question
stringlengths 19
300
| answer
stringlengths 28
1.02k
|
|---|---|
in football whats the point of wasting the first two plays with a rush - up the middle - not regular rush plays i get those | Keep the defense honest, get a feel for the pass rush, open up the passing game. An offense that's too one dimensional will fail. And those rushes up the middle can be busted wide open sometimes for big yardage. |
Why are different tiers (regular < mid < premium) of gas' prices almost always 10 cents different? | As someone who uses quality Premium, I wish this was true. |
Stars and Visibility | It's a quirk of the human eye. At the center of the eye (the fovea) we mostly have colour-sensitive cone cells to see detail and colour of what we're focusing on. Around the fovea we mostly have rod cells that can't see colour but are more sensitive to variations in light intensity and movement. Looking slightly to the side of the thing you're examining sends more of the light to the rod cells and lets you see things more clearly in low-light conditions where cones don't work well. |
How do we know all the money the government is getting from bank settlements is going back to the people? | I'm pretty confident most of it isn't going back to the people. That's how politics works. |
What are good and bad sides of manual and automatic drive gear? | Automatics weigh more, so that alone makes gas mileage worse. They are also more complicated, so that means reliability is going to be lower. It is easier to operate, which may free up your attention for focus on what is *outside* the car. Some people derive satisfaction from shifting, and flexibility in using the power curve. |
How do muscles grow? | I hope this answer qualifies as technical, yet simple enough (as I very rarely post here), but the basic idea that I understand is that your muscles rip and tear on a microscopic level when you are working out, and the harder you push those muscles, the more they rip. Hence where the idea comes from that more reps and less weight equal more tone, but more weight and less reps equal more muscle growth. What happens is that following those tiny rips and tears, your muscle heals over itself and essentially stacks on top of itself, healing bigger and stronger than before. The more those muscles are used, kept active and challenged, the more they will continue to build and grow over time. Other factors go into the growth of muscle as well, such as your nutrition. Protein, fats, etc. also play a factor, as they cause your body to "feed" your body and muscles in different ways of varying effectiveness - but I think that's an ELI5 for another day. |
Why does the water from my kitchen faucet taste different than the water from my bathroom faucet? Doesn't it come from the same place? | Yes, but the pipes going to one place could have a build up that's changing the taste or the composition of the pipes can be different, i.e. pvc pipes going to your kitchen, but copper pipes to your bathroom. |
If dark colours absorb more heat, why does light skin burn easier than dark skin? | Two things going on here. First, heat doesn't have anything to do with sunburn, it's all about UV rays. Encountering more UV rays = more sunburn. However, dark skin absorbs more UV rays than pale skin. And in fact that's exactly why it burns less. The pigmented layer absorbs more UV in the upper layers of the skin, shading the cells underneath from UV and preventing burns (because it's the lower, reproducing cells that matter, the upper ones are disposable protection). Just like sitting outside under an opaque black umbrella would shade you more than sitting outside under a translucent white one. |
How the fuck does Facebook know about people I know?! | Your email contacts, your academic/work institutions info you've put, and the friends of your friends. |
Why is chickenpox worse as an adult? | It's mostly due to the difference in immune system between a child and an adult. A primary varicella zoster infection (chickenpox) in adulthood is indeed associated with increased risk of complications. Most of these complications are due to the intense response by the adult immune system that comes into contact with the virus for the first time. Children have less active immune systems, but usually active enough to clear the virus - making them immune to it thereafter, and are therefore less likely to develop complications with this particular infection. The same goes to hepatitis A: adults develop jaundice, while children are asymptomatic. Note: a secondary varicella zoster infection during adulthood is called "shingles" and is generally less dangerous than a primary varicella during adulthood, due to the immunity that is already present at the time of the second infection. |
How do movies not get uploaded online in HD from movie theater employees before their DVD release? | The theater will be fined a massive amount of money for allowing a leak, the person leaking it will be fined a massive amount of money for uploading it, and they automatically lose their job. This is a combination of copyright law violation and contracts that you sign when taking the job. So the risk are so extremely high that most will not risk it. They also have security features such as login codes to open, proprietary file types that need special programs to play, and the rooms operating the projector system requiring special key access at times. |
Can defense attorneys 'throw' a case if they know their clients are guilty? | Yes, they could 'throw' a case. However, that's a serious ethics violation which would almost certainly cause disbarment if found out, and not only that, the conviction could then be appealed based on ineffective assistance of counsel (embodied in the 6th amendment). If it makes it easier to wrap your head around, think of defense lawyers defending the integrity of the judicial system, not just their client. The idea being, the system must obey all of its own rules in proving that someone is guilty, or else it's a dishonest system and could easily "prove" that an innocent person is guilty next time. Defense lawyers are there to help ensure the system stays honest. |
