Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
How do mail-in rebates work?	[ "The benefit is the perception of a deal. Only a small percentage of the consumers follow through on. So many times a consumer will purchase something with a mail-in rebate and either be too lazy or forgetful to go through the steps of mailing it in. So, while the company has offered the money back to all, it only ...
When scientist clone animal the clone is fully grown up or is it start as a baby and then grow up?	[ "The animal starts as a baby. They aren't cloning the animal in the science fiction sense where they make an exact duplicate at the same age - what they're doing is creating a new animal embryo with the exact same genetic code as the one they're cloning. The result is that when it grows up, it's identical to the fi...
Why does it get harder to remember new things when we get older?	[ "It's more about conflicting information than about storage. Using your example, when you use a language 24/7 for 20 years you get used not only to its words, but with its structure. When you try to learn another language, you'll have to devote some time learning to not use what you already know. \n\nThings get wei...
How do popular highways get backed up even though everyone is going in the same direction?	[ "The volume of vehicles is the biggest issue. Only so many cars can travel on a given lane in a given time period before the car spacing is too close for the perceived comfort of the drivers. That gets compounded by lane merges, exits and entrances.", "The problem isn't the traffic on the highway, it's the traffi...
From a psychological/sociological perspective, why does it bother us so much to be ignored or to feel like someone forgot about us?	[ "Humans are by their nature a social animal. We evolved to be clawless, fangless, and not that strong. We are intelligent and work together in a group to cover over our weaknesses. Humans are basically a herd animal, and we derive our security from that herd. From our community, from our friends, being a part o...
Why do numbers in digital clocks jiggle when we chew something crunchy?	[ "The digits are multiplexed. That means that each is driven in turn at high brightness for 1/6 of the time. Then the next one is turned on and so forth. It isn't normally noticed but sudden movement causes the on/off cycles to be noticed as your eyes get a slightly different image position each time. \n\nMultiplexi...
Why do Flights from NYC to China go North above Alaska then back down, rather than Bee line to China	[ "Because that's the shorter route. Flat maps sometimes don't do a good job of representing a spherical earth, especially at the poles. If you look at a globe, you can easily see that this is true.", "The earth is a globe, not a flat map. The northerly route is shorter when drawn on a sphere.", "Because that cur...
Why does tap water from the kitchen sink taste slightly different than tap water from the bathroom sink, despite having the same source?	[ "First step is a blind taste test to see if the effect is real or only in your head.\n\nGet someone to fill two glasses, one filled from each source. Then see if you can identify which glass was from which source. \n\nIf there is an effect, repeat it at other people's houses to make sure that it isnt your house's p...
Scientists say by 2050 there will be up to a 30% increase in world population, causing a 70% increase in necessary food production. Why won't there be a proportional increase in required food?	[ "Because there is a trend to move from grains and veg towards meat which require crops to be grown to fed to the animals before they can be turned into meat." ]
How is this new forged carbon stuff stronger than traditional carbon fiber?	[ "Without going and reading about this 'stronger' typically means a specfic type of strength - how hard you have to pull on both ends to tear it.\n\nIn which case an obvious example is plastic. Plastic polymers look like a heap of tangled worms at an atomic level, and this gives them much more of a specific type of ...
Why does it seem that flies and other pesky household pests, get into your house so easily, but when you open a door or a window all the way they can't ever find their way out?	[ "A multitude of reasons, the main one being confirmation bias. There are billions of insects outside, if one gets inside when you left your window open for 5 hours, it probably wasn't that easy, but very very lucky. Billions more DIDN'T get inside.\n\nThough insects do get in your house for a multitude of reasons...
What is the benefit of "pre-purchasing" a game?	[ "PC games: if the game is bought on Steam or some other DRM manager, the game is downloaded beforehand and installed, and the game is ready to be played the very minute it is released. \n\nConsole games: games bought in store have the possibility of being sold out before you have the chance to buy itit, even if you...
can current events in Ukraine be considered a genocide?	[ "It's not applicable to groups of the same ethnic background, but that's not what Russia alleges. Although Ukranians and Russians are related peoples, they have since diverged into separate ethnic groups. Russia is claiming that the ethnic Russians within Ukraine's borders are being subjected to genocide.\n\n(The...
