Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
Why are fingerprints an individually unique feature of the human race? Are there other species that exhibit features like this?	[ "Gorillas and chimps also have them. Koalas have fingerprints that are almost indistinguishable from humans. _URL_1_ EDIT- _URL_0_ Thanks sharoz" ]	[ "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...
Why can't magnets be used to create a motor that never stops?	[ "Because a motor has to drive something else to move also, and in doing so the energy input that began the perpetual motion you describe gets dissipated. This causes that motion to slow and eventually stop. Edit: Just to add, most perpetual motion displays (often toys) use an object that doesn't appear to stop spin...	[ "This question is pretty tough to imagine. Here's something that might help: Imagine you live on a [Möbius strip](_URL_0_). You're facing straight down at all times. You leave a ghost image of yourself as you go around the strip. Travel fully around and you get back to where you started, still looking the same way....
Where I live, most of our electricity is hydroelectric. If the turbines in the dam weren't there, where would all of that energy be going? Would the riverbed just be eroding that much faster?	[ "Erosion is one factor, but energy would be dissipated in the turbulence of the water, heat generated by the friction in the water and also more evaporation. Greater evaporation transports more energy in the heat of enthalpy. Have a look at the tail race of a hydro plant. It is very smooth and calm water. If the wa...	[ "Drones are typically used to target militant commanders in the hard to access tribal regions of Pakistan. They allow the US to conduct recon in the area for longer periods without the risk of losing a pilot. Drones have also been used in Yemen to target the growing influence of Al-Qaeda in the Arab peninsula. The...
Is it possible for a male human to receive a testicle xenotransplantation and produce viable sperm of the donor species?	[ "This is an interesting question as the testicle is one of the few sites in the body that is [shielded](_URL_0_) from the immune system." ]	[ "Work is being done on getting spinal nerves to regrow and attach. So far its still in the rat testing stage but they are having good results. Also, there have been experiments with jumping the gap with electronics technology that are also showing promise. Turns out, if your can transmit the signals reliably across...
Why do I wake up 5-1 minutes before the time my alarm is set for, nearly every day - even though I change the time I wake up most days?	[ "You have a good internal clock. Your body has a clock that manages time. The sound of your alarm is a disruptive awakening and bodies will naturally attempt to wake up prior to the sound of an alarm naturally to avoid being woken from a deep sleep by an alarm." ]	[ "I don't think you are going to get a valid answer. Music in and of itself is a confusing scientific phenomena. Our attachment to it is a strange byproduct of various cortical functions. We don't really understand why it exists (though there are many theories, none with anything close to proof). The most likely exp...
What's the difference between someone being attracted to (for example) tall people, and someone being attracted to people of the same gender?	[ "One is a preference, the other is a sexual orientation. A preference is usually learned -- for example, I'm a musician. I like hanging out with other musicians. When I was younger, I preferred to date musicians. That preference has since changed. You can make a conscious decision to change your preference. Sexual...	[ "Context is important. I'm not surprised to see a hot dog at a hot dog stand. I'd be surprised if I opened my wallet to pay for a hot dog and it only had a hot dog inside. I'm not surprised to see beach clothing at a beach, but would be concerned if I'm about to go into surgery and the surgeon shows up in a speedo....
Why did it take so long to develop helicopters compared to airplanes?	[ "Helos are a nightmare. /r/AskEngineers is your best bet unless you want to ask over at /r/engineering or even worse /r/AerospaceEngineering" ]	[ "Processing power. Your IPhone may be good and a marvel of miniaturization, but it isn't nearly as powerful as your laptop. The laptop can process all of the complex images and ads far faster than your phone can because your laptop processes everything faster." ]
What does this wire do.	[ "It splits an 1/8th inch audio out port into it's components, video and sound (left & right channels)... It is usually used with a specialized device that works with something like a camcorder or camera... So you can hook up (using standard RCA patch cords) a tv to the camcorder to play back your recordings..." ]	[ "Welder/Boilermaker here, It should say right on the front panel. AC, DC, or AC/DC. There's also a stamped tag on the back of most welding machines that gives you all the specifics for that machine." ]
LI5: How can economics be a science with such different schools of economics?	[ "No idea about Biology, but in Physics this happens all the time. Theories are postulated/discussed/debunked/improved all the time. For a while there were two schools of thought over sub-atomic Physics - Bohr vs Einstein (or rather Heisenberg vs Schrodinger) who ultimately reconciled and all was well. I'm sure it ...	[ "Because no one literally lost the money, but rather the things they owned lost value. If you have a pipping hot pizza you could probably sell it to someone for $10. If you dropped it on the ground, no one will buy it. The pizza lost value." ]
How do movie-makers make horses falling and dying look so realistic without actually hurting the horse?	[ "Someone watched Game of Thrones yesterday ;) Anyways. It's CGI or models. You are right that horses would get easily hurt, and because of the unique way a horse's bone works, once they have a broken leg you kinda have to kill them if you don't want to be cruel. So, that's a big no, and the only way around that wo...	[ "I'm a little confused - you say morphine or propofol, but quote an article saying that hydromorphone and midazolam resulted in 2 hour long executions. Morphine is orders of magnitude weaker than hydromorphone and they are both opiates. Midazolam and propofol are both used medically for the same thing - heavy seda...
Is it true that the NSA/CIA is able to hack in to almost everything? If so, what enables them to do it compared to other hacking groups that cant get past the so called "unhackable systems".	[ "They certainly can't hack everything. They are a government agency though, so they have tons of resourves, top level mathmaticians and programmers, they also have the ability to get backdoors into programs due to being an official agency. They also have a lot of money so they can have huge supercomputers to crack ...	[ "New algorithms simplify the computations required. Also, building GPU chips for ray tracing means the hardware is better suited for the specific tasks that ray tracing demands. We've heard for years that real-time ray tracing was decades away from being possible (or perhaps impossible), but that was assuming every...
wireless electricity and why it wouldn't kill people around it	[ "Because there is no electric current to get a shock from. Wireless chargers create an electromagnetic field, no different to a magnet really. Inside your device, this gets turned back into electricity again." ]	[ "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...
