Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
Operation Gladio	[ "\"Gladio\" was the code name for the NATO stay-behind operational plan in Italy during the Cold War. It involved intelligence, special forces, and regular army troops from Italy and other NATO members who, in the event of a successful Warsaw Pact invasion, would stay and fight an insurgent/resistance campaign. Oth...
How does one fix their standing/sitting posture?	[ "I assume you're talking about hunched shoulders--that's the main problem that people have. It's usually just a result of attitude and habit, not a medical problem.\n\nI know that correcting your standing posture will help correct your sitting posture, so I'll target standing posture in particular.\n\nA lot of it i...
How come going a certain speed on a roller coaster feels more intense than traveling in a car at the same speed?	[ "While the speed of a roller-coaster may be the same, the quicker change in the direction of the speed (a.k.a. change in velocity due to the centripetal and centrifugal acceleration) cause more G-forces to be felt by the rider than while travelling in a car." ]
What is the biological reason to me feeling quite energetic after taking.a vitamin B complex plus iron supplement? Is this same through the entire vitamin supplement spectrum?	[ "Placebo effect.\n\nThe vitamin B energy thing is a result of a basic misunderstanding of how the body works. It is true that your body uses vitamin B as a part of the process for extracting energy from foods. People look at this and assume that if vitamin B helps make energy, then more vitamin B means more energ...
How do humans and other animals “feel” and predict changes in the weather? i.e rain.	[ "The pressure changes with the weather, low pressure usually means rain. You know how you ears pop when you go up in a plane because of the high pressure. This is the same idea but with a change to low pressure. Some people who have achy joints can feel the pressure drop because there isn't as much pressure around ...
Why moving air feels cold	[ "The most energetic particles of water on your skin evaporate from liquid to gas, taking away their energy from your body and lowering the overall kinetic energy of the water on your skin. This is how heat transfers from skin to sweat, to water vapor. If the air is moving, it more effectively allows water to evapor...
Why does shampoo made in the US have English and French translations as opposed to English and Spanish?	[ "Canada has laws that products must be labeled in English and in French. Most US manufacturers also want to sell their items in Canada, so they just make one label for both countries. Most US manufacturers aren't trying to sell their products in Mexico, so they don't have a Spanish translation." ]
Why is my eyesight blurry when I first wake up in the morning?	[ "Most likely they're very dry. Blinking a few times and creating tears should clear it up, if not, then artificial tears/saline should do the trick.", "Sorry for english in advance,dont know some of these terms releted to eye sight.\n\nWhen you're sleeping,your eyes are relaxed.\nWhen you wake up,the muscles in y...
Why do we touch our forehead when we did something stupid?	[ "We don't all necessarily do that! Touching your forehead when you make a mistake is not universal, it is cultural! As a child, you may see your mother touch her forehead after an incident and you copy it! But for another child, say in a far off country, the child might observe his/her mother putting her hand on he...
When the roof of your mouth and the inside of your ears get itchy from allergies, and you can never seem to reach the irritated area, what is it that is actually itchy?	[ "Histamine release.\n\nYour body produces histamines, which causes redness and itching when it triggers from thinking your body is being invaded. That allows your white blood cells to travel easier to remove the invaders. Histamines are produced all over your body.\n\nIt's like the redness you get from eating niaci...
The division between Noam Chomsky and Daniel Everett regarding "universal grammar."	[ "Chompsky points to the fact that no one ever sits you down as a child and says \"verbs work like this, sentences work like this...\" the way we do with math and such, but all kids learn language perfectly. Because of this, Chompsky believes that out brain has a set of grammar which we are born with, like settings ...
Legality of war	[ "So, the first notion to dissuade yourself from is that there is international law on when a war is \"legal\" - there is not. Every country decides for itself whether a war is legal or not and imposes penalties if they feel it is \"illegal.\" And there has not been a single case in the modern international system...
