Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
"Nestlé wants to own all the water!" What's really going on?	[ "Nestle has purchased land rights to several water sources in Africa and denied access to the communities that previously relied on them. At one point the CEO of Nestle said water wasn't a [basic human right](_URL_0_)", "The war over water is afoot. Naturally, the front lines are impoverished countries keen to se...
how do small caves get explored ?	[ "In theory any place you can get inn you could also get out off as the hole is the same size. In practice though there is a reason why cave exploration is considered one of the most dangerous hobbies.", "> Is there someone who just goes in as first\n\nThat is the idea. Some crazy person jams themselves into a cr...
Why do things make us high?	[ "The chemicals in the drugs bond with receptors in the brain the way a key fits into a lock, causing the fun effects" ]
Why are there so many programming languages and what do they do.	[ "Each programming language is like a tool. Some languages are very similar, (like pliers and needle nose pliers) and others are pretty different. (Hammers and screwdrivers). Programming languages are all tools used to accomplish the task of building something, creating behavior, or fixing problems. \n\nLearning the...
Why does 100% acetone nail polish remover feel cold to the touch?	[ "Acetone has a low boiling point so it evaporates easily. When things evaporate they require energy, and they acquire this energy by making whatever surface it used to be on colder. This is also how sweat cools you down." ]
How does open sourcing .NET help Microsoft?	[ "1. Microsoft has by far the best tools for .NET. Those tools are free for individual users, open source developers, and academics, but rather expensive for businesses. The cheapest version is $500 a copy. The expensive version is $13,000. \n\n2. If people write Android apps in Java or iOS apps in Objective-C, they...
How does the cold weather rob a car battery of its charge?	[ "Chemical reactions typically slow as the temperature decreases. Cold weather, therefore, hampers a battery's ability to produce electricity. I have a hybrid car and I've noticed my mileage decrease in cold weather. It also decreases in hot weather when I use the air conditioning.", "Chemical batteries have an...
How do piezoelectric sensors convert sound waves into an electric charge?	[ "As sound waves vibrate the body of a wooden instrument, the wood gives off a tiny electromagnetic charge as the crystalline structures of the wood bend.\n\nThese tiny electromagnetic changes cause a tiny magnetic plate in the sensor to move, by being attracted to or repelled by the electromagnetic forces. This t...
Why do many R-rated movies only show quick flashes of nudity?	[ "Film rating and classification groups (like the MPAA) take into account the duration of nudity when establishing an appropriate rating for a movie. \n\nExtended nudity (especially if the nudity is sexualized or presented in a sexual context) may result in a higher film rating classification (e.g. NC-17 in the US)....
What are the economics for television networks/shows aimed at kids?	[ "> How does a company like Nickelodeon make money\n\nHave you seen the amount of toy commercials they broadcast? Due to the enormous amounts of kids watching, they make lots of money of them. Kids will see a commercial, then want what is in it. Kids are very good at pressuring parents into buying stuff and kids are...
Neither Cheddar Cheese or Butter is naturally Yellow. (In fact they're both white.) Why and when did they start adding food dye?	[ "Grass fed butter is yellow, actually. Grass fed milk has a yellowish tint, too. Cheese made with high quality grass fed milk has an orange tint.\n\nAnnatto was added to cheddar as both a flavoring and a colorant so that inferior cheese could replicate the color of grass fed milk when using cheaper milk. This start...
Why are red, green and blue the primary light colours; but cyan, yellow and magenta are primary paint and ink colours?	[ "Red + Green + Blue = White light. None of them = black (absence of color)\n\nWith printing you are using white paper. Which means you don't need to make white. I.E. most modern printers can't actually print white unless it is specialized to be able to do so. Cyan, yellow, magenta, and black (black is required for...
Why can i open Reddit despite having the wrong date on my computer?	[ "Websites get a certificate that proves that they are who they say they are. Basically there's a trusted authority who gives a code to the rightful owner of a website.\n\nThis way if you try to go to YouTube and someone hijacks your signal then they can't pretend to be YouTube and steal your login info or send you...
