Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
- how can you get stretch marks on your bum from sitting down too much?	[ "Your can't. You get stretch marks from rapid weight gain or growth. So if you put on a lot of weight in your hips and butt you can get stretch marks there. \n\nSomething you can get from sitting down too much are pressure sores commonly called bed sores, or hemorrhoids." ]
This morning I read that the universe is expanding at a rate of a billion miles an hour in every direction. Does this include the space within in my own body?	[ "Imagine blowing up a balloon.\n\nThe balloon gets bigger, and two points far apart on the balloon get further apart very quickly. But two point which are close together move further apart only very slightly as the balloon inflates.\n\nThe universe is a bit like that.\n\nSo the space which your body exists in is ...
When a tennis player challenges an in-out call, how is the CGI clip generated to make the right call?	[ "Cameras track the ball's movement with a technology called \"computer vision\". This is a powerful tool that is used to identify rejects in an assembly line, and what self-driving cars use to navigate, for example." ]
I am very nearsighted. Why does my vision appear to significantly sharpen when I squint?	[ "The black circle in the center of your eye (the pupil) lets in a lot of light. It gets bigger and smaller to let in more or less light. When your pupil is big, light from a single point in the real world is entering the eye at slightly different angles. The eye focuses the light from these slightly different an...
What's wrong with the big pharmaceutical industry?	[ "I was a clinical scientist in big pharma for years. I ran phase III human trials. It takes on average, testing of 100,000 new compounds to bring one to market. Of those 100,000, only 13 will make it to toxicology testing. 12 will fail. The expense is mind-boggling for all of this. On top of the drug developm...
when I sleep in my bed and my hand touches the concrete wall, it feels really cold but when I touch my wood bedframe it's warm.	[ "Hotness/coldness isn't a measure of the temperature of the object. It's a measure of how fast the heat enters or leaves your hand. A metal bar feels colder than a wooden one on winter's night because metal is a better conductor of heat. It literally sucks the heat out of your hand faster than wood. Concrete isn't ...
Why exercise speeding up your heart rate is good, but drinking caffeine to speed it up is bad?	[ "Ok, best guess here, only because no one else has bothered to give a decent answer, would be that exercising to keep your heart rate up is only a benchmark for how you should feel to know you're doing it right. Having an increased heart rate alone is not the point.\n\nObviously when you're exercising, it effects a...
Do All Subatomic Particles Already Exist? and/or How Are They Created?	[ "I'm just going to base my answer on the Standard Model. It's the theory in particle physics that explains three of the four fundamental forces (electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions; it doesn't explain gravity), and also classifies all known elementary particles.\n\nSince it's theory, we need validation -...
Always-on DRM	[ "It means that you HAVE to be connected to the internet to play your game. When you start it up, it will connect to the server to verify it is a legitimate copy. If it can't connect or sees it's not a legitimate copy it will not allow you to play." ]
How do Blood Thinners (Rat Poison) work? What makes the blood "thin"?	[ "Your blood contains things called platelets - these are basically a type of cell whose job it is to plug any holes that might form in your bloodstream. And normally, these holes and tiny tears happen all the time, but you never notice them because your platelets plug said holes and prevent any leakage. Blood thi...
When a woman gives birth how long does it take for her stomach area to go down?	[ "It's different for each woman and it just depends on her body type, whether she delivered vaginally or by cesarean, and her activity levels before and after pregnancy. I mean, she will immediately not look pregnant anymore once the baby and placenta are out, but she won't be back to her pre-baby size for a while,...
Why can't we just throw satellites or sensors into a black hole to see what happens?	[ "The nearest black hole is 1600 light years away, for a start.\n\nEven if we have a black hole at easy reach (and it somehow wasn't destroying us all) the definition of a black hole is that it is so massive that its escape velocity is faster than the speed of light. Information can't move faster than light, so if w...
