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If black holes are stars that compacted into itself, why is it that they're more heavy than the original star?
It's not. Gravity is manupulated by density and mass. A star has a high mass and a high density. A black hole has a lower mass, but an practically infinite density. It's attracting power is weaker, but once something is attracted, and passes the point of no return, it will never, ever break free.
How come countries like Spain and Greece can still function and maintain one of the worlds highest standards of living when up to 25% of the population are unemployed?
The country does function, but everything is a mess. The European Union helps to keep things together a little bit, but corruption is common. Part of the reason for the rise of extremist political parties like the Golden Dawn and SYRAZIA is because things are so bad. In short, it functions because it has the inertia to function, but it doesn't function like we think of things functioning in the United States. As a result of the Recession, Greek GDP per capita is really low. Before the crisis, Greek GDP per capita was $30,000. Today it's $20,000. For comparison, American GDP per capita is $52,000.
since out brains evolved to help us survive, what purpose does the enjoyment of music serve?
Not much. But it doesn't hurt either, which is arguably the more important thing.Music brings societies together and keeps us sane.Music is a part of culture, it reinforces a community's ties to one another, which is valuable for defense, sex, and food. There may be some evolutionary selection toward music enthusiasts if liking music leads to dancing and dancing leads to increased reproductive sex.Music makes the people come together. Music mix the bourgeoisie and the rebel. Do you like to boogie woogie? Do you like to boogie woogie? Do you like my dancing?
Why do courts use terms like "6 life sentences plus 140 years" when sentencing a criminal? Why can't they just say, "you're never getting out?"
just in case humans become immortal in the future, they'll have the extra 140 years of shower sex as punishment
Why can't a military knock out ISIS's military capabilities with a few airstrikes?
The same reason civilians die in the fighting in Gaza, ISIS is intertwined with civilians and it's not clear who is an enemy and who is not. Also the US cannot solve all the worlds problems.
Why do businesses have to 'grow?' Isn't it good enough to maintain a status quo?
sure, that's good. But if you have stock in the company, part of the value of the stock is the fact that the company will become more valuable in the future. If the company isn't growing as fast as you thought it was, and you included its growth in your valuation, then you should adjust and value it less.
Why is everyone trying to sell me gold?
Why is everyone trying to sell you gold? Because they've been buying gold from desperate suckers over the last few years. Now that the market's changing, they'd rather have cash so they're selling the gold back to suckers.
If different races can have different dominant physical traits, why can't they have dominant mental traits as well?
This stems from the philosophical concept called a veil of ignorance. Basically you don't want government or society to limit a person's ability to succeed based on issues other than innate. So although certain races can do some things better on average, you can select for certain tasks based on anything other than individual talent otherwise you will be unfair towards some individuals. Race and upbringing, as well as date of birth and gender and parent's occupation and economic status etc all affect an individual's skills and abilities. What you don't want society to do is limit the opportunities a person gets based on the statistical likelihood that this or that individual will be good at math, language, sports, medicine or anything else. It's unfair towards those individuals, and it forces people into important roles they may not be suited for. In practice this happens a lot of course, but as a society you want to limit how much people are pigeon-holed into roles because that the role they are expected to fill. Over time as this idea became more and more widespread it became almost taboo to even publicly suggest a person's race, economic background or parentage should limit or even affect one's social opportunities. I remember reaction to a book called the bell curve which was well researched and mostly neutral , but received very poorly by the general public because by this time it was considered bad form to call any race inherently more or less intelligent than another. This is a good thing overall, as it ensure people can reach their individual potentials regardless of what racial/economic/parental predictor would suggest for that individual, but it doesn't mean that races have distinct social and mental traits in much the same way that they are physically distinct.
Why do Americans automatically assume that anything made in Europe is higher quality?
What I've noticed is that anything I've encountered that was made in the US is very poor quality. People are encouraged to buy American, but competition from China forces companies to cut back on quality to remain competitive. Europe, not being one country, doesn't have this. Also, where do you all get the idea that China produces poor quality? Where was your iPhone made? Or your Canon camera? Edit - OK, assembled. Still, if I was faced with a sticker that said 'Made in China' or one that said 'Proudly made in the US of A', I'd take the Chinese option every time, simply through experience.
The conflict in Syria. Why is Assad slaughtering people, why the hasn't there been all out revolt, and what the West is doing about it?
None of the West's business. Plus Russia and China veto'd a decision to move in by the UN.
What exactly is gentrification, how is it done, and why is it seen as a negative thing?
Btw if you think it doesn't happen to working class white neighborhoods you're dead fucking wrong. Try looking for a place in South Boston. Yeah, you know South Boston, that tough neighborhood from all the movies? Good luck walking down L street and finding anyone *that actually grew up there.*
Why are conifers usually triangular while deciduous trees are usually 'circular' in profile?
Part has to do with height, the higher you go the slimmer the trunk gets and therefore the branches must be smaller, conifers being often taller than deciduous, not as a rule of course. They grow where there's less sunlight so it makes sense to grow tall so you can get as much as possible.
Why are Asian-Americans treated better than other non-whites?
One stereotype against Asians in general is that they're weak, submissive, and won't talk back if someone tells them what to do. This stereotype keeps them out of the eyes of law enforcement at large, but that's a strange thing for you to consider better.Asians have a stereotype where people see us as nonthreatening and emasculated, so we are seen as less physically intimidating than others. This stereotype is as harmful as any other though in different ways.The biases, both conscious and unconscious are vastly different, and don't include fears of violence or criminality
Why can martial arts experts break bricks with their hands, but when a normal person try, he ends up with a fractured hand?
Martial arts experts breaking- well, just about anything, will choose things to break that are easier to break, and will often specially prepare them to be easier to break. For instance: boards for breaking are usually pieces where the grain runs straight through the board rather than parallel to the surface, and drying boards in the oven to drive out moisture and make them brittle. A slightly easier and more obvious thing is when they partially cut through the thing to be broken in order to weaken it and make it easier to break. Setup is also important- the thing to be broken is usually set so that the optimum breaking point is lined up between the supports- such as putting the grain of the board perpendicular to the line of the supports. Breaking is mainly meant to look visually impressive, it's a showy thing for audiences and prospective club members.
