Subset (10)

eli5 · 25k rows

Split (1)

train · 25k rows

query stringlengths 20 300	positive listlengths 1 1	negative listlengths 1 1
if it takes 8 mins and 20 secs for light to travel from Sun to Earth, why do people claim that photons dont feel the distance and reaches Earth instantly ?	[ "They say it is instantaneous because when a photon of light is travelling at c (the speed of light) time becomes nonexistent. The closer you get to the speed of light, the slower you experience time. So if you were travelling at the speed of light to the sun, it would take 8 minutes, but you would perceive the jou...	[ "Fast internet and faster servers. Human reaction times are on the order of 100ms or so. Ping time, which is round-trip packet flight time is often on the order of half that or so. Round trip is therefore on the order of human reaction if you give the server a little time to do stuff. Also, the server only sends b...
Why do humans sometimes crave bad food (Taco Bell, for example) instead of higher quality, better tasting alternatives (real Mexican food)?	[ "It's about what's in Taco Bell, most importantly, the sugars. Taco Bell usually has stuff in fluffy, floury tortillas, plus the rice and other additives. They are absolutely FILLED with carbohydrates, which your body breaks down into sugars, which your body turns into fuel like the squishy mush engine you are as a...	[ "Simply put for the same reason drinking water when you're not thirsty isn't as refreshing as when you're REALLY thirsty. Anticipating the bodies' needs doesn't trigger the same reward responses in the brain as fulfilling a need that is already present. Your muscles don't NEED to stretch right now, so you can't ant...
How does a wetsuit work?	[ "A wetsuit works with a material called neoprene that is manufactured with bubbles of nitrogen gas throughout. The gas has very low thermal conductivity. Water then gets underneath the suit against the skin, where it is warmed by the body, but doesn't get out very easily and the bubbles of nitrogen limit the heat t...	[ "Here is a great video explaining it. _URL_0_" ]
Could a child king have been grounded? In general, how would a child who is a king have been disciplined as part of their education?	[ "Side question, but definitely related: Were whipping boys used outside of the English court? Also, when did the idea of using a whipping boy fall out of favor?" ]	[ "greetings all. Just a moderator reminder to potential respondents of what subreddit we're in here: it's /r/AskHistorians, so do review and comply with [the subreddit rules](_URL_11_). In a nutshell: > Answers in this subreddit are expected to be of a level that historians would provide: **comprehensive and inform...
Everyone seems to like Harry Potter, can someone explain to me what's good about it without giving spoilers?	[ "I don't even know what to say. Except that if you're calling yourself \"nerdy,\" you probably aren't." ]	[ "Dates back to ancient Rome. In a lot of old languages, they hadn't invented the space or the period yet. Like just long unbroken strings of letters. So they started making the first letter of a word huge to indicate new paragraph. The tradition kept, and in the middle ages, they'd hand write/paint a huge fancy let...
sometimes when meeting a new person, I get an feeling which tells me to be weary of them. What causes this?	[ "It's mostly instinct, based on their body language, and sometimes just their physical appearance. And that gut feeling is probably wrong as often as it's right. And as an aside, the word you want is \"wary\", not \"weary\". \"Weary\" (rhymes with \"cheery\") means \"tired, exhausted\". \"Wary\" (rhymes with \"Gary...	[ "When you look at a single small light spot in the dark, does it have an [Airy Disk](_URL_0_) pattern? If so, it means your eyes are optically really good! The airy disk pattern shows up when a lens such as the eye focuses a single light source down to a spot. Because a limited column of light enters your eye, it c...
Why does stomach acid have the ability to dissolve the toughest meats but not the tender lining of the stomach and duodenum?	[ "Some cells in the stomach secrete mucous, which coats and protects the stomach from the acid used to break down food." ]	[ "IIRC from another post, intense emotion gives a sort of fight-or-flight reaction, putting your energy into vital organs, like heart, lungs, and brain. Digestion takes energy, so the body directs that energy into other more important functions." ]
How does a copier or printer grab only one sheet at once?	[ "The wheels are bade of rubber, and there is often a spring system at the bottom of the feeder tray. So the spring pushes all the paper with just the right amount of pressure onto the rubber wheel that turns and slides just one sheet of paper into the printer system. Try it, stack alot of paper loosely on top of ea...	[ "Code on the page can automatically load another site in your current window or a new one. You're experiencing abuse of a this feature but it's often a good thing, like being taken to a confirmation page after your credit card purchase has gone through." ]
The menstrual cycle in humans	[ "When a woman ovulates, she releases one of her eggs, all of which she has had in her ovaries her entire life (i.e. the body doesn't keep producing them, like men do sperm). During this period, the egg can be fertilized with sperm, and if that happens, the woman will become pregnant. If not, the egg will leave the ...	[ "You know when iTunes, Facebook or your phone updates and how you know it's the same program as before but things have changed slightly and you are kind of lost. Well that's what it would be like going from animals to humans with the errors being death instead of frustration." ]
Did medieval knights lift any sort of weight to purposely build strength?	[ "[There was a similar post a while back](_URL_0_) that may answer your question." ]	[ "I responded to a similar question a few months ago, if you're interested: * [How did people in the Middle Ages deal with Down’s Syndrome and autism?](_URL_0_) You might also be interested in Irina Metzler's new book, Fools and Idiots? Intellectual Disability in the Middle Ages. She's absolutely one of the, if no...
Here's one for Egyptologists: Which books do you recommend about the daily life in Ancient Egypt?	[ "The book that you are looking for has indeed been written, at least for the part of being \"put into the shoes\" of a middle class girl in the Late Middle Kingdom: Kasia Szpakowska, Daily Life in Ancient Egypt. Recreating Lahun. Here's a review: _URL_0_" ]	[ "Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_...
The statistics behind the game show "Deal or No Deal;" isn't the whole thing just a more complicated Monty Hall problem?	[ "The key difference is that the Monty Hall problem is that when one of the choices is removed it is done with knowledge that it isn’t the prize. In Deal or No Deal, the contestant is eliminating cases with no knowledge of what is in them." ]	[ "If you know the full Hamiltonian for your system and the initial state, you in principle know how the system will evolve for all time. The time evolution is governed by the [time-dependent Schrodinger equation](_URL_0_). However you don't necessarily know what the results of measurements will be. For example, if y...