Why I'm so willing to spend $20 on a case of beer and $10 more for pizza, but have a hard time spending $30 bucks on a pair of jeans and a tshirt that will last me months or possibly years?	[ "Because the beer and pizza is instant gratification. You spend the money and you get the item and enjoy it. With the clothes, you spend the money but won't necessarily wear the items right away. So you put them in your closet and wait to wear them. Since there's no instant gratification you are subconsciously not ...
Does drinking cold water hydrate your body more then warmer water	[ "I don't think warming the cold water takes a significant amount of extra energy to \"dehydrate\" you at all. However, a simple law of diffusion is that substances with more kinetic energy (more heat/warmer) will flow and diffuse faster than those with less kinetic energy. Think of it like cold syrup vs hot syrup; ...
Why does being scared open up super congested noses?	[ "Being Scared activates our fight-flight response. With the sympathetic nervous system activated it triggers the release of adrenaline(to run faster or fight back). This induces vasoconstriction of the blood vessels in the nose, throat, and paranasal sinuses, which results in reduced inflammation (swelling) and muc...
Why do electronic items (like headphones or laptops) slowly lose their charge when they're not being used?	[ "These devices are always \"waiting\" for the cue to turn on and be used, so they never really \"power off\" completely. Your laptop is waiting for the lid to open or the power button to get pressed, and your headphones are just waiting for a signal, so a tiny bit of power is getting used 100% of the time (unless t...
In the first and second generation Pokemon games, why do players have to save the game whenever they switch boxes?	[ "Basically, it's because of the way the data was stored; it was easy or easier to have each box stored in its own hunk of data of the same size, then to copy the box data into the \"current box\" save location when switching boxes, which is what is edited by the present play. So, to switch boxes from box X to box ...
What are each of the programs of the Adobe Creative Suite used for?	[ "Major applications first:\n\n* Photoshop: Raster (definite pixel value) image editing\n* Illustrator: Vector (infinitely scalable) image editing\n* Flash: It's... flash. Go visit Newgrounds for examples.\n* InDesign: Desktop publishing. See also QuarkXpress for a competitor; or MS Publisher for something a lot mor...
How does water sitting at room temperature (or colder) evaporate?	[ "Not all molecules of water in a container have the same energy. The distribution of energy in substances typically looks like [this](_URL_0_) (in this example, y axis would be number of molecules and x axis would be individual molecule energy; the values of a correspond to different bulk temperatures of the water)...
When you install a piece of software, why are you told to restart your computer even though it runs fine without restarting it?	[ "This is a big oversimplification, but here we go.\n\nIf a file is in use by the filesystem, what the software has control of is a file handle: it's an address to where the file is located on disc. When you update something or overwrite a file, the operating system creates a new file, and references the filename to...
Why does it feel so good to put my feet up after a long day of work?	[ "it's because your feet swell a little bit due to gravity causing blood/fluid to pool, so putting your feet up lets them drain, reversing the swelling." ]
Why is it easier to carry a dead man than the same man alive?	[ "The opposite is true, a living person can actively hold on to you and situate themselves to make it easier for you to carry. A dead person offers you no aid. I suppose if the living person didn't WISH to be carried then a struggling alive person would be more difficult than a dead person.", "Well see when you we...
Why some people think that 'the web is dying'?	[ "The Web was created in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee as a means for individuals and organizations to publish documents online that could refer directly to _other_ documents via a \"link.\" \n\n15-20 years ago (i.e., circa 1995 to 2003), a significant portion of the Web consisted of sites, pages, and content generated an...
