q_id
stringlengths 5
6
| title
stringlengths 3
296
| selftext
stringlengths 0
34k
| document
stringclasses 1
value | subreddit
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 4
110
| answers
dict | title_urls
list | selftext_urls
list | answers_urls
list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1stujo
|
purchasing debt
|
In theory, I could (or have someone else) buy my debt for a fraction of the cost and eliminate it entirely. The Occupy movement has Rolling Jubilee, but is this actually possible for a single consumer to do, and if so, how?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1stujo/eli5_purchasing_debt/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ce167o1",
"ce188pf"
],
"score": [
5,
4
],
"text": [
"If the company who owns the debt knows you're involved in trying to purchase your own debt, they know that you're willing to pay some money. They only sell debt when they're convinced that it's unlikely they'll see any of that money they're owed, and your interest in buying that debt would prove that's not the case.\n\nEven if they didn't care about that, they won't sell individual debts. That would be like creating a store that sells individual m & m's: way too much work for what they would get for selling an individual debt. Rolling Jubilee purchased a couple million dollars of debt, and that's just a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the debt that's out there.",
"Imagine that you owe me $10. I don't think that you are going to pay me back so I sell the debt to our friend Jimmy. He pays me $5 in the hope that he can get the $10 from you.\n\nI've cut my losses and got what I think I can and Jimmy hopes to make a profit.\n\nEdit: I've just realized I haven't actually answered your question because I didn't read it properly. Apologies. Carry on."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
2d2tsa
|
what if you eat too much vitamin pills?
|
Could you OD on them?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2d2tsa/eli5_what_if_you_eat_too_much_vitamin_pills/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cjlhtr5",
"cjli61r"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"[More than 60,000 instances of vitamin toxicity are reported to US poison control centers.](_URL_0_) But you really have to overdo it. The most common problems are from heavy-metal poisoning, when people decide they need to take massive does of Iron, Zinc or Magnesium supplements. This can be a serious problem for children, who may require an Iron supplement, but get overdosed by over-protective parents.",
" > Could you OD on them?\n\nYes, you can.\n\nThe water-soluble vitamins are very, very difficult to OD on. You can spot these because there are pills that offer 1000's of %'s of your RDA of these Vitamins. Vitamin-C is an excellent example. These are difficult to OD on because they can dissolve in your blood and end up in your urine, ergo as long as you drink enough water they will never reach a high enough concentration to do you harm without going dramatically out of your way to do so.\n\nOther Vitamins - like D3 and Vitamin A - are fat soluble, and will rarely breach 200% of your RDA in multivitamins or their specific pills. Fat soluble vitamins do not dissolve in your blood, but must be transported. They are not excreted in your urine, but are stored in your fat cells. If you don't use all of the Vitamin-D, for instance, you just save it. Do that for a very long time, and the body can store enough Vitamin-D to last a month or more on its own.\n\nPut too much of the fat-soluble vitamins in your body and your body can't get rid of them or store them fast enough. Then they start to interfere with cellular process, and can result in death if you take enough.\n\nAll of the minerals can cause an OD. Especially Selenium and Zinc. Even Iron, even though your body can reduce its absorption of the mineral by over 95% - and is **THE** reason why all iron supplements carry a warning about children under 6 years of age.\n\nYou can look up the LD50 values yourself (though be aware that most are taken from studies on rats, not humans):\n\nVitamin C = 11.9g per kg of body weight (good luck ever reaching that point).\n\nVitamin D3 = .619g per kg of body weight\n\nVitamin A = 2g per kg of body weight (though this depends on the type of Vitamin A)\n\nIron = 30g per kg of body weight\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/819426-overview"
],
[]
] |
|
f9oikk
|
the difference between formula and equation
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f9oikk/eli5_the_difference_between_formula_and_equation/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fisww68",
"fiszqe4",
"fit4tfu"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
5
],
"text": [
"Not every equation is a formula, but every formula is an equation. They both can be used to find an unknown value, but the formula is used more like if you follow this road(the road being the formula) and all its conditions (those being the different parts of the formula) you will certainly reach the value you seek. While an equation is more like well a+b is c so if i know a and b i have the value of c. With the equations also you have as many equations as unknown values you have, giving you an equal chance to find them one by one.",
"A formula is an exact recipe. An equation is more vague in that you have the overall idea of what you need, but you don't know all of the ingredients up front",
"A formula is an equation that serves a specific purpose and shows you how to compute a single unknown value from one or more known values.\n\n12^(3) \\+ 1^(3) = 10^(3) \\+ 9^(3) \n\nYeah, that's neat and all, but it doesn't help you do anything. It is just an equation.\n\nF = C x 9/5 + 32\n\nNow that's an equation that lets you do something useful, converting temperature from Celcius to Fahrenheit."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
5egkay
|
the deffie-hellman key exchange
|
I cannot for the love of myself figure out how the Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange works! Explain it like I'm 5, please?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5egkay/eli5_the_deffiehellman_key_exchange/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dac9htt"
],
"score": [
10
],
"text": [
"The basic principle is simple and relies on the simple mathematical property of powers: if we have three numbers a,b,g then (g^(a))^b = g^(ab) = (g^(b))^(a).\n\nAlice and Bob want to generate a random encryption key, without anyone but them knowing it. First, one of them chooses some random number g and sends it to the other. Then each of them chooses one random number - Alice chooses a and Bob chooses b - and they keep those numbers a secret. Alice calculates g^a and sends it to Bob, while Bob calculates g^b and sends it to alive. Now, Bob takes Alice's number (g^(a)) and calculates (g^(a))^(b), which is equal to g^(ab). Alice does the same with Bob's number, calculating (g^(b))^(a) which is also g^(ab). This number is their shared key, or it can be used to derive the shared key.\n\nBut... if Alice has transmitted the numbers g and g^(a), there should be no problem just using the log function to find a, right? Well, that's where [modular arithmetic](_URL_0_) comes in. In modular arithmetic, we use some constant number M (called the \"modulus\"). After each operation, we divide the result by M and only keep the remainder (which is a number between 0 and M-1). The beauty of modular arithmetic is that it's consistent with the basic operations of addition, multiplication and power - for example in order to calculate x^y mod M, I can start by calculating (x mod M), raising it to ~~(y mod M)~~y, and applying mod M to the result.\n\nSo instead of just choosing g, Alice and Bob also choose another random number M, and use it as a modulus for their calculation. The number that Alice calculates and sends is actually g^(a) mod M, while Bob sends g^(b) mod M. The resulting shared key is g^(ab) mod M.\n\nThis has two main advantages over the previous method: first of all, the numbers we work with are always limited by M (since the modulus operation results in a number between 0 and M-1), which simplifies the calculation. But more importantly, the log function which works with plain arithmetic, *doesn't work* with modular arithmetic, which means you can't efficiently calculate a even if you know both (g mod M) and (g^a mod M). This is a problem known as the [discrete logarithm](_URL_1_) problem, for which there are no known efficient solutions."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modular_arithmetic",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrete_logarithm"
]
] |
|
6nqzzc
|
how do other people slow down my connection speed?
|
I live in a very rural area (an hour away from city) so my internet is really slow.
I know when other people in the area are not online (like when they are at work or outside) the internet is much faster, reaching 3-4 Mb/s. But when everyone comes online it runs at a snails pace, dipping down to 500 or even 50 Kb/s.
Why is it that the other customers on the service slow it down so much and why does it slow down so much?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6nqzzc/eli5_how_do_other_people_slow_down_my_connection/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dkbknt2",
"dkbkotb",
"dkbkyvt",
"dkbnczb"
],
"score": [
5,
2,
11,
2
],
"text": [
"The local service connection's bandwidth is being used up, when you have access to it at low use times you get faster connections, but when you as everybody else are online you only get connections based on your service priority, and thus you get slower connection speeds from the system, if somebody comes on with a higher priority connection from their subscription you will receive a lower priority connection rate.",
"When your area was wired for internet, the internet company basically ran one line to your neighborhood and wired all the individual houses from that. That one line leading into the neighbor has a limited bandwidth. In theory, if there were 10 houses and they each pay for 50 Mbps, that line leading into the neighborhood would have a bandwidth of 500 mbps, but it's typically a lot less than that. This is fine when not everyone is online at the same time, then everyone can get the speeds they paid for. But during peak hours, when everyone is online, the line leading to your neighborhood just isn't fast enough. ",
"Imagine a water pipe. If you're the only person using it you get full pressure. The more connections to that pipe the weaker the pressure. ",
"You don't have an exclusive collection to the internet that is all yours. You have a connection to a box somewhere in your neighborhood that all your neighbors also connect to.\n\nThat box has a maximum bandwidth it can share between all the people in your neighborhood connected to it. If too many of you try to connect at once the share each one of you gets goes down.\n\nNormally the maximum bandwidth the box has is so much bigger than the bandwidth promised to individual users that this isn't much of a problem, but since you apparently live in a rural area and I guess far away from wherever the box connects to the bandwidth it can reach is far below the one it could reach theoretically if it was located in a neighborhood closer to the ISPs infrastructure."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
47rvep
|
all of these websites state to "buy gold", if the economy collapses. why would do people assume we'd barter gold instead of housing, food, water, ammunition, etc?
|
I just don't see gold as a necessity when SHTF
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47rvep/eli5_all_of_these_websites_state_to_buy_gold_if/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d0f5uvx",
"d0f5v23",
"d0f5xdn",
"d0f626i",
"d0f6eym",
"d0f8r6s"
],
"score": [
26,
3,
3,
3,
8,
4
],
"text": [
"Those websites aren't interested in what happens when SHTF. They are interested in what might happen this week, namely that people might send them money. They are definitely in favor of people sending them money. If sending you gold, or MREs, will get you to send them money, then they are all over that.\n\nSince the SHTF probability is vanishingly small, they are unlikley to face disgruntled customers who found nobody wanted their Krugerrands. Of course, it's also unclear what disgruntled customers would do, they won't be taking them to court. Looks like they win either way if you send them money, so that's it for them.",
"Gold is more useful if the US economy were to tank. Our currency isn't backed by any hard material (gold, silver, whatever), so the dollar could theoretically become valueless at any time. The idea is that you still have wealth in a transferable form that's likely to be accepted in trade, whether domestic or international.\n\nNow odds of any of this happening are close to none, and in the scale of total global collapse it wouldn't likely hold value.",
"Where not talking apocalypse level event here, where talking about a major shift in economic structure. If you buy into nothing but a certain industry it could suddenly drop and your sol, but precious metals will never go out of style, at least that's the theory.",
"They are not having you plan for a hollywood style apocolypse, the are having you plan to have good investments that generally grow in value where there is lots of uncertainty or downward movement in the economy. Gold retains its value in these scenarios for a couple of reasons:\n\nBecause people believe gold has more intrinsic value as a country's government issued conventional wisdom is that the second things DO hit the fan people start buying gold which will increase the value of YOUR gold. So, in times of economic crisis gold is the place people go, and if you're there early you'll do well.\n\nIf you're truly worried about us going the direction of the walking dead then buy guns and water. You're in a different league than these folks!",
"Gold has historically been a universal means of trade. If you need food and have a house to offer, but the person with food wants a gun then your outta luck. But if you can get gold for your room, and use the gold for food, and the guy who gives you food can use the gold for his gun... then the system works. The idea is that gold's value transcends individual currencies, so it doesn't matter if you have dollars or euros or yen, etc. Even if the countries collapse, or at least the values of their currencies collapse, the gold will retain value.",
"The better question is why would the companies try to scare people by implying that cash will become worthless and gold will be the best commodity and then ask for cash for their gold?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
9jr66h
|
tidal wave vs. tsunami
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9jr66h/eli5_tidal_wave_vs_tsunami/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e6tlzr1"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Different names for the same thing.\n\n\"Tidal wave\" has fallen out of use because it's a misnomer. A tsunami wave has nothing to do with the tides."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
2q6tr2
|
how much power does the potus have over local law enforcement agencies?
|
Hypothetically, what orders could President Obama deliver directly to the NYPD, if any?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2q6tr2/eli5_how_much_power_does_the_potus_have_over/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cn3dxma",
"cn3e4es"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"From what I understand, they work for the municipality, and POTUS has zero authority over a municipality. They are paid for through local taxes.\n\nI'm no authority on the matter though, and I would like to know more. Am I wrong?",
"He has no power over them. This is an issue of federalism and the Supreme Court has clearly said the federal government cannot make local law enforcement do *anything*. The case is [Printz v. United States](_URL_0_). In that case, a gun control bill required local law enforcement agencies to do background checks on people purchasing firearms. The Court held that the federal government could not make local law enforcement conduct the background checks because the federal government cannot commandeer local law enforcement.\n\nThe federal government could pass laws making it illegal for local law enforcement to do certain things, but they can't require them to take action. I can't think of much Obama could do personally, though, other than end partnerships between executive agencies like the Department of Homeland Security and local law enforcement, but I don't see why he would want to do that."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/521/898/"
]
] |
|
925apl
|
different types of bottled water
|
I was going to the groceries and noticed all the different water bottles all for different prices. What's the actual difference between purified, spring, mountain, etc. and how different is the buying same water in a grocery store vs a gas station?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/925apl/eli5_different_types_of_bottled_water/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e3355ju",
"e33816r",
"e33zg2i"
],
"score": [
2,
8,
3
],
"text": [
"I don’t know specifics, but generally speaking different regions’ water will have different minerals, and different brands may have differ oxygen levels.\n\n[Here’s a video](_URL_0_) of a water sommelier talking about different kinds of water. You should watch other videos of him doing taste tests.",
"Spring water is water that comes from a spring. That is, it comes from an underground water source and naturally flows to the surface where it is bottled \"as is\".\n\nA fancier type of spring water is \"artesian\" water. This comes from a type of deep water source called an artesian aquifer.\n\nPurified means that it has undergone a process to remove solids and bacteria. Some of the bigger purified water brands come from \"public source\", that is, it's literally just tap water that's been purified. ~~This is aka \"distilled water\"~~ EDIT: Distilled water is not the same as purified water.\n\nMineral water is water that naturally contains a significant amount of dissolved solids that (allegedly) provide health benefits. It must contain at least 250ppm of natural solids.\n",
"It depends on where the water is attained and how it was filtered out like the minerals left in it or removed. \nThe second factor on why the pricing differs is the branding which is a gimmick ( ex: Smartwater won’t make you smarter) \nAt the end, it’s just water that replenishes your body and keeps it going :) \n\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/502685/the-water-sommelier/"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
21ozit
|
exactly how does ups get their next day air shipments to their destination the next day?
|
So they come pick up the package, the driver takes all NDAs and puts them in a special place in the truck. What happens after that? I know it's by plane but it happens so fast, how does it go off without a hitch?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21ozit/eli5_exactly_how_does_ups_get_their_next_day_air/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cgf6gj0"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Here's an example of a Next Day Air letter going from Bridgeton, MO to Monument, CO.\n\n* UPS guy picks up a Next Day Air letter.\n* Route finished in the evening, he drives back to hub.\n* UPS guy unloads the Next Day Air letter onto a conveyer belt.\n* Sorter at other end of belt puts letter into [airplane container.](_URL_0_)\n* Airplane plane container is driven to Lambert Airport.\n* Airplane container is loaded onto airplane.\n* Around 10:30pm, airplane takes off headed for Louisville, KY*.\n* In Louisville, air cargo container is brought out, and unloaded.\n* Your letter is sorted to a new cargo container.\n* That container is loaded onto a new plane.\n* That plane flies to Denver, CO.\n* At Denver International Airport, the plane is unloaded.\n* Letter is put onto tractor trailer heading to UPS near Denver.\n* Truck is unloaded at UPS, and the boxes are sorted.\n* Your letter is loaded onto a package car (brown truck).\n* UPS guy drives brown truck to Monument, CO.\n* UPS guy delivers your letter.\n\nThere are some added steps in there if the sender and/or receiver are in cities that are far away from the airport. In that case, UPS needs more time, but they can still do it in a day.\n\n*Louisville is the main air hub for UPS, but your letter might go to a different one."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://i.imgur.com/lSXsdcM.jpg"
]
] |
|
1dufcc
|
why is jumping off of a bridge like the golden gate fatal ?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1dufcc/eli5_why_is_jumping_off_of_a_bridge_like_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c9txucd",
"c9txvlm",
"c9txz9s",
"c9ty03a",
"c9u3z9a",
"c9u480n",
"c9u4z2o",
"c9u5p7u"
],
"score": [
167,
26,
4,
70,
28,
8,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"At high-impact speeds, water is a bit like concrete. Imagine that a lake is made of millions and millions of tiny balls. Each of those balls needs time to move and absorb the impact when something hits it. But at fast enough speeds (like jumping from the top of a tall bridge), it simply doesn't have time to do that, and so the effect is like hitting a hard surface.",
"Do you mean why doesn't the water break their fall?\n\nWater has surface tension. Basically, the harder something hits it, the harder it will push back as water is incompressible. Force = mass * acceleration. Humans weigh quite a bit and since the bridge is pretty high, it gives enough time to build up quite a lot of speed meaning there is a lot of force hitting the water meaning the water is going to be pushing back pretty hard at impact. It's likened to hitting concrete. ",
"A little off topic, but could someone explain how a jumper survives the fall? It seems most survivors went in feet first and at a slight angle, so how would this contribute to their survival?",
"The golden gate bridge is about 220-240 feet above the water, depending on tides. The world record high dive is 172 feet. _URL_0_\n\nFrom that height, you must enter the water perfectly to penetrate the surface, and absorb the impact with your legs. Hitting the water with a wide body profile, like flat on your back or stomach, is like being hit by a truck at 75 mph. The impact destroys your organs, and almost certainly knocks you out cold, and you drown while unconscious.\n\nI once jumped off a cliff that was 80ft above the water, and it was terrifying. I cannot fathom what a fall from three times that height would be like.",
"Make your hand flat, slap it as hard as you can in a pool. It feels hard and hurts. Now imagine its your whole body and you are going way faster.",
"You think of water as soft, but it's no joke. \n\n_URL_0_\n\n\nAnd even just think like this...you know if you slap the top surface of the pool with your hand or do a belly flop it kinda hurts? Well think about how much more energy you have if you've jumped off a bridge. The impact is like hitting a solid surface.\n\nAnother way to think about the difference in energy: if someone throws a bullet at you, it's probably going to bounce off. If someone gives that bullet more energy, it's going to hurt you. ",
"There is an excellent documentary from 2006 called: The Bridge documenting jumps from the Golden Gate.\n\n[Youtube Link - Sorry, It has Spanish Subtitles](_URL_0_)\n\nSome of the reasons include:\n* Bone breaking impact from height fallen leaving you dead on impact or unable to swim\n* Knocked unconscious from the impact, or imaired from substance(s) prior to falling, thus drowning\n* Drowning\n* Hypothermia from the water temperature\n* Strong undertow of the bay taking you out to sea\n* Sharks",
"Ever done a belly buster into a pool? That is from just a few feet. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uHkyMh9FW4"
],
[],
[
"www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDpOs8OezKY"
],
[
"http://youtu.be/vhARXu3wWDc"
],
[]
] |
||
ch32ll
|
what makes leopard and jaguar different
|
Like why are Asian and African elephants stilll both elephants? But jaguars aren't considered America leopards. What makes the distinction?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ch32ll/eli5_what_makes_leopard_and_jaguar_different/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eupbvar",
"euq40bu"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Elephants are the only animals of their kind, leopards and jaguars are not the only animals of their kind, they are part of all the big cats. Elephants are so similar that all are called elephants. Leopards and jaguars are actually not as similar as you think, they just happen to look the same.",
"They do share one name. \"Panther\" is a term that includes a number of big cats. But more than that, only jaguars and leopards have members with the melanistic variation that makes them appear almost entirely black. So in Africa and Asia, \"black panther\" refers to leopards, and in the Americas, black panthers are jaguars."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
kr4ne
|
civil engineering
|
What does one do in this major? I read Wikipedia, but it was all blah to me.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kr4ne/eli5_civil_engineering/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c2mislc",
"c2mkx7q",
"c2mislc",
"c2mkx7q"
],
"score": [
3,
5,
3,
5
],
"text": [
"Civil engineers design, build, and test things that have to do with cities. They design and build bridges, roads, and buildings primarily (buildings are generally designed by architects that have civil engineers on staff). ",
"Civil engineering major here. Civil engineering can be broken down into roughly five categories. \n\n* **Structural Engineering**: They deal with the skeleton of buildings and structures. All the columns, girders, beams, supports, etc. needed to keep the structure standing when various loads are applied.\n\n* **Geotechnical Engineering**: They deal with the ground work. They classify the soil type (it is all different types of soil in geotechs eyes) and try to work around/with it. \n\n* **Transportation Engineering**: They deal with the transit system. They decide what sort of highway to build based on the parameters of nature and they design roads based on the population and its flow during peak hours. Anything transportation related pretty much.\n\n* **Environmental Engineering**: They primarily work on water and air treatment. From what I know, that is about it. Environmental engineers try to decrease concentration, chemical engineers try to increase it. \n\n* **Water Resources**: They design ways to control the flow of water. Think channels and dams.\n\nThere are many other sub categories but those are the main ones. ",
"Civil engineers design, build, and test things that have to do with cities. They design and build bridges, roads, and buildings primarily (buildings are generally designed by architects that have civil engineers on staff). ",
"Civil engineering major here. Civil engineering can be broken down into roughly five categories. \n\n* **Structural Engineering**: They deal with the skeleton of buildings and structures. All the columns, girders, beams, supports, etc. needed to keep the structure standing when various loads are applied.\n\n* **Geotechnical Engineering**: They deal with the ground work. They classify the soil type (it is all different types of soil in geotechs eyes) and try to work around/with it. \n\n* **Transportation Engineering**: They deal with the transit system. They decide what sort of highway to build based on the parameters of nature and they design roads based on the population and its flow during peak hours. Anything transportation related pretty much.\n\n* **Environmental Engineering**: They primarily work on water and air treatment. From what I know, that is about it. Environmental engineers try to decrease concentration, chemical engineers try to increase it. \n\n* **Water Resources**: They design ways to control the flow of water. Think channels and dams.\n\nThere are many other sub categories but those are the main ones. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
czi6je
|
what makes athlete's heart beat less?
|
Hey reddit.
I was just reading about bradycardia and i stumbled upon Miguel Indurain's resting heartbeat(28 bpm).
