Split (3)

train · 273k rows

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Why has no country yet extradited Polanski to the US if he is so easy to find and a convicted fugitive?	[ "Polanski is a French citizen. France (like many nations) won't extradite its own citizens to face foreign charges. That policy is very common and dates back to Greek and Roman laws (upon which most European legal systems are based). He's cautious in his foreign travel not to travel to nations that would extradi...
Does the team behind Forza pay to use the cars or do the car companies pay them to feature their cars in the game?	[ "A little from column A, a little from column B. It really depends on the car company involved.\n\nSome car companies will \"pay\" for placement in the game by not charging a license fee.", "Forza pays to license the cars, otherwise it would be stealing the likenesses of real life vehicles, and that's forbidden b...
Why is, no matter the colour of the shampoo, the foam always white?	[ "Because the bubbles that make up the foam are so thin that the pigments that make up he color are too thinly spread to matter much. Instead the light is fractured everywhere by every bubble making it effectively reflecting white light.", "[So meta...](_URL_0_)\n\nAnyway it's because the colour gets spread so thi...
What is the connection between oysters and Thanksgiving?	[ "This is the first I've heard of this; however...\n\nOysters, clams, and lobsters are a readily accessible food item in New England where the first two-hundred odd years of American culture more or less developed, and the food remains a staple (icon?) of the entire diet of the region, sort of in the way cows are as...
Listening to the State of the Union, I notice what sounds like intentional coughing, constantly, after President Barack Obama's statements. Is this on purpose and, if so, what purpose does it serve?	[ "You are crazy, how many people are in there? You don't think a room full of old, mostly men isn't going to have some \"dad sounds\" going on in the back?\n\nPeople fall asleep in those things, even if it's there party's president.", "Maybe if you have to cough you wait until the President is done speaking?" ]
Are some Japanese songs written specifically for anime in mind, having 90 second cuts?	[ "Both; depends on the anime. \n\n[death parades OP is just a real song by the band BRADIO](_URL_0_)\n\nits not hard to cut a song to a shorter version; remove a verse or two etc. \n\nbut then theres also [shows like jojo, who have custom songs written](_URL_2_)\n\n[btw all of jojos openings are amazing](_URL_1_)", ...
What exactly is a black box?	[ "It's a general term people use when they deal with a functioning component without necessarily knowing or needing to know how the component works. You know what the component does, but not necessarily how. For example, when you run [black box testing](_URL_0_) on a software package, you are examining the outpu...
Would a black hole be able to swallow another one? If so, what would happen?	[ "[Space Cannibal: Ginormous Black Hole Caught Eating Another](_URL_0_) A monstrous black hole at the heart of one galaxy is being devoured by a still larger black hole in another, scientists say. The discovery is the first of its kind.\n\n[Can Black Holes Swallow Other Black Holes?](_URL_2_) *Yes. If such an eve...
What is the point of a telemarketing business that hangs up or is just dead air when you answer?	[ "Much of the time it is because of a technology known as \"predictive dialing\". A computer dials hundreds of numbers, knowing that a certain number will be busy, most will not be answered, some will be answered by answering machines, etc. The program continually monitors how many calls are likely to get picked u...
How do freeways or Highways get their number assigned? Is there any rhyme or reason to it?	[ "For the US interstate highway system: \n\n_URL_0_\n\n > the numbering scheme for the primary routes, east-west highways are assigned even numbers and north-south highways are assigned odd numbers. Odd route numbers increase from west to east, and even-numbered routes increase from south to north\n\nThree digit nu...
How does our body process foods with large amounts of artificial additives?	[ "This is really going to depend on the specific additive.\n\nThe word artificial in your question is probably the least useful one. Your body doesn't really care how a substance came to be, it will do what it can to either turn it into something else, absorb and piss it out, shit it out, or some combination of all ...
Do fish not feel pain like mammals do? Why is it so acceptable for us to do things like shove our fingers in their gills or drag them around by hooks in their mouths?	[ "Nobody knows. There brains are simpler than a mammal's. But they still react to pain and such. On the other hand, it's not difficult to make a computer program that reacts to \"pain\", and few people would consider that sentient.\n\nIt probably mostly comes down to tradition and the fact that they're not as cute. ...
