Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
Why do the sounds of letters in the alphabet differ from the sounds of these letters in words?	[ "English has a huge variety of sounds, but we are representing them with a fairly limited alphabet. So many letters end up representing multiple sounds.\n\n\nFor instance, most accents have 24 consonant sounds and somewhere around 20 vowel sounds, but the alphabet only has 21 consonant letters and 5 vowel letters....
Where do creationists say the flood water drained to?	[ "It's in the atmosphere now. Prior to the flood it had never rained. \n\nEdit: I inferred this from the Bible. It is my interpretation.", "Mostly, they don't. \n\nThe water was supposed to have come from \"the firmament,\"--whatever that is--which opened up and flooded the world. Some sources say the firmament wa...
How can investigators find incriminating e-mails?	[ "Well, first of all, people are not as keen on deleting email as you may think. Personally, I have every single one of mine since 1997.\n\nAnd, really, not everyone is comfortable enough around technology to understand that an email that is moved to the trash folder will stay there for a while before being deleted....
Why do planes disappear in the Bermuda Triangle?	[ "The area actually has no special power to make planes disappear. However, it is prone to storms, and there are wide stretches with no place to land, so from time to time a small plane is lost with no witnesses.", "Planes and ships disappear everywhere. Not so much any more with modern GPS and tracking, and in l...
How do people move giraffes from one location to another?	[ "In a crate on a truck. [Like this](_URL_0_ ) There was a recent incident in the news where a giraffe was killed when its head hit an overpass, but that sort of incident isn't the accepted standard of care in most facilities." ]
What would happen if you filled up a tire with a liquid, say water, instead of air but to the same psi?	[ "It would be much bumpier ride as water doesn't compress like air does. It might also cause the tire to explode if you hit a bump for the same reason.\n\nEdit: It would also make your car quite a bit heavier. So you would have slower acceleration and longer stopping distance." ]
What do babies dream about?	[ "I have a 12-month-old baby who can say about 10 identifiable words now - meaning they might not sound like the word to someone else, but she says them consistently so I know what she means when she says them.\n\nAnyway, I turned on the TV and there was a picture of the ocean, which she had never seen before. It ha...
how do water and sun benefit flowers after they've already been cut from where they grew?	[ "Cut plants don't die immediately -- they're not like animals that need circulating blood to transfer oxygen around constantly.\n\nOne main purpose of roots is to carry water from the earth up to the leaves -- there's no heart pumping, the water moves through capillary action, which can happen at any point along th...
How can sulfur hexafluoride stay in someone’s lungs, but co2 doesn’t even though they are both more dense than air?	[ "I hope another commenter corrects if I'm mistaken, but I would think that Sulfur hexafluoride CAN stay in your lungs, but doesn't automatically stay there like it's stuck. It takes more effort to get it out because it's very heavy, but I've seen videos of people inhaling it so clearly they're able to get it out to...
I am near sighted, how come when I look through a scope, or binoculars, without corrective lens', everything is not crystal clear?	[ "Any scope you look through will have a focus adjuster. You can adjust the scope so that your sight will be focused on any specific point. This action will also correct for any vision issues you may have (though if someone with different vision uses the scope after you to look at the same point, they will have to c...
Why does meat change colour when it's cooked?	[ "That's the [Maillard reaction](_URL_0_). [This thread](_URL_1_) might help." ]
Why do we sometimes blank out and stare off into space?	[ "Psych doctoral student here. \n\nUnfortunately there isn't a whole lot of understanding around the mechanism of action of daydreaming (which I assume is what you're asking?). But when it comes to the brain, we SUCK at multitasking (we like to believe we can do it, but the brain cannot do two things simultaneously,...
Why isn't the for-profit business model of hospitals in the US under more fire than the healthcare system?	[ "Even \"nonprofit\" hospitals are generally out to make a profit, or at least break even. The parent organization needs to be financially stable." ]
What exactly is a watershed and how does it work? For instance, we live in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed area. I have attempted to read on the subject, and consider myself a smart gal, but this just confuses me all day.	[ "Pick a spot on the ground. Imagine that a raindrop falls on that spot. Imagine that it doesn't soak in, but it runs downhill. Which way will it go? Trace its path. Eventually, it will flow into a stream. That stream will flow into a bigger stream, which will flow into a river, which may flow into a bigger river, a...
