Question: Why are there no competition on certain things?

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 Why are there no competition on certain things?

Some businesses are a *natural monopoly* or a *winner take all* situation. If you write apps, you want to write them for the most popular device, not for the 5th most popular device. So whoever is most popular gets more new apps, making them even *more* popular, in a self-reinforcing cycle.


Question: Why does wood get hard when burned for a short while, but get brittle if it is burned for too long?

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 Why does wood get hard when burned for a short while, but get brittle if it is burned for too long?

As you probably know, wood is made of a load of atoms, mainly carbon. All of these atoms are joined together by covalent bonds, which are pretty strong, but not unbreakable. To break these bonds, you need to reach this thing called an "activation energy," which breaks the bonds, and makes the wood brittle, as it is not firmly joined together. The catch is, energy can actually strengthen these bonds, and putting energy into the wood without reaching the activation point makes it stronger.


Question: If minerals are rocks/metals ( i think ) then how do they get in foods or in our body?

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 If minerals are rocks/metals ( i think ) then how do they get in foods or in our body?

"minerals" in this sense are just elements of the periodic table, i.e. individual atoms or molecules of iron, zinc, calcium, phosphorus etc. Plants take them up through their root systems and create complex organic compounds with them. Magnesium for example is very important for the photosynthesis in green plants. Animals eat that with their fodder (and sometimes just lick stones, e.g. goats) and deposit it in other complex organic compounds doing important stuff. Red blood cells and liver cells contain a lot of iron, for example. Alls of these are important because their chemical properties are necessary for our complex bodies to work properly.


Question: what causes the earth to rotate?

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 what causes the earth to rotate?

Not the big bang, at least certainly not directly. It is something known as the conservation of angular momentum. Basically when particles clump together they don't join perfectly instead they hit each other off-centre which causes them to rotate this initial rotation is enhanced by each new particle joining. However in the case of the Earth the formation is from a proto planetary disk ejected from the Sun when it was forming - URL_0


Question: What Actually happens if the CDC detects a Superbug?

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 What Actually happens if the CDC detects a Superbug?

Doctor here. We already got a bunch of them. Not a lot. But definitely more than one (world, not just usa). It's probably not kept under wraps. But we are extremely careful to prevent this from happening in the first place. That's why it's important to not jump on antibiotics every time you get a cold. And more importantly for doctors to not give antibiotics just because patients asked for it. But if it did happen, they will probably quarantine the source patient if found to prevent further spread. A "nasty" stomach bug is not a superbug. Nasty is something that goes "viral" real quick ( guess where that word came from) and there are other definitions too.


Question: Minneapolis and St. Paul are two major cities of small land areas in the same state that border each other. Is there any good reason they can't combine like the New York Boroughs did in 1898?

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 Minneapolis and St. Paul are two major cities of small land areas in the same state that border each other. Is there any good reason they can't combine like the New York Boroughs did in 1898?

No. There is no practical reason why they cannot combine. If you watch "Gangs of New York," you can see practical reasons why combining police forces and having uniform laws are a plus. Then again many urban areas have separate governments separated by bodies of water. State government has a lot to do with the decision to do this. State laws regulate a lot of things. A state legislature can make combining an advantage or a disadvantage.


Question: What happens to the dead bodies of bacteria after killing them in boiling water?

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 What happens to the dead bodies of bacteria after killing them in boiling water?

They stay in the water some cells will remain in one piece and some will be pulled apart by the boiling. When you drink it you can use use if like any animal or plant cell you eat there is not fundamental difference. Products like Spirulina is dried cyanobacteria so we can use dead bacteria as food as long as they did not produce anything that is toxic to use when they was alive.


Question: how can we have information about stars dozens of light years away?

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 how can we have information about stars dozens of light years away?

Light contains a lot of very useful imformation coded into its [spectral lines]( URL_2 ). They help us to figure out the composition of a star. By using [triangulation]( URL_0 ) and [standard candles]( URL_1 ) we can get a good idea of the distance of a star. When we know the distance and the composition we can use that information, along with the brightness to figure out the size. We can tell if planets are around stars by either seeing their effects on the star (a tiny gravitational wobble) or by seeing the effect of dimming of the light as they pass in front of the star. These are just a few of the methods we use for getting stellar information. Astronomers are always coming up with clever new ways to squeeze information out of a tiny pinpoint of light.


Question: How many times do you need to flick a light switch on and off before its more efficient to leave the light on for an hour?

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 How many times do you need to flick a light switch on and off before its more efficient to leave the light on for an hour?

