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How pirating is not stealing | If I steal something from you, I now have it and you don't. That is, I deprive you of the ability to use or enjoy the thing I have stolen. Obviously piracy doesn't do that, you can still use or enjoy the item I pirate. What I *have* stolen though is your ability to sell that to me and, if I distribute my pirated copy, ... |
Why does the body allow us to sleep in positions that cause us pain in the morning? Such as waking up with sore necks, arms, etc.? | Something that I do not think has been mentioned and is based on science and not conjecture or anecdote is the fact that the brain releases the equivalent of a paralytic when humans sleep, particularly during REM sleep. It was initially thought to be caused by the neurotransmitter glycine, but is now thought to be two ... |
If cartels are illegal, how come OPEC can still function and decide about the prices and quantities of oil produced? | OPEC isn't governed by US business regulations for the simple fact they are not American. As a group of state actors, OPEC pretty much behaves in its own best interests. |
Why do 'Entry-Level' jobs all require 3-5 years of experience now? | It's because while college is hugely beneficial, it's easy for experienced workers to look at new hires and realize how useless they generally are. I'm talking about general office stuff that isn't taught in college that these guys have no idea how to do like use a fax machine, make copies, formulate a presentation for... |
How can mice fall the equivalent of a ten story building to humans and just walk away? | Wind resistance. If you tried this in a vacuum, the mouse would splat quite nicely, because it accelerates at a steady rate according to gravity and Newton's laws. In air, however, the mouse stops accelerating quite soon, because the air resistance builds to a level where the upwards force of the air balances the downw... |
Why does it feel pleasant to touch fur? | Back when we were cave dwellers, fur kept us alive by being a good insulator of warmth. Through evolution, we're conditioned to like the feeling of fur because fur = warm and helps us survive the cold. |
If I have 600 MB of storage left on my phone, why do I get a warning for "insufficient storage" when downloading a 15MB app? | It's how phone manages partitions. I've run into same problems on old cyanogen roms. There is some apace reserved for apps and it's sometimes like 150-200Mb if you have core apps that go over it you get this message. These space is small because its made of other, faster memory chip to launch apps from and on original ... |
Why are pickup trucks so expensive now? | Good answers so far, just want to add a few more prices:1. More expensive due to sheer size of body, engine, transmission, etc2. Built for higher stresses even for their size 3. Higher profit margin due to simple fact that they're more expensive. 4. Less competition - every automaker has a cheap mid sized sedan and dem... |
Why does it seem like NASCAR is for red necks but Formula1 is a high class sport? | Because you're preconditioned to believe that only southerners watch NASCAR and that all southerners are rednecks. I found the most recent study I could find and it states that [1 in 3 adults watch NASCAR or 75 million people and broadcasts in 150 countries.] |
When particles and their antiparticle counter parts interact and destroy each other, how come we don't see this destruction more? | We don't see this more because there are VERY LITTLE antiparticles here. And yes, what little antimatter that is produced do get immediately annihilated. That's the basis of a PET scan. |
Why do GIFs(from a reliable host) take longer to load than Videos? | This is frame three", which, makes it huge in size. For more info, check this out:-_URL_2_ |
Why can you sometimes taste a smell? | Your senses of taste and smell are interconnected. Neither would work properly if you didn't have the other one. If not for the sense of smell, an apple and a pear would taste exactly the same. |
What limits spaceship's speed in space, i.e. why can't we travel (much) faster to Mars? | Light manages to travel the speed of light because it has no mass. Anything with mass cannot travel that speed, as it's mass increases as it approaches such speeds, reaching infinite mass to go the speed of light, and requiring infinite energy to push that mass. Yes, we can travel much faster to Mars than we do, howeve... |
Where does the money to pay off a loan come from? | The $20 goes into paying those that work at the bank, who then end up loaning from the bank for what ever reason. Additionally the ability for banks to loan in the first place is what allows businesses to expand quicker and individuals to buy a house or other such things before they would otherwise have the liquid to b... |
why are bathroom doors pull to leave? | LPT: after you dried your hands with a paper towel, don't throw it away instantly, use it to open the door and then throw it away", 'Not really relevant to the question, but relevant to the door handle issue: If the door handle is metal then it will actually be fairly clean despite people not washing their hands. This ... |
