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AskReddit/eyp483t | cxzhup | What’s the creepiest thing you’ve ever witnessed? | This actually happened last night. Me and my friend were walking home from a party, and we passed a generally abandoned campground. We heard a dog barking, which was unusual since it was one in the morning. The bark sounded weird though. It kept persisting, until we both realized what it actually was. It was a guy imitating a dog’s bark. We heard insanely aggressive crunches coming from the woods, so we booked it back to my friends house. Maybe not the creepiest thing ever, but it really freaked us out. | 3,424 |
AskReddit/ctcvvqx | 3e8qpc | What's the happiest you've ever been, how long did it last, & how does it compare to now? | In my early to mid twenties getting college degree, marriage, first house, everything was exciting and new, taking life for granted. Then had premature baby at 26 weeks. She died three weeks later. I have two great kids now, and life is just "really good" for me now (20 years later). I've never been the same. I'm happy, but not at the level I once was. | 2 |
askscience/dbosqvo | 5kgmog | What is the likelihood of their being an extremely large animal hidden in the depths of the ocean? | Presumably you mean just the parts of the ocean under a certain depth. In fact there are probably things in just the open parts of the oceans over great depths aswell. As an example we know that there is a beaked whale, the spade toothed whale, that does definitely exist. Until 2013 it was only known from certain partial skeletons found around the Pacific. In 2013 a mother and calf were washed up dead in New Zealand. They were at first misidentified and buried. They have since been dug up for examination. They are the only full specimens in the world of a species noone has ever seen alive. If we can know nothing about a large animal (the mother was like 6.5m) like this that surfaces at least every hour then it is more than feasible to assume there are large animals we dont even have hints about yet. | 12 |
askscience/c5hzh0e | x043a | Is it possible to break stone using only the surface tension of water? | The surface tension isn't what killed Buster. It's the water's resistance to movement that deccelerates the object hitting the water. Surface tension refers to the cohesive forces of water, and its contribution in this scenario is very low. | 18 |
askscience/c7q9m9x | 15vs2z | Why is DNA made up of adenine, thymine, cytosine, and guanine? | The nucleotide bases are particularly good for storing infomation. They have 3 bonding positions, 2 are used to create the main chain, the last to form a weak bond with a matching base. This makes them particularly good at storing information, being read and being copied. Other chains have some of these properties, but DNA wins out on them. From memory, I believe there are 20 or so possible bases that form naturally. (Evolution was a take what you can get game back then) Some of them are better than others at the job. Some bond to weakly, some to strongly, others interact with other chemicals. At least 4 were particularly good for the job, at least back when it evolved. Why 4 bases? We don't really know, but we can make some guesses. It might just be fluke. The first system to work well had 4 bases and simply overwhelmed the other versions. It could also be that only those 4 bases were suitable at the time and so they came to dominate. The third option is that 4 bases has a particular benefit. 2 bases give the lowest ambiguity to the data (hence why computers are binary) but 20 give maximum information storage ability. 4 Might just be a good balance point. There is an intreaguing thing about the 4 bases thing though. In quantum computing Grover's algorithm only takes 1 computational check to match a base. 4 times faster than a traditional sorting algorithm. At 5 bases it takes 2 checks on average. DNA copying is one of the most critical tasks a cell does, it also happens to be faster than it 'should' be almost 4 times faster. It is also done on the same scale that current quantum computers can work on the same algorithms. Might be fluke, but there would be a huge advantage to it. As for why we still have 4 bases. The DNA coding system is highly conserved. It's akin to a computer language. You can change the code and make slight changes, that might be better. But if you change the way the code is interpreted and compiled, it will likely break it. In sort, once the DNA/RNA system became established, changing away became almost impossible. Any change to it would be deadly. | 36 |
AskReddit/c0gjdek | a9xuz | Why don't cars have MP3 players yet? | Well, technically almost every new car I've seen will play MP3's from a CD. I remember seeing this many years ago, but it's just now becoming somewhat of a standard. As far as hard drives go, I think we are just getting ready to see that become more popular. Chrysler offers a stereo in some cars called the "My-Gig". Last I checked it was a 30 Gig hard drive for MP3's and media. Just the other day I saw a commercial for another car (I think Lincoln) that included a 40 gig drive in their car as well. | 2 |
AskReddit/e9uswnj | 9xsagp | How do you think social media will be different in say 15 or 20 years? | Tbh I really hope social media dies all together.it really has a negative affect on most people and I can’t believe how many ppl do things just for a “good” insta photo / the amount of insta models with so much plastic surgery living their “perfect” lives that are so far from perfect. | 2 |
AskReddit/cx0h27y | 3sugkl | What is the dumbest argument you've ever had with someone? | My dear friend threatened to never speak to me again because i like Dave Matthews. I got pretty offended that he'd suggest our relationship could be derailed over such a tiny thing. I might've overreacted. He was clearly kidding, but I think I really was worried he'd realize I wasn't cool enough for him at the time. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/e5tkbja | 9f3kwv | Why do batteries in series increase voltage but not current? | Just being in series doesn't change the internal resistence of a cell, and consequently the amount of current it can put out. (The voltage across each cell in series is still the voltage difference across the single cell) | 4 |
AskReddit/etj6lcp | cbymao | What are your scary/crazy story at an amusement/theme park? | Craziest story (probs not that crazy tho) was a few years ago I was at an amusement park. I went on one of those rides which was kinda like the boat rides, and so it would have you upside and in the air, upside down. There was signs everywhere before warning about not having items in your pockets and such, nothing unusual. Sitting in front of me was a man and his girlfriend. Nothing odd yet, but me and my brother had heard them arguing a bit over if they should leave her phone and money with the guy in the booth (he had, she didn't because she had the new Iphone or whatever and didnt want the worker to steal it). Then, obviously, her new phone and money flew out of her pocket mid-way (she let go to hold onto the bars as we were in the air). However, she began to scream at her BOYFRIEND for not telling her. She kept this up until we were off the ride, and made HIM go around picking up what money they could find and the guy working the ride had to go under to get the phone that had slid behind the ride. The boyfriend took it. When she got her phone back she screamed at him again about how he owed her a new one. crazy woman. | 3 |
AskReddit/ea5zm0i | 9z3hs1 | How do you attract women when you're not physically attractive? | 1) Look for women who are looking for you. Everyone's attractive to somebody. 2) Look for women who rank physical attractiveness lower than other attributes. 3) Play up your other positive attributes. Things like humor, friendliness, etc. 4) Can you do magic? If you can, do it. If you can't, learn it. It makes for a great icebreaker. 5) If all else fails, join a band. | 64 |
AskReddit/c7ub93g | 16av1l | What's the rudest thing you've ever said in front of the most innocent person you know? | I was hanging out with a group of people and I said "your mom!" to some kid I only kind of knew. Right after I said it, there was a noticeable tension in the air. He uncomfortably said that his mother died when he was young and he'd appreciate it if I didn't say that again. The kid was pretty annoying and I wasn't sure whose friend it was. Anyway, I forgot about his dead mom and like 15 minutes later said another "your mom!" joke. He turned scarlet and said he was sick and had to leave. I started laughing when he left and my friends were kind of ambivalent about it. One girl told me that I'm super rude to my friends. I was like, he isn't my friend. Then we couldn't figure out whose friend he was sort of thing. A few weeks later, my friend started to bang him which caused him to stalk her for like 6 months pretty hardcore. I helped her go through the process to get a restraining order and he stopped after she got him arrested for violating a restraining order. tl;dr I said a "your mom!" joke to a kid whose mother died then he ended up stalked my friend after she boned him. It's an open question as to how he got invited into our group in the first place. | 3 |