Why does the order in which you mix things together matter?	[ "as a person who cooks for living, in your case you just hasnt mixed things enough in first case. Adding dry to wet makes mixing easier and faster as opposed way creates dry clumps, that require extra mixing. thats why dry to wet is preferred cause it makes things easier and faster." ]
How do shows like DragonBall Z Abridged and Yugioh Abridged stay on Youtube without being copyright claimed?	[ "They're works of parody. As such, if the creators were sued and fought back, they'd probably win under 'fair use,' which allows limited use of copyrighted material for things like commentary, criticism, reviewing, and parody.", "Well, fair use allows them the ability to make works of parody, furthermore a lot of...
what kind of applications won't benefit from increased multi-thread performance?	[ "One reason is if the application is primarily I/O bound. Adding more threads won't make your hard drive any faster.", "Applications that only have one thread, of course.\n\nWriting a multi-threaded application is a lot more work. The computer can't parallelize tasks for you.\n\nImagine you've written a recipe fo...
What is going on with Apple and the price fixing trial with the DoJ?	[ "Here you go, this guy did a great job explaining it: _URL_0_" ]
How do people change their identity? eg. get new social security numbers fake deaths etc.	[ "> Fake deaths\n\nThat's easy, get someone to think a dead body is yours or disappear for a few years and someone will have you declared dead. Common examples are place a similar sex/gender/aged dead body in your car and set it on fire. If no one is suspicious they won't go through getting a DNA test, or if it'...
The IRA, The Real IRA, and why they exist.	[ "Basically. British occupation. We wanted independence. Best we got was a divided Ireland. 26 counties in the Republic of Ireland. 6 in Northern Ireland. Depending on the year, There are many different forms of the IRA. From Wikipedia.\n\nEarlier organisations\n\nSociety of United Irishmen (1791–1804)\n\nYoung Irel...
How does a Medical Examiner determine the Cause of Death?	[ "Mostly by autopsy. Cutting the body open, looking for anything that looks wrong. Looking at the heart for signs of a clot, lungs for blockage etc. Blood tests are also taken to test for anything unusual like heart attack signs ( enzyme) or drink/ drugs. \n\nEverybody dies for the same reason, the heart stops, medi...
Why Do we tend to panic more when running from a scary situation than walking from it?	[ "I think you may have your causality backward.\n\nYou run because when you can't control your panic, and you walk when you can. If the walking increase your panic, you would already be running.", "The body has two opposing systems that govern it's response to anything that happens around it: the sympathetic (aka...
Why are bugs so good at getting in the house, but so bad at getting out?	[ "If there are a lot of bugs outside only one has to find its way inside for you to notice. If there is one bug inside that bug specifically has to find its way outside for you to notice.", "They brute force it. It may take thousands of bugs until one gets inside, but when only one is inside chance might not be on...
If I fell through a cloud would I come out soaked or 'misted'?	[ "Neither, when a cloud is on the ground it's fog. When you walk in the fog you don't get that wet. If you fall into a rain cloud you get wet, or a snow cloud you get snow on you, but a non-precipitating cloud won't get you that wet.", "It's going to depend on the type of cloud or how high up you are. Lots of cl...
California is getting very significant rain for the next days. Where I live(southern California), most of it goes to canals and straight into the pacific ocean, With that amount of water basically being wasted; why hasn't there been a system put in place to catch all of this run off??	[ "There is. Scattered throughout the hills are a series of dams that turn the rivers -- nature's own water gathering system -- into man-made lakes.\n\nNearer the shore, the water is so spread out -- and the terrain so lacking in natural basins -- that it's just not cost-effective to build artificial lakes to gather ...
what is it about the structure of vegetables that makes them so nutritious yet contain relatively few calories?	[ "We cannot digest cellulose. That is the physical structural component of plants. Because we cannot digest it we cannot get nutritional value from it. We call it dietary fiber and it passes through our bodies mostly intact. We are able to digest other components of plants and so get many vitamins and such from them...
