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AskReddit/d5ovfec | 4udjti | Is Isis financed by big countries' governments? | From what I've heard and read, there is ample evidence that a number of very wealthy individuals in the Middle East, some with connections to their respective countries' governments, have invested their personal fortunes to support Al Qaeda and DAESH. But there has, so far, been no direct links pointing to any of the governments themselves, as a matter of state policy, giving financial or other materiel aid to them. | 2 |
AskReddit/d5wt4bf | 4vaejc | What predictions do you have for the world for 10 years from now (the year 2026)? | Within the next 10 years: The US will suffer another stock market crash like 2008. Fully autonomous cars (sleep on the way to work) will NOT be available. Most cars will still use gasoline. The arctic will be completely melted, never to freeze again in the lifetimes of anyone alive today. The antarctic will be nearly melted. Practical commercial products with graphene will still be 20 years away. Fusion power will still be 20 years away. We will NOT have gone to Mars. The ISS will be decommissioned. Japan will go to the Moon, discover that there are no Pokemon there and then return, never to go again. We'll all finally realize that saturated fat is good for us and all carbs are bad. | 35 |
AskReddit/d6v2up3 | 4zed5u | What TV show would make the best drinking game, and what would the rules be? | A long long time ago, within the first couple months of college my buddy and I came up with a terrible idea for a drinking game while watching a hockey game. I was the Leafs, he was the Islanders. Had to take 2 shots when your team lets in a goal and 1 shot if you take a penalty. Leafs were down 5-2 in the 2nd period and several penalties. I ended up passing out on the toilet that night. Good times. | 2 |
AskReddit/ejvtznu | b84u90 | What are the worst news you've received that you first laughed at due to it being first of april? | I got inspired to make this post upon learning that our cell cultures had died from an infection today, and I just laughed because I thought it was a funny prank. Please shower me with pity. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/ca0ztag | 1ek2dv | Do insects ever catch diseases? | Insects do get infections. They can even have parasites living on or in them, like mites. How do insects eat things covered in bacteria? Well, everything in the world is covered with bacteria, including us and the stuff we eat. It's just the 'bad' bacteria that are a problem. An insect only has to live long enough to reproduce, and bacteria and parasites cannot survive themselves if they kill the host too quickly. | 9 |
AskReddit/edw0jxw | af6o0v | What skills are the most important to be succesful and have a great life all around? | For me personally. Social skills. It's very important for people to frequently interact with a regular group. That sense of community is very good for your mental and physical health. Also, it will teach who a whole host of things that will help you in all walks of life. Smile, be friendly, don't hold onto resentment. Your negative opinions about people are usually wrong. Most people are genuinely good or at least trying their best. Dont be afraid to express yourself both with personal fashion or with general excitement. Spend time on your hobbies and share them. Get used to moving your body in front of other people. Make sure that feels natural. Hands on experience is the most important thing. Put yourself in a position to be around other people and with practice it will begin to feel natural. Before you know it you'll be more confident, happier, livlier, funnier, and more interesting to be around. Put in that effort. It works. | 2 |
AskReddit/exm8rn9 | cto69r | What are some food things to do to kill about 6 hours? | Make some cookies it’s usually not that hard from scratch but if your not into that stuff just get the pre made ones . They have instructions if you need them Usually you can find them at any “big” store they cost around 7$ if your on a budget . The baking/making process usually take around 3 to 4 hours that should do it . | 4 |
AskReddit/c5maiol | xh5ap | How do students get into so much student loan debt? | I think a lot of students are misled or in denial about the sort of jobs they'll be able to get with their degrees. When I started out I was an English major and I had advisors and people telling me ALL THE TIME that I'd be able to make $80k a year right out of school, easy. It's a lot easier to rack up loans like that when you think you could potentially pay them off in a couple of years and still live well. That's no excuse for not doing proper research but it's what happens. | 6 |
explainlikeimfive/ecss4av | aakhqv | What's the use of salt and pepper to season everything ? | Everyone has talked about salt already. Let's talk about pepper. Black Pepper has a sharp, pungent aroma and flavor. It works well together with salty flavours. It works in a clever way. It makes you salivate more so the molecules of food attached to your taste receptors get 'washed away'. Then those molecules will re-attach the taste receptors again. These 'waves' of taste are sent to the brain. Experiments have shown that black pepper added to food is tastier than food without it. So overall the combination of salt and pepper works together to improve taste even more. That's why it's such a winning combination. | 32 |
AskReddit/ddd2dbl | 5s7zji | What acclaimed and award winning movie do you never want to see? | I enjoy most critically acclaimed movies but I can't bring myself to watch The Artist. I'm not quite pretentious enough to watch a modern day silent movie | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/cgh19ln | 21vze8 | How come an electron microscope has greater magnification than optical microscopes, if photons are smaller than electrons? | Photons don't have a size, and electron microscopes don't have to do with the size of electrons, but their wavelength rather. Photons can have any wavelength, and X-rays for example have wavelengths of about 10^-10 m, which is what you can get with an electron microscope. The problem is that smaller wavelength photons have higher energies and will interact with matter, possibly destroying your sample. Visible light on the other hand, generally won't damage things. Actually, for the record X-ray microscopes do exist. The X-rays cause atoms to be ionized and this provides information about the type of atoms in the sample. But this is a completely different mechanism than standard microscopy. | 3 |
AskReddit/e2zn39m | 91o9lc | What's the funniest/most awkward first date experience you've ever had? | First date with my current girlfriend involved me, her and my ex who decided it would be fun to tag along. Thankfully met other friends at the restaurant and dropped my ex off with them. But the walk till the restaurant was awkward af | 3 |
AskReddit/cwne1it | 3rec83 | Where is the most beautiful place on Earth that you have seen in person? | While in Greece, we took a seven mile hike from one end of Santorini (Oia) to the middle town (Fira). You hike over this peak and you can see the whole island, with the towns overlooking the coasts and cliffs, to the farmland in between and. it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in person in my 30+ years on this rock. | 4 |
