Split (3)

train · 273k rows

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[America] Why Do Medical Fundraisers Still Ask For Full Cost Of Treatment Instead Of Insurance Premiums?	[ "I've not seen these things you are talking about, but anyway...\n\nBuying insurance does not pay for the costs of treatment already incurred. If you get hit by a bus, it unlikely the Elks Lodge is going to buy you insurance during the ambulance ride. And buying insurance is generally restricted to \"open enrollm...
Why do puppies smell funny?	[ "Dogs produce an oil naturally that has a slightly yeasty smell, (the so-called dog smell). This oil is produced to protect the dog's skin and hair. Most often, dogs end up picking up bacteria on their skin when they are outdoors. The combination of the oil and bacteria produce what many call the \"wet dog smell\...
Landing on Jupiter? Possible?	[ "There is no conclusive evidence about Jupiter having or not having a solid core. The scientific consensus is that it PROBABLY does a solid core, surrounded a liquid metal layer and then finally a gas layer.\n\nYour spacecraft would probably be crushed fairly early on, or attacked by the nasty gaseous atmosphere, o...
How is the Michelson-Morley experiment evidence for the constancy of the speed of light?	[ "First you need to know about what was called aether. In the past, people thought light were waves through something called aether, that sourrounds us all similar to air, but only that it exists everywhere. \n\nNow since the Earth is rotating around the sun(and our solar system is moving, too), we must be moving t...
How could I successfully argue with co workers when they observe near record low temperatures and declare, "global warming doesn't exist."	[ "The correct term is climate change- it is not about just warming but a shift toward more extreme weather patterns.", "Ask them what \"global\" means. It's been pretty damn hot in Australia this week.", "Because the record lows aren't as low as the record highs are high." ]
Why is the synaptic vesicle not connected to one another?	[ "> Would it make any difference if they were connected to each other?\n\nIt is useful for a nerve signal to sometimes be triggered and sometimes not. If they were directly connected then you wouldn't really have an action potential to build up and \"jump the gap\", it would just be always on which sort of defeats ...
How are few companies able to own majority of the brands I use?	[ "this is end game capitalism. lets say you have 100 companies all in one area. some do well, some don't. the ones that do well might buy out the smaller ones or the smaller ones go out of business. eventually once they become big enough, they start buying other smaller companies that retain their brand, since c...
Why do large companies sign a 10-20 year building lease when that comes close or exceeds the building value?	[ "Often it's a cash-flow decision. Purchasing the building outright costs a lot of upfront money (which either has to come from assets or from a loan... which is basically like a lease but with more terms and conditions) and adds uncertainty to the end of the 10-20 year time frame if the company wants to move somew...
What exactly do courtroom artists do, and why are they a part of some trials?	[ "Especially in high profile cases people want to know what's going on. Nowadays if become more common to televise events. But before this was the case Judges often banned media like pictures and video in thier courts. So courtroom artists would sketch parts of the precedings for newspapers to use.", "I recently w...
Why Aren't Third Party Candidates Allowed to Debate?	[ "Right now, the debates are only for candidates of a certain party. When the parties have nominated their candidates, third party candidates would be able to debate if they polled high enough.", "What do you mean by that? The debates that are currently going on are for the 2 main US parties to decide who their ca...
How do floors get mopped, garbage cans get emptied, plumbing get repaired etc. in top secret areas? Are there janitors with high level security clearance?	[ "Areas like that have \"clean desk\" policies where everything has to be secured in locked drawers when you are not at your desk. If it is somewhere with constant activities then the people there take their trash to somewhere outside the room where it gets collected.", "The area is first cleared of all classifie...
Why do objects at a distance look so much further away in photos?	[ "You used a relative wide angle lens. It has a wider field of view than your eyes so things appear farther away. You could use a more \"normal\" focal length (~50mm) to make things appear as you see them, or a longer lens to make things appear closer.", "Isn't there a psychological aspect too? Our brain knows we ...
what does it mean to label China as a "currency manipulator"?	[ "There currency exchange rate is set by the government. They set it so you can buy a lot of yuan for your dollar. This makes their exports cheap since when you buy their exports you pay in yuan and if you have dollars you have to exchange dollars for yuan and you'll get a lot of yuan for the exchange and so you ca...
