Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
What is the difference between depression as a mental disorder and depression as a state or mood? How can one know which one he has and how severe it is?	[ "Depression is a mood. We all go through it at one time or another. Basically it is a deep and overwhelming sadness. Where depression becomes a mental disorder is when someone suffers from chronic depression. When someone suffers from chronic depression there is a root cause of either a chemical imbalance or an emo...
Why is American Express widely not accepted at many retail stores?	[ "Merchants have to pay more to accept American Express. While they may only pay 2%-3% for that Visa purchase you made, it would be closer to 5% for Amex.", "Credit card companies make money in one of three main ways: \n* By charging interest on unpaid balances\n* By charging merchants a percentage of sales as a t...
Why is breathing in faster than breathing out?	[ "This might be a better fit for /r/answers but there is some physiology involved in your answer that might be good for eli5. \n\nImagine you had a straw that you could suck water out of a glass with but you can only suck, you can't blow into the straw. You can very quickly pull water through the straw by sucking ha...
What's up with sloths?	[ "They just chill up in trees away from most predators that would otherwise be able to hunt them. By being super lazy, they don't use as much energy, so they don't have to process as much food. They only need to leave their tree every week or so to poop. As long as they have a readily available food source that they...
Why are there always sales just before the financial year ends?	[ "In ye olden days of business, stores would keep a ledger of their sales. Until they turned a profit, all sales were written down in red ink. Around the fourth quarter of the year when the Holidays were fast approaching, they'd start to turn a profit and write their numbers down in black ink. Hence the terms \"have...
Why are batteries (Such as AA, AAA, D, ect.) so expensive?	[ "Because people need them and will pay the prices charged. The price has stabilized at the highest point people will accept.", "They aren't that expensive [if you buy them from the right place](_URL_0_) in decent quantities.\n\nIf you buy brand names, however, you're paying massive markups for convenience & the...
How come people are not experiencing discomfort during highspeed train rides?	[ "These high speed trains accelerate quickly, but not that quickly.\n\nI don't know about the Japanese Maglev but the German one named 'Transrapid' had a maximum acceleration of 1.3 m/s² which is faster than normal trains but not really much different from acceleration experienced in cars.\n\nThe German ICE highspee...
How to detox from alcohol	[ "Long term alcoholics can suffer delirium tremens (known as the 'DTs' or the 'shakes') if they withdraw suddenly from alcohol and this can be serious enough to lead to death if not treated properly.\n\nHowever, roughly half of alcoholics who stop alcohol intake will not have any negative physical effects and only a...
Why does my head hurt when I get a headache?	[ "It depends on what is causing your headache. Stress headaches, for example, can be caused by excessive tension in the muscles around the head. Many headaches are generally thought to be the result of the blood vessels surrounding your brain either opening up (dilating) or clamping down (constricting). These action...
How do blisters form? And what is the purpose of the liquid inside of the blister?	[ "If you were 5, I'd explain: \"Blisters are nature's band aid.\" They form to protect the underlying layers of skin from an irritant. The reason people will tell you to never pop a blister is because the fluid within it is sterile. Not only that, but our outer layer of skin is our \"first line of defense\" again...
Why does the US have so many mattress stores?	[ "That's like asking why there are so many brands of toilet paper. Given the sheer number of people who use them, multiplied by how often you replace them, there is definitely room for profit. Also mattresses have a very high profit margin. They are essentially cloth, padding, and a small amount of metal and wood, ...
How 'deep' are tattoos?	[ "Well, Lets say it like this. I have a full sleeve, with full color, and very little \"exposed\" skin. I had someone slice my arm up with a garden rake, to the point I needed 3 stitches, and you can't even tell I had gotten hit. Granted, it depends on how heavy handed the artist is, and how good he is at his cra...
