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Why we like "cold" water over "warm" water.
I'm pretty sure that's just Westernized conditioning. We were raised that cold water is better, thus we prefer it later in life.
How can some people pursue love again and again after recently breaking up with a partner, while others do not dare to for awhile?
From personal experience, I've been unable to be alone for most of my young adult life, probably, like another commenter said, due to my childhood consisting of never truly being validated. While I am an independent person in spirit, I've always found myself preferring a partner or romantic interest opposed to not having one, even after I've experienced immense heartbreak, I've always been able to get back out there pretty quickly, even without being fully over the previous partner, messy, I know. Just the random concoction that is each of our personality types.
WTF was the Architect was trying to tell Neo in the movie Matrix?
You think you are special but you are just part of the whole grand plan. The 6th of your kind actually. That's the 5yo with severe ADD version :-P
why are people so afraid of sharks, even when they know they have more chances of getting hit by lightning or die in a car accident...?
When we're driving we feel like we're in control. A lot of people get in car crashes, but those are *other* people, I'm a good driver. We can't control sharks.
Why do shows and movies always seem to cast actors/actresses who are older than the characters they play?
It takes time to become successful. By the time you've earned notoriety as an actor/actress you probably aren't a teenager anymore, though there are exceptions. Also, there are laws mandating the minors be on film sets for shorter periods of time, and they are limited in terms of what sexual acts they can simulate. So if you're making a movie or a show about high school kids, using actual high school kids makes it a much more difficult and costly endeavor.
Why do most white professional body builders tan themselves until they look black?
Its so the judges can see the muscle definition when the competitors are on stage. It's sprayed on.Had a fam member who trained and was competing in competitions for nearly 10 years * Tanning shows better definition. Casein point. * Most of the builders are keeping themselves tanned before and after comps because it helps you as the builder to see how it looks ', "People in pageants do the same. The stage lights make everyone look ghostly. My best friend does pageants an there is a picture of me and her post pageant and she looks like she's Hispanic cause she's so dark from spray tan
Question from an actual 5-year-old: "How does sunscreen stop your skin from getting burned?"
Tell him it's like watercolor painting. Some paint reflects green light, so it looks green. Some paint reflects blue, or red, or orange light. Sunscreen is like a paint that reflects a color of light that our eyes are not able to see.
Why did the Dreamcast lose the Console War against PS2?
The Dreamcast failed because it had no DRM support and for a console that used CDs for it's game content, people pirated the fuck out of it. No one made money off the machine, so, it failed economically.
Why does it seem that most movies have a "happy" ending?
Because that's how the story telling formula works. Meet the hero. Hero faces adversity. Hero overcomes adversity. That is 90% of all movies out there.
What is the pay-off for those that deny the holocaust?
In the Times Sunday Magazine I read an article about David Irving, the famous holocaust denier. He went to prison in Austria because holocaust denial is illegal there, and he attempted to publish a book. Anyway, David Irving currently gives private tours to holocaust denial sympathisers around the old concentration camp sites in Eastern Europe attempting to debunk the holocaust in various ways. I don't know why whatever authority runs these camps let him do this, but no one seems to stop him. Anyway, in this article the author goes 'undercover' on one of these tours, pretending to be a sympathiser. Most of the participants on these tours are Australian, American and British men with German heritage. The author makes the argument that these people deny the holocaust in order to vindicate, or justify their German heritage, even when their families were not involved. Basically, denying the holocaust allows these people to feel some kind of weird pride in their own history/ethnicity as it makes other social aspects of Nazism become more palatable . Holocaust denial also gives them another convenient 'forgery' to pin on the Jewish people. Often, they're trying to make reality fit their theories, rather than the other way around. If they hate Jews before they start, it's desirable to say the holocaust didn't happen and that it is a fiction, because it sows hate against Jewish people, and robs them of a large portion of their modern identity. edit: a word or two
How did a US politician apparently singlehandedly overturn Washington's majority decision to legalize cannabis?
First of all, as I'm sure you've noticed the corrections, he didn't literally overturn the decision. He may have effectively or ostensibly. He certainly cut the effort off at the knees financially. But if Jeff Goldblum has taught us anything it is that pot uh . finds a way. DC has no spokesperson on Capitol Hill. And although we all recognize the irony of this and many folks also believe it unfair this is the case. So, although they have no reps decisions that effect them are inserted into legislation all the time. In this particular case one man added a provision to a bill he knew full well would pass due to its over-arcing importance. Even though this provision had nothing really to do with the bill to which it is attached it is passed by virtue of association. This is how legislation is written in DC. You can slap a gun control provision into a school lunch bill and, if the rest of congress cares more about not passing the gun control provision than passing the school lunch bill itself, it is killed by virtue of its association with its least popular provisions. And vice versa. Etc. This is debated once in a while but nothing has ever been done to really confront the practice. John McCain tried to make it a pet project a decade or so ago and, like most movements to reform the way congress does business, it went nowhere.
What does an officer from UK do, when someone draws a gun?
Chances of a gun being used in a robbery are slim. Gun crime here is WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY lower than in the US. People don't need guns so police don't need guns. Yes, hardened criminals can get them if they want, but it means that spur-of-the-moment gun crimes simply don't happen, and regular crimes escalating to include guns hardly ever happens. We like it this way. Surveys have shown that we feel *less* safe when our cops are armed. I like it. I think it's a sign of a civilised, mature society.
If people can surgically have half their brain removed, then how come, if shot through one half of the brain, we die instantly?
Blood loss? Trauma? But it depends. A man had a railway spike go through his frontal lobe and survived. But generally if your skull is crushed and your brain is shredded to tiny pieces by a hollow point bullet, it isn't as clean a wound or process as a surgery in a sterile environment by professionals.
The multiverse, and how there can be every possible occurrence involving every possible thing.
There's no such thing as 'near infinite'. Anything that isn't actually infinite is infinitely far away from being infinite. The biggest ordinal number that has ever been contemplated is no 'nearer' to infinity than the number 1.
Why isnt data that can identify an individual, more protected?
