Datasets:
Rahmaa
/
eli5_final

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
Community
query
stringlengths
8
249
answer
stringlengths
45
7.8k
How do grocery stores prevent thefts when they have a self-checkout option?
I'm not sure if it's the same everywhere, but where I go there is always someone supervising the self checkouts, usually one person for about 8 tills, watching to make sure you don't pocket anything or to help out if the machine has problems. Secondly, the area where you place your shopping as you bag it detects weight, so say you were buying a magazine and only scanned one but tried sneaking a second one in at the same time as you bagged the first one, an error message will come up on the screen usually saying something like 'unexpected item in bagging area' and you can't continue until the assistant manning the tills will come over to check what it is ", 'If you're going to steal something, waiting until you're at the checkout is too late. Brining your own cloth or "green bag", you enter with things already in the bag because you 've been out shopping. No one thinks twice when you put things in it while in the aisles. At the checkout when you select "use own bag" it will detect weight but then essentially set it to zero. Any discrepancies and you say you bought those items elsewhere. Can only be proven by looking at CCTV.The weight system, they also have an associate to monitor everyone. Truth is, people rarely steal under these conditions. If they *think* they are being watched that it is enough to prevent most people from stealing. However this doesn't prevent every theft. As far as the actual thefts, it is less expensive to lose that small amount of merchandise as opposed paying 4 employees to stand and scan items for 8 hours a day.
Why Bertrand Russell needed such a long formula to prove that 1+1=2
2" or "=" - he set out to create it all from scratch. When he finally got to the point where you could prove "1+1=2", pointing it out is sort of a joke.
The Greek referendum and results
Someone tell me if this is accurate . Greece has a lot of debt that they currently cannot repay. Greece is asking lenders for more money to bail them out. Lenders are willing to lend Greece money only if Greece imposes further austerity measures that will further contract the economy. Lenders believe that these measures increase the probability that Greece will be able to repay the loans. Greece does not want to further contract their economy since many people already have no jobs and old people with lose their pensions. The Greek referendum means that Greece has voted NO on the austerity measures. This means that they are not accepting the lenders' terms. If the terms are not negotiated, then Greece will receive no bailout and they will default. The lenders will lose the total value of the previous loans. Greece will likely have to start printing their own currency, since they cannot print the Euro, in order to run the country . The more money you print, the less its value. And unfortunately Greece is a net importer, so a weak currency is not desirable.
Why do some people "run hot" while others "run cold?"
I have often wondered the same thing. My Dad is hot, Mum is cold and my younger sister is cold as well. We always assumed it was hereditary, but never gave it much more thought. Any correlation with month of birth? My Dad and I were both born in winter, my Mum and Sister both born in Spring? That's the only thing that correlates. /shrug
Why/how are bacteria adapting and becoming resistant to antibiotics? What can be done about it?
Evolution. There will always be some bacteria in any one population that have some mutation that makes them more resistant to a certain antibiotic. If these are the ones to survive a round of antibiotics, the next generation will be more resistant, until they're invulnerable. Solutions are not to take antibiotics unless absolutely necessary and, if absolutely necessary, to not stop the treatment early, even if you feel better, in order to ensure that no bacteria are left.
What is making unisex bathrooms an issue?
A lot people believe that it's cause for rape and other sexual assaults. Since there is no camera in there, they won't be able to know if anything happens and there is private stalls for somebody to be drug into or used.
How does snapchat make money?
The Snapchat company itself is funded by Venture Capital firms who throw money at startups - which is what Snapchat is still considered to be. A company's valuation is not how much its worth this very second, but is valued purely for potential, and potential alone. The main value attributed to it at the moment is its MASSIVE userbase. In its seed round it raised $485,000. Before that it would have relied purely on bank loans or money from personal sources. In July 2013 it raised another $60m on round B of investment funding, and another $50m on round C. That's how they pay their staff now and make their money.
What makes nordic countries so rich and healthy?
Scandinavian countries actually aren't particularly wealthy by first-world standards. Other than resource-rich Norway, they all have PPP-adjusted per-capita GDPs that lag about 20% behind the top-tier non-energy economies like the US, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Switzerland. Crediting socialism for the success of Scandinavian countries makes no sense when they're less successful than the highly capitalist economies of Hong Kong and Singapore. It's also worth noting that despite their sky-high personal taxes, the Scandinavian countries tend to treat foreign investors reasonably well . This is more important than it may seem at first; investment is one of the key drivers of productivity, so as long as the government keeps corporate taxes low, they can bleed the domestic rich dry and rely on foreign investors to pick up the slack.As I understand it, they have a huge amount of oil relative to their population and were more or less unscathed by WW2. The high per capita income of their initially oil-led economies allowed for strong social democratic programs which coupled with a counter-cyclical budgetary system allowed them to build a strong social safety net during boom times while saving away for the bust. Additionally, as others have said, the relative homogeneity of the countries causes little political or economic instability and allows the better-off to see their national less-fortunate as very similar to themselves.Small homogenous cultures with strong shared values including celebration of education and work ethic. And fucktons of oil .
Why you can call emergency numbers like 911 without a sim?
GSM has a built in 'emergency call' flag - when you make an emergency call it literally just sends an 'Emergency call' code to any/all available GSM towers. That tower is supposed to do everything within it's power to 'answer' that emergency call and route it correctly to emergency services - this includes dropping all other cell traffic if necessary.Basically it doesn't matter whether you have a sim or not when you call 911, because technically it doesn't use the 'normal' cell phone service.how is it that you can make a 911 call without service? if you are using other networks it would seem that it would make sense that the cell companies would work line traditional companies and just pay for the use of the tower for the call. That way they could utilize each other eqquipment and have a larger coverage area.
How did J.R.R. Tolkien come to create two Elvish languages (Quenya and Sindarin) with such sophistication and consistency that it can be spoken fluently?
the ELI5 reason is that he was a genius. Many people here are right, Sindarin and Quenya are based on welsh and finnish. And Tolkien was one of the most talented linguists of his generation. The anecdote that I've heard about Tolkien sums up on what level he could handle languages. He was raised Catholic so the school he went to was run by nuns. He was preparing for a talent show in the school working on giving a speech in ancient greek. A couple of days before the performance one of the nuns thinks he would like to take a look at some old gothic texts as well. For the performance he gave a perfect oration of the speech he had been working on and greatly impressed the other students and teachers. He then went into a second speech, in perfect gothic, surprising everyone.
