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What happens to all of the children's letters addressed to Santa Claus every year? | I searched this sub for letters to santa, and found your question asked and answered many times. For example _URL_0_ |
The impact on programming and processing a transition to graphene transistors would have | None at all. A programmer doesn't really care how the hardware in a processor actually works, rather they care about the Instruction Set Architecture that the processor provides. The ISA is the set of instructions that a programmer has available for writing programs. The two dominant ISAs are the x86 and the ARM. Proce... |
How does the human body feel/know when it's thirsty? | The hypothalamus is the responsible brain structure for monitoring sodium and water levels in the body and causing a sensation of thirst when water is needed by the body. Furthermore, the reward system in the brain is consequently responsible for giving a sensation of craving during thirst and a sensation of pleasure w... |
Why are newer or recently built playgrounds full of blue, yellow and green? | Asude from the asthetics of playgrounds, dark colors absorb light and get hot in the sun. Yellow, Blue, and Green aren't the lightest of colors but they're pretty to look at and a kid won't overheat in a yellow slide. It also might be that where you live has a city contract with the same company who buys interchangeabl... |
Blocks and Tackle . Eg: How can a child could lift a car with simply rope and wheels. | Mechanical advantage works by spreading out the forces. To lift a car 1 inch, you might have to pull in 2-3 feet of rope if the rope goes back and forth on the pulley enough times. That means that the same amount of power is expended as lifting the car, but you expend it over 10 seconds of rope pulling rather than a sp... |
how does North Korea explain the end of their subjugation by the Japanese at the end of WWII? | The Kim's: "WE GOT RID OF THE JAPANESE BECAUSE WE ARE GODS FROM HEAVEN! NOW, KNEEL!" ? |
Why do car manufacturers allow cars to go way faster than speed limits? | You are allowed to go faster in order to overtake. Different speed limits in different countries. Top speed limits change over time . Marketing and bragging rights. The customer is always rightTakes more power to get to 65 than it does to coast at 65. Need to horsepower to get to the speed. Saw this question a couple d... |
What does it mean if a company (like comcast) give money to congress? Like, can they just write them checks? If so, how is that not illegal? | It can mean a couple things. First, Comcast likely has a corporate PAC - the way these work is that the company can pay the operational costs of the group, but the money donated to candidates\' campaigns comes from employees , and there are caps in how much the PAC can give a particular candidate. Second, a lot of "x c... |
Why are internet data retention laws bad? | Your activity on the internet adds up to a really good picture of "you", and companies and unethical people that can access this history can use it against you. Services that analyze and retain lists of the stuff you purchase from online stores, watch your political activity, and see what tools and apps you use and how... |
What is a 'flat tax'? | A flat tax is one where everyone pays the same rate regardless of income or other consideration. So, whether you make $1,000/year or $1,000,000/year you would pay the same percentage of your income in taxes. On the face of it this seems the most fair way to do it but this means of taxation is highly regressive . So, sa... |
how and why did there become so many diffrant branches of Christianity ? | well after jesus was crucified the religion was forbidden until 312 ad when constantine had a vision. then when he became emperor of rome he un banned christianity and got a bunch of people together to agree on what christianity is, and created the official church. this church had five popes, four of whom were close to... |
Why does glass appear to shatter quicker than the projectiles that are hitting them are moving in these clips? | The shock waves cracking the glass are traveling at the speed of sound in the material. Glass is roughly 4-5K m/sec speed of sound whereas the bullet is going around 1-2K m/sec. You can get a more precise answer if you specify the glass type and the bullet type and gunpowder charge. Usually bigger caliber bullets fired... |
Why isn't Denali called "Mount Denali"? | Denali already means "The Tall One", specifying it's a mountain would be a bit redundant. It's actually very common to have a redundant place name, but the idea of renaming the mountain was to show cultural sensitivity. It's not too sensitive to name a place Mount Big Mountain. Trivia: Torpenhow hill in England is name... |
How do pop culture shirt selling websites like TeeFury or RiptApparel get away with copyright infringement? | What they do is considered a parody so it doesn't violate the law. If you've followed Teefury from the start you'll remember a time when a shirt was removed because it was discovered to be an old album cover. Edit: some shirts that look like parodies do get pulled. Chop Shop used to sell three Star Wars t-shirts with D... |
