Split (3)

train · 273k rows

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Why don't car manufacturers make windshields coated with hydrophobic surfaces so that water rushes off and leaves it dry instead of windshield wipers?	[ "To my knowledge, there are no optically clear hydrophobic coatings. additionally, they may not leave the windshield as clear as you might hope to. and it would likely wear off with the constant sandblasting of highway dust.\n\ncant wipe away snow, cant use washer fluid.\n\nall that aside, good luck convincing th...
Why do the Japanese, who are known for having a conservative culture, seem to have such outlandish media?	[ "Living in a rather stiff culture often drives those who decide to break out do so with gusto.", "A couple of reasons: One, They had a pretty much isolated culture for all of their history, but then WW2 happened and America jammed ourselves straight into their ports and refused to leave, causing all sorts of our ...
Why we need people to represent us in the government when we have technology to do otherwise?	[ "Time.\n\nQQ before I begin - without going to Google, who is your rep in the House? Your Senator? Your city commisoner? I'm going to guess you got at least 2 of those wrong.\n\nBills which are being considered for vote can be thousands of pages long. There are dozens of those bills being considered everyday in...
Value Engineering	[ "Value engineering is a term that refers to changing something about a project (in your case, a building) in order to reduce construction cost. Value Engineering generally has the connotation of meaning \"cheaper\" in the sense of something being of lower quality, but the goal of value engineering is to maintain q...
Principle vs law vs theory vs theorem	[ "Law - a statement based on experimental observations. Laws don't offer explanations. They just state what has been observed repeatedly. They often involve equations.\n\nTheory - a theory offers an empirical explanation of the world. It is tested through repeated experiments and observations. A theory also ...
How does a cut Christmas tree "drink" water if it's dead?	[ "Because the tree isn't dead yet, it's in the process of dying", "Is it green? If so, it's not dead. As long as photosynthesis is happening in some of the leaves, there is negative pressure in the xylem pulling water upwards. \n\nEdit: negative pressure, not vacuum" ]
How can a US execution end up costing $3 million?	[ "The injection itself isn't the issue, it's the perpetual legal battles which will happen in the three decades which will pass before the execution takes place.\n\nAppeals filed by the criminals awaiting execution need to be processed and addressed. Lawyers and court systems will be tied up for years, and all of th...
Why can't I eat, or feel like vomiting when I'm in a stressful situation?	[ "The stress and anxiety are part of your \"fight or flight\" mechanism. Basically, anything that does not help in your immediate survival is shut off and the parts of you body that help you either fight, or run away are sent into overdrive. \n\nYou are an impala. You see into the lions eyes. She is kneeling in the ...
How does snoring work?	[ "> Can i tell if i'm snoring?\n\nFor the most part, no. Even if it suddenly wakes you up, you're unlikely to initially realize that you were woken by the sound of your snoring.\n\n > How does snoring work?\n\nSnoring is the sound produced when air passes through your pharynx while it's not fully open. In other word...
In places on Earth where the Sun doesn't set for many months, do plants keep doing photosynthesis for the entire period the Sun is up?	[ "Yes! This is why world record cabbages (and other vegetables) are often grown in Alaska with permanent or near-permanent sunlight. The combination of midnight sun and relatively mild temperatures allows for longer periods of photosynthesis and greater growth. When the temperature gets too high however, photosynt...
How does vertigo work and what do people that have it experience?	[ "The human inner ear informs your brain (other senses) about your position in space. It is designed to help your eyes correct for changes in position for instance. It tells your bail what it needs to tell your muscles to do so you do not fall over but remain upright or in what ever position you are in. Vertigo is w...
What happens to the body when we (men) get "blue balls", is there another scientific name for it, and why does it hurt so bad?	[ "It's called vasocongestion and happens when blood is \"pooled\" up in vessels in your scrotum/testicles. When aroused blood rushes down there and if there is no release, the blood stays and swells the area. I get it very easily, sometimes just cuddling next to a pretty girl for a bit (unless I crank down before w...
