Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
Why are multi-billion dollar companies able to file for bankrupcy and why does the government bail them out?	[ "Some companies (e.g. banks, car manufacturers etc.) may be considered 'too big to fail' because so many hundreds of thousands of people (e.g. employees) fully depend on these companies operating that it would arguably do more harm than good to the greater society to let the company fail as opposed to provide bail-...
why do your ears ring after loud noise and have been damaged?	[ "The cochlea in each of your ears is a spiralling organ that contains a bunch of tiny little \"hairs.\" When sound is transmitted from the air into your cochlea, it travels through the cochlea and depresses hairs corresponding to different frequencies. \n\n[The hairs further and further in the spiral](_URL_0_) corr...
why is it that land that was hit by an atomic bomb (Hiroshima/Nagasaki) is fairly quickly re-inhabitable but sites like Chernobyl and Fukushima take decades to be radiation free?	[ "The atom bombs in Japan were airbursts - they didn't blow up on the ground. This resulted in maximizing destructive potential, but very little fallout that spread radioactivity to debris. \n\nA nuclear power plant like Chernobyl has many, many times the amount of nuclear fuel in them. Then, the plant exploded, ...
If weed is a depressant, why does my heart start to beat faster whenever I smoke?	[ "> If weed is a depressant\n\nThat's just it. It's not a depressant. At the high level it's a psychoactive compound - it can cross the blood brain barrier and can act on parts of the brain. Depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens are all psychoactive. Weed is basically in a category of it's own since it doe...
Can someone explain how Super Delegates work and why they exist?	[ "_URL_0_ was answered half an hour ago. Please search before asking a question." ]
How do they blur moving things for TV shows, do they have to do it frame-by-frame?	[ "Yes, or some software let you put a marker on the image. Let's say, a finger. Well, a finger is going to be a bunch of beige pixels. So when it moves, the computer only has to track a bunch of beige pixels around, it knows where to censor.\n\nIt's a bit harder when you have to track something small, or something t...
Why does a battery decrease without being used?	[ "All batteries slowly lose charge over time. This is because all batteries use a chemical reaction to store energy. Over time this reaction breaks down inside the battery. \n\nWithout getting too deep into the chemistry the reactions in batteries are non-spontaneous, meaning they won't just happen in the world o...
Would the predator on to Catch a Predator still get arrested if they never ended up showing up?	[ "Likely not since you can't prove they were ever actually going to show up at all. You can't arrest someone for thinking about committing a crime.", "Yes, because a lot of them send pornography/nude pictures to what they believe to be a minor, which is a felony and a federal offense. They also break the law by e...
Why when I clean my ear with a Q-tip do I start coughing	[ "It's called the Arnold reflex. I get it as well." ]
Why do we still take test and learn the same as how people did in the whole of history when technology has advanced so far?	[ "Learning has advanced a great deal since formal education began. There are some things that have become redundant, and some things may seem useless. For instance, why bother learning that there are 4 quarts in a gallon when I can just look it up? But many people, myself included, would argue that a fundamental und...
why do we lose our appetite when we see/hear something unpleasant?	[ "It's an evolutionary thing. What if every time you saw a piece of poop, it made you hungry? You would be much more likely to eat poop. And people who eat poop tend to get diseases and die. So we're programmed to be disgusted by it. It's the same reason why people like unhealthy food. We're biologically programmed ...
Cispa vs Prism	[ "Right now, PRISM only gives access to the user data available under the definition of \"pen register\" or \"trap and trace device\". This gives them a map for who and where you interact, but doesn't give them access to the text of emails or contents of data transmitted.\n\nIf CISPA had passed, they would have acc...
What is extreme-couponing	[ "Manufacturers and stores put out coupons to make certain products available at a discount. The typical threshold for someone using a coupon is one of convenience; they'll stick it on their fridge and take it with them when they go to shop.\n\nExtreme couponers save all the coupons they can, categorize and index th...
why does everyone want 60 FPS for games?	[ "You probably know that TV and film usually sit around 24/25/29.97/30 fps. But it's well-known that games need to run at 60 fps in order to achieve the same smoothness. Why is that?\n\nWell, when we film something, the video camera exposes the film (or sensor) to light for a certain amount of time. It's probably in...