Why is the contraceptive pill only 99% effective? What makes it fail?	[ "The 99% effective is not to account for failure nessisariy, it is to prevent a law suite. If the claim was 100% effective and for some unknown reason someone became pregnant, the company who manufactures and markets that contraceptive could be held liable. \n\nThere would be little statistical proof of even 99%, b...
Does "Student Athlete" status vary from sport to sport in the NCAA	[ "Ryan Donato is no longer eligible to play NCAA hockey. He has joined the Bruins. He's still a junior at Harvard (and still attending classes apparently) but he isn't allowed to play hockey for the Crimson anymore.\n\nThis was something that he chose, to turn pro early and forfeit his remaining NCAA eligibility." ]
What is a Virtual Meeting Room (VMR) and what is its use	[ "It's an attempt to bridge the gap between the folks who work in the office and the folks who work remotely.\n\nI work on a team that is roughly half in the company's main office, and half in remote locations; of the remote half, half of them work at one of two satellite offices, and the rest work from home.\n\nOnc...
how a car engine works.	[ "Suck, squeeze, bang and blow. Sounds dirty, but basically it describes the 4 strokes of a 4 stroke engine. To simplify it, the cylinder sucks petrol(mixed with air), compresses it (squeeze), ignites it (bang), then forces out the burnt exhaust gases (blow)" ]
Why is wheat bread considered more healthy than white, especially to those dieting.	[ "white bread is made from white flour, which is flour without pretty much everything that naturally makes flour a good thing for us. nutrients, vitamins and especially fibres. they get shifted out of it to make white bread. brown bread flour has had no such treatment.", "Wheat flour contains at least some of th...
What is "unlocking" your smartphone? What is it now illegal and punishable by up to a $1 million fine?	[ "Phones provided by service providers are usually locked by their firmware into only working on that provider's network. Unlocking disables that so the phone can be used on any network.", "The reason that carriers were upset about people being able to unlock their phones was because of the prepaid market. You can...
what happens if a plane flies in the opposite direction of the rotation of the earth.	[ "Unfortunately the atmosphere largely travels with the rotation of the earth (why we don't have crazy wind nonstop) and so the effect on planes is minimal compared to things like local weather.", "So, what happens when a plane flies west? At least in the Northern Hemisphere in the Continental United States, the p...
How are fantasy sports companies like DraftKings and FanDuel legally allowed to operate?	[ "These fantasy sports sites are considered games of skill, because a better player will in the long run turn a better profit than a poor player. They are granted an exemption from sports gambling because the score for the fantasy sports site is not directly tied to the outcome of the actual game, AND they are over ...
What is the earned income tax credit?	[ "The earned income tax credit is a tax credit for low/medium-low income people.\n\n\"Earned income\" is basically the tax policy way of saying \"income from a job\" as opposed to investment income or gifts. \n\nThe EITC gives low income people money back on their taxes, potentially more than they actually paid in t...
Why do cell phone/internet providers only focus on "New Customers"?	[ "Because changing cell phone providers is a hassle that many won't put up with, and the cell phone market is saturated. So the only real way to grow is to take customers from other carriers." ]
How do QR Codes still read when part of them are obstructed?	[ "Long story short, QR codes have about a 30% margin of error. The purpose is to account for sloppy positioning of the code reader, camera resolution/fuzziness and possibly code degradation, etc. As long as specific elements of the code (EG, those 3 squares near the corners) are visible, the reader can still decode ...
Why does almost every app you download on the android app store have permissions where they can delete folders, access your contacts and turn your phone on and off among other things?	[ "As a former android developer I can give you a bit of insight into how permissions work, and why sometimes applications require permissions that seemingly do not make much sense.\n\nAn Android application is somewhat different from a desktop application. You can't write an android application from scratch you are ...