Why do some construction projects take so long?	[ "Manpower is crazy expensive. It is by far the most expensive part of almost any construction project. If 100 guys can do in an hour what 10 guys can do in 9 hours, you hire the 10 guys. Every truck in that video has a driver in it who is spending most of his time sitting around waiting for the other trucks to get ...
If all fingerprints are unique and earth has 7 billion people. How is it possible that there are 7 billion unique fingerprints? Are the possibilities infinite? Before we are born, how does our DNA know our fingerprint isn't being used by another person?	[ "First off, DNA doesn't directly affect fingerprints in the way you might think. Fingerprints are the result of chemical reactions in the womb; this is why identical twins have different fingerprints.\n\nThere are way, way more than 7 billion different combinations. Many estimates put it in the 10^20 range or highe...
What is vevo, and why do all the music you tubers use it?	[ "TL;DR In order to avoid legal troubles of posting music companies' content on their website (Youtube), Google set up VEVO so music companies could control their monetization.\n\n[Link](_URL_0_) to a response by a YouTube software engineer who worked on the Vevo launch.\n\n > Youtube/Google was in danger of bei...
When you get married, does power of attorney automatically go to your spouse?	[ "If you both die, your things would go to any kids you may have. If you don’t have kids, your property would go into probate and parents of both of you would have a chance to petition the court for your estate. A simple will prevents this. You can prepare a simple will very easily online and prevent that from happe...
Why is Meth more pervasive in suburbs/rural communities and Heroin in more urban ones?	[ "I do not know if that is true, but I do know making meth stinks up to high heavens, so areas with low population densities are easier for hiding its production.\n\nHeroin needs to be shipped from more or less tropical areas, so if you're shipping it anyway, might as well bring to areas with high population density...
How is it that Americans spend the most per student out of any other nation, yet there are constantly problems with school budgets?	[ "infrastructure, teacher salaries, pensions, but probably mostly that there is vast differences in school budgets since they are tied to property taxes. affluent areas skew the average, while the districts with financial troubles are typically in the poorest areas." ]
Mineral Frakking	[ "In a traditional oil/gas well, you are drilling into what is essentially a pocket of oil or gas. It is relatively easy to extract, as it is either under pressure and blows out like air from a balloon, or you can pump water or something similar into the void containing the oil or gas in order to displace it towa...
Why is Mozart considered the greatest ever musical genius?	[ "Highly, highly subjective...\n\nBut much of it would be attributed to his exceptional gifts at an insanely young age. When you and I were learning how to tie our shoes he was transcribing hour long choral works in the back of a carriage ride home. \n\nSo a lot of Mozart's \"hype\" for lack of a better word (not ...
Explain how "currently in the US whenever someone without insurance uses emergency medical services to save their life, how do the taxpayers end up paying for it"?	[ "Let's say John Smith doesn't have health insurance. He runs into a medical emergency (maybe a car accident) and goes to the ER. He makes OK money, but he can't afford the $60,000 bill they slap him with. So, the hospital negotiates with him and waves all their fees. He just has to pay for the doctor, the medic...
Restarting a computer	[ "In a modern computer, the whole system is on the entire time during the reset. Telling the computer to reset makes it to go through the shut down process unmounting drives and the like, but at the end it doesn't tell the power supply to turn off as it would when pushing the power button. Instead, it orders the CPU...
How is there only one speed of sound? If I shout louder, why is there not more energy leading to a faster speed?	[ "Think of throwing a rock in some water. The ripples made move outward at a given speed. Throw a much bigger rock (more energy) and the waves are much bigger but again propagate (move) outward at the same speed. Similar to sound. And light. A bigger light... Say a million candlepower spotlight, doesn't go a...
Why do most big birds fly away when they see a human but small birds don't really care?	[ "Big birds are, ironically, in more danger. The bigger the bird, the longer it takes them to get airborn, and the more likely they are to be on the menu. Small animals generally aren't worth the trouble to catch, especially because they're light and fast. The little birds aren't afraid of you because they know t...
