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[ "Gas prices are largely driven by gas demand. The *demand* for gas however isn't usually driven by prices. That is, most people don't travel less just because gas costs more, they have a set number of miles they *have to* travel to live their lives.\n\nWell, if a bunch of people don't have jobs, and don't have any reason to shop, and can't afford to travel, suddenly they use less gas.\n\nGas has to become cheaper to sell all the gas they can make that isn't being used." ]

[ "A thing to remember about evolution (that I often see is either forgotten or never realized) is that so long as a trait works well enough, and doesn't kill an organism or weaken it to the point of applying direct evolutionary pressure, it will remain.\n\nLeaves are a balance between energy expenditure (to grow) and energy production. Trial and error from mutation and different plant branches of the evolutionary tree will lead to variety.", "Sometimes nature just does stuff because some component of an organism's genetics (its instruction book, if you will) changes due to a mutation and that mutation carries on to its descendants. If it's a mutation that adds some advantage, odds are a little better that it'll be retained in the long term than if it's a mutation that doesn't convey any advantage because the organisms with it are a little better off than the organisms without it. But the \"harmless\" mutations can still occur, and can still get carried on.\n\nTree leaves are like this. Sometimes their leaves have become adapted to specific circumstances that are best for their environment (example: conifers, that put their needles to sleep for the winter rather than losing them), and sometimes their shape isn't really part of some grand survival strategy to work better than other leaves. \n\nSo a maple leaf has lobes but an elm leaf does not. And a birch leaf has teeth around its outside but a lilac bush does not. And an ash tree will have compound leaves with lots of leaflets but a beech's leaves are simple. Each might convey SOME advantage or other, but regardless of whether or not that's true, each does its job and the customized shape isn't enough of a disadvantage to cause that tree to die out." ]

[ "Basically, magnetic fields happen because electrons have small magnetic fields. There are various ways they can prefer to behave in a material, giving rise to their magnetic properties.\n\nDiamagnetism is most noticeable when there are no unpaired electrons in a material. This negates the magnetic moment of the electrons (each one has a partner that negates it). It opposes any external magnetic fields by messing with the magnetic moment of the electrons' orbit. Every material will do this, but most of the time, other effects overwhelm it.\n\nParamagnetism is sort of the opposite, when there are unpaired electrons. Those unpaired ones can point any which way they please and thus, can line up with an external magnetic field, amplifying it. The magnetic moment of an electron is much greater than the magnetic moment of it's orbit, so this effect outweighs diamagnetism if there are unpaired electrons.\n\nFerromagnetism is like paramagnetism, except that it's so strong, the amplified field can sustain itself. The field generated by other electrons in the material is strong enough to get other electrons in the material to also line up, so it can keep the field by itself.\n\nAntiferromagnetism is the opposite, the unpaired electrons want to oppose eachother, so they have no magnetic field. The reasons why this would happen instead of ferromagnetism have to do with complicated energy level nonsense in various materials.\n\nFerrimagnetism forms sheets, kind of. Antiferromagnetic materials have every electron trying to be opposite of it's neighbor, so it forms a checkerboard. Ferrimagnetic materials form rows as they try to be the same alignment in one direction but opposite alignment in the other direction. This usually results in a net magnetic field like a ferromagnet.\n\nSuperparamagnetism is only found in tiny pieces of ferro or ferrimagnetic materials. They're small enough that their temperature causes them to switch the alignment of their magnetic field too quickly to produce a stable magnetic field in any given direction. But when an external field is applied, they align. It's like paramagnetism, but because the material is a better magnet in the first place, it's stronger than normal paramagnetism." ]

[ "It's been a common thing for workers in parts of the world to have to wear face masks on the back of their head because tigers won't attack if they think a person is looking at them. So this goes past domestication and is a hunter instinct.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nAnd just as a tip for owning cats, look them int he eyes every now and then and deliberately blink. It's a sign of trust, as cats stare unblinkingly at people they don't trust.", "It's the other way around. We don't make pets of animals that don't relate to us in this way. If they don't look at us in the face to communicate, then we lose interest in them or find them creepy." ]

[ "Without considering the Double Jeopardy, the knife was supposedly found years ago and kept by as a souvenir by a cop. It was only recently brought forward as evidence. Pure speculation, but it could be real hard to use it as evidence in court since it was handled improperly. \n\nEdit: improperly", "We couldn't prosecute him for murder. It's possible he could be prosecuted for tampering with evidence if it was proven he knew about the knife or buried it.", "The story is mostly bullshit. The alleged source of the knife and the sloppy chain of custody of it makes it worthless as legal evidence even if they find anything on it.", "Double jeopardy is meaningless. The chain of evidence is hopelessly fouled. This could never be brought as evidence against him.", "Hypothetically speaking: Say you have a man accused of murder, and he goes to trial. The jury then finds him not guilty due to lack of evidence.\n\nA year later, a video appears. In well-lit, high resolution video, the man who was found not guilty is very clearly shown committing the murder. There is no doubt that the video is authentic, it hasn't been faked in any way, and it clearly shows that the defendant is guilty.\n\n**Would the double jeopardy laws still prevent the murderer from being prosecuted?**\n\n.\n\n^^For ^^the ^^sake ^^of ^^argument, ^^let's ^^say ^^that ^^the ^^video ^^was ^^shot ^^through ^^a ^^window ^^by ^^a ^^crazy ^^old ^^woman. ^^She ^^never ^^reported ^^its ^^existence, ^^but ^^her ^^son ^^found ^^the ^^video ^^in ^^her ^^house ^^when ^^the ^^woman ^^died. ^^Turns ^^out, ^^the ^^woman ^^had ^^been ^^secretly ^^filming ^^her ^^neighbors ^^for ^^decades.", "No - double jeopardy doesn't allow OJ do be re-tried. However - the case to determine the cause of death for Nicole Simpson is still open, so it could be submitted as evidence for that. However - regardless, it would not result in OJ being re-tried.", "The feds possibly could prosecute him; the state of California had its shot and blew it.\n\n[\"Separate Sovereigns\"](_URL_0_)." ]

[ "A few reasons. The most straightforward is that every time a cell copies it's DNA, it uses up a piece of the tail at the end of the DNA called the *telomere*. \n\nWhen a cell is out of telomere, fragments of the DNA itself start getting used and the cell goes into *telomere panic*. Each copy does damage to the DNA after that.", "DNA strands have a bunch of junk code on each end called telomerase. It's basically a buffer that prevents encoding damage to the strand during transcription. This is shortened each time the cell divides. As it shortens, the cell becomes more and more susceptible to damage during division." ]

[ "PS2 and X360/PS3 have different processor architectures. Which means that the same piece of code means different things to those machines. That's where emulators come in. An emulator is a software that reads a code that's written for a certain processor and \"translates\" it to work on another processor. Now to make an emulator work, you have to have a very good understanding of how both processors work, so you can make the translation process as smooth as possible. If an indie team consisting of programmers who know how those architecture work at the lowest level, they can make it work, within the limits of both processors' capabilities of course." ]

[ "I believe you are feeling tiny borderline microscopic droplets of water which due to their size lose their heat to the environment extremely quickly" ]

[ "The contents of the folders are 0 bytes of data (no contents). It's like saying a real-life box contains 0 pounds. But the box itself isn't 0 pounds.", "Well since no one else has answered yet here is what you seek:\n\nThe folder names are actually stored in a large table, in some constructs called a master file table. Nothing on your disk is really inside any folder, the concept of a folder is just for conveniences sake. It is like those old library index drawers, everything seems to have this logical method to find the data, but on the shelf they're right next to other books without any preceding data.\n\nThe tiny folder name takes up a few bytes or kb on in the index in the file table (the size it takes up cannot easily be found by an end user) and so no, one could not have unlimited folders. It would be like the index drawer occupying the whole building but with no entries under any of the headings.\n\nAnywho, I hoped that helped answer your question, let me know if you'd like more detail?" ]

[ "You're giving them too much credit. When you get to insects that small, and insects in general, scientist aren't even sure they're capable of abstract thought like that, they're closer to biological machine, who just do what they do on instinct alone, their brains aren't really complicated enough to make it seem credible that they can think like we can.\n\nAlso, whoever commented bfore me, I'm pretty sure you've been shadow banned.", "The caterpillar, if not entirely, then almost entirely dies. It has been controversially suggested by respected scientists that caterpillars and butterflies are two separate species that have become a chimera - a hybrid of the two. [Source](_URL_0_)", "WHERE DID YOU LEARN THAT KIND OF LANGUAGE YOUNG MAN!? Go to your time out corner this instant. And no, a caterpillar probably doesn't know it's going to turn into a butterfly. It likely gets into the cocoon for the same reason people go to sleep during the night: because it's body is telling it to do it." ]

[ "Most films are made with the movie theater in mind, or high-end home theaters. Those are usually multi-speaker setups, with a center speaker containing most of the dialog (not all), the other speakers doing sound effects, music and and ambiance, and a big ol' subwoofer (or two) for rumbling bass.\n\nSo when that movie is in the theater, there's plenty of dynamic range (i.e. loud parts are loud, quiet parts are quiet). It sounds great. When the Joker is telling Harvey Dent about chaos, it's quieter than when the hospital blows up. But when that hospital goes kablooey, it fills up the theater with big, loud, wonderful booming sounds.\n\nBut it all comes out crystal clear, because the speakers are designed to do such things. The louder stuff is *that much more powerful* because your ears have the quieter stuff to compare it to.\n\nBut then...\n\nTake that same multi-channel audio track, and push it through a pair of built-in TV speakers that *at most* have 5-10 watts.\n\nHere's what's going on:\n\n1. Your six-plus speaker setup is now only two speakers. Your setup now has to figure where to shoehorn everything.\n2. Those speakers are a lot less powerful.\n3. Built-in TV speakers aren't exactly powerhouses of rumbling bass.\n\nSo you wind up with overall weaker sound. You turn up the volume because you can't understand what Batman is whispering about. Then suddenly something blows up and you go rushing for your TV remote before the neighbors come pounding on your door.\n\nUnless you have a nice surround-sound setup at home, you've been there. I know I have.\n\nSometimes on DVDs and Blu-Rays, you can go to the \"setup\" menu and you see the production company has been gracious enough to provide you with a 2.0 option (this means two speakers, no subwoofers). Use that if you can.\n\nOtherwise, check your TV menu. Some televisions have some sort of built-in audio compression to lessen the disparity between loud parts and quiet parts.", "Action scenes (explosions, revving engines, guns) are, in fact, a lot louder than speech. \nWe're just used to most TV programs applying a generous level of dynamic compression so that speech is about the same volume as an explosion. So when a movie does it right it seems too loud.", "It is not so much the levels of the audio, but the capabilities of the system playing it back.\n\nI also have a suspicion most audio designers(for lack of a better label) wear headphones, because I wear them almost exclusively when watching something and I never have an audio problem when I do, but playing the same file back with speakers, and the problem sticks out.\n\nYou lose a lot of nuance/quiet detail when broadcasting a sound through larger gaps of open air. The quiet words will not carry as well unless your audio system is tuned just so. That doesn't matter so much with headphones because the speakers are right by your ears." ]

[ "Most are caused by unintentional damage such as biting. Recurring ones can be a sign of an underlying health issue. This may help\n_URL_0_" ]

[ "I would guess it's because there's a greater surface area to volume ratio, so comparatively more of the food gets exposed to the air. The surface of the food will interact with oxygen in the air, affecting the flavor of whatever you are eating.", "In a nutshell, it's surface area. The more surface area there is, the more of the thing you're smelling is in the air." ]

[ "Many parliamentary democracies are republics as well, although some still have monarchs as their head of state (i.e., not republics). That last thing -- *head of state* -- is a key term here. The other term that goes with it is the *head of government*.\n \nThe head of government heads the cabinet of ministers, and is often called the *prime* minister or simply the premier (the first/highest among the ministers, who heads the cabinet instead of a specific resort like foreign affairs, finance or the economy), but can also go by other titles, like chancellor. In some countries, like the US, this person is also the head of state in personal union. In others, like in most European countries, there is a distinct role as the head of state. Usually this is a president if it's a republic, or a monarch if not. If the role is distinct, it's usually mostly ceremonial, with some additional constitutional roles (e.g., some countries require the head of state to sign laws instead of the head of government, to have an additional safeguard). Queen Elisabeth II, for example, is the head of state of well over a dozen countries from all over the world, but not the head of government in any of them.\n\nSo, the important distinction here is between the head of state and the head of government, what they're called is just a matter of nomenclature and often rooted in tradition.", "In general the Prime Minister is the head of government, while the president is the head of state (or, in some countries, both).\n\nThe head of state is the person that's theoretically in charge - they're the source of all executive power in the country, and nothing can be done without their agreement.\n\nThe head of government is the person that organizes and runs everything - in the Westminster system they are typically from the lower house, and leads the cabinet (heads of department/ministers/whatevers, depending on country). They can appoint or dismiss ministers, and have a strong degree of influence over the how the government runs. They may be elected directly, or be the leader of the party that holds the most seats.\n\nThis is where countries differ - in some countries (notably the US), the head of state and head of government are the same person - the president. They have all the power, and the ability to use it.\n\n In other countries, these are different people, and they wield power equally. The first country that comes to mind is Russia, who has a president (Medvedev) and a Prime Minister (Putin). Theoretically, Putin organises the government, whereas Medvedev is the true leader. In practice, things may work a little differently.\n\nFinally, some countries (UK, Australia, Canada etc) have a separate head of state and head of government, but with only one wielding power. The head of state is usually a figurehead (Queen Elizabeth II), and their power is implemented through the head of government (Cameron, Gillard, Harper)." ]

[ "Normally, there are two possible pleas in court. Guilty or not guilty; \"I admit I did it, go ahead and punish me\" or \"I don't admit I did anything, prove me wrong\".\n\nIn some cases, you are allowed to take a plea of no contest. This plea is saying \"I don't admit I did it, but I'll let you go ahead and punish me anyway\". While the immediate effect is the same as a guilty plea, depending on your jurisdiction there may be some secondary benefits to *nolo contendere*. For instance, under US federal rules, a guilty plea can be taken as an admission of guilt in some later court case, while a no contest plea cannot be." ]

[ "1 watt isn't a big deal. 25 watts would create more heat than the fixture is designed for." ]

[ "Fun fact: the Truth anti-smoking ads are actually funded (unwillingly) by the big tobacco comapnies. In the late 90's 47 states sued the tobacco industry for the medical financial burden their products put on the state's healthcare systems. Part of the settlement was that the tobacco companies had to fund the [American Legacy Foundation](_URL_0_), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of smoking. The ALF is responsible for the Truth advertising campaign.", "Smokers pay for those commercials with the tax they put on the cigarettes", "usually the government. they prefer having a healthy population so that tax money doesnt get lost trying to treat cancers and emphysemas.", "We all benefit from fewer people smoking. People who quit obviously reduce their risk of having smoking-related health issues, which in turn lowers the cost of the public health system taking care of people suffering such issues.", "In Australia, they're paid for by the Cancer Council of Australia (not for profit organization.)", "Yes a very good question.\nSmoking is indeed dangerous but so are motorbikes. Should they be banned. Many countries have NO public places where people can smoke, not even private clubs. This actually forces people to congregate in smoky huddles on pavements which then really does expose the public to the smoke.The public is not that stupid; everyone knows smoking isn't great for you. Btw does anyone know when exactly Barack Obama quit? Smoking that is." ]

[ "We can, just not yet. These cameras are the initial landing cameras to make sure it survived the landing. Later this week, the fancy dancey cameras will spring up and give us lovely, awesome (like, literally awe-inspiring) imagery.\n\nAlthough it's pretty awesome already in my opinion :)", "I can't even get youtube to load correctly and you want picture from MARS!!!!", "Just curious, how long does it take for the photos to get sent to Earth? How are they able to get sent to Earth? It took Curiosity 8 months to get there so I imagine photos and video will take a fair while to get back to Earth." ]

[ "You are looking at date Filled vs date expired. Not date manufactured vs date expired. These drugs are created in large quantities but that doesnt mean they all get distributed at the same time. So the ones you got in 2013 and the ones you got in 2015 could have all been made in 2013. Drugs do expire.", "Also, expiration dates on medications are a date until which they are guaranteed to be 100% as effective as when manufactured. One of the pills, taken a year later, will still be safe but may only be say 90% as potent as when manufactured.", "Doctors have done studies (most recently by the DHS) to gauge the efficacy of medications past their due dates. Most antibiotics were indistinguishable from new even at 10, 20 or even 40 years past their due date. \n\nThe due date is just so you buy more pills (in most cases). Some notable exceptions include epi pens, insulin.", "[This page](_URL_0_), section 5, has a good breakdown on medications that you should NOT use past expiration. Most other medications in pill or tablet form retain good potency for many years." ]