AskReddit/dda8d1k | 5runi9 | How do your adult nightmares differ from your childhood ones? | Childhood nightmares usually consisted of monsters chasing me, going to school without pants on, hooking up with hot chicks. Adulthood, nightmares about work, family, money, health issues, etc. | 2 |
Ask_Politics/e798g4d | 9lsvsw | How do FBI background investigations work? | The FBI performs a background check of the President’s nominee primarily to inform the President. Not to inform Congress and not to inform the people. As such, it’s up to the President to request and set parameters. That said, Presidents normally share this information with the Senate to facilitate their confirmation of the President’s nominee. On a related note, the President’s preview to set parameters described above notwithstanding, I don’t think the President limited the FBI to whom they could or could not talk with regards to this 7th investigation. Edit - it’s not an exact analogy but it’s like the boss of a company getting a background check of a prospective employee, to inform the boss, not to inform customers of the company. | 3 |
Ask_Politics/eylyyz4 | cxkrpj | Are all Presidential telephone calls logged at the White House? | Don't forget that Trump uses his personal cell all the time despite both that it's unsecure and that no calls are logged. He gave out his personal cell number to foreign leaders after his inauguration and insisted they use that to call him. So far we know he had spoken to Trudeau on his personal cell and that only became known (even to the White House) after Canada published a report on it. | 11 |
AskReddit/dcgehaa | 5o3u9h | If people from ancient times were brought back to life and thrown into our society, what would they be most confused about? | The speed of everything. Before planes, trains and automobiles, the fastest form of transport was probably horse and cart. Now, you can get to the other side of the globe in less than 24 hours. You can get in a car and get to the other side of the country in less than a day. You could travel further in twenty minutes by train than past civilizations traveled in a day. Added to that, the number of people that you interact with. 500 years ago, chances are you wouldn't have ventured out of your village. You probably came across 200 people, who were in your life throughout your life, and depending on your location, seldom saw a passing traveler. Now, though, you can see more people in an hour at McDonald's than you would have seen in a lifetime back then. | 2 |
AskHistorians/c5aa3yl | w4z28 | What is the oldest record of charity? | I couldn't say, but it's clear from religious texts such as the Torah/Old Testament that it was going on at least during the classical era (and before then, it gets hard to find any kind of record of it). From what we know of less literate societies in modern times (e.g. the Papua New Guinean tribesmen), chances are excellent that charity existed in prehistoric times. It just seems to be a human thing. You mention "help children from less developed countries" - and that is a relatively modern phenomenon. By and large, charity was aimed at people in the local community until recently. | 3 |
AskReddit/eku52jf | bcwh6q | If you have been named after someone, who you were named after and why? | I was named after a character in a book and my great grandmother. My parents thought I was going to be a boy so they didn't pick out a girl's name and my mom just used the heroine from the romance novel she was reading for my first name, my dad picked my middle name be he thought it was pretty and unique (she was Mom's grandma, not his, he juts really liked it). | 2 |
AskReddit/c3kyb29 | oy2d7 | Is it racist for me to be proud that I'm white? | "White" isn't really a cultural identity itself. It's okay to take pride in your ethnicity and heritage, but to claim that it's simply "white american", then within the context of the US, it is racist. Take pride in being european or american as a whole and the heritage that comes with that, but to say you take pride in being a "white" in america means you marginalize all the other accomplishements of other non-white americans. Why it's an acceptable double standard to take pride in being black in the US that most black people were stripped of their culture when they were enslaved and they lost that cultural identity. Taking pride in being black in america is the creation of a shared cultural identity. In a perfect world they would have been able to retain that culturral/heritage sense, but they have been forced to build a new history for themselves. | 8 |
AskReddit/dd6hnk1 | 5rduwl | What to do when you would benefit from therapy but find therapist dynamics unpleasant? | Keep searching for a more complimentary person for your therapy dynamic. If you can afford to keep searching, Do not settle for someone who is 'meh'. I went through years of different therapists, psychologists, and treatments. Took me a long time to find someone who was effective and on my level. Was worth the search. | 2 |
AskHistorians/ewycmqk | cqoxbg | Why did N Vietnam invade Cambodia? | Communism in SE Asian largely started with Vietnam. Communist parties initially sought independence from France, and were hugely influenced by Ho Chin Minh and the Vietnamese Communist Party. From after WWII to just before the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese and Cambodian Communists worked incredibly closely with each other, initially beginning as anti-colonial forces. In both the first Indochina War and the Vietnam War, Vietnamese troops used Cambodia for supply lines and to hide troops, and the Cambodian Communist Party had many Vietnamese members who helped to guide its foundation. The term "Khmer Viet Minh" was used to describe many of the early Cambodian communists, as significant numbers were trained in Vietnam and worked closely with the Vietnamese Viet Minh. However, the Vietnamese Communists envisioned a united Indochina largely dominated by Vietnam, while many Cambodian Communists saw this relationship as too subservient to Vietnam. After the Geneva Conference in 1954, the Viet Minh and all Vietnamese communists had to pull out of Cambodia, in accordance with the conference. This, combined with actions of the monarchy that decimated the moderate Communists, allowed more radical elements of the Communist Party under Pol Pot to take control. It was during the following years, where Vietnam was involved in the Vietnam War and Cambodia devolved into civil war, that breakdowns began to occur between the two Communist parties. Vietnam wanted the Cambodians communists to stay peaceful and win through elections; they feared that an armed conflict would destabilize the region too much, and they were embroiled in a war and thus wanted stability from their allies. The monarchy's anti-Americanism was seen as good enough by the Vietnamese, and they refused Pol Pot's requests for weapons. The Cambodian civil war deserves separate reading on its own, but long story short, the prince enacts policies to please conservatives that leads to the radicalization of the Communists, Lon Nol stages a coup, and the American-backed Nol government fights the Maoist Communists under Pol Pot, a war that the Communists win. Significantly, during the war, Lon Nol led massive anti-Vietnamese purges and massacres that riled up Cambodian nationalism, and Pol Pot continued these as they served his interests. This obviously strained things between Cambodia, now firmly in the Chinese/Maoist Communist camp, and Vietnam, which was in its own camp and sought to exert its influence. Pol Pot's anti-Vietnamese rhetoric culminated in incursions on Vietnamese land and the massacre of hundreds of civilians, further straining tensions. In the buildup to the Cambodia-Vietnam War, the Vietnamese saw anti-Vietnamese sentiments and a throwing away of "true" Marxism-Leninism in Cambodia, while Cambodia saw a growing Vietnam attempting to absorb Laos and Cambodia into itself. The atrocities committed by Cambodia on ethnic Vietnamese was a major reason for the invasion, as well as the desire to replace the heavily anti-Vietnam Khmer Rouge with a more pro-Vietnam party that would help foster their dreams of a Vietnam-dominated Communist Indochina. The West didn't support it because it was an infraction on Cambodian sovereignty by invading Vietnamese troops; China didn't support it because the Khmer Rouge was squarely in their basket; and the USSR did support it because the Vietnamese Communists were more closely aligned with the Soviets than the Cambodian Communists were. | 23 |