The problem isn't just the lack of oversight or ethics in who can access our personal info, but also the fact that personal info is a hot commodity. Simply put, if people want to steal something bad enough, they'll keep finding ways to do so unless it is made nearly impossible - or at least too cost-ineffective - to do so. You also have to consider the overhead of data protection. Not everyone is backed by firms that also lead the cybersecurity industry, so they can or will only outsource that service but so much - which makes them the most vulnerable in an ever-escalating criminal enterprise of data theft. Or also: not all of them are in a position to where the losses are directly their problem, so they don't particularly have to keep up the same standard as, say, your bank, because they aren't the ones who have to cover the loss due to criminal acts. That leads to protection disparities between things like Uber and things like your bank or your financial accounts.
That ocean noise when you put a sea shell up to your ear
It's the sound of the blood flow and other bodily sounds, the shell echos and amplifies it. [Source]
Where do game developers begin when it comes to games such as GTA V?
Many different places, but here's a quick overview of one of the more common ways: There are already MANY different game creation software studios out there. For example you can go to google and grab them yourself already . Studios decide what their target audience is and choose a platform to start developing on . They begin development through artwork. Once the idea has started it grows from there. Sometimes a game starts off very vague and sometimes they are VERY well thought out almost all the way to compleatness from the beginning.
Why does the Southern United States react so badly to cold weather?
I've lived in the South my entire life. In addition to the lack of infrastructure, from what I understand, the difference is here in the South, snow is usually preceded by rain that then freezes on the ground or freezing rain/sleet. This makes the roads much more dangerous than if it was just snow.
Why does everyone in the US mortgages their house.
The working theory is owning/mortgaging is superior to renting. You're paying money monthly either way, so why not get some incentive out of it? That's the argument. Rent = You essentially throw money into an abyss each month with no chance of return. But in exchange, you aren't tied down, and typically don't have to worry about maintenance, etc. Mortgage = You get tax incentives, and the ability to get lower and lower required payments over time. And if/when you pay off the mortgage, you never have to worry about rent or mortage payments again. In a decent market, you could even make profit from the entire situation. Both options have their pros and cons. Just depends on your personal situation.
How do I know I exist?
Philosophically, you can't. Practically though, it's kind of a pointless question to ponder anyway. Whether you exist or not, your experience is real to you.> But I don't understand how you can get to anything further like "How do I know this lamp exists" Strictly-speaking, you can't. You can't know that anything outside of your own mind exists. You can only act on the *assumption* that external entities exist, which itself relies on the assumption that your senses reflect the state of some sort of external world .
When a person is "vaporized" by an atomic blast, what actually happens?
I'd like to add to this question; what causes the person's shadow to be permanently transposed on the ground?
How come I can recognize someone when I see their face, but I can visualize anything when I close my eyes?
sometimes having brown here" and "green or red leaves" etc. We save the fact that trees have a height - but the *exact or real* height doesn't matter - because it's still a tree! This means in our imagination we can make our tree have any height we want! Actually, artists like to create in real life what they have in their imagination, and each different type of imagination sense has it's own Art Form - painting, to see and please your visual imagination, music, to hear and please your auditory imagination, dance, to feel your movement imagination, fine cooking etcetera!
What's the difference between a well optimized computer program, and one that's not well optimized?
I've seen shell scripts where external programs were called multiple times when a single call for all was all that was necessary. the time to spin up all those extra calls really slows things down.
Woodstock, and why people keep making references of it even today
Your sense is right, because so many kids came it was doomed to be a disaster. Only it wasn't. Imagine 300,000 teenagers coming together - most of whom know nothing about camping and did not come well prepared with food, water, or shelter - yet coexisted peacefully and survived three days of rain and mud. That's what made it so special. By all chances it should have been a disaster but the group spirit of peace and brother/sisterhood made it a wonderfully successful high spirited event. I was there. I am still in awe of how everyone survived by helping each other out. The music was the other great thing but I'll bet a lot of people don't remember the performances from when they were there. The movies captured and immortalized the performances.
Why don't modern fighter aircraft have weapons systems that lock and shoot backwards to destroy a tailing enemy?
There is also the issue of relative motion of the craft and the missile itself. Lets say your going 500 knts and want to fire backwards. The missile has to accelerate in the opposite direction of the craft to fly out to it's target. So it automatically starts out 500 knts slower than a forward firing missile. If we want the rearward firing missile to have the same flight time to target, or have the same range as a forward firing missile, the rocket motor in the rear firing missile then needs to be inherently more powerful than a forward firing missile. Or the missile, itself, smaller. So that it accelerates more quickly. Furthermore, the missile is largely uncontrolled during it's transition from forward movement to rearward. During the initial burn of the motor we are decelerating, thus less air mass over the missile canards, thus less control. It will also drop like a brick during this phase, which will also reduce the range. Largely the performance and logistical trade offs necessary for this type don't make sense. Especially in light of basic fight tactics which say if you let somebody get to your six you've already lost.
Why do we (US) separate dental and medical insurance, especially when other specialists (gynecologist, dermatologist, etc) are all grouped under medical?
Because your country worships capitalism and sees it as another way for businesses to make more money out of you by making you pay for both separately. Even though health care should be free at the point of use like ours is are often included in standard "medical insurance" to make the package look more attractive.From the bottom of my heart, thank you for asking this question. I've been wondering about this for quite some time. Always seemed like a true racket to me. After all, we know that issues with teeth lead to other issues in the body, so why not bundle everything together? Now, on to read the replies and maybe a reasonable solution to putting them under the same umbrella sooner rather than later.
Why are phones so more expensive than tablets?