Why Time Warner Cable customers can't access HBO Go (when Time Warner owns HBO)?	[ "Time Warner owns HBO, but Time Warner [no longer owns](_URL_0_) Time Warner Cable.\n\nHBO GO is offered free to cable providers who carry HBO. The main problem is that cable providers have to develop systems to authenticate customers and make sure they subscribe to HBO. Then they have to create links to HBO GOs si...
If there is lead in solder are solder joints dangerous to touch?	[ "No, it is not toxic to touch solid lead. Lead poisoning results from ingestion, inhalation or dermal contact (e.g. if you were working with organic lead compounds that were easily absorbed through the skin).", "TL;DR: No, but wash your hands afterward anyway.\n\nYou wouldn't want to eat it, but...
How do cops detain and handcuff somebody with one arm?	[ "They either:\n\n* cuff their hand to their belt\n* get a belly chain\n* if they appear to be of little threat, let them go uncuffed", "Cop here;\n\nHandcuff to the belt. If no belt, use a rip-hobble (a strap that's usually used to bind the feet of combative arrestees) as a belt and handcuff to that.", "There ...
With all the breakthroughts we've seen in cell phone and car batteries why hasn't the household batteries like AA, AAA, D's life been extended as well?	[ "They use different chemistries. Your standard batteries are alkaline cells. They aren't that dangerous in the sense that they don't explode but because of that they are less energy dense. Most modern phones and electric cars use lithium ion cells. These are way more energy dense but have the tendency to become ver...
Why are people Shy or not shy?	[ "It's just a difference if how you approach situations. \n\nI've often been called shy when I'm first introduced to someone, but the thing most people fail to realize is that the reason I'm not more...\"out there\" is because I don't really speak unless I have something to say. Unless I'm continuing a conversation ...
Ulster loyalism	[ "They are basically people of the protestant faith who want to remain part of the UK as opposed to those of the catholic faith who want to be part of a united Ireland." ]
How does the "neutral" wire work in cars?	[ "In the car, you're dealing with DC, in the house it's AC. The wavy voltage you get in AC is the difference between the \"live\" and \"neutral\" lines, but importantly, neutral is not ground. It's usually relatively close, though. The earth line is the emergency exit for power when it's all gone wrong, and is very ...
Since energy can never be created nor destroyed, but only be transfered - then where did it come from in the first place?	[ "Answer:\nAbsolutely, Positively no one knows, or even has the foggiest idea, if you did you would win every science prize till the end of time. we are pretty confidant the big bang created OUR universe, but that's a very small piece of the _URL_0_ would be like if you fed a goldfish and the gold fish wondered wher...
what's the difference in the technology between a pair of beats ear buds and a pair from gas station?	[ "BeatsByDre spends millions on advertisement, that is about it. Beats is much more about image and a fashion statement than sound quality. I'm not saying Beats are terrible, just that you will get much better sound for your money with other brands." ]
What exactly happens when you get that heart wrenching feeling in your chest, like when that Semi truck almost ran me off the road today	[ "[Adrenaline baby](_URL_0_)\n\n\n\n > Adrenaline is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands during high stress or exciting situations. This powerful hormone is part of the human body's acute stress response system, also called the \"fight or flight\" response. It works by stimulating the heart rate, contracting bl...
What is the deal with reddit and Wonderwall?	[ "Today is going to be the day that someone'll spell it out for you\nRight now you probably realize that I'm not gonna be that dude" ]
What happens to an unborn baby that is going to have a nut allergy (or any other type of allergy) when the mother consumes nuts?	[ "It doesn't hurt the child because the mother is processing the food for the child. You mostly want to avoid things that get into the blood or can be passed through the placenta to the baby and have a harmful impact (such as alcohol). Studies have actually shown that mothers who eat nuts during pregnancy have chi...