- movies getting awards before they even play in theatres	[ "Critics get to see review showings of movies before they're released to general audiences in the theaters.", "In practice, anyone with a vote in the big awards get deluged in screeners - DVD/BRD and maybe nowadays even streaming copies of movies the studios are pushing for awards.\n\nIf you listen to the podcast...
as a non american - santa's race? what's up with that?	[ "First, actual St. Nick was Anatolian, and was, apparently, most likely a [dark-skinned \"Greek\"](_URL_1_). \n\nNow, for the recent news. An African-American reporter wrote [an article](_URL_0_), talking about how, as a child, it was tough to reconcile \"white\" Santa with her black father dressing up as Santa, ...
What causes the "fingernails on a blackboard" sensation? Why does it feel so horrible?	[ "The amygdala is to blame for the cringe. The amygdala associates emotions to memories and stores them in long term memory (hippocampus). \n\nThere's two theories, one evolutionary, and one physiological. \nEvolutionary Theory: The sound resembles a cry of alarm at some point in the evolutionary lane.\nPhysiologica...
How does the WiFi in the new Chevy cars work? I mean they have to be using a wireless network right?	[ "The car has a computer that connects to the cellular data network. This computer then acts as a router and shares the connection out over wifi. The wifi is locked down so only people you want to connect can connect.", "It's an inbuilt AT & T 4G LTE mobile data device. It requires a data plan, just like a MiFi ...
The gaming journalism fiasco known as #gamergate?	[ "Zoe Quinn is a indie game developer. A ex-boyfriend of said developer (because he cannot possibly have any ulterior motives) says some shit about her sleeping around to get good ratings.\nMany call Zoe Quinn a whore, slut, skank and justify there action under some high ideal about the corruption of game journalism...
Why does lightning often occur in 'double strikes'?	[ "Lightning first comes down in a flurry of haphazard lines trying to find the path of least resistance to the ground. This is called the lead.\nWhen the lead finds the path to the ground, you can see a very quick flash move up the lead into the cloud. This return stoke is the full strength of the lightning strike t...
Aside from illuminati (?). Why is there an all seeing eye, pyramid, and 'new world order' on US currency?	[ "The \"New World Order\" was supposed to represent the rise of the United States as a global power.", "Those are Freemason symbols, and many of the founding fathers were Freemasons.\n\nIt would be like if you were creating a currency today, and you snuck in a picture of your favorite meme onto it.", "because th...
Why do some commercials play for a split second and then get skipped? Wouldn't the advertiser get upset?	[ "Those flashes of commercials occur in situations where your local station is showing different commercials than the national broadcast that they're receiving. Sometimes the timing gets off, and you get a small snippet of the national broadcast commercial before your station overrides it with their local feed.\n\n...
How do freckles form?	[ "It's a mixture of genes and exposure to sunlight. For instance. you can normally not have freckles and get them when you go outside, or you can have freckles regardless of whether or not you go outside. Basically (for sun exposure) what happens is the sun gives off a certain kind of light (UV-B). Your skin cells g...
Why does it take a human being almost a year to learn how to walk, when most animals can learn to walk in a matter of hours/days?	[ "Human babies are born really early in our development cycle and are pretty useless because of it. This is because our hips need to be narrow to allow for bipedal motion, and our heads are proportionally large to house our big brains. This means that humans evolved to give birth earlier to underdeveloped babies so ...
Why are all drugs "bad"? Why can't there be a drug that gives intense pleasure/euphoria (heroine, coke etc) but has 0 adverse effects?	[ "Drugs create highs by manipulating chemicals our bodies produce normally. Frequent drug use can change the way our bodies produce and utilize these chemicals, causing our bodies to produce too much or too little. There is no perfect drug because any substance usage takes our bodies out of chemical equilibrium, cau...
why does looking at the sun hurt your eyes but indirectly not so much?	[ "Ask your best friend to place their mouth directly in front of your right ear hole and say your name loudly. Then, ask them to place their mouth at your left ear and do the same thing--only this time, instead of having their mouth facing directly at your ear hole, have their mouth face the tip of your nose. \n\nWh...
With pets like dogs and cats, why can't their lifespan get longer with modern medicine and diet like us?	[ "They have. When you consider 9 years - > 14 that's a massive increase in life expectancy. Do you expect humans to be able to double their life expectancy? Of course not, however a 20-30% increase over a few hundred years to maximize our potential? Reasonable - and this is what we've seen with pets.", "As everyo...
