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How does this phone holder for your car not break your phone?
[ "There are two electronics components that are sensitive to magnets: cathode ray tube (CRT) screens and hard drives. Your phone does not have either of those- it has an LED or LCD screen instead of a CRT and uses flash memory instead of a hard drive. With credit cards, the magnetic strip will get messed up with a strong magnet, but the chip that more places are switching to using (and pretty much everyone outside the US has fully switched to) will not be impacted by a magnet. The magnet on the case probably isn't strong enough to mess up the credit cards, especially with the metal plate between the cards and the magnet, but I'd probably avoid it just to be safe." ]
[ "If you encase your cellphone in a ziploc will you still be able to hear it ring inside? Waterproof does not mean soundproof." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the question:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
How do computers convert binary into instructions?
[ "This is the task of the CPUs control logic. All these transistors that make registers, busses, adders and the other fuctions of the CPU is controlled by single bit control signals. So you may have hundreds of these signals in a core. The control logic is a block that converts the instructions you feed the processor into these control signals. There is also a counter per instruction so that one instruction can take multiple cycles. The control logic can be made in different ways. The simplest way to think of it is as a read only memory which takes the instruction in as address input and outputs the data at that memory location as the control signals. However this is inefficient so they usually have ways to reduce the space requirements of this logic and end up with an FPGA or something similar. If you want to know more I recommend a youtube series by Ben Eater where he builds a very simple CPU using simple logic components." ]
[ "A computer doesn't try to understand execution machine code, synonymous with Assembler language. The code instructions map to a set of pre electrical lines in the processor. All the computer is doing is switching electrical lines to connect or not connect. To get a program in a human used programming language like C or Java, you have to define a compiler that translates your C commands into machine execution code. The computer doesn't execute C code. It executes machine code." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit post:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit post:" }
What's the deal with "laces in"?
[ "It's from the movie 'Ace Ventura: Pet Detective' where a shamed former kicker who missed a game-winning field goal placed the blame on the star-QB/kick-holder because he didn't rotate the ball to be 'laces out' (facing away from the kicker). The idea is that kicking the laced area may affect the trajectory/path/rotation/distance of a kick because it isn't as smooth as the rest of the ball. The preferred area for a place kicker to kick the ball is on the smooth portion of the football." ]
[ "And to hijack this in a related way, what were the alternatives to \"America.\"" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
Why does our atmosphere appear blue from earth in sunlight, but when earth is viewed from space also in sunlight, it's clear/invisible?
[ "The sky appears blue from inside our atmosphere because the light refracts (bounces around). The blue part of the light bounces around more, so that's what we see. From the outside however, we're seeing the light that is reflected, not refracted. It is a subtle difference, but basically it doesn't bounce around and therefore we see clearly." ]
[ "The moon is actually a dark grey color, it only looks white from here due to the contrast with the infinite blackness of space. The sun emits light at all wavelengths and peaks in the yellow-green, but it can appear red or orange at sunset since the atmosphere is screening out blue. At noon it's definitely white, but don't stare at it." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query about Science:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit comment about Science:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:" }
What is integral spin/half-integral spin and what's the difference
[ "It's integer, not integral. It just means that all fermions have a spins that are fractions like 1/2, and all bosons have a spin that's a single integer, like 0 or 1. Spin is an intrinsic property of particles that measures their angular momentum. It's not exactly like the spin we think of on a macro scale, like a spinning ball, but it's easy to think about them similarly." ]
[ "There is no mechanical equivalent to spin. Its mathematics LOOK like angular momentum but obviously its not, because angular momentum takes 1) something that has definite volume 2) doesn't take quantised fractional values 3) it can change both in direction and magnitude. The math of spin look like angular momentum as far as angular momentum being a calculation between vectors (external product that is), but again vectors used in classical mechanics don't really look like vectors in quantum mechanics. So basicaly spin looks like angular momentum but in all fairness the only way to comprehend it is through vector space maths, it really has very little to do with normal angular momentum (i.e. turning round and round). Its one of those strange quantum mechanical things. TLTR: spin is an intristic proper of elementary particles like charge or mass. Its maths look like classical angular momentum but really has no other resemblance to it." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence about Physics:" }
Why didn't the U.S. include the release of prisoners in the new nuclear deal with Iran
[ "Because that would have given leverage to Iran. By taking more prisoners and negotiating for their release too, they could have tried to extract more favorable terms in other parts of the agreement. By not including prisoner release as part of the negotiations, the U.S. removed that potential negotiating card for them to play, forcing them to negotiate only on nuclear research and sanctions and nothing else." ]
[ "Why is the US so upset over the labeling of US treatment of Native Americans as a genocide?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
Why does cold water feel way more FREEZING than it actually is when I'm chewing minty gum?
[ "The receptors that sense cold are partially activated by chemicals in the mint, and respond as though they're feeling a chill... when you hit them with something cold as well - they get a double whammy and it feels absolutely freezing." ]
[ "How cold is your ice cream? Probably about 25F? While the inside of your mouth is close to 100F. That's over 80F difference. If you were to try and eat something 80F hotter than your mouth, you'd know. Your teeth would tell you, but your lips, tongue, cheeks, and palate would tell you before you got the chance to bite. Talk to your dentist about using sensodyne to reduce the cold sensitivity; and stop using the whitening toothpaste. *** Try an experiment. Eat something 10F hotter than your mouth, and something 10F colder. (Cleanse your palate with some room temp water and crackers) Now try it with 20F differences. Cleanse. 30F differences. Cleanse. Stop this when things get too hot and you're burning your mouth. At any point, did your teeth feel more sensitive to hot things than cold things?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post about Dentistry:", "pos": "Represent the document about Dentistry:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
Who do most of our "traditional" Christmas songs, images and TV/movies come from the 1940s to the 1960s?
[ "Here's my opinion on this, I have no expertise in it though. By the way, this idea is directly plagiarized from [xkcd](_URL_1_). [Baby Boomers](_URL_0_) grew up with those things and there are currently a lot of Baby Boomers. Also , if you look at the current age and buying power of Baby Boomer's, they are really the perfect target demographic if you're trying to decide what music to play during Christmas shopping time at Macy's to get people in a nostalgic, warm-and-fuzzy, Christmas shopping mood." ]
[ "What? Not even close. Frosty the Snowman was written in 1950. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in 1939. Winter Wonderland in 1934. Jingle Bells in the 1800s. Silent Night in 1818. The list goes on." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:" }
Ethanol in Fuel - What is it? Why is it added? Is it good/bad and why so?
[ "E10 is a blend of gas/alcohol made from biomass (corn, usually). Most modern cars are just fine running it. E85 is a different beast, however - the concentration of ethanol is much higher (as is the octane rating), making engine management / fuel system changes necessary (usually engines require higher flow injectors/pump to run E85). The higher the concentration of alcohol, the worse mileage you'll get, but it's usually offset by being lower price per gallon. If you have a turbocharged car, an E85 tune can really be a godsend since its high octane rating means it will be less likely to pre detonate under higher compression." ]
[ "Context? What is a \"smart meter\", and where is this controversy based out of? Who is involved? Thanks!" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the query:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
How does Humble Bundle make money when they have discounts that cost them hundreds of dollars each sale, and only make a percentage of the discounted sale?
[ "It helps a lot that they aren't selling a physical product. Really cuts down on the cost per unit. No materials, no production cost. Just licensing and server costs (bandwidth). So to say that it's 'costing hundreds' isn't accurate, they're almost certainly not dropping the price below cost, even though to us consumers, it seems like a crazy discount." ]
[ "They both would make less money—per sale, at least. Steam takes a cut of all sales for providing the distribution platform (I think it's around 30%) so if the studio decides to put their game on sale, Steam gets the same cut percentage but the amount of money they're taking their cut from is less." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post:", "pos": "Represent the answer:", "neg": "Represent the answer:" }
Why do the hurricanes "curve" when they get close to Florida instead of just continuing straight?
[ "Air currents 'push' the hurricane one way or another, in my comment below you will see a pretty interesting site." ]
[ "If you saw the movie \"The perfect storm\" (which was based on true events), this one is very much like that. Except instead of happening off in the Atlantic, it is going down right on top of the East coast. Sandy herself isn't too bad, and left to her own would spin out into the North Atlantic and die out. The front moving in from the west isn't too bad, and would likely just give us a few days of rain. The cold air coming down from the north isn't too bad, you expect some chilly nights in October. But you put the three together, and the western front is going to pull Sandy inland, Sandy is going to feed a massive amount of energy and moisture into that front. And the cold air to the north is going to force the whole system to stall out right on top of us for days dumping a foot of rain in some places. Once the ground is saturated, the winds will have a field day pushing trees over. And oh, did I mention, Monday is the full mood so we get to add high spring tides to any storm surge. Gee, I can't wait." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the answer:", "neg": "Represent the answer:" }
What is the difference between top 1% owning 1% of the nation's income vs bottom 1% owning 1% of nation's income
[ "The reality is that the top 1% owns far more than 1% of the nation's wealth, hence what makes them the top 1%. If they owned the same as the bottom 1% then they would be in the same class as the bottom 1%. There would be no differentiating between the groups. How would you know anyone is relegated to whatever group/ class in which they are classified? Ergo, they wouldn't be the top 1%. No one would, nor would anyone be the bottom 1%. You are using terms used to describe population groups in a capitalist society in a hypothetical socialist situation." ]
[ "The global economy is valued at $77.6trillion. That means he destroyed .000002557% of the worlds wealth. There is no noticeable effect of that action." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post about Social Sciences:", "pos": "Represent the document about Social Sciences:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
What the hell are flies so attracted to?