Why do men have nipples	[ "Its simple. The default human state is female, so when the fetus is in the womb, it starts developing as if it was a female, and builds nipples. Only later do male hormones kick in and build decidedly male structures.\n\nThere is no real evolutionary advantage to NOT having nipples, and they don't cost that much t...
why do churches and cathedrals need buttresses but not skyscrapers?	[ "Cathedrals are made out of stone, so it isn't easily self-supported. The wall can't support much more than the weight of the wall. Also, the walls are individual stones that are loosely mortared together (assuming they are mortared). The extreme weight of the roofs pushes outward against the walls, rather than str...
How can an electron emit x-rays?	[ "Electrons orbit the nucleus of atoms, they can change how far their orbit is, but they need to change how fast they are going. To slow down and get closer, they need to get rid of energy. When they get rid that energy, the energy leaves in the form of a photon (what you know as a wave of light). The energy put int...
Can someone explain to me who typically chooses the codenames for military operations?	[ "General: Why are you requesting 100,000 pairs of green tights!?\nAcquisitions Officer: It's for Operation Peter Pan sir, and it's top secret.\nGeneral: I like the cut of your jib sergeant... Approved!", "Typically it was the job of the officer planning the mission. I believe now days it is computer selected so a...
Why do most cakes and dessert recipes call for eggs?	[ "In a cake, eggs act as a leavening agent, thus making cake light and fluffy. In baked foods like cookies, muffins, etc, eggs add moisture and act as a binder. I don't eat eggs, so I always look for the eggless version of things. There are substitutes for eggs depending on what you are baking.", "When a cake ba...
The relationship between Monks and beer	[ "Monks need money, people like beer, beer making is a lot sitting around in silence, monks do a lot of sitting around in silence. It's a match made in heaven.", "* monasteries often cultivated a craft that helped them raise money...some made honey, others made beer \n* many monasteries had a tradition of fasting....
How does scam message stay open?	[ "When you click the red X, you ask the program politely to close. It's supposed to be used so programs can clean up after themselves and save your work before they quit. Poorly behaved programs, like the scam messages, can just not close down when they receive the polite request.\n\nWhen you use \"end task\" throug...
How can movies be remastered into HD when they were originally recorded in standard definition?	[ "All \"old\" films are still saved on their original film reels. Film is actually extremely high quality and still better resolution than any current digital resolution. The original reels are scanned into computer files at a high resolution, nowadays probably at 4k , and the entire movie goes through the post-prod...
Why do most foods taste completely different when hot or cold?	[ "1/2 of the time we eat, what we smell usually helps us define what we taste. If the food is hot, naturally it’s scent would be more present opposed to being cold.\n\nTry pinching your nose when you eat. Not the same exact effect but close.\n\nAlso, you know. Your brain and shit.", "Same reason when you heat some...
Are organs the same size for everyone or are they bigger for naturally bigger people and vise versa?	[ "While there is some amount of variance, the average dimensions and weight of organs are the same throughout all of humanity according to a rough height metric. A 6'5\" adult male would have about 30% larger lung size than a 5'10 adult male, assuming all other factors are \"average\".\n\nFatter people will have h...
Why haven't we evolved to require less sleep?	[ "Because that isn't how evolution works. Something we don't need anymore doesn't just go away as soon as we don't need it. Something better needs to come along to replace it. The people able to function on less work may be more successful in life, but it doesn't necessarily mean they will be able to reproduce bette...
What actually is snot (nose mucus)?	[ "Your body is only really capable of producing a few substances, in different quantities... so things like mucus, wax, sweat, semen, saliva, or milk tend to be made up of varying concentrations of salts, sugars, proteins, antibodies, other cells, and water.\n\nNow, mucus is produced by special cells in your body ...
