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askscience/czb5ecs | 42ioe9 | Is a submarine able to safely contain humans in space? | I work as an engineer with Electric Boat, you would be surprised how often the submarine in space discussion comes up as a recurring office joke. Assuming you're not running the reactor, and you can retrofit the sub with a proper space fairing oxygen system, it would be able to withstand the vacuum. As others have mentioned, deep diving subs with thicker pressure hulls would be more effective at blocking radiation than your typical SSN or SSBN. You would have no control of course, so the crew will eventually die of starvation. | 8 |
AskReddit/csbrxk9 | 3ae8yj | What are some crazy things we're agreeing to when we blindly agree to terms and services? | Section 12, Paragraph 4 of the iTunes terms and conditions has a clause freeing apple from any repercussions when they sacrifice your firstborn child in a blood ritual to the fire god. | 2 |
AskReddit/dhvqfmf | 6cmbuj | Why do you use Reddit? | I am not a fan of social media. Social media is filled with people and things I don't care to see. Reddit for me is a means to look up specifically what I want and have a conversation/debate if I so choose. | 2 |
AskReddit/dcz4095 | 5qgnew | What don't people realise is a complete waste of money? | Food waste, plan meals folks. It's the easiest way to save money. Edit: you guys working on eliminating food waste I recommend taking the money you have recovered eliminating it and save it for a rainy day or vacation fund. It's a great way to reward your behavior. | 2,461 |
Ask_Politics/dhvij3q | 6civdo | Why are anti immigration policies in developed countries considered racist but not developing countries? | Well probably has a fair bit to do with colonialism. In the UK the underlying logic is that we pillaged and raped their counties and also we cause most of the wars and conflicts today so it's a bit cold to pull up the drawbridge and force people to stay in countries that we have destroyed or destabilised. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/c28pd9o | j2xjv | Can someone explain the me what quantum physics are? | Okay, let me give this a serious shot: Newtonian physics predicts how things will happen, when those things aren't really really small. You throw a ball in the air with a specific amount of force, and using Newtonian physics (kinematic equations), you can predict exactly where that ball will be at a specific time. Our way of thinking about causality breaks down at small enough sizes. Really small particles (quantum particles, for example light) behave also as waves because they somehow interfere with themselves similar to the way waves superimpose on top of each other. So with quantum objects, unlike normal sized objects, it becomes literally impossible to predict where they will end up based on where they started. So instead we describe a probability graph that says "based on the initial conditions, this quantum particle will appear at these positions in space with so and so probability". This inherit uncertainty, this loss in predictive power, is what unsettled Einstein so much as to utter the phrase "God does not play dice." | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/cqv0f77 | 34ioff | How does fire and explosions work in space? | The gas cloud isn't going to try to form a sphere, there's not enough gravitational attraction to hold it together. Without the gravitational attraction to overcome the velocity of the gas molecules, they're going to rapidly disperse through space. So you might get some fire at the spot where your atmosphere is leaking, assuming there's significant conditions inside the ship to provide the fire, but anything external to the ship is going to rapidly disperse and go out. | 3 |
AskReddit/ds0rxtu | 7nafns | What are two things that you associate with each other but actually have no connection at all? | Pickles and Club Penguin for some reason. I used to play the agent missions and they had these things to feed puffles called o berry’s and I think I thought that they would taste like pickles. | 3 |
AskReddit/c2uqyrd | lq0kn | What "inspirational quote" do you find most annoying or hackneyed? | >Doesn't matter what the press says. Doesn't matter what the politicians or the mobs say. Doesn't matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right. This nation was founded on one principle above all else: the requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences. When the mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and tell the whole world - "No, you move." > -Captain America I see this quote posted every few weeks, and it annoys me to no end. That sort of thinking creates closed minded morons, on any side. | 9 |
AskReddit/dgff82u | 663smh | What's something that everyone should try, but most people never will? | Snowboarding. Most awesome experience of my life Unless you know someone who does it, you probably have no idea how to begin. And it costs between 1k to 2k all together, and "you might not even like it" for the money. Also get over a certain age and you'll be "too old to start". Your loss people :p. | 6 |
AskReddit/cq0ad2g | 31cg5t | What has your pet done to show you how much they care about you? | I had a panic attack and my dog heard me breathing heavily so she walked over to me looking concerned (that's the best way I can describe it).She's given the same expression when I've cried in front of her as well. She helped me calm down while I stroked her and hugged her. Sometimes when I lie with her or cuddle her, she puts her paw on my hand or arm and I think it shows she cares as she hates me touching her paw. Just the way she won't let me go easily if I try move after she's lying on my arm and the purr noise she makes when I hug her. The reaction she has when seeing you and how at night she will cry and sometimes goes upstairs and waits by my bedroom door show it too. | 2 |
AskReddit/ehee8vm | ave4cy | Which accent is your favourite, and which is your least favourite? | Favourite - you can't go wrong with most Scots accents, especially the Highland accents. I knew a bonnie lass on Skye, with red hair and blue eyes and the most heart-melting accent I've ever known. Least favourite - AAVE. Admittedly, it's arguable whether this is an accent at all, or if it's a dialect or even a different language; still, I can only understand about half of what a person speaking AAVE is saying. | 2 |
AskReddit/dg6o8bp | 651brg | What is the biggest 'plot twist' you have had in your life? | When I accidentally deleted my Kingdom Hearts 100% save file, 70 hours all gone. Still don't how it actually happened, but I was copying the save data to other ps3 profiles and something happened. You asked for "the biggest" and that's all I got | 3 |
AskReddit/crpjb1g | 37spkg | In a post apocalyptic world 1000 years from now, what will the weapons and armor be made out of from our current landfills? | I don't know if they'd last 1000 years, but tire sidewalls are really durable. Bulletproof, even, assuming there's bullets left as well. It'd certainly hold up to slashing and a lot (but not as much) stabbing. Probably some blunt trauma as well but since it's flexible it' wouldn't be quite as effective. | 3 |
AskReddit/chzryg9 | 27dazy | What is the worst scam someone has tried to pull on you? | Someone tried to pull a scam on me yesterday. Well, it was my boss but he didn't feel like talking to them so I pretended to be him. Apparently the company had agreed to sponsor a child's charity and they wanted to know what school we wanted the books they had made to be donated to. I asked them what it was for and they said it was some drug awareness books and DVDs or something like that. Knowing that my boss would never donate to a random charity, I apologised and said that I don't remember agreeing to anything. They responded quite calmly saying that they must have spoken to another member of staff who didn't realise they were agreeing with something and said that they would cancel the invoice and then left. Which was rather odd, as a charity would not get sponsors, make something and then get the money. I checked online and it was indeed a scam. | 4 |
