Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
What is the theoretical explanation for why planets/moons are always nearly perfect spheres?	[ "Because a large enough mass of rock under gravity will deform like a plastic. In essence, the material flows, because the weight of it is so great. When it flows, it attempts to flow to the most conservative potential state, a sphere. That's the 'ideal' shape where, if you think about it, there's no \"Downhill\" f...
How is it that our brain knows to make a "face" based upon your emotion?	[ "There are a few aspects your question could be alluding to. From an evolutionary perspective, to cultural to just pure mechanics of creating a facial expression. \n\nFor the main part, we just do it subconsciously. The reason we can't help but look sad when we hear bad news. Or not laugh when something hilarious c...
Why does 60 degrees feel cold when I'm inside but pleasant when I'm outside?	[ "The sun provides a great deal of heat if you are outside. The light rays may not heat the air much because air is not dense but if it hits you, your body will feel warmer than being inside.\n\nAside from the sun, when you are outside, you are usually not staying still. Moving around generates more body heat than s...
why do wheels appear to spin in reverse when filmed?	[ "Imagine there's a tire, and you've got a red dot on the side of the tire. You take a picture of the tire, then turn it forward, but not quite a full rotation. You take another picture, but the dot is is now slightly behind where it was in the first picture. Now repeat this multiple times. If you then showed someon...
Why do certain foods and beverages taste better or worse at specific temperature ranges?	[ "In part, the sense of smell plays a big part in taste. Flavor in food is typically comprised of a multitude of flavor and fragrance compounds. Examples: Vanillin, eugenol, thymol, etc.\n\nA lot of these compounds are \"volatile\" compounds, which means (more or less) that at certain temperatures they will evaporat...
How did we end up with taste buds that find things that are "bad" for us better tasting?	[ "I assume you're talking about sugar and fat? These are only 'bad' for us because they're so readily accessible. We can eat as much sugar and fat as we want and there's nothing to stop or limit us.\n\nIf you consider how we evolved, though, neither sugar nor fat were plentiful. Sugar required you to find and pic...
how thunderstorms form	[ "There are two requirements for thunderstorms to form:\n\n- Moist, humid air. This is obvious - you need moisture in the air to form big clouds.\n\n- Unstable air. That means that, as you go higher and higher, the air gets colder and colder very quickly.\n\nOnce you have those two things, you need a trigger to make...
Why autism links to males 1/52 times but to females 1/352 times.	[ "My guess? Because we are bad at recognizing autism in females. The symptoms are slightly different. Just like how there are more autistic kids today than there were 20 years ago. Its not that there is more autism, we are just better at diagnosing it. In 20 years, female diagnoses will catch up. We'll see more and...
What is that falling feeling that you suddenly wake up too when you are sleeping?	[ "It's called a hypnic jerk or \"sleep start\" it's the result of a mechanism of the brain that is engaged during sleep. The motor cortex of the brain basically goes offline for conscious movement, IE we are paralyzed while sleeping. This is to prevent a person from dreaming they were running, and actually running a...
How do wooden roller coasters not fall apart?	[ "If a plank is rotten, then you remove it and replace it with another plank. The structural integrity of the roller coaster is maintained because the wood that sustains it is continually being upgraded.\n\nThe original roller coaster doesn't exist because each of it's component parts has been replaced piece by piec...
why do we shake hands?	[ "It is a ritual show of nonaggression. \n\nIf I offer you my right hand, you can be pretty sure there isn't a weapon in it.", "Started as the mutual hand on the other's forearm gesture you see in movies set in the middle ages. Hand on their lower sleeve allowed you to confirm they had \"nothing up their sleeve\...
Is it possible for someone to never learn to walk?	[ "Yes, someone could be disabled at birth in a way that makes the person unable to walk (due to an individual birth defect or injury). There have even been inheritable disorders that result in an inability to walk in families, although this is rare. _URL_0_", "Barring a disability, I don't think it's possible unle...
Why do certain foods (i.e. vanilla extract) smell so sweet yet taste so bitter even though our smell and taste senses are so closely intertwined?	[ "Certain things are not in fact sweet, but are highly associated with \"sweet\" in our culture - and thus when we smell them, we smell \"sweet.\"\n\nVanilla, cocoa, cinnamon are great examples: not one of these is sweet. Put them on your tongue and they're all bitter. Put them under your nose: do you smell sugar?\n...