What is the difference between Smiley Smile (1967), Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE (2004), and The Smile Sessions (2011)?	[ "Pet Sounds isn't like SMilE in the least. But...you'll probably end up liking it anyway. Go with The SMiLE Sessions. \n\nPet Sounds is grounded in reality - SMiLE is a colorful fantasy trip.\n\nAnd hey. Try Sunflower. Also Friends.", "Smiley Smile (1967) is the follow up to Pet Sounds. It was originally inte...
Debt as the dollar inflates/deflates	[ "> Making another extreme assumption; this does not affect the economy significantly\n\nYou can't do that, sorry. Such a marked deflation in the dollar would destroy the economy, pretty much a law of nature on that, which is kind of a failsafe in and of itself. The [1923 \"hyperinflation\" in Germany](_URL_0_) is ...
Why words stop looking like words after you type them repeatedly.	[ "_URL_0_\nFrom what I can tell, your brain recognizes the same word over and over again and gets bored.", "I would have thought it would have been the opposite to what these other redditors said: I think it's over-focussing rather than getting bored and moving on. Because the connection between a set of symbols (...
If it takes 3 hours for the sun to set in NY to LA, why doesn't the line of shadow move at 1000 mph?	[ "I think you might be asking about the [Solar Terminator](_URL_0_) which does move across the Earth (at the equator) at about 1000 MPH, but due to the scattering of light in our atmosphere (the same reason you can see inside shadows and they are not completely black) the terminator line is not clearly visible o...
What is deconstructive criticism and it's role in group assessments?	[ "It is when you just say things like \"That's stupid and you're shit at everything\" and it totally hurts morale and discourages people.", "It isn't the opposite of \"constructive criticism\". Rather, it's criticism (i.e. opinion given for the sake of advice) which is done using the framework of post-structuralis...
Why I sweat more than everyone else.	[ "See a doctor if it is a serious problem. ELI5 is a horrible source for medical advice." ]
If the same animal with different fur color is considered a different species, why aren't humans classified as different species based on hair color or other varying traits?	[ "Physical features have nothing to do with being a species. Being a part of the same species is defined as being able to breed and produce offspring that can then produce more offspring.", "The same animal with a different fur color is not a different species. It is just different colored. All cats are from the s...
The EU's Immigration Policy. Can EU Members Travel Freely Without Being Documented?	[ "There are two factors to this:\n\nThe Schengen area: A political agreement between a bunch of European nations (most of which are in the EU) that borders are open and no special documentation is required to pass over them. You can drive from the southern tip of Spain to Finland without ever having to present a pa...
How is it possible to track down the owners of illegal websites?	[ "Unless they mess up and do something silly and self identifying. That's especially easy if the FBI or whoever can compel the hosting service to give them access to the server and plant some things to try and weasel identifying information out of the connection. (Which, if you're using a browser without noscript, i...
How is point Nemo, a sea point which is the farthest from any land mass, calculated?	[ "Here is how I would do it manually:\n\nFor a start, much of the sea can be dismissed as a matter of course. E.g. the entire Mediterranean Sea is nearer to land than a point in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.\n\nThe next step would be to take a compass set at some set range (say 1000 miles) and draw outlines from...
Why do cabbage leaves grow rolled up in a ball where they're guaranteed not to get any sunlight?	[ "Cabbage are artificially selected and bred. The wild cabbage leaves are not not balled up like that. In fact the cabbage is the same plant as broccoli and cauliflower." ]
How are dogs bred for specific purposes?	[ "Over generations breeders select for traits that make the dog better suited to a certain task. Your dog won't inherently know how to \"rat\", but will probably enjoy chasing small critters and he/she is physically suited to digging and pushing into small crevices/tunnels in which rodents may live.", "Dogs have a...