AskReddit/ecq6e47 | aaa80m | What are the dumb ways to die? | Set fire to your hair, poke a stick at a grizzly bear, eat medicine that’s out of date, use your private parts as piranha bait. There’s so many dumb ways to die. | 4 |
AskReddit/d4grx02 | 4ozg5j | What show did you put off watching for the longest time, before finally giving it a shot? | Breaking Bad. Waited until earlier this year to finally give it a shot (I had seen the first couple episodes multiple times but it never really interested me). Finished the entire show in three weeks. | 61 |
AskReddit/cb3m7zx | 1iece1 | To women that won't date asian men, why? | Pssh, what about Asian men who won't date me? I can't even single out what feature it is about me that disgusts many an Asian man.but there's something. I've never had an Asian man ask me out either. So, to hijack your question: is there a type of woman that you are stereotypically not attracted to? | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/eica0jn | b05oii | Why do the political parties in the US called "Democrats" and "Republicans"? | Republican Party: founding members chose the name in respect to Thomas Jefferson’s republicanism in the 1850s. Democratic Party: was originally the “Democratic-Republican Party” but split in 1824, and were originally called “The Democracy” until they decided on the Democratic Party in 1844. | 2 |
askscience/delz3l5 | 5xw8g6 | Are insects affected by inbreeding like mammals? | All life on earth is negatively impacted by inbreeding, including insects. This includes organisms that reproduce sexually vs asexually. Consider that a single bacterial colony originating from a single bacteria is much more susceptible to we wiped out by disease or antibiotics then a bacterial colony originating from 10 different bacteria. | 28 |
AskReddit/cmn5dok | 2ogku6 | What would be the worst thing a doctor could say during a prostate exam? | My Uncle is a doctor and pulled a prank on a patient that had a good sense of humour. The patient went for a prostate exam and didn't know that my Uncle wasn't doing the exam, so my Uncle begins the exam. As the man thinks my Uncle is doing the exam, the doctor who was originally doing the exam sneaks in and proceeds. During the exam my Uncle puts both of his hands on the patients shoulders and freaked out the man. I love my Uncle. | 2 |
AskReddit/cpsjqrz | 30hu8q | What do people keep telling you you're weird for doing while you think it's normal? | Being completely content to just go through life being unremarkable and then stop existing. Apparently I can't think that without being a psycho or depressed, it's really sad how people think it's normal to want to be special or greater than they are. | 7 |
explainlikeimfive/czxe3h6 | 45f9yk | Why aren't Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini jailed for their crime, but instead, only banned from football for 8 years? | The justice system didn't ban them, FIFA did, and they have no power to put people in jail, and the justice system has no power to ban them from football. The FBI is investigating, but who knows if that will end up with jail time. | 8 |
AskReddit/elkb6aq | bgf4hh | What plot point would you change in your favourite book/movie/TV show and how would that affect the rest of the story? | Change whomever was in charge of The Golden Compass movie. I watched it back then and rewatched it today. It held the good idea of the book but it was lacking a tad. | 2 |
AskReddit/ebm2c6m | a5ew45 | As 2018 is coming to an end, what's the best thing to happen to us this year? | Infinity War. That movie was amazing and fun to watch with friends, and the ending just took everyone who didn’t know by surprise. It almost feels like it was made last year instead of a few months ago. | 2 |
AskReddit/ee8qoul | agslta | What’s one book every human being should read? | Earth Abides. Written in 1949 by George R. Stewart. It’s a post apocalyptic novel and it’s soooo good! One of those books you keep thinking about years after you’ve read it. | 3 |
AskReddit/er55uet | c0jfx8 | What thoughts comfort you when you’re depressed? | Depends on what has me down, but usually a thought of things getting better or some modicum of self improvement I can point to in recent times helps. like I may be super depressed after my breakup, but I've lost almost 40 lbs and am only 20 from my goal weight now. | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/en097cr | bmwwun | Why do our ears crackle when we swallow? | I'm not a scientist But I think it's because your throat and ears are connected to your sinuses, or are part of them, or something. Point is, they're connected. I'd assume the crackling is just air leaving your ears, like when you're in an airtight room and closing one door makes the other open slightly. Again, take that with a grain of salt, I'm not smart at anything. Just trying to stretch out "they're connected and it displaces the air when you swallow" so this doesn't get deleted. | 7 |
askscience/eyfk0m4 | cwt27b | Do trees have a lifespan or are they immortal? | They definitely have lifespans. The right conditions can support them for long periods but time gets everything. Many palm trees have lifespans of about 100 years, which means a lot of the palms that give famous Los Angeles streets their look are almost about to die off. | 37 |
askscience/dlrz68l | 6ubz1h | When we get hurt, what determines how much dopamine is released to prevent the pain feel? | Dopamine is involved with the perception of pain, but not in a way relevant to this question. Endogenous opioids are responsible in this case. They are released under circumstances of acute stress. This is because evolution has taught us that when disaster strikes, your main concern shouldn't be your injury--it should be survival. As for why small injuries haven't got the same effect, the answer is the same: it's for survival purposes. Pain exists for a reason. It's beneficial to feel pain when injuries aren't life-threatening. Have you ever seen pictures of people born without pain receptors? They are covered in scars. | 4 |
AskHistorians/d0rback | 49f3id | Why did the liberal states (post aristocratic) succeed whereas the socialist states appear to have all failed? | I'm.not sure your initial premise is entirely accurate. Liberal democracies have fallen with regularity since the Enlightenment. France, the birthplace of the Enlightenment, has had shall we say numerous different attempts at a liberal democratic government. Germany, Italy and Japan, to varying extents, were liberal (or liberalizing) prior to the rise of fascism. Failed democracies are all over Africa, the Middle East, and Central/South America. And so on. Meanwhile, socialism (in its democratic form) is alive and thriving in many countries, and single party (Marxist-Leninist) socialism still exists to varying degrees in China, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba. None of this is to add any value judgment to any particular system, just that you might want to revise your premise if you want a useful answer. | 4 |
AskReddit/ccyd3l7 | 1p3h89 | What makes your life more valuable than that of another? | Value is not something tangible, it's how we view something. What makes any life valuable depends on the person. I suppose one would choose his own life over the other because of the instinct of self preservation. It is one of the three basic instincts we have. Basically, most humans would not choose another's life over their own. We're a competitive species; the bee on the other hand, is not. The honeybee will sacrifice it's life if it sees that it would benefit the rest of the hive. | 2 |
AskReddit/e3p0z7j | 95076n | What is more difficult to achieve - 1 million app downloads or 1 million Youtube subscribers? | Probably a million YouTube subscribers, because you don't have to subscribe to watch. If you make an app that goes viral, people have to download it and install it just to try it out. They might delete it the next day though. There's plenty of channels on YouTube that I've watched a lot of ideas from that I never bothered to subscribe to. | 4 |