How do two tablespoons of pure caffeine kill you? o_O	[ "Too much caffeine over-stimulates the nervous system, which leads to an irregular heart beat or cardiac arrest. \n\nYour heart gets too excited and forgets how to do its job." ]
In regards to all the talk of Universal Basic Income and Robots taking our jobs. How would the government continue to gather taxes from citizens?	[ "Simple, taxing corporations and producers.\nThough there would possibly be a \"purchase\" tax as well.", "These are two different issues. One is on the side of government expenditures. The other is on the income side.\n\nRobots have to be manufactured. They have to be bought. Companies buy them to make money. Co...
Why do we use Celsius (or Fahrenheit) instead of Kelvin?	[ "Knowing where absolute zero is or how much actual heat is in something seldom has any meaningful value in day to day life outside of being unnecessarily pedantic, as you were with your colleague.\n\nCelsius, pegging to the freezing and boiling points of water, is just more reasonable and sensible for day-to-day us...
Why do our voices sound so odd/weird to us when we hear it?	[ "When you talk, you're not just hearing your voice through the air. The vibrations in your throat, which is what makes your voice, travel through your neck, into your ears. Since vibrations spread out and slow down as they pass through the solids of your body, the sound lowers in pitch, so we hear our voices as dee...
Why don’t we cook things at higher temperatures for less amount of time?	[ "I'm going to assume you mean in an oven and not a microwave.\n\nThink of it this way - when you lay out on the sun what warms first? Your skin. The same is true for cooking in an oven. It takes time for the heat to work its way into the food as it needs to warm on the outside before the inside will get warm.\n\nIf...
During hostage crises, why don't police just use sleeping gas to knock the perpetrators (and hostages) out?	[ "The Russians [tried that once](_URL_0_). The gas resulted in killing over a hundred of the hostages. There's a reason why there is a high-priced doctor to administer and monitor the use of anesthetics during medical procedures--because it requires precise amounts to avoid overdosing, otherwise it winds up suppress...
How do guitar amps amplify the sound?	[ "A transistor! To answer the follow-up question of \"okay and what the hell is a transistor\"....\n\nA transistor is a lil' electronics part made of silicon. Silicon has some funny properties: it's a semiconductor, and different stuff can influence how well it carries electricity. So a transistor has 3 connections ...
What would it take for American and British English to actually be considered separate languages?	[ "A certain percentage of the vernacular must be distinct and not mutually intelligible between the 2 languages", "I can't answer that, but I can say that's not going to happen.\n\nThe reason languages evolved down separate paths in the past is because groups of people were isolated from one another. These days, a...
what is the difference between all the varieties of toothpaste provided by the same brand?	[ "They do contain different ingredients, but it's debatable how well whitening toothpastes work." ]
Why and how is it that when we continually spin around for a while, we develop the "dizziness feeling" after?	[ "Your ears contain the vestibular system which is basically semicircular tunnels filled with a liquid with hairlike receptors on the walls of these tunnels. Those hairs notice the resistance of the liquid due to its inertia when you move your head/body, and signal to the brain accordingly. \n\nWhen you spin yoursel...
How do we control our bladder?	[ "There are two muscles called urethral sphincters that control the release of urine from the bladder, similar to those in the anus. The internal sphincter is involuntarily controlled by the body and the external sphincter is voluntary controlled." ]
What actually happens when we "die of old age"?	[ "That's a euphemism. There's always some underlying cause, but it's a cause that's associated with old age (e.g. heart failure, liver failure, etc.)", "Dying of old age is a legal determination, not a medical one.\n\nIt means an elderly person died quietly and there is no suspicion of wrongdoing. They died of *s...
What is the difference between irony and poetic justice?	[ "Irony has been mangled so badly you can't really get it wrong as the definitions these days include what would be considered wrong use (much like literally officially meaning figuratively now)\n\n\nIn a nutshell though irony is something that has the opposite effect as intended. Example I'm in a car accident and m...
Dropbox's algorithm	[ "I work for a tech company where we have to deal with large scale storage design issues like this, and it really depends on how the provider decides to solve the problem and what expectations/guarantees users place on them and vice versa.\n\nIt may not be that dropbox has \"faster\" servers but possibly more of the...