AskReddit/ejiqp5d | b68h4g | How would your life be different if you were born 20 years before you actually were? | Would most likely be dead. I was born with a severe heart defect called hypo-plastic left heart. which means I was born missing my left ventricle. 20 years earlier would mean that modern medicine wouldn’t have been advanced enough to save me. | 6 |
AskReddit/ea1onfh | 9yj070 | What made you break off your relationship with someone you truly loved? | I was gay and I didn’t realize until we were engaged to be married how serious it was, and I didn’t want to ruin his life. He was a beautiful human and very special. He deserved a woman that could love him fully. I still love him and that was the hardest break up of my life. If I was straight he would have been the person created for me. Taught me so much about what a healthy relationship looks like. I hope he has found a woman that loves him deeply how he deserves to be loved and he doesn’t settle for less. | 2 |
askscience/c287huo | j0ktm | In evolution, why do certain traits develop that seem helpful but not essential to survival? | There is a tendency to search for "Just So" stories when it comes to evolution. Thick eyebrows may have evolved "for a reason" as you mention, but it is more likely to occur because of random drift of traits. Someone got a "hairy eyebrow" random mutation in a gene, and it had no selective advantage or disadvantage in itself - but the person who got the trait had innumerable offspring for other reasons, so now the trait is fixed in the population. | 2 |
AskReddit/e9n7p3q | 9wrke0 | In your opinion, what is a "bad manager"? | Somebody who brings their personal problems to work. Everybody's problems affect their performance to some extent but for a manager it's worse, because it affects the performance of everybody under them. There are different types of bad managers too | 2 |
AskReddit/czjx7ig | 43oqv7 | What are your favourite short films under 10 minutes? | So this film is longer than 10 minutes, but I strongly suggest it! It is a short film called "World of Tomorrow" it is on Netflix if you want to watch it, and it is like 16 minutes long. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/d4suz6q | 4qgwiq | Why are Russians cosmonauts and not astronauts? | They just picked a name that sounded cool. Cosmonaut literally means "space traveller," which is more accurate than astronaut, which means "star traveller." Recall that the first man in space was a cosmonaut, not an astronaut. (Also first woman, for that matter.) | 7 |
AskReddit/eihvagg | b0xtne | What's the most creepy/weird person you've met? | Lived with a guy at uni because we needed an extra person to get the house. Found him in Facebook, seemed normal. Later find out he collects dead flies in a jar. Among other weird things. | 2 |
AskReddit/eh7tp21 | auf8m4 | If you were a camp counselor, what age would you like your campers to be and why? | 5-8 because I have been a Girl Scout camp counselor and that is the most fun and goofy age. Just start making up songs about farts and burps and you will always have their undivided attention for the rest of the week. With 9-12 and there’s a 90% chance you’ll hear at some point “you’re so stupid and dumb. Why are we even sleeping in the woods?” The older girls who were teens were not really that fun either and obviously clique-y. Though the older girls were all about the adventures so that was fun. You wouldn’t get woken up because of homesickness either. I’d take the little kids any day of the week though. Just so much ridiculous rolled up into like 50 of them monkies. | 3 |
AskReddit/edhuasg | adktfh | How do you change in what language you think? | You unconsciously will think in the language that you are more comfortable with. For me, it would be English, even though I was born in Japan and spoke Japanese for nearly 8 years of my life. If you would like to change it, I'd assume you'd need to become more comfortable in the other language. | 2 |
askscience/e0v4432 | 8rwn3u | If Thorium is so abundant and cheap, why is it so hard to get a sample of? | Thorium is abundant and cheap to mine compared to other similar elements, but it is still extremely rare compared to common metals like iron and aluminum. The main problem is that if there's no industrial use, there's no proper market and no economy of scale. A mine isn't going to be profitable if the only demand for their product is from people who think it's neat. | 509 |
AskReddit/ejuak8z | b7ukz1 | What's the weirdest thing you've experienced while waiting at a bus stop? | I'm probably the weirdest thing people experience at bus stops. I sing out loud old songs, songs from The Office, songs from The Late show with Stephen Colbert, and songs from The Greatest Showman. | 2 |
AskReddit/db629i8 | 5i7nq8 | Why did you elope? | We got engaged in October. I started planning the wedding. I couldn't focus on anything except the prices. He was a college student who only worked part time. I was unemployed and living off of savings while my living situation got settled. We couldn't afford a wedding. I kept wanting to just cancel the whole thing and have a courthouse wedding with only family and friends. BUT my mom kept talking about different wedding ideas and how important a reception is. I felt like I'd be disappointing my mom if I did what I wanted. The combo of no money and not actually doing this for myself made me the most stressed I've ever been. So I said "screw it" and convinced my fiance to elope. | 3 |
AskReddit/c5t5pi0 | y80gp | What game stories do you love but hate playing? | Brutal Legend. I was really hyped about the game for years. I love heavy metal, Double Fine, Tim Schaffer, and pretty much everything about the game, but the end product was obviously rushed due to EA wanting it out immediatly, and it was pretty decent, but then, I read what could have been and went into a long gaming depression. | 2 |
AskReddit/cf8g4x6 | 1x66ss | How did people get up on time before alarms were invented? | The concept of time on a clock is sort of a new and abstract thing. Before clocks were common, people simply awoke at dawn and went to sleep when the sun went down. They had markers like high noon and dusk | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/ed5cuo5 | ac52gz | Why is some abstract art like a Jackson Pollock is considered a masterpiece by experts, but to most people is just splashy paint on a sheet? | There's a good book out there by Susie Hodge called "Why Your Five Year Old Could Not Have Done That". There's several pages on Jackson Pollock, discussing his 'Drip' technique. Remember, he was an artist and there was a long path he took through his career to get to this point, trying techniques, thinking about what art is, trying to determine how to express his feelings and emotions through imagery, etc., it's not something he did on a whim. To quote from the book "Pollock's fascinations included primitive art, myths, automatism, and Jung's philosophies. His pouring, dripping, and flinging of industrial paint on to large unstretched, unprimed canvases on the floor was radical and overturned traditional notions of painting". It was new, he was the first, it meant (and means) something, it conveys the attitude of the time, it marks a changing of the medium, and hence people hold it in regard. | 12 |
