Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
How can I swat a fly with all my might, yet it still comes back to annoy me?	[ "You are using the wrong technique, boy. Might will not rid you of the fly. You need speed, agility and intelligence. You don't need to crush the fly, you need to capture him. Flies are not smart, surely you can think better than him. Use your brain, not just your muscles, boy, and catch the fly.", "Because its n...
When is a plant considered officially dead?	[ "I don't know that there is any official legal or technical declaration of plant death which is consistently followed. Usually individuals will consider a plant to be dead when as a whole it isn't able to recover from its current state even if some clippings may be viable.", "It's surprising to me how far gone a ...
How come when the Reddit servers are down, they can still provide the Failure message?	[ "The server in question is most likely the database server. When you access a page, reddit's web server needs to ask the database for the data. The database has a limited number of available connections, so if too many are currently in progress, it will refuse more connections. The web server will then get an error...
How does anonymous hack into websites and how are they structured if they are all completely anonymous?	[ "'Anonymous' isn't really a single group, it's a generic identity for 'hacktivists'. Anybody can claim to belong, and people that don't claim to belong might get lumped in with them anyway.\n\nHow one can crack into any website or network is a lot like asking how someone can break into a building: there's a huge co...
How do medical examiners/other forensic analysts determine the time frame in which a person died?	[ "The liver cools at a fairly constant rate, as it is so well insulated within the body, so they measure the temperature of the liver and the ambient temperature of the room, and from these numbers they can estimate a time of death. \n\nThis only works if it was a recent death, for longer times they have to take int...
One Degree of Separation for movie making	[ "It means always making sure every scene is directly connected to the main plot line and main character. It is a way to trim extra fluff and bullshit from your movie." ]
Why can't we do brain transplants like other organs?	[ "When we transplant other organs, we mainly have to reconnect tubes (blood vessels, intestine, etc.). If we were to replace the brain, we need to reconnect the nerves which we don't know how to do on such a large scale. \n\nAt least that is my current understanding.", "The brain is the most complex organ in the...
What causes an itch on my body?	[ "To add on to this question, especially the nose?" ]
Why do most kids go through a phase in which they hate their parents?	[ "Well it's usually around the age that they start forming their own opinions and wanting to have some control over their own lives. Of course their parents still have the majority of control and expect their children to obey their every word. \n\nI think it's definitely understandable to hate or resent somebody who...
How can Comcast can charge me a ridiculous price for 30mbs internet but at best I get 3mbs down or up?	[ "Well I'm. Pretty sure you're paying for 30 MegaBits where as your download is MegaBytes.... The mathematics and how it's measured or how that works is still beyond me and I'd like to know how those numbers correlate and what a megabit really is", "Aside from the other answers, there's one more reason. It's in th...
Why do we remember some skills (e.g swimming and cycling) our whole lives?	[ "It's called procedural memory. More specifically, it's 'muscle memory' or 'motor learning' which is a type of procedural memory.\n\nYour brain's cerebellum, in particular, is very good at encoding sequences of muscle movements into long-term memory storage.\n\nProcedural memory is very robust. Even people with dem...
why do only loans and credit cards show in your credit reports and not other types of accounts	[ "Information cannot show up on your credit report if it is not reported to the credit agency. If your utility company doesn't report payment history to, for example, Experian (one of the three major agencies that create and monitor your credit score), then that information will not show up on your credit report.\n...
If Blue LEDs just have been invented (nobel price '14), how come my smartphone's notification LED can shine blue since a couple of years?	[ "The nobel price was awarded in 2014 for the discovery that happened about 20ish years ago", "they weren't invented \"just now\". [we know them for quite some time](_URL_0_). it was just delay between invention and noble prize, because it was proven that they are useful." ]
Why do your allergies flare up when you wake up? I never recall being woken up from sneezing but as soon as I wake up it starts.	[ "When you are sleeping your body is producing antihistimine so it can function quietly whilst you sleep. Wake up and it allocates those hormones elsewhere." ]
Are internet and cable ads confusing on purpose? Or are cable and internet companies just bad at their jobs.	[ "They are well thought and confusing on purpose:\n1) they don't want you to be able to compare their product to the competition. \n2) they try to give a sense of urgency \"buy now\" even the product is on the shelves for a long time. They frequently create fake sales, fooling people into believing they get a great ...