AskReddit/dc9yrlf | 5nahhb | Why is it the price for medical treatment is unknown until after the procedure or visit? | Supposedly because it cannot be predicted what exact services you will need, and the doctors treating you are unable to name the price of each procedure. But there are plenty of businesses that have this kink figured out, it's just that the medical profession relies on the inelasticity and monopoly status. | 7 |
AskReddit/c9kk27w | 1cw7x5 | What's a good hobby to start? | Coding, building computers, archery. Coding Coding is probably the cheapest of these. All you need is a laptop with a nice keyboard, and then go to codecademy.com to start learning HTML. I learnt a good bit of HTML this way within a week or so, and am moving on to CSS now. Building Computers Most expensive, but enjoyable. You really get in touch with the insides of a computer and when its done and you finally sit down to use it, it feels more like something of yours than anything else. Archery It's very enjoyable launching sharp sticks into things. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/cwtidsx | 3s26ax | Why can't you revive a dead person? | In some cases, you can revive people whose hearts have stopped. But it all depends on why their heart has stopped. The heart is a muscle. Sometimes it stops because it's damaged. It got increasingly damaged over time, or suffered from a severe, instantaneous damage (such as with a heart attack, where what might happen is that the blood supply is blocked to a certain section of the heart, and as a result, that section has died), and now it simply won't work any more because it's too broken, much like an athlete that tears a muscle in the middle of a race can't get up and start running again. Except this is worse than tearing a muscle, because part of the muscle is dead. You might get the undamaged part to beat, but it doesn't matter because the damaged part is doing nothing, so the heart is overall ineffective at circulating blood. So it's a cascading effect of damage causing more damage causing death. CPR almost never works, unlike how it's depicted in TV shows and movies. Only about 2% of patients who have received CPR actually recover fully, with about 16% recovering enough to survive to leave the hospital, yet most of those people are still quite ill in a permanent way. CPR just keeps some blood circulating in the body until the professionals can get there and start the serious work of getting a heart started again. One time when CPR maybe can get a heart started again is if a person has been electrocuted. In that case, the person may not have suffered any heart damage, they may just have suffered interference with the electrical signals in the heart, but the heart can recover, given a short time. Sometimes, despite damage to the heart, they can get it working again and you live, but there's still damage, so even though a person looks alive and recovered, they're still suffering from some problems. The heart might work a bit, but can't take a strain. Or the heart might work, but not for long. People who were pronounced dead and then wake up are few and far between, but they do get a lot of publicity when it happens. Usually, their vital signs get very low. Their heart is beating, but weakly and slowly. Weakly and slowly enough that it's not detectable. But then they start to recover, and wake up. But few actually live long after that, because they were already pretty ill. | 8 |
AskReddit/e5b43m7 | 9cj3te | What is the best way you save money? | When I want to shop I go online to browse and add things in my cart. Then I don’t buy them. If I really want it a couple of weeks later I may get something but usually I’m over it. Doesn’t help me save money so much as it helps me not waste money that I need for other things. | 2 |
askscience/cacbnn6 | 1fnme2 | Are heart attacks an important cause of death in animals other than humans? | Just a quick clarification of terms though I'm not actually answering your question. Heart failure = the heart doesn't fill and pump like it's supposed to due to things like the muscle being damaged (heart attack), too big too fill (high blood pressure, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), constricted, or too dilated and unable squeeze (lots of things). Heart disease is a catch all term for anything affecting the heart. Coronary artery disease refers to the formation of plaques in the heart arteries. A plaque may rupture with the subsequent clot impeding blood flow and causing a heart attack. A heart attack may lead to heart failure if enough muscle tissue is damaged. Edit: left out a very important "not" | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/cucdewq | 3i0gxh | Why are power-line pillars different shapes? | Just like any other structure, there are a lot of factors that drive a power transmission line's design. Primary is voltage. The higher the voltage, the larger the required spacing to the other lines and to any part of the structure. Local terrain, weather, loading from the line itself, leasing/purchase of land rights, federal/state/county/local codes and laws, material availability, contractor quoting, and a lot of other concerns must be taken into account when engineering a transmission line. | 2 |
AskReddit/e5tomg6 | 9f3wap | What do you learn in school, that is completely useless in the real world? | School often places a high emphasis on rote memorization and learning facts without understanding the deeper underlying principles and/or contexts. You can earn good grades by remembering facts. On paper, you're doing well. Unfortunately, this emphasis on facts irrespective of principles and context, leads many people to fail in situations where you need to solve complex problems, think through difficult situations, or approach something that has little precedent. In other words, school often teaches how to appear smart without actually learning how to solve problems on your own. The leaders in any industry are not following the thoughts of others, they're forging their own ideas based on a deep understanding of their domains. | 6 |
AskReddit/d5bv98g | 4ssxns | What movie was really bad but you still love it? | Starship Troopers! What a masterpiece of a movie. "This is for all you new people. I have only one rule. Everybody fights, no one quits. If you don't do your job, I'll kill you myself! Welcome to the Roughnecks! " Edit: I know the movie is a self-aware satire movie that went unrecognized by critics at the time, but if you didn't know anything about the movie you'd have no idea much I did when I first watched it but still loved it. | 121 |
AskHistorians/cgmrdai | 22g1q7 | Were Japan and the United States bound to go to war, regardless to what was happening in Europe? | Japan in the early 20th century possessed a large population, rapidly modernizing society, and burgeoning industry, but was short of space and resource poor. Their solution to this quandary was to join the "great game," that is to say, become a colonial power. As early as 1894-95, when the Japanese roundly thrashed China in the Sino-Japanese War, Japan had been attempting to gain a lodgement in China. As a result of this war they gained the coastal city of Port Arthur, but were compelled by threat of military intervention by France, Germany and Russia to cede it back to China. After winning another crushing victory in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905, Japan took control of Port Arthur and would hold it for the next forty years. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea. In 1931, taking advantage of the chaos which gripped China, Japan staged an incident as a pretext to annexing Northeastern China, called Manchuria. In 1937, Japan utilized a minor border skirmish to begin an all-out conquest of China, under the pretext that rather than annexing it into its empire, Japan was saving China from the rapacious westerners who had sent her reeling into chaos forty years earlier following the Boxer Rebellion. China at this time was divided between the Nationalists and the Communists, who were enjoying quite the bitter civil war. Partially as a result of the publicization of Japanese atrocities, most famously the weeks-long orgy of destruction known as the Rape of Nanking, and perhaps out of fear that European and American colonial possessions would be next on Japan's shopping list, western opinion turned sharply against the Japanese. The United States, who remained Japan's primary supplier of oil and steel, enacted increasingly stern economic measures to attempt to force Japan out of China, eventually stopping the aforementioned oil and steel trade. With these materials cut off, Japan faced a choice between retreat from China and war with the United States. Japan's government felt trapped between two miserable options. Either they entered into a virtually unwinnable war with a nation that both severely outnumbered them and possessed more than ten times the industrial capacity, or they faced the potentially ruinous consequences of backing down. There was a very real threat that hardliner elements within the Japanese military would coup the government if any attempt to pursue the latter course was attempted. So, Japan went to war. | 15 |
