Question: Why are plastics straws so bad for turtles and not all plastic in general? What's special about straws?

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 Why are plastics straws so bad for turtles and not all plastic in general? What's special about straws?

The controversy of plastic straws and turtles arose from [this]( URL_0 ) video uploaded to YouTube in 2015. In it a turtle has what appears to be a plastic straw lodged rather deep up one of its nostrils. The individual in the video (a researcher named Christine Figgener) posted a write up about the incident in a [Nature journal article]( URL_1 ). There really isn't anything specifically about plastic straws that make them bad compared to other plastic items, other than: * We use and dispose of a large number of them each year * They are small and long enough to trap or get trapped in various wildlife and their orifices (holes) Though these attributes are true of many plastic items, particularly those that are small and brightly coloured - which can be mistaken for food then ingested, or just get stuck by accident. Really there is no difference, it was just the video that caused a large emotional reaction for viewers. We need to halt leakage of our waste into the environment, not just plastics but all materials, chemicals, and pollutants.


Question: How does a computer understand code?

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 How does a computer understand code?

**TL;DR A program called a compiler translates the code into machine code, which the computer is hardwired to understand.** The computer doesn't understand code. It understands machine code - instructions that are encoded in binary - because it is hardwired to do so. For example, if it reads an instruction that begins in the bits 00000100 then it is hardwired to perform an addition operation. In the past, computer programs were written directly in machine code - a human programmer would translate the instructions on paper to binary, and would feed that binary to the computer. The next step was a language called Assembly. Assembly is a human-readable representation of machine code - each assembly instruction was directly translated into a binary instruction. Programmers wrote an Assembler - a program that takes the Assembly code and translates it into machine code, making it much easier to write programs (you no longer have to write bit after bit, instead you could write actual instructions). Next up came high-level programming languages. Programmers wrote a compiler - a program that takes code in a specific language (such as Fortran or C) and translates it into Assembly code which would later be run through the Assembler, or even directly to machine code. Writing a compiler was complicated at first, but once you have a program that compiles C code, then you can write a newer, better compiler in C itself - and use the previous compiler to compile it.


Question: How is a bank "too big to fail"?

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 How is a bank "too big to fail"?

"Too Big to Fail" was term used in the 2008 financial crisis to describe banks that were so large, that their failure would have a devastating effect on the entire US economy. That is why the government bailed them out. You have to remember that the failure of one of these massive banks would affect more than just that company. These banks were the major supply of capital to major corporations across the country. Had one of these banks been allowed to fail, they would be forced to call in loans, which could thrust hundreds or thousands of businesses into bankruptcy. It would be a total disaster. The real lesson that I think has been missed is that these banks effectively had monopolies over the US economy. No entity should be allowed to get so big that they can crash the US economy, that's the whole point of the Sherman Anti-Trust law. These banks should be broken up into multiple, smaller banks to avoid this issue in the future.


Question: How do we all have unique eyebrow and eyelash mites?

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 How do we all have unique eyebrow and eyelash mites?

These mites live on average for 14-16 days. In that time they have reproduced and laid eggs. Obviously they all share their ancestry, but for each generation certain types of mutations happen and is detectable. When you live in close proximity to someone, e.g. *share mites* (that should be a new saying, "yeah, I share mites with Sharon now"), they will mingle and you can theoretically be able to figure that out. The mites aren't migratory though, they like to be exactly where they are found, in the eyebrows and eyelashes, so the conditions would have to be pretty ideal for them to leave your eyebrow for someone else's.


Question: Why does your hand get hot if you stick it in a tub of powdered laundry detergent?

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 Why does your hand get hot if you stick it in a tub of powdered laundry detergent?

There are (at least) three reasons why this happens: 1) the air spaces between the particles trap the heat from your hand. Because the air can’t move around freely it has insulating properties; 2) if the powder has exothermic properties (for example Portland cement powder), it absorbs the moisture from your skin and as it reacts actually generates heat; and 3) as you mentioned, it also could be a ‘feeling’ of heat caused by your nerves sensing the start of a chemical burn. I suggest that experimenting with your actual hand is not the way to go.


Question: What is the difference between sound waves of the same pitch, but with a different timbre (sound quality)? e.g. Piano vs. Guitar

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 What is the difference between sound waves of the same pitch, but with a different timbre (sound quality)? e.g. Piano vs. Guitar

[Harmonics]( URL_0 ). You can have a synthesizer play you a pure sine wave. It has a specific sound. Most instruments and sounds in real life have "harmonics", multiples of the base frequency overlapped on top of it. Think of it as a deep wave out at sea that also has wind ripples on top of it. Piano hits strings with a hammer, and the sound resonates in a big block of bronze metal, and guitar strings are plucked with a pick, and the sound resonates in a hollow cavity surrounded by wood. So even if the strings formed a "pure" sine tone, all the resonating and different materials add "distortions" (harmonic waves that are multiples of the base tone, that "fade" in different ways"). For a piano especially, the sound changes over time as it fades.