Why isn't the 3.5mm audio jack updated for better sound and power transmission capability like USB ports.	[ "Adding another ring, for microphones, produced a lot of compatibility issues when Apple tried it. There isn't an established need for \"analog + power\" or \"better analog\", and after gold plating it's not clear what the better analog concept even means (digital ≠ better analog)." ]
Why the word "second" is used for the number two.	[ "'Second' is Latin, from secundus \"following, second in a list\", in turn from sequi \"follow\" (from which we also get 'sequel'). First and third come from German. How we managed to mix etymologies between ordinals is flatly beyond me." ]
How do large venues and sporting organizations, which ban lots of people for unruly behavior, actually enforce these bans?	[ "For the most part they aren't actively enforced. But what the ban means, in a legal sense, is a trespass warning. So, if they come back and cause any trouble, they immediately go to jail for trespassing.", "I don't know how the venues enforce it, but in Europe some 'known hooligans' are banned from following the...
Fine then, why is 0! = 1?	[ "It's a matter of probabilities. If there are 5 different books to arrange on a shelf, you have 5x4x3x2x1 different ways (5 choices for the first book, 4 for the second, etc) to arrange them = 5! = 120. With 3 books you have 3! ways = 6 possibilities. If you only have one book, then you've got 1! = 1 way to arrange...
Why do countries want to host events such as the Fifa world cup or the Olympics when it costs them billions of their own money?	[ "My guess is that the people in charge of getting it to come to their countries still make a lot of money in bribes and backroom deals. So, even though it is overall a large financial drain on the country, it makes the people in charge a lot of cash. Similar to war profiteering.", "They don't really any more. ...
How can USA get kicked out from the international space station if they funded 81% of it ?	[ "We didn't get kicked out. Russia isn't letting us use their rockets anymore. There's a big difference.", "The Russians aren't kicking anyone out of the ISS. One minister (who is powerful in their space program, but still is just one guy talking and not Putin) says that after 2020 the Russians are going to end t...
They say that 95% of the ocean remains unexplored. Why is that we can explore billions of miles into outta space but not a couple of miles down in the ocean?	[ "Sea Pressure.\n\nIn outer space, it's essentially a vacuum. So the difference in pressure between the inside of the space shuttle and the outside is about 15 psid.\n\nThe deeper underwater you go, the stronger the sea pressure. Imagine a column of water. The water at the very bottom of that column is being squishe...
Why is it that sometimes when water touches me unexpectedly, it feels painful?	[ "It's simply that you aren't expecting it, and the temperature difference is usually very different to your skin. As soon as you feel this difference, your body jumps and reacts." ]
Space coordinates?	[ "There are several astronomical coordinate systems: Horizontal (AltAzimuth), Equatorial, Ecliptic, and Galactic are four commonly used, and each has it's own purpose. The choice of which coordinate system you use depends on what you're looking at, what kind of instrument you're using, and who you're talking to when...
How does 3 phase power work?	[ "There are three \"hot\" (energized) AC power lines, and the voltage on them moves up and down at different times. When the first one is 2/3 of the way through a cycle, the second is 1/3 of the way through a cycle, and the third just starting a cycle. This is depicted in [this graph.](_URL_0_)" ]
How do you use unique rectangles to solve sudoku?	[ "A standard sudoku puzzle has only one solution. Unique rectangles let you eliminate possibilities because those would lead to a situation with two solutions, which you know to be impossible. \n\nSo in a sudoku puzzle, if you pick any four spots that forms a rectangle, those four spots will always have more than ...
Would it be possible for another country to BUY a country in debt?	[ "The only ways to gain control of a country is through conquest or treaty.\n\nIn a treaty, you can theoretically place a condition by which the annexing nation pays the remaining debt of the nation being annexed.\n\nThis would effectively be \"buying\" a nation, though it is not something that could be done without...
the observance of Halloween in European countries.	[ "In Denmark, we barely celebrate it at all, some stores will do like halloween area and have some halloween stuff like pumpkins and a few people will make pumpkin heads (whatever they're called), but that's about it.", "In Britain it's just seen by kids as an excuse to get sweets off people, by teenagers/students...