What would it take to bring back the automobile industry in the United States? As in, the ending of outsourcing jobs overseas for vehicles.	[ "US workers would have to be cost competitive with machines and foreign workers.\n\nThat's really the long and short of it.", "A time machine.\n\nOutsourcing is the way things are. You have to remember that manufacturing jobs were never, historically, middle class possitions; if you look at the factories of the ...
When an actor drops weight (like Chris Hemsworth, from "Thor" to "In the Heart of the Sea"), where does all the muscle go?	[ "Most of the time it is lighting and camera tricks that make them look as big as they do. Now that doesn't mean they don't have to put on size when playing certain roles it just means they don't put on as much as what it seems. \n\n\nAs for your question, the body uses the muscle for energy same as fat in someone...
How does a computer ACTUALLY work? Like, how does it transfer, read, and display data and things.	[ "Lets dive right into the magical land of data.\n\nWhats the symbol for five? 5. Whats the symbol for ten? 10. But wait, isn't that the symbol for one and zero? Right, so in our numbering system, when we get to the number ten, we write the symbol for one and zero. There is no symbol for ten, we simply recycle the o...
Why do doctors and dentists seem want to get patients out of the recovery room and home so quickly after a surgery?	[ "Hospitals are not a place where you want to stay but need to stay. You're surrounded by sick people and the bacteria there are much more dangerous and immune than outside of hospitals. \nYou want to get out of there as soon as possible. Sure it sucks to puke at home, but doing so at a hospital is of no advantage t...
Why do people often lie for seemingly no reason at all?	[ "This is difficult to answer with fact, and is more based in personal experience and observation. People with philosophy major/minors would be better suited to describe the more complex parts of the human for this one. However here is my 2 cents. \n\n\nAs someone who is a compulsive liar it stemmed from childhood...
what are the meanings behind the " & co.", "unlimited", "limited" "incorporated" etc. additions to different company names?	[ "Some countries, and some states within countries, have requirements about naming companies which may require them to state the type of entity the company is. \n\nThis is a holdover from a time when corporations (joint stock, limited liability companies) had to be chartered for a specific purpose. They were not s...
How are those giant prize winning vegetables, like the 150lb zucchini, grown?	[ "they are purpose bred to be that large because competitions for large veggies exist. \n\nVegetables dont have a very long lifespan, so if you are mindful, you can breed specific traits in plants pretty quickly. Those zucchini and the popular giant pumpkins have been selectively bred together for a few decades to b...
Why are Late Night Talk Shows so popular in America?	[ "It's actually quite diminished and low in its popularity compared to the past. Big time down. \n\nIn an effort to get more viewers though their marketing teams heavily utilize stuff like YouTube and the digital space to blast out content and stuff to attempt to get people to tune in. If your online a lot you see t...
How can dentists tell if you haven't been flossing?	[ "One word: [Plaque!](_URL_0_)\n\nThis is a sort of biofilm (scale) that has been building up around your teeth's enamel. It's usually yellowish & brownish type of tartar. The wiki link I just gave you up there will explain it WAY better than I do.", "That's the main way, but also they can see a lot of crap buil...
Can't remember what it's called	[ "This is [the bandwagon fallacy](_URL_0_) in which someone holds an idea to be true/valid because a majority(sometimes perceived majority)of people feel the same way. \n\nAlso, the idea that global warming causes tornadoes and other natural disasters is [the false cause fallacy](_URL_1_) in which one claims ther...
Other than making room for other patients, why don't dentists fix everything in one appointment?	[ "You may try to find a different dentist. Mine, for example, will try to only schedule an appointment if she can preform two procedures during one appointment. Like cleaning and an exam, or a filling and x-rays, or some such like that.", "Not sure in your case, probably for insurance money. I have done multiple ...