Why is it not advisable to give water to burn victims?	[ "I cannot speak on on-the-scene management of burns or anything before surgery (if required), but I do know that for long term care for burn victims water is advised against for the sole reason that it doesn't have calories. The metabolic rate of a burn victim can become up to 1.5-2x the normal rate, depending on t...	[ "The temperature sensors in your skin do not sense absolute temperature, they send relative temperature. When your skin is 7 degrees, 40 degree water feels like 70 degree water, which is scalding." ]
Why is it that nail polish stays liquid in the bottle, but dries in minutes after it’s applied to the nail?	[ "Nail polish is a pigment - the color - dissolved or suspended in a liquid - the solvent. It dries out when the solvent evaporates - boils off - leaving the pigment behind. When it's in the bottle there's not much of a surface for the solvent to evaporate from, because most of it is well under the surface. And if s...	[ "To enable a substance to expand out of a can (it had to be compressed to fit inside) the molecules must be allowed to \"re-expand\" and bump each other further apart, in an effort to match the outside air pressure. To do this, the molecules inside demand more energy to allow the expansion to occur. That means th...
Air pressure, specifically in air tanks.	[ "Air is made of molecules of certain gases floating around (most Nitrogen and Oxygen). There are huge amounts of space between these molecules, so air (like matter in fact) is mostly empty space. Air pressure - for example, inside a balloon - is caused by the molecules of gas all jostling around and bouncing off ea...	[ "I think it has to do with nucleation sites. The tablet gives bubbles a good place to form. The bubbles form easily because the liquid is super saturated with CO2, and so they \"want\" to leave solution. The same reason diet coke and mentos fountains work. The bubbles are just waiting for an easy way to release th...
why couldn't Walmart survive in South Korea?	[ "Essentially because Walmart failed to understand one very basic fact: South Koreans aren't interested in saving money by buying things cheaply. They prefer to buy top-quality stuff that will last, and they prefer to shop in environments that feel luxurious. It's a cultural difference, and when businesses expand ab...	[ "Very different budget and style. MANY American shows look like Atelier, e.g. Big Bang Theory, every soap opera, every sitcom, etc. The surge of movie-quality TV shows is a pretty new thing in the US too." ]
Can you replicate the same, exact sound twice?	[ "A high-quality digital audio system can indeed create the same sound twice, so exactly identical that you'd need ultra-premium equipment to detect any difference." ]	[ "Actually we do. _URL_0_ The reason its so complicated is because we have so many dialects, accents, and speaking mannerisms. The program itself needs (I believe) a minute of speech from the subject before mimicing the speech." ]
Who are the Indigenous people of Palestine?	[ "The question of 'who has the right to own the land' is not properly satisfied by an appeal to history, although it's a common enough mistake." ]	[ "Can you define what you mean by Partisan?" ]
Why do most screens and other color pickers use red, blue, green instead of red, blue, yellow?	[ "Cyan, magenta and yellow are used in printing, and adding them up makes black. (Subtractive colours) A monitor however uses light where the three primary colours red, blue and green (say, LEDs) add up to white. (Additive colours)" ]	[ "Sometimes, when you make the last connection, a spark jumps from the cable to what ever you're about to clip it to. If you start with the red cable, then the last connection will be made to an unpainted metal part of the car. That way, if a spark occurs, it hits the metal part of the car, rather than the battery, ...
Why hasn't anyone else been to the moon? It seems like something that super rich people would do for fun, like James Cameron going to the Mariana Trench.	[ "If' Elon Musk has taught you nothing else, it's that getting to space is really, really hard and expensive. Getting a submersible that can withstand the depths of the ocean is small potatoes in comparison. Least of all that you're not sittin on top of a giant bomb that can go off if something goes wrong. The worst...	[ "I would recommend that you read [this](_URL_0_) article. It's written by Christopher Hitchens who volunteered to undergo the water boarding process. The tl;dr version is best summed up by Hitchens himself > You may have read by now the official lie about this treatment, which is that it “simulates” the feeling of...
Why do car doors have two states of locked, one closed and one closed with a 1cm open gap?	[ "It is a safety mechanism so if you don't close the door all the way you don't get flung into the street or have the door hit something. Meanwhile you can hear it partially open and fix it." ]	[ "Firstly: does this actually happen? I don't think it does in my subjective experience. If it does happen to many, I would speculate that it's related to the complexity that is human consciousness. We have 'awake' and 'asleep' but within and between those there can be many differences in what the brain is doing a...
Why don't we remember falling asleep?	[ "_URL_0_ Link to similar ELI5 about a year ago TL;DR You cant remember because the part of the brain that controls short term memory is one of the first that shut down" ]	[ "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,...
Why do politicians never seem to be punished for lying?	[ "Because lying isn't illegal unless you're making factually inaccurate claims about a product in an effort to make people buy that product or when you're making factually inaccurate claims about a person that cause damage to that person. Don't get me wrong--I think that politicians should basically be considered to...	[ "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." ]
[US] What could happen if the executive branch just ignored the judicial branch?	[ "> What would happen if Obama did the same thing today? Congress would impeach him. In record time. That's how the checks and balances works, if the president gets too out of line, congress can boot him." ]	[ "Hello. Just so you know, we don't really allow hypotheticals. r/HistoryWhatIf is better for that. However, some of what you're asking can probably be addressed without resorting to hypotheticals, so I've gone ahead and approved your question. Things like the usual sentence, etc. Obviously the answers will need to ...
Can someone explain Synaesthesia to me?	[ "Our brains are made up of a big net work of cells, that talk to each other using sparks of electricity. Some areas of our brain are used more for different things, one part is for seeing, one part is for smelling, one part for hearing and so on. [Synesthesia](_URL_1_) is a condition in some people that results in ...	[ "Pins and needles are your nerves transmitting signals that are the equivalent of static on a TV." ]
Why are Qing horse archers depicted carrying three arrows fletched differently from the rest in their quivers?	[ "[This might have your answer (page five).](_URL_0_) It says that Manchu archers used several kinds of arrows, and during the Qing period they carried 9-30 \"plum needle\" arrows, and often only 3 heavy pi arrows. That article is not well-sourced, but there are some sources... There's a couple of mentions of thes...	[ "It has to do with the irrigation system. Some farms use a large boom, that swings around the centre of the field like a compass (geometry compass, not geography compass) applying water in a massive circle. Other farms use irrigation mounted to tractors or designed to operate parallel to the rows." ]
Why do whole roasted chickens at the grocery store cost less than whole raw chickens?	[ "They aren't trying to make money on them. They are a loss leader to get people in the store, and to smell good so people will be hungry while they shop. If the shopper buys a roast chicken that the store makes no money on, they might also pick up a loaf of bread , some mac and cheese, and some salad to make a more...	[ "Console games have to pay heavy license fees to the platform manufacturer. PC games don't. So, there's only so deep a console game can be discounted before they start losing money." ]
A question about unexploded ordnance (WWII): how come it was not dealed with at the time or at the end of the war?	[ "When a bomb hits the ground and doesn't explode it doesn't just sit there on the ground, it buries itself quite a distance. We're talking many metres. Other bombs get dropped nearby and debris covers up the hole. This leaves no evidence that there is a bomb there. How would they find them? By randomly digging hole...	[ "There isn't a global world police. It's easy for a single country to say \"hey, factories, cut that out\" if they collude, but no one really has the power to go a bunch of unrelated countries and then force laws onto them. I mean the US already goes pretty far into openly starting wars to influence the way oil is...
