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32odi6 | how can some online retailers of games have sales up to 80-90%? do they actually make money on this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32odi6/eli5_how_can_some_online_retailers_of_games_have/ | {
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"It's important to remember retails often lose either nothing or close to nothing when selling a game, they didn't have to pay for a had copy or box, they didn't have to rent space for the shop and they didn't have to pay someone to sell that copy to you, so the over head is very small.\n\nThe reason all games aren't 90% off all the time has nothing to do with losing money, and everything to do with losing POTENTIAL money.\n\nSales bring in the people who often wouldn't have bought the game at all otherwise, while it takes a while to go on sale - and a fairly long time before going on DEEP sales, to make sure that the people willing to pay full price - do.",
"For brand new games, the keys are stolen or \"acquired\" from a region with lower prices.\n\nFor honest stores and old games, it costs them nothing to offer the game at a lower price. If a physical store wants to put am item on sale and expects to sell 1000 of that item, they physically need 1000 of that item. A download only store can not run out of software except for rather stupid developers that put idiotic limits on the total number of valid keys, which has happened."
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9i2gkh | why are some drugs (like cocaine) sniffed instead of orally taken? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9i2gkh/eli5_why_are_some_drugs_like_cocaine_sniffed/ | {
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"Cocaine is a drug that has a very poor bioavailability (aka a lot of it is not absorbed or is metabolized quickly) when taken orally, and is also eliminated very quickly. Similar logic applies for morphine/heroin \n\nAs such, other routes of administration, such as snorting or IV administration, are popular."
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5gbslt | how do we know that we are moving (for example in a train) instead of the world around us? | We "know" this of course, but I mean it more in a visual sense. When I'm looking out the window of a moving train, I feel the train moving, but I *can* make it look like the train is standing still and the world is moving, but it takes some effort. Why do I automatically see the train as the moving object and not the environment? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5gbslt/eli5_how_do_we_know_that_we_are_moving_for/ | {
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"The truth is that there are no absolute velocities. Speed and velocity can only be defined if it's relative to something else. It is equally correct to say that it's the rest of the world that's moving and that you are sitting motionless.\n\nIf the train is going perfectly smoothly at a constant speed *you do not feel anything*. For the same reason we do not feel that Earth is hurdling fast around the sun, and the sun hurdling around the galaxy, and it's not something we need to account for when performing experiments locally on Earth.\n\nThe only thing you can feel is acceleration. When you're in a train it will always break and speed up a little, and it will be slightly bumpy here and there. These are subtle things but your brain notices and it's enough for you to realise that you're in a moving vehicle (if looking out the windows weren't enough)."
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5pq7cb | what does it mean if america pulls out of the tpp? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5pq7cb/eli5_what_does_it_mean_if_america_pulls_out_of/ | {
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"Technically, it was never in effect so nothing at the moment. In order for it to have gone into effect, it would have had to be ratified by at least 6 of the 12 countries that account for 85% of the groups economic output by February 2018. When the time comes to vote, The US will most likely vote no and it will be no deal. \n\nSource: \"TPP: What is it and why does it matter?\" Retrieved from _URL_0_\n\nEdit: minor text revisions. "
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365gjw | how does iran, with its stash of friends who own nuclear weapons, hasn't been able to smuggle or plagiarise the nuclear technology yet? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/365gjw/eli5_how_does_iran_with_its_stash_of_friends_who/ | {
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"The technology is easy. Getting the materials is hard and expensive, especially if foreign secret services sabotage your factories and assassinate your lead scientists.",
"Maybe, just maybe, Iran is serious about its stance on nuclear weapons? \n\n_URL_0_",
"Generally states do not want other states to have nuclear weapons. I don't think Russia actually wants Iran to get a nuclear weapon, given the PRC getting nukes was something that helped China split from the USSR. ",
"The origin of any technology shared would be known because of its fingerprint. No one wants to be caught sharing nuclear technology with a pariah state, with the exception of maybe North Korea.",
"States don't want to just give states assembled bombs, because there is a liability there. If a bomb goes off, it is possible to analyze the debris and figure out who made it. So if Pakistan gave Iran a bomb, and Iran used it, it would be really obvious that Pakistan was complicit.\n\nAlso, Pakistan's weapons are super expensive and they feel they need them for their own defense. So they're not just giving them away.\n\nAs for knowing _how_ to make the bomb — Iran knows this. It is not even all that secret these days, but in any case, they did buy blueprints and whatnot from the Pakistanis. The problem is running the factories to make the enriched uranium, and getting enough of it together without people (like the IAEA) noticing. Because Iran is a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, there are inspections of their facilities and consequences if they try to build a bomb. It is political factors, not technical ones, that mostly hold Iran back, if its goal is to make nuclear weapons, which is not clear. Many analysts suspect their goal is to look like they _could_ build nuclear weapons, and use that fact as leverage for getting what they want. Actually building them would result in potentially more headaches than just being on the edge of being able to build them.",
"40 nations could make nukes today if they wanted to, and the reason they don't is that nukes aren't all that useful in real life\n\n_URL_1_\n\n_URL_0_\n",
"Having nukes isn't /that/ useful nowadays. It's just a political card and threatening to make them is almost as useful as having them. Not blitzing for a weapon gives them some room to maneuver and good faith gestures and all that kind of thing.\n\nProbably more importantly is that nuclear technology is tremendously useful well beyond weapons. Nuclear power is something they are very interested in, desalinization is expensive and developing infrastructure for widespread adoption of nuclear power plants is remarkably similar to nuclear weaponry. \n\nBut beyond that, having a healthy nuclear engineering sector is useful in medical fields for various forms of testing and treatments that utilize nuclear materials. Medical nuclear infrastructure is considerably different from nuclear power, but they aren't completely unrelated and training the engineers can operate side by side. There's plenty of reasons to continue developing nuclear infrastructure without blitzing for a nuclear weapon.\n\nI guess to formally answer the question, even if they do want one. They have plenty of incentives to do it the hard way.",
"So there are two parts to this question. (1) Why has Iran built their own nuclear weapon and (2) Why have they not gotten one smuggled into their country. \n\n\n(1) It is actually not that easy to just make a nuclear weapon. Yes we know how, but creating the infrastructure and various other technology all the while other countries (like the US) are trying to make sure you are not, is rather difficult. Iran was attempting to create a nuclear program without the oversight of the world (specifically: IAEA, US, US-allies). But has failed to do this. Why they failed? This is up for debate and a bit of speculation, but when they were trying, the US and various european countries placed lots of economic sanctions on Iran. This has hurt Iran economically. Whether this is the main reason that Iran is now willing to have nuclear talks with the US, is debatable, but they are asking for sanction reliefs in the nuclear talks. \n\n\n(2) I'm not exactly sure what \"friends who own nuclear weapons\" you are referring too? This [wiki page](_URL_0_) shows the countries who currently have nuclear weapons. The countries that have their own nukes are: US, Russia, England, France, China, Pakistan, India, and North Korea. US, England, and France obviously would not give Iran a weapon. Russia and China are not exactly friends with Iran, at least not enough for them to risk the backlash of selling a weapon. India does not like Iran. North Korea's only kinda ally is China. That leaves Pakistan, and they aren't friends with Iran. Pakistan and Iran are a majority different sects of Islam (Pakistan = Sunni, Iran = Shia). Iran doesn't really have any \"friends\" who have and would give them nuclear weapons. "
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bmzkxg | what are ways to ensure that your car remains in good condition for as many miles as possible? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bmzkxg/eli5_what_are_ways_to_ensure_that_your_car/ | {
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"Get oil changes on time. Regular tune-ups. Replacing faulty parts. Telling your car you love it... general maintenance basically."
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20l0at | crimea vote "illegitimate and illegal"...? | I keep seeing in the media that the EU/'west' are calling the referendum that happened earlier today illegitimate and illegal and how it will "not be recognised".
What does this mean? The vote to become part of Russia doesnt count? If so, why are there so many jubilant scenes in Crimea right now?
I feel ridiculously stupid for having to ask this, but hey ho!
This is my first ELI5 post and I did search to no avail, apologies if it's already been asked somewhere. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20l0at/eli5_crimea_vote_illegitimate_and_illegal/ | {
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"A region of a nation is not allowed to vote to secede under most constitutions.\n\nAsk the American South about it."
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aippxv | how do those bank tube things work at the drive thru | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aippxv/eli5_how_do_those_bank_tube_things_work_at_the/ | {
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"The tube is connected to a large fan that collects air from the tube. The capsule creates a reasonably air tight seal within the tube. When that happens, air pressure outside the tube pushes the capsule through the tube. This step is very similar to air pressure pushing your drink through your straw when you suck on the exposed end of the straw. \n\nWhen the capsule reaches the end, it's stopped or dropped out of the tube allowing the customer or teller to interact with the contents. \n\nFor tubes that go two directions, there's a door that changes which way the fan draws air allowing the capsule to be moved in both directions. ",
"Wasn’t there and episode of that awful sitcom “just shoot me” where David cross is playing a character lying about being special needs. \n\nThey have one of these devices there and everybody else doesn’t know how it works. So cross’s character keeps saying “vacuum” in an overly done special needs voice. Everybody keeps assuming he doesn’t know anything. VACUUM"
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4v0kob | rape statistics | I have heard so many conflicting view points from so many different people that I just don't know who to believe anymore. Some claim that the 1/6 women and 1/33 men statistic is false. Others claim that those statistics are true. The FBI says that the false accusation rate is around 2% with 6-8% being indeterminate but others say the false accusation rate may be as high was 50% or 80%. Everyone seems to have their own statistics.
