Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
Why do patterns appear when you press on your eyes?	[ "The pressure gets transferred through the jelly-like vitreous of your eye to the light sensitive cells of your retina. Those cells can also be activated by pressure, so they send signals to your optic nerve and on to your brain, so you see \"lights\". PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!!! Applying pressure to your eye...	[ "Pictures on TV screens and computer screens are made from a whole bunch of teeny-tiny dots of lots of different colours. More dots, all jammed really, really close together, means the picture looks better. 'Cause the dots are less noticeable. And there's way more details. That's hi-def. More dots." ]
What did people in the medieval period think caused the fall of the Roman Empire?	[ "The Romano-British writer Gildas, and thus by extension the Anglo-Saxon historian Bede (who uses Gildas as a source for earlier sections of his Historia Ecclesiastica), frame the decline of Rome within the Christian moral framework which underpins all of their writings. While Gildas keeps an extensive list of th...	[ "The sharp drop in oil prices has been considered to be a major factor in the break up of the Soviet Union. The USSR was an oil exporter and prices dropped from around $66 bbl (per barrel) in 1980 to $20 bbl in 1986. This was a substantial financial blow that has been recorded as one of the 'last straws.' Their bud...
Who/what makes the machines that make machines? For instance, the machines that are used in the process of assembling a car. Are there machines out there with the sole purpose of making machines that are designed to make other machines? Is it an endless cycle? How does this work?	[ "Cars are made by a combination of standardized machines with custom dies and custom machines. Standardized machines, like the ones that mold plastic into parts, are used in many industries and there are companies that make plastic injection molding machines for all industries. Car companies simply buy their produc...	[ "Instead of connecting to a website directly, TOR creates a path with several proxies between you and the website you visit. A proxy is a computer that acts as a relay point. It asks the information for you then gives it to you. So let's say a path is built with only two proxies: Your computer < -- > Proxy A < -- >...
How can so many movies claim they are the "#1 movie in America" and not be lying?	[ "By not defining what they mean by \"#1.\" If they don't say it's the #1 movie at the box office, or the #1 movie according to critical rating, or #1 highest rated movie on metacritic user reviews, or such, they're not lying. By not quantifying it they can easily decide for themselves what it means, and argue that ...	[ "Depending how you're sorting, ranking can change pretty fast. When you load a page you're being shown the X number of posts in that ranking. Don't feel like opening in a browser to see exact numbers but let's say each page shows 10 posts. Page 1 has the top 10 voted, page 2 numbers 11 to 20 and so on. The third ...
Does a fire apply downward thrust (albeit minor) as a reaction to its updraft?	[ "Not so much the fire, but the cooler air next to it. A like volume of hot air weighs less than a like volume of cold air because it's less dense. Hot air rises because it is less dense than the cooler air next to it, much the same way that a bubble rises though water because air is less dense than water. There is ...	[ "In general, the size of the wing feathers on a flighted bird will be proportional to the weight of the bird, and inversely proportional to the length of the wings. That is just for wing feathers on birds that can fly. Some very large birds are covered in down (very small feathers) and sexual selection can produce ...
How can the same car get better MPG in the UK than in the USA?	[ "\"The major loopholes in the current EU tests allow car manufacturers a number of ‘cheats’ to improve results. Car manufacturers can: > * Disconnect the alternator, thus no energy is used to recharge the battery; > * Use special lubricants that are not used in production cars, in order to reduce friction; > * ...	[ "No it is a myth, this doesn't actually happen it has been perpetuated by many websites emails etc. but the Coriolis effect doesn't happen in plugholes ." ]
Is there any truth to these 'blood-type' based diets or is it just another fad?	[ "Just another fad. Your blood type simply describes the type of surface proteins your blood cells have. This is useful when receiving a blood transfusion because mixing certain types causes them to clump up (which is bad). But that's totally removed from your digestive and metabolic systems. There's seriously nothi...	[ "Well, I'm glad people \"researched\" this. It started out as a poem or nursery-rhyme that was first published in England in 1784. The original line is this: > Roses are red, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet, And so are you. [Source (Wikipedia)](_URL_0_). What occurred is basically an amazing \"lyric\" so-to-sa...
Is it possible to be shocked by an organisms spinal cord?	[ "Hi there. Nope, this is not possible. The nervous system sends signals electrically through nerves via the [flow of ions through their membranes](_URL_2_), and between nerves via [neurotransmitters](_URL_3_). Neither of these things would create a situation where you could be \"shocked\". EDIT: There are, however,...	[ "I don't know what I'm talking about, but I'd reckon because you're not the path of least resistance. The steel structure is. Same reason birds aren't electrocuted when they perch on a wire? It makes no sense (to the electricity) to pass through the bird instead of traveling straight down the line, like it wanted ...
How does a TOW Missile work	[ "No, it's not from the shock wave. It has a specially shaped piece of metal inside by the warhead. When the warhead goes off, it uses the force of the explosion to form the metal into what is, essentially, big bullet, and then blast that bullet into the tank. It's a very specialized form of shaped charge." ]	[ "_URL_0_ The wikipedia article is excellent and better than any of the answers in here so far. If you have specific parts you don't understand, ask away and I can help explain them to you." ]
Is there an anti-placebo effect as in a patient believing a treatment doesn't work reducing the effectiveness? If so, how strong is it?	[ "Although there are plenty of examples of the \"nocebo\" effect causing adverse events in patients in this thread, I believe what you are interested in is examples where there is a drop in efficacy. There has been a lot of research recently into the nocebo effect potentially leading to a reduction in efficacy when ...	[ "The only example that comes to mind could be Gilles de Rais. He self identified as evil, a Satanist in the medieval France, and possibly a serial killer of children. This 15th century French knight accompanied Joan of Arc and was allegedly shaken when she was accused of witchcraft and executed. This could make a d...
How did the Dalai Lamas act before China's annexation of Tibet?	[ "There is an interesting and well-referenced article [here](_URL_0_). It's also worth reading Seven Years in Tibet, while bearing in mind that of course it is not an unbiased account. From what I have read, it didn't sound like a place I would have wanted to have lived. The use of slavery, serfdom, debt-bondage a...	[ "In September 1964 Bertrand Russell published Sixteen Questions on the Kennedy Assassination. I'm sure there were some earlier instances but that's one example from less than a year after. _URL_0_" ]
Why are boy bands like formerly the Jonas Brothers and now One Direction so popular!? Is it a sexual thing (i.e. South Park episode)?	[ "Bo Burnham has a song which quite happily describes this problem. The bands appeal to the young, insecure (usually female) tweens, telling them the one thing they've been told a man Should - They're beautiful, they're perfect, they should be happy with themselves. Add to this relatively attractive faces and a catc...	[ "I'll explain the literal meaning when you're older, but I can explain what it means when you hear it used on reddit. Let's say you think cats are better than dogs. Not everybody thinks this. Imagine that in your classroom, about half the kids liked cats and half liked dogs. There would be lots of arguing if the te...