How protein is made inside a cell?	[ "It all starts with DNA in the nucleus. The cell makes a copy of a specific section of DNA that codes for the specific protein being made. The copy of the DNA is called RNA. The RNA gets modified into mRNA and leaves the nucleus and travels to a ribosome. The ribosome accepts the mRNA and, through a very complex pr...
Why do your eyes tear up when laying on your side?	[ "I'm going to guess that because your tears are reabsorbed from the inner corner, when you're laying on your side gravity pulls the tears to the outer corner and they accumulate.", "Your eyes tear up when laying on your side? Wtf?", "Mine have done this for as long as I can remember. I thought it was a family ...
Why do websites and videos that are loading slow appear to play or load right after you click the refresh button	[ "The website is loading into a buffer, and won't be displayed until it's fully loaded (usually) when you click refresh or back it dumps the buffer to the screen before wiping it (which is just mean)", "A webpage has many things to display. A good webpage displays anything the user can see first, so to the naked e...
Why do you see individual pixels in small droplets of water on an LED screen?	[ "The droplets form a kind of lens which magnifies the screen under them, showing the colored segments which make up the pixels of the screen." ]
How do companies like walmart clearly breach contracts and then are able to hold up the court process for years to bankrupt the person who is suing them	[ "[They're not supposed to be able to](_URL_0_).\n\n > Also why do we not have laws in place like most other developed countries where the losing party in a lawsuit pays for the other sides legal fees as well?\n\nBecause what ends up happening is people with legitimate complaints choose not to sue because the risk i...
Why do we tend to get headaches while reading in a moving vehicle?	[ "You get sensory information from your eyes but you also get them from your inner ears - that's where you also get a sense of balance and movement. When the input from your eyes (a stationary book) doesn't match up to the inner ear (it tells you that you're moving because inertia works on the fluid in your ear). No...
The school voucher system in America that the GOP is pushing for	[ "Parents of school-age children would have a choice between sending their kids to public school, or getting a \"voucher\" that they could use towards the tuition of a private school or religious school.\n\nIt's controversial for a few reasons:\n\n-Many people worry that a voucher system would lead the better public...
Why does a lighter not explode when lit?	[ "There are two things at play:\n\nFirst: The butane which burns is pressurized inside the lighter, it is expelled at such a rate that it only mixes with enough oxygen that it can ignite a few milometers above the nozzle. \n\nSecond: There is not enough oxygen inside the lighter for combustion to occur inside. Think...
Why are basic compounds (baking soda, toothpaste) such good universal cleaners?	[ "They're abrasives. Abrasion removes material by friction produced by pressure and movement." ]
Why do so many people support Bernie Sanders? What makes him different from all those presidents that said one thing before they were elected and did the opposite when they were elected?	[ "Look, it's simple. He makes the best-tasting chicken for the money, no one can argue with that", "Sanders is a real, honest-to-God (heh) socialist, the only one in Congress who openly admits it (though he caucuses with the Democrats). As such, many liberals see him as a \"legit\" guy in a sea of people who talk...
Will there be any sort of energy deficit caused by the Solar Eclipse next week?	[ "Technically yes, as blocking the sun will inevitably block some solar cells and the theoretical power they would have produced. However the duration of the eclipse in any given location, the relatively small amount of reliance on solar power, and the high variability of solar power in the first place will make thi...
Tony Abbott's political views and why his video got banned.	[ "His vid is back up. He posted a vid (I haven't actually seen it) outlining what a brilliant job he's doing following through with his election promises. The vid was flagged by a lot of viewers for containing deceptive claims and it, and his account, were autobanned by Youtube. YT has since reinstated both the v...
Why the most common amount of lives is 3 in video games?	[ "Old games were often arcade ports. One quarter would get you your initial 3 lives while each extra life after was generally one quarter. The idea being if your initial start up was just one life and you die early on you'd leave the game for a less frustrating one. But if you're a skilled player giving you too many...
