Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
How do my reflexes close my eyes before I can process what happened?	[ "You're made aware of it after you've processed it. The bit of you that you're aware of, the bit you think is you, your conscious mind.. is actually the last link in the chain. You're brain registers what's happening, takes action then tells you what's just happened.\n\nThis is a great clip from a BBC documen...
Why does a GPS unit require signal from at least 4 satellites in order to determine its position?	[ "So the way GPS works is (roughly) that each satellite broadcasts its ID, and the timestamp of its internal clock. Your GPS receiver knows where each satellite is supposed to be, and it can look at the delay in time between the timestamps it sees from multiple satellites (what with the speed of light being finite ...
I've seen crabs living under water and also living out of water in the sand on the beach .How can they breath in both environments?	[ "\"Crabs\" is a huge category with many species. Aquatic crabs live permanently in water and have gills like fish. They can go out of water but only for short periods, but then again so can some fish. There are also terrestrial crabs that have lungs and live on land. These guys can swim around and actually hold...
Why do flies and other insects repetitively go into dangerous situations, such as the exact same spot after being swatted at, are they incapable of learning?	[ "In short, yes, their brains are just far too simple to be capable of learning like this.\n\nA fly has very simple sense - > action pathways. While it's possible for certain pathways to be reinforced, this isn't going to happen just from a couple of swats. It's not even clear that the fly's internal map (if it has...
Why do we wake up after falling down in a dream?	[ "Dreams where you fall and die or similar deaths will trigger a response from your Brain sending signals to your body as a panic response. Think of those as \"HEY WAKE UP WE CAN'T BE DEAD\". \n\nSame thing happens when you're falling asleep and sometimes you get that reaction. Your body falls asleep faster than the...
Why do the Japanese like the USA even though 71 years ago they got nuked twice by the USA?	[ "Because we then helped rebuild their country and became a significant trading partner for the next half century (also, don't forget that technically they started that war with us)\n\nIn general though, the speed with which the beligerants of WWII became allies is pretty historically impressive. The unification aga...
Why is it easier to look at the Sun with one eye than it is with two?	[ "the total amount of light your brain says is safe to take in is averaged across both eyes. closing one reduces the perceived light intake to ~1/2 and said brain says, \"it's cool fam you can look and not damage your retina.\" but your poor retina still gets the same amount of light and damage anyway. if you do ...
Why is it harder to open a refrigerator door the second time after closing the door to the refrigerator before hand?	[ "The warm air that just flowed in when the door was open cools off quickly. That makes it shrink, creating a slight vacuum. Since the fridge is not totally air-tight, additional air is sucked in and the vacuum goes away after a few seconds." ]
SpaceX's raptor engine, how does it work & is it a major achievement over conventional rocket engines?	[ "The Raptor engine is for the most part \"conventional\". The biggest advancement is that it runs on Methane rather than hydrogen or heavy fuel like Kerosene. \n\nRocket motors measure their efficiency with something called specific impulse (measured in seconds) and Isp of 1 second means you can use 1 Kilo of fuel,...
If you are flying in an airplane and it is storming, can you get struck by lightning if you are flying above the clouds?	[ "Lighting hits planes all the time as most of the time it just passes thru the plane\nbut some times it can make the plane explode.\n[the plane explode ](_URL_0_)" ]
Prisoner's Dilemma In Real Life. Why did prisoners did better than students?	[ "It turns out that people are not actually utility-maximizing robots. Who would have thought." ]
Can we please try to keep questions in this subreddit limited to those that actually require simplified answers?	[ "That's not an appropriate question for askReddit, which is ostensibly for more thought-provoking questions. It would be better for something like r/answers." ]
How has the US, which has been much more conservative towards pot than Canada, been able to make all these strides towards legalizing it?	[ "The individual states control their own criminal law. Here in Canada, criminal law is a federal matter. You can't have some province just decide to amend the criminal code.", "Drug policy is a federal matter here, not up to the provinces (our \"states\"). And our Federal government has a negative opinion about ...