The cost effectiveness of when to turn off lights depends on the type of bulb and the cost of electricity. The type of lightbulb you use is important for several reasons. All lightbulbs have a nominal or rated operating life, which is affected by how many times they are turned on and off. The more often they are switched on and off, the lower their operating life. Incandescent Lighting Incandescent lights should be turned off whenever they are not needed, because they are the least efficient type of lighting. 90% of the energy they use is given off as heat, and only about 10% results in light. Turning lights off will also keep a room cooler, an extra benefit in the summer. Halogen Lighting While halogens are more efficient than traditional incandescent bulbs, they use the same technology and are far less efficient than CFLs and LEDs. Therefore, it is best to turn these lights off whenever they are not needed. CFL Lighting Since they are already very efficient, the cost effectiveness of turning CFLs off to conserve energy is a bit more complicated. A general rule-of-thumb is this: If you will be out of a room for 15 minutes or less, leave it on. If you will be out of a room for more than 15 minutes, turn it off. The operating life of CFLs is more affected by the number of times they are switched on and off. You can generally extend the life of a CFL bulb more by switching it on and off less frequently than if you simply use it less. It is a popularly held belief that CFLs use a lot of energy to get started and it is better not to turn them off for short periods. The amount of energy varies between manufacturers and models—however, ENERGY STAR© rated bulbs are required to endure rapid cycling for five-minute intervals to ensure that they can hold up to frequent switching. In any case, the relatively higher "inrush" current required lasts for half a cycle, or 1/120th of a second. The amount of electricity consumed to supply the inrush current is equal to a few seconds or less of normal light operation. Turning off fluorescent lights for more than 5 seconds will save more energy than will be consumed in turning them back on again. Therefore, the real issue is the value of the electricity saved by turning the light off relative to the cost of changing a lightbulb. This in turn determines the shortest cost-effective period for turning off a fluorescent light. The value of the energy saved by turning a CFL off depends on several factors: The price an electric utility charges its customers depends on the customer "classes," which are typically residential, commercial, and industrial. There can be different rate schedules within each class. Some utilities may charge different rates for electricity consumption during different times of the day. It generally costs more for utilities to generate power during certain periods of high demand or consumption, called peaks. Some utilities can charge commercial and industrial customers more per kilowatt-hour (kWh) during peak periods than for consumption off-peak. Some utilities may also charge a base rate for a certain level of consumption and higher rates for increasing blocks of consumption. Often a utility adds miscellaneous service charges, a base charge, and/or taxes per billing period that could be averaged per kWh consumed, if these are not already factored into the rate. LED Lighting The operating life of a light emitting diode (LED) is unaffected by turning it on and off. While lifetime is reduced for fluorescent lamps the more often they are switched on and off, there is no negative effect on LED lifetime. This characteristic gives LEDs several distinct advantages when it comes to operations. For example, LEDs have an advantage when used in conjunction with occupancy sensors or daylight sensors that rely on on-off operation. Also, in contrast to traditional technologies, LEDs turn on at full brightness almost instantly, with no delay. LEDs are also largely unaffected by vibration because they do not have filaments or glass enclosures. Calculating Energy Savings To calculate the exact value of energy savings by turning a lightbulb off, you need to first determine how much energy the bulb consumes when on. Every bulb has a watt rating printed on it. For example, if the rating is 40 watts, and the bulb is on for one hour, it will consume 0.04 kWh, or if it is off for one hour, you will be saving 0.04 kWh. (Note that many fluorescent fixtures have two or more bulbs. Also, one switch may control several fixtures—an "array." Add the savings for each fixture to determine the total energy savings.) Then you need to find out what you are paying for electricity per kWh (in general and during peak periods). You will need to look over your electricity bills and see what the utility charges per kWh. Multiply the rate per kWh by the amount of electricity saved, and this will give you the value of the savings. Continuing with the example above, let us say that your electric rate is 10 cents per kWh. The value of the energy savings would then be 0.4 cents ($ 0.004). The value of the savings will increase the higher the watt rating of the bulb, the greater the number of bulbs controlled by a single switch, and the higher the rate per kWh. The most cost-effective length of time that a light (or set of lights) can be turned off before the value of the savings exceeds the cost of having to replace bulbs (due to their shortened operating life) will depend on the type and model of bulb and ballast. The cost of replacing a bulb (or ballast) depends on the cost of the bulb and the cost of labor to do it. Lighting manufacturers should be able to supply information on the duty cycle of their products. In general, the more energy-efficient a lightbulb is, the longer you can leave it on before it is cost effective to turn it off. In addition to turning off your lights manually, you may want to consider using sensors, timers, and other automatic lighting controls. URL_0


Question: What is the difference between a daily, bi-weekly, and monthly contact lens?

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 What is the difference between a daily, bi-weekly, and monthly contact lens?

It's mostly about the quality of the contact lens. A daily lens will be thin and prone to drying. Particles from you eye and air will accumulate on it and it won't be much durable, so using it more than 1 or 2 days might causes problems. They will be less comfortable, might irritate your eyes and will easily rip if you put them in and take them off several times. But they cost less since they are thinner and use material or less quality. Monthly contact less are thicker and more durable. The surface is more easy to disinfect so particles can be removed, making it comfortable to use for a longer period. Of course, they are more expensive.


Question: Why renewable energy isn’t dominating the market yet? Wouldn’t a combination of solar/wind/hydro/tidal/geothermal energy suffice at least a big chunk of a country’s consumption?

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 Why renewable energy isn’t dominating the market yet? Wouldn’t a combination of solar/wind/hydro/tidal/geothermal energy suffice at least a big chunk of a country’s consumption?

