Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
What were the most sexually liberal societies in history?	[ "While I can't find the official census numbers tracking Orgy Popularity By Decade (OPBD, an underutilized stat), I will say that America's a much more sexually-liberated society today than in the 60s. You think of the 60s as full of decadent sex, acid and Jimi Hendrix because it was shocking and new to the vast ma...	[ "More can be said on these topics, but here are some older answers as a place to start: Thailand: _URL_1_ Ethiopia: _URL_0_ Japan: _URL_2_ These are also fairly popular FAQs, so you can probably find more answers in the FAQ section." ]
Why does dairy cause such drastic negative effects on some digestive systems and not others?	[ "It could be the lactose or it could be the casein. Humans were made to consume human breast milk - in the past kids often breastfed until the age of 6 years old, or thereabouts. Cow's milk is totally not a normal thing for us to consume. It's good but it contains different things, and different amounts of things,...	[ "I've no idea if this is the correct place for this or not, however, I have recently completed (well, very nearly completed) my dissertation. It's on a topic that hasn't been studied in detail before, exploring the social impact of industrialisation in 19th century Coalbrookdale, UK. Colabrookdale is known for bein...
Why is gravitational force so weak?	[ "This is a difficult question to answer. I assume you're referring to the fact that gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces. Is your question why it is weakest? If that's your question the answer is basically \"because it is.\" One of the forces had to be the weakest and it happens to be gravity. If y...	[ "Massenergy curves spacetime resulting is gravitation. Spacetime is the geometry, massenergy what populates it. However, even when \"empty,\" spacetime is filled with the ground states of the quantum fields which has an energy all of its own--so space is never truly empty." ]
How are statistics like "the richest x% of the population own as much wealth as the poorest y% of the population" computed?	[ "It depends. In the US and other 1st-world countries, you can use tax records, asset prices (assets are stocks, real estate, etc.), salary data and other freely-available data to come up with a good guess. Other countries might require some more guesswork, but the principle is the same." ]	[ "There are clear probate laws that handle most cases, explaining how one's possessions (called their estate) should be distributed. A person, called the executor of the estate, is approved by the courts to settle the person's affairs. They distribute the money in bank accounts, sell their house, whatever is needed....
Why we stop having the urge to cry when hurt during adulthood?	[ "A newborn cries A LOT. All the uncomfortable experiences/pain they will feel will be the worst pain they have ever felt. They don't have anything to relate it to. As the child grows up, things that previously made them cry don't make them cry because they've experienced it before and are increasing their threshold...	[ "It's about novelty. When it's new, we cherish it and want to take care of it. Novelty eventually becomes familiarity. We see this a lot with cars. That new car, the owner is so careful. At some point, however, it becomes OK to toss that empty Big Mac box in the back seat." ]
Why is there almost zero logic in pronouncing English?	[ "The problem is English spelling. We have a lot of loan words in our language, and the traditional practice has been to just write them however they were written in the original language (give or take a few accent marks). So there are a bunch of different spelling rules flying around, and this has been going on f...	[ "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 plausible is the prediction that average human intelligence will decline since (/if) intelligence is inversely correlated to birth rate? (i.e. the Idiocracy premise)	[ "1. Measuring pure intelligence isn't really possible, the closest we get being an IQ score, but that too does depend on familiarity in the language tested in and tends to improve with proper education. 2. It is true that people in developed countries (the educated) generally have fewer kids, and those they have ar...	[ "You're asking this as though being intelligent is something special that all species should strive for. It isn't. Being able to survive is the best ability you can have from the evolutionary perspective. Why is it that the mantis shrimp is the only species to evolve their awesome punch? Why are beavers the only sp...
Because blood is taken in by the capillaries in the alveoli, does blood pressure and pulse have an impact on blood oxygen levels?	[ "I think you meant 'because oxygen is taken in by the capillaries', so I will address that. For proper oxygenation, you need to have perfusion (blood flow) as well as ventilation (air flow). Dead space occurs when you have ventilation without perfusion (eg your trachea/bronchi physiologically, or after a pulmonary...	[ "Air can typically be assumed to follow the ideal gas law, where PV = nRT Pressure x volume = #molecules x constant x temperature Lets assume you are filling a tire with a bicycle pump. It starts off at 0psi. When you fully extend the pump, a certain number of molecules will fill the pump. And when you depress, the...
How are Lightning and USB-C connectors able to work in both orientations?	[ "No, it's really the physical symmetry. USB-C was designed to be symmetric because the Lightning solution (which was non-standard) was very well received by users. It takes twice as many connectors, more parts, more complexity, more gold; but yet users find it's very worth it not to have to figure out which side of...	[ "The large companies liked to distance themselves with different adapters and things but ultimately standardization cuts down on vast amounts of waste. (time, resources and $£) So in the EU at least to my knowledge they were put under pressure to standardize chargers. I am though, unsure why apple and its vast amo...
Why do my polarised sunglass lenses makeI this chequered pattern apparent in my rear windscreen?	[ "Safety glass is under high internal stress so that it shatters into small pieces. The polarized lenses allow you to see the stress patterns in the glass. The glass stress refracts the light which somewhat polarizes it. Since the lenses in your glasses only let some polarization through you see the pattern." ]	[ "The structure of an LCD panel [isn't completely flat](_URL_0_). This isn't an accurate analogy in terms of structure, it's just the principle. If you imagine an LCD super zoomed in, think of it as looking down at a cityscape, all skyscrapers and such. If you look down at it directly from above, you can see the st...
What's wrong with a national sales tax?	[ "Because it has a disproportionate burden on the poor, even if you exclude necessities. Poor people spend the vast majority of their paychecks, whereas people who are much wealthier invest and save much of theirs. So the relative tax burden would shift dramatically." ]	[ "Let's say toll roads are run by Wal Mart. They then offer a discount - you can drive to Wal Mart for free, but still have to pay a toll when you go anywhere else. Sounds good, right? But then next year they double or triple the toll. Soon you can't afford to shop anywhere EXCEPT WalMart. Every other store then go...
I remember reading a while back that the human body has more bacteria cells than human. About how much of a person's mass do these bacteria account for?	[ "Three to five pounds, [says](_URL_0_) the coordinator of the NIH microbiome project." ]	[ "There is no way to hold an infinite amount of things in a (finite) computer. Your computer probably has less than a terabyte of storage space; so it can hold a single number that has about 8 * 10^12 binary digits in it. So, even if you were to fill all of those bytes completely randomly, it would only be able to ...
