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Confederate flags. Why do people still fly these flags? What exactly are they supporting?
I'm in Texas. Most of the time when I see it, it's a redneck thing. Not really political or supporting anything, but its a symbol of red dirt road riding, beer drinking, tin can shooting redneck culture. Think old Dukes of Hazzard TV show types. But even at things like NASCAR races, I don't see it all that often.I would just like to point out that the "confederate flag" you see is really the last in a series for battle flags. It was only used in battle so not to be confused with the American flag. It was never really an official flag. The only flag to every fly above the capital of the C.S.A was the [Stars and Bars]', "> But states rights! The states' right to what? Own slaves? I've never understood it either, especially here in Michigan where I live. I think people ignorantly use it as a symbol for small government and rural ideals. Don't expect an intellectual response if you ask a country hick this question.
In the United States what are "Charter Schools" and "School Vouchers" and how do they differ from the standard public school system that exists today?
Charter schools are a sort of public school that are run by someone other than the government. Sometimes they have special features . Sometimes they're an attempt to generally do better than the public option, often using different methods of teaching or discipline. Vouchers are a coupon you get instead of just going to your local public school. They can be turned in for a public school education, or put towards a private school education.At the end of the day, Charter schools are nothing but a way for private companies to get on the government dole. Like private prisons, the goal is to make money and meet the minimum standards as far as accreditation and staffing and curriculum. The promise was to increase competition and accountability and lower cost all while breaking the backs of the School Teachers Union. The result is fly by night organizations are setting up all manner of bullshit institutions whose sole purpose is to make a profit. Sure there will be some good ones, but, more than likely, the experiment will fail and the real losers will be the kids who were promised better educations.They are typically a lot better than public schools. In all seriousness. Vouchers are the k-12 version of a scholarship which is meant to help students from low income areas be abpe to go to a good school. Charter schools are similar to public and private schools but require no tuition like private schools and are independent from the teacher unions and the schoold districts which help them be more productive. I went to a Charter school for middle school and I can't praise it enough. My school had a very high quality of teachers, equipment, and curriculum.Charter Schools are a vehicle for transferring public wealth to private hands . In some cases the charter management organization is run by highly ethical people who are values and mission-driven to create great educational institutions and create a positive impact on the world while also making some money. In other cases these institutions are run by charlatans pursuing a relatively easy path to enriching themselves at the expense of the communities in which they operate.
How are there multiple ways of playing the same guitar chord with only minor changes.
As long as the chord contains the notes of an E dominant 7 , it can be consider an E7. Voicings don't matter.
Could roads be made out of (or be coated with) hydrophobic material for a safer drive in rainy or icy conditions?
Maybe, assuming the coating itself wasn't slippery. However, it would be expensive and would wear off in minutes given the state of the art. The road material itself would need to be hydrophobic to achieve a useful product.
What do they feed lab grown meat?
It appears that they feed the meat mostly . meat. They grew turkey cells in [15% chicken serum ], gold fish in [up to 20% fetal bovine serum ], and [here] used 2% cow blood. .) Just like with any other living tissue, there WILL be waste. Ideally the waste will be smaller than with traditional meat. . The waste is dealt with by filtering or replacing the growth media every so often. My understanding is at this point in time it is not more efficient. But hopefully in the future it will be. It should be totally possible to make a media made out of corn and soy protein that has enough nutrition for it to work. The hardest part is making the right hormones for everything to grow. Those may have to come from yeast fermentation or another process which would decrease the efficiency.
Why was the repeal of Glass-Steagal such a bad thing?
The repeal of Glass-Steagal made is so that the kids who sold crayons at recess could also buy broken crayons, but didn't have to list how many of their crayons were broken or report how many of those broken crayons weren't really useful for coloring, or even were the color brown that no one wanted to use in their coloring books. This meant that when the teachers asked the crayon kids if they had enough for everyone, they could say yes, but when drawing time happened, not everyone had crayons and it started a crayon throwing war, where lots more crayons were broken and the principle had to come in and switch everyone to colored pencils if they gave them all their broken crayons.
Why do India and China have such a high population, compared to other countries?
The thing about third world countries is that, unlike in first world countries where people have a few children and are done, you need to have as many children as possible. Whether they help on the farm, or go out and work in a factory, they need to contribute to the household. Another factor that is very much related is that in third world countries, there is no social safety net, or more specifically, no retirement system. So old people, when they can't work, end up being the responsibility of their children. Again, families need children to contribute to support their elderly, too. Another important factor is that the death rate is much higher, so the chances of your child dying are higher. So have more. That's kind of a simple one, though. Let's see, what else oh! Education has a lot to do with it, particularly the education of the female. If the female is more educated, she can go work, and is worth more to the family. When she has no education and can not work a skilled job, her share of the contribution to the family comes in baby-making, pumping out little workers. The point is - it has more to do with it them being third world nations. They just happen to be the biggest nations.
What causes your stomach to rumble when you're hungry?
In a nut shell it's Peristalsis making all the noise in your small intestine. Imagine a muscle that act like a doughnut shape but rolling along your intestine squeezing everything further down the tube like milking a teat on a _URL_1_ air and liquids get pushed down the tube they will make a cacophony of sounds.
The laser propulsion system NASA is saying could get us to Mars in a month
Light, like everything else with energy, can exert pressure on objects. While it's a tiny amount of pressure, over a large area that adds up to a lot. In space with no friction, any amount of constant acceleration will get you going pretty fast. A solar sail is a device which uses light pressure from the sun to generate constant acceleration. The only limiting factor on how fast you can get is the size of your sail, so a really huge sail could potentially get to Mars in that timeframe. A sail won't work for getting back, however, as you would be sailing against the solar wind. That's why we've developed a laser - based system which uses light pressure coming from a laser on-board the ship to come back.
How does _URL_0_ work, and has a petition ever succeeded making a change?
It basically just shows that there are numbers of people interested and supporting this or that idea. Much depends upon the idea or the problem itself: you can't just make the country government retire because there are 50 millions virtual signs on a webpage. But you can for example get the city mayor to know about an old house without ramps for wheelchairs and there are disabled people living in who need it. Or hospital refusing supplying ill people with vital preparates. Stuff like that is what I mostly seen being successful here in Russia. It also depends on the insistence, assertiveness and activity of petition starter. Things won't just happen because there are people who signed the petition, you have to make the officials know about it and convince them that there are actual people, not bots signed.
Why is Harriet Tubman going to be on the $20 bill?