Why does everything sometimes look yellow outside after a thunderstorm?	[ "> > > Most thunderstorms occur in the late afternoon. By this time of day, the sun is beginning to set. The orange hue is caused by the same process that causes the vivid colors at sunsets. Shorter wavelengths of light (blue) are scattered quickly, leaving only the yellow-orange-red end of the spectrum.\n\n_URL...
Why is paint stripper called "aircraft remover"?	[ "It's supposed to indicate that it will remove very, very tough pain jobs, like the kind you'd find on an aircraft." ]
If anti cheat programs look through your computer to look for cheating tools, could they potentially also look for other "illegal" stuff and give it to a third party or to the police?	[ "well, the simple answer is that if you install software onto your computer, it could do whatever the hell the programmers/developers want it to do, whether they make you aware of it or not. And if it could do that, it'd be described in the vaguest of language in the software's End User License Agreement (EULA).\n\...
What exactly is the InstallShield shielding me from?	[ "Generally open windows that run commands. You'd see things like DOS prompt windows open and close, open and close, with file copy output flying past." ]
Why do we have to press ctrl + alt + del to log into a locked Windows account?	[ "The Ctrl + Alt + Del key combination is known as the [Secure Attention Sequence](_URL_0_) on Windows. This is not overridable by software outside the operating system. Pressing the SAS means you are guaranteed to get a response from the operating system, not from some other software.\n\nThis is important because...
Why do hurricanes never hit South America?	[ "_URL_0_\n\nIt is more than 2-3. But it is somewhat protected due to the structure of the various major wind streams and ocean currents which will drive storms north most of the time. This protection means it will have fewer major storms.", "South America gets about one tropical storm a year, the most recent was ...
What happens to elders whose family refuses to take care of them?	[ "Stay tuned: Millions of Americans are about to find out. This is not a joke. And it doesn't happen only to those whose families turn away. See [here](_URL_0_) and [here](_URL_1_).", "That depends on what country they're in. But, generally, they will live a life of poverty if they don't have their own resources a...
How does cooking some foods make them more nutritious?	[ "A lot of the time food contains chemicals composed of things we can't use that we don't have the tools to break down. Cooking can sometimes help by breaking up these structures into their constituent parts that our bodies can deal with." ]
What is that sinking feeling you get as you come to grips with the reality of the passing of someone you were close to?	[ "Fear.. the instinctual reaction to a threat/change to your current life and environment. That person is gone and you fear how your life will be different since this reality is new and unknown.", "I depends on the person and your relationship.\n\nI think it could be cause be relief of the passing of someone in pa...
Why Can Pressure Freeze Water?	[ "The water was below freezing but the ice crystals had nothing to start to form around. When you opened the bottle, the pressure change caused bubbles of CO2 to come out of solution. Those bubbles provided nucleation points for ice crystals to form around.\n\nEdit: Clarification in response to reply." ]
If we discover life on other planets, what explanation will be given by various religions?	[ "It's like when scientists first worked out that the sun doesn't orbit the earth. Some religious authorities saw this as heresy but now they don't because the bible doesn't actually say that the earth was the centre of the solar system, or the universe. In the same way the bible never says earth is the only place w...
What purpose does imagination serve? Do other animals have imaginations?	[ "The imagination is likely the result of the ability to think abstractly and predict possible future events. Other animals have this capacity; for example dogs can predict the possibility of a treat, or anticipate their master's anger when they misbehave. Fantastical imagination is just the result of using such a s...
Why do energy companies want us to save energy? Isn't that the product they are selling?	[ "Say you have a bucket of water and a few friends who all want a glass of water. You charge your friends $0.10 per glass because one bucket is pretty easy to bring. At first everyone can take as much as they want because there's plenty in the bucket. As more and more people show up who want water you have to go buy...
Why are freight train engines no longer streamlined?	[ "The amount of fuel efficiency lost from a slow-moving freight train having flat windows is minimal and probably barely offsets the savings of a cheaper construction process." ]
if a teenager can be charged with child pornography for having nudes of himself, why haven't people be charged with flashing for sending unsolicited dick picks?	[ "The only reason kids have been charged for having their own nudes is over zealous courts. The dick pics, in the other hand, are probably harassment or indecent exposure, but they're either much harder to prosecute (because the people are anonymous) or deemed nosy worth the time it would take to actually build a ca...