How/why does a digital camera, such as a cellphone camera, turn infrared light visible?	[ "It doesn't exactly turn infrared light visible. What happens is that the sensors on the camera are sensitive to a broader wavelength range than the human eye, so high quality cameras usually use filters to block out infrared. Also, since infrared is not detected by the human eye (by definition), it has no color. C...	[ "In the video, the first part you can see the pilots actually moving (big cross hairs) the ATFLIR's view to keep the thing in view - this is manual or they can slave the view to the aircraft radar to some extent. Next, when that expanding box appears, the system has been told by the pilot to start picking up a the...
How do scientists know that planets so many light years away, that are only blurs on our telescopes, have water and other such elements on them?	[ "It's called spectroscopy. Simply put, when light go through an element like hydrogen, the atoms will absorb different wavelength of the light. When you analyse the spectrum of light that when through hydrogen you will see a couple of black line where the wavelength were absorbed. It's a bit like the fingerprint of...	[ "> How does an optometrist know prescription glasses work with little kids and babies? Using an [autorefractor](_URL_0_). It projects an image onto your retina, then measures how well-focused that image is as it adjusts the focus of its own lens. > Why don't they use the same technique on adults? They do . . . as...
Why do boxers such as Mayweather/Pacquiao who are supposedly the best in the world, not compete in the Olympics?	[ "Floyd Mayweather was in the Summer Olympics back in 1996 in Atlanta, where he \"only\" won the bronze. Only amateurs, which Mayweather was back then, are allowed to compete." ]	[ "This has essentially been answered by the preceding comments, but what hasn't been contributed is this: _URL_0_. Muster and enrollment records, transfer lists, honours lists, etc, for the period of 1730 through 1898. Worth having, OP, if you're writing or researching the topic academically. To succinctly summarise...
if we drop a nuclear bomb on the Sahara desert, would it turn to glass from all the sand?	[ "Yep. The first nuclear explosion, known as the Trinity test, is actually famous for being in the desert and producing [very impure and rough green glass shards](_URL_0_). This specific type of glass is known as [trinitite](_URL_1_)." ]	[ "Media companies \"Nuking\" torrent files with data. Nuking basically means they put some kind of trojan horse in a movie/video game file, so when you download it, they can track it and report you to your ISP." ]
If Special Relativity allows one observer to observe Event A as occurring before Event B and another to oberve Event B as occurring before Event A, how casuality can be preserved if Event A caused Event B?	[ "Because if A caused B, then A will occur before B in all reference frames." ]	[ "The film \"A Knight's Tale\" is surprisingly accurate to the spirit of the times, apparently. Also, Jurgen Habermas states that during pre-Renaissance (or Enlightenment) times, there was a marked divide between 'private' and 'public.' To Habermas, things and people that were public mattered, and thus, a celebrity ...
Can anyone tell me the chemical reaction of aerating red wine that makes it taste/smell better?	[ "It's really more about the smell. You need to give the volatile compounds time to vaporize and hit the olfactory receptors in your nose. There are only five primary taste types (last I checked) - but your sense of smell has a greater range with which to work." ]	[ "The same way that astronomers find out almost everything. They use [spectrography](_URL_0_). Absorbtion colors - the specific colors of light that get emitted when light is absorbed by matter - tell you exactly what element or molecule did the absorbtion and emission. This process works with suns, atmospheres, pla...
It seems the world really doesn't like Lamar Smith so how come he can't simply be voted out?	[ "\"America\" can't, but Texans in his district certainly can. Once every two years they get the opportunity Mr. Smith is a congressman, and he represents one particular place. Only people from that place get to vote for or against him. Unfortunately Mr. Smith represents a wealthy area near Austin, Texas where I sus...	[ "Several reasons, one, they are very expensive to build, two, the power transmission infrastructure is also very expensive to build, three, you'd still need power supply to make up for night, and times when the wind is too low/high. Four, someone will always be against any major project, and tie you up in court for...
What facet of our biology causes us to age in the way that we do?	[ "Well, there are a couple of things. First, there's the cumulative stress of the environment over time. Things like oxygen oxidizing things it's not supposed to and all sorts of other minor things that just add up over time. Second, there's the fact that it's built into our genetics. As a defense against cancer, ou...	[ "Look at it like a phone and charger. If you put a load of energy into the phone (more than it's rated for), it'll do serious damage almost immediately. If you use an underrated charger, it'll put only a little energy in, but the phone will use more than it's getting and eventually die. Heat is just a form of ener...
Why does adding salt to a salty food (say, sausage) make it too salty, but combining a salty food like sausage with another salty food like cheese taste good?	[ "Taste is a degree of concentration. Its amount of thing over mass of thing. So by adding more food you keep the concentration about the same, but if you just add salt you are raising the concentration quite a lot. Dose makes the poison." ]	[ "The process of turning a raw egg into a hard boiled egg requires heat. That heat causes the proteins and fats within the egg to denature and then attach to one another therefore creating the solid egg. Turning a cucumber to a pickle involves the process of osmosis (or similar diffusion process) across the membrane...
The Half-Life game series	[ "Step 1: buy the first game on Steam. Step 2: play the first game on Steam. Step 3: repeat for the second game and subsequent episodes Step 4: join the HL3 circlejerk" ]	[ "Here's a discussion from 3 years ago: [Is there any historical precedent for a pre-modern culture constructing elaborate mechanical traps \\(as seen in many films such as \"Goonies\" or in various \"Indiana Jones\" films\\) that are disarmable by an artifact or by a sequence of actions? Where does this common fil...