Why did the US colonies form separately instead of just one big colony?	[ "In places like China or Russia, you had one power trying to subjugate the others and establish a form of central authority. The strongest kingdoms conquered their neighbors and established a unified state. (In China, it fell apart several times and was then re-unified.) The history of the colonies in America is di...
What does it mean when one country refuses to acknowledge the existence of another country?	[ "& nbsp; & nbsp; & nbsp; & nbsp;It depends on the circumstance, after all, what is \"a country\"?\n\n & nbsp; & nbsp; & nbsp; & nbsp;At its core, a country is just the combination of a bunch of rules and the ability of some authority to enforce those rules. Let's say you live at home with your Mom & Dad. They hav...
Why does English no longer have a strong culture of poetry?	[ "Perhaps the definition of \"poetry\" is too narrow?\n\nI find the song lyrics of many bands and artists, and some of the dialogue of the greatest movies and TV shows, to have all of the same literary qualities as great poetry.\n\nJust because the \"poem\" as a standalone expression of art is not as popular, does n...
What happens to our bodies after we're buried?	[ "It depends on the climate where the body is buried. In extremely dry places there have been almost perfectly preserved bodies found after thousands of years. In wetter climates, in a strong wooden coffin, it's more like 10-50 years depending on the type of coffin." ]
when doing deep breathing exercises, why do we breath in through the nose and out through the mouth?	[ "A guy asked my football couch back in high school why he always yelled \"in through the nose out the mouth\" when we ran during the start of practice. He told us one day to reverse it, half the team passed out before the first mile was done.", "For me when running in the winter it helps warm the air before it hi...
What causes the urge to fidget?	[ "Its a natural reaction through your nervous system little impulses and such almost like putting electricity through say a wet noodle, makes it move about.\n\nThere's also a biological and evolutionary method, basically if you sit still for too long blood begins to pool, veins and arteries are cramped and clenched....
What's happening when my muscle visually twitches?	[ "If you mean like a spasm then it's an electrical signal sent to your muscle. Which leads to why was it sent. That is the real mystery." ]
Why is it harder to swallow nothing in quick succession compared to swallowing liquid/food?	[ "The muscles in your throat have to contract more when there is no food to push against, meaning each swallow involves more muscle work/movement and takes longer to complete.", "swallowing works by creating a space in a tube of muscles in which is the food you're swallowing. the muscles then move this created spa...
Why is it called an emergency brake if most people only use it for parking?	[ "In the UK it's called a handbrake. Although in some cars it isn't hand operated. With an auto transmission most have a transmission lock when in park so the car is unlikely to move. The foot operate brake pedal is usually hydraulic. The parking or \"emergency\" brake is cable operated. If the hydraulic brake serv...
How do certain items like game consoles and apple products, have a fixed price which does not differ between retailers.	[ "The authorization to sell a product is (can be) done via contract. Part of that contract can be that you cannot discount below MSRP, or can dictate the ways in which you can, how much you can etc. So..if you want to sell Apple products, you have to live by their distribution agreements and policies.\n\nThis isn'...
Why isn't it possible to reuse candles with the used wax?	[ "You could take any leftover wax and reform it around a new wick if you wanted to. But most of the wax is gone because that is what actually burns. The wick is just a tool for keeping the fire close to the wax and for bringing the wax up to the flame like a straw.", "There shouldn't be any wax left, what kind o...
Guy Debord's concept of the 'spectacle'	[ "It's like when someone is getting their picture taken just for facebook. The person does not act naturally but rather how he wants to appear to be. \n\nThis translates into other aspects of life as well. The relationships to things have become represented by images in our heads -they were put their by advertising ...
What causes "pins and needles" in feet and why?	[ "It's pain from return of circulation to the nerves. If you sit or lie in certain positions you can occlude the blood supply to a limb, or just to its nerves. \n\nOnce circulation is returned they send out signals of distress to indicate a potential problem. When the blood has had time to oxygenate the tissues and...