How are my headphones playing a "ghost station"?	[ "A nearby AM radio station is being picked up and rectified by the TV. \n\nA simple AM receiver can be made with a junction of two dissimilar metals or a metal needle point on a crystal. I suspect the electronics in the TV are performing the rectification and the headphone cable is the antenna.", "I have a couple...
How do interplanetary spacecraft (and in the future interstellar), protect against collisions with space debris?	[ "They don't and they don't need to. Space is incredibly big and empty. Despite how visuals like the one on the [Asteroid Belt Wikipedia article](_URL_0_) makes it seem, the majority of the asteroids are very small and the distance between them is enormous. The odds of our probes to the outer planets hitting anythin...
Cyclic Groups & Examples	[ "The integers, start with 1 and keep adding or subtracting 1, you get all the integers that way.\n\nA clock, take 1 o'clock and keep adding or subtracting 1 hour... you will get all the possible times on a clock.\n\nAll cyclic groups are really either clock groups or are the integers.\n\nWith a 12 hour clock you ca...
How is it possible for us to know if a sound comes from the top or the bottom given that we only have two ears aligned horizontally?	[ "The shape of your ears directs sound into your ear canals difforently based on the angle it comes in at. If you change the shape of your ears with something like play dough you lose this ablilty all togeather. Other animals like dogs aren't as good st this and so tilt their heads to get a better idea of what virti...
Why do we have morning wood, does females have something similar or not at all ?	[ "There are many factors. \n\n1) Your body will give you a partial erection to help prevent you from emptying your bladder while you are asleep. \n\n2) Your body goes through cycles that raise and lower your blood pressure while you sleep. These happen numerous times during the night and each time they happen you ar...
the E meme	[ "us teenagers have lost all sense of humor and now make memes as bizarre and esoteric as possible. basically all the memes on r/deepfriedmemes are a great example, or the zuckerbot meme. i still find it funny tho lmao\n\ntl;dr: were fuckin dumb", "It's a deep fried image of markiplier's face in Lord Farquaad's he...
The formation of storms during the "Dust Bowl"	[ "A dust storm is formed when high velocity winds pick up loose sand and dirt of a flat surface and carries it over a distance. Besides the Dust Bowl, dust storms are very common in dry sandy areas and in deserts; a dust storm is the same thing as a sand storm, and they occur all the time. \n\nThere wasn't a meteo...
What is the difference between "Sell By", "Best By", "Use By"... etc. dates on food?	[ "Employer must sell this item by : dd/mm/yy ;\nThis item is best consumed if by : dd/mm/yy ;\nConsumer should finish (use) this item by : dd/mm/yy", "I reckon if you sort of recorded which things say what, you'd find different kinds of perishables say the different things. Perhaps things that are not safe to c...
Why does the moon appear larger at the horizon?	[ "It's believed to simply be an optical [illusion](_URL_0_).", "When we look at the moon in the sky, say straight up, it looks small because there is nothing else up there to compare it to. But when it's on the horizon, it looks large because we compare it to the buildings, trees, mountains, etc.", "[This](_URL_...
How are built bases and platforms in the sea?	[ "The majority of offshore oil platforms actually float or are on \"legs\".\n\n[Here's the legs of one, being towed out to sea.](_URL_0_) - in the case of these, footings or foundations on the sea bed - obviously its not that deep - are poured by highly skilled deep sea divers. One of the cool things about concrete ...
Why do big companies care about geoblocking so much?	[ "It depends on the company I suppose. In many cases it has to do with marketing. If you are releasing products on a regional scale (eg you cannot ship out all at once to the whole world), then allowing your website, advertising, and other marketing to penetrate and build demand in a market where the product may not...