Where in the toilet should I aim to have the quietest pee?	[ "I go for the side of the bowl (the inside) on the right side. This way the stream is a \"glancing blow\" of sorts and minimizes noise. \n\nNever thought I'd answer a question like this..." ]
Why do Electric Dryer Cords not just plug in like every other power cord?	[ "It has to do with building codes. Let me explain\n\nDryers and homes can have two different main types of plugs for dryers. A 4-prong and a 3-prong. Old dryers and homes have 3 prong plugs/outlets, new ones have 4-prong plugs/outlets. Obviously, if you mix and match old/new home or dryer it won't work.\n\nNow t...
what are laser beams & how are they different from light beams?	[ "A laser beam is a beam of light that has some specific properties. A laser beam is monochromatic, meaning it emits a specific wavelength of light (in practice it's probably not 100% monochromatic, but it's close enough for many purposes). Normally lights emit a fairly wide range of wavelengths. Even a normal beam ...
if our bodies are around 97 degrees Fahrenheit, then why don't we feel comfortable in 97 degree weather?	[ "Because we're exothermic. We make more heat than we need and have to get rid of the excess. We need a temperature differential to get rid of heat at a comfortable rate.", "The surface of your skin is lower than that of the inside of your body. Because your insides generate heat they need to radiate it away or fa...
why do progressive Estates put their focus and resources on free healthcare and free education and not on free food, free clothing and free shelter?	[ "I'm a little confused by your use of the word Estate, but I assume you mean state. The reason is that most progressive states have already taken care of their citizens' need for food, clothing, and shelter. People in those countries are either able to buy their own food, clothing, and shelter easily or there are g...
How do constellations stay the same in such a violent place like our galaxy?	[ "They don't. But you'll never live long enough to see them change. \n\nThe stars are moving relative to each other, but it's happening so slowly it's very hard to notice. In the 17th Century, Edmund Halley noticed that the then current position of some stars did not match the ancient Greek recorded position of the...
Reddit, please explain like I'm five what string theory is.	[ "Everything in the universe is made of things way, way, smaller than atoms and even electrons called strings. They look like little rubber bands stretching everywhere. \n\n[This shows everything from what you can see, like a diamond, to what you can't see, like a string. Number 6 is a string.](_URL_0_)", "Imagine...
How does Fusion work? What are it's possibilities as a means for energy in the future?	[ "There's an experimental plant called [ITER](_URL_0_), still under construction.\n\nThe trouble with fusion is that you're basically putting the sun in a bottle, but we're still figuring out how to make the bottle.", "For fusion to work, you have to squish things so much that the atoms collapse together. This req...
Why are some food allergies much more common than others?	[ "The best answer we have is, \"we don't really know\". This is still a hot topic of research.\n\nAllergic reactions are basically your immune system overreacting to things it deems dangerous. Most of the time when you talk about allergies, those \"dangerous\" things aren't actually dangerous.\n\nOne of the current ...
Why only somethings work on touch screens, and others don't, fingers but not fabric?	[ "Most touchscreens work using something called capacitive sensing. Basically, the touchscreen uses a conductor to detect when something is nearby. The human body is also a conductor, and therefore it can interfere with the electrical field of the touchscreen. The screen uses this to detect how a human is interactin...
If I try to hit a small insect, e.g. a fruit fly, with my hand at high speed, will I hit it or will the air which my Hand pushes in front of it will save the insect?	[ "The air in front of it will actually be hitting it itself if you swing hard enough. Of course this is way faster than your hand can really go on its own. So it depends on what you mean by 'high speed'.\n\nThat's why the space shuttle coming down from space catches fire. Not from friction, but by pushing the air so...
When I visited London, I saw properties for "sale" with 999 year "leases". How does this system work?	[ "Properties in Britain tend to be either Leasehold or Freehold (or others that are less common).\nWhen you buy a property 'Freehold', you are buying the house and the land underneath it\n\nWhen you buy 'Leasehold' you are buying the house but only renting the land. This means you have to either pay 'ground rent' or...
Could same sex marriage in the United States be legalized nationally, forcing states without SSM currently to perform these marriages? Or would each state have to legalize individually?	[ "It's not really a matter of the federal government legalizing same sex marriage per se, since marriage has traditionally been a state issue. But the federal government does need to unilaterally recognize same sex marriage across the board (IRS, Social Security, etc) and when they do the remaining non-SSM states wi...