Does Queen Elizabeth have any power in regards to affecting any Canadian laws?	[ "The UK government? No. The Queen? Yes, she's the Queen of Canada and her royal assent is required for any bill to pass into law and the government of Canada including the Prime-Minister serve at her pleasure.\n\nHer appointed representative to which she 'chooses' to defer in all matters is the Governor General of ...
Medical vs. Dental: Why is there a difference? If your teeth are part of the human body why is dentistry kept completely separate -- even requiring separate insurance?	[ "First, remember that every field has tradition associated with it -- it's why we wear caps and gowns when we get degrees -- tradition.\n\nBack in the day, dentistry wasn't a medical profession. Dentists weren't doctors with degrees who went to school for 6 years and then apprenticed for another 6. Dentists were yo...
Why the Dalai Lama was exiled?	[ "> [China] considers all pro-independence movements aimed at ending Chinese sovereignty in Tibet (including British attempts to establish control in the late 19th century and early 20th century, the CIA's backing of Tibetan insurgents during the 1950s and 1960s, and the Government of Tibet in Exile today) as one l...
I dont know if this was asked already but could someone please explain the Bridgegate scandal and the big deal Chris Christie?	[ "I'm going to use the word \"allege\" because the investigation is ongoing.\n\nThere is a town on the New Jersey side of the George Washington bridge called Fort Lee. \n\nIt is alleged that because the mayor of Fort Lee did not endorse Chris Christie in his campaign last year, Christie's staff arranged a fabricate...
How does Palmer Lucky and the people who started Oculus make money after the acquisition from Facebook? Do they get a part of the profit of the rift? Do they get a salary?	[ "The terms of their sale are probably confidential, however I'm certain they get to keep most of the money they made from FB (since they were privately owned and funded). I suspect they'll get paid in a combination of cash and FB stock, and they'll probably get a salary in more FB stock.", "They were given over $...
Why is it that over the past decade or so, processor clock speeds havent gotten substantially faster, like 10ghz or anything. Still see mostly, 2ghz to 3.5ghz. We jam in more cores, but speeds seem to be more or less the same?	[ "The faster the clock-rate, the more heat the processor generates and the harder it becomes to cool. Once you reach around 4-5 Ghz, it's just very inefficient and requires expensive heat-sinks and cooling fans to keep the core temperature down to a reasonable level that won't damage the computer hardware.\n\nThe ob...
Where does my local dealer get controlled narcotics like Xanax and Codeine?	[ "I am sure he is not buying them by the case.\n\nHe is getting them from people who get fraudulent scripts from shady doctors, who then get the drugs from a shady pharmacy, and sell the drugs to him.\n\nWhat's more, oftentimes these folks are on medicaid, so they get the drugs free, and sell them to the dealer at p...
Why is it that restarting a computer fixes the problem most of the time?	[ "A lot of problems are caused by errors with things stored in RAM. Restarting a computer wipes your RAM, and reloads all needed files from the hard drive." ]
What makes a person laugh?	[ "There is no one answer. But a common theme is that it is a release, that comes from a sudden build up of energy.\n\nA few things can trigger it. \n\nA sudden shift in status. aka A person falling down, Or the queen farting.\n\nOr a good joke is generally when two separate ideas collide together quickly. Like...
Who decides what country is allowed to do what on the moon/other planets, or is there one institution always having the final word in these decisions?	[ "This is determined by the [Outer Space Treaty](_URL_0_), which was signed in 1967. In short, this treaty (signed by 107 countries currently) says that nobody will put nuclear weapons in orbit/space, and that nobody can claim moons/planets/etc for their own country. Space politics aren't explicitly policed by any o...
Why is everything spinning?	[ "Electrons don't orbit nucleus. That's a simplified version of the atom taught in elementary (secondary?) school. (On a slightly unrelated note, electrons do have a property called 'spin', but that is just a name for it, and they aren't usually seen as spinning)\n\nAs for why do larger structure spin. When things l...
