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3tr2a9
|
i thought vegetables were healthy. why are they so low in calories and vitamins?
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tr2a9/eli5_i_thought_vegetables_were_healthy_why_are/
|
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"You need at least some Vitamin A and Vitamin C, and you won't get it without some vegetables.\n\nThat aside, it is precisely because they have almost no calories that they're healthy. The biggest food risk for 1st worlders is overeating calories.",
"The info on a nutritional facts sheet is not a full list of vitamins and minerals you actually need to be a healthy human. There are also compounds that aren't essential, but are beneficial.\n\nVegetables can provide some of those vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial compounds. And they generally provide that nutrition *without* excess fats or sugars, making for a healthier diet overall.",
"There's some decent vitamin and mineral content. Fiber is a big part of what makes them good for you, as does their capacity for filling you up and keeping you from eating carb/fat/protein loaded foods in their place.",
"The nutrition facts label does not even come close to the variety of nutrients in vegetables and fruits. \n\n[As of October 2010, the only micronutrients that are required to be included on all labels are vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, and iron](_URL_0_)\n\nThe good news is that a more comprehensive list is usually available online. For example, [here is a lot of information on Avocados.](_URL_2_)\n\nIf you're specifically looking for very nutrient-dense foods, I would go with nuts. [Nuts are an excellent source of vitamin E and magnesium. Individuals consuming nuts also have higher intakes of folate, β-carotene, vitamin K, lutein+zeaxanthin, phosphorus, copper, selenium, potassium, and zinc per 1000 kcal. Regular nut consumption increases total energy intake by 250 kcal/d (1.05 MJ/d), but the **body weight of nut consumers is not greater than that of nonconsumers**](_URL_1_)",
"Everyone already listed the nutritional facts, but I'll answer a different question you asked: *How is this supposed to fill you up?*\n\nVolume, buddy. My bf is under the same misconception. Your stomach recognizes volume, not calories. ~~That's why so many people can eat themselves into obesity; calorie-dense foods will feel the same as low-calorie foods. For example, 3 ounces of potato chips and 3 ounces of an apple will have the same volume, but that's 450 calories vs 45 calories.~~\n\n\nIf you really want to get down to it, here's another fact: your stomach doesn't even absorb the calories. That's the [small intestine's job](_URL_0_).\n\nEdited because I previously said \"mass\" instead of \"volume.\" Thanks, Guyuter, for correcting me. Also, please read the replies to me because, as people have explained, it is more complicated than just volume. The fullness feeling is still not dependent on actual calories though, which was the main point I wanted to make.",
"the other thing that hasn't been mentioned here is FIBRE! Vegetables contain a whole whack of stuff that helps with the digestion of food and the expulsion of the aftermath! Making sure you have enough fibre in your diet is very important for healthy BMs.",
"they aren't low in vitamins/minerals. it may look that way on paper compared to an energy drink or multivitamin, but your body can't really absorb the vitamins in those, most is eliminated through urine. \n\nvitamins are only good for you if you can actually absorb them. the vitamins in vegetables are easily absorbed.\n\nthose nutrition facts you linked to are missing a lot of data. they have to fit them on the package so they only mention the main vitamins/minerals.",
"The nutritional information label doesn't come anywhere *near* listing everything an item of food contains, or the human body needs. It lists the broad categories of things that various diets seek to moderate. \n\nExample. Consuming one cup of cooked, canned pumpkin would provide well over 100% of your daily needs for vitamin A, 20% of the daily value for vitamin C, 10% or more for vitamin E, riboflavin, potassium, copper and manganese and at least 5% for thiamin, B-6, folate, pantothenic acid, niacin, iron, magnesium, and phosphorus.\n\nHowever when broken down into the categories of fat, sugar, carbohydrates and salt, that same cup of pumpkin would appear nutritionally empty. \n\nVegetables are good for you *because* they aren't filled with all the crap that gets listed in the nutritional information label. ",
"If you're talking about US listed vitamin and nutrition information, they're only allowed to print the actual TESTED numbers for vitamin and mineral content but REQUIRED to print the calorie, fat, sodium and all other \"bad\" stats. What we end up with is bottles of orange juice that have no listed vitamin C but 0% daily fats and sodium.\n\nGenerally it is impossible to actually accurately label vegetable matter for nutritional content, it can vary greatly depending on the soil/fluid nutrient content, the plant's health and even the color of the sunlight coming through the roof of a greenhouse. Some of the brightest colored peppers you'll find in the store have such poor content because the average shopper considers the color to indicate the quality of the food.\n\nThis simply isn't true, I've seen darkish asparagus which was starved of all but maganese and iron. Terrible tasting and actually bad for you. Flip that to some tomatos that are ugly and poorly colored and have nearly twice the nutritional content of the best beefsteaks.\n\nSo they'll list the caloric content and some basic nutrient info about vitamins and the mandatory listed/tested stats like sodium, saturated fats, total fats and so-on. But if the orange juice company proves that their orange juice is orange juice - that's the end of their responsibility for positive nutrition information on the package.\n\nNow Europe, on the other hand, probably has regulations on ground-soil nutrient conditions and moisture for parsley just in case someone eats their garnish. I kid you not, there are laws blocking import of odd shapes or non-standard sizes of fruits and vegetables in Europe. Things have to be sampled and have a broader nutritional content information listed, not just bads but goods as well.\n\nIf you go to Europe and try to buy an american boxed american cereal... it will have its US nutrient info stickered over and many of the box declarative claims will be either replaced/removed or covered with stickers because they simply cannot be made under European law.",
"The vegetables contained inside could also be very limited compared to the complete vegetable spectrum. Some vegetables have more or less calories than others. This vegetable tray also contains fruit.",
"Nutrient labels are limited to a very narrow range of vitamins and minerals, when in reality there are hundreds of compounds and micronutrients that your body needs. Vegetables are full of fiber which helps your body flush out toxins (and also feeds the good bacteria in your microbiome which then turn the fiber into usable calories and nutrients). Not to mention the high load of antioxidants. \n\nMoral of the story, nutrition labels don't tell you anything you need to know about nutrition.",
"It's because vegetables are so dense in vitamins for their caloric weight. 25 calories of vegetables can have the same nutrition spread as a 250 calorie cookie. \n\nThey're considered healthy because it's hard to get tons of calories from them. You can graze on salad all day and as long as you're not adding all kinds of unhealthy things you'll feel full and lose weight. "
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"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3664913/"
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46d5tw
|
if a pill has a recommend dosage for an average person of, say, 120lbs, would the dosage be doubled for a 240lb man, or is it always the same?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46d5tw/eli5_if_a_pill_has_a_recommend_dosage_for_an/
|
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"Depends on the drug and its mechanism of action. But yes, most drugs do scale with body weight in terms of dosage up to a point.",
"Neither. And I wish I could say there's a general rule, but there isn't. Drugs are so varied with how they work that it is entirely dependent on the pill. \n\nHowever there are some things to keep in mind, like: \n\n1. A 240 pound person has twice the mass as a 120 pound person, but not twice everything. Bones, organs, nerve function, etc, are more or less constant between the two people, despite the difference in mass. Ergo a heart pill will likely be the same dose.\n\n2. Many drug manufacturers use different kinds of release agents and binders, which may be fat soluble. Therefore a heavy person could require more than a double dose, since they may have more than twice the fat.\n\n3. General fitness plays a roll in the effectiveness of drugs as well. If you are 120 pounds of pure waterlogged fat vs 240 pounds of NFL quarterback, there are very different ways that a drug will interact with your body. \n\n4. Many drugs are meant to effect one specific thing, and they do that by traveling along your bloodstream until they get to that specific thing. A larger person has a lot more blood and stream, so they may require a larger dose to make sure enough of the drug reaches its destination, but probably not twice the amount. "
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1qz99k
|
how do things get that new smell? is that what predominantly manufacturing countries smell like?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qz99k/eli5_how_do_things_get_that_new_smell_is_that/
|
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1rx1yc
|
the new proposed changes to how the bcs conducts championship game selection.
|
I'm sort of a newcomer to college football and am trying to catch up on how championship game contenders are chosen. And while I've been in the process of learning this, I also learned that there are new changes being proposed. Can anyone explain the current system of selection, the proposed changes, and the reason for these changes?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rx1yc/eli5_the_new_proposed_changes_to_how_the_bcs/
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"Current System:\nThe national championship is determined in a single game after the regular season. The voters of two polls (The Associate Press Top 25, and a new poll created for the purpose called the Harris Interactive Poll) pick the teams that will play in the national championship game directly by voting them 1 and 2 in their polls. Only those two teams have any chance of winning the championship. \n\nIn the event of disagreement between the two polls, a bunch of ratings formulas (referred to as \"the computers\") are used to settle the disagreement. If the polls agree, the computers are irrelevant. \n\nThe two teams picked by the polls play in a national title game. \n\nFlaws: \nIf there are more than two deserving teams, the 'outside' teams don't get a chance to settle the matter on the field. \nBecause humans pick the teams that play in the championship game (rather than it being settled 'on the field') the system is vulnerable to politicking, bias, and incompetence. The polls are notorious for being controversial and flawed. Before the \"Alliance\" efforts that produced the BCS, the polls *regularly* split the national championship (ie, they couldn't actually pick a national champion). \nThe current system heavily favors schools that have large, active fanbases. \n\nNew system:\nInstead of a single game, the new format will have a three-game playoff (two semifinal games and a final) with four teams. Instead of a set of polls backed up by computers, a selection committee will be assembled - like that used by the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and the Division I-AA (FCS now) Football Tournament both use. The committee is a group of experts who have spent the entire season studying college football, and are nominally experts on the teams. The committee will select 4 teams and seed them (just like in the Men's Basketball and I-AA Football Tournament), and those four teams will then have a playoff of three games. To win the national title, teams must win two games in the post-season instead of one. \n\nThis has the advantage of allowing four teams, and also eliminating the dependence on the polls entirely (polls have no direct role in selection to the 'tournament'). \n\nFlaws:\nFour is twice as good as two, but Division I-AA has a 32-team playoff. Imagine a 32-team college football playoff. That would be the biggest sporting event in the country, it would make the super bowl look like a joke. \n\nThe reason for the changes is that the issue that the BCS was designed to solve (\"who is the national champion\") was unsolved - there are still split national championships, which implies that it wasn't doing what it was supposed to do, so it needed to change. \n\nThat's the \"politics\" reason - the real reason is that the TV networks convinced the big football school Presidents that they were leaving money on the table by not having a playoff. "
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p7r2o
|
- why is it bad for money to have a fixed value over time?
|
What's the harm in a dollar's worth being constant? Why is an inflation rate of zero bad?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/p7r2o/eli5_why_is_it_bad_for_money_to_have_a_fixed/
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"I'm really not an economist, so take this with a huge grain of salt. \n\nMy understanding is that inflation is OK, but delfation is REALLY bad. It's bad because everybody starts thinking \"if I buy it next year, it will be cheaper\" and nobody buys anything, which tanks the economy.\n\nSince economic predictions and the effects of adjustments you can make (changing interest rates, etc) are hard to predict, they aim a little high (2-3% inflation). That way if inflation is lower than they expected it would be, it still isn't deflation.\n",
"Having inflation increases investment, it makes it disadvantageous for you to have tons of cash just laying around. In fact a big problem now is that companies and people are hoarding cash, with inflation there's a big push to invest in things such as an expansion or hiring new employees, because you effectively lose money if you do nothing with it. \n\n0% inflation isn't necessarily bad, its just not optimal, but negative inflation is terrible and was one of the biggest issues in the Depression. Farmers were burning their crops because the prices were so low it wasn't even worth selling them, while people in the cities starved. You can see something similar today with the housing market, where no one wants to buy because the prices keep falling. ",
"Zero inflation is not bad per se.\n\nWhat worries economists is that zero inflation might shift backwards to a deflation, which when accompanied with high public debt becomes worrisome. They are thus more comfortable with a low steady inflation rate.\n\n",
"Money by itself isn't worth anything (it's not really worth much even if backed by gold because you can't do much with gold either), so it's value depends on what others value money at. So you have to influence how people value money.\n\nEven if you keep a dollar's value \"constant\" it won't be constant, because people use dollars as the other end of an exchange for all sorts of goods. The value of a dollar when used for, say, postal stamps has probably changed much differently than that same dollar exchanged for college education, so there isn't a true \"constant\".\n\nSo we typically compare the dollar's value to some \"standard\" basket of goods that we pretty much expect all people to buy in some quantity (gas, food, utilities, etc.) ... this is the Consumer Price Index (or various other forms ... if you compare currencies it is Purchasing Power Parity, as in, how much of these \"standard goods\" can the Indian Rupee buy compared to the US Dollar). Now, a lot of these things (food, gas, utilities) we're going to have to buy no matter what and deal with it and so if inflation is too high then people are actually losing their spending power, even if they're earning more dollars. Other things (cars, appliances, entertainment) can largely be discretionary, so we choose when we buy them. If our current dollar is going to buy slightly less car tomorrow than today (inflation), I'm more inclined to buy that car today. If my dollar is going to buy slightly *more* car tomorrow than today (deflation), I'll wait until tomorrow ... but tomorrow I may have the same dilemma, so I may never (rationally) buy the car (though at some point I'll likely just buy the damn car). Deflation is bad because it rationally directs people on a large scale not to contribute to the economy.\n\nIf the dollar were \"constant\", it wouldn't be \"constant\" against all goods (because of the stamp example). Also, lots of factors change dollar valuation independently for various goods (when MP3 came out, the value of a dollar vs. Discmans plummeted, whereas population increases has made college inflate through the roof), and it's really hard for the Fed to control the movement of the dollar. So, their basic principle is to avoid deflation ... after that, control inflation ... so their target is *slight* inflation.",
"Thanks for your input everybody. Still having a bit of mental confusion on this.\n\nWhat would happen if the whole world had an inflation rate of zero? ie a candy bar today would cost the same as a candy bar in 30 years. Economically wouldn't things just be more stable?",
"To ELI5,\n\n\nMoney is in itself a commodity. Although most us only see money as something we use to buy other, more useful things; Money itself is also bought and sold, is also affected by supply and demand, etc. Just like the value of all other goods and services do up and down, so does Money itself.\n\n\n\n(The Money supply constantly changes, as new currency is minted, people lose change, banks create and loan 'easy money', etc, the more money that exists, the less a single dollar is worth for example)\n(Money is bought and sold and traded between people in different countries. If you want to go on a holiday overseas, and need some of their currency to buy things; You basically have to find someone willing to swap their money with your money, hence buying money itself. And different people are willing to sell you different amounts of money at different prices.)\n\n\n\nAll that basically means is that the value of money cannot be fixed, it's gonna change no matter what. I don't see how it could be made to be fixed, or what reason it would be a good idea. \n\n---\nInflation is just another thing that affects the value of money and is ultimately the culmination of the other things affecting it. Inflation is neither good or bad, it has both positive and negative affects. ",
"1. Generally, workers resist cuts in nominal wages. Basically, this means that workers don't want to make less money than they did the year before. However, workers workers are less resistant to cuts in real wages. In other words, if I get a 1% wage decrease at 0% inflation, I'll be really sad because I'm making less money. However, if the inflation is at 5%, and I get a 4% wage increase, basically the same thing happened (my ability to purchase has gone down by 1%) but the amount of money has still gone up. A small amount of inflation allows this to happen.\n\n2. Inflation allows for a negative real interest rate. If inflation is at 4% and you invest money with a 1% interest rate, you're actually losing money (in terms of how much you can buy), but it is still preferable to simply holding onto the money. Interest rates never fall below zero (because if interest rates are negative, you'd just hold on to the money). So there is no equivalent if inflation is at 0%.\n\n3. It would cost a lot to get to 0% inflation because it would require reducing inflation from where it is now, which requires a period of high unemployment and low output.\n\nI think I used some terms that people might be unfamiliar with, so feel free to ask me to clarify anything I said!",
"In order to understand this, you need to understand what is called the [impossible or inconsistent trinity](_URL_0_), which consists of free capital flow, fixed exchange rates, and independent monetary policy. The idea behind this is that at any given time, those in control of a currency's value can have 2 of the three corners of the triangle, and must base their monetary policy on attempting to change the third variable to maintain favorable conditions for the other two corners.\n\nFor example, the US wants to have free capital flow & independent monetary policy, to allow for easier trade agreements, & to be able to control their own money. Thus, they must allow their exchange rate to fluctuate freely in order to stay in the global economic game. In contrast, China wants to have Free Capital Flow & a Fixed Exchange rate, so they must base their monetary policy (basically the amount of money in their economy) around keeping the exchange rate constant with the free flow of capital.\n\nSo, it's not necessarily that it's *bad* for money to have a fixed value over time (which is, in and of itself, an arguable point), but that it's unrealistic to be able to have money that has a fixed value, because there will always be changing trade circumstances, and in order to maintain the balance in the inconsistent triangle, a government has to allow either their exchange rate or money supply to fluctuate, unless they want to negatively affect their economy's ability to trade. Both a change in exchange rate & a change in money supply affect the relative value of money through shifts in either the supply or demand for currency.",
"Imagine your dollar is an apple. Inflation is like rot.\n\nIn a world without the rotting, if you have an apple, it would still be an apple tomorrow. If you loan the apple to your friend Sally so she can plant the seeds and grow an apple tree, in a few years she will come back to you with a lot of apples.\n\nIn a world with rot where you have an apple, if you don't do anything the apple will go bad. You can still loan the apple to your friend Sally, and she can still come back to you in a few years with a lot of apples in return.\n\nIn either case, you will want to loan the apple to your friend Sally. Unless you are hungry. Then you should eat the apple.\n\nIn the real world, the rot is actually the central bank taking a bite out of your apple slowly, forcing you to make a decision. If you do nothing, you won't have an apple anymore (which many people view as evil, because it isn't the central bank's apple). It does force you to either eat the apple or loan it to Sally.",
"What money, (goats,gold,pens,rocks) that you can think of, would be stable long term?",
"It's bad for the Government because inflation is an invisible tax. The Gvt. prints more money when they need to and that is how they steal from the people without them realizing it.",
"It's not. Reinstate the gold standard, get the fed out of our business, and enjoy some prosperity."
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215gsp
|
what is the destruction of a modern nuclear missile?
|
With the potentional for a pseudo-cold war, it made me curious, what is the destruction potential for a modern nuclear missile owned by Russia or the US? What is the radius in which things would be obliterated on detonation? How far would the "winds" spread? The fires?
Edit: I can haz spel check.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/215gsp/eli5_what_is_the_destruction_of_a_modern_nuclear/
|
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"You can have a bit of fun with [this simulator](_URL_2_). The most powerful bomb was the russian [Tsar Bomba](_URL_0_) with about 50000 [kt](_URL_1_) allegedly causing 'total destruction' in a radius of 22 miles. Hiroshima and Nagasaki was about ~20 kt if you want to compare."
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[] |
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TNT_equivalent",
"http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/gmap/hydesim.html"
]
] |
|
2oj4tv
|
cerebral palsy
|
Why it is, what about it makes people that way, what has been found to help/fix it?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2oj4tv/eli5_cerebral_palsy/
|
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"CP is a disease of the Central Nervious System characterized by poor cordination of muscle groups that seem to be caused by garbled communication along nerve pathways to the motor cortex of the brain and to reflex arcs in the spinal chord. This causes poor muscle tone, spasisticity and rigidity that can affect one side or upper or lower extremities at a time. It can also hamper hearing and speech and can be associated with intellectual delay or impairment.\n\nMost of the time the condition is caused by anoxia at birth either caused by immature lungs in premature infants or trauma during birth. These results in leasons in the motor cortex of the brain and the subsequent development of muscles and their proper function is impaired.\n\nThere are characteristic mannerisms of people with CP that seem to be present in mild and severe cases. A scissors gait and poor cordiantion of arms and legs and differences in strength between the side or extremity affected is appearent. Limbs affected are often atrophied and otherwise less developed. When the speech muscles are affected, poor articulation of speech and grimacing facial gestures are seen. This can be worse if it is accompanied by auditory impairment or intellectual impairment.\n\nTreatment is quite variable. A common result of CP is excessive tightness of tendons in the affected extremities that have not been stimulated to keep growing with the bones and muscles around them. It is common to use surgical proceedures to improve movement.\n\nThere is at least one proceedure for Spastic Diplegia, which affects one or both legs and feet, in which a reflex arc is cut in the spinal chord to reduce rigidity. The rigidty and spasitity often results in tight achilles and hamstrings that presents a toe walking gait in which the patient can't plant his/her heel, as well as an impaired gait and balance. I have not discussed all varients of the disease which can be totally debilitating in the worse cases where the person is wheelcair bound. Many people with CP have no intellectual problems at all. "
]
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|
2ij0lp
|
it seems like whenever there is a really bad car wreck, if anyone survives, it's the driver. why is that?
|
I've seen it happen in dozens of news stories and I cant figure out why.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ij0lp/eli5_it_seems_like_whenever_there_is_a_really_bad/
|
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"Though I cant back it up, I would imagine a large portion of vehicles only have 1 occupant which would skew the statistics, or at least the perception. There's probably more safety features in cars for the driver because of this too...\n\nLike how they say you're more likely to get into a wreck within 10 miles of your home but that's because that's where you do the vast majority of your driving.",
"In modern cars the front seat, where the driver sits, generally has more airbags. Compared to the passenger, the driver also has slightly more protection in front due to the presence of the collapsible steering wheel.\n\n(Fun fact: in the 1950s the driver was likely to die because the steering column was not collapsible.)"
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n43fk
|
explain this, if we made a stick 600 light years long, put it in between two space stations floating around a planet. if we pushed one end of the stick up about 1 inch, would the other space station get that signal instantly, or would it take time to get to him?
|
If said space station managed to stay perfectly aligned is a point to discuss, but say the space station ARE managing to stay perfectly aligned and nothing hit the stick, such as another planet or meteor(Or whatever the correct term is).
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/n43fk/eli5_explain_this_if_we_made_a_stick_600_light/
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"it would take MUCH longer than 600 years to get there becuase the wood would act almost like water, sending a \"wave\" through it, and even if this was some magical material that its not flexible at all it would take the minimum of 600 light years for the wave to travel through it",
"Unfortunately, unless Einstein messed up, you can't send information faster than the speed of light.\n\nWhen you're pushing on that stick, it actually does take time for the \"push\" to reach the other side depends on the material properties of the stick. If, for example, the stick was really floppy like a string, if you wiggle the string, you can see that the \"wiggle\" will take some time to get to the other side. The more rigid the material is, the faster the \"wiggle\" will go across.\n\nIf you have a perfectly rigid object, then yeah the signal will go across at the speed of light. But it won't be instantaneous.\n\nWhy? Because objects on a small scale are not continuous - they're a bunch of molecules that have some interaction with each other. For example an iron rod has a bunch of iron atoms a particular distance from each other - close enough so that they can bond together (the reason for this distance is so that they can delocalize their electrons, but this is above a ELI5 level), and far enough so that the charges in the atoms don't repel each other.\n\nSo if you push on one end of this iron rod, the 1st bunch of atoms you push on will get too close to the a bunch of atoms in the next slice of the rod, too close for comfort, so the 2nd slice of atoms will move away from the 1st, causing it to get close to the 3rd, etc. until it goes all the way down. On a small scale, this is pretty fast. But on a larger scale (e.g. 600 light years), the \"push\" will be propagated down the rod like a wave that travels, at maximum, the speed of light. ",
"As mattymck said, you need to think of this \"push\" similar to a wave in water. If you push a stick, the other end doesn't move instantly. It moves at the spend of light. Saying it moves instantly is like thinking light moves instantly. Just because our eyes can't perceive the push (or light) over such a small distance doesn't make it instantaneous.\n\nI think this error is a result of the name \"speed of light,\" as it should more aptly be called, \"the speed limit of the universe.\" It is the maximum speed of _all_ things. Light does not _set_ this speed; light is confined to this speed.",
"In order for the movement to get translated from one space station to another, the stick would have to be infinitely rigid. Every material has some degree of flexibility which is why the wave that mattmck mentioned would be the way that the 1 inch movement would go from one end to the other.",
"I read the other explanations, but here is my 5 year old version. A stick isn't a single solid object. Instead it is made up of atoms which are too small to see. It would be like comparing ........ to ___. What happens when you move the stick is that the first atom touches the next one which touches the one after it and so on which moves a wave of energy along the entire stick near the speed of light. Although that seems instantaneous on small scales like when you use a stick to poke someone, on large scales like light years it can take a very long time for an action on one end of the stick to have a reaction on the other end.",
"Even the movement of the stick (ignoring issues like compressability and such, which just cloud the discussion) travels at most at the speed of light, so, while the stick on your end has been moved an inch, that movement still needs to travel (in this case, for 600 years).",
"What if the stick was infinitely rigid? Meaning it would be impossible to compress it even **1/10^10^10^10^10^1.1** of a mile.",
"I've always wondered about this. You guys never cease to impress me!",
"when you push on the surface of an object, you push just on the surface. push a jello block and notice how it bunches up or compresses like a spring. solids are like super fast jello. remember that everything is made up of smaller parts, so you arent just pushing one object, you're pushing on little objects that push on little objects",
"This kind of wave travels at the speed of sound, not light, so it would be much more efficient to use the radio.",
"Woah, **[everything is a wave!](_URL_0_)**",
"How rigid is the stick?\n\nIf I push something floppy on one side the other side doesn't instantly move. If I push something rigid it looks \"instant\" to us, but it isn't really. \n\nWe typically don't make big rigid things (not even in the km range) because they're too sensitive to being broken in another direction. The earth itself has earthquakes and so on which will easily break those things. Also, they expand & contract with heat, making it even more fragile.\n\nFor some details on long actual bits, look up how railways (especially high-speed rail) handle having a track somewhere that's a few percent longer in summer than in winter.",
"[I'm just going to leave this here](_URL_0_)",
"The [Slinky Drop](_URL_0_) kind of deals with this issue in reverse. The same way that the bottom of the slinky doesn't fall until the top reaches it, is the same way that the top of the stick won't move until the wave travels through the stick. ",
"That's gotta be one HUGE planet: two space stations in orbit around it and they're 600 light years apart.",
"it would take MUCH longer than 600 years to get there becuase the wood would act almost like water, sending a \"wave\" through it, and even if this was some magical material that its not flexible at all it would take the minimum of 600 light years for the wave to travel through it",
"Unfortunately, unless Einstein messed up, you can't send information faster than the speed of light.\n\nWhen you're pushing on that stick, it actually does take time for the \"push\" to reach the other side depends on the material properties of the stick. If, for example, the stick was really floppy like a string, if you wiggle the string, you can see that the \"wiggle\" will take some time to get to the other side. The more rigid the material is, the faster the \"wiggle\" will go across.\n\nIf you have a perfectly rigid object, then yeah the signal will go across at the speed of light. But it won't be instantaneous.\n\nWhy? Because objects on a small scale are not continuous - they're a bunch of molecules that have some interaction with each other. For example an iron rod has a bunch of iron atoms a particular distance from each other - close enough so that they can bond together (the reason for this distance is so that they can delocalize their electrons, but this is above a ELI5 level), and far enough so that the charges in the atoms don't repel each other.\n\nSo if you push on one end of this iron rod, the 1st bunch of atoms you push on will get too close to the a bunch of atoms in the next slice of the rod, too close for comfort, so the 2nd slice of atoms will move away from the 1st, causing it to get close to the 3rd, etc. until it goes all the way down. On a small scale, this is pretty fast. But on a larger scale (e.g. 600 light years), the \"push\" will be propagated down the rod like a wave that travels, at maximum, the speed of light. ",
"As mattymck said, you need to think of this \"push\" similar to a wave in water. If you push a stick, the other end doesn't move instantly. It moves at the spend of light. Saying it moves instantly is like thinking light moves instantly. Just because our eyes can't perceive the push (or light) over such a small distance doesn't make it instantaneous.\n\nI think this error is a result of the name \"speed of light,\" as it should more aptly be called, \"the speed limit of the universe.\" It is the maximum speed of _all_ things. Light does not _set_ this speed; light is confined to this speed.",
"In order for the movement to get translated from one space station to another, the stick would have to be infinitely rigid. Every material has some degree of flexibility which is why the wave that mattmck mentioned would be the way that the 1 inch movement would go from one end to the other.",
"I read the other explanations, but here is my 5 year old version. A stick isn't a single solid object. Instead it is made up of atoms which are too small to see. It would be like comparing ........ to ___. What happens when you move the stick is that the first atom touches the next one which touches the one after it and so on which moves a wave of energy along the entire stick near the speed of light. Although that seems instantaneous on small scales like when you use a stick to poke someone, on large scales like light years it can take a very long time for an action on one end of the stick to have a reaction on the other end.",
"Even the movement of the stick (ignoring issues like compressability and such, which just cloud the discussion) travels at most at the speed of light, so, while the stick on your end has been moved an inch, that movement still needs to travel (in this case, for 600 years).",
"What if the stick was infinitely rigid? Meaning it would be impossible to compress it even **1/10^10^10^10^10^1.1** of a mile.",
"I've always wondered about this. You guys never cease to impress me!",
"when you push on the surface of an object, you push just on the surface. push a jello block and notice how it bunches up or compresses like a spring. solids are like super fast jello. remember that everything is made up of smaller parts, so you arent just pushing one object, you're pushing on little objects that push on little objects",
"This kind of wave travels at the speed of sound, not light, so it would be much more efficient to use the radio.",
"Woah, **[everything is a wave!](_URL_0_)**",
"How rigid is the stick?\n\nIf I push something floppy on one side the other side doesn't instantly move. If I push something rigid it looks \"instant\" to us, but it isn't really. \n\nWe typically don't make big rigid things (not even in the km range) because they're too sensitive to being broken in another direction. The earth itself has earthquakes and so on which will easily break those things. Also, they expand & contract with heat, making it even more fragile.\n\nFor some details on long actual bits, look up how railways (especially high-speed rail) handle having a track somewhere that's a few percent longer in summer than in winter.",
"[I'm just going to leave this here](_URL_0_)",
"The [Slinky Drop](_URL_0_) kind of deals with this issue in reverse. The same way that the bottom of the slinky doesn't fall until the top reaches it, is the same way that the top of the stick won't move until the wave travels through the stick. ",
"That's gotta be one HUGE planet: two space stations in orbit around it and they're 600 light years apart."