How do people know that archaeological sites like Stonehenge and the newly announced find 2 miles from Stonehenge are ceremonial places of worship and not something else like, i dunno, a market or townhouses?	[ "We don't really know what it was used for, but it would have taken a great deal of effort to build so we can assume it had great significance. It's aligned with the sunrise and sunset at the solstices, so it's a fair guess that some kind of ceremony took place then. If you just wanted to know when the solstices we...
How do Young Earth Creationists rationalize radiocarbon dating?	[ "I grew up in a moderately fundamentalist community, so I'll speak from personal experience. \n\nFrom the point of view of a fundamentalist, you are approaching the problem backwards. When you and I look at a problem such as \"how old is this item,\" we look for a method or data point to work from. When a fundament...
What's the difference between Miss USA and Miss America?	[ "It's just two separate competitions, run by competing organizations. It's Coke vs. Pepsi, or IBM vs. Mac, or Jif vs. Skippy -- just two separate companies, each trying to do it best. There is nothing whatsoever official about it. If you wanted to, you could set up a \"Ms. Americas\" competition and try to get pe...
Why are some people "heavy" sleepers, and some "light" sleepers?	[ "Everyone's brain is a little bit different. Sometimes it's the physical structures, sometimes it's the chemicals the brain makes, and how it uses or responds to them. \n\nThere are at least 2 chemicals that play a big role in being awake versus sleeping, and how we go from one state to another: GABA and histamine...
What is happening biologically and psychologically when someone witnesses something so horrific they throw up?	[ "Stress reaction. \n\nStomach acid, bowel contents, bladder contents -- they all do really, really bad things to you if they end up outside of their designated organs. Waaaay back in the day, if you saw someone getting mauled by a lion, there was a good chance you're next. So your body then proceeds to evacuate ...
Why does it seem to take so long to warm up after being cold for so long.	[ "I hope I'm understanding your question right. Your body's reaction to being cold is to go into a survival mode, moving blood away from the extremities and toward the organs in your core. Your body is willing to sacrifice limbs to stay alive, which is why hands, feet, nose and ears are often the fist things to get...
How lightbulbs work	[ "When something gets very hot it gives off a lot of EM radiation. Some of that is visible light (~8% for a standard filament lamp)\n\nIn a lightbulb the Tungsten filament gets to temperatures near 2000K (~2300 Celcius) hence light." ]
Do dancers count to 8 for every song? Or in songs that use 3/4 or 6/8 time do they count differently?	[ "Do dancers count to 8 in every song?\nYes. Understand they arent counting music, they are counting movements.\n\nSometimes we do \"1, e and a 2, 3 and 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.\" This is for highly syncopated stuff. Accents and such. Each word represents a movement. Always, always we count to 8 no matter the song.", "Ab...
Can somebody please give me a tl;dr on this whole NSA scandal?	[ "the NSA since 9/11 has been given a purpose to track terrrorists and some of the methods they have done were considered immoral and would of been considered unconstitutional but, It's Not at all illegal.\n\n Phone log database - They are constitutionally allowed if you consider the supreme court's interpretation i...
Why do we still make pennies in the USA if they are barely used and cost more to make then they are worth?	[ "Because the Zinc Industry in America has a powerful lobby and would not allow it (Pennies are mostly made from zinc now).", "Yes, it does cost more than a penny to make a penny -- but a penny has a very, very long useful life. And, if you'll excuse the phrase, the mint isn't in the business of making money -- th...
How can satellites be free-falling towards earth all the time and never touch ground?	[ "It's not Earth's velocity, it is the satellite's. The best way I have found to describe it is that the satellite is going so fast in the perpendicular direction of Earth's gravity such that it missed the Earth, and continues missing.", "Gravity doesn't make things fall straight down. Instead, it bends their pat...
how come there isn't life that silicon based like carbon	[ "Silicon and Carbon, despite being in the same column on the Periodic Table, have fairly different properties. In particular, silicon does not form long chain molecules as easily or as frequently as does carbon, and those long chains are essential to organic chemistry.", "Maybe all carbon based life simply ate si...
