id
stringlengths 13
25
| qid
stringlengths 5
6
| question
stringlengths 11
300
| answer
stringlengths 64
13.7k
| score
int32 2
73.7k
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
AskReddit/cnnj79k | 2s9uy5 | Why are good friends so hard to come by? | I tend to think that it is difficult for myself to make genuine friends because I have a high standard of friendship. To go along with what some other repliers said though, my girlfriend is my best friend. She is who I can talk about literally anything to. On the other hand, I have a lot of male friends who all somewhat fill a specific role. Not that I pick and choose them to fill these roles, but they stick around regardless and nestle themselves into place when I think about a certain topic, the first person to come to mind is Steve or Kevin, etc. | 2 |
AskReddit/ejknf4f | b6i8qa | What are the critical hits of real life? | Imagine you and your friend wants to assassinate the son of a political leader. He's touring the city with his wife and you and your friends make a plan. ​ Your first friend chickens out with the gun in his hand. Your second friend throws and IED that duds. Your third friend throws another IED that blows up under the wrong car. Your target speeds away and the convoy of cars takes the blast victims to the hospital Dejected, you go to a café to muse about life. ​ While you're brooding your target feels so bad for the people caught in the blast that he orders his driver to go to the hospital so he can visit the victims. The driver gets lost in the city and stops for directions. Outside of your café. While you're exiting. You draw your gun and shoot the target and his wife. And then WW1 breaks out. ​ Now that's a critical role if I ever saw one. | 176 |
AskHistorians/dyrzxl5 | 8iefcb | When did MAD actually become MAD? | You could set up a shifting timeline with respect to the Soviet Union's capabilities with regards to the United States: 1945-1949: US nuclear monopoly; Soviet Union has zero capability for using nuclear weapons in retaliation (though it has many conventional forces which could cause pain in Europe and Asia if deployed). 1950-1959: Beginnings of the Soviet capability to threaten Europe. By end of the 1950s the Soviet Union can totally destroy Europe with short- and medium-range nuclear weapons. But they had very limited capabilities (if any) to threaten the mainland USA, and the USA had an overwhelming advantage (tens of thousands of nuclear weapons by the end of the decade). 1960s: The Soviet Union starts the decade by being able to threaten a few American cities credibly with ICBMs. By the end of the decade they can threaten thousands of cities. This is the period in which "MAD" was coined (by McNamara) and in which the US "advantage" gradually decreased. But even during the Cuban Missile Crisis, while the USSR did have the capability of threatening many US cities, the US had a 17-to-1 advantage in capabilities. Does that mean much? In practice, no; the US politicians felt that the Soviet capability to destroy the US and its allies was sufficiently good enough to warrant a credible "mutual destruction," even if many Americans would have survived (the government probably would not). 1970s onward: By the 1970s the USSR has essentially equal capabilities to threaten the USA; true parity has been achieved in both numbers and capabilities. The destruction would be truly mutual (in the sense of equal), and more or less total. For your followup question, the question of why the US did not use nuclear weapons is a complicated one. Part of the answer is that the costs would have been extremely high even before they became totally suicidal. The USSR had a credible ability to threaten America's European allies, even if before they had the ability to credibly threaten the USA itself. Does that necessarily have to matter? No. But it did, at least to the politicians in charge. There are other dimensions as well — e.g., the political will to carry out a first strike attack would have had to be immense, and as it was, it didn't really exist — but it is just important to emphasize that deterrence is actually much more than "total destruction," it is really just "unacceptable costs," which is a lower bar than that. | 3 |
AskReddit/cgbfo9c | 21bjpd | If you had to watch one tv show for the rest of your life, what would it be and how come? | The West Wing. I am inexplicably hooked on this show. I've watched it all the way through about three times. The last two to three seasons aren't nearly as good as the first three or so. But alas I still watch all of them. | 2 |
AskReddit/c1t4ic2 | h79vh | Is there a telescope on earth that is powerful enough to see the US flag on the moon? | No, there's not. Our telescopes are very powerful, but still not powerful enough for that sort of detail. I know this seems hard to believe, considering the stunning clarity with which we can see nebulae and other crazy far-off space things, but you have to understand that these nebulae are big. Like, REALLY big. Here's a thought experiment that might be able to explain it in better. Imagine you are looking at a cloud in the sky. Now imagine you are holding a basketball in front of you at arm's length. You can see both the basketball and the cloud very clearly, but if there were, say, a speck of dust on the surface of the basketball, you probably wouldn't be able to see it at all. In this scenario, your eyes are like Earth's telescopes, the basketball is like the moon, the speck of dust is like the US flag on the moon, and the cloud is like a nebula. To be fair, though, the lunar landing gear would be relatively much, much smaller, and likewise the nebula would be relatively much larger and further away. This might seem sort of obvious, but the moon is pretty big. It's also far away. For anything to even register as a dot on our most powerful telescopes, it has to be pretty huge. | 14 |
AskReddit/d0vp8vi | 49xf0q | When does casual drinking become alcoholism? | It sneaks up on you, it's hard to pinpoint a specific time or sign. Not enjoying it, hiding it, lying about how much you drink, drinking when you don't want to, not being able to stop after 1 or 2, doing it because you don't know what else to do, having to consciously work to control it. When you start questioning your drinking habits it's generally a good red flag. source: recovering alcoholic | 10 |
explainlikeimfive/cm5n3kf | 2mmb0j | How were tv shows distributed to the stations before digital media? | This doesn't fully answer your question, but it's interesting, I think. A very long time ago (Like, I Love Lucy long time ago) TV shows were recorded, edited, and broadcast live. If they wanted the show to air at the same time across time zones (e.g. at 8 EST and 8 PST), they would point a film camera at a video screen playing the live broadcast, develop the film, and then broadcast it at the later time, all within a couple hours. | 2 |
AskReddit/c1x2pjb | holed | What is the worst thing you've ever seen or heard a teacher do or say? | I told this story before but it fits this topic. We had a holocaust survivor come to our school to talk about her experience . When the assembly was starting and all the students were walking through the halls to go over to it, my biology teacher didn't excuse us to go. She just kept teaching. I raised my hand and said "Aren't we going to the assembly" because I felt I may never hear someone speak live about the concentration camps. My teacher, who was German, says "The Jews didn't have it all that bad during the war. We Germans had it much worse. We didn't have electricity at times." And then made a reference about not being able to use electric hair curlers for her hair. My mouth just dropped. I also had a Japanese teacher stop class and look right at me and say "You're rude" cuz I was talking during class. Not that bad but it did shut me up for the rest of the semester. | 3 |
AskReddit/c1i2imo | frf3t | Why can tribal nudity be shown on TV but not regular nudity? | Intent. If the point of the nudity is to illustrate an aspect of a different culture (educational), then it's typically ok. Most medical shows that feature partial nudity won't blur out the naughty bits either (at least some of the ones I've seen). If the intent is to entertain, it's a bit different. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/d5wyzml | 4vb6fw | If the universe is expanding, what is it expanding into / what was there before it was created ? | It isn't expanding in the sense that you're thinking of. There's no "edge" that's moving "outwards" into some "non-universe". It is expanding by the distances inside getting bigger. Think of it like zooming in on a photograph: there's no "outside the photograph" for things to move into, but the image you see is still expanding. | 15 |
