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Why is it easy for eyes to track moving objects smoothly, but can't smoothly turn gaze without eyes snapping to multiple points? | I really enjoyed it when I took lots of mdma a long time ago. You can't focus on shit, One eye takes over and then swaps about it's like your brain has lost the capacity to do its fill in the blank trick that it normally does. Probably extremely fascinating explanation behind all that too |
Why are flights delayed or canceled during thunderstorms and snowstorms, even though planes are designed to be able to fly through rough weather? | Just because they can doesn't mean they should. Airlines prioritize Plane, Pilot, Crew, and Passenger safety very highly, an aircraft is ludicrously expensive after all and a crashed flight due to bad weather conditions looks TERRIBLE on a company. Better to delay a few flights in the name of safety than risk even a hu... |
Why do supermarkets sell meats in a refrigerated space as opposed to a freezer where the meat would last longer? | The same reason that they offer fresh vegetables and don't only sell canned/fozen: fresh food is preferred for texture and flavor. |
How do we manage to make room for dessert when we are so full from our meal? | Also not everyone can do this. I don't do desserts. Not because I don't like them . I just eat till I'm full then that is it. There is no desire for sweets.The sugar and general sweetness in desserts makes your stomach expand a bit. The bigger your stomach, the more you can eat. |
Why does someone suddenly develop an allergy to a substance that was accepted by the body previously? | You may not actually be classically allergic to Ibuprofene. [_URL_0_] While the results are basically the same, the mechanism is different, so take the other good explanations of allergic reactions at the top with a grain of salt. With this hypersensitivity, the real mechanism is likely related to the effects of Ibupro... |
What is the purpose behind very lengthy prison sentences of 150 years, 200 years and more when the average human lifespan is 70 years? | Essentially, the reason this happens is that there are multiple crimes they are being tried for. For example, let's say someone is tried for five counts of fraud. Each count of fraud has a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison . If they are convicted for five counts of fraud, then they could get convicted with 200 yea... |
How in the world is Uber losing so much money? | Expansion and R & D. Uber needs driverless tech in order to drive down their costs enough to make their business model work. They pay their drivers too much and don't charge enough to pay for them, hence why they are always trying to pay their drivers less, increasing costs is a non option in this highly competitive sp... |
Why are there so many knobs and buttons in a plane cockpit? | Well first of all, there aren't anywhere close to 600 buttons on the flight deck. But let's use a car as an analogy. You say a plane needs steering, thrust, and landing gear. In a car, that translates to the steering wheel, accelerator, and brake. So what about all the other stuff in car? The windows, the lights, the r... |
Why dentists tell patients to not rinse their teeth after brushing? | One of the most important features of toothpaste is fluoride. Fluoride works by attracting elements such as calcium to the tooth, and thereby re-mineralizing the tooth. This is a process that takes time. If you rinse your mouth immediately after brushing, you will rinse away some of the fluoride and therefore counterac... |
How do some countries with very high national debt (Japan, US) still manage to drive their economies, but some (Greece) fail to do so? | Imagine US is the older brother, and Greece a younger brother. The US can keep making imaginary money out of thin air, and if you don't accept it, they'll hit you. However, if you, the younger sibling, try to use *your* imaginary money and your older brother doesn't approve, he still hits you.Greece has many social and... |
What's the significance of the 0th law of thermodynamics? | A lot of laws state the obvious. Force equals mass time acceleration? The harder you push a heavy thing the more it'll hurt when it hits you. |
How don't we run out of air to breathe if we don't open windows in our house for long periods of time? | Even in a house that's been sealed there will still be some air infiltration. Older houses will be filled with leaks, allowing air to enter and leave. A good HVAC system will also bring in air from outside and use a heat exchanger bring the outside air to the temperature of the inside air. |