[ "Typically honey, but I've heard of a few people getting a few with vinegar." ]
[ "Actually, ELI5, how the fuck are you relieving ear itches with your tongue?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the query:", "pos": "Represent the answer:", "neg": "Represent the answer:" }
How do cancerous cells affect and make the surrounding cells cancerous as well?
[ "A cancerous cell can produce exosomes, little packages of cancer proteins, DNA and RNA, these exosomes float around the body through lymph and blood vessels and they are be accidentally swallowed by healthy cells elsewhere in the body. And these cancerous proteins/functional RNA can possibly shut down the tumour inhibiting proteins in the healthy cell, making them more likely to turn malignant. Another way for cancer to propagate is by having cancer cells from the original tumour can break off, they float into the lymph vessels, travel to another part of the body and establish a satellite cancer tumour elsewhere. That's how cancer metastasize. ED to incorporate current science." ]
[ "I'm no expert, but I believe you're on the right track. * Tumors consume nutrients and calories the body needs, weakening you * A cancer may release toxins into the body or upset chemical balances. * A tumor may grow large enough that it puts pressure on sensitive areas (such as the brain or heart) * A tumor may out-grow and replace healthy tissue in one or more organs, such as the liver, causing an essential organ to fail * Tumors can have small parts break off which move to other parts of the body, causing more growths elsewhere. This is one of the main reasons catching cancer early is very important in survival statistics. It may be any one of these things or a combination of them that eventually causes death." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:" }
Why isn't there significant talk about forming a third party in the US during this current political climate?
[ "One of the most robust conclusions of the literature on political science is that a winner take all voting system (like the US') will lead to the consolidation of political parties into two. Pretend there are two parties, L and R which are left and right wing respectively. I then start a new party named LoC (which is left of center). A left of center voter who finds me the most agreeable of the three parties will likely not vote for me if they think things out, though. If he and other people like him vote for my party, it would mean that left wing support has been split between my party and L, leaving R with a majority share of the vote. Him voting for the party that he most agreed with led to the party he disagrees with the most winning. TL,DR: The US' election system makes it virtually impossible for a third party to emerge and certain that in the long run there will only be two parties." ]
[ "It would take a lot of circumstance such as the downfall of the party. Realistically, the most a candidate could get is about 15% in the general election." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post:", "pos": "Represent the paragraph:", "neg": "Represent the paragraph:" }
Why doesn't the U.S. get rid of the penny?
[ "People are very reluctant to accept and generally dislike change." ]
[ "The US *has* officially adopted the metric system." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
How do neurons "know" things? As in, "this memory is stored in this neuron."
[ "This is something that we don't know. We know that each memory has a particular network of neurons that is used when you remember it, but we aren't sure how that network stores things exactly. The brain recognizes the pattern of the network and you remember whatever is stored by it (or the other way around, you remember and then the brain recognizes the pattern). We can image this with fMRI and such but that doesn't tell us how. There was even an experiment where the researchers found a single neuron that fired in response to a picture of a celebrity (Jennifer Aniston, I think). The how boils down to neurotransmitters being released but, yet again, we're not sure how that results in a something like a memory. There is also the Orch OR theory that says that consciousness and the like results from quantum interactions within the microtubules of individual neurons, but I don't really understand it past that basic explanation." ]
[ "I'm a PhD candidate in computational and molecular neurobiology. The best we have are theoretical answers but there is a lot of data to support the following simplified answer. The path from the receptors in your eyes to the visual cortex to higher visual processing centers is very well understood compared to other perceptive systems. By saying 'see' I think that you mean cognition and that implies the summation of all these perceptions. The simple answer is that you see by assembling memories. Since memories are stored in distributed networks throughout the brain, you 'see' with your brain." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the question about Science:", "pos": "Represent the document about Science:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
If sand is eroded rock, why does melting rock give you lava, but melting sand give you glass.
[ "Geologist here! Let me see if I can help: Rock is made of of many different minerals like quartz, calcium carbonate, mica, biotite, feldspar, and many many others. Glass and sand are both composed of the same mineral - quartz (SiO2 or silica dioxide), though commercial glass has additives to color it or help make it stronger. Volcanic lava can have many different minerals in it. Sometimes the lava is made up of mostly quartz and if it cools really fast it becomes the rock known as obsidian. So, if you follow the rock cycle, the lava cools to obsidian, gets eroded to quartz sand, then gets cemented into sandstone with time and pressure. That rock may eventually be subducted back into the earth's crust and re-melted. It can then be ejected from a volcano or other hot spot to create a new rock! What type of rock will again depend on the minerals present." ]
[ "Sand is an incredibly local thing. The sand represents what happens to the silt and rocks in the hills nearby. Essentially, mountains and hills become boulders and rocks. Rocks become stones. Stones become pebbles. Pebbles become sand. And it is generally from the area around the place with sand. So, sand in Hawaii is usually black because the volcanic basalt that makes up Hawaii is black. Those white beaches are mostly shipped in! Sand in an area with lots of quartz ends up being the color of the quartz in that area...red, white or yellow. Essentially, if all the rivers in the world stopped flowing, all the beaches would go away pretty quickly." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:" }
How do companies like Turbo Tax and H & R Block that do tax returns for you make it's profit since people only use their services once a year?
[ "Actually a lot of people file their taxes 4 times a year. Anyone working a 1099 job and any business that surpasses a certain minimum revenue level" ]
[ "There are so many ins and outs of the tax code that it is often difficult to know if you qualify for certain savings or which forms you need. For me, when I file in have to use multiple additional forms and it all gets confusing. If you have a basic return it is pretty simple to do yourself with pencil and paper, but if not it gets complicated. If you make used a certain level of income there are free tools you can use online. Otherwise you have to pay to use your own tools anyway so for a little more you can go through it with someone who has experience and may ask questions to save you money that you didn't think of yourself. It also provides some level of confidence that you filed correctly and the IRS won't be coming after you for money owed and penalties." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the query:", "pos": "Represent the passage:", "neg": "Represent the passage:" }
Fisher v. University of Texas
[ "Hate to be a bitch, but... /r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1gz0cd/eli5_the_scotus_ruling_in_fisher_v_university_of/ Is that the one? I can ELI5 following a link if you want :) but it would just be \"click that link and eat your dinner!!!\"" ]
[ "The Art of War in the Western World - Archer Jones" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the question:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document about Education:" }
what's the difference between ram air parachutes and the round ones?
[ "Greater chance of breaking a leg on landing w/ a round parachute due to less control of rate of descent." ]
[ "Why not just build a huge parachute for the airplane itself. One in the front, the middle and the tail. Pilot and co-pilot can control which chute to deploy and a big red button to super deploy all three chutes. 3 hulk sized chute vs approx 300 individual chutes?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post:", "pos": "Represent the comment:", "neg": "Represent the comment:" }
Why do ballpoint pens become unusable even though their see-through cartridges are shown with full ink?
[ "If the ink can't flow, it doesn't matter how much there is. Ball point pens can become damaged, or clogged with crap far before they run out of ink." ]
[ "Ball Points use oil based inks which are stickiest. Roller balls come in 2 types: Gel Rollerball - medium stickiness. Water based Rollerball - least sticky. Mechanically they have the same design at the tip, varied for the viscosity of the ink base (oil, gel, or water). Edit: Some water based roller balls are so “runny” they have a section between the reservoir and the tip which slows the ink flow to stop it from spilling out. This section uses capillary action and vanes similar to modern fountain pens." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
How are Apple Pay, Samsung pay, Google wallet different?
[ "Samsung pay can use magnetic secure transmission, to basically send the information to the magnetic reader on almost all card readers wheras apple pay and google wallet use nfc to process payments The added capability of samsung allow it to truthfully make claims that it is accepted in more places" ]
[ "You didn't used to be able to transfer money from all banking apps. Some were free, some charged a free, some didn't permit it at all. For those that did support it it was a multi step process where you either needed their account and routing number or it sent them an email to claim their money Many banking apps have added Zelle over the last year for person to person transfers. Zelle only came into being in 2017 and they've been pushing it this year to compete against venmo. Even with Zelle it's a multi step process for them to actually get their money where they get a text and then have to get it into their account Venmo makes it super easy to send money to the same person again. There's no confirmation on their side, no getting their money. It's streamlined which is the most important feature for mainstream adoption" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit text:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit text:" }
Why is it that alcohol does not have to have the ingredients or nutritional facts printed on the bottle?
