Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
I'm a Senior in High School in New York. We are required for our government class to do 10 political hours, what are they and how do I get involved?	[ "I would ask your teachers or advisers what \"political hours\" are. I've never heard of them." ]
Institutional Racism	[ "Institutional racism is typically a holdover from periods of blatant racism.\n\nImagine you are born just after the end of Jim Crow and other formal, racist laws. Growing up, your family will be poorer than average and less educated than average. As you look around yourself, you will have few people who are very...
What is the point of 120Hz monitors when we can only perceive 60fps clearly?	[ "Actually, our eyes can quite comfortably perceive differences of up to around 80fps. It's not a huge difference above 60fps, but it can be noticeable in frame-by-frame rendered scenarios, such as games. [This diagram](_URL_0_) might help you see the peak point.\n\nThe added benefit of 120hz monitors is that they...
How do chameleons camouflage themselves?	[ "They do not. They change colors in response to temperature in mood, not as camouflage.\n\nBut as to how they do that: they have cells called chromatophores in their skin. These cells are layered on top of each other and can expand and contract. When a cell on top expands, it blocks the one underneath. When it...
"The captain always goes down with the ship". Why is this a thing?	[ "Captains wont intentionally kill themselves no, but they are supposed to be the last ones off since they are responsibly for all crew and passengers. \n\n > \"The captain goes down with the ship\" is an idiom and maritime tradition that a sea captain holds ultimate responsibility for both his ship and everyone emb...
How does a deaf person know what you are saying when they gain hearing?	[ "I was born deaf, and I had a cochlear implant surgery when I was seven. Prior to the surgery, I was wearing hearing aids, I was not able to hear well with it, and the cochlear implant helped me to hear, but I can tell you this, it took a lot of practice to understand what people are saying without reading their li...
What is ethernet and how does it differ from regular internet?	[ "Ethernet is just the particular type of port and network protocol which is used in wired ports to your computer. You probably know what it looks like: a larger, wider telephone connector. This is generally only used in local networks, and once it leaves the building changes to cable or fiber of some sort.\n\nThe I...
Why are there no laws to stop lies in politics, like there are to stop lies in advertising?	[ "there was a premier of Ontario (like a governor in the states) who signed a pledge publicly not to do 'x'.\n\nA few months after being elected, he did 'x'.\n\nThe dude who initiated it took it to court where it was thrown out, because politicians can be expected to lie.\n\nTrue story.", "Political speech is heav...
Why are scars clearly a different pigment color than the rest of our skin?	[ "Your normal skin was made slowly and precisely like a professional carpenter.\n\nScar tissues was made in a hurry to plug a leak like an amateur DIY emergency bodger." ]
Why Japanese always do the "V for victory" symbol when totally not applicable(or just in every picture ever).	[ "Its a cultural thing. Like how we say \"say cheese\" when we take a picture.", "It's a peace sign.\n\nOr if you prefer BECAUSE THEY WON.", "we used it as kids to mean a casual peace greeting, or saying deal with it.\n\nDISCLAIMER: Not Japanese.", "A friend told me recently that it means \"cute\". That's it...
How is it that the US economy flourished and expanded so extraordinarily during the late 1940s and 1950s when the government was so burdened with war debt?	[ "The USA was more or less the only fully intact industrial economy.\n\nWe supplied everything. To everyone.", "If your country isn’t the one being invaded and bombed war can be quite profitable. The United States was producing an almost unbelievable amount of ammunition, aircraft, tanks, jeeps, rifles, ships, etc...
How does the pedometer know that I am walking and not just shaking my phone?	[ "If you looked at a graph of what the phone was recording as it moves you would quickly see patterns that were unique to walking.\n\nThe phone records how it's moving (accelerating) in 3 different directions. It also records the magnetic force in 3 directions like a 3 dimensional compass. A graph of this would look...
the contact rules in ice hockey	[ "You cant hit (check) a guy if he is not actively involved in a play (interference). You can not use your stick to impede a players progress (tripping or hooking). You cannot elbow someone (elbowing). You cant intentionally push someone head first into the wall in an unnecessary manner (boarding). You c...