How do people imagine things in their minds? | Huh, weird. It takes effort to maintain for me - generally I get kind of a glimpse, slapdash, handwavy and indicative more than detailed at that but it depends a lot on the subject. The simpler it is, the easier it is. An orange square. Three small blue triangles. Bouncing yellow spots. Anything? What about non-visual ... |
If almost every large animal with mobility has forward bending knees, why do so many advanced Boston dynamics type robots have rear facing knees? | i may be wrong and i'm not that much expert, but the birds' ones aren't knees, but ankles as you said. This tho is the key to all the answer. The part under the articulation is the foot which ends with fingers that actually touch ground. The knee is hidden under feathers and points forward. Imagine if your foot becomes... |
How come Neanderthals are considered not human if we could successfully interbreed and communicate? | Iirc there are no neanderthal genes on the y chromosome. So that might mean that a male neanderthal either didn't pass on their genes to humans or only female offspring of male neanderthal survived and could reproduce. So they were definitely on the way to being completely speciated. Even though male mules are complete... |
Why tap water is drinkable only in some countries but not all? | Some tap water is not so much unsafe as undesirable, either because it barely meets standards and tastes too foul to drink, or because it meets standards for some chemicals that your system needs time to adjust to, and while adjusting you'll run like a faucet on full. My well water before treatment has enough iron in i... |
Why does healthcare is the USA differ from most western countries? I don't think any European country practice healthcare in the same manner. Why is there such a big difference? | This is because in USA a group of people found out that people will pay _anything _ for their health, and started exploiting it. Then they used those money, to buy poiticians to establish anti-competetive laws, and spread propaganda, that any effort to cut their profits, is a comunist plot to destroy America. So now th... |
Why can we see 55 million light years away but we can’t (haven’t) zoomed into planets some where much close to check if there mobility/intelligent life? | The simple answer is light. We need light to see anything. Planets don't create their own light nor are they very reflective, so there isn't enough visable light coming to us from a planet thousands or millions of light years away to form a picture. We couldn't even get a decent picture of Pluto from telescopes we have... |
"plasma" is just ionized gas, yet it is regarded as a "different state of matter"...why aren't ionized liquids or solids considered different states of matter? | In a plasma almost all of the atoms are ionized, whereas in an ionized liquid or solid only a minuscule fraction are. It would be more correct to say that the liquid or solid contains ions, rather than is ionized itself. Being fully ionized is a very energetic state and it's not possible for something to be completely ... |
How were firearms mass produced before 18th c.? | Eli Whitney started mass production of firearms in 1798. Before that, all * firearms were hand made, by single craftsmen or groups of craftsmen. Forge a barrel shape, bore it out, rifle it, straighten it, all by hand. Make a lock, fit lock and barrel into a hand cut and shaped stock. *I recall reading that there's evid... |
If lead based paint is so bad for you, how come lead pipes are occasionally used in plumbing. | Lead pipes in plumbing have been banned in most places for years. 1986 all lead solder was banned from water pipes in North America. Europe is a mish-mosh, with even countries like Germany having different regulations from the former kingdoms. Many older houses still have lead piping, and depending on where you live th... |
why is the center of the earth so hot? Is it due to friction? Is every planet this way? | Mostly residual heat left over from the planet's formation. It literally takes billions of years for things as big as planets to cool in the vacuum of space. There is some heat from radioactive decay processes as well, but it's mostly just what's left over from when the entire planet was a giant ball of molten rock. Al... |
why is it that if you eat a big meal before you drink, you get less drunk. | You don't get less drunk, your body just absorbs the alcohol more slowly. You're correct in that the alcohol goes through the exact same process as the food you ate, which is why it will inevitably enter your bloodstream. It just takes longer. You're also more likely to drink less or space your drinks out more since yo... |
Why are the Nordic Countries so well off? | I just saw a video about corruption in countries across the world. One conclusion was that the Northern European countries are low in corruption. Although least corrupt was New Zealand and also very uncorrupt was Australia. Lack of corruption could be of benefit to the people there. I've read that in some Asian countri... |