Question: Why do abscesses have to be drained in order to fight infection?

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 Why do abscesses have to be drained in order to fight infection?

They don't typically unless they are large, painful or in a particularly troublesome area. Abscesses are filled with pus and pus is mostly dead white blood cells and tissue debris. If the infection is defeated then the pus will be filtered out and recycled normally. If the infection is still going then a big ball of puss isn't helping fight the infection off and your body is still flooding the area so it isn't leaving on its own. Enough pus can be applying pressure that limits your bodies ability to fight the infection off. So some abscesses will heal faster and have less chance of complication if they are drained of pus and kept clear so that new tissue can regrow more easily when the infection passes.


Question: I read online something about how 85% of Earth's species are still yet to be discovered. How do we know that we've only discovered 15% of all species when we don't know what "all" is?

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 I read online something about how 85% of Earth's species are still yet to be discovered. How do we know that we've only discovered 15% of all species when we don't know what "all" is?

Take a bunch of samples from all over the world, look at them really carefully and count how many different species you find in them. Some of them you will already know, and some will be completely new. If in 1000 samples, you find 100 different species, of which you only knew 15 before taking the sample, then you now have your answer as to why we estimate only 15% of species have been discovered.


Question: How come headphones get a loud high pitch sound whenever they get close to something such as a metal detector?

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 How come headphones get a loud high pitch sound whenever they get close to something such as a metal detector?

Speakers, of which headphones are just tiny ones, are simply a wire surrounded by a magnet. Put electrical pulses through the wire, and connect the end of the wire/magnet thing to a surface that can vibrate, and you have a speaker. Anything that can mess with a magnet or the electrical current in the wire can mess with the sound.


Question: What is the stinging feeling when you get something salty in a wound. What is the cellular pathway and why have we developed it?

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 What is the stinging feeling when you get something salty in a wound. What is the cellular pathway and why have we developed it?

From the top answer to this exact same question asked before: “Salt is sodium chloride. Your nerve cells communicate partially using sodium. When a bunch of sodium rushes into a nerve cell, it "fires". The salt that gets into the wound dissolves (splits into individual sodium and chloride), and because there's so much of it, the sodium rushes into nearby nerve cells, overloading them and causing them to fire. There are some nerve cells that are specialized to detect pain. Since the nerves that detect pain are constantly sending signals to the brain because they're overloaded with sodium, your brain interprets the constant signal as constant pain.” U/Shapoopy178


Question: Why does stretching feel so good and what is the deciding factor that makes one stretch feel better than another?

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 Why does stretching feel so good and what is the deciding factor that makes one stretch feel better than another?

Hi. Dance teacher here. Some muscles have a lot of elasticity, meaning you use the a lot and your body is comfortable with letting those muscles stretch. Other muscles that are outside of your normal stretching or exercise routine may not be as comfortable because your body just isn't used to letting them stretch. Now, muscles that you do stretch regularly may build up soreness or a pocket of lactic acid after exercising. Stretching can help alleviate that pain. Look up the "stretch reflex," or the "myotropic response." Really interesting stuff.


Question: What's the difference between a condition, disorder, disease and syndrome?

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 What's the difference between a condition, disorder, disease and syndrome?

I'll give it the old ELI5 try - these terms are used to help medical professionals treat health issues by organizing them into categories. condition - a name given to a know situation or set of health issues: "he has a concussion" or "heartbeat irregular" - it summarizes/categorizes the patients health issue by known symptoms displayed. disorder - something isn't working right but the patient displays predictable symptoms, but the exact cause may be less than fully understood. Perhaps predictable isn't the right word as some disorders imply unpredictable behavior/symptoms/conditions....but at least you know what might happen from the name of the disorder. disease - usually referring to a set of condition with a known CAUSE (often an outside influence) causing harm to the patient - a concussion is a condition, but Coronavirus Disease is a set of conditions caused by the COVID-19 virus. syndrome - a very specific set of symptoms/conditions that often occur together, often indicating a disease (identifiable cause). PLEASE expand or refine my old 5 minute try if you can ELI5 folks!


Question: Nutritional values on food packaging can strongly contradict itself (E.g. sainsbury's 500g fresh egg pasta claims 142kcal/100g, and ALSO claims 341kcal/quarter pack. Do regulatory bodies not prevent this? Which figure should you trust?

