query
stringlengths 8
249
| answer
stringlengths 45
7.8k
|
|---|---|
The Sects of Different Religions
|
There are people who think god is the sun in the morning. They don't play with people who think god is the moon at night.Not for all different religions but for the religions of Abraham it is best explained [here]: > Think of it like a movie. The Torah is the first one, and the New Testament the sequel. Then the Qu’ran comes out, and it retcons the last one like it never happened. There’s still Jesus, but he’s not the main character anymore, and the messiah hasn’t shown up yet. > > Jews like the first movie but ignored the sequels. Christians think you need to watch the first two, but the third movie doesn’t count. The Moslems think the third one was the best, and Mormons liked the second one so much, they started writing fanfiction that doesn’t fit with ANY of the series canon.
|
Why is the 2 party system so dominant in US politics? Will it change in the foreseeable future?
|
The two party outcome is pretty much unavoidable in a "first past the post" system, and pretty much unavoidable when you have a small number of seats being contested . CGP Grey to the rescue: _URL_0_[This Video] should help explain it. Tldw: The candidate with the most vote wins. The more candidates their are, the less total votes they need. Marginal and centrist parties with less representation strategically vote for the lesser of two evils over time until we end up with two parties yo-yoing power.
|
How exactly does a capacitor work?
|
A capacitor is very simple. It is 2 conductive plates, with an insulator between them. If you push electrons onto one plate, they will repel electrons from the other. But as electrons have moved on to one plate, that plate will have a negative charge. As electrons have been removed from the other, that will have a negative charge. This means that the device can store electric charge. So, when you connect it across a voltage that is changing, that charge will flow in to the capacitor as the voltage rises, and back out again as it falls. This creates a smoothing effect. Another similar use is 'decoupling'. Digital circuits use bursts of current. By placing a capacitor right beside the power connections to a chip, that capacitor provides those bursts, and is steadily recharged from the devices power supply. You can also use them for timing. You connect the capacitor to a supply, through a resistor. The resistor allows current to flow into the capacitor slowly, charging it up. You can then measure that voltage, and do something when it reaches a certain voltage.
|
Why do all bubbles eventually burst?
|
All other potential reasons aside: Evaporation and surface tension will get any bubble that survives the other effects. A bubble is a very thin layer of liquid, and holds its shape with surface tension. When you blow a bubble and it pops off the stick, all the bubble molecules are bound to each other. Each molecule pulls on its neighbors, and their neighbors pull on their neighbors, so on. Eventually everything's just holding itself in place by little tiny pulling. Now, once you break even one of those bonds, it all falls apart. As the liquid bubble just floats around, it's getting a lot of heat, and air flow, passing over its surface. This slowly evaporates the liquid, putting more and more strain on the bonds. Eventually they snap. The same happens in the cold, though that's because the cold begins to freeze the liquid and break the bond.Bubbles are fueled by an ever increasing demand which drives the price way up above its actual value. Eventually it gets so high that almost everyone stops buying at once and the price deflates dramatically. Assuming that you could fuel demand consistently forever it would never burst. But then I guess it would not really be a bubble anymore.
|
Why/when did we start calling Emoticons Emojis?
|
They're actually different! Emoticons are ~technically~ just these: :) :. So if your computer supports full unicode, and it gets told to show character number U+1F618, it should show a smoochy emoji face.
|
Why can't I run fast in my dreams?
|
It's a very common thing for people to experience in their dreams, and we don't really know why . One possible explanation I 've read before, however, is that your sense of how fast you are moving is dependent upon sensory input which your brain is not receiving . When you're in REM sleep , parts of your brain responsible for receiving sensory information picks up on the chaotic subconscious "noise" going on elsewhere. The brain then has to interpret that information into something that makes sense to your conscious self. So say your brain gets phony information that says your muscles are moving in a manner consistent with running, so that's what you experience in "conscious" reality of the dream. However you aren't getting other information associated with running . So the brain translates this as "I'm running, but also still", which is what you experience.
|
Why do car batteries last a long time, but go flat if you leave the lights on over night?
|
It's a rechargeable battery. When the engine is running, the alternator is able to use the power from the gasoline engine to recharge the battery. If the engine if off, the alternator is off, and the battery drains without being recharged.
|
Why do professional fighters "hug"? Is that any kind of defense? Does that have something to do with any rule?
|
I think you're referring to the clinch. In most forms of karate, the clinch is a position from which you perform a lot of throws or strikes . In boxing, it is a defensive move to make sure that you do not get an uppercut or hook to the face.Because they're pretty much constantly at the point of exhaustion, and it's short but needed "safe" breakI learned a "trick" from a guy I once went to school with who was really into street fighting. I think this "trick" could help explain. If you get really close to the person you're fighting, it's hard for them to really get any power to a punch. This is why, when you see douchebags fighting over who is the biggest dick, they tend to get really close to eachother before the first punch is thrown. I mean, try hitting someone you're currently hugging, you're not gonna floor anyone from that position.In MMA It's called pummelling. You are trying to get your arms between their arms and their body, so that you can clinch and take them down to the ground. It looks easy but is surprisingly tiring, as is all grappling. It is actually easier to rest when you are standing up and fighting, provided you can keep your distance and not throw too many techniques.TIL fighting is fucking interesting, not just waiting for the moment and punching. Thanks for the answers and the awesome explanations.
|
Why do we blink in response to loud sounds we anticipate?
|
A loud, sudden noise would indicate something has fallen, exploded, or occurred that could possibly cause you harm, many of times from shards or debris. Your eyes are delicate, and that's your body's response to keeping your eyesight functioning as well as possible - which was even more essential to surviving and thriving in earlier humans.
|
How do physicists know that time exists?
|
Thought experiment: if suddenly everything in the universe stopped moving, no atoms smashing into each other, no synaptic exchange in our minds -- would time still be moving? Probably not. Time is just a way to measure change. A label for motion.
|
What make heart muscles different from leg muscles, et al. so that they never get fatigued?
|
Practice. Repetition. The heart muscles are accustomed to their regular activity -- they've been doing that all their life, and although it doesn't seem like much of a rest to us, they get a bit of rest between each and every beat. Heart muscles do fatigue when they're asked to do more than normal. When your heart rate increases for some time, or when your blood pressure increases for some time this is your heart working harder than normal, and it will fatigue. Your leg muscles just aren't used to the kind of regular work that the heart muscles do.
|
Why is a repetitive motion, such as drumming a finger on the table, annoying for others but not for ourselves?
|
Those type of actions are about soothing or entertaining yourself. You get positive feedback from the noise or motion. Other people just get an annoying click, tap, or track suit rustling as you bounce your leg up and down in 3rd period noise. Great for you as it works out your nerves, not for others because it's just a noise or motion.ADHD person here. When I am working on a task that requires mental concentration I enjoy having part so of my mind occupied by other activities such as drumming a finger, tapping with my feet, listening to music on repeat and similar. My own theory is that it occupies enough of my mind not to be distracted but not more to take my concentration away. Problem is that it takes concentration and focus away from others It's funny, but I think I may have a little insight into this, as just yesterday I was thinking how when you are whistling or "scatting" the melody of a song, in your mind, you're filling in with the whole orchestration, with chords and counterpoint harmony, and all anyone else hears is single notes. When I'm drumming on the tabletop with my fingers, I'm John Bonham, but all my wife hears is an annoying fucking noise.It's not the sound it's self that bothers you so much but the anxiety over something out of your control.
|
Why do people like to lean backwards in a chair to just before the point of tipping over?
|
When you lean back in your chair you change your center of gravity. At the point just before falling forwards or backwards you are perfectly balanced over the central part of your body. This makes us feel centered, balanced, and grounded. So ultimately we are chasing the feeling of being stable when we'll most likely end up flat on our backs.
|
Why did US Congress pass a law to ensure all helium in the US National Helium Reserve is sold by 2015? What benefit does this have?
|
In 1995 We had gathered a stockpile of over 1 billion cubic meters but had also racked up a debt of $1.4 billion doing so. The law was not to sell off all stockpiles, it was to start selling off the stockpile until that debt was covered. It was all part of a plan to privatize the harvesting of helium and get the control of it out of government hands.