Because Andrew Jackson made it his political mission to take on and defeat private central banking which is pure evil within a Republic. That's it.Woman? checkBlack? check Two birds with one appeasing stone.People have a bee in their bonnet about race relations and it's the Reserve's way of trying to do something to play nice. Also Andrew Jackson was a pretty fucked up guy, elected because he got famous for winning a battle that happened after the war was already over.
Why does life on other planets need to depend on water? Could it not have evolved to depend on another substance?
Water is a really simple molecule composed of only hydrogen and oxygen, two of the most common elements around. While other mechanisms are going to be possible-- we do know of this one, so that's what we look for. I really don't hold out much hope of finding silicon based life not because it isn't possible, but because we probably won't find very many worlds with the requisite distribution of elements for life higher up the periodic table. We'll probably end up *creating* life at some point with a silicon-based chemistry. It will be weird!
When you've been critically injured, EMTs will often tell you to stay awake. Why is being conscious important in these situations?
If you fall asleep nobody will know if your condition gets worse. We aren't psychic! Stay awake so that we can tell how you are doing.
How do translators choose between seemingly synonymous phrases?
My teacher said this quote/joke recently: Translation is like a wife: if she's pretty, she's not loyal. If she's loyal, she's not pretty. Translation can be loyal, as in word for word, but nobody would want to read that translation. Like, if the word you're translating is not available in the translation language, you have to either change the word that not quite matches the meaning or translate literally and write like 5 words instead of one. So you have to find the gold. You need to translate it to convey the theme of the book/movie/series, to appeal it to a native reader and convey the character.Clifford E. Landers mentions these situations in his part about "registers". He writes that words have different effects in different situations, even if they mean the same thing. Consider this: Is there any difference between the meaning of "I wanna", and "I Want?" Or "Let's" vs. "Let Us"? It is part of the translator's job to not only deal with the words in text, but also the context of the interaction and characters .Translations are rarely just based on literal meaning. It's about expressing what is being said well in the other language. You'll often see expressions or puns in one language translated to something completely different in the other. Yes, you could do a literal translation and explain it, but the viewer doesn't have time for that. It's the same for words that mean the same thing but have a different connotation in that language.On a side note, besides the translation aspect which other users already explained in detail, one must also keep in mind that subtitles have some restrictions that can influence the word coiches on sheer technicality - character limitation may occur in other media too, for example in videogames or apps.Of course in OP example is hardly the case, but still, felt like pointing this out.
In maths, what is a "function"?
Is there anywhere good online I can go to learn / relearn math for free? I made it to Advanced Functions in high school before bottoming out, but I'd love to pick it back up.
Why can a camera see further in fog than human eyes?
There are circular polarizer filters that people with DSLRs often use to put in front of their lens. It does stop some light from light from coming into camera but it cuts through fog and reflections . Here's a sample pic. _URL_0_ Not an answer but maybe can help contribute to finding the right answer.
Speaking of dogs, why don't dogs (seem to) account for their own size or other dogs size when determining social ranking?
I don't think large dogs see small dogs as a threat but small dogs seem like they always have something to prove.
The difference between producer, executive producer and director in movies
Lets use McDonalds as an example, with a burger you order there being a movie. Ray Kroc, the owner of the McDonalds namesake is the **executive producer**. He owns the company and if he wants, can be a main part of what happens, like what promotional burgers they currently offer. Other times though, he can just sit back and let the company run itself. The store manager is the **producer**. He's in charge of making sure the store is profitable and that burgers are delivered in a timely manner. He doesn't make the food himself, but he orders the supply of buns, wrappers, and the personnel necessary to make it. The cook is your **director**. He's the one that actually makes the food. Lets assume he takes great care in working with the condiments, meat, and cheese to get them perfect on your burger, making it the best burger he can before promotion wraps it, and the theatre puts it in a bag for your consumption. Michael Bay is a cook that gives you a Fillet O' Fish with no tartar sauce when you ordered a Big Mac, then insists it's better than what you wanted.
Why do people "jolt" just before falling asleep?
I've always been told that it relates to blood pressure. As you fall asleep, your BP drops. BP dropping too quickly is not a good thing, and that jerk is your brain's way of kicking things back up and running again, and keeping you out of danger.not just people. both of my cats do this. It freaks both me and both of them the-fuck out most of the time. always results in all of us looking around at each other like WTF was that? WHY DOES THAT HAPPEN??According to my Psychology textbook it is a simple spasm of the nervous system that takes place every once in a while when one is falling asleep. It says it is a completely normal occurrenceNot an answer but when I jolt before I fall in a deep sleep it is because something hit me in my dream.i usually get those jolts when i'm falling asleep and i start to dream about falling down or injuring myself. maybe it's stress!", 'Nobody else does. You must have a serious problem with your brain. ', "What's jolt ? Dont make me google it!
Why is a CPU so small?
Mainly power efficiency and speed. ELI5: imagine you're in at work. Now if your tools are far apart it takes more time for you to travel there, you also burn off more energy making you tired. This means you're slower and less efficient than if you had all your tools in arms reach. That's why computers that took up entire rooms are much slower and less efficient.
Why do people get addicted to drugs but not to stuff like work and studying?
They do. Anything that causes a pleasurable sensation can cause a pathological addiction. Psychiatrists regularly recommend to people that they work or study less and find more time for leisure or sleep. A big difference though is that unlike many drugs, people do not get a chemical dependency on working. People can be fully committed to quitting heroin, but they'll still suffer from the agonizing symptoms of withdrawal and experience cravings. Chemical dependency makes it easier to get addicted and more difficult to stop.
Why are border cities almost always bigger on the Mexican side?
I would say that it's because theyre the staging area for goods and people coming into the U.S. Those things coming over are dispersing throughout the U.S. so the cities on our side stay smaller.
Claremont Mckenna College just started declaring some areas "safe spaces" for non-white students only. How is this socially acceptable/legal/not racist?
I'm curious how they would treat those with mixed backgrounds. For example, for the most part I appear white but am 1/4 Native American, would they allow me or others who have mixed backgrounds in safe areas? At what point is one purely defined as a minority race by those who would set up a defined safe space?
What is "4th Wave" Feminism and how is it different than "3rd Wave" Feminism
It does not really exist yet. It's the ideas about what might come next for feminism. We are currently in the third wave.
Why do we give criminals who committed horrific murders a choice of last meal?
> They don't usually offer their victims a last meal. I think what's important here is that the state is not trying to copy murderers. The executioner isn't supposed to sink to the level of the convicted murderer. The state carries out what it deems to be necessary, but not to inflict on another person the very same torture the state has just condemned.Tradition? In Texas, they recently stopped giving them a special meal after an offender ordered a large smorgasbord and promptly refused to eat a bite . Now, I believe you get the same meal all other non-death row offenders get.
