Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
What is Reaganomics?	[ "\"Reaganomics\" was, essentially, the idea that tax cuts on the wealthy and businesses would lead to increased investment and economic activity that would both lead to employment and wage gains more broadly and even offset the cost of those tax breaks by way of their being more income to tax, overall." ]	[ "Before I get all high & mighty about the term \"Dark Ages,\" can you define what you mean for us?" ]
If heat is a measure of the mean kinetic energy of the particles of a substance, then how does compressing it increase its temperature, since compression squishes the particles of a substance closer together, theoretically limiting movement?	[ "You're thinking temperature, not heat. These are related but different. The reason compression increases temperature is because the energy of the compressed gas is now more concentrated into a smaller volume, and thus the mean kinetic energy of the volume of the substance is higher because it occupies less volum...	[ "The mass acquired by the Higgs mechanism is mass that results from energy. Mass is just energy confined by a force to an average rest frame. You can think of interactions with the Higgs field as a force that keeps a massless particle confined, which then has mass according to E=mc^2 (just as most of the mass in ...
Intel is comming with a 10core processor. What is a core?	[ "Let's say the cpu is some kind of calculator, for simplicity sake. You put some numbers into the calculator, then you ask the calculator to do something with it (subtract, add etc). Then the calculator gives you a number back, the result. Why more cores? Let's say you have 2 math problems. 1 core would mean 1 calc...	[ "I know that linking to articles instead of responding is a bit discouraged on here, but Steve Novella gives a fabulous write-up of this myth, and how it has a grain of truth: [More Left Brain / Right Brain Nonsense](_URL_0_) Here's a quote: > So while some specific functions do lateralize, our minds and personalit...
Why, when I'm watching TV at night, is it easy to doze off, but when I go upstairs to bed in a dark room, I'm immediately wide awake?	[ "You're relaxed, your mind is in neutral. And you've been sitting there for perhaps half an hour or more. But to go to bed, you must get up, walk the dog, perform your ablutions, etc. By the time you climb into bed, you need some time to get relaxed and in neutral again." ]	[ "Basically every time you used the escalator, it moved by itself. The first times it felt weird because your body wasn't used to use stairs that move by themselves. So the first time you used an escalator, you probably felt like you lost balance and needed a few seconds to stabilise. After many uses, your brain got...
How to do Fermi Estimations?	[ "The point of a Fermi estimation isn't to get the right answer to a problem - it is to get in the _ballpark_ of the right answer so you can get a sense of scale. You make estimations and general guesses about what the inputs are - the goal is to be in the general order of magnitude of the answer. For example, lets ...	[ "It's actually really simple, they just send radio waves back to earth. Mars is so far away that it takes something like 8.5 minutes for the information to get here though." ]
How has the ISS been able to stay in space for so long?	[ "The ISS orbits at about 200 miles high, at 17500 miles per hour. This high speed and height is enough to ensure it's trajectory matches the curvature of the earth - ie it will never fall and hit the earth. In reality this isnt true, even at 200 miles up there is still a slight trace of atmosphere, a few atoms per ...	[ "This is going to sound a bit silly but it is true. Insects and other “bugs” have small claws on the ends of their legs. They are light enough that those claws holding on to the tiniest imperfection in the surface is enough to hold them up." ]
How much of the current climate trend is actually due to humans? Aren't we coming out of an ice age, and this would naturally change the climate in its own?	[ "Our current data and models suggest that all of the temperature change over the past 100 years is due to humans. We are not \"coming out\" of an ice age: the last ice age ended 12,000 years ago, and these warm periods typically last 8000-15,000 years. So we're probably nearer to the end of a warm period than the...	[ "People are very bad at assessing long term risks. We haven't evolved to handle dangers and risks of long term activities. Even though we intellectually know the risks, it is hard for us to translate that intellectual knowledge into behavior, as it does not tell our instincts that it is dangerous. We instinctively ...
What do Titan's liquid methane seas actually look like?	[ "Liquid methane is colorless. Even more colorless than water, which is ever so slightly blue. Based on its gas phase absorption spectrum shown [here](_URL_0_), methane's electronic absorptions lie in the far-UV or in the infrared region. In the liquid phase, absorption peaks tend to broaden out, so you might see a ...	[ "> Also why weren't the people there made well aware of the rocket testing taking place. I mean the US military is hardly in the habit of announcing that kind of weapon tests beforehand (edit:though apparently they did reserve the airspace for tests beforehand, which caused some flights into LA to take different pa...
Why do we pet animals and animals don't pet us or each other?	[ "Animals don't have the same movement in their legs/paws/etc, and most probably their brains aren't wired up to think of them in the same way we do our hands. To them, petting with their forelegs would probably feel like us petting someone with our feet. They pet/show affection for each other using other techniques...	[ "By response of said stimuli. When it goes too far a, say, kitten will signal it with body language and sound. And their partner will respond by licking the damaged area and going on a little less violently. If you have a kitten at home you can easily try this. If your kitten scratches or bites too hard, let out a...
Friday Free-for-All \| April 10, 2015	[ "A quick shameless promo: /r/VietnamWar is a subreddit that exist for all those who wishes to share links, photographs or engage in discussions about the wars in Indochina throughout the 20th century. While it's a bit more casual than AskHistorians, it still has all the rules you'd expect from here and active moder...	[ "> how it really amounts to a bunch of bologna I don't have an answer, but I do need to point out that bologna = lunch meat. Baloney = nonsense." ]
I've been thinking about how eclipses work, and I think the planets must all be rotating on a fixed plane, not randomly on either an x or y axis. So.. How do eclipses/convergence work?	[ "The solar system is rotating in more or less the same plane. It's not perfectly flat, but they're mostly within a few degrees of each other. [Here](_URL_0_) is a pretty good video explaining why that is. There are also a bunch of other posts on this sub about why the solar system is flat." ]	[ "The flatness of the universe is often a way to describe the topography of the universe in 4 dimensions. There is no real way for us to visualize an infinitely big 3 dimensional object curving, so instead we describe it as a 2d object and reserve the 3rd dimension to describe the 4d curvature. As for what this curv...