Why gold has any value. | It's an interesting question how you determine the value of *anything*. But that aside, the reason why gold is valuable is because people want it. And the reason why people want it is because gold is valuable. It's useful as a currency because it's both relatively rare and also unreactive, which means you won't open up... |
How can Minuteman missiles built in the 1960s be expected to be reliable when even SpaceX can't launch consistently? | Well for one: if they're using plans from the 1960's they've been extensively tested for some 50 years now. Using 15+ year old technology is just what you do when you're in a situation where you can't stand failures. Most big banks are using software originally written before 1990 if not 1980 to handle their most impor... |
What is the opposite of "average"? | _URL_0_ > Near Antonyms > abnormality, anomaly, deviation, exception, rarityWell, we will need the context of "average" but "unique" could fit the bill. |
How do they choose acting cabinet members when switching presidents? | The President chooses who he wants to fill the positions over which he has the authority to appoint. The appointees are then reviewed by a specific Senate Committee , then confirmed by a majority vote in the Senate proper. In terms of who fulfills those positions when the current department head is gone and the new app... |
Why does some hair (such as head hair) grow infinitely while other hair (such as armpit hair) stops at a certain length? | All the hairs on your body keep growing continuously. It's just that based on where the hair is it sheds at different lengths. The hair on your head sheds very slowly allowing the hair to grow longer. |
Why do we get hot when we get angry? | When in an enraged state, the heart begins to beating faster, blood vessels far from the heart constrict and adrenaline kicks in, making your pupils dilate, focusing much more clearly while reducing your hearing. Your body is getting ready to fight, and it stops digestion, to get more blood into the chest, and it's tra... |
Why, when written, does the dollar sign ($) come before a number but a percent sign is written after? | I don't know the answer, but I've always felt that putting the '$' symbol before the first number in a written amount makes it harder for anyone to falsify the value to your disadvantage by adding more numbers to the beginning. |
What does the world look like to an animal whose eyes are on the sides of their head? Not forgetting to mention their near 360 degree field of view! | Keep in mind your two eyes see almost the same image, but your brain stitches the images into one image. Eyes on the sides of the head see two different images, yet the brain creates a panoramic view, at the cost of depth-perception.Well, we'll never know for sure what it's like to *be* an animal with a near 360 degree... |
Why do credit cards expire? | There are a few reasons: 1. The expiration date is yet another dimension of security. You 've got to provide number AND date AND code-on-back for full authorization. Very specifically, the Visa and MasterCard license agreement requires this of credit card issuers that do so under the Visa name and system. 2. It provide... |
Why aren't the lenses in glasses made as thin as possible from the outset? | Many of the materials with a higher index of refraction are very expensive, or may only be supplied by one supplier, driving up costs. It's fairly safe to assume that many people could not justify spending a lot more for those materials, and will accept a thicker lens that costs a lot less. In addition, some high index... |
*why* does calling your elected representatives work? (USA) | Representatives need votes to stay in office. People who call typically care about politics - they at least vote and many of them probably influence other voters. If you don't pay attention to how the voters in your district want you to vote, you'll get voted out in the next election. Calls don't always work. If 70% of... |
Why do I get those weird chills when I accidentally cut into something like cardboard? | Although scientists still haven't definitively figured out why certain sounds like cutting cardboard and nails on a chalkboard seem so universally unpleasant, what we do know is that our reaction to these sounds is likely instinctual, since so many of us have this reaction. That means we are genetically programmed to h... |
What is the Bose Einstein Condensate | Bose–Einstein condensate is a state of matter, like solid or liquid, that happens when certain types of particles called bosons are made to have low energy. Basically this means "made really cold", close to absolute zero , which is the coldest temperature possible. A Bose–Einstein condensate has 0 viscosity, which mean... |
Why do dogs bite air? | Because she feels something there. Dogs pick up things with their mouths, and while they may paw at items to get to them , when it's in reach they go after it with their mouths. Other animals, who are more inclined to use their paws, will do so, [as in this video]. |
what the arrows mean in illustrations of the magnetic field for magnets | They are to illustrate magnetic field lines showing the direction of the magnetic field at that point. If you were to take a simple bar magnet and in it to a spot center on one of those arrive so that it could freely spin, but not good around, then it would soon until it lines up along the arrow. The arrows show you th... |