AskReddit/etkjqu3 | cc51go | How do you kill boredom when you're working a boring monotonous job? | So I work in a cosmetics packaging facility, where the job entails opening boxes, closing boxes, labeling boxes, making boxes, etc. Lots of box stuff. Headphones and cell phones are not allowed on the work floor, so the common time killers are a no-go. I usually just hum to some of my favorite songs that i remember the lyrics to. (barely audible to anybody around me due how loud the machines are). Also this may seem odd, but I make random top ten lists in my head. I think of a category, and I try to make a top ten list for it. Just having something interesting to think about helps out a lot. | 2 |
AskHistorians/cf05268 | 1wacir | Why did the capital of Japan move from Kyoto to Tokyo after the Meiji Restoration? | Tokugawa Ieyasu's power base in Japan back in the 1600s was in the Kanto region, which was given to him by Hideyoshi after the Hojo clan was defeated. As such, the Shogunate's residence was in Edo, where his personal demesne, if you will, along with his most loyal retainers and armies. So while the Emperor stayed in Kyoto, the center of Japan shifted to Edo. By the time of the Meiji Restoration, Japanese governmental institutions were so entrenched in Edo that it was convenient for the Meiji Emperor to just move into the former Shogun's castle, which became the Imperial Palace. | 8 |
AskReddit/cn0f558 | 2pveod | How did you cope with the loss of a loved parent? | I lost my dad 10 years ago rather suddenly. I don't think you really cope with it, you just keep living and as time goes on it gets a bit easier. I think about my dad a lot and it helps that I think he would be happy with the life I have now and with the way everything has turned out. There's always a piece of your heart missing and you always feel the loss. My suggestion to you would be to spend as much time with your dad as you can. Go to dinner, go see movies, hang out and spend time together. | 2 |
AskReddit/cw40psn | 3p8gu5 | What's the most innocuous stereotypical or racist observation you've come to believe over the years? | Black people always have phone numbers with area codes that aren't the area you're in or even one nearby. I have nearly four years of data to support this very specific and odd stereotype after having to enter customers' phone numbers into my computer at work. | 3 |
AskReddit/cgpcyrk | 22qegd | How can a company advertise a product as "waterproof" and then not cover water damages in a warranty? | This is why most devices are marked as "water resistant" and not "water proof". Some will list a depth up to which they're rated to resist water entry. If your device is listed as "waterproof" and received water damage while being used in the prescribed manner, I would contact the company. Warranties should always cover manufacturer defect. | 2 |
AskReddit/dfbkt7k | 614aqj | What did you eat that made you say, "I shouldn't have eaten that"? | Not me personally but a coworker. We'd already made the poor choice of going to Long John Silvers for lunch. He bought some chicken plate, got about halfway through one of the pieces of chicken, and found a big black spot in the center of it. He spent most of the rest of the day in the bathroom and refuses to go back there ever again. | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/dd7uusu | 5rk0bm | What is the difference between relative humidity and dew point? | They are related in that they are both measures of the amount of water in the air. Relative humidity compares how much water vapor is in the air to how much water vapor the air could possibly hold at the current temperature. It is a measure of how saturated the air is compared to how saturated it could be. Dew point is the temperature at which the current amount of water vapor in the air would be the maximum amount. Since as the air temperature cools, it can hold less water vapor, there is a temperature where the air can no longer hold the water vapor it currently has. That's the dew point. | 8 |
AskReddit/c6lsrt8 | 11eoxg | Why is the Devil so evil if he tortures the bad people? | Another good one, if Satan's so evil, why did he kill only 10 people in the bible (Jobs 7 sons and 3 daughters, with God's permission) while God in his holy wisdom killed millions? | 10 |
AskReddit/cjrrk5m | 2dpf3g | What's something that was painfully obvious to the rest of the world but took you too long to figure out? | Maybe not "rest of the world" obvious, but I lived in a town for 10 years before I realized that the local bar, Club Soda, was actually just the worst beverage pun ever, not JUST a stupid name. | 2 |
AskReddit/cetcf3a | 1vl7qv | What's the best tea to drink if you're switching from coffee? | Teavana makes some really nice teas with caffeine. They have a mate called My Morning Mate. Also, my favorite combo with lots of caffeine is the MateVana mixed with Rooibos Chai, with lots of sugar. Lots of caffeine without any of the horrible coffee side affects. | 2 |
AskReddit/e2wbohk | 919dlb | What hobbies are good for public transport? | I'm starting a job soon that I will have to use public transport to get to. Will likely mean a lot of waiting around. Thought a hobby would make it a little less painful - something that isn't disruptive and I can dip in and out of. Already considered reading/podcasts but looking for something creative. Wondering if anyone has any ideas. | 3 |
AskReddit/ccwzxks | 1oytk1 | What are some must-have household items under $20 (USD) that everyone should have? | Go to the 99 cents store. You got it made with 20 bucks! $10 in household prodcts.trash bags, sponges, etc. $10 in staples.toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex. etc. | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/c35c85p | n0enz | Why is Separation of a nation's Military and Police so important? | The military and the police in theory are supposed to have very different philosophies. For example, the police should have philosophies like "innocent until proven guilty", while the military have philosophies like "shoot first, ask questions later." Police officers want to "protect innocents", while military want to "end conflicts". Military leaders generally accept "all's fair in war", while police leaders assert things must be done "by the book". | 3 |
AskReddit/cfohlnk | 1ywy6l | What is your craziest "wrong number" story? | Last four digits of my number were the same as a popular local radio station. Any time it snowed I'd get calls starting at about 5am asking if school was cancelled. Every. Single. Time. I told them "Yes." | 5 |
AskReddit/c2lqoww | kntst | What is your favorite color and why? | Pink. of course. It has been my favorite color since I was little. I would guess it comes from parents getting everything pink for girls. This was the case when I was growing up, not so much now. My favorite color combination is pink, black, & silver. | 2 |
AskReddit/co4p7pp | 2u37qi | What song instantly makes you think of a movie scene? | It's such a good song but every time I hear Time to Pretend by MGMT I think of the opening scene of that Blackjack movie "21" when that dude is riding his bike across that bridge. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/ddz7lxs | 5v4sif | What is the difference between sound waves and electromagnetic waves (light)? | Sound is a vibration through a medium. It requires something to move through. You hear sound when the vibration reaches your ear. You can feel a sound if it vibrates your body. Electromagnetic radiation is a self propagating electric and magnetic field. Electric fields can make magnetic fields and magnetic fields can make electric fields. These fields can interact with matter (you see light when it hits your eye) but they dont need matter in order to move. | 3 |
AskReddit/ew58400 | cmwz6h | What did you do while Reddit was down? | Left my Reddit cave. Found a job. Improved my peronal hygiene. Started reading more. Fell in love. Got promoted. Started eating more vegetables and lifting weights. Got married. Started my own company. Had a son. Business took off. Sent my son off to college. Sold the business. Took my wife on vacation. Found peace. But now that Reddit is back up its back to the cave for this guy. Woo-hoo! | 4 |
AskReddit/cbsu32a | 1kumcl | What is the most haunting song you have ever heard? | Fiction - Avenged Sevenfold Hearing The Rev's voice on that track, knowing that it was recorded only a short time before he died and that it was just scratch vocals, no actual lyrics had been written for the song yet, it gives me chills every time I hear it. Rest in peace Jimmy. | 8 |
AskReddit/c1fbnux | fehux | Why were Looney Tunes tattoos so inexplicably popular in the early 90s? | Because 20-somethings at that time grew up watching Looney Tunes. They played daily on many local networks, and they aired on Saturday as well. It was pretty much standard viewing from '75 to '85. | 2 |