What is an inner product? (linear algebra) | An inner product is a way of multiplying two objects. The multiplication has to obey a certain set of rules. 1. < u + v, w > = < u, w > + < v, w > 2. < av, w > = a < v, w > for any scalar a3. < v, w > = < w, v > 4. < v, v > > = 0 for all v and < v, v > = 0 if and only if v = 0 Quite literally any way of putting two obj... |
REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement. What causes/is the purpose of our eyes to still move during sleep when the rest of our body is nearly inhibited and our eyes are closed the whole time? | What causes it is that we are dreaming. Our eyes detect visual signals so they look for them. It is fascinating to see our brain sleeping knowing it I'd both creating and believing our own dreams. We cycle through sleep in stages and rem sleep appears to be when we process memory and vividly dream. |
Do a certain number of germs need to enter my body in order for me to get sick? | As someone has already said, most infection causing bacteria are already on or in us. I use the car thief analogy to explain opportunistic pathogens to students, The thief is casing lots of parked cars, the first is locked and has a high end alarm system so no way in, the next has a window open, the thief gets in but l... |
How does moisturizer work and why does sticking my hands in water not work instead? | Moisturizer is like a trap for water. You have bait, which is a humectant, that is, an ingredient that attracts water into the skin, and a box propped up on a stick, which is an occlusive that prevents water from evaporating out. If you just apply water to the skin, it simply evaporates and dries. This is also what's h... |
Why is there blood outside the veins? | If you are looking for a 5-year old answer, capillaries, which are the smallest blood vessels, transfer the blood that final step to/from tissues . You have cells everywhere so it's possible to bleed, even from a shallow cut. |
Why aren't plastic water bottles being replaced by canned water? | In emergency Bud Wiser turns their canning operations to water, if you didn't know. [_URL_0_]", 'Cans are for drinking at home or with meals, bottles are better on the go, for the car, for the jog or the workout. There are more factors than environmental concerns and ease of recycling, and cans and bottles arennot comp... |
Why do CPUs and GPUs perform better when cool | The speed doesn't depend on heat. However the computer will slow down the CPUs and GPUs when they become too hot to prevent them from melting so what you see is hot CPUs/GPUs becoming slower.They have an internal mechanism that keeps them from burning up. It works by throttling back when the chip gets too hot. So if yo... |
Why are fevers a bad thing, if the body gets hot to fight sickness etc ? | Low fevers aren't dangerous, but they're a sign of illness. Normally a fever indicates your body is fighting something, and if there's something to fight, it means you're sick. High fevers are dangerous and can cause damage to internal organs including the brain and heart.In short, as the body heats it can affect the P... |
How does a group of animators split the load to produce a uniform film when each one of them draws differently? | Building on the other posts they also make terribly explicit reference sheets. Here's one from Belle: _URL_0_ Basically they figure out that you start with the circle and if you divide it in half you get the placement for this line and if you divide that into thirds you'll find the eyebrow, etc.also, keyframes A smalle... |
Why is it that Netflix wants us to spend as much time as possible on their platform? | They want to keep you as a customer for as long as possible. If you have Netflix and Hulu, but decide you like Hulu more, eventually you'll get around to cancelling your Netflix which they definitely don't want.The more netflix you watch instead of regular TV - > the more netflix shows will be discussed in person and s... |
if the sun is a giant fireball, why does firelight look so different from sunlight? | It isn't fire. It's gas and the light is heat and most of it is from fusion, not from burning . |
How do websites know when you are using an adblocker? | I just stop going to every site that does this. They should've been happy with my traffic but they squandered it =D", 'Ad blocker browser extensions also have specific IDs, and the browsers themselves expose methods to see if an extension is installed by IDServer: Puts ad333542.jpg on webpage that user 333542 asked for... |
Why is coconut oil considered healthy, even though it is so dense with saturated fat? | It's not healthy. Some people just believe it is likely because they read a random blog on the internet. |