Why is something like steak able to be eaten more acceptably whilst undercooked while something chicken isn't?	[ "Chicken and pork are likely to carry diseases, specifically salmonella and trichinosis. Steak and fish are less likely to have disease, so rare steak and sushi are safe as long as they're sourced properly." ]	[ "For a very long time in US history, something called a minstrel show was an incredibly popular form of entertainment. In these shows white actors would dress up in black makeup and perform songs and dances that were meant to portray the stereotypical concept of southern black culture. The characters they portrayed...
It's a broad question, I know, but how much do psychotropic drugs typically affect the spinal cord, peripheral, and enteric nerves?	[ "Some to a lot is the broad answer. I'm not aware of a drug that 100% selectively acts on the CNS. Some highlights(each receptor is also found in the affected organs): Mu-opioid agonists cause constipation. Anti-cholinergics cause dry skin/mucous membranes and lower muscle tone. 5HT-2B agonists can cause heart val...	[ "Screw political prisoners, they used ordinary citizens as guinea pigs. [This documentary (NSFL)](_URL_0_) has all the gory details. Basically they set off 456 bombs at a test range in Kazakhstan starting in 1949. They chose this site as being reasonably close (93 miles) to the city of Semipalatinsk, with the i...
Why do military aircraft fly in formation despite being a more noticeable target?	[ "Modern formation flying is for show. Back in the day, formation flying was for covering your vulnerable angles of attack. A bomber was pitifully slow and a big target. The pilot can't see all around the plane for fighters. By flying in formation, you reinforced each other's blind spots and overlapped your machine...	[ "* Open your favourite FPS game. * Run across the map, keeping an object in the skybox at a constant angle in your view. You will go in a straight line. * Now run, keeping a nearby object at a constant angle. You will circlestrafe right into it. When insect navigation evolved, the only lights around were in the sk...
2019 redefinition of the ampere	[ "Scientists have to fix definitions. Time intervals, unit distances and the kg were all defined by physical objects or other concepts that can change which would change the physical constant we define from it too... in the case of distance we redefined it as the distance light travels in a certain time in a vaccuum...	[ "The last bitcoin is scheduled to be mined in the year 2140, I don't think you need to think about it too much." ]
What drives economic growth for middle class Americans?	[ "Growth in per capita productivity plus labor demand. Productivity determines (broadly) how big the pie is, and labor demand determines how much of the pie goes to workers and how much goes to their employers. Both are necessary for middle-class wage growth: mostly commonly you see economic stagnation in countries ...	[ "Easy enough: some taxes are, by law, directed toward a specific program rather than the general revenue. When that program has an excess amount of money, Congress borrows it for its ordinary spending, but promises to pay it back with interest when that program needs it. This how it is with works with the Social Se...
The difference between audio formats and why some are better	[ "Some audio formats (such as mp3) use what are called \"compression algorithms\" to reduce the size of the file at the expense of sound quality. There are various \"levels\" of compression in mp3 files called \"bit rates.\" Examples of common bit rates are 320kbps, 256 kbps, 192kbps, and so on. The lower the bit ra...	[ "Different ingredients, different storage situations, different flavirong, different length of time they are aged." ]
We have vast fields dedicated to satellite dishes listening for signals in outer space. Why can't they install dishes on the moon for both listening to space and for bouncing signals back?	[ "How would you get it there? Pound for pound, going to the moon is expensive. Really expensive. How would you service them? Getting a technician up there is really really expensive. How would you protect them? Earth has mild temperatures and magnetic protection from solar flares. The Moon doesn't." ]	[ "That's not how mirrors work. When you bounce sound off a mirror, you don't bounce that sound off of the contours of the reflected image, you bounce the sound off the flat plane of the mirror. Using sonar/echolocation, a mirror sounds exactly like a pane of glass. The light that reflects off of it doesn't effect th...
If space and time are one and the same, why can energy and matter move freely through space, but only "forwards" in time?	[ "There are some good answers involving entropy, but there's another one that's purely geometric. You can smoothly rotate between any two directions in space, but because time-space rotations are hyperbolic (not circular), you can't rotate smoothly between forward-timelike, spacelike, and reverse-timelike direct...	[ "An object does not \"have force\"; there are forces acting on it. F=ma says that the (net) force being exerted on an object is equal to the mass of that object times the acceleration of that object. What an object has is momentum. Force is the rate of change of momentum, so if the force being applied to you is l...
Why don't magnetic poles exist by themselves?	[ "Magnetic monopoles don't exist. Magnetic fields are only produced by moving or spinning electric charges, which always produce both N and S poles We don't know why this is the case. Many field theories predict that monopoles exist. The inflationary cosmology was invented, in part, to explain why we don't see any."...	[ "When a lot of stuff floats around it tends to group up... as those groups form they get more and more attracted to eachother. The more stuff there is the more gets attracted (gravety). Eventually there is so much stuff that the middle gets very hot! Everything there turns into this super dense ball. it keeps pulli...
Why does what is widely considered "attractive" in humans often contradict itself?	[ "It's as if there isn't a single standard of attractiveness, and that many different things can be attractive! By Jove!" ]	[ "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....
The time of useful consciousness is around 20 seconds at 40,000 feet. Why is it that I am able to easily hold my breath for a minute with no consequences but Hypoxia at high altitudes affects the body so quickly?	[ "When you're holding your breath, you inhale a huge amount of oxygen first, then \"hold it\" -- you're not depriving yourself for a minute, you're using the oxygen you stored in your lungs for one minute. For example, let's say you're at 40,000 feet with a air mask on. You take a deep breath from the oxygen-rich ma...	[ "The cabin is not suddenly pressurized. It is gradually pressurized as the airplane climbs, with an increasing pressure differential as the outside pressure drops, starting from the atmospheric pressure of the departed airport. However, what actually happens, from your metabolic viewpoint, is that the pressure ...
What keeps objects separated?	[ "I think Richard Feynman does a great job of explaining this (like you are five) when asked about the nature of magnetism. Sorry that I can't give you a good answer myself, but this video probably has exactly what you are looking for: _URL_0_" ]	[ "The microwave primarily heats polar molecules (such as water) in the food. If the moisture content of the food is not homogeneous, the heating also might not be. Also, the intensity (power) of the microwaves vs position in the chamber can vary quite a bit. Newer microwave ovens use a couple of techniques to help...