Separate Facebook Message App - Why the mandatory breakout separation?	[ "It solves the problem of having to deal with a large amount of code. Something the size of the Facebook app requires a large number of programmers to maintain, and programming gets harder the more people you have to add to a project (there's a book called The Mythical Man-Month that goes into this in depth). Havin...
What is a Fibonacci Sequence?	[ "A sequence of numbers, starting with 0, 1 where every subsequent number is the sum of the two previous numbers. \n\n\n0\n\n1\n\n0+1=1\n\n1+1=2\n\n2+1=3\n\n3+2=5\n\n5+3=8\n\n8+5=13\n\nand so on.\n\nHence, the Fibonacci sequence starts 1,1,2,3,5,8,13...\n\nEdit: realised 5+8 != 11. I'm an idiot." ]
Computer data storage.	[ "The sort of storage that stays valid after losing electrical power is called \"non-volatile storage\". That means things like hard drives, CD-ROMs and flash drives. Storage that requires electricity to maintain data is called \"volatile storage\" and is computer memory, or RAM.\n\nHard drives maintain data becau...
What is a modal auxiliary verb? (explain for a foreigner)	[ "This isn't technically correct, but think of them as modifying the subject with a potential action." ]
How do investors pick franchises and are they preferable to starting a business on your own?	[ "Investors pick franchises based on what they think will be the best fit for where they want to operate their business. Several things come into play, such as the cost of the franchise, the amount of support they get for that money, the appeal of the product in that market, and how much competition there is for tha...
Why is it that some people can learn equations and concepts when examples are involved ie: physics/chemistry but struggle with similar ideas when examples aren't involved ie: trig/calc/algebra?	[ "There have been many theories of learning which categorise people into different groups depending how they learn.\n\nPretty much all of these theories have been disproven.\n\nHowever, one thing that is known is that, however hard it is to categorise people, we do all learn differently! Some people like to see ...
Ethics	[ "First, I want to say that this is all 'soft' science, so there will be exceptions.\n\nLet's say you gave your friend some advice, and that advice ended up making things worse. You didn't mean them to, they just did. There are two different ways most philosophers and such determine whether that was a good thing to ...
why do I feel sick when I read in a car?	[ "In order for a person to estimate his location, the brain combines information from a variety of sources, including sight, touch, joint position, the inner ear and its own expectations. The inner ear is particularly important because it contains sensors for both angular motion (the semicircular canals) and linear ...
When in flight why does the propeller of an airplane look like its moving really slowly?	[ "This is called aliasing. Basically your eye cannot sample light fast enough to follow the actual speed of the propeller. Instead it samples at a rate, then pieces together the images to produce movement. If the properller spins 1.1 times between images, your brain makes the assumption the propeller moved 0.1 revol...
Why does vegetable oil work as a substitute for traditional fuel in a diesel engine?	[ "Diesel engines work by compression ignition; you add a small amount of hydrocarbon fuel during compression, it eventually combusts and the energy of combustion raises the pressure and drives the piston downwards, producing power. However, this autoignition isn't a magical property unique to diesel fuel; every ...
Is there any merit to the idea that exposing yourself to germs strengthens your immune system?	[ "Your immune system, every time it beats off an infection, stores information about that infection in it's \"memory B-cells.\" That way, if you get reinfected, your immune system can say \"aha it's you again! I remember your secret weakness from last time!\" instead of having to figure it out all over again. \n\nIt...
Why does my skin itch when i've been sweating and touch grass?	[ "Grass makes very small (near microscopic) cuts on the skin, and when those cuts are contacted with liquid (in your case, sweat) it itches. It's like salt in a wound, but much smaller." ]
How does my fingerprint scanner on my iPhone work through a plastic bag?	[ "Because it's not a fingerprint scanner, it's just a camera. Advanced fingerprint scanners use high resolution CMOS sensors, pressure and temperature sensors, and a myriad of other tricks to detect an actual finger against a simple printout of your print. The scanner on phones and laptops, and other cheap consumer...