Fossil fuels in many cases are still cheaper than renewable energy. Importantly they are also very reliable and can adapt quickly to demand. We don't have very effective ways to store large amounts of energy so electricity needs to be generated when we need it, and that isn't always when the wind is blowing, the sun is shining, etc. If everyone comes home in the evening and turns on their appliances it isn't like we can expect the wind to blow harder to keep up. The sun isn't going to shine any more, in fact it is probably setting and solar energy output is decreasing dramatically. Also if we need energy in a specific place it is easy enough to ship coal or petroleum products to be burned there, but it isn't always the case that there is a convenient form of renewable energy to tap. Many of those challenges might be possible to overcome, but the alternative is inexpensive fossil fuels which feed into an infrastructure that already exists. If you have a billion dollar power plant that burns coal to power a massive city nearby, how do you get the funding to try replacing that with another billion dollar project which has challenges with only theoretical, unproven solutions? What is available now definitely works and the massive city isn't going to enjoy being your test subject if things go wrong.


Question: How is the ozone layer healing?

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 How is the ozone layer healing?

Ozone is created through a reaction with normal oxygen (02) and solar radiation. It is then depleted through various chemical reactions. So the ozone layer isn't something that is static - it is constantly forming new ozone to replace the ozone that gets lost. & #x200B; We threw this natural system out of whack for a long time by pumping a bunch of chemicals like CFC's into the atmosphere that are highly reactive with ozone. This caused the ozone layer to lose ozone faster than it was able to replace it - hence the hole. We've stopped pumping a fair amount of these chemicals into the atmosphere so the amount of ozone being depleted by them has also decreased significantly. & #x200B; But there's still less than there should be, which is why the ozone layer is healing. What is happening is that because there isn't as much ozone as there should be more solar radiation is able to get through. One of the things this results in is more ozone being produced. As more ozone gets produces it will allow less solar radiation through so the rate at which it is able to be produced will slow down. Eventually it will get back to the point where it's being produced at the same rate it's being depleted and the ozone layer will go back to existing in a state of equilibrium (balance) - somewhat anyway, there will always be changes in both the atmosphere and amount of solar radiation so it's never a perfect balance but it'll be close enough (unless we find some other way to fuck up)


Question: When your iris changes in size from light why does does the area we can see not change?

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 When your iris changes in size from light why does does the area we can see not change?

It's because the retina -- where light is processed into signals for the brain -- it's kind of like a movie screen -- is not immediately adjacent to the iris. If the retina were adjacent to the iris, then yes, a smaller iris aperture would mean a smaller field of vision. But light hits the retina (the curved movie screen) pretty much all over whether the iris aperture is tiny or large, because the retina is a centimeter or so away from the aperture. edit1: I had no idea this thread would be so popular! edit2: I neglected to mention the work of the lens, which is pretty important. I was thinking along the lines of the pinhole camera, in which the hole itself is the lens. edit3: Sorry about the "centimeter or so." How's "centimeter or two"? Heh. My bad.


Question: If a grain of sand represented the earth, what item would represent the universe and how do you do such calculations?

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 If a grain of sand represented the earth, what item would represent the universe and how do you do such calculations?

It's pretty straight forward math....using some estimates, the observable universe is estimated to be ~93 billion light years in diameter but it's still growing. Light years are roughly 6 trillion miles. So 93 billion * 6 trillion miles gives you 558e+21 miles - or, 558 followed by 21 zeroes. A grain of sand can vary quite a bit, but a fair average is about 1mm wide (it can be anywhere from about 0.06mm to 2mm). So if the Earth, at it's equator is 7,917.5 mi, and that represents 1mm. That means the diameter of the universe converts to about 70,476,791,916,640,353,647mm, which is about 50,605,231 *times* the diameter of the sun. So if the Earth is represented by a single grain of sand, the *observable* universe would still be about 50 million times the diameter of the sun.


Question: Why do gift cards have an expiry date?

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 Why do gift cards have an expiry date?

Gift cards are put on the balance sheet of the company as a liability. They have a debt in order to provide a product or service at a future date. Many gift cards are never redeemed but the company cannot know *which* cards are never going to be used. If they never expired then such debts would accrue over time into a large sum of debt which will never actually be called in. Why is this a problem? Because the value of a company is determined in part by considering their assets compared to their debt. If you have $100 million in assets but owe $120 million in debt then your company isn't *really* worth anything at all. So building up excess gift card debt which can never be paid off is something to be avoided.


Question: Is it true that the missionary position was named after Christian missionaries? If it is true why weren't tribes people already doing that simple position?

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 Is it true that the missionary position was named after Christian missionaries? If it is true why weren't tribes people already doing that simple position?

It's certain that the natives knew many positions, including the missionary one. In the Bible it uses the phrase to lay down with as a euphemism for having intercourse with. So some thought that any position were both were not lying down as somehow deviant. Hence, doggy style would be considered immoral.


Question: What are all the extra ingredients in a cigarette for if nicotine is the main goal?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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 What are all the extra ingredients in a cigarette for if nicotine is the main goal?

