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AskReddit/czuuiua | 453d4r | What character ruins a TV show for you? | Any show that has the loser best friend as a side character. You know, the 30 year old who thinks he's still in college, is always dating different women, and never demonstrates any redeeming qualities. | 9 |
AskReddit/cqc5lko | 32ktav | What is the worst physical pain you've ever felt? | Root canal that got infected. That kind of pain dwarfs any other injury I've ever had, and there have been a lot. I couldn't focus on anything, I couldn't talk, I couldn't eat, I could barely even keep my right eye open. | 2 |
AskReddit/cd44gbq | 1pnotp | What types of Christmas decorations are used in the Southern Hemisphere where Christmas is in the summer months? | It's pretty much the same actually, but mixed with beachy and local things. A lot of the traditions are imported, so you see fake snow and trees though often with a sort of ironic joking twist. In New Zealand, most people still have evergreen trees though they're not native. We add a local tree (pohutakawa) that flowers red around Xmas and other Kiwiana like that to the decorations. As a northern hemisphere expat, it's really hard to get used to but it's nice in its own way. | 4 |
Ask_Politics/c93dkv8 | 1b3dm2 | How would Scotland benefit if it went independent of the UK? | I personally believe it would not benefit Scotland economically. An independent Scotland would be overly reliant on tax revenue from North Sea Oil and Gas. In fact, NS Oil and Gas would be about 18% of Scotland's GDP, this is simply unsustainable. To rely on such a chaotic business is absurd, the economy would essentially be based on oil prices. Not only that, but NS extraction is decreasing, even in the last 10 years it has fell 6% and it is only going to fall more in the coming decades. Furthermore, our financial sector is/would be gone. Imagine Scotland had been independent in 2008, how on earth would the Scottish Government bail out a bank which at its height had a balance sheet 13x Scotland's GDP? And you don't have to take my word for it, even the SNP's Finance Secretary, John Swinney, admits economic concern in private (if you don't know a private report on the Scottish economy if it were to become independent was leaked to the press last week showing this). Yet in public, the SNP continue to predict an "oil boom". Again, this is hogwash. Economists from the University of Glasgow have contradicted such claims. I can link you articles on all this stuff if you want but a google search will provide references for all I have said. | 17 |
AskReddit/ee5abdk | agcwx7 | What should one do if they decide against college? | Honestly, I'd advise doing a term in the Air Force or Navy. The benifits are incredible. If you're stuck living in your parent's basement not knowing what you want to do with your life, joining will get you out there on your own, the means to get a car and build a savings, work experience, time to figure out what exactly you want to do with your life, and free education after the fact should you decide to go the college/trade school route. | 2 |
AskReddit/dzh5u2n | 8ln1j7 | What is the most unnecessary thing you had to do in school? | My school had these scrapbooks that we had to fill every month with things that excited us that month. This was supposed to go on from year's 7 to 9. After the first school report I received I saw no mention of this scrapbook and decided I wasn't going to do it ever again. Every month I would get called into the office asking why I didn't do the scrapbook and every month I would say the same thing. This is a waste of mine and all the other student's time and I refuse to participate. Are you going to hold me back? I asked and they always said no and so this dance went on for those 3 years. The next year I decided to run school captain with my primary promise being to abolish the scrapbook system. I was the most nominated person to become captain, but I was called and told that ultimately I could not run because mine and the school's vision did not align. | 2 |
AskReddit/dp01i77 | 798of7 | What’s the best video game to unwind with after a long day of work? | I like to play Skyrim and just ride my horse and look around at the scenery and listen to the music. I really like riding around Falkreath when it’s raining. If it was a rough day at work, I’ll play Wolfenstein and just lay out Nazis until I feel better. | 5 |
AskReddit/dwiaf8a | 886n6j | What class from high school really stood out to you and why? | I don’t even remember most of my high school classes tbh. I guess band class since I was in it all 4 years then marched in college. I have one high school friend I still talk to regularly and he will bring up people or stuff that I don’t even remember. I’ve long since moved on from HS | 2 |
AskReddit/cab24a0 | 1fk7qu | What's a situation you've thought was the end of the world for you but turned out to be either beneficial, or not nearly as bad as expected? | I became pregnant shortly after turning 16 to a then 17 year old. I thought all of the dreadful things a typical teenager would in that circumstance. 6 years later my son is 5 and the father and I are still together. We have a nice home and a dog, and my son is beautiful and smart. We are wonderfully happy! | 3 |
AskReddit/clamxn4 | 2jdd0p | What has a fortune teller told you that came true and blew your mind? | Not really a 'fortune teller', but I ate a fortune cookie this one time. It said something about 'patience will bring success'. So I sat there staring at my fortune and eventually someone offered me an extra cookie. Blew my mind, being patient does work. | 6 |
AskReddit/ej4wule | b485xu | What is the nicest thing your SO has ever done for you? | He paid for braces even though I am almost 40. He is uncomplainingly cool with me going to get my PhD even though it will complicate child care and he doesn’t care that I will then have two more degrees than he does. He never made an issue of dealing with an ADHD brain either medicated or not. He does a lot of really nice things for me tbh. | 2 |
AskHistorians/d25jpdi | 4f2bla | What films, if any, most accurately portray a pre-WWI battle, especially hand-to-hand fighting? | Unfortunately, you're not really going to get a satisfactory answer to your question, because - with very few exceptions - we don't really know how mass battles were fought. A lot of the source material we have on battles doesn't describe formations or troop density or tactical manoeuvres or anything like that with any granularity, so we can't accurately recreate them on film. That said, though, there are some films depicting Greek and Roman battles that might be more accurate than others, but that's unfortunately far out of my specialization, so another user will have to pick it up. | 21 |
AskReddit/d15jg8r | 4b2ig5 | Will we ever cure cancer? | Cancer is actually a byproduct of cellular life. It is an error which occurs during the life cycle of a cell that the body doesn't have the ability to regulate. We are getting better with regards to detection and reconfiguring the human immune system to target cancers. I don't believe cancer will ever be cured. I believe it will always exist but just be ever more treatable as the ability to detect and engineer immune cells to fight it improves. | 4 |
AskHistorians/d8inu5v | 56efz7 | What was the deciding battle of the First World War? | > was it a stalemate through out until the tanks rolled in? It ceased to really be a stalemate when the Tanks first arrived, but this was entirely coincidental. They proved a useful accessory to the infantry, but attacks could and did succeed without them. > Is there any in particular at any time that could have decided the war . Was there any point where Germany was on the brink of victory? There was vary much a chance for the Germans to attain a significant victory in August-September 1914, when they invaded France and Belgium. The Belgian Army was forced to retreat to Antwerp, and only escaped to the Yser River after the Marne. Likewise, the French 5th Army was occupying a salient around Namur that might have become a pocket, had the Germans been aware of the situation before Lanrezac ordered a withdrawal. The BEF suffered greatly at Mons, and was forced to stand and fight at Le Cateau against superior numbers. Had the Germans had the cavalry to envelope them, and moreover to identify openings on the flanks, they could have destroyed the BEF. With these forces indisposed, the Allied northern flank would be open for outflanking, with exception of the 9th French Army and the forces gathered around Paris. Without any northern flank, Joffre's forces would have been thinly spread, and not as strong as they were on the Marne in September, when French divisions outnumbered German 2 to 1. Admittedly, most of these scenarios would have relied upon a better system of command and control, specifically Moltke devolving command to army groups instead of trying to direct the operations of 7 armies on a individual/semi-individual basis. It would also depend on the Germans concentrating their cavalry divisions within the First and Second armies on the wing, instead of scattering them across the entire front. Had the Germans and Austro-Hungarians followed up their efforts in 1915 by attacking the Russians in 1916, an end to the Eastern Front could have been achieved almost a year sooner. 