Question: Why does water at room temperature seem colder than the actual room temperature?

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 Why does water at room temperature seem colder than the actual room temperature?

Your skin doesn't really detect temperature. It detects changes in temperature. Your body is somewhere around 96F usually. When you're sitting around with just the 72 degree air, there is a certain amount of heat being exchanged from your warm body to the cooler air. It's relatively slow usually because there's not a lot of air molocules in any given space. But add some wind and now more air molocules can touch you and take away a bit of heat. Now it feels a lot colder because the change in temperature is greater. Water has a lot of molocules in any given space. So when you touch it, a lot of molocules are going to take some heat from you very quickly. So it feels colder. Same with metal. It conducts heat very quickly away from you.


Question: Why does cold metal feel wet?

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 Why does cold metal feel wet?

The feeling of "wetness" isn't actually a sense, but more of a combination of senses. If you've ever touches water through gloves, your hand feels like it's wet, but you're not actually getting any water on you. This is because, even though you have gloves on, it's a combined triggering of your cold thermoreceptors and various mechanoreceptors that contribute to the perception of wetness, and these can be felt through the gloves. The same is true for the metal.


Question: Is your brain able to tell the difference between Quiet Sounds that are close by versus louder sounds that are far away?

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 Is your brain able to tell the difference between Quiet Sounds that are close by versus louder sounds that are far away?

Yes. There was a paper a few years back that identified the region in the brain the helps compute how far the origin of a sound is. And it was different than the region responsible for telling differences in intensity (loudness). I believe it was somewhere in the spatial reasoning areas. I don't have much time to give you more detail now, but they essentially found that the brain uses a combined approach of multiple intensity independent cues (in addition for intensity depending cues for familiar sounds, I.e. You know how a plane sounds, and you know it's not over your head because you can recognize it sounds like this when far from previous visual experiences). And the dominant parameter in these intensity independent cues is something called dominant to reverberant ratio. It has to do with the resonance/echo. Ref: URL_0


Question: Why would you need to solve a quadratic equation?

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 Why would you need to solve a quadratic equation?

Suppose you wanted to toss something through the air and hit a target, using a precise calculation of the required force as opposed to just eyeballing it or using trial and error. That requires solving a quadratic equation. Or suppose you made a product and wanted to figure out the best price to sell it. As you increase the price you expect to sell fewer units and as you lower the price you expect to sell more, and there is some balance between unit price and sales volume which makes you the most money. That is a quadratic equation.


Question: How come some people's faces are blurred out in documentaries and other people's aren't?

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 How come some people's faces are blurred out in documentaries and other people's aren't?

It really depends on where the items are shot. Here in the United States, the general rule of thumb is "does the person have a reasonable expectation of privacy?" For example, if you're doing an interview in a public place and random people walk behind the person you're interviewing, those people don't have a "reasonable expectation of privacy" since they are already out in public. But, if you shoot a bunch of people in a public park (and they're recognizable), and your narrator says, "drugs addicts have been coming to this park for years", you could get sued for slander. (Whether they would actually win is another matter...). If you look at a show like COPS, where it's shot on private and public property, you will notice that some of the faces are blurred and some are not. The ones that aren't have generally signed a release from the production company. The ones that refused to sign would be blurred out. Remember the show "Cheaters" ? Yeah, none of those people were blurred out. That's how I knew it was really a "staged" production right from the start and the hired actors would've all signed releases. As our society has become so litigious, it's always best to err on the side of caution and blur any questionable faces.


Question: What is a container in computing? What is it used for and how does it work?

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 What is a container in computing? What is it used for and how does it work?