[ "It all depends on whether something is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA, part of the Department of Health and Human Services) or the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB, part of the Treasury Department.) Only FDA-controlled items are required to have nutrition labels. For TTB beverages, it's voluntary. There have been efforts to standardize this, but nothing's ever come of it. The historical reason for this split is simple: Alcohol has always been an important source of government revenue, much more so than food. Distilled spirits (aka hard liquor), wine, and malt beverages (aka beer and malt liquor) are all under TTB control. This creates some peculiar exceptions. Gluten-free \"beer\" made with something besides malted barley is an FDA-controlled beverage with a nutrition label. Hard cider is just as alcoholic as beer, but it's not malted, so needs a label. (For some purposes, it's apparently treated as wine.)" ]
[ "Not every ingredient has to be listed individually. For instance \"natural flavors\" and \"artificial flavors\" can include hundreds of different substances, and as long as that substance meets federal guidelines for being a \"natural flavor\" or \"artificial flavor\", you don't have to be told explicitly what it is on the list of ingredients. Similar to that is the use of \"spices\", which can include all kinds of different spices, which don't need to be individually listed." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
Is it possible to "crush" water? What would happen?
[ "If you increase pressure on water, you will eventually get ice. There are 15 known types of ice, depending on the pressure and temperature." ]
[ "To add to the question - does the number of protons an atom have affect the conversion to pure energy? So what would it take to convert iron to pure energy compared to helium?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
Why do mammals like humans and dogs tilt their heads when confused?
[ "They do not do it because they are confused, per se. Tilting their head gives them a different angle on the sound and helps them figure out more accurately where the sound is coming from, or to understand more accurately what the sound actually is. It's just a way for them to get additional information about the sound. This can also be a learned behavior in dogs, because humans think it is cute and give them affection when they do it, so they may learn to exaggerate the behavior over time. edit: my response is talking specifically about dogs. Humans may also do this for similar reasons, as other commenters have noted." ]
[ "Animals don't have the same movement in their legs/paws/etc, and most probably their brains aren't wired up to think of them in the same way we do our hands. To them, petting with their forelegs would probably feel like us petting someone with our feet. They pet/show affection for each other using other techniques, such as dogs sniffing one another, cats rubbing their heads against things or people, and so on." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit post:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit post:" }
What makes Ouija boards move and why do so many people believe it's spirits when it seems almost impossible that it is?
[ "If people are touching the piece you move around, one of them is doing it. If spirits were communicating with them they wouldn’t need to touch it." ]
[ "People enjoy believing in supernatural things, even when all scientific measurement says they are not real. It makes life more interesting for them." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
Why can't deep web/dark web websites be closed?
[ "They are operated by individuals hosting servers in various countries. And first, you need to find the server/website then find the person hosting/paying for it. It will usually be in some remote country with little jurisdiction. Now, they have to produce a court order in that country. TL;DR; It is a huge pain in the butt; Unless they have to, they don't bother with it." ]
[ "We consider dark web like beeing a part of the internet who required an encrypted connection where users are anonymized. You can navigate on dark nets (dark web is the name for all the dark networks) by using some softwares or gate servers (proxy). Please, feel free to ask me your questions about dark web if you want more information." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
Enamel protection products claim “once enamel is gone, it’s gone forever”. How true is this and if so, how do you explain enamel restoring toothpaste?
[ "My dentist explained to me that teeth will calcify and decalcify over time. A fluoride rinse or toothpaste can aid in this process, but if you have deep cavities and the enamel is beginning to form that sticky *tar* like consistency, that probably isn't going to recalcify sufficiently. In essence they determine that by probing with a pick and trouble spots are generally flagged as \"watches\" so they can be routinely checked every six months assuming you keep up with your bi-annuals. But you should still use fluoride toothpaste/rinse, there's still plenty of benefit but its not going to heal a cavity that needs to be filled by a dentist. Another thing to consider is your vitamin D levels which may lead to cavities if you are deficient." ]
[ "Dentist here. Enamel is he white part of your tooth you can see. Sugars and acids weaken this enamel. When you brush with a hard brush you can wear away microscopic amounts of this weakened enamel resulting in sensitivity and generally more susceptibility to decay. Flossing is primarily to remove plaque between your teeth that the brush cannot get access to. Your guns will generally stop bleeding if you remove all of the plaque and keep the plaque away. A hard brush won't make your teeth more resilient because the White part (enamel) cannot be rejuvenated. The health of your gums however can improve and be more reliant with more flossing . Hope this helped." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit post:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:" }
If I didn't know something was illegal, how could I get in trouble for it?
[ "Not knowing the law is not, in itself, a defense. This is a pretty important legal principle, important enough to [have its own Latin phrase](_URL_0_). I'm not quite sure what you're asking, since there's no particular reason you *wouldn't* get in trouble for it." ]
[ "Passing out drunk in the street is not a way to secure your wallet, but stealing someone's wallet while they are passed out drunk in the street is still a crime. How easy it is to commit a crime doesn't have anything to do with whether it is a crime or not." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the answer:", "neg": "Represent the answer:" }
how do countries introduce new currencies
[ "First they print a whole bunch of new currency and distribute it to banks. Then they establish an exchange rate, and set a deadline after which the old currency can no longer be used or exchanged." ]
[ "It's often used as easily transportable collateral among organized crime groups. Barring total societal collapse, it will always be valuable, no matter its provenance." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the question:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
How do they know which eggs don't have baby chicks in them, when they take eggs to sell??
[ "None of them do, because the hens are not allowed access to roosters, so they don't mate, and none of the eggs are fertilized." ]
[ "They don't lay the eggs, they pick them up and hold them afterwards until they hatch. They're male because they produce sperm and don't lay eggs. The female produces the eggs." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit text:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit text:" }
How do the Death Stars move?
[ "It depends on what level of canon you are looking for. If you accept the Gaming books, the Death Star Technical Companion (at least one of them, I believe there were several) lists it as having both Ion drives and a series of 123 hyper-drive field generators (Chapter two, Technical Specifications). Given that the reactor was deep inside, we could well have been seeing the ports the Ion drives used, and never realized it. In most space vehicles that we see, the source of the propulsion is visible as it's close to where it's being emitted, and we see the burning / glow / whatever -- In the Death Star, the Reactor was deep inside. I believe the Ion output ports were inside that trench along the middle." ]
[ "What's to explain? Why we have it? How it works?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit post:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:" }
Why do certain people faint or feel weak at the sight of blood.
[ "A fear of blood can trigger the vasovagal response, which dramatically lowers blood pressure. No one really knows exactly why that happens, but there's speculation that it might be a way of reducing bleeding when wounded. It never used to happen to me, but last time I cut myself with a kitchen knife while cooking, I felt woozy and had to sit down so I wouldn't fall over. It was very weird. _URL_0_" ]
[ "Blood flows quickly out of the head and momentarily deprives your brain of oxygen. This is the cause of \"head rushes.\" However, if it's so extreme that your vision actually goes dark for a moment, you might want to consult a doctor." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:" }
What is the link in hebrew between the alphabet and numericals values and what does it mean for us?
[ "The Hebrew language uses letters to represent numbers, as well as using letters to form words. The meaning is contextual, but as a consequence any word could be interpreted as a number as well. This structure combined with the religious writings in Hebrew means that mentally ill people with an obsession with religion and a mathematic streak can become fixated on looking for numeric patterns in religious texts written in Hebrew. With so much material to work with practically any number can be obtained to justify the convoluted justifications formed through their mental illness. What does it mean for us? Nothing, crazy people are still crazy even if they do math with prose." ]
[ "Good can have the meaning of \"pious, holy\" and that is from that the name of the day is. Most of the time if the words in names do not make sense it is because the usage of word changes overtime and it is the usage in a archaic sense." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:" }
How come when it is very windy outside, the water in the toilet bowl seems to be moving?
[ "When air moves over something it creates low pressure, the faster it moves, the lower the pressure will get. Those pipes that stick up out of the roof are attached to the drainage system of the house so when you flush or run the tub, sink, washing machine, etc... the water will be able to go down the pipes and not be stuck like when you hold your finger on the top of a straw and lift it out of the drink. When wind blows over the house, it will create a lower pressure in the drain pipes and the water in the toilet will be pulled in/down just a little bit, and when the wind slows down the pressure goes back to normal and the water will come back up just a little. This can make the water appear to be sloshing or making itty-bitty waves/ripples as it goes up and down." ]
[ "There's so much stuff dissolved in the water from the Koolaid that the surface tension is different, causing it to stick to the glass instead of pouring like water." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the query:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
why couldn't the next Presidential candidate just promise to abolish some of the far reaching NSA programs?