Here's the dirty secret. The prices of phones is not determined by what end consumers will pay, because they very rarely pay that list price. It's determined by what the cellular carriers will pay, and they don't care as much. Why don't they care? Because they get that money back in spades with the revenue from the cellular service and data plans that you MUST pay for the term of your contract. The cost of the phone to you is usually in the vicinity of $2k over 2 years, when it's all said and done.Because then service providers can "lower" the price and give you a "deal" by making you sign a 2-year contract. There's no reason why a phone needs to cost $600. But if these companies can convince the manufacturers to charge that price when the phone is sold without a contract, they know it'll drive people to contractsOne factor is size, the same technology has to fit into a much smaller space in a phone, making it harder to manufacture
Why would two countries sign an agreement promising to end to a war, rather than just signing an agreement that actually ends it?
because actually ending a war requires that one or both make concessions. and if the two sides haven't come to an agreement yet then obviously it won't happen. so this is more just to demonstrate that they want to work towards peace.I will also add that, in some governments, it may take a number of politicians to agree to end a war, where a "promise" like this can be made by one individual or one branch. In this case, there is also significant militarization along the border that neither side wants to remove without the other side doing the same. Those negotiations and logistics will take years.
why do arcades use coins instead of quarters?
The answers here are good but I'd like to add that it reduces the risk of employee theft. If you have all the currency in a handful of token stations, it's easier to make sure that no employees can pocket that money. If you had every game filled with quarters, you have to deal with the significant risk that the employees who empty them will end up pocketing a few extra bucks in quarters.I 've always thought that people were more likely to spend "coins" as they don't see them as money in the same way. Plus coins lock a person into spending a certain amount of money, unlike quarters which can be easily taken elsewhere.
What is the origin of "America will not negotiate with terrorists" and why do we have this policy?
I don't know the origin, but I understand the reason: if you negotiate with terrorists you're pretty much legitimizing terrorist blackmail, or at least opening the door for people to think they can get use the threat of terrorism to negotiate.
Why, when I wake from a nap, am I always REALLY thirsty?
Your body has probably woken you up specifically because it's dehydrated. Are you sure you've been drinking enough?", 'Your body heat rises while sleeping. This causes perspiration which leaves you thirsty when you wake up.
If you ate lots of fat, but no carbs whatsoever, would you gain weight?
simply put.. yes. if the amount of energy in a bottle of oil is more than the amout of energy you expended that day.. however, you'd put on less weight that you would have done if you'd consumed the same number of calories of carbohydrates. ********** Rest of post deleted due to people thinking eli5 is /r/science *******
How does blood dispersion in the body alter behavior/abilities, if at all?
Men's behavior doesn't change when aroused because of increased blood flow elsewhere besides the brain, it happens becaise arousal triggers behavioral changes directly by releasing different hormones. When you're hungry yiu sibsequently become more food motivated, it's a survival instinct, it doesn't happen because of increased blooodflow to certain places.
Why... haven't sloths died out?
Just cause they walk slow doesn't mean they don't have sex..I mean some drown because they cannot escape floods and stuff. being slow uses less energy. They also live in trees, I do not think they get eaten from much critters Now pandas on the other hand ", 'Bonus question: Can a sloth move fast if it had to? For example, the branch it's on suddenly snaps, can it quickly grab onto the next branch "oh shit!" style?All these answers, plus the fact that Kristen Bell crying about them raises awareness.
Why don't all of the companies that make antifreeze add chemicals to make it taste and smell unpalatable?
Because it would have to be *all* of the companies doing it at the same time. Otherwise, one company or a few companies have a more expensive product with a benefit that a lot of consumers might not think is worth the money. So, the few companies that do bitterize the antifreeze so that kids and pets won't drink it lose business and have higher costs to make the product. The only way it would happen would be by law on a state or federal level requiring it, but all those antifreeze companies have lobbyists making sure that this never happens.Why would you add chemicals for taste and smell to a product designed for the optimal high boiling point, low freezing point, corrosion abatement, and volatility? I assume you are referencing animals drinking antifreeze. I would be more skeptical of antifreeze marketing itself as "safe" as opposed to an antifreeze acknowledging the risks and hazards of the product.
- What people mean when they claim the Civil War was not about slavery.
Let's say you're playing with your Hot Wheels with one of your older siblings. Your siblings tells you nobody is allowed to play with the red hot wheels. So what do you do? Well, maybe you get angry with your sibling, and you tell them you're not going to play with them anymore. So you take a bunch of the hot wheels and go back to your room. At this point, it's not about the red hot wheels to you; you're mad that your siblings told you what you could or could not do. You think it was mean of them to make you play with hot wheels their way. Except, the red hot wheels were a horrific institutionalized abuse of millions of people. So yeah
why most scientific research papers are behind a paywall?
Most journal libraries make the bulk of their money off of group subscruptions to hospitals and universites. So by making the cost of one of their papers $40, you'll be less likly to buy it and more likly to go get your institution to just buy a yearly subscription to ALL the journals.
When looking at laptops, is the mAh the capacity of the battery? Is it multiplied by how many cells there are?
The mah is total rated stored capacity. But it doesn't mean thats how much is available to deliver. You can typically say bigger is better. But sometimes one battery with bigger capacity cell will not deliver as much juice as another battery that uses a different type of cell that has a smaller stored capacity. Imagine cell is a gallon jug of milk. Pour it out and you'll end up with not quite a gallon of milk cause some sticks to the walls. Now imagine you have 100 snack bottles of milk that should total up to 1 gallon capacity. Pour all of those out, probably end up with less milk than the 1 gallon jug
I'm baffled, how is it even possible that this many unarmed people are being shot down by police?
It's also possible that, given the total number of confrontations between unarmed civilians and police, the number of shootings is actually very low, proportionately.
When my internet is running slow, sometimes I need to disconnect and reconnect my computer to the WiFi to speed it up. Why does this work?
Didn't see this answer near the top so tossing it in. This may be as simple as you have spyware/adware/bloatware running on your computer. By killing the connection and restarting it it could temporarily reset the connections of such software. If they are eating up a significant amount of bandwidth when they have been running a while, that could be why it gets faster when you reconnect.
Why is reading books considered such a good thing? What is the difference cognitively between someone who reads books for entertainment, and someone who watches documentaries yet never reads at all?
Honestly, I feel like it's important to connect with people through that. Sometimes it's the mindset that the book gives. Or just the same feels. It's all about the feels.
