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What is the purpose of bees making honey? Do they actually do something with it? | It's their food source. They make extra so that they can survive the winter. Some insects simple lay eggs in the ground and die, then the eggs hatch in the spring. Bees save food, then huddle together in the hive all winter for heat and eat the honey to survive until warmer weather.They eat it. Beyond that it's a simil... |
Why do dogs sometimes kick their leg when you scratch them? | I believe it is a nerve you have tickled. Resulting in them kicking there leg. Probably wrong. But I will ask my dogs!It is a certain nerve that you are hitting. Nothing more than that. |
What is the significance of the letter in the title of vitamins e.g. vitamin A? | Vitamins were named alphabetically according to which ones were discovered first. There are so many different vitamin Bs because at first all of the different types were thought to be very similar and all called "vitamin B". Later it was found that they serve different biological functions and were renamed. All the vit... |
Why does PayPal instantly withdraw from my bank account, but take 3-4 days to deposit money? | Transfers between banks always take time. The exact amount of time isn't really fixed and is [sort of complicated], but the banks/PayPal aren't trying to rip you off. To make things a bit more convenient PayPal and other similar services will add money to your account as soon as you ask your bank to send it. They won't... |
From an evolutionary standpoint why have men developed deeper voices than women? | Just something I heard-- but I think a deeper voice is a direct result of testosterone. Transexuals who take testosterone will often develop a deep voice after a few weeks of taking it. Testosterone is an indicator of reproductive fitness . It would make sense then for a female to be attracted to a deeper voice as it's... |
Why does china's communist party still call themselves communist if they enact many policies that blatantly help business and they do not seem to try and spread communism actively? | The people -- especially the poor ones, who in China have a history of violent revolt -- are more likely to support a party whose name means "we'll make sure the wealth is shared with you." Consider it misleading but effective advertising. Also, it's very hard to rename a big successful organization. Everyone is used t... |
Why do tv shows need people to sign a release form to show people on tv, but you can post videos and pictures of strangers on the Internet? | You need consent from people when you have images/videos of them taken in public places, and you're using them *for commercial purposes*. If the image isn't being sold or used to generate revenue, then you're free to use it. |
Explain like I'm 5 why the states with the highest average income, health metrics, and education levels are also the most liberal and nobody ever talks about it. | Because there's no way to bring it up without sounding like an asshole?", 'Income can't be discussed without talking about living costs. Which tend to be higher in "liberal" areas. Look at wealth and you might have a more fair number. #2 Have you ever eaten southern food? It's like drinking milk from satan's teat. Tast... |
Why do people like to read in the toilets even if it is only the labelling on the back of a shampoo bottle? | The human brain wants to be busy, be it reading a shampoo bottle or humming/having a song stuck in your head. As long as you're busy you're good. |
Why can I download/torrent large files at 1-2MB/s and get 30mbps speed test results, but when I view Youtube videos, it takes long to load a video in 480p and up. | A single site like Youtube sends all the parts of a file in order. When you download a file by torrent, many sources send you different parts of the file all at once. Imagine that you're sitting on one side of a table and I'm sitting on the other side with a pile of 100 cookies. If I want to push all the cookies across... |
How do you play cricket? | One-minute whistlestop: Bowler throws a ball at you and you whack it with a bat. You attempt to hit the ball away away from the cricket pitch into the field, and while the ball is away from the pitch you and your fellow batsman attempt to run the length of the pitch , scoring a run each time you do so. If the ball is c... |
How does exposure to air cause the fats in milk and butter to go rancid? | Unless you live in a clean room, air is full of bacteria. Some of that bacteria will love your milk and butter, especially if it's not cold. Most bacteria don't function well in cold, so it takes longer for them to make the milk/butter go bad. |
What's the benefit of having multiple programming languages? | Lisp is a programming language specifically designed to deal with lists. it's great for dealing with lists of list, and anything that can be listed. it's good at orders, sorting and lists, but not good at simulations objective C is a low level language designed to do general purpose things where data structures interac... |
Why does 1080p look amazing to me, but real life quality doesn't seem as interesting? | Because real life is 3D, when you look at something objects at other distances become blurry and out of focus. On a screen everything is in 2D and in constant focus, so there is more 'crisp' image for you to see. |