When and how did the practices of modern historians develop?	[ "Around the turn of the twentieth-century is probably as good a place to pin the tail on the historiographical donkey as any. It's when history began to be taught not simply as a part of the suite of knowledge expected of future statesmen, but also when historians really sought to understand the societies they stud...	[ "Hi everyone. Since this is the kind of question that can attract non-expert responses, just a friendly reminder that all responses must comply with [sub rules](_URL_0_), and that [personal anecdotes](_URL_1_) are explicitly not permitted in /r/AskHistorians." ]
Do portable AC units with only one input/exhaust hose really create "negative pressure"?	[ "The AC doesn't add air to your room. The AC sucks air into one channel from your room, through the big vent, uses it to cool the other channel and spits it out through your window. This air is used to cool the other channel, which is cycled from inside your room, back into it. So to answer your question, the pipe ...	[ "Nausea is a response to poisons or sickness. Even motion sickness is evolved from the idea that dizziness from poison/sickness triggers some of your body's motion senses but not others. Fresh air where there was none is a sign that you got away from something (poison/rot/disease), and for motion sickness specifica...
how did Google become so dominant?	[ "A lot of people are talking about Google's minimalist design but that's not really relevant. Google became dominant because they simply had a better product. Their search engine returned significantly better results. Before Google's PageRank algorithm, most search engines effectively used word counts. If you searc...	[ "As big as they seem they are not covering majority of the population. Their are entire states were they dont have service in. Like most cable companies they are one of 2 choices in most areas. Dont forget you can get satellite in 98% of places which is a choice.. not the best choice but a choice." ]
what is the benefit of skin becoming itchy? What is actually happening to cause this sensation?	[ "For example, this morning I was at the dentist and randomly a spot on my forehead got very itchy out of no where and I couldn’t scratch it, and it started to feel more and more itchy, and then eventually the feeling went away. What is that all about?" ]	[ "Talking completely out of my ass here, maybe it has to do with some instinctive grooming drive that we inherited from our ancestors. If you go to the zoo or watch a documentary, you can see that apes/etc. instinctively groom each other; so some people probably get a sense of pleasure from seeing such things becaus...
why did the universe "start"?	[ "We do not know. We cannot even say with complete confidence that it has a start, although the leading theories of the day suggest it. Current science is not capable of getting all the way back to \"time zero,\" nor whatever occurred before that, if such a concept is even meaningful." ]	[ "The ELI5 answer is simplicity. Stuff gets loaded when opening a program. If I don't want to code a way for that stuff to change while the game is open, I force a reboot. This sacrifices usability for code simplicity (or development speed)." ]
Would putting a big bag of ice in my freezer use more energy or less?	[ "Your freezer will use less energy, but only because when you open the freezer door, there is less cold air to exchange with the warm air outside the freezer. Otherwise the energy expenditure won't change, assuming the ice enters the freezer at the same temperature as the freezer. You may have an intuition that bec...	[ "[This](_URL_0_) previous thread explains it as [entrainment](_URL_2_). When changing the diameter of your lips, the airflow is subject to the [Bernoulli effect](_URL_1_) where it speeds up. When the air moves faster, it draws in more surrounding air which is cooler than your body temperature, thus making it feel c...
How can NASA be sure that the asteroid 2000 AJ129 will not impact Earth, but can't determine its size.	[ "An object's mass actually has no effect on its movement in a gravitational field*. A more massive object is harder to move, but it also experiences more gravitational force, and these exactly cancel out. They don't need to know exactly how big it is to predict its motion, and all they need to predict its motion is...	[ "Besides money there is the problem of having a rover than can survive the more extreme conditions on other planets. The Moon and Mars are pretty tame compared to Venus, Mercury or Jupiter. The distances, as well as the environmental conditions, make control and communications a much bigger problem. Look at the rec...
Were black children actually used as alligator bait in the South?	[ "Hi, not discouraging more responses here, but you may be interested in a couple of earlier responses to this question * [Saw something on FB about how black babies use to be fed to alligators in Florida. Is there any truth to this?](_URL_0_) * [Black babies as bait for alligator hunt?](_URL_1_)" ]	[ "This has been done before, with animals. Here is a video allegedly showing an old Russian experiment done with a dog. It looks real to me, but, then so did The Wizard of Oz. Warning, it might be disturbing and upsetting to watch. _URL_0_" ]
What is the difference between a republic and a democracy.	[ "A republic is a country without a monarch. A democracy is a country where there is freedom of speech, association, assembly etc. and citizens have a right to elect their leaders. The two are by no means mutually exclusive. The US is democratic and a republic. The UK is democratic but not a republic, it's a constit...	[ "This CGP Grey video does a really good job of explaining it all. _URL_3_" ]
How effective and safe were condoms at preventing pregnancy and STI's before the advent of modern, latex condoms?	[ "Follow up: If you have the answer on other materials of old as well (I've seen cloth, paper, and even tortoise shell, myself) I'd love to hear it." ]	[ "depends on your measuring stick. people did what was best for them given the amount of natural resources, environment, etc around them. for example, maybe europeans had guns, but tomatoes originated in central america. where would you be without tomatoes? guns have little to no effect on your life, but i bet youv...
Why are frivolous lawsuits allowed in America?	[ "> It seems like you can sue people for almost anything. Yep. And it's up to a judge to determine whether or not a lawsuit is valid. Judges have the authority to reject a lawsuit as frivolous, but for them to do that, the lawsuit has to actually happen, and the case has to make it in front of the judge. Before tha...	[ "For starters the extra costs to the manufacturer and the customer are not worth it. And second saftey, they could be dangerous closing down on little children & even adults." ]
How do we know there's a super massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way?	[ "We can't see it, but we can [see things orbit around it](_URL_0_). By measuring the orbital period and radius, we can estimate that these stars are orbiting something roughly 4 million times more massive than the sun, but which emits no light, which is a pretty good sign that it's a super massive black hole." ]	[ "We don't really. Flawed models are always an option to explain weird phenomenon, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time it happened. The reason the leading theories include Dark Matter and Dark Energy is because we can't find the error. Everything we can measure in scales we have access to seem to be matching...
Why does cooking things in hot oil/fat fry them while cooking things in hot water boil them? What about the oil turns a thin slice of potato crispy while the same slice of potato would turn soft in hot water?	[ "Most things we eat have a high concentration of water and have a great affinity to absorb water. Oil and water repel each other. When most food is placed in boiling water, it absorbs water as well as the heat, making it softer. When most food is place din oil, the oil, mostly, does not penetrate the foods surface ...	[ "You're on the right track. Microwaves, as you'd expect, heat with waves. Depending on where you are in the waveform, you may get lots of heating or hardly any, so the food doesn't always heat evenly. Rotating platters improve this a fair bit, but it's still not perfect. This gets worse if anything's frozen. Liquid...