]
}
|
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],
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],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGIZKETKKdw&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SPDA442EA7EB0B8698"
],
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],
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGIZKETKKdw&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SPDA442EA7EB0B8698"
],
[]
] |
|
asp9bb
|
why do girls' body (i.e boobs, stomach, etc) start hurting or get extra sensitive when they're about to get their period?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/asp9bb/eli5_why_do_girls_body_ie_boobs_stomach_etc_start/
|
{
"a_id": [
"egvprey"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"When a female has her period, the inner lining of her uterus sheds. These shedded material flow from within the uterus into the vaginal cavity to be expelled out of the body. For this to happen, the uterus has to contract to expel these materials. The uterine contraction and spasms explain the stomach ache. The breast tissue may hurt due to hormonal fluctuations. Estrogen causes the ducts in the breast to enlarge while progesterone causes the milk glands to enlarge."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
a947cx
|
why do arabs write numbers like ٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩ instead of using arabic numerals like 0123456789?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a947cx/eli5_why_do_arabs_write_numbers_like_٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ecga470",
"ecgab10",
"ecgc2ot"
],
"score": [
8,
6,
10
],
"text": [
"Because they are written in Arabic .. the style of notation is positional which was a radical departure from the clunky Roman numerals of MM years ago. \n\nWhat you ask is why don’t they write them in Romanized alphabet. It’s a different writing system. ",
"Arabs and hindus invented numbers in their own language what you learned as arabic nunerals are your languages interpretation of that",
"The numbers we use were orignally developed in india. Before the invention of the positional system (units, tens, hundreds etc requiring a concept of zero as a number) the Brahmi numerals were used in India. When the positional system was created the numerals (known as Gwalior numerals after the location of some of the earliest examples) were based on the earlier symbols (although I struggle to see it myself). You can start to see the modern system in these. The Gwalior script and the idea of positional numbers disseminated through Arabia and as time passed three variants of the symbols came in to being - the Sanskrit variant in India and the western and Eastern Arabic numerals. The western Arabic numerals are the ones that travelled on in to europe and then went through two or three more changes over the centuries until what we would recognise as modern numbers came in to being in the fifteenth century. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
253ncd
|
how is it that we are still not able to truly soundproof a room without turning it into a fortress? it seems like the only solution is concrete.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/253ncd/eli5_how_is_it_that_we_are_still_not_able_to/
|
{
"a_id": [
"chddg31"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Sound is vibration of matter. It is pretty hard to stop vibration from spreading. If you put a wall up, the vibration will simply transfer to the wall, then through the wall and out the other side. The only real way to stop sound is to suspend the source in a vacuum somehow, and that isn't really possible on earth.\n\nEvery soundproofing solution we have simply tries to bounce the sound back/force it through various substances to reduce it's intensity before it gets out."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
23nk4w
|
how is secondhand smoke so dangerous even though smokers inhale a much higher volume of smoke for long periods of time before developing health problems?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23nk4w/eli5_how_is_secondhand_smoke_so_dangerous_even/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cgyrl8t",
"cgysqlc"
],
"score": [
4,
3
],
"text": [
"Both are bad. Smoking the cigarette is really bad, second hand smoke is just bad. While the health effects of primary smoke is very clear, the health effects of second hand smoke are harder to quantify because it depends on how much you are around smokers, for how long, etc. It's very clear that exposure to cigarette smoke is bad, whether primary or secondary, however.",
"I believe the big thing that you see in PSA is the fact that second hand smokers are children. Since these children still have developing lungs they are easier to damage, and normally a child would not get their tiny hands on cigarettes and voluntarily smoke them."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
1s8v3h
|
why do cans of compressed air not use actual compressed air?
|
I read a can of compressed air a while ago and saw they contained difluroethane and not air (or so I interpreted it). Why don't they just use compressed nitrogen, air, etc? Wouldn't that be cheaper or more environmentally friendly?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1s8v3h/eli5_why_do_cans_of_compressed_air_not_use_actual/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cdv4bt0"
],
"score": [
14
],
"text": [
"[Wikipedia](_URL_0_) doesn't do bad here.\n\nA canister of actual compressed nitrogen, oxygen, et al. would be either 1) really heavy, 2) really dangerous, or 3) really low capacity.\n\nYou might remember [triple-point graphs]( _URL_1_) from high school. Difluoroethane (and other fluorocarbons) is used because it has an unusual triple-point graph. With a relatively small amount of compression, you can turn it into a liquid at room temperature. By pressing the trigger, you release some pressure, and literally boil the liquid inside. The now-gaseous fluorocarbon escapes through the valve and somewhat repressurizes the canister, keeping the remaining propellant in a convenient liquid form."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canned_air",
"http://chemmovies.unl.edu/chemistry/smallscale/SSGifs/SS071Graph.gif"
]
] |
|
30ze8v
|
why is homosexuality the big issue in southern christian parts of the usa and some other nations in the world? doesnt the bible forbid alot more than simple homosexuals, like alot more?
|
Why isnt something like sodomy/anal sex (which is probably alot more widespread than being gay) the "big issue"?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30ze8v/eli5_why_is_homosexuality_the_big_issue_in/
|
{
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"text": [
"Because a lot of religious folks like to pick and choose which parts of the bible they are against. If they think it's wrong then \"it's against God's word!\" But if it inconveniences them they conveniently ignore it. ",
"It isn't the only big issue, it's just the one in the national spotlight at the moment. Women's rights (in some countries), abortion, premarital sex, are common ones. Rarer issues that vary in some of the smaller branches of christianity are things like modern medicine and blood donation, which is based on a literal interpretation of biblical literature. \n\nGay marriage and gay people in general have just become a lot more popular recently, provoking a backlash from the more fundamentalist christians (and other religions for that matter).",
"A lot of it is simple ignorance; a sizable group (possibly a majority) of religious Christians haven't read the Bible closely enough to know that the primary book that condemns lying with a man also forbids wearing clothes of mixed fabrics, eating shrimp, or going to church within two months of giving birth to a girl. All of that and about 70 more laws are listed in Leviticus.\n\nSince gays are coming up, becoming more commonplace out of the closet, and having more of an impact on society than 40 years ago, there's a sizable backlash from fundamentalists. Similar to the ones about interracial marriage a few decades ago, which also quoted a few Bible verses as evidence.",
"The reason is because the Southern Baptist Convention relies on fostering a persecution complex among its followers, in order to provide a sense of purpose to them — the holy text they use claims that righteous Christians will be persecuted. \n\nIn order to produce an appearance of persecution, they need to have oppressors —\n\nOriginally, for the Southern Baptists Convention, their oppressors were Communists, Hispanics, Blacks, and Jews, who \"threatened\" to \"destroy society\". Sometime in the 1950's through the late 1960's, they figured out that it was not acceptable any longer to scapegoat Hispanics, Blacks, and Jews, so they scapegoated Marijuana, Rock 'n' Roll, and Intellectualism. When Communist Soviet Union collapsed, they no longer had a big, atheist boogeyman — but, ten years before that, there was AIDS, which was originally identified in the homosexual community and which predominantly occurred in the homosexual community at the time it was first identified — so it was deemed to be a disease of homosexuals, and a punishment from their deity upon homosexuals.\n\nHomosexuals were seen to be a kind of perfect storm of scapegoating — denounced in the Old Testament, defying gender binaries, generally not Christians, already viewed as outsiders and outcasts by the rest of society, with a high prevalence of a then-deadly disease spread by sexual intercourse. They claimed tolerating homosexuals would lead to their deity's judgement upon society, thereby allowing them to portray themselves as Saviours of that society from the Oppressor/Persecutor (homosexuals).\n\nIn short, in order to maintain a psychodrama that allows them to gather political support, they need a Persecutor and Victims to Save. Homosexuals are Persecutors in their holy texts (the story of Sodom and Gomorrah). Society is the Victim. They are the Saviour.",
"Southern culture is strongly connected to Christianity. This doesn't mean that there are not other things that influence that culture. The south is very conservative and tends to stick with traditional views on many things including race, sex, and sexual orientation. It's not as simple as saying that they pick and choose what supports their best interests. It's more that they see their own upbringing as good and strive to solidify the same or improved environment for their family and friends as a community. For previous generations homosexuality has been seen as taboo and as such in order to solidify their culture and environment they are very gradual about bringing on such rapid change. They don't lynch people for being different anymore, they don't bar people from employment for being different anymore, and for the most part they do not openly ridicule people for being different anymore. That being said were simply in a transitional period. \n\nSource: Arkansan born and raised.",
"You have to realize bigotry is easiest against people who you can *see* are different. f you are anti-sodomy, you can't tell what male-female couples who you encounter participate in said act. But if you see two guys holding hands, you can make the assumption that they do (though you may not be right). If you're opposed to extramarital sex, you may not always be sure whether the couple who sits across from you engages in it, but you can make the assumption the two men who live together do -- after all, they can't even get married. \n\nAnd since discriminating against non-whites and women is getting harder and harder, gay people are one of the strongholds that remain -- one group that people (think they) can pick out by sight and who it's still (somewhat) socially acceptable to crap on.",
"It's not just a Christian thing. People who are in organizations ( religious, political, racially homogeneous culture, etc.) that have strong written and unwritten rules are taught to suspect anything that's not in the rule book. A sociologist or anthropologist could better speak to this phenomenon.",
"After the American Civil War, all that remained of most communities was the church, and these churches became the backbone of southern communities. Southerners, at the time, felt threatened, mainly, by external forces. Churches took on the view and life of the community and began to vilify what was seen as outside the scope of Christianity. \n\nModern Southern religious values evolved to demonize anything seen as different and outside what is considered to be family or community norms, that, in turn, are defined by tradition more than anything actually stated in the Bible. Since the traditional norm has been a family consisting of a heterosexual couple raising children, homosexuality becomes an external influence that changes these norms, thus, is vilified in turn.",
"Also, sodomy was a big thing for a while, in 2006 2 men were arrested in texas in their home for sodomy. the cops were called by a neighbor who \"thought his neighbors were being robbed\" so the cops caught them and they went to jail. The supreme court overturned this as a privacy issue, and now sodomy is legal in America. This also effectively forced the end of dont ask dont tell in America, since a court was not allowed to convict a person based on \"bedroom antics\" among consensual adults."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
6jej06
|
if getting out of earth's atmosphere is "zero-gravity", then how does the moon orbit the earth?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6jej06/eli5_if_getting_out_of_earths_atmosphere_is/
|
{
"a_id": [
"djdmlih",
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"text": [
"Because it's not actually zero gravity, it's just close enough to zero that it feels that way to us.\n\nThat's why the planets can still orbit the sun, and why we all orbit the super massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy.\n\nSomeone else can correct me, but I believe gravity is never zero anywhere in the universe. You are always being attracted to something, likely many things, but since it falls off so fast with distance you only feel the pull of the closest, largest object.",
"It isn't 'zero gravity'. It is free fall. The moon and Earth are attracted to each other by gravity. They orbit each other. Orbit is just a fancy version of free fall that results when something is moving fast enough perpendicular to the pull of gravity to allow it to 'miss' hitting it and just keep falling around it."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
4m7qpd
|
why do some planes have wifi, but we have to locate the black box for data? could they not upload on the fly?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4m7qpd/eli5_why_do_some_planes_have_wifi_but_we_have_to/
|
{
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"text": [
"Good question. I guess that would make too much sense? ",
"A ton of data is already being uploaded through many media to ground stations: ATC, dispatchers, etc. I believe a good analogy would be the 9V battery in an alarm clock: optimally, the alarm clock operates on the power cable, but if there's a problem, you fall back on the 9V battery until power through cable can be restored. The black box is a guarantee that all data from the aircraft will be stored somewhere, regardless of service interruptions, poor satellite connections, etc. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
e2epl2
|
i just watched the first 3 episodes of the mandalorian, and i noticed that each had a different director. how can such an important role be so interchangeable without significantly changing the overall feel of the show?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e2epl2/eli5_i_just_watched_the_first_3_episodes_of_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"f8v06d3",
"f8v0gz3"
],
"score": [
8,
2
],
"text": [
"TV shows always have an executive producer, commonly known as a “show runner” who has the final say on all creative decisions. The directors have to listen to them and make each episode fit in with the others in terms of tone and feel.",
"I met a famous TV director once (Sopranos, Rome and a ton of others that are in a weekly series) and he told me that the editing process will take you away from the filming of the other shows. Basically, in order to stay on a tight schedule while maintaining a quality show, you bring in several quality directors.\n\nOccasionally, you can notice a difference when the main star does the directing as seen in some long running series."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
bu3phj
|
why does coffee creamer sometimes create a film over coffee?
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bu3phj/eli5_why_does_coffee_creamer_sometimes_create_a/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ep6hrec",
"ep6j0xu"
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7,
4
],
"text": [
"Coffee with creamer is not a solution (in which case all the parts of the fluid are mixed evenly and are very hard to separate, like with salt water or soda) but rather a suspension (in which the parts are not perfectly mixed, and can be physically separated out more easily, like straining the fat out of milk).\n\nPowdered creamer is fairly light, so when it randomly happens to hit the upper surface it tends to stay there, which means that a film quickly develops on the top of your cup. Also, it has a rough texture which tends to create tiny little pockets that can hold air bubbles, which both make those particular particles lighter and less soluble.",
"Depends what's in the creamer. They're often just \"corn syrup solids\" (basically sugar) and \"vegetable oil solids\" (basically powdered oil) with some emulsifiers - it could simply be that the emulsifiers aren't holding on tightly enough to all of the oil solids, resulting in some of the oil separating out and forming a permanent slick on top of the coffee. It could also be that you're not making the coffee hot enough to fully integrate the creamer."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
f6u0kw
|
do fish know they’re swimming in water
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f6u0kw/eli5_do_fish_know_theyre_swimming_in_water/
|
{
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"I'm sure they don't think about that or much at all. They aren't intelligent beings like humans. They usually don't ask themselves questions like that or questions at all for that matter. I'm sure some are aware of the fact they are in water, like ones that jump over the surface",
"This isn't answerable really since the question presumes the idea of \"knowing\" as you mean it applies to fish, and that they are self-aware sufficiently to even make sense of things in the way you're asking.\n\nSo...I'd say \"no\", but not because they can't see the water exactly, but because the very idea of knowing in this way it outside of the reach of the mind of a fish. The certainly don't understand or know about gravity in any way that would allow them understand it not existing or existing, and while they may have some experience being out of water and know it's bad, they likely can't distinguish it from just general distress, pain and the instinct to flop about in the evolutionarily programmed instinct of flopping increasing chances of ending up back in water.\n\nThe reason for this phrase/idea is to help \\_humans\\_ see perspective and understand that the context they are in is likely determining or partly determining how they see things and perhaps not the \"truth\". It's not intended to actually apply to the mind of fish.",
"\"Know\" is a strong word for what goes through a fish brain.\n\nShallow water fish are definitely aware of the surface and have various feeding/avoidance/breathing behaviors that take that into account - so you could argue that they \"know\" there's a non-water above the water.\n\nDeep water fish never approach the surface and don't have surface-specific behaviors."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
ceasro
|
why are allergies more common in eastern, western and european countries but nearly non existent in africa?
|
I'm from Africa and have had the opportunity to travel and meet a lot of people throughout the African continent but I have not met anyone during this time that has a food allergy and is a native African (not saying that they don't exist), is there some explanation as to why this is?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ceasro/eli5_why_are_allergies_more_common_in_eastern/
|
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"text": [
"There is a theory that allergies can form when a young person grows up in a relatively sterile environment. The immune system, lacking anything to attack, becomes hypersensitive in some people. This isn’t to say that Africa is unclean, but your average African child is probably exposed to more pathogens than your average European child. I’m no expert, but this is what I’ve been told by an expert. I’m sure there are other variables or other theories.",
"Because they are more likely to have worms/parasites. Having worms/parasites causes your immune system to basically go into low level alert...that way the worm/parasite isn’t attacked by your immune system. As such, the immune system doesn’t react to other items like allergens, food, etc. This symbiotic relationship was developed over millennium. There are now companies selling selling worm eggs to people in the West. Here is an article about it: _URL_0_",
"The current thought is if you're not exposed to pathogens (allergy stuff to be simplified) enough in your life your body doesn't know how to appropriately react and so it over-reacts. In western worlds we're much cleaner and live with much less exposure to these kinds of things and are more likely to develop over reactions because of it.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nFun extra fact. Africans are more likely to be lactose intolerant because of Africa's lack of dairy farms through history.",
"Western environments are far more sterile, the streets, homes and working environments. Go to a 2nd or 3rd world country and you will see dirt everywhere.\n\nMany more people in the 2nd and 3rd world work outdoors and in the soil which exposes them to pathogens.\n\nExposure allows your immune system to categorise and deal with threats in a smooth manner, lack of exposure causes your immune system to freak out when it does encounter things itself it's not familiar with.\n\nThe 1st world makes extensive use of antibiotics which alter the bodies biome and can cause various types of immune reactions and allergies.\n\nIn the first world we have manufactured diets which remove containment and ensure only x or y goes into the food so you can avoid ever coming into contact with certain things such as nuts, seeds, pepper if you are eating a certain diet.\n\nIn the 2nd and 3rd world you tend to eat more vegetables, nuts and seasoning is used to hide food that isn't so fresh, you are getting lots of good bacteria from the diet as well as anti inflammatory effects, you also have food with lots more pathogens in it and even human waste which will also exchange some bad bacteria to trigger the immune system."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19536415/immune-system-worms/"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
21883v
|
explain how google, an company leading some of today's most innovative things, can still be stupid enough to do things like force google plus on youtube.
|
No, I do not want to use my real name god dammit.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21883v/eli5_explain_how_google_an_company_leading_some/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cgaj75e"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"\"Stupid\" isn't quite the right term. It's more like \"uncaring\" I guess. Google hates anonymity because it makes selling your data to advertisers harder, so changes like this are made regardless of what the user base wants. Remember, for the 5% of us that actually care and complained about it, the other 95% happily went along and probably didn't even notice. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
8ire72
|
how apples became symbolic of teaching/learning.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ire72/eli5_how_apples_became_symbolic_of/
|
{
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"dytzvrw",
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16
],
"text": [
"I assumed it was because of the old Adam and Eve myth when they ate from the tree of knowledge and many presume this to be an apple tree.",
"In short: Good marketing.\n\nAt the end of the 19th century most apples grown in the US were used for making hard cider or distilled spirits, and weren't the sweet eating varieties we know today. When the temperance movement started gaining momentum apple growers were in trouble. Without alcohol they didn't have a market. So there was a rush to grow bigger, sweeter varieties of apple for eating, and an accompanying marketing push to \"re-brand\" the apple as a wholesome and healthful fruit.\n\nTeachers were traditionally supported by their students' families, and in rural areas this support was often in the form of produce, since most people didn't have excess cash to spare. So there was already a tradition of giving teachers agricultural products as a form of payment or gratuity, and teachers were considered to be highly moral and upstanding, so \"An apple for teacher\" was a great marketing message."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
3dwdu1
|
why did the secret service become bodyguards?
|
How do you go from checking for counterfeit currency to protecting the president?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dwdu1/eli5_why_did_the_secret_service_become_bodyguards/
|
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"text": [
"It's actually hilarious. There's a book called Stealing Lincoln's Body that lays the whole story out. Basically, some counterfeiters had this idea to bust their friend out of prison, they would steal Abraham Lincoln's body from his grave and hold it for ransom. The plan went off worse than a three stooges skit on both sides. One of the secret service guys had a shootout with a different secret service guy without realizing it, and half of the graverobbers were undercover agents. It was pretty hectic, but that event caused the secret service to start presidential protection details too.",
"After the assassination of President William McKinley in 1901, Congress informally requested that the Secret Service provide presidential protection. A year later, the Secret Service assumed full-time responsibility for presidential protection.\n\n_URL_0_",
"It was decided, after McKinley got dusted, that 'someone' should protect the president.\n\nAt the time, there weren't a lot of existing organisations that could have been given the job, but the Secret Service got the job.",
"Basically Congress got a little tired of assassination attempts on presidents and requested the secret service take on presidential protection. Basically too many presidents were killed.",
"After McKinley's assassination, Congress decided that the President needed bodyguards. The Secret Service, at the time, was the best equipped Federal agency for the job. There was no FBI at the time, and Americans were already skeptical of giving the President full time bodyguards, a military guard probably wouldn't fly very well with people (people were skeptical of the President looming like a royalty/king). After another assassination attempt, protection became more robust and permanent. Now the Secret Service has so much history and experience, it doesn't make scene to replace them with a new agency."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Secret_Service"
],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1rzfj3
|
general relativity and objects at rest
|
Apparently this wasn't AskScience material so I'll try here a second time.
So as far as I understand general relativity, it explains gravity purely as objects following straight paths through a spacetime that's curved by the presence of energy. I can roughly see how a moving object following a straight trajectory through space curved by gravity is equivalent to that moving object experiencing a fictitious force which deflects it into a curved trajectory through flat space. But I find it harder to understand how two objects at rest relative to one another could come to accelerate out of that state purely due to geometry.
Let's say one object is the Earth and another is an apple hanging in a tree. The stem holding the apple to the tree breaks. The relative velocity in space is 0 which seemingly produces no path through space. But, naturally, we see the apple accelerate downward. How can that non-path be geometrically curved into an acceleration? The apple is farther from the Earth's center so time moves slightly faster for it - is the apple "trading" relative futureward speed for relative spatial speed? How about if the two objects are in free space and are of equal mass - shouldn't they then have 0 relative velocity in both space and time?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1rzfj3/eli5_general_relativity_and_objects_at_rest/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cdsff8p"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Apparently, it is because they are not stationary, they are moving in time. \n\nThe top two answers here do a fairly good job\"\n\n_URL_0_"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/37926/einsteins-explanation-for-gravity-vs-newtonian"
]
] |
|
4p8e1d
|
how do headphone amps make music sound better?
|
Curious how buying a mobile amp to stick between my iPhone and my "quality" headset makes any difference. What happens w/ the signal of the music when it passes through the amp and how does this differ from what I would hear w/o the amp? Clearly not an audiophile.
Thanks!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4p8e1d/eli5_how_do_headphone_amps_make_music_sound_better/
|
{
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"text": [
"The simple answer is that high quality headphones tend to require much more power to operate do to having a higher impedance/resistance usually listed as Ohms.\n\n So plugging in a pair of HQ Headphones into a standard audio jack of a phone/PC will cause the audio to be much quieter as the headphones will resist the flow of electricity into them and as such the speakers wont be able to do their job.\n\nOf course, you can turn up the volume, but on consumer grade electronics, that sometimes isn't enough and would still be quiet and may even cause distortions as it can go beyond the volume the sound chip may be able to put out effectively. \n\nSo the job of an amp is to amplify the incoming sound signal to a volume that is able to overcome the Ohm value in a usable way that allows you to hear the the audio loud and clear and not add distortion. \n\nEdit: MAKE SURE TO NEVER PLUG LOW OHM/CONSUMER GRADE HEADPHONES INTO A DEDICATED AMP UNLESS YOU LIKE BEING DEAF.",
"It's about headphone impedance, headphone sensitivity, and distortion. \n\nImpedance- All headphones present a resistive load to an amplifier called impedance (expressed in Ohms). Headphones with higher impedance require more power to drive to a given volme level, and some headphones have impedances so high that they can't be meaningfully driven by the amp in a phone (because the phone amp can't put out enough voltage into that impedance to make acceptably loud sound). If you have high impedance headphones, the difference will present as inadequate volume, or, sometimes, poor bass response. A dedicated amplifier can increase the voltage of the signal to drive the load so that it's loud enough for listening. \n\nSensitivity- Setting aside impedance a given headphone will have also have a \"sensitivity\" which is how much power (expressed in watts) is required to drive the headphone to a given volume level. This is related to, but not dictated by, impedance, and has a similar consequence. For example, you can buy headphones that are low impedance, but also low sensitivity, and those will require more power to reach an acceptable volume than higher sensitivity headphones. Here a low sensitivity headphone may require more power than the phone's amp can provide, and a dedicated amp can provide that increase in power.\n\nDistortion- All amplifiers have some amount of distortion, which can sound like various things (static, crunching, or sizzle are common) depending on the type of amp. A good amp will have very little distortion (it will be inaudibly quiet). The amps in phones (even nice phones) have low maximum power outputs, and are also built with serious space and budgetary constraints. They typically have distortion profiles (at any volume) much worse than nicer headphone amps. They also tend to distort if you turn them up to higher volume settings. If you can get a digital output from your phone to a Digital to Analog Converter (DAC), and then route it to the headphone amp you can bypass both sources of distortion; if you're just running the analog out from your phone's audio jack to the headphone amp input, you're still getting the phone amp's distortion, but you can at least avoid turning the phone up very loud. \n\nSo if you have low impedance, high sensitivity cans, you probably won't get much out of a headphone amp, unless it's a combo DAC/Amp, in which case you can dodge significant distortion. If you have high impedance or low sensitivity cans you might need a headphone amp to get the most out of them. \n\nN.B. - Neither impedance nor sensitivity are a proxy for quality in headphones by the way; there are thousand dollar headphones with low impedance and high sensitivity, and there are $20 cheapy cans with high impedance or low sensitivity."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
2gqgn4
|
when i am read my rights and they ask if i understand my rights what happens when i say no or say nothing
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gqgn4/eli5when_i_am_read_my_rights_and_they_ask_if_i/
|
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"text": [
"If you say no then they read them again and arrest you anyway. If you are actually incapable of understanding then you are treated like a mental patient, which is not well, until you can be evaluated and put in the place you should be. \n\nIf you are just being a dick and not cooperating then you are treated like a mental patient, which is not well, until you can be evaluated and put in the place you should be. Which is regular jail.",
"Generally they will ask what rights you do not understand and then repeat them.",
"A very important thing to know, being silent isn't the same as invoking the right to silence. You may actually need to affirmatively state that you are invoking that right.",
"in theory, they'll explain until you do understand or just throw you in a cell and proceed without questioning you. \n\nin practice, prepare to be abused. \n\nmiranda is about questioning, not arrest. ",
"It is more common that you will not be read your rights when arrested. Due to various rulings (unless it has changed, again, recently) you don't have to be 'read your rights' during an arrest (or maybe ever). Also you won't be automatically given a phone call because you have to be; you'll be given a phone call at the discretion of the jail/cops that arrest you.\n\nIf you're ever arrested, try to stay calm, don't answer anything beyond your name, ask for a lawyer, and actually say a variation of \"I'm invoking my right to remain silent.\" The cops are there to make an arrest and a case, not to protect and serve, not to be your friend (though from their standpoint they are likely just \"doing a job\" and it isn't personal). No matter how large or small a detail, no matter if you are a \"good person\" with \"nothing to hide\", keep your mouth shut. If you really are innocent, a lawyer will get you out and away much quicker than pleading it over and over (cops have, amazingly, heard that line before).\n\n\"I need to speak to a lawyer, and I'm invoking my right to remain silent.\" Then shut up.",
"Cop here.\nIf you say \"no, I don't understand\", I'll ask what you don't understand, then further explain. If you feign ignorance (which happens), I'll just arrest, and not talk to you. I'll tell the deputies at intake that you don't understand your rights, so they can proceed accordingly.\nIf you just clam up, and say nothing, it's pretty much the same thing.\n\nAlso, remember that you may not be read your rights if you are arrested. It is only required if you're in custody AND being questioned. (Also, booking questions like name, age, date of birth, etc don't count).\nSo I usually avoid reading the rights unless it's absolutely necessary.",
"You've asked a question about Miranda Rights. The best source for this, aside from asking an actual lawyer, is [The Illustrated Guide to the Law](_URL_0_) a webcomic drawn by a former prosecutor and current NYC defense attorney.\nYou should take a look at this handy [5th Amendment flowchart](_URL_1_) and the section of the webcomic that proceeds it.\n\nThere are a couple different ways to interpret your question. If you mean \"what happens if I just clam up then and their?\", well your silence can be used against you unless you specifically invoke your right to remain silent.\n\nIf you mean \"what happens if I 'I do not understand'?\", I suspect that when the pre-trial proceedings started, your defense attorney argue that you weren't properly mirandized and so any statements you made should be presumed to be involuntary and so using them against you would be a violation of the 5th amendment. She would then move to have any statements you made after that suppressed, meaning that they couldn't be mentioned in court to try to prove your guilt. I also suspect that the prosecution would argue that you were just playing dumb and you did understand your rights and therefore you were properly given miranda warnings and so your statements should be presumed involuntary and the motion should be denied. What would the judge say? I don't actually know.",
"You're not going to be read your rights until you're already under arrest, so you'll still be under arrest. That's not going to change.\n\nA lot of the time, nobody's going to read you your rights even then. It's not automatic, and it's not required. The only time they need to read you your rights is if they're trying to get you to make an incriminating statement.\n\nIf you're read your rights, and you say you don't understand them, the officer can try to explain them until you do. Or he can decide you're being a pain in the ass and stop asking. NOTE, however, that courts almost always presume that you DO understand them if you speak the language. The words are basic.\n\nIf you're read your rights and you say nothing, YOU HAVE NOT INVOKED YOUR RIGHTS. If you merely remain silent without SAYING you're going to remain silent (I know, right?) the officer can continue questioning you.\n\ntl;dr - If you say \"no\" they'll explain again or stop asking. If you say nothing, they can keep interrogating you.",
"By the way, as I understand it, if you're going to use your right to remain silent, you have to say so (not sure if this has changed since Miranda v Arizona and another case I cannot remember). \n\nLaw nerds, help me out here. \n\nWasn't there a case where the Supreme Court ruled that you need to state you're going to use that right to remain silent? IIRC, there was a case where a man said nothing after being detained for hours, but police battered him with questioning for so long he eventually confessed to the crime and later his lawyers said that he wasn't guilty because he was using his right to remain silent and the cops ignored him. The court then ruled that he needed to actually SAY out loud that his intention was to do so, for it to count. Or something along those lines. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
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[],
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[],
[],
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"http://lawcomic.net/guide/?page_id=5",
"http://lawcomic.net/guide/?p=2897"
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||
2dxg4s
|
why do the sun's rays still hurt us?
|
After millions of years of evolution, why are we still affected by the sun's rays?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2dxg4s/eli5_why_do_the_suns_rays_still_hurt_us/
|
{
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"text": [
"Evolution isn't about producing things that are more comfortable in life. Evolution awards that which reproduces. Being protected against the sun is only important if not being protected killed us before we could have children. This is why people have more melanin in their skin in areas that have more harsh sunlight, but beyond that there's little impact on evolution. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3m83ml
|
if i eat a donut or something sugary and my teeth feel squeaky and dry and weird. what is going on inside my mouth?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3m83ml/eli5_if_i_eat_a_donut_or_something_sugary_and_my/
|
{
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"Is it just me or did Coke used to do that when I was little (80s) and now it doesn't?",
"3rd year microbiology/biology student here. This is what I always imagined is the cause.\n\nFirst of all, breaking down sugar (digesting it) creates acid. Only weak acids, usually, but still acids. The acid is what I think creates the feeling.\n\nThe sugar is broken down by enzymes in the mouth (such as amylase) and also by the bacteria in your mouth who use this as food.\n\nWhat I find interesting, and gross, is that your teeth are covered by plaque (I'm sure you've heard) but that plaque is actually a layer of bacteria living in what we call a \"biofilm\". They digest the sugar and eject the acid directly onto your teeth, trapping it up against them. This is one of the main causes of tooth decay and why it's super important to brush your teeth after eating sugary foods ☺️"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
2k3jtt
|
how can we know that e=mc² when the units we measure e, m and c in are arbitrary?
|
For example the speed of light could be measured in meters per second, where meters and seconds are both man made constructs
EDIT: Thanks for the answers. It seems like I overestimated how arbitrary our units are. I didn't realise that we defined units in relation to one another, thus creating standard measures.