Tuesday Trivia \| Everybody Poops	[ "Oh I have a great poop related historical fact! The death of Uesugi Kenshin. Kenshin was a 16th century Japanese daimyo who is notable for many things in his life but his death is what applies to this thread. How he died is not entirely agreed upon by historians. The generally accepted theory is that a stomach can...	[ "That one station owner who knows that he could drop his price and get ALL the customers if everyone else keeps it the same. aka Game Theory" ]
What caused the The Video Game Crash of 1983?	[ "Well if you're following current video game trends, imagine thousands of early access games being sold as finished products without even the possibility that it will be updated. This quality of game was vastly more common than a finished game, as companies were just trying to jump onto the bandwagon of the video g...	[ "Marketing and tracking. I bought \"TRON: Evolution\" when it first came out, thinking it was a single player with the option of networking. Nope. You have to either have or create a Microsoft \"LIVE\" account and log on to that in order to play a game that is locally installed. They track everything, and sell it t...
What effect did the Napoleonic Wars have on French colonies controlled by Britain?	[ "Acadia had been French until 1710 when it was conquered by Britain during Queen Anne's war. The British were worried about the loyalty of the Acadians in subsequent wars, and finally expelled them from Acadia in 1755, when circa 7,000 Acadians were deported. After this, there was little remaining French population...	[ "I posted on ActiveHistory yesterday about a controversial statue of Edward Cornwallis in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Cornwallis, the renowned founder of the city, also has a little bit of historical baggage wherein he proclaimed a bounty on Mi'kmaq scalps in 1749 - a fairly bloodthirsty act. Similarly, he expressed the ...
Why are Dragonfruit seeds randomly organised, when most other fruits take a symmetrical pattern?	[ "Alright, I'm going to wing it based off what I can find out: Pitaya flowers (that produces dragon fruit) are compound flowers. They fit a TON of stigma (female reproductive organs) in a very small area. Think of these as little sticky tubes that grab pollen. Some of them get fertilized, some do not. The ones that ...	[ "From the exact same XKCD article that you linked: > (Climates can be hard to predict—for example, in our world, Somalia and French Guiana both sit on the equator, at the eastern coast of a continent, and seem like they should both receive a tropical sea breeze. But coastal French Guiana is dense rain forest while...
how do 3D printers work in space, wouldn't the filament just float around?	[ "The printers head almost touches the bed and the hot filament extruded by the printer sticks to the printers bed, it's not simply laying over it. The final piece usually needs to be pried from the bed. It's also common practice to spread glue on the bed to increase adhesion. ELI5: It's kinda like putting toothpas...	[ "Long answer short: there is more than just gravity directing the roots. Soil density, water, and nutrient locations all play a factor. Likely, with the right soil and light source, plants will grow with relative normalcy in no, low, or simulated gravity." ]
Why did so many civilisations only conquer northern African regions?	[ "> Why is that? The Sahara. Without long-range navigation maintaining an empire across the sahara would be forbiddingly difficult, without even considering the difficulty of conquest: you'd have to bring an army through ~2000km of desert, with few resources you didn't bring with you (none if you couldn't get the s...	[ "Hey all, lurker turned member here. Saw this and couldn't not put my two cents in. I'm an LPG contractor for Calor in the UK, and I've had insight and heard a lot of details in a lot of meetings over the years. Simple answer? Oil, as we are all so constantly reminded, is a finite resource. Why use your own when yo...
How can we tell whether a galaxy it tinted red due to redshift, or just naturally having a red glow?	[ "Basically, we're not looking at the colours as one would normally look at colours. Instead, you're looking at the spectrum. [This is an image showing the spectra of several galaxies.](_URL_2_) See the spikes? We know exactly what part of the spectrum those spikes should appear in if there's no red shift or blue ...	[ "Historically, gravity was thought of as a force between massive objects. Einstein's theory of general relativity trumped that with the idea that gravity is actually caused by the interaction between space and something called the \"stress-energy tensor\", which basically measures the density of energy (of which ma...
The theory John Nash comes up with in A Beautiful Mind	[ "If you have someone in your life that doesn't seem to age, they're probably not real and you might be schizophrenic." ]	[ "I'm not really sure, but from this website: _URL_0_ the caption to the picture says > Above: Nikola Tesla, with Roger Boskovich's book \"Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis\", in front of the spiral coil of his high-frequency transformer at East Houston St., New York" ]
what is enriching uranium? How does it work?	[ "Natural uranium that we mine from the ground is mostly composed of uranium 238, with less than 1% uranium 235. Uranium 235 is the useful isotope for nuclear applications like reactors and weapons, and uranium 238 by itself isn't very useful, so we enrich it by increasing the percentage of u-235. This can be anywhe...	[ "Media companies \"Nuking\" torrent files with data. Nuking basically means they put some kind of trojan horse in a movie/video game file, so when you download it, they can track it and report you to your ISP." ]
Is it possible lands now underwater were settled by humans thousands of years ago?	[ "hi! it would be worth x-posting this to the anthropologists & archaeologists in /r/AskAnthropology. Or possibly /r/AskScience or /r/Archaeology" ]	[ "Try ask in /r/Archaeology and /r/AskAnthropology/. Those are the best groups to ask these type of questions." ]
Has there ever been a documented case of 2 separate ape species that have been taught sign language, using it to communicate with each other?	[ "An important caveat: Evidence of non-human primates using \"sign language\" to communicate anything beyond rudimentary symbols is nonexistent; well-publicized cases of chimps and the like learning sign language are grossly bastardizing the meaning of sign language. Non-human primates who are taught signs use t...	[ "Sort of. As you can see in Jurassic park 3, they can find out the shape of the voice box and get an idea of the nature of their vocals. They probably couldn't work it out exactly, and a lot of Jurassic Park is sort of filled in gaps." ]
Why can't we compress a file infinitely until it reaches 1 bit?	[ "How would you expand 1 bit to more than 1 bit? 1 bit, by definition, can only store 1 bit of information. 5kb can only store 5kb, sure, but the reason compression algorithms can work is that sometimes 5kb worth of information is stored as 6kb of information. Take a simple example here: 1000000000000000 How can ...	[ "If you put enough traffic on a freeway, no mater how wide the freeway is, no one can get anywhere. the same thing applies to networks, where if you flood them with enough traffic, with fake cars that don't actually want to get anywhere, nothing can get where it wants to go." ]
Why do exotic cars often times have their engines located in the rear?	[ "A rear or mid engine can provide better balance and weight transfer, a lower, shorter front hood line, more visibility, and in the case of horizontally-opposed engines (180 degree bank angle), a lower center of gravity." ]	[ "Nostalgia, too ~ a lot of older guys that now have lots of money are reliving their youth - they either had one when they were young & want another, or wanted one when they were young and can now afford to pay the big bucks to get one." ]
How exactly do the changes in adaptation take place?	[ "Nothing \"tells it to\" the changes dont happen during a creatures life, the changes come from mutations in the genes of offspring and nature decides which ones live and which ones die. When a mutation happens its usually bad but rarely a mutation can be beneficial. Take polar bears. Some time a long time ago a be...	[ "Setting aside the terminology of \"race\", it's entirely down to selective pressures of the different environments. In equatorial regions where the sun is plentiful, having a lot of melanin is useful in protecting against cancer. The further north/south you go from there, the less sun there is, so having less mela...