The reason why NSAIDS are ineffective at reducing symptoms of diseases like Psoriasis?	[ "Not 100% sure, but I would say that's because Psoriasis is caused when your immune system ins't working properly and the chemicals involved in psoriasis are not affected by NSAIDS (they generally affect the COX enzymes that promote inflammation)" ]
why it always seems like people wake up before the best part or climax of their dreams.	[ "Until a better answer shows up, I believe I've read on this very forum, that it has to do with the fact that the \"best part\" just so happens to excite you so much, that your brain activity increases and you therefore begin to awaken.\n\nAnother aspect may be that you don't remember dreams in which you didn't wak...
How does bracing reduce the impact during a crash?	[ "It doesn't reduce the impact, but it gives you some warning that an impact is coming and allows you to protect your vital parts (neck, head, etc.). While there have been cases where asleep/unconscious people have survived impacts that have killed others, there is often more to those stories than initially presente...
How can someone be immune to the laws of a country simply because they have diplomatic immunity?	[ "Because the country that they represent have been extended that courtesy for their diplomats by the host country. It's a common arrangement so that diplomats don't get blackmailed by local police or politicians. \n\nThe host country can always expel a diplomat if they don't want them there. And the diplomats count...
Why do the creatures at the deepest parts of the ocean look so different from that species we normally see?	[ "A huge pressure. For anything to be able to withstand it you need either incredible skeletal structure, or massive skin and muscle mass. The former is almost non-existent, if it exist it's mostly in small organisms such as crabs, etc..., the latter is more common. Remember [this](_URL_0_) guy this is how he looks ...
Why laptops still use differrent chargers, and why they dont follow the example of the mobile phones?	[ "$$$$$$$$$$$\n\nSame reason apple uses its own cords. You have to buy them from the company that makes the laptop.", "Yo ho ho! Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: Why don't all laptops use the same power cord, like happened with cell phones? ](_URL_0_)\n1. [ELI5: Why are lapt...
How does Google Maps know when there's little, medium or high traffic on roads?	[ "I don't know if you noticed, but Google figures out pretty quickly where you live and where you work: that's because it activates the GPS on your phone in the background and registers your location quite frequently.\n\nIf you are driving, Google can interpret the GPS location of your phone as an indication of no t...
Why do my devices need an IP address if they all have a unique MAC-address?	[ "Because a MAC address says who you are, but not where you are.\n\nWhen I say \"who\" I don't literally mean it identifies you of course, it identifies a particular piece of equipment. But the IP address really does identify where that piece of equipment is located in a sort of physical sense.\n\nIP addresses a...
Why and how are power plants designed so they can't power themselves?	[ "The plant isn’t technically incapable of powering itself—it’s incapable of running without a grid connection.\n\nThat might sound like a distinction without a difference, but the plant requires a connection to the grid not to receive power from the grid, but to dispose of power on the grid.\n\nThe nuclear plan...
If Physics states that we don't actually touch anything, how can we taste and smell?	[ "We don't really touch things, but that doesn't mean they don't interact. Magnets, gravity, electrical charges all do not physically touch things, but they interact because of the force emanating from them.", "Just because the atoms in our body don't physically contact other atoms doesn't mean that there's no suc...
How did people figure out precisely which direction to build a railway in before GPS and modern technology?	[ "You'd be surprised how accurate tools like sextants are. They were around for a while before we started building railroads.", "Usually the railway as build along an existing feature, like a wagon trail or a river. If you know how to get somewhere by foot or horse, you know how to build rails to it.\n\nAlso, you...
What allows our brain to "focus"?	[ "The brain has a subconscious filtering system that decides which things are unimportant and which should be passed on to our conscious mind." ]
why does resting my hand between my thighs warm me up?	[ "You have a lot of nerve endings that control your hands. Perhaps warming them tricks your brain into thinking you are more warm than before.\n\nCheck out this [homunculus](_URL_0_) to see the brain proportion that is dedicated to controlling certain body parts. As you can see, lips and hands require a lot of n...