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 Nutritional values on food packaging can strongly contradict itself (E.g. sainsbury's 500g fresh egg pasta claims 142kcal/100g, and ALSO claims 341kcal/quarter pack. Do regulatory bodies not prevent this? Which figure should you trust?

Both! You should trust both because they are both completely accurate A quarter package is 125 grams of *uncooked* pasta and has 341 kcal. 100 grams of *cooked* pasta has just 142 kcal because it has taken on a lot of water weight. Beside the 100 g nutrition facts it says "(cooked as per instructions)" indicating that this is a final weight of the cooked pasta not the weight of the uncooked pasta [Reference for those who come later]( URL_0 )


Question: How Does Cancer Kill? And How Does Radiation Stop Cancer?

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 How Does Cancer Kill? And How Does Radiation Stop Cancer?

Cancer affects organs. If a cancer affects an important organ, let's say tumours on your liver it can affect its function. Malfunctioning organs will kill you. Radiation breaks down the DNA of cells. If you break down the DNA, the cells have no way of replicating. If the replication is halted, essentially cancer is stopped. PS: please feel free to correct me if I got anything out of turn.


Question: Why does your voice become metallic on Skype/Discord when there are network problems?

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 Why does your voice become metallic on Skype/Discord when there are network problems?

It is not unlike how sometimes an image gets pixelated when the connection gets bad. When sound is digitized, the [sound wave]( URL_1 ) is converted to a list of values that represent its amplitude. The human ear can hear sounds up to 20,000 Hz, so if there are about 40,000 of those values taken each second (known as the *sampling rate*) our ears can't tell the difference between the digital data and the original. More samples require more data, and if the connection cannot stream it all in real time, it will downsample, essential only using ever other sample, or every fourth one, etc. This uses less data, but also makes the wave [less precise]( URL_0 ), losing the higher frequencies, and making the mid-range ones squarer, kind of like autotune.


Question: how do the scientist estimate the age of an old object by its carbon isotope? (English is my 2nd language, and I don’t know how to phrase this correctly)

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 how do the scientist estimate the age of an old object by its carbon isotope? (English is my 2nd language, and I don’t know how to phrase this correctly)

There is an isotope of carbon which is radioactive. It decays at a steady, known rate and we also know the amount in the atmosphere across a long period of time. Plants and animals take in carbon from the atmosphere (all isotopes) and so they can be expected to contain a proportion of carbon isotopes matching that of the atmosphere while alive. But when they die they stop taking in carbon and the radioactive carbon gradually decays. So when we dig them up we can test to see how much of the radioactive carbon is in them and from that calculate how long they must have been dead.


Question: Why do countries like the USA became a world power while countries like Mexico are 3rd world countries?

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 Why do countries like the USA became a world power while countries like Mexico are 3rd world countries?

First, let's debunk the "Second World War" notion. At the end of the U.S. Civil War, the U.K. and U.S. had roughly the same economic output. By World War I, the U.S. had double the U.K. By the dawn of World War II, the U.S. had a GDP equivalent to the entirety of continental Europe combined. Since GDP is an almost perfect predictor of the outcome of industrialized war, this made the U.S. the most powerful nation on Earth for the entirety of the 20th Century. In terms of 'how did it get that way', the key factors would be oil and agriculture. While most European nations have agricultural land, none of them have the sheer volume of viable land that the U.S. does. This endless supply of cheap land lead to cheap food and the ability to grow in population rapidly. The U.S. also had most of the world's (exploitable) oil supply up until World War II. Since oil is a critical component in industrialized economic growth, this meant the U.S. could grow larger and faster than other nations. The U.S. also had high class mobility, broadly available education and other features that created a highly entrepreneurial, growth-focused economy.


Question: Why does it seem to be so loud when you drop something while showering, though dropping the something in a dry shower seems much quieter?

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Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
Conciseness: The answer should avoid unnecessary repetition and be as clear and succinct as possible.

Response Format rules:
- Always start your response with <answer> tag and end with </answer>.
- Do not include any text or commentary before the opening <answer> tag and after the closing </answer> tag.
For example, your response follow this format:
<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why does it seem to be so loud when you drop something while showering, though dropping the something in a dry shower seems much quieter?

maybe because your in the shower? or Maybe its an unconscious feeling of being exposed, like your standing in there naked, here's this loud bang from somethign you dropped, and you don't want to gather the attention from somebody else, becasue like, your naked. It's preceived as louder because your naked and don't want any attention, but not really louder. Maybe? I mean I don't know if a wet environment would amplify the soudn generated from the falling of a shampoo bottle. Its gotta be one of those


Question: How does YouTube have enough storage space?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
Conciseness: The answer should avoid unnecessary repetition and be as clear and succinct as possible.

