product that is being referred to *is terrible.* Assume the speaker hasn't ever had real fruitcake made with butter, nuts, and properly prepared candied fruit. Assume the cake wasn't allowed to age, contains no liquor and has the consistency of rubber. They are not speaking about real fruitcake, just a pale poor imitation of the real thing. tl;dr: Real fruitcake is 20-year Scotch. Fake shit is varnish remover. |
Why do starving children have their stomach swell to extremely large sizes? (e.g. Ethiopian children) | Back when I was a kid in the 80's and the famine in Ethiopia was a big cause in the public eye, I saw a great deal of images and video of starving people. I and the other kids in my class asked this same question and did a project on it. Basically, what the guy before me said - a specific condition who's name I can't recall that amounts to an enlarged liver and general fluid buildup, along with a host of other terrible things.But the condition is exaggerated as well by lack of body fat and muscle to hide the presence of the internal organs in the abdomen. The lack of that wall of muscle kinda turns the whole abdomen into one big hernia. Not pretty. |
What's the purpose of a modern king/queen/royal family if they don't run the country? | Nothing. They're ceremonial figureheads. They have a lot of wealth, a lot of historical significance, and in some countries they adore their royal family, but they're mostly just there because they *used to be there*. And since Britain had a relatively peaceful transition, , the royal family just sort of stuck around. Its like, in an office, when there's this old, ugly software that isn't doing anyone much good anymore, and so they buy a new, better-working software for everyone, but everyone was *used to* the old system, so they just sort of kept it, and its on the desktop, and it isn't really important, like, no one's opening it anymore, but sometimes they just get together and talk about how nice it was, or how many fun times they had with the old software. Everyone likes Kings and Queens when they aren't oppressing them or don't have any ability to chop heads off or plunge their country into war. They become the cool aunt. |
How do massive trends suddenly blow up overnight? | Imagine all these circles that you do not belong to, but overlap with yours. Trends become huge in circles apart from yours maybe amongst a certain ethnic group, or very young kids, or only in major cities by the time you become aware of something because it overlaps with your circle, it has completely filled up other circles. Hence we often feel like the 'last to find out'. Fidget Spinners are a great example I'm not a child, and I don't have children, so I'm not aware of them until people start posting op ed pieces on the toy. |
The differences between Wii, PS, Xbox, etc., and which is considered the best system. I'm 40, out of the loop, and have to buy one for Christmas. | PS and XBox are basically the same thing. Historically there have been a couple more shooters and better online play on XBox and PS more racing / Japanese RPG / etc games, but that's narrowed a little. Both consoles get basically the same games. It's more important which consoles his fiends have . Though Xbox and PS are geared more toward teenagers & adults. At 7 a Wii U might be the way to go. It lags behind the other two in sales and shooter games, but it's loaded with fun Mario kart / scrolles / smash bros. |
Why dont we just execute prisoners by gunshot to the back of the head | In addition to everyone else's answers, a very important factor is protecting the *executioner*. It's very difficult for any sane, well-adjusted person to just hold a gun to someone and kill them in cold blood; anyone who was asked to do that repeatedly would quickly stop being a sane, well-adjusted person.You have to remember the executioner. This is just a regular joe who often is chosen randomly. He/ she has to live with having taken a life. This is why firing squads have multiple shooters with only one real bullet. It gives them reasonable doubt that they were the actual shooter. |
How is a 0' sea level established for GPS measurements? My floating boat is currently reading 141' over sea level! | Mean Sea Level is calculated by taking the world's averages of the sea's levels for the past 19 years. This is how it is done when pulling GPS coordinates for my job in the military . If there are other ways it is calculated for civilian fields that I am ignorant of, then I am sorry for the bad data. |
What does it mean when people say certain types of cars have oversteer or understeer? | *Under* is when a car is heading towards a corner, turns the wheels but carries on in a predominantly straight line. *Over* is when a car, in the same scenario, has the rear of the car slide out of line more than required to make the corner. Both are primarily caused by speed, travelling too fast for the corner being attempted. Which way a car goes *usually* depends on which set of wheels are powered. Front Wheel Drive cars have to pull the vehicle along and turn it around corners using the same set of wheels. Which lends itself to *under* steer. Rear Wheel Drive cars tend to *over* steer the power being put down at the back can't be matched by the front wheels getting it around the corner.I have worked on cars for a long time and I think of it this way, when your cars oversteers it turns more than you expected it. When it understeers it turns less than you expected it to. Most drivers can somewhat correct for understeer, most drivers cannot correct for oversteer. Make sure your best tires tires are on the rear of your vehicle to help minimize the possibility of oversteer. |
