query stringlengths 19 300 | pos list | neg list | task stringclasses 1
value | instruction dict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Why don't anti-migrant european countries like Hungary use lethal force to defend their borders? | [
"War refugees are recognised by the UN. Even so death is not a reasonable reaction to unwanted immigration. I'm not a fan of bums asking me for money and cigarettes but that doesn't mean I can shoot them."
] | [
"A closed border is more than just a state of mind. It's armed military patrols, it's shooting unarmed civilians, it's an expensive program of detention and deportation that makes your country look ugly and authoritarian to people living within and without. France is getting refugees from the war it started in Liby... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What does it mean when a fire is described as an "N"-alarm fire, where "N" is some number? | [
"N isn't a number of any specific thing in most places. It varies from city to city, but it just means that a particular response level is required. Think of it as like being a DEFCON level for fire department, sort of. At one alarm, you'll send out a truck. At two, you'll send out two trucks and a supervisor, at t... | [
"The military uses the nomenclature of Y year, D day, H hour, M minute, S second, and T time. \"D-Day\" was really just one of many D \"days\" of WWII; the day when something important was scheduled to happen. T time just means \"the time when something is supposed to happen\". T minus means \"before that time\", ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why is the human body made for endurance instead of speed? | [
"Compared to most animals, humans are bipedal. So in the most simplest of terms, we only get power from 2 legs instead of 4 making us slower. At the same time, we only consume half the power allowing us to run for much longer periods of time."
] | [
"So what is it about human physiology that makes this work differently for us?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How does these definitions of Distinction differ? | [
"Distinction can be the process of *noticing* that something is different, or a distinction can be *the thing that is different*. I can make a distinction between two items by noticing that one is red and one is big. I can also say that the distinction between the two items is their size."
] | [
"Can you better explain what you are asking about? My google searching doesn't exactly explain what \"The Three Liars Paradox\" is."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why was Dolly aging premarutely, and why are it's current clones (all four of them) healthy? What's the difference between them? | [
"Dolly didn't \"age prematurely\", that's a myth. She died due to a lung disease. The disease was not genetic but possibly caused by Dolly needing to sleep indoors for security reasons. This would explain why the clones don't have the disease."
] | [
"The animal starts as a baby. They aren't cloning the animal in the science fiction sense where they make an exact duplicate at the same age - what they're doing is creating a new animal embryo with the exact same genetic code as the one they're cloning. The result is that when it grows up, it's identical to the fi... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What is CloudFlare's ddos protection is doing?(see picture) | [
"The DDoS protection ensures that there are not a lot of connection requests coming from the same place. If there were, it would ignore them so that they didn't hinder the operation of the site. Thats the idea behind it at least. Having used cloudflare on a site before, it didn't necessarily always work as advertis... | [
"This is due to reddit using caching for non signed in users. It helps with site stability and for those users not logged in, they likely don't participate enough to notice. Quote: > Treat nonlogged in users as second class citizens. By always giving logged out always cached content Akamai bears the brunt for redd... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
What made the Dark Ages happen? | [
"They didn't happen. The concept of \"the Dark Ages\" is a complete myth; people did not have particularly bad living standards in that time period."
] | [
"What's to explain? Why we have it? How it works?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit post:"
} |
How do we go from being very hungry to all of a sudden losing our appetite after looking at something or hearing something? | [
"Two main reasons: If it’s something disgusting, our body perceives the image or sound as real and suppresses our hunger. Historically this protected us from eating rotten food which could make us sick. If it’s something emotionally distressing or shocking, that’s our fight or flight response kicking in. Our body s... | [
"It depends on exactly what food you crave. For a very long time, foods with high fat, salt, and sugar content were not the most common thing in the world and in many cases could make the difference between starvation and not. On a different level it is possible that you crave them now due to a psychological depend... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question about Health and Wellness:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Health and Wellness:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Health and Wellness:"
} |
If there is clearly a market for women's clothing with proper pockets, why are they so scarce? | [
"Honestly, it's probably because the market for pockets isn't as strong as you may think. Think of it like this -- are there women's clothing with pockets? Yes. Have people who buy women's clothing purchased those clothes en masse instead of clothes without pockets? No. If people who buy women's clothing were reg... | [
"Maybe to reinforce that they are only to be worn on special occasions and are not to be too practical. Also the reason why they are usually uncomfortable and terrible to have to walk long distances in. Form over function."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
If a bullet fell on my head at maximum velocity, could it penetrate my skull? | [
"No. The air resistance slows the bullet down enough for it to not be lethal when it hits the ground (or rather, a person). It would probably hurt a lot, though. You can't assume no air resistance, because without air resistance, there would be no terminal velocity."
] | [
"There's a myth that it would kill a person. However, pennies aren't terribly aerodynamic, and have a low terminal velocity, around 280 feet per second, which is about the speed of a paintball. If would hurt, but is unlikely to actually kill someone."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
why is it so difficult for the medical community to give a straight answer about how much a procedure/appointment/etc. will cost? | [
"The doctors and nurses don't even *know* how much shit costs. They just say what work they've done & the billing department handles the prices. Billing can't give you a straight answer because they have different rates for cash payments or insurance. Every insurance company negotiates a set of rates they'll pay fo... | [
"Deductibles are basically putting you on the hook for your more routine care and run of the mill stuff. Granted you are still better off with insurance even with a high deductible because of the negotiated rates for services between a given doctor and your insurance. for example - a doctor charges $100.00 for brin... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do we shake our hands when we hurt them but no shake other parts of our bodies when we hurt them? | [
"It also has to do with the nerves in that area. If you shake your hand when it gets hurt it activates the nerves in the hands and your brain can’t really differentiate between pain and the shaking sensation. Same reason we press on an injury like if you stub your toe or hit the side of a table with your hip."