New theory says that the Big Bang might not have happened?
The authors of the paper add two inversely proportional terms to quantum wave functions modeling spacetime. One is the cosmological constant the other is an inversely proportional radiation constant. These two constants allow the universe to expand and contract, but not to infinity. So the universe bounces back and forth between an expanding universe and a contracting universe. This model predicts that at small sizes the radiation term would cause the universe to expand again rapidly without forming a singularity. It still predicts inflation and all of the cosmological evolution we already think happened, it just doesn't include the possibility of a Big Bang or Big Crunch. It really isn't much different from the theory we use now, as long as you start both theories just after the singularity.
Why are testimonies/devices intended to elecit emotions from the jury allowed during trials?
In civil cases, it might factor into compensation for pain and suffering and the like I was recently on a jury for a civil case where somebody died & family was suing police over the investigation, and the parents and sister all got up and gave their sob stories. Actually hurt their case though, because they couldn't separate their emotions over things that weren't tied to the case and things that were, which made them seem money hungry more than out for justice.With the dead body thing, context is important. If the defence is trying argue that it was self defence, then the jury need to see the extent of the injuries, so they can decide whether it was or not, same with a frenzied attack or a savage beating. The pictures may be gruesome, but they are purely descriptive, the picture is not suggesting that the accused did it, just that this is what they are accused of doing.
why all the obviously 'bot internet comments without URLs?
One thing I've found is that for blogs with potentially suspect content or doubtful information, comments will try to persuade the reader otherwise. An example would be _URL_0_ with '100% working free trainer no virus!!!' and hundreds of comments saying it worked perfectly and that the 50 VirusTotal results you're seeing are all false positives. Again with the SEO stuff though.
Why is so much of Africa living in poverty and famine today?
Agriculture. Slave trade, colonization, and corruption all have played major parts, but Africa has never taken well to agriculture. Modern advances to agriculture such as fertilizer, micronutrient enhancements [eg: iodine], capital equipment can't even get any places because there are few navigable waterways for such a big continent. Additionally, infrastructure is woefully underdeveloped; there is still no transAfrican railroad. . Without these increases in agricultural productivity there will be very small agricultural surplus, even with modern crops. The agricultural surplus allows you to do other things than to worry about having enough food. Once agriculture takes of, countries can industrialize and achieve healthy growth. Unfortunately for Africa, it will need a lot of capital investment in order to see the growth. Without strong & consistent agriculture, stable or effective governments, AIDs, ebola, etc it can be very hard to get capital investments.
Why can't I buy my own debt for less than it's worth, even though collection agencies can?
Collection agencies can buy your debt for less than it's worth because the bank doesn't know whether or not you're ever going to pay it back. Making the attempt to buy your own debt would be strong evidence that you're financially responsible, and thus that you *will* pay back the debt eventually.
How do restaurants deal with dishes that require more preparation than can be done on-demand?
Its possible they just make x number and when they run out they run out. You can also prep food based on how busy it'll be. Tuesday wont be as busy as Friday and Saturday.
Why do so any political candidates repeatedly run for election when they do not have a reasonable likelihood of winning?
Some people are dedicated to their ideals, and prepared to spend a lot of time and effort to move the Overton Window. This is a concept of political acceptability, the idea that perception of ideas range from the utterly ludicrous through a little whacky to possible if odd, to the common sense. By campaigning hard for something way off the political mainstream, you stand no chance of winning, but you do slowly, slightly tilt the entire debate in your direction. To make up an example, if common sense is 'everyone should have a car', someone might campaign for 'there should be no cars at all' knowing that they won't win that, but in the hope they might shift the common sense point to 'maybe people should walk when they live within a hundred metres of the shop', and to avoid the centre point moving to 'everyone should have 2 cars'.
If I go to sleep with a stuffed nose and only being able to breathe out of my mouth, what is ensuring that I don't choke while asleep?
I've always slept through my nose. When I have a cold I try to sleep with my mouth open but I must shift in my sleep and my mouth closes. What happens is I wake up gasping for air. So from my experience our bodies must wake themselves up if this happens.
Why does airplane food suck? For example: couldn't they charge $1050 instead of $1000 and serve much better meals?
The air pressure change in the plane reduces your ability to taste. The food is fine, it's your tongue that's the problem.
With all the medical advances, why can't they just develop a ultra strong tooth coating to prevent cavities and tooth wear?
I think one of the problems would be that the tooth coating would have to be transparent or mimic the natural color of teeth. Also, the layer would have to be exceptionally thin, in order to fit between the teeth. What's more, it would have to be something that is not unhealthy for the body.
When out of breath, should I let my body rapidly breathe, or attempt to maintain a steady rate?
You're doing the right thing by breathing slowly and deeply. When you do this you're giving your body the best chance it has to get as much oxygen into your lungs as possible. It's the most efficient thing you can do. If you start to breath really quickly, your lungs don't fill up with as much oxygen as they otherwise could and you actually decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in your body.
Einsteins definition of insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”.
What's not to get? What's being said is: a person can be considered insane when they repeat actions over and over and expect something different to happen even though nothing has changed in the process. It's only funny or witty because he's a scientist. As a Chemistry major I've run some of the same experiments multiple times, doing the same distillation on 4 separate days to get the same yield or mixing the same reagents and hoping to make gold when all you make is some shitty alkene. He's making fun of science, he's implying that scientists are insane because they meticulously track and repeat experiments looking for something different to happen and create an out of the norm result.
Why do muscular men differ in physique today compared to men in, for example, the early 1900's?
1. the aesthetic values were different. Men who look like those in the 1900s still exist, they just don't get photographed and put up for display as much. This is not dissimilar to the 50s female figure - it still exists, it's just shown off less. 2. Similarly to above, people work out to achieve deliberate physics. Much more is known about how to do this now, then 110 years ago.
