Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
Why does scurvy open old wounds?	[ "Yes, wounds are essentially stitched up with collagen, which forms scar tissue. Scurvy is a deficiency of vitamin C, and collagen formation requires vitamin C, so the collagen in your body gradually breaks down." ]
Why are there no regulations on how bright headlights can be? (And if there are, why so bright?)	[ "What you are talking about is people using HID bulbs in their headlights. This bulbs aren't designed to be used in most standard oem reflector headlight housings, they are supposed to be used in projector housings. The reflector housings scatters the light hence the blinding effect. Part of the problem is you can ...
If I am walking with a full glass of water and holding it in a normal grip the liquid would slosh and spill out but if I hold it from the top around the rim the sloshing effect lessens dramatically.	[ "it is inertia. The water doesn't move as fast as the cup (which is solid and doesn't have a choice). So the slower water builds up on the side opposite of the motion. this makes it slosh. Same way if you accelerate in a roller coaster you feel like you are being pushed back into the seat. The sloshing is the water...
The difference between techno, electro, dubstep, and drum & bass?	[ "For everything you ever wanted to know about electronic music (and probably much, MUCH more than you cared about) there is the excellent [Ishkur's Guide To Electronic Music](_URL_7_). It's just old enough to predate dubstep but otherwise it's absurdly complete.\n\nAnd now, some examples using well-known tracks fro...
why are solar powered desalination plants not widely used?	[ "We currently don't have the technology to make desalination plants that are cheap and effective. It takes a lot of energy to treat water, and solar energy isn't quite sufficient yet. We need better solar panels, and to make construction of solar panels to become cheaper.\n\nIt'll likely happen in time, but not for...
When I pour a glass of water and it sits for a few days, small bubbles form inside the diameter of the glass. Why is this?	[ "There is air dissolved into the water, not enough to make it fizzy like soda but enough that if you give it time small bubbles will collect at nuclation(spots where the gas molecules can get stuck and collect) points in the glass", "Do you mean circumference? Or do bubbles really form in a straight line through ...
What is the reason for finger nails?	[ "To avoid damage against our fingers in our limbs. Remember we used to do a lot of stuff with our hands in the past and those wouldn't sustain so much damage without nails. Our ancestors, as every mammal has nails that seem adapted to their use.", "renewable anti-stress matter that you can chew on" ]
How did man discover smoking things like tobacco and marijuana? What made those plants special to give them the idea?	[ "They probably just started out by throwing random things in the fire as fuel or to create smoke (which is great for keeping bugs away). One day someone threw on the leaves of one particular plant and it was awesome so they did it again.", "To the best of our knowledge, it was trial and error. \n\nMany peopl...
; what is a social worker and what kind of jobs do they do	[ "My mother was a social worker in a hospital. She helped the families when they needed help. Was kind of a resource directory for them to get help...ie rehab, public aid, AA, battered woman, etc. \n\nDuring her life also came along the psych wards of today. These include drug addicts, and the mentally unstable. She...
Why do short naps give you so much energy, yet long naps make you so tired when you wake up?	[ "Psychological point of view: Long naps confuse the body and disrupt your original sleeping schedule, which already decreases your quality of sleep, while a short sleep can give you a quick burst of energy without disrupting sleep pattern. The brain does understand that short naps are normal and don't directly inte...
How is the U.S. Legislative branch able to stop the Iran nuclear agreement?	[ "The administration negotiated something that is not quite a PR stunt and not quite a treaty (which would require the approval of the Senate). From Iran's perspective the only thing that they really care about is lifting of sanctions. The US sanctions regime is a law, and that law allows the President to end the ...
Why does a paused YouTube video not retain the same video quality as when its playing?	[ "YouTube compresses video fairly aggressively. One of the ways this manifests itself is blocky artefacts. Normally these artefacts will blur across frames, meaning when frames are viewed at the normal speed you generally don't notice the artefacting as much, but paused only artefacts on that individual frame are se...