Why do we enjoy watching televisions shows that involve drugs/killing/relationship drama/anything else that we would never want to happen to us in real life?	[ "The same reason we have nightmares. It's emotionally healthy to explore dangerous and upsetting situations in a healthy and safe setting.", "It's precisely because we don't want them to happen to us that we find them enjoyable. Imagine a show about a work-a-day single IT day that consists of him going to work,...
Why can't you remember when you were a baby?	[ "If you don't have storage space, where do you put stuff?\n\nThe neural structures that store memories and things literally don't exist in a newborn's head. They've got no storage space. They literally don't possess a conscious memory yet." ]
Why do we have to eat and urinate throughout the day, but can make it through 8+ hours of sleep just fine?	[ "During sleep, your metabolism slows. Your digestive and renal systems shift into a slow mode so they produce less waste.", "1. You are not drinking or eating\n2. Your metabolism slows down so your body can use that energy to repair damages you've done to your body during your time awake.\n\n_URL_0_", "Because...
What wars are being fought today and why?	[ "1. Ukraine - Oil and gas infrastructure, naval bases, ethnic tensions\n\n2. Syria - Extraordinarily cruel regime inevitably led to a complex civil war, which has spilled over into Iraq\n\n3. Nigeria - History of tension between Muslim north and Christian south, plus the difficulty of maintaining control over a hug...
why do a lot of part-time jobs require you to fill out a questionnaire that asks you many questions that are seemingly irrelevant to the job itself?	[ "To reduce the number of interviews. I was in charge of hiring at McDonald's for a while and we would receive dozens of applications a week. Not enough time to conduct 30 interviews every week so you need to narrow them down somehow.\n\nFun tip: there was a \"perfect score\" on the quiz. I can only speak for our...
Why do even videos from the 2000's appear to be very old/low quality when we remember viewing them in higher resolution.	[ "You said it, higher resolution. They'd look just fine if you were viewing them in 800x600 or 1024x768, but you're not. You're viewing them in 1920x1080 or higher, stretching the video onto an area several times bigger than intended.", "You always compare things to what you're used to. Eventually the new incredib...
Why don't we experiment with colonizing new worlds by building on the Moon first before going to Mars?	[ "That was exactly the plan with the [Constellation Program](_URL_0_) but then the financial crisis hit and suddenly no-more moon money.", "The Moon and Mars are two different environments that face different technical challenges. You wouldn't build a house in the desert and expect it to work in the Arctic, and li...
What is the difference between watts, volts and amps? Amp hours?	[ "Watts is power. It's how much work you can do in a given amount of time. Work is energy, usually expressed in Joules. \nAmps is current. It's how much charge is going through in a given amount of time. \nVoltage is potential. It's how much energy can be released per unit charge.\n\nVolts * amps = watts.\n\nAmp ...
Why do cats like sitting/laying in cardboard boxes so much?	[ "Paper is a remarkably good insulator. In the second world war poor families would literally rap up their children in newspaper to keep them warm. Cats enjoy having warmth on their stomach (ever had your cat lie on a heating vent?) and lying on paper provides this.", "I think they like the closed confined feeling...
Why do we sound different to ourselves on camera or audio recording?	[ "Sound reverberates around inside our head through numerous large sinuses before we \"hear\" it. This distorts what our voices actually sound like. Assuming proper recording tools, what you hear on an audio recording is exactly what you sound like to other people." ]
Why do we have to go through US customs in Canada, but not the Canadian customs in the US?	[ "It used to be that you went though US customs in the US, and Canadian customs in Canada. Some smaller airports continue to work this way.\n\nBut then the US introduced customs pre-clearing, so instead of checking after you've arrived in the USA, the check everything before you get there.", "In the Airport? When ...
Why do trees have rings?	[ "Trees grow slower in winter and faster in summer. In winter the wood that is grown slowly is denser and has a darker tint.", "The tree rings themselves are vascular tissue which transport nutrients and water and such to the plant through xylem and phloem, the two types of plant vascular tissue. these are produce...