What is the effective actual brightness in relation to the human eye of planetary objects in the distant solar system? What I mean is: are photos of Saturn the brightness they are due to long exposures or would they actually be relatively dim objects due to their distance from the sun?	[ "You can see most of the planets with your bare eyes on a dark night, except Mercury (because of its small size and because it is usually only visible at twilight due to its proximity to the sun) and Uranus/Neptune (too far away, but you can see with a good pair of binoculars). Most pictures of outer planets are ta...	[ "You see the fog immediately around you just as much as the fog further away - it's just that the more \"accumulated\" fog you would have to look through, the more dense it looks. Since fog is usually experienced outside (no shit, Sherlock), everything you look at is pretty far away - so even a density of fog that ...
Does anyone know who the first company to ever offer a coupon was?	[ "Well the earliest well known coupon was done by Coca Cola in the late 1800s. It was a simple get one glass of coke for free. Here is a link to the actual coupon. What coke did was give 2 gallons of the coke for free to Pharmacists in return they would give coke the address and names of nearby customers who were th...	[ "You may find [this thread](_URL_0_) interesting. Some of the old organizations that topped that thread were the Armenian Apostolic Church, the line of Japanese Emperors, descendants of Confucius, and of course the Papacy and various Christian churches of the Near East. The problem is that many of those go back far...
Was Sargon of Akkad instrumental in the growth human civilisation, or did he stint its development?	[ "All I know is is that his contributions to the field of beard-style were monumental. edit: Not even joking, everyone copied the plaited-beard style after him. Before him, clean-shaven was the [style](_URL_0_) in Mesopotamia." ]	[ "I'm sorry I can't give you a more detailed response but my backpack was stolen in Jerusalem and had my book. \"Bronze Age to the Coming Age of Islam\" by Robert Hoyland should give you lots on information. I don't want to write anything without using it as a reference. I'm quite certain you can download an ebook c...
How tall was Jesus Christ?	[ "There is no literary or other ancient evidence that directly bears on this question, so one is forced to speculate based on average heights of people in antiquity. The only article I've ever seen address this is a 2002 issue of Popular Mechanics, which suggests that based on skeletal remains a 1st century Semitic ...	[ "This might be easier for people to answer if you gave a specific time and place. Are we talking about Italian renaissance choir boys or Chinese imperial officials? Edit: specific time not a specific Tim" ]
War Crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity- difference	[ "War Crimes refer to any breaking of the established laws of conflict. Such violations can include use of illegal weapons (chenical or biological agents as an example), mistreatment of prisoners, deliberately targeting purely medical facilities etc. Genocide is a specific crime - deliberately targeting military ...	[ "This submission has been removed because it is [soapboxing](_URL_1_.), [promoting a political agenda, or moralizing](_URL_0_). We don't allow content that does these things because they are detrimental to unbiased and academic discussion of history." ]
Why does sodium raise my blood pressure?	[ "The blood needs very specific concentrations of sodium. When the concentration grows too high, the kidneys allow water to return to the bloodstream rather than being filtered into the urine, to lower the concentration of sodium. This leads to a higher water retention, physically more liquid in your blood vessels, ...	[ "Ramen in and of itself is just noodles in soup. But instant Ramen, the kind you buy in a store, has a lot of salt. Too much salt is bad for you." ]
Tinder Bots. How? More importantly: Why?	[ "Some get you to click on websites that they will make money off of, others could be from tinder themselves to encourage users to use the app. As for how, I'm not sure what needs explaining. Take a random picture from a collection, add in some basic info any maybe a sentence for the bio and try to match everyone po...	[ "All four answers here so far have been against our subreddit rules. Remember, answers must be in-depth and comprehensive. A 1-line sentence doesn't cut it." ]
How the heck can a used truck owned in Texas end up in Syria?	[ "Hooray, I'm useful. I used to work at the Port of Baltimore. My job was silly, and ultimately useless but it did let me travel all over the port and see how things work there. We had a company that leased out a fairly large parking lot that did nothing but ship used cars to Africa. Theres a high demand for cars a...	[ "1. medical expenses, hospitals would most likely use debt collection agencies, these agencies would have contacts in other countries. The foreign agencies may be able to turn the case to local authorities, or settle it in court. 2. Traffic fines. Traffic fines obviously are handled by the authorities, they would ...
Why do metals and rocks to burn up in the Earths Atmosphere? Is it the speed of objects or a chemical composition in the atmosphere?	[ "When the material comes through the atmosphere the body compresses the air in front of it which heats up to very high temperatures (contrary to popular belief friction is not significant). At these high presure and temperature conditions the material melts and reacts with atmospheric oxigen. It desintegrates." ]	[ "Large commercial rockets are actively steered. Either the engines are 'gimbaled' (the angle is adjusted) constantly, or small sideways-pointed rockets are fired as needed, to push the rocket where the computer is programmed to send it. Smaller rockets without adjustable engines or controls normally cause the rocke...
Why do spaces turn into %20 when typing websites into the browser address bar?	[ "URLs are not allowed to contain spaces. Trust me - it makes life a million times easier for programmers. If you want to access a resource that has spaces in it's proper name (like a file named \"why did you use spaces.doc\") you need to use an escape sequence to put it in there. The standard used for escaping ch...	[ "Probably [this](_URL_0_), as seen on a soapy sidewalk. I tried this my phone and saw it too. I then realized it was the your video showing through the phone, haha." ]
If I left Kool-Aid to ferment, would it turn alcoholic?	[ "Yep, but what it ferments into is questionable, hooch if you're lucky, some horrid, vinegar like concoction if you're not. Toss in a packet of yeast and the former will be more likely. For further information see [r/homebrewing](_URL_0_)." ]	[ "Remember when you played with play dough as a kid. If you mixed all the colors up you just end up with a big brown lump?" ]
Talking on radio transmitter at 50% speed of light.	[ "There are two things that are going to have an effect here. 1) Doppler effect (which depends on the relative locations of you and the stationary observer) 2) Relativistic effects (time dilation primarily) In any case, the effects will likely result in the fact that the radio reciever won't even recognize your sign...	[ "> Does this have something to do with the relativistic Doppler effect? That's exactly it. It's the same as listening to music played from a car approaching you - it will sound sped up and higher pitch. There are also true relativistic effects in play - clocks on the approaching planet will be calculated to run slo...