Who is to be believed and how are these statistics determined? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4v0kob/eli5_rape_statistics/ | {
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"It's extremely difficult to tell.\n\nSome studies (like the popular college study one, saying 1/3 or 1/4 women in US colleges will be raped) can be discounted completely, because they consider things like \"had sex after drinking a beer\" as rape.\n\nSimilarly some studies in regards to false reports will include ridicilous things in order to make it as high as possible.\n\nOther studies, from both sides, are much harder to argue against. \n\nUsually they never provide the full study which would allow you to check this, but rather the conclusion, which is often biased. Especially if the study is done in a biased way.\n\nSo really, the answer is \"nobody know, but both situations fucking suck big time and we should be trying to counteract both\".",
"Statistics are always a bit tricky, but even more for rape. \n\nFirst of all not all rapes are reported. People are afraid of their rapist or of the reaction of society and being labeled \"the person that got raped\". It's really hard to make a statement on total rape numbers.\n\nSecondly there's the gender issue and double standards. Men aren't supposed to be raped by woman, they should be able to resist. This leads to few men reporting rape, since they're not likely to be believed and should just suck it up. \n\nAs for your statistics: 1/6 women and 1/33 men seems like an estimation of the total rape numbers, so take it with a grain of salt. False accusation rate is also not really specific, do they mean the amount of claims proven innocent (higher % to be expected, but maybe not 80%) or the amount of claims unrightfully found guilty (2-5% maybe)? \n\n",
" > Who is to be believed...\n\nAll of them and none of them.\n\nThat's the problem with statistics is there are so many ways to slice and dice data, people motivated to support a certain conclusion have a lot of wiggle room. They can cherry pick their studies and present their results without context.\n\nIn the case of rape statistics, there are two main issues. The first is one of definition. Some studies include data on both rape and sexual assault...unwanted groping is certainly unacceptable and criminal, but it is a very different thing that forced penetrative sex. The studies that give \"1 in 6\" results typically use a broad definition of sexual assault.\n\nThe other issue is there is usually no way to know for sure if a rape has been committed. Not only does it make it hard to study, it makes it hard to investigate and prosecute. It is clear that many rapes go unreported, but the only way to account for them is self assessment, which an inaccurate tool at best.\n\nThe the unsatisfying answer is we just don't know. We can make guesses, and document the methodology we used to make those guesses, but anyone who throws around factoids without linking them to a specific study might as well be making their numbers up.\n\n",
"It depends on how you count rape, who's doing the counting, and what their agenda is.\n\nThe 1/4 or 1/5 number comes from the Koss study done for Ms. Magazine in 1985. The number included rape and *attempted* rape without differentiating them (I think, or maybe nobody talks about that aspect of the study) and includes some corner cases, such as did a guy get you trunk with hopes of sleeping with you but failed. I believe that if you drop the responses to the one particularly ambiguous question, it drops from slightly less than 1/4 to around 1/5. Not a big change.\n\nApparently other studies have confirmed the Koss study, but again, they include a lot more things than rape in their numbers. I've heard that if you count all the things that these studies count, the rape-or-attempted-rape numbers for men are quite high too.\n\nPeople who don't want to believe these numbers have posted plenty of articles debunking them, which I will let you google for yourself. I'm not aware of any definitive study that seriously contradicts them.\n\nMy understanding is that if you only count actual rape, the number drops to about 1/14, which is in line with the FBI's own statistics.\n\nThat's actually pretty appalling if you think about it.\n\nThe 50% false accusation number comes from the Kanin study, which only collected statistics from one mid-sized town. The methodology was terrible. All we really know is that either this one town had an epidemic of false rape accusations, or (more likely) they had a cop who liked to brow-beat women into recanting.\n\nThe FBI statistics say that the false rape accusation rate is about the same as the false accusation rate for other crimes. I forget what it is, but it's fairly low.",
"to address the 1 in 6 statistic; that comes from a bad Feminist backed study (thanks to the NOW). they conflated their data and combined things like a smack on the ass, or a grab of the boob, or a groping of a package, with rape. the actual rape% stats are so astronomically smaller than what is presented here it is disgusting. \n\n_URL_1_\n\nShoe0nHead explains it fairly well, and provides sources below the video. \n\nthe false accusation rate can be proven to be MUCH higher than 2-8% by observing the data reported in the Lisak paper that created the entire 2-8% cocept. once you correct for their poor classifications, its actually way closer to 15-20%. a good thing to keep in mind regarding false accusations, by the legal standard is its only ever recorded as false if there is infallible evidence proving it so- literally a smoking gun tier evidence. that is why it is so low,because its insanely hard to prove someone is lying, instead of just being mistaken. \n\n[more on how the lisak paper is a bad source](_URL_0_)",
" > Who is to be believed?\n\nWhomever it is that says \"We can never really know for sure, but based upon this specific set of criteria and this data collection method, the number of rapes and false accusations are as follows\".\n\nBe wary of *anyone* making any declarative statements about knowing statistical **facts** about rape and false accusations. Anyone who declares their information as indisputable fact is presenting information to advance an agenda.\n\nAnd the reason for that is because in the vast majority of cases, there is simply no way to know whether a rape occurred, or a false accusation was leveled. Just look at high-profile cases:\n\n* Kobe Bryant - rape or false allegation?\n\n* Bill Cosby - rape or false allegation (or some of both)?\n\n* Brock Turner - rape or false allegation?\n\nWe can certainly gather the available information and make our own individual determinations about whether we *think* any of those events were rapes or false allegations, but the only two people who actually know are the accused/rapist and the accuser/victim. And even *then*, sometimes they don't even know or don't even agree. They may agree on the exact same set of circumstances and chain of events, but one believes it to be rape and the other believes it to be a false allegation.\n\nThe bottom line is that we have no statistical way of knowing the answers to either of your questions."
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24c1vy | how does being "overtired" work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24c1vy/eli5_how_does_being_overtired_work/ | {
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"Can you elaborate on your question?\n\nIf you mean getting grouchy or whatever, it has to do with decreased blood flow to the frontal cortex which exerts influence over your limbic system. In simple terms, your \"smart brain\" gradually loses its ability to influence your \"emotional brain\", and you become more easily stressed out by things you normally wouldn't. In the same vein, this is why you can go all deliriously or laugh for ages when you are really tired."
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1u6dqn | now that marijuana is legal in colorado, can employers still refuse employment. | It is now more or less the same as alcohol in that state. So can they now refuse employment just because you tested positive for it in the last 30 days or so ( and yes i know employers can refuse for what ever reason they please). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1u6dqn/eli5_now_that_marijuana_is_legal_in_colorado_can/ | {
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"Absolutely, they can - even for medical marijuana users. Companies can refuse employment for MANY reasons, even if the potential employee is doing nothing illegal. \n\nI don't expect this to change anytime soon, with unemployment where it is. Companies can afford to be choosy, and most will accept a \"clean\" person over a marijuana user. It's kinda unfortunate for professionals like myself, since it will still be de facto illegal for many years. Weed will remain the \"poor person's\" drug until another generation passes.",
"You kind of answered your own question. Yes, private employers can require testing for and denial of employment for any reason they want, so even if the state says it's not a crime, an employer could say they don't want to hire anyone who smokes pot.\n\nIn application, I suspect you'll see the same rules applied to marijuana that you would alcohol. Things like: cant be drunk/high on the job, can't have smoked within X number of hours/days before your shift (usually for heavy machinery type jobs).",
"Think of it like alcohol. You're allowed to drink, but you're probably not allowed to be under the influence at work. If an employer thinks that people who use recreational drugs are less reliable employees, then they're perfectly within their rights to make a drugs test part of the contract. It's a voluntary agreement.",
"Yup. Employers can refuse to hire you for literally any reason (except race, religion, disability or veteran status, and other status depending on your state). \n\nEdit: Race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or age; plus whatever your state protects against. [source] (_URL_1_) [source2] (_URL_0_)\n",
"Washington here, my work started doing frequent random UA's AFTER we legalized it, but never before...it's still federally illegal. Turns out it's also a good way to lay people off...",
"I worked for a company that wouldn't let smokers work there because it would raise their insurance costs. An employer can refuse employment for almost any reason assuming it doesn't fall under equal opportunity (race, gender, religion, etc.)\n\nThat being said, I think the ones in Colorado that aren't conservative but have in the past (universities, large corporations, etc.) will, or already have stopped now that it is legal, but this is just a guess.",
"This Has been on my mind too. A company I do work for is having its National Convention in Colorado in 2014, and I make the Joke that random drug tests will be rampant the week after and a lot of folks will lose their Jobs.",
"Throwaway\n\nI work in Health and Safety for company that has operations in multiple states, Colorado is one of the states, we have both union and non-union employees. \n\nWe are still drug testing and we are following Federal Law regarding the use and possession of Marijuana. Because we operate in multiple states it's important to the organization to have consistency regarding policy when and where it's possible.\n\nOur approach has been reviewed by multiple law firms as well as our insurance carriers all parties feel that we are on rock solid ground, everyone feels that our policy will survive any challenges. ",
"Of course. Getting fired has nothing to do with doing something illegal. Doing something illegal is a breach of your relationship with the government, and results in criminal action. You get fired because of a breach of your relationship with your employer. That could mean anything from showing up late to work to stealing money from the company. In some cases the thing you do to get fired may also be illegal, or the company may have a condition that you don't break laws as a condition of employment. ",
"The bottom line is that although it is legal in Colorado it is still illegal in the United States which is of course supreceiding to the laws of any one state. Therefore anyone can still be lawfully arrested, not hired, or fired and this is compleatly within any employers rights.",
"Not just marijuana, but legal prescription drugs can keep you from getting hired or cause you to get fired from your current job. People have been fired from factory jobs for testing positive for hydrocodone even though they were prescribed the medication to help with pain from an injury. \n\nLegality of a substance has nothing to do with whether an employer can employ you or not. ",
"I live in Washington, and employers can absolutely refuse employment for that. The store I worked for drug tested everyone, even after marijuana was legalized, and would refuse employment if it came back positive.",
"Yes. Employers still have the right to fire you if you don't pass a drug test.\n\nSource: I live in Colorado.",
"Related question, Can a company refuse employment of a cigarette smoker or casual drinker?"
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uvqfw | different computer science occupations | Computer and Information Systems Managers, Database Administrators, Computer Programmers, Software Developers, Computer Systems Analysts, System/Database Administrators, Network Architects...I'm looking at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and it's all making my head spin. What do they do, and what makes them different? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/uvqfw/eli5_different_computer_science_occupations/ | {
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" > Computer and Information Systems Managers\n\nManager of the tech support guys.\n\n > Database Administrators\n\nThey watch over the databases, and the computers the databases are on. There's also usually some performance tuning skills involved.\n\n > Computer Programmers\n\nThey write programs.\n\n > Software Developers\n\nIn addition to writing programs, they also design and test/debug programs.\n\n > Computer Systems Analysts\n\nThey ask you about what problem you're trying to solve, and figure out what combination of databases, programs, websites, etc will solve it.\n\n > System/Database Administrators\n\nThey do both [Sysadmin](_URL_0_) work and DB admin work.\n\n > Network Architects\n\nThey figure out what kind of ethernet cables and hubs you need to keep all your computers talking to each other."
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9fdopq | what happens when a corporation buys a private business (more in text)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9fdopq/eli5_what_happens_when_a_corporation_buys_a/ | {
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"You're thinking too hard about this. The (old) company has a owner. Now it has a new owner now.\n\nIt's no different than if Bob sold his company to his buddy Jerry. Thats it, now Jerry is in charge and owns the company.",
"Their old policies and practices will gradually shift over to match those of the parent corporation. Support staff (HR, accounting, etc.) may be reduced as some of that workload is gradually transferred over to the parent corporations existing support staff.\n\n"
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6ekgsb | how does nate silver and other statisticians create models which predict election results? | Given the math/programming involved here, I'm tempted to say "please explain like I'm 5" and then offer another explanation for 5-year olds who have a PhD in statistics :D
(This could also have the flair engineering imho) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ekgsb/eli5how_does_nate_silver_and_other_statisticians/ | {
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"Specifically referring to 538's general election model, every version of it comes with a lengthy explainer that describes each facet of its methodology.\n\nThe primary input is polling. 538 takes a holistic approach and generally will use any poll that is released to the public, on the logic that the more data the better, and one shouldn't pick and choose which polls are good and which polls are bad. So for a particular state, they'll collect all the polls that are published. They'll then weight the various polls based on grade (they rate each pollster from A to F based on historical accuracy and lean in one direction or the other), sample size (number of respondents), and likely voter screen (polls that already screen for likely voters are given greater weight than those that just count registered voters or all adults). They'll also adjust for the absence of third parties (as some pollsters will only allow the Democrat and Republican as options).\n\nOnce they've done that and arrived at an adjusted number for each poll, they'll then average all of them. Then they'll adjust the average based on demographics and trend line (are the polls moving toward or away from a particular candidate?). This will give them their final polling average for a state.\n\nThen with that final average, they'll convert that into a likelihood of winning by taking into account the number of undecided voters remaining, the number of third party voters (who have a tendency to \"come home\" to one of the major parties on Election Day), the trend in one direction or the other, and the time left until the election. They will also take into account states that are correlated with each other--this means that movement in a state that has similar demographics to other states will be reflected in those other states.\n\nThat, in a nutshell, is how you build a model."
]
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ets4tn | why does air feel colder when you inhale through fabric or paper? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ets4tn/eli5_why_does_air_feel_colder_when_you_inhale/ | {
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"To get the answer, do a quick test by blowing out air from your mouth and feeling the temperature on your palm, by holding it very close. \n1. Blow air out of you mouth with it wide open , you will find the air a bit warm.\n2. Now blow the air out of your mouth through only a small gap. Like you are whistling. This time you will feel it much colder.\nI don't know the math but yes when air passes through small area with high pressure, temperature reduces.\nCorrect me if I am wrong."