What is hydrated salt, and how is it different from saltwater?	[ "Sort of. A hydrated salt has water molecules incorporated into its solid crystal structure. Each formula unit in a hydrated salt includes a certain number of water molecules squished in with it, so there is water there, but the whole thing is a solid crystal like dry table salt. Salt water is a fully dissolved ...
How does apple make money off of apple pay if there's no fee?	[ "there's no fee to the customer. there is a fee to the vendor.", "Apple gets 0.15% per transaction (15¢ Per $100). This is not an added fee, the card issuer actually gives Apple some of their profit because Apple Pay is so secure, meaning no liability claims that the card issuer has to pursue.", "In additio...
Why are our eyes extremely sensitive to foreign objects? (Shampoo, eyelashes, poolwater, etc.)	[ "Because your eyes are really important, they need to be hyper aware of when things threaten them, and they tear up to remove whatever is in them" ]
how people become left or right handed	[ "I believe it's predetermined at birth. I am right handed and my mother is left handed. She used to tell me that she'd watch which hand I used to pick up things as a baby to see if I'd be left or right handed and already from a very, very early age my right hand was dominant. \n\nThis [article](_URL_0_) also sugges...
Given that America has one of the most powerful armies. Why don't they use that power to stomp out Mexican cartels and the gang problems in and around the USA?	[ "The first one would mean the US is invading Mexico. You can't just take an army and go into another country and blow shit up and kill people. Mexico has their own police that should do that, and they partner with Americans and get support from Americans all the time. \n\nSimilar thing with the second situation....
Why do 8 electrons form a stable shell? Why not 7? 6? 4? 2?	[ "8 is a simplification.\n\nRather than there being a few shells of 8 (with one shell of two) there are things called orbitals.\n\nElectrons are not the tiny self-contained spheres that are presented in basic chemistry and physics classes. Their presence is spread out over some volume where there's some chance of ha...
Why do some really popular reddit posts suddenly lose thousands of upvotes?	[ "There's an algorithm in place to equalize stupidly high karma scores; i imagine the intent is to prevent hugely popular posts from dominating the front page for more than a few hours. gotta keep the content cycling.", "Follow up question: How did the top posts of all time get to where they are? Were these algori...
Stealing home base.	[ "It is often part of a double steal, where the runner on 1st tries to steal second, while the runner on 3rd waits for the catcher to commit, then tries to steal home.\n\nA lot of the time the 2nd baseman won't notice or will be disrupted by the runner and will not be able to make a clean throw back home.", "It's ...
Why should the average American fear CISPA?	[ "Yes. It allows them to search without a warrant." ]
How can one city be the "turning point" of a war?	[ "A useful trade route could be broken, political hostages could be taken, large amounts of citizens could be killed, military outposts could be destroyed, or it could have been the first city attacked. For example Pearl Harbor or Nagasaki. Pearl Harbor was when the US joined the war, nagasaki was approximately when...
The plot of the 90's cartoon Aeon Flux	[ "There really isn't one. It is more of an art project than a story, meant to appeal visually, not intellectually. There is little continuity from episode to episode, with the title character dying repeatedly.\n\nWhat little story it has is based on a yin/yang kind of duality. Aeon is an assassin from shadowy Mon...
- what's with Italian city names?	[ "English generally uses the French names for these cities. I believe it is because Italy was not politically or linguistically unified until comparatively late. It was too much hassle to learn the local forms of city names in all the minor Italian languages (e.g. Naples is Napoli in standard Italian but Napule in N...
What is the federal funds rate, how does it work and what are its short and longterm effects on the economy and on stocks?	[ "This is a tough question to answer because there are so many specifics and variables. I'll break it down into short and long versions. If you have questions, ask.\n\n\nShort version:\n\nThe federal funds rate is the interest that banks charge one another for money loaned to meet their reserve requirements. Current...
Whats a good way to think about the difference between amps and volts?	[ "I find [this image](_URL_0_) very useful!\n\nAmperage is what you are moving, voltage is what is pushing the amperage and resistance is changing the difficulty to push amperage.", "amps is current, volts is energy potential. \n\nso think of volts like a high way, more volts = more lanes. think of amps like tra...