AskReddit/eo433th | bqg2js | Do you eat fries before or after your burger, if so why? | I take a bite from the burger first, then i eat 2-3 fries. I continue to do it in this order until either one or both are over. I personally like a variety of tastes, and i feel like eating crispy fries while chewing my burger adds texture and flavor to the mouthful. I also take a gulp of my drink here and there. | 15 |
askscience/dfia58w | 61y1ii | Why can't it get any colder than absolute zero kelvin (273.15°C)? | A system with a temperature of absolute zero is at its lowest (or highest, if there is one) possible energy. It cannot possibly have less energy than the minimum energy, thus it can't possibly get any colder. Edit: Lots of people are giving the answer "at absolute zero, motion stops, and you can't have less than zero motion". But that's not correct. Temperature has nothing inherently to do with motion, but even for systems where it does, they don't necessarily stop "moving" at absolute zero. A system at absolute zero has its smallest possible energy (or largest). This energy does not need to be zero, and it doesn't need to have anything to do with translational motion. | 41 |
AskReddit/es01fkp | c56z9x | What is the most horrific incident you’ve witnessed? | This has honestly scared me for life. Bit of background knowledge: I come from quite a quiet area, and have never had any problems with police, neighbours or anyone for that matter, so witnessing this has really stuck with me So it’s my 2nd year at uni in Scotland and myself and 3 flat mates have been living in our new house for 2 days. I wake up in the morning at around 10am to shouting and swearing outside my window. I pull open the curtains to see this women getting absolutely sucker punched by this tank of a man. Not knowing what’s caused this or why this is happening, I run through to my flat mates room to see if she’s been witnessing what’s going on and she’s just as horrified as I am. We both go back through to my room and she calls the police whilst I continue to watch and tell her what’s happening. The fight finally stops and the guys who were beating her up eventually leave. She walks up the street, limping, blood literally pouring from her face and I presume she goes back home. Fast forward 3 hours, the police finally turn up and myself and my flatmate have to give witness statements. They inform us the lady has been taken to hospital and suffered from 6 broken ribs, a broken eye socket, broken wrist and multiple cuts to her body. Apparently the whole disagreement and fight started over custody of a Rottweiler puppy who btw also witnessed the whole thing from the side of the road. Myself and my flatmate ended up having to appear in court a few months later to testify for the woman. Both guys who attacked her were sentenced to prison, and the lady got custody for her puppy so at least the story has a happy(ish) ending. | 2 |
AskReddit/e5ulmn5 | 9f8lxn | Who was the worst coworker/coworkers you've met at a job? | Oh boy. I have a couple. I was working on a Servicedesk/Onsite Support desk in a City Hall. Pretty standard and you worked in shifts. If you had the "late" shift you was working until 6 and most people left after 5. So what you are doing after 5 is mostly mail stuff and setting things up for the next day. So one day a co-worker said: If i leave on 5:30, then you can leave tomorrow. I said okay and he left. The day after i left at 5:30 and i said nothing to my teamleader. The next day she came to me furious. Because i left to early without permission etc etc. So the co-worker snitched. Couple of months past by and then the account manager came to me and said this is not going to work and they are going to let me go. I ask why, but i couldn't get a straight answer. Later that week i was searching on my coworker's profile for a word file and came across a excel file with all my coworkers names and why they should keep and me let go. Never confronted the guy Second was was working up behind my back. I had never a chance to getting promotion because of that guy. He didn't like me because i was working with him one time and i corrected him with one thing. | 3 |
AskReddit/ebjhuiq | a532oa | What is in your "go" bag? | Ehem, it’s my ho-on-the-go bag, to be specific Zzzquil, two toothbrushes (they just ended up in there), contact lenses, a tampon, travel toothpaste, meds (antianxiety), hair ties, an extra pair of underwear and socks, work out clothes (quick dry shorts and a tee), cough drops, melatonin, a pair of headphones, a phone charger, floss, and tissues | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/cge5n28 | 21kwko | How does the human mind develop what is attractive to them and what is not? | My high school human biology teacher explained it like this, you are attracted to faces similar to the ones you see most often. This explains why faces you might not think Are attractive when you first see them, become more attractive the more you see them. This also explains why people often are attracted to people that look like there parents since those are the faces you see most often. Also there is something called the golden ratio, 1:1.618. If your an attractive person the golden rule says that your mouth should be 1.618 times wider then your nose and your eyes should be 1.618 times wider then your mouth. From your naval to the floor should be 1.618 times longer then from your naval to your head etc. | 2 |
AskReddit/eqk5t4w | bypgzd | How much time do you spend cleaning your home? | About an hour or so a day doing a little bit here and there, picking up, cleaning the kitchen up after cooking, etc. Once a week I spend about 3 hours dusting, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, and everything else. | 3 |
AskReddit/czcy69x | 42tgbs | Do the women in your life randomly change things around in the kitchen? | On a more serious note, my mom is very particular about where things are in the kitchen and things have stayed in relatively the same place since we moved in there. I find i'm much worse about shifting stuff throughout the kitchen and living room (I'm male) | 2 |
AskReddit/ch9wwyb | 24rd57 | Why do you smoke, or choose not to smoke pot? | I stopped smoking for a while cause of a quote from the show South Park. I kid you not. Stan's dad talked about how pot won't kill you or anything but it makes you feel okay with being bored and when you're bored you should be learning some new fact or improving a skill. It made me realize that I did waste a lot of time being high. | 13 |
askscience/cc6qh8r | 1m7yvl | How do meteorologists predict the trajectories of tropical lows and storms? | Check out the hurricane center at the NWS (weather.gov). last I remember, there was something like 20 models used to predict storm paths and most use an average of some or all of those. You can see examples of models of specific storms compared with the actual path. I don't personally understand all the underlying science but they're getting uncannily accurate with them. Short answer as I understand it is; computers and almost 150 years of recorded data. The folks at the hurricane center were in the process of revamping how they predicted paths since then so it may look different now but they go into more detail than you'll ever need on the site explaining everything. Anyone interested in weather can spend hours there and not get through everything. Highly recommend it. | 2 |