Why would exercise like cardio stress my heart in a “good” way when drugs like cocaine stress it in a damaging way?	[ "I might be incorrect, but I think I remember this correctly. The reason your heart races when you exercise is that your muscles need more oxygen in the same time. So the blood vessels grow, blood pressure drops, and heart rate increases. Drugs make your heart race for a different reason. Muscles need the regular...	[ "There is a big difference between those 2 things: One requires more muscle mass. More muscle mass can generate more force. When you lift a weight you can slowly activate more muscles fibres contraction generating more and more force until it is enough to start lifting the object. Running on the other hand is a ver...
would taking an antiviral prophylactically before sex reduce the risk of contracting herpes, genital warts, or hiv?	[ "Yes to both. Yes it could reduce the risk for contamination, specially if it was taken during several days or maybe weeks after also. And yes, these things do some not very nice things to you body (I'm not counting resistance here, which could also happen), and no medication should be taken if the benefit it pro...	[ "If you don't have write caching enabled and aren't reading or writing to the flash drive, then there's no need. If you have write caching then you should eject it to be safe. What's write caching? Imagine your flash drive is a truck, and your hard drive is a warehouse. You want to load lots of stuff on the truck b...
what makes completely different species of animals albino?	[ "Albinism is a lack of pigment in skin and other tissues. Many animals use very similar proteins for pigmentation, so the same problem that causes albinism in one will probably cause it in others. It is a genetic condition. Either the gene that codes for the production of pigments is missing, or it is damaged such ...	[ "Go to a new area of Australia (or wherever). Comb one acre very carefully, cataloging every species. Figure out how many new species there are. Do this in a few different places, figure out about how many new species there are in general, and extrapolate." ]
The physiology behind the "beer before liquor" saying	[ "That saying is a myth. The order you consume your drinks in is not what matters, it's the total amount of alcohol consumed. With alcohol, your inhibition goes down, which often leads to drinking more, so if you start with a drink that has a higher alcohol content, your inhibition goes down more quickly and you ten...	[ "Here's a [great overview](_URL_0_) of why some drugs must be taken with/after food! To sum it up, food in your stomach affects your body's absorption of the drug. Most of the time, it slows it down (by delaying its journey to your intestines, and consequently, your blood circulation), which is beneficial for drugs...
Why would a terrorist organization announce what it's plans are? (Al Shabaab's call to attack the Mall of America)	[ "Because the aim of a terrorist organization is not necessarily to kill people - it is to cause terror. If they can cause terror with a press release while they stay home and eat cookies, so much the better." ]	[ "I've never seen the cops influencing portrayal of the suspect, if anything, the media do it a hundred times worse. Most of the police press conferences I have seen are stuff like. \"We have a suspect in the case of the murder of Jim Joe, we are currently talking with him and his council, though we have no further ...
Since Potassium is a Alkali Metal, then how does our bodies use it in reactions effectively? What is preventing K+ from reacting with an undesired compound such as water?	[ "K+ can be thought of potassium that has already reacted with water. What potassium really wants to do in its metallic, neutral state is lose its single valance electron. Once it has already done that to become a K+ ion, it has satisfied the driving force of its reactivity and is more or less unreactive. Its lik...	[ "Follow ups; Did the Nazis have meaningful stockpiles of chemical weapons? What was the allies’ planned response in the event of widespread deployment of chemical weapons?" ]
If two fully self-driving cars (e.g. Google Cars), each with one driver in them, crash into each other, who bears the liability?	[ "Well, that depends. We need more information. Which vehicle broke the traffic laws?" ]	[ "Because they use a separate company to provide ads, which come from different web servers. Imagine they're people. Dave works for the pizza company, he delivers your pizza. Sarah works for marketing company, she delivers the ads. Now, you could put a camera on your porch. Then you only open the door for Dave, but ...
Why should men pick up and put down toilet lid instead of women just putting it down?	[ "I put the lid down when I am done so that when I flush it doesn't spray particulate feces and urine across everything within five feet of the toilet. Nothing to do with females." ]	[ "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." ]
Why does a person feel more sleepy when day drinking and then stopping, than when compared to drinking from the evening onwards?	[ "Because alcohol is a depressant, if you drink and then stop you will feel tired and ready to sleep because thats what alcohol as a drug does to you. Generally if you drink in the night you will be going to sleep very soon after finishing drinking anyway which makes it kinda biased. However alcohol also converts to...	[ "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...
When did the novel become a popular form of literature? Did it originate in Europe or is that just when the format became popularized in the west?	[ "Not to answer the OP s question but I do know for a fact that the works of prose considerable in length existed centuries ago before the first European novel ( including in Rome, Greece and India but not limited to those places ). A literary historian will perhaps be better equipped to answer whether they could be...	[ "Congrats! You've asked what may be the single most-asked question on /r/AskHistorians. That's good news, because it means we have [a big FAQ file devoted to your question](_URL_1_). Check it out, and I hope it helps! Edit: And [here](_URL_0_) is a great answer from /u/talondearg, who answers it quite a bit." ]
How is it that the Japanese managed to capture Singapore from the Larger Anglo-Dutch-Commonwealth forces, and what was the Significance of this defeat during and after the war?	[ "I wrote a bit about the capture of Singapore [here](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "Churchill had arranged operation Fish, having all the wealth of the UK (gold, securities) moved to Canada. The gold was to be kept in Ottawa and the securities under the Sun life building in Montréal. The British thought that Canada was a safest place for their gold. One might speculate that in case of imminent in...
Was there something about British colonial administration that made so many of its former colonial cities become world financial centers? (Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, Johannesburg, Dubai, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur)	[ "The geography is important. With the exception of Johannesburg, all of these cities were in a position to become logical naval trade hubs for regional distribution. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries the UK was the dominant naval power in the world, and so it was in the strategic interest of the UK to build up...	[ "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...