Why can Windows delete a large number of files almost instantly but it takes a much longer time to restore them from the recycle bin?	[ "Resorting files from the bin has some additional overhead in dealing with conflicts (e.g. Checking that a file with that exact name isn't already in the same folder as the original file.)" ]
How does NSDAP abbreviate to Nazi?	[ "yeah as said, it's just the pronunciation. national is pronounced 'nazi-o-nahl', the sozialismus bit doesnt even come into it.", "The German word for \"National Socialism\" is \"Nationalsozialismus\".\n\nNationalsozialismus.\n\nAnd perhaps that makes it clear why it's pronounced \"nat-zee\"?" ]
How did telephone operators work and how come we don't need them anymore?	[ "Before electronic switching, when you picked up the phone, nothing happened. You turned a crank and the operator saw a light come on. Then they (usually she) plugged a wire into your jack and asked you what you wanted. You said you wanted to talk to Aunt Sue, and she connected a wire to Aunt Sue's jack and sent...
When a song is a remix by a DJ, who gets royalties from it when it's bought on iTunes, Amazon, etc. The original artist or the DJ who made the remix?	[ "Both, but mostly the label; it's not an either-or situation. The DJ's got permission from the label to release the remix (or have been hired by the label to make it in the first place), so the original artist gets some kick-back, along with the DJ." ]
Why does snot change when you are sick?	[ "Your body is continually producing mucus but if you get sick (I'm presuming you mean a cold or similar), this irritates the tissues and causes mucus production firstly to increase, so you make more of it. Your immune system also floods the infected tissues with various white blood cells to control the infection an...
How do such large objects get lodged so deeply in the noses of sea turtles?	[ "When the turtle eats something too big, or non-digestible, it'll attempt to regurgitate it. Through some mistake in their anatomy, sometimes the object will not go through their mouths on the way out, but will instead attempt to go through the nose, lodging it in." ]
where's the best place to position a fan to cool down	[ "Well, I suppose blowing directly on you?\n\nHowever, I have some other thoughts on this and you can't stop me from writing them here.\n\nTo cool a house with a fan, open one window at one end of the house, and the doors of course, and then put a fan blowing out in a window at the other end of the house. As the war...
Why we don't constantly feel "growing pains" at a young age?	[ "Research has been coming out suggesting that vitamin d is the cause of growing pains in children. [This study](_URL_0_) found that 86% of the children they studied had vitamin d deficiency, and after giving them supplements there was a drastic reduction of pain. \n\nWhat is implied then is that during this period ...
- why don't price tags include taxes?	[ "It's quite common in other countries for taxes to be included. \n\nBut the US being a collection of 50 or more tax jurisdictions (local governments and territories as well...) with a lot of big companies with lobbying power means it's unlikely to happen.\n\nLets say you're making a thing - doesn't matter what t...
How has the creator of Bitcoin managed to stay anonymous even after all these years and after Bitcoin becoming more popular worldwide?	[ "In April of 2011, [Nakamoto](_URL_0_) (Nakomoto is the name of the creator of Bitcoin, though it is just a nickname of sorts) emailed Andresen (Andresen was one of the early programmers who showed interest in the Bitcoin project) to say that the Bitcoin Project developers \"should try to de-emphasize the whole ‘my...
Why are some things like Richter and Decibel measured in a non-linear scale? What benefit is there?	[ "Well, generally logarithmic scales are used because they are useful. In the case of hearing it is because our senses are designed in much the same way. It takes ten times the volume of sound for something to \"sound\" twice as loud to humans. Generally, the brain needs 10 times the sensory stimulus to sense someth...
What's with dating sites and profile pictures?	[ "I'm gonna go out on a limb and say false advertising." ]
Why my hands get hot as hell as soon as I bring them out of the snow into a warmer environment	[ "Your hands aren't getting hot, they're actually returning to normal temperature after being quite cold. It just feels hot to you. It may also feel painful, tingly or achey.\n\nThis phenomenon is called \"the hot aches\" or the \"screaming barfies\" among those who climb mountains and ice walls. It's one of the v...
