Split (3)

train · 3.46k rows

id stringlengths 10 10	question stringlengths 18 294	comment stringlengths 28 6.89k	passages list	presuppositions list	corrections list	labels list	raw_presuppositions list	raw_labels list	raw_corrections list
2018-08439	Why are all water droplets roughly the same size?	In a rain storm the winds are capable of supporting a droplet of a given size, beyond which they will fall to the ground. That applies to all the droplets; if they are smaller they keep flying around in the storm and once they get too large they fall down. That means we on the ground don't see the small ones and there is no opportunity for bigger ones to form.	[ "The Bergeron process, if occurring at all, is much more efficient in producing large particles than is the growth of larger droplets at the expense of smaller ones, since the difference in saturation pressure between liquid water and ice is larger than the enhancement of saturation pressure over small droplets (fo...	[ "All water droplets are roughly the same size." ]	[ "Water droplets are not all roughly the same size, we just don't see the smaller ones." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "All water droplets are roughly the same size.", "All water droplets are roughly the same size." ]	[ "false presupposition", "normal" ]	[ "Water droplets are not all roughly the same size, we just don't see the smaller ones.", "In a rain storm, smaller waterdroplets keep flying around due to their size and are not visible near the ground; larger water droplets fall down, and become visible to us." ]
2018-02499	Why are invasive species seemingly so much more successful than the local species that have adapted to thrive in that environment?	We really only hear the success stories. Hikers have dropped plenty of apple seeds in the desert, but it’s too dry for them to grow.	[ "Not all introduced species are invasive, nor all invasive species deliberately introduced. In cases such as the zebra mussel, invasion of US waterways was unintentional. In other cases, such as mongooses in Hawaii, the introduction is deliberate but ineffective (nocturnal rats were not vulnerable to the diurnal mo...	[ "All invasive species are successful." ]	[ "We only hear about the successful invasive species. That makes it seem like it is very common. " ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "All invasive species are successful." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "We only hear about the successful invasive species. That makes it seem like it is very common. " ]
2018-00016	Why when you pour water into a pot with hot oil it reacts like that?	Oil floats on water, so the water gets under the oil, quickly boils, and the escaping steam blasts little droplets of oil all over the place.	[ "The process of heating a pan to cause the oil to oxidize is analogous to the hardening of drying oil used in oil paints, or to varnish a painting. But whereas the curing of oils is the result of autoxidation at room temperature for a painting, for a pan, the thermoxidized oil undergoes a conversion into the hard s...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-04576	What happens to the muscles in your arm when you have elbow tendonitis (tennis elbow)?	The repetitive motion causes the tendon to inflame. This inflammation causes pain. By stopping the motion or supporting the tendon it gives it time to heal. some Anti-inflammatory Medications can help as well.	[ "Tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis is a chronic or an acute inflammation of the tendons that arise from the outer part of the elbow. The affected tendons are the tendons of extensor muscles which originate from the lateral epicondyle of humerus. It is caused by the repetitive movements and overuse. It damages t...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-04583	Why do movies tend to have a big delay between a cinema run ending and the DVD release?	In many cases, studios believe that if the DVD release is very soon after the cinema run, that customers will be more likely to pass on seeing the film in theatres since they know the DVD will be coming soon instead. But if there's a long wait for the DVD to come out, customers will be more willing to pay to see it in theaters because they know it will be a while before they get a chance to own the film.	[ "The 2008 Swedish film Let the Right One In () was released on DVD in the United States with subtitles different from those seen in movie theaters. This led to a number of complaints and the theatrical subtitles were restored to later issues of the DVD.\n\nTimur Bekmambetov's 2004 film \"Night Watch\" was shown in ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-14377	Why do scientists think the Universe is flat, if we can travel in any direction?	The flatness of the universe is often a way to describe the topography of the universe in 4 dimensions. There is no real way for us to visualize an infinitely big 3 dimensional object curving, so instead we describe it as a 2d object and reserve the 3rd dimension to describe the 4d curvature. As for what this curvature, or lack there of, actually means is simple. The universe follows the rules of Euclidean geometry (geometry on a flat plain) almost everywhere. Pick any three points across sufficiently large space and their angles will add up to 180. This seems obvious to us, after all triangles always add up to 180, but that's only true in Euclidean space. If you where to pick 3 points sufficient distance from each other on earth surface, you would find that the angles add up to 270 degrees. This is because a sphere does not follow the rules for Euclidean geometry. There are other oddities that would happen if the universe wasn't flat like parallel lines converging or straight lines intersecting themselves.	[ "Flatness problem\n\nThe flatness problem (also known as the oldness problem) is a cosmological fine-tuning problem within the Big Bang model of the universe. Such problems arise from the observation that some of the initial conditions of the universe appear to be fine-tuned to very 'special' values, and that small...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[ "Scientists think the Universe is actually flat." ]	[ "false presupposition", "normal" ]	[ "Scientists use flatness of the universe to describe the topography of the universe in 4 dimensions. " ]
2018-05081	What's to stop Mod/Game creators from working on and releasing their projects anonymously when a company sends a cease and desist if it was to be released free anyway.	It's hard to maintain your anonymity when a company has already identified you and had their lawyers write to you personally.	[ "The developer declared itself bankrupt in an application to a court in Katowice on June 8, 2015 as a result of legal dispute with Epic Games, the creators of Unreal Engine 3. Epic Games had filed a lawsuit in October 2012 over overdue royalties for using their game engine. A month later, the developers were ordere...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-04022	why does alcohol affect people differently?	Body size is number 1 factor. What you ate before you started drinking affects it as well.	[ "Section::::Genetic moderators.\n\nMost genetic studies in addiction research focus on the genetic determinants of diagnostic phenotypes such as alcohol use disorder. However, because the causes of alcohol use disorder are so numerous and varied, researchers have turned their attention to endophenotypes, or distinc...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-21986	How can chickens "survive" for several minutes with the head cut off.	It's because the farmer removing the head cuts too high, meaning there's still some brain stem and cerebellum left, which allows the chicken to continue living for (usually) a short period of time. A properly decapitated chicken dies almost instantly. If you pictured it on a person, rather than cutting straight horizontally through the neck, they cut up at an angle and only get like 75% of the brain. ---------------------------------------------------- Side note: [There was once a chicken named Mike who lived for 18 months without a head]( URL_0 ) He eventually died because he choked to death on some corn.	[ "Some animals (such as cockroaches) can survive decapitation, and die not because of the loss of the head directly, but rather because of starvation. A number of other animals, including chickens, snakes, and turtles, have also been known to survive for some time after being decapitated, as they have a slower metab...	[ "All chickens \"survive\" for several minutes with the head cut off." ]	[ "A properly decapitated chicken dies almost instantly." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "All chickens \"survive\" for several minutes with the head cut off." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "A properly decapitated chicken dies almost instantly." ]
2018-23691	in a world of account lockout thresholds, do brute force attacks still work?	So you're assuming your account lockout is on the account rather than an IP block. Most brute force systems will block the IP address trying to attack (because locking the account means the genuine user can no longer gain access). A few points: 1) if account lockout is enabled, you could easily perform a "Denial of Service" by just hitting Jane's password wrong five times. Inconvenient to the user. 2) by blocking the IP you stop the attack in its tracks from that source for all accounts on your network. The problem is most brute force attacks are more sophisticated than just one source IP address and will target you from hundreds of IP addresses (sometimes thousands) over a period of time. Your brute force detection usually resets after X failed attempts over Y minutes. If you've got 10 IPs you could just try one password every minute per IP and not get blocked. Adding a character to your password exponentially (a to the power n) increases the complexity and time it'd take to brute force, but the overall difficulty of remembering a 14 char password over a 13 char password isn't that much more. You also have the scenario where you the hacker has gained access to the password hash database and can brute force each individual password. Edit: sorry, didn't realise this is ELI5.	[ "In case of an offline attack where the attacker has access to the encrypted material, one can try key combinations without the risk of discovery or interference. However database and directory administrators can take countermeasures against online attacks, for example by limiting the number of attempts that a pass...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-16133	Why do humans suddenly lose strength when they laugh?	Presumably, it’s because you are using oxygen without taking any in. The body doesn’t like this.	[ "There have been claims that laughter can be a supplement for cardiovascular exercise and might increase muscle tone. However an early study by Paskind J. showed that laughter can lead to a decrease in skeletal muscle tone because the short intense muscle contractions caused by laughter are followed by longer perio...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-01475	What's the difference between 4WD and AWD?	All 4WD vehicles are "temporary" in that the 4WD modes must be engaged and disengaged manually. Moreover, they should not be used all the time, only when necessary. A 4WD vehicle is otherwise identical to a 2WD vehicle save for the addition of an auxiliary gearbox and differential on the secondary drive axle. The auxiliary gearbox, also known as the power transfer case, allows the secondary drive axle to be mechanically coupled and decoupled from the power train. When it is coupled, both drive axles receive the exact same torque and as a result all four wheels rotate at the same angular velocity. When this is not possible (such as when making a tight turn, or going over dry pavement) the slower moving wheel will end up spinning; in worst case scenarios, the powertrain may be damaged. The power transfer case may also contain an additional reducing gear which can be engaged to increase the engine:wheel gear ratio higher than that provided by the first gear. This provides very high torque to the wheels and can only be used at low speeds, such as for climbing out of a ditch or towing a trailer up a slipper slope. AWD on the other hand provides power to all of the wheels, all of the time. The key difference between AWD and 4WD is that AWD vehicles have a mid-differential rather than a power transfer case. The mid differential allows both drive axles to spin at different rates, and is often electronically controlled to shift torque around as needed in order to maintain traction.	[ "Section::::History.:World War II — a leap in AWD proliferation.\n", "Selectable 4WD has both axles rigidly coupled together, which has some advantages in very poor off-road conditions. To gain the same advantage in a permanent AWD system with a differential, the differential can be locked manually with a differe...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-03923	Why firearms' ammo are classified in metric, not imperial?	They can be in both. NATO uses metric so they have a standard set of calibers they use that are all listed in metric. When you see a caliber listed with a decimal at the front (.45, .357, .308) that measurement is the diameter of the bullet in decimal inches. When you see larger numbers (7.62, 5.56, etc.) those are measured in millimeters. In some cases they can be measured in both imperial and metric. For example, .308 and 7.62x51mm is the same round.	[ "Imperial units also retain common use in firearms and ammunition. Imperial measures are still used in the description of cartridge types, even when the cartridge is of relatively recent invention (e.g., .204 Ruger, .17 HMR, where the calibre is expressed in decimal fractions of an inch). However, ammunition that i...	[ "Firearm ammo classified in metric." ]	[ "Firearm ammo is classified in both metric and imperial. " ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Firearm ammo classified in metric." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Firearm ammo is classified in both metric and imperial. " ]