Why is Greenpeace so vehemently against nuclear power?	[ "Because it uses potentially dangerous materials and because it obviates the need for more \"preferred\" forms of power like solar and wind.\n\nThe problem is, of course, nuclear power is one of the cleanest and safest forms of power that exist. Even if you take into account the number of accidents and deaths from...
How does a stalker change from "loving" someone to wanting to kill him/her?	[ "Stalking isn't actually about \"love\". It's about having a connection to a person, and in many cases, having influence or control over that person. \n\nThe stalker places a lot of personal value on that interpersonal connection. (\"I need them in my life\") If a friendly or romantic connection is refused or ends,...
Why is seafood safe to eat raw (ex: sushi, sashimi) while chicken and other farm animal produce can harm us when raw?	[ "Seafood can harm you too, it can have parasites. People do eat raw chicken, in Japan it's eaten like beef tartare. I imagine it's mostly about probabilities and how that food type is raised/cleaned/prepared in that country. Plus cultural history, hard to tell people they can't eat something their ancestors have be...
What happens to our bodies when we faint?	[ "There are a lot of reasons people faint.\n\nIf you get hit hard enough, your brain may knock against the inside your skull and may shut down as a defense mechanism.\n\nYou may have low blood pressure, which will caused oxygen supply to lower to the brain. Your brain responds by shutting down.\n\nYou may be hyperve...
How does the whole "tax deductible donation" to churches work for the donator?	[ "Anything that is tax deductible means that the money you donate is subtracted from your income when calculating taxes. For simplicity sake, let's say you earn $100 in a year year. Let's assume a 20% tax rate, so you pay $20 in taxes. But if you had donated $10 that year, your 20% would be based as if you only earn...
How can we tell the chemical compositions of far off planets, stars and other cosmic bodies simply by looking at them?	[ "When you shine a light through a gas or bounce it off an object, certain wavelengths are absorbed. By analyzing the spectrum of light coming from an object, we can match it against known spectrums from Hydrogen, Helium, Argon, etc, etc to figure out what it's made of. It's sort of like listening to a song and bein...
What is an RSS feed and how does one make use of it?	[ "RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a type of webpage that makes a very brief summary of each Blog or News article put up by the Website owner.\n\nRSS Readers will check this summary every now and then to see if it changed, and will download the little summary, sort of like an Email.\n\nIt can also be used to automate down...
Can there be a law that prevent a bias/discrimination in the way criminal and victim are treated in our justice system based on their genders? Like a “No Gender Courtroom/reporting”?	[ "This would be really practically difficult. \n\nWhat about in a case where the gender is really relevant to the crime, or will become obvious through evidence- like medical evidence for a sexual assault could be instantly telling (eg semen).\nIn a criminal trial in an adversarial system, the point is to question t...
Why does time seem to pass quicker as you get older?	[ "I've heard three theories. The first, as MegainPhoto has pointed out, is relativity; at 5 years old, a year is 20% of your life, so it seems huge. At 50 years old, a year is 2% of your life, so it seems like very little.\n\nThe second is new experiences. This theory suggests that your brain is very active and aler...
Why do many people in Russia (as seen in dashcam footage) cross streets on such a dangerous way?	[ "The short answer is that Russians don't give a fuck.\n\nThe slightly less short answer is that it's a byproduct of having an extremely huge and dispersed country. Crossing the road dangerously is just one of the countless ways that Russia (and other dispersed, lowly law enforced countries) breaks the social mold t...
Everday radiation and how it effects our bodies to cause cancer	[ "To answer your second question first: Radiation by its very definition cannot be stored in the body. Compare it to a body of water: Water by itself is inert, it doesn't really affect the environment - we call this a \"medium\". But when the winds pick up waves start to emerge, and these can wash away the shoreline...
How was segregation justified in the American South?	[ "Scientific racism. It was believed that white people and non-white people were fundamentally different, and the only way to protect white people from the genetically inferior non-white people was to segregate. This was further fueled by scare politics, which used lies and intimidation to tell white people that b...