Is a crack addict likely to turn to another drug if they can't get crack that day? If they can't find any of the hard drugs, or can't afford them, are they also likely to go for something softer? Or is it crack or nothing?	[ "If it's a crack addict, they will turn to any drug with a stimulant affect to help with their crack craving. If it's a heroin addict, they will turn to any drug with that down/melting like affect to help with their craving.\n\nSo usually they will try and stick to the same type of affects but in desperate times, I...
ELI5: The difference in electrical voltage, amperage, & wattage	[ "Imagine a waterfall.\n\nVoltage: how high the waterfall is (1ft high versus 120feet high)\n\nAmperage: how much water is going over the fall (trickle versus Niagara Falls) \n\nWattage: in one second, how much water energy goes down the falls. A high water fall times lots of water equals lots of energy. ((voltage x...
How does the Witness Protection System work when there are minors involved and said minors have parents/family with visitation rights?	[ "An individual entering the Program must have court-ordered custody of a child in order for the child to enter the Program. If the child's non-Program natural parent has court-ordered visitation rights with that child, that parent would have to agree (via affidavit), to the child being relocated, the child's name b...
Why do FM radio stations only end in odd decimals?	[ "The radio spectrum was divided up by regulating agencies so that different things could use radio communication and not mess with each other. FM was given the band from 87.8 to 108.0 MHz.\n\nWithin that band there was a need for different channels. FM can't transmit an infinite amount of data; it needs some port...
Muscle cramp and why we get it?	[ "I'm not an expert but I believe this is essentially what's happening. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.\n\nCANCER\n\nJust kidding. Your cramps are most likely due to low blood flow. When your calve doesn't get enough blood, there isn't enough oxygen to keep up with your metabolism. Your cells can't create the e...
Why do you need to register to vote, shouldn't you automatically be registered when you are born and unregistered when you die?	[ "Registering to vote is about making sure that they know you are a citizen (something that is recorded from birth), and making sure that you vote in the proper district for where you live. Your physical house location is the most important part needed for the registration process as you could have a completely diff...
Why Do We Tend To Notice Things in Pairs? Or, why does there seem to be a general consensus that even numbers are more, "attractive"?	[ "I've always looked at it as it has to do with being symmetrical. You can divide even numbers into two equal halves. When you look at someone and find them attractive their face is normally symmetrical. People without birth defects have symmetrical sides of the body, two arms, two legs, ten fingers and so on. This...
The Shadow Banking Sector	[ "Shadow banking involves doing the things banks do outside of the regulated banking system. This mostly involves institutions such as hedge funds buying and selling complex financial instruments outside of the view of regulators. They do this through various types of financial instruments, each of which would need...
The power of the Tobacco industry and do they have the power to completely halt the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in the United States?	[ "Pretty much everyone I know who smokes marijuana smokes it with tobacco so I'm not so convinced they will be hurt that much by it's legalisation. With the success of legalisation so far I doubt they have that much power to stop it anyway. What they should do is invest in genetically modifying tobacco to produce ca...
as a non-american, what are HOAs? Every story I've ever heard about HOAs in America makes them out to horrible, petty and just all around pointless. What is the point of a homeowners association? What do they do other than bother people? Are there non-horror stories?	[ "They're Homeowner's Associations. When you buy a house or condo, if an HOA has been established in the community, you're essentially contractually forced into paying some amount of money each month to fund the HOA, and you agree to follow the HOA's rules. The HOA then typically uses that money to maintain and up...
Why do you feel tired after sleeping for too long?	[ "The US military has done a lot of studies on human limits, attention spans, and sleep requirements in order to prevent tactical mistakes on long missions, especially for pilots who may run missions 20 hours in length. \n\nWhat they discovered is that there is an optimum amount of sleep where too little is suboptim...