Why is it so difficult to have automatic translations?	[ "> I know it has something to do with context and the different meanings of words\n\nThis is pretty much it. When you use the word \"crown\", how do I know if you mean a \"fake tooth\", \"the thing that a king wears on top of his head\", or \"the top of a hill\". It's very hard for computers to pick up on context....
On a computer why can the cursor be hidden when moved all the way to the right and bottom but hits a "wall" when moved to the top or left side of the screen?	[ "because its only the very point that's your actual cursor. the rest is just a graphical representation to help the user. Thats why you can drag it \"off\" the right but not the left", "The big arrow is not the part of your mouse that matters, it's the very top left pixel that is the part that is the part that ma...
How does YouTube's auto-generated subtitles work?	[ "Google took hundreds of hours of accurately subtitled video and fed it to a machine learning program that linked sound snippets to written words statistically. Then they had it run through YouTube matching sounds in videos to words, creating subtitles. They then flagged incorrect subtitles and fed that information...
How do corporations let themselves get to the point where they need to close 10s-100s of stores and lay off 1000s? Shouldn't they scale back slowly/over time?	[ "For large corporations 100 stores is a little at a time. Closing stores actually costs money, it is more efficient to cut off 100 property costs at once", "In many cases, the corporations used debt to fuel the growth and the growth was not sustainable as the corporation scaled its operation. Once you have mill...
Why do certain vibrant colours make your eyes hurt when looking at them?	[ "Ever since the blue LED x-mas lights came out I have called them \"hurtyoureyes\" blue. I wouldn't even mind a ELI25 as to why they are so vibrant.", "I am slightly colour \"blind\" in the red-green (i can see them but i fail those teapot polkadot tests) and even i find red lights very intense. How do people wit...
Why are there different grammar/spelling rules for "It's" and "what's"?	[ "\"It's\" actually means \"it is\" even though lots of people use \"it's\" to indicate possession.\n\nFor example, the sentence \"the dog grabbed it's ball\" is grammatically incorrect because what you are actually saying is \"the dog grabbed it is ball\" which obviously does not make grammatical sense. \...
Negative gearing and the Australian real estate market	[ "Rich investors bought property via bank loans and rented them out. If rent income is more than the interest expense on the bank loan, they generate a net income and so pay tax on it. \n\nHowever, when rent is less than the bank loan cost, the investor makes a loss. When then computing their tax for the year, they ...
How did the first being(creature/species) came into existence?	[ "There is a lot of debate on the subject. And it very strongly depends on what you define as a creature. Evolution from microbes and proteins in the ocean is the answer to where larger creatures come from. Where the proteins came from is up for debate.", "We don't know. We have a theory, or perhaps set of hypothe...
Why do tuna & salmon have such a distinct taste?	[ "I think you're a bit wrong about white fishes : some white fishes have very distinctive taste and/or texture, like ray or flounder, for instance. I think the reason we find some white fishes indistinguishable is because of the way we eat them : boiled with a lot of sauce (and then the taste we have is usually the ...
Why does Amazon allow users to write reviews for products they have never purchased?	[ "If I'm not mistaken you can see if the reviewer has purchased the item or not so you can take the review itself with a grain of salt. They allow people to do this because they realize people can purchase items outside and Amazon, they want to give these people a voice as well, whether it is to warn someone or prai...
How do surgeons prevent major blood loss during coronary artery bypasses?	[ "It is clamped. The heart is then stopped with a potassium solution (many potassium solutions such as KCl can cause cardiac arrest, which is used in lethal injections!). The sewing of another vessel is performed, then the heart is eventually started once again.", "Blood flow is diverted to a heart-lung machine du...
What happens in the brain when you're desensitized?	[ "Basically, anything in your brain happens because some stimulus is fed to neurons and if the stimulus is above a certain threshold, the neurons fire and cause your response. \n\nIf you - for example - take cocaine, your brain releases lots of dopamin which makes you feel good. However, you body \"knows\" that this...