Why is breakfast the only meal where it's socially acceptable to only eat a dessert? (Doughnuts, pancakes, cinnamon rolls, muffins, etc.)
Edit: why is breakfast the only meal in AMERICA where it's socially acceptable to only eat dessert?", 'Goddamnit, I feel American for saying this When the fuck did pancakes become dessert?', "It's not really socially acceptable in England.. well not to people I know. I guess pancakes is okay but I don't think you'd eat it regularly.. and I suppose people do eat Starbucks & muffins etc but most people I know would think that's like a once a week/one off sort of treat because it's just so unhealthy.But we do eat a butt load of sugary cereals instead!!", 'Anthropologist here. Short story American breakfast used to be hearty and full of all food groups. The invention of cereal led to breakfast becoming the small, quick, convenient carb heavy meal that we know today. It is also a product of cultural norms. As an asian, breakfast is usually leftovers that can be rice, soup, meat, etc*You*, OP, need to start counting dessert as a meal.Furthermore, why is breakfast the only meal where it's socially acceptable to eat the same thing every day? Eat the same thing for breakfast every day, and nobody bats an eyelid. Eat the same thing for dinner two nights in a row, and EVERYONE LOSES THEIR MIND!
Why the people who were responsible for 2008 financial crisis are not behind bars? How did they beat the system?
The short answer is that they didn't beat the system, what they did was completely legal within the system at the time The slightly longer answer is that no individual did anything that wasn't within the law, only the corporations as a whole engaged in activities that were questionable. The problem is that the corporations aren't physical people who can be put in jail, they can only be fined or shut down- and shutting down a large corporation is rarely a good idea since it often impacts hundreds of innocent people- particularly when that corporation is a large financial institution that handles the money of hundreds of thousands of people otherwise uninvolved in the actions of that corporation.
Why do fizzy or sour drinks sometimes cause a sharp pain in the hinge of your jaw?
Your salivary glands are freaking out to wash the 'dangerous' acid out of your mouth.Wow..I 've been calling this "fruit cheek" my whole life because when I was a kid this would happen when I ate certain fruits and I couldn't explain it any betterI have no idea about fizzy or sour drinks doing this. Is it similar to the feeling you get with a gulp of wine?Is this that sharp pain that happens right under the tongue near where that tendon attaches the tongue to your mouth? Almost feels like someone is taking a knife and trying to slice it off.I have this only when I drink alcohol, and only sometimes. Internet says first bite syndrome, alcohol sensitivity, or hodgkin's lymphoma. Hope it is first bite!", 'Is there a reason iv never experienced this? All the comments make it seem vary naturalIts your salivary glands trying to produce more saliva and contracting. Interestingly, Doctors will actually prescribe both antibiotics and sour candy or lemon/lemon juice to flush the salivary glands in the event they become infected.I'm glad to see I'm not the only person this happens to. Thank you for explaining why this happens as well!
If Reddit is such a diverse internet community, how do most controversial opinions get heavily downvoted and completely silenced?
Reddit isn't very diverse. Young white males who are atheist/agnostic and liberal/libertarian are dominant.Youtube pushes controversial posts to the top deliberately. Reddit pushes comments which are upvoted to the top deliberately. None of this has anything to do with diversity, it's just a different algorithm for sorting comments. You can accomplish a similar thing on Reddit by setting your default sort to controversial. There probably would be fewer "crazy" opinions on reddit though because those posts are normally driven by a desire for an audience, and since reddit defaults sorts to "Hot" or "Top" those people don't normally get as much of an audience, even if some people could see them by sorting by controversialDiverse is not the adjective I would use for a wretched hive like reddit. There is a big bias on this website against theists, right-wing, and capitalism leaning views. People do not want to engage in active dialog or shed light on something when you can just as easily silence/bury it with down votes.Just because Reddit as a whole is diverse, doesn't mean the membership of a single subreddit is also going to be diverse or open to that controversial opinion. Subreddits often have a very specific audience and not every opinion needs to be entertained.
Why does FM radio sound better than AM?
AM sends signal via changing the amplitude of signal.FM sends signal via changing the frequency of signal. Power of a signal decreases with square of distance, but frequency content does not change. Longer the distance, lower the amplitude gets and more comparable with fixed magnitude noise the signal becomes. But you can still recover the signal from signal's frequency as long as the amplitude doesn't drop below a critical level and the quality of signal that you recovered from FM signal is still better than fixed magnitude noise.
Why do we find it funny/amusing when people get hurt on TV or the Internet?
> Turing: Do you know why people like violence, Hugh?it's because it feels good.
Why income tax increases by the amount of money you make.
First, there are different broad categories of taxation, known as progressive, regressive and flat. Progressive means you pay a bigger percentage if you earn more. Regressive means you pay a smaller percentage if you earn more. Flat means everyone pays the same percentage. So, tax doesn't necessarily have to increase by the amount of money you make. As far as why a progressive system is generally preferred to other systems, the logic is simple: * Someone who makes $20,000 a year generally spends all their income on the cost of living . In other words, this person doesn't have much disposable income. So, when I take 10% away from this person, I'm actually taking money out of their food, rent, or electricity budget. For this person, a very small tax percentage turns out to be a very large real-world deduction. * Someone who makes $1,000,000 a year generally spends a relatively low percentage of their income on the cost of living. After all, they can very likely buy a house and car outright instead of needing to make payments. So, their only ongoing expense is on food and utilities and they *still* have $500,000 left over to spend on fancy clothes or whatever. So, if I take away 50% of their money, they don't really notice a big difference in their lifestyle, if any. You could theoretically tax this person at 90% and they still wouldn't be in a position where they'd have to skip meals or miss a utility payment. For this person, even a very large tax percentage turns out to be a rather small real-world deduction.
Why is the government quicker to give me 100K for a student loan but not 100K to start a business?