2018-20082	How does washing your hands with plain old liquid or bar soap and water remove more germs than just water alone does?	Soap is made of “amphiphilic” molecules. These molecules are special in that they can bind to both water and oil at the same time, meaning they can also dissolve water/oil at the same time. Some bacteria bind to surfaces using hydrophobic bonds (oil-type), some bind using hydrophilic bonds (water-type), and soap lets you remove both from the surface. Some bacteria create an “oily” surface called biofilm that protects it against water. In addition, these molecules can form liposomes, which are basically a round shell 2 molecules thick. This entraps particles like dirt/bacteria in its core and carries it away. Soap is also slightly alkaline, which will affect the surface proteins in the bacteria, and cause their binding strength to weaken. They will be more easily detached from the surface. Btw, you are right not to use antibacterial soap. It just trains the bacteria to become resistant. Normal washing with regular soap will defeat 99.99% of bacteria.	[ "Skin flora do not readily pass between people: 30 seconds of moderate friction and dry hand contact results in a transfer of only 0.07% of natural hand flora from naked with a greater percentage from gloves.\n\nSection::::Hygiene.:Removal.\n\nThe most effective (60 to 80% reduction) antimicrobial washing is with e...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-12529	When you put a screen protector on your phone or tint on a window, the instructions say that the leftover air bubbles will disappear after a few days. How?	Not sure about screen protectors, but window tint is pouros, somewhat like a sponge, so the air is able to seep through the tint.	[ "In Canada, since the beginning of 1990, there are some companies offering servicing of failed IG units. They provide open ventilation to the atmosphere by drilling hole(s) in the glass and/or spacer. This solution often reverses the visible condensation, but cannot clean the interior surface of the glass and stain...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-04907	Why does it feel hotter when the sun is beating on me, but the temperature on the thermometer remains the same?	So the sun is warming the surface of the Earth, which in turn warms the air near to it. So if you were standing in the shade, you would feel this temperature, as the air in turn warms you. But if you are out in the sunshine, then not only is that process occurring, but the sun is also warming you the same as it warms the surface of the earth. Some of that light is being absorbed by your skin and turned into heat. In truth, lots of things affect your perception of temperature, and it is much more complicated than simply "it is what it is." This is why, for example, if you go outside in the winter, a piece of metal will feel much more cold than a piece of wood, even though both are ambient temperature. What you feel is only partially related to what the temperature actually is.	[ "The thermometer shows a reading at the top of the mercury section on both the maximum and minimum scales; this shows the current temperature and should be the same on both scales. If the two readings are not the same, then the instrument scales are not correctly positioned or the instrument is damaged.\n", "As t...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-03214	Why are Asian languages so much different than European and American languages both in pronunciation and in writing styles? Eg. Chinese, Korean, Thai vs English, Spanish, etc.	Hindi is related to English while Finnish and Basque are not. Korean, Japanese and Chinese are unrelated. Swedish and Norwegian are tonal languages like Chinese and Thai (and Cherokee since you ask about American languages) while English and Japanese are atonal. Your question is based on an incorrect premise. There are no ”European” and ”Asian” language families.	[ "Section::::Influence of Literary Chinese.\n\nFor most of the pre-modern period, Chinese culture dominated East Asia. Scholars in Vietnam, Korea and Japan wrote in Literary Chinese and were thoroughly familiar with the Chinese classics. Their languages absorbed large numbers of Chinese words, known collectively as ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[ "Asian languages should be similar to one another." ]	[ "false presupposition", "normal" ]	[ "Many languages spoken primarily in Asia are unrelated to each other." ]
2018-03860	How does the immune systems adapt to venom?	Consider that some illnesses are the result of bacterial or viral infection, and that these things contain proteins that the immune system recognizes. Similarly, venom is just protein that is foreign to the body and therefore the immune system reacts by forming antibodies. Antibodies are used to bind to the foreign substances (antigens) and direct them to other sites for their altering and removal. The body remembers various foreign substances and learns to create specific antibodies for them. “Anti-venom” is basically antibodies that are made by injecting a resistant animal (commonly rabbits) with venom, and isolating the resulting antibodies that are produced. These antibodies can then be injected into a bite victim at high dosage to combat venom more rapidly.	[ "When exposed to these infected or dysfunctional somatic cells, effector CTL release perforin and granulysin: cytotoxins that form pores in the target cell's plasma membrane, allowing ions and water to flow into the infected cell, and causing it to burst or lyse. CTL release granzyme, a serine protease encapsulated...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-19984	Why are full-time sit down jobs exhausting?	Things can still be mentally exhausting. When you're taking calls all day and dealing with different problems it can be very exhausting. When I used to work customer service and get yelled at and not be able to help people it was very exhausting.	[ "Over the last hundred years, there has been a large shift from manual labor jobs (e.g. farming, manufacturing, building) to office jobs which is due to many contributing factors including globalization, outsourcing of jobs and technological advances (specifically internet and computers). In 1960, there was a decli...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-00685	Why notebook paper has blue text lines and red margin lines	Blue lines are not reproducible. You can not copy them on a xerox machine. Two reasons for this. The first reason is that the sellers do not want you to make lots of copies of lined paper, they want to sell you more paper, but consider the other thing of having your well done handwriting reproduced without the lines showing how much you relied on them.	[ "Coloring enthusiasts use coloring notebooks for stress relief. The pages in coloring notebooks contain different adult coloring pages. Students take notes in notebooks, and studies suggest that the act of writing (as opposed to typing) improves learning.\n\nNotebook pages can be recycled via standard paper recycli...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-02671	Why do some many animals immediately know how to walk after birth, yet it takes human babies months just to learn how to crawl?	Humans have large heads to control our large brains. Unfortunately, human female pelvis's are basically too small to pass fully developed large heads. So basically all humans are born premature (by animal standards) in order to let our mothers fit our massive heads through their pelvis. Then we continue to develop after being born and can't walk for months.	[ "Development at birth varies considerably among animals, and even among mammals. Altricial species are relatively helpless at birth and require considerable parental care and protection. In contrast, precocial animals are born with open eyes, have hair or down, have large brains, and are immediately mobile and some...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-04324	Why cant oxygen have a solid form?	Oxygen does have a solid form. However, the temp to reach it is 54.36 K or -218.79 C or -361.82 F.	[ "BULLET::::- Researchers think that this structure may greatly influence the structural investigation of elements.\n\nBULLET::::- It is the phase that forms above 600 K at pressures greater than 17 GPa.\n\nBULLET::::- At 11 GPa, the intra-cluster bond length of the cluster is 0.234 nm, and the inter-cluster distanc...	[ "Oxygen does not have a solid form", "Oxygen does not have a solid form. " ]	[ "Oxygen does have a solid form at -218.79 C.", "Oxygen does have a solid form. " ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Oxygen does not have a solid form", "Oxygen does not have a solid form. " ]	[ "false presupposition", "false presupposition" ]	[ "Oxygen does have a solid form at -218.79 C.", "Oxygen does have a solid form. " ]
2018-02716	How can the entire world be in debt?	All nations carry debt. But they aren't just borrowing from each other. They borrow from banks and from people. For example, a big chunk of the US national debt is in government bonds to private citizens. They do pay them, or at least they usually pay them, but they carry debt for the same reason people do; they value the things they get for the borrowed money so much they're willing to shoulder the additional interest payments.	[ "Governments create debt by issuing government bonds and bills. Less creditworthy countries sometimes borrow directly from a supranational organization (e.g. the World Bank) or international financial institutions.\n", "Section::::Modern practice.:South Asia.:Rice harvesting.\n", "In 2018, the global government...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-06504	How does thr period work in other animals? Do they get a period? Do they bleed?	Okay, so...complicated yes and yes. Each species is different, and if you go out of the realm of mammalia(even inside it), indeed some "don't" bleed. Many female animals that "bleed" monthly, like dogs(cats, on the other hand, should not be leaving visible discharge, unless it's clear fluids while in heat/season) are actually bleeding in order to let males around them know they are ready and can currently conceive, whereas we as humans bleed and have periods as a byproduct of NOT conceiving in the amount of time the female's internal clock determines! Primates, shrews, bats and elephants are the only other species we have observed having a "period" in the way that we as humans know it to be, i.e. Menstruation (bleeding/actively shedding uterine lining) When a cat or dog experiences a "period"/heat/estrous/season cycle, they are not shedding their lining and are instead signaling through pheromones and hormones that A. they are able to mate/of reproductive age in their species and B. Will probably be much more receptive/willing to have intercourse with males of their species at this time But even dogs and cats are entirely different when it comes to ovulation/egg production in relation to pregnancy and heat/"periods"!	[ "Females of other species of placental mammal undergo estrous cycles, in which the endometrium is completely reabsorbed by the animal (covert menstruation) at the end of its reproductive cycle. Many zoologists regard this as different from a \"true\" menstrual cycle. Female domestic animals used for breeding —for e...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-03260	Why do companies use trans-fats? (to give cookies "desired consistency" and not just saturated fat?)?	When Oreo cookies were buttered the butter would grease the bag. Customers don't like greasy bags. Switching to trans fats gave the same taste color texture but didn't grease the bag and increased shelf life. Customers demand clean bags and long shelf life. They don't demand clean arteries so they don't get it.	[ "In 2007, following reformulation of the recipes for a number of varieties, Girl Scouts of the USA announced that all their cookies had less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, allowing them to meet the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requirements for \"zero trans fat\" labeling.\n\nHigh-fructose corn syrup...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-00253	In an exponential equation, why is there no asymptote, since the graph "levels off" vertically?	It might "seem" that way to you but that's not how exponents work. There is no limit. Draw any arbitrary vertical line anywhere and the function will cross it. If there were an asymptote that would mean that beyond some value, the function would either be undefined or negative. Logically that's absurd.	[ "has a limit of +∞ as , \"ƒ\"(\"x\") has the vertical asymptote , even though \"ƒ\"(0) = 5. The graph of this function does intersect the vertical asymptote once, at (0,5). It is impossible for the graph of a function to intersect a vertical asymptote (or a vertical line in general) in more than one point. Moreover...	[ "In exponential equations there is no asymptote since the graph is leveled off vertically. " ]	[ "There actually are no limits within vertical lines in exponential equations. " ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "In exponential equations there is no asymptote since the graph is leveled off vertically. ", "In exponential equations there is no asymptote since the graph is leveled off vertically. " ]	[ "normal", "false presupposition" ]	[ "There actually are no limits within vertical lines in exponential equations. ", "There actually are no limits within vertical lines in exponential equations. " ]
2018-01409	When and how did we determine time to the exact second, and how did we decide what was midnight?	It wasn't a sudden thing. Time has evolved slowly over millennia, and we simply got better at measuring it. Midday was always the time when the sun was highest in the day. Using a sundial we could track the progress of the sun through the hours of daylight, and it was a simple thing to mark off 12 equal divisions. Since it was the Babylonians who were the first great astronomers and mathematicians, and since they counted in 60s, we simply divided the hour into 60 minutes. At night we didn't really need to know the time to any accuracy, but if necessary we could burn candles or use water clocks. Then came the invention of mechanical clocks that could very accurately measure the time even when it was cloudy or night time: we only had to calibrate them so that midday was at the right time (when the sun was highest in the sky). We could easily measure minutes and even seconds, just by gearing the mechanism so that the second hand moved 60 times slower than the minute hand, and the minute hand 60 times slower than the hour hand. But ships needed very accurate clocks in order to navigate by the stars and could keep time even when the ship was being tossed about by the waves; the invention of something called the balance wheel enabled this. Observatories were built near where ships moored (the most famous is at Greenwich, London): astronomers would observe the stars or the sun with telescopes and, at a very specific time allow a huge ball on a pole to drop so that ships could calibrate their chronometers -- they knew what time the ball dropped and they knew exactly what longitude the observatory was at, and that's the information they needed to set their chronometers. (The idea of dropping a ball -- something clearly visible to ships moored nearby -- is what's behind the famous ceremony at Times Square on New Year's Eve.) Up to this point, each city had its own local time. This didn't matter when travel was slow and people generally didn't worry much about everything being timed to the minute or second. Wherever you were, you set your watch to the local church clock. (In the English city of Bristol is a very old clock with two minute hands, one showing local time and one showing London time. They're about ten minutes apart, but nobody really cared.) But then came the railways, and it suddenly became really inconvenient to have local time: it made it an absolute nightmare to draw up timetables, and an absolute nightmare to read them. And so railway companies adopted a standard time, with employees carrying personal chronometers synchronized to each other. This was made easier by another recent invention, the telegraph, which allowed instant communication over long distances. The Great Western Railway, which linked London to Bristol, was the first to do this in 1840. By 1880, the whole of Britain was on the same time. It was an obvious idea to simply extend this all over the world. Over the next few years, the world was divided into 24 time zones, offset from British time (Greenwich Mean Time).	[ "Before the adoption of four standard time zones for the continental United States, many towns and cities set their clocks to noon when the sun passed their local meridian, pre-corrected for the equation of time on the date of observation, to form local mean solar time. Noon occurred at different times but time dif...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-14246	Why does the stomach expand when the lungs are in the chest?	When you breath, the diaphragm moves up and down as well. The "stomach" expanding is, more than likely, just the diaphragm.	[ "During heavy breathing (hyperpnea), as, for instance, during exercise, inhalation is brought about by a more powerful and greater excursion of the contracting diaphragm than at rest (Fig. 8). In addition the \"accessory muscles of inhalation\" exaggerate the actions of the intercostal muscles (Fig. 8). These acces...	[ "The stomach expands when you breath in.", "The stomach shouldn't expand if the lungs are the one in the chest." ]	[ " It is more than likely the diaphragm expanding.", "The diaphragm moves up and down, therefore it is what truly expands and not the stomach. " ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "The stomach expands when you breath in.", "The stomach shouldn't expand if the lungs are the one in the chest." ]	[ "false presupposition", "false presupposition" ]	[ " It is more than likely the diaphragm expanding.", "The diaphragm moves up and down, therefore it is what truly expands and not the stomach. " ]
