Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
If Earth's orbit around the sun is elliptical, which causes Earth to be well over a million miles closer to the sun at some points than others, why is that unnoticeable while a slight tilt of the earth's axis one way or the other causes drastic climate change (seasons) to occur?	[ "The answer gets into a lot of math, but you have to realize a million miles sounds like a lot until you realize the Earth's orbit is 93 million miles, so really it's a little more than 1% change. Now just think about the length of daylight during the summer and during the winter. That is way more than 1% change. A...	[ "I am far from a climatologist, but I think on the large scale the relatively mild (or non-existent, depending on where you are) seasons in the west vs. the east can be attributed to the differences between predominantly marine (west coast) and continental (eastern part of the country) climates. On a more local sca...
During World War I, were there any active resistance movements operating behind the lines of the Central Powers?	[ "The only examples that I can think of are in Serbia and in Occupied Belgium and France. In Serbia, bands of civilians and soldiers, called 'komitadjis', fought against the failed Austro-Hungarian invasion in 1914, and against the Central Powers occupation from Sept. 1915 onwards. Fighting bands like these had alre...	[ "Before RICO laws it was hard to take down an entire organization because the mob boss could never be connected to any specific crime. The Mob boss would talk to his under-boss about an illicit act. The under-boss would pass the info along to a caporegime (a sort of lieutenant) who would then instruct one of his ga...
Why do American school curriculums not teach more practical skills, like taxes or what to do if someone is choking?	[ "They do, they teach math and reading. Here is the thing there are arguably 100s of subjects everyone thinks should be taught and there is just not enough time to teach all those things. Cooking, nutrition, personal finance, invest, car repair, home repairs, ect.. However all those things are really just reading c...	[ "Your answer was removed shortly before you posted this question. It did not meet our standards. We ask that answers in this subreddit be in-depth and comprehensive, and highly suggest that comments include citations for the information. In the future, please take the time to better familiarize yourself with [the ...
How do you extract somebody from under a train?	[ "> My question is: how do you extract somebody with, let's say, a major bleeding wound and possibly several broken bones, from under a train? Inflatable airbags are used to lift the train. > At what point may somebody decide to cut an arm or a leg that could have been saved in other circumstances just so they can...	[ "This has been done before, with animals. Here is a video allegedly showing an old Russian experiment done with a dog. It looks real to me, but, then so did The Wizard of Oz. Warning, it might be disturbing and upsetting to watch. _URL_0_" ]
Why on space shuttle/satellite/any spacecraft liftoff, is "Clearing the Tower" ALWAYS confirmed/announced?	[ "It's not really a huge achievement these days (sorry, have to disagree with /u/WRSaunders, the sorts of launch failures like we saw in the early days aren't a serious concern anymore), I would say the two biggest worry points in a modern rocket flight are engine ignition and something called \"Max Q\", where the d...	[ "Edited: I have heard two things... * Rockets sent up to record various aspects of the test. * Vertical smoke flares which are used to observe the shockwave Edit 2: [Seems like it is a combination of the two](_URL_0_): > Sounding rockets or smoke flares may be launched just before a device explodes so that their v...
Why do small engines (lawn mowers, ATVs, etc.) make so much more noise than car engines?	[ "I'm no professional, But I'm gonna guess it has to do with the fact that cars have mufflers." ]	[ "I used to work for our local TV station, Ch3 WEAR, in the master control department, and one of our jobs was to prep all commercials ran locally prior to them being loaded into our playlists. So, that meant checking captions, volume levels, run time, etc. If any of these were off by a certain margin, we had to con...
Why does society enjoy watching violence?	[ "it's actually kinda basic, if you watch fight club you can see it through the messages the movie sends. It's just how humans work. It's a mix of morbid curiosity and interest to participate, humans somehow are naturally predisposed to violence, it could be a link to our primal years, where violence usually could s...	[ "Hi OP, this is a cultural question, so it would greatly assist anyone considering answering if you could specify which culture you're asking about. For example, the name of a cultural group / country / geographic region, plus a rough time period. Otherwise, this question is simply too broad, as it encompasses almo...
Have we found a planet that has a dark side and a light side year round?	[ "Gliese 581 g is believed to be tidally locked." ]	[ "> Does a full moon actually mean we can see 50% of its surface? Also, does the relative \"fullness\" change from month to month? Very close to 50%-- actually about 49% or so. The Moon's orbit is elliptical, so depending how close it is to the Earth, we can see a tiny bit more or less of it. In addition, that ellip...
Why can't/don't organ transplants occur for cancer patients?	[ "It's because the medical directors who are in charge of organ transplants don't see it as a good use of an organ because a cancer patient could potentially die very soon. It's the same reason why a 20 year old is more likely to get a new organ than an 80 year old. The 80 year old will only live for 10-20 years, bu...	[ "Xenotransfusion has been attempted in the 1600s, with mixed results, with sheep blood. Ape and chimp blood might work, as would pig blood as they all have similar Rh factors. Source: _URL_0_ Also, dog to cat transfusions can be done, bit only once as the cat will make antibodies to the blood. Also, apes, dogs, ca...
Why are poll results in Iowa and New Hampshire referenced so frequently?	[ "Iowa and New Hampshire host the earliest presidential primaries. Winning Iowa and/or New Hampshire means starting off the race for the party nomination with plenty of momentum and validation of your campaign. Plus, in the lead-up to the election, political pundits need something to talk about, and the kick-off of ...	[ "It is one of the more secure voting processes in the world. The secret's are so well kept that bets are made in Vegas on who will win by major casinos. Here is an article about it. _URL_0_" ]
Why does testosterone increase sex drive?	[ "The fact of the matter is that modern medicine doesn't know exactly what's going on at a biological level that connects testosterone and sex drive. But, it's been observed that a lower testosterone level results in a lower sex drive and vice versa." ]	[ "Think about your own body. How does everything move? All of your joints rotate, they do not slide in a linear motion. The size of your muscle determines the amount of linear force it can generate. But this alone doesn't dictate how much strength you will have for the motion. The other factor is the lever arm: wher...
Is it possible for a gas to support a liquid?	[ "Technically the [Leidenfrost effect](_URL_0_) meets that criteria, since the liquid droplet is suspended by its own vapors." ]	[ "Negative air pressure. Warmer air takes up more volume than cooler air. When food is hot, and you seal it in an airtight container, the remaining air in the airtight container is warmed by the hot food. As the food cools -- even a little -- the air temperature also cools. As the air temperature decreases, the co...