Response Format rules:
- Always start your response with <answer> tag and end with </answer>.
- Do not include any text or commentary before the opening <answer> tag and after the closing </answer> tag.
For example, your response follow this format:
<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How does YouTube have enough storage space?

Short, simple answer. They have a bunch of huge warehouses that look like [this.]( URL_0 ) Each data center can hold 100's of millions of gigabytes of data. The largest data centers in the world can hold around 1.5 billion gigabytes. To put it scientifically, they have several metric fucktons of storage capacity.


Question: Why do people develop fears or phobias of things, if they haven’t had bad/ traumatic experiences with those things?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
Conciseness: The answer should avoid unnecessary repetition and be as clear and succinct as possible.

Response Format rules:
- Always start your response with <answer> tag and end with </answer>.
- Do not include any text or commentary before the opening <answer> tag and after the closing </answer> tag.
For example, your response follow this format:
<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why do people develop fears or phobias of things, if they haven’t had bad/ traumatic experiences with those things?

I believe it is about how brain works. When you learn new things your brain learns them via older information similar to this new information. So when you learn more about security, how complicated machinery works or how accidents happen your brain connects the dots. Before you know it, you get started to fear from things you were not feared before. It's not happening instantly, it's generally takes some time.


Question: How do pirates crack video games without access to the source code? Why does the method they use get rid of multiplayer capability?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
Conciseness: The answer should avoid unnecessary repetition and be as clear and succinct as possible.

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- Do not include any text or commentary before the opening <answer> tag and after the closing </answer> tag.
For example, your response follow this format:
<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How do pirates crack video games without access to the source code? Why does the method they use get rid of multiplayer capability?

it depends on the method the publisher uses to authenticate a valid vs a invalid copy. these days games mostly connect to the publishers server and checks if the game is valid. so then the hacker can just block that connection or modify the game to connect to a dummy server that always returns a positive response, so in this method, multiplayer is by nature, not possible.


Question: How could disappear over 4 trilion USD during the financial crisis from 2007?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
Conciseness: The answer should avoid unnecessary repetition and be as clear and succinct as possible.

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- Do not include any text or commentary before the opening <answer> tag and after the closing </answer> tag.
For example, your response follow this format:
<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How could disappear over 4 trilion USD during the financial crisis from 2007?

Here's a way to think about it. You own a painting. You think that the painting is an original by Da Vinci, worth $10 million. You have the value of that painting as part of your net worth, not cause you have the actual cash on hand, but because the painting has worth and adds value. However, something horrible happens. On an examination, it turns out the painting isn't an original Da Vinci, but rather a clever forgery some art student made in the 60s, and it's only worth $100,000. You've effectively lost $9.9 million. You didn't actually lose any money, but something you owned that you thought was worth $10 million, is worth only a tiny fraction of that. In reality, the painting was stocks, this happened on a massive scale.


Question: How are the raw images sent back from space probes processed in such a way to give a vibrant and colourful image?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
Conciseness: The answer should avoid unnecessary repetition and be as clear and succinct as possible.

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For example, your response follow this format:
<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How are the raw images sent back from space probes processed in such a way to give a vibrant and colourful image?

Cameras aboard spacecraft like Cassini take photos using filters that isolate different wavelengths on the electromagnetic spectrum. Some, like red, green, and blue, capture light the human eye can see. Others, like ultraviolet and infrared, capture light it can't. All the images arrive to Earth as black-and-white frames, and then are assigned colors digitally and compiled into a composite. Sometimes the composite is a false-color image, where colors may be assigned to show infrared or ultraviolet that we normally can't see with our eyes. Others may be composites of visible light plus infrared and/or ultraviolet. The second image you linked happens to be a true-color composite, although it may be edited to make the colors pop a bit more. If you hitched a ride on Cassini, that image is more-or-less what you'd see with your own eyes. With a decent backyard telescope you can see Saturn with the same colors, albeit a lot smaller and in not nearly as much detail.


Question: why do people tell you not to "lock your knees" when standing for a long time and what does it mean?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 why do people tell you not to "lock your knees" when standing for a long time and what does it mean?