Why are the words "how come" used to ask why?	[ "It is a shortened form of \"how did that come about?\"\n\nJust like when you ask what's up, you mean \"what is up (new) with you?\"" ]
Why are the atmospheres in Doha/Dubai always hazy and no clouds?	[ "It's all about dryness. Clouds are caused by moisture, which this area usually lacks. The haze is caused by particles of dust in the air: the ground is so dry, bits of sand and dry dirt are blown into the air. Smoke adds to it." ]
When someone "smacks" some kind of electronics device, what happens inside of them that sometimes makes them start working again?	[ "Lots of chips have tens to hundreds of little pins that have to be soldered to the board. Any flexing can cause one or more of those pins to break loose. Now sometimes this won't cause it to stop working if pressure is still keeping the pin and the pad in contact. But sometimes, it doesn't, and when you hit the...
Why does alcohol kill them germs when you put it on your skin, but not when you drink it?	[ "Alcohol kills cells through direct contact. If you have an infection and you drink alcohol, its never going physically come in contact with the infectious germs. Its just going to enter your blood stream and make your body less efficient at fighting the disease.", "Everclear applied directly your skin is still 9...
How do Chinese people input their languages on a keyboard when they have over thousands of characters in their lexicon?	[ "Using pinyin and software such as Google Pinyin IME.\n\nFor instance to type \"I am American\" in chinese, I type woshimeiguoren, then this comes out: 我是美国人. Each syllable corresponds to many characters. For instance shi could mean 是（Shì, to be）, 市（Shí，city）, or 十（Shí，ten）. This is because Chinese is a tonal lang...
what are some scientific explanations for well known cases of 'supernatural' phenomena?	[ "Physical\n\n* [Carbon monoxide poisoning](_URL_2_) can cause feelings of dread, auditory and visual hallucinations and illness\n* Expansion and contraction of materials in a house as it heats up and cools down throughout the day can cause noises such as creaks, groans, clicks and bangs, and can cause doors to ...
rural communities often have one option for television. Like the company makes a monopoly and that is all you can get. Why?	[ "You're talking about cable TV, right?\n\nThe problem is that it costs shitloads of money to run cable across a community. Even in large cities, you seldom have more than one provider to chose from because it's just not cost-effective to build a second cable system. When it's a rural community that doesn't ha...
Why whistleblowing is dangerous to the whistleblower and in some cases illegal?	[ "> Also, why has there been so much more unified and consistent support for Edward Snowden than there was for say Bradley Manning?\n\nSnowden blew the whistle on a specific scheme/pattern of conduct about which he had personal knowledge. While the information was classified to some extent, it potentially effects e...
Why is America so far behind other countries when it comes to things like PTO, maternity leave, etc?	[ "The United States is much more laissez-faire in regards to the economy than most other places. Anecdotally, a common response I've heard is that \"why should I have to pay for your decision to have a child?\" This refers to public sector (one's tax dollars are paying for it) and private sector employees. \n\nIt...
Why do newer versions of GCC not work with code for previous releases ?	[ "Hmm could you give some example of what type of incompatible you're seeing? \n\nOnly thing I can think of is c++ abi incompatibility between versions, but that can be sorted by recompiling all libraries with the newer version of gcc" ]
Pat Tillman, I feel like I'm missing something	[ "While you are getting the gist of it there are a few things you seem to be missing. \n\nIt wasn't just that the U.S. Army tried to cover up his death, its that the military and the Bush administration attempted to use him as a poster child for the Iraq War in order to drum-up support and recruits after his death. ...
Déjà vu	[ "I have heard about several hypotheses and this is how I understand it: \nYour brain has short term and long term memory. \nShort term memory is your recollection of what has happened in the very recent past and what is happening right now. \nLong term memory is your recollection of what has happened a long time...