Why do my eyes hurt after I shower a while?	[ "Bot removed my previous comment because it was too short. Albeit, it was kind of a smart ass answer, so I'll let it go. But it probably has to do with your eye's ph level or something. Tears have a lot of specific traits that make your eyes feel comfortable. So whether you are getting water in them or a little bit...	[ "I asked my science teacher this like 10+years ago, basically your facial muscles squeeze your tear ducts" ]
If flu is seasonal, what happens to it in between seasons and how does it come back?	[ "It's always around, to an extent. People are always catching the flu, all year round. Most of the time, it doesn't spread that quickly, so only a few people are catching it. Very few. But when the the whether is cold, something happens that suddenly causes it to spread much faster. Doctors aren't entirely sure why...	[ "The McRib is only offered when pork prices are at their lowest. This is probably the main reason why there are limited time products. It might also be due to weak sales, unreliable supply of the ingredients, and the idea of scarcity making the product seem more appealing (hype.)" ]
why did older cars and trucks have the high beam switch on the floorboard.	[ "The high beam and starter switches use large physical relays that used to be operated directly because they control lots of current and are too heavy to conveniently flip with your fingers. The invention of solenoid switches made it possible to control high-current devices with much lighter stalk-mounted switches ...	[ "You falling out as s kid multiple times and your subconscious integrating the fact that you sleep on something elevated. There is a level of consciousness, yes." ]
What is the biological advantage of symmetry?	[ "I am going to suggest one component: mechanical advantage. Locomotion with paired, symmetrical appendages has lower energy expenditure and greater advantage compared to overly asymmetrical ones. Think about if one of your legs was twice the size of the other. Your stride would be unbalanced and I would argue that ...	[ "> People not interested in sex with the other gender are obviously not beneficial for the survival of human race That's a pretty blatant assumption." ]
Why did the kingdoms of Britain never counter attack the Vikings? The battles of that period seemed rather one-directional	[ "It's incredibly difficult at that time to counter raiding víkingar due to the delay in communications between their target and any large body of standing troops - usually the local leader's posse commitatus of household troops - so by the time they did arrive, there'd be no more víkingar to fight. If you'r...	[ "I think you have a misconception on how wartime ships went under. Some sank catastrophically, like the HMS Hood, and the few survivors where those both protected by the explosion and high up enough to be able to get out of the sinking ship. However, ships exploding like that was uncommon - much more common was a...
What made the human race superior to other species? What made us rise above?	[ "Well, it's worth noting that we are only superior in the sense that we define as superior those traits which humans happen to possess. In real terms though, the planet is still utterly dominated by bacteria as it always has been. And they are better at very nearly everything than we are." ]	[ "Love drives us to form strong family groups and pair bonds. An emotionally bonded couple that feels a strong drive to protect their children will be more evolutionarily successful than a couple promiscuous individuals that feel no drive to protect their children or work together." ]
How do those drugs that "reverse" an overdose from a different drug work?	[ "So, with opiates. The drug enters the brain and sits on some receptors. This is how the brain experiences opiates. Naloxone will kick the opiate off the receptor and takes its place, preventing the drug from reattaching. Now, when the body gets rid of the Naloxone, the opiate is still there. So it's important to g...	[ "If you have a stream of foreign currency coming in, and you want to protect it from exchange rate fluctuations, you find someone else who has the opposite concern. If I want to protect a Euro to American Dollars (like an American company with a French subsidiary), I will find a investment bank (they typically brok...
Why does the exact same product vary in price so much between countries?	[ "This could be the combination of a variety of things that are all country specific: - import duties: these are put into place to protect or indirectly support the local industry; make similar imported products more expensive, makes local similar products more affordable. - taxes: some countries might tax a partic...	[ "Websites look at the billing address you used and based on the state the address is in, they match it to that states current tax rate." ]
Do the pupils in your eyes also respond to bright sources of light you can't see (say, infrared)?	[ "No. Pupillary constriction depends on parasympathetic input from the Edinger-Westphal nucleus, which gets its input from the optic nerve. The optic nerve transmits signals from the retinal rods and cones, which only generate a signal [when a photon in the visible range flips retinal from cis to trans](_URL_0_). Th...	[ "Normally when substances absorb the energy of photons they emit them back as light almost immediately. However some substances absorb the photons of light so that the energy of the photon kind of get's stuck into a \"quantum traffic jam\" within the molecules. It takes some time for the energy to be released as li...
What physical evidence do we have that atoms exist and they look like what we think?	[ "Here is a movie made by IBM using atoms. [A boy and his Atom](_URL_4_)" ]	[ "Grab a tennis ball and a lamp. Turn off every other light in the room. Hold up the tennis ball. Half is lit, half is dark. If you are looking from the side (you can see the lamp and the ball) you can see some of the dark side of the ball. The ONLY way to see nothing but lit ball is to have the lamp directly behin...
In a memoir of his experiences during World War II in the Red Army, author Nikolai Nikulin said that Joseph Stalin was a far removed, mysterious figure in Russia, similar to the Wizard of Oz. Is this an accurate representation of how Russians would've viewed him?	[ "If I could ask a tangential question, what is this memoir called? Sounds interesting" ]	[ "Check out Yuri Slezkine,[ Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North](_URL_0_)" ]
Why are smaller arteries usually accompanied by two veins?	[ "You're in a class using latin names still? That's rough. To paraphrase Moore's Clinical Anatomy - Deep arteries are accompanied by highly anastamosed venae comicantes, which may occur in double or multiple. These veins surround the artery, which allows for countercurrent heat exchange to occur - heat from arte...	[ "What exactly do you mean by \"harness fire\"? Regarding the fire that didn't go out, I believe you are referring to the fire the Vestal Virgins were charged with keeping aflame. The Vestal Virgins were priestesses of the goddess of the hearth, and were chosen around 12 years old or younger and made 30 year vows of...
Why is power over ethernet possible?	[ "Two main ways: 1. Simply take advantage of unused wires and send power over then. Ethernet cables have 8 wires organized into 4 pairs. At 100 Mbps, 2 pairs are unused. At 1 Gbps though, all 4 pairs are in use, so another method is needed. 2. Ethernet uses differential signaling. The exact voltages on the cables do...	[ "We can't, and nobody is saying that (well, nobody credible). There is absolutely zero proof of them, and they are not even a scientific theory - they're a mere hypothesis, or even just a thought experiment." ]
How do these glasses work?	[ "The lenses are star filters, which are tiny, invisibly fine gratings that catch the light in six directions. Here's a page I found for making one of your own from what looks like metal mesh: _URL_0_ I think that the finer the mesh is, the better the results would be. The lenses in your glasses are probably just sc...	[ "It doesn't. There's no science behind it at all. It's all the ideomotor effect." ]
why do black people have extremely curly hair?	[ "Straight hair that lies flat tends to hold in heat. That's an advantage in cold climates. Curly hair allows heat to escape while still providing protection from the sun to the skin underneath. That's an advantage in hot climates. Melanin in skin (the part that makes it dark) tends to block what's needed to make vi...	[ "It is down to the combination of the genes you get half the genes from your mother and half from your father but those genes are an almost random selection of those genes which go to make up each so can be combined in trillions of different ways. Like saying you get half a pack of cards from one parent and half fr...
