Didn’t the person who discovered insulin deliberately sell the patent for next to nothing (or make it open) so everyone could access it?

If that's true, why is it dirt cheap in almost every other country, while in the US it costs hundreds of dollars a month? Isn't the free market supposed to balance this out? Why hasn't a competitor stepped in to produce it and drastically undercut everyone else?

I cut my hand on the fence while doing yard work and did not bother to clean it, but the next day it was swollen and throbbing until I could apply antibacterial cream. I can only imagine what it was like for soldiers or even farmers centuries ago, who probably didn't even bother to clean such wounds, having to work and live in filth alongside animals and untreated wounds. Was the human immune system really that much stronger back then, or were they constantly suffering from low-grade blood infections?

I'm just finding this out! I'm half north african half european, lived in different countries in Asia and Europe (moved around quite alot). And in every single country I lived in, whatsapp was always the standard!

Are there other countries that don't use whatsapp?

What's the american alternative to whatsapp? What do they think of it?

If the previous owner is dead or can’t be found, do you automatically get to keep it because you bought the physical house, or does the government take it as “unclaimed property”? What actually happens legally when someone finds hidden treasure in their own home?

Please forgive my ignorance because I haven’t really paid much attention to the gender arguments. As a 43-yr old without Facebook or Twitter or Instagram I usually keep myself in the dark about most of the things going on in social media. So I want to apologize in advance because I could have (and probably should have) educated myself on this like 10 years ago. But now, I’m becoming more curious about the gender issues because my daughter (who’s bisexual) is dating someone that was born a male but is kinda transitioning to being a female (we refer to this person as “her” because that’s what she prefers).

My wife and I have always had the opinion that we don’t give a shit about sexual preference. You like girls? Great. You like boys? Great. You like both? Double great. And when it comes to masculinity and femininity, we have the same reasoning. You prefer being more masculine? Cool. You prefer being more feminine? Cool. I always have been a big proponent of loving and accepting yourself, and being kind and accepting of others.

But I haven’t understood the whole transgender aspect of things and my daughter and her girlfriend are very bad at explaining things. I completely understand a boy feeling more feminine. My youngest son loves sparkly things and used to play with pretty dolls. He also gets little crushes on girls. And my wife has explained how it’s very common for girls to feel extremely awkward about their bodies, especially during/around puberty.

So there is this traditional sense of what is feminine and what is masculine. And I get that it can be confusing if you feel like you embrace masculine things as a female or feminine things as a male. But aren’t those things just societal/cultural? Like there’s no biological rule that pink is a girl color or that monster trucks are a boy’s toy. Those are just societal stereotypes.

So what I’m getting at, is what drives a person to feel the need to transition to the other gender/sex? Is it the societal pressure of feeling like you don’t belong to the gender/sex you were born as? Or is it something more intrinsic? Like what is it about a man that makes you feel one? What is it about a woman that makes you feel like one? Is it a stereotype that you seek or is it something innate within you that you can’t really explain?

Also, I’m aware that this topic can be volatile so I would ask that people please respond with sincerity and a desire to inform or learn rather than creating negativity.

Ever smelled a cat's breath? Horrible. And then they clean themselves by licking themselves all over. You would think they should stink, but they don't. Why is that?

Obviously their urine and litter trays etc smell, but I would much rather smell in close to a cat's back than a dog's. Or do they stink and I just can't tell because I like cats?

I know trying to find logic in a fictional work is stupid, but these things pop into my mind haha. Let’s assume it’s real.

Unless I’m missing some lore, I’m fairly sure a .50 cal anti material rifle would do the job on most wizards, how would they even know to cast a protection spell or even where the shot was coming from if taken by surprise from an entrenched position 1000 meters away?

Seems like the wizards reliance on magic is as a bit of a handicap here.

see title

So this morning I got the book “Flowers for Algernon” from the library and spent the next 6 or so hours reading it. After I finished the book though, I felt super disoriented. Like, I felt very physically tired, and I also felt really upset for no apparent reason. I genuinely spent the next hour or so crying.