Anti-Gravity Flights?	[ "Here's a [pretty good explanation](_URL_0_) from a couple of guys who actually worked under these conditions to make a music video." ]	[ "GPS doesn't tell you air speed, it tells you ground speed. If you know the wind you can determine air speed from gps, but there is no easy way to figure out wind speed without using an air speed sensor." ]
Why can't I look at a word without reading it?	[ "Because the human mind is an expert at pattern and relationship/structure detection and recognition. That is essentially how we think. We are masters of pattern recognition, so when you glance at a word your pattern mind kicks in and you have no conscious choice but to 'decode' that pattern. (you read the word). B...	[ "It's called the Tetris effect. From Wikipedia: The Tetris effect (also known as Tetris Syndrome) occurs when people devote so much time and attention to an activity that it begins to pattern their thoughts, mental images, and dreams. It is named after the video game Tetris. _URL_0_" ]
Can dopamine be artificially entered into someones brain to make them feel rewarded for something they dont like?	[ "Cocaine affects dopamine re-uptake, which is essentially like putting a plug in a drain with the tap on. When the plug is out (no cocaine) water (dopamine) does not fill the sink (brain) so you have a steady small stream of dopamine. Cocaine puts the plug in, so the the water (dopamine) pools in the sink, making y...	[ "Very much so. The sudden jump in heart rate and strain on the cardiovascular system is what can cause acute myocardial infarction( heart attack) along with stress. The endorphins released during exercise is what is positive for your body along with the gradual rise, and fall, of heart rate." ]
How is a cruise ship's electricity powered?	[ "In modern cruise ships, electricity is provided by diesel generators. Since cruise ships already have to carry fuel for propulsion, it's simpler and cheaper to just use generators to provide electricity rather than use solar panels or batteries. Plus solar panels and batteries don't have the capability to power th...	[ "I hope this comports with the subreddit guidelines. South of Paris is a chateau called the Vaux-le-Vicomte. It's purportedly the last privately owned grand chateau in France. It was built in the 1600s. They give tours and one of the features of the tours is that they they light the chateau with candlelight. And th...
Is there any evidence for or against the possibility of shields like those in the book Dune, by Frank Herbet.	[ "A force field is an interesting prospect, and kind of a nebulous term. But I know there's been talk of making body armor filled with Non-Newtonian fluids. Non-Newtonian fluids are liquids that act like a solid when impacted with enough kinetic energy. Ever had silly putty as a kid? Remember how it stretched out wh...	[ "Hi, I'm Dr Jim Leary, lecturer in Archaeology and Director of the [Archaeology Field School](_URL_3_) at the University of Reading in England. I'm going to be here in AskHistorians to give an AMA on the 10th of November at 5pm GMT. I'll be talking about my work on round mounds, which included recently [discoverin...
Did the flight crews who dropped atomic bombs on Japan understand how deadly the bombs were?	[ "See [this discussion](_URL_1_) and [this discussion](_URL_0_). Short answer: they understood they had a \"special\" payload (they had been training to drop unusually shaped and large bombs for some time), and the leader of the unit knew the full story (Tibbets), but most of them did not understand fully what they ...	[ "One case that comes to mind comes Tomocomo, a kind of companion who journeyed with Pocahontas to England. Allegedly he carried a walking stick with him upon which to keep a tally of all the people he saw, but soon gave up because there were far too many people in London or he was tired by the difficulty of the tas...
Does cooling really account for 30% of all CO2 production by humanity?	[ "Ask him to provide a source for that statistic next time you see him. The number seems high, but not outside the realm of possibility considering [this](_URL_0_) site claims 40% of energy consumption is from buildings. He should be able to provide sources for his claim, or at least explain where he came up with t...	[ "I wrote a detailed response about Tom Holland's documentary [here](_URL_0_), using primary source to argue that something very similar to modern Islam did exist quite early on. Also worth noting that Crone and Cook's Hagarism thesis is not taken seriously anymore (or even at the time) - it literally used only th...
Why can't we predict earthquakes like in a weather forecast?	[ "It's a matter of precision. Weather systems move quickly, and are subject to quickly changing influences like temperature. Many of these influences are predictable, so there can be useful predictions. If the forecast says it will start raining around 4 pm, but it starts at 2:45, that's not exact but still useful. ...	[ "Their services are classified under entertainment. They don't have to be true, just like a movie doesn't have to be true, just as long as they entertain you. If customer want to believe it is true, the authorities don't get involved just as they won't get involved if you think Titanic was a factual documentary. ...
How much more or less damage would the Tunguska blast have done if it had impacted the ground?	[ "It would probably be more devastating if it stayed intact. If it breaks up, then the smaller pieces would have a larger surface area to mass ratio, and therefore would be slowed more rapidly by air resistance." ]	[ "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!" ]
What impact has the Great Wall of China had on animal populations?	[ "I don't think there have been extensive studies on the Great Wall in particular, but I was able to find one: _URL_0_ The key figure is Fig. 3, which demonstrates the genetic separation between plants on either side of the wall. Similar studies have been done in other places though: _URL_1_ indicates some kind of ...	[ "Well considering the location of Jericho, wouldn't it be possible that the walls are either to protect a consistent source of well water, or to protect against the unpredictability of flooding of the Jordan River? You might not be growing crops yet, but you like to have a place to stay that is close to a good sour...
Why are animals and fauna no longer as large as they once were? What has changed about our world that mega fauna and mega animals no longer exist?	[ "We don’t actually know but some theories are that temperature of the earth was the major factor for mammals getting so big. If the ambient temperature is lower, the heat/energy of a larger mammal is much easier. For insects (and maybe plants), there was a much higher concentrations of oxygen in the atmosphere t...	[ "Bass frequencies require more energy to record and reproduce than do higher ranges of audio. Old recording equipment didn't have the types of improvements we've made since then. The diaphragm in a modern microphone is much more sensitive to input and can record a sound with much less intensity than older equipment...
Why do people think so highly of Elon Musk?	[ "Because he's making amazing futuristic things happen, like electric cars and private space flight and ultra-fast maglev trains, and he's a bit of a nerd. There's a lot of bitterness and disillusionment with our technological progress, or lack thereof. Yeah, our phones keep getting better, but in a lot of ways we'v...	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
Why is it that you don't bleed profusely when cut open for surgery?	[ "Keep in mind that blood is contained within the vascular system, not just free within your body. Your skin has capillary beds, which are networks of tiny vessels that supply oxygen to nearby tissues, but cutting into a capillary doesn't result in much blood loss before they clot because the vessels are extremely n...	[ "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 come we can move our body parts like hands, fingers, and arms but cannot move other organs like kidneys and intestines?	[ "In our hands, arms, etc (they're not organs) they have tendons which are connected to the bones and muscles. When you contract the muscles they pull on the tendons. Kidneys, for example, don't have that." ]	[ "Its to do with the connections between your visual cortex and your motor cortex. To use a computer analogy, its like the graphics card working fine but a fault in the cable that causes distorted images on your computer monitor. You have to translate the visual image into precise muscle movements that will draw the...
