Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
In the wild, animals see brutal murder all the time, so why are humans so easily affected by tramautic events such as murder or rape?	[ "Humans are highly social. In fact, it's conjectured that our brains went on a path of more advanced development than other primates because this permitted better interpersonal communication, allowing for more complex relationships and language, and this gave us a reproductive advantage.\n\nThe flipside of this is ...
Plane emergency landings	[ "You don't. You crash land and hope the cars move out of the way.\n\nYou don't. A plane that emergency lands on a highway doesn't take off again. FAA regulations forbids flying until a thorough mechanical review is performed. The plane is dismantled and trucked off to a hangar.", "The German autobahn was d...
How do the computers in a car boot so fast?	[ "they arent booting an operating system, they are much simpler. They dont ever turn off either... they are always powered on, low power mode, but they are ready to listen for FOB commands.", "The computer in your house is a very powerful generic machine built to handle being able to do any random thing you migh...
How do toilet bowls empty faster than the toilet tank can fill it?	[ "Once the bowl outflow reaches critical siphon capacity, it creates a siphon that sucks the rest of the water out", "Short answer: the water is existing out a 3\" hole and being filled with a .25\" tube." ]
How is the National Guard getting activated for the Virgin Islands?	[ "Uh, the US Virgin Islands has its own National Guard unit. The National Guard that's being activated to serve in the US Virgin Islands is probably the US Virgin Islands' National Guard. Do you have an article that suggests otherwise?" ]
How does a gas pump know when your tank is full?	[ "Ok, so Classic_rock_fan is not quite correct.\n\nThere are two tubes, but there's no air bubble. Instead, that second tube is under suction. There is a thing called a venturi in the handle of the pump that uses the energy of the flowing gas to generate suction, and suck air up through that second tube.\n\nWhen t...
How can someone use bots to do things repeatedly on a website that would normally be limited to one action per user account, like voting in a poll?	[ "Depends on the level of security implemented. If a site limits things to one action per session using php sessions or cookies to track this, it's not hard to clear cookies or reset a php session. If it's once per account, then the bot will attempt to create an account, perform the action, sign out, repeat. If thin...
Why is the legal age of consent for sex less than the legal age to watch pornography?	[ "Laws usually don't have to make sense. It is what the politicians and the lobbyists can make the people think are concerns.", "I am not sure, but I heard somwhere that you have to wait til 18 so it won't pressure kids into mimic the behaviour that they'd see in porn (kids like to mimic things), pick up some habi...
Why is it that if I cook something in a deep fryer or oven, it gets crispy, but if I were to cook the same thing in a microwave, it gets mushy?	[ "The crispy, burny flavor we all love so much is called a maillard reaction. The surface temperature of your food reaches a point where this begins to happen. Microwaves just superexcite the water molecules inside so you don't get the reaction." ]
Why is AC current better at long distances than DC?	[ "AC power can easily be transformed to a very high voltage. \n\n* By the equation P = UI we see an increase in voltage (U) must lead to a decrease in current (I) for the same power (P). \n\n With Ohms law I = U / R, we can calculate the power loss in a resistance (the cable) as: P_loss = R / (U²) or P_loss =...
Why is it possible for a donkey and a horse to mate if they are two different species?	[ "The ability to produce a hybrid species is not all that rare in the natural world. However, their differing number of chromosomes do make it so that mules are generally sterile. \n\nEdit: While it's often stated that the difference between 'species' is the inability to interbreed, that's not really accurate.", "...
Why was the moon red? .	[ "The atmosphere will scatter light of lower wavelengths (i.e., blue and purple light), which means that those colors won't pass straight through the atmosphere very well.\nRed light passes through fine, however, so when the earth starts to cast a shadow on the moon, light must pass through the Earth's atmosphere (i...
Why do men experience nausea when their testicles are struck?	[ "There's a cluster of nerves (the celiac plexus) that gives feeling to the testes as well as the liver, pancreas, stomach, gallbladder, and colon. So, getting hit in the balls will give you gastrointestinal symptoms like stomach pain, nausea, and vomiting, through reflex stimulation of this nerve cluster.\n\n In ot...