]
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25kh7v | how do countries revalue their own currency by buying their own currency? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25kh7v/eli5_how_do_countries_revalue_their_own_currency/ | {
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"Short Answer- Supply and Demand\n\nThere is a finite amount of US Dollars in the world. If there are suddenly fewer (because someone is buying them up) then the price goes up. If there are suddenly more (say the Fed is printing more) then the price will go down.\n\nThe \"price\" in this case is the value of the currency."
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1tafg0 | what is django and how do you use it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1tafg0/eli5what_is_django_and_how_do_you_use_it/ | {
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"Django is unchained, and you don't use him, he's a free man.",
"Django is a Python Framework, think of it like the programming equivalent of a pre-fab/kit building. It comes with the kind of stuff most people need from a building (Walls, Roof, Wiring etc) but other than that it's completely bare and you decorate/furnish/arrange it yourself.\n\nLet's say you wanted to make Twitter from scratch, starting from an absolute blank page. Well you're going to need to code a user system, something that lets people sign up, set passwords, secures their profile details, lets them upload avatars etc. \n\nYou're also going to need a heap of other little things. Code to resize images if they are too large, code to send emails, code to create an RSS feed, code to cache pages for better speed and so on. None of these are *directly* related to the functionality of Twitter, they are just the odds and ends that turn your core concept into a well rounded, decently functional website. \n\nSo you've done all that work and all you have is the 'edges', you've not actually gotten to code your core concept yet. Massive waste of time. \n\n**Django** (and other similar frameworks like Flask, Laravel, CodeIgniter, Ruby on Rails etc) do all that edge stuff for you. It's all pre-written and easy to use. You don't need to waste time writing/testing/securing your user accounts because it's been done, you can concentrate on what your actually trying to make. \n\nWith a good framework (and good knowledge of the framework) you could put together a working Twitter clone in a couple of hours, if that. It won't be as well refined obviously and there might be some fluff functionality missing but going from idea to basic prototype is extremely quick."
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bts4a5 | how does a simple, cheap sensor light know how long to stay on? | I installed a cheap motion sensor LED light in our fridge and wondered how it was "programmed" to stay on for one minute after sensing motion and whether this time could be changed when it only has a motion switch and on/off switch. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bts4a5/eli5_how_does_a_simple_cheap_sensor_light_know/ | {
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"Simple 'programs', especially those involving only a handfull of logical parameters (if, and, not, or) are buildable straight into a circuitboard. Timers are also implemented like this. \n\nSo no you wont be able to alter it, since its the patterns of conductivity and components built into the little board in the light that carry the instructions.\n\nIn theory you could learn some electronics and accomplish this with a soldering iron",
"A design like that today likely use a simple micro controller that is a very simple computer in a single chip. The can be as cheap as 3 cents each for as small orders as 100 controlled for example [here](_URL_1_). They can only be programmed once so you cant change what they do.\n\nIt could be som dedicated timer chip that is used where it is the values of other components on the board that determine the time it is on like a classic 555 timer that you can get for 6c [here](_URL_0_) Then you could change it by replacing resistors and capacitors or even just bypass it to only light up when motion is detected.\n\nIT is in theory possible that some more advance microelectronic is used that can be programmable.\n\nIt can even be a dedicated chip that is just for that purpose that cant be changes.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nSo the answer is it depends but I would be surprised if it could be done without replace some components on the board. So you would need to know hot to solder surface mounted components. I would say that if you need to answer the question here how it can be done you do not have enough knowledge to do iy yourself without learning about electronics. But then you likely could changed or just replaced some part and add your own control logic after you purchased the equipment.\n\nBut if you would like the change the functionality time simplest and cheapest way is to look for a motion actives light that you can timing setting for and by that"
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1lar00 | electricity's ability to power things. | Like computers, cell phones, tvs, and even cars now. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1lar00/eli5_electricitys_ability_to_power_things/ | {
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"I like to think of electricity as water. More specifically, the electrons jumping from atom to atom down to ground are like a stream of water. \n\nStarting at the top of the cycle: Water is pumped into a water tower, or electricity is charged into a battery. \n\nWater on the ground has no potential energy. Pumping it from a lake into a tower \"adds\" energy to it. Charging a battery does the same thing. \n\nWhen you have a charged battery or full tower, the energy will hold until it is released. \n\nWhen water is released, a powerful stream will come out of the tower's base, and water will chaotically splatter everywhere. When the energy is released from the battery, say in a short circuit, it will spark and splatter much like water. Once water stops flowing, or the battery stops sparking, there is no more energy-it has all been wasted. \n\nWe can harness the power of water with a turbine or water wheel. The water wheel captures the rapidly flowing water's energy, and the water exiting the wheel gently flows back into the lake. The turbine makes a shaft turn which is usable to us. \n\nWe can harness electricity with a motor or lamp. The motor takes the energy of the electricity and turns it to a spinning shaft, like the turbine. The lamp turns the energy to light. \n\nAfter the water or electricity has done work, it flows back to where it came from-the river or battery. From there it can go back into the system by being pumped or charged. \n\nThere is far more to this- electricity is very easy to change into other forms of energy. It can be turned into heat, light, radio waves, motion, sound, etc. Various methods of shunting, converting, and slowing electricity can make possible things like computers, cell phones, cars and trains. \n\nI hope this helps "
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5combd | why do we have to urinate when we defecate but not defecate when we urinate? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5combd/eli5why_do_we_have_to_urinate_when_we_defecate/ | {
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"I think I get what you're asking. Its mostly to do with the way the bladder prevents unintentional release. There are actually 2 muscle groups responsible for keeping your bladder from draining when you don't intend to. One of them is voluntary but the other one is involuntary. As your bladder gets full a certain amount, a threshold is reached and the involuntary muscles relax allowing the urine to push up against the voluntary muscles. We then feel this as a need to urinate and if we decide to do so, the voluntary muscles relax and we are able to go. \n\nWhen using the restroom you may be pushing with your abdomen which puts pressure on both the bowels and the bladder. If the bladder is full enough that the involuntary muscles have relaxed, then the pushing to use the restroom may result in unintentional discharge of urine. \n\nTo put it simply, imagine you have 2 locks on your bladder, one you can't control and one you can. If the lock you can't control is open, then you may pee whether you want to or not as the lock you control opens a little easier. "
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7fcl30 | most (but not all) male mammals are larger than females, but most (but not all) female insects, arachnids and fish are larger than males. why does female-male sexual dimorphism vary by biological class? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7fcl30/eli5_most_but_not_all_male_mammals_are_larger/ | {
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"Arthropods and fish lay masses of eggs which are large in comparison to the size of their bodies; that is their reproductive strategy. Mammals in comparison do not lay eggs but just produce tiny ova which, if fertilized, will then gradually grow into a baby. The biological requirements for these different reproductive strategies necessitate different body sizes. In mammals, the primary evolutionary pressure has been for larger, stronger males who can successfully compete with other males for access to females. In fish, the primary evolutionary pressure has been for large females who can produce large quantities of eggs."
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1bekj1 | what exactly is a petaflop (computer lingo)? | On that note, in terms of regular computer usage, what would Cray's Titan (Supercomputer) be capable of?
What normal applications could substantially lag Titan? e.g. Running 1 Million Full HD videos + 1 Million games with the highest graphics and CPU requirements. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1bekj1/eli5_what_exactly_is_a_petaflop_computer_lingo/ | {
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"FLOPS stands for FLoating-point Operations Per Second. A floating point operations is doing math on a decimal value, like 3.2656432 * -102.3943411.\n\nA megaFLOP is a million of these a second, gigaFLOP is a billion, teraFLOP is a trillion, and a petaFLOP is a thousand trillion, or a quadrillion floating point operations per second.",
"What kouhoutek said is correct, but I'd like to elaborate more on what a FLOP is. If you didn't know already, a \"bit\" is short for \"binary digit\"; computers work with 0 and 1 instead of 0-9.\n\nBefore we get to floating point, integer math. Integer math is working with whole numbers. An 8-bit binary integer looks like 10101010. Adding integers is very easy. It's just like adding your regular numbers, but since binary has only 1 and 0 you carry the 1 if both numbers you are adding equal 2 in decimal. Example:\n\n 01\n +01\n =10\n\nThat is called a logical AND, if you were curious.\n\nWith a floating point number, part of the number is reserved for an exponent. The smallest defined floating-point number requires 16 bits. This is officially defined in [IEEE-754](_URL_0_) (a standard) if you would like to read even more in-depth.\n\nAnyways, a 16-bit floating point number has 16 ones or zeros. The first bit is whether it is positive or negative (called the *sign*), the next 5 bits are the exponent (meaning it can represent numbers between -2^4 and 2^5. Negative is only to ^-4 because the exponent of 0) and the final 10 make up the rest of the number. A 16-bit floating point number would look like this:\n\n 0 00001 0000000001\n |exp| |the rest|\n\nThis translates to decimal +1^1 , or just 1.\n\nThis system seems a lot more complicated than integer division, and it is. Since floating point math (operations) are so significant in modern computing and done differently from integer, it's common to state how many operations a computer can do as a measurement of speed, and thus \n\n**Fl**oating **O**perations **p**er **s**econd.\n\na Gigaflop is simply 1,000,000,000 operations in a second. That *is fast*.\n\n---\n\nIt's hard to put an estimate of how much it would take to lag a supercomputer, but you can find how many GFLOPS your computer is capable with a program called Linpack. You can run it [here](_URL_1_) (requires Java). For a rough estimate, divide the supercomputer's GFLOPs rating by your own, and multiply it by how many of the specific programs that you have mentioned that your computer can run at once."
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1l6xnb | why are mozilla firefox and google chrome so much better than internet explorer? what are the big problems with explorer? if i have good anti virus software is there really a difference? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l6xnb/eli5_why_are_mozilla_firefox_and_google_chrome_so/ | {
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"Internet Explorer has long been the worst browser available. The only reason so many people *use it* is because it comes with the Windows operating system, and most people (see *old people*) aren't going to go about downloading a new browser. \n\nBrowsers like Firefox and Chrome are better because of their individual technologies; Chrome boasts speeding up browsing, Firefox also speeds up browsing (in comparison to IE) as well as both having a huge library of user generated add-ons (additions that allow your browser to do things that weren't originally programmed by their respective owners). (Older versions of IE - I haven't used the newer version, nor do I intend to.)\n\n[Here is an article about this very subject: [Chrome vs Firefox vs Internet Explorer](_URL_0_). It goes over things like design and ease of use, extras, popularity, and the like (in comparison of the latest version of each). \n\nThe final point (conclusion) is simply *It may come down to preference* - and that's true. Given that IE seemingly wants to actually start using code that is valid and standards compliant (coding a webpage for IE? you're going to have a bad time) and their last *the browser you love to hate* campaign, they may *finally* be getting their act together (as far as making IE the browser you don't use simply to download a better alternative).",
"Historically you would be correct about IE being a bad browser. But it you use the Modern ones they are pretty equivalent to Chrome and Firefox. They all have add-on's to varying extents. They all confirm to standards pretty well."