Why doesn't the U.S. just buy all the opium from Afghan farmers rather than trying to force them to grow crops that are less profitable?
There's not much use for natural opium anymore. The pharmaceutical industry used synthetic opioids nowadays which work much better and can be better tailored to specific needs.
Why do news anchors and politicians say "an history" instead of a history?
h" is not a vowel so "a" is used. The exception to this rule is when your local dialect pronounces it that way. So if you're a cockney Londoner who drops the "h" sound from the front of some words then saying "an \'istoric" is perfectly OK. IT PISSES ME THE FUCK OFF IT\'S SO WIDESPREAD ON TV. THE SCRIPT WRITERS ARE FUCKING MORONS. You are aggravated because you appreciate that flagrant breaking of rules is generally a bad idea. And it's such a simple fucking rule too. Urgh.Basically put, if a person emphasizes the h, it should be a history. If a person omits the h, or says it only very softly when they pronounce it then 'an 'istory is the correct form.
Do radio stations receive feedback from my car so they know when I listen to their station?
Short answer: Depends on the kind of radio, but 99% of the time no.Long answer: FM/AM and most non-internet radios are broadcast only. They aren't even listening for feedback. Your car/stereo doesn't send feedback either. Radio stations sell advertising based on ratings, which are statistical estimates of how many people are listening during certain time blocks, much like how neilsen does ratings for television viewership. if you want them to know, call/write/email/harass on facebook the radio station in question.
Why do most sunglasses have plastic instead of glass lenses?
Price is a factor, yes, but it's also a question of comfort. Glass is much heavier than plastic, and sunglasses tend to have very large lenses so as to cover the eyes effectively. Making them out of glass would make the sunglasses very heavy and uncomfortable.
How is the universe a hologram and what does that mean for me as a person?
The hologram is a metaphor for what we think the universe is like. So with a hologram you get a image on 2D paper that looks 3D, so might the universe only appear to be as complex as it is - that information might just be encoded onto a surface. Obviously there are some bits of physics immediately important to you, and some which feeds through to help you in the end . This, however, is very much on the cutting edge of physics and I'm not aware on any consequences it has which even indirectly will affect everyday life.
Why is the idea of infinity such a hard concept to fathom?
It lies completely outside your experience. You have never experienced anything which is not finite. In a way, it's like trying to imagine what seeing in ultraviolet is like.
What makes creating your own operating system so complicated?
The lower you go, the more strict design becomes. Once you are all the way down to an operating system, nanoseconds matter. They matter so much that you can't even program in the languages most people know, you need to get all the way down to the base, C or better yet assembly, to get your actions to complete in the shortest time possible. This also means the code you write has to consist of as few actions as possible. It has to work with the existing standards for the hardware it will be used on. It has to manage things like interrupts and timers that most programming students don't even really learn how to manage. An operating system is not like your app. It's not just a UI. It makes everything in your computer work and communicate, and it has to take in to account compatibility with multiple hardware options and an infinite number of apps people will want to use in a standard operating system. Let's say it's kinda like the difference between a manufacturing shop putting out a car, and scientists designing and building a new space ship.
Why is chemical warfare considered inhumane, and demands international intervention, while other types of weapons that also kill people are allowed?
For the same reason we no longer use flame throwers. It's unspeakably cruel, provided we're talking nerve agents here. Some chemical weapons are used for lulz
Why isn't anyone going to war with North Korea to try and stop how they treat their people?
Good question, because it's too much of a threat to South Korea. North Korea is delusional but not stupid, they know that a war with America is unwinnable. So they do they only thing they can do, send as much ammunition and fire power over the border as fast as they can. Attempting a 'knock out' punch, as you will. People forget how close Seoul is to the border, and the resulting conflict could kill hundreds of thousands of people. It's not worth the risk, so they continue the status quo and try and 'contain' North Korea as much as possible.
Why do some grocery stores leave food / water outside of their stores when it can easily get stolen?
I'm not sure they're any more easily stolen than the goods inside a store -- you have far more traffic , as well as cart runners who are constantly back and forth
How did the crash of the mortgage markets result in people unrelated to the housing industry losing their jobs?
Most business owners are consistently running in the red. No they are not in debt. That are in a perpetual deficit. Where they technically are $1,000 in the red. But realistically if they cut a little of this and a little of that they are perfectly fine. Business owners do this because its a really great way to expand and grow. Yes you went a thousand into a red this week, but next week you'll be making three thousand because you added more staff or made improvements to the company. In order to do this owners were always in a state of Borrowing money for those investments. Hiring on an employee, buying a new machine. Yes they were always borrowing but their company was booming and successful. and both them and the bank would see positive results. And then the banks lost money ALOT of money. When a mortgage fails banks do take a hit but since they have hundreds of other people making payments. They are more then fine. When suddenly hundreds of thousands of people fail their mortgage shit gets real bad. Then add in the fact that all of those failed mortgages are going to cause everyone elses mortgage to essentially fail. Well, that's a global crisis. And can result in annihilating the entire economy. Which it almost did. Because remember most businesses were in a perpetual deficit to grow. Suddenly not only could they not borrow, but now that had to pay in full for that deficit. Which depending on company could be a few thousand dollars to millions. Some companies had to liquidate alot. Some had to lay off a few people, some companies had to lay off everyone and sell everything. And because almost every business was in the red. nobody wanted to hire anyone which meant people didn't have money to spend Which caused a very vicious cycle until the big boys stepped in. And this is why crashes are a terrifying thing. Because until big boys come in to save the day the entire economy is on a steady spiral to death.
What happens to insects like bees getting carried away by vehicles? Do they die because they can't find their colony anymore?
Most of the time the bee will die or find another hive. Bees, especially bees that collect pollen and nectar are more likely to find another hive and be accepted into the fold. Ants are the same way as far as I know, wasps and such however are more independent, so I'm uncertain what they would do. They might be fine on their own.
why do cars depreciate and houses appreciate?
Cars become run down. Better models come out. It becomes harder to source parts as they age and production ramps down. In short, we make more cars. The house itself doesn't so much go up in value, as the land. An easy way to think of it is, real estate is the only thing they aren't making more of. The demand for land rises with population growth, and we can't feasibly produce more surface area. House value can of course drop when the area isn't desirable to move into. Supply and demand is the short answer. Real estate also has the desirability worked into the demand. So do cars, but not many people 'desire' the model from a few years ago over the new one. The outlier cases are being ignored here.Cars get hard to maintain after 15 years, are hard to upgrade and are easy to make more of. Houses can be maintained for decades, you can upgrade yours for less than buying an entire new house, in many places more land is hard to get.