Why, after being out in the freezing cold for a long time, does it hurt to put your hands in warm water?	[ "When your hands are very cold, your veins constrict and push more blood toward your core to keep the more important organs (heart, lungs, etc.) functioning.\n\nWhen you expose them to something much warmer (like hot water, heater or fire) your veins dilate and blood rushes back in. This rapid change in temperature...
How is censorship legal if Freedom of Speech exists?	[ "If you're talking about freedom of speech in the US, you might start by taking a look at [restrictions on the first amendment](_URL_0_) in the U.S. What the bill of rights actually says is:\n\n > Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech...\n\nThis has been generalized to include the federal g...
Why does my brain think really hot water is cold sometimes?	[ "The nerves in your skin that detect temperature only measure the change in temperature and not whether it is cold or hot. Context and other variables tell your brain if it is cold or not but sometimes the brain still gets confused and sends you the wrong signal." ]
LI5: Can someone explain what's allegedly happened with Murdoch's phone hacking scandal, and why it's so important?	[ "Police were investigating a girl's murder. One small detail of the case was that her family insisted she was still alive (possibly run away, kidnapped, whatever) because phone records showed her voice mail was still being remotely checked regularly and some messages were even deleted.\n\nIt turns out a News of the...
Why do light switches sometimes turn outlets on and off?	[ "They've been intentionally wired that way, to allow you to control plugged-in devices by using the light switch. This is useful for devices that you would want to turn on or off frequently. For instance, lamps, so that you can turn off the lights with a light switch." ]
Is there a psychological reason why a lot of people treat employees like crap in retail?	[ "Yes, there is a reason. It's not so much retail in general as it is the specific type of retail. I don't have facts or statistics for this but I would be willing to bet the lower-priced a retail store is the more rude those customers might be. \n\nWhen people are shopping they might be frustrated they can't fin...
How did Queen / Freddy Mercury becomes so beloved and popular in an era when open homophobia was socially acceptable?	[ "Homophobia became way more socially acceptable when AIDS came around. When queen was big glam was in, think David Bowie and Roxy music" ]
why does some website in some countries still can be accessed after it has been blocked? Does that coutry need something to hold the 'door' everytime or that site found another way in?	[ "Nice try North Korea, can't fool us...\n\nBut seriously blocking a country from calling a website is like trying to block an entire country from making a phone call to Howard Stern. Howard can have a set up where a hundred phone numbers from a hundred different cities are redirected to him. Or he can have a mill...
Why does my radio stop playing when I start using my electric beater?	[ "The motor is giving off a lot of electrical interference that is drowning out the radio signal." ]
when sleep talking/walking what's going on in my brain?	[ "When you sleep, chemicals in your brain are distributed to temporarily paralyze your body. Perhaps your brain doesn't produce quite enough of those chemicals and the sleep talking happens in correlation to your dreams. \n\nDon't quote me, I'm kind of guessing from information I've heard in the past." ]
Why is an urge to pee so common when you have nerves before a big event?	[ "Ever heard of the fight-or-flight response? When you are looking down the throat of a hungry tiger, your body instinctively goes into red alert. You need to run, so your muscles get a boost, as do your heart and lungs to supply oxygen. On the other hand, everything not immediately necessary gets cast aside. That i...
Why do torrent sites, like Kickass torrents, have to change their URL?	[ "Because, sometimes governments have the power to force, or at least pressure DNS providers to not give a domain to a certain entity. That's why these torrent sites are often registered in Sweden (.se), Tuvalu (.tv) Cuba(.cu) and Tonga (.to)." ]
Why are certain major conflicts ignored almost entirely? For example I know basically nothing about the Korean War, America's involvement in Bosnia or Panama. Was it because of no economic significance?	[ "Korea didn't get a lot of scholarship because by 1973 (when historians would have started working on it) there were so many other issues and events to write about. WW2 scholarship was really just hitting it's stride in the late 60s and early 70s.\n\nKorea ending in a ceasefire without a really resolution makes it ...
Why do Westerners like being tan while Asians prefer being pale?	[ "Beauty has several societal factors. One of the biggest that can be seen across diverse cultures is what the powerful/rich do. For a long time in Western history, being pale was considered beautiful. Why? Because it meant you didn't work in the fields. If you didn't work in the fields, you had money (or in those t...
The difference between Prime Ministers and Presidents	[ "While this is not true in all cases, the general distinction is:\n\nPresidents are elected directly (or in the US \"directly\") by the people for the specific position of President. \n\nPrime Ministers are elected as members of parliament by their constituents, then selected by the members in their own par...