2018-00799	Why is it hard to read books, but easy to surf the web for hours?	A constant term that pops around about why the internet is so entertaining is “instant feedback” or “instant gratification”, something among those lines. Essentially, browsing the internet and going on Facebook or Twitter gives immediate feedback and reward to small actions like simply clicking on an article or loading up the me_irl subreddit. The internet contains so many things that are rewarded almost instantly from a few movements of the hands. With reading, it takes time to get invested into what makes it engaging. The setting, characters, and story all take time to dive into. Be it a few pages or a few chapters to introduce these things, our brain naturally craves instant feedback and reward, rather than having to wait patiently through long lines of text to have information fed. It’s merely my take on it as someone with ADHD, though I think I tackled it well.	[ "The advent and acceptance of the ebook has allowed writers to become quite prolific with \"bound collections\" offered as downloads in formats such as pdf, Smashwords, and Mobipocket.\n\nOn-demand merchandising sites like CafePress and Zazzle are also sources of income from sales of T-shirts, mugs, calendars, mous...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-10276	how Japan’s Emperor wasn’t able to centralize and assert his authority til the Meiji Restoration?	The guys with swords (Tokugawa shogunate) were ruling over the guys without swords. There was still an "emperor" during the edo period, but he really couldn't do anything or care because he was treated so well. You should watch [History Of Japan]( URL_0 ). Hilarious and almost 100% accurate.	[ "However, in practice the \"ritsuryō\" system of government had become largely an empty formality as early as in the middle of the Heian period in the 10th and 11th centuries, a development which was completed by the establishment of the Kamakura Shogunate in 1185. The high positions in the \"ritsuryō\" system rema...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-22431	How does "aged" food not go bad?	I'm not sure about cheese, but for beef the bacteria all live on the surface and aren't able to penetrate deeper into the meat. Once the aging process is finished they just shave off the outer layer with the bacteria on it and the rest is still good.	[ "Besides fermentation, microbial food cultures can act on food products to alter their chemical make-up and provide additional flavors. This is especially true in processes such as the making of blue cheese or aged beef.\n\nSection::::Extraction.\n\nIn the case of beverages, such as the aging of wine, beer, or whis...	[ "Aged food does not go bad." ]	[ "In the case of aged beef, the outer layer has bacteria on it, which is shaved off, and the rest is still good." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Aged food does not go bad.", "\"Aged\" food does not go bad." ]	[ "normal", "false presupposition" ]	[ "In the case of aged beef, the outer layer has bacteria on it, which is shaved off, and the rest is still good.", "In the case of aged beef, the outer layer has bacteria on it, which is shaved off, and the rest is still good." ]
2018-03612	why is the C drive named the C drive?	The original IBM PC didn't have a hard drive. It had two floppy disk drives, which were A: and B: .When the hard drive came along, it became C: as the next available letter.	[ "Windows uses a \"drive letter\" abstraction at the user level to distinguish one disk or partition from another. For example, the path C:\\WINDOWS represents a directory WINDOWS on the partition represented by the letter C. Drive C: is most commonly used for the primary hard disk drive partition, on which Windows ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-20011	Why is the task manager so much “better” at closing applications when compared to the task bar? (or the close button)	The task bar sends a polite request to the application to close itself. This works nicely most of the time, and is what you want. For instance it gives the application the possibility of asking if you want to save the current document, or to ask if you really want to quit. The task manager can send an unconditional kill request to the OS itself. The application won't get the chance to do anything about it. This is great if the application is malfunctioning, but not the sort of thing you want if you would like to be asked if you wanted to save those 5 hours of work first. So on the whole it's useful to have that function a bit hidden away somewhere you won't accidentally hit and cause you to lose hours of work.	[ "Task Manager was introduced in its current form with Windows NT 4.0. Prior versions Windows NT, as well as Windows 3.x, includes the Task List application, is capable of listing currently-running processes and killing them, or creating a new process. Windows 9x has a program known as \"Close Program\" which lists ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-19610	The term 'overclocked'. If something can be over clocked, why isn't that just the new maximum speed?	There are always inpurities and small scale defects in silicon wafer chips. Usually these don't cause problems at slow speeds. But as you increase clock speed (the frequency / rate at which bits flow around your chip) the impact of these impurities increases. So what they do is they make each chip then they'll run it through some tests. If it passes at 2.4 GHz, then they try for 3.5 GHz and so on. The speed at which the chip consistently passess is its new base speed. At least this was how it worked back in the days of Pentiums and 486s.... a 66 MHz chip was the same as a 100 MHz chip it just had more flaws and couldn't run as fast. So overclocking is simply driving a slower rated chip... faster. With the caveat that it will use more power, and possibly the fabrication flaws might cause it to randomly stop, glitch or reboot.	[ "Section::::Overview.:Enthusiast culture.\n", "At this point an increase in operating voltage of a part may allow more headroom for further increases in clock speed, but the increased voltage can also significantly increase heat output. At some point there will be a limit imposed by the ability to supply the devi...	[ "overclock is not new max speed." ]	[ "The speed at which the chip consistently passess is the new base speed." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "overclock is not new max speed.", "overclock is not new max speed." ]	[ "false presupposition", "normal" ]	[ "The speed at which the chip consistently passess is the new base speed.", "The speed at which the chip consistently passess is the new base speed." ]
2018-12472	How come my appartment key can open the main door inte the building+my appartment but not another appartment?	You might want to see if you can hold your key up against another tenant's key. A lock will have multiple pins and each one must be pushed upwards, but each one must be pushed up a different distance. So your key will have high points and low points to make the pins in your lock all line up above the "shear line" and then you can turn the lock. It's possible that your main door has fewer pins than your apartment door, so you can have, say, 3 pins that are the same for all doors in your building (with the main door ONLY having 3 pins), and the rest of your keys are customized for the other two (assuming you have 5 pins on your apartment doors) pins.	[ "An example of a diagnostic key is shown below. It is not based on the taxonomic classification of the included species — compare with the botanical classification of oaks.\n", "Applied examples that many people could encounter in their day-to-day lives include elevator call buttons and crosswalk buttons. The ini...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-01377	How do scientists know only 14% organisms have been identified?	URL_0 They used a statistical method to estimate how many species probably should exist on Earth, and compared this to how many we're found so far. We are still finding many new species every year.	[ "BULLET::::- Central Park, 2003. This BioBlitz found more than 800 species, including 393 species of plants, 78 of moths, 14 fungi, 10 spiders, 9 dragonflies, 2 tardigrades, 102 other invertebrates, 7 mammals, 3 turtles, 46 birds and 2 frog species. s.\n\nBULLET::::- Central Park, 2006. In collaboration with the E....	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-04975	Why does dust build up on things and surfaces over time?	Most dust is made up of human skin cells. If humans are living in a building, layers of skin flakes that fall off and float in air currents will accumulate. A closed house unoccupied will actually have less dust deposited.	[ "Wear of metals occurs by plastic displacement of surface and near-surface material and by detachment of particles that form wear debris. The particle size may vary from millimeters to nanometers. This process may occur by contact with other metals, nonmetallic solids, flowing liquids, solid particles or liquid dro...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-00730	How do internet searches work with non-Roman characters?	> How does a search engine interpret these characters and find relevant results? A search engine doesn't care what the string of characters are that it is matching. It could be matching real words or nonsense strings, and as long as it recognizes the kanji as characters then it will work just fine. More complicated would be for the engine to draw connections between the English version of the kanji sequence and return similar results for either one.	[ "Section::::History.\n", "In medieval texts, many special ligatures, scribal abbreviations, and letter forms existed, which are no longer a part of the Latin alphabet. As few of these characters are encoded in Unicode, ligatures have to be broken up into separate letters when digitized. Since few fonts support me...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[ "Internet searches won't work with non-roman characters." ]	[ "false presupposition", "normal" ]	[ "Internet searches just look for the string of text you gave it in all of the data on the web. It doesn't matter what type of characters they are." ]
2018-23872	Why do panic attacks cause dizziness/lightheadedness and nausea?	In case of panic your systems shut down immediately to provide oxygen to the most important organs: heart and brain. It also pumps blood into your legs so you can run away faster in case of threats. This causes those symptoms because everything happens really fast.	[ "The resulting lack of blood flow to the brain is responsible for the faint.\n\nSection::::Diagnosis.\n\nStokes-Adams attacks may be diagnosed from the history, with paleness prior to the attack and flushing after it particularly characteristic. The ECG will show asystole, an AV block, or ventricular fibrillation d...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-06588	Everyone knows that body odor is caused by bacteria that feed on your sweat, etc, but where does the bacteria come from? Like if I were to thoroughly shower, eventually I'll start stinking again. If I was in a sterile environment, would I remain non-stank indefinitely?	First things first, our bodies start with the bacteria from our mothers birth canal in combination (which is a vast collection btw) with the microbes we come into contact with by interacting in our earliest environments (parents skin/air/walls/floors/objects, ect) This is continually changed and refined by new environments but this is our original microbial anchor When we shower we wash away and occasionally kill bacteria, fungi and other microbes that have either built up over the day (in otherwords grown from our already present cultures) or acquired by recent contact by use of detergents and soaps. This does not rid our surfaces of all of these cutures Bacteria on our bodies are layers deep, especially for skin, you would have to do something drastic like removing the whole or a significant portion of your skin to accomplish this Even then we come into microbial defense mechanisms, they have ingenious ways of denfending themselves and their various popultions, biofilm can be built to prevent being scrubbed or washed off or retract cells around them to prevent unwanted contact and there are thousands of biochemical ways to keep other microbes from taking over So basically you have great houses of bacteria (think game of thrones) that dont wish to be overtaken by the smaller houses, its possible, but you need outside newcomers to help ballence the scales of war So get outside. No lie, swimming in wild waters (stream, ponds, lakes) coupled with dirt/foliage contact with your skin will do wonders to introduce the necessary new cultures to defeat the stankin ones, even then know that mircrobes usually work at a slow but relentless pace, this means large microbial changes take weeks or months, not days.	[ "George Preti\n\nDr. George Preti is an analytical organic chemist currently working at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For more than four decades, his research has focused on the nature, origin and functional significance of human odors. Dr. Preti's laboratory has identified charac...	[ "Showering gets rid of all bactieria on your body." ]	[ "Bacteria on our bodies are layers deep and showering does not get rid of all of the bacteria." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Showering gets rid of all bactieria on your body.", "Showering gets rid of all bactieria on your body." ]	[ "normal", "false presupposition" ]	[ "Bacteria on our bodies are layers deep and showering does not get rid of all of the bacteria.", "Bacteria on our bodies are layers deep and showering does not get rid of all of the bacteria." ]