Why is it that data is always unavailable for Greenland?	[ "Greenland isn't an independent country, for starters. It's still part of Denmark. Considering that it has a population of 60,000 people, using the same data as for Denmark proper wouldn't be an accurate representation.", "Majority of the population consists of Greenlandic Inuit. The Europeans are only a small ...
How do meteorologists predict temperatures?	[ "They track past temperatures when conditions matched the current conditions and see what patterns emerge. They use those patterns to make educated guesses about what is going to happen in the future. Pretty much everything in weather forecasting works that way." ]
Why Are certain areas said to be not habitable for "centuries" due to a nuclear accident, but places like Hiroshima are habitable?	[ "Different kinds of radiation. Bombs like Hiroshima generated a lot of quickly dissipating radiation, and very little long-lasting radiation. The Chernobyl reactor, on the other hand, put out lots of long-lasting radiation and very little short-lived radiation.\n\nI don't know enough about the topic to be more sp...
what exactly is a rape kit ?	[ "Its used to collect physical evidence from the victim, sometimes done by the victim themselves, more commonly by a nurse.\n\n > Although a rape kit's contents may vary by location, it may include:\n > Instructions\n\n > Bags and sheets for evidence collection\n\n > Swabs for collecting fluids from the lips, cheeks...
Gut bacteria and their relationship with depression.	[ "90% of serotonin is produced in your gut. Serotonin regulates mood. If your gut bacteria is off, this could cause depression and anxiety. Thus, sometimes a probiotic can help with this." ]
Where the term “late” to describe deceased came from	[ "It's shorthand for \"lately deceased\". It's traditionally used to describe someone who has died recently, but as the abbreviated phrase eclipsed the full one in popular speech, it's come to describe anyone who is dead regardless of how recently they croaked." ]
How do people make high quality GIFs of live sporting events on TV only minutes after the action occurs?	[ "The same way all gifs are made, just quickly. They probably have a capture card connected to their TV that they set to record the whole game, so after something \"gifworthy\" happens they just need to trim that part of the footage and convert it using any number of programs available online.", "[Hi, this is how ...
the evidence for and against global warming	[ "The main evidence for global warming is simply that the average temperatures across the globe have been rising for decades. If you want to also include the evidence that humans are responsible and this isn't a natural cycle, the levels of CO2 in the air have skyrocketed to levels not seen in millions of years on E...
Why are bodybuilders more ripped than powerlifters?	[ "Lifters build up their body to lift. Bodybuilders build up their body to look ripped.", "Power lifters center their workouts around trying to get as strong as possible. Whether it's bench press, squat, dead lift, the purpose is to lift the most weight. That is how they score competitions. \n\nBodybuilders on the...
What is the pump and dump method in stocks?	[ "That's where you buy a bunch of worthless stocks at a very low price. This inflates their price a bit (pump) and gives the appearance of growth. Other people see the value increasing, and may buy more stocks, thinking the price will continue to rise. If enough suckers buy stock on top of yours, you can sell (dump)...
Wave-Particle Duality	[ "Sigh... I had a nice post going and my comp crashed, you have another explanation coming I just need to condense what I previously wrote. \n\nTo me it's easier to understand this if you know the history of the discoveries, and not just the abstract ideas. Here we go...\n\nUp until the beginning of the 20th centur...
What makes a song more complex than another?	[ "There are many determining factors in deeming a song complex. For instance, a simple C G A F chord progression with a guitar, bass and drums isn't quite as complex as a unique chord progression with an orchestra behind it. I'm not 100% sure what you're asking but I hope that helped answer your question." ]
What happens to illegal drugs after they are seized by law enforcement?	[ "They get stored in the police's evidence rooms and their files are put into archives. Then, they are sent to this big oven for incineration in a more central police station. My mom works with this stuff.", "Additional mod reminder: is this really a question you looked into and thought it was so complicated you n...
why in some countries it is left lane drive and in some it is right? what are the advantages of right/left lane driving?	[ "left side driving if more often than not a british thing, or a it happends in a country that used to be a british colony. when there still was knights on horses out on the road, the knights prefered to ride on the side of the road where they could use their sword arm(the right arm) without pullign the sword into b...