What is the current situation in Russia and what could it be leading up too?	[ "It's on the news that Russia have mobilized troops and are planning on Invading Ukraine. I recommend you visit /r/UkranianConflict as they would probably have a better answer for you...." ]
How do they get that footage of forming foetuses from inside the womb?	[ "I'm not the OP, but I came in here hoping to see the answer as it concerns actual photographs of developing fetuses. As in, full color actual pics, not sonograms or the like. I would link to a sample pic, but all the top google images appear to be on anti-abortion websites and fuck those guys.", "If you're ref...
If BOFA bought Countrywide after they sold defective mortgages, why is the US government suing them for it?	[ "When you buy a company, you also buy that company's past, both the good and the bad. Outstanding lawsuits and contracts are included in this.\n\n\n\niirc, the cost to the government from the specific fraudulent actions this penalty is for was estimated at about $1billion, so the fine recovers about 84% of that. ...
Why do towns have the population listed on road signs?	[ "Depending on where the town is located, that could be the law. It is also a point of civic pride. When the city I live in hit 100,000 people they made a big deal about it everywhere. It can also be helpful information for the traveling public. Town of 500, you'll be lucky they have a gas station. Town of 20,000, t...
How freezers work.	[ "There are two process to understand: \n\n* When there's something hotter than its surroundings it cools off. This pat should be quite intuitive.\n\n* When you compress a gas and/or force it to condense it gets hotter; when it expands and re-evaporates it gets cool. This is how sweat keeps you cool (evaporation)...
What is Abstract methods/classes in Programming languages.	[ "So it's related to inheritance so I'll start there.\n\nSo let's say you have a class, we'll call it \"animal\". Nothing is JUST an animal, we'll have a subclass for \"human\", \"monkey\" and \"turtle\" which inherit from animal. This is great because if there are things that we need to keep track of for all anim...
What is the sick and weird feeling you get after eating a lot of rich cookies/sweets?	[ "It's called cloy, it happens mainly with sweets but it can apply to other foods or activities that are pleasurable at first but you get sick of them. \n\nThe sweeter something is the sooner it cloys." ]
is the U.S actually thinking about taking in Syrian refugees?	[ "Nope they very much are.\n\nBack in September Secretary of State John Kerry announced a plan to take about 85k total from around the world in 2016, with another 100k in 2017. _URL_0_\n\nThe White House has also come out and said that the Paris attacks will not change the plans. The US has some MAJOR advantages whe...
In my basement I can hear the squeaky floor from the footsteps above, how can I know that my house wont just collapse? Why are the floors squeaky?	[ "You could [theoretically] remove all the floors in your home and it will not collapse. \n\nOver time, nails loosen. They are still in there doing their job, but get a bit of wiggle room over time. It's nothing to be alarmed about.", "Your upper floors typically have support through the frame of the house. They...
Why is water a liquid at room temperature, yet hydrogen and Oxygen, which are the elements water is made of, a gas at room temperature?	[ "Hydrogen and Oxygen are both positive, but oxygen is more positive. Therefore the oxygen atom in water holds onto the electrons most of the time. Because of this, the water molecule looks little bit like a magnet, with the oxygen side being more negative (as it holds onto more electrons) and the hydrogen side bein...
Why, in many/most US states, is the most populous city not the capital?	[ "Why does the largest city have to be the capital? \n\nThe capital is only the seat of the state government. In many cases, if the capital is located in a smaller city, it's cheaper to run the government is a smaller city than in a big city. \n\nThe best example here is New York State -- the capital is in Albany. I...
Why can't you see clearly underwater without goggles?	[ "Our eyes work by bending light so it focuses on our retina. The degree to which light bends is determined by the how fast light travels in both the medium we are looking through and our eyes. The greater the difference between these two numbers, the more the light bends. \n\nWhen we see things normally the light p...
Black American accent/dialect	[ "This is phenomenon that sociolinguistics describes as [Speech Communities](_URL_0_). here's a quick snippet from wikipedia.\n\n > Speech community is a concept in sociolinguistics that describes a distinct group of people who use language in a unique and mutually accepted way among themselves. This is sometimes r...