How do scholars "resurrect" lost languages based on only unreadable writing?	[ "In the case of the Rosetta stone, there were translations of the same text in 3 different languages. Scholars were able to use that to determine words if they are used multiple times. For example, if you have three sentences about bread, you can guess that one of the common words is bread.", "Usually it is simil...
Why are burn marks more distinct than regular scars and what is the difference?	[ "This - _URL_0_ - is my 3rd degree burn. If I don't stretch it, the colour is pretty normal. I got it in Feb 2012 and it's taken until now to be back to a normal colour and not red. A lot of burns appear to affect a larger surface area, hence more scar tissue is formed to heal the wound.", "the short version is t...
How does a dog know to breed with dogs and not with another species?	[ "They don't... Have you ever seen a dog hump a couch, or someone's leg?" ]
Why aren't electrical prongs hot when they're removed from an outlet?	[ "Heating occurs when there's a significant amount of resistance.\n\nSignificant resistance can occur if the material you're using is a poor conductor, or if you're using a conductor that's physically too small.\n\nIn the case of the prongs of a plug, they're both made of metal (good conductor) and fairly large in s...
How do you restore old black and white photos to color?	[ "It's not easy, and it takes a lot of skill and dedication and requires specialised software. Yes, Photoshop counts as specialised software (:\n\nExtreme simplification: what you do is add layers to the b & w image, paint regions of the photo the colour you want them to be (for example, paint the eyes blue) and the...
Why do children seem to be better at learning second languages than adults?	[ "There is an area in the brain that is responsible for language processing. It is largely responsible for learning new languages when a person is still young, but becomes \"set\" after a certain age. \n\nAfter that, we can still learn languages, but the part of the brain that most receptive to that is no longer as ...
How does a clone differ from an identical twin?	[ "Genetically, they don't. In practice, a twin is a birth defect that causes one fertilized egg to grow into two people, and a clone would be a person grown from an already-born person's DNA, probably not taken from their reproductive organs.", "Well, age, generally: if you're cloning an already-born creature, th...
why are adobe products so expensive?	[ "There are many reasons why:\n\nAdobe's softwares are the results of a long time of research and programing, they are to say the least, products of great quality and gives other businesses tools to create their activity and make profit for themselves. \n\n\nAdobe's consumers are mainly businesses and they can affor...
How do we know how many troops ISIS (or other organizations) have?	[ "It's like when you ask a guy how many sexual partners he's had- you divide by 3. \n\nSo when ISIS says they have 60,000 troops it's actually closer to 20,000. \n\nMuch different then when you ask a woman how many sexual partners she's had- in those cases you MULTIPLY by 3.", "We don't actually know how many figh...
If everyone has a different set of tastebuds and we all have different levels of satisfaction/dissatisfaction towards different foods, then how do food critics have a job? Wouldn't their opinion be worthless?	[ "this question could be applied to all forms of critics.......music, movies, tv\n\nbut trying to answer the question, I'd say think about like the Iron Chef judges, their critique is usually about tenderness, texture, freshness of ingredients, presentation, etc. Stuff that transcends just taste. They are food \"e...
How does one hack Gmail and Facebook accounts and how should one protect them to have maximum security?	[ "Typically, it involves guessing the password. Or, if you've re-used the password on a site that isn't as good at security as Google or Facebook, some other site gets hacked and they try the same username/password combination elsewhere.\n\nThere are two things you can do to really protect yourself. First of all, us...
why do British people sound British while talking, but sound like they are from America when singing?	[ "When people sing, they tend to enunciate more clearly. This could explain why British people sound more understandable to you when singing. However, there are many British singers who DO use their typical enunciation when singing, and their accent is more identifiable. Take for example the music of Lily Allen, The...
Why do all TV channels have the same commercial breaks?	[ "I assume it's so the watcher is more likely to return to their channel if the other channels are on commercial breaks as well.", "TV is not actually completely about the shows. TV shows cost broadcasters money. Commercials make broadcasters money. \n\nSo broadcasters care more, in the long run, about you wat...