Why do people in movies take off their bulletproof vests after only being shot once or twice? | Because the vest can indent where the bullet impacted, making it difficult to breath or cause increased pain . Also, depending on the vest, if it's got plates in it, chances are, the plates are broken and the vest is no longer useful anyways - meaning it's just dead weight.Movie do it for effect. To show "Wow, he would... |
Why are banks, which service mostly people with jobs, only open when the people that need to use them are at work? | This question comes up pretty regularly. Basically, the vast majority of the bank's business comes from businesses that operate during business hours. The amount of money banks make from large corporate and business accounts makes the tiny amount it makes from personal accounts seem almost paltry. That being said, ther... |
Why the moon follows me? | Comedy break: Red meat has a series of comics based on this gag. Here's one: _URL_0_ |
Could you detonate a grenade by shooting at it? If yes, would the type of gun and bullet matter? | Mythbusters did a segment on this if I remember correctly it all mattered if the round penetrates the detonator inside the grenade if it didn't penetrate the grenade went off if it did then the grenade didn't explode but even with a shotgun that did penetrate it deflected the grenade away from its target |
Seeing as penises are viewed as the bigger the better, why do muscular sculptors of gods have ridiculously small wangers? | Maybe they were portrayed as being growers? I have what I figure is a very middle of the road dick when erect, but man when I'm not, you'd be hard-pressed to even find it. Borders on being a large clitoris when I'm not ready to roll. |
How do deaf-from-birth people understand language when they regain their hearing? | There's hearing, and there's understanding. Easy way of explaining it: She heard the sounds of the woman talking, but that's not where the understanding of the words was coming from; it was coming from seeing the woman's mouth move. The understanding of the words by the sounds themselves will come later, if at all. |
Why does holding hands feel weird when you and your partner's fingers are in the "wrong" order? | The same reason a cold room *feels* cold, or a new shirt *feels* different, or that beef stew you bought from the farmer down the road tastes *off* compared to your mother's stew. Namely, you're not used to it.Our bodies are very connected to our psychology. If you study body language you learn that there is a direct c... |
Does being under anesthesia "count" as sleep to your body? | I've had anesthesia several times for various procedures . I often wonder if dying is similar to anesthesia. In almost all my anesthesia experiences, it's like someone is closing the lights around you, you get tunnel hearing/vision and you can't stop it from happening. Everything starts to go dark and then bang - No th... |
If a nation were to create a space combat cabable force, would it initially be controlled by the Air Force or the Navy? | I think it depends on the size of the spaceships. If they are quite large and accommodate a large number of people then it would most likely be controlled by the navy due to similarities to boat life. If we're talking small crews that only fly to targets and return within a 24 hour period then it's more of an air force... |
What causes people to cringe when watching bad acting? And, what makes this reaction different across time and cultures? | The Finnish word for this is myötähäpeä, which might translate as with-shame or along-shame. I always found it funny English didn't have a word for it. I however find bad acting not a very good source of the feeling. If you really want the cringe, go into open mic stand-up nights for beginners until you see someone fre... |
Why is it that if you kill a police dog it is considered the same as murdering an officer, but if you kill someone's dog, you simply killed an animal? | Obviously, because it costs the town or city money to train police dogs. Your dog doesn't cost them anything at all. |
Why we needed a consitutional amendment (the 18th) to ban alcohol rather than just a Federal law | The 18th Amendment didn't ban alcohol. Possession and consumption were both legal: > Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article **the manufacture, sale, or transportation** of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territ... |
Why is Chicago so violent compared to other major U.S. cities? | Obviously there is no one clear, inarguable answer. Some of the theories include: - Redlining: which caused Chicago to be very segregated - Police distrust: residents of dangerous neighborhoods won't cooperate with police because a history of police misconduct that included routine use of torture - Guns: there is a pip... |