With all the advancements in technology, how are there still places that have no service?	[ "Money and physics, mostly the former. It costs a pretty penny to build cell towers and expand the network, if you can't justify the cost to build it with the amount of income you'd get by new subscriptions covered by the new infrastructure, it won't be built. That is unless the government subsidizes the constructi...
If we used nuclear power for everything, how long until we run out? Could we get more uranium by then?	[ "Fissionable materials are infinite for all practical purposes.\n\nUranium can be extracted from seawater in vast quantities because it comprises a significant portion of the Earth's crust.", "David Goodstein (CalTech) has written extensively about energy issues, particularly about Peak Oil. Here is an excerpt I ...
How does a quartz clock work?	[ "Yarr, ['twas asked by those what sailed in before ye!](_URL_1_)\n\nEnjoy yon older explanations, and remember [rule 7](_URL_0_) says search to avoid repostin'." ]
What is the big deal with the movie The Interview?	[ "This is so completely ridiculous. As a nation, the US (supposedly) prides itself on not (usually) crumbling to terrorists threats. If we alter our way of life, based on fear, terrorists win. It is a goddamn movie. The people of North Korea do not even know of it's existence. They have no connection to the civilize...
If the Big Bang happened, what events preceded it?	[ "The honest answer is that we don't know. There are some conceptual ideas, but none with any evidence as of now. The after effects of big bang itself cuts us off from data gathering at a certain point, and going back any further than than the singularity is outside the realm of what we know as existence so we would...
How are highway light pole bulbs changed?	[ "Tall hydraulic lifts with a guy in the basket. It really is that simple, they cone off the lane, the guy gets in his safety harness and gets lifted all the way up there in the basket with the new bulb. I knew a guy who collected street light bulbs, don't ask me why, he was a bit odd. But he showed me them and t...
How can people survive a lighting strike but will almost certainly die at a 220v home socket.	[ "I'd suspect \"almost certainly\" is quite a bit of an overstatement. I've shocked myself at least two dozen times with the current coming from my wall, and while it hurts like a bitch, i've never come close to dying.\n\nAnd while people can survive lightning strikes, I also suspect you have an overestimated vie...
Why do scientists think space isn't spherical?	[ "First of all, we have to define some terms. Instead of spherical, it is more correct to say that something is positively curved (ie. that if the curvature continues indefinitely then it will eventually enclose some space bounded by the curve). Hence, a sphere. A quick way to determine this is if the angles on a...
Why has China devalued its currency, and what will that mean for other countries?	[ "When your currency becomes stronger, it becomes much harder for you to export your country's goods, because your goods become more expensive for other countries. China doesn't want that because they are the biggest export nation that there is.", "Say you're a merchant and you're looking to buy hats. You have re...
Why do plastic bags make so much noise?	[ "Well as far as i know, its because the polymers are stretched and crystalized to make the bag cheap and sturdy. This makes it more resistant to physical manipulation and when you overcome the resistance when you change the shape, the energy is released as sound.\n\n**eli5: Sound is vibrations. Crumpling a plastic ...
How do human crushes even happen?	[ "You're thinking about it from the perspective of the people at the front, not the people at the back.\n\nWhen the people at the front reach a barrier, they stop. Seems simple. You would expect the people behind them to stop too. The people behind them will stop, and so will the people behind *them*.\n\nBut the...
How they determine the length of time to wait between airing a movie in theaters, and premiering it on TV.	[ "I say once they've felt they've squeezed as much money as they can out of dvd sales from rentals and purchases. Most likely they wait til after after a holiday event where they know they'll get alot of sales. Also, It won't go on tv unless someone wants it. If someone wants it the \"industry\" again get paid for l...