[ "They could. The thing is, campaign promises are unenforceable. Obama promised to end the Afghanistan war, close Gitmo, protect whistleblowers and have a transparent administration." ]
[ "Well, what's the point of having a congress at all if they can't change anything?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
Why so much hate towards Russians?
[ "Due to the rivalry between the US and Russia (which then extends to the west and Russia), Politicians from the west have focused on the negatives of Russia to drag its name down. The media repeats and excgarates these views because it sells well to the brainwashes public. Russia isn't as horrible a place as it's made out to be." ]
[ "Are you saying we should be more racist towards cats?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the query:", "pos": "Represent the argument:", "neg": "Represent the argument:" }
How did it come to be that the United States is mainly controlled by only 2 political parties?
[ "[CGP Grey has made a really good video on the subject](_URL_0_)" ]
[ "In general both support it. As Gore Vidal said, we live in a one party system with two factions and that party is Big Business." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the argument:", "neg": "Represent the argument:" }
If all the land on Earth started as one mass (Pangea) and is slowly moving further away, won't there be a point where it all comes back together again?
[ "It could. Rodinia was a supercontinent that broke up and then came back together eventually as Pangaea. It is hard to predict continental movement with precision though. _URL_0_ Pangaea Ultima is a possible future supercontinent." ]
[ "Because the plates move and that's where the most land is currently located. The land hasn't always been where it is now. Continents have moved from one hemisphere to the other." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post:", "pos": "Represent the comment:", "neg": "Represent the comment:" }
How can insects fall from proportionally insane heights and suffer no damage?
[ "Put simply, if you make something twice as big, it weighs EIGHT TIMES as much. If you go in the other direction (making something half as big), then it weighs 1/8 what it did before. So you can see that something that's REALLY small will weigh almost nothing. Also, for really small things like insects, air acts like it's pretty thick. All those legs and body pieces slow them down, sort of like a parachute. Insects don't weigh much, and the air slows them down quite a bit. That's why humans fall like a rock and insects sort of don't. EDIT: More infos, gathered up from the comments. They say falling doesn't kill you--its the sudden stop at the end. While ants top out at about 4mph in freefall (and humans go on to 125mph or more), what really saves their bacon is being so light. Since they weigh so little, there's a lot less of them that has to be slowed down when their little anty body hits the ground." ]
[ "There is no evidence that flies or small insects possess the capability to be frightened. Many insects also contend with predators much bigger than them for the majority of their extremely short lives." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the question:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document about Entomology:" }
whats wrong with raising chickens with the use of antibiotics?
[ "When people are stating 'animals raised with antibiotics' it's not saying that antibiotics are given when the animal is sick, which is how medicine is usually doled out, it means the animal is given antibiotics regularly regardless of their health. Which sorta works as a preventative measure, but the problem is that it creates an evolutionary pressure for antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains, which are bad for us should we ingest contaminated meats." ]
[ "We can. Its just as bad for other animals as it is for us, but other animals build up a tolerance to where it doesn't affect them. Plus, antigens are passed down through milk, so if the mother has a high tolerance, so will the baby. Edit: Coincidently, a question about antigens and breast milk has been posted below this one." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
Will I hit a baseball farther if the pitcher initially throws the ball faster?
[ "Yes, you understand correctly. It's easier to hit a home run if the pitcher throws a fastball. _URL_0_" ]
[ "Because in the rain, that tiny baseball that's travelling at about 100 mph is hard to see, also the wind can blow it slightly off course when the pitcher throw it. A fastball to the head can be fatal and teams generally don't want to risk it." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the passage:", "neg": "Represent the passage:" }
How does a pill prescribed to you know exactly what to do in your body?
[ "Pills don't know anything. Your take medicine and your body will absorb it. It may be absorbed into the blood and travel all around your body. If you take a pain reliever, it is not targeting your headache but is dispersed through the whole body. The only noticeable change is that the pain goes away in the place that hurt. Researchers do not always know exactly how a drug works, either. They may use observation and trial & error to come up with a result in drug research, often in addition to previous experiences/research based on scientific methods." ]
[ "Cancer is the term for uncontrolled cell growth. You could create a single cure for them all, but it's unlikely. For example, you could have a super small machine in the bloodstream that detects and kills cancerous cells. The best options we have now are surgery and drugs. Unfortunately, both of those are harmful to healthy cells or do not eradicate the cancer completely." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit post:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
How do people edit gifs/video or things in motion?
[ "Yes you have to edit every single frame. Its usually done with adobe after effect or Sony Vegas. There are plenty tutorials around the web if you are interested in that yourself." ]
[ "I mean they *could* be capturing the screen and watch in fullscreen or region capture to the video then record that and themselves with a webcam to comment on. They could also just be downloading the video, but youtube can prove neither." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the query:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
Why does thoroughly washing frequently not prevent acne?
[ "Acne can also be caused by diet, and sometimes washing too frequently can irritate your skin and make breakouts worse." ]
[ "To kill the bacteria on your skin and prevent infection from the little nicks you may get. It also eases razor burn." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:" }
if flying a fighter jet in another country's airspace is considered hostile, then how do landlocked countries send their fighters outside of their borders?
[ "They ask other countries' permission to fly over their territory. It's only considered hostile to fly fighter jets in another country's airspace **without** permission." ]
[ "Russia still has planes flying around? I didn't think they did that anymore. They are carefully watched and the airforce will have planes handy to scramble and stop them if need be. We cannot force them out of flying where they legally can fly, so we just take measures to make sure that A) It never comes to that and B) We have assets in place to stop it." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
How do television/film sets avoid revealing the forth wall via reflective props?
[ "By limiting the number of reflective props, and picking the right angles to film from. It's really as simple as that. Think of it like how you are able to drive your car without hitting buildings -- you're trained in it, and you do it every day." ]
[ "You might be surprised at how much little stuff is digital these days. You only spot the obvious or semi-obvious stuff. Search YouTube for behind the scenes green screen shots and you may be amazed at how much even modest budget and boring shows like a procedural use CGI for things like locations." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:" }
Why are some people more likely to have sleep paralysis, while others never have it or have only experienced it once?
[ "Everyone or, at least, most people are capable of having sleep paralysis. Its nothing special as far as chemical imbalance go or something in genes or dealing with immune (it's been noted to be a common occurrence in narcoleptic people). But experiencing that transition from physically awake to mentally awake can vary from person to person and age. Most children will experience it more commonly than adults due growing and experiencing the world, in general, while sleeping. That's how you get a laundry list of childhood fears relating the darkness, nighttime and sleep." ]
[ "It is not clear if that is actually true. Children are more likely to be unable to deal with a nightmare, to request aid, to show an impact the next day, and to be afraid of things going forward because of a nightmare. When an adult has a nightmare, usually they are the only one who will even know about it, which gives the impression adults have fewer nightmares than they actually do." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:" }
Why do many people in western countries have dash cams?
[ "Police are few and far between. If you get in an accident with someone, you might wait for 30-45 minutes before a cop shows up. Many people who get in accidents just drive away and the victim of the accident is left on the side of the road with their thumb up their ass and no proof of what happened or who did it. So... Dashboard cameras..." ]
[ "Why do people in Western countries use forks?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post:", "pos": "Represent the text:", "neg": "Represent the text:" }
I live in the US. Why should I vote?
[ "Even if you don't feel like your vote for president matters much, there are way more things on your ballot than president: state government stuff, county government, city government, the local school board, various levies for parks and roads and such. Every vote counts in many of these, and they arguably have a bigger, more immediate, effect on your life than the choice of president. Most of these aren't as straightforward red vs blue affairs either." ]
[ "Why is this vote happening and why should I care/not care as someone who doesn't live in UK?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit post:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit post:" }
Do animals have beauty standards? For example, would a randy male goat ever look at a really ugly, old female goat and think "nah"? Or would they just screw literally anything of the same species and opposite gender?
[ "It depends a bit on the species but often animals are picky about whom they mate with. Male animals are usually more brightly colored than females and this is most likely because it attracts a mate's attention which shows there is some level of visual attractiveness involved." ]
[ "Well how do **you** know someone is sexually attractive? It's a mixture of instincts and experience. Does he look healthy and colorful? or is he injured or dirty? Does he look like someone you've had good experiences with? Is he the right species in the first place, or does he do the wrong dance? And how desperate are you to mate?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
Why is Spotify on my computer basically premium with ads, but mobile is a crippled, shuffle-only mess?
[ "The free Spotify serves two purposes: 1) Being a \"demo\" of what full Spotify is to try to get people to go premium and 2) Still make money with people who don't want to pay, through ads. The paying system is a lot more profitable, that's why there are ads asking you to go premium. Now when making the free version they faced a dilemma: If the system is too good people won't want to go premium, but if it's too bad people won't like it at all and the ones who would stay free will migrate to other services. So they probably concluded the current scheme is the best one, people get to try it freely on PC (with ads, because many will stay free forever), but if they want the full mobile experience too (the focus of the service) they have to go premium. But just to get a taste of how mobile works they can play playlists, but in shuffle. It's a question of balance." ]
[ "Eventually users pay spotify for premium just so they don't have to hear those ads again." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit post:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit passage about Technology:" }
McDonald's employees! Why is the ice cream machine always down?