What are lobbies in politics - how did they develop, what are they, why do people hate them?	[ "Let's say you are a wombat rancher. You prefer that laws get passed that benefit your business...like low taxes on wombat related goods, and regulations that make it difficult for foreign wombat ranchers to sell in your country.\n\nYou might write your representatives in congress, but you are just one person. In...
If internet banking systems use encrypted SSL connections and they say encrypted connections are safe why people say it is not secure to use internet bank systems on public wi-fi?	[ "WOW, there's a lot of really bad answers here with completely false info, especially /u/TRENZAL0RE 's answer.\n\n1) A lot of people out there are idiots and don't understand terminology or advice given to them. Some people equate WiFi with any non cellular access. To these people saying don't use a public computer...
Why are MRI machines so loud and differ in the noise made?	[ "Hard to ELI5, but here goes....\n\nMRI works by causing the protons in your body to emit a radio signal. This signal is different depending on where in your body it originated. To embed this spatial information in the radio signal, the MRI needs to create a magnetic field that varies with position. To achieve this...
I have often heard the term "pain is subjective". What exactly does this mean, in laymens terms?	[ "Different people feel pain to different degrees. Someone could pinch me and because I'm hypersensitive it would hurt like a cut, but too someone else it wouldn't be too bad." ]
What does Fourrier Transform do?	[ "A Fourier transform lets you take a signal that shows you how something changes as a function of time, and instead express it as a function of how much energy is represented by each frequency.\n\nThe input is a waveform.\n\nImagine that you've got some digital audio. If you don't understand how digital audio recor...
Why did Tomorrowland's "failure" at the box office make Disney stop production on Tron 3?	[ "Based on the article, if you want a tl:dr version-\n\nTomorrowland's flop killed Disney's confidence in upcoming big budget movies like Tron 3, especially since Legacy did so-so in the box office." ]
Outside of personal life, has Rob Ford been a good mayor (policies, economy, etc.)?	[ "ELI5 isn't for questions on opinions. People who agree with his policy will say he was good, people who disagree will say he was bad." ]
Why is the thought of incest repulsive?	[ "Humans are predisposed to passing on their genes and producing strong offspring. Children born of incest, particularly over multiple generations of incest, are prone to genetic faults due to the lack of genetic diversity among their parents/ancestors.\n\nCousins having web-footed babies, for example.\n\nIt's possi...
Why is bad posture so much more comfortable than good posture?	[ "It isn't. \"Good posture\" is the practice of using your muscles to hold up your body, rather than leaning against them (think of building a tower, as compared with just dropping a pile of blocks on the floor). The reason people don't like to do this is because it takes muscular control (mostly in your abdomen a...
How does a computer boot?	[ "On a very basic level, the hardware is designed in such a way that it recognizes electric pulses as either ones or zeroes. Once you grapple with that, it all goes from there. And I've definitely been in your place, trust me. Going through CompTIA courses and like \"Okay but *how*?\"\n\nSeriously the main an...
TCP/IP	[ "TCP/IP is the group of standards that different computers use to all be able to talk to each other on the Internet.\n\nIt consists mainly of 3 things:\n\nIP: this is a way in which every computer of the Internet can be given a unique address, called an \"IP address\", so that it's possible for one computer to spec...
The Samsung/Apple patent war and it's implications	[ "Companies have been suing each other as a form of stifling competition since the beginning of... well, since a long time ago.\n\nApple is in the news recently because they are doing it a lot.\n\nThey are exploiting a patent system that allows this kind of environment. \n\n > What could this mean for the future o...
Why are there so many languages around the world?	[ "Most human languages seem to be related to each other at some level, and all ~~evolved from a small, local, protolanguage.~~ languages that still exist seem to have evolved from a very small group of protolanguages. (Thanks /u/HannasAnarion, and /u/dmazzoni for the correction).\n\nAs people move away from each oth...
Why are planets spherical and not odd shaped?	[ "Objects are attracted to something's center of gravity. The force of this gravity increases with the size of that something. In asteroids the force of that gravity is too small for it to overcome the forces that hold a rock together, so the rock stays the same shape. For planets this force is on average greater th...