Why does the law never go after rappers who constantly talk about the illegal drugs they do in their songs?	[ "> I am the Walrus\n\n-John Lennon.\n\n\nNot proof that John Lennon is actually a Walrus.", "* Saying you did something is not legal evidence that you did\n* Waste of time as celebs can afford good lawyers.", "Neither Eric Clapton, nor Bob Marley actually shot a sheriff.", "You have a legal right to lie (prot...
Why do the fastest runners tend to be black?	[ "A couple of speculative answers, in addition to /u/MrAloha808's point.\n\n\"Black\" and \"White\" aren't really groups, as there's as much variation between as there is within. Nonetheless people with black skin outnumber people with white skin, so their best runners are recruited from a larger population.\n\nAlso...
Hostels. How they work and how they differ from hotels. Also why they are so popular in Europe?	[ "They are very cheap hotels, usually with multiple beds in the same room.\n\nThe are popular in Europe, because combined with Europe's well developed mass transit system, it makes for a cheap and flexible way to travel. Hostels typically exist in city centers where regular rooms are very expensive.\n\nIn the US, w...
why do snakes slither instead of inching like a worm?	[ "Because their physiology (body make-up) is completely different. Worms are invertebrates, meaning they don't possess a single bone in their body. Snakes are reptiles (belonging to the vertebrates). That means there are numerous evolutionary steps between them. IIRC, snakes do stretch their bodies a little but beca...
For the theologians, how is the good and mercy of God visible in major disasters like the typhoon that kills thousands?	[ "The Bible explains this in the Book of Job. It is great literature. It is one of the few books of the Bible written in verse and one of the few where God actually speaks. And God is pissed off. \n\nBasically, God and Satan are considering Job, a good guy Greg. And Satan bets God that if some disasters befall ...
Why do male testicles sometimes retract up into the abdomen?	[ "Testicles need to be kept at exactly the right temperature to make healthy sperm. Unfortunately, that temperature is colder than your body's natural temperature and is too specific to regulate normally. Thus, the balls moved out of your body to keep away from your heat, but they can be moved closer or further aw...
I see flies and moths in my house all the time. Why don't I see a whole lot of dead insect bodies everywhere?	[ "Spiders.\n\nThe house spiders that you share your space with are eating them, and the left over bits are broken down reasonably quickly by bacteria or chemical reactions and they turn to dust." ]
How do the authorities have dental records to identify people?	[ "The government does not have this information. If authorities believe that a missing person may be person X, they can request their dentist for the dental records, but until that request is made, the government doesn't have them." ]
Why intervention is Libya considered a failure despite successfully saving human lives and toppling a brutal dictatorship?	[ "Critics point to the emergence of a largely lawless Libya which is in the control of various militias. This had led to the state becoming a prime breeding ground for radical groups to base themselves out of as well as create a hub for the international trafficking of weapons." ]
Why do I get motion sickness when I read in a car?	[ "Your body tells your brain that you're moving. (Because of bumps, turns an such) But your brain tells you're still and reading a book. That makes you feel bad.", "Your body gets a proper sense of what it's doing and where it is by coordinating input from three main systems: visual, vestibular and **propr...
WHy is it that if i smoke while i have a bad cough i stop coughing for a good 5-10 minutes?	[ "tobacco cigs have chemicals in them that numb your throat, cannabis cigs don't have the chemicals that numb your throat." ]
If shadows are the absence of light, why do you get different coloured shadows with different light sources?	[ "A shadow is generally not the total absence of light. It is simply an area where there is less light because a light source has been blocked by something opaque." ]
What is the difference between cabbage and lettuce?	[ "The main difference between the two is that they are from different plant families. Cabbage is a leafy vegetable, from the 'Brassicacea' family, whereas Lettuce is from the 'Asteraceae' family. The difference can also be seen in nutritional values within each of them. Most lettuce types have less calories and more...
I'm having a lot of trouble wrapping my mind around the concept of 'Cinematic Excess'	[ "(Disclaimer: I'm not a film major) My understanding from listening to friends is basically as follows:\n\nWhen you go to the movies, you need a certain level of detail to understand it (e.g.: you need a main character, or a plot, and the scenes have to be shown in the right order).\n\nBut there are other details...