A container is a sort of sandbox for a program, collection of programs, or damned near a whole operating system or Linux distribution (for the specific case of Linux obviously) designed to provide the illusion of a private operating system to the program(s) involved. For longtime Unix users I tell them that a container is like using chroot but at the next level. Certain resources or identifiers in a system are normally considered to be universal. You couldn't possibly have 2 different programs with the same PID number because otherwise they would be the same program. You couldn't possibly have 2 different programs each ask what the IP address for the system is and both of them get different answers, or maybe one of them is told there's no internet access at all. You can't have /home/murdock1024/Documents exist for one program and not exist for another (though one program might get a permission error and the other has permission, that's okay). With containers we change how the system works to make it so that these strange things can happen. Though the Linux kernel that booted up is running and managing all these applications, it is telling each one a different thing about what is normally considered system-wide information. This provides good isolation and security advantages without the CPU overhead and RAM dedication involved in running ordinary virtual machines. The machine running many containers doesn't have to provide hard limits and dedicated RAM and CPU to each one - the operating system can see all the programs running in each and give them the flexibility to use whatever is available. If you have a Linux system, there is a command called 'unshare' that can be used by a knowledgeable administrator as a foundation to make custom containers. It's definitely not for ordinary users to play with, but if you run `unshare -n sh` you'll get a fresh shell but with no internet access - one of the scenarios I described above.


Question: In a nutshell, what happened between Tesla, Edison, and Westinghouse?

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 In a nutshell, what happened between Tesla, Edison, and Westinghouse?

It was about the battle between DC and AC current, and which one would become the worldwide standard in the new electrical power industry. EDISON was already a rich & famous inventor and marketer. Edison was trying to convince investors to choose DC current. Because DC current can only be transmitted a mile or so, he imagined every neighborhood in a city would need it's own power plant. And who would provide these dozens of plants to power each city? Why Edison himself, of course. $$$ TESLA was an unknown employee that originally worked for Edison. Tesla was pushing for AC current. The advantage of AC is that unlike DC, it can be sent over VAST distances. A city would need only one large power plant on the outskirts. As Tesla's employer, Edison had the influence to make AC the standard, but Edison was already too invested in the DC plan. Edison scoffed at Tesla's plan and humiliated Tesla in public trying to discredit him. WESTINGHOUSE was a wealthy financier that wanted to back one of the platforms. Westinghouse chose Tesla's AC current to finance and (in spite of a lot of whining from Edison) AC fortunately became the world standard we have today. If Edison would have had his way we would likely have small power plants every 6 blocks or so in cities. Could you even imagine that?


Question: using soap too many times a day is bad for our skin?

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 using soap too many times a day is bad for our skin?

Yes, it is. Soap is effective for removing dirt and excess oil, but that oil is also important for keeping your skin moist and hydrated, *plus* it's a protective barrier from bacteria. We use soap so we're not dirty, smelly, and greasy, but your skin still needs some oil to function properly. Most noticeably you're gonna see your skin getting red/dry/flaky with excess soap usage, but it'll also start to exacerbate acne if it's something you already deal with.


Question: Say we were to colonise one of these planets. How would communication back to Earth work. Is there any possibility of faster than light communication or would everything we send between colonies take 40 years to get to one another?

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 Say we were to colonise one of these planets. How would communication back to Earth work. Is there any possibility of faster than light communication or would everything we send between colonies take 40 years to get to one another?

Communication would be limited to 40 year lag. Speed of light is an absolute max speed given our current understanding of science. Some people think that doing really tricky things with entangled particles could allow for faster than light communication. You can put information "in" to entangled particles and this change will be reflected instantaneously anywhere in the galaxy which is pretty cool. However it's impossible to get information "out" of an entangled particle. (Note even calling this "information" is misleading since it's not information if you can't read). So short answer: no we're limited to speed of light. Long answer: no we're limited to speed of light and quantum entanglement doesn't solve this but it's really cool check it out.


Question: why does pouring hot water sound different than pouring cold water?

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 why does pouring hot water sound different than pouring cold water?

From 'Quite Interesting' (Q.I.) s14e03: "because hot water is, kind of, slightly less sticky, is the thing of it, molecules in it have more energy from the heat, and so when hot water hits a hard surface, it breaks up into smaller particles and makes a higher pitched splashing noise than cold water. "


Question: why was is normal to have automatic transmissions with less gears than a manual one before but now you get ones with more than double a manual one?

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 why was is normal to have automatic transmissions with less gears than a manual one before but now you get ones with more than double a manual one?