AskReddit/c3brm78 | ntboj | What is the best way to tell a girl you love that she put you in the friend zone? | The 'friend zone' essentially happens when a Guy doesn't make it clear to a woman that he wants to date her right off of the bat - believe it or not sometimes you have to literally tell her you guys should go on a date - He then continues to hang around with her getting more comfortable, but never ever progressing. At some point the Guy and girl become friends, at this point the Guy doesn't want to compromise the friendship so he keeps hanging around hoping she realizes he likes her, unfortunately this never happens. As the girl gets in and out of relationships she complains about her boyfriends to the friend and even gets attention while her boyfriend isn't there. The Guy keeps hanging around hoping she comes around and finally dates him, but she never does. Moral of the story? You have to tell her if you want to date her from the start as in literally say something along the lines of "how about we go on a date sometime?" If she says no, then that's that. If she says yes, then great! Your mistake? You missed your chance at the beginning you should have made your intentions clear from the get go. At this point you'll compromise the relationship. Honestly, my best advice is to try dating other women because she probably knows you like her and she put you in the friend zone because "you're a nice Guy, but not someone she would date and you're like a brother." I've been there my fair share of times. | 2 |
AskReddit/cgw1ipz | 23dymq | How do Reddit users deal with seeing multi-million dollar valuations on simple social media sites that most developers could code by themselves in a few months? | I was in university in math/comp sci when the first tech boom (97-2000) hit and I'm watching the same thing happen again. Both times I feel I'm missing out on what could be millions just sitting on the table ready to be taken. When I break down the "complexity" of the average social media site (or photo sharing site or 140 character text message app) getting BILLION dollar valuations in venture capital or IPO's I feel almost sick. | 3 |
AskReddit/ce0rvf1 | 1ssifo | Why don't I have keyless locks for my house like I have for my car? | I'll go one step further. My car has keyless entry that doesn't even require me to press a button. As long as the key is on my person when I touch the door handle it will unlock. I'd love to have that for my front door. | 2 |
AskReddit/erm8mfm | c2s6zv | What was something that you have done when you were younger that you cringe at now? | 1)Back when I was younger at parties, I learned that a condom would fit over my head; if I took my time and stretched it some beforehand. 2) would get black out drunk and would always try to get a group of people to go streaking with me 3) hacky sack. Hours of hacky sack at the local rec center trying to impress girls with my "hacky sack skills" | 3 |
AskReddit/ekdkvpu | bar8pc | Which word in your native language cannot be directly translated to English? | Gezellig (dutch) We use it for so many things that there isn't a single english word able to cover the full meaning. It means something like cozy, but a person, a house, a party or any decoration (and more still) can be gezellig | 11 |
AskReddit/empq09e | bj1zda | What's the dumbest thing you believed as a kid? | When Osama Bin Laden was busted was the first time I had ever heard about Navy SEALs. I was only 11 or 12 at the time, so I didn't really hear or learn too much about it besides a very confusing Powerpoint my after-school teen center showed me, which left me with the impression that SEAL Team Six were the only SEALs in the world, and there was only six of them. I believed this for over seven years. | 2 |
askscience/dbk4bcy | 5jz33t | Why does the distance on earth have affect on temperature from the sun? | Looks like it's already answered, but I'll just toss in a side note: Earth actually varies its distance from the sun by about 3.5 million miles since its orbit has a slight oval shape (91 million at closest, 94.5 max). | 6 |
AskReddit/c48djna | rsw2a | Do you think there is only a certain threshold of pain that the human body can handle? | You generally will pass out/enter shock from excessive pain. I have never heard of anyone dieing from just pain. Nor can I find any record of such. Full body burn victims would be your best bet in the maximum amount of ongoing pain possible. | 2 |
AskReddit/ec8riqp | a88rpc | What do you think about people that read books such as "How to Win Friends and Influence People"? | I haven't read the book, but I found this bullet point list that summarizes it: "Six ways to make people like you Become genuinely interested in other people. Smile. Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language. Be a good listener. . Talk in terms of the other person's interests. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely. " I find a bit strange that someone needs to read things like that. It just seems so fake. it seems like a book for psychopaths that don't know how to talk and care for other people. I mean, come on. you have to be told to smile (item 2)? | 4 |
AskReddit/cfqx7jg | 1z6dlg | What is the best senior prank you have ever seen/participated in? | The best prank I ever heard of at my old high school was when the senior class let loose 4 chickens in the school. Only they were numbered: 1,2,4,5 so even after capturing all 4, everyone kept looking for the "elusive" #3 chicken. | 5 |
explainlikeimfive/cqkq5m5 | 33gt78 | Why is it ok to bring multiple small ounce bottles of liquid on a plane but not safe to bring one big one? | Its called security theater. The practices of the TSA aren't designed to make us safe (beyond a certain point) they are designed to make the uninformed and ignorant public feel safe. The public believes that a single large bottle of something might blow up a plane (in part because of the TSA not reality), so restricting bottle size lets the TSA say "we are doing something", the uninformed feel safer and the show goes on. The TSA might stop you if you had 20-30 small bottles of one substance or they might not, what the do do its erratic. | 2 |
AskReddit/c0ozj60 | bwz3e | How do you feel about ladies with shaved heads? | I'm a chick that once shaved my head, and speaking from experience I wish I didn't, because it totally didn't suit me, and I looked like a cancer patient. And really, you look great with that hairstyle right now, and I wouldn't personally mess with it. Also, your hair may grow really fast, but so does mine, and while I had hair your length in about two months, those two months were the LONGEST. MONTHS. EVER. Ever had a bad haircut that you had to try and hide while it grew out? Yeah, there's no hiding with this one. Unless you wear a bandanna, which I know made me look even more like a cancer patient. But, that's just my opinion, and it's your hair, so do whatever you want with it. | 10 |
AskReddit/cfhaqim | 1y4d8f | What is something have you never heard anyone complain about? | I'll tell you something I wish I'd never heard someone complain about. My ex's roommate spent a good five minutes talking about how annoying not going bald was. My ex was starting to thin on top and his roommate knew he was touchy about it. Douche. | 2 |
AskReddit/ey5lta7 | cvpsi9 | What jobs make people the most jaded toward other people? | Being a Youth Care Worker has made me realize how much people want to have kids as; accessories, they get child tax breaks, or because they think it’s what you’re supposed to do. When they can’t, or don’t care for their kid, they send them to my agency for us to “handle”. | 3 |
AskReddit/d2gpjxz | 4gdyjl | When did you realize you'd become your mother (or) father? | Honestly, it wasn't a saying or a belief so forgive the lack of a story behind it. I put on a fake mustache. (female here) My face went white when I looked in the mirror and realized I was my father. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/cmo3k03 | 2okx5w | How come hated companies like Comcast and Ubisoft dont take their criticism into consideration? | Basically? They're big enough that the criticism doesn't affect their profitability and stock prices enough for shareholders to care. Many (if not most) large companies' policies are primarily geared towards maximizing the shareholders' short-term profits, rather than the company's long-term reputation. | 6 |