[ "Here's a hint- It's the same material as their shell.\n\nThe sand is an irritant to the soft gooey creature, it can't reach to dislodge a grain of sand that is stuck, so it covers it in a layer of the same stuff the shell is made of. They get the minerals from their diet. Layer after layer it gets incrementally larger, just like the shell." ]

[ "Batteries make electricity when chemicals inside of the battery undergo a chemical reaction. Chemical A combines with chemical B to make chemical C + electricity. When chemical A and chemical B run out, the reaction has to stop. \n\nIn chemistry, every reaction is reversible. If A + B make C + electricity, then C + electricity make A + B. When you charge a battery, you're giving chemical C electricity so that it can make A + B again. Once chemical A + B are back, the original reaction can happen again: you've recharged the battery by restoring the original chemicals so that the reaction can happen again." ]

[ "> many games available on standard cable packages like college?\n\nBecause they make more money the way it is currently setup. It's pretty simple at that. They have limited games on broadcast TV which they charge crazy rates for, which in turn is a limited amount of games people can watch which means everyone is watching them and the networks can charge crazy rates for ads.\n\nThe NFL then sells exclusive access to Sunday Ticket to DirecTV for a giant rate (DirecTV paid way too much) to make even more money.\n\nThe NFL is unarguably the best league in the world of sports at crafting and learning how to extract maximum value from their TV rights. Other leagues like the English Premier League, UEFA, NBA and such are all learning from the NFL's examples on how to craft TV deals, the NFL is just the best at it.", "Fox and CBS have locked down the NFL game market, meaning you are only going to get 1 game on each per timeslot. \n\nThey LIKE having it that way (both NFL and networks) as if people want more they have to buy the pricey subscriptions from the NFL. \n\nFor college ESPN jumped in int he 90's and is basically king. Meaning that they can put a game on their 5 different channels. Then you do have Fox with a few of the conferences on their 2 channels, NBC has their Notre Dame deal, and the SEC with CBS. \n\nTL'DR, ESPN saw the value in saturating the market with CFB due to so many games and jumped in. While the NFL likes keeping it exclusive to also drive subscribers for out of market games.", "The big reason is that the NFL wants you to watch and go to the games of your home team, even if you don't really have a home team. They will not show a competing game if your home team is on due to blackout rules and they won't even show the game if it didn't sell enough tickets." ]

[ "The cartilages in the vocal tract calcify and stiffen and the muscles get weaker. It makes their voice breathier and makes it more difficult to keep the pitch and loudness steady.", "In addition to /u/Holyrush's comment, it could be due to accent differences amongst generations." ]

[ "Only reason I can think of is, if one of em breaks, we can still chew", "We can really only speculate since evolution has decided this is the best thing for us. Individual teeth have some advantages though with the main one being specialization. We have teeth both for tearing foods and grinding while birds and such don't.", "They came from scales on a fish's lip in the Devonian Period. Apparently having [spiky lips](_URL_0_) was better for grasping food than regular fish lips." ]

[ "If you look away there's no stimuli trying to get your attention. You can look at a blank wall and not have anything stimulating you while you search your head for the answer." ]

[ "The \"edges\" of the universe are just as far as we can see, not physical edges, because the light at the edges is from the beginning of the universe and there can't be any light from before the universe.\n\nIt's like two ships on the ocean, which both see the horizon equidistant from themselves no matter where they are.", "The most likely is no edge to the Universe. \n\nThere is an edge to the so-called \"visible universe\" which means the part of the Universe from which the light has had time enough to reach us. This visible Universe is roughly a sphere centered on whoever is observing, just the part of the ocean you would see on a boat would roughly describe a circle on the map, centered around the observer.", "The current leading cosmological theories about the universe are a universe that is unbounded and infinite. There is no edge to approach, in any direction, and you would not return to where you started, but be forever further from that location.", "Don't think of the universe as a \"flat\" object that has edges. Instead, imagine yourself as a microscopic being living on an inflated balloon that is slowly expanding. No matter where you are on the balloon, you aren't any closer to an edge because there is no edge." ]

[ "The average lifespan of a commercial jet is 30 years. Smoking was banned on planes in the US in 1988, 24 years ago.", "Because if someone were to light up a cigarette they still need a safe place to put it out. There is way too much paper waste in the trash cans that could potentially start a fire in flight were a butt to be just tossed in. \nIts an FAA requirement, along with all the No Smoking placards. \n\nEdit: im talking about the ashtrays around the lavatory doors. If you saw one on your arm rest that's just an older design. Some airlines are putting caps over them and some don't bother.", "I remember smoking on flights inside the US and it doesn't seem all that long ago to me. I expect that many of those planes are still in service. Smoking on planes isn't banned world wide as far as I know. Though they are moving in that direction.", "A few years ago, I was on an old plane with ashtrays and the seats still had an old, musty smoke smell. After all those years, and the leftovers from poorly ventilated cigarette smoke still lingered." ]

[ "If you think animals are not afraid of water you have never tried to bath a horse or take one through a puddle. lol. \n\nHumans know there is a choice, that water can be warm or cold.. or even too hot. Animals know the temperature of the lakes/streams as being what they are.. they don't see any reason to be silly and enter it slowly if they need to cross, but sometimes you will see them entering water slowly when they are not in a hurry. Maybe you need to be around nature more." ]

[ "All are spinning masses of air. Tornadoes are much smaller than the others being only a matter of yards across. A cyclone is air spinning around a low pressure system and can be used regardless of the size. Cyclone is also used for a violent tropical storm, especially one originating in the southwestern Pacific Ocean or Indian Ocean. Hurricanes and typhoons are the same thing. If it's in the Atlantic it's called a hurricane and if it's in the Pacific around south East Asia china and Japan it's called a typhoon. \nHurricane can also be used for any wind with a speed over 73mph.", "They are regional titles (except for tornadoes).\nWestern Hemisphere hurricanes tend to be the strongest I believe, particular those that reach the gulf stream.\nThese storms occur in warm, tropical regions and rely on warm water to sustain themselves.\nTornados are moving columns of air often formed in places where cold and warm fronts converge.", "It's whether the person getting blown is Oklahoman, Jamaican, Indian or Taiwanese." ]

[ "With any animal it comes down to training and experience. Same thing can happen with dog trainers and happens all the time. \n\nLots of dog trainers for the police department have been bit by there trainees it is a hazard of the job. \n\nRoy of Siegfried & Roy career ended after being ”attacked” by one of there own lions." ]

[ "Ok, so basically, you have two cranial nerves that supply sensation to your throat, oral cavity, larynx, trachea, and external ear canal. When you insert a Q-tip, it stimulates these nerves, causing a discharge of signals to your brain. These nerves aren't completely separated, so your brain senses an irritation in your throat, which triggers the cough reflex. This same association of nerve impulses causes many people to feel they have a sore throat/earache when in fact their ears are free of infection. Hope this helps!", "I'm thinking it has something to do with the nervous system, and I would like an answer as well. I can make myself sneeze by rubbing my right eyeball." ]

[ "Something tells me that subjecting a fragile developing fetus to large gravitational forces isn't a great idea.\n\n\nNor is the general large increase in blood pressure.", "Women are only restricted from flying when they are close to their delivery date. This is mainly to prevent the situation of the woman going in labour while on the plane. If any medical assistance is needed during the birth, a plane won't be equipped for giving that, which can put the life of both the mother and child at risk.", "Roller coasters: the sudden motion of roller coasters can affect the child and potentially cause miscarriage. Preventing pregnant women from riding prevents any liability on the operator's side. Additionally, the restraint system may cause harm.\n\nHot Tubs: sitting in a hot tub raises body temperature. That can affect the child as above.\n\nFlights: aeroplanes are really not designed for routinely handling childbirth or any complications that develop during the (possibly several hour long) flight.", "There are multiple reasons why pregnant woman might be restricted and not all women are restricted and not all the time through the pregnancy.\n\nOne of the reasons that pregnant woman are advised to avoid hot tubs is that there's no guarantee how well the hot tubs are treated. So if the tub is poorly maintained, there's a risk that bacteria could enter the vagina and move into the cervix and even into the uterus. If an infection develops it could impact the fetus or it could cause a miscarriage.\n\nFlying is more about the 3rd trimester and the fact that a woman going into labor on a plane at 30,000 feet could be dangerous for the mother and the baby. You don't really want to give birth in a small steel tube full of 400 other people who could be carrying disease and germs. You don't want to expose a newborn who hasn't fully developed an immune system to that kind of beginning. And if anything goes wrong or the baby or mother needs medical intervention, there's no way to get it to them on a flight in progress. (It's also an economic decision: If someone goes into labor mid\\-flight, the plane has to land immediately and that will result in increased costs and pissed off passengers if their flight is detoured or ended because someone was having a baby.) \n\nRoller coasters involve gravitational forces that could bring on premature labor ... and that could impact the health of the baby.\n\nBut \"boiling the fetus in the uterus\" is the most ridiculous, ignorant bullshit ever." ]

[ "Che Guevara was one of the leaders of the Cuban Revolution of the 1950s with Fidel Castro. He now enjoys immense popularity as a t-shirt." ]

[ "Because it simply looks more aesthetically pleasing. Cell phone towers are an eyesore", "Same reason LA hides their oil rigs in the city, they're ugly and nobody wants to look at them. Doesn't matter if we rely on them, we still don't want to see them", "They're only obvious when you look right at them. When going about your day-to-day the disguised ones blend into the background while bare ugly ones will still catch your eye.", "The biggest reason is that cell towers fall under FCC jurisdiction and subsequently are considered an *undertaking*, which is basically, anything that is paid for or requiring a permit from the feds.\n\nThis kicks in various federal environmental protection regulations like NEPA and NHPA, and potentially state/local laws. If a cell tower is going to *adversely effect* a *resource* listed on the National Register, steps have to be taken to mitigate this impact. This generally involves an architectural historian, working for a cell company, negotiating with the regulatory agency overseeing the project. \n\nThose weird looking tree-tower things are a compromise solution. They're supposed to look relatively normal from the perspective of whatever resource that is being protected, even if they look ridiculous from other locations. \n\n > We don't try to hide electric poles, phone lines, etc.\n\nDepending on when they were built, who is paying for them, and what exactly they're being used for, they may or may not fall under the same regulations.\n\ntldr; Cell towers are camouflaged as a way of mitigating their impact on places listed on or eligible for the National Register." ]

[ "US states can't deny the validity of legal documents in other states. So if I own some property in Texas, and I bring that up as evidence in an Oklahoma court case, the court can't decide it doesn't count because it's from the wrong state." ]

[ "It means theyre working. when you get to the theoretical side of computer science, it's actually impossible to tell when something is in an infinite loop, or just taking a very long time. Generally, the computer has just come across a large amount of data it must go through, or may perhaps be waiting on a callback from some other program it dispatched. You see this a lot if you've ever downloaded a small application from someone instead of a big budget program. sometimes when you feed a simple program lots of data (I have an image downloader some dude made in a day for instance) it will \"not respond\" for hours on end because it's working really hard sorting through all the data you just gave it, and not responding to the operating system's requests for activity because it can't. Generally speaking, unless you have a logic flaw, the program will finish sometime, but you have (literally a mathematically proven fact) no way of knowing when this will occur if you don't know how the program works or how much data was given to it", "They are given an instruction that they can't complete.\n\nOne time my family lined up, and each of us called for my youngest sibling (a toddler) to come to us. He waddled up until he got about 10 feet away. Not knowing who to go to, he sat on the ground and cried. That's the computer crash" ]

[ "It is sort of complicated. Generally, the person credited as the \"writer\" comes up with the main composition, or chord structure and melody for the song. \n\nFor instance- Sting is listed as the sole composer for \"Every Breath You Take\", because he came up with the chord structure- but when you think about that song, it is Andy Summers' guitar riff that probably comes to mind. However- Sting pulls in a reported $2k per day in royalties, while Summers gets squat.\n\nThe thought being that the other musicians (bass, drums, horns, etc) are merely playing along to the already \"composed\" structure of the song. Yes- they are still \"writing\" their parts- but the structure already existed.", "It depends on the band, and the musicians. As a general rule of thumb most musical acts are directed by a producer though. Even classic musicians like The Beatles or The Doors were heavily produced. If you want to see the full credits for a song find it on [Discogs](_URL_0_) and be sure to check out both the credits which are for a specific song, and the album credits which apply to all the songs on an album. Occasionally things are left out on the website, but it's generally very good and comprehensive." ]

[ "Men's sizes are based on measurements. [Women's sizes are based on lies.](_URL_0_)", "Basically you can either: \n\n1. find the dress that fits the widest/biggest part of you and hope that it's not terrible in all the other places. \n\n2. find the dress that fits the widest/biggest part of you and have the rest tailored. \n\nMost people go with option 1 (off the rack) but for things like formal dresses or wedding dresses they'll do option 2. \n\nI sew so I go for option 2.", "I had the same problem! When I was living in the US I shopped online a lot, so I did the following:\n\n1. Buy tape measure from dollar store and measure your 3 sizes.\n2. Go on a page like this: [SAMPLE DRESS PAGE](_URL_1_). Click on the \"size chart\" - usually they will have different size chart for every brand (because, like /u/nwoozie said, sizing is not consistent among brands). Find your closest match. \n\nIf you shop in actual stores, just try on a few. You can also browse online first for a particular brand's sizing. I know a few brands now use this online platform that sizes you (by asking a bunch of questions).", "I just bought a dress from the 60's/70's that says it's a size 11/12 but I'm usually only a size 5/6. Clothing sizes are just numbers that can help you pick up the right item off the shelf. It varies depending on area of the world, brand, and year." ]

[ "Fat is a living tissue. Transplants of living tissue are more expensive and have higher risk of complications. Implants are biologically inert and relatively easy to implant.", "This actually is a thing, but you have to use large amounts of fat as not all of it \"takes\" and has arguably more complication potential than implants (though it also produces ~~better~~ more natural looking results than implants). The Wikipedia page for \"Breast Augmentation\" (won't link because I'm not going to go there on this work computer...) has a rather large section devoted to the method you should check out.", "This is a thing, relicating the fat and 'sculpting' the area youre taking fat from with liposuction, they then sterilize the fat, and reinject it but into the breasts this time. The only issue is that a lot of the time the fat will be reabsorbed and the procedure has to be re-done. No gangreen or completely disgusting affects unless its done improperly/with insterile equipment.", "Might also have to do with the structure of the breast and how the added fat is stored, stomach/thigh fat is used in Brazilian butt lifts (makes bum bigger) so obviously fat transplants can work" ]

[ "It looks like [basalt pillars](_URL_0_) erroded from the bottom. Basalt, due to the crystalline structure or something like that, naturally forms these shapes.", "According to the paragraph under the picture, they are hexagons, but I agree they look square. Anyway, if you use Ameoba's idea of the natural basalt crystals, plus that paragraph, which talks about repeated heat and cooling, it's a pretty good explanation." ]

[ "Personally, I like Christian Science Monitor (even though I'm an atheist. They do good reporting) and The Economist. The BBC is also good for factual stories on world events.", "Not sure this is exactly the right subreddit to ask this question, but I would advise the most important thing is to read from a *variety* of sources. There are a number of places I personally get my news from, but you should also be aware of their political bent. \n\nThe New York Times for an example, is great and all for US politics. It's very liberal, but a lot of world events gets plopped into \"World Briefing\" and don't get full articles. \n\nThe Wall Street Journal has a conversative bent. They're similarly awesome and reputable to the NYT. \n\nThe Economist is a great weekly British magazine. You can get a lot of non-US world news exposure there. Their articles are more obviously opinionated (they tend to be center-rightish and have this intense hate for Cristina Kirchner), but they're very well-written. \n\nSlate and The Nation are both really leftist. Everything's an opinion piece.", "Seconding what's already been said. Variety is key. \n\n- Christian Science Monitor has good international reporting, mainly because they still have bureaus where most other US newspapers have downsized (or so I've heard). \n- I try to read both The Guardian and The Times of London to get a varied British perspective (Guardian on the left and Times on the right). BBC is good for getting quick headlines, but doesn't quite match up depth-wise. \n- Al-Jazeera catches flak from the Middle East for being anti-Arab and from the U.S. for being anti-American, but their coverage of the Arab Spring was better than anywhere else, so I read it pretty regularly.\n- Finally, if you're interested in military/defense and politics, [Small Wars Journal's daily Roundup] (_URL_0_) is a great source for quick headlines from a variety of sources.", "[The Atlantic](_URL_1_) is (in my opinion) very sophisticated yet unbiased. Especially the regular columnists." ]