Why are doctors known to have sloppy writing? | Taking notes in med school lightning quick to keep up with the lectures.I think a lot of it is bias. I've read doctors' writings and they pretty much run the spectrum of very good to appallingly bad, just like the rest of the population. The problem is that when a doctor's handwriting IS bad, it can lead to very seriou... |
Don't smoke grenades make it hard for everyone to see? | Infrared let's you see through the smoke but it's used mostly for retreating and only occasionally for flanking. Usually you don't need to see the other side you're just covering your own ass to move into a better position or to distract the enemy. |
ELI 5: During timed challenges on food competition shows, do the judges end up eating some cold plates? | Yeah, they do. It's completely unfair. I was on Hotdog Challenge and I was the last to be tested and mine was completely cold by that point. |
Why is a big bright red circle on a button associated with recording? | Not sure how true this is, but I heard it was because a red light was a traditional "in-progress" indicator for production. So when doing a live broadcast of radio, television, or theater production, a red light was turned on to indicate to people to be mindful of the performance and not interrupt. So when developing a... |
Can anyone recommend me some ELI5-like books on finance/money? | The dummies books are great, they have them on financing and all of those topics you talked about and they'll walk you through how to do those things. Source: success in several investments from reading those books |
why aren't there movements actively trying to change society for the better that are not viewed as cults or strange or useless? | I think that depends almost entirely on what you mean. What society precisely are you trying to change, and in what way? Odds are very good that some organization out there IS trying to bring about the objectives you have in mind, probably many of them. Consider the literally thousands of charities, non-government orga... |
If time moves slower the faster an object goes, why don't clocks in cars or on airplanes ever get out of sync. | Cars don't move fast enough for us to notice with minute or even second accuracy. Put an accurate enough clock on a fast enough plane, and you will be able to see very small changes.Clocks on satellites get out of sync all the time.Relativity effects all things, there isn't a threshold where suddenly it happens, sudden... |
why do people smell burning hair before a stroke? | so if a heart attack is the deprovation of oxygen to the heart and part of it dies never to re grow. Than a stroke is a "brain attack" where part of the brain is depribed of oxygen for a while and dies never to re grow. Your heart has pain sensors in it. when you have a heart attack for the most part poeple get chest p... |
What is being measured when we measure our body temperature? | Your temperature. Your body has mechanisms that regulate the core temperature, that's one of the things that makes you a mammal. Some diseases cause the temperature to rise, and by measuring the rise you can detect them.Literally, a temperature of the body. Every organ of your body produces heat while its working as a ... |
What exactly is happening when a cop pulls me over and runs my information? What's the whole process? | Cop here.Every state will have a different system, bit they're generally the same thing. I run your driver's license number, which basically tells me everything about you. It gives me past driving history, warrants, vehicle registration info, whether or not you have a concealed handgun permit, etc. I can pull up additi... |
What would happen if bees died? | Bees are not the invasive species, Africanized bees are invasive to The America's, as they were artificially introduced to South America some time ago and started to spread. But back to your original question If all the bees died, it would cause a global catastrophe and food shortage, because bees are one of the primar... |
Why do servers need to be locked? | Controlling physical access is the single most important aspect of computer security. Give me the most hardened Linux server on Earth, and so long as I 've got physical access I'll own in under 5 minutes. I can just boot it to single-user mode, change the root password, and then reboot into normal mode. Likewise I can ... |
Why does our species find other animals to be cuter when they are sleeping/curled up in a ball? | To make humans more likely to protect babies, we evolved to think babies are cute. Since our brain evolved and our bodies changed over millions of years, the brain function that does this, also tells us, some baby animals or small sleeping animals are cute. Since that wasn't too big of a problem for our ancestors, our ... |
Why do people moan when stretching? | Lungs are controlled by a belly muscle.You stretch, your belly muscle moves, your lungs move and air comes out yer' gob, Couple this with the chance that your necks moving for a stretch and the air out yer gob is gonne make a noise. |
When talking about Celsius temperatures, what's a good scale on how light to dress? | Depends on what you're used to.Celsius 101:0°= melting ice100°=boiling water100 even steps in betweenBelow 10°: dress warm10-20: a sweater and jeans 20-30: shirt and optionally shorts30+: swimsuit |