Over 90% of businesses fail within their first 10 years. Basically the government has a 10% chance of getting their money back, because, unless you're stupid, you took out the loan in your companies name. And your company is an LLC. So, consider the fact that there's a 90% chance that the money won't be paid back, and you can only go after company assets which in all likelihood will be worth significantly less now that they've been used, it's pretty much a losing battle. However with student loans, it's directly to the person, there is no way around that. You will owe that money until it's paid off or you die. And there's a decent chance you will be able to pay it all back. Not that it won't really hurt your future to do so. But you will be able to. The odds of them getting their 100k back is close to 98%, and the odds of them getting over 100k back from you is about 85%. So they net a profit.
Why is the word "lose" misspelled "loose" so frequently on the internet.
No, you didn't miss anything, they just don't know how to spell. Since the red spell checker squiggle line doesn't come up, they don't think they spelled anything wrong.Its my #1 misspelling pet peeve. And its common everywhere. Loosers.Combination of a lack of self education and not giving a shit. Also There, Their and They're, and let's not forget Your and You're. People don't want to know correct spelling or grammar. They've decided that it's not important. As long as they can get their point across to the rest of the people that can't spell, that's good enough for them.
How did Felix Baumgartner break the sound barrier?
so he broke the barrier in the vacuum. I suppose there's no sonic boom in a vacuum?
Why do YouTube videoes uploaded at 1080p and and downgraded to 480p look much better than those shot at a native 480p?
It's not the resolution. The technology for the image-sensors that do the actual capturing has improved greatly since the days of PAL/NTSC. Imaging-sensors these days are faster, more accurate, more power-efficient and less prone to noise. This means that even while the resolution is the same as for the 'native' PAL/NTSC recording devices/cameras, the more modern cameras will be able to record those pixels with greater efficiency and better signal-to-noise ratios, resulting in better overall image-quality. Of course, the same holds when recording at 1080p and 'downgrading' the resolution back to 480p, as you will still be using the modern sensor with the better signal-to-noise ratio.
You have my full name and my social security number, what can you do to me?
If you've been employed in the United states for 10 years and are over 65, sign you up for a doctor's appointment. If I get your schedule, I could even choose a date and time that would be convenient for you. Or perhaps, inconvenient!
If Nixon abused his office so blantently, why did President Ford pardon him without fear of looking corrupt?
Apparently Ford believed it necessary to maintain tranquility in the nation following the scandals and nearly unprecedented removal of Nixon from office. To really understand that, you have to consider the culture of the times. The office of Presidency had a lot of national pride invested in it, people were generally still more trusting of government on the whole, for better or worse and usually worse in the case of Nixon. Many people didn't believe it would be possible to give Nixon a fair trial and they well may have been right. The idea was going to be that if Nixon was to go to trial it would have to take place more than a year after he left office. Ford has stated that he believes the impeachment itself was punishment enough, and that for a president to go to trial would somehow lessen the office. I, and many others argue that it was the pardon of a known criminal which damaged the office of the president as it demonstrated the possible reality of the fear that there really are two sets of laws in this nation: One for you and me, and one for the rich and powerful. The funny part is, failing that one blunder, Ford was likely the most honest and decent person to sit in the Oval Office in living memory.
The difference between mtDNA vs nuclear DNA
The mitochondria have their own DNA, so no, they don't share any DNA with you. They also have single, circular chromosomes which suggests that at some point in the way distant past they were bacteria that entered a symbiotic relationship with our single-celled ancestors. They mtDNA in your mother and siblings would be almost identical because your mother passes on physical mitochondria to you via her eggs. However, mitochondrial DNA has high mutation rates so the DNA wouldn't be identical.
Why don't we have a powerful router which would cover entire neighborhood and provide hundreds of device Internet? What's stopping manufacturers to design it?
If you are referring to wireless routers, they already exist, but manufacturers are balancing performance with cost as always. If you pay the money, you can have a super powered router but remember, your device has to be able to send data back to it too. It's far cheaper and easier to install a number of smaller coverage routers than one huge one.
How can a layperson tell whether a police/FBI/government badge or ID is authentic?
You can't. Give me a couple days on eBay and a laser printer, and I'll give you badge that looks authentic enough to fool most people. However, impersonating a law enforcement officer is a very serious crime, and not terribly common. The harm cause by people refusing lawful requests because they don't believe the person is legit exceed that caused by complying with a fake.
Why was Chernobyl so much worse than other nuclear disasters?
Chernobyl. Reactor had a power excursion which caused a steam explosion. No containment. Core material ejected directly to the atmosphere. Core fire to the atmosphere for days. Fukushima. Had containment. Reactors were shut down for hours to days. Containment a mostly intact. No fire . The containment makes a huge difference.everyone answers by comparing fukushima. can someone explain chernobyl vs hiroshima and nagasaki pls. i came to eli5 also to ask this but this thread was here.
Why are heterosexual females more attracted to their own sex than heterosexual males are attracted to theirs?
I'm wondering if Ruby Rose brought this question on ?", 'I 'd say this is more of a societal thing and confirmation bias. You're more likely to accept/hear about girl on girl. I'm gay and go to the gay subreddits often I hear/read stories of guys being incidentally gay like girls are. I read about guys who messed with their pal in their teens, or occasionally going to bathhouses when the misses is away but swearing up and down their straight but just want easy sex and don't care if its male, or just messing with their frat brother. On craigslist M4M there's also lot's of "discreet only M4M, young, curious". Sure some might be fantasy/liars but I have to imagine a portion are true. Furthermore this makes it seem like they hide it, why? Probably because traditionally a man is ostracized for being feminine and being with a man is a feminine trait. Of course this is becoming less and less true in the U.S. at leastcultural reasons, mostly. It's accepted that girls will \'experiment\' with girls at some point but for boys to do the same is not considered \'cool\'. I suspect that just as many boys are at least a little bit curious as girls are but for various reasons don't act on that curiosity as much. Further confirmation of this cultural bias is actually in the OP; you called guys watch M/M as "gay porn" but girls watching G/G as just "porn".That sort of subtle difference is what Im talking about really. I don't think a young man watching M/M porn automatically makes him gay, in much the same was a young woman watching G/G porn isn't necessarily gay, but we tend to assume and assign labels
Why is 2.71828183 so important it's known as e and not just 2.71828183?