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b8bwd7 | how are spreads for sports betting calculated? more specifically, how do they quantify objective aspects surrounding the game? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b8bwd7/eli5_how_are_spreads_for_sports_betting/ | {
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"Betting Odds are determined by the probability of winning. In usual casino games such as roulette, these odds are predetermined by the number of possible combination one can bet and the probability of them winning. So combination that would theoretically come out more often such red or black have lower odds while more difficult combination such as individual numbers (0,1,2,etc) have higher odds. But they also make sure that the payout will always favor the *house* so it will almost always wins.\n\nSame goes for sports betting. But since you cannot set predetermined *winning combination*, they based it off on the sport teams' records instead. They get it from the ranking, the number of wins/lose, and other statistics from previous season. Some betting even include the popularity, crowd's choice or the number of bets gathered by that team and they will adjust the odds accordingly. "
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2qjbyq | if it were possible to fly a space craft into the sun without becoming a giant burnt marshmallow... would the ship crash on the surface, or pass through because it made of gas? | Was thinking about this the other day for some random reason. I know the sun is made of gas, but at its center is it still gas? How dense would it be? Just the sheer size of the star must effect the components it is made of in some ways, right? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qjbyq/eli5_if_it_were_possible_to_fly_a_space_craft/ | {
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"The outer layers of the sun are only about as dense as water, so if you could manage to build a ship that was capable of withstanding the heat, moving through that wouldn't be too much of a problem. However, as you pressed further into the sun, it gets more dense, up to 150 grams per cubic centimeter in the center, which is almost 20 times denser than steel.\n\nThat being said, the core of the sun, while dense, is still made of gas (albeit in a plasmic state), so it might be possible to push through it. It would be like trying to sail through super-dense, extremely hot Jell-O.",
"I'm fairly certain that the core of the sun is under so much pressure that fusion occurs. If there's enough pressure to meld atoms, I don't think it'd be possible to push through. ",
"What is a \"gas\" anyway, and what does it mean to \"burn\"?\n\nEven in a solid, the space taken up by the subatomic particles (e.g. protons and neutrons in the nucleus and electrons around it) is much smaller than the space between them. So why can't you pass through a solid? The reason has to do with how particles interact at a quantum level. Similarly, when something is so \"hot\" that it \"burns\" or \"melts\" or \"triggers a nuclear reaction\" in something else, it has to do with quantum scale level interactions between the particles.\n\nSo the fact that the sun is a \"gas\" does not really make it much easier to pass through in any practical sense that we are familiar with on the surface of Earth.",
"TIL many people have no idea how the sun generates heat and energy.\n\nOP: You cannot fly through the center of the sun no matter how impervious to temperature your ship is. The center of the sun is so DENSE that the \"electrostatic\" force is overcome by gravity. So much so that the atoms of the lighter elements FUSE together in an ever-churning plasma. Hell, you were made from the resulting explosion from the collapse of a star. In this instant, ALL the heavier elements beyond iron are created from the immense pressure. \n\nYou must also remember your body will be bombarded with massive amounts of microwaves, xrays, gamma radiation, in addition to the infrared you normally associste with heat, and you would die of radiation poisoning well before burning to death.\n\nAnd just for fun: The sun is so perfectly spherical that if you shrank the sun down to the size of a beach ball, it would be imperfect by about the width of a human hair. Now if you imagine how fast the sun is spinning, for this to remain true, the gravity has to be IMMENSE.",
"Gravity would crush your ship, its gravity that makes it hot. If the sun was made of water the same pressure would cause heat. That's some serious MASS.",
"People in this thread are confusing density with solidity. Density, viscosity & solidity are not the same thing. Beneath the shell of a neutron star although the density is a 1000x's that of the sun physicists theorize it is a zero viscosity super fluid particle soup. Which is less resistance than the air we walk through. There may be other elements that turn solid at certain pressures despite the temperature but as far as I know you could keep passing through until you hit a layer of iron.",
"Structural engineer here, even if you dismiss the thermal loading you'd never build anything to withstand the pressure. Gravitational acceleration on the sun is 3x + higher than earth. Ideally, since static pressure is equal to fluid specific weight (density x gravitational acceleration) multiplied by depth, where deeper densities are of ridiculous magnitude... Well, the answer is no. If you ignore everything then you could technically pass through anything.",
"I think what you're asking is, \"Disregarding all the obvious destructive forces, is there a point in the depth of the sun at which a surface tension would support a solid object?\"\n\nThe answer to that is, so far as we can understand, \"no\". While the layers of the sun may become denser resembling increasingly viscous materials, there would be no tension to support points of pressure on its surface. This is because the matter is in a plasma state where the electrons move freely between atoms leaving no material bonding structure.",
"The sun gets very dense very rapidly as you progress inward. The core has a density about 19 times higher than everyday steel on Earth (150 g/cm^3 vs. 8 g/cm^3 ).",
"Musically: [The sun's not really made out of gas](_URL_0_).\n\nMore practically: There are parts of the sun that are made out of liquids, other parts made out gases, and other parts made out of plasma. If you could survive the approach, you would splash into what is essentially a seemingly endless ocean of white-hot lava. If you survived *that* and kept going, you'd come out the *bottom* of that ocean into matter that's so hot that you've probably never actually encountered that form of matter on Earth (plasma). If you survive *that*....well, then you'd go through a gigantic fusion reaction and hit the same ocean of lava on the other side.",
"No good ELI5 answers. \n\nIf all things considered as heat were factored out, and your ship had some amazing engines that could escape the gravity well, you would still not make it out the other side, as your spaceship would be ROFLStomped by unimaginable gravitational pressure within the sun.\n\nIt would be like tying a big rock to a balloon and dropping it into Challenger deep. That balloon gonna POP!",
"A bunch of people are saying that the spaceship would be destroyed by high pressure or temperature. But I think OP is asking if theoretically you flew an indestructible object into the sun, would you come out the other side, or would you hit another physical object that stops your movement forward. I would love to know the answer. \n\nAlso, would you be able to fly through gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn given the same circumstances? ",
"Unless your ship is made of mash mellows it is impossible for the sun to turn your ship into a burnt mash mellow ",
"There's gas, and then there is really really dense gas.\n\nIf we ignore all the temperature issues, consider that your space craft is likely made of metal, let's just assume it is iron. Iron has a density of about 8 g/cm^3. While the *average* density of the Sun is about 1.4 g/cm^3 (or way way less than iron), the density of the center of the Sun is more like 150 g/cm^3 (or nearly 20 times as dense as iron.) So, no, you are not just going to fly right through. (For reference, water is 1 g/cm^3.)\n\nOr, to ELYA5:\nWhile the outer parts of the Sun are (sorta) fluffy, and you can fly right through, as you get near the center, it is really really really thick and your spaceship won't be able to make it through.\n\nSources: Am an astrophysicist. (Also Wikipedia for some numbers.)\n",
"If your concern is becoming a giant marshmallow, then you are likely running an infinite improbability drive and should pilot your ship *directly into* the sun to minimize your chance of survival, thereby maximizing it.",
"The sun is not just gas, it's a constant never ending H-bomb explosion compressed by the vast mass of the star itself. The pressure at the core is insane. About 200,000,000,000 times Earth atmospheric pressure.\n\nMuch more intense than flying through a solid planet made of rock and iron, like the Earth.",
"Technically, the sun is not gas; it's plasma. That's a fourth state of matter that's neither solid, liquid, nor gas, but it's not all that exotic or rare: ordinary flames are plasma, too. \n\nThe sun gets denser the deeper you go, and at the center it's denser than most solid metals - but it's still plasma, so I guess you could maybe push through? My brain is having trouble with the juxtaposition \"dense plasma\".\n",
"So your question seems to be about the physical nature and density of the sun, which seems to be getting obscured if the responses are any indication. \n\nThe sun isn't a gas; the sun is a ball of fusing plasma. Fusion is only occurring in the sun's core, and in that region, the density of the sun is approximately 150 times that of liquid water. Outside of the core, there is the radiative zone, where heat from the core itself- where fusion occurs, is carried outward via radiation (As in, the act of radiating energy, not the noun for radiative energy)- energy leaps from atom to atom, radiating from one atom to be absorbed by another, and then radiated again, to be absorbed again, over and over, until the radiation reaches the convective zone. In the convective zone, pressure and temperature drop sufficiently that convection cells can form- this means that hot material is heated at the edge of the radiative zone and then transported upward. It cools, condenses and then sinks back down to the edge of the radiative zone again, where it's heated...over and over. The convective zone is like a pot of boiling water on the stove with the lid on: the water boils, travels up from the surface to the condense on the lid, and eventually then condenses and runs back down into the boiling water, where it is heated back up...etc. \nThe \"surface\" of the sun, as you're thinking of it and that we see, is the photosphere. Now, if you were blind, there would be no photosphere. There would be no surface. Materially, the photosphere is nothing more than an isobaric point in the ever decreasing density of the solar plasma mass (i.e. the whole sun); the sun is basically just a big ball of plasma, the center of which is 150 times as dense as water, with decreasing density. The photosphere itself, however, is unique visually- it is considered the \"surface\" of the sun because \"above\" the photosphere, the solar plasma is more or less transparent to visible light and \"beneath\" it, the solar plasma is opaque. Above the photosphere is the atmosphere and the corona; for reasons that are not entirely understood, the corona is significantly hotter than the photosphere (the photosphere only being around 10,000K if I recall). \n\nNow, what would happen if you \"crashed\" into the photosphere? Well, really, the sun is hot and it's dense, but if you take out the temperature piece of your assumptions, it would be similar to crashing into a liquid- though remember, this is a really, really, really tenuous comparison. A plasma is not a liquid- a plasma is what happens when all the free electrons disassociate from their atoms and so everything is free to flow and float around in a state that is at once like a liquid and also like a gas. The sun is also in hydrostatic equilibrium, which means that its own gravity is what is keeping the plasma from flying apart, as opposed to a magnetic field or something else. The sun's gravity is very strong, so you would likely \"sink\" into the sun itself (assuming your ship is a solid object). If you were entirely impervious to the heat of the sun, a few different things might happen, depending upon your density. Clearly your ship is denser than the plasma that composes the sun's surface (which is just the top of the convective zone). As such, you'd sink. Depending on how dense you are, though, you may become caught in a convective current, forever riding up and down in the convective zone. Or, if you're dense enough, you might fall through to the radiative zone. You would be freer to move here, as the material in this region is governed as much by electromagnetic and quantum effects as thermodynamic ones (like convection), but the pressures would be immense. If you were sufficiently dense, you could \"sink\" all the way down to the core; if you were more than 150 times as dense as water (i.e. the density of the core), you'd theoretically sink all the way into the center of the core. Well, technically, you would sink to the solar system's center of mass, which is near to but not exactly at the topological center of the sun due to the gravitational effects of the solar system. The reason you would sink is similar to the reason that many metals sink in water but float in mercury; you would basically sink into the sun and stop when you reached the point at which your density was equal to the density outside. \n\nAgain, this is all obviously discounting a lot of things (heat and pressure, mostly, but most of the interior of the sun would also be *dark*), but if you throw those things out and just consider what the \"consistency\" of the sun would be, and how an object would experience it, density of the object as compared to the density of the solar plasma body would be the primary determinants of where you stopped falling. The solar plasma body itself would basically just be like hot, gassy cake batter. \n\ntl;dr - the sun itself is plasma in hydrostatic equilibrium, and thus is similar in nature to flame. The sun itself increases in density until you reach the core, which is believed to be about 150 times the density of water. "
]
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[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
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"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLkGSV9WDMA"
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2vww99 | what makes certain foods spicy? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2vww99/eli5_what_makes_certain_foods_spicy/ | {
"a_id": [
"colld11",
"collgxt"
],
"score": [
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Capsaicin is the compound in peppers that gives off heat. I believe they originally developed it as a defense mechanism against being eaten. Didn't work out so well.",
"Hey there! Spicy foods contain a compound called capsaicin. Because of its molecular structure, capsaicin binds to sensory neurons on the TRPV1 receptor, which signals a heat response in the brain.\n\n\"Goddamnit Boonka, I'm not a scientist. What does that mean in plain English?\"\n\nOkay! Let's pretend your body is a large office building. There are smoke detectors (sensory neurons) all over this building. A guy inside the building (capsaicin, the \"spicy\" molecule) decides he needs to take a smoke break. He goes into a janitor's closet to light one up, not knowing that there is a smoke detector directly above his head. He blows out a puff of smoke. The smoke detector smells the smoke and thinks the building's on fire, so it triggers the alarm (spicy feeling)!\n\nIn the same way, the capsaicin does not actually physically burn you, but it happens to stimulate the same receptor that is responsible for telling your brain that there is burning or abrasion taking place. The receptor can't tell the difference, so to you, it feels like it's burning!"