So i am curious what makes his heart beat less?And why do people who have mostly cycling background have this kind of low heartbeat?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/czi6je/eli5what_makes_athletes_heart_beat_less/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eyyhb4v",
"eyyhe28",
"eyymvyy"
],
"score": [
3,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Well the way i like to think of it is that practice makes perfect. \n\nThe same way we get better at writing or math or any basketball with practice, the athelete's heart gets better at what it does with practice too.\n\nWhen the heart has to work at high intensity for a long period of time, the cells in the heart learn to squeeze harder and more efficiently to keep up with the body's demands.\n\nSo over years of practice, now when the athelete does something easy like sitting in a chair and twiddling his thumbs, it's easy work for the heart and the heart barely has to work at all which is why it pumps so slowly.\n\nPs. It's not just the heart that changes which makes it beat slower. The lungs, the muscles and our arteries and veins all change too with practice, but that's a whole different ELI5",
"It’s because his heart is so strong through training. I could tell you about ejection fraction, cardiac output, cardiac index etc. but the mods will block me. In short a strong heart moves more blood per beat and an athlete has a stronger heart.",
"High intensity exercise makes heart muscles stronger. Stronger heart muscles move more blood per beat. Less Beats needed per minute."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
5os4r9
|
if i had $10 trillion and wanted to pay off the u.s.'s national debt, whom do i pay?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5os4r9/eli5if_i_had_10_trillion_and_wanted_to_pay_off/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dclmj0v",
"dclmu1e",
"dclmzky",
"dcln21g",
"dclnmb1",
"dclnogz",
"dclo10q",
"dclo3y9",
"dclobpd",
"dclslo1",
"dclvrj2",
"dcly60k",
"dcm1799",
"dcm2pfk",
"dcm4ptf",
"dcmcddx",
"dcmce5r",
"dcme97x",
"dcmelcr",
"dcmg7cy",
"dcmgje2",
"dcmgplj",
"dcmhteq",
"dcmi5ta",
"dcmi8v2",
"dcmjfn0",
"dcmklqy",
"dcmkop9"
],
"score": [
2878,
564,
59,
2,
171,
2,
131,
2090,
115,
2,
5,
2,
47,
3,
28,
13,
2,
4,
5,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
7,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Bondholders, which means you technically can't pay the debt off early. \n\nWhen the US borrows money, they hold an auction, in which people give them 10,000 (usually in large multiples of $10,000) for the right to receive a few interest payments per year and $10,000 when the bond matures. These bondholders can be almost anyone (it's likely tough for Cubans to collect) and the bonds can be resold on the secondary markets. The US collectively owes whomever owns the bonds at any given moment (which includes almost everyone via mutual funds that own at least a few bonds). \n\nThe US pays its debts because it wishes to maintain it's stellar credit rating (the US has never defaulted on a debt in it's entire history). That means when the US wants to borrow money, nearly everyone in the world is interested in lending money to the US. ",
"First, who owns the national debt? A pretty large part of it, about 20% is actually just one department of the government owing money to other departments. It's not unusual for one department to borrow money from other departments in order to fill in budget shortfalls.\n\nThe next 40% or so is held by US citizens and companies. These are in the form of US Treasury Bonds, which are a type of savings bonds that anyone can buy. If you own the bond, the government owed you that amount of money with interest, due on the date the bond matures.\n\nThe remaining 40% or so is owned by a mix of foreign governments, companies, and individuals. This is also in the form of Treasury bonds.\n\nIn theory, you could go out and buy $10 Trillion dollars worth of these bonds from anyone willing to sell them and then formally forgive the debt. I'm not sure what this process would entail, but it might be as simple as destroying the bonds. It could be much more complicated though.",
" > How do countries pay national debt?\n\nThey pay to bondholders, who bought US treasury bonds. Every once in awhile, the US (or other country) essentially hold an auction, and people who want to buy bonds, do so. After buying them, they'll get paid back according to the return on the bond\n\n > Whom do they owe to?\nIt depends on the country, but most owe it to citizens, and some foreigners. If i recall, ~60-70% of the U.S debt is owed by US citizens. \n\n > Most important, whats the need for US to be paying back its not that someone is going to come and foreclose.\n\nMainly in order to be able to borrow in the future. As a sovereign nation, they can basically tell creditors they're screwed, and there's not much anyone can do to stop that. However, this would obviously hurt people's trust in the countries' ability to pay in the future, and they'll have a harder time selling bonds in the future (usually they can still sell bonds, but they have to offer nicer terms to make up for the chance they're going to screw creditors again).\n\n > whom do i pay?\nWhile you can't buy out the bonds directly * , there is a form on your taxes where you can pay more than you owe to the Treasury.\n\n* technically it depends on the bond. Some have buyout clauses, though you would have to pay extra for the privilege. but especially in the U.S. case, they don't *want* to be paid back early. It's safe, free profit for them (although the return is rather low. iirc Treasuries right now are going for something like .5-1.5% . better than nothing though)\n",
"The debt is mostly in treasury bonds and securities. Anyone can buy them but the most prolific purchasers are other countries. \n\nThe debt is also long term debt, when you buy a bond for say $100 they tell you it will be worth say $150 in 10 years. That $150 is counted as debt until it's holder collects the cash for it.\n\nSome people may never be willing to sell all the US debt they own as it's traditionally an incredibly reliable investment vehicle. \n\nSome countries are required to buy US debt as part of trade agreements and treaties, so they can't really sell it to you. \n\nAlso, paying it all off like that and then trashing the debt would cause massive hyperinflation and destroy pretty much the entirety of the world's economy.",
"The government actually has a website that allows people to make direct gifts to the U.S. Treasury to pay down the debt.\n\nThe website is available here: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"You would buy back U.S. treasure bonds, owned by individual investors, pension funds, endowments, mutual funds, etc. If the bonds are retired and new ones are not issued, then the debt would decline.\n\nThe debt issue isn't than big of an issue as long as we are able to pay off the bonds as they come due. And the U.S. government has little issue with doing so. It can pay from tax revenue collected, from money collected with the sale of new bonds, or (in theory) it could simply print more money (but this would lead to rampant inflation and currency weakening).",
"You can just pay the US treasury, [they have _URL_1_](_URL_0_) to let you do it, they accept credit, debit, ACH, paypal and check via mail.\n\nIn practice, as others said, it's not instant, they technically put it into a fund reserved for paying off bond holders, and the treasury pays out as they come due, if it was $10 trillion I'm sure lawmakers would find a way to withdraw it before the treasury pays down that debt.\n\nAs for forclosure, not possible, a bond is something that says \"I owe you $x on this date\", if you say you want it back early, they don't really have to pay. And if the US did default, there isn't really anything anyone can do about it, the US government controls their bonds, and there isn't any higher authority they answer to (unless you count the rest of the world going to war over it). In practice, it's bad for the US if it happens, if they failed to pay it, the mutual funds owning the bonds would simply end up zeroing out the bonds that went unpaid, vaporizing money out of the fund, and everyone with a retirement account would be upset about losing money.",
" > Most important, whats the need for US to be paying back its not that someone is going to come and foreclose.\n > \n\nIf the US stops paying its debts as planned, folks are going to stop buying their bonds. Should they ever want to raise cash through debt again, nobody's going to buy their bonds again without some kind of (expensive) garauntee. \n\nA large-scale example is Dubai in the UAE. Seeing their oil reserves drying up, the royal family started converting their largest city into THE Muslim tourist destination. Turns out after certain world events Muslim folks don't always feel welcome in Paris or Disneyworld. They set out to build 7-star resorts, rediculous luxury activities, some of the tallest towers in the world, and even fabricated whole designer islands. \n\nAt first this was all financed by the royal family, but as that cash dried up they sought out foreign investors. When they started having cash flow issues due to a lack of tourists, they simply stopped paying debts. Tons of people got hosed, but as you said nobody can really repossess a whole country, and invading a small non-militant country is really bad mojo on the world stage. So almost overnight Dubai's construction progress virtually halted, as nobody was lending to fund further development. \n\nAnother consideration is that world debt brings world peace. The US famously owes China trillions. That means we're paying trillions worth of interest payments each year in debt service. Should we go to war with China, you can pretty much garauntee that we'd cut those payments off the first day and zero the debt in our books. That's a massive blow to Chinese income, so whatever they're willing to go to literal war over would have to be worth the hit. ",
"Please bear in mind, if you pay off the US debt, it will immediately accrue more debt since it now has a nice chunk of money to spend.\n\nThe US (and most other) governments *are* paying their debts. It's not as though we are in a spending free fall and about to go dead-beat. This is merely the situation politicians frequently try to put to their constituents to discredit 'the other team' rather than an actual comprehensive overview of governmental debt. ",
"You can't do that. The US debt is in the form of Treasury bonds and they cannot be paid out early. \n\nAs to who owns these bonds? 30% are owned by US citizens and companies, 30% is owned by various parts of the US government, and 40% is owned by foreign investors (citizens, companies, and governments). \n\nWhy is it important to pay it back? If they stopped paying out bonds then people would stop buying them and they would no longer get new money. ",
"Is $10 trillion enough to pay off the debt? I thought the debt was much higher than that.",
"A bunch of international bankers maybe? ",
"It's important to also note that the USA should absolutely never pay off all the debt. Issuing and buying back treasury bonds are how the USA (and every other sovereign nation) controls inflation. \n\nThere is (generally) a finite supply of us dollars in the world. When the USA sells bonds, they take payment in USA dollars and put them in the federal reserve. This reduces the supply of money, you have a smaller amount of money chasing the same number of goods, so prices go down a bit (or don't rise as quickly, deflation). \n\nConversely, if the USA is buying back bonds, they are pushing out more us dollars, so there is more money chasing the same number of goods, so the prices go up. \n\nIn order for this mechanism to work, there has to be a supply of, and market for bonds. When this is uncontrolled, we get the kind of ridiculous inflation and interest rates seen in the 70s. ",
"Most of it would go to all US taxpayers.... US taxpayers are the largest holders of US debt. _URL_0_ ",
"Couple things that need to be added to this conversation.\n\nTechnically, you would be paying a broker. The way it works is you pay a broker, than the broker calls other brokers to find a seller. To keep the math simple, let's say you pay 1000 a bond, the seller get 950, and the other 50 goes to the brokers that facilitated the deal (in finance, this is called a spread). Supply and demand applies to bonds, so if there's less of them, they get more expensive, so it could cost you more than $10 trillion (realistically probably would) to actually sop up all the debt. When a country pays its debt, it buys its own bonds then \"takes them out of circulation.\"\n\nAlso, you would not only need to buy up all the debt, you would also need to forgive it. Otherwise all the debt would just be owed to you, which wouldn't help the US financial solvency at all.\n\nUS debt is also considered the bedrock investment of the world. As trash as our friends across the pond like to talk, they still see US debt as the most secure investment in the world (suck on that, Merkel). Treasury bonds are often traded to hedge risk in derivatives trading. Foreign governments like to hold US bonds for safety. Pricing of almost anything, including the stock market, is based on the rates of T-Bills. I worked for a company that advised mergers and acquisitions in Latin America, and T-Bill rates still were a piece of the analysis. There's a huge question as to where financial markets would go if all the debt just vanished.\n\nThere would be no \"foreclosure\" (fuck, can you imagine? \"Haha, you didn't pay your debt. Now China gets some nukes.\"). The US would go to court, lots of lawyers and advisors would get paid, and some type of agreement would be reached. For example, maybe creditors accept 80 cents on the dollar. However, when the US would want to borrow again, the rates would be exorbitant, and would hamper economic activity (even a fiscal conservative will agree with this). Countries need to borrow, it's an essential piece of the economic puzzle. Also, remember what I said about how everything is priced off US debt, how US debt is used in so many things? All these things would go into turmoil. Almost everyone predicts it would be some type of pandemonium, but I'm not sure anyone really know.\n\nTL;DR\n\n1. They buy it from the market.\n2. Literally whoever buys it, including investors and other governments\n3. Because otherwise bad things will happen.",
"I think a better answer is, even with 10 trillion dollars, You still wouldn't be allowed to pay off the national debt. Paying off the national debt would actually be a really bad thing for the US. Basically think about money properly. It's the most useless thing on the planet really. You can't eat it, burn it, build with it. So you need everyone to believe that money is actually worth something. Now take into account that each country has their own money. Other countries taking out US bonds, makes other countries invested and want the US bond to be worth something, so they can spend that borrowed money elsewhere. This is a very simplified version. Should no one be invested in dollars, then maybe you can't buy as much abroad in dollars and would have to exchange them. Who to exchange with? Who would want your dollars if they will struggle to buy things with them? So the dollar is now worth less. However, Flood the world with dollars via bonds and you make your currency much more attractive. Do this for long enough and eventually entire markets run off your made up and self-controlled currency, like the oil market. As currency is totally made up and country controlled, it takes the rest of the world to play the same game for it to keep working. However, if one person sees an opportunity to stop playing for its own advantage, IE, a middle East country trying to trade oil in gold instead of dollars, and the US is not happy and may go over there to stop it happening. A similar thing can happen in the stock market. It doesn't take anything to actually happen to collapse the stock market. However, let's say bill gates decided to cash in all his shares and he said it's because the stock market is going to collapse. The others start following. Very quickly everyone tries to sell and the stock market collapses very quickly. Everything relies on everyone else playing the game. You and your 10 trillion ends the game and not everyone would want to start playing again, especially as the US has created such a self-gain. ",
"If you had that kind of money and wanted to pay off the national debt, you can contact the president directly. The wealthiest people in the world are worth less than $100B each. No one corporation is currently even worth $1T. \n\nThe US owes that money to anyone who has purchased treasury bills or bonds. A large portion is owned by foreign governments, but a portion is also owned by regular people living throughout the US and abroad. Treasury Bonds are some of the most purchased investments because they are almost guaranteed to be paid back, and as such they are in almost everyone's retirement portfolio. \n\n\nThere are two reasons we always pay back our debt. First, no one will foreclose on the US, but people will stop lending us money at the rates we get. Close to one third of our annual budget goes towards interest on debt. If our rates increase, our budget will be ruined. ~~The second reason is because we are the only government that has never defaulted. If we default on our debt, the global financial markets will shake and it will hurt the entire global economy.~~ Edit: This is not necessarily true it turns out. ",
"Federal Reserve. They can buy and sell. In most cases they act like middlemen. So even though a debt is owned by Chinese or UK, they do end up in Fed if needs to. Fed create liquidity aka actual dollar you use at your local walmart. But it won\"t pay down the debt. When you pay off 10 trillions, the market will have 10 trillions less debt. Which means there are 10 trillions actual dollars foating around. Now government wants those money. They cannot aĺlow it to foat around. So Treasury will sell more debts to soak up all those extra dollars. In effect you transfer your 10 trillions from your bank account into US government account. Then poor people will demand a cut of those money. And it will go into useless and wasteful programs like more obamacare or bridges to nowhere....or start another war to justify spending those 10 trillions. The final result of uoir generosity is that people will find things more expensive and US government now owes more debt than before you pay off the 10 trillions.\n\nYou are better off using that money yourself. 10 trillions under the control of a single private person is much better than under a group of people with zero accountability. Bush 2.0 and Obama already gone through your suggested exercise. Just that in this case it was Fed that gave the free 10 trillion dollars.",
" > How do countries pay national debt?\n\nBy issuing out IOUs (treasury/government bonds) to lenders. \nExample: Country A needs 10 billion dollars. Country B lends 10 billion dollars to Country A and in return Country B gets 10 billion in IOUs that say Country A must pay back Country B (plus interest) within a certain amount of years.\n\n > Who do they owe? This is the most important question.\n\nThe U.S. owes everyone that owns a U.S. IOU/treasury bond. That's a lot of countries, funds, and people. I'll lump everyone into three categories for the sake of ELI5.\n\n(~50%) The US public and private sector: Social Security Fund, other federal government funds, mutual funds, US banks, private pension funds, etc. About 15-20% of the debt is owed to our social security fund. All that cash taken out of your paycheck goes straight into the fund, which then lends out all of it to the US government (itself). This means the social security fund has trillions of dollars of US government IOUs that can become completely worthless if they never pay the money back or the US runs into some sort of hyperinflation. There's a whole discussion right now about the social security fund and whether or not millennials will actually see any of that money. Some people even think the baby boomers that are retiring over the next decade won't see everything that they're promised.\n\n(~35%) Foreign government: China and Japan own most of the foreign US debt. \n\n(~15%) Federal Reserve: The Federal Reserve is actually a private owned institution that has more power than any government or other institution in the world. Why? Because they alone have the power to print more US currency. What do they do with the currency they print? You got it! They buy US government IOUs. In addition, in 2008 they bought all those worthless mortgage backed securities from the big banks so that they wouldn't all go bankrupt. \n\n > What's the need for the US to pay back it's lenders?\n\nPut it this way, a US government IOU is a US government IOU; there's no real distinction between one IOU and another. The US can issue 10 billion in IOUs to China and promise to pay them back within 10 years; if they don't pay them back once the 10 years are up then it'll put into question all other IOUs the US has issued. Japan can be like, \"well if they didn't pay China why would they pay us?\" Following that line of logic Japan and everyone holding IOUs would try to sell them. An IOU worth 10 billion could sell for ten dollars if everyone believes that the US won't actually pay the money that the IOU says they'll pay. This situation is what people would call a bond market collapse. Something to note: bonds have always been the safe haven asset just like homes were before the 2008 collapse. \n\nThere's a lot more to this stuff but hopefully this covers the ELI5 audience. \n\nEDIT: spelling\n",
"Not directly answering your question (since there are some answers already): People tend to forget that countries can only accumulate such high debts because theoretically they could always pay them back by taking money from their citizens. Not the government owes someone money but the country itself ergo everyone who pays taxes. ",
"There is no debt. Debt is artificially created in order for banks to make money without working for it. If a new group of people take power and call of the \"debt\", it's gone. ",
"A \"national debt\" is just money that a government has borrowed in order to spend on whatever it has decided. Because the amounts are so large, it can't just go to a bank - even Bill Gates would run out of money to lend in a week or two - they must borrow from the \"market\". This simply means they borrow from anyone willing to lend money at that moment. This can be private individuals like you and me, or it can be anyone who wants to save and invest money. Because the government is always able to raise taxes, it's fairly safe to assume the money will always be repaid, so government debt is a very safe way to invest your money.\n\nThe main way governments borrow money is through what is called a bond, called a bond because it's a promise. A bond is a little bit different from a bank loan or an overdraft. Bank loans have fixed rates of interest, whereas a government bowwowing billions of dollars always wants to pay the lowest rate of interest it can. Conversely, investors always want the best rate they can get, and what they deem a good rate might change from one day to the next.\n\nSo how do you make this work in practice? The idea is simple: a bond is a promise to repay *fixed* amounts in the future. In exchange for these fixed amounts, borrowers compete against each other to offer the largest amount they are willing to pay the government in exchange for this fixed, future income.\n\nA typical example might be what would be called a $1000, 5% coupon, ten year bond. Every year, the person who owns the bond (the person who lent money to the government) would receive 5% of $1000. At the end of ten years, the government will pay you the $1000 back. It's important to note that the $1000 is a \"nominal\" value: the actual amount the lender gives the government is decided by competition between lenders (in this case the actual amount the lender gives would be ~$1100).\n\nSo at any one moment, the government doesn't owe $X that someone can just turn up and demand back. Instead, they owe $x this year, $y next year, and $z the year after that. Some debt is very long dated; I'm not sure about the US, but in the UK we have debt with 50 year repayment spans (and some perpetuities dating back centuries which will never be repaid in full). \n\nNow that we know all this background...we can start answering questions.\n\nIf you had money and wanted to pay off the national debt, the government will accept gifts towards it, no questions asked. The UK even has a [charity](_URL_0_) whose sole purpose is to invest money until the fund is large enough to repay the national debt.\n\nThey repay their debts simply by cutting a check to the owner of the debt for whatever the amount required is. And yes, that amount might be financed in part by newly issued debt (more on this below).\n\nThe money is owed to whoever is the owner of the debt. At any moment, the owner of a bond can sell it in the free market for whatever amount they can get. As we said above, that owner can be anyone - a private person, a company, an investment fund, or some other country. \n\nTo answer the last question, recall we said above that debt repayment is done in part by new debt issue. This seems on the face of it like terrible financial logic - like borrowing on your credit card to repay your loan. The difference is that government borrowing is done to invest in the country as a whole. Because of this spending, the economy can grow (because the government has built roads and schools and other useful things). Because the economy grows, the government gets more tax.\n\nThe key idea here is that borrowing should grow more slowly than the economy increases. This means that although the national debt is getting *bigger*, its size as a *share* of the economy is slowly falling. Of course, in practice there is a lot of disagreement about how big that share should be and how quickly it should fall.\n\nIf a government decided to stop repaying debt, though, it wouldn't be able to borrow any more money. The amount it would be able to spend would fall sharply. Many people with government jobs would be thrown out of work, and in turn their loss of income would mean businesses would suffer, and then more jobs would be lost. You'd have an economic downturn. And even worse, suddenly you're now getting even less tax than before. \n\nGovernments can and do sometimes decide not to repay debt, and the [consequences](_URL_1_) are usually messy. Governments that value stability and economic order will do whatever they can to avoid a default, even if it means economic pain for their own citizens. ",
"The national debt is is very misunderstood by even very smart people like Dave Ramsey. People should be more worried about trade imbalance than national debt, but that's another discussion. The national debt is nothing like the debt you and I might have. My net worth is calculated by the amount I own minus the amount I owe over the course of my lifetime. Unlike you and I, the United States has unlimited time, unlimited natural resources, the ability to wage war, and the ability to tax every business and individual that will ever exist. They don't have to create the next Google, for example, b/c they can tax the next Google. You and I are limited in both time and resources.\n\nAlso, the US debt is not a loan from a bank like it would be for you and I. The US borrows from the huge bond market whereby individuals, companies, and even countries willingly \"lend\" money to the US by purchasing bonds. A growing national debt is simply a growing bond market. Old bonds are paid off and new bonds are created supporting jobs and infrastructure. It's just accounting and trust in the system. It's not very different than a growing stock market. When you and I buy stock, we are essentially supporting a financial institution of lending money to companies. Everybody champions a growing stock market! The Dow Jones is talked about every day in the news. But it's mostly just paper profits and accounting. We should all champion a growing national debt for the same reason-it's a measure of our wealth and the world's trust in our currency and economy.\n\n",
"Counter-intuitively, money issued by the Fed *is* debt.",
"Bond trader here: I see a lot of inacuracies and approximations. To answer your question simply, if you had that kind of money and wanted to be a nice guy you could just give it to the US gov who would then repay everyone directly. Something I doubt they would do though. They'd rather use this cash to invest it and probably repay some debt yes.\n\nThe other solution would be to speak to the owners of the US debt like US companies, Chinese or Japanese investors and say that you are buying their bonds back from them. Once you have them, you simpy give the bonds back to the US gov free of charge. ",
" > What form does US debt usually take? \n\nIt usually is in the form of bonds, which are auctioned off and largely bought by the privately owned federal reserve mainly, then the privately owned banks in the west, and finally foriegn countries and their central banks. \n\n > Who do you pay? \n\nThe privately owned federal reserve Banks, mainly who buy the majority of the US government bonds. \n\nWhen they pay them, they buy assets with that money and create inflation slavery and theft by inflation. \n\nIf you had 100k in dollars, and banks double the money supply. Prices of everything doubles. \n\nNow your 100k only buys you 50ks worth of stuff. So banks effectively stole 50% of your savings through inflation. \n\nif you worked 30 years to save 100k, they stole 15 years of your life. \n\n\n > How do they pay the debt? \n\nWhen the bond matures and payment is due. They borrow the money from the federal reserve at interest, enter the auction market and buy it with thr cash created and printed into existence by the federal reserve. \n\nIt's a never ending debt cycle. \n\nUS government borrows money from private banks who create it out of thin air, to buy up debt it borrowed before that was also printed out of thin air. Plus interest. \n\nKind of imagine a pay day loan scam. Where you have to borrow from the pay damn loan company to pay back the initial money you borrowed plus the interest. The effect ia you get deeper and deeper into debt and debt ceiling keepa getting increased and more and US dollars keeps getting created and given to the privately owned federal reserve and their subsidiary banks like morgan stanley who spend it buying up stuff like houses, stocks, shares, oil, gas, gold, 3rd world resources, etc. \n\n > Why do they need to pay the debt? \n\nIf they don't the privately owned federal reserve stops printing money and stops lending money, creating a financial collapse. \n\nIf 1 trillion US dollars are circulating to keep everyone employed, paid, and economy running in usa. And banks reduce that money supply by 10% they can create a recession, and if they keep restricting the money supply more. They can create a depression. \n\nIn 1930s they reduced the money supply by 40% or 55% according to some stats. In order to create an economic collapse so that they could buy farms and companies for cents on the dollars. \n\n > ",
"$10T lol! You mean before Obama took office?",
"Hard to ELI5 this one. \n\n* US gov't borrows money\n* They do not borrow from banks\n* They do not make monthly payments\n* They sell 5 year, 10 year, etc treasury bonds\n* The bonds have a percentage extra you get at the end of the number of years you buy them for\n* Buy a 5 year bond at 1% for $1000 = 5 years later you turn it in, get your $1000 back plus 1% interest. \n* No one can collect on the bonds early. It is not a bank loan. \n* The US gov't doesn't miss making payments or pay interest only and defer bigger and bigger bills\n* Most of what you hear about US debt that scares you is wrong\n* Most buyers of debt are investors who put some of their money in treasury bonds because it is considered safe in that form, and it grows a little. \n* Investors are citizens of the US, businesses, and other countries including Canada, the UK, Japan, China, etc. \n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/23779454/"
],
[],
[
"https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/23779454",
"Pay.gov"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/10/news/economy/us-debt-ownership/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Fund",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_debt_crises"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
2q2mri
|
what is stopping me from starting my own country?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2q2mri/eli5_what_is_stopping_me_from_starting_my_own/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cn287xd",
"cn28bzb",
"cn28f34",
"cn28jub",
"cn28o5t",
"cn29cr9",
"cn2ajdu"
],
"score": [
16,
2,
11,
3,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Generally you get conquered but if you don’t occupy anything useful you can do it.\n\n[This country](_URL_0_) is an example of what you’re describing and it still exists.",
"Someone will probably answer better, but what I can give you right now in my over-tired state... depending on where you live, quite possibly not as much as you'd think, though you'd better be ready for legal fun. The requirements for legitimacy are \"a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.\" Sourced from Wikipedia [here](_URL_2_)\n\nIt's been done numerous times, there are a number of micronations out there. The best known are probably [Principality of Hutt River](_URL_0_) in Western Australia (who once declared war on Australia after repeated demands for taxes) and [Sealand](_URL_1_) on a platform in the North Sea. Lonely Planet published a book about them a while ago too.",
"Nothing. You can be \"Joe's Empire\", but you're only really a 'country' when you're recognized by other 'countries' and you'd need to establish services, utilities and what not. ...CGP Grey explains this better.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n\n",
"Well, besides the fact that claiming land that is already claimed is considered an act of war by most sovereign nations (see [Falkland War](_URL_1_)) , you would hit an issue when you stop paying property taxes to the host nation. I'm sure there are plenty of extremist groups in the U.S. who consider themselves outside of federal jurisdiction but the government tends not to take issue unless taxes are not paid or crimes are committed on the land such as in [Waco](_URL_3_) or [Ruby Ridge](_URL_0_) . \n\nBut I find this idea interesting too, so I would suggest reading up on micronations, specifically [Sealand](_URL_2_). \n\nEdit: Links included.",
"There are essentially two elements to starting a country: establishing sovereignty over the territory, and being recognized by other countries.\n\nYour plan falls at the first hurdle: establishing sovereignty. The USA is not going to cede sovereignty over New Cumberland, PA. (Inexplicably specific example there, by the way -- it's not as if we'd say, \"Well, this wouldn't work for Lemoyne, but...\")\n\nThe best way to establish sovereignty is to claim land for which no one else has a claim to sovereignty. Others have mentioned Sealand; Jeremiah Heaton cleverly did this with [Bir Tawil](_URL_0_).\n\nBut the really tricky part is recognition from other nations. The Kingdom of North Sudan in Bir Tawil is awesome, but no one recognizes it, so it's not much practical use.",
"Getting sovereigns with existing claims to recognize you don't owe them taxes.",
"You'd still have to consolidate high schools with Cedar Cliff. Nice try."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Hutt_River",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micronation#Legitimacy"
],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AivEQmfPpk"
],
[
"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Ridge",
"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War",
"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand",
"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bir_Tawil"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
1jcthr
|
the pirate bay
|
What are the risks of using it? How does it work? What the hell is seeding and leaches?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jcthr/eli5_the_pirate_bay/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cbddhlf",
"cbdfyrg",
"cbdko6i"
],
"score": [
3,
49,
2
],
"text": [
"Seeding -- allowing others to download from you\n\nLeeching -- downloading from seeders\n\nThe more seeders = the better (in regards to download speed)\n\nMore risky if you are the one seeding, but be cautious.",
"Here is a rundown of what Torrenting and ThePirateBay are. The two of them are two different things.\n\nFirst off, \"Torrenting\" is an alternative way of downloading files. When you normally download something like an MP3 from a website, you are getting the file directly from the websites computer. For example, if you buy an MP3 from Amazon, you click the download button which then your computer asks Amazon's computer for the file, then Amazon's computer send it directly to you.\n\nTorrenting is a little bit different. To start getting a file by torrenting, you need a program that gets the file. This is called a client. Some examples are utorrent and Bittorrent. When you want a to get a file by torrenting, you need to first tell your client where the files are. While torrenting, many other people who have downloaded it before have the file and there is no one computer where the file comes from. You first go to a website like ThePirateBay. When you find what you are looking for, you click the \"magnet\" link for it. This tells your client (utorrent, Bittorrent) where the files are and you become a \"leecher\". Your client then connects to other clients on other people's computers who have that same file and begin sending different pieces of it to you. When you finish getting all of the pieces you become a \"seeder\" and start sending pieces of that file to other people who are trying to download it. \n\nThe pros of this method are that sharing the files are almost impossible to stop, because once many people are \"seeding\" it, authorities cannot just simply turn off one main sharing computer, they would need to turn all of them off.\n\nThe cons of this process are that if nobody is seeding the file (Either people are greedy and immediately stop the torrent after they finish, or demand for the file has dropped), the download becomes very slow or does not start.\n\nThePirateBay is not a torrent, but a website where your client can get the info to start a torrent. There are many alternatives to ThePirateBay, like Kickasstorrents and isohunt, but ThePirateBay is so popular because of their resistance to authorities and large variety of torrents.\n\nAs for risks, it is actually pretty safe. Whenever you start seeding, your client will only reshare the files if they match what others are sharing exactly. If the file gets infected with a virus, the client will no longer share it. However, people can create a new torrent that has a virus in it. Always check the comments of a torrent on ThePirateBay and see what other people are saying about it before downloading.",
"/u/Rubcionnnnn pretty much covers the basics. I would add one risk you should keep in mind: Shit with a copyright. \n\nWhen torrenting, since you are sharing a file with multiple peers (peers = other sharers) instead of downloading from a single web server, you have to be aware that those peers know you are downloading/uploading the file and can see your IP address (IP address ~ the internet address of the connection you are using from your computer). \n\nThis can be an issue if you are sharing copyrighted material. Although most peers are other friendly sharers, owners of copyrighted material can have agents act as peers on torrent networks to collect IP addresses of people who are sharing their content. \n\nThese companies can then subpoena the internet provider who matches that IP address and ask for the personal information of the account owner (such as name, billing address, etc.). For instance, if you get your internet from Comcast, the IP address you're using will be owned by Comcast and can be linked to you by Comcast since they keep track of who is using what address at any given time. Thus, the owner of that 'The Little Mermaid' video you just downloaded and shared could ask Comcast to tell them who was using the IP address who just shared it with their agent on a torrent network.\n\nThere have been tons of lawsuits from companies against people who share copyrighted music, movies, software, etc. through torrents. Be aware of this. There are several ways to get around this risk or at least decrease the risk of being caught.\n\nA less-severe risk from downloading copyrighted material is the new-ish [Copyright Alert System](_URL_0_). Look it up.\n\nOther than that, enjoy using torrents and good luck."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Alert_System"
]
] |
|
bbz2h4
|
how does jury dury work in the usa?