There are lots of reasons, also keep in mind that most lists are of a company's additives across all their brands, not just one product. The main reasons for additives get added are flavor/scent, burning retardant (so the cigarette doesn't smolder too quickly when not being actively smoked), or modifying nicotine delivery. When you see thousands of chemicals in cigarette smoke, that's the result of tobacco leaf compounds and additives not combusting completely and creating lots of different partially burnt compounds.


Question: Why can we hear a voice and then copy it (to some degree of success) and how come we can read a sentence in Morgan Freeman’s voice even if we never heard him say the words in it?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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 Why can we hear a voice and then copy it (to some degree of success) and how come we can read a sentence in Morgan Freeman’s voice even if we never heard him say the words in it?

Because everything we perceive is really a construct of our mind. We don't perceive reality in the first place, we interpret it from various sensations. Our brain is incredible good at imagining things since it literally does this all day long. So, your initial perception of Morgan Freeman was based off the signals your brain got from your eyes, ears, etc. Now that it has that image, it doesn't actually need real input to simulate it in your head. TL;DR: Your brain always interprets reality and can fake it easily.


Question: How are all Poptart varieties exactly 200 calories per poptart?

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 How are all Poptart varieties exactly 200 calories per poptart?

The pastry part of a poptart is the same for all varieties. It's quite dense with calories from starch, fat holding it together, and small amounts of protein. The frosting is just made of sugar. It may have a different color but the frosting tastes the same. The only variation is in the filling. Even then, the filling needs a large amount of sugar to thicken and have a similar sweetness. While the flavor may change, the flavor itself does not contribute many calories (calories only depend on the amount of carbohydrates, fats, and protein).


Question: Why have newspaper comics gotten so abysmal these days?

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 Why have newspaper comics gotten so abysmal these days?

Several factors are at play. First, you're older, so you've developed a taste. You might recall loving Garfield as a kid, but now you read recent strips and it's dull and bland. But if you went back and read strips that were published when you were a child, you would find them equally dull. Second, the authors change over time. They might come to view their comics as a metaphorical prison for their imagination. They might develop some sort of mental deterioration, as with Terry Pratchett. Finally, external conditions might change that reduce their ability to do their work, as with Tom Lehrer (who, when he produced music, wanted to satirize politicians, but he stopped because today he instead wants to punch them).


Question: If exercise is so good for us, why do we not feel motivated before we commit to doing it?

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[Your final detailed answer goes here]
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 If exercise is so good for us, why do we not feel motivated before we commit to doing it?

You ever wonder what Willy-Coyote would do the day after he catches Road Runner? He has spent decades, his whole existence, building elaborate traps and now the reason for doing it is gone. You think he might build traps (or design them) for old times sake? That is you. We won the evolution game. For our whole existence food was scarce, physical exertion was common and burned precious calories (and was to be avoided wherever possible). Our evolutionary success came from using our brains to figure out how to be lazy and build a pipeline to a river instead of carrying buckets of water back and forth all day. And now, we have caught and eaten the road runner. We can eat anything we want whenever we want. We can spend days laying on the couch watching tv. We are masters of our world... And so we do... But it turns out it isn't good for us. We weren't supposed to win we were supposed to always keep struggling for the unattainable.


Question: Why do some stars that are from afar twinkle the colors red, blue, white and yellow at the same time?

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 Why do some stars that are from afar twinkle the colors red, blue, white and yellow at the same time?

It's called scintillation. It's caused by moving bodies of air in our atmosphere. Different densities of air refract light differently, so different wavelengths of light take different pathways so may or may not reach your eye different times. Because a star is a single point source of light the result is that you get this flickering of colour.


Question: What determines the value of currency?

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 What determines the value of currency?

If you simplify it to an extreme, then yes, there is no value in currency, because the economy would break down under those circumstances. E.g., if one persons had all the currency, that currency would break down because everyone else would go "fuck that" and just barter and/or create their own currency. If bread was the only good, then the baker would own the economy. It is, basically a made-up construct, but an immensely useful one for exchanging goods/services. Lets say I'm a baker, but I need grain. The farmer makes grain but doesn't need bread, he needs new tools. The blacksmith needs bread though but not grain. Instead of having to coordinate all three of us into some barter agreement, while arguing over values of each product since they're not exactly equal per unit, I can just sell the blacksmith bread for equivalent money, take the money to the farmer to get grain at equivalent amount for money I have. A nascent economy will substitute some rare item (e.g. gold) for money. The rarity is important, as it keeps the value stable. If it was something like, pinecones, for example, the value would fluctuate too wildly with the seasons for it to be reliable. Okay, maybe right now the miner has all the gold, but he also has nothing but gold. He trades some to me for bread, to the blacksmith for tools. I exchange to the farmer for grain. Farmer again to the blacksmith for tools. Et cetera. Ideally it will circulate around in a roughly fair way (though granted, initial conditions are much more complicated than this simplification). As the economy and population grows however, there's a problem. There's only so much gold (even if occasionally some miner finds some more) and the amount of people and thus goods being created/exchanged is blowing up. The rarity of gold is now biting us. So, at first, the easy solution is gold is simply worth more, so you don't need as much gold to do these exchanges. But then the people with gold start realizing gold is more and more valuable every year, so instead of spending it, they hoard as much as they can, which only makes it more valuable, which only encourages more hoarding. The whole thing is breaking down. Hence paper currency (or coins of lesser value than metals to create them). Some central authority (in the US, the Fed), is tasked with controlling the rate at which new currency is injected into the economy (by a series of financial devices not worth going into here, but it's not like they just give it away). Their goal is to hit a target inflation rate of 2% or so (some inflation is good, because it encourages spending rather than overhoarding, as seen in gold example). [Back in the day this was still backed by gold standard, but this is archaic and impractical now for a variety of reasons.] Now this isn't a direct explanation of what determines value of currency right now (that is ridiculously complicated these days), but it gives you an idea of how the construct of value in currency is built up, and why it seems absurd right now if analysed in a bubble like that, but if you follow the progression, it makes a little more sense.