Do you know any calculus? There's a special operation in calculus called *differentiation*. It takes a function of x and turns it into a different, related function of x. e is a special number because the function e^x is its own derivative. When you differentiate it, it doesn't change.There are two separate questions here that need to be addressed separately: **Why is 2.71828183 known as *e*?** *e* is not actually 2.71828183. It is an irrational number, which means that the numbers after the decimal point go on forever without repeating. This means that the number *e* can never be written down in decimal form, so if we want to identify it we need to use a symbol. **Why is the symbol *e* used to represent the irrational number that starts with 2.71828183?** *e* is Napier's Constant, a.k.a. Euler's Number . Its properties make it useful in numerous areas of mathematics, including trigonometry and calculus. It was called *e* to honor Euler^1. --- 1. [_URL_3_]', "Almost all of electrical engineering uses [Euler's identity]. In addition to e, it even uses pi, and i Basically, one of the major uses for this is is to show signals can be broken into a bunch of sines and cosines. And using the Fourier Transform multiple signals can be broken into each individual signal. The spectrum analyzer does this in real time as high as 100 GHz, although I uses spec ans that go up to 40 GHz. These instruments only cost about $40k.
Does all the money in the world have a physical counterpart (notes and coins)?
here's a video that explains how the bank creates money_URL_2_", 'Bitcoins are an entire currency that has no physical counterpart.
What is Occupy Wall Street's theory of justice (their philosophy)?
Perhaps John Rawls [A Theory of Justice]? The main theme of OWS is that the system is skewed in favor of the wealthiest sect of society, to the detriment of the less-advantaged members of society. Rawls' theory boils down to two principles: Everyone should have equal freedom, and society should be set up to help the least-advantaged members of society. Rawls argues that if we help the most disadvantaged members of society, it will raise the standard of living for *everyone*. His main point is that the system should not favor the 1%, so I'm sure his theory would ring well with a lot of OWS people, but this is pasting a philosophical theory onto a grass-roots movement, and I doubt it was at the forefront of people's minds during the movement.
How did Jordan maintain relative stability during and after the Arab Spring, and how is Jordan still maintaining the relative stability with the state the Middle East is in right now?
They are a US ally w US military hardware and US intelligence services feeding them info. It also helps they don't gas or bomb their own population.
What would nebula look like put in a glass jar and brought to earth?
Emptiness. The particles in a nebula are insanely far apart - they just look like a single cloud to us because they're soooo huge and we're soooo far away.
Why does stretching feel so much better right before you go to sleep and right after you wake up?
I've heard that stretching brakes so called fascia wich form between your muscle fibers and cause you to get stiff. That's why old people get stiff if they don't strech and excercise.Stretching feels good because it's important for your health and the body rewards that.
We produce enough food to feed everyone. Why do ~25,000 people die of hunger each day?
A bunch of places in the world are terrible for political reasons. Places like North Korea and Venezuela have food shortages because the governments there are socialist/communist and they don't respect people's rights. In other places, there are very weak or non-existent governments that can't protect people's rights. Those places are torn by war, either between countries or gangs/tribes of people. In both cases, you have countries where the governments are not doing what governments should do . People don't starve to death in free or mostly free countries.
Where did composition notebooks get their classic "splotched" front cover design from?
I feel like this might be an /r/askreddit question more than ELI5.. or some other subreddit, I'm not sure which one though!
Why aren't all military uniforms/apparel bulletproof?
That would be a world of suck. An IBA with front and back plates for a person my size, 5'11, 185, weighs about 20-25lbs. Those plates cover basically just the lower half of your chest down to the upper half of your stomach and about the same amount of area on your back. So it's a relatively small area. They make side plates, and you could prob use plates on your thighs and shins, so that's already a lot of weight. Start adding thinner protective layers of pants and shirts to cover all the other areas in between, then tack on some heavy ass boots. Grab a full camelback, a couple canteens, a couple hundred rounds of ammo, a weapon grenades, ifak, etc,
Why does it seem like race relations in the US have gotten a lot worse over the last 5 years? What has changed? Or am I just getting older and noticing it now?
President Obama has enabled a number of prominent race baiters and continues to promulgate the 'victimization' view of race in US. He's been a good president overall, but on racial issues he has played to his base and caused a lot of problems. Regional issues have become national issues. The media has found that there is good easy money to be made following this narrative. White people will always be scared of the black mob taking away their property, raping their wives, and stealing their daughters. Black people are fed a diet of 'the white man is keeping me down'. The media runs on fear. It's really is as simple as that. Things really aren't that much worse given the number of people in the United States. People are also naturally a little racist in both communities. I think the best solution would be President Obama being very clear that many of these brutality incidents occur because people act like idiots around police officers instead of playing to the victimization echo chamber.
This cartoon about location and momentum (_URL_0_)
Heisenberg's famous uncertainty principle states that you can't know the location *and* momentum of any given particle at the same time. The more accurate reading you get of its position the fuzzier its momentum becomes. As a side note, there's an entire [website] for explaining xkcd jokes.
How come bullet shells dont get stuck in the gun barrel after firing?
When you're shooting a revolver the casing never enters the barrel, it stays within the cylinder. To extract the cartridge you have to push the extractor rod into the cylinder which forces the shell out. The shells are kinda stuck, you have to apply some force to get them out. They won't all just fall out if you invert the cylinder the way they do in videogames.
The World Health Organization has classified alcohol as a Group 1 carcinogen. Why is it allowed to be advertised to consumers?
Processed meats and engine exhaust are also on the list. It's pretty worthless and has nothing to do with US law.
Did Obama just promise a manned mission to Mars?
It is already planned :) Well, not planned. That's misleading. They're currently making the framework for it: human returns to LEO, fully sustainable pods/facilities, studying Mars for climate/soil components, planning a secondary base in Space from which to build interplanetary ships and as an in situ space port, and planning a road map for human missions to Mars.
What will happen if America never pays off their massive debt?