2018-20794	How did WW2 save the American economy?	It helped accelerate the recovery, but wasn’t solely responsible. Basically it created a large amount of jobs and demands for goods much quicker than a peaceful recovery would have.	[ "As a result of the new prosperity, consumer expenditures rose by nearly 50%, from $61.7 billion at the start of the war to $98.5 billion by 1944. Individual savings accounts climbed almost sevenfold during the course of the war. The share of total income held by the top 5% of wage earners fell from 22% to 17% whil...	[ "WW2 saved the American economy.", "WW2 saved the economy." ]	[ "WW2 helped accelerate the economy's recovery but wasn't solely responsible.", "WW2 just helped contribute to a faster recovery by increasing jobs and demand." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "WW2 saved the American economy.", "WW2 saved the economy." ]	[ "false presupposition", "false presupposition" ]	[ "WW2 helped accelerate the economy's recovery but wasn't solely responsible.", "WW2 just helped contribute to a faster recovery by increasing jobs and demand." ]
2018-09167	Specific Gravity, and how do we get the volume of a thing by dividing its mass to its SG?	Specific gravity is a measure of density (mass per unit volume). IF you divide mass by (mass/volume) you get volume. You need to also convert units if you're not in a metric country.	[ "Specific gravity can be measured in a number of value ways. The following illustration involving the use of the pycnometer is instructive. A pycnometer is simply a bottle which can be precisely filled to a specific, but not necessarily accurately known volume, \"V\". Placed upon a balance of some sort it will exer...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-04215	Why are crowds/stadiums of people so loud and not just as loud as the loudest person?	Because the loudness adds up. Sound is a pressure wave traveling through the air. If there are several, they add up. This is also what makes it hard to understand what one person in a loud crowd is saying. Very many sound sources with many different frequencies add up to noise that our brains can’t pick apart anymore.	[ "Two of the chief architectural concerns for the design of venues for mass audiences are speed of egress and safety. The speed at which the venue empty is important both for amenity and safety, because large crowds take a long time to disperse from a badly designed venue, which creates a safety risk. The Hillsborou...	[ "Crowds of people should only be so loud as the loudest person in the crowd." ]	[ "Loudness adds up, which makes the group louder than the loudest person in the group." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Crowds of people should only be so loud as the loudest person in the crowd.", "Crowds of people should only be so loud as the loudest person in the crowd." ]	[ "normal", "false presupposition" ]	[ "Loudness adds up, which makes the group louder than the loudest person in the group.", "Loudness adds up, which makes the group louder than the loudest person in the group." ]
2018-12972	Why does alcohol affect you quickly when ingested but marijuana affects you slowly when ingested?	Alcohol is one of the few substances that can be absorbed by the stomach lining. It doesn't even need to enter you digestive tract to get absorbed. Marijuana edibles are absorbed via fat. Which is one of the hardest/longest things that our body digests.	[ "Although hashish is sometimes eaten raw or mixed with boiling water, THC and other cannabinoids are more efficiently absorbed into the bloodstream when combined with butter and other lipids or, less so, dissolved in ethanol. Chocolates, brownies, space cakes, and majoon are popular methods of ingestion. The time t...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-24140	why people tend to smoke when nervous to calm down when nicotine's cns stimulant, unlikely from alcohol, benzos and all them downers?	It works in much the same way that a weighted blanket helps anxiety and how amphetamines or analogs work for ADD/ADHD. The stimulation counteracts the other. Overloading the circuit causes it to reset so to speak.	[ "In many respects, nicotine acts on the nervous system in a similar way to caffeine. Some writings have stated that smoking can also increase mental concentration; one study documents a significantly better performance on the normed Advanced Raven Progressive Matrices test after smoking.\n", "Smokers often report...	[ "Nicotine use calms a nervous person down." ]	[ "Nicotine stimulation counteracts stimulation from nervousness." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Nicotine use calms a nervous person down.", "Nicotine use should stimulate, not calm down, a person." ]	[ "false presupposition", "normal" ]	[ "Nicotine stimulation counteracts stimulation from nervousness.", "Nicotine stimulation counteracts stimulation from nervousness." ]
2018-02081	Why is hybrid and CNG technology more common in buses over consumer cars?	Any technology is easier to deploy in a fleet setting. If you need an unusual fuel, like CNG, then you can benefit from the fact that all the buses go to the same bus yard at the end of the shift. One fuel station there solves the problem, much better than cars that go to people's houses every night. Hybrid engines might require specialized maintenance or tools, and the fleet customer simply sends their mechanic employees to learn the processes and buys the tools. That's a bigger problem with retail customers, when they can't get service done at any local service center.	[ "When compared with the diesel engines normally used to power buses, the Bio bus produces 20-30% less carbon dioxide, 80% fewer nitrogen oxides and is low in particulates. One tank of the gas will power the bus for ; however this means that the bus has to make a significant journey to refuel, making it less economi...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-08495	why does scratching an allergic reaction to a bug bite make it grow?	So when you get bitten by a bug, it injects a small amount of venom under your skin. When you scratch it, you take the “bubble” of venom and push it out from the center, causing it to spread and grow.	[ "Section::::Biocontrol agent.:Enzymes.\n\nMany enzymes produced by \"P. lilacinum\" have been studied. A basic serine protease with biological activity against \"Meloidogyne hapla\" eggs has been identified. One strain of \"P. lilacinum\" has been shown to produce proteases and a chitinase, enzymes that could weake...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-02302	Exactly how useful is a constantly scrolling stock ticker, like one would see on the side of a building or on the bottom of a TV news network, to a modern investor?	its mostly anachronistic at this point. even calling it a ticker is from when it came across the wire and was typed out with a telegraph. ticker tape parades were just bunches of this paper being thrown out the windows onto parade goers. i think people mostly use them now as an historical nod to the market rather than any useful purpose. kind of like having a big clock in a train station- everyone has a clock in their pocket, but it is still there.	[ "Simulated ticker displays, named after the original machines, still exist as part of the display of television news channels and on some websites — see news ticker. One of the most famous outdoor displays is the simulated ticker scrolling marquee located at One Times Square in New York City.\n", "A ticker may al...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-01204	Why is a sample size of 1,000 enough for a 3% margin of error in a group of any size?	It depends on the assumption that your sample is a good random sample of the whole population. As long as you believe that assumption, the result sounds less surprising. If you flipped a coin 1000 times and got 500 heads, how confident would you be that it's fair? Would you be happy that there's at least a 95% chance that the coin gives heads between 47% and 53% of the time? That's what the margin of error is saying. We picked 1000 people at random and found that x% believed a thing, so we're 95% confident that between (x-3)% and (x+3)% believe that thing.	[ "A 3% margin of error means that if the same procedure is used a large number of times, 95% of the time the true population average will be within the sample estimate plus or minus 3%. The margin of error can be reduced by using a larger sample, however if a pollster wishes to reduce the margin of error to 1% they ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-10197	How did couriers find their recipients in old times?	Typically couriers were given information such as the name of the recipient and the town in which they resided. If the courier arrived in the town and asked where the person lived the locals could provide that information. People who were important enough to have couriers delivering them documents would be known.	[ "In ancient history, messages were hand-delivered using a variety of methods, including runners, homing pigeons and riders on horseback. Before the introduction of mechanized courier services, foot messengers physically ran miles to their destinations. Xenophon attributed the first use of couriers to the Persian pr...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-17025	Why do fruits like apples or bananas get "bruised" when bumped or dropped?	Its usually an example of the skin of the fruit being lightly damaged, which allows the organic chemical compounds in the fruit to react to outer factors. The bruising is an act of these compounds oxidizing, which takes on a brownish color.	[ "Butternut squash and Acorn squash have been known to cause an allergic reaction in many individuals, especially in food preparation where the squash skin is cut and exposed to the epidermis. Food handlers and kitchen workers often take precautions to wear rubber or latex gloves when peeling butternut and acorn squ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-01011	How does a laser maintain its brightness wether it be pointed 2 feet away or 30?	This is a key characteristic of lasers: all the light comes out of them in a straight line, with quite limited spreading-out. (It's actually not a much bigger dot, compared to a flashlight which emits a cone of light.) Thus the dot doesn't get fainter.	[ "Section::::History.\n\nSection::::History.:Foundations.\n", "Section::::Techniques.:CCD camera technique.:Optimal beam size on the CCD detector.\n", "Section::::Colors and wavelengths.:Yellow.\n\nNew 589 nm yellow laser pointers have been introduced using a more robust and of harmonic generation from a DPSS la...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-02232	Why nutrition labels say “Sugars 0g” yet there’s sugar in the ingredients list	"The Nutrition Facts Panel on the side of every packaged item is a key partner in helping you determine whether the product you’re buying is truly sugar-free. For packaged food and drinks traditionally bought at a grocery store, the rules governing sugar-free are clearly defined. According to the FDA, “Sugar-Free” means less than 0.5 grams of sugar per serving on the Nutrition Facts Panel, and “contains no ingredient that is a sugar or generally understood to contain sugars.” You can also check the ingredient list and see if any sugars, sweeteners, sugar alcohols or zero calorie sweeteners are listed. The statements “No Added Sugars” and “Without Added Sugars” are only allowed if no sugar or sugar-containing ingredient is added during processing." URL_0	[ "Sugar is added to ingredients lists under dozens of different names, which, where ingredients lists are in order from largest to smallest quantity, can let sugars appear spuriously lower on the ingredients list.\n\nSection::::Labelling.:2016 US nutritional labelling changes.\n\nIn 2016, the FDA enacted new require...	[ "Seeing Sugars 0g should eliminate the possibility of sugar in the ingredient list." ]	[ "Labeling laws are complex and allow for some room for sugar in sugar free labelled items. .5g of sugar can be in sugar free items by law. " ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Seeing Sugars 0g should eliminate the possibility of sugar in the ingredient list." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Labeling laws are complex and allow for some room for sugar in sugar free labelled items. .5g of sugar can be in sugar free items by law. " ]
2018-12492	What's the difference between being a vegan and a vegetarian?	Vegetarians don’t eat meat- vegans don’t eat meat OR any other animal byproduct (dairy, honey, eggs, etc. essentially if you need an animal to make the food, they don’t eat it)	[ "The main difference between a vegan and vegetarian diet is that vegans exclude dairy products and eggs. Ethical vegans avoid them on the premise that their production causes animal suffering and premature death. In egg production, most male chicks are culled because they do not lay eggs. To obtain milk from dairy ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-12778	Why are hospital grade pain killers (morphine, etc) more effective than over the counter painkillers such as ibuprofen? And how does the structure and molecular interactions influence this trend?	There's some evidence that over-the-counter meds might be more effective than opioids and other Rx painkillers for some kinds of pain. [Opiods no better than Tylenol for chronic pain]( URL_1 ) [ Over-the-counter drugs as effective as opioids at reducing acute pain ]( URL_0 ) (note these are two different studies) Personally, this news is no surprise to me. I deal with occasional pain that is severe when it hits. I have found that a combo of ibuprofen and acetaminophen does better for me than any one of the multiple Rx painkillers I've been prescribed.	[ "Commonly-used long-acting opioids and their parent compound:\n\nBULLET::::- OxyContin (oxycodone)\n\nBULLET::::- Hydromorph Contin (hydromorphone)\n\nBULLET::::- MS Contin (morphine)\n\nBULLET::::- M-Eslon (morphine)\n\nBULLET::::- Exalgo (hydromorphone)\n\nBULLET::::- Opana ER (oxymorphone)\n\nBULLET::::- Durages...	[ "Hospital grade pain killers (morphine, etc) are always more effective than over the counter painkillers such as ibuprofen.", "Hospital grade pain killers (morphine, etc) are more effective than over the counter painkillers such as ibuprofen." ]	[ "There is evidence that for some types of pain, over-the-counter painkillers might be more effective than opioids.", "Over-the-counter meds might be more effective than opioids and other Rx painkillers for some kinds of pain." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Hospital grade pain killers (morphine, etc) are always more effective than over the counter painkillers such as ibuprofen.", "Hospital grade pain killers (morphine, etc) are more effective than over the counter painkillers such as ibuprofen." ]	[ "false presupposition", "false presupposition" ]	[ "There is evidence that for some types of pain, over-the-counter painkillers might be more effective than opioids.", "Over-the-counter meds might be more effective than opioids and other Rx painkillers for some kinds of pain." ]