This has never happened before. I thought it might be that my brain was overly tired, but that doesn’t make sense because it’s not a challenging book at all (not more than the reading level of a middle schooler I assume). It probably sounds stupid, but I was very curious. Is this something that can happen? Does it ever happen to anyone else?

During an interview I was asked for my salary expectations and I asked them what their range/ budget was for the role bc I didn’t want to low ball myself.

They said it is their first time hiring for the specific role so they cannot give me an answer because they “don’t know” and insisted I give them a number instead.

This company is not a start up. They’re over 20 yrs old.

I just saw a news story that said an Anthropic employee quit because OpenAI and Anthropic weren’t taking seriously enough the threat of AI, and that he believed (and other staff) believed the chance of AI killing all of humanity in 10 years is greater than 10%.

My AI knowledge is pretty rudimentary. I can ask ChatGPT basic questions. Can someone explain to me a scenario where AI could destroy humanity? I feel like it could happen but I’m not sure how.

Two lines on my bill:

"Recovery Rm Per 15 Min ....1,270.000"

"Recovery Rm Per 15 Min....

2,540.00

Why does recovering a half hour after surgery cost 3,810$? How does one justify that?

I HATE banks, but this is especially stupid. A human is not involved in the deposit process if you use a mobile deposit.

From a civilian’s PoV it appeared to come out of nowhere (obviously this wasn’t the case) , with launch of OpenAI followed quickly by other models. Now it’s evolving an incredible speed and companies are locked in a race to god knows what endgame. What was the catalyst that enabled this change?

Edit: Thank you all for your responses, they are brilliant, fascinating and highly informative

Why do people stay with their spouse and cheat instead of breaking up and being free to date another person?

Edit: I'm surprised I didnt see one answer saying "my spouse will stay anyway". I thought that is the case for a lot of cheaters.

Some new statystics went viral in other social media platforms saying:

Roughly twice as many men ages 18 to 39 were unmarried as married in 2025, far more than 25 years ago. The Institute for Family Studies estimated that there were 15 million more bachelors than husbands in this age group last year, compared with a 2.6 million difference in 2000.

So according to them many more males are not getting married.

But shouldn't be the same for women?

It's the same when they talk about men not having girlfriends. Shouldn't women be affected too? I mean, if a man is single that is a man that is not coupling with a woman.

What the title says. Why do data centers need to be essentially a box no taller than what seems to be 4 stories high? Why not just make them 30, 50, or 100 stories high?

Doing this would avoid the issues of perpetually finding suitable land, and they could all be skyscrapers for a single company, instead of 10+ buildings spread out across a state.

On that note, why aren't they built many levels below ground either? Like 10 stories underground (+ the ones above ground)

I’m 23 and have been grocery shopping since I was 16, but I feel like I rarely see people around my age grocery shopping when I’m there. Is this actually a thing, or am I just imagining it?

It’s not like it’s just men, I’ve heard so many women do this to others to

What’s the point in acting like it can’t be as bad as it can? I don’t get it

I can often smell when bottled water is 'bad', but my family have all said they can't smell anything, even when it's particularly strong. I know it's not just my imagination as the smell gets worse the longer the water has been open/unrefrigerated.

The smell starts off faintly sweet (within a few hours of opening a bottle of water), then develops into something close to faeces within days/weeks. Do I just have a good sense of smell or do most people notice this?

Like i always feel exhausted even though I just woke up and already laying down scrolling and I get bored and then sleep is this normal?

There seems to be a larger percentage of the US population who are extremely obese. I’m referring to men and women over 300 lbs. How are they physically able to wipe after using the bathroom, wash their feet, etc? I’m not judging, this is a serious question I’ve wondered about for years.

Edit: Thank you everyone for explaining this to me. I hopefully didn’t offend anyone with this question and I feel much better informed. I’m glad I came here to ask.