Why are some cakes "upside-down cakes"... is it too late to help right them?	[ "It has to do with the way they are made. An upside down cake, let's use pineapple upside down cake for example, is made like this: pour caramel in the bottom of the cake pan, then put pineapple on top of that, then put cherries in the middle. (at least, this is how my grandmother does it, i'm not sure about yours)...	[ "It runs the action in reverse. Typically, a text editor has both an undo stack, and a redo stack. Every change gets pushed onto the undo stack. When you undo, the last change gets popped off the undo stack, reversed, and added to the redo stack. If you now redo, it gets popped off the redo stack, added to the docu...
Is there an element/compound that is denser as a gas than it is as a solid?	[ "Sort of. Aerogel is a solid material with a lot of microscopic holes in it. As a result, its density can be lower than a gas out of the same components. Isolate [Aerographene](_URL_2_) from the air to avoid air flowing in, and it is even lighter than helium at atmospheric conditions. For a bulk material, this does...	[ "1. You you should clarify which \"STP\" you're referring to. * IUPAC defines standard temperature and pressure as as 0 °C and 100 kPa (0.9869 atm). * The National Institute of Standards and Technology uses 20 °C and 1 atm (101.3 kPa). * Many people use 25 °C and 1 atm (101.3 kPa) as standard ambient temperature ...
Why does even staring at a wall become interesting when you are trying to study?	[ "your brains likes to do some shit and doesnt like to do other shit, your subconscious knows it and it doesnt give a fuck about your exam Humans are animals that really like their comfort zone, and will do anything to stay in it" ]	[ "Two social psychological concepts come to mind here. State dependent memory encoding and Erickson Arousal theory of learning. State dependent learning states that what ever state of mind you are in during encoding is the state of mind where recall would be optimal. Erickson arousal theory states that learning is m...
If you stand on two scales, why would the resulting weights shown on each one not be equal to your actual weight?	[ "The question I would ask is this: Have the scales been calibrated? Has your actual weight been confirmed on a calibrated machine? This would make the difference---how much of a difference?" ]	[ "Your body can only process a certain amount of water within a certain amount of time. Anything extra gets pushed through the system faster. Think of it like putting a bucket under a faucet and another bucket under a waterfall. Your body can only process one bucket at a time, so even though the waterfall will fill...
why does glass break when subjected to extreme temperature changes?	[ "Because glass is a good insulator. It transports heat very slowly. So if you apply heat to one side or two sides of thick glass, the other side/inside stays much colder. The warm side of the glass expands, while the cold part does not, which creates tension and eventually causes the glass to break. That’s why in l...	[ "Why do I feel as though my bottles of water don't do this but instead just freeze normally in the freezer?" ]
Could the moon have a mini-moon?	[ "It certainly depends on the mass of the satellite and the characteristics of its orbit, but it's possible. It's even been done with man-made objects ([wiki](_URL_0_)). The real trick would be how the object would get sufficiently close to the moon with the appropriate velocity. EDIT: As an aside, the game \"kerbal...	[ "This has been observed at least once. [See here](_URL_0_). However, we don't have any sweet images of this happening, we just see a periodic dip in the x-ray intensity." ]
Why do defence organisations need to develop higher range missiles from scratch?	[ "That could be the case. But it would get really expensive pretty quickly. It's more a combination of fuel efficiency and atmospheric durability while retaining a certain price point. The most bang for your buck, as it were. It's probably more complicated than that, but I don't know much about missiles." ]	[ "I'm sure there are more knowledgeable folks here who can provide a more comprehensive answer, but [there is evidence](_URL_1_) birds navigate over such long distances in part by being biologically sensitive to the Earth's magnetic field. In other words, they have a built in compass. As for where to go, in at leas...
When you put a dollar into a machine, how does it know if its a $1, $5, $20, etc.?	[ "If it's a coin it measures the size/weight of the coin as each is unique. At least in the US. As far as bills it actually uses an optical scanner to look at the money as well as a magnetic scanner. Money is written with magnetic ink and says it's denomination in multiple locations. The optical scanner shines a UV ...	[ "There are usually stop markers. I can't speak for any other train systems, but in the NYC Subway system, there are markers hanging down from the ceiling (something like \"10\", or \"8\", black number on white or white number on black). That's to signify where the front of a train with that many number of cars shou...
Why can't we as a planet completely switch over to nuclear energy and shoot the radioactive waste into the Sun?	[ "The two most common reasons we cant dispose of the waste in space are: 1. Expense. Right not it's just too damn expensive to launch stuff into space, let alone to the sun. But this will come down soon. 2. Risk. If that rocket carrying it to the sun blows up in our atmosphere, well, we'd all be having a very bad t...	[ "We do. For instance, any dam on a river that generates electricity is utilizing gravity to get the job done. The trick is, we're letting the water cycle do the heavy lifting of moving an object 'uphill' (our river water). So there's still an energy input, it's just that we humans don't have to supply it. If we wa...
What is physiologically happening when our "stomach drops"? ie upon hearing bad news, looking down from a great height, etc	[ "Physiology and Anatomy Major (for the time being) here. So its important to note that there are two sub systems in the nervous system. The first is the sympathetic and second is the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system innervates most of your skeletal muscles (the ones used for movement...	[ "I don't so much think of it as an evolutionary thing. There's really no benefit to being confused. It comes down to computing power. Your brain just takes a minute to recall old information/piece together new information to develop an idea of where you are and how you got there. I'm currently in flight school and...
Has Germany (the political entity that has existed since 1871) ever won a war?	[ "They won the Franco-Prussian War which was pretty much the indirect cause of World War I. In a way, by winning that war, Germany caused two world wars." ]	[ "Hi there -- while we've approved this question, we would like to remind potential respondents of our [current events](_URL_0_) (AKA \"20-year\") rule -- it's fine to discuss events through 1997 (inclusive) and their effects, but not events after 1997. Thanks!" ]
How do IPOs get a price value? Are they allowed to be adjusted based on demand?	[ "The initial price is generally based on the exit value required by the investors. Depending on when you put your money in and what level of risk you assumed, you'll want a certain payout. You set the amount and price of the stock to get that payout. However, selling stock is really no different than selling anythi...	[ "The school is selling cookies to raise money. S & P 500 is a collection of the 500 highest selling students. Dow (Dow Jones Industrial Average) is the average of the schools 30 best students. NASDAQ is the schools largest bake sale (stock exchange), but students can't buy baked good from each other, it's done via...