Do objects still emit infared radiation at absolute zero (-273°c)?	[ "We don't know, such a temperature has never been achieved and is theoretically impossible to obtain. So there really isn't a definite answer to that question." ]	[ "In a word: Cold. The land in the antarctic is almost entirely inside the 66th parallel south. The majority pf the land in the arctic is outside the 66th parallel north. You can see that by comparing these two pages: [arctic](_URL_0_) [antarctic](_URL_1_). While humans live in latitudes in the north of greenland co...
If you had a video screen a light-year long, could a pixel be programmed to cross the distance of the video screen in, say, a second? Could pixels be programmed to move faster than light?	[ "First of all, a pixel is not moving. That's a very important detail. The \"apparent motion\" of a pixel is just a well orchestrated sequence of turning pixels on and off. No information is transmitted from one side of the TV to the other side. It's your brain that interpret what he sees as \"motion\". But nothing ...	[ "The same reason spiders and fleas can seem super fast to us. When you enbigger (make big) a thing, it needs more energy to move. The energy required to open and close a mouth or move a leg at the same rate we can would be enormous. Just like dogs with short legs can (generally) move their feet faster than a Great...
What's the science behind my hands turning purple during the winter?	[ "It sounds like you are describing [Raynaud's Phenomenon](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "Proper circulation. Ever have your arm be \"asleep\" or unable to move as soon as you woke up? It's because your sleeping position inhibited blood flow, and if tissue in your body doesn't get adequate blood flow (including oxygen, nutrients, and the dispelling of waste), it'll die." ]
Why aren't all rockets launched from the equator?	[ "Do the best with what you have. Florida and California are US launch sites because they are good enough. There's certainly an advantage to an equator launch, but logistically and practically its far easier to launch from home... and cheaper! Baikonur (Kazakhstan) fits a similar idea... although being the USSR's la...	[ "They use [reaction wheels](_URL_0_) in most cases, which run continuously and only need some electrical power to run. The main drawback is that they wear over time and eventually fail, so engineers often put spares if missions are expected to last for long time." ]
Why does a 4 oz (112 g) chicken breast have only 110 calories when protein is 4 cal/g and fat is 9 cal/g?	[ "A chicken breast isn't 100% protein. Usually, meat has around 20% protein content. Like human tissue, chicken meat also consists of a large amount of water, and water doesn't contain any calories." ]	[ "Some audio formats (such as mp3) use what are called \"compression algorithms\" to reduce the size of the file at the expense of sound quality. There are various \"levels\" of compression in mp3 files called \"bit rates.\" Examples of common bit rates are 320kbps, 256 kbps, 192kbps, and so on. The lower the bit ra...
How do dolphins and other cetaceans breathe during heavy rainstorms?	[ "When they surface they water, they exhale air in their lungs through the blowhole. This forces air and any water immediately outside the hole outwards (surface water and some rain). I imagine in heavy rains and large waves this would be more difficult than in calm seas, but not impossible. So really it's that firs...	[ "> Also, it is necessary to know that sunburn is a long term effect and that it does not immediately surface on the skin. So the belief that if the skin feels cool immediately after a dip in the sea, it will not sunburn is again a false belief. This is a false belief considering the fact that sunburn is a continuin...
Is there any truth to the idea that vaccines cause autism?	[ "No, not even a shred. In fact, the doctor who started this entire \"vaccines cause autism\" craze has been [exposed as a fraud](_URL_0_) by the British Medical Journal." ]	[ "Ice ages come and go every few ten thousand years. It is generally accepted that Milankovitch Cycles are responsible for long-term climate changes, driving glacials and interglacials. The Milankovitch Cycle is a combination of the Earth's axial tilt, orbit eccentricity and equinox procession. Orbit eccentricity ...
How do USB cables/ sticks become faster?	[ "Whenever you design a computer component, figuring out how to balance the cost of it against the performance is a major decision to make. The first versions of USB were designed around low power, low speed devices, like mice, keyboards with some webcams and printers at the high end of things. As such, the standard...	[ "Unfortunately this will get deleted because it's not an explanation but it reminded me of an experiment I did. I used to jog laps around our large horse pasture every afternoon because our dirt road at the time was a bit to beat up for it. By the end I was always totally spent and the last lap took for-ev-er. I wo...
How does pain killers like Panodil and Ipren know that my head is hurting and not my leg or arm?	[ "They just suppress the receptors which detect pain in general." ]	[ "The active ingredients must be the same, by law. The differences come to medications that are extended-release or any other cases where the inactive ingredients might be some proprietary formula. So the active ingredients in extended-release brand-name Tylenol and extended release Acetaminophen might be the sa...
why is there sometimes a rainbow ring around the sun or moon?	[ "In a rainbow light will be reflected over water droplets and is dispersed according to the wavelength. In the halos that you describe a similar thing happens but is created by ice crystals that reflect and refract light. As a curiosity this happens to all light sources when there are ice crystals floating in the a...	[ "It has to do with the shape and number of the [aperture](_URL_0_). Some lenses have 5 or 6 blades in the diaphragm. The flare that you see that are round have an aperture with curved blades or is shooting at the lens' widest aperture. You'll have less flare with a prime lens (fixed focal length) than with a zoom l...
What do flies want from me?	[ "The sweat and oil on your skin has elements of sugar in it. Flies like sugar." ]	[ "Anyone feel free to add but according to a PHD in physics: \"They do, and you've just never noticed. But if you have a big enough mirror and can point it toward a radio tower, you can test it out yourself. Point this big mirror at the FM radio tower, and get out a portable FM radio. Now start at the mirror and sta...
Why do our brains perceive all-caps sentences as agressive or like someone is shouting at us?	[ "It's a learned thing. It never happened before the internet era. When I was a kid you capped things maybe for emphasis, just so the word looked different and was easier to pick out of a paragraph, but it didn't mean shouting or aggressive." ]	[ "Dates back to ancient Rome. In a lot of old languages, they hadn't invented the space or the period yet. Like just long unbroken strings of letters. So they started making the first letter of a word huge to indicate new paragraph. The tradition kept, and in the middle ages, they'd hand write/paint a huge fancy let...