AskReddit/ep43ek1 | btxks4 | What video game do you think is sadly underrated? | Many final fantasy that are not 4, 7, 9 or 10. 6 feels underapreciated most of the time IMO, and 5 slips under the radar WAY too often. Of the more niche series, the Atelier series is underrated. Like, the small fanbase will defend the series to the end, but beyond the fanbase, it's not ''underappreciated'' it's almost completely unknown. The legend of Heroes series also tend to slip under the radar. Liek the Atelier series, the people who actually love the game will defend it to the end, but it would seem that people either love the series, or don't know anything about it. Very few people know and somehow hate the series. Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2 are easily some of the best game on the Vita. | 5 |
AskReddit/d8xdhvd | 584k76 | What is the best day you've ever had and what happened? | I was an only child and grew up pretty isolated. I was used to living in a quiet home and doing what I wanted, when I wanted. Then I got married. Then got kids. Anyways, the wife took the kids to LA to visit family the night before. I had the house to myself the next day. My best day was a Friday. I just recently started a professional services firm. At the time I was the only employee. So I went to work. At 10am. I knew nothing major was going to happen on a Friday. I did most of my work the day before. I spent most of my time in the office catching up on the "fun" work I liked in my profession before it became greedy. At 12pm, I went to the gym. I had a "fancy" gym membership that I rarely got to use because I rarely had the time after I got a family. I did some cardio, little strength training, then sauna and shower. For those of you that don't know it yet. A mid day shower feels awesome! I then went back to work. Finished up. I came home, early at 5pm. I fixed myself a steak and had a drink. Got into the pool. Just relaxed in the hot sun. Then went back inside my house and the cold AC felt like being on vacation. I then took a shower and watched Netflix into the am. I actually had time to think about life. I wondered about how lucky I am because of how good I have it.Provided no one bothered me. | 2 |
AskReddit/c3hsuya | ojorx | As far as you can remember, what was the most unforgettable answer given by a classmate to a question raised by a teacher/professor in front of the whole class? | My class had to study 'Tom Sawyer' for an exam, and our teacher was firing off questions towards each of us, got to an unruly child named Aaron. Teacher: "Aaron, where did Tom get the lantern?" Aaron: "Off Huck" Even the teacher had to laugh. | 14 |
askscience/c7guj5r | 14vb9b | How would someone derive a roll equivalent of a D20 using D6? | Use the dice to generate a two digit base 6 number between 0 and 35. Reroll until you get something between 1 and 20. Pick one D6 dice to be the "ones" digit, and one to be the "sixes". Roll both. If a face value is a six, think of it as a zero instead. Multiply the "sixes" value by six and add the ones value to it. | 2 |
askscience/d1zw0t3 | 4eg3wi | When does slang become a dialect? | Never. Slang is a word used to describe a subset of words that are informal and usually temporary. By definition, slang cannot become a dialect because a dialect is a full system of communication, not simply a small part of vocabulary. Everybody grows up learning at least one dialect of their languages (with dialect serving as a broad cover term for regional, social, or ethnic varieties). Slang is going to be part of all these dialects, in the informal speech of the dialect. Sometimes, slang can persist and even find its way into the standard form of a language if enough people use it in contexts where the standard is expected (e.g. fan as slang for fanatic). You might find David Crystal's summary of the slang specialist Eric Partridge's work in Crystal's Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language to be helpful in understanding the how and why of slang. | 31 |
AskReddit/cdxvoh0 | 1sieqf | What is the craziest thing that has happened at your job? | I was a Courtesy Clerk at a grocery store and this old man asked me where the bathroom was, so I pointed it out to him. He headed down that way and I went another. 10 minutes later I was on my way to the break room, which is in the same hallway as the bathroom. I looked down and there was this trail of poo nibblets literally stretching 20 feet. I guess the poor old man couldn't make it and didn't stick around out of embarrassment. This happened pretty late at night and I was the only Courtest Clerk there.Guess who had to clean it? | 2 |
AskReddit/eroo33b | c34stl | What’s a song that can be interpreted as both happy and sad depending on your mood? | 3 peaches by Neutral Milk Hotel. It's a slow, sad sounding song about a person attempting to commit suicide. But I dont know, what always stood out most to me was the last line where he says "I'm so happy you didn't die." | 2 |
askscience/c2gyx1b | k2377 | How is it that protons and electrons have the same magnitude of charge (as in +1 and -1) despite the electrons being so much smaller? | Protons (can) result from beta decay, which a neutron decaying into a proton and an electron, and also a neutrino (actually, an anti-neutrino, but that does't really matter in this case). Knowing this, it makes sense that as well as mass/energy, total charge is also conserved, hence the positive charge from to proton cancels the negative charge from the electron. Apart from that, there is no relation between electric charge and mass or energy, so no need for the electron to "compensate" it's lack of mass. | 3 |
AskReddit/db6qeud | 5ib2g0 | Why do you like the smell of our own farts but no other peoples? | I think it's something like this: When you're young, oftentimes you will look at other people's kids and go, "That's the grossest, most annoying thing ever". But if you ever actually have a kid of your own, you will probably still think it's gross and annoying but you can see the good aspects of it. Also, YOU MADE THAT THING! Same with farts. | 2 |
AskReddit/c19zgfc | epvt7 | Who out there needs a Christmas miracle? | Let me say first that this is shallow and by no means a "miracle-level" type thing. It's just more of a rant that I find irritating and funny at the same time. A minor inconvenience, if you will. I live in Manila and ordered two games from Amazon (Super Street Fighter 4 and Infamous, both for the PS3). There isn't a used games market here so it was cheaper to buy them from there. They were supposed to arrive Dec 15. I found out that they've been delayed and won't arrive until the second week of January. The two games were supposed to be the Christmas gift I was going to buy for myself since money's a little tight at the moment. I know I'll get them eventually but it still sucks it got delayed. That's it. Thanks for letting me rant. | 2 |
AskReddit/chnr15z | 264rfg | What was the most awkward time you accidentally called the wrong person? | I was at work researching holidays. I had a notepad file open with the number of a customer I had called earlier that day and a number for the Travel Agents. I was in a bit of a rush to go and call the Travel agents as I had a 15 minute break so I wrote it down on a peice of paper and got through to a woman I had spoken to earlier on the phone (I was helping her with her broadband connection). I said "Hi is this the travel agents?" and she sounded surprised and a bit freaked out and said No. I think she recognised my voice. Anyway it was a bit awkward. | 2 |