Economics is very, very complicated and cannot be condensed easily. Even economists will tell you they don't fully understand economics. But the short answer, like everyone said, is nothing will really happen. Them main reason is both simple yet highly complicated: the debt doesn't really exist, not in any way that matters.Think of this in business terms. Every business has debt. Even Exxon, the richest of the rich, has debt. I do business as an independent contractor with big companies and they owe me money all the time. TL;DR - Nothing will happen, America will always have debts.The world will get very very angry with you, and they'll write you a letter telling you how angry they are.
Why is needing to pee such a strong impulse when compared, for example, to hunger, that in your dreams you actually dream of needing to pee and not of being hungry?
I grew up pretty poor and spent many months as a homeless teenager. If you are not having dreams of being hungry, it is because you may not have had a bad enough experience with hunger, but believe me, these dreams do exist. Everyone knows what it is like to hold a pee for too long, a lot of people may not know what it's like to eat once every few days.
Rome coliseum, what are the walls in the ground made for?
What you see is the basement. There used to be a wooden floor covered with sand that the gladiators fought on that covered it. That's where the various animals were kept until they were raised into the arena via a special elevator. I took the tour last year
Why does drinking salt water cause dehydration, but when you go to the hospital for dehydration they give you an IV of saline, a solution that contains salt?
In your body, water likes to follow salt until they're are evenly matched . If you drink salt water the water has to come out of your cells to go to where all this new salt is to balance it out. Saline is whats called 'isotonic' so it's the same concentration of salt as the rest of you. Your internal water doesnt have to go anywhere to balance it out.
Why does time perception change as you get older?
I've noticed since my daughter was born that time seemed to go into warp speed because I'm always busy now.
What's to stop someone from broadcasting a radio frequency that is already taken by a local station?
I assume that's why at night when your station turns into Mexican radio it's because they don't comply with FCC. I don't know why it seems to happen only at night either. Someone needs to ELI5.Physically, nothing. Nothing at all. That said, there are people who will be upset by it, and will track it down and turn it in. That then leads to five-digit fines and potentially jail time.Now what's really interesting is if you did this on the 2.4ghz spectrum with a big enough transmitter you'd shutdown wireless networks citywide. They'd probably also charge you with terrorism.Someone actually does this on a small scale on the interstate by our house. AM station randomly turns to Bluegrass for a very short distance.Triangulating and finding the source is fast. Once they have the equipment in place, they'll do it in minutes. Remember, the military does stuff like that all the time, so the technology is well known. The same goes, by the way, if you set up an unauthorised cell phone repeater to boost reception at your home. Know a guy who, within a day, had people knocking on his door, asking him to shut it down. He quickly did, apologized and was lucky it ended there.
Why is a virus not considered to be a living thing?
I'll explain as if you're really five. You know how a sock-puppet isn't alive and can't even imitate something that's alive unless you stick your hand in it? Viruses are kind of the same. Your cells are basically very complex little factories and the virus needs them to imitate life the same way that a sock-puppet needs a hand to give it motion. It's true that viruses can change over time in seemingly intelligent ways, but they still need that hand, the cell and its living machinery, to do anything including reproduce.
How are there not billions of fruit flies all over the grocery store?
Grocery stores employ a lot of pest control measures. Just ones you don't typically notice unless you know what to look for. There are light traps all over the store. These use light and glue traps to catch insects. To the person that doesn't know what they are, it looks like any other light that shines up on a wall. They also use pheromone traps that target specific pests. Fruit flies would be one of these.
If speakers make sound by pushing air, how come we can hear that speaker if it's enclosed in a box?
On a side note, solids and liquids are actually *better* at carrying sounds, this is why whales can communicate with each other at distances even up to 15000km. This is also why the two cans and a piece of string childrens toy works, the string is much much better at carrying the sound, so even normal speech can be heard at the other end. Although of course, in both of these cases we can't talk underwater to each other over great distances and speech through the 'two cans and a string' is not understandable, this is because of several reasons, some are that our ears are made to work in air, our languages are made to work in the air, not the much deeper pitches that work better in water .
WTF is this "crumple" and "fold" business with toilet paper that everything keeps talking about?
One little square is usually not enough and may tear or soak through. Many people find folding two squares to be more durable. Some barbarians resolve the issue with a messy wad of crumpled paper but I can't see how this as effective.
Why can there be toys in cereal boxes in the USA, but are Kinder Eggs and Kinder Surprises illegal?
Apparently, from what I hear, some kid had a Kinder Egg and fucking choked on the toy. Apparently, parents are too stupid to look at what can and can't cause their kid to choke. However, my girlfriend has a friend in Canada who comes down every so often, so her and I have a Kinder Cartel. My closet currently had well over a dozen boxes of Kinder Eggs at the moment.
Why was the Roman Army so effective/unbeatable?
One thing that people aren't mentioning is that the Roman Army was conditioned to kill through repetition and training. So where you have a barbarian/peasant with a pitchfork that will swing it wildly at your face Roman solders were conditioned to carefully and mechanically parry a strike with their shield and stab the enemy through the heart, under the ribcage and move on to the next enemy without a second thought. After a few minutes of fighting the front line soldier would rotate out back to the rear of the line and have a good 30 minute break before they had to fight again. If a soldier died the soldier behind him would take his place and their nerve was hard to break because of how regularly trained and conditioned they were.
Why do some many workers in factories fear becoming union?
Planning is hard! When they have to pay money to stay in the union, they get mad. Spending money is not fun! They don't realize that the money goes to lawyers and receptionists and negotiators to make sure employees have high paychecks and nice benefits. They think all these things happen on their own. They are dumb.
If the FDA (US) so strictly vets new drugs for safe use on humans, why then do TV adverts contain so many warnings against side effects?
I could be wrong but I'm of the belief that in the litigious culture of America if you take a medication for a headache and it gives you the runs, if that is not mentioned as a possibility in the side effects, the drug manufacturer is going to get sued for millions.
How do crematoriums ensure only the one person's ashes are in the urn?
Cremation remains are not ashes. They are pulverized remains of the skeleton, which isn't consumed by the pyre. The more you know.
Why are the new games coming out unable to be cracked? Ex: just cause and hitman.
The publishers have done a pretty good job of keeping their encryption and file format structures secret. However, now that the games have been published and gamers have copies of the executables and all associated data files for the game; it is only a matter of time until someone is able to reverse engineer the executable and decrypt the data files. In other words, they aren't uncrackable, they just haven't been cracked, **yet**.