Why does the Reddit community in the comment section of Youtube seem so much less likable than the Reddit community on Reddit?	[ "Because the thumbs up/down system on Youtube works differently from the one on Reddit. The Youtube comment system favors comments that are highly controversial (in other words, trolls or extremist opinions) by moving them to the top." ]	[ "Cable TV works much like a radio station: Your cable receiver tune into a certain frequency to find a channel and shows the video stream of that channel. It does not matter if just you or any number of people watch that channel, they all get the same content at the same time. Internet streaming works differently. ...
why do your ears ring after loud noise and have been damaged?	[ "The cochlea in each of your ears is a spiralling organ that contains a bunch of tiny little \"hairs.\" When sound is transmitted from the air into your cochlea, it travels through the cochlea and depresses hairs corresponding to different frequencies. [The hairs further and further in the spiral](_URL_0_) corresp...	[ "You could have [tinnitus](_URL_0_). You should see a doctor if you want any further information, since asking for medical advice is not allowed in this forum." ]
Why does copper sulphate solution (for example), turn into crystals as the liquid evaporates?	[ "Almost everything will form a solid substance in a regular pattern. By this I mean everything will form crystals at some temperature and pressure. Water is a wonderful substance which is polar. Even when two hydrogen atoms are associated with an oxygen atom there are spaces with more electrons and spaces with fewe...	[ "From _URL_0_ \"... Like Magic Shell, Carvel’s Brown Bonnet chocolate topping instantly forms a hard shell around ice cream. And, just like Magic Shell, one of the main ingredients is coconut oil. Tropical oils, including coconut, are naturally high in saturated fat—consisting of about 90 percent of the stuff. As P...
Why is speed so exhilarating?	[ "You're experiencing [flow](_URL_0_), a state of mind where you are completely, effortlessly focused, and your brain is soaked in a few gallons of feel-good hormones. The reason you fall into flow at high speeds, while others just feel pants-shitting terror, is evolution. Some people are just better adapted to high...	[ "I love that question. Back when we were quite primitive, those people who would seek out different things and not be content with what they had, would go ahead and explore, possibly outrunning their competitors in the evolutionary race once ingenuity had been included into the important assets. It is really simple...
If we melted the Antarctic, could we find really ancient frozen animals?	[ "If climate change were to happen, would that mean that a new continent would be discovered? Since antartica is actually land covered with ice, would the ice melt and just let a new continent float up?" ]	[ "That would depend on who and when the determination was made, and the intelligence of the being to recognize the evidence. For example, lets assume all visible signs of human activity were non existent, would some future being recognize our existence because it found evidence of plastic in the genetic code of fish...
Why are narcotics such as morphine and fentanyl used as medically and socially accepted pain medication, while heroin is chemically similar, and similarly potent, but is illegal and isn't used medically?	[ "There's no need to use heroin medicinally. This is because heroin is metabolized into morphine in the body, so it's more efficient to just skip the heroin and give the patient the equivalent amount of morphine directly. Fun fact: \"Heroin\" was the name trademarked by the Bayer corporation when it originally intro...	[ "A \"regular\" download is one person (you) downloading from one location (the server). This allows for a secure connection but is limited by the server's upload speed. A torrent is one person (you) downloading from many locations (everyone else who is \"seeding\" the torrent). This is called a peer-to-peer networ...
How is it possible that I'm super allergic to apple juice, but not to apples nor other juices?	[ "Perhaps it is a preservative in bottled juice. Check ingredient list." ]	[ "From my undergraduate-level understanding of physics and engineering, atmospheric pressure drops when it rains. When atmospheric pressure drops, your joints will swell because the fluid around them expands since the atmosphere isn't compressing it as much as it was before. Swollen joints are stiff and achy, at lea...
Why do shockwaves form at the leading and trailing edge of objects moving at supersonic speeds?	[ "the leading edge of the wedge produces an attached oblique shockwave that doesn't reduce the speed of the flow below Mach 1.0 if the freestream flow is supersonic. Since the flow is still supersonic, passing over the corner in the center of the double wedge airfoil creates an expansion wave which increases the spe...	[ "When you cut skin, depending on how sharp the blade is, yes you're causing cellular damage. If you take it down to the atomic level, your knife essentially acts like a lever and shoves the atoms apart until the interatomic forces are exceeded. With scissors, it's a bit different as you're shearing (hence the name...
How do we know how much of an element is in a star?	[ "I'm sure that there is a way to tell from spectral lines the abundance of an element in a star but I don't know it. I can tell you however one of the ways we know the abundance of elements in the Sun. There's a kind of meteorite called [chondrites](_URL_0_). They are made up of chondrules which were the first larg...	[ "They use [spectrographs](_URL_0_), a device which measures the light that comes off that planet. This works because most substances have their own spectral fingerprint, which is very recognizable. For example, if you hold salt in a candleflame and look at the spectrum, it will have a bright orange emission line, ...
Why are there so many mass shootings in the rest of the country and barely none in the midwest?	[ "Population distribution would explain a lot of it. California has more people than the twenty least populated states combined and around a sixth of the total US population. So, if some event happened evenly across the population of the country then you would expect California to appear on this list as often as *an...	[ "\"Just about everyone here\" Where is \"here\" for you? It sounds like your question's premise is based on a small sample set based on personal observation. Before your question is addressed, you should be making sure the premise is valid..." ]
When did female prison uniforms switch from dresses to pants?	[ "If you don't get a response here, you could try /r/fashionhistory ." ]	[ "I feel like this question is a bit outside of this subreddit's scope, it's really more of an economics question, plus if you look at [this graph](_URL_0_) then you can see that they were at very similar levels until around 20 years ago when they diverged, so anything following that violates the subreddits 20 year ...
How are individual US states able to prevent Syrian refugees from settling there? Aren't refugees free to move anywhere once they enter the United States?	[ "They can't prevent Syrian refugees from moving throughout the United States, but there's more to refugee resettlement than just being let into the country--the federal government tries to find accommodation so that refugees can get started with education, jobs, etc. The states cooperate with this settlement proces...	[ "There are three things to consider when thinking about dissolution. The solvent’s (water’s) interaction with itself (among nearby water molecules), the solute’s (salt or sugar’s) interaction with itself, and the interaction between the solvent and the solute. In order to dissolve, this last interaction must be str...