2018-22816	When people used to rely more heavily on well systems, how did they keep that water from being stagnant and unhealthy to drink?	Stagnant results from when it has decaying organic matter in it, or some other pollutant. As long as a well is kept covered, there isn't much that can get in there. If they really thought it had a problem they could just remove all the water in the well, and more new, fresh, cleaner water would refill it.	[ "A largely intact example of a 'Victorian' era water pump survives next to the Dusk water within the clachan. This pump was powered via a small waterwheel and a sluice and weir arrangement once directed water to it. drinking water did nor usually come from water courses due to the risk of pollution by stock, etc an...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-17323	Why hasn't the voice quality of phone calls improved?	It's a legacy thing. IIRC, Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) have 3 KHertz of bandwidth allocated. That's because back in the day, Bell Labs determined that was enough to provide an adequate voice telephone call. According to Wikipedia, POTS is "restricted to a narrow frequency range of 300–3,300 Hz, called the voiceband, which is much less than the human hearing range of 20–20,000 Hz". So still, a voice call being routed through the system gets that much bandwidth. It really wouldn't help if one provider increased it, since it would get cut down at any place in the system that still used the old 3 KHz (including in the phone's firmware itself). If everyone agreed to increase POTS bandwith to something like 8KHz or 10KHz, voice calls would have significantly better audio quality. But good luck getting that to happen.	[ "In general, executives loved the voice mail systems, however time revealed some downsides:\n\nBULLET::::- While executive productivity may have improved, many secretarial and administrative jobs were eliminated;\n\nBULLET::::- Paper notices about calls were eliminated, but VM did not necessarily improve call-backs...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-19473	how has the NASA Parker Solar Probe achieved the velocity of 150,000+ MPH?	The earth is traveling 67,000 MPH as it goes around the sun. Slow down a bit so you fall out of orbit and now you start falling toward the sun. You have 93 million miles to fall. You are going to pick up a little speed.	[ "The trajectory requires high launch energy, so the probe was launched on a Delta IV Heavy class launch vehicle and an upper stage based on the STAR 48BV solid rocket motor. Interplanetary gravity assists will provide further deceleration relative to its heliocentric orbit, which will result in a heliocentric speed...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-03703	When pouring honey from a spoon, why does increasing the height of the spoon cause a thin fast stream, but holding the spoon lower - closer to the object surface, cause a wide but slow stream?	Every bit of honey flowing from the jar is speeding up as it travels down. That's simply gravity at work. Since the amount of honey flowing from the jar is the same at the top as at the bottom, when it flows faster the stream becomeas thinner. Otherwise there would be more honey per second at the bottom of the stream than at the top.	[ "Section::::Dilatant fluids.\n\nDilatant, or \"shear-thickening\" fluids increase in apparent viscosity at higher shear rates. They are rarely encountered, but one common example is an uncooked paste of cornstarch and water, sometimes known as oobleck. Under high shear rates the water is squeezed out from between t...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-04881	Why does an old computer screen flicker when I'm not looking at it directly?	While the center of your visual field is most suited for seeing detail and color, the periphery of your visual field is tuned for seeing motion. There is something called the flicker fusion threshold which is basically the period at which a flashing light appears as a solid light rather than a flashing one. It turns out that the flicker fusion threshold is not constant across your visual field. At the center of your visual field, a flashing light must flash at roughly 60 hz in order to appear as a solid light. However, at the edges of your vision, it has to be as high as 90-120 hz before a flashing light will appear as a solid light. Since many display types refresh at 60 hz, this means they look fine when looking directly at them, but can appear to flicker when seen out of the corner of your eye.	[ "Much more of a concern is the LCD backlight. Earlier screens used fluorescent lamps which flickered at 100 or 120 Hz; most modern screens use an electronic ballast that flickers at 25–60 kHz which is far outside the human perceptible range. LED backlights should not flicker at all, though some designs may \"dim\" ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[ "Computer screen flickers when not looking directly at it." ]	[ "false presupposition", "normal" ]	[ "It is actually an artifiact of how your eyes work that causes the screen to appear to be flickering. " ]
2018-00003	If media attributes a source anonymously, how does anyone know if that source is true and not just fabricated by whoever wrote/reported it?	Credibility. Does the publication/journalist have a track record of reporting accurate information? This also comes down to the ethics of the journalist as well. Do they have a good track record of their sources reporting factual stories? If it's fabricated, and it can be proved to be malicious fabrication, that's libel. If it's not malicious (they believed the wrong source), it's just bad journalism, and that person should lose their credibility.	[ "But prominent reports based on anonymous sources have sometimes been proved to be incorrect. For instance, much of the O. J. Simpson reporting from unnamed sources was later deemed inaccurate. \"Newsweek\" retracted a story about a Qur'an being flushed down a toilet that led to riots in the Middle East; the Qur'an...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-04846	How is the amount of stars in a galaxy approximated?	Same as anything else. You take a count of a sample area (say 100 cubic light years) and extrapolate an average across the entire galactic area, making adjustments for density changes (more stars near the center and fewer near the edges). If you have a gradient you can transpose the average onto that gradient (so for example, if you know there are 10 times more stars in the center than the edge you can use that as your gradient curve)	[ "Where N(M) is number of planetary nebula, having absolute magnitude M. M* is equal to the nebula with the brightest magnitude.\n\nSection::::Extragalactic distance scale.:Surface brightness fluctuation method.\n\nThe following method deals with the overall inherent properties of galaxies. These methods, though wit...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-03879	As an American with a tenuous grasp of the rules of cricket, what would sandpapering a ball do, and why did those Australian players get into so much trouble?	Deadspin has a [write up on this]( URL_0 ) that's very ELI5. Choice excerpts: > The condition of a cricket ball hugely affects how it travels through the air as it is bowled to a batsman, and that condition changes dramatically over the course of a game. Unlike in baseball, the same ball is used for a large portion of a cricket team’s innings—the ball is replaced after 80 overs, or 480 deliveries. (That’s why a lucky fan catching a ball in the crowd will always throw it back onto the field.) The ball takes a battering over that time, being smacked with the batsmen’s wooden bats, being slammed into the rock-hard pitch with each delivery, and thudding into the wicket-keeper’s leather gloves. This wear and tear quickly renders an old ball unrecognizable from a new one. > The condition of the ball translates into action in a few practical ways. When the ball is new, a delivery that hits the pitch with the seam upright (pointing directly from bowler to batsman) will gain significant extra bounce, much to the bowler’s advantage. As the ball ages, the seam gets worn down and this benefit is lost. And, most relevantly for us, the comparison of the roughness of the three components of the ball’s surface—the two hemispheres and the seam—can cause the ball to arc sideways through the air, a movement known as swing. > The nuts and bolts of it is that as the ball travels toward the batsman, a “boundary layer” of air forms on the ball’s surface. If the ball is travelling at a critical speed, and there is a critical difference in roughness between adjacent sections of the ball’s surface, the boundary layer will transition from a steady state to a turbulent state, causing a pressure imbalance which pushes the ball toward the direction of the turbulence. > Far more elusive is reverse swing, which can be generated when the ball is older, because of the difference in roughness between the two hemispheres of the ball. As the name suggests, reverse swing sends the ball the opposite way to conventional swing. While a new ball will almost always generate significant swing at the start of an innings, reverse swing is difficult to dependably produce, in part because both halves of the ball can be expected to get knocked about at the same rate, and so achieving a large enough difference in roughness of the sides is challenging. > The fielding team in a cricket match therefore seek to do everything they can in order to help create a difference in roughness between the two halves of the ball. As the first few overs of an innings progresses and the ball is knocked around a few times, the team will identify one side of the ball to be preserved in good condition as the shiny side, and one side to be left to deteriorate as the rough side. Players are allowed to polish the ball on their clothing in order to keep the shiny side shiny. This is done by oiling the shiny side with some saliva or sweat, and rubbing it furiously on one trouser leg, causing the quintessential red stain down the white cricket pants. Undoubtedly one of the best aspects of junior cricket was emulating your heroes by making an unnecessarily large red track down one leg in order to show how hard you’d been working on the ball. > The laws of cricket permit polishing the ball in order to preserve the shiny side, but prohibit the use of artificial substances to do so. Accelerating the deterioration of the rough side is not allowed. That’s the rule that Bancroft violated—it was an open and shut case based on video evidence even prior to his and Smith’s admission.	[ "In 2005 Ponting began using cricket bats with a graphite covering over the wooden blade of the bat, as did other players contracted to Kookaburra Sport. This was ruled by the MCC to have contravened Law 6.1, which states that bats have to be made of wood, although they may be \"covered with material for protection...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-02030	Why do gas stations make you go inside if there's less than $100-$200 on your debit card?	I've never had that happen, and my debit card has had less than that before. However, I'd assume it's something to do with putting holds on your account. I got gas once at a gas station and they placed a $50 hold on my account (I only got $20 worth of gas), the difference was refunded a few days later	[ "Some filling stations are totally unattended and only allow customers to purchase fuel by paying at the pump.\n\nSection::::Fraud.\n\nThose who use the pay at the pump feature could be putting themselves at risk for fraud, as thieves attach skimmers to the pumps that can steal the information off the cards used to...	[ "Gas stations make you go inside when you have less than 200 dollars.", "Gas stations require you to pay inside if you have less than 200$ on your account." ]	[ "This doesn't happen to everyone.", "From personal experience, it has never happened before, meaning there are gas stations that don't require you to go inside if there is less than 200$ on your debit card." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Gas stations make you go inside when you have less than 200 dollars.", "Gas stations require you to pay inside if you have less than 200$ on your account." ]	[ "false presupposition", "false presupposition" ]	[ "This doesn't happen to everyone.", "From personal experience, it has never happened before, meaning there are gas stations that don't require you to go inside if there is less than 200$ on your debit card." ]
2018-19010	How do those plants that mimic how insects look know what insects look like?	They don't know at all. The plant that had a genetic marking or coloration that gave it some unique benefit for reproduction was more successful than other genetic variations. Over time and multiple generations the successful genetic design was refined. If looking like an insect gave the plant some reproduction advantage then those plants that look more like the insect were able to attract more insects and allow there pollen to be transferred to more plants, spreading their genetic code.	[ "George Klir, reviewing the book in the \"International Journal of General Systems\", writes that \"This book, full of beautiful pictures of plants of great variety, is a testimony of the genius of Aristid Lindenmayer, who invented in 1968 systems that are now named by him -- \"Lindenmayer systems\" or \"L-systems\...	[ "Plants must know how insects look to be able to mimic them.", "Plants that mimic how insect look, know and understand what an insect looks like." ]	[ "Plants do not know what insects look like - successful mimicry designs were refined related to the success of the plant's reproduction results.", "The plants don't know, but the most successful variation of plant is the one that reproduced the most, which is why there are more plants that look identical to insec...	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Plants must know how insects look to be able to mimic them.", "Plants that mimic how insect look, know and understand what an insect looks like." ]	[ "false presupposition", "false presupposition" ]	[ "Plants do not know what insects look like - successful mimicry designs were refined related to the success of the plant's reproduction results.", "The plants don't know, but the most successful variation of plant is the one that reproduced the most, which is why there are more plants that look identical to insec...