It's also clear that it doesn't matter what unit we use since whatever we choose will simply result in the answer being defined in those terms.
Thanks again - this has been troubling my infantile mind for a few days. Reddit to the rescue.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2k3jtt/eli5_how_can_we_know_that_emc²_when_the_units_we/
|
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"text": [
"Whatever units you choose to measure in can be converted to other units. You could measure the speed of light in rods per fortnight, and it would still work out once the units were converted.",
"The units on both sides of the equation have to balance out. If mass is measured in kilograms and the speed of light is measured in meters per second then energy must be measured in kilogram meters^2 per second^2, which is indeed what a joule is. If you change the speed of light to miles per hour then you would need to measure energy in kilogram miles^2 per hours^2, which would be awful, but possible.\n\ntl;dr E = MC^2 units wise in standard SI units is kg*m^2 / s^2 = (kg) * (m^2 / s^2). If you change the units on one side, they'll change on the other with the appropriate conversion factors added in.",
"because while the units are arbitrary, they are also consistent, coherent and interrelated: they're based on one another. \n\nIn other words, the units conform to the mathematics, not the other way around.",
"This doesn't change anything. Units are corresponding to each other. You can use any units you can imagine and it still be true. ",
"c (lower case) would still be a constant even if we had no idea what its value was. The reason we use metres, seconds, and other SI units is so we humans can understand these things. Although the metric system started as a purely arbitrary construct (like the metre being defined as the distance between two notches on a platinum bar, calculated as 1/10 000 000 the length of the meridian through Paris between the North Pole and the Equator) almost all SI units have since been redefined in relation to natural phenomena. The metre is now defined as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299792458 seconds. The second is defined as the time its takes for 9192631770 vibrations of a caesium atom.\n\nThe only SI unit still relying on a physical artefact is the kilogram, but that is in the process of being updated.",
"Your question seems to be specific to units, so i wont go into proving E=MC^2 .\n\n\n\nFirst of all you need to differentiate the unit from the formula. The formula is derived from a set of laws, it never takes into account the units. Once the formula is derived, you can use whatever units of measurement. \n\n\n\nYou can define your own units and the formula would still work, it will give the answer in your units.\n\n\n\nfor instance Speed = Distance/Time. I can make up my own units for distance and time, that will not make the formula untrue, it would simple mean i get the answer for speed in my own units.",
"A formula is true whatever the units. The area of a rectangle is length times breadth. This is true whether you use inches, feet, metres or cubits. ",
"The units are arbitrary, the dimensions are not.\nyou could rewrite it as\n\nc is in lengths/time\n\nm = masses\n\nand energy is always masses * lengths^2 / Times^2",
"I think people are missing the point of the question. The units we use are not arbitrary, they're all based around eachother (SI Units). Energy is measured in Joules, and Joules it's the exact same measurement as Kg m^2 s^-2. Which is exactly what the other side is equal to. ",
"because standard units are all defined in terms of each other, that's why they can be used like this.\n\n\n\nthe metre is 'the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1/299,792,458 of a second', hence the speed of light is exactly 299,792,458 metres per second, so this definition is sort of a tautology, it's like saying the speed of light is the speed of light, and that's fine because it's perfectly true\n\ne is measured in units called joules. 1 joule is the energy expended in applying a force of 1 newton over a distance of 1 metre. m is measured in kilograms, 1 kilogram is the mass that would be given an acceleration of 1 ms^-2 by a force of 1 newton, and 1 newton is the force that gives mass 1kg an acceleration of 1 ms^-2 .\n\nNewton's Second Law relates force to mass and acceleration : F = ma (more correctly F = dmv/dt, but F = ma applies when mass is constant). If you put in 1 kilogram for mass and one metre per second per second for acceleration, you get a force equal to 1 newton (1 x 1 = 1). This is how the units are designed \n\nyou can see this is all sort of tautological if you look at the unit definitions, and it works. So these units aren't individually arbitrary, they follow from one another, that's what makes them the standard units \n\nedit: I should say, they're only arbitrary individually\n\n\n",
"While all the answers about defining units are correct, you don't even need to really define a unit. All we have to do is two experiments. First we destroy a particle. Then we destroy a second particle that's twice as massive. In the second experiment M is twice as big, so E better be too. If the second gives off twice as much energy as the first then our equation holds. Units don't change the relationship that the equation gives."
]
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miry0
|
image vectoring and how it works versus "standard" images
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/miry0/eli5_image_vectoring_and_how_it_works_versus/
|
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"Okay, say I give you a piece of grid paper and tell you to color all the little squares. That's a \"normal\" image. They're called \"raster\" images. \n\n\nNow imagine I gave you a stencil and told you to trace it, then color the resulting picture. That's sort of how a vector image works. \n\nThe vector image is made by following a bunch of math that in the end, makes a picture. Since the image is made following instructions, instead of just handed down, you can make it any size without messing up how it looks, or making it blurry. ",
"Vector - Uses mathematical lines and shapes to 'draw' and fill in the final image.\n\n'Standard' (Raster) - Places colors at specific coordinates in a grid.",
"Say you download a photo from the internet of a city, and you take your photo program and zoom in (\"enhance!\"). You're going to notice as you zoom in everything gets kind of blurry and 'pixelated' (the little squares that make up a photo become more noticeable).\n\nSay you are trying to enlarge an image.. it is IMPOSSIBLE to make it bigger while keeping the quality constant for this reason. Thats because 'raster' images only have so much detail. While its easy to visually see a 'line' or a shape, to the image it's nothing more than a series of dots that cannot be enhanced.\n\nOn the other hand a vector is a mathematical curve or shape which can be scaled infinitely without losing quality. Say you draw a vector circle. You can make it 50,000px wide and still .. because its a line that isnt raster.. it doesnt lose any quality.\n\nThe obvious downside to this is you can't make photographic images.. they end up looking kind of like \" a scanner darkley\" (google image if you arent familiar).\n\nVectors can make gradients, simple shapes or lines. But it can't do anything more complex than this.\n\nAnother example of vector is think of how you can take a font on your computer and make it 5000px and it still has these very sharp lines.. its not like it gets blurry as it gets bigger.",
"It's easiest to think of non-vectored (so, raster) images as being just like paintings or drawings in the real world. They were created at some original scale. Like that of a large blank painting canvas or a piece of A4 paper. \n\nTheir level of detail is absolute, which means at the original size and distance it looks great, but if you \"zoom in\" and look closer, (say, at the background of a painted scene of a city park) you'll find there is no additional detail to reveal. Everything gets larger, but blurrier, because there is no new visual information to see at the enlarged scale.\n\nVectored images, by comparison, aren't *really* images. They are a *representation* of an image - a set of instructions on how to *make* an image. If you had an image of a circle, its vector equivalent would be a coordinate which represented the location of the circle's center, the radius of the circle, and the mathematical formula required to draw a circle of the correct radius using that information.\n\nAs a result, the vector image doesn't *have* any quality to lose - because it's not an image until you draw it by following the instructions. You could draw the circle at its original scale, and it would look great. You could double, triple or quadruple the scale and follow the original instructions, and your circle would be bigger, but it would still be a perfect circle, rendered afresh at this new, enlarged scale.\n\nMaking a \"vector\" image isn't all that different to making a \"raster\" image on the computer. You'd still have your image program and a set of tools to make the image, but when you draw out your shapes and lines in a vector image, you're really creating a list of instructions for the computer to follow to create the shapes and lines you draw. The computer is nice enough to draw them for you on the fly, so you can see what on Earth it is that you are doing, but in reality, there is no image there - just an ever-growing list of instructions.\n\n\n\n\n\n",
"I would have described vector images as dot-to-dot pictures, where you draw lines that connect dots together to form a whole image. The dots themselves are just coordinates on a 2D surface that can be proportionately enlarged or shrunk without losing any of the detail. It's also possible to have a curve like an elbow with a certain radius define to say how big or small the curve is.\n\nBitmap (raster) images are just a series of colored pixels. It's kind of like looking through a screen window. What you're seeing is a series of squares that make up the whole image. But if you enlarge the image, you also enlarge each square which to our eyes looks blocky and pixelated.",
"Like youre 5 :\n\nSee this quarter? Seems round, till you look closely at the edge. There you can see its sorta jaggy. This is like your 'standard' image.\n\nSee this penny? Seems round. Look closely at the edge. Still smooth, no matter how close you put your eye. This is like your vector image.",
"Okay, say I give you a piece of grid paper and tell you to color all the little squares. That's a \"normal\" image. They're called \"raster\" images. \n\n\nNow imagine I gave you a stencil and told you to trace it, then color the resulting picture. That's sort of how a vector image works. \n\nThe vector image is made by following a bunch of math that in the end, makes a picture. Since the image is made following instructions, instead of just handed down, you can make it any size without messing up how it looks, or making it blurry. ",
"Vector - Uses mathematical lines and shapes to 'draw' and fill in the final image.\n\n'Standard' (Raster) - Places colors at specific coordinates in a grid.",
"Say you download a photo from the internet of a city, and you take your photo program and zoom in (\"enhance!\"). You're going to notice as you zoom in everything gets kind of blurry and 'pixelated' (the little squares that make up a photo become more noticeable).\n\nSay you are trying to enlarge an image.. it is IMPOSSIBLE to make it bigger while keeping the quality constant for this reason. Thats because 'raster' images only have so much detail. While its easy to visually see a 'line' or a shape, to the image it's nothing more than a series of dots that cannot be enhanced.\n\nOn the other hand a vector is a mathematical curve or shape which can be scaled infinitely without losing quality. Say you draw a vector circle. You can make it 50,000px wide and still .. because its a line that isnt raster.. it doesnt lose any quality.\n\nThe obvious downside to this is you can't make photographic images.. they end up looking kind of like \" a scanner darkley\" (google image if you arent familiar).\n\nVectors can make gradients, simple shapes or lines. But it can't do anything more complex than this.\n\nAnother example of vector is think of how you can take a font on your computer and make it 5000px and it still has these very sharp lines.. its not like it gets blurry as it gets bigger.",
"It's easiest to think of non-vectored (so, raster) images as being just like paintings or drawings in the real world. They were created at some original scale. Like that of a large blank painting canvas or a piece of A4 paper. \n\nTheir level of detail is absolute, which means at the original size and distance it looks great, but if you \"zoom in\" and look closer, (say, at the background of a painted scene of a city park) you'll find there is no additional detail to reveal. Everything gets larger, but blurrier, because there is no new visual information to see at the enlarged scale.\n\nVectored images, by comparison, aren't *really* images. They are a *representation* of an image - a set of instructions on how to *make* an image. If you had an image of a circle, its vector equivalent would be a coordinate which represented the location of the circle's center, the radius of the circle, and the mathematical formula required to draw a circle of the correct radius using that information.\n\nAs a result, the vector image doesn't *have* any quality to lose - because it's not an image until you draw it by following the instructions. You could draw the circle at its original scale, and it would look great. You could double, triple or quadruple the scale and follow the original instructions, and your circle would be bigger, but it would still be a perfect circle, rendered afresh at this new, enlarged scale.\n\nMaking a \"vector\" image isn't all that different to making a \"raster\" image on the computer. You'd still have your image program and a set of tools to make the image, but when you draw out your shapes and lines in a vector image, you're really creating a list of instructions for the computer to follow to create the shapes and lines you draw. The computer is nice enough to draw them for you on the fly, so you can see what on Earth it is that you are doing, but in reality, there is no image there - just an ever-growing list of instructions.\n\n\n\n\n\n",
"I would have described vector images as dot-to-dot pictures, where you draw lines that connect dots together to form a whole image. The dots themselves are just coordinates on a 2D surface that can be proportionately enlarged or shrunk without losing any of the detail. It's also possible to have a curve like an elbow with a certain radius define to say how big or small the curve is.\n\nBitmap (raster) images are just a series of colored pixels. It's kind of like looking through a screen window. What you're seeing is a series of squares that make up the whole image. But if you enlarge the image, you also enlarge each square which to our eyes looks blocky and pixelated.",
"Like youre 5 :\n\nSee this quarter? Seems round, till you look closely at the edge. There you can see its sorta jaggy. This is like your 'standard' image.\n\nSee this penny? Seems round. Look closely at the edge. Still smooth, no matter how close you put your eye. This is like your vector image."
]
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||
dbca74
|
is there a difference between "not having" something and "having zero" of something?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dbca74/eli5_is_there_a_difference_between_not_having/
|
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"In a practical sense? Not really. They both identify that there's something that I don't have in my possession. In a colloquial/connotative language sense? I don't have a Lamborghini (it's not something I own at all). I have zero boxes of Cap'n Crunch in my cabinet at home (I sometimes have Cap'n Crunch, I just don't have any right now).",
"They result in the same thing, having nothing of something, but the former a little bit implies it’s not a reachable goal to have more of something while the latter feels more negotiable.",
"This is really a question of logic. It's not my ballpark, but I just want to throw a bone in for philosophy here, and ... there's this Hegelian concept of the determinate negation. There are some aspects of things that defines them, right. And sometimes, that aspect is a lack of them. A cat doesn't have credibility, while an openly corrupt politician has *zero* credibility. The lack of credibility is different in the cat and the openly corrupt politician because the lack of credibility *defines* the politician\n\nThus, maybe in this context, I think having zero of something could be viewed as a defining feature of this thing--as a \"nothing that is something\". There's this Zizek joke which says that a person goes to a coffee shop and asks for coffee without milk, and the barista replies \"sorry we've run out of milk but I can give you a coffee without cream\".",
"Not a direct answer, but a possibly-helpful tangent.\n\nIn programming, there's an old joke that \"there's a big difference between 'coming back with nothing' and 'not coming back with anything' \".\n\nImagine you're at a restaurant, and you order the \"Chef's Special\". Your waiter walks away, and 10 minutes later returns with a covered plate. He grandly sets it in front of you, and then excitedly lifts the plate cover to reveal... nothing!\n\nCompare this to the case where you order the \"Chef's Special\"... but your waiter never comes back."
]
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|
[] |
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[],
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||
bqgmqt
|
how are soda cans recycled when they have a plastic film inside them?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bqgmqt/eli5_how_are_soda_cans_recycled_when_they_have_a/
|
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"There are dozens of YouTube videos about that, but the basic process involves melting everything down and separating the aluminum from the not-aluminum. A technical term for undesirable matter in melting and smelting is *dross*."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
4ybohj
|
how does a military encirclement actually work? (long)
|
I watch a lot of military documentaries, and particularly WW2 ones. It seems that a lot of battles in WW2 (more so in Russia) ended with a flanking and encirclement tactic, until the army in the middle (germans) was surrounded, cut off and destroyed.
How does this work though?
I understand surrounding a city is easy. You block all access routes, surround it, nobody gets in or out.
However, when you have a 'bulge' or 'pocket' of troops, the russians would attack the flanks. After proceeding miles and miles around the flanks, they would swing into the rear and complete the encirclement.
However, whats to stop the surrounded army, just walking out of the flanks that have been attacked? Some of these 'pockets' would be miles upon miles long. I don't imagine the flanking army is dropping soldiers off every 300 yards for 10 miles to make sure the enemy cant push out, and even so, how can you position so many troops to stop them breaking out?
It's hard to explain, so I've made a quality piece of artwork;
_URL_0_
So, 123 is your encircled force. Point A is where the attackers want to meet and complete the move. Now why cant 123 just counterattac along the green arrow? The lower red arrow could be 20 or 30 miles long? In Russia, we were talking of german encirclements of hundreds of thousands of guys? Why couldnt they always 'counter circle' and just push out through the flanks of those who were trying to encircle?
There's obviously a reason, because literally every move against the germans was the same - Encircle, cut off, crush or wait for surrender, rinse and repeat.
I hope my jabber makes some sense.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ybohj/eli5_how_does_a_military_encirclement_actually/
|
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" > how can you position so many troops to stop them breaking out?\n\nThe total number of people estimated to have served worldwide in WWII is 1.9 **billion**. Yes, they would have 20-30 mile encirclement formations because they had plenty of guys to guard that distance.",
"In the first place, it's not mainly about surrounding troops and physically preventing them from leaving, it's about cutting them off from resupply. An army goes through food, ammunition, and fuel- especially fuel- at a crazy rate, and if the enemy controls the roads you were planing on using to bring in more gasoline, you won't have enough to execute an effective attack.\n\nUnless you act *right the fuck now* before things start going sour. If you respond immediately, you have a reasonable chance of breaking out. But the major encirclements of WWII happened when one side had orders to hold their ground, and those orders weren't changed until it was too late.\n\nSecond, an army is vulnerable when it's on the move, especially when it's a hurry (Like when it's trying to escape from eight hundred thousand vengeful Russians). If the encircled army gets attacked while trying to break out- and the encircling forces should have plans in place to do so- they can get cut to pieces, which is practically as good as having them surrender.",
"You really can have soldiers watching and reporting the entire distance. The main advantage to encircling is to cut off the supply routes. Stop the fuel from reaching the tanks and they stop. Stop the shells from reaching the artillery and they stop shelling. Stop the food and the bullets from reaching the troops and they have to stop fighting. Armies have supply lines stretching all the way back to the factories. Cut off the supply lines and the army starts to die.\n\nYes if they have enough supplies they can attempt a breakout. They must have a lot of supplies. If they do not have enough they better hole up and conserve ammunition. That will work for maybe a week."
]
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"http://i.imgur.com/vsC5HHq.jpg"
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|
2phyyr
|
if objects in in zero gravity never stop rotating, is it possible to build turbines, give them an initial spin and harness infinite energy?
|
title*
Edit: Thanks a lot guys! As you can probably tell, I'm not an engineer major, therefore I appreciate you who took the time to explain this to me :)
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2phyyr/eli5_if_objects_in_in_zero_gravity_never_stop/
|
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"No, because your harnessing of the energy will slow the rotation until it stops. Gravity is only one of the things that can stop rotation, friction is another.",
"If you harness the energy, you siphon off the energy the object has to spin with, and then it stops.",
"It's not because there's zero gravity; it's because there's no air resistance.\n",
"No. Extracting energy from them would slow them down.\n\nWhen a spinning object slows down, zero-g or not, what's happening is that it had energy related to how fast it was spinning, and that energy is going somewhere else. Less energy devoted to making the object spin, the object slows down, very straightforward.\n\nUsually, things are slowed down by friction or air resistance. That means that the \"spinning energy\" is being converted into heat, for the most part. For example, when you apply a car's brakes, its energy from the wheels spinning and the car moving forward gets converted into heat in the brakes. Brakes get hot, car slows down.\n\nIn some cars - hybrids, for example - braking charges a battery instead of heating the brakes. It's now electrical energy instead of heat, but it's the same thing: the energy from the car's motion gets converted into electrical energy, so the car slows down.\n\nSame thing applies in zero g."
]
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|
3dv4pn
|
if an infant was placed in an environment where the only voices were always singing (ie music plays all the time), would it pick up language like other infants, and if so, would it grow up to only sing?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dv4pn/eli5_if_an_infant_was_placed_in_an_environment/
|
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"Theoretically, yes. But there is no real proof of it, because that would probably fall under child abuse.\n\nA good 'experiment' with this idea was done many years ago by Greek philosopher Plato. In his [Allegory of the Cave](_URL_0_) he tries to unravel the effect of education and lack of it on our nature. [This a good video](_URL_1_) explaining this and it is truly ELI5.\n\nEDIT: Some people have pointed out that the Allegory of the Cave *is not* science. I'm in total agreement and it was not my intention to present it as a (scientific) fact. The reason I posted it was because I immediately associated the question with the Allegory of the Cave. To my knowledge, there is no evidence for OPs question and therefor I tried to approach it by using anything similar. In my opinion the question and the Allegory of the Cave are more experiments of the mind, than truly something we would try out on actual human beings (for obvious reasons).",
"When I was coming up my parents knew I favored musicals and shows that sang their messages and up until four and a half years old, I would sing all of my requests to mom or dad. They didn't do anything about it until I had the opportunity to be screened for developmental issues. nothing came up. ",
"Im Welsh, which is famous for its singers (I'm a shit singer) but people say my voice sounds \"sing-songy\" what ever that means, obviously its normal to me so I cant explain it.\n\nSo I imagine its possible to have a singing language quite easily.",
"Cannot for the life of me find the video, but I swear there was a woman on xfactor who was raised to like always sing. I believe she said it felt more natural to sing than talk when they asked about it. \n\nIf any internet sleuth can remember it hopefully they can post the video here.",
"There are languages today that heavily depend on inflection and vocal movement.\n\nSome dialects spoken in China will have one word that will have two meanings depending on how the speaker uses his inflection up or down to use a different meaning.\n\nThese people have higher rates of people with perfect pitch.\n\n\nI would assume a person raised in a singing environment would end up with a higher likelihood of having perfect pitch.\n\n\nEdit: I wrote this on mobile and lacked the innate knowledge and time to research which languages are tonal. Most Asian languages and some European as it turns out.",
"Isn't that what they do in Korea to breed Kpop idols?"
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[] |
[] |
[
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"https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Allegory_of_the_Cave",
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||
1paa57
|
why do christians get so irate about evolution?
|
Why do they not see it as the answer to how rather than being such a touchy subject?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1paa57/eli5_why_do_christians_get_so_irate_about/
|
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"As a former New-world creationist, because they see it as a contradiction of their literalist translation of the creation story in Genesis. ",
"Genesis book of the bible claims god made the world, animals, and made people as unique special beings. \n\nSome Christians think if that is wrong and the popular scientific evolution theory is correct, then the foundation of the entire Bible could be in doubt.",
"As a Christian, I get irate about evolution because it's still not the universally accepted theory it should be. I also get irate when people generalize an entire community when they are really referring to a small minded minority.",
"It doesn't upset *all* Christians. However some believe that humans were created as we are now some 5000 years ago and that's final. To say that humans came about by some long, chaotic and generally un-mediated process is against what they believe. It becomes a touchy subject because those who argue it most strongly make a lot of noise. ",
"Hi there,\n\nI am a professor of theology, so I hope I can be of some use here. \n\nIf you imagine every religion in the world producing a brochure that included a \"why follow?\" section, you would see a lot of different reasons. Most would center around the benefits or obligations of the follower. Benefits may be something like enlightenment, peace, or right order. Obligations may be something like tradition, familial piety, or societal expectation. \n\nBut, though the majority of Christians perhaps wouldn't immediately pose this, Christianity's 'why' section would simply say: \"because Christianity is entirely and irreversibly true.\" Take it from Leo Tolstoy, who summed in the concept in a way I like to share with students, because he has a damn fine way with word economy: \n\n\"...instead of the punishment which all the old laws of religions and governments alike laid down for non-fulfillment of their rules, instead of promises of rewards for fulfillment of them, this doctrine called men to it only because it was the truth.”\n\nChristianity must also be the total truth, because, as Karl Barth put it, God is eternal (or supra-temporal), and therefore eternally free to be true to himself, and thus we can put our faith in him. So, Christians are called to Christianity because it is true, and indeed are able to be faithful Christians because God comprises truth entirely, and is perfectly and wholly true.\n\nThis is all dandy for a major chunk of Christians, but it does pose the question of how we sort out the 'truth' of the religion, so as to not involve ourselves with falsehood, which we know must be unholy. For some Christians, truth is distilled through a variety of sources: church tradition, personal conscience and experience, scripture, and so on. For other Christians, and here I indicate mainly Evangelical Protestants, truth is only derived from a totally literal reading of the scripture. \n\nSo if you're in that mindset, and someone comes along and says something to the effect of, \"what we can show is true differs from scripture\", you have two choices: rearrange your total understanding of how to distill truth out of Christianity (this is a very scary thought for some people), or deny that evolution is true -- and because of what we've said about truth above, things which are untrue are inherently unholy. So that is why some Christians get so stirred up about evolution.\n\nI'll add that I'm new and unused to reddit and know Christianity isn't popular around here, but please don't attack me personally. I'm just trying to explain what's going on here.",
"Honestly. I think it's because no one likes being told their wrong. And I also think part of the problem is evolution can refer to soooo many things. From us all coming from an single thing. To an animal evolving to better suit a new environment or need. And if you are raised as a Christian sometimes you are never taught the difference so you assume it only has one meaning and typically that is the meaning that disagrees with your belief. \n\nTL;DR ppl don't like to be told their are wrong. And the word evolution can have a very broad meaning which when paired with ignorance can cause problems. \n\nAnd please note this is based on my own opinion and nothing else. Also.... I'm pooping.",
"Here's the basic run down according to some YEC pastors whose sermons I've heard. Keep in mind that Christianity is kind of a nebulous term describing a vast number of belief systems held by more than 1B people world wide.\n\nSome background. The sort of Christian I'm assuming you're referring believes that God created man at at his creation was sinless. Man - specifically woman - disobeyed God (sinned) and sullied man's perfect record. Having introduced sin into the world, all humans are inherently bad and need salvation. Jesus is that salvation. Jesus sacrificed himself to appease God for our sins. \n\nSo given that very brief, simplistic background:\n\n1. If we evolved from other organisms, there was never a single pair of perfectly-created humans to fall. \n\n2. If there was a specific fall then we are not all inherently morally bankrupt.\n\n3. If we are not inherently morally bankrupt then we don't need salvation.\n\n4. If we don't need salvation, there's no need for Jesus and he died for our sins in vain. "
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] |
|
4ko4to
|
earth's water in its natural form is 4.5 billion years old, but gets an expiration date when packaged
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ko4to/eli5_earths_water_in_its_natural_form_is_45/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d3gdole",
"d3glb5q"
],
"score": [
29,
5
],
"text": [
"The plastic bottle deteriorates after a long time and renders the water undrinkable. That's also why water in emergency kits come in cans, as they last longer.",
"There are other stuff in the water that goes bad after a while. Not all water on earth is drinkable."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
6vct49
|
how/why do vehicle engines just suddenly catch fire?
|
Like when you see a car on the side of the highway literally on fire (presumably the person was just driving it), how does that happen? Shouldn't this be something that doesn't happen to passenger vehicles?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6vct49/eli5_howwhy_do_vehicle_engines_just_suddenly/
|
{
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"dlz8e3m",
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"text": [
"There are rubber hoses filled with flammable fluids, either fuel or oil. Given wear or damage, they can burst spewing flammable fluids onto hot surfaces. Hot surfaces like exhaust piping, which can ignite the fluid.",
"Simple way to put it: cars burn fuel in engines. And any fuel system that malfunctions is a risk for fire.",
" > Shouldn't this be something that doesn't happen to passenger vehicles?\n\nWell of course not. But by that standard, houses shouldn't burn down, planes shouldn't crash, tires shouldn't have flats, etc. \n\nThe reality is that we ~~flirt with~~ use technologies that can be hazardous given the right (or wrong) circumstances, and sometimes not everything works out the way it should. \n\nBack to your question - cars utilize, or are exposed to every aspect of the fire triangle: fuel, oxygen, and heat. We rely on those three elements only interacting where needed: inside the engine. But unfortunately, parts wear out, things get damaged, and components can be defective. It's a numbers game. There are millions of cars on the road, and statistically, something catastrophic will happen to some of them. It's actually a wonder that engineering is what it is that these catastrophic incidents are the exception to the norm. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
24069p
|
css
|
I've tried, I really have, but i just can't grasp what it is or how to work with it...