Stand up and bend your knees slightly. Then slowly straighten them out to their full extension. You’ll feel your joint settle into place once your knees are fully straight and your knees will stay straight without as much work from your muscles. That’s locking your knees. The problem is that it isn’t particularly good for your circulation. If your knees are locked for an extended period of time, then you can get blood pooling in your legs, depriving your brain of blood. The solution is to stand with your knees not locked. That is, hold your knees ever so slightly forward. That engages your muscles ever so slightly and helps get your blood moving. The moving blood won’t feel like anything, but that’s because now your circulation is normal, versus restricted.


Question: Why can't a hacker create a 'fake bank' or a fake checking account and wire money to themselves, thus 'spawning' money in their account?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
Conciseness: The answer should avoid unnecessary repetition and be as clear and succinct as possible.

Response Format rules:
- Always start your response with <answer> tag and end with </answer>.
- Do not include any text or commentary before the opening <answer> tag and after the closing </answer> tag.
For example, your response follow this format:
<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why can't a hacker create a 'fake bank' or a fake checking account and wire money to themselves, thus 'spawning' money in their account?

Because most hacking is done to people, not computers. And banks know this, so keep people as far from the money as possible, and maintain redundancies whenever people are involved in the money. Computers are remarkably resilient, and it is possible to build very solid systems. Banks hire people to break their systems and tell them how it was accomplished so they can patch up that weakness. A bank won’t upgrade their systems to the latest and greatest software/hardware either. They will keep what is proven and reliable to get the job done. So... if a person did get entry into the systems and was able to set themselves up as a virtual bank, they could generate money and wire it to themselves, then respond to the inquiry to the bank with verification funds exist and should be transferred. But now they have to deal with all of the safeguards that prevent actual banks from deciding to generate excess digital currency for themselves.


Question: Why is there an expiration date on bottled water?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
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- Do not include any text or commentary before the opening <answer> tag and after the closing </answer> tag.
For example, your response follow this format:
<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why is there an expiration date on bottled water?

The FDA requires *every* item that it regulates to have an expiration date of no more than 2 years from the date of production. Companies can put a longer expiration date on the item if they can prove that the product lasts longer than that, but doing so is expensive and the only companies that go through the process to do that produce frieze dried food that is intended to last for decades. That's it. The FDA just has a blanket rule that says any item it regulates needs to have an expiration date, bottled water is a regulated item, and there is no exception to that rule for bottled water. The plastic breaking down/cover your ass/whatever arguments that people have come up with to justify the expiration dates are just speculation from people who don't understand FDA labelling requirements. The plastic used to bottle the water will not break down or leach chemicals under *normal* conditions. If you store a plastic bottle of water under the types of extreme conditions that will cause the plastic to break down, the water will become undrinkable within a few weeks, not within a few years. Putting an expiration date on an item offers a company no legal protection if the item turns out to expire. Again, every similar argument has absolutely no basis. **The only reason that bottled water has an expiration date is because the FDA has a blanket rule on expiration dates that covers it. Properly stored, bottled water stays good essentially forever.**


Question: Why are there random super cold spots when you are swimming in a lake or river?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
Conciseness: The answer should avoid unnecessary repetition and be as clear and succinct as possible.

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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why are there random super cold spots when you are swimming in a lake or river?

Sometimes there are convection currents that keep water in one spot and bring water up from the bottom. Because the sun can only heat the top, those areas tend to be colder. If you feel the current in these cold spots, there is usually a flow of water going up from the floor


Question: how come fast food is loaded with salt, but you don't taste the over saltiness?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 how come fast food is loaded with salt, but you don't taste the over saltiness?

Fast food isn't always loaded SUPER excessively with actual table salt (sodium chloride). But a lot of fast/processed food is high in SODIUM (the only thing they actually measure on the nutrition info), but it can come from things like monosodium glutamate (aka MSG, used especially in chinese food, but also a lot of fry seasonings), sodium citrate (used in cheese dips/nachos, american "cheese" slices), and dozens of other sodium-based flavorings and preservatives. Normal table salt is there as well, but not typically in proportions greater than you'd use at home for the same dish. For example, a hamburger patty made at home would need roughly the same salt content to taste good to most people. Same for french fries. These are just generally really fatty and unhealthy foods no matter where you get them from, and high salt is just what's needed to make them taste good (by usual american standards.) As others have pointed out, this is often a matter of being used to it. Get used to a low sodium/salt diet, and fast food WILL be horribly salty by comparison. Conversely, if you make burgers and fries at home, and eat other processed foods, you'll get used to higher sodium/salt content and still want to ADD salt to your fast food fries.


Question: Why do we to get extremely light headed, almost faintish, when we have a really good stretch?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why do we to get extremely light headed, almost faintish, when we have a really good stretch?