1918 would be another point of departure; had the Germans kept better cavalry forces, and made these available in the West, and had clear objectives such as the rail centers at Amiens and Hazebrouck, the BEF could have been placed in an untenable position, cut from it's supplies and it's French allies. As to a decisive battle for the Allies, the concept of decisive battle isn't exactly a useful one for the World Wars, considering how long they dragged on and how resilient the armies that fought them proved to be. That being said, the First Battle of the Marne could be considered decisive, as it ended German hopes of an early victory in France. Likewise, although not battles, the Somme and Brusilov Offensives might be considered decisive, with the latter striking a crippling to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and drawing Romania into the war, while the latter brought a halt to German offensive operations against the French Army, placing the strategic initiative in the hands of the Allied Powers. Of course it's easy for us to point out from well after the war, what it's decisive moments were. This would have been less clear to the actors involved. | 11 |
AskReddit/dd5usec | 5rb1jv | What were some childhood shows you wish were still running? | Honestly now that I'm responsible for my 3 younger siblings, I really wish that shows like Curious George, Oswald, and the Magic School Bus were still on. Shows that teach something without being overly loud and obnoxious. You ever see Paw Patrol? It's banned in the house after 6 because it's too loud. | 2 |
AskReddit/ehgdp1m | avmy4b | What thing annoys you most that other people do while eating? | People who start eating before the person who cooked has sat down and is ready to eat. Doesn’t really bother me if I’m the one that cooked but really gets to me if I’m one of the people who’s been cooked for. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/d5o1o8p | 4ua5as | Why can't we have a stable economy without inflation or deflation? | Because no economy is really "stable", all economies are growing or shrinking to some extend over time. This is due to natural market fluctuations and also because most business generally try to grow. For a growing or shrinking economy to have zero inflation or deflation the supply of money would need to grow or shrink in lockstep. However they aren´t linked a 100% and government intervention isn´t precise enough to control this down to the percentage. In the absence of being able to guarantee 0% inflation or deflation, most economist view it as preferable to have a slight inflation as it supposedly has a positive effect on unemployment and also reduces public and private debt. | 2 |
AskReddit/d5406yy | 4rtdt9 | What happened to your high school sweetheart? | After spending high school straight edge, he got caught selling acid a few years later. After that, he was on the run from the police for a while before he was finally caught and sent to prison. I think that he got out recently. | 2 |
AskReddit/cg6y366 | 20uuj4 | What is something your learned from your grandparents that merits sharing with the internet? | My grandparents were married in 1929 and endured the depression for the first 10 years of married life including a few years living (with kids) in a garage while my grandfather worked in the mines. I learned a lot from them. Education! My grandfather had to quit school after the 8th grade to take care of the family as he was the only boy in the family. Fix it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. This was a common adage from that generation about the importance of being happy with what you have and fixing it rather than tossing it out. The power of an honest reputation. When my father went to get a loan for a house, the local building society took a look at who his dad was and gave him the loan! That would never happen today, of course, but I've often thought about the power of our reputations for honesty and kindness and its impact on those around us. | 3 |
AskReddit/eu9o4mg | cffz5g | What's a random and insignificant memory that you remember in vivid detail that you don't know if it's from a dream or real life? | Awhile back when I was a kid (around 10 or 12 I think) I remember Taco Bell (or bueno, can't remember which) had these little cheese stick ices taco things that I loved. Later they discontinued them, and we went to a Taco Bell (or bueno) and I wanted to order one, but of course they didn't have them. The cashier (or manager) came out to our table a bit after I order and had made me one. I still remember that almost a decade later (I'm 18 rn), but I still don't know if it was real or not. | 2 |
AskReddit/d67gqo7 | 4wjepc | What do you hate about yourself? | I hate being alone. Even for a night and it's no secret to those who know me. I lean on things shouldn't. I have a terrible sense of worth to myself. different from self worth because I'm worth a great many things to other people. I'm horrendously insecure. I wish I hadn't read this question. | 16 |
AskReddit/eq30gwe | bx3n29 | What is your worst kindergarten memory? | My family moved to Canada when I was 5. Not only could I not speak English, but nobody could pronounce my name properly, so they laughed at me a lot. My memories from kindergarten: Doing as everyone else does because I have no clue what's going on and getting laughed at. Good times. | 2 |
askscience/c19xhpb | epehz | Has grade-school and high-school science education changed over the years? | Some things have changed, others haven't. While there have been many attempts to rethink what is taught and how to teach it, for the most part, things have remained the same. The specific bits of knowledge and facts we remember when we're older vary depending on our interests, how we were taught, whether or not the new knowledge connects to what we already know, etc. It's great that you remember the relative sizes and distances of celestial objects! But there are many possible reasons why you remember, and others don't. | 3 |
askscience/c37l5do | naexb | Is there any evidence for a sort of anosognosia in mental illness patients? | As a mental health caregiver, I would say that the the majority I worked with do know that they have something wrong with them, but there was a general underlying paranoia that they were somehow being tricked into taking unneeded medication, or that they didn't really need medication at all. I would say about 75% of the time the patient was aware of their symptoms and could articulate any increase or decrease in symptoms. | 3 |
AskReddit/c5rcd35 | y0zwn | Why is drinking cow milk normal? | Because America has always bred more cows than any other species that would provide milk in a cost effective way. As for the human milk thing, that's just the effects of society deciding something is weird and forcing that view down everyone's throat. Personally, I drink goat milk and everyone looks at me like I'm crazy. I try to explain that it's no stranger than drinking cow milk but for some reason they just can't grasp the concept. The short answer is our society is used to cow milk so everything else seems strange at first. Also, the American Dairy Association is an absurdly powerful force in America, and most of their products come from cows. It's in their (and consequentially the government's) best interest to keep the cow milk flowing. | 2 |
AskHistorians/cd9dms6 | 1q49jp | What are the key political, economical, and historical influences on the ongoing development of military technology in America? | The key political influences were always geopolitical. What were perceived as the military threats or scenarios, and what technologies might be needed to counter them. The key economic influences were always, how much should be spent on military technology? Despite all the rubbish written about military spending being good for an economy, sensible people all know that military equipment does not make us richer. We can neither eat nor enjoy battle tanks. Military spending is like insurance, a necessary evil. The calculation is how little can we spend and still be confident that we can protect or defend our wealth and our interests. The main historical influences on military technology are the availability of new technologies and the perception of threats. In addition, I would suggest that there have been strategic themes to American military technology. Immediately after the revolution, the theme was to have no military. Once the Barbary States started enslaving American seamen, or demanding ransom to refrain, the US decided that building a small navy would be a better economic bet than paying ransom. The War of 1812 showed that a small navy and a militia army did not work well against a major power. The US started spending money on the massive coastal fortresses of the First, Second and Third Coastal Defense Sytems. The theme was defensive isolation. Of course, the Civil War led to new military technologies like ironclad ships, balloons, use of railroads. Still, US military technology was derivative (based on technologies developed in Europe) until at least the Second World War. (The Atomic Bomb being the most radical military technology developed by America in that war, though long range bombers were another.) In the Cold War, the US had a general strategy of trying to overcome Warsaw Pact superiority in numbers through superiority of technology (at least in conventional warfare). This seemed both less expensive than trying to match the Warsaw Pact in a numbers game, and to fit with another US strategy, which was to invest in technologies which attempted to limit US casualties. For a long time, few thought that the strategy of defeating superior numbers with superior technology would be successful. In the 80s however, it began to look like it would work. This was largely confirmed in the First Gulf War where high technology weapons picked apart the Russian Equipped Iraqi forces with very few Coalition casualties (which shocked the high command of the Red Army). Source: Briefings and discussions with NATO commands when I ran a NATO Defense Company in the 1980s | 2 |