2018-04871	How did the tradition of circumcision in various religions/cultures start?	Regular amputation of the healthy male foreskin has originated totally independently in many different cultures, in many different time periods, and in many different geographical locations. This tells us that something is triggering such a practice. That trigger is not "infections" in hot areas of the globe or such like, as in many hot areas of Africa for instance, male circumcision is not practiced, and yet the men have perfectly healthy foreskins and penises. This is myth. Same goes for "sand" getting in the foreskin and other nonsense — plenty of men live in desert areas, and it's the foreskin that protects the penis. We also know that female circumcision (knows as FGM in the west) never develops on it's own. Male circumcision is always practiced everywhere female circumcision is found. And yet you will often find, throughout the world and through different time periods, male circumcision without female circumcision being practiced. So the "trigger" for female circumcision is male circumcision. The trigger for male circumcision is actually a rare, but not unknown medical condition called "Phimosis". This is is a condition in which the foreskin of the penis cannot be pulled back past the glans: URL_1 This can cause all sorts of issues as you can imagine; one of them being the inability to get your partner pregnant. An example of this is Louis XVI of France: URL_0 So across the globe and throughout time, various men would be born with phimosis. Perhaps the son of a tribal chieftain? The son of a king? The son of a great warrior? And such sons could not get produce an heir. So their foreskin would have been removed to enable proper sexual intercouse to take place. And what would the tribe think of this? Such magic almost? What would the courtiers to the king think? Well, strangely, another French king supplies the answer — Louis XIV. Louis XIV had a very bad problem called an "anal fistula". You can read the story of it hear, and how a great surgeon fixed the problem: URL_2 But it's what happened afterwards that helps us understand the origins of male circumcision: "The operation was a success. The king was sitting up in bed within a month and was back on his horse within three months. The royal court was delirious with joy. Fistulas were fashionable and something to be celebrated. The more devoted courtiers developed fake fistulas and took to wearing swathes of bandages around their buttocks, known as le royale, in homage to the king’s bandaged rear end. The more fanatical royal devotees demanded the same operation from the barber-surgeon." There are many, many other examples of this behaviour. Foot-binding of girls in China is one. Legend has it that the origins of foot binding go back as far as the Shang dynasty, which ruled between 1700 and 1027 B.C. A Shang empress had a clubfoot, so she demanded foot binding be made compulsory in the royal court. And all the courtiers complied enthusiastically to keep in favour with the empress. URL_3 By the same token, male circumcision would have been taken-up by those around the king or chief who's son had needed the circumcision for phimosis. And after just a few generations, the origins of the practice would have been forgotten, but continued none the less. And here we are, in 2018, still mutilating the genitals of infant boys for no reason.	[ "Circumcision was also adopted by some Semitic peoples living in or around Egypt. Herodotus reported that circumcision is only practiced by the Egyptians, Colchians, Ethiopians, Phoenicians, the 'Syrians of Palestine', and \"the Syrians who dwell about the rivers Thermodon and Parthenius, as well as their neighbour...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-04993	Why is card counting illegal in most casinos?	It's not that its illegal at all.... Its that once the casino identifies you as a counter of cards, they reserve the right to refuse service to you.... Or in other words once they realize they have lost the advantage over you, they ask you to leave. Some are more polite about it than others.	[ "Atlantic City casinos in the US state of New Jersey are forbidden from barring card counters as a result of a New Jersey Supreme Court decision. In 1979 Ken Uston, a Blackjack Hall of Fame inductee, filed a lawsuit against an Atlantic City casino, claiming that casinos did not have the right to ban skilled players...	[ "Counting cards is illegal." ]	[ "Counting cards is legal, however the casino still retains the right as a business to refuse service to anyone for any reason. " ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Counting cards is illegal." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Counting cards is legal, however the casino still retains the right as a business to refuse service to anyone for any reason. " ]
2018-01861	How do hands-free water fountains work? (Give you water without needing touched)	They usually have a small radar sensor that measures if there is something within a feet or so of the sensor. If they measure something, they assume it's a hand or a face and turn the faucet on.	[ "One of the most unusual modern American fountains is the Civil Rights Memorial (1989) at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, designed by Maya Lin, the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. The \"Civil Rights Memorial\" fountain features a low elliptical black granite tabl...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-00468	Why were ancient cultures fascinated with animals?	You mean the life-giving creatures that roam amongst us but that we don't understand fully? The ones we literally need to survive but are so alien to us that we strive to understand and control them? The ones with often special physical traits that we admire/are dangerous to us? Large living creatures that are crucial to our survival (or their survival) are interesting topics.	[ "BULLET::::- 850 BC. Homer (Greek), reputedly a blind poet, wrote the epics Iliad and Odyssey. Both contain animals as monsters and metaphors (gross soldiers turned into pigs by the witch Circe), but also some correct observations on bees and fly maggots. Both epics make reference to mules. The ancient Greeks consi...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-01738	Why is there no longer a satellite delay on television interviews?	Fiber optics have permitted these to be conducted via terrestrial lines instead of by satellite.	[ "Dish Network's Hopper digital video recorder, announced in January 2012, led to controversy over a feature, called \"AutoHop\", which allows viewers to watch some programming without commercials, subject to time restrictions.\n", "Early portable video systems recorded at a lower quality than broadcast studio cam...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-15851	why do propane tanks get really cold when they’ve been used for a long time?	When gases expand, they cool down. So when you pull gas from the propane, the gas is expanding to occupy more space, meaning it cools down. To understand this, think about what temperature means. It’s proportional to the average speed of particles. So when a clump of gas expands, the particles that move away first are going to be the faster moving ones, allowing them to move away. So what’s left behind are slow moving particles that didn’t have enough relative speed to move out of the clump (this is how evaporating sweat cools your skin - the only molecules of water that can evaporate are the fast moving ones, leaving slow moving ones behind). This is simplified, but it’s pretty near the truth! I hope this helps!	[ "LNG storage pressures are typically around 50-150 psi, or 3 to 10 bar. At atmospheric pressure, LNG is at a temperature of -260 °F (-162 °C), however, in a vehicle tank under pressure the temperature is slightly higher (see saturated fluid). Storage temperatures may vary due to varying composition and storage pres...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-00243	Nutritional values on food packaging can strongly contradict itself (E.g. sainsbury's 500g fresh egg pasta claims 142kcal/100g, and ALSO claims 341kcal/quarter pack. Do regulatory bodies not prevent this? Which figure should you trust?	Both! You should trust both because they are both completely accurate A quarter package is 125 grams of uncooked pasta and has 341 kcal. 100 grams of cooked pasta has just 142 kcal because it has taken on a lot of water weight. Beside the 100 g nutrition facts it says "(cooked as per instructions)" indicating that this is a final weight of the cooked pasta not the weight of the uncooked pasta [Reference for those who come later]( URL_0 )	[ "Certification according to a GFSI recognized scheme can be achieved through a successful third party audit against any of the following schemes recognized by the GFSI:\n\nBULLET::::- BRC Global Standard for Food Safety (Seventh Edition)\n\nBULLET::::- BRC-IOP Global Standard for Packaging and Packaging Materials I...	[ "One source of information is not accurate and should not be trusted.", "You should only trust one figure on the nutritional labels of food." ]	[ "Both sources of information are accurate because they refer to different stages of the cooking process. ", "You should trust both labels of the nutritional values of food." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "One source of information is not accurate and should not be trusted.", "You should only trust one figure on the nutritional labels of food." ]	[ "false presupposition", "false presupposition" ]	[ "Both sources of information are accurate because they refer to different stages of the cooking process. ", "You should trust both labels of the nutritional values of food." ]
2018-11342	How come after you stair at the sun with your eyes closed for a while, everything looks blue when you open them?	When you stare at the sun with your eyes closed you are looking at light which filters through your eyelids. Your eyelids are full of capillaries which contain blood cells, which in turn contain the chemical compound hemoglobin, the red pigment in blood. This means your eyes are flooded with light tinted red. Our eyes are very adaptive and will seek to recognize the colors of objects even in lighting of uneven color. For example during sunset when the sky might be tinted orange it is still important to be able to distinguish colors accurately, so the brain will automatically adjust our perception of color to compensate. Since you were looking at mostly red light your brain shifts color perception toward blue, so when you open your eyes everything seems more blue than normal until it can adjust.	[ "The eye's lens is normally tinted yellow. This reduces the intensity of blue light reaching the retina. When the lens is removed because of cataract, it is usually replaced by an artificial intraocular lens; these artificial lenses are clear, allowing more intense blue light than usual to fall on the retina, leadi...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-22587	Why does banging the lid on an impossible to open jar with a butter knife make opening said lid so much easier?	Jar goods are usually sealed under incredibly high temperatures to kill bacteria. A side effect is this creates a small vacuum of air in the jar. And is why most jars that have a tin button on it's cap will have a label that says if the button is not pressed in; do not consume. This vacuum of air is essentially a tiny bubble of air that pulls on the lid tight from the inside and helps prevent bacteria from getting in while it sits on the shelf. When you strike the lid of the jar with blunt force; like a butter knife, it can cause that bubble of air to pop and release the pressure from pulling the lid in tight; making it easier to open. Bonus fun tip. Did you know the methods used in preserving jars can also be used to remove splinters from your hand? Simply get a sturdy container; like a glass bottle, and fill it with hot water, then cover the entire opening of the bottle with the part of your hand that has the splinter in it. This will cause a vacuum effect to happen where your skin starts to get pulled by the pressure... meanwhile the steam will go up and into the part of your hand that has the splinter in it and pull it out. Yay science!	[ "Jars rely on the principle of stretching a pipe to build elastic potential energy such that when the jar trips it relies on the masses of the drill pipe and collars to gain velocity and subsequently strike the anvil section of jar. This impact results in a force, or blow, which is converted into energy.\n\nSection...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-05061	why "black lights" look purple?	Because they are not "black" at all, they are ultraviolet, and the closest visible color is violet so they give off some of that too.	[ "Unlike spectral colors, which may be implemented, for example, by the nearly monochromatic light of a laser, with precision much finer than human chromaticity resolution, colors on the line are more difficult to depict. The sensitivity of each type of human cone cell to \"both\" spectral red and spectral violet, b...	[ "Black lights should be black.", "Black lights can look purple. " ]	[ "Black lights are just a name, they are ultraviolet which is close in color to violet. ", "Black lights that look purple are not black at all." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Black lights should be black.", "Black lights can look purple. " ]	[ "false presupposition", "false presupposition" ]	[ "Black lights are just a name, they are ultraviolet which is close in color to violet. ", "Black lights that look purple are not black at all." ]