Why do roads have unnecessary bends?	[ "I think the premise is false - just because it seems unnecessary, it's highly unlikely anybody is going to build needlessly curvy roads.\n\nObvious factors would be geography (Sometimes cheaper to simply avoid a big rock formation than to go through it), land ownership (maybe they couldn't acquire the land, or aga...
What makes the Mona Lisa painting special?	[ "My totally original response for the question:\n\nLeonardo Da Vinci painted it. He is the foremost Renaissance artist. Artist's credibility adds to the paintings popularity. Napoleon Bonaparte hung the painting in his master bedroom in 1800. This - I think - was the first tipping point of making the painting one o...
From a cancer-risk point of view, is 10 minutes in the sun each day for 12 days equivalent to 2 hours in the sun during one day?	[ "If you burn, it's definitely not equivalent. When you get burnt, your skin is showing signs that cells are actually dying. Your body contains mechanisms to deal with the DNA damaged caused by UV radiation, but when these mechanisms become overwhelmed, your cells need to abort and kill themselves to prevent skin ca...
How would a fourth dimentional being perceive a three dimentional being?	[ "Like being flat in that fourth dimension -- if the fourth dimension is time, then we're only able to see what's going right now, where a four-dimensional being could freely move backwards and forwards. You need to ignore the memory bit though -- pretend you're a (stupid) fish, so you have no idea of past or future...
My friend's mom died this morning after a 3 year battle with cancer. ELI5 why it's so hard to cure, and why we haven't done it yet.	[ "Cells in your body duplicate to replace dead cells. They know when and how to do so based on information found on their DNA. When a cell replicates it makes a copy of the DNA for the other cell, but sometimes something goes wrong during this process and the other cell's DNA is messed up. \n\nNow most of the time t...
Why has Africa generally been unable to develop like the rest of the modern world?	[ "It's not that Africa hasn't been able to develop, it's been actively undermined. Nearly all of the continent was under colonial administration until the end of World War II. It's spent hundreds of years having its resources siphoned away and having its political systems eroded. Once independence finally came, it w...
What would a standard conversation between a pilot and air traffic control sound like either on take off or landing?	[ "You can listen for yourself at _URL_0_.\n\nMostly it is just business, and that means jargon, especially at larger and busier airports.\n\nA lot of it goes something like this:\n\n* Pilot: \"Centennial Ground, Cessna 52872 at Charlie One, run-up\tcomplete, request southeast departure, information Kilo.\"\n* Ground...
How do those penny auction websites work?	[ "The price of the items is dirt cheap. But what they fail to mention is that you have to pay for bids and the auctions end times extend after every bid. So while you may have purchased that new laptop for $10, you spent $500 in bids, just like all the losers of the auction also spend hundreds in bids.", "tl;dr: T...
What is roko's basilik and what does it mean?	[ "Sometime in the future, humans create an artificial super-intelligence. This AI is so powerful that it can create an extremely accurate simulation of people who have lived in the past and the world around them, using information from the past about that person. Such a simulation would be so accurate that when the ...
how do scientist discover new things about the universe?	[ "They do it with the scientific method: \n\n\n1) Conjecture that something \"could\" be possible (or true). \n\n2) Create an experiment that will test your hypothesis in such a way as to be sure you are actually measuring what you think you are measuring.\n\n3) Use the results of your experiment to classify your in...
why do people's accents seem to disappear when they sing?	[ "BA in linguistics here. I believe it is for a couple reasons. Reason number one being that you simply don't hear it as much. The differentiators in accents (particularly American accents) are in things like \"r\" sounds and vowel sounds, and when you hold these sounds out in a long way like you're singing, they so...
what causes headache?	[ "Well, it depends on the headache. There are types of headaches, like tension, migraine, or cluster headaches, that are considered primary headaches. A primary headache is basically a headache that isn't caused by or indicative of an underlying disease or illness (like high blood pressure, tumor, epilepsy). These...
why do snipers (in movies anyway) work with another guy with binoculars? Do they do this in actual combat?	[ "They're called a spotter and they identity targets for the sniper. And yes, many snipers work in pairs, with one spotting and one shooting.", "LI5:\n\n\nLook through a cardboard tube. You can see a little, but nothing else. Wouldn't it be cool if you had a friend who could see all the stuff around you while y...