Why do one-digit numbers are up to 9 and not more? Why 10 is a 2-digit number and cannot be written as one-digit?	[ "No problem in math. What you are talking about is the base. For example, in base-16, or hexadecimal, the numbers are 0123456789ABCDEF, where A is the decimal (base 10) value of 10. It doesn't break math at all. Just how the numbers are represented. As for the why, we use base 10 because we have ten fingers." ]	[ "Suppose there are tax brackets of $100, $200, with rates of 10, 20 percent. The first $100 of your income is taxed at 10%. If you make a dollar, the tax is 10 cents; if you make the full $100, the tax is $10. Now, what happens when you bump your income up to $101. If we did it your way, the tax would be 101 * 20%,...
what is anti-aliasing?	[ "Using a 8x8 grid like a chessboard (but all white), draw an 'O' with a black pen by colouring in squares. It doesn't look smooth. From a distance it looks blocky. Now colour in all the squares touching the black squares gray. From the same distance it looks less blocky and more smooth, even though you still used ...	[ "In graphics, there are some effects that look marginally better but take exponentially more time to render. Pixar will spend hours rendering a slightly better sheen on Wall-E's chassis because why not? They have months to do it and want it to look as good as possible." ]
Why don't airplanes fly lower? Wouldn't it save time, and have less turbulence? Is it for the sole purpose of less air resistance?	[ "generally there is less turbulence the higher you go. It would not save time because it's much harder to fly fast at lower altitudes." ]	[ "If you can accept my passing knowledge of the matter before someone more qualified shows up, it's in how digital cameras capture images. Rather than capturing a single giant frame like film cameras, they scan a frame progressively, line-by-line. This results in artifacts with fast-moving objects such as plane prop...
Does a charge of attempted murder include all of the crimes that go into the attempt?	[ "Nope...Separate offenses, even if they are steps in an overall plan are charged separately. This is done to improve chances of a conviction, assure that any individual aspect that is somehow justified does not pardon the entire case, and to maximize sentencing. You would be charged for kidnapping, aggravated assa...	[ "> A general idea of how the police can \"investigate\" a Yik Yak. 1. The police get a search warrant for YikYak's data. 2. They contact the owners of YikYak with the warrant, which forces YikYak to give them the IP address of the user who posted the threat. 3. The police get a search warrant for the cell phone p...
Was the view that British India was 'the Jewel in the Crown' justified?	[ "Their is some really good stuff in this discussion: _URL_0_ You should find good answers to all your questions." ]	[ "We're talking billions of people. Let's look at the US, which is also a technological mecca and home to millions of people so fat their heart stops. We still have millions of poor people, homeless people, etc. Now imagine all those problems multiplied by 4." ]
Why is it that the only part of my body that sweats while I fap is my ass?	[ "Think God I'm not the only one. I think it might have something to do w/ clenching buttcheeks a little harder than normal" ]	[ "Humidity. Ever wonder why farts stink so bad in the shower? Humidity. Air conditioners take humidity out of the air, so you can't smell the scents in the air as well. When you switch to fan mode, no humidity is lost, so you can smell all of those scents." ]
Why did Civil War soldiers not use revolvers exclusively?	[ "Revolver rifles, or repeating rifles of that ERA were somewhat unreliable. They could discharge all of the six ammo at once and after 6 shots they were pretty slow to reload. Ammo was harder to make on field and most of the militants were without a proper training for using those guns. Also the ammo was way more e...	[ "Follow on question: How often did rural sheriff's carry out capital sentences with no courts/appeals?" ]
A pound of lard has 4200 calories. Consuming 3000 calories makes me gain a pound of fat. How does eating a pound of fat create more fat?	[ "It doesn't quite work like that. The oft-cited 3,000 calories in a pound of body fat isn't quite accurate. But even using that, it takes more than 3,000 calories to accumulate 3,000 calories, because processing those calories burns calories. One body fat pound == 3,000 does not mean eating 3,000 extra calories == ...	[ "You lose detail. How much detail depends on the resolution of the display. It is possible to have a high-resolution 4:3 display, however most 4:3 television displays have a low \"standard definition\" resolution of around 704×480 pixels (in the US/Canada) or 704×576 pixels (in most countries outside the US/Canada)...
How come we wake up skinnier than when we fall asleep?	[ "Because even when you're asleep, you're still digesting and using energy to keep your normal body functions operative!" ]	[ "I shot both fashion and portrait photography and there is a simple explanation. When people look at themselves in a mirror they tend to look at their best angles. In an image you see the reality...all unflattering angles and facial expressions. In snapshots these are usually not good angles and expressions. So al...
Can people just quit the military (any form, Army, Navy, Air Force etc). I guess its a job like anything else, and if so when can't you just quit? Like war is declared one day, can you just be like be "nope I'm out seya later"?	[ "Nope, it's a contract. You have to go where they tell you when they tell you with very little say in between. And if you just take off and leave it's called going AWOL and you will be sent to prison." ]	[ "ELI5: have you been browsing my web history?!? There are certain people who enjoy pie. They form an online community of pie lovers and pie makers. The pie makers get rated on their pies, from appearance to quality. If a pie maker hers a bad reputation, pie lovers will avoid in the future. Sometimes, a new pie make...
Planets that are gas giants.	[ "Gas giants keep their form the same way rocky planets do: gravity. But unlike Earth with its separate air and ocean, there are no concise borders between gas and liquid, or liquid and solid on gas planets. If you were to travel into a gas giant, you would notice gas in the atmosphere gradually thicken as you trav...	[ "We don't know if they're habitable. We can determine what compounds make up the atmosphere and roughly how far away it is from its star, but habitable is a more difficult determination involving other factors." ]
Does a battery which lost its maximum capacity needs less time for a full charge? I have a notebook with a battery showing me 38% of the maximum capacity for a full charge left but it’s still uses like 2 hours for a “full” charge. Shouldn’t it be fully charged in a significant lower time?	[ "Not necessarily. For a healthy battery, the charger will slowly charge it to 5 or 10%, then charge it as fast as it can untill the voltage reaches the full level, which happens when the battery reaches about 80%. Then it finishes up with a final float charge where the charge current drops off until the battery is ...	[ "You don't need to go through a full sleep cycle to experience benefits from napping because your brain does different things at different stages of sleep. REM sleep (which takes about 1.5 hours) is important for making new connections in the brain and solving creative problems, but you don't need to do that in ord...