2018-04185	How does expelling Diplomats from your country punish the other country more than yours?	It's really more about the diplomats being, or enabling, spies. If they're not inside your country, it's a lot harder for them to do that. Also, the purpose of the embassy isn't as much about relations between the government of the UK and Russia, it's more about the businesses of the UK and Russia. That means shutting it down or reducing it hurts Russia's economy a bit.	[ "So-called \"tit for tat\" exchanges have occurred (whereby ambassadors of countries involved in a dispute each expel the ambassador of the other country), notably during the Cold War. A notable occurrence outside of the Cold War was an exchange between the United States and Ecuador in 2011: the Ecuadorian governme...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-00237	How did English become one of the most commonly used languages for international business when it can be quite difficult to learn?	The British Empire being the most widespread empire in world history followed by the US economic hegemony being the largest in the world. We are looking at English Speaking countries being the one of the most if not the most powerful nations for the better part of 4 centuries.	[ "Extensive technological advances in the 21st century have enabled instant global communication, breaking the barriers of space and time, thereby changing the nature of globalization. With the world turned into an interconnected global system, there is a need for a mutual language. English has fulfilled this need b...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-00377	Do today's video games keep you playing like casinos do, throwing you wins once in a while to keep you playing longer?	There have been news recently of a patent filed by Activision for a system designed to goad players into buying more microtransaction items by doing things like matching them up against better players with premium items that the manipulated player doesn't have, to make them believe that they would be more successful in the game if they went ahead and bought the premium item. Directly after the purchase of the item, the game would make sure to match the players against worse opponents to make them feel good about their purchase. Activision claimed they haven't implemented the feature into any of their games…yet. Edit: For a somewhat more positive example from the same company, Hearthstone has a system where the chance of getting a Legendary card inside of a pack slowly increases the more packs you buy, to the point where you are absolutely guaranteed to get at least one Legendary every 40 packs you open.	[ "The nature of the game is described at length by George Owen of Henllys (1552–1613), an eccentric historian of Pembrokeshire:\n", "In his 1938 book, \"Homo Ludens\", Dutch cultural historian Johan Huizinga argued that games were a primary condition of the generation of human cultures. Huizinga saw the playing of...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-04317	How does expelling Russian diplomats from the UK punish Russia? What do the diplomats do?	Expelling diplomats over a conflict is like sending your partner to sleep on the couch. It doesn't solve the argument but makes it clear that the conflict is to be taken seriously since communication is cut off.	[ "In March 2018, as a result of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, relations between the countries deteriorated still further, both countries expelling 23 diplomats each and taking other punitive measures against one another. Within days of the incident, the UK government's assessment that it wa...	[ "Expelling Russian diplomats from UK can't really be considered a punishment. " ]	[ "It removes the other party's ability to communicate with the other, therefore making it a punishment. " ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Expelling Russian diplomats from UK can't really be considered a punishment. ", "Expelling Russian diplomats from UK can't really be considered a punishment. " ]	[ "normal", "false presupposition" ]	[ "It removes the other party's ability to communicate with the other, therefore making it a punishment. ", "It removes the other party's ability to communicate with the other, therefore making it a punishment. " ]
2018-01455	How do fruit trees have same fruiting season when they are planted at diff times?	Plants.. and many animals too, are ruled mostly by the sun. It's the number of daylight hours that triggers flowering and fruiting. The warming weather has a role to play as well. The trees of the same species bloom at the same time to attract certain insects for the purpose of pollination.	[ "BULLET::::- Same crop, different maturity dates: Several varieties are selected, with different maturity dates: early, main season, late. Planted at the same time, the varieties mature one after the other over the season.\n", "Abiu may have several flowering periods a year, with potential for both flowers and fr...	[ "Trees planted at different times will have different fruiting seasons." ]	[ "Daylight hours and weather determine when a tree's fruiting season will be." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Trees planted at different times will have different fruiting seasons." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Daylight hours and weather determine when a tree's fruiting season will be." ]
2018-15694	How come there are like 4000+ species of cockroaches, but as far as I know there's only one type of human?	Homo sapiens drove every other to extinction, since those were adversaries fighting for the same resources. Plus intelligence is good enough of a trait in every environment, so there is no point in specialization, hence you can see humans everywhere on the globe. Other animals have different species surviving in different environments, like brown bears and polar bears.	[ "Further to this recognition of nestmates, \"Polistes biglumis\" foundresses discriminate between 'alien' eggs and their own via differential oophagy.\n\nThe mechanism of differentiation is not elucidated, but is thought to be based upon differences in cuticular hydrocarbon odor. \n\nSection::::Species.\n\nBULLET::...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-01817	how are mountains measured?	The need to know one is 'on' the absolutely highest point isn't there, because mountains aren't measured by scaling them. Instead, a technique called triangulation is used, in which one measures the angle from the ground to the peak of the mountain at two different points (it's clear where the peak is if you stand far enough away), finds the distance between those points, and then uses mathematics to 'construct' (an imaginary) giant triangle looking at the peak and calculate how high it is.	[ "If an elevation or prominence is calculated as a range of values, the arithmetic mean is shown.\n\nSection::::See also.\n\nBULLET::::- List of mountain peaks of North America\n\nBULLET::::- List of mountain peaks of Greenland\n\nBULLET::::- List of mountain peaks of Canada\n\nBULLET::::- List of mountain peaks of ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-03128	Why does, when getting hit in the balls, the pain get worse over time and leave you with a stomach ache?	When you were a fetus, your testicles originally formed inside your abdomen, near the intestines, kidneys and stomach. Even after your balls have dropped, for the rest of your life, all of the major blood vessels and nerves in your testicles are have connections routed through your intestines, kidneys, and stomach. So when you get hit in the nuts, the pain signals trying to reach your brain have to make their way through your guts before making their way to the brain. By the time the signal reaches your brain, it feels like the pain is radiating up into your stomach because those nerves were activated while routing the signal. URL_0	[ "Following sporting activity the person with athletic pubalgia will be stiff and sore. The day after a match, getting out of bed or a car will be difficult. Any exertion that increases intra-abdominal pressure, such as coughing, sneezing, or sporting activity can cause pain. In the early stages, the person may be a...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-02127	How can an area see very little rainfall but also see quite a bit of snowfall.	Snow is made from precipitation mixed with cold temperatures. Rain turns to snow when it gets cold enough and needs lower temperatures to be rain. So the cold temperatures in your location are probably turning any rainfall into snow.	[ "Antecedent moisture conditions are highly affected by preceding rainfall levels. However, preceding rainfall is not the only condition that affects antecedent moisture, and many other variables in the hydrologic process can have a significant impact. For example, air temperature, wind speed, and humidity levels af...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[ "heavy snowfall should lead to a lot of rainfall." ]	[ "false presupposition", "normal" ]	[ "The climate likely causes all the would be rain into snow. " ]
2018-00844	Why is non-ionizing radiation harmless?	The same evidence we have that light can't go through a brick wall and set fire to your sofa. Scientists have done experiments in laboratory conditions, multi-year (even multi-decade) studies, etc. If you want to get more in-depth into this, and have specific studies cited, please try /r/AskScience.	[ "As noted above, the lower part of the spectrum of ultraviolet, called soft UV, from 3 eV to about 10 eV, is non-ionizing. However, the effects of non-ionizing ultraviolet on chemistry and the damage to biological systems exposed to it (including oxidation, mutation, and cancer) are such that even this part of ultr...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-00296	Why Are The Tallest Trees In California?	The tropics tend to get hit with big storms and even hurricanes every so often, where as California doesn't (at least the area where big tress are found).	[ "BULLET::::- Euclid tree: The 16th largest tree in the world. It was identified as being a large tree in 1989 by Wendell Flint. This tree is quite tall at for a Giant Sequoia, as the tops of most of the biggest trees have been damaged, and their heights reduced by lightning strikes.\n\nBULLET::::- Adam tree: The 20...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-04592	Why do many movie trailers shown before a film say “Coming Soon” instead of the release date? Wouldn’t it be better for the audience to know exactly when to expect the film?	It's because the release date isn't yet determined. A movie can be in the production process before a release date is decided upon, and even if a date is given it might change, so they just wait until they know for sure when it'll be coming out before telling people that date.	[ "Writing the Initial Plan for PID implies adequate reconsideration of proposed date and detail phases accordingly. Often business stakeholders ask project to be delivered to impossible dates, which requires the highlight of that fact. In that case most of stakeholders are flexible and about to reconsider the launch...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-00085	What actually happens when we recall music or sound?	Music Educator here! People learn to speak by repetition, right? This is the same way you learn lyrics and melodies to your favorite songs or even songs you don't know well. I don't know about you, but if I hear a song I like, j loop it until I'm sick of it completely. So what happens is your brain makes sequencing connections with what you know comes next in a song. Sometimes it takes a while for your brain to keep up with the mass amount of information a song can contain considering things like melodies, countermelodies, harmonies, and lyrics. Eventually it just ingrains itself in your memory because your mind is used to hearing it. Recall is triggered by outside stimuli even if you can't pinpoint the exact thing that queued a song to stick in your brain. Someone speaking to you may talk in a certain octave that is similar to a song and your mind will take that as the queue to collect all the data you've stored relative to that specific sound. After that, it's just your mind's voice reiterating the sequence of sound it knows comes next! I hope that helped. If I didn't explain well enough, let me know!	[ "Section::::Models.:Baddeley and Hitch's model of working memory.\n", "Section::::Testing.:In infants.\n", "Section::::Development.\n", "Section::::Semantic vs. episodic.\n", "BULLET::::- In the concept album \"Communications\", the character Nancy Elsner perceives voices as colors, and her song \"Housewife...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-03983	How are military systems like fighter planes protected from backdooring or other neutralization against their original country of origin?	These days a backdoor would almost certainly be implemented in software and at least some buyers are able to negotiate access to source code as part of the purchase agreement. I believe that the F35 falls in this category because the other countries are considered to be co-developers rather than just buyers and in some cases have unique capabilities built just for them. I suspect that this applies to a fairly small number of contracts but when it does it gives the buyer an extra layer of protection.	[ "BULLET::::- Finnish Aircraft Register\n\nBULLET::::- French Aircraft Register\n\nBULLET::::- Guatemalan Aircraft Register\n\nBULLET::::- Indian Aircraft Register\n\nBULLET::::- International Registry of Mobile Assets, pursuant to the Cape Town Treaty\n\nBULLET::::- Irish Aircraft Register\n\nBULLET::::- Isle of Ma...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[ "Military systems do not allow backdoors into the code." ]	[ "false presupposition", "normal" ]	[ "Some buyers of military systems are able to negotiate access to source code." ]
2018-11727	How do laser printers print different colours?	There are in principle 4 printers with one color each in a row. So you print cyan, magenta, yellow and black and the result is a color image. Each stage work like a black and whiter printer but the toner is another color.	[ "Color laser printers use colored toner (dry ink), typically cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK). While monochrome printers only use one laser scanner assembly, color printers often have two or more.\n", "2-part Color laser transfers are part of a two-step process whereby the Color laser printers use colored ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-01866	Why is it you can think of a word and use it properly in a sentence even though you can’t recall what the word means?	Because you've heard or seen it used in that type of context, so you are essentially imitating without understanding. In vocabulary tests, constructing a sentence using a word correctly is taken as a sign that the comprehension of the meaning is there.	[ "BULLET::::- Phonological agraphia is the opposite of lexical agraphia in that the ability to sound out words is impaired, but the orthographical memory of words may be intact. It is associated with a lexicality effect by a difference in the ability to spell words versus nonwords; individuals with this form of agra...	[ "If you can't recall the meaning of a word, you should not be able to use it in a sentence." ]	[ "If you have heard the word the word used in context you are able to imitate the word without knowing the meaning of the word." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "If you can't recall the meaning of a word, you should not be able to use it in a sentence.", "If you can't recall the meaning of a word, you should not be able to use it in a sentence." ]	[ "normal", "false presupposition" ]	[ "If you have heard the word the word used in context you are able to imitate the word without knowing the meaning of the word.", "If you have heard the word the word used in context you are able to imitate the word without knowing the meaning of the word." ]