AskReddit/c0i0ah3 | aka1w | Is there any tech news site that does only first hand reporting? | Hmm, that's a tough one. Hype pays the bills and almost by definition is labeled to vaporware. There's also the problem that first hand reporting is expensive and the profit margins of e-journalism is such that it discourages re-investigating a story if it has already broken on another site. Depending on what type of news you're looking for, I'd recommend you check out magazines that have online presences; they typically have the writers and/or resources to report more than factoids from the rumor mill and at the same time vet stories properly prior to publication. | 2 |
AskReddit/cjmmd1z | 2d61on | What is one the best jobs a teenager can get? | Apprenticeship in carpentry, plumbing, electrical, masonry, etc. Pick one of the trades, by the time you graduate you'll be near journeyman making $25-30 an hour and scaling up from there. You don't need to rack up massive student loans and can eventually start your own business and make even more. By the time the average college graduate gets out, you'll be making more money and don't owe anyone $60-$80 thousand in student loans. My cousin was a below average high school student, went into electrical work and now has his own company making over 6 figures in a small town in the Midwest (where making 6 figures allows him to live way above the norm.) Those jobs aren't going anywhere and they pay decent as you advance in experience. | 3 |
AskReddit/dddkz8r | 5saff4 | What's a word/sentence that makes you cringe? | No so much me, but my elderly grandmother ruined the word "moist" for my sister, now I will randomly say "moist" to her to make her cringe�� Because hey, that's what big sisters are for. | 4 |
explainlikeimfive/cuhmx4z | 3im9eq | Why has China done more in 2 weeks to identify and charge those responsible for the Tianjin explosion than the US has in 2 years for the West Texas Chemical Explosion? | Authoritarian governments can be completely lax on safety in the name of economic growth, but then if an issue occurs, they can also crack down immediately to save public face. Also they probably know who got bribed because.they allowed the person to get bribed. Still doesnt stop thousands of people dying a year in accidents. In the US there is more due process of law and things are generally a lot slower. Its definitely a safer place to work though, so good luck with your title implying that the US is somehow worse for workers than china | 38 |
AskReddit/db0qilq | 5hjz2p | What is the biggest problem in america ? | The biggest problem in America is the intolerance of any viewpoint that differs from your own, and the inability to compromise between viewpoints that leads too. At it's core democracy is about compromise. Once that ability to compromise breaks down democracy cease to function, and what ever group isn't currently in power feels increasingly disenfranchised and is pushed to greater extremes to maintain their values. | 5 |
AskReddit/cw2g184 | 3p1z28 | Which habits of yours have saved you the most money? | Research everything until I am certain beyond a reasonable doubt that it is the best possible thing I can get in that price range. This has not only saved me from buyer's remorse, but has helped me avoid overly expensive products by showing me cheaper, higher quality alternatives. | 9 |
AskReddit/cnzor4d | 2tjw1g | Do you believe that life exist, non intelligent or intelligent, on other planets and why? | Yes. Billions of stars in our galaxy alone, and billions of galaxies. There are just too many rolls of the cosmic dice for there not to be life elsewhere. Think about it this way. Lets say the odds of life are 1 in 400 billion. That is roughly 1 life-bearing planet per galaxy. That still leaves hundreds of billions of planets with life throughout the universe. Personally, I'm of the opinion that there are civilizations out there that are thousands if not millions of years ahead of us, thousands of years behind us, and everything in between. | 8 |
AskReddit/cq37jr0 | 31nlel | What are you a nerd for? | music. and as if i weren't enough of a nerd when it comes to my favorite acts, favorite producers, synthesizers, production techniques, the histories of obscure hip-hop labels and so on, now i'm teaching myself music theory, which is sure to make me even more of an insufferable music nerd. i love it. | 3 |
AskReddit/cytjnuv | 40ef3z | What was the moment you realized your So truly loved you? | When I looked at her one morning and she gave me this longing deep look and gave the most natural and warm smile I ever saw her give. Thing is I also know the moment when she fell out of love with me, and she looked up in nearly the exact same way, gave me this longing deep look and he face held blank as if ice cold. I went to touch her face and ask what's wrong and she jerked suddenly as if my touch would burn. EDIT: Forgot a word | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/d5hdly6 | 4thnjf | What happens when home owner dies and there is a mortgage left? | When a person dies, their property makes up the estate. Creditors can make a claim against the estate, and what is left after the debts are paid is distributed according the last will of the decedent. If the estate does not have enough assets to pay all of the debts, the creditors are out of luck regarding the remainder (and the heirs get nothing). That is one of the risks of lending money. However, a mortgage is secured by the house. If the estate does not have enough money to pay the mortgage, the bank gets the house (and with priority over other creditors), just as if the decedent was unable to pay while alive. That is one reason that mortgages have lower interest rates than unsecured loans. If the heirs really want the house, or any other part of the estate for that matter, they can agree to pay off the creditors with their own money. | 6 |
AskReddit/e8fzerz | 9rbxkx | What do you for a living, do you like what you do or do you hate it? | I'm a private piano/singing tutor. I absolutely love it. I'm hoping to get more performance work in at some point (which is a lot harder than getting pupils), but I still find teaching to be rewarding and enjoyable - I get to earn a living out of music which has always really been the dream. I still do a lot of performing anyway, just not that much of it is paid. | 7 |
explainlikeimfive/d9eeu95 | 5a85hp | If a president goes to jail, what happens to secret service detail? | A President will not go to jail while they are President. If they commit a crime they are impeached, and if found guilty they are removed from presidency then sent to prison if it is merited. They would not have a security detail, but they would likely be in high security and may be in solitary confinement. | 4 |
AskReddit/c4eojrg | sk4ov | What is your proudest video game accomplishment? | The game was Halo 3: ODST. Achievement was Vidmaster Challenge: Endure and we had to pass the 4th set on Heroic with 4 players. When we completed it, I was so happy I was crying with laughter. Partly because I got my beloved recon armour and partly because I was the first one out of my friends to get it. Proudest video game accomplishment. Period. | 2 |