Why is the Sun yellow, but the other stars in the sky are white?	[ "Color of stars is proportional to the temperature of the outside of the star. Astronomers have classified this as [spectral type](_URL_2_) assigning each to a letter in order of temperature: O, B, A, F, G, K, M. Our sun is a G-type yellow star ranking in at about 5,800 kelvins. If the sun was 3 or 400 degrees hott...	[ "On earth, the phenomenon depends on two things: earth’s magnetic field, and earths atmosphere. I’m on my phone, so can’t write the entire process, but basically charged particles are shot out of the sun and then are captured by earth’s magnetic field and funnelled down into the atmosphere at the poles. The visibl...
If Dark Matter is changing the rotation speed of stars in every galaxy, why does it not change the rotation speed of planets around stars?	[ "Well, the key word here is \"measurable\". Dark matter likely has some effect on planets, but a negligible one. Dark matter is extremely diffuse, even when it is \"clumping\" into dark matter halos that are found around all galaxies. This means that you are only likely to have a measurable effect on objects of gal...	[ "Brown dwarfs have sufficient mass for fusion of deuterium, whereas anything smaller than this class does not. At a certain point yet to be determined by scientists, once a mass generates enough energy it's not a planet anymore." ]
How did pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens get in the season items business (Halloween costumes, Christmas lights, Beach chairs, etc.) When did the practice start?	[ "My answer isn't limited to why these stores have \"seasonal\" items, it applies to why they have all kinds of non-pharmacy items. Some states have \"blue laws,\" which regulate what kinds of stores are allowed to be open on sundays and holidays. Obviously, pharmacies tend to be exempt from those laws because it's ...	[ "they do keep updating it and adding features, so your not exactly buying a 10 year old gopro for the same retail price. with that said, gopro is in pretty dire financial trouble because their market has been yanked out from under them by bigger competitors with less overhead and more efficient supply chains. They ...
Can cats or dogs see what's on a TV or computer monitor?	[ "Please avoid anecdote. The answer should not include the words \"my cat\" or \"my dog\". Instead please cite research." ]	[ "In addition to the thread below, these previous answers might be of interest while you're waiting: [Did Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip really have such a rocky marriage in the early years of her reign?](_URL_0_) by /u/PM_ME_YOUR_DALEKS [In \"The Crown\", Queen Elizabeth II was portrayed as having some insecurit...
The expansion of space	[ "new space isnt added, it's just expanding. It's a property of empty space, this doesnt happen in our galactic cluster because galaxies are gravitationally bound. While gravity is the weakest of the forces, it is still strong enough to counter act spacetime expansion. It doesn't happen around atoms, because the wea...	[ "Sean Carroll has a decent blog post about this [here](_URL_0_). The basic statement is that this is what you expect for a universe that is (at least very nearly) spatially flat." ]
how come when we are babies, we drink laying down, but when we are older, we have to sit up to avoid choking while drinking?	[ "This doesn't change between babies and adults. It's actually the exact same. What changes is they way we take our drinks as we get older. As babies we are drinking from a nipple (either an actual nipple of a simulated one on baby bottles). A baby has to suck to get liquid out of it. If you tilt a baby bottle, ver...	[ "Memories are similar to data stored in a computer - it either reads (looks back on a stored memory) or it writes (logs and saves data / memories). When you’re about to fall asleep, your brain is going from conscious to unconscious, where it won’t write new memories. Without storing information, you don’t remember ...
Since glass doesn't oxidize like metal, why don't two pieces of very clean glass cold weld when pushed together?	[ "Because at the microscale, they’re not very flat and not very clean. Even very carefully polished silicon wafers may have a roughness on the order of angstroms, and a few seconds of exposure in air is enough time to accumulate a monolayer of gunk." ]	[ "It's clearer when you think of a crystal of each. Take quartz (silicon dioxide) and dry ice (carbon dioxide) for example. In quartz, the ratio of silicon to oxygen is 1:2, but each sillicon is bound to four oxygens. Each of these four oxygens is bound to two silicons, which is bound to four oxygens, and so on, al...
Why do seagulls tap the ground constantly with their feet?	[ "It's something called worm charming: by causing the ground to vibrate the worms are encouraged to surface. It's something humans do (or used to do) as well to use them as bait for fishing. Stomping the ground (with your feet or with a shovel) will bring earthworms to the surface. Supposedly this is because it is s...	[ "Get rid of nervous/extra energy, wake up their leg if it's fallen asleep, try to ease the pain of cramps?" ]
How, when and where did the concept of last name came to exist first?	[ "There's a section on surnames in the FAQ; it won't answer all your questions, so hopefully someone will come along with more info on Yugoslavia, but you'll find lots of examples here: [Surnames](_URL_0_) see the \"popular questions\" link on the sidebar, or the \"wiki\" tab above" ]	[ "A day of rest is in the Bible (as in \"and on the 7th day (after Creation) God rested\") to the Jews this was the Sabbath (celebrated on Saturday) and to Catholics this day was on Sunday (the day Jesus resurrected) Having both days was much more recent. It's part or social reforms limiting the work week to 40 hour...
Why is the research done at high energy particle accelerators important for mankind?	[ "Particle accelerators help scientists understand how the physical world works. Theoretical physicists can construct models of quantum mechanics and particle physics, but without experimental equipment like particle accelerators, they're flying blind. High level physics is how we get the super high density computi...	[ "Have you ever wondered what's inside your bouncy ball? Imagine it was too small to cut but you really, really wanted to know. What you might want to try is throwing it into something so hard that it breaks and you can see the smaller parts. Of course, if you only have another bouncy ball because that's the only th...
Why do downloads often stop at 99% before finishing?	[ "Three possible reasons: 1. File integrity verification: Your computer performs an operation on the data you downloaded and compares the result to a checksum. If answer and checksum do not match, the data is corrupt. This is how your computer tells if your file's data is a completely correct copy. **2. Uncompr...	[ "a program is like a piece of cloth occasionally a hole is found so you put a patch on it but the cloth remains the same size when you want to make a cloth a blanket then you make it bigger this is called bloat" ]
How do big fireworks work? They stuff a bunch of gunpowder in a cardboard tube yet it blows up into the sky in a perfect colorized pattern?	[ "A great deal more work goes into making big fireworks than just stuffing gunpowder in a tube. The cannon shells are actually round, and can take days to manufacture a single big one. Layer after layer of explosive material with different mixes of burnable colors, sparklers, fuses, and protective layers. Then, afte...	[ "They don't make everything from scratch in each restaurant. Things are made in a factory and shipped to the stores, similar to how you'd buy a box of Mac and Cheese. Inside they have a packet of \"cheese\" powder. You make Mac and Cheese at home when you open the box and follow the instructions, but that doesn't m...
