Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
Why does listening to your favorite song over and over eventually make you hate it?	[ "Music is art. And one of the things that make art so relevant and great is the element of surprise. Everyone likes a little surprise in their music. So the more predictable (or memorized), the less you can experience the joy of this element of surprise." ]
Why are humans attracted to the foreign?	[ "Biologically, animals are attracted to members outside their clan to increase their gene diversity. It decreases the odds that your children would be born with 2 recessive genes for any trait. If humans didn't keep records or strong family ties, and you just met the cute girl down the street that looks similar t...
Pressurized staircase in hotel?	[ "It means that fan pumps air into the stairwell. This is a fire evacuation safety measure, so that if you open the door from your burning corridor into the stairwell, the positive air pressure will push the smoke back allowing you to escape and close the door. It means that holding the door open will cause people...
So how do you actually "live off the interest" if you come across a large sum of money or win the lottery?	[ "> Do you just hire a financial advisor or go to an investment bank and assume your tons of money will grow steadily over time?\n\nMost people would do this, yes.", "If I invested $5 million and earned 3% back per year, that'd be $150,000 back to me—and the original nest egg would never get touched.\n\nMore like...
How coding differs in asia (using characters and reading top-down	[ "Programming languages are usually not localized. That is, someone writing code in Java will write the same words in the same direction no matter what human language they may speak. \n\nEven computing languages developed in Asia (like Ruby) typically follow Western conventions of characters and word orientation." ]
Why are a lot of people scared of dolls/mannequins, or other humanoid-shaped things?	[ "For dolls/mannequins, it is called the uncanny valley. Basically, everything that tries to emulate a human being will have its flaws look monstrous to some people." ]
Why does a headache disappear after like 3 hours of sleep but it doesn't when you are 3 hours awake?	[ "Headaches have a myriad of different causes. Some are related to the food you've eaten, or something you have had to drink.\n\nSome headaches are caused due to constriction of blood vessels which can cause a headache to get more acute when walking around due to an elevated blood pressure.\n\nWhen you sleep, your b...
Why do engineers use I-beams when the triangle is the strongest shape.	[ "I-beams are intended to span between columns, so they specifically need to be optimised to handle bending. When a beam (any beam) is loaded, it bends in the middle, and its internal stress varies between max tension at the bottom and max compression at the top. It turns out that the most efficient way of handlin...
How can an odor be contained?	[ "An odor is a series of particles dispersed in the air that land in your nose and dissolve on your epithelium in your nose, which then signals the brain about what just dissolved on it, which is what we perceive as smells. \n\nSo, anything that can contain particles dispersed in air can contain an odor. It would ha...
Lots of ads these days about America's cell phone networks/wireless internet. What's the best one now? Tomorrow? Next year?	[ "I personally like the info provided via Consumer Reports. I'm not sure they can provide the forward-looking info you want, but they do a decent job of ranking each provider within key cities and talking about throughput.\n\nThey also provide info such as buying guides for free, but you'll have to pay to see some ...
Why do many pictures from the black and white era look high definition?	[ "Because they're analog, and not taken by a crappy cell phone camera. Actual, real, photographic film is as high a definition as it gets.", "Because 8mm and higher film is pretty good quality. Most old movies (and some ones today) were on 35mm, which has an equivalent of 4K." ]
How does laser eye surgery work?	[ "Laser eye surgery cuts a small flap of your cornea to start. Then, ultraviolet light is used to reshape the inner surface of the cornea, correcting the curvature. The result allows the image to be correctly focused on the retina.\n\n[Souce](_URL_0_)", "Bad eyesight of the sort that can be solved with laser surge...