Automatics have traditionally operated using planetary gearsets. Due to the way they function this allowed 3 forward gears, neutral and reverse. That was pretty normal until approximately 1980. Next generation Automatics added an overdrive. This allowed 4 forward gears. This has been the standard in most cars until relatively recently. Modern automatics have multiple sets of very well made planetary gearsets, as the number of gearsets increase, the number of gears the automatic can use exponentially increases as each added planetary gearset multiplies the ratios of the existing gearsets. This is why an automatic now has 7, 8 or 9 gears to choose from.


Question: How does human perception of sound work? How many sounds can a human hear? What makes sound different?

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 How does human perception of sound work? How many sounds can a human hear? What makes sound different?

[This is a (really interesting) video about how languages use tone, but the part relevant to your question is from 2:02 to 2:32]( URL_0 ) Basically, sound is a wave carried through some medium, usually air. The shape of the wave matters a lot and determines almost everything. One way to see this wave is to imagine how the air-pressure changes at a spot over time. We can actually draw this wave by drawing how much air pressure there is at a spot at any time, and then connect the dots to get a wave-like shape. (The video makes this a lot clearer haha). How loud the sound is (volume) relates to how big vertically the wave is. What musical note it is (pitch) relates to how big it is horizontally. That's basically it. However, real life isn't so simple. When you actually play an instrument, you'll get something that follows the general shape of a nice wave, but is a bit "fuzzy" in places. This is because real life instruments aren't perfect scientific sound-making machines. The real life wave is slightly different, but still follows the general shape of the nice wave we like to think about. This "fuzz" is why you can tell 2 instruments apart, even if they play the exact same note. They are slightly different from each other, but both close to this ideal wave. We call this fuzziness "timbre" for simplicity. Interestingly enough (in English), it's the timbre of what you say that carries (most of) the information. In the video, the youtuber otherwise singing and turning up the volume would change the meaning of what you're saying.


Question: How come airplane passengers don't have shoulder harnesses like pilots do?

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 How come airplane passengers don't have shoulder harnesses like pilots do?

Turbulence can and has killed people on flights without their seat belts on, by throwing them into the ceiling when the plane suddenly descends or gets thrown around. Up and down motions are to be avoided. Whilst violent forward and back motions are also to be avoided, they are usually only caused by impacts either with the ground, an obstacle, or something on the runway/tarmac. If that happens, forward and backward motion is the least of your problems. As for the pilots, they need to keep in control of the aircraft no matter what is happening. Whether it is turbulence or an unexpected nose dive, they must be glued to the seat, not the back of the cabin struggling to regain control if there is an unexpected event. Edit: a word


Question: how does alcohol intoxicate you?

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 how does alcohol intoxicate you?

Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant and it slows the synapses (or communications) between your neurons which are the cells that make up your brain and spinal cord. The feeling of intoxication from alcohol is the combined effect of this reduced communication in all the important structures in your brain. The cerebral cortex is the higher-level part of our brains that is used in complex thoughts, problem solving, rationalizing, etc. When these neurons slow in communication from intoxication, it affects the ability to form these complex thoughts which might be why some people don't think before they act or they struggle to have an intelligent conversation. The hippocampus is important for the formation of memories which is why getting moderately drunk might make your memory fuzzy of the night before, and getting overly drunk could keep you from forming any memories at all which is "blacking out." The hypothalamus is involved with your body's many hormones, some of which control your hunger, thirst, and even heart rate. When these synapses are affected, it can make you more hungry or less, more thirsty or less, or increase your heartrate. The cerebellum regulates many basic function like movement and balance, overall coordination, and your body's reflexes. This makes you struggle to walk and balance properly, makes your overall movements clumsy and less coordinated, and slow to react when these neuron synapses are affected. The medulla oblongata contributes to regulating body temperature and breathing, so intoxication here can leave you feeling very warm and/or cause you to breath slower. Alcohol also tickles the dopamine receptors causing you to feel good, happy, and sometimes energetic while in effect. Because alcohol slows your neurons' communication all throughout the nervous system, this can essentially affect every part of you (physically, mentally, and emotionally) to some level, and all that combines to create the feeling of intoxication.


Question: How do lubricants actually work?

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 How do lubricants actually work?

Everything you see has little holes on it, like a golf ball. These holes grab each other as the objects touch. This slows down the object's ability to move. This is called friction. Lubricants work by filling in all the little holes so that objects can slide smoothly past each other.


