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qa | Why is there a delay for turning on lights but not turning off??
Many types of lights/lamps do not turn off instantly - there's a glow or fade to full off. Likewise, some types of lamps do turn on pretty much instantly. Because there are many different types of lamps, fixtures, power supplies, and controls.
Depending o... |
qa | How are woodpeckers able to keep their beaks sharp enough to chip into trees while also not breaking them??
Not an expert but I found this, hope it helps, "Sometimes a bird needs more than a specialized beak to enable it to get the food it needs. ... The woodpecker's beak is strong and sturdy, with a chisel-like tip fo... |
qa | Could PayPal theoretically be used to cause extreme inflation via the creation of fake (read: worthless) currency??
No more so than any other bank. All banks loan more money than they actually have, effectively creating money.
No. Paypal is only a payment processor/money transfer service. So money that already exists... |
qa | Why there is a 50% chance that two people share a birthday in a group of 23, and a 99% chance in a group of only 57 people?
Really short answer - because if you picked a person at random and then compared them to the group (of 23 total), the chance of having one out of 22 be this exact one out of 365 is low.
But when ... |
qa | What does it really mean when one "bruises" their bone??
It really means that there is blood and fluid gathering in the area of the trauma. Same as a dermal bruise, except you can't see the discoloration on the actual bone, because it's covered in flesh. Though, if a bone is bruised, it's a safe assumption that the f... |
qa | How did the color red/a (red) star came to be accepted as the symbol of communism??
So you kinda answered your own question with the hammer and sickle, it represents a union between the industrial proletariat (the hammer) and the peasantry (the sickle) against the capitalist class.
As for the color red, the red flag a... |
qa | What is the correct etiquette regarding handshakes when meeting people? Under what circumstances should you and shouldn't you shake hands??
These are the rules I go by in Germany. They work in the business world. I know the rules are different in other countries so it might be different where you live. When at a privat... |
qa | Why do automatic cars have hand brake?
Automatics are the same as manuals except for the gears, so the features are the same. If you're referring to automatic boxes holding better than a manual when stationary, then boxes can fail. Hand brakes are a safety feature, so it would be very unwise for a manufacturer to not ... |
qa | Why do we see everything in a more "blue-ish" color after opening our eyes in a sunny day??
Red light coming through your eyelids desensitizes your retinas to red light. When you open your eyes, you see everything out of balance because your eyes have adjusted to an abundance of red. Kind of like accidentally photo edi... |
qa | How do ventriloquists throw their voice to make it sound like it's coming from somewhere else??
The voice is not being "thrown" in any way.
Here is how it works:
* Your brain has the experience of seeing mouths move and hearing voices over and over and over your whole life.
* You learn, kind of, the general timings... |
qa | Why do piratebay uploaders post video screenshots with sketchy image upload sites like pixhunter/screenshotz/etc. instead of imgur??
My guess would be ad money, but the big kicker might be imgur terms of service _URL_0_
> Stuff not to do
>
> If someone else might own the copyright to it, don’t upload it. Don’t ho... |
qa | Laughter after something serious.?
A lot of people use laughter as a defense mechanism when they're uncomfortable or in pain (physically or mentally)
> Is it a way to cope with stress
Yep. |
qa | What is FIFTY in terms of Reddit??
Are you sure you don't mean "FTFY"?
It means "Fixed That For You". |
qa | Does opening a soft drink very fast (as opposed to very slowly twisting the cap to release pressure) release more carbonation??
Soda doesn't release more carbonation if you open the cap fast. If you open it fast, as you typically get capped soda from a vending machine, the pent-up carbonation comes out all at once. If ... |
qa | Where do the extra commercials in overtime/extra innings sporting events come from??
They will sell the ads to the advertisers in advance. The ad order might say something like "one ad during each quarter, and one in each overtime as available.
Advertising like this is billed after it runs, so there wouldn't be a refu... |
qa | How does smart phone's gyroscope work??