AskReddit/c2jhvcy | kdya9 | To those who ever worked at a fast-food drive through, what is the strangest thing you've ever seen/ happened to you? | I worked at subway, and every day this stern faced woman would come in and order a salad. The thing about this salad was she wanted a pile of shredded cheese on it. Like half of the container of shredded cheese. If the person didn't put enough she would tell them, with the most serious tone and face, "More." I always thought she was kinda bitchy, until it came around that I was the only one on the line, and she came in. I watched others as they made her salad, so I just dumped half the container onto her salad, and spread it out, so she wouldn't have to tell me she wanted more. She gave me the most awesome smile and said, "You are the only one that has ever done it right, all the other girls are too finicky and never put enough cheese. I love my cheese. You are making my salads from now on if you can." | 57 |
AskReddit/c7d7y5n | 14hy1r | Has anybody had a believable experience with a psychic medium? | A psychic predicted my gender and my birth. My grandmother loved going to the casinos, and she befriended some psychic/medium. At the time, my mother had been previously thought to be infertile and had been trying to get pregnant for over ten years. The psychic said that a little girl would be born in July. When my mother was pregnant with me she wanted the gender to be a surprise, so most of my clothes and toys were unisex or hand-me-downs from my male cousins. My grandmother made sure to get me everything and anything feminine before the birth, which made my mother anxious since she had a rough pregnancy and didn't want to get up and return a bunch of stuff after my birth. I was actually due to be born in mid-to-late August, but due to a birth defect, I was born by emergency c-section in July. When the nurse came in to get my grandmother, she exclaimed "So how is my granddaughter?" It could be dumb luck, of course. She also had a near 50/50 when it came to the gender. I just always thought the infertility plus the date was a bit weird. | 2 |
AskReddit/deowzfy | 5ycg85 | What TV show has had the biggest impact on your life? | Honestly, Rescue Me. I was in college when I watched it through and through on Netflix and I was at the tipping point of alcoholism and Dennis Leary's character was very impacting on my life. I didn't want to be like that and cut back. Still drink years later but never will I get to the point of drinking a case every 3 days in my room by myself. | 3 |
askscience/chk3lcw | 25qvxf | Do ants really only think in algorithms? | Firstly, 'thinking in algorithms' doesn't really mean anything specific. Thoughts are algorithms in some sense, and everything probably thinks in algorithms. >The author says that this ant does not know why it is doing those action. The author doesn't know what the ant knows. He's probably doing some anthropomorphic projection; "if I were an ant ." >But if it didn't know, then where or why did it evolve this trait? The ant didn't evolve that trait. The ant species evolved to produce ants that have the instinct to react the way they do. Evolution doesn't require awareness to function. All that has to happen is the the actions you choose to do coincidentally happen to keep you alive better than other actions. You don't need to be aware that they work -- you can do it by instinct, as habit, or for ritual. The ant has an instinct to behave this way because it's ancestors (who also behaved this way) happened to survive and pass it on. This has nothing to do with what the ant knows or what it thinks. Evolution can't care what individuals think or know. If you reproduce, your internal machinery and biological patterns will reproduce as well. | 13 |
AskReddit/d2wxt8u | 4icd7g | What is your favorite "Roses are red, Violets are blue, ." ? | Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red They won't shut up Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red Will this torment never cease? Roses are red Roses are red Roses are red I'm going to murder everyone | 15 |
AskReddit/dquudl5 | 7hz1g3 | What’s an occupation that’s a lot more difficult than people think it is? | Pharmacy. Lots of people think we just "slap labels on bottles", count pills, and run the cash register. That is only like 90% of what we do. Seriously though - if you have a long wait at the pharmacy, the pharmacist might just be taking their time so they don't kill somebody, or let a prescriber kill somebody. edit: I'm glad this comment has blown up. There's a lot of good conversation going on in the following threads and a few stories too. (some positive, some not so much) When I said 90% I'm being a little tongue-in-cheek. Most of my time is actually spent navigating insurance companies, following up with providers on coverage and et cetera. I am not a pharmacist. They're the ones with the education and training (and liability) to use their professional judgment to declare if therapies are appropriate, effective, and safe. If you like your pharmacy team, just be pleasant and I promise they'll love you for it. If you don't like your pharmacy team, I hope you can find somewhere else to go! It's not all bad | 2,508 |
explainlikeimfive/e2hn05q | 8zcgg0 | Can someone the difference in the words out loud and aloud? | Loud is a sound with high volume. Aloud means "not silent" and is used almost exclusively to describe speech. Jet engines are loud. You read aloud to the class. | 2 |
AskReddit/dg130wm | 64ckpv | What's the oddest thing you've seen for sale on Gumtree, Craigslist or Facebook selling groups? | I belong to a fb selling group for the students at my college. For context, there aren't a ton of continuing education students or students with children here. Some lady who lives in the area keeps posting baby and child products - cribs, old playpens, even a breast milk pumping kit - for sale. Unsurprisingly no one replies to her posts, and she's posted multiple rants now about how no one buys her things | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/dmgwjzn | 6xmfmq | How do migratory birds fly over great distances without getting tired? | They stop to roost at night, and they catch updrafts when possible. They fly in formation to reduce wind resistance. But the answer to your question really is that they do get tired. The weaker birds don't make it. | 9 |
AskReddit/cg6letc | 20tna9 | Is Obama really that bad of a president? | Opinions of presidents always moderates over time. For a long time, most historians put Jimmy Carter down as the worst president ever, but he's moved up a few spots in most rankings now. Obama is ranked pretty low because his foreign policy has made us the laughing stock of the world, and he hasn't done anything to help the economy at home either. His "signature" legislature is the "affordable healthcare act" (AKA Obamacare) which has not achieved any of the original goals. . . | 2 |
askscience/d0fr9sd | 47t3l0 | What is the mechanism that causes my heart rate to increase with physical exertion? | It's a brain signal, you have the SA and the VA node that control the rate at which the heart pumps. Your brain simply detects it is exercising and needs more oxygen and less waste products. When you're exercising, you need more oxygen and you are also generating more waste, but you already know this. Heart beat is a subconscious activity and your brain simply tells your heart to beat faster because it basically feels it's being deprived of oxygen during intense exercise. | 2 |
AskReddit/emnpvr8 | blefto | What is a scent,activity or thing that takes you back to your childhood? | The smell of rain hitting wet soil. That brings me right back to my childhood, sitting by the window, doing my homework, wanting to go outside to get soaked. What a romantic memory. | 3 |
AskReddit/c8yigu9 | 1alkkd | What is the weirdest/funniest thing you've seen in another car while driving? | I was driving back home after a CrossFit session with my buddy and he tells me to take a look at the car next to us. I look over, and this guy HAS A MOUNTAIN OF GARBAGE IN HIS CAR. Im not talking like a pile, it legit looked like someone wanted to pull a prank on him so they fill his car to the top with garbage, and he just dug out the passenger seat. I don't understand how he wasnt puled over for obstructed view. | 2 |
askscience/c4z02yu | uvpus | How come people get "knocked unconscious" and what happens? | By definition, being "knocked unconscious" is a concussion. It is, essentially, when your brain gets jostled inside the skull so hard that it strikes the skull. This damages the brain, and essentially stuns it, perhaps causing "bruising" to the brain just like bruising to you skin occurs (burst capillaries bleeding into superficial tissue). I don't think the "bruising" is necessary however. A Neurologist could weigh in with better details, but those are the essentials. | 4 |
AskReddit/crsc3cb | 3850xu | Why is America so patriotic compared to other countries like those in Europe? | When the German's get patriotic they tend to try and "liberate" the rest of Europe. They recognize this so these days displays of nationalism are frowned upon there. edit: also please keep in mind america is a young nation. like teenagers we tend to be very loud and full of ourselves. overtime we will mature and calm down a bit (i hope) | 15 |