Why does heat take just seconds to damage your body, but cool takes minutes/hours to damage your body?	[ "Look at it like a phone and charger. If you put a load of energy into the phone (more than it's rated for), it'll do serious damage almost immediately. If you use an underrated charger, it'll put only a little energy in, but the phone will use more than it's getting and eventually die. Heat is just a form of ener...	[ "Modern computers use variable speeds that require a variable amount of power. When a computer needs to process information quickly it will increase its \"clock speed\" and that requires more power. That power is not used at 100% efficiency and therefor more power = more heat as the excess energy is converted to he...
Why is HIV/AIDS hard to cure and how close are we to finding the cure to completely remove it?	[ "Everyone's aids is unique, the virus mutants randomly." ]	[ "What makes your beliefs the right ones? To you they are right but to the leaders of other countries they are not. Leaders in that country are probably asking each other the same thing about countries where homosexuality is accepted. They will be wondering how the leaders of those countries can allow such a thing. ...
Volume change in plastic deformation?	[ "It's common to apply a constant-volume assumption in plasticity models. This means that we: - Assume that no voids have been introduced (e.g., we're working with a uniform solid, not a foam or granular system). - Assume that the material has recovered to room temperature after being heated through the process of m...	[ "Heres a fantastic video on the problem if you have time. _URL_0_ If not. Basically a the base of the water kettle the heater is well above 100°c this coverts the water into a gas, this gas then expands in the \"cold water\" of around it. But once it becomes too weak it starts to condense aka transform into a liqu...
How are entire ecosystems largely consistent between continents, but entire classes of animals therein aren't represented at all?	[ "This has mostly to do with the ability of the specimen to travel long distances and to cross different biomes. Flying birds have it very easy. They don't need a land bridge, and many species have long distance travel as their natural behaviour. Big terrestrial mammals need at least a temporary land bridge, but the...	[ "Short answer, money. Slightly longer answer: religion, anti-intellectual movement, funding, social issues, and things that are used to ‘measure’ performance. Tests are easy to use to see if a kid can produce the answer to a given question. Which is great if you are playing Jeopardy but generally useless day to day...
Why do flat screen TVs take longer to turn on than older TVs?	[ "The older CRT-style televisions converted the analog signal coming from the cable to directly control the image on the screen. In contrast, most modern flat screens essentially have a miniature computer to process the image before displaying it. Many flat screens do things such as connect to your home network, loa...	[ "You've actually stumbled on a classic argument. Essentially, if the universe were infinite in size, infinite in age, and isotropic, then any point in the sky would be in line with the surface of the star and (interstellar dust not withstanding) the entire sky would be as bright as the surface of a star. Since this...
With our current level of technology, are we capable of building a space elavator (assuming unlimited budget and time)?	[ "No. While we have materials with the required breaking length in the lab we can't make long cables out of them at the moment. With unlimited time and budget you can develop such a method but that is not \"current level of technology\" any more. Apart from that there are tons of details to figure out - how to get s...	[ "Not science disclaimer: This is not science. Land is sold by the acre which is surface area. The whole point behind very tall buildings like the Burj Khalifa is to maximize that patch of planet that it is built upon. When the design constraints begin at the very bottom, the only choice is to go up. Pyramids ha...
When using carbon dating and similar techniques, how do we know the age of the object it made up, rather than the age of the carbon or other isotope from when it was formed in a star?	[ "Carbon dating works of the natural rate at which Carbon 14 (an unstable isotope) decays based on its half life. When things are alive, everything in an environment has an equilibrium of C14 as carbon is being continually being transferred between organisms. When they die however, there is no more carbon addition, ...	[ "Carbon monoxide isn't exactly poisonous, it causes asphyxiation. When you breathe in the atmosphere, the oxygen gas (O2) binds with the hemoglobin in your red blood cells. This is then carried to the parts of your body, where it is exchanged for carbon dioxide. When the CO2 rich blood reaches your lungs again, the...
why do people say today's education system is suited well for girls over boys?	[ "Girls generally mature faster neurologically (the female brain is more or less developed by 19-21 while the male brain may be as late as late 20's), girls are generally also more compliant and follow orders better (whether that's due to biology or social conditioning or some of both is up for debate). Generally bo...	[ "1. That book and the movie contained a lot of bad science. 2. A lot of animals are gender fluid. 3. It appears that on some animals (such as the frogs used in the book) the gender specific genes are present on both sets of chromosomes. So XX can be either male or female as needed, but so can XY. 4. Not all animals...
Why can some properties (super magnetism, quantum entanglement, etc) currently only work efficiently in the extreme cold?	[ "As one barrier, in general higher temperatures mean more energy, and hence less predictable behavior. For superconductivity in particular, the phenomenon is the result of electrons in the conductor binding in cooper pairs and forming a Bose-Einstein condensate, which is a state of matter in which many particles be...	[ "The [band structure](_URL_0_) of a semiconductor is a plot of energy vs. momentum state of electrons. We call the bandgap the energy distance between the highest point in the valance band and the lowest point in the conduction band. In silicon, these maxima and minima occur at different momentum points. This mean...
what makes leopard and jaguar different	[ "Elephants are the only animals of their kind, leopards and jaguars are not the only animals of their kind, they are part of all the big cats. Elephants are so similar that all are called elephants. Leopards and jaguars are actually not as similar as you think, they just happen to look the same." ]	[ "You've already described the line: licensing. Loan sharks aren't known as sharks just because of their tactics. It's because they work illegally. That means they can do things that licensed debt collectors cannot, like physically harm you, or other illegal actions." ]
How do large amounts of bats in the same cave/place not get their signals mixed up?	[ "1. sound has directional properties and the receiver's (bat's ears) positions can be adjusted 2. individual bats have unique sonar patterns involving frequency, sequence, etc. (like whales but the frequencies are much higher for us humans to hear most of it)" ]	[ "They don't. It's a marketing ~~lie~~ gimmick. I used to work for a company that did a similar thing by mail. New customers were supposed to sign up by a certain time for special rates but as a specific matter of policy we'd give those rates to anyone who mailed back the special offer." ]
How often did medieval Christian priests fight in battles? Was the mace their weapon of choice?	[ "Priests are, as this myth rightly says, prohibited from the shedding of blood. However, there are quite a few Church canons specifically prohibiting clerical participation in warfare. This is not to say it didn't happen - La Chanson de Roland has Bishop Turpin in full armor, and the frequent repetition of canon...	[ "The South, as a whole, isn't easy to understand and it's almost impossible to generalize if you really understand the complexities. I was born, raised and educated in Mississippi (MSU '01) and do consider myself a Christian. Karl Marx wrote how religion can be used to control the masses and the best example can b...