Question: Unbiased explanation of Critical Race Theory?

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 Unbiased explanation of Critical Race Theory?

Critical Race Theory is the theory that most, if not all, aspects of modern society have racism baked in, which is why it’s been so hard to get rid of racism. For example, we tend to assume that our laws are written to be race-neutral, but critical race theorists point to the fact that people from different racial backgrounds can have wildly different outcomes while dealing with similar legal issues in the same legal system. The explanation, according to CRT, is that the laws and legal system are actually designed (consciously or not) to perpetuate racism. It’s important to note that CRT isn’t really one theory, but rather is a collection of different ideas that challenge a wide swath of intellectual and political traditions. The common thread is that they all agree that race is one of the important factors in creating and maintaining inequalities in society.


Question: What actually is happening when your ears “pop” driving up a mountain or when flying?

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 What actually is happening when your ears “pop” driving up a mountain or when flying?

An equalization of pressure. Your inner ear contains air at a certain pressure. As you go higher air pressure drops and the air in your ears wants to be at the same pressure. This creates a popping sound which is you hearing air moving between your ears and the outside world


Question: How can the sound that sperm whales make be so loud, and yet, divers can swim next to them and we can record the noises they make?

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 How can the sound that sperm whales make be so loud, and yet, divers can swim next to them and we can record the noises they make?

They don't typically make the super loud noises near people swimming, they are more interested in looking at the people. Water conducts sounds better and faster than air as well. As for how they produce the songs: URL_0 Basically they can move air over vocal cords lungs < - > air sacks. Plus they were very large, vocal power comes with size and amount of air moved.


Question: Why is gigantism and acromegaly so rare in humans?

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 Why is gigantism and acromegaly so rare in humans?

They are not heritable conditions, which would be a number one issue insofar as selection. Beyond that, the conditions can be debilitating, as they place a large amount of stress upon the skeleton and organs. Being abnormally large does not necessarily equate to being abnormally strong, and in fact may result in the inverse as more of your strength is spent just to withstand your own body.


Question: Why does it usually take about a week for anti-anxiety meds/antidepressants to kick in?

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 Why does it usually take about a week for anti-anxiety meds/antidepressants to kick in?

My understanding is we don't really know why antidepressants work in the first place. They were experimented with because people with depression and anxiety consistently have less of a specific chemical in their brains (Serotonin). Many of these drugs through many different mechanisms increase the amount you have. The do so very quickly and they seem to have no effect for at least a week if not longer, thus the mystery. A theory I've heard is that it's not the chemicals themselves, but that your brain is now more easily able to build new structures (neurogenesis), and that's what actually is helping. This is supported by the fact that even people who aren't helped by antidepressants are helped by other things that help the brain build new structures, like exercise. But it's also important to note that research on neurogenesis is fairly new and so we're still figuring out how it fits into what we know already and the directions of some of these relationships (it could be that being less depressed is what's increasing neurogenesis and not the other way around).


Question: How did all goverments determine how much currency is made to not get inflation?

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 How did all goverments determine how much currency is made to not get inflation?

I researched this a few months ago so I’ll state what I found. Currency gets their values from the ratio of their supply to their demand. When the demand for the currency is higher than the supply, its value increases. When the demand is lower than the supply, its value decreases. Simple Law of Supply and Demand. Therefore, to avoid inflation of currency, just avoid printing too much money that the demand won’t keep up with the supply.


Question: why do king tides occur during full/new moons? Why not other phases of the moon cycle?

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 why do king tides occur during full/new moons? Why not other phases of the moon cycle?

During a New Moon and Full Moon, the gravity of the Sun and the Moon are on the same plane as the earth is. (New = Sun, Moon, Earth, Full = Sun, Earth, Moon) The moon isn't in alignment with the earth and sun during other phases so there are no (fewer?) gravitational compounding effects


Question: What's the point of credits and debits in accounting? I don't understand how the system of increasing debits and credits to equity/assets/revenue/liability/expense etc.

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 What's the point of credits and debits in accounting? I don't understand how the system of increasing debits and credits to equity/assets/revenue/liability/expense etc.