I found a rock on the side of the road. Without using carbon dating, what is a reasonable estimate of the age of this rock?	[ "If you have an approximate location, and you can approximate the type of rock, you can look at a geologic map of the area and come up with a fairly good idea of what it is and how old it is. If you have a piece of sandstone, a microscope, and a good idea of microbiology, you can look at the micro fossil assemblage...	[ "The strongest motivators are civic pride and identity. A town that has grown large might consider itself successful on that account alone. There were many towns that were founded but did not grow, and disappeared. Sometimes the town grew due to the civic leadership, sometimes it was environmental factors, but the ...
Sorry for the dumb question! How does feeling a breeze when moving not violate Special Relativity?	[ "If the air isn't moving and you aren't moving, you won't feel anything. If the air is still and you are moving, you will feel your hand hitting the air. If you're stationary but there's a strong wind, you will feel the air hitting your hand. If you were moving at 40km/h in still air, it would feel the same as if y...	[ "> because each flavor has a different mass The flavors don’t have well-defined masses. There are three mass eigenstates and three flavor eigenstates. But a neutrino or a given mass is a superposition of all three flavors, and a neutrino of a given flavor is a superposition of all three masses. If the flavors had ...
Is it possible to make pitch-corrected versions of older music? (1960s & '70s specifically)	[ "Do you really want angry grateful dead fans on your hands? I'm thinking the harmonies would be the hardest because there are two voices and all the instruments combined into one or two tracks. Usually for auto tuning each voice and instrument is recorded on its own track with its own microphone so that they can t...	[ "I would suggest looking into how we build circuits that take a variable DC level and convert it to a sometimes very accurate stable, different DC level. [Voltage references](_URL_0_) to start. [Bandgap voltage references](_URL_3_) [Ohm's law](_URL_2_) was formulated in 1827. [Properties of a diode discovered in ...
Do any documented cases of animals becoming suicidal exist? If so, why does it happen?	[ "There is a [wikipedia article](_URL_0_) on it but some examples are. Insect exploding to save the rest of the colony from predators. Parasites will infect the animals brain causing it commit suicide to continue it's life cycle. Dogs and Ducks apparently commit suicide by drowning, sometime after the loss of a mate...	[ "_URL_2_ columnist William Saletan waded into this issue several years ago with similar questions to yours. Here's an article posted AFTER his initial article and several followups, all of which can be reached via links within the article. It's an interesting journey with commentary from psychologists, statistician...
If the theory of Thia colliding with Earth created the moon was true. Would it have been possible for the Moon to developed an atmosphere and harbor life?	[ "The Moon [does have an extremely thin atmosphere](_URL_0_), which its extremely low gravity allows to escape (be blasted away by the solar wind). It is continuously replenished, but continuously blown away. If the Moon were much heavier, its gravity would enable it to hold a more substantial atmosphere. [Apollo ...	[ "Couple of things. Thera isn't big enough to cause a large eruption now. There is no caldera to collapse, no big lava reservoir, etc... It is a shell of its former self. What causes the extreme violence of island volcanoes (also see [Krakatoa](_URL_0_) in the Pacific) is the sudden mixture of large lava domes and c...
How can foods containing virtually no fat (e.g. greens) contain fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K)?	[ "Most of these foods are vegetables, which don't have solid fat, but rather vegetable oils. These exist in the cells of the vegetables, and the amount of vitamins in these are relatively low by weight." ]	[ "So there are three things that can happen to light when it hits something - it can either be absorbed, reflected, or transmitted. Which one will occur depends both upon the material being hit and the frequency of the light doing the hitting. For absorption or reflection to occur; this goes back to the idea that el...
Why does it physically hurt when your heart is broke?	[ "Depression. Depression and anxiety have physical symptoms, some of which are chest pains/tightening in the chest and a lack of appetite. Basically, your body goes a bit haywire in response to the imbalance of hormones in your brain." ]	[ "Your uterine and abdominal muscles are contracting to expel the uterine lining. Think of it as really mild labor." ]
Why is the right wing in the USA so supportive of Israel when compared to Europe? Was there ever a time when they weren't? If so, what caused the change?	[ "Greetings everyone. In the few minutes this sub has been up, it's attracting sub-standard responses. Just a reminder of a few of the rules: * no responses covering events/conditions post-1994, per this sub's \"20-year rule\" prohibiting discussion of current events * no anecdotes * no speculation OP: your question...	[ "It's similar to the way 125% subprime mortgages spread (without getting into the debate about whether that caused the recession) - you get a few groups who think a similar way, with broadly the same ideas, motivations, worldview, that sort of thing, and when one of them comes up with a policy that fits those ways ...
Why are identical-sized clothes from the same brand often different lengths or fits?	[ "Clothing production isn't entirely automated - in fact, there's relatively little automation involved considering how big of a mass production it is. People work directly with the product at every point, from cutting patterns out to stitching them together, so there's always going to be some variation due to human...	[ "I believe it result as an engineering/building cost versus business projection maximisation/minimisation problem of some sort. You have some land, you want to build both the biggest and cheapest building you can get, taking into account both possible growth in the future and even possible belt-tightening ( so the ...
Why is America so far behind other countries when it comes to things like PTO, maternity leave, etc?	[ "The wealthy have managed to convince the working class that the working class is evil and the cause of all their problems." ]	[ "That's just it. It takes a while to amass information and use it. An animal just does whatever comes natural, aka 'instinct'. But humans are taught and trained and learn and practice and... and... Layers and layers of information and training to get us to the point where we can actually achieve more than the previ...
An observer is placed in the center of a hallow spherical shaped object, on the inside wall of the sphere is a perfect spherical mirror, what would the observer see?	[ "[Here you go](_URL_0_) Basically up close you'd see your head with a bunch of distorted stuff in the background. As you back away from the wall toward the center, you'd see your face get bigger and bigger until it filled your vision. Then as you continued moving backward the image would flip and get smaller and sm...	[ "I can try to take an ELI5 whack at this. \"Nothing\" is the absence of an external object, an \"external object\" is something outside of the mind. However, there are countless debates about whether \"nothing\" or \"the absence of an external object\" is actually an object itself. In short, nothing could be just...