How come its legal to emotionally and psychologically wound someone but its illegal to lay hands on them? | Because we can't measure the emotional and psychological wounds that someone receives.Because people often feign emotional wounds. But you cant fake a physical one', "Harassment isn't legal, but you can't really tell how someone is affected emotionally or psychologically in the same was as physical harm. |
Do Apple and Microsoft intentionally water down the quality of their software that they make for the other side? | They don't water it down, they just don't spend as much time on it. Most programs rely pretty heavily on stuff built in to the operating system. That means moving a program from Windows to Mac requires a substantial amount of developer effort to redo large chunks of it. The Office for Windows team is much larger than t... |
What a "promoter" is and how they fit in with DJs and the club scene? | The DJ is the talent. The clubs are the venues. The promoters are responsible for bringing people out to the venues. . The promoter is usually the one who organizes the evening. As an example: Say you go to a club and they have a "dubstep night" featuring 3 DJs who are all specialized in that genre. The promoter is the... |
Why/how do hollow point bullets do more harm than regular bullets? | [Here's a picture] that includes a fired hollow point bullet. As you can see, its tip has opened up or "mushroomed." This phenomenon means that after contact, the bullet has a larger, more jagged surface. This enlarged surface causes the bullet to hit more stuff inside the target's body, damaging more tissue. The other... |
How does jumping off a bridge into water kill someone? | Water is thicker than air, so it gets out of the way more slowly. The faster you hit it, the more that matters, so that if you hit it going really fast it's kind of like hitting concrete for a split second. That split second is plenty of time to shatter the bones in your legs and hips before dumping you into the river.... |
How is Rob Ford still mayor of Toronto? | We have no recall or impeachment mechanisms in the City of Toronto Act. The only way he can be removed is if he is imprisoned for a criminal offence , or by a special act of the Ontario legislature, which is very unlikely to happen.He admitted to smoking crack cocaine though, thats an illegal substance and I thought th... |
What is ISIS and why does their flag look like a child made it? | The flag is known as the "Black Standard", and is part of Islamic tradition. The text at the top of the flag is known as the "Shahada", and is a transliteration of "There is no God but God, and Muhammad is his prophet" The symbol at the bottom of the flag is the Seal of Muhammad - this was a symbol that Muhammad inscri... |
do dogs play favorites? | Dogs are much more complex than Pavlov's bells would suggest. Food is not the only concern of hers. Dogs are extremely social animals that cling to humans for shelter, food, companionship, safety, entertainment, and especially love. Walking, playing with and cuddling your dog is just as important as food. Because a pet... |
Why is chicken the most common and usually the only kind of bird people eat? | They grow fast, are reasonably large, are very poor flyers, and live well in large groups. That makes them an easy bird to farm in large numbers. Turkeys, ducks, and geese are also farmed, but they're not as easy to handle and the meat is more expensive as a result. Pigeons and crows don't have any meat on them, it's a... |
Why does Walmart only have a few registers open, yet they are number one on the Fortune 500 list? | You reversed a statement to make it a question Walmart only schedules the minimum number of cashiers needed to keep customers from leaving the store without buying anything, and pays those cashiers the least amount they can without having the cashiers walk out. This business strategy has led to them being at the top of... |
Why do people say that a giant creature like Godzilla wouldn't be able to support itself? | Yes, but any material, including bones, has a maximum capacity beyond which it will break, shatter, or collapse in on itself. This is due in part to the [square-cube law], which says that size and weight do not scale linearly as they increase.Think of a bone. Now the bone material has a certain strength. That bone's to... |
The long term effects of the Tiananmen square protests. | I may have just woken up but I'll try to answer this question a bit anyways. You ask about tank man and its legacy. First, within China, not a whole lot of recognition in the general population. Most people do not have access to uncensored internet and have very little information about the protests never mind tank man... |
How the Chronos high speed camera work, and why is it so cheap compared with other industry dominators? | The Chronos works very similar to other industry cameras however it was developed and designed to be an efficient, and cost effective alternative to pricier Industry models. Specifically for scientific based channels that want to produce cost effective, yet cheap High speed without needing to buy or invest in Phantom c... |
What happens when your skin "adjusts" to a new shaver? | Truth is, it's probably just the amount of time it takes to smooth out the rough edges of the razor blades. Electric shavers blades are not as fine and sharp as manual because they use the energy to essentially chop hair off. Brand new shavers edges might be a little too sharp and after a month or so of shaving, those ... |