If the USA is at risk of hitting the debt ceiling, why aren't they taking it more seriously? Why aren't the branches being redesigned to be more efficient?	[ "Because the \"ceiling\" is a moving target and the war between efficiency and excess is constant." ]
Why do computers need to restart after updating?	[ "Some times updates need to modify system files that are currently in use by the OS. In those cases, the system will reboot, thus \"unlocking\" those files, and apply the changes during the boot sequence, before they get used again.", "Yes, and that's exactly what it's doing. If you quit all your programs, you're...
Why do I feel like I haven't really slept if I have vivid dreams during the night?	[ "It's not that the vivid dreams make you tired, it's the fact that you are waking up during a dream - waking out of REM sleep tends to leave you a bit groggy. Most of the dreams during the night you don't remember, which explains why this happens only when you remember the dream." ]
Explain the argument that the color pink doesn't really exist.	[ "A color is a certain wavelength of electromagnetic radiation. The \"color\" pink does not appear on the electromagnetic spectrum. Instead, it is how we perceive a certain combination of wavelengths, and therefore itself not a cookie.\n\nOf course, this is all just arguing semantics. As far as anyone in the real w...
The right to abolish government	[ "You're right, it isn't. The Declaration holds no rights for Americans; those are found in the Constitution." ]
Why is it that when people in very prestigious positions lose their jobs, they have to tender a resignation, but in everyday jobs, you just get fired?	[ "Most jobs in the USA are at-will; this means that either side can terminate the relationship at any time. You can quit whenever, and you can be fired whenever, for nearly any reason or no reason.\n\nMost upper management positions, however, are on contract. This means that the employee and the company sign an ag...
How do computer companies such as HP and Dell load all that bloatware onto their new computers as a large scale operation?	[ "They make OEM versions of operating systems, meaning they're baked right into the install media", "> There can't possibly be people who download and install all of that stuff on each individual machine, right?\n\nThe original setup of the machine is configured once and the disk imaged. That becomes the master c...
Why is it in companies like Twitter's interests to allow other people to produce clients like Tweebot? Wouldn't it be better for them to allow only their own app?	[ "People like choice. If Tweetbot can provide a better Twitter client, then Twitter is able to get more users. More users means more money, and more money is the meaning of life." ]
Why can't you put a cast on a horse's leg instead of killing it if it breaks it's leg?	[ "Horse limbs are quite complicated anatomically. They also do not tolerate casts in the manner a person can. Broken legs in horses would also require a body sling to reduce the weight on the injured limb. This requires very intense care as well as cost.", "Two reasons really. \n\n1. The cost. Most animals are ...
why is alcohol accepted in many places where Cannabis is not?	[ "Man... I want to know this one too!\n\nAs far as I understand, it’s all about marketing.\n\nThere’s a great episode of Stuff You Should Know that touches on this topic... I think it’s called ‘How marijuana works’.", "The man responsible for this (at least in the US) is Harry Anslinger. He was an official at the ...
How to people string up these super long zip lines?	[ "One method is to have the high point tied off and then you toss it down and drag it out to the low point. The other would be to tie off the low point and then have a free climber carry the high point up to the higher tie point. \n\nShooting them with some kind of grappling hook gun is common in movies, but not in ...
How does having sickle cell protect against malaria?	[ "We don't know exactly, but it has something do do with the fact that the Malaria parasite lives in the red blood cells for part of their development. \n\nThere are different theories, but they basically come down to one of two things:\n\n* Either the red blood cells of people with sickle-cell disease are just more...
Whats happening in the brain that allows me to instantly recognize that song i hate on the radio and scramble to change the station? why can't shazam or sound hound work that fast?	[ "The difference between something like Shazam and you is that Shazam is browsing through a library of songs that is over 11 million deep. assuming each song is 3 minutes on average, that's over 64 years of continuous music. Quite literally, you would die before you could listen to every song Shazam has to browse ...