How were people able to make accurate depictions and maps of different continents in a time before satellites?	[ "They would do it by surveying. That is going out with tools to look at and measure things directly. And using some math to estimate heights, distances, etc." ]
Why is it that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump seem to be the leading presidential candidates when it seems that public opinion of both is very low?	[ "First, this is how it always is this early in campaign season. Anyone with a little bit of name recognition immediately is at the forefront, regardless of their quality as a candidate or likelihood to do well long term.\n\nBut more to the point, it's because we don't cast negative votes.\n\nIf 20% of the people lo...
Why Australia has a notoriously bad internet connection?	[ "There are a lot of things not working in Australia's favor when it comes to internet connections.\n\n1. They don't have many people, this means, especially for those Australians who live outside cities, that companies would not make a profit installing the infrastructure to give them fast service. A small town i...
why is my school so sensitive to religion amongst students, but also purposely doesn't serve meat on Fridays?	[ "A lot of schools focus on creating an inclusive space for all students and staff. \n\nThis includes recognizing traditions and cultural practises, such as 'meatless Fridays' during Lent.", "Many schools don't have alternatives (no menu, school lunch is school lunch).\n\nPeople who participate in meatless Fridays...
Why is it so hard to text with cold hands?	[ "When your body gets cold blood circulation to your extremeties (hands, fingers, feet, legs) is partially cut off in order to preserve the heat near the core of your body where the most vital organs are.\n\nWith less blood your fingers and hands become less sensitive and less mobile and thus it makes it harder to t...
Where did smoking terms like "high" or "stoned" originate?	[ "As far back as 1620, \"high\" meant \"euphorically drunk\" (i.e., on alcohol). It's that stage of drinking where you're still cheerful: your spirits are high. It didn't come to be used for other drugs until the 1930s.\n\n\"Stoned\" also originally meant \"drunk\" and was later transferred to being intoxicated on c...
Is there a difference between things that "glow" and things that only show up under UV light? What is the mechanism for each?	[ "Glow in the dark = Phosphorescence\n\nShow up under UV = Fluorescence\n\nFrom Wiki \"The most striking example of fluorescence occurs when the absorbed radiation is in the ultraviolet region of the spectrum, and thus invisible to the human eye, while the emitted light is in the visible region, which gives the fluo...
why do ludicrously over-priced listings exist on sites like Amazon, even for common, nondescript products?	[ "The most common reason for this is that these items are have code/algorithms from their owners that continually adjust the price relative to some other items, and occasionally they mess up and end up at these crazy values. \n\nIn the past there were some funny situations that people found of algorithms selling the...
Why does stretching when you wake up feel so good?	[ "Your joints’ metabolism works through the liquid in the joints. When they are not moving and the fluid stays still, the process makes the liquid have the metabolites, which makes the cartilages somewhat sore. So when you stretch and the fluid gets stirred around, you feel the refreshment.\n\nA similar thing happen...
How do big companies prevent petty theft from employees?	[ "Registers are computerized and have a log of all the transactions. Each clerk starts with a fixed quantity of cash and it gets counted at the end of the shift.\r\rThis is part of why so many stores have strict policies about giving a receipt with every purchase. It forces employees to put every order into the syst...
Why does the the human mind ignore the second "the"?	[ "There's a phenomenon called [attentional blink](_URL_0_) where, when you're rapidly presented with stimuli, your brain will perceive two identical stimuli in a row as a single stimulus. Basically, your brain sees \"the the\" and assumes there was only one. \n\nIn nature, identical stimuli in rapid succession are...
why do cats have to smell everything? Why can't they just look at the things?	[ "The cat's response:\nWhy do humans have to look at everything? Why can't they just smell things?\n\nEach of your senses gives you a wealth of information. Humans are very visually-based creatures, for a variety of reasons (leading evolutionary theories that I've heard have to do with brachiation - swinging throu...