Why were Milkmen once a thing in America, and why did they stop being a thing?	[ "Milkmen have been a thing since long before refrigeration existed. You can even see it in things like \"Fiddler on the Roof\" which is set in the early 1900s and it was a well established job for a long time before that point. \n\nThe local dairy would deliver milk every day to people who could not raise their own...
Why do our bones crack?	[ "Do you mean like when people 'crack' their knuckles?\n\nIf so, they're not actually cracking. It's the space in the joint expanding and synovial fluid rushing into that space. That creates the feeling and 'popping' noise." ]
How do cats always land on their feet	[ "They do it by simultaneously manipulating the moment of inertia of their front and back haves. SmarterEveryDay has an excellent video with slow-motion explaining this [Cat Physics](_URL_0_)", "Black magicks and a very good sense of balance. They instinctively known how to twist their body so that their feet will...
What will AMD's GPUOpen allow developers to do?	[ "Right now, drivers and applications for video cards is like the Dorothy and the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz. When you compile or use an application, you are speaking to a giant head that only tells you things it thinks you want to know or access. The difference from the metaphor is that you KNOW there is a man be...
Why do we feel nauseous when we watch someone else vomiting?	[ "In the social environment in which humans developed if one member ate something poisonous then likely the others did as well. It would then be helpful to also vomit to avoid being sickened too.", "I remember seeing on a show once that It's like a natural survivor built in skill, body reacts in turn to seeing s...
The concept of women "syncing up" their periods.	[ "They don't, it's a myth.\n\nConsidering cycles range from 25-30 days and can last from 3-9 days (sometimes more) in duration, they don't actually sync up, they just gradually overlap for a time and then they go back to being at different times.\n\nThink of it like being in the left hand turn lane. You watch all th...
Why is the NRA so powerful?	[ "Any special-interest group (e.g. National Rifle Association (NRA), National Organization for Women (NOW), United Auto Workers (UAW)) gains power from membership. \n\nThe more members an organization has, the more money it has to promote its cause and the more voting power it can wield at the ballot.", "The NRA(...
Venn x Euler Diagram, what is the difference?	[ "One of them is pronounced just as you expect it to be.", "Wikipedia has a pretty good explanation here. _URL_0_\n\nIn sum, a Venn Diagram has circles that partially, but never entirely, overlap, but an Euler Diagram can have a circle that is entirely contained in another. If I want to draw an Euler Diagram for...
how do auto-dimming rearview mirrors work?	[ "It depends on what you mean by \"effective\". The manual tip up mirror uses a wedge prism to either reflect almost all of the light or just a fraction from a lightly silvered front surface. This system is totally optics, and has infinite resolution. It's hard to beat simple physics, but it's not automatic.\n\nT...
Why isn't it possible for a counterfeit bill to perfectly emulate a real bill?	[ "It is possible.\n\nIf you had access to every piece of equipment that the government uses to produce currency, you can make the exact same currency. They do make it extremely hard to get certain materials and certain machinery (presses for instance) that makes this hard.", "Because [President Lincoln never wore ...
Why are benzodiazepines (chill pills) so bad for you, but work so well?	[ "Benzos really aren't that bad for you, except for the addiction risk. They're particularly safe when compared to what used to be prescribed beforehand, usually barbiturates. (Mixing barbiturates with alcohol is a VERY easy way to die.) You actually have to go well out of your way to manage to OD on benzos. \n\nAny...
How do hard drives/flash drives store information while they are not connected to a power source?	[ "Flash drives work off of individual flash cells. These can be simply thought of as little buckets that can store electrons. When they are connected to the computer (and thus powered) they can be instructed to fill or empty these buckets and the amount of charge (electrons) in each bucket can be measured. When d...