Question: Why does water get in clothes so easily but is hard to get out completely?

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[Your final detailed answer goes here]
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 Why does water get in clothes so easily but is hard to get out completely?

Water, liquid water, is inherently sticky. The way it sticks to things is something like the static electricity effect you get when you rub an inflated rubber balloon on cloth, and stick it to the wall. The reason is that water is V shaped - one Oxygen atom has two Hydrogen atoms stuck to it at an angle. The Oxygen is at the point of the V, and has a negative charge. The Hydrogens are at the top of the V with a positive charge. Positive likes to stick to negative, and so anything else, anywhere, that has a positive *or* a negative is going to get water stuck to it if that water touches it. Cloth is usually an organic molecule made of a chain of stuck together carbon atoms, and usually has oxygen atoms and hydrogen atoms sticking out itself, not as sticky as water, but sticky *to* water, so if water molecules brush up against the cloth, they stick. They fasten onto their good buddy by what at called 'van der Waal forces', much like static electricity. Water also likes to stick to itself, for the same reason. So, water 'crawls' along cloth - if water touches a corner of cloth, it will spread out all along the cloth, flowing, sticking, pulling more water after it, even uphill. One touch and your cloth is wet, and won't get unwet until the water gets turned to vapour and floats away. It's all clinging to charges in the molecules of your clothes, and to itself, and doesn't like to let go.


Question: how can there be 3 tonnes of CO2 in every tonne of fuel?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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 how can there be 3 tonnes of CO2 in every tonne of fuel?

Fuel is generally a string of carbon atoms with two hydrogen atoms attached to each one. To make it into CO2 and heat you have to mix it with oxygen. So CH2 + 3O - > CO2 + H2O. Carbon weighs 12 units, hydrogen weighs about 1 unit and oxygen weighs 16 units. So from the above formula we can see that 14 units of fuel and 48 units of oxygen turns into 44 units of CO2 and 18 units of water. This is just rough estimations and the exact numbers varies on the fuel and the combustion so we round that x3.1 to an even x3 to account for the extra hydrogen and oxygen atoms we find in real fuels. So the extra weight of CO2 emissions comes from the oxygen that is being consumed in the combustion.


Question: If I have absolute proof that a man commited a crime, but I aquired it illegally and it is inadmissable in court. Does the criminal go free?

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 If I have absolute proof that a man commited a crime, but I aquired it illegally and it is inadmissable in court. Does the criminal go free?

If the evidence cannot be presented in trial then the criminal would go free. That's why cops are taught to be meticulous in their evidence gathering. One slip up or mistake can cause a case to be thrown out. It's a good thing and bad thing because it does hold law enforcement to some accountability but it also means a good defense attorney can find the most minute detail to discredit evidence and get their client to walk.


Question: why adobe flash is no longer being used? For that matter what does it even do ??

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 why adobe flash is no longer being used? For that matter what does it even do ??

TLDR: Flash is full of security holes and there are better ways to do what Flash does these days. Flash was invented in 1996 during an earlier era of the internet when browsers were much more limited. Adobe Flash allowed for video playback, interactive components of websites, and flash based animations that were revolutionary at the time. Flash resulted in a renaissance of sorts with flash based video games ( URL_0 ) and flash cartoons (Homestar Runner) becoming popular ways to waste time just as the internet was becoming common place. So why are we killing it? Because Flash is a dinosaur. The flash plugin is full of security holes and despite Adobe's hard work over the past few years to patch it the industry has moved on. Newer technologies like HTML5 have taken it' place and are honestly better at doing what Flash used to do. Continuing to use flash on your website today merely puts your website and your users at risk. Adobe meanwhile is happy to be rid of it because they have been effectively handing it out for free for years now. They made their money selling tools that made flash based websites and games, but that well has long since dried up so to them spending money to patch an obsolete protocol is nothing more than an unnecessary cost. So they have willingly killed off their own product. Basically we don't need it anymore and keeping it around is causing more problems than it's worth.


Question: Why September, October, November, December are 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th months of the year when in Greek (on which I guess it's based) it is more like Septa = 7, Octo = 8, Nona = 9, Deca = 10?