] | [
"Well, that’s not normal. I’ve asked a few people and that doesn’t happen to them either. Are you feeling well? Any sudden headaches? Strange aches in areas of your body?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why does orange juice taste better after you shake it? | [
"My guess is that the sugar/pulp sink to the bottom when it sits in the fridge for a long time, so pouring without shaking first produces a cup of thinner, more bitter juice, whereas shaking the bottle first allows the sugar/pulp to spread throughout the rest of the juice evenly. Also, bubbles. I like when my orang... | [
"Depends on how long the sweetener has been settling. Shake your drink every time before you take a swig and it should be consistent."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why do many female dresses include bare backs? | [
"Be... Because it looks nice? This is a pretty odd question for ELI5."
] | [
"For reasons of fashion and materials, bras were pointier. Breasts were not. The tips of the bras tended to be empty and crushed. You can often see crush marks if you look at old nonprofessional pictures. It was embarrassing. We stuffed kleenex in the tips to compensate. Source: developed breasts in late 1950s."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Why is it that brail is a thing/that blind people don't just feel the ABC's like those with site read them? | [
"For most signs with braille (such as bathroom signs) tend to have bigger letters than can be read by a single finger. It would take the blind person a lot more time to trace each letter of the sign. Braille letters can be placed a lot more compactly, so it's quicker and easier to read."
] | [
"You know how authors write long stories using letters and words and the rules of grammar and writing? Its just like that. With enough knowledge of how to read (math), these kinds of explanations make sense. Dont feel bad that you cant read it. Its just like if you tried to read a story in a language you dont know.... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
How does adblock work and why doesn't Youtube get around it? | [
"In very simple terms, it is just a blacklist that prevents certain domains or subdomains from loading. In more complicated terms, it also parses the sites source code and looks for things like iframes etc. to unfuck the site layout after the ads have been taken out. Also, websites rarely \"notice\" you having ad... | [
"Relatively few people use AdBlock, and the tech savvy crowd that uses it is relatively unlikely to click on ads anyways. If more people started using it, you can bet that ad based companies would try to take them down. Also, big companies don't need to take them down at all. Google banned AdBlock Plus from their G... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post about Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do "Supreme" brand items sell for so much? | [
"Supreme has a target audience of young, fashionable urbanites who are willing to throw down some money to look cool. Their quality is a step above something like Gap, and the price is too. Could you get higher quality stuff for cheaper? Yeah, probably. But you are paying for the design and branding. Nevertheless, ... | [
"Also most items are incredibly marked up.. They receive those goods for a MUCH lower price than what they sell it.."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Business:"
} |
How can super tall buildings swing and sway at the top? I cant imagine concrete and steel bending and still be stable. | [
"Get a really short fat stick. Try and bend it. Doesn't really work does it. Now get a longer stick of the same thickness and try to bend it. This time it is much easier to bend. That's because you are exerting a larger moment (science word for rotational force) on it, because the size of the moment depends on how... | [
"It would be especially devastating because New York is a low risk location for earth quakes in the first place. [Check out this map](_URL_0_). When you prepare a city for emergency responses you have to prepare for least likely to most likely and I would assume that while New York is prepared for many things, eart... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
What is BitMining? How exactly do you mine for money on a computer? | [
"It's basically selling your computing power. You are loaning the bitcoin network your computing power and earning bitcoin in return."
] | [
"The same way Gold, US Dollars and Euros gets their value. Some people are willing to exchange a certain amount of another currency for a certain amount of Bit Coin. The people who help make these exchanges record the amounts and tell you about it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
Where did the phrase, "What am I, chopped liver?" originate from? | [
"No one is certain, but it's been traced back at last as far as 1949. _URL_0_ Theories focus the idea that liver isn't liked by everyone; that this is a low-prestige ethnic dish; and that this dish looks very unattractive."
] | [
"The first phoneme a baby says is usually \"m\" or \"ma.\" So naturally, the person taking care of the baby at the time (in historic times) says \"that's me!\" The second phoneme a baby says? \"D\" or \"Da.\" \"That's you, Honey!\" Ma and Da mean mother and father in almost every language on earth. That's my story... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
If North Korea remains isolated from South Korea, how long before the population becomes physically/genetically distinct from South Koreans? | [
"When you're describing (genetic differentiation due to geographic separation) is known to evolutionary biologists as [allopatric speciation](_URL_0_). The answer is that it depends on the [evolutionary pressures](_URL_2_) exerted on the populations. [Punctuated equilibrium](_URL_1_) says that populations tend to ... | [
"If North Korea were to collapse, it would be the closest thing we've experienced to a refugee crisis from another planet. North Koreans are forced to live in a completely different reality, and China has absolutely zero interest in integrating them into Chinese society. Providing humanitarian aid is a preventative... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
What would happen to North Korea if Kim Jong Un died unexpectedly? Who would take power? | [
"We don't know how NK's government works. They don't really like sharing information with anyone. We SUSPECT that the generals run the show, and Kim Jong Un is just a figurehead, but we don't know for certain."
] | [
"If the things North Korea did made sense, they wouldn't be North Korea."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why sometimes water doesnt drop smoothly but needs airholes for being smooth? | [
"The fluid leaving the container is trying to leave an empty space behind it. Eventually this partial vacuum gets so strong that it overwhelms the flow from the outlet and sucks air back in against the direction of flow. This gulping action makes it really hard to pour. A small hole to allow air in, means the liqui... | [
"Adding to /u/kg989 Also because having the Liquid run along the side of the glass, only 1-2 millimetres high until it hits the \"pool\" at the bottom, gives the gas much more surface area to escape into the air. And the flow of the liquid destroys the foam as it flows down When you pour it into the pool directly t... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
How do movies and TV shows make money off of Netflix? | [
"Netflix pays the studios for the rights to stream the movies. In the case of dvds/blu rays, netflix just buys a huge amount of copies and mails those out to people, they don't have to pay for it beyond the initial cost of buying the disc."
