Split (3)

train · 273k rows

title stringlengths 0 299	text list
What is actually happening to metal in a microwave?	[ "As microwaves hit the metal, electrons build up on the surface. Depending on the shape of the metal, this may result in an electric potential which eventually arcs, creating a spark. This spark can be enough to ignite paper, starting a fire in the oven." ]
How does facebook avoid paying its fair share in tax	[ "I'm not going to talk specifically about Facebook or Ireland but this is how profit shifting usually works. \n\nCountry A has 30% company tax and 300 million people and all sorts of publicly funded programs to create a huge Internet market, including skilled staff. \n\nCountry B has 1% tax and sweet fuck all in p...
How do scientist determine how many animals are left of a certain endangered species?	[ "Depends on the species. For larger animals like elephants you can do aerial surveys to count the number of family groups. Mammals are also very easy to keep track of via radio collar or transmitter.\n\nFor harder and more elusive species all we can really do is calculate habitat area, calculate how much area is ne...
What is Blu Ray? Why is it significant?	[ "It's essentially the same tech as a cd or a dvd, but it uses a laser which is in the blue spectrum rather than the red spectrum, which means it has a wavelength that is considerably shorter than that of the previous formats and allows you to write the data closer together on the disk, which means you can get far ...
Can we help who we are aroused by?	[ "There's many possible meanings of this question. If you're talking about homosexuality then no, you can't, but do mean things like sexual fetishes or sexual disorders like pedophilia? Most fetishes develop over time and are not considered harmful, so people don't usually try to change. Pedophilia, however, can be...
Why do cities in China still have such high pollution when they have so many bike users?	[ "Most Chinese pollution is particulate based. Mainly from the burning of coal (although dust produced from lots of construction work adds to the effect).\n\nChinese emission regulations are actually stricter than in the US from a design perspective however they seem to be much, much more lenient / not enforced when...
How do giant cruise ships float?	[ "The mass of the volume of water that they displace while sitting in the water, is greater than their mass. So, even though it's an enormous pile of metal, it's still \"lighter\" than the water it's displacing.", "The metal is heavy, but there is a lot of air inside the metal structure of a cruise ship, and the a...
Why we still use electoral votes.	[ "Simply put: because the system exists to avoid allowing someone to win the presidency by sweeping a few large states. By making a 50.1% victory in California worth the same as a 90% victory there, it encourages candidates to campaign nationally, and speak to the issues important even to the smaller states.\n\nBec...
Can someone help me sort out all the worldwide soccer leagues?	[ "UEFA is the governing body for football in Europe. (Side note: \"Europe\" as defined for footballing purposes, which doesn't always match up with other definitions. It includes Israel, Kazakhstan etc)\n\nThey organise various competitions. \n\n- Euro 2016 is like the World Cup, i.e. knockout tournament between ...
Being caught for piracy.	[ "For direct downloads from a server, they have to either seize the logs of the server, or work with ISPs or other men in the middle to figure out who is downloading what.\n\nFor bittorrent and similar peer to peer systems, it's pretty trivial. Find a torrent you want to monitor, join the downloaders, log the IPs of...
Is there a reason why "hold music" when you call businesses has to be so obnoxious?	[ "The quality of phone calls have to be able to transmit voices acceptably. Music requires much, much more data and so no matter what music you put on there is going to sound like shit.\n\nMusic that is very \"full\" and uses a large range of frequencies at once will sound even worse. Very simply solo piano or some...
Galaxies that are further away are moving away from us at an increasing rate. The further away we look, the further we go "back in time". Why can't we correlate the statements prove that the observations are evidence of acceleration from the big bang?	[ "I'm confused by what you are asking exactly. The recession of distant galaxies, and that it is faster at greater distance is one of, if not the most significant pieces of evidence for the big bang theory.", "When Einstein's field equations were being solved, a very disturbing result came about: all of the matt...
Why does Pakistan apparently has no problem with the odd civilian casualty of US drone attacks?	[ "To the contrary, there is a huge problem! This has been a huge and controversial issue in the US and Pakistan. You just don't hear the Paksitani side on the news. The government itself is being paid off in terms of monetary and technological and militaristic aid by the US to use Pakistani roads for supplies, to us...