Which virus scanners to avoid, which to use, what should I look out for.	[ "Let me fix your account with Webroot. PM me your e-mail address you used to register and I will see what I can do.", "I use a combo of Microsoft Security Essentials and Malware bytes with Windows 7. If you're careful, this should be sufficient. I'm not sure about MSE and Windows 8 however.", "I've been very h...
Why isn't there a spending limit in US political campaigns like a salary cap in sports?	[ "[There are.](_URL_0_) Problem is they have so many loopholes, candidates still amass over 500 million USD." ]
What is the logic behind AI in strategy games such as Starcraft or Xcom.	[ "In starcraft, each unit has a \"counter-unit\". At the highest difficulty, an AI will likely have one of its workers or cheap units in your base, watching your build, while simultaneously building the counter to what you have. This is how it decides upon the macro side of the game. For the micro (individual ski...
Why Gluten-Free diets are so popular now	[ "Eating a gluten-free diet is both extremely strict and generally devoid of foods that the average American binge eats. Most of the success of the diet isn't specifically due to the absence of gluten, but due to the dieter's restricted calorie intake and avoidance of nutrient-deficient foods.\r\rBasically, you aren...
Why don't any animals have to wipe their ass, but humans do?	[ "Animals don't need to wipe their ass, because they lick it or rub it to the ground. Some animals don't feel the need to clean anus at all, because their shit is dry enough to not make a mess. \n\nIf humananimal wants to clean their ass, and they don't want to rub it to ground, hand need to be used, because tongu...
What is a quantam entanglement?	[ "Let's say you have two pieces of chocolate. You know that one of them has caramel inside and one has nougat inside, but they look the same and there's no way to tell the difference. You give one to your friend. Your friend takes it on a trip far away. Later you bite into your chocolate and find out that it has car...
Why is fiberglass so itchy?	[ "Fiberglass is literally made of glass fibers. Like tiny threads.\nGlass is sharp, especially if it's the size of thread. So if it pokes you, it penetrates the top layers of the skin a little, and this causes irritation. \n\nThe fibers aren't thick or heavy enough to press in deeper so there's not much risk of them...
Why are the majority of the reddit population male?	[ "Why are most subreddit populations comprised of men moreso than women? \n\nCheck out the history of reddit: [Here](_URL_2_)\n\nIt's a lot of good content to read through. For example, check out the growth and popularity of subreddits over the history of reddit: [Here](_URL_0_)\n\nOr here, take a look at reddit in ...
How Tax Havens Work	[ "Tax shelters aren't so much used for income as for capital gains - if I own a company in the Cayman's and it makes a lot of money day trading then I only have to pay taxes on what shares of the company I sell - which qualify for a lower tax rate.\n\nUnfortunately regular income is treated completely differently - ...
How did something like the holocaust and nazi's happen without the law finding out?	[ "The Nazi's happened through the law, then they were the law, then the holocaust happened when there was no law, but nazi law.", "Well at the time of that nazi era atrocities going on, the nazis and hitler were the law. They basically owned Germany", "The Nazis \"happened\" because nobody really knew how danger...
Can anyone explain the court case of R.A.V. V. St. Paul in simple man's terms?	[ "A white juvenile (R. A. V.) burned a cross on a black family's lawn (if you're not from the US, that's a very strong message of hate dating back at least a century). At his trial, V.'s attorney moved for dismissal on grounds that this law was content based and the law violated V's first amendment rights (free spe...
Why does a computer screen look pixelated and wavy on a digital camera shot?	[ "The PPI (Pixels Per Inch) of the camera's sensor is battling with the PPI of the computer's screen. This is known as [Moire](_URL_0_).", "Computer screens refresh themselves or redraw themselves over and over again. That is what your camera is seeing. \n\nIf you have good video camera you can sync the two up to...