]
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[],
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||
znwv2 | the difference between trance, psychedelic,
electronica, "other" instrument-only genres. | I'm a big fan of instrument-only music.
I like music by Infected Mushroom, Vibe Tribe, 1200 Mics, Pink Floyd, Outro by Breaking Benjamin(deserves a special mention because of amazing guitar work) and piano solos (the classical variety)
The first instrument-only music I heard was Vengaboys (*cringe*).
Though I listen to many artists, I have a hard time identifying the genres. Could someone please tell me what exactly qualifies as a trance song, and what as a psychedelic? I'd really like to know.
Doesnt have to be too simplistic, I can take details. Please add any genres I might have missed/dont know about.
Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/znwv2/eli5_the_difference_between_trance_psychedelic/ | {
"a_id": [
"c66j9q5"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"**EDM:** Electronic dance music. This basically encompasses all of the sub-genres.\n\n**House:** Characterized by a \"4-on-the-floor\" beat; meaning, kick drums on every downbeat, snare on the 2nd and 4th beats, and hihats on the upbeats. Untz untz untz. It usually involves lots of sampling of prerecorded sounds. (Interesting fact - I learned in my urban music history class that its original purpose was to get people aroused in brothels.)\n\n**Breakbeat:** Instead of the 4-on-the-floor pattern of house, it has a syncopated or broken beat (where the kicks aren't equally spaced.) Usually breakbeat has realistic drum sounds (as if an actual drummer is playing.) Listen to the Amen Break for a classic example of this.\n\n**Electro:** Like breakbeat, but more mechanical. Lots of drum machines, the 808 especially, and robot voices. \n\n**Electro house:** Like house, but with more beepity-boopity noises.\n\n**Trance:** Usually rhythmically similar to house (4 on the floor), but has less emphasis on percussion, and more focus on melodic elements, such as synth lines and ethereal-sounding vocals, that repeat and vary in complexity. \n\n**Psychedelic Trance:** It's associated with the drug culture - specifically, mind-altering substances such as LSD. It evolved from psychedelic rock of the 1960s counterculture and became associated with the rave scene. Think - trippy music you'd drop acid and listen to in the middle of the desert and just feel the universe, man.\n\n**Drum and Bass:** Associated with the mid-90s rave scene. It's like breakbeat, but with a really fast tempo, lots of percussion, and more sub bass.\n\n**Dubstep:** Rhythmically, it's drum and bass, half time. It has the same syncopated sound as DnB, but it's not as \"filled-in\" with drums, so it sounds \"slow\". It's constructed around sonic elements primarily, rather than melodic ones. It usually has the \"wobble bass\" where the bassline is heavy and modulated, and a bunch of samples and other random noises.\n\nThere are so many more of these I could explain. This is my specialty lol\n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
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|
4xnttg | why do airplanes always seem to have extremely dry air conditioning that leaves your mouth raw? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4xnttg/eli5_why_do_airplanes_always_seem_to_have/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6gzdvo"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Airplanes divert some of the air from the engine into the cabin to maintain the air pressure. The air at 34,000 feet is cold and when it gets temperature it gets dry. The cabins of airplanes will therefore become more and more dry as it flies at cruise altitude. Make sure to drink water and maybe use nasal spray before meals."
]
} | []
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| [
[]
]
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||
ot84p | the controversy with supermax prisons | My questions on the subject...
1.) What is the main subject of debate with Supermax Prisons?
a.) Is it a budget issue or a human rights issue?
2.) How much does it cost to incarcerate an inmate at a Supermax Prison?
3.) Is the Death Penalty cheaper?
I have a debate in my Corrections class coming up in a few weeks and I am looking to expand my knowledge on the subject beforehand. The costs and technicalities of the subject are difficult to find, so Reddit can you help? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ot84p/eli5_the_controversy_with_supermax_prisons/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3jv0s5"
],
"score": [
11
],
"text": [
"1) Human rights mostly, though not many people care about the prisoners that are sent to a supermax. These prisons tend to be the most inhumane and secretive about their practices. It is also very expensive to house prisoners there (see 2).\n\n2) \"Supermaxes' average cost to taxpayers is about $50,000 per inmate per year-compared with $20,000 to $30,000 for lower-security prisons-this is hardly an economically efficient arrangement.\" ([source](_URL_1_)).\n\n3) It's unclear. Yes in some states, no in others. Yes to some forms, no to others. It leans a bit towards no (due to court costs, etc), but that's no at all a certain answer ([source](_URL_0_)). It's politically charged and exaggerated in a lot of ways, so it's hard to get unbiased answers."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001000",
"http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Prison_System/Return_Madhouse.html"
]
]
|
|
3mmb9b | why do basic explorer file ui operations seem to take a long time in windows? | In every version of Windows I've used, the basic opertions of opening folders in explorer, such as previewing the file types, copying files, right-clicking on a file, etc. seem to be relatively very slow, compared to the power of the computer. If they aren't that way at first, it soon becomes more and more sluggish with updates from MS.
I would think this would be something that would be somewhat simple to optimize or speed up. Even if it's not simple, I would think this would be something MS would want to be snappy. Why does it always seem slow for the level of technology we're at?
I'm not running a bloating AV or anything like that (that I know of).
**Edit** -- I'm using presently an Acer Aspire V3-551-8469, running windows 8.1, which isn't the highest-powered device, but I seem to recall that it was more responsive when I first got it.
Anyway, I just finished loading Windows 2000 on Virtual Box, and its Directory UI operations are pretty much instantaneous -- and this is while running another Linux VM, FF, my torrent client, etc-- my normal daily stuff which I would think would be what's bogging down Explorer. I don't understand why Windows Explorer would have gotten so much more bloated between that version and now. Does Explorer really offer that many more features than 2000? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mmb9b/eli5_why_do_basic_explorer_file_ui_operations/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvg7hm1",
"cvg8gup"
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"score": [
9,
3
],
"text": [
"What you are describing are Read/Write operations, which are mainly related to your hard drive. I assume you are using a HDD. Upgrading to a a SDD will improve the speed of such tasks.",
"It depends on the hardware. It sounds like you're running a HDD, and an old one at that, the read/write speeds are going to be nothing compared to current SSD tech. Even with a strong processor and 8gb of ram, your drive has limits on how fast it can manipulate the data. As for updates from MS, I've never had that problem (though my computer is fairly up to date). \n"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
|
4j98pt | saudi arabia's alleged involvement with 9/11, and why no one seems to care | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4j98pt/eli5_saudi_arabias_alleged_involvement_with_911/ | {
"a_id": [
"d34qs1v"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"I think its because we all already knew Saudi Arabia was behind it. I have learned nothing new since. As long as we are dependent on their oil no one is going to say shit to Saudi Arabia - certainly not the US, not yet anyway"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
2w5yxu | aside from sensational journalism, why do conservatives frequently refer to president obama as a dictator/"dictator wannabe"? | I keep hearing some of my more conservative friends and family members refer to Pres. Obama as a dictator. I can't seem to find a website that explains the reasons they think Obama is a dictator/is trying to become one--but I've only found ranting blogs that don't cite specific policies. I assumed it had to do with Executive Orders, but it looks like he's used fewer executive orders than both Bush and Clinton. Aside from sensational journalism, is there any cause for him to deserve the title? Basically, what reasons would someone who calls him a dictator give for claiming that? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w5yxu/eli5_aside_from_sensational_journalism_why_do/ | {
"a_id": [
"conw868",
"conwnsk"
],
"score": [
6,
3
],
"text": [
"Terms like that are used to stoke general fear and resentment in the population. The majority of people using them don't literally mean he is a dictator but want to attack him anyway.\n\nThose who are serious and the reason it's been brought up a lot is his use of Executive Orders. I don't think he's used executive orders that much more often than other presidents, but given his and Congress' inability to work on any sort of bipartisan bills or pass any major legislation it's become a last resort for his presidency.\n\nA major example of this is his executive order to not deport 5 million illegal immigrants. While his executive order basically chooses to spend resources enforcing some of our immigration code and not all of it - the it being deporting these 5 million people - the argument that is made by Republicans and those opposed to his plan is that he is trying to circumvent laws or create his own rule of law - something a dictator would do.\n\nAgain though, the main reason is to paint him in a negative light and stoke fear among the electorate. ",
"It is a common charge but both parties act like they didn't say the same thing when the other party was in office. \n\nSome Republicans make those statements because of the Executive Orders and Obama circumventing congress. You are right that he has issued fewer than the last two presidents. However, many feel that his are broader and use more power than previous Executive Orders. "
]
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[],
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|
6sswan | how do mutual funds work when you retire? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6sswan/eli5_how_do_mutual_funds_work_when_you_retire/ | {
"a_id": [
"dlf924z"
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"score": [
4
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"text": [
"They work the same as when you're not retired.\n\nAre you referring to mutual funds as part of an IRA or 401K? If so, then the only difference is taxation. If you are older than 59.5 years old, withdrawals from a regular IRA or 401K are taxed as ordinary income. Just as if you had earned it by working. A Roth IRA is tax free on withdrawals if you are over 59.5. If you are younger than 59.5, it is still taxed as ordinary income but with an additional 10% penalty.\n\nIf you have a personal mutual fund that is *not* part of an IRA or 401K, it is treated as a regular investment and subject to capital gains tax. Either long term or short term depending on how long you've held it and how much you take out. Doesn't matter what your age is or if you are retired or not."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
6y9xr9 | how is it that the japanese court system has a conviction rate of over 99%? are their detectives just that good? do the japanese have less concern culturally over jailing innocent people? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6y9xr9/eli5_how_is_it_that_the_japanese_court_system_has/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmlpfhf"
],
"score": [
7
],
"text": [
"Japan has a low crime rate compared to many nations of similar size, but their legal system is highly corrupt. 95% or higher of convictions involve signed confessions. The prosecution is also understaffed and only bring forth cases they are sure to win. [A 1999 Harvard essay found that Japanese judges who acquit had their careers effectively assassinated.](_URL_0_) "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/wpawuwple/9907001.htm"
]
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|
|
mkz73 | why does my super-duper 2011 computer take as long to boot up as a 1993 computer? | I searched and couldn't find it anywhere so here goes:
In 1993 my family's PC took about a minute or 3 to boot up, it would've been a 386 or 486. Now I have a computer with about 400x the computing power (About 25x the RAM) and it still takes over a minute from power-button-press to being able to open programs without the hourglass timer mouse icon. Wtf?