AskReddit/cyp28ky | 3zu4np | If you found a bag with 100k in 20s at a park and no one saw you, how would you handle the money? | I have experienced something close to this. I once found a roll of $20 and $100 dollar bills bigger than the size of my fist secured with a rubber band in a parking garage. I can be "too nice" and my first thought was some dumbass kid from the nearby community college lost his rent/grocery money, and I didn't want him/her to go hungry etc. I took it to the garage security office, manned by police officers. They didn't want it. They directed me to the office I needed to go to in order to turn it in. As I walked to the correct office, I became fearful that the money was less suburban in nature than what I first thought. I was scared it was drug money and some barbaric scum was probably following me, and planning my demise. I hurried up, and upon arriving, was told that these people did not want the loot either. Now I was really scared. I started thinking of how badly my karma was going to be screwed up if I couldn't get the money back to the rightful owner, and who the rightful owner might be. I jogged back to the parking garage, let myself into the security office (they didn't like that) and dumped the cash on the counter. I told them no-one wanted the money, least of all me. I suggested they fund coffee and donuts (also not amused) for the next few years there at the security office, but that I didn't need the bad ju-ju. I felt extreme relief and weight lifted off of me when I left that money behind. No regrets. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/dia3t9o | 6egljl | How do engineers decide what the speed limit should be on any given road/street? | State route speed limits are set by lawmakers, not engineers. Engineers however do set the speed limits for ramps and transition roadways, curvy bits where G forces matter more than speed. When traveling through a curve there's a max G force your vehicle is allowed to take before it becomes unsafe; this is why posted speed limits are often WAY lower than what's possible through a curve. Straight roadways and neighborhoods are a lot easier because there's already a standard. Neighborhoods and school zones are almost always 25, surface streets and boulevards are usually 35 or 40, and highways vary from 65 to 80 depending on the area; all of which are set by lawmakers for the state. | 7 |
AskReddit/elfo37m | bfquv9 | Why doesn't Jesus' resurrection negate his initial sacrifice on the cross? | Essentially you are released from the burden of sin after death, and therefore he took on all the sins of humanity and took them to the grave. Because death is a result of sin and he never sinned, death had no hold on him. By taking on humanities sins, as long as you believe him your sins are forgiven. ie. His initial sacrifice was to take the sin on him and get rid of them. The resurrection was a result of him never sinning. This is how I would perceive it to be without the reasoning behind it. Kinda how it works logically. | 6 |
AskReddit/cbiruzd | 1jvp52 | Is it possible that the US may one day be broken into several countries? | Imagine trying to split up a shirt by its colors. Countries, symbolized by shirts, used to be split geographically in a somewhat striped way. As technology grew, these colors started to mix into a more polka dot fashion, with cities in various locations being culture hubs instead of sections of the country. Then eventually the polka dot pattern became a tie-dye pattern. Now try drawing separatist borders on a tie-dye shirt. | 4 |
explainlikeimfive/deqyynx | 5ylhep | How do we know ancient civilisations/events existed? | Carbon dating is a chemistry-based method for determining how old organic matter (wood, preserved food) is. There's no disguising a 200 year old tomb as a 4000 year old tomb; the carbon dating is completely different. Also, we have records from long ago (like the Roman Empire) of people already knowing about things like the Egyptian Pyramids, which were already old at the time. Also, some civilizations (like China) have existed continuously for thousands of years, with continuous written records updated every year, and consistent with the archaeological records. It's just too much to fake; you might as well give up on reality entirely. | 7 |
explainlikeimfive/e1099tz | 8sl3bl | Why do all home loan interest rates change on the government end and why do all banks follow the recommendation as it does and not compete with their own rates? | Banks can earn a small amount of interest by letting the government hold their money. The government is very stable and unlikely to default, so this is widely considered the safest investment. Unlike the government, you are a risky investment. The banks will still loan you money instead, but will expect a higher interest rate to account for the greater risk. As the government rate changes, mortgage rates tend to follow. The best mortgage rates will be still higher than the government rate. The banks do compete on rates within reason, but they're all using roughly the same math to decide who gets what rates. People with better credit histories get the lowest rates. | 8 |
AskReddit/cmur6pd | 2pa2a7 | What makes you uncomfortable? | Sometimes, when I am driving and I am in the right lane and I know there is a faster car coming up on my left to pass but it takes them like forever to actually pass me, that makes me uncomfortable because I don't like people driving in my blind spot and IDK. It just heightens my anxiety and I either want to slow down or speed up to get away from the other car. | 11 |
askscience/cn77sqf | 2qi0rv | Why do real helicopters only need one set of main blades, but toy copters need two, plus that weighted balance thing? | Followup question: Is it possible to use a gyroscope instead of the back rotor to keep the helicopter from beginning to rotate with the blades, or is that not a thing gyroscopes are able to do? ^gyroscopes ^are ^basically ^magic ^to ^me | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/d6k7sa7 | 4y06lu | Why does fruit bruise? | Bruising can also be caused by mechanical damage to the cells of the fruit that results in these cells rupturing. When the bruise darkens, it is actually necrosis spreading. Freezing the fruit would only stop the onset or spread of necrosis, but it will continue once thawed out. | 2 |
AskReddit/d3hqvnf | 4ktdqd | What is a useful skill you can learn in ten minutes while sitting at a desk? | a sick table beat. first, count to 4 in your head, with each count lasting about a half a second. try your best to make sure each number is on time: that is, you're counting in the same time interval. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 if you play an instrument, or have ever been in any sort of band or choir, this should come easily to you. there are 2 main sounds that you can make with your fist: the 'knock' and the 'bang'. the 'knock' is made with your knuckles, and the 'bang' is made with the bottom of your fist. now, count in your head, 1 2 3 4. on the 1 and 3 sound, make a knock with one hand. easy, right? now try it again, this time with a bang. 1 and 3, hit the table with your fist. also easy! now let's step it up a notch. instead of counting 1 2 3 4, we're gonna count 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. the space between the numbers should be the same as last time. try it, in your head. cool! try hitting the 'knock' on the 1 and 3, and the 'bang' on the 2 and 4. good! it's still not a sick beat, but remember the 'ands' we counted earlier? we're going to use those. now: knock on 1, knock on 2, knock on 3, knock on 3and, and bang on 4. it should sound like: knock, knock, knock knock, bang. now it sounds like a beat! let's try something else. 1: knock; 1and: knock; 2: bang; 3: knock; 3and: knock; 4: bang depending on the speed at which you are counting, this should sound a little bit like 'we will rock you'. simple! now, for the last part of the 'lesson. we're now going to count 1 e and a, 2 e and a, 3 e and a, 4 e and a. remember: the speed of the numbers should be the same. you're basically saying twice as many things in the same time interval, in your head. let's create our last beat. 1: knock; 2: bang; 3: knock; 3and: knock; 3-a: knock; 4: bang knock. bang. knock, knock knock bang. that's what it should sound like. congrats, you've made a beat that people can freestyle to, in 10 minutes, with only one hand! now, 10 minutes or so has passed but tune in next time for the lesson that involves using 2 hands! EDIT: i should warn you that you may or may not annoy everyone around you but hey, they're just haters anyway. | 224 |
AskReddit/cef1799 | 1u6m8d | What is the worst thing you've overslept for? | I overslept on 9-11. I was supposed to go to my girlfriends house for sexytimes. I woke up at about 11 a.m. I went downstairs, and my dad was just screaming at me "oh my god you're going to go to war before this s* over!" My dad is a bit nutty so I didn't think much of it but then he explained what happened. It was a lot to take in at once. | 28 |
explainlikeimfive/c71n1wu | 1384ev | Why does video on my HD TV always look awesome and flawless, but video on my HD laptop is always buffering and looks crappy? | The quality of video isn't determined by the quality of the screen you view it on. It's based on the quality of the original video file. For example, you might watch a Blu-Ray on your TV, which has a bitrate of around 35Mbps. However, if you're watching Netflix in HD on your computer, it has a maximum bitrate of around 4Mbps- barely 1/9th the quality of the Blu-Ray file! Even broadcast HDTV is still going to be at around 16Mbps- four times the quality of your HD Netflix stream. | 4 |