How do programs or files get "deleted" from a hardrive? Where do they go?	[ "##What is a File System?\n\nImagine your computer as a recipe book. It contains sections, such as \"Cakes\", \"Soups\" or \"Stews\" which represent directories, and within each section are individual recipes, which represent the files on your computer. So you have a list of sections (directories) each of whi...
What is exactly happening in a person body whey they overdose?	[ "It depends on the drug. Every substance (from water to cyanide) has what they call an \"LD50\" that is the dosage (in mg per kilo of mass of the subject) that will result in the deaths of 50% of the subjects. \n\nLD50 = Lethal Dose 50%\n\nSo without asking about a specific substance, we can't really tell you what'...
I've seen HDR photography, audio playback, rendering, etc, but not HDR microphones. Why is that?	[ "HDR photography typically mixes more than one photo to get the effect. Essentially it's because technology has trouble recording images or sound to the same quality that human eyes or ears work to. There's also a brain making sense of it all and that is replaced with photo editibg techniques or sound mixing techni...
In apps like whatsapp and facebook where it shows when the user was "last seen", how is this determined?	[ "Bot removed my comment :(\n\nAnyways, a bit more detail. They (they apps) store a LOT of data, including what was the last time you opened the app, close the app, where did you click etc.\n\nTherefore the 'last seen' is the time you last used the app or exited the app...\n\nHope this is enough?" ]
The difference between a generalization and a stereotype	[ "I'd say stereotypes are generalizations, but not all generalizations are stereotypes.\n\nA generalization could be pretty neutral, just an oversimplification, like: \"Cartoon movies are all G rated\".\n\nA stereotype, generally (hah), has a negative connotation. So, \"Black people are good at basketball\" would be...
Human population growth. It is estimated that two parent mice can procreate up to 60 mice in year (2 mice equals 60). Using this framework for an analogy, how many future people (in future generations) could a couple alive today be part of their genetic ancestry?	[ "I've heard a saying that, if you look far enough into the future, you'll either be the ancestor of all people or none. Even if each couple only had two children to survive and reproduce, exponential growth means that after twenty generations, you'll have over one million ancestors. Basically, as long as your ances...
Why do my cheeks hurt from smiling?	[ "Overuse of any muscle can lead to fatigue and pain.\n\nRunning for example may lead to pain in the legs etc. \n\nYour face has muscles in it required for smiling, if they get used a lot the same principles apply with them as for any muscle.", "Because in order to smile you need to use muscles in your cheeks. Tho...
Why is Apple allowed to bundle iTunes with iOS and restrict competing products, while Microsoft couldn't do the same with IE with Windows?	[ "Apple does not control almost all of the market, so bundling iTunes and restricting competing products will not prevent competing products from being successful." ]
Why is it easier to 'pop' your knuckles the more you do it?	[ "You probably are just better at the technique after practice. There is currently no evidence that cracking your knuckles causes any physiologic change.\n\nEdit: correction, actually chronic knuckle cracking has been shown to be associated with hand swelling and decreased grip strength. The evidence also shows no a...
How do buying domain names work?	[ "Godaddy or Hostgator get the domains from the registry, which for .com domains is VeriSign but there a bunch of different registries handling thousands of domain extensions. The registries in turn get their authority from IANA, who are the group that oversees everything.\n\nNothing stops you from selling domain n...
Why are people scared of the dark?	[ "It's natural. Humans rely primarily on their sense of sight. When it is dark, we can't see potential predators.", "The ancestors that weren't afraid of the dark got eaten by lions.\n\nWhen you're a tasty diurnal primate with good daylight-vision, it's safer not to wander around in the dark." ]
Why do employers bargain collectively for and subsidize health insurance but not other big items like auto insurance, auto loan, and mortgage?	[ "During WW2, the American government instituted wage and price controls as a preemptive measure to keep inflation down. So businesses that wanted to hire the best people couldn't offer more money than their competitors. But they could pay for your healthcare, and it was a pretty sweet deal for both parties - th...