How would a compete collapse of Russia's economy affect the rest of the world? Which countries would suffer the most?	[ "With my basic understanding of economies and greater knowledge of energy markets, Russia's current troubles won't have too much of an effect on the rest of the world. Most of their money comes from energy exports and with their issues in Ukraine earlier this year, many of their customers (countries) had already t...
Beastie Boys "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" on TNMT movie commercial? Despite statement that no song will be used for commercials??	[ "Sabotage was in Star Trek (and Star Trek Beyond). I think that films are OK with the Beasties, including commercials for the movies. \nI think the no commercial clause was actually worded as not used to sell commercial products, like Coke Zero or Tampax. That cheapens the music. Film is another form of art, that t...
how are movies that were recorded in a lower definition able to be released in higher definitions?	[ "They were recorded on film, which isn't limited to an amount of pixels- for the most part.\n\nRemember that they were broadcast on a huge screen.\n\nAs long as you can get the original print you can re-release the movie as HD.", "There is a lot of confusion here because \"high definition\" is a television stan...
Why is Skype file-transfer so slow, while I can see and talk to people around the world in HD?	[ "This may not be the complete reason, but it's part of it. \n\nStreaming media and transferring files are done differently because they're trying to achieve different goals. If you're transferring a file, especially something like a text file, you probably want the received file to be exactly the same as the one ...
Why do some electronics have lights to indicate that they are off?	[ "Electronics don't have lights to indicate they're off. If they are off then by definition there's no power to run the lights.\n\nHowever, some electronics do have lights to tell you they're on standby or low power mode. This is important because you need to know whether certain devices are still powered to ensur...
Why does it seem that more men snore than women?	[ "It may just be the case that it's louder (and therefore more noticeable) when men snore because men as a rule have larger lung capacities than women.", "If it seems that way, its either personal experience or media portrayal, neither of which accurately reflect the actual world.", "The truth is (your mom) snor...
How is powerful acid stored without eating away its container?	[ "Highly inert materials are used. Frequently glass or a dense polymer.\n\n\"powerful acid\" simply describes a highly reactive solution that reacts in a certain manner. You simply have to pick a material that resists the particular chemical reaction the solution favors." ]
Why do so many celebrities go broke?	[ "Several factors, and I'd highly recommend watching the ESPN documentary called \"Broke\" if you're interested in more.\n\nBad decisions\n\nFirst and foremost you can't ignore the fact that some of these guys just spend portions of their money on stupid stuff. Stuff like:\n\n* Going to a strip club and making i...
If some letters are silent in certain words then why include then at all?	[ "Often just tradition. When they began printing books in English, there weren't many typesetters in England, so they imported Dutch typesetters who often spelled English words in a Dutch way. So that's how we got the 'h' in 'ghost' and 'ghastly.'\n\nOther times the silent letter actually serves a purpose. The diffe...
Why do historians talk about civilizations being more advanced who had "the concept of zero," and why was that concept so hard to develop?	[ "Creating a \"concept of zero\" is the first step towards using math for something more complicated than counting cows in a herd, or a weight in gold. Once you are at that point, it's possible to move on to more complicated math, which leads to basic engineering and architecture.\n\nZero is the first mental jump f...
Why did older CRT monitors for computers typically work in a black background with green text?	[ "[Green P1 phosphors ](_URL_0_) had long persistence (decay time). Amber P3 was medium persistence. White P4 was faster. Longer persistence meant your video could be at a lower frame rate without flicker. Nobody was watching videos or playing fast games, so it didn't really matter.", "Actually, human eyes are mos...
Google made 3bn USD profit, but wall street is not happy, eli5 me why??	[ "Because they expected more.\n\nLike you're 5: imagine I promise you 20 sweets next week. But when next week comes around, I only have 15 sweets to give you. You wouldn't be happy, right?\n\nBut that doesn't fully explain it.\n\nImagine I promise you 20 sweets next week if you give me your pocket money. But Johnny'...