- Why is population control (birth number restrictions) never a solution for hunger, poverty, etc.
Because, depending on the society you live in, there are natural incentives to having more children. First, if the infant mortality rate in your culture is high, you need to have lots of children to ensure that at least some of them will survive into adulthood. If you need more hands on the farm or in the cottage industry, every additional child is an economic plus. If there's no social security net of any kind in your culture, having more children multiplies the chances that at least one of them will take care of you in your old age. None of those reasons are irrational, but they can survive past their obsolescence in cultures that are changing fast.
Why would the minimum wage ever not be a living wage?
In America here. I worked at a store that paid minimum wage to most of its employees. Every time the minimum wage went up, everyone was so happy they got a pay increase, until they were told they would only be working 20 or 25 hours a week instead of 30. And then the store used the minimum wage increase to hike up prices of merchandise. So the employees had to do more work in less time for the same overall pay and the store got more money. I've heard it is like this for most, if not all, places.
The vaccination 'controversy'.
There is no link. Sad parents believe non-science to feel better about their children. Other paranoid hippie parents don't care about possibly infecting other peoples children who can't get vaccinations.There is no link between vaccinations and autism, and there is no controversy. If you were interested in causing the absolute most suffering you possibly could to humanity, you could hardly do better than spreading nonsense about vaccinesThere's a handy cartoon that gives a good summary of how the "controversy" started here: [The Facts In The Case Of Dr. Andrew Wakefield]. Other members have covered the other relevant factors though, like upset parents looking for people to blame, "hippies" who already reject evidence-based medicine, and the correlation between when autistic symptoms can be identified and the time at which vaccinations are given.
What do Ukrainian separatists have to gain by shooting down a Malaysian passenger plane?
We don't know that they did it. And if they did, it was likely mistaken for a Ukranian military aircraft.
Why would anyone choose a revolver over a pistol, given the substantial reload time?
They're dead simple to use and reliable. There's value in that for home protection, when you're not used to people breaking in your house, it's not every day you shoot people, and you're panicked.
Why is "talked with Russia so bad? Isn't WHAT they talked about more important?/A Swede.
It's a big deal because of the Logan act. _URL_0_ It is illegal for US citizens to negotiate with a foreign government on behalf of the US government, to prevent private citizens from undermining/circumventing government policy. Considering that at least two Trump administration officials negotiated US policy with Russia while Obama was still president, there has been a lot of outrage. Also: they lied about it while testifying under oath. That is generally frowned upon And is very illegal.
Could light be trapped in a box made of mirrors?
That'd work if you had completely reflective material. But there's no such thing as *completely* reflective material in the real world. Even the best mirrors absorb some light.
what are the mouth movements hearing impared people make while doing sign language?
delighted" all convey roughly the same emotion, so can use the same sign -- by mouthing the English word at the same time it becomes clear to the sign reader exactly which word is being said. The reason it doesn't "match up" to what you're hearing is because as explained in the first paragraph, the signer won't be doing a word-for-word translation of the original English, s/he'll be converting it into sign language with a similar meaning"Facial expression are very important because it carries meaning. Eyes, mouth, cheeks, eyebrows gestures inform the speaker about the speed of the action, the size of an object, the quantity, and so on"
Why is carbon tax so important in dealing with global warming?
Carbon tax is tax on fuels that is based on how much CO2 is emitted per unit of fuel burnt. Emitting CO2 hurts everyone, and taxing it encourages use of alternative energy sources through market forces, and is a source of income for the goverenment that can be used on research or implementation of those alternative energy sources. Topic is politicized because companies that deal in fossil fuels don't want to lose their market share and actively lobby the government to prevent any and all regulation of their usage. Well, you can't use something, amount of which is limited to sustain something that you'll need forever. Sooner or later humanity will have to switch to other sources of energy. The sooner it starts, the less painful transition will be.
If singers can perform others' songs, why can't comedians use jokes from others?
Many people have explained the copyright /royalties angle, but there's another element to this. When a singer does a cover version of someone else's song, theyre not pretending that they wrote or came up with the song, theyre not passing someone else's work as their own, they're making their own interpretation of someone else's lyrics. A comedian passing someone else's joke as their own is not doing the same thing. Sure, performance is an element of comedy, but a bad joke is bad, and a good joke is usually good. You take someones good joke and pretend its your joke, you're creating the impression that you're the original creator. If you take someone else's stuff, you deny them the possession of their joke. That's a deeply personal slight to any comedian. People don't like having their stuff stolen.the sound of the voice is an important part of a song so someone else singing it can almost be considered a different song . and almost every cover gives credit to the original, while many repeated jokes are treated as original creations
Why do some people get a Philosophy degree, and then move on to Law. Wouldn't it be smarter to get a degree in Psychology instead of Philosophy?
I'm currently taking papers in all three, and psychology is surprisingly unrelated to law. Mental disorders, gender disparities, cognitive activity during varying activities - this means very little to law. However, philosophy has the potential to be extremely relevant. Morals and ethics, and how to apply them, critical thinking, logic, etc etc are all very related. The common fallacy is that many people consider psychology a more logical or scientific version of philosophy - however they are very different fields, with philosophy falling far closer to law.It depends on what you want to do with your law degree. I can just as easily make the argument for studying electrical engineering first, or medicine, or economics. The skills and interests involved in the study of law are not quite the same thing as the talents and background you need to practice it.
[music theory; specifically metre (rythm)
So this has been explained already but thanks for the links! This group's funkitude is off the charts
Why are male urinals not common in houses?
A bidet would be nice too Bath fixtures are expensive and space is usually at a premium so I imagine it's limited to the absolutely essential three that are usable by both genders. . I saw a gay male couple on one of those TV real estate porn shows had a urinal installed in their bath, but it would be useless with all females.
Why can't you really jump after you've been on a trampoline?
Haven't experienced this myself so I don't really know how big of a difference there is. But shouldn't there be something to make your brain call for more power after a session on some sort of reversed trampoline? I'm way too tall to not be able to dunk so I'm hoping that sort of machinery could give me a shot at redeeming myself in front of my friends
What is the difference between avoidant personality disorder versus just being shy and insecure?