Why don't fruit cups (Del Monte, Motts etc) require refrigeration when fruits typically go bad right away?	[ "Fruit cups are sterilized by heat, and kept sterile with an airtight seal - just like canned or jarred foods. Without oxygen, most bacteria can't spoil food, and the heat should kill the rest." ]	[ "No you're misunderstanding a basic use of imagery to describe something. They show you all that food as what is part of a balanced breakfast. All those items are part of a balanced breakfast. Nobody is expecting you to eat all that and drink full pitchers of milk as part of a balanced breakfast. Its for visual pur...
Why do teenagers in old photographs look so much older than they are?	[ "Two parts. Firstly, it is because of the clothes, haircuts etc. \"Teenage\" looks weren't invented until the 1950's so before that teenagers dressed and wore their hair and in applicable cases their makeup exactly like an adult would. Secondly, because of societies expectations on them, they were a lot more likely...	[ "I would guess it has more to do with model selection than any sort of evolutionary process. Our standards for \"attractive\" have changed over the years. Check the weights on females specifically." ]
What's the science behind pickling?	[ "The sealed and highly acidic environment of a pickling jar kills pathogenic bacteria, because pathogenic bacteria are adapted to survive inside humans, and the inside of humans is rich in oxygen and not highly acidic." ]	[ "[This thread](_URL_0_) at r/askscience should help you out a bit." ]
I saw a butterfly today with a pattern on its wings that looked like eyes. How did natural selection create this pattern to deceive would be predators?	[ "It doesn't stabilize, it is always evolving. It just happens that genes which lead to eye like wing designs have provided butterflies with an advantage in their environment for a sufficient period of time to allow the feature to spread widely through the population." ]	[ "Imagine a huge machine. You'll find screws, nuts, bolts, gear wheels, cambelts and whatnot. Each part has a purpose. If part A doesn't work, part B may not be functioning as well. Nature is way more complex. Animal A maybe a source of food for animal B. Animal B helps animal Z to survive via a long chain. If anim...
ELIM5 Why do electronic bank transfers between banks still take 3 days?	[ "There is a very interesting Planet Money podcast on this subject. Give it a listen and you'll learn all about the dinosaur that is [ACH](_URL_0_). _URL_1_" ]	[ "I feel like this should be in /r/answers. I can't imagine this is a complicated concept that needs to be simplified. This is a subreddit for explaining complex things as simply as possible, not a subreddit for asking questions a five-year-old would ask." ]
Why does it take our eyes so long to adjust to changes in light levels?	[ "What makes your eyes adjust to different light conditions is called the pupillary reflex. The iris changes how much light is allowed in by flexing tiny muscles. In very high light levels, the muscles contract greatly. While transitioning to the low levels of light, the muscles have to relax which is what takes som...	[ "The human brain is great at recognizing patterns and is very used to making predictions about the environment. For example, due your experience, when you're walking in the street your brain tells you \"people are walking in a certain direction and they're going to keep doing so\". When you experience something new...
Why are objects in mirror closer than they appear?	[ "Mirrors on some vehicles will have a slightly convex shape to it. This allows for the mirror to display a lot more of what's around you, but shows the object at a different distance, in the case of your mirror, farther away." ]	[ "It's your \"instinct\" getting your fight or flight response ready. Your body is anticipating an emergency and starts dilating blood vessels and increasing adrenaline so you can act faster if/when it happens. Edit: To clarify, this is not a prediction of the future, conscious or otherwise. It's your body picking u...
Why do people think it is OK to ask for you to do free work for them if you work in a creative field (or IT)?	[ "It is common in all fields. If you have an attorney friend you may ask him to look over your rental lease. A friend in construction may be asked to help install new cabinets. A friend in accounting look at your tax returns. Etc." ]	[ "Several things. On an installation level, each program you install adds 'weight' to the operating system by giving it more tasks. These aren't always removed cleanly when you uninstall, which makes it important to reimage your computer about every year. Additionally, if you use a standard hard disk drive, the driv...
Hi LI5! For those of you who dont know: You can view some of Wikipedia articles in Simple English.	[ "Also, you know what? We, people of LI5 should create a team that helps translate Wikipedia to Simple English. If something like this happens, count me in already." ]	[ "All the formatting instructions are held in a seperate file so that each page can have the same look and feel. These files are called cascading style sheets (.css) and if they fail to load for any reason, it causes the site to revert to a very basic plain text look" ]
What was, primarily, the main reason for the original inclusion to the right to bear arms in the American constitution? Was it the threat of foreign invasion or home protection or what?	[ "Remember that militias for towns/cities were very popular then; the government was not organized enough to provide protection everywhere. It essentially was intended to allow people/towns/etc. to protect themselves when the army couldn't. It should also be noted that some founding fathers (notably Jefferson) be...	[ "Think about how incredibly dangerous and taxing it is for a woman to have a child. They're unable to mate for a year minimum, risk death and have a huge need to then care for the child. If you're a male who has invested in a woman, there is a very clear incentive for you to make sure that she doesn't go through th...
Retrieving an insane astronaut from outer space?	[ "In series E episode 4 of QI, Stephen Fry states that \"If a crewman in outer space went mad, the course of action to take would be to bind his/her wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him/her down with a bungee cord and inject tranquilisers into him/her.\" Source: _URL_0_" ]	[ "Not sure if it's the same link ecakir meant, but this is awesome: _URL_0_ It has the live camera feed, as well as a chart of exactly what each person is doing at that time. For example, at this moment: * Kotov is on Routine Activities - Exercise * Hopkins is on Routine Activities - Lunch (Experiments next) * Mast...