[ "Bosnia and Herzegovina consists of two \"entities\", Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.\n\nThe borders between these two are more or less defined by the territory the opposing forces of the Bosnian war held.\n\nThe two entities are mostly autonomous, but they are both represented internationally by the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina (this is distinct from the *Federation* of Bosnia and Herzegovina). There is one citizenship, and people are free to travel between the two entities.\n\nThere is also the Brčko District which is an area which is shared by the two entities.\n\nThe Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is further split up into cantons which govern themselves to some degree.", "Well, BiH has 3 presidents, one for each ethnic group. The Dayton Accords really aims at equal, power sharing among Bosnian Serbs, Croats, and Muslims, but the framework created at Dayton has proven to be pretty divisive. Also, interestingly, the highest political power in the Bosnia is called the High Representative, also stipulated by the Dayton framework. The High Representative's job is to implement the peace plan, apparently. But the High Representative isn't actually representative of the Bosnian people as the job has only gone to diplomats and politicians from other countries, namely EU countries, and they don't have to answer to any elected official within Bosnia, itself." ]

[ "[This article](_URL_0_) suggests that, as you might expect, it's very hard to get anywhere near the income advertised." ]

[ "A handful of centuries is an extremely long time. I wouldn't be surprised if the foods you mention almost completely supplanted traditional foods in Asia and Europe. Many New World crops offered vastly superior yields and nutritional value -- the introduction of potatoes to northern Europe caused an increase in available food which was followed by an increase in population which in turn necessitated the growing of more and more potatoes to feed the area's population. If I recall correctly the yam or possibly the sweet potato had the same effect in China. Regarding your original question, though; try Google or Wikipedia." ]

[ "It's a fashion statement mostly.\n\nDon't get me wrong - there's some technology and research there, but not nearly enough to really affect, well, anything that much. You may jump a few millimeters higher through some new bouncy sole and lighter material. And there is some stability enhancements that will slightly reduce the risk of a rolled ankle. And some fabric may allow the foot to \"breathe\" a hair better.\n\nBut in the end, it's clever marketing.", "It's all just marketing. They can charge whatever the market will bear. As for performance; the best thing you can do is find pair of shoes that's comfortable at a price you can afford." ]

[ "Properly securing websites is one of those things where if you're doing your job right, no one notices. If you're doing it wrong, no one notices until you get compromised. This is why it often doesn't get enough attention.\n\nIn addition, because various sites are architected in many different ways in terms of software and topology, there's no one \"right way\" to secure things. Whereas there exist best practices for Wordpress blogs for example, time must be spent to determine where more complex systems are vulnerable. That doesn't excuse basic mistakes like not salting passwords or leaving database ports open, however.\n\nSome of the recent attacks are not technological, but rather are social engineering. If users are giving away their credentials, there's no foolproof solution." ]

[ "Humans, because of the society we have made for ourselves, don't necessarily need to respond to environmental pressures genetically when it comes to passing on our genes.\n\nA person with clinical depression in our society can be treated and still have sex. It's not preventing genes from being passed on, and that's the question you always have to answer when you're thinking about why x wasn't \"fixed\" by evolution. If it doesn't prevent sex, you're not going to see any genetic fixes." ]

[ "This is obviously a very complicated question, ~~Nobel Prize winning~~ economist Thomas Piketty set out to explore it in his book Capital. What it comes down to is this:\n\nIf you make enough money (and only enough) to keep you alive, you will never get any richer. Every day you will earn $5 and at the end of the day you will have $0 left, and so the cycle repeats until you die.\n\nBut if you earn $6, you can put away some of that money. You can save $1 a day and put it in a bank account. You can set the money to work, *to make you more money*. For the super-rich, this is even more extreme. The more money you make, the more you can invest, and the more you make off of those investments that you can then re-invest. It's a positive feedback loop.", "The top \"1%\" has a very America-centric vibe to it. It often means the 1% in countries that are wealthy, not the 1% for the world. If you earn more than $70,000/year... congratulations you're a 1%er.\n\nOne of the problems with the 0.1% is that they accumulate money but don't spend it. In economics with your surplus income you should invest it so that you can earn more. But a lot of these guys just sit on a giant pile of cash. Other 1%ers have similar behaviors, although not as extreme. I invest 15% of my income every year but 20-25% of it is just sitting in a rainy day savings account.\n\nWhy this way of working is particularly bad for the economy is that it means less investment, less opportunities, less jobs, and less consumerism (because if people have less money they buy less stuff).", "One guy with a billion dollars doesn't spend money the same way as a million guys with a thousand dollars.\n\nThe rich tend to keep each other richer. Not always on purpose, but just how the system is in regards to what money ends up where." ]

[ "The vocal folds (also known as your vocal cords) are mucous membranes. Unlike muscles, which can atrophy and deteriorate from lack of use, using or not using the vocal cords doesn't really make a huge difference in their well-being. You might have some voice breaking or stammering when you try to speak again after a long time, but it's not like they would waste away from lack of use. \n\nI believe that the biggest impact from lack of speaking would be more psychological. If you're in a situation where you can manage to not speak for any reason, you probably will not have a lot of human contact, which can affect your mental health in various different ways.", "For a case study on this read up on [John Francis](_URL_0_ who didn't speak for [17 years](_URL_1_).", "The systems in your body that you use to produce speech are also used for breathing, swallowing food, clearing your throat, coughing, and all manner of other things. You use your lungs (which if you stopped using, you'd die!), your diaphragm, your lips, your tongue, and your muscles in your throat.\n\nWhat can happen is that you may forget /how/ to speak. People who've been in isolation for a long time often have trouble speaking out loud to people when they get back in contact with other people. Instead, because they're so used to internalising all their thoughts, they tend to avoid speaking, even though they're perfectly capable of speaking.", "Theres a guy who did that. I heard about him on TED radio hour. \n\n[Found it] (_URL_2_).\n\nHe can definitely talk. Even though he remained silent for 17 years. Whoa thats cool." ]

[ "Timecode is used in multiple ways throughout the production process. The most recognizable of which is the [slate or \"clapper\"](_URL_0_) The clapper is used to sync the video and audio track by creating a known point on both tracks (When the sound is made on the audio track, and when the clapper closes on the video) During editing, TONS of notes are made, mostly using timecode as a reference point. And finally, when the show or ad is broadcasted, the timecode ensures that there are no black frames (We call them \"flash frames\") in between different spots or shows. \n\nTimecode is also important for determining which broadcast standard is used. In the US, we use 29.97 frames per second (NTSC), so we use a special frame count called dropframe. Dropframe skips 2 frames per minute except every 10th minute. Other regions/formats are more straightforward and have a whole number like 24, 25, or 30 fps.", "Timecode is a method to identify every frame on a videotape and then later, audio tape recorders and hard disk recorders. It uses HH MM SS FR. When video editing began to utilize computers, there needed to be a reliable method for the computer editor to manipulate or talk to the VTR. \n\nThe Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) researched and finalized the protocol. (_URL_1_) In the beginning, the time code was recorded as an analog signal on the cue track. The human editor could identify a scene as a source time code and either enter the number or grab it on the fly. The editor could trim the number back and forth to gain access to the beginning of the scene. He/she could then do the same to the record VTR. The editor could then preview the edit over and over, trimming the source and record VTRs to his/her liking. If everything was good to go, he/she could then record from the source VTR to the record VTR in a very precise manner and when the scene is recorded, the edit computer would create a new line in the EDL (edit decision list). \nBecause the EDL was stored, the editor could go back and change a scene without fear of destroying the rest of the recorded tape. The EDL could be stored on disk for later retrieval to continue a project or fix an earlier decision.\nTime code quickly evolved to audio recorders and eventually digital disk recorders. Since an audio tape does not have a series frames, it can still be encoded with time code. However, the audio tape will also have another track which has a frame pulse locked to the video which keeps the sound in sync with the video. The prevents time code drift which can be quite large in a short time. The edit computer will compare the VTRs and ADRs during a preroll and lock them in time for the record enabling command. If all goes well, and sometimes it didn't, the edit computer would do the edit and stop after it came out of record.\n\nAre you still there? It was and still is a very complicated process. It was much harder in the beginning because the VTRs were all analog machines which didn't much like to be told to be in sync within a 7 second preroll. Eventually, things got a lot easier." ]

[ "One very helpful concept that helped me understand complex numbers is [this](_URL_0_).\n\nIt makes a lot more sense when you think about it in the way described above. Real numbers lie on a real number line, going forward for positive numbers and going backward for negative numbers. \n\nBut imaginary numbers force you to deviate off the real number line by rotating about the origin and going off in that direction.", "Every time you start with a number and multiple it by sqrt(-1) four times, you end up back where you started, but first you pass through the opposite of where you started. Right? This behavior is a lot like the circular motion you see from, say, the minutes-hand on a clock... ever four quarters of an hour it is back where it started, but after two quarters of an hour it is on the opposite side of the clock. So imaginary numbers are useful for tracking circular motion." ]

[ "[Recent studies] (_URL_0_) have shown that there may be differences in brain structure between men and women and that someone who is transgender has a brain structure more like that of their gender rather than sex. So even if we didn't have gender roles at all in our society (and trust me, we still do) there is still physical differences that are present." ]

[ "These usually come from whistleblowers or people who leak the info. Some news organizations (and I use this term loosely) pay for stuff, like TMZ or the National Enquirer. Most media companies don't pay (though there are exceptions). \n\nUsually sources give this stuff freely for a couple of reasons: \n- They want to expose corruption.\n- They have an ax to grind against a person or organization. \n- They want some fame or notoriety." ]

[ "Serialized means taking data from a complex structured format, and saving it in a simple format. Some things like network connections and hard drives can only accept data in simple formats, which is why this is necessary.\n\nAnalogy: your bedroom is set up a certain way. That's the complex structured format. Now let's say you end up having to move to a new house. Perhaps what you do is you carefully write down where everything is in your room. Then you pack it up in boxes. Then you ship the boxes to the new house. Congratulations, you just serialized your room, by turning it from a complex structure format (the actual set up of your room), into a simple format (19 boxes and a list of instructions).\n\nAt the new house, you pull out the list of how everything is arranged, then unpack the boxes and place the contents in according to how the instructions say to. That's deserialization.", "The answer from watabit is in the context of computer programming. If you ask an electrical engineer this question, the answer is fairly different - because it refers to something else. We are interested in the physical way data is transferred, not what the data means. \n \nWhen different components in a computer communicate, or when different computers communicate, they do so by changing voltage levels on wires that connect them. (Ignoring things like optical links.) To make sure that the devices on both ends of the communication wire understand what data is being sent, there has to be an agreement beforehand, called a \"protocol\". For example, is a \"1\" sent by holding a wire at a high voltage, or is it sent by transitioning a wire from a low voltage to a high voltage? \n \nIn addition to the protocols, sending data can be done over a \"bus\". A bus is a collection of wires that follow a particular protocol, but can send many bits of information simultaneously. For example, you could have a set of 8 wires that will allow for the transmission of one 8-bit byte of data at a time. This is called a *parallel* bus. This used to be the most common way to move data around, and it is still used a lot.\n \nParallel busses have some drawbacks, though. In particular, when signal speeds get extremely high, the electromagnetic interference between the various bits on the bus can cause so much \"crosstalk\" that the speed at which the data can be transferred is limited. It turns out that using a bus that only sends one bit at a time can be more efficient at how much data/second gets transmitted, because you can send those single bits much, much faster. This kind of connection is called a *serial* connection, because the bits are sent one after the other, rather than in groups. (Although sometimes more than one serial channel may go over the same cable. SATA has two, for example.)\n \nThere are circuits that will take a serial input and change it to parallel, or vice versa. We call them SERDES, for SERializer/DESerializer." ]

[ "Simplistically and quite generally, race is what most people think of as one's physical form, and is based on outward appearance. Ethnicity is what most people think of as one's background, and is based on things like language, clothing, religious customs, etc. There are no hard lines between these designations, some overlap, and their definition is also very fluid, depending on the preconceptions and background of the observer themselves. \n\nGenerally, when thinking of race, an observer will describe someone as being Black, or Asian, or White. This same observer might describe that persons ethnicity as being Jamaican, Vietnamese, or Polish. \n\nThere are all sorts of problems with these kinds of artificial designations, the most important of which is that there really is no such thing as [\"race](_URL_0_)\" *per sé*.", "* race = biological, based on DNA\n* ethnicity = social, based on groups", "I think /u/verticaljeff has it right. Race is usually broken down into a few big categories based on our development over thousands of years: caucasian, negroid and mongoloid were the races in old-school anthropology, but you could also group races as African, European, Native American, Asian, etc.\n\nEthnicity would be a finer grouping based on culture and self-identification, like being Scottish instead of just being European. Scotland has a cultural history and identity, Europe doesn't (as a whole).\n\nThe lines really are blurry depending on the context. African-American and Black are largely interchangeable in the US, but the culture, history, and identity would really be better described with being African-American as Black could describe any number of cultures all over the world. The whole thing is really an artificial categorization so there's bound to be some wiggle room between the two.", "Race typically refers to the physical characteristics of a person, while ethnicity refers to the social/cultural group you identify with. They are not interchangeable, but sometimes seem that way because some race terms are also used as ethnic terms and vice-versa.\n\nSource: _URL_1_" ]

[ "It's actually pretty simple. When we get surprised or something happens suddenly, our brains send blood and endorphins through our body. Popping something provides us with a \"controlled\" surprise where we know we are going to be surprised and we also know that we wont be harmed. So we get the benefits of being surprised without the risk.", "I think it's a cleansing thing...we LOVE to pop pimples and blisters on our bodies. Everyone who enjoys /r/popping can back me up. Biologically it makes sense to expunge bacteria from our bodies, my guess is that feeling of relief appeals to our mirror neurons and somehow it also transfers to things like bubble wrap.", "Cherries are the most popular. Depends on what you're personally in to, though." ]

[ "Well, its probably not a good idea to think of \"bullies\" like they are a separate population with their own tactics and strategy. Most people that we would consider bullies are just regular people like you or me, and I can guarantee that we've all acted like bullies a time or two ourselves.\n\nHave you ever been rude to someone? Been forcefully angry with someone? Tried to force someone to do something? Teased or mocked someone? Made someone feel bad?\n\nWhat benefits did you receive from doing it? How did you pick your victims? How did you work? Answer those questions, and you'll understand." ]