Is there a general rule for differences in words ending in -ic and -ical? Like historic vs historical or symmetric vs symmetrical.	[ "As with the rest of the English language, lol no.\n\nHistoric/historical: if something is historic, it is unique, interesting, noteworthy, as in historic landmark, historic event, historic peace treaty, whereas historical simply means it exists in history, as in historical event, historical marker, historical lite...
How is it that the Farmers Almanac can predict long-range forecast so accurately?	[ "It always rains around then. All you really have to do is look at a bunch of years and figure out the trends, and then combine all of them into a comprehensive calendar for useful application. I'm sure the biggest part of the whole thing is just accounting for drift in the solar calendar compared to the natural co...
How is thermal sensation measured/estimated?	[ "The feels like takes humidity and windspeed into effect, both testable factors. \n\nGenerally objects heat or cool in an inverse exponential fashion shown [here](_URL_0_). Having humidity or wind will increase or decrease the rate of cooling, but the final temperature has to stay the same, you can't cool something...
The difference between / need for male and female bicycle designs	[ "Nowadays, if you're wearing a skirt, especially if it's short, it's more comfortable to use a female bicycle because you don't need to lift your leg over the back of the bike and show everyone your knickers. That's it. Same applies if the skirt is knee length but relatively tight. You can't lift your leg that far ...
The situation in Brazil right now.	[ "Okay.\n\nBrazil's economy is really bad right now. The public are blaming corruption at the federal level. President Dilma Rousseff is being accused of altering the countries financial records to make Brazil look less in economic disaster. She's also being accused of being involved in a grand scheme by many involv...
How does cooling work?	[ "Contrary to popular belief, fans do not actually make a room cooler. Actually, fans actually make rooms slightly warmer. What's happening is convective heat loss; the circulating air more easily evaporates sweat, and therefore you feel cooler. So no, you cannot actually lower the temperature of a room with a commo...
What does a college grad need to know about finding a place to live?	[ "You can rent a place (an apartment) or buy a place (a house, a townhouse, a condo). If you rent, you pay someone (often a company) to live in their property. If you buy, you own the place and it becomes your property.\n\nWhen you rent, you sign a lease, which is an agreement saying \"I will live here for 12 months...
/ELI16: How come we can create circles if their circumference is infinitely precise?	[ "You're getting hung up on the idea of Pi being a measurable distance. It isn't. It's the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its radius.\n\nTo create a circle, you only need two points -- the center, and any point on the circumference. Set a compass to that, drag it around and draw the circle, done. It's onl...
How do internet startups get a big user base before they are well known?	[ "I remember watching a documentary on reddit and before they went to investors they would have fake accounts to make the sight seem more active thus it seems more interesting. Now if where talking about companies like Google they were advertised by their professor who eventually got the entire universe hooked onto ...
why do elevators always have close buttons that never work	[ "[According to 47-year elevator maintenance veteran John Menville, the \"door close\" button is just there to give people the illusion of control. It's a release valve so that after you have to wait for a million stupid things during the course of the morning, this isn't the straw that breaks the camel's back and c...
why can we eat until we're full and then want dessert but can't manage to eat more of the main course?	[ "It takes about 20 minutes for your brain to register you are full.\n\nDesert is also super tasty.\n\nOn a side note, sweet foods suppress appetites. That's why sweet foods are usually served last." ]
Folding@Home processing/project.	[ "Folding@Home determines the shape of proteins. Organic molecules are basically all made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen - the important thing is the shape. So their server has a huge list of molecules that could potentially be manufactured, and your computer is calculating what shape they would actually form, ...
Why is the iPhone 7 waterproof in 1 meter deep water, but not any deeper?	[ "Because water pressure increases the deeper you go into water and something that can withhold the pressure of 1M of water can't necessarily withhold the pressure of 10M of water.", "Add-on question: Why upto 30 mins? What changes after 30 minutes?", "The deeper something is in water, the more pressure it's sub...