Why was cannabis ever made illegal in the first place?	[ "There are lots and lots of urban legends and rumors surrounding this impetus of the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act, including pressure from pharmaceutical companies and the paper industry. Although these industries benefited from the act, there's no real evidence that these were the primary factors.\n\nIn reality, the ass...
How do weather sites predict weather 30+ days out?	[ "They don't. Most only do five, some do ten, and ones that have 30+ just run on averages for those days from past years, factoring in any anomalies, like _URL_0_ does. Even the ten day forecasts are quite inaccurate most of the time if you actually pay attention and compare forecast to actual." ]
Why is it more difficult to run for long periods of time when exercises like biking are just as strenuous?	[ "It's all about practice. You use different muscle groups for different kinds of exercise. \n\nRunning is really hard on your body. You're obviously using your leg muscles, but you're using a whole bunch of other muscles that you may not be aware of. Abs, arms, back, neck, they all play into it with running. \n\n...
Why does Saturn's ring look so perfectly flat and circular?	[ "From a distance, Saturns rings seem very flat, and thin, and mainly three rings, although some shading gradient is seen.\n\nUp close, the rings are lumpy, icy bits and pieces, with a multitude of rings, and ~~two~~ five shepherd moons that orbit about them. These moons actually help keep the rings in line, an...
Most everyone is aware of the alleged Saudi collusion regarding terrorism on the west; particularly on the USA. Though is there any actual irrefutable evidence behind this conspiracy?	[ "Well, if you use a standard like \"irrefutable\", probably not, at least not in any unclassified documents. But high-level Western officials have basically acknowledged it happens, and would not make such politically risky statements if they weren't confident.\n\n[In 2010, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton stated ...
Why does this picture of Mercury appear to wobble whilst I'm eating something and staring at it?	[ "I have no idea what y'all are talking about. It doesn't wobble for me. I've tried eating something, shaking my phone, doing the thing with your jaw and bringing your teeth together, but I still got nothing." ]
What makes American cheese so much different than other types of cheese?	[ "A processed cheese is made from cheese with emulsifiers, vegetable oils, salt, flavorings or colors added to it.\n\nThis makes a cheese that is incredibly cheap to produce, has a longer shelf life, and melts much more evenly (which is good for things like grilled cheeses and cheeseburgers) but usually tastes worse...
How can Facebook use face recognition software to correctly name thousands of my friends, yet not one hacker can create a bot to decipher a captcha that has a mix of only 26 letters in it?	[ "Not many photographs on Facebook are deliberately distorted and obfuscated to make the face just barely recognizable by a human, but that's what's done to the text in captchas.", "But why would you want to solve captchas when there are better ways to spend your time, like phishing and spoofing or even cracking s...
Trying to generate a balanced opinion on chicken factory farming. Are chickens intelligent enough to experience displeasure at how they are farmed? I.e. Do they experience any pain/unhappiness or are they too simple minded for these and "enjoy" convenient feeding followed by a swift death?	[ "I had chickens growing up and now have a backyard flock for eggs and occasional eating. I try not to eat factory farmed chicken.\n\nWhile they are just about the stupidest warm blooded creature on the planet - they can feel pain, fear and certainly react to stressful situations.\n\nI kill and eat all kinds of anim...
How can a small country with bad missiles be confident of fighting big countries if it doesn't have people who knows how to occupy and all that it has is its scary missiles?	[ "The same way players with bad hands at poker battle against Big hands. By bluffing.\n\nThe problem is that in this game of poker, N.Korea already showed the cards. So bluffing + lying + courage.\n\nAlso it's not \"a small country\" it's more like a small person named Kim Jong-Un. 99% of the population there think ...
Why is the term "Caucasian" applied to all white people, regardless of whether they came from the Caucasus region?	[ "In the early 1900s it was believed that white people originated in the Caucasus mountains. At the time, the three \"scientific\" classifications were Caucasoid, Negroid, and Mongoloid. (Some people still use mongoloid or \"mongo\" as an insult to this day.)\n\nThere's no real scientific basis to this, and no way...