[ "Sometimes it's out of ice cream and we just say it's down. Sometimes the whole store is out of ice cream and we say it's down. Sometimes the machine is broken and we say it's down. Sometimes it's overheated and we say it's down. Sometimes we don't feel like serving ice cream so we say it's down." ]
[ "well little Thews, they do it by selling ice cream. maybe its a slower time of year, but that does not mean everyone automatically looses their desire for ice cream." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
How do spiders make the strands of web that go horizontally from tree to tree, that hit you in about the face when your hiking?
[ "They float them. I assume you are not asking about the spinneret glands which produce the spider silk. Biologists have examined these and described there physical shape in detail. The exact biochemical process probably is still a mystery. But to get the strands across what are vast spaces to spiders the strands are so light they float. Some spiders produce them while young and float around with the breeze which helps them disperse. but to get back to the ones which you encounter while hiking the spiders wait for a favorable breeze and float a strand. The silk is sticky. It will attach." ]
[ "When they're flying close to the ceiling they \"grab\" the ceiling with their front legs, and momentum carries their body forward and now its upside down. They secrete a sticky substance on their legs so they actually stick to the ceiling, not gripping it." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
How does my electric toothbrush charge without any metallic contacts?
[ "Magnetic induction. The charger creates an oscillating magnetic field (it quickly switches back and forth pointing one way and then the other) and this interacts with metal inside the toothbrush to create an electric current which charges the toothbrush. It works because the magnetic field can penetrate the plastic (which you can see for yourself by playing with strong magnets through objects) and the effect that changing magnetic fields has on metal is the basis for the vast majority of our electrical production, this is just on a smaller scale." ]
[ "Chargers work by making electricity available to the device. The device determines how much it takes. If the device stops taking power, the electricity stops flowing. It's similar to what happens when you unplug a device from the wall." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
Why are mid-90s shows like Friends available in high definition, while shows from the same time period (and same network) like Frasier only in standard definition?
[ "It depends on the media used to record the show - traditional film can be rescanned at higher resolution, magnetic media maybe, maybe not. It also depends on how much money the studios think they will make by re-releasing." ]
[ "The channels or stations that air new episodes have exclusive broadcast rights (that they pay the studio that makes the show) lots of money for. The channel/stations do this for advertising revenue - so for the two or three months between the show airing and when it shows up in iTunes or Netflix, the channel that broadcasts it gets to make money from the commercials they show during it. Not common, but sometimes a channel will take a loss on airing a new show to highlight their own shows that they'll put on immediately after. Like, CTV airing Game of Thrones season premiere and airing their new police procedural right after." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:" }
How does stress physically change our body especially our digestive system.
[ "Your viewpoint would imply that you believe the mind is somehow entirely separate from the body. This isn't the case, though. The mind is a product of the brain; minds are what our brains \"do\" (well, part of it). When your mind is experiencing stress, it's literally a physical condition in your brain; usually the release of things like stress hormone (cortisol). Prolonged periods of having things like cortisol elevated in your body are bad for you, physically." ]
[ "Stomach acids will damage your esophagus and teeth, as well as disrupting the normal digestive cycle and potentially leading to digestive problems." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title about Health and Wellness:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Health and Wellness:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Health and Wellness:" }
why doesn't California raise water prices?
[ "They've tried, but [the Constitution of California prohibits raising water prices above cost](_URL_0_)." ]
[ "why are their tax rates so much higher?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit text:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit text about Education:" }
Can the US government target Americans in drone killings, and is there evidence they have done so before?
[ "[Anwar al-Awlaki](_URL_0_) was American born and killed by a Predator drone strike in Yemen. One side is arguing that it is illegal to kill an American citizen without a trial. The other side is arguing that he is an enemy of the state and has forfeited his right to judicial protection by taking up arms against the United States. In Rand Paul's case his filibuster was to get the administration to state concretely that American citizens within the United States have full protection of the law which the administration has come out and stated that they do and drone strikes within the United States are illegal." ]
[ "The Supreme Court could rule like this: Congress and the President have extra powers in times of war to protect national security, we are currently at war with terrorism, American citizens can join and fight with these 'terrorist', therefore the President and Congress can take extra measures to prevent them from fighting in said war Do I agree with this? No. But this is the basic logic used by the Bush admin to justify their shit, and the court could just parrot it." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the query:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
How come you get tired of eating the same dinner more than two days in a row but you can eat the same breakfast for years on end?
[ "Back when the U.S. military was developing MREs, they were trying to figure out how to get troops to eat the same handful of meals over several weeks. They realized everyone loved heavily spiced food at first, but got burnt out on it quickly. Meanwhile, they had no problem eating bland foods day after day. Since breakfast foods tend to be bland, it's easier to eat the same thing over and over again than if you had the meals you normally eat for dinner, which are usually flavorful, every night." ]
[ "I'm sure it's the same reason you don't do what you're supposed to all the time. Do you always drive exactly the speed limit, never hit the snooze, never eat something that's bad for you, never drink or smoke or do drugs, work out everyday, etc., etc.? Willpower is a finite resource, for dogs and humans." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
Why didn't the British just send troops into the Boston and Philadephia harbors and squash the American Revolution in it's main cities?
[ "Several reasons - 1 - It was horrendously expensive. Like... really expensive. The Americas are a long long way from England and the passage was not easy. Shipping any amount of troops would be a serious feat of logistics. 2 - It was not their highest priority. We Americans like to think that our Revolution was a big deal. We forget that while we were doing our thing England was battling France, Spain and everybody else off and on. If England focused all of its might on quashing the Americans then perhaps France would snipe out other colonies or even attack England directly! 3 - It wouldn't have fixed the problem. They did take Boston, and Philadelphia, AND New York. That didn't stop the Americans. We just kept fighting in (as we put it) a good old fashioned \"Indian war\". The British had to quash American resistance completely, taking major cities didn't do that." ]
[ "By New Yorkers do you mean citizens of the Colony of New York? Or people who lived in New York city? There is a difference between those who live in the back country and those who live in NYC Either way New York City had a lot of Loyalists in it. Howe was assisted by Loyalist spies during his invasion of New York and was quickly able to raise several Loyalist Companies out of the areas under his control." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
Why Americans think they won the War of 1812?
[ "I agree with the other comments that most Americans don't know which countries participated in the War of 1812, much less who \"won\" it. While it is true that our capital was sacked and burned, the capital was only 12 years old at the time, and so the major effect of the sack was not economic or political -- but symbolic and administrative (more serious than the burning of the White House or Capitol was the burning of the Library of Congress, which was not possible to replace). But *at the time* the major reason why Americans thought they won the war was that the war concluded with the Americans decisively winning its major battle -- the Battle of New Orleans. Granted, this battle occurred after (and in ignorance of) the peace treaty ending the war, but it propelled the American general, Andrew Jackson, into the White House, which had a profound effect on American politics thereafter." ]
[ "1. The First Salute by Barbara Tuchman 2. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown 3. The Civil War by Shelby Foote 4. Reconstruction by Eric Foner 5. The Proud Tower by Barbara Tuchman 6. Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch 7. Brute Force: Allied Strategy and Tactics in the Second World War by John Ellis 8. The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A Caro 9. A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan 10. A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn 11. 1491/1493 Charles C Mann Sorry, couldn't keep it to 6." ]
eli5_question_answer
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Let's say I'm watching a 24fps movie on my 60Hz computer monitor. How does the framerate of the movie match up with the refresh rate of the monitor?
[ "Don't quote me on this, but I think that it works like this; The monitor refreshes a complete display 60 times in every second, the movie shows a new image 24 times in every second. Imagine that you have a friend standing outside your window with a flip-book and he was flipping the pages 24 times every second, and you were able to close and open the curtains 60 times a second. The two aren't linked and work independantly, so it doesn't matter that they run at differing speeds. Besides, at those sort of speeds, you would barely even notice (if at all) a dropped frame here or there." ]
[ "The Urban Dictonary answer is pretty ELI5 friendly: _URL_0_ VSYNC (or V-sync) is shortform for Vertical synchronization. In video games, if you rapidly turn around, you will experience a phenomenon called 'screen tearing'. Imagine a pole in the game, and if you turn quickly, instead of the entire pole moving past your field of view, only the lower or upper half moves, while the other half stays there for a split second, and then moves away as well. This phenomenon is caused if your graphic card is working faster than the refresh rate of your monitor. Turning VSYNC on tells the graphic card to not produce updated imagery (frames) any faster than your monitor's screen rate (usually 60 - 75Hz; 120 Hz if you're a rich kid or still have a CRT, lol) ...thereby \"dropping\" the frames down to whatever your monitor's maximum display rate is, eliminating the screen tearing." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the question:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
ELI5: Why do big companies, who have a multitude of resources at their disposal, buy out smaller companies, especially apps like "Summlly" which Yahoo bought for $30M, instead of just making it algorithm themselves?