How do police get from fingerprints to actually finding the suspect?	[ "first they check the fingerprint database to see if they are already on file, if they are not they fingerprint anybody who is a suspect to see if it's them, and then if they still don't have a match the case just stays open for years and years until one day somebody who thinks their past in long behind them get's ...
Why does so much of the world hate Isreal?	[ "Its not hate, its a strong dislike of their racist policies. Like giving african immigrants long term birth control without their knowledge. Having a economic blockade on Palestine. Occupying Palestine and kicking people out of there homes to let settlers live there. Stuff like that.", "To give a simplified exp...
Albert Einstein's quote: "Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them."	[ "If you ignore or do not know your limits, you cannot address them.\n\nIf you acknowledge you have limits, you can begin to address them... and eventually push past them. \"Wow, I never knew I could do that!\"" ]
What Hitler's motives were	[ "Hitler's political ideals aren't particularly cut and dried, there has always been debate over them, and probably always will be.\n\nHowever, growing up he was very nationalist, and it is generally accepted that he genuinely believed that the Jews were responsible for Germany's post-WWI problems.\n\nHe was wildly ...
Why do most world leaders appear unconcerned with world population increase? It seems like a potentially civilization ending thing in my mind?	[ "It's not. The world can sustain a much much larger population than we currently have. Additionally, the population of the developed world is mostly stable and declining in a few places. We produce far more food and goods than everyone in the world needs. The problem is distribution. \n\nThere are environmental pro...
Why does music cause chills and mood changes?	[ "The chills we get from music or visual stimulus is actually known as [Frisson](_URL_0_). Unfortunately its quite difficult to research since stimuli varies from person to person, so were not quite sure why it happens.", "This might not be the most scientific or exact answer, but what I always say (as to why I'm ...
Bitcoin's blockchain	[ "In a nutshell, the blockchain is a publicly-maintained database of every single bitcoin transaction to have ever taken place in the history of bitcoins. Every time a bitcoin is mined or transferred, an entry is added to the blockchain, and that entry is distributed to everyone else.\n\nBitcoin uses encryption tec...
In response to a front page TIL, how can money from the Roman Empire (or any other old currency) be translated into "today's money"?	[ "You cannot do that reliably.\n\nOne could think that you could use common goods to do the conversion, but the fact is that things that now cost somehow the same had HUGE differences in prices in ancient time.\n\nFor example, this page ( _URL_0_ ) has very detailed information for the years around 301 AD\n\nFor ex...
WTF is japan's deal with pedophilia?	[ "As a matter of fact, japan as a whole does not like the subculture you're talking about. You're talking mostly about \"Otaku\" and as someone said in another thread about this:\n\n\"It's the same with America. Otaku are nerds/geeks, and not the ironic kind either. They're considered the neckbeards of Japan, and so...
Why do people get headaches after playing video games or watching TV for too long?	[ "* Dehydration from low fluid intake\n* Slow blink rate, causing dry eyes\n* Poor body posture\n* Hey. Hey. Hey Listen. Hey. Look. Hey. Hey. Hey. Look. Hey. Listen. Listen. Hey." ]
How does a loading bar work?	[ "It can be done in many ways. Having multiple whole images of of the loading bar at various percentages is common. But just as common is generating it programmatically - describing it, not as whole lot of pixels, but as a drawing - a rectangle with rounded corners, and a thick line with sharp corners for the progre...
Why does England still have a monarchy?	[ "They want it. \n\nThe Royal family acts as diplomats and are trained as such from birth. That is something that is very handy to have. They also take on all the ceremonial roles that a Head of State does leaving the Prime Minister more time to actually govern. The Queen also acts as a theoretical emergency valve s...