AskReddit/exh07sd | cstsqc | What jobs will NOT be taken over by robots/machines in the coming years? | The only I could come up with are: Journalist, robots can write (sort of), but no robot or piece of software can act like a human brain when it comes to digging deep into a story in search of the truth. Artist, for the same reason as above. Doctor, they lack empath and even tho it can be for sure "simulated" in some way I seriously doubt (x) that it would feel even close to a human being. Police officer, just watch RoboCop, humandroid or I Robot ( the robot police officer choses to save him instead of the kid ) it never ended up well for those of you who don't know. | 2 |
AskReddit/dqyiq7k | 7igbkj | What is the most heartwarming thing you've ever seen a stranger do? | Standing in line at a gas station in Arkansas when an elderly lady at the front of the line approaches the cashier and says she needs gas. Conversation is as follows: Cashier: Snarky tone Okay. how much? What pump? Elderly lady: I'm not exactly sure, I've never done this before. My husband just died and he always did it for me. Do you think you could show me how? Cashier: As you can see there's a line so I don't have time to sit here and teach you this stuff. Go figure it out and then come back through the line. Everyone in line kind of stares in disbelief at the cashier's response and the old lady is clearly humiliated and upset. This cowboy standing in line steps out and approaches the old lady. "Ma'am, I'd be happy to show you how to get gas! It's easy! In fact, I'll even pay to fill your tank this time. Go wait by your car and I'll be there in just a moment." The cowboy puts his drink down on the counter and says to the cashier "and as for you. I'll be back to deal with you in a minute." What a guy. | 11 |
AskReddit/e4pijov | 99ph1m | What cliche phrase do people get wrong? | This copypasta has most of them: > I hole-hardedly agree, but allow me to play doubles advocate here for a moment. For all intensive purposes I think you are wrong. In an age where false morals are a diamond dozen, true virtues are a blessing in the skies. We often put our false morality on a petal stool like a bunch of pre-Madonnas, but you all seem to be taking something very valuable for granite. So I ask of you to mustard up all the strength you can because it is a doggy dog world out there. Although there is some merit to what you are saying it seems like you have a huge ship on your shoulder. In your argument you seem to throw everything in but the kids Nsync, and even though you are having a feel day with this I am here to bring you back into reality. I have a sick sense when it comes to these types of things. It is almost spooky, because I cannot turn a blonde eye to these glaring flaws in your rhetoric. I have zero taller ants when it comes to people spouting out hate in the name of moral righteousness. You just need to remember what comes around is all around, and when supply and command fails you will be the first to go. Make my words, when you get down to brass stacks it doesn't take rocket appliances to get two birds stoned at once. It's clear who makes the pants in this relationship, and sometimes you just have to swallow your prize and accept the facts. You might have to come to this conclusion through denial and error but I swear on my mother's mating name that when you put the petal to the medal you will pass with flying carpets like it’s a peach of cake. | 2 |
AskReddit/dfhw1ac | 61wnj6 | What are some things to sell at school? | I made a killing by selling sodas and small snacks (candy bars, gum, and chips) when I was in high school. Costco sells canned sodas in packs of 36 for around $8-$10 and I would easily get a dollar per so it was good money. During my elective classes like wood-shop or theatre, teachers were generally more relaxed and my peers had the time to much down on a snack or two, so I made most of my profits then. I would sell before and after class but never during so as to not aggravate the instructors, and I used my locker as a storage unit for sodas and excess inventory. | 3 |
AskReddit/ep87007 | bu5njm | When was a time you smelled total bullshit and ended up being right? | New manager at work was.awful. The owner of the small company (children's entertainment) was a lovely person, hired a manager because the business was rapidly growing and he had amazing credentials. He was a horrible person to work with. Mainly left senior staff alone, but would berate the younger junior staff to no end. Assign them impossible tasks, call them names, mock their intelligence. I had to step in a few times. Even as senior staff, he would patronize me. The strange thing is that he would correct me using completely wrong information. And he was constantly making mistakes and blaming junior staff. He didn't know what Excel was - I was using Excel and he told me to stop messaging my friends. I said it was a spreadsheet. He pointed at the spreadsheet and said no, that's some kind of messenger program. I would watch him charge $25, receive a $50 note, and give $45 in change. I had to stop him from washing the radio. He tried to put the radio in the sink and pressure wash it. Etc. The junior staff had enough and called a meeting with the owner. The owner investigated his resume. His MBA was a lie. No university had a record of him enrolled anywhere. All his work experience was overseas so when she managed to track all the contacts down, they had never heard of him. | 2,923 |
explainlikeimfive/dn8wrbi | 718ioi | Why do some people get a heart attack if they're shocked or surprised suddenly? | If someone is shocked/surprised, the body's natural fight or flight mechanisms kick in*. Unless I'm mistaken, that means pumping lots of adrenaline into the body quickly. The problem with this is that a weak/diseased heart can't cope with the sudden surge/demand for a higher pulse, and so fails completely. * edit: Basically, the human body (and other animals) has evolved to survive quickly, and a surprise/shock is, or at least can be a mortal threat, so the body has evolved to respond shock/surprise by making itself ready, very very quickly, to either fight an enemy or run away. This means increasing the heart rate (and other things) to ensure that (for example) the muscles have increased levels of oxygen and energy to be able to hit as hard as possible or run as fast as possible. | 5 |
askscience/cxhzls7 | 3uq4ko | Why can't oil derricks use traditional drills? | It's a pretty natural progression. I'll assume you're starting out with a hardware store wood drill. Those are mostly designed to drill a few inches at most into a soft material like wood, or a few fractions of an inch into metal. They use a fluted full diameter shaft to move the cuttings out of the hole, good enough for the depth they're working on. Because the cutting is relatively quick, they can (mostly) get away with ignoring heat buildup and lubrication. When you drill thousands of meters into the earth, most of those simplifications go out the window. First, you gotta solve cuttings transport. Those bits of stuff you broke free from bottom of the hole have to go somewhere. Your drill is way too long to spin at thousands of RPMs and being at full diameter would cause way too much friction, so flutes are right out. Instead, the shaft is a hollow tube smaller than the hole diameter. We pump fluid down through it, out the bit, and back up the space between the shaft and the hole, and make the fluid fast and thick enough to carry the cuttings to the surface. We also need to keep heat and friction under control if we want the bit to last longer than a few hours. That same fluid does a great job of carrying heat away, and with careful formulation, it provides lubrication to the bit too. Next up, we aren't drilling through perfectly solid wood. We're drilling through formations of rock with high pressure water, oil, and gas in them. They can be dangerous if not kept under control - see deepwater horizon. Keeping the hole full of correctly weighed drilling fluid keeps the right amount of pressure on those formations so that nothing flows into or out of them before we are set up to collect them safely. Next up, the above solution isn't exactly good enough. Formation pressures in the formations we're drilling through vary enough with depth that we can't find a single fluid density that will keep them all under control at once. So we must drill in stages, and periodically set steel casing and cement it in place to seal off formations while we drill deeper. This requires dropping the hole size several times, so we have to start off drilling a much bigger diameter than the final hole size that we need for production. There's more going on too, but that's most of the important stuff, and I'm about to get on a flight. | 8 |