When you get up and start stretching, you're dramatically increasing the load on your cardiovascular system since it needs to pump more blood to supply all the muscles you're suddenly using. There's a lag time between when the blood pressure drops and your cardiovascular system compensates. During that time, your brain is getting lower blood pressure so you feel lightheaded.


Question: Why do a lot of kittens, puppies and even humans come out with blue eyes that eventually change color?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why do a lot of kittens, puppies and even humans come out with blue eyes that eventually change color?

eye color is determined by pigments in the iris. these pigments get deposited there over time similar to how your skin gets darker after being exposed to sunlight, and there's no evolutionary pressure to deposit them before birth. so blue is the base color of the iris when the pigments that make other colors aren't present yet


Question: In the method of ordinary least squares, why not choose the sum least distances not squared?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 In the method of ordinary least squares, why not choose the sum least distances not squared?

Because some of the distances will be positive and some negative. If you just add the sums (or cubes) they can cancel out. For example, let's say your data set includes only distances of -4 and 4. Adding them gives a metric of 0. That's not very useful, since both data points are at a distance of 4, just in opposite directions.


Question: Why is it faster to empty a bottle of water/beer by pouring gradually instead of holding it straight upside down causing air bubbles?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why is it faster to empty a bottle of water/beer by pouring gradually instead of holding it straight upside down causing air bubbles?

Because it takes time for a bubble to pass up into the bottle. During this time, water cannot flow out at its maximum rate. Holding the bottle at just such an angle that there's only a tiny bit of air above the water in the neck of the bottle, the water will indeed flow faster than it will if bubbles upset things.


Question: Why do companies/government always consider interest whenever they are lending you money but when an individual is "lending" to them no interest is ever accounted for?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
Conciseness: The answer should avoid unnecessary repetition and be as clear and succinct as possible.

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For example, your response follow this format:
<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 Why do companies/government always consider interest whenever they are lending you money but when an individual is "lending" to them no interest is ever accounted for?

It’s about risks. When you deposit your money with the bank there are several channels to invest the money. For example if you’re opening a savings account, you’re getting a small interest. But your money is guaranteed over a long period. They can take this money and invest it in the stock market - sometimes trading high risk shares. If that brings high profit, you don’t see that but neither the potential loses. That being said, you can always skip the regular savings account and opt for higher risk investments. You have many investing channels today. But you are right - as an individual, you do not have leverage over the bank and your negotiation options are insignificant. They set the rules. In most cases you can either take it or not. And it goes even further: banks are coordinated with one another and its not likely to get a much better deal elsewhere. There is no real competition between them. The feds sets the rules and these are (almost) equal for all banks. The government decided long ago that stability of the banks is on a higher priority than the individual customer.


Question: How is electric current/voltage described in terms of elementary particles?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
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<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How is electric current/voltage described in terms of elementary particles?

1 Ampere is defined to be 1 Coulomb per second passing through a plane. 1 Coulomb is 6.24x10^18 electron charges(you can also see holes flow but that's another issue) The speed of the electrons is the same, the drift velocity never really changes. Very rarely will you get an electron you put in one end of the wire out the other end in a reasonable time Voltage is defined as the difference in electric potential across a load that dissipates 1 Watt of power at 1 Amp. An Ohm is the resistance of that load To use the traditional water analogy Voltage is the height difference between two points, it makes the water want to flow Resistance is the width and depth of the river Current is the volume of water that passes through


Question: How do city planners pick streets to be one ways?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
Your answer should follow these rubric criterias:
Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
Clarity and Organization: The answer should be well-structured, coherent, and easy to follow.
Depth and Insight: The answer should provide thoughtful analysis or context, going beyond superficial details.
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For example, your response follow this format:
<answer>
[Your final detailed answer goes here]
</answer>
 How do city planners pick streets to be one ways?

One-way streets allow for faster traffic and higher capacity because there is less interaction between cars--such interactions are always a source of slow-down and potential collisions. It also means the second lane could be specialized, such as being for buses only. In a typical North American city grid, a planner might decide to make all streets of a certain width one-way streets. They'll alternate so that all even streets go one way, all odd streets go the other. It gets more complex if you don't have symmetry or if traffic flows aren't expected to be the same in both directions.


Question: What makes the U.S. Dollar so powerful worldwide?

The user asks a question, and the Assistant answers it. The assistant provides the user with the answer that strictly follows the following guidelines. The answer should be enclosed within <answer> </answer> tags, respectively, i.e., <answer> ANSWER HERE </answer>.
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Factual Accuracy: The answer must be factually correct and does not contradict the reference answer.
Relevance and Completeness: The answer should directly address the specific question, covering all essential aspects.
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 What makes the U.S. Dollar so powerful worldwide?