Why isn't the taste of blood alarming?	[ "Well, how we react to different tast is quite deep in our animalic past. Bitter was for exampe a dangerouse taste since it hinted to poisons. Blood on the other hand was something our animalic ancestors tasted when they were able to get their hands on meat. It is quite far into our history, but before we cooked ou...	[ "Our ancestors when in the wild would enjoy a fresh kill, body still warm. If you came across a dead animal that had been there a while, well you wouldn't want that would you. Evolution has taught us warm is preferable to cold. Unless of course you are eating mint chocolate chip ice cream." ]
Why haven't we aimed a telescope at the moon to see footprints left by astronauts in order to prove it really happened?	[ "Earth based (and LEO based) telescopes can not resolve the footprints, nor lander - they are too small at that distance. HOWEVER... the Lunar Orbiter can, and did - take excellent photos of the footprints, lander, rover, and science packages. [Look here for photos and information](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "[The comments on this gif](_URL_0_) explain it, specifically [this one](_URL_0_csz5f42): > It's called retinoscopy. You shine a narrow beam through the pupil and focus it on the retina. Then you move the beam up and down. If the beam moves up or down on the retina too fast or too slow compared to your own movemen...
Special relativity question: length contraction vs time dilation	[ "When you measure the time between two events, you're measuring the time between two events. By definition, all observers agree on what those events are. For a timelike separation, dT is at a minimum in the frame where dX = 0. Likewise, for two events separated by a spacelike interval, dX is at a minimum in the f...	[ "The wording can be misleading. The distinction is simply whether the measurement is made at the double-slit, or at the screen farther back. \"Measurement\" or \"observation\" simply implies that the photon has been interacted with in some way" ]
Are there any studies into why we(humans) do certain motions like tap objects or talk out loud during intensive thinking?	[ "Ecologist here- I can't cite anything specific right now since I'm at work and don't have the time to do research but from a behavior standpoint tapping objects could be from positive reinforcement from a learned behavior. E.g. You're standing in line at a fast food joint waiting for someone to take your order. Y...	[ "Honestly? I want to be the monkey with the most shiny rocks. Deep down, I know that's what it is. I want more food and shiny rocks than the other monkeys and I want lady monkeys to want my shiny rocks. That's what the physical urge is. There is no other way to explain why I hate the person who grabbed the last bag...
Some animals perform a series of involuntary actions that must be followed until completion. What is this called, and where can I find out more about it?	[ "I think you are referring to a \"Fixed Action Pattern\". _URL_0_" ]	[ "Imagine a huge crowd of people trying to get into a building with two doors. For them, the doors look identical, but inside the building, one of them leads to a nice, wide corridor, but the other leads into a tight maze. You dont know that one path is much easier than the other, but since the tight path is clogged...
Cleaning dishes: Is soap always necessary for a sufficient clean.	[ "not really, some commercial cleaners don't use soap, they clean with super hot water and steam. that being said you'll burn yourself getting the water hot enough to clean anything that well. it's best to use a bit of antibacterial soap." ]	[ "It’s to insure that they are not liable for false advertising if some germs remain on the surface. They can just use the excuse that they never said it would kill everything." ]
Why do airplanes have a rainbow trail when caught in Google Maps images?	[ "To determine the color of the image, the satellite takes 3 images in quick succession - one with a red filter, one with green, and one with blue. The satellite doesn't expect for objects in the image to be moving as fast as a jet, thus in the small amount of time it takes for the images to be taken, the plane has ...	[ "Graphic designer here. It's for the printer sake. So he can measure that every individual color is printing correctly. You might also find a small cross hair next to the colors, that is to make sure the colors are lined up with each other. As every color is printed in it's own printing press, a cross hair of every...
What causes the shape of the 'interference' displayed in this video?	[ "[This is someone's doctoral thesis which contains information on the vibration of flat plates. On page 38 of the PDF (31 of the document), you will see some vibrational modes drawn for a flat plate. The higher-frequency AA mode ought to look familiar.](_URL_0_) While this is water and not a flat plate, the behavio...	[ "ELI5 always gets answers from people who are trying to get extra credit on a college assignment or something... It comes down to intervals; the space between 2 notes. Any single random note wont sound good or bad until its compared and contrasted with another note. If the 2 notes are made of waves that don't line ...
If our solar system had binary stars, how would our night/day and seasonal cycles on earth differ?	[ "Less than you might think. Most stable orbital configurations require: * two close stars and a distant planet, or * two distant stars and a planet close to one In the first case, they stars remain close together in the sky...you get a slight longer days and shorter nights, but are still similar to earth. In the se...	[ "When you sleep, you're doing it in cycles that last roughly 90 minutes. Interrupting these cycles mean that your brain doesn't quite finish the recharging it normally does during sleep, and you will feel more tired and like you only got a few hours of sleep. During the weekend, you are probably waking up naturally...
When and where did the "Too much masturbation causes blindness" myth originate?	[ "It wasn’t just masturbation that could cause blindness, but too much sex in general. In antiquity semen were believe to be produced in the brain, around the eyes or to pass through the region. (e.g., Aristotle, On the Generation of the Animals. II.VIII) It’s also the plotline of a number of texts (e.g., the blindn...	[ "Not a historian, just someone who likes to lurk and learn new things, but I can maybe point you to a few similar questions I’ve seen about kids and their obsessions while you wait to hear from an expert. [This post](_URL_2_) has an ancient Roman source from u/rkiga that mentions a toddler obsessed with birds. Furt...
Why do Americans drink alcohol through a brown paper bag?	[ "In most of the US, it is illegal to drink alcohol in public. It is, however, common, especially among the poor and homeless with drinking problems. The police have better things to do than arrest them, and hassling them doesn't to much to solve the problem. So there is under of an unwritten agreement between law ...	[ "Horse meat isn't rare at all. You can get it in many parts of europe. Tastes ok too. Anyway, that's culture. The same reason we think that bacon and eggs is a breakfast food, and don't eat grasshoppers." ]
How can BP report profits of $5.9 billion AND loss of $5.2 billion?	[ "Cases like this are why we always need to be careful with buzz stats. Something like \"ABC Corp made $X billion last year and paid no taxes!\" without factoring in the costs of doing business, R & D costs that might lead to profits in future years, depreciation of assets, etc. is tricky. Recording costs and losses...	[ "A couple reasons. In the United States, the burden of proof is on the prosecutor to show that the defendant committed the crime. This \"presumption of innocence\" makes preparing a case hard work, because to win, the prosecutor has to convince 12 regular people that, with absolutely no doubt, the defendant commit...