Why is 13 an unlucky number in Western culture?	[ "The Last Supper, the last meal Jesus Christ shared with his 12 apostles, had 13 men total attending it, the 13th of which betrayed Jesus. So 13 was then felt to be an unlucky number by Christians because of it.", "There's some great mythology here. Here's some more (because nobody knows). A year has 12 \"true\...
how does services like Instagram make profit?	[ "There are three main revenue models online. Advertising, freemium and venture capital. \n\nAdvertising = letting companies get access to your users for a fee (Facebook, google) \n\n\n\nFreemium - pay extra for more features like a mobile app, or other upgrades and purchases (think Facebook gifts) \n\nVenture capit...
What MUST be done to fix the water supply problems part of the world are having	[ "Folks simply have to live elsewhere. \n\nBy most theoretical guesses, we're in the final 25% of Earth's optimal capacity as far as human population. [1](_URL_0_) \n\nAt a point, society will no longer care about who has an iPhone or what happens to Don Draper on Mad Men tonight. Food resources will be spread th...
What is the point of those "Fowarding you to your download in 5.." pages	[ "They basically either make you look at ads, or are there to convince you into paying for a premium service. \n\nThere's a slight chance that they're actually load-balancing and just want you to have something to look at so you don't think it's frozen and hit reload constantly, too.", "Almost universally advert...
How did modern Americans come to lose the English accent?	[ "It's not so much that Americans lost a English accent but that both accents changed over time. For hundreds of years, there was no regular voice communication between England and America so their accents naturally drifted. \n\nAmusingly, the closest modern equivalent to the English accent at time of early coloni...
how the heck does wireless charging work?	[ "Pretty much the same way as wired charging works.\n\nWhen you plug something in, in the charger is a transformer. The transformer consists of 2 coils of wire. One it attached to the house electricity. 1 is attached (via the wire) to your phone.\n\nAs current passes through the primary coil, it induces a curr...
How long does it take for vitamin supplements do make a positive effect on your health after you take them?	[ "Depends on the vitamin. If you have scurvy (Vitamin C deficiency) and start taking vitamin C, it can make you substantially better in as little as 8-16 hours. If you have a Vitamin D deficiency, and start taking vitamin D, it might not have a noticeable affect for more than a week.", "Many people taking vitami...
Why can't we mix firework colours like we can paint?	[ "Because light doesn't mix the same as paint. To make purple you use metals that burn purple. Adding in magnesium can make it a lighter purple, or adding zinc oxide can make a forboding smokey purple.\n\nThink of it like this: when electricity is pulsed through hydrogen it looks white, but it's actually a few col...
LI5: The Stock Market and trading. Can someone explain it to me how they work?	[ "To be honest, I would recommend looking at an [investment fund.](_URL_0_)\n\nSince you don't know anything about trading, I would suggest not starting to trade until you have some market knowledge under your belt. If you use an investment fund (go for an open ended if you can, OEIC's etc)\ndon't try just jump on t...
What is an intuitive explanation of the Feigenbaum constants?	[ "I'm not sure what intuitive means to you. A visually appealing version is to look at the Mandelbrot set. You have the biggest part which is the main cardioid. To the left of it is a circle. If you keep going to the left and zooming in, you'll find infinitely many circle-like shapes attached to each other. The rati...
What are the dangers/benifits in protein shakes and supplements concerning muscle development.	[ "Dangers of protein? Basically none. A lot of people say protein is bad for your kidneys, but that's only if you have a preexisting kidney condition and/or are consuming an obscene amount of it.\n\nBenefits, in addition to the fact that higher protein consumption helps rebuild muscle after working out, shakes in pa...