AskReddit/cuan1r6 | 3huiro | What do you think of those people who try to stop you and sell you things? | I feel genuinely terrible for refusing and walking past because I feel like every single other person does the exact same thing. I guess that's how they profit: guilt-tripping people. | 2 |
AskReddit/c7be9qo | 14at4a | Are there any other Redditors out there under the age of 30 who choose to keep neither a cell phone nor a Facebook? | I got rid of Facebook awhile ago and have never looked back. When I meet people I will get their numbers or email, and that is how I will stay on touch. I also have stopped texting as much as I used to and have returned to calling people more, but I will keep my cell phone. | 2 |
AskReddit/dj8aozy | 6imd49 | What is the saddest fact you know? | I've volunteered at an animal shelter. Sad fact: if a pregnant dog or cat comes in more that 4 days away from their due date, they give them abortions instead of letting the puppies/kittens be born. | 2 |
AskReddit/d3yrsyj | 4mvy8q | What do you like about smoking cigarettes? | I was born in 1957. The doctor that delivered me was smoking a cigarette .and my father was smoking a cigarette as I was born.My first breath of air as a newborn child was mostly cigarette smoke! The priest that baptized me had nicotine on his fingers. | 2 |
askscience/c7ucapc | 16axbm | Why doesn't an engine get damaged by combustion in the cylinders? | A 4 stroke gasoline engine uses a large number of small contained explosions order to drive the crankshaft. These engines are built with strong heat-treated materials machined to very high tolerances. Filling up your tank with gasoline isn't anything like trying to use a block of C4 to power your engine. A 4 cylinder car engine will produce ~50 Deflagrations per second at idle and over 400 at redline. Oil lubricates and cools the internal engine parts while (with most cars) coolant flows through your engine block in order to maintain an ideal operating temperature. edit: thanks for reminding me, das_hansl | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/ds9m4ic | 7ohs01 | Why aren't you supposed to pour boiling water on honey? | If you believe that honey has healing properties, boiling water supposedly breaks down the enzymes or whatever responsible for those attributes. Like a lot of "natural medicine", it's not really based on any science. If you just like something sweet in your tea, it doesn't make a lick of difference. | 6 |
AskReddit/ck8rx32 | 2ffoyp | Has anyone visited a psychic who predicted something major that actually ended up happening? | The woman my best friend saw predicted why her boyfriend broke up with her, what the woman he left her for is doing in life, where they hang out, and how he will come crawling back to my friend 2 months from then. All happened. | 3 |
AskReddit/d9q1w1g | 5boatp | What is an impactful historical figure that many people do not know about? | Clara Lemlich Shavelson. Born Clara Lemlich, she started the branch of the union in New York that worked to protect garment makers, and she was the one, in fall of 1909, who called the general strike, the Uprising of 20,000. out of historical context, that doesn't seem like too much. But that strike meant that 13 months after it ended, when the Triangle Shirtwaist factory caught fire and burned, killing 146 workers including over 100 teenaged girls, people reacted. People remembered the strike, the picketers, the faces and names of the girls. And that led to reforms, protections. All those " this door to be kept unlocked during business hours" signs, mandated fire escapes, in the US that can be traced to Triangle, and to Clara Lemlich interrupting a meeting to say "I want to say a few words." | 2 |
AskReddit/eowwhp6 | btf1oj | What is your story about a crush on a person who is homeless? | Funny enough, I did have a little crush on a homeless guy. It's a really long story but to sum up. I was at college homecoming. Hung out with people I barely knew. We met some guys and drove them around ending up at a high school party. It was a very strange party: heavy drinking, whippets, huffing lighter fluid, someone cut their arm open for fun. We were out all night. Next morning, I took one of the guys out to breakfast. He was super cute but after I determined that he was homeless, not interested in pursuing. He was sleeping in a car and occasionally with a friend. | 3 |
AskReddit/ciivi7s | 29a0ot | How is your Friday so far? | Frustrating. I've only been at my job two weeks and had to take a day off so I could take my son to the children's hospital. The pediatrician is stumped. Hasn't seen edema like this in all his years. Blood and urine are fine. Ultrasound of the stomach and groin is normal. Now my son, who's only 5.5 months old and was a preemie, is going to need an MRI which will require anesthesia and it makes me nervous. I'm tired. My house is a mess. I'm stressed out. My Friday kinda sucked. How was yours? | 2 |
AskReddit/emsgwu4 | blylug | Why were you on the news? | Because I was working a football game on tunnel crew for my high school. It was a playoff and the local cable company was shaking all the high school playoff games. They got the tunnel crew to do a little transition segment for them. The other time was after a kid died at the intersection about 100 yards from my house, and my father had wrote the local news crew to tell them how the crossing was unsafe and the death proved it. | 2 |
AskReddit/cb0uyug | 1i3za9 | What's a word you recently realized you have been mispronouncing? | Not recently, but for a long time I pronounced "placebo" as "PLAS-bo." I had read the word and I thought it was such a good one that I would casually use it in conversation, maybe to show off my erudition. I guess I wasn't so educated as I thought. This is a problem with being well-read, but rather solitary. | 5 |
AskReddit/c3p8og4 | pgsp6 | If you could take any story from the Bible and make it into a movie, which one would it be and why? | I'd love a movie adaptation of Joseph Heller's "God Knows", which is itself a true-to-bible adaptation of King David's life and the rise of King Solomon; as viewed by King David from his death bed. | 3 |
AskReddit/c1tw4g1 | hanw8 | Why don't I like a lot of my friends anymore? | You can't expect to like everybody, unfortunately. Your friends will always have other friends that you dislike, it happens to everyone. But don't trouble yourself with those friends-of-friends. Also: >I'm very social as a rule, Maybe you shouldn't treat it as a rule so much as an opportunity? Enjoy some alone time. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/ck5bf8y | 2f2lzj | How do babies have thoughts if they don't have a language? | Thoughts don't exist in strictly the contexts of language. They're a entity that has perhaps a feelings or excited an reaction, but they're not "thoughts" in the context of language. A thought (thinking, reasoning, logic) is universal amongst all minds but it can be put in the context of words within any language. Baby's have feelings, reactions and use their senses to best work with the thoughts that it has. Therefore a child has many thoughts that he/she simply cannot put into words yet. TL/DR: Thoughts exist before words are learnt and used to communicate and associate them with. Babies think but can't express them and know them as basic feelings. | 7 |
Ask_Politics/d61n7ug | 4vr9z8 | Is a Constitutional Amendment the only way to overrule a Supreme Court decision? | An amendment is only required if the Court decision is one in which the Court is interpreting the Constitution. If they're interpreting a statute or regulation, they can be overruled by Congress or an agency simply changing the statute or regulation. And either kind of case can be overruled by the Court itself in a future decision. | 2 |