How are people naturally talented without any prior knowledge of their talent? | Listen to the [Tal Wilkenfeld episode of WTF]. She talks about picking up a guitar and just being able to play cords. The brain is pretty good at pattern recognition, and that's really all music is - a series of logical patterns. If you're particularly good at that AND have a good sense of pitch, musical instruments co... |
How do shops on etsy sell copyrighted characters from companies like Nintendo, Disney, and Marvel? | I worked for Office Depot and despised dealing with Etsy customers. By law, we were not allowed to reproduce ANY invitations or prints containing copyright characters. Always a fun conversation with mad moms none the wiser to the fact that they essentially purchased stolen artwork retrofitted with Timmy's name for his ... |
Why do people get the urge to destroy things, even their own belongings, when they get angry? | As speaking for someone who has PTSD/survivors guilt I definitely struggle with mico bursts of anger. & Nbsp; & Nbsp; It's having the wave of emotion find passing through your whole body. |
What's the difference between having ADD/ADHD and just being lazy and forgetful? | I am a early 30s father who just within the last three years finally looked into treatment. It's frustrating the lack of adult studies on adh d and if you fall through the cracks you almost never get diagnosed. Not to mention the fact you build a tolerance to the medication and are constantly having to get higher doses... |
What would happen if we tried to throw massive amounts of trash into volcanoes to reduce landfill size? | The misconception that lava is liquid, so things will sink into it, leads many to believe that things sink in into it. Molten rock is still as dense as rock, so unless whatever you're discarding is denser , it will just float on the surface. |
How are we able to "hallucinate" so vividly while reading? It's like half of your brain focuses on reading while the other half plays a movie and somehow it all works. | I write fiction based on the scenes I've created in my head . But when I re-read what I've written after some time has past and I don't picture the scenes the same way I remember at the time I wrote it, I know it has to be re-written. |
How is 32 bit able to handle 4gb of ram, if 4,294,967,296 is the number of bits? | Actually, after re-reading your post, are you asking why it's *bytes* and not *bits*? If that's the case, the number is the *address* telling the computer which byte of memory to read. So there are 2^32 different *bytes* of memory that can be read . Thus, the computer can access 2^32 x 1 byte of memory = 4 GB. Note: as... |
How come the people need to leave the room when xrays are done? | The x Ray imaging is done via x rays, which are radiation. They are relatively safe in limited amounts, but can have negative impacts on your cells, possibly causing cancers. That's why they put lead shields over you, to limit exposure to the minimum. The techs are limiting their exposure by leaving the room. |
Why are some batteries rechargable while others are not? | Batteries by definition rely on a chemical reaction to get electricity. Think lighting a piece of wood on fire, only instead of heat you get electricity. It's really hard for you to take that smoke and heat and turn it back into a piece of wood. For a lot of non-rechargeable batteries it's the same. They can't be rever... |
Why are planes constantly overbooked and they’re asking for people to switch? Why don’t they just book the right amount of people from the start? | Sometimes people don't show up for their flights. Leaving a seat empty is a waste when they could fill it, so airlines overbook flights regularly expecting some no shows. If they guess right then they get money from a person they don't carry and also have an optimal full flight. If they guess wrong some people get bump... |
if a set of identical twins has babies with another set of identical twins, are those babies going to be identical cousins? | So, my sister and I are genetically identical twins. We had our kids take DNA tests and they came back as half-siblings. So Im guessing if you had twin father's too, it would look like full siblings even though they are cousins. |
Why we can't freeze emissions | The sheer quantity is too much. We're talking literal tons of material, I don't have the actual stat but I think it's much more than that. It's just not viable to store it, gases are hard to contain.It's kind of what we do with nuclear, but we can do it because nuclear reactor waste is solid |
Why does scratching feel so good? | I've always wondered why I've told all my exs if you ever want to really get me in a good relaxed mood scratch or rub my head. |