Why are a lot of my childhood memories feeling like dreams as I am older looking back?	[ "They're more distant, and you're further from the context they came to exist in. It's harder to really identify with who you were after so much change in who you are. The experience of 10 year old you is very different from the experience of 20 year old you. \n\nYou aren't remembering you, you're remembering you a...
If public intoxication isn't allowed why is selling alcohol in public allowed?	[ "Because you can take it somewhere else to drink it, obviously. This is like asking why do grocery stores exist since no one is going to eat that food in the parking lot." ]
We put a reflective surface on the moon to test distance.. Why??	[ "The astronauts placed a corner reflector on the moon. This is a device that reflects nearly all the incident light back to the source of the light (the surface of the moon only reflects about 12% of the light, and in all directions). \n\nThe corner reflector is necessary to get an accurate distance. Note that ev...
Hiccups. What causes them, and how can you get rid of them, SUCCESSFULLY!	[ "Taking a very deep breath and holding it has always worked for me. But I know people who will get them and have them all day no matter what. I don't think there's any hard and fast rule that works for everyone. If there is, it'd be great to know.", "All I know is a technique to help get rid of them that works...
Why are rockets launched from places like Cape Canaveral and not high up in the mountains?	[ "Cape Canaveral has two very large advantages for launching rockets.\n\n* 1: It's near the equator, the spin of the earth gives a boost which helps get the rocket to orbital speed\n* 2: It's near the sea, so any debris or stages that fall back to earth dont hit any populated areas. It is also easy to deliver large ...
Why is it that in many states, an accident that occurs while turning left is automatically the fault of the driver turning left?	[ "The person turning left is the only one with enough information to determine whether a left turn is safe. At a 4 way stop, there are potential collisions from the right, the front (oncoming) and the left. The other drivers, if going straight or right, have no way to collide with the left turner unless the left t...
Is a man made storm possible?	[ "You should always be skeptical of grandiose conspiracy claims such as this, and it's worth fact-checking and searching the claimant's sources before taking them seriously.\n\nMost of this person's sources are links to his own blog or other youtube videos of his, which sets alarm bells ringing. No scientific paper ...
Why can't I pop a bag of popcorn twice?	[ "Kernels contain water, by heating the water it turns into steam and if you do this fast enough it'll make the kernel pop. However if you slow the heating down the steam will still expand but it will do it slower so instead it now just gently escapes and the kernel will never pop. Taking the bag out the microwave s...
What are the pros and cons of Ukraine joining the EU?	[ "Pros\n\nJoining the EU lowers barriers between the EU countries. With full membership citizens of any country can live and work in any other EU country of their choice.\n\nIt also lowers the cost of doing business. Common currencies would make Ukrainian goods cheaper in the EU, making them more desirable. And ...
Why do governments not dump confiscated contraband back on the market for next to nothing prices in order to drive down profits for criminals?	[ "So you want to combat the sale of illegal goods by selling illegal goods? They are illegal for a reason." ]
Rehydration clause in boxing	[ "Boxers want to box someone their own weight (or smaller). The weigh-in occurs many hours before the fight. What can happen is, a 165-lb boxer can sweat out 13 lbs to make the weigh-in limit of 152 lbs, then eat and drink themselves back to their normal weight of 165 before the actual fight. If his opponent real...
Why was the United States not charged with war crimes after nuking Hiroshima and Nagasaki?	[ "A few reasons:\n\n1. We won the war. Who was going to charge us with any crime? The UN wasn't a thing at this point.\n\n2. Nuclear weapons had never been used before and their use wasn't explicitly a violation of any war crimes.\n\n3. Related to #2, the US and Britain firebombed the shit out of a score of other ci...
Why do TV series' from cable/streaming services like HBO, Netflix or Hulu seem to be so much higher quality than network TV?	[ "Because of advertisers. Since on subscription services most of their revenue comes straight from the consumer they are willing to create more diverse content. So they might not have as many viewers but they're getting more money from less viewers.\n\nOn network TV the advertisers want to be seen by as many people ...