[ "60 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, and 30. Lots of options for splitting time into neat segments. You can divide 60 into halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, tenths, twelfths, fifteenths, twentieths, and thirtieths.\n\n10 is only divisible by 2 and 5. So you can only divide it neatly into halves and fifths. It's just not as flexible.\n\nEdit: I'm a political junkie, so I comment on a lot of threads featuring hot-button issues. But according to my inbox, this is the most incendiary comment I've ever made.", "Everyone answered this well, but note that if you count finger bones (3 on each of 4 fingers) rather than fingertips, you could be counting in base 12 and counting/tracking up to 60 is simple 12 bones and 5 fingertips (which is what we believe the Sumerians did).", "_URL_0_\n\n\"There are two entirely different kinds of \"minute\" or \"second\", and \nyou have to be careful not to confuse them. In each case, they are \n1/60 of some larger unit. When we measure time, we divide each HOUR \ninto 60 equal parts called \"minutes\", and each minute into 60 equal \n\"seconds\". We also do the same thing when we measure angles, so that \neach DEGREE is divided into 60 minutes, and each minute OF ANGLE is \ndivided into 60 seconds. The units are different; an hour is not the \nsame as a degree in any sense, and their relationship has nothing to \ndo with the angle corresponding to a minute on a clock, or in the \nearth's rotation.\n\nHere's what happened. The ancient Babylonians liked the number 60, \nand in fact based their number system on it almost the way we base \nours on 10. So any unit would be divided naturally into 60 equal \nparts. That worked well for various reasons, so early astronomers \nused that scheme to measure angles, dividing a circle into 360 parts \n(6 times 60), and then dividing each of those parts into 60 minutes, \nand then into 60 seconds. The word \"minute\" just meant \"little \npart\", and \"second\" meant \"second division into little parts\"!\n\nAt some point people started wanting to divide time into smaller parts \ntoo; in ancient times it was hard enough to measure hours, but once \nmechanical clocks were invented it became possible to divide hours up. \nHow many units should there be in each hour? They might have used 12, \nas they had long before divided the day and the night each into 12 \nparts; but someone felt that 60 parts would be nice (probably an \nastronomer!). So they needed a name for 1/60 of an hour, and since \n\"minute\" already meant \"1/60 of something\", they called it a minute. \nThey probably never considered the confusion it would cause when \nsomeone looked at a clock and asked how far the hand had moved. If I \nsay it moved 30 minutes, do I mean 30/60 of an hour on the dial, or \n30/60 of a degree of angle? That's unfortunate; but if you remember \nthat the size of a degree has nothing to do with the length of an \nhour, and that the two kinds of minutes are just 1/60 of an hour or a \ndegree respectively, then you can see that they just aren't related.\n\nIf you have any further questions, feel free to write back.\n\n- Doctor Peterson, The Math Forum\n _URL_1_ \nAssociat\"", "The answers here are interesting, but they just provide arguments why 60 is a good choice, no historical reason as for why 60 was chosen.\n\nThe previous edition of this question really nailed it. I could go ahead and copy some comments verbatim but it's so young that users there can still receive karma: _URL_2_", "Lots of people mention the Sumerians, but they definitely didn't have hours, minutes, and seconds to measure time.\n\nRather, the answer lies with the Greeks. In Egypt. Because Egypt was Greek at one point. Specifically, the famous 4th century CE astronomer Ptolemy, whose wildly incorrect views of the universe were the basis of modern science until basically Galileo. In his time, we didn't have decimals. I mean, we didn't even have *digits* yet; those came from India a few centuries later. So we used fractions, and thanks in part to the astronomical traditions inherited from the Babylonians, the common method of approximating numbers was with fractions in base 60. You had some whole number of a quantity, then some number of minute divisions, and some number of *second* divisions, *third* divisions, etc., each of them 1/60 of the previous one. So degrees were divided into minutes (1/60th of a degree), seconds (1/60th of a minute), thirds (1/60th of a second), and so forth, and that's how Ptolemy did his astronomical calculations in the Almagest. Since his book was so influential, it's what people continued to use, in Arabia and then Europe, for centuries until Ptolemy's geocentric view was replaced by actual orbital mechanics around the Sun. Meanwhile, a system of describing time needed to be precise as well for these calculations. They didn't have *clocks*. They had divided the day and the night into 12 hours each, and these were standardized as being all the same length so there'd be 24 equal hours in a day (this was an Egyptian thing too), but there were no clocks so it's not like you could see what time it was. But the numbers were used in the calculations, so they were divided the same way degrees were, into minutes, seconds, thirds, etc. Note that even if you assume geocentricity, the Sun still goes around the Earth on a 24-hour cycle, so you could draw that circle of the Sun going around the Earth and use it as a reference point for the other celestial events being modeled.\n\nWell, eventually we got clocks, and since we were already using minutes and seconds as divisions of the hour, those became standard. Thirds were too small to use, so there was no point. That's why today we don't bother with thirds, just minutes and seconds, and we use decimals (because they've been invented) to get smaller bits of time.", "Some good answers already, just wanted to add that they could count to 60 by using the five fingers of one hand to point to the twelve knuckles of the other hand.", "/u/ezbot0 is the only correct person here so far. The ancient Sumerians used base 60 for all numerical values and invented the concept of the second that we use today. All of this stuff about divisibility is total nonsense", "Ten and 100 are common bases now, but we've been measuring time since before base ten was fashionable.", "first of all, we use 360 degrees to make circles and measure the angles of polygons. Next, we use 32 degrees as freezing, add 180 deg. F., and we get the boiling point of water, 212. It's definitely NOT decimal, only.\n\nNext, we use 24 hours to a day, 60 minutes to the hour, 60 seconds to the minute, and so forth. Same with degrees latitude and longitude, 1 degree equals 60 minutes, 1' equals 60\", and so forth.\n\nalso we use 12 to make a dozen as well. It's the same principle, as 24 hours in a day.\n\nThe reason is Babylonia's hexadecimal system which was base 60, essentially. \n\nIN ancient times, they did not have our fractions system. They used integral fractions, which the Egyptians invented and were the basis of fractional maths until about the 1400's AD or so. Each fraction was 1/n, so that everything fractional was expressed as a series of 1/n. 1/2 was easy, but could be expressed using 1/6 plus 1/3. It was a very efficient method of dealing with the details of measurements, the fractions. It was highly efficient as most methods from Khemet. Pen and ink we still use the last 5K years, right? Efficiency.\n\nFor the Egyptians, PI was 4(8/9 squared). It's about 3.16, and it's the easiest way of expressing PI, as well. using their integral fraction methods. Note how many ways we can cross out 2 3's, 4's, 6 & 8, and so forth. It's a very quick calculation method and finding.\n\nBut the key was as stated briefly below. 12 is divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. Which made divvying up objects a lot easier. Bakers use the dozen even today. This made partial amounts LOTS easier to manipulate.\n\n24 hours in a day?, perfect number, 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 24. Again, easy to divvy up the days, is not? The numbers of companies in an Egyptian military division column? You guessed it. 12.\n\nAnd multiply by 5, and get 60. So, where using fractions was key, as in measuring, it provided a HUGEly simple, time saving method to do the calculations, right? & highly accurate, too. It WAS Efficient!! Nothing better for 4000 years!!! Least energy all the way. & that's why it was used and succeeded and still does.\n\nLeast Energy Rules. and THAT's why we still use it. Least Energy, 2nd law of thermodynamics. Processes strongly tend toward least energy paths. Even planets in orbits. Even suns orbiting the galaxy. Even the paths of every single, observable & known, photon. Least energy. Universally true, in the entire universe.\n\nFacts? Fusion is seen throughout the observable universe, and the combining of 4 protons to make a very stable He4 atom is least energy favored. 14 gigalight years into the future and up to the present and all spaces in between. & 14 GIGayears into the past, up to the present and ALL times in between. Enormous stability. Also least energy.\n\nSo, it's NOT just ease of calculating, but thermodynamics and AND physics, too.\n\nLeast energy Rules.\n\nThis Is how it works:\n\n_URL_5_\n\nSave energy and the system massively grows, in the long term, as above.\n\nThis is how it works in the brain/mind:\n\n_URL_4_\n\nAnd that's the \"Depths within Depths\" understanding underlying the 60's, 24, and 12 counts, too. Physics, universal. \n\nAnd our brain works using least energy, as Dr. Karl Friston (Univ. Coll. London, Dept. Neuroimaging), has repeatedly shown, too, in his work on brain and neuroscience. Dr. M. O'Keefe there got a Nobel Prize in Med./Physiology in 2014, to give some idea of the quality of work there.\n\nTo whit: a deep and rigorous sets of evidences,\n\n_URL_3_\n\nBut you asked..........", "A little more in-depth than a ELI-5 typical answer because understanding the historical context is key to the reason behind the 'standards' used to measure time.\n\n_URL_6_\n\n\nTLDR: The ability to measure time increased in precision as advances in technology progressed. Metric system debuted about the time it was possible to measure 'seconds' with reliable precision.\n\nFirst was day/night. It was either dark or it was light. Tracking the movement of the sun/stars made it possible to be somewhat more 'precise' in knowing when it was during day/night in general. \n\nTime-keeping devices made it easier to 'sub-divide' the day into smaller increments. Those increments used the 'common' measurements of the day, i.e. base 12, then base 10, and continuing to today's ability to measure to the zeptosecond.\n\nA zeptosecond is one trillionth of a billionth of a second. It was used to measure an electron escaping its atom for the first time in 2016.", "What's always bothered me is, why make a mile 5280 feet? Why not just a nice crisp, easily mathed number like 5000?", "The real question here is why don't we use a base 12 number system? :( then questions like this wouldn't exist", "Because it's historically how they did it. When humans tried to count time a long time ago, they separated the circle the sun dial went around in 360 degrees, (6x60), and then each degree in 60 arc minutes, and each arc minute in 60 arc seconds. 60 has lots of dividers (2x2x3x5) so its a convenient number. \n\nThis system dates back to ancient romans and Greeks, if not before, if I'm not mistaken. \n\nThen, in the French revolution, people did try to change it to decimal, when they invented the metric system. They made decimal clocks with hours 100 minutes long, and minutes 100 seconds long, decimal calendars with weeks of 10 days, etc. But they never managed to implement it fully before they got replaced with another government, and the old way to count time stuck even though the metric system stayed. \n\nHonestly I think they shouldn't have used base 10: they should've used base 12, just like inches and feet use, but make every unit of measurement use 12. It has more dividers than 10 (2x2x3) which makes for easier fractions and multiplication, and people were already used to it thanks to the feet and inches. Oh well.", "_URL_7_\n\nTake a look at the first 4:30min of the video. He talk about highly divisible numbers. Meaning which numbers have a lot of divisible numbers. That's why we use 60. \n\n10 is really not a good numbers for that. The only reason it seem more natural is because we count in base 10 and we count in base 10 because we have 10 fingers.\n\nThat's also why the imperial system is in base 12, 24 hours in a day, or that we use 360 degrees in a circle.", "I read somewhere once (don't remember the source) that it has to do with our Gregorian calendar. Sort of irrelevant , but that's why Stonehenge has around 56? pits dug into the middle area. Had to do with their different form of keeping track of time. But that doesn't really explain why they still go by normal (as listed above) hours , time, minutes, etc.", "The French tried to do this after the revolution in 1789. They restructured much of their daily lives, like renaming the months of the year and restarting the calendar. Some things lasted longer than others, but keeping time with 100 seconds per minute/100 minutes per hour/10 hours per day was not one of them.", "60 hours? I don't think so. 12 hours, as in 12 months (lunar cycles). I would think 12 would be the base, and then come the other (both greater and smaller).", "I always thought it was based on the average heart beat, about 60 bpm. Could still be partly true, but there's some great other answers here!", "It goes back to the ancient Babylonians, who used a base 60 number system. It made it much easier to do fractions: 60 is evenly divisible by every number between 1 through 12, except 7, 8, 9, and 11.\n\nIt was the Babylonians that divided the whole day into 12 hours. The Romans adopted the standard, but divided the day and the night into 12 hours, for a total of 24. We have retained this Roman standard.\n\nThe reason we call it a \"minute\" is because it is a small part, or a minute part, if you will---1/60th---of an hour. The reason why we call it a \"second\" is because it is a second division of 60: 1/60th of a minute.\n\nThere's no definite consensus as to why the circle was divided into 360 degrees. But it is noteworthy that 360 days is nearly equal to a year---which means that the earth orbits the sun at a rate of nearly 1 degree per day.", "Lots of reasons, historically speaking led to 60 second minute/hour, partly due to the babylonian base 6 system which was mathematically convenient for geometry. Egyptians also had an influence on dividing the day into 24 hours 10 daylight hours and 2 twilight hours morning and night. All of these systems came to be before we developed the system we all know today base 10 numbers. \nProbably why 2pi isn't just 0; because 0 wasn't a thing yet. Much like the babylonian system, pi/6 is 30 degrees 2pi/6 is 60 pi/2 is 90 and so on and so forth back around to pi=180* and 2pi=360* easily divisible by 6. \nFYI I'm not an expert just took a history of science and tech course last semester, loved it. History of math is so cool... Urgh just read that out loud. I'm such a nerd.", "The smallest unit of time that can in ancient times be universally defined no matter where you are on earth is a day/night. In ancient Babylon they did not use a decimal system, which is the numbers system we use today based on a base of 10, but they used a base of 60 or sometimes 12. So the Babylonians decided to divide the length of of time of a day by 12 hours, an hour by 60 minutes and a minute by 60 seconds. And since they were the first ones to do this (well), their use spread across the world until it became the norm.\n\nSo it's pretty arbitrary but based on the length of time of 1 day. It's like if we divided the length of time of 1 day by 10,000 and called that a second", "I don't know if this has been said already, but I heard that it was because of the Sumarians and their way of thinking. Forgive me for not being too specific about the details as I do not remember them, but a big reason why our sense of time is set mainly around the two numbers, 12 and 60 are because the Sumarians made many observations of the phases of the moon and the average day.", "THE DIVISION of the hour into 60minutes and of the minute into 60 seconds comes from the Babylonians who used a sexagesimal (counting in 60s) system for mathematics and astronomy. They derived their number system from the Sumerians who were using it as early as 3500 BC.", "The thing that annoys me with this topic, I'm a production fitter and turner and it seems every one writes angles with decimals instead of minutes so they would write 10.5 degrees Which is actually 10 degrees 30 minutes. Why do they do this ???", "Because of its divisibility by 12. \nYou have 3 sections on your fingers = 12 total. Each set of 12 could be represented by 1 finger on the right hand. \n5 sets of 12 = 60\n\nI think it goes back to the Babylonians.", "It's a throwback to the earliest recorded numbering system. The Sumerians used a base-60 math system, and it stuck. Similarly, our 12 month calendar comes from the Egyptians, who had 12 months of 30 days plus a 5 day annual festival.", "What I'm curious about is why a second is as long as it is. Is it just humans being arbitrary in order to be rational or something?", "Funny how this gets a \"repost\" tag but any time I post a question that hasn't been asked in months mine gets deleted.", "60 is a [superior highly composite number](_URL_9_).\n\nSee also: _URL_8_" ]

[ "The nitrogen gas molecule (N2) is extremely stable and hard to crack apart. Most living organisms can't do it - most of the biological nitrogen in existence came from specialized bacteria.\n\nOn the other hand, the oxygen gas molecule (O2) is highly reactive, meaning its energy can be harnessed for useful chemical reactions, like those that support life.", "Nitrogen is pretty stable, it likes to bond to another nitrogen and stay like that\n\nOxygen is not. It likes to react, with whatever it can.\n\nCarbon? Great! Iron? Sure! Copper? Why not? Hydrogen? Hell yeah! \n\nOxygen's desire to react means that it can be used to create energy. When you split an O2 molecule it takes a bit of energy, when you let them get together with a C you get even more back. Plants make sugar out of water and CO2, everything splits the sugar, bonds it with O2 to get energy back out, and produces CO2 and water\n\nThere are some bacteria that live in legume roots that do have a nitrogen cycle, they take in nitrogen and bond it with hydrogen to make ammonia which then gets turned into nitrates. This is why legumes are important for soil health" ]

[ "Potatoes are have a relatively neutral flavor. This means they can take on the flavors of other foods without greatly disrupting the flavor profile. They're also cheap way to add bulk and calories to a meal. Recall that calories are only a bad thing in societies and ages of affluence. In times and places where food is scarce, the goal is to get as many calories as you can into a meal because you don't know whether you're going to eat well next time. Even though we may not have such problems in some places today, it's still why the potato became an integral part of various cuisines in the first place.", "Watch this short informational video about potatoes, it will clear everything right up. Potatoes are really amazing \n_URL_0_" ]

[ "It's something of an open question whether they are all that accurate. Often they are accurate only in the gross details (hair colour, large nose, etc) and aren't otherwise recognisable. \n\nIt's quite rare for a suspect to be identified purely on the basis of an accurate sketch, though." ]

[ "Much of the answer has to do with the length limitations of vinyl 7\" 45 rpm singles, which for many years were the primary means of promoting a single song. You can only fit about 3 minutes of music onto a 45 rpm single. So historically, if you wanted to write a hit pop song, you had to keep it under that length.\n\nMore here:\n\n[Why Are Songs On The Radio About The Same Length?](_URL_0_)", "[Billy Joel explains it in The Entertainer](_URL_1_)\n\n > \"It was a beautiful song, / but it ran too long / If you're gonna have a hit, you gotta make it fit / So they cut it down to 3:05.\"", "Top 10 charts have a lot to do with it. If you have 10 songs at 3 minutes each, you can get them all into a 30 minute radio segment.", "It has to do with which kind of music you're talking about, and how it came to be.\n\nMost modern music is influenced by the radio station format, where it's convenient to have songs that span between 3 to 4 minutes tops. You'll even find \"radio edits\" of longer songs.\nThere is also the format: early vinyl records were 10 inches in diameter and held only 3 minutes. Jukeboxes play 45 rpm records, and they span (surprise!) 3 minutes. So artists/record companies made songs that fit that length.\n\nIf you look at classic music instead, you'll that symphonies are way longer than 3 minutes. Some of it was created for theater plays, or just orchestra. Since people would go to a venue and sit down to listen, lengthy pieces were expected.\n\n\nIn less popular modern music timings vary a lot too. Most of these artists are not concerned with radio play, so they just do whatever they want, or what the genre they play expects of them.\nSo you can find super short songs: _URL_3_\nOr really lengthy ones: _URL_2_\n\n\nIn short, length depends on the purpose of the music, the format, its audience, etc." ]

[ "tl;dr: Elected officials cannot be fired - they must resign or they must be removed from office through impeachment proceedings.\n\nKim Davis is an elected official. So she cannot be \"fired.\" There are two ways that she can be removed from office - by impeachment and by resignation. In the same way, President Obama cannot be \"fired.\" He can be impeached by the Senate or he can resign from office. \n\nAn interesting wrinkle is that the legislature in Kentucky (their version of Congress but at the state level) does not meet throughout the year (like Congress does). So the legislature would need to call a special session to remove her from office through impeachment proceedings (or she can just resign from office). \n\nKim Davis is being held in contempt because she has refused to comply with an order issued by a judge. She can comply by resigning, being impeached, or deciding to do her job in compliance with the Constitution (as interpreted by the Supreme Court).", "She's an elected official. Under the KY Constitution she can only be removed via impeachment.\n\nSource: [Sections 66-68 KY Constitution](_URL_0_), in particular Section 68 (\"Civil officers liable to impeachment -- Judgment -- Criminal liability.\")" ]