Why is hand washing only effective with warm water? | It really doesn't matter what temperature the water is - you're never going to be using water cold enough or hot enough to kill bacteria anyway. Hand washing is primarily effective through the application of soap and the scrubbing action. However, most people only wash their hands long enough to remove stains and particulate matter anyway - watch a doctor scrub for surgery sometime if you want to know what it takes to remove bacteria. |
Why don't humans have memories from infancy? | children's brains have a burst of neurogenesis . there's evidence from rodents that this leads to forgetting of memories formed before neurogenesis. source: _URL_0_ |
How do hackers remain anonymous when they are directly connected to an ISP? | Let's *actually* ELI5 it TOR: The ISP is a letter carrier. They'll pass your letter on to your network of super secretive friends who will ultimately send it to its destination and get the response for you. Yes, they have the power to read that letter, but you and your friends are smart - you talk in code that nobody else can translate. The real destination for your letter is actually written inside where nobody can see, and you and your friends readdress and send your letter to each other a handful of times to confuse anybody at the post office who might be paying attention to *where* the mail is going. In fact, even if a letter is known to have been sent by you - even if you wrote it yourself, you can still plausibly deny it, and say you were just passing it on for someone else. VPN: Same as above, but there's only one friend ever helping you, making the whole operation a bit shit in comparison. You talk in code to him and he does your bidding on your behalf. If he gets caught though, there's no telling what might happen. Depends how much he decided to write down about you. |
What makes a "good" lawyer a "good lawyer? The law is the law so what makes one better than another? | > The Law is the Law One of my patent lawyer friends has had several cases where he felt his client was clearly in the right, but the judgement landed against them. At the end of the day you're still trying to convince one or more people that your client is being truthful and that the law should be in their favor. There are a lot of grey areas, interpretations, and politics in law. Charisma and a silver tongue are as good if not better than actual knowledge. |
Why do women deliver on their backs? | Many women give birth on their knees or crouching. Western midwives will encourage the mother to do what's comfortable. The mother makes the decision not the doctors or midwives.I wouldn't necessarily trust your osteopath's assertion that labour on the back is the preferred position in western hospitals. At least here in the UK, midwives are trained to handle a wide variety of possible birthing positions and will choose positions for the patient based on their assessment of the patient's medical needs, and preferences both before the event and at the time. The "default" position is one where the patient is sat up in bed with their knees bent and spread apart. This puts the patient in a similar position to a squat, but with additional back support. This also allows the patient to pull their knees closer to their shoulders using their arms, which lets them to a deeper squat when necessary without actually having to move the torso. That is labour on a bed, as the osteopath says, but what he's talking about in terms of risk is the old method of having the patient lie down flat, which just flat out isn't used any more, at least in the UK. I dunno what osteopaths are like in your country , but the ones in the UK are nothing more than massage therapists with a medical sounding title, and aren't licensed to practise medicine, so I 'd be very wary of trusting an osteopath's assertions of what the common medical practices are, given that they 'd have no certified knowledge of that. |
How is it that after a given amount of time, we can no longer feel items on our bodies (like rings or brassiers)? | Your body just gets used to them so you don't notice them as much. Same thing goes for smells and sounds. |
How does pressing my tongue against the roof of my mouth and my finger between my eyebrows get rid of a stuffy nose? | congestion is mostly due to swelling in the sinuses, not mucus or snot clogging you up so applying pressure to force blood out and then removing the pressure results in an opening of the passages. you can get a similar effect by holding your nose shut and blowing, like you're going to pop your ears, for 10 seconds or so. it's a lifesaver when you're really stuffed up", 'This has never worked for me. But drinking a hot cup of water with a teaspoon of peppermint extract has always done great. Be careful on the first sniff. Its akin to sticking a lit match up your nose.I woke up with a terrible cold. Just tried it a few times with no luck :( Maybe I'm doing it wrong? I'll try again later. I can confirm hot steam does the trick too! |
If women make 77% that men do for the same job, why would companies hire men and lose all of that revenue? | Women don't make 77% of men *for the same job*. Much of the wage gap is due to women choosing jobs that don't pay as well. For an in-depth but easy to understand look at this, try reading [Scott Adams verdict]. |