Haven't we come leaps and bounds in computer technology? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/mkz73/eli5_why_does_my_superduper_2011_computer_take_as/ | {
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2,
2,
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"text": [
"Hard Drives. Besides the amount of space we can put on them, not much has changed except a few relative RPMs. Also, there's the fact that you still have to load the OS, which gets bigger every year (windows at least).",
"Because it was designed that way. Seriously.\n\nWhen it comes to performance considerations, designers ask themselves, \"How much time do we have before the users get really mad?\", and they make sure it is at least that fast. The project only has so much money and so many programmers, once something gets to \"fast enough\", they move on to something else. And be honest, would you rather have your computer take an extra minute to boot or be slow the rest of the time? You don't boot that often, so effort is better spent making something else fast.\n\nSo yes, your computer is faster, but the operating system is also doing a lot more than it used to. The make it so it boots as fast as you are used to, then move on to something else.",
"Maybe you bought a shitty computer. Mine boots up within 20 seconds, compared to all my old computers that took minutes.",
"Hard Drives. Besides the amount of space we can put on them, not much has changed except a few relative RPMs. Also, there's the fact that you still have to load the OS, which gets bigger every year (windows at least).",
"Because it was designed that way. Seriously.\n\nWhen it comes to performance considerations, designers ask themselves, \"How much time do we have before the users get really mad?\", and they make sure it is at least that fast. The project only has so much money and so many programmers, once something gets to \"fast enough\", they move on to something else. And be honest, would you rather have your computer take an extra minute to boot or be slow the rest of the time? You don't boot that often, so effort is better spent making something else fast.\n\nSo yes, your computer is faster, but the operating system is also doing a lot more than it used to. The make it so it boots as fast as you are used to, then move on to something else.",
"Maybe you bought a shitty computer. Mine boots up within 20 seconds, compared to all my old computers that took minutes."
]
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79p7qa | what part of your appendix bursting is actually dangerous to humans? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/79p7qa/eli5_what_part_of_your_appendix_bursting_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"dp3p8v7",
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2
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"text": [
"Uh, all of it?\n\nYou don't want your organs to burst. Pretty much any organ, if it bursts, is going to be life-threatening.\n\nRegarding the appendix specifically: for one thing, it means that the blood and lymph vessels that supply the appendix are now severed and spilling blood/lymph into your abdomen.\n\nFor another thing, appendices burst because they're infected. They're filled with harmful bacteria, and when they burst they spill those bacteria into your abdomen to go infect other parts of the body.\n\nFor another thing, the appendix is part of the digestive system, which means it's filled with acid and bile and other corrosive fluids. When those spill out into the body, they start digesting it.",
"Wow. Cool. I can chime in here. Radiologist checking in. Ruptured appendicitis can be life threatening because when it ruptures, bacteria spill into the peritoneal space causing peritonitis which is dangerous and can be life threatening. Fortunately it does not happen very often. The symptoms of right lower quadrant pain are pronounced and most people seek treatment rather quickly before anything really bad happens. "
]
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[],
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1jaogr | imperialism vs capitalism | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jaogr/eli5_imperialism_vs_capitalism/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbcrls0"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Imperialism is about conquering other civilisations, expanding your empire and possibly beliving that you're people are genetically superior, or not.\n\n\nCapitalism is about compeating, for-profit businesses that trade and pay workers wages.\n\nYou're comparing apples to cars."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
||
aojyi9 | why is the currency is some countries that are generally considered to have poorer economic standing more "powerful" than more wealthy countries? | For instance, for every 1 Euro, you receive approx. 21,66 Mexican Pesos.
For every 1 Euro, you receive approx. 124,40 Japanese Yen.
Japan has roughly triple the GDP of Mexico. What am I missing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aojyi9/eli5_why_is_the_currency_is_some_countries_that/ | {
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"score": [
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"text": [
"1 yen is equivalent to 1 cent in other currencies. They dont believe in the dollars/cents division.\n\nSo using your terms, 1 'traditional' yen would be 0.76 Euro.",
"That absolute values of currencies dont really matter, what matters is if they increase or decrease in value compared to other currencies.",
" > \tWhat am I missing?\n\nThat the number of units of a currency has no relation to what it can buy. There is no universal law that a meal is \"10\" of whatever the local currency is, etc. ",
"Just because 1 unit of a currency is worth more than 1 unit of a different currency doesn't make the first currency more powerful. The relative values of individual units of currency are completely irrelevant when determining the strength of that currency. The US could tomorrow decide to convert every dollar to ten dollars. This would have the effect of lowering the exchange rate to 1/10th of what it was the day before. This doesn't make the US dollar less powerful. It simply changes the number.",
"The exchange rate has nothing to do with how powerful a currency is.\n\nA few years back Turkey made a change to their currency that simply stuck of a six zeros from every number, but kept everything else the same.\n\nA million Turkish Lira was suddenly only one new new Turkish Lira.\n\nObviously the new version of the currency wasn't a million times more powerful than the old one. It was exactly the same since the change was only cosmetic.\n\nIn 1998 a number of European countries fixed their exchange rate with each other so that it would not change until the introduction of the Euro in 2002. When they switched their old currencies to the new Euro countries had exchange rates from old to new ranging from 2000 to 1 for Italian Lira to Euro to 2 to for the Deutsch Mark to Euro to less than a full Irish pound per Euro. Nothing else changed.\n\nThe difference between Yen, Pesos and US Dollar is an artifact of historical inflation not a sign of current strength of the currencies. They all started out the same as versions of the Spanish silver dollar.\n\nOver time they each evolved differently especially once they were no longer made of or backed by real silver.",
"It's the size of the pizza that matters, not how many slices it's cut into. Japan has just cut their economic pizza into smaller slices, but they overall are a pizza 3x as big -- they just have many more slices",
"I think you’re thinking of it backwards a little bit. \n\nSo think of it in terms of American dollars. 1 American dollar and the buying power that that 1 American dollar has in America- you can buy a double cheeseburger, or a couple candy bars; you can’t get a drink from a vending machine for $1, you can’t get a meal for $1. Essentially $1 doesn’t have a ton of buying power. \n\nNow, convert that into pesos, and the absolute value of the pesos is larger than 1 (it’s about 19, actually). However take those 19 pesos to America, and it still has the same buying power as $1 because $1 *is* 19 pesos. \n\nMy example was regarding USD, and buying power in America because that’s relatable to me (and I’m assuming to you since you used it in the question), but if you’re more familiar with euros, it’s the same rational. Bring it into the context you use most. \n\nIts not that their currency is more powerful, it’s that the values are different. And it takes 19 of their “dollars” to equal the same buying power as 1 of our dollars. "
]
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o01nt | what will happen if you eat silica gel? | I got a new printer and there was a giant silica gel packet like the ones in shoe boxes. It's covered in "DO NOT EAT" and I've always been curious about what would happen if someone were to eat it. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/o01nt/eli5_what_will_happen_if_you_eat_silica_gel/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3davym",
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7,
2
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"text": [
"Silica gel *by itself* is not actually not that dangerous. (it's non-toxic)\n\nThe biggest danger is if you breathe it in, it can irritate your throat. Since silica gel is used to keep things dry (it loves water) it can dry out things in your body that are supposed to stay a little wet (mucus membranes).\n\nThe real **danger** comes from **cobalt(II) chloride**, which they add to the packets. That is toxic and has been linked to causing cancer.",
"You might get a little dehydrated."
]
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[],
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1t3xbp | how does an apartment complex determine the "market rate" of a unit? | Apartment complex's will tell you the rent is based off the market rate, and anything less then that and the unit is on special.
I am confused as to why they make the pricing so complicated. The same layout in several different units in the same complex will each have different prices.
Why do they not set a specific price per layout or something that is easy to understand, instead of a different price for every unit?
Also, many things in life you can negotiate price (eg: homes, cars...) why do you get stone walled when asking about negotiating a price on an apartment? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1t3xbp/eli5_how_does_an_apartment_complex_determine_the/ | {
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"CMA. comparative market analysis. Compare recent similar sale plus minus feature costs adjust location. ",
"Re negotiating: because you're easy to replace. Some places will knock off a month's rent as an incentive, but generally the rental market is flush enough that landlords set rates. If you were renting office space, the market wouldn't be so owner-friendly, and you'd have better standing.\n\nThe prices vary because locations vary. The primary factor in setting pricing is location. Desirable locations even within a complex (close to laundry, close to parking, end unit, etc.) matter a lot. \n\nThey calculate a base rate using square footage, then add mark ups based on \"features\" and they themselves determine. If you get dozens of calls the first day you list, you've underpriced and people are jumping on your bargain. If you have no calls for a week, you might be over market.\n\nYou look at comps, but trial and error also inform market value.",
"Negotiation depends on you being able to give the other party something that's better than walking away from the negotiation. If they know that somebody else is going to rent the apartment within the week at their asking price, there's no point in negotiating.\n\nWhen you start looking at commercial rentals, where a place might be vacant for months and there's multi-year tenancies & property improvements involved, negotiation starts to make sense.",
"Mostly by race."
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31rn3v | if i was immortal, what would the limits of my memory be? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/31rn3v/eli5_if_i_was_immortal_what_would_the_limits_of/ | {
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"Presumably you would forget things as time goes on. Just like we do now, our memory is imperfect. So much of what you did remember about your childhood is forgotten when you get older and much of what you think you remember is actually wrong.\n\nIf you lived for a 1000 years, you would probably forget and misremember a lot. After all, our brain can't hold unlimited information.",
"Wasn't there a \"Mythbusters\" episode on this? \n\nAdam started storing his memories in computers after a few centuries."
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2by4k2 | i still don't understand... can i please get an updated explanation as to why people want to impeach obama and if it's even possible? the media won't stfu about it and i feel really out of the loop. | Some people have asked before but I find those explanations to really not explain anything. It makes seriously no sense to me and no one seems to say why they want to, just that they want it done. Are people just blowing hot air, or is the media blowing things out of proportion?
If I may throw in another question: Why do republicans hate Obama so much? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2by4k2/eli5_i_still_dont_understand_can_i_please_get_an/ | {
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"\"People\" want to impeach Obama because certain aspects of the media have built him up as the central figure in a massive, America-destroying cult of evil. Rationality doesn't necessarily enter into the argument.\n\nWhether Obama has committed any crimes is pretty questionable at this point, and very much down to interpretation. However, impeachment proceedings would not succeed, because the Democratic Party maintains control of the Senate, where the impeachment trial would occur. (The decision to impeach rests with the House, and the impeachment proceedings occur in the Senate.)",
"political theater so low info voters can be foamed-up and fundraised. \"SEND YOUR IMPEACHMENT DONATIONS TO TAKE BACK AMERICA!!\"",
"The president can be impeached for a few things. \n\n1) Violation of his oath of office.\n\n2) Breaking the law. (See above)\n\nRight now, the major argument is that he is abusing his powers as outlined in the Constitution (1). Namely in regards to Executive Orders. Executive Orders cannot be used to Create laws. They can however be used to clarify existing law (such as the ACA) where the law is vague.\n\nThe major argument is that he is using Executive Orders \"out of scope\" which is essentially creating law, which is not one of his powers. Congress therefore can petition the Supreme Court to reign in the use of power and tell him, no he cannot do this. Alternately, they can start Impeachment proceedings (the House Impeaches, the Senate Tries & Convicts).\n\nAdditionally, above and beyond the use of Executive orders, he has used military force in other countries without Congressional approval. He doesn't technically need it, if he is not occupying a country. Welcome to the Drone age. But that is something the Framers never foresaw. Bombing another country is a war like act, and a flagrant violation of the intent of the Constitution, if not the letter of the law. It's a douchebag lawyer move. If a Republican President did it, Democrats would lose there minds just as easily.\n\nAs for why Republicans hate him. He's a Democrat. It's not because he's Black. It's because he's Left Left Leaning Democrat from Chicago. If Hilary was in Office, they would hate her. They hated Bill. They hated Carson.",
"Sometimes I see these posts on reddit and I'm like wtf is going on in US politics right now...it also makes me despair a little for the unregulated beast that is US media and the retarded actions thereof.\n\nI still can't believe the pathetic situation that is a president having to prove he was born in the country. What the actual fuck? "
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51t2wx | why did itt tech get shut down? | Im curious, were they being shady, not accredited, I'm just not sure what happened. They seemed profitable. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51t2wx/eli5_why_did_itt_tech_get_shut_down/ | {
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"a good chunk of ITT funding came from government student financial support, since ITT served many poor or under-served areas. Government reports indicated that ITT was using pressure tactics to sign-up disadvantaged students, the school didn't meet the accreditation standards they claimed, and that their graduation rate was very low compared to other schools. In addition, the report showed that ITT students left school and ended up making less money at their new jobs than the ones they'd left to go to school.\n\nBecause of this, the government cut off ITT's access to student financial assistance. Given how much of their budget it made up, and how much they were relying on it to meet basic financial commitments, they decided to close.",
"The school's business model was to recruit students and get their federal financial aid and student loan money; it had little concern for whether they graduated or whether they were successful after graduation. The whole concept was based on extracting money from the government and then delivering to shareholders.\n\nBased on its bad educational practices, the school was no longer eligible to receive federal financial aid or student loan funds. It was not required to stop operating, but that was the natural result."