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bbz2h4/eli5_how_does_jury_dury_work_in_the_usa/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ekmhhlq"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The jury determines whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty, based on the evidence that is presented at the trial. \n\nIf the defendant is found guilty, they are later sentenced by the judge. The jury doesn’t decide the sentence of a guilty defendant."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
1c8zgk
|
what is firefly?
|
Who are the good guys? Who are the villains? What the hell is a Browncoat?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1c8zgk/eli5_what_is_firefly/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c9e70t6",
"c9e71a5",
"c9e7mr0"
],
"score": [
6,
2,
10
],
"text": [
"If your favorite old western and your favorite sic-fi were to have a baby...it would be Firefly. ",
"Browncoats are the rebels (Kinda like in Star Wars!).\n\nThe Alliance are the bad guys (Think Empire form Star Wars).\n\nAlmost everyone aboard the Firefly Serenity are the good guys (don't wanna spoil anything :P).\n\npersonally, I find Captain Reynolds (That's Nathan Fillion's character) crew to be more of the Anti-hero of the show.",
"\"Here's how it is: Earth got used up, so we terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with new technologies, some not so much. Central Planets, them as formed the Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule; a few idiots tried to fight it, among them myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity. She's a transport ship, Firefly class. Got a good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher for some reason, and a bona fide companion. There's a doctor, too, took his genius sister from some Alliance camp, so they're keeping a low profile, (you understand). You got a job, we can do it, don't much care what it is.\"\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
7i3tjg
|
how jets fly so close to each other in a formation without crashing.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7i3tjg/eli5_how_jets_fly_so_close_to_each_other_in_a/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dqvx495"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
" > how jets fly so close to each other in a formation without crashing.\n\nPractice and really good pilots. They train for a long time in order to do such stunts and they have very quick reactions to potential problems."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
7rm4c1
|
why electroshocks hurt so much?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7rm4c1/eli5_why_electroshocks_hurt_so_much/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dsxydij",
"dsyqgq1"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"It a combination of involuntary muscle contractions and in a lot of cases heat is generated as the charge passes through your body causing burns. There are horrific images around of these burns. \n\nDeadly stuff. ",
"Our nerves use electricity to work. Shocks, even mild, directly affect the nerves, including pain receptors."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
bkcjk8
|
what makes a gpu architecture better than another and how do game developers use it to their advantage ?
|
You can make it an ELI10 if need be.
I've been looking at benchmarks for different GPUs and of course there's always talk about the newer architectures being better than the previous ones but how ? What actually changes that makes them better ?
And then there's talk of newer games taking advantage of that architecture which again I'm wondering how ? isn't the data given to the GPU the same since it needs to work on all GPUs of various architectures ?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bkcjk8/eli5what_makes_a_gpu_architecture_better_than/
|
{
"a_id": [
"emfz62o"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Former game developer here,\n\nAll of this is generally correct-ish. A former colleague used to work for ATI and put it to me best I think - if you look at a CPU core, a tiny portion of the chip is dedicated to the circuitry responsible for multiplication of 2 numbers. On a GPU, nearly the entire chip is dedicated to just multiplication. Some CPU cores take multiple clock ticks to multiply two numbers, or they can only multiply a small set in parallel, 4, 8, 16 at a time. A GPU can multiply hundreds of numbers at once in a single clock tick. Rendering boils down to lots and lots of multiplication.\n\nAnd then there is the concept of hardware acceleration. You can do any rendering technique in software, but some techniques are very slow. So GPUs can implement hardware instructions specific to those techniques to make them reasonably fast enough for real-time rendering in video games.\n\n > I've been looking at benchmarks for different GPUs and of course there's always talk about the newer architectures being better than the previous ones but how ?\n\nThis can be new hardware features, like I just mentioned, or it can be a reduction in circuit size, reduced power consumption, greater parallelization, greater bus width (more data is moved at once), reduced memory latencies, or other things.\n\n > isn't the data given to the GPU the same since it needs to work on all GPUs of various architectures ?\n\nLuckily there are standards - they suck, but they're there. You can query a video subsystem for it's capabilities and run different code to take advantage of those. The game has to be built to be aware of these features, to know to query for them and use them. Otherwise, the latest feature won't make any different. This is why Doom hasn't gotten magically better since 1993.\n\nThis is a big coordination effort between the studio developers and artists, the engine developer, and the graphics manufacturers. Typically a studio isn't going to write custom extensions to use some up-and-coming feature, the engine developer will eventually incorporate it into their engine, then we in the studio have to enable that feature and the artists have to take care to utilize it."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
4sy8pg
|
power bars, surge protectors, convertors, transformers, how do they work?
|
When you use an extension cord or surge protector does it have the same amount of power as from the wall?
I moved from the US to Europe and needed converters and transformers, How do they work and what's the difference?
Also, why does the US uses 60Hz and international uses 50Hz? And why is there such a difference?
**Update: thanks for the comments, I'm going to go through them all...and I made a correction with the 60Hz**
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4sy8pg/eli5_power_bars_surge_protectors_convertors/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d5d5czd"
],
"score": [
14
],
"text": [
"Electrical engineer here:\n\nFirst off all: The US uses 110V/60Hz and Europe uses 230V/50Hz - not the other way around. There is no advantage of using one frequency over the other and the difference is due to different standards being used. For a complete overview over the different standards you should check out this [map](_URL_3_) (yup, Japan is all over the place).\n\n**Power outlet** \nYour power outlet inside your house can be seen as an ideal voltage source. This means that it will always try to deliver the rated voltage (230 Volt in Europe) no matter the size of the electrical load. This is not always true (due to safety-mechanisms and fluctuations in the electrical grid) but it is a good model for now.\n\n**Extension Cord** \nWhen connecting an extension cord between your power outlet and your device you are actually increasing the load (electrical resistance/impedance) a small bit due to the resistance in the wire.\n\nThis means that you are essentially creating a [voltage divider](_URL_2_) and the voltage over your device will actually be slightly lower than 230 V. The actual voltage delivered will decrease as you extend the length of the cable - but in reality the offset will be very small and can be ignored in most cases.\n\n**Surge protectors** \nThe voltage delivered to your house will almost always be a perfect [sine-wave](_URL_1_) with an amplitude of either 325 V or 156 V depending on where you live. However, sometimes voltage-surges will occur and cause spikes/ripples in your sine-wave. This is not healthy for electronic devices. Surge protectors are devices which will make sure that these abnormalities does not damage your device.\n\n**Converter** \nA converter is simply a device which turns one type of electricity to another. This conversion could be a frequency-conversion, voltage-conversion, AC-DC-conversion or vica versa. There are a lot of different ways to build converters depending on which application you are designing for.\n\n**Transformer** \nA transformer is one of the most common ways to convert AC-voltage to another level. This means that a transformer is simply changing the amplitude of the sine-wave - either to a higher or lower amplitude.\n\nA [transformer](_URL_0_) is built using two coils with different amounts of windings. When current passes through one coil it will create a magnetic field around it. This field will then induce a current in the secondary coil. The voltage over the coils can be changed by changing the number of windings on either coil.\n\n**Power bars** \nPower bars are often built into extension cords and you should always be a bit careful when using them. When plugging devices into a power bar you are placing electrical loads in parallel. This means that by increasing the number of devices in parallel (increasing the load) you will increase the amount of current drawn by your power outlet. In most cases you will hit a 'roof' of 10-13 Amps as your fuses will burn out and cutoff the circuit. However, 10-13 Amps is still more than what most power bars are rated to and could very likely cause a fire."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformer",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_frequency#/media/File:50Hz60Hz.svg",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_divider",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_frequency#/media/File:Worldwide_map_of_voltage_and_frequency.png"
]
] |
|
25prno
|
it seems like california is perpetually on fire and suffering from massive droughts. how does that state not just descend into chaos and turmoil?
|
It seems like whenever California is in the news, it's because half the state is on fire, while the other half suffers through ridiculous droughts. Obviously, California is very large, so this doesn't apply to the whole state. But how do cities like Los Angeles, that seemingly never get rain, keep their city from turning into a desert wasteland? If there is no water, how do those massive fires get put out?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25prno/eli5_it_seems_like_california_is_perpetually_on/
|
{
"a_id": [
"chjkkrv",
"chjm88s"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"The perception you get from the news is way off. Most fires only burn unpopulated areas, and even the worst fires only destroy a few dozen or a few hundred homes. The worst of it is that thousands of people may have to evacuate their homes for a few days to be safe, and others may want to get away to avoid the smoke.\n\nThe largest fire in California history, the Cedar fire, burned 500 square miles. California's total area is 160,000 square miles, so that one fire burned only about 0.3% of the whole state. Remember, that was the worst fire in history - most fires burn way way less than that.\n\nAs for the drought, there is plenty of water for everyone in the state to drink and shower. The people who suffer are farmers, because in a bad drought year there isn't enough for many farmers to water their fields adequately.\n\nAlso, California has lots of desalination plans - that convert sea water into fresh drinking water. They're sitting idle, because even though we're in a drought, getting water from elsewhere in the country is cheaper than desalination. If people started going thirsty, the state could easily turn on the desalination plants and produce enough water.\n\nSo basically there's a shortage of cheap natural water, not a shortage of water. It's a crisis, but not a humanitarian crisis.\n",
"Woah. As a Californian I think the important thing here is for you to chill, brah."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
1d97ud
|
how does the reddit "vote fuzzing" system work?
|
The one given by reddit is confusing to me, if anyone could explain this to me I would appreciate it.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1d97ud/eli5_how_does_the_reddit_vote_fuzzing_system_work/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c9o87jz"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I dont now the code for what they programmed but essentially it takes the score and adds an equal random number of votes to both up and down, \n\nThis discourages people from manipulating the actual score because they dont actually know what the overall score is just the net score. \n\n\nIf I have a total score of 100 made up of 150 up and 50 down then reddit may decide to add another hundred on to both scores to make it look like the score is 250 up and 150 down. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
1ouh53
|
why is it in films that include songs from artists / bands, the pitch is slightly altered to make it sound faster / higher in pitch?
|
I always notice this in films, but the pitch is always altered when a song is included in a movie.
Example: _URL_1_
Original: _URL_0_
I've always wondered why this is, I always notice it with songs I already know, and I always notice it sounds slightly different. Can anyone explain why this is? Or am I just being weird?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ouh53/eli5_why_is_it_in_films_that_include_songs_from/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ccvqzuv"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"It's so it lines up better with the scene. Movie scoring is actually really difficult. There's a lot of work that goes into both video and audio editing so that the high points of the song line up with the high points of the scene and stuff.\n\nSo, for example, let's you have a song that's sort of quiet for 20 seconds and then gets loud. Your scene in the movie is slow for 22 seconds, and then suddenly stuff gets really intense.\n\nYou get a better dramatic effect when the loud moment from the song lines up with the intense moment in the scene. So, you make the song slightly slower so that the moments line up.\n\nIn this case, the song would be slightly lower in pitch than the original, but it obviously goes both ways."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVq-MU7ojVY",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjr4So1ehQo"
] |
[
[]
] |
|
6jh1hs
|
why is a mouse more accurate than a joystick on a controller
|
Thanks for answers!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6jh1hs/eli5_why_is_a_mouse_more_accurate_than_a_joystick/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dje69wr",
"dje6fk9",
"dje6gic"
],
"score": [
4,
4,
2
],
"text": [
"Because with a computer mouse you move it exactly X distance on the table so the cursor moves Y distance. With a joystick, you essentially 'toggle' the cursors movement in any given direction, for a certain length of time, until the cursor reaches what you need. It's also less accurate because you're dealing with a fixed joystick instead of a mouse that you can move all the way across your desk if you wanted to.\n\nThis is my interpretation of it, anyway",
"Because a movement on a joystick applies \"velocity\" but movement on a mouse applies a position change.\n\nThink about it, you move a joystick to the left, it will keep going left even though your hand is not moving anything, just keeping the joystick on the left side. A mouse on the other hand requires movement to apply this change, stopping this movement will stop this movement. This is simply something more natural and understood to humans. ",
"Mouse moves by pixels. That is using a camera it counts them.\n\nJoysticks move by binary off and on multiplying by sensitivity so the smallest move can never be a single pixel."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1uvm32
|
do ssds really have a limit in their usage?
|
I remember reading somewhere that SSDs have a limit on how many read/write operations can be done upon them before breaking down. Is this true?
EDIT: Thanks for the answers. This question got to me when I was thinking of the application of SSDs in a business setting. It being faster storage devices and all.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1uvm32/eli5_do_ssds_really_have_a_limit_in_their_usage/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cem337m",
"cem3e4m",
"cem4dso",
"cempow2"
],
"score": [
3,
5,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Yes, it is, It's not a hard set number, but the number means that on average, any bit will stop working after being written around that number of times.",
"Yes, there is an average number of read/write cycles before a particular bit becomes unreliable in its operation.\n\nHowever, this is true of any device, really. Hard disk drives, having physical moving parts, can fail as well through normal operation. You may come across a figure called [mean time between failures](_URL_0_) when shopping for hard disk drives.",
"As noted by other people, this is a real thing.\n\nAs to *why* it happens, we need to get into the difference between SSDs and what came before.\n\nOlder types of disk drives worked by creating magnetic patterns on a physical disk (a floppy disk was, well, a floppy -- bendable -- piece of magnetic material, while a hard disk was made up of one or more rigid metal platters). The \"head\" of the drive would read data by sensing the magnetic patterns on the disk, and write data by changing those patterns. This is very robust, and you can do it over and over and over without any real ill effects.\n\nBut since you have to physically spin the disk around to the right area, and move the read/write head to the precise spot on the disk, it's also slow. There's also the risk, as you erase old data and write new data, of ending up with your data spread out all over the disk, meaning it takes even more time to read. \"Defragmenting\" a hard drive referred to the process of trying to consolidate the physical areas where data is stored, to speed up data retrieval for the future.\n\nSolid-state drives, on the other hand, are made up of many electrical components called \"floating gates\". Floating gates work by holding electrical charge (they literally trap electrons); they're constructed so that when an electrical current of the right voltage is passed through them, the results are different based on whether it's holding a charge or not, which gives you the 0/1 of binary logic.\n\nThis is much faster because there's no need to move parts of the drive into position for reading/writing; it's just a bunch of circuits.\n\nThe catch is that erasing/rewriting the data wears down the floating gates; you can always read the data without trouble, but there's a limited number of times you can erase/rewrite before the floating gate simply doesn't work anymore.\n\nModern drives and the software which controls them use wear leveling, which spreads the load around to different parts of the drive (which doesn't slow things down the way it would on a platter-based hard drive), rather than re-using the same sets of gates over and over as you erase and write. This prolongs the life of the drive by keeping as much of it as possible working for as long as possible, and means that the drive's lifetime is long enough that you'll almost certainly replace the computer before you need to replace the drive.",
"Also, I'd be cautious with the cheaper Samsung drives, the 840 Pros are arguably the best drives made, but the regular 840s use a newer, theoretically less durable form of RAM (TLC vs the more common MLC) which packs more information into the same electronics, so they get more read-write cycles. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_time_between_failure"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
3q1hns
|
why is it that in some movies they are made so dark to the point where you can hardly see anything?
|
Its mainly horror movies ive noticed it in but also in other genres aswell.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3q1hns/eli5_why_is_it_that_in_some_movies_they_are_made/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cwbapz1"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Because someone told the producer dark = scary and he decided the whole movie has to be pitch black, because he thinks more dark = more scary."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3u6e70
|
why are titles of japanese entertainment products often in english?
|
English appears everywhere in Japan, and I've never really understood why.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3u6e70/eli5_why_are_titles_of_japanese_entertainment/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cxcahix",
"cxcaw9h",
"cxcawvr"
],
"score": [
2,
5,
3
],
"text": [
"English is a very popular language. It's also somewhat of a lingua franca at least on the internet - having an English name makes a Japanese product more marketable to an international audience. It could also just be that having an English name is trendy though ",
"English being the international language has little to do with the situation.\n\nEver since Meiji Renovation, Japan's been calling themselves \"the most eastern[ly situated] western nation\". In their mind set they are not Asian, but rather an European nation that happen to situate on an Asian island. The mentality drove Japan into industrial revolution, then economic and military expansion. It also promotes vast culture changes, including wide use of borrowed language in their daily vernacular. Japanese has many borrowed words mainly from German, English, and French. But the same mind set that drives innovation and transforming a very conservative culture into a economic and scientific power base also contributed to the atrocities they committed during past wars. After all, how can you have reserves in massacring millions when you see them as your inferiors.\n\nThis historical background gives somewhat of a more completely understanding of Japanese culture in contemporary times.",
"The Japanese consider English characters to be cool and exotic looking, similar to how a lot of Americans think Japanese/Chinese characters look cool. However, in Japan, English is the standard foreign language to teach at the High School level. So almost all Japanese people speak enough English to decipher or at least pronounce an English product name, but aren't fluent."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1r1dd9
|
how does your computer use a flash drive as ram?