AskReddit/cjwmxel | 2e6ypq | How would you financially manage a $200 million dollar lottery win? | I have had this discussion with my family and girlfriend, I would pay off my house, and student loan debt (there goes $180,000), Parents get $5M. After taxes at $200M would prob be what in the $170+ Million range? That would be a nice nest egg, I would then proceed to legally change my name and move to a different state while only telling a handful of people my name so random 5th cousins etc don't start coming out of the woodwork begging for money. New house lets say $300,000, New car $25,000. Invest maybe $30-40M into say being a part of a group that buys a sports team as the return on investment seems high. Bank the rest and go back to school for PhD(another lets say $100,000 and relax and teach somewhere when done. Small low key vacations every now and then, finally call it a retirement around 60. | 3 |
askscience/da1pzwt | 5d1wuc | How could someone refine salt from very dirty salt water in your home? | As you have seen from what you googled it is not that hard to remove the water and leave a solid cake or thick brine (though energy intensive to do it fast). However, to really get pure salt out of the gunk you may be left with could be difficult, especially if we don't know exactly what else is in there. If you do know what else is in there or it is clean enough to not care, then just go ahead and distill away the water, break up the salt cake you get and redissolve it in water (maybe requiring more heat and time compared to fine salt crystals). If you need to get the other gunk out of there then you have some options. Lets start assuming you have a fairly concentrated brine solution after letting most of the water evaporate away. To remove insoluble stuff you can push the brine through some kind of filter. At home one of the best options is cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Next you should remove the final water from the filtered brine leaving a solid cake or hopefully powder. To remove many organics you can wash the solid with some kind of organic solvent. Acetone is a good example, or pure ethanol (denatured alcohol). There are other more hazardous things out there like toluene that you can easily find in a hardware store too. Best to make sure that whatever you use isn't mostly water though, or you'll lose lots of your salt (for example isopropyl alcohol sounds good but it is usually in a solution that is partly or mostly water). To get rid of inorganic impurities you can recrystallize the salt a few times, assuming the salt is the major component. Take the solid and put in in a very small amount of hot water, raise it to a boil with good stirring. You want to add little enough water that it doesn't all dissolve or just barely does. If not everything is dissolved then add more hot water till all solid disappears. Remove from heat and chill in a fridge. Filter out the salt crystals with cheesecloth or a coffee filter and rinse them with a small amount of cold water. Do the whole thing again if you want more pure stuff, but be aware you will lose a significant portion of your final salt each time. After reading all this are you asking yourself "is it worth doing?" The answer is probably no, the energy and time required to refine the waste salt is pretty significant. The low cost of commercial salt is due to the ease with which we can find and purify it in nature, and since we live on a planet with salty oceans it is not like we are in danger of stressing our supply. As such you might be better off spending your time to green up something else. It is a fun experiment though. Also to consider, I don't know of any in particular but there is probably an ion selective membrane out there that can pass salt but blocks everything else. Something like this could be used to purify your waste with much less effort, but you might need a way to create a pressurized system which is a significant investment. | 5 |
explainlikeimfive/ek3bn33 | b9b4dp | Why can babies learn languages just from listening to them but not us grown up people? | A babies entire brain is adapted to soak up as much about their environment as possible, perfectly geared towards replicating sounds and observing their use. Babies' brains develop in a certain region as they learn and experience more language, but by the time they are about 8 to puberty age their brain begins to stop, so these brain area remain undeveloped unless stimulated young, and are unable to improve in the same way as children. As adults we lose this ability as we become practised in the things we learnt as a child, and struggle to improve further in the same way. The case study of Genie, the feral child, is useful in understanding the lack of language as a child and it's impact. | 4 |
askscience/eulvhrv | cgt648 | What's the reason behind lowering of immunity when a patient is diabetic? | Diabetes impacts the micro blood vessels. It induces poor circulation to the extremities and prevents the flow of healthy well, oxygenated blood to these regions. Hence, these areas become prone to wound infection and necrosis. Additionally, elevated blood sugar can cause catabolic breakdown of tissues and cells via ketosis which further accelerates damage to capillaries. That's why any diabetic should exercise as if their life depended on it. It improves circulation, lowers blood sugar, improves insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control. | 7 |
AskReddit/dd398gp | 5qz7f3 | How can a person live without education in this generation? | You have to define what education is in this context. If you mean school-based education where you learn a lot of academic stuff, or if you mean education as in. just learning anything. A person could be terrible with math, science, English, etc. but be great at specific skills like cooking, or magic. You don't need to be in school to learn. | 3 |
askscience/ci7739p | 2841en | Is it right for me to conclude that the uncertainty principle feels unfinished? | A see a couple of points here. The first is that you seem to think that uncertainty must be computationally tractable and the fact that it isn't means there's a problem. This view appears to come from an assumption that the universe somehow 'picks' an outcome and that it does so computationally. This is very likely untrue. Second, you are assuming that uncertainty applies to space-time. This comes fro. The final paragraph where you state that an 'interaction' with space-time is the equivalent, from a QM perspective, to an interaction with another particle/waveform. Again, it is unlikely that space-time is a particle/wave in the QM sense, although I believe Penrose argues the opposite by asserting that the trigger for 'collapsing' a wave function is when it becomes gravitationally significant. In summary I wouldn't say the uncertainty principle is unfinished. It appears to be sound within the domain of applicability, so I'd be more prepared to say that QM is unfinished - something that almost everyone would agree is true. | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/cxqp4s2 | 3vu7f0 | Do I really need to wash my lettuce when it's been sitting in the grocery store getting misted on all day? | That mist is not washing the lettuce, it's just keeping it wet which helps keep it cool and fresh. There can be all kinds of germs/bacteria on the outside or in the folds of the lettuce. Washing it is probably a good idea. | 3 |
AskReddit/cj736jo | 2bnizk | What was the defining moment in your life? | I quit my job to go travel and figure out my life. I was successful in traveling for about five months before I decided I wasn't too far off from what I wanted and cared about back home. I am living that defining moment right now as I decide how to approach the possible transitional phase of my career-life. It looks like I'm headed right back to the type of work that drove me away, unfortunately. | 2 |
AskReddit/dl6sd1z | 6rpezm | What is a patent or invention that potentially could make huge positive changes that a company bought and shelved so they could continue to make large profits? | Any type of drug or treatment that works incredibly well. So well that you only need it a few times. I also firmly believe that tech companies have the technology for their respective fields already planned and made for the next 30-40 years. An example would be Canon Cameras. What I'm saying is they aren't making new discoveries every year, they already know it and are just maximizing profits. | 3 |
AskReddit/e3f338w | 93q6pi | What don't people take seriously enough? | Climate change. Even if you think it’s not real or not as bad as people make it out to be, what’s the harm in cutting down single use plastics or keeping waters clean? | 2 |