How are we able to tell the difference between fake nice and genuine nice?	[ "As far as non-verbal cues, humans are embedded with a list of involuntary \"tells\".... For a single example, a genuine smile will cause crinkling of the cheeks and around the eyes, where a faked smile won't usually do so. \nThere are also tonal differences. Faked niceness seems to almost always feature drawn out ...
Why exactly is Netflix opposing the Comcast/TWC merger?	[ "Because Comcast is known to throttle streaming services (they limit how fast your connection is artificially) which is how Netflix makes most of their money nowadays. Add in the fact that almost every city in the US has Comcast or TWC and nothing else for cable services, that means that Most cities will now not b...
If the story of Solar activity falling to 60% in 2030s, to 'mini ice age' levels, comes true, what will we see change in our everyday lives? (link in comments)	[ "Whey say \"solar activity\" they're essentially talking about the number of sun spots, not the brightness of the sun. If the sun did suddenly reduce its radiation output to 60% of current levels then that would be a massive disaster. The changes under discussion, if they actually happened, would probably red...
Why it feels so good to scratch rashes, poison ivy, bug bites, etc. if it is not a good thing to do.	[ "There is a natural small release of \"good feeling\" chemicals in the brain when you scratch anything. This came about through evolution. If you have a mite or dangerous parasite your itching will kill it or at least it is worth a shot is what your brain tells you.\nThis is my understanding as a five year old not ...
Why can't old but good instruments (like Stradivariuses or Selmer Mk VIs) be recreated using modern tech?	[ "The Stradivarius thing is a myth. People who claim to be able to identify one by sound, can't. And when blinded, have been known to pick modern instruments over them for sound quality. I don't know much about the MK VI, but I would expect it's the same.", "There are [modern violins](_URL_1_) that are [just as go...
How does one gallon of gasoline emit around 20lbs of CO2?	[ "Yes, there's that much oxygen being taken into the reaction. Every 1 atom of carbon takes in 2 atoms of oxygen, and oxygen weighs about 4/3 as much as carbon.", "If you started with 12 lbs. of carbon and burned it completely, you would wind up with 44 lbs., nearly 4 times as much.\n\nA gallon of gas is 6.2 lbs.,...
How is the Earth running out of water?	[ "The concern is that we're running out of water that is usable for drinking and irrigation in places where people live. You're right that only a small amount of water leaves Earth and it's largely a closed system. What we're doing is pulling clean groundwater out of aquifers, using it, and putting it in the atmosph...
How does a Venus flytrap work?	[ "It responds to stimulation of hairs inside its trap, which causes it to close (the signal is transmitted via an action potential, similar to nerves in animals). This step can be triggered by any direct contact. I used to have one in a pot that you could poke with a stick & cause it to snap shut. [Here's a gif of...
Why does the military care if you have an undescended testicle?	[ "Total guess here, but probably because at some stage soon you will need it bringing down surgically. They probably want you getting it sorted before enlisting in order to avoid paid downtime." ]
What proof or facts of global warming is out there?	[ "It's important to note that the argument is not (anymore) about whether or not global warming is real. The Earth has measurably grown warmer by at least half a degree Celsius since 1980. Wikipedia has a good basic discussion.\n\nThe goalposts in the last decade or so have been moved to ask whether or not global wa...
Why are there a finite number of musical notes?	[ "There isn't a finite number. As long as you can divide by 2, you can always make another note.\nWestern culture chose to standardize musical notation with 12 semi-tones.\nDo a search on microtones or microtonal fretboards. Wild stuff." ]
How come the NSA bugging the UN HQ and hacking UN computers hasn't started a massive "shit storm"?	[ "Diplomats in the UN have conducted business under the assumption that the location they are at have been bugged for decades. While it certainly angers them when it comes out directly who is doing what it isn't that large of a surprise.", "Likely because every government on earth has assumed as much for decades, ...
How did they double the life expectancy of people with Down's Syndrome over the past few decades?	[ "My uncle has DS and he's still going strong at 59, having led an amazingly full life. For his fiftieth birthday, he went to Liverpool football stadium and got to lift the European trophy!\n\nAs far as I know, he hasn't had serious medical intervention, at least not in the past twenty years, and he's got by with de...