They believe their behaviours to be appropriate, this doesn't mean they don't have the awareness of the diagnosis itself
How does the Earth (and everything else) just float, suspended in space?
We don't just float. We are travelling very quickly around the sun. We don't just sit suspended in space.
What is the loud, vibrating sound when you open your car's windows while driving?
The Mythbusters explained it. It's basically rapid puffs of air escaping as new air rushes in. You can minimize the noise buy opening the window on the opposite side in the back seat to allow the air out.
why is the West more closely allied with Saudi Arabia instead of Iran?
The Bush family had a large part to play in it. According to a journalist called Unger, the amount of money that has been flowing back and forth between the Bush'es and the Saud's amounts to billions. So they're not really the allies of the US. They're allies with the oil-rich people of the US.
Why doesn't the Earth's orbit decay? Anything that could accidentally cause it to?
Decay is not the right word to use for these systems, because they're chaotic. The only major impact on any planet's orbits, in our solar system, are the gravity of other planets and orbital precession . Over hundreds of thousands of years, the gravity of other planets will change the orbital parameters of the other planets. As seen [here] for the Earth; the other rocky planets behave in more or less similar patterns. The gas giants have their own chaotic motions, but are much more difficult to nail down and less understood. On these sorts of scales, actual orbital decay due to drag and other factors is completely negligible, as the vast bulk of energy transfer is in cyclical transfers between the planets.for starters there is no "friction" in space. There are many ways to decay an object's orbit: kinetic bombardment , and physically pushing it into a decaying orbit are just to name a few. Another way would be to stop it's angular momentum altogether, which would cause to the object to fall towards the gravity well', "Our orbit is decaying, it's just that it's happening too slow to notice
will the imminent arrival of mass produced lab grown meat change the vegan perspective of meat eating.
Depends on the vegan. Some don't eat mean for moral reasons, some for health reasons, and some because their don't like it. You also have psychological factors. If you spent most of your life swearing how much you love your sprouts and you don't miss meat at all, you might feel the need to stick to your guns.
If millions of people use Reddit, then why does the top post of all time only have 38,000 upvotes?
Real answer: vote fuzzing. After a certain point the upvote totals are fabricated in an effort to combat spam. Also, to keep old posts, from when Reddit didn't have as many users, in the top scores. I saw a graph showing how the upvotes for a popular post changed over time and at 6-8000 it drops down to about 4000 before climbing again, and this repeats until people stop voting on it.
If we can bank online why can't we vote online?
Because voting is more important than personal banking. The average person will rarely be dealing in sums greater than maybe a few thousand dollars in their day-to-day banking. To a bank that's chump change and if they have to deal with a few cases of fraud a week because of the online system, but get far more business benefit out of the availability of online banking in that same time frame, they'll just deal with some fraud and potential loss of money from it. It's not that online banking is obscenely secure, it's that it's secure enough so as to be worth the bank's time. Voting is held to a higher standard. You can't say your reasoning for a new voting system is that dealing with fraudulent votes is worth it because it's a bit easier. Additionally there's everything people say about voting machines that comes into play: It involves extremely complex machines that the average person doesn't understand and even the average PhD of Computer Science can't really investigate to ensure the machine is not rigged or otherwise compromised readily. A piece of paper with a pen mark in a circle next to a name is extremely simple, and any literate person without vision-impairment can adequately judge what candidate was voted for. Around here each polling station has an elections official and a number of scrutineers - usually each party supplies one of their own - and they must all agree on who was voted for before counting the vote and putting the ballot in the 'counted' box. Almost any citizen can stand for their party in doing so by volunteering, and many do. This means that every single vote was vetted by a number of people from across the political spectrum. A machine that counts for you? Those can be subverted in a huge number of ways and one could swap out a certified machine with a compromised one and nobody would see the difference. In order to mess with the paper-ballot human-counter system you'd need to compromise a government official from the elections organization as well as usually 2 or 3 other people all of whom came from a different organization.
If price collusion is illegal, how does OPEC get away with setting the price of oil?
Price Collusion is illegal *in certain countries* like the US. OPEC is an international organization of governments the laws you are thinking of don't apply to them, and nobody is too put out by them as a general rule because they have really sucked at being a cartel. The members of OPEC are too back-stab happy to ever truly realize the potential of an oil cartel, so it's better just to let them be.OPEC is really barely a coherent organization these days. They only have 5 of the top 10 oil producing nations as members -- and one of those could easily fall out of the top 10 due to their war.
I've heard that leaving wall/phone chargers pluged in when not charging wastes power. What prevents them from shutting off automatically when not charging a device?
Phone chargers produce the voltage required by phones to charge using a certain technique that makes it hard to not use a bit of electricity even when there's nothing connected to the chargers - the charger has to be ready 24/7 for the phone. Think of the charger as a water faucet that tries to keep a bucket of water left in the sun filled to a certain threshold - as the bucket sits in the sun, a tiny amount water evaporates so every few minutes the faucet has to open up a bit to bring the level of water in the bucket to the wanted threshold and then go back and wait for someone to drink water from the bucket. The charger also has to be ready to open up really fast and pour large amounts of water in the bucket when someone suddenly starts to take big gulps of water from the bucket - if the water level drops too low, that someone can no longer reach the water and stops drinking until the faucet fills the bucket again, and that's bad. So the charger needs to have something inside monitoring the output cable and always staying prepared for a device to be connected at the end of the cable. To do this, the charger uses a tiny amount of energy from the mains, and this is usually under 0.1 watts every hour. If the charger uses 0.1 watts of power every hour, this means just leaving the charger plugged in the mains socket will waste about 2.5 watts in a day, or about 78 watts in a month or about 950 watts . If you check your electricity bill, you'll probably find that you're paying about 40-60 US cents for 1kWh , so leaving the charger plugged it and never unplugging it will cost you less than a dollar in a year. It's not a lot of power wasted, but if you have several such chargers or power adapters powering various devices around the house, and then you have hundreds of thousands of houses, you can see how the waste can add up.