Why was torture used in the past?	[ "If you are asking from a moral standpoint, this was never a factor to the people looking for information, or to do experiments.\n\nPhysical torture, or the threat of physical torture could coax info from somebody much the same as psychological could.\n\nAnd for experiments, definitely a controversial topic, but it...
How does closing our eyes signal to the brain that it's time to shut down (sleep)?	[ "It's not necessarily so that closing your eyes makes you sleepy. Often it's the other way around: you feel and urge to close your eyes when you are tired and sleepy. Bu in a way it's like two sides to a coin - the two phenomena are interconnected and interdependent on eachother:\n\nWhen you close your eyes very li...
Why are Russians considered "Eastern European," when they're technically North Asians (geographically).	[ "The western boundary of Asia, in this area, is the Ural Mountains. Most of the major cities in Russia (including Moscow) are west of that, and therefore are part of Europe.", "Many people in Russia are not ethnic Russians, but that doesn't change the fact that ethnic Russians are Europeans.\n\nThe Rus' people w...
How did we get such a gap between server's pay and regular pay?	[ "OK let's just all relax here and remember what we're talking about.\n\nBeing a server appears easy, I agree, however being a GOOD server is much more difficult. Just like any service industry (phone support, hotel hospitality, reception, etc.) there's a massive gap between what is required to do the job, and what ...
Why does weed make some people super paranoid and others not?	[ "No, it's more a matter of how the user interprets the experience of being high than something about the high itself. It has a lot to do with the user's state of mind going in, how they generally feel about themselves and their lives, and how they feel about the people around them.", "Weed makes your thoughts ve...
What's the psychology behind serial rape? Do serial rapists genuinely think they won't get caught?	[ "Not an expert, but I'm going to guess that getting away with it once leads to the belief that he will continue to get away with it.\n\nI knew a guy who was running some type of credit scam through his employer (a retailer). It began as 100 or 200 dollars. When there were no consequences, it was easy to do again an...
why do pro gamers retire in their early 20's? Do your reflexes really drop so significantly that early in life?	[ "Several reasons:\n\n1) you don't really make that much money. Only top players make the big money. For every guy making over $100k a year, there are hundreds who don't. It's kind of like the acting industry. The top 1% of actors make huge money, the other 99% are broke. At some point these guys realize they w...
In the Jared Fogle case, the charges always emphasize that he "crossed state lines" to commit certain crimes. Why does this matter so much?	[ "The fact that he crossed state lines makes this a federal case, rather than a state case.\n\nFederal courts have a few different rules and punishments and such, and a lot of resources for the investigation. From a legal standpoint, it's a pretty big difference, since he'll be in a whole different court and prison...
What is the "Deep State" in the U.S.?	[ "Deep State refers to the people and organizations that actually control the politicians that control the government.\n\nWho/what the Deep State is depends on whom you ask. For some it is the [Military Industrial Complex](_URL_0_); for others it is a collection of [oligarchs](_URL_1_) and plutocrats.\n\nOthers u...
What does the Kantian phrase 'end in itself' mean?	[ "That's not just a Kantian phrase, but it means exactly what it says. End in this context means purpose or cause. It is an end goal in it's own right. It's not a step to some other goal (means to an end). \n\nArt as a hobby is often viewed as an end, something people do because they derive enjoyment from it with no...
Why isn't it false advertising to advertise a price, to then add inseparable, mandatory fees?	[ "They always mention the fees when advertising their price. \n\nUsually it's in small print. Or if it's spoken then they say \"prices starting at $49.99\"." ]
Why is the alphabet in the order it is, theoretically, does it have to be in this order, and why cant it be in just any order?	[ "There is no reason for it to be in the order it is.\n\nThere is even less reason to change its order.", "There is no real reason for the order. The order it's in is derived from the order the latin alphabet was in, which is derived from the order the greek alphabet was in, which was derived from the order the ph...