Does a large college library even matter anymore?	[ "If not for the actual books, libraries pay for journal and database subscriptions that are expensive and really useful. Plus librarians are excellent at research. The physical books are important because it's way easier to write a research paper when you can have the books around you, instead of in tabs on your c...	[ "Your answer was removed shortly before you posted this question. It did not meet our standards. We ask that answers in this subreddit be in-depth and comprehensive, and highly suggest that comments include citations for the information. In the future, please take the time to better familiarize yourself with [the ...
What would happen if a samurai incorrectly committed seppuku and didn't die?	[ "It was usually performed by 2 people. The Samurai's second would decapitate the Samurai after the ritual cut had been made in the abdomen or even before." ]	[ "You seem to be describing a variant of the [ladder paradox](_URL_0_), just using a train and tunnel instead of a ladder and a garage, he he. > What does the outside observer see? The outside observer sees the front guillotine make a cut, then later after the train has passed further through the tunnel, the back g...
In the upcoming movie, why are batman and superman against each other?	[ "No one but the writers of the script know this for sure, but there have been many comic book where Superman and Batman disagree on something, maybe Batman took the last Natty light or something." ]	[ "The majority of the internet has an obsession with John Cena. All of it spawned when a radio show did a prank call or \"phone scam\" telling the person being pranked that they could see the WWE Superslam(Not a real event) and watch John Cena wrestle. There's a video from where it all started, just by looking up \"...
How can you see through something that's physically there, like plastic wrap or glass?	[ "The same reason you can see through air: the photons hitting it on one side are re-emitted with (nearly) the same properties on the other side. Certain materials have this behavior for certain wavelengths of light. Your home wifi makes it through the walls of your house, but the same wavelength is used in your mic...	[ "Dissolved gasses in the ice cubes, and impurities in the water are forced into pockets inside the ice as it freezes. If you boil some distilled water for a few minutes this will purge out a significant amount of the dissolved gases. Then if you place the water in an ice cube tray and cover with saran rap it will ...
How is it I can spend 3 hours laying still in bed not sleeping, then doze off repeatedly in the middle of driving the next morning?	[ "Are you saying that you actually doze off while driving? Repeatedly? This is not normal and is a grave concern to me. I have never dozed off while driving. You should not be risking your life and that of other drivers that way. I'm frankly totally shocked. If something like that happened to me, I think I would s...	[ "There are a few factors at work here : Moſt chairs are deſigned to ſit at about knee height ; they generally ſupport your back, and more importantly, your butt and legs. Toilets are uſually lower, and they are made with a large hole in the middle, into which you ſink a little. This lower height, lack of ſupport,...
Do solar systems lose planets aside from the direct effects of the star's own life cycle?	[ "[Long-term simulations of our own solar system](_URL_0_) show chances of planets being ejected due to gravitational interactions with each other, so it is certainly possible." ]	[ "Free agency, the owner's willingness to invest in top tier players, and the effectiveness of the pitching staff all contribute to the yearly differences in an MLB team. It's very rare to see the same lineup and pitching staff two years in a row on any given MLB roster. The addition or loss of a single good startin...
Why can't you bend your pinky finger without moving your ring finger?	[ "If you look at [this picture](_URL_0_), you can see that the tendons in the hand are connected on the middle, ring, and pinky finger. This means that motion of one can affect the others. Note that they are not connected on the bottom of the hand, hence why you can unbend each separately. Also, there are extra tend...	[ "Your esophagus(link to the stomach) is closed by a the esophageal sphincter. Your other end is sealed by the anus muscle, sphincter. Of course you can smell it if your body lets it vent. It's called a burp and fart. Apparently, the seal is tight enough to hold in gas. EDIT: correction" ]
Infantry Formations. Adding ranks/depth to add mass/weight. How did this not crush or at least prevent soldiers from fighting properly.	[ "Mostly because that's generally not how premodern armies approached infantry combat; you kept your shield between you and the enemy, relied on the men next to you to cover you from attacks from the side, and thrust with your sword or spear. For hoplites, there's no point in having a spear if you're going to be fig...	[ "That's where you buy a bunch of worthless stocks at a very low price. This inflates their price a bit (pump) and gives the appearance of growth. Other people see the value increasing, and may buy more stocks, thinking the price will continue to rise. If enough suckers buy stock on top of yours, you can sell (dump)...
Why are people 'served' in such an ambush-style manner? Why is it simply not posted in the mail etc?	[ "If they just put it in the mail you can claim to have not received it. Even if you sign for certified mail that doesn't mean you opened it because you didn't know what it was. If someone hands you a thing and informs you that you have been served court papers you ate required to read them and failure to do so resu...	[ "There's an effect known as the [nocebo effect](_URL_2_) which is the opposite of a placebo. In that case, the patient recieves an inert treatment and has a negative effect, instead of the positive effect measured from a placebo effect. [This is a fun video that explains the nocebo effect](_URL_1_). It sounds like...
what is the best way to study history as a hobby	[ "Reading is of course a good option, perhaps look into something you're passionate about and see what's been published recently, it may sound odd but Wikipedia references often show you the most important works in the field. I personally recommend podcasts, I decided a few years ago to learn more about the History ...	[ "This is something I would also like to know as I listen to a lot of trade books in the car while travelling and have wondered if its ~~doing anything~~ actually planting the information into my head or I'm a just listening like a song." ]
How does something go from nothing to a brain?	[ "If you want to make a brain from scratch, you must first invent the universe." ]	[ "Observation and calculation. Astrophysicists noticed that space is expanding, and that the expansion is accelerating. They did a bunch of math and figured out how much it's accelerating and how different things would effect this acceleration. They did more math and were reasonably sure that it was correct. So the...
Why do eggs turn from liquid to solid with heat? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?	[ "Water does what you describe, but certainly not everything. The proteins in the egg are denatured by the heat. When proteins get denatured, the bonds they hold with other molecules get broken, and they frantically try to reconnect those bonds. They end up bonding with a bunch of random stuff, EVEN the metal in the...	[ "The mystery was recently solved so you ask at the right time. Long story short birds that migrate make breaks at lakes. Fertilized fisheggs get stuck at their feet and then carried to another lake whee they develop into fish! It's cool" ]
Why does the government need to know or care about my relationship status?	[ "The reason they ask is that marriage is a legal status that may affect what benefits you are eligible to receive and what taxes you owe. You don't have to define your relationship status. You only have to answer questions regarding the legal status of your marriage, if any. It's not like the government wants to kn...	[ "One search isn't going to do much. They have hugely complicated algorithms in place to find what they are looking for. It might raise a flag, but a single flag isn't going to do much. By the way, just because you don't live here doesn't mean we aren't watching Creepy Smile." ]
When I step on fresh snow, what causes the crunching sound I hear under my shoes?	[ "Snowflakes and snow in general, when it's fresh, has a lot of air in it. Compacting it crushes the ice crystals in the snowflakes together, eliminating those pockets of air, reducing its total volume. When the snow is fresh and it's cold enough for the ice to stay totally solid, without melting, this compacting ac...	[ "Food Scientist here: Looked up the ingredients online but could not find the exact ingredients for the icing. However I will give it my best shot. It has too do with the amount of solids that is in the icing (mainly sugar and corn starch). The sugar will bind to the water, and will keep the water from forming very...