Why does stretching out in the morning once you wake up feel so good? Is there any science behind it? | After sleeping for several hours in the same position, you get a little stiff. By stretching, you increase the blood flow to your muscles, which makes you feel more awake and refreshed. Actions that are good for your body often make you feel good, and I suspect that's the case with stretching as well! |
What is will power and where does it come from if emotion is based off of chemical interactions? | "Will power" is not a concept that modern psychologists really use -- it's kind of an inaccurate idea. A more accurate version is "delayed gratification". This means the ability to give up a short-term pleasure in order to obtain a larger long-term reward. Since our brain is motivated by *both* of these forces, they te... |
How are pictures that are larger than the resolution of your device opened up? | Have you ever loaded a 4K UHD YouTube video on a 1080p device? Well, 3840x2160 has exactly 4x the amount of pixels as 1920x1080, so what happens is that every 4 pixels gets made into 1 pixel, the color of that pixel is the average color of all 4 pixels. Photos are more difficult as they have multiple different resoluti... |
Why do tooth whitening strips make my teeth so dang sensitive? | Because they are damaging the teeth. They bleach the teeth and remove the top layers of enamel, or at least soften them.Think of teeth made of tiny rods. Each rod goes towards the nerve of the tooth somewhat. Everytime you whiten it's like opening these rods like you are opening the pores of your skin. The more you whi... |
Does me using a larger amount of "data" cost the phone companies more money? | Data is simply electrical signals being sent from one device to another. The cost for a telecom company to keep their infrastructure functioning is relatively static, regardless of how much data their customers send through it. If there is more throughput demanded on a certain connection than its bandwidth can handle, ... |
Why does an ENTIRE power grid go down when it's overloaded, even though the power stations are still making electricity? Where does that electricity go, if not to consumers? | Myth: generators, batteries, etc., send out energy Fact: consumers draw energy out of the batteries generators etc. Think carefully: if a battery supposedly sends out energy, where does all that energy go when the battery is sitting on the shelf? Answer: the battery isn't sending out energy in the first place. Here's o... |
In a body builder competition, why do the competitors put on a lot of fake tan? | The darker your skin the easier it is to see the way the light shapes around the muscles. It provides a better viewing experience for the judges and helps increase the chance of getting scored better on physique. |
Why Are There No Dog-Sized Housecats? | There sort of already is. The Savannah cat! Not a typical house cat, but you are seeing them as pets more and more.Domesticated dogs came from wolves. Housecats aren't domesticated, they just happen to live with us, and we let them because they are really good at killing pests. There are still wild cats that are the si... |
Why do so many websites ask you to join their mailing lists? | Because it works. A lot of people do subscribe to those newsletters, and when they get the emails they often click on the links there which take them back to the website. These return users are far more valuable to the company than the value lost by you being "put off visiting in the future" because you probably wouldn... |
Why do we have to install RES to get extra features for reddit? Why can't the basic website provide them without the add-on? | Reddit has to spend a lot of time/resources just maintaining the site from crashing and working properly. RES doesnt have to worry about that and can spend its time/resources just creating extra features. I also think that the reddit staff is well-aware of RES and doesnt see the need to compete against them and are hap... |
If vaccines wear off, why don't older adults have all the diseases they're no longer immune to? | Why herd immunity is not a myth. * Some vaccinations do grant lifetime immunity. Measles is one where the CDC says once the series is complete, you are good.* Immunity is not all or nothing. Even if a vaccine is only 90% effective, and everyone is vaccinated, you are a lot less likely to be exposed to the disease, and ... |
Why is it called the World Series when only US teams play? Shouldn't it be the US Series? | For what it's worth, the MLB does happen to be a reservoir which contains a disproportionate amount of the worlds baseball talent. Pretty much wherever you are in the world, if you are sufficiently good at baseball, theMLB will find you and pay you more than anyone in your home country will to play the game. That's not... |
How do sun creams work? | It depends which product you're talking about, sunscreen or sunblock. Sunblock, like the name implies, blocks incoming UV light by scattering it, usually because of zink oxide or titanium oxide. This is what gave people the traditional white-cream-on-body look back in the days, now the oxide particles are much smaller ... |
Why is Veterans Day (USA) on a Wednesday? | Veterans Day is set for November 11th because that's the date that pretty much all countries have for it. It's the anniversary of the end of the First World War -- it's not an arbitrary date.Because Nov 11 is also the day ww1 ended. _URL_0_ |