Why do European flights fly to the US during the day and American flights fly to Europe during the night? | Flying across the Atlantic Ocean requires passing through multiple time zones. As you travel east, the change in time zones causes more hours to pass on the clock as you're in the air. Since people don't want to land in Europe in the middle of the night and because the travellers are effectively skipping over a portion... |
How does an infinite universe not violate conservation of energy and imply the existence of infinite energy | For practical cases, the answer is that it doesn't matter. We only care about the part of the universe that we can actually interact with, which is finite, and in most cases we're only really looking at the conservation of matter within a closed system. In the case that the universe is infinite in size then we still do... |
Jumping up in a plummeting elevator | So, when the cable breaks in an elevator, it lurches to a stop. You are probably between floors, but elevators don't fall. The whole mechanism that lets them go up and down depends on the tension from the cable to work, and in fact it limits the acceleration of even the fastest elevators to 1/2G. Interesting story, whe... |
How can rain forests have infertile soil yet such huge growth? | Thanks so much for all your replies here! I read them all. I feel like I understand this enough now that it won't spin around my head. You were all huge help! |
If our tears are salty, by don’t hurt, then why the hell does it burn when you get saltwater in your eye? | In clean ocean water the water feels better than chlorinated water. It's the impurity other than salt that cause the most burning. |
Why are theatrical film's success rated by money grossed, when ticket prices rise every year? Shouldn't it be judged by amount of tickets sold? | Because it's a business. Film studios make movies for profit. They spent dollars making it, not people or tickets. Measuring box office money is an easier way to know if you're gonna profit or not.Even with inflation it’s hard to compare because of population size, number of theaters showing a moving and how many scree... |
Why are so many sniper rifles still bolt action? | As others have said, reliability and power. Also, I've heard some former marksmen say that the bolt action allows them to carefully extract the spent cartridge from the rifle. Where as with semi-automatic, the cartridge is thrown out of the rifle after firing. I doubt this is an important reason, but it's a small benef... |
How are whole cities in specific eras for movies/shows filmed? | These days it's almost entirely CGI. Specifically, if the actors and actresses don't interact with the scenery like a building or a car it will be CGI, and only the parts they interact with will be actual props and constructed sets. Usually when you see big city scenes from a different era they will dress up a small po... |
What is the process for creating cgi effects on the scale of something like the battle for Winterfell where there are so many individual moving objects? | It's not easy, but it's not nearly as hard as it used to be. It's called digital crowds and there's a few pieces of software designed specifically for it. Basically, each actor is set up like a video game NPC with a handful of animation cycles that are driven by an AI to interact with the world around them. |
What’s the difference between Nadh, Fadh and ATP? | NAD and FAD are electron carriers. So yeah, they're sort of a different form of energy storage than ATP. Our body gets energy from food by redox reactions . The electrons are carried to the electron transport chain by these carriers, where the flow of electrons is used to pump hydrogen across the mitochondrial membrane... |
Why do you never see pens with brown ink? It seems like such a common color in nature | Get brown ink smudges on fingers, take a dump, wipe and then see brown stain on finger, freak out for a second until you realize it's just ink. Not sure if this is better or worse than having red ink on fingers.Found one at work today. Stole it cuz office supplies at work and have never writne with brown ink pen before... |
How fish ended up in unplanted ponds and small lakes with no other water access. | There's a lake in Alaska they think may have been seeded by Birds dropping live fish they caught elsewhere |
Why is lumber sold based the size it was before it went into the planer? | It's historical. Many years ago timber could only be bought in sawn sizes. Back in the day power planes hadn't been invented. Carpenters would buy it and plane it down to give a smooth finish. So they'd buy a four by two and by the time they, smoothed it off they ended up with a smaller piece of wood. I can remember ba... |
How does NASA prevent asteroids from hitting the Earth? | Uh. Hate to break it to you but as of right now the answer to that question is above NASA's paygrade |