Why does sound seem "louder" during the night as opposed to during the day?	[ "A few things - how much ambient sound is there at night? There are probably fewer cars and fewer people out, so with less background noise, the TV sounds louder because it doesn't need to compete anymore.\n\nAnother possibility is that in the darkness, your hearing sensitivity increases to compensate for the lack ...
Why is it that Syrian rebels who are backed by several nations are waging war in sandals and Nike Jacket, whereas ISIS, which is not known to have any strong international funding, is tricked-out with EU/US uniforms and arms?	[ "When ISIS took a major chunk of Iraq in their initial strikes and tried expanding their Islamic state, they had taken over a key Iraqi Army base that US/British/Australian forces had left military gear intended for the Iraqi Army because it was \"theater gear\" (meaning it was there for the initial invasion, upkee...
Why Hotels need your address and phone # even if you pay by Cash?	[ "Because if you trash the room or something happens they still need a way to contact you.", "There are typically legal requirements for hotels to collect and maintain info on their guests. Laws vary by country but are generally in place to deter money laundering, and prevent illicit funneling to terrorist/drug or...
Does 'closing your eyes' when fatally wounded have any impact if you die or not?	[ "It's not more of a staying conscious at the time of your death, it's literally stay with me, don't give up, please show me you can still make it. I'm not a 100% accurate on this but when a person gets an injury, sometimes it is important to stay awake for the body to not get into something - I forgot if it was sho...
how do african warlords work?	[ "> What are their motivations?\n\nMoney and power, mostly. The details differ, for example some want to topple a government and rule the country, some have religious reasons (for example the infamous Joseph Kony), some just want luxury and women.\n\n > How do they get people to enlist in their private armies?\n\n...
Why does the dark side of the moon never face the earth?	[ "Sometime the dark side of the moon does face us. It's called a [New Moon](_URL_0_). I believe your question is about the [far side of the moon](_URL_1_)." ]
What is an Oracle and why does it make solving the P vs. NP problem so much harder?	[ "The oracle is just a metaphor used to express nondeterminism in an easier to understand matter.\n\nP is the set that contains problems whose solutions can be found in deterministic polynomial time. Just think of that as a special kind of fast.\n\nNP is the set of problems whose solutions can be found in nondeterm...
American Baseball leagues	[ "The other answers have the basics covered, but I'll expand on the Minor League system. There are four basic levels: Rookie, A, AA, AAA with Rookie being the lowest level and AAA (called Triple-A in conversation) being the highest. Each Major League club controls minor league clubs at each level and uses them to de...
How does drafting work?	[ "Drive down the highway with nobody around and the radio off and listen to the wind. Then do the same thing but behind a diesel truck and it will make sense. You'll also get better gas mileage.\n\nDrafting or slipstreaming is a technique where two vehicles or other moving objects are caused to align in a close grou...
Why is pain "painful?" Why don't I like feeling pain?	[ "pain is bad mmkay. it's how your body lets you know something's going wrong with it. spice is the plant's defense, so it wont get eaten by animals, since they're not stupid enough to eat it twice if it burns their mouth for half an hour after.", "Pain is your bodies way of telling you something is wrong. In a lo...
Why does it seem that the common cold 500 years ago is much more lethal than a cold in the modern era?	[ "You...can't really ignore those two things. Those two things are very important for modern medicine.\n\nBut other than those things: our diets are much better, so we have a lot more energy to fight off colds. Food is readily available, so if for some reason we're too sick to work it probably doesn't mean you...
Please, ELI5: Why do grape-flavored things (soda, gum, etc.) NOT taste like grapes?	[ "I refuse to call it grape. It's purple flavored.", "Because they're not actually made from grapes at all - they're made from a giant series of chemicals synthesized together to taste sort of like grape. I don't know about grape, but it takes 50 different chemicals and products to get strawberry flavoring.", ...
How software communicates with hardware?	[ "It all revolves around a little-known yet valuable language to us computer engineers called assembly language (an industry standard is x86, you may have heard that somewhere). We learn this abstraction and the levels of organization of a computer in our introductory architecture classes. The story is long but usu...