AskReddit/ctcmz6h | 3e8z5x | What are some college pro tips/life hacks? | Study tips: Block youtube and reddit on your firewall (as well as any other site you spend too much time on). Use the parental control settings on your router to maybe allow access to these sites for an hour a day, or something like that. Likewise, restrict your gaming to small time periods, and only after you accomplish something. When you have finished all your homework, reward yourself with a gaming break. Take notes during lectures, always. At the end of each day, review your notes, and the concepts discussed in each course. Do the same thing at the end of each week. Assignment tips: break your assignments into small pieces and complete each piece. Work on one thing at a time. If you are assigned a report that is due in 2 weeks, break it into 10 pieces and do one piece each day. Trust me on this. EDIT: forgot to mention: do the hardest / most boring / least fun thing FIRST, always. Diet tips: coffee and Red Bull are the keys to success. | 2 |
askscience/c1hrt6q | fpxxe | What stars that can be seen with the naked eye have planets orbiting around them? | Given the recent work done by the Spitzer scope, it is starting to seem more and more likely that MOST of the stars in the sky have planets of some sort floating around them - we just haven't been able to see them directly or through the common planet discovering methods (wobble and transition). Our telescopes at current technology have a very very difficult time to see objects at the range of Pluto due to the lack of light coming from or reflected by it, let along in the Oort cloud. But, just becuase we can't see them doesn't mean they aren't there. | 4 |
AskReddit/cz7o97e | 425923 | What are your top 5 nostalgic games? | Mario 64. I still remember that Christmas opening my N64 and loving everything about that game. Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. First game I ever beat multiple times doing things different and trying new things out. Not just one playthrough and done. Pokemon red / blue. Game changer. First game I remember going on the internet and searching out people to talk to about it. I played every inch of those games and I don't think I've done that since with any other game. Halo. I was staying with my cousin over the summer break. He had an Xbox (which I didn't) and heard of this new game called Halo. Decided to go pick it up and low and behold. that was the rest of our summer. World of Warcraft. 200+ days of total playtime. I still play on occasion, but nothing like I used to. I ate slept and dreamt WOW from like 2006 to 2010 or so. I still play with multiple old guildmates on many other games. I have never played in a gaming community since where you made such close friends. | 2 |
explainlikeimfive/cg33slc | 20gu4p | How would a financial collapse of the USD affect Canadian economy? | A financial collapse of the US economy or USD would destroy the entire world economy, not just Canada's. The US economy is so large and intertwined with the global economy that it would trigger a domino effect, taking the whole world down with it. A few reasons: 1) The world uses the USD as the primary reserve currency. If it were to extremely lose value, many countries would be sitting on a lot of worthless paper. Also, most non-physical transactions use USD. If it lost value, these transactions would be almost impossible. 2) China's economy would almost surely collapse. If the US economy collapsed, China's largest importer by far would no longer be able to buy enough goods from it. China's GDP would implode considering exports are so important to its economy. 3) The US has many leaders in the financial industry. If these were to all collapse at once, what happened in 2007 would happen again, but much much worse. When these things all happen, the world would be in a lot of trouble. | 6 |
AskReddit/c4kd6br | t87ci | Could someone please explain to me why personal experience is anecdotal evidence? | Because humans are massively flawed. And one of those flaws is related to memory and emotion. People can only be objective as their brain allows. Personal accounts in law proceedings are only taken into account if the physical evidence supports it. | 3 |
AskReddit/c13rrlx | dy02f | When you have deja-vu, do you feel like you remember remember having the deja-vu in addition to everything else? | I forget the exact details and don't feel like looking it up, but basically deja-vu is a momentary misfire/error that allows an experience to hit your memory banks before you consciously feel the experience. If you get two quick misfires/errors/whatever you'll have deja-vu and then instantly have deja-vu about the deja-vu. | 7 |
AskReddit/c3cmsyu | nwvs4 | Why is it that Jews who call for separation of sexes are called "Orthodox" while a Muslim calling for the same thing would be called an extremist? | The Muslims who call for the same thing wouldn't call themselves extremists, they would call themselves Salafists or Wahabis or whatever sect of Islam they are. The media would call them extremist, because they don't expect their readers/viewers to know or care about the different sects of Islam. | 25 |
AskReddit/e6p81p5 | 9j6zoy | Do cats remember who brought them home? | I got Captain from a rescue centre. They didn't know how old he was- he was either a middle aged cat with terrible teeth or an old cat with good teeth. This was five years ago, so he's definitely old now either way. I'd been catless for a while, so I went to the RSPCA to meet some, and Captain was sitting to attention in his cage. I brushed my fingers against the bars and he started to purr. I asked the cattery lady to get him out, and he walked right up my body and put his neck on mine. I was sold immediately, obviously. And I think he chose me as his person, who he could cadge a good living off and get his belly rubbed on demand. He follows me around at home, and to the shops or into the car if I don't leave the house discreetly enough. He sits quietly with me while I work. There have been times when I've cried into his fur and he just sits there with me, purring his rumbly purr. I've had many cats, and I've loved them all, but he's the only one who seems to return it, a little. He's lying on his back next to me now so I can stroke his chest properly. | 3 |
askscience/c8p7dy9 | 19l0zd | Is there friction during general space travel (speed loss)? | There is a small amount of gas in outer space that can lead to a very very minuscule friction. In low-earth orbit this is more of an issue because of the upper atmosphere. The ISS decreases in altitude by 2 km/month because of this and has to continually correct itself. | 4 |
AskReddit/dufti9x | 7ydk3l | What was life like before the internet? | Quieter, calmer, friends were actual friends, there was a healthy distance between people, no daily hysterics from news and social media, blissful ignorance about global issues, more freedom, more privacy, kids spent more time outside, you could walk the street and not see 9 out of 10 people looking at their smartphones, no selfies, no fake virtue signalling, celebrities seemed more "mysterious", the list goes on and on. TL:DR - most things were better before the internet. Life in general was better. | 44 |
explainlikeimfive/c4vtvy4 | uiczd | Why do fancy watches have crystals in them? | Specifically, jewels reduce friction by acting as strike surfaces that transmit energy from one gear to another. The ideal strike surface is one that provides a highly inelastic collision and is supported by a very rigid body. Imagine putting two marshmallows on the end of two sticks and whacking one marshmallow into the other; instead of transmitting much of the energy through to the other stick, a good deal of energy will be used to deform the marshmallow where it will turn into heat. You also want to avoid using any material that has a hard surface, but isn't rigid. Imagine attaching two springs with hard metal plates to your sticks, then smacking one into the other. Instead of moving the other stick, a good deal of energy will go into compressing the springs, where they will just uselessly oscillate after parting ways for awhile until, once again, friction eats up all that extra energy. Last, you don't want surfaces that will stick together. Imagine heating up the marshmallows a bit from the first example and smacking them together.now what you have are two sticks joined together by a gummy substance. Or maybe you have a very hard surface but it is rough so when they meet, much of the force is transmitted across surfaces that are not planes perpendicular to the direction of motion. All of these forces go into vibrating the plane across its surface rather than straight into it. Because jewels are formed by crystal lattice structures, they form very smooth, hard surfaces, and they are rigid, so they address all three concerns. Because of their rigidity, they generally won't vibrate very much at all when being struck, so they don't heat up, sapping energy in the process. When you put a non-Quartz watch to your ear, the ticking you hear is jewels slapping into each other. | 2 |