Concrete vs. metal (steel?) in bridges | It's a combination of many things actually, so the choice is not always clear. Concrete bridges are cheaper to build and to maintain. Steel bridges are far more expensive, but the dead load is lower, thus it requires simpler foundations. Steel bridges are also easier and quicker built than concrete bridges, but mainten... |
Why can sea mammals drink from the ocean but we can't? | The reason humans and other land based animals shouldn't drink salt water is because our kidneys can't make our urine saltier than the salt water. This leads to dehydration and eventually death. Whales have larger kidneys that can make saltier urine, so they absorb water from the salt water. |
How can the term "bi-weekly" be used to describe an event that occurs twice per week and an event that occurs once every other week? | It doesn't. Something that happens every 2 weeks is bi-weekly. Something that happens twice per week is semi-weekly.I see this reposted at least once a fortnight. |
How does male voice change post-puberty? | Take a rubber band and stretch it out, then blow hard against it - it'll make a humming noise as the air buffets past it. The pitch it makes will depend on the combination of the band length and the tension you put on it; the shorter the band and the higher the tension, the higher the pitch. Vocal cords are pretty much... |
What is hysterical strength, and what causes it to be triggered? | It is caused by adrenaline flooding the body after there is some sort of trauma or other trigger for a "fight or flight" response. |
Why do we make noise when we're in pain? | Humans are sympathetic, and many of our responses are driven by what we observe other people doing. Ever seen somebody laugh and you start laughing, even though you don't know what they're laughing at? Yelling while in pain is similar to that. We 've evolved so that if you get injured, you yell, which tells everyone wi... |
How are we conscious as a singular entity when our bodies are made up of millions of separate microorganisms? | Many philosophers and scientist assert that our consciousness is an illusory phenomenon that while effectively serving to create a sense of "i" or "self" is in fact just an illusion that we have evolved as an efficient means of interfacing with reality . Not sure if you wanted to touch on the actual philosophical side ... |
Why transportation hubs do not invest in better speaker? | Some of them do. I've been in several large train hubs that have the same high quality speakers systems that are used in large scale live events like concerts and political rallies. They are called large format line-arrays and they represent some of the newest technology in public address systems. They are highly engin... |
What is the difference between "candidate" Obama and "President" Obama | Candidate Obama ran a campaign on the idea of being in the middle of the road of the Democrats. Close Guantanamo, increase environmental regulations, and single-payer health care immediately come to mind. He was going to go out and fight for the liberal causes, and he was going to change the tone of Washington. Preside... |
why we say someone was "hanged" rather than hung? | A history professor once explained me the difference. Hanged is when you execute someone by hanging, wrapping a piece of rope around their neck and suspending them in mid air. Hung is when you suspend something in the air with a hook, like a jacket or a slab of meat in the butcher-shop. TL/DR: Hanged = rope and Hung = ... |
the current state of US health care and what will be changing soon. | The health insurance industry is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the US today. By spending a lot of money on "donations" to political campaigns, the health insurance industry's support is necessary for a politician of either party to get enough money to actually run their campaigns. So, since the health ins... |
How realistic are TV/movies in depicting how law enforcement tracks the location of a cellphone caller? | It's pretty much all bullshit. Today everything is digital and all calls are logged, so tracing a call involves contacting the telephone company and asking them for the logs. More info here: _URL_0_ |
What is a parallel universe ? | I'll still give you your answer just because I'm bored. We have our base universe, we will call it universe A and its where we live. We don't know if there's an edge but we do know that it had a beginning at the Big Bang and that's what time began. We don't know what happened before it or what happens past the edge if ... |
What did ancient civilizations make of menstruation? What did they think was happening? | I think ancient civilizations knew exactly what mensuration was. Most ancient civilizations followed the practice of child marriage so mensuration wasn't a big of a deal because . You know And even then a cloth was probably the innovation to go! |
why don’t we have sprinklers in single family homes in the US? | It's not worth it A multifamily dwelling is significantly more likely to have a fire than a single family home, the greater likelihood and greater potential damage justifies the increased cost Sprinklers also require regular maintenance to function properly. If you don't drain your sprinklers every few months then they... |