Why didn't countries simply adopt Nazi Germany's weapons after the war	[ "Weapons technology is constantly advancing. To adopt even an existing weapon for yourself requires redesigning your factories, storage, distribution, etc. so it's not something to be undertaken lightly. Accordingly, it made much more for sense for the Allies to study German weapons and introduce advanced weapons, ...
How is Morgan Freeman's voice so 'compelling' and 'powerful'? And what can one do to learn to have an authoritative voice?	[ "He has a deep (low) voice, which is relatively difficult to develop. Far easier to develop is his manner of speaking, which is slow and distinct. He pronounces each word in sequence rather than slurring them together and pauses for emphasis where needed. The impression such speech gives is that your words are c...
How does UV light cause colors to fade like flags outdoors. Also why does it happen with colors like red?	[ "The dyes in the flags are made of chemicals, and UV light causes these chemicals to degrade into colorless ones. Each dye has a different chemical makeup, so some dyes, like red, degrade quickly into white, while others, like blue, just turn yellow" ]
how does smell stick to clothes?	[ "Smell is stuff - little bits of it. So...your clothes capture said little bits of stuff within the fabric." ]
Why does the House "always win" in gambling?	[ "The odds of winning any gambling are set out so the house always has an advantage. \n\nThis is usually just a few points of a percentage (0.verylittle) but over tens of millions of dollars pouring through a casino, this leads to millions in profit. You basically have like a 49% chance of winning, so over thousands...
Why is glass so inert to acids?	[ "Dat silicon dioxide. Acids react by having a weakly held hydrogen that the other part of the molecule doesn't care for much, and would really rather have a metal in its place, as metals are much more likely to give off outer electrons to a non-metal than hydrogen is.\n\nSilicon dioxide, however, is already in a re...
Why can we use computers to simulate humans visually, but not auditorily? I don't get why we can create amazing animated characters, but still need meatbags to do the voices, even though video is more complex than audio.	[ "I had a nice long comment composed but reddit's servers crashed and ate it.\n\nBasically, our visual perceptions are more forgiving than our aural ones. We're used to taking simple line drawings and being like, \"Okay, that's a face, I can roll with this.\" Auditory errors (or even just simplifications) strike us ...
Why do you get veinier when you work out?	[ "When ya run around or workout, your cells need more energy to keep going at the heightened rate. That means your heart has to start pumping faster, and 'cos your body's doing more work, you get hot. When you get hot, your body has a few ways of cooling you down, like sweating, or hairs standing up. One of these wa...
If I open a can of Coke while skydiving, does the liquid stay in the can?	[ "The ISS, along with everything and everyone in it, is falling freely towards earth at all times. Thus, the situation on the ISS is analogous to your question, without all the side effects of atmospheric drag. \nThere are a few really cool videos made by the crew of the ISS that show how things behave in free fall...
What are the benefits of having private internet access (for personal use) and why are people obsessed over it?	[ "Specifically, PrivateInternetAccess, if you are referring to that brand/company, is a provider of an anonymous VPN. Their VPN allows one to mask where their traffic is originating from by sending it through a third party. In addition, they accept forms of payment which reduce the paper trail behind their ...
Can someone please explain to me what is so bad about Tesla's intended direct-to-customer sales models and not going through dealers?	[ "\"Eliminating the middle-man? Never as easy as it sounds. About 50% of the human race is middle-men, and they don't take kindly to being eliminated.\" \n--Malcolm Reynolds, Firefly", "It's because they are cutting out the major car dealers. There is nothing wrong with them selling like that. The states that...
The economics of a chinese buffet. (how do they make enough money?)	[ "I could think of some reasons why but they may not be the whole truth:\n\n* You don't need as much staff because you aren't serving people at their tables\n\n* You have a set menu so you can make things in bulk and have less chefs required for cooking\n\n* You can order food in bulk since you will have a pretty go...