AskReddit/e84yxfw | 9pxg24 | Why do we take care of our materialistic items more than our bodies? | Lot easier to care for materialistic items. Taking care of our body involves disciplined eating and regular exercising that is a chore for majority of people. | 3 |
AskReddit/eky8jr0 | bdi0ie | What is the craziest thing a teacher has ever accused you of? | In the 2nd grade(so i was 9) the teacher hated me and i was accused of braking an umbrella, stealing money, bullying (while i was bullied), breaking a lamp. Well after that year i left the school, because she said i won't pass to 3rd grade if i don't. | 3 |
askscience/c34ua22 | my53g | How long would a steak stay good for if it was frozen to absolute zero? | Well, it might not be "good" after you unfroze it, but it would essentially stay unspoiled forever assuming you could actually get it to absolute zero. Food goes bad due to microbes that are naturally present using it as a food source and multiplying like crazy. Refrigeration slows (but doesn't stop) microbial metabolism and reproduction, which is both why we use it and why stuff still goes bad in the fridge. But at absolute zero, theoretically no life (and no life processes) are possible. | 2 |
AskReddit/ee6jp69 | agitxv | Do you think it would be better if the entire world spoke one language or do you think it is good that there are thousands of languages out there or are you somewhere in the middle? | thousands. if you are even bilingual you understand how limiting our languages are. there are so many words I just can't say in English. we don't even have a word for "spicy" or "we" excluding the one being spoken to having other languages however allowed us to adopt words like monsoon typhoon etc. | 7 |
askscience/c1qe47f | guiaq | Why must steam from a turbine be sent through a cooling tower? | Actually, Water must be hot (its usually superheated steam) to run a turbine. Turbines work by lowering the enthalpy of the fluid driving them, and to have high enthalpy a fluid must be hot. What you don't want is the steam condensing inside the turbine as that will damage the turbine. Outlet steam often is used to preheat other fluids. This is called regeneration (I'd provide a link, but I can't find one; A thermodynamics textbook should have the appropriate info). However, it doesn't work on every design as the steam may not be hot enough to provide any useful preheating, so they just condense it before releasing it to the environment. | 5 |
AskReddit/crojsj6 | 37ou4f | Is it better to choose a safe career that will make more money, or a career you love? | I think you should work toward making sure you can be in a career you love while being financially secure to some degree. Example: I want to work in technical theater. I can't afford to finish my degree, and certainly can't afford grad school. So for now I am going into the military. And I will try to cross-rate to being a nuke as soon as I can. Between the G.I. Bill, paying off my debt from the years of college I've already done, and if I can get it, the money I'd make in the civilian secure working as a nuke after I get out, I will be able to once again work toward my REAL goal of having a career in theater. Furthermore, in the time I have before boot, I am solidifying the contacts I have now and will do my best to maintain communication with them while I am in, even in a minimal capacity. But even if I am in the Pacific Ocean in six years, working on the reactor of an aircraft carrier (again, if I manage to cross-rate) I will be working toward a career in theater. Even when I was in college, I double majored. Tech theater and comp science. The comp science was a fall-back to support myself if need be. But even if I had to get a job in IT somewhere or programming, I would still have been working toward the career I love. So my answer in a way is do both. Hope for and work toward the best, plan and prepare for the worst. | 2 |
AskReddit/c9hwahp | 1cmefh | What is the most glaring plot hole in a popular movie/book/TV show? | Hunt for Red October (Movie): In the scene where the Alpha is destroyed and the crew of the Red October thinks it's their boat. The wreckage although deep still would be explored in the future, plus they now have an unaccounted for Alpha which would have been in the same general area at that time. In the book, the US Navy tows out a Sub set for Scrap and blows it up underwater along with the alpha meaning 2 sets of wreckage in the same general area, 2 confirmed sub sinkings. This method eliminates questions and allows for the Red October to be examined without question whereas the movie plot lives a large unexplained hole. | 6 |
AskReddit/egb3yvf | aptmxp | What's something that sounds like it's for poor people but rich people do? | Breastfeeding. It used to be only poor women breastfed because rich women could buy formula and frankly didnt have time to sit around breastfeeding a brat. Now we are seeing a shift: more and more wealthy women are breastfeeding because they have the income to not have to work and can breastfeed at will while poor women are shifting towards less breastfeeding and more formula due to the pressures of having to go back to work sooner | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/c8fmfg5 | 18knmc | Can somebody explain Reddit Gold to me? | You pay for it and it lasts a month, it gives you additional features such as seeing a breakdown of where your karma came from, which comments you've already read, and the ability to load more comments at once. Additionally it also gets rid of the ads and a private subbreddit. It's mainly just a way for people to support Reddit. You can give it to others by clicking "Give gold" on their comment, and I believe you can also do it on their user profile. | 21 |
AskReddit/dlq9u2d | 6u6bb8 | When have you been "the bad guy"? | I've been used as the hatchet man at various jobs after the military periodically. Having to negatively counsel or fire people is an art apparently. I don't enjoy it, but I'm capable of it. I understand that many people genuinely struggle with this sort of thing. And those have definitely been times in my life when I've been the bad guy. | 3 |
AskReddit/ew0rchk | cm972o | What are some good tips for falling asleep quick? | I’ve heard if you completely stay still for 15 minutes you are bound to fall asleep but other than that turning off your phone and meditating for like 10 minutes does the trick | 2 |
AskReddit/e1g3yic | 8ujocu | What weird thing does your body do? | I'll involuntary suck down air really hard and occasionally it hurts pretty bad, like clenching my whole body up because it feels so intense in my chest. It's not painful often enough for me to think I'm dying or anything and it's been happening for as long as I can remember. It's nothing like a hiccup, it's something that will happen once or twice every so often. I've had multiple people comment on it but I have no idea what it is or what to tell them other than it's just some thing I do and that I really can't help it. | 2 |
AskReddit/cvwr0if | 3ofhak | Can someone answer me, the not being able to fully close your curtains in hotels? | Because it takes a lot of material to make curtains and it isn't cheap. Skimping a few inches per room times 100 rooms adds up. Higher end hotels actually go further and have two tracks for the curtains that overlap. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/d5sziov | 4uuvhd | How they create synthetic tastes? | Chemists are able to take a real american cheesecake apart into its individual composition. They can then take out the substances that we know do not taste anything like fat, sugar and proteins. They can also take out substances that have too low concentration. The result is a recopy for what a real american cheesecake tastes like. This can further be refined in experiments, the fewer compounds and cheaper compounds the better. The final recopy can be maybe up to a hundred different types of molecules. These compounds can be refined from cheaper sources and mixed together to create the concentrated taste that is mixed in with the vaping juice. | 3 |