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24069p/eli5css/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ch2ak9x",
"ch2aznz",
"ch2b8b6",
"ch2ckw7",
"ch2dp5w",
"ch2g9fa"
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"score": [
15,
2,
12,
6,
7,
3
],
"text": [
"It's the adjectives to the noun that is the HTML.",
"HTML is the content of a web page. CSS is the formatting (colors, alignment, fonts, etc) for the page.",
"HTML defines content, CSS decorates it and helps tell how it is displayed.\n\nCSS stands for Cascading Stylesheet. This means that there is a hierarchy of style attributes overwriting other attributes that affect the same elements.\n\nThink of it like this. Bob Ross does an oil painting and starts off with a canvas covered in liquid white. This is the lowest level on the hierarchy. It applies to the entire body of the painting, like a class applied to the body tag.\n\nOn that he paints some divs of class \"mountain\". The mountain class has the attribute paint-color:Van Dyke Brown. Since the div is within body the paint-color:Van Dyke Brown attribute overwrites the liquid white and you see the Van Dyke Brown over the liquid white.\n\nHe adds some divs of class \"happy little tree\" which are growing wherever they like, which happens to be on the mountains, so these happy little tree divs are within the mountain divs. Their paint-color:Sap Green is within the mountain div, so where the happy little tree divs are is painted with Sap Green on top of the Van Dyke Brown mountains.\n\nThen Bob adds another happy little tree div. This one he wants to be Alizarin Crimson because its his world and it can be whatever fucking color he god damn pleases. Rather than giving it a special id and using the # selector Bob makes the happy little accident of using an inline style. This overwrites the happy little tree class's paint-color:Sap Green attribute with an inline paint-color:Alizarin Crimson because inline styles cascade over classes.",
"It's the sequel to counter strike 1.6, which has now been redone as counter strike global offensive. Bunny hopping was so awesome in the game, can't seen to get it in CSGO",
"HTML starts off like a plain text file. It doesn't even specify what fonts to use, what colors, et cetera. You add little things called \"tags\" into it to separate it into different parts.\n\nFor example:\n\n < h1 > This is the first header at the top of the page. It is usually the biggest text on the page. It is some content within a \"h1\" tag. < /h1 > \n\n < h2 > This is the second header, usually for the top of individual sections of the page. It is usually a little smaller, and is some content within a \"h2\" tag. < /h2 > \n\n < p > This is a paragraph of text. It is a few sentences within a \"p\" tag. < /p > \n\nNow imagine a website. Imagine a paragraph within that website. You might think in your head \"I want all paragraphs on my site to be 16 point Helvetica. I want all paragraphs to have a blue background, with black text, with half-inch margins at the top, and quarter-inch margins on the sides.\"\n\nCSS is basically a list of characteristics that you want to apply to every item of a certain type. If you want all paragraphs to be 16-point Helvetica, and to have half-inch margins at top and quarter-inch margins at the sides, you might write something like this:\n\np {\n\n\tfont-size: 16pt;\n\tfont-family: helvetica;\n\tbackground-color: blue;\n\tcolor: black;\n\tmargin-top: .5in;\n\tmargin-left: .25in;\n\tmargin-right: .25in;\n\t}\n\nYou write that CSS information in another text file and you tell your html file to always get style information from the CSS file. You can have multiple different pages that point to one CSS file, so they all get their information from that CSS file. Every HTML file that uses that CSS file will have paragraphs with black text, a blue background, half-inch margins at the top, and quarter-inch margins at the sides.\n\nBecause multiple HTML files can all use the same CSS file, you save a whole bunch of space. You don't have to specify that information over and over again on each page.\n\nIt's kind of like how when you're describing someone to someone else, you don't have to tell people \"He's going to have one head, two arms, two legs, two hands, and two feet.\" All of that information is in your CSS(a.k.a. your \"stylesheet\") for people. Because all \"people\" have those same characteristics.",
"Hi, my name is Jay Machalani and I'm a UX Architect. I work with people and technology with a strong focus over psycology and research. I also used to be a teacher even to specific people who wear afraid to use a mouse.\n\nThere are several web technology and your confusion is very understandable, here's a very simple way for you to understand each of them with a core example.\n\nHTML: There is a box.\nCSS: Here's how that box will look like and be placed.\nJAVASCRIPT: Here's what will happen when I put my mouse over that box.\nPHP: I may want more box.\nMYSQL: Here's some information for those box.\n\nIn another way.\n\nHTML: Here's the content and the structure.\nCSS: Here's how it will look like, be placed and sized.\nJAVASCRIPT: Here's some actions for that content and the page.\nPHP: Here's how you can generate some content.\nMYSQL: Here's where you can store some content.\n\nHope that helps you! This is actually my first ELI5 comment, just discovered this great section today!"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
fo6g34
|
is there a theoritical limit to how hot somethig can get?
|
From my highschool knowledge I imagine heat as a liquid and temperature as wetness, when you fill things with heat they become hotter and hotter and if you stop pumping it, it leaks away making them colder and environment hotter. But is there a theoritical limit to how hot something can get? If there is, do we know why and how it changes from substance to substance?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fo6g34/eli5_is_there_a_theoritical_limit_to_how_hot/
|
{
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"text": [
"We don't know. \n\nThere have been hypotheses that the maximum temperature could be tied to a point where the gravity of a particle (remember, energy = mass) is so strong that it overcomes other fundamental forces and since many models start to fail at that point, it's hypothesized that point would be impossible to reach. That could be a failure of underlying models, we just don't really have much knowledge about high-energy physics at that kind of temperature.\n\nThere's another hypothesis that, eventually, something could be made hot enough that there's be enough energy that particles would spontaneously form at such a rate that any energy you tried to put in at that point would just result in more particles, not an increase in temperature. Sort of like how boiling water doesn't increase in temperature because once it's there, any energy you add just gets carried off by the steam. There may be other phase changes up at those energy levels, but again we're talking about high-energy physics of such high energy that we have very little to experimental data to go on.",
"There is something in physics called the Planck length. If something is smaller than this length, our modern understanding of physics breaks down. Don’t ask why, it’s complicated, just go with it. The only thing you need to know about it is that anything smaller than this ludicrously, literally unimaginably small distance is impossible given the current understanding of the laws of physics. Now, hold that thought.\n\nHot things give off energy, hence why a stove will burn your hand and it is ill-advised to sit on the bonnet (hood, I think, for the US) of a black car on a sunny day. Now, this heat behaves, essentially, like a wave (I’m massively oversimplifying here), meaning it has a wavelength. As things get hotter, this wavelength decreases and gets shorter in length. Can you see where I’m going?\n\nBasically, once you heat something up to a temperature called the Planck temperature, the wavelength is the Planck length. Any hotter and the wavelength would be smaller. However, remember that we can’t compute that. So for all intents and purposes, the hottest temperature theoretically possible is the Planck temperature, which is 141,678,541,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 degrees Celsius (quite large, isn’t it!). For comparison, the temperature of the core of the sun is 15,000,000 degrees Celsius, and the highest temperature ever created by humans is a measly 5,500,000,000,000 degrees Celsius.",
"Sort of, but nothing like absolute zero.\n\nOnce things become very, very hot, we have to start thinking carefully about exactly what we mean by things like heat, temperature and matter. Depending on the precise definition, you can do some math and come up with an upper limit, but it isn't the same as the wall you run into with absolute zero.",
"As you heat something, you cause the molecules of that substance to vibrate and bounce around. Depending on the substance that can cause it to melt. It will turn from a solid to a liquid. If you keep heating it, it will eventually boil, turning from a liquid into a gas. As you heat the gas, it will increase the pressure on the container. If you keep heating and heating, you will eventually start shaking the electrons loose from the atoms. You will turn the gas into a plasma. Eventually, the plasma will be so hot and so high pressured that it will burn through the container. If you somehow contain the plasma and keep adding energy, you will eventually shake the nucleus apart. You'd be at temperatures and pressures found in the center of stars at this point. Keep going and you're going to bust the protons and neutrons into quarks. Once you've reached that point, once you've poured all of the energy of the entire universe into your sample, you've reached the limit.",
"If you have 10 minutes, there's a [great video by VSauce](_URL_0_) on this exact topic - How Hot Can It Get?"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fuHzC9aTik"
]
] |
|
d19o93
|
why do humans (and presumably other animals) require heavy training to reach peak fitness, surely it would've been to beneficial to be genetically fit?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d19o93/eli5_why_do_humans_and_presumably_other_animals/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ezjbcxj"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Our lack of peak physical condition is a symptom of modern society. After the switch from hunting and gathering to agriculture, two things happened...we stopped moving constantly for gathering calories thus burning calories and went from protein and vitamin rich diets to grains which are a sugar. The transition took several thousand years."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
212d2d
|
what do people feel/understand/experience when listening to classical music?
|
When I was a kid I was always asking what the composer wanted to say with this piece? And grown-ups would tell me that this is not correct form of a question, it's about what you experience when you listen.
So what do people experience? Is it emotions? One musician told me that it's not about emotions but something else. He said that it is easy to provoke emotions, that's what they do in movies, but "real" music is not about this.
So can somebody describe what is the supposed correct effect of it? Like is it meditation states or unification with universe or just spontaneous wisdom?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/212d2d/eli5_what_do_people_feelunderstandexperience_when/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cg8yf94"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"For me personally, it's about appreciation. The complex way all these different tunes, rhythms, and sounds can come together in a moment to create a whole. Sometimes that moment is magical. And sometimes it's the opposite- one or two instruments creating a simple, still moment within an otherwise chaotic piece.\n\nI guess mostly I spend the piece appreciating the complexity of beauty. There's definitely a feeling of wonder, but I wouldn't say that emotion is my primary experience."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3zjpfj
|
how machines with spinning components transfer data
|
I've gotten quite a few CT scans and always wondered how data is transferred. It's not like they can connect a cable to it without it being twisted
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3zjpfj/eli5_how_machines_with_spinning_components/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cymnkp3",
"cymrla9"
],
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7,
2
],
"text": [
"There are a number of ways.\n\nYou could indeed have a cable provided the device unwinds itself often enough - if the cable is on a reel like a tape-measure which then retracts you can get several turns before having to backtrack.\n\nYou could have slip-rings - a set of continuous metal rings run round the moving part and pickups (brushes) make a sliding connection - this is how electric motors work, and also how Henry vacuum cleaners connect the retracting power cable to the motor.\n\nYou could get power into the system inductively - a varying magnetic field will induce a current in a coil - one coil on the moving bit, one on the fixed bit.\n\nOnce you've powered it you can extract data by radio, simply beaming it out, or by infra-red, which would be more appropriate in a CT environment.",
"I have no idea if this type of engineering is ever used, but it could:\n\n_URL_1_\n\nIf you're unconvinced, then how about this example. You can spin your hand, palm up, as much as you want without it getting twisted. It just takes 720 degrees of rotation to return to its original state, instead of 360.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTlbVLGBm3Q",
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Spin_One-Half_%28Slow%29.gif"
]
] |
|
5jryu8
|
why do those old school hard drives that use magnetic tape need to be so bulky? idk if they're still as big as they used to be but i remember at my dad's old job they were the size of a fridge
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5jryu8/eli5_why_do_those_old_school_hard_drives_that_use/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dbihmxi"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Ah, the good old days.\n\nThe fridge-sized tape drive used a column of air on either side of the read mechanism to buffer the tape. To read the tape at a productive speed, the tape has to move pretty quickly. Going from stopped to fast puts a lot of stress on the tape if it has to turn the whole reel. Stress can stretch the tape and make the magnetic pattern wrong causing read errors. The big column of slack, held smoothly in place by a vacuum pump, allowed the tape to move quickly while the reel motors caught up to maintain the slack."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
1duhna
|
in schrödinger's cat, why is the cat in a super-state of alive and dead. why don't they just say "inconclusive"?
|
If you put a cat in a box with poison, you don't know if the cat is dead or alive until you open the box. Usually in science, when something is unknown for what ever reason, it is inconclusive. Why do they say the cat is in a super-state when it really isn't? Either the cat is alive or dead, and until you look, you have no clue.
Disclaimer: I may be an idiot.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1duhna/eli5_in_schrödingers_cat_why_is_the_cat_in_a/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c9tz86k"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"The Schrodinger's cat paradox is a thought experiment that actually has very little to do with a cat. It was a statement made to( for lack of simpler language) avoid accepting inconclusive observation as evidence for fact. In the great man's own words:\n\n > That prevents us from so naively accepting as valid a \"blurred model\" for representing reality. In itself, it would not embody anything unclear or contradictory. There is a difference between a shaky or out-of-focus photograph and a snapshot of clouds and fog banks.\n\n\n.\n\n\n.\n\n\n\nThis is what the experiment is:\n\n* There is a cat in a box.\n\n* There is a flask of poison( HydrogCyanic Acid) inside the box.\n\n* There is a radioactive source inside the sealed box that has an equal chance of emitting or NOT emitting a particle over period of time( 1 hour)\n\n* If a sensor inside the box senses a particle, the poison is released, the cat dies.\n\n\n* **1**. Now after 1 hour, the cat would be either dead and alive ( or a mixture of the 2) based on the chance of the particle being emitted. This is the result of the wave equation, or psi function of the radioactive substance which is beyond the scope of ELI5.\n\n\n* **2**. However as per the Copenhagen Interpretation, quantum mechanics does not give a result of objective reality, but one of the states of the observed object( in this case, our cat). So when you look in the box, you either see the cat dead OR alive, not both. This contradicts 1 above. Hence the paradox.\n\n\n\n\nEdit: clarity(hopefully)\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
3cm5q7
|
why are internet crimes treated so severely such as in the case of aaron swartz?
|
It seems as though penalties for internet crimes are always ridiculously harsh.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cm5q7/eli5_why_are_internet_crimes_treated_so_severely/
|
{
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"cswu6i6",
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3,
2
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"text": [
"The short answer to this is that the laws are badly written. \n\nAlthough there are some smart legislators, the laws for most cybercrime developed at a time when the internet was very different, and with a focus on extreme cases. Since Congress wasn't that familiar with the internet, laws tended to be written very generally, and old laws that might have needed updating, were left as they were. \n\nAnd since cybercrime seemed like a police nightmare---with mastermind hackers outwitting the police at every turn---the idea was that penalties needed to be severe. The idea was that this would be a bigger deterrent (like a 1,000 dollar fine instead of a 10 dollar fine) and make it easier for law enforcement to \"turn\" the hackers they did catch. The threat of decades in jail can work wonders when it comes to getting someone to rat on their friends. \n\nAnd so, today, you end up with situations like Swartz, and many others, where there are dozens of crimes that might be committed dozens of times each in any one incident, and where the prosecutor is free to charge all of them. \n\nAnd this combines with a general problem in the federal criminal justice system, which is that the actual \"punishment\" for any particular crime doesn't necessarily control. The Federal [sentencing guidelines](_URL_0_) basically tell judges to combine crimes according to a formula when sentencing. So though Swartz *could* have gone to jail for decades, odds are it would have been a much shorter sentence. But, the defendant can't be certain of that, and so it's just another way to end up with unequal sentencing. ",
"You'll have to give another example here. Swartz was never actually sentenced - when you hear about his 50 years of imprisonment that is the maximum sentence, cumulative of each of the 13 felony counts he was charged and indicted for. Some of these related to physically breaking into secure locations. \n\nThings got to the point in negotiations where prosecution offered a 6 month plea deal, but this was rejected by Swartz's defense attorney. We don't even know if the system would have found him guilty, on which counts, and if guilty...how long he'd have been sentenced for.\n",
"Unfortunately, in cases like Swartz' and other younger 'criminals', the powers that be seem to feel the need to set an example. If you haven't seen it, the documentary 'The Internet's Own Boy' does a decent job of illustrating this.\n\nI would also (not to just hurl Lessig footage you) suggest RIP: A Remix Manifesto.\n\nBoth should be available on _URL_0_ in full for free. \n\nThree Cheers for Creative Commons!"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Federal_Sentencing_Guidelines"
],
[],
[
"Archive.org"
]
] |
|
1pw5ki
|
why is random-number generation non-trivial?
|
I don't quite understand the complexities behind programming a random-number generator.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pw5ki/eli5_why_is_randomnumber_generation_nontrivial/
|
{
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"text": [
"What trivial method of random-number generation would you propose?\n\nOne of the issues is that if it was truly random, we shouldn't be able to predict it.\n\nSo we're following a set of instructions in order to generate the number, but if you follow the same set of instructions again, you shouldn't be able to predict the outcome.\n\n",
"It is impossible to produce random numbers by using an algorithm, such as a computer program. One of the great things about computer programs is that you tell them what to do, and they do the exact same thing, every time. To make a Random Number Generator (RNG) you need some source of \"randomness\" for the program to work with. \n \nIt turns out that these are few and far between. A lot of the things that we think of as being random contain subtle patterns, or \"biases\". For most things, those biases don't really matter. But if you are using your RNG for cryptography, even quite subtle biases can take a cipher that was very, very hard to crack and make it just kind of hard to crack. And that's a bad thing. \n \nFor other things, imperfect RNGs are just fine. It doesn't matter that much if the order of your iTunes song shuffling isn't completely random. ",
"The first problem that computers have a hard time being truly random. They just follow steps, and when they follow the same steps in the same way, they get the same results, which is kind of the opposite of random. \n\nSo the trick is to come up with a mathematical formula *R()*, that when you feed it an *x*, you get back a *y* that is seemingly unrelated. For most random numbers, like with a game, *R()* just has to be pretty good. But for generating the encryption keys you are going to use to access your bank account, you want *R()* to be really bullet proof, because if someone knows generates 71's more often than it generates 72's, they can use that information to weaken the encryption.",
"The philosophical problems of achieving true \"randomness\", especially on a computer that runs on fairly hard set instructions. You can't just tell a computer to \"pick any number\" because it doesn't work like that. Even if you did it to a human, there can be arguments made about whether it's truly random. In fact, we're often bad at simulating randomness. One common experiment is two groups are told to make a list of 100 coin flips (heads or tails) and write it down. The caveat is one group actually flips a coin, the other makes it up as best they can. An outsider, who does not know which list belongs to which group, can point out which is the real one (i.e. using the coin) almost every time. The reason being because the \"fake\" group will often avoid long chains (e.g. 8 heads in a row or whatever) because it doesn't seem random enough to them. In essence, the more \"random\" looking one is actually less likely to be random.\n\nAnyway, it's a fun, semi-related story but I digress. A computer fakes it with very sensitive equations but the problem is, the equation must give a relatively even distribution with enough iterations/sample-size (otherwise it has a bias towards certain numbers) and it needs some seed or variable to base it on so that it doesn't just output the same number every time. The equation has to be sensitive enough that similar seeds can also give wildly different results and it would be hard to predict the result of a similar seed based on the results of the original seed. Usually the seed is based on the system clock. However, as close as they get, it's not a truly random number.",
"There Are very few \"actual\" random number generators. Most run off the clock on the computer it's working on. I think it uses milliseconds as the source of the number, but I'm not positive if that part is true, but I do know they relate to the computer clock."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
ey9st2
|
the lockean proviso
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ey9st2/eli5_the_lockean_proviso/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fgfx850"
],
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2
],
"text": [
"This comes from philosopher John Locke when discussing ownership derived from common goods.\n\nThe idea is you are free to, claim ownership of unowned property by utilizing it with your labor, but only so long as enough remains for others and that it is of similar quality. That last portion is the proviso. Otherwise, society as a whole has an interest in that property and can limit how it is used."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
8gefcy
|
why does apple want to lower it's cash holdings by buying back stock?
|
Today Apple announced it is buying back $100bn worth of stock in order to reduce its net cash balance. Eventually they want their cash holdings to be zero over time.
Source: _URL_0_
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8gefcy/eli5_why_does_apple_want_to_lower_its_cash/
|
{
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"text": [
"Stock buy backs are a way to directly give money to your shareholders, the owners of your business. This is a pretty normal thing to do for companies. Their goal is to do whats best for their shareholders, they think giving them money is a good option.\n\nThey are also raising dividends, which again, puts money in the pocket of their owners.",
"I believe it would be that they currently do not have a better use for the cash so they are returning it to the investors. \n\nIf they want to reduce their balance to 0, that would mean they feel like they generate enough cash from operations to cover all their expenses and any large company purchase they would either do with cash or a mixture of stock/cash ",
"Big companies also do this when they know they have big announcements coming up in a quarter or two so they can resell their stock a higher price, though this answer is the lesser of the three mentioned before mine (chronologically)"
]
}
|
[] |
[
"https://www.ft.com/content/c0555be2-4d79-11e8-8a8e-22951a2d8493"
] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
qyiqj
|
metrosexuality
|
I just don't quite understand what it really is.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/qyiqj/eli5_metrosexuality/
|
{
"a_id": [
"c41guow",
"c41i8it"
],
"score": [
10,
3
],
"text": [
"It's a term for a heterosexual male who spends a lot of time and money on his appearance.\n\nPersonally, I don't see the point of coining a new term for a man who likes to look good because most people seem to think \"metrosexual\" is short for \"just shy of gay\".",
"A heterosexual male with what society perceives as feminine qualities. (Someone who would appear to be the \"stereotypical\" gay man, but instead prefers lady bits.)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
5drrrp
|
how does the m & m factory draw an 'm' on every single m & m?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5drrrp/eli5_how_does_the_mm_factory_draw_an_m_on_every/
|
{
"a_id": [
"da6t06s"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"It's part of the manufacturing process and they have a specific machine for doing it:\n\n > The single-colored batches are combined into the mixtures of red, yellow, blue, green, brown, and orange. They are then transported to the machine that stamps the \"m\" on the shells. A special conveyor belt carries the pieces to this machine. Each piece rests in its own indentation. The piece runs under rubber etch rollers that gently touch each candy to print the \"m.\" "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
8kluzh
|
what physically changes with every iteration of cpus and gpus that cause them to be faster than one another?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8kluzh/eli5_what_physically_changes_with_every_iteration/
|
{
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"text": [
"Short answer, sometimes little changes, sometimes a lot.\n\nLong answer it depends on a lot of factors, those HW designs have several architects working on several parts, each architect had a big team working on improvements over the previous generation. Generally they iterate over the previous designs by adding or removing features (and bugs) sometimes in order to have a real improvement they have to redesign that part from scratch.\n\nSometimes the changes are global say, when you change the size of the transistors for example doing from 14nm to 10nm in that case that change affects everything, sometimes the changes are better buses or better memory management (generally cache, prediction etc) sometimes even the physical arrangement of certain sections on the chip can improve efficiency.\n\nSource: when I was a driver developer I used to work really close with several HW engineers and architects, for me it was important to know how the HW was designed so I could better plan how me and my team should tackle the challenge.\n\nEdit: I forgot to mention, within the same generation usually the design shares most of the features but stuff might be removed in order to make the chip cheaper I saw that a lot. An i5 is pretty much an i7 with ht disabled for instance. In the case of graphics chips I assume the difference is type of cache, number of cores and features that get 'fused' (removed logically but not physically)",
"Within the generation? Typically the difference is components of the chip are duplicated. For the 1080 vs 1050, [look at NVIDIA's specs](_URL_0_). The cuda cores being 2560 vs 640 is the main driver of performance, a cuda core is a small processor that actually does the work, the higher end has more of them (which makes the higher end chip much larger and drives up the price).\n\nThey do it the same with other components, there are memory controllers and memory chips, they add more of each to improve performance as well. They do have higher clock rates on the higher end chips, but that's usually not a design thing, but a testing thing. They typically build the same chips, and the ones that can't perform at the higher speeds are just sold as a lower spec chip.",
"It used to be that improvements came by increasing clock speed. If your clock ticked faster, you could do more work in one second. Then around the early 2000s we started to hit the clock speed limit.\n\nNow improvements are usually by adding more logic circuits, and improving the design and speed of them. One obvious change is making everything smaller. The size you see in chip architecture, like \"10 nm\" (nanometers) refers to the approximate smallest size of a single element on the chip that the machines can manufacture. When everything is smaller, it takes less time for signals to travel around the chip. In fact, the speed of light itself is starting to become a limiting factor - it can only move about 10 inches in one nanosecond!\n\nNew generations also try to cram more logic circuits on a single chip. You see this especially with GPUs. Each core can do math independently of the others, and at the same time. Current GPUs have thousands of cores.\n\nAnother improvement is to design circuits to do more complex math in hardware, which is faster than having to do it in software. Some new chip architectures introduce new instructions for programmers to use. If previously graphics software had to do some complex calculation a billion times, a new GPU might add that calculation directly into the chip wiring. There are even new chips being designed specifically for cryptocurrency mining.\n\nFinally there's always some tweaking that can be done to make everything more efficient, consume less power, dissipate heat more easily, etc.",
"The semi-conductor manufacturing process is pretty much the same in most cases, but has varying yield. The chip is bench marked during manufacture and branded and priced accordingly.\n\ni.e. i7 and i3 pass through the same process. The i7 just turned out to be up to standard. i3 not so much so Intel turned a few features on and off, and priced them differently.\n\n_URL_0_\n\n_URL_1_\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/10series/compare/"
],
[],
[
"https://www.geek.com/chips/from-sand-to-hand-how-a-cpu-is-made-832492/",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_binning"
]
] |
||
1r0zuf
|
why is it that in the winter time every time i get out of my car i get shocked when i touch the door to close it? (i don't have leather seats)
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1r0zuf/why_is_it_that_in_the_winter_time_every_time_i/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cdigsti"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It's drier in your climate during the winter, leading to more static buildup."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
1wnjv5
|
why do are commas inside of quotation marks sometimes and outside of them others? are there different situations to use them either way or are people just doing it wrong?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1wnjv5/eli5_why_do_are_commas_inside_of_quotation_marks/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cf3oftj",
"cf3ogvf"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"It depends on where you live, in American English having them inside quotes is correct. In British English however, which is the form of English most people outside the US are thought in schools, having them outside the quote is correct.\n\nSources:\n\n_URL_1_\n_URL_2_\n_URL_0_\n\nAnd my own education, as I was taught British English in school.",
"It may depend on the writing style of the individual (or the corporate style guidelines he/she is following), but generally punctuation should be placed before the end quotation mark.\n\nFor example: Then he said, \"It's cold outside.\" I nodded my head in agreement.\n\nSometimes it's considered acceptable to put punctuation outside of the end quotation mark if the punctuation does not apply to the quotation itself (e.g. if you are asking the reader a question).\n\nFor example: Do you agree with the saying, \"common sense is not so common\"?\n\nAs for commas, it is usually left up to the individual preference of the writer (or is determined by the style guide the writer is following). Having said this, commas (like other forms of punctuation) are usually placed before the end quotation mark.\n\nFor example: \"David,\" she said, \"will you come over here please?\""
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_mark#Punctuation",
"http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/quotation_(speech)_marks_punctuation_in_or_out.htm",
"http://www.dailywritingtips.com/punctuation-errors-american-and-british-quotation-marks/"
],
[]
] |
||
9n3jfe
|
why were adam and eve prohibited from eating the apple? is the apple a metaphor for something?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9n3jfe/eli5_why_were_adam_and_eve_prohibited_from_eating/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e7jcifh"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"In the story, there are two trees, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. The idea is that eating from the tree of knowledge gave you the knowledge possessed by the gods and eating from the tree of life gave you eternal life like the gods. If humans are from both they would be no different from the gods so they prohibited them from eating from the trees. After Adam and Eve are from the tree of knowledge, the gods kicked them out to prevent them from eating from the tree of life as well so they couldn’t become as good as them. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
1s1r9z
|
why can't dvd or cd players fast forward through a scratch rather than get hung on it and freeze up.