What causes the blacked out eyesight when people stand up to fast?	[ "[Orthostatic hypotension](_URL_0_). The blood literally drains out of your brain as you stand up, before your heart can adjust to your new posture and up the pressure enough to keep you functioning normally. As a result, you go a bit woozy, see stars, and sometimes even pass out.", "I assume you're referring t...
Why are some sports teams historically more successful (NY Yankees) than others (Cleveland Browns)?	[ "It's a vicious circle. Teams that do well earn more money (because they have more fans, have higher attendance, sell more merchandise) and have higher prestige, so they can attract better talent." ]
What causes the jumping feeling in your stomach when you go down a quick hill while driving?	[ "Your innards/gut is used to gravity. It doesn't have the normal sensory nerves that your skin has.\n\nUpon traversing a sudden drop/hill, for microseconds you experience a \"less than 1g\" environment.\n\nYour body reacts but bones and muscle react differently than inner squishy, liquidy guts.\n\nThey probably ris...
What happend to Apple patent for Multi-finger gestures?	[ "The mobile telecommunications industry is a web of patent holders all licensing each other's patents. Pretty much every software and hardware manufacturer holds a couple patents that are absolutely essential to the experience. Basic stuff, like the concept of nested menus (that one may have expired by now). Essen...
Why doesn't our vomit contain the strong acids in our stomach and react (burn/melt) with things once it leaves our body.	[ "It does. But the acid in our stomach is dilute, it is not like some kind of super acid you see in movies.\n\nIf you vomit on some metal and leave it there/keep vomiting on it, you will see that it erodes.\n\nThis is also why people who have bulimia damage their esophagus and teeth. The acid from their vomit is con...
Why do grocery stores have paper bags for mushrooms and plastic bags for everything else?	[ "Moisture. Moisture ruins mushrooms. Plastic bags hold the moisture in, while paper bags will absorb the moisture and keep the mushrooms looking fresh." ]
What made Ronald Reagan such an amazing president according to the Republicans?	[ "ELI5:\nWe sonny, the gipper came to DC and gave those useless government bureaucrats the old California one two! He broke up unions, slashed taxes on the rich (then raised them), took a fire ax to business regulations. He ignored those silly gays and their AIDS, he said damn the diplomacy and butted heads with the...
1000 years frozen in Futurama	[ "If you're wondering how he eats and breathes, and other science facts, just repeat to yourself \"It's just a show, I should really just relax.\"", "The cryogenic computers took care of all those calculations. Idk why they set it for a few hours less than 1000 years. Maybe the person who was supposed to use the...
What led game designers away from Mac as a viable platform for their content?	[ "The most likely reason is market share. If you have a set amount of resources, do you design for the 95% or the 5%.", "I think the market share answer people are giving is only half the answer. DirectX is a graphics/sound/etc. library Microsoft developed for Windows, and were able to optimize better than OpenGL...
Why does the right hand rule exist? Why don't the laws of the universe result in a left hand rule instead?	[ "The right hand rule could totally have been the left hand rule. You just need to use different fingers with a different gestures if you think about it. The right hand rule does not define the laws of nature. It is just a way people come up with to visualize the relations of all of those forces and directions of mo...
Why do people blame the IMF for Argentina default?	[ "ELI5 version (which will be fairly bad because this is not an ELI5 question):\n\nThe IMF lent a lot of money to Argentina when Argentina got into trouble and couldn't pay all of its debts. The IMF also asked Argentina to change many of the ways that it did things before it would lend that money but a lot of p...
Why are most corporations considered evil?	[ "Most corporations aren't evil and just do useful things like make your bread for your breakfast toast or make wires for your house.\n\nOf those that are evil often their evilness can be often put down to either to outright corruption in management ranks, which is just the human condition.\n\nAnd secondarily compan...