Accounting was invented before mathematics had developed into its current form. One of the things missing from mathematics was the concept of zero and negative numbers. So in order to note which direction the money is going accountants are using debit and credit. Debit being the money going into an account and credit being money going out of an account. Accountants have recently started to use positive and negative numbers instead of debit and credit however this can be confusing to some as they take negative income and results to be a bad thing. It can also be dificult to calculate things like revenue without the help of computers.


Question: If I buy shares at one value then later sell them at a higher value, who/what is funding that profit to me? Is someone/thing out poorer as a result?

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 If I buy shares at one value then later sell them at a higher value, who/what is funding that profit to me? Is someone/thing out poorer as a result?

In theory, the company itself is funding the increase. When you bought it, everyone believed the company was worth $50 a share. Since then, the company has done something to increase their profits and now everyone believes the company is worth $65 a share. You have made $15, but nobody has *lost* $15 - the value of the company has increased because they’re providing a service customers are more willing to pay for. Long term investing isn’t “zero” sum, everyone can win. Now if you bought a stock in a certain stop for games and then sold it to some idiots for 400x its value, then they’re gonna lose money when they find out that nobody else will pay that price. There are also more complex things like stock options where you’re directly betting against another trader, and that does have losers.


Question: How did Victorian scientists test for chemicals/substances in blood before the age of modern technology?

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 How did Victorian scientists test for chemicals/substances in blood before the age of modern technology?

Even at the Victorian era the knowledge base for chemistry is not too different from today. Many modern chemical principles were theorised and proven back then. There are simple chemical tests that were known at the time. There’s a famous case study of this where a person who died of what was suspected of arsenic poisoning. Instead of testing post mortem blood like we would today, they boiled the stomach of the poisoned, extracted the broth, and removed any other organic matter with nitric acid. They can then test the resultant dead person stomach soup for arsenic. It was rudimentary but it worked. Source: The Secret Poisoner: A Century of Murder


Question: why can't we drain some water out of the sea to simultaneously combat rising sea levels and drought?

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 why can't we drain some water out of the sea to simultaneously combat rising sea levels and drought?

Well, we already do. there is more than 15,000 operational desalinization plants globally. **In California alone there are 11 desalination plants, with 10 more proposed. But there are big downsides to making seawater drinkable.** Globally, more than 300 million people now get their water from desalination plants, according to the International Desalination Association. Desal proponents acknowledge the industry must confront and solve some serious environmental issues if it is to continue to grow. Desalination requires vast amounts of energy, which in some places is currently provided by fossil fuels. Kiparsky warns of a feedback loop where more desal is needed as the planet warms, which leads to more greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, there are serious concerns about the damage to marine life from the plant’s intake systems and extra-salty wastewater. There are two types of desalination—thermal, which heats up water and then captures the condensation, and reverse osmosis, which forces sea water through the pores of a membrane that are many times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. This traps salt molecules, but allows the smaller water molecules to go through. Both require a great deal of energy, and greenhouse gas emissions created by the power needed—especially in the Middle East, where fossil fuels generate electricity—are a significant contributor to global warming. & #x200B; Seems like it would likely be counter productive to the overall effort to stop climate change. Sure, we might keep a few cities out of the ocean but it would likely ramp up run away heating of the planet at a much faster pace. & #x200B; if you would really like to learn more read here - [ URL_0 ]( URL_0 )


Question: Why do some freckles come in small 'dustings' of lots together, and others are larger and alone?

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 Why do some freckles come in small 'dustings' of lots together, and others are larger and alone?

More sun exposure. The bridge of your nose and top of your cheeks stick out and get blasted by the sun above you, resulting in more freckles. My shoulders are absolutely covered in them for the same reason. The "freckles" on your cheek could be birthmarks or moles that arent raised, not 100% sure otherwise why they would be larger freckles.


Question: Why are fires not fought with Sea Water? Isn't using fresh water to fight fires considered a waste?

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 Why are fires not fought with Sea Water? Isn't using fresh water to fight fires considered a waste?

Using sea water could devastate entire eco systems. They just use what ever water source is closest. Some of the water will return to the water table. Salt left after the fire remains. Temporary fix will leave the area salted for generations. Unless it’s a sat marsh, the salt will ruin the soil and prevent anything else from growing.