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 Why September, October, November, December are 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th months of the year when in Greek (on which I guess it's based) it is more like Septa = 7, Octo = 8, Nona = 9, Deca = 10?

The Roman Calendar had the New Year starting in March and went like this: * Martius (March) * Aprilus (April) * Maius (May) * Iunius (June) * Quintilis * Sextilis * September * October * November * December At some point January (Ianuarius) and February (Februarius) were added, but different versions have them placed in different places. Finally we have the Julian Calendar, set by Julius Caeser, which set the beginning of the year as Ianuarius (January) and renamed Quintilis to Iulius (July) and Sextilis as (eventually) Augustus (August).


Question: how does one absorb vitamin D from the sun’s radiation?

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 how does one absorb vitamin D from the sun’s radiation?

Your skin has a chemical called 7-dehydrocholesterol. It’s also called PROvitamin D3. When this chemical is exposed to sunlight, it absorbs ultraviolet B radiation and changes to PREvitamin D3. Then enzymes (basically, the machinery of cells) take over and complete the conversion to vitamin D. So your body isn’t absorbing vitamin D from the sun, only radiation that is necessary for your body to make it. Unfortunately, that same radiation causes skin cancer. Sunscreen blocks the radiation absorption. So most medical professionals will recommend taking vitamin D pills (or chewables) instead of getting sun exposure to “get” vitamin D.


Question: What are the weird electric surge/sensations that happen right before you're about to fall asleep?

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[Your final detailed answer goes here]
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 What are the weird electric surge/sensations that happen right before you're about to fall asleep?

It's called a hypnic jerk. The best explanation found so far is that it is a holdover from our primitive ancestors, before our more monkey like ancestors left the trees. As you fall asleep, your muscles relax and higher order thinking processes slow. Your more primitive processes feel your relaxation and make you jerk to alertness, before you would have fallen from a branch


Question: What are the possible repercussions of the DOJ's antitrust filing against Google?

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 What are the possible repercussions of the DOJ's antitrust filing against Google?

If it went through, alphabet (google) would have to split it's businesses to some degree. It would depend on how much and in what way it would be enforced. For example they may say the marketing, video(youtube), and other services would need to be seperate and be seperate companies or they may just force the marketing group (which is the base of it's cash flow) to slit. Also nothing could happen as well it just depends. It also matters how it's enforced. For example It could force them to split up like standard oil or AT & T where the companies (while seperate) make deals with eachother and buy up the ones that won't make deals effectively becoming a single company once more. For example when Bell (At & T) was split it was split into 7 companies all of which (excluding US West which is now owned by Century Link) are now owned by either At & T or Verizon. Or they could split like American Tobacco which split into several companies that often compete with one another as intended. It matters how it's enforced


Question: how do long cars such as limousines get towed?

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</answer>
 how do long cars such as limousines get towed?

You are allowed to exceed the legal length for emergencies. So a tow truck can tow long vehicles to get them out of the road and into the closest workshop. Care must be taken though as the turning radius will suffer. Usually it in enough to just plan the route a bit better and if you need to turn at an intersection it is possible to use more lanes to get a larger turning circle. A problem with limousines and other vehicles is that they are low to the ground and have a bit of an overhang. This means that when you lift one end the other end may go into the ground. This is something that the tow truck driver have to plan for and take into consideration when he is driving. It may be possible to change the height of the lift while he is driving so that he can more easily get over uneven roads. If the vehicle can not be towed then it is possible to load it onto a flatbed trailer for transport. In a lot of cases this is the only way to transport them. Vehicles that is too big to fit on a flatbed usually comes apart as they would have been for transport from the factory.


Question: What do scientists mean when they talk about the heat death of the universe? Neither energy nor mass can be destroyed, right?

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 What do scientists mean when they talk about the heat death of the universe? Neither energy nor mass can be destroyed, right?