How do enemies not hear an apache (or similar heli)?
It can fly up to 21,000 feet above sea level. It could also be a drone. They're quieter. You can even get attacked by a super sonic fighter and wouldn't here it coming until it was already past you because it's traveling faster than the speed of sound.
Why military forces use standard-capacity magazines for their rifles if there are magazines with much higher capacity?
Large magazines would also potentially unbalance the weapon, are more likely to get in the way, get caught on things, and require greater dexterity when changing whilst under pressure, and--Note that I'm completely guessing here--due to the difference in spring tension between a full magazine and a near empty magazine, potential problems with the bullet feed.
What do Americans traditionally eat for Christmas dinner?
It varies, but anything really goes for Christmas. A lot of people's Christmas dinners look a lot like their Thanksgiving dinners. Growing up we usually had a spiral cut ham and pot roast instead of turkey -- otherwise the sides were mostly the same. Green beans, sweet potatoes, mac & cheese, etc.My family has a Christmas breakfast that is pretty much the same year to year. For dinner, we almost always, eat Chinese takeout, play boardgames and drinkWe do turkey on thanksgiving, and ham for the holidays. The side items tend to be the same, since theyre family favesJews generally have Chinese Food and watch a movie. Source: am Jewish. Also in NYC where many of us live and the Chinese restaurants are always fullMy family has done ham, prime rib and lamb chops for Christmas. Ham is the most frequently provided main dish. Sides are the same as Thanksgiving or only slightly different Americana style sides.It varies. I know traditionally, turkey or ham is a staple. My whole family has never been a huge fan of turkey, so it was usually ham, but also steak and seafood such as lobster, lobster tails, baked stuffed shrimp, and even lobster mac and cheese. Lobster can be pricey so we often reserve it for special occasions like Christmas dinner.Never practiced any kind of traditional meal honestly, but peanut butter cookies with a chocolate start is a staple every year. Interested in what other people actually do myself. Tired of just winging most of my mealsWe don't really have a standardized "Dinner" for the holiday like we do Thanksgiving, it's more of a general "Food we're known to eat" trend. For example, things like Eggnog, ham, really anything christmas-y fits the bill.Fondue! It was a fad back in the 70's-80's to fondue over the holidays. I've been keeping the fad going.Not trying to be rude, but how is this an ELI5 question? Seems more suitable for AskReddit.
Why does the use of medicines increase bacterium mutation? Surely they would mutate and change regardless of our medicines?
They'll always randomly mutate, but the medicine kills all the ones that aren't immune meaning the ones that are have nothing to compete with for food or to breed with to slowly remove the immunity
Did actors in black and white movies wear colorful clothes or did they only wear clothes in different shades of black?
They wore clothes that would look good in black and white. The women wore brown lipstick instead of red for example. It looked better on film. In Psycho the 'blood' was chocolate syrup.
Dogs eat "dog food" everyday and it has everything their bodies need, why isn't there a human equivalent to "dog food"?
You can and there is. You can even live of potatoes and butter indefinitely. Will be a tad boring, but it's possible.They do make that sort of thing though. Think of people in hospitals who have feeding tubes. They get a balanced intake of necessary vitamins, minerals, etc. but not a lot of unnecessary fat, sugars, or flavor/color additives. I would say the "everyday" version would be nutrition drinks, which in my experience don't taste nearly as delicious as food.Its called pemmican and the inuit survive off it for 6 months a year Crushed dehydrated meat mixed with rendered fat. That's all you need. Dehydrated crushed berries for flavor are optional
How does the Voyager not run into anything?
Well, quite simply, there isn't anything for it to run into. Space is after all, quite empty and really, really big. Having long passed the last of the planet's on it's journey, it'll continue through interstellar space, and will do so for a very long time.
Why shouldn't I use q-tips to clean my ears?
As a person who did this and frankly got a bit addicted to doing it.Don't.As everyone said, you're just pushing wax where it shouldn't be and irritating a part of your body you depend greatly on. Myself, I managed to create an ear itch that can drive me a little crazy. I was using q tips to relieve the itch but once I saw and 'heard' the damage I was doing to my ears I stopped. Guess what? The itch is still there, although less often. It still drives me crazy however. I've trained my body to have this response and now I can't get rid of it. Stop using Q-Tips in your ears. It's just not worth it.
What are the odds of the winning lottery numbers being consecutive (1,2,3,4,5,6). Is it less likely than some random combination of numbers?
In a lottery with six digits, any six digit combination is exactly as likely as any other combination. It seems to us, intuitively, that it should be less likely to get a meaningful number pattern. But if you think about it, why would that be the case? If there are balls #1 to #100 in the tank, and the machine picks any random ball, then #1 is just as likely as #37 or #81 -- the fact that we use #1 as the beginning of our counting system doesn't make the machine any less likely to pick it, right? Then you pick the next ball. You've got #1 to #100 in the tank again. The odds of getting #2 is just as likely as #11 or #93, yeah? Because again, the fact that #2 follows the last number we got isn't going to physically affect the machine. There's still a 1% chance of getting any individual number. And ditto the next round, there's a 1% chance of #3 and a 1% chance of #56. The chance of 1-2-3-4-5-6 is exactly the same as the chance of 17-40-8-20-92, or of 5-5-5-5-5-5, or any other pattern of six digits. If you can get a number 1-100 on each drawing, and there are six drawings, then the probability of getting any particular six number pattern is 1 in 100^6 . So you've never heard of a lottery drawing that went 1-2-3-4-5-6, but you've probably never heard of 80-65-7-23-15-88 or most other random patterns either.
What would the astronauts on the ISS do in the event of a cataclysmic event on Earth that wiped out the entire population? Is this a scenario that has been discussed by the various agencies?
They would stay up there until the end, everyone would probably float themselves before the really bad dehydration sets in, with the last person killing themselves inside of the station. The ISS's orbit would then begin to degrade without human intervention, and it would burn up on reentry. There are not enough humans on the ISS to restart humanity, they know this, they wouldnt try.
why is paedophilia so much more common in men than women?