If you buy a church do you own the graveyard	[ "It depends entirely on the property rights. Although even if you do own the graveyard there are still local laws in place for what you can and cannot do with graves. Even if you own them." ]	[ "What do you mean \"buying your money back\"? When I put money in the bank, I can take it out for free... Can't you?" ]
What is the physiological reason that increased arousal leads to increased quantity of ejaculate [Possibly NSFW]	[ "> Presumably the body doesn't produce extra quantity when extremely aroused Emotions aren't brain weather, they're physiological states. You salivate more when you smell amazing food (or you're particularly hungry); you produce more ejaculate when you're more aroused (or aroused for longer). In a sense, from the m...	[ "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 ...
Why are most songs that come out 3-4 minutes long?	[ "It was the length of sound one could record on an original 78rpm phonograph record." ]	[ "It has to do with the contracts the networks sign for the show. Typically shows are contracted by the season - but often they will buy a season with a certain number of episodes with an option to buy more episodes under that contract if the show is successful. For example - They will sign a contract for 1 season o...
How does high blood pressure work in the body and why is it genetic?	[ "It helps to imagine the body's blood vessels like plumbing, water being pumped will exert a force on the pipes itself. In the body the heart has a few ways to increase this force, namely: increasing the rate the heart is pumping, or increasing the volume of blood. The body's blood vessels itself can also change it...	[ "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...
Razors - why does the little blue lube bar come after the blades? It goes squeegee, blades, lube strip, instead of the opposite - why?	[ "~~The squeegee is to clear excess shaving cream before the blades get there.~~ Since you presumably have some sort of shaving soap or cream you don't need to moisturize more before the blades do their job. The moisturizer bar comes afterwards to help re-moisturize once the blades clear away the cream/soap. Edit: T...	[ "It's mostly arbitrary. In old-style CRT displays, the image was generated by physically moving an electron beam across the screen in horizontal lines starting from the top. (EDIT: and for historical reasons, even more recent signal formats like VGA, DVI and HDMI typically use the same ordering.) So the simplest wa...
Why was Japan not colonized by European powers?	[ "Japan has very few natural resources that would have been desirable to western powers at the time. They were also very receptive to western help during the Meiji restoration. They used their wealth to hire Europeans and Americans, rather than submit to being colonized. It was much more lucrative to have a friendly...	[ "The economics aren't the issue, politics and culture are. In general people aren't too excited about parking a poorly-secured nuclear reactor in a major port. Think about piracy, now with the capability of stealing nuclear materials." ]
Does the moon have a core like Earth? (if so is it as hot?)	[ "Yes. The moon has an anatomy similar to the earth, with a liquid iron molten core around a solid crystalized piece, and a mantle above all that. It's significantly smaller than the earth's, but almost comparable when drawn to scale. The temperature is about 1/3rd of the earth's core (1600 K as oppose to 5500 K)." ...	[ "The plumes recently reported on Europa by NASA offer a golden opportunity for investigations based on this notion. Plume around Enceladus were identified and examined by Cassini about 3 years ago, and the presence of salt was confirmed. Even more interesting: hydrothermal silica was identified, a litteral \"smoki...
if you are born abroad at your country’s embassy are you your home countries nationality then? Do traveling people try to be born in the jurisdiction of their home/other country? Is that even a thing. I imagine pregnant women trying to give birth in embassy offices. Help.	[ "Most nations grant citizenship based on blood, not geography. In fact outside of the Vatican I cannot think of a single country that doesn't grant automatic citizenship to newborn children of their citizens - assuming the paperwork will be filled out eventually. If your parents have the citizenship of a country y...	[ "> Will the ant just eventually die? Will it go off and live on its own? Typically, it will wander until it finds the trail to its home colony, or dies of starvation. > Will it join a nearby colony? Would a new colony of ants allow an outsider to join? This depends on the species. There are some types of ants whic...
If Charles should die before Elizabeth II, does Anne become Queen after Elizabeth II dies, or will it pass to William? Why?	[ "The previous laws governing succession had the line pass through all the male children and their heirs before going to the female children. This was only changed a few years ago, but the established Line of Succession was kept as is, so currently Anne is 12th. However, assuming that William is followed by George, ...	[ "Momentum is what you want to look at here: When the first anchor becomes taught, the momentum will be > ~~P1= mv = m(gD)^0.5~~ When that anchor breaks, the climber enters free fall again, falling another [2D+d] until the remaining anchor catches, when the momentum becomes > ~~P2= P1-A + m( v1 + (g(2D+d))^0.5 ) = ...
From where does Earth get energy to rotate around itself and revolve around the Sun?	[ "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...	[ "My uneducated guess is a healthy person's natural day night cycle. Humans are naturally inclined to sleep when it's dark and stay awake when it's light out. With that in place for most people, if they fight sleep off enough during the night then when the sun rises it gives them a second wind in a way that tricks t...
Why does this paper shatter after being folded seven times with a hydraulic press?	[ "Paper, when folded in half, effectively doubles its thickness. When folded six times in half, there is too much thickness and not enough surface area for anything to make an effective seventh fold. However, the hydraulic press has enough force to fold it, but that puts extreme stress on the paper, which is eventua...	[ "There is something called miura-ori origami that has the properties you describe. _URL_0_" ]
Does NASA (or another group) have an official first contact protocol?	[ "[NASA has this protocol from 1960](_URL_0_). Page 182 starts talking about aliens. Do not click on mobile." ]	[ "Assuming you mean in North America. The _URL_0_ The +1 was a way to accept toll charges, most phone plans now include no long distance charges. so the 1 is no longer required. * 10-digit dialing: NPA NXX xxxx * 11-digit dialing: 1 NPA NXX xxxx (1 is the NANP trunk prefix for long distance circuits) Since most phon...