If you search "heat death" on this sub you'll get dozens of responses. But I dug this up from my favorite explanation... Which has since been deleted. "Imagine you had a room, from which nothing can escape — no energy, no matter, no heat, no information, no nothing. In this room you have a few appliances... matches, a candle, a battery powered electric fan heater, a mug of hot tea, a stove with a gas canister, say. You have a bit of food too. You're going to try survive in this room for as long as possible. So you're looking around the room, checking the cupboards and drawers for any more useful things you can find, and wondering what you will have for dinner today. You spend about 20 minutes doing this, and then suddenly realise every Brit's nightmare: my cup of tea has gone cold. Now what do we mean when we say it's gone cold? Well, that it has lost its heat of course. But its heat must still be in the room somewhere, right? Because no heat can escape. You remind yourself to keep your eyes open for this missing heat. So some time passes and it's dinner time now. You light your stove and begin to stirfry some vegetables over it. The room is nice and warm by the stove, and a little warmer overall for it, but you used up some of your fuel to release the heat. The fuel atoms haven't gone anywhere though, because they can't escape the room. They've just been rearranged and dispersed by the stove. Now it is night time. While you get ready for bed, you light the candle, and switch on the battery powered heater, switching them both off before you go to sleep. You repeat this process for a few days, but your candle is beginning to run out. You can see the molten wax in the candlestick holder, wonder whether you could put it back together to make a new candle... Battery is getting low too... but the electrons can't have gone anywhere... they're still in the room somewhere. Maybe you can find a way to squash all the charge back into one of the battery pins.... Eventually, your stove runs out of fuel. Your battery runs out of charge. Your candle has melted down. You've run out of food, and all that is left is your faeces on the floor and a cold, sour cup of tea. But all the energy and matter that made up those things can't have gone anywhere, right? They're still in the room somewhere. And it's true. The room overall is a bit warmer than when you first arrived, and there are molecules in the air made from atoms that were part of your fuel, and the electrons are still sitting ‘lifeless’ in the fan heater, and the candle wax and wick are sitting in a molten pile in the holder. Even your food is still there, just in poop form. But the problem is you can't do anything useful with any of these anymore. You can't make anything happen. You can't just eat your poop, you can't rebuild your candle, or reuse your fuel. You can't warm yourself up much using just the ambient room heat, even though you could warm yourself on your stove. Recharging the battery would require power from outside the room, which isn't allowed. Maybe there is a reaction that would get you your fuel back, but that too would require you to pump some energy in from somewhere. What's more, you're getting tired, cold and hungry now. You stop being able to do much for yourself. You start wrapping yourself up in blankets trying to keep whatever heat you have left contained. But soon the blankets warm up, and in turn, the rest of the room warms up... Finally, on your last legs, you give The Signal, and a hatch opens. The world's least ethical scientist appears in the opening, and beckons you out... This is a concept called entropy. You're correct that mass-energy can't be created or destroyed, but it can become less useful because it gets less organised. At the moment, there are stars and other bodies powering the universe and all the interesting things that go on there (like us). But eventually the stars will burn out. And so you start to think that maybe we could rebuild stars. But that would require energy, which would have to come from another power source like a star, and that would run out, and you cannot win. Entropy always increases — that's the 2nd law of thermodynamics. You still have all the energy, but it's not nicely organised into useful ‘packets’... it's just kinda floating about in empty space, and re-organising this useless energy would require organised energy from somewhere else!"


Question: how are molecules and atoms studied?

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 how are molecules and atoms studied?

A lot of discoveries are made using very very clever experiments. Take the nuclei of the atom, how do we know it is there if we can never see it? we can take a small sample, and place it in the centre of a ring of detectors and fire particles at it. If the atom is a blob of protons/electrons (plum pudding model) then we expect there to be a hole the size of the sample on the detector. But when we ran the experiment, not only did we have particles hit the otherside as if nothing happened but we also got reflections as if they hit something hard and bounced off, and also refractions like it was pushed by something off its trajectory, which would make sense in a nuclei + orbiting electrons. & #x200B; Later with things like molecular structure, we can use other things we know that are true about the atoms. If we know Nuclei are charged and have spin, we can see how their magnetic fields interact with their neighbours in an NMR experiment. From the way their magnetic fields interact, we can say this atom must be next to that atom. & #x200B; There are a plethora of tests we can do by taking theoretical calculations and matching them to real world results.


Question: Why was the second wave of the Spanish Flu so much deadlier than the first?

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 Why was the second wave of the Spanish Flu so much deadlier than the first?

We do not know. One theory is that it was due to a mutation of the flu making it more deadly. It is also possible that the reporting on the number of dead was wrong. First wave hit when soldiers were moving to the front and nobody knew about the flu, second wave hit when soldiers were going home and everyone were looking out for the flu. A soldier dying in the trenches from an unknown illness is likely not going to be counted the same as a soldier dying from an illness on the way home in the middle of a known widespread pandemic. The 1918 flu pandemic not only happened in the middle of a world war but also in the early development of our understanding of infectious diseases. We did not have to tools and techniques to study and track the flu like we do today so there is a lot of things we do not know about it. And the techniques used to combat the current pandemic is techniques that were developed during the 1918 flu pandemic. Restrictions such as limiting the number of people together, canceling public events, closing boarders or at least quarantine people who travel, regularly washing of hands and face, stopping the exchange of spit, etc. were all implemented during the 1918 flu pandemic and were shown to be highly effective. And then just as now the cities that did not take effective measures early had field hospitals overflowing with sick, morgues running out of space and people buried in mass graves.


Question: Could there have been a massacre in Bowling Green that was covered up for geopolitical reasons?

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 Could there have been a massacre in Bowling Green that was covered up for geopolitical reasons?

no. We live a world security cameras, smart phone cameras and 24 hours news from CNN, Fox, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. If there were a shooting there would be evidence of it on some platform. Also, if it did happen, do you think the news channels would give up the chance to get the viewers from such a massacre? Absolutely not. 'Iraqi refugees shoot Americans in Kentucky' is the kind of news that Fox and CNN would cover non-stop for days. No it's not possible to cover up.


Question: Why does 5ghz Wi-Fi penetrate less than 2.4ghz?

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 Why does 5ghz Wi-Fi penetrate less than 2.4ghz?