Why do people defy evacuation requests or orders during natural disasters? And why are "This is my home" or "God/Jesus will protect me" top replied? | Not an expert, but probably it's because they don't want to leave their home unattended, and open to . whatever might happen . robbery or whatnot. |
Why is it legal to sue a neighbor over an "eyesore" in there lawn (i.e.; not raking leaves, garbage on the lawn, leaving garbage cans open) | Do you know of a case where this happened? I've never heard of such a thing. Home owner associations can fine homes in their HOA for failure to rake/mow the lawn/etc. since it's in the HOA bylaws that you agree to when you buy a house in their neighborhood. If you don't pay they can put a lien on your house. |
Why does google safe search filter out anything sexual but leave very graphic gore images? | I'm sure they could if they wanted to but that isn't where American priorities are at. We have this weird Puritan culture that has a fucked up relationship with sex. House wives all over would rather their children stomp hookers in GTA than see even a mild sex scene in a movie. While all of this is going on politicians... |
Why do customer service people add the word "do" before verbs? | It's for politeness as well as emphasis. For a much broader scope on this, I suggest reading the *Wheel of Time* series, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. There is a country in those books whose people always speak that way, and it calls them out fairly often. r/wot is a good starting point on Reddit, but that su... |
- How you teach a deaf child sign language and grammar? Also... | Deaf children learn sign language the same exact way you learned to speak and understand English. Deaf babies will even "babble" with their hands at the same time hearing babies babble with spoken words. Sign language is a complex language in itself and therefore would not be easier nor harder to learn than a spoken la... |
Why are bug bites so annoying/itchy? Wouldn't it be advantageous to not annoy food sources? | Bugs didn't evolve to make us itch, we evolved itching to warn ourselves of the bug bites. The enzymes or chemicals introduced to the skin by bug bites are designed to either breakdown tissue or prevent blood clotting to help them feed. Some bugs like ticks have evolved anesthetics to numb our skin and prevent us from ... |
What are antioxidants, and why are they good for me? | Most molecules have an even number of electrons. The atoms that molecules are made of strive to have 8 electrons - this is known as the octet rule. Not all atoms within a molecule follow this rule, though most do. To be most stable/happy, each atom should have 8 electrons around it. A "free radical" or "reactive oxygen... |
Why can't the NSA track down the creators and users of the "Kaptoxa" Malware? (behind the Target Data Breach) | There is some argument that they're not that good at the surveillance/intelligence aspect of what they do:-They did not find or catch a mole inside their own organization -They did not catch the Boston Marathon bombers-They did not catch any of the successful attacks against Americans on foreign soil that happened sinc... |
How come top google search results don't necessarily have the search words anywhere in the article? | Unlike reddit search, google search tries pretty hard to guess what you were really searching for. For example, it sometimes looks for similar terms, or for articles that are *linked to* from links containing the search terms. |
Australian marriage laws - If one member of a hetero married couple transitions and they become a same sex couple, would their marriage still be recognised as they're no longer a hetero couple? | Under the current laws, once they legally transition their marriage has to be dissolved. That's actually why Senator Janet Rice's wife is still legally listed as male despite living as a woman for a couple of decades now. |
How did the first bilingual person learn a second language? | This is basically how two people who have different languages learn to speak to each other . So, you start with basics. Point at yourself and say your name. Point at a coconut and say "coconut". Point at a fish and say "fish". The other person does the same in their language. You go from there and get more complex as y... |
Why do people still like wrestling, even when they know it's fixed? | Precisely what doc said, wrestling is essentially action-theater. It has plots, stories, characters, displays of physical ability. Think of it like high-octane lowbrow [Cirque du Soleil]. |
Why do people tilt their head to one side when trying to grasp a complex explaination | People make certain head/eye movements when accessing different parts of their brain. It's actually used in interrogations .I may ask you a series of baseline questions to gauge your actions when telling truth vs making up a story then use those actions when start asking tough questions. People will also look/tilt etc ... |
Why is "bra" singular and "panties" plural? | Pants used to be in two sections, one for each leg, and then were joined together later for convenience. Panties is related to pants, while bra comes from brassiere which is a garment used to support a woman's breasts. There was no previous step of one garment per breast, so it remained singular. |