Why is Shockwave Flash so slow, Why is Adobe unable to optimize it, and Why do websites continue to use it instead of moving to an alternative?
It's not slow. Like any program, if it's programmed poorly it will be slow. Here's [Quake I] made in Flash 10 for something to compare to. Also, it's browser independent which is a major plus Edit: In case you cant figure out how to play: Click inside and press enter to get to the main menu.
the Uber experience vs. a traditional cab
Not all cab rides are bad but a lot of them are. Uber is amazing. Here are a few comparisons to illustrate my point: 1. Dispatch takes forever to send a cab to your location, whereas the Uber app drops a GPS pin and a car shows up usually very quickly . Once I called ahead to make sure a cab could pick me up the next morning--and they still managed to show up 20 minutes late. 2. A lot of cab drivers like to take advantage of people and take a longer route to the destination. Uber drivers usually ask if you have a preferred route, and suggest the fastest/most common ones if you don't know or don't have a preference. 3. Cabbies hate it when you pay with a credit card . I've heard stories of people being refused cab service because they indicated they were going to pay with a card, instead of cash. Uber pretty much deals exclusively in cards, and the payments are automatic. You can even split the fair. 4. Finally, cabs often smell bad and are generally uncomfortable, while Uber cars are always clean, and you get water and a USB charging station if you choose a black car over uberX.Uber drivers =/= cab drivers Uber provides two ways to transport, via Uber Black or Uber Pop Uber is cheaper than usual cabs cause there is no need for a \tpassenger transportation licence, radio unit, general inspection, receipt book, baby seats, and they pay less taxes[Here] I explain in an earlier thread how the system works.
How is it possible that people can just take years off at a time and develop their own independent video games?
I'm a indie game developer who took a few years off of work to dedicate to development, along with most of the rest of our team. The way I did it was I returning to college at the time, so I was able to secure a student loan while I was taking courses. They give you way more money than you need for strictly classes and books, so I was able to use that for living expenses. That, combined with some savings from my previous job and frugal living gave me nearly a year on about $15,000. I had help from my girlfriend, towards the end of the year I was completely broke. After that, we started selling preorders, and I was able to be paid from that. My original intention was not to quit my job, but to work part time. But for various reasons that just didn't work out. So: 1. Support2. Savings3. Loans We looked into places giving us advances on sales, but they weren't very good deals.
Why are the health benefits of sunlight not replicated by other light sources?
It's the wavelength of the light. You need ultraviolet light to make vitamin D. You can buy special lights that produce this wavelength, but most lights don't produce this wavelength because then you'd get sunburn. Plants are using the blue and red wavelengths, so plain visible light is good enough for plants.
why have airlines not improved their boarding process and why do they board so close to takeoff and then hurry everyone up?
There was a post about this some time ago, basically there are a few reasons. The super-efficient boarding methods actually aren't that popular with flyers. People like to board with their family or the people they are flying with. Also, airline can make extra money from charging you more to board first.
The legal status of marijuana in the USA.
Washington, DC: it's legal to possess marijuana for personal use , it's legal to grow marijuana in your home , it's legal to smoke marijuana on private property , and it's legal to _give_ someone marijuana . However it is not legal to _sell_ or _buy_ marijuana in the District. Medical marijuana is permitted, and can be bought/sold, but managed under separate regulations and, of course, requires a prescription from a physician for the buyer. Note: all of the above is moot if you are on Federal property in the District of Columbia , as that land is governed by the US Federal government, not by the DC city government. And since [Federal property makes up big portions of DC], possessing is not legal everywhere in the District boundaries. Source: DC resident.It is illegal under federal law. It is legal under state law in certain states. States are not required to enforce federal law. The federal government does not have the resources to police personal drug use, and does not want to provoke at political fight with the states, at least not so far. The federal government claims its jurisdiction to enforcement drug laws extends to the states, and this has been backed by the Supreme Court. This jurisdiction is based on broad interpretation of the Commerce Clause, which gives the federal government the right to regulate interstate commerce. The fact drugs *might* be sold illegally interstate is the basis for federal jurisdiction of all drugs, even those produced, sold, and consumed within the state. The current court might not uphold this interpretation if challenged. Any drug sales between states, even bordering states where it is legal, would fall under federal jurisdiction.
Why did cellphones suddenly go from all using different chargers to nearly all using the same?
The only real reason is because EU threatened to legislate all phones to be sold with the same microUSB charger. Even Apple is forced to provide a free lightning to microUSB adapter with all phones sold within the EU. The reasons others mentioned are far less important. Yes, you save on waste - but companies don't care about that since they have to give you a charger anyways. They much rather have some special charger for all their devices so that you will buy a Samsung tablet and watch if you already have their phone, for example. Smartphones connecting via USB is unimportant as well - before the EU threat, everyone used different USB connectors - remember mini USB, apple's legacy pre-lightning cable? If those arguments were strong, there'd be a standard laptop charger.
Why do stars all look roughly the same size, when they're so vastly different in distance and size?
Take a toy car and hold it in your hand in front of you at arm's length. Now stand next to a real car. Back up until the real car and the toy car look the same size. Now pretend the cars are stars. Although they are different sizes, they look very similar because they are different distances away from your eyes. Ok now little buddy, go have a snack.
Why are TVs seasons so short these days?
That's a particularly American thing - it's never been the case in the UK, for example. *Fawlty Towers* may only have two series of six episodes each, by so much drama is packed in to each, you're a wreck after watching just one. With the amount of effort that goes in to a show like *Game of Thrones* - set building, location shooting, post-production etc. - 10 episodes a season is plenty. *House*, by contrast, is entirely studio-based on mostly static sets, and therefore lest costly over the run.
What exactly is the issue with bees right now, why are people concerned about them?
[This comment by /u/SurlyTurtle] is pretty relevant. People are telling you that it is a result of pesticide but there seems to be significant evidence disputing that. Honestly if you have the time I'd recommend reading up on CCD or checking out some podcasts on it , it's a pretty scary and interesting phenomenon that seems to be only effecting bee colonies in certain regions.
Why doesn't reddit have its own image sharing option? Why are most images posted from _URL_0_?