|
And if it is, in fact, possible to create said miracle BD / DVD / CD player, why aren't they mainstream?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1s1r9z/eli5_why_cant_dvd_or_cd_players_fast_forward/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cdtez6r"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"CD/DVD players do fast forward through a scratch, which is why you will sometimes hear a skip in a CD or experience an image jump in a DVD. The issue is only with large/deep/extensive scratching which the player cannot just jump over. Even in these cases the disc is likely still readable in other areas, you may just have to manually skip a scene or song."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
av4u27
|
what keeps bed bugs in check? why haven't they taken over the world? do they have any natural enemies? they seem pretty unstoppable - easy breeders, can live a long time without food, can survive harsh conditions, easy hitch hikers, and they feed on an endless supply of human blood.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/av4u27/eli5_what_keeps_bed_bugs_in_check_why_havent_they/
|
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"text": [
"They are attracted to the smell of CO2. This is how they locate the sleeper they bite. So they can easily be drowned in beer which has been cheap in wage-terms for centuries in many regions. You don't need many of your man-hours-worth of beer to drown a lot of bed bugs.\n\nSo for example they are believed to have completely died out in the U.K. for several consecutive decades recently. But the price of freedom is perpetual vigilance and they have come back from the Americas. Someone must have had bugs in their luggage.\n\nSo in other words what keeps them in check is the domestication of travelers and their keepers. And breweries.\n\nEDIT: I don't know what they are making but during the recent massive explosion of bedbugs a company has existed that is named after getting rid of them. It now belongs to a holding company that \"specializes\" in something that sounds completely different called \"gas exploration\". What a complex mystery. \n\nEDIT 2: Beer drowning is just one aspect of starving them. If you have to be crowded you need a modern solution whatever that is. Someone who knows something, tell us. I am just as angry as all of you. I thought they were gone, my towns' unsolicited guests fed my brother to them. Be civilized and tell us. Not just the name of mysterious people who won't tell us themselves.",
"Lots of things will eat them, spiders, centipedes, and I'm sure plenty of bugs. But that's not what keeps them in check.\n\nThey eat human blood, they can't really survive anywhere without humans, if they get to infestation level, humans are pretty good at killing them. We have strong insecticides, and physical barriers can be effective (like just putting your bed in dishes of water so they can't climb up the bed), wrapping the mattress in plastic, and washing all your clothes. They'll starve to death in about a year that way. Vacuums can suck them up as well. Basically, if you know there are lots of bedbugs in your home, you probably will do a pretty good job at eradicating them.",
"They are actually increasingly on the rise and becoming an endemic problem in many cities precisely because they’re so fast to breed and hard to get rid of. There’s a great post on /r/bedbugs (on mobile so can’t link) about how we were actually almost rid of them in the 70s thanks to pesticides that in turn were also incredibly toxic to humans (edit: caveat that, as pointed out below, the toxicity was first and foremost to birds, and less critically so to humans) and thus were removed from the market, and now bed bugs are coming back with a vengeance. Overuse of only semi-effective pesticides is also causing them to build resistances through thicker shells, so one of the best treatments nowadays is heating the entire building up to over 120F and then leaving desiccants (dust that dries them out until they are nothing but little shreds) and residual pesticides to catch any that managed to dodge the heat. ",
"This is probably a question with a very obvious answer but now that I think about it -\n\nWhat did they do before beds?",
"Interestingly bed bugs were on the brink of extinction when DDT pesticides were still being used, as they were so effective against them. They made a huge comeback after DDT was banned from use. Now rooms have to be sealed and heated to kill them, which is a huge and cumbersome task compared to the previous methods.\n\n & #x200B;\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)",
"Worked at an agency where our clientele had bed bugs. Spraying rubbing alcohol on the actual bug kills them too. \n\nPs the eggs can get in the grooves on the bottom of your shoes too. \n\nOh! And whenever I go to hotels, I don’t open my luggage and leave it on the dresser. I take off all bedding and check the mattress for little old trails of blood. That’s usually a sign that there are bed bugs. ",
"We have brains and can outhink bedbugs. They are vulnerable to heat. Use mattress covers and bedbug traps on bedposts and furniture posts. Steam clean everything often. Keep stuff off the ground. Sanitize clothes in a dryer with a sanitizer feature (aka really hot). Pull furniture away from walls. Use diatomaceous earth, tea tree oil, and alcohol sprays on places you think they are or are traveling from/to. Seal up any cracks in your home including around electrical outlets. Shower often. While bedbugs are persistent, humans can be more persistent. That's really the key. Took me about 6 months of this behavior and I finally purged my house. No bites in over a year. I left the mattress covers on to prevent future infestation plus it protects the mattress from dust mites and stains. I left the bedbug traps on my furniture to prevent future infestations and they also catch spiders, rollie pollies, and other random creepy crawlys. I occasionally still steam clean because it sanitizes my furniture and keeps it clean. My hygiene in general is better from the experience so I turned the negative experience into a positive one. Also, I've never had bedbugs prior to this, was forced into a hasty move and the place I picked had them. I ended up tearing out the carpet in the one room that had carpet, that seemed to be their main infestation area which really helped. Prior to ripping the carpet I salted the earth with two bags of DE. The exterminator used the words \"overkill\" and \"mummified bedbug corpses\" to describe my assault. Be sure to use a HEPA grade respirator when dealing with DE. Use the pesticide grade DE not the food grade.",
"When I saw this lovely embroidered pillow I looked closely and saw this tiny bug hiding in the seam.I looked them up about ten years ago and found this:\n\nThey die at temperatures over 160 degrees F and cannot survive temperatures below minus 20 degrees.\n\nSo freeze the suckers or boil them.\n\nI poured boiling water along all the seams of an antique stuffed piece, and after a long period of residence in my freezer (weeks in a plastic bag) there were no live bugs. The problem is making sure you get the juveniles the size of a salt grain and the eggs as well as the adults.\n\nOr maybe I was lucky",
"Lol. I've been in the pest control industry and I haven't been to a movie theater, rode in a cab, or anything \"public\" related in years to eliminate the possibility of bringing bedbugs home. It takes me a minimum of 30 minutes of inspecting a hotel room before I'll bring anything inside if I have to stay the night........",
"Honestly? The banned chemical DDT. In the late 90s and early 2000s, there were scientific reports on the near-eradication and extinction of bedbugs within a decade, then we banned DDT and bedbugs came back in a huge rebound.",
"I used to travel a lot when I was younger and was attacked by bedbugs many times. I react very badly to the bites and it can get to me psychologically for several weeks after. One time we arrived very late at a hotel in Morocco.. I had already checked for bedbugs eg the seams of the mattress etc. I dimmed the lights and noticed one scuttling across the mattress. Within a few minutes there were lots of them. (I captured them in a glass). I investigated to see where they were hiding and to my horror they were coming through the plug sockets in the wall by the bed! \n\nBedbugs hide In your bag/clothes and then leave with you and multiply. Thankfully I’ve never had them in my own home but I understand they can be extremely difficult to get rid of. I’d love to see every one of those horrible little bastards wiped of the face of the earth.\n\nEdit: To answer your question : They haven’t taken over the world because they tend to branch out via your bag. They’re not social insects like ants and don’t need a colony. Simply, if someone doesn’t release them somewhere unintentionally they’ll stay within their feeding zone.",
"I got them 15 years ago when I first moved to Brooklyn. I couldn’t afford an exterminator and landlord didn’t give a crap, so here’s what I did. \n\nFirst, throw away the mattress. Then bag up all the clothes sheets and towels. Move all the furniture into center of room (it was a tiny efficiency). Scrub everything with bleach- bed frame, inside the dresser, floor, walls, cabinets, everything. Remove all the electrical cover plates, put diatomaceous earth in there, under the baseboards, in the window sills, in the cupboards. Seal all the electrical covers, baseboards and window molding with caulk. Caulk where the cabinets meet the walls- seal every crevice I could find. Heavy coat of paint on walls ceiling and moldings. Sweep diatomaceous earth over the floor and scrub it into every crack in the floor boards. Set bug bomb, split to the laundromat and wash & dry everything on hot with bleach. Crash with friends, get drunk and curse my life. Go back and set another bug bomb the next day. Return, open the windows and turn off the heat (it was winter and the little fuckers can’t take the cold). Come back, mix insecticide into paste wax and wax the hell out of the floor and cabinets. Set another bug bomb. Buy new mattress, move back in, suffer bedbug paranoia for weeks until I’m confident that I got them all. See! It’s easy!",
"The neighbor across from me in my old apartment building had them. She had sprinkled a powder outside her door and down the outside wall. My dog nosed it so I texted her asking what it was and was it dangerous. \"Oh.. I have bedbugs. So does the guy above you, that's diatomaceous earth so its cool.\" I freaked OUT. Lost my shit on my landlord for not reporting it to any of the tenants and promptly set up an appointment with one of the bedbug dog sniffer guys. I googled what to do and: moved my bed away from all walls, put the legs on doublestick tape and also wrapped it around the legs. I did the same with all my furniture - away from the walls and taped. The guy showed up and thankfully none found in my place but there was a hotspot per the dogs reaction on one wall and outside my front door. He said I did the right thing with the furniture/tape and I should prep my place as if I had the bugs as a third apartment became infested in my building. He told me bedbugs can live in wood, phones, lamps, books, etc. So. ALL my possessions were double wrapped and sealed in plastic and then sealed in tubs and stacked. I had a bag that i had my \"clean\" outside clothes and a bag that held my inside clothes so I could keep things safe and separate. Landlord refused to pay for the heat treatment so had a guy come in who dumped diatomaceous earth all over the inside of my place. I had to sweep it into every crack and crevice. I lived for a lot of months in a maze of totes and a strict structure on managing my clothes and such, it was horrible. I finally found a new place to live and got out of there, I loved that building it was such a beautiful brownstone. I never ever ever want a repeat of that experience.",
"This is a good [video](_URL_0_) about what to do in a hotel room to avoid bringing the critters home. ",
"Old employee got them in her house. She tried cleaning her house but ended up deciding the best thing to do would be to move out, in with family, and she SOLD. THE. HOUSE. with the bedbugs. ",
"A pest control guy told me the story of an apartment building in a college town. A couple picked up a sofa off the side of the road and took it back to their apartment only to find later it was infested with bed bugs. So what did they do. They asked their neighbors if they wanted a sofa. Wasn't long before the whole building was infested. Be nice to you neighbors, lol. ",
"How come they don’t spread diseases like ticks or mosquitos can?",
"DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) kept them in check for a very long time. \n\nUnfortunately it was terrible in many many other ways and banned worldwide. ",
"I live where snow is alomst half a year - only heard about then from movies, and in bacteria zoo. Is it because of cold or am I just lucky?",
"I had them few years ago. I always looked for hitchhikers due to the multiple housing units I worked in, but they made it home at some point. In housing they would relocate the tenant. Then they would bleach the entire unit and caulk every last seam in the place. After that they would heat treat and/or use the chemicals. Success rate was still not 100%. It should be noted that alot of these tenants were on types of social assistance and didnt work. Their unit may have been bug free, but when they hang out with their neighbours in the building they brought the issue right back home. \n\nAs for my case, I replaced my bed and couch. I went around every crevis with a heat gun nice and slow. They made their home in the cracks of the wooden bed frame and I burned it. The couch went to the curb and I spray painted X's all over it so nobody would take it. Extensively cleaned the house until it smelled like a YMCA pool. It has been 2 years and I can say I won at this point. \n\nThey cant climb slippery surfaces. This is why metal bed frames keep them off your bed. My nightstand was a white ikea type with a glossy finish and did not contain any evidence of them. Keeping your bed as an \"island\" is key as well. Loose sheets, walls, etc give them a route. \n\nLast thing to mention is it was very hard to tell anyone or have people over. They make you feel disgusting. The anxiety and paranoia mentioned are very real. You feel like the kid at school with head lice, but you cant get a special shampoo and have a year of fear that they are still there.",
"Well this is a horrifying way to spend 15 minutes reading. Belongs on r/nosleep \n\nToodles *shiver*",
"When I lived in the ghetto I learned quickly that what ever pest your neighbors had you also had. I had ants, spiders, and mice... until I got overwhelmed by bedbugs. It got so bad that I didn’t want to go to work because people would question the hives I had. So I looked up what eats bed bugs, and it was the previous pests. So I had to choose which devil I wanted. So I started to leave little droplets of syrup all over my house and the ants slowly returned neutralizing the bed bugs.\n\nEDIT: My first gold! Thank you kind stranger!\n\nThis seems to be taking off so I’ll give more details. The infestation I had was so immense and genuinely scared me more than anything in my life at that point. I would wake up at night with a flashlight looking after I felt them crawling on me. \nI’m not saying ants were the only method I used to fend them off, but they definitely were the straw that broke the bedbugs back. \nI was broke and could not afford everything at once, so I started with the ants on week one. Week two sprayed all my fabrics with a lavender/ peppermint oil mixture to kill the larvae and act as a repellent. The next couple of weeks I washed everything with borax and after a month of staying tidy, constant laundry, and leaving treats for my exoskeletal friends I was pretty much rid of them.",
"If you wake up scratching one or more bumps immediately get out of bed, turn on the lights, and go hunting. They don’t move fast and chances are they are hiding close by. Nothing is more satisfying than popping one of those fuckers. My husband and I got rid of a small infestation just by doing everything we could to prevent them from getting to us and waking up in the middle of the night to go on bedbug hunts. ",
"Steam did wonders for my situation. I used a Shark steam cleaner throughout my entire house over the course of several weeks. Treating and retreating every inch of my house while everything we owned sat outside in the Arizona heat sealed up in trash bags. \n\nOf course the steam idea came about only AFTER spending WAY too much money for many months with no success. We could've had the house heat treated, which I suggested but was overruled, several times for the money we spent on shit that did nothing. So I said fuck those little bastards and went John fucking Rambo on them. \n\nBut the steamer worked wonders. I highly recommend it as a cheap alternative to expensive heat treating. \n\nBut then again I'm just a Joe Schmo here. I'd consult experts before anything else.",
"Multi family units are the worst and only ones I can’t fix my way. You starve them. Make yourself the trap. No co2 traps. Just you, some well placed tape, D.E., and time. A years time to be exact and a bug proof bed slip cover just in case. Also no pets.",
"I work in pest control, and can verify the \"we stopped using the most effective pesticides due to damage to humans\" stance. Only sure way to end an infestation now is to put a tent on the building and pump it full of poison gas.",
"Better yet, why doesn't Bill Gates also fund a research that makes bed bugs sterile like hes doing with the sterile mosquito research?",
"Hi Everyone,\n\nThis post is becoming popular, which is wonderful. To those who are new to ELI5 (and those who aren't), I'd like ask you to take a look at our rules before commenting. We are a fairly strict sub, in particular please see Rule 3: all top level comments must be written explanations. \n\n\nThat means all jokes, personal stories, or even very valid and useful advice are not allowed as top level comments unless you also actually explain the request concept directly.\n\nEnjoy",
"turn up dryer heat to clean bugs from clothes\n\nand double cycle heavy blankets on high heat\n\n & #x200B;\n\nfirst isolate bed from all 4 directions, they are fast crawlers\n\nbut unlike fleas can't jump at all\n\nafter sealing mattress with plastic and spraying bed frame\n\nin the cracks and seams\n\nlike mosquitoes they inject pain killer as not to wake the meal\n\nisolate bed post from the floor with deep plastic lids\n\nfilled with DM (Diatomaceous Earth) or pesticide\n\nuse reverse tape on bed legs just above plastic lids\n\n(once stuck to tape - u can hear em scream - I've been Scotched)\n\n & #x200B;\n\ndon't confuse fleas which bite your ankles to bedbugs\n\nthat will go for head, neck and wrists\n\nthe babies will be size of a pin head and red if fed\n\n & #x200B;\n\nget quart size plastic bottle with a narrow end filled 1/4,\n\nsqueeze and spread safe Diatomaceous Earth in cloud\n\nleave room door closed and leave for few hours\n\n & #x200B;\n\nit takes time and persistence ..\n\nnow go in there Marine - and show them who is the BOSS\n\n & #x200B;\n\n & #x200B;",
"Tbh they probably want to avoid attracting too much attention. Becoming the enemy of humanity is a scary target on your back. ",
"In the past a chemical known as DDT was used, and it was so effective it almost made bed bugs go extinct. DDT was banned in the US in the late 70s-80’s as it was having bad side effects with wildlife, mainly the bald eagles. DDT was not just effective, it was a more safe chemical to human use than anything out on the market now. There is a video that some scientists tested DDT by having people eat the stuff for months, and they were fine, like not just food that had been in contact with the chemical, straight up eating it directly. ",
"I took my own pillow to a rented cabin. A week or two later after getting home I started getting bit. I went total scorched Earth ...... mattress, headboard, bed frame, pillows, everything under the bed....all in the trash. They hadn't spread past the bedroom so I slept in the guest room for a month. Every few days I would spray the room, vacuum and steam clean. It was horrible and cost me a fortune....I still lay in bed and worry.\nNever ever ever take your own bedding anywhere!!!",
"Can't we develop some final solution gene alteration tech [like we have for mosquitoes](_URL_0_) and deal with bed bugs once and for all?",
"Dealt with many infestations and honestly, the only thing that seems 100% effective is Pyerithrin, which is a nerve gas for bugs......unfortunately it isnt so good for humans so people have tried to stop using it, but if you ever get a bedbug infestation, you'll want the gas.",
"Just throwing this out there, we had them really bad a couple years ago and bought a fogger with cedar oil. Fogged the shit out of infested areas and the rest of the house, haven't had any signs since ",
"Anyone else lying in bed, reading this, and itching themselves all over? ",
"Mattress cover and a few cops of diatomaceous earth inside it does the trick. Leave it for months to make sure you kill the ones yet to hatch. Works for fleas too. It is a pain in the ass to get the diatomaceous earth off of the mattress once you're done because it gums up regular vacuums. But you sleep on a mattress cover afterwards anyway so it's not like you're getting dirt on you.",
"Fuck bedbugs. I worry that one day I am going to bring one home from a patient's house. The worst time so far was when we ran a code at this lady's house right next to her couch which was visibly crawling with bedbugs. I think we found like five or so hitchhikers on us and our equipment when it was all said and done. ",
"I’ve heard of horror stories that make me itch and Paranoid. My boss has being doing his job for a long time and he has some crazy stories. He tells me a story about an elderly woman who keeps having to go to the doctor because she continues to be anemic. Doctors couldn’t understand why or what was causing her to be anemic. They do an inspection of her home and discover that she was asymptotic for bug bites (you couldn’t tell she was getting bed bug bites because she had no red bumps) and that her place had a severe infestation. The bed bugs would come out and eat her every night to the point where she would become anemic due to the blood loss. \n\nI’m getting itchy thinking about it...\n",
"Why am I reading this before going to bed? It’s like I’m trying to queue nightmares and paranoia.",
"My boyfriend and I had a bedbug infestation a few years back. To answer the ELI5 before getting to the real story: humans are really effective at killing bed bugs with chemicals/heat. A lot of complexes in major cities will no longer have carpet floors ANYWHERE in the apartment, because once they are in carpet you basically have to remove the carpet and it's really expensive. So it's getting increasingly harder for bed bugs to thrive. If we lost a couple of technological advances that we now have, we might not be able to keep them under control. Now for the story:\n\n & #x200B;\n\nWe didn't know it at first. Every morning we woke up with creepy ass bumps all over our bodies. They will apparently run across you in a line or in circles/shapes, and so their bites will make patterns on you. We had no idea what bed bugs were, so we thought they were spiders/mosquitoes. We would also wake up with blood splats on us now and then, because we slapped a full one in our sleep. They're so small, and carry so much blood, that you can't really find a carcass when you do this: just a blood splat that looks like you scratched a scab in your sleep. When we couldn't find any bugs (bed bugs are hard to see even when you are specifically looking for them) we spent months going to doctors - thought we had contracted some weird ass disease. It was a terror. Nobody thought of bed bugs until our friend told us she had an infestation and started describing the exact same shit we had been going through. To this day, we think she brought them to us in her purse (but she could just as easily have gotten them from us, which is why we never mentioned the fact that we had them).\n\n & #x200B;\n\nIt turns out the problems with bed bugs are not just physical (they feed off your blood) but the main effect is psychological. They ruin your sleep patterns and you don't even know it. You just feel tired all the fucking time. To this day, years later, if one of us feels a hair or something while in bed, very often we will both shoot up out of bed, turn on the light, and start looking. When you have bed bugs, that's how quickly they can go from on top of you to completely out of your sight.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThey're also wicked smart. They can tell when the lights go on and they need to get out of your vision. That might sound like it's just because they are nocturnal and want to get out of the light/back into the darkness. But riddle me this: we would turn on the lights, and start scanning the room for bedbugs. We see movement in the corner of our eye, in the distance in the room. When you start locking in on that spot, they stop moving. They stop crawling away. It's like they are in Jurassic Park, and they know you're the T-rex, and your vision is based on movement. It's like their natural instincts have given them some mechanism to sense when a predator is closing in on them and stop moving.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThey are fucking terrifying. I would only wish bed bugs upon my worst enemy - but only if I didn't live in the same state as them.",
"Fun fact You can take ivermectin and poison your blood and get rid of bed bugs in a matter of a few weeks\n\nIvermectin is safe for children as young as 4",
"With all these terrifying stories, I’m starting to get paranoid. Are there any simple ways to prevent these pests?",
"Cimexa bed bug dust works if you don't have thousands of dollars to have an exterminator come out. Its made of silicon gel and drys the bugs put. I have it around my baseboards, in electric sockets...best thing I ever did. Oh and vacuuming every day and keeping the vacuum in the garage and used just got the room with bed bugs\n\n ",
"I kill bed bugs for a living and a lot of companies that use chemicals will hire us to come and treat their customers for them the key is to use propane and fans not electrical heat for a faster up to temp (150°) so they can’t flee and doing thorough “processing “ and heat checks the whole process takes about 8 hours ",
"Anyone else feeling stuff crawling on themselves now? ugh",
"Bedbugs are not a issue at all where I live since bedbugs can not survive -40 and can get to 100 in the summer.",
"As someone who lived in an apartment that became infested, and has helped family members get rid of infestations, it is simple. The same pesticides that kill them, kill us. Or are toxic enough to make us sick.\nAdd to the mix, having kids that are very allergic to most things chemical. It was a nightmare, just thinking about it, ugh, no thank you.\nIf you're interested to know, one apartment was infested. The tenants, instead of taking care of it, threw their stuff outside right before they were evicted. All the neighborhood kids spent the Saturday afternoon taking turns bouncing in the infested mattresses. Didn't know we were infested until my wife woke up, being nearly allergic to the bites, at the same time, around 2 am or so, a few nights in a row. A Google search instantly revealed the possible reason, 15 minutes of searching confirmed it. Fast forward 3 months and we managed to beat the infestation. I say beat them, but it was more like, kill what was there, and drive most of them off.\nIf there was any positive to this, it instilled even better cleanliness in my kids, and a healthy paranoia in anything given second hand now.",
"*Sweating profusely*\n\nWhat are Mattress Protectors?",
"Hygiene plays a big part. I'm in a more poor area in the United States. Mostly my high school's in a more middle class area compared to our neighbors. One girl at my school (since has transfered) was very poor, family was homeless, all her meals she ate was just as school ect. Had either bed bugs or lice, in class they'd fall off her or come out her bag. Kids didn't make fun of her thankfully, considering she didn't chose to live in a minivan, but who wants to sit next to her? From what I've heard at the other highschool (only two in my county) there more common than just one person having them.",
"I moved to London last year and they ended up being in the first place I moved into. Was an absolute nightmare. No escape, even after killing loads of them they kept coming back. Landlord was doing next to nothing about it. When I left I had to spend loads on washing all my clothes. Luckily I didn’t have much furniture to treat. Safe to say I was more than happy to move out of that place and twice as relieved to find out I didn’t bring any with me.\n \nImagine waking up with an itchy neck, switching the light on to discover 2 bugs under your pillow, both of which have recently fed from you, with no time to grab anything to kill them with you have to pop them with your finger leaving 2 big blood stains on your new sheets.\n \nIf you’re moving in somewhere try and check for them first there are some tell-tale signs, it’s not worth the risk at all.",
"Hey I know you will probably never see this. But they are starting to evolve and in some parts of the world are now living within people just under the skin. ",
"Having bed bugs was the most traumatic experience of my life hands down. I had PTSD for a solid two years after eradicating the little bastards. Even after they were long gone, when I'd be on the verge of sleep and the blankets would settle and set off that little tickle on my body, I'd instantly pop up and strip my bed trying to find a trace of them. ",
"A friend of mine had an infestation because her neighbor did not dispose of their bedbug interested mattress properly and instead just left it near her home, and presumably the bedbugs found a way in (this was in an apartment building and people can be extremely lazy when it comes to disposing large/bulky things).\n\nAfter being bitten for several weeks and managing to isolate the bed bugs to her own mattress, she then did the following:\n- Bought a ton of shrink wrap\n- Cleared the general vicinity and shrink wrapped her mattress by several layers\n- Continued to use the shrink wrapped mattress\n- Proceeded to wash/dispose of other infested things\n\nApparently, this then deprived the nest of bedbugs of air (she left the shrink wrap on for months, almost a year), and presumably they died from oxygen deprivation.\n\nWhen she finally removed the shrink wrap, she didn't get bitten anymore, but there were still residue bedbugs hiding elsewhere in her apartment unit.\n\nBut I do wonder if this really works? Wouldn't the bedbugs just go into hibernation mode and whatever eggs would hatch later? Does anyone know?",
"I'm terrified of them and thankfully I've never had to deal with them. I think its too cold here for them so thank fk for that",
"Nothing touching the walls no furniture \n\nAlways clean your house and keep up with it daily \n\nVacuum daily \n\n🐜 s 👍 \n\nChange your sheets Weekly \n\nThe gestation period for bedbugs is 13 weeks \n\nSweep and mop at least once a week \n\nWipe down your base boards twice a week \n\nIf you live in an apartment seal all the wet walls and inline heating pipes \nWeather proof stripping along the door jams \n\nReduce all the clutter in the house. \n\nDo laundry every three days. \n\nAlways be on the lookout especially at still and quieter times while the lights are low \n\nVacuum your house and furniture religiously. \n \n\nHappy Hunting. ",
"Okay One thing a bedbug thrives on is heat and carbon dioxide.\nI am gonna generate myself into a human trap.\nWhen I jump into the bed, you are gonna cover me with the sheet immediately.\nAnd then we'll see who's laughing. ",
"We had bedbugs from 2016 to 2017. It started after bringing furniture that had been in a storage unit without proper coverings into our new apartment. We were given three separate chemical treatments, during which we bagged up and removed every fabric item from the house. Everything had to be washed and dried on high heat, so the total cost at the laundromat passed $100. The offending furniture had to be thrown out. Other common transmission methods include backpacks, luggage, vacuum cleaners, shoes, and (surprise) the car that's used to take all the clothes to the laundromat. That was sterilized too. We also had to remove everything from every drawer for treatment. We bought special treatment products that helped to varying degrees, including mattress bags (you put them under the mattress pad and fitted sheet), detergents, and oils.\n\nIn the end, the infestation lasted about six months. Bedbugs can cause physical symptoms, sleep issues, and psychological problems that jeopardize career and educational opportunities. I almost lost my job after showing up to work with hives on my eyelids. We were very lucky. We lived in a small apartment with only a few cloth furniture items. The treatments were also covered by my apartment complex, but they would have been several hundred dollars each otherwise (thousands per heat treatment, which we thankfully never needed.) Bed bugs can also survive for a year without a blood meal. That means one vulnerability or slip-up in the next year can start the whole process over again. Also keep in mind that \"eradication\" in one apartment out of a whole block of units can only go so far. A year or two down the road, it's easy to get complacent. Before you know it, the bedbugs have moved back in from next door.\n\nI've moved several times since then but still have nightmares about bedbugs. I once burst out in tears because I broke out in those familiar red marks (from a new body wash.) \"Sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite\" became a lot more solemn.",
"Could we breed a special housepet that would eat them? I'm thinking a genetically altered guinea pig or ferret."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.bedbugsupply.com/blog/faq/bed-bugs-spreading-came-back/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/tnOrYqKpmpI"
],
[],
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[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/kill-all-mosquitos-180959069/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
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[]
] |
||
2l4ub2
|
why haven't there been any new books added to the bible?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2l4ub2/eli5_why_havent_there_been_any_new_books_added_to/
|
{
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"clrhucw",
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3
],
"text": [
"Some people, like the Mormons for example, have added books to the bible, but other Christians don't accept these as being legitimate. It's unlikely you could get broad consensus from the Christian world on what should be added, even if it was an ancient text that was discovered, like the Dead Sea Scrolls.\n\nIf people view a book as being the word of god, the idea of adding or subtracting from it is going to be kind of a tough sell.",
"Because the book of Revelation (22:18-19) says:\n\n > [For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:\nAnd if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.](_URL_0_)\n\nAs with almost anything in the bible, this has been interpreted in diferent ways. For example, one response often used is:\n\n > The warning in Revelation cannot be honestly interpreted as referring to anything beyond Revelation itself. \"The Bible\" did not exist back then. The very concept of \"the Bible\" did not even exist back then. Each sacred writing was its own book; they weren't compiled into a collection until centuries later. In addition, John wrote the Gospel of John after he wrote Revelation. An overly-broad interpretation of the warning at the end of Revelation would invalidate the most beautiful and profoundly spiritual of the four Gospels!\n\nHowever, if you as me, the entire book is quite arbitrarily put together, and is self-contradictary all over the place. The notion that the book should never be updated based on that quote is absurd, but on the other hand, the books that the Mormons have added (ancient Jews in America?!) are even more absurd!"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+22%3A18-19&version=KJV"
]
] |
||
e8dqam
|
how does a lighthouse helps ships navigating?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e8dqam/eli5_how_does_a_lighthouse_helps_ships_navigating/
|
{
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"fab0ei2",
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"text": [
"It allows ships to know where the coast is in the dark or bad weather, so they can avoid running aground",
"Prior to GPS, you had to use a map, compass, sextant, and the stars to determine where you were and get from place to place. These are only accurate to a degree, as maps were often somewhat incorrect, your compass can sometimes be slightly off due to interference from metal around you etc. If you were able to get within a few miles of land, you often couldn't see it at night- back then cities didn't light up the coastline like they do today. A lighthouse is built tall, the taller (and brighter) the better, as a higher vantage gives you a better beyond-the-horizon capability. A 100 foot tall lighthouse can be seen from 16 nautical miles away. So if your maps and sextant got you into the general area, the lighthouse could guide you home. Also, to avoid reefs that could damage your ship, the other function of a lighthouse was to give you a point of reference on your map to give you an approach to shore without rubbing aground. If you are approaching a lighthouse from due west, and your map says the reef is 500 yards due east of the light house, you know to change course to go around it, or drop anchor. \nThey are painted in high contrast colors to stand out as much as possible during the day and serve the same general purpose.",
"They were basically giant hazard warning lights. They were built where ships were at risk of running aground or afoul of especially shallow water. So you're out at night (especially in a time when electric illumination was rare or didn't exist) and you see one light off in the horizon and you at least know to keep your distance because that's where the shore begins and you don't want to run into it. \n\nOr if you're looking for a port that can be a sign too. \n\nToday with the advent of radar they aren't as effective anymore and ones you might visit aren't functional anymore."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
76ir47
|
why is india's garbage/river pollution situation so bad?
|
India has a GDP growth rate of 7% and has enough economic power to have a blossoming space program, but why do they still have such a horrible situation in regards to all of the trash in and around their rivers? Is it because of the population density? Is it a culture thing?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/76ir47/eli5_why_is_indias_garbageriver_pollution/
|
{
"a_id": [
"doeadoh"
],
"score": [
43
],
"text": [
"Actual indian here... \n\nOur pollution is so bad, because the people in power don't care, and the people who do care can't ever get to power. \n\nThe indian government is a carefully balanced pile of bribery and corruption built over a foundation of pure apathy and greed. While sure, there are some diligent workers at the grassroots lever, and some naive men and women higher up, noone with both the power and the means to actually do any good cares enough. Politicians here just aim to stuff as much of the tax rupees into their own private coffers before the are elected out of office. \nFurther, the common man isn't much better. We just vote for the same greedy pigs over and over again because we cant be arsed to make an educated decision for the good of our own country. \n\nThe garbage and pollution are just the tips of the massive trash iceberg just out of sight in the sewage clogged depths. Corruption, money laundering, and just plain ineptitude are so ingrained into the Indian life, that we've begun just taking it as par for the course. If you want anything done from an official stand point at all, you better be prepared to bribe liberally. \n\nAnd if you think it could get better with a hard reset, think again. Leave alone following meta rules about accepting bribes and ruling fairly, indians won't even follow the basic rule of \"don't overtake a vehicle from the passenger's side\". \nThough I suppose I ought to be praising my country, pride in ones own and all that, fuck it. My country sucks, and if trashing it online is the best I can do, well Imma trash as best I can. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
966ptc
|
how are non-abo blood groups and their compatibility categorized?
|
I’m asking since I know there are quite of few blood groups a very, very small minority of the population have that aren’t categorized by the ABO system.