Why do some things that smell good don't taste good?	[ "Actually they're not so much connected as they are the same sense.\n\nOur noses sense both smell and taste (not our tongues) and they respond differently to exactly the same chemicals depending on direction those chemicals are moving.\n\nIf they are coming in the front of your nose (i.e. when you smell) they produ...
The Naturalist Movement in American Literature	[ "Don't know if you studied the Romantic period before it, but the Naturalist movement is a reaction to that (all literary movements are a reaction to the previous one.) Romantics focused on the beauty of nature and the infinite potential of the individual. Reading Whitman and Emerson will give you the best examples...
What justification do Jewish people use for not following much of their own ancient law?	[ "*some jewish people. Orthodox jews follow (or do their best to follow) everything in the torah with the exception of things that can only be done when the great temple exists. \n\nI think conservative and reform jews believe that the torah is a living document that needs to be changed here and there to remain rele...
How come we can take long 40°C+ showers and feel great, but hot summer days over 30° feel like crap?	[ "Showers last 15 minutes, try an 8 hour 40-deg shower and it will feel bad too.", "That's 104°F for US people.\n\nIt's a core temperature thing.. The shower never heats your core up more than a couple of degrees.\n\nInterestingly my wife heats up in her sleep to about the same temperature... It's gotten her pushe...
Why is whole life insurance considered to be better than term life insurance?	[ "Generally term life insurance is for a fixed period. Like 15 years or whatever. And the premiums are set based on your risk category at that time. However it's going to expire when the term runs out, and no matter what you will have to shop for more insurance after the term. It's definitely got its uses, like if y...
Rain-sensing variable-periodicity windshield wipers - how?	[ "It is a sensor in the windshield. It detects the amount of liquid and adjusts automatically.\nI work for Mercedes and this question gets asked a lot haha.", "An invisible infrared light is traveling inside the windshield glass. It goes from the top down to the bottom, where a sensor measures how much of the lig...
Why a nearly empty pen that stops working and then when we tested it still writes in a corner of the paper, but rarely rewrites where we left off?	[ "Friction. The almost empty pen has less ink to press on to the ball, giving it less and less of ink to move in.\n \nWhen you draw a line on the paper you not only leave ink on it, but you also press a tiny imprint into it, this makes the surface less rugged than it was, so when you have a ball with less ink that ...
Why is it that sometimes I'll wake up congested and sneezy even when I'm not sick, and it'll go away as the day goes on?	[ "It's most likely tied to the Circadian rhythms in the body, basically fluctuations in biological functions throughout the day. If you're affected by allergies, your body's lower concentration of cortisol in the morning would cause increased symptoms of the allergies. Cortisol helps regulate histamines, which are a...
What happens to batteries in electric vehicles after they can no longer hold a charge? Are they really better for the environment than burning oil?	[ "Many are retasked to store power for homes or even at places like wind power generating facilities. They'll still have about 80% of their total capacity at the time that they're no longer really useful in a car.\n\nOtherwise they can be recycled. Most lithium batteries are almost entirely recyclable. Worst case sc...
Are airlines constantly buying airplanes?	[ "From what I understand, Boeing, Airbus, and other aircraft manufacturers fill orders made by airlines. It's not like buying a car where Boeing has a lot full of new planes and a showroom floor. You see headlines like \"Emirates oders 20 new 787s from Boeing.\" \n\nBoeing has a production plant and has a steady...
How does a computer tell us how much battery percentage is left?	[ "They use a method called \"Coulomb counting\". \nImagine you bought a wallet to store your money. You know it's empty. Now you put $100. You know, the wallet holds $100. Then you stopped by a gas station and spent $20. Now, even without looking, you know that there are currently $80 in your wallet. \nCoulomb count...
Is there any motive behind politicians speaking about their families?	[ "There is. When politicians talk about their families we build a weak relationship to them. It feels More personal for us (the viewers/listeners).\n\nSome people don't see politicians as normal human beings, but they really are. When they talk about their families we get reminded that they are people as well, which...