How do homeless people survive snowy winters?	[ "In many areas, homeless shelters and other charitable organizations open more beds in the winter time. Some may \"fly south.\" Any form of shelter, even unheated, can provide relief from winter weather; many will squat in abandoned buildings. Also, just because a person is homeless doesn't mean they are without he...
why do you get nightmares when you're feet are uncovered?	[ "This sounds very much like confirmation bias. Unless you can provide some evidence that this phenomena exists, it would be hard to explain it." ]
how long would it take to breed a almost truly intelligent animal?	[ "Actually a lot of dogs are smarter than wolves.\n\nBut when we breed animals we're usually not aiming for intelligence. Smarter things are cool and all but they're smart - they need intellectual stimulation, they break shit and mess around and don't listen to you and manipulate you because they're smart and it's b...
Please explain Major League Baseball trades, waivers, free agency, arbitration, etc. LI5	[ "Trades- Usually fairly simple, I give you Player X and you give me Player Y. However, there are cases where a really good player is traded for prospects, or young players who could potentially develop into superstar players (but can often times be hit or miss). Sometimes, salaries come into play. If Player X m...
What does it mean to be a "4th Alarm Fire"?	[ "In general, these are multi-alarms... 1 though 5. You are correct in that they are an increasing level of manpower and equipment as the level increases. How much per level would vary by the city involved. There is no fixed set of people or equipment per level, but you will see more specialized equipment and m...
Why did the ruins of Rome and Greece become "ruins"?	[ "Long term exposure to the elements with no one repairing the structure and in some cases people actually breaking up and taking stone away for building materials." ]
What is Fantasy Football and how does it work?	[ "It's a (seconardy) game that piggybacks off of the actual NFL games.\n\nA bunch of people get together, and \"draft\" their prefered players, from anywhere in the league. When the real teams play, the 'drafted' players points are tallied, like how many yards did they run, how many touchdowns did that player make ...
What is that strange feeling of numbness we get when we wake up in the middle of the night?	[ "Yer probably describin' the physical consequences of sleep paralysis.\n\nYarr! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: Sleep Paralysis ](_URL_6_)\n1. [ELI5: Sleep paralysis and why it happens. ](_URL_5_)\n1. [ELI5: Sleep Paralysis ](_URL_7_)\n1. [ELI5: Sleep paralysis? ](_URL_2_)...
why all the big leaks, even from 2016, look like they have been typed on a typewriter? Surely in this day and age, there must be more modern font than a typewriter.	[ "It's because they use a monospace font. That means every letter takes up the same amount of space (instead of \"l\" taking up less room than \"W\"). The emails were not sent in that font. The text was extracted and styled with that font." ]
How do blind people dream?	[ "In the case of people who are born blind, they just dream as they see the world normally. So they just dream in terms of sounds, touch, and smells. How people dream is based on the maximum sight they had, for example if someone has bad eyesight or goes blind later in life, but they did have normal eyesight at some...
How the Skarp Razor works, when they aren't actually burning the hair?	[ "The general consensus is that it's faked, and the video uses a nichrome wire to try to fake it. Here's an article about it on a website that I read that has some stuff about it, especially in the comment section _URL_0_" ]
why do we usually say "ow" when we hurt ourselves?	[ "Short answer is both social conditioning (we grew up hearing other people saying it, so we mimic it) as well as vocalizations actually helping to reduce pain. Studies have shown that verbal expressions, especially swearing, actually reduce pain." ]
What is a Sociopath?	[ "When a non-doctor calls a person a sociopath, what they generally mean is that the person in question has no empathy. What this means is that the way they respond to the emotional states of those around them is messed up, or non-existent.\n\nBy this definition if Bob is a sociopath, then seeing Laura in pain, or...
Would a cell phone work in space?	[ "The main problem would be heat. Cell phones passively cool themselves via the air, but there's a distinct lack of air in space, so despite the near 0C temperatures in space, without a way to get rid of heat (apart from blackbody radiation), the phone would overheat.\n\nIf you could cool it, then it should function...