explainlikeimfive/dqpkd9o | 7hb64v | Why do alcoholic drinks not have a nutritional value chart like other beverages and food? | The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) governs the laws and regulations on food and has no authority over alcohol. Instead the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) is the agency that governs the regulations on Alcoholic beverages and they so far have not seen the need for nutritional labels. The reason for this different group having control over alcohol is that it is older than the FDA. The ATF was setup to control their things decades before the US started to create food protection laws. | 2 |
AskReddit/d9v256e | 5cb1jh | What's the first scary movie you were allowed to watch and are you still scared of it? | When I was little my mom would always let us watch scary movies. Childs Play, Freddy, Jason, everything. For years I was terrified of my grandparents basement because I would routinely have dreams of Freddy finding me down there. I would also have dreams of the abominable snowman from Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer chasing me down there too.that's weird. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/c3g6zbp | oc3ry | Why do we stretch? | Exactly. Blood flows poorly through the capillaries of your muscles while you sleep or rest for extended periods. Wastes build up, and oxygenation drops. This is fine while immobile, but a moving body needs a stronger flow of blood to recover and act properly. It may not seem to be a choice, like when we stretch before a workout, but it is initiated unconsciously for the same reasons. | 2 |
AskReddit/crwf3lp | 38o16l | What did it take you 20 years to realize? | How to make s'mores. I swear I thought you put the whole thing together and never understood how people held the whole thing together over the fire. I was in my late 20's or early 30's before I realized the marshmallow is the only part that is held over the fire. I am capable of great idiocy. | 5 |
AskReddit/colph48 | 2vx623 | What's the most passive-aggressive thing you've ever seen? | My buddy was talking to this girl while we were on a cruise. The other three of us were trying to be good wingmen talking to her other friends. Then one of them just rudely remarks: ''When are you guys going to buy us drinks?" She said it like we should be privileged to be talking to them. So I proceeded to buy mine and all of her friends drinks, except for her. Best 60 bucks I've ever spent. | 108 |
AskHistorians/ch24529 | 23zj1u | How is a slave different from a serf? | The main difference is that a serf is legally tied to the land. A serf can't be moved around or sold as an individual - rather, if you sold the land, it came with the serfs legally bound to it. A slave, by contrast, can be bought or sold as an individual and sent wherever his owner wants. Note: I'm talking about the kind of serfdom practiced in the Russian Empire up until 1861, not the medieval feudal kind. Source: Russia in the Age of Catherine the Great, by Isabel Madariaga. | 8 |
AskReddit/cnqjv1e | 2slbes | What companies give you free things for your birthday? | All the hotels in Vegas. In fact, when I was a child my parents would go to LV about once a month and because they didn't want to leave us in a hotel room, they would leave us at the hotels day care which is super nice by the way. Video games, movies, play center, and a bunch of other kids as well. Keep in mind, this is when I was about seven and continued til I was ten. On my 21st birthday they sent me free flight money, hotel stay, and 200 to play with in credit along with dinner reservations. Obviously they know my parents are gamblers and it's likely I would follow but now whenever I think to go back I always think to stay in that same place. | 3 |
askscience/coui12b | 2wugbu | Will a water balloon with an air bubble break more or less easily than an "airless" water balloon? | Did nobody here do the thing when you were kids in which you take a water balloon and then fill it half with air? The air acts as a shock absorber and it's actually super hard to get it to pop by throwing it against a surface, even throwing it hard just causes it to bounce. Good way to freak people out without actually getting them wet. | 498 |
askscience/c27ahex | iwtyw | Is there a type of gas that can disperse sound [waves] to the point that one wouldn't be able to hear somebody talking a meter away? | While not exactly the answer you are looking for, in a way yes: In turbulent flow, obviously there will be enough other sound waves in the "noise" that will be louder than any speaking. Not exactly a type of gas though. Otherwise, i can't think of a system where you could breathe the air / stand in it to speak and still be alive. | 3 |
askscience/crffvre | 36mdko | What is the greatest unexplained astronomical phenomenon in our solar system? | What about dark matter/energy? Scientists were wondering why stars spin just as fast in the center of a galaxy as they do on the edges of a galaxy when the stars in the edges of a galaxy should be moving much slower then the stars closer to the center, just like the solar system. Dark matter was hypothesized to rectify this. It makes up something like 95.1% of all mass-energy in the universe but, we haven't actually observed any yet other then neutrinos. | 9 |
explainlikeimfive/de3qlqn | 5vp2dc | How does something like the James Webb Space Telescope cost $8 billion? | It will be lifted to a very high orbit. Resupplying the ISS cost about ten thousand dollars a pound. It will need stabilizing so may well include a generous amount of rocket fuel. There is a good estimate of what the final weight will be. Everyone at NASA is paid a good wage. It is a government agency. So the budget swells. A similar telescope could be constructed some other way for a much lower price. Part of the price is extensive testing. It will be in an inaccessible orbit. The Hubble was useless until it was repaired which was only possible in low Earth orbit. | 2 |
AskReddit/ccratr3 | 1odbfm | What is your strangest habit? | My strange habit started when I was in primary school. My best friend and I used to love DnD type games. One time we were banished from the house for whatever reason by his parents for a couple hours and we decided to have a DnD game without any pen, paper or dice, just all in our heads. We started doing this more often than actual DnD because of how quickly we were able to progress the 'story' when there were no numbers involved. We started calling them 'adventures' and would take turns being the DM every few days. He eventually moved to the city in high school and when I caught up with him a couple years later he had grown out of imaginary games, and video games became the new cement in our friendship. Now we're both 25 years old, he recently got married (i was best man), but still to this day, when I'm at home by myself, I will often go out to the back yard, walk around in silence for half an hour or so imagining myself in one of my adventures, coming up with epic battles and dramatic conversations in my head. I like to think I am grown up and act like it in every other facet of my life but I don't think I could go without my regular escape from reality. | 3 |
AskReddit/duz98mg | 80zarr | What's the funniest thing you've witnessed in school? | One of the mentally challenged girls called in a bomb threat at the high school. School went on lockdown, cops went in, came out thirty minutes later. They had went to the bathroom to find a note that said "bom" on it. Not a typo. Literally "B-O-M." I shouldn't find that funny, but I couldn't help but laugh. | 4 |
AskReddit/cequib6 | 1vcb08 | What are some important driving tips I can give my teenage daughter? | Wear a hat while taking your driving test. People often forget to check their mirrors frequently enough or don't make it obvious that they're checking their mirrors. If you wear a hat your movements become a lot more obvious | 3 |
AskReddit/ci46jrn | 27tf5j | What was the dumbest thing you got in trouble for as a kid? | Farting in class. I received a punishment exercise and a detention along with a letter home. I will admit that the smell was vile but I thought it was a stupid thing to get in trouble over. | 24 |