About health insurance, what happens when you reach the age of 26?	[ "Obamacare made it possible to keep your health insurance if you're insured under your parent's plan until you're 26 years of age (previously, I believe it was 22). \n\nAfter you turn 26 you will no longer have insurance unless you've obtained a plan through your own employer/institution/whatever. \n\nLet's say you...
How are cell phones able to find each other if they are constantly moving between different cell phone towers?	[ "A cell phone is actually a radio -- an extremely sophisticated radio, but a radio nonetheless. \n\nBefore cell phones, trucks would talk to each other using CBs, however, this was limited to the number of people that could talk at the same time due to the range and the fact these typically only had about 25 chann...
How the "feels like" measurement of the temperature is taken?	[ "They take measurements of the humidity, wind speed, and temperature, then they put them into a formula and they get roughly what it will feel like. The formula and some more information about it are available [here](_URL_0_). I guess I could have copy-pasted it, but I'm too lazy." ]
Why do people KEEP pressing the button in /r/button. Is it reward gratification or some other motivation	[ "People want to push it as close to zero as possible to get the rarest color.\n\nTake heart though, you had to be registered by April 1st to press it, so eventually there won't be anyone else to press it and we'll all be disappointed at the outcome together." ]
why is my earliest memory not from birth or a little after birth?	[ "Your brain is not finished developing until further age. By the time of your birth your brain still lack the cognitive ability to store memories. It is not until further age you get some of the brain abilities that might seem obvious to you now.\n\nYou should watch this video about [cognitive development among chi...
How come I get pimples everywhere except on my hands or feet?	[ "Pimples are caused by sebaceous glands, which produce an oil-type substance to coat our hair follicles (even the barely visible ones on our foreheads and noses). \n\nThe skin of our palms and soles are special. The epidermis of the rest of the body has only four layers, and also has lots of hair follicles (and thu...
How does unemployment insurance work?	[ "So unemployment is basically a pot of money funded by the federal and state unemployment taxes that businesses pay. The more workers a business has file for unemployment, the higher their unemployment tax rate. You don't have to contact the employer at all - the state will do that part. \n\nThe rules for whether ...
Lisps	[ "You have a form of [rhotacism](_URL_3_). Just from some googling, it appears [Arabic does not have](_URL_4_) a [/ɹ/](_URL_1_) sound like English does. Instead, you only have [غ](_URL_2_), which is pronounced as a [/ɣ/](_URL_5_) (or [/ʁ/](_URL_0_) in Classical Arabic). It would make sense, then, that you have a har...
What is the difference between an originalist interpretation and a "living document" interpretation when it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court?	[ "The idea is a debate about whether the founders wrote the thing to be specific, rigid, and amendable only through the amendment process...\n\nor whether the founders wrote the thing with deliberately looser language to take shifting societal norms into account.\n\nFor example, the 8th amendment prohibits \"cruel a...
Why are the players more prone to breaking out into fights in some sports compared to others?	[ "Certain sports are more 'aggressive' than others...When the sport is physically demanding where the opponents are, in a sense, battling each other (a combat sport – combat = war), then the aggression level of the players is heighten as if they are in war or predator vs pray…this makes the players more prone to fig...
How does doing more exercise give you more energy?	[ "Energy the body produces isn't a \"static pool\" that is only filled with so much water. It's like a big reservoir with an input valve (your food) and an electricity-producing hydroelectric dam (the body process called \"metabolism\" that creates the energy to run your body), and discharge shoots for the exiting w...
Why do most US schools have children get up before the crack of dawn to go to school?	[ "The American workday is typically 9-5, and parents need to get their children fed/clothed/etc and on the bus or dropped off and still able to get to work on time.", "Couple reasons. One, they re-use bus fleets, so they can't have all the levels of school (elementary/middle/high) start at the same time. Two, most...