Imgur was created to be Reddit's image hosting site, and, for the most part, it still is. Today, some people just only go on Imgur and some people only post to Imgur.
If ignorance of the law cannot be used as a defense for a crime, why aren't there basic law instruction courses taught in school?
Until you're 18 it's your parents responsibility. Efter that it is your own. And really, how much attention did we pay in school anyway? I know I didn't. But now I find many things that are similar to this interesting but 7 years ago, in high school, I would not have payed attention. + nicolascajuns answer.No one understands or knows all of Americas laws, even lawyers. They make more of them each year than any person could read and memorise. Why? The main objective is for the lawmakers and government agents to gain increasing power over the citizens. When everyone is a law breaker, even unintentionally, they can be denied their civil rights on a whim. ) Lawyers also buy a lot of politicians. Their goal is to have their politicians pass more laws that are increasingly convoluted so as to guarantee high paying work for themselves interpreting those laws. Trying to teach you about law when you are in school would only alert you to the dangers of out of control legalisation. That runs contrary to the prime object of public education which is to indoctrinate you into being a good little peon.In Canada we have a half credit in high school for Civics and Careers. The first half of the semester focuses around obtaining a job, making resumes, transferable skills, career aptitude tests, and interviewing. And Civics focuses around the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, while rudimentary or a primer, it does provide Canadian Students with a basic understanding of their rights. I've studied in Canada for Law , for example, the Criminal Code of Canada is about 8 inches thick and lists every possible offence a person can commit including witchcraft, bestiality, and vagrancy. Ignorance of the law cannot be an excuse mainly due to the fact that the burden of proof would rest with the prosecutor, how do you prove someone knew what they were doing was wrong?
Why do we need sunscreen when our ancestors didn't? Did all our ancestors die of skin cancer?
People spending large amounts of time outside in the olden days knew they would get burnt, so they covered up to prevent that, there was also a widespread stigma attached to being tanned so people covered up to prevent looking poor. It was not tradition to spend the whole day at the beach or lake, you would go for a few hours and then get dressed again and cover up so less exposure in leisure time as well. A huge one is there where no tanning beds for our ancestors to get an increased risk from ;) People did not travel so far away in the past, nowadays a person from the North can go to the equator, their skin isn't evolved for that kind of sun, so they get burnt easily.I only see one comment that kinda touches on this, but keep in mind the average life expectancy was much lower so many died before skin cancer would really be an issue.They usually didn't live long enough for skin cancer to develop. They died from things like infected cut and childbirth and cholera.
Why does dropping a 15 lbs. weight from 3 feet break the tiles on the floor, but a 150 lbs. person can fall on it from a greater distance with no issues?
You're soft and big. When your feet hit the floor the force of impact spreads out across the area of your foot. Your tissues also deform during the transfer of energy, letting the energy bleed out over a longer period of time. When a 15 pound weight hits the floor only a very small area of the weight actually hits the floor and it does not bend much. All the energy of the fall is transferred into a very small region very quickly, shattering the tiles.As others have said, your body is crumpling and absorbing the impact of the fall. Try jumping straight up and landing with your knees locked . It will probably hurt, and it will be really loud if you are on anything that has give . This is because locking your knees prevents you from absorbing the impact as well.The foot is designed to take impacts. It has padding and the energy spread across the entire body. However, a 15lb weight has much less substance and it is hard to begin with . So it doesn't flex much. All the energy is concentrate at the point of contact, resulting in a broken tile. Try dropping 15lb of putty/cornstarch etc.. They won't break the tile either.
Why was the Louisiana Puschase so cheap, and why do some consider it to have been 'stolen'?
The reason it was cheap was because the French wanted rid of it. They'd just taken it back over from the Spanish and didn't have any feasible way of turning it into a colony. A more likely outcome was that the British would capture it, and there was no way France would allow that. Better to sell it to their allies. Originally the US only wanted the southern parts but eventually took the lot. It was the biggest sale of land in history, and proportionally ridiculously cheap. Point was that the US would never have been able to afford it otherwise, and therefore the French could only sell at an affordable price. Of course the native people's didn't have any say in this at all. It was 'stolen' off them, the Spanish and then sold on the cheap.
Why do we feel the call of the void?
I'm fairly certain it's because our brain sees no other reasonable explanation for looking over the edge like that besides being pushed or wanting to jump. If memory serves, it was mentioned in a VSause video. We can't subconsciously explain why we looked over the edge, so we subconsciously trick ourselves into a false reason.
Do we really have our finger on the nuclear trigger?
It used to be that bombs dropped from planes would be in various states of readiness. So some planes might literally be up and flying circles near a countries border. Some would be on the ground with the engines running. Some will be parked ready to go as soon as the crew loads. All depends on how threatened that country felt. Now, most of the nuclear bombs are in large missiles that can hit nearly anywhere on earth. Unless they're being maintained, those missiles will launch as soon as you tell them to. The people who launch them are usually a pair of people with keys who both need to agree with the orders. Their orders come down through multiple people from the big boss who all have to agree that nuking someone is the thing to do and the person giving them the order isn't crazy or has a gun to their head.Jets why would we use jets? Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles can be launched from their silos scattered throughout the country and hit anywhere with precision. Now it is worth nothing that we are not literally at the "push button, shoot missiles" level but the procedures to launch a nuclear attack are fairly quick and streamlined. This is a hold-over from the Cold War where the assumption was that *if shit kicked off* it was going to kick off *quickly*.
Why is modern mathematics all based on multiples of 10? Is it because we have 10 fingers? If it had been based on multiples of 8 would math have been easier?