|
I have searched but i can only find tutorials on how to use a flash drive is ram. I would like to know what its actually doing to speed up my computer and how much i can benefit from it.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r1dd9/eli5_how_does_your_computer_use_a_flash_drive_as/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cdil2gw"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It does not work as you'd hope it would. Flash drives are far too slow to be useful as a substitute for RAM. \n\nYou are thinking of an option Windows Vista had called \"Readyboost\" which allowed you to use a usb drive to act as additional RAM. It was meant for computers with very little RAM ~512MB at a time when 1-2 GB was recommend, it was hoped you could use a flash drive to make up the difference. The performance gain was little to none, and the idea died there because it was useless."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3jemp5
|
what state would africa be in if it wasn't for european colonialism?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jemp5/eli5_what_state_would_africa_be_in_if_it_wasnt/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cuokn5f",
"cuoks4t",
"cuokuvd",
"cuoltfn"
],
"score": [
9,
3,
9,
2
],
"text": [
"There is absolutely no way of knowing.\n\nThe effects of colonialism affected the history of Africa so immensely that it's impossible to say what might or might not have happened had that not come to pass, the best you can get is wild guesswork.",
"You ask regarding colonialism, but use the phrase \"never ventured there\". \n\nColonialism has its pros and cons. \n\nVenturing there with trade and exchange of ideas is another thing. \n\nExamine the immediate consequences to Japan which was traded with but not colonised with India which was. They're far from the same country but I suppose that's somewhere to start.",
"The cynic in me says they'd be worse off because they'd have been colonised by Asian nations instead (particularly Russia and Japan, maybe China later). Generally, the African countries which are doing the best are the ones where capitalism has the strongest hold. Let any of them actually get in the grips of the USSR and her ideological allies and they'd almost certainly be worse off.\n\nI imagine that without colonialism of any sort (which was probably what you were thinking of), most countries would have kept going much as they were until globalism made development inevitable. They'd be in a stronger position to trade because they'd have the natural resources we took, but they'd lack the infrastructure we provided. Medical infrastructure would be particularly missed, as would English and French speaking skills.\n\nPotential global powers? Nigeria, maybe. Ghana would have all that gold. However, it's worth remembering that the African countries we think of are largely colonial constructions - we'd probably be talking about countries called Zulu, Igbo, and Masai, not Tanzania and Lethsoto.",
"They would probably be better off, but we really cannot know. \n\nWhile a lot of Europeans (at the time and currently) seem to think that African at the time Europeans began adventuring there was people in constantly warfare living in mud huts, that's simply not true. By the time of the First Atlantic System (1502-1580) there was a large number of fairly powerful kingdoms, such as the Kongo Kingdom, that were wealthy, technologically advanced, and would have been more than capable of defending themselves against Europeans. The three hundred-odd years of removal of African people, increasing of European labor base, and increases in technology because of European contact with other civilizations is what allowed Europeans to colonize Africa.\n\nIt wasn't until around the late-18th century that Europeans started having a large edge against African states, and even then, it wasn't as large as you might imagine. Ethiopia, for example, was never successfully colonized, and controlling Africa during the Great Scramble (late-1800s) often required the colonizers to cooperate with locals. If you've ever seen the movie *Hotel Rwanda* that happened because the colonizers established a sort of aristocracy in the region by putting one of two ethnic groups (who weren't even really ethnic groups) in charge of the other, and then getting the now dominant ethnic group to be a lot of the oppressors. When the Europeans decolonized Africa they didn't think that just leaving two groups, who had spent a few hundred years oppressing/being oppressing each other would end poorly. And pretty much everything that happened in Belgian Rwanda was a fucking nightmare that involved mass murder and the destruction of traditional political, social, and legal structures. When the Belgians left, they basically just told the people that they were a country and left. \n\nThat Africa ended up as poorly off as it did really shouldn't be surprising.\n\nEdit: Also, you have to remember, colonization ruined much of Africa's ability to be independent. An example presented in a book on the period I've read was growing food vs growing cash crops. When the Europeans colonized Africa they wanted to use the people as a source of cheap labor for producing cash crops and were able to import large amounts of food from other regions. Those other regions were using industrial farming techniques using modern machinery that was kept from the hands of Africans. Anyways, the Europeans would come in and force people growing food to destroy their food crops and grow (for example) rubber. The Europeans sold food to the Africans in exchange for the cash crops that they were forced to grow. With the Great Scramble taking place in the late-1800s and De-Colonization happening around the 1950s, that was over a hundred years of Africans not growing their own food. When Africa was decolonized, the only source most of the people for food was Europeans, and the only source of income that they had was growing the same damn cash crops. Which meant (along with African countries being made mostly arbitrarily and with little attempt made at creating a functioning legal and political system), that African states were left with very weak economies that were dependent on European states for basic items like food, and with fairly little way of getting money to acquire food."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
33yy3r
|
why aren't things like caffeine or nicotine scheduled (controlled) substances?
|
If the criteria by the DEA for a controlled substance like a Schedule II is based on physical or psychological dependance, and caffeine and nicotine are two of the most addictive substances, how come they aren't regulated by the DEA?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33yy3r/eli5_why_arent_things_like_caffeine_or_nicotine/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cqpod3q",
"cqpol7i"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"I think it's not controlled in this way because caffeine and nicotine in themselves are not harmful and extremely difficult to overdose on in their \"natural\" form. By that I mean, the amount of caffeine in tea or coffee and the amount of nicotine in tobacco. They also have less of an effect. Caffeine and nicotine may give a noticeable stimulant reaction, but it is slight compared to others. That may be some justification to the DEA ruling. Also, tax dollars.",
"Caffeine is actually not considered to be highly addictive. If you cut caffeine cold turkey you might have a day or three of headaches. That is not severe addiction. A severe addiction would include fevers, vomiting, violent shaking, loss of ability to focus or at times even complex thought, fits of rage, etc. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
2ll3u7
|
in what way are rats/mice and humans' brains similar?
|
Why is it that scientists move onto human-trials right after trials on rodents?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ll3u7/eli5_in_what_way_are_ratsmice_and_humans_brains/
|
{
"a_id": [
"clvs5xc"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Rodents are surprisingly similar to humans in a lot of ways actually. Obviously their brain isn't nearly as complex, but if a drug/treatment produces unwanted side-effects in mice, for example, it's a good indication there will also be similar unwanted side-effects in humans. \n\nLikewise, when there are no unwanted side-effects seen in mice, it's also an indication that the drug *should* be relatively safe for human use (at which point they start moving to human trials for individuals who desperately need the drug).\n\nScientists can also see how much of an effect a certain drug/treatment may have on intelligence or memory in humans by, for example, testing the performance of rodents on maze-solving tasks and the [Morris water navigation task](_URL_0_).\n\nThe primary reason rodents are used for scientific testing (as opposed to a more similar animal like a primate) is that rodents are much cheaper and easier to handle in large numbers so experimenters can have larger sample sizes at lower costs.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_water_navigation_task"
]
] |
|
3clycp
|
i spilled some crazy glue on my blanket and smoke came out. why?
|
This just happened to me. I didn't know if it would catch on fire or not, so I doused it with water. Hope that didn't make it worse.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3clycp/eli5_i_spilled_some_crazy_glue_on_my_blanket_and/
|
{
"a_id": [
"csws520"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Your blanket must be made of cotton. The chemicals in superglue can exothermically react with cotton.\n\n_URL_0_"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/22382/why-does-superglue-ignite-cotton"
]
] |
|
2qxq7q
|
why does it seem that the ruble is so inconsistent with its value? what's causing the recent change? what caused the changes in the past? how do they adjust the value?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qxq7q/eli5_why_does_it_seem_that_the_ruble_is_so/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cnai3xb"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"My understanding is that the vast majority of Russia's economy is centered on energy, namely oil. Whenever oil prices go up, the ruble increases in value; when it tanks, so does the ruble.\n\nRussia needs to diversify its economy in the same way an investor diversifies his portfolio. You can't have all your eggs in one basket with either."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
6jzkxn
|
why do you move your head back when your blow air out, and move your head forwards when you suck air in?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6jzkxn/eli5_why_do_you_move_your_head_back_when_your/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dji63h6",
"dji6ysb",
"dji6zfr"
],
"score": [
3,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"This is likely something unique to you. Or my years in band trained me to not move my head with breaking in or out rapidly. ",
"I am actually the complete opposite.. so I think you got the whole movement thing wrong.\n\nWhen you suck air in, your lung expand and the expansion of your lung/chest causes your neck so move you head back as a slight balancing.. not that you actually need to do it.\n\nWhen you blow, psychologically, you are trying to blow in a forward direction and thus, your move your head forward to facilitate the action..",
"Spend 7 whole minutes recreating the experiment and i concluded that i do move but random \n\nProbably cause i am actually thinking about it natural reaction may be different..."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
8pqzej
|
how is the uae so stable in such a volatile geographical/idealogical position
|
Was reading about the Arab Spring and used to live in Dubai so interested in how they are allowed to stay relatively liberal to the rest of the countries around them
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8pqzej/eli5_how_is_the_uae_so_stable_in_such_a_volatile/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e0dkvqw",
"e0e2ejz"
],
"score": [
16,
5
],
"text": [
"A very interesting question, and would be really interested to hear others' answers. Here are just my, only semi-informed, thoughts.\n\n- virtually all gulf states are absolute monarchies. The UAE isn't, it's a coalition of seven absolute monarchies. The seven act as checks and balances on each other and provide more stability. Also when one fucks up (which happens all the time with absolute power) one of the others can bail them out, like Abu Dhabi did to Dubai after the financial crisis\n\n- All the gulf states have large amounts of oil or, in Qatar's case, gas. The UAE doesn't so it instead had to set itself up as a financial and trading hub for the region. Now even if you don't believe in the \"oil curse\", the fact that you are not a rival to your neighbours makes you more stable, and the fact that all your neighbours have a vested interest in keeping you stable and secure makes you more stable.\n\n- also being a trading hub makes you outward facing and means you have to accept a reasonable amount of global information, global culture and global values. I wouldn't overstate this, because the UAE is a very different place if you are Emirati (or just poor), and a very different place outside of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, but I do think this outward facingness takes a few of the edges off of the totalitarianism and inbues some tolerance, and that increases stability because totalitarianism isn't stable.",
"Small population, wealthy and provided for, pretty much beloved leaders and a security service, secret and public, that keeps an eye on everything. There were a few demonstrations and complaints but many of them were for ridiculous things like easier exams for college...\n\nThe really short answer? There's not that much to complain about and any group that has legitimate grievances is too small to matter."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
21lk54
|
how do people make money by uploading ripped current tv shows/live streaming sports events?
|
Like all the people who upload shows on websites at 12PM the night they are on TV? I would assume they make advertising money, but how much do/could they usually make?
Note: I have no plans to get into the illegal streaming game, I'm just curious on why these people take the risk.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21lk54/eli5_how_do_people_make_money_by_uploading_ripped/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cge70pl",
"cge7so4"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"AFAIK, there's no money being made by the uploader. They do it for notoriety and as a service to the world.",
"Some people just want to watch the world burn. And I like to watch Wolf of Wall Street for free so it works out for everyone"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
a3juo6
|
does the standard playing card deck have a proper name? why is it also 13 cards of 4 suits: ace, 2-10, jack, queen, & king?
|
Why not 1-13? Or 1-15 per suit?
Does it have something to do with odds in games? The amount of time for games?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a3juo6/eli5_does_the_standard_playing_card_deck_have_a/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eb6twvz",
"eb6y23q"
],
"score": [
17,
4
],
"text": [
"They're known as [French playing cards](_URL_0_), technically speaking. There are a lot of other decks of cards that were originally intended for games -- including things like the Tarot deck, which is now more famous for fortune telling -- including Spanish, Italian and German styles, but the reason why the French deck took off so well is down mostly to two things: firstly, trade between the UK and France in the Middle Ages made it popular in the UK, and the UK and France were two of the world's dominant powers for the next five hundred years; and secondly, they were very useful for playing popular games such as Bridge. When those games became popular around the globe, the French deck went with it. (It's important to note, however, that many other regions still use more localised decks in addition to the French deck; it's not entirely uncommon to see variations on the seemingly-standard 52 cards if you find yourself in a foreign country.)",
"If you're out shopping for such a \"standard\" deck, it's usually called a \"Bridge Deck\", meaning 52 cards and typically narrow-format because each player holds 13 cards.\n\nThe opposite term in US cards is a \"[Pinochle](_URL_0_) Deck\", which is a 48-card deck, 9-J-Q-K-10-A doubled in the usual four suits."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_playing_cards"
],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle"
]
] |
|
1mayc1
|
taking meds vs not taking any for non serious ailments
|
what is better, taking medicines or skipping them if you have something very minor, e.g. you happen to have a headache. not too bad, just bad enough to be a bit bothersome, would taking an asprin be better for your body than not taking one? should you sit some discomfort out?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mayc1/eli5taking_meds_vs_not_taking_any_for_non_serious/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cc7h8em"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"As a seasoned veteran of both pain and prescription drugs... It really come down to your pain threshold. \n\nI used to never take pills. I wanted my body to heal naturally. fast forward 15 years and a lot of medical issues later and there is no use sitting in pain when as simple Asprin will solve the problem and you'll be back to normal routine. \n\nThe previously comment is right too. Finding the root cause of your medical issues is mandatory but why suffer when you don't have to?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
8gz0x6
|
can the unemployment rate of a country go to 0%, if not, why?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8gz0x6/eli5_can_the_unemployment_rate_of_a_country_go_to/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dyfq82i",
"dyfrefx",
"dyg411s"
],
"score": [
11,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"One unemployment only counts people looking for work, so if no one had a job, but on one worked it would still be 0%. Equally hypothetically if everyone who had a job who wanted one, regardless of how many jobs openings there are, unemployment would be 0%.\n\nNow in practical terms you will neither see nor should you want 0% unemployment. First on the employee side there are people who quit or are forced out of their old job who are looking for new ones and haven't found them yet, this is called frictional unemployment. There will always be some of this sine the economy changes over time. Second if there is 0% unemployment that means any business looking to expand will need to draw workers away from other companies, which will mean their ability to grow is severely limited. Even the increased wages you would expect for workers wouldn't help the situation much because there would not be a sufficiently expanding number of goods for them to spend it on.",
"Yes but it is impossible, we do have two types of unemployment percentages. There is total unemployment and natural unemployment. \n\nNatural unemployment is all unemployment that occurs naturally in the bussiness cycle. Such as people between jobs or recent grads looking for work. There is also those that have been displaced from work do to changes in technology or the changing needs of employers to where workers no longer match the needs. \n\nThe other type of unemployment that makes up our total unemployment is cyclical unemployment and is a bad unemployment. This is because it is cause by the loss of jobs and businesses due to down turns in the economy. So if a factory closes and moves operations all those that lose their jobs are cyclically unemployed. This is a number we want to keep at 0% but can be hard at times.\n\nUnemployment is a healthy thing for economies, while it sucks to ever be unemployed an economy that has 0% unemployment is impossible and if it did occur then the economy is most likely overheated and operating at such a high volume that it is bound to crash.",
"Only in extreme or highly artificial circumstances. You could probably say the Vatican has an unemployment rate of 0%, and in some Soviet-style communist countries, they defined employment in such a way as to make unemployment 0%. But in the real world, so long as there is at least one person who just quit their job to go look for a better one, there will be unemployment. \n\nIn the greater economic sense, some unemployment is a good thing. Not that we want people to be unemployed, but when unemployment is too low, that means demand for labor is exceeding supply, which makes it difficult for the businesses and by extension the economy to grow. This is usually unsustainable and will lead to greater unemployment in the future.\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
3rsro0
|
how people can jump from so high and belly flop into a puddle of water and still be okay. (example in commens)
|
_URL_0_
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rsro0/eli5_how_people_can_jump_from_so_high_and_belly/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cwqz429",
"cwqz556"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Was he OK afterwards?",
"When you hit the water, the molecules bunch up. The water becomes much more viscous for a split second, cushioning your fall\n\nHowever, if you fall too fast (fall from too high) the water becomes solid and it breaks your bones. I think it becomes as solid as concrete at 60mph, which is why cliff diving is do dangerous"
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://0.media.collegehumor.cvcdn.com/86/76/5daeb8f1808cdfaa49d9cc6694df9b70.gif"
] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
5hcgr6
|
why can our opinion of somebody (either positive or negative) affect how physically attractive we find them?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5hcgr6/eli5_why_can_our_opinion_of_somebody_either/
|
{
"a_id": [
"daz8k9m"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Simply put: because human reproduction is far more complicated than finding the person most physically healthy. \nOur social structures are insanely complex, and that complexity is why we became the dominant species. Judging character is crucial to the survival of your offspring, as mating with someone who doesn't understand how to interact with others could lead to devastating consequences."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
4p5rvt
|
why do the pupils in our eyes dilate when we see someone that we are attracted to?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4p5rvt/eli5why_do_the_pupils_in_our_eyes_dilate_when_we/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d4ibwqy",
"d4ic9r9",
"d4icg2c",
"d4icqu7",
"d4ipipw",
"d4iq94s",
"d4iw8fm",
"d4iwpyq",
"d4ixyli",
"d4iyzh7",
"d4izygp",
"d4j3sgj"
],
"score": [
148,
2154,
14,
178,
53,
6,
9,
5,
6,
17,
4,
52
],
"text": [
"Here is an interesting article about what happens when you see someone you love. _URL_0_\n\nTL:DR - dopamine goes up, seratonin goes down, and if youre in love with someone then nerve factor growth accompanies this. Perhaps some adrenaline too.",
"This is an effect of activating your sympathetic nervous system. Basically, your nerves have two settings: sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest). Both systems are active harmoniously, but the balance can be shifted in response to the environment.\n\nWhen you're just sitting there chilling, the parasympathetic nervous system is dominant. This emphasizes functions such as digestion.\n\nWhen something triggers it, such as seeing your crush, or being chased by a bear, or trying to kill a wasp that flew into your car when you rolled the windows down and now you're flailing for dear life, a hormone surge and the sympathetic nervous system becomes dominant. The physiological effects of this are what someone might describe as an adrenaline rush.\n\nSome physiological effects of the sympathetic system are pupil dilation, increase in heart rate and contractility, and dilation of blood vessels in your skeletal muscles and extremities which diverts blood flow away from your gut, slowing digestion.",
"It is common for people to feel anxious around anyone they are attracted to. Anxiety affects the human body in a multitude of ways. Mentally, your thoughts may race. Physiologically, epinephrine is released, which increases your heart rate and breathing rate, activates sweat glands, dilates certain arteries while constricting certain ones as well (your GI tract), and dilates your pupils. This is known as your flight or flight response. Hopefully when you see someone you're attracted to, you don't do either one of those things. \n\nEdit: added more description. ",
"recent graduate from an optometry school in texas.. this is tied into the sympathetic nervous system if you know anything about \"fight or flight\" thats this system. An increase in the sympathetic nervous response results in pupil dilation to allow us to take in more visual stimuli if your life was really in danger. ",
"Next ELI5: Why our penises gets large and hard when we see someone we're attracted to? ",
"Does this happened to everyone? ",
"Mydriasis or pupil dilation occurs in response to many things, such as a dimly lit environment to attempt to capture more light to create an image with, but so does activation of the sympathetic nervous system. \n\nThe sympathetic nervous system is colloquially referred to as the 'fight or flight' system that is activated in response to fear, stress, danger, etc.\n\nThe dilation of your pupils improves your peripheral vision, and that, combined with hyper vigilance, and a rush of energy, and blood flow to all of your muscles could be helpful in a life or death encounter.\n\nPossibly this dilation in response to seeing a girl you like is from anxiety/nervousness/feeling of high stakes/fear of failure is activating your sympathetic nervous system and causing your pupils to dilate, your heart rate and blood pressure to increase, muscles get jacked up, urine and poop to hold off for a moment, and ability to talk coherently diminish.\n\nOther reasons could be a large laundry list of commonly prescribed medications for depression, allergies, ADHD, blood pressure, etc etc. Or the use of psychoactive or other recreational drugs as well, and you may just notice it most predominantly after these encounters and created a temporal association, and the cause/effect isn't nearly as clear as you think.",
"Hmm I know a chemical in your brain is released, oxytocin I believe, when you have sex. Your pupils dilate and other physiological aspects happen. Maybe it's also when you're attracted to a person, hence wanna have sex with them. It's a bonding chemical that is also released when women breastfeed not so much 'sexual'. But that's just what I assume.",
"The eyes dilate in general when humans see things they like. It's to absorb more light of the image that you are looking at.",
"another question- do some of you people actually notice when a person's pupils dilate? I never really catch it. ",
"Wow I didn't know this happened. Now I just need to learn how to look people in the eyes without my brain screaming for help and I'll know who likes me.\n\nEDIT - Just been trying this trick out and I'm just wondering. Dilated means 'shrunk to the size of pin pricks', right? Because I'm starting to think I might be the most attractive man on Earth.",
"As a neuroscience student, my first response was \"nobody knows\". Then I read lots of answers just saying \"it's the sympathetic nervous system\". After a few years in academia you tend to forget that most people are satisfied with the vaguest of answers. To me it's same as asking \"How am I able to walk?\" and answering \"Because you have muscles\".\n\nWhen you question your most basic assumptions, remember that scientists don't know how we coordinate our muscles to do something as mundane as keeping ourselves upright. Roboticists can tell you it's no easy task."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://mentalfloss.com/article/54447/what-happens-your-brain-when-youre-love"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
3xk98d
|
is there any other way to distribute energy other than electricity?
|
Edit: My idea was to figure out why electricity was chosen as default.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xk98d/eli5_is_there_any_other_way_to_distribute_energy/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cy5cs1q",
"cy5csrj",
"cy5ctye",
"cy5dcci",
"cy5defg",
"cy5dou9"
],
"score": [
5,
5,
11,
5,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Too much to count...\n\nHeat is one. Sound is one. Radio waves is one. Waves in the sea is one. Wind is one. Water pressure is one. Petrol is one. Wood is one. A falling object is one. Etc.",
"Anything that moves or interacts with something else is imparting energy. Heat, light, motion, pressure, magnetism etc.",
"Have you ever been to a gas station? Gasoline is an amazing source of energy & we use it nearly everywhere.",
"Electricity is, perhaps, the most conveniently routed energy transfer mechanism. All it takes is a thin wire which can be easily shaped and bent which allows a large quantity of energy to be delivered.\n\nThis means you can produce energy in a form at large scale (think power plant) and distribute it across a large area that people can then use at a low price.\n\nElectricity is not the default for all applications, however. Cars still default to a chemical form of energy storage (petrol) which is very portable and very powerful. There are downsides to this form of energy storage - including fire risk, atmospheric requirements for conversion, for starters.\n\nInterestingly: did you know hydroelectricity is a demonstrable form of gravitational potential energy (GPE)? Something (water) is held at a high and in the process of losing its height (accelerating down through a spill chute/turbine) has that potential energy converted to electrical energy.",
"Electricity is efficient. My father is an electrical engineer. He would point out, when we'd drive somewhere, that those high-tension wires on the towers have some astronomical figure for efficiency.",
"the most common form of power transmission you're familiar with is in your car. shafts, belts, and gears are all capable of moving power from one place to another. it's extremely efficient but very bulky, which is why it's reserved to short distances. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
3eey1z
|
why are countries like pakistan and singapore listed as part of the commonwealth of nations, but queen elizabeth ii isn't listed as their monarch?
|
The link below shows a list of countries that are a part of the Commonwealth, but I noticed a couple didn't have the Queen listed as their monarch. Why is that the case? Is it just former British colonies?