If Japan knew that it could not win a protracted war with the US, why did they attack in WWII?	[ "They didn't think the war would be protracted. By crippling the Pacific Fleet, they bought time to fortify their positions. They figured that the cost to retake the lost territory would be too high for the Americans to stomach. \n\nAs for why they attacked at all, Japan was between a rock and a hard place. The US ...
Why is it that when we're drunk and we close our eyes to sleep, it sometimes feels like the world is spinning around us or we're on some sort of fairground ride?	[ "Basically there's a level in your ear that's calibrated to your specific blood density, but alcohol thins it out which makes that thing go off more easily. It's also why inner ear infections and hearing issues can give people vertigo.", "Is there an easy way to get rid of the spins that isn’t common knowledge?" ...
What happens when a ski lift breaks down? How does everyone get off safely?	[ "Well when it happened to me, we just sat there annoyed until it was fixed. But a ski lift is essentially a giant conveyor belt, so there's probably a way to rotate it mechanically without power." ]
Why are the cancers rates in the NE so high?	[ "There are only < 600 cases of cancer per state, per year?" ]
If all our cells renew themselves every 7 years, why do we appear to age over time?	[ "Because the regrowth is not perfect, the body also needs to grow until its twenties, and because wrinkles are not affected by replacement. A wrinkle is like if you squished a cloth a bunch of times, it would have wrinkles and replacing all the individual threads of the cloth would NOT make the wrinkle go away, bec...
Why do Dogs have a much shorter life expectancy than humans?	[ "Why Humans Live Longer Than Dogs\n\nBeing a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog's owners, Ron, his wife, Lisa, and their little boy, Shane, were all very attached \nto Belker and they were hoping for a miracle. I examined Belker and found he was dying of ...
The philosphical point of life	[ "It is your task to design a life of your choice and complete it to the best of your ability." ]
How is Judaism a religion and at the same time being a Jew, a race?	[ "Judaism isn’t big on converting non-Jewish people, so the religion never really branched out beyond the ethnic group that started it. For the most part the only people who are Jewish are so because their parents were Jewish and so on and so forth, leaving most Jews being of one common ethnicity. \n\nAdditionally, ...
Can windfarms strategically placed in the middle of the USA stop tornadoes?	[ "That is like asking if we put enough pennies on a railway track, could we stop a runaway train or if man had a harry enough chest, could it stop a bullet. There is so much energy in the weather system that anything we have or currently can do would barley be measurable if at all.\n\nShort answer, No.\n\nLong answe...
how can some people function normally while needing substantially less sleep than other people?	[ "This is something that is still debated. First, some people insist they only need 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night and then survive off sugar and coffee to stay awake. Very few people can actually do this healthily, but some can. Scientists have linked a gene to most of the people who survive on extremely little slee...
Being fluent in more than one language, why sometimes you can't remember a word in your native language, but know it in the other(s)?	[ "Imagine a bunch of boxes. Each box is a concept, not the thing itself or the word, but the idea of the thing. When you learn words, you put them into the corresponding boxes. The word \"tree\" goes into the box for the concept of a plant with a stem and leaves, the word \"mother\" goes into the box for the cincept...
Why do companies say "no purchase necessary" when they run contests?	[ "So, in some parts of the United States, contests that require you to purchase something are considered a lottery, and lotteries are legally only allowed to be handled by the state. As such, they need to make it not a lottery, by allowing people to enter by sending a letter to the company instead of buying somethin...
What happens when both litigants in a lawsuit generally use the same lawyer or firm?	[ "A single firm can't agree to represent both litigants in a lawsuit. When the second person tries to hire them, they have to say \"sorry, there's a conflict of interests, you need to find another firm\".", "As NOT a lawyer, that's conflict of interest and they wouldn't be able to handle both cases.\n\nThere was a...
why does massaging muscles feel good? Arent you just dumping toxins/lactic acid back into the blood stream? Shouldn't it feel worse?	[ "Messages increase blood flow. The acid that was stuck in the muscle gets into your blood and are picked up by kidneys which in turn gets the acids into your urine.", "Muscles require more energy to relax than to contract (see: [crash course bio video on muscles](_URL_0_)), which is why after death, muscles tense...
How is comet Oumuamua (C/2017 U1) able to come closer to the sun than most of the planets in our solar system, and escape without going into solar orbit?	[ "It's going fast enough -- higher than escape velocity -- for its momentum to overpower gravity's pull.", "It boils down to the fact that the asteroid has a high velocity relative to the sun. \n\nImagine that you have a trampoline with a bowling ball on it. If you roll a baseball slowly on the trampoline, it ...