Why is everyone on reddit explaining their edits? Even when it is just a typo and they added 1 letter, they write: "Edit: Typo. I was on a phone" or something like that.	[ "You can troll people by posting something, waiting for people to reply, then edit your post to something else so the replies no longer mean what they intended.\n\nE.g. You post something innocent like \"noodles are the best food\". Someone replies \"I agree\". Then you edit your post to say \"Hitler was right\". N...
How can newborn animals instinctively know how to walk moments after birth, but humans take months to be able to even stand?	[ "First of all, not all newborn animals instinctively know how to walk. There are just as many that are born blind, deaf and completely helpless.\n\nYou are looking at two things here.\n\nFirst of all, there is the question of need. Some animals need to be able to walk quickly after birth to avoid predators. Think...
Why are birds such loud creatures? How come ground animals (squirrels, rabbits, deer, etc.) are generally so quiet while communicating compared to their flying wildlife friends?	[ "Birds have the ultimate method of avoiding predators - flight. They simply fly away from anything dangerous. This also means they move around a lot and so they scream and yell to find each other. \n\nGround animals have a lot more shit to worry about. They aren't as loud so that they can hide from predators, s...
Why is it common to see the flag of the Confederate States of America in states which were never members of the Confederacy?	[ "Every state has Confederate apologists in it.\n\nIt's the modern way to fly the Nazi flag without flying the Nazi flag.\n\nThe Confederate flag, whatever it may have once represented, is now the flag of American White Supremacists, de facto Nazis, and other far right-wing extremists like the Bundy family, whose pa...
(kind of NSFW) Why my testicles ache if I get sexually excited for long but do not ejaculate at the end?	[ "Educated guess here.\n\nLots of blood and lubricating fluid builds up in all the \"tubes\" of your genitals when you sexually excited, and the tubes expand a bit for better flow. The \"plan\" is all that fluid is expelled in an ejaculation, then all the blood flow goes back to the rest of your body and all your \"...
- What, exactly, is gravity?	[ "Gravity is the tendency of objects with mass to attract one another.\n\nEverything has gravity. The gravitational force between two objects can be calculated.\n\nF=GMm/r^2\n\nF is force, G is the gravitational constant, M and m are the masses of the objects in question, and r is the distance between the center of ...
Why do gas stations charge an additional 10 cents per gallon for card transactions and why is it legal?	[ "Because it isn't illegal.\n\nThey are a business, and as a business they have the right to charge what they want for their goods/services. Your method of payment places a burden on them, why should they have to eat that cost? You could pay in cash and pay a different price.", "Just so you are aware, most credi...
Who controls how delegates vote in presidential nominations	[ "Delegates are local party members who are picked to go to the Convention. The majority of delegates are pledged, which means they are required by the rules of the Convention (and in some cases state law) to vote for a specific candidate based on the results of their state's primary or caucus. There are also superd...
why does running just after eating cause cramps?	[ "When you're digesting, a lot of your blood is directed to your stomach and intestines.\n\n\nWhich means you have less available for your legs.", "I used to get awful stomach (actually abdominal muscle) cramps often when we had to run laps in Gym class in elementary/middle school, and of course got no sympathy an...
The United Kingdom	[ "Think of two buildings next to one another. One building is two stories high and the neighbouring building is three stories high. \n \nThe two story building is called Ireland and the three story building has a floor for England, one for Scotland and one for Wales. \n \nAt various times in the past England took ...
If velocity affects time then how can we be sure the age of anything?	[ "You don't know with great precision, but you can still make a good guess. We'll be able to use the \"13.8 billion years\" estimate for a while instead of having to change to \"13.8 billion years and 5 days\" next week. Here, our precision is only to the 100-million years. Fluctuations due to relativity are negligi...
If anything we sense is converted into electrical signals that are then interpreted by our brains, why can't we capture, analyse, and re-transmit those signals?	[ "Neuroscientist here! I do research that involves recording electrical signals from neurons.\n\nThe main reason we can't do this is that the electrical signals of neurons ate very small and hard to detect. If you want to know what any one neuron is doing, the only good way is to implant an electrode into the brain ...