How do people get a Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) badge to put by their vehicle's license plate? Do these badges afford preferential treatment?	[ "For the same reason that people put any sort of \"I support the police\" bumper sticker, license plate frames, badges, etc...\n\nThey don't necessarily automatically earn you preferential treatment, and the police certainly don't condone any sort of official policy of preferential treatment, but police officers ar...
I know this is bad but what is karma? (On reddit)	[ "Basically what karma is, is a form of virtual pat on the back or scolding. You post a witty, funny or factual comment or post (depending on the situation) and users can give you karma if they like it. If you don't add to the discussion, or troll or say something they don't agree with (or they are a general ass) th...
why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor if America was minding its own business	[ "The US wasn't really minding it's own business, and it inevitably was going to start minding its business less.\n\nIt was supplying arms and finance to the enemy if Japan's allies, it was helping embargo fuel against Japan, and it was unlikely to go very long without entering.\n\nJapan actually was able to tempora...
What are the key differences between endangered native New Zealand birds and birds from basically every other country that makes them so vulnerable to mammalian predators?	[ "That evolution is exactly what's screwing them over. Not only were there no mammals but a few bats, there are also no snakes, very few poisonous spiders, no lizards that could eat a bird... no natural predators whatsoever. Correct me if I'm wrong, folks from other countries, but that's a pretty unique position for...
Why is 12:00 the beginning of the 12-hour cycle, instead of 1:00?	[ "Think in military time. There are 24 hours in a day. In military time midnight/12am is 0000 time. then from 0 it goes to 1. so in the 12 hour am/pm system the 12 acts as our 0 and is a placemarker telling if we are in the am or pm section of the day. 12:00 AM is the beginning of the first half - am half of the day...
if you tell me your name, I forget immediately yet I remember every lyric to 1000 songs on my Ipod?	[ "You have heard those songs 100's of times and the music helps you remember plus the singer is filling in the blanks helping you remember too.\n\nWhere as a name is just one word with nothing for you to connect it to, to help you remember it.", "I read an article on this before. First off, the songs on your iPod...
What are the differences between strategy and tactics?	[ "Tactics are low level small tasks, and strategy or higher level planning. So in war tactics would be how to maneuver your forces to take possession of a hill, where strategy would be that a specific hill is important to winning the battle/war.", "Short-term vs. long-term.\n\nTactics are used to overcome an imme...
if atoms don't actually ever touch one another - how can we feel things?	[ "We never 'touch' anything because electrons in the outer shells of atoms repel each other at 10^-8 metres. What you feel when the surface of your finger touches another surface is a repulsion force between the electrons from the atoms that make up your skin and the electrons from the atoms that make up the surface...
Why do humans, even from an extremely young age, have the predilection to dance?	[ "Hearing music and rhythm moves about the fluid responsible for balance in our ear, and even thinking about a beat can induce the same feeling. We bob our heads and dance naturally because moving the head in the opposite direction of the disturbance to equalize our balance gives us a pleasurable feeling and a dopa...
How does rendering a video game at a resolution higher than what my monitor can show make things prettier?	[ "Imagine that you're just drawing something black and white, like text. At low resolution a particular pixel at the edge of the letter is black. But at 4x that resolution, it's a 2x2 square, of which 3 pixels are black, and one is white. These pixels are then averaged to a dark gray, which is what's displayed at th...
what makes hybrid animals like the mule sterile, and is there anyway to make a hybrid animal that can reproduce?	[ "Mule is not able to make sperms or eggs on its own, so it is sterile. This is because of difference in number of chromosomes in horse 32 and donkey 31, as they are not of same species. If you crossbreed within species, like in different type of dogs,they would be fertile. Because of the cross between horse and don...
What is the Trillion Dollar Coin?	[ "The US Treasury has an account with the Fed. When the Treasury writes a check (to someone like Boeing for a plane), that check is cashed with the Fed.\n\nThe Fed will cash more checks than is in the bank, based on the amount of credit (debt) that the government is allowed to carry. \n\nWe're coming up on that limi...
Why do we randomly recall part of a dream, weeks or even months after it happened?	[ "I can't provide a full answer but when I was taking a cognitive psychology course we covered state-dependent memory. \n\n_URL_1_\n\nThe idea is that memory works best when you are in a similar state to when the memory was stored. This is part of the reason why people can become intoxicated, have very few memories...