How is Coca-Cola's recipe still a secret?	[ "Nobody who knows it has disclosed it. And nobody who doesn't know it is particularly motivated to try to find out what it is. It's just fizzy sugar water, after all, not the polio vaccine.", "There was an incident where 3 coco cola employees tried selling the recipe to Pepsi but Pepsi called police", "Coke k...
Why do men go bald more often then women?	[ "Baldness is caused by something called DHT (dihydrotestosterone). It is a byproduct of testosterone. It causes finer hair and a receding hairline. Because men have more testosterone, they have more DHT. Some men are more susceptible to DHT which is why they get male pattern baldness.", "DNA, the blueprint for yo...
Why very cold (liquid) beer, turns to slush as soon as it's opened.	[ "If it's carbonated, then releasing the pressure causes the gas to expand - which drops the temperature suddenly, which freezes the liquid.\n\nIt's also possible that the liquid may have been supercooled - that is, it's below its freezing point but unable to freeze because it can't find anywhere to get started. The...
The camera effect where the scene freezes and the camera pans the scene.	[ "IIRC, this technique was pioneered while filming The Matrix.\n\nThey set up a lot of cameras (I think it was originally stills, probably video cameras now) — in a circle or arc around the subject. Then they all take a picture at exactly the same time. Ta-da! A moment frozen from multiple angles. \nOf course, ther...
"science is not a democracy"	[ "What it means is that just because a lot of people believe something doesn't mean it's true. Some ages back people believed space was filled with some gas, they called it aether. Didn't make it true. At one point people thought the earth was flat. Didn't make it true.\n\nIn science there is no safety in numbers. A...
Why do some words in English have two or more very different meanings?	[ "Sometimes it's the same word that evolved into having two or more different (but related) meanings. For example a \"wave\" is a repeated fluctuations, just like when you wave your hand (you move it side to side) or ocean waves (the water moves back and forth). Sometimes the two meanings are far enough from each ot...
How are white Monster Energy drinks 0 calories when it has 2 carbs per serving?	[ "Erythritol. Sugar alcohols are carbohydrates, but erythritol has a caloric value of 0.2kcal/g which allows the Monsters to be labelled as sugar-free and 0 calorie.", "You can legally put 0 calories on your product of the amount is less than .5 or something like that. It's practically 0." ]
what exactly are those squiggly lines floating in my eye	[ "They're called floaters. They're basically just some proteins that are in your eye. _URL_0_", "As someone else mentioned, they're called floaters. They are shadows of small pieces of vitreous (the 'filling' of your eyeball) that breaks loose. Usually these are harmless, unless you experience a sudden, significan...
What makes the Mona Lisa so highly regarded?	[ "It's by a famous artist/inventor and got a ton of press 100 years ago after being stolen. That made it an iconic piece of art, causing it to be studied by artists and the general public which has resulted in it's popularity perpetuating.", "There were many aspects of the Mona Lisa that seem ordinary today, but a...
Domestication of animals	[ "I am no way an expert but I have read a little about this in the past and I will give it a shot(not sure if a 5 year old will be able to completely understand this without a little background knowledge on things like sex, evolution and what breeding is).\n\nThe basic steps for domestication is that a human will pi...
When my bread goes moldy, where does the mold come from?	[ "Mold is everywhere; in the air, in the bread, on every surface, on and even inside your body.", "It literally comes out of thin air. Spores are virtually everywhere! In fact, we probably wouldn't have beer today if that wasn't the case. \n \nBeer fermented with yeast was probably not a deliberate thing at fir...
Why do people put their hands on their head when something bad happens?	[ "Just a theory, but it's likely derived from an instinct to protect our head/face when in danger.\n\nAnother theory, it may be a learned form of non-verbal communication. (I know I do this, and can picture adults doing it, but I don't know if it's common among children.) It could be a way of signalling to others th...