Use of base ten is ultimately an arbitrary choice that does not affect anything other than our symbolic representation of numbers. Having ten fingers is what some people think is the reason for ten digits, but other civilizations have used other bases. Using base eight wouldn't be that much better than using base ten, because 8 only has factors 1,2,4,8 and 10 has 1,2,5,10. However there are organizations that want to convert the world to a base twelve system or dozenal . 12 is divisible by 1,2,3,4, and 6, so it's incredible factor density leads to very convenient symbolic representations. If you want more factors, you'd have to use a larger base, and the larger the base the more information in one of its symbols , at the expense of a larger times table . For example 1/3 = 0.4 1/4 = 0.3 1/2 = 0.6 1/6 = 0.2 and even though 1/5 = 0.249724972497 , which isn't as simple as base ten's 1/3 = 0.333 , truncating a repeating decimal changes the value anyway so there's no advantage to having a string of all the same digit. People say if we were dozenal, we wouldn't even think of going to something worse like decimal but on the other hand if we are in decimal, dozenal would be an improvement, so switching isn't completely ridiculous. We are unfortunately stuck with an inferior base system 400 years from now are we still going to be using an obsolete radix? That would be kind of a shame and a disappointment. The practicality of making such a switch is the only thing holding us back.
How do shows like Drugs Inc. Work, where they follow illegal activity, how is it legal for them not to turn in the criminals?
I read something here on reddit that videotaping someone doing drugs is not enough evidence, as you can't tell if the drugs are real or not, and thats why VICE gets away with its filming. Im not sure if this is right or applicable though", 'ITT: a lot of people who think it is legal not to report a crime. No, in the US at least: > [Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony] cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both. It's called "misprision". Misprision of a felony is very rarely prosecuted, but it is still a crime.
Why do people hate GMO's so much.
A large part of the concern I have towards them is the unseemly resistance that the GMO manufacturers uniformly have towards oversight and regulation. Specifically, the large amount of money they recently spent attempting to defeat California's Proposition 37. People should have the right to be well informed about what they eat. Actively fighting against this does not portray these companies in a very good light.
Why do humans have to brush their teeth to stop them from rotting, but we don't have to brush our pets' teeth such as cats and dogs?
Time to visit a pet store OP. Plenty of products available to help you do just that. It's highly recommended.
Why do conservatives in the US typically deny climate change? In other words, is there something inherently conservative about climate change denial?
Conservatives do NOT deny evolution. Some fundamentalist Christians who are also politically conservative do, but not conservatives at large. My reading of them and climate change ranges from denying it, recognizing that something's going on but it's not man-made, and recognizing that something's going on and influenced by man but get the far worse polluting Chinese to clean up their act before making 'Murica suffer.
Why is the secret service investigating the credit card breach at Target instead of the FBI?
The FBI was created to take over some of the tasks the secret service was overseeing. The secret service's initial role was to deal with counterfeit currency and to neutralize and store mysterious artifacts.sub question: what is the difference between the cia, fbi, nsa, and secret service?Because the Secret Service is a part of the department of treasury, and part of their job is going after people who try to falsify currency. Usually this is counterfeiters, but people who steal other payment methods falls under their jurisdiction.Yep. because thats what the secret service's primary function is. To investigate cases of financial fraud and counterfeiting, etc.Why would the Secret Service investigate the FBI?', "The exposed data from this breach affected 120 million people .statistically more than 1/3 of the entire nation's population. A breach of that magnitude probably involved the hacker finding a flaw within a MAJOR 3rd party payment system's infrastructure. If the same method used to pull that off was applied to another critical system w/an identical security template, the hackers involved could potentially pose a threat to national security. In that case, it's not just a matter of jurisdiction, the investigators would need some serious resources to figure out who the intruder is and get a handle on the situation. Also remember, if the crack affected THAT many people, chances are Target wasn't the only target .
How can a seemingly simple app, like Pandora Radio for example, employ thousands of people and keep them busy for 40+ hours per week?
I'd imagine they have a large customer service team to deal with complaints from paying customers who still hear ads.
Why do different types of liquor give me different types of drunkenness?
This is a myth. Sorry. It's all the same; you get wasted, horny, do something dumb and regret in the next afternoon. Type of booze matters not.
If someone can speak multiple languages what language do they think in?
Can somebody explain why I don't think in any language? My mother tounge is Mandarin and I learnt English went to pre school. At that time, I was thinking in English. After that, I moved to Switzerland and learnt German. Then I started to think without a language! Can somebody explain this to me?", 'Depends on how much they use them. I have Finnish and English both as home languages so I think in a mixture of both, but normally people will think in their mother languageMy native language is norwegian, second language is english. I don't know why, but 90% of the time I think in english. Watched too much TV growing up I guess.
If you're not supposed to eat before surgery, what happens when emergency surgeries are performed on people who have recently eaten?
As a totally offtopic question: Anyone else always feel like uh drowning, while getting some dental care done? My throat seem to go into some total panic mode always, and I start to gag like a motherfucker since I feel like I'm drowning from all the stuff that is happening in my mouth while they're fixing holes or whatever. The worst thing for me with visits with a dentist. Absolute mental battle, that I sometimes lose and start to make some weird noices, which puts a small break into teeth torture, and let's me swallow few times in peace.For surgeries on the extremities , IV anaesthetics are often used instead of gas. These can negate to a large degree the complications that arise from eating before surgery, but nothing can decrease them to zero. NETA: if surgery on a full stomach is necessary, they can either use gastric lavage to force the contents up through the mouth, or extra-judicious monitoring ante- and post-surgery.
Why can't browsers load pages from their cache when offline?
Actually some browsers can load from the disk cache in 'offline mode'. That said the browsers will honour cache expiry sent by the web server . Dynamic content / web scripts tend to have 'do not cache' set and consequently the browser never stores this in the on disk cache only in the in memory cache. As far as the browser on disk cache being small: I'm using Firefox and on this system it has allocated upto 350MB of cache.
Why is there so much police brutality in the US?
Aussie here, thought they'd have to be a bit over the top because you'd never know who is carrying over there ?
Why do we have dog breeds that vary greatly in size but cats tend to be about the same size?
Because a cat the size of a German Shepard would be a mountain lion, and they don't historically make good pets.
Why does huge amount of alcohol consumption cause nausea and vomiting?
Simply put: alcohol is poisonous. It also causes disorientation by messing with your balance and hand-eye coordination. Have you ever gotten so dizzy you thought you'd throw up? Same principle. Couple that dizziness/disorientation with the body's natural reaction to purge itself of poison, you throw up.