How dirty are coins? | Coins are disgusting, like everyone else has mentioned, but they're made of copper, steel, nickel, and zinc, which are not heavy metals. Heavy metals are things like mercury, arsenic, lead, etc with a high atomic weight.ELI5? Really icky. Keep them out of your mouth. |
Why is it so hard to dispose of trash? | The quality of trash isn't as great as the raw materials that went into it. Here's a concrete example: You eat a loaf of bread, you turn that into poop, can't you just dump your poop onto the wheat fields? For biological reasons, no, you don't want to put raw human waste in a place that's growing our food. Trash can be... |
I know cracking your knuckles isn’t bad for you, but it seems like everyone has a different opinion on cracking your neck. Is it actually bad for you? Why/Why not? | I recently read up a little bit on this, because my neck cracks a lot, I crack it a lot, and it's been acting up more and more lately. Apparently, there's potential to puncture blood vessels and stuff. Essentially, there's a ton of vital stuff in your neck that you don't want to screw with. And that's what I read. I've... |
When you get something small stuck in your eye, like an eyelash, and you can't get it out it feels like it "disappears." What happens to it? | It gets covered in eye slime, which makes it less irritating. Then it works it's way out of your eye.Sometimes when your eye gets irritated it can feel like something is in your eye when it is actually clear. So in your case, you can get an eyelash in your eye, get it all irritated, clear it out without realizing it, a... |
Why were prehistoric animals so much bigger than their present counterparts? | For ancient insects, it was due to higher oxygen content leading to easier oxygen absorption. For recent animals it was likely due to the fact that they were easier prey, compared to their smaller variants, for packs of early humans. For dinosaurs, I think we don't really have a good answer yet. Another thing to keep i... |
how does cleaning up trash help the environment? | I believe landfills are engineered to be safer repositories for trash. Fresh Kills, New York City's most famous dump, is going to be a big-ass park, for example. The same can't be said if people just dump all kinds of shit all willy nilly, and then you have paint and lead and e-waste and all that stuff just hanging aro... |
Why would storing my previous passwords be more secure than letting me use whatever password I want indefinitely? | It's about protecting you and their company from someone using an old password. Most hackers that get names and passwords don't go logging in right away, and will sit on them for awhile. By forcing you to change your password every so often, it puts an expiration date on how long the bad actors have access to your acco... |
Why can someone fall out of a plane at 33300 feet (Vesna Vulovic) and survive but someone can fall down a flight of stairs and die | Vesna Vulovuc got extremely luckily in that she was essentially protected from the worst of the crash by the plane itself. If she had just dropped like a rock out of the air, she'd have never made it. Meanwhile, people can die from falling down the stairs because they hit the ground 'wrong'. Perhaps those folks also wo... |
Why do video game companies make "retro" systems that emulate their older ones, instead of just making new ones? | The R & D for the shrinking would be horrendous. Just because we can make it smaller, doesn't mean it will operate exactly the same especially when you're trying to get it to run at really low clock speeds. The Allwinner R16 processor used in the Nintendo mini consoles is $7.74 at consumer levels. They're probably only... |
if im on a falling object and jump up from or off it, what will happen? | You can substract the speed of your jump from the speed of the falling bus, if the result still kills you, you're dead. A reasonable jump speed is 8 m/s. The acceleration of the falling bus is closer to 10. So, you're saving like one second of falling.So if the fall would have only barely killed you, yes jumping would ... |
How does your body know how thirsty you are and how much water you need to drink to quench your thirst? | I live in a constant dehydrated state. I've never drank enough and I'm constantly told off for it . I just don't drink if I'm not thirsty and I cba to go to the toilet all the time. I have maybe 2 cups of tea a day and a 500ml bottle of squash.My body specifically tells me I am thirsty around 80% of the time. And the a... |
What are stocks and what is insider trading? How are they related to each other? | A stock is a part of a company simply speaking. There is a limited amount of shares, if you have more than 50% you basically have the say in that company. Insider trading is if someone with inside knowledge uses that knowledge in order to gain an advantage for making money. As an example you have a lot of stocks/shares... |