What is that "feeling" you get in the pit of your stomach?	[ "> \"Our gut, AKA the gastrointestinal system, is comprised of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine and colon. It is lined by mucous membranes and wired by a complex of neurons more numerous than the spinal cord. These neurons are called the enteric nervous system, and some scientists think the gut has a mind o...
Why are humans required to eat a diet seemingly so much more complex than animals?	[ "In essence our diet isn't that complex and for thousands of years we got by on a much smaller range of foods. \nThe diversity in many different food sources is mostly a luxury in that regard. \n\n > there something different between us and most animals who seem perfectly happy to live off a small range of food so...
Why do my cock and balls seem to be acquiring an increasingly healthy tan as I get older, despite their very limited exposure to daylight?	[ "No seriously. \nSomeone smart please answer this. \nWhy is my genital skin darker than most all of my other skin. \nAnd darkening as I get older", "The expression of Androgen receptors is greater in melanocytes located in the areolas and genital area. Thus, Androgen stimulation promotes the synthesis of melanin ...
Could someone please explain some of the most common Reddit abbreviations?	[ "IQTMPOA\n\nI've quietly taken my pants off again.", "OP - original poster (the person who made the thread)\n\nOC - original content (not copied from tumblr, 4chan, 9gag, any news source, etc)\n\nDAE - does anyone else\n\nTL;DR - too long; didn't read\n\nMFW/MRW - my face/reaction when\n\ni know i am missing some...
Why are high speed cameras so expensive?	[ "1) Specialized pieces of equipment tend to cost more no matter what you're buying - smaller volumes = higher costs. Plus, they can sell them for more because companies are willing to pay more if the return on investment is good (see below).\n\n2) You need some decent processing firepower to move that much image d...
Why does paper make so much noise when crumpled?	[ "Other materials that are shaped like a semi-rigid sheet will make similar amounts of noise when crumpled: aluminum foil, thin sheets of plastic, etc.\n\nEach bend that you make in the sheet causes vibrations in it, and the vibrations are amplified similarly to how the (paper) cone of a speaker in your stereo make...
Why are more and more laptops coming with out a dvd drive?	[ "Pretty much the same reason more and more started coming without a floppy drive 15 years ago. Between huge flash drives and fast online storage, it's a dying medium.", "An optical drive (first a CD drive, then a DVD drive) used to be the best way to get software onto a laptop. It replaced the floppy disk, the p...
If we were to replace our neurons one by one with exact copies, would we still be "us"?	[ "In a more philosophical sense the dilemma you're describing is known as the [ship of Theseus](_URL_0_).\n\nIf you're asking if neuron replacement is possible the answer is \"hell no\" in the foreseeable future. Humans have some 20 billion neurons, each of which connects to thousands of others. Trying to replicate ...
why is it that our minds can blindly know where all the keys are on a key board, making us able to type fast, yet if you were to ask someone to draw out and label a keyboard, they would likely have a hard time doing it?	[ "So learning to type depends a lot on muscle memory. That is- when you repeat a motion many times your nervous system adjusts and gets used to that pattern so you can do it again quickly. So more so than learning the position of each letter on the keyboard, you're really learning the movements you have to make with...
What is it about alcohol that causes some people's faces to turn red and feel warm?	[ "This is a common reaction for people of Asian ancestry. It has to do with lacking an enzyme, alcohol dehydrogenase. It means the person does not metabolize alcohol easily. They get drunk easier.\n\n_URL_0_" ]
Cooking term: breaking sauce	[ "When making a sauce like hollandaise, the butter and egg yolks can separate, or the egg yolks can scramble and become solid.", "Any sort of emulsion, or forced mixture between components that don't normally blend like oil/fat and water, is held together usually with a binder like egg yolk. If the oil is introduc...
Why are pyramid schemes illegal?	[ "> It's not like they're lying to people.\n\nThat is exactly why they are illegal. \nThe fact that most 'investors' will never get any return is not disclosed. Except for -perhaps- State Lotteries, there aren't many situations where people will willingly risk money knowing they can't get it back. \n\n\"Ille...

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