Why are 4K computer monitors more than twice the price of same-size 4K smart TVs that can also be computer monitors?
I didn't see anyone mention brightness. TVs are not meant to be viewed from such short distances. Computer monitors are. The brightness of a TV will start to strain your eyes a lot quicker.
Why are Unix like operating systems so appreciated? What are the day to day advantages over other operating systems?
I just had a computer course! We were working on microthreading, wich is like multithreading but in the processor itself. So we needed to work with it on a very deep level! Since Microsoft doesn't want people to tinker with its very deep guts we choose linux! Thats because you can develop and tinker with anything on your computer. If you want to do the following you should use unix: - learn about the inner workings of a computer - be super edgy in your high school computer class - work on computers in a way that you know more then me about computers. You shou choose not unix if: - you dont care about whats going outside of your browser.
Why is China angry at South Korea for wanting to develop a missile defense system?
Countries that don't like each other don't kill each other largely because if they did, they'd be dead too. If you shoot your missiles at me, I shoot my missiles at you and we're both death. So no missiles get shot at all. With a missile defense, it makes it so if you shoot your missiles at me, nothing, I shoot missiles at you, you're dead and I'm not. So it makes it more beneficial for me to shoot first too.
Why can I not take a good photo of the night sky?
You'll want longer exposure, higher ISO, smaller aperture value . Play around with the settings until it looks less bad and more good. You'll want to put your camera on something stable like a tripod, or do what I do and point it at the sky resting on a winter hat, facing upward. If you hold it while it's taking the exposure, it'll be all shaky.
Why are prisoners who go on hunger strikes force fed and not left to die?
If someone was trying to commit suicide, would you stop them? I hope so. Prisoners are no different, I don't see why you WOULD let them starve
Why does the moon look so much smaller when you try to take a picture?
A wide angle lens exaggerates the distance between near and far objects, making the moon seem more distant than it is. A telescopic lens has the opposite effect, making the scene look flatter. This is used to produce the 'vertigo effect' in movies, when the camera moves closer and the angle is increased at the same time.
Why does depression seem so much more prevalent in modern times?
One reason that it is more prevalent now is social isolation: for most of human history, you were needed by your family and community, and you needed them. These social ties kept people connected, and kept depression held in check: there was simply no time to be depressed. The people most likely to *suffer* from depression are people who don't need other people to get by in life: People who are perfectly competent at their job , have enough financial support to take care of themselves, and have few social ties. In a community that relies on everyone in the community to help weather down-times, that kind of person doesn't exist, or is rare; while in modern times, that describes a growing number of people.
Timeshares, and why are they always portrayed as scams?
> They're often not scams. Sometimes they are though. I've seen them build a new building full of condos and begin selling all the condos on the ocean side for a higher price because of course they're ocean side. Once all those weeks for those condos are sold, PRESTO, they build a new building between the old building and the ocean. More ocean front condos for sale, but the ocean front you paid for looks right at the back of the new building. Nothing you can do about it. Also the maintenance fees are not regulated. They can jack them up as high as they want to, and if you don't pay, you forfeit your condo. So, yes sometimes they aren't scams, but they're often run by scammy people, so sometimes they are scams. If you fit the criteria of going to the same place every year, it MIGHT be a good investment. But be very careful.
Why is there still space junk in orbit if it's so hard to maintain a stable orbit?
There's still relatively little interaction between things in space. As such, while the interaction that is there is sufficient to bring many things down eventually, it can take a while.It is hard to achieve a stable orbit - once achieved it is not hard to maintain it.
If humans need a decent amount of water in them to be considered "hydrated", why does our body pee it out so quick just to be replaced?
The main reason you need to stay hydrated is so you *can* pee. When dangerous waste products build up in the body, it uses water to dilute them so they won't be harmful, eventually expelling them as urine. You want a reserve of water available to dilute the waste products are they are formed.
If scratching irritated skin is bad for you, why do our bodies create the urge and sensation of itching?
When something bites you, such as a mosquito, a lot of times it leaves behind something, like saliva. It's not necessarily your body creating the itching sensation, but it's whatever was left behind. When you get poison ivy, it may become itchy due to the residual oils left behind. Like the a previous redditor said, it's not good to scratch because you may spread whatever it is that's causing you to itch, and you may also just irritate the affected are more than it already is
Why do cold drinks tend to taste better than warm drinks?
In most cases, it comes down to the fact that cold inhibits your ability to perceive both bitterness and sweetness. This means that warm soda will taste overly sweet, because it's intended to be consumed cold. Extra sugar is added to overcome the effect of the cold. Likewise, beer that is intended to be consumed cold may have an overpowering bitter hoppy flavor, if it's warm .
Would filtering a Coke using a Brita result in water?
I actually did that last year. The coke just came out slightly diluted. If you did it enough times it would probably come out clearer, but I doubt you could get all the coke out that way. Try it if you're curious.
Why do dump trucks have an extra pair of wheels under them that don't touch the ground?
We call it a tag axle and it goes down when the truck is loaded to distribute weight across the ground. Drivers have a switch in the cab to run this. The government actually checks and you can only have so much weight per axle. Ask a trucker what the fines are, I just fix the trucks. The tag axle can be raised to help turn the truck, its hard to turn with the tag down, some tag axles actually have steering components, or it can be raised when the truck is empty so there's less drag and you get better mileage.Reminds me when I asked why alot of police vehicles have a rubber strip that hangs down to the ground. Wish I new about reddit! Took me awhile to find out its for static discharge from vehicles equipped with lpg gas.They are called tag wheels. They are lifted / lowered via air bags that are filled up with the truck's air compressor system . They are lifted to reduce friction when the truck is empty, and lowered to increase carrying capacity when the truck is full.
How do celebrities keep their cell numbers and personal emails so locked down?
Nobody has posted this yet, it's a relevant story and a fun read. A girl gets a new phone and it is Chris Rock's old cell number. [Here] It sheds some light on many of the topics in this thread - restricted access, executive assistants, etc.