What does the discovery of the knee's anterolateral ligament mean for us, and why did it take so long to confirm it's existence?	[ "Seriously! How did we just now discover this? Wouldn't it be noticed during the countless autopsies performed?" ]
How do military aircraft intercept hijacked commercial planes?	[ "Former navy, we did flight ops with helos to intercept subs and track em. Intercept is kind of a blanket term. You can \"intercept\" the plane or boat and guide it to a destination of your choice but that is a gentle hand approach. Imagine two bouncers at a bar standing next to you...you will prob listen if they a...
What are the rules for driving off-road in America?	[ "It is illegal to drive on other people's property without their permission. It is trespassing and could be destruction of property if you tear up the land or hurt crops. If you own the property you can drive as much as you want and you do not even need a license to do so. \n\nIt can be illegal to drive on public l...
Why can light travel through some solids (e.g. water bottle) but not all?	[ "Some molecules have a tendency to crystal structures: if you look at a piece of material very closely (with an electron microscope), you can see that the molecules form repetitive, organised structures. A famous example of this is [diamond](_URL_0_) .\n\nIn the picture, you can see the pattern that is repeated mi...
Why isn't charging the mound in baseball considered assault?	[ "It's assumption of the risk. You, by playing baseball, consent to all of the risks inherent in the game. One of those things is fighting that may happen from time to time." ]
How did tithing come to be a requirement for members of the church?	[ "Tithing goes back to the earliest days of Judaism (Abraham offered a tithe to Melchizedek and it was required in [Jewish law](_URL_2_)). However, in the earliest Christian church records, the church appears much more like a [commune](_URL_1_) where there were few things held individually. \n\nThe earliest mentio...
Why do stovetops measure temps from LO-HI (with numbers) instead of temps?	[ "The temperature of your cooking element doesn't really give you an indication of your food's temperature. Just because I set my stove to 200 degrees doesn't mean that the food is 200 degrees.\n\nWhy not just use a food thermometer like everyone?" ]
Why are we able to see shockwaves?	[ "refraction\n\nchanges in air density (aka shockwaves) act like lenses made out of air\n\nmore or less the same effect can be observed over candles, only there it is hot air and not compressed air", "The low pressure portion of the wave will cause the temperature to go down. The lower temperature will cause wate...
Why is it unwise for a lawyer to represent himself/herself after being arrested?	[ "Well, because you are emotionally invested. It is basically the same principle why a doctor shouldn't tread his own family. As a party of this investigation / conflict, you are bias, you have your own opinion that is not necessarily reflected by law, but by your own feelings toward the case.\n\nAs such, it prevent...
Why serial killers tend to be white, male, and 30's?	[ "It's a mix of factors.\n\nMost people in the US are white. So that's the first third of your answer.\n\nThe most common motivation or reason why serial killers do what they do is because it gives them personal gratification which outweighs any voice in their head that tells them not to. \n\nHow they got this way c...
what is the meaning of true positve ,true negative ,false positive and false negative?	[ "Imagine you are subjected to a lie detector test. You are innocent of the crime. When the examiner asks whether you committed the crime, you say “No.” But the needle jumps anyway. The examiner says, “AHA! You’re lying!” Even thought you are actually telling the truth. This is a false positive.\n\nThen they b...
How do old animated films get digitally remastered to make them HD? ie: old Disney movies.	[ "They were always well beyond HD. Do you think the version that was sent to theaters back in the day was equivalent to SD? It was on a film reel that was even higher effective resolution than 4K for the most part. \n\nThe film master is put through a scanner that saves the movie in a digital format. We have muc...
Why do school teachers need a fundraiser every year for school supplies?	[ "The taxpayer doesn't like to actually pay money for services provided.", "Their \"employer\" is the taxpayer, and the taxpayer is not directly concerned with the outcome of their taxes.", "School budgets are very tight. Many schools require students to buy a list of supplies, some for their own use and some fo...
how are movies like the Parent Trap made when one actor plays multiple roles and their faces are seen together in the same shot?	[ "One way of doing it is to shoot the scene twice without moving the camera. The first time, they shoot the scene when the actor plays the first role, the second time the second role. These two versions of the scene are then blended over each other.\n\nAnother version uses blue-screen in which one of the takes (or b...