why is it considered dangerous to use your cell phone near an operating gas pump? | I'm told it is because of static electricity, though I am not an expert and it may not even be true. Signs at gas stations also warn against leaving the car running g while pumping gas, something that is not dangerous at all. Your gas tank always has fuel in it while the engine is running. How is it dangerous to add mo... |
Of all animal species, why do only humans need cooked food (and clothes) to survive? | Another aspect of the clothing question is the location of our evolution. We evolved from Africa where we still often see tribes wearing very little clothing. In order to survive in environments we haven't evolved for we need clothing. |
Why does it seem more offensive to mimic a chinese accent rather than a british accent? | Don't forget, mocking can go both ways. The Chinese probably laugh themselves stupid at English. The Brits can and do laugh at some aspects of US accents. It's the context that makes things racist. |
Do those cell phone battery apps really do anything? How do they work? | You are right, they don't. Your phone is better at managing battery more than anything, modern ones are capable of shutting down processors and just run low energy ones that maintain cellular connection and other related things. When you want to play a game or browse on an app it fires up a big one only for the time yo... |
Why do our brains go into autopilot mode? | Attention is a faculty of volition. Brain does not do anything it's you that is willfully abandoning attention. |
The reason why restaurants serve celery with buffalo wings. | It's a vehicle to eat blue cheese or ranch which helps take the burn out of your mouth. Same for carrots ", 'Buffalonian here. Worked in a pizzeria as a kid. We put celery in the boxes with wings to-go because they help absorb the steam from the hot wings from the fryer. This helps prevent the delivery orders from gett... |
Why can't pc players play online with console players? | iv only played FFXIV , it's on PC , PS3 and PS4, all 3 play together on the same servers. the reason it's not on Xbox is MS have a policy against it. just remembered SF5 is also gonna be PS4xPC again no xbox , but thats coz sony helped budget the game. back to FFXIV, PS3 has been a limiting factor for the devs with som... |
What's all the ruckus in Istanbul about? | I could be wrong but I believe people were protesting a new development that is to be built where and existing park is. More people joined the protesters and the Turkish government got police in to reign everything in. They started to become violent , and CCTV cameras were shut down to allow police to be as brutal as n... |
How is Germany still an economic powerhouse while still paying the debt of the World Wars? | Germany has always been an industrial powerhouse in Europe. Good resources, good terrain, large population, and an industrial tradition made it easier for them to recover after WWI, Allied help made the WWII recovery easier. France, Italy, and Spain just aren't industrial enough to become economic powerhouses. Germany ... |
Why is it popular to dream about your teeth falling out? | Mine crumble and break off, rather than fall out, in my dreams. I only have these dreams when I'm incredibly stressed/anxious and feeling guilt or worrying about decisions/situations. I'm glad to see others have these types of dreams as well *phew |
Why does facebook need two apps, one for messenger and one for general use? | And one to track pages. One as their own photo messenger. One for selfies. One for one type of video. One for another. One for work chat. One for work. One for the list of all 17 Facebook, inc. apps in just the iOS app store, 16 not counting F8 which makes some sense. Back to 19 adding Instagram's 3 apps. They have a p... |
How did ancient peoples make it to Hawaii and other geographically disparate islands centuries before reasonably modernized shipbuilding? | They used outrigger canoes like [Hōkūle`a] and the ancient discipline of wayfinding. There's been some recent resurgence in studying this discipline. |
Why do we see "shadow people" in sleep paralysis? | I've never seen anything, when my S.P occurred. I woke up and it felt like someone was holding me down. Then something jumped on my bed, and started walking toward my upper body. At first I thought it was my dog, but after looking around I could see him. Then this crazy tingling sensation went from head to toe. Almost ... |
How is it possible to show racism / sexism / ageism when you were never actually hired? | It's very hard on an individual basis, you often need the hirer to have made some sort of comment that evinces bias. On a macro level though, it's very possible to collect evidence of bias in hiring. Civil rights groups, academics, and government enforcement agencies will often conduct tests in which they send actors w... |
Are predators that stalk their prey aware of whether or not they have been seen, and would this constitute a theory of minds? | I've read somewhere that some deer lift their tail up when they know where the predator is that's stalking them. The white bum is a quick signal to the predator to not try it and waste any energy chasing the deer. Probably another reason for the white bum too. |