Why isn't there an industrial process for manufacturing petrol/gasoline?	[ "> Why can't we just make it instead of having to drill for and refine it? We can, it's just that making it requires more energy than burning it releases so you end up with a net loss of energy. Drilling doesn't suffer from that." ]	[ "Oil prices art kept artificially high by several nations, such as Saudi Arabia and the other OPEC nations, who limit how much oil they release. Last year, fracking developed, allowing various previously untapped oil sources to be able to be drilled. This increased supply, lowering the price a bit naturally. Saudi ...
Why can you find incredible similarities in legends and myths in places miles away?	[ "Because people have been known to walk for miles and then talk about myths and legends." ]	[ "Back then people still needed jobs, now they dont and can practice harder for longer. And science helps by showing then methods on improving motions. You cam find cool videos on youtube" ]
Why do old television voices sound so different? Did people talk differently or are they recording artifacts?	[ "language is always changing with every new generation. also, the only voices you heard were white men. now, you hear voices and accents from all over the world and they, too, influence change in the tenor of our way of speaking. also think of slang. nobaody says \"hot dog!\" or \"cat's pajamas\" anymore. we speak...	[ "Tangier Island, VA was long super isolated and they're considered to have the oldest original American accent in the country _URL_0_ They speak how Americans were believed to speak in the 1600s" ]
Why is a long number such as Pi so important?	[ "It's not important because it's a long number, it's important because it's the ratio of a circle's circumference to it's diameter." ]	[ "The basic principle behind calculus is fairly easy to understand. Imagine painting the walls around a round ship window. It's got that neat brass stuff, and you don't want to paint that so you have masking tape. So how do use straight masking tape on a round window? You use some small strips. You can start with ...
Why do soldiers march?	[ "Today, it's mostly a matter of discipline, but it does have its roots in real warfare. Before tanks, airplanes, and other modern crap like that, much warfare was fought by infantry. This also applies somewhat to cavalry. You've no doubt heard of the phrase \"rank and file\". File is how infantry moves along a road...	[ "Investors like to see their investment have a presence. This is one way to show they're active. Endorsing charity walks is another." ]
Ask Anything Wednesday - Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science	[ "How do we continue to slowly get smaller and smaller architecture in processors? I guess I am trying to understand what limits the shrinking of architexture. Essentially, why cant architexture rapidly decrease in size faster than Moores law predicted? Sorry, if this is a super complicated answer, I just always hav...	[ "Custom and practice. If you build it and it falls down, you do it again differently. When it works, you keep it like that. That, and people weren't stupid or uneducated - the Greeks were fairly capable mathematicians, as were the Egyptians" ]
Why is drinking milk better than drinking water after eating an extremely hot pepper?	[ "Capsaicin is an oil, and oil and water don't mix. Milk has lots of fats and proteins that can break up the oil and cool the burn." ]	[ "Nobody knows why or even if it works, but that and variations of it are common practise in many countries. Cultural memes are like that, they spread, even if they don't have any real function." ]
Photons are said not to experience time. Does this still hold true when they are slowed through a medium? How?	[ "We have to think as light as a wave to understand to why it slows down in a medium. When EM radiation hits the atoms in your medium, they accelerate the atoms. This acceleration cause the atoms to release more EM radiation. The superposition of the atom's EM radiation and the original light wave in fact travels le...	[ "I encourage you to read David Deutsch's book The Fabric of Reality. The chapter on what time is (and isn't) will likely help you think about these things. It's worth the effort to read the book. (It is written for non-specialists who are willing to think.) Deutsch, by the way, is a theoretical physicist who has ...
Why does regular Panadol exist when Panadol Rapid works 2x as fast?	[ "It doesn't work 2x as fast. its an advertising lie. _URL_0_ “It doesn’t make a huge amount of difference at a clinical level,” Dr Kyle told _URL_1_." ]	[ "Uk Language? Pills will get you proper munted. Like out yer bonce. It'll make you think chubbers are buff and pull shapes all night. Draw makes you want to cotch. Then you get bare munch and need to smash a mint Aero and Potnoodle, maybe a maccie d's. Chang will make you Brap." ]
Which is the appropriate statistical test?	[ "Why is your data in ratios? If it is weight or something you can just use a t-test. If you want to compare expected vs observed results use a chi-squared goodness of fit test. Is this just the weight of black sees compared to the weight of yellow? If so perform two tailed t-test." ]	[ "I have exactly what you need: _URL_0_ That website is truly awesome if you are interested in such things. You can even take into account different weather etc. It's by Standford and is considered accurate." ]
At the end of its life, can a red giant star’s mass be expelled to leave an iron core as opposed to a neutron degenerate core?	[ "That's basically what a white dwarf is, except that stars (like our sun) that leave a white dwarf remnant, instead of collapsing to a neutron star or a black hole, are not massive enough for the fusion to continue all the way to iron. Instead the heaviest elements in a white dwarf are carbon and oxygen. So I guess...	[ "From my understanding, comets shrink over time if their orbit goes into the inner solar system. The [comet tail](_URL_1_) is a result of solar radiation from the sun, blasting off material from the comet. Just like [this](_URL_0_). This would lead me to believe that material is left behind by the comet after every...
Why were old CRT TVs curved?	[ "CRT TV images were created by a ray drawing the image on the screen. This ray would go back and forth in lines. Now, without a curve, the ray travels further to hit a point at the left (or right) edge of the screen than it does in the middle. This creates a distortion in the image. By curving the screen, the dist...	[ "Nostalgia, too ~ a lot of older guys that now have lots of money are reliving their youth - they either had one when they were young & want another, or wanted one when they were young and can now afford to pay the big bucks to get one." ]
Why wasn't procrastination eliminated by evolution?	[ "Because there's nothing evolutionarily wrong with sitting around and not expending energy until you're forced to. That sounds like a pretty good survival strategy." ]	[ "The process you seem to be missing is... well, it's your actual question. Sometimes, it takes longer to write. You don't always have the same level of inspiration, you don't always have the same level of motivation, and every writer has to occasionally fight with writer's block." ]
Why do galaxies form 2D spiral shapes instead of 3D Spherical shapes, where the centre of the galaxy is at the centre of the sphere.	[ "because there are rotating .. if you spin a transparent ball with water inside you will have the same 2d shape. phisics first class" ]	[ "A point is a mathematical entity - in other words, an idea - so it exists in our minds. All that \"has no dimensions\" means here is just \"has no size\". A point has one or more coordinates, however, which describe its location in the space in which the point exists (on a curve or a surface, in a volume, or in a ...