Why do wireless printers have so many more problems compared to other, seamless technologies?	[ "Printers have always been problematic as a technology because of how they are sold. Most printers are sold right at cost or slightly above with printer companies trying to make profit on the ink, which is why ink is so expensive. Why this matters is that the companies try to keep costs to develop the devices very ...	[ "Largely because news stories sensationalize science without fully understanding it. There is a relevant XKCD comic that has a guy in a lab coat standing over a petri dish with a gun that says, \"When you see a claim that a common drug or vitamin 'kills cancer cells in a petri dish', keep in mind: so does a handgu...
Why does scratching an Itch (to the point of breaking the skin) feel so god-damn good?	[ "Not sure about that, but the best itch to scratch is the one deeper in your ear than you are 'supposed' to go." ]	[ "In short, Neuroplasticity. Pain and pleasure are both literally \"just in your mind\". By that, I mean that what our minds interpret as pain or pleasure is dictated by the firing of certain neurons in our brains. The pain and pleasure areas lie fairly closely together in the brain. Neurons from one \"area\" can gr...
What are some great ancient stories to read for a beginner hobbyist historian?	[ "Read one of the ancient historians like Thucydides, Herodotus, Livy, or Tacitus. I like Thucydides'account of the Peloponnesian war the best." ]	[ "Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_...
How do American Politics affect Canada?	[ "Because Canada (like most of the world) and the US are linked economically and politically (treaties), the decisions that the US makes about foreign policy and economics affect everyone else." ]	[ "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!" ]
Why is it that when you hang upside down all your blood rushes to your head but when you stand up all the blood doesn't rush to your feet?	[ "Most of our blood sits in our veins. Our veins (from the heart down) have one way valves in them that prevent back flow and help blood get back to our heart without pooling at our feet. However, these valves are not present above the heart because we have gravity to pull the blood back. This means when you hang up...	[ "Plant cells have little starchy organelles called statoliths - they're much heavier than other components of the cells. The statoliths fall to the bottom of the cells. In cells in the stem, statoliths on the bottom of the cell trigger the hormone auxin to inhibit growth on the lower part of the cell. This makes ...
How can lack of power physically damage computer hardware components?	[ "I don't have an answer for you, but this would be a great question for [/r/AskElectronics](/r/AskElectronics)." ]	[ "When you put pressure on the nerves to a body part, then the nerves don't work so well. When the nerves don't work well, you can feel numbness, or pain, or pins and needles. These are like the nerve version of static." ]
What's The Story of the Armed Services Editions of Books During WWII?	[ "More can always be said, but I would at the very least point you to /u/caffarelli's review of [When Books Went to War](_URL_0_) from a few years back, which coveres the military library program in WWII and would likely be a great place to start!" ]	[ "There was a quite good documentary ([Kanalinseln im Krieg](_URL_4_)) on german television a few weeks ago (I just found, it's at least a year old), and I don't know if those ever get translated into english. But it might be a starting point, and maybe you can find a subbed version on the net the [BBC](_URL_5_) has...
With changes in technology and society, has there been any observable changes in trends of cursing/foul language? More? Less? At different ages?	[ "Although I am certain there are countless anecdotes, I wanted to present some info, or at least try to. I was looking around for half an hour and this is as close as I could get; maybe someone can find the actual research? _URL_0_ From the first lines: > According to research presented at the Sociolinguistics Sym...	[ "Sorry, we don't allow [throughout history questions](_URL_0_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of trivia, not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about a historical event or period or person, please feel free to re-compose your qu...
why time travel to the past is impossible.	[ "Theoretically, time travel to the past is not impossible, but the energy required to put any of the current theories into practice is so immense, it may be impossible for us to ever harness enough to actually time travel to the past. However, as computing power continues to increase exponentially, it might one day...	[ "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...
Difference in sentence when killing a police officer vs a normal person.	[ "Laws can differ from place to place, but I am not aware of any law that adds an extra penalty for injuring a police officer unless the person doing the injuring knows or intends to be injuring a police officer. It's not impossible to pass a law like that, but I have never heard of one. So your drunk driver killin...	[ "Pussy Riot are a Russian Punk band. Their music often says rude things about Vladimir Putin and the rest of his government. Now everyone knows 'sticks and stones' but Vladimir got sick of the musıc that said bad things about him so he said that they were not allowed to do that anymore. Pussy Riot then sang their s...
When I sit in my car why does warm air from the A/C feel stuffy and heavy while cold air feels sharp and crisp?	[ "Like it's been said already, it has a lot to do with the density of the air and the humidity content. Cooler air is more dense but has more oxygen in it so you breathe easier. Plus, the AC is dehumidifying the air, taking the moisture out." ]	[ "To enable a substance to expand out of a can (it had to be compressed to fit inside) the molecules must be allowed to \"re-expand\" and bump each other further apart, in an effort to match the outside air pressure. To do this, the molecules inside demand more energy to allow the expansion to occur. That means th...
What is the difference between the US Senate and House of Representatives?	[ "A Congressman in the House represents the interests of individual districts where you live. A Senator in the Senate represents the interests of the state at large. The reason we have two chambers is because the Framers were concerned with balancing out the power between the states. If we only had the House, then t...	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
Did the Spanish conquer the Aztecs because of military superiority? If not, how did Cortes do it?	[ "The Aztecs had a lot of enemies among the native peoples, and the 2,000 or so Spanish had allies in the tens of thousands. So gunpowder, armor, other advantages of the European scientific tradition, diplomacy, and the lust for gold and prestige back home were all factors. The Spanish under Cortez (the spelling I'v...	[ "Having done some background research on the region for some project evaluation, I have come across the debate between impact vs. tectonic origins. IIRC, there have been no signs of impact-related geological features (shatter cones, high pressure minerals, etc.) and the best explanation is a terrestrial tectonic bo...
How can a speaker produce multiple noises at once?	[ "Speakers work by the [principle of superposition](_URL_0_). If you want to hear two tones at once, just add their vibrations together. When you compare the voice box the a reverse eardrum, you've got it exactly right. The voice box, in a given configuration, can only resonate at one frequency (and higher harmonics...	[ "Making some simplifying assumptions (eg friction doesn't exist)... yes, all of them become excited. This is true for 1D strings too, not just for circular membranes. To illustrate, let's model a \"pluck\" of a string as meaning that at t=0, the string at rest but is deformed into a perfect triangle shape. Then we ...
why is the red cross so concerned about Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease?	[ "Creutzfeldt-Jakob is a terminal disease that wastes away the brain. There is no cure and while there have been some progress in developing blood tests for the prions that cause the disease, its not to a point where you would want to risk infecting someone with degenerative brain disease. There's relatively little...	[ "There's not a more reputable source than the [CDC MMWR](_URL_0_), but a simpler way to keep track (and my personal favorite) is the [Jenny McCarthy Body Count](_URL_1_). The body count actually comes from CDC data. As for your question on vaccine risk to children, the first two minutes of [this Penn and Teller Bul...