why do artists play their song slightly slower live? Are they actually playing them slower or are radio/album recordings just set faster? | I've always thought the opposite - playing live speeds it up. Was certainly the case when I saw The Darkness & INXS. Check some live performances from the Beatles on YouTube, they're much quicker than the album versions.Also radio stations tend to speed up songs just slightly so that they are able to air more commercia... |
How dieting and exercise effect energy homeostasis and become counterproductive? | If I get your question right I believe you misunderstand the process. Medications designed to promote weight loss are largely centered around our perception of our own hunger, causing us to lose weight, however unhealthily, by creating a caloric deficit and forcing our bodies to breakdown fat for energy. Exercise and d... |
Why are wild/exotic animals, who may be domesticated from birth, more prone to lashing out violently than normal domesticated pets (i.e. cats, dogs, etc.) | Dogs and cats haven't been wild for thousands of years, and we have bred them to have traits we like. Traits like, for instance, not murdering us in our sleep. |
how can a step counter attached to your wrist count your steps? | Cyclical vibrations. If feels the impact of each step as it runs up your body. Even if you're moving your hands, it's typically in a fairly predictable manner so the device can still pick out each heelstrike through all the noise. |
Why can we hear our own chewing when our mouth is closed? | Sound doesn't need air to travel. Sound travels through liquids and solids too. So your ears don't only pick up sounds through the openings. They pick up sounds inside your head too.Basically the sound echos through all the bones in your head Edit: your chewing sounds different to you than to anyone elseThe ears are at... |
How does electricity move things. | It comes from electricity's relationship to magnetism. To cut it a bit short, moving charges cause a magnetic field. Electrons are indeed charges, and an electric current is a bunch of moving electrons, so every wire causes a magnetic field. With a bit of clever engineering, it's quite simple to use the magnetic field ... |
How does a word become a word, like what makes a word, a word. | A word becomes a word through defined meaning through use. Most words in common languages have a long history of development from other languages and have been passed down for hundreds of years from other base languages, e.g. Sanskrit, Latin, Germanic, etc. Other words have been adopted because of popularity, either de... |
Why is it necessary to go to such great lengths to eliminate contaminants when manufacturing electronics like cell phones? | It depends on the thing you're manufacturing. With semiconductor parts even tiny specs of dust can cause failures by changing the electrical properties of certain regions of the chip, so manufacturing is done in clean rooms. With other things that are less sensitive, dust is a concern because it can cause the heating o... |
Why can’t urine and semen mix together when you release? | I mean, they *can*, there's nothing in the fluids that stop them from interacting, but there's a muscle that acts as sort of natural valve that cuts off access between the bladder and urethra when ejaculation is occurring; the semen will mix with any residual urine still in the urethra if there was recent urination, bu... |
Why do humans find it necessary to try and control how others live their lives even when it doesn't affect them personally? | We are a social species that evolved to live in villages of under 300 people. So we have evolved instincts designed to ensure our place in the hierarchy, and to regulate and stabilize the group. When you live in a small village, *everyone's* behavior affects you personally. |
How are college professors who require students to pay for textbooks they work on not barred by anti-trust laws? | Anti-trust laws deal with the domination of a sector by a specific industry. If you don't want to pay for the book, you're free to take the course from another professor or another college. Anti-trust laws really have no bearing.How does that qualify as being covered by Anti-Trust laws in any form? Professors and resea... |
Why are there so many molestations going on in the Roman Catholic Church involving priests? | They don't. Catholic priests commit sexual crimes at a rate similar to that of male clergy from other religions and at a lower rate than non-clergy males. Source: Religion in America, 6E, by Julia Hemeyer Edit: Not to say that they don't ever, but it isn't as though all priests do it, and it isn't as though more do it ... |
what is the purpose of female genital mutilation and how is it different from circumcision? | It is the removal of the exterior female clitoris and hood of the clitoris. This is the equivalent of removing the penis entirely, rather than just a fold of skin near the tip. It pretty much removes the main sexual pleasure center in most women. The reason is to reduce the woman's sexual pleasure with the intention of... |
why is colonel pronounced kernal? | The spelling is French, and in French it is pronounced more logically. However we take the pronunciation from the Spanish *coronel*. Just another side-effect of being a mongrel language. Edit: [We may have taken the Italian spelling, rather than the French]What about the silly Brits and the pronunciation of "lieutenant... |