What happens with the relationship between large predators and their handlers? Why do those animals (mostly) cease seeing their human handler as food?	[ "Predators don't necessarily just see 'all other things' as prey. In the case of large predators and handlers they're also tamed. They've been socialized to the presence of humans. They're certainly still dangerous animals, but they are accustomed to the fact that people are around, and potentially also have been t...
Why does is it impossible to find news that is accurate and can be trusted?	[ "It is overwhelming -- there are so many potential sources of news these days, and many of them spend time telling you that most of the others are untrustworthy and inaccurate. That doesn't help. \n\nSo start small, with things you know about or that people you know and trust know about. What sources are accurat...
why does it seem so many gas and convenience stores (US) are owned by foreigners?	[ "They probably mostly are. It's not something someone born here would strive for necessarily, whereas for foreigners it's an opportunity to make a pretty decent amount of money for themselves, while not really stepping on too many toes along the way." ]
If a women receives donor blood from a man, isn't she technically 'on steroids' ?	[ "Testosterone has a really short half life (4 hours or something), so generally in the time it takes to collect and process the blood, testosterone has most likely been used up. \nGenerally when collecting blood, we screen it for disease and abnormalities (such as dengue, malaria, hiv, ect) and then store it either...
Of all the horrid Trump dealings, why isn't he prosecuted on the stuff that is blatantly obvious?	[ "Who said they were horrid? That's your opinion." ]
Why we can “feel” it when someone/something comes within millimeters of touching us, but doesn’t actually touch us	[ "In general you simply cannot feel those things.\n\nIf that thing is a different temperature it is possible you could feel the warmth or chill imparted to the air. Or you might actually have thin hairs from your skin touch the object which you could then feel. But most likely what you are describing is an imagined ...
What make a person gorgeous and why? Also, what makes a person ugly and why?	[ "There are multiple articles and studies done on this, but basically it goes back to our survival instincts/days of early man. It wasn't about beauty, but a healthy partner who could reproduce the best possible child. So not too skinny or fat meant they were eating right, symmetry is a big thing- subconsciously, if...
What bodily mechanism stops us from shitting or pissing ourselves?	[ "Sphincters. Rings of muscle which close off orifices and passages." ]
How would unbundling Google Search from the rest of the Google services prevent Google from monopolying?	[ "For the same reasons as Microsoft in the 90's.\n\nMicrosoft was dominating computing, specifically OS, but got in trouble for their bundling because it effectively prevented any fair competition (how do you compete with free?)...\n\nThe search engine may be google's primary revenue source, but there's no justifica...
If the economist predicts a growth of 3% but it comes to be 4% in reality, was the economist off by 25% or 33%?	[ "The prediction was off by 25% (it was 25% short). Growth came in at 33% over prediction. So it depends on how you phrase it.", "Pretty sure it's 25%\n\nFormula for percent error is \n\n\|(actual value - ~~experimental~~ estimated value)\| / actual value\n\n~~In this case the economist's estimate would serve as the...
Sending/Receiving Public Keys	[ "The public key is as it say on the tin public. It is no secret so you can freely distribute it however you want. When you connect to a secure website with TLS you will get the servers public signing keys as part of the handshake. For PGP there are publicly available key servers that allow you to search for public ...
What on earth is WWE wrestling about	[ "Hey... uh... you know all those movies and TV shows you watch? They're not real either. You still watch those despite knowing it's acting, don't you?", "It's just entertainment. I'm not a fan but I can appreciate the athleticism that some of those guys display, and the real appeal for the fans seems to be the s...
Why does water and soap cause my shower to become a nasty, vile, putrid, black-mold infested cesspool of filth?	[ "Because it's actually water, soap, dead skin cells, whatever you scraped off yourself, soap particles in hot soapy water flung everywhere which create scum, and bacteria. There's all sorts of nooks and crannies in a shower where the gunk accumulates and breeds.\n\nClean often and in-depth!" ]
Where does the term Generation X Y Z come from and now that we are on Z is AA next?	[ "Generation X was the generation after Baby Boomers. They were called that because \"X\" is the stereotypical unknown variable and, at the time, nobody really knew what they were going to be like. They grew up in a peaceful, prosperous time of American history without any major social strife. They were also sign...