|
If U.S. Currency isn't backed by anything, how does it hold any value?
|
because we all agree it has value. at this point, no currency is backed by anything. not a single currency still in use that is backed by gold or anything tangible. They exist on the credibility of their govt and society. Its convenient to have an intangible unit of trade, and as long as you have critical mass of people that agree to a common unit, it worksDemand for a currency creates value, cryptocurrencies work the same way, if I had 2 cars one brand new and one 20 years old, what determines value, demand
|
why do my eyes appear to 'change color' depending on my mood?
|
Eye color does not change based on mood. The way the eye reflects light off of the iris does though. Although it is somewhat possible over time based on light activating pigments in your eye, short and quick changes in color is usually just an illusion.
|
Why do objects, like my couch or a coin, feel bigger than they look if my eyes are closed?
|
Your hands are not 'tricked' by distance, like your eyes.On top of that, your field of view tricks your mind into processing an object within an entire scene - a couch is viewed in the living room - which is larger.
|
Why is medical knowledge not part of the standard educational curriculum?
|
Next you will want to teach them about budgets, savings, diets, exercise and sex. It is hard enough to get them to learn the basics like greek gods, cursive and algebra I am not sure we can squeeze in your pet projects. Sorry.What, you mean slip in something that's actually useful. Good God bee_hawk, how dare you having future generations have a better idea about how to take care of themselves.It was part of the curriculum for me. Health class was a requirement.
|
Orcs, goblins and Uruk-Hai. What are the differences?
|
An interesting question with a complex, if not interesting answer. Orcs were created by Melkor who was himself a sort of god. It is thought that they were created through the capture, torture, and eventual breaking of Elves which resulted in the Orc. Another theory is that Melkor decided to create a race himself in resemblance or in mockery of the Elves. Goblins are in fact Orcs. The Hobbit called the Orcs in the story Goblins, but they are one and the same. In The Lord of the Rings, Goblins can be seen as a race of Orc that is smaller, more slender, and which live in caves. So I suppose you can think of a Goblin as an evolution to live in a cave-like environment. Uruk-Hai are quite different from their cousins. One theory is that Uruks are a crossbreed between Orcs and Humans. As a result they have the mind and cunning of man with the strength and longevity of the Orc. Now the interesting bit about the Uruk is that there are two species. There is the Mordor variety and those from Isengard. The Uruk from Mordor were not immune to the sun and are more slouched. Those from Isengard stood tall and broad, were extremely strong, almost fearless, and resistant to the sunlight. Hope this helps!
|
Why do porn sites/tubes have to only have 18+ girls, when in many US states and Europe the age of consent is 16 or 17?
|
Pornography or prostitution is usually considered a more radical life choice than simply having sex and they want people to be more mature before making such a choice. Therefore it's usually 18 for both regardless of age of consent.
|
How were the pigeons that carried messages in the old days trained? How did they know where to go to deliver the message?
|
You raise the birds at the destination. You have a roost for them, let them fly for exercise, etc. Then you carry them to the place you want to send messages from. When you let them go, they fly back to their roost.Homing pigeons only know how to fly back home. If you want someone to be able to send you messages, you ship them a bunch of pigeons that have been raised in your town, and the recipients of those pigeons can use them to send messages to you. But it's a one-way trip, and if you want to send them messages back, you need some of *their* pigeons.Homing pigeons are special in that they have a natural sense of location that tells them where "home" is. Somewhat similar to how a salmon can return to the place of its birth or other birds know where to fly when the seasons change. You can't just take a pigeon off the street and expect it to do as well after training. AFAIK almost all of homing pigeon training involves setting where "home" is and then letting them practice returning from further and further distancesWhen you see homing pigeons used on TV/movies as jokes they are often showing incorrect and unrealistic usage. Like when Bart Simpson adopts a pigeon and sends messages to people. That's not how they work. As others have said a pigeon only brings messages to one place: it's home. In WWI "home" would be a command post. The soldiers carry a couple pigeons to the front in cages and use them to send messages back to the command post.
|
Why is the theory of relativity so famous in pop culture? Why do so many people (of nearly all ages) know about it?
|
General relativity, special relativity, and mass-energy equivalency are truly revolutionary ideas. We're talking more revolutionary to our understanding of what the universe is than saying "what if we pre-sliced the bread?" was to consumerism. Essentially, Einstein took all of classical physics with time, matter, and spatial dependencies and turned it upside down. Light is both a wave and a particle, time runs at different speeds and space is different sizes depending on your reference frame, mass and energy are identical, so are gravity and acceleration - at face value, these statements are nuts with what we could observe of the universe at the time. And yet, he stated that they were true through thought experiments and mathematics, and as they became possible they were confirmed through astounding physical experiments. E=mc2 is simply symbolic in popular culture of this scientific revolution, even if the vast majority of people don't truly understand its implications, derivations and paradigm-shifting novelty at the time it was first written down.Unfortunately a lot of people recognize E=MC2 but don't actually understand what it means. If everyone did, we'd have the budget we want NASA to have.
|
In bright light, why is it easier to shut off one eye and have the other wide open?
|
I'm not sure. Used to work in visual neuroscience, and this is my best guess. I'd love if someone has a definite answer though! I think the main culprit is visual glare. Light travels in straight lines, but you get glare when light is scattered in a disorganised pattern . Your brain has to process everything you see, and its less work if you can see everything clearly. If you have to perceive an indistinct shape, your higher visual processing areas have to work harder. Glare from bright light will make it harder to perceive things around you. So what I think might be going on is that glare means that you're perceiving a different pattern of scattered light from each eye. Your brain has to interpret and combine both images, which is a lot of work . Shutting off one eye means you have less work to do, and might make it easier to see. Either that or its something really simple that I've missed, like shutting one eye makes it easier to decrease the pupil size in your open eye!
|
why al qaeda chose to target the united states?
|
I'm by no means an expert on this topic, but I'll see if I can shed a bit of light on the topic. In Al Qaeda's early years still part of the mujahideen they were actually funded by the U.S. to fight the soviets who were helping the afghani governments tighten their grip over the region against these rebels. At the time mujahideen was pretty loosely aligned, and although they were jihadist they weren't opposed to one group or another, with the exception being the soviets. Afghanistan's government wasn't all that bad, but because it was pro-soviet the Americans didn't have any of that. Near the end of the war versus the soviet union, the mujahideen began operations in other parts of the region, such as Israel. During a later conflict in which Iraq invaded Kuwait , Bin Laden offered the King of Saudi Arabia protection against the Iraqi army through his mujahideen troops. The King refused, instead allowing U.S. protection , which angered Bin Laden. He saw Saudi Arabia as an extremely sacred Islamic sovereignty and couldn't stand the thought of U.S. troops there. Bin Laden later works for Sudan, opposes peace between Palestine and Israel, and does plenty of other dickish things against other countries. Of course Al Qaeda doesn't JUST terrorize the USA, but they are the most colourfully painted target out there. They invade sovereign countries like a rash, which allows Al Qaeda to easily recruit by justifying the repulsion of these 'foreign devils'. The USA provides a picture perfect antithesis of modesty required to condemn them by sharia standards. Furthermore, if you were to ask any run of the mill illiterate farmer's child if they could name one other country in the western world, odds are that country would be the USA, due to it's presence, both positive and negative, world wide.
|
When does a negative personality trait become a mental problem?
|
There is indeed a lot of subjectivity and discretion when it comes to diagnosing mental illnesses and it's very much done on a case-by-case basis. Unfortunately, there isn't a simple test to definitively determine whether someone is suffering from a mental illness or personality disorder; it's mostly based on the subjective judgement and analysis by a qualified professional . Fortunately, there is a standardized manual used by these professionals—namely the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual in North America and International Classification of Diseases in other countries—which basically provides symptom checklists and specific definitions and requirements for every mental illness/disorder someone can be diagnosed with. The primary criticism of these manuals is: 1. They leave a lot of room for professional discretion2. There is a lot of symptom overlap between different mental disorders and not every patient fits neatly into one disorder classification or category3. A lot of the mental disorders are arbitrarily defined 4. In practice, different mental health professionals will often assign slightly different diagnoses to the same patient. Anyway, the general rule of thumb is that unusual or abnormal personality traits or social behaviors do not automatically constitute a mental illness or disorder. In order for something to be considered worthy of the mental illness/disorder label, it basically has to be a behavior which either severely compromises one's ability to perform regular every-day activities or prevents one from developing healthy/reciprocal social relationships with other humans.