How does my brain know to wake up just before my alarm goes off, especially on the morning of something important.
You're already partly awake after ~8 hours of sleep, and only if the alarm wakes you up fully do you have a memory of the preceding minutes. I just made that up, but it sounds plausible. This question would be better at /r/askscience.
How does electrical equipment ground itself out on the ISS? Wouldn't the chassis just keep storing energy until it arced and caused a big problem?
So I'm no expert but I would imagine that the total net charge aboard the ISS is zero, or very close to it. Just like in your car the frame would ground to the battery. It would then rely on the solar panels to keep the battery's charged. On a slightly different topic, do rockets heading into space build up a static charge when travel through the atmosphere??
How does banning revenge porn not contradict copyright laws?
The same reason that banning child pornography doesn't infringe on copyright. Certain classes of content can be restricted. The person who took the photos still retains the copyright, and if someone takes those photos without authorization, they can be sued for infringement. However, whether it is legal for you to share a copyrighted piece of content is far from universal. At this point in time, society has decided that revenge porn is not something it wants to tolerate. As a result, they have passed laws to restrict its commercial value.
Why is the US concerned that certain countries get nuclear weapon capabilities but it's OK we have it?
Let's say that you captured Mewtwo, one of the most powerful pokemon in the world. Now, you know that you'll use it responsibly; you've beaten the Elite Four and become the champion. But what if Team Aqua caught Kyogre? Sure, they might just want it to surf on, but Kyogre's power could be used for very destructive things. So you probably would try to prevent them from catching it.
Why do people pay so much for diamonds and gemstones? Do we really just like shiny rocks?
I don't know if this should be a top tier comment. However, this is a decent video to give you a little insight. _URL_0_ It's Adam ruins Everything. He does a show on diamonds.
How did punch card programming work?
It wasn't always one and zeros, sometimes it was letters and numbers, but that was the basic ideas. Computers were very different back then. A single computer might be shared between 100 people, and only one person could use it at a time. Computer time was so expensive, you couldn't just sit there one a text editor figuring out your code . You had to write your program by hand, convert it to punch cards, then had them off to an operator who would put them in a pile with the rest and run it through the computer hours later when it was your turn. The next day, you'd pick up a printout and try to figure out the stupid syntax error you made which ruined everything. Fun fact: If you didn't like someone, you would make a *lace card* and sneak it into their stack. A lace card had all the holes punched out so it would be too flimsy and jam up the reader.
How did the cameras that were used during the moon landing work? How were they able to broadcast relatively clear picture and sound from space, using 1960s technology?
The same tech that's behind the radio or local TV, or even WiFi today. Radio communication. Yes, it is really far away. Radio waves are actually really good at going far! Radio waves can't go as far on Earth because in order for the waves to get to you, they are going through buildings and even the Earth . That's why you can't connect to a radio station many miles away. But in space, you've got a straight shot all the way to home base with absolutely nothing but air in between. It makes radio communication quite easy, actually.
Why can humans live longer now than we could, say, 500 years ago?
Advances in medicine. Vaccination, hygiene, and aseptic techniques are big factors why people don't die out as quickly as before.Vaccines, antibiotics, and people not eating their own excrement. Those three things cause a huge improvement in life expectancyMedicine, in detecting, preventing, and curing diseases, has improved.
why haven't we evolved to find healthy food tasty?
We haven't had *time* to evolve much since we invented deep fryers and high fructose corn syrup and debilitatingly sedentary lifestyles. We evolved to survive in a given environment, and then meant eating fruit, roots, occasionally meat, and sometimes whatever you could find. We **evolved** to like what we need to *live*, calories , salt, meat, and to avoid bitter which usually means a poisonous plant. Our brains' reward pathways are also highjacked by junkfood."Unhealthy" things are actually vital. They used to be rare in nature, so people developed a craving for these rare, and vital elements . People eventually figured how to get unlimited amounts of these tasty things, and now we overload ourselves with them. That's why we have a problem with themBecause evolution works on a huge time scale, not on a scale of hundreds or even thousands of years. Finding foods "tasty" used to be an advantage. It no longer is. Another million years, and maybe we will all find snickers disgusting.
Why are hotel room air conditioners set to freezing temperatures and often left to run 24/7?
The ones you've visited were probably left that way from the renter before you. Its likely they cranked up the AC when they were going to sleep and then didn't change it in the morning when they left.
The most modern understanding of human evolution/origin?
Nope! Neanderthals were actually a branch of hominids which died out. I think you are a little mistaken on how evolution works. For one, it doesn't have goals or aims, it just does things that work in the moment. If a species needs to change color suddenly for some reason, it will either do so or it will die out, and most of the time they die out. The same happened to Neanderthals. They weren't able to survive as the world changed, possibly due to competition from us. It seems that the branch of hominids which eventually became us were able to breed with Neanderthals, but were also significantly smarter than them. In addition, evolution really cares about most common ancestors rather than lines of lineage. We aren't descended from Neanderthals , but we are both descended from a single common ancestor which lived somewhere in Africa several million years ago.Neanderthals were either another species of the *Homo* genus or a sub-species of Homo sapiens. They went extinct around 40,000 years ago. Genetic evidence seems to suggest that Neanderthals did interbreed with humans; something like 1 to 4 percent of genes of modern non-African humans come from Neanderthals.
How and why did Pokemon win the popularity contest against Digimon?
For me, the main parts were that Digimon really only had the anime going for it. The other parts such as the games were terrible and to this day Digimon World for the Playstation remains to be one of the most disappointing games I've ever bought. I feel like with Digimon you have to go down a list and choose which designs you actually like, whereas Pokemon you find yourself only choosing ones you don't. Many of the Digimon look either too complicated or look to angsty. I realize though that some people like that.
how a gas station can charge upwards of 40 cents more per gallon of gas than their competitors, and still survive?