] | [
"Amazon pays them a fee to provide their book for the service. Same way that studios make money if their movie is on Netflix."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
When a computer is processing electrical voltages as 0s and 1s, at what point does the 0 become a 1, and how can the computer determine this? | [
"It depends on how the system is set up, and varies from system to system. If a system is set to have 0.5v as 'high' and 0.05v as 'low', then it might have a dead region from 0.15v to 0.4v that is indeterminate, at which point the system may raise an error or behave in unexpected ways."
] | [
"Everything in the world is analog. For computers, we created a digital signal. It isn't truly digital, it is still an analog signal, we just design the electronics to interpret everything to have only 2 states: 1 or 0. This allows us to turn switches on and off and manipulate information in a relatively easy manne... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Can someone easily explain the difference between a clause and a phrase? Grammatically speaking. | [
"A phrase is a group of words without a subject doing a verb, e.g. \"typing this phrase\". A clause is a group of words that includes a subject and a verb, e.g. \"while I was typing this clause\"."
] | [
"It has a few different meanings in different contexts. What setting are we talking about?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph about finance:"
} |
This is gross but would a human egg taste like a chicken egg if it was scaled up in size? | [
"Nope A chicken egg contains all the nutrients that the embryo will need to form into a baby chicken, there is no resupply so it has to have all of the food within it A human egg is just a single cell that gets fertilized, it has no nutrients in it because it will implant on the uterine wall and be fed by the place... | [
"Egg is made out of egg stuff, which you can be allergic to. As the chicken grows, it eats the egg stuff and turns it into chicken stuff. Once the chicken is ready to hatch, the egg stuff has been completely used up. All that remains is delicious chicken stuff."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How can there be infinities bigger than other infinities? | [
"When you're comparing infinities, you can't think of size as just being \"WELL THERE ARE MORE THINGS!\" anymore. You have to have a more mathy description. The normal description we choose is this: two things are the same size if you can line them up perfectly next to each other. That is, each part of *this* thing... | [
"There are technically infinite number of points, but not all infinities are the same. For example, there are an infinite number of positive integers: 1, 2, 3 etc. But there are also an infinite number of integers, both positive and negative: -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3 etc. Both are infinite, but clearly there are twic... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Mathematics:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Mathematics:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
What is the purpose of the colored bars on TV broadcasts? | [
"They are used to adjust the color of the TV set, in order to most accurately re-create the colors originally seen by the camera."
] | [
"Do you have a link that contains examples of these images?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
What’s with nosebleeds? | [
"Nosebleeds during exercise can happen because you breathe out of your nose pretty heavy and any intense strain to the noise plus dry air, dehydration etc can cause a nosebleed."
] | [
"Why do you have so many lips and chins?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post about Biology:"
} |
Why is it so much easier to notice typos after you send a message, compared trying to proofread the message before you send it? | [
"Your brain makes all kinds of assumptions for you when it builds a picture of something. Your eyes even have a blind spot that you never noticed because your brain fills in what it thinks should be there. When you are proofreading something that you just wrote, your brain will auto correct small mistakes because i... | [
"Because you are still reading it as you wrote it in your mind, not as how it is on the paper. That's why common advice is to walk away from the writing for a bit when you're done, and re-read it with a fresh mind."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Why does everything seem to give you cancer? And how can anything cause that first cell to turn cancerous? | [
"Think of it like this. Our body is quite the complex system. It's balancing on the brink of disaster at all times. Our cells are dividing all the time. Thousands of times each second. All that's needed for us to get cancer is that something goes wrong in one of those divisions. We are standing on the brink, and we... | [
"LMAO - where the trolls at that usually answer these questions? Anyway. So, you know that DNA is necessary for life right? Well sometimes, mutagens and carcinogens ( like cigarette smoke ) can cause breaks in the DNA. Which means that when your cells go to replicate, the process might be impeded. At the same time,... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Telephone/Transmission/Utility Poles. What are the different components? | [
"Utility employee here. For utility poles, lines at the top are the electrical, lower down are cable, telephone, etc. The idea here is that those cable workers won't get zapped so we keep their stuff further down. If you imagine a pole you could have the following from highest to lowest on the pole: * Primary elect... | [
"They apply engineering processes to different parts of the system's design. Computer = processing hardware Software = code Mechanical = moving parts Electrical = circuits Civil = built structures Environmental = natural structures"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
How did "Bitch", which started out as a term of female dog, ends up as being a curse word? | [
"Actually a completely different source. **Bicched** is a Middle English word used to describe the state of rotten or spoiled food, in the 1400s it became a verb, **Bicchy**, meaning to go bad, and in the very early 1600s we see the first written entries for **Bitchy**, used to describe the act of complaining. Arou... | [
"It's a curse word over here, plain and simple. It's used as a derogatory term for a female."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Linguistics:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Linguistics:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do British TV seasons/series tend to have very few episodes while the average US season has 20+? | [
"British Drama/sitcoms are generally written by one or two people (i.e. the creator of the show or perhaps a comedy partnership). Whereas American shows are generally written by a team of writers including the creator of the show. For British shows, the creator(s) has a vision of what they want to do (and a limited... | [
"There are definitely shows like Daredevil with varying lengths for episodes, ranging from 48 to 61 minutes each. So some shows will indeed take whatever amount of time they need to tell their story on Netflix."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do some people feel temperature differently to others? | [
"The major factor here is how active your thyroid is. Thyroid hormone has many functions, one of which is to increase metabolism. Increased metabolism causes your body to passively burn more fuel (sugars, fats) to generate energy (ATP), and this process produces heat. With this in mind, men tend to have higher thy... | [
"A lot of nerves in your ear canal link to most of your body. Tickling them makes your blood pressure drop and thus leads to pleasure. At least that's what I read. Correct me if I'm wrong."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document about Health and wellness:"
} |
Why does raw seafood smell so much stronger than other animal proteins? | [
"Chemicals in fish digestive systems that break down food (ie: other fish) turn on the fish's own body when it dies, speeding up decomposition. This is why you're supposed to gut a fish asap. The chemicals that cause the odor itself come from the decomposition and are called amines. _URL_0_"
] | [
"Raw meat itself is safe to eat. It's the bacteria inside the meat that make you sick. There are some modern dishes that contain raw meat like sashimi. Cooked meat is tastier and easier to digest."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
Why are some infections/diseases name/described as "fungus"? | [
"Fungi aren't *just* decomposers, they're a whole kingdom of life (like plants or animals). The yeasts you use in bread - and other kinds that naturally live on your skin - are fungi, for example."