How much of our depth perception is from focal point vs intelligent reasoning?	[ "Known/familiar size is definitely a depth cue that we can use. You can find a list of many cues [here](_URL_0_). Accommodation (focusing of the lens) is helpful only up to around 2m. There are physical limitations on the extent to which your lens can change shape. Binocular disparity is useful to around 6-10m pra...	[ "Pretty much immediately. Try closing an eye and then (with bent elbows) performing the E.T. touch with your index fingers directly in front of your face; you should find it somewhat difficult to determine. You still have proprioception though." ]
Is there a physical difference on the body between having a nocturnal sleep schedule and a normal sleep schedule?	[ "Yes. It matters very deeply in fact. Your body uses photoentrainment to set its wake-sleep schedule, and proper photoentrainment is crucial in learning, and irregularities [have been shown to increase mortality](_URL_0_) (pdf file) by interfering with neuroendocrine (~hormonal) control of many systems. This may be...	[ "Here's a [picture](_URL_0_) that might help explain. That figure is the \"analemma\". You can create such a thing by taking a picture of the same location in the sky (assuming the Sun is there) at the same time of day throughout the year. What you'll notice is that the Sun doesn't just trace a line back and forth,...
EPLI5: If a virus is not alive or living... Then what is it?	[ "A cell is like a factory-it can make many things, even other factories! A virus is a blueprint for itself. It needs to find a factory." ]	[ "What about a fly buzzing around? They're not attached to the bus so therefore don't benefit from the momentum of the moving vehicle so why don't they splat into the back of the bus?" ]
since the American dollar isn't backed by gold or any other material, what gives American curency value?	[ "It has value because enough people think it has value. This is the same reason that gold is valuable also." ]	[ "This is a frequently asked question. See the [search tool](_URL_0_) for many previous responses. My only addition is the discussion is that many responses focus only on the supply side (printing money causes inflation). There is a demand side aspect as well. When the economy is doing really well, people can bid up...
Why are all in elements in group 18 gases?	[ "Molecules in solids and liquids interact with each other. Because noble gases don't interact with each other well at all, they distribute as a gas, as there's nothing holding them together as liquid or solid. Of course, go to low enough temperatures and you'll get liquid noble gases just like anything else as the...	[ "1) The Law of Segregation states what you already seem to know: you get one allele per trait from each parent (the \"segregation\" bit comes from the fact that your parents' chromosomes physically separate from one another when gametes are formed), and you may inherit these in any combination of dominant/recessive...
Is it possible to completly solve chess?	[ "Mathematically, yes. Realistically, no. While it's a finite number, there are many orders of magnitude more chess games possible than there are atoms in the universe. It's not physically possible for a computer capable of storing those games to exist, due to lack of available matter if nothing else. _URL_0_" ]	[ "What you hear is misleading advertising. Scientists are pretty sure there is no one cure for cancer, because there are so many different kinds." ]
Why are elements/isotopes with odd numbered atomic mass' fissile while their even numbered isotopes are not?	[ "There are only a few fissile nuclides and most, if not all have odd mass number. There is a nuclear pairing force which makes it favorable to have even Z and N. Protons like to join with other protons into a spin-0 pair, and same for neutrons. In both of your examples, uranium and plutonium have even Z. So since t...	[ "So the fish muscle you eat is gathered up into little bunches called myomeres. These run down the sides of fish in layers, and allow it to curve its body from side to side. They are distantly related to the muscles around your own torso, like your abs. You can see them best on big, whole fish fillets. Anyway, they...
Why do nearby WIFI networks appear above mine, even though I am next to my router?	[ "Depends on the fliter in the OS. Could be due to name, WiFi security type, strength of the connection, GHz band etc." ]	[ "Essentially, the satellite tells the device how far apart they are. It's easier to visualize in [2d](_URL_0_), where you'd only need three satellites to pinpoint your location. The radius is your distance from the satellite, blue dot is the satellite and the red dots are your (possible) locations." ]
Why do people sometimes feel like their joints hurt when it rains?	[ "A change in Barometic Pressure. Essentially when there is a storm coming, the atmospheric pressure drops and more weight is put on to us. Those of us who have arthritis and other joint conditions can be affected by the additional pressure causing us to feel pain." ]	[ "Our brains didn't evolve with cars in mind. They evolved with, like, being hunted by a jaguar (or whatever) in mind. So your brain doesn't know what to do with a car. It thinks hey, we're sitting, our body's not really doing anything physical, there's very little activity or stimulus... this seems like a good time...
Why do CPU cores always come in even numbers?	[ "AMD Phenom processors were triple-core - the Phenom X3 series. The Xbox 360 also had a triple-core processor from IBM. Playstation 3 also used a processor with an unusual design - one main core and seven extra smaller cores." ]	[ "Desktops have very standardised parts in terms of what will fit where and how much space they can take up. The motherboards are (generally) designed to conform to specific formats. There aren't really any similar standards for laptop designs - each one is damned nearly a custom job and the case is designed to fit ...
EPLI5: the situation in London	[ "I'm a Londoner who just woke up about five minutes ago and had no idea anything was happening in London. So, uh... thanks for the heads up. (I really need to start watching the news more...) Edit: Oh, and from what I can gather, people are angry that police shot dead somebody called Mark Duggan, [though I can't ...	[ "Some things cannot be meaningfully simplified to an ELI5 level. This is one of them. You'll have better luck asking in a specialized maths subreddit." ]
Were Chinese people ever so poor/repressed they were forced to eat dirt?	[ "Frank Dikötter mentions in Mao's Great Famine: The History of China’s Most Devastating Catastrophe that peasants ate white mud called Guanyin soil in Sichuan province, during the 1958-1962 famine. They would mix it with whatever organic material they could to make cakes, but yes, it was dehydrating and would oft...	[ "Do you have a particular geographical region or time period in mind? You're more likely to get a good answer if you are more specific than \"people in the past\"." ]
Why does electron-positron pair production require a nearby nucleus?	[ "> I know that it’s to conserve momentum but I don’t understand exactly how a nucleus helps to achieve that. The nucleus helps by recoiling a little bit. If you just have a single photon in free space, it can't undergo pair production, because there's no way to conserve energy and momentum. You need at least two ph...	[ "The example usually given is imagine two mirrors on opposing sides inside a box, and you bounce a particle of light between them. It takes said particle a fixed amount of time to ping between the two mirrors because the speed of light is fixed(See EEP). If you were to run with the box, the particle would have a gr...