At the end of World War 2, most western nations were recovering as infrastructure and manufacturing suffered damage from the war. Meanwhile, the US infrastructure was undamaged, allowing it to play a key role in reconstruction efforts in Europe. Due to the large amounts of trading with the US, it's currency became valuable and in high demand. It was also much more stable than local currencies still reeling from the economic impact of the war. This lead to the US dollar becoming a reserve currency in many nations, and it could be exchanged between non-US nations as a trusted commodity. It remains as such mostly due to inertia as it would take a competing currency to be both widespread across the world and stable to displace the US dollar in this role.


Question: . If the stars /sun are so bright, then why is the universe black, and why is it bright on earth during daytime?

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 . If the stars /sun are so bright, then why is the universe black, and why is it bright on earth during daytime?

First, because the speed of light is finite, we can only possibly see the light from objects closer then about 14 billon light years to us. So there is a finite number of stars which are observable from Earth. Second, the stars further away from us look very dim because of the distance and can only be seen through a telescope - the furthest object (barely) observable by naked eye is the Andromeda galaxy, about 3 million light years away. The daytime sky on Earth is bright because of the way that the sunlight gets diffused in our atmosphere. Edit: Also see this: URL_0


Question: Why do crypto-currencies have (any) value?

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 Why do crypto-currencies have (any) value?

Cryptocurrencies have value for the same reason *any* currency has value: because people believe it does. That's it. Nothing is inherently valuable; everything is worth what people are willing to pay for it. If I offer you literal dirt in exchange for something that I want to buy, and you accept that, then that's how much dirt is worth. An item that is used solely to be exchanged for other things, like a currency, is called in economics terms a medium of exchange. Literally anything can be used as a medium of exchange, if the people involved in the transaction accept it. (Warning: rant: The "but muh gold" people are wrong. Gold made a convenient medium of exchange because it was easy to make coins out of, it was easy to tell if it was genuine, and didn't corrode. There's nothing inherently valuable about it, which is why we stopped using it as soon as the amount of money being exchanged made lugging gold around inconvenient.) In the case of an ICO, the people who buy the coin are essentially gambling that other people besides them will continue to want to use them as a medium of exchange, and that they will become more valuable with time. The price they buy it at is set by the creator of the currency, or there is some other method of obtaining the currency in the first place (eg bitcoin mining). (More rant: We need like an FAQ for ELI5, this question (and misconception) comes up I swear every other day.)


Question: Why wouldn't an economist be the ideal candidate to lead the country?

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 Why wouldn't an economist be the ideal candidate to lead the country?

Well in terms of governing, the economy is integral, but its not the only thing that matters. In addition, because the president has economists as advisors, he wouldn't himself need to be president. A president also has to be able to sway voters, which can be much more to do with feelings than facts.


Question: Why does a plane breaking the sound barrier shatter glass? How do the physics work? Is the sound wave just the perfect frequency? Why does a missle, though obviously smaller, not do the same when thing when it breaks the sound barrier?

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 Why does a plane breaking the sound barrier shatter glass? How do the physics work? Is the sound wave just the perfect frequency? Why does a missle, though obviously smaller, not do the same when thing when it breaks the sound barrier?

Sound is just vibrational energy, when an object exceeds the speed of sound it compresses the sound waves emitted causing a Sonic Boom. The larger the object, the more air is displaced meaning more energy and a bigger boom, though I'm sure a smaller object such as a missile can still shatter windows with its Sonic Boom. Regarding your reference to it being the "perfect" frequency, I don't think it's resonate frequency and rather just the sheer amount of energy involved.


Question: How does unilateral strabismus surgery correct bilateral diplopia?

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 How does unilateral strabismus surgery correct bilateral diplopia?

Okay so diplopia is double vision and strabismus is when your eyes don't line up. There's a neutral alignment for your eyes where you kinda look 'straight forward.' But you don't really move your eyes like that. You look at things, you direct your gaze. If you cover either eye and look at something, you don't get that double vision. What happens in strabismus is that because your eyes don't line up properly, when you look at something with both eyes, the eyes are out of alignment (in your case, vertically and horizontally), so you see a double image. To fix this, operating on one eye will bring it back into position with the other eye such that the double vision is eliminated - since its only caused by your eyes being out of alignment. A way to show this is if you have two flashlights pointed at something from different angles. The light should line up. that's normal If you swivel the flashlights around at the same angle, say moving both right or left 15 degrees, the light still lines up. In your case, the two flashlights don't line up. But you don't need to adjust both flashlights to get them to line up, just one of them.