Physiologically speaking, why do certain people react differently to marijuana?	[ "There is only science to this, in fact. \n\nThere are a few active components in marijuana. First is cannibinol, which produces the \"stoned\" effect: it is the depressant. \n\nTHC is the most notable component. THC gets you 'high'. It has a mild stimulative effect, and in large doses, hallucinatory effects....
How does Candy Crush recommend your next move?	[ "This is haRd to answer because I don't have source code for it, but my guess is it does not know what is coming (this is easier to code, if it randomly picks instead of figuring out ahead of time) and it determines the \"best\" move by looking at all available legal moves and picking one by some method (likely the...
why do car rental companies give you both sets of car keys attached to one keyring, where they can't be removed and used separately?	[ "I feel like this is specific to the rental company you are using; cars I've rented have always given me two separate keychains :/", "Rental companies eventually sell the cars, and they need to have both sets of keys. They don't want the second one floating around once they no longer own the car, so linking them ...
How do you get a second job? Are you supposed to keep the first one a secret?	[ "When you got your first job, did they give you a time table on when you are available? You can usually change it (start of the school year would be a great time to do it, many students will schedule around their classes). For the second job schedule time around the first job (although you might want to figure out ...
What is quantum tunneling?	[ "Particles that shouldn't be able to go through stuff, go through stuff.\n\nIt's like if you kept throwing a ball against a wall and eventually it just went right through it.\n\nIt's sort of like a leak. See quantum mechanics is based on a concept that quantum particles exist in two different forms - a wave and a p...
How did early humans develop opposable thumbs?	[ "Evolution does not work that way.\n\nIt isn't as if some creature is sitting around thinking \"this mutation woukd really help us\" and suddenly his kids develop the mutation.\n\nThe mutation occurred randomly and the environment was so that he survived while his non-opposable thumbed brethren did not. This meant ...
Why are ships referred to as "her" or "she"?	[ "Because it's mostly men who own them, they're super expensive, they cost a ton to maintain, and they're hella fun to ride.", "A lot of guys + a lot of water + no/few women = things become she/her", "Something a lot of men are in charge of? Must be a female.", "Honestly, anything that's in the transportation...
How can acid eat through metal, but not a glass/plastic cup?	[ "I'm not sure about the exact solution they are using, but I'm going to use aqua regia as an example. \n\nSolid metals are composed of metallic atoms arranged in a metallic lattice, with metallic bonds connecting them NOT chemical bonds. These are much weaker and can be sheared with less energy. \n\nGold, as we kno...
the use and purpose of pointers in C.	[ "The name is more helpful than people realize if you try to think of it visually. It's literally a variable that POINTS to something.\n\nSo let's say we're playing hide and seek. John is hiding under a box. Sally saw John go hiding under there. Now I walk into the room trying to find John. I find Sally and say \"Sa...
What is an itch, why does it bother us, and how does scratching it make it go away / feel better?	[ "Scratching an itch, releases endorphins instantly into the surround nervous system area. It provides instant gratification but ultimately makes the itch worse. Like smoking crack and getting an instant high but then coming down. I actually have no idea what I'm saying.", "Skin is usually itchy because of a fo...
Why SSD is better than Hard Drive?	[ "For one, they're faster. Much faster. Insanely faster. It's not even close. If you were to compare it to running, it'd be a bicycle vs a car.\n\nAdditionally, SSDs can be much smaller in size, are more durable, and use less power generally.\n\nMuch of this is due to physical HDDs' physical limitations. In a HDD,...
In baseball, why do they change out the baseball every time it touches the ground?	[ "Balls covered in dirt are harder for the batter to see, which could present a safety issue when dealing with projectiles coming in the vicinity of player's faces at 100 mph. Dirty balls may also move erratically because of the uneven scratches and dirt accumulation on different parts of the ball.\n\nGetting rid o...
How do animals in eggs know when to hatch?	[ "Genetic programming.\n\nRemember how you latched onto your mom's boob for your first meal? OF COURSE NOT. But you did, because it was genetically programmed that you had an instinctual latching-on process to get that milk into you (or, alternately, from a bottle if you weren't breast fed).\n\nAnimals are the same....