Well, someone's upvoted my other answer, which was very kind... but the answer was wrong, at least as far as iPhones are concerned.
I did a bit of googling, and [found](_URL_0_) that it's actually a mechanical device which is vibrated by an electronic signal.
When the chip is m... |
qa | Why are some wild animals like manatees/dolphins/common seals instinctively friendly? How do they know humans in their water aren't a threat??
They don't, and indeed we arnt allways friendly. It's just that they have evolved with specific predeters. While humans evolve to not fear certain things, and to be exenophobic ... |
qa | Biologist Jonas Salk once said If all insects on Earth disappeared, within 50 years all life on Earth would end. If all human beings disappeared from the Earth, within 50 years all forms of life would flourish. How are insects so important??
Insects are the bottom of the food chain. If we break the chain at the bottom,... |
qa | Why do we faint from fear??
Fainting from fear or from a very sudden accident (such as a car flipping) is a primitive self-defense mechanism that prevents the person from having to go through such a horrible event.
It is believed by many scientists that when a predator takes down prey (such as a lion on a gazelle) t... |
qa | The Facebook IPO?
IPO= Initial Public Offering.
Basically Facebook is currently a private company run by Zuckerberg.
With an IPO a company is going public. In other words they will be traded on the stock market, people will now be able to own shares of Facebook (FB).
Usually a private company IPO's when they are br... |
qa | Sparse Vectors?
A _vector_ is just a fancy mathematical name for a list.
When we say a vector is _sparse_, that means we're expecting it to be mostly empty. (Exactly what "empty" means depends on the context, but for a list of numbers, it's usually 0).
Now, the obvious way to write down a list is just to write all th... |
qa | Does headache relief medicine (e.g. Nurofen, Panadol, etc.) actually cure the headache, or does it simply relieve the pain??
They just relieve the pain. Headaches come from various sources, like muscle tension or dehydration, and it's rarely possible to self-diagnose the source. It's much easier to take a general-purpo... |
qa | How does a chainmail dive suit protect divers from a shark with numerous sharp teeth and a bite force of 6000N.?
The shark has dozens of teeth interfacing with the chainmail, its not like a spear with a single point so it kind of functions like the bed of nails. The force is spread over enough of these points to reduce... |
qa | sexually transmitted infections?
Unprotected sex involves people swapping bodily fluids. Swapping body fluids creates a chance for people to spread diseases - just the same as having somebody with a cold spit in your face. Some viruses and bacteria have evolved to thrive in the genitals & spread this way.
Some are... |
qa | Why can't you erase colored pencils??
A colored pencil isn't exactly the same thing as a normal pencil with color. A regular pencil uses graphite. A colored pencil uses pigments like in paint, but suspended in wax. It's a lot closer to a crayon than an actual pencil.
The pigments in colored pencil don't have smooth lay... |
qa | Why did black widows evolve to have such deadly venom??
There is no why in evolution. It just so happens that black widows that were able to kill nearly any predator were better at surviving, so their descendants are as well.
1: there is no why, it's evolution. It happened and it wasn't maladaptive and carried on.
2: ... |
qa | Why do some people get so many cavities??
There's a strong genetic component to oral health. Some people just have different saliva pH levels and different amounts of carbohydrates and proteins in their saliva, and it all just fosters bacteria growth. You happen to be lucky in that your mouth mostly takes care of its... |
qa | what kind of laws states can make for themselves, contradicting federal law, and to what extent??
Generally, state laws can't directly contradict federal law. More precisely, if a state's law does contradict federal law, then the state law isn't enforceable.
The federal government is generally restricted to laws on... |
qa | The 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis?
the prime interest rate is the "gold standard" interest rate, and is typically used for the best of the best customers. Sub prime are customers that are less ideal. Banks got in trouble financially, because they were loaning out amounts of money to people who had no business with tha... |
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