Difference between 'fiscal' and 'financial'	[ "To put it in simple terms fiscal just has to do with government spending & revenue. You may hear or read the term 'fiscally conservative' which is the view on how the government should spend their money, which generally means reducing the government spending and basically reducing the national debt.\n\nFiscal c...
What are sister cities? Do they actually have any relationship benefits or is it just a gimmick?	[ "People in city government get to take free tourist trips to other places to \"foster communication\" and \"gather ideas\".", "Former Sister City \"Exchanger\" here. Basically it depends from \"sisterhood\" to \"sisterhood\". My town, for example, has two sister cities, one in Mexico, the other in Japan. One of o...
Why do busses not have enough seatbelts?	[ "Busses have a very large mass compared to anything they hit. In almost every collision a bus is involved in, it does not decelerate quickly enough to do serious harm to the passengers.\n\nLarge mass means a lot of momentum and most things that get hit by busses just move out of the way.", "Typically they say it ...
Data limits. Why were pioneer plans offering unlimited data and now we're seeing caps on not only cell service, but even at-home ISPs?	[ "ISPs can no longer increase revenue by adding subscribers. Nearly everyone that wants and can afford broadband already has it. This leaves them looking for new revenue streams.\n\nIt is also a way to limit cord cutting." ]
The Difference Between Different Programming Languages	[ "Different languages are designed to best do different things. Asking if one is better than another is like asking if a metal hammer or rubber mallet is better, and asking why so many exist is like asking why there isn't only one tool that hits things.", "C is clearly the elephant in the room among programming la...
Why do some people never get sick with colds or flu when everyone else does?	[ "As a non-expert, I would assume it's due to two primary factors.\n\n1) Genetics\n\n2) Prior exposure in a small amount to an illness that allowed the body to build up an immunity.\n\nI have no medical proof to back it up, but the people I know who are sick most often are the ones continuously using hand sanitizer....
If I pour one cup (~600) of bees into the dryer and run it (without heat) for a couple minutes, could they just fly around in the middle without issue?	[ "There's only one way to find out. Be sure to take a video, you're going to need it for the TIFU.", "Where would you get a cup of bees? Even if you had this cup of bees, how would you pour it into the dryer?", "Probably not... Even though the air in the middle wont completely rotate with the dryer, most driers...
Why exactly wasn't Netflix offered to those 130 countries before today?	[ "Varying laws and rights holders is the intuitive answer, but if you think about it, that doesn't explain why the 130 countries were added at the same time as opposed to gradually as Netflix worked through legal issues.\n\nThe truth is it's a numbers game. A common clause in media (movie, TV show, music, etc) right...
Why do episodes of TV shows air months apart in different countries even though they still air in the same language?	[ "I'm pretty sure this has to do with licensing & intellectual property laws and getting them sorted out globally." ]
If wood pallets are in such demand, why are stores giving them away?	[ "There are two types of wood pallet: hardwood and softwood. The hardwood ones are in true demand, and are reusable. These are generally painted. The softwood ones are, for the most part, considered disposable and those are the ones you will find for free.\n\nBe careful where you get your pallets. Many are loaded wi...
How do NFC Credit cards work? Do they store the credit card number? How are card numbers not stolen by people with NFC readers?	[ "Firstly, there are no NFC cards, they are RFID. The distinction comes from power. When using NFC payment on phones, the phone transmits the signal, costing some battery life. On RFID cards, you obviously don't charge them, the card reader actually sends a tiny amount of power to them so they are able to transmit t...
Why are none of the major news websites reporting on the Ukraine riots?	[ "I feel the Ukraine riots is well coverd in the media, but I have not visited many international news-sites.\n\nBut the main reason for this is simply money. News-sites base their content on what \"news\" gets the most clicks on their website. The more clicks equal more advertisement money since each click on a art...
Why are carbon and oxygen so ubiquitous in living organisms	[ "To be useful for life atoms need two somewhat opposite characteristics;\n\nthey need to be reactive enough to be readily changed when needed, but not so reactive they degrade by themselves e.g with moisture. \n\n\nCarbon fills that role perfectly. Carbon based molecules will on average hang about a long time, but ...