What would the process be for Ukraine to join Nato and how likely is it at this point?	[ "Interesting question here. I am currently living in the Republic of Georgia, and I can tell you that for a country to join NATO, the process is quite extensive. \n\nFirst, they spend years of sending NATO verification officers to the country. These people inspect everything dealing with any sort of human rights. P...
The current stock market situation and crash.	[ "[This is a long overdue correction, IMO. If you look at a chart over decades rather than the last week or month or year, you will see nothing out of the ordinary. Click \"max\" and look at that chart. You will see that the stock market is doing quite well, thank you.](_URL_0_{\"range\":\"max\",\"allowChartStacking...
Why isn't it possible to construct an angle trisector?	[ "[The full proof](_URL_0_) is pretty complicated, but it really boils down to the fact that just an unmarked straightedge and compass can't \"solve\" the equation necessary to produce a trisection of an angle.\n\nUse a marked straightedge, and you can do it." ]
Why do we remember real life experiences so much better than we remember dreams?	[ "Dreams are a side-effect of your brain sorting through memories. Some of that 'bleeds out' and we remember that (or not) as dreams. \n\nThey're not something that's meant to be remembered." ]
How come all the satellites around the earth don't collide?	[ "its really very simple the majority don't collide because they never cross paths. There are not a lot of satellites for the amount of space they take up and for two to collide they would have to cross the same point at the same time which is very hard to do. More likely is that a piece of debris is on a collision ...
Is light produced from a light bulb the same as the light produced by the sun?	[ "Yes. Actually its extremely similar in that both emit a continuous spectrum that is called [black body radiation](_URL_0_) as contrasted to eg. LED lights that only produce spikes at certain wavelengths." ]
What is cardio? What is actually happening as I get better at running?	[ "Increased blood volume, stronger muscles (that are also more efficient and durable), and slightly reshaped bones are three of the things that you get from training that make you better at cardio.", "Your heart is a muscle. In order to get oxygen (which is fuel to make you \"go\") to your body, you must pump bloo...
How did climate change, a natural, scientific issue, become a political issue? Furthermore, how does acceptance of it support the liberal agenda and go against the conservative agenda?	[ "The fact of climate change is a scientific issue. What should be done about climate change automatically becomes a political issue.\n\nThe Liberal/Conservative divide generally comes about due to the different ideas about the role of the Federal government in dictating people's behavior. The US as a country was ...
Why does my stomach growl more in class than when Im home all day if im starving at both places?	[ "Your stomach can sense the stomachs of other people and has to show its dominance. So it makes loud growling noises to show that you are the alpha stomach and you are not to be messed with.\n\nAlso, your stomach will growl more when you are out on a date in a quite movie theater as a sort of mating call. Its a pri...
Why do adults and teens have differently shaped knee caps?	[ "Hi, there. I thought maybe I could chime in here, as I know a thing or two about the subject. Knee caps do not change shape with age.\n\nSource: I am an adult and I know how bones work.", "They don't. \n\nKneecaps do not change shape as you age (apart from damage). Individuals may have different shapes, but they...
Why do drums hold 55 gallons?	[ "A standard drum is actually designed to hold 200 litres (a nice round number) with a little air space on top. That works out to about 55 gallons.", "/u/Concise_Pirate is right. The Drums are designed to hold 200 litres of liquid with about 18 litres of space in them. Because the US doesn't use Litres though, the...
Why is a smart and dumb friendship duo of two people always portrayed on TV?	[ "At least in TV land, usually the \"dumb\" person is the audience stand in. They ask questions the audience night want to know the answers to which gives the smart person a reason to explain what they're talking about in a way that TV viewing audiences can understand (see Bones, Big Bang Theory, Fringe, Eureka as j...
Why is flexibility attractive in women?	[ "nope its all about the sex, for me its just the idea of what it means is on the table for us to be able to do. I may be able to try new positions with a more flexible partner. Is it a huge deal? no, but its enough to get a few thoughts rushing through my head.", "It may have something to do with being an indicat...