AskReddit/eq8djqw | bxmiy1 | What is "the story" about you that your family members still remember/mention from time to time? | "Remember that time when you and your buddy lit that tree on fire with firecrackers and put it out with a sledge hammer and a bucket of water?" I was in middle school at the time. | 2 |
AskReddit/dtqcppa | 7v8tc5 | What’s the toughest decision you ever made? | Choosing to keep the baby we found out were were having before graduating college. We knew the answer was "yes." There was no denying that. That's the kind of people we were. The tough part was accepting the sudden life change, and figuring out what to do next when we didn't have a plan after college anyway. Edit: Part of that decision was also whether to get married. We did. Still together almost eight years later.with three kids.and two dogs and two cats. | 5 |
AskReddit/c1721st | echof | What do you think about the concept of mind uploading? | Its an interesting concept, but we don't understand consciousness enough for me to even be remotely comfortable with the idea. What exactly determines my consciousness? How do I know that my mind uploaded to a computer will still really be me. Yeah it has my personality and memories, but is that still me in there or just a copy? Would I be experiencing it, or would it just be some phantom experiencing everything? What if they copied it while I'm still alive. Obviously I can't be in two places at once, so which one is me now? | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/c2l1jnr | kkqoo | Why must we turn off all electronics while on a flight? | If anything goes wrong on a plane, there's a good chance it's going to happen during take-off or landing. You have to turn off your electronics so that - if anything does go wrong - you'll be able to hear the pilot or flight attendants give you instructions. Your tray table is up so you can stand up and get out of the row easily when you need to evacuate. Same for putting the seat up. The seatbelt keeps you in your seat in case the plane hits turbulence. It's not going to do squat if you hit a mountain, but if the plane drops 50 feet in an air pocket and you don't have your seatbelt on, your head is hitting the ceiling - hard. Your comfort matters, but I'd rather be uncomfortable than dead. | 775 |
AskReddit/cn8imuw | 2qqb1c | What is the most overrated TV show or movie? | I'm currently finishing up season two and I have to say it.Breaking Bad. Bryan Cranston is a brilliant actor no denying that but I am usually obsessed with every TV show I watch and for this I have to keep pushing myself to the next episode. It's really really slow and to be honest not that much happens in an hour. I'll keep on until the end of the series because I want to see it through, but maybe I shouldn't have let so many people hype it up for me so much | 15 |
AskReddit/ej9aowg | b4uyc8 | If every citizen of earth gets asked who they would bring back to live, who would be the ultimate winner/get the most votes? | I think it would be somebody bad. Most people would probably push for a loved one. There would be the odd few that would go for scientists. But I think it would be one of the fanatical groups that would be united in their crazy and bring back Hitler or Charles Manson or one of those types. | 2 |
AskReddit/eqxpm01 | bzvmjm | Have you ever dated a prostitute, if so, how did it go? | My son’s father dated a prostitute and got her pregnant within the first month. She used the kid as a way to get money out of him whenever she needed it. He has since lost his job and is in jail. This woman said to me quite unashamedly: “if I knew things were going to turn out this way [going to jail and having no more money] I would have aborted him [their son]” | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/cud4ncn | 3i45zn | Why are so many candidates with little chance of winning seeking Presidential nomination? | There might be several motivations: The first one is the 'you never know factor'. You can't win the elections if you don't run and a sudden surge in popularity could theoretically carry you all the way to the office. Just running, while not winning, increases your familiarity with the voters. Laying the groundwork now might help make you a more viable candidate in future elections. Even if you don't win, running makes it possible to introduce ideas you hold dear. You might not get the victory, but maybe ideas you brought up become more visible. Presidential candidacy offers you a massive bump in media visibility which may help you do things like sell books or land high-profile jobs. | 9 |
AskReddit/eppsaq4 | bvk1hx | What was a ridiculous reason you didn't get a job? | Not a job but many years ago they tried something in my country called the free youth education. Basically you put together 2 or 3 years of different things you wanted to try to gather points for future jobs. I wanted to get in on the program and had four different things I wanted to try for 6 months each. The woman I had to talk to declined me because: "You look like someone not able to get up in the morning." It didn't matter that I told her I was always the first one to arrive on the school, even before the teachers. I sat each morning and waited for them to come and unlock the door. All she had to do was walk over and ask them if it was true but she kept saying no with the same reason. | 2 |
AskReddit/er5l24b | c0lgae | What's your favorite book, movie or song and why? | Book: MACARTHUR (the story narrates the lives of 4 best friends living in a poor state which they got into a lot of trouble. Oh, it has a tragic ending and really affected me) Movie: Fast and furious 1-8 Song: Angel by Shaggy They have a special place in my heart. | 2 |
AskReddit/c2xqe56 | m3abb | Why aren't subtitles distracting? | Subtitles (really, closed captioning) is how I learned how to read when I was little. I matched words with symbols, symbols with actual letters. So, I grew up with subtitles, and it also solves that tricky problem of, "What did he just say?! I couldn't hear him!" | 2 |
AskReddit/ckykptv | 2i3oqj | What are some great underdog wins in history? | 2006 NBA Finals. Mavs are up 2-0 in the series against the Heat. Dwayne Wade and the heat rally back to take the series in four straight wins. One of the most jordan-esque performances ive ever seen. | 2 |
AskReddit/de868wt | 5w8nys | What's your life motto? | Not a motto, but a dialogue attributed to Confucius: "What is love?" one of his followers asked him. "To love mankind, that is love," he replied. "But what is it?" "To hold dear the effort more than the prize may be called love. The joy of doing something not for the prize one would get in the end, but for the joy itself, that may be called love. To do good not because you are going to be rewarded for it in this life or in a life to come, but to do good because you enjoy doing good, that is to love good. Love is its own reward. Love makes all things possible. Love offers peace. When love is at stake, my children, yield not to an army." He thought for a while, then added: "A heart set on love can do no wrong!" | 2 |
AskReddit/etne3wv | ccjvya | What's the best way to eat soup? | The best way to eat soup is of course, Folded SOUP FOLDING - by Steve Martin First prepare the soup of your choice and pour it into a bowl. Then, take the bowl and quickly turn it upside down on a cookie tray. Lift the bowl ever so gently so that the soup retains the shape of the bowl. Gently is the key word here. Then, with a knife cut the soup down the middle into halves, then quarters, and gently reassemble the soup into a cube. Some of the soup will have run off onto the cookie tray. Lift this soup up by the corners and fold slowly into a cylindrical soup staff. Place the little packet in your purse or inside coat pocket, and pack off to work. When that lunch bell chimes, impress your friends by forming the soup back into a bowl shape, and enjoy! Enjoy it until that day when the lunchpail comes back into vogue and we won't need soup folding or cornstalks up the leg. | 2 |
AskReddit/c6i9m2o | 110prn | Is YouTube Downloader legal (for mp3s)? | It would probably have to be fought out in court, but I think it should be legal. The reason is that youtube actually downloads the file to your computer. All the "Youtube downloader" does is let you save that file to a location of your choosing. | 2 |
AskReddit/ct01ops | 3cy4yc | What's the most unnecessary sequel ever? | Pretty much all the direct-to-video Disney sequels were incredibly unnecessary. A bunch of them weren't even "sequels" in the sense they weren't continuing the original story. Poltergeist II is a weird sequel because it retcons why the ghosts were haunting them in the first place. "Wait, they didn't come from the improperly relocated cemetery underneath their house? They actually came from an 19th century cavern located below the improperly relocated cemetery underneath their house?" Even some though the original writers worked on it, it feels really fan-ficky to change it up like that. | 4 |