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2mnakw | hypothetically if everyone on earth was quarantined individually for 1 month could we irradicate most airborne illnesses? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2mnakw/eli5_hypothetically_if_everyone_on_earth_was/ | {
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"No.\n\nHumans aren't the only people who have diseases. Animals and plants get them too. Every so often, bacteria or viruses will \"cross\" from animal to human, infecting humans for the first time and starting the disease. This is what is believed to have happened with Ebola (their natural host is the fruit bat) and HIV (believed to have begun in a type of primate), and why things like bird flu are concerning to public health officials. Ebola and HIV aren't examples of airborne transmission, thankfully, but any type of flu virus is.\n\nIn fact, you might do more harm than good with the quarantine by making the human population more susceptible to viruses in the outside world.\n\n*^Edit: ^Added ^examples*"
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4yv0iw | how is oxygen (o2) odorless but ozone (o3) smells and is hazardous? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yv0iw/eli5_how_is_oxygen_o2_odorless_but_ozone_o3/ | {
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"O2 and O3 have different chemical structure (bond angle, length, spatial orientation etc) which give them different physical and chrmical properties.\n\nJust like graphite, diamond and fullerene are pure Carbon but have drastically different properties.",
"Because your ~~body~~ conscious mind isn't trying to detect oxygen. In fact, the other elements in the same column as oxygen (sulfur and selenium) are super super stinky - sulfur is rotting egg smell, and selenium is that but way more powerful. \n\nThis is because those elements are pretty toxic and show up in places like rotting food. Stuff we want to avoid. They're dangerous because of how aggressively they bind to other elements. But...oxygen does that to. \"Free radicals\" really just means compounds with oxygen in then that aren't fully bonded to another atom. \"Oxidizing\" is another word used, which means ripping compounds apart to bond with the oxygen. That's what fire is: rapid oxidation.\n\nBillions of years ago there was even a mass extinction event because a newly evolved bacteria was photosynthesizing and spreading, which turned all the harmless CO2 into toxic O2 and none of the life at the time (all just single celled stuff) could deal with that and died because the atmosphere was suddenly poisonous.\n\nSo why can't we smell oxygen if it's so terrible? Because we need it to live and you would literally never stop smelling it. If you ever need to hunt down oxygen (O2) something has already gone very wrong. You're certainly not going to have time to find it by smell. And odds are good if you're somewhere without oxygen you don't want to be inhaling anyway - you're probably underwater or in a cloud of smoke.\n\nOzone, on the other hand, is relatively rare this low in the atmosphere. And it's even more poisonous than O2. That's something that we wouldn't encounter much and should avoid. So we evolved the sensors to detect it because we need to detect it.",
"The human nose has many receptors that either react with the molecule in question or it doesn´t. If different receptors are triggered, a different signal is sent to the brain and this in turn corresponds to a different smell. Since there are so many receptors, relatively small changes in the chemical makeup of a molecule can make for big differences in the signal that ends up being sent to the brain.\n\nThis is also the reason that two molecules with the exact same chemical formula can smell completely different from each other if the structures of the molecules aren´t exactly the same. They react with different receptors because the physics involved are slightly different."
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1hfzpw | how is mail in the us sorted for delivery? | I've always been curious. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1hfzpw/eli5_how_is_mail_in_the_us_sorted_for_delivery/ | {
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"[Have a look at this short video.](_URL_0_)",
"I can actually answer part of that, before the mail gets sent to the post office . I work in a print shop, which makes newspapers and magazines, and we mail lots of stuff. The books go through the mailer which prints the address on the them, and the books get pooped out on a conveyer type line where someone has to keep track of (and not mix up) the carrier route numbers or bag numbers at the top of the label, usually below the bar code. (If there is a bar code.) The books are put into handful sized bundles, strapped with plastic banding, and stacked on a skid or put in a mail bag, then sent off to the post office after the whole skid is wrapped in plastic. It goes pretty quick, usually we run about 6-8 thousand books an hour, it just depends on how big the books are. "
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3h9jis | is it possible for new types of sailor's knots to be "discovered"? or have the common ones been around for hundreds of years? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3h9jis/eli5_is_it_possible_for_new_types_of_sailors/ | {
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"The common ones have been around for ages. They are the most efficient and easiest to tie.\n\nThere're four main types of knots: Bend - ties two lines together; Hitch - ties a line to another object; Loop - creates a loop in the rope; and stopper knots, which basically just make the line thicker.\n\nThe most efficient form of each of these knots has been known for a long long time (Reef knot, clove hitch, bowline, figure-eight, respectively). There's other, more complicated ones for more specialized tasks, but these four are easiest to tie, have been around longest, and are the most often used.\n\nKnots used outside of sailing, that have specialized tasks can be considered newer. For example the [Prusik knot](_URL_0_) was \"invented\" in the 20^th century.\n\nTL:DR: New knots can and have been invented recently, but the most often used, best knots have been around forever.\n"
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fenoxm | why are lawmakers allowed to "walk out"/not show up for the jobs they were elected to do? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fenoxm/eli5_why_are_lawmakers_allowed_to_walk_outnot/ | {
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"This depends on the laws of wherever they are, which vary, but holding elected office is not like a regular job. You don't have a boss. The voters are you boss. There's no one to fire you for not showing up. The only people that can \"fire you\" are the voters whenever there is an election by voting for someone else, although obviously there are exceptions where the elected body can expel you.",
"For it to not be \"allowed\" there would have to be a law against it. And who makes the law? The lawmakers. They're unlikely to pass a law that is going to place any heavy restrictions on themselves.",
"Hey fellow Oregonian! \n\nSo here's the deal, legislative bodies need rules of procedure to determine how things are done so that the whole thing business isn't just chaos. These rules govern how members are sworn in, how members can file motions and bills and amendments, how long debate lasts, etc. One of these rules is dictates when something called a \"quorum\" exists. That's just a fancy Latin word that means the minimum number of people that have to be present in order for votes and other kinds of business to be considered \"valid\". This rule prevents a couple of people from showing up in the middle of the night, holding a vote, and passing legislation under everyone's noses while they're asleep. For both houses of the US Congress the quorum is defined by the US Constitution as a majority of the total members of the respective house (during the Civil War this was further interpreted as being a majority of duly elected and sworn members of that house, because a bunch of members vacated their seats when their state seceded). In Oregon, the constitution mandates that at least two thirds of all members be present for a quorum to exist. This, of course, gives minority factions the opportunity to leverage themselves into negotiations with the majority if they can stop all business by getting at least a third of their colleagues to leave the capitol.\n\nTo combat this, the presiding officers of legislative bodies are usually given some ability to try to compel members' attendance to achieve a quorum and resume governing. However, this could look bad to the public, and further, in the case of states, their ability to arrest and return members to the capitol ends at the state border, so a common strategy for these \"quorum busters\" is to hide out in a neighboring state until they are able to get what they want. Sometimes these members can also be fined for their absence. So in some sense, they *aren't* allowed to just not show up for work. \n\nBut there's a flip side to this issue. Ultimately, people are elected to office in order to represent their constituents' interests. Usually that means writing and voting on legislation, but in a broader sense it means using the laws of their jurisdiction to make the best possible outcomes for their constituents. If they don't do a good job they can be replaced at the next election or, in some cases, recalled and replaced prematurely. Similarly, if they're considered to be doing a good job, they'll be reelected as long as they're willing and able to serve. If there's some kind of legislation coming up that their constituents will be harmed by then they should be motivated to use any and all methods at their disposal to prevent the passage of that legislation as part of their job of being a zealous advocate for their constituents. So in that sense, the quorum busters *are* doing their jobs by skipping town and not showing up for work, because they believe they're doing right by their constituents. \n\nIf you don't like the fact that they can do this thing and get away with it, then you should look into trying to change the rules that allow these tactics to occur. The Oregon Constitution can be amended to change the quorum requirements. It could be made more or less strict to suit Oregonians' desires. What's occurring (or rather not occurring) in Salem is a natural consequence of the rules that we wrote when we drafted the constitution. If we don't like it then we should change it. It takes a 2/3 majority vote by the people to do it."