Why is the US tax code so exploitable?	[ "What do you mean exploitable? \n\nDo you mean how are people able to get away with tax fraud? Because it is, for the most part, a self-reporting system. The IRS gets lambasted for its budget, but it is responsible for checking the tax returns of 300M+ people, and countless corporations, trusts, and estates every y...
Why does medicine taken under the tongue enter the blood stream faster?	[ "Under the tongue, there are a large number of blood vessels/capillaries. There, the drugs can enter your bloodstream without going through your digestive system.", "Others have already answered your question, but I wanted to add that this route for administering medication is called sublingual.", "All the rout...
The important differences between republican and democrat?	[ "Wow, no replies yet. This is like walking into the lair of the beast - any assessment about what each party is about will attract contempt, nuances, polar conflicts... So let the shtstorm begin. I will consider any replies and edit my response based entirely on how valid and relevant I feel the responses are.\...
Why to muscles start to shake when they are under exertion?	[ "When your brain sends the signal to the muscles of the arm to lift it, it also sends out a ton of signals telling the muscles to relax. If it didn't, your muscle would contract so hard, so fast, that it could snap your bones out of their sockets. So, ideally, the minimum number of muscle cells required to do the...
why is 42°C concidered a fatal temperature for humans, are components overheating like in a computer?	[ "Components heating like in a computer is a good analogy... there are many things going wrong in your body at this temperature but one of the key things is your body is full of complicated biological molecules called _enzymes_ which control all the chemical reactions that keep us alive. Enzymes are made out of prot...
Sponsors	[ "Sometimes, sponsors don't just give you money. Sometimes they give you things. For example, Slash, Guns n Roses' guitarist is known for playing only Gibson guitars. Gibson sponsor Slash. He doesn't need to buy guitars because Gibson give them to him for free, and he is promoting Gibson because Slash is a famous gu...
What is a homeowners association and why can't they give you orders on what your house/garden should look like?	[ "HOAs are typically started by a developer who owns a big group of properties they're selling off. Essentially, when anyone buys a house in their development, they agree to join and abide by the HOA as a part of their purchase contract. Once a certain number of homes are sold, the developer typically turns the HOA ...
How do snipers work in pairs?	[ "sniper scout teams work in pairs. a spotter and a shooter. the shooter's role is to focus on the target and making the shot. the spotter's role is to provide a broader field of view, determine windage, elevation, calculate distance to field markers, provide wide view intel, as well as covering the shooter."...
Why do cats push on you with their paws before they go to sleep on you?	[ "Calls back to their hayday of \"kneading\" on their mothers teats to get milk out of them.\n\nIt means they considering you their mother/protector, and they love you a lot." ]
What happens when you're knocked out/become unconscious?	[ "What you experience, or physiologically?\n\nIn terms of experience, I've passed out twice from an injection-induced vasovagal syncope. I'm not afraid of needles, they just make me pass out for some damn-fool reason. Anyhow, both times it was like a jump-cut in a movie. I'm really, REALLY light-headed, and then ...
Why do we get addicted to things?	[ "mainly due to positive association and receptors. When you enjoy something your brain produces dopamine, seratonin, oxytocin, and endorphines which is basically the chemicals responsible for happiness. So when you enjoy something your brain remembers it and decides that this is a good thing, obviously it would wan...
Why do we hate "bandwagoners"?	[ "People don't like to feel like they've lost a claim to something they once felt defined them. They feel like people who didn't get into their thing at an earlier point do not understand it in the way that they do, and that they only joined because it was popular.\n\nIn short, they feel threatened about losing a pa...
Can we put something completely static in space?	[ "It turns out that there is no such thing as being absolutely still; you can only be still relative to some other object. So you can be perfectly still relative to whatever object you please, but it's impossible to be \"objectively\" still.", "_URL_0_\n\nAn object in geostationary orbit will always be above the...