[ "Did you ever jump into a cool swimming pool or river or something, and notice after five minutes or so that it's no longer cold? That's because your body 'gets used' to things after a bit. \n\nYour body is used to gravity (and in fact evolved to take advantage of gravity). So you don't even notice that your insides... and the content of your insides, are all under one gee of gravity, because it's always been that way. \n\nBut get on that roller coaster (or even a really fast elevator) and you're exposed to sometimes-more, sometimes-less gees of gravity that make your innards heavier or lighter, as well as anything in them. \n\nSo you have upward pressure in your belly region and throat and their content when you round the crest of a big hill at speed, and downward pressure when you hit that curve at the bottom. And the best your brain can translate that to is a falling feeling.", "Im no proffessional, but I do remmeber reading about this once (a while ago). So bare with me, that falling feeling in your stomach is actually the opposite of falling, its floating, your internal organs arent ecactly bolted into place. So when you fall quickly your organs actually float for a moment before you land again and they land too. Causing you too have a weightless feeling in your stomach.", "Does anyone know why exhaling a deep breath throughout the descent lessens this falling feeling?", "Going with what other people have said, it's a matter of the sudden intensity of the shift. Believe it or not, traditional sky-diving doesn't have any 'roller coaster' sensation, because your body is already in motion from the plane. You won't get any of the shift-shock until the chute opens.\n\nThat, and the sensation of 'butterflies in your stomach' is your adrenal glands firing off in the middle of your torso, so that helps." ]

[ "Almost all natural water contains salts and other minerals including rivers and sweet water lakes just in different levels. Rivers flow constantly so the salt they pick up from the ground does not have time to build up to the point where it tastes salty. But oceans and lakes get all of this salt poured into them by the rivers where it builds up until even we can taste it.\n\nSome more info: _URL_0_", "According to most scientist, the earth is millions of years old. During those millions of years, the sea has been evaporated be the sun and has rained and the land many times over. But every time it rains on the land, it picks up tiny pieces of rock and gunk called minerals. These minerals then wash into the sea with the rain. But when the sea evaporates, the minerals are left behind, and only the water leaves, and then more and more minerals are washed in by the rain. Now over the millions and millions of years that this has happened over and over, most of these minerals have either just fallen out of the water onto the sea floor, or they've been used by sea plants and animals to grow. Most of what's left behind is salt, like the salt that you put on your food. This is why the sea tastes salty.", "Basically because rivers all have lower amounts of salt in them, which they bring to the sea. But when water in the sea evaporates (to become rain, etc) it leaves behind the salt, thereby slowly moving the salt (and other stuff) into the sea.", "Because every time a whale ejaculates he releases over [400 gallons](_URL_1_) of semen." ]

[ "Movies are shot using film. \nThe original film is usually of very high quality. It's relies on physics and light to record high quality images. \nSay it's 1990 something and you want to release the movie on VHS tape. \nYou would use a machine to transfer the film to the VHS tape. This creates a master tape, which you then copy and sells to people. \nBut VHS is really lousy, it doesn't have anything near the resolution of the original film. \nBut hey, not like anyone can do any better, so you put the film back into storage and sell the tapes. \nFast forward a couple of decades, the movie has a huge fan base and they all have BluRay capable devices. \nSo you dig the old film out of the archive, and you break out a new machine, this one makes BluRays. \nYou make a new master BluRay disk, you have remastered the film. \nYou copy and sell it. \n \nOf course, there isn't really one BluRay disk to rule them all, usually they make something in a format that is easy to make other BluRay disk from, same with the VHS tape. But it still involves creating a new higher quality copy from the old film.", "Most movies in existence were shot on film and the \"master\" is still film in an archive. From there, over time, it gets transferred to various media for re-use, such as analogue video tape for TV, then digital for DVD etc. These days Netflix in particular is pushing 4K hard, and so there's a drive to get classic movies converted to 4K, which means rescanning them from film. \n\nHowever, this can expose problems with the film, such as damage or colour degradation due to age, and correcting those takes time and money. Sound can also take a lot of work. In some cases, movies were badly cut by studios against the director's wishes, so missing scenes are restored from other cuts to match the director's original vision if possible. So you could say that a movie \"remaster\" is the process of creating the best possible version of that movie in a modern digital format." ]

[ "treedick is speaking about regular banks that give loans..not investment bank.\n\nLet's take Goldman Sachs' Investment Banking division\n\nBasically, they underwrite securities. Facebook is going public, they go to an investment bank to help them raise capital. Investment banks are financial intermediaries.", "The investment banking divisions of banks are essentially financial advisers. They provide advisory services to their clients, covering a variety of different types of financial transaction. Here are the following types of transactions investments banks usually advise on:\n\n**Mergers and Acquisitions**: Company A wants to merge with or buy Company B. This is a large and complex transaction and variety of parties, aside from the two companies can be involved (ex, minority shareholders). Anyone of the involved people will come to an investment bank to get help structuring the deal or making sure they're getting/paying a fair price.\n\n**Capital Raising**: For what ever reason, a company might need to raise a lot of money (more than they could ever get from a traditional bank). An investment will tell a company how that should raise this money (issuing debt or equity), and then help them find people willing to give the company money. You've probably heard of an IPO, which is an example of this type of transaction.\n\n**Restructuring**: In this case, the bank will advise a company that is going bankrupt (or financially distressed). Such a company will have a lot of debt outstanding, and the investment will help the company restructure this debt so the debtors can come out satisfied and the company can still exist (rather than going out of business). Investment banks will also help creditors (the people who lent money to the businesses going bankrupt).\n\n**Leveraged Finance**: This is similar to capital raising, except instead of any kind of debt or equity, this group specifically focusing on raising debt.\n\nUsually the way an investment banking division is structured is that it will have a group focusing on each of the above services. Investment banks will also have groups focusing on specific industries (such as healthcare or tech) instead of the above products. In this case, bankers working in an industry group will work on deals involving any one of the above products." ]

[ "If you want the actual explanation for why some people say this, it is the following:\n\nPeople *claim* that it isn't actually racism because racism = prejudice + power. So if you are a historically disadvantaged group (therefore less power), nothing you do can be racist. It can be bigoted, intolerant, or ignorant - but not *racist*. \n\nDoes it make much sense? No, I don't think so. If you want equality, practice equality. Pretty simple. But that is how people try to justify it, anyway.\n\nYou also have a non-trivial amount of people who just hear \"blacks can't be racist\" (or whatever group you want to use) and go around using that to justify obviously racist/sexist actions without understanding the \"justification\" at all.", "I think what most privileged people don't realize, is how much implicit racism adds up. This doesn't necessarily only apply to racism either, but homophobia, class differences, etc. \n\nTo put my point in terms of your example, #BlackOutDay was an act of awareness, solidarity, and community amongst a minority, who has historically been oppressed. This makes it inappropriate to \"counter\" this with #WhiteOutDay, as the majority does not need to create awareness of their oppression as there is relatively none. \n\nIn that instance, it became analogous to someone who was kicked when they were down standing back up. While the person kicking them asks for a step-stool so they're still taller.\n\nIt's not forwardly (explicitly) being racist towards people, but implicitly, as it's still an attempt towards preventing equality.\n\nThese implicit acts happen every day to all people of minorities, and the sad part is the majority will not notice, they may not even mean to do it intentionally. That's why events like #BlackOutDay happen to begin with.\n\nSorry for rambling, I hope that helps answer some of your question.", "I hate doing this but I'm going to preface my post with this: ideally, no one makes generalizations about entire races, genders, sexualities, etc., because that's mean and rude. Saying \"all white people can't dance\" isn't nice, or true, or helpful. In an ideal world, race/gender/sexuality wouldn't matter for jobs or admissions or anything.\n\n**BUT** you have to remember **we don't live in an ideal world** - we live in a world where for hundreds (or even thousands) of years, certain races, genders or sexualities have held most of the power and deliberately denied power to the other races/genders/sexes. Acting like race/gender/sexuality aren't factors in peoples' lives is only going to perpetuate existing inequality.\n\nLet's take affirmative action for example, because I've often heard this called \"institutional racism\" against white/straight/male people. On the surface, it seems unfair that when two people have roughly comparable backgrounds, the one who happens to be a minority might be chosen for the position based on the fact that they're a minority, even if their resume is a little less strong. But the purpose is to combat 1) the historical disadvantages that minorities have had often **because** of the majority's efforts to keep them out of power and 2) the current discrimination that exists. Now, some people like to say that either 1 or 2 don't really matter. But consider that women have had the right to vote in American for roughly 100 years, and the American Civil Rights movement was only a generation ago. There was active, legal discrimination against people who are in the workforce now, and parents of people who are in the workforce now, which definitely hurts their chances of getting better jobs, getting into neighborhoods with good schools that can help their kids get better jobs, etc. Then, consider that similar (but even more drastic) discrimination has been going on for hundreds of years, and think about how that affects current job opportunities and power structures. And studies have shown that even nowadays, when faced with two IDENTICAL resumes, people are more likely to hire the candidate with the male name.\n\nSo, to clarify, when we're talking about racism, it's a very specific and almost academic term - it is discrimination from a place of historically institutional, pervasive, and dominant power, where someone from a group that has traditionally held power leverages that power or the effects of that power or the trappings of that power over someone who has been systematically excluded from power. Colloquially, people take racism to mean \"negative comments about a whole race,\" but that's not the actual definition, and that's where there's a conflict. Saying \"white people suck\" is rude, mean, prejudiced, and generally not nice, but it's not racism. Some might say it's quibbling over terminology, but I believe that that's because some people don't understand the nature of race/gender/sexuality power dynamics, and that's dangerous, especially because those that can **afford** to be ignorant and dismiss racism/sexism/homophobia as \"no big deal\" are the ones that aren't affected by it.\n\nA lot of people will also argue that when a person of color says something like \"white people suck\" it's often shorthand for \"wow today I'm really feeling the effects of systemic racism and I'm sick of it,\" and point out that when you experience racism/sexism/homophobia your whole life, you're gonna get mad at those perpetuating it at some point. Some people don't like this argument because it's basically saying minorities/women/etc. get a pass on being rude because their life is hard but like... come on. Everyone has hard days and is rude sometimes. I think expressing anger toward people who benefit from a power structure that disadvantages you is pretty natural. (But it's still not racism.)\n\nSo, basically, there is a difference between saying \"women can't drive\" and saying \"white men can't dance,\" because women were **and still are** denied the right to drive **by men**, who had/have the power to make those laws, whereas white men have never had any rights denied to them by a group that held more power than them, because they have all the power (in Western society, obvs). \n\nLet's take a more loaded statement, though: \"black people are lazy\" vs. \"white people are lazy.\" Assume the first is said by a white person and the second is said by a black person. The first is implicitly related to a history of black people being denied jobs based on their race and therefore being jobless, and of white people (especially politicians) seizing that joblessness and creating an insane loop of circular logic by saying, \"look, black people don't have jobs, therefore they are lazy; they are lazy, that's why the don't have jobs.\" This obscures the real situation - that black people have historically been and are still denied jobs based on their race, that very few black people had the same educational and career opportunities that white people did 50 years ago (and, obviously, the problem gets worse the farther back in history you go). \n\nThis shit compounds. Example: a white friend of mine has grandparents who went to the college he went to. His grandfather is a lawyer. So he's a legacy student - more likely to be accepted into this college - and his grandparents and parents are both college-educated, which means they can help him with his schoolwork as he gets older, and they know what it takes in terms of academics and extracurriculars to get into college. They also have good jobs, so they can afford to get him involved in a bunch of extracurriculars. And then his grandfather can get him a job through networking.\n\nNow imagine how few current African American kids have grandfathers that are lawyers/doctors/etc. vs. white kids who have the same. This is the kind of thing that affirmative action is trying to account for - it's trying to put minorities on equal footing with others, not give them a leg up over others.\n\nSince you're specifically asking about #BlackOutDay vs. #WhiteOutDay, I'll tackle a few issues related to that and Black History Month, International Women's Day, Gay Pride, etc.\n\nAlmost every person whose achievements you hear about in school are white, straight, and male. Often, it's assumed that unless otherwise noted, an inventor/politician/scientist is white, straight, and male. (This is called the \"unmarked category\" - people tend not to say things like 'male scientist,' which is because 'male scientists' are not exceptional - but 'female scientists' are. Generally, minority groups are a 'marked category,' and people mention or emphasize their minority-ness because it's strange/new/different/unexpected/not the default. People used to do this a lot with the word 'lady', calling people 'lady doctors' and 'lady scientists,' which implies that they're a separate kind of doctor/scientist, and not a real one.) Things like Black History Month, International Women's Day, and Pride Parades emphasize that people of color, women, and people who aren't straight/cis **do** exist and are doing great things in the world. They often also highlight that these groups have **overcome** difficulties (i.e. discrimination) that the unmarked groups did not. White/straight/male people don't get pride parades or months devoted to their achievements because the world already celebrates their achievements. Look how many portraits there are of stuffy old white dudes in every official building ever, how many buildings/schools/places/scientific things are named after white dudes. White dudes haven't had to overcome the challenges that minorities have.\n\nWhat challenges, you say? Lack of representation, to start with. All of those pictures of old white dudes, none of people of color, or women. What that says to a kid (or to an adult) is implicitly, \"people like you don't belong here, there isn't room for someone like you here, people like you don't get this position.\" Hillary Clinton, if she runs for president, will have to overcome the fact that she is a woman to win; no previous president has had to overcome the fact that he is a man. #BlackOutDay, Pride Parades, International Women's Day are all ways to say, \"hey, there are people like you out here, and they exist and they're happy and they're great despite the challenges they've faced that are directly related to their minority status.\" People make fun of #WhiteOutDay because it's an example of 1) white people not understanding how racism affects the lives of people of color and 2) white people getting offended at not being represented in something for the first time in their lives.\n\nSince it seems like you're interested in learning about these issues, I'm gonna go a step further and talk about privilige. I touched on it earlier, but the word 'privilige' tends to make people uncomfortable, because those it applies to often don't feel priviliged in any way. Saying someone has 'white privilige' means, basically, that they don't suffer from the negative effects of being a person of color - they don't have to worry that they won't get a job because their name sounds like the wrong ethnicity, they don't have to worry that a cop will assume they're older/more violent/doing more illegal things than they actually are because they're a person of color, they don't feel constantly ostracized as the only person of color in an otherwise white class/organization/work environment. Basically, they don't have to worry about their race at all times. Similarly, 'male privilige' means that men will not have to worry that their gender will negatively affect their career/life/etc.\n\nIf you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I'm not a perfect source on this, but I'm really willing to talk!\n\nI'm NOT willing to argue with people who adamantly don't believe institutionalized sexism/racism are a thing. If you're just going to tell me that women/minorities are making a big deal out of nothing, I'm not interested.", "This is just me thinking out loud, so this might not make complete sense...\n\nbut I feel like the anger and frustration seen by minority groups today is from the fact that historically, it is considered racist/ sexist to say or do things against the majority. Like, this is an extreme example- but if a black man does anything to a white man, he's going to get convicted, punished, and used as an example in narrow minded people's thoughts of how awful black people are, and whatnot.\n\nThe backlash and cries of racism against white people to me, is more a reaction to the way it's been for years. Finally, minorities have the power and voice to rise up and speak for their side and say, \"hey this isn't right.\" you know?\n\nAnd to be honest (please provide examples if i'm wrong!), I really don't see or hear much racism the other way around on a LARGE SCALE. No one really says in the media, \"white people are so lazy and stupid\", or \"white people are ugly and gross,\" or anything of that nature at all. Like, President Bush never had political cartoons in the paper published about him being white, and that having a negative connotation associated with it.\n\n\n...I don't know. I don't even think I answered the question. Back to studying! Hope you find an answer!", "White people and men are seen as privileged and dominant groups, that enjoy privileges not realistically accessible to most women and other races. As such, saying racist or sexist things against these groups isn't considered as bad because they also have a benefit that balances out the racist or sexist attitude.", "We live in a society where male and white are the norm and everything else is compared to that standard. If I say I saw a group of men walking down the street what color would you assume they are? Probably white. And this assumption is usually true for either race. This is what I've learned from reading a book called *Nurture Shock* in a chapter called \"Why white parents don't talk about race\" and basically the authors suggest that the best solution is to talk about race and make it known you think they are equal because your children already recognize the difference between people who look like them and people who don't. Along with the assumption with what is like me is good. Other groups become the out group. I'm rambling a bit, hope that helped.", "History. \n\nRacism has no real history toward white males as a group, they tend to be the perpetrators.", "This is what I wrote to help make sense for everyone about the two competing definitions of racism, please read:\n\nRacism was first used to describe Nazism in the 1930s and their ideology towards the Jews. From there, it became commonly used to essentially mean, bigotry, or racial prejudice on an individual level. The definition was seen by many in the social sciences to be inadequate, and the racism=prejudice+power was popularized in academia in 1993 by David Wellman to better represent a larger social phenomenon. Here's an example... An NYC police officer stops and frisks an african american, finds marijuana and the suspect is sentenced to prison. None of what happened is racist. It is simple to say therefore, that racism isn't an issue. However, from a sociologist's perspective, since 2003 over half the people stopped and frisked each year in NYC were african american, african americans make up 14% of drug users but represent 37% of those arrested for drug offenses, african americans also on average receive harsher sentencing for drug crimes than whites. All of that is ignored if we define racism as an individuals personal prejudices. So, Sociologists who study large amounts of data and social dynamics decided that racism at least academically, is better used the way capitalism (and other -ism's) is used, that is to say, to describe something systemic in a large group (like an economy). So, when a sociologist says \"minorities can't be racist\" what they mean is minorities do not benefit from institutional racism. They would instead say minorities like the majority white, can be prejudice, can be bigots etc. Today we live in a society where we have racism... without racists. That is to say, even the KKK has said they aren't racists, if we use the \"standard\" definition of racism, than racism isn't a problem in today's society, even though statistics clearly show otherwise.\n\n---------------------------------------------------\n\nHOWEVER, in essence, your question is easily answered, whether or not something is socially acceptable or not is dependent on whether the receiving party finds it offensive or not, and has a voice to express their feelings.\n\nFor instance, YOU might feel offended if you were sexualized by women, but MOST men wouldn't feel all that offended, if enough men did feel offended, it would cease to be socially acceptable.", "It's not ok, but it's not as bad, because it's not backed up by huge historical systemic power difference. When you think about this question, you should think about it in the context of, the terrible discrimination that has occurred throughout history and the fact that remnants of that are still present in our society today. E.g. In modern western societies, the leading cause of death and ill health in women between the ages of 18 and 40 is still domestic violence. This isn't the case for men. Hence joking about men getting bashed up by their wives isn't as distasteful as vice versa - it's a big problem for women, a rarely for men. Personally I don't think those sorts of jokes are that funny no matter who they're about, but you get the idea" ]