AskReddit/cu9w68e | 3hrgof | How many of you truly believe you've had an alien encounter? | I thought I had an alien encounter. I woke in the middle of the night multiple times with sleep paralysis. Once I saw a gray ET arm, another time a misty humanoid shape being, another time a lizard looking being. All in my room. And they were all just as realistic as being awake, like a hollywood movie! So I don't classify them as dreams. Later on I decided ufology is bunk. However some time after the encounters I tried automatic writing. I got only yes and no's. Most of the stuff I've forgotten. But I did ask for proof in my hand, and I actually got really strong sensations in my hand, like somebody hitting it. Funny thing is, I think automatic writing is bunk too now. Honestly I'm an atheist skeptic, so I don't normally play with this stuff, because it comes off as dumb woo. There's other stuff too, but that's the main stuff. Honestly I think most ufologists are irrational; HOWEVER what I experienced was crazy real, and perhaps there is something out there. But if there is, we probably won't like the truth of it. I mean what kind of thing would want to trick me that ET's are real? How odd. | 2 |
AskHistorians/ck6t9sk | 2f7rq3 | What kind of food was served in Japanese eateries between 1550 - 1590 AD? | Interesting question. I'm afraid I don't have a straight answer. The period would be land between the end of the Muromachi Period and the End of the Azuchi Momoyama Period. This was when trade with the Portuguese brought many new and exotic foods to Japan, like Pumpkins, potatoes, tempura, and a personal favorite, the Castella. However these are still new and expensive foods, unlikely to be eaten by the majority of Japanese people. The period also saw a massive surge in popularity of Tea Ceremonies among peasants, and with it the associated Kaiseki food. There was also the Chaya which was a place for travelers and workers to sit down and take a small break. These Chaya generally sold tea and sweets, but there also places that specialized in providing a full meal, called Ryouri Chaya, some of which eventually became Ryoutei, a type of high class restaurant that still operate to this day. | 3 |
AskReddit/dlrssqx | 6udbrl | Why is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare considered one of the greatest games of all time? | Before then war games were historical action. wwi, wwii. But with modern warfare we saw modern weapons, modern sights/equipment and a gripping storyline. It was very cool and exciting at the time and didn't yet have the stigmas modern cod does | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/e6ecilf | 9ht5f0 | What determines how fast a living organism ages and why are their lifespans so much shorter than humans? | Organisms, which ideally should include humans, live for as long as it is optimal for them to live. Evolution is a well defined process, and living longer isn't necessarily better than living a shorter life. In particular, life after successful breeding can be a drain on available resources. With a big brain, humans can value older members of the species for their greater experience, and some other animals like elephants also do this. But for most organisms, living a long time isn't really useful. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/dqqhc8d | 7heiv0 | How do sodium-acetate heat pads work? | Sodium acetate is an unstable solution at room temperature. When you heat crystalline sodium acetate, it becomes a liquid, and will stay that way as it cools, so long as it's not "jostled". If it is in the presence of what is call a nucleation site (bubbles, dust, some tiny disturbance), the liquid sodium acetate converts back into crystal. This state change is exothermic, meaning it gives off heat. The hand warmers have little metal buttons in them. When you click the button, it creates little bubbles that cause the state change to start. Heating them adds the energy needed to start the process all over again. | 4 |
AskReddit/ctgoqvz | 3enq1l | Is it harder to be a man or a woman today? | I've given this a lot of thought over the years. It's still just MHO of course, but that's informed by being a worldly and experienced woman who was reared with tons o' boys and had sons myself. I arrived at: Men. Not that it's a breeze being either at any given time, but - in the USA at this time - I see a very wide range of behaviours that women can exhibit and still be an "acceptable" female. Butchy, bitchy, brainy, homely, spoiled, any number of things we'd even qualify as negative but allow without severe consequences. I mean, Jesus, the fact that I know what a Kardashian is at all.[rant redacted] Whereas, my sons, brothers, male friends and coworkers, have a much more narrow road in which they can drift before being condemned. btw, I am acutely aware and even train people from time to time on the subtle and harmful presence of discrimination, even just the use of the word "girl" to describe us - but A, those things can be true for both genders & B, that doesn't change my opinion that, if asked to choose who's got it harder, I still picks Boys in the big picture | 2 |
AskReddit/cck2jw4 | 1nmyol | In a world where everybody is raised correctly (with a loving family and morals), would there still be crime and hate in society? | Raised correctly? You can't honestly expect any reasonably large body of people to uniformly agree on a single correct method for raising a child. Even if you could get a concensus, what set of morals would you impart onto the children? And what type of loving family do you mean? Nuclear family or extended, or maybe a community that comes together as a family? What about a community that is a loving family, like a tribe? | 5 |
AskReddit/dama2b4 | 5fpwxq | What movie quotes do you find yourself saying regularly? | Almost anything from The Princess Bride. "Have fun storming the castle!" - when saying goodbye to someone. "Because I know something you don't know." - when asked why I'm smiling. "Inconceivable!" - almost all the time. "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders." - when someone else screws up. "I have no key" - when my wife asks if I've seen her keys. Which I probably have. "It would take a miracle." - whenever someone asks me if something will work. "Is this a kissing movie?" - When something on HBO or Netflix has softcore in it. "No, there is too much. Let me sum up." (spanish accent mandatory) When asked how my day/trip/vacation went. "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." (spanish accent mandatory again) - I haven't actually found a use for this yet, but I keep it handy just in case. | 98 |
askscience/dmc8q4c | 6wzobg | Shouldn't we be able to see black hole mergers via regular EM astronomy? | Consider supernovae in distant galaxies. They are bright enough to be detectable for days or even weeks after they happen, which is important because otherwise it would be very difficult to spot them, we simply lack the resources to observe the entirety of the sky 24/7. So if a black hole merger was a blip in the sky for a moment, it would be very difficult to observe. Also, consider the problem of identifying the mechanism for a transient visible phenomenon. If a black hole merger is associated with a visible light phenomenon similar to a supernovae how would you know that what you were looking at was a black hole merger and not something else? There are lots of phenomena that produce bright lights. It would take a lot of observations and a lot of work to make that claim stick. Whereas gravitational wave observations leave little doubt. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/ctgozzz | 3env8n | Why is North and South America considered "western" when it is both east and west to "eastern" continents? | Because the idea of western culture is pretty old. These days, around the world, there is western culture in the Americas, in Europe, and in Oceania. North, South, East and West. Everywhere. However, before America and Oceania was colonized, there was Europe, Africa and Asia, all taking part in trade and communication of cultures. Europe was the west. Asia was the east. Nobody had ever sailed westward to end up in the east by circumnavigation, so the concept that Europe could be seen as both easterly and westerly couldn't have really been a thing, even though it was generally accepted that the world was round since at least ancient Greek times. | 5 |
AskReddit/ek9aibo | ba6a31 | What is something you perceived about adulthood while growing up that turned out to be nothing like you thought? | I always thought adults never get pimples, that pimples slowly stopped developing once they grew up. Couldn't be more wrong. I wish I could go back in time and tell my teen self to get into the habit of washing her face everyday. | 5 |