Basing your conclusions on the people convicted is going to lead to a very skewed image and has various flaws - Not all people convicted for child sex abuse are pedophiles . Additionally, not all people who commit child sex abuse are convicted. - Not all pedophiles abuse children. There is also a group that manages to control their impulses and seeing that just having thoughts is not illegal, these people don't end up in jail and don't end up in your statistics - It's documented that for a good number of crimes, women often get less punishment than men. When it gets to these sort of crimes, women do more often end up not being prosecuted than men. So there is another thing that will skew your statistics. The fact is that it is incredibly hard for us to really know if it is true that the majority of pedophiles are men because pretty much every way we have of collecting data on this subject is pretty flawed . Then, even if we do end up with data that more men are pedophiles, it's still harder to determine if this is due to some biologic reason or if there is societal reasons for why we measure what we measure ", 'Because female abusers are often unreported or for the most part disregarded. I see constant stories of teachers having relations with younger boys and people just kind of shrug it off and even joke about it. Women are also naturally perceived as nurturing. If you ever see those health class videos they also always, and I mean always, depict someone like the weird uncle or father as the abuser, never the aunt. Stereotypes and gender roles often make women less suceptable to being arrested as well as discouraging victims from coming out.It isn't. Haven't you seen all the grown women at concerts for the Justin Beiber when he was underage or those other teeny popper bands.
Are modern aerial dogfights as exciting as shown in Top Gun?
While air to ground attacks aren't as high speed as top gun, an a10 doing a strafing run looks about as spot on in real life as it does in the movies and video games. Only wayyyyy louder. On the flip side most people think helicopter attacks happen much closer than they actually do. Close air support from cobras or apaches can be conducted far far away from a battle with use of their badass targeting system. Basically they can hide far enough away that you cant hear them and then shoot you.Usually no, with missiles being launched from miles away. But if both sides keep dodging/countermeasuring the missiles, then it has a potential to get a bit more close and personal.
How can people be put under anesthesia for emergency surgery but for general surgery they say you will aspirate and die if you eat anything 24 hours prior to being put under?
Also as another way of reducing this risk they stuff a tube up your nose and vacuum out your stomach the whole time. So there isn't really anything to throw up.
How does the nutritional information at the back of the food package knows there is xxx calories in that food?do they just guess or it is accurate?
I've worked in multiple butcher shops and We've all just eyeballed the amount of fat we put into hamburger despite labels having percentages
How did early people wake up early without alarm clocks?
Crows and circadian rhythms were common, but there were two early alarm clocks: Candles: Nails were placed in candles at regular intervals, so when the candle burned past the nail, it would fall and clank on a metal surface, waking the sleeper. This was very expensive and uncommon. Indian alarm clock: Drink a buncha water, you're gonna wake up to piss.
Why is it so difficult to get a US citizen out of a Mexican prison especially when it is in the national media
The Mexicans are not going to upend their legal system to give the US back a person that they consider to be a common criminal. The allegations of mistreatment aren't really a major concern for the government as nobody is treating them seriously or intends to do anything even if true.Same around the world. US consulate will visit you to make sure you are being treated humanely. Finish.
If addiction is a medical condition, then why do many addiction programs require that their adherents take responsibility for their actions?
You're not taking responsibility for the addition, you're taking responsibility for turning to the abuse in the first place that lead to your addiction, and the things you did to fuel it. For example, you didn't have to turn to heroin in the first place, you were first to stick yourself with a needle, instead of finding an alternative method of dealing with your problems. Also, being addicted to heroin doesn't pardon you from robbing that liquor store, putting 17 bullets in that man's chest Trying to say no to the heroin after you're hooked, and failing, and taking another injection, you're forgiven for that. After all, addiction is a disease.
Why do people choose banks when credit unions typically have much fewer fees?
Their are certain retirements to join credit unions each one is different. Credit unions don't have many locations and are normally only in a certain town or state
Why do smaller breeds of dogs tend to bark more than larger dogs?
To get breeds that small, they are INTENSELY selectively bred. The more intensely you breed for one characteristic, the more variation you get in other characteristics. So dog A may be bred for size and temperment and appearance. His breed overall develops those traits. Dog B is bred to be small. He's just the smallest son of the smallest son of the smallest son. Mean but small? Breed him. Stupid but small? Breed him. Designer dogs actually have a ton of health and temperment issues, but people want miniature Dobermans, so mean, skittish, short-lived tiny Dobermans they get.
Why aren't bugs like ants or moths afraid of humans even though we generally kill them if they are near us?
They are generally afraid of us. That's why they fly away. Ants will run away if you signal to them that you're nearby as well but their sight isn't the best so they don't tend to notice us that often.
Why does it take Google under 1 second to search the web while it takes almost a minute for my computer to search through its own hard drive?
Google has searched the web every second for years. You are not searching the web, you are searching Google's index. If you want to increase search speed on your PC make sure everything is indexed.
Why is cannibalism so taboo?
A lot of our religious/moral beliefs are a way of early man trying to warn one another of issues that couldn't be explained any other way So, early man likely noticed that those who consumed a lot of human meat became ill/dead. In their mind, it was God's way of telling them that the practice was a sin/angered the gods/spirits/alien overlords/whatever Much the same reason that many religions do not eat pork
how does the fourth dimension work? And what does it mean?
_URL_0_Here's a video of Carl Sagan explaining it. He does a great job of dumbing it down and showing clear visuals. Hope it answers your question
Should there be labels explaning the type of post?[Politics],[Economics],[Games],[Technology]...etc
I like this idea. I also like the way [/r/askscience] has custom user tags next to each expert so you know the person answering knows their stuff. I'm not certain how the verification process goes but I like it regardless. We could have custom tags for people depending on which areas they are experts in, or which areas they have degrees/are studying.Hey Zeratas, thanks for your idea! I'm going to echo some of the other comments here in this thread and say while I think it's a neat idea, right now we are still trying to keep things simple. Honestly the explosive growth of this whole thing has forced us to make some more imperative changes first, and I don't want to overwhelm the community with too many all at once. I 'd like to revisit this idea in a month or two, once the community takes a more firm shape. "Putting a pin in it," as they say. Thanks again for the great idea, and thanks for being a part of this!
How dangerous the whole North Korea thing actually is.
Im not sure, to be honest. North Korea has had a long, sad history of sabre-rattling at the U.S. . If it were Kim Jong Il in charge, I wouldn't put too much weight in the reports and rumors coming out but Kim's son being in charge bothers me. He's a kid. A kid with a host of old men behind him, and I am entirely too willing to believe that they are running more of the show than we can see. Kim jong un went to school in Switzerland and is a fan of American sports, notably the nba. Personally, I think America could benefit from getting Kim to sit down with us at a table. The problem is all those old guys behind Kim, running their own agenda. Bottom line, IMHO, Kim doesn't want to go to war with America. We're too good at it, and too many other nations would stand with America ****EDIT****: Goddamn touchscreens.
why companies still buy Microsoft products despite Linux and Open-/LibreOffice being easy, functional and completely free?