How can fruit be GM'd or selectively bred to have no pips (eg oranges) if they wont be able to reproduce?	[ "They graft branches from the seedless variety onto pre existing root systems of non seedless varieties.\n\nfwiw, where are you from? Pips is not that common a term for seeds." ]
Why do companies give away free stuff to new customers but I get bugger all as a loyal customer?	[ "You said yourself you are a loyal customer. They've already got you! They're trying to create even more loyal customers like you via special promotions for new customers", "Having people agree to a good deal when they first sign up is an example of a classic sales technique called [foot-in-the-door](_URL_0_): \n...
What characteristics make a certain liquid/solid "flammable"?	[ "Volatility, or the tendency of the substance to vaporize and form a gas.\n\nLiquid gasoline, for instance, is very hard to burn. However, the vapors coming off of the gas are easy to burn, because they have enough access to oxygen to easily complete the combustion reaction.\n\nAs for solids, such as wood, the same...
Why do artists in older bands sound so different than artists today?	[ "There is a thing called the ['Loudness Wars'](_URL_0_) which is probably what you're noticing. Basically, old music was recorded more simply, but record labels found people like songs more if they 'sound louder' (but aren't actually louder, really, kinda-its technical). So they started processing songs using a lot...
What exactly causes the mirage of reflective water on the road?	[ "On a sunny day, when the road gets much hotter than the air above it, a temperature gradient is established, which bends the light upward. What appears to be water is actually bent light looking at the sky.", "This is an awesome example of optical effects in physics. So the road is hot as hell and the heat caus...
How is it possible that police in other countries can fire their weapons so few times a year?	[ "For the most part in Great Britain police officers don't carry firearms. Turns out it's pretty easy to not fire something you don't have.", "Civilian gun ownership is illegal in the UK. Most officers don't even carry guns. To get a sense of why, check out these stats, scroll down to murder with firearms. ...
How does Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) work/occur?	[ "> Can anyone explain how this actually works from a physiological and psychological standpoint?\n\nNope. The first step would be proving it actually exists, which hasn't really been done yet." ]
How do sewer systems in tall buildings work? Does your crap free-fall all the way to street level?	[ "Generally sewer systems in high rise buildings are designed to avoid 2 problems. \n\n1. free-fall of waste, both to avoid ramming into to the pipe at the bottom of the fall, and to avoid increase in air pressure in the sewer line at the lower floors. Increased air pressure might cause sewer gases and water in the ...
How do we walk, and how does one become more graceful at it?	[ "Hi,\n\nHere's a couple of tips that will help. You're going to want to rehearse these (privately:) so that they can be locked into your neurology by the time the wedding comes around:\n\n1. Imagine someone that you find REALLY sexy is waiting for you at the end of your walk. Really see them, hear, smell them, etc....
How asthma puffers work?	[ "They contain a drug that forces all the tiny pathways in your lungs to open up. The misting just makes it easier to inhale and get where it needs to be quickly, rather than taking pill and waiting an hour for it to start working.", "Well, depending on the inhaler, it alleviates two major symptoms of an asthma e...
How does exercise contribute to our overall well being?	[ "Our bodies are designed for movement. We want to move; sit still long enough and you will start fidgeting or bouncing your leg, stretching, etc. We get rewarded for these things by easing our stress, tension, and even aches and pains. \n\nWorking out feels good on several levels.\n\n \n~ It releases endorphins whi...
Green Screens vs. Blue Screens in film productions.	[ "The idea behind both screens is that a program searches for the color that the screen is and replaces that color with computer imagery. If you wear green in front of a green screen, the program will see the green on your clothing and also put computer imagery where you are, which ruins the effect. \n\nThe biggest ...