AskReddit/dx5oec1 | 8bcp3l | What jobs are more dangerous than people realize? | Anyone who does hiring (for entry level jobs). I've dealt with harassment from many candidates that didn't make it, dealt with stalking, idle threats, blackmail attempts and the like. Its escalated to the point where I had to get restraining orders on 2 different people (one who tried to stab me and one who threatened to "rape me into my place" then got aggressively handsy). Granted, its random oddballs and not the norm (maybe 5% of applicants are troublesome), but its something many people don't think of. | 20 |
AskReddit/dfv4gs2 | 63lx7h | What is a major to make good money in? | Trade school. My boyfriend did this and he's got a career and steady pay at 20. STEM. I went into chemistry and I'm graduating in December. Many jobs require my degree and I have plenty of options on where to work making decent money. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/cthrhrj | 3erue4 | Why are virtual flashlights so bad? | It's game mechanics to force the player to preserve resources. In a game like Alan Wake, where the flashlight is essentially a weapon, they had to make batteries last very little time, and become basically "ammo". In other exploration/horror games they still make it last a short while to force you to search for batteries. This can be both a good mechanic or a bad one. In HL1 it was an attempt to make dark areas more challenging, but it ends up just an annoying thing, and you'll just stop and wait for the "battery" to recharge when it runs out, without any gameplay influence other than having to pause your progress. It's even stupider that the energy is tied with that of the oxygen and sprint mechanics. | 7 |
AskReddit/ekovwxx | bc9qd8 | If tomorrow you would lose all your memories but one, what moment or conversation would you choose to remember from your life? | The day I witnessed my dad being ripped away from my life. I need to remember the grief, the pain, and the sadness to remind myself of what my dad means to mean and how I should never take moments with my family for granted. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/dzt5xm9 | 8n6eyj | If almost all counties in the world have an external debt towards another country, couldn't the debt be paid only "on paper", thus getting rid of it? | In reality, they've issued bond with different maturity dates. So one debt might be payable 30 years from now, another debt only 10 years. They're denominated in different currencies. And governments don't just owe each other, but private investors (like individuals, pension funds or businesses) or international organizations (like the World Bank) as well. Because the real situation is so much more complicated, it takes a lot of diplomacy to get multiple countries to agree to restructure debt in this way. It usually only happens when there is a crisis, and restructuring the debt is preferable to it not being paid at all. This is what happened with the Greek government's debt for example. It's more common for bilateral measures to be taken--like when a rich country forgives a debt that a poor country owes, as a type of foreign aid. | 14 |
AskReddit/equwndh | bzpf1n | What is your best "I trust my gut" story? | I have learned to trust my gut a lot. Usually keeps me out of trouble or makes it easier to work with others. Like do you ever get that gut feeling an argument is about to happen even though nothing has been said? I have and after the other person says something I was ready to dodge due to forewarning. Ever get that feeling someone needs you and you just go check. I have and I'm right 90% of the time. | 2 |
AskReddit/d110ln8 | 4ajuog | What embarrasses you most about your country? | This country used to be so great. Do you remember how great our country used to be? But these days, we never seem to win anymore. It's embarrassing. Why do we never win anymore? And it's because--and I know, I know, many of them are good people, but it's because we have people in charge who have no idea what they're doing--okay? They have no clue. No. Idea. They're letting China outsmart us, and Mexico--these people are taking advantage, and they're laughing. They're laughing at us--okay? Every day they're laughing. We need to get the best business people, the best negotiators, and put them in charge--okay? And we're gonna build a great country--it's gonna be so great, and we're gonna win. We're gonna win so much your head will spin. | 51 |
AskReddit/ejzesun | b8pbuz | What's an awesome genetic trait you share with ALL your siblings? | Not very awesome, but, for some reason my sister, brother and I all have these rlly bright blue eyes. What's odd is that my father had green eyes and my mom has brown. Thinking that the blue eyes genetic was inherited from my grandma. | 3 |
AskReddit/e5uxi8d | 9facaa | Who was the worst school teacher you've ever had? | high school freshman year, science teacher She habitually lost the work students handed in an thus gave them failing grades. It was a chronic problem. | 2 |
AskReddit/e7vcmte | 9onr9e | What’s the dumbest thing you’ve heard someone say that made you wonder how they function on a day to day basis? | One of my first jobs was at a fast food restaurant. Parents were always making their kids get applications so they could work a summer job. One kid in particular sticks out. She came from a very wealthy family and technically didn't need the job, but her parents wanted her to have a first-hand account of what it was like to work a customer service job. She was about as ditzy as could be, though. One night, she stayed late to close the dining room, part of which required her to clean the restrooms. When I told her this, she started gagging saying "I can't do it! It is too gross!" I told her it really wasn't that bad and that she needed to get the cleaning caddy from the mop room, spray down the sink, refill the paper goods, use the toilet brush to clean the toilet, and then mop. She put on her brave face and proceeded. Shortly after, I hear this full on horror house screaming coming from the bathroom. She comes running out, gagging and crying. I asked what happened and she starts bawling about getting toilet water in her mouth. I asked her how, and she said she was scrubbing the toilet with the "Rubber brush thing" and it splashed back in her face. I go into the bathroom to see what is up, and it turns out she was using the plunger to clean the toilet. I also taught this girl that when someone gives her a $20 bill or higher that she needs to use the counterfeit marker. If it stays yellow, the bill is good. If it turns dark brown, then the bill is bad and she needed to let me know. After her shift, I pull her register to count it and every single $20 was marked with a dark black mark. I stopped counting and asked her why the bills were marked with a black mark and she replied "I couldn't find the special marker you gave me, so I just used a sharpie." | 35,269 |
explainlikeimfive/e9673oo | 9uql78 | How do Satellites handle the millions if not billions of devices outfitted with GPS chips? | GPS chips don't "request". They're passive devices. They listen to a continuous broadcast from each GPS satellite and use some crazy math to figure things out themselves. It's a one way transmission from the GPS satellite to the receiver. | 29 |