[ "They admit anyone who has (or can borrow) the money to pay them, regardless of whether they are ready or able to do the coursework. \nThey provide subpar education at excessive cost. \nTheir graduates tend to find themselves not particularly employable, and in a lot of debt." ]

[ "Just like radio. There is a transmitter and a reciever. In the case of Bluetooth, the transmitter is something like a smartphone. Then the speaker recieves the signal, and amplifies it." ]

[ "here ya' go:\n\n_URL_1_\n\nWhile potential (in this case volts) is 9v, the current is very low. The batteries ability to shock is negligible. As is 120v given low current. However most home circuits are breakered to 15 or 20 amps. More than enough to kill a person who sticks a fork or tongue in an outlet.\n\nAs for the difference in voltage vs current, that is described in ohms law. So where a 120vac circuit can provide (let's say) 20 amps, a 240 volt circuit only need to provide 10 amps for the same power. (watts)\n\nThat's why may appliances use 240vac. The current necessary to carry is half.\n\nA Van de Graph generator can produce 10's of thousands of volts. The current is negligible. Go ahead touch it. \n_URL_2_\n\nHere is a good study on volts x amps\n\n_URL_0_", "If I remember correctly, it takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 17-20 volts of electrical potential to pass the poorly conductive barrier of dry skin. If you wet your finger you will feel it. Try connecting 4 of those batteries in parallel and close the loop with your dry finger. \n\nIf you really want to science, take some 1.5 volt batteries (AA or AAA) and use combinations of 9 and 1.5V to find the approximate number where electrical potential (voltage) will cross your skin and shock you" ]

[ "Here's an article about the top 9 defense contractors in the US and the projects they work on: _URL_0_\n\nAs far as I know, they work the same way all government contractors work, mostly, except that they and employees often have special security clearances. They place bids on contracts and the government accepts the best bids. I believe Cheney/Bush was criticized for unfairly favoring Cheney's former company in the bidding process, though." ]

[ "First of all the ice cream for this is frozen at extremely cold temps, then it is quickly battered and fried, so while the ice cream softens up a little....it is still plenty cold.", "It's not the ice cream that's fried. It's coated in batter, basically a thin layer of donut around the whole thing. The dough is fried and insulates the ice cream.", "The ice cream is frozen hard into scoops/ balls. Then it's dipped in the batter and taken out fairly quickly as soon as the batter is cooked. \n\nThe part that keeps the ice cream from melting are the bubbles in the batter. This causes the batter to become insulation for the ice cream from the heat. \n\nI've made deep fried ice cream many times." ]

[ "other humans with trisomy mutations can sometimes still reproduce so I don't really see why this would be a problem and likely we just got lucky enough for the trisomy to be mirrored in possibly a sibling on sibling relationship due to the higher chance of both parents having the same mutation. From there the extra chromosome just stuck around because it had a pair. I don't really know, but it's plausible enough, from my understanding, that the initial macro-genetic impacts of the extra weren't significant enough to impact reproductive viability in a natural setting." ]

[ "When you pay for software, you're not actually buying it- you're buying a *license* for the right to use the copy that you have.\n\nThis may seem like a minor difference, but legally this allows the owner of the software to determine *how* you're allowed to use it.\n\nThe details of licensing are found in the EULA, which most people don't read. In practice it rarely crops up, but it gives the software company leverage in their back pocket if they ever need it. Included in the license agreements may be the right to revoke access without notification, the right to collect information about your usage of the software, & c.\n\n_URL_0_" ]

[ "Spicy foods irritate the mucus membranes in your head and lungs. Your body reacts to this by making you create mucus, to coat and protect you from whatever may be causing the irritation. You also tear to protect your eyes, which drains into your nose, exacerbating your snot nose. \n\nYou can also sweat because your body thinks it's overheating, and is trying to cool itself down. \n\n\nI always put some hot sauce on my food and over time you gain a sort of resistance. Can be a fun way to win bets." ]

[ "US Social Security works less like a piggy bank, and more like a Ponzi Scheme (some critics would argue that it's *literally* a Ponzi scheme, although I think that goes a bit too far).\n\nUnlike most pension plans, citizens do not have individual \"Social security accounts\" which they pay into while they're working, and later withdraw from when they're retired. Instead, every currently working citizen pays into one big pool, which is used to support citizens who are currently retired. \n\nWhen a citizen retires, they're not supported by the money paid in by their *own* generation, but by the generations which are currently working. If a veteran police officer gets shot two days before his retirement, nothing special happens to \"his social security benefits\", because there was no specific package of benefits with his name on them yet. There is, however, a system of benefits for widows and orphans.\n\n[Ida May Fuller](_URL_0_) of Vermont, ~~Social Security Number 000-00-0001~~, began paying payroll taxes into the Social Security system in 1937. She retired in November 1939 (having paid money into the system for three years), and collected the very first monthly social security check in January 1940. She continued receiving benefits for 35 years, until her death at the age of 100.", "Immediate family of the deceased are eligible to receive the deceased benefits under certain situations, in part or full. Kids get less than spouses.\n\nWhen an unmarried, no kids, divorced, or already widowed person died, the payment liability disappears. The gov doesn't have to pay anyone.", "Social security isn't a personal bank account. There's no fixed total sum of money each person is entitled to. \n\nThere's a spousal benefit if the spouse survives. There's also a children's benefit with some limits. \n\nIf there's no spouse or qualifying children, there's nobody entitled to a benefit. So there's no benefit. Because it's not a personal bank account, there's no money that then has to get redirected somewhere else." ]

[ "This is a commonly asked question here. Please see [these previous posts.](_URL_0_) If they don't entirely answer your question, you might create a new post with\na more specific question.\n\nTry our handy Search function sometime. :-)\nFor best results in most cases, use 2 or 3 general, common words\nthat refer to the key concepts in your topic." ]

[ "Think of Magneto (and Charles Xavier) as ideologies. \n\nX-Men has always been a metaphor for people who are different, marginalized, etc.\n\nThinking back to the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960's (when X-Men was created), you had people advocating non-violent protest (Martin Luther King Jr.) and you had people who were, well, not necessarily violent, but definitely more militant (Malcolm X).\n\nBoth had more or less the same goals, but their methods and messages were different.\n\nCharles Xavier is MLK, Magneto is Malcolm X.\n\nThey did have to write things in to make Magneto be more towards the \"bad\" sides when talking about mutant superiority (which is subjective), which isn't related at all to civil rights, but the Professor and Magneto started at the same point and diverged.", "He is a shade of grey. His motives are good, but his methods are immoral.", "Misguided.\n\nHe wants to create a utopia for his species, at the expense of billions of innocent members of another species.", "In my mind, he's neither entirely good nor bad. Certainly he's got the best interests of mutants as his primary motivation, and he does tend to be harsh against those who stand in his way, but the fact that he's even willing to talk to Xavier, and even work with him if necessary, suggests someone who is less than entirely bad. And from some of the things that he said in DoFP, I'd even suggest that, at least for old Magneto, he's probably more good than bad." ]

[ "Its official German name is \"Fußball-Club Bayern, München e.V.\", normally abbreviated to \"FC Bayern München\" or just \"Bayern München\".\n\n\"München\" is the name of the city -- its German name. To English-speaking people, the city is better known as \"Munich\", so in English-speaking countries the club is known as \"Bayern Munich\". That's not its official name, but the English version of the abbreviation of its official name.\n\nOf course, \"Bayern\" is German for \"Bavaria\", so you might expect the English name to be \"Bavaria Munich\". But English-speakers have no problem pronouncing \"Bayern\", so it's left as it is. \"München\", on the other hand, is really difficult for English-speakers: the sound written \"ch\" does technically exist in most English dialects but never in the middle of a word like this; while the sound written \"ü\" doesn't exist in English at all. As a result, English-speakers simply can't pronounce \"München\" correctly.\n\nIf you're in any doubt as to the \"correct\" form, just look at [their logo](_URL_0_pics/logos/fcb.png) on their [official website](_URL_0_). However, to avoid embarrassing yourself, unless you speak German well, it's probably best to just stick with saying \"Bayern Munich\".", "Bayern is English for Beieren. Beieren is a province located in the south of Germany. Munich is English for München. München is a city located in the province of Beieren.", "Bayern is the south-eastern most German state, Munich is its capital.\n\nI assume you are asking about the soccer club.\n\nThat is named Bayern Muenchen, because there are more than 1 soccer club in Bayern. It explicitly refers the the city it is in, aka Muenchen.", "FC Bayern München is the official name; FC Bayern is frequently used as well. If you're not a fan, there are various other names for them depending on who you are a fan of." ]

[ "The main ratings firm is the Nielsen Company. Hence the term Nielsen ratings.\n\nThis works basically the same way a political poll works. There are statistical methods for looking at the way a small number of people answer a question and figuring out how the population as a whole would answer it. Just like they don't have to ask *everyone* who they're going to vote for to figure out that President Obama polls at X percent while Mitt Romney polls at Y percent, they don't have to count every single person watching a program to say this many people watched it.\n\nThey pick a sample the same way pollsters do. In this case people sign up to be \"Nielsen families\" and they're given a diary. They're supposed to track when someone is watching TV and what they're watching, and then report that information back to the Nielsen Company, who figures out how many of their sample are watching a show and then work out how many people that compares to across the whole country using a lot of statistics and math.\n\nOne problem with this method is that it relies on the families to tell the truth, and sometimes they don't. Nielsen also uses electronic monitors that track what channel the TV is tuned to, and even has experimented with cameras that would confirm whether the TV's just on in an empty room or whether there are actually people in there watching it." ]

[ "full disclosure, I'm a registered democrat and this is a very loaded question, but VERY broadly:\n\nDemocrats tend to believe that the solution to problems lies in enabling (forcing) a community to come together to support the poorest/weakest individuals. They try to put policies in place that directly provide money or services to these people at the expense of the more wealthy members of society. The disadvantage is that it puts a disproportionate burden on the wealthy, since they have to pay not only to support their families but also contribute to poorer families. Any system or policy put in place at a government level can be gamed, and it also carries a certain level of inefficiency and bureaucracy. Additionally, individuals don't get to choose which parts of their taxes to pay, so if you don't care about the arts and don't want to support them, a portion of your taxes will still go to fund them. The advantage is that these policies provide greater opportunity for people to rise from poorer classes. People born into poor homes start off with disadvantages - just a few examples would be that they can't afford high-quality food, have to attend schools with less funding, and are more likely to grow up with domestic violence. As a result, they are less likely to go to a good college, and thus less likely to get a good job. The deck is stacked against them, and democrats aim to fight that a little bit, arguing that even if their policies are imperfect, they are worth it.\n\nRepublicans believe that these policies should be limited in order to keep them as efficient as possible. They believe that what you earn should belong to you, and that good people will help the poor anyways, but that forcing you to fund certain programs that you may not agree with isn't fair. The argument is that the \"American dream\" means coming from nothing and making something of yourself, and if you do that then you deserve to reap all the benefits of your determination and hard work. They also argue that rich people and wealthy companies have more money to hire workers, which therefore creates jobs. The disadvantage of this is that once someone is rich, their kids tend to do better, and poor people are stuck by the wayside; a few people climb the ladder but it becomes increasingly difficult to do that, so it is advantageous to the people already in power and harmful to others. The advantage is that wasteful spending is reduced and people can choose what to fund rather than having the government decide for them.\n\nThe Tea Party has become a big part of the Republican party, but it's actually quite unique and I think it should be separated out. The Tea Party is vehemently opposed to a lot of government policies. Think Republicans on steroids. However, the Tea Party relies on sensationalizing false facts and figures to make their case. For example, many Tea Party politicians state that the US was founded as a Christian nation, which is explicitly NOT true according to writings from the founding fathers. They often say that programs cost more than they actually do or blame the current administration for policies that were actually created under the previous administration. They do not seem to fact check most of their claims, but they say them convincingly and people assume they know what they're talking about. They refuse to compromise on legislation (which completely obstructs the process of creating laws), and thus make congress unable to get things done, and then use the fact that congress isn't doing anything as evidence when they complain that government is broken.\n\nHistorically, Republicans and Democrats have been able to work out their differences to pass programs that are in the public interest while keeping them small enough to minimize their impact on your paycheck. A great example is Medicare, which was passed with bipartisan support in 1965 and helps us pay for care for the people over 65, which is the time when care is most expensive and also the time when people are not working and thus won't have insurance through their employer.\n\nThe parties have been growing apart for a while, but the advent of the Tea Party in the last several years has really highlighted their differences, and forced Democrats to be the party of \"Big Government\" and Republicans to be the party of \"Rich Privilege\". The people we elect to congress are increasingly more extreme on both sides, so it's harder to reconcile differences and work together to govern.", "Well first off, today's modern republican is the most conservative they've been in about four decades. They've also evolved multiple layers like Neoconservative. Also, things like homosexuality have nothing to do with conservatism; those are religious views; which HAPPEN to be held by republicans and certain branches of both parties have infused religion into their party. Also, for funsies, the nation did an about face during the civil rights movement. sixty years ago, the south would have NEVER voted for a republican...ever; but, due to varying civil rights acts being supported; which they weren't huge fans of, they switched parties, and Yes, there was a meeting (no, there really wasn't) But there was. (Not really).\n\nRepublicans: They think taxes should be lower and that many things such as healthcare, education, legal application of laws, etc...should be decided by the states, not the national federal government. They do not support many of the social safety nets like welfare, food stamps, medicaid (healthcare for the poor), etc.. They believe that you should work for what you receive and that government is not helpful in cases like this; nor is it a nanny, hence the term \"nanny state. Ideally, they hold this opinion not out of being selfish; but, each state is different and should be governed under that premise. They believe in tax breaks for all, figuring the money everyone gets back will be pumped into the economy, expanding it. They think corporations should get subsidies and tax breaks because they figure the money they save will go into technology, new jobs, new locations, so forth. Now a days they may tend to be religious; but, that is not compulsory for being conservative. If they happen to be religious, they will tend to disapprove of abortion; but, in some cases approve of the death penalty (this is some; but, not all). They can also be quite hawkish and pro world involvement (pro-war). They also tend to believe in individual liberties versus the \"the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few/for the greater good\" mentality. This leads to far less restrictive gun laws. Typically they believe in a literal translation of the constitution and if its not specifically stated there it doesn't need to be added and the states will sort it out. \n\nTL;DR: small national government involvement, low low low taxes, big state government, big military and no government involvement in the economy. \n\nDemocrats: They think that the government knows what its doing and that people can't just be left to their own devices. They want more government involvement; but, only to a certain point. Full on involvement would be socialism. Democrats are NOT socialists; or, communists. Those are their own parties with their own ideologies. The Democrats support most, if not all of the social safety nets. They believe in a far more structured tax system; believing that since we should all have equal access to the government as we need it, then those who earn more should pay more into it, on the basis that if there is no impoverished class, then society on the whole is lifted up economically (this has been proven to work in the Scandinavian countries). Since corporations exist in the US then they should be paying into its betterment; so there should be no havens, loopholes; or breaks for corporations. They tend to be more hands-off in terms of world affairs and the military. They do believe in a strong national defense; but, not to the detriment of social policy (healthcare/education); which they believe should be implemented by the national government. They believe in a loose translation of the constitution and that there is NO way the founders could have predicted a modern world; or, its problems. Just because something is not there it doesn't mean it can't be added; or done anyways. \nTL;DR: Big national government involvement in the economy and domestic social policy, higher taxes for those who can afford it, move the budget towards domestic policy such as education and healthcare so that it is open to those who can't necessarily afford it, they tend to not care, at least as where the government is concerned, about religion, they tend to be more open to equal rights and equality based on the premise \"the needs of the many outweigh those of the few\" \n\nThis is just a broad-strove overview. Each party has its far left and far right version of each of these. As time went on, new parties that became popular in the US attached themselves to these two large parties because they are the only two that ever get elected. Thats why the Tea Party adopted Republicans and socialists/communists adopted Democrats. Ideally each of these individual parties would be represented in congress; this would ease the ridiculous congressional stalemate of the past 12 years. Also, you can have a bible thumping democrat and a die hard atheist republican. In the past sixty years religion has been injected into politics, unnecessarily so, as there is a clear separation of church and state built into our governance. This would explain why both parties all of a sudden started randomly caring about abortion and homosexuality. This is a newer trend. You can easily have a republican who may have personal opinions on both; but, due to the fact they want limited national government, they will say it is none of the government's business. \n\nHope this helps, I tried to stay as neutral as possible.", "**On the Surface**\nThey oppose each other on most 'pop' issues to keep up appearances. Democrats prefer larger government programs that aid those that need a little extra help. Republicans prefer limiting government and putting the onus on the individual to advocate for and support themselves.\n\n**In Reality**\nNot very different. Obama has continued many of GWB's programs. They both hoard power and will band together to push out third parties (ex: they prevent third parties from joining sanctioned debates). They perpetuate business-as-usual and petty issues to remain in power (ex: they quarrel over details of bills rather than pushing for real reform of bloated and broken systems).", "Well, basically they try to take the opposite stance on every contentious issue. \n\nThere's really no strict overriding theme to either party, their beliefs are simply a mish-mash of ideas that come from years of trying to appeal to different voting blocs. If you really want to learn more, you should look it up by specific issue." ]