_URL_0_
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3eey1z/eli5_why_are_countries_like_pakistan_and/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cteaqe0",
"ctear77",
"cteiseq"
],
"score": [
14,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Only 16 of the 53 Commonwealth member states have the Queen as head of state, and they're known as the Commonwealth Realms. Mostly the member states are former British colonies, but some former colonies aren't members and a few members were never British colonies.",
"Commonwealth nations don't have to recognise the Queen as their sovereign, just as the head of the Commonwealth. In fact most Commonwealth members are republics, including Mozambique (which has never been part of the UK)",
"If you go to about 3:30 it explains it very well\n_URL_0_\nThe whole videos is worth a watch to "
]
}
|
[] |
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Nations"
] |
[
[],
[],
[
"https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rNu8XDBSn10"
]
] |
|
jk034
|
how does the black market work?
|
How does someone buy from it and how deeply rooted is it to the real world economy?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jk034/eli5_how_does_the_black_market_work/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c2cs8kk",
"c2cs8kk"
],
"score": [
7,
7
],
"text": [
"The black market is not some structured market like the stock market or a flea market that focuses on a certain location and/or good and/or service. The \"Black market\" is simply a name given for the demand and supply of goods which are illegal to buy or sell. Anywhere people are selling and buying drugs, sex, insider information, etc there is a black market. It is all around us and is a global phenomenon. To buy from the black market one only needs to purchase something illicitly. \n\nBy definition, As long as there are laws there will be a black market. \n\n[This chart](_URL_0_) details proportion of each global economy that consists of products exchanged in a black market. (GDP = total value of all the goods and services created) So, according to this chart, 8-10% of the goods and services created in the U.S. are in the black market.\n\nPlease ask any questions if you have them.\n\n",
"The black market is not some structured market like the stock market or a flea market that focuses on a certain location and/or good and/or service. The \"Black market\" is simply a name given for the demand and supply of goods which are illegal to buy or sell. Anywhere people are selling and buying drugs, sex, insider information, etc there is a black market. It is all around us and is a global phenomenon. To buy from the black market one only needs to purchase something illicitly. \n\nBy definition, As long as there are laws there will be a black market. \n\n[This chart](_URL_0_) details proportion of each global economy that consists of products exchanged in a black market. (GDP = total value of all the goods and services created) So, according to this chart, 8-10% of the goods and services created in the U.S. are in the black market.\n\nPlease ask any questions if you have them.\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_market#Comparison_with_regular_economy"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_market#Comparison_with_regular_economy"
]
] |
|
7sind2
|
what is happening to the skin during the healing process of a tattoo that causes it to look shiny, then dull, and back to normal looking?
|
Currently in the dull stage and the colors on my tattoo are looking cloudy as if it was colored with crayons. I heard that after this it will go back to looking like how it was supposed to, but it amazes me how this is possible?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7sind2/eli5_what_is_happening_to_the_skin_during_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dt57mjd"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"When you first get a tattoo, the needle injects the ink into your epidermis (outermost layer of skin) and the dermis (the layer below the epidermis). The epidermis the the layer of skin that continuously sheds and gets regenerated, while the dermis does not. As your tattoo heals, the epidermis with the ink in it will shed itself and ultimately leave an new, ink-free layer on top of the dermis where the tattoo is.\nThe ink in the epidermis combined with the trauma from the needle is why it initially looks shiny.\n\nDuring the healing process, there's also a great deal of inflammation and an immune response as your body tries to heal the tattoo site and scabs over. This is what makes it look dull. In a few weeks, it will heal leaving a fresh epidermal layer over the tattoo with a small amount of scar tissue. [Here's an illustration of the process](_URL_0_)."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://kakapoink.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/IMG_4269.jpg"
]
] |
|
10v59n
|
why 'o' in 4 'o' clock??
|
Why we say 9 'o' clock or 6 'o' clock?? What is the significance of 'o'??
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/10v59n/why_o_in_4_o_clock/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c6gwypi",
"c6h09gn",
"c6h38s5"
],
"score": [
218,
51,
6
],
"text": [
"It's short for 'four of the clock'. ",
"It is \"of the clock\" as was already answered. I'll take it a step further.\n\nNow with digital clocks we're used to everyone's clocks being in sync. This wasn't always the case. Clocks being out of sync used to be a major problem, and the further back in history you go the worse the problem was. So \"of the clock\" refers to a person answering the time and then qualifying it by saying \"of this particular clock\". It was basically how people covered their ass. ",
"When did ELI5 turn into \"Let Me Google That for You: The Subreddit\"?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
2jzog5
|
why is the sky blue some days and white other days?
|
I've been seeing white skies a lot lately. I'm pretty sure it's not just clouds because it's just solid white.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jzog5/eli5_why_is_the_sky_blue_some_days_and_white/
|
{
"a_id": [
"clgit3e",
"clgj0ty"
],
"score": [
4,
9
],
"text": [
"That's the very definition of overcast weather, when cloud cover obscures the entire sky.",
"Those giant white fluffy things floating in the sky are called clouds. They're basically big patches of water floating in the sky's which is why there are lots of them when it's raining\nTLDR: clouds"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
3fdg35
|
if trump gets elected as president how exactly will he get mexico to pay for this wall that has proposed?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fdg35/eli5_if_trump_gets_elected_as_president_how/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ctnm7eg",
"ctnmmnv"
],
"score": [
7,
2
],
"text": [
"I think he was going to sanction mexico until they built it...\n\nbut thats not how this works... that not how any of this works.",
"I believe he said he'll implement a tariff on Mexican goods, so Mexican trades people will have to pay more to have their goods brought over and sold in the States. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
82tq0k
|
why and how after certain foods do people have to use the bathroom right away? how does it travel that fast?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/82tq0k/eli5_why_and_how_after_certain_foods_do_people/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dvcqdl0"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"It doesn't. Rather, the food stimulates your digestive tract to get moving, so something that was in there earlier gets moving."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
117k04
|
with regards to recent news of isp crackdowns on torrenting, what is a vpn service, and what am i exposing myself to, without using one?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/117k04/eli5_with_regards_to_recent_news_of_isp/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c6k0biq"
],
"score": [
13
],
"text": [
"When you are torrenting and downloading something illegal, other people can see your IP address.\n\nThey can note down the IP address and date and time and go to your ISP and tell them what they saw.\n\nYour ISP can match the IP address and date and time and figure out it was you, kittytime.\n\nThey can then send you an angry letter or hand over your details to the persecutors.\n\nWhen you use a VPN, you are connecting to another server elsewhere. You don't browse directly through your ISP. You browse through your ISP *to* the VPN server and you browse through there. So all your ISP sees is that you are constantly connecting to this VPN server somewhere. When you torrent using the VPN connection, these other people will see the IP address of the VPN server, not yours. \n\nThat is why VPNs are considered safer. But they are not super-safe. A VPN server could be storing your IP address and date and time and so if they have these details, they could hand it over. It depends on the VPN that you connect to and how trustworthy they are.\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
3lrtj1
|
when it comes down to elections for president's, does the electoral college have the finally say? even if x gets more votes then the y. y can become president?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lrtj1/eli5_when_it_comes_down_to_elections_for/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cv8sdhb"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"[I think this explains it rather well](_URL_1_)\n[as a follow up](_URL_0_)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wC42HgLA4k",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUS9mM8Xbbw"
]
] |
||
el7lfb
|
why do mcdonald's employees consistantly and religiously forget the sweet and sour sauce for drive through orders?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/el7lfb/eli5_why_do_mcdonalds_employees_consistantly_and/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fdg36k0"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Check the bag before driving off and if it’s not there then ask for it?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
1uprte
|
why is swimming under water faster than on the surface?
|
[Referencing this video as an example](_URL_0_). I would have thought there is more resistance under the water than on the surface?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1uprte/eli5_why_is_swimming_under_water_faster_than_on/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cekhhlv"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"The front crawl on the surface is faster than swimming underwater.\n\nDolphin kicking underwater is faster than swimming backstroke on the surface, because on the surface, water is more chaotic, creating more resistance you have to fight against. Underwater, if you streamline your body, there is less resistance.\n\nBTW, it is now illegal to swim past the halfway point in a pool underwater in the backstroke."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://www.wimp.com/guyseal"
] |
[
[]
] |
|
73p6uv
|
why is windows 8.1 considered the 'worst' microsoft os?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/73p6uv/eli5why_is_windows_81_considered_the_worst/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dns1bdm",
"dns1e9k",
"dns2ffp",
"dns2za7",
"dns3its",
"dns4fnx",
"dns59hf",
"dns6wmq",
"dns7lay",
"dnsgoqi"
],
"score": [
30,
25,
14,
11,
8,
2,
5,
3,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"It's far from the worst, it's just the most recent unpopular one. Windows ME is undeniably the biggest turd ever shat out by Redmond.\n\nWhile Win8 wasn't perfect, a lot of the are just the result of people resisting change.",
"So coming from someone who's used XP, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 and knows their way around technology pretty competently (CSIT major), I'll say this: it feels like Microsoft tried to merge a tablet OS and a desktop OS and got the absolute worst of both worlds. Confusing touch interface for touch devices, and confusing click interface for non-touch devices (e.g. having to swipe your cursor to the top right to access the \"charms\" menu instead of just having a proper start menu). It was just an absolute mess and I feel like they've struck a better balance for 10: don't force people to use the touch interface if they don't want to, but have it there as an option. \n\nThat said, I've heard much worse about ME, but I never got a chance to use it and will likely never want to. ",
"Maybe worst in your lifetime...\n\nLet me tell you the legend of Windows Millennium Edition...",
"Because they were born recently and never had to use Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows Me? Windows 8.1 was a significant improvement over 8.",
"The only reason Windows 8.1 would be considered the \"worst\" is because someone had not heard of or used Windows Me. That operating system was terrible. It crashed all the time, nothing worked with it, and it was simply terrible. There were a few features that were incorporated into it that survived into XP, but it mostly sucked. ",
"It's almost certainly because of the Metro interface. When first installed Windows 8 has a touchscreen interface and no start menu, and many people hated that and found it difficult to work with. It's very quick and easy to fix that though, to install a classic start menu and disable the Metro UI, at which point Windows 8 is like a finely tuned Windows 7, lean and efficient. With the proper tweaks I would argue it's a better operating system than Windows 10 or 7.",
"Have had my MCSE since Win 2000 and have been using Windows since 95. Without getting into technical specifics, first outings are usually the worst form of a Microsoft product. 95 was a better iteration of 3.1. 98 was problematic and hated by most. 98 SE was a refinement. ME was a bad OS at the beginning but was later patched to be “okay.” Windows XP was a refinement of ME and Windows 2000 Pro. A lot of people forget that XP wasn’t well received at the beginning, but stayed around so long that it was patched to be very good. Vista suffered like ME, being the first of the “new wave” of Microsoft OS. Window 7 was the refinement. Windows 8 was the first of another wave and 8.1 made it much better. Windows 10 is actually built on the lessons learned of XP through 8.1. ",
"It's not. Windows 8 is significantly worse than Windows 8.1. I have not used ME but based on all reports, it is by far the worst OS ever released. Not worst Microsoft OS, just worst OS at all.",
"It's not. Windows Me and Vista are more disliked. 8.1 was a way for MS to appeal to the desktop market after 8 was extremely tablet/mobile focused. ",
"It's not. End of of thread.\n\nBut I guess to give you another answer. The people that say Win 8 is the \"worst\" windows ever are the young people that started using windows when XP was a thing. So to them windows versions are xp, 7, 8, and 10. Of those listed, 8 is the worst. BUT \"worst\" ever? Not even fucking close."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
anmh8w
|
if i raised a baby from centuries ago today, would they grow up normal compared to other children?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/anmh8w/eli5_if_i_raised_a_baby_from_centuries_ago_today/
|
{
"a_id": [
"efuhxxw"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"IMO Yes, as babies are baseline equal and it's their environment that determines how they turn out. Nature vs nurture debate. Rasa blancka vs predisposition."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
ae6ohh
|
why are your lips and nipples a different color than the rest of the skin on your body?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ae6ohh/eli5_why_are_your_lips_and_nipples_a_different/
|
{
"a_id": [
"edmq3wc",
"edn2knj",
"edn3gje",
"edn3nnd",
"edn3oq7",
"edn6l8k",
"edn6mdc",
"edn95oq"
],
"score": [
2519,
57,
17,
54,
201,
17,
57,
2
],
"text": [
"Two different reasons. Lips are pinker than the rest of the skin because the skin is thinner and the capillaries are closer to the surface. This gives them a pinkish color. Nipples are darker because hormones are more concentrated in that location and this triggers the melanin in the skin to darken.\n\nEDIT: Thanks for the Gold! This makes me want to always slack off from work to answer reddit questions! ",
"Isn't your lips' color the same as the tip of your penis?",
"This infograph from biolegend might provide you with a little perspective as to how the body builds its different systems. This obviously only scratches the surface. The body is a truly amazing thing.\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_1_)",
"I’ve heard your nipples are darker to provide greater contrast for babies trying to find them to feed",
"What does that mean for people that have nipples extremely close to same color as their skin? Are they not as healthy since they secrete different amounts of hormones? ",
"According to some evolutionary biologists we have lips as an evolutionary adaptation of not seeing the female genitalia anymore when we started to walk upright. We had preference for thicker lips as they remind us of the vulva, and thus we evolved into having lips. Same for boobs, reminiscent of the female behind. Apes don't have lips and boobs.",
"There's a Bruce Lee movie where he's fighting Japanese guys and he surprises these two dudes in their house, one is shirtless, so Bruce goes \"I can see you're Japanese\" and the guy gets embarrassed looking and covers his nipples. What's up with that?",
"The tissues of the lips and nipples are the same types of tissues found in the genitalia. \n\nThis has been selected for in our evolution because they contain identifiers of sexual interest and associations with sex in general, leading to a dominant expression of colouration in our tender bits."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"https://www.biolegend.com/pop\\_pathway.php?id=93",
"https://www.biolegend.com/pop_pathway.php?id=93"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
1qnlbi
|
how do photographers get these photos?
|
How is it possible that photographers get [this](_URL_0_) close to airplanes to take photographs without incident. Even if the airspeeds were matched, couldn't a strong wind or a bit of turbulence put the planes in danger of hitting each other? Where does the photographer sit in the other aircraft to take this photo? Does it fly in parallel or some other formation to make this possible?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qnlbi/eli5_how_do_photographers_get_these_photos/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cdekzmb"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"With a good telephoto lens, the photograph could be hundreds of feet away."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://www.freivokh.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Bombardier-Global-5000.jpg"
] |
[
[]
] |
|
8exoqu
|
how does an electronic device instantly switch to battery power when unplugged from the power source?
|
Does a device draw power from it's battery even though it's plugged in so there's an overlap? Or is there a short moment in time where the devices switches from wall power to battery power?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8exoqu/eli5_how_does_an_electronic_device_instantly/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dxywbhh",
"dxyy49t"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"At least for phones/laptops/tablet-type devices... The battery is always running the device. The cord simply charges the battery IF it's plugged in.\n\nSo there's not really any 'drop' or switching.",
"All devices have capacitors on the output of their power supplies, this allows them to deal with loads that change as the capacitor can provide the current until the power supply ramps up to handle it and refill the capacitor. These same capacitors allow the device to \"ride through\" a short loss of power\n\nMost devices can't run off the battery voltage or the charger voltage directly and instead need to step them down to some voltage lower than either. Some will have the battery always hooked in, some will disconnect it once its fully charged and only connect it when needed, these are the only ones that ever have a brief moment without power. When the charger is disconnected, these devices can detect this loss of input power and switch to running off the internal battery in less than a millisecond. During this time gap the capacitors throughout the device will let it ride through this loss of power without shutting down."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
37yj15
|
what led to the rise of portion sizes in the us?
|
And why is nothing being done to fix the problem?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37yj15/eli5_what_led_to_the_rise_of_portion_sizes_in_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"crqtn9a",
"crqtpus",
"crqv8y3"
],
"score": [
8,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Competition among restaurants to show that they were giving the customer the best value for their dollar.\n\n\"Well, this place gives me this much food for $5, but that other place gives me even more for the same price!\"",
"It's kind of a demand thing. Restaurants have a lot of overhead to cover, like rent, labor, utilities, etc. which is a large part of what you're paying for. According to some Food Network shows I've seen, the actual cost of food should be about 10-20% of what the customer pays. That said, you can provide the customer with a lot more food for a relatively small price increase, and Americans have become accustomed to such big sizes.\n\nRuby Tuesdays is a chain that did try to fix this, they offered more moderately sized portions. Customers hated it, though, which is why places don't do it.",
"Some dieticians actually attribute this rise in portion sizes (and obesity) to an increase in the size of the average American dinner plate. \nBack in the 1950's, American dinner plates were typically 9 inches in diameter, today the average American eats off an 11 inch plate. (for example here is a link to IKEA's basic dinner plate for the North American market. _URL_0_ ).\n\nAddressing this factor has been the basis for several weight loss programs and books, most noticeably the \"The 9-Inch Diet\" by Alex Bogusky. In this book, Bogusky claims 95% of people who swap their larger plates for 9 inch plates both experience and maintain weight loss. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70258949/"
]
] |
|
1t6972
|
the paper "holographic description of quantum black hole on a computer" and why it shows our universe is a "holographic projection"
|
Various recent media reports have suggested that [this paper](_URL_0_) "proves" the Universe is a holographic projection. I don't understand how.
I know this is a mighty topic for a 5-yo, but I'm 35, and bright, so ELI35-but-not-trained-in-physics please.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1t6972/eli5_the_paper_holographic_description_of_quantum/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ce4t344",
"ce4ui19",
"ce4ygay",
"ce4z4gx",
"ce51dn8",
"ce526ze",
"ce532wa",
"ce5553k",
"ce56k38",
"ce56rel",
"ce5879c",
"ce58td9",
"ce591pg",
"ce59bjn",
"ce59sru",
"ce5dkjt",
"ce5ecyy",
"ce5exkx"
],
"score": [
284,
557,
8,
2,
21,
2,
2,
12,
2,
7,
6,
2,
5,
5,
3,
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Einstein, in his collective theorizing, posited that space and time are related and should be considered and calculated in relation to each other, and that the measurements of objects will be relative to the velocity of the person observing them. It is very empirical and observable.\n\nQuantum mechanics, on the other hand, deals with particle behavior on an infinitely small scale and therefore cannot belong in Einstein’s empirically testable worldview for the simple reason that it is too abstract and theoretical.\n\nThough both suffer from certain inconsistencies: Einstein’s theory, for instance, breaks down when one imagines the middle of a black hole – an object in which time and space both collapse – the theories have been competing each other and generally hardly viewed as parallel. Scientists have been looking for a linking theory.\n\nHyakutake’s model explains some inconsistencies between the two big models, furthering the research first carried out in 1997. Then, theoretical physicist, Juan Maldacena, catapulted ‘string theory’ into the spotlight providing a reliable realization of the holographic principle.\n\n > In physics, the 'holographic principle' is a property described in string theory. It represents a volume of space whose entire information can be imagined as encoded on a boundary of that selected space. The holographic principle started by first observing black hole thermodynamics. There, it was noticed that the informational content of all the objects that got sucked in by the hole can be seen in a scaled sense on the hole's event horizon. \n\nThat theory – which is widely said to explain the nature of everything – believes that the universe is made of tiny, immeasurable ‘strings’, or one-dimensional objects that vibrate and fluctuate, and in so doing account for the activity of all matter and time.\n\nThe theory goes that the strings exist in nine dimensions of space and one of time. But because their scale is so difficult to measure – and yet they are believed to control everything – they are said to ‘project’ their activity onto a much simpler, flat space with no gravity whatsoever.\n\nThis produced a world without gravity laws. However, it did not yet prove the universe is a hologram.\n\nFurthering the string theory, Hyakutake wrote two papers. \n\n In one, he measures the internal energy of a black hole – specifically, the place where the hole meets the universe, otherwise known as the ‘event horizon’. He measures the activity of its visible properties (made up of visible particles) based on string theory and the effects of virtual particles, which at times appear and then disappear – many scientists even consider them a purely mathematical tool.\n\nIn the second paper, Hyakutake and his team calculated the same activity at lower dimensions (without gravity involved) and the results matched the measurements of the first paper.\n\nThe two new papers take Maldacena’s findings further by proposing an extra dimension. That tenth lower dimension has no gravity and its particles neatly line up in a set of strings oscillating in harmony, attached to one another – and not in chaos, which is what we had until now.\n\nAnd now, the scientists finally seem to have laid hands on mathematical proof that the universe can be measured according to both approaches – one that involves gravity and one that does not. If they are as identical as they seem, Maldacena himself predicts that we could one day use just quantum theory alone to explain the nature of everything in the universe.\n\nMaldacena has already voiced his excitement at Hyakutake’s calculations, saying that they appear to be correct. He told Nature that “the whole sequence of papers is very nice because it tests the dual [nature of the universes] in regimes where there are no analytic tests.”\n\n“They have numerically confirmed, perhaps for the first time, something we were fairly sure had to be true, but was still a conjecture — namely that the thermodynamics of certain black holes can be reproduced from a lower-dimensional universe,” said Leonard Susskind, a theoretical physicist at Stanford University, California, who was one of the first proponents of the theory of the universe as a hologram. \n\nSource: _URL_0_",
"There's a very important principle at work here. It's that we think *information cannot be lost*. That is, the bits of information on your hard drive, CD, brain, whatever has always existed in the universe and will always exist. This probably seems counter-intuitive, but we have good reasons to think this is the case. It obviously didn't always exist *in your brain*, but just met up there for a while and will go back into the universe to do other things. I've heard Leonard Susskind call this the most important law in all of physics. \n\nSo what is the highest density of information you can have? Well, that's a black hole. A guy named Jakob Bekenstein and others figured out that the maximum amount of information you could have in a black hole was proportionate to the *surface* (area of the event horizon) of a black hole. This is known as the [Bekenstein bound](_URL_0_). If we put more in, the black hole must get bigger, otherwise we'd lose information. But that's a little weird result. You'd think that the amount of information you could put in a black hole was proportionate to the volume. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Somehow all the information is stored on a thin shell at the event horizon.\n\nBecause black holes are the highest density of information you can have, the amount of information you can have in any normal volume of space is also limited by the surface area of that volume. Why? Because if you had more information and turned that space into a black hole, you would lose information! That means the amount of information you can have in something like a library is limited by how much information you can have on the walls surrounding the library. Similarly for the universe as a whole. That's the idea of the hologram. A volume being fully explained by nothing but its surface. You can get a little too pop-sci and say that we might be nothing but a hologram projected from the surface of the universe. It sounds really cool at least :).\n\nEDIT: I should add that this is right on the frontier of modern science. These ideas are not universally accepted as something like the big bang or atomic theory. A lot of physicists think it's correct, but it is really cutting edge physics and a work in progress. ",
"imagine alll the information that is stored on a DVD. all those images and sound.\n\nnow consider that that is merely data it is a virtual (holographic) representation of images that were captured this information was converted into data (numbers) and reproduced on a screen using an algorythm that interprets the data stream accordingly.\n\nhowever all that data on a dvd can be converted to a very large but finite length number. that number occurs naturally at an infinite number of positions within the natural number string that starts 0,1,2,3,... and continues on infinitely\n\nany object, any energy level, any chain of events, can likewise be fully described as a large but finite \"number\" similalry any sequence of events no matter how complexed or enduring in time, thus they are already encoded an infinite number of times and ways (e.g. dd/mm/yyyy, mm/dd/yyyy, yyyy/mm/dd) on the number string thus information is never/can never be \"lost\" its hard coded into our exisance thanks to numbers\n\nMaths is a \"constant\" and tool for analysis because mathematical \"language\" is the encoding/decoding mechanism for the information transfer between the sting plane and our holographic \"virtual\" representation of it's behaviour.\n\nAll possible actions are thus already mapped and encoded infinite times and with infinite variable outcomes (multiversing) in the number string. The \"trick\" is finding the correct equations to dig out the relevant sequence.\n\nthat equation would be the GUT. ",
"It seems that our universe and reality in all dimensions store information and energy itself in a holographic manner. Where every bit of information is connected and stored and is accessible by the whole no matter what you do with it. Energy can not be created or destroyed just moved around. If a certain string of energy has be combined as information, that information string is stored forever in the whole storehouse of energy and information.\n\nHolograms that we create with light behave in this way. If you cut one in half, each half contains whole views of the entire holographic image. The same is true if you cut out a small piece -- even a tiny fragment will still contain the whole picture. On top of that, if you make a hologram of a magnifying glass, the holographic version will magnify the other objects in the hologram, just like a real one.\n\nOur brain seems to store information this way also, because you can remove parts of a person or animal's brain and the information is not lost completely. It's gets remapped by another part of the brain and that person still has most of their memory from before even though large brain matter is removed.\n\nI'm no expert but I found this book really interesting and talks about this theory a couple years back. Great read. \n\n_URL_0_\n",