How come some vitamins (like D3) are sold in amounts that provide much more than the decided daily value (500% for example)? Isn't this unnecessary because excess nutrients are removed in urine? Wouldn't this be a disadvantage to the consumer and result in a higher cost?	[ "Often times, vitamin supplements are sold in much larger doses than necessary because consumers falsely believe that more is better. They purchase the higher dose of water soluble vitamins because they don't realize that the excess just gets peed out." ]
What makes a substance nutritious?	[ "A subtstance is nutricious when we can extract energy from it. That substance can be carbohydrates (sugars), fats, and amino acids from proteins. The body modifies these substances into one of the products that can be used in the so-called Krebs cycle. The Krebs cycle is a series of chemical reactions that release...
what is the difference between vague, ambiguous (semantic), ambiguous (syntactic), ambiguous (grouping), overgeneral, or both vague and overgeneral.	[ "Kind of confused about what you're asking for. Is it assignment-specific jargon?\n\nThe difference between 'vague' and 'ambiguous':\n\nVague - Lacking detail but has specific meaning.\n\ne.g. Joe is tall.\n\nHow tall? Joe is tall compared to what?\n\nAmbiguous - Several meanings or open to interpretation.\n\ne.g. ...
what is magnetic flux?	[ "Say you have 100 water hoses stacked in a square and pointed at a house. The window is open. On the hoses hit the window go in the house, the rest just hit the wall.\n\nMagnetic flux is when you take the magnetic field and multiply it by the area of a given thing, say a hoop. The magnetic field is like the water h...
why isn't single serve coffee sold in tea bags?	[ "Didn’t Folgers used to make “coffee singles” in the past? I’m not sure if it was instant or supposed to act like a brew, but I’m almost positive I’ve seen something like it.", "In Australia you can buy coffee bags. These ones are sold everywhere. _URL_0_", "Coffee and tea diffuse differently, tea diffuses thro...
Why can we build 1TB SSD's but not 1TB of RAM and cut out the storage?	[ "We can make a terabyte of RAM but it would be really expensive and couldn't store data when the computer was off. Also we really don't need the incredibly fast access for the vast majority of that data.", "Totally different systems.\n\nSsd are slower to access, and can store data without power.\n\nRam is a super...
Does a gas giant actually have a solid surface?	[ "The \"surface\" of Jupiter is gaseous hydrogen.\r_URL_0_\r\rWhat would happen if you went \"on\" the top of Earth's gaseous atmosphere? You'd fall, right?\r\rJupiter is much more massive than Earth though, so you'd fall even faster, and probably burn up from friction with the atmosphere before anything more intere...
Where do birds keep their bone marrow?	[ "According to our friends over at /r/askscience:\n\n > Birds have bone marrow it just doesn't intersperse through the central region of bones like in humans. Avian bones aren't hollow in the sense that they're like straws with absolutely nothing inside them. There are networks of structural fibers that help give t...
How does evolution explain an animal developing the ability of venom attacks? Like a Platypus?	[ "As [this](_URL_0_) link will tell you, many venom systems started out as something entirely different whether they be digestive enzymes, proteins to help fight bacteria, etc. A mutation occurs and suddenly that enzyme/protein/etc is present in the mouth/claws/etc, and it gives them an edge to catch prey and just g...
Why are games being exclusive to a particular console "bad" and why is this exclusivity deal Netflix has secured "good" ?	[ "You're currently comparing two things in different ways. I understand the confusion but you're just getting it a little bit twisted. I'm not a gamer, but here goes my attempt at an explanation. \n\n1. A game being only available on ONE platform is bad for the game due to the fact by only being on one console, the ...
Why is there a large build up of dust on fan and air vent covers when there is air being blown over them often to displace dust from settling?	[ "So lets start off with two things that may not be obvious:\n\n1) Although the air looks clear and clean, its not. The air you're breathing is actually filled with water and dust, you just can't see it because there is substantially more air than water/dust, and the water/dust particles are extremely tiny.\n\n2) A...