If most money is just numbers in a database, how come we don't hear of hackers who break in and just increase their account balance?	[ "Accounting and balance sheets. Every debit has to have a credit, and every credit a debit...or it will show up as out of balance. If there were to be a balancing entry in the respective offset account, then maybe it would go undetected...but nonetheless it would still show up as an entry that someone is eventually...
How does a lightning strike crumble buildings even when they are made of meters and meters of non-conductive materials?	[ "The amperage and voltage difference between the ground and clouds are so large that it doesn't really matter what the thing is made of. If the path is connected, the electricity flows. Resistance causes a big chunk of that energy to turn into heat, which spells out a thin cord-like volume that briefly reaches temp...
Why does faraway smoke look like it's staying still?	[ "The same reason airplanes look very slow. A plane flying 400 mph looks like its crawling along because its so far away. Smoke rising a mile away is only going, I dunno, ten miles per hour, so it looks completely still because of the same principle.", "It's a phenomena named parallax, u might google it to find vi...
What shape is the Big Red Spot?	[ "It's... storm-shaped :)\n\nIt's more of a fat oval, but vertically, it's quite thin. It's a storm about 15,000 by 35,000 kilometers in size, and about 100 kilometers or so in thickness. [This wiki entry](_URL_0_) has some great info on it.\n\nSo yeah, it's more or less a circle (it's actually becoming more circula...
How does a headbutt work? Wouldn't it hurt you just as much? Is there any practical reason to utilize it?	[ "You use your relatively strong forehead to strike in a less strong part of the head, ideally the bridge of the nose.\n\nAlso, even if it does hurt you, you are expecting it, and can use that surprise to your advantage.", "Generally you want to hit the nose or chest to back them up and give yourself some space. I...
Mitosis	[ "In mitosis, cells divide into what's called [diploid cells](_URL_0_) - meaning they still have a pair of each chromosome. This means the daughter cells each have a total of 46 chromosomes." ]
Is intermittent fasting healthy?	[ "There is some evidence that intermittent fasting is beneficial in humans (e.g. improved insulin sensitivity), but the bulk of the work has been done in animals. The idea is that the longer your body is in a \"starvation\" state, the better.\n\nValter Longo at USC has done a lot of work in this area, using what he ...
How do federal housing programs like FHA/USDA loans work and why do they exist?	[ "A typical non-FHA/USDA loan usually requires 20% downpayment because the lender doesn't want to be too exposed in the event of a foreclosure. The government loans tend to be more forgiving in regards to credit.\n\nThe two houses we've bought over the years have been FHA because we didn't have 800+ credit scores a...
Why is it the vast majority of rainbow flags do not have violet in them?	[ "Newton was the one to popularize the division of colors in the rainbow thanks to his work with prisms. And Newton was very religious and superstitious, and saw a great significance in the number 7. So he decided that there should be 7 colors in the rainbow, which led to him breaking the blue end of the rainbow i...
Mortgage interest.	[ "Compound Interest\n\nIt's not 4.5% of what you borrowed over the 30 years of the loan, it's 4.5% interest per year based on how much you still owe.\n\nSo let's say your mortgage is $100,000 and you make month payments of $500, just for the sake of simplicity.\n\nThe way the bank calculates the payment is as follow...
How do people who are shown using drugs in documentaries / TV shows not get arrested?	[ "Two answers: One of legality, and one of practicality.\n\nLegal answer: To convict a defendant in a criminal trial, the standard of evidence used is \"beyond a reasonable doubt.\" This means that if the jury (or judge, as the case may be) is 98% sure that the defendant committed the offense, the defendant ...
How are street address numbers decided upon, if they apparently don't refer to an agreed upon distance unit?	[ "In US cities, some central intersection is designated as 0. The first east-west cross street north of that is 100N. The first block south is 100S.\n\nSo if your address is 6407 N State Street, you're on State street 64 major cross streets North from the 0-0 intersection, and the seventh house north from the 6400...