How do series like Planet Earth capture footage of things like the inside of ant hills, or sharks feeding off of a dead whale? | A lot of the shots are also shot with specific lenses on extremely expensive cameras, they might be 500 feet away from something and just zoom in to make it seem like it's right in front of them, they even attach them to drones to get the magic shots |
if a helicopter were to hover 12 hours without moving forward, would it be on the other side of the world? | The sort of lag you're thinking of is related to the Coriolis Effect. When very long-range shells are fired, the rotation of the Earth under the shell has to be accounted for to accurately target something. However, friction forces drag the atmosphere along as the Earth turns, so this limits the effect you're thinking ... |
Why, if you over just above ground in a helicopter, would the earth not move beneath you? | The earth is spinning VERY fast , and the atmosphere spins very fast too, keeping pace with the Earth . Think about a fish in a fishbowl. If you pick up the fishbowl and move it around, the fish won't move relative to the ground, it will move with the water. So, the helicopter is floating in the air, which is spinning ... |
Hello, I was recently wondering why the United States uses Social security numbers while most countries use identification cards.. Also I am wondering the benefits of social security. | Better to r/askanamerican about this. Basically, since we don't have universal healthcare or a single set of voting laws for the whole country or anything like that the closest thing to a national ID would be a passport, but only about ⅓ of Americans have those. Even if we did, such a thing might run afoul of the Tenth... |
Why would drinking soda necessarily be less hydrating? | You have to understand the purposes of hydration. It's not just having enough water. Well it is, but it transcends that. It's purposes are maintaining a balance of electrolytes, supports metabolism, etc. Those are some reasons WHY water is important to begin with. Anything impeding those processes, diminishes the effec... |
- how does currency exchange rate work? Why are some currencies more valuable than others? | All depends on the country economy and how much people are feeling safe and eager to invest there. For example usd, chf, or yen are considered strong currencies, cause they are supported by strong economies, resistive to market fluctuations. We can say that the value of the currency has strong base in: production, stab... |
- Why do so many people have such an intense fear of bugs and insects, most of which are completely harmless? | I'm not sure about fear. It's more about disgust, really. Flies and crawlers on rotting meat / worms in vegetables, etc. |
What happens when a tap is off? Does the water just wait, and how does keeping it there, constantly pressurised, not cause problems? | Related question: If you pour tap water directly into a glass and drink that, it can taste kind of stale and warm. If you wait a couple of seconds after turning on the faucet and drink that water, it's fresher and colder. How come? Is the water that's been waiting in the pipes actually stagnant? Should people not be dr... |
Why can the US Military charge and convict someone of adultery like a crime? | The legal rules are different for people in the military. They have, to a large degree, given up many of their constitutional rights, such as free speech, free association, right to move around, when and where they sleep and eat, what they wear. It's all to make them a good and useful fighting force. One of the rights ... |
Why do you have to buy a domain name? And who are you buying it from? | Everything on the Internet has an address, which is a bunch of hard to remember numbers and dots, like 10.250.6.119 . A domain name is just an easy-to-remember alias that you can use in place of that number, like _URL_4_ People usually buy them for their website or email address. You license the name, then pay a compan... |
Why can't automakers sell direct to consumer? Wouldn't that be way cheaper? | It might be cheaper, but it also requires them to set up a whole infrastructure outside of what they normally do. Building sales lots and hiring salespeople is very different from building a factory and hiring engineers. Some companies find it more advantageous to specialize and just let other companies handle other th... |
Why does the media and people put importance or make a deal when talking about the royal family. | Because they're all popular and celebrities. Also, bear in mind that a majority of the media you're exposed to is probably from English-speaking countries like America or the UK, so there's that aspect to it as well. English-speaking countries have a history of relationships with the UK, and so the UK royal family is g... |