Why do fans get to keep a baseball when it goes into the stands during a game, but not a basketball?	[ "Cost and preparation. Some Googling says a baseball costs $15–20, or $10 if you buy in bulk. They don't last very long in actual use (being pitched and hit) and are typically not used after a scuff in the dirt because it can give the pitcher an advantage. Some Googling says a leather indoor basketball is $30+, wit...	[ "If you ask for 1 pen, it costs you two dollars. If you ask for 100 000 pens, they will only cost you one dollar each. I prefer selling you 100 000 pens at half price, than selling you 1 at full price and have 99 999 sitting around doing nothing. In a similar way, if you ask for a small amount of money, you pay a b...
Why are salt and pepper the two spices on every table? Why not other spices?	[ "Salt & Pepper season our food. They make it taste better. Spices & Herbs flavor our food. They make it taste different. Season everything. source: Chef." ]	[ "There are a couple of steps and an evolution. Stairs or Feet 1) Replace a word with a rhyming key word. Pears or Meat 2) Pair new rhyming key word with another word in a catchy phrase Apples and Pears or Plates of Meat sometimes the phrase evolves to drop the rhyming key word and retains only the u...
How do breeders change some features of an animal?	[ "They wait for one that has traits that they like (for example colour, size, health etc) then they breed it with another one with the same traits and select the offspring that also have that trait and breed them. There is a lot of randomness, so just pick the ones that randomly have something you like, and make mor...	[ "The percentage only considers the percentage of base substitutions in the DNA not the actual amount of DNA that is similar. Scientist look for similarities between genes, then when they find them, they count the number of times one DNA base has been replaced by another. If there is a strand of DNA that does not ha...
What's the optimal volume of fluid in a cylindrical container to maximize turgidity from shaking the container?	[ "The maximum volume of fluid which allows for full range of motion- i.e. all fluid moves during a slosh to a place which did not have fluid before the slosh- is 50%. That would seem like a decent starting point for empiric investigation." ]	[ "This type of question is known as a fermi question. You need to estimate... -average displacement of a vessel -number of vessels -surface area of the ocean ----- If you can get it within a factor of 10 you win!" ]
Why does it always feel colder when I wake up, especially when I'm sleep deprived?	[ "Probably because your body temperature drops when you sleep, typically being the lowest around 4 am. Your temperature from its daytime peak to nighttime trough could be ~1 degree F different." ]	[ "Seasons are the result of the tilt of the Earth. Earth spins on a slight angle compared to the circle of its orbit around the Sun. This means that at different times of year, the poles are pointed towards or away from the Sun. This affects how much daylight the poles get, with the impact decreasing as you get towa...
If Columbus thought he was somewhere near China when initially in Hispaniola, did any of his crew fear that the Tiano might have been Ming vassals, or that their atrocities might have poisoned the prospects for Chinese trade?	[ "I don't have an answer, but I'd like to add to the question: Did Columbus order his men to attack the natives, or did the attacks stem from a breakdown of discipline after a difficult voyage?" ]	[ "Syria is a close ally of Russia and hosts Russia's only warm water port, in addition. China has a long-held policy of voting against getting involved in other countries. Or as one BBC correspondent suggested: When China looks at Syria it sees Tibet. When Russia looks at Syria it sees Chechnya." ]
[Physics] Does friction manifest itself always in the form of heat, and therefore, mechanical energy? Any exceptions?	[ "[The triboelectric effect](_URL_0_) doesn't necessarily create heat. When you walk across a carpet and you then get a shock when you touch the fridge, that's friction manifesting itself as an electrical charge." ]	[ "It is less conscious choice than you think. I've never seen a mammal flair their fur just for the hell of it. They are always either freaked out or cold. That's the same reason you get goose-bumps. You just have less fur (probably), so the effect is less dramatic. Birds, of the other hand, can move their feathers ...
Where does the U.S. government bank?	[ "> I know we have reserves of gold, which determine the wealth of the nation. No, our currency is a fiat currency. Its not backed up by gold. The gold at Fort Knox is a part of our currency. The wealth of the U.S. government is managed by the Federal Reserve. There isn't a \"bank account\". We lend people internati...	[ "If you have a spare afternoon or two I'd check out these two Khan Academy playlists on the [Credit Crisis](_URL_2_) and the [Paulson Bailout](_URL_0_), and if you want to learn more about how banks work check out this [Banking and Money](_URL_1_) playlist as well; there's a few others on finance and credit as well...
How much CO2 does the internet produce now?	[ "As the internet is the result of the interconnection of billions of devices, each operating independently, in many different environments, each parameterised in its own way, a good portion of them being mobile and under variable workloads, I doubt it's in any way feasible to find an accurate result. You could esti...	[ "It doesn't seem like there'd be more government monitoring, since they are already monitoring it as deeply as technically feasible. The classification would not make a difference in that regard. The government already has laws governing how and when it can monitor your traffic. ISPs do not stand in their way." ]
What exactly causes a computer to run slowly as it ages? Is it degrading components?	[ "The software becomes more complex and the demands on the cpu increase. You can certainly run an original IBM PC today with the original software but it would choke on Windows 10 as it was not designed for it and the original CPU lacks many of the enhanced extensions that the modern cpu kernel has in it" ]	[ "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...