Question: Why are almost all LCD displays (calculators, kitchen appliances, digital watches) at a slight angle?

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 Why are almost all LCD displays (calculators, kitchen appliances, digital watches) at a slight angle?

The LC (liquid crystals) re-orient themselves to block the passage of light or allow it. Like a piece of paper that will block your view if it's facing you, and not block your view if it's egdewise. So if the LCD display is back-lit, like a computer screen that has LED lamps right behind the screen, then the screen doesn't have to be angled. But if the display is not back-lit, if the surface behind the LCD is just a grey-ish reflective piece of metal, then the light from the sun or overhead lightbulbs must be allowed to get in past the crystals, strike the surface, then reflect back at you THROUGH the crystals, so you need a slight angle for that. It's like trying to catch the sun in a small mirror, you have to angle it a little (or a lot).


Question: why is lithium hard to recycle?

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 why is lithium hard to recycle?

Lithium reacts different than many other elements, and because it's so light (atomic number 3, just below hydrogen) if it catches fire, it flies away. Currently millions of dollars are being driven into finding a good way to do it using either chemical reactions or dissolving in water, that are also cheap and non-polluting. Likewise, similar research is being carried out to find how to extract the huge amounts of lithium in sea water. The race is on and whoever can figure it out first is going to get very rich very fast, taking in old cell phones and e-car batteries. My bet is on vibration seperation.


Question: Is the alcohol in mouthwash the same type as found in wine and beer?

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 Is the alcohol in mouthwash the same type as found in wine and beer?

The alcohol in mouthwash is indeed food grade ethanol, there are some alcoholic people who do consume it to get drunk as sometimes it's cheaper and more accessible than regular alcohol. It's not a great idea to drink it though because the high concentration of fluoride and other tooth strengthening/cleaning and breath freshening compounds can make you sick if ingested in large quantities. All drinkable alcohol is just flavored diluted ethanol, whether it's obtained from fermented juices, molasses, corn etc... Any sugar source can be converted into ethanol. Only ethanol can be consumed, any other type of alcohol like isopropanol or methanol are extremely poisonous to humans. People were doing the same thing with ethanol based hand sanitizer gel recently also.


Question: If gravity distorts time how did this affect time right after the Big Bang?

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 If gravity distorts time how did this affect time right after the Big Bang?

That's one of the interesting and unanswered questions of physics. If the universe was dense and all matter was together did time move at a slower rate? It's possible, and probable, But the next question is would it have mattered? Since the universe was all equally as dense, all of space time would have been affected by this effect so it would it have made any appreciable difference? The problem is we can't directly observe the universe at that early age because light didn't exist yet, so it's hard to predict what was going on.


Question: When breathing turns oxygen into carbon dioxide, where does the carbon come from?

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 When breathing turns oxygen into carbon dioxide, where does the carbon come from?

The food you eat. Sugars, fats, carbohydrates, they are pretty much just variations of long carbon/hydrogen based molecules. Inside your body you react them (basically set them in fire without the flame) and they break down into CO2, water, and heat/energy. That heat/energy keeps you alive and moving, the water keeps you alive (and you eventually pee or sweat it out, and the CO2 you breath out. There are a lot of mini steps along the way but thats the gist of it.


Question: How does paying off a loan early save money?

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 How does paying off a loan early save money?

You have that completely wrong :) So this is going to go a little more indepth than you probably need, but its good to understand what is happening. When you take out a loan for lets say $1000, it is going to come with an interest rate and a term. Now when you go ahead and start paying this loan off they have set up an imaginary account for you that all of the money you pay goes towards. So say after the first month you pay $100 towards that loan. Now there is this $100 sitting in a bank account accruing interest on your behalf at the same rate as the loan is. The second that this bank account reaches an amount that is equal to or more than the $1000 + accrued interest, the debt will be settled and any amount that you may have gone over, returned. So if you go take out a loan for $1000 dollars and pay it off tomorrow you will only pay $1000 + a few cents (depending on interest rate). It is important to note that some loans do come with "early repayment penalties" whereby you will be charged a penalty if you pay off the loan early.


Question: How do multi vitamins work? The ones I have contain around 24 vitamins and minerals. How do they add all of it into one capsule, enough to supplement a full day's diet?