] | [
"Ants have very simple brains. They navigate by following chemical trails. Cordyceps invades every nueral pathway and floods the signaling with a chemical gradient that gets stronger when the ant gets higher up. A much more complex and poorly understood \"zombie parasite\" toxoplasma gondii which infect mamal brai... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How do Siamese twins take exams? | [
"Conjoined twins are so rare, no one really cares. A school is more likely to have a student struck by lightning while taking an exam than have a pair of unseparated conjoined twins show up. It is a waste of time to try to dream up rules for either case. Also, conjoined twins will be there to help each other for th... | [
"Identical twins? No. Fraternal twins? Yes. They would be half-siblings despite sharing a womb."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How does it work in states where weed is legal? | [
"Retail stores are set to open in places like Colorado within a year or two. In other places people still rely on their network of dealers or use medical marijuana facilities in the meantime. In places like California the ease of access to medical marijuana has pretty effectively hurt low level street dealers. At t... | [
"On a state level it can prescribed as medicine but the federal government doesn't recognize it. So it is legal on a state level, but illegal federally."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
How did the act of leaving the bottom button of a suit top/blazer undone come to be, and why do people say not to button them? | [
"A few hundred years ago when we started to wear what we now call suits rich men wore riding coats while riding horses. The bottom button had to be undone so the coat didn't rip while seated. When they got off the horse the bottom button was never re-buttoned. Eventually everyone wearing suits started to do this to... | [
"It has to with women having help getting dressed. Back in the day it was common for women to have a servant or two to button their dress for them. So the buttons on women's clothes are positioned to make it easier to button from the front, as opposed to men's clothes that you button while wearing it."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How do ER doctors treat high fevers (40 Celcius and above)? | [
"Ice bath and antipyretics. The ice bath forcibly lowers your core body temperature while the antipyretics are drugs that send chemical signals throughout your body to stop producing so much heat, thus temporarily shutting down the root cause of the fever."
] | [
"Our body decides if it's too cold or too hot based on signals from the brain (hypothalamus, to be precise). Both shivering and feeling\"chills\" are a reaction to situations where the body thinks it is cold. Shivering is a mechanism to warm your essential organs. When you have fever, or have certain types of infec... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument about Science:"
} |
What's the rationale behind early voting days in the US? | [
"It's pure practicality for allowing more people to vote. Some people know how they are going to vote well before election day, or won't be able to easily scheme the time on election day. Therefore, we allow voting for a period of time leading up to the official polling day to allow for schedules and relieve crowds... | [
"What's the reasoning behind term limits being a good idea?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why are farmers so poor when food is vital for life? | [
"Overproduction as well as what Gyrant said. The demand actually isn't stable. Demand is so low compared to supply that the government ends up buying out a lot of food to maintain prices. *\"His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of ... | [
"Because Europe is the only region that has enough money to provide food, water, houses, health care, etc for millions of people."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Agriculture and Economics:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Agriculture and Economics:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
What's the most difficult thing to figure out when building a nuke? | [
"Actually obtaining weapons grade fissile material is the most difficult part. That highly pure material requires extensive and costly processing that's hard to hide. The basic science behind the rest of a crude atom bomb is relatively trivial in today's age of cheap precision computing. Modeling the explosive char... | [
"Your question doesn't quite make sense. Are you referring to something specific? What makes you think that a computer is built for a specific programming language?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Why is cooking live lobster or crab not considered animal cruelty? | [
"If boiling a lobster alive was animal cruelty, then poisoning cockroaches would also be animal cruelty. Why do people care about lobsters, but not other arthropods with practically identical nervous systems? Because lobsters are big, and people who don't know anything about biology think bigger = more complex."