AskHistorians/c77zioe | 13x1y6 | Why hasn't South America played a bigger role in the world? | > Why, out of all of the places in the world, did South America get the short end of the stick? I'm not really a fan of pathologising whole continents, but I'm fascinated to know why you think Africa has had a better deal that South America. Anyway, I think your question is a little absurd. 'Hasn't done jack on the world stage' is quite an aggressive statement. Until the Great Depression, South America - in particular Argentina - was a wealthy region. In the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century, European migration to South America was as significant (proportionately) as migration to North America. So it was hardly a forgotten backwater, much more an attractive destination for migrants. It's also pretty evident that you're from the Anglophone world - we're not great at translating works from other regions, so there's plenty of Lusophone and Hispanophone contributions that we're not picking up on. I'm also guessing you're from the USA, so there's even more cultural bias - the US, through much of the twentieth century, viewed Latin America and the Caribbean as a foreign policy 'back yard' - a region over which they sought to exert maximum control. The espousal of that policy is inevitably going to obscure non-US American contributions on the world stage. It also explains why you think that being the spiritual homeland of the world's most popular sport isn't a big deal. Because it kind of is. Irishfafnir has already mentioned Bolivar, but I'd add Che Guevara to that list. In addition, the ideology of liberation theology - a hugely influential Catholic (although latterly more ecumenical) doctrine - was largely born in South America, although with significant input from the rest of Latin America. Paulo Freire is another major political figure who helped to found the critical pedagogy movement. The historian Benedict Anderson, in Imagined Communities also credits South America with being the birthplace of nationalism - not a theory I necessarily subscribe to, but it's fair to say that at least one highly respected academic believes we live in a national paradigm constructed in Latin America. Culturally, I'd also encourage you to think about Paulo Coelho, the Brazilian author who is amongst the highest-selling novelists of all time. They have also produced a number of incredibly influential writers: Jorge Borges, Pablo Neruda, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa would all rank pretty high on anyone's list, not withstanding a couple of other Nobel laureates. In Pele and Maradonna, they've produced the two greatest footballers of all time, eternally stamping their style on the world's most popular sport. In other sport, Ayrton Senna is an obvious choice, and the Argentinian rugby union side is ranked 5th in the world. Guyana, if you choose to count it, has also produced some of the world's finest cricketers, including Lance Gibbs, Clive Lloyd, Alvin Kallicharran, Colin Croft and Shivnarine Chanderpaul. You'll also note I've only covered South America. If you were to expand your definition to Latin America, there would be a whole host of influential figures from Central America and the non-Anglophone Caribbean to consider. Ultimately, South America is by no means a marginal region. It has played a large role in world history and has had a profound impact. Given that only a handful of countries have ever played a role on the world stage you seem to think significant, perhaps you should expand your definition of importance a little? | 50 |
AskReddit/eriwicv | c285lq | What is one movie whose plot will not work if it took place today? | Big. The whole plot requires Tom Hanks having to wait weeks while the government records office tracks down records of the whereabouts of the Zoltan machine. Today, 5 minutes of googling and bam, back to being a kid again. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/d4kq0pe | 4pgl33 | Why are most European flags three stripes of color? | Most guidelines for good flag emphasize simplicity. So we're talking simple shapes and fewer colors (usually no more than three). This makes flags easily recognizable and discernible at a distance. So big, bold stripes of three different colors is a basic, good design. | 10 |
AskReddit/dmxxm8e | 6zt3r4 | What decision changed your life? | When my grandmother died, her Hospice nurse said to me "You are her legacy". Those words, spoken minutes after her death, profoundly impacted me. I had a dead end job that made me miserable, and I felt like I contributed nothing to society. I wanted to make my grandmother proud. So I decided to become a nurse. Started the prerequisites two months later, graduated first with my associates, then got my bachelor's, in nursing. I love being a nurse, and that one decision has completely changed my life. | 105 |
AskReddit/dnbxsnk | 71mucj | If you could live forever, how would you fill the time? | Depends on what state I'm in for most of it. Ancient, barely functioning, yet inexplicably alive? I'd live my young life as usual. Young, fit, and healthy forever? I'd find a charitable cause and aggressively pursue it on a small scale for decades. Move around, maybe finding new causes. Work on some degrees. | 2 |
AskReddit/d5tvenv | 4uy4gn | What is one thing you will never do again? | Probably date. I've realized that I don't have a personality that's really compatible with keeping a serious relationship. I like to be on my own a lot, and will get to a point where I will go a while without responding to messages or talking to anybody. I don't like sharing the space I spend most of the day in with other people. I don't think anyone would ever want to live with me. If I'm not working, I'll wake up in the afternoon and lie around all day. I don't go out and do things. I don't 'entertain'. I don't do anything at all, really. I think my hypothetical girlfriend would get tired of me waking up at 2pm and sitting on Reddit for most of the day. I don't think there's really anybody out there that's down to do nothing all day. In a sense, it would be living alone, but with another person. | 2 |
AskReddit/c2kj1bc | kilhy | How do I stop my cat scratching the furniture? | Put a little catnip on the scratching post. Whenever she scratches furniture, grab her immediately and put her claws on the scratching post. When she scratches the furniture, spray her with a watergun or a squirt bottle. | 7 |
askscience/cl6viyl | 2iz1zt | Do electrons "seem" to teleport when changing orbits due to acceleration to near light speed, resulting in time dilation? | Electron's don't have a well defined location. They don't orbit in circles around the nucleus. Instead, they exist in a "cloud", so to speak, of possible locations. When an electron gains energy, that cloud shifts to a higher energy configuration. But the electron doesn't jump from one place to another. We can't even really say if it's in once place or another. | 11 |
AskHistorians/dbvrjim | 5lgja5 | What was political relationship like between Sparta and Athens just before the Battle of Thermopolae, and how did those events change their relationship? | We don't know very much about relations between these two states in the years immediately before the Persian invasion, but if we look slightly further back, we can see that they must have been strained to say the least. Less than 3 decades earlier, Sparta had made a serious effort to overthrow Athens' brand-new democracy. It's a bit of a complicated history - I hope this summary will make sense. At the end of the 6th century BC, Sparta had firmly established itself as the dominant power in the Peloponnese, and they were increasingly eager to extend their network of unequal alliances beyond that peninsula. To do this without provoking hostility, they presented themselves as tyrant-slayers; they went abroad to attack states ruled by tyrants, to depose these and establish a new regime. That these regimes tended to be pro-Spartan was, of course, none of their business, though they were happy enough with the coincidence. Athens, meanwhile, had been under the yoke of the Peisistratid tyrants for over 30 years, and while the tyrant Peisistratos was generally regarded as a kind and generous ruler, his son Hippias was not. In 514 BC, when his brother Hipparchos was assassinated, his regime became increasingly brutal, and the Athenians soon had enough of his reign of terror. I'm sure you can see where this is going. In 510 BC, an Athenian faction led by Kleisthenes invited the Spartans to overthrow Hippias. They were only too happy to oblige - but their first invasion army was wiped out on the plain of Phaleron by Thessalian cavalry allied to Hippias. Their second invasion army had more success: Hippias fled to Persia and order was restored at Athens. However, with the tyrants gone, the Athenian elite soon reverted