How bad is Machinima's contract?	[ "The pretty much come to channels that have like 300 subscribers and make them sign a 6 fucking year contract and the contract is pretty much: Hey for the small price of 60% of your revenue we are gonna sit around like you dont even exist.Oh you wanna leave now that you are a popular youtuber and want money?Too bad...
Professional gaming?	[ "Prize pool comes from whatever company sponsors a particular event. If it is LCS, for example, it comes from Riot (the company that created League of Legends). If it is IEM (Intel Extreme Masters), then it's Intel. Cloud9 and CLG aren't very big. Until very recently they were only involved in League of Legends, ab...
Why does Iceland still use patronymic names (eg Magnus Samuelsson = Magnus son of Samuel)? Does this not cause any bureaucratic difficulties?	[ "If your system is set up to process it that system is no more problematic than any other naming system.", "Iceland likes it this way--it is actually very restrictive about names, hoping to preserve traditional Icelandic naming customs. For example, it is not allowed to give children names that do not follow the ...
Why are the Destiny load screens so long even though it's saved to my hard drive?	[ "Some of the loading is also synchronising with the network. Which pulls in the players you have on your team any randomers in the area and any random events that happen on the map. \n\nNone of that is on the disc or your hard drive :)" ]
If a space elevator was built, would it get bent or flung out into space because of Earth's rotation?	[ "It can't be done with current materials. There isn't anything strong enough, that is light enough to use. As for the way it works, it would need a \"counter weight\" in a geosynchronous orbit. Meaning that it would be orbiting the earth in the same direction as the earth is spinning and at the same speed. This is ...
- Inflation. What causes it? How?	[ "Imagine you exchange lemonade in your stand for marbles. You think hard on how many marbles you will ask for a glass and you come up with 5. So any kid in the block can give you 5 marbles for a glass of lemonade. You keep this going for a while but later, you find out that lately, parents are starting to get their...
how does acupunture work	[ "Broadly speaking, there's actually no scientific reason to think that it works at all. In particular, the idea of 'energy meridians' has been thoroughly debunked over the years.\n\nThe best thing we can say about acupuncture right now is that there is a possibility that needle insertion might have some degr...
Why do hurricanes spin?	[ "It's due to the Coriolis force. Because the spherical geometry confuses things somewhat, imagine you are standing on a circular disk that is rotating clockwise. You are standing in the middle of this disk and you roll a ball towards the edge. What happens?\n\nThe ball will, of course, roll in a straight line. But ...
Why do they ship tagliatelle as birds nests instead of boxed like spaghetti	[ "Its a marketing tactic. The bird nest layout makes it sell a lot more because its visually appealing.", "Usually tagliatelle are a type of \"egg-pasta\". When they dry they are more brittle than wheat pasta. Traditionally the Tagliatelle were cut and then dried in that shape to store them better.", "Because th...
how do they do background checks on refugees?	[ "I saw a special on the issue yesterday. They ask them where they're from, if they have family with them, how much money they have, what was their job and where they plan on going. that's it. They simply don't have the resources to do background checks, too many people.", "when my parents fled from Iran to Ger...
How do school grades work in America? Bart Simpson is in fourth grade. What "class" is that?	[ "For most children, first grade starts when you are six years old. You progress one grade per year, graduating at eighteen in twelfth grade.", "-Preschool (optional): 4-5 years old\n-Kindergarten: 5-6 years old\n-Elementary school (grades 1-6): 5-6 years old to 11-12 years old\n-Junior high or middle school (usu...
how and why bread and other things go stale.	[ "[The wikipedia article actually explains it really well.](_URL_0_)\n\nFrom another perspective though, in regards to food safety, there are six things required for the growth of bacteria, which I learned as 'FATTOM' - Food, Acidity, Time, Temperature, Oxygen, and Moisture.\n\nAll of these variables in various amou...