the "fireworks" I see when I rub my eyes for a few seconds. | Basically, your retina has nerve cells and these are activated by pressure as well. Think the phenomena are called phosphenes Phosphenes > A sensation of light caused by excitation of the retina by mechanical or electrical means rather than by light, as when the eyeballs are pressed through closed lids. Read more: _URL... |
The difference between rationalism and empirism | Simplest version:Empiricism - The belief that concepts or knowledge can only be acquired via sense experience of the world. Rationalism - The belief that there are legitimate ways in which concepts or knowledge can be acquired without being derived directly from sense experience. |
If mass is not the same as weight, how come scientists measure grams on a weighted scale? | You can convert since you know the gravity on earth. Also if it's a balance then the gravity effectively cancels out", 'on Earth, mass is the same thing as weight as far as "how much is there" is concerned. on a balance scale, you have your object on one side, and calibrated masses on the other. when the balance is lev... |
Why do people find it 'necessary' to give money to girl scouts and such? | You clearly don't appreciate the deliciousness that is girl scout cookies", 'No one finds it "necessary". Many like to support the group as it does do a lot of good. Others simply like their cookiesIf they want my money, they better be carrying some boxes of delicious Thin Mints.You don't give them money you exchange m... |
There are different types of galaxies, but..how? | The formation of galaxies is still a very open question and scientific understanding continues to evolve rather quickly as scientific theories go. One big way that we suspect that we get different 'types' of galaxies is through collusions. When two galaxies get close enough to each other, structures like spiral arms ca... |
What makes gold so valuable? | It doesn't rust or corrode like other metals. This makes it great for things like jewelry and really great for electrical contacts. It would be great for electrical wire too if it wasn't so expensive. |
Why are cold and flu symptoms so much more extreme when you've just woken up? | Best guess as I am NOT a doctor, but I believe that dehydration may be playing a part here. While you are under the weather, the illness acts a diuretic causing you to dehydrate. If you are awake, your conscience mind makes a point to drink water or juice to stay remain hydrated. However, when you are asleep, you are n... |
When using a VPN, how is outgoing data encrypted BEFORE reaching the VPN? Can a VPN be used / is it secure with public wifi? | All a VPN is, is really a secure encrypted tunnel between your computer and some computer "out there". The encryption of your traffic is done by your VPN client on your computer. Decryption is done by the VPN exit end of the tunnel. i.e. Lets say I use a VPN to watch US Netflix here in Canada. My request from my browse... |
Since seedless fruit is essentially bred to be sterile (no seeds to reproduce) how would a farmer start a new plant of the spieces? | One generation is produced that is sterile. Seed stock is maintained by breeding the parent plants normally. As you get a lot more seeds than you have plants, if everything was done by one farmer they would save a portion of their plants as seed creation. Sterility can be done many ways one of which is chemically induc... |
How touchscreens work for fingers and skin, but not other objects. | Your screen detects the electricity in your body, so if you are touching something that is decent at conducting electricity, like a metal ipod, your screen can detect that', "Most touch screens today are capacitive, so lets focus on those. First you need to know what a capacitor is. At the basic level, it's two metal p... |
What does it mean when someone says "Don't take it personally"? | "I don't mean to attack your character or you as a person, but here is a criticism I have of something you do."It can precede a criticism, but it can also be reassurance from someone after a third party made some sort of generalized disparaging remark. "Don't take it personally, he's always like that to everyone." |
When did males and females start wearing different underwear and why? | For most of history the underwear, such as it was, was much the same. But it's down to the outer clothes, any outer clothes changed from tunics to those that are essentially pants, they needed different underwear than skirts/dresses. So hen people started wearing different outer clothes, the underclothes changed. Much ... |
In the past when two different cultures of two different languages, how did they communicate and learn the other language when there was no one yet who knew the translations and grammar? | Consider this: what language did you speak when you were born? Unless you were a very special baby, you eventually learned to understand and speak a language that was totally foreign to you, without the aid of translations or grammar laws. Humans don't need translations to learn a language. It makes things faster, but ... |
Why do top doctors fighting ebola not follow "scene safety?" | Yes, they are practicing 'scene safety\'. But in under developed countries, infrastructure is poor and inherent safety is nearly nonexistent. First World doctors and infectious disease specialists have been responding to Ebola and Marburg outbreaks in Africa for decades, generally with excellent safety. Most of the doc... |