[ "1. Coming up with algorithms as nice as the ones Summly came up with is not easy. If Yahoo started tomorrow it might take a team of 12 people a year to come close to replicating it - and with the wrong choice of 12 people they might easily fail. Buying a company with an existing working product is much less risky than trying to duplicate it. 2. Often the company wants to hire the people, more than the product itself. Perhaps Yahoo has bigger plans and they need people with the specific talent and expertise who were able to come up with Summly, to help with something bigger and more ambitious. 3. Sometimes it's more strategic - they don't want their competitors to have that company, they'd rather own it than compete against it." ]
[ "The same way every other startup affords stuff - they get stacks of cash from investors. The investors hope to get rich by either cashing in on an IPO or selling out to an industry giant like Google. The founders of the company were 3 early employees of Paypal, so they brought a fair chunk of their own cash to the table as well. Google purchased the company fairly early on, when they were only about a year old. Generally when you're starting a company, you just rent servers rather than purchase them yourself. It might cost more in the long run but the up-front costs are cheaper, which makes sense for startups." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the question about Technology:", "pos": "Represent the document about Technology:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
How can games companies sell unfinished games and in some cases games that are unplayable (Activision)?
[ "Simply answer, because consumers keep buying them. Longer answer, due to the new and easier channels of distribution, mainly pre-order, digital downloads, etc. games can be bought way before any serious reviews by game critics or consumers alike have been established. So by the time the problems of a game are known, the majority of sales have already been made. Coupled with promises of updates and fixes, many consumers stick around or even buy the game later when it's fixed. This way game companies get both, the money from early buyers who purchase the game without knowing it's quality as well as patient gamers who wait until the game is fixed. Since this behavior doesn't seem to damage the long-term reputation of the company it remains a viable business model." ]
[ "Most recently it is because of their release of Star Wars Battlefront 2. It takes 40 hours of playing to unlock darth vader, or you could just buy him... Microtransactions have always faced a lot of criticism, as well as dlc that should have been included in the main game. Basically EA always rushes their games, released the unfinished bits as dlc, and charges microtransactions (not to mention their insistance on using EA origin). They are just a bit to blatantly cash grabby as a company. Which is a shame considering their roots. Here is their recent comment that got 371k downvotes: _URL_0_" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the query:", "pos": "Represent the comment:", "neg": "Represent the comment:" }
LD50 values and its relation to humans.
[ "No, it wouldn't necessarily translate exactly, but it does for many common substances. > For example if a substance has an LD50 of 190mg/kg in a rat, assuming you have an average rat (weighing about 500g) and a human of 77kg (170lbs), how would you go about that? The LD50 here is expressed as mg (of substance) per kg (of body weight). So assuming the rates are the same, it's still 190 mg/kg in humans, but that's a larger dose because humans are bigger." ]
[ "The formula was designed to fit the data obtained from testing and experimentation. *THAT* is the reason the formula fits." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the query:", "pos": "Represent the argument:", "neg": "Represent the argument:" }
How can restaurants accurately calculate calories per dish or item?
[ "It's not accurate. They're allowed a rather generous deviation from what is the actual amount of calories. For example, applies might be five calories per ten ounces on average, and if you give apples as a side and most apples you sell are considered 15 ounces, you only have 7.5 calories. But that's just an average. There's been several instances where people complain because the variance can be so high, you can have a dish say it's only 450 calories but be closer to 600." ]
[ "When you go to a restaurant, you pay for the service first, then for the actual food. As a rule of thumb, the ingredients usually make up only 1/4 to 1/3 of the costs. Additionally, the work of preparing a dish twice as large usually isn't twice as much for the chef. So it comes down to the customer's expectations. Americans expect large meals, so the restaurants deliver - without hurting their profits much." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the answer:", "neg": "Represent the answer:" }
Why are vision problems so common in humans?
[ "humans need glasses to see fine detail, like letters. in a hunter gatherer sense, 99% of peoples vision is probably sufficient. i suspect there are plenty of animals that would want glasses if they were intelligent enough to know they were missing out on something. but since most land animals have a highly developed sense of smell compared to humans, they probably dont care." ]
[ "So what is it about human physiology that makes this work differently for us?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the query:", "pos": "Represent the comment:", "neg": "Represent the comment:" }
If all of the cells in our bodies are replaced within a matter of years, how are tattoos permanent?
[ "Imagine a bucket filled with ping pong balls. That's your skin. The ping pong balls are your skin cells. Now imagine filling the bucket with some water. That's the tattoo ink. You can replace any or all of those balls, and they might take some water with them, but that water is pretty much going to stay in the bucket." ]
[ "As we grow older, our cells multiply more slowly. This is due to a cap in the number of times any cell can split. So, when you're five, chances are only a few of your cells have hit the cap. But by twenty, this number increases to something like 15% (making that up). Because of this, 15%of the surrounding cells cannot multiply to assist in the healing process. By the time we become 70 or 80, closer to 90%of our cells have hit the cap. This means that we will take a *very* long time to recover from an injury. As injuries compile, this leads to sickness, causing death \"from old age\"." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title about Science:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Science:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Health and Wellness:" }
Why we don’t generate electricity from sound waves while electricity is needed to produce a sound wave ?
[ "We do generate electricity from sound waves. That's how a microphone works. The problem is that sound isn't powerful enough to create a enough electricity to be useful for anything other than capturing an audio signal. Even with sophisticated microphones we need to amplify the signal a lot to make it useful again." ]
[ "Radio waves aren’t sound waves they don’t need a medium to travel through. It might help if you think of sending signals like flashing a light at someone rather than yelling." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document about Science and Technology:" }
How does air conditioning work? Car and house the same, or different?
[ "Air condition works by exploiting how high and low pressure changes the temperature. [They use a compressor to create a high pressure on one side and a low pressure on the other.](_URL_0_) The high pressure side will increase in temperature, so it will give off heat, this side is outside your car/house/fridge. When it then moves to the low pressure side it expands which lowers the temperature and it will absorb heat. That side in inside your car/house/fridge. It's really just a device to move heat from one place to another. It moved the heat from inside to the outside." ]
[ "It's a big system. It also carries a bit from state to state. Are you interested in the application process? Policy? Logistics?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
the legalization of marijuana in Colorado.
[ "According to [this article](_URL_0_) people 21 years of age can purchase it from specially regulated retail stores, and adults can grow up to 6 plants for personal use. Public use and driving under the influence is still illegal." ]
[ "From the exact same thread about nicotine: laws are political, not scientific." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the question about Informational:", "pos": "Represent the document about Informational:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
With modern technology, why don't people get paid and billed electronically by the second or minute instead of monthly?
[ "The technology isn't really there, or at least hasn't been developed. If you've ever worked in IT, you'd understand how hard it is to integrate different systems and make them talk to each other. Such a system would have to built from the ground up and would include real time capturing of hours worked, real time transfer of money to the bank, real time availability of the money on your credit card. That wouldn't be cheap. Then, every company and bank would have to adopt those systems. If your bank doesn't use it, it wouldn't matter if your company does or not." ]
[ "100 years ago we didn't have nearly the same ability to do electronic transactions. Now more and more large transactions are being done electronically. There is less and less need to have any paper money, especially bills larger than what would be normal small expenses. In fact, there is a growing movement to ban bills like the 100 dollar bill as it has little practical use besides being used for tax evasion and drug trafficking. Edit: Just a thought experiment for you: * How does your job pay you? Cash, check, or direct deposit? * Do you ever have all of your money from a pay period in cash? * Did you purchase your car and/or house in cash? Do you make payments on either in cash? * When was the last time you bought something with cash that was over 200 dollars? (Combined or individually) For me the answers are direct deposit, never, paid through check/auto-debit, and can't remember ever doing that." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit post:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
Why is it when you bend a plastic item it turns a whitish color?
[ "The white color is the result of [crazing](_URL_1_), the formation of tiny cracks/voids in the material as you bend it past the limit it can survive without damage. The crack surfaces scatter light in all directions, which is what makes them that opaque white." ]
[ "The white part is dry nails because it's not touching the skin and getting the natural oils. This is also why the white part turns translucent when you submerge them in water for long enough but go back to being white when they dry. I googled this a while back cause I was curious too hahaha" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the query:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document about Biology:" }
If the computer runs on electricity, why isn't the hard-drive wiped when you turn it off?