What's the percentage breakpoint of salt in water where it doesn't hydrate you anymore?	[ "It depends on how much salt you have. Generally though saline used in medicine is 0.9% salt by weight, so 9 grams of salt per litre." ]
Why are you required to remove headphones for take off and landing on most flights?	[ "Most emergencies happen during these periods, and the cabin crew want to be sure you will hear any emergency announcement that's made. And that you or your seatmate don't get tangled up in a cord if the plane must be evacuated." ]
how missiles "work"	[ "a rocket has a couple of parts, the first thing is proulsion - usually a solid fuel that burns up, pushing it out the back, and forcing the rocket to go forward. The next bit is the payload, which is high explosive, designed to detonate when it hits its target. finally, the computer, and sensors. So the computer d...
why do painkillers like percocet and vicodin contain a little bit of the painkiller and alot of acetaminophen	[ "APAP (acetaminiophen) kills pain in different ways than opiates & combining the two is far more effective than just taking the opiate alone. This means you can take a cocktail of the two and get better pain relief with lower cost/addiction potential.\n\nAnother benefit - if you're concerned about law+order and ...
Why did hitting electronics (like old T.Vs) temporarily "fix" them?	[ "Sometime problems were caused by debris on the circuit or a relay (spring loaded magnetic switch) sticking. Vibration might shake the problem free, restoring normal function.", "Old circuitry suffered badly from dry solder joints. This is where the solder holding components onto the circuit board does not conduc...
Why is it OK to use the same utensil on raw chicken all the way through until it is cooked?	[ "If you work with food then it's not. You have to have separate utensils for raw & cooked: and it's especially important with chicken. \nAt home, using the same fork or something like that isn't really a big problem as it's not a big chance of bacteria being transferred in any significant quantity, and it'll be k...
What are Autoencoders and how do they work?	[ "One thing NNs are good for are for finding a function that you don't already know, but have training data for. But there are other uses, too. It can also be interesting to ask it to find a function you already know, and then look at how it found it. \n\nAn autoencoder is a neural network that is trained to rec...
How do Area 51/ other secret service workers get chosen?	[ "You apply to work for the government. Your next job in the government requires a higher security clearance. So, your life is investigated by the government, and they decide to give you a clearance. Then your next job requires access to compartmentalized information. So, you get a more through investigation. Ev...
How can phones make emergency calls without a SIM card, reception, etc...?	[ "As stated already, you always need reception, there's no way around that.\n\nTo explain the lack of SIM, you need only look at the meaning of the abbreviation: Subscriber Identity Module. A SIM is not actually required to make a phone call, it's just required to identify you and associate your phone w...
Would it be possible to implement universal healthcare by state?	[ "Sure. That's what Canada does. Both Vermont and Colorado have said they're looking into it, at some point in the recent past. I think that shows that it is possible to some degree, and experts have at least toyed with the idea.\n\nI imagine state taxes will go up by a bit, but I think people will be fine with it e...
How do I use Flashcards for studying?	[ "topic name on one side, short description of topic on the other.\n\nSo it could be an important name with a short explanation why the person, place, or thing is important.\n\ncould be \"member of the XXX cartel\" with the members on the other side. \n\nGet creative, have fun. The point is to make a connection betw...
Why does it feel less hot to slurp a hot drink like tea or coffee than it does to drink it like you would take a sip of water?	[ "When you slurp a hot drink, you are pulling the drink into your mouth along w/ air which cools the drink as it mixes. When you sip it like water, you are sipping into a closed mouth where there isn't as much air to mix and cool it down. You'll also find that some people slurp when they drink wine in order to aer...
Why and what are puppy mills and why are they bad? Why don't "ethical" breeders sell to pet stores?	[ "A puppy mill is a place that just breeds dogs round the clock and pumps out as many puppies as they can. \n\nThe dogs likely won't get much attention or be able to play, run around etc its literally a puppy factory. \n\nPet stores will buy from normal ethical breeders, but sometimes they might not realize that the...