What are skin tags and why do we get them?	[ "A skin tag is actually a benign tumor that usually forms where skin creases, like the neck or armpit, and sometimes the eyelids. They are almost always harmless. They're very common (moreso in women than men), and thought to be formed by skin rubbing on skin, but the exact cause is unknown. \n\nThey're safe to lea...
What is "Salisbury Steak" made from? And is it just a US commercially made food or does hit actually have roots in England?	[ "Its roots are in the USA, not the UK. It's named after Dr. Salisbury who invented it in the 1800s. It's mostly ground beef but may contain some pork depending on who makes it. [Details.](_URL_0_) There is a similar food in the UK, called a grillsteak.", "I actually live in the medieval town of Salisbury Englan...
How come standard pixel widths (360p, 720p, 1080p...) correspond to the number of degrees in a/several full rotation(s) ?	[ "It's the beauty of maths. The two aren't related besides the fact they both divide down really well. 360 divides by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15 etc. \n\nAs a percentage of these lower numbers that's way more than almost any other (this is also why a lot of people have and still do believe that base 12 count...
Why does string theory require 10 dimensions?	[ "I am not a physicist, but I once asked a physicist to explain to me this very thing. Below is a reformulation of what he told me:\n\nWhat does it mean that there are more than 3 spatial dimensions, and what does it mean that they are \"curled up very small\"?\n\nImagine you're a billiard ball, living on the surfac...
Google's new parent company Alphabet?	[ "In short, Google had become a huge sprawling company made of a bunch of brands, and Alphabet allowed to separate all those brands and make them independent from one another, while still having the same people in charge at the top.\n\nGoogle has grown to a point where they are no longer just an internet tech compan...
How do movie makers hire actors to play 'ugly' roles.	[ "Many actors of course find it insulting, but work is work, and getting acting work you gotta take what you can get, its hard.", "The actor might be a little insulted, but unless people are treating you poorly even when not acting, an actor will realize that it's just a role and nothing personal. Any half-decent ...
"Bladeless Fans"	[ "There's an intake vent on the bottom with a fan, and there's a little slit around the outside of the fan which the air comes out of." ]
Why do download speeds between ISPs vary, even though they use the same phone lines	[ "The factors affecting speed are:\n\n1) ADSL: The distance between your home modem and the ISP's \"DSLAM\" (big neighbourhood router). The shorter the distance, the faster the speed (to a limit).\n\n2) The brand, model and configuration of the end devices: Different home modems/routers have different limitations, l...
Why is everyone criticizing the movie Stonewall?	[ "The producer is being criticized for whitewashing the cast of the movie, as well as not putting and transgender people in, or really, any type of person other than a 100% homosexual white man. He claims that \"back then\" there weren't (m)any transgender people among the population of those who were protesting (or...
What exactly creates this 'second' tide?	[ "Because the moon and the earth aren't pulling each other like tugging a rope. They are falling towards each other but keep missing because they move forwards faster than they fall. The moon isn't just spinning around the earth while the earth stays still. They are orbiting at their center of mass. The center of ma...
How does lucid dreaming work? What are some of the most reliable methods to induce it, and how soon would you expect it to start 'working'?	[ "Here's a really fast rundown since I have to go to class soon. There are two most basic ways of inducing lucid dreams called MILD and WILD, each one with certain small variations.\n\nMILD stands for \"mnemonics induced lucid dreaming\". To achieve lucid dreams with this technique you have to affirm yourself ...
What are chefs talking about when they're talking about acidity and adding it to food, and why does it feel like I can't taste the difference?	[ "Acidity has a couple of uses in cooking. For one, acid breaks down other substances, helping to tenderize vegetables or meat for example. It initiates a chemical reaction. This is also the reason it is used on apples and some other cut fruits, because the acid prevents them from turning brown when being exposed to...