AskReddit/dxof2j2 | 8dn7z9 | What is the worst feeling? | Common everyday worst feeling: that sinking feeling when you realize your screwed or caught and there is no way out of it. This is the worst feeling I could think of that everyone will experience. Obvious uncommon situations superseded this awfulness. | 6 |
AskReddit/efgclja | alr9sw | How did you beat depression? | While I wouldn’t say I have beaten depression, I have definitely learned how to live with it. I’ve come a long way from cutting myself and swallowing bottles of pills but there’s a sense of normalcy or something I don’t know if I’ll ever reach. I take medicine and go to therapy but for the most part it’s all about taking things one moment at a time and realizing that I’m trying my best. Also that my best isn’t always going to look the same every time, and that’s okay. Waking up matters, breathing matters, it all counts for something. | 2 |
AskHistorians/c5fk5sw | wpis7 | How did the Habsburg become as powerful as they became? | Through opportunistic diplomatic marriages, mostly. In the late Middle Ages you had the upstart Duchy of Burgundy, which was basically eclipsing the French royal domain in wealth and grandeur. The Dukes of Burgundy had quite an aggressive policy of expansion. Through marriages, political manoeuvring and purchases they had, within a century, obtained not only Burgundy proper, but Picardy, Artois, Luxembourg and all of the Low Countries (which were an immense source of wealth). In 1474 the Burgundian wars broke out, and the Duchy was destroyed by the French and their Swiss mercenaries. The final Duke (Charles the Bold) was killed at the battle of Nancy, and his unmarried daughter, Mary, suddenly became the heiress to almost all the territories that made up the Duchy, and so her hand was much sought after. Eventually Maximilian, the Habsburg Duke of Austria (another upstart Duchy, of course - which already controlled Bohemia and Hungary), was able to secure her hand in marriage, and the wealthy Burgundian lands and the Low Countries became part of his domain. Later, in 1486, Maximilian was elected Holy Roman Emperor. Meanwhile, in Iberia, you have the rulers of the two foremost Spanish kingdoms (Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon) uniting the two states through their marriage, creating a powerful kingdom that also includes Sicily, Sardinia and large parts of Southern Italy. Maximilian is able to marry his son Philip to their daughter, Joanna, and so their sons, Charles and Ferdinand, inherit a massive and wealthy empire that stretches from Iberia to Central Europe. The French, of course, aren't too happy about all this because they're basically surrounded by this new rival empire. | 7 |
AskReddit/c5u5bcx | ybvuh | Have any servers out there that ended a shift below minimum wage ever been paid to make up for it? | I worked in a restaurant while i was in high school that was never busy. It was a rare occasion if I had a shift where I MADE minimum wage with the tips I received. So yes, my employer paid me up to minimum wage. | 3 |
AskReddit/e0zcrb9 | 8sh2kp | What are some things that you recommend a 20 year old should do (or not do) to have a better life long term? | Ask yourself what can this cause my life to become in 5/10 years. If it's nothing, don't spend too much time on it, but if you enjoy it go for it. If it hurts your 25/30 year old self, don't do it. If it benefits you in five years, do it. Eat well, stay away from drugs, don't drink or smoke on a regular basis, your looks will thank you. | 2 |
AskReddit/dmkrg39 | 6y564x | What was the most ridiculous way your phone cracked? | I accidentally dropped it, mid drop I accidentally kicked it, it flew and then bounced along the pavement. Not a scratch. With my relief I pulled it towards my chest sort of like a, "oh thank god" movement. It hit my necklace and cracked. | 3 |
AskReddit/dhi55sk | 6axee4 | What would you think of a 40 year old male school teacher having a relationship with his 16 year old female student? | Gross. So gross (and illegal). First, it's bad because the kid is a kid with a not fully developed brain. Second, the teacher is in a position of authority over the student which makes this an abuse of authority. I honestly can't imagine having a relationship with even a 20 year old because they seem so young and immature. I'm only 26. There's no way this is good. Edit: I intentionally left gender out of my explanation because that doesn't matter. Male/female teacher/student, whatever, it's wrong. | 5 |
AskReddit/eas6p81 | a1rw6n | What's the one thing you were not thought in school, that you really wish they would teach? | The actual practical applications for the various bits of accumulated knowledge - what it is good for in real life. This would have been very beneficial to my younger self, as I was "smart" enough to realize that the average joe probably didn't need advanced math as general education, but failed to realize the import that would have on future career prospects, and how that snowballs into affecting your academic and professional reputation - regardless of your actual knowledge base. Knowing what a quadratic equation was actually useful for instead of just solving them mindlessly would have greatly encouraged me to put more effort in back in high school. Turned myself around later in life (and married a math major). ​ I think part of the problem is that the old model of education is still geared around producing academics. The vast majority of people who go to high school, college, or even advanced degrees do not go on to teach or research, but I think that is what it is geared towards, primarily. | 2 |
askscience/cojwmt6 | 2vpy9i | Do scientists testing medicine on animals have to give the animals the disease first? | This really depends on the study. Many studies just test the effects of the drug on healthy animals. Often the disease cannot be vectored in the animal, as it the case with some viruses, so you cannot give it to the animal. However, most of the time you are able to introduce or induce the exact or similar human disease into an animal. Commonly studied diseases like cancers do have markets that sell diseased animals, or will do the entire animal part of the study for a lab or company. In the end though, lab animals are not humans and human tests will need to be done. | 11 |
AskHistorians/dnmlvvh | 72z578 | Why is New York City the most ''powerful'' and popular city in the U.S. and not its capital Washington D.C? | There are a variety of economic, political and geographic factors. Suffice to say, states that build their capitals in separate cities from their economic centers, such as the United States with Washington, Australia with Canberra, and Brasil with Brasillia, do so explicitly to separate the government from the economic and trade centers to be more objective when legislating. Understand that when the capital city of a country is also the most powerful economic center, such as Paris in France or London in Britain, the city isn't economically successful because the government is there, the government is there because the city was economically successful in the first place. | 5 |