What is the white stream seen coming from the back of airplanes?	[ "There are two or three kinds of contrails.\n\nOne kind is from wingtip vortices (I think /u/ThatsPower's father was talking about these). At the tip of any wing, the high pressure air underneath swirls around to the low pressure region above, and as the plain flies along this leaves a (sometimes pretty intense) tu...
Whats going on when my URL bar sais about:blank?	[ "When a browser sees \"about:blank\" that tells it to display a blank page.\n\nSometimes when bad coding or weird hiccups happen, your browser will open a new window, but fail to understand what's supposed to go in it, so it defaults to about:blank.", "All browsers that I am aware of have about: pages built in. A...
Why Cassini needs to crash into Saturn to avoid contaminating a moon?	[ "Huygens probe is clean, Cassini is not. It's pretty much as simple as that, but there's also that Titan is significantly less inhabitable than Enceladus so if something was hitchhiking it would most likely die." ]
how do police enforce speed limits with aircraft?	[ "There are lines painted on the highway at known intervals i.e. 1 mile apart. Use a stopwatch and bingo, you're busted." ]
If I chill a (crappy) glass on the freezer then take it out and immediately pour boiling water in it, it will crack and possibly shatter. What exactly is going on?	[ "Part of the glass gets hot, and before it can conduct that heat to the rest of the material, the rest of the material is cold. When things heat up, they expand, so one part of the glass is expanding while the cold part remains contracted. This results in thermal stresses causing the glass to break. If you let it h...
Canada has a number of military procurement issues with arms manufacturers in the western world, largely having to do with cost. Why won't we consider buying arms from the eastern world?	[ "Western (especially US) military stuff is the best, and it's not even close, like an iPhone compared to Zack Morris giant cellphone. Military hardware made in the east is crap, really crap, it's geared more towards low cost 3rd world nations that don't care if stuff breaks or backfires or even hits it's target or ...
What essentially is the difference between public schools and charter schools, and what is the broad argument against charter schools in many communities?	[ "A public school is a school that is funded with taxpayer (public) dollars and must follow all of the rules and regulations in place by the government.\n\nA charter school is run privately but is also funded with taxpayer dollars. They don't need to follow all of the same rules. Essentially a private company is dec...
How do insect and bug sprays kill insects but don't harm us	[ "> How do insect and bug sprays kill insects but don't harm us\n\nMost insecticides target specific aspects of the insect nervous system which are different from those of humans and mammals in general. These neurotoxins have various different types so getting into the details can be quite complex, but the general ...
Why are all of my dishes dry after running the dishwasher, except my Tupperware?	[ "Heat. Ceramic and metal items get and stay hot enough in the dry cycle for the water to evaporate.", "Because they're plastic. Plastic is a poor conductor of heat. So when the dishwasher is hot and makes all of your glass and silverware hot enough to evaporate the water on them, the plastic doesn't get that hot,...
Why is the last game of a baseball series called the "rubber match"?	[ "For starters, it's only a rubber match if each team has won a game in the 3-game series-- meaning, the winner of the rubber match wins the series (by taking 2 of 3).", "I believe the term \"rubber match\" comes from [Bridge](_URL_0_), where a \"rubber\" is a best 2 out of 3 competition. \n\nAccording to [Merria...
How Corporations Work	[ "A business isn't a corporation because it goes public.\n\nLet's say that I sell computer repair services. I can hire 4 people to help me out, but if one of them massively messes up and exposes personal data/blows up a house, I could lose all of my possessions in the ensuing lawsuit.\n\nCorporations are a way for u...
Why does throwing up hurt?	[ "I've always found my abdominal muscles hurt more when puking. As you get older, you're not supposed to throw up unless you really need to get something out of your system. Generally, the GI tract is a one way ticket to your butt. Everything about the musculature and nervous system is suppose to ensure a nice easy ...