] | [
"I don't know fif the lobster actually suffers or not, apparently the jury is still out on whether they feel pain, but if they do, the lobster only suffers for a few moments as opposed to suffering its entire life. The industrial treatment of pigs and cattle is ghastly in both its severity and duration."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Why isn't Arkansas pronounced "Ar-Kans-ass"? | [
"\"Arkansas\" is a French attempt at pronouncing a Quapaw language word that means \"land of downriver people.\" Because Arkansas (and the US Southeast in general) has a lot of French influence the French pronunciation stuck. \"Kansas\" is similarly a Frenchified Sioux word, but because there is much less French in... | [
"Who can say...why do Brit's pronounce Worcester \"Wooster\"?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
Why has there been such a strong presence of anti-semitism for such a prolonged time in history? | [
"I'm in no way an expert but the book Jews God & History did a good job of explaining it. According to the book the Jews have always put a strong emphasis on knowledge and learning. They were able to acquire knowledge from their conquerors and outlast their oppressors. When a new conqueror came along they helped to... | [
"The Protocols of the Elders of Zion may not be the most famous fabrication, but it perhaps led to the most harm. It was an anti-semetic propaganda book that contained the \"leaked secret plan\" of Jewish leaders to take over the world by manipulating the rise and fall of world powers for millennia. It fed into the... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why are USB plugs asymmetrical? How would it change the electricity flow--if at all--if made symmetrical? | [
"The original USB plug was made asymmetrical because the computer wouldn't understand the data if it was coming in backwards. The most recent version of USB fixes this, and there's a new cable (USB type-C) that can be plugged in either way. A number of devices are starting to use this new plug, like the current gen... | [
"This design means that, on neither end of the connector are there open pins, visible and waiting to be short-circuited as soon as they touch something metal. Compare this to Apple's lightening cable, which has open pins visible on the male end of the connector. This doesn't make either one better than the other, I... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Electrical plugs and their design:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Electrical plugs and their design:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
How do scientists figure out the atomic structure of certain molecules such as dopamine or serotonin? | [
"There's lots of different ways to do it. The technique, that u/Sablemint mentioned is one way to do it, but it only gives part of the picture. Another method is to use various organic chemistry techniques, such as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) which indicates the positions of the hydrogen atoms in an organic (c... | [
"A lot of neurotransmitters (think hormones, but in the brain) actually can't cross the blood-brain barrier (they can't get into the brain if they're outside the brain). So it wouldn't matter if you injected yourself with dopamine, it probably wouldn't have a major effect on your brain. One way around this is using... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the document about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How can speakers produce multiple tones at the same time? | [
"They can be. Essentially, you can layer multiple tones over each other and play the resulting wave. So, you start with a simple [sine wave](_URL_1_), which I'm sure is what you're thinking of for a single tone. You add in another wave of a different frequency, and get a [simple resultant wave](_URL_0_). Notice the... | [
"Because pitch is the frequency of the sound waves. High pitch is high frequency sound, so if you take a given number of vibrations and compress them into a shorter period of time... they are more frequent and therefore of higher pitch."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
Why are people's in-person vs online personalities so different? | [
"The psychological influence of anonymity. People tend to think and behave differently when they believe there are no likely consequences from that because no one knows who they are. This also relates to what's considered 'mob behavior'. In a mob you become anonymous--like any animal in a school or herd--and subjec... | [
"I think you're looking for too much clear-cut black and white. In reality, there are shades of grey. Very rarely do you see \"This is 100% right and this is 100% wrong.\" It's a matter of personal judgement. For me personally, the breaking point comes down to one simple question - are you using your belief/opinion... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
How does falling kill someone? | [
"If you just crack a few bones, you will probably survive. However, with slightly higher speeds, two very bad things happen: your bones break completely and you decelerate very fast. When your bones completely break and you're still moving, the bones are no longer able to help keep various bits of your body in posi... | [
"Are you asking how a wheel works ?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
ELI15: What, neurologically, is intuition? | [
"There is no formal understanding of what \"intuition\" is. What we do know is that it is not classified under the heading of \"rational thought\" because rational thought requires higher brain functions that we are consciously aware of. Intuition is believed to be lower brain processing of previous experiences to ... | [
"Let me answer that question with another question: what do you think \"lobbying\" is?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
Why does cheese go bad when it's already essentially "bad" milk? | [
"When they make cheese it's in a cozy bath with all the right bacteria to make cheesy goodness. People control that bath so that bacteria that makes things gross doesn't get in there. You and I have all sorts of gross making bacteria hanging about our places. When the cheese is exposed to that bacteria it goes b... | [
"Bacteria is what spoils food. Bacteria dies if it gets covered in salt or if food doesn't have any water/enough water in it. Salt directly kills bacteria on contact (by sucking the water out of them), and also draws liquid out of meat, inhibiting bacteria growth in/on the meat. Did the meat taste bad? Yes. Did it ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Food Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Food Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
is there any evidence at all of life after death? | [
"If you're restricting yourself to scientific evidence, then no. If you're open to non-scientific evidence, then yes."
] | [
"Well I imagine now they would be more interested in searching for signs of life, as they now know that is a distinct possibility with liquid water."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:"
} |
How is art restoration often not just creating a simulacrum or a "Ship of Theseus"? | [
"You're correct that art restoration, over a long enough time, creates a \"Ship of Theseus,\" (a new object that simulates the original, but has been made, little by little, of new parts until none of the original remains). But what's important in art isn't necessarily that the exact oil paint (for example) that da... | [
"They are opposites: A parody makes fun of the original source by exaggerating elements and flipping certain conventions. A pastiche aims to replicate or imitate a previous artwork or style, sometimes in a cliched way, but doing so to celebrate rather than denigrate the source material. In other words, a parody is ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
With all the satellites in space, how do we keep them organized? | [
"That picture made them appear literally thousands of times bigger than they actually are. The picture makes it seem like cars on the highway, it's more like throwing a ball in the air and hitting an eagle. It is extremely unlikely, and we know where they all are."
] | [
"So, imagine that a satellite was the size of a car. That's not too far off the mark. Now imagine that in all the world, there are only 2300 cars. How often do you think that any of them would get close enough to even see each other, let alone hit each other?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post about Science and Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Science and Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Science and Technology:"
} |
the word 'number' represented as 'No.' | [
"It's a contraction of the Latin \"numero\". **Edit:** To hopefully stop the people who say \"No, Latin for number is 'numerus', not 'numero'\": You might note that I never said that \"numero\" was Latin for \"number\". The reason I never said that \"numero\" was Latin for \"number\" is because \"numero\" is not La... | [
"because the original symbol was. UU and then became VV. M predates N as a letter."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
why do some languages have upper and lower case letters. | [
"Actually the reason is a lot simpler than you might think; Usually languages started out having only upper case letters. That's why on really old professional documents, lower case letters aren't really anywhere to be seen. It was only after scribes discovered that they could write much faster and take up a lot le... | [
"They come from different languages. Because english has copied from so many languages, we have a lot of different prefixes"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Mathematics:"
} |
How can a public URL for sharing Google Photos albums (i.e. _URL_0_) can be secure? What prevents me from generating such a string and accessing albums created by random people? | [
"Nothing, but the chances are so astronomically low that it doesn't really matter. For example, with the URL you provided, assuming that Google only uses upper and lower case letters + numbers, that's 61^17 different possibilities. Or 2241853325254885342546716970621."