Why is there WAY more snow in the northern hemisphere than in the southern hemisphere?
Because there's WAY more land in the northern hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere. And that land is WAY further north.
Explain semicolon usage like I'm a fifth grader.
To add to /u/corpuscle634's explanation, you can also use semicolons when you have a list of things, and those things naturally have commas in them. You would normally use commas to separate items in a list: I ate an apple, a banana, and an orange. But when the items you're listing already have commas, you can use semicolons to separate them: I worked in Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Little Rock, Arkansas.
Reddit, why does America use the A, B, C grading system?
How would you suggest to implement the needed weighting system without letter grades? Because, back when i was in college, I would've been pissed if my Intro to Communications class and my Transport Phenomena in Materials Processing class were on the same points or percentage scale. I'd have majored in communications and graduated with a 4.0, if that were the case. Letter grades help in weighting the harder classes.
Why is OPEC allowed to engage in price fixing / collusion?
Uhm, who do you think they answer to that would stop them? Your company falls under the laws of the US, whether it's because it's a US company or because it does business in the US. Who's laws govern what the OPEC countries do? I mean I guess the US could invade every OPEC country, but I don't know if that would work out as well as the FBI raiding business offices
Why the skin on a penis is darker/more tanned than the skin on the rest of the body?
If i had to guess i'd have to say that given the colour difference is only noticable when the penis is flacid and when it is errect the colour is the same as the rest of my body, it seems like over time the skin stretches to accomodate the growth that occurs during an erection and so that ammount of skin has standard pigmentation but when the penis is flacid all of that skin is still there but bunched into a small area so it gives a darker appearence the same as when someone looses alot of weight and the excess skin seems darker. Note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR NOR A SCIENTIST, i am a half pissed tradesman.
Wikileaks latest leak; TISA
One issue is that they are negotiating in secret. If its good for people, why make it secret? Given that the US is dominated by banks the government deems too big to fail and too big to jail , more buisness for them that is going to make them even bigger and more influential isn't going to be good for any US citizen or taxpayer.
Why are rabbits not a preferred source of meat, seeing as they breed so easily, and are so easy to keep?
Why don't we all just eat insects? They are easy and really cost effective to raise and have the highest protein content, relative to size, of anything. \r\rIt's all about what you are raised with.You think that Australia could really benefit from encouraging people to hunt and eat wild rabbitsChicken skin and fat is delicious.Rabbit fat and skin is bitter.Nuff Said.
If water is so essential to our survival, why have we not evolved a taste for it?
You also have an evolutionary attraction to sugar. This is because sugar is a really nice source of energy, and it's rather uncommon to find it in high amounts in the wild. Think of the savannah - there are not that many sweet foods there. Fruit is an exception to this, but it's a bit hard to find as well. So you probably will find soda to taste better than water, since it tastes really sweet. Your brain hasn't really caught on to the idea that sugar is everywhere, since that's a very recent change. Therefore, soda is a jackpot. Drink it - all of it. You might not find another source of energy like this for a long time. Water is nice and all, but you probably aren't that thirsty. If you're not thirsty and there's plenty of water available, you won't see any reason to drink more. It's not like you can store huge amounts of it. If you lose water for some reason - maybe it's hot outside, or you just exercised, or you just haven't drank for a while - you'll begin to crave water. And when you do drink it, it will feel wonderful.
Why do girls like the smell of my sweat?
Bisexual man here. Personal story time: I feared the post-coital smell before I had my first sexual experience with another man . Immediately after my first time, I couldn't stop smelling him and his sweat. It just smells like *man* and that's a good thing. Edit: also, as a med student, pheromones, just as others have pointed out. _URL_0_ for more info of how they are perceived. Long story short, smells we can't consciously tell, but that affects us on a subconscious level. Although, it should be said it is not 100% clear whether humans actually have a vomeronasal organ, and even if we do, as I understand it, it is not clear to what extent it affects us. We know more about these smelly stuff in animals, and supposedly we can apply *some* of that knowledge on ourselves.Apparently the pleasantness of someone's sweat depends on how far away they are, genetically, from the person who smells it. If the two are too close - the smell will not be attractive; if they are far away - it will be attractive; and if their genetics are too far away, it'll start becoming repulsive again. Evolution explains why this would be so , especially when you consider that this happens at puberty before which the repulsiveness/attractiveness of smell is the opposite. I.e. before you can reproduce, you're attracted to the smell of your parents and siblings which tends to keep you closer and safer and as soon as you can create babies you want to get further away from your family. The fact', "I'm a girl, and I do not like the smell of sweat.
Why do humans throw up when they see something disgusting?
Obviously you haven't been on the internet long enough if you're still throwing up when you see something disgusting. Would you like a tour? I'll even provide a 30 gallon trash can.
Instead of battery technology, why do Smartphone companies only upgrade cameras, processors, memory, etc yearly?
The big problem is the safety factors for LiPoly. Imoroving any individual component by an order of magnitude barely pushes the battery capacity because so much of the battery by volume is safety material. Puncture proof wrapping around the cells or what have you. If you really want to improve things you need to change the battery chemistry but that requires re optimizing literally every part of the battery. Researchers are working on it each and every day and the DoE is sponsoring a lot of research into the area but it's a tough question to answer. Our group for example is studying morphological effects on battery's performance. How does changing the shape of the channels between anode and cathode help things or hurt things? We've got a good goopy material for LiPoly but we need to understand why it's so good for LiPoly to be able to make great materials for other chemistry. Past that we're trying to partner with simulation experts to help explain what helps and hurts lithium conduction. If we figure out a set of rules for simulations that predict lithium conductivity in different media we can then use those rules to simulate other things. Or maybe we want to stick with lithium but use a lithium sulfur chemistry or something instead in which case the results immediately transfer. It's all a bit of a mess and it will take time but progress is happening all the time.
Why does February have 28 days when it could borrow two days from January and March, leaving us with seven 30-day months and five 31-day months?