> save for some Outlook integration - but is that really worth the cost? Yes. People will pay a lot of money for very specific features. Specialty software can easily cost thousands of dollars per user, so cost is relative. Speaking of cost, support is an important factor, especially for a large enterprise. This is why many businesses opt to pay for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, instead of any of the other free versions of exactly the same code; they're paying for the support and it's important.
What is M-103 and Sharia Law all about? How are they connected and why are so many people against it?
Idk about the m103. What I do know is that Sharia involves making everyone a follower of Allah. If you do not want to be one you must pay a very heavy tax and be humiliated ect essentially until you become one. It's essentially dictator Islam.
Why do movies use the same actors over and over?
It's just like any other job, if you are going to spend millions of dollars to produce a movie you want to make sure you will be investing in an actor who has been around the block and knows what they are doing, and also can fill seats in the theater. A lesser-known fact is that movie studios are beholden to hiring SAG-only actors, and pay a heavy fine for any non-SAG actor they use in a film . [[source]]
Why does Chrome care if my clock is ahead or behind?
In windows you can sync your computer's clock with a time server. If you do that, then Chrome will once again be able to verify the the security certificate and allow you to visit secure websites. But with a dead CMOS battery, the time will reset every time you reboot the computer and you'll have to go through the menus in windows again to re-sync your system time to the time server before you can use Chrome. I'd just crack the laptop open, find out what kind of battery you need and then go to a local store. Lots of places carry those kinds of small batteries.
If we can't observe dark matter, how do we know it exists?
Dark matter can be observed, just not seen. There's a difference. Dark matter doesn't interact with electromagnetic radiation so we can't detect it with telescopes. Even so, we can infer that it exists by how it interacts with things we can see.
What does it mean for 5 trillion euros to be wiped off the global stock market?
If you have a bunch of stocks and you wanted to sell them all tomorrow in order to buy an annuity to retire on, now you can't afford to buy as much of an annuity. Your retirement will be poorer, and that is bad. On the other hand if you are youngish and still buying stocks to save for the future, then woohoo, stocks are on sale!
Why can't we legalize prostituion simply by filming it?
Nobody seems to be hitting the key difference so I'll try to give it a go. Porn is regulated. It requires that companies/people producing porn where actors are paid obtain a license. To obtain a license you must comply with the regulations like having an incorporated business, following STD/STI testing procedures etc. If you hired a prostitute and filmed it you aren't, by law, technically producing porn, you're just filming sex with a prostitute.A. Many clients and many prostitutes are doing it secretly so a DVD of their performance would be dangerous. B. The producer of a porn normally is not the star of the porn. C. The court case that makes porn production legal was in California state court and a scheme like yours would probably result in prosecution anyway It is also a matter of the persons consenting to sexual acts being classified as "actors" in a movie, rather than a prostitute and individual purchasing said prostitute, while u/Gazanor also mentioned the consent is also present when filming, and the "actors" are consenting to give the filmer their image rights.Why can't we just legalize and regulate prostitution?
I am blind(from birth). Describe colors to me.
One of the best ways that I've heard it described before is a little something like red is hotness, it's the taste of a strawberry and the warmth of when someone blushes. Blue is really cold water, ice, the ocean, and green is the smell of grass and plants in general.
Why do poachers kill species to extinction for ivory? There's no economic sense to it.
Poachers typically are not the ones making all that money but instead the middle men. Also poachers are rarely educated in the concept of sustainable economy. They're poor, hungry people who have no other way to earn a living. All they see is money walking around and especially if they don't care or have access to information about how endangered these species are, it's just money that someone else will make if they don't get there first."Poachers" aren't a professional organization who have meetings over long term economic policy. There are a bunch of gangs looking to make a quite buck. If an animal is going extinct, that's a reason to kill them faster, before some other gang does.
Why don't the inside of water pipes rust and contaminate drinking water?
Rust is air + iron and there normally isn't much of either in the water filled copper pipes that run through your house.
Why is a tomato classed as a fruit and not a vegetable?
Because, biologically speaking, a tomato is a fruit. Fruits contain the seeds of a plant and are formed from the ovary. Other fruits that people don't like to admit are fruits are corn kernels, cucumbers, zucchinis, bean pods, nuts, and several other things.Scientifically speaking, tomatoes are actually very large [berries]An easy way to tell if something is a fruit and not a vegetable is if it naturally contains the seeds. A fruit is normally formed as an encasing around a seed to protect and encourage animals to eat it to help the seeds travel. A vegetable is literally any other part of the plant, be it the stalk, the root, or even the leaves.
what prevents different governments from printing currencies of each other?
to rephrase, What would prevent a foreign government from destabilizing a government economically, leading to a collapse of their economy and therefore the government and country? The same thing as any other act of war, a massive military response. Without a massive military response, governments can, have, and do. Also, if no one finds out, they do. Wouldn't be surprised if the CIA orchestrated something like that, or any other Intelligence agency like the former KGB, etc. It is an act of economic sabotage, a very devastating act, essentially an act of war much the same as sabotaging a countries power plants, major highways, etc.
Why do we swing our arms when we walk/run?
I assume it's an Evolutionary quirk from when we used to walk on all fours and also, as others have said, helps balance your movements when you walk. EDIT: Grammar.
Why is liberalism and left-leaning correlated with education?
I've always thought it was analogous to urban vs rural with political ideology. This is just based on US politics, I'm not sure about elsewhere, but cities tend to be liberal and rural areas tend to be conservative. The basics of this, I think, is that in cities people come into contact with people who are different from themselves - different belief systems, different backgrounds, different races, ethnicities, and religions, etc - much more so than in rural areas. Because of all this diversity, people are forced to take into account other people's perspectives more than in rural areas, and simply this causes people to be more liberal. Thinking about other people, their troubles, their values, leads to more openness Education works the same way. Being exposed to alternative ways of thinking, believing, being make people more open, and being more open is the opposite of conservativism which inherently wants to keep things the same as they were or were perceived to be. This all has to do with the core liberal/conservative divide not to particular policies. People can be passionate about any particular policy and have that policy pull them to one side or the other regardless of any other issue.Loaded question. There actually is no correlation. People with college educations are fairly evenly split.