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</answer>
 How do multi vitamins work? The ones I have contain around 24 vitamins and minerals. How do they add all of it into one capsule, enough to supplement a full day's diet?

Have you tried reading the dosages for each part? Some nutrient requirements are measured in *micrograms* per day. I don't think any of them reach the level of grams per day needed for health support. It all fits just fine. Most of the tablet will actually be fillers such as cornstarch, plus binders so it doesn't fall apart.


Question: Why do we find viscous liquids so satisfying?

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 Why do we find viscous liquids so satisfying?

Honestly I dont think this is an actual thing that has an explanation. Its more of a preference. I dont think humans have an innate love with viscus liquids like we do with.... idk cant think of a good example, but its not programmed in like our love for pheromones or something.


Question: How does campaign finance corruption work?

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 How does campaign finance corruption work?

Say you're running for office. I want you to win, and I have a fuckton of money, but I can only give you $2,000 directly. That's not much for a national office campaign! Oh no! So screw that, instead I'm going to start a Political Action Committee. DatOneGuy-69 For America PAC is unaffiliated with your campaign, so I can give it however much money I want! I can spend millions running ads for you and trashing your opponent! So long as my PAC doesn't "coordinate" with your campaign it's all 100% legal. I do this because once you're in office, I expect you to do something for me. Now I never actually make a quid-pro-quo agreement with you, oh no, that'd be bribery! However I can make it **very** clear that if you want DatOneGuy-69 For America PAC on your side again in 2/4/6 years you need to support policies that DatOneGuy-69 For America PAC supports. (The policies are making me a pile of money, making me a *huge* pile of money, and I dunno, saving pandas or some shit.)


Question: Why is requiring ID when voting considered voter suppression?

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 Why is requiring ID when voting considered voter suppression?

The main issue is that is it trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud from people misrepresenting their identities. Many people have expended a lot of effort to try to find some, and thus far have come up empty. So while in isolation it might seem to be an innocuous requirement, in practice, it is not, because it is being used selectively to gain a political advantage.


Question: How did Musicians used to make money when their songs got played on the radio or their videos got played on MTV back in the 90s?

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 How did Musicians used to make money when their songs got played on the radio or their videos got played on MTV back in the 90s?

They primarily made their money the same way they do now -- by touring. Radio play, and even music sales don't pay an artist very much, unless you are an absolute monster of an artist. Radio pay is small beans (and only goes to the writer of the song) and for album sales, the artist would only get about $1 per album sale (the rest went to the label). Touring however, thats where the real money is for almost all artists, it can be very profitable and thats where they really make their living. Their albums might as well just be a marketing campaign for people to go see them live.


Question: I understand that space is always expanding, but expanding into what?

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 I understand that space is always expanding, but expanding into what?

Space is not expanding *into* anything. In fact, space may already be infinite in extent. The expansion of space means that as a general rule, all points are continuously growing further away from all other points. Imagine a 3D cubic lattice of dots, or points in space. At time t=0, the distance between adjacent points is exactly 1. If you're standing at a dot, the next dot away from you is 1 unit away, the next one over is 2 units away, etc. Now, at some later time t > 0, the dots have moved apart in all three dimensions, such that the the next dot away from you is 1.1 units away, and the next one over is 2.2 units away, then 3.3, etc. What you should notice is that the farther away from the observer (you) you get, the faster space seems to be moving away. This makes sense, because there is more space between you and the point that you're looking at to expand in the given time period. A consequence of this is that, if you look far enough away, space will be expanding at the speed of light, and no information from farther away than that will ever be able to reach you. This is the boundary of what we call the observable universe, and it's just a consequence of physics. If you were to be instantly teleported to a location at that boundary, you would have an entirely new bubble of observation on the universe, with Earth at one extreme, and a view on the other side of things that people on Earth will never see. The greater universe that exists beyond our observable bubble may well be infinite. We are unlikely to ever know. What we do know is that the expansion of space is accelerating, so the size of our observable bubble is shrinking.


Question: Why is San Clemente Island only visible in the winter months?

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 Why is San Clemente Island only visible in the winter months?