What makes a sports team/city a "big market" and why is it such a positive quality when talking about where a player will sign?	[ "Big markets are those with large populations, like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles. Those teams usually have a lot of money (i.e. the Yankees payroll dwarfs that of the Pittsburgh Pirates). \n\nThe money can come from lucrative cable deals, or expensive tickets. The bigger the city, the more corporations are based ...
If both parties agree gerrymandering is bad and accusing the other side of the aisle, what is truly preventing gerrymandering from being outlawed?	[ "Gerrymandering is only bad for one party, and it's great for the other. So despite both parties agreeing that it can be bad, they also know they can benefit greatly from it. The benefit for them outweighs the detriment, no matter how much they want to whine about how bad it is to appease to voters. After all, they...
velocardiofacial syndrome	[ "This syndrome is also known as DiGeorge syndrome. It is usually caused by a deletion of part of a chromosome (22, to be specific). This deleted portion normally codes for (has the assembly instructions for) about 30 genes. These missing genes cause a lot of problems with development of the fetus, and that's why pe...
What exactly makes that knuckle-cracking-sound?	[ "When you release pressure on the joint, dissolved gases in the joint fluid expand. Then they immediately dissolve again and what you're hearing is the fluids \"slapping\" back together. So yeah, it actually is kind of like a bubble \"popping.\"" ]
Why doesn't a garden-hose eventually explode even when the tap is on and the nozzle on the other end is shut-off/closed?	[ "Your plumbing supplies water at a certain maximum pressure. That pressure is lower than the pressure required to stretch the hose. So it's less like blowing up a balloon, and more like blowing through a pinched straw. No matter how hard your lungs can blow, the straw's not going to explode.", "Its simply beca...
Measles have reapeared in the USA because of anti-vaccination movements. Why should I care if I'm vaccinated, aren't I protected from it?	[ "1. The vaccine isn't always 100% effective, and it's possible (though rare) for the vaccine to not work properly for some people.\n\n2. Many people can't be vaccinated (allergy to the materials in the vaccination, compromised immune systems, too young to be vaccinated, etc.), and those at-risk groups rely on every...
How does the genotyping process that 23andMe use work?	[ "Check out Smarter Every Day's video for a behind the scenes at the factory with loads of useful info:\n_URL_0_", "23andMe uses a type of sequencing called [SNP genotyping](_URL_1_) to look for general trends in your genome that indicate genetic history. It relies of the concept of SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymor...
Penny stock fraud (i.e. Wolf of Wall Street)	[ "Buying and selling penny stocks is normal.\n\nSelling penny stocks to investors and lying about what they are (eg A great opportunity, as good as a blue chip, the next Microsoft etc. etc.) is illegal.\n\nThat's what the Wolf was doing." ]
Why do some artists sign to record labels and become famous within 6 months-a year while others sign to the same record labels and are worse-off in 6 months to a year when both artist's music/commercial potential is about the same?	[ "> ...when both artist's music/commercial potential is about the same?\n\nThis is your subjective take on the matter. Perhaps others would be inclined to agree? Besides, music trends aren't always about good sounding music but just what happens to get popular anyhow." ]
What became of the 'rags to riches' soccer team?	[ "You are talking about the English team Leicester City F.C. and they are still currently at the top of the Premiere League." ]
Can birds fly in a moving car? If so, how?	[ "If the acceleration of the car is zero, i.e. it is moving at a constant velocity, you might as well imagine it as being stationary. Think of an airplane cruising at 400 mph, people aren't being flung to the back of it, you can walk around, go to the bathroom, and function as if the plane isn't even moving at all. ...
How network bridges work in Windows (not hardware switches)	[ "Network bridging turns your computer into a network switch, combining two physical network adapters into one. They share an IP address, but still have separate physical (MAC) addresses. The computer compiles a list of every MAC address it sees on each physical adapter. \n\nWhen a computer on either segment (physic...
how does chemotherapy work without killing us?	[ "Chemotherapy attacks rapidly dividing cells- so you're hoping cancerous cells that are wrecking havoc on your body, but unfortunately this also means it attacks other cells that normals divide rapidly like blood cells and follicle cells, which is why chemo patients often lose their hair and may require blood trans...