Is there a 'limit' to outer space?	[ "We don't know of an edge of space, it seems likely that it is infinite or nearly infinite. As it currently stands, you would need to travel at the speed of light for 46 billion years to reach the edge of the observable universe(from Earth), by which point the edge of the observable universe would have moved outwar...	[ "The computer has files of varying sizes. These take up varying amounts of spaces on the hard drive. Say you write to the hard drive 3 different files. One takes up 5 \"spaces\" the next 2 spaces, and the last 5 spaces. Later, you delete the 2 space file. Now you've got 5 occupied spaces, 2 free spaces, 5 occupied...
What exactly causes us to feel immediately relieved when taking a drink of water when we're thirsty? Certainly it's not because the water has already been processed.	[ "Not an expert in this field, but the review [here](_URL_0_) and the paper [here](_URL_1_) shed some light on the subject. As a summary, it has been shown that the sensation of cold in the mouth alone transiently reduces thirst. We have thermal receptors (TRP-family proteins) on our tongues, and nerves from the ton...	[ "You are currently processing crystal clear images of your surroundings, focusing on this post, reading squiggles and translating them into sounds, connecting those sounds into words forming sentences with meaning while simultaneously feeling your hand on your mouse, smelling the air, hearing and interpreting sound...
Why do doctors still use pagers when there are clearly smartphones and cheap cellphones around?	[ "Most of us don't. In a teaching hospital, pagers are common because residents come and go - keeping track of a never ending list of cell phone numbers, many of which will be long-distance calls, would be a giant hassle. But if the junior neurosurgery resident on call is at 555-1500, it's easier for the nurses to g...	[ "They don't mostly. Depends how rural they are, in the US they mostly do run electricity out to those rural houses. Not always though, many people who actually live that far our just use generators. As for sewers and water, they have wells and a septic system. My old house had those and my Mom's does too, it's not ...
Why were farms placed outside castles instead of inside castles during medieval times?	[ "This was due to the added cost and labor involved in building fortified walls to enclose a large space, and the difficulties of defending a larger area. Moreover, castles were usually built into landforms that were difficult to assail. Large arable fields are usually found on plains that are easily approachable." ...	[ "[This article](_URL_4_) is about a myocardial infarction (heart attack) in a dog but mentions that this is a rare event. I found some other examples of myocardial infarction in rats, mice, dogs, cats and cows. _URL_0_ _URL_3_ _URL_2_ _URL_1_ A myocardial infarction is damage to heart tissue (mostly cardiac muscle)...
Best supported hypothesis/theory for human bipedalism?	[ "Speaking from a biomechanics perspective, a human 's legs configuration is more energy efficient for standing upright than say a monkey. This is because we can achieve a singularity condition where the upper and lower legs can line up straight. This singularity configuration requires very little effort to maintain...	[ "Since this is a homework question, we expect a little more effort from you. What research have you done so far for your paper? What are your findings so far? Is there anything specific you have a question about?" ]
Why are medicines usually small molecules rather than proteins?	[ "Proteins are incredibly complicated and highly refined by evolution. To synthesize them requires something as sophisticated as a cell. To design them from scratch to perform a specific function is even harder still. If these challenges were overcome, then you would still need to find a way to deliver the molecule ...	[ "Whenever you hear that something kills cancer in research / in a petri dish... just remember that a gun kills cancer in a petri dish, too. Often times the most promising ground-breaking research doesn't pan out farther down the line when they start trying to apply it to full grown humans. Maybe it breaks down in ...
Strange Solar Optical Phenomenon	[ "Yep a sun dog, they usually come in pairs, at equal distance on each side and with a halo. [I saw one a couple weeks ago in Canada.](_URL_0_)" ]	[ "This is called the stroboscopic effect. This image, from Wikipedia, explains it better than words really can: _URL_0_" ]
Why Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is called "the greatest game of all time"	[ "Awesome Master Sword, time travel, zombies, cool ocarina songs, seeing yourself grow up, horse riding, epic battles, having your own fairy, using a grappling hook, epic shielding of things, horse carrots, fishing, the Goron race, nostalgia, and fucking with chickens." ]	[ "YouTube changed how they pay youtubers to be based on how frequently they upload and the length of their videos. Let's plays, and other game play videos can be very long and don't take much time to make. Not saying they're bad, but these videos are so perfect in the eyes of YouTube they get paid more than basicall...
why do wi-fi devices sometimes end up self-assigning IP (169.254.xx.xx) instead of the router's default (192.168.xx.xx)?	[ "A 169.254.x.x is an APIPA IP address. This generally occurs because there was a breakdown in communication/response with a DHCP server. The usual fix is to correct any network configuration issues to ensure access to DHCP server or correct any DHCP server configuration issues. Quick and basic things to check on th...	[ "Science. The food manufacturer doesnt know how long it takes for your oven to heat up. But they do know that when its 400° its at 400°. They know how long it needs to cook for at specific temperatures. So they are trying to eliminate as many variables as they can so you can replicate their results and get properly...
Are we seriously looking at all the possible "man-made" explanations for cancer? Should we be?	[ "Not an expert etc. But think about this. We're living longer than we have in the past. Cancer is correlated with age. It seems only natural that as the population pushes to older ages of life (not dying from smallpox, polio, influenza, hunger.........) that more people will have cancer in their lifetime. What woul...	[ "Studies have shown that the placebo effect triggers the brain's built in pharmacy to start releasing chemicals. Take for example patients with Parkinson's disease. One of the medications to reduce Parkinson symptoms is basically dopamine. A Parkinson's patient that had been given a placebo and told it was his norm...
How do protests have an effect? i.e. How does a bunch of people standing around for something actually get that thing to happen?	[ "Protests bring awareness to others hoping they will join in to help the cause. Also it can cause disruption in the daily activities of a certain area bringing the need to fond a resolution to get these people out and return to normalcy." ]	[ "Kind of like if you're looking through some legos for a number of different parts, you usually come across one that you need so your search goes quickly until there's one last part you need. It might take you awhile to find that last specific part. That explanation is probably wrong but that's what I would say to...
When a singer is performing during a concert and they have an earpiece, what are they listening to?	[ "I'm pretty sure it's their own self singing so they don't mess up on the feedback from the stadium. Like if you ever spoke in an auditorium with speakers there's like a 1 sec delay or even more depending on how large it is. Basically, when you're several words ahead and then you hear back what you just a couple s...	[ "Most of the choreography you see is a combination of named steps and moves. When you are in basic dance classes you learn these basic steps by watching and imitating a teacher. You learn the names of specific turns, leaps and steps, and then ad you become an advanced and professional dancer you can read instructio...