What would it mean to Canada if Quebec seceded?	[ "I live near Montreal, and im french so forgive me for my possible mistakes. Quebec will never sperate from Canada. There are 2 big political party in Quebec: the Parti Liberals (pro canada) and the Parti Quebecois.. (pro quebec) We (Quebec) already did 2 referendum in the past. To separate Quebec from canada. one...	[ "> what happens to the computer Nothing at all will happen to the computer, your installation of windows may stop working though and you'll need to either repair or reinstall it." ]
Why are the UK telephone area codes almost in alphabetical order?	[ "In may cases it look like it is because of name changes of the zones for example the next after Worcester is Milton Keynes but the area was originally called Wolverton & #x200B; [_URL_0_](_URL_1_) & #x200B; So most are alphabetical series but there have been later changed for various reasons." ]	[ "In general when planning new communities, they leave gaps in the numbers if there is a possibility of new houses being constructed between existing houses later on. If you have 100 right next to 102, and there are a few acres for new development between them, then you have to add 100a, 100b, and so on, which is me...
What are cycles in a log-log paper? Why do the scales from one to ten keep on repeating? How does plotting on it is done?	[ "Now that I see your slide rule picture, I will tell you how to multiply with it. Slide the 1 on the C scale over the 2 on the D scale. Now read off under the 3 on the C scale, and you should see a 6 on the D scale, because 2X3=6 Feel free to ask questions if you don't understand anything I posted." ]	[ "You know how authors write long stories using letters and words and the rules of grammar and writing? Its just like that. With enough knowledge of how to read (math), these kinds of explanations make sense. Dont feel bad that you cant read it. Its just like if you tried to read a story in a language you dont know....
How do reality tv contestants afford to be on a show and still pay bills at home?	[ "Those shows are not filming everyday like you might think. My family had one season on TV. The film crew would come into town for a weekend and they would give a very strict itinerary for the events. Many events and different places for each day they were in town. My family would have to bring a completely differe...	[ "Some high level criminals are also narcissistic and love the attention. They also probably \"recreate\" a lot of the crimes they commit rather than have the film crew follow them around as they commit crimes. For example, in the episode with the guys smuggling drugs. Very doubtful they let a camera crew follow t...
Why do we sometimes think someone looks like a certain name? Such as "you look like a Vince", etc.	[ "In psychology, there is something called \"schemas\". Schemas are an organization of thoughts and patterns of everything in life. It's like a collection of data that humans do. As we go through life, we collect people's faces, personalities, race, etc. and connect these traits to a name, and then place them into s...	[ "It is down to the combination of the genes you get half the genes from your mother and half from your father but those genes are an almost random selection of those genes which go to make up each so can be combined in trillions of different ways. Like saying you get half a pack of cards from one parent and half fr...
How early in the construction process of a medieval/Renaissance cathedral would services be held ?	[ "In the medieval period, as soon as a cathedral (or church for that matter) was consecrated, it could have masses. We don't have consecration history of every cathedral in Europe, but based on those we do have, it seems that once a significant part of the nave, central apse and the ambulatory were built it would be...	[ "A follow up question for when this is answered: if it is possible to make one, would it be possible to mass-produce? I’ve heard of Roman “fast food”, so the concept was there, but if someone went back in time with the knowledge to do so, would it be achievable to get a Roman McDonald’s chain up and running?" ]
Why is it that while driving a car you sometimes hear the radio at a wrong pitch?	[ "If you're talking about FM radio as opposed to playback from your phone, I think I can help. So if you have a good enough ear to realize that a song is a half step high, you'll know that if you have two identical song files or tapes and one is played slightly faster/ pitched up higher than the other, it will be pe...	[ "The human brain is great at recognizing patterns and is very used to making predictions about the environment. For example, due your experience, when you're walking in the street your brain tells you \"people are walking in a certain direction and they're going to keep doing so\". When you experience something new...
Why do people [write] like this in some articles and posts?	[ "The words in brackets are a word that wasn't actually said by the speaker, but was included by the writer in order to clarify what is being said." ]	[ "Yes, it is an ad revenue thing. If they split things up, they have ten pages, ten clicks, and ten ads to display. If they put it all on one page, that is one click and one ad." ]
Antimatter: How real is it, can we synthesize it, and what has been discovered so far about it?	[ "One thing to note to this otherwise awesome set of responses: We don't know why there isn't more of it. According to the physics we understand, the universe should have created exactly as much antimatter as matter in the Big Bang and we should see antimatter all over the sky. But we don't. The reason for this is o...	[ "> (1) Does this mean that, given enough time, we could accelerate to 99% of the speed of light? Better than that, you can approach the speed of light but you can never travel at the speed of light, assuming that you have a lot of energy available. > And would we have enough fuel to actually accelerate to 99% of t...
What is really going on when you are in the hospital?	[ "If your friend is having heart problems, they're probably doing a few things before the surgery. They'll be running all sorts of tests on him, monitoring his condition to see if it gets worse, giving him drugs he can't self-administer and possibly be making sure he's ready for surgery. Afterwards, it's much the sa...	[ "No the computer does not think. The entire game is imaginary. A programer thought of how to show you a lot of images to convince you that you are moving through a building. They also wrote programs to interact with you so you change direction, shoot bullets or whatever, do a lot of fun things. But it was born in t...
Why can i skype across the world with no significant delays, but a news channel can't have a proper conversation with their reporter?	[ "Often times their reporter is in a remote location and communicating via satellite instead of hard wired networks. This introduces the massive delay you might see as satellite communication isn't as stable." ]	[ "Many of these differences are simply stylistic. Different countries and different time periods have different traditions/norms for newspaper article writing. Certain phrases fall out of style while others become more accepted. There's [a journal article from 1983](_URL_1_) which presents a study of readability whi...
In the String Theory, what exactly causes all of the different Strings to vibrate continuously?	[ "Once a string is formed, it must be in some configuration/some state. Any such state can be written as the sum of various vibrational states, so once the string exists, associated vibrational modes exist," ]	[ "Suspension bridges are an interesting design feat that were accomplished using a very complicated set of cables to balance the weight over long distances. The Golden Gate bridge is one of the prime examples and is studied far and wide by engingeering students worldwide. To simply answer: Its because it is not a s...
Why do dogs like to play fetch? Is this a behavior only found in domesticated dogs?	[ "Fetch is an action that replicates hunting. Chasing after prey is a natural, fun behaviour for dogs to perform, as it means they will be eating well. Through time, man has domesticated dogs in order to aid them with specific tasks, such as hunting. Retrieving is a natural behaviour, which we have used selective br...	[ "The answer lies in the history of colonialism. Although baseball may have its origins in Native American sports and gridiron football developed out of rugby, all three sports were devised in the United States. The US lacked extensive colonies to which it could export sports, which was a typical vector of transmiss...