Why are most jets white? | Plain, flat white is easy to maintain. Bright colors and fancy designs cost money. White also helps keep heat out, because it reflects away lots of the energy of light instead of absorbing it as heat. That's not why they paint passenger aircraft white though, as far as I know. The first aircraft used to deliver nuclear... |
why do objects sometimes just fall for no obvious reason? | It’s probably definitely your future self trying to contact you or you from another dimension.Well it didn't happen for no reason. It has either been being slowly moving since you put it there..or a vibration during the day moved it just enough to start the falling process. Or ghosts/aliens/cats |
re: ikea ... difference between "shelving units" and "bookcases." | While all used to store items, I presume the different intended purposes typically make their categorization useful in most cases. For example, a kitchen wall storage unit is not usually going to be suitable for someone looking for a bookshelf and a storage shelf would normally be used to store larger items or boxes an... |
What happens to a splinter/glass shard/metal fiber/etc that's been in your foot so long that it stops hurting eventually? | When a foreign entity enters your body in this manner, the body will attempt to "wall" it off. As a side note, wood splinters tend to have oil on them which may intefere with this process and has an increased chance of infection. You should always remove wooden splinters when you can. Had a splinter in my hand for almo... |
Why do we have the ATF? | These items are the most likely to be trafficked for illegal usage so the government deems it necessary to have a separate agency to monitor them. The name is retained from it's previous histories, It was once the Alcohol Tax Unit to enforce prohibition, When prohibition ended it became the Alcohol and Tobacco tax divi... |
Why does time flows only in one direction? | things tend to go from a state of greater complexity to states of lesser complexity. we call this entropy. if you add energy, you can keep things in states of greater complexity, but that energy has to come from somewhere. so entropy is always growing in the universe as a whole. this increase of entropy is what we 've ... |
What is a motif, and how do I use it? | A very simplified definition of a motif is "a recurring subject, feature, theme, idea, etc/a dominant idea or feature." In music the motif of a song or piece is the central recurring core, a note/line/riff/segment that keeps appearing and which the rest of the piece is framed and built around. This can also be extended... |
Why does the Panama Canal need locks? | Because Gatun Lake, which forms the center portion of the Panama Canal is 26 meters higher than sea level. without the locks, Gatun Lake is going to completely drain into the two oceans and your canal will turn into a dry lakebed.The original design of the canal was to dig a trench which was below sea level the entire ... |
Why do some people bruise easily, and some people not get visible bruises at all? | Some people are better at stopping bleeding than others. A small cut on one person may bleed a little before it stops, while the same cut on another person may bleed a lot before it stops. Now, a bruise is much the same, damage to tissue causes a small bleeding underneath the skin, and the blood forms the bruise. And a... |
Does blowing your nose/coughing up phlegm help fight a disease? | Phlegm / snot are the byproducts of your white blood cells attacking a foreign invader - whether that be bacteria, virus, disease. Usually my doctor will ask the color and consistency of both to determine if I need a booster or not. Coughing/sneezing them out typically won't help in the long run - the invaders have alr... |
How do we know when we’ve chewed something long enough? | When it's time to swallow, you have a thing at the back of your throat called the pharynx. Usually, air passes through it when breathing through either you nose or mouth. But when you're chewing, food starts you gather in it. Once it's reached a certain amount food, it triggers you to swallow, which is also why you mig... |
What does the term 'adjusted for inflation' mean? | $1 in 1950 would buy a lot more then than it does today. $1 in 1950 adjusted for inflation to 2016 is the amount of stuff that $1 in 1950 would buy today. for example. if a ford car costs $1000 in 1950 and $20000 today. we can say that $1000 in 1950 adjusted for inflation is equal to $20000 today. of course, the actual... |
Why do some schools have uniforms and others don't? | All schools have uniforms; some times they're more restrictive than others, and some are more explicit. The idea of a uniform is to make everyone act the same because they're dressing the same, and make them feel part of something bigger than themselves. So it's a way of enforcing discipline. All it takes is one girl c... |
Why do some lights "lag" when I turn them on? | It's probably the type of bulb in those lights. Some types of bulbs are able to turn on instantly, others take a while to warm up. Compact fluorescent bulbs take a bit to turn on, and can take a minute or more to get to their full brightness. |
How do blood tests for STDs work? | They look for antibodies related to known diseases. If the antibodies show up they know the disease has been there. If it hadn't there wouldn't have been any need for an immune response |