AskReddit/c4p5uqy | trlvu | What would explain a sudden infestation of giant flies? | Luckily once you get them all they don't come back. If they do then there is something (like a dead body) that is continuing to feed them. For me, I killed about 20 flies over the course of 2 days. Then a few more stray ones (for a bout a total of 30 as well) all of them big, fat, black, and hairy. Easiest way to kill them I find is to spray cleaners at them. (like windex or vim) Their wings get sticky and they can't fly so if the chemicals don't kill them you can. | 2 |
askscience/c2jfabr | kdn9c | Are gravity and Einstein's General Relativity Theory mutually exclusive? | General Relativity is a theory of gravity. Gravity is an observed fact. Newton's Theory of gravity is the old theory, Einstein's GR is the newer one. "Theory vs Law" is a semantic debate frequently held among people who'd rather make proscriptions on how they think scientific terminology should work rather than how it actually does. The term "law" has no meaning at all, except as an indicator that the thing in question likely dates from the 19th century or earlier. It was never applied consistently. The Laws of Thermodynamics are as well-grounded as any facts we know about physics, whereas Ohm's Law is effectively nothing more than a definition, whereas Hooke's Law is a simple approximation, etc. | 6 |
AskReddit/e6qzus2 | 9jfeaj | What famous book do you think is overrated? | I am obsessed with the world/ lore of ASOIAF, like many others, and have read the books multiple times. That being said, large portions the books are boring af and I read them before bed to put me to sleep. Maybe overrated isn't the word but I know some fans treat them like holy books. | 1,513 |
explainlikeimfive/de52ngp | 5vtr5x | What causes some people to be "double jointed"? | Being double jointed really just means that your joint have a higher range of motion than a normal joint, Not having two joints. 'Double-Jointedness' can be caused by a bone not being very deep into it's socket, your ligaments being looser, or weaker muscles, resulting in higher range of motion. The chance of being double-jointed is higher if you have double-jointed parents. | 2 |
AskReddit/dqokgj9 | 7h6jk9 | What advice would you give your younger self? | I'd tell my younger me (let's say 13, 1987) that I have bipolar, OCD, ADD, anxiety and Aspergers and to go to a psychiatrist and start getting treatment right away. I wasn't diagnosed until I was 24 and that was far too long. I didn't even get a good shrink until I was 35. I'd tell her all about the manic cycles and the depressive cycles and to tell her not to go out and give in to the sexual impulses when manic and try to start eating healthy and exercising regularly and not get really obese. I'd tell her to quit smoking IMMEDIATELY and NEVER DO IT AGAIN. | 2 |
AskReddit/dct2lfh | 5pquxz | Which animal would be the most obnoxious if it gained the ability to talk? | I imagine goats would be. They're already head-butting animals that like to jump around and hit things. I could only imagine it would be like a drunk frat party full of dares if they could talk. | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/d2yf10s | 4iillq | Why does rubbing a coin on a metal surface make a vending machine accept it? | Vending machines indentify coins by several criteria, commonly size, weight and electric conductivity, as well as a magnet trap for magnetic counterfeits. In order to have an effect, the rubbing needs to change one or more of these criteria to within the accepted parameters of the machine. WARNING, SPECULATION FROM HERE ON: Why it could work: Grime or oxide covering the coin can affect the electrical conductivity of the coin. Rubbing it would remove oxides and grime, and so restore the conductivity to a level the machine will accept. If you're using visibly dirty coins the dirt could be enough to affect size and weight as well. Why it probably doesn't: This sounds a bit far fetched for me, I don't think vending machines are sensitive enough to detect a thin layer of oxide, and so should accept "un-rubbed" coins. Also, the conductivity is indirectly identified through use of the Hall-effect, so a surface layers should have very little effect on the measurement. I speculate that it has to do with superstition and confirmation bias. That is, if you use real coins, a well-functioning vending machine should eventually accept your coins, but it's not guaranteed to do so on the first try. So you put in some coins, some are not accepted, you rub them and try again and now, "magically", the rubbing fixed the problem and made the machine accept the coin. Except, the machine would have accepted the coins the second time anyways, but you chose to rub them in between, and thus falsely identified the rubbing as the important part, rather than the persistent re-trying. | 4 |
AskReddit/eozv0g1 | btmimm | Why does military boot camp consist of yelling, aggressiveness, and belittling people, when no other job training or internship does that? | Because it's intended to break down and rebuild them as effective soldiers instead of ineffective civillians. It works. These people are going to be relied upon to undertake some of the most difficult, stressful and emotionally straining decisions it's even possible to imagine. None of them are the type of people to see it as "belittling" believe me. I did my military service and I never saw it as belittling or needlessly aggressive, it served a very important purpose. | 15 |
AskReddit/c1s8rcc | h3bhc | Has the common cold remained untreatable because of scientists' inability to overcome its complexity or is it because it's more profitable for drug companies to sell dozens of different remedies for each individual symptom? | Not quoting off sources here, just memory. I understood that a "cold" can be caused by a large number of rapidly mutating viruses, so a cure for the common cold isn't exactly possible But it is definitely also true that big Pharma is more likely to develop drugs that treat symptoms in the hopes that they can make more profits | 5 |
explainlikeimfive/dmq0j6o | 6ytb2w | How do we know anything about space or other planets? | We do not know everything but have a lot of indications pointing to several theories. A lot of times these theories are taken as truth just because there are several indications that it is correct. So it is not uncommon to see books and popular articles from a few years back that claimed something were true that we later disproved. We do have a lot of cool instruments that can tell us a lot of information about distant objects. Using infrared cameras we can create real time temperature maps of distant objects. A spectrometer can even determine the chemical composition of something at a great distance. This is how we discovered helium on the Sun before we found it on Earth. We can also use radar to penetrate the upper atmosphere and get reflections from deeper down. Using careful examination of the orbits of the moons of a planet we can get a rough map of the density of the planet. We have also visited these planets with space probes and have for instance measured the magnetic field. There is also seismic events on the surface from meteorites or atmospheric phenomena and we can measure how these seismic waves moves around in the planet. Using all this we can get an image of how the inside of a planet might look like. We can see how dense the core are and see how it affects the magnetic filed and seismic waves. But the exact size and composition is still not quite known although there is only a few theories that fit the measured values. | 4 |
AskReddit/c21aphp | i6ja4 | How do you respond to constantly being demanded to respect soldiers/military personnel because they are the ones that "keep you safe"? | I have nothing against soldiers or the military. They're tools of the government. It's how the government decides to use those tools that I find bothersome. With that comes the virtual worship of the military on the part of right-wingers. Most military personnel themselves don't expect that, nor even desire it. When people tell me the military is fighting for my freedom, I ask them to explain to me how my freedom was endangered, say, from Saddam, his military, or his people? How exactly were any of them ever going to take my freedom? Or the people of Afghanistan. Or the Taliban. Or Al-Qaeda. How were they going to take my freedom? Invade the US in millions of boats and just TAKE OVER? In other words, I try to force the person to examine their own preconceived notion. Most of the time they're disinterested and incapable of it. | 8 |
AskReddit/dfv943m | 63mg5v | How do you all stay fit with regular exercise and healthy diet despite hectic work schedule? | 21 M here. I live alone and always cook in bulk, that is enough food to last me for 3 days MINIMUM; beef stews, rice, chicken etc Sometimes I'll cook 6 days worth of food in one go, means I dont have to worry about meals for the next few days and save that time for other things. Cooking once-a-day meals is a total waste of time and its much better to use that time to cook in bulk for the next few days. Also just have a regular routine for working out and stick to it, if you're a gym goer try to join a 24hr gym if possible, they are far more convenient and flexible and you'll never have an excuse to skip a workout day. If you prefer things like jogging or swimming then pick a set time early in the mornings before breakfast to get it out of the way. | 2 |