|
Why can we recognize so many celebrities and fictional characters if the human mind is only supposed to be able to know about 200-250 people?
|
So the first thing you have to understand is that it's not about 'knowing who they are'. It's about maintaining a certain level of relationship with people. The numbers were actually 100-250 initially and were called Dunbar numbers named after the psychologist who studied the phenomenon later other researchers, mostly anthropologists like Bernard-Killworth doubled the number but they are not as famous. This however is not the same as acquaintanceship volume; people you can recognise or name nor does this include fictional characters or celebrities either. To learn more about acquaintanceship volume click [here] To learn more about Dunbar and his numbers click [here] To understand more about how you recognise faces and recall people click [here]
|
Why are mixed blacks in the US considered black no matter how much they are mixed while this does not apply to other races?
|
The answer is all political. For some though, it depends on how they grow up. I had a friend who was half black but grew up with this mothers side of the family who is white. He didn't really identify as black. Currently its very political. Black community don't like when half black people identify with a different race. These people tend to be the victims of black on black verbal hate, calling them race traitors or uncle Toms.
|
How can eating half a pound of chocolate make you gain 2 pounds of fat?
|
> How can eating x weight in food produce a greater number of weight gained in fat. Fat is made up of cells, and those cells are filled with water in order for their bits to move around and function. The chocolate bar isn't going to be stored as a raw chocolate deposit in your flesh. Chocolate is pretty complex a snack item but imagine if I was making a primative energy bar from suet or raw fat. We would take a big, jiggly portion of animal fat and break it apart into a smooth paste, then dehydrate that paste until we had a solid, soft bar. The resulting bar is much lighter than the fat from which it came and if you ate it and converted everything to fat, you would gain weight. But some of that weight is from retained water.
|
What is a company valuation?
|
It doesn't mean the company has $4 billion in the bank. It means the **estimated price of the whole company** is $4B. Another way of putting it is, the valuation is the sum of: * all the things the company currently owns: money in the bank, computers, office stuff, inventory, etc. This is fairly easy to calculate, but in the case of software companies it's not so important.* all the estimated future profits of the company. This is more important but it's harder to estimate. So if you're mega-rich and wants to buy Dropbox from its current owners, you'd have to pay about U$4 billion. However, even if you're a fund manager you aren't allowed to spend that much money in one shot, and at this point the Dropbox owners don't want to sell everything anyway. But guessing a valuation is still useful when an investor wants to: 1. buy a part of the company or2. more likely in this stage, increase the capitalization of the company, i.e. putting money into the company in exchange of receiving shares of the company. So if you want to buy 0.1% of Dropbox, you'd have to pay about U$4 million.
|
Why the cost of manufacturing products (namely electronics), go down so quickly.
|
Keep in mind that a lower manufacturing cost is not the same thing as a lower retail price. 1. Economics. Things are priced high when they're new because people are often willing to pay more for the "hot new thing." This is because newness has some intrinsic value and some social value. A PS3 gets its price cut in half not because it's half as costly to produce, but because once the newness has worn off, people are less willing to pay so much for it. So retailers actually cut prices to make more money! 2. Technology. Technology is advancing, in terms of processing power, manufacturing efficiency, etc. Smart people are working hard to find out how to make things more efficiently. This leads to actual decreases in manufacturing costs in many electronics, but this generally happens over the course of years, not months.
|
Why is it that when you speed a video up, it gets higher pitched?
|
Sound is vibration of the air interpreted by your eardrum. Fast frequencies are interpreted as being high pitched. Low frequencies are interpreted as low pitch. Speeding up a video increases the frequency of vibration relative to unsped up and raises the pitch.
|
Why do they have to shut the subway down when there's a snowstorm, shouldn't the underground portions still be able to keep going?
|
For one, you need people to drive the trains. You can't keep the subways running if you tell the drivers they can have the day off. For two, if you shut down the mass transit, you tend to keep people home. Keep people home, and you have less of a need to have cops, ambulance drivers, taxis, etc on the street.And they are expecting a tidal surge. Water and people in the subway is a poor mix.I think the purpose is to keep people at home and off the streets. Shut down all the roads and public transport and you have to walk through a blizzard to get anywhere. Most people opt out. It's safer that way and easier on emergency personnel.
|
What is happening to our bodies when we see something that makes us "cringe"?
|
Cringing is a form of empathy. If you see a child crying on the street because he lost his parents you feel bad, sometimes even physically, because you can imagine how it feels for the child. Empathy is our instinct to put ourself in somebody else's position. Watching a movie where something incredibly sad can make you cry. Watching a movie where something really embarrassing happens makes you cringe. It's a different reaction to the same thing, empathy.This reaction probably involves [mirror neurons] firing. These cells mirror the behavior of others as though the observer is experiencing the behavior. This may be to help us understand the behavior of others and help us learn from the behavior of othersSpinoff question: Why do some of us *enjoy* looking at cringeworthy content so much?This guy is great and touches heavily on cringe. _URL_1_
|
...I saw a news story tonight where a child had a double hand transplant; as a Biochemistry major in college I struggle to understand how is this possible?
|
Arm transplants have happened as well, in general we haven't done a lot of limb transplants but conceptually it's just the same technology that lets us do any organ transplant plus the technique we use to reattach severed limbs in accidents. It's unlikely we will do any foot transplants any time soon, because the drugs you have to take after a transplant have a lot of serious side effects and most people wouldn't find the medical risks worth it for feet, or even a case where a person still has one hand. It's basically only worth the costs for a person that has no hands at all because of how debilitating that is.
|
4K quality (what seems to be the next step up from 1080p from what I have seen)
|
It's the next-gen HD resolution. You had it right. Its not particularly important yet though as there is almost no 4K content being made, and very few things are capable of displaying 4K currently. In 5-10 years it'll probably be much more relevant.
|
How do different languages share the internet? Is there a Russian language internet, Chinese language internet, or is everything translated from one page?
|
No, a website will be the same no matter where you load it ). If you search through Reddit, you will find many subreddits where people communicate in their own languages, like Russian Cyrillic or Kanji. However, some sites have built-in translation and Google Translate can translate an entire webpage, just enter the URL into itThere is a single internet. Usually small websites come in a single language, while large websites often have translations into other languages. How exactly the websites do that is up to the website owner. As an example, reddit is mainly an English page, but you can change the language of the interface . You cannot change the language of the comments because those are written by users. reddit has parts where users write comments in other languages, e.g. /r/deutsch has a lot of comments in German. Dieser Satz ist deutsch. < - as you can see, it is easy to mix languages even within a comment. Writing comments in German is just against the rules in this subredditIt depends on the website. English-only websites do take up a very sizeable portion of the internet, but there are also many foreign websites that are not available in English. Certain websites will automatically direct you to a localized version of the website that is written in the language associated with your region . Other websites have different localized versions, but you typically have to specify which one you want to go to by clicking on a link/icon on the page or changing the TLD . So, for example, if you want the Mexican Spanish version of Google, you would go to [_URL_2_] Sites like Wikipedia have different international language versions, but there are more English articles than articles in any other language.You can create a website in whatever language you want. And if you want to offer multiple languages, you can do that in many different ways. But if you load a page that's specifically written in Hungarian and doesn't care if anyone who doesn't speak Hungarian can read it, then it'll be in Hungarian.
|
How do people who fast/don't eat or drink for longer than usual people not die?
|
> Eg: like that indian bloke that didn't eat for 70 years. Spoiler alert: He eats just like anyone else. He *claims* not to eat, but that claim is ridiculous. There were two "tests" performed, but the first showed that he lost weight during the 10 days that he was being monitored, and the second test allowed him to gargle water and bathe, neither of which were sufficiently monitored to prevent him from drinking and urinating . In short, the claim to not have eaten in 70 years is a lieThe guy from India is lying. You can go around 50 days without food, but only 7-14 days without water. Also traditional fasting does not include not drinking water.That Indian bloke is lieing, but you can go a long while if you've got the fat reserves, drink lots of water, take vitamins etc. _URL_0_
|
how does someone like bill gates keep all of his money?