How are movie companies able to get entire roads/highways/places shut down in order to film? If I payed enough money, could I shut down highways?	[ "In theory? Sure.\n\nIn practice? Not unless you have a good reason... like say a few million dollars and a movie to film. \"Just because\" isn't going to fly.", "The city has the say in the end, but getting it done in the first place is going to take some serious cash. The detour is going to cost the city so ...
How do transmissions such as Wi-Fi signals and cellular phone signals transmit through solid objects like glass and wood? I understand that it degrades the signal, but how does it still make it through in the first place?	[ "Have you ever shined a bright light through your finger tips? Notice how you can see the light coming though? It may not be as bright because your finger is absorbing a lot of it but still light makes it through to the other side. well wifi or radio signals are essentially light or electro magnetic radiation. The...
Why are car batteries so big if they lose their whole charge after leaving a dome light on overnight.	[ "They're designed to put out a large amount of power for a short time -- enough to start your car engine, which is heavy. But the designers assume they'll be constantly recharged thereafter (by the car's alternator or generator).", "Your typical car battery is about 50Ah*13.8V = > 690Wh. If you leave a 20W lamp...
Why are the craters on the Moon so shallow and somewhat flat?	[ "Gravity limits the size of mountains; that's why objects above a certain size are alway close to spherical. Rocks just aren't strong enough to be self supporting on a really large scale." ]
Why did the USA govt bail out the banks instead of the home owners?	[ "Because a bank failure is worse for everyone than homes being foreclosed. Though I'm sure someone who had their home foreclosed upon would disagree.", "The banks got loans, which they paid back very quickly. The homeowners already had loans which they weren't even making payments on. \n\nThe banks, which have ...
Why are tobacco companies banned from selling flavored cigarettes yet other tobacco products like flavored cigarillos or hooka tobacco is fine?	[ "Flavoured cigarettes were really popular with kids 10-15 who wanted to smoke for the coolness but couldn't handle the taste of plain cigarettes. Cigars, cigarillos and hookahs didn't have the same appeal to kids and weren't working as a lure for them." ]
If someone needs a kidney transplant, does the donated kidney have to be from the same side? Like, can you replace a left kidney with a right kidney?	[ "When a person receives a kidney transplant, it is not in place of one of their kidneys. The new kidney is typically placed in the patient's pelvis. The artery, vein, and ureter (tube that connects the kidney to the bladder) from the donor kidney are then connected to the recipient's iliac artery, iliac vein, and b...
When bands tell politicians not to use their songs - who gave them permission in the first place?	[ "Generally, you don't need to get permission, other than to get a license to perform the music in a public place. This isn't a license that someone has to approve based on the type of event -- it's simply a financial transaction: you pay the appropriate license for the appropriate event and you can play whatever mu...
If I take antacid after orange juice do I inhibit the Vitamin C?	[ "No, the bile secreted when food enters the intestine is alkaline and one of its functions is to neutralize the excessive acidity of the stomach acids, doing the same as an antiacid. Adding another is not going to make any noticeable difference.\n\nSomething that do affect the absortion of Vitamin C is dietary carb...
If the use of antibacterial soaps and careless use of antibiotics is discouraged because it could produce very resilient and dangerous bacteria, how come mouthwash isn't being given the same treatment?	[ "The \"antibacterial\" part of mouthwash is ethyl alcohol; bacteria are about as likely to develop a resistance to it as they are to bleach." ]
Why are autocorrects getting less correct?	[ "Google Keyboard has been the best auto correct software I've ever used, it's fast almost always gets the word right, unobtrusive, and it leanrs what worda are most commonly used.", "The ultimate reason is that language is really, really tricky and difficult to quantify in a \"complete\" way. So the algorithms ha...
why do pens write better on a stack of paper than one sheet on a table?	[ "The surface area on the ballpoint is greater when there is extra paper underneath. Extra friction is created when the ball has more surface to cling to, allowing the ball to roll along the paper, grabbing wet ink when it rolls along. \n\nImagine a large marble rolling on your counter vs on your bed. The surface th...

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