Do animals associate the names they are given as an identity? Or do they simply recognize the word as something used to grab their attention? | Is there a certain number of syllables before a dog is not able to discern its full name? I've heard it is two.Explain me like im five, what is the difference between a name as an identity, and a word used to grab attention? |
Does all the money in the world really exist physically? If you added up all the bank accounts, would there be physical money to equal that? | Not by a long shot. Most of it is the idea of value. For example, I live in a house. let's say it's worth a hundred thousand dollars. I didn't give anyone a hundred thousand dollars in cash to get it, I just gave them a few thousand and then I pay them every month . That money doesn't exist. More importantly, that mone... |
Why is Israel pissed off with the Iran Nuke deal? | First of all, Israel doesn't believe Iran will adhere to their end of the deal. Specifically, Israel thinks that Iran will still make nuclear weapons. Secondly, Israel and Iran are still enemies, and nuclear power is a huge empowerment for Iran, since it is very viable and relatively cheap for them. |
Why dogs can drink from rivers and we have to boil the water first. | Dogs drink from rivers relatively often compared to us, so they don't have an immune response to the usually harmless microrganisms in the river. Although in all honestly, as long as you live somewhere where rivers are relatively clean, you should be able to drink from them without any adverse effects if you really wan... |
What is the deal with Sriracha sauce? Is it any good? Is the ban for a real reason or is California just being a dick? | California didn't ban the sauce. The company that *makes* the sauce has not been filtering the process properly, so the neighbors get to live with pepper fumes all the time, which sucks. California has been going after the company to correct the pepper release problem the the neighborhood doesn't have to live in pepper... |
How are dinosaurs made? | As in how it's they're supposedly made in the movies? Just tell the child that there's a thing called DNA, and explain to them that DNA is a set of instructions like in a cookbook for making any living thing. When things die, these instructions are sometimes but not always preserved in fossils. Now normally, every livi... |
Why do cars fall nose first when dropped? I thought weight didn't matter with respect to gravity. See this video from tonight's Mythbusters (link in comments) | Weight doesn't matter with respect to gravity when there are no other factors. There are always other factors, wind, air pressure, etc. |
The relationship between heat and time. | The Second Law of Thermodynamics says that entropy increases with time. If you see entropy increasing, that means you're going forward in time. The reason this is an issue is basic physical interactions are invariant under time reversal . Nothing in the basic laws of physics would be violated by the pendulum gradually ... |
Why is scalping illegal in many places while many websites do the same thing, legally, on a much larger scale? | Less than honest scalpers can also create problems for the venue by selling fake tickets, or selling duplicates of the same ticket which then results in pissed off customers. Although this is still possible through things like stubhub, I'd imagine it is at least reduced compared to just buying tickets off someone in fr... |
If you go small enough, even a line drawn on a paper has depth. Does true 2d actually exist on our world? | The only thing i can think of being 2D is a shadow It doesn't have a depth since it's not made of matter and it can be considered as just a surface. Am i right? |
why electric cars are STILL considered inefficient by our market economy? | They tend to cost more, most people don't know how to fix them, and they need to charge often.Tesla is a good example. The comparable Tesla I can buy costs over $80,000. A Mini Cooper costs about $23,000. If I drive 15,000 miles per year and get 30 MPG from the Mini , I would be buying 500 gallons of gasoline per year.... |
Why has the price of higher education skyrocketed in the US, and who is profiting from it? | I'm a professor for a state university. Here's what I've been able to observe: * The cost of supporting materials keeps rising. If universities were just desks and classrooms, costs would be low. But universities try to make their classroom experience have top notch research equipment. Those things aren't cheap, and th... |
Using a Primary Key as a Foreign Key | Name" as other attributes. - A table "Car" can have "SerialNumber" as the primary key. Attibutes like "NumberOfSeats |
Is everything covered in germs? | Not everything is covered in germs, but nearly everything is. But that is irrelevant. We don't get sick regularly, as most germs are harmless, and although a lot of stuff is covered in the harmful ones, our bodies have a lot of mechanisms that defend them from harmful germs, ranging from mechanical barriers such as the... |