Are there any scientific breakthroughs, machine, etc. that are possible but is so expensive it can't be made?	[ "Manned interstellar space ship? I imagine it would be possible with the earth's entire GDP behind it." ]	[ "Most of the time the people who go to these places are either already successful or some kind of athlete. The majority of the people you are talking about already have a lot of money to finance these trips. The alternative is usually some kind of athlete like the ones you see on YouTube doing extreme sports (base ...
Why and when did the Roman gladius short sword fall out of favour with European armies?	[ "I asked a similar question here _URL_4_ Top comment is by /u/Ambarenya Later Roman armies spent more time on horseback, had taller soldiers, and relied less on tight combat formations. All these factors made longer swords more attractive" ]	[ "There have been quite a few answers on and around this topic- here's a couple you might find interesting! First, there's[ this answer](_URL_1_) by /u/iphikrates, which delves a bit into the idea of a formation going \"obsolete\" to begin with, and shows how the phalanx was very context-specific. [This post](_URL_...
Change/Incident/Problem Management ITIL	[ "The really brief albeit maybe not exact ITIL is: Change: What it says on the tin, a change to software or hardware of any form (including windows updates, upgrades of office etc) Incident: A problem, e.g my keyboard doesn't work... Singular... If you get repeat incidents for the same thing (eg file server crashes ...	[ "Because, like many people, he realises that this is not a fundamental problem with Islam, but a problem with some fundamentalist Muslims. Essentially this really isn't about religion, it's about politics." ]
Why do some people work better with background noise that they tune out?	[ "I think its because then, if a random sound enters the fray, it will automatically be ignored because you are already ignoring the rest of the background noise. If it were silent, then any stray noise would disrupt your work." ]	[ "I actually remember a study i read earlier this year concerning reading on paper vs. reading on screen. The study showed that the screen-readers showed lower comprehension and in general scored lower than the group reading on paper. Here is the link to the research paper: _URL_2_ Edit: For a tldr of the paper (WAR...
How do you actually get consent to use a song?	[ "You ask. Call the owner of the rights and start negotiating. If you can't find a number for that purpose call a general company number and ask for the person that can make that sort of arrangement." ]	[ "I was curious about this as well, so I did some google-fu and found some results. This is all secondhand so take it with a grain of salt. It seems that the stations contract survey companies to get a rough estimate based on a sample population in the area. Arbitron is one of those companies. How do they do it? The...
If companies continue replacing human labour with robots, will this not lead to the products these companies make becoming unsellable since most people are unemployed?	[ "It's not going to happen suddenly, each company will do it at a different time, and nobody will realize what has happened until it is too late." ]	[ "Brains easily perform many, many tasks hat are difficult for computer. Take that we know brains are optimized for pattern-finding. Consider intelligent life forms have to interact with a real 3-world and real time. Which means they can check their expectations. Testings a supposition is as simple as rotating an o...
Is there a reason why the majority of land on Earth is located in the Northern Hemisphere?	[ "Because, due to continental drift, most of the continents are in the northern hemisphere. _URL_0_ This national geographic documentary shows some previous positions of continents, and in some of them it appears that there is more mass in the southern hemisphere." ]	[ "> If timezones are determined by your position on the globe Time zones are purely man-made things, and don't always line up the way you might expect. Your position on the globe is just a guideline for determining time zones. And if you look at an actual [timezone map](_URL_0_), you'll see that France and Spain...
Why is the output power greater than the input power for a microwave?	[ "It's not. The way the \"power output\" of a microwave oven according to IEC-60705 is calculated is a function of the mass of a container of water, the beginning and final temperature of that container, and the time it takes to get to that temperature, without regard for the actual power the microwave runs on (see ...	[ "They're preventing the liability of you burning your hand with the hot lid after microwaving. The drops of water below the lid that will inevitably be really hot - making the lid really hot. If they put the instruction to remove the lid, you can't sue them if you burn yourself thay way." ]
If I want to get up at 7am and a whole sleep cycle is 90 minutes. Does that mean if I set....	[ "Sleep cycles differ for everyone, this is just a general suggestion that applies to many people. Not sure why you would be less tired from waking up at 5 and adding a sleep cycle to get to 7 when you could just wake up at 7. Overall, the more consecutive cycles you can fit in the better you will feel. You can actu...	[ "Argh. So much misinformation here.... First of all, it's usually \"pay 1/2 of your mortgage payment every 2 weeks,\" not \"pay every 15 days\". The difference is important: pay every 2 weeks, and you end up making 13 payments per year instead of 12. The extra payment goes toward principal, so you end up paying it...
What do wild animals die from mostly?	[ "It obviously depends on the animal, but here's a few general cases: Most herbivores die from predation. Their populations rely heavily on predators to keep them in check. For example deer have been left alone on islands and eaten every living plant until they died out. Some animals die from accidents, for exampl...	[ "Do animals know that the purpose of intercourse is for bearing offspring?" ]
Could somebody help identify this Second World War uniform?	[ "The uniform is definitely a Nazi Uniform, you can tell by the Eagle over the right breast pocket. If you look at the epaulets, it looks like he might have been an [Oberleutnant](_URL_0_) *updated link due to correction by Bernardito" ]	[ "There was a quite good documentary ([Kanalinseln im Krieg](_URL_4_)) on german television a few weeks ago (I just found, it's at least a year old), and I don't know if those ever get translated into english. But it might be a starting point, and maybe you can find a subbed version on the net the [BBC](_URL_5_) has...
Why doesn't sea water pollute the water table near the shore?	[ "The fresh ground water sits on top of the sea water in the ground. Salt water has a higher density than fresh water because salt water has more mass. For every meter of fresh water above the water table, there is something like 20 meters of sea water below it. Hopefully this image will help clarify things! _URL_0...	[ "[After use in household cleaning or laundry, sodium hypochlorite breaks down into 95–98% salt and water. The remaining 3–5% is easily handled/removed by either sewage treatment or a septic tank where it degrades like starting soil. Further, no liquid bleach enters the environment as it reacts with organic loads in...
How superior was iron to bronze during the beginnings of the Iron Age?	[ "OP, have I got some reading for you! not discouraging anyone else from contributing on this topic, but check out these previous posts that discuss Bronze vs Iron: [How quickly did iron replace bronze as the metal of choice for weapon-makers?](_URL_0_) [Why does the Bronze age comes before the Iron Age?](_URL_2_) [...	[ "Also, why did they include emperor of the Iberians in their title? Is it just for the prestige of claiming descendance from the old Roman empire?" ]
Why doesn't water pressure at the bottom of the ocean kill fish?	[ "Most fish don't live at the bottom of the ocean for this very reason. Fish live in various 'zones' most of which are relatively close to the surface, as you go deeper you find invertebrates (such as squid) that are better adapted to dealing with higher pressure. After a certain point though there is very little li...	[ "Submarines dive by filling ballast tanks with water. When the sub dives, air from the tanks is compressed into storage tanks, and replaced with seawater. In an emergency, the compressed air can be released back into the ballast tanks, blowing the seawater out and restoring positive buoyancy. Google \"submarine eme...