Why do we sneeze when plucking our eyebrows?	[ "The nerves for this area are very close to the nerves carrying sensory data from your nose. The signals overlap accidentally." ]
How does the brain 'click' and come to a conclusion when it receives multiple pieces of information? Why does the brain 'click' for some people, but for others, not so much?	[ "I'd say it depends on what information one has previously learned and trusts in. If I tell you that \"the moon causes the tides\" it may click for someone how the moon's gravity can effect a large fluid body on the earth. But for someone who doesn't know how gravity works or who's never heard of the concept it may...
How is the Galaxy s7 IP68 waterproof rated? Even when it has open ports like the USB and headphone jack	[ "The ports aren't open to the rest of the internals. Liquid and gunk can still get in the ports, but that's as far as it goes.", "It's possible to waterproof the ports. I have a waterproof flashlight with a USB charging port that doesn't need to be covered.", "I just bought a galaxy S5 Sport. It claims to be w...
The latter part of the periodic table	[ "> Why are the lanthanides (and actinides) down there?\n\nBecause it's easier to print on a page than [this](_URL_0_).\n\n > Why are some masses in parentheses?\n\nSome large elements are really unstable and aren't observed in nature. Instead of putting a weighted average of the atomic masses of the isotopes we o...
why silence sounds like a high pitched ringing sound.	[ "What you're hearing isn't silence - it's tinnitus which is generally caused by noise-induced hearing damage.\n\n_URL_0_" ]
Why does dog poo come out in a swirl but human poo is usually a log?	[ "Maybe it's because we shit in a bowl of water, and they shit directly on the ground.", "Greyhound owner here: It does not. Not ever.", "If you've ever shat in the woods, you'll see the two aren't much different.\n\nShitting directly into a bowl of water preservers the shape of the poo. Shitting on the ground ...
How does Sodium Pentathol (Truth serum) work?	[ "_URL_0_\n\nIt lowers your inhibitions like when you drink. This makes it easier for you to accidentally confess to something. But, as with being drunk, it also makes you more suggestible or nonsensical. There's no guarantee that what the person says is the truth.", "According to Burn Notice, it makes you too l...
Why don't they just make toilet pipes wider so they don't block?	[ "Wider pipes require more water to push more material through, otherwise the water spreads out and drops everything it was carrying like a river delta. Also, I challenge you to make a pipe big enough that it can't clog.", "I don't know the math behind calculating it, but you need a certain amount of water traveli...
Hey Li5, how does coding/programming work?	[ "By analogy:\n\nYour company manufactures different types of toys. You manage the assembly line for your company's manufacturing facility. \n\nEach person on the assembly line must do a specific set of tasks in order to create a toy. Each time there is a new toy, you must create a new set of instructions for the...
What is the purpose of tenure? In practice, is it a positive or negative thing, why?	[ "Its purpose originally was to allow professors and students to explore controversial ideas in an academic environment without fear of being fired for discussing them.\nAs for positive/negative, theres no way to truly answer that as everyone and every study will tell you something different.", "The positive and n...
How come there are different ways to defend yourself depending on the type of bear?	[ "I think it’s mostly the same except for Pandas and Koalas. Koalas you just punt and Pandas you act like you want to reproduce with them." ]
why do children have such simple, underdeveloped palates?	[ "Exposure/experience. As you grow you try new things. And also your taste buds change as you get older because your dietary requirements change." ]
Why is Greenland called Greenland if it's all icy, but Iceland called Iceland if it's all green? What happened historically?	[ "I believe I've read that scandinavian explorers gave them those names to discourage people from going to iceland so that they could settle it easily, and encourage them to go to Greenland, which would be very difficult for them to live in.", "Greenland was discovered and named (and yes, the name was also a sort ...