How are these rare blood types categorized?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/966ptc/eli5_how_are_nonabo_blood_groups_and_their/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e3y6048"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"They simply have their own category, like Kell or Kidd. I believe there are north of 30 recognized blood groups, with ABO being the most prevalent by far, so those are the only ones we, as laypeople, really talk about."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
aur7ur
|
why is leasing a vehicle considered such a "no-brainer" bad finincial move?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aur7ur/eli5_why_is_leasing_a_vehicle_considered_such_a/
|
{
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"text": [
"Keeping a new car for just 2-3 years is a bad financial move because these are the most expensive years. Whether you buy it new and sell it used, or lease it new and give it back used, either way you paid a *lot* of money for just a little usage.\n\n",
"The question really depends on specifics to you. \n\nPros with leasing, you get a new car every 3-5 years. Possibly able to write off the lease expense, if leasing as a business vehicle. \n\nCons if you go over the alloted milage contract, the excess miles are expensive. What if you hit your milage limit at 28 months into a 36 month lease? Keep the car garaged for the rest of the time and still pay the monthly lease. \n\nGenerally owning a car is cheaper over the long run. Certain specifics might change that for individuals.",
"It's a permanent monthly payment vs eventually paying off a loan and owning the vehicle. If you plan on keep it long term, buying is just a better deal as you'll be done paying one day. \n\nBoth leasing and buying new are technically bad financial moves. If you're worried about the money you should be buying used.",
"Financing is generally better because it leaves the depreciating asset in your name. Whereas when you lease the vehicle it is the asset of the dealership.\n\nFor example: if you look at a lease vs a finance of a 2019 Toyota Tacoma TRD PRO (in Canada, as of today) :\n\nAt 60 months (7. 4 interest rate), tax included: $912.27 (over 60 months totalling to $54,736.2 limited at 20,000 km) in a lease. \n\nWhereas, in a Financing term you're looking at $1,297.13 per month, in the same 60 month term. (totalling at $77,827.8 with no km cap) \n\nThe difference between the two is that at the end of that 60 months, if you don't buy out the truck, it is no longer yours. Your 'rental' period has run out. Whereas in the financing term, at the end of it your truck is in your name. While it is a depreciating asset, it hasn't depreciating enough to be worthless. Most commonly vehicles lost about 50% of what they're worth in the first 5 years of ownership. The Tacoma is a bit of an exception retaining close to 60% of its value, but we can ignore that. \n\nLets say if you ignore interest on both, as they're likely very similar depending on brand you can get as low as 0. (in our case it was 6.49 for finance and 7.40 for lease)\n\nThe truck was worth 66,xxx new. If by end of year five say it's worth 30 grand for an easy sell. In the case of the lease you've spent close to 55 grand and have nothing to show. In the financial term, yes you did spend 23 thousand more to put the truck in your name, and now you can sell it for 30 grand. I. E. You keep 7k. Every vehicle is different and it depends on the time of year, but most commonly this is the case across the board. So you can look at it both ways, you can either see that as a fee for having the privilege of jumping cars every so often, or you can use it to your advantage, enjoy the car and then sell it at the least loss. \n\nLeases are common for business as they're easier to file taxes on and the extra costs comes out of money that would've went towards taxes, so large corps have no problem doing it that way, especially because they don't want to have say 50 trucks to unload at some point and to them the extra hit is worthwhile as it'd cost them money trying to sell their used vehicles at those higher numbers. For the average Joe, as most commonly people upgrade cars in 2-5 years, it is commonly suggested that financing is a better financial decision. But leases are definitely easier to get into as they don't need downpayment \n",
" > Edit: I have a car that dropped a lot in value when a dumb kid slammed into the back of it while I was stopped. How would that have played out if it were leased? \n\nYou don't own a leased car, so it has to be fully insured. The kids insurance would have paid for most with your insurance covering the rest, with them suing him for any remaining amount his insurance wouldn't cover. I'm guessing your car was plpd or something equivalent, which is essentially \"I understand any damage to the car is my responsibility, this insurance is if something catastrophic happens above and beyond that.\"\n\nAs for the lease, I've always heard buy appreciating assets, rent depreciating assets. But that's entirely dependant on your situation, if you need to sell some assets to get some cash, your out of luck on a lease or rental home. You can take a loan out against something you own or sell it outright, keeping any extra above repaying the loan."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
21kb9k
|
why is it socially unacceptable for men to wear dresses?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/21kb9k/eli5_why_is_it_socially_unacceptable_for_men_to/
|
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"It is; In the Middle-East.\n\nIn Europe, and America which descended from Europe, dresses were reserved for women for the most part of relatable history.\n\nA whole essay could be written on how the depiction of women changed through the years. But here's a grossly oversimplified timeline:\n\n- \"From Ancient Greece to the Middle-Ages\": Women are beautiful. We need to enhance them with various trinkets according with their wealth and place in the hierarchy. Satin & Velvet, being really fucking expensive at the time, donned vigorously onto someone's body was sure to make some heads turn.\n\n- \"Middle Ages\": CATHOLICISM, BOOBS ARE BAD AND TEMPTRESSES GO TO HELL, AND BRING MEN WITH THEM. HIDE ALL OF YOUR WOMANHOOD AND MAKE BABIES. (Personally? Not religion's finest moment) And what better garment to use that a loose, straight dress that could be at will doubled or tripled?\n\n- \"Ever After\": Corsets and hip-baskets through the dress to make them look voluptuous and motherly.\n\nSo, really, our society had dresses serve women and only women for as long as we've kept registries. Men never saw any benefit in them, We had toges, but those were for political men only. Then they were also unpractical for manual labour, combat and everyday movement in general; things that women never had to care for until they started wearing pants like men.",
"Most of the ancient world, Greeks Romans and Egyptians, men wore skirt type things and pants were for those crazy northern barbarians.\n\nBut then the Romans started living in large numbers to those colder regions. And as the western empire became more germanized pants caught on. Then the empire split.\n\nSo western europe went with pants and the eastern Mediterranean kept with robes, and these trends have followed along with all of the European colonial expansions.",
"Lots of societies have men wearing dresses. What is \"manly\" is constantly changing. What doesn't change in almost any culture is that it becomes important to have signifiers to show you're a man, which means doing \"manly\" things and avoiding \"feminine\" things - all based on an insecure fear of not being a man, and the idea that being male is something that has to be achieved (not an adult, but specifically male - though obviously male-dominated cultures see male adults as the only real adults). \n\nHigh heels used to be for men. So did pink. & look at kilts, monk's robes, etc. If you want to fight to wear a dress, do it. Women sure had to fight for the right to wear pants. "
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cfb0n6
|
how do companies measure customer satisfaction? is it purely based on those surveys they ask you to take on your receipts that no one really does?
|
It always boggles me when they say "97% customer satisfaction" like how do you know that I'm super curious.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cfb0n6/eli5_how_do_companies_measure_customer/
|
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"Yes and no. Most use and base it on those, so if 10 people during that month do the surveys, it affects corporate and they \"yell\" at the DM's who in turn yell at the store managers. \n\nCorporate just count the beans, not really take into account that no news is good news. The only people who really take the time to fill them out are disgruntled people, bored people, and people with legit concerns. You can tell which ones are which based on what they write. \n\nAlso, Corporate are stupid because someone could do a survey, and give all satisfactory answers, but accidentally click \"unsatisfied\" and the whole survey goes out the window and corporate is making calls and wasting everyone's time. Instead of taking 5 mins to digest the actual survey. \n\nThey just want the numbers, they don't care about anything else. \n\nTo add, if you have a legitimate complaint, file it. It will get looked at and passed down the line to the store. Enough complaints that turn out to be legit, actual changes happen."
]
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|
5tag6y
|
pros and cons of solid state vs regular hard drive
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5tag6y/eli5pros_and_cons_of_solid_state_vs_regular_hard/
|
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"Pros for ssd's:\n-Smaller form factors available\n-Significantly faster read/write speeds\n-Very low thermal output\n-No vibrations \n-Substantially less degredation in speed over time\nCons for ssd's:\n-Higher price \n\nSorry for formatting, am on mobile.",
"Similar to what u/hamzakria said but with formatting: \n \nSSDs: Much faster read/write speeds, longer product lifetime, smaller form factor, lower power usage, lower thermal output. \n \nHDDs: Much cheaper, higher availability, larger capacities. ",
"A big one for mobile users: SSD is much less susceptible to damage by shock. Imagine your phone with a mechanical drive in it. ",
"SSD:\n\n* smaller\n* faster\n* more durable (in terms of withstanding abuse)\n* can be made in a variety of shapes\n* cooler\n\nHD:\n\n* longer lasting (SSD can only overwrite a limited number of times)\n* cheaper\n* larger capacity"
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4x059q
|
why does anxiety produce a wide variety of symptoms, especially ones that are often purely imagined?
|
From bruxism and muscle tension to depersonalization and tachycardia, why does anxiety wreck such havok on our bodies? Sometimes when I get anxious, one of my symptoms is that my toes don't feel aligned, like I'm wearing a tight shoe, but in reality I'm not. I could even be barefoot, and I'm not talking about tingling from hyperventilating. Sometimes its like I've forgot to walk, or how to grip something, or I've suddenly become aware of how my uvula feels.
So, why does anxiety produce such a huge variety of symptoms, especially the ones that are almost comedic to someone who hasn't experienced this? Is it a form of psychosis?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4x059q/eli5_why_does_anxiety_produce_a_wide_variety_of/
|
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"\"Imagined\" symptoms aren't imaginary. They're real nerves firing real signals in your brain. I guess it could simply be a secondary effect of what it's doing or trying to accomplish. When it starts to send signals within one area of the brain, others are lit up simply by proxy.",
"Anxiety is a physiologic phenomenon. Your body is naturally wired to change in a specific way in response to a stressor. You go into \"fight or flight\" mode, also called sympathetic tone. This makes you sweat more easily, shuts down your digestive tract (giving you GI problems), your heart beats faster. But it's not just those things. The nervous system is really complicated and there are receptors for the sympathetic nervous system everywhere, maybe giving you the symptoms you're describing. Evolutionarily this was beneficial because it, for example, allowed you to run away from a cheetah. In modern society, it is a maladaptive trait."
]
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|
45wrs8
|
noisy yawning
|
Why do people have to make loud "yawning sounds" when they yawn. We have all heard it, it sounds like a moose call or a howl. Is there a physical action happening here or some sort of psychological effect that making the yawn noise produces?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/45wrs8/eli5_noisy_yawning/
|
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"I'm spitballing here, but the physiological effect of vocalizing a yawn (compared to not vocalizing) is similar to the [Valsalva maneuver](_URL_0_), since engaging the vocal cords narrows the glottis. This provides back pressure against your diaphragm and has a variety of effects such as temporarily lowered blood pressure and increased pulse. This may result in a quicker exchange of oxygen into the bloodstream which is the purpose of a good yawn in the first place.\n\nAs the child of two parents who were both fond of foghorn-level voiced yawns, I expect it also is just plain fun - it's less annoying to the yawner than to the people around them, because the Valsalva effect also increases pressure in the ears and decreases hearing sensitivity. But it drove me crazy growing up, so I'm a committed silent yawner myself.",
"I have a friend who holds his nose very tightly and firmly closed his mouth when sneezing. I always expect his head to explode. It can't be good for his sinuses. ",
"God I love a nice Tarzan Yawn. Multi-syllabic sneezes are fun too.\n\nMaybe I'm an inconsiderate prick.\n\nOR, just maybe, this shit ain't that serious. Like most things.",
"My SO yawns and sounds like Chewbacca. All the time. Shit drives me crazy. He claims he doesn't do it on purpose, but how can a human sound like that normally?!",
"Also people who have no buildup to a sneeze and sneeze louder than a small caliber gunshot. My pops is likely to kill someone from shock by doing that one of these days!",
"I've been suffering hemipeligic migraines.\n\nAs a result of my migraines, I loose all speech, along with numerous other muscle groups, as part of the aura. When I've lost speech, even my yawns are dead-silent.\n\nKinda creeps even me out, yawning without making a sound... Coughing is much quieter too, and I was also surprised I couldn't make any sound laughing while my speech was gone. I would have thought *some* of the sound would be by vocal chords, but appears to be much more than some.",
"I think the bigger question is why did I read \"ELI5: Noisy yawning\" and immediately yawn?",
"I think it's like laughing when you watch tv. Most people don't laugh if they are alone they do it for attention. When you yawn by yourself do you still make a sound?"
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6578f7
|
does the opioid-related "prescription drug abuse epidemic" exist outside the usa? what makes it such a huge issue there and not so much elsewhere?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6578f7/eli5_does_the_opioidrelated_prescription_drug/
|
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"Most countries have nationalized health systems that control costs. In America, marketers are free to pay doctors with trips and other goodies to push their drugs where they are sometimes not needed. Most doctors don't do this, but the ones that do will push it as the solution to the common cold.\n\nOnce you see that its a 24 billion dollar market and that represents over 1% of national GDP, I think it is pretty clear that this is one of the failures of the free market when it comes to health care. Sad that politicians don't talk about it since Big Pharma owns both political parties.\n\nExplained like your drunk, angry uncle to a five year old asking a totally unrelated question.",
"Canada is also suffering from the opioid epidemic. [Canada](_URL_3_) is the second highest consumer of opioids worldwide. [Austrailia, Europe, and the Middle East](_URL_7_) are also feeling this epidemic, although it is worst in the US. \n\nThere are steps being taken to reduce the epidemic and hold these doctors and pharmaceutical corporations accountable. \n\n- [FBI agents arrested former Insys Therapeutics CEO Michael Babich and five other former company executives on Thursday for allegedly bribing doctors to prescribe fentanyl to patients who didn’t need it.](_URL_0_)\n\n- [Information on the many doctors who took \"speaking fees\" in exchange for over prescribing fentanyl for Insys Therapeutics. Some doctors gave up their medical license, some charged and some found guilty of running \"pill mills.\"](_URL_1_)\n\n- [The city of Everett, Washington alleges drugmaker let OxyContin flood black market. Everett's lawsuit, now in federal court in Seattle, accuses Purdue Pharma of gross negligence and nuisance. The city seeks to hold the company accountable, the lawsuit alleges, for \"supplying OxyContin to obviously suspicious pharmacies and physicians and enabling the illegal diversion of OxyContin into the black market\" and into Everett, despite a company program to track suspicious flows.](_URL_4_)\n\n- [[2007] In Guilty Plea, OxyContin Maker to Pay $600 Million. The company that makes the narcotic painkiller OxyContin and three current and former executives pleaded guilty in federal court to criminal charges that they misled regulators, doctors and patients about the drug’s risk of addiction and its potential to be abused. Company sales officials were allowed to draw their own fake scientific charts which showed a lower addictive potential, which they then distributed to doctors.](_URL_5_)\n\nThe epidemic is not limited to opiates. \n\n- [The pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline has been fined $3bn after admitting to bribing doctors and encouraging the prescription of unsuitable antidepressants to children. ](_URL_6_)\n\n- [More than 10,000 American toddlers 2 or 3 years old are being medicated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder outside established pediatric guidelines.](_URL_2_)",
"It is a problem everywhere these drugs are available.\n\nWhen many of the drugs were put on the market, the risk of tolerance/addiction was either downplayed or not fully understood. Keep in mind that there are *still* doctors who don't believe opioids are potentially problematic and just keep writing prescriptions. Research is a lot more transparent these days and more people understand that something isn't right, but it takes time to change the culture. \n\nThere are a few contributing factors. \n\nOne, opioid withdrawal is really, really awful and very difficult without the right supports in place. \n\nTwo, the standard practice is to simply cut people off and stop writing prescriptions rather than address the underlying addiction. With detox looming, street drugs become a substitution. \n\nThree, there are relatively few evidence-based detox and recovery beds for prescription opioid users. \n\nFour, a shocking number of people still see addiction as a moral issue rather than a medical issue. They don't want their tax dollars/research dollars/healthcare dollars going to *junkies on the street* who *choose that lifestyle* and should just *pull themselves together and contribute to society*. And things like *harm reduction*? You mean this program *doesn't* force abstinence? The end result is that objectively helpful approaches like harm reduction tend to be unpopular politically, so they just don't happen.\n\nFive, alternatives to opioids in pain management are still catching up and opioids may be the only option in some cases.\n\nBasically, a lot of different systems failed and continue to fail.",
"Also has to do with the prescribing of certain drugs in the US as opposed to other countries. I remember reading a UN statistic that found that 99% of all hydrocodone (Vicodin) prescribed in the world is prescribed in the US",
"Any nation with a developed healthcare system likely has an opiate problem. Prescription opiates are much more safe than the alternative and they elicit a feeling of euphoria which obviously a lot of people find desirable. The ability to get these drugs relatively easily (since they are prescribed for a wide range of ailments) and the addictive nature makes the opiate epidemic a problem that only compounds with more prescribing.\n\nI don't think this has anything to do with dishonest doctors who are intentionally getting patients addicted. I think it boils down to a few major issues:\n\n1) A doctor isn't going to deny a patient access to a pain reliever when the patient is in pain.\n\n\n2) Opiates are the most common drug for pain that can't be treated by over-the-counter medicines\n\n\n3) The black market for opiates is flourishing because opiates are prescribed so much that it's relatively easy to get them without a prescription.\n\n\n4) Society still regards addiction as a moral problem and not an illness and very few people truly understand the mechanics of addiction (especially those prescribed opiates).\n\n\nA typical opiate user will be prescribed the drugs for pain. Let's say that is for back pain for a period of 2 weeks. The patient takes the opiates and feels the pain melt away. Instead of taking it just to treat pain, the user starts to take it every day as a \"precaution\" maybe to avoid that nasty back pain ever coming back. \n\n\nSuddenly he or she is out of the prescription. No big deal, the patient doesn't think he or she needs it. A couple days pass and suddenly holy shit a whole new sort of pain is felt by the patient. A WORSE pain. He or she then goes to the doctor saying they're miserable. That the pain is back and is worse.\n\n\nDoctor caves and gives more. Eventually the doctor probably cuts the person off and the person results to getting it from the black market or drug dealers. Suddenly prescription opiates are too expensive and heroin is the cheap alternative. This is how these things go. Over-prescription of opiates and a poor understand of how addiction works is why this is a problem.",
"Yes it exists. No, it's not quite as severe. Why? Availability is arguably the number 1 factor. For quite some time I saw patients getting scripts for #180 Percocet for routine dental work, or #120 Norco for a sprained ankle in the ER. Prescribing has been reigned in MIGHTILY over the past decade or so, but much of the damage is done.\n\nYou could make some political commentary too, about the primary demographic for opiate abuse being the steadily growing number of 18-35s year olds without gainful employment, and a formerly prosperous white middle class that is on a downward spiral in numerous areas self medicating their socioeconomic ills with prescription narcotics, illicit substances and alcohol, but that exceeds the scope of this ELI5.",
"I get so angry when they say its a moral issue. Like my elderly mother in law who went to the hospital where they fed her morphine. By the time she left she was addicted. Then she was treated like a piece of shit when she tried to get meds. ",
"In Canada its massive, especially in western Canada. BC-9.7/100k. Alberta 10.5/100k. The overall US is 8.78/100k. ",
"There is a Last Week Tonight episode on Opioids, if you have 20 minutes, you may check it out.\n\nJohn Oliver has some comedy in it, obviously, but they touch on some of the stuff Purdue and Insys has done to get the drugs out there, keep them out there, etc.\n\nPurdue claimed opioid addiction was \"pseudo addiction\" - the people weren't really addicted the pain killers, they were just pain free and wanted to keep it that way.\n\nPart of the reason it's bad in the US? Pharma companies have our government in their pockets. ",
"We have been having good radio discussions about it on the 'Hack' segment on Triple J in Australia. \n\nA recent report found that 80% of fatal drug overdoses in Australia were from prescription drugs. ",
"It's worst in the U. S. because the U. S. suffers a high level of commercial corruption, a ton of which is in the medical industry. The monster sized businesses have too much influence. The consumer demand for cures is very high compared to many products that make much less impact on life. Where you see dedicated demand you see the bad side of captilism more frequently. \n\nIf this were not true, there would be more warnings and more available products and services for dealing with these problems. Compamies and their lobbyistd instead like to jam their product through continuous sales - how much easier for them. \n\nBut I feel there is another component, the rat race leaves people open to want to escape. Opiods reduce some negative emotions tied to constant demand in the work place. ",
"In the UK, we have around 1,500 opioid related deaths per year for 60 million people. _URL_0_\n",
"My guess would be a particular combination of policies that have left an entire generation essentially defined by a lifetime of being advertised at while the educational and economic rug was being pulled out from under their feet by the corporate/monetary elite, and industry greed/influence (i.e. medical, pharmaceutical etc) run amok. ",
"If it's a problem in Denmark or our neighboring countries, I've certainly never heard of it. In my life I have not met or heard of a single person who was addicted to prescription drugs, nor have I seen it mentioned as a problem in society at any point.\n\nChalk that up as a +1 for exclusive to North America.",
"I just had double jaw surgery and was prescriped paracetamol and ibuprofen primarily for the pain. Also got 10 tramadol pills, which are a very mild opoid. This is what the pain regiment for that surgery is in Denmark. \nI think we accept a larger amount of pain when considering pain management, than the US do. I don't know anybody who has gotten anything stronger than ibuprofen subscribed for wisdom teeth removal here for example.",
"I'm going to propose an addition to the comments so far. Certainly, part of it is availability and exposure. Especially the specific prescription-drug element, but our opioid problem is broader than that too. Comparisons between different places, and between the same place at different times, shows us that for the most part, addicts are gonna be addicted, making it harder for them to get their fix mostly only discourages the people who aren't so into it that they'd be courting an overdose anyways. Post prohibition saw lower rates of alcohol use, for instance, but it's hard to say that it discouraged the people that were ruining their lives anyways.\n\nOpioid abuse is a huge issue here in the US because of lifestyle factors. Wealth inequality, chronic debt, economic uncertainty, and most of all, really poor medical care options. A lack of preventative care or better options for therapy lead to a lot of quick and easy \"treat the symptom\" responses to pain. But all of these things lead to a level of pressure towards an average level of stress and unhappiness that is hard to deal with healthily (a level that is also a vicious cycle, as it results in damage to social support networks and crime), so it results in a segment of the population dealing with it unhealthily. Suicide by happy drugs rather than by jumping off a bridge.",
"Simply put, everyone everywhere abuses whatever drugs they can get their hands on. Up until 2010 it was very easy to get opioid medication for mild pain from a doctor in the USA, then they realized how it was being abused so they cut off a lot of people from it which has led them to turn to heroin and rampant opioid abuse, largely from former patients. So america has opioid problems for that reason, and other countries have problems based on whats accessible.",
"Don't think the uk has this problem, being national health care they (pick which one you agree with) only prescribe the bare minimum because of cost, or they do it because they aren't pushed by drug companies to sell specific drugs or uanessacry ones. For example and this is pure opinion and anecdotal, when I visited friends in the states one of them has the same form of epilepsy my sisters has but her meds were phenomenal, like ten tablets a day of various brands which she said switch due to new or better drugs becoming available or working better whereas my sister has one tablet a day. \n\nI don't know if I'm totally wrong on this but seems like when a hospital is a business it acts as such and makes money where it can whereas commie healthcare in the U.K. Gives you just what you need. Neither are perfect though",
"I used to live in the US for a while and I moved back to Europe just last summer. I'll use my personal experience to try and shed some light on this situation. When i visited a doctor in the US, I faked a cough and I asked for codeine; they prescribed it no questions asked. When i had my wisdom teeth pulled, they prescribed me vicodin without even asking if I needed any pain medication in the first place - I didn't. When I shared my medical experience in US with friends from all over Europe, they were flabbergasted how doctors have no regard for their patients and give them whatever they ask. My friend had the same wisdom tooth extraction done in Germany and all she got was some ibuprofen. ",
"[Here's](_URL_0_) a documentary on Afghan heroine addiction. Prepare yourself for some sadness though.",
"This EPIDEMIC makes it difficult for people with real chronic pain (for whatever reason) to obtain them without jumping through a lot hoops. There are literally millions of people that need these medications while only thousands die because of abuse of the same or similar medications. Typically those that die have graduated to heroin or some similar illicit drug. I believe that these people have addictive personalities and will find a way to destroy their lives anyway. But since it has become apparent in suburbia it is now a PROBLEM. So, instead of legalizing these drugs, and all drugs for that matter (a la Portugal), and treating it as a disease many in need of pain relief will now have to suffer. By the way, Iran has the highest rate of heroin addiction per capita in the world.\n",
"There are a lot of factors involved but one thing I don't see or hear talked about that much is the idea that drug cartels are getting more and more into heroin because the black market for marijuana (traditionally many cartels cash crop) is collapsing due to legalization happening in many states. When this is combined with over prescribing, and communities across segments of the US in a state of perpetual economic depression, is a prefect storm for opioids flooding segments of our society. ",
"A big part of the answer hasn't been mentioned yet - opiates are cheaper and quicker than other forms of pain management. They make sense for the US labor market.\n\nSay you have a herniated disc. In Europe, you might get four weeks of paid medical leave, a bunch of appointments with a physical therapist, instructions to avoid physical exertion, and some ibuprofen. In the US you might get powerful painkillers because a) you run a real risk of losing your job or at least the pay if you don't turn up and b) the next physical therapist is possibly not covered by your insurance if you even have one, and could be far away if you're in a rural area.",
"I've had multiple friends die from this horrible epidemic. Both prescribed and illegally obtained opioids. Not my drug of choice. Never was never will be. But it exists everywhere. It doesn't discriminate. Country. Race. Sex. Some countries handle it better. The US is all about big pharma. And until things get put in place to track painkillers it will remain. Everyone I know who's hooked on heroin started out with an injury that started out on opioid painkillers. YMMV. My mileage tells me otherwise. ",
"We don't have that epidemy here because opioids are prescribed with the greatest care, for the very reason that they can be very dangerous. It's not news, it's something that has been known for decacdes.\n\nWhy there are so many opioids prescriptions in the US is a mystery to me.",
"Compared to other illegal and legal drugs (alcohol) the percentage of people who are prescribed opioid medicine and abuse them are low. In general the percentage of the population injured or harmed is way less than those impacted by alcohol. ",
"A lot of pretty decent comments here so far. Jumping in from both the pharmacy profession inside the US and as someone who travels internationally a fair bit (including outside of the traditional \"West\"), I have a couple comments.\n\nPrescription opioid abuse exists pretty much everywhere that prescription opioids exist. There are several reasons why its a mainstream issue here and less so elsewhere. \n\nFirst, prescription opioids are just more common and more available here compared to most of the world. \n\nSecond, the relative availability and ease of access to prescription opioids versus the same for 'street' opiates makes prescription drug abuse much more attractive than it is in places where street opiates are cheap and easy to get hold of. \n\nThird, we've had numerous public health and media campaigns here highlighting the issue. I have traveled in certain countries where vaguely similar epidemics are occurring, but the people there don't really recognize it for what it is.\n\nJust a note - most of my experience with this outside of the US and the West in general is in the Middle East, where I travel frequently but do not practice. I've been struck by local ignorance when it comes to what types of drugs people are consuming and for what reasons. They know that some people are taking lots of medicine for less than medical reasons but they ignore it because it's unsightly.",
"Another aspect why this epidemic is so large here would be our culture in America. This can be gender culture, mental health culture( stigma attached), trauma not being talked about etc. Many find it a way to \"get away\". Then put on top of that the drug culture and how society sees those addicted. It's an unending cycle.",
"Pain as the 5th vital sign is a huge contributor to the drug epidemic. \nHere's how it works. \nAfter a hospitalization or doctor visit, some people get surveys about their visit (like it's a freaking resort) and several questions refer to pain management. Get this: if a doc or hospital gets even a moderately low score, they lose some of their pay (up to 20%)! Healthcare workers are incentivized to overprescribe painkillers.\n\nAlso, studies show that patients with the highest satisfaction scores actually have the worst outcomes. It's a prescription for disaster. \n",
"As a pharmacist, and partly to blame, most of this problem stems from overzealous prescribers looking to make their patients happy. They are over prescribing pain meds without thoroughly screening patients for appropriate use. This stuff is highly addictive and should be more tightly regulated, but there is just too much money to be made at all ends of the spectrum( doctors, pharmacies, drug companies, etc..). It's too readily dispensed and is ruining lives.",
"Someone has to be the end user of the product being farmed in third world countries such as Afghanistan. There's a documentary a reddit user posted about the children there who are opioid addicts.",
"This isn't really a new problem as much as a new delivery system. Opioids of various forms have been a problem pretty much everywhere for a long time. Britain even went to war twice to secure their access to opium. \n\nPrescription opioids are just an especially easy way to get and stay hooked. Heroin isn't something most people are offered all that often, but most people will take opioid painkillers at some point. \n\n",
"Here in Russia the problem doesn't exist. On the contrary: the tight control over nacrcotics results in not only ordinary people being left without any effective cough-suppressing medicine (like glaucine or ephedrine-based stuff), but also in many hospitals being severely understocked.",
"It's mostly because the US kinda started it. Check out Purdue Pharma and their OxyContin campaign- they basically sent it in the mail to people and convinced people that their was no risk of dependence. Theirs so many other stories by this is the one that's the most clear cut because of the lawsuit. Also they basically mailed the patients a script regularly and these people didn't even have to leave their own home to take the \"medicine\". ",
"It exists. I live in Canada and my doctor prescribed me oxycodone for a small finger fracture. I did my researched and learned how addictive it is and said noped right out of that one. Worst part is it would have probably been covered by the Medicare and my insurance, so super cheap opioid.",
"Just a personal opinion here. As a crohns sufferer I am prescribed codeine phosphate on a monthly basis and I am well and truly addicted. I look forward to the slight warm cosiness it brings me after a long day of flare ups or just stress. I can't speak for anyone else obviously but I have a habit and I could easily inform my doctor and they would take me off them asap. But I don't. I should. But I don't.\n\nIt's not something I'm at all proud of but just giving my 2cents on the matter.\n",
"One thing I haven't seen mentioned is that in the US, there is a cultural expectation that we should \"treat pain to 0\", which is very possibly unachievable in a lot of circumstances. I have learned from colleagues who are from other parts of the world that in their cultures, it's almost an expectation that as people age, they will start to develop pain from various ailments, and the doctor will try to address it but likely won't make it go all the way away. Americans do not like hearing that there are limitations to our care--every treatment has risks.",
"Money. Capitalism. \nIn Europe, for instance, opioids for medical use are administered pretty strictly in the hospital. They don't let people take that shit home. These are also places who happen to have socialized health care systems, so it's in the doctor's, the government's and the economy's best interest to keep people healthy (read: not addicted) and productive. Nobody in a nation with universal healthcare benefits financially from over-prescribing dangerous substances.",
"RN here- One of the least mentioned problems with the epidemic is the people themselves. I literally field at least 10 phone calls per day of people requesting pain medication. I also see at least 5-10 daily in the hospital that ask for the pain medication they desire (BY NAME and DOSE) Yea, Norco doesn't work for me, but dilaudid 8 mg works for me. This is an ambulatory setting as well, not the burn or pain clinics.\n\nWe see patients everyday and at least 20% do request some pain medication. Most doctors will fill the script in the office, b/c pain is subjective. Some patients abuse it, some patients sell them. Both are a dangerous roadway.\n\nIve actually been through a \"pain control\" inservice that we were instructed by chronic pain physicians at our hospital to immediately treat any breathrough pain (above 7 or 8 on that 1-10 scale they always ask you at the hospital) with any standing order in the system. Meaning if the doctor says ok to give norco in presence of pain thats listed in your chart, and I swing by at 2000 and ask you how your doing- all you gotta mention is your in pain, I go get it out of the system and give it to you. No assessment other then, are you in pain?\n\nThis saves the doctor a phone call at 2 am when patient is in pain, can I give him seomthing, and it also breeds addicts who learn that every 4-6 hours Ill ask, and then provide. \n",
"While opioids and other drug epidemics exist all around the world for many different reasons, the U.S. has it's own set of special problems caused by a very firm stance against drugs. The war on drugs is the best example. \n\nNow, in other countries like Portugal, drug laws are a lot more loose. You don't go to prison for years just for doing heroin. At least not all the time. This means that instead of punishing people who have serious addiction problems, they offer them needle-exchange programs and healthcare. Heroin addicts in countries like these live much better lives and are given the opportunities to get their life back on track. This means that a lot of heroin users in some other countries are not only able to function in daily life, but they are also given the help they need to quit abusing. Addicts here don't often stay addicts, and thus their addiction rates are low. \n\nUnfortunately, in America the law isn't so lenient. Addicts in the U.S. of A. are severely punished for their problems. Addicts here aren't given the tools to keep their lives on track, and thus spiral into a drug-fueled nightmare life. Addicts in America are often poor, unhealthy, and looked down on. Not only this, but they are also thrown in prison for years because of their addiction, making them even less likely to get their life fixed up. \n\nThis means that American addicts often stay addicts. The numbers pile up. If you want to find out more about the negative effects of the war in drugs, I would suggest reading up on countries with better laws here \n\n_URL_1_\n\nAnd I would also suggest watching this kurzgesagt video: _URL_0_",