How does money laundering work?	[ "You stole $5 from Mom. Mom will definitely know if you buy something from it. You tell Mom you walk the neighbor's dog for the weekend. You walk the dog, earn $5. Tell Mom you earned $10 walking the dog.", "So let’s say you have a good amount of illicit income like selling drugs, guns, sex trafficking, hitman, w...
Why do most bigger men, i.e. bodybuilders, have deeper voices?	[ "They don't. There's no correlation between the size of a person and the size of their vocal chords, which is what determines vocal pitch and timbre.", "They have more testosterone. That's the cleanest biological answer. But a lot of people force it and talk in a lower register. I don't mean a forced deep voice, ...
why when I fall asleep I wake up with "sleep" in my eyes	[ "Spiders climb up to the ceiling and have competitions to see which one can shit in your mouth first. It's also why your breath is so bad when you first wake up. True story.", "The scientific term is [eye boogers](_URL_0_).\n\nI know you probably wouldn't have gotten results if you didn't know to search for it, b...
Meditation and how you would go about learning to understand and practise it?	[ "when you are just starting out, audio recordings of guided meditation can be fantastic. few people have the mindfulness to just up and do it alone. it's kind of like riding a bike. takes practice and trust with yourself. \n\nthere's a lot of options and [\$unlike this recommendation\$](_URL_0_), they don't have ...
How almost every book in a bookstore is written by 'New York Times Best-Selling author'	[ "Confirmation bias. When you see that, you go \"Huh, another one.\" When you don't, you ignore it.\n\nMost books are not written by authors who've had books on the New York Times best-seller list.", "NYT has multiple different lists that are filled with dozens of books each that update relatively frequently. Al...
Why Does Conservation of Angular Momentum Happen?	[ "Conservation laws are ultimately due to symmetries. \n\nSince physical situations do not depend on how a system is orientated, this rotational invariance gives rise to the conservation of angular momentum.", "Basically, anytime the laws of physics don't change with respect to a change in your perspective, you ...
How does the whiskey and water trick work?	[ "Density. \n\nThe water is more dense than the whisky. So water will weigh more than the whisky. They switch places since they are the same volume. The heavier water fills up the entire bottom glass, leaving the lighter whisky nowhere to go except up into the top glass." ]
What it means when people say "You can't make up lost sleep"?	[ "The idea is that sleep isn't totally a + - system. Sleep is meant for helping with memory and body recovery. No matter what you do, if you don't sleep that night (and on a regular schedule) the damage will already be done. You can't work on memorizing something that's been gone for a day, and if you have bodily da...
How can glass get fogged up from steam and frost but our eyes can't?	[ "Fogged up glass happens when humid air gets in contact with a cold surface and condensates there.\n\nOur eyes have a. a layer of water in front of them, that's because you keep blinking, and b. are not cold enough to cause the humid air to condensate.", "Your eyes are (for all intents and purposes) water. Water ...
How do animators pair up the voice recording with the character's lips?	[ "Voiceovers are almost always done BEFORE animation, especially the finer points of animation like lip sync. \n\nProperly lip syncing is all about understanding the four basic shapes the mouth makes while speaking : Open, Closed, Wide, and Narrow. With a few special exceptions (f, v, etc.) all phonemes fit roughly ...
LDAP	[ "Its a giant phonebook that provides information about you to anything linked to use that phonebook. You can hook up computers to use this phonebook to look up details about you or someone else. It can also store/look up your password to make sure you are who you say you are.\n\nThe giant phonebook also classifi...