Why does audio sound deeper when slowed down, and higher pitched when sped up.	[ "When audio is slowed down, you're stretching out the sound, effectively making the wavelength longer with a lower frequency. Speeding it up is squishing it, making wavelength shorter with a higher frequency." ]
What is Throbbing; Why do you feel it when you are injured?	[ "When you're injured your nerves send more messages and are more sensitive so pain becomes more acute. Throbbing is feeling your blood pump through your veins. You can feel this because you nerves have become more sensitive due to the injury." ]
How would I get a visa to permanently move to the USA. Currently living in the UK.	[ "Do not ask here. Call the US embassy. Look online. How would you earn a living? Remember, here there is no universal health care, no provision for your retirement unless you work at least ten years, then it is skimpy. Our taxes are high and benefits skimpy because we fund an expensive military." ]
Why/How is abortion still is a huge issue in America at this time?	[ "Why would it not be? Anything that people have a fundamental disagreement on is going to be an issue.", "America is an extremely religious country with some powerfully fundamental Christian veins running through certain levels of power.\n\nAs such, there is a fierce debate over the morality of abortion.", "Bec...
Why do call-ins and phone interviews on radio and TV shows sound so much lower in quality than actual phone calls?	[ "In audio engineering, there is a saying that goes 'anything louder sounds better' - it's something a producer has to take into account when mixing a track. \n\nIn this case, it is likely that when you talk to someone on the phone, your ears are right beside the source(phone speakers), which is why it sounds better...
If the landscape was dominated by giant 20 foot tall mushrooms 350 million years ago, and mushrooms spread like wildfire if their caps are kicked off, where did they go?	[ "You appear to be talking about Prototaxites, giant fossilized columns discovered in late Silurian to late Devonian strata. First, not all fungi are mushrooms. These probably looked more like asparagus spears than capped mushrooms. Second, there is some debate whether Prototaxites are fungi at all. But putting both...
How do shows and movies get converted to higher resolution copies?	[ "Older movies are shot on film, which holds much more information than 1080p resolution is capable of displaying.\n\n10 years ago, 1080p technology was new and expensive. There was barely a market for it and certainly no market for 4K. All older films were being scanned at 1080p for eventual blu-ray releases. These...
Why is it that in the ocean so many different species can live in such close proximity to each other but on land it seems like they live separately.	[ "Volume of room. On land you have one flat plain while in the ocean layers. It boils down to volume vs. Surface area.", "First, the ocean has way more nutrients per volume than anywhere else on earth. Almost every river in the world dumps water full of dissolved minerals into the ocean. So there is a lot of algae...
For those that remember VHS and audiocassette tapes - I think I understand how you can get pictures on a tape of plastic, but how the heck did they get sound on there? How is it audible?	[ "I think you have the wrong idea of how they get images on the tape.\n\nThere is nothing on there that resembles an image to the human eye (not even outside of the visible light spectrum) it's nothing like the reels they use in cinemas. \n\nThe VHS tape is magnetic, kind of like hard drives (except VHS is analog an...
Why did George Lucas make the last 3 movies instead of beggining with the 3 first movies?	[ "When he made the first film (Episode IV), he didn't know it was going to be part of a 6-film franchise. He was just making a film. Sequels followed naturally, and I guess at some point he decided to do the prequels.", "Because he lied about the history of his own movies.\n\nThe original \"Star Wars\" was release...
Why do rabies cause an increase in aggression in animals?	[ "The rabies virus has evolved the ability to modify the behavior of its hosts - making them more aggressive to increase the likelihood that the host will spread the virus to another animal via biting. Rabies is [not the only pathogen](_URL_0_) to have evolved this behavior-altering ability.\n\nAs for how exactly it...