What do VPNs do, and why is it worth using one? | VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. The most basic description is that another computer is acting as a *relay* for yours. This other computer can either be run by a VPN provider, or by a company you work for. When using VPN, all of the information coming and going out of your computer *doesn't* go straight to it's ... |
Why can we see objects in mirrors that are on the side of/not in front of the mirror? | The law of reflection. Light bounces off of a mirror the same way a billiard ball bounces of the edge of a pool table . You see things because light from them reaches your eye. So if a mirror if 5 feet in front and 5 feet to the right of you, you can see an object ten feet to the right of you. The light from it travels... |
If OJ Simpson admits guilt, he cannot be retried because of double jeopardy, but Robert Durst is on trial after admitting to murder on HBO's "The Jinx" | Robert Durst went to trial for the killing / dismemberment of Morris Black. He was acquitted for this murder. Robert Durst is currently going on trial for the murder of Susan Berman. Completely different case, double jeopardy has nothing to do with that.Durst isn't being re tried. He is getting tried for a separate mur... |
I was told by an electrician today that having an ungrounded transformer in a building is one of the most dangerous electrical conditions that can occur. Why? | You can end up with *both* the hot and neutral wires energized throughout the building, if neither is equal to the ground voltage. In some cases this means that a metal component people might touch, would be energized with high voltage and/or high current capacityThe purpose of grounding in AC power systems is to prote... |
What would happen if I skydive through a big cumulonimbus cloud? | [Drown?] Generally, a cumulonimbus cloud has a density of 1.0-3.0g/m^3 Multiplying the average height with the density and rough oval shape the mouth makes, we find that a person would intake 1 Liter of water through their mouth in the > 3 minute fall. So, I'd say that as long as you are conscious , you wouldn't drown ... |
Why does the US support Israel so strongly? | Israel is a strategic asset to the US in the middle east, a stable powerful democracy which operates on a western ideology in a contested region in the world. Israel provides the US with logistics, intelligence and a strategic placing in an event of future world conflicts and in ordinary times, it was instrumental in t... |
why do banks credit most of a deposit same day but save a small amount for the next day? | I've never had it be a random number like that. I believe the bank doesn't get transfer from the bank that issued the check for a while so the bank essentially lends you their money until they get paid. The amount they lend you probably depends on a lot of factors:Current balance, history, check amount, type of check, ... |
Medicare for all. Single payer system in healthcare. | What about it? everyone payes taxes, and just like the police or fire department healthcare is publicly funded. This means anyone can use it, and you get better deals on medication. Usually its not a full free medical expenses, but like normal insurance, necessities/emergencies are covered, while elective/cosmetic thin... |
Why did RISC based Unix workstations fail? | For desktop workstations, it simply came down to the fact that the x86 CISC architecture dominated the marketplace. Intel was able to fund development at a rate greater than RISC competitors like Motorola. The biggest commercial example of this was Apple's switch to x86 CPUs partially due to the inability of Motorola t... |
Why do browsers "freeze" and why does each browser "freeze" differently? | As to why programs freeze or crash, you can read here: _URL_0_ Regarding Firefox vs. Chrome: In Firefox, all the tabs and windows are part of the same process. This means that if one of them has a problem, it can bring the whole process down, forcing the other tabs and windows to close as well. In Chrome, however, each... |
What would happen if a country payed totally its external debt? | It will have totally paid off its external debt. Nothing special about it really, a few countries actually have no debt at all and they all follow the same mold of "extremely wealthy, extremely small" countries. The question is "why would a country bother". Debt is a great tool for buying things now and paying for them... |
What is space made of? | Space is a vacuum. There's no matter there. However, there is a number of forces in effect, such as light, which doesn't need a medium to travel through. On the other hand, sound cannot travel in space , since sound needs some type of medium to travel through. Floating around, there's some plasma of hydrogen and helium... |
Why does it especially hurt when being hit in the groin | ELI 5 Version: Evolution wants you to protect your weewee because you will need it to put in a girl one day Because of the fact that the genital area has a lot of nerves. It is easier to feel pain where more nerves are present and that pain will be more intense. There are more nerves in this area than say your arm beca... |
How does neoprene work? | Essentially what is going on, is that the wetsuit allows water in, and then retains a very thin layer of water against your skin. This water is heated by your natural body heat, essentially serving as a warm layer of insulation. That's why wetsuits often talk about their anti-flushing properties as selling points. If t... |
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