Why are the names of oil companies that spill oil into the ocean plastered on the news, but not the party responsible for the California natural gas leak?	[ "The sad truth is that the BP Oil spill got mass attention because it's a much more tangible event and it harmed animals. The California gas leak is equally or worse than the oil spill but I suppose that news isn't selling. I won't say there's conspiracies but some could easily say that parent companies of, say, CN...
Why can't people in the US sue individual police officers like we can doctors?	[ "The state asserts \"sovereign immunity\". In other words, you can't sue the King (or the King's agents, etc.) unless the King agrees to let you. We don't have a King, but our government retains sovereign immunity.\n\nThere are many times you can sue the state even when it doesn't want to let you. Exceptions to sov...
How can a 600W PSU supply 50 A on 12V, while the electrical wires in the wall would literally burst into flames at 50A?	[ "A power supply pretty much conserves power, give or take a few losses.\n\nSo the output power is 12 x 50 = 600W, as advertised.\n\nThe input, from the wall, is at (say) 120V\n\nSo the input current is 600/120 = 5A, well within the capacity of a standard 15A domestic circuit.\n\nIncidentally, the wires would not bu...
Why do spots stop hurting after we remove the puss from them?	[ "For those of use who might not be aware, 'spots' is a term that aussies and brits use for pimples.", "I assume it is a pressure release. If I remember correctly the puss and stuff is pushing up because pimples are a reaction to bacteria and your immune system is fighting it. Releasing all the pressure from all t...
When and why did basketball hoops become such a staple for American driveways?	[ "Basketball is the second (or third depending on the poll) most popular sport in the US. It is easier to set up a hoop for simply play and practice than it is to get space to play football or soccer, and far less than practicing baseball (even with a batting or pitching cage). This means it is a common recreational...
Why isn't Robert E. Lee viewed as a traitor?	[ "He probably gets let off the hook for being reluctant to go to war and rejection of his military life after the war. He became president of then Washington College (Now Washington and Lee University) and said his greatest mistake was a military education.", "Robert E Lee is one of the most interesting parts of ...
How Britain and America went from what could be described as bitter enemies to what could be described as best buds?	[ "both countries have a deep shared cultural heritage that has proven to be a powerful unifier, overshadowing the brief periods of conflict and hostility that could have resulted in longstanding resentment. solidarity between the United States and the three major Commonwealth countries was further reinforced by entr...
Stereotypically speaking, why do men play baseball and women play softball?	[ "It's not a stereotype, it's a fact. When kids are young, often girls will play baseball. But as they get into high school, almost all of them switch to softball (mostly because it is required). Then, when middle-aged (or younger or older) people (men and women) play recreationally, they generally do softball becau...
How are sex change operations done?	[ "There are graphic videos on youtube if you're really brave.\nBoth male and female genitals start off as the same set of organs, as you grow in the womb, these organs are acted on by your genetics to become either the penis/testes or clitoris/ovaries etc. The structures being somewhat similar lets some be \"recycle...
when the moon comes up, it's gravity is strong enough to rise the tide. How come small particles don't go flying as well?	[ "Probably the biggest thing to understand is that the moon's gravity doesn't create the tides \"all in one go\". As the Earth rotates, the pull of the moon has a constant very small effect that over time builds up a sort of standing-wave front that we call the tides. It's the cumulative effect that causes the tid...
why are Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome so much better than Internet Explorer? What are the big problems with Explorer? If I have good anti virus software is there really a difference?	[ "Historically you would be correct about IE being a bad browser. But it you use the Modern ones they are pretty equivalent to Chrome and Firefox. They all have add-on's to varying extents. They all confirm to standards pretty well.", "Internet Explorer has long been the worst browser available. The only reason s...
why prosthetic limbs cost almost twice as much as a car	[ "Supply and demand. Money doesn't really have any \"real\" value, all the prices you see are imaginary, so to speak. That's why diamonds, for instance, cost so much. It's not that they have some kind of actual value, it's just that people are willing to buy them at a certain price, and the seller, seeing as people ...