It can depend on a few factors. Gas stations can either sell unbranded gas or branded gas, unbranded usually being cheaper. Unbranded fuel is the same exact product as branded fuel, without the advertised additives, at a less expensive price, and can be 5-15 cents lower than branded fuel. Gas station A may be a branded gas station such as Shell or BP while Kroger, Quiktrip, and RaceTrac benefit from selling cheaper, unbranded gas. There is actually a demand for branded fuel that's caused by people wanting fuel with additives in their cars and this is why you might see a branded station still surviving even though an unbranded station is selling gas much cheaper next door. Another reason why a station might sell gas for more is simply due to the price of gas going up suddenly. The station might have bought a load of gas at the newer, higher price from the supplier and decided not to lose money on that load by selling gas at the same price of a nearby station that is still selling gas from an older, cheaper load. Gas stations can also witness increased prices from their suppliers that are independent of the market price of gas and completely dependent on their gas contracts with the supplier. Usually suppliers tack on additional costs due to higher transport fees or unmet contractual obligations.Service and name brands. I typically end up going on to name brands with my work van because lower priced places like ARCO don't support the type of cards my work uses to pay for gas. Normally I wouldn't go to the lower priced ones anyway because a fair amount of the people are rude and the one I do go to is full service. A good number of people are "scared" that prices too low may also mean the gas is a lower quality and might damage their car over long term use. Also some places that are typically more expensive claim to have additives that help your car
how companies with employee stock purchase plans avoid insider trading.
Generally, it's not illegal to buy or sell stock in the company you work for. The laws just restrict how and when you can do so -- for example, when you do substantial sales, they require you to publicly declare the trades you want to do well in advance.
how so many African countries got so politically screwed up?
So as you likely know the European colonists were nasty people who treated their African colonies terribly. What is really important though wasnt simply them taking away all their stuff, because Africa's land still has alot of stuff they could sell. it was also because Africa is a land that is extremely ethnically complex *), and when the colonists left all these different people tried to group in to big countries, leaving one ethnic group in charge and the other one in to submit. Obviously, this ticks of the second group and they start a revolution. Another huge factor that perpetuates this cycle is the usual end for the leaders of different revolutions, which is exile in Monaco where theier biggest fear is their Mojito being served without enough mint. This causes tribal leaders to start rebellions and take power with ppurely selfish motives.Source- BA in International Studies, _URL_0_ *each shape on the map is a different ethnic/tribal group, each of with BUT WAIT THERES MORE! Foreign aid is also said to have more of a negative than positive impact, because whoever happens to be in power will use it only to help friends/family/fellow tribesmen. [this book] actually explains that phenomena incredibly well I highly recommend it
Why when its 70 degrees outside, you feel warm, but when your in water that is 70 degrees, you get cold?
Your body feels hot or cold based on how much heat energy is being transferred from your body to the environment . Water is a better thermal conductor than air, and it conducts heat about twenty times more quickly than water. Water also holds more heat energy. We measure this with 'specific heat'. Specific heat is basically a measurement of how much energy needs to be added to a gram of a material to change its temperature by one degree celcius. The specific heat of water is over five times the specific heat of air. You lose much more energy by being in 70 degree water than you do in air. Thermal conductivity - _URL_0_ Specific Heat - _URL_1_
can someone ELI5 why it is often said that schools kill creativity/thinking out side the box/thinking differently and if there is a way to counteract this in adulthood?
Schools, or at least Public Education is primarily a result of the industrial revolution. The idea was to give children an education so that they were prepared to start work in factories and trades. The model and structure of schooling hasn't really changed much over 150 years. The end goal has changed, entry to University or College, but it still has a monolithic view of what the purpose is.schools by definition indoctrinate which is the exact opposite of creativity. They test and grade you on how well you remember and recite EXACTLY what you are told. The better teachers out there actually teach students how to think but they are few and far between.
Can someone please help me understand why the International Energy Agency as well as the authors of these articles want the future price of oil to be higher?
I think it's to do with the fact that higher prices means less sales and therefore less oil burned and causing global warming. Also since oil supplies are finite, they want to have oil available in the future to sell.
Why are shark teeth I find on the beach always black, but when they are in a living shark they are white? Why are there no white shark teeth on the beach?
There are are fossilized shark's teeth in [Peace River, FL], that you can legally hunt for. I've done it before and found some cool stuff. Its a fun activity. Millions of years ago Florida was actually entirely under water.
How are Subtitles created with errors?
I do closed captioning on small budget movies sometimes. In my case, it may be a typo or I might not hear the actor clearly. Source: No source, I'm on mobile
How is the environment affected if we draw enough energy from the sun through solar power for the entire planet?
Energy used by humans is so much smaller than the total energy hitting the Earth that it's completely negligible
Why Don't Airplanes Have Interior Cameras Like Buses, Trains, Etc?
Because they have the identity of every single person on a plane and a surveillance system would mean unnecessary weight. Planes doesn't like it heavy.My guess would be 1) airline passengers go through security before getting on, and actual crime is virtually non-existent on a plane compared to a bus, and 2) airlines aren't public transportation. If the crew says you're being an ass and kick you off for any reason, that's their right. Cameras wouldn't stop people from complaining, or news stations reporting on the "controversy"', "Everyone's missing the point. The law. That's the only real reason. State by state video taping and sound recording laws change. Think of how many states they fly to. Now think of countries. The law. Cost is irrelevant to United and all the others. Your cameras are pocket change.
What does 'raising awareness' for a disease actually do?
There are a lot of different motivations to raise awareness. In addition to funding, goals around raising awareness might also include: - Encouraging early recognition to people have a better chance to seek medical help. In many cases, how quickly someone starts treatment can make a huge different and can save lives.- Educating the public and demystifying or challenging false information. An example of this is the advertising campaigns about superbugs, with the goal of education people on the differences between viruses and bacteria and maybe stopping people from pestering their doctor for antibiotics every time they get the damn sniffles.- Challenging stigma. You can see this angle in a lot of mental heath-related campaigns.- Related to stigma, simply humanizing illnesses, which both counters stigma and encourages people to seek help.- Building pro-health behaviours. Getting vaccines, washing your hands often, staying home when you're sick, that sort of thing.The "Ice Bucket Challenge" from two years ago was to raise awareness for ALS, a disease most people weren't familiar with. Because of that campaign, almost everyone knows what it is now, and donations for research went up more than 1000 fold.