Why is the sensation from riding a roller coaster more intense when riding in the back than the front?	[ "Basically what I've found is that when you're going over the first big drop, the car doesn't start to really accelerate downward until the train is part of the way over the top of the hill. So, if you're in the front, you go over the top and kind of hang there for a second, whereas if you're in the back, you just ...	[ "TL;DR: Power. A big part of our social structure is based on one person having power over other people. Most of us either want to lead, are jealous of the leader, or understand we're not the right person to be that leader. We see this in a lot of other animals like horses and sheep. The large-and-in-charge 'st...
what is the liquid that drools out of vehicle exhaust pipes?	[ "Yeah, burning hydrocarbons produces both CO2 and H2O. You're just seeing the H2O part." ]	[ "Those lines are the defrost functionality for the rear window. Basically if you turn on that functionality they heat up, which defrosts your back window." ]
When I lick my skin and smell it, why does it smell sort of like bleu cheese?	[ "Bacteria on your tongue. Go brush your teeth." ]	[ "Your clothes. For a lot of people it'll be blue or a shade of grey. The bluish color usually comes from blue jeans, the gray a combo of tighty whities and blue jeans and/or whatever color your shirt is. If you wear red shorts and a white shirt all day you'll end up with pink belly-button lint. There was a show ca...
Why were all of the rifles in WWI bolt-action? Why were there no semi-automatic rifles?	[ "Early rifle caliber automatics had to be large to handle the pressure of a bigger cartridge. Large and heavy guns are impractical for a soldier to carry around all day. The BAR (28 lbs , iirc) was developed in the last days of ww1 but was introduced to late too be of any effect to the war effort. Also automatics...	[ "Cost, safety which is a component of cost, and the reception of the consumer to having to order and pay in some kind of interface when a large group of people can't even figure out credit card terminals at the grocery store. Additionally, wherever the food comes out you'd have to make sure it got I the right perso...
How old would I have to live in order to have outlived 90% of my human ancestors?	[ "> 90% of my human ancestors > 90% of all humankind Technically, not the same group. 100% of your ancestors survived long enough to reproduce. A far lesser percentage of \"all humankind\" has done so." ]	[ "It depends on what you mean by an actual conversation, and im going to assume your speaking English. 1600's was the time of Shakespeare, and im sure you read some of his plays. In that time period, if someone said something, you would need to digest it before replying, and thats still considered modern English. Ev...
This isn't a question, but a test.	[ "Go here: _URL_0_ and look at the top comment of each." ]	[ "hi! some other nominations: [What is the oldest recorded human name?](_URL_1_) [What is the earliest recorded name in your area that can be clearly identified as a name?](_URL_0_)" ]
Do basic solutions harm teeth as much as acidic solutions?	[ "In general, acidic solutions promote the dissolution of oxide minerals, whereas basic solutions promote the stability of oxide minerals. Bone, which is an oxide biomineral (it is hydroxyapatite, Ca5(PO4)3(OH)), would be stable in basic solutions up to quite high pH. [Here is an electrochemical stability diagram f...	[ "You essentially create a battery in your mouth, the pain you feel is a small electric current. _URL_0_" ]
what are the benefits to everyday society of astrophysics and other space sciences?	[ "Here is a short list of things that NASA has been involved with designing. While a long-term goal might be to colonize a planet, it is nowhere in the feasible future. A real focus continues to be doing space travel cheaper, safer and faster. Along with keeping the health of space travelers up, you could look into ...	[ "We constructed the [Arecibo Message](_URL_0_ ) to communicate with aliens. We used a lot of math, like making it 1,679 bits long because it is a semiprime (the product of two prime numbers). It can be arranged rectangularly as 73 rows by 23, to make picture, the 23 by 73 version is gibberish. Math = > Pictures = >...
When did lobsters become a hot food commodity for the wealthy when it used to be fed to slaves and servants?	[ "From what I understand, they used to be so plentiful that they could be gathered from the shore. When they had to start actually fishing for them their value increased because of the cost of traps, boats, and time." ]	[ "There's not a demand for just a random lawyer. There's a large demand for good lawyers. There's a large supply of burger chefs, they're not particularly in demand though, and wages are low. You know who is in demand with high wages? A burger chef who makes the best burger on earth in a NYC restaurant for $50 a p...
Why do whales “breach” and jump out of the water, instead of just slowly popping up for air?	[ "Why do people skip, dance, twirl, etc? Scientists say it’s basically the same thing. They are just having some fun. They’re having a whale of a time." ]	[ "As I see it, there are two considerations: surface tension; and, density. Surface tension will be a minor element, but for completeness, the surface tension of salt water as measured in a lab over various concentrations averaged around [0.22 mN/m](_URL_0_). Whereas, for pure water, is around [73 mN/m](_URL_1_). So...
AskHistorians uses a 20-year rule to consider something to be "history." Is this a common rule among historians, or is it just a pragmatic measure to moderate this community? If so, how do scholars decide when something can be called "history"?	[ "I don't know if I can answer this but I gotta congratulate this sub for implementing this rule. When one sees the debates at other social media or even other subs it's alarming how events just from 10 years ago still sparkle a lot of biased debate. ¿How could Obamacare be measured in just 8-10 years? ¿Can we reall...	[ "No, this does not apply. The scientific term for what you are describing with feral children is a linguistic phenomenon known as the Critical Period Hypothesis. This hypothesis generally states that, after a certain age, generally stated to be around 11 or 12, learning language goes from being easy and natural to ...
The "Saw" film series plots, twists, and everything else	[ "You're 5 years old. You shouldn't be watching that shit." ]	[ "If you have a spare afternoon or two I'd check out these two Khan Academy playlists on the [Credit Crisis](_URL_2_) and the [Paulson Bailout](_URL_0_), and if you want to learn more about how banks work check out this [Banking and Money](_URL_1_) playlist as well; there's a few others on finance and credit as well...
How much have continents moved since the dawn of civilization 12,000 years ago?	[ "They actually move more than one might think. There is a nice summary of how we know this, and how we measure it on Observation Deck’s [How Do We Know The Continents Are Moving?](_URL_0_) webpage. NASA uses sensors around the world and you can now look up the movement of these sensors for any plate your interested...	[ "I am not sure if 1964 should be your cut-off date for the loss of momentum. There was the Voting Rights Act of 1965--that was a pretty big deal. Arguably, bigger than the Civil rights Act in that people actually got to vote, and therefore elect others in areas where they could not before. There was also the Fair ...
Can water be stored in a copper vessel indefinitely and still be consumable?	[ "From a brief search it appears that copper will not react with water standalone. The oxygen is bound to the two hydrogens and will stay untouched. If the copper metal was burned while submerged in water it would form Copper(II) Oxide which is toxic in certain amounts. If the copper is oxidized by air surrounding ...	[ "Quoting [Wikipedia](_URL_0_) (a bit naughty, but it's a nice way to express what I think): > The proposed theory is inconsistent with quantum mechanics and critics have ruled it out on those grounds. Which is essentially saying what you pointed out, yes. If what they're doing is as easy as it sounds - just runnin...