How do GPS systems enter all their road data?	[ "A lot of it is pre-existing database information from municipalities and private firms. You can buy most of it for yourself too if you know where. Some systems also integrate a user updated database that can quickly track changes based on individual reports and third party tracking." ]
Why is the percentage of kids diagnosed with ADHD so high in places like America, but almost 0 in places like France?	[ "We view it as a medical disorder, they view it at a personality trait.", "An important thing to understand about mental illness is that it's defined in relation to the society in which the patient lives. Some cultures may regard ADHD as a personality trait, and some cultures may recognize the cluster of symptom...
Military Patents, how are they enforced and why bother to make a patent?	[ "These things are often designed and manufactured by private companies, and then sold to government customers. The government manufactures almost nothing itself. So all those tanks and planes and weapons are made by businesses like Boeing, Chrysler, Colt, etc. For example, for many decades Colt held the exclusiv...
Why do the Alps have more glaciers than the Rocky mountains if the Rocky Mountains have a comparable number of peaks at or over 13,000 Feet/4,000 meters?	[ "There's an enormous difference in rainfall between the Rocky Mountains and the Alps. While these maps are pretty general, the difference is enough to be obvious. \n\n[The Rockies](_URL_0_) are almost entirely in the 200-400mm range with only the Northern part of the chain in the 400-800mm range.\n\n[The Alps](_UR...
What in the world is Half Life 3?	[ "Half-Life is a series of video games by Valve.\n\nThe first game came out in 1998, and was a huge success. The second game came out in 2004 (after being delayed for over a year) and was also a huge success.\n\nAfter the seconds game, Valve decided to create new sequels as three \"episodes\" (which were more like e...
the basics of the Mac vs. Pc debate, as unbiased as possible	[ "It generally depends on what you need the computer for.\n\nA lot of people just want to browse the internet, email, maybe put a photo slide show together, or throw a movie together with videos from their phone or flip camera. A Mac is really good for this. Their main desktop computer comes with a monitor -- no m...
Why are Americans forced to purchase pharmaceutical prescription drugs from America?	[ "American's go to Canada all the time to buy drugs. It's technically illegal but the FDA generally turns a blind eye and I've never had a border guard ask me about prescription drugs. You generally need a Canadian Doctor to write the script for you but that is easy enough to get especially if you already have a s...
how come most high schools don't teach you how to do taxes or buy a house or car?	[ "Some view school as the place you go to be taught academic subjects. Life skills such as cooking, changing the oil, doing taxes, etc. are viewed as skills most adults have and should pass on to their children. This is not necessarily what happens in reality, but it is the reason schools put less emphasis on life s...
Why aren’t the parents of minors who take their guns and use them in crimes held criminally responsible?	[ "Sometimes, they are.\n\n* [Parents charged after Wisconsin boy accidentally shoots, kills 9-year-old sister](_URL_3_)\n\n* [Kentucky parents charged when 11-year-old son shot sister in the head.](_URL_4_)\n\n* [Ashland Sheriff: Mother charged after 8-year-old shoots his 4-year-old sister](_URL_0_)\n\n\n* [Parents ...
Can someone ELI5 the political turmoil that is going on in Italy?	[ "As you may already know, we just had an year of technical government, that's coming to an end after Mario Monti resigned (but he stays in charge until elections), nominated and chosen by our President after Berlusconi's cabinet fell.\nYou may have noticed, that in Italy we have as many political parties ad you c...
What are the circles under the eyes caused by? Is it actually from a lack of sleep?	[ "Caused mostly by genetics. The skin under our eyes is very thin. The darkness comes from blood filling in the blood vessels under the skin. No way to naturally get rid of them but they can be covered by makeup. Can look worse from lack of sleep, but also from too much sleep." ]
Where does the stereotype of Canadians being very polite come from?	[ "It comes from reality.\n\nCanadians really are very polite.\n\nSource: I'm from Scotland, I moved to Canada a few years ago.", "Canadian here, i actually read a really cool article explaining how we use the word sorry vs americans. Basically here we say sorry if we do something, and if something happens to you, ...