Why is gold valuable? For how long will it continue to be valuable?	[ "Gold is valuable primarily because people believe that it is valuable. (It does have some practical uses in jewelry and electronics, but these things aren't nearly enough to support its current price).\n\nIt will probably continue to be valuable, because gold being valuable is a significant part of our cultural id...
What gives massless particles a 'speed limit'? What stops them from traveling faster than 299,792,458 m / s?	[ "Simply put, we don't know. It's a very well documented and solid physical constant, but why that happens to be the universal speed limit isn't clear. There's some speculation and models that attempt to describe it, but nothing verifiable as of yet.", "299,792,458 is the fastest anything can go.\n\nWhy it's s...
Why can I remember the conventions of a new programming language or the methods of a new library with ease but spend hours memorizing facts in biology class to no avail?	[ "As a fellow student learning programming with ease and dying in biology, I feel your pain.\n\nI can't possibly explain for you without speculating, but for me it's because of the style. Biology is a very fact-oriented thing. You either know what allopatric means, or you don't. And you never get to actually use it,...
Why is the DEA so concerned about narcotics, barbiturates etc?	[ "> But why does the DEA care in the first place if people die from narcotics?\n\nBecause they are the agency put in charge of regulating and controlling such things. It is like asking why the Department of Transportation is so enthusiastic about roads and stuff, like they are some sort of weirdos.\n\nSo why does t...
Allergies; and why the body develops them.	[ "Your body's immune system often causes your body to do less-than-desirable things. For example, when it's fighting a cold, it's your immune system, not the cold virus, which causes you to have a runny nose and sneeze lots.\n\nWhen something gets into your body which doesn't belong there, your body's immune system ...
how did they have an apartheid in south africa since most the people living there are black? (sorry if dumb question)	[ "Apartheid was run by the white minority to keep control of the black majority. The laws were phrased as though it was some kind of \"separate but equal\" system but in reality it was incredibly discriminatory and frequently brutal (not too dissimilar to segregation in the American south).\n\nIn theory, the system ...
Humans mated with Neanderthals and have some Neanderthal DNA.What prevented their mating with other archaic human types?	[ "It may have happened. It is hard to prove. DNA degrades with time. Only in special circumstances, cold dry caves, does some DNA survive for thousands of years.\n\nTo prove it you must have DNA from the different humans to have lasted since then. It is extremely unlikely to find DNA much older than what has been fo...
why does Adobe Flash Player need to update so much?	[ "Adobe (Originally, Macromedia) Flash is, by Internet standards, a very old format. It comes from the days where every byte and every CPU cycle was very important. This meant that it used various tricks to save space and computer effort.\n\nThe programming to work with these tricks is complex, and complex programs ...
Is it better to brace your body or stay loose in an accident/fall?	[ "Obviously every crash is different and some things will work better in one situation than they would in another, but the brace position in an aircraft crash, or bracing against a car seat have a very specific purpose.\n\nIn any collision there are multiple impacts. In an aircraft crash there is the impact of the ...
Why can e-cigarette companies advertise on TV while traditional cigarette companies can't?	[ "E-cigarettes don't have tobacco in them, they're a smoking accessory. It's like advertising a cigarette lighter", "The restriction isn't on advertising nicotine, it's on advertising tobacco. If you think that doesn't make sense just keep in mind that the vast majority of the danger in tobacco comes from burning ...
Why I can't look in different directions with my eyes.	[ "You can.\n\nBack in 2006 while doing \"How to [cross](_URL_1_) just One Eye\" and \"Speak with an Echo,\" I got ambitious and tried inducing [MartyFeldman-o-vision](_URL_0_). I had some fresnel prisms left from a failed toy design[1] which only deflect a couple degrees. Mount on eyeglass frames to bend light inw...