How historically accurate is the idea that Afghanistan is the "graveyard of Empires" or "the place where Empires come to die"?	[ "I'm not a historian but I knew I saw this topic before, some earlier answers from /u/Holy_City and /u/eighthgear (among other commenters there): _URL_1_ _URL_0_ Follow-up question: These answers suggest it's more a myth or reputation rather than actual fact. Where did the idea come from? Is it more of a \"recency...	[ "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...
What does a quark's spin have to do with it's properties?	[ "Probably the most notable property that quarks have due to their spin is that two quarks can't ever be in the same state at the same time. This is because quarks have spin 1/2, and any particle with spin 1/2 has that property. The property is called \"being a fermion\"." ]	[ "I have a longer comment as an add on to Mediumtim's comment, but I just wanted to add one more thing that didn't fit in my other comment. > Heisenberg stated that absolute position and absolute momentum together have no meaning in nature In the mathematics of QM, an absolute position or momentum (even on there ow...
Why do NFL teams try to win after they're eliminated from playoffs?	[ "The common responses will likely be \"for pride\" or \"to play spoiler\" which are both legitimate and real, but the basic reasoning is that every single game is a resume. Every coach and player has to prove that they're worth a roster spot. If they get lax, they risk losing their jobs. Also, you're putting yourse...	[ "For the Consumer They get a new thing at a discounted price and don't have to worry about getting rid of the old thing. For the Company They can resell the old thing for more money than the discount they gave on the new thing, or they can otherwise use it for parts or raw materials to reduce costs on build...
Why can bones snap so easily if they can support so much weight?	[ "You'll almost never see a bone broken by applying force in the direction in which that bone is designed to be loaded. Think of it like Lego - if you stack the blocks up you can push down on them really hard and not pop them apart. Bend a stack in the middle and it falls apart readily - even more so if you pull! Bo...	[ "This video created by Vsauce 3 (Jake Roper) does a very good job explaining this: _URL_1_ I hope this answers your question. He also did another video on a simmilar line of - could you survive: _URL_0_" ]
How does Duty Free work?	[ "Not neutral zone. Duty free just means you don't pay local taxes on products sold there because you are not using them in the country because you are leaving the country. You're actually \"exporting\" the item and many exports are not taxed locally Things like alcohol and tobacco are often heavily taxed, so if you...	[ "Investopedia has a good example that makes it pretty clear: \"(the adjustment needed for the exchange rate) so that an identical good in two different countries has the same price when expressed in the same currency. For example, a chocolate bar that sells for C$1.50 in a Canadian city should cost US$1.00...
We hold our eyes closed, or hold our eyes open?	[ "The orbicularis oculi muscles contract to close the lids. The palpebral portion acts on its own when you are closing your eyes to sleep. The muscles that contract to open the eyes are the levator and meuller's muscle along with relaxation of the orbicularis. So opening and closing of the eyes require both relaxati...	[ "Probably just because you haven't practised doing it one way but do practice the other way because you do it out of habit. I've never really thought can do it both ways without a problem, and if you tried for about a week you probably would be able to as well. I think this because I remember what it was like learn...
Why is your urine yellow when you don't drink enough water?	[ "Your kidneys are constantly filtering waste products from your blood. They do this by dissolving the waste materials in water, and sending the waste-materials-plus-water, which is called urine, to your bladder, so you can pee it out. When you don't drink enough water, your kidneys end up having to dissolve the was...	[ "Screens are black by default, and it adds different amounts of each color to make white. On print, the paper is reflecting white light already, and you are subtracting what colors reflect by adding ink that absorbs them. Think of magenta not as giving off reddish/blue light, but absorbing green and it might make...
When I cut something, what's happening?	[ "When you cut skin, depending on how sharp the blade is, yes you're causing cellular damage. If you take it down to the atomic level, your knife essentially acts like a lever and shoves the atoms apart until the interatomic forces are exceeded. With scissors, it's a bit different as you're shearing (hence the name...	[ "Think of your body as a battery. Believe it or not, there is an electrical signal running through it. (This is why you are able to interact with touch screens and conduct static currents) So keeping this in mind, biting into tin foil completes an electrical circuit in your body, and the energy runs through the se...
Why do toilets in America get blocked so often.	[ "Old buildings and old sewage systems is the primary cause. You also will sometimes have cases where someone did not do something up to code." ]	[ "Horse meat isn't rare at all. You can get it in many parts of europe. Tastes ok too. Anyway, that's culture. The same reason we think that bacon and eggs is a breakfast food, and don't eat grasshoppers." ]
How do mathematicians imagine higher dimensional space?	[ "The 'we don't' answer is more or less correct, but we can think of higher dimensions as functions. For example, four dimensional space is the collection of all 4-tuples. And countably infinite dimensional space is the collection of all infinite sequences, or functions from the naturals to the reals." ]	[ "This video from Sagan will help. I couldn't explain it in a better way. _URL_0_" ]
How do painkillers work	[ "The three painkillers you're most probably the most familiar with -- aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen -- all work in roughly the same way, so I'll give a blanket explanation for all three. In your body, there's a family of enzymes known as cyclooxygenase (COX). Their purpose is to create something called *p...	[ "Liquids go bad much (_much_) faster than pills because the liquid (usually water) provides an active breeding ground for germs. Most of the long-shelf-life liquid medicines out there have a natural preservative in them: alcohol (next time you're in the drug store aisle, look at the ingredients on that bottle of ny...
Can someone help me identify these obscure Swiss medals from the early 1900s?	[ "Swiss here. This is the sash of a swiss gymnast and member of a gymnastics club. Medals were received for participation at gymnastics meetings. A gmynast wore the sash for representation like soldiers wear their medals on their parade uniform. The \"cross\" emblem in the middle is the \"gymnasts cross\". It depict...	[ "I recommend posting this to /r/FossilID. Your photo is pretty low resolution. However, it looks like a cross-sectional view of the stem of a [crinoid](_URL_0_) to me. Check out [this specimen](_URL_1_), which looks similar. Edit: Link derp." ]
The relationship between Hong Kong and China.	[ "Hong Kong is a part of China that has special privileges, because it used to be a British colony. When the British handed it back to China in 1997, they negotiated as part of the handover that China would allow Hong Kong to keep its various freedoms, and China agreed for several reasons. One, that it was a rich ci...	[ "If you're interested in how the Confederate government tried creating a positive image of itself in Great Britain as well as a negative image of the north, check out The Index. Henry Hotze was a Confederate agent in London and he created a newspaper dedicated to promoting the Confederacy and influencing public o...