Explain it like I'm five: February used to have more days but the Romans removed a day and added a day to July which was named after Julius Caesar to make it longer. Julius' nephew and adopted son, Octavius who as emperor was known as Augustus, had August named after him. His month was also added a day at the expense of February.Because the Romans created the Spring, Summer, and Autumn months first. Then they decided that they wanted Winter months. So they could only add on to the months but not changeThe guy that hosts "It's Okay To Be Smart" did a video on why February has 28 days. It's has to do with Julius Caesar. Here's his link: _URL_1_Equinoxes, solstices and other worldly events eventually stop lining up and everything is thrown out of synch. There may be no noticable difference for years but eventually it adds up and causes issues. Probably the worst explanation of anything ever.
How do a little run-down motels in off the beaten path cities stay in business
A lot of them effectively rent rooms to long-term guests. I end up at a lot of these places and a lot of people actually live in those hotels/motels. They're super cheap because they're not advertising and keeping them to bare-minimum standards.
What is dropbox and how to use it?
Work" etc. There is one folder called "Public Folder". If you put something there it also allows you to send a link to anyone. If they right click and save as then they can download the file. I used the public link to send something to my boss recently because it was too big to email and the FTP was down. I just compressed and encrypted first. I also was on another server via VNC recently and needed some documentation so I RARed it, uploaded to Dropbox then downloaded to my own PC. There is a million and one uses for Dropbox. People are to dumb to figure out FileZilla so this is like the dummies version to send large files to people.
Why do seemingly all old people have no filter even if they were polite when they were younger?
I'm not a rude old lady by any means and am polite. However, I meet and see young people behave rudely to old people often. The weren't taught to respect their elders, as in Indian Country and in other cultures. My life's end is on the horizon so I say I can do whatever I want, but always with a smile.
How are tattoo artists exempt from law?
They aren't exempt from the law. But Disney would need to track down these guys and sue them and they have bigger fish to fry.
What's happening when we hear or see something, but none of the information "sticks" when we aren't focused?
In short, this is one aspect of what is described as attention. We actually don't have a very good explanation for the processes that underlie our various attentional abilities. However, it seems that there is a network of brain regions that are linked to some of our cognitive abilities ) and this network has a push-pull relationship with regions that process incoming sensory information. So the more active *one* of these networks is, the *less* active the other one is. When you're engaged in mind wandering etc., the regions of your brain related to perception/action are less active and apparently as a result, although we may see or hear things, they are less likely to undergo the processing necessary to enter conscious awareness.
Why is e^i+pi + 1 = 0
Can someone explain the significance of the + 1 at the end? Why isn't the question about why e^i = -1?
Taxes for rich, and what cutting them (like the republicans want) and raising them (like the democrats want) entails?
[The rich already pay the lion's share of income tax]. The top 1% of earners pay 35.1% of income tax revenue. The top 1-5% pay 21.4% of income tax revenue. The bottom half of earners pay 2.89% of total income tax revenue. If you include other taxes like capital gains the situation is even more stark. The reason people consider it fair or unfair depends on how much they think each group owes the government for its wars and wiretapping. In my opinion it is about finding a scapegoat and demonizing it. It is very profitable for politicians to demonize a minority.
What was/is the point of a middle name?
People, especially men back in the day were often given their mother's maiden name as a middle name. They did this for two reasons: 1, it kept the maiden name in use and let everyone know the connection between the son and his mother's family, and 2, it distinguished them from other relatives with the same name. Back in the day you might have an absolute ton of Williams or Johns, so that was inportant. Overall I'd guess that was a big reason for middle names: to distinguish someone with a common name from others with the same name.
How come game companies like Blizzard still can't launch an online game with out terrible server issues?
They could account for it, but they would need a massive number of servers, an order of magnitude more bandwidth, etc. The logistical and financial nightmare that they would have to undertake to have a flawless launch day simply isn't worth the cost and effort; after a few days load comes back down within acceptable limits and they credit people lost time and fire up the PR machine. I design failover systems and the like for enterprise businesses. If you want something that can handle 2 million people around the world simultaneously trying to connect and use an application that is latency-sensitive, you need some serious hardware, bandwidth, support from competent data centers and service providers, and a solid anycast infrastructure with geographic diversity. Damn, I'm with Blizzard on this. Let the servers buckle and crumble while data center links peg out at 100% capacity for a few days. Dealing with the aftermath is easier than building a server farm that rivals Google.
Why is it the prosecutor's goal to convict rather than to find the truth?
The idea is that if the prosecutor tries as hard as he can to get a conviction, and the defense lawyer tries as hard as he can to get an acquittal, the winner will be whoever had the stronger case . Whether this is true or not is debatable, but that's the idea.The short answer is, prosecutors get rewarded for getting convictions, not for finding the truth.
the difference between a director and producer, please?
The director's job is creative. He supervises all the departments — camera, lighting, makeup, et cetera — and works directly with the actors. He's basically responsible, directly or indirectly for every single creative choice made during the production of the film. The producer's job is logistical. He's responsible for hiring and firing , securing funding, setting and maintaining the budget, setting and maintaining the schedule, and so on. As with the director, different producers take a more or less hands-on approach to this stuff, but generally speaking, producers delegate a *lot more* than directors do. That's because a director works on exactly one film at a time , while a producer is producing several films at the same time.The producer is the financial backing while the director is the creative executor. However, the producer has the final say
What's the difference between all the various American intelligence/defense agencies?
Don't forget the Secret Service. Other than protecting current and former national leaders and their families, such as the President, past presidents, vice presidents, presidential candidates, and others. They also investigate all types of financial crimes.
The reason that giveaways/contests have the phrase 'Purchase not required.' and then have an alternative method of entry (usually mailing in a postcard).
If you give people the chance to win something in exchange for money, you're running a lottery. Lotteries are heavily restricted in many jurisdictions, and it's much easier to run competitions with free entry.
How do game shows have so much money to just give away to contestants or buy expensive prizes?
It's cheaper to buy the prizes then it is to pay actors. Millionaire cost much less to produce than Friends.Also, a lot of the prizes are sponsored by other companies as wellImagine having a tv series where you only have to pay for like 1 actor and the rest you pay a little but here or there in prizes you get discounted for the promotional value.
What is it about riding in a car that makes babies fall asleep?