Why does America(among others) have different laws for different states and other countries just have the same laws throughout the country.	[ "Federalism! \n\nAmerican federalism emerged from the particular way in which the states declared independence from Britain-becoming, in effect, separate countries-and then joined together to form a confederation and then a single nation. Recall that the framers of the Constitution turned to federalism as a middle...
Why does water seem so cold in my mouth while i chew gum?	[ "When you have \"cool\" water (say, 10C or 50F) in your mouth, it is draining heat out of your body at a certain rate. If you have ice water in your mouth (0C or 32F), it is draining heat out of your body much faster.\n\nMenthol (what makes things smell minty) is an irritant that increases blood flow. More blood fl...
Why are there jokers in card decks?	[ "The joker is still used in games like Canasta, Gin Rummy and Euchre. By removing it, those games would have to change their rules, which would annoy more people than simply leaving the cards in.", "> The joker did not appear until sometime around the 1860s. At that time, the game of euchre was extremely popular ...
Why do stores leave some lights on even when closed?	[ "So that if they get broken into overnight the surveillance will actually be able to show something.", "Boogeymen are everywhere, not just in the closets or under the bed." ]
Why do humans crave sugar?	[ "Sugar, fats and starches are all high-energy food sources. During most of human evolution, we didn't have consistent access to these foods. Our bodies evolved to crave them so we would seek out energy sources (think \"fuel\" for our bodies). A few more berries or a handful of legumes gathered could fuel our muscle...
The Control Group of a science experiment. How does giving a placebo to a control group do anything?	[ "Let's say you invent a drug that prevents cancer. You have a group of people who are taking it, and another group of people who are taking a sugar pill. You're going to monitor them for 10 years and see which group has better cancer outcomes. \n\nOver the course of those 10 years, though, the city realizes that th...
Why do touchscreen phones never lose calibration?	[ "Most (if not all) phone touch screens use capacitive touch, while other things, like computer touch screens use resistive touch. I'm no expert, but you can find more information on this article:\n_URL_0_", "the one you mention sound like a resistive touch screen, resistive touch screen there is a gap between the...
What makes a song part of the Pop genre?	[ "\"pop\" is short for \"popular\" and it's more of a status than a genre." ]
Video Compression	[ "The next time you watch a movie or TV show look at how little changes from one frame to the next. For example, if you have two people talking to each other the background isn't going to change much. So, instead of storing a picture of the background twice they simply include the pieces that changed. Then they can ...
If germs are the biggest killers in hospitals, then why don't they have security checkpoints at the entrances and key areas where people have to disinfect their hands and stand under UV lights for a few seconds?	[ "Germs are the biggest killers in hospitals because hospitals are clean. The disinfectants can't kill all germs and the ones that survive are ones that have grown resistant to the cleaning so when they infect someone antibiotics won't work well." ]
Who is Guy Fawkes, why is he so important, and what is the big deal with his mask?	[ "Guy (Guido) Fawkes planned to blow up a few very important buildings. The Gunpowder Plot, as it was known, was going to blow up the House of Lords, but he failed when someone tipped off the feds.\n\nOn Nov 5 they found him with a bunch of gunpowder and and they executed him (he actually sort of executed himself, b...
Why did a nest of ants suddenly die off?	[ "Where? Urban, suburban, or rural?\n\nFor suburban/urban, insecticides like Borax may have been carried into the nest. In rural areas, it is likely flooding, or in the winter, freezing.\n\nAn interesting rare event is a \"death spiral,\" where an ant will accidentally walk in their own closed pheromone loop, and mo...