What makes the Leatherman multi-tool so good that everyone recommends it?	[ "Leatherman multi-tools contain lots tools useful for everyday stuff, are convenient to use and carry, have generally very good build quality, and have a good warranty." ]
Once a President is in office and installs his government, how does the federal government (continue to)investigate him?	[ "The Congress does the investigations, just like they did with Bill Clinton for over six years. This is the check on Executive power.", "Congressional oversight can investigate through subpoena power to produce testimony, documents, other evidence. It is limited in prosecutorial power and dependent on the DoJ ...
Why do we say "I'm getting on the bus/train/plane?" Yet say "I'm getting in the car?"	[ "Why do you park in the driveway and drive on the parkway?", "if i had to take a guess id say that a bus/train/airplane are all public transportation whereas a car is private in most cases. But I have no idea", "I think it mostly has to do with method of ingress and egress. You walk onto a bus, plane, train. Yo...
Why do we see "child geniuses" who get into colleges at very young ages and know complex math or science from a young age, but don't ever actually see their achievements in these fields when they enter adulthood?	[ "uh, Mozart? Most of the top chess players? (Go players too apparently). \n\n[Most of them live pretty good lives as professionals. ](_URL_0_) You know, other than Ted Kaczynski...\n\nBut a lot of this is just perception. Who would you say are the top 5 mathematical genius's today? Can you name even one? So...
How do all of these companies that claim to "consolidate your debt" work?	[ "It's a loan. They make interest. Since pretty much every debt has interest, they can charge a little more interest (since they tend to be scammy), and sometimes even cut the amount owed. Even with a high but not completely unreasonable interest rate, can still be lower than credit card interest rates, or old loans...
how do the bacteria in probiotic yogurt survive stomach acid and populate the intestines?	[ "Most of them don't but a few will get through and once they are within the gut they will start multiplying if they can find a niche there. The intestine already has a huge bacterial population and they have a habit of killing their neighbours which is why probiotic* yoghurt etc needs to be taken repeatedly to esta...
Where the superstition of walking under a ladder being bad luck come from?	[ "It's dangerous for both you and the person who may be at the top of the ladder. Something could be dropped on your head or you could possibly knock over the ladder. Don't walk under ladders." ]
Vickers Hardness Test	[ "Don't they use synthetic ones?\n\nSynthetic are waaay cheaper then real ones.", "The test requires a diamond cut and polished to an exact angle and mounted in the holder. Then it needs calibration and certification by an accredited laboratory. The underlying cost of the original diamond is probably a fairly mino...
UV light in public conveniences.	[ "Your mum is correct. \n\nUnder UV light you can't see your veins to inject. It also works with blue bulbs I think but is more effective with UV.\n\nEDIT: Missed a word" ]
What is the subreddit "wheredidthesodago" about?	[ "It's making fun of infomercials. In a certain kind of commercial, (abundant on American TV, I don't know about elsewhere), a certain set of tropes are always present. Most universal among them is a video, often in black and white, of someone utterly failing at a simple task, intended to demonstrate to the viewer w...
The chemical reactions that go on in my cell phone battery and how to make it last longer	[ "It's like a really big game of red rover. When the battery is brand new all the kids line up on one side of a football field. This is the + team (Li). When you use the battery kids run across the field to the other side to join the - team (ion). Some kids can't keep running from team to team so they stop in the mi...
Why couldn't T-Rex have been both predatory AND scavenging?	[ "Language like this is usually used for disambiguation. It can lead to confusion in the process, but mostly it's to try and avoid it. \n\nThere's often some overlap between behaviour. In fact, most carnivores will scavenge when given the chance. There just wasn't much hard evidence of this specifically exist...
which is the "Good" side and which is the "Bad" in Syria?	[ "GOOD: all the innocent population of Syria, all the thousands of 'immigrants' forced to leave their home\n\nBAD: the government, the (moderate) rebels, the terrorists, the US lead coalition, the Russian lead coalition" ]
If mushrooms are made of chitin, a protein, why is the amount of protein listed in the nutritional information so low?	[ "Chitin is a form of sugar - not protein. Since your question is still valid if you switch those words though, it is a type of sugar that our bodies cannot use. It acts just like fiber (also a sugar) and passes right through so to speak.", "Fun fact, chitin is found in insect shells, and other animal parts." ]
The purpose of the "indefinite detention" aspect of the National Defense Authorization Act?	[ "The biggest reason that I hear cited is that terrorism is very difficult to fight. A lot of times, the government has to act based on hearsay in order to prevent terrorism, and it's difficult because all the cards are stacked on the terrorists' side; Before NDAA the government couldn't detain potential terrorists...