Why does sleeping help you get better when you are sick?	[ "When you are sleeping your body is able to put all it's energy into repairing you and healing in any manner. Including fighting stuff off." ]
How come when power resetting electronic devices such as a cable box or router, you are instructed to unplug the power and wait about fifteen seconds? why is the wait necessary?	[ "Inside electronic devices there are things caused \"capacitors.\" These devices take in the electricity and help make sure that it is released to the device at a steady stream. Fluctuating power is bad for sensitive electronics. When you pull the plug, or turn the device off, you are giving the capacitor time to e...
If you drop a bowling ball off the skyscraper and it hits the ground with a lot of energy and destroys someone's car, where did the energy come from?	[ "When you hefted the bowling ball up the fifteen flights of stairs, you converted chemical potential energy (muscles) into kinetic energy (movement. In this case, up the stairs.) and this gives the bowling ball gravitational potential energy. The extra energy you had to spend lugging the bowling ball is then conver...
The Beatles (John, Paul, George) began by playing guitar and bass. Later songs have John and Paul on piano. Who taught them?	[ "Pauls dad played piano while he was growing up so he picked up some stuff from him. He also took piano lessons in the early 60's. John probably just picked it up over the years, once you know one instrument its a lot easier to learn another especially piano. You can make it sound good without mastering it" ]
Why is cell phone service non-existent in basements or certain buildings?	[ "Concrete can block cellphone signals. It is thick/dense enough to stop cell phone frequency waves from passing through it." ]
How is Zionism antithetical to Judaism?	[ "Some Jews believe that the Jews are not allowed to have a homeland in Israel until the Messiah comes. This is the reason Jews don't believe Christ was the Messiah. The Messiah was supposed to establish a kingdom for the Jews to live in peace and prosperity. But Jesus didn't do that, so they're like \"he couldn't h...
ELI 5: How does reddit's voting algorithm work?	[ "To explain it like you're actually 5.\n\nThe posts on the frontpage is shown in order of newest to oldest, however each upvote makes it so a post is treated as newer by a certain amount, which is less and less for each upvote.\n\nA downvote is pretty much exactly the opposite of an upvote." ]
why are urinals not shaped to prevent splashback?	[ "There are lots of options available that were designed to prevent splash back, they naturally cost more than those that weren't. Because the guy that pays to construct the building doesn't give a crap about your shoes, he buys the cheap ones and places them uncomfortably close to one another. \n\nThis toilet has ...
the movie Primer (SPOILERS)	[ "Everything after your #1 is pretty far off the mark.\n\nThey didn't make money from sports betting. They made money from the stock market. Every afternoon they checked the closing prices of different stocks and looked for one that gained a lot of value over the day, but that traded in very large volume. Then they ...
Why can't we send radioactive waste into space?	[ "It is really expensive, and the risk of failure a bit too high. Rocket blows up in our atmosphere, radioactive waste everywhere!", "My guest would be either ethics or the cost to accelerate things out of orbit." ]
How do graveyards make money or sustain themselves after they are full?	[ "It's pretty complicated and gross. Graves are turned over in some countries. After around 100 years, grave sites lower caskets and bury new bodies over them. In some countries rights are perpetual. \n\n_URL_0_" ]
How do websites use images or trailers of movies in their articles and reviews if it infringes on copywrite laws?	[ "[Fair use](_URL_0_) allows for using copywritten material for \"transformative\" use. The extent of transformative is debated but generally includes things like parody and criticism (reviews) without having to ask permission from whomever holds the copyright. It doesn't allow you to use the entire work, just parts...
is hearing the last sense a human has before dying?	[ "We don't have clear data on this since it's impossible to interview dead people. For example they may or may not keep a sense of touch, or of internal body sensations, slightly longer." ]
Who decided that the birth of Christ would be "year 0"? Also, why do everyone say "year 0" when there actually is no such thing in the common calendar?	[ "It was decided by a monk who came up with the idea:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nPeople tend to measure time passed by how much time happened since an important event. The monk picked the birth of Christ because he was religious and he wanted to replace the previous chosen event because it reminded Christians of a person who per...
Why was Richard Nixon pardoned?	[ "To put it very simply, president Ford said he wanted to put \"this long national nightmare behind us\" by pardoning Nixon. Basically he didn't want the country to get bogged down in all the trials and endless continuing investigations into Nixon and staff post-WH. \nHowever, many Americans wanted to see Nixon and ...