[ "Magnets. Basically, hard drives sorta look like a record player inside. There's a disk that spins, and a head that can move to various tracks on the disk, reading or writing. The way it works is, if you've ever rubbed a nail on a magnet, you'll notice the nail itself gets magnetic. The disks in a hard drive are coated with a magnetic substance, and the heads have tiny electromagnets in them, which put lasting magnetic imprints onto the disk surface, which last even if the power is turned off." ]
[ "Many computers do momentarily power off when restarting. However the capacitors on the motherboard have not been lacking power for long enough to completely discharge their power and so can still hold some things in memory. Sort of like when you unplug a power adapter from the wall but the little light on the brick stays lit for a few seconds. Those capacitors store power much like batteries do. That's why sometimes a restart won't fix a problem where a full power off and power on will." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post about Technology:", "pos": "Represent the document about Technology:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
How do bank ATMs read handwritten checks?
[ "You're writing the amount in numbers and in letters on the check. It could mix up 100 with 700, but if he sees \"Seven Hundred Dollars\", there's no way it could not guess which one is the right one. I worked in a bank for a short time and among other things I had to verify scanned checks for which the software had trouble to identify the signature (generally I could confirm it was the wife's or husband's signature), so your hidden little man theory isn't entirely dumb!" ]
[ "It can be used to establish an identity, for one thing. For example, a bank account requires two forms of I.D. (in the U.S). A credit card with printed name is an acceptable secondary form of Identification. Also, IIRC, the magnetic strip still contains the information on your account, and many identity thieves have machines that can read/manipulate the magnet strip. The machines with the power to do so are sold on the free market." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question about banking:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document about banking:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
How do we know the world is round and not flat?
[ "If you're in the northern hemisphere, and you point your camera at the northern night sky with a long exposure, you can capture stars \"spinning\" around the north pole. Here's a good example: _URL_0_ In the southern hemisphere, you can see the same phenomenon pointing your camera south. The only way this makes sense is if the world is a ball." ]
[ "If you were two dimensional, how would I explain the third dimension to you?" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title about astronomy:", "pos": "Represent the document about astronomy:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
why do so many lottery winners go broke within a year?
[ "Fifty percent of lottery tickets are bought by the lowest thirty percent income earners. When these types of people win, they often have no idea how to handle money, or that money can make money just by existing. So, after a couple of years of spending extravagantly, loaning money to friends and family that will never pay it back, and poor investments, they find themselves right where they started." ]
[ "It’s costs a lot of money to make a movie or television series. So they borrow money to make the movies and tv shows. Once the shows air and they make money, they pay back the people they borrowed money from. And since Netflix makes a lot of tv shows they have to borrow a lot of money. But since so many people watch Netflix, a lot banks will let Netflix borrow a lot of money. One day they might not make enough money to payback the people they borrowed the money from and that would be bad for Netflix. Or they could make the most popular show in the world and that would be good for Netflix. So far they have been able to keep all their banks happy. 😃" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit answer:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit answer:" }
How come sometimes I'm able to sit down and work for hours on end, and other times I can barely look at work at all?
[ "I'd like to know this too. Sometimes I can work all day and get way ahead on my projects, come home, make a good dinner and work on home projects until bed and do it all again the next day. Other times I need to drag myself out of bed, stare at my computer screen and force myself to do what absolutely needs to get done and try desperately to not think of ways to cut corners, come home and stare at the wall, lay awake unable to sleep" ]
[ "My wife has ADHD, and I don't. Here are a few differences I've observed. She'll start one task, get distracted by another task, then another, and not really make progress on any of them. For instance, maybe she'll be picking up clutter from a room, realize the floor is dirty, break out the vacuum, see that the closet the vacuum is dirty in, clean that, find an old yearbook, start looking through photos, etc, etc. To contrast, I will be able to more easily ignore all those other things, and just focus on picking up clutter from a room. Also, when we're out at a bar having a drink, she'll be listening to me, the TV, and the conversation next to us all at the same time. I'll only be focusing on our conversation. She finds it unable to sit down and read a book for hours. I have no problem doing this, which she finds bizarre." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:" }
This quote from xkcd: "There will come a day when I'm either an ancestor to all living humans or to none of them"
[ "There is a site, _URL_9_, that does an ELI5 for each xkcd strip. This particular strip is explained here: _URL_9_/wiki/index.php/1545:_Strengths_and_Weaknesses Your question isn't answered directly in the Wiki, but it does contain a link to the MCA (Most Common Ancestor) wiki article, here: _URL_11_" ]
[ "If anyone actually knew the answer, they'd be spending the rest of their lives getting free sexual favors from every theoretical physicist on the planet. It's impossible to answer because no one knows." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the comment:", "neg": "Represent the comment:" }
How can people like George Soros "bet" on a crash? What mechanisms would allow them to make a profit on a bet like that?
[ "In this case, Soros is performing more of a synthetic short using options. He purchased \"put\" options on the SPY index, which represents the S & P 500 index. A put gives you the right to sell a holding to a buyer at a set price for a certain period of time. For instance, the S & P is at 1842 right now. You can buy a June 1800 put right now for $4.86. An option represents 100 shares of the index, so that's $486.00 per option If the S & P drops to, say, 1750 between now and June (a BIG move, granted), that same option would be worth $50.00, so your investment would be worth $5,000.00 . Alternately, if the S & P stays above 1750 through the third Friday in June, your options would expire worthless. Index options represent VERY high risk/reward ratios. If you are right, you can get a tremendous return. If you are wrong, your money's gone..." ]
[ "The short answer is yes. Some persons have large amounts of money, and if they spot an opportunity (i.e. a panicked market undervaluing certain stocks) they'll exploit it. Additionally, there are various financial instruments, put options for example, which can compel a person to purchase a stock, even at a disadvantageous price." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit passage:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit passage:" }
I'm having a hard time understanding a single line of a legal document I have, I'll buy gold to whoever gives me a thorough explanation
[ "It's the following month. The quarter closes out March 31 at close of business, and payment must be postmarked or in the inbox by the last business day in April. Same deal for July, October, and January." ]
[ "They seldom occur without any context. This gives you plenty of hints about what they might mean if you'd never heard the words before and had no context, it's be impossible to tell between CPU and scuba" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit post:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:" }
In the 1985 movie "Clue," what is Mrs. Peacock's secret for which she is being blackmailed?
[ "She's accepting bribes to influence her senator husband's votes." ]
[ "The ending is left ambiguous. The viewers never know if all the violent acts committed were real or whether or not they were delusions of the main character. One of the running themes that's a lot clearer in the book than the movie is that the characters are always mistaking people for someone else. This is kind of important because at the end, one of the people that Bateman supposedly killed (the guy he killed with the axe) is reportedly alive because another character says that he had lunch with him only a few days ago. It's unclear if the victim was really alive and attended that meal, or if it was just another of the many, *many* cases of mistaken identity." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
Why are many manual laborers who spend 8 hours or more a day lifting, pushing, and pulling heavy objects not in incredible shape from doing so after many months or years?
[ "I'd say diet is the biggest factor here. A lot of those labourers/construction workers are strong as fuck but eat like shit. They'd look a lot more jacked with a healthier diet." ]
[ "Good posture generally uses muscles to hold you in a certain position, requiring effort. Slouching basically means relaxing these muscles and letting the weight of your body rest on ligaments and joints. It’s always easier to not put in effort. Also, slouching is only really bad if you do it for a long time with very little other movement. It has an overly bed rep in that way. The body is designed for movement, if you slouch for half an hour between moving around a bunch, it’s no big deal. Slouch for 8 hours over a computer barely getting up, for a 40 hour week and you’ll get problems" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit text:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit text:" }
Why does unplugging plugging back in a router solve most problems?
[ "1. As you use a router (or any digital device, really) errors slowly accumulate. Turning it \"off and on again\" clears the temporary memory and the errors, allowing it to function faster. 2. You will probably have background programs which are using internet, and they will not always reconnect immediately when the router is restarted. This will free up bandwidth. 3. Some ISPs slow down your connection if you do certain things, such as torrenting or using proxies. Resetting your connection changes some information about your network, such as IPv4 addresses, preventing some of the methods they use from slowing the connection." ]
[ "Doing a reset wipes the cache files. These can cause random software issue. In the case of signal, resetting the phone forces it to restart searching for signal." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post about Technology:", "pos": "Represent the passage about Technology:", "neg": "Represent the passage:" }
How do those NES light guns (Duck Hunt) work?
[ "The gun has a light sensor in it. When you squeeze the trigger, the TV screen turns black and white boxes appear where the ducks were for one frame (about .04 seconds). It's so fast that we don't really notice that the screen flickered. The gun with the light sensor in it is just looking for a flash of white that lasts about .04 seconds as well. If the gun is aimed at the duck then the white square that flashes will provide enough light to set off the light sensor in the gun and register it as a hit. To be a little more specific, the screen actually turns black for two frames, once for each duck, and puts only one white box on the screen at a time. This allows the system to determine whether you hit the first duck or the second." ]
[ "Light guns like the zapper work like so: you press the button and this makes the screen go blank except for a white box where the \"target\" is. the barrel of the bun is actually a light detector. If it's pointed at the white box it will pick up the light and register a hit. If it is pointed at a dark part of the screen, it won't. This is why you can just point it at a lit light bulb and it will always register a hit. I'm not 100% sure why it doesn't work on an LCD screen, but what I've heard from other people is that the delay between the input (pulling the trigger) and the change on the screen is different for an LCD screen an a CRT TV. It's a latency issue, AFAIK." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the question:", "pos": "Represent the text:", "neg": "Represent the text:" }
Why do you see the red/green/blue lines when you move your eyes back and forth while looking at a video from a projector?