The same things that make them fall asleep at home when you're putting them to sleep. 1. Steady background noise2. Music3. Rocking4. No one is directly interacting with it.Because babys are lazy, if i didnt have to do anything for myself, id sleep in all car ridesMild motion sickness can cause drowsiness. The conflicting signals from your visual system and your inner ear makes you sleepy. If the motion sickness is really bad, you get nausea and vomiting, but with just a little, the theory is your brain decides to sleep it off and see if that fixes the conflicting sensory input problem. Rocking babies has the same effectCreates similar consistent movement and sound associated with being in utero . The mother walking all day with general ambient noise muffled through her belly - that's why fetuses are most active when mom tries to sleep, she lays down and it gets quiet they "wake up."Riding in a car makes me fall asleep too. Same with long bus rides. I think its the aircon, light vibrations and a comfortable seat.
Hello i'm from Argentina, can someone explain why a black guy eating a watermelon is racist?
Watermelon and fried chicken aren't black people food, they're poor people food. And southern blacks were historically, desperately poor. Source: I'm white and grew up dirt poor in the south. Edit: And I loves me some chicken and watermelon.
What's the difference between normal gas and diesel?
They're both made up of hydrocarbon chains, but diesel fuel has longer chains than gasoline. As far as properties, you can just think of diesel being thicker than gasoline. It lubricates better, contains more energy, and does not evaporate as easily. These differences are why you can't use diesel in a gasoline engine and vice versa. If you put gasoline in a diesel engine, the high pressure fuel pump will not get sufficient lubrication . If you put diesel in a gasoline engine, it will not evaporate quickly enough, and the engine won't run.
Why do we still get dark eye bags after a night of insomnia even though, for the most part, we just lay there motionlessly with our eyes closed?
It's not 'a night of insomnia' its just not being able to sleep. Insomnia is more of a perpetual state of fatigue from not being able to sleep night after night.
How can Matrox Millenium G550 GPUs still be for sale new, more than 16 years after release?
Because it's not just about speed. Those old Matrox cards feature the LHF 60 connector, which, despite its age, can output resolutions over 9mpix and connect to four separate displays, which is something that has only just been made possible for consumer cards with Display Port 2.0. There's also the benefit as well that those old cards will likely have very stable and reliable drivers. You get that with Intel's offerings , but not with any of the consumer stuff AMD or nVidia put out.
Why do we sometimes forget how to do something when we think about it but then remember when we're not concentrating?
It's simply because when your trying, to remember something hard enough our brains and a method of which the brain trys to block out usless information to try to free up some brain space to remember what ever it was. Unfortunately this method sometimes effectively blocks out the item in which you were trying to remember
When countries like North Korea spend money on war supplies like missiles, nukes, guns, planes etc. who sells it to them?
North Korea sells a lot of its ballistic missile technology to countries like Syria, Libya, Iran, Egypt, etc. It's a self-perpetuating industry when you don't feel the need to reallocate funds . This is a big fear about Pyongyang's nuclear program. The government manufactures and sells opium abroad, it sells missiles on the black market, and it is fairly likely that once NK can efficiently produce HUE it will also begin to sell it abroad.
Why is reddit's search feature so bad? Most of the time it says "search failed" and it's always slow.
All these explanations are focusing on the technical aspects which is great, but the truth is Reddit's search is terrible because: There is no monetary incentive for Reddit to provide a better search. If there was an incentive to provide better search, Reddit would hire the people to make it happen .
Why are you not allowed to use a mechanical pencil on standardized tests even if it's the same #2 lead?
I'm not sure about the validity of the statement, but I once read it is a measure to combat cheating Supposedly it's simple enough to install a transmitter/blinking led receiver to communicate with outside correspondents. So, maybe in electrical engineering it's still outlawed? No test I've ever taken has forbidden mechanical pencils, but the MCAT was on computer and that's the only standardized test I've taken.
What does a restaurant do to stop you from Dining n' dashing?
Not really a whole lot from my experience, fear works wonders in deterrence. But you'll never be able to go back to that restaurant again, which if you plan on living in the city for any extended period of time might just be enough of another deterrent.
Why is gold so valuable to the world?
well we NEED something to have a value out of nothing, otherwise we were limited in our trading historically gold is the ideal material for this: it's rare, easy to process, easy to verify it's real gold and ideal to carry around your neck as a status symbol.
The chaos theory? If you wouldn't mind, thanks
Yarr, ye forgot yer searchin' duties, for twas asked by those what came before ye!]", '[Jeff Goldblum does a decent job explaining it in this documentary.]
What caused the shift in the general taste of music from classical in the past to the pop songs of today?
New styles arose and pushed others back. I'd be interested in hearing what style has remained popular the longest
Why are people so angry when low-status men date or marry attractive foreign women?
For one thing the marriage rate for woman in America is dropping faster than men's marriage [rate.]
Is it possible to 'put out' a volcano by pouring the necessary amount of water? If so, what would the effects be?
You could of course cool down the top of a volcano, but the problem here isn't heat but pressure. There is a magma bubble with enough pressure to let the volcano become active and it will only go dormant again when the pressure has fallen enough. If you cool down the top of an active volcano you are essentially putting a cork in it. If the pressure is still high enough, this cork will be blown off, if not, you have successfully inactivated a volcano. What will happen in any case? Lots of steam and thus clouds that can have effects on the global weather.
What are the side effects of the Great Barrier Reef disappearing
Coral reefs actually absorb some of the power of giant waves. So you'll often see huge waves behind coral reefs and only small waves reach the shore, thanks to coral. If the coral is gone, some coastal communities could be underwater in the future. Fisheries depend on the coral reefs because they can support huge, biodiverse populations of fish. If the coral disappears, it will likely be replaced with seaweed forests, which can't support as many fish or as many different species of fish. Fish use the complex architecture of coral reefs to hide from predators and to live in. So people could lose their jobs, and many more could lose a major food source. Edit: autocorrected words", 'Also, coral reefs are net carbon sinks, so losing a massive one may accelerate atmospheric CO2 accumulation.It's more of an indicator. When a change occurs that kills a major complex ecosystem, it doesn't bode well for other ecosystems. Climate change isn't going to limit its impact to the oceans. Life = ecosystems = fragile, complex interactions.