Why does the space shuttle roll after launch?	[ "Edit: yes, I'm slightly dyslexic\n\nDuring launch the space shuttle is trying to reach orbit. This requires going up and ~~West~~ East, but mostly ~~West~~ East. Space is not very far away (about half the distance from New York to Boston), so the hard part of reaching orbit is not so much getting up as dealin...
How does "loading" in video games work?	[ "Data is stored on a hard drive or disc. Both are really slow.\n\nMemory [RAM] is used as temporary data storage. RAM is quick.\n\nThe processor only works with data stored in RAM. When a game needs to load something, it moves what it needs from the hard drive to the RAM.", "First off, loading is a very loose t...
Why are education and health services so expensive in the US?	[ "Public education is only paid by the state until high school ends. University, college, or trade school are paid for by the student. They cost about as much as a new car per year (with the range of costs for 'basic' through 'very fancy' that this comparison implies).\n\nHealth insurance exists, but not everyone ...
Why do really long exposure photos weigh more MB? Shouldn't every pixel have the same amount of information regardless of how many seconds it was exposed?	[ "The jpeg format we store photos in is designed to store a good photograph efficiently. A good photo has large areas of smooth, even gradients, and Jpeg does a great job of compressing these to take up less space.\n\nA long exposure photo will have more random 'roughness' in the picture. It will be much more *noi...
How is 'I am.' a complete sentence while 'I'm.' is not?	[ "The issue here comes down to the type of verb \"am\" is acting as in each context. \n\n\"Am\" is the present tense of the verb \"to be\".\n\n\"To be\" and all of its conjugate forms function differently than other verbs in the English language. To be can be an active verb, an inactive linking verb, or an auxiliary...
Why haven't we been back to the moon if we've already been? Why haven't we been back since then?	[ "It's really expensive, and not incredibly valuable scientifically to send humans to the moon. You are far better off spending those dollars on probes sent to other planets and moons in the solar system. The only justification for sending humans to the moon is to 1.) Prove you can do it, and 2.) One up the Soviet U...
How would your programme in a quantum computer?	[ "That depends on the quantum computer model. \n\nIf it's a gate based model, then there will have to be a low-level assembly language that tells you what gates to apply when and to what qubits, when to perform measurements.\n\nThose gate based models are still super far away, though, so it's hard to tell how th...
where do rivers start?	[ "Technically, in the sky. Rainfall hits the ground in geographically delineate areas called 'catchment basins'. Basically these areas are divided by high ridges. All the rain falling on one side of a ridge may run down to the east, and all the rain falling on the other side to the west, for example. This rainfall f...
Why is Politics not a compulsory course from high school through college?	[ "A \"politics\" course sounds a lot like government indoctrination.\n\nIn high school (Colorado, USA) we already have courses that cover the branches of government, how elections work, etc. How much further do you think it should go?", "The better question is why aren't financial classes mandatory. Too many fina...
how do you install something on a hard drive that has nothing to install it onto (eg operating system onto a blank hard drive)?	[ "Computers have tiny computers inside them Caledonia the BIOS. It has just enough smarts to let you move files from some storage device onto the hard drive", "A computer doesn't have to be booted from a hard drive. They can also boot from a disc, or even a flash drive. The media it boots from contains coding to w...
What is a choke hold?	[ "Respiratory and vascular chokeholds restrict blood flow to the brain, depriving it of oxygen. In turn, somebody being \"choked out\" loses consciousness. If the brain is deprived of oxygen for prolonged periods, serious brain damage can occur.\n\nChokeholds are used in a variety of martial arts. Either as a self-d...
Why is self-harm such a relief?	[ "Sometimes the physical pain blocks out the mental pain", "Pain releases chemicals in your brain that make you feel better.", "The feeling of having control over something when you have control over nothing can make some feel relieved from the mental pressure of feeling like every things uncontrollable.", "It...
what we can expect IF Romney was elected.	[ "None really. Most people don't realize that our government is a little more skewed than originally designed. The vast majority of things people blame on the president are a result of Congress making poor/no decisions.", "It's really tough to say. Romney is notorious for altering or even flipping his stance on is...