Why does our brain occasionally fail at simple tasks that it usually does with ease, for example, forgetting a word or misspelling a simple word? | I forgot how to spell 'Fish' once. Scared the crap out of me, Thought I was having a stroke or something. Just could not recall how to spell Fish. It was really weird and I still remember the feeling. |
What is the difference in paying more in taxes for universal health care than the amount we pay for insurance currently? | That's always been an interesting comment to me. I've been told that US pays less than taxes than us Canadian, but that the US citizens have to also get health insurance. However, I've worked in Canada and the US and I honestly don't see the difference, I lose ~30% of my annual income to taxes in both countries. So is ... |
why didn't Germany invade Switzerland? | The Nazis wanted to invade Switzerland, but they weren't in a rush. Thankfully the war ended before they even tried.Plot Twist: Switzerland ordered and used Germany to conquer and loot all the European countries |
When a phone charger is plugged in, why doesn’t it cause electrocution when touched? | I'm no expert. But I know the plug-in gets 110-120 volts AC at the wall. Enough to kill you. The small box steps it from this, down to 5 volts DC. The required amount to charge your phone. But don't be fooled, never NEVER let kids or animals play with or chew on the phone end of a charger.You’re not grounding out the c... |
How do “rules” work during a war? | No one really enforces during. Mostly you'd have to deal with the rest of the world not wanting to be involved with you after the fact. Like North Korea has a hard time finding people willing to play in the sandbox with them, because the UN can apply sanctions to countries that trade with them. Additionally if you comm... |
What happened to the Chernobyl's power plant nuclear reactor, and what caused the accident to be so fatal so instantaneously? | Chernobyl's reactor experienced an over-power event due to a combination of dangerous design and unsafe management by the controllers. When the reactor went over it's rated power output it boiled the coolant in the reactor vessel, which caused a huge power spike , and the reactor vessel exploded. With the top of the re... |
How does a fall from heights kill a person immediately? | Well, people don't always die immediately in situations where they plain observation would suggest that they're dead. Still, there isn't one singular cause, but most of the causes would likely converge toward nerve trauma in your brain and/or your spine. This is caused by the sudden massive deceleration that is forced ... |
Why do all soda companies have the same size and shape of can/bottle? | It's in Pepsi and Coca-Cola's best interests that they are both able to bottle their drinks anywhere on the planet and that they bottles will both fit into common sized shelves and fridges, and will pack evenly into common sized trucks and pallets. They are kind of in on it together. |
Why are China's economic policies considered a threat to the US? Isn't the US being benefited by trade with China? | One part of the process is intellectual property theft. It's not just knock-off brands that leech off the reputation to pawn off cheap-ass goods, it's the literal theft of technology and techniques that other companies invested tons of money to develop. The chinese government doesn't just turn a blind eye to this theft... |
why do baby teeth come out straight and even, but adult teeth come out crooked and crowded? | The quicker you get the baby teeth out the straighter your adult teeth will be. Reisin chocolate chew it yanks teeth out like no other. Never had braces. My family all has crooked teeth. Once I realized chewing these yanks teeth out in 1 mins or less I used them for all my teeth. The only crooked tooth I have is the on... |
why can't some animals be completely domesticated? | There's an interesting [video of CGP Grey] about that. It boils down to four factors: feedable, friendly, fecund and family friendly. - feedable: they should eat anything, or at least something that is everywhere or easy to grow. So, herbivores or omnivores. - friendly: they shouldn't be dangerous. - fecund: their mati... |
what causes thunder to have a sound? | Each bolt of lightning delivers about 1,000,000 joules. That's enough power to run your house for a week! When this power travels through the atmosphere, it heats it up to way over the temperature of the sun. This sudden introduction of heat causes rapid expansion of the atmosphere, which results in a massive sound wav... |
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