Why do healthier versions of a food items cost much more than the unhealthy versions?	[ "The comments here are all good but miss one point; 'healthier' foods generally do not have very long shelf lives thus increasing the likelihood of waste for the store. To balance this, they increase the price. This is just one factor, the others have already been mentioned.", "In the US the government heavily su...
How does someone like 50 Cent go broke?	[ "As /u/Dieniekes pointed out the other day in another thread he isn't exactly broke, he filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and not the common Chapter 7.\n\n\n\n > This filing buys him the time he wants/needs to pay his debts. He's not \"bankrupt\" in the typical usage of the term.\nHe's filing chapter 11 bankruptcy; ...
How do insects function brain wise, they're so small. How do they know how to do anything.	[ "Think of a very basic program. It's like they have several subroutines going:\n\nFunction See()\n\nFunction Hear()\n\nFunction Feel()\n\nFunction ReactToStimuli()\n\nFunction FleeAwayFromThreat()\n\nFunction FindAndProcureFood()\n\nFunction Procreate()\n\nIt does not take a lot of cells in a brain to do these thi...
Why do we sometimes flinch in our sleep?	[ "If im reading the question right and you are talking about that jerk right before you fall asleep. The theory behind it is that it's a basic instinct that we learned when were we less evolved than we are now.\n\nIt was for when we slept in trees and we felt a falling motion we would be jerked awake to try and grab...
What is the difference between fuel grades at gas station pumps? What do the more expensive ones provide?	[ "Higher grades of gas have a higher octane rating, which is important because octane is less volatile than cetane (which means it won't ignite when compressed more). High compression engines or forced induction (which both usually mean higher performance engines) require higher octane ratings to prevent the fuel i...
Why are news headlines in the present tense and not past?	[ "It's all about conveying the sense of immediacy and urgency. When you read a headline it conveys the feeling that this is fresh news.", "Because the recent past is considered the present linguistically most of the time in English, and the News is primarily reporting of recent or ongoing events.", "In English a...
The Federal Reserve has kept interest rates low for several years to stimulate economic growth during the Recession. What benefits are there to them raising the rates ever if low rates strengthen the markets?	[ "Raising rates can prevent a boom or bubble, where previously cheap interest rates would allow people to borrow money cheaply on high risk speculation.", "Raising rates slows inflation, which becomes an issue if rates are too low and the economy is doing well." ]
Why does no other animal have their own language like humans?	[ "Some do, mostly whales and dolphins are thought to have some of the most complex languages other than humans. Bottlenosed Dolphins for example, have been shown to have \"name clicks,\" sounds other dolphins use to get their attention. Human researchers have reproduced these sounds and can still get the same dolph...
How did the first complex organisms learn to mate? Same question for animals that must physically have sex.	[ "Instinct. A similar question you might ask is why do 4-legged animals seem to know and be capable of walking shortly after they are born? It's not very easy to answer because you have to think about what it might have been like if, millions of years ago or whatever, they didn't know how to walk right away. Evol...
When a baby is getting its first teeth, you're supposed to give them something to chew on to dull down the pain. How come when a teenager is growing in their wisdom teeth, they don't feel it until they start to disrupt the other teeth?	[ "Don’t quote me on this, but you could flick a baby’s wrist and it would most likely hurt. A lot of stuff with them is due to their lack of pain tolerance. They simply can’t handle being uncomfortable. But that may not be completely right.", "have you ever heard the phrase \"don't be a baby?\"\nbabies are wimps."...
Putting down animals in zoo	[ "Did you read the rest of the article? They explained exactly why they did it.\n\nThey didn't have the money to relocate the animals, and the new animals they were getting would have killed the old animals -- euthanasia makes a little more sense than a zoo snuff show.\n\nIt's more important to look at the populatio...