Why do some mobile apps require so many seemingly unnecessary or invasive special permissions?	[ "they arent actually invasive, it is the basic requirements for the function of the app. \n\nif you have a small free game then it will often say 'there are no special requirements' \n\nbut an app like tinder where you are connecting to facebook, using the wifi or data connection and also sending and recieving pict...
How does a towel get dirty if we're clean when dry ourselves with it.	[ "Even though we have removed dirt from our bodies, bacteria can still reside on our skin, and when we wipe off the water we are also wiping off the existing bacteria onto the towel. There is also airborne bacteria that can get on the towel, and since the towel is wet and sometimes warm, it allows bacteria to grow m...
How do people that sell instagram/twitter followers and likes create that many accounts?	[ "Many are accounts that post requests for likes and shares. Then, those posts are deleted and the accounts are sold. It's best to report them for spam." ]
Why are the biggest burger chains promoting fish sandwiches right now?	[ "During Lent the only meat Catholics will eat on Friday is fish. Thus up until Easter they will all promote fish.", "It is Lent. Between now and Easter, many Christians, notably Roman Catholics, do not eat meat on Fridays. So, fish is very popular this time of year.", "I mean, reasonably, the only explanation i...
How can Google offer such superior service with Google Fiber?	[ "Actually Google is not dumping insane amount of money in the project. The cities selected for the fiber project provides Google subsidizes pricing on permits and somewhat pre-existing fiber capabilities.\nIn Kansas City( the first city to get Fiber), an Internet-only package costs $70 a month. A TV and Internet pa...
Why do so many jokes involve 3? "3 Guys walk..." "3 Women died...." "3 guys find a lamp..."	[ "I actually learned a bit about this. Comedy works on repetition. The two best # of times to repeat something is either 3 or 5. It has to do with audience anticipation.\n\n3 drives the joke the home, and 5 passes through 'overplayed' and into the \"It's funny again\" category.\n\nUsing 3 of something as the baselin...
How does a college foreign exchange student learn the material presented to them in whatever host country's language the classes are in, if they barely speak the language?	[ "There are essentially three levels to understanding a language.\n\n-Reading/Writing\n\n-Listening\n\n-Speaking\n\nI can read and write Spanish fairly well. I know the grammar and a good chunk of vocabulary. It's simple enough to have a dictionary next to me in order to look up a work I don't know.\n\nIf I am talki...
Inflation. What/who causes it? Can it ever be stopped? Why is it out of control?	[ "OK, two things going on here: US Inflation and other countries:\n\n* The US is not experiencing meaningful inflation. This year it's down at < 2%. As it has been for quite some time. The United States has not experienced significant ( > 5%) inflation in the past 30 years.\n\n* Other countries. This is a...
In Games, why are the team colours facing off against each other usually red vs blue?	[ "Because you need two bright, primary colours that can be easily distinguished both against each other and against the environment. In Video games you're unlikely to come across large sections of bright and flat red or bright/deep blues, whereas you will come across a lot of greens and yellows. Red and Blue are hig...
Why are some people photogenic?	[ "Cameras have only one lens, this is like looking at an object with only one eye, you will lose a lot of depth perception. Photogenic people have faces that are a lot more \"3D\" so their faces are not flattened by the camera's lack of depth perception. \n\nBack when photos and movies were black and white, it was e...
Why are new technological leaps so expensive? For instance, it can't seriously cost so much more to produce DDR4 memory than it does to produce DDR3.	[ "It's a couple reasons.\n\nOne is research. New technology requires millions and sometimes billions of dollars of research and development. For the first years of a technology's release, its price is higher to repay these costs, as well as the costs of failed designs that came before it.\n\nAnother is scale. It t...