I've heard it mentioned in non-academic contexts, that the Roman Empire didn't die, it just became the Church.	[ "To paraphrase Terry Pratchett, from one way of looking at it that is correct, but from another, perhaps more accurate way, that is not correct. I would argue that this thought comes from two different streams in scholarship: one is that the \"fall\" of Rome was really just a transition, and the other is looking at...	[ "Because the word \"realm\" (the closest translation) is too general. Even German has multiple words for \"realm of a king\" vs \"realm of an emperor\" vs \"realm of someone else\". By saying \"the Nazi realm\", what do we mean? Do we mean Germany and Austria, where the Nazis actually ruled directly? Do we mean tho...
Why are INDOOR pools closed when it storms?	[ "My pool I supervise at has the water tank and filtration system underground. It can be struck by lightning which would feed into the actual pool and do harm. That's why we evacuate when its lightning outside even though it's indoor." ]	[ "It's just an obsolete tradition now, that few care about. It started back when summer clothes and winter or formal city clothes were different, often made out of different materials. Such as cotton vs wool. And often the families of the gentry class would relocate from their winter home in the city to their summer...
Why is it that I can change the temperature of the air that I blow out?	[ "It is because of the [Venturi effect](_URL_0_). If you blow your air your mouth wide open, the speed of the air you blow is slower than if your mouth is almost close. The Venturi effect says that the pressure of a gas is inversely proportional to its speed, and the pressure of a gas is also proportional to its tem...	[ "This is called diffusion. The rate at which it moves varies based on the temperature of the gasses involved (hotter means faster) and the relative density and composition of the the \"smell particles\". Some smells are made of more dense molecules, and will diffuse slower...lighter ones will move quicker. The ...
What technology was created during the Cold War, and is some of it still in use today?	[ "You've likely eaten out of a material designed for use in Cold War missiles--CorningWare. Since it was designed (in 1958) to be able to deal with very high temperatures as well as thermal shock (big changes in temperature), it was readily adapted to cookware. The iconic blue pattern was added and a classic was bor...	[ "To an extent, yes. Spoilage is generally caused by organisms consuming the food product, so preventing bacteria or fungi from growing on the food would work. I suppose canning+gamma bombardment would sterilize and seal a foodstuff. Another method is to take advantage of tonicity, the diffusion of water across memb...
If you're in America and forces to have an ambulance ride, do you have to pay?	[ "Yes. There are people with serious health issues who are forced to wear things which specifically say not to call an ambulance - because they wouldn't be able to afford it. Many people have been using UBER to get to hospital in an emergency because it's cheaper..." ]	[ "That was the purpose of Obamacare - the idea is that forcing insurers to adhere to a national standard of care and create a more transparent pricing model (as well as forcing everyone to join the market under a tax penalty) would long term drive down health care costs. Given the current state of obamacare and the ...
How do Cell phone towers work/get their service?	[ "I dunno how ELI5 you're looking for. But basically a cellphone is actually a radio transceiver and the cell towers have transceivers as well. Each tower is ultimately wired up to some form of a landline in order to provide telephone and Internet service. As you move around, your cellphone connects to the tower tha...	[ "Because is costs them money to bring that signal to you. Why does a gas station charge you 99 cents for a bottle of water when it falls out of the sky for free?" ]
how is a phone call traced?	[ "It doesn't happen like in the shows or movies. It doesn't take a minimum of 60seconds to trace or they lose it. LE sends the request to the phone companies and they just hand it over." ]	[ "Using statistics. A representative sample of a country's population either get asked to keep a record of what they watch or listen to or have devices in their TVs or radios that do this. This information is gathered and the figures are scaled up to the whole country. EDIT: grammar" ]
So is aspartame bad for you or not?	[ "No, it's not bad for you. Studies have repeatedly shown this, which is why it's formally approved as healthy in basically every country which does that. Health concerns about aspartame are just like concerns that vaccines cause autism; people are scared by chemicals, and some won't trust any amount of scientific e...	[ "This is a good, straightforward article on the matter: _URL_0_" ]
What is the point of filing for an extension on your taxes if you have to pay what is due up front?	[ "One can quickly do a back of the envelope computation of their liability and determine that they owe less than say $5000. They pay $5000 now and then can take their time in getting paperwork together to look for various deductions in order to minimize their bill, and request a refund at a later date. As such it is...	[ "Here's a tidbit from getting mail back from the exploration expeditions in the late 1700s and early 1800s back from, say, Africa, or at least Mungo Park did this when he set out looking for the Niger and many others under Joseph Banks did the same. On the back of these letters, they'd say that whoever delivered th...
Why professors give exams they know almost everyone is going to fail.	[ "The purpose of a class isn't to pass students, its to teach a given curriculum. Maybe he's just a dick, but it's entirely possible most students don't understand what the class teaches after a semester's study." ]	[ "This is like asking \"why does a fire burn itself out - what's the point of using up all the fuel if it can't sustain itself?\"." ]
Why does it feel so strange whenever I walk on to a stationary escalator?	[ "Basically every time you used the escalator, it moved by itself. The first times it felt weird because your body wasn't used to use stairs that move by themselves. So the first time you used an escalator, you probably felt like you lost balance and needed a few seconds to stabilise. After many uses, your brain got...	[ "Electricity has to complete a circuit - i.e. it has to go into them, and then back out. Think of a battery - they have two poles, one for the current to flow out of, and another for it to return. If something is sitting on just one wire, it's not completing that circuit, and the electricity has nowhere to go." ]
How do animals know to look you in the eye?	[ "Millions of years of evolution have programmed animals to \"know\" that looking at other animals' eyes will tell them if the other animal can see them. It is very important for survival (if you are a predator, you know if the prey sees you, and vice-versa; if your are looking for a mating partner, it helps noticin...	[ "We can, it is just it takes a lot of study and the language isn't in the same form as human language so it isn't just like learning German or Spanish and it comes with body language, scents and other non verbal cues _URL_0_" ]
My cat bolting for no apparent reason	[ "Read Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko. It deosn't give an actual reason, but the made up one is pretty cool. Russian distopic modern fantasy. Seriously though, my guess would be either: 1. Extra energy (I sometimes just start running places too.) 2. Seeing a little critter or something that you don't." ]	[ "[Here](_URL_0_) is a PBS article on the subject that will hopefully give you some leads. Some animals like birds or sharks react to temperature or pressure changes ahead of bad weather. The article points out that \"though there have been documented cases of unusual animal behavior prior to earthquakes, a reproduc...
