Understanding CSS selectors

Question

Why is it that the below makes the text red?

#stories li a {color:red}
.default li.expand a {color:green}
li.expand a {color:blue}

---

Answer 1

It's a matter of "CSS Specificity". Andy Clarke's article CSS: Spcificity Wars does a pretty good job explaining it with a little humor. Although Eric Meyer adds more clarity in his comment.