The Irish Border situation?	[ "When the Republic of Ireland got it's independence from the United Kingdom, the UK decided to keep a part of the island of Ireland as part of the UK which became known as Northern Ireland. This meant that the UK now had a land border with a foreign country.\n\nHowever, to avoid a hard border, both countries agreed...
Plea deals in the US - why are they used so much and how do they work?	[ "Trials cost money, both for the accused and for the people who are represented by the prosecution. Meanwhile juries can be fickle creatures, and you really cannot count on them to reach the right conclusion (look at OJ Simpson, 99.9999% chance he did it, but walked away with an innocent verdict). \n\nBetter to s...
What does "HTTP 2.0 to be HTTPS only" mean and what are the implications of this?	[ "HTTPS means that the web page and the requests for the web page are encrypted in transit, meaning that people listening in on your computer (or the remote servers) traffic can't analyze them and steal personal information.\n\nStandard traffic is done over HTTP which isn't encrypted and people can intercept these c...
How does taste and flavour work?	[ "There are five basic tastes:\n\n* Sweet, usually caused by the presence of sugars, though there are other types of compounds that will active the receptors for sweetness.\n\n* Saltiness, caused by sodium ions. Potassium and lithium ions have very similar tastes, rubidium and cesium ions do have a salty taste, but ...
Why do deep burps sometimes sting the nostrils?	[ "Because you've been drinking something carbonated. \n\nThe CO2 gas from the carbonation continues to be released in your stomach, and actually speeds up its release since there are a lot of nucleation sites, which the glass/plastic didn't have. (Side note, nucleation sites is fancy talk for an irregular shape that...
What about a base-10 numbering system makes it so good?	[ "It really is as simple as how many fingers you have. Different cultures had some different bases, but 10 was common in a lot of cultures, because before they had a formal number system, they were used to just counting on fingers. \n\nAs for why it's better, well, it isn't really. There are a lot of proponents o...
Why is Atomic Bomb testing in the ocean allowed?	[ "At the time it was done, it was not prohibited by any treaty. Today it is prohibited by the Limited Test Ban Treaty. As a result the USA, USSR/Russia, and UK have not tested underwater weapons since the 1960s. (France and China did not sign the LTBT until much later; I don't know if they did any underwater tests a...
Why do we have the electoral college?	[ "When the Constitution was written, nobody wanted an easy and clear reflection of voter's opinions. The common attitude was that the average voter was just too poor and uninformed; they would never be able to make a good decision about who should run the country. So the average voter would send an Electoral Colle...
How do air bubbles in a needle kill you if you don't get them all out before injecting?	[ "I think that's mostly a Hollywood invention. A large amount of air injected into a vein can kill you, but a little bit won't. Imagine my surprise when I was in the hospital and saw a few air bubbles go into my vein. I freaked out and thought I was going to die, but absolutely nothing happened." ]
From 1954 to Blu ray	[ "It's kinda a strange concept, but since old movies were taken on real film, the film itself is basically HD (It's not that hard to realize either, if you look at some film, it's very very high quality picture) As long as you have the old film, it'll be convertible into HD into at least the near future (Past the ti...
the difference between DNA, genes, chromosomes, RNA	[ "Right, so the easiest way to probably look at this is by starting with the DNA. DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is what contains all the information to create pretty much any part of every cell in the body It's made up for four different 'bases' (A, T, G and C), which together make up the code that the cell 'reads' to...
Why do I see a sudden flash of light when I sneeze with my eyes closed?	[ "Everyone sneezes with their eyes closed. Some people (all?) have a nerve that causes your pupils to widen or shrink connected to the same nerve that causes the sneezing reflex so it may be possible it acts as a stimulus when you sneeze. I may be wrong though but if you have ACHOO syndrome this may be the answer" ]
People who understand NSA stuff: why don't they have a better lead on Jim Dimaggio? (California Amber Alert)	[ "IF he was trying to flee, he would have taken a different car, or disabled his GPS Nav system, and from that point he would stay off the grid.\n\|\nThey do use it for the domestic good, remember the Boston Marathon manhunt?", "The NSA is not concerned with domestic crimes. There is a massive legal hurdle for a do...