Glass and ice.	[ "1) your house is warm, and hence the glass is warmed as well. Frost won't form on a warm surface, since the ice would just melt. your car sits outside all night and the glass cools down, allowing ice to form on it.\n\n2) your house windows CAN condensate and freeze on the inside if it is cold enough outside, I...
Why do some songs on pop radio stations just now start to be played when they are months to a year old?	[ "The record labels control when radio starts playing music. I don't listen to pop radio much, but I feel like \"Take me to Church\" became popular without radio, then the label released it to radio.", "It takes a while for shit to stack, then once it does it all comes falling at once." ]
When you smell someone's fart, are you inhaling microscopic vaporized pieces of decal matter?	[ "Most of what you smell is methane and other gases produced during digestion. Not fecal matter.", "No, it's just gas. [Mercaptan](_URL_0_) being a primary component.", "Your question is essentially correct with the fecal matter theory. You are inhaling microscopic molecules of shit. Methane is odorless but carb...
When a video is uploaded over and over again on youtube, what is physically happeening to make the video quality get worse each time?	[ "Compression. A typical camera records 1080p 30fps at 17Mbps, which is just under 1GB/min. Whereas a typical bitrate on YouTube is ~3Mbps, which is < 1/5 the size. \n \nEvery time you re-upload it, YouTube goes through the whole compression process again. \n \nCompression is where they take a group of similar ...
Regarding when people say the baby boomers or gen X ruined the housing market for us millennials, what exactly did they do and how are they to blame for the state it's in now?	[ "When population grows and the number of housing units doesn't grow proportionally, property prices go up, just due to the law of supply and demand. This is good for people who already own property and bad for people who want to purchase property. Typically, people who already own property are politically far mor...
What is a covered bond? And how do they work?	[ "Covered bonds are bonds that are secured by an underlying pool of assets, known as the cover pool. Investors buy covered bonds and so they have claim on the underlying pool. The underlying pool (typically mortgages or loans, but can also be ships, aircrafts, etc) generate cash flow, and that cash flow is passed on...
The Ryan Budget Plan	[ "* Single-payer health insurance is insurance that's provided by one entity. At the cost of bureaucracy, this provides huge economies of scale (imagine what a deal you could get on toilet paper if everyone in your town decided to negotiate with Charmin as a group to arrange a single contract). Medicare is a single-...
Why does gas you get in the US have so much lower octane numers than in germany?	[ "Your octane numbers and our octane numbers don't mean the same thing. From an engineering perspective the octane number is actually a kind of hilariously arbitrary number that basically boils down a bunch of different fuel qualities, that all both individually and collectively control a fuel's likelihood to knoc...
Why is Japan receiving the most hatred for whaling when other countries such as Norway and Iceland is doing it as well ?	[ "Many other places that hunt whales have strong cultural history of whaling and/or an actual need for whale meat as a food staple. Japan (arguably) has neither and yet has been one of the most ardent pro-whaling nations on earth. They continue to ignore International rules on whaling for food and instead hunt on th...
How did they do the dinosaur sounds for Jurassic park?	[ "This is the first write up I found with a simple google search: _URL_0_" ]
How can humans sense when they are being watched?	[ "We can't. It is confirmation bias in action. Basically, you have been watched countless times. One of those times you got a funny feeling and happened to notice someone watching you. Ever since, whenever you get that feeling, you believe someone is watching you.\nEdit...wrong phrase.", "we cannot. in no rigo...
What is the purpose of creating super-huge elements that only last a few nanoseconds.	[ "Often times, science isn't done with any practical application in mind. It's all about discovery. Perhaps, in the creation of a super heavy element, we discover some new field of quantum physics. Making them stable is less important than just seeing what happens as they're made and decay.", "It helps us to learn...
Why do so many people get "stuck" in a retail job?	[ "Same reasons anyone gets stuck anywhere. Pay and circumstance a lot of times. Job security is another. The other overlooked aspect is the people. It sounds corny, but at bestbuy we were literally a family. I still regularly hang out with people I worked with there, that are still working there. I have not wo...

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