|
His net worth is largely tied to his investment holdings with Microsoft, although he more than likely has investments elsewhere. As the share price of Microsoft fluctuates daily on the market, his net worth fluctuates with it. If Microsoft has a particularly bad quarter, he publicly lost a lot of moneyMost of his money will be in a bank, just like the rest of us. If you are talking about his worth, most of his worth is in stocks and bonds. Of his worth, very little is in cash.
|
How are special effects (CGI) in movies created?
|
What kind of effects, specifically? The eli5 version is that you use computers to animate something. There are very sophisticated programs that can help calculate exactly how those animations move to make them appear realistic. They don't draw it in frame by frame, they essentially animate all the parts and then use the computer programs to calculate how those parts should move and how quickly they should move. Depending on how much cgi there is it can take a few days to several months to animate a few minutes. I believe Gollum took something like twenty six hours to calculate the animations for *each frame.* If you ever wondered why you hear about a movie finishing shooting, and then it's like eight months later before it's released, now you know.
|
Why do some brands prefer "price upon request" in magazines/advertisements instead of just telling the current price?
|
There are various reasons. One of the most common is that the manufacturer prohibits wholesalers and retailers from advertising prices openly to avoid price-fixing and price wars.
|
Why is it easier to lift living beings of say, 20kgs, than an object of 20kgs?
|
I'm going to speculate that you're talking about the difference between lifting, say, a four year old child and a heavy box filled with books. Where you can grasp the object has a lot to do with it. You get a better hold on a child under the arms for the initial lift than you typically do with a giant box. Your arms can also be closer to your body where you have more leverage and strength, whereas with a large box they are farther away and more spread apart so the box doesn't topple. Some living creatures that are heavy are also likely to help with the lift somewhat. A four year old about to be lifted will do things like wrap their hands around your neck, which distributes their weight across your body more evenly and secures them to you. Conversely, if you tried to lift a wriggling 20kg dog that was fighting the lift the whole time, you would likely drop it. I would add that motivation is also probably a big mental factor in these lifts. If you're lifting up a four year old child, there's probably a good reason -- to comfort them, or to make them happy in some way. Lifting a box of books just doesn't bring the same sort of joy or urgency.
|
How effective was the Great Wall of China at keeping Mongolians out of China?
|
The wall served two main purposes: stopping raids and providing warning of attacks. It wasn't really meant to hold back a large invading army. It was pretty easy for nomads to raid Chinese farming villages in the north with just a few men. The wall was someone effective in deterring that because it's hard to destroy a wall with a very small force and it only takes a couple people on a wall to fight you off. When it came to large invasions, the wall's main purpose was to provide warning and maybe slow invaders. In fact, the wall has signal towers all along it so that a warning could be sent to wherever it needed to go. The wall was too big to man with a large, permanent force that could repel an invading army, but an invading army would still either have to spend time getting through the wall or around the wall. While they were doing that, the warning signal would be making its way to the capital and/or army. [This] thread from /r/askhistorians goes into some pretty good detail.
|
What is the difference to my body if I eat 5000 calories one day and zero the next vs 2500 for two days?
|
It has been suggested that the human metabolism has evolved two modes of operation, activated by calorie intake. The first is *grow mode* where plentiful nutrients are flung about the body and as suggested the body replenishes itself. The second is *repair mode.* Activated by a lack of calories, the body scavenges nutrients left behind from *grow mode,* such as from build-up on the walls of arteries. This may be a response to the failure of the hunt, when protein and calories are scarce but vitamins and minerals are still available from more plentiful vegetation. Modern humans in developed countries may be at risk of remaining in grow mode throughout their lives and never entering repair/scavenge mode, and then die of blockages caused by years of nutrient build up.More of it would be stored as fat , then you would get hungry and start burning fat, burning more than you gained. But I don't think this is a good diet strategy, because it would cause large and frequent stretching and contracting of the stomach and bowels.Skipping a meal once a week or month always makes me feel better. I find that I eat sometimes just because it's "dinner time" and so on.
|
How is NSA software undetectable?
|
A properly designed root kit installs before the OS loads, so it controls everything the OS can see. It can perfectly disguise itself because it can block any information the OS might use to detect it.
|
Why aren't professional body builders who take steroids arrested?
|
To be arrested on any kind of a drug charge requires possession or buying/selling. The fact of having taken an illegal drug is not something a person can be arrested forDoubt this answers your question in the way you 'd hoped, but Imagine if EVERYONE who broke a law was arrested We already stuff our jails with petty criminals as is, this would only make the issue worse. So the non-technically correct answer is simply: Because we would fuck ourselves right in the correctional facility if we stuffed jails with everyone who touched a performance "enhancing" drugNot worth the time or money. Major steroid dealers are occasionally busted.
|
Did NASA disprove or set back global warming?
|
First of all, an article can link back to any trustworthy source it wants, but it doesn't mean that the article is using that source correctly. It seem to me that the article is trying to say that since CO2 is reflective, it must be cooling off the earth. Is CO2 reflective? Yes. Does it cool off the earth? Heck to the no. Sure CO2 reflects some of the heat coming to the earth, but you have to think about the heat coming from the earth. **This is the ELI5 part**: Think of CO2 as a giant blanket. It'll keep some of the heat on the outside, but it will also keep a lot of the heat on the inside. When heat tries to escape the earth, it hits this blanket and keeps the Earth warm. The problem is that CO2 keeps in more heat than it reflects back into space.FT A: "For the three day period, March 8th through 10th, the thermosphere absorbed 26 billion kWh of energy. Infrared radiation from CO2 and NO, the two most efficient coolants in the thermosphere, re-radiated 95% of that total back into space. " Sounds an awful lot like that event heated the earth. Where is the claim that any cooling took place in the real article? DNR the garbage link articleCO2 cooled what atmosphere when? The CO2 right now is warming the atmosphere.
|
Why are some of the things that the horoscope says about some signs so accurate?
|
They're designed that way. I'll give you a horoscope right now, you ready? You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Your sexual adjustment has presented problems for you. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others\' statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life. That sounds pretty accurate doesn't it? Am I a psychic? Of course not, the above was a horoscope used in an experiment conducted in 1948 by Bertram Forer, where he gave a large number of subjects horoscopes, and asked them how accurate it was. Every single person said that the horoscope they recieved was very accurate. Then it was revealed that every subject was given exactly the same horoscope . This test has been repeated and confirmed many times, and the psychological phenomon that causes the belief is called the "Forer effect".Try reading some of the other signs and pretend they're yours. You'll find that they're written so generically that you can find something describing you in just about all of them. Short answer is Confirmation bias.
|
Why is China still a developing country despite it's massive economy?
|
Because most of its citizens are still poor, subsistence farmers or low skilled factory workers, etc. The economy is massive but their population is ALSO massive. Their per capita GDP is about 1/7 that of the U.SMost of the wealth is dispersed on the coast. While it has a huge economy, there’s a lot of internal strife and poverty, especially as you go further west. A lot of citizens aren’t educated at all, especially in rural China. Also there’s an aspect of a level of freedom in those determinants and China is an authoritarian governmentHowever, you should be conscience that it is often not considered a developing country in the same sense as many other counties . The terms "developed" and "developing" are somewhat subjective in who uses them and in which contexts. Essentially a developed country is considered on par with the western world and everyone else is "developing". However this relegates most middle income countries to the same level as the world's poorest countries. In terms of categorizing and comparing countries, this is not only unhelpful but also misleading. Bottomline: It depends on what the person means when they say developingThis is because all the money from this massive economy isn’t shared equally. Some people are really very rich and some not. There is a growing middle class, but they are still cheaper works to employ then in the US and are thus poorer when compared to the US and “developed” countries. The next level for China is the start investing heavily in the education of works. This will raise wages and help them better transition to a service-based economy which are typically called “developed” economiesDevelopment exists, but it is highly unequally distributed. Shanghai and Beijing has development; the hinterland is much more "developing."