How do you prove the title of this post is the same as always?	[ "ELI5: \nWe can't prove anything we know is true, we can only decide for ourselves based on what we see and experience. For many facts, we simply must either trust that whoever told it to us is telling the truth, or seek the truth ourselves by checking other sources or through experimentation. \n \nSlightly less...
After time in the sun, why does my hair get lighter but my skin gets darker?	[ "Your skin can react to a stimulus. It adds more pigments to protect you. Your hair is mostly dead cells and thus cannot react, so it gets bleached in the sun just like paint or plastic.", "TL:DR Your skin is alive, but your hair is not.\n\nLong answer: Your hair gets lighter in color because it is being damaged ...
Inflation target is roughly 2-3%, is any lower than this bad? If so, why?	[ "Moderate inflation provides incentives for people who have money to lend it out to borrowers. These borrowers generally spend this money in the short term, which fuels economic activity and all that comes with it (higher production, lower unemployment, etc.). In short, money is put to work rather than just sitting...
If i deposit 1 dollar into a bank, what are all the options of where that 1 dollar could end up?	[ "Do you mean the idea of the dollar or the physical currency?\n\nThe dollar becomes two entities on the banks balance sheet: one dollar on deposit that they owe you (a liability) and one dollar in cash. They can then use their cash to buy securities (short and long term), as funding for a loan, to pay a depositor...
why people from the United States love to have guns that aren't just hunting rifles.	[ "So what you're asking is why affections seem to have shifted from the traditional hunting rifles to the newer types that are made to look like combat rifles. I assume you're talking about variants of the Armalite or AR rifles?\n\nIf these are the ones you're talking about they are mostly chambered in .223 Remingto...
How come it feels infinitely more perilous walking down an icy incline than it does walking up one?	[ "My guess, going downhill if you slip you will fall backwards and won't be able to catch yourself and possibly hit your head, going up hill you will fall foreward and be able to use your hands to catch yourself" ]
Why can't we artificially inseminate endangered species like pandas and rhinos in order to raise their numbers?	[ "Increasing their numbers doesn't solve any problems. They're being wiped out in the wild, through habitat destruction, poaching, etc. Having 'more to die' doesn't fix the 'to die' part. \n\nAdditionally, artificial insemination isn't a surefire mechanism, and once your population is low enough you run into problem...
How does the Nuclear Fusion produce cheap, reliable energy and ELI5 how the new data produced in Livermore, CA help us?	[ "_URL_0_\n\nOriginal story in which I am inquiring..", "It's late and I'm tired but I'm gonna give you a very brief answer to tide you over until someone who knows what they're talking about chimes in. There's an equation you might recognize, E=mc^2 . It says that the energy in a given amount of mass is equal to ...
Can anyone explain why when you sit for an extended period of time your knee will start to bounce up and down?	[ "This actually doesn't happen to everyone. If it happens all the time and feels like it's out of your conscious control, and really severe, it might be Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS), a neurological disorder which causes a strong urge to move your legs.\n\nIt might also simply be a symptom of impatience or boredom or...
what is going on with Adrian Peterson	[ "He hit his kid with a \"switch\" (usually thin tree branch with the leaves ripped off) as a way of discipline, but apparently it left some pretty bad marks which makes it look like he went too far with corporal punishment and possibly crossed into abuse. \n\nHard to say exactly what could happen with his career, b...
What's the deal with the O.J. Simpson trial?	[ "OJ Simpson was put on trial for the murder of two individuals, Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman. He was acquitted of those murders. The response to the verdict was very polarized along racial lines, with blacks generally favorable and whites generally unfavorable." ]
Given that most students forget most of what they learned very soon after their exams, and there being not much evidence to support the transfer of skills from studying one thing to doing another, why is there a truly incredible amount of emphasis placed on education?	[ "For pre-university education, it's less about what you know and more about how you learn. \n\nI taught grade 2, and many pages had them doing silly things to solve simple equations. for example \n\n > 12 + 15\n\n1. 12 to 20 = 8\n\n2. 15 - 8 = 7\n\n3. 20 + 7 = 27\n\nI always explained that what we practice on pape...