What is the importance of Gold? | The nature of commerce requires something to trade with and store value. Barter and gift economies can only go so far, which is why cultures around the world developed their own currencies. Currency allows people to trade with other people even if they lack a good or service that the other person wants, because the other person can use the currency for anything they want. Currencies also allow you to store value. Food perishes, money does not. Cultures have developed a variety of currency throughout history, from shells to paper, but gold has been used almost constantly. Why? It is rare. It lasts without tarnish. It is malleable, and it is shiny. It is the ultimate store of value. Ironically, however, its rarity means that gold actually was never the most common form of currency itself . Silver, a much more common metal, as well as copper and bronze historically have been more commonly used for coinage. But as I said, gold retains that allure as being the king of metals. Platinum is more rare than gold, but it looks too much like silver or other less expensive metals. Gold's uniqueness retains its status. |
American coffee culture and why Starbucks is so incredibly popular | - Starbucks basically introduced espresso-based drinks to the average American. - To succeed in America, your product has to be very consistent from outlet to outlet. Starbucks achieved this consistency by roasting dark. This leaves very little up to bean variance since roast flavours take over. - Given the dark, bitter taste of the Starbucks house roast, they are able to offer a variety of drinks laden with gross quantities of sugar and milk that still have a coffee note fighting its way through. America has a long history of constructing global food empires on the foundational pillars of sugar and fat. - Antipodean coffee culture is pretty advanced in the English-speaking world, so it's kind of an unfair comparison. - 'Third-wave' coffee, focusing on single-origins, lighter roast-profiles, and exacting brew methods is changing the face of coffee consumption in America. I'm sure Starbucks will hang on to its loyalists, but is already making certain moves to adapt to the rest of the public's developing palate. |
Official ELI5 United States Presidential Election Thread | Why is Ohio considered more important than Florida as a swing state? The media are going on about Ohio. The candidates can't stay away. But Florida has 29 college votes, Ohio only has 18. And according to the last poll, the voting will be split virtually 50/50 in Florida. So why is Ohio considered more important? |
How are people in the UK reacting to porn bans? | With mirth at the ease with which you can circumvent it or, since it's opt-in, with complete indifference. Most of us can tell it's an expensive, ineffectual gesture to pander to all that Daily Mail screeching about online perverts . |
Why are passengers and crew members on airplanes and ships commonly referred to as "souls" while on board? | Number of passengers =/= souls on board For example, infants are not included in the passenger count. A plane holds 100 passengers, and one of those passengers has an infant with them. As far as the paperwork is concerned, there are 100 passengers and 1 infant on board. And if there are 5 crewmembers, there are 106 souls on board. I'm a flight attendant, and this shit confuses *me* sometimes. :/", 'People are death-adverse and so instead of "they found *him* dead" you hear that "they found *the body*". Soul is a word that means body, but one more level of abstraction away from dealing with the mortality aspectI always thought it referred to the fact that bodies were, for the most part, not recoverable in the event of a disaster, especially in the days before flight, they would then refer to them as soulsMaybe it has something to do with Greek mythology and how human souls had to cross the river Styx to the underworld on a boat. |
why does my beard grow red while my hair is brown? | I have the same deal. Apparently, when I was really young, I had reddish hair. Now it's just the beard. My hair on my head is pretty much a light brown, beard is red, arm hair blonde, leg hair dark. I'm some kind of a calico freak. My eyes aren't even a real color, some blue-ish, grey-ish green-ish shit. |
What is the weird smell you get when you hit your head hard? | From what I understand, it's likely due to minuscule blood spray from capillaries being ruptured. So yeah, blood. |
Why do people care about animal life way more than they do human life? | To be clear, people care more about *pet* life than human life. A great example of this is the unspoken rule that you don't show the killing of pets in movies . Very few times is this unspoken rule broken. A classic example is in *Independence Day*, where millions of people are just obliterated, but they take the time to show you that the Golden Retriever dog made it out of there okay. The reason? Because human beings created pets through generations of selective breeding. Since human beings created pets, we therefore have a responsibility to care for them. In addition, pets tend to show unwavering affection towards their owners and most times just people in general. These reasons make it so seeing a pet harmed creates a more emotional response than seeing an adult human being that we don't personally know harmed.Well, for me personally, it's because I have had a greater number of emotionally positive experiences in my life with animals than I have had with people. Not really too much past that. Although I couldn't say that I "care about animal life more than I do human life". But I would rather hang out with a dog than I would you. |
