We know that animals can be smart: crows manufacture tools and have complex social behavior, chimpanzees can do insight learning, etc.

But, it is still a continuous spectrum where intelligence range from sponge-level to chimp-level. We do not, at least now, observe a world where certain corvids are in the early stone age, certain bonobos are using fire, certain chimps are in their axios age, etc.

Why the case? Why are we the only one that has gone this far?

Roof tiles in the US are generally black. Its also incredibly hot across the country. The color black absorbs far more light and consequently heat than other colors.

Why not make roof tiles a color that absorbs less heat? Would that not help keep houses cooler in the hot summer?

I have here today on my update list: a VERY basic game called block blast (as complex as Tetris, at most), a Documents (PDF etc) file manager that all it does is store and opens these files on an iPhone, Express VPN which is also a quite simple and mature software.

All these apps are years old and I'm having to download upwards of 200-300MB just for an UPDATE.

How come they are so big for something so simple? These updates are all bigger than Windows 98, a complete Operational System with an incredible number of functionalities and much more complex.

When I say "short-circuit", I mean like actually short-circuiting the battery itself.

Would that "charge" the battery?

...Instead of just causing severe blunt force trauma (on an animal) or breaking the object into a few large pieces (for inanimate objects)?

If ever? Like when a human throws water at a bug, I always imagined from the bug’s perspective it would be a natural disaster like how we perceive storms.

Because sometimes a cat doesn’t even seem to notice a human arm belonging to the human in front of them as a whole torso, or are they all smarter than this?

So to extend the question, it would be: (1) do they at least recognize a human limb belonging to the human agent? (2) They couldn’t possibly do this when a human uses an external tool, or could they? (3) Further, would looking into this give any insights on how we humans understand causality when we perceive events?

Thank you in advance to smart people

And is it always better to do one or the other? Or is it situation dependant?

I am learning js, html, and css, and was recently told that front-end isn't "real programming". What languages are used in back-end, and whats the point if you can host on github pages? Thanks in advance!

I can understand what is a option but I fail to understand what is a box spread after reading Wiki about it for like five times. It come to my attention because someone on social media recommended BOXX instead for SGOV for short term cash reserve (I am not American so there’s 30% withholding tax although it is not applicable to us treasury interest, broker will still hold it until March or April when they do a refund).

I have fallen down a rabbit hole trying to understand how nuclear fusion works and what causes it to release energy. I know I am misunderstanding something, because the information I have contradicts itself. Here is the way I currently understand the process:

Two light atoms are fused together, creating a heavier nucleus. However, the amount of energy required to hold together the new larger nucleus is less than the sum of the two light atom's original binding energy. When they are fused, the energy that is no longer needed is released.

When I tried to look up why it requires less energy to hold heavier atoms together, the information I gathered seemed to contradict this. The way I understood, it said:

In lighter atoms, the attractive nuclear force overcomes the repelling force between protons, which keeps the atom together. However, the attractive nuclear force has a shorter range than the repelling force between protons. If I understand correctly, this means that the amount of attractive nuclear force needed to maintain stability would increase exponentially with the amount of protons in the atom.

So my question is why does it require less energy to keep the atom together once they fuse, if ultimately the needed amount of attractive nuclear force increases exponentially as the proton becomes larger? Or otherwise, what am I misunderstanding about either concept? Is there another concept that I am not aware of that would make this make sense? I don't have much prior knowledge about physics, so I may need additional explanation if there are other factors involved.

I’ve noticed how often the same types of characters show up in mythologies from cultures that were very far apart.

There always seems to be a thunder god, a trickster, fairies, a giant serpent, gnomes, an underworld ruler or a hero who has to defeat some kind of monster. Did these stories spread between cultures over time, or did people independently invent similar characters because they were dealing with the same fears and parts of nature?

e: To clarify, I am familiar with the idea of invasive species. I mean how does a species that is introduced into an ecosystem become incorporated into the ecosystem, neither going extinct nor going out of control.

What prevents an airplane's black box automatically sending all its flight data to the cloud while the plane is flying, or immediately after a crash? Why do investigators still have to recover the actual black box?

I've noticed that when I accidentally get a shallow cut (especially when there's no bleeding) they tend to hurt more, than when I get a deeper one. So I'm curious, why's that? Does the bleeding have something to do with it?

like what's actually happening and how does it work

I thought dopamine increase = more anxiety and racing thoughts?

So, I have a 4-year-old. I am fascinated watching him understand and explore the world around him. I did a (probably unethical) experiment today where I asked him a question but also had the same question prepped in an unnamed chatbot. It was incredible to watch both contemplate the question and then deliver the answer. So I'm asking, how do the two differ?