2018-03202	why can liquid form that little brim above its container and not spill out?	It's really hard to answer this question with a long answer. The answer is surface tension. Water and other fluids stick to themselves. Until the mass of the water cresting over the lip of the container is heavy enough to break surface tension, the surface tension will hold it.	[ "Again in 2011, Richert and Binder (at the University of Hawaii) examined the siphon and concluded that molecular cohesion is not required for the operation of a siphon but relies upon gravity and a pressure differential, writing: \"As the fluid initially primed on the long leg of the siphon rushes down due to grav...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-01633	If you try and speak in really strong wind, are your words literally being "blown away" or can people just not hear you due to the wind noise?	As most of the answers here don't explain what actually happens I thought I'd give it a go. The reason this happens is due to the refraction of the sound waves. They refract as the wind speed increases with altitude, so even in strong winds, the wind speed at your feet is practically 0. This effect in a headwind causes the sound to refract upward and be lost faster and a tailwind the sound refracts downwards. If you google sound refraction in wind there are some good images which show the effect clearly.	[ "The most common and effective method of woodwind growling is to hum, sing, or even scream into the mouthpiece of the instrument. This method introduces interference within the instrument itself, breaking up the normal quality of sound waves produced. Furthermore, the vibration of the vocal note in the mouth and li...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-04344	How do authors like Danielle Steele, Nora Roberts publish so many novels while other great authors have only written a few?	Because they don’t publish great works, but rather housewife porn novels. Good guy, bad guy, damsel in distress, good wins, steamy written sex. Repeat for each novel with a different setting.	[ "BULLET::::- \"One Bachelor to Go\" (Silhouette Romance) - February 2004\n\nBULLET::::- \"The Bowen Bride\" (Silhouette Romance) - November 2004\n\nSection::::List of works.:Young adult novels - Niki Burnham.\n\nSection::::List of works.:Young adult novels - Niki Burnham.:The Valerie Winslow series.\n\nBULLET::::- ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-15336	Why does airplane approach upon landing at Nice, France airport differ so much?	There are several runways in which the plane can land, this depends on the flight direction and which runways are clear. In terms of different altitudes and other variables in terms of landing, that depends largely on the conditions at the time, e.g. wind speed. Or at least that’s my basic knowledge	[ "BULLET::::- LFMN (NCE) – Nice Côte d'Azur Airport – Nice\n\nBULLET::::- LFMO (XOG) – Orange Caritat Airport – Orange\n\nBULLET::::- LFMP (PGF) – Perpignan Rivesaltes Airport – Perpignan\n\nBULLET::::- LFMQ (CTT) – Le Castellet Airport – Le Castellet\n\nBULLET::::- LFMR (BAE) – Barcelonnette – Saint-Pons Airport – ...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-04839	Why does a 20000mAh external battery charge a 3500mAh phone 5 times over, but is unable to charge a 4640mAh laptop once?	You've likely got a problem of charge rates If you have a 10 watt charger attempting to charge a 9 watt-hour battery in a device that consumes 1 watt then it'll be charged in an hour If you have a 10 watt charger attempting to charge a 9 watt hour battery in a device that consumes 9 watts then it'll be charged in 9 hours If you have a 10 watt charger attempting to charge a 9 watt hour battery in a device that consumes 11 watts then it will never charge and will simply slow the rate the battery discharges Your laptop consumes significantly more at idle than your phone does. Chances are that the battery pack cannot output power faster than your laptop uses it. & nbsp; You also need to convert your mAh into watt hours which is actual energy. Your 20000 mAh battery pack runs at 3.7V and is 74 Wh, your 4640 mAh laptop battery runs at 11.7V(according to google) and is 54 Wh, which makes your laptop battery about 73% the capacity in watt-hours as your battery pack so if the laptop uses power at even half the rate your battery pack charges it at it will never charge it fully.	[ "The basic components of laptops function identically to their desktop counterparts. Traditionally they were miniaturized and adapted to mobile use, although desktop systems increasingly use the same smaller, lower-power parts which were originally developed for mobile use. The design restrictions on power, size, a...	[ "If a 20,000mah battery pack is able to charge a 3500mah phone five times, it should be able to charge a 4640mah laptop once." ]	[ "The laptop is likely using energy faster than the battery pack can charge, therefore it is not the capacity of the battery pack, but more so how fast the battery pack can charge. " ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "If a 20,000mah battery pack is able to charge a 3500mah phone five times, it should be able to charge a 4640mah laptop once.", "If a 20,000mah battery pack is able to charge a 3500mah phone five times, it should be able to charge a 4640mah laptop once." ]	[ "normal", "false presupposition" ]	[ "The laptop is likely using energy faster than the battery pack can charge, therefore it is not the capacity of the battery pack, but more so how fast the battery pack can charge. ", "The laptop is likely using energy faster than the battery pack can charge, therefore it is not the capacity of the battery pack, b...
2018-00707	Blowing on boiling pasta water effects?	You induce a low pressure system over the water. It makes it evaporate faster. It also causes the bubbles to expand and then pop. Doesn’t do much to the pasta but does make the water boil away slightly faster.	[ "For the process prior to cake discharge, air blowing is used for cakes that have permeability of 10 to 10 m.\n\nSection::::Pre-treatment.\n", "Section::::Description.\n", "A young woman hanging clothes on a line happily points out the arrival of \"manine\" or fluffy poplar seeds floating on the wind. The old m...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]
2018-03631	How can people sense when someone is looking at them ?	Various studies have explored the reliability with which humans can visually detect gazes from other individuals. Brain imaging has shown that the brain cells which are activated when a test subject can see that they are being stared at are distinct from the cells activated when the starer's eyes are averted away from the subject by just a few degrees. It is theorized that the ability to precisely detect the target of a starer's gaze has conferred an evolutionary advantage by improving threat detection capabilities, as well as facilitating nonverbal communication. Compared to the eyes of other animals, the uniquely visible and well-defined sclera and iris of human eyes provides further evidence of its evolutionary importance for the species, and are thought to have developed as humans became more reliant upon complex communication for survival and reproductive success.[14] A study conducted by the University of Sydney's Vision Centre concluded that when test subjects are presented with limited cues to determine whether or not they are being stared at, they tend to assume that they are, despite having too little information to make that determination. Test subjects asked to determine if an individual wearing dark sunglasses is looking at them, for example, would assume they are indeed being stared at, even though the starer's eyes were obscured and the actual position of their eyes was not known to the subject. Humans, they reason, are "hard-wired" to err on the side of caution since the consequences of not recognizing such a potential threat or important social cue would be more detrimental than a false positive error.[15] Studies in social psychology have shown that gaze detection can be leveraged to enforce cooperation in social dilemma situations. For example, false images of eye cues have shown to elicit prosocial behavior, primarily because when people are under the (false) impression of being watched, they have a strong desire to maintain a good public reputation.[16][17] These mental processes occur subconsciously and utilize information from peripheral vision; this may contribute to the sensation that a "sixth sense" alerted the person being gazed upon.[14]	[ "Section::::Body motion.\n\nResearch on body motion in social vision focuses on what information perceivers are able to extract when seeing an individual move. This research is primarily conducted by showing subjects point-light displays of human movement. The underlying premise of body motion research is that a la...	[]	[]	[ "normal" ]	[]	[ "normal", "normal" ]	[]
2018-20506	How do animals brains mesh together their vision if their field of view doesn't overlap?	Animals with zero central overlap like some fish and lizards have to bob their heads side to side as they move to maintain some forward vision. They have very poor depth perception, it's more like two monitors side by side than a single composite image like a human's visual field. Their brain doesn't mesh the images together, there's no benefit. Your brain does because the two nearly identical images can be compared to produce excellent depth of field. This gives you and all the predators with forward facing eyes a great gauge of distance and speed, but poor field of view. If you're the hunter you want the depth. If you're the hunted, you want the FOV.	[ "BULLET::::- fire uniformly all over different areas in space as long as monkey is looking at the same area\n\nBULLET::::- ability to maintain their spatial properties for periods of up to several minutes in the dark\n\nBULLET::::- responses depend on where the monkey is looking, by measuring eye position\n\nBULLET...	[ "Brains from animals without central vision overlap mesh together images. ", "Animals whose field of view doesn't overlap mesh together their vision." ]	[ "Brains from animals without central overlap do not mesh together images. ", "Animals with zero central overlap do not mesh images together, they bob their heads side to side." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "Brains from animals without central vision overlap mesh together images. ", "Animals whose field of view doesn't overlap mesh together their vision." ]	[ "false presupposition", "false presupposition" ]	[ "Brains from animals without central overlap do not mesh together images. ", "Animals with zero central overlap do not mesh images together, they bob their heads side to side." ]
2018-16943	Why are so many of the best paying jobs non wealth creating? Bankers, consultants, accountants, they just seem to shift wealth from place to place.	I think there are really two questions here. First, is what these people do valuable? I once saw something saying that the only thing worse than having to use a lawyer is needing a lawyer and not having one. Having to go to court is bad enough. Having to go to court without the help of a lawyer? :s So many of these professions may seem pointless until you need them. Until you're running a complex company and need to work out your accounts, make sure you're paying the right amount of tax, check if you're actually making money or not. Until you want to expand your business and need to borrow some money, or have made some money and want to invest it somewhere it'll earn some interest but be safe. To pick the example of investment (investment banks, pension funds, venture capital, etc.). The role of these business is (or at least should be) to make sure money gets to where it can best be used for the economy. This means, for example, making judgements about which businesses will succeed and which will fail, who will pay back their loan, and who will default. This is a really important thing to do. Again, the only thing worse than having to deal with a banker is needing a loan and not being able to get one... Second, why do they get paid so much? This is more controversial. Part of it is because this stuff can be complex and difficult. Accountancy rules, tax codes, laws, regulations are many and complicated, so it takes a lot of education and experience to be really good at dealing with them. It's easier to become a carpenter than an accountant. Then there's investment - to be a good investor you have to be able to predict the future. That's not an easy thing to do. That said - and other people will probably disagree with me here - there's also a degree to which our economies, society and political systems have become dominated by these industries. Money and power are concentrated in a small number of hands, or a small part of the system. Governments are intertwined with big banks, big accountancy firms, they think the same way, share the same people. The financial sector literally crashed the world economy ten years ago, yet bankers haven't exactly taken a pay cut. How all this works is more complex to explain and I'm not sure I can give a good explanation of it, at least without spending more time thinking about it.	[ "The Great Recession of the late 2000s caused investors to address concerns within their portfolios. For this reason wealth managers have been advised that clients have a greater need to understand, access, and communicate with advisers about their situation.\n\nSection::::Family Wealth Management.\n\nJames E. Hugh...	[ "The best paying jobs do not create wealth." ]	[ "There are multiple factors that determine one's wealth and one's profession of choice alone can't be the main determining factor of one's net worth." ]	[ "false presupposition" ]	[ "The best paying jobs do not create wealth.", "The best paying jobs do not create wealth." ]	[ "false presupposition", "normal" ]	[ "There are multiple factors that determine one's wealth and one's profession of choice alone can't be the main determining factor of one's net worth.", "There are multiple factors that determine one's wealth and one's profession of choice alone can't be the main determining factor of one's net worth." ]

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