why, when intoxicated, does it feel like everything is spinning when you close your eyes but stops spinning when you open them? | the fluid in your inner ear keeps you orientated and standing upwards, although when your drunk certain functions in your brain don't work as well or as they are meant to. So if you've had a bit too much to drink, your brain might not be able to tell which way is up and which way is down if your inner ears are miscommunicating with your brain. So that's why when you close your eyes it feels like you're falling off the face of the world. |
Why are some fish bones edible, and others are not? | They are small and soft so it does not matter if you swallow them, bigger and harder bones might get stuck in your throat and couse pain |
What's the meaning of the phrase "I've got a bone to pick with you." | If you have a bone to pick with someone, it means they've annoyed or insulted you and you need to talk to them about it. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (via a thread in /r/etymology) "a bone to pick" originally meant something that occupies or distracts you (as a dog is occupied by picking at a bone) and somehow morphed into its modern meaning. |
Why can't we just taste candy or Sweets and then spit it out to avoid its unhealthy attributes? What makes us swallow it to get satisfaction? | You absolutely could. But the fact is that evolution shaped our tastes. That's why fatty foods and sweet foods are so appealing to out taste buds. It is our bodies way of saying "That has lots of calories and will help us avoid starving." The 'satisfaction' you feel on swallowing it is simply the body saying "Good job. Remember that tastes good so we will eat it again if we find it again." Rewarding you for fueling it. You can see why this system that evolved when we were hunter gatherers to keep us from starving and helping us learn whats best to eat leads to obesity now that we have food options everywhere anytime we want. Fun fact: Most people mistake the bodies thirst craving for being hungry. More often than not if you drink a glass of water when you feel the urge to snack it will go away. Thus helping you lose weight by reducing total calorie intake. |
Why are the things that taste the best bad for us? | Let's think about this from an evolutionary perspective. Way back in the day, (like way way way back) humans struggled for food just like every other animal. It was to our species evolutionary advantage to pursue food that would keep us full longer, or provide more energy than other food options. Fats, are 9 calories per gram compared to proteins and carbs that are 4 calories. Humans that preferred fats and craved them, had a higher chance of survival and passing on the fat craving trait. Fast forward to present day where food is plentiful. We are still programmed to eat high calorie foods just in case we won't find food for a week! |
Why do you see weird colors when you press your eyes? | If I had to take a guess, no expert, just had anatomy and physiology through college, I'd imagine it'd have something to do with the rods and cones in your eyes and the optic nerve. When you push on your eyes, you probably disrupt the innervation action of the rods and cones and it's just trying to adjust back. Just my guess! |
If a movie production has $5,000,000 (estimated) Budget, must some of that money go to the actors? or only movie's production quality? | It has to include equipment, pay for employees (all cast, crew, and extras), fees, *food* on larger productions, constryucting sets, making costume,s all of the makeup artists, set design, sound guy, camera guy, lighting guy, dozens of other specific jobs, and yes, the actors. |
What classifies an island as an island? Aren't all continents etc essentially large islands? | While not universally true (especially in the case of Europe who gets to be called its own continent for purely cultural/political reasons) A continent is considered to be the primary landmass on its tectonic plate. If you look at a map of tectonic plates: _URL_0_ You can clearly see that with a few notable exceptions such as Europe and India. In general continents occupy their own tectonic plate. So then if you are a landmass that is part of a continent's tectonic plate but is not connected by land to that continent, than you would be an island. Although even this is a fairly tenuous definition. |
why does wikipedia ask for donations almost every month? do they really need it to not disappear? | Wikipedia's biggest issue is that their amazing service requires constant overhead. So donations keep it running. Have you ever been inside a server location. That shit is cold, and cold is expensive. |
How does a water purifier jug work and could you put 3rd world ditch water through one and drink safely? | The passive type of jug won't filter out bacteria and other things that can make you sick. There is a thing called [LifeStraw](_URL_0_) that can do this, but it forces water through a filter as you use it. Something like a reverse osmosis system can make water safe, but that also involves forcing water through a membrane. These things can't be done with just gravity. |
Why people like getting drunk/sloshed/hammered/shit-faced ? | Because only when you're passed out in a puddle of your own vomit can you silence the ennui and existential hum. Source: I'm Irish. |
Why has the Mars Rover Opportunity's Lithium Ion Battery Lasted 11+ Years and the one in My Cell Phone/Laptop/Tablet Dies in Less Than 2? | NASA requirements lean toward the 'overengineered' side (for good reason - if something goes wrong you can't replace it). The battery in your phone is more from the "make it cheaper, they can always buy another battery" school of engineering. (Just to clarify, I am not being cynical about phone/laptop batteries. Most people - me included - would rather not pay something like 100 times as much for a battery that is able to withstand operating on Mars and lasts several times longer.) |
Why is sales tax in the US excluded from the list price? | Because every state has a different tax rate on goods, so that would make putting tax into the price a little difficult |