Why is it (or was it) so hard to navigate at sea? | ELI10: how to tell your position at sea. You need: 1. An instrument for measuring the angle between the sun and the horizon: a [sextant].2. A clock that shows the accurate time at 0 degrees longitude.3. The correct date of the year. You know this this by keeping a ship's log or diary every day of your journey.4. A book... |
how does a credit card work? | Smaller payments. I think he or she doesn't like the thought of taking a large chunk of money out. One thing you can do op is create a budget and put money in savings from that budget for big purchases that you know you're going to make in the future. Then, when the time comes to spend that money you will of Already ha... |
How does the US grading system work? | Every school/professor is different. In my school, the professor can decide their own grading scale. A 97+ is a A or 85+. Or one of my previous professor decided to curve the grades, so in a class of 30, he'll only hand out 1 A, 4 Bs, 10Cs, 10 Ds, and the rest Fs. I got a C with a 85, but one of my friend got an F with... |
How does mental fatigue work? | Was about to jump into an explanation of dislocation movement through a lattice until I realised it wasn't about metal fatigue! |
How is a bullet "too close to the lungs to be removed"? | If they tried to remove the bullet, then there would've been a high possibility that they could've caused damage to the lungs. |
Why was the ps2 backwards compatible but no other system has been? | Because Sony thought that was important for marketing the PS2. Because it turns out that it wasn't important enough to be worth the additional cost. |
How graduate school works. | In undergrad, you're taking classes in a variety of areas as well as classes specific to your specialization/major. You will generally have to have some basic understanding of math, science, literature, history, foreign language etc., in order to graduate. The proportion of general education requirements to major-speci... |
Why do mosquitoes 'attack' certain people more than others? | In addition to all the other factors pointed out by others in this thread, there's also a factor of being bitten but not knowing it. The itchy welt we get is a histamine reaction to the anti-coagulant used by the mosquito: essentially it's an allergic reaction. It just happens that the overwhelming majority of people h... |
Why can you get shots to cure outdoor allergies (e.g. grass, pollen, mold, etc), but not for food allergies? | While it may not be as effective for certain allergies, I believe it was found a couple years ago that peanut allergies can be treated with small doses of peanut. Eaten, not injected, but same basic idea. Of course peanut allergies are relatively common and relatively serious, so a cure seems like a big deal. Why hasn'... |
How do filming companies film in busy cities like NYC? Do they shut down roads and reroute traffic. | They shoot a lot of movies here in Toronto. It's cheap to film in and works as a great generic North American city backdrop. Film companies will buy a permit and arrange with the city to close down roads and reroute traffic. They usually shoot on side streets or during off peak hours to avoid disruptions. Sometimes the... |
Zeno's Paradox, The Grandfather Paradox, Searle's Chinese Room, Hilbert's Hotel, Einstein's Twin Paradox and Schrodinger's Cat all explained like you're 5 (YouTube link) | [I saw this a few days ago] when it made it to the front page. Very nice video. Can't go wrong with British narration. |
How Are CNN and Other Major News Networks Biased? | Each news network as an owner and if the owner of a network doesn't want something aired it won't be aired. This can show a bias based on the stories they report/don't report. Some news networks have even lost court cases about reporting false information, like the BBC and world trade center 7. |
Why don't overworked Japanese workers quit their jobs before dying of fatigue (karoshi) or committing suicide (karojisatsu)? | If the Japanese needed to just put in the hours to appear like they're working hard, can't they just dick around at work like go on Reddit, etc? I think spending long hours in the office but not actually doing anything productive or hard is less stressful, no? |
Why are gay people more prone to getting HIV than straight people? | It's not that gay men are more prone to getting HIV, it's just that HIV is more common - in North America - among gay men. This used to be even more true in the 1980s. Part of this might to do with anal sex but the main reason is that patient zero, one of the first man to bring HIV/AIDS to North America was gay. He was... |
How i easily can hold my breath under water for 60 seconds, but can't hold my breath in the shower for more than 10 seconds | Not entirely sure, but could it also be to do with the fact your standing so you're using some more oxygen in your muscles to keep you standing, whereas in water you are not really having to use the oxygen in your muscles as much? |
Why isn't nicotine (or cigarettes) a schedule one drug in the USA? | Tradition. There really isn't any more to it than that; if tobacco, white sugar, or distilled alcohol were discovered today, there would be moral panics in the newspapers and a rush to pass laws against them. Instead, they're the three drugs that fueled European expansion into the western hemisphere. Much of the land r... |