Somewhere, somewhen, the Aether/Ether was proven, with an experiment, to be nonexistent, or something. What was proven, how was it proven, and what changed?	[ "The [Michelson-Morley Experiment](_URL_0_)\n\nBasically, since it was believed that all waves had to travel through a medium, and light is (also) a wave (they still didn't really know about the \"also\" part), scientists were trying to prove the existance of this Aether, which was the supposed medium permeating al...
What is special about Cecil the Lion?	[ "Because it was on the news and it had a name.\nMost bad things that happen will not make people care till its on the news." ]
Why do professional athletes get paid as much as they do?	[ "The teams they play for make many times more than that from ticket sales, advertising, merchandising and so on. Those teams make more money when they have better athletes, enough so that it's a perfectly sensible business practice to pay that much to get the very best ones they can.", "Because that's what people...
Why do people sometimes need or feel like they need to make a bowel movement before an important event?	[ "Most of the responses seem to revolve around not having to go later, but that's a bit vague. Much of what is happening is an attempt to stay unencumbered and free of unnecessary weight due to the presumed preparation for physical activity. In more complex terms (ELI15?), stress hormones shut down nonessential syst...
Why can rain be soothing?	[ "The sound of rain can be soothing because it's a natural form of \"white noise\" (a constant, non-intrusive sound). The reason why white noise is soothing is because infrequent sounds can be intrusive to our mind, but if these same sounds are constant - they can be soothing. Keep in mind not all sounds tha...
How come you can "spot increase" muscle (by doing isolation movements) but you can't "spot decrease" fat?	[ "As your question implies, if a muscle is isolated then that is the one that will grow. There is no analogous way to isolate fat for consumption. Fat loss occurs throughout the body at equal rates.", "When you're lifting something from the table to your face, the only muscles used are the biceps in your arms. M...
Why are AM towers so dangerous?	[ "Yes. AM radio stations broadcast on such long wavelengths that they normally use \"hot tower\" set ups where the tower is insulated from the ground and then the whole tower is fed from the feedline. Broadcast AM power levels range anywhere from 1 kilowatt to 50 kilowatts and higher.", "Worked in AM radio for d...
Why are there different brands of ambulances?	[ "The EMS system in the U.S. is a patchwork of government, private owned, and hospital-based services. The make-up varies by state & by municipality. Part of the reason you might see multiple ambulances companies in your city is that they may be providing different services:\n\nThere are also 2 major services ambu...
What would happen to the World if all the water (read: salt, fresh, bottled, etc) on Earth disappeared for one day and came back the next?	[ "To begin with, all marine life and plants would die. If you count intracellular water, all life would end, with the possible exception of some spores.", "Well, the first thing that happened, would be about 7 billion people freaking the fuck out that some supernatural event occurred beyond any reality humankind c...
What do people do in communities after a major flood hits? How do they get their homes fixed or their belongings replaced?	[ "State and federal aid agencies provide temporary assistance. \n\nOther non for profit agencies such as community health centers, churches or organizations offer assistance in forms of housing, food, clothing etc. \n\nIndividuals may stay in nearby hotels or with family or community members.\n\nQualifying survivors...
Why are rapes described as a crime of power and control instead of a rapist's desire for sexual gratification?	[ "Because some people don't get off because of the act of sex. They get off because they know that they are, for the moment anyway, the absolute most superior being over all others (the rapee) and can do with them as they please. Rape also can be a crime of passion although it's not often that you hear about it with...
What does the overdrive function on a car actually do?	[ "The engine in your car operates best within a very limited range. Remember, all the stuff your engine does to produce power results in a big shaft spinning. This is eventually connected to your car's wheels.\n\nHowever, your engine can only efficiently spin this shaft within a fairly narrow range of speed. It vari...
Was Jacob Tremblay even that good in the room?	[ "Have you seen it for yourself? Cant you decide for yourself?", "Follow up question: Who the fuck is this kid? I've seen his name everywhere, no idea who he is. Where he came from or even what his blood type is. What did I miss now?", "This post is not asking for a layman-friendly explanation to something com...