Why does a beer on tap almost always taste better than it does from a bottle? | Probably because the keg has been better handled than the cases of beer have, and because bottles are not actually the best packages for beer. Light passes through the glass and can cause skunking, and oxygen can sneak in through the plastic seal in the crown, causing staling. Kegs are generally stored cold, and of course are completely opaque and are much more resistant to oxygen ingress. |
What is the significance of Jamaican Bobsled team qualifies for the Olympics? | Let me tell you about a man...a great man...a man who helped the underdogs...a man who traveled by many forms...a man who loved his nieces and nephew. A man who left this world too early. That mans name was John Candy. |
Is it possible to build up an immunity to poisons both naturally occurring and man-made? | Sort of. It's called [Mithridatism](_URL_0_), after a Roman-era king of Pontus (northern modern Turkey). But you can only do it with certain poisons; others just build up in your body until they kill you. |
How do devices know the amount of charge left in a battery? | The Voltage of a battery depends on the charge. A five voltage battery may start with 5.1 Volt and slowly go down. When you're at 4.9 volt you'll know the battery is rather empty. I'm not sure if that is the case for all modern Rechargeable batteries. They might have special measuring and charging chips included. |
Why are my muscles sore after jumping in cold water? | From what I understand, our bodies defenses against hypothermia is to shiver. This involves involuntary muscle contractions to generate heat. These muscles contractions still can cause muscle soreness just like working out. |
why do we like watching the same TV show or movie over and over again? | Our brains like familiar things. Something we already have seen is easier to get into than something brand new because it requires less attention and effort from our brain. It's also sometimes good watching a TV show knowing the ending (eg Black Mirror, Lost) as we can pick up on foreshadowing or minor details. |
why do the French have an abstain vote instead of people physically restraining from voting. [Other] | It's like a protest vote. I live in Nevada where we are allowed to vote "none of the above." If "none of the above" wins, the candidate with the most votes still wins. It doesn't affect anything here. |
Why The Beatles broke up? | They didn't so much as 'break up' as they just started doing different things by themselves, or with other people. Eventually they just weren't doing things as 'The Beatles' anymore and decided to make it official. Paul said that they broke up because of: "Personal differences, business differences, musical differences, but most of all because I have a better time with my family." |
- Why do phones not require cooling vents but other small appliances do? | Phones lack a cooling system because there's no room for that. It takes up way too much space for a pocket-size device. If that wasn't an issue, phones would've had vents. Besides, phones don't work as hard as other computers do. They are weaker, so they produce less heat. Still, they can get hot sometimes, especially during charging, and there is nothing we can do about it. Phones cool by radiating heat away and through conduction - passing heat into the surrounding air/skin. |
Why are oil prices so shockingly low? | Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding is the Middle East put out so much supply to try and put US companies out of business which if successful they would then jack prices up and get money to themselves. |
If the inside of my microwave is made of metal, why is it bad to put metallic objects in it? | The metal interior of the oven is grounded. It does pick up a charge from the microwaves, but the charge is dissipated to ground, and so does not arc. Your fork, or the foil on your plate, are not grounded, and thus the charge can build up until it is strong enough to arc to a grounded panel. |
Why do we lack the instincts our ancestors had, e.g. telling you which foods are poisonous | We still have them. Ever gone "EW" from spoiled food and decided not to eat it? Ever smelled something horrible and realized that it wasn't edible? The issue is that we've realized that there's a lot more items out there can that kill us, and notice it. Our ancestors would have just died from eating it, and then warned the surviving descendants to stay away from it. |
Why do we wake up early when we don't have to but tend to wake up late when we need to be up? | The simple answer is stress causes this. By setting a schedule your body will fall into a rhythm. After a while you don't really need the alarm at all. However as we know our natural rythems get disturbed occasionally. When we must get up we are creating stress that is easiest to avoid by doing nothing and that is what we want to do (avoid stress). On the weekend you don't have stress to avoid and your body is doing its thing. A sign of depression (just one of the signs) is oversleeping. Your mind allowing your body to avoid the stress of life every chance you get. Feel good that you feel awake when you don't have to. Your life is manageable to you. |
Why do tech/software companies stay in the US when they are demanded to include backdoors by the US government? Can't tech companies just develop and release their products overseas, out of reach of the US government's influence? | The short answer is that it's not just the US government pushing to include "backdoors." Tech companies could move to a country without these laws, but places like the US could restrict or prohibit them from selling their products in the US. The better option is to follow Apple's example and refuse to build the backdoors. |
with such an important vote like appointing a supreme court nomine, why is the senate floor so empty? | Well, actually, that's not their one job. They also have to meet with people, work on legislation, and so on. Many of the Senators may be in their offices. When an important vote is called, they will come to the floor to vote. They can get from their offices to the floor in just a few minutes. |