Why won't the Mars One astronauts be able to return to Earth at any time?
Every answer here is in the right direction, I should add that Mars One is a scam, they don't have the technology to get anybody to Mars safely, in the first place. Or the money . There are plenty of research organizations, and billionaires commited in space programs, and they don't claim to be even remotely close to what 2 guys who just rent a temporary office claim to have in technology :)", 'I'm not sure about NEVER, but I know that the major problem with sending humans to other planets farther away from the Sun than Earth is that if you tried to come back, the Earth orbits faster than that planet, therefore, if you don't leave at the EXACT right time, you will be forced to "chase" the Earth around the sun, wasting your fuel, and they 'd likely not be able to carry much as the more fuel you add to a space shit, the more fuel you actually needIt takes a huge amount of energy to launch something into orbit much less all the way to Mars. The more massive it is, the more energy required. In order to get astronauts back from mars we would have to launch not only the vehicle to take them there, but also a lunch vehicle capable of getting them back and enough fuel for the return trip. This would require an incredible amount of engineering and fuel to be feasible.
Why do parents who vaccinate their kids dislike it when others choose not to vaccinate their kids? If an outbreak occurs, it only affects the unvaccinated kids, right?
Imagine a neighborhood with a terrible sewage plumbing system. Whenever someone flushes something that doesn't dissolve , the toilet in that house and the surrounding houses will start backing up. There have been times when the problems can spread through the entire neighborhood. The neighborhood tries to look for a solution. It's impossible to completely replace the entire sewage network for all the buildings. A company comes forth with a valve that can be installed to a house that has high but not 100% chance to prevent the backups. Most houses in the neighborhood do get the new valves to protect their own homes. The problem is that the valve cannot be installed too early in new houses and it doesn't work for very old houses. Those houses are very vulnerable to any backups that may occur. However, some homeowners looked on the internet and found reports that the valves can cause all sorts of other issues! It can reduce the water pressure in the house, the hot water isn't as hot, etc. So they decide not to install it despite reports that the online testimonies were fake. Now, their houses have a high chance of causing sewage problems that may spread to others. But those houses with valves should be fine right? They have a high chance that they're protected? But what about the new and very old houses? They are at high risk because they can't have the valves installed yet! No matter how well their manage their sewage, someone else's choice will affect them. The people of the neighborhood are furious when the backups come again and again since some people don't want to install the valves. If only the entire neighborhood gets the valves, then they have at least some immunity to the backups! Then the new and old houses won't be at risk at all!
Why does a streamed video completely lose all progress when you move the slider to a different time in the video??? Seriously this is a daily struggle
The compression method used is probably the culprit here. To save space a video wont record what every pixel looks like, it'll only remember what pixels changed from the last frame. You lose progress because the video player doesn't know what the frame at 2 minutes 12 seconds looks like, it only knows what changes from the frame before it, and without that information it has to stop and go looking again.There is a firefox add-on called youtube suite which forces youtube to fully load videos, regardless of how much you have watched. Fuck youtube.
Why do people seem to get more personal and open when speaking to them at night?
All the other comments here seem pretty good, but I'll add that it might just be more likely to get into one on one, personal conversations with someone at night. During the day, you're probably at work, school, or something with more people around, and night just happens to be more relaxed and more probable to produce situations where people open up more. And you know, there's sometimes booze, too.Since the nighttime is for unwinding or other free-time activities, maybe people are just a little looser? Also, the darkness gives a person a sense of anonymity, like they won't be held accountable for their actions; why dimming the lights is a good way to "set the mood." Maybe that has something to do with it.. Just some speculationLess distractions. Same reason I like to get creative in the evening and through the night.
Why do you sometimes get stage fright when at public urinals
I don't know why this happens exactly, but I accept that it is part of the human experience. You're not alone.
Do I have to pay any Credit Card Fees or APR even if I pay my statement in full?
Just FYI, because the credit card company collects a percentage of the transaction from the merchant's side of things, they're making money off of every charge, just not nearly as much as if you carry a balance and they get to charge you interest as well. But that's why companies can give you points/cash back/etc, on your transactions. They're basically giving you a portion of the fees they charge the merchant in order to entice you to use their card more often. It works . I put EVERYTHING on my credit card and pay it off at the end of the month in order to get the 2% credit.
Why do box fans make you go through high before you turn them off? The powers go 0 - 3 - 2 - 1, for example.
what about my cieling fan that turns on with my lightswitch? It's been at the lowest setting for years now. I've had this fan in the house for like 10 years. So when I toggle my lightswitch which is both a light and a fan in one because Im super rich, is it actually damaging my cieling fan? Plebs don't know about 2 in 1 cieling fans with lights built in.
why are daleks so cheesy looking?
My wife said that Dr who's been around for a while, and when they redid the more current seasons they decided to not change their look because the fan base wouldn't have liked it. They are apparently the main arch enemy and you don't go around updating main characters like that :/ I had to look this up. I asked my wife, so these roombas are dangerous? What do they do, have lasers? What's makes them do dangerous? She simply replies, they can exterminate you. I'm still lost.
California couple survived wildfire by staying in a pool for 6hrs... How is that possible?
In addition to the excellent points already made about water's insulative properties, the phone was likely few feet from the edge of pool, and they could move several feet to the center of the pool. Probably their great challenge was staying in a place that was hot enough on the surface to counterbalance the heat they were losing to the pool. You can die staying in 60^o water for that long.
Why do online games ban players in waves?
I went through the first few comments and didn't find a good enough answer. Let's explain this using Minecraft if a person is making a hacked client and are testing it on a server if there was no ban waves you could just say oh let's try fly then if you get banned instantly then the maker of the client can assume oh it's the fly hacks and not the kill aura or bhop that gets people banned. I need to try to work harder to tweak my fly hack. But if there is ban waves it is harder for the client makers to figure out what is getting detected and also harder to by pass because of this.
Why don't police officers use non-lethal weapons?