Why do I find myself bouncing my leg up and down when on a chair??	[ "Shaking one's leg up and down while sitting is incredibly common. It doesn't have to be your leg, some people want to fidget with something in their hands, (play with a pen, a coin, etc.) but in general it comes off as a nervous habit. I believe it has to do with energy that is pent up and not being used. I've ...
How does a hypodermic needle not just get gummed up with a core sample of the flesh it pierced into?	[ "A needle is shaped so that the flesh goes around the needle, not through it. The front of a hypodermic needle is ['beveled'](_URL_0_), which means it has a slanted shape. You put the pointy side to the skin when you go in, and it separates the tissue so it doesn't go into the hollow part of the needle. It also (us...
Why are the Greek and Roman Gods, legends and myths so similar	[ "They are the same stories. The Romans adopted the Greek gods and myths because Greece was the most prestigious culture in the northern med.", "Basically the Romans ripped off the Greeks' gods. The Roman Pantheon was originally different, presumably, but sometime when Greece was integrated into the Roman Empire t...
During exercise, why is is better to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth?	[ "I don't think there's a consensus that in through the nose, out through the mouth is the best way to breathe while exercising.\n\nBreathing in through your nose has some advantages. It warms and moistens the air before it gets to your lungs and your nose hairs also filter out some of the crap in the air. Breathing...
Why are Teslas super fast off the line and yet at a certain point a non-electric super car will catch up to it?	[ "It's pretty simple, they have instant full torque at any RPM (where most automatic cars are at ~4000RPM or 1500RPM-3000RPM if turbo boosted), however, they are not powerful motors, at least not as powerful as a Lambo, meaning their horsepower isn't enough, plus, Tesla's are damn heavy, over 1000lb heavier.", "Te...
Are AP's (Assistant Principals) at my school really allowed to search me whenever they feel?	[ "No, they can't search you whenever they feel like. But they can search you if they have a reasonable suspicion you are carrying contraband. \n\n > Although the underlying command of the Fourth Amendment is always that searches and seizures be reasonable, what is reasonable depends on the context within which a se...
Why is there a split second between feeling an impact (eg, stubbing your toe) and feeling the pain?	[ "The time it takes for the feelings to reach your brain and your brain to process that as \"painful\"", "Physical sensations like pain travel from nerve endings to the brain via electrical signals within the nervous system. The transmission of these signals, while very fast, is not instantaneous.", "Nerve impul...
why many malls are closing across us?	[ "Because no one goes to them anymore. Why would we? We can get the best stuff online and not have to deal with a damn mall." ]
How can Hooters hire strictly female servers without getting into some kind of legal trouble concerning discrimination?	[ "There's a provision in the law which says\n > Notwithstanding any other provision... it shall not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to hire and employ employees... on the basis of his religion, sex, or national origin in those certain instances where religion, sex, or national origin is a bona fid...
Why do public toilet seats have a gap in the front and household toilet seats don't?	[ "Taken from Wikipedia :\n\nThe International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials' Uniform Plumbing Code, section 409.2.2, requires that \"all water closet seats, except those within dwelling units or for private use, shall be of the open front type\". There is an exception for toilets with an automatic...
Internet connection speed	[ "Think of a funnel. Your actual Internet connection is the small end and your wireless router is the big end. Even though you have a 54Mb sized opening at the top, it is constricted down to a 11Mb sized opening at the bottom. \n\nComputers on your wireless network have a max speed of 54Mb. You can see make use ...
How are firefighters able to determine what caused a fire to start? Ex. A fire was started by a match or a lit cigarette. Wouldn't the evidence be burned up by that point?	[ "Often fires burn away from the ignition point. Plus, fire forensics investigators study burn patterns, so they know from the scorch marks the location of the source of the fire and the likely ignition cause, based on the patterns they see in the burns.\n\nThey might not, for example, know if the fire was started ...

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