If you put tires on your car that are larger than the ones from the factory, would you actually be going slower than the reading on your speedometer? | No, you'll actually be going faster. The speed is calculated based on the OEM tire size, whereas if you put a larger tire on, there is more circumference so the hub will spin slower, yet will be traveling the same speed. You can have it recalibrated fairly cheaply. |
How does bugspray kills bugs? | Bugspray is actually a chemical weapon. As in it shuts down biological functions bugs need to stay alive, like forgetting how to breathe for example. It can also cause military chemical weapons detection gear to register false positives. |
If a computer has a GPU, why would reducing GUI effects impact performance? | If you're talking about Windows Vista and beyond. **Disabling visual effects doesn't increase performance** More detailed explanation is here: _URL_0_ ELI5: This checkbox just switches off new system (GPU rendering) and brings back XP CPU rendering, because some software can't use new system. Starting from Windows Vista GUI is rendered on GPU(actually it's pretty complicated for compatibility reasons, old programs still use CPU rendering, and resulted bitmap is passed to GPU for composition and rendering). |
What happens if you don't pay your US Federal income tax? | I'm no expert on Constitutional Law, but where did you hear that the US income tax has no basis in law and is unconstitutional? The entire purpose of the [16th amendment](_URL_0_) was to make the income tax permanent. It was ratified almost a century ago. People aren't tricked into paying it for no reason, you can go to jail for tax evasion. Your income tax is not necessarily deducted from your paycheck, it depends on your withholding allowance. |
Why does my employer require a voided personal check in order to setup direct deposit? | Your banks routing number and your account number as well as your name exactly as it is written on your account are all printed on the check. That is the information they need to set up direct deposit. With the check they can be sure there are no mistakes. |
Why are the insides of Ovens Dark and Not Metallic or Mirror Like? | How often do you polish the inside of your oven? I suspect a big reason would be just to keep the interior from quickly looking horrible. |
Why does metal react so violently when microwaved? | The way microwaves work is through jiggling charged/polar particles in your food (the water primarily). This jiggling increases their temperature and that heats up the rest of your food. That's why you can't heat oil as easily as you can water. However, metals like iron are *great* conductors of electrons. What makes them good conductors is a little complicated but basically, the reason is that they have a soup of electrons moving from atom to atom with almost 0 energy needed to move an electron from one atom to another. Thus when the microwave jiggles these electrons, rather than giving energy to the atom, it gives it to the electron which zips around in the soup. The amount of energy given to the soup can get high enough to bypass the natural insulation of the air and cause electrons to jump from the metal and rip through the air. This is called a spark and is basically what happens during a lightning strike. |
How did the American accent come about? | It's not so much that Americans developed a distinct accent, but rather that speech on both sides of the Atlantic changed significantly, with both sides diverging quite a bit from what they had sounded like earlier on. This process is still happening, with accents on the Canadian and US sides of the great lakes undergoing vowel shifts at this very moment, and in opposite directions; Canadian and US accents are actually becoming less similar, even among people in the niagara region who live a few km apart. Why? We don't really understand this process at all well. The key thing relevant to your question though is that accents change a lot, that distance and separation make this process easier and more likely, and that neither English nor an American speakers sound much like their 16th century forebears. |
Why do The Miranda Rights state that anything you say can "and will" be used against you. If something's not incriminating why would it be used against you? Why would cops be forced to admit this up front? | Its just to put emphasis on the fact that *they will* use any and all evidence against you that they can, including anything you say or do. |
Why is it when you rewind VHS tapes they lose their quality over time? | Since rewinding needs to be done for each playback, what makes you think it is the rewinding which causes quality loss? Tapes lose quality over time whether you play them or not due to breakdown of the binder and dry lubricant. Rewinding is no more damaging than playback if the VCR is functioning correctly. There is a phenomenon called [print-through](_URL_0_) which transfers signal from one layer to the next. Professional audio engineers often store reel to reel tapes "tails out". That means without rewinding. It doesn't stop print-through, but it does make it happen later rather than earlier, so on playback it will be heard after a track rather than before. Source: 40 years experience in broadcast VTR/VCR maintenance. |
When a new library is built, where do they get their books? I understand many can be bought brand new from publishers. But, what about the old books, or the vast volumes of dated encyclopedias, dated periodicals, etc... | Librarian here. A lot of that stuff comes from stores and reserves from other libraries in the system. My library authority has been around since 1890 and has accumulated decades of stuff that due to archiving policies /librarian OCD hoarding we never throw out, For example we have 23 libraries in our group with over 750,000 items. Around a 1/6 of that stock is reserves and then rotated to other libraries so it appears new to the customers of that branch. Encyclopaedias are really common actually, especially older ones we have around 10 full sets of the most common things like Britannica and Oxford. Any book dealer will most likely have a few sets kicking around if you are short. In the UK the British Library has virtually every book and periodical ever published, I assume the Library of Congress is the same in US and we can get copies of stuff from them. TL:DR a combination of stuff hidden in basements and storage supplemented by specialist periodical providers |