explainlikeimfive/ex2t34j | cr8ddd | How can martial artists (I’m thinking karate) chop something like a solid brick in half with just their bare hands? | There are two components to this; physics and exaggeration. The first part is the "real" part. Martial artists do actually break things with their hands and feet as a training exercise. If you take a board or a brick and deform it enough it will break. If you hit it with sufficient momentum you'll deform it sufficiently. Getting that amount of momentum is a combination of the mass of the object (for example your hand) and the velocity of that object. So breaking a board is really just a matter of hitting it really hard. In order to do this with a body part there are a couple of factors that come into play. Most people don't want to hurt their hand so when they hit a board they'll instinctively pull back at the last second. This reduces the momentum of the hand and then the board won't break. Ironically this tends to hurt more. When you hit a board your hand and the board experience equal and opposite forces. If you actually break the board that force is spread out over the time between when your hand contacts the board and when it breaks. If you don't manage to break the board that force is only spread out over the time it takes the board to bend and bounce back. So your force per time can be much higher and it hurts more. This is why martial artists are trained to "strike through" the target. The next big issue is aim. If you don't hit the board in the right spot you make it much harder to break. Imagine a board suspended between to holders. It's obviously much harder to break the board if you hit it near one of the holders than if you hit it right between them. Then there's how you hold your hand. Hands have all kinds of tiny, easily breakable bones. A large part of board breaking training is learning how to hit the board using the strong parts of your hand. There's also conditioning. If you hit things over and over it not only strengthens your bones and muscles, it also deadens the nerves and makes it hurt less. Depending on the material it may also be the case that you can't break the board at all, at least not without mangling your hand. Think of a bullet that goes through a board. It may make a hole but the bullet is not going to be bullet shaped when it's done. Then there's the exaggeration part. Some martial artists just like to show off. There are ways to make a breaking demonstration look much harder than it really is. If you put spacers between boards or bricks they're easier to break since instead of reinforcing each other the weight of the first brick can help break the bricks below them. Not all bricks are created equal either. Some are weak and crumbly. Some bricks are so hard you couldn't break them with a sledge hammer. You'll also notice that people almost always break boards with the grain rather than against the grain. | 48 |
AskReddit/elmy83f | bgqlfw | What is the best thing Trump has done as president so far? | I voted for Clinton, but to me, the best things Trump has done are: 1) He left the Iran Deal. This was, IMO, one of the worst foreign policy missteps of the Obama era, driven by Ben Rhodes. The notion that the middle east could somehow be stabilized by strengthening the "biggest bully" is ridiculous. Iran does everything to destabilize situation around it, be it in Iraq, in Syria, in Lebanon (where its proxy controls half the country, etc.) 2) Got the US out of certain UN forums. The UN had become ridiculous, for example with the human rights commission chaired by some of the worst offenders. Haley was a brilliant choice for ambassador (and surprising, considering that she endorsed Rubio in the primary). | 50 |
AskReddit/cvi2lq9 | 3mu24w | What is the craziest/weirdest thing you've seen a woman do while pregnant? | One time my mother was giving me a haircut while she was pregnant. She wasn't too focused either, she was kinda just chopping away not paying attention. Now. you're probably hoping that she just gave me a bad haircut or something. Nope. She was clipping away near my ears and next thing I know I felt a really sharp pain. Didn't really know what happened but I saw blood like everywhere and my mom was in full panic mode at the moment. She had cut off part of my ear along with my hairs. Pretty sure she was freaking out more than I was. But for years after that I always always always hated getting haircuts because I was afraid. That was the period in my life when I started getting longer and longer hair. I have no problem with them now but I'm still always sure to be extra still when they're cutting around the ears. TL;DR I told mum just a trim and she thought she meant my ear and not my hair. | 2 |
AskReddit/d5y633s | 4vgfpx | What event of the 21st century will one day be made into a movie? | There are so many movies being made now days that all the major events are covered within a few years of happening. You can bet there will be a movie about this year's presidential race; they're probably making it right now. There will be movies about the next stock market crash and sending a human to Mars in the next 83 years. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/chxniv8 | 275rmd | If you are sued for more money than you have, how does the person who sued you get the money you legally owe them? | They can sometimes garnish your wage or take your tax returns. They can also seize some of your assets. There are some assets protected by your state's laws, for example they can't generally take your house, or all of your vehicles if you need them for work. Depending on how the money was determined to be owed there might be state funds available to give you, for example if you get medicare payments and someone steals them, you would be able to get all the money that was stolen from your state's crime victims' fund, then the theif's garnished amount or seized amount would go to repay the victims' fund. For many civil matters sometimes the judgments are entered knowing that they person will never be able to pay. Instead, the amounts ordered are used for insurance purposes, or in the hopes of using that damages award to recover from that person's employer or someone otherwise affiliated. However; in many cases, the person who sues will not be able to get the money they are legally owed. | 10 |
AskHistorians/d57i3ek | 4s6pd8 | How did ancient civilizations use their crops to maximum effect without them spoiling? | I'm not sure this is quite the answer you are looking for, but one of the key methods used by ancient civilizations for storing calories was utilizing the liquid forms of their crops, alcohol. While today we think of alcohol as a complement to social activities and leisure, it served an extremely important purpose throughout history including ancient history. As mentioned in your post, before refrigeration and modern day preservation and agricultural methods there were no reliable ways to preserve and store crops in their solid form. But by turning it into alcohol, you could have a reliable source of calories that was much easier to store and less prone to going bad or being eaten by rodents, insects, ect. to supplement whatever sources of food you had depending on the season. Almost every major ancient civilization utilized alcohol as far as we know, the Chinese fermented rice, honey, and fruits. The Greeks drank wine and mead, as well as the Iranians, and Egyptians who had multiple variations of beer as well. The indus valley civilizations made alcohol from sugar cane, and other fruits. American civilizations also made their own liquors from maize, honey, pineapples, and other crops. McGovern, Patrick E. (2015) "Fermented beverages of pre and proto-historic China". Dirar, H. (1993), The Indigenous Fermented Foods of the Sudan: A Study in African Food and Nutrition McGovern, Patrick E. (2003) Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture | 2 |
AskReddit/ceh1u19 | 1udupb | What's your "long story short" without saying the long story? | Long story short, I can run two blocks in less than 5 minutes after drinking a 40 oz bottle of spiced rum. Edit: For clarity. | 2 |
AskReddit/es0mgga | c5ag58 | What death bed confessionals rocked the world? | Not really a "death bed" confession, but my great aunt (grandma's sister) who was 15 years older than my grandma told me about 2 months before she died that she was my grandma's actual mother but because she had her at 15 out of wedlock her parents decided to raise the girl as their own daughter and tell her that her mother was her older sister. She begged me not to tell my grandma as it would shatter her whole life. So yeah. That. | 3 |
AskReddit/dx1z2lw | 8avru5 | What is your preferred difficulty in the video games you play, and why? | If it’s a newer game or one with good mechanics, I’ll play on normal or maybe one or two notches higher if I’m familiar with the controls. If it’s older or has worse mechanics, I’ll play the easiest just to get the story. | 2 |