AskReddit/cuwa0go | 3kbv7o | Do you think the "acceptable" tipping percentage has changed to 20%, or do you still think it is 15% (or something even less)? | I tip accordingly, anywhere from 5% to 100%. I've double bills when sitting at a pub for a while after meals taking up seat space and lowering your tips drinking one last drink if the service was good. But if you are "Grade B" service, you get 10-20% depending on bill size (the bigger the bill the lower the percentage). | 2 |
AskReddit/clsm4ep | 2l9axe | If you had mild telepathic and/or telekinetic powers, how would you use them to annoy people? | for telepathic powers, i'd plant really annoying songs in their head, and every time they finally get it out of their head, i'd do it again. telekinetic powers, i'd move everything just out of reach every time they went to grab something | 6 |
AskReddit/e8n9m7w | 9s9x4h | What’s the coolest place you’ve visited? | I went to a little coasta town called Cayucos, California. I absolutely love it there, it’s a nice little beach town on the side of a mountain range. It’s legitimately the most peaceful place I’ve ever been to. | 2 |
askscience/ch981kg | 24mqhx | What is the Island of Stability? | A hypothesized set of isotopes which would be stable despite having an enormous atomic mass, it's called an island of stability because this set of elements and their isotopes form a circle when you plot proton number with number of neutrons. | 2 |
AskReddit/chg2l0i | 25cyay | What is one thing you can't tell your mom because it would CRUSH her? | My mom is a feminist and she would not like it at all that I like to cook and bake and keep the flat of my boyfriend clean, when I visit him. He always wants to help me but I like doing the housework (it's a one room appartement) and watching him getting excited about little projects he likes to make (like self-build google glasses and generally stuff with computers and technics). I like to see him smile and a clean room in which whe can relax and work makes me happy. She always rages about women who do this and frowns upon the men who 'oppress' their women like that. I don't have to do these things and he has no problem in doing housework. It's just that I like to do it. | 6 |
explainlikeimfive/cf9tv36 | 1xbg5n | Why am I always so tired after traveling if all I'm doing is sitting the whole time? | It's mainly because your brain has to expend extra energy to process novel stimuli. To use a specific example, on a routine day you can home from work and you know where your own couch is and your hand automatically falls on the TV remote and knows which buttons to push. It's mostly habit and you don't need to spend a lot of energy figuring out what to do. When you travel it's different, obviously. Although it's not hard to locate a couch, those little things add up and becomes mentally exhausting. Edit: Do you mean traveling on vacation or traveling to the store? | 3 |
AskReddit/dk032oc | 6m9vqi | What’s the funniest word in the English language? | bamboozled I'm not a native english-speaker, heard the word the first time in an episode of "Friends" and thought it was a made-up word. The phonetic sound of this word still gets me. I love it. | 8 |
AskReddit/c38122m | ncd00 | Would SOPA mean the end of Reddit? | Yes, because SOPA destroys the free speech umbrella provided by the DMCA which protects Reddit from being liable for user posted content. WTFDTM: Under SOPA, websites will be held completely liable for what users write. Example, Scientology could sue Reddit if I posted something bad about Scientology on here. EDIT: I meant to type CDA (Communications Decency Act) and not DMCA | 31 |
AskReddit/cefxv1a | 1u9y8q | What's the fastest time you've ever been fired from your job? | OK. So, when I was 16, I got the holy grail of nerd jobs: working at a video game store. I couldn't believe my luck! When I went in, the manager there was old and creepy and had red gunk in the corner of his eyes. He looked just like a boston terror. complete with a slightly lazy eye. So Boston Manager (or BM) takes me to the back room, and tells me that I am to make their web page better. At this point I'll admit that I may have fudged my resume a little when talking about my 'mad interneting creation skills.' It's possible I could've figured it all out for him, but he kept walking back and staring at me with those creepy eyes, and expressionless frown. After 20 min, I told him that I could only work for a 4 hour block on wednesdays, and he took the hint and fired me. | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/eipt5ew | b20eue | How bacteria don’t just fall off of things? | In addition to the good points in this thread, also remember that your skin is not smooth. I'm not critiquing you personally, it's that skin is an interwoven mesh of tiny plates with tons of ridges and valleys, and that's not even to mention pores and hair. So you're pretty easy to hold on to. ​ Despite that, you do shake off bacteria, and tons of other stuff, all the time. They fall off with the skin you're sloughing away when you rub your arm, they stick to everything you touch, and they ride water molecules in and out with every breath you take. You are a veritable train station of constantly arriving and departing microbes. This constant microbe dance is an integral part of both your bodily systems and the broader ecological fabric that you are a part of. I realize that this is not quite how you meant your question, but it's worth remembering when you think of these things. ​ | 4 |
AskReddit/dc9mmas | 5n92kz | How did you find out a loved one died? | It was 2:30 in the morning and my mom's vital signs were stable. She had leukemia and had been unconscious for most of the preceding 24 hours (she did wake up for about 5 minutes at one point). Seeing that her vitals had remained the same for hours, I left the hospital to catch some sleep. 90 minutes later, my sister came into my room and woke me up, crying and simply stating "Mom died." | 3 |
AskReddit/dt92cfs | 7t19cf | What is a movie that scared you that isn't technically considered "horror", that isn't conventionally scary, or that most others don't find scary? | Earnest Scared Stupid. Lol. That movie gave me actual nightmares. My brothers loved that movie and would laugh at it while I would be scared under a blanket. And just thinking about it gives me anxiety. | 4 |
AskReddit/e6kyz5f | 9il9a1 | What is something you passionately HATE? | I passionately hate when people call me “Bud” or “Buddy”. I’m not your bud, pal. We’re equals and it sounds condescending and leaves a bad first impression. My respect for you is earned, not assumed. | 10 |
AskReddit/esmrxal | c8h1lf | What have you said or done in a job interview that has really impressed the interviewer? | First job in university. The interview was at a busy coffee shop on campus at our university. I knew that getting seats in that shop was hard, so I went an hour early to secure 4 seats. They had sent their other intern to grab seats, then the girl saw me and realized that I was waiting for them with a full table. They were impressed that I had planned so ahead and strategically. | 2 |
AskReddit/emo8jbr | blgkd9 | What video game could you mention and nobody would know what you are talking about? | People have no idea wtf I'm talking about when I mention Resident Evil Code: Veronica and I don't know why because that dragonfly scene scarred me for life as a child for reasons I couldn't explain even if held at gunpoint. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/e3kcovf | 94e9fi | How is it possible to forecast weather 15 days in advance? | It's easy to forecast the weather however far in advance you want, that's how weather almanacs work. It's hard to be precise or accurate because the atmosphere has a complex interaction with the land and the current state of the atmosphere is largely unknown. | 5 |