Why do we sometimes wake up with curvy lines randomly pressed into our body?	[ "They're imprints in your skin from wrinkles in your sheets, or the way your skin is pressed against your bed." ]
Why is weatherstripping for doors/windows hollow?	[ "Combination of reasons, it uses less product and therefore cheaper. A large hollow foam tube can be squished when the door closes and make a good seal. A smaller solid tube will leave gaps and won't squish as easily." ]
Why is chicken meat so different to pork and beef? Its still muscle right?	[ "Muscles rely on two different processes for energy. Anaeorbic respiration doesn't require oxygen, but produces relatively little energy. Aeorbic respiration on the other hand produces a lot more energy, but requires oxygen.\n\nNot all muscles are used for the same purpose. Some muscle needs more oxygen because the...
How can newspapers publicly endorse political candidates and remain an unbiased source of information?	[ "Newspapers have had editorials and opinion pieces of various kinds for centuries. Separated as much as possible/practical from the news side", "Some newspapers have citizen editorial boards who recommend candidates for endorsement. Some endorsements are the pick of the publisher. And more often than not, the end...
If a plane went above, then below, then above the speed of sound a bunch of times would it create a bunch of sonic booms?	[ "An object travelling faster than the speed of sound is continuously generating a shockwave for as a long as it exceeds the speed of sound. It only sounds like a brief 'boom' to a distant listener because the plane has already flown past- to hear another one, it would have to turn around and fly past you again.\n...
Space elevator..	[ "In general terms, a space elevator usually works something like this:\n\n1) Geostationary orbits (GSO) are roughly 22,000 miles above the Earth. An object in such an orbit is always directly above a single point on the Earth's surface.\n\n2) The size of the satellite doesn't matter, so long as its center of gravit...
Why do companies pay money to create stock photography that is extremely unlikely to be used?	[ "People take photos of things they think are not already available. They upload them on stock photo sites, hoping some day someone wants to use that photo and buys it off them. The photographer gets paid and the site makes a commission.\n\nThis image may look very weird and make you wonder how someone thought of th...
Why is it cheaper to fly to different countries in Europe as opposed to it being expensive to fly to other states in the US?	[ "Europe has a well developed train system which competes with the airlines. \n\nThis drives down prices, and eliminates routes that are not profitable enough. The flights that do exist will be cheaper, but there will be fewer of them.\n\nAlso, some European countries have national airlines that are subsidized." ]
I'm sorry, but what the heck is a VPN?	[ "A VPN is a Virtual Private Network. It's a private network (like a LAN) that's set up over a public network (the internet). It's called \"virtual\" because there is no real private connection, like a direct cable, or a leased line. Instead, it uses a public connection (internet) and encrypts it to make it priva...
How can people do voice impressions of other people when you don't know what your own voice sounds like?	[ "Impressionists practice with a voice recorder. That way they can hear their impression as other people would hear them and try to adjust accordingly. Ideally they would also have a recording of who they are trying to copy as well so they can hear the two back-to-back to listen for differences." ]
Where does the heat in our body come from?	[ "When you consume food, all that food gets broken down and absorbed by your body at a molecular level. You're turning a piece of food into it's molecules. Then your body breaks the bonds which releases heat. Breaking bonds is where that energy (heat) comes from.", "From cellular metabolism. In the course of the c...
Why do Christianity and Islam consider homosexuality a sin?	[ "I'm not sure what the Muslim rationale is behind it as I am not Muslim nor have looked into why the Islamic faith has that belief. But from a Christian perspective, I think you might find [this article](_URL_0_) to be helpful. In short, in Christianity the most important thing (according to Jesus) is to love the L...