to its old game of factional in-fighting for dominance in Athenian politics, and soon there was open conflict between Kleisthenes and his rival Isagoras. Things didn't look good for Kleisthenes, because the Spartan king Kleomenes was on very good terms with Isagoras (and allegedly on even better terms with Isagoras' wife). In 508/7 BC, Isagoras invited the Spartans over once again, this time to get rid of Kleisthenes. When Kleomenes had arrived to support his friend, however, the Athenian people rose up in revolt, and besieged Isagoras' faction on the Akropolis. When they surrendered, they were driven out and Kleomenes was sent back to Sparta humiliated. The Athenians proceeded to ask Kleisthenes to reform their laws to prevent further escalating factional strife in the future; the resulting constitution is generally seen as the foundation of Athenian democracy. Needless to say, though, Kleomenes didn't take his failure very well, and immediately summoned the full might of the Peloponnesian League for a campaign of vengeance against Athens. This was bad news for Athens, because Thebes and Chalkis had also declared war on them. They were now forced to fight enemies to their north, west and south, all advancing at the same time, and vastly outnumbering the Athenian levy. Luckily for Athens, this was the moment when Sparta's allies realised the game they were being made to play. They knew that Kleomenes meant to snuff out the government the Athenians had established for themselves, and to set up Isagoras as tyrant, after they, Sparta's allies, had gone through all the trouble and risk to fight the Peisistratids on Athens' behalf. The Corinthians were the first to decide that this was not on. Spartan behaviour, they declared, was against all law and custom. When the army came to Eleusis, the Corinthians refused to march further into Athenian territory; the other Peloponnesian allies soon followed suit. With this mutiny, Kleomenes' expedition fell apart. Athens then turned its attention to Thebes and Chalkis, and defeated both in two separate battles on the same day. Thus democracy was saved. In the years that followed, we hear little of relations between Athens and Sparta, but it seems reasonable to suppose that Kleomenes' attempts to interfere with the democracy had caused a lot of bad blood. The Athenians did reach out to Sparta when the Persians landed at Marathon in 490 BC, turning to those who proclaimed themselves the leaders and protectors of Greece, and Sparta did promise to send help. However, they had a religious festival to observe, and by the time they finally reached Athens the battle had already been fought and won. The Spartans are said to have admired the achievement of the Athenians and Plataians - but it seems likely that the Athenians had few good things to say about the johnny-come-lately Spartans in return. This was more or less the situation when the Persians returned in full force ten years later. However, the Athenians knew they needed Spartan aid to be able to make any kind of stand against the Persians; and so they, unlike the Argives and the Syracusans, willingly yielded supreme command of the Greek alliance on land and sea to the Spartans. This magnanimous act suggests either a great deal of foresight and calculation on the part of the Athenians, or a realisation that - with Kleomenes dead - there was an opportunity for relations between the two states to be repaired. | 14 |
AskReddit/eispd1h | b2hhpd | Why are you late? | My great great grandfather was late to his funeral. My great grandfather was late to his wedding. My grandmother was late to her highschool and college graduation. My father was late to his graduations, both his weddings and the birth of all 3 children. I just think it's in the blood. | 2 |
AskReddit/c3418hm | muvau | Who here has killed someone in self defense or otherwise and how did it feel? | [WAR STORY] shot 2 people in the "first" gulf war after the guy next to me was killed. we went hunting for them. felt great to pull the trigger on both. i'm sure the first one was wounded bad enough to die soon and the second died almost on the spot. | 7 |
explainlikeimfive/cm7rhez | 2muqjv | Why does yogurt have live and active cultures, but cheese, wine, and pickles dont? | Not sure how you made the jump from yogurt to wine and pickles. Wine and pickles are likely too acidic for bacteria to grow. I imagine fresher cheese has more live cultures/probiotics aka "good" bacteria than you think. | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/d27zon9 | 4fdx0k | Why can't we use heaters/radiators to cool our homes in the summer by running cold instead of hot water through them? | It can be done. I lived in such a building. However, water can condense on the cool radiators, making a huge puddle. Thus, forced air (blowing across the cooling pipes with a fan) is usually used. | 8 |
AskReddit/eefl4i2 | ahlfre | For my fellow only child’s, what are the pros and cons you’ve experienced? | Pros: Attention is on you, parents spend a ton on you, show you off a lot if you’re successful. Cons: Envy those with that brother/sister relationship, hard to sneak out since there is no one to cover you, all chores are up to you, responsibilities are high. It gets lonely if your parents are deceased. | 3 |
AskReddit/c6stscy | 1276ht | Which animal species would be the scariest if they had human intelligence? | while not scariest, sloths with human intelligence would be awesome. they would eventually (couple billion years) have a small city where they drive around in their cute little hanging cars going 2 miles per day, their economy would be in a recession because how slow everything runs, they will have yet to invent high speed internet, and police sloths shoot their sloth guns at crack dealing sloths | 2 |
AskReddit/eeed05m | ahgg98 | To people with jobs, what were the things that you did that weren’t in your “job description”? | I don’t normally branch away from my weeb subreddits, but this jogged a memory. I’m not sure if past jobs count, but I used to be an employee at a hotel as a breakfast person. The job description was just make breakfast, take out the trash, and clean up when it’s over. However, within a week of my being there I learned that they failed to mention that being a breakfast person included janitorial work. Both the breakfast and janitorial work is supposed to be a split, but my partner was an elderly woman with bad arthritis, so I never had the heart to let her scrub the toilets. I honestly wouldn’t have minded doing the extra work, it just bothered me how they tried to sweep it under the rug. I was getting paid 8.75 to do two separate jobs, all because my boss said that he didn’t think it would be necessary to hire an extra person. I eventually quit when scorching hot coffee was spilled on me. | 11 |
AskReddit/e7o4x8q | 9npzoc | Why do we scream out loud when we get jump scared? | It can be argued from an evolutionary perspective that it protected us and our peers. Everyone being alerted ensured we weren't all caught off guard. You screaming out had the possibility of scaring off the predator that was coming to kill you. (a scream is a scream) Imagine if we all lived in a tribe of 50 or so people. Having the ability to scream out at unexpected threats goes a long way to protecting the whole tribe. | 8 |
AskReddit/eemb5av | ai91c3 | What are some board games that work best with only 2 players? | I'll just dump this list down here. If you let me know a bit more what you're into, I can tailor it a bit better (games you have that you already like, genres or themes (like war, space, deckbuilders, euros) length of time, whether you are limited by space or not, etc). I'd imagine there are also a load of lists of recommended 2 player games on www.boardgamegeek.com Jaipur, Tides of Time, Twilight Struggle, Santorini, Manouvre, Patchwork, 7 Wonders:Duel, Imperial Settlers, Crokinole (more votes for this, it's great fun), Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, Techno Bowl, Puzzle Strike, Baseball Highlights: 2045 | 4 |
AskReddit/cjk5d48 | 2cwjro | What is something about computers that everyone should know how to do but doesn't know? | Not a specific thing to do with computers, but a general advise. People need to understand that computers are stupid. Dumb. Moronic. We are talking about the publically available models here, not quantum computing with neural network. The only thing they are good at is going exactly what you tell them, over and over again at break-neck speed. They don't think for themselves and they certainly don't think for you. All the "smart" features are hard-coded in. You can do a lot of things that can wreck your computers and they will follow your orders to self-destruct without questions. So it's entirely up to you to keep them safe and healthy. Install good anti-virus, adblock, don't click shady links, don't delete anything if you don't know what you're doing. Staying alert and applying a bit of comlon sense can go a long way. | 2 |
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