Whenever I have a question like yours, that I want a real answer to (not just people’s guesses) I email a professor in that science at a local college. I’ve done this probably 10+ times and always get an answer. Not just an answer, every time they have explained it in way that makes sense and are super nice about it. One guy even drew a little picture for me!


Question: Why was windows 8 considered a downgrade in operative systems?

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 Why was windows 8 considered a downgrade in operative systems?

It was a bug-ridden mess. I had programs and games that worked fine in 7, and in 10, but not in 8 or 8.1. It was designed from the ground up to be a mobile operating system but was rammed into the desktop market which has entirely different UI needs. It had weird bugs that never got patched or even acknowledged by MS, like the infamous %100 disk usage bug that slowed some programs to a crawl even on the high end rigs, and it was entirely random. It was profoundly uncustomizable. It took away the start menu, which was a focal point for a great many users who relied on familiarity to help them navigate their space. It arbitrarily changed things around to appear new, when in fact all it had done was change names of common locations and files, and made a different way to access them which needlessly confused the hell out of exactly every single person who ever used the thing. Simply put, MS slapped together a ramshackle product that swapped things around to give it an air of undeserved newness and never bothered to take responsibility for the mess.


Question: What are the benefits of ice baths?

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 What are the benefits of ice baths?

It reduces inflammation in muscles, which is why someone would do it after a race. Like putting ice on a sprained muscle, except you put it everywhere to treat minor soreness. Some of these athletes probably believe that activating the body's adaptations to cold has wider ranging benefits; they probably take ice baths all the time. Some probably use saunas and ice baths. This is an emerging area of research, there are some plausible biochemical mechanisms, but it isn't proven. [This talk by Dr. Rhonda Patrick at the Biohacker conference is a good intro to the concept]( URL_0 ). Perhaps Dr. Patrick is wrong, maybe she takes credible science and makes untenable connections between one fact and another. But you can't deny that she has done her homework, this is a higher standard of reliability than some Dr. Oz bullshit.


Question: What's with quartz crystals being in watches?

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 What's with quartz crystals being in watches?

In nearly all quartz watches, the frequency is 32768 Hz, and the crystal is cut in a small tuning fork shape on a particular crystal plane. This frequency is a power of two (32768 = 215), just high enough to exceed the human hearing range, yet low enough to permit inexpensive counters to derive a 1-second pulse. URL_0


Question: Why is every first episode of a show titled the "pilot" episode?

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 Why is every first episode of a show titled the "pilot" episode?

It's a Hollywood tradition. You label it "Pilot" so that people in the industry know that it's the first episode being made as a test run to see if the show is popular enough to convince the network to spend the full amount of money to make it a full series.


Question: How do public terminals wipe everything and reset every session?

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 How do public terminals wipe everything and reset every session?

depends on how the IT dept setup the terminal. back in the day, the entire computer ran off a static disk image. after every logoff, the entire computer wiped itself and restored from the image. nowadays alot of it is just storing session data in a container. once session is gone, toss the container away. when you login, make a new container.


Question: if the perimeter of a circle and a square are the same why is the area of the circle greater?

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 if the perimeter of a circle and a square are the same why is the area of the circle greater?

Take a loop of string. Make a square out of it. The square has some area. Now pull two opposite corners of the square as far apart as you can. The new shape has the same perimeter as the square did, but almost no area at all. So we can use the same perimeter to make shapes with different area. If you take your square and reshape it into a circle, you’ll lose some area around the corners, but the amount you gain outside of the edges is more than what you lost.


Question: How does the World Bank work?

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 How does the World Bank work?

Anyone can lend money to governments by buying bonds from them. It is considered a fairly safe form of investment. It is therefore used a lot by savings banks, pension funds and the like. You are likely either directly or indirectly lending some of your money to the government yourself. As for the World Bank that is more of a charitable set of institutions. They provide fairly good loan terms to poorer countries, similar to how student loans provide fairly good loan terms to students. And similar to government student loans programs the World Banks lose money and needs donations from its member countries. The oroginal intention was for the World Bank to provide loans to poorer countries, originally warn torn countries from WWII, to prevent them being bought out by the Communists. There is still some of that original ideology left but it is now mostly charitable as well as some more complex political motives. Most countries in the world borrow money from privates, mostly their own citizens.