There are two different factors at play here. Both are very important and could easily be compared to am\fm radio. It's about wavelength. In the case of 2.4 vs 5 gig Hz it's more than twice the wavelength difference. How does wavelength impact the way the energy travels? 1 the lower the wavelength the farther the energy will travel (so 2.4 gig is better there) 2 the higher the wavelength the less interruptions it will encounter as it moves thru objects (walls Windows doors clouds etc) (so 5 gig is "slightly" better there) The biggest improvement is the increase in bandwidth by it is offset by slightly shorter range. But both are up in the gig spectrum meaning they are not going to travel very very far unless you have a really powerful amplifier connected to your wireless router. (Which would be very dangerous for other reasons)


Question: What are the differences between the new AMD processors and the more established Intel processors, and does one truly offer a real benefit over the other?

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 What are the differences between the new AMD processors and the more established Intel processors, and does one truly offer a real benefit over the other?

AMD makes their own chips from scratch which are compatible with Intel's x86 chips. (hell, AMD invented the 64 bit x86 instruction set). They don't fit into motherboards for Intel chips, but that's expected and okay. They still run Windows, Chrome, and Steam video games so to most users it doesn't really matter what they have inside their computer case. For a few years before the Ryzen launch (in 2017) Intel was the undisputed king of performance with AMD being more of a low cost, low performance alternative. Then along came Ryzen and it changed the market. The CPUs weren't quite as good as Intel chips when measured by "calculations done on 1 core at a certain speed", which is a big deal especially for video games, and Intel still tended to have more GHz on their best chips. However in every other way that mattered AMD was kicking Intel's butt. Work done for power consumed, number of CPU cores, price for performance, number of PCI-E lanes, AMD had a significant and rather unexpected advantage. If you can make use of a lot of cores Ryzen was a no-brainer for your next PC. Fast forward 2 years and AMD is still making improvements. Even in the server market AMD has more cores for cheaper. With AMD you can get a CPU with 64 cores for around ~7,000 USD. Intel's 28 core CPU costs over 10,000 USD and some benchmarks has 1 AMD chip beating 2 Intel chips. 5 years ago AMD wasn't an option for someone who wanted a kick-ass computer. Today they are a very serious competitor to Intel.


Question: Why is a 4g connection almost useless now when a few years ago it was perfectly fine for streaming audio and video?

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 Why is a 4g connection almost useless now when a few years ago it was perfectly fine for streaming audio and video?

When 4G was "cool" there were very few users. Now there are lots, far too many, and LTE seeks to move traffic out of 4G except for edge areas with poor access. Alas, when you're there, everybody in the area is 4G and data users are much, much more common. So, yes, it is un-excellent.


Question: - Asking honestly, why is having to show ID to vote voter supression?

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 - Asking honestly, why is having to show ID to vote voter supression?

A few examples of the most hurtful and targeted effects: * Lisa lives in a state where a photo ID costs $35, but doesn't have it. The "poor vote" is suppressed. * Sam lives in a rural area and has money, but the nearest DMV is an hour away. The rural vote is suppressed. * Joe lives in a small county where the DMV is hardly ever open. Certain counties' votes are suppressed. * Luke is between homes, so he can't show the DMV any proof of address. Homeless vote is suppressed. Additionally, you can't get an ID in most states without your birth certificate and Social Security card (or a specific IRS tax form) which may have been lost, and can be very difficult to replace in a timely manner before polls open.


Question: How exactly does computer encryption actually work?

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 How exactly does computer encryption actually work?

Really complicated math. It's hard to ELI5, but I'll try. You know that simple caesar cypher, that hides a message by shifting each letter one over in the alphabet? So HELLO becomes IFMMP? Computer encryption is really just that, except on a much higher and more complex mathematical level. It mainly relies on the principal that once you multiply two numbers together, there is no simple mathematical equation you can do to get those original two numbers back - you can say, multiply 5 x 20, and get 100, but since there are multiple ways two numbers could multiply up to 100, you can't verify that the answer you came up with is the correct one. Now, if the two numbers are prime numbers, it makes it even harder by an insane amount, which I'm not going to try and explain here because that gets into college-level mathematics and prime numbers are weird. Now, most encryption methods use some form of extremely large prime numbers to generate a pair of Encryption "Keys" - one encrypts the data by running it through the equation, turning it into a meaningless jumble of letters/numbers/symbols. The other key is the decryption key, that has the instructions for un-jumbling the data. Since it's created with the encryption key and is specifically designed only to decrypt that specific encryption, each pair of keys can only be used with each other. Since they are unique and the data is unrecoverable without the decryption key, it's important to never lose this. Now, some will claim you can "brute force" or "crack" the encryption... technically, *yes*, you can try every possible decryption key till you find the right one, *but* current high end encryption protocols are so complex that even with the current processing power of the world's computers, it would take hundreds of years to crack a single key. TL;DR, You put your data in a box, and lock it with an encryption key. That lock can only be opened by the encryption key's twin, the decryption key. (Not even the encryption key can open it, and the decryption key can't lock it again!) So even if your FedEx driver steals your box, he can't get to the data. TL;DR to the TL;DR- Magic