Why does western society treat sex as something taboo?	[ "This isn't really a concept question. Europe and America both \"western societies\" have different views on sex and display of it. US views on sex is still largely influenced by our Quaker and Puritan heritage. \n\nYour question needs some clarification and best for perhaps r/askhistorians" ]
what actually is that feeling when you're falling in a dream and you wake up?	[ "The falling feeling is from a hypnic jerk. Your muscles may twitch or spasm and your mind is trying to make sense of it. You think that you're falling. I believe the heart beating and the shortness of breath is an emotional response. It's kinda not really clear why this happens. \n\nEven though you are sleeping, t...
Why is it more quiet when it's snowing?	[ "Many things at once make this happen:\n\n1) Snow on the ground absorbs the noise around us, where as the hard surface of the roads bounce it off. Just like a room with carpet and curtains does not echo, but an empty room with floorboards does echo. Absorbing the noise makes it quieter.\n\n2) Snow is soft and makes...
what exactly is the purpose of dreaming?	[ "No one's entirely sure. Some popular theories:\n\n--it helps us sort through the events of the day and create memories accordingly\n\n--it helps us work through the emotions of the day and reach equilibrium\n\n--dreams don't serve any purpose; they're just a consequence of some other process\n\nThese aren't neces...
Why does water feel much colder in your mouth when chewing mint gum?	[ "The ingredient in mint gum that gives that cooling sensation is called Menthol.\n\nThe tongue can not tell the difference between Menthol and actual cold temperatures so that's why they feel the same.\n\nAs a side note, capsaicin (the active ingredient in spicy food) is why our mouths feel hot. Again, because thi...
NFL followers, why are there so many people on the sideline while the game is being played? What is their role? Novice at NFL here.	[ "Media people, cameramen, sound people, the other 80odd players not on the field, the coaching staff, the athletic trainer staff, the medical team, NFL officiating crew, security...\n\nAdd it all up and you usually have several hundred people on the sideline of a typical NFL game.\n\nIt takes a lot of people to mak...
Why Won’t Obama Rein in the N.S.A.?	[ "Because Obama doesn't really care about libertarian neckbeards over the internet getting butthurt." ]
What's the significance and possible implications of all these nations joining this new China-led bank? (akin to the World Bank)	[ "It means, in a basic sense, that nations will be able to go to an Eastern-led development bank instead of Western banks such as the World Bank and IMF (as you mentioned). Since countries usually agree to certain development terms when they receive loans from these places, the issuer of the loan gains control over ...
Is it possible to become ambidextrous?	[ "I highly suggest posting this over at /r/askscience to avoid hundreds a meaningless anecdotes being your answer.", "With enough practice, yes. I suggest tying your dominant arm to your torso for a couple weeks.", "I'm going to say no just to dissuade you from attempting to join our ranks.", "I had a step-gra...
how does people you may know function on facebook work? Do people who have visited my profile pop up there?	[ "Do you have their phone numbers or email addresses and have ever used the feature that allows Facebook to search your contacts for potential friends? If you've done that they will show up in your recommended friends. Sometimes it seems to be so sensitive as to suggest someone who I have only contacted once.", "P...
How did some animals (lizards etc.) get an ability to regenerate limbs evolutionary?	[ "All species have the capacity for regeneration, some to a higher extent than others. \n\nWhat you are referring to is called autonomy (self amputation) and in most cases it was developed as a defence mechanism that allowed an animal to escape by sacrificing a limb and then regrow a substitute one (albeit imperfect...
The difference between Whiskey, Scotch and Bourbon.	[ "Whisky is a type of alcohol, made of fermented grain mash (more on that in a second). It's distilled and aged in casks for years, usually it's made very clear how many years it's been aged and the difference between a bottle of 7-year and 10-year can be quite pronounced, as can the price. It's important to note th...
Why is ridesharing, like Uber and Lyft, illegal in some places (specifically Philadelphia).	[ "Taxi services have a number of regulations that they have to abide by, and this causes them to charge more for the same service of getting you from point A to point B. These greater costs and increased operational rigidity lead to poorer service. However, they could absolutely offer better services, and should hav...