Byte Storage	[ "Think of an SD card like a piece of graph paper. You can fill in squares and erase squares to create block pictures. You're never physically adding squares to the paper, you're just drawing and erasing sections of the already existing papers. So you're limited by whatever size of paper you have. To make a bigger p...
The time travel paradox (or the hitler's death paradox)	[ "You cannot time travel, it causes a paradox. In particular it would violate causality as in if you killed Hitler then he would never rise to the point where you need to go back and kill him, which means since you do not go back and kill him, he rises to the point you need to go back and kill him." ]
How floating-point numbers work	[ "Floating point numbers are essentially scientific notation. Like when you have a number written as 5.972 * 10^24 .\n\nWritten in this way, the number consists of several parts. In this example, 5.927 is called the significand, 10 is the base, and 24 is the exponent.\n\nFloating point numbers use a set number of di...
Why does coffee only taste bad at it's lukewarm state? But tastes amazing if it's at a more extreme temperature?	[ "Good coffee tastes good hot, warm or cold.\nShit coffee tastes ok when your taste buds don't work...ie extreme temperatures.", "Actually just learned this in a nutrition course. Coffee and Tea get most of their flavor from a lot of different oils and compounds (grouped together we can just call them solubles). O...
What exactly makes seawater salty?	[ "There is salt naturally in the environment. Salt dissolves easily in water so any rain falling will wash it into the oceans via rivers. (Rivers are slightly salty.) The sun evaporates water from the ocean but salt does not evaporate and so it's left behind. In other words, the water cycle of evaporation and ra...
Why is it bad to remove a flash drive without ejecting it first?	[ "It's actually not really bad usually.\nBut when its in the process of writing something on it and you interrupt it you can corrupt the data and the ultimate worst case scenario would be that the flash drives formatting would be f***ed up.", "It can cause corruption if it's writing info to the drive, otherwise it...
Is the color magenta a real color?	[ "Does this mean there's such a thing as fake colors? Enlighten me please, because I have no idea what you're talking about." ]
What would be the effects of consuming equal anoumts of caffeine and alcohol at the same time?	[ "Your senses would be deprived like you are drunk, but you would also have a lot of energy. Until you drink enough alcohol to pass out or both to vomit your guts out. They won't cancel each other out since it's depressing/upping different things. A chemical which counteracts alcohol/caffeine would cancel them. You ...
Is buying a hybrid or electric car really good for the environment?	[ "By the benchmarks of emissions and energy usage, hybrids and electric cars do in fact have a lower environmental impact than normal cars. There's a lot of articles that indicate otherwise, but the ideas expressed in those articles are largely based on two faulty sources, the Daily Mail and CNW Marketing, that do ...
why are numbers on a Swahili clock pronounced as the opposite number?	[ "They use standard clocks, but that's not actually how they tell time. Because they are at the equator, there's not much variation in the length of the day, so sunrise/sunset are roughly at the same time all year. Seven a.m. is one hour after sunrise, so they call it one in the morning. Six p.m is 12 hours after...
What is this greyish blob? have seen it on multiple computers when browsing reddit	[ "It's just an image: _URL_0_\n\nIt's part of that subreddit's style.", "I think its a bit like the people on youtube making comments with a fake default profile image, with a bug over it. The goal is to make you believe its on your screen.\n\nExample : _URL_1_", "It is the background image for /r/creepy. Here i...