How can a flight be overbooked?	[ "Some airlines will overbook (sell more tickets than seats available) a flight in the off chance that people do not arrive for the flight. That way, it ensures a fuller flight, even when not all the purchasers are there." ]
Why do people in the moves and television in the 1940s-1960s have a nasally voice?	[ "It's called [Mid-Atlantic English.](_URL_0_) It's what happens when rich Americans try and sound like rich English people. \n\nThere were some people who talked like this in real life, particularly super rich people in Boston/Connecticut/parts of Long Island in the early 20th century (when it's real life people, i...
Why is it bad if I quit without cause, but employers have the right to fire me without cause?	[ "It looks bad to future employers. From their view, why would they want to hire someone who has a history of simply walking out without giving them time to find a replacement. Also, if you ever decide to go back to the job you quit without notice, they are going to think the same thing and probably won't rehire you...
Why is the male scrotum always so itchy?	[ "The sperm trying to escape cause this. Female scrotums have no sperms therefore no itch." ]
How people program "Angry Birds"-like physics and collision detection.	[ "I'm going to make some mock-code here. This is not real code, this is just so you can understand basically what's happening.\n\nobject Bird\n\n{\n\n centerX = 50\n centerY = 50\n width = 20\n height = 20\n\n}\n\nbuilding.frontEdge = 100 (X coordinate)\n\n\nwhile (inAir)\n\n{\n\ncenterX = centerX + (wha...
What is the purpose of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act?	[ "It addresses two issues.\n\nFirst, it's a \"good neighbor\" policy. It's hard to fight graft and corruption when the funding for the graft and corruption is coming from another country. The US wants to be able to say \"not our fault\" when other countries bitch about how they can't control graft and corruption.\...
- Why does it seem like the same WiFi network that quickly loads virtually any website on a desktop or laptop struggles to load Google in even a dozen seconds on a smartphone?	[ "I have an iPhone and have this problem too, sometimes, my phone won't search using the url/search bar (as Google is the default search engine) or load _URL_0_. I don't know why this happens, but the only way I can get it to work again is to go on Bing or Yahoo and search for Google and click on it, after this, eve...
Why do we love members of our family that aren't our parents?	[ "Because, evolutionarily speaking, they share a good bit of your genetic material. Furthermore, we're a social species. We basically lived in extended family groups for a lot of our history.", "Because we tend to love people who give us love. Family members typically do so in abundance, consistently through time...
What is the use of a birth certificate?	[ "It proves you were born here and are a citizen. Without one, and without a record of one, they could try and deport you as an illegal immigrant. \n\nIt also, you know, proves your age. For age-related things like getting into public school and getting a drivers license.", "To sign your kids up to play soccer. ...
What exactly makes a 3-in-1 bodywash/shampoo/conditioner different from its individual counterparts (or even the 2-in-1 shampoo/conditioner)?	[ "The fact that it only works as one of those at best. Usually it’s just body wash with maybe some additives and fancy marketing.\n\nIf you want to treat your skin and hair well, use three separate products that actually do their job. Every persons skin and hair is different and the idea of a one-fits-all and all-in...
Bell Curves	[ "If you have a sufficiently large sample of people taking a test, statistically they should begin to follow a bell curve. The mean value (average) will be at one point, and if graphed, the values of all the other tests should fan out from there in a roughly bell-shaped curve on either side of the mean.\n\nSome prof...
why t-shirt companies place their tags that rip a hole in the t-shirt if you take it out and cause discomfort if you dont?	[ "1) So you can't remove the branding for the company \n\n2) it's just how tags are for some people, they don't bother me, but they do some" ]
how does a ship with sails travel in a direction that opposes the wind, or the current of the water?	[ "The keel (thing that sticks on the bottom of the boat) pushes against the water 90 degrees from the tipping axel of the boat kinda counteracting the force of the wind against the sail. Imagine this at around 130 or so degrees apart, the net force overall pushes the boat in the forwards direction. \n\n_URL_0_\n\nMo...
How do GPS satellites work and how does relativity effect them?	[ "Each GPS satellite transmits a signal that includes pseudorandom code and the state vector of the satellite. The same signal is generated by the GPS receiver. When the two signals are compared, the one from the satellite will be found to lag behind the one of the receiver because of the time it took for the sign...