AskReddit/c14h32f | e18pj | Why, in American high schools, are students required to take two years of classical literature classes, but are never required to take any classes that focus on personal finance? | I'm a CPA and I'm obsessed with personal finance, which I think qualifies me to say this: They don't have personal finance in the curriculum because there are few (if any) people in the average high school that are qualified to teach it. | 130 |
explainlikeimfive/ca6tvx7 | 1f4wju | How does placebo effect work when healing a person? | Relieving a symptom is not the same thing as curing the illness. Using a placebo to relieve the pain of an injury or illness does not heal the injury or cure the illness. | 11 |
askscience/cr92gq8 | 35whrj | If you raised an insect within a controlled environment with only one kind of plant, would they go through genetic changes that make them more suitable to a new environment or possibly just have random changes because of the new environment? | This question is a fair bit more complicated than you might expect, but I can break down some of the basics for you. First of all, I'm going to assume that when you say "an insect" you mean "a population of an insect species" rather than a single individual. If you did mean an individual, then the answer is a simple "no". Individuals can't evolve, they can only adapt. If you do mean a population, the answer becomes trickier. A population is the smallest "unit" of life that can evolve (at least, if we're talking about sexually reproducing organisms, like insects), so there's the potential for evolution to occur here. However, if the plant is inedible, likely the whole population will be wiped out immediately in the first generation, since evolution is a gradual process that works generationally. Assuming that the plant is at last partially edible, and that at last some of the population can survive off of it, we're getting closer. The population needs to be large enough to preserve some diversity through each generation; if there's a bottleneck right off the bat that wipes out 90% of the individuals (and genetic diversity), the succeeding generations may be unable to recover and gradually die off in a mini-extinction spiral. I'm realizing that writing prose will take all day, so let's write out a list of basic assumptions and get on with it! We have a decent sized population of insects that are relatively heterogeneous.bare minimum a few hundred individuals. If this insect is say, drosophila melanogaster, a few small bottles can house a couple thousand flies, so we're not outside if the realm of possibilities here. At least some of the insects can digest the plant, and can survive off of it exclusively (otherwise the entire first generation dies, and the experiment ends early). The difference in ability to digest the plant is genetic/heritable, not behavioral (evolution vs. adaptation) Now, if all this holds, there's a decent chance that, over successive generations, the flies well evolve via natural selection to be better at suggesting and extracting nutrients from the plant. Digestion is a highly complex process, though, and not purely genetically controlled (gut microbiota play a large role) so any genomic changes will likely be small and slow. Evolution is defined as "changes in the frequency of alleles within a population", so it certainly fits the bill there, and the same would apply to cold or great tolerance with similar initial caveats. Overall this question is pretty much evo bio 101, and we could break it down a lot more, but I hope this gets at the heart of your question! Sorry for no sources, but I'm on my phone right now. If you'd like I can add some good tutorials that would be related to this question later! | 5 |
AskReddit/eu7nr19 | cf6m25 | What’s your weirdest irrational fear? | I have an irrational fear of zombies. I actually like special effects make up and love Halloween, I often go to haunted houses and even help make props for my local haunted house, but zombies just freak me out. Vampires monologue, they can interact, werewolves can be empathized with to a fault, but zombies, zombies only know hunger, instinctual, primal, hunger. There is no reasoning with them, you can't talk your way out of being attacked. All you can do is run faster than the guy next to you or hope you have a weapon that puts enough distance between you and zombie to successfully kill said zombie, without luring more to your location. Obviously I know zombies most likely will never exist, but then again stuff like Nodding disease happens, and it just seems too close for comfort. | 2 |
AskReddit/ermvhv0 | c2w5nw | What is the strongest scientific argument for human-caused global warming? | And can it refute common objections, like why Al Gore said we'd be underwater by now, that the climate has always been naturally changing like this, and what our planet would be like today without those human effects? Is there an argument that we should just clearly accept? | 2 |
AskReddit/cw3ulv1 | 3p70wq | What is something everyone should know about your mental illness? | I'm a problem solver. I see something wrong and I start working on how I'm going to fix it. If you are like me, please take this hard learned advice - don't try to 'fix' someone who has a mental illness. Unless you are a trained professional, your attempts to "fix" will likely do more harm than good. This doesn't mean you do nothing. If you know someone who has mental illness, just be there for them, offer to help out around the house, offer to take them to a professional. If they open up to you, dont take what you have learned and use it to try and make them feel better. Mental illness is not rational. There is every chance your friend will not appreciate your help, that they will be upset with you for betraying their trust, and then they might not talk to you again. You might think you are great at resolving issues between people. You probably are. That doesn't matter to mental illness, and your determination to get down to the bottom of whats hurting your friend, no matter how well intentioned, is probably going to pudh your friend away. Note - I have observed and have tried to fix a broad spectrum of mental illness in my wife, family and friends, ranging from anxiety to depression to psychosis to bi-polar. I only wanted to help, and now I know the best way for me to help is by making sure I'm there to provide whatever support is necesary. | 19 |
explainlikeimfive/cfqeacn | 1z4av1 | Why doesn't the government simply test things before it decides on a rule? | Assuming youre talking about the American government, large companies control most aspects of our government. Bush Jr. signed a bill that took away nearly all regulations surrounding natural gas fracturing which ended up polluting millions of acres of groundwater across the US. Things arent tested because these companies dont want them to be. Imagine how many things in the grocery store SHOULD be recalled, but dont, The hot pockets recalled recently were just the ones caught. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/cxzavn4 | 3wun4v | Who controls or designs all these Explain bots? | The bots such as Joke explain bot are humans. Some, such as XKCD bot are actual bots programmed by an individual redditor. These bots are run and maintained by whoever runs the account. | 26 |
AskReddit/dotx3c2 | 78hh73 | How could you use a mango and a hammer to ruin your job? | Tell your boss that you're going to perform a magic trick using a hammer and mango. Place the mango under a hat that is on his/her head and then say "when i count to three, it'll disappear". Count to three and smack his/her head with the hammer. You're fired. | 2 |