] | [
"If you visit _URL_0_ The app you use to view that picture will talk to the server at that address and request that file from it. However, when your browser makes the request, the server/website will also know what sort of browser and device you are using to access it. It will also know whether something sent you t... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the sentence:"
} |
When does a murder become an assassination? | [
"According to Merriam Webster dictionary - it's an \"OR\" statement a Murder is considered assassination if money was paid OR if it was done for political reasons So a hired hitman is an assassin because he is paid And John Wilkes Booth was an assassin whether or not he was paid"
] | [
"There is no such thing as guilt by association in the USA."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph about Law and Entertainment:"
} |
How can my face "moisturizer" contain four ingredients that start with the word sodium? | [
"Sodium is just an extremely common element. It also tends to react with just about anything so you end up with lots of different chemicals with sodium in them. Once sodium is in a larger molecule it doesn't aggressively react with other things anymore. For example sodium lauryl sulfate makes shampoo feel more foam... | [
"There's a very simple non-technical reason. In the US if you are selling an Over the counter drug product (like mouthwash or toothpaste or Sunscreen make up) anything you list as an active ingredient MUST HAVE a label claim amount. There maybe a bunch of technical ingredients that make the active ingredient perfor... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
The political argument against gay marriage. | [
"Many people, including those who work in government and politics, have a hard time understanding the concept that the behavior of the government is not supposed to be dictated by religion but by secular morality. To many people the concept of \"secular morality\" doesn't make sense. They believe that good and bad ... | [
"The Justification is that the citizens in the different states have voted to have different laws. That is the only thing that matters."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
What really causes gas prices to rise and fall | [
"Supply, demand, a couple cartels deciding to alter the supply, and the occasional war/disaster."
] | [
"Taxes, refining costs, transportation costs, and, of course, the amount that consumers are willing to pay also factor into the cost of gasoline."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title about Economics:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Economics:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why do cities restrict the maximum height of structures? | [
"There's quite a few reasons. * Higher buildings mean a denser downtown core, causing greater traffic and possibly pollution issues as people come to work from bedroom communities and search for a place to park. So unless you have good public transport (which can be quite expensive to build if not in place already)... | [
"Demand and supply. There is a huge demand for land in California because the population is large. Many people want to live in or near cities so the rent at these places will rise. There are also strict building restrictions in some parts of California. Very few high rise buildings or apartments can be built and ci... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
How did the maker of the first clock know what time to set the clock to? | [
"Clocks were first set with High noon. When the sun was directly overhead. This meant that virtually every town (and even personal clock) had a slightly different time. Standardized time like we use was not implemented till the 1800s and it was done for the better efficiency of the railroad."
] | [
"Have you never seen an analog clock before? Ever? The stopwatch was invented in the 1600s. Those were used before lasers and digital clocks."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the argument:",
"neg": "Represent the argument:"
} |
How does every species of insects survive sub-zero winters? | [
"Many don't For some, their hardy eggs are all that survive, tucked away somewhere insulated such as in the mud or underwater. Social insects are a little better off. The honeybee survives by all of the bees forming a ball within the hive, with the queen at the center. The beers shiver and buzz their wings to creat... | [
"They hide or die, or hide and die. During extreme events which cover the globe it helps to be small. Nothing much bigger than a dog ever survives extinction level events."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
Why is there so much variation in accents in Britain? | [
"Centuries of local communities separated by days travel from their neighbours. Horses were for the rich and trains are new."
] | [
"There is much greater adoption of public transportation in Europe than in the US."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:"
} |
This isn't a question, but a test. | [
"Go here: _URL_0_ and look at the top comment of each."
] | [
"Wow, an actual question that fits the concept of ELI5, instead of just a general question. This must be the one for this month."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
The difference between Kosher and Halal. | [
"1. Halal excludes alcohol, Kosher doesn't. 2. Slaughtering practices are different. 3. Mixing meat and dairy is not Kosher, but is okay for Halal. This one can be taken very seriously, banning that the two be consumed in the same meal (if you had steak, no ice cream for desert), even to the point of having separat... | [
"The same reason it's Cool Canadian, Dank Dutch, and Every Ethiopian."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:"
} |
what powers the RFID tags in passport etc | [
"There are several kinds of RFIDs, but passports use a passive chip -- it has no internal power source. Instead, the chip is charged up for use each time you try to \"read\" it. all radio antennas work by generating electricity when hit by radio waves. With an RFID, the electricity from the receiving antenna is eno... | [
"The articles in the shop are tagged with RFID stickers, either on the box or on attached as a label. When going through the gates, the coils in there will pick up the emissions from the RFID tags and raise the alarm. Now unlike your credit card and your friends creditcard, whose RFID signature should be different,... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Why do we see full trailers for a movie now, but the movie is scheduled to come out 1 year later? | [
"It's actually really flawed marketing and it's starting to change. If you look closely, you'll start to see a shift where now (especially in music) creators announce their projects a couple weeks (in movies sometimes a couple months, but still shorter than before) before they come out so the hype and excitement do... | [
"Hype has a life span. If they announce it 2 years before it comes out everyone will forget about it by the time it comes out"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why do computers store negative numbers as complements to their positive counterpart? Rather than a byte specifying the sign? | [
"The math is easier to implement that way. Say you have -1 and 1 to add. Stored in two's complement form -1 is FFFF. Add 1 and you get 10000, or 0000 ignoring the overflow. You don't need to do anything special just because one of the numbers is negative."
] | [
"There are two ways. Your calculator likely uses [floating point arithmetic](_URL_0_). Instead of holding the number as-is, it holds two numbers - the mantissa (m) and the exponent (e) - which represent the number m\\*2^(e) (and one extra bit is used for the plus/minus sign). The number 2^64 is can then be represen... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the answer:",
"neg": "Represent the answer:"
} |
Why do muscles look like they're permanently in a flexed position after working them out? | [
"When muscles are being used or anticipate being used, they fill up and engorge with blood. Same principle as a penis filling up with blood for an erection, after you work out your muscles fill up with blood to stay full."