Does the U.S. ever "counterattack" after Russia or China hacks into one of their state computer systems, such as today's hack of the Pentagon's computers?
Remember stuxnet? It wasn't deployed against China , but I would very much doubt we haven't deployed similarly advanced cyber weapons against China and Russia given how openly they use cyber warfare against us
How is getting 4 to 5 hours sleep on average affecting me?
I have sleep apnea. Before I started using my CPAP , I would always be tired and would fall asleep while driving , any time I watched TV, sat down, etc Oddly enough, I'd only sleep 4-5 hours a day. Sometimes if the sun came up, I'd just start a whole new day with no sleep. Then as soon as I started using my CPAP and actually got restful sleep, my body wanted more sleep and now I try to sleep between 6-8 hours. Sometimes I sleep more. I still avoid going to sleep as long as possible just like before. I always jokingly say that I don't go to sleep, I pass out. I know veterans are 4x more likely to have sleep apnea than any other Americans. It's like the new agent orange of our generation . I started my horrible sleeping habits in the military.
Why, if I feel full eating one meal, don't I feel full if I eat a different meal that has the same number of calories?
Calories aren't a physical thing. They are a measurement of energy, just like an inch is a measurement of space in one dimension.
What would someone on the moon see during a lunar eclipse?
The earth would go in front of the sun and the only light reaching you would be trough earth's atmosphere with a red tint since the light passes through it .
How is not fundamentally undemocratic that the entire population of Wyoming (~580,000) has just as much power and representation in the Senate as the entire population of California (38,000,000)?
1) Obviously it's not unconstitutional when it's the Constitution that sets it up this way. 2) Originally, the country was really a set of distinct colonies banding together to form a confederation. Just like China and India don't get extra votes in the U.N. because they have huge populations, the Senate was designed to make sure each state had representation in the federal government as equals, at least in one chamber. Recall that back in the day, Senators were chosen by the state legislatures, not the people. Under this frame, my representative represents *me*, my senator represents *my state*. 3) Over time we've become more of a nation, and probably all think of ourselves as Americans first and members of a state second . We already moved to direct election of senators. But it takes 75% of the states to change the Constitution. Right now, 17 states have above average population and 33 have below average. These 33 are very unlikely to vote themselves into having less power.
Why do we need credit cards, if debit cards can have overdrafts?
Car rental agencies and hotels greatly punish debit cards that make it much better to use credit cards. Basically, if you rent a car, the rental agency will take out a bunch of money from your bank account as a deposit. Hotel will do the same. Last time I rented a car, they took out $250. They will refund the money when you're done. But that doesn't change the fact that you have no use of that $250 for the length of your rental period. Let's say you're on vacation and you rent a car and rent a hotel room. They'll both take out $250 So instead of having a simple $250 vacation, you need to have at least $750 in your bank or else your debit car will no longer work. In contrast, car rental and agencies don't do that for credit cards. So your $250 vacation will cost only $250 at the end of the month, without you losing the use of $500 during your vacation.
When the pilgrims landed in Plymouth Rock and realized it was coldAF, why didn't they sail down the coast to Florida?
It was roughly the same climate they came from, so they assumed their crops would grow there. They didn't, but Squanto showed up speaking English, and they thought that was a sign from God to stay there.
If craters on the moon are caused by meteors crashing into it then why do we not see that ever happen?
It's not happening very often, but lack of atmosphere causes craters to stay unchanged for billions of years. As for big things crashing into planets recently you can find photos and videos of Shoemaker–Levy 9 comet hitting Jupiter in 1994", 'We may have: _URL_0_ That said, most of the craters you see are very old. They just never blow or wash away because there is no air or water to wash them away.
Why can't I buy a bare bones vehicle new anymore?
Regulations. State and Federal laws require car manufacturers to have certain things in them before they're allowed to sell them on the market.
Why are people excited about electric vehicles? Aren't they just transferring the problem to the power plant?
There are two reasons for my enthusiasm: 1: Electric cars have all their power available to them at any RPM, meaning no need for gearboxes and much better acceleration. Hence they are very fun to drive. And quieter. And have less moving parts = less maintenance. 2: In terms of energy supply and pollution, you do have a point. The issue IS simply moved from one point to another. But ), it makes much more sense to optimize as early in the supply chain as possible. It's cheaper/easier/more cost effective to reduce emissions on a powerplant delivering power to a 100.000 cars than it is to reduce emissions of 100.000 individual cars.
Possible descriptions of the universe's finiteness/infiniteness
I like to imagine how people in hundreds of years laugh about our simplistic view of the universe just like we laugh about people's simplistic views on chemistry/physics/medicine 500 years ago.
What is this house spider doing?
We used to feed our 'pet' spiders flies and other small insects. We'd throw them into their web or leave dead ones nearby for them to drain. I don't know what the spider is doing, perhaps marking territory? Do spiders do that?
Why when gas prices were rising did airlines complain and increase prices, but now its cheaper than gas has been for years, the fares continue to increase?
Man that's some grammar you got going in that question. Jets burn kerosene, not gasoline, so there's not necessarily an exact match between gasoline prices and jet fuel prices. Also, airlines at a minimum buy half their fuel in contracts up to a year ahead - they haven't seen as much cost savings as the spot market would make you think. Now. What's your source for the claim about rising prices? My flights this fall and winter seem slighly cheaper than a year prior.in short, price fixing. people may cite fuel hedging, but if you just look at their quarterly earning statements you can see that is false. [go to page 6 and 7] of their earnings report. revenue is up and fuel costs are down. prices are high because the airlines are all, with explicit collusion or not, holding their prices up because everyone else is. I believe the justice department is [investigating for collusion] because they are all choosing to not compete on price.It was once explained to me that the airline industry is an example of an oligopoly - like a monopoly, but a small discrete group of dominating companies, instead of just one. You still get the pricing and competition effects that come with a monopoly, but uniformly across all the companies in the oligopoly. TL;DR - if they all retain their ticket price point, no one can stop them, there isn't enough competition
Why do so many poor quality, low budget movies even get made?
My SiL used to work for one of those low budget studios. She said that basically they are made really cheap and usually break even if not make a little money. But you keep spinning the lotto wheel and eventually you'll get a movie like big ass spider or sharknaro that was made on the cheap and made insane amount of money", 'Making a Blair Witch is winning the lottery. Movies are "cheap" to make especially with today's technology. Even in the 90s, developing film was relatively expensive. Now there is no film. There's something called scale. You can ask actors to work for almost nothing. Almost no actor makes millions per picture. Same as directors. People in LA are desperate for fame, myself included. They want film for their reel or portfolio. Maybe they can get a better job if they appear in your movie. If they don't, they definitely won't. You can also get imdb credit. DVDs used to cost about $20 each. You didn't have to sell millions to break even.