AskReddit/en7c8yo | bnnk7n | What is the greatest quality of life improvement we should never take for granted? | Currently, I would say antibiotics, vaccines and modern medicine and sanitation in general are things we should never take for granted. What used to easily be a death sentence for humans can now easily be treated. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/c9j199v | 1cqjv9 | How is money made for the publishers from borrowing library books when they are borrowed for free? | Libraries don't operate with (or without) the consent of the publisher. They existed before the concept of "licensing" content really came out, as long as you didn't recreate and redistribute the material, you weren't breaking laws. Public libraries existence and legal protections were enshrined and considered sacrosanct, and aren't really open to legal challenges. On top of which, many people in the publishing industry, at least certain parts of it, have a deep seated passion for reading. It's an industry that, again in certain areas, is dominated by book nerds who love reading. They love libraries as much or more than your average joe, so the culture of these publishing companies is somewhat pro library. | 30 |
askscience/c5sfyn5 | y4soa | How exactly do evolutionary biologists classify and differentiate certain species from another? | The word "species" really refers to a range of grouping concepts, which are practical in nature, rather than corresponding to any single property that holds true across the tree of life. So biologists can choose from a variety of different species concepts according to the organisms and research questions being studied. The unifying idea is that species are clusters of genotypically and phenotypically similar organisms that are evolving independently from each other. Up close, though, the boundaries can get very messy. The question of when a species has evolved into another can be addressed by various criteria. Sexually reproducing lineages can be considered different species when crosses between the lineages no longer produce fertile offspring (i.e., reproductive isolation is complete). Less stringent definitions hold that two populations are different species if the rate of gene flow between them falls below a certain threshold. A related, statistically rigorous approach is to compare a specific measure of between- and within-population instantaneous genetic diversity. The details are too technical to explain here, but the method can be applied to asexual lineages, sexual lineages, and the question of when a single lineage becomes a different species than itself at a previous point in time. In traditional morphological taxonomy, whose techniques still apply to palaeontology, and thus your question, similar comparisons are made, but using morphometric measures rather than genetic ones. | 2 |
AskReddit/ehpv29d | awxem6 | What would you tell a person who has just lost a pet? | If they lost a cat, wait until night time and then start calling for them around they area they got lost. Cats feel safer at night and there's a higher chance of finding them that way. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/cgcgx9g | 21f1ga | Why does a cord still draw power when plugged in to the wall even with no device attached to it? | A transformer is basically a solid wire wrapped into a coil that is plugged into each of the positive and neutral plugs. It uses electromagnetism to send "power" to the other coil that is connected to the electronic devices. No electrons are passed from the wall to your device. Thus, when leaving the transformer device plugged into the wall, you have a continuous load on that outlet. (Many factors come in on how much that load actually is.) FYI, this is also how your house receives it's power also, via a transformer. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/dbvwzv5 | 5li1yj | Why is the golden ratio common to so many things of different nature? | Say you have a seed. Deep down in the genetic code of the seed is the simple genetic code that says "have these cells build more of themselves." If you let all those cells grow, the ratio between old cells and new cells will usually be the golden ratio. The golden ratio is so common in nature because it is the product of such a simple idea: the ratio between the first thing and the second thing is the same as the ratio between both those things and a third thing. It's what you always get when you tell cells or leaves or branches or scales to just "grow more of yourself." | 439 |
AskReddit/c9fdeml | 1cd89y | What rule was put in your household that made living there better? | The private space rule. Each person has a private room or area that is theirs. Within the private area: If someone is in there you must ask before interrupting them. If they tell you to go away, go away and don't get upset about it. Mess immunity within reason. No complaining about anyone's clutter in their private space unless you are directly affected (eg they are hoarding an item that all household members use like bowls, their mess is attracting ants, etc). The complaint must take place in a common area . no yelling at someone when they're in their space. The private area can be decorated any way the owner wants. No entering the private area without the express permission of the owner. | 5 |
AskReddit/dg2i3pj | 64j2iv | What do you hate about Monday mornings the most? | The worst thing is that blissful moment of sleep shattered when you realise it is Monday. The morning itself isn't too bad as I am in some kind of post-weekend haze. Tuesdays are the worst for me, there is nothing good about Tuesdays at all. | 10 |
AskReddit/d95gyjc | 5942gr | Which song brings back the most, saddest, best (or anything else) memories when you listen to it? | My answer will not make sense without backstory, but you asked for sad so I promise to deliver. I've shared similar pieces before, so some of you may recognize my story. Well, without further ado: Birthdays meant a lot to me and my sister growing up. They were your holiday and yours alone -- when gifts were given and the menu and agenda and were all yours to set. No matter what else arose, birthdays cheered me up. But times moved on, and I moved too. I found myself in a new town, Boston, with my then girlfriend Jane. I can no longer recall why times were trying before my birthday, only that they were. But I knew my birthday would cheer me up. It came and nearly went, all without mention. My parents hadn't forgotten, we had plans later that month. Life gets busier as you get older, and that's when we could make it work. But no call came nor email either to remind me happy birthday. I had moved with Jane, and recently, so had no other friends. Even she forgot the date. Though again we had later plans, again disappointment. After looking forward to birthdays all my childhood it was a letdown right when I needed something to pick me up. I went to bed early and depressed. At 11:30 I awoke to my ringing phone, but did not catch the call. My sister left a voicemail singing happy birthday. She could never forget something so special. Knowing that, and hearing her call made the day all worthwhile. It was her hallmark to be so thoughtful and so caring, even though she was half the world away in med school in New Zealand. Late as the hour was, she alone was not late. She was the only one to not forget the date. She had almost finished her residency a few years later when she stole the syringe she used to kill herself. Her death was intentional. She left 32 notes, one for every person for whom she cared and one for each who cared for her. It was so like her to always care, even in her final act. At her funeral, I had that thought. She was no longer there to care, no longer there to remember when everyone else forgot. It was up to me now to never forget her. Sitting there in the hardwood pews I heard her sing that birthday voicemail in my mind, but no longer happy, now slow and sad, a minor tone to the tune. And I wept. The song wrecks me, even now. There in the middle of the birthday party, alone in the celebration, a tear slips down my cheek as I hear her sing and remember my sister, the one who would never forget. | 2 |
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