The Israeli/Palestine conflict. Try to keep it neutral please!	[ "_URL_0_\n\n_URL_5_\n\n_URL_2_\n\n_URL_4_\n\n_URL_3_\n\n_URL_1_\n\n > Imagine you are a person living in an old house.\n\n > You hear about another guy across town whose roommates beat him up and kicked him out. According to legends and history, this other guy used to live in the house you have now, and his parents...
How do game codes selling sites have profit?	[ "Those sellers often get the keys free of cost or buy them at a discount and sell them at higher prices, also they might get them from the manufacturers through shady means and sell them at higher prices.Most of the time keys are not obtained legally(Eg. stolen credit cards).\nThe websites charge a commission on ea...
If President Obama is the head of the Executive branch, that is in charge of Law Enforcement, why hasn't he said anything about police brutality in the recent weeks suspects?	[ "The executive branch is absolutely not in charge of law enforcement. That's the concern of each individual state. Also he had [this to say about Ferguson](_URL_0_)", "Because these incidents haven't happened at the hands of federal law enforcement officers, but at the local levels. It would be more appropriate f...
Why is income inequality such a bad thing?	[ "Because without it you can't create class warfare. \n\nIncome inequity means nothing. \n\nSome people make more than others, and that means they either spend more or save more or invest more. \n\n If they spend more, then they spend more which helps local business to supply those needs, and contribute to the loca...
How do animals hibernate for so long?	[ "I can answer the poop part of your question. \n\nBears eat tons of grass prior to hibernation to form a butt plug. This keeps them from defecating. I'm sure other animals have a similar mechanism.", "I don't know about the pooping part, but I can explain the eating part.\n\nEssentially, what controls how fast yo...
Is the US Police really becoming an arbitrary tool or is it just the "smartphone-video-evolution" which manipulates the facts?	[ "A lot of people's experiences are going to vary based on where they're from and what their normal activities are. A rich person from a small town is not going to see things the same way as a poor person from a big city. Likewise, the police in these environments won't be run the same way.\n\nOverall, you can loo...
How does the modern economy work vs the previous and old systems where people traded goods for other goods, or used shells or beads?	[ "[Try this](_URL_0_). Lots of commentators seem to like it.", "Economics works the same way as it always has. Money is just a medium of exchange. A convenience. But it has no intrinsic value. Economics works on supply and demand. Demand is anything that people value, for whatever reason.\n\n\n\nThere was a stret...
M. Night Shyamalan's demise	[ "He made ~2 good movies and then most of his later work was subpar. It happens sometimes, people get lucky and do amazing work a few times and then remain subpar the rest of their life. Also, another issue is that M. Night Shyamalan movies usually have a twist, which made his first movies interesting but after a ...
Why people don't have any memories from the first 2 or so years of their life?	[ "the brain doesn't actually develop the capacity to store long term memories till several years after birth. The brain goes through a lot of stages in life, becoming more complex and more structured, till around 22 years old.", "It's a phenomenon known as infantile amnesia. There's very little actually known abou...
What is up with american TV shedules? Why is there huge mid season gaps and in some cases just random breaks of 1-4 weeks that can occur at any given point?	[ "The purpose of television is not to entertain...it is to sell ads. The TV schedule is a big chess game where you try to place the right show in the right time slot to make as much money as possible.\n\nYou only have so many episodes, so you have to spend them wisely. Some weeks historically have fewer viewers th...
How do "Industry Standards" work? Do some industries have official governed document - or is this really just a buzz word?	[ "> Is there a document that they a referencing?\n\nSometimes, but definitely not always. \n\nIf there is a licensing or governing body that regulates an industry, industry standards could be formally written. As an example, the FAA establishes many rules for commercial airlines that would be considered \"industr...