How do we suck? Like, how does the physical action of creating suction in you mouth work?	[ "When you suck in, you are actually extending your chest cavity. This creates a change in pressure, essentially creating a void that needs to be filled. As atmospheric pressure is higher outside of your body, air flows in to fill the cavity. Edit: slight sentence restructuring" ]	[ "Our bodies are a product of natural selection. Organisms well suited to their environment tend to survive longer and reproduce more. For us to have abilities like very good memory there needs to be some sort of advantage. Imagine having very good memory 10,000 years ago - neat to have, but does it really help you ...
Why is it when I stare directly at something in a near pitch black room that I know is there, I can't see it. But when I look away I can see it in my peripheral vision?	[ "In your eye you have rods and cones, the cones are used for colour vision (Good in bright light, and good at detail) and the rods are used for black and white vision (Good in low light - low detail) The [fovea](_URL_0_) (where most of the land will be focused) is covered in cones (and fewer rods) since you use the...	[ "It's the same as the [pinhole effect](_URL_1_). When light rays pass through a lens, the rays through the very center of the lens are [not deviated](_URL_0_). By limiting the incoming light rays to only the very center of the lens or lens system (which is what your eye is), you cut down on much of the blur that wo...
Why were so many Soviet military vehicles amphibeous?	[ "The simple answer is that the majority of rivers in Western Europe run along a general North/South axis (_URL_0_), whereas the Russian axis of advance was East/West. Those Russian armies poised to invade Western Europe would have a number of river crossings to perform. I am not sure, however, why they should favou...	[ "At the time, it was the best means of transporting water. Meaning, it was cheap, malleable & most, of not all plumbers were able to literally, make pipes & fittings while on the site." ]
How were Asian Americans treated in the US military?	[ "There definitely were Asian Americans that served in the US military in those wars. Even aside from the famed Japanese-American units like the 442nd Regiment/100th Battalion, there were Asian American officers who served and commanded non-segregated units. Rear Admiral Gordon Chung-hoo served as a destroyer's comm...	[ "Very poorly. Assuming you ask about the time period after we found out they were possible, before that they obviously weren't a thing, but before we found out why people died left right and centre. However, we soon found out that some combination of blood clotted, others worked fine." ]
If online gambling is an illegal practice (U.S), then how to fantasy football websites end up dishing out millions to people who invest a mere $10?	[ "Why are things illegal? Because the law says they're illegal. In the US, [the law that makes online gambling illegal](_URL_0_) specifically makes an exception for fantasy sports leagues. That's all there is to it. It's not a complex loophole, the law just says \"you can do this one thing\"." ]	[ "someone earlier on ELI5 asked why Snoop Dogg could talk about smoking weed and not get arrested, and this is similar. It's just not worth police time chasing down minor offenses that they see on TV. Especially when they have no way to prove what they saw on TV was real" ]
Why is it so important to take birth control at the same time everyday?	[ "Hormonal birth control is exactly that, hormones. By taking the pill at the same time every day, you're keeping the level of hormones constant, which makes them most effective." ]	[ "Space agencies coordinate data on the tracking of the debris field above earth, to help avoid any sizable objects. But mostly, the odds are just very low that you will hit anything. The surface of the earth is a big place, and the stuff we put into orbit, with a few exceptions, is relatively tiny. Picture a dust m...
Why did arcade machines only let you input 3 characters for the high school?	[ "people (generally) have 3 names, first, middle, last which makes 3 initials which is what you were expected to enter. you have to limit the character input somewhere and 3 was as good a place as any (allowing for a full name could require an unknown number of characters, true for any name you chose, but they likel...	[ "Ever seen a sign at a convenience store \"We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone\" ? In many states and countries with casinos, that is part of the casino laws. _URL_0_ They can't really \"harass\" you, and they can't take away any of the money you've already won, but they can refuse to deal you another ...
Why is it acceptable in the US judicial system for a large organization to simply pay fees or settlements to avoid admitting that they did something wrong? What prevents them from committing similar crimes in the future? Can other crimes be handled like this too?	[ "There's a big difference between a civil offense and a criminal offense. Rarely do we allow people to buy their way out of a criminal offense. When we let people buy their way out of civil offenses, it's because they're being punished financially for their wrongdoing. What stops them from doing it in the future is...	[ "The majority of crime isn't random as you describe. Random crime is a big pisser to solve. Most crime, especially serious crime, is a lot more reasoned. A killing that clearly benefits someone or a crime of passion in which it's well known who the person was with at the time of death and that sort of thing. Crimes...
Can The Large Intestine Absorb Sugar? (X-post from r/leagueoflegends)	[ "Nope, it just absorbs water and electrolytes, some vitamins (ie vitamin K made from colonic bacteria), any bile acids that weren't taken up in the small intestine, and stores feces. Secretes some mucus too." ]	[ "Steps: 1. Flight or flight, adrenaline, sympathetic kicks in. 2. Blood leaves GI tract because who needs to digest when a bear is clawing my ass. 3.blood leaving GI = heart sank. EDIT: I was corrected it is indeed sympathetic." ]
Why can't humans control their ring finger as easily as the others?	[ "The tendon for the ring finger is connected to the middle and pinky tendons, if you follow them on the back of your hand you can kind of see where they join just above the wrist." ]	[ "Eyes adjust by deforming the [lens](_URL_0_) in your eyes. The shape of a lens change the path of the light that goes through it. By changing the shape our eyes makes so that the light has a path that makes the image of what you are seeing form exactly on the back of you eye, thus making it good (otherwise it woul...
China has been growing @ 7-10% for the last 40 years (give it or take). Why is it that China needs to slow down to keep a healthy economy?	[ "Part of the problem is that a growing economy means that the workers demand a higher salary, which makes production more expensive. Many companies produce in China because labour is so cheap there. But if it becomes more expensive, companies will start moving to countries that are still as cheap as China used to b...	[ "Human brains are much larger and more complicated than those of other animals. They take much more time to develop. Many animals, in contrast, are born with almost fully developed brains. Humans brains need much more time to develop to their full capacity. In fact, human brains don't hit their peak until about 24-...