How to dance with a girl at a club	[ "Are you ready for the secret? The tried and true method that works for me 100%?\n\nhere it is.\n\nDont try to dance with girls. Just dance. Go out on the dance floor and just have fun. Dance to whatever song is on wether you like it or not. Dance by yourself, and more importantly have fun while you do it. Seri...
What makes a burning clutch smell the way it does?	[ "Road vehicle friction materials (clutch and brake linings) are typically made from a plastic material with various friction producing additives (steel fibers, kevlar, ceramic beads, sand grains, etc.) \n\nThe most common plastic used is something called \"phenolic\". This tends to have quite a strong smell when bu...
Why is everything controversial topic a SomethinGate?	[ "Watergate was a major political scandal that occurred in the United States in the 1970s, following a break-in at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. in 1972 and President Richard Nixon's administration's attempted cover-up of its involvement. Whe...
how does the library of babel even work?	[ "If you make enough random combinations of characters, some of them will make sense.\n\nOn a small scale, if you start making random combinations of three letters, most of them will be gibberish but some of them will make perfect sense. I've just done this myself in Excel - after 46 lines of nonsense, 47 was DAY, 6...
If Union is there to support and protect employees from unfair treatments, why there are many people against it?	[ "1. Unions can be corrupt, basically stealing from the employees who pay dues and getting kickbacks from the companies.\n1. If the union says they're striking, you have to strike (and lose your pay) even if you are not unhappy, or you really have bills to pay, or whatever.", "Support and protect employees may...
How come most all lights in any building are aimed from the ceiling down to the floor?	[ "Those are more likely to be in your line of sight, and thus interfere with your vision, and less likely to illuminate whatever you are interacting with. You don't spend as much time looking at the ceiling, normally, and you don't usually have stuff to work with on the ceiling. \n\nLights on the floor aren't going ...
What is the sound I hear when I yawn?	[ "It's your [Tensor Tympani muscle](_URL_0_) in your inner ear. This muscle's purpose is to dampen noises as you chew so they don't hurt your eardrum, but when you yawn it can become tense as well. Also some people like me can control it voluntarily and make head thunder even without yawning." ]
Why do some people float on water easily when others a similar size can't?	[ "We're mostly water, so it doesn't take much either way to make us dense enough to sink, or a little more buoyant to float.\n\nI found out when I was little that I was almost neutral, and could float if I filled up my lungs, but would sink if I emptied them, scaring the lifeguards at the pool, so it's a pretty clos...
What happens in the brain when you blackout from drinking alcohol?	[ "Your brain is filled with special cells called neurons. At the end of the neurons, the neurons shoot out special chemicals called neurotransmitters to talk to the next neuron. \n\nAlcohol is a type of drug called a depressant. It lowers the number of neurotransmitters thereby making your brain work slower. The par...
- Why was Edward Snowden made out to be a traitor/enemy? Didn't he do us a favor?	[ "He was and still is made out to be that way because he basically stole what was considered government property, with \"sensitive information\" included, and leaked it all to the media and such. \n\nThe people of America didn't really make him out to be an enemy or a traitor - in fact, many of them, including a lar...
Why does America sell 2 Litre bottles of soda when everything else is in gallons?	[ "The metric system creeps up on you slowly, inch by 2.54 cm...", "Because even America has to draw the line at one gallon sodas.", "Liquor is also sold by the liter (or often 250, 500 or 750mL) most of the time but beer is usually ounces. Oddly most bartending recipes still go by ounces though.", "Since no on...
Please ELI5: What the bible has to say about people who belong to LGBT groups.	[ "A note on Lilith - she's not in the Bible itself but Talmudic texts and a lot of stuff about her was developed much later (like the Middle Ages).\n\nSort of like how many people's mental picture of Hell comes from Paradise Lost and The Divine Comedy rather than the Bible.", "The Old Testament specifically sa...