Would it be possible to create Fremen stillsuits to maintain body moisture in the absence of water?	[ "The biggest problem with the stillsuits, for me, is that the evaporation of sweat from your skin is supposed to help cool you. If you don't have that anymore, you'll just heat up more. Imagine wearing a wetsuit in the desert. You'd need some sort of power supply to run an active refrigeration system for the suit. ...	[ "It takes a ton of energy, and the cost is prohibitive. [Here is a good explanation why](_URL_0_) Here are some other discussions on this topic. _URL_2_ _URL_1_ _URL_3_ _URL_4_" ]
How is the human body able to expel bullets and shrapnel?	[ "Cells divide and multiply. The cells behind multiply in the direction of the material, the cells in front multiply away from it, this slowly pushes it out through the skin until it breaches the surface, where it will come out. Fragments of the right size in the right place, ink for tattoo for example, won't trigge...	[ "> If a proton beam is fired at a target of lithium or tungsten and neutrons are produced, where did the neutrons come from? They came from spallation reactions. > What happens to the protons and the target's atoms? [Here](_URL_0_) is a document with some nice figures, explaining spallation, and contrasting it wit...
Just finished a book on the Battle of Stalingrad, and now I am confused about a few things	[ "There were strategic reasons to go into Stalingrad. It was the largest city in the area, controlled a major river stop, and was a large manufacturing center. The real blunder (and a classic Hitler mistake of which there were many) was to stay way too long as the weather deteriorated and invest too many first-rate ...	[ "Hi - we as mods have approved this thread, because while this is a homework question, it is asking for clarification or resources, rather than the answer itself, which is fine according to [our rules](_URL_1_). This policy is further explained in this [Rules Roundtable thread](_URL_3_) and this [META Thread](_URL_...
How does Parthenogenesis work?	[ "There are three major types of parthenogenesis to consider (at least in insects): * 1) Haploid parthenogenesis: Quite common for ants, bees, and wasps. In this particular case, we have a diploid (2n) female who produces haploid (n) gametes. If the eggs are fertilized by a spermatozoa (n), the resulting offspring w...	[ "There is a well written and well cited wikipedia section on this: _URL_0_ You can read an abstract [here](_URL_1_)" ]
Path traced and distance traveled by Earth from the perspective of Milkyway Galactic center?	[ "The solar system is located in one of the Milky Way's spiral arms. The galaxy makes a full revolution in about 226 million years, so Earth's movement in 1 year relative to the center would be minuscule. Sincere we're about 26 kly from the center, we are traveling approximately 250 kilometers per second rotational...	[ "My understanding is that we are moving towards the Great Attractor, as in overcoming expansion by that amount. Otherwise they would say we were be receding from the Great Attractor. Using the other posters math, that is instead how much expansion is slowing down our approach." ]
[Evolution question] Why, after many generations of evolution, do two species established from the same ancestors become unable to reproduce together?	[ "Imagine you have a Grey squirrel population in Arizona. All of a sudden, a grand canyon appears in the middle of their territory. The canyon is too big for squirrels on either side to traverse across, so you can effectively say you have two populations of squirrel that will never meet. Now progress millions and mi...	[ "Cats and dogs have been selectively bred to be good companions. Most animals find being petted extremely stressful and many would lash out if you tried. But those are poor traits for pets so we try to breed them out. There's an old Russian experiment with a fox farm that demonstrates this very nicely. At the farm ...
Is there a magma level the same as a sea level?	[ "No. Observing seismic waves tells us that the mantle is in general solid and rocky. Magma only exists in certain small places. Think countless separate lakes (magma chambers), not one ocean. _URL_0_ (Though solid, the mantle flows and convects over geological time. \"Solid like plasticine\" is a loose analogy.)" ]	[ "To put it simply, \"no\". I can't find a verifiable source from any German that actually states that. Plenty of post-war historians like to tout the claim, and you'll see WW1 veterans on the Allied side saying this in interviews or in their own memoirs. I'm a big Lee-Enfield fan. Own a bunch of them, shoot them, ...
When I am starting to fall asleep, why does my body sometimes jump or jolt me awake?	[ "It's called a Myoclonic Jerk... It is basically the brain sending signals to your extremities to ensure they are still there and working. When falling asleep, the brain tends to \"lose contact\" with arms, legs, even organs. It may be a sign of mental illness, but in most people is perfectly normal." ]	[ "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,...
Why does the movie ticket costs the same for all the movies?	[ "While you might feel you are buying a \"movie ticket\", to the theater you're buying access to their facility and the \"opportunity\" to spend even more money at their snack bar. The facility costs to the theater don't change if you go see the latest blockbuster, or a hopeless flop so why should the access fee (ti...	[ "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." ]
Why doesn't Pennsylvania stop at the Appalachians the way Virginia and North Carolina do?	[ "For clarification you mean to compare it to the current borders of Virginia? As originally constituted and containing all of present West Virginia it obviously would have left NC as the outlier of the 3." ]	[ "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...
Why do some people like foods that others don't?	[ "Some off topic thing: I know at least two small kids that are very picky eaters and won't eat anything other than a couple of things. One of those kids even landed in the hospital because she would not eat anything for several days and became very weak and frail. How can a human actually be this kind of picky eate...	[ "The answer for this question is highly layered, there are possibly hundreds of different variables for one's preferences of music, or art in general, such as where one was reared, previous life experiences, perhaps even on a genetic level, so there can't be a true answer as it's basically one's opinion." ]
Is there less frequent lightning in AU/NZ?	[ "Australia is a big country - and the tropical part gets frequent storms, so frequent that scientists from around the world go to Darwin during the wet season to study thunderstorms. Outside of the tropics it's not as common, but along the east coast there are frequent thunderstorms in summer. Tasmania and Melbourn...	[ "As a follow up, does anyone have a rational reason why different countries do it at different times? Also, I feel like the answer to this question is very straight forward, but I just can't wrap my head around it: why does the southern hemisphere change in the opposite direction? And why are their seasons not dire...