If the government actually shuts down what does that mean for me.	[ "Probably the same thing it did when the government shut down 5 years ago. If you have to ask: probably nothing.", "Not much day to day change for average Americans who don't work for the government. Most essential services will remain in operation, but if you want to go to a national park or renew your passport...
bubbles! How can they hold their shape? What characteristics must a liquid have to be able to make bubbles?	[ "The liquid must have strong cohesive properties. Cohesion means \"sticking together\", so the liquid molecules must have strong bonds to other molecules of the same liquid." ]
What transforms otherwise normal people into "criminals"?	[ "Well... the most direct answer is that you become a criminal when you commit a crime.\n\nBut the deeper answer is... it depends.\n\nSome are doing it out of desperation, others out of greed, others out of rage... sadism... or some other misplaced emotion. There isn't really a simple answer to the question \"what ...
why does hydrogen peroxide works so well as a disinfectant? How does a substance necessary for life turns into another that easily becomes toxic?	[ "Hydrogen peroxide is two oxygen atoms and two hydrogen atoms stuck together, but this is incredibly unstable. Oxygen does not like to be stuck to other oxygens, except for perhaps O2, but even that isn't particularly stable, hence why it will readily burn and become CO2 and H2O. Hydrogen peroxide would much ra...
What is the sound that hurts my ears when there's only one window down in a car and where does it come from?	[ "It's basically the same thing that happens when you blow over the top of a bottle and it makes a sound. When you \"push\" on the air inside a container, it will compress and then push back out in a certain amount of time based on how much air is in the container. \n \nBasically, the air moving over the edge of the...
Why did WWII bombers always fly in formation?	[ "Formation allows for each bomber's guns to support the others. If a fighter takes on a bomber one-on-one, it's probably likely that the bomber will go down, if the fighter knows what he's doing. If ten fighters approach ten bombers in formation, it's going to be a lot harder to destroy the bombers, because there's...
why is some snow great for packing and fight with, while other snow just falls apart?	[ "The amount of moisture (unfrozen water) inbetween the snowflakes determines how well the snow packs. Wetter snow makes better (and harder) snowballs -- drier snow does not.", "This is why the eskimos have like 100 different words for snow. Because snow is not always just snow, it has many different looks and fee...
How do people who aren't vacinated effect people who are?	[ "It creates a breeding ground for the disease thus making it able to evolve.\n\nIf there are no susceptible hosts, the disease will go extinct.", "Firstly, it's because not everybody can get vaccinated due to reasons outside their control, such as an allergy to the stuff in the vaccine (egg allergies are the most...
what is the purpose of having an RPM gauge on the dashboard?	[ "The tachometer (tack-aw-meter) is the sensor which measures the rate of revolution of the engine shaft. It is mostly useful for determining if you are in the correct gear given your speed and throttle.\n\nCombustion engines have peak power output in a rather narrow range of RPMs, which is why we have transmissions...
How does key-hole surgery work?	[ "Key Hole surgery is another term for minimally invasive surgery.\n\nThanks to improvements in imaging technologies such as MRI's. They can see the tissue that needs to be altered outside the body. And in some situations, a tiny incision is all that is needed to make the correction.\n\nA decrease in the slice, cu...
The difference between confucianism and taoism	[ "Confucianism and Taoism (pronounced Daoism) were competing philosophies in ancient China. Confucian philosophers thought that human nature was essentially unrefined, and that we needed ordered relationships to better ourselves. Confucians codified 5 or 6 different relationships (parent to child, lover to lover, ...
The protective qualities of charcoal	[ "It is extremely porous and has a large capacity for adsorption, meaning substances (often organic macromolecules in the situations you describe) can stick to its surface and be bound up. Its doesnt have as high a capacity as some other materials, but is cheap and can be made with varying pore sizes to suit the sub...
Is there any particular reason beer bottles are brown? Or clear? Or green? Or is it purely aesthetic?	[ "Sunlight causes some beer to get \"skunky\". Amber and green bottles help protect the beer from light and allow it to be stored longer." ]
- Why does Technetium not occur naturally?	[ "It does occur naturally. It's created in supernovas (just like all other elements heavier than iron). But it's unstable, and even its most stable isotopes have a half-life of \"only\" 4.2 million years. Which means that, 4.2 million years after the creation of technetium in a supernova, only half will be left, ...