[ "It was an extremely close race, the deciding state being Florida. 537 more Floridians voted for Bush than for Gore, but across the board, in the entire country, Gore got more of the popular vote. \nSo the supreme court made the decision that since Bush won Florida, the deciding state, by a margin of 537 votes, that Bush had won the presidency.\n\nSomebody Correct me if I'm wrong please.", "You had several. \n\n1) Al Gore won more of the popular vote than George W Bush but in the USA popular vote doesn't decide presidential elections,the electoral college does and Bush won enough states in the electoral college.This leads to the next controversy. \n\n2) Florida is what you call a purple or swing state in that it could vote either Republican or Democrat. Bush barely beat Gore in Florida(He won by 500 votes which was very small since several million people voted in Florida) which lead to several recount elections. Eventually the supreme court put a stop to the recounts in the Bush v Gore decision. People are still in debate on who really won Florida.", "Bush and Gore came close to a 50:50 vote split that was insanely close.\n\nThere were a large number of controversies after the election took place that would normally just be minor controversies.\n\nOn the night of the election a member of the Bush staff told Fox News that Bush was declared the winner. Fox News ran the story. Once they ran the story every news network ran the story despite none of their sources being able to confirm the story. The standard practice for when this happens is for the other guy to step down and give the presidency up, Al Gore did not do that due to exactly how close the election was.\n\nThe deciding state of the election was Florida. The Governor of Florida was Jeb Bush, his brother. The states organizations tend to decide how the vote will take place. They started looking at polling booths and setups and started finding some problems.\n\nOne problem happened to be with old Jewish seniors who were voting for Ralph Nader instead of Al Gore. How the ballots were setup caused some confusion because you could accidentally vote for Ralph Nader when you wanted to vote for Al Gore.\n\nThen there was the matter of the overseas votes. The \"every vote counts\" campaign began. This was really the rise of the Republican Super PACs. People who did absentee voting would only have their votes counted if it was too close to call. So basically they never count most of the people who don't have time to vote on election day. So they counted the absentee ballots of American citizens in Florida, but not those overseas. The overseas ones would end up in some sort of depot in which you had to sort out every single state... and honestly it was just simpler to shred them if they were never needed. But as the numbers kept getting closer and closer the call was made to sort and count the overseas ballots. In the supply process about 650 ballots went missing. The margin of error for the end of it all was about 500 votes. That's a significant amount to decide who won the election.\n\nAt the end of the day Al Gore stepped down after being dragged through the mud and having his reputation ruined by everyone.\n\nIn the next election George W. would go on to win by a very high margin against Secretary of State John Kerry. Leading up to and following it every left leaning media source was trying to remind everyone of how Bush \"stole\" the election. Everyone still had sour grapes over the event, some still do." ]

[ "An external hard disk is called as such because it utilizes a Hard Disk Drive (HDD). One of these drives has a metal platter with different magnetic sections, called sectors, that are read by a small magnetic sensor called a head on the end of an actuator arm. Many people are now moving over to flash storage, however, which is what a flash drive utilizes and thus is named for. Flash storage does not contain moving parts but rather is similar to a large grid of capacitors and transistors that are used to keep data. It is faster to access than an HDD because you do not need to wait for the disk to spin to the correct location. It can decay, however, unlike an HDD. The more an area of flash is written the more it wears out and eventually it will fail.", "To add onto the other comments, hard drives are mechanical, so they are very sensitive to physical abuse, especially if they're running at the time.\n\nDrop a spinning hard drive, and the heads slam into the disk, destroying both instantaneously. Lights out for your precious data.\n\nYou can drop and shake an SSD all day long even while it's running full steam ahead, and it simply won't care because there are no moving parts to get damaged.\n\nAlso, since they're mechanical, HDDs can also wear out over time. \n\nHowever, at the end of life, hard drives still win. When a hard drive dies of old age or suffers an electronic as opposed to a mechanical failure, the data can still be recovered professionally as long as the disks inside are intact. \n\nAn SSD, however, is pretty much impossible to retrieve data off of once it dies.", "You can now get external flash drives. \n\nA traditional hard drive has a disk similar to a CD but is made to an industry standard. A flash drive is like a USB stick which is a solid state and means no time wasted spinning the disk loading the info." ]

[ "I studied physics at a reasonably high-ranked school, and I can tell you definitively that 90% of what I learned that actually stuck was from working with other students, not from lectures. The caliber of fellow students is hugely important in my opinion, and you simply get better students at better schools. I also contest your statement that the information taught is the same. With better professors and better students, more can be covered in the same amount of time, so subjects can be taught more completely and more thoroughly.", "I didn't go to Yale, but I did go to a reasonably good private university after a few semesters at a community college.\n\nIn my experience, the quality of the instruction is hugely better at the private school. Professors actually seem to care about their students' progress, and they are (in general) just better at presenting the material in ways that the students can understand.\n\nI also noticed, even at my comparatively middle-brow university, that the caliber of the students was better. They catch on more quickly, have more interesting thought processes, and help each other rather than dragging each other down. Because the students are more engaged and quicker, the professors are more able to teach, and the classes go faster and cover more ground, more deeply.\n\nLet us not forget the administration, which is also leaps and bounds ahead in the private school. It's not just fill in the form and take a number, it's actually possible to get good, thoughtful answers from people. When I needed to talk to an advisor, it was easy and friendly to set up an appointment. When I emailed abstruse questions to the Registrar, I got thoughtful responses very quickly.\n\nTL;DR: Everything about private schools is just of higher quality and done better.", "You pay extra for (in no particular order):\n\n1) prestigious faculty members (academe)\n\n2) amount of research done (scholastics)\n\n3) difficulty getting in (exclusivity)\n\n4) name brand\n\n5) facility\n\n... that's what I can think for now", "I attended one of the top universities in the world, and I think that the biggest benefit education-wise is the fact that you're surrounded by other brilliant, driven students all the time (monetarily, the name on the diploma may be worth more, as you'll get better job offers). There are a ton of benefits to this.\n\nSocially:\nMany people have had trouble fitting in at all of their previous schools, but are now around people like them, which can help shy/awkward people (like me) catch up on some social skills development that they fell behind on/lower stress levels.\n\nIn classes:\nDo you remember that kid in your high school class who sat in the back and slept through classes because he was bored, but still wrecked the curve on every test? I was that kid in high school, and so were most of my college classmates. When the lecturer doesn't have to repeat everything or do a bunch of examples, things move faster, and you can cover more material more in depth. Similarly, homework wasn't just doing problems that were similar to examples from class with different numbers; you had to understand the concepts and apply them to a problem that's not quite the same as anything you've ever seen before. \n\nOpportunities:\nThis isn't really related to the rest, but the fact that I (even as an undergraduate) had access to faculty doing cutting edge research (the student-faculty ratio was better than almost anywhere else) meant that I could get real experience doing actual science (we're talking designing and running my own experiments to get real data) much earlier than I'd have been able to do anywhere else. This was especially important for me, as it taught me that I absolutely did not want that to be my career, which is something I may not have otherwise discovered until a year or two into grad school (which I then decided not to do). I don't know much about non-sciency fields, but I imagine top schools in those fields have similarly useful opportunities that would be extremely difficult to get at a normal school.", "Contrary to what you said, the information taught varies in both method and content. If you are a college student, I'm sure you've Google searched a term you didn't understand, only to be brought to a different university's website where the explanation was even more vague/unintelligible (or perhaps much better stated). The curriculum's vary as well, and the requirements and standards are higher at most private schools than community colleges. \n\nAs an Ivy League undergraduate, I can personally attest to the importance of being immersed in an environment where everybody wants to excel. Though this can breed unhealthy stress and competition (see the recent streak of suicides at Penn), it also provides motivation and inspiration. I am inspired by my classmates daily, and it never ceases to amaze me how incredibly accomplished they are. I can also attest to how humbling it is to be taught by the forefront of academic knowledge, where many of my professors are the premier authorities in their respective fields. \n\nThere have been many op-eds lately ridiculing the culture of Ivy League admissions and educations, and while many points hold truth, others are purely experiential and cannot be so easily captured from one perspective. I recommend you check them out but take them with a grain of salt", "I wonder this myself. Did my bachelor's at a renowned private university, doing my post-bacc at a 'regular' college and am receiving the same -- if not better -- education. I also love my professors here just as much as I did there. It honestly baffles me; I wish my parents (one of whom is a student at this college) would've encouraged me to go city/ state instead.", "Schools aren't vending machines and education isn't just the downloading of information. The effectiveness of learning is highly dependent on how information is shared and what we do as we encounter it. \n\nI have taught at a community college, small liberal arts college and a large research university. Each have merits.\n\nAt a research university students have a far greater chance to be involved in the cutting edge of the field - sometimes even as lab assistants for top researchers. The premium that is offered is to be where new knowledge is being created - not just learning what others did a few years ago. The basics of the education are prerequisites to prepare students for this kind of thing.\n\nBoth SLACs and community colleges have undergraduate teaching as their main goal, so class sizes will be smaller and there will be far more direct student-instructor interaction than in most large university classes. However, there is still a big difference in my experience, and it is one that will translate across many levels of academia. \n\nIt's my job to design a class that the majority of students can succeed in. If the majority of my students can learn quickly I can cover more material and have students work with each other more. If I have students that learn more slowly or are less committed, I have to slow things down a lot and cover less. More advanced students get more bored and get less bang for the buck. Smarter students=more content learned. Less advanced students=more time taken to get those students started moving forward.\n\nTL:DR - It's never the same information. Not really.", "I've taken physiology at both a top tier university, and also at community college (credit transfer SNAFU). I used the same textbook for both courses. There is a huge world of difference between the two. The material on the exams at the top-tier university is FAR more difficult than the material on the CC exams. I studied hard in my university physio course. I flew through the CC course effortlessly (and in fact, helped teach a few lectures in the course and oversee the final).\n\nOh, and one of my biology professors recently won the Nobel Prize. You don't study under Nobel laureates at CC." ]

[ "they normally enter through food when they are very very small. \n\nalternately there are some parasites who can enter through cuts that already exist in the skin." ]

[ "Causes are fashion for many people. And transgender issues are currently the most fashionable. I say this as someone who fully believes that trans people deserve equality and freedom from persecution, but also as someone who recognises that people clearly bandwagon." ]

[ "In a very similar manner to how humans grow bones and teeth. They capture the elements they need to form them from their environment, and react them together in such a way as to deposit a solid mineral in the places they need it." ]

[ "If the video loads even for an instant, yes - that counts as a view. It does not technically count as a complete view if you left before the video ends, however, a view in the internet world is counted as an impression.\n\nThey will also know if you left before the actual video by tallying up the number of times the ad and the actual video has been viewed (or similar metric). If the number of ad impressions exceeds the number of views, they will know that their ads suck and they need to put it elsewhere 'cause people are not seeing the actual content.", "In the case of YouTube, they actually take good notes of how much percentage you watched a video, this goes into the algorithm of the search engine in order to promote videos that are fully watched." ]

[ "No I meant why is it so prevalent in black athletes. I know about hyphenated names with divorced parents. \n\nI want to know why it seems to only occur in black athletes and not in other races IN SPORTS.", "Hyphenated names=parents, for whatever reason, who don't share a surname. \n\nBut saying it's \"black athletes\" is ignorant. It's actually pretty common in the general population as marriage becomes less a focus for couples raising kids or men not requiring their wife to take their name for some ideological reason.", "Not sure what you mean, do you mean when people hyphen their last names of their separated parents? If so, it's because they love their parents, so they take both their names." ]

[ "1. The insect is too small to act as an efficient receiver of microwave energy.\n2. There area areas within the machine that get far less energy, and (by moving from hot to not-hot areas) the fly can seek them out.", "Microwaves send out micro waves of radiation. There are spaces small enough for insects to fit. The insect can stay in those spaces keeping safe." ]

[ "I've always heard that the brain records and processes every single thing your eyes see. EVERYTHING. Although it sees all, it has to choose what information it presents to your aware mind at the moment in time. Although your brain saw everything when you walked into a new room, there is only certain information that you need to be aware of, and only a certain amount of information you can actually use.\n\nMy best guess is you can sense someone is watching you because at some point in the last few minutes your brain actually saw someone...but you just werent aware of it at the time. But because the brain is wired for survival it tries to send messages to you that you should be careful, hence the feeling of being watched.\n\nThats the way i understand it.", "lookup 'the sense of being looked at' by whatshisname, he made a career out of studying phenomenae that contradict skeptic materialism" ]