Why, for some stereo speakers, does one stereo cut out before the other one when adjusting the volume to a very low setting?	[ "Because the device is probably using a stereo potentiometer. One of the quality differences between cheap and non-cheap multi-channel potentiometers is how accurate the tracking is on the two channels." ]
Why do marathon runners tape their nipples?	[ "They chafe against your shirt, they can even bleed. I didnt really take that seriously until I ran my first half marathon. It is a thing.", "Chafing. Some fabrics combined with continuous friction over one of the most sensitive parts of your body is not a good mixture." ]
Why do our voices sound robotic when we speak into the fan?	[ "Because the fan blades reflect the sound back at you, like any hard surface will. The difference is the fan has gaps in it that are are whizzing past. So you're getting hard surface, gap, hard surface, gap and so on many times a second, and your voice gets reflected back with a similar on/off/on/off pattern. Your ...
Minneapolis and St. Paul are two major cities of small land areas in the same state that border each other. Is there any good reason they can't combine like the New York Boroughs did in 1898?	[ "No. There is no practical reason why they cannot combine. If you watch \"Gangs of New York,\" you can see practical reasons why combining police forces and having uniform laws are a plus. Then again many urban areas have separate governments separated by bodies of water.\n\nState government has a lot to do with th...
What actually prevents something from continuing to grow once matured and does any species max growth increase over the generations?	[ "Genes usually stop growth when a pre-determined structure has completely formed. That is called determinate growth.\n\nIndeterminate growth means that the animal will grow all throughout its life, this is common with fish, mollusks (squids) and reptiles." ]
Why did Walgreens end its partnership with Express Scripts?	[ "Because they wanted to raise prices, while Express Scripts said no." ]
Why is Broadway and musical theater in general associated with homosexuals?	[ "I think that a lot of the aspects of theater in general (the elaborate costumes, the makeup, the dancing) are socially viewed as feminine, adding a sort of femininity to male actors/ theater professionals. Also, it may have been influenced by Castratos (eunuchs _URL_0_) in classical opera/other classical performan...
In America, why are most street signs green while others are blue?	[ "It depends on the type of sign, and, in some cases, the specific sign. [Here](_URL_0_) is an overview of the different colors, while [here](_URL_1_) has specific signs that make for good examples. Specifically, green is \"used as background color for guide and information signs, and for legend on permissive regula...
Why are ambulances at least in the US part of an outside company rather than owned by the hospital?	[ "It is often more efficient that way.\n\nIt costs money for hospitals to maintain a fleet of ambulances, and since their priority is running the hospital, the might not be very good at it.\n\nLet a single company specialize in ambulance service, and letting it serve all the surrounding hospitals eliminates redundan...
What constitutes a "side effect" in contrast to the effect in drugs?	[ "A side effect is simply something outside the intended purpose of the drug. Even if it happened 100% of the time, it can be considered a side effect. For example, a common allergy drug (diphenhydramine) also has a side effect of making one drowsy. You're buying it to be relieved of allergy symptoms, so the drowsin...
What is goodwill, and what role does it play in partnership businesses in Accountancy?	[ "In accounting, we predominantly use something called the double-entry method (Michael Scott contain yourself).\n\nThat means that when we spend money developing something, and incur cost, we also want to see it appear as an \"asset\", something we own - writing down both the cost and the asset are a sense check as...
Why are video game prices dropping quickly this year	[ "It's christmas, and those two games are on everyone's list. Grandma WILL buy Titanfall for Timmy between now and Dec. 25th, and she only will buy it ONCE. The only question is from where. \n\nThat means whoever can offer the best price on Titanfall to Grandma WILL get her in the door for at least one purchase. ...
Mt. Gox	[ "This question concerns one of the most frequently asked topics on ELI5, so it has been removed. Try the searchbar!\n\nIt's okay to re-post questions, but please indicate that you did a search and that previous questions/answers didn't help you understand." ]
Why does sand stick to everything even though it doesn't feel sticky?	[ "Sand sticks to things in many ways just like flour does. Flour particles aren't sticky at all (while dry), but small enough to be caught in tangles of fabric fibers, attracted by even the slightest charges, or \"grabbed\" by microscopic droplets of water or oil (and the human body is literally covered with oil-dro...