AskReddit/cqb1iq3 | 32gd68 | What auto repairs should everyone learn how to do? | In addition to the previously posted, I would suggest Thermostat Radiator hoses Water Pump Alternator Starter Battery These are really common causes of "I cant drive my car" and they are all simple to fix. Changing your own brake pads is more complicated on most (every vehicle ive worked on) of the above repairs. | 2 |
askscience/dj20of0 | 6hv5e2 | In animals with a larger brains than humans, what is the purpose of their extra brain mass and volume? | >Surely an elephant leg, despite being much bigger than a human leg, wouldn't require over triple the brain mass to control a limb that is functionally equivalent to the scaled-down human version. That's where you're wrong. While the elephant's leg is effectively just a blown up version of a human leg on a macroscopic level, at a microscopic level the cells are all basically the same size. Larger limbs means larger muscles, and that means more muscle cells and therefore more motor neurons required. The same thing goes for sensory neurons - more surface area and volume mean more sensory receptors, which means more sensory neurons are required in the CNS to receive and process all of those signals. | 8 |
askscience/e0fs9yw | 8q1uc8 | Why does hitting the top of a bottle of beer with another bottle of beer create that much froth? | it momentarily cause the bottom of the bottle to move away from the beer faster than the beer can move. this creates lots of tiny vacuum bubbles. the beer then rushes into this gap. each of those becomes a nucleation site for the dissolved carbon dioxide to form dozens of small bubbles. this basically turns all the beer contacting the bottle into foam. fun fact if the original hit is just right the vacuum pressure can cause the beer to slam back into to bottom of the bottle so hard it blows out the bottom. | 8,790 |
AskReddit/dor7x6g | 785cdh | What song lyrics have ruined the song for you? | On the other side of it My Co-Worker thought the lyrics were-" It's gonna be a Party tonight A Party tonight I know!" Instead of "A heart ache tonight! A heart ache tonight I know" which ruined the way I think of the lyrics from now on | 3 |
explainlikeimfive/dfs35g2 | 637xty | Why can eye contact be uncomfortable? | Because much more communication is relayed through the eyes than verbally. A person chooses what words they say, but few people can master their presentation which includes eye contact. Eye contact requires healthy self esteem and confidence. It's harder to lie to successfully deceive someone when you're looking them in the eyes. There's far more to it than simply physically looking at each other. Many subtle layers exist in our subconscious. We learned this behavior from the primates we evolved from. You'd need to ask a monkey where they learned it. | 3 |
AskReddit/dryfi4x | 7n1tq5 | What's the best TV show theme song ever and why? | Parks and Rec. The tune makes me feel really happy. Maybe it's because I associate it with happier times. Somebody once said on tumblr that the parks and rec theme song is what the inside of a golden retriever's head sounds like. | 45 |
explainlikeimfive/cc51cqe | 1m25n5 | Why is it when you are on a plane and move about, it feels like you're walking at normal speed, but you are actually going extremely fast? | Its because perception of time and speed are relative. Yes, you may be going extremely fast, but compared to the items around you (the seats, the floor, the ceiling) you are only going a few MPH faster. Since this is your entire frame of reference, you feel that you are going a speed relative to theirs. | 5 |
explainlikeimfive/crmwv2r | 37i3km | How can an app on my phone tell if I'm awake, in a deep sleep or in a light sleep? | It's making an educated guess based on what body movements the accelerometer picks up. When you're awake, you move around a bit, even if you don't mean to. When you're in deep sleep, you move around very little, though you may shift from time to time. When you're in light sleep, or REM (dream sleep), your voluntary nervous system is paralyzed, so you don't move around at all. It's well worth noting that those apps are not end-all be-all accurate. They're a guideline at best. If you want 100% accuracy, you need an EEG and an app that knows how to read the results. | 8 |
explainlikeimfive/dek2f0v | 5xqfna | How did we decide where the prime meridian goes? | In 1884, at the International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C., 22 countries voted to adopt the Greenwich meridian as the prime meridian of the world. This made he French mad, but Britain's huge investment in the longitude problem won them the majority of votes. | 2 |
AskReddit/dj3mgca | 6i5gsm | What do you guys think about traps? | Love traps, my favourite is the classic Deadfall Trap. The idea is you get a heavy object like a rock or log. Tilt it on and angle and hold it up with sections of branches. You then use a branch as a trigger, place some bait near it and when an animal moves the trigger, the rock or log falls on it crushing it to death. | 6 |
AskReddit/chc8i3z | 24zov5 | What are your Goodwill golden finds and/or horrific discoveries? | Best Goodwill find as of late is a pretty nice albiet non-functioning Alesis SR-16 drum machine that I got for $3. I'm going to sell it as it's probably still useful for parts. | 2 |
AskReddit/e9xg7re | 9y0w80 | What is the most illegal thing you've done by accident? | well i wouldnt really call this an accident but oh well, just a story that i remembered ​ i had decided to meetup with a bunch of friends for a nice chill day essentially, it started out as a group of like 5 of us and eventually just me and one guy left. my friend had the idea to steal food from Morrisons (UK supermarket chain like Walmart or whatever) and i tried telling him not to even while knowing we wouldn't get caught, i don't know why but he chose to steal some frozen fish fingers and at the back of the store (quite large mind you) there was a hot food section where you order food and take it to the tills to pay for it where he ordered like £5 worth of food. anyways he had 3 boxes of fish fingers in my bag and the box of hot food and disappointingly for you guys we made it out the store without any trouble. i felt really really guilty for doing that even though i know i have done worse went back to the store the next day and paid back the whole amount claiming that i had bought a lot of shopping and didn't manage to pay for it so i returned to pay the difference. ​ tldr is that i stole something with a friend and went back into the store the next day to pay it back ​ i know it has nothing to do with this post but i feel like it has some sort of relevancy with it being illegal and stuff ​ | 5 |
AskReddit/cy9jqj6 | 3y0z00 | What is usually used video game mechanic that you hate? | I hate when games use red and green for marking things. Like red is enemies and green is allies. I am colot blind and have a big issue telling them apart. Its not as bad if I can go in and change it. Also I love any dev who adds a color blind mode. Sometimes colors determine if I can play a game or not. | 4 |
AskReddit/e195eqh | 8tp73m | What's your best advice for a college student who lives on their own for the first time? | I'm a high schooler who just started living on their own and my two top advices would be: Cook food for the future! Don't wait until you're hungry - you'll have no time or energy and everything will expire! And also, wash the dishes! As often as you can! I keep having to drink out of the same cup for two days straight. | 3 |
AskReddit/cm4efwc | 2mi02c | Why did you quit your job? | Every time I've quit a job, since I graduated high school, is because it doesn't work with my current school schedule. The one I had in high school I had to quit because it was a position only someone currently in the school high could hold. I've only gotten fired once, and it was ridiculous. | 2 |
AskReddit/e3yxfbm | 96a9jp | What sends you into a rage while driving? | 1) People driving slow in the fast lane. 2) People who don't use their turn signals. 3) People who speed up when I'm trying to change into their lane (with my signal on and lots of room). 4). People in parking lots who clearly have no idea how to work as a team. They'll either sit there and just hope the dozen vehicles around them magically disappear so they can do their 17 point turn in peace, or inch forward inexorably with the expectation that nobody is going to call their bluff and get into an accident, so eventually they'll get where they want to go. (I had a lovely example with someone doing this once, where I was trying to back out of my spot so they could get in, but they were blocking where I needed to go. I looked at them, they looked at me, they kept moving forward, so I turned my car off and sat there looking at them until they moved). | 2 |
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