Why do some people with type 1 diabetes need to eat sugar if their pancreas still releases glucagon which releases sugar back into the body?
Insulin drives glucose out of the blood into cells for storage. If too much insulin is administered then there is too little glucose in the blood and the diabetic starts to feel unwell, tired and eventually slips into a coma. Eating some sugary food helps to instantly boost that sugar level. Ideally this never happens as people get the insulin dose right but it can be difficult particularly when people are growing, exercising, ill or when you're dosing for a longer period of time eg before sleeping.
Why do some people in mental institutions refuse to take their medication?
Often, people who have been taking medication for some time will start to feel better and decide that they are cured and don't therefore need to take their medication any more, without rationalising that it was the medication that made them feel this way. This is a significant problem in the treatment of mental illness.
How operating a semi truck transmission differs to that of a manual car.
I can't go into the mechanics of the transmission but I can go through the steps of shifting. For my truck on the shifter there is 2 switches one for super low and the other is the high / low. With a load I engage the super low switch push the clutch in and put it in 1 gear this is the only time you use the clutch. you get the truck rolling to the right speed and rpm then shift to the next gear, continue shifting up to 5th gear then disengage the super low switch and shift back into 1st gear when speed and rpm are right flick the high/low switch to high and let off the gas and it will shift to 1st high, then when you need to shift put the high/low switch back to low and shift to 2nd gear continue up through the gears. if the truck is empty for the most part you skip the super low and start out in 1st normal and most of the time you can skip switching the high/low and just leave it in high or low as you shift through the gears", '10 speed 1,2,3,4,5 splitter 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Double clutching to shiftClutch in slightly, pull out of gear, clutch out, clutch in slightly, into next highest or lowest gear, clutch out, apply throttle. Float gear shiftingWait for rpm to hit around 14-1500 rpm, pull gear out and reapply next highest gear. When downshifting around 900-1100 rpm pull out of gear, apply slight throttle to raise rpm before putting back into lower gear. . Hi and low apply for 13/18 speeds . There are videos that can explain them alot better than text ever can on YouTube. 18 speeds are really overkill on most highway trucks. They are typically used by heavy haulers. Synchro mesh in the US, do not know why other than maybe cost.
How does a city/town actually get started? Are new cities still being created in the US?
Most towns have started for a specific reason. New York was because of the ideal harbor that surrounded it. New Orleans for the port at the mouth of the Mississippi. Traditionally, most of these purposes have been transportation-based. Water routes in the Colonial period of America, Railways in the 1800's, today it's usually highways. Today there are towns popping up near strategic resources. These are primarily natural gas and shale oil work sites. This is becoming increasingly common in the Dakota's and parts of Canada. This isn't that far from the past either, with the 1849 Gold Rush contributing to building San Francisco and numerous other cities.
How does instating a new currency stop hyperinflation?
By itself, it won't, as already mentioned. The best example of how to do such a change comes from Brazil, with the [Plano Real] . For an accessible explanation of how they achieved that, have a listen to the NPR Planet Money podcast, [How Fake Money Saved Brazil] .It will only stop when you use an external currency as your currency. So using the US Dollar, UK pound or EU Euro, this works because these currencies have a stable value. However in a country that has hyperinflation getting hold of large amounts new foreign currency is difficult.
Traditionally we think of batteries as having a very short life span. How are the new Battery power plants like the one in Australia by Elon Musk going to last a profitable amount of time?
When a battery doesn't have to be small, cool, light, or portable, you can make design choices that make it last longer instead of those attributes. You may not be old enough to remember, but car batteries used to last just a year or so. But the technology in the actual battery was largely the same; the difference comes from better charging circuitry in modern cars. With a well-understood and controlled load like grid power, you can make additional beneficial design decisions.
Why do insects not see spider webs and fly into them?
Insects like flies usually have compound eyes, and each eye sees only one colored dot, which means they see everything around them, but very pixellated. Now imagine an old game, with very low resolution. You can easily see where the issues appear. Things at a distance that might be smaller than one pixel are impossible to make out, but so are things up close that are smaller than one pixel. So it's not hard to imagine how a spider web would be difficult to see, until it's too late. The entire web might be large, but a single string is not thicker than one pixel.
Why is it more acceptable to make fun of people eating healthy (organic, vegan) but not ok to make fun of obese people eating unhealthy?
Want me to pump your veins with butter?". Then you're not looking very hard.Because you're making fun of the obese person's body indirectly. When others poke fun at your eating habits, it might stem from insecurity about their own eating habits OR more likely they think it's dumb to be hyper conscious of what you consume
What do AntiCheatSystems in games look for while allowing harmless mods (in singleplayer), but banning harmful hacking (in multiplayer)?
It simply won't even bother with singleplayer. It's there to find hacks in online gaming, so it won't even launch in singleplayer. Mod and hack are pretty similar actually, they somehow change the behavior of the game. But mods are allowed as they are there for people to screw around in sp. Hacks are mods for multiplayer, that will affect other players than just the user, usually by giving the user some advantages. We don't want to play against people with these advantages, so anticheats try to get rid of hackers.
Why is mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients considered a taboo/right wing nutjob idea?
By holding them to conditions like this, then we are treating the condition of poverty like it is crime it's treats them like a parolee. And we don't hold executives of companies who get government contracts or tax incentives, etc. to such standards when they get gov't benefits.
Why snakes don't bite people who hold them by the tail.
Snakes aren't very bright - they don't realize that the leg and the thing holding their tail are the same animal.
Why do the extra minutes of sleep after waking up in the morning feel amazing?
I got to a point in high school where I enjoyed this feeling so much, I'd actually set an alarm for, say, 2am, just so I would wake up and know that I still had five more hours to sleep.