Why, and how, are states able to block Tesla from selling their cars within a particular state? Don't other auto manufacturers make and sell electric cars in their states?	[ "The law that is in place says that they have to sell through dealers (this was to prevent Ford from going into a state and muscling in on a local ford dealer).\n\nSo they don't want them being sold from the car manufacturer directly to consumers. \n\nHowever, since the spirit of the law is to protect dealers from...
Why do we sometimes taste blood when we see we're bleeding?	[ "Do we? I've never experienced that. Maybe it's some kind of mind-trick thing.", "Its just memory recall based on what you are currently seeing...Just like when you look at something on a restaurant menu, you can envision what something will taste like...obviously a bit odd with blood, but same idea." ]
why are fire trucks red?	[ "Red is often used for important things because the red color is noticed first by the brain (I think it has something to do with the wavelength). Other things like traffic signs (red lights and stop signs) are also red because of that." ]
Why do moths like light so much??	[ "they don't. The leading theory is that moths use moonlight to navigate. The moon, being so far away, maintains a relatively fixed position in the sky from the standpoint of a moth. It maintains the moon in its field of vision, and its position doesn't change as the moth travels.\n\nA bright light, being perceived ...
why do religions have similar stories and morals?	[ "There's a couple of reasons.\n\nSome evolve from the same origins. For example, a lot of religions believe that there was a man called Moses and he was chosen by God. They followed his stories. Then a man called Jesus arrived and said he was the son of God. Some people didn't believe him, and they carried on as th...
Why is gold valuable? Also, why was gold important to ancient civilizations?	[ "It's shiny, doesn't oxidize, yellow is rather unique as metallic color. It's also relatively soft and malleable with a low melting point (for a metal) that makes it a pretty nice material to work with and create art/religious symbols and being not that common makes it special, too.", "For one, it looks pretty go...
how can imported goods compete with domestic goods prices, when they also have to pay tariffs and long distance shipping? Why is a case of Heineken the same price as a case of Budweiser?	[ "Heineken has bottling facilities all over the world, so chances are your Heineken is way more local than you think. True imported beers will typically have a price markup.", "Because the labor and related costs to make something here is much more expensive than the cost of transportation and tariffs.\n\nUsing a ...
Why are they called tension rods?	[ "From an engineering point of view, there is tension in the system. You think of tension as something actively being stretched out, but that's not quite how engineers look at it. \n \nTension and compression go together. The forces have to balance to zero. If they don't, something is moving. So if something is...
What OCD is really like	[ "You have disturbing thoughts that you cannot control, e.g. people you care about dying. These are the obessions part of OCD. Certain actions, like tapping a door four time, reduces/stops your obsessions for a short period of time so you tend to repeat these actions to stave off your disturbing thoughts. \n\nWith O...
Why Facebook would oppose SOPA and support CISPA.	[ "Because CISPA isn't as well known to the public...", "This might have something to do with it: \n“That means a company like Google, Facebook, Twitter, or AT & T could intercept your emails and text messages, send copies to one another and to the government, and modify those communications or prevent them from re...
Why do the epiphany-like developmental leaps of childhood cease as we age?	[ "It's really easy to have a massive leap when you're starting with nothing. Babies start off hardly being able to crawl, but learn to walk within a couple of years. That's what, a 300% increase in mobility? But for that to happen to an adult that would be like going from a nobody to a world class sprinter in a coup...
How much Oil(Gas) do we burn moving Oil(Gas) around the world?	[ "Here are some rough numbers calculated from [Wikipedia](_URL_0_).\n\nCargo ship: 0.1-0.3% per 1000 km (in other words, to transport an amount of fuel over a distance of 1000 km, you have to burn 0.1% of that amount of fuel).\n\nFreight train: 0.4%-0.9% per 1000 km\n\nTruck: 3% per 1000 km\n\nAir: 8-9% per 1000 km\...