How does a tax haven country benefit from the rich storing their money there?	[ "You put the money into a bank in that tax haven.\n\nBanks, when they look after your money, don't just leave it sitting in the safe doing nothing. They invest it! They might do this by lending it to other customers (for a fee), or by investing in the stock market or the currency exchange market. But that money is ...
Why does driving at 50km/h feel like standing still after you've been driving at high speeds?	[ "You don't perceive linear velocity, you perceive angular velocity.\n\nThink about it like the Trench Run in Star Wars. If you're flying at 1000 km/h on the surface, a wide open space, things don't look like they are moving very fast. You get inside the trench doing 1000 km/h and it looks like you're going very fas...
why can we hear our own voice in our head when we "think".7	[ "Imagine our brain takes all human vocal samples we hear and puts them in sound \"Jars\", and attaches a sticker with a picture of the human that is speaking on that jar. Whenever you imagine what a person's voice would sound like, your brain opens that jar and you hear his vocal samples. Imagine Morgan Freeman's f...
Why isnit that it's difficult to retain your balance if you close your eyes?	[ "Balance is accomplished by a few things working together. You have your ears, your eye fluid, and your brain (mainly the way it interprets what you see). It’s the same way you can tell if you’re standing up, staring at a wall or the ceiling.\n\nBasically seeing helps you orient yourself. Cut that off and then the ...
How do states have time to pass silly bills when there are far more pressing issues at hand?	[ "Writing a bill can be done by anyone with the interest in doing it. Many bills are written by companies or organizations, they just find one state senator to sponsor it. Voting on a bill hardly takes any time at all.\n\nWhat takes a long time is finding compromise. With the really difficult and important issues, n...
How come people die of Cholera and Dysentery from drinking dirty water but people with scat fetishes seem alright?	[ "So, let's take as a situation a small village where there are 1000 people. All of 1000 of them poop in and all 1000 of them drink from the same water source. In that situation if even one 1 of them gets sick, then all 1000 of them could drink the infected water and get sick all at once. Whereas if they are do...
What happens when corporations buy back their own stocks? Why is this done?	[ "The primary purpose of a stock buyback is to boost the earning per share and thus boost stock price for those who still hold shares. \n\nIf a company had $100 profit and 100 shares, then EPS is $1. If company buys back 20 shares, then EPS increases to $1.25. Presuming a constant multiple of 20x, the stock should i...
Why do women adopt their husband's last name upon marriage?	[ "Because, traditionally, marriage was a transfer of property. The bride's father transferred ownership of the bride to her new husband. Hence the giving away of the bride by the father that still occurs in many modern ceremonies.", "Most of our customs and traditions date back to the Medieval aristocracy.\n\nIf t...
What is phantom limb pain, and how do people feel it?	[ "There are two strips of brain cells that run from ear to ear across the top of your head (The sensory-motor cortex). One strip is used to control all your movement in your body the other registers sensation all over your body. We can actually map out a person's body on these strips. When a person loses a limb, the...
Why Is it possible to watch sick stuff on porn but when you get to try it IRL its suddently not so appealing?	[ "Why is it possible to enjoy a movie like John Wick, were he relentlessly kills dozens of people, but when you see it in real life it's sickening and traumatizing?", "Because of the yucky dirty reality, that includes also your other senses such as smell. \n\nPrOn is fake, it's an illusion. Normal sex itself is a ...
Why do I have to worry about an SSD in a personal computer losing space over time, but I don't have to worry about that problem on my cell phone or ipod?	[ "You don't have to worry about any of that. The SSD will be replaced by the time it dies. It takes 10 years of copying 30GB of data, daily, to a SSD to kill it. \n\nCellphones and iPods do use flash memory as well, so it's likely, they would also have the same effect, but again, they'll be in a trash heap far befor...
Why is Venezuela suffering from blackouts and violence?	[ "Ok, I... I think I can explain it. But not in an ELI5 manner, so bear with me for a moment, please. \n\nNow, Venezuela has been suffering from a lack of infrastructures since around the 80's. \nJust to give you an idea, the biggest highway in the capital was built during the 50's, and most prisons are at least 30 ...