Being sued for money when you have none	[ "First step is the court awards a judgment against you that says you owe the money. It's good for 20 years and will show up on your credit report. What happens next is up to the creditor. If you have a bank account they can file a garnishment and take it. If you have a job they can garnish your wages (federal and ...
how can small cellphone carriers (metropcs, criket, etc...) charge less for the "same" service?	[ "It's because they rent the towers they use from the majors and do not have contractual subsidies for phone contracts that drive up costs. They also are not accountable for maintenance of the hardware and towers which keeps the costs lower.", "Because the real costs to cellphone providers is much smaller than wha...
What's happening when I make that thunder noise inside my head?	[ "What you hear is the sound of thee [tensor tympani muscle](_URL_0_) vibrating in response to being voluntarily tensed.", "What \"thunder noise inside my head\" are you talking about?", "Don't worry, I know what you are talking about." ]
How is the VR experience of a phone with an attachment like Galaxy S7 different from that of Occulus Rift?	[ "There are several different aspects to this as of right now (early 2016) which may change in the future. The first is that phones don't have nearly as much processing power or storage space as a gaming PC, this means games are often short or re-use the same content throughout the game. Graphics are often simple an...
How does a U.S. Destroyer, a vessel equiped with advanced technological systems, that is supposed to engage in tactical naval warfare, collide with a cargo ship?	[ "Massive and systemic watch-keeping failure on the part of the Naval Vessel's crew. Heads are going to roll here. Court-martials, possibly criminal-negligence charges. There is no excuse for this. None. \n\nNavy Ships have multiple people in the pilot house, lookouts all over the ship, people in CIC monitoring surf...
Why sometimes when I sleep, in my dreams I try to get out of bed but my body refuse move, and gets harder to breathe but felt so real?	[ "When you sleep your body turns off its motors so you don't act out your dreams. But sometimes your eyes wake up before the rest of your body has restarted its motors, so you cannot move, all you can do is stare ahead. Your dreams may continue at this point, though they will warp to adhere to the environment your e...
Why do we clap our hands as an act of cheering?	[ "There's no real reason really. We could have chosen any gesture to represent cheering such as snapping fingers or stomping feet.\n\nHowever, clapping makes a lot of noise, doesn't require another surface nearby, and takes barely any technique to be effective. Some people just started doing it, and it caught on bec...
why does the human body need O2 in oder to get rid of Carbon? Why cant it just release the carbon as a gas or something?	[ "The body doesn't just take an O2 and stick a carbon onto it. The body has a very complicated set of chemical reactions, called the [Krebs cycle](_URL_0_), that it uses for energy. The Krebs cycle is how your cells turn your food into usable energy to do stuff and stay alive. It takes your food nutrients, like c...
Global Investment Banking	[ "An investment bank is a financial institution that advises clients - mainly corporations - how to raise finance. Unlike retail banks, they do not hold deposits and so they aren't your regular high street bank (although many banks do both functions, which the European Union is looking to ring fence in the EU).\n\nI...
Why do different foods of the same mass have different amounts of calories?	[ "Your body isn't converting all the mass of a burger into energy lol.\n\nOnly some of the energy bound up in food is utilized by your body, and none of it comes from converting mass into energy. Your body takes chemical potential energy from bonds between atoms in your food and (after generally storing that ene...
How did the word 'radio' get mixed up in so maybe nuclear-related terms, "radioisotope", "radioactive", "radiologist". Does this imply some direct connection between electromagnetic waves and alpha/beta/gamma rays?	[ "It is the other way around. Radiation or radio comes from the energy going radially out from the source. We use \"radio\" as a shorthand for electromagnetic radiation under 300GHz but there are lots of different radiation in addition to electromagnetic radiation. Gamma radiation is by the way also electromagnetic ...