Why do cats like to sit in packages? | Cats love being in corners. You will almost never see cats sleeping in the middle of a room unless surrounded by their family. They're almost always in the couch that is against the wall, or if sleeping outside they are pretty surely sleeping against a wall or in a pretty enclosed area. They don't want to worry what mi... |
Why can't a barcode/qr code store an executable virus? | Barcodes, whether one or two dimensional, are rarely used for more than a few hundred bytes. It would be difficult to place malicious code in such a space, and that code would have to exploit a weakness in a particular scanning application, which could be patched relatively quicklyIn theory, a QR Code could. Barcodes p... |
Why was the discovery of Penicillin considered such a medical breakthrough? | Penicillin was the very first drug found that would directly kill bacteria inside a patient without harming the patient. It was the first time that we could directly cure a bacterial infection. Bacterial infections used to kill millions of people a year. Now they kill very few. |
Why doesn't the US/NATO just drone strike all of the terrorists? | Fun fact, drones are really bad at targeted strikes. Like, you know those grainy, hard to see pictures you see on the news? That's what the drone sees. Is it a child on his way to school, or is it a terrorist hell bent on destroying the school? Who knows, all the drone sees is a greyish blob. Then there is the logistic... |
How to "snap pops" (the little paper fireworks that go off when you throw them on the ground) work? | They use a very small amount of a very volatile explosive called silver fulminate. It takes little in the way or heat or pressure to get the explosive to go off. In the case of snap pops, they also mix in gravel, that causes enough impact or friction power when thrown to cause the silver fulminate to explode.The answer... |
The invisible Gas in a candle flame | In a candle the wax at the top of the candle melts due to the heat of the flame. That liquid is then taken up the wick due to "capillary action," which is the same effect that causes liquid to soak upwards in a paper towel dipped in a liquid. Once the liquid wax gets to the top of the candle it is heated further by the... |
How can Beatles tribute bands use the music, likeness and such and make money off of it? Do they have to pay to use the songs? | There's a lot of gray area in the "tribute band" / "cover band" territory. Practically speaking, they could probably be forced to cease and desist if the Beatle's reps really cared to pursue it. If you perform music in public that you don't hold the rights to, you are supposed to pay a licensing fee. Most music venues ... |
Why is it always so windy when the weather gets suddenly warm? | Warm moist air is less dense than cold dry air. So, there is a pressure difference. You are now in a low pressure area and the air from the surrounding area is blowing in to fill the vacuum. |
Why can I smell rain before it actually starts to rain? | You were probably smelling ozone. Oxygen is normally two atoms of oxygen linked together. Ozone is three atoms of oxygen linked together. When a storm is approaching, lightning from the storm can split nitrogen and oxygen atoms in the atmosphere up. Some of these recombine to form oxygen again or other compounds, but s... |
Why does a phone's camera focus on close objects for a second then unfocus? | It is because the camera did not recognize the close object as the object that you are planning to shoot, this can be corrected by lightly pressing the focus button. |
Why does drinking alcohol make me feel warmer | Alcohol causes your capillaries to dilate and when they expand blood from inside your body is drawn to the skin. Since your skin now has warm blood it feels warmer. This is also why you can see that people have been drinking because the skin on the face turns red with this added blood.It relaxes the muscles restricting... |
Why do communist nations usually start with "Democratic People's Republic" when in reality they have no democracy? | The original idea of Communism was that there would be a stateless, classless group of people all living and working together for the common good. A utopia, if you would. As everyone works together, you can see where "People's" come in, and "Democratic / Republic" means that supposedly the people had a voice. This idea... |
Where did the trend of a s ranking being higher than an a ranking come from? | I think you'll need to add more context around what an "s ranking" is. Are you asking about hotels, movies, games, plays? I suspect that it's this, but it's hard to tell from the question. _URL_0_The S-rank comes from Japan, but we can only speculate what the s stands for as we dont know for sure. |
Concept of "Unincorporated area" | In the US that is an area of land that is not an incorporated municipality. To form an official town residents must go through a legal process called "incorporation." Each state has its own requirements, but generally it involves a petition to the county or state government, and meeting a set list of criteria. If the w... |