If the ozone layer is made up of O3, why are we not producing some of it ourselves and pumping more of them into the atmosphere to fix the problem faster? | > Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent, far stronger than O2. It is also **unstable at high concentrations**, decaying to ordinary diatomic oxygen. [...] In a sealed chamber, with fan moving the gas, ozone has a **half-life of approximately a day at room temperature**. _URL_0_ TL;DR: It is very unstable. It will decay fairly quickly; half of the ozone you make today will be gone tomorrow, turned into regular oxygen gas. |
Is it possible to be a 'man without a country'? | It is entirely possible to be such a person, it's called statelessness. At one point, Einstein was stateless. However, renouncing your citizenship means you have no protection by any state. This is very bad, as we are as a species very largely reliant on our respective corporate states of the world. I personally identify as a citizen of no country, if you wish to go stateless, I suggest you study the subject further and figure out how to survive without a state. |
In the English language, how are contractions prioritized when a word can belong to two different contractions? | It's a matter of emphasis. "We aren't going" could be simply spoken, or the "we" could be emphasized (an emphasis that is lost in simple text). Similarly "We're not going" could be used to emphasize the "not" part. Beyond that it's preference. The stylistic choices of language are everywhere, and it's one of the main reasons that most sentences of reasonable length have never been written before. |
The Cuban Missle Crisis and Americas enormous beef with Cuba, what happened there? | The beef wasn't with Cuba, the beef was with the USSR. The Soviets were trying to use their communist ally in The West as a beachhead for terror. (Not the modern definition of terror, the old-fashioned one). By placing ICBMs in Cuba (aimed at the United States) they wanted to cast a cloak of fear over the U.S. Cold War tactics at its finest. |
Why doesn't it rain salt water? | When water evaporates, it gets heated to an extent that the water particles move faster and spread apart, which causes them to become "lighter" than the air around them, turning into water vapor, a gas. Due to this, they rise up into the atmosphere. Then, they start to cool down, and become liquid again. When they become cool enough that they're heavier than the air, it rains back down. This is the basic water cycle. The salt which makes it salt water requires a much higher temperature to turn into gas, one which doesn't normally happen during this cycle. Because of this, it does not follow the water, and thus, it doesn't rain salt water. |
Why can't we use a centrifuge to de-salinate ocean water? | A centrifuge is typically used to separate a heterogeneous mixture of solid and liquid by spinning it. Salt water is a solution, so if it is even possible, I am sure the energy, time and expense are enormous. |
What is a MAC Address? | It's a unique device address given to each piece of network connected hardware. It's different from an IP address because it's permanent: every device has one and only one MAC address, but it is given a new IP address every time it connects. Edit: You can think of the MAC address as a device's permanent name, and the IP address as an instruction for other devices to find it. Your device *is* MAC number X, and it *can be found at* IP address Y. |
How are adept music players able to just start playing along to anything that someone else plays and have it sound good? | Experience, mostly. If you know the key something is played in and it's rythem, you can throw just about anything in and sound good. |
Why drill instructor in the army never stop screaming at recruit in the army? | Armies thrive on the discipline of individual soldiers. One soldier not doing his/her job can be responsible for getting the entire unit killed in battle. Having a drill sargeant yell at you to run faster or do more pushups is a lot less frightening than being shot at, but if you can't handle being yelled at then how can anybody trust you to have their back when you're in real danger? |
if i ground up a piece of pure iron and ate it, would my body abosorb it the same way as iron from food? if not, how do they make iron supplements absorb-able? | You eat shaved iron every time you have breakfast cereal. If you take total cereal, crush it up, add a little milk to make a broth consistancy, and stir it with a strong magnet, you will see actual iron shavings sticking to your magnet. _URL_0_ |
Whats is the actual cause of the common itch. and why is scratching it the cure? | 1: dead skin 2: your body's reaction to get rid of it. Bonus: a lot of dust in your house is said dead skin. |
When popcorn is popping, what is actually happening to the kernel inside? | As the kernel is heated, the moisture and oils are being heated inside. Since the outer shell of popping corn is strong and mostly impenetrable, there is no place for the heat and pressure to go and the insides are superheated. The starches inside, which are normally hard, begin to soften in a process called gelatinization. Interior pressure continues to rise until the kernel's shell ruptures. Steam rapidly expands causing the innards to expand in a foamy substance, which afterwards quickly cools into a crispy puff. |
What happens to your brain when you space out? | There are two kinds of spacing out. There is background processing - thinking about stuff that isn't apparent to you consciously, and basically resting your mind. For most of evolutionary history, energy was the limiting factor for most species. Sleeping is not only helpful for repairing your body, but also for reducing your calorie burden. Spacing out is a kind of low energy state that is more alert than sleeping but less energy consuming than active thinking. |