How can Amazon issue so many no-questions asked refunds, in many cases not even requesting the product back? | Amazon makes so much money that they just don't care. There's not much of a point returning a probably broken product to Amazon if it's just going to cost them more money to process an RMA on it. A lot of people have and will boycott companies due to bad customer service experiences; whereas people who have a good experience with a lenient return policy are more likely to be repeat customers. |
Why are airplane tickets are so expensive in America compared to Europe? | Part of it is also due to European countries being a lot smaller. For example almost everyone who lives in the UK is in a position to easily and quickly get to London, a major international city with one of the busiest airports in the world. Airlines know they can fill seats and there's a lot of competition. This in turn leads to regional airports being cheaper. The airlines that serve Manchester Airport for example know full well if they start charging silly prices people will simply jump on a train and 2 hours later they can be in London.* the US is big, and plane routes are going to tend to be longer* Europe has a well developed passenger train system that competes with airlines* European populations are more concentrated into a fewer number of larger cities, with regional mass transit providing access to nearby cities* many European countries have subsidized national airlines', "Due to national carriers, each country has their own 'national' airline. Whereas not every US state has an airline. Then, the countries have developed more airports . These airports are not the big hubs - which are dominated by the national carriers. But out on the outskirts. Then their 'fee' may look low, but there are a lot of extra costs that you still incur to buy the ticket and actually get from point to point. Finally, there is 1.7 million in the Copenhagen meto area; London has 14 million. Des Moines metro has 500,000 and Denver has 2 million. That kind of economy of scale matters. |
What is the role of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe and who is he the chief of? | The problem with NATO is that you've got a bunch of different militaries working together, all with their own seperate chains of command.. That can make coordinating a campaign a bit of a clusterfuck. To solve that problem, and keep in mind that NATO was set up specifically to defend Western Europe from the Soviets, the various signatories agreed to appoint someone to command ALL NATO forces in Europe. Otherwise you'd have different countries doing their own thing, sometimes working at cross purposes. That could've been fatal if the Ruskies ever decided to vacation in Brittany. |
Why don't I own a sea treasure that I find? | Whichever American country Spain stole their gold from should be the ones to get it back if that's the game we're going to play. |
- I have always wondered why movies shoot scenes out of order. Wouldn't it be so confusing for the actors etc. | For any half-decent actor it's not a problem at all. Part of their job is to learn the context of the scene and perform the part accordingly. |
Why is it when someone is in pain they tend to find relief if they grab onto something tightly? | I think it has something to do with pain displacement. When you squeeze something, you are pushing the blood to another part of your body away from the source of the pain. That and you are distracting your mind. Either that or it's one of our fight or flight responses we learn early to prepare for possible injury or harm. Just speculating though. I may be way off with the correct answer if someone wants to correct me. |
Why are military casualties relatively low in the War in Ukraine, despite being a war that's lasted two years between two European countries fighting with modern weapons? | It's not a war between two European countries. Russia is obviously contributing to the separatist cause but, for diplomatic reasons, they are not officially a belligerent and they are severely limiting their efforts.First off there are fewer people involved: there are less than 200,000 fighters in total from all sides for the entire conflict. The big WW2 battles had that many for just individual battles. The [Minsk Protocol] and later [Minsk II] were also supposed to reduce the intensity of this war by forbidding offensive operations, pulling back heavy artillery from the front line and forbidding the use of aircraft. Though they are of limited effectiveness, they have at least prevented the kind of crushing firepower wielded by modern armies from being deployed whenever the commanders felt like itThe entire objective of this conflict is to keep Ukraine out of NATO. A nation can not join while engaged in a territorial dispute. Russia wins by keeping the fight goingThere have also been a lot of broken cease fires. During the period of the cease fire, there was no fighting. No deaths. So while it may be a two year long war, there have not been two full years of fightingSpecifically because they have modern weapons and are not targeting civilians. Modern war has been having fewer and fewer casualties as time goes on. |
why is BODMAS used in mathematical problems? why not just solve the problem the way its shown? | It's like data compression for humans. Math equations can get pretty long. So instead of writing out the whole thing, mathematicians use a special shorthand to make the equation shorter. BODMAS is the tool you use to decompress this shortened equation to understand the actual equation. |
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