] | [
"You release the tension on muscle fibers by allowing them to fully release instead of having to be half-contracted for long periods of time like they normally are. Lactic acid can be flushed away from nerve receptors when this happens which is why stretching feels so good, especially after you do it for quite some... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How do fingerprint scanners on phones work so accurately? | [
"Calibration is what makes the scanner work well. At least with iphones 5s and newer, calibration involves vasts amounts of sampling of fingerprint data in order to establish what your finger print is and once that happens it just measures the differences between all future finger print scans and the calibrated sta... | [
"Apple and Samsung aren't suing each other for making cell phones that taste the same."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question about Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer about Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
Why do people still support PETA, even after it became known that they needlessly kill over 90% of the animals they "rescue" and spend a major part of the donations on publicity? | [
"Because to know this, you actually have to do something to inform yourself. Most people don't do that - lapping up the PETA propaganda is easier."
] | [
"Even though he seems charitable, the charities he set up ( RED and ONE) are both pretty scummy. They give very little of their revenue to charity (less than 2% in some cases) and use the defense that they are to raise awareness of the problem rather than working on fixing the problem. Pretty shitty if you ask me."... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
How does a foam soap pump work? | [
"A foam pump emits doses of the liquid contained in the bottle in the form of foam. Foam is created in the foamer chamber. The liquid constituents are mixed in the foaming chamber and this is discharged through a nylon mesh. The neck finish size of a foam pump is bigger than the neck finish size of other types of p... | [
"The material is relatively cheap, easy to clean, doesn't degrade with constant contact with water, and doesn't absorb odors or smells. All these are desirable attributes for choosing the material to make a toilet."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Why does 81° water feel so much colder than 81° air? | [
"for the same reason that objects in a \"room temperature\" room all seem to be different temperatures, the air or a piece of wood might not feel cold, but tile might. in actuality, they are the same temperature. Varying degrees of thermal conductivity make us perceive that some things are colder than others. Water... | [
"If you are at sea level, your pot of water isnt getting any hotter than 100 degrees, unless its a pressure cooker. Oils can be way hotter without evaporating. Something cooks a lot faster at 300 degrees than at 100."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Science:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit text about Science:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit text:"
} |
Why can we not divide by zero? | [
"Here is how I explained it to my 6 year old the other day. I explained division in terms if eggs and baskets. If you have 4 egg and split them equally into 2 baskets, how many eggs are in each basket? Answer:2. 4/2 = 2. Ok, now what if you had 4 eggs and 1 basket? Easy! All 4 eggs go into 1 basket 4/1=4. What if ... | [
"Do you want all of your math to be in negative numbers? Because that's how you get all of your math to be in negative numbers."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Physics:"
} |
Why do so many people have such a hard time being corrected or admitting they didn't know something in real time during an argument or debate? | [
"Because they are trying to win, not trying to be right. It is normal human behavior. If there is one piece of pizza left, and we are both hungry, we are not going to have a principled discussion about who needs it more. We are going to try to persuade each other to back off, and any logic we apply to that discussi... | [
"Why does it feel like people are asking questions so they don't have to do their homework lately?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Why can't every mobile device that's capable run the latest version of Android, but virtually every capable PC can run the latest version of Windows? | [
"PC evolution has been very slow for the last 5 years. Mobile devices have evolved a lot during the same time."
] | [
"Today, it's purely a legacy holdover from a time when Mac computers WERE superior art platforms. They had all the best software, software that was single platform, and on the occasion pushed the boundaries of display technology. Now days, the difference is almost non-existent. Apple computers run the exact same pr... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit query about Technology:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Technology:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
How do shipbuilders make bent wood for hulls of ships? | [
"They steam it to make the wood soft, they then either place it into an extreme mold/vice for a long time for it to hold it's shape or simply fit it into the ship straight away and the pressure will keep it's shape."
] | [
"The individual pieces that make up the ship all fit through the mouth of the bottle. The builders use specialized tools to build the ship inside the bottle. It's a technical challenge that those with the hobby enjoy. You can probably search to find videos of people assembling them."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:"
} |
Why did the man who jumped 25,000 feet without a parachute have to land on his back when he landed? | [
"When he hits the net, his body folds in half as the net draws tight around him. Which way does *your* waist bend?"
] | [
"The article says the parachute malfuctioned, not that it didn't open at all. The full story is that the parachute partially opened and that she hit the ground at 50 mph instead of terminal velocity. Also, she landed in a way in which her legs absorbed the power of the fall."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit question:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:"
} |
Why do people serve multiple life sentences? | [
"They do this in India, too. Even if you're reincarnated as a cricket, they'll keep you in a tiny glass jar."
] | [
"Why do people in Western countries use forks?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the paragraph:",
"neg": "Represent the paragraph:"
} |
Why do tasers not affect the heart? | [
"Tasers can affect the heart, and there are cases where people have died from being tased. It's usually considered safe because, while high voltage will make your muscles twitch, high amperage is what will kill you. Tasers give off 60-100 thousand volts, but have tiny amperage, and are thus deemed \"safe.\""
] | [
"Because it could startle them and they might attack you. It is a myth that it will give them a heart attack or put them into a coma. \"They\" say the best thing you can do is gently lead them back to bed."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:"
} |
The civil war in Syria | [
"Theyre not fighting *for* anything, theyre fighhting against the Syrian government. Some are fighting for religion, some are fighting in self defense. Why it is important to the US and other countries is that iit could lead to a bigger conflict in the Middle East, chemical weapons are involved, and long range mis... | [
"The tradition is in farming/agriculture. Child labor :)"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Education:"
} |
What are "debt consolidators" actually doing, and are they really saving you any money in making payments? | [
"Also, find one that is non-profit. They charge you like 20 bucks a month. but, they take all of your debt, find ways to stop your compounding interest, and work deals with the asshole collection companies. You work with only the consolidator. Seriously. Non profit"
] | [
"If there is no collateral given for the bank loan (like a signature loan), they're both considered unsecured. This makes a big difference for things like the Fair Debt Collection Act. It influences the statute of limitations and how institutions can collect an unpaid loan. A signature loan and a credit card are fu... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the title:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
What are the noises a printer makes when you first turn it on? | [
"It's moving all of its arms inside to make sure they still work after the last time it was used. This is to make sure it doesn't try to print something if it's broken and break itself more then spray ink/toner all over the mess."