Why arent any saudi royals on the top billionaire lists? are they not filthy rich from oil?	[ "Those guys are also not particularly transparent. Since Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, the country's budget and state investment funds are also the royal family's own wallet, whereas \"conventional\" billionaires own far more easily detectable corporate assets.", "There are thousands of Saudi royals. Saud...
Why don't the media use another term for those extremists who hide behind the Quran?	[ "They are Muslim. \n\nWhen right wing militias do violence in the US they are labeled Christian fundamentalists. \n\nWhen Hindus attack mosques they are labeled Hindu militants. \n\nProblem is Islam seems to generate more terrorism than the other religions. \n\nEither way -- they are Muslim and killing for Allah....
How come when a TV station plays reruns of a show they don't play them in order but instead play the same few that repeat every few weeks or so?	[ "Those episode have the highest ratings and attract most viewers, meaning the station can pull in more advertising revenue" ]
Why do artist still release singles? Especially now that with streaming services, you can buy/listen to individual songs.	[ "Publicity mainly. Big singles generate buzz for artists in the run up to an album release and can pump up sales.", "Publicity, plus the music business hasn’t really caught up to the technology that’s available now, minus the embarassing attempt to make everyone with an apple device own a U2 album.", "Singles a...
Why do I experience a drop in volume when I yawn?	[ "In most basic terms - yawning blocks the amount of sound vibrations that are required for the transmission of sound. [This](_URL_0_) does a better job of breaking it all down." ]
If health care plans were canceled because they did not meet new standards of the ACA law (Obamacare), how can the president say that plans can be kept without changing the law?	[ "By fiat accompli, Congress would \"own\" the problem if they challenge him on not enforcing the law and they'd prefer not to do that." ]
Why do some exclamations/outcries mention religious places and people?	[ "When Swearing first became a widely used thing, the world was, generally, much more religious than it is now. Swearing was and still is used to demonstrate an emotional state that is unusual or more extreme than the usual. Therefore, when these two things combine, you get phrases that use the terms associated with...
Why is India's garbage/river pollution situation so bad?	[ "Actual indian here... \n\nOur pollution is so bad, because the people in power don't care, and the people who do care can't ever get to power. \n\nThe indian government is a carefully balanced pile of bribery and corruption built over a foundation of pure apathy and greed. While sure, there are some diligent wo...
Network Cabling	[ "they all do the same basic thing. they transfer 0s and 1s down a wire. repeaters are used to amply the signal as over a long enough distance the signal can become corrupted/unreadable by the receiver. \n\nthe differences between different cables is just the physical characteristics. like speed, resistance to w...
Why are the letters on a QWERTY keyboard placed where they are?	[ "It is related to how typewriters used to work.\n\nAs I understand it, when some keys are pressed too soon after eachother, the typewriter gets stuck, and QWERTY was developed in order to minimise the cases where this would happen.", "[Google exists.](_URL_0_)\n\nThe keys were placed in that order to prevent jams...
How does Intel physically link together billions of transistor's to work on computer chips?	[ "As others have said, light and chemicals are used to \"flash\" the transistor pattern onto the silicon using light and chemicals, but do not think this is necessarily a foolproof process. This is why Intel has several different types of chips for each generation of iX. For example, when manufacturing an i7, someth...
What led to the rise and fall of Ringtone Rap?	[ "Maybe let's start with: what is ring tone rap?", "Probably because it's terrible, immature music and nobody wants to listen to it anymore. That type of music was really just a gimmick, it became somewhat popular for a while, but then it went out of \"style\".\n\nWhich is usually the reason for why any music \\(s...
Why do people typically open their mouths when experiencing shock or disbelief?	[ "To take in more information. Mouth gapes open, body hairs stand on end (like when a really powerful scene gives you the chills), eyes widen... all of which help us gather a ton of information really quickly when we see something incredible." ]
What do fraternities and sororities actually do?	[ "They do many things. \n\n1) Set up a structured way for people with similar interests to become friends. \n\n2) Provide student housing. \n\n3) Network with Alumni giving professional contact points for after you graduate. \n\n4) On most campuses they provide community outreach with various volunteer activities su...