1) tasers don't work beyond 20ish feet 2) tasers don't work with heavy clothing 3) tasers don't always work period, even in good conditions 3) anything other than taser doesn't stop the person. it HURTS, but it doesn't stop them. if you got a kid with a pistol, it takes 0.5 seconds to pull the trigger and kill someone in the room/hallway
Why do we want to drink milk or water when we eat something "rich" like chocolate?
Do we? I don't think I do, and I don't know anyone who needs a drink with chocolate.
How do some people sudden become, or stop, being allergic to something?
I've heard that there is promising research about fecal transplants curing peanut allergies. Can anyone ELI5 that?
Why is it so easy to differentiate between boys' and girls' handwriting?
This is too variable. I've been a chef for 17 years. Reading hand written tickets, I've seen the messiest handwriting by women and the most bubbly handwriting by men. Not everything is cut and dry as one would think.
Why does the medication I paid $10 for in South Africa cost $110 in America
Let's suppose that with all costs accounted for, each medication costs the company say exactly $10 to produce. Now, you go and sell it to more impoverished countries , and because there's a reasonable chance you got into the industry because you believe in improving humanity using medicine, you sell it to those buyers at cost. That's great and everything, but you still have to pay all your PhD employees for their top-notch research, plus distributors and support staff, and blablabla. Now, waaaaaaaay more expensive than all of that is reinvesting that money into further research to make new medications - something that costs millions upon millions. You have to mark up the cost somewhere. Americans and their healthcare system can afford it. People in other countries - not quite as much. Plus there's the additional safety checks that all US products go through. The rest of the excess goes to greed - the same greed that motivates people to make the best possible medications in the first place. One of those necessary evils.
Why aren't houses in tornado alley built to withstand tornados?
To recap the answers posted from the past times this question has been asked: * Even in the most tornado prone areas of the country, the odds of your house getting destroyed by a tornado are vanishingly slim. It's something that *might* happen once in 100-250 years, more likely even less frequently. Sure you hear on the news about that guy whose house gets destroyed by a tornado twice, but that is a once in ten million kind of thing. Odds are your house will never ever ever be damaged by a tornado.* Building a house that can truly withstand a tornado is really really expensive. To the point that it's cheaper to rebuild a house once after a tornado than to build it to withstand the tornado to begin with.* Even then, your house can still get destroyed by an EF5 tornado, those bastards are absurdly powerful.
Why do people rub their faces when they are tired?
You don't want dry eyes, do you? It's same reason why you move to wake up -- stimulate circulation of blood, lymph; stimulate gland secretions, after long moments of inactivity. You don't want any stale blood sitting there; Think of it this way: circulation brings about nutrients and oxygenated blood to area; carries away waste products and carbon monoxide.According to this book "Improve your social skills" by Daniel Wendler, your face has a lot of nerve endings and rubbing your face causes you to feel good. This rubbing is sending stimulus to your brain which the brain interprets as good. i.e. People rub their faces and necks when they are stressed to comfort themselves.Because it would be weird to rub other people's faces when you're mad. Some people might even get upset about it.
When I'm at home on my WIFI, sometimes I'll catch my iphone showing LTE and not WiFi while on the lock screen. Why is this, and is it eating data?
What i do is turn on airplane mode at home and turn on wifi with the airplane mode so my phone cannot change to 3G while i'm watching videos
Why do I get a headache while I'm looking at my phone or reading a book in the car?
Because your eyes are focused on something that isn't moving but you are actually moving, I believe it's similar to - if not the same thing as motion sickness.
Since the Earth is always rotating, is it faster to fly in the same direction as the rotation, or does it effect it at all?
Well, flying from west to east is faster because of the jet stream, which is due in part to the earth's rotation, but I don't understand it completely.
Why is it socially unacceptable to show pride in something when you're in the majority?
It isn't. People talk about being proud to be American etc. In generally, I think it's stupid to feel pride in any such thing. Being American, white, black, 6 feet all, etc. are not achievements of your's for which you should feel pride. They're merely descriptors."pride" in this context is about affirming your right to exist. It's not about pride in the "I'm so awesome" mortal sin sense. Everyone already knows the majority exists, and by virtue of being the majority, there is no one around with the power to take that right from them. A group with systemic power that tries to establish "pride" is just being self-aggrandizing.While I can see what you're saying, I'd say the best answer is because those groups in the minority exist to empower said groups, hence the pride in the name. People in a majority or socially acceptable position don't really need that pick-me-up, so people see it as redundant.
Why is public education acceptable but public healthcare a big no-no in the US?
There's some similarity between the treatment of public education in the USA, which is funded K-12 but not funded for adults , and the treatment of health care, which has much more funding available for children than it does for adults . Also, the health insurance lobby is strong, whereas the private education lobby is less strong. We do have some publicly funded private charter schools, but nothing like the dominance of private health insurance.[A lot of people think we should be privatizing K-12 education as well.]
If we were able to achieve such phenomenal speeds with the Concorde, why has commercial air travel not replicated this (without the fatal flaws)?
Other people have given you good explanations already but I wanted to add a YouTube video that directly answers your questions in a nice manner: _URL_0_ The basic answer is money and the existence of red-eye flights. It doesn't matter as much that it takes 10 hours to get across an ocean if you can sleep the whole way through.
Detergent Pods - They dissolve in water.. why doesn't the liquid inside dissolve them?
Short answer: Some liquids dissolve some substances, other liquids dissolve other substances. As a side note, that's also why oil and water don't mix.
Is The Pirate Bay really now hosted in North Korea? And if it's fake, how is that done?
I know bumping doesn't officially have an effect on Reddit posts, but this intrigues me, so I hope my response makes it seem like a hot topic to people who know what they're talking about.
The Difference between Feminism and Women's Rights.
Go ask SRS, they are full of useful info. It's been proven to be useful. That's why they ban anyone who asks a question or disagrees. In full, both groups are full of radical people who only care about first world issues and need something to cry about.
Why are there over 100,000 children in the US up for adoption, and the average wait time to adopt over a year?
I think you have to jump through a lot of hoops to be approved to adopt. They don't want to just hand the kids out to anyone who says they want them .