Why is the spine arched (in the lumbar area) instead of just being straight?	[ "Rigid things crack and break under repeated impact. Flexible things bend, absorb, and stay intact. The bends in your spine work the same way as rubber tires on a car or the shock absorbers on bumps in the road when you're driving. If you had solid wheels and no shock absorbers then your car would absorb all the sh...
Why is being a lawyer drastically different from other professions?	[ "It's not really unique -- doctors of all sorts have to go through a similar process. Basically what it comes down to is that they are jobs that require a great amount of trust from the customers -- doctors and lawyers are both in a position to really fuck over their customers without them realizing it. They go...
What is the importance of the 'Closed Circuit' part of Closed Circuit TV?	[ "It means that the data/stream is kept internally in the system. If the internet goes down, you don't lose your connection, it doesn't require a wireless system that could be interfered with, and hacking requires physically wiring into the system or direct access to the controlling computer.", "It's not really a...
Cable TV speed vs. internet video	[ "TV channels are like giving a speech to everyone. You talk once, and everyone hears the same thing. This is broadcast. The system is designed to send the same channels to everyone, at the same time, all the time. Your cable box just has to \"listen.\" Internet videos today are like you talking to each person i...
How come I can buy a carton of beer for $30 which has 24 glass bottles in it... Yet if I buy 4 wine glasses (which doesn't even come with wine) it costs over $30??	[ "The quality of the glass is different, but more importantly the size of the prodction line, the ease with which you transport a case of beer compared to fragile goods like wine glasses, and you are missing intellectual property rights. Typically, all beer bottles look basically the same and no \"real\" cost has to...
Why is programming still done using text commands? Everything else switched to GUI's!	[ "There are some graphical software development tools, or flow charts for scripting, but they are usually used for learning or beginners. The GUIs you're referring themselves are powered by back-end code written in raw text.\n\nWriting code is very similar to speaking any other language. Trying to write a program wi...
how does a single house far in the mountain region or forest get electricity or sewer management	[ "They don't mostly. Depends how rural they are, in the US they mostly do run electricity out to those rural houses. Not always though, many people who actually live that far our just use generators.\n\nAs for sewers and water, they have wells and a septic system. My old house had those and my Mom's does too, it's n...
Why was James Holmes, the 'Dark Night' movie shooter, declared 'mentally ill' and not 'legally insane' in court ?	[ "Insanity is a legal term, not a psychological term.\n\nInsanity is simply an inability to distinguish between right and wrong and an inability to function within our society as a result of mental complications. If a killer (Holmes, Bundy, Dalmer etc..) knows they shouldn't kill but do it anyway, they understand th...
In chain department stores, what happens to all the fancy promotional sculptural displays when the sale is over?	[ "you might. a lot of that stuff get trashed." ]
Why does everyone use danish cookie containers as sewing containers?	[ "Yeah man, it starts with old ladies being the least wasteful people you will meet. So, they get these old lady cookies from other little old ladies in their social group- then reuse it for sewing stuff since the lid is just the perfect height for the thread spools. The small ones stand upright and the big spools...
In zombie movies, the survivors are often left without any electricity (aside from generators), why is this? Do power companies require constant attention to continue functioning? Why don't they continue powering the city?	[ "I work for a utility. Coal plants have a stockpile of coal on hand and receive constant new supplies. If no one is manning them though, they'll stop running pretty quick. If trains stop coming they'll stop running in a matter of days.\n\nSame with Natural Gas.\n\nNuclear could possibly run without human int...
Why do imgur gif's have to slowly load the entire gif while playing, when sites like gfycat can load before playing?	[ "The GIF format was originally designed for looping animation. It's not very good for videos; the normal video compression excludes a lot of information that is redundant between frames, but the GIF format can't do this. So GIF files used to show a video are excessively large and take a long time to load.\n\nGyfcat...
Watts, volts, and amps.	[ "Sorry, but this one is one of the more frequently asked questions here. I highly recommend using the search bar to answer this one. It is being removed for that reason." ]
Why does reddit some times hide the scores of comments?	[ "It prevents groupthink. We have a natural tendency to agree with our peers and are impressed by early success. \n\nIf you see three comments all at +1 and then one comment at +3, you may subconsciously think \"the one at +3 must have more merit since it's higher\", so you're more likely to upvote it yourself. Hidi...

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