If laser guns existed, would they be making the same stock sound that we hear in the movies?	[ "Laser guns do exist, they've been around in various forms since at least the 70s from military projects. They don't make any noise when they shoot. There's no pew pew, and you can't even see the beam, its outside of the visible spectrum" ]
Beer in fridge vs Beer room temperature.	[ "That would depend on several things, including the temperatures of each of the environments and the power of the fridge's compressor." ]
What is a URL and how does it work?	[ "A URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, which is generally just a fancy way of saying a web address. The various parts of the URL are used by all of the systems between you and what you're trying to access to figure out how to get you what you need. It gives you a protocol (how to access it) and the domain (w...
The plot of the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad	[ "Man's journey up the Congo (the darkness) as an allegory for men's journey into himself (actually the darkness)." ]
Why do hotels skip seemingly random room numbers?	[ "Could be for any number of reasons.\n\nHow does the layout of rooms on floor 2 and 3 compare to each other and floor 1/4? The hotel may opt to keep each floor's numbering as similar as possible vertically, even when one floor has more or less rooms\n\nRoom #233 could still be a room, just not a guest room. For con...
how underwater pressure works	[ "There's water on top of you, that's what causes the pressure, just like normal pressure is caused by air on top of you, go up the mountain and there'll be less pressure. Water is much heavier than air though, so going just 10 meters deep will double the pressure compared to surface.\n\nThe extra pressure is danger...
Why do some doors open inward, and some open outward?	[ "Different building codes for safety. Exterior doors have to open inwards do that in emergency if you need to get out, something places on the outside doesn't block the door from opening. \n\nIts also a safety thing so that if you push open a door, it doesn't smash someone's face whose trying to get in.", "...
Apache Hadoop	[ "If you need to store a ton of data, it can break the data into little chunks and distribute them to a group of cheap computers to store. (HDFS)\n\nIf you need to work on a ton of data, then it can break the work into little chunks and distribute them to a group of cheap computers to work on. (MapReduce)\n\nIt ...
Why do some companies make Solid State Drives (SSD) that are slightly different from one another in size (i.e. 480GB vs. 500GB vs. 512GB)?	[ "They don't. They're using the same size chip, it's that ssds lose a fraction of a percent of their space every write cycle, and different manufacturers reserve a certain amount of space in the drive to make up for those losses, so your total value doesn't change over time, and so if you fill up the drive completel...
If the president was of another religion, would they take oath over the book of their faith. (For example, if the president was Jewish, would they take oath over the Torah)?	[ "The president has a choice of what they want to be sworn in on. The book doesn't even have to be a religious text. Some presidents were sworn in on copies of the constitution.", "Bigger question here: can I be sworn in with a copy of a cookbook ?" ]
Why do people blame Republicans' success in Congressional races on district gerrymandering? Can't Democrats redistrict just the same?	[ "They can and do. Illinois' 4th and Florida's 5th are prime examples of the dems gerrymandering. Unfortunately the only way our government tries to fix gerrymandering is with more gerrymandering. \n\nEdit: got my districts mixed up" ]
How does Nat Geo get so much great footage of rare, small, and dangerous animals?	[ "They have the means to to put professional photographers \"in the field\" for long stretches at a time.", "By sending people into areas known to contain these creature, sometimes with trackers or high tech means of finding these animals. Then they just have to stay there until something turns up. I saw a doc las...
Why aren't all currencies worth the same?	[ "There's a fuck ton more yen (Japanese currency) than US dollars.\n\nSupply and demand determines value. Higher supply means lower value. There's a much larger supply of yen than dollars while the demand for the two is roughly equal compared to the disparity in supply. So the value of the yen is lower. Much lower.\...
How is the porn industry still a multi-billion dollar industry, when in the internet age you can just stream it for free?	[ "Ever noticed all of those ads on porn sites? Ads are what pay the bills.\n\nThis is how lots of media makes its money." ]
how do graffiti artists reach those seemingly impossible difficult spots, like the tops of high buildings or inside overpasses?	[ "How to reach the ceiling? A ladder.\nHow to reach the top of a high wall? A bigger ladder.\nHow to reach a really really high wall? A bigger bigger ladder!" ]

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