How can we flip an electric cord plug over in a wall socket? Why don't the different charges fry the electronics?	[ "This is by virtue of the outlet being wired for alternating current. In AC, the voltage cycles back and forth, and current flow does the same. The connection therefore has no polarity, though one pole is \"live\" side. Conversely, direct current has a high pole and a low pole, and current flows from high to low. I...	[ "Because the law required them to be back-ward compatible with anything and everything ever invented. And people expect them to look a certain way, so they keep it up. And because it's a lot of time from Very Important Useless People (congressmen) to change the law for something that's really not that important. Am...
Is water truly uncompressable?	[ "Everything is compressible, including water, it's just a matter of how much pressure it takes for a given amount of density change. Water is just very hard to compress. At pressures like the bottom of the ocean, which is about 400x atmospheric pressure, density change is around 2% of sea level. So in most applic...	[ "Because most audio and video file formats are already compressed, they can't be compressed any (or very much) more." ]
What is an algorithm and how do they work?	[ "Typically an algorithm is basically a flowchart for equations/operations. If you've ever followed a flowchart then you know how an algorithm works. A terrible but simple example would be * 1: How to never divide by zero f(X)=A/B * 2: Input A, B * 3: Is B = 0? * 4: if yes, B+1, go to line 3 * 5: if no, go to line 6...	[ "Can someone explain the difference between Dementia and Alzheimer's, please?" ]
Why is Bill Cosby not in prison yet?	[ "Because 1. The statute of limitations for the crimes Cosby is accused of has passed. 2. Because given the length of time between the acts and now, there is little chance of there being enough evidence to prove his guilt \"beyond a reasonable doubt.\"" ]	[ "In what way did Subway protect Jared Fogel? I never once heard them accused of that." ]
Do Saturn & Jupiter (Gas Giants) have solid surfaces, or would I fall right through them if I were able to safely step on them?	[ "Assuming you were immune to the conditions, at some point you would splash down into liquid phases of what would otherwise be gas. There may be a solid rocky core down below a bunch of liquids." ]	[ "The bigger you make something, the weaker it gets, because as you increase the size, mass grows faster than strength. Say you have an ice cube that's 1 cm x 1 cm x 1 cm. That's one cubic centimeter in volume, and it has a footprint of one square centimeter. If you make this cube 10 times larger in all dimensions,...
Why are female ballerinas so skinny?	[ "Former dancer here. Male and female dancers have different roles, different movements that they practice over and over. Yes the base is the same, but once you start pas de deux it's a whole new ballgame. Besides that, it's a matter of bodies responding to exercise differently. Ballet requires an incredible amount ...	[ "Marketing. It makes the reader more easily relate to them. They aren't really a group of editors and publicitsts pushing the book, it's just that one person in a small town that wrote a story." ]
Why do we see black spots after looking into a bright light?	[ "When light hits something, it can be reflected or absorbed. If it is absorbed, what it hit changes in some way because of the extra energy. In case of our eye, it has to absorb light in order to register it. The pigments that absorb the light are changed and thereby kind of depleted when they come in contact with ...	[ "It's highly unlikely you're going to die. What is happening is that as you stand up your blood pressure drops. This can cause you to feel dizzy or even go temporarily blind as the blood takes a second to make it to your now elevated head. [More info](_URL_0_) in case you're curious." ]
Why does the USA have a beef culture but no cheese culture?	[ "You may be interested in the dairy and especially cheese tradition of the Great Lakes region. Especially centered in Wisconsin. There's a National Historic Cheesemaking Center in Wisconsin and its website has a little write-up on the history of cheese. I don't know much about the topic, but I thought I could provi...	[ "This is not quite the case. Swords and bows have not appeared in \"every culture.\" The melee weapon of choice in the ancient Andes, for instance, was the mace. These are represented in the art of several cultures: [Moche](_URL_4_) warriors, both [mythical](_URL_5_) and [real](_URL_6_) are seen on ceramics; Recuay...
What is tidal heating and how does it allow for moons to be potentially habitable (i.e. Europa)?	[ "In an elliptical orbit (oval orbit) the forces acting on a planet are greater at some points in the orbit than others. This deforms the celestial body somewhat through its orbit which creates internal friction which produces heat inside the body of the object causing it to heat from the inside. Heat is an importan...	[ "This is an anecdotal response but...useful? Indigenous Fuegan tribes lived at Tierra del Fuego without clothes, historically the southernmost inhabited place on the planet. They did so by smearing animal fat on their body and using knowledge of the terrain to block most of the terrific wind present there. They had...
Why are Swedish and Norwegian considered two different languages but are completely mutually intelligible, while Cantonese and Mandarin are dialects of Chinese but are mutually unintelligible?	[ "Politics. The distinction between a language and a dialect is pretty arbitrary and the terms tend to reflect political rather than linguistic differences. There's a famous saying that \"a language is a dialect with an army and a navy.\" Northern and Southern China have been politically united for a very long time,...	[ "Germany, at the time, was a nationalist fascist dictatorship with all power concentrated in one party and one person. Hitler's vision for the Großdeutsches Reich was an racially-homogeneous state centered around the superiority of the German people. Switzerland, on the other hand, was a multilingual, multicultural...
How are tattoo artists not violating copyright laws?	[ "They are, but entertainment companies generally know it's counter productive to fuck with their fan base." ]	[ "It's new, legislation hasn't caught up yet. In 5-years, these guys will be paying extra for licenses, insurance, fines, health/safety and all sorts of other bureaucracy" ]
Why is the United States economy growing, but wages remain stagnant?	[ "Because the growth is: * In part comprised by a rising population which doesn't impact median wages. * Captured mostly by high earners rather than the median earner." ]	[ "You have a lemonade stand. You sell it for 50 cents a cup. One day you find out it's going to be very hot outside and people are going to want more lemonade. You figure you can get away with selling it for a little more since the demand is there. So you start charging 80 cents. You notice that the number of people...
Why do we fall asleep when we are bored?	[ "How do you know that the sleepiness comes from boredom and not prior sleep deprivation?" ]	[ "Technically it is fighting for survival. When you're under that much pain the cardiovascular system can't handle the pressure. Everything is working so hard so the body just passes out to block the pain. If you don't pass out your heart could pay the price. You pass out to not die." ]

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