Why is hand sanitizer bad for the environment, but washing hands with soap is not?	[ "It's not about the environment, it's about artificially selecting for tougher and tougher germs. It's evolution in action.\n\nAnd alcohol-based hand sanitizers are not the problem! Alcohol kills germs just fine. Chlorine bleach, if you use a product based on that to sanitize your kitchen counter, kills germs jus...
Why is your throat so much more sore in the morning than any other time when you have a cold?	[ "Because you've been lying down and not swallowing, the extra thick mucus your nose is producing during your cold has been dripping down your throat all night and irritating the crap out of it.\n\nDuring the day you swallow, drink, and eat which helps clear the mucus out. You're probably also blowing your nose inst...
How does alcohol by volume work?	[ "Depends on the volume. Two 5.2% abv beers at 12 fl oz a piece. Would equal one 10.4% ABV 12 fl oz beer. The volume is very important.", "It's complicated, but yes. If you weigh the same and one of you consume double the volume but half the percentage over the same time, you both end up with the same alcohol cont...
How do companies discover that they've been hacked?	[ "If a good hacker didn't leave a footprint then the company wouldn't know about the leak, and you would never hear about the company having a leak.\n\nThe Sony hack wasn't noticed by Sony. It was the hacker group that publicly exposed the hack.", "So. I worked in a global company when it was hacked. It was durin...
How come not everybody sees the same colours when looking at Benhams Disk? [Repost]	[ "You can't look at Benham's disk on a monitor and know what color you \"would\" see on the real thing, ironically enough for almost the exact same reason we see color there in the first place.\n\nWith a real-world disk, we see colors because some of our eye's receptors fire faster or linger longer than others - So ...
why does my body decide that post shower, after I'm all nice and clean, is an excellent time to take a shit?	[ "I know what you're talking about, but I think its a false equivalency. We don't really give much thought or complain during the day when we need to take a shit. But after showers, we put more significance into our shit urges, because we just showered, and remember them. There really isn't a correlation I don't thi...
What exactly does the UK mean by "killing encryption"?	[ "All information transmitted over the Internet could be decrypted at government request. Things like private Facebook groups, stored email, online transactions, that C4 you bought from a Tor store, you know, stuff terrorists might do.\n\nIt's government trying to harm everyone, not just the very unfortunate very f...
how does quartz work in watches/clocks?	[ "The quartz itself is sliced into a very thin tuning fork shape, and is then connected to an oscillator circuit, which takes power from the battery, and starts (and keeps) the quartz vibrating.\n\nThe miniature quartz tuning fork vibrates at exactly 32,768 times per second (32,768 Hertz). Because of the nature of q...
Why do metals at room temperature feel colder to the touch than other materials?	[ "Your body isn't feeling temperature it is feeling the amount of heat leaving your body. There is a subtle distinction here. \nYou have 3 variables, the amount of heat the metal can pull away from your body (heat capacity). The amount of heat the metal can store (heat capacity * density, keep in mind metals are he...
Why do non-English speaking countries have so much English on their packaging and marketing?	[ "English-speaking countries are so economically powerful, mainly through influence of the United States, that most countries include English on their products so that tourists or international customers can read them.\n\nInterestingly the dominance of English in international business is so great that if someone is...
If it's harder to hear as altitude increases (Example: On a plane), does playing music through headphones louder than you normally would so you can hear it better damage your ears as much as playing music that loud when you can hear fine?	[ "if your thinking specifically on a plane, it is pressurised to 1800 - 2400 metres which although Alpine sort of levels I would think it wouldn't be enough to change noticeably. I know what you mean though about playing loud, I have always attributed it to the constant plane noise which you get used to but is surpr...
Why is it that whenever I'm nervous, I always tend to need to take a piss/dump?	[ "I have no idea, but whenever I enter a library or a bookstore I immediately need to go and I love books." ]
Why do most porn sites not use HTTPS?	[ "If you were to submit your credit card information on the internet, the information needs to go from your computer to the server. What hackers can do is to \"sniff\" the traffic, and decode the information that is sent, consequently getting your credit card information.\n\nWhat HTTPS does is encrypt the informati...