How do the food industry determine the expiration date on their products? | use by" or expiration date does not relieve a firm from this obligation. A product that is dangerous to consumers would be subject to potential action by FDA to remove it from commerce regardless of any date printed on a label. -[Source: FDA] |
Why do some people get personal offended if a woman says she doesn't want kids? | I think a lot of people feel that one of the responsibilities of a woman is to bear children, and that to not do so is to go against what it means to be a woman. I'm sure many also take the view that by choosing not to have kids, you are 'denying life', or something to that effect. In either case it's ridiculous that a... |
Why can't you measure position and velocity at the same time? | Imagine you're looking for a ping pong ball endlessly bouncing around a dark room. You can feel around for it and find its exact position, but as you feel around for it, you'll hit it and change it's velocity. You could also stay quiet and listen for the sound it makes when hitting a wall to measure it's velocity, but ... |
Why is it illegal to flip cars without a dealer's license, but you can flip houses without a real estate license? | A real estate license allows you to help someone else buy or sell property and, IIRC, gives you access to post on the listing database. You can always buy and sell a piece of property you own. By contrast, a car dealer's license allows you to buy and sell cars for the purpose of making a profit. In my state at least , ... |
Is optic fibre internet really that important? | The big buzz about Google Fiber and FIOS isn't so much about it being based based on fiber-optic connections as it is about them being *fast as fuck*. For the last 30 years or so, the only wires coming into homes have been electric, telephone & cable. Power line networking was never really seen as viable. DSL, over pho... |
How far does the 2nd Amendment go? | You can have a tank, but don't think your going to get away with arming it without some serious red tape in the way. I know plenty of people who own tanks here in Florida. Restoring them is a rather popular hobby around here. They just stick air soft guns on them and call it day when it comes to arms though. You can ha... |
Why is everyone worried about EA games developing the new Star Wars games? | Because EA has a long track history of doing everything possible to maximize their profit, and of not making decent games. Such practices include: * Excessive Day-1 or Pay-To-Win DLC* Rushing out unfinished games* Excessive DRM schemes* Attaching a brand-name to a game that it has little resemblance to.* Poor customer ... |
What exactly is an economic bubble, and how does it burst? | it might be a little high-level for a five-year-old, but read the very first story in *Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.* The Wikipedia article about that book is here: _URL_2_ and the actual text can be easily found free of charge on the internet because it's public domain. Read about the 19th... |
Why do we enjoy spicy food, when it's supposed to be a deterrant? | I used to hate spicy food, even mild salsa was sometimes too much. Then my uncle told me he used to be the same way, but now gets everything spicy, he just had to train himself. He was usually right about most things and I didn't like limiting the dishes I could order, so I started ordering things with a bit of kick, m... |
night vision and shadows? | The nightvision cameras use a light to illuminate the subjects. The trick is that the light shines infrared light, not visible light. The camera, unlike our eyes, can actually see this infrared light. The reason we see a shadow is that the infrared light is not perfectly aligned with the camera's lens . Since the light... |
How much of (Breaking Bad Spoilers) Hank's investigation in the final season of Breaking Bad was actually legal, and provided evidence which could be used in court? | Considering how big of a catch Walt would be on a global scale at this point and what the DEA are actually able to get away with anyway I'm pretty sure Hank would be pretty much a hero |
Can sports at an early age effect testosterone levels and how does this effect the physical appearance of someone who didn't play sports at all? | Here's a real ELI5 answer for you: Both of these play a role, and it depends on the individual as to which one plays more of a role. |
When a country gives financial aid to a poorer country, how does it guarantee that it is used for its intended purpose? | The intended purpose is almost always to buy influence, so strings are generally not attached and it is accepted that the people who's influence you are buying will take a fair portion of the money for themselves. Financial Aid is bribery at a national level. |