AskReddit/eugkksl | cgemex | Do you know about the netherlands and what do you know about it? | I mean, the Netherlands are only about 100km away from my home town so I should know about them. The cities are fancy, they like to travel via bike, they have the very tasty Vla puddings, big support for weed, have their own royal family, etc. | 2 |
AskReddit/en72nv5 | bnmhv7 | What's the weirdest situation you have seen someone be prepared for and what were there preparations? | Not someone else, but me. I’m always prepared to go to the hospital regardless of the situation. I have a bag packed and ready to go in my car at all times. It’s kinda weird but since it’s been necessary a few times I think it’s worth it. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/dfdpv3q | 61cy22 | What is a tesseract, how do we know what they look like, and what exactly do they look like? | From a mathematical point of view, the fourth dimension is assumed to be similar to the 3 dimensions that we can experience. From a physics point of view, however, our universe actually does have 4 dimensions, the fourth being time. So you can imagine a tesseract as the sum total of the existence of a cube; a (spatial) cube from its beginning time to its end time. | 4 |
explainlikeimfive/ew5ggbw | cmy625 | What causes the rigging sound in ears? | If you meant ringing, it can be caused by damaged ear drums or something misfiring in your brain. It's called tinnitus and I've had it for years now. Mine was caused by loud music and now I'm stuck with it. If you truly meant rigging, then I apologize and have no clue. | 2 |
AskReddit/caadq16 | 1fht6w | How did you get your last scar? | My hair curler back at the end of March. The wand just made contact with my wrist for 5 seconds, but I have a scar that spans the width of my wrist. People think it's a birth mark or a hickey because it's so dark. | 2 |
AskReddit/clanvxu | 2jdg0y | What is an insignificant, throwaway moment from a movie that for some reason has always stuck with you? | The scene in the movie Strangeland when the girl is chained up with a catheder running down her leg. She gets scared and pees and it shows the pee running down the tube. That bit has always been a mindfuck for me. The whole scene lasts 10 seconds but it stuck. | 2 |
AskReddit/e6wf5gh | 9k4scr | What job do people think is amazing but in reality it actually sucks? | Some young people think being a teacher is easy because you only work 9 months and your work hours seem shorter. But when you look at the pay vs what you are expected to do and how you are treated, being a teacher in America sucks | 6 |
askscience/c1ngr55 | gh22w | What property of objects gives them the ability to "absorb" all other colors except the ones they're reflecting? | Electrons mainly. In an individual atom electrons can absorb fairly specific frequencies of light to jump up between energy levels. But when they're in molecules there's a wider range of energies they can take on. So they absorb light that allows them to move between these wider energies; and don't absorb the light that wouldn't lead to a successful transition between allowed energies. | 11 |
explainlikeimfive/ck3hrhs | 2evzri | How can baboons and other ape-like animals have so much strength without being as large as body builders in muscle mass? | Muscle mass is only one aspect of strength. How muscles, tendons, bones and ligaments are connected to each other is determining how well you can actually put that brute force to use. See: leverage, with a small lever you'll always have to exert more force than with a long lever to get the same results. Relatively little differences, as between apes and humans, can make a huge difference in overall leverage and so the resulting strength. | 2 |
AskReddit/c35aynz | n0fjw | How do i get more Common sense and self confidence? | get a job in a restaurant, working in the dining room as a seater or server. You'll learn common sense. Most common sense is just having experienced enough things to know stuff without thinking about it. Of course, when you're presented with new stuff it's a good idea to think about it. | 2 |
AskReddit/etta3pp | cddn07 | How did you stop smoking? | I haven't yet, but I got a copy of "easy way to quit smoking" it worked for my dad, an a couple others I've known. In fact, it's apparently such a powerful book I've been putting off reading it because I know I'll have to quit at the end. However everyone who makes it to the end says they didn't want to smoke anymore so. I'm just being dumb | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/cdjtg0b | 1r5mq4 | Why is the sun a deep orange/red colour when rising or setting as opposed to yellow-y white during the day? | The sun's natural color (with no interference) is bright yellow, close to white. When that light enters our atmosphere, some light is absorbed and does not reach our eyes. This is why the sky is blue. The ozone layer absorbs that blue light and scatters it in all directions, giving it a blue color. Remember the color spectrum of visible light, red on one end and violet on the other with all the other colors in between (R.O.Y.G.B.I.V). A combination of all these colors gives you white light. Take away Blue, Indigo and Violet, and the light takes on a red shade. When the light from the sun passes through the atmosphere, much of the blue to violet light is absorbed, so the sun takes on a red color. When the sun is directly overhead, there is not enough atmosphere to take away all of this blue light so it appears yellow. When the sun is on the horizon, the light passes through much more atmosphere, resulting in more blue light being absorbed, giving the sun a red color. | 2 |
AskReddit/du1bqau | 7wluzy | To people with hearing problem, what's something that normal people will never understand? | Im partially deaf and I often ask people to repeat themselves. There's nothing worse than when they say "it doesn't matter", it f*cking does. And if someone who's hard of hearing asks you to repeat yourself face them when you repeat, a lot of us rely on lip reading. | 5 |
Ask_Politics/dcmigfb | 5ow6jo | Who becomes president if the President-Elect is assassinated or impeached before he and the Vice President are sworn in? | From my understanding, the Vice-President-Elect would become the President-Elect. If he is then assassinated before he has picked a new VPEOTUS, then the Speaker of the House (currently Paul Ryan) would become PEOTUS. After that. I'm not sure. Possibly the Deputy Speaker if there is one appointed, or the majority House leader. | 3 |