Why do people pour out a little bit of alcohol, for their dead friends when they drink? | You've marked this as answered, but I don't think any of the responses quite answer it. This practice is called [Libation,] and it's a been a human custom for thousands of years. It is essentially a religious offering for the dead and the gods. It's kind of cool to think that Odysseus and 2Pac have shared the same trad... |
Why is there so much animosity between the Catholic and Protestant groups in Ireland? | The thing is, it's not *really* about religion, it's more about allegiances and politics. It goes back hundreds of years. Back in the 16th Century, Henry VIII of England turned England protestant. He then went and conquered Ireland and declared himself king . The people he put in charge were protestants mostly loyal to... |
Why do guys get boners when you're spooning or cuddling even if you're not feeling aroused? | There is a difference between physical arousal and psychological or emotional arousal and different factors sometime influence the different arousal states. An erection is physical arousal, almost by definition, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're in the mood. If something presses up against your crotch and it's s... |
panic/anxiety attacks. what are they? how severe are they/ and what do they feel like? | Panic attacks can be set on by literally anything. Many times mine come out of no where. Panic attacks are different for every person and can range from small ones to very intense attacks. I've had ones where it's simply like I can't breathe or my heart beats irregularly. The common symptoms are trouble breathing, irre... |
How is war declared? | A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a speech by an authorized party of a national government, in order to create a state of war between two or more states. The official international protocol for declaring war was defined in the Hague Convention of 19... |
Why haven't we found a cost effective way to produce salt water into fresh water? | Simply put, it takes energy. Energy isn't always cheap, and typically speaking we want *lots* of fresh water. |
Why is the minimum age for ‘adult’ medicines usually 12? Not 18 or 21? | Because a lot of pharmaceuticals are dosed by patient weight. At 12 years old you are nearly full size.It's just a rule of thumb to avoid overdosing, even if it's exact same active ingredient nobody is going to tell you to cut exact part of the pill to create a proper dose of the medicine for the child's weight. |
If Pluto's atmosphere is made of methane and acetylene,both volatile compounds, is there any reason why it can't be viewed as a 'gas' station for interstellar exploration? | The main issue there is that chemical rockets just can't get us to other stars. When you look at projected designs for possible interstellar spacecraft, like [Project Daedalus] or [Project Longshot], they use fusion and fission power. Pound-for-pound, nuclear energy is many orders of magnitude more powerful, for the sa... |
Why do clouds sometimes appear to be moving so fast and other times stay still? | the Earth's rotation but wind is why it goes fast", 'part of it is parallax, but it is also because wind speed varies, even in different layers of the same air. Balloonists sometimes let go of a small balloon and watch as it rises, because it will change speed as it goes through different layers of air. |
Is current tension between Russia and united states similar to the scenario before world war started? | Could you mean the Cold War? The United States and Russia were actually allies in World War I and II. But at the end of World War II, with the destruction of Germany, Italy, and Japan, the only two superpowers left in the world were the U.S. and Russia. Tensions were extraordinarily high after World War II, primarily b... |
Why do some airplanes leave an exhaust trail but others do not? | If you're talking about [contrails], those are not from exhaust. Or at least, not strictly exhaust. Contrails form when conditions are right, involving humidity, temperature, and air pressure. Small particulates from the exhaust create [nucleation sites] for ice crystals to form. Nucleation is kind of its own ELI5, but... |
Why didn't African Americans and others displaced from slavery get their own state like Jewish people got Israel? | It did happen. You are describing Liberia. The country's very name reflects that it was a place where liberated people could live. It just wasn't a big success. It turns out that fairly few people wanted to head out to Liberia or any such place. America is a more prosperous place than most, plus in the 1800s a sea voya... |
No matter how advanced our telescopes get, wont we always just be seeing old light? | > No matter how large and advanced telescoped get, wont we just be seeing the old light that has been traveling for millions of years? Yep. > Also, is there anyway we could somehow decrease this without physically moving closer? Nope. > Even if we could look at the surface of barren planets millions of light years away... |
in English traditional poetry, what makes a iambic pentameter sound 'good'? | It's because it mirrors in a way natural speech patterns that native English speakers use without realizing it. Just more emphasized. A lot of English phrases tend to have kind of that rhythm and speed just less emphasized. And so if you take something that sounds natural and blow it up artistically, it is pleasing to ... |
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