] | [
"Do you know how a fan works? If so just turn it around"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why did Vladimir Putin get nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? | [
"There were 278 people nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year, so it's not that big of a deal to be nominated. Putin was nominated for helping to defuse the potential US conflict with Syria."
] | [
"Why is the US so upset over the labeling of US treatment of Native Americans as a genocide?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Why are the hairs that grow in moles thicker and blacker? | [
"Moles are basically a tumor. The unusual cell cluster pushes on the follicle, making it grow hair faster than usual. They're darker because of the extra melanin in the area from the mole. It's actually a good thing if your mole grows hair because that's a sign it's not cancerous. I copy/pasted it from another ELI5... | [
"Pubic hair (which, in fact, includes beard hair) is curly because the hair follicles are smaller. The hair is squeezed when it grows through the follicle, causing it to curl, much like curling ribbon with scissors. People who have curly hair on their head just have small follicles there too. We have pubic hair to ... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How is the age of a wild animal determined? | [
"There are many ways to tell the age of an animal, usually it is done via dentition. However, in the case of Orcas and other marine mammals the only real way is through large photo databanks. Photos of the orcas, especially their dorsal fins can tell you exactly who is who based on the size, shape, colouration, and... | [
"In short because they appear more biologically similar than they are. Do you have a specific case in mind?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
Greek austerity measures | [
"Due to pressure from creditors, they are going to lay off gov't workers, reduce public work salary, pension benefits, raise taxes, and privatize some gov't functions."
] | [
"reward system wants now reward, not the end of long work reward."
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit title:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document:"
} |
Is it bad to cook with olive oil? | [
"Depends how hot the pan gets. If your frying the best oil is rapeseed oil. If you heat olive oil up too much to it's smoke point it creates carcinogen's where rapeseed oil have a higher smoke point and is almost as healthy as olive."
] | [
"Why can't you reheat things in the microwave twice?"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the question:",
"pos": "Represent the document:",
"neg": "Represent the document:"
} |
How can sandbags be so effective at retaining water and preventing floods, yet when I try to make a moat for my sandcastle at the beach, the water vanishes instantly? | [
"You don't wrap your moat with fabric.. The \"bag\" part is important. The grains can easily be moved, but if they're held together, it is a densely packed material that slows water movement quite a bit."
] | [
"Most light houses are built on land. However it may not be land there during high tide. But if you want to build a structure in the water there are several ways to do this. The easiest way is to hammer pillars into the seafloor and then build your structure on those pillars. You can also dump a lot of gravel in th... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the comment:",
"neg": "Represent the comment:"
} |
If we actually remember just a fraction of what we learn in school/college what purpose is it actually serving for us intellectually. | [
"It isn't the knowledge, it is the application. You are learning to crunch through a thousand pages of material and to later do something with the important concepts. You will learn to balance life, partying, and writing a comprehensive article 20 pages in length in a week. You will learn what a deadline really mea... | [
"By the same token, what would be the point in getting a degree in something like astrophysics? You may not see the point because literature apparently doesn't interest you. But are you trying to insinuate that every single degree out there has some sort of worldly benefit and these people go on to do great things?... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the passage:",
"neg": "Represent the passage:"
} |
What is that voice in your head | [
"This wiki article is my favorite that addresses it. _URL_0_ It basically talks about how there is a part of our brain that appears to be \"speaking\" and a part that \"obeys\" Much like when you are very nervous or unsure and ask yourself \"Am I really going to do this?\" And you truly don't know but then you some... | [
"But why does your heart feel that way"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the Reddit post:",
"pos": "Represent the Reddit document:",
"neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Biology:"
} |
How has Namibia and Botswana avoided the corruption, dictators, war, poverty and apartheid that almost every other continental African country has experienced? | [
"Namibia was part of South Africa until 1990 and certainly experienced plenty of apartheid and had a war for independence..."
] | [
"Former British colonies have had a fairly mixed history. Many have not turned out well. Some have done very well, like the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Many, especially the small island states, are doing fine, but are never going to be 'great' countries in terms of power and influence. Many... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
Why doesn't Egypt restore the Pyramids or the Great Sphynx like they do with paintings and statues? | [
"They do: * The Sphinx's head and paws were repaired. [1](_URL_0_), [2](_URL_1_) * The Great Pyramid had internal graffiti removed and chamber walls cleaned. [1](_URL_3_) * The mastaba of Seshemnefer has been restored [1](_URL_2_) * Sand is constantly removed from many sites of the plateau. But restoring the pyrami... | [
"We are amazed because building massive structures without sophisticated machines and tools seems amazing to us today. We haven't \"lost\" anything though. People kept right on building amazing structures right the way through history. The pyramids, the Acropolis, the Aqueducts, hundreds of amazing Cathedrals, etc.... | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the query:",
"pos": "Represent the post:",
"neg": "Represent the post:"
} |
Why was Rhodesia renamed Zimbabwe? | [
"Rhodesia was named after Cecil Rhodes. When white rule was replaced with majority rule, they changed the name."
] | [
"ISIS stands for: Islamic State Iraq Syria So all together it's The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria"
] | eli5_question_answer | {
"query": "Represent the post:",
"pos": "Represent the text:",
"neg": "Represent the text:"
} |
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