How can services like Google Drive offer so much storage for no charge?	[ "Google offer 'free' services to lock people into using Google, this in turns makes people use other services such as search and gmail, where they do make money for people clicking on advertisements. \n\nIt's also another way of gathering as much information about people to enable them to target specific types of a...
The Cheryl’s Birthday Logic Puzzle	[ "Puzzles like this rely on not just the information that each person in the puzzle knows, but what they know about what the other person knows.\n\nIn this puzzle, Cheryl gives 10 possible dates for her birthday: \n\n\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\|\n\|:--\|:--\|:--\|:--\|:--\|:--\|:--\|\n\|May\|\|15\|16\|\|\|19\|\n\|June\|\|\|\|17\|18\|\|\n\|July\|14\|\|16\|\|\|\|\n\|...
why do lightbulbs seem to go bad only when being turned on?	[ "The filaments in the bulb get thinner and thinner with more use. At some point they are thin enough that the surge of electricity when turning on the bulb is more than the filament can take.", "The majority of the wear on filaments is due to contraction and expansion when they heat up or cool. This heating and c...
Why are most SQL error messages useless?	[ "They're not useless. They give you the exact line the problem has occured on and the nature of the error. It is assumed that you know what you're doing and are competent enough to be aware of which keywords exist. Why did you cut off the rest of the error message you quoted:\n\nERROR 1064 (42000): You have an erro...
Why do large semis shake your car when you drive past them?	[ "[Vortex shedding](_URL_0_)\n\nBecause semi's are not very streamlined the air rushing past them ends up in a series of vortices. As these vortices pass you, your car is alternately sucked toward and blown away from--hence the shaking motion." ]
How much repulsive force can two or more magnets produce?	[ "It comes down to their strength, size, shape, and distance between them.\n\nHere is a calculator from a site that sells neodymium magnets, some of the strongest you can find\n\n_URL_0_\n\n\nThe strongest I found was around 3000N between two magnets" ]
How are cranes on the side if buildings built during construction? How is the last crane disassembled?	[ "A crane can build and disassemble itself. They build what they can on the ground and then let the crane take over.\n\nThere is no way I'd be able to explain it better than this video.\n_URL_0_", "Smaller cranes at first, they lift the base sections into place. Then some cranes can start to lift their own section...
Why does everything you mix together turn brown?	[ "Pigments absorb some colors and reflect others. Mix a bunch of different ones together and it ends up absorbing most of the color and then reflecting some of the light so you get a dark mass of brown" ]
Why do we still have court reporters?	[ "Transcripts. Every legal action is based on a transcript, the written word of what happened in court, and also at depositions (witness interviews taken under oath outside the courtroom). So anytime a hearing is at issue or deposition testimony is needed, the court or court of appeals needs a transcript to review w...
What is the difference between a voxel and a pixel?	[ "A pixel is part of a 2-D image - like all the dots that make up your screen.\n\nA voxel is a 3-D element, like the cubes that make up Minecraft.", "Pixel: Picture Element. A 2D square with a very small size (usually) and a single color, to represent a portion of a 2D picture on a screen.\n\nVoxel: ~~Volumetric E...
How can a person break cement blocks with a fist? Surely there is no training that makes bones as tough a concrete?	[ "The dirty secret of concrete is that it's weak in some ways. Like natural rock, it's great at withstanding compression. However, it is very poor at withstanding tension (pulling). Which means that it's also poor at handing bending, which imposes compression and tension in different regions at the same time. To m...
Why are college grades so test taking oriented instead of grading us on our ability to work in teams and research information on topics?	[ "> Colleges claim to prepare us for the real world\n\nThis is not in fact the objective of advanced colleges and universities. Their job is to teach you how to think and how to learn, and also to to provide you with a large foundation of background knowledge and general skills such as how to express yourself or or...