How does the sand river in Iraq actually work?	[ "It is blocks of ice floating over water down the slope. Sand on top of the ice might make it look like sand, but it isn't sand all the way through." ]
Why in Europe you can plug in PC (or any high tech appliance) either way?	[ "It doesn't care, in fact almost nothing cares. Voltage is defined as a potential difference, a difference requires two points. So if side A is neutral and side B is hot, then a device might take power from A-B , if you flip it around, then it takes power from B-A. However, if we are talking AC, then A-B is the sam...
What is pi and why does it work?	[ "Pi is the ratio between the circumference of a circle and its diameter. It works because it's a geometric law - if you draw a circle, c/d = pi.", "Imagine a circle. This circle has a circumference, which is the length of the actual circle and a diameter, which is the length of a straight line from one side of th...
How do some digital clocks still know the time after being powered off.	[ "It has a small battery inside of it that keeps the clock running. Your computer, phone, etc. maintain time when powered off in the same way.", "It has a little battery inside it (usually a coin cell) that runs something called RTC, or real time clock, which basically keeps tracking the time when the device is no...
How can people know millions of digits from Pi?	[ "We can use formulas of things that are equal to pi. For example,\n\npi = 4 - 4/3 + 4/5 - 4/7 + 4/9 - ...\n\nThis is only true if I use an infinite number of terms in my sum, which is what the \"...\" at the end means. If I continued to follow that pattern for an infinite amount of time, then I'd get pi exactly.\n\...
why do people call Buffalo Wild Wings "BW3" when there are only two W's in the name?	[ "it used to be Buffalo Wild Wings and Weck. Roast Beef on Weck is another traditional Buffalo NY food. But the Weck didn't catch on outside of the Buffalo area, so they stopped serving it and took it out of the name. It is really good though, and if you are ever in Western NY state you should try it. I recommen...
Why can't pilots see when a laser hits them?	[ "Lasers spread out the farther they travel. That \"tiny dot of light\" isn't so tiny after it travels 1000 feet through the air. If it hits the plexiglas cockpit window, it diffuses out even more. The result looks [something like this](_URL_0_). \n\nYou're right that it only flashes for a split second, but that...
Why do fiscal years start in April (usually)? Why don't companies just pick Jan like the calendar year?	[ "Depends on where you are. UK fiscal years are based on the old Julian calendar, where the new year started on what is now ~April 5th-6th. Changing it now would mean everyone would have to balance the books over Christmas, which I don't imagine would go over very well. \n\nOther countries like Germany and China do ...
Why do people say taking antidepressants long term use is bad for you? They don’t repair the imbalance in your brain, so when you stop won’t you be just as depressed again?	[ "This may not be the case for all antidepressants...\n\nSerotonin receptors get up regulated in your brain as a result of increased serotonin caused by certain antidepressents. This would mean that once your off these drugs baseline serotonin levels (which may be low to begin with) are restored and are less effecti...
If salmon salt water fish, how are they able to survive their famous final journey up rivers to spawn?	[ "Fish do what is called \"osmoregulation\", and in fact it's something all living things do. It means maintaining the appropriate concentrations of salts and salt ions inside your cells. Those ions are vital to the chemistry of life, so the concentrations have to be maintained pretty carefully. The problem is th...
why do you go light headed and queasy when seeing a bad cut	[ "This is caused by what is known as the vasovagal response. It's a reaction by the body to certain triggers that causes the heart rate and blood pressure to drop, which in result causes you to feel lightheaded and queasy because the brain doesn't get enough blood. One of the thoughts is that it is an evolutionary m...
Why didn't America start off using the metric system?	[ "It was actually introduced (by France) after the USA was founded. France introduced the whole system in 1799, America was founded in 1776. Parts of it have been around for much longer, but the system as whole was not introduced until after we were founded.", "Side note: It's slightly incorrect to say that the U....
How would I find the most downvoted stuff on reddit?	[ "A quick search turned up [this](_URL_2_) gem: Karmanaut removing Bad Luck Brian's AMA since it conflicted with the stated rules of the subreddit (as he interpreted them, or whatever; I'm trying to maintain journalistic neutrality here). \n\nThere's also the classic [Geraffes are so dumb](_URL_0_), but that got an...