"That paper does not prove that the universe is a hologram or any such thing, that's just stupid hype by the media. Note that I'm not saying that the research is bad, because its not, it is quite good, but it has very little to do with proving that our universe is a hologram, or anything like that. So what is the paper about then? Well, there is this idea in physics that for some theories, we can have 2 different but equivalent descriptions. One description uses d dimensions (say d=4 for our universe, for example) and the other description uses d-1 dimensions, so one dimension less. This is why they call it holographic, since a normal hologram stores 3d information on a 2d surface. However, this equality between d and d-1 dimensional theories is not a proven thing, it is a conjecture (called AdS/CFT, by the way), but with a lot of supporting evidence. What the paper does is a computer simulation in both the d-1 and the d dimensional theory, and then compare the numbers and find that they indeed match. So the paper adds strong new evidence to the conjecture, which is nice.\n\nHowever, the kind of theories that they are simulating are quite far away from the theories that describe our universe, and come from string theory (as does this whole idea, really). So therefore they don't really prove anything about our universe yet. Moreover, the whole holography business is about there being two different descriptions with different number of equations. None of them are more real or preferred, its just two different ways of describing the same thing, so even if we could apply it to our universe, to me it would be wrong to say that the universe is a hologram.\n\n",
"People. This paper does not prove that by any stretch. The paper shows numerical evidence for the equivalence of two TOY theories in theoretical particle physics. One theory is called N=4 Super Yang Mills and the other is A quantum gravity theory that DOES NOT describe our universe (called strings on AdS5xS5). Is this is a holographic duality? Yes, but these two theories do not describe particle physics world NOR our Universe. ",
"I think one of the most confusing things about this idea comes from our understanding of the word \"hologram\". For the sake of this idea, the key concept of a hologram is the ability to encode higher-dimensional information (e.g. the holograms we see that are 3-dimensions) on something with fewer dimensions (e.g. the ones we see that are printed on 2-dimensional substances). The idea is NOT that our universe is actually without substance and projected into thin air like the holograms we encounter in our reality. \n\nModern quantum theory has a number of string theories that assume different numbers of dimensions and are better at explaining different aspects of the universe. They don't really disagree with each other, but are like different valid explanations that all work in their own way. And now someone has shown that you can actually get the same mathematical results out of a 1-dimensional universe without gravity that you do with a particular model that has 10-dimensions. While not \"proof\", this is highly suggestive that all the different numbers of dimensions required for these different string theories are a result of holographic effects, i.e. they are all accurate descriptions of different levels of holographic projection of some fundamental reality. \n\nIt's kind of like someone realizing out that while our attempts to mathematically understand and describe the 3-D floating apple in the middle of the room are not incorrect, there's a 2-D holographic plate in the corner has ALL the same information on it so that's probably the \"true\" nature of the apple that we will eventually be able to describe using theories with fewer dimensions. \n\nAnd our situation is akin to a 2-D ant living on that plate. For all intents and purposes this doesn't change the nature of the universe we are living in and we can't truly comprehend what those other dimensions would mean anyway, but it's good to know seeing that all our best modern theories about the universe involve math in these other dimensions. \n",
"This is how I understand the paper...\n\nA couple of things are going on here:\n\nYou usually hear the phrase \"information can not be created or destroyed\", but a more accurate way to phrase this would be that you can know everything about something at any point in time if you know everything about it now. While a bit confusing sounding, it's a more accurate way to phrase how the universe works.\n\nA black hole gives off radiation called Hawking Radiation. This is a special type of radiation and while it doesn't sound related to this, what it means is that something is being changed inside the black hole and you can no longer know everything at any point in time about the thing that is changed after it enters a black hole. This raises a bit of a problem since most of physics is based upon the idea that this isn't possible.\n\nFinally, you need to know what they mean by hologram. A hologram in physics can be though of as another dimension inside of this one that is described by a specific set of equations (sometimes an \"easier\" to understand one). So a \"holographic description of a black hole on a computer\" simply means they used a different set of equations to describe a black hole on the computer.\n\nNow, what this paper shows is that you can use that computer description of a black hole to see how it changes the things that enter it. That allows you to once again know everything about something at any point in time if you know everything about it now.",
"For a long time scientists have been trying to reconcile classical physics with quantum physics. You can think of these as being the \"macro-world/universe\" (big stuff: sand, baseballs, elephants, trees, planets, galaxies) and the \"micro-world/universe\" (protons, electrons, quarks, preons, neutrinos, ???, quantum foam).\n\nThat is to say that the rules of physics that work so well in our macro world, or understanding of our world, do not jive with the quantum weirdness that occurs at very small scales (e.g. nothing that occurs in the quantum fields is directly measurable, there seems to be a limit of how small things can be and gravity doesn't make sense at all, among others). \n\nThe grail of modern science is to find a way to unite classical physics with quantum physics. Because we want the universe to make sense, and it don't! \n\nNot too long ago, an idea came about called String Theory. This is a mathematical construct that seeks to unite the two realms of physics into a \"theory of everything\". \n\nThe way that we experience the universe is through 3 dimensions of space; height, length and width, plus one dimension of time. String theory posits that there are 10 dimensions of space, plus one dimension of time (let us just pause here to consider that, if String Theory is correct, most of the universe is happening all around us and we can't even \"see\" it). String Theory also posits that a lot of the mechanics of our 3-D universe are influenced by quantum \"strings\" that pass through/inhabit all 10 of the total dimensions.\n\nOne of the problems with String Theory is that, as a mathematical construct, it's practically impossible to even conceive of ways to test it in the \"real world\". The experiment that you linked to is something of an attempt to do that.\n\nWhat the researchers have done in these experiments refers to a fairly specific and persistent question in physics regarding Hawking radiation, black holes, and information loss/transfer. \n\nBut the implications of this research involves other, arguably bigger questions. The research they have conducted can be applied to this question: Can what we know about the laws of physics in our 3-dimensional universe be \"condensed\" into an other-dimensional mathematical realm? The implications of this research says \"yes\". Mathematically it is a 1-1 concordance.\n\nSo, what does that mean? It means that under the rubric of String Theory it is *possible* that there is a parallel dimension (which for all intents and purposes, means a parallel universe). It means it is *possible* that there is \"something\" in, on, or on the \"other side\" of a black hole (instead of a black hole being the end of information). It means that it is *possible* that our universe is just a \"shadow\" of something else in another dimension, like a hologram.\n\nSometimes words fail. This is one of those times for me. All in all it's very interesting stuff, and kudos to you for being curious. Any physicists out there please feel free to correct me, I'm curious too. ",
"tl:dr Imagine the universe is a bubble. What the paper is saying is that we're not inside the bubble, but on the surface.\n\nNow the long version. The use of the word hologram causes some problems for a lot of people. A hologram is a projection of light that appears three dimensional. But the word hologram can also be used to express the idea that something can appear to have another dimension. For example your computer screen is two dimensional but three dimensional things can be pictured on it. The idea is that this can happen with other dimensions. Something can be three dimensional and appear to be four dimensional.\n\nThe reason that this is likened to black holes is that black holes are theorized to have a holographic shell around them, a two dimensional shell that is expressed in three dimensions. So what the paper is saying is that the universe exists as a similar shell.\n\nIf you've studied or read much about physics you should know about Flatland, a hypothetical two dimensional world. The idea is that three dimensional objects would look like two dimensional objects in flatland. A sphere would look like a circle and so would a cone or a cylinder on the right cross-section. Now imagine that instead of a piece of paper, flatland is on a balloon. The surface of the balloon is two dimensional but it's actually a three dimensional object. So, back to the beginning, the universe is like this, and the three dimensions we know are just the surface of an n-dimensional balloon.",
"lets be clear about what we mean by \"holographic projection\" here.\n\nI suspect that in the minds of many people this will sound like the application of some kind of extra-universal machinery, the \"projector\" if you like, casting some kind of \"image\" that we experience as our universe. \nIt will therefore imply some higher order of sophistication to which our race is not privvy, that acts in some way to \"run\" our universe as a kind of simulation task.\n\nI just want to be clear, we are not talking about any such thing.\n\nThe words holographic and projection are being used here as technical language in mathematics.\n\nProjection maps a set of points in one space onto a corresponding set of points in another space. The spaces may have different numbers of dimensions. Example: a projection of a 3D figure onto a 2D figure.\n\nI think holographic here is a reference to laser holography that captures the three dimensional appearance of an object in a two dimensional film by (I think) storing the information as interference fringes that look nothing like the image being recorded and yet when illuminated with coherent monochromatic light of the right wavelength the original view is recovered. An interesting property of this kind of recording is that if you have a fragment of a hologram (an image of the unintelligible interference fringes) you can see the whole subject but from a restricted range of viewing angles.\nIn other words its being used as an analogy or pointer to the form of an idea where in the information that belongs in a three dimensional space might be packed into a two dimensional space.\n",
"[World Science Festival 2011] (_URL_0_) Long video but these nerds do a decent job of trying to explain it to people. I got something from watching it. \n\n",
"Not appropriate for ELI5. Answers you get here are far less likely to be vetted by experts than in /r/AskScience. ELI5s can often get flawed answers, and that's the last thing you'll want for a technical topic where few people are in a position to point out the errors.",
"This whole thing has blown my mind! So for the last two hours I have mindlessly stared at my 2 yo son. Then it hit me I passed information from my body into my wife's body and out came a new product. Now I enjoyed the sex and the emotions involved with it, I also enjoy every minute of being with my son. But there is no way he can appreciate either one from the same perspective as I do. Also I understand that by simply looking at him I can't begin to comprehend what came before him and what comes afterward but I know that both happened and existed. In the same manner he is in a position which is absolutely impossible for him to consider. he is learning hut he cannot comprehend the universe which he is in. However its pretty cool to think about because his perception only shows him the face value of things and ideals. In a way our minds work much the same way as the universe! He will build off of everything he learns, one string at a time. His mind will soon begin to explode in it understanding and capabilities but its structure was built and determined long ago. His future self will be echoes of his beginnings! Which brings up another question in my mind. If he is a baby and his time is slow in relation to mine, and my time is fast does that mean we interpret time? Or do we respond to time? \n\nAlso I am an idiot so help me. ",
"Commenting to come back to. Ignore.",
"If im not mistaken the paper said something like the universe presents 9 dimension data in 1 dimension. This is how 1 redditor puts it. \n_URL_0_\n\n > More like this:\n\n > Take a cube that is made of 27 blocks (3 by 3 by 3):\n\n bot mid top\n x \n 000 000 010\n y 010 110 110\n 000 011 111\n\n > You can convert it into 2d by combining them in a pattern, for this I just grabbed the top line so we end up with 9 by 3:\n\n x\n 000000010\n y 010110110\n 000011111\n\n > And 1d by doing the same operation ending up with 27 by 1:\n\n x\n y 000000010010110110000011111\n > So, by doing the inverse of that pattern we can derive a 3d shape from this 1d shape again.",
"Goddamnit, every time I check threads like these, I end up having a severe existential crisis. *Cogito ergo sum* my ass.",
"This is so fuking awesome. I love this shit. Space and the universe are so cool and unbelievable, I feel like I'm having a manic episode just reading this."
]
}
|
[] |
[
"http://arxiv.org/abs/1311.5607"
] |
[
[
"http://rt.com/news/space-evidence-universe-hologram-195/"
],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bekenstein_bound"
],
[],
[
"http://www.amazon.com/The-Holographic-Universe-Revolutionary-Reality/dp/0062014102"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsbZT9bJ1s4"
],
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.nature.com/news/simulations-back-up-theory-that-universe-is-a-hologram-1.14328"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
a0xncr
|
why are some spicy foods felt in the mouth (i.e. hot sauce) and some felt in the sinuses (i.e. wasabi?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a0xncr/eli5_why_are_some_spicy_foods_felt_in_the_mouth/
|
{
"a_id": [
"eal63ve",
"eal6x67",
"ealfrk3",
"ealg5p9",
"eali695",
"ealiokk",
"ealjlsj",
"ealkuic",
"ealml5z",
"ealmwdb",
"ealrsv1",
"eam6fwz",
"eamcyxn",
"eamd4av",
"eamphhf"
],
"score": [
8845,
12,
151,
17,
7,
455,
16,
2,
8,
3,
104,
2,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"There are two different chemicals at work, capsaicin in many hot sauces/peppers, and allyl isothiocyanate in mustards (what we call wasabi is usually actually horseradish, as an aside). \n\nThe latter is more volatile, it evaporates more readily in the mouth and travels up into the nose with air. The former tends to stay a liquid and so is less inclined to do so. However, if you've ever sneezed after taking a big hit of hot sauce, you will discover that it definitely *can* be felt in the nose if you get it there. ",
"They are chemically different. Hot peppers and the sauces made from them get their heat from capsaicin - C18H27NO3. Wasabi contains a compound with sulfur - CH2CHCH2NCS - which impacts different tissues than capsaicin. ",
"Does capsaicin work as a stimulus to your immune system and metabolism?\n",
"What about the numbing \"Mala\" found in Asian cuisine?",
"In addition to the above answers, to be precise, they aren't in the same flavor profiles. \n\nSpicy food is considered \"hot\" (peppers, capsaicin, cinnamon, etc)\n\nWhereas other affective flavors being 'cool;' 'sharp;' and 'astringnet.'\n\nSpicy activates the heat receptors, cool (mint, etc) activates the cold sensors, Sharp (wasabi, mustard, horseradish, etc) activates the mucous membrane, as do astringent (which contract them) such as teas and some wines. \n\nSome do multiple, such as alcohol. ",
"Can I further question why some are felt in the anus?\n",
"And while we are on the matter, why do foods now taste spicy to my butt hole now that I'm a little older?",
"And what about the scalp? (sriracha)",
"What about the chinese peppercorns that just numb my entire tongue?? Thought I was having an allergic reaction the first time I had those in a dish.",
"And some of them the next morning?",
"Always kind of wondering this. Spicy Mexican food burns my mouth. Spicy Korean food burns my throat. When I was stationed in Korea, my Mexican room mate was bragging about how much spicy food he could kill, nothing was too spicy, etc. We took him downtown for some Yoo Gae Jang that was like eating fire. Temperature wise it was super hot which made the spiciness destroy you. He was coughing and carrying on so much the owner came over and apologized and gave him an extra bowl of rice. Haha! Little bitch. ",
"But why are both felt in your anus?",
"Not trying to be rude, but i.e. means “that is to say,” you probably meant to use e.g. meaning “example”",
"And others, in the butt?",
"[_URL_0_](_URL_0_) Some clever people utilised this for good. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a7253/our-favorite-ig-nobel-the-wasabi-fire-alarm/"
]
] |
||
1w6f06
|
how is a mb of data determined?
|
So with my current phone plan I get 3GB of 4G data. I just wanted to know how is a MB of data calculated?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w6f06/eli5how_is_a_mb_of_data_determined/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cez4cst"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It all goes to binary. Everything in your computer / phone is determined by long strings of 1s and 0s. Binary is base 2, and each \"byte\" is 8 digits (or bits, contraction of binary digit), holding a maximum value of 255 (each bit is worth a multiple of 2 -- 00000001 = 1, 00000010 = 2, 011 = 3, 100 = 4, up to 8 digits, allowing you to make any number between 0 and 255 in a byte). Each of the numbers in a word is a single bit (8 bits in a byte).\n\nOne megabyte is a million (1000 ^ 2) bytes (mega = million). 1000 bytes make a kilobyte, 1000 ^ 3 is a gigabyte. This is basically how each unit of data storage is determined. All goes back to binary."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
1l5dya
|
why can't the united states just bombard syria with cruise missiles from afar and not put boots on the ground?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l5dya/eli5_why_cant_the_united_states_just_bombard/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cbvwz2m",
"cbvyvfm"
],
"score": [
3,
6
],
"text": [
"That's mostly the plan. The US can and has done this in the past and many people are suggesting we should do that in Syria.",
"\"Hey look, that country is having issues we care about, but why directly get involved? Just push some buttons, throw some million dollar armament at them and show them who's boss\"\n\nAny country whose crisis plan actually reflects that deserves hatred. Regardless of global opinion we are not that country."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
2j18s5
|
why did antennas on phone go away? i was told our head is the antenna for smartphones now, can our body be an antenna at all for anything?
|
I can't find anything online for the life of me about this topic. Are we really antennas for things like that?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2j18s5/eli5_why_did_antennas_on_phone_go_away_i_was_told/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cl7dxej",
"cl7e2am",
"cl7i7di",
"cl7mwg5",
"cl7neol"
],
"score": [
39,
17,
2,
10,
2
],
"text": [
"Our head is not the antenna. The antenna is packed into the body of the phone now. ",
"Yeah, antennas are internal now. If our heads were the antenna (ie we'd have to hold the phone to our ear for reception) it would render using the speaker phone and Bluetooth headsets useless.",
"Yeah antennas are inside the phones now and are freaky small just like everything else. These days they often look like little more than a wire on a circuit board thing cars that have the antennas built into the glass it's pretty similar to how it's done in phones now.",
"Ideal antenna length is directly related to the frequency or, more precisely, the wavelength used. Radio waves, like those used in mobile phones, are a subset of frequencies of light. In order to get the best signal the antenna should be a factor of the wavelength. What that means requires a little bit of background.\n\nLight is a wave (also a particle, but in this situation it's a wave, now shush), like a wave on the ocean it goes up and it goes down. The frequency is the number of times it goes up and down in a second. The time between reaching one peak and another is the period, this is the reciprocal (1 divided by) the frequency (100Hz = 1/100th of a second). The wavelength is the distance between them. For light this is the period times the speed of light (or the speed of light divided by the frequency, same thing, really). That can be a bit annoying to figure out in your head which is why we have [calculators](_URL_1_) and lookup tables. For the older phones (1-3.5G) in the US this was around 800MHz (though the later generations called it 850MHz, even though it used the same frequencies, it's actually a range between the high 700s to the mid 800s, you can look it up if you're interested, search for \"800MHz band\" or \"850MHz band\").\n\nWhat I mean by a factor of the wavelength is: 2, 4, and 8 are factors of 16, 8 is half 16, 4 is a quarter of 16, and 2 is an eighth. It doesn't just have to be whole numbers either, 1.5 is half of 3, for example. The best antenna to use is half the wavelength, but for 800MHz that's 7 inches, a ridiculous size for a phone antenna (though, in phones from the 80s when amplifiers were less efficient and a more efficient antenna was needed, you'll notice they have really long antennas, I'd wager they're about 7 inches long). Next best is a quarter which ends up being 3.5 inches, much more reasonable, but still quite large. Once you get below a quarter the antenna efficiency, and therefore the strength and quality of the signal, decreases quite dramatically. (why they have to be factors in multiples of two requires a lot of math, and only useful if you plan on designing new antennas, for our purposes we shall just accept that it's true and move on). However even 3.5 inches is quite long, especially if you want the phone to be small and thin (keep in mind that, before smartphones, the trend was for smaller and smaller phones).\n\nFor a while we had to deal with having that little nub at the top (really only about half the antenna was in the nub, the other half extending into the case). However in the mid 90s (1995 to be exact), a scientific paper on [fractal antennas](_URL_2_) was published. It was still a few years off before they began to be incorporated into phones, but almost immediately there were sticker-things being sold on \"as seen on tv\" infomercials that purported to improve signal strength simply by affixing them to the phone under the battery. I never used one, so I'm not sure how well they worked, if they were just stuck under the battery (like was shown in the infomercial) I doubt they worked well, if at all, but if they were plugged into the auxiliary antenna port they might have worked. I doubt it was the first, but the [Motorola Razr](_URL_0_) which came out in 2004 is what sticks out in my mind as one of the first phones with an internal, and likely fractal, antenna.\nWithout getting into the physics and math of why they work, the concept was that you didn't need a straight length of wire, but if you coiled it up in just the right way you could get the same antenna efficiency in a significantly smaller volume, it could even be printed directly on a circuit board.\n\nSo even though phones are growing in size again, the reason they're able to stay as slim as they are while still being able to fit a relatively large battery inside is due to using fractal antennas.\n\nAs for your body being an antenna, it doesn't work as well as metal antennas, but yes it CAN be an antenna. However it DOES work pretty damn well as an antenna BOOSTER, it doesn't even matter what your size is, just that you're full of water. Check out this [fantastic video by Sixty Symbols](_URL_3_) where they demonstrate, and then explain why this works.",
"To receive a radio signal efficiently you need an antenna. The antenna needs to be typically a quarter of the wave-length of the frequency of the signal. to calculate the wavelength we need to divide c by the frequency.\n\nThe first cellular phones were analog (1G) and used radio frequencies somewhere above 150 MHz, that called for antennas in the range of 50cm or slightly less. \nLater 2G phones were digital and used frequencies around 450 MHz which called for antennas around 16 cm.\nModern 3G phones use frequencies around 1900 MHz which call for an antenna just 3cm long. This small antenna can fit inside the phone and is actually part of the metal chassis of the phone. \nYou can remember the reception trouble the iPhone 4 when you touched the plastic groove on the chassis. that's was because you shorted the antenna with you fingers and made it shorter than it should have been.\n\nWhy didn't we start with phones which work in 1900 MHz? because we did not have the technology to handle such high frequencies. Modern digital signal processing is somewhat hard."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_Razr",
"http://www.csgnetwork.com/antennagenericfreqlencalc.html",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_antenna",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uqf71muwWc"
],
[]
] |
|
74p8xx
|
what mechanisms do we have for getting big money out of politics? like, practically, how do we make it happen?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/74p8xx/eli5_what_mechanisms_do_we_have_for_getting_big/
|
{
"a_id": [
"do01ryf"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The primary method for easy big money in the political system came from the Supreme Court. The Citizens United ruling included the concept that money = speech, so to restrict money = restricting speech. They turned it into a first amendment issue (to be fair the original argument really was a first amendment issue, it's other consequences that created what we see today).\n\nAny proposed legal change that happens in the future that restricts political contributions will hit the Supreme Court and they will point to Citizens United and it will get shot down.\n\nSo the SCOTUS needs to change its justices to be more friendly to restricting campaign contributions. While some justices are quite old and potentially ready to retire, Trump has no interest in restricting campaign donations, so he can't be counted on to alter the court's makeup in that way.\n\nSince the big problem started in the courts, it needs to end in the courts. This means choosing a president who is committed to campaign finance reform. It all starts there. Nothing else will change without a change in SCOTUS."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
5kzh6m
|
why aren't x-rays, ct scans, and mri's part of preventative care? wouldn't it significantly reduce the amount of late-stage cancer discovery and thus reduce cancer-caused deaths, among other things?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5kzh6m/eli5_why_arent_xrays_ct_scans_and_mris_part_of/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dbrs763",
"dbrsd12",
"dbrt02g",
"dbs384n"
],
"score": [
13,
2,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Many reasons. First, they're not always helpful in discovering cancer as a primary tool, particularly xrays. Second, they're not without their own concerns. Xrays, for example, expose us to radiation. They're to be used when indicated, limiting exposure as much as possible. CT scans use an even higher dose of ionizing radiation. Third, there's the expense. These machines are expensive...to have, to maintain, to operate. That cost would be relayed to us, who already cannot afford to stay healthy in most cases. \n\nThe most important reason is that it makes little sense to use something that could actually *cause* cancer to purportedly prevent it. It won't prevent it and could do quite the opposite.",
"In the UK you can get a private ct/ mri called lifescan which is a preventive thing - a check up. But it costs loads ( because it's not an nhs thing and ct scanners are expensive to run) and because it's not an nos thing, the doctors don't like listening to the results given by the lifescan peeps.",
"There are actually a lot of screening methods which are used to detect certain kinds of tumors, like the mammography for breast cancer. But not all cancers can be easily detected with a simple x-ray, as it's not very sensitive to soft tissue. Some types of cancer can be detected with analysis of blood samples and such things, while others are more easily detected by more traditional methods like the prostate exam.\n\nCT meanwhile is not used in preventative care because if you don't yet have cancer, you might get some after a couple of CT scans. They dish out a lot more radiation than a simple x-ray of the same body part. Before you put a patient into one of these, you really want to be sure there's something worth looking at.\n\nMRI is a lot more capable, but the machines are extremely expensive, and the procedure takes a lot of time and stress. In addition to that, MRI images take a lot of post-processing before there's something to look at. So overall, you can expect a procedure to cost more than $1000. ",
"When you do screening tests on healthy asymptomatic people, you may \"turn up something\" -- a shadow, something that looks like \"it might be something\". Then you have to go and do more invasive exploration-- biopsies, to see just what that shadow really is.\n\nProblem is, as we've seen with both breast and prostate cancer screening, the cost and complications that you incur from doing biopsies on low risk people are very significant compared with the benefit. \n\nScreening low risk populations is itself dangerous. Its also often not the case that early detection is much better. Some cancers, like prostate cancers, often grow very slowly and detecting them early doesn't really give you anything other than anxiety. Other cancers grow so quickly that even if you find them \"early\", they've still already seeded micrometastases. \n\nSo the \"find it early is better\" story is true for some cancers, sometimes, its not always true."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
58bnkb
|
how can a ghost pepper "burn a hole" in someone's esophagus?
|
In a recent story, a man was hospitalized after a ghost pepper "burned a hole" in his esophagus.