[ "Those different color lines make the picture. When you look without moving your head, the lines blend together to make all the different colors. These lines are projected one after another. The eyes have this thing called \"persistence of vision.\" That is, if they see a bit of light, the eyes seem to keep seeing it for a short time; that's how the eye blends the projected colors together. A projected picture changes the image more rapidly than the eye can follow the individual changes, so you don't see individual bits of image, but a moving image. If you look at an image made up of individual bursts of color, that depends on you just looking at it, and instead move your head or eyes side to side, then your eyes don't see the different lines on top of one another, blending together, but next or near to one another... suddenly you see the parts that make up the image." ]
[ "Your brain adjusts to the movement pattern of the gif, and doesn't compensate instantly when you move to look at the picture. It has nothing to do with the Starry Night picture, the illusion works the same if you looked at the back of your hand." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title about Science:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document about Science:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
Are we lighter during the night due to centripetal force from orbit?
[ "It would be the opposite if there is any fluctuations as at night the gravitational pull of the sun is also pulling you toward the earth while during the day the sun would be pulling you away from the earth ever so slightly. There is some fluctuation but it is less than 1%." ]
[ "Simple answer: gravity Slight longer version: the moons gravity is enough that it actually physically pulls the water on Earth towards it as it rotates around us. Hence, the tides go in and out depending on where the moon is" ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the title:", "pos": "Represent the document:", "neg": "Represent the document:" }
Why do cast iron skillets make food taste better?
[ "IMHO it has nothing to do with the oil in the pan. I have my grandmother's skillet [probably 50+ years old.] I clean it with sea salt. I think it has to do with heat dispersal; that the iron transmits the heat more evenly than other materials. The food cooks evenly." ]
[ "Do you know what seasoning is? It's a thin layer of smoked oil that binds tightly to the underlying cast iron. You really can't use an unseasoned cast iron skillet. Food will stick to it like white on rice and it'll rust *fast*. The difference between a well-seasons and poorly-seasoned pan is significant. The difference between having to really scrub to get food off or basically just wiping it off with a paper towel. But the difference between either and an *un*seasoned pan is like night and day. There's just no comparison. An unseasoned cast iron pan is useless as a cooking implement." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit text:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit text:" }
Why can't we just use MAC addreses instead of the IP addreses?
[ "A MAC address is unique identifier, but it doesn't tell you anything about *where* a device is. IP addresses are structured, routers can infer from the address which way it needs to send the message to get it towards its destination, without needing a giant database of individual addresses. Think of it like something sent in the mail. The name identifies who the recipient is, but it doesn't help the sorting office get the mail to where it needs to go. They don't know that person, but they do know where their city is, so they send it there. And when it gets to that city, their sorting office knows where the street is." ]
[ "There are DNS (domain name system) servers which translate a address like _URL_0_ to the IP-address of the server. It goes a bit like this: your browser sends a request to your router to translate the address. If the router doesn't know it (the router only saves some of your recently visited pages) he asks a bigger server and so on. The IP-address is a unique identifier for every computer in the internet. Because IPv4 only has about 4 billion addresses we need to change to IPv6 in the future to have enough for everyone." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
How is it possible that you can order something on ebay for $3 without shipping payments?
[ "Usually it's coming from China. The Chinese government subsidizes parcels moving out of the country if its for the purpose if ecommerce, which makes international postal rates for Chinese sellers ridiculously low." ]
[ "They wait until lots of orders are placed, then ship it all at once. That's why it may take up to 4 weeks for shipping. Might take 4 weeks for people to buy enough stuff to justify shipping it." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
Radiation affecting us
[ "Getting hit with radiation is like having lots of tiny bullets shot into you. They pummel the molecules in your cells, sometimes breaking them into pieces. Now, some molecules in your cells can be repaired or replaced. And if a cell is too damaged, it's programmed to just commit suicide before it can go rogue. However, sometimes, if DNA is damaged by radiation in just the right places, the cell won't commit suicide, and it will instead go cancerous and replicate endlessly." ]
[ "Genetics and environmental factors - the same thing that affects most variability in human traits." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit paragraph:" }
Why can't ISPs (that can increase) just increase their internet speeds? Wouldn't it earn them money in the long-run?
[ "Because they don't need to care about their customer's satisfaction when they have monopolies." ]
[ "Because if they don't pay... the throttling continues. By paying Netflix can remove the throttling and make more money by delivering its product to its customers. Sure it costs Netflix money, but they can make more money if Comcast isn't throttling them." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the question:", "pos": "Represent the text:", "neg": "Represent the text:" }
Why do money-wiring services exist when you can just email money for free?
[ "email doesn't happen out of thin air. you have to have a device. if you're poor you are unlikely to have a device. much of the money-wiring market is poor people transferring their wages home (often a foreign country.) when home *is* a foreign country there are regulations around how cash can be transferred (and I doubt that emailing money is allowed without some compliance infrastructure on the platform.)" ]
[ "You can send money to each other's accounts, it's just not commonly done. There are mobile apps for that sort of thing. I only use checks when they're required for some legal purpose. I think I've written fewer than 5 check in the last 2 years." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit title:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit comment:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit comment:" }
Why does the human eye have to focus on certain things at once and blur out the surroudings?
[ "The cells in your eye that are capable of clear vision are concentrated in a circle about one *millimeter* across. Most of your eye just can't see things sharply." ]
[ "I believe you mean far sighted and if so, basically your eyes can see things at a distance fine, but when they get closer your eyes dont focus accurately making vision slightly blurry." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit query:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:" }
How come upon walking into a room with a bad smell, at first it smells really bad, but after a few minutes, you can’t smell it anymore?
[ "Your brain simply gets used to the sensation. When you first walk in, its like \"oh damn, it smells bad here\" but after a while it just blocks the \"bad smell signal out\". Kind of like it saying \"does it still smell bad? Yeah. Oh ok. Still smelling bad? Yeah. Ok nevermind then\". It does that to protect you from sensory overload." ]
[ "We do smell them, but we got used to them so they seem odourless to us." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the post:", "pos": "Represent the argument:", "neg": "Represent the argument:" }
Why in the U.S. are we not told the upfront cost of medical care so that we can shop around like we can when making any other purchase.
[ "In a word: greed. The U.S. Health care system is a for-profit business. One tactic for maximizing profits is to obscure the true costs so as to stifle competition. Another tactic is to use fear to make a sale. What's more important than your health? To be fair, though, it's becoming more and more common, especially with specialists, to get estimates for procedures to be performed. \"Shopping around\" is accomplished through second opinions in these cases." ]
[ "Every profession can charge whatever they feel like. They just wouldn’t have any customers. Unfortunately, you don’t have much choice when it comes to doctors. You need their service no matter what it costs, and there are few alternative Doctors. You can’t just walk over to the next clinic as if you were looking for lunch. The reason is that the supply of Doctors is very low, demand for their service is independent of price, and you (as a consumer) simply have no choice but to accept the flawed market." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit document:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit document:" }
why do governments hire Private Military Contractors
[ "They are already ex-military most of the time plus Govt doesn't get the \"official responsibility\" for any mishaps. Google Raymond Davis Pakistan for an example. There must be hundreds other as well but seemed to illustrate how well entrenched these practices are" ]
[ "1. The tax payers won't have to pay for it. 2. Privately-run institution are often more efficient than public ones, due to the drive for profit and competition in the market. 3. Government bureaucracies can easily be corrupted and lobbied. 4. Less red tape and more freedom for innovation and capital investment. 5. Private actors are held accountable for the mistakes they make. 6. Privacy - people are not comfortable putting their private information in the hands of the government." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit question:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit argument:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit argument:" }
How do these giant EVE battles I always see on the front page work?
[ "Arranged battles do happen. Some times they are sponsored events and sometimes its territory war. If a corp is holding a system and another corp wants to take it battles like this can ensue. Resource wars and rare asteroid belts see this on a smaller scale all the time." ]
[ "People get addicted to the game, to the point that it badly affects their priorities. Have a college class? Nope, got a big raid! Need to go to work? Nah, I'll call in sick and gain some levels! There are plenty of examples in the exact thread you linked to." ]
eli5_question_answer
{ "query": "Represent the Reddit post:", "pos": "Represent the Reddit sentence:", "neg": "Represent the Reddit sentence:" }