Why do long jumpers do weird random seemingly pointless movements before they run and jump?	[ "There's a certain technique for each jump. Jumpers have to count their steps, and how many of each type of step they have to take before the jump.\n\nSource: ran decathlon in high school" ]
Do deaf people get rhyming? Do they have their own poetic patters based on how they experience language?	[ "Iirc there is a similar thing to rhyming in asl. The meaning of signs depends on many things including hand shape and position in regards to body. So a sign that includes a certain shape signed over the chest could \"rhyme\" with a similar shape signed over the hip.", "I'll add a second question. Do they sign ...
Sometimes people on TV say "is this a secure line?" Is this a real thing?	[ "Usually in movies it means \"Can you confirm the line you are calling from hasn't been tapped?\" and this is fairly easy to verify if you're using a phone no one would expect you to use, like a random payphone.\n\nAs several other redditors have pointed out, for a connection to be confirmed secure in the modern er...
What is a mail order bride?	[ "There are organizations that provide matchmaking services between American (or, presumably, other first-world) men and women in countries with less opportunity. The stereotype is that the women come from Asian countries, but Russia also appears to be popular these days. The prospective groom chooses one or more wo...
How do you properly warm up an engine?	[ "There is more or less 2 phases to warming the engine.\n\nFirst, you should let your car idle 20-30 seconds. This ensure that the oil is travelling through the engine, lubricating it.\n\nAfter that, you can drive normally. Your engine is still not at optimal temperature, so DON'T push the car. Dont rev too high or ...
Why movies tend to take a year to produce, while TV shows can broadcast a few months after filming begins	[ "Sets, budget, and cast. I am by no means an expert, but I have seen this come up a few times and can give you an ELI5 answer. \n\nWhen making a movie, you may want to get a particular shot, such as snow falling in NYC. You could CGI it, but there is nothing like the real thing. If the producer starts shooting in t...
How does someone who does prank calls (ex. Ownage Pranks) make sure that their calls can not be traced back to them in any way?	[ "Most likely either prepaid burner SIM cards or nobody cares enough to look up his name." ]
when commercials say "Next 20 callers will receive..." How do they keep track of that?	[ "They don't. It's just a ploy to trick people into calling immediately rather than thinking about it first.", "They don't know. In fact, the advertisers don't even know what time the commercials will actually air.\n\nIf you call right away, guess what? You're one of the 20 callers. Call the number tomorrow? Hey,...
Why aren't countries referred to by the native word for them by the other countries?	[ "Many languages have sounds that other languages don't. It's why many people with the same first language have similar accents in a second language (ex: asians and 'L' sound). If the sound or technique used for pronunciation of a particular word is foreign, it'd be difficult for outsiders to say.\n\nOn top of that,...
How do chess players guesses how many turns are left to a match ?	[ "Usually they aren't guessing -- they are actually playing out the best possible moves in their head, and seeing that in a certain number of moves someone will win.", "Coming into the end game, the number of both possible and sensible movements begin to reduce. \n\nWith 16 or so movements before check/stalemate, ...
Why does the US and Russia possess enough nuclear weapons to destroy the earth	[ "Tactically speak, a surprise nuclear attack could wipe out a significant number of a countries nuclear arsenal. To maintain a nuclear deterrent, it is necessary to be able to wipe out your adversary with only a portion of it.", "They built a ton during the Cold War, trying to one up each other. Now, they're rea...
how does the moon work?	[ "It doesn't change shape. What is happening is that only half the Moon is illuminated by the Sun. As it orbits the Earth you can only see the entire half that is illuminated during a Full Moon, none during a New Moon (because the side that is illuminated is on the other side of the Moon) and various amounts betwe...
why all oil trading everywhere has to be done in US dollars	[ "It is? Do you have a link?\n\nAre you sure the USD is not just used for pricing purposes because its the world's de-facto currency for international trade? \n\n*And before the Euro people jump down my throat on this... that doesn't mean the USD is superior to anyone... but it is also the go too currency for defin...