How can we feel something when we never actually touch it (on an atomic level)?	[ "Lift your arm up. Do you feel a pressure trying to pull it downward? That is gravity, and even though nothing is directly touching you, the force of gravity is affecting you.\n\nThe same thing goes for touch. Even though we do not really \"touch\" anything, we do feel the forces of the world interacting with us....
Why does the burn from hot peppers feel like it goes down in your body and the burn from wasabi goes up into your nose.	[ "Hot peppers and wasabi affect your olfactory system differently. \n\nHorseradish and wasabi are both made from the roots of plants in the cabbage family: Armoracia rusticana and Wasabia japonica, respectively. When the cells in these roots are ruptured—if they're chopped or chewed, for example—they release a compo...
Why do humans eyes have a large visible white but most animal eyes are mostly iris and pupil?	[ "Taken from [wikipedia:](_URL_0_) \"The sclera (from the Greek skleros, meaning hard), also known as the white of the eye, is the opaque, fibrous, protective, outer layer of the eye containing collagen and elastic fiber. In humans the whole sclera is white, contrasting with the coloured iris, but in other mammals t...
The difference between urban, agglomeration, and metropolitan populations	[ "Metropolitan Area I think determines all villages and areas where at least 50% of the working population drive to the same city to work\n\nWhilst agglomeration only includes villages and towns directly connected to the city, like suburbs and satellites for example \n\nI could be wrong though so feel free to correc...
How do we sing in key when our voices sound different in our heads?	[ "Your head isn't thick enough to have an effect on the frequency that you hear. When you listen to a recording of your own voice, what's missing is the deeper harmonics that result from the sound travelling through you skull to the bones in your ear, but it doesn't really affect the accuracy with which you can jud...
How do we know that dolphins are self-aware?	[ "This might be a philosophical question but doesn't self-awareness infer that the animal in question is conscious? In other words, would \"i think therefore i am\" apply to these self aware animal? If so, would these animals have souls from a religious standpoint?", "They are one of the few species (along with al...
Can someone explain me the actual economic situation of the world? And why some countries are growing so fast?	[ "Basically, the cost of living in certain countries varies drastically. Because of this, the citizens are willing to work for drastically different wages, creating different economic environments.\n\nIn \"developed\" countries, like Germany, the United States, and England, the cost of living is high, taxes are rela...
Why does Obama and the Republicans like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and many Democrats dislike it? Are trade pacts good for American jobs?	[ "It's incredibly complex, yes. The answer to your american jobs question is that it both helps AND harms the economy, it just depends what sector.\n\nIt would likely improve the job situation in any of the poorer countries, it would be very good for finance and financial services (LOTS of american jobs there), it ...
Why do I sometimes regret text messages I send immediately after I send them, no matter how long I think about them beforehand?	[ "I read a thing on Cracked (is that a source?) recently that said our brains don't see our future-selves as us; it's considered a different person. It's why we stay up late or go out and drink a lot - we see the after effects being lived out by a different person.\n\nMaybe it's something to do with that? Even if yo...
How is it that some people are born with natural talents for things and others must learn them?	[ "\"Born with it\" is usually a misconception. The general philosophy is that it takes 10,000hrs of practice with the aim to get better to master something. \n\nThe key to that is making the most of your time spent \"practicing\". For example, professional hockey players almost exclusively are born in January/Feb...
What is the benefit of a company splitting into two publicly traded companies?	[ "There are a lot of opinions about this. For a while it was the fashion for companies to buy other companies to become conglomerates. \"Bigger is better.\" For a while it was common for raiders to buy companies, split them, and sell the parts for more than they paid for the company. Anything which could not be sold...
Why I'm able to over-eat for months at a time, then seemingly able to eat nothing following those months. Are calorie deficits/debts a real thing?	[ "Technically, you can go without food for a long time. A very long time. Depending on fat stores. Is this healthy? Not really. I remember reading about a severely obese man eating nothing for 1 year while staying/monitored at a hospital in some very controversial treatment. So yes in a way calorie deficits and debt...

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