Question: How do the police and secret agencies ensure that 'safe-houses' are 'safe'?

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 How do the police and secret agencies ensure that 'safe-houses' are 'safe'?

The "safeness" of a safe house is that it is secret. There will be a small group of trusted people in charge of locating an out of the way location and usually renting it under fake, secret identities. People then can stay there without anyone after them being able to find them. Very few people know where they are and those people can be trusted not to talk about it. For example suppose there is a witness in a drug case who needs to be kept safe. Their former criminal associates know where the witness's apartment is so the police have an apartment rented under a fake identity and the witness lives there. How do the criminals find the witness? There isn't any way to look up their new address, they cannot ask anyone because (provided the witness doesn't contact anyone) nobody else knows. The world is a big place, the criminals cannot just search every house or apartment in the world.


Question: Why do vehicles roll back slightly after coming to a complete stop?

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 Why do vehicles roll back slightly after coming to a complete stop?

The cars weight transferred forward under deceleration, slightly loading the suspension. When it comes to a stop, the suspension unloads. So the nose of the car returns to it's position at rest, causing that backwards rocking motion. The harder you hit and hold the brakes, the more pronounced this weight transfer and suspension cycling will be.


Question: When having a presentation, why would imaging that the audience is naked help your stage fright?

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 When having a presentation, why would imaging that the audience is naked help your stage fright?

It is supposedly a way to help someone get over anxiety when public speaking, but personally I don't think it works. If I did imagine people naked then I'd be more grossed out than anything. I think it is a popular one to say mainly because it is slightly shocking, and not because it is actually useful. A better method technique may be to imagine what each person is thinking when you're talking. Most people will not be thinking "oh god what is this idiot saying", instead they'll be worrying about their own presentation, thinking about something in their own life or not even listening... For me this takes the pressure off of me when I'm speaking, because I realise they aren't judging me as harshly as I judge myself so there's less pressure.


Question: My understanding is that simple one celled organisms were the first life on Earth and they simply copied themselves and split in 2 in order to reproduce. At what point did life split into male and female in order to reproduce?

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 My understanding is that simple one celled organisms were the first life on Earth and they simply copied themselves and split in 2 in order to reproduce. At what point did life split into male and female in order to reproduce?

For starters we will never know for sure, since the evolution of sexual reproduction happened many millions of years ago. What we can do is make a hypothesis that fits the evidence. Next, you need to think about ways that single celled organisms can exchange DNA. It's not just "split in two" and repeat. Organisms can also gain DNA from eating other organisms, from sharing pieces of DNA, using something called a "plastid" which is a special bundle of DNA, etc. Sharing DNA creates more variation which creates more options for beneficial changes in an organism. Sexual reproduction is a further development of sharing DNA, to allow two successful organisms to recombine their genes for the next generation.


Question: what is the P=NP problem, and why is it a problem?

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 what is the P=NP problem, and why is it a problem?

It's a "problem" in the sense of "a math problem" - it's a question we are trying to answer. The full explanation is very complicated and way out of ELI5 territory, but a simple answer is, roughly: **are there any problems whose answers are easy to *check* (problems in the set called NP) whose answers are not also easy to *compute* (problems in the set called P)?** Intuitively, it seems like there must be. For example, it's very easy to check the factorization of a large number (you just do the multiplication, which is not difficult), but as of right now, we know of no way to compute such a factorization quickly. However, the problem is that no one has *proven* that *no such method exists* - and in fact, fast methods have been found in recent years for solving related problems (like checking whether a number is prime). Put another way: we know factorization is in NP, but we do not know if it is in P (as opposed to checking whether a number is prime, which *is* known to be in P). Anything that is in P must be in NP, because if you can quickly compute an answer you can always check an answer by just computing it and seeing if it matches. But it's not known if everything in NP is in P. We know of lots of problems that are definitely in NP but whose status inside or outside P is uncertain. In fact, we know a bunch of problems ("NP-complete" problems) that are in NP and that, if *any one of them* is in P, then everything in NP is - but as of yet, we haven't proven that any of them are or aren't in P.


Question: How is it that when fans spin fast enough the blades looks like they disappeared and we can see right through it. Why dont they form a "wall" of blades?

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 How is it that when fans spin fast enough the blades looks like they disappeared and we can see right through it. Why dont they form a "wall" of blades?

You can't see *right* through them, you see like a light shade of whatever color the blades are. The reason for this being that if you were to look at a fan as a circle, more of that circle is empty space than fanblade. Your eye kinda finds the average of what it sees, and that average usually happens to be, say, 60% open space and 40% fan blade. If the fan blades are bigger, you'll see more fan blade.