How come buses do not have seatbelts?	[ "The bus driver, as the operator of a motor vehicle, is required by most states' automotive laws to wear a seatbelt. \n\nThe reason for it is physics. Have you ever seen a bus and sedan collision? The result is a pancaked sedan and barely scratched bus. An occupied bus has far more mass than a four-door car, mean...
If DNA is the blueprint for creating enzymes that synthesize DNA, how did DNA first come about?	[ "Miller and urey did an experiment some 50 years ago. They took basic chemicals and put it in a special flask that simulated prehistoric conditions such as lightning and volcanic acitivty.\n\nMacromolecules like DNA, RNA, and fats formed.\n\nProbably one of the coolest experiments ever in my opinio", "Pretty sure...
Why do we need to go to Mars?	[ "Because having every human being in existence living on one easily destroyed rock is incredibly short sighted. We need to start moving off of earth if we want to survive and evolve as a species. Plus it would be indescribably awesome to know that a member of my species is standing on another planet more than 33 mi...
The symbolism behind Bioshocks Andrew Ryan	[ "As a place to start - You should familiarize yourself with Andrew Ryan's namesake... Ayn Rand.\n\nAndrew Ryan is pretty much Ayn Rand's philosophy's given flesh... and then everything goes horribly wrong." ]
How can people be sure of a message sent in morse code? What if you missed a blink to write it down or only noticed after a while?	[ "Believe it or not (according to what I've read), it's not that hard to pick up once you're trained to do it. In WW2, morse operators were often able to recognize and distinguish between the morse code signals of different senders.\n\nIt becomes no different than any language. Occasionally, when we speak or write, ...
How are the people investigating Hillary right now not part of the "establishment" that would want Hillary to win?	[ "The only people who want Hillary Clinton to win are Democrats. Republicans have every interest in spoiling her candidacy as it would be a shocking scandal that would hurt the democrats at large in the presidential race.\n\n[CNN is reporting that the Republicans are claiming credit for the Benghazi hearings as a po...
Why do babies cry? Wouldn't this be an adaptive nightmare for early humans who had to deal with predators?	[ "Babies are cared for in the group. A group of humans is going to be loud anyway, so having a baby cry doesn't particularly add to that loudness. And very few predators would attack a group of armed humans. The crying is a good signal however that this baby needs to be attended to (and is in fact ridiculously annoy...
If forensics try to match a bullet to a barrell based on markings. Why not record the barrell before sale and index the markings?	[ "Matching a bullet to a gun by barrel marks borders on impossible. Constant changes to cleanliness, heat stress, wear and tear..... even variables in ammunition quality.... in a court of law, the best a forensics person could say is the bullet is consistent with the gun type, but could never with 100 percent certai...
What does Bill Clinton balancing the budget mean?	[ "Balancing the budget means the government spent less than they took in. Clinton raised taxes, cut spending, and had huge revenue from the dot com boom.\n\nThe US still had a deficit, which is why foreign debt could increase.\n\nIf you make $50K a year and spend $60K, then you have $10K debt. That $10K is the def...
Why can't towns create their own internet networks?	[ "They can. Its just expensive, and requires a town budget spending that needs to be approved.\n\nThe term is municipal network." ]
people with crosses on their heads today?	[ "Today is Ash Wednesday. \n\nIt marks the beginning of Lent in Christian religions (in particular, Catholicism). It symbolizes the start of the trials of Christ in the desert prior to his crucifixion; where he was being tempted by Satan. Traditionally, the ashes are made from burning the previous year's palm leaves...