Why are dull knives more dangerous than sharp knives?	[ "When cutting with a dull knife you have to use more force than a sharper one, you also have less control over a dull knife, this makes it very easy slip with a dull knife, and because you are applying more force with said knife you are more likely inure yourself when you slip." ]	[ "Think back to when there was no electricity. If you wanted to get crazy at night, it was always easier with a full moon. If you wanted to have a party at night - full moon. There was just a lot more of an opportunity to get up to trouble. Then add on a sort of confirmation bias - if everyone talks about being craz...
Is it possible for a slice to have only one side?	[ "He could cut you a long thin (as opposed to wide) slice, put a half twist in it, and attach the two ends. You would then have a turkey [möbius strip](_URL_0_) which only has one side and one edge." ]	[ "Common sayings and proverbs don't have to make semantic sense. Ex: \"It's raining cats and dogs\". In this case though, it does make sense. Think of the 'have' as meaning 'keep' You can't keep your cake, and eat it too. Historically speaking, the proverb existed both with 'have/eat' order, and 'eat/have' order. Bu...
Beyond formatting, is there a reason why the Lanthinide and Actinide series are separated from the rest of the periodic table? Are there tables that include them within? If so, are there rules for including them in specific coumns, or is it a free-for-all?	[ "> If so, are there rules for including them in specific coumns, or is it a free-for-all? A periodic table should have the elements in atomic number order so it's not a \"free-for-all\", but there is some debate about whether group 3 should include the first elements of the lanthanides and actinides (lanthanum and ...	[ "Article 1, Section 6 of the Constitution(the part that explains and sets out the legislative branch of the government) states: > They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and...
Why don't antibiotics prevent secondary bacterial infections if taken prophylactically during a viral infection?	[ "For many reasons: 1) Which antibiotic would you take, they all don’t work against every possible bacteria. 2) Since not everyone gets a secondary infection, you would never know if it worked. 3) Using antibiotics in this way would cause a rapid increase in resistance, ultimately making the antibiotics less useful....	[ "Antiviruses hook system calls to add their verification routines. System calls addresses are stored in the system service dispatch table (SSDT). Simply put, when a program wants to open a file, it tells Windows \"Open file.txt please\", and Windows looks at the SSDT where is the function to open a file, and calls ...
Why can't we just drop trash in a volcano instead of dumping it in the ocean or landfills?	[ "This is a variation on why don't we burn it, and the answer is that we don't want the materials in garbage to be burned and released into the atmosphere" ]	[ "Incidentally, this is the problem that _URL_0_ is trying to solve. Here is the map of the overall plan: _URL_1_ There is enough solar energy in the Sahara desert in 6 hours to power the entire world in 1 year. From the Sahara, they plan on connecting Europe with underwater high voltage direct current lines. The p...
Why you "don't pass on the right"?	[ "The idea is that traffic should always be as right as possible. This has the function of separating lanes based on their speed, with the right-most lane being the slowest and the left-most lane being the fastest. This means that when you merge right to pass, you're very likely to get stuck behind someone going eve...	[ "You will need a longer yellow light for roads with a faster speed limit. You just need more time to react at 60 mph than you do at 35." ]
Are chameleons and octopuses aware of their color changing abilities or is it purely reflexive?	[ "Octopi are aware of their camoflauging abilities. > In cephalopods, background matching is a dynamic, visually driven process, in which the animal assesses a range of background variables such as contrast, brightness, edge, orientation, and size of objects when deciding what camouflage pattern to display [12], [1...	[ "Have you ever walked into a room that had an odd smell, but three minutes later you couldn't really tell that the smell was there? Have you ever suddenly realized how hungry you are when someone passes by with a tasty looking snack? Have you ever had to pee, but you were busy doing something so it didn't really se...
Why does it feel like a vitamin/pill is still in your throat even after you swallow it?	[ "I believe it's because the pill can cause irritation and swelling, which can in turn feel like something is stuck. One way to fix this would be to lean your head back and take your pills with water instead of chasing them with water (hold water in your mouth, put pills in, swallow), or look down a bit if you're ta...	[ "Our hearing apparatus consists of the external ear (which is our floppy ear pinna and ear canal) and the ‘internally hidden’ middle ear, and internal ear. Normally, the sounds from outside is transmitted from the external ear then towards the eardrum into the middle ear, and lastly, towards external ear, where the...
When in space, can you not be orbiting anything and just float around?	[ "Everything that you can see (i.e. their light has reached you) has some gravitation pull on you, however negligible. Additionally, orbiting only works if you're traveling perpendicular to the object at a fast enough speed. If you're just hanging out, without moving, you'll eventually be pulled straight into some o...	[ "Interesting question, I had to stop and think about this! In a fluid a body experiences buoyancy and is free to move upwards because the fluid can be easily deformed by the buoyant body. In a solid, even if you are experiencing buoyancy, the force is so minute it can't overcome the strength of the solid material."...
What are the downsides to donating a kidney?	[ "If you’re planning to get pregnant there’s evidence that having one kidney increases your risk of developing hypertension and preeclampsia [(source)](_URL_1_). This is supported by another article I found (reference 2 in the linked paper), but unfortunately it’s behind a paywall. Pregnancy is extremely stressful t...	[ "Imagine working your job and you get called for jury duty, you miss your work and usually it's pay. You lose time and money and most of the time its for stupid cases that wouldn't really need a jury" ]
monetary versus fiscal policy?	[ "Monetary policy is basically changing interest rates (the cost of borrowing money) and managing the money supply (by buying and selling bonds). Lower interest rates increase economic activity, since it makes doing business cheaper. The risk is that if interest rates are too low, you can have inflation. To dampen i...	[ "Gay marriage in on the state level and states having been having referendums to vote it into law or not. SOPA is on the federal level." ]
Why is there an extra "a" in Aaron?	[ "Because it's a bastardized version of the Biblical name \"Aharon\" (pronounced \"ah-ha-ron\"). The name reached English through Greek, which doesn't have the 'h' sound, so the 'h' was lost and the name became \"Aaron\" (pronounced \"ah-ah-ron\"). _URL_0_" ]	[ "Can't figure out how to post a non-top-level answer. (If it's wrong to post any information that is relevant but less than top-level, I apologize, and please remove this.) My family has the same situation. The oral record handed down is that our name in Ireland was Curry, but that when we arrived in America we ado...