Did the big bang occur in all directions? I often hear that we can only see 13.?? billion light years before we can't see anymore, but isn't there technically another 13.?? billion light years worth of material beyond the initial bang, just in the other direction?	[ "The misunderstanding here comes from your idea of the \"center\" if the universe. There isn't one. Every point in the universe appears to be moving away from every other at the same rate. The observable universe \" on the other hand is spherical centered on the earth, because light has only had the age of the un...	[ "A light year is how far light will travel in one year. If something is 600 light years away from earth, it will take light 600 years to travel from that object back to us." ]
Does your body process alcohol differently when extremely dehydrated?	[ "Alcohol is a diuretic. What this means is that it's a substance that increases the production of urine, which in turn increases the excretion of water from the body. Alcohol does this specifically by inhibiting anti-diuretic hormones, causing diuresis (increased water excretion by the kidneys). Caffeine is another...	[ "Did you smoke more when you were drunk?" ]
Are the number of biological discoveries increasing or decreasing?	[ "Even if you only categorize biological discoveries as finding new species, there is so much in the ocean, and still some in jungles we have likely not discovered yet. However, to classify biological discoveries as finding new species would be like classifying physical discoveries as finding new elements. There is ...	[ "Back then people still needed jobs, now they dont and can practice harder for longer. And science helps by showing then methods on improving motions. You cam find cool videos on youtube" ]
What statistical evidence for telepathy is Alan Turing referring to in his "Turing test" paper?	[ "From _URL_1_ : ''2.9 Argument from Extra-Sensory Perception The strangest part of Turing's paper is the few paragraphs on ESP. Perhaps it is intended to be tongue-in-cheek, though, if it is, this fact is poorly signposted by Turing. Perhaps, instead, Turing was influenced by the apparently scientifically respectab...	[ "Eek - this is a tough one... I had to watch the movie twice to have it make sense... The Christian Bale character was actually a set of twins, but no one ever knew it - not even his wife. They take turns dressing as the assistant throughout the entire movie. One of the twins was in love with the wife, the other wa...
Why do alcohol menus not have prices?	[ "If it doesn't have a price, and you have to ask how much it costs, it is likely out of your budget." ]	[ "With trepidation, I will try my first posting of an image - one suitable for this question. This is [John Piper's Old Corner Bar](_URL_0_) in Virginia City, Nevada in late 1860, illustrated by Grafton Brown, an African American Artist who produced a Bird's Eye View of the town (with businesses illustrated around p...
How do turf farmers reset their fields after harvesting?	[ "Do you mean grass / rolled sod? Not really called turf where I live but I own a small landscape company and I deal with multiple suppliers here. They tend to be massive fields, and after the sod is cut (top 2 inches or so) they bring in truckloads of manure and organic fill, use huge tractors to rototill the soil ...	[ "A similar question I've always wondered if what happens if you get shot down and parachute out safely over friendly territory? (eg over Britain) Did pilots just get up, dust themselves off and catch a bus back to their base to get into another plane?" ]
Where does our immune system store information about certain pathogens?	[ "Rather than storing pathogen information, it's more like immune cells keep particular receptors that responded to pathogens. T cells and B cells have the ability to produce an amazingly wide range of configurations of receptors (in the form of membrane receptors in the case of T cells, in the form of soluble anti...	[ "I gona mention 2 potentially viable arguments but that are quite a few 1: It takes technology to make technology. Its like an exponential growth that has taken a long time to build up. A modern example would be for our modern computers to work we had to figure out analog transistors and before that we had have to...
Do people with Alzheimer's retain prior mental conditions, such as phobias, schizophrenia, depression etc?	[ "Can someone explain the difference between Dementia and Alzheimer's, please?" ]	[ "Awesome question, you’re right that the research about this kinda sucks. If you are good at interpreting/understanding research articles then check this out, if not then I’ll cover the details below so don’t worry: _URL_0_ Generally, research of this nature is done using model organisms, in the case of this study...
Why do batteries lose their recharging ability over time?	[ "Batteries are compact galvanic cells. They work by compartmentalizing a chemical reaction, in which one of the compounds is oxidized (loses electrons) and the other is reduced (gains electrons, I know it's counter-intuitive). Galvanic cells separate these two reactions so that the electrons that the oxidized compo...	[ "Every time you make a copy of a cell, there is a chance for errors. For example when you photocopy a first print, it is pretty crisp and close to the original, but there are a few minor discrepencies. Now if you photocopy the copy, it gets more distorted, and so on until some letters get hard to read, it gets diff...
How does salt and/or sand “melt” snow?	[ "Normal rain water freezes at 0°c. Salty water freezes at a lower temperature. As long as it's not cold enough to freeze salty water the ice melts. It's often laid as grit and or sand because salt is soluble, it melts the ice but then it dissolves and runs down the drains with the water. Grit and sand helps hold th...	[ "The problem is that the waste heat will always outweigh the temperature decrease from the ice. Its the same reason a refrigerator with the door open won't cool your apartment. The net effect would be to convert solar energy to heat. A more viable way to redirect solar energy is to put reflective particles such as ...
Why does canned air, while turned upside down, turn very cold?	[ "Because it's not air, it's something else (e.g. hydrocarbons) that forms a liquid, and if you turn the can upside down, you're spraying out the liquid which expands to a gas and cools. This has been asked before." ]	[ "A few reasons, first you may remember from high school chemistry the ideal gas law. PV=nRT, where P=pressure, V=volume, n= number of moles, R is a constant and T is temperature. If you spray a pressurized gas (the propellant in the can), which is typically butane or propane, as the gas comes out of the spray nozz...
Why is cancer so common, even though we have so many possible mutations that can occur within our DNA?	[ "> So why is the mutation that causes cells to over-reproduce so common? Because this assumption is wrong. There isn't just one such mutation, there are lots of them. The system that keeps cells from over-reproducing is complicated, and breaking any one of < lots > different parts of it can cause cancer. (There...	[ "When cells divide they make pretty much exact copies of themselves. Introduce radiation to the equation and the copying process goes screwy and the new cell is different. Rinse and repeat over and over and you end up with body cells which are completely different in shape size and function to what they were origin...
How did wars back in the day work? Before guns and machinery. Would each person pick his target and fight him until one dies?	[ "I'm guessing a mod will tell you to narrow your question. But as a general rule no, you aren't 'supposed' to pick a single target, fighting one on one is very dangerous, it's why you see formations like the [Phalanx](_URL_1_), it's always safer to fight with a group. Obviously formations break and hell breaks loos...	[ "So let's say I manufacture computer mouses. I need metal, plastics, lasers, and coding. We'll say I have all the other parts I need manufactured in house. So I trade computer mouses to miners for metal? And I pay my coder in mouses? Doesn't really work. Barter requires you to have the goods on hand that the person...
What's the source of procrastination? Why is it so hard to stop it?	[ "This is an easy one; I'll tell you all about it later." ]	[ "Well i dont sleep good at night time very often, so when i get home from school i crash right away. Im guessing its just based on your body clock and what time you eat/go to sleep. Basically it just depends what your daily schedule is...." ]
why can people stay in a 100°C sauna but not in 100°C water?	[ "You can't. A sauna would never be 100°C. That would literally steam cook you alive. Just because steam is present doesnt mean the room is 100°C." ]	[ "We have separate sensors in our skin for sensing hot and cold temperatures (known as thermoreceptors). These sensors will get activated at specific temperature ranges (i.e. cold temperatures for cold thermoreceptors and hot temperatures for hot thermoreceptors) and the activation of these separate receptors is how...