Is there any worthwhile scholarship on video games development throughout history?	[ "Sure there is. [It's got it's own subject heading in the Library of Congress system even.](_URL_1_) \"Video Games - History.\" [This book looks pretty interesting,](_URL_0_) from an academic publisher. It's subject headings include both \"Video Games - History\" and \"Video Games - Culture\" so sounds right up you...	[ "If you don't get much of an answer here, you could try asking /r/AskCulinary. It may not be the standard kind of fare there, and they won't have the same strict standards in terms of sourcing and all that, but I have seen people there talk about the history of the culinary world in there before." ]
Are the three spatial dimensions actually one dimension, represented by three vectors? Are the three dimensions actually "separate"?	[ "You cannot say which dimensions are which. There isn't a canonical triple of x, y, z axes. However, you can say there are 3 dimensions. (Formally one says space has dimension 3, but in common language one says there are 3 dimensions). The dimension of a space, the number of dimensions, is always a well defined c...	[ "it seems that a good olfactory system should work [in stereo] (_URL_1_). so, the animal should sense the local gradient of a scent in just one sniff through two nostrils (or flick of the forked tongue), and follow that gradient to the source by sniffing repeatedly. look at [this paper] (_URL_0_). they describe an ...
Why is dust-free cat litter so dusty?	[ "I'm sure there is not much regulation on the claim, other than general advertising laws/regulations. It's worth noting, that if your house was 1% dust you'd move out, it'd be so disgusting. What does 1% mean? Who knows...1% dust by weight in bag of liter is a crapload of dust. but...the _reason_ it is dusty is th...	[ "Could be an issue with the packaging. Depending on the weight of the goods they might have calculated their shipping cost on a bundle to be more since they might have to use a larger box or a different shipping service." ]
How do countries test their nuclear weapons without doing substantial damage to the earth?	[ "They test them in a desert, at sea, underground, or somewhere else very remote. And substantial damage to the earth has been done, some would say. The US basically destroyed Bikini Atoll with H-bomb tests back in the 50s. We literally kicked hundreds of people out of their homes, blew up their island with thermonu...	[ "Media companies \"Nuking\" torrent files with data. Nuking basically means they put some kind of trojan horse in a movie/video game file, so when you download it, they can track it and report you to your ISP." ]
The Mcmillan Tac-50 has a firing range of 1970 yards, yet the longest confirmed kill is 3871 yards with the Mcmillan tac-50. How is it possible to shoot about 2x the maximum firing range of a sniper rifle and hit someone in a vital organ?	[ "_URL_0_ > Effective firing range 1,800 m (1,970 yd) _URL_1_ > The effective range (maximum effective range) of a weapon is the furthest distance an effective shot can be taken with reasonable certainty that it will hit. It is determined by a number of factors: type of cartridge fired, inherent precision of the w...	[ "In pharmacology the figures of [EC50](_URL_3_) and [IC50](_URL_2_) are measures of how much of a substance is required to induce a desired effect or to inhibit function. These numbers vary a lot depending on the site of action, nature of the pharmacological compound, type of interaction, etc. It is all covered und...
Is there any truth to the notion propagated by popular historians and news media that Afghanistan is the "Graveyard of Empires?"	[ "This depends entirely on what kind of empire you're talking about. In pre-modern times, ruling Afghanistan or Bactria from a long distance away would have required a fairly loose agreement of vassalage between an imperial center like Delhi or Constantinople. In modern times, it's status as a border-zone between ...	[ "In 2000, while excavating the Boston Saloon site in Virginia City, Nevada (operated 1866-1875), we discovered [these mutilated coins](_URL_6_) beneath the floorboards. Cutting the half dollar, in particular, would have taken a great deal of effort and focus. Kelly Dixon, who directed the archaeological field schoo...
Why does rolling down only the back windows of a car cause a strange sound vibration throughout the car?	[ "It has to do with something called Helmholtz resonance. It's the same principle that a flute works under, or when you blow across a bottle. When you open a single rear window the air pressure from the car is escaping and then being pulled back into the same window. This creates the repetitive \"thumping\" noise th...	[ "Your brain has a gating mechanism. Basically if you feel the same sensation for an extended time, your brain decides that feeling isn't important anymore and ignores it. This includes all sorts of things, like the feeling of your teeth on your tongue, your lips touching, the clothes on your skin, your phone in you...
Why does tickling make us laugh and smile even though we hate it?	[ "Tickling usually on our most vulnerable spots like the ribs, neck, etc is usually where we are most likely to get attacked. This stimulus of touching (tickling) these spots sends a signal to the hypothalamus which is our pain but also laughing control center. So the stimulation of this center controls both and as ...	[ "Your nerves are mostly sending either pain or pressure signals to your brain. However, they can only send one signal at a time, and pressure takes priority over pain. So when you get hurt and apply pressure, your body thinks \"ok there's pain and pressure but since we can only send one signal to this meatbags brai...
Is the difference between deadweight loss and wealth fare loss?	[ "A \"wealth fare loss\" seems to be something you just pulled from your nether regions. A [dead weight loss] (_URL_0_) is an actual concept actually existing in modern economic thought." ]	[ "Trademarks are for things to do with branding, like logos, slogans, brand names etc.. Copyrights are for creative works like books, films, music, web sites etc.." ]
Why is the fluff in my bellybutton always a blue/grey colour, no matter what colour shirt I am wearing?	[ "The colour results, as a study from 2001 suggests, from the mixing of all fabrics you wore as clothes into an average new colour, which is then a light grey/blue. The lint is created upwards, more from your underwear than from your shirt though. This is caused by more friction through hair in that region. However,...	[ "[\"All around the Mediterranean there are wide stretches of beaches composed of crushed murex shells, silent witnesses to the geographical scope and longevity of the Phoenician dyeing industry\".](_URL_0_) It was all from a gigantic murex snail farm off the coast of modern day Lebanon, which was notably monopolize...
Human fingertips wrinkle in water to aid with grip. Are there any other examples of similar evolutionary traits in land based animals when they go into water, or water based animals when they come up onto land?	[ "As far as I know, skin wrinkles because of osmosis. It has more polar and ionic species than tap water does, and so it pulls water in across semi-permeable membranes. If you swam in a concentrated salt solution, for example, you’d have the opposite effect. In general, though, it’s good to be wary of these evoluti...	[ "Or conversely, how come land-living animals don't explode due to the low pressure at the surface? Answer: the pressure is also low inside a land-living animal, and it is high inside a deep-sea-dwelling animal. They have each evolved differently to fit their particular habitat." ]

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