If various species naturally went extinct even without human influence in the past, why is it still important that species are going extinct? Is it not just nature taking its course?	[ "Regions in which humans have developed habitats saw a massive increase in the rate at which megafauna (i.e. large animals) started going extinct. This is WAY higher than what ecologists refer to as the background rate of extinction (the rate at which species went extinct before human influence, with a few special ...
Why are valve amps so much more powerful and louder than solid state amps with the same wattage?	[ "Valve amps produce a subjectively pleasing sound when they are driven past their \"clean\" limits. Among other reasons, they tend to distort (and generally reach limits) in a more gradual way than solid state amps. \n\nSo first off, you're intentionally exceeding the limits whereas you're staying within the limits...
Why do some seniors have a hard time learning basic computer skills even though it seems very intuitive to most people?	[ "Take a field you're inexperienced in. Let's say baseball. \n\nA professional baseball player says, \"Swing the bat like this.\" And he shows you how.\n\nSo you do the same. But then you mess up on the next swing. You forgot all his talking points/mechanical error/missed something he said. \n\nSo in the end you cou...
Why is there a little wall in the gas container of a lighter?	[ "A longer, thinner cylinder is stronger than a shorter, fatter one. Alas, the short, fat shape is more desirable in a lighter. The result is that a long, thin cylinder is folded in half to get the desired strength in the desired shape.", "It helps keep fuel in reach of the dip tube and keep any air inside away ...
How inheritances work and why people covet them so much?	[ "How they work: Relatives leave you money in their will and when they die you inherit that money\n\nWhy they're coveted: Free money" ]
In our dreams/nightmares, what in the brain is writing the events that are happening?	[ "In psychology, there are several different perspectives on dreams, and there is still no clear answer as to why they happen and what their purpose is.\n\nFreud believed that they were a window into the subconscious. This idea has merit but places too much inherent meaning on dreams.\n\nA more popular and modern t...
How does the nonprofit tobacco control organization known as Truth Initiative have a revenue of more then $957 million?	[ "Oh, the tobacco industry pays for them to advertise against tobacco. Ironic\n\nIn the 1950s, there were the first studies coming out that stated tobacco is quite bad for your health. Over the next half century, this fact became more widely known and the first lawsuits against tobacco companies came up. In the 1990...
What makes you so sleepy after a heavy meal?	[ "It's all about blood flow; blood, after a heavy meal, is directed towards the stomach to help aid the process of digestion. In this, blood is taken away from the parts of your body that make it \"feel awake.\"" ]
Why do guitars have 6 strings? Wouldn't it be better if they had 5 because we have 5 fingers?	[ "It has nothing to do with number of Fingers, you can use different methods of strumming and picking that are way more efficient than assigning one string to each finger. Its more a matter of Sound, the more strings you have, the higher the amount of notes when you play a chord.\n\nOr since you thought about pickin...
why we can't see the streak of the Milky Way the way in cameras capture it?	[ "Light pollution. \n\nIf there's too much ambient light in the atmosphere, the stars aren't as easily seen. \n\nWhen people take those awesome shots of the milky way, they're either in very isolated places, the picture was edited to make the stars more visible, or both. \n\nI live in a very rural area, and on ...
how is the common cold still a thing?	[ "For one, the cold virus mutates constantly. To come up with any sort of cure/vaccine would require a lot more work than it would for other diseases. Considering that the cold is rarely a deadly or debilitating disease, the amount of research that would be needed to eradicate it would be a huge waste of money." ]
What is happening in Venezuela?	[ "I already answered this on an AMA Request\n\n > I am a protester living in Margarita Island, Venezuela. Although I have not been involved in so much in the protest because I'm 13 years old and my parents don't let me protest because of the dangerous situations, I will kindly answer your questions. If you want som...
How do collision prevention systems on cars work?	[ "Usually, there is an IR range finder, which attempts to find how far from the nearest forward object you are. The car takes this distance, runs a calculation based on the current velocity (and maybe more variables, like road wetness, if you can be bothered) to determine the minimum stopping distance. The system wi...

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