If the Constitution protects against double jeopardy, how can trials go an appellate court?	[ "The process that happens in an appellate court or other higher court is not considered a separate trial, but rather a continuation of the original trial. What the appellate court tries to determine is whether the first court did a good job deciding the case, not (directly) if the defendant is guilty or not. The Am...
Why it's possible to stop breathing voluntary but not your heart beat?	[ "Here's the real answer: Your diaphragm and intercostal muscles (the muscles that allow you to breathe) are under voluntary control. Your heart is an involuntary muscle. Your heart can also become denervated (lose it's nerve connections) and still beat relatively fine. This is why people who are C2-3 quads don't...
how can movie trailers show clips of the movie, which I assume is finished, but not be shown for another year?	[ "I assume you're talking about the Batman v Superman trailer. They've finished filming and probably finished editing too. They're advertising for the movie so early so people know it's coming. We probably won't get another trailer like this for at least 3 months but this early trailer just gets people excited. It l...
Is there a limit to the “sound quality” that our ears can hear? If so, will recordings ever reach that limit (or maybe even surpass it)?	[ "We cannot hear sound above or below certain frequency limits. No matter how good the recording is at reproducing them, even if an electronic device can hear them, we cannot hear these notes." ]
Waiting for Godot, and why it's considered amazing	[ "Waiting for Godot is a weird and meta play, but I'll give my take.\n\nGodot means \"Little God\" in French. So, the characters waiting for some form of savior character day after day for eternity. Meanwhile, they complain constantly about their situation (\"I'm tired\") or just passively accept it (\"We're waiting...
Why are some house flies loud and some silent?	[ "This is a simple case of their genetics. Different sized flies, having different weights, require different amounts of lift to remain airborne.\n\nDepending on wingspan, and their strength, an insect will beat its wings at different rates.\n\nA butterfly, with large wings, will displace more air per beat, thus gen...
How do home shopping tv channels like qvc and hsn stay in business?	[ "Old people are their market. Old people hate computers and buying things they're not certain about. They see the product, and a smiling salesman, they don't have to read anything or search for it, they pick up that phone and say what they want. Edit: and if I had to guess, I'd say they don't mind paying a little m...
How does poison work?	[ "Poison is an American glam metal band that achieved great success in the mid-1980s to mid-1990s. Poison has sold over 30 million records worldwide and have sold 15 million records in the United States alone. The band has also charted ten singles to the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, including six Top 10 singles ...
How weather prediction works and why it requires massive computing power	[ "We take the (imagined) atmosphere and divide it into really large slabs - about 20km on both sides horizontally and about 1 km up. With each of these slabs there are some well understood equations around the amount of air that's going to flow into and out of each of the six sides. Unfortunately this movement depen...
Tautology	[ "A tautology is a logical proposition or statement that is true under any condition. Examples of tautologies:\n\n* Statements of the form (either x or not x): \"Tomorrow, it'll either rain or it won't.\"\n\n* Statements of the form (x implies x): \"If it rains tomorrow, it'll be rainy.\"\n\n* Statements of the form...
Why are salt and pepper such ubiquitous ingredients in cooking?	[ "The human sense of taste has evolved to enjoy salt, because salt is important for your body to keep functioning. But that's not the only cool thing it does, it also seems to suppress our perception of bitter tastes, which lets other tastes like sweet or sour stand out more. Salt not only tastes pretty good on its ...
What are electromagnetic waves?	[ "Light is an electromagnetic wave . Thus all EM waves travel at the speed of light. Light is a form of energy so different electromagentic waves have different amounts of energy. \n\nLight that contains very little energy are things like radio waves and microwaves and infrared light. We use these waves in our every...
Why, in boxing, does the referee continue to count after a downed fighter stands back up?	[ "It is called a standing 8 count. It basically gives the ref the ability to judge of the fighter is able to go on, or is he is essentially out on his feet. Also gives the fighter an extra couple of seconds to compose himself before continuing\n\n_URL_0_" ]

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