- Without Giving Me Any Bias, Explain To Me The Different Motives and Intentions of Both the Republican and Democratic Parties	[ "Motives and intentions of both parties is to get - and stay - elected. Everything beyond that gets very fuzzy - both parties have flipflopped their position on issues dependent on what the popular stance is, both parties have criticized the other for something that they do themselves to look better in the eyes of ...	[ "I have a question for you. Do you want the version that is super, super long and includes a write-up on what actually went down at Munich, and the subsequent responses back and forth? Or do you want the shorter version that only talks about media coverage of the incident and how it changed things?" ]
How are underwater tunnels made without flooding and killing the workers?	[ "They don't build the tunnel through the water, they dig under the rock that's under the water. [Here is a diagram](_URL_0_) so you can see what it looks like." ]	[ "With London if I remember correctly there hadn't been good documentation of buildings to account for depth of all that the tube would pass under. Some lines like the Piccadilly line and Northern line are incredible deep to account for this. Others building surveryors were called in to assess already built building...
What happens in our blood circulation when we go pale after "seeing a ghost"?	[ "If \"seeng a ghost\" frightens us, then the fear response kicks in, which among other things directs blood flow to the big muscles so that they are ready for 'fight or flight', so less is flowing through the skin surface, making us look pale. ... you know there aren't such things as ghosts, right?" ]	[ "Well, you shouldn't do it for too long... but the basic premise is that the light is coming in at an angle to the earth's atmosphere, meaning that the sunlight is both scattered by a lot more air that it has to cross to get to you, and because the intensity is reduced: for instance, check out this image. _URL_0_ ...
Did people have different swear words in the past?	[ "This has come up fairly often so there's just a treasure trove of info on this topic [here](_URL_0_). You can find more answers to popular questions in [this](_URL_1_) portion of the subreddits wiki." ]	[ "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...
How do TV game shows tax people who get cash on the spot?	[ "Any cash prize (including lotteries) is generally considered income in the eyes of the IRS (or similar entity for other countries). The person/entity giving the money will report the transfer of money to the IRS (and in some cases, offer to withhold the expected taxes) , and it becomes the responsibility of the r...	[ "Only mildly related, but when I saw that title, I imagined a boy band fighting an alien hunter in the jungle, and assumed it was a parody series. As for Chris Hansen and his hard-on (pun intended) for catching child molesters, I'm not 100% sure how legal it is. I imagine that these people are foolishly giving thei...
How is it that when women apply heat to their hair it becomes softer and shinier, but is actually damaging the hair?	[ "When hair is heated the proteins that make up hair (keratin) are damaged (denatured). In doing so they don't hold together as well. This makes the hair softer. In essence, damaging the hair through heat is what causes the hair to be softer. Not sure what causes the shininess though." ]	[ "As a main sequence star, the Sun fuses hydrogen into helium in its core. This produces electromagnetic energy that radiates outward through the star. This creates an outward pressure that counteracts gravity, thus keeping the star somewhat stable. As it burns through the hydrogen in its' core and there is less to ...
Why is each outer planet about twice as far as the last one?	[ "It used to be thought that there was something significant about their placement (e.g. the [Titus-Bode Law](_URL_0_)), but quantitatively there really isn't anything special about them." ]	[ "Their surfaces aren't exposed to the oxygen or fire. Same reason food cooks from the outside towards the center or a block of wood burns outside first then burns towards the inside." ]
Why does it hurt if I drink through the nose?	[ "We didn't evolve to drink through our noses like for example elephants. We evolved to drink through our mouths. We smell and breath through our nose. Water getting in our noses implies to our body that we might be underwater and getting water inside us, so we might be in danger of drowning. So the unpleasant feeli...	[ "Your body can only process a certain amount of water within a certain amount of time. Anything extra gets pushed through the system faster. Think of it like putting a bucket under a faucet and another bucket under a waterfall. Your body can only process one bucket at a time, so even though the waterfall will fill...
Why is the value of ¥ (Japanese yen) so little even if they're a rich country?	[ "The answer is that the lowest denominator of a currency has nothing (usually) to do with the power of the economy as long as it is stable and retains a healthy value and inflation rates compared to other currencies. The same question might be asked of the US cent, why is it so worthless if the US is so rich? A cur...	[ "The change came with the meeting between Nixon and Mao. Reading up on that meeting might be a place to start. The relationship between China (PRC) and Taiwan (ROC) is interesting. Both governments consider them to be one country. As long as the exiled-government-of-China-which-resides-in-Taiwan continued (and cont...
Is there a function or benefit to cutaneous marginal pouch (also called Henry's Pocket) in cat and dog ears?	[ "Not much research really. It's possible that it functions a similar role to the pinna notch in our ears, that is, it directs and attenuates other frequencies, with higher frequencies sometimes being eliminated and lower frequencies being directed into the ear. How the pocket would do this, I'm not sure. Possibly i...	[ "The use of fuzzy logic in washing machines is probably mostly Marketing Speak™, as the problem of washing clothes clean can fairly easily be codified in traditional ways due to the few variables involved: You can measure temperature, water level, load, humidity, balance and time; and you can influence cold water...
I have a blanket that's fuzzy on one side and slick on the other side. When I lay under it fuzzy-side down, is it really keeping me warmer, or is it just my imagination?	[ "An important aspect to heating and insulation is 'dead air' which is trapped air. Air is a pretty good insulator and will trap heat effectively as long as it cannot move around. Comforter blankets are puffy for this very reason. While I can't say anything specific about your blanket, the fuzzy side might on averag...	[ "Your brain is programmed by evolution to seek out patterns, and make sense of the world through stories. This has allowed humans to recognize certain laws of nature in order to take advantage of them (seeking out patterns is really just the fundamental building block of the scientific method). It has also allowed ...
Why are there all those enormous stars out there, but (unless I'm wrong) we never hear about any planets like that?	[ "Anything that's more than about 80 times the mass of Jupiter will have enough pressure at its core for the hydrogen to start fusing into helium, and then it is a star. Objects between about 12 and 80 times the mass of Jupiter are in a gray area called brown dwarves, which are really neither stars nor planets." ]	[ "They use [Doppler spectroscopy](_URL_0_) to determine the relative motions and period of the star and planet. [Orbital mechanics](_URL_2_) then gives the mass ratio of both. Edit: [Dannei's comment](_URL_1_) is a far more complete and instructive answer to this question." ]
Why is there an initiative to split California into six different states?	[ "From what I've seen - as reported in the British press - the reasoning is economic. Primary evidence of this is the \"Silicon Valley\" area, which is an economic term. It also seems to describe the people behind the initiative, who want a tax regime that is more responsive to the economic situation to their area t...	[ "This is a very common question. You can use search to find [all the other really good answers](_URL_0_ ). This is instant, and faster than ust typing in your question every time. It's a way of cheating elections. Read the others, and then ask a more specific question." ]
How is it we have such amazing pictures of galaxies millions of light years away, yet such low quality photos of Pluto?	[ "Because Pluto is very small and dark, whereas galaxies are really big and really bright." ]	[ "My guess? When you're dealing with a lot of makeup, prosthesis, special effects its easier to hide flaws. You can see acne under makeup in high def, you couldn't really see that back in the day. Just a guess." ]
I read that insulin is a hormone, but also that it is a protein. How can something be both?	[ "A hormone is a signaling chemical in the body, whereas a protein is a type of chemical compound. So, insulin can be a protein (in that it's made of amino acids and has a protein structure) and a hormone in its job (regulating different metabolic functions)." ]	[ "Influenza is sorta a catchall for a massive range of bugs. These bugs are constantly changing finding new ways to spread as far and wide as possible. These little buggers are easy to stop, which is why we have a reasonably effective vaccine with the annual flu shot. However, because there is so many of them and th...