|
How American Politics works.
|
Large corporations send lobbyists to bribe people in Congress and the Senate to present and vote for bills that will be profitable to them. Politcians tell their base what they want to hear in order to get elected and then just continue to pander to corporate interests, because it's very profitable for them. All the while they have the media present "issues" for people to get worked up about and generate a whole circus stage show of "left" vs "right" and create the illusion of partisanship, but behind closed doors, the money is all coming from the same corporations into the pockets of both parties. So, these bills get passed and that's how a bill becomes a law.One moment let me just take ten years of law school and I'll get back to you on that question.
|
how self driving Tesla cars navigate so well?
|
A lot of expensive and advanced computing systems which include multiple cameras, ultra sonic scanners, radars and a butt load of processing power. _URL_0_ explains it best.
|
why is plastic a good insulator?
|
In that specific case, it's because plastic film is non-porous. That is, it's a solid membrane that doesn't let air through. Fabric on the other hand has all these tiny holes in it between the threads that can let air through.
|
What exactly do economists do to "Seasonally Adjust" unemployment figures
|
It's pretty chill, iirc. Step 1: Data You want the average unemployment each year for 10 years or so, and the average unemployment during the test season for each of those. Step 2: Ratios In each year, figure out how much bigger or smaller it is than usual during the season. Like, if it's 1.1-1.3 times the unemployment rate for the year. Then average those to make a 10-year seasonal adjustment rate. Step 3: Division Divide the actual rate right now by the average seasonal adjustment ratio you made above. At this point, you're done for that data point. You have the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate. But it's boring on it's own, so.. Step 4: Comparison Do the same for the previous seasons, going back 6 months. Feel free to vary what you define as a 'season', too - smaller seasons give more accurate results but take more work. Step 5: Profit Now you can see what the unemployment rate is really doing, adjusted for seasonal variables! Well, not perfectly precisely, because there's always factors that only influence the rate once, but better than just taking the rate.
|
Why is there such a high concentration of religious conservatives in the South in the US?
|
The northern states were mostly farm colonies, and the southern states were mostly exploitation colonies. Those kind of places in the world tend to be poorer, slave colonies that tend to not have had a strong secular system set up, so you get a larger amount of church control over things due to lack of qualified leadership. Lack of secular systems and education, lead to an overall decrease in the education and knowledge base of the people, which can be more conducive to religious/fundamentalist groups. For example, part of New England, Argentina, and other places were farm colonies. People went there to establish institutions and become farmers and permanently live there. So although church is important, fundamental craziness was kept in check. Places like Mississippi, El Salvador, etc, were exploitation colonies, where rich nobility invested in heavy labor cash crops, slavery, and wanted to get their money and go home. They had no interest in permanent institutions so they could get their money and go home. People are kept in line with religion and other methods, but people are kept poor and uneducated and even when the colonists leave, there's no permanent institutions to run a functioning secular government, and when you have poor, uneducated, people without a functional government, churches do well in these areas. Fast forward a few hundred years, and you still see the ramifications of farm vs. exploitation colonies, and you'll see areas of more powerful religious fundamentalism vs. more secularized areas where people tried to make a new world for themselves. Look around the Western Hemisphere and the history of places in South and North America where there was exploitation vs. farm communities, and you'll see pretty much a corresponding level of fundamentalist religion vs. more liberal church participation in the current era.The reasons are complex. [Here] is /r/AskHistorians on the subjectThese are trends and not the cause of things, but the poor tend to be more religious and the rural tend to be more religious. Both population groups exist in higher numbers in the south.
|
Why couldn't Verizon's network handle simultaneous voice and data until relatively recently?
|
That was a limitation of their non-LTE technology. CDMA is a different technology than GSM and I think CDMA was more voice optimized. Their 3G technology was unable to handle things simultaneously - likely since data browsing wasn't as big of a priority - GSM has wider adoption and their implementation included that capability . When Verizon started to go for 4G before everyone else, they made sure their implementation included that since it was now something that they could market and since consumers demanded it. AT & T as very particular in pointing out this difference as smartphones became more mainstream. It's important to remember that each company had different priorities when building their networks. Smartphones were not as big as they were today so less priority was placed on them.
|
What is the difference between the titles Great Britain, England and the United Kingdom and is it proper to refer to someone as English or British?
|
England is, well, England; Great Britain includes England, Scotland and Wales; the United Kingdom includes England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland[this video should explain all that and more]', "Here's a [simple Euler diagram] and an [expanded one] that adds the relationship of the Commonwealth and Crown Dependencies.
|
Hindu deities, how are there so many versions of the same gods?
|
So, let's talk about you. You're a person, probably a student somewhere. No matter where you are or what you're doing, you're always you. But! You're not always the same you. When you're at home with your parents you act one way. When you're at school in class, you act another way. When you're hanging out with friends you act a third way. You're still, well, *you* in all these situations, but your parents, your teachers, and your friends all have a different understanding of who *you* are based on how you act around them. In this, *you* are the main entity, and the person that your parents know, your teachers know, and your friends know are all different manifestations of you. Now, scale this up to the level of Gods. There is the same divine essence, but depending on the context it may have different forms or titles. From its own point of view, it is unchanging. From the point of view of its worshippers, it might be quite different depending on the context. And to go one step further *everything* could be considered a manifestation of this one divine essence, just interpreting itself from different points of view in different contexts.
|
Why did Bill Clinton remain in office after being impeached?
|
Impeachment just means that Clinton was officially accused of misconduct. It does not mean that he was actually found guilty of such misconduct. Remember, in the US, the House of Representatives determines if the President should be put on trial. If the House of Representatives determines that this is the case, the President is considered to have been impeached. After that, the Senate listens to a trial and determine if the President is guilty. Clinton was never actually found guilty by the Senate, so no punishment was carried out by themImpeachment is the pressing of charges, more or less. He was found to be not guiltyThe House voted for impeachment the senate did not get a large enough majority for a conviction.
|
When I plug my headphones into the microphone port, why does it work?
|
Headphones and microphones are remarkably similar in design. The headphone's speaker diaphragm moves in response to sound and this drives a current which moves through the cable. This is also how basic microphones are designed.Speakers and Microphones are essentially the same device working in opposite directions. Speakers use a current to drive a diaphragm to make sound waves. Microphones use sound waves to drive a diaphragm to generate a current. Proper microphones and headphones are optimized to do one task or the other, but they still work for the reverse process.The main difference between headphones and microphones is the size and elasticity of the diaphragms, but everything else is essentially the same. Headphone jacks send out electric impulses to the diaphragm of the headphones. Microphone jacks receive impulses from microphone diaphragms and amplify them. If you substitute headphones for a microphone the jack will still receive the signals from the diaphragm of the headphones, because the rest of the system is the same the only difference is the direction of the flow and strength of the impulses. Technically the reverse is same for microphones. Plugging a microphone into a headphone jack makes the microphone work in reverse, but because the diaphragms of microphones are significantly more tense than the diaphragms of speakers, and because the amplification levels of headphone jacks are significantly less than microphone jacks, they don't really put out any sound from a headphone jack.Headphones are literally the exact opposite of a dynamic microphone. They contain a magnet, and a diaphragm connected to a coil. When signal is going the right way, it forces the diaphragm to move air and make noise. When you have it running backwards, you move the air with your voice, which moves the diaphragm and creates a signal.
|
What exactly is Nihilism?
|
In general it is the belief that there is no inherent purpose or value in existenceNihilism is the idea that nothing has objective meaning. Often it has religious implications - when you think nothing really means anything the idea of a deity is hard to swallow. Alternatively some people believe that there is inherent meaning to many things, like a human life, or even the world in generalAlthough Nihilism has formal definitions that are often too simple to be useful or too complex to understand without a philosophy degree, I find actions are usually the best descriptor of anything. When a wall street banker makes a lot of money and decides to spend it on more money, and you ask him why and he responds "why not?", that's Nihilism.
|
I have to empty my 5 gallon dehumidifier in the basement every day. Where is all that water coming from? And if I didn't have a dehumidifier where would it all go?