What would actually happen to your eyes if you stopped blinking completely?	[ "Your eyes would dry out and crack, become infected, and eventually rot right out of your skull. If it didn't kill you then the open wound would eventually scar over." ]
If we all have a voice inside our head, at what point does it become a sign of schizophrenia?	[ "When the voice is not your voice. We all know our own inner voice. Imagine an uncontrollable foreign voice speaking in your head. That's schizophrenia.", "It's not a voice inside your head lol, it's literally like hearing someone talking to you except nobody is there. You can't tell the difference between what s...
The concept of white privilege to someone like me who is not white	[ "White privilege does not mean that ever single white person enjoys advantages over every single person of other ethnicities.\n\nIt's mostly referring to two things: \n\n* White neighborhoods are, in general, better off economically than minority communities - and tend to receive better education/police services.\n...
Do words in tonal languages (Chinese, Thai, etc) lose their tones when sung?	[ "For Chinese the answer is yes. Listeners infer the meaning of the words by their context, rather than their tone. I assume it is the same for other tonal languages. \n\nThe same sort of tone-loss can happen when people simply speak really fast, too." ]
What happens at the molecular level when a paper is cut by a scissor?	[ "I'm not sure how to word this given the limitation of a molecular level explanation, but you could say that the scissor's force is strong enough such that the electrons of the scissors repel the electrons of the paper enough to form a cut.", "Scissors exert shear force on paper fibers and tear them apart. This i...
How are rock songs constructed?	[ "> How exactly does the guitar interact with the bass, rhythm and vocals.\n\nGenerally speaking, one instrument (most often the guitar) plays a lead melody, while all other instrumentation and vocals play harmonically-compatible parts which support that melody. On their own these supportive instruments do not pl...
Creatures like hermit crabs and snails thay move from shell to shell through their lives	[ "Snails don't change shells, they make their own.\n\nHermit crabs will find abandoned shells from other animals, shells of dead animals, or will often kill snails to take their shells." ]
Why don't I notice myself falling asleep?	[ "Your brain shuts down most functions while going into sleep mode. The function we're most interested in here is the long term memory. For example can you remember the dreams you had the last 7 days? How about last night? Probably not. You do however typically remember those dreams right as you wake up. \n\nIt kind...
Why are archers in movies instructed to fire all at once?	[ "Well usually we see it in movies in the context of the first volley against a force moving towards the wall. In that case the commander can simply say 'on my mark' if they want the arrows to start only when the enemy forces are close enough to get a reasonable hit on with the arrows.\n\nAlso it's a lot more devast...
how do we determine currency conversions?	[ "This was asked before: _URL_0_\n\nSee if that post answers your question.", "Today, rates are generally determined through supply and demand (float). Some piece of news, say a drop in the price of oil or an increase in unemployment, makes that currency less desirable, so it's value respective to other currencies...
why, after years of civil war, is NOW the tipping point where so many Syrians are fleeing to Europe?	[ "They aren't fleeing, really. They're looking for a higher standard of living. If they were simply looking for shelter from war, they would not go to Germany. [Look at this map.](_URL_0_) There are perhaps near a dozen countries, all of which are not at war, between Syria and Germany. Most go through Hungary, which...
Internet Service Providers.	[ "The internet isn't \"one thing\", it's actually a number of computer networks that has decided to work together. Each ISP runs their own part of the internet.\n\nSo if I send this message from Sweden to the reddit servers in the US it first goes to my local ISP but they only deal with local stuff so they hand it o...
Why is it not long after you wake up, it's very difficult to remember the more interesting dreams you had?	[ "Memories created in dreams almost immediately gets mixed up. They are created when the part of your brain that handles common logic isn't operating. The moment you wake up and that part of your brain starts to work on all of last night's memories to make sense of it all. The thing is how do you know that what you...
Why did the concept of evil witches get introduced only since the middle ages and why did so many people suddenly believe they exist?	[ "The belief in witches have always been found in cultures predating the middle ages. However to understand this sudden rise in burnings at the stake for witchcraft you need to understand the atmosphere of the time. During the middle ages much of the technological knowledge of the Roman/Greek era was lost to the Eur...

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