[ "Nobody's mentioned this, so I figured I'd give my $0.02. Old man strength is typically from those who have been performing some form of physical labor for a long time, and have such developed incredible grip strength. This is the part that /u/WOT_IF_UR_LEGS is talking about where it feels as if they can crush your hands. Additionally, what they may lack in raw power, they make up for from years of lifting heavy objects and have developed a proficiency in it so that they may look a lot weaker (old man) than they really are (strength).", "Old man strength is nothing special you gain with age, it's just when we're surprised by how strong Grandpa still is. After all, he just took five minutes to get out of his chair without his joints exploding, so we definitely didn't expect him to casually break loose the stuck jar lid Junior was struggling with.\n\nBecause of their appearance and mannerisms, we think of old people as being frail and weak, but they're often far stronger than they look. It's unlikely an 80-year-old will actually be stronger than a 40-year-old, but the difference in their strength may be smaller than the difference in their appearance. We're occasionally reminded of that and it surprises us.", "Young men today actually have weaker grips than men did 30 years ago, and likely in generations prior to that. Grip strength is often used as a proxy for general body strength in populations.\n\n\"In 1985, men ages 20-24 had an average right-handed grip of 121 pounds and left-handed grip of 105 pounds. Today, men that age had grips of only 101 and 99 pounds, the study found. Men 25-29 posted losses of 26 and 19 pounds.\"\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThe truth is that men today are likely weaker than any recent generations of men. This is probably due to obvious shifts in physical activity for pleasure and for work.", "Studies have actually proven that men tend to peak in physical strength at around 35-40 years old. That’s certainly not “old man” age, but it does show that men get stronger with age\n\nWhat many people refer to is how older men will absolutely crush your hand during a handshake, and that is mostly due to the fact that they have been practicing handshakes for decades, and are going to be able to have much better technique.", "* older people, men in particular, are more likely to have engaged in physical labor all of their lives, leaving them with muscles, bones, tendons, joints, and pain tolerances better suited to feats of strength\n* while coordination and endurance suffer as we age, people often retain much of their raw strength, and it can be unexpected to find a man who has trouble climbing a flight of stairs will has a vice-like grip\n\nIn either case, they are not stronger than they were at the prime, just strong they most people would expect them to be.\n\nMy mom worked in nursing homes, and mentally incapacitated older male patients were often a problem. They weren't necessarily violent, but they often got confused, and if they didn't want to do something, it was often difficult, or even dangerous, to try to make them do something. They were just as strong as any nurse or orderly, even if they were in a wheelchair.", "It’s a term that has a lot to do with the connecting tissues, and the tendons being stronger. But also how the muscles work as a whole, and the experience behind the muscle. Think of it like a tug-of-war. The tug-of-war game is based on the strength of the group as a whole, it has an anchor person, and a front line person, and the people in the middle giving strength to the front line person. \n\nFor a high school kid, who may look the same size or even much bigger than a grizzly 40-60 year old man, his strength is a bunch of strong kids that get the concept of the game and individually may be stronger but as a whole don’t work together as well or as coordinated. Also their anchor and front line(tendons) are not going to be nearly as strong. \n\nWhereas the “old man” has well developed anchors and front line(the tendons) and his middle(the muscle) know exactly how to pull in sync with the front line guy and invariably they will win, even if they are cumulative smaller than the opposite side. \n\nEssentially the “kid” has the weakest players in the position where the “old man” puts his strongest, and that allows an advantage. \n\nKid: xxXXXXx\nMan: XxxxxxX\n\nMan will win with the right technique most of the time. \nKid may have the upper hand with a burst of strength at the right moment.", "in actual fact, men and women get progressively weaker after about the age of 35. this loss of muscle mass and strength is termed sarcopenia and really accelerates in the 6th and 7th decades of life. its associated with a loss of neural tissue in the spinal cord and decreases in concentric muscle tension/power. the interesting thing is that there is a disproportionate maintenance of eccentric (or muscle lengthening) strength in old men that is likely due to muscle architectural modifications. so it really depends on what you define old as, in addition to the training history of the individual in question. likely people who have strength trained their whole lives are able to buffer the inevitable muscle mass decrements seen in aging by already having large musculature. i did my masters in a lab that focused on muscle function in aging humans", "A lot of it is knowing how to lift, hold, or grip things. I find myself out doing my son and his friends with tasks and chores and I believe much of it is do to experience not sheer strength." ]

[ "I have a bag of frozen peas. I always buy Birdseye, I just prefer that brand, but some people like other brands and that's OK too. If you're having peas with dinner you'll cook them in a pot or in the microwave so you have warm peas in the plate. That's just how it's done, right. \n\nA few years ago I was making dinner on a really hot day, and there was a bowl of frozen peas sat there waiting to be cooked. The bowl was nice and cool, frost on the outside and all. It felt good on my clammy hands. I wondered what they'd taste like frozen, but that'd be weird, cold hard peas, wouldn't it?\n\nTentatively, I picked a few up and tossed them into my mouth, rolled them around with my tongue and crunched down on a couple. That sensation of going from cool and refreshing to defrosting and releasing that sweet juicy pea flavour were just wonderful. \n\nI often enjoy a mug of frozen peas, much to the scorn and ridicule of my nearest and dearest. \n\nAnyway, I tried a thing and I liked it, even though it might be considered unconventional.", "There's not really a 100% established answer for why, or what causes people to have fetishes. The more common explanations are a result of conditioning and psychological development. \n\nConditioning is where a non-typical object, body part, or act is associated with sex by pairing it with typical erotic stimulation, either visual, audio, or physical. So for example someone could develop a sexual fetish for women in boots by watching porn where women are wearing boots, or just by touching themselves in an arousing way while looking at the boots themselves.\n\nPsychological Development suggests that the roots for sexual fetishes often develop during childhood. It can arise from things such as social taboos, if it's forbidden or frowned upon to show a specific body part (such as calves) then maybe seeing a naked calf when you hit puberty could be considered arousing.", "There is no reasoning behind a fetish. It is simply just a term used to describe a liking, generally gearing towards sexual arousal, of a certain body part, object or act that is not generally enjoyed by the majority of people but more towards a smaller following of people.\n\nFetishes can be brought forth in people for a various number of reasons. Depending on the situation, it also is up to the person to decide if they classify it a fetish or not. For example, most believe that fetishes have to do with the sexual excitement or sexual arousal of a person. I am much the same. Not meaning anything negative, the poster who mentioned eating peas cold, to me that is not a fetish, but just enjoying cold peas. While it may be unconventional to them or their family and friends, I have often seen cold peas in salads and such.\n\nA fetish can be brought on by something you adored in your childhood that sparks memories in your adulthood or it can be something that you find extremely fascinating, that just happens to get you sexually aroused.\n\nI have a co-worker that goes to Furry Conventions. They dress up like animals and enjoy the pretending of being an animal instead of a person. Does this come from cartoons where characters are often animals, but walk, talk and act like people or is it from the time we were little and were given soft stuff animals that were supposed to comfort us? \n\nIt is up to the individual to explain why they have a fetish and how it came about.\n\nTo me, it is just another label that people are given to describe something." ]

[ "Most major stuff has already been covered but:\n\n*The largest Ebola outbreak ever is going on right now", "For future reference, they still print newspapers and nothing on Reddit is actually noteworthy." ]

[ "Because with a computer mouse you move it exactly X distance on the table so the cursor moves Y distance. With a joystick, you essentially 'toggle' the cursors movement in any given direction, for a certain length of time, until the cursor reaches what you need. It's also less accurate because you're dealing with a fixed joystick instead of a mouse that you can move all the way across your desk if you wanted to.\n\nThis is my interpretation of it, anyway", "Because a movement on a joystick applies \"velocity\" but movement on a mouse applies a position change.\n\nThink about it, you move a joystick to the left, it will keep going left even though your hand is not moving anything, just keeping the joystick on the left side. A mouse on the other hand requires movement to apply this change, stopping this movement will stop this movement. This is simply something more natural and understood to humans.", "Mouse moves by pixels. That is using a camera it counts them.\n\nJoysticks move by binary off and on multiplying by sensitivity so the smallest move can never be a single pixel." ]

[ "It was common up until the 1950s in the south for children to go without shoes. It is still somewhat common in regions with lots of creeks.", "Right now, in a whole lot of poorer places.\n\nA good friend of mine didn't have shoes until she was 16 because her family couldn't afford them.", "It depends on where you are in the world. Sandals or barefoot is still very common in most tropical areas year round." ]

[ "The sugar and electrolytes in Gatorade and other sports drinks actually increase how much water you absorb into your blood stream. This can be perceived as too much fluid and your body will try to get rid of it if you aren't actually dehydrated. Normal water, on the other hand, lacks the sugar and electrolytes that promote water absorption so it stays around in your gut longer." ]

[ "Ebola has no cure, or even a real treatment. It never really went away. It's just that humans aren't commonly exposed to it (it probably normally lives in bats), and when they are it tends to kill quickly enough that it burns itself out. So you see a series of fairly quick and nasty outbreaks in the areas in which infected bat populations come in contact with humans, in west and central Africa. \n\nPlague is different, in that it's curable with antibiotics. It lives in various rodents, and occasionally breaks out because it too has never really gone away. If it happens in a richer country, it's usually dealt with pretty easily. Isolated cases pop up in the US and Canada now and again, incidentally.", "These diseases exist in natural reservoirs that humans occasionally come in contact with. Their spread can be aided by poverty or poor infrastructure, areas where easy access to medical care is lacking, or medical standards or provisions are insufficient to deal with the disease. \n\nI'm not aware of a particular threat of the bubonic plague returning as a major 'world changing' threat, it is treatable by several forms of antibiotics. Of course, a region where these are not readily available or affordable would be at higher risk." ]

[ "Nowadays that lead is worth good money as scrap. There are guys that come out with some attachment that fits on a tractor that kind of sifts the lead out of the dirt. The gun range makes big money for letting them come take the lead.", "Brother used to do this. Helped him once. This was at a police station. We used a giant vacuum. One hose was about a foot wide which sucks the lead and foam or rubber I can't remember which. The vacuum was strong enough to suck the lead and foam but dropped the lead in another pile while a secondary hose on the vacuum blew the foam back against the wall. We started at one end of the wall and worked our way down. We pretty much shoveled the lead into 5 gallon buckets but only filled them halfway because those buckets got pretty damn heavy. We had to wear respirators and painting outfits because of the dust from the foam/rubber makes you itch like crazy. Will apologize in advance about spelling or grammatical errors, I'm on my phone.", "If you're the old gun range near me, you go out of business and sell the contaminated land for a pittance so it's no longer your problem. Then, the developer that buys it offers to clean it up (which they are legally obligated to do anyway) in return for the town re-zoning the lot for a shopping center, over the objections of the lot's neighbors and in direct contradiction to the town's master zoning plan (where the lot is reserved as recreation space). Implicitly, if the town refuses, the subsidiary that holds the land goes bankrupt and leaves an unusable toxic dump in the middle of town, and the developers pay for campaign ads in the next town board election blaming the board's \"anti-business\" climate.", "I used to work at the NRA HQ Range in Fairfax, VA, which is a 150 ft. indoor range. For indoor ranges, the filtration systems are rather intricate. The range itself has a large steel backstop that slopes inward to a powerful vacuum system that picks up lead and lead dust. \n\nBehind it, there is an auger that feeds the lead and lead dust into another, finer filtration system. That machine ends up feeding the remaining lead and lead dust into industrial barrels, which are then sold to a local metal scrapping company by the ton.\nThe building also has it's own dedicated HVAC system with special filtration systems required by federal law, as well as its own dedicated water supply, which is filtered through a course and then a fine filter to pick out the lead that washes off people's hands. That water comes from public sinks that are separate from the bathroom sinks, dedicated specifically for this use. Not washing your hands after exiting the Range is against the Range rules.\n\nAs far as the \"EPA nightmare\" goes, it's not actually that bad at all. All of these things are heavily regulated, and the Range must follow very strict rules to prevent contamination. There is much, much more lead contamination from coal burning power plants than there is from indoor or outdoor gun ranges. \n\nAs an added sidenote, there is no machinery dedicated to picking up the brass shells left on the range after shooting hours. We would use large floor squeegees to collect the leftover brass in five gallon barrels, which we would then dump into industrial barrels which are sold at the same time to local metal scrappers.", "I used to go through the sandtrap with a riddle till I'd filled a bunch of three gallon buckets. Melt it down and recast at a later date, this would probably be a lot more practical for 45 as oposed to 223 though.", "Environmental engineer here. They needed to dig up the first foot or two of soil and haul it to a special landfill. Not cheap, but pretty standard clean up.", "They just replaced an outdoor range near me. They trucked out all the old dirt and trucked in new dirt laced with some chemical that will bond with the lead and stop it from leaching into the groundwater.\n\nRepeat this process every decade or so.", "I don't know how it's usually done, but we had one close near my house a few years back and it just sat there for years before someone bought it up, after which the new owners had to pay for an expensive cleanup operation. Basically they had to dig really far down into the soil and replace it all, so there were dump trucks taking out soil and others coming in and replacing it.\n\nCouldn't say for sure where the old soil went, or where the new soil came from, though.", "I am actually at work right now at a indoor gun range in Bellevue, WA. The modern system for cleaning up lead on indoor gun ranges is a very very strong air filtration system to take all the lead out of the air ASAP and a steel metal trap to catch the bullets ( Shooting into sand takes much longer to clean and is much more expensive ). All the solid lead from the shots gets dropped into a bucket behind each steel bullet trap. Every night ( in full hazmat suits with respirators ) our cleaning crew which consists of normal range safety staff, empties the buckets of lead into a massive enclosed container that we have. The lead is later sold off at auctions along with our brass. We also vacuum the whole range once a week to pick up whatever lead doesn't get picked up in the ventilation system.\n\nsource; I am typing this while I am working at a indoor gun range.", "Range officer/sales agent at lgs here in Central Florida. Indoor range, lead dust at the end of the day is swept down range in a neat line. Once a week all that lead is swept into buckets and put in hazmat barrels. The lead from projectiles goes into whatever trap the range uses. Ours consists of rubber bits, that is shoveled up to keep the backstop even, every so often the rubber is taken out with all the bullets that didn't get swept up and is replaced with new rubber.", "Funny you mention the EPA, they have a BMP guide for gun ranges to deal with lead:\n_URL_0_", "I actually work in a building that was converted from a gun range. In order for us to move in, a clean-up team had to come in and completely work the place, and then the EPA had to come in and test to make sure there wasn't still lead particles that could cause us harm. I know this doesn't answer your question, but I just wanted to verify that the EPA takes it very seriously and there is, in fact, a very thorough means of cleaning the lead.", "All indoor firing ranges have some sort of 'collector' for lead, which simply consist of a steel wall that stops the projectiles. It varies alot when it comes to outdoor ranges. On my local outdoor shooting range (50 m), we are only allowed to shoot .22 lr. as it is the discipline in which we compete. Because of the low calibre, we can set up lead collectors without them being shot to pieces. We have simply dug large plastic pipes down behind every target on the range and filled them with sand. Once a year we dig out the sand, put the sand through sieves, collect the lead, fill the pipes with sand again and sell the lead. This system has saved us alot of time and effort, as we used to dig out all the dirt behind the range and look for lead by hand.\n\nIn my country, Denmark, we have very strict envirromental laws that prohibits lead in the nature as it contaminates the ground water. On our 'fixed' firing ranges, we always collect the lead, as the lead is a great income as scrap metal, but also because the authorities would terminate our license to use the range otherwise. These rules have been here for longer than I can remember and I respect them, but I am always amazed when I visit the large firing ranges. There are a few large areas in Denmark which have formerly been used as military training ground, but which have been giving/sold to locals to use for shooting competetions and for the hunters to train on. There are usually a few fixed ranges in these terrains, but the majority of the ranges used are random, temporary ranges set up for the occasion. These terrains are NEVER cleared of lead and I find it strange that our government are setting strict rules for fixed ranges, but lack enforcement when it comes to former state-owned firing ranges.", "Some new ammunition is manufactured as \"lead free\" such as the new 5.7 (FHN FiveSeven) reducing the exposure. Most lead exposure from other calibers comes from the gas discharge of the accerant escaping from the barrel. This lead is discharged into the air and can be absorbed by breathing. Indoor ranges have air scrubbers or filter systems to remove lead from the air to acceptable levels. An avid indoor range user, in some cases, may have detectable levels of lead in their blood. After testing, the doctor most likely would recommend chealting tablets to remove this lead from the body. Outdoor ranges have a drastically reduced risk of inhaled exposure. Also, the shell casing, projectile and firearm would only have lead residue. There is not enough lead to value harvesting components for scrape. Brass is most likely what they are selling for scrape. This is only to help offset cost and is not profitable in its own merit. Projectiles that are lead jacketed or hollow point would have more lead than FMJ (full metal jacket) rounds. \nHope this helps!!", "Range officer @ rifle club here. We hired a lead miner to come in and clean our backstops, something that we wanted to turn around for profit towards upgrading the club, we are a non profit organization. \n\nThey took 2 weeks excavating/filtering the ground with a screen that traps the jacketed lead bullets and other lead based material into a loader, then off to a recycler. Rebuilding the backstops with clean fill dirt.\n\nWe had roughly 50-60 tons of lead which was about $22,500 at the current lead prices (.35 cents a pound) and after maintenance fees.\n\nLead sucks we as employees take much precaution to prevent long term exposure and hygiene awareness dealing with lead, I myself working the most hours get tested annually.", "I work for a hazmat company, we get contracted to shovel the lead out of shelves in the wall, sweep up, and clean the room with a mild soap. The lead gets disposed of in drums and goes wherever the most profitable recycle place at the time.", "A number of years ago there was a skeet shooting range right on the lake in Chicago. When it closed down, the city had the lake bottom dredged to recover the lead." ]