|
The water your dehumidifier produces is actually drawn from the air around it. The air contains water vapor that moves into the air from the earth around the walls and floor of your basement. Concrete absorbs water fairly easily. The water moves through it and eventually evaporates into the air on the other side. Your dehumidifier uses a cold coil of metal that attracts the water vapor in the air to condense onto it . As the condensation builds up, it drips down into the catch basin. If you did not have a humidifier, the water vapor would remain in the air , and would likely condense over time onto other items in your basement. The dampness would promote the growth of mildew and mold and over time become a health hazard, not to mention also possibly damaging anything stored in your basement. As an aside Most dehumidifiers have an outlet that you can attach a hose too. I have a hose attached to mine, which then run to the basement drain. Assuming you have a basement drain, this might be a good way to avoid having to empty your dehumidifier bucket every day.In the air. The air is full of water vapour. Water vapour is transparent to the human eye, so we can't see it. And no, the steam from the kettle is not vapour, it's tiny droplets of liquid water, that's why you see it. Same happens with the clouds, btw. So, the vapour is in the air. If you didn't have a dehumidifier, it would be in the air. Have you ever heard of relative humidity? You could have a basement with a 90% relative humidity that is cold and stinks with mold, or you could have a basement with 20% relative humidity with an air so dry that makes your nose bleed.
|
What was/is so special about the Vitruvian Man?
|
It connects the "natural" with an idea of "math and science". This is significant as it represents a key concept in the renaissance - we begin to see a connection between the fabricated world of math and science and its ability to describe and model the real world.
|
Why don't you wake up sleepwalker?
|
A lot of people believe if you wake them up, they'll have a heart attack or something else horrible. These claims are overstated. A normal healthy person is very unlikely to have anything bad happen to them. It will probably confuse or disorient them. Depending on how they react, they might try to defend themselves and fight you or they might injure themselves before they're aware of what they're doing. The best case scenario is probably to guide them back to bed.
|
Upgrading PC and I don't understand what parts my motherboard can handle. I've never built a PC before and I don't understand a lot of the terms
|
You need to shop for a socket AM2 Cpu and DDR 2 ram. I wouldn't spend too much on a video card because you are most likely going to be bottlenecked by whatever Cpu you use.
|
What can the military do if the president attempts a hostile takeover?
|
How would the president conduct a hostile takeover without the military? Also a takeover of what?If by "hostile takeover" you mean "military coup", we can only hope that the military understands/remembers that they are beholden to the Constitution, and not to the President. If the President were to issue commands that are contrary to the Constitution, the military has an obligation NOT to obey.Soldiers are specifically forbidden from following illegal orders. If the President were to order something in contravention of the Constitution or the various Conventions to which we are party, the soldiers would be free to disobey those orders. For example, if the President told the military to go arrest members of Congress who opposed his policies, no soldier would be required to obey that order, and would in fact be required to *not* obey that order. Now, it doesn't extend to the military removing the President. If he made an illegal order like that, the military couldn't compound the illegality by unilaterally removing the President. I would imagine that if the President were to in fact make such illegal orders, he would be impeached by congress or the Cabinet would use its powers under the 25th Amendment to declare him unfit to serve.
|
Why are jokes against women considered "sexism" or "misogyny" but jokes against men considered funny and "feminism"?
|
Largely for the same reason that people think it's funny to ridicule the president or rich bankers but may get a bad taste in their mouth if your jokes mock homeless people. Or more generally, why *good* satire punches upwards, mocks those with power and privilege, rather than than going after those without. But most of the examples you mention aren't really jokes, they're not just attempts at being funny for the sake of being funny. They're social commentary. They're part of a debate. They try to make a point about gender equality. They're responses to things that happened, to ways in which men react to discussions of feminism or accusations of sexism. They're not just intended as jokes. What point would a "female tears" mug make? Would it just be a joke for the sake of being funny, or would it present some kind of social commentary, make some sort of political point? Or would it just be lashing out, because your feelings were hurt by the "Male Tears" mug?Because it's been decided that it's okay for the modern day. Previously, in the "patriarchy," men had the upper-hand at all times. Now, with the rise of feminism, woman power, etc., there's backlash at the male population for the "mistreatment" of byegone eras. If you want to see a "Female Tears" equivalent, look at the ads from the 1940s-1970s. Incredibly sexist with the focus of women being inferior; deemed completely acceptable at the time
|
How does one get college scholarships and how do they work?
|
There are multiple kinds of scholarships. Many scholarships are applied for. If you google "scholarship search" it will pop up several tools that will help you locate scholarships that you may qualify for. These require you to fill out applications and say why you deserve the scholarship, but they can be quite helpful. Some scholarships are automatically awarded, either because of need or merit. If you are in financial need, scholarships are sometimes offered. If you have incredibly good grades and test scores, some schools may offer you a scholarship as a way to entice you to go there.Get good test scores and a good GPA. That's most of it.
|
what black heads are made of, and why some people get them more than others
|
Your skin has millions of glands on its surface that secrete an oily wax known as sebum. This is completely natural, and serves a natural lubricant for your skin to prevent chafing and dryness. Many plants have a similar waxy coating on their leaves, which helps prevent dehydration as well. These glands can sometimes get clogged with an excess of sebum. The propensity or chance of this happening is not actually related to hygiene, as some people believe. It's just a genetic disposition - some people have oilier skin than others. They are more likely to experience blackheads. The reason they are black is that they usually clog hair follicles, and the hair root reflects light irregularly to make them seem black. If you've ever removed blackheads using a Biore strip or something, you'll see that they're yellowish in color.
|
Why are train tracks covered in stones?
|
Not all are. A great deal are, but there are some areas where it's dirt, and other where it's cement. But it's because stone offer the most support. Dirt can get washed away as mud after a torrential downpour, stones don't do that as often. You even still see trains have trouble with areas that have a lot of dirt around the tracks, as the tracks get washed out.I assume you mean the ties that are covered with stone. The main reason is to support the tracks and ties, under extreme weight and pressure. Normal materials used with cars like concrete or asphalt does not have a lifetime for support and weather like stoneGravel does not move as easily as dirt, providing a longer lasting platform. By move, i mean errode away from wind, and water. Cement cracks and breaks from variable temperatures and ice, which will need to be repaired more often. Also, when poured onto the ground, gravel has a much higher compaction rating than dirt. This means that gravel poured onto the ground is about as tight as you can compact it. Where as dirt needs to be rolled over multiple times by heavy equipment to reach high compaction. Therefore it is easier to lay gravel platforms for miles than it is to lay dirt or concrete platforms.
|
How exactly do we know what human-based climate change is a major reason for heavier storm seasons, and not the planet heating up naturally?
|
That is a pretty meaningless question. If you had to load up a shelf with 50 pounds of rocks and 50 pounds of jellybeans and then the shelf broke because it could only handle 75 pounds how can you be sure if it was the rocks or jellybeans that broke it? You can't, that doesn't mean anything. There is natural heating of the air and water and there is unnatural heating and both together make a certain amount of energy available to storms. The more energy available the bigger and harder they can hit things. You can't separate out that "some of that energy is human caused and some is natural, which did it?" because both things add up to do it.
|
The difference between glass and crystal
|
[This] is probably better than trying to explain it. From [here] > The difference between crystalline silica and silica glass is shown in these simplified two-dimensional projections. It is readily apparent that much of the ordered arrangement of crystalline silica is lost in the glassy form. But the glass retains enough Si–O bonds to form a hard, rigid material.
|
Why is the tech market considered a bubble and what are the precursors to when it is likely to pop?
|
Some people think the tech sector is a bubble because many companies are trading or being bought for a very large multiplier of what they are currently earnings. People are forecasting very large earnings in the future for these firms even if they aren't making much money right now. If it really is a bubble who can know when it's going to pop? If it was easy to figure out then it would already be popping.
|
Why does cheese go hard when you melt it then let it go cold?
|
When you heat the cheese up past a certain point, moisture is released, which when it cools down, makes it harder as it is more dense. Water in cheese makes it softer.
|
Why was Spelling a Core subject in Elementary school but no longer in Middle and High school?