AskReddit/cao3uhd | 1gupsd | What is something that made you feel good this week? | My 30 week ultrasound of my son made me feel amazing this week. We had some concerns about the rate his arms were growing which was causing me a ton of worry. This ultrasound showed that everything is normal and there is no cause for alarm. My mood has lifted tremendously knowing this. I also got to see him sticking his tongue out/ practicing suckling which looked a whole lot like he was puckering up for kisses. It was both hilarious and really sweet. Yay for the joy of babies! | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/c35adsp | mzz7a | Why do we, as English-speaking countries, call some countries by their national names and some countries by names we've made up for them? | It's the same with many other languages too. Koreans (and China, I believe) call the USA "Mi Guk," which in Chinese means "beautiful country." Koreans also just say "Canada" for those rednecks up in North Hockeystan. | 30 |
explainlikeimfive/d7jiksm | 52eakj | Can someone help me understand why a lot of people are expecting another economic crash or a receding global economy? | We've had big inventions and discoveries that have spurred huge growth in the economy. The industrial revolution, computers and the Internet have all had huge impacts on the global economy. Like just about everything. We invest way too heavily in these areas at first and then when the market for them begins to normalize, it ends up shrinking to where the market can sustain it. We havent had one of these earth shattering inventions a while and within the next few years if nothing changes we're likely to see a pretty sizable amount of shrinkage as new technologies dont really seem to be coaxing people to spend their money like they used to. | 2 |
askscience/c6apx0a | 105vn6 | If both exercise and caffeine increase our heart rates, why is the former considered much healthier than the latter? | There are a couple of factors at play. First, how much they raise your heart rate. A quick jaunt around the block raises it more (in most people) than caffeine does. You're essentially training your heart more with the walk. Second, with exercise, you can't get that heart rate up without moving other parts of your body. So not only are you training your heart, you're training the muscles in your legs and even strengthening your bones as well. That's not to say that caffeine doesn't boost your metabolic rate. It does. But exercise boosts it far more in terms of calories burned during (and after) the activity. | 8 |
AskReddit/dg0rto8 | 64b2bo | What makes you realize you are drunk , while you are drinking? | Time/sense distortion. I can get silly, loud, or whatever. But when I'm real drunk or high I know from the feeling that I am realizing my sense inputs and movement slower than it's happening. | 14 |
explainlikeimfive/cke8zz1 | 2fybfd | How does apple keep ita releases such a well kept secret if there are so many people involved? | Apple also takes extreme measures to keep information secret. One example is the prototype iPhone is normally created piece by piece in different locations, then assembled by a select few highly vetted people, then locked in a room with extreme security measures. The software is made the same way, few people have access to all the pieces. Also, they are working on so many projects at once, a large portion of which will never be produced. This ensures that even if people try to collaborate within the company to figure out the final product it would be impossible to know for sure what projects will be implemented. When given a task, say an advertising campaign, the entire thing is complete before the creators get the specific details or photos. They just use blank images or old images as placeholders until they get the official information at the last possible minute. I used to be an Apple advisor. When mountain lion launched, we were literally trained to troubleshoot it the day before release. The guy that made the training material was a very high level employee, and he was the only one making the training material for all apple employees for that particular product. When the new IMacs were released, they were kept in a locked room where we went in small groups to learn the hardware. It arrived to us only two days before launch. We were never told ANYTHING about what we would be supporting until the very last minute. EDIT: fixed autocorrect errors. | 3 |
AskReddit/d7j7xus | 52cmua | What was the worst gift that you have ever received? | My first "real" relationship - in the sense that it involved mutual mushing-together of naughty bits - began when I was sixteen years old. It lasted for two and a half years after that, which I've been told is fairly impressive for a couple in high school. Truth be told, that span of time is most notable when you consider the fact that the young woman and I were almost completely incompatible. and that was never more evident than when she tried to give me gifts. During our first Christmas together, my then-girlfriend gave me a pair of hand weights, of the sort that might be held by a jogger wearing leggings. They had clearly been purchased from the bargain bin at the local thrift store. but I told myself it was the thought that mattered (even if I wasn't sure that any thought had gone into the gift at all). Besides, we had only been dating for about three months, and it was probably unfair of me to expect anything at all. Unfortunately, that would set the stage for every gift I'd receive from the girl. I need to pause for a moment and explain something about this young woman. Although she was vocally ambitious, she had almost zero patience for practice or preparation. Her idea of putting on a poetry performance, for example, was to get up on stage and improvise while using a tone of voice that made it sound like she was reciting something. That would have been fine, except for the fact that she was really bad at improvisation, and she had a tendency to lie about how much work she'd done on something. Please keep that in mind when I tell you this: For my eighteenth birthday, this young woman - who was also, I should mention, completely tone-deaf - forced me to sit in a plastic folding chair for as long as it took her to "sing" her way through three love songs by Elvis Presley. I hated Elvis at the time, and watching this girl attempt (and fail) to mumble her way through "Love Me Tender" was as close to torture as I'd been through. Worse still, I had to sit back and pretend that I enjoyed it. because as she'd told me, she'd worked really hard on it. TL;DR: An unwanted serenade from a tone-deaf torturer. | 12 |
AskReddit/c89hzn4 | 17wpm4 | Are the best years of music behind us? | It's the thing about looking back on music - you only remember the good. And most of those "good" songs were not number 1 or even in the top 10 for their year. But the forgettable tripe they had in those years.well, it gets forgotten. As will the forgettable tripe from these years. | 3 |
AskReddit/cj3oebr | 2bbl5n | Can I be anti-Israel without being antisemitic? | Of course! There are many Jews who disagree with the stance that Israel has recently taken.it is a political move that has NOTHING to do with faith or the Jewish people as a whole. SOME may think that to be anti-Israel (the country as a political state) is to be anti-Jewish (a religion and a nationality). Besides, does disagreeing with the American government make you anti-American? Remember, there are zealots of almost any side of something you can take. Sometimes there will be people who accuse you of bigotry regardless. The important thing is that YOU maintain the stance that you are against the POLITICAL actions of the STATE of Israel so that you are clear. Regardless, you may STILL may be called a bigot by some. But that goes with ANY group where you are against a political group that involves race, creed, nationality or orientation. BUT, I do believe it important to make SPECIFIC comments rather than general. I know I just kinda babbled that, but I hope it helps. | 3 |
AskReddit/c732fo2 | 13dwhc | Why are people inconsiderate at retail shops? | These people are inconsiderate everywhere they go. They are the same people who leave a dirty diaper in their seat pocket on a plane, don't flush public toilets, stiff their waitstaff and park in Handicapped slots. They think the world exists to serve them. | 3 |
AskReddit/drtg0at | 7mf8kd | How do you feel about prostitution? | Same as my feeling on most drugs - Legalise, tax, and regulate. It's the illegality of these things that causes crime, not the things themselves. Prostitution is only illegal because some people are still stuck in the medieval period and want to enforce their idea of morality on everyone else. | 152 |