How do fishermen on those large trawlers with nets catch the exact fish they are looking for?	[ "The fishing spots are not randomly chosen. They are chosen because there is a lot of the desired fish there. Different fish will have specialized themselves to feed on different food, swim at different depths and handle different ocean conditions. So if you go to the place that best fits the fish you are after and...	[ "They use this - _URL_1_ It records all of the major news channels and indexes the closed captioning data so that it's searchable. _URL_0_" ]
Why are men much more prone to suicide compared to women?	[ "As it happens, both genders are equally prone to suicide. The difference is the methods. Women have a tendency to choose less violent methods, such as poisoning or overdosing. Because of this, they have a higher rate of survival. Whereas men choose more violent methods such as guns or vehicles, and as such are mor...	[ "_URL_2_ columnist William Saletan waded into this issue several years ago with similar questions to yours. Here's an article posted AFTER his initial article and several followups, all of which can be reached via links within the article. It's an interesting journey with commentary from psychologists, statistician...
Which U.S. Presidents had the fastest rise from relative obscurity to win the office of the presidency? Which had the most unlikely path to winning the Presidency - excluding the anomaly of President Gerald Ford's ascension?	[ "Teddy Roosevelt was pretty unlikely. He was very independent, and clashed with enough of his own party that it's unlikely that he could have ever won the Republican Presidential nomination. During the 1900 election he was serving as Governor of New York, and investigating a number of politicians of both parties fo...	[ "Karachi (largest city in Pakistan) is currently experiencing some large problems; both in crime, and politically. This is in part due to [Altaf Hussain](_URL_0_) who is the founder and leader of the [Muttahida Quami Movement](_URL_1_) - a political party in pakistan based in the city of Karachi. The problems surro...
In the Cold War era, was being a communist in America actually illegal? If so, what was the legislation that made it illegal? What was the penalties or the enforcement agency?	[ "I was going to say no, but I googled it to make sure. Then I found this: _URL_0_ Apparently, it is illegal to be a communist. According to the article, though, it has never been enforced and federal courts refuse to uphold it. No one has ever tried enforcing it obviously, since the Communist Party still exists pub...	[ "Sorry, we don't allow [\"trivia seeking\" questions](_URL_0_). These tend to produce threads which are collections of disjointed, partial responses, and not the in-depth discussions about a particular topic we're looking for. If you have a specific question about an historical event, period, or person, please feel...
How do doctors harvest organs after the patient has been declared brain dead, and what organs do they harvest first and why?	[ "Well, there are many different processes, but here is my personal favorite: Step 1: Insert 5 or more IV drips into major veins and arteries around the body. Step 2: Begin extracting all of the blood from the corpses body. Step 3: Start the IV drips to replace the blood with a chemical that preserves tissue, muscle...	[ "So, black holes aren't cosmic vacuum cleaners. They are more like really dense cold stars that you should avoid getting too close to. They often have very hot disks of gas swirling around them, which can cause more of a problem due the radiation they release. However, there is something called the Penrose process ...
Netflix's Marco Polo	[ "hi! you may be interested in these recent posts * [In the Netflix series \"Marco Polo,\" Marco Polo, a Venetian, has a relatively easy time communicating with people in the Mongol court. Would actual western traders be able to communicate effectively without translators? If so, how?](_URL_0_) * [In Netflix's Marco...	[ "Check out Yuri Slezkine,[ Arctic Mirrors: Russia and the Small Peoples of the North](_URL_0_)" ]
Why does the US keep arming rebels when years later history shows those same rebels kill us with those weapons?	[ "> history shows those same rebels kill us with those weapons? History also shows sometimes they don't. It's always a tricky process of arming rebel groups. Sometimes its right, sometimes its wrong. It's also hard to predict the outcomes if they are or are not armed. The future isn't known, we can try to influence ...	[ "Governments give tax breaks and subsidies to corporations to lure them in to their area. The idea is that bringing that business to the area will, ultimately, bring more business and jobs to the area which, theoretically, will bring jobs to the locals and more tax revenue for the government. Again, theoretically, ...
Would radioactive chemicals be considered elements?	[ "That's kind of a hand-wavey textbook answer. Consult the Wiki article on [chemical elements](_URL_0_) and be alleviated. Radioactive elements are indeed still elements." ]	[ "Suppose we are sneaking around at night. I can signal you to do something by blinking my flashlight, that is the basics of communication. Radio waves are the same sort of thing as visible light, just with a much larger wavelength. We can and do do the same sort of thing with UV light in television remotes, but we ...
AskHistorians Podcast 065 - Tibet, Buddhism, and Bhutan	[ "Congratulations to our winner of this month's book giveaway, Andrew Stead! The selection of books we have available this month are: A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 by Alistair Horne, recommended by /u/Bernardito. 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric Cline, recommended by /u/kookingpot. ...	[ "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." ]
What is Cultural Hegemony and how does it work?	[ "Cultural hegemony, as opposed to authoritarian rule, is when the \"ruling class\" maintains its position of power by manipulating the culture of the society rather than using any overtly political tactics. In this way, the dominant culture is taken for granted as \"status quo\" by the populace rather than having i...	[ "Not my period - but surely Britain is the prime example of this?" ]
Why are companies allowed to buy and sell their customer's loans without their permission, and what is the purpose of it?	[ "> Why are companies allowed to buy and sell their customer's loans without their permission? Why not? The debt belongs to them and they can do as they please > What is the purpose of it? They earn less money than they would have by holding onto it, but they get paid today instead of 6 months/2 years/30 years from...	[ "In general, you can't sue a foreign country. However, US law effectively says that if the claim relates to state-sponsored terrorism then the foreign country has already thrown out the rule book and you can sue in a US court. Iran is of course still free to refuse to recognise the court and to ignore any decision ...

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