What is the reason for "ancestor worship" in East Asia, and how did this cultural practice come about?	[ "It's not so much worship, but remembrance, and being thankful for giving birth, and remembering their achievements. \n\nIt's just kind of like say, if your mother died, you would go to her grave (or memorial) and kind of have a moment, remembering the person she was, and in the case of East Asians, laying out a t...
How does swallowing SSRIs or any medication get the chemicals into your brain or other body part where it's required?	[ "It is the same way food is processed. It is broken down and absorbed by the digestive tract, then distributed throughout your body via your bloodstream. Medications do not target a specific region." ]
Why do so many celebrities become enamored by/join Scientiology?	[ "Well, for those people it IS like a celebrity club; it's a relatively exclusive organization, it has vast contacts in the entertainment biz and associated businesses (because they have cultured members and allies and contacts for this purpose) so they also provide networking between different kinds of high pro...
If internet can so easily be overlorded by megacorps, it means the implementation of it was broken from the start. Couldn't we just start a whole new internet that runs on entirely new and open source infrastructure and setup rules that keep it safe or human consumption?	[ "It's because it's using phone and cable lines that are already attached to peoples' homes.\n\nYou need to be a company that has the resources to get data directly to peoples' homes. And not only that, all of the servers that hold internet content would need to be off of the old system as well, so the millions of ...
The Obamacare birth control mandate.	[ "Put in place by the US government to force health insurance providers/employers to include different methods of birth control on their employees plans at no cost to the employee. It stated that the mandate required all health plans to cover all contraceptives approved by the FDA. It covers pretty well anything you...
When cars are towed, how does the owner know that it was towed rather than stolen?	[ "Cop here:\n\nA lot of times there will be a sign that tells you what tow company tows from that area.\n\nWe do still get a lot of calls about stolen cars that end up being towed, though.\n\nIn my state, tow companies are required to submit every car they tow into a database that's searchable by police.\n\n9 times ...
What is Unraid?	[ "It’s an operating system you can buy for a computer. Like windows or Mac. But it’s intended for storing files and making them available to other computers on a network at home or in an office. It’s in the category of things we call “NAS” or Network Attached Storage. Unlike your computer, it’s typical for NAS serve...
How come steak can be rare but ground beef must be fully cooked	[ "Steak is relatively dense, so bacteria tend to be on the surface, which you will be subjecting to a lot of direct heat. If you grind the meat up, then you potentially allow any present bacteria to spread throughout the material.", "When steak is contaminated it's on the surface, so cooking the outside is suffic...
Why is it called the great recession, and not the 2nd great depression? What exactly is the difference?	[ "It's called the \"Great Recession\" because although there was a strong recession, meaning a decrease in size of the economy, there was no depression, which is a longer period of stagnation following a recession. What characterized the Great Depression was that it took a long time for conditions to improve, wherea...
How do unions work? and what do they do?	[ "Unions work through collective bargaining. \nOne of the unstated facts about capitalism is what you are worth. You are NOT worth the value of your labor. You are worth what you can NEGOTIATE for your labor. If a company were to pay you for the VALUE of your labor, the company would not make any profit on it, a...
- In the first Matrix, Neo asks for guns, how would he get to the other rows of guns?	[ "> Are they just for show?\n\nIt's a movie, it's all just for show. It looks cooler to have many rows, so that's what they did.", "This is probably better suited for /r/AskScienceFiction. If you are looking for an answer that fits in with the constraints and laws of a particular movie/game/work of fiction, that ...
I have heard that the Xbox One and PS4 are like high end gaming PCs. Why do they cost so much less?	[ "* Bulk discounts: manufacturers specify one type of component and buy millions of them.\n* Consoles also have predictable ordering cycles: this means you can order parts many months in advance, parts manufacturers love this since they can order raw materials way ahead of time which makes them cheaper.\n* Console...

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