What on Earth is punctuated Equilibrium? How does it work differently from natural selection	[ "Natural selection is a process by which adaptive evolution occurs: traits that increase the likelihood of reproductive success are propagated throughout a population of interbreeding organisms through time.\n\n[Punctuated equilibrium](_URL_0_) is a theory regarding the tempo of evolution. In short, it states that ...
What's the difference between wisdom and intelligence?	[ "“Knowledge (intelligence) is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.”\n\n― Miles Kington", "Intelligence is a measure of our ability to learn concepts and make observations about our physical environment.\n\nWisdom is one's capacity to make the right decisions based on past e...
What software do game developers use to put maps together?	[ "They make their own most of the time. There are way too many to list, so I'm going to list the 2 most popular ones (going to skip the ones from UE and Unity):\n- Radiant: used in every single id Tech 3+ game and games based on that engine (the most popular one being of course, Call of Duty)\n- Hammer: originated f...
Why are sage and salt used to keep "bad spirits" out?	[ "Centuries old connotations derived from folk lore and religion. \n\nSalt is used to purify and preserve food, so it is seen to do the same in a spiritual manner. Thus you can purify an area with the ritualistic casting of salt in some belief systems, and impure things (such as ghosts) cannot cross a boundary line ...
How does a horror movie scare everyone in general, when each people are afraid of different things?	[ "> Not everyone is scared of ghosts or zombies\n\nYou're right. And the people who aren't scared of zombies don't feel (as much) horror from them as people who are terrified of zombies.\n\nBut everyone is afraid of being eaten alive - or worse, being bitten and then slowly losing control of themselves and *beco...
Why do humans float on water?	[ "The amount of water your body displaces weighs more than your body therefor you float. Essentially a human body is less dense than water" ]
(I know little about business.) What would have to happen for a massive and remarkably popular company like Starbucks or McDonald's to ever go out of business?	[ "These companies are so large and resilient they probably would never go out of business unless something completely revolutionary appeared on the market that ended the need for what they provided. These corporations are deadly efficient and extremely resilient, often able to take huge losses in customers and reven...
Why is meth commonly portrayed as a white drug, and crack is portrayed as a black drug? Is there any truth to those portrayals?	[ "If you're poor, crack is an alternative to freebase if you're interested in smoking cocaine. It can be purchased cheaply in small quantities and gives an instant and noticeable high. As a cocaine derivative, it is only practical in a drug market that is connected to overseas distribution (i.e. urban areas). So ...
So what's actually happening when a body part falls asleep and why can pressure sometimes speed it up?	[ "We learned about thin in my AP Psych class months ago, so I may be able to answer your question to a certain extent. When your leg \"falls asleep\", what is actually happening is that your brain is losing connection with your leg. The nerves from your leg stop sending signals to your brain. Your brain basically g...
Why doesnt the glue get stuck in the bottle/gluestick but comes hardens in minutes when it leaves the bottle/stick	[ "Many products actually rely on oxygen to activate. You know how some glues require you to mix two different chemicals? Normal glues actually rely on the oxygen in the air to set off a chemical reaction. \n\nSome Glues, like wood glue, actually just work by letting water evaporate. If you soak them in water, they l...
If unhealthy food is bad for us, why does it taste so good?	[ "Because it isn't fundamentally bad for you; it isn't poison. You need fats and sugars and so forth to survive. We evolved when such things were scarce and hard to come by, so they taste delicious to encourage us to eat them when we can. Now, though, such things are laughably cheap and abundant, so we gorge ourselv...
How OJ Simpson was able to be proven not guilty	[ "He was not \"proven not guilty\", he was \"not proven guilty\". Big difference.\n\nThen again, he lost in civil court.", "One of the lead detectives on the case said afterward \"We framed a guilty man.\" Police misconduct became the focal point of the proceedings. OJ's defense was able to make the case about a...
Sigmoid function	[ "A sigmoid function is simply an s-shaped function (\"sigmoid\" = \"sigm(a)-oid\" = \"s-oid\" = \"s-shaped\"). Such a curve describes the time evolution of any process that has some kind of built-in limit (more generally known as logistic growth). Examples include the growth of a biological population (of bacteri...