When experiencing cold symptoms, why does only one side of ones nose become blocked or runny? Why not both?	[ "The rate at which air enters your nostrils effects what smells you smell. Each nostril is actually a different width at any given time so we can smell the largest amount of different smells. Your nostrils take turns being wider/narrower. When you have a cold and your nostrils are swollen and the one that is narrow...	[ "> I mean whether you put your left earphone on your right ear or vice versa. I still hear the same thing. Not at all. If you have stereo sound on, and a train is coming from left of your screen to the right, the left earphone will play the sound louder." ]
Does science reflect social and cultural values, or is science universal?	[ "I don't want to speak for any other field, but physics is about as universal as it gets." ]	[ "At the bottom level it encodes the way our DNA is processed: ribosomes, transfer RNAs etc. These are things we share with all known life. Then there are things like the cell cycle, which includes cell division. Different cell organelles like mitochondria, the way the cells are stabilized (the cytoskeleton). Probab...
When drinking water, what is the mechanism that decides if the water will go to the bladder or be absorbed?	[ "The water is absorbed. The water that goes to your bladder is excreted by the kidneys as it filters your blood." ]	[ "This phenomenon is called the \"Pain Gate Theory\". When you injure yourself, pain signals travel from the site of injury to your brain. When you do something else to that part of the body, for example rubbing it with your hand, this also sends signals to your brain. However, because both signals are coming fr...
Watching COPS and wondering why radios always sound so scratchy/crackly? Is it possible to get it as clear as the sound we get when talking through phones?	[ "Nope. Cell phones have a huge amount of infrastructure in order to work. Remember when you've got no bars, first responders wouldn't be OK with that. So, they use radios with bigger antennas and more power and the signal goes directly to their police station. Just today, AT & T got a contract and some dedicated ra...	[ "Better quality calls requires better phones and better carrier networks, both of which would cost money. Not enough people are demanding better quality to make it profitable enough for most phone companies to pursue." ]
Why is it so uncommon for supreme court justices to ask questions?	[ "It isn't uncommon for justices to ask questions, it is just uncommon for Thomas to ask questions. The Supreme Court is a panel of judges and before hearing cases they often already have alliances within the panel and some judges allow the other justices to take the lead in questioning." ]	[ "I've never seen the cops influencing portrayal of the suspect, if anything, the media do it a hundred times worse. Most of the police press conferences I have seen are stuff like. \"We have a suspect in the case of the murder of Jim Joe, we are currently talking with him and his council, though we have no further ...
How were films replicated for movie theater distribution before the age of digital and computers?	[ "They would lay each frame of the film over unexposed film and blast it with light. This would cause the unexposed film to get exposed as a positive of the original film negative. Then they do it again to expose the negative." ]	[ "In many cases the recording company just wants to resell you the same album again. Depending on the fidelity and condition of the original recordings you sometimes can get better versions that what was originally available in the 70s, but you're not going to pull a crystal-clear version of an old Led Zepplin album...
How does a website as popular as YouTube still have issues logging in and remembering which part of the video you were at?	[ "Something about this question makes me think of Louis CK's bit on \"the miracle of flight.\" _URL_0_ Not to be a jerk, but isn't it just sort of inconceivable that there is a website that lets users upload 100 hours of video footage _every minute_, and that is visited by 15% of the planet every month, and that str...	[ "Imagine you're trying to find a coffee shop in a city. If you've been there recently, it should be pretty easy to find. If it's been 10 years since you've been to the coffee shop or the city, it might take you a LONG time to find. It also might take long to find if you've been to other, similar coffee shops in the...
Why do do people cap their fps? Isn't more frames = better?	[ "From a brief google search it would seem there are many factors. Game stability - stable fps is sometimes better than constant oscillation Heat and other stresses on video cards Power consumption Reducing stuttering and screen tearing without using v sync > Screen refresh rate x 2 + 1. So your 60hz will need a ...	[ "While there are a lot of talented full CGI animators out there, its painstaking work to do. First your model has to have a realistic skelature system so when a limb is moved by the animator the rest of the body behaves as though its all one attached and cohesive system. Otherwise you get that weird disjointed jerk...
Is this an authentic flag from the American Revolution?	[ "No. American flags from the eighteenth century are exceedingly rare and it's still debatable if any 13-star flags have survived from the Revolutionary period at all. To put it in perspective, the American flag had 15 stars and 15 stripes from 1795 to 1818, and maybe three to five 15-star examples from that 23 ye...	[ "Hi! I have approved this post but as a general tip, when asking about the accuracy of videos it's generally best to list the specific claims as specifically as possible for our commenters to address since they might not be able to view a video from where they comment. Thank you!" ]
Why was the O.J. Simpson case so huge at the time?	[ "picture this: David Beckham's wife, Victoria is found dead, along with a guy friend of hers. No one knows who did it, except now there's a car with David Beckham in it being chased down the freeway by police (slow-speed chase). It goes all the way to his house where he closes himself in and threatens to kill himse...	[ "You know, I used to wonder that too. I didn't really get the big deal about most super-famous painters... Then I saw some of Van Gogh's work up close at a museum... It's fucking spectacular. I'm not enough of an art buff to describe it, but the fucking texture man... blew my mind. That's art, I guess... I can't de...
How will bleach kill you if you drank it?	[ "Bleach will burn the crap out of your mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach lining, etc. It will possibly make you vomit and get diarrhea as well. If it's undiluted it will kill you by basically dissolving all the tissue it comes into contact with." ]	[ "I don't think you would be making this post. because you probably wouldn't be alive. KY sensations would go out of business though." ]
How do security arrangements work when heads of state travel to foreign countries?	[ "There has to be cooperation between the security groups of both countries. On the one hand, the visiting government has to trust that the host will provide adequate general security. On the other hand, the host has to be willing to give the visiting head of state's security team some latitude to operate and ensure...	[ "This one has been pretty thoroughly debunked: _URL_0_ The gist is, that when you are a public figure, you are going to come into contact with a lot more people than the average person, and those contacts are going to be a matter of public record. If some random person I met ten years ago wound up dead in mysteriou...