_URL_0_
How is this possible? The heat from spicy foods is figurative, not literal. Could an ulcer be formed and become so aggravated as to tear the area around it?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/58bnkb/eli5how_can_a_ghost_pepper_burn_a_hole_in/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d8zc23e",
"d8zh1xc",
"d904p9k"
],
"score": [
16,
11,
2
],
"text": [
"I read somewhere that it was the act of throwing up that caused it. Maybe they convulsed too hard in response to the extreme discomfort.",
"The article you linked to is wrong. The pepper did not burn a hole in his esophagus.\n\nFortunately, the article links to the [paper](_URL_0_) describing the case, so we can find out what really happened. The paper says the man suffered from spontaneous esophageal rupture.\n\nFrom the paper:\n\n > Spontaneous esophageal rupture, also known as Boerhaave syndrome, was first described in the 18th century by the Dutch physician Dr. Herman Boerhaave after his patient, the Admiral Jan Gerrit van Wassenaer, suffered a spontaneous esophageal rupture. Boerhaave syndrome occurs as the result of barotrauma secondary to forceful retching and vomiting against a closed glottis.\n\nSo it is likely that the rupture was caused by vomiting.\n\nThe interesting thing about this case is that, while the man was experiencing severe pain from the rupture, he didn't know about the rupture. He thought the pain was from the pepper paste he had eaten.\n\nFrom the paper:\n\n > This case serves as an important reminder of a potentially life- threatening surgical emergency initially interpreted as discomfort after a large spicy meal.",
"Just to add to this, how do peppers burn peoples skin at all? I've seen multiple sauce labels and videos that talk about not letting it come into contact with your skin. "
]
}
|
[] |
[
"https://consumerist.com/2016/10/19/man-leaves-ghost-pepper-eating-contest-with-hole-in-his-esophagus/"
] |
[
[],
[
"http://www.jem-journal.com/article/S0736-4679%2816%2930256-6/fulltext?rss=yes"
],
[]
] |
|
ekbn6k
|
what makes metals superconductive at absolute zero?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ekbn6k/eli5_what_makes_metals_superconductive_at/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fd8r9g9",
"fd9eqn8"
],
"score": [
4,
4
],
"text": [
"Superconductors have zero resistance, and, according to the Joule-Lenz law, Q=I²Rt, so if Q=0, it means that either 1) there is no electric current, 2) it hasnt arrived yet, 3) resistance equals zero. In absolute zero temperature molecules dont have ANY thermal energy (Q), so no resistance would be observed.",
"First things first, not all metals are superconducting. Only certain metals show this property for reasons we don't fully understand.\n\nSuperconductivity is broken down into Type I, Type II, and \"Unconventional\". The unconventional superconductors we don't have an explanation for so I'll ignore them.\n\nI'll use copper as an example.\n\nCopper, like all metals, has a structure where there are metal nuclei in a regular pattern within a sea of electrons. This is called a metallic crystal and is responsible for a lot of metallic properties like conductivity.\n\nA metal conducts electricity because the electrons aren't held in one place, rather they can flow throughout the structure. This is regular conductivity.\n\nResistance comes from two main factors:\n\n1. Scattering of electrons from the vibrating metal nuclei\n2. Resistance of the electron fluid itself, analogous to how the water in a glass returns to stationary after swirling a whirlpool in it. (This property is linked to viscosity.)\n\nNow, as you cool a metal, the metal nuclei have less kinetic energy and vibrate less. This reduces scattering and therefore reduces the resistance of the metal, but it doesn't disappear.\n\nReturning to copper, if you keep cooling it to a certain point (I believe around 13K so pretty damn cold) the electrons form something called \"Cooper Pairs\". Essentially they collapse into a superfluid. This change is not gradual, it happens instantly. The graph of resistance decreases until this point (called the critical temperature) when it drops to 0. \n\nWhat makes a superfluid unique is that they have no viscosity. A superfluid swirled into a vortex will not stop on its own. This means that the electrons can flow throughout the lattice without resistance to their motion and the copper can sustain a current so long as it is cooled below this temperature. This effect is used in MRI scanners to produce the massive magnetic fields that they need. \n\nThis is how type I and type II superconductors work."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
6c5fbt
|
how do countries check the licence plates of foreign vehicles?
|
If a car with from Canada or Mexico passes is in the US how can police check their licence plate? Do all three countries share their license plate database?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6c5fbt/eli5_how_do_countries_check_the_licence_plates_of/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dhs4uzg"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"in europe, if a foreign car goes too fast and is photographed, there are two possibilities: (a) it is not possible to sue the person, but they are stored in the system, and in case they are coming back and are controled, they will have to pay. (b) there are bilateral treaties for \"helping\" each other. thus, one country sends the information to the other country's police, and they will retrieve the fine for them. there is NO sharing of personal data across borders. after all, a state has to protect its citizens from outside forces.\n\nthere are more problems, e.g.: in austria, the car is photographed from behind, and in germany, it must be photographed from in front (with the face of the driver on the photo; in austria they may first have to find out who drove the car). that's why nowadays there are sometimes two cameras, one from behind for austrian offenders, one from in front in case germans are passing by."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
uftdo
|
why downloaded ps2 games play on the ps3 but discs won't.
|
It seems to me that if one type can play, they all should be able to. What's stopping this from happening?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/uftdo/eli5_why_downloaded_ps2_games_play_on_the_ps3_but/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c4v073p",
"c4v0fou"
],
"score": [
13,
5
],
"text": [
"The downloaded ones are re-coded.",
"The original PS3s had a part that allowed them to play PS2 and PS1 games. This part was ruled to be overly expensive, and Sony decided that people didn't care much about backwards-compatibility (one of their biggest mistakes, in my opinion). I believe there are only two models with that part in them. This is the reason that these models go for hundreds of dollars more on eBay. In order to play a downloaded game, it has to be recoded, as kevpew already said."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
b6q8ll
|
do the smallest subatomic particles that make up everything else contain mass? if so, where does this mass come from, surely it can't just exist? and if not, sure the no mass would continue so everything would just be "energy"(?) rather than solid?
|
Title explains it really. Why isn't everything massless if the smallest particles are, and if they do contain mass, don't they have to be made from something even smaller?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b6q8ll/eli5_do_the_smallest_subatomic_particles_that/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ejmb5yg",
"ejmbcgu",
"ejmegw2"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
5
],
"text": [
"Some small particles have no mass, like photons. Others, like electrons and quarks, have mass. The mass \"came from\" energy that condensed into matter, like e=mC^2 . This isn't \"condense\" in the gas to liquid sense of the term, it's a thermal concept from when the Big Bang cooled a little.",
"Not every particle has mass (photons and gluons). \n\nBut I can't (and I'm not sure anyone can) explain how certain particles have mass and others don't. We don't really understand mass at the very deep level (which is what the Large Hadron Collider set out to study), and we're still actively trying to figure it out.\n\nWe think it has something to do with the Higgs boson, but we're not 100% sure.",
" > don't they have to be made from something even smaller?\n\nSee [the current top post](_URL_0_).\n\nTL;DR: Nope. According to the standard model, there are some particles that are the smallest things and it doesn't get any smaller. Those particles are not made of smaller particles, and those particles are made out of energy, which has mass.\n\n > Why isn't everything massless if the smallest particles are\n\nSome are massless, some aren't. It actually has nothing to do with their size and everything to do with what *kind* of particle it is. For example, electrons have no apparent size at all. They appear to be \"point-like\" meaning they have zero volume. Despite this, they have mass. In fact, the **rest mass**\\* of an electron is a constant in the SI units.\n\nParticles that you think of as \"matter\" have rest mass. Carrier particles - like photons and gluons generally do not. On the other hand, the carrier particles for the weak nuclear force are more massive than iron atoms. So. It varies.\n\nWhat determines rest mass is whether or not a particle interacts with the Higgs field. If a particle interacts with the Higgs field, it has mass. What is the Higgs field? It's a field that permeates all of spacetime. When particles interact with it they kind of have to slough through it like trying to walk through molasses kind of not really (it's a metaphor). What determines if a particle interacts with the Higgs field? It either does or it doesn't. Kind of like how some particles have charge (because they interact with the electromagnetic field) and some don't (because they don't).\n\nAnyways, that's all *rest mass*, which means that it has mass just by existing. Remember Einstein's E=mc^2 ? That means *energy* is equal to *mass* times the speed of light squared. Do some algebra and you see that mass is equal to energy divided by the speed of light squared. Mass and energy are interchangeable. They are the same thing. It's like saying a dollar is made out of four quarters. They're both different ways of representing the same thing, which is money. Mass is just energy in a different package just with an exchange rate.\n\nYou've probably heard that photons are both waves and particles? Well, that's true of *all* fundamental particles. It's just usually not as noticeable because the larger something is, both in volume and mass, the less the whole \"uncertainty thing\" is noticeable. All particles are excitations in a field. That is: there is, for example, a quark field that, like the Higgs field, permeates all of spacetime. If you put a bunch of energy into that field, you get a *quanta* or a packet of energy that looks and acts like a particle. So all particles are made out of energy.\n\nSo when you take something with zero *rest mass* like a photon, and make it go, well, the speed of light, it has energy, right? Yes! And since it has energy, it has mass, right? Yes! [Here is an excellent video from an excellent series](_URL_2_) that gives a demonstration that is much better understood visually for why photons do have mass. TL;DR: photons have momentum and through red-shifting can transfer that momentum, which can appear to act like inertia (which is a thing that things with mass has). [The previous video](_URL_1_) goes into detail about E=mc^2. The point is, energy *is* mass, and mass *is* energy. That's where nuclear energy comes from: a small amount of mass - almost imperceptibly small - is turned into heat and light. Since the speed of light is *really big* and you're squaring it, a tiny bit of mass becomes a lot of energy.\n\nAs the second linked video explains, in fact most of the mass of a proton comes from the binding energy of the quarks. That is, the actual \"matter\" of the proton - the quarks themselves - are a small part of the total mass. Quarks do *not* appreciate being separated at all, so there's a *lot* of energy holding them together. That energy is way more than what the quarks themselves have, and makes up most of the mass we measure in a proton (and neutron, which make up by far the bulk of the mass in atoms, so...most of the mass of all normal matter). The total mass of a system is called *relativistic mass* and includes how much energy it appears to have based on how fast it's moving relative to you."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b6l3g7/eli5_the_universe_is_made_up_of_atoms_which_are/",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo232kyTsO0",
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSKzgpt4HBU"
]
] |
|
2051hh
|
why do people make a big deal about how much money ceo's make but seem ok with professional athletes making as much or more?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2051hh/eli5_why_do_people_make_a_big_deal_about_how_much/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cfztx2k",
"cg01ile"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"For me, at least, athletes are the ones doing the \"real work\" in their field. They're putting their bodies on the line in return for their salary. As a result, they often have rather short careers (30 is considered fairly old for an NFL player at most positions), and will often suffer physical issues related to their playing for the rest of their lives. And their bosses, the team owners, are making even more money than they are. \n\nIt's a bit tougher for me to feel much compassion towards a CEO of a regular company. Sure, they work hard, but are they working (or suffering) any harder than their rank and file workers? Is the guy running the company a 300x harder worker or a 300x smarter person than the guy working on the factory floor? ",
"Because you could imagine the CEO getting a huge pay cut (but not a large percentage) and giving it to a large number of employees for whom it would be significant. This especially matters in small businesses, though admittedly in this case the disparity is usually not as large. Basically a large CEO to normal worker pay disparity makes people think the CEO is exploiting the workers by not paying them enough, and taking a lot of the money for him/herself.\n\nAn athlete is not in charge of paying other people. Sure if they made less, you might be able to pay the concession stand workers etc more, but the athletes are not the ones in charge of that. Also, an athlete who makes a lot of money does so by demonstrating skill that is quite obvious to the fans. A CEO may have gotten there through skill and hard work as well, but it is less clear that this is so, and is not always the case."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
dohuzt
|
why does the shuffle feature on spotify still seem to group artists together?
|
I know that there's always a chance that in a 200 song playlist with 3 songs by a single artist that 2 or all 3 songs can play in a row but it still seems to happen far to often to leave it to chance. Plus I'm not the only one I know who has noticed this. Is there something about the programming that makes consecutive songs by the same artist more likely?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dohuzt/eli5_why_does_the_shuffle_feature_on_spotify/
|
{
"a_id": [
"f5o35hk"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"The Spotify shuffle playlist actually is not fully random by design; people didn't like the fully random way before, I think because the situation you describe happens more often, statistically, then you would feel is right.\n\nSomething like that. Let me find the article."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
9d8crf
|
why does holding your breath immediately stop heart palpitations?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9d8crf/eli5_why_does_holding_your_breath_immediately/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e5g0jwa"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"It forces your heart to beat harder in response to lack of oxygen and kind of re-synchronizes it.\n\nSlowly and deeply works after a while with a little less force, they are more to calm you down, if your symptoms are caused by stress or anxiety. \n\nDifferent people feel palpation differently, some have a racing heart, but others feel theirs skip a beat or kind of flutter out of order. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
44ue89
|
why do toasters have the option to turn my toast into a piece of charcoal?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44ue89/eli5why_do_toasters_have_the_option_to_turn_my/
|
{
"a_id": [
"czsz7y3",
"czsz83q",
"czszbdg",
"czszr9i"
],
"score": [
3,
3,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"My assumption would be that, as weird as it may seem to us, some people are into that kind of thing.",
"Toasters are made very cheaply. [Most consumer ones don't even have timers in them](_URL_0_), they have no way to tell how burnt a piece of bread is.",
"Toasting a slice of spam takes longer than bread. Toasters aren't just for making bread toast. ",
"Things that are frozen take much longer to toast than bread. I turn the knob all the way up for freezer pastries (aka Toaster Strudels) and less then halfway for normal bread. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN_PK5pXmIY"
],
[],
[]
] |
||
3g3ss1
|
why do we only have hair on one side of our arms?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g3ss1/eli5_why_do_we_only_have_hair_on_one_side_of_our/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ctumypp"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"There is theory that we have hairs to make parasite landing and blood sucking difficult and yet help us notice faster if they do. Outer side is more exposed."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
dujsct
|
why does the a/c setting in your car defog the windshield better than normal air?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dujsct/eli5_why_does_the_ac_setting_in_your_car_defog/
|
{
"a_id": [
"f76ndc5",
"f76nlfv"
],
"score": [
29,
7
],
"text": [
"Because passing air through the evaporator core of the a/c system removes humidity from the air. Dry air defogs much better than moist air. Lots of cars actually activate the a/c as part of the defrost setting automatically.",
"There are two things going on here. First, the fog on the windshield is because the cold air outside makes the windshield colder than the air inside the car. When warm, humid air touches a cold surface and cools down, water condenses out of it and fogs up the surface. It's the same thing as condensation on a glass of \na cold beverage. The A/C is colder air, so the windshield doesn't cool it down and cause condensation. \n\nAlso, the compressor in the A/C that cools it down also dehumidifies air. (You might have noticed this with a window A/C unit. A lot of them have an exhaust that drips water when it's on.) When dry air passes over a wet surface, some of the water evaporates. So, blowing dry air across the windshield continuously evaporates all the water. This is why the A/C defogs your windshield even if you also have the heat on."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
1efcyx
|
why is the fbi involved in benghazi?
|
If the FBI was meant to be purely focused on Domestic work, why is it involved with what is occurring in Benghazi?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1efcyx/eli5_why_is_the_fbi_involved_in_benghazi/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c9zoy03"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"_URL_1_\n\nThat took me five seconds to find btw...\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThis is whats up in Benghazi. Basically Al-Qaeda killed an American ambassador and his guards."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Benghazi_attack",
"http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2008/june/international_060308"
]
] |
|
2cxspl
|
how can nasa so accurately pinpoint the location of a comet, and the trajectory of a satellite 10 years in advance, and land it without a hitch?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2cxspl/eli5_how_can_nasa_so_accurately_pinpoint_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cjk37jt",
"cjk3vm9"
],
"score": [
6,
3
],
"text": [
"That's the beauty if nature and orbital mechanics. \n\nOnce Kepler was able to show, mathematically how orbits can be understood--the math followed. \n\nWe now have banks if servers and supercomputers that crunch the data and can pinpoint specific time, x,y plane coordinates. ",
"The n-body problem isn't solved. Which means we do not know exactly where anything will be with precision. In order to account for that, there are correcting maneuvers done during flight. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
174mb3
|
what prevents bank managers/executives from tacking on a few extra zeros at the end of their account balances? it's all digital money so would anyone notice?
|
I'm sure there are safeguards in place; I just don't know what they are or how it works. Do simple audits prevent this? Has anyone gotten away with it or been caught?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/174mb3/what_prevents_bank_managersexecutives_from/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c825hay",
"c827voj",
"c828wwr",
"c82oeg5"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"There are a lot of computerized checks that don't allow this sort of thing. It's \"all digital\" but every single cent is tracked meticulously, something like this just would be instantly flagged if it was even able to be entered into their system.",
"The traditional paper way of managing money is called double-entry bookkeeping and its basically what it sounds like - every transaction is written down twice (atleast, and by different people). That means no one person can add zeroes. In the digital realm its even easier to add more layers of this, done by different system with no one person with access to several of the systems.\n\nedit: single - > several.",
"Not exactly this, but look into enron and worldcom. These, along with other earnings misstatements are the reason the sarbanes oxley act was enacted. This is a huge list of requirements that firms have to follow. Straying from these rules can lead to millions of dollars worth of fines and jail time for people who committed the fraud. ",
"well, it's kinda complicated. They actually can do it, but they will be caught and fined a large amount of money and will probably go to jail. When you deposit a check to a teller, they're the one who updates your bank account. They can, in theory, \"mess up\" and give you more or less than what you have on the check at that moment. However, when that check is cashed on the bank's side, they'll double check against the daily tally to see if the cash transaction that day matches all withdrawals and deposit to the dollar. If it doesn't, something's wrong and will throw a red flag. Then, they'll call in a fraud team for investigation. Here's where it's interesting. The fraud team can bust the teller, or they'll brush it off."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1qszb2
|
what does "brought to you by ..." mean on television shows for the company?
|
Like when they promote something and say "brought to you by corn nuts!" etc
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qszb2/eli5_what_does_brought_to_you_by_mean_on/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cdg56j1",
"cdg5x77"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"It means that they are a sponsor of the show. They pay for ad time and product mentions.",
"It means they paid for the show to actually exist, so they get advertising in return."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
2giuz7
|
is there a way to develop common sense?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2giuz7/eli5is_there_a_way_to_develop_common_sense/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ckjk1zq"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"common sense is just a base list of assumptions that an individual expects everyone to have. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
32phl7
|
how do people who fast/don't eat or drink for longer than usual people not die?
|
Eg: like that indian bloke that didn't eat for 70 years.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32phl7/eli5_how_do_people_who_fastdont_eat_or_drink_for/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cqdczrp",
"cqddbg4",
"cqddt1c"
],
"score": [
5,
2,
2
],
"text": [
" > Eg: like that indian bloke that didn't eat for 70 years.\n\nSpoiler alert: He eats just like anyone else. He *claims* not to eat, but that claim is ridiculous. There were two \"tests\" performed, but the first showed that he lost weight during the 10 days that he was being monitored, and the second test allowed him to gargle water and bathe, neither of which were sufficiently monitored to prevent him from drinking and urinating (which he also claims not to do).\n\nIn short, the claim to not have eaten in 70 years is a lie.",
"That Indian bloke is lieing, but you can go a long while if you've got the fat reserves, drink lots of water, take vitamins etc. _URL_0_",
"The guy from India is lying. \n\nYou can go around 50 days without food, but only 7-14 days without water. \n\nAlso traditional fasting does not include not drinking water. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://zidbits.com/2013/06/how-long-can-you-live-off-the-fat-in-your-body/"
],
[]
] |
|
3cqtqr
|
what actually happens to a grenade to make it explode when you pull the pin?
|
Band of Brothers got me thinking.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cqtqr/eli5_what_actually_happens_to_a_grenade_to_make/
|
{
"a_id": [
"csy3fzm",
"csy3g7w"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"The pin itself is holding a spring and lever in place. When you pull the pin and release the lever, the spring will ignite a fuse.\n\nOnce the fuse burns out, it ignites a primer charge that detonates the main part of the grenade.\n\nI've heard the term \"spoon\" used to refer to that spring/lever assembly. Some people consider the fuse a third component, and others seem to think of the spoon and fuse as one component.",
"[Diagram] (_URL_0_)\n\nIt's an old grenade but modern ones work the same way. When you pull the pin, the primer will trigger the fuse. The fuse is your timer and when it hits the detonator, the grenade explodes."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://www.statemaster.com/wikimir/images/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Grenades.jpg"
]
] |
|
norq5
|
el5: how the fuck did godaddy get "exempt" from sopa? how does this not completely undermine the bill more then it already does on it's own?
|
Seriously WTF?!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/norq5/el5_how_the_fuck_did_godaddy_get_exempt_from_sopa/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c3awy4d",
"c3awy4d"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"(shrugs) They probably paid a lot of money to make sure they got exempted.",
"(shrugs) They probably paid a lot of money to make sure they got exempted."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
2uy38n
|
how come you can say "take me to church" or "take me to school", but it's "take me to the store, the zoo, the mall"?
|
and then how come "home" doesn't need either "to" or "the", it's just "take me home"?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2uy38n/eli5_how_come_you_can_say_take_me_to_church_or/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cocqgcw",
"cocuphp",
"cocwxaz",
"coczi40",
"cod1tj4"
],
"score": [
43,
3,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"There are two things going on here.\n\nTypically, people only have one home, one church, and one school, so these words can be without articles. Other words require them.\n\nWhen a word requires an article, \"the\" can be understood to refer to a default choice understood by both the speaker and the listener. \"Let's go to a Chinese restaurant\" means any available Chinese restaurant, probably the closest one. \"Let's go to the Chinese restaurant\" means the one close to where we live, the one we go to all the time.\n\nPut those together, and you have:\n\n* a - any particular place\n* the - the primary, default place, as oppose to others\n* (no article) - a singular place",
"Because they are seen as routine places and are conceptual.\n Home, work, school, church all function like this\nThe supermarket is a physical building whereas the aboves are concepts that encompass a function if that makes sense.\nConceptual ideas also make singular words uncountable as well.\nIe foods--- > food",
"\"To school\" implies you're going to do one sort of simple thing and the phrase is old enough to stick around, maybe. So the old idea of going to church has a kind of prescribed ritual and school has people go to class, but going to a zoo has more freedom in what you could do. In British English it's \"to hospital,\" I assume because you just get medical treatment, but in American English they decided that different things could happen to you in two hospital visits.",
"If you say \"I'm in school\", that means you are a student, on a class, or on a recess, lunch, what ever, but you are there, it's school time. But if you say \"I'm in the school\", that means you are in the school building, for what ever reason (you are a school janitor or you came to pick up your kid)",
"Because school, church, and home imply possession. It's your church, it's your school, it's your home. If you wanted to talk about a school that you don't go to, but happens to be nearby, you would say \"the school\" and not just \"school.\""
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
5exgej
|
why do the insides of space stations always look messy?