Why are there "Terms of Service" of websites? What do they do and don't do? What happens if you go to a website with no TOS?	[ "TOS are quasi-legal contracts between you and the website. Most of them are filled with legalese that lets the website do anything and takes away any legal rights you might have had (but not always), and these sorts of TOSs are not always legally enforceable in their entirety. \n\nSometimes TOS spell out how you ...
how do people who speak Mandarin spell out their written language to someone over the phone?	[ "Like i want to say my last name Yang. \n\nI would say 'my last name is yang, the one with a tree in front of it' 杨\n\nAnd its a very common last name. Most people would know how to spell it." ]
Why can I keep butter at room temperature for days at a time, but not cream, when butter is made from cream?	[ "The butter you're leaving on the counter is salted butter, which is therefore preserved. If you did that with unsalted butter, it'll spoil. You can prevent that if you store your butter in a [french butter dish](_URL_0_). It's an extremely simple device, The lid holds the butter in the cup. It's butter, it'll stic...
When reading comments, why is it that sometimes you can see the amount of points a comment has and other times it looks like this [~]?	[ "Subreddits can set where you can't see the number of upvotes or downvotes so you won't upvote because everyone else does." ]
what does #mbps up #mbps down exactly mean?	[ "It measures how quickly you're able to transfer data. \"Down\" speed is incoming data (ie: watching a YouTube video), \"up\" speed is outgoing data (ie: uploading a video to your own channel). For example, downloading a 5-gigabyte file at 25 megabits per second will take 1637 seconds, which is about 28 minutes.\n\...
What are the mechanics of throwing? Why do we point our non-throwing arm at the target then drop it as we move our other arm forward?	[ "This boils down to generating as much force as possible.\n\nThink about how something like a trebuchet works -- there's a heavy counterweight that swings down, and this creates a ton of rotational force.\n\nYour non-throwing arm is doing the same thing. You point it out, then swing it back through your shoulders, ...
How can the same dose of a drug be OTC and RX at the same time?	[ "Bureaucracy and regulatory capture. Generic preparations of OTC drugs still have to pass FDA scrutiny. In this case Miralax, the brand name did all the work (or maybe had lunch with the right people) to get FDA approval for OTC sales before the generic manufacturer did.\n\nFor a period of time the brand name manuf...
Purchasing Debt	[ "If the company who owns the debt knows you're involved in trying to purchase your own debt, they know that you're willing to pay some money. They only sell debt when they're convinced that it's unlikely they'll see any of that money they're owed, and your interest in buying that debt would prove that's not the cas...
What is the symbolic fear represented by dead young girls in the movies (e.g. The Ring)	[ "Because children are innocent, loved and protected while adults can be monsters.\n\nHaving a young girl who we see as innocent (white dress come on...) murdering people is out of the realms of our reality and hence shit's fucked. \n\nLike when you see an young girl, you'll be like awwww. Then when her head starts ...
How do we charge our phones wirelessly?	[ "Simply put it's induction charging, the specific process I'm not going to explain in too much detail but an analogy I physicist once told me as a good way of explaining of the process which might make it clearer for you.\n\nThink of a battery with an electrical circuit as a track filled with ball bearings that can...
why does time seem to move quicker when I'm occupied?	[ "The prevailing theory is that, when a brain is occupied with a task, then it has to spread its resources, leaving little to spend focused on the passing of time. However, if nothing in particular is occupying our conscious brain, it takes more notice of the time ticking by. The funny thing is, this slower vision i...
How does a group like the Illuminati , who were originally a group of free thinkers from the 1700's now be accused of trying to take over the world?	[ "I apologize for the length, but you've opened up a can of worms with this question. \n\nDescribing the historical Illuminati as just \"a group of free thinkers\" is a bit misleading. The order was essentially geared towards a strict regime of moral education, which involved writing monthly confessionals (the \"qui...
How a company can trademark a single word and prevent the word being used in anything?	[ "You're a little confused about how trademark works.\n\nTrademarks protect the look and branding of a specific product or class of products. The protection they grant is limited in scope. Sky TV can't keep me from brewing a beer and calling it Sky Pale Ale. However, if I were to use their logo on the label, or some...

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