The German Pirate Party. | Not an ELIF article but this piece from Der Spiegel does give some info: [Germany's Pirate Party has gone from a tiny group of hackers to a significant force in an astoundingly short amount of time. Its growing pains are obvious to all, but the party could succeed in fundamentally changing German politics. First it mus... |
why do some people not remember their dreams? | The study of dreaming is relatively new and needs research, but based on popular explanations, here why we might see such a difference: One popular explanation of dreaming is that it was somewhat of an accident, and it's just the brain trying to interpret the signals it gets while it repairs itself during sleep, includ... |
A quick announcement on the direction of this subreddit. | LI5 is currently experiencing a massive influx of excited people eager to participate. When I created /r/favors it went to 4,000 people in 24 hours; that's nothing compared to LI5's 30,000 but you have to remember Reddit was about 1/10th the size at the time. The same thing happened to /r/Favors - a whole bunch of peop... |
What would happen if I was in a foreign country and missed my return flight home, but didn't have enough money to book a new one? | I once did the opposite. My friend and I arrived a day early, we ended up waiting in the airport for 26 hours. This was in 2002 so we didn't even have the luxury of a smartphone. It was one of the most boring and uncomfortable times in my life. |
Why are private prisons bad? | Just like any other service business, they charge more for the service than it costs them to deliver it. However, they also have to appease stockholders with ever-increasing profits. That leads to some unpleasant consequences. They cut back on food quality, training for guards, medical care, anything they can. Ultimate... |
Why can't we just fall asleep whenever we want? | I'm a teacher. I can sleep on command but I have way too much shit to do.You can fall asleep whenever you want with enough shots of whiskey. |
How famous companies, corporations and businessmen escape from big amount of taxes? | The tax code has thousands of loopholes, some that were passed with good intentions of stimulating business and investment, others that were basically giveaways to the rich. If you have very complicated finances and the money to hire tax accountants and lawyers, it's often possible to take advantage of these loopholes ... |
How come Venezuela is in such a poor state if it has nearly 300 Bn barrels of proven oil reserves? | It's all about supply and demand. Imagine you find a really pretty blue stone, and everyone likes it. People are actually willing to pay for your blue stone, so you go and look for more. On the best days, you can find 5-10 blue stones, and are happy selling them for $10 a piece. You can pay your rent, bills, buy food, ... |
I'm a music venue manager that books only original music not represented by music licensing agencies. Why am I forced to pay live music fees to BMI, ASCAP and SESAC? | Haven't you asked these companies this simple question?", 'I want to start a campaign against these agencies. Young people need to know to NEVER be a member, and every venue ever should just refuse to pay. These agencies are destroying local music scenes and live music in general with "legal blackmail." Why can't we fi... |
How do the homeless and ex-convicts find work? | I think the system should focus a lot more on this problem for ex-cons. Rehabilitation is a lot more than punishment. As for homeless from other reasons, we have to work a lot harder on this for sure. Don't assume they want to be that way; I would guess almost no one wants to be homeless. Suggesting that they get minim... |
How did most Americans know the same elementary school tricks and inside jokes growing up in a huge, diverse country before the age of the internet? | Before there were Fax machines, jokes would get passed around the office on a sheet of paper. People would copy the joke and continue to pass it around. Many times it was a copy of a copy, of a copy etc. I took a joke on a sheet of paper that went around the office and gave it to my mother a week later. She lived 200 m... |
How did Jesus' death cleanse the sin of mankind? | The idea is he was the perfect, sinless, being living amongst man as a mortal. That in his last moments, he thought not of what was being done to him, so much as forgiving the sin that brought him to that point - *son* of man. It's one of those things you take or you don't. |
What is the "Science" that is being shown in this XKCD comic? | If you ever miss a reference or don't get what the comic is about, this site might help. [Here] is an explanation for #54. Also it transcribes hover text which doesn't work on my mobile device from the main site. |
Why do some YouTube videos, particularly music, have a long silence at the end? | Unrelated fun fact: During the early days of radio, FDR was campaigning against someone and the radio station ran a program where he would give a half-hour speech and his opponent would then give a half-hour speech. He gave a 25 minute speech, followed by 5 minutes of silence during which many people turned off their r... |
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