What is the point of a Kroger's Shopper card? | The general idea is that by offering a discount card, you will shop more frequently at that specific chain than others (although in reality, this isn't often the case). They may also collect your email to send you regular marketing ads, in hopes of bringing you in. If the extra profit generated from you buying items at that store vs another store exceeds the discounts given on that trip, then the store benefits. |
Why haven't our bodies changed to make childbirth less painful? | So the only way that the process of childbirth would change is through evolution of some kind. The only way evolution happens is if the genetically superior reproduce and those who aren’t die. Theoretically if there was a woman who could go through childbirth totally painlessly and she passed that trait on to her child, the child could pass the trait on and on until it made up the mass populous. This would take millions of years and to guarantee that all women experienced it, all who felt pain during childbirth would have to not reproduce. Think about it like this. Apples were high on the tree. All the long necked giraffes reached the apples, lived and eventually reproduced. All the shortnecked giraffes died and that’s why we only today see long necked giraffes. |
American TV shows compared to The rest of the world. | The amount of American hate / bashing on Reddit is amazing. |
How do people add colour so accurately to black and white photos? | It's basically painting a transparent picture on top of the black-and-white, and the B/W image provides much of the shading. In the days before photoshop, you had actual transparent inks with limited tints to choose from, and that's why old hand-colorized photos often look more cartoony. Now, you can pick from a vast range of colors until it more or less matches what you would expect: a white person with fair hair will probably have skin in X color range, unpainted wood furniture is going to be a shade of brown, jeans are almost certainly blue, a military uniform from that era is going to be this particular color, etc. Plus if you have experience with B/W photography you might have a sense for how some colors will translate to film; they often have a particular range of grey due to the characteristics of a given film. So accurate colorizing mostly comes down to digital painting skill and having a sense for how things would look. |
How do service animals help autistic children? | Multiple ways, and by the way it's not just autistic *children* who can benefit from service animals. Among other things: * service animals can detect the early signs of a meltdown or shutdown, which are things often (but not exclusively) triggered by sensory overstimulation, and can provide a prompt to leave the situation causing that overstim * they can provide active stimulation to aid with grounding * they can help reinforce ritual, which is frequently important for autistic people |
Why do books downloaded from the library need to be "returned" after a given amount of time? | > This makes no sense because downloads are not limited like physical copies of books are. Downloads are limited in the sense that the library has to pay for every copy of a book that they own, including digital copies. So they pay the publisher $X for permission to lend some fixed number of digital copies. And the reader software is set up to that the borrower isn't able to retain possess of that copy forever. If that weren't the case, then book sales would drop essentially to nothing, since everyone could just get a free copy of any book whenever they wanted for as long as they wanted. |
How does Stephen Hawking's speech computer work? | He has a small sensor in his mouth and uses his cheek muscle to type with it. His computer also has the ability to predict and correct words for him. |
If a self-driving car detects multiple courses of action (all of which will likely result in human injury) how will it determine which course to take? | It will do whatever it is programed to do in that situation. Self driving cars are not true conscious A.I - they are just really, really complex "if...then" programs. If it gets into a situation where an accident is unavoidable, it will do what its programing tells it to do in that situation. As far as liability, we don't know yet. It's possible that the programer would be liable for the accident but we'll need a court case to set precedent before we really know. |
why does spicy food make me sweat? | "The answer hinges on the fact that spicy foods excite the receptors in the skin that normally respond to heat. Those receptors are pain fibers, technically known as polymodal nociceptors. They respond to temperature extremes and to intense mechanical stimulation, such as pinching and cutting; they also respond to certain chemical influences. The central nervous system can be confused or fooled when these pain fibers are stimulated by a chemical, like that in chile peppers, which triggers an ambiguous neural response." Source: _URL_0_ |
If there are no size regulations regarding goalies in the NHL, why doesn't a team just throw some really obese person out there to block the whole net? | An NHL goal is 6 feet wide by 4 feet wide. I doubt there's many people actually large enough to block that entire area. And if there is someone that big, I doubt they'd be able to stand up and skate their way out to the net. |
If animals aren't aware that they are going to die, why would they try so hard to survive? | Does a falling ball "know" it's trying to return to Earth? Or does it just do what it must? Animals behave out of instinct. When hungry, they are driven to eat. At a certain time of year, they are driven to mate. When startled, they automatically flee. They don't know the effects of these actions, but that isn't necessary. |
How can a computer come up with a "random" number? | Generally yes, anything generated by an algorithm can be reproduced if you know the "initial" settings. Numbers generated this way are referred to as "psuedorandom". There do, however, exist various dedicated hardware solutions that allow computers to pick truly random numbers. They work by basically installing in the computer some sort of sensor that can detect random properties of nature. An example might be some sort of detector that picks up low levels of radiation. While we can make statistical predictions of radioactive decay over time, the actual decay of individual particles is truly random, and cannot be predicted with perfect accuracy. A sensor designed to measure those tiny random variations and feed them to a computer could generate truly random numbers. |