How do power plants work/produce electricity?	[ "They use a big generator that uses electromagnetism. There is a stator (a part that is fixed in place) and a rotor (a part that spins). The rotor is lined with magnets, and the stator consists of a lot of wire, wrapped in a loop around the rotor. When magnets spin past a wire loop, the alternating magnetic field g...	[ "For that you need mountains, with two lakes above each other, and a river to replenish the evaporated water. Most, if not all suitable sites are already used for that. *Construction is expensive, and the energy content is relatively low. As a theoretical exercise you can calculate the 'lake' sizes and heigh...
Why can't we read text unless we look directly at it?	[ "The eye senses light using 2 types of cells, rods and cones. Rods are highly sensitive to light, but can't see color and deactivate when there's enough light for cones to work. Cones aren't as sensitive, but can see color and work in bright light. There's an area in the center of your eye called the fovea, where y...	[ "Please correct me if I am wrong but I think you would move the focal point in the wrong direction. I think you would need the prescription with the signs changed to see the way the person that needs glasses does. To test this theory out, I just put my glasses on with my contacts in and it is not the same as when ...
When the USA aquired Alaska from Russia, why was the border between Alaska and Canada effectively a straight north-south line until the very southern portion and then it suddenly juts eastward?	[ "Alaska was never densely settled, and in the 19th century settlement was limited almost entirely to the coast. The inland part of Alaska was practically devoid of people on both sides of the border. Without a natural feature to follow, and with no people to complain, drawing a straight line is the easiest way to d...	[ "Imagine you're in a spacecraft in space, but close enough to earth to feel its gravitational pull. You are directly above earth (imagine in a 2d plane) at 0 degrees. Now push the space-craft with an initial acceleration in the x-direction and just coast. You will end up 90 degrees to the left of earth ( you will m...
If two men had sex with the same woman consecutively, would one be more likely to impregnate her?	[ "There are theories being explored in regards to [semen displacement](_URL_0_). It is theorized that the tip of the penis is shaped to displace the semen of the previous impregnator. Part of that theory is that men who feel their female mates have possibly been disloyal will have more vigorous and deep intercourse ...	[ "Because plugging the second 6-plug into the first means the entirety of the second 6-plug's power is being fed through a single outlet of the first 6-plug strip. This can easily overload the output and cause a fire." ]
Why do doctors give you a prescription with a limited number of refills for a medication they know you need to take for possibly the rest of your life?	[ "Because your dosage needs may change. If you are given a prescription for hypertension, the doctor wants to evaluate how well it's working. If your blood pressure is high, then the dosage may need to be adjusted." ]	[ "It has to do with the contracts the networks sign for the show. Typically shows are contracted by the season - but often they will buy a season with a certain number of episodes with an option to buy more episodes under that contract if the show is successful. For example - They will sign a contract for 1 season o...
Why are think tanks like CATO Institute considered corrupt?	[ "Think tanks exist to create arguments for or against a certain ideological bias. Those who support their ideological bias applaud (and fund) them while those who oppose their ideological bias denounce them. Essentially, they're just a more intellectual variant on the popular media - they spend a lot more time on r...	[ "What you see in one, single picture does not represent an entire country. People use those pictures to mislead as they are probably photographs of the rich and affluent. To say that Afghanistan was a bastion of western civilization in the 1970s is very wrong." ]
How does light have the property of "bleaching" or removing color?	[ "A photon is able to break down a chemical bond if it carries enough energy. The energy of a photon depends only on its wavelength. Some molecules absorb longer-wavelength photons without breaking, dissipating the captured energy by some other means, but will be damaged by a photon with short enough a wavelength. A...	[ "I recommend listening to Feynman describe the sum-over-histories model of quantum electrodynamics (for which he and two other men won the 1965 Nobel prize in physics): [Here's the video.](_URL_0_) There are a lot of amplitudes, phases, and little spinning clock analogies involved. Essentially, light takes all poss...
To what extent are U.S. Police allowed to lie to you?	[ "They are explicitly barred from lying or being deceptive in any way about your personal rights. They are allowed to say pretty much whatever they want in order to get a confession - commonly, \"Well Accomplice B has already told us everything, so if you don't fess up now, expect more consequences later.\" when Ac...	[ "Many cop/lawyer shows use real rvents to inspire episodes. This keeps the series current and relevant for viewers interest, can actually be used to inform the public, improves show ratings, and reduces headaches for writers trying to come up with ideas. But the show makers want to be sure it isn't thought to be \...
why does it feel so amazing to sleep? And why does it go by so fast?	[ "When you are tired, your brain attempts to pursuade you into doing what it wants you to do - sleep. By rewarding you with pleasure. It goes by very fast because you lose consciousness during sleep. Without consciousness you can't perform complex mental tasks, such as timekeeping." ]	[ "1. We gauge time by memorable events. The older we get the less memorable events occur. 2. The amount of time passed relative to one’s age varies. For a 5-year-old, one year is 20% of their entire life. For a 50-year-old, however, one year is only 2% of their life. 3. Our biological clock slows as we age." ]
How does Russia keep its massive border secure?	[ "Part of the reason that Russia is so big is to help answer this very problem. Mountains, totally barren deserts, huge rivers - these are the 'natural barriers' of geopolitics around which natural countries form. Russia has always sought to expand to these areas, limiting long borders on a map to narrow passes and ...	[ "Hi, I've approved the post, but just a note to you and potential respondents: this subreddit has a 20-year rule against discussing current events, so any answers will have to cut off at 1997. If you're looking for answers that can include 1998-2012, do consider x-posting elsewhere, eg. a foreign affairs sub like /...
the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath	[ "A sociopath is really a person with extremely antisocial tendencies and lack of conscience. A psychopath is one who actually often interacts socially and can often be undetectable. Still however, they lack the ability to express or feel certain emotions, such as guilt. I actually watched a very interesting [TED Ta...	[ "hi everyone! just a reminder to respondents to be mindful of this sub's [\"20-year rule\": no discussion of events/conditions post-1994 please](_URL_0_)! thanks! OP, if you'd like to carry on this discussion for more recent years, consider x-posting this question to /r/AskSocialScience." ]

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