What is wrong with genetically engineered crops?
*Mostly* it's the fear of the unknown. There are some legitimate concerns regarding anything genetically modified, but most of what I have seen is, *in my opinion*, just fear mongering
Why is Mussolini taken a lot less seriously in Italy than Hitler is in Germany?
While there was anti-semitism in Second World War Italy, it remained essentially uninvolved in the Holocaust and indeed on several occasions outright refused to co-operate with Germany in 'rounding up' Jews. While Mussolini allied with Hitler he did not share all of Hitler's views.Seems to me that post-war consequences were far worse for Germany. With massive destruction and loss of life - exp Russian army was punitive in their actions after what the Nazis did to them. Then the country was split in two for decades. Italy came out of it whole and united and with less damage. Also, Hitler killed himself whereas the Italians hung off Mussellini themselves
How people are injured by bombs?
Firstly bombs have fuel which burns, so you get lots of heat. Bomb fuels are specially chosen to let off a ridiculously large amount of gas in a very small amount of time, which is in a very compact area. The gas needs to get out, and it does so very quickly. Too quickly in fact, because all the other gas that was made by the bomb is pushing it away. The gas is pushed so hard that it is forced to move faster than it normally can, and this forms a blast wave . You can think of a blast wave as an instant change in wind speed. One second the air is still, and then the next second you have a wind blowing at several hundred miles an hour. Remember that this wind is very hot, because it comes directly out of burning fuel. Carried by the wind, you have the metal bits from the bomb , but also dust and sand and bits of everything else that was between you and the bomb. That works like sand paper, and basically just rips your skin. Don't forget that this skin is probably already quite badly burned from the really hot wind. Then you get your body's own reaction. The blast wave isn't stopped by your body. Your body is soft and squishy and the the wave has no problem passing through your organs. Your organs don't like that, and it's not unusual for one of them to tear or burst. Your bones are solid though, and the blast wave and put up quite a bit of resistance to the shock wave. The shock wave pushes back, and often one or two bones can't take that pushing and snap. Your body is pushed backwards really quickly, and often your brain hits the inside of your skull, which can cause major damage. Occasionally, the wind can lift you and throw you around, but that's not normally the main cause of damage.
the physics of how a bong works?
You know how when you blow into a glass of water through a straw it bubbles? Same idea except instead of blowing the bubbles into the glass, you're 'pulling' them through the other end. The bubbles have smoke, water cools them down, and hence the smoke is cooler
If the court ruled NSA's spying as illegal, why is there no penalty/ pressed charges against the NSA?
Even if that statement were accurate, who would be charged? The head of the agency? All of the agency's leaders? Everyone that works there? It's a government agency, it's not going to be held legally accountable for what it does. The worst punishment it can receive is to be reorganized or placed under closer oversight.
Why do people have lisps, and what exercises are used in speech therapy to repair one?
sh", etc. We don't know exactly why some children have trouble producing certain speech sounds and others don't-sometimes it has to do with the structure of the mouth, such as missing teeth or weak muscles, sometimes it's a habit that lasts longer than it should developmentally, sometimes it's because of a current or past hearing issue , and sometimes it's just because human speech movements are really complicated. :-) If someone is making a "th" sound instead of an "s" sound, a mirror is really helpful. You make the "s" sound by putting your tongue really close to the bumpy ridge right behind your upper teeth and letting the air come out in a long stream, just like a snake hiss. The "th" sound is similar, except this time your tongue rests between your teeth when you let the air out. So look in the mirror and smile so that your teeth are together to practice. Your teeth will naturally keep your tongue close to the right position, but if you see it poke between your teeth in the mirror, you know you need to try again. Start by practicing the sound 5 minutes a day until you need to smile less to keep your tongue inside. Then look online for some simple words with "s" in the beginning of the word and practice making the sound in the context of a word. Do this with the sound at the end and then the middle of a word. Finally, move to sentences. If you're not having success, look for a local speech pathologist and get some exercises designed for your particular needs.
How would a person born & raised on the moon physically differ from an earthling?
Short version is: we really don't know. At all. There's a lot of speculation, and we know of certain definite problems that occur to adults who spend much time in weightlessness. But we have very little data on how pregnancy develops in weightlessness in mammals, and no data at all about how a fetus develops in light gravity. Also, we have little to no data about how an infant mammal grows in weightlessness, and no data about growth in low gravity. There's all sorts of speculation, including atrophied muscles, elongated bone structure, growth defects, organ failure. But it's ALL just speculation. We don't know shit.Human beings born and raised in a low gravity environment would have a lesser muscle mass and lower bone density. The change would be gradual over generations, but just as in the prospect of children born and raised on Mars, eventually they would have great difficulty even visiting Earth for a short time. As the heart would not have to work as hard to pump blood, the successive generations born on the moon would place a big strain on their heart if they visited Earth.Asimov's book 'Gods Themselves' cover this nicely in 3rd part. For example: low gravity give slightly different bones and cardiovascular sys, so they can never visit mother Earth. Moon has less germs because germs havent evolved in plentiful, and too few are imported. So they consider Earthlings a bit dirty cousins wirh germs n stuff. Also their food is inferior because its minimal and scarce, but they are used to it, Earthlings are nostalgic about food when viaiting Moon. Tgere also new low gravity sports with big jumps. Its overly optimistic actually, its SciFi afterall, but food for thoughts. Moon gravity probobly isnt viable from early stages of life.An interesting anime called Planetes depicted moon born people as being taller, but having less strength due to some sort of atrophy.
Does 'drifting' actually get you anything close to real sleep?
Well it sounds like your mother means to lay in bed with your eyes closed at night, as opposed to being on your phone, TV playing video games ect. If your in bed with your eyes closed you have the opportunity to fall asleep, if your sitting at your computer you don't. So no, drifting isn't the same as sleeping, but it's better to do that than to engage in activities all night with no sleep.
How does the human ear discern between a quiet noise and a distant noise?
Not an expert, but there's a wonderful audio clip called 'virtual barbershop' that will demonstrate to you very well how exactly the brain identifies where a sound is coming from. If you hear it, you'll realise that the way your brain determines how far and where a sound is coming from has nothing to do with how loud it is In short, your brain can detect the tiny differences in the sound as it reaches each of your ears. And it uses that to determine the location.