Why are scars near impossible to get rid of? | Scar tissue is different to normal skin. It contains more collagen than regular tissue, and doesn't structure the same as regular skin, which is why it looks so different. It's also less flexible. The benefits to having scar tissue is the body can recover from wounds exceptionally quickly - many animals can't create scar tissue, and so wounds can remain open longer and are more susceptible to infection and other problems. Conversely, other animals can regenerate entire limbs whereas we can't. Interestingly, the collagen in your scar tissue is constantly replaced. If your body stops producing collagen (due to certain illnesses), your scars' wounds can actually reopen. The scar is difficult to get rid of because the tissue has been created in a less structured/ordered form than your regular skin (because it was deployed quickly to help heal the wound), but some medical procedures exist to reduce that effect. |
Why don't developed countries make their own clothing without child labour? | Because it's cheaper to have it made in other countries. |
Two spaceships are travelling towards each other at speed of light.. | > Two spaceships are travelling towards each other at speed of light.. **AHHHH!** |
Why can we eat sushi raw but not other meats? | [Carpaccio](_URL_1_) and [tartare](_URL_0_) are very common dishes of raw meats. |
Why is it when oil prices go up gas prices immediately go up but when oil prices come down the price of gas never comes down as fast as when the price of oil increases? | On TV, when the price of gas goes up, they say they have no choice but to sell it higher in gas stations too. But when the price goes down, they say that they had already bought a lot of gas when it was higher so they cannot lower the prices immediately or they'd lose money on it. There is probably a good explanation for it but my guess is that it's another of these "Heads I win, Tails, you lose" situation ;) |
Does time ever end, or is the future infinite? | That's a really good question, as if deals with the metaphysical in a physical context; basically, the universe will end before time ends, so we have no real way of knowing. However, one could argue that time will end when physical existence ends; in that case, the end of time will come with the end of the Universe. |
Why "crazy people" have that distinctive look to their eyes | In many psychotic individuals, the wide eyed look is because of their intense anxiety levels. It's more than just the eyes though. In someone psychotically agitated, you'll see facial grimacing and body postures indicating stress or aggression as well. The scariest patients are the ones that have a flat affect, meaning they just have a blank stare all the time. Though many of them are lost in their own world and harmless, some are not. They are concerning because i can't judge their propensity towards violence at any given time. Source: IAMA Psychiatric RN |
What is the point of money? | It facilitates trade. I want apples, but have oranges. You want oranges, but want bananas. Jim wants bananas and has apples. None of us can make a deal we want by dealing one-to-one, we'd all have to be together at the same time and value the fruit identically. Money let's us do one-to-one deals and sequentially get the stuff we want. |
the hypothetical turtle on an island in the sun question? | I *think* what you are taking about is a test from the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" on which the film "Blade Runner" was based. If so, the test aims to distinguish humans from androids ('replicants') through their emotional response to questions requiring empathy. _URL_0_ |
how does a home equity loan work? | A home equity loan is a loan that is based off the difference between the value of the house and the current balance of the primary mortage. If you paid $50,000 for a house that's worth $75,000, you can get $25,000 in equity loans. Subsequently, if your house was worth $75K when you bought it and it's now worth $135K because reasons, you can now get that much more in your equity loan. In theory, you don't have to wait at all to get a loan. If you sign on the dotted line for the $75K house for a $50K mortgage, you could turn right around that day and get a $25K equity loan. you just have to have the equity in the house to get the loan. |
In English, what is the rule for the use of “An” or “A” | An is used for words that start with a vowel sound. Examples, An owl, an hour, an eight, an apple, an onion. A is used for all others. |
Why do we have two small nostrils and not one larger nostril? | It's usually not noticeable unless you sniff harshly, but one nostril is usually more open and free-flowing than the other. The nostril that's closed usually swaps back and forth after several hours throughout the day. When a nostril is more closed, it's swollen, because the blood vessels inside the nose are swollen. During that time, your immune system attacks all the nasty stuff that came into your nose. It's harder to breathe when that happens. But your other nostril is wide open and maximum air comes in. This combination of having one closed nostril and one open nostril is a super efficient way for your body to both clean the nasties and breathe full air at the same time. If it was all just 1 nostril, then every few hours you would have difficulty breathing. Air breathed through the nostrils are combined in the back and flow into both longs. One nostril does not lead into one lung. |