Trademarks: How can there be a DC comics and a DC shoes?	[ "They're in two completely different lines of business. DC Comics isn't trying to sell shoes and DC Shoes isn't trying to sell comics, so there's not likely to be confusion between customers of the two companies.\n\nSo if you wanted to trademark McDonald's and sell, say, cement, you could, but you couldn't sell foo...
Fiber optics	[ "Fiberoptic communications uses light passing through specially design cables to transfer information. The data gets encoded as pulses of light, travels from one end of the connection to the other, then decoded at the other end.\n\nBecause light doesn't leak and isn't subject to interference, fiberoptic cables can...
Why is international calling so much more expensive than domestic calling?	[ "Let us assume you have to send a note to your friend in another country. There is no postal service. So what you do is pass it to your friend who is travelling to the city to take it up. So your friend travels to the city and there he sees another friend who is in fact travelling to the other country your friend l...
Would there be any downside if it was daylight 24/7?	[ "We would turn into a copy of mercury. Baked in the sun with no water or life. Imagine the moon under a lamp hot enough to turn it to glass, or burn it down to the core/bare rock. Nothing good.", "You mean other than being slowly baked to a crisp by a lack of cooling time and having no use for those Night Moves y...
What do nurses actually do specifically? Why does it require an advanced degree?	[ "Nurses do pretty much everything. They are typically as knowledgeable as the doctors they \"assist\" and often perform the tests that doctors prescribe. Plus nurses need to be able to help patients, which requires knowing a great deal about medicine.\n\nNew doctors out of school are usually advised to listen to ...
Why is stem-cell research so hated and funded so little?	[ "The controversy over stem cell research is essentially an extension of the debate over abortion--one source of stem cells for research are aborted fetuses. Naturally, people who oppose abortion are opposed to research methods that profit from it. The results and concept are not that controversial, just this partic...
Why sunglasses makes someone looking more charismatic/elegant/cool?	[ "Since not had any responses, a few reasons I would rationalise it down to:\n\n\n* Positive association - it's used in a lot of films/movies/books as a way of signalling that someone is cool. As a result it's now associated with coolness\n\n\n* Psychologically it might add a bit of 'mystery' to the person - you don...
Why are virus websites such as "_URL_0_" allowed to have commercials on television, knowing well they are dangerous?	[ "Because technically they aren't dangerous. If you pay the fee, they do what they advertise to do.\n\nThe catch is how they hook you into paying, by claiming that you have issues, and they spam the hell out of you if you don't pay. They are annoying nagware, but they don't cause damage to your machine beyond the ...
Why can't we make batteries that hold dozens of small batteries, then make high amperage chargers to charge them in seconds?	[ "Batteries are made up of smaller batteries or cells. The problem is regardless how you make a battery, you need to deal with heat when charging a battery. The only way to overcome the problem is to spread the cells out further apart so what you have is a very large, low capacity battery. It's better to have a very...
The Alabama Senate Election	[ "Alabama has been a deeply red state (republican) for the last 25 years, and it showed no sign of changing.\n\nSo by all accounts, it looked like the election between Roy Moore(R) and Doug Jones(D) was all but a formality.\n\nUntil the news broke that Roy Moore had a unhealthy fascination with girls on the younger ...
Wouldn't one third of something go on forever?	[ "No. You've fallen into the trap of thinking that base 10 is the only way to measure things.\n\nWe count in 10s because we have ten fingers. But imagine that humans had evolved with five fingers on one hand, and only four on the other.\n\nIn that case we'd count in base 9, and then your question becomes simple to a...
Why do doctors have such bad hand writing?	[ "Here's my 2 cents from a med student's perspective. I've always found the handwriting thing strange. I personally think I have crappy handwriting, but compared to some of my classmates mine looks like a work of art. Any yet compared to others (usually girls) mine is horrible. \n\nI don't know if there is an actual...