"It not due entirely to doctor misprescription, a lot of it come from the culture of instant gratification and entitlement that leads us to believe that we should never be even the least bit inconvenienced or uncomfortable unless is absolutely unavoidable. Opioids give people a way to escape the \"excruciating pain\" that their minds simply don't want to work to overcome. It also leads to culture in medicine that looks to cover up the problem rather than addressing the true issue in what's causing the pain. A second point about putting all the blame on the doctors for overprescribing opioids is that many doctors are so strongly pressured by the family of a patient or the patient themselves to give them a prescription that the doctor find himself in a lose lose situation where if he gives the patient the opioids that they may or may not truly need he also gives them the side effects that come with taking opioids aka OIC, severe respiratory depression, physical dependence, etc. but if he doesn't he faces an all new monster in the potential law suits that come when a family files for malpractice against him. Worst case scenario he loses his license and is kept from ever helping the many patients that may rely on him for regular care. It's not as easy as doctors need to be held accountable for the amount of opioids prescriptions they give out. Though it is one of the many factors pooling together to create this major issue.",
"All opioids should be available OTC to 21 year olds and Suboxone should be OTC for getting off opioids if you want. Opioids are THE best anti depressant that exists and they don't cause suicidal thoughts. \n\nCigarettes are sold OTC and Nicorette gum is OTC. Why not opioids? \n",
"The word \"epidemic\" is being used as an \"anti vaxxer\" \"war on drugs\" mass hysteria. More people die every year in the U.S. due to alcohol than due to heroin and opiates combined. \n\n\n\nAcetaminophen aka Tylenol results in 80,000 emergency room visits a year. Yet no one is discussing a \"Tylenol Epidemic\".\n\n_URL_0_\n\nInstead those who support legalized marijuana and those who support the war on drugs are using the fact that opiate addiction exists to push their causes. \n\nIt ignores that 99% of people who use opiates do not become addicted or harmed. And that it is a necessary medication for millions of people who if opiates continue to be vilfied will go without needed treatment. \n\nThe problems that separate American from other western countries are lack of access to healthcare especially mental healthcare and lack of support services and social safety nets which pushes people to addiction.\n\n",
"I broke my ankle here in Sweden last summer:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nThey prescribed oxycontin and oxycodone in rather generous doses the first two weeks. But then a doctor called me and we had a talk and the dose was lowered. Three weeks after that I tried to renew my prescriptions for both oxycontin and oxycodone and the same doctor called me up again. He said I really should stop taking them but that he would prescribe it for me one more time and just one time in small packages. If I still felt like I needed them after that I would have to go to the hospital to see him and we would have a chat and he would take a look at my leg again. \nAnd to be honest, by that time I really didn't need them anymore. But oxy feels kind of nice so I thought, what the hell. I'm glad that they didn't continue to just write prescriptions for me. They kind of sneak up on you...",
"Oxycontin and aggressive prescribing are a big part of this: _URL_0_",
"To put it bluntly there's three factors to the opioid issue in the US. \n\nFirst is the over Rx by doctors who didn't understand addiction and the movement in medicine to treat pain more aggressively. The best legal alternative on the market was opioids. \n\nSecond was the war in Afghanistan in early 2000's. The Taliban forbid the growing of poppies, when the Americans took over they allowed the growing of poppies in an attempt to give revenue to the region and persuade cooperation with American forces. This flooded the marked with cheap high quality source to make heroin. \n\nThird was the DEA changing the Rx requirements and rescheduling of opioid pain relievers, shrinking the pill market. It forcing pill addicts to move to other means. Which was cheap heroin. The problem with heroin is unlike pills dosing is a moving target. Potency and dose are different from suppliers, with some even lacing their heroin with synthetic opioid derivatives like fentanyl. Fentanyl is very very potent. It's an excellent short term pain reliever and a wonderful medication in Emergency Medicine, but in unregulated markets it creates massive issues. \n\nPeople are also using heroin differently than the past. More people are turning away from injection due to the stigma and evidence of use. I'm finding more people are smoking or even ingesting the drug. The heroin addict now isn't what it use to be. More people are affluent, more have/had good jobs, more are students, more are somewhat successful people that just got caught up in the over prescribing of these opioids. ",
"Hahaha hahaha ha\n\nI live in the U.K. & had to leave London because my doctor there put me on morphine & then left me to it.\nI'm now back with my family doc, still on morphine amongst others but have discussed quitting & how it will be handled when the time comes when I don't need them anymore.\nBeen on morphine around 18 months +\nI've forgotten exactly when it started.... because I've been on morphine for around 18 months",
"My share. I don't live in the us. I live in Argentina. About 6 years ago I had a nerve pinch in my back. My lower back swelled, it was like I had a second pair of cheeks in my lower back. Could not even stand straight. I tell you, it hurt like hell. Went to the ER, only prescribed me diclofenac. Had the same episode happen two or three times. Got diclofenac plus vitamin 12 injected. Last time I was in so much pain I passed out right after the injection.\n\nI'm ok now, lots of pull ups, push ups and alike got my back really strong. But never ever would even consider taking opioids and no one would ever prescribe them here.\n\nIDK different culture I guess",
"In Australia they just had a year long trial where certain pharmacists had to log (including customers drivers licence) any customers who bought Codeine over the counter. (It is commonly available without prescription as Codeine/Paracetamol or Codeine/Ibuprofen with up to 15mg codeine per tablet).\n\nThe results were apparently not great and within the next year ANY product with Codeine in it will have to be obtained via prescription.\n\nWhich personally sucks for me because as someone with mild but chronic back pain, the occasional packet of Codeine is a godsend. I have been doing this for 20 years intermittently and never had a problem.\n\nNot to mention that now everyone knows this, everyone is going to be hording the shit over the next year which will almost certainly lead to some people actually becoming addicted that might not have if they weren't compelled to hoard it.",
"The absolutely toxic mix of \"Pain is the fifth vital sign\" and physician pay being tied to patient satisfaction set into motion the opiate epidemic facing America. The appalling thing to me is while \"pain is the fifth vital sign\" is being clawed back - patient satisfaction surveys as a part of physician pay is becoming not just more common it is becoming a larger share of many pay models. \nAsk yourself why, when faced with the largest health crisis America has faced since the flu of 1917 would anyone not only perpetuate but expand the very policies which helped create the crisis? \nPain is the fifth vital sign and patient satisfaction surveys are killing more American than suicide and car accidents and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid say - \"sounds good, lets double down on that!\" Meanwhile the insurance companies, and hospitals cheer them on. Ironically it is all done in the name of quality and healthcare improvement....",
"I'm a chronic pain patient in Australia, and although there is some talk of it here in the media, it's not being treated as such a public scandal.\n\nMy doctor's surgery recently posted a notice saying they will no longer prescribe that schedule of drugs to patients. This worried me but they said they meant new patients (and updated their notice).\n\nI asked her what I should do if I need a new doctor, such as moving, and would a referral from one GP with a prescribing history to another be enough and she said that this was the correct course of action.\n\nThere's also departments who track restricted drug prescriptions, and there are red flags that will have individuals investigated, such as seeing multiple doctors for prescriptions, collecting them at different pharmacies, etc (although some are weighted more than others and a red flag doesn't automatically stop you collecting your prescriptions)\n\nFrom the stories I've heard things are much worse in the US for pain patients largely because of a lack of monitoring and regulation, instead there's just pressure from the top down, with federal police putting pressure on pharmacies with arbitrary prescribing levels and then pharmacies making calls on whether to fill a prescription based on those quotas instead of the patients actual need.\n\nThis is all anecdotal and I'm not an expert on the policy, I only know it from an end user perspective, but it feels like although there's a problem here, our system is better at handling it for all involved, especially patients, than what is going on in the US.",
"Children in Afghanistan as young as 4 are heroin addicts. Opioids are produced vastly across Afghanistan. Many families in Afghanistan began using heroin as pain killers for there children after injuries of bombing raids, as it was the only pain killer they could afford/ had access to. In extremely poor rural areas, many families are heroin addicts because it is slightly cheaper than food, and its effects last longer. Theres a documentary on it I saw on reddit and its saddest fucking thing i ever watched. They showed a rehab center, the only one in the country with funding, full of child heroin addicts attempting to quit and detox. The majority of children in the clinic were under 12 years old. ",
"Why did it become a problem in the US? For years the only measure of success for hospitals was \"do you feel pain?\" If the answer was yes, just keep passing out opiates until the pain is all gone. \n\nNow it's a massive problem. ",
"For those asserting that the epidemic exists outside the US, how did you come to that conclusion? America consumes about 80% of the global opioid supply. That is VASTLY more than ANYWHERE else in the world.",
"Isn't it obvious? 'Murica!",
"If taken as prescribed, prescription opiates are about the safest drug there is. I don't think it is really an epidemic compared to other drugs.",
"It's only an \"epidemic\" because it's the current \"it\" drug to go after. In actuality it's making it very difficult for people who need pain medicine to get them. It doesn't help that the media is pushing this 1 on 1 comparison between pain meds and heroin. The reality is that pain meds aren't really as dangerous as the media would like you to believe, what is dangerous is limiting the availability to the people who need them which then encourages them to look for far more dangerous alternatives. ",
"Not sure if Americans know how insanely bombarded they are with prescription drug advertising.\n\nI have an NFL Live subscription and get US ads through it as well as travel there occasionally and your drug ads are both hilarious and terrifying and mind-numbingly frequent.\n\nYou just don't get them in Australia... closest thing is the occasional ad suggesting that you see your doctor if you have a particular condition (usually obesity/weight loss) without mentioning a particular product because they're not allowed to.\n\nDoctors diagnose a condition and recommend a treatment. Patients aren't supposed to go to their doctor and demand something they saw on tv.",
"Definitely a problem here in Aus... I am pretty sure Japan has banned opioids as you cannot take codeine into the country. They also suffer/ed from a painkiller addiction problem.",
"Yeah, I don't know about that. I mean, I get that it's frustrating to see so many people becoming addicts from recreational use/abuse, and that some of those have become a strain on society and even dangerous to other in some cases. \nBut, lumping all of us into one group is just ignorant. You're ignoring the fact that some of us use them long term to treat chronic pain just so we can keep providing for our families. \nMany of us are just regular dudes, dealing with injuries that without meds would put us out of a job. I had a serious injury in my lower back 5 years ago. The first year of the injury, treatment was covered by work comp. They wouldn't support surgical options, nor would they cover physical rehab until I threatened to sue. The only option was painkillers and anti inflammatories. Fast forward to now, when surgery would be pointless due to arthritis and rehab is all out of pocket. I pay $180/ week for rehab, I take my Percocet and Meloxicam as dierected, and quite honestly, I don't need people like you making life any more difficult. \nWhen you make ignorant, blanket statements like that, you're just ignorant. The more of you there are, the more threatened I feel. I want to feed my family. Be more considerate to people",
"I've had a few conversations on the topic recently, so I thought I might share their perspectives (paraphrasing from memory):\n\nDrug and alcohol specialist at a major hospital: Australia is currently following the same curve as the US did with volume of opioid prescription. We tend to lag 10 years behind on all trends, so unless something is done now, we can see our future. It's a particular problem in the community, with GPs over-prescribing for pain.\n\nGP: There are certainly GPs who prescribe opioids unnecessarily. For short-term pain, I follow guidelines and use opioids for as short a time period as possible. Chronic pain is much more difficult to manage - there are some patients whose pain cannot be controlled without opiates, and getting appointments with a pain specialist is difficult. You really want to help these patients, but no option is without negatives.\n\nAnother GP: I am aware that with increased opioid use, there has been a major rise in overdose cases. However, the perspective of a GP working in the community is very different. I work with a lot of elderly patients with debilitating pain. Using opioids may lead to complications in them - but it also gives them a level of function. Living their last years with less pain is extremely important, even at the cost of a possibly shortened lifespan. It's a decision that we have to make.",
"I've been on an opioids for 7 years because of a spinal cord tumor. Tumors Not big enough to risk \nParalysis but it causes plenty of pain. Plus there's several back issues that can't be controlled by Tylenol or physical therapy or back adjustments and finally acupuncture. Tried them all. Can't do radiation because the tumor and the nerves are one. Damage the tumor you damage the nerve. This I've been told. \nI can't wait to get off this crappy medicine although for now I have to rely on it. I take my meds just like they are prescribed for me. No more no less. Yet I feel like sometimes the pharmacy gives me looks like I don't need to be on this. I'm sure there's a code as why I'm on them. Previous Doctor had me on double the strength but I get by with sometimes severe pain at night usually when the nerve is being punched or something bad is going on because the burn feels like a blazing knife going through my spine down my leg(S). It happened last night. I'm a 7 pain scale all the time except at night when it climbs to 8,9 or 10. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://fortune.com/2016/12/08/insys-execs-charged-bribing-doctors-fentanyl/",
"http://www.businessinsider.com/opioid-crisis-and-insys-therapeutics-fentanyl-spray-2017-4",
"http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/17/us/among-experts-scrutiny-of-attention-disorder-diagnoses-in-2-and-3-year-olds.html?_r=3",
"https://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-11-canada-national-combat-opioid-epidemic.html",
"http://www.apnewsarchive.com/2017/A-city-in-Washington-state-is-suing-Purdue-Pharma-maker-of-the-pain-medication-OxyContin-in-an-unusual-case-that-alleges-the-drugmaker-knowingly-allowed-pills-to-be-funneled-into-the-b/id-967208c49e3d4e7ea6a9453076ae3ec7",
"http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/business/11drug-web.html",
"http://www.theguardian.com/business/2012/jul/03/glaxosmithkline-fined-bribing-doctors-pharmaceuticals",
"https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-theory/wp/2017/02/09/the-opioid-epidemic-could-turn-into-a-pandemic-if-were-not-careful/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsrelatedtodrugpoisoninginenglandandwales/2015-09-03#other-opiates-including-tramadol-and-methadone"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/H3sT6KwvqQU"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://youtu.be/wJUXLqNHCaI",
"http://www.attn.com/stories/1604/countries-with-the-most-progressive-drug-laws-world"
],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/national_world/2015/12/26/alcohol-killing-more-people-than-heroin-painkillers-combined.html"
],
[
"http://imgur.com/a/0Kozb"
],
[
"http://www.latimes.com/projects/oxycontin-part1/"
],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
31mdmz
|
- when i make a rumbling sound with my ears, what an i actually hearing?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31mdmz/eli5_when_i_make_a_rumbling_sound_with_my_ears/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cq2vu7p"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"If I understand your question, that would be your blood flowing. \n\nIf it gets quiet enough around you, you can hear it naturally. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
2rgdyx
|
i am going 75 mph down the interstate. what will happen if i jam the shifter into reverse?
|
Clearly I am not a car guy, and surely there is a lock or something to prevent this from happening? But I have always wondered what would happen if you just pulled back on the shifter and pushed it into reverse with all your might. Could the car go end-over-end?!??? That would be cool...
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rgdyx/eli5_i_am_going_75_mph_down_the_interstate_what/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cnflorx",
"cnflr2s",
"cnfm09s",
"cnfmjve"
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"score": [
5,
2,
2,
2
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"text": [
"I wouldn't suggest this unless you have a spare few thousand dollars sitting around to repair your transmission, as that will be what falls apart. ",
"I think the Mythbusters had a show on this.\n\nAs I recall, most car transmissions have a safety that won't let you do this. Otherwise you would totally destroy your gearbox.",
"a manual transmission has a lockout that stops it from going into reverse while the car is moving forward with any speed, and even if you did get through the lockout, the gear would be spinning so fast that you couldn't engage it anyways. And if you somehow got through both of those things, either your driveshaft, axles, transmission output shaft, the gear itself, or a combination of those, would shear off. There would be a hell of a bang, followed by some clunks and crunches. And a big bill at the shop. The car would probably lurch and the tires would lock up, but something would definitely break before you go end over end.",
"Automatics just wont do it; drive by wire transmissions wont do it. If you find proper analog manual car. 75mph would be just plain too fast. Reverse is a large gear like 1st gear not meant for fast speeds. So you just can't do it at that speed. However if you were only going 5-10mph. I bet you could do it. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
brmqu9
|
why is it that sometimes when you take caffeine that only your heart beats faster but your mind stays tired (or becomes even more tired)?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/brmqu9/eli5_why_is_it_that_sometimes_when_you_take/
|
{
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"eof2nd6",
"eog2okl"
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6,
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"text": [
"I guess it’s only a temporary central nervous system stimulant and it can’t really replace lost sleep. It might temporarily give your body a boost but if you’ve only had two hours sleep then you’re probably gonna be tired no matter what. Plus, you’re probably gonna crash hard after the initial surge. It’s not a miracle worker :P",
"Caffeine doe not make you more awake, it helps prevent you from becoming tired. The sugar is what \"wakes\" you up. The \"shape\" of the caffeine molecule is the same shape as the receptor that recognizes you are sleepy. Square block goes in square hole. Except both caffeine and the \"sleepy\" molecule are the same shape \"square\". So it fills that square hole before the sleep one will until it wears off."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
a1efad
|
why did the sr-71 replace the a-12?
|
From what I've read, the claim is that there were no longer missions for the A-12 because flying over Russia was too dangerous...and that's really the extent of information about why this craft was retired only after a year of service.
However, the SR-71 was essentially the exact same design, but was slower (mach 3.3 vs the A-12's mach 3.35) it flew lower, and yet it stayed in service for 30 years. Why? That makes no sense at all.
Also, the SR-71 still has the world record for fastest plane, yet the A-12 was faster...lol. Why did the A-12 quietly get swept under the carpet while the slower SR-71 took its place?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a1efad/eli5_why_did_the_sr71_replace_the_a12/
|
{
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"eap4os2",
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],
"text": [
"The mission of the A-12 was deemed too dangerous because a U2 had been shot down and made clear that due to recent advances in missile technology the Soviet Union could track and shoot at the A-12 before it even made it's first flight over the Soviet union.\n\nThe project was cancelled due to budget concerns which included possible fighter and bomber variants, but by that point the SR-71 had already been ordered.\n\nThe SR-71 had 2 seats and a higher fuel load making it better suited to the role for which the A-12 had been intended. So they used them for the role instead.\n\nThe CIA soon proved that the aircraft was exceptional in the role and the value of it's reconnaissance convinced the White House to keep them in service for decades to come.\n\nWith a fleet of SR-71's available the A-12 simply didn't have a role to play anymore so they put the highly classified aircraft into storage. It's not like the US military has ever been known for saving money...",
"If you're getting these top end speeds 3.3/3.35 from Wikipedia, then they're wrong. These aircraft use Turboramjets, where the only limiting factor of speed is is how much heat the engines and the airframe can handle until it starts to disintegrate. In reality, they can go faster than these publicly listed speeds, but we may never know how fast they have actually been flown or how fast until they disintegrate.\n\nTL;DR specs on wikipedia are not accurate"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
5m2mc1
|
why are american postboxes/mailboxes usually detached from the house itself?
|
[deleted]
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5m2mc1/eli5_why_are_american_postboxesmailboxes_usually/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dc0b6ro",
"dc0b8on",
"dc0dbr7",
"dc0fw8v"
],
"score": [
5,
10,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"In general, it makes it easier for the mail deliverer to do their job if the mailbox is closer to the street. So the practice of having the house be farther away from the street meant that having the mailbox be a separate thing was a good compromise. \n\nThough MANY houses keep their postboxes attached to the house itself. It varies depending on your neighborhood.",
"It can only be so the mail carrier doesn't have to get out and walk up to each house if they have extended lawns/driveways. With mailboxes right at the street they can drive straight down the line, saving tons of time and hitting more addresses in a day.",
"Some new housing developments like mine have on big box for every one (lots of little boxes with keys) so the mailman makes one stop",
"Because the carriers deliver by car because that is more efficient. They only deliver on foot in dense cities and in these situations houses normally have a box on or near the door of the house. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1pwihu
|
why don't doctors catch anything from their patients?
|
Considering how many patients they see per day they must be at some risk
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pwihu/eli5_why_dont_doctors_catch_anything_from_their/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cd6rnrq",
"cd6rpbj"
],
"score": [
4,
8
],
"text": [
"They are at huge risk. That's why they always practice good hygiene. No doctor will ever touch you without a glove, except *maybe* to shake your hand, and if they do they will immediately wash their hands. They also don't put their hands to their eyes/nose/mouth.",
"They do. But they also practice good hygiene and handwashing. Also, they're doctors and know how to nip most of the crap they could catch in the bud.\n\nWorking at an old folks home, we kind of get the same thing. People come home sick, and sometimes one of the staff catches it before the illness is identified."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
7r6ysy
|
why celebrities don't go around suing all those shitty grocery store magazines that blatantly lie about them.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7r6ysy/eli5_why_celebrities_dont_go_around_suing_all/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dsuovti"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"I've searched tha seven seas fer an answer. Yer not alone in askin', and kind strangers have explained:\n\n1. [ELI5: How do celebrity gossip magazines get away with completely lying about celebrities? ](_URL_4_) ^(_34 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: Why is it that gossip magazines can print stories that are flat out lies and not get sued? ](_URL_3_) ^(_7 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: How are tabloid magazines that regularly publish false information about celebrities not get regularly sued for libel/slander? ](_URL_5_) ^(_76 comments_)\n1. [ELI5:How can celebrity gossip magazines say such diffamatory things without being sued or made illegal? ](_URL_6_) ^(_3 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: How do tabloids get away with printing lies about celebrities? ](_URL_2_) ^(_8 comments_)\n1. [ELI5: How is it legal for gossip magazines to blatantly lie about celebrities on a weekly basis? ](_URL_0_) ^(_5 comments_)\n1. [How do gossip / tabloid magazines get away with not being sued with libel (most of the time)? ](_URL_1_) ^(_12 comments_)\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pxhrm/eli5_how_is_it_legal_for_gossip_magazines_to/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/2x6n1w/how_do_gossip_tabloid_magazines_get_away_with_not/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6w8qe0/eli5_how_do_tabloids_get_away_with_printing_lies/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ws8v3/eli5_why_is_it_that_gossip_magazines_can_print/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20uq3a/eli5_how_do_celebrity_gossip_magazines_get_away/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51aw5a/eli5_how_are_tabloid_magazines_that_regularly/",
"https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2rrx6d/eli5how_can_celebrity_gossip_magazines_say_such/"
]
] |
||
3dq9s9
|
why do coaches/buses' wheels protrude at the front and are inwards at the back?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3dq9s9/eli5_why_do_coachesbuses_wheels_protrude_at_the/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ct7lwuj"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"As you're looking at the front of a vehicle you want as small of a surface area as possible facing the oncoming wind. So, you don't cover up the wheels because that would be unnecessary added surface area. But, as you move further back you want the air to slip off the side of the vehicle so you cover the wheels so that they don't catch any more air."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
||
3rn5rq
|
why don't cable providers offer 'pay per channel' packages for like $0.80 a channel?
|
I watch about 5 or 6 channels and I will certainly not be paying for cable when I get a house of my own... So why don't they offer something that we actually want? Also, isn't the point of having advertisements playing during something (ie. pandora) because that service is free? If cable costs money and plays adverts aren't they doubling their profit at the expense of us the consumer?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rn5rq/eli5why_dont_cable_providers_offer_pay_per/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cwpi2wa",
"cwpi7mt",
"cwpij1b",
"cwpiq5i",
"cwpjo7j",
"cwpr5w6"
],
"score": [
2,
4,
11,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"No commercials are how the producer of that content pay for it. NBC pays for its programs by offering commercial time.\n\nThis is separate from you paying for the cable/satellite company to get that stuff to you. They get money by you paying them to get the channels to your house.\n\nThey don't offer smaller packages because the would make less if you could ala cart your channels.",
"Basically, because bundling is the best way to make money. Cable companies offer a large variety of channels, but because there is so much variety there is a lower person-per-channel ratio on a lot of them. Less people watch TCM than TNT for example. \n\n\nBy bundling they can charge more, and offset the cost of lower viewer channels. By separating the major money making channels into different blocks they could convince people to buy a couple different bundles to get what they wanted at the expense of a lot of channels they don't need - and since there wasn't any other options for a long time they made bank.\n\n\nThen the interwebs happened, streaming popularized, and cable companies started sweating. What will be interesting is how the cable companies/ISPs start to throttle bandwidth for people streaming - forcing them to go back to cable because the quality is reduced by the same people providing both services. You can start to see this happening already.",
"Because by bundling things together they can charge you more for stuff that you don't necessarily want, and that makes them more money. It also allows them to offer more niche programming, because the smaller, lesser-known channels that normally wouldn't have enough people willing to pay specifically for that channel are bundled in with the more popular channels that people actually want to pay for. If they let people pick and choose which channels they wanted, people would choose fewer channels overall, and they would have to charge less and make less money overall. Plus they might not have the funds to support less popular channels anymore, or wouldn't be willing to take as much risk providing channels and programs that might not be popular, because the cost would no longer be absorbed by grouping it with profits made from the more popular channels. Basically they know that you dont want all of the channels they offer, and they don't care, because you'll pay for the whole package anyway because you don't have a choice.\n\nNow that being said, things might change because of the advent of services like Netflix and Hulu, which are contributors to driving down the numbers of people who even pay for cable programming at all anymore. They might have to adjust their sales model to compete and convince people that cable really is worth buying even with most shows easily available for free online or through cheaper services. But Netflix and Hulu operate similarly; you pay an overall cost for all of the programming, even though they know that you only want to watch a fraction of it. For a service like that it's easy to see how creating a custom Netflix selection that you choose yourself a-la-carte with different prices for everything would be difficult and impractical. It's easiest to provide a large selection that covers the majority of people's interests and assume that everybody is going to be able to find at least something they like.",
"[Some do](_URL_0_), but they charge a lot for it. in the UK, you can get a day pass for Sky sports which costs £6.99 for the day (£10.99 for the week). Its reasonable for a one off occasion i guess but if you're going to do it fairly regularly it'd work out cheaper signing up traditionally",
"In order to do that they would need to increase the cost of valued channels and decrease the cost of less valued channels and it would be far more than $0.80 per channel.\n\nChannels that people really want to watch would be $10-20 a month while others that are less popular would only be a couple dollars.\n\nIn the end it would likely not save you much because the channels you're dropping are likely the ones only worth a dollar or two and your valued channels would likely increase as a result of everyone dropping channels that they previously had to subscribe to.\n\nYou could end up paying more if you went with all top tier channels.",
"The simple answer is that most cable channels will not let the cable providers sell them individually, or in a manner they are opt-out. That is so they can make some money regardless.\n\nAs for advertising, it is not one way or the other, there can be a blend of advertising and subscription. Most printed media is, or was that way. In other words, they get more revenue (not more profit), so can put that to better content."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://www.skysports.com/nowtv?DCMP=ilc_2015_skysports_ASS"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
3aubqb
|
this whole issue with the confederate flag that's been all over reddit lately.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3aubqb/eli5_this_whole_issue_with_the_confederate_flag/
|
{
"a_id": [
"csg053p",
"csg0cxk"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"The state of South Carolina still flies the Confederate Flag over their statehouse which they claim is a symbol of their heritage. It offends many, including most African Americans, because they see it as a symbol of racial discrimination and slavery. Along with symbols of Apartide the Charleston shooter displayed it in his home and on line. The connection to that racially motivated mass murder has brought the issue to the front line again.",
"The Confederate flag was supposedly a symbol of the Confederate States of America: a political state which broke off during the civil war in the United States in the 1860s. They eventually lost and the United States were kept just that: united. One of the reasons that they broke off in the first place was because their entire economy at the time was based upon agriculture and supported by slavery. The North wanted to abolish slavery, seeing it as inhumane, but the south was afraid of what it would do to their economy, so they fought a war to try and keep it. Today, to many people in America, the confederate flag is scene as a symbol of slavery and the southern oppression of blacks. However, many people in the south see it as not a symbol of slavery, but of the south itself and its heritage. South Carolina politicians are trying to remove the Confederate flag from its government buildings and this causes a ton of controversy surrounding the flag. Is it a symbol of southern heritage or a symbol of slavery and oppression? "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
44zy5t
|
whys is it that some republican candidates continue to campaign despite clearly not being able to win ?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/44zy5t/eli5_whys_is_it_that_some_republican_candidates/
|
{
"a_id": [
"czu7mbi",
"czu8l31",
"czub2e0",
"czudlsv",
"czug8d1",
"czuho79"
],
"score": [
8,
26,
3,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Because as you're seeing with a few candidates, it only took one little thing for their fates to change. Rubio was polling in single digits before Iowa, and Kasich was basically polling at 0% before New Hampshire. That said, the longer they hang on, the less likely it is that they'll have some sort of game-changer. ",
"because they are angling themselves to be picked as vice president or a cabinet position from the eventual winner. ",
"I think it it is because they are either angling for a place in 2020, or they want to influence the policy of their rivals.",
"Some of the other things mentioned are potential factors, however, and keeping in mind how each of these candidates represents some vital piece of the national Republican (voter) base, it all ultimately distills down to how much money there is in politics and that for ever how seemingly minute a constituency a particular candidate represents there's no shortage of people willing to throw their money into the process just to have their interests heard.\n\nOne of the best examples of this, that immediately comes to mind, is of Joe Lieberman's run for President in 2004. For the Democratic nomination. Well after he'd effectively alienated any support he had within the Democratic voter establishment, for his wacky political behavior. I mean, this guy was so old and decrepid looking, it was just plain sad to see him out there plainly impersonating a viable candidate (for the nomination).\n\nHowever, when it comes to US foreign policy, he happens to represent one of the more powerful interest groups or lobbying efforts in AIPAC, so the money is there for the spending.\n\nReally, that's what best determines when and how a campaign ends;, when, from the point of view of it's largest backers, the money's longer effectively portraying their interest. And so, has nothing really, so directly, to do with with how a particular candidate's polling or what their chances to win look like at the moment.",
"It's late in the game, but anything could still happen. Rubio was the GOP establishment favorite until he belly-flopped during the last debate; Christie landed a good one on him and that can be all it takes to become a contender. Trump seemed invincible for a while, and Cruz is loathed by the GOP; the non-Cruz/Trump candidates still have a small chance. And for a chance at getting the most powerful position in the world, the candidates are willing to hang on to the bitter end.",
"can someone explain Trump and how he actually has a legit chance to win the election?\n\nas a Canadian, the idea of this man being president sounds like a joke"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
267hk6
|
how a happy person can still be depressed
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/267hk6/eli5how_a_happy_person_can_still_be_depressed/
|
{
"a_id": [
"chod77d",
"chodyfn"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"It's not hard to make a show of being happy when you aren't.",
"There are 2 types of depression. Endogenous and exogenous. Endogenous depression is the type that is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain. For this reason it often responds well to antidepressants because they fix the brain chemistry. Exogenous depression is the type that is a human reaction to certain life events. For example if your spouse dies even if you were a happy person the previous day, it is a normal part of the human grief process to feel depressed. There is a theory that people who get very depressed by life events that others handle with ease are more likely to actually change their brain chemistry. So it's possible that constant exogenous type depression will eventually lead to endogenous depression. Especially in those people who are predisposed to altered brain chemistry due to genetics or drug abuse. Whereas people who are generally not depressed and don't have any predisposition towards endogenous depression are more likely to process the life event that is temporarily depressing them in a way that is not going to permanently alter their brain chemistry. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
2ni6dz
|
how is the price for "gourmet" things determined?