How the heck do authorities determine who started a massive fire in the middle of the woods somewhere? | As a random side point I lit fire to my bathroom on accident with a candle. The glass holder got hot and broke, the countertop started burning, and a towel had gotten caught before I realized it. It happened super fast and I panicked while throwing water and wet towels on things. My dad, who is a fire investigator, came home the next morning and 5 seconds in the door asked me what burned (he hadn't seen it just smelled). I tried to tell him but obviously my story didn't match up to the burnt remains. I wasn't lying, I just genuinely couldn't remember cause I was so panicked. Anyway, he was able to give an exact play by play of how it started, what it caught next, etc. Tl:dr; fire investigators know their crap. Edit:typo |
How do film/tv productions handle deaths of actors? Examples? | Usually it leaves them scrambling. I know when John Ritter died they actually had to write that death into "8 Simple Rules". |
What would happen if all the countries wiped all the debt incurred by and owed to each other? | Not an expert in the topic but I have some knowledge Debt isn't necessarily a bad thing as it represents a flow of money. This is why the average lifestyle in America is comfortably more lavish than those of in China. This is made possible because Americans are in better position to take out large loans and pay them back in the future. If all the debt were to be wiped out then that would mean banks would lose a very high percentage of income. Heres where my knowledge stops as my train of thought has been limited to what I know. |
Why is it sometimes hard to find something that is right in front of our eyes. | Human eyes are way better at detecting moving objects than resting ones. Plus, a change in perspective may present the object in a better contrast/less obscured by other objects. |
Why is second day chili better? | The acids in tomatoes, peppers, and onions take time to break down carbohydrates (beans) and proteins (meat). So overnight the beans and meat absorb more of the delicious spicy flavor. |
How does the _URL_0_ door knocking audio clip do such a good job of making it sound like the audio doesn't come from your headphones? | Ha, had the speakers on when I played that audio clip and the cat **freaked** out. Apparently that knock knock fools animals into thinking someone's at the front door too. Your brain determines the location of a sound's source by a few different factors. Namely, distortion differences between each ear, and delay in which ear hears the sound first. Technology has gotten good enough that with proper equipment it can re-create those effects and trick your brain. We usually use the term "binaural" as in "Two ear" to describe the effect. One of the most famous examples of binaurual audio is the "Virtual haircut" clip _URL_1_ where they demo a technology designed to create the effect. Lots of ASMR artists and other people do it too, one popular device these days is [a 3Dio twin mic setup such as this](_URL_0_). With two microphones and extremely accurate recreation of the human ear shape (it affects how sound bounces about), you can recreate a whole room's soundscape effectively. |
Computer/TV Screen Size Pricing | Easier, yes, in the sense that the assembly requires less pricise equipment. Not necessarily cheaper, though, because of the material costs. |
Why do people think Yellowstone will explode and destroy the earth, but not worry about Hawaii's volcano eruption? | Imagine you're filling water balloons. One of them has a hole that lets out the water about as fast as you are filling it. You could stand there all day and be fine. That's how Kilauea erupts. The other one is huge. It is also intact. Eventually, it will burst and soak you. That would be a Yellowstone eruption. Obligatory edit: Thanks /u/arcmokuro for my first gilding. I didn't expect the classic water balloon analogy to blow up like this. |
How does cutting down trees to plant other vegetation for the purpose of cultivation (such as avocado farming) contribute to global warming? | When you cut down highly developed forests to replace them with cultivated land you're seriously lowering the amount of CO2 that can be absorbed. A big tree that is several decades old will take in WAY more CO2 than several seedlings that are planted to replace it. Additionally, all of the undergrowth that is in forests absorbs CO2 but that is all removed for farming. Further, a lot of the time what's done is called "slash and burn" which means that the forests are chopped down and the debris is cleared away via a controlled fire, once again adding CO2 (and other harmful chemicals) to the atmosphere. Also, removing well established plants will significantly increase soil erosion and while that may not directly contribute to global warming, it certainly is detrimental to the environment. |
What happens to Lactose when ingested by Lactose-Intolerants? | So, from what I've understood in the past, people who are lactose-intolerant aren't able to break down lactose. Their body doesn't produce enough lactase, which is an enzyme that breaks down lactose. So, depending on how much lactose is taken in, it usually is broken down by bacteria instead in the gut. This causes a bunch of side effects like, nausea, bloating, gas, and stomach cramps. |
If Helicopters need tail rotors to stabilize themselves from spinning, how can turboprop airplanes have only one rotor and not spin in circles? | On a helicopter the main rotor blades are the wings, a plane has fixed wings that use the air to resist the torque of the prop that's trying to make the plane roll (this is also why single prop driven planes roll to one side faster than they can to the other) |
What is the difference between an air-conditioner and a "marine" air conditioner (commonly used on boats)? | Caveat - I mess with boats but I'm not expert or pro. In general marine equipment is made with more corrosion resistant materials,such as stainless steel. The A/C on my boat exchanges the heat in the cabin air into water that flows through the other side of the heat pump, so this is an air/water heat pump where most home units are air/air heat pumps. Also some or most marine units are 12 Volt DC power, possibly also 24 volt. I think some few are powered directly off the engine via a 'fan belt'. The reefer on my boat is three way power - 120 VAC, 12 VDC, and propane. I suppose this would be possible in A/C but I've ever heard of this. |