How does wind chill work?	[ "The effect is partially due to evaporation of water. When water evaporates it takes heat with it. When the wind is blowing, cold dry air displaces the warmer moist air around you/the thermometer facilitating a faster rate of evaporation. Wind chill is normally measured by a wet bulb thermometer. Source: A distant ...	[ "I'm pretty sure part of it has to do with water (sweat) molecules being knocked off of your skin (evaporating) more easily, and water evaporating off your skin takes some heat with it, which is why you sweat in the first place" ]
What's the difference between a credit card and a debit card?	[ "Credit is money you are borrowing while debit is money that you have. So a credit card accesses the banks money that they agree to loan you and you pay back with interest, while a debit card accesses a different account that has a stockpile of your own money you have earned." ]	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
Why do GIFs take so long to load on mobile but load instantly on the computer?	[ "Your PC has a lot more processing power than your phone. The internet connection is probably faster, too." ]	[ "Your field of vision is shaped like a cone, which gets wider the farther away something is. The higher you are, the bigger the area of 'ground ' you see is, so the farther it has to move to be noticeable. Close to the ground, the movement is much more dramatic, so your brain interprets it as a higher speed. It's ...
Why don't desalination plants sell salt for cities to use during Winter.	[ "Not all desalination plants are set up to also harvest salt, but those that are DO sell it. Mostly to grocery stores and restaurants as sea salt but also for salting roads. It does offset the expense of desalination, and that offset price is the one you see quoted when given prices for desalination plants." ]	[ "If they thought it would be making money, they'd do it. They've run the idea past focus groups and realized there's not really enough of a market. For the old games that are still of interest, new consoles can download a game+emulator and play it there." ]
Why are prion diseases so difficult to cure?	[ "As I understand it (BS in Biochem, plus some independent study into the subject), it's because there's no mechanism for the body (or us) to selectively remove the misfolded PrP (Prion Protein). Whereas viruses, bacteria, and the like are incredibly distinct from our own cells and proteins (usually), PrP is expres...	[ "Not that we know of. Computational Complexity problems are all solvable with different kinds of resources. For example, problems in EXP take exponential space and time to solve, but are still 'solvable' in the sense that you are describing. The class of problems that are 'unsolvable' are known as 'undecidable'. A...
If one were to heat paper in a vacuum, what would happen to it?	[ "It undergoes [pyrolysis](_URL_0_). > Would it eventually require too much energy and make any chemical or physical changes impossible without causing damage to the atmosphere or perhaps even damage on a larger scale? I'm not sure how this relates to the original question." ]	[ "Mythbusters covered this in an episode \"Let there be light\". Basically without something to disperse the light it just stays in beam form, gradually getting dimmer as it pass through more air." ]
How exactly does any number to the power of 0 equal 1? For example, how does 5^0=1?	[ "Say you have a banana and an apple. How many ways can you arrange those on a table? You can put the banana on the table. You can put the apple on the table. You can put both on the table, or you can put none of them on the table. There are four ways total that you can arrange these fruits. This represents 2 to the...	[ "Say you're in class, and good work provides results in jelly beans from the teacher. These are super jelly beans, and you need 10 beans a day to survive. So any amount of 10 beans is luxury. You work hard and you earn 20 beans, but in order to get those beans you used pencils and paper provided to you. Therefore ...
Do we not need to brush the roof of our mouths because bacteria are less likely to accumulate there (rather than your teeth/gums), or is it difficult for bacteria to attach to the surface of the roof of your mouth?	[ "I'm pretty sure brushing the roof of your mouth is a good idea too. But unlike gums, there are no deep pockets on the roof of your mouth to collect material and fester. You have ridges up there, but nothing's going to get trapped up there like between your tooth and gum." ]	[ "Earth is falling towards the sun, for the same reason that you'd fall to the ground if you jumped - gravity! Why doesn't it hit the sun though? Well, orbits are just when you move sideways fast enough to miss the object you're falling towards. That's we use the term free fall... in space, you're always falling, yo...
how exactly do some antibiotics and other drugs make you more sensitive to sunlight	[ "These drugs have certain structures that absorb radiant energy (UVA or UVB from sunlight) so when photo-activation of this drug occur there will be excitation of electrons in your body (from stable to excited state), after returning back of electrons from the excited state to the original stable state they transfe...	[ "it's a computer model, meant to simulate the feedback mechanisms of life on a planet orbiting a star that is getting hotter. There are black and white daisies. the black ones absorb light and heat the planet, white ones do the opposite. The competition between black and white daisy populations, with their succes...
Why do the bridges from Queens to the Bronx cost so much?	[ "* Port Authority tolls are set to discourage road traffic to favor the transit system. * The Port Authority gets to use toll revenue for other purposes than Bridge maintenance ." ]	[ "Civil engineer here. It depends on many factors which include what kind of vehicles will be traveling over it, what kind of forces it will have to sustain, what the geography is, what the climate is, what is it spanning across, what materials are going to be used, the length of the span, etc." ]
How do bacteria and other unicellular organism solve the issue of shortening DNA/RNA after replication?	[ "Bacteria have circular chromosomes, which do not have telomeres and thus bypass the issue entirely. Unicellular eukaryotic organisms like yeast express telomerase regularly, restoring the length of their telomeres." ]	[ "Life makes trade-offs: being good at anything has a cost, usually in energy, but sometimes in other things. In general, you can only be good at a couple of things. Influenza is really good at being durable. Influenza spreads quickly between humans because it can last anywhere: in the air, in the cold, etc. It keep...
What will it mean for the average consumer if the internet does become a utility instead of a luxury?	[ "it means your netflix and hulu will continue to stream properly without additional fees. it means AT & T/comcast wont be able to throttle common websites you visit because they deem your traffic unimportant" ]	[ "The supreme court had previously held that making private copies available for use by others was legal in Canada (see BMG vs. John Doe). As such, there was no legal copyright infringement that copyright holders could use as leverage to get (the subpoenas required to get) ISPs to disclose the identities of the file...
Why is rent control a bad thing?	[ "One of the main reason capitalism works is that prices somewhat accurately reflect supply and demand. Rent control takes away this information. As a result, there isn't the same incentive to create new developments. Less new development means less supply, which would increase prices, but they're kept artificially ...	[ "It's not, as long as you find a spot where it is legal to park all night/for a long enough period of time to sleep." ]

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