What made Nokia phones so invincible? And why can't modern phones be built to be indestructible?	[ "Nokia still makes phones, and they're still extremely sturdy. Nokia phones are widely used in Africa, where smartphone penetration is fairly poor.\n\nSmartphones can't really be built as strong because they have a big glass screen, and in the Western world smartphones are the norm." ]
What makes some people run so much faster than others?	[ "There are really 3 main factors: genetics, experience, and technique. Genetics is very important Olympic runners generally have perfect lungs and muscles for running, one interesting example is in Jamaica. Jamaicans often have several genes that cause them to be naturally more likely to run faster than average the...
Why is it that my 12-year old dvd player can handle the newest (encrypted) DVD's without a hitch but my 2013 Macbook is unable to duplicate my purchased dvd for a digital backup?	[ "Your 12 year old dvd \"Player\" ? Playing a DVD and ripping a DVD are two different things.", "Because you are not using the right software. You have to use a ripper that plays the dvd while re-encoding it. If you are playing the movie (even at high frame rates) then the video is being decrypted and the encodin...
How do movie profits work? What constitutes a film that has "broken-even"?	[ "I don't know all the finer details behind this, but the general \"Hollywood Math\" is that movies need to earn double their production budget to break even. One reason is that the studios don't get 100% of the profits from ticket sales, so even if those profits are about equal to the production budget the amount...
Why, when a person is sentenced to death does it take decades to follow through on the execution?	[ "If you're an innocent person and you get put in jail, it sucks, but at least there's a way to fix our mistake, release you, and pay back some of the damages. It happens, and the state definitely doesn't pay enough for that kind of mistake, but at least it's something.\n\nIf you're innocent and we execute you......
How do "entrepreneurs" develop their potentially lucrative ideas without having them stolen by others at any point in the process?	[ "Because an idea takes a lot of time and dedication to implement. If someone's stealing it, they're already late to the game and without the initial motivation (and probably understanding) that started the original idea. \n\nAlso, it's very common for successful ideas to be laughed at in the beginning, instead of s...
Why Did Martin Shkreli Plead the Fifth?	[ "Because he may some day be accused of a crime, and doesn't want to incriminate himself under oath. Because, give what a douche he presents himself as, is there anything he could have said the would improve his public appearance?\n\n > and the rest is paid through health insurance companies so no one is in fact ...
Why don't we get E. Coli from plants grown with fertilizer containing cow manure?	[ "Because people usually wash process and wash the plants off, they don't eat plants covered in shit straight from the ground", "\"made from\"\n\nIt is not fresh manure. It is composted for a while to break down the manure a bit more and give it time for the harmful bacteria to die. After that it gets mixed in soi...
In military strategy, why is securing the "high ground" vital to victory?	[ "The high ground still gives you better vision of the surrounding area, allows you to hide troops beyond the crest of the hill, and moving up a hill is usually slow going, which means being exposed to enemy fire for a longer period of time.", "The high ground has a sight advantage. It also has a range advantage....
How does Google & Youtube backup my files, videos, pictures and not deal with hard drives failing all the time?	[ "Hard drives are always failing. The drives are in arrays, your data is stored across multiple drives instead of just on one drive. Parity is used to reconstruct data when a drive in an array dies.\n\nFor an example of parity we can use addition. We know that 1+ 2 = 3. Let's say you erase one of the numbers so you ...
Why the Nazi regime was so successful.	[ "1. germany was in the worst depression the modern world has ever known. their money was worth more as firewood than it was in purchasing power. people were without jobs, secure homes, or basic reliable infrastructure. this created a sense of desperation with the german people. \n\n2. germany was being forc...
Why do our fingers and toes shrivel/wrinkle when in water for an extended period?	[ "This is actually an evolutionary activity. This is an involuntary reaction by the autonomic nervous system. (heart rate, breathing, sweat) Basically, when we are submerged our skin fills with water losing elasticity and grip. This \"wrinkling\" allows us to better grip objects under water." ]
Difference between token and cookie authentication?	[ "I don't know much but ill break it down\nYour trying to open a door but it needs a card\n\nA Cookie is like a security card for you to get in given by a website or more commonly saved passwords \n\nA Token however is for a service , its for non-human access like other websites accessing other websites that hav...