Why aren't there any HUGE bugs?	[ "I believe that the reason for that is still under debate! though I could easily be wrong as I am basing this off of a discovery channel documentary I watched once, but there are 2 limiting factors that are likely culprits:\n\n- the strength and mass of exoskeletons. at a certain upper bound they are no longer able...
What is the point in hiding scores for comments for a certain amount of time?	[ "People are most like to read only the first few comments...which are more likely to be upvoted...which are more likely to be upvoted...resulting in a kind of avalanche. People are also more likely to upvote comments that have already been upvoted.\n\nVote hiding attempts to counter this.", "So that the reddit h...
Why our voices sound so different than what we think they sound like	[ "When something 'makes' a sound (a tree falling, or lightning striking), it does so by causing particles to bump into each other, then those particles bump into more particles, etc etc outward in all directions until they bounce off something.\n\nWhen you speak, the thing making the sound is your vocal cords vibrat...
What happens if someone needs an ambulance during a snow storm and the roads aren't plowed?	[ "ambulances are extremely heavy and so are great on driving on bad roads compared to regular cars, but at some point with a bad enough storm the answer is 'you wait and maybe die\"", "They don't get an ambulance. Ambulance drivers will do their best to get somewhere but if they can't do it then they can't do it....
Why can't you fight dementia by training your brain?	[ "You can, to an extent - it has been shown that (for example) bilingual people and people who keep their brain active can fight off the effects of dementia for longer. \n\nBut a lot of types of dementia (like Alzheimer's disease) mean your brain is physically shrinking, and parts of it are lost forever. At some...
The myth that humans only use 10% of the brain. How is it incorrect?	[ "When you point at something, you only use 10% of your fingers. Obviously, that doesn't mean only 1 of your fingers is functional, just that your other nine fingers aren't needed for that activity. Also, it doesn't mean using 100% of your fingers to point at something would make you \"better\" at pointing, you wo...
What did the developers of HTML5 do to make things so much faster?	[ "Nothing.\n\nHTML is just a set of instructions telling a browser what it should display. There are different versions of HTML, the latest one being HTML5, but the differences between them are mostly a matter of a few new instructions (browsers are designed to ignore instructions they don't understand, so older bro...
Tips Dividing	[ "You need to explain your question better.\n\n30% of $100 is $30. You got that right.\n\nI'm not sure what's supposed to happen in your second equation." ]
Why is it so bad to drink ocean water, even for those who are on the verge of dying of thirst?	[ "They say drinking seawater will drive you mad but it will dehydrate you & make you more thirsty because it contains salt. Also your kidneys can have a job processing that amount of salt." ]
How are fake identities created?	[ "I've known someone who was born in England and was sued through no fault of his own, then lost his council apartment as he couldn't afford the rent and then was made homeless... in England if you are booted out of council accommodation that's it you cannot get help again. Basically his life was in complete ruin an...
Will human colonization of other planets ever be possible?	[ "Look into Elon Musk. The Founder and CEO of SpaceX. He said in June that he has concrete plans to colonize Mars in 15 years. If anyone else on Earth said that I'd instantly write it off, but Elon Musk is seriously a super human. One of those people that literally comes about once a century. \n\nHe is known for hav...
what is physically different from a "normal" brain and a psychopath's?	[ "The term 'psychopath' refers to a large array of behaviors, which do not necessarily correlate to brain differences. Some people may behave differently based on their upbringing and experiences, for example. However, some brains do function differently than most human brains, and we know a small bit about this.\n\...
Why is communism bad?	[ "Everyone gets everything equal in a communist society. Except those at the top who are usually corrupt and get lots. Also nobody is motivated to do anything since the outcome is the same. Its not bad in theory as we all want equality, however it fails when actually applied because of human nature. We need to be mo...

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