AskReddit/e4umkq6 | 9adgcy | What is the origin of the word 'platonic' and does it have anything to do with Plato? | Here's the word's origins: > mid 17th century: from Platonic, with reference to a discussion of love in the Symposium by Plato. Symposium was a book Plato wrote. | 3 |
AskReddit/cttwtbt | 3g1d1j | Is it unethical to pretend to be someone's friend because they have a car? | All pretence is unethical. Pretending to be friends for personal benefit is even more unethical. When the personal benefit is something ad silly as hogging rides in a car, you are totally shameless. Sorry. | 2 |
AskReddit/d8kl5m5 | 56myxe | If you were gonna murder someone, where would you hide the body? | They say that the best place to hide something is in plain sight. With this in mind, I'd put the body on the back seat of my car and throw a blanket over it with just the head showing so that it looks like someone is having a nap. | 2 |
AskReddit/cmqqr1c | 2ov1lr | Do most of the houses in your neighborhood have a front porch? | Of the closest ten houses eight have porches. They are a great. When the weather's nice the kids play from one porch to the next, using them as forts/bases, adults socialize with a few beverages, kids hang out and relax. I love a good front porch. | 2 |
AskReddit/dyvw9ks | 8izm7p | What is the greatest thing your country has created? | Internet, electricity, the atom bomb, to name a few. For those wondering why I mentioned the atom bomb, it is responsible for the greatest world peace in the History of our world. So there's that. The percentage of humans killed by war is lower now than ever recorded in our history, thanks to the atom bomb. | 4 |
AskReddit/eh11duj | athp3u | What jobs don't exist now but will or should exist in the future? | assistant suicide helper. As more and more people lives on this planet and less and less jobs for people since machinery and robots takes over, people will have little to do in their lives and many will fall to despair, depression and also suffer from problems with suicide. Helping people end their lifes would be seen as the humane thing as they would no longer suffer and it would also be a relief on the system as they would no longer be taking up/consuming resources | 2 |
AskReddit/dph1zvt | 7bdbnw | What is the worst Christmas gift you've ever given somebody? | When I was 19 I landed this entry level job making $26.46/hr as a carpenter at a huge local contractor and I had zero debt and only $350 monthly rent for a 1 bd upper duplex. The issue was I also had a girlfriend who was insanely insecure, unintelligent and the cheapest most bizarrely stingy person I'd ever met. She would spend $80 on weed or $100 on makeup but lose her mind when she ran out of gas which happened 11 times in the 9 months we dated even though she was driving a car that got around 30mpg. So Christmas comes along and I say to the gf, "now that I'm making good money I should buy better gifts than I could before for my family". She loses it, she takes it as some kind of slight towards her that I want to do something nice for them and after a huge blowup "we" decide to get my family a few things each from the Dollar Tree. Not kidding. I got 3 ript energy drinks for my brother, 2 candy bars and a bag of chips for my sister, a little picture of an angel and some candles for my mom and some cologne and car wipes for my dad. Still to this day it's one of the most embarrassing things I've ever done and I'll never forget to awkward silence and confusion from my family as they opened their "gifts". Not that they expected bigger presents just because I had a good job because they all had even better jobs than me it was just pure awkwardness as my gf sat there smiling and saying "don't you like them! We picked it all out just for each of you!" Thankfully were no longer together and it's become an inside joke for the family. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/duayt0r | 7xr802 | How can there be a maximum compatible memory in a camera, when the memory cards are all the same physical size? | Each byte in a memory card has a unique address (like every house on a street). The OS in the device itself (be it dash cam or phone) uses these addresses to read and right data to these bytes (like posting or collecting letters from the house mail boxes), If the maximum size of address that the OS can count up to is 32G than it will not be able to "find" any bytes at addresses higher than this even though they are physically there. Its like if the mailman can only count up to 32, houses with numbers 33-64 are never going to get a visit. | 3 |
AskReddit/dr51jme | 7jariw | What movie scene is the most satisfyingly badass moment of all time? | In Pulp Fiction when Butch looks for a weapon and ends up picking the katana to help Marsellus Wallace from the rapists that seemed so frightening just a moment ago. The music and it's timing in that scene perfected it. Then Butch getting his deal cleared with Marsellus is just icing on the cake and was so freeing. | 17 |
askscience/cpu1d57 | 30ly4n | If you include something made up into a story (of a real event) and tell it again and again, will other people who were part of it actually start to believe your version? | When you remember something, you aren't actually accessing some sort of data bank pertaining to that event. You're actually recreating the event from concepts within your brain that have strong connections to it. Pretty much every time you remember something, it changes, even if just slightly. So, yes, reinforce one version of a story enough and even people who were part of the story might start to remember false details. | 3 |
AskReddit/d4949ge | 4o2yrn | What is the most exciting thing you can do in a span of 24 hours? | Exciting you ask? Are we limited by morals? Do we still need to be alive at the end of these 24 hours? Because my vote is for skydiving death battles. One parachute is dropped, followed by two fighters. The winner is obviously the one who doesn't splat. Both contestants sharing the same outcome is possible, but strongly discouraged. With livestreaming technology, you could get a decent gambling racket going in the first 24. | 2 |
AskReddit/eqpoacu | bz2j3z | What advice would you give 16 year old me, that you wish someone would have given 16 year old you? | I'll give you the advice someone did give me, and it was pretty important. Start developing a skill that someone might pay you for. And no, 16 is not too early for that. You're probably going to change your mind about what you want to do, so the earlier you start making decisions like that the more time you have for trial and error. Just don't be one of those people that aimlessly floats through their school years and comes out with no demonstrable skills. If you do that, you're basically depending on luck to land you in a job that pays decent. | 3 |
AskReddit/c338byx | mratl | What are a few things I should know before pursuing a bachelors in Computer Science? | Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. That said, don’t focus too much on it. I find many young people saturate themselves with too many closely related courses and majors. For example, they major in comp sci and math, or physics and math, etc. I would try and take a double major, or a major and minor, etc. whatever works for you, just take something else that is substantial and unrelated. For example, finance and comp sci, psychology and comp sci, etc. It will really help you out to learn other things. Also, you will more than likely learn very little that will make you employable. You need to be teaching yourself the practical stuff. Just write programs to do fun stuff in your spare time. | 3 |
AskReddit/ew17bts | cmbwjx | What's the most overpriced thing you've ever seen? | I've seen the simplest, most unimaginative "paintings" for millions and sometimes billions of dollars. A single black line on the side and some dots, paint the whole thing blue, paint half red and leave the other half blank, those are actual paintings that people have paid millions for Edit: I just googled it to confirm but none of the paintings I saw actually sold for billions, millions though. | 8 |