What in the world is ferrofluid, and how does it do what it does?	[ "So remember when you were a kid and you played with this [magnetic hair toy](_URL_2_)? Well, the red wand has a little magnet in the end. (Magnets have a north pole and a south pole and have magnetic fields around them). The black powdery stuff is iron filings. These like to align in magnetic fields. You can ...
Why do hackers focus on government institutions and companies? If they're as anarchist as some claim why don't they do a (modern) project mayhem on financial institutions?	[ "Financial institution have too much to lose to leave their systems insecure. Most 'hackers' are just script kiddies that break into soft targets.", "White hat hackers do it to make the institution secure there data. Alot of the time the data they have can effect innocent people. For ex. A black hat hacker would...
Why are porn tv channels still around with free porn on the internet?	[ "i think that people that are older and grew up without internet porn are just used to those channels and don't want to change to the new fancy free internet stuff", "Same reason you still get emails from Nigerian Princes and phone calls from Microsoft engineers.\n\nPeople still pay for it.", "unzips... cuz w...
what happens if you're doing payments on your car and someone totals your car?	[ "If the car is deemed a write off (cost to repair is more than the market value of the car), the insurance will pay you said market value.\n\nThis has no impact on your obligation to the whoever you bought the car from. So if you owe your dealership 20 grand, but the insurance only paid you 15 grand because that is...
What was Russia's role in WW1?	[ "What, specifically, are you looking for?\n\nRussia was a part of the initial start for the war. Russia was allied with Serbia, so when Austria declared war on Serbia, Russia was obligated by its alliance to defend Serbia and declare war on Austria. The same thing happened on the other side: Germany was allied wi...
Why is k-12 a state issue when most citizens look to the federal government?	[ "In the US if the Constitution does not specifically give the power over something to the Federal Government it belongs to the State. Education is not specifically given to the Federal Government so they are only allowed to put a few regulations on it. \n\nAnd what do you mean by \"most citizens look to the federal...
Why has the USA seen such a dramatic increase in prisoners while most other Western country have seen a decline?	[ "US has jail time for a lot of crimes other Western countries just fine people for. Most of it is a result of the War on Drugs and three-strike laws.", "I'm not sure that your assumption is correct. The prison population of [England & Wales](_URL_0_) (also, see [here](_URL_2_)) has doubled in the last 20 years...
Why might equality be a better idea than equity, and not vice versa?	[ "(My perspective) It's all to do with the concept of fairness.\n\n\n* Equality = equal status is interpreted to mean that everyone has the same 'opportunity' to achieve things and so it is fair. Of course by virtue of hard-work; capability; determination or just pure good luck some will succeed and others will ...
if a lightyear is the distance light travels in one year, how do we know something is 1000 light years away? Would we not have to wait 1000 years before we know, or do we use something other than light to measure objects in space?	[ "For distant stars and galaxies, there's some highly educated guesswork based on apparent speed and brightness, but for closer ones, there's actually a really intuitive method called parallax!\n\nIt works like this: suppose there's some distant object like a mountain that you want to know the distance to. Notic...
the meaning of " ! " in mathematics?	[ "It means factorial. Simply multiply the number by every smaller integer down to zero. for instance, 5!=5x4x3x2x1. 8!=8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1.", "Also the symbol '!' can be used for factorial. \n\nBut in other branches of mathematics it can be used as follows: \n\nIn logic you can use it to say \"There is unique\" with t...
What happens to adrenaline once its in your system?	[ "Adrenaline is released by the adrenal gland in your body. Almost everything is your body can use adrenaline (called adrenaline receptors).\n\nThe effects you feel under stress are caused by the release of adrenaline, so once you feel it, your body's already used it. (Under normal conditions) Once your body decides...
is it possible to 'change' our voice permanently, like if I put on a voice 24/7 would that eventually become my 'real voice?	[ "its impossible to permanantly change your voice, \n\nThe only thing you could do is damage your vocal chords." ]

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