Why do some things taste good to some people but bad to others?	[ "Basically taste buds differ in density in each person. This impacts how the brain reacts to taste. Each body is unique." ]
How come when I poop my legs go numb, but I can sit at a desk or in a chair for hours with no problem?	[ "I'm not sure, but maybe you could carry out a control experiment by pooping at your desk.\n\nEDIT: Like, maybe the descending poop compresses a nerve. I was being (partly) serious, guys!", "You should try pooping more than once every two weeks.", "I think toilets are lower than chairs. Just a guess.", "Less ...
What causes some people to be more tolerant to extremely cold or hot temperatures?	[ "Some of it also has to do with what you are used to. Here's an anecdote...\n\nI am from the frozen part of the northern midwest. In the winter, it rarely gets above 15 degrees F, and wind chills are often below zero. I lived in this area for 13 years before I went to college in the mid-south (Kentucky). During the...
Why can't you tickle yourself successfully?	[ "A \"tickle\" is a pain response which is created by the brain when the nerve sensors receive unexpected stimulation, and it is generally impossible for you to do something unexpected to yourself, and thus normally you can't tickle yourself.", "What about the roof of your mouth? Lightly flick and rub your tongue...
What's so special about the money printing process that can't be replicated?	[ "There are quite a few anti-counterfeiting measures for US money that make it hard to replicate bills at home. To start, bills are printed on paper that is about 25% linen and 75% cotton. You could obtain paper like that, but paper for bills also has tiny red and blue fibers embedded in it, which I don't think you ...
Why don't girls go bald?	[ "Testosterone is the culprit which makes men go bald. One anti-baldness drug (Propecia) acts by decreasing the amount of available testosterone. Since women have less testosterone they don't go bald as often." ]
with skyscrapers being built so high, is the air inside them pressurized? And what happens if a window is broken?	[ "No the air is not pressurized, some of those windows even open. You have to go significantly higher than the worlds tallest building to have pressure be an issue. Its not even an issue on most mountains. Cold is a lot more of an issue.\n\nBut no they are fine.", "I don't think that any building reach a height of...
Why does current culture/ideas differ so much compared to a 100 years ago? Was it also like this in the past, say when you compare 1500 AD and 1600 AD?	[ "From 1500 to 1600, you have a pretty thorough revolution of agriculture in Europe as the first contact with the Americas was less than a decade before the start of the century; there was never a tomato in Italy or a potato in Ireland before this time period. The Renaissance was at its most transformative. This lea...
How does public key encryption actually work?	[ "Oh god... this is almost not an ELI5 concept, because you must have the concepts of math and logic available, and no amount of simplifying will change that....\n\nWith that said, here goes. There are two main kinds of encryption: symmetric, and asymmetric.\n\nEveryone knows symmetric; if you put a password on a ...
Why does urinating feel different when you are sick?	[ "For a multitude of reasons, among them:\n\n+ When sick your system is generating different chemicals from the immunologic system fight, which generate different contents, pH and even smell for your pee, the different contents and pH can irritate the urethra and be painful\n+ Your sensibility usually is higher due ...
Cricket. As an American, I'm so confused by it.	[ "Like baseball, you have a team at bat and a team in the field. When at bat, the team sends out two batsmen instead of one. One batsmen stands at one wicket (a wicket is like a base in baseball), and the other one stands on the opposite wicket. The bowler (a pitcher in cricket) bowls the ball to the batsmen, and...
Why are they called "Checks?"	[ "As in a cheque? \n\nThere have been suggestions that the word chek comes from ancient Pahlavi language which was used in the Achaemenid Empire in Persia. It may have spread from there to Arabic where saqq means a promise to pay a certain amount of money for delivered goods.\n(_URL_0_ )", "I kinda thought that th...
Explain Quantum Entanglement to me like I'm 5.	[ "When you flip a coin, you know that whenever you see a heads come up, the bottom of the coin is tails. Similarly, when you see a tails come up, the bottom of the coin is heads.\n\nSimilar to how you know the two sides of a coin have opposite faces showing, physicists can make two particles that have opposite prope...

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