Einstein field equations	[ "Start with the simplest form of it. [here](_URL_1_).\n\nT_ab_ is the stress-energy tensor. It contains things like energy, momentum, and pressure.\n\nG_ab_ is the Einstein tensor. It's related to the curvature of spacetime.\n\n8piG/c^(4) is just a unit conversion factor; you can choose to use units where this ...
how do ships "suck" water away from coastlines?	[ "The ship displaces a lot of water. It pushes a lot of water higher in front of it. It has a 'hole' in the water behind it. In this case the ship first pushed a lot of extra water into that cove when it approached, then the water rushed in behind the ship to fill the 'hole'.\n\nWhen the water went to go fill in ...
How do they actually figure out the nutrition values in food, such as calories, carbs, cholesterol.. Etc?	[ "Nobody has really answered this question yet. I am a food scientist and work at a large food company and we have a certified analytical lab that does testing on food samples.\nTo get the fat% for instance, one popular method is to boil a sample of the food in a non-polar compound like ether. Since fat is also non-...
Why do some people snort when they laugh?	[ "Tensing the muscles in their throat/nasal cavity and causing them to vibrate as the air tries getting to their lungs." ]
Why do anxiety sufferers feel so many physical symptoms? Does anxiety cause them or are our bodies so sensitive we feel every physical sensations "normal people" don't?	[ "Anxiety sufferer here. When I get my episodes I get light headed, I feel very faint, nauseous, trapped, cold sweats and tingling at the tips of my fingers. I think it's my body reacting to something that's not there, it goes into panic mode even when I'm having a great time, it's kind of ruined some portions of my...
How does a seemingly unscripted show create cutscenes?	[ "When you say cutscenes, do you mean like how they switch from the action of a guy chopping salad, to the same guy in a chair going \"I felt terrible when I messed up the salad\"?\n\nThose are recorded after actual show's events complete, they sit down and ask the person TONNNNNS of questions, so they have lots of ...
Why can't veterans be automatically enrolled in obamacare and seen at local hospitals?	[ "Obamacare is not a health insurance plan or provider. Obamacare refers to the [Affordable Care Act](_URL_0_) and puts forth guidelines by which insurance companies must comply by force of law. Your question therefore makes no sense at all. It would be like asking \"Why can't I buy a speed limit to drive around ...
How people can be spiritual and not religious.	[ "It's like being able to believe in something bigger than yourself, without all the crazy garbage that comes along with it. A belief in 'god' without necessarily believing in a burning bush or walking on water, being spiritual is having a general faith without having all the craziness about the religion dictated an...
why do you have to jailbreak a smartphone to remove bloatware?	[ "They load it on as part of the OS so it's not removable. It's like how you aren't allowed to uninstall the default keyboard.\n\n If they just put on some default apps using the app store they'd be removable the standard way but some organizations go out of their way to be a bother with their bloatware.\n\nSomeone ...
How do eye tests work? What does all the dots, that machine + lenses and the other stuff do?	[ "Hey Hey! Certified Ophthalmic Assistant here!\n\nLet's break it down, \nSnellen eye chart: the test where you start with the big E and read down to the smallest line of letters you can. The smaller the line, the smaller the corresponding number. The big E is the 20/400 line and one of the smallest lines would be t...
What happens when you call the national suicide prevention hotline?	[ "They talk to you, mostly. They’re trained to assess your situation to see if you’re actively suicidal, depressed, or just lonely. Depending on how suicidal they judge you to be, they’re able to contact law enforcement in your area and possibly take you into protective custody (Baker acting I believe it’s called). ...
Why would paramedics actively try to resuscitate someone who's dead?	[ "Sorry for your loss, mate.\n\nHollywood, as usual, has it wrong when they use a defibrillator on someone who has no pulse. A defibrillator actually resets a heart that is pulsing erratically. If there is no pulse, the defibrillator just damages the heart unnecessarily - it can't restart it.\n\nHowever, hearts ca...

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