|
Spelling never really gets any harder. Vocabulary just expands. It would be like having addition class.Most would have had spelling wrapped into English. Spelling is a subject that is integrated into all the rest, the early focus on spelling is to give you the foundation moving forward where it will be built upon in every successive class Arithmetic is another critical topic in elementary school that we don't focus on in middle and high school, again because it is built upon in the classes that come later and if you haven't mastered it it will show in those classes.
|
why some people are more susceptible to bug bites than others.
|
IMO as someone who gets attacked by Mosquitos It might have something to do with the way your body releases Carbon dioxide and your blood Mosquitos are drawn to Co2 so if your body breathes out a higher concentration of it, those monsters are more attracted to you. Even while walking next to someone I get bit more often.
|
How does a toilet actually flush from water being added to the bowl?
|
[Toilet Crossview] for reference. As water is added to the bowl, it rises up the pipe following that blue line. When enough water is added, it overflows the other side and gravity takes over. That water overflowing creates a chain of negative pressure and the remaining water/contents of the bowl are basically sucked out through the pipe. Edit: [Video of the process in action]. When the video mentions the siphon created in the back/pipe of the toilet, it's the negative pressure I was referring to.
|
Why hasn't David Miscavige (and the rest of Scientology for that matter) been investigated by the police yet?
|
Scientology in the past have made it a point to go after people personally if they don't get what they want. . They even tried to infiltrate law enforcement . This hasn't stopped the FBI though. However, since they are classed as a religious group, a lot of their actions are viewed as 'religious practices'. Not to mention that everyone 'volunteers' to undergo these actions. Like his wife took the fall for Ron L Hubbard, every scientology member will take the fall for Miscavige.
|
What determines the color of the meat of a fish?
|
This is covered in good extent in book called Modernist Cuisine. I recommend to read that. Meat and fish are red/dark usually for the same reason blood is red. Its the oxygen carrying molecules that make it red. Now this means that from the color of the meat you can see what is the purpose of those muscles in the animal. The muscles used continuously for long times need to work aerobically and thus require the oxygen carrying molecules which make them dark meat. The muscles that are needed only for short strong burst of operation can work anaerobically and are thus white. Case of chicken: Chicken leg meats are dark because chickens walk around all day. The chicken breasts are white meat because chicken only fly short bursts up to a branch. As comparison, duck breast is very dark meat because ducks need to fly long distances. Salmon is red because they are adapted to swim up a river for laying their eggs. This requires long high power excercise. White fish are mostly white meat because 99.9% of time they swim with only idle speed and very low power. For this swimming they use only small part of the muscle which is dark meat. You can see that dark meat in middle of a fillet next to the skin. The rest is white muscle which is used for only for short burst of extreme power needed to avoid the predator trying to catch the fish. Edit: fixed some typos
|
Why can't you be born with dark skin colour if your parents are white (and vice versa)?
|
Skin color is genetic, like hair or eye color. If your parents aren't coded for it they can't pass it on to you.
|
Timbre, or how I know the difference between the sound of a piano and the sound of a violin
|
Ordinary musical sounds are actually quite complex. We think of a trumpet as playing one note at a time. But it really plays one "fundamental tone" with many "overtones" due to the way that it resonates. This gives a trumpet much of its distinctive sound its "timbre". The overtones are multiples of the fundamental frequency, but different instruments make different overtones. You can electronically recreate a trumpet note by combining a fundamental sound with the right set of overtones. You then just add them together and you get a trumpet-like sound. Or mix together a fundamental and a different set of overtones and you get a flute. But there's more to a trumpet sound to that. It also has a distinctive way that the sound starts and trails off . If you can change how rapidly the trumpet note go from zero to full amplitude and then back again, you can fake that, tooJust like how white light can be split into many colors with a prism , the sound of an instrument can be split into many separate sounds with the right tools. The separate sounds all have a pitch , size , and timing . So your ear can tell different instruments apart because it can split sounds into different tones, and because different instruments make sounds that are made of different tones.
|
Is it just a coincidence that 'Who', 'What', 'When', 'Where', and 'Why' all start with 'Wh' or is there a reason?
|
There is a reason. Specifically the grammar of PIE marked interrogatives with a prefix that sounded like 'kw'. . As PIE morphed into English the 'kw' prefix became 'hw'. Say both sounds together and notice how similar they are to actually say. Over time the order of the hw got swapped around, and the pronunciation simplified to 'w' in most cases and 'h' in a few words eg. 'how'. Interestingly, PIE also developed along parallel lines into other languages like Latin. And in Latin, interrogatives mostly all start with the letter 'q', another obvious descendant from the 'kw' sound. .I might blow your mind with this, but did you notice that if you replace the “W” in what, when, and where with a “T” that those questions are thereby answered?
|
Why can't the world have one currency?
|
There is no reason we couldn't, it wouldn't even be hard to implement if we got 100% buy in from all countries. The problem is that having your own currency is awesome. You can manipulate it to control inflation, interest rates, and other economic factors. You are somewhat detached from other countries, so their economic troubles don't necessarily become yours . Given the benefits of having your own currency it is unlikely we will have a global currency for the foreseeable future.
|
My nearest major city has a road grid that is *slightly* angled off East West. Is there a practical reason for this?
|
From what I can tell of the [article on the "Hoddle Grid, it's not a continuation of the original infrastructure, which has a different angle meant to match with the Yarra River. That same article implies that the *slightly* off angle of the rest of the city is aligned with what magnetic north used to be, 8 degrees off true north. But that's not really cited so I don't know if it's definitive or just a guessWRT to small farming towns the Canadian prairies Streets were generally parallel/perpendicular to the rail line that ran through town; it was just easier to line things up rather than end up with weird angles and odd shaped blocks. More often than not, the rail line through small towns was a spur that ran from the main line and linked up several towns in a connect-the-dots fashion to empty out all the grain elevators along the route. The rail line would take the shortest path between towns without much regard to cardinal compass orientation.Probably to avoid the sun shining directly into drivers' eyes all the time. Could also be something to do with the prevailing winds and not accidentally creating a city-sized wind tunnel. Both pretty standard considerations, but it's impossible to know exactly why that city is designed the way it is, especially without knowing what city it is. If you really want to know, call the planning office and ask.
|
As a German with not much knowledge about the US, please explain why Florida is so often made fun of/spoken badly about
|
There are laws in Florida that arrests are a matter of public record so they end up in the newspaper. Every state and country has idiots doing stupid things but in Florida if they get arrested it goes in the newspaper for everyone to see. This makes it seem like these things happen way more often in Florida when really its just about reporting.Floridian here. Florida is the third most populous state, but unlike Texas and California, Florida is an intense, roiling melting pot of cultures. You've got the antebellum southern folk, wealthy elderly retirees, hispanic immigrants, hyperliberal urban types, swamp people, spring breakers, Canadian tourists, multigenerational farmers, aerospace nerds etc. etc. etc. all tumbling together in sweltering heat with lax prescription laws, laid-back atmospheres, and easy media access to public record. It's messy and beautiful and intensely strange. Highly recommend.
|
How are torrent-hosting sites simply not shut down for copyright violations?
|
Generally because there is nothing hosted on a torrent site. The street equivalent is knowing a guy that can get access to anything. You walk up to him and say, I want some weed. He tells you to go into that red door. Someone else wants to buy booze. He tells them to go into that blue door. Cops come up and try to arrest him for selling drugs. They search him but he has nothing on him. They have to let him go because he doesn't have anything on him and knowing were to get certain drugs is not a crime. Also most hosting sites are not not hosted on American soil so they can tell the DMCA to fuck right off.
|
How can cord cutting not build a case for companies to fight net neutrality or raise prices in general?
|
The cable cutting movement is a tiny portion of total customers. As long as the vast majority are maintaining their combination package, the small number that purchase only one or the other are no big deal. What I find funny is the number of so called "cable cutters" are using the same provider for internet that would have used if they also got TV. The same "evil corporation" is getting paid, just not as much.
|
. How do news organizations benefit from being biased?
|
Being partisan can build them a loyal following. People like having their preconceived notions affirmed. Going to a news source where they have their notions affirmed over and over can gain them very loyal watchers. Plus, it allows advertisers to to very specifically target their advertisements. Go to Fox News and see how many people you see selling Gold type investments and compare it to how much you see them on more general TV.