AskReddit/cqq8zds | 3416nh | What is the best way to save money for the future? | Make sure to set up a savings account. Not only will you get better interest rates, but having the account will make you much more likely to save than if you just tried not to spend the money in your current account. You don't have to save a lot per month, whatever you can afford but you'll be much more inclined to save it rather than spend it if it's in a separate account. You can always get the money out in emergencies however. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/e7s5ab2 | 9o83zo | Why can’t newborns drink normal tap water? | Newborns have very small stomachs and only drink when they're thirsty. Everything that goes in has to have nutrients, calories, vitamins, and protein. Drinking just water is very bad for newborns because they get full and won't drink formula or breast milk which has those needed nutrients. Also, being so young, their immune system hasn't developed yet. This means that anything that's inside that unfiltered tap water, and there are lots of things in it, can harm the newborn. | 16 |
AskReddit/c7k7kro | 158gam | Who is your most annoying coworker? | I am a teacher. There is another teacher in my building who always wants to brag on her kids and talk about how perfect they are. She brags on facebook and in staff wide emails. Her kids are probably one of the worst classes in our school. She also is never on time to meetings and shows up like 10 minutes before the bell rings. She's very annoying. | 3 |
AskReddit/cfvpvu6 | 1zpdd9 | What seemingly simple question provoked a greater struggle, philosophical, factual, or otherwise, inside you? | How does a TV work? My young brother asked me this on the phone the other day and I told him what I knew and kindve just lost myself in thought. Just technology in general is so amazing these days I thought I was a pretty tech savvy guy but I proved myself wrong when I couldn't answer a simple question like that | 3 |
askscience/c9jwawp | 1cthtk | If I stood directly on one of the Earth's axial poles and looked straight up on a cloudless night, would I be able to notice the stars "spinning"? | The Earth spins 360 degrees in 23 hours 56 minutes, so a quick bit of calculator magic gives 0.004 degrees per second, or 15 arcseconds per second. That's pretty difficult to notice, even with a telescope - from memories of small telescope, you could notice the change in position if you looked away for a minute or so, but direct motion was still to small to see. The effect would actually be larger looking straight up from the equator (which is what my calculation applies to) - the reason that the North Star is so useful is because it's apparent position doesn't change with the Earth's rotation. | 3 |
AskReddit/dl8z6tn | 6rzrqd | When taking a driving permit test, what are some of the most important things to remember/consider for questions that might be asked? | One thing that screwed me over on the written test the first time I took was distances. For example, exactly how many feet you're technically supposed to stay behind an ambulance, construction vehicle, et cetera, rather than just a good visual estimate. | 2 |
AskReddit/dyide98 | 8haqwh | If society collapsed and everything descended into chaos, what would you do? | Start building it back up. Money might not be worth anything any more, but I've got a good set of skills, tools, a socially and technically skilled network of people in my life, and a passable sense of ethics. Way I see it, it would start as chaos. All the things that we put in the hands of structured society have failed us. No infrastructure, no centralized governance or law enforcement, no interstate trade. But all those things are still desirable, many forms of labor are still valuable, we just have different challenges than we did before the calamity. I'd adapt to the best of my ability. | 333 |
AskReddit/eo0ayc3 | bq01b4 | What is your craziest/saddest gambling story you have heard or seen? | When Idaho hit the over a 1 billion dollar jackpot I had people from all surrounding states lined up out the the gas station doors spending hundreds and some over a thousand on lottery tickets. And the one time I've gambled I didnt really know how the slot machines worked and clicked on a really high bet thinking it was 75 cents but it was $75. I was really sad. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/dsc9m5l | 7ou1hm | How was the FIRST blast furnace constructed? | You don't need metal in a furnace to produce iron. You can make a furnace complete out of stone, brick or clay. Or more precisely you can never have the inside of blast furnace made of the same metal you you are melting in it since then the furnace itself would also melt. But you have a pure metal furnace if the metal that you melts have a lower melting temperature, lead can be molten in a furnace with a steel inside if you cool it with water. Modern blast furnaces have the outside made of metal because it is strong and easy to build the structure. The inside are lined with ceramic bricks that survive the temperature. | 7 |
AskReddit/d09zf6l | 473yp5 | When eating at a casual restaurant / bar and you're served by the owner, tip or no tip? | This is an interesting question because my wife and I own a small boutique property and I find it interesting to look at the tipping culture of our guests. We take VERY good care of our customers and have exceptional service and really work our butts off all week when we have guests here.but it's very obvious that some people don't tip at the end of their stay because we are the owners (we have a cleaner and a gardener but I do all the front end stuff and my wife is the chef). Tips are either $0 for the entire week or very generous. We don't really care.we don't do our job for the tips and of course we make a profit when we have customers but it's been interesting to watch, for sure. | 2 |
AskReddit/euu1ira | chjva3 | What is the best and worst part of your job? | best - surrounded by unreleased and some unannounced games and consoles worst - cant take them home or tell people what's going on n wait for E3 till then reading all the speculations and guesses about a release, story, character on the Internet | 2 |
AskReddit/elghggo | bfuen1 | What is the weirdest injury you have heard about, seen, or had? | the weirdest injury I have is still in effect. Basically, when I was 15 years old I had eye surgery. From that moment I am unable to cry from my left eye. not tears at least. My tear glands in left eye socket produce barely enough fluid to keep my left eye moisturised. But. every time my blood pressure goes high (basically every time I Rage) I experience rupture of tiny blood vessels in my tear glands and I cry blood from my left eye. It can be a pretty intimidating sight. | 2 |
AskReddit/dowb8n2 | 78sd4g | How do you politely tell someone whose visiting you that their body odor is making your whole apartment smell? | A friend of mine had to pull me aside to let me know I had pretty bad foot odor. Do it privately, so that the person isn't defensive and so that other people don't jump on the bandwagon. Other than that, be direct. Don't make hints or vague references. As obvious as it is to you, that person might not even be aware of the issue, so hints and vagueness do nothing except increase the odds of you getting frustrated that nothing is changing. "I don't mean to offend you or be insulting, but you have a body odor that's making my home unpleasant. Is there anything I can do to help you solve that problem?" | 7 |
AskReddit/e45t2li | 974u6w | What is something that probably won't exist anymore in 100 years? | Cold hard cash. It’s stood the test of time so far, but people all over the world in both developed and developing countries are migrating to cashless payment methods. Admittedly, it might still exist, but we probably won’t regularly use cash in 100 years. | 2 |
AskReddit/c3mswfq | p63mq | What's a TV/Movie cliche that you think is totally untrue in real life? | I personally would turn the lights on if I felt there was an intruder in my house. It really annoys me when no one turns lights on and walks around in cinematic darkness. It just wouldn't happen in real life. | 64 |
explainlikeimfive/cminacm | 2o0qu5 | How do electrical capacitors block DC current but allow AC? | A capacitor is two plates next to each other with a gap in between. When you hook it up to a current, the plates will begin to accumulate charge until they are "full". This happens fairly quickly, but not instantaneously. If you're using DC current, the current will stop when the capacitor is fully charged. Current can't flow in between the gap of the plates. AC current switches polarity continuously. It does this faster than it takes the capacitor to fully charge. Before the capacitor is "full", the polarity is switched and the capacitor want's to change the polarity of the plates as well. | 6 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.