|
I'm really questioning things such as wine and coffee. I've been to wine tasting and have almost always gravitated to mid ranged wines. This Thanksgiving I'm doing a blind coffee tasting with coffee ranging from $8.99/lb (French Mocha Java) to $50 / lb (Jamaican Blue mountain and Hawaiian Kona). While testing with a co workers, they prefer the more normal variety i.e. lower priced (not lower quality because all of the beans are great quality). So my question is, where do companies come up with prices on something so subject considering that pricier doesn't always mean better tasting?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ni6dz/eli5how_is_the_price_for_gourmet_things_determined/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cmdt0gw"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Market research and pricing models. Suffice it to say it takes a lot of work to determine the \"best\" price of an item. Math, studies, and consumer research are all combined, along with the profit and/or needs of the company selling them items.\n\nSmash that all together, and they come up with a price for an item. They can make this as simple or complicated as they want, but the better they price an item, the more they can meet their goals (usually profit or market share)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
2c4t6x
|
how can cell companies like verizon, at & t, and cricket all claim to cover more customers than any other company?
|
They all claim to cover at least 90 percent of americans. Are they lying? Who actually provides the most cellular coverage?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2c4t6x/eli5_how_can_cell_companies_like_verizon_att_and/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cjbwv7g"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"\"Cover\" doesn't mean they have those customers. Coverage means that their networks are *available* to those specific regions that 90% or more of Americans live in.\n"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
flpxo6
|
i understand having to wash your hands before you eat, but if you don't eat something messy, why do you need to wash after?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/flpxo6/eli5_i_understand_having_to_wash_your_hands/
|
{
"a_id": [
"fkzyn08",
"fl0i0ej",
"fl0w3hr",
"fl243o8"
],
"score": [
14,
3,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Because if your hand made contact with your mouth or saliva, you could spread germs (even if you don't feel sick) to other people.",
"Because the bits and pieces left following a meal (even if the meal in question isn't messy, particles of it flow everywhere) can provide a fertile ground for germs.",
"Personally, i hate the smell of food on my hands, so i wash my hands after eating/cooking anything",
"You wash your hands for yourself before you eat. You don't want germs and crud on your food. \n\nYou wash your hands after you eat for others. You just touched your mouth, with your hands, saliva/mucus membranes are a large transmission factor, you wash your hands so you don't unknowingly infect other surfaces, and via that way others."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
31pqbg
|
does human fertility vary with seasonal changes?
|
Most animals have a well defined breeding season, usually at a time when the weather is decent and food is readily available. Some animals experience physiological changes in brain chemistry and reproductive organs based on annual changes in temperature and photoperiod. For example, creating more sperm or releasing more eggs in the spring. Or releasing hormones that promote breeding behavior. If the answer is yes, how do air conditioning and artificial light affect this?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31pqbg/eli5_does_human_fertility_vary_with_seasonal/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cq3tl4o"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"No, apes and monkeys have no breeding season. In fact most mammals don't, instead they breed all year round.\n\nOnly a few have a mating season, known as the \"rut\" (sheep have a tup), these are ruminant animals (commonly known as animals that chew cud). And it's not based on sexual hormones changing, and the animals are no more or less fertile during this period. We know this because domesticated ruminant animals (sheep, cows, etc) can get pregnant year round.\n\nWhat does change is that males begin searching for a mate and fight each other, leading to them mating. They are no more or less fertile.\n\nThe \"mating season\" is socially driven, not fertility based."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
1xlht4
|
why did soldiers and marines during wwii favor using the 30 round stick magazines for their tommy guns rather than the drum magazines that held more ammo?
|
I would think that maybe it would have something to do with reliability or that the logistics were just better for the latter. If stick magazines were in fact more reliable than drums, why is this so? Also, would the benefits of not having to reload as often really be out-weighed by the fault of having an occasional jam?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xlht4/eli5_why_did_soldiers_and_marines_during_wwii/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cfceywg",
"cfcf30f"
],
"score": [
7,
2
],
"text": [
"From Wikipedia:\n\nAlthough the drum magazine provided significant firepower, in military service it was found to be overly heavy and bulky, especially when slung on patrol or on the march. It was also rather fragile, and cartridges tended to rattle inside it, producing unwanted noise. ",
"Portability. Two 30 round sticks take up a lot less room than a 50 round drum. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
3oz2pl
|
what's the difference between highways, freeways and expressways?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3oz2pl/eli5whats_the_difference_between_highways/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cw1p912",
"cw1r7cf"
],
"score": [
21,
14
],
"text": [
"The main difference would be between freeway and highway. A freeway is guaranteed not to have at-grade crossings like pedestrian crosswalks or intersections like one would need a stop sign or traffic signal for (albeit there are some stop/go traffic meters in place to help control traffic), while a highway is allowed to have these things.\n\nAn expressway is generally a multi-lane highway that allows more traffic to flow faster, but certain area's have more specific definitions for them.\n\nEDIT: As noted in below answers: Freeways *are* highways, but with less things allowed on them.",
"*All freeways are highways, but not every highway is a freeway. A freeway is a \"controlled-access\" highway — also known as an express highway — that's designed exclusively for high-speed vehicular traffic. Traffic flow on a freeway is unhindered because there are no traffic signals, intersections, or at-grade crossings with other roads, railways, or pedestrian paths.* [Source](_URL_0_) \n \nUntil I looked it up I would have said it depends on where you're from. In California the term \"Freeway\" is used often, but in Texas they call the same thing a \"highway\". "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"http://www.diffen.com/difference/Freeway_vs_Highway"
]
] |
||
6g63ef
|
how do snails/slugs prevent dirt or small rocks from sticking to them?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6g63ef/eli5_how_do_snailsslugs_prevent_dirt_or_small/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dio54pj",
"diofzc3"
],
"score": [
8,
3
],
"text": [
"They keep on producing new slime. one layer of glue will stick two surfaces together, but if one of the surfaces is able to squeeze out new glue in between it'll get loose again.",
"They produce tons of mucus constantly. They can also control how much mucus they produce in order to either stick to a surface (like climbing a tree) or stop rocks, sand, mud and other particles from sticking to them. They can also do this for sharp edges. Here is a link to snails controlling the outflow of mucus to traverse [knives and sharp objects](_URL_0_)"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3MeFpXCXj0"
]
] |
||
1jyuth
|
why can illegal immigrants protest about immigration issues without being arrested?
|
If the public and police know they are illegals, how are they able to not be arrested for be an illegal immigrant?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jyuth/eli5_why_can_illegal_immigrants_protest_about/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cbjmkwh",
"cbjn0kc",
"cbjne9g",
"cbjqjwm"
],
"score": [
4,
5,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Our Federal government has been neglecting their duty to control immigration and simply refuses to proactively enforce such laws. No matter your stance on immigration, isn't that a bit scary?",
"you don't KNOW they're illegals. not without checking everyone's immigration papers, which is illegal without probable cause. \n\nsuppose a legal immigrant or even a citizen doesn't have their wallet and is protesting about immigration issues. how would you know they're illegal? ",
"The constitution doesn't exactly protect the citizens of the USA so much as it stops the government from doing certain things. Police can't break up a peaceful, law abiding protest. Period. It doesnt matter who is protesting, government officials cant come in and stop it.",
"Local cops don't usually care about enforcing immigration unless they're dealing with somebody committing another crime."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
4f73gv
|
why do some people's eyes tear up when they vomit?
|
I understand that we produce extra saliva to protect our teeth, but when I vomit it's like my entire face is a running faucet! My eyes start streaming tears and my nose drips like crazy (I assume because of the tears). What is the purpose of crying when you vomit?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4f73gv/eli5_why_do_some_peoples_eyes_tear_up_when_they/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d26gqou"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Just a guess. You're tensing up muscles from your lower abdomin up your chest and in your face as well. Convulsing these muscle groups is involuntary and my guess is that your face muscles tense up and excess tears are pushed out. Another option is that the acid from your stomach gets in your nose and causes a normal reaction to sinus irritation. As to why, maybe it's just an evolutionary accident, or it might be to help protect your eyes from acid spraying out of your mouth."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
2hr2ye
|
why does moving your hair hurt after having a hat on for a while.
|
When I go skiing, I have my helmet on for basically 5-6 hours and after I take it off I obviously have helmet hair. But why does it hurt when I move my hair around trying to make it back to normal. Thanks!
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hr2ye/eli5why_does_moving_your_hair_hurt_after_having_a/
|
{
"a_id": [
"ckvcfal",
"ckvi1no"
],
"score": [
16,
3
],
"text": [
"Could be wrong. But I believe it might be the follicles being forced into an awkward position and getting used to that. So when you take the helmet off and try to rearrange them they resist to the change resulting in nerves being poked saying \"we're trying to get used to this\"\nLikely wrong, but that's what I believe",
"Does anyone else actually really enjoy this feeling? Some people say it hurts but I find it almost therapeutic. "
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
9xq9ud
|
considering the formula 1 rules, and car specifications, what are the differences between cars from different teams, that makes then faster or slower than each other ?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9xq9ud/eli5_considering_the_formula_1_rules_and_car/
|
{
"a_id": [
"e9u9gw6",
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],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"lets put it this way. i want you to bake a cake but you can only use sugar, water, flour, eggs, milk, etc. now there are a million different ways to make a cake, some better than others. \n\neven though the f1 specs spell out certain things. there are still a million different design considerations that will affect the performance. also the driver is a variable. some are more skilled than others. \n\ntypically, for f1, a lot of it comes down to who spends the most money. because f1 doesn't directly make the manufacturers money. it's all the side deals and such and brand recognization that they gain. although a lot of the designs used in f1 trickle down into cars later on. we can basically consider it one giant expensive test platform for their car designs. \n\n > considering 2 teams with Ferrari engines, are the engines the same ? \n\nnot necessarily. ferrari has a ton of engine designs. \n\n > what parts of the car can they modify ? \n\nthere's a lot they can modify. the rules just define the chassis, engine, and tires. \n\n > Don’t they have to be nearly identical to be competitive ?\n\ngiven the design limitations, a lot of the optimal designs do tend to converge. but there's no one design that's best at everything. there's always trade offs. ",
"The difference is in the details\n\n**Aero**\n\nThe rules regarding Aerodynamics on F1 cars are quite strict in that they dictate the length and width of the aerodynamic surfaces like wings and the diffuser. What makes the difference is the shape of those wings, the types of winglets, turning vanes etc.\n\nThe Front wing is currently the most important aero device on the car, mostly because body winglets are banned, so the teams have no other choice but work with the front wing. All those complex winglets guide air over the rest of the car and make the car run better. The air coming off the front wing helps generate downforce everywhere else on the car.\n\nThis comes down to money. The more money you have the more engineers you can hire and the more time you can spend on CFD (Computation Fluid Dynamics, ie super computer) and in the wind tunnel to develop parts. Having money also means you can hire super talents like Adrian Newey.\n\n**Engine**\n\nBy regulation the engines have to be the same on the main team (Ferrari) and the customers (Sauber + Haas). This is an important change from the last decade where customers were often running Last Years engine both to lower costs and for teams like Ferrari to maintain their advantage.\n\nAgain it's down to the differences. Just because you have a Mercedes Engine doesn't mean that you have access to all of it's software modes.\n\nThe teams run different fuel + lubricant formulas than the main teams and more importantly the packaging is different. The Engines are optimized to fit in the Manufacturers car so in a customer car there is always a compromise somewhere to make it all fit.\n\nFor example in previous years Ferrari use a water/air intercooler on the engine but the customer teams didn't have it. Although the engine was the same the lack of this part changed the engines cooling parameters and increased Turbo lag.\n\n**Gadgets**\n\nF1 cars are notorious for running barely legal gadgets like the famous F-duct or FRIC suspension.\n\nThe big teams have many such gadgets hiding under the bonnet of the car and having the money helps to both develop these parts and pay for the lawyers and lobbying needed to make them legal (yes that's actually a thing).\n\nHaving a trick suspension like FRIC that can raise/lower ride height in the corners can make all the difference in cornering speed.\n\nMercedes ran special thermal cameras on the car in practice a few years ago to monitor the tires and learn to switch them on better than everyone else. They were only able to do that because of a unique partnership with Qualcom."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
||
89tkj6
|
why are smartphone batteries advertised by how much current they use and not voltage or power?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/89tkj6/eli5_why_are_smartphone_batteries_advertised_by/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dwtexpj",
"dwteyhu",
"dwtffrf"
],
"score": [
5,
11,
4
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"text": [
"Voltage is largely irrelevant for single cells, as all cells using the same chemistry will have similar voltage characteristics through the charge/discharge. (However, it is important for designing around multiple-cell packs) \n\nMaximum current output (and by extension, power) is not commonly advertised in the context of smartphones as it is rarely an issue or limiting factor (ie the battery can safely output more power than would reasonably be demanded in the usage case).\n\nHowever capacity (the total ability to do work) is pretty important, and it is usually stated as a product of current (at nominal voltage) and time",
"Batteries are advertised not with current, which would be mA, but net charge, mAh. Basically current is a unit of rate of change of charge with time, specifically coulombs per second. \n\nThink of velocity, which is meters per second or miles per hour or whatever you want.\n\nWhat if you multiply velocity by time? What is that? Well, it's just meters. In the same way, mAh is just a roundabout way to describe the amount of charge in the battery. We use mAh and not just coulombs because it's more convenient to use.",
"It's a far more important statement. (Though not perfect by any stretch)\n\nThe voltage tells you almost nothing. A 9v battery and a 9v battery are the same on paper. So almost all smartphones would have \"the same\" battery.\n\nPower is meaningless in a device as usage changes person to person and app to app. They could say \"500 hours of on time*\"\n\nThen small print *on low brightness with all apps and features turned off.\n\nBut signal strength, updates, what's currently open, how graphically intense an app is will throw that number into the bin. \n\nRunning halo whilst having the Xbox app open, Facebook chat and background downloads is very different than just running halo. \n\nIt's the same reason a breakfast cereal has grams on the box instead of how many bowls it contains. They don't know how big my bowl is."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
28ijta
|
are we inventing math or are we discovering it as time passes ?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28ijta/eli5are_we_inventing_math_or_are_we_discovering/
|
{
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"ciba4fu",
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"cibbt5v",
"cibbv76",
"cibhikm",
"cibi4fv",
"cibi6ub",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Can't really ELI5 a philosophical question with no firm answer.",
"Some think that at the very deepest level, reality actually is maths, nothing more. Others that it is a language we have created that describes what we obverse well. It's a very fundamental question that we simply do not know the answer to at this time. ",
"As other people said, it's a philosophical question which has to deal with (mostly) imaginary constructs, so it's hard to explain. I'll try to take a stab at reasoning.\n\nNew math is created through formulating assumptions, application of rigorous rules and (a lot of) creativity and ingenuity — much more than mathematicians usually care to acknowledge. We can see it as a creative process which is closer to art than to natural sciences. When string theory was first formulated, there was no math that could work through the assumptions and deduct the predictions — it literally had to be invented by request to solve specific problems. These facts point to the inventive nature of mathematics.\n\nHowever, in some fundamental areas, such as number theory and group theory, there is much more exploration going on. It is hard to argue that natural numbers or symmetries do not \"exist\" and were \"invented\" by people — thus, most of the research in these areas feels more like discovery of fundamental properties and less like engineering.\n\nOne can possibly say that most of the mathematics today is a hundred-story skyscraper which is built on a piece of land that to this day is still not fully mapped.",
"We are inventing it. Math is nothing more than a formal language to describe the world around us. Sometimes the math is used to describe things that we have invented, or it can be used to describe things that we have discovered, but the actual math itself was always an invention. Sort of like the English language... the word \"tree\" was invented by people and so was all of the grammar rules on how to talk about the tree, regardless of the fact that the actual tree itself was not an invention.",
"There are two main philosophical positions when it comes to this subject: mathematical realism and mathematical anti-realism. Mathematical realism is the idea that mathematical ideas exist independent of the mind, and therefore mathematics is discovered. On the other hand, mathematical anti-realism asserts that mathematical statements are only true or false, and that these ideas don't necessarily correspond to anything material.\n\nTL;DR \n\nMathematical realism: mathematics is discovered\n\nMathematical anti-realism: mathematics is invented\n\nEdit: This discussion has been going on for a long time, at least since the time of Aristotle, and there likely will no definitive answer to the question. Ultimately I think this has to do with the limitation of language, and that there is no concrete definition of mathematics.",
"We are just discovering it. Math is universal; it transcends languages, cultures and if there were intelligent life elsewhere the only way we could communicate would be math. We discover other things in all aspects of the existence we perceive. Physics is intrinsic, as are any sciences we can observe and confirm without doubt. Thus is math.",
"Kind of both? We invent ways to rationalize and represent phenomena and patterns that we have discovered.",
"There is a [video](_URL_0_) by PBS about this. ",
"Discovering it. In math, we are essentially discovering different laws and systems that are already there. We just can't understand them all yet",
"Mathematics is a technology invented to understand the fabrics of the universe to selling goats. You may believe that maths already exists in decimal and hexadecimal, and all of these formulas already exist, or you can believe that we made it up to sell goats.",
"We are discovering relationships that have always existed, and we are describing those relationships in the language that we call mathematics (I think this also holds true for physics, chemistry, and all the other sciences.)\n\nAnd in many cases, the language we use defines and creates some of the relationships.\n\nSo in short, Yes.",
"The way I see it, we, as humans, invented a system of counting things, and advanced mathematics are simply patterns that we notice in our system of counting."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbNymweHW4E"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
5jjyxp
|
how are dead bodies brought back overseas?
|
Are there special boat/airplane carriers for bodies? I would assume legal procedures to be fairly complex too, especially in third-world countries.
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5jjyxp/eli5_how_are_dead_bodies_brought_back_overseas/
|
{
"a_id": [
"dbgwjry",
"dbh18d1"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Effectively any boat or plane capable of carrying a coffin can be used to bring a body back to a country. The process of moving a body overseas is called \"repatriation\"\n\nWhen someone dies overseas, the death must be registered with the local authorities, and they must give permission for the body to be repatriated from their country.\n\nOnce Released, the body is usually then taken to an undertaker or morgue who specialises in Repatriation in the country where the person died, and prepared for the journey overseas. The body will need to be certified as free from infection for most Repatriations, and embalmed to prevent further decomposition on the journey. Once this is done the body can be transported overseas.\n\nThe body is then placed in a Zinc-Lined coffin to meet international airline cargo standards, and flown to the destination country. It can also be transported by sea however this is far less common as the length of time is longer. An exception would be short sea journeys such as England to France.\n\nOnce the body lands, like any person/cargo it must go through Customs and be allowed into the country. Customs may inspect the body for signs of disease, and to ensure it is the correct body being bought back. Once released the body is the property of the next of kin or responsible person/organisation and is disposed of as any other deceased.\n\nThis whole process is very expensive, and could easily cost several thousand dollars. Thus, many people who die overseas are cremated and their ashes are repatriated, this is often much much cheaper and easier than bringing a body back overseas, and is by far the most common way of bringing someones remains overseas.\n\nIf nobody claims the body and there is nobody to pay for repatriation, it is often cremated or buried in the country where they died.",
"Most often they are brought by via air, usually on commercial flights in the environmentally controlled zone of the cargo hold.\n\nOn a slightly related note, when Singapore Airlines used to fly Newark to Singapore, the A340-500 aircraft used to have onboard facilities to store bodies in the event they died during the flight (18+ hours).\n\nIt was effectively a cupboard with straps internally that would house an average sized body if required.\n\nEdit: To clarify, no such \"cupboards\" are in use any longer. Often deceased passengers are moved to a quiet area (or passengers moved where possible) and covered in blankets and secured across a number of seats laid down. It's also not unheard of for deceased passengers to be moved into a first class seat if such facilities are available where individuals have private spaces that can be shut off from the rest of the cabin (Emirates for example)."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[]
] |
|
2pi5jp
|
why is it that in animated series, objects that can move around are drawn differently than static objects?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pi5jp/eli5why_is_it_that_in_animated_series_objects/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cmww0vc"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Drawn differently? Like the classic Wile E Coyote where you can tell that THAT rock right there is going to squish him because it's a different color? That's because when those were done animation was still printed on cels and those cels were [layered on top of each other](_URL_0_). So you'd have a background static layer that doesn't animate, you'd have a props layer, and you'd have a layer per character. The same color on different layers showed up slightly differently just because that's how it works. In some cartoons you can even see when the object is switched from one layer to another.\n\nThis effect is substantially reduced in modern fully computer animation. However, props are still often drawn at a different level of detail, because they may have to be redrawn over and over again instead of the really fancy background you only have to draw once."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplane_camera"
]
] |
||
3hkwt1
|
why do prototype cars have those weird stickers on them?
|
When you see pictures of prototype cars, why do they have the stickers with the weird design on them? Do they actually serve a purpose?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hkwt1/eli5_why_do_prototype_cars_have_those_weird/
|
{
"a_id": [
"cu87das"
],
"score": [
15
],
"text": [
"Usually those are on pre-production test models. They are supposed to break up the outline of the car and disguise the body styling. Car companies like to reveal new styles at the big car shows and don't like journalists snapping shots of their testing cars and revealing them early so they paint them in weird designs and use other methods to camouflage what they really look like."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[]
] |
|
4i56my
|
why do movies and tv shows usually use unique os's on computers as opposed to common operating systems like windows?
|
Is the Windows UI copyrighted or do producers just choose to use their own?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4i56my/eli5_why_do_movies_and_tv_shows_usually_use/
|
{
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3
],
"text": [
"They don't use their own operating system, they just make a video to display on the screen.\n\nBecause it does not have to be functional, they can have the video show whatever they want, and they choose something that will fit the story.",
"When displaying a screen in a movie or TV show, the director has a few goals:\n\nA) Don't piss off the advertisers. If the TV show might run ads for Apple products, or have Apple product placement elsewhere, it'd be a pretty bad idea to put a Windows OP on screen for free.\n\nB) Communicate information to the audience in such a way that even tech illiterate grandma can understand it. You see how big and bright the font is on those fake OS's, that's so grandma can read it and keep up with the plot.\n\nC) Don't distract the audience by having extra stuff on screen. If the supervillains base has a bunch of monitors on the wall, they should show something that looks cool but doesn't attract the eye of the viewer. Having nothing that the viewers recognize on the screens helps.\n\nIt's also worth noting that most of those screens are just blank/green during filming, with editors coming in afterwards and adding a screen in digitally.",
"Simply put, there's no good reason to use a real OS if they're not being paid to.\n\nWhen the cops are searching their database for a fingerprint match on a TV show there's no special program being run. It's just a graphic that's added in post production that was designed to clearly show the viewer that the computer is searching for a fingerprint match. It's far more important that what's on the computer screen clearly reflect what's happening in the scene than it is to be a realistic portrail of an actual police computer unless there's product placement money involved.",
"* to maintain brand neutrality - some viewers have strong feelings about OS's, and the show doesn't want any part of that\n* to preserve advertising - Apple doesn't want to advertise on a show with a lot of MS products\n* to preserve product placement - why give away free advertising?\n* future proofing - you can watch 10 or 15 year old show and it will general still seem modern, until Windows 98 pops up...a generic interface keeps the show more timeless\n* simplicity and storytelling - an OS with giant loading bars, huge flashing fonts, and scrolling source code in the background makes it easier for the viewer to know what is going on"
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
4h05pb
|
what are these "signaling problems" that always seem to hold trains up?
|
So I'm currently being held outside my train station due to "signaling problems". This seems like the standard reason given for delays on the train line (at least here in the UK).
Why do signals always seem to be going wrong? Why can't this problem be stopped from occurring? Or is "signaling problems" really a euphemism for "we're not going to tell you what's wrong, but we have to say something"?
|
explainlikeimfive
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4h05pb/eli5_what_are_these_signaling_problems_that/
|
{
"a_id": [
"d2madkl",
"d2mc4bw"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Signal systems usually default to the safe state if something goes wrong. This means that whenever something doesn't work properly (bad contact, sensor or moisture in the cable) this means a full stop.\n\nSome systems allow the operator to bypass the security. This enables train operation in case of a technical failure but the signal operator has the full responsibility. The train crash in Bad Aibling (Bavaria) was obviously caused by a signal operator erroneously assuming there was a technical fault and therefore setting the system to manual operation.",
"This video may help explain: _URL_0_\n\nIt pertains to the Toronto Transit Commission aka TTC in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and subways, but the idea is the same. \n\nThe TTC is super old, so the signals problems are quite common. They've been working for a few years now on updating to these new signals, which means that almost every weekend, some part of the line is shut down. Which then means it's own problems. For example, next weekend, a large part of the west end of the subway line will be shut down, for them to do work."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJlsSQBhKgE"
]
] |
|
1xno9j
|
matrices: how are they used in real life implications, why are they used and how do they work?
|
OK, so I learned about matrices in maths and only know the following:
- Matrices are a certain arrangement of numbers, and their notation is essentially a grid of numbers enclosed in brackets.
- They can be added, multiplied, subtracted and divided and doing these actions 'transforms' the matrix (aka it changes the numbers in the bracket and/or the size of the grid - when plotted on a graph you can show these transformations)
- Other, more complicated actions can also be applied to a matrix. I won't go into detail, but if a certain action helps describe something, go ahead and eli5!
And that's pretty much it. I found them hard to learn and I know they are used in computer programming. But why matrices, not binary code or hell, normal maths! And what else is it used for?
Edit; spelling
|
explainlikeimfive
|
http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1xno9j/eli5_matrices_how_are_they_used_in_real_life/
|
{
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"text": [
"Matrices are a good way to represent a lot of real world things like data sets or sets of equations. Computers can manipulate matrices easily, so if you can write your problem in terms of matrices you get a lot of very nice tools to solve your problem. \n\nMatrices are used to do most control system design, a lot of physics, essentially all optimization, and most structural and fluid analysis. ",
"The most common use of a matrix is to store a system of linear equations.\n\nAs a really simple example, here's a system of equations:\n\n 2x + y = 11\n 4x - 2y = 2\n\nIf you just had one of those equations by itself, there's no solution - x and y could be anything. But if both equations must both be true, there's often only one answer.\n\nThis could be written in matrix form like this:\n\n [ 2 1 ] [ x ] = [ 11 ]\n [ 4 -2 ] [ y ] [ 2 ]\n\nIt becomes very handy when you have 100 equations and 100 unknowns!\n\nComputers can solve a system of equations - even with many thousands of equations and thousands of unknowns - very quickly. Putting it in matrix form is the easiest way to express this problem.\n\nWhy do systems of equations come up so often?\n\nA really common problem that computers need to solve is an \"optimization\" problem - find the \"best\" solution to a problem that has many possible answers. For example, given a set of points, find the \"best\" line that fits those points as closely as possible. The solution to problems like this can often be expressed as a system of equations.\n\nNote that there are different ways to define \"best\" - like \"least squares\" says that the best line is the one that minimizes the sum of the squares of the shortest distance between each point and the line. But lots of definitions of \"best\" can all be expressed and solved using a system of equations, so the method of solving is the same even when the optimization criteria is different.\n\nThere are many, many other uses of matrices in math, physics, and computer science, but a system of algebraic equations is by far the most fundamental, and the most common interpretation of the meaning of a matrix.\n",
"A linear transformation is an operation on a set of coordinates for which a few particular properties hold. I won't go into the details of those properties, but some useful linear transformations include rotations, translations and expansions/contraction - i.e. turning, shifting and changing size.\n\nFor a set of, for example, 3D co-ordinates, you can express every linear transformation as a 3x3 matrix. So you have rotational matrices, translational matrices, etc. Then, to apply the transformation, you multiply your point by the appropriate matrix. If you want to transform lots of points at once, you put them all in a matrix and multiply *that* by the appropriate transformation matrix.\n\nWell, so what? Why not just do the calculations without the matrices? First, because they tend to be a lot uglier out of matrix form than in it - to rotate the point (x, y) by an angle t, you need to remember that it's (x cos t - y sin t, x sint t + y cos t) (I think, I've almost certainly gotten a sign error in there), or that it's:\n\n [ cos t -sin t ][ x ]\n [ sin t cos t ][ y ]\n\nSecond, a lot of work has gone into making matrix multiplication efficient, especially for this kind of work. Third, you can combine transformations by multiplying the matrices together, further improving the efficiency. Fourth, you can define classes of square matrices that are *invertible*, meaning that given a matrix M you can find another matrix N such that MN = NM = I, which means that you can reverse the corresponding transformations.",
"THey're extremely useful in computer graphics. They can be used to represent some kind of transformation that can be done to coordinates. For example, I can follow a formula to create a matrix that, when multiplied with some vector A, creates a vector A', equal to A rotated 30 degrees around some axis.\n\nAdditionally, I can multiply two matrices to get a new matrix. This new matrix's transformation is equivalent to the two original matrices' transformations, done one after the other. This means that one matrix can actually represent an unlimited number of transformations done in sequence. They are vital to doing 3D graphics/physics.\n\nEDIT: I should mention that vectors can be multiplied by matrices by just pretending the vector is itself a matrix (3x1, or 1x3) and performing matrix multiplication like normal."
]
}
|
[] |
[] |
[
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
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