|
why cant NG (naso-gastric) or similar be used as a weight loss option?
|
NG tubes come with complications. They are not meant to be long term solutions, and would also seriously impact quality of life . More permanent options, such as tubes that go straight through the abdominal wall into the gut, are easier to hide. But they also come with their own set of complications and require surgery for placement, along with all the risks that surgery entails. But the bottom line is that none of those target the heart of the addiction. Food is something that people become addicted to because it is delicious, and can become an emotional crutch. No tube can stop a person from craving the feeling of food, and it won't even stop a determined person from eating. Until emotional and psychological issues are dealt with, feeding tubes will do nothing to prevent addiction.
|
If a sizable spacecraft was hovering over earth, would we be able to see it?
|
You can spot satellites and the ISS from the ground already. They look like shooting stars, but you can see them.All the previous answers already confirmed that you can see spacecraft if they are large or close enough but saying a spacecraft was 'hovering' as in your question bothers me a bit. All satellites have to move at great horizontal speeds to not fall back to earth. 'Hovering' is not possible unless you were constantly counteracting gravity by firing rocket engines . There is a region where satellites seem to 'hover' above earth because at that distance they move as fast around earth as earth itself is turning. At that distance though the spacecraft/satellite would have to be enormous to be seen even with an amateur telescope.
|
How come sometimes when I blow my nose, and there's a lot of snot, I can't get it out no matter how hard I blow?
|
You have hairs in your nose that detect when dust and other particles enter and makes you sneeze , the mucas dryes and attaches to them like an anchor
|
Why does a hearing a recording of my voice sound different to me then when I hear myself talk?
|
We hear sounds as vibrations hitting our ear drums. When we hear most sounds, these vibrations travel through the air and into the ear canal. Our own voices also vibrate through our bodies, creating a slightly lower pitch. When you hear a recording of your voice you are missing this extra level of vibration that lowers the sound, so your voice sounds higher than what you are used to. Source: _URL_0_
|
How did the asterisk end up being used for correcting an incorrectly spelled word?
|
I think that relates to their use as footnotes. An asterisk* after a word refers to a passage at the bottom of the page which has clarification or extra information regarding the word. I think that with the advent of instant messaging, the method gained popularity as a corrective footnote. The first asterisk of the pair is obviously missing because you can't plan for typos in advance. ---^
|
What methods of timekeeping were used before the hour became widely accepted?
|
In the New Testament, the Roman "watches" were used for night time measurements. They were generally three of our hours long, so the first watch was from 6 PM, then 9 PM, Midnight, and 3 AM to 6 AM. Early Jews divided the night into three watches of four of our hours each. But the Romans also divided the day into twelve hours, as do we. Perhaps someone with knowledge of ancient China would have a different division of time.
|
considering recent events, what gives the mayor of Baltimore the power to impose a curfew?
|
The riots impose an immediate threat to civilians, and thus to ensure public safety a mandatory curfew can be set in motion. As long as it does not interfere with emergencies or work, there is 0 issues with it, and it doesn't. Think of it as a smaller scale version of night time curfews during WWII.
|
Why do most dogs seem to love beer?
|
My dog isn't picky. She likes anything even vaguely edible, including paper. I've also known dogs that would eat dirt and rocks, so beer really isn't that weird in comparison.
|
How does your brain change from when you are a kid to when you are an adult?
|
Physically the brain is almost done growing by like age three or so. The brain only gets slightly bigger afterwards. However as you getting older, the brain develops. This means when learning the brain makes new electrical paths. For example, when a toddler is learning to fine tune their motor skills, the electrical impulse initially does not go as in depth to the areas of the brain responsible for moving limbs. This is why a child may be clumsy but as the child grows the electrical impulse will start to enter the region in more depth, or makes a different path that is faster. If damage is done to brain early enough in development, then the brain will adapt due to neural plasticity. Neural plasticity basically means that the areas responsible for certain activities would slightly re-organize itself so that responsibilities of the damaged area will still be possible. This isn't instant and it requires time and therapy to relearn anything lost. The older you get, the harder it is to recover from brain damage because as the brain develops, it basically starts to set in and it is harder to re-organize everything. . I don't know exactly what you mean by "strength" but child brains are very good at recovering. Adult brains do neural plasticity as well but it is as effective, so some damage will be permanent and recovery is a-lot longer. I saw a documentary on a girl who had to get one side of her brain removed because her seizures where becoming very serious. With therapy, she can now do everything a normal person can doSome recent studies have indicated that the prefrontal cortex does not finish it's development until much later than the rest of the brain, in young adulthood. This apparently has a lot to do with "idiot teen syndrome" where teenagers don't really understand their limitations and the consequences of their actions since these functions are done in the prefrontal cortex.
|
What makes Cuban cigars so sought after? Can they not be grown on another Caribbean country?
|
It's partly that the soil and climate in Cuba are pretty well unique. Sure tobacco grows everywhere, but exactly where it grows affects it, just like any other crop. It's partly the specific varieties and cultivars of tobacco we're talking about. The tobacco grown from Cuban seed is still among the most prized in the world. It's partly the skill of the growers, agers, blenders, and rollers of the tobacco, all of whose skills contribute to the overall quality and flavor of the cigar. All of that said, there are other places in the world where cigar tobacco can be grown with wonderful results. Some of them are even in the US, but a lot of them are in Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, etc. There are also tobaccos grown in those places that were raised from Cuban seeds. I don't know if they were smuggled out or exported more legitimately, but Cuban-seed tobacco is a real thing from a lot of places. Frankly, a lot of the growers, agers, blenders, and rollers left Cuba when the old tobacco plantations were nationalized. They've gone to Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, among other places, and they've trained further generations of workers. Today, you can get really excellent cigars from all over the place. My current favorite is a Honduran cigar, but I've enjoyed Nicaraguans, Dominicans, and even a Cuban or two over the years.Some of it is the "Coors Beer" effect: when you couldn't get Coors Beer in the eastern US it was the best beer in the world. Now that it's everywhere it's just another beer. Cuban cigars were always available in the US by buying them in Canada. They are good cigars but Honduran cigars can be every bit as good or better. Once Cubans are common they will lose a lot of their mystique
|
How can you watch a video while you are still downloading it?
|
Essentially a torrent is just downloading your file in lots of little fragments from other computers. If your torrenter is set up to request and download these fragments in order, assemble them, and then you play them almost immediately after that, then it does give the impression you're watching it as it's being downloaded. i.e. It downloads the first minute, plays it while it's downloading the second minute, and so on. Of course this is limited on you downloading faster than you can watch, but that's essentially how it all works.
|
Why is incest such a common trope in porn?
|
It's taboo , it's something that could arise out of a real life situation , and it strikes the chord of "when sex was still new and exciting" . Even if you're icked out by actual incest, it's kind of the holy trifecta of arousal.
|
Why do some salon style shampoos and conditioners have a warning that products purchased from anywhere other than salons could be counterfeited?
|
The salons get to put a large markup on those products and dont want you buying them elsewhere', "Apart from what is explained already, it was probably a problem at some point. Growing up in South East Asia, there's a few stores that sells 'pro' hair products but their authenticity is often debated.
|
How are game engines built?
|
Game engines are more tools that make it easier for a person to put a game together without worrying about the bare basics of rendering or physics in order to get it to work. > why can't they be improved instead of having to build whole new ones? Most of the time they are improved instead of building new ones, but the new iteration of the engine is such a huge improvement over the old one, or has had to change the way that the engine functions so drastically that it might as well be new, and the version number goes from MadeUpEngine 2.5 to MadeUpEngine 3 instead of 2.6. Sometimes the new versions are built from scratch, that usually happens when integration with a new technology or some new way of optimizing things would require changing the very way that the game engine works, and is just far more trouble to try to add in than to just build a new one. > What kind of experience do people have so that they know how to do things like that? You need to know a great deal of GUI programming, 3D and 2D graphics integration and optimization, and generally just have a solid understanding of how to make games in general work best, since the performance of a game made in your engine is limited by how efficient your engine is. It sounds a lot simpler than it is. Trust me, I've tried.
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.