. If I watched 15 minutes from a 90 minute YouTube video, do I get charged data for the entire 90 minute file ? What about the ads .	[ "you don't stream the entire file at once. Youtube doesn't stream the entire thing to you anymore, just sightly ahead of what you watch. They want to save data too, after all.\nyes, ads do use data too. they are not magical.", "Your data carrier does not care what you are watching, including ads -- it costs the...
Clive Bundy and his ranch	[ "The big stand off last year with bundy and the government was over his use of public lands. Ranchers that want to use public lands like the one in question here are expected to pay a fee to the government and in exchange they can graze their cattle on it. Bundy had not paid the fee for (iirc) years and the governm...
Why do people have different skins tones, face shapes, body shapes etc from different continents?	[ "Indications are that a lot of those features, the key reason Europeans and Asians are different is because of interbreeding with neanderthals and denisovans. The neanderthals and denisovans had lived in those regions for a long time and had gradually adapted to the environment of the climates, and the interbreedi...
Why do muslims grow long beards?	[ "This is still a debated topic in Islam. Many scholars say it is Fard while many also say it is only Sunnah. There is no one clear answer to this question. \n\nFard= mandatory\nSunnah= highly recommended", "It was commanded by the prophet. I believe it was originally meant to make Muslims more distinguishable fro...
Why does my nose run when it's excessively cold outside?	[ "My guess (I'll look it up to confirm after I type this):\n\n\nCold air is warmed by your nose and upper respiratory tract in order to maintain core temperature. When air is excessively cold it requires more blood flow to your sinuses and nasal passageway to warm the air. In order to increase blood flow a local vas...
Why does audio feedback always sound like a high squealing noice?	[ "There are 2 things happening here. In a feedback loop, the microphone is picking up some of the amplified sound (because it \"hears\" it from the speaker) and sends it back around. This is why it gets very loud, very fast. The high-pitched squeal happens for a different reason. If the microphone and the spea...
If America has the best colleges in the world and some of the hardest working people in the world, how are foreigners able to take our jobs?	[ "They will work for less money. It's primarily jobs for low skill workers that are leaving the US. A factory worker in China will cost about the equivalent of $1.36 hour. Even if they are slightly less productive, it's still more cost effective, even after shipping the goods to the US. It's about $2000 per shipping...
Every picture we take is a rectangle, so is the sensor inside our digital cameras. So why are the lenses of our cameras round?	[ "It is not the case that every pixel have a single point on the lens collecting its light. Every pixel gets light from all parts of the lens. You can try this yourself by covering up parts of a lens and observe that the light in the other end of the optics only gets darker but not obscured. You can even try this on...
How does my penis know I’m looking at something sexual?	[ "Your brain finds whatever you’re looking at arousing and as a result releases endorphins and sends blood to the penis to make it erect" ]
Why did the communist structure of the USSR fail while China still continues to grow under the banner of the CCP?	[ "The USSR tried to liberalize their politics without liberalizing their economy.\n\nChina is allowing the economy to liberalize into a more capitalist system, but maintaining strict control of the politics.\n\nFreedom of politics tends towards freedom of economy, but freedom of economy doesn't always lead to freedo...
How do people taste flavours in cigars and whiskey?	[ "It's an acquired taste and it requires a fair bit of learning before you get it. It's not like normal tastes, it's not like a lemon tasting like lemon. It's really hard to explain, but it amounts to trying to look beyond the first, strong flavor and experiencing the nuances behind it.\n\nThe reason it's so hard is...
In traffic, why do cyclists by default have to use the road instead of the sidewalk? Aren't motor vehicles and cyclists a bigger danger to each other than cyclists and pedestrians would be?	[ "Bicycles and cars are supposed to follow the same rules, and both drivers and riders are responsible for maintaining situational awareness. This is intended to create a predictable flow.\n\nAs others have mentioned, while there are notions about how best to walk on a sidewalk, there aren't really any rules or regu...
How is using someone else's Wi-fi not considered stealing?	[ "It is; it probably falls under theft of services." ]

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