|
Can't they put stuff away?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5exgej/eli5_why_do_the_insides_of_space_stations_always/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dafvamc",
"dafwq2s"
],
"score": [
7,
3
],
"text": [
"No, what you are seeing is uber-cleanliness. EVERYTHING has a place and is constantly strapped into its place. In 0G, everything that's not strapped down will inevitably float away and make a bigger mess elsewhere. Nothing falls, nothing stays put, and *everything* bounces.\n\nThe reason it looks so messy is that there is a ridiculous amount of stuff and they can't be bothered to hide it all away. Every kg of stuff sent into space currently costs $20,200. They cannot afford the decorations that would make it look pretty.",
"A few reasons it may look like a mess to a lay person.\n\nFirst in space, there is no ceiling or floor, every flat surface is a wall if the astronaut is floating at the right angle. On earth, ceilings are unused. It costs a lot of money to build, deploy and use a space station, why leave unused space?\n\nSecond, experiments are constantly changing, equipment gets upgraded, replaced or modified all the time. Nice neat organized cable runs slowly grow into a maze as cables and equipment get replaced. \n\nThird is it possible to hide a cable behind a panel, and make everything neat? Sure. But astronaut time in space is valuable, making it super neat isn't the best use of time. Removing cables to run them neatly means experiments have to be stopped, equipment has to be shutdown. \n\nFinally, if a cable was hidden behind a panel, what if it was a faulty cable, and an electrical fire was hidden behind a panel? with the wires exposed, hopefully damaged cables will be seen before something bad happens."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
7n4snj
|
how is yeast harvested?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7n4snj/eli5_how_is_yeast_harvested/
|
{
"a_id": [
"drz7tbj"
],
"score": [
8
],
"text": [
"Yeast is fairly easy to culture/cultivate, all you need to do is feed it sugars and a few key nutrients and minerals such as phosphate. Apparently it's common to use molasses as a food source for the yeast. \n\nInterestingly, yeast is considered a facultative anaerobe and it actually grows and multiplies best in the presence of oxygen, by carrying out aerobic respiration. It only switches to alcoholic fermentation if oxygen runs out, in such conditions it grows very slowly. However yeast has a much higher tolerance for alcohol than most organisms.\n\nThe yeast is taken from a small starter culture that's maintained in a lab under strict sterile conditions. The starter sample may be only a few grams. It's tested for quality, genentic purity, and the presence of other microorganisms.\n\nIt's transferred to a semi-seed step carried out in a sterilized vat of several hundred liters. The seed culture and a few dozen liters of a dilute nutrient solution are added. Oxygen is slowly bubbled through the solution to keep the yeast from producing alcohol which slows it's growth. Every few hours more nutrient solution is added, and the yeast multiplies rapidly. This takes around a week. The yeast multiplies from a few grams to several kilograms.\n\nThe semi-seed culture is then divided and transferred to large batch or \"trade\" culture tanks of hundreds of thousands or millions of liters. This may be done at a separate facility. The culture process is basically the same, but it's not practical to use perfectly sterile conditions at this point. Nutrient solution is added periodically, and air is bubbled through. The yeast grows from a kilogram or so, to dozens of tons. \n\nThe last step is to centrifugally filter the yeast from the tank solution, creating a thick yeast concentrate. This may be dried under controlled conditions, frozen, or bottled in liquid form."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
lwdk7
|
why is there the euro currency and why are powerful european economies supporting bad european economies?
|
Disclaimer: I'm a U.S citizen
I just don't understand the current Eurozone problems in general and am interested in why it was established in the first place.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lwdk7/eli5_why_is_there_the_euro_currency_and_why_are/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c2w3ug6",
"c2w3zse",
"c2w3ug6",
"c2w3zse"
],
"score": [
14,
13,
14,
13
],
"text": [
"You live in a house with 5 other people. For many years you have all bought food and paid rent in different currencies (dollars, pounds, yen etc), and debts between all of you were difficult to manage due to currency conversions and such. To compromise, you use a new currency which is common between all of you. This currency is the euro.\n\nNow, you have worked hard all your life, and have quite a bit of money stashed away. Your friend Greece works at his own shop, but he doesn't collect full payments most of the time, and is short on cash. The rent is due. If you don't pay the rent, you all go homeless. The only way Greece can pay the rent is if you, France, and your other rich friend, Germany, throw in a couple of bucks to help Greece out. By doing so however, you must spend a bit of money. This is the current situation.",
"Over the last millenium or so, Europe has not been the greatest place to live if you happen to like living peacfully. It's history has been one of countries endlessly invading one another, empires being built and destroyed and a general level of ambient carnage. This way of running a continent reached its bloodiest level in the last century and after the second of two world wars, the Europeans decided that enough was enough and that all this silly warmongering had to stop. To this end, the European nations who weren't currently being ruled by the Soviets formed a community: At first it was about collaborative trade in coal and steel (the ECSC), but over time the countries began to work closer and closer together, eventually forming what is known as the European Union. Primarily, this was a political and trading union designed to bring the member states closer together and ultimately reduces the chances of another war breaking out. However, after a while it took on a life of it's own.\n\nSeeing that the EU seemed to work rather well, some of the nations involved thought about taking the idea further and proposed a currency union known as the Eurozone. This would involve all those who signed up ditching their own currency and instead taking on a new one that was shared by it's neighbours. But why would they do this? Well, for one, it would make trade amongst European nations much easier as they wouldn't have to be constantly exchaging different currencies. On top of that, having a bunch of countries club together would give Europe a lot more clout. For example, the Franc could never go toe-to-toe with the dollar but maybe a currency based on the Franc, the Deutche Mark and numerous others could. In fact, there was serious talk for a time that the Euro could become the world's reserve currency, something that would give the Euro nations a massive advantage over other powers.\n\nSo that was the theory, but in practice things were a little different. For one, the Brits wanted nothing to do with it along with some other nations so it ended up with only some EU members being inside the Euro while some retained their own currency. Another thing about it was that it was quite different from other currencies for a number of reasons. For one, all the various members still had their own governments, their own finance ministers and set their own taxes while most currencies only answer to one central authority. Also, it's central bank didn't really have the sort of power we usually associate with the likes of the Federal Reserve. \n\nHaving said that, the Euro did seem to work for a good many years. Naturally, this lead to more nations being allowed to enter in the hope that it would grow even stronger and bind Europe closer together. While the world economy was ticking along ok, this was fine but when things went wrong it exposed an underbelly that the planners probably hadn't counted on:\n\n1. The countries involved were so diverse that no single currency could really serve all the members adequately. As a result, the strong economies ended up propping up the weaker ones and this began to grate on electorates.\n2. Because there is very little central authority, it's very hard to do things quickly, as is evident from the last year or so.\n3. No one really counted on the Greeks lying for many years about how much they had borrowed or quite how badly mauled some of the weaker nations would be by the economic crisis.\n\nSo yes, what was a very noble and highminded idea has become somewhat of a victim of reality and could actually be quite destabalising to Europe in the end, all of which would be tragic as it was part of a project to bring Europe together in the hope that peace could last.",
"You live in a house with 5 other people. For many years you have all bought food and paid rent in different currencies (dollars, pounds, yen etc), and debts between all of you were difficult to manage due to currency conversions and such. To compromise, you use a new currency which is common between all of you. This currency is the euro.\n\nNow, you have worked hard all your life, and have quite a bit of money stashed away. Your friend Greece works at his own shop, but he doesn't collect full payments most of the time, and is short on cash. The rent is due. If you don't pay the rent, you all go homeless. The only way Greece can pay the rent is if you, France, and your other rich friend, Germany, throw in a couple of bucks to help Greece out. By doing so however, you must spend a bit of money. This is the current situation.",
"Over the last millenium or so, Europe has not been the greatest place to live if you happen to like living peacfully. It's history has been one of countries endlessly invading one another, empires being built and destroyed and a general level of ambient carnage. This way of running a continent reached its bloodiest level in the last century and after the second of two world wars, the Europeans decided that enough was enough and that all this silly warmongering had to stop. To this end, the European nations who weren't currently being ruled by the Soviets formed a community: At first it was about collaborative trade in coal and steel (the ECSC), but over time the countries began to work closer and closer together, eventually forming what is known as the European Union. Primarily, this was a political and trading union designed to bring the member states closer together and ultimately reduces the chances of another war breaking out. However, after a while it took on a life of it's own.\n\nSeeing that the EU seemed to work rather well, some of the nations involved thought about taking the idea further and proposed a currency union known as the Eurozone. This would involve all those who signed up ditching their own currency and instead taking on a new one that was shared by it's neighbours. But why would they do this? Well, for one, it would make trade amongst European nations much easier as they wouldn't have to be constantly exchaging different currencies. On top of that, having a bunch of countries club together would give Europe a lot more clout. For example, the Franc could never go toe-to-toe with the dollar but maybe a currency based on the Franc, the Deutche Mark and numerous others could. In fact, there was serious talk for a time that the Euro could become the world's reserve currency, something that would give the Euro nations a massive advantage over other powers.\n\nSo that was the theory, but in practice things were a little different. For one, the Brits wanted nothing to do with it along with some other nations so it ended up with only some EU members being inside the Euro while some retained their own currency. Another thing about it was that it was quite different from other currencies for a number of reasons. For one, all the various members still had their own governments, their own finance ministers and set their own taxes while most currencies only answer to one central authority. Also, it's central bank didn't really have the sort of power we usually associate with the likes of the Federal Reserve. \n\nHaving said that, the Euro did seem to work for a good many years. Naturally, this lead to more nations being allowed to enter in the hope that it would grow even stronger and bind Europe closer together. While the world economy was ticking along ok, this was fine but when things went wrong it exposed an underbelly that the planners probably hadn't counted on:\n\n1. The countries involved were so diverse that no single currency could really serve all the members adequately. As a result, the strong economies ended up propping up the weaker ones and this began to grate on electorates.\n2. Because there is very little central authority, it's very hard to do things quickly, as is evident from the last year or so.\n3. No one really counted on the Greeks lying for many years about how much they had borrowed or quite how badly mauled some of the weaker nations would be by the economic crisis.\n\nSo yes, what was a very noble and highminded idea has become somewhat of a victim of reality and could actually be quite destabalising to Europe in the end, all of which would be tragic as it was part of a project to bring Europe together in the hope that peace could last."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
86mep8
|
why are police uniforms so unathletic/restrictive?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/86mep8/eli5_why_are_police_uniforms_so/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dw65c51",
"dw65cxr",
"dw65k00",
"dw65wg7",
"dw67esc",
"dw67ws3",
"dw683j4",
"dw687fh",
"dw68iqw"
],
"score": [
92,
8,
237,
16,
14,
2,
4,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"It's like the difference between a military dress uniform and a combat uniform.\n\nCombat uniforms are meant to be comfortable, light weight, and practical.\n\nDress uniforms are meant to project conformity and authority.\n\nIt's the same with the police, it's not about being practical, it's about what message the uniform is sending. \"I'm in charge, respect my authority\"",
"Well at least in my country, India, the police uniforms are a remnant of the colonial rule. The khaki uniforms used by the police are derived from the khaki uniforms that the sepoys of the British Indian Army started wearing back in the 19th century (iirc). \n\nAlso, imo a well-fitting suit allows you to easily run and jump, certainly not as much as say trackpants but it's not too restrictive.",
"Despite what you see on TV, police spend very little of their time chasing suspects on foot. Distinctive clothing and comfortable walking shoes are far more important than being able to run. Plus, they are wearing a belt with 10-20 lbs. of equipment on it, that's going to be a bigger impediment when running than tight pants. \n\nAlso, many suspects are young and fit and will be able to outrun police anyway, relying on group tactics and communication is much more effective than footspeed.",
"The outfit my fiancé was given was definitely restrictive, but he has slowly replaced his pants to be more like army combat uniforms, and he's upgraded his boots as well to ones that are waterproof (WHY are the provided boots not waterproof?!) and got an outer carrier for his vest so that he wasn't sweating to death. He's had to chase a few people, and apparently jump a few fences, so his new stuff must be working. \n\nHis uniform now looks very similar to the one that was provided when he was hired, but it's very different, because he's replaced things over the time he's been on the job. I think that they contract uniforms from the lowest bidder. I don't think it has anything to do with the fact that they think those clothes are best, and has everything to do with the financial aspect of it. ",
"90% of what police do is projecting the *appearance* of authority, safety, power, whatever. Actually chasing down the bad guys is a last resort - most crimes are managed or prevented altogether just by the presence of police, rather than them actually having to do anything.\n\nSo the goal of a police uniform is to be distinctive, uniform, and to give the appearance of power. After that's accomplished, functionality becomes important. It's most important overall that people see a police officer walking down the street, or driving around town, and can instantly identify him, because that's what will make the average person say \"It's not worth doing this, I'll get caught.\"",
"I would assume some special modifications were made in some of the fabric the shirt is made of fabric with elastic in it so it will bend when running, the pants also have some \"soft spots\" and the tie is a clip-on. Don't know for sure but this would be useful. I know ties in prisons is clip-on to avoid choking hazard",
"They are actually quite comfortable. I was a only a CO at the county jail but I was a deputy and wore it for seven years. The material is very flexible and aside from your shit you gotta wear on the belt everything else is very comfortable",
"The police uniforms they wear are actually not that restrictive. Maybe the dress uniforms but from my experience working with departments when they dress for field work the uniforms have spread in the right areas, reinforcement where needed, etc.",
"An officer in a track suit would be far less intimidating. Pulling your gun out and getting it caught on the draw string would be problematic."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
4hyfn7
|
can anything capable of sleeping also have the ability to dream?
|
My dog sometimes moves his legs like he is running in his sleep and will make noises. So I assume that's dreaming, but does this mean any animal that sleeps can also dream? Or is there a certain intellectual aspect/capacity that must be present in order for the process to occur?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4hyfn7/eli5_can_anything_capable_of_sleeping_also_have/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d2th47f"
],
"score": [
10
],
"text": [
"Tough to answer because what does 'sleep' mean? Is a bear hibernating sleeping? The late-fall spider that pretty much shuts down on cold near-zero nights, what is its brain doing and is that 'sleep'? Then you get into weird cases like dolphins that would drown if they went fully asleep so they only sleep with one-half of their brain at a time so they will always be conscious.\n\nWe have evidence from both our own eyes and from scientific measurements using brainwave monitors that higher-order animals like dogs and primates dream. That's well-known. But as you go down the intelligence tree, at some point you reach instinct-driven animals that either don't have enough brainpower to need to quiet-time mental recharge/archiving processes like us mammals do when dreaming, or they just don't do it at all (the platypus is an example, although Perry might have nightmares about Doofenschmirtz from time to time). They just kind of shut down during their rest periods instead, with the cut-off point at least partly determined by intelligence levels."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
4euo50
|
dr. strange
|
I have no idea what is going on and if he really is in reality.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4euo50/eli5_dr_strange/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d23i0o2",
"d23js33",
"d23lrrs"
],
"score": [
20,
6,
3
],
"text": [
"Dr. Strange is not in reality, he is in the Marvel Comic Universe (MCU). A tl;dr version of his history is that he was a big important doctor/scientist who ended up studying ancient Eastern mysticism for some reason and became a wizard. He will team up with the Avengers and other MCU characters in their solo movies outside of the Avengers and do weird (one might even say \"strange\") stuff to help them in their ongoing fight against evil.",
"He is the Sorcerer Supreme. The Wisdom of Yoda, Gandalf, and Dumbledore. The Powers of basically... God. And the bedside manner of Dr House. \n\nAnd he lives in Greenwich Village \n\n\nThis movie is going to open the door of Magic in the MCU. Before this it was explained by Thor \"Your Ancestors called in Magic, you call it Science. I come from a world where they are One and the same\" \n\nThis is magic magic. You also may see the Quantum Realm, end of Antman, it's a parallel for the Negative Zone. That is Strange's playground, but Fox owns the rights to the Negative zone. ",
"There is a decent animated movie of his origin story called Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme if you like what you're hearing from people in this thread and want to see more!"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1tfkia
|
is it possible to domesticate reindeer/deer/moose/elk/etc to ride and carry loads and why hasn't it been done already?
|
I'm not sure what subreddit this really belongs in.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tfkia/is_it_possible_to_domesticate/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ce7f6ph",
"ce7ga4l",
"ce7go0t"
],
"score": [
11,
6,
2
],
"text": [
"Reindeer are domesticated and have been, in Siberia, for a very long time. Same with elk. Here's a domesticated reindeer pulling a sled: _URL_0_\n\nEDIT: According to this Wikipedia page, there were attempts in the USSR in the 30s to have moose cavalry but this project was interrupted by WWII: _URL_1_",
"Most members of the deer family are too skittish to be easily domesticated. They tend to freak out in enclosed spaces or when handled, to the point they injury themselves.\n\nLarger deer, such as moose, caribou, and elk, can be domesticated to a limited degree. They tend to be picky eaters who need a wide range for foods, so it is prohibitively expensive to keep them penned. They are typically allowed to roam on large ranches or in the wilderness.",
"_URL_0_\n \nReindeer. 12,000BC\n \nA portable food source (Meat/milk). A useful beast of burden. Fur for clothing. \nThis animal makes a lot of sense. It makes more sense than a dog. Can't milk a dog (Unless you want to insert South Park jokes), and it's a lousy beast of burden. \n\nSome people say \"The Dog(wolf)\". This is largely incorrect. The wolf was TAMED long ago, but it was not domesticated. It is a fundamentally different concept. Wolves were not dependant on humans to survive (Hence tamed). Reindeer became dependant (Hence domesticated)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-HtkUQtYGM",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kostroma_Moose_Farm"
],
[],
[
"http://wildlife-nature.knoji.com/what-was-the-first-animal-to-be-domesticated/"
]
] |
|
3vmwa5
|
how does my body know to wake me up at night if my arm falls asleep?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3vmwa5/eli5_how_does_my_body_know_to_wake_me_up_at_night/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cxowwwo"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"While asleep, your brain sends periodic \"pings\" to each of your limbs to check that they're still there and functioning. When you pinch a nerve while asleep, the ping doesn't come back, and your brain starts up enough of your processing capability to fix the problem."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
tobwo
|
what is the bill process in a nutshell?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/tobwo/what_is_the_bill_process_in_a_nutshell/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c4obdk0",
"c4odo1h"
],
"score": [
3,
4
],
"text": [
"I'm just a bill, yeah I'm only a bill.\nAnd I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill....",
"Nutshell version: The same bill needs to pass the House and the Senate with a majority vote in each, then get signed by the president, in order to become law. There's a ton of complexity on top of that.\n\nExtended version:\n\nFirst of all, when a bill in introduced into either the House or the Senate, it will usually get sent to a committee (or possibly more than one for large bills). Each chamber has about 20 standing - that is, more or less permanent - committees, which deal with different issue areas. There's one for education, one for agriculture, one for veteran's affairs, etc. The bill might also get sent to a subcommittee within a committee, which deals with even more specific issue areas within the general committee's issue area. The members of the committees and subcommittees usually care more about the issue - members of the agricultural committee often come from districts with a larger farm population, for instance - and usually will have more knowledge and experience on the issue than the rest of the members in Congress (insert reddit cynicism here). It's a system of dividing the workload, and building expertise. A lot of the time, the committee will do nothing at all with a bill - it'll not be considered, and it'll be dead. Other times, the committees will gather info on the subject, possibly hold hearings on the topic, and often will get lobbied by citizen groups, businesses, or whoever has an interest in seeing a bill pass or fail. If the bill passes committee, it'll usually make it to the floor of Congress to be considered by everyone, although the leadership of each chamber can decide to kill it, as well.\n\nSo bills considered by the entire chamber get a set of rules attached to them. The process is a little different for the two chambers, but a bill can have amendments proposed to it or none allowed, or can be limited in how much debate it gets, things like that. Rules in the House are usually more restrictive, but the Senate rules are a bit more free, even in general. A lot of the day-to-day operations in the Senate rely on \"unanimous consent\", so a single Senator can slow things down by objecting to a bill even coming to the floor (the threat of doing so is called a hold). Also, there are no time limits to how long a Senator can hold the floor, so if a Senator can hold up a bill by not giving up the floor once he gets it - this is called a filibuster. Both can be broken up with a \"cloture vote\", which requires 60 votes, instead of a simple majority, at which point debate gets limited to 30 hours (so, even unsuccessful filibusters are a giant hassle). This is why a lot of people talk about the Senate requiring a supermajority to get anything passed.\n\nOnce on the floor, congressmen will debate the bill and sometimes offer amendments and hold votes on them. The bill can fail to get a majority, in which case it dies, or it can get sent back to committee. Or, of course, it can pass. Once one chamber passes it, the process starts over in the other chamber. What often ends up happening is that the second chamber will make changes to the version of the bill passed by the first chamber. Either the first chamber can choose to accept those changes and pass that version of the bill (then the bill's done in Congress), or it can urge the second chamber to reconsider its amendments and pass the original version, or both chambers can choose several members to meet together in a \"conference committee\". Those members try to hammer out a compromise between the two versions of the bill. If both chambers approve the conference committee report and the version of the bill they produce, the bill is finally passed by Congress.\n\nAfter Congress is done, the bill gets sent to the president. Most often, he will sign it, and it will become a law. He can also choose to veto it, or reject it, in which case it gets sent back to Congress. They have the option of overriding the veto, which requires a two-thirds vote, instead of a simple majority, in both the House and the Senate, in which case the bill becomes a law. Or, they can make changes to the bill, passing it in the same process as above, and try to create something the president will support. The president can also choose to do nothing. If Congress is in session, after 10 days, the bill becomes law with or without the president's signature. If Congress adjourns during those ten days, though, having no signature kills the bill with no chance of being overridden - this is called a \"pocket veto\".\n\nThere's a lot I left out - there are two really important committees in each of the House and the Senate that deal with raising money (i.e., making taxes), and then applying money to specific programs. A bill can be weakened if its programs aren't properly funded. I also haven't mentioned parties at all, which obviously have a lot of power to coordinate actions in Congress. Party leadership chooses who gets on what committee, and who gets to chair them (usually it's based on seniority, but parties can crack down on disloyal members). They can threaten members to vote a certain way by using campaign money, or a lack thereof, and they can coordinate logrolls (i.e., you vote for his bill, he'll vote for yours). 50-70 years ago, committees and committee chairs were king; at certain points in history, certain chairmanships were considered more powerful than being Speaker of the House, or with only a little exaggeration, than the president. That's been reversed lately - in certain cases, party leaders will even skip the committee process entirely, or stretch the issue jurisdictions of a committee, to get a better outcome."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
2mp5ng
|
if i recover from a cold/flu, am i immune to it forever
|
I know that the viruses mutate a lot, which is why each year I can get a different cold or flu strain, but am I still immune to colds that I had 10-20 years ago?
If I stored a sample under lab conditions such that it couldn't mutate, and then after 20 years infected myself with it again, would my body notice "hey, it's that cold from 2014, release the antibodies"?
Would it provide any protection to slightly similar viruses? Do old people have a catalogue of previous immunities protecting them from colds, or is it mostly useless because the strains are always different?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mp5ng/eli5_if_i_recover_from_a_coldflu_am_i_immune_to/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cm6aa3y",
"cm6ab6s"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"That specific strain yes you would become immune to",
"No, your immune system has a \"memory\", it must be stimulated to keep information.\nThis is why people traveling must always show that their vaccines are updated even if 30 years ago they already got it.\n\nSometime different viruses are still similar enough to be recognized as a old threat, but sometime not. \n\nOld people are even more fragile because their immune system is \"tired and old\" too."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.