Does the alcohol we ingest disinfect anything in our systems?	[ "> [A mixture of 70% ethanol or isopropanol diluted in water is effective against a wide spectrum of bacteria, though higher concentrations are often needed to disinfect wet surfaces](_URL_1_) + [most drinks have under 60% alcohol my volume](_URL_0_) = The alcohol we ingest is probably not a great disinfectant. The...	[ "Body temperature rising is to inhibit growth of the infectious agent. Enzymes work best at an optimal temperature, as the temperature rises they begin to denature and work less efficiently. This helps to slow down their growth as they've evolved to work best at normal body temperatures." ]
if one spaceship is in orbit and another spaceship on a suborbital trajectory docks with it does it get pulled into orbit?	[ "To be able to dock, they would have to be at the same altitude and velocity, so they couldn't be on different trajectories. If they just crashed into each other, then their trajectories would basically be added together, \"weighted\" based on their mass." ]	[ "It's like in Mario Kart where if you drive off the side into the mud, the drag slows you down. If you drive back to the road in a perpendicular fashion, you minimize your time in the mud, but you've built up no momentum once you get to the road. If you drive parallel and angle yourself gradually toward the road, y...
What were the reasons behind the 3 Mile Island disaster, and why is it still inactive to this day?	[ "> and why is it still inactive to this day? It is active. The radiation levels were never considered unsafe there. It was contained extremely well, and the radiation released to the most contaminated individuals was about a third of what an average person receives in background radiation in a year. I do have som...	[ "Costs money to build and maintain the facilities, some countries don't feel like taking on the burden of that cost." ]
I've seen pictures of Australian soldiers bringing kangaroos and even a koala to Egypt during World War I. Why was this done and how did they keep the animals fed and healthy in that environment?	[ "Do you have a link that contains examples of these images?" ]	[ "What do you mean by \"pets\"? Animal domestication predates all written history, so by the time \"history\" started humans already had livestock for food and labor, dogs for guarding, hunting, herding, etc." ]
How we calculate the amount of calories in a food	[ "A portion of the food is burned underneath a set amount of water. The water gets warmer and the temperature is measured at its highest point. Since we know how much energy it takes to heat up water, we can use the difference in the water to calculate the calories. 1 calorie = 4.18400 joules, and it takes X amount ...	[ "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." ]
What benefit do stores receive for giving cash back to customers?	[ "Cash is expensive for shops. It has to be counted and stored in a secure place. Banks in the UK charge businesses for depositing cash. This is because all that cash needs to be counted sorted and stored. Worn notes have to be picked out and sent back to be destroyed. It all costs money If they can reduce the amoun...	[ "You assign values to cards and since you keep track of the \"count\" as cards are exposed you have an idea of the cards that are remaining in the deck. Because casinos always use complete decks if you deal it face up, you know that that card can no longer appear again. Example: 2,3,4,5,6 have a value of +1 A, T, J...
What roles do central banks, commercial banks and/or banking system play in capitalism?	[ "Capitalism as a general concept isn't really relevant to the question. Central banks set interest rates (basically). Commercial banks are retail banks, so they sell financial services to the masses. The banking system on the whole is known generally as the heart of the economy because it pumps money into everythin...	[ "It doesn't anymore. The gold standard workED like this. The Federal reserve had a shitload of gold, you're paper bills were worth a set amount of gold. The Fed issued currency to correspond with how much gold was in the reserve. In other words, if there was 100,000 tons of gold in the reserve, all the money printe...
Why is it that when flies land on our LCD/LED screens, they don't get affected when we move windows or make some rapid movement which results in some colour change in the screen?	[ "Fly fear responses are based mostly on air currents and visual stimuli from above the fly, because that's where predatory threats come from. They don't have much in the way of general intelligence, and escape responses are hardwired so they can be faster, so random visual stimuli from unexpected directions don't ...	[ "* Open your favourite FPS game. * Run across the map, keeping an object in the skybox at a constant angle in your view. You will go in a straight line. * Now run, keeping a nearby object at a constant angle. You will circlestrafe right into it. When insect navigation evolved, the only lights around were in the sk...
How is it possible that Congress is allowed to make votes on large pieces of legislation, affecting everyone in their country, when sessions are dwindled to a point where everyone but those interested are present to vote?	[ "Actually, in both the US House and the US Senate, any member may call for a \"quorum\" before a vote, which prevents the vote from proceeding until there is at least a simple majority (50% + 1) of members present. They don't regularly do this, though, because most votes fall in line with party leadership and the v...	[ "The people who award the Oscars are active participants in the industry. They are experts. The nominations are made exclusively by experts (cinematographers nominate people for the Best Cinematographer prize), but the winners are still picked by insiders. How do most people decide to go to a movie? Do they ask a c...
My water bottle says "Purified by reverse osmosis." What exactly does this mean and how does it purify water?	[ "Liquid filtering process in which a contaminated (more concentrated) liquid is forced to pass through a semi-permeable membrane that block most dissolved or suspended contaminants. It is called 'reverse' because in normal osmosis a less-concentrated liquid passes into a more concentrated one." ]	[ "California has some labeling and quality laws that are more strict than the rest of the country. If they didn't put that on there, then they could sell it in every state except California. So they just slap it on everything in order to avoid the hassle of worrying where in the united states it will wind up. If you...
Why is liposuction dangerous?	[ "It depends on how you define dangerous. Like all major surgeries, it carries risks, but it's not necessarily any more dangerous than any other surgery, In fact, liposuction isn't considered a high-risk surgery, even among elective surgeries. Risks include bad reaction to the anesthesia, fat embolism, bleeding, and...	[ "Several things. On an installation level, each program you install adds 'weight' to the operating system by giving it more tasks. These aren't always removed cleanly when you uninstall, which makes it important to reimage your computer about every year. Additionally, if you use a standard hard disk drive, the driv...
What's the big controversy with the Hugo Awards?	[ "This [Wired article](_URL_0_) gives a good, ELI5-level discussion of the history and issues. I can't attest as to its accuracy, but I have no reason to question it either. TL;DR: Some conservatives (and in one case, apparent fascist troll) stacked the nomination ballots legally, causing a backlash in the final vo...	[ "I don’t think there’s anything to explain. Sometimes we as humans are just hypocrites. Why is Bill Clinton given a pass on all the allegations against him? Why do people follow some bits of the bible and reject the bits they don’t like? Humans are strange." ]

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