askscience/c491ltq | rvgg3 | Can physical impairments affect intelligence? | You've asked a really hard question, partially because it sort of presumes that the brain itself isn't physical. You might say, "A.S. Houdini, you're being a little intransigent. I know the brain is physical, I really just meant non-brain injuries!" And that would make sense. The problem is that everything you know, everything you are has some physical correlate. So, let's say I eat a sandwich for lunch. I remember I ate a sandwich for lunch, and since memories aren't stored by magic, that fact must be represented physically somehow in my brain, even though we don't really know how memory works. So, eating lunch affects my brain. But again, you might say "A.S. Houdini, that is well and good, but that is all very theoretical! I am talking about something very dramatic, we shouldn't need to appeal to the invalidity of Descartan duality to talk about this!" And that is absolutely true as well, but let's consider an injury that leaves me blind. I don't know about you, but I am terrible at understanding concepts if I don't have a figure to explain them. Words just don't do it for me most of the time. Now, as a blind person, I can't ever look at figures! Can we not say I am less able to "grasp certain concepts," as you put it? We could have a similar discussion about understanding of music for the blind, cooking for those without taste and smell, etc. Let's do another one. I am a student, and I find that taking notes is crucial to my ability to retain information. If I write it down, it stays in my head. If I don't I forget it. I simply cannot do math in my head, I have to work the problems by hand. Now, if I'm trying to grasp a math concept, and I've had my hands chopped off. I can't work the problems (since I can't do them in my head, and I can't write anymore), so I can't really learn how to do any new types of problems, or really any new detailed math, or physics for that matter. Ditto for learning to write. Now, you're probably saying "come on, that's not really intelligence!" And I think that's really the crux of the problem. What do you really mean by intelligence? You provided one in the original post, and I have provided an injury that could severely impact it, but I am willing to bet you don't find my examples satisfying. And this comes back to what I was saying at the beginning. You are your body, and your brain is part of your body. Anything that happens to your body is happening to your brain, whether or not you're aware of it. You can't draw a line anywhere and say "this is where the brain begins" in the same way you can't draw a line in the sand and say "this is where the ocean begins." Maybe not the answer you were looking for, but I hope it helps you understand what people mean when they say your brain would be useless without embodiment. | 2 |
AskReddit/draeok9 | 7jzszm | What's a feeling you get but can't explain? | Fortunately I have all my toes, there used to be a subreddit where a lot of people felt this same feeling and I can’t find it. Google definitely produces results. the best way I can describe it is as similar to how a monkeys foot has that thumb on the side of the foot. I’m definitely not insane but it’s an insane feeling. | 2 |
askscience/cd7qqw2 | 1pzki8 | How did our organs evolve into existence (i.e. kidneys, liver, pancreas, etc)? | You might want to look to the science of embryology as development often reflects the sequence of evolution of an organ. For example the liver and pancreas started as small glands budding off from the GI tract. | 4 |
AskReddit/da7l404 | 5dve8b | What is your best story from high school? | My friends and I created a "garbage locker". We would throw food in there from time to time. The entire hallway smelled like rancid milk for the second half of the school year and no one knew why. I didn't have a very interesting high school experience. | 3 |
AskReddit/c9lakfd | 1cyglv | What's the fanciest meal you can cook for two people for under 15 dollars? | I am curious how low of a price I can get with something fancy for 2: Dole Ultimate Caesar Salad Mix - $3-$5 depending on where you go (feeds 2) 2x Nissin Chow Mein Teryaki Chicken mixes - $1-$2 for both depending on where you go 2x skinless, boneless chicken breast - $3-$5 tops if you go to the butcher in your grocery store. Frozen Greek Yogurt: $5 FiberOne Brownies: $3 Total: $20 (5 over your total on the very max side) Prep: Make the salad as directed (basically just mix everything together) Make the chow mein and also throw the chicken on your George Foreman. Once the chicken is done, slice it, do not chop it but slice it, and put the chow mein on a plate and place the sliced chicken on top of the chow mein. Cut the brownies in quarters and place them around the brim of a large bowl that will have all of the Greek Yogurt in it and make it a massive dish that needs to be shared. Or you can split the dish in to 2 dishes and still do the same thing. That is a 3 course meal of Caesar salad, Chicken teryaki chow mein and frozen greek yogurt with brownies for around $20 or under (and chances are the total will be right around $15 or less very easily) | 2 |
AskReddit/d8suc4m | 57l0oq | What's something that makes you feel sexy? | If my hair is kinda messy and I wear my knee high socks, basketball shorts and a soft shirt I feel really cute which in turn makes me feel sexy | 3 |
AskReddit/c1nh49b | gh3dp | Why do Americans pronounce Mazda as Mawzda? | Do you mean with a long "a" as in "pasta"? Or with an actual "w" sound? Because I have been all over and never once heard people pronounce it "mawzda", even in the South. If you pronounce it with a short a as in "mat", I'm pretty sure you're doing it wrong. Long "a" is correct. | 2 |
AskReddit/cpj34ek | 2zi202 | Where do front page posts go after they leave the front page? | It's a combination of all those factors. The longer a post is on the front page, the more interaction it needs to stay there. Usually it will get pushed down by newer content and fall back a few pages. I'm pretty sure that if you had the time (which would be a VERY long time), you could go far back enough to find posts that can't be commented on or upvoted/downvoted anymore because they are too old (about six months). | 2 |
AskReddit/enhyzor | bomp63 | How much money should you have in your bank account as an 18 year old? | Tbh it highly depends on what you are doing. When I was 18 I did an internship as a videoeditor. So taking the branch and the position as an intern under consideration I was lucky when I ended up with some amount above 0€ on my account. Was a great time though. | 3 |
askscience/d1m16qb | 4ctznu | What do scientists mean and what does it look like when they say "equations break down"? | Let's take a step back: Science is about creating models that both match natural phenomenon and predicts results as well. Science is NOT about explaining what is "actually" happening in the real world. This is a common misconception. There are a couple interesting things that follow from this, such as the ability to create multiple models, "explanations" if you will, that cover the same natural phenomenon. This doesn't make any of the models "more right or wrong", they are merely different ways of looking at the same thing. Because these models are inherently limited in scope to not match the fullness of reality, they have boundaries or places where they stop working and stop matching reality. Such as quantum mechanics not accounting for gravity, or general relativity not working on the scales of quantum mechanics. Or looking past the event horizon of a black hole. So when "the equations break down", it just means we've found the boundary of the particular model we are talking about. Different models explaining the same thing might have different boundaries, thus making different models more usable in various situations. At that point, we simply don't have enough data to know what happens past that boundary, and thus the equations stop matching whatever actually happens in reality. | 7 |
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