Why is the 40-yard dash the magical number for gauging a football player's speed (as opposed to some other metric)?	[ "While coaching Ohio State University Buckeyes football team in 1941, Paul Brown emphasized team quickness. One way to calculate this was for him to time his players covering a punt. At the time, the average punt went about 40 yards from the line of scrimmage and had a hang time of about 4.5 seconds. He would then ...
How is international law actually enforced?	[ "International law isn't technically enforced, though you'll become quite unpopular if you do break it. The UN is a diplomatic channel first and foremost. It's not and has never been anything even close to resembling a world government.", "> What can they do to a country that violates international law?\n\nNormal...
Why do black people and white people have distinctly different voices?	[ "The great majority of differences between how people speak is cultural. Grow up without access to a culture and you aren't going to develop that culture's speech patterns.\n\nA smaller factor is that the structure of the organs which produce our speech does vary a bit between people with different recent ancestry ...
How is a fan able to keep a ball floating above it with the ball flying away?	[ "You're referring to Bernoulli's ball. There's not really an ELI5 explanation for it, but I'll give it shot. Bernoullis principle says that if you have two streams of air, which ever stream is moving faster will have a lower pressure.\n\nIn the case of the fan blowing on the ball, you can think of the air divided ...
Network Ports	[ "Imagine you want to send a letter to your friend Mary.\n\nYou know where she lives, because you have her address. For some people, a simple address is enough because their letter is being sent to a single dwelling, but Mary lives in a large apartment building with many units and shares her address with many other ...
Why do lightning strikes leave a branching pattern on whatever they strike?	[ "In the air, lightning initially [branches out all over the place](_URL_1_) searching for a path to the ground. Air is normally a bad conductor of electricity, but once the electricity starts flowing the air becomes a plasma that conducts quite well. So all the lightning follows the first path that made a connectio...
The history of the situation in Ukraine, beginning with the coup earlier this year.	[ "This goes back to the formation of the USSR, but let's look at really modern history for purposes of the ELI5.\n\n\n- Since 2004 Ukraine has been swinging back and forth between pro-Russian puppet leadership and pro-Ukrainian leadership. \n\n- In 2004, there were mass protests, and a forced re-election after the R...
Why I Hate Waking Up but Some People Love Mornings	[ "Some people love mornings because they're fucking insane.", "I think people like the idea of getting a ton of stuff done before 3/4 of the country has even gotten out of bed. I know that on the days I was forced to get up early (when I didn't have a morning job), I could do like 2 days worth of chores, come home...
Why, in virtually every picture of the Earth taken from space, is North shown as being at the top of the picture?	[ "Just by convention. That's what most people are used to seeing. Same reason why when you take a picture, you hold your camera so the top is on top. Nothing's stopping you from holding your camera upside down when you take the picture, or from showing people your upside-down pictures. It's just that by convention, ...
Can you explain second and third sounds?	[ "Second sound isn't sound at all.\n\nWhen helium is super cooled (to about 2 Kelvin), heat is transfered in a wave-like motion rather than the more usual methods. It's called the Second Sound becauase the heat is transfered in a wave-like motion, similar to houw sound propogates through air.\n\nThird sound isn't a ...
When an artist/band's "Greatest Hits" or "Best Of" album is released, how does the process take shape?	[ "A Greatest Hits album is common in any record deal. After so many releases, the artist and the label (to varying degrees, of course) will get together to assemble the track listing and many times, the artist will be required to produce a number of exclusive tracks for the release. All of this will depend on the ar...
What would happen if Coke stopped advertising for a year?	[ "I'm assuming you mean advertising as in media (TV, radio, billboards, etc). You should note that Coke advertises EVERYWHERE and you may not even realize it. The soda machine with a giant coke bottle on the front? Glasses with a coke logo at TGIF? That's all advertising too. Even if they stopped all \"ads\", s...

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