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2un699 | what actually happens when my 4k tv up-scales a 1080p video to 4k video? | How is it able to increase resolution with such efficiency. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2un699/eli5_what_actually_happens_when_my_4k_tv_upscales/ | {
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"A few things to remember:\n\nResolution is not increased. Detail is not added. The signal is in no way improved. The total information contained within the image is not increased, as there is no way to create new information where there is none for the missing pixels.\n\nBasically, a chip within the TV takes the 1080p signal, and divides a single pixel into 4 (2x2, a bigger square essentially). Repeat for every pixel, and you've taken a 1080p signal to 2160p. It takes what it knows, and essentially stretches it to fill the space it has. It's a simple process, which is why it's so efficient. \n\nIf you've ever seen a true 4k signal, you'd be able to spot the difference between native 4k and upscaled 1080p in an instant.",
"Every pixel gets turned into 4 pixels in a square, it may also do some sharpening/edge enhancements. \n \n Two horizontal pixels - ◻️◻️, turns into: \n \n◻️◻️◻️◻️ \n◻️◻️◻️◻️",
"-1080p video is 1920x1080 pixels ( pixel = tiny point that can change color).\n\n-4k video is 3840x2160 pixels (exactly 4 times more pixels). (For 16:9, different for othet aspect ratios)\n\nSo the TV will show each pixel of video as 4 pixels (2x2 square) on the display. That is unless TV decides to add some other filters. It should be as sharp as the 1080p TV with same size. You aren't getting better image. \n\nAlthough maybe some TV will not do exact 1- > 4 pixels and will blur it a little (less jaggies). And the image might look little better since it's harder to see physical pixels of display (no screen-door effect).\n\nEdit: typos, aspect ratio",
"One other thing to note is how the upscaling fills in the new pixels that have been added to the signal. There are several ways of doing this. One great way to see how your device upscales is by giving it a black and white checkerboard signal:\n\nBWBWBW... \nWBWBWB... \nBWBWBW... \n::::::::::: \n\nMy first example is what has already been mentioned by others:\n\nBW \nWB \n\nturns into:\n\nBBWW \nBBWW \nWWBB \nWWBB \n\nAnother method of upscaling tries to fill in the new pixels with averages of the surrounding pixels, in order to make the image appear \"smoother\". As you'll see, this usually only works on signal containing scenes of real images, and does not work so well on abstract images such as a checkerboard signal.\n\nBW \nWB \n\nturns into:\n\nBGWG \nGGGG \nWGBG \nGGGG \n\nIn that example, the top-left pixel retains its original value, while the three new pixels get the average of the surrounding original pixels (Grey in this case).\n\nIt is arguable whether this is better or not, but I try not to think about it too much or I'll go crazy.\n\nSource: Digital Media Certified Engineer\n\nEdit: Formatting"
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9uq4m2 | why do they say that more voting hurts republicans? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9uq4m2/eli5_why_do_they_say_that_more_voting_hurts/ | {
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"Because the demographics that typically vote more Republican have relatively higher vote turnout percentage. Higher turnout usually means that groups that may not usually show up to the polls (young people especially) that typically swing Democratic are showing up more ",
"Young, urban voters tend to vote on the left side of the spectrum when they choose to vote, however, they often do not",
"Because there are more Democrats literally. However, Republicans tend to have better turn out. Were Democrats to actually all show up, the GOP would continually be the minority party.",
"Because a lot of Republicans already vote, so higher turnout usually means that more Democrats are coming out to vote. ",
"Democrats generally win a “generic ballot”. That is if everyone voted and the choice was only Dem or Republican, Dems would win, often by 5-10 points. In a very shorthand sense, that means there are more potential dem voters than potential Rep voters. \n\nThat means the closer we get to “full” voting the more likely it is that dems win. So less votes begin to cut into dems chances \n\nOne of the reasons is that Republicans are often an older audience, and tend to vote more consistently, which means they often get all of their generic votes. On the other hand, Dems are more focused in urban, younger, and minority voters, and those demographics often vote less. \n\nSo in a time where more votes are cast, that means the dems (who may have lower voter turnout due to their demographics above) actually came out and voted, and thus have a better chance to win overall. \n\n"
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4ud081 | the concept of slipstreaming in racing | Was watching the Budapest F1 race, and the commentators talk about slipstreaming. I googled it but don't really understand it
Thanks | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ud081/eli5_the_concept_of_slipstreaming_in_racing/ | {
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"The car in front takes the blunt of the wind. There's an air gap behind the lead car. The car behind goes behind the lead car in a spot where there's less wind/air resistance thus causing him to go faster and then pass him",
"It's easier to imagine in water. Imagine you had someone running in water. They are expending a lot of energy to push it out of the way and is leaving a churning behind them. If you were to run in the churn behind them, you could go the same speed without working as hard. At higher speeds, air works the same way. ",
"It's pretty simple to get your head around if you understand one thing: the faster you are traveling through air the thicker it becomes and the more it tries resist your movement. \n\nWalking down the street on a calm day you're unlikely to even notice the air. Jogging down the street you might notice the air rushing past if you actually make the effort to think about it. But try [sticking your head out the sunroof](_URL_0_) or window of a high speed car and the force of the \"wind\" is immediately obvious. \n\nSo the faster a racecar moves, the more work the engine has to do just to force the car forwards through the air. This is called \"drag\". For a lone car there's not really a way around it, but it does create an invisible \"wake\" behind the car. Next time you drive on a highway in wet weather pay attention to the mist that large trucks kick up -- it actually gets sucked in and churns violently behind the truck. The water isn't the reason for this, it's just revealing the movement of the air. This air is being pulled along behind the truck, so that means that it's moving roughly at the same speed as the truck. Therefore it's actually much less work to follow behind another vehicle in this invisible wake (the \"slipstream\") because the air you're driving in is actually moving forward with you. \n\nBrave bicyclists can [exploit this to dramatic effect.](_URL_1_)",
"Kinda dissatisfied with the other answers in here, so here's mine:\n\nWhen a car is going fast, it has to push all the air out of the way from in front of it. The faster the car goes, or the bigger it is, the more work it has to do to push the air out of the way.\n\nAs the car moves along, the there's a gap behind without much air in it; this happens because air can't get in behind the car quick enough after the car moves forward from one spot to the next. And any air that does get into that gap gets sucked along behind the car as well.\n\nThis air gap is called a low pressure region, and it wants to be filled (the small amount of air isn't pushing outwards as much as all the rest of the air is pushing inwards). Partly this means it tries to drag the car backwards a little bit, slowing down. But more importantly it means that a second car, if it's close enough behind the first car, is getting pulled forwards much faster than if it were having to push its own air out of the way.\n\nIn a race, the second car can use this effect to its advantage by building up a lot of extra speed over the first car and using it to overtake.\n\nSometimes the first car can fall in behind the second car as it's getting overtaken, and do the same trick in reverse. But sometimes, if the second car gets enough of a speed boost, it can get really far in front so that the first car isn't close enough any more to use this trick."
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399ed0 | why is pink lemonade... well....pink? | So, why is Pink Lemonade Pink? Lemons are always yellow from what I've seen. And the only taste difference seems to be sugar amount.
So, why the pink coloring? Marketing ply go viral? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/399ed0/eli5why_is_pink_lemonade_wellpink/ | {
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"Traditionally yellow lemonade is the natural one. Lemon + water + sugar. Pink lemonade had some other kind of flavorings added- usually strawberry- and other things to give it a sweeter flavor. \n\nI don't know if this is always the case. At this point it's probably just tradition and I'm sure there are many instances of pink and yellow lemonade being the same minus the color. \n\nStill, check the ingredients next time you go to the store. Chances are the pink is more artificial. \n\n"
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dgr1mz | i haven’t had hiccups in 20+ years, but my wife gets them daily ... how/why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dgr1mz/eli5_i_havent_had_hiccups_in_20_years_but_my_wife/ | {
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"There was a r/dataisbeautiful post recently about how the girls of a family had more hiccups than the men, but that was only one family"
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9ee9tk | why is the sky red, orange, yellow, and blue, but never green? roygbiv tells me that the light wavelengths should go from yellow to green before they get blue. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9ee9tk/eli5_why_is_the_sky_red_orange_yellow_and_blue/ | {
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"The atmosphere absorbs all colours well except for blue and green. It absorbs blue terribly, and absorbs green fantastically.\n\nEdit: atmosphere, not oxygen.",
"It's because of the curvature of the earth and the light reflecting in the atmosphere expands the ends of the wavelengths (red and blue) and shrinks the middle (green). Think of the rainbow you see through a soap bubble, how certain color bands widen and other shrink. The earth is basically a round prism crystal ball, and you're standing nearer to the edge than the center.\n ",
"It does turn green during a sunset it's just hard for us to see it because of how vivid the other colors are. Take a thick piece of paper, ideally black paper and cut a 1\"x1\" square in the middle. Then during the next clear sky sunset hold the sheet of paper two to three feet away from your face and look through the hole. Position it so the hole is over the \"border\" of where the sky turns from yellow to blue. You should see the green easier then.",
"The sky can be green, but the conditions for it are rare. Blue light spreads better than green light, so generally, the conditions are better to make the sky blue than make the sky green.\n\nYou can have a [stormy green sky](_URL_0_)\n\nOr you can have a [green flash](_URL_1_)\n\n & #x200B;\n\nEdit: Fixed RES formatting",
"The sky can look red yellow and orange at sunset because when the sun is near the horizon, it's light travels through a thicker part of the atmosphere. Longer wavelengths (red orange and yellow) are scattered less by the atmosphere than blue and green light, so by the time that light reaches your eye, most of the shorter wavelengths have been scattered away. This effect is increased by soot, dust and other pollutants that also tend to absorb blue and green light. \n\nYou don't see green in the sky because of the angles involved. In the daytime, when sunlight scatters off of air in the atmosphere, blue light reflects at the highest angle, so that color is most likely to reach the surface. The other colors mostly miss the surface. There can be multiple refractions that reflect other colors to the surface, but most of the light reflecting toward you from the sky is blue, so that's what you see. Obviously there is still some green light reaching the surface, but it reaches you as unscattered white light from the sun, so you don't see it until it reflects off a surface like a leaf.\n\n\n\n",
"It can turn green. I've seen it. Especially during nasty weather and when tornadoes are forming.",
"Optical engineer here: It is because the atmosphere \"scatters\" blue light - and is the same reason the sky is blue, *and* is also the reason you rarely see green. Let's dig into that a little: Think of \"scattering\" as when a light ray hits something (usually a particle) it bounces in another direction. The color that is scattered depends on the size of the particle. Since the air is mostly nitrogen and oxygen - which are very tiny particles - the scattered color is blue. That's why the sky is blue (if there were no scattering, the sky would be black and you'd see the sun *and* stars...). Now think of a cloud - clouds are made of tiny water droplets, but these are still much, much larger than Nitrogen or Oxygen, so they scatter many more colors -- all of them in fact, which is why clouds are white. (If you want to dig more deeply: _URL_0_)\n\nNow back to \"why not green?\" Since air scatters the blue light the more air light goes through the more blue that will be scattered away - some leaking into space (that's why we are the \"blue planet\"), some hitting the ground (why it is blue when you look up). So on a clear day the sun may appear a tiny bit yellow because a little of the blue is being scattered elsewhere. At sunset, the sun rays have to travel through much more air as the sun rays are almost parallel to the ground. That means a *lot* more of the blue is scattered off. And what color do you get when this happens? *All colors minus the blues*, which means the reds, oranges, yellows, and greens are still there, which all mixed together looks like an orange sunset. As the sun sets more, it slices through more air, and loses even more blues and looks even redder - \"blood red sunset\". If you took this sunset light an split it up with a prism you'd see the all the red spectrum is there, most of the orange, less of the yellow, even less of the green....and so on. So the reason you rarely see green skies is because air \"filters out\" the blues, a there aren't a lot of mechanisms in the sky to filter out red, so the green that is there is always mixed with dominate reds.\n\nGreen skies and green flashes come from other causes. If you want to read about that (and see a photo of a green flash) see: \n_URL_1_",
"we regularly get green in our sunsets here in Hawaii, there is even a phenomenon known as the green flash that happens during sunsets here that I've seen several times as well",
"Here’s a video (3 minutes 40seconds) from SciShow explaining it pretty well:\n\n_URL_0_\n",
"The sky can turn *green-ish* sometimes, but it's not likely to appear truly green because of how light works. The blue you see is caused by scattering of light. The red-orange-yellow is due to filtering of light. The conditions which favor the one do not favor the other. \n\nAlso, the way light blends is fundamentally different than the way pigments blend. When you blend yellow, red, and blue pigment for instance, you get a muddy brown color. But if you blend yellow, blue, and red light, you get a bright white-ish looking light. That's because colors of light are additive, and not filtering like pigments. So if you have a sunset with orange-yellow colors blending into a blue sky, you might get a pale blue, or lavender, or even a sort of pale aqua-grey color, but not a true \"green\" like you might expect if you were blending those colors together like paint.",
"It does turn green for a split second. If the horizon is perfectly flat (I’m talking a body of water with no waves flat) where the sun sets, you can see a brief flash of green just as the sun dips below the horizon. It’s called the green flash.",
"Haven't you ever seen pictures of tornadoes where the sky is green? Anyway, its just the scattering of light by air molecules - the same reason the sky appears blue.",
"If u are at the ocean, you can see the “green flash”. From Kansas but travel a lot to scuba dive. Always thought this was like snipe hunting. But was at Grand Turk with whole family and caught on my camera! There has to be no clouds at all at the horizon. One of my favorite pictures!",
"Ha Hahahah,\nI’m a protan on the color blind spectrum and I see most yellows as green. \nThis means I see a lot of really fucked up sunsets I’m talking like super green ",
"I've lived in Hawaii for many years. When the sun sets and the horizon is relatively less humid, you will see green.",
"The mechanism that makes the sky blue is fundamentally different than those that make the sky look red, yellow, or orange. When the sky is blue, it is because blue light gets *scattered* much more heavily by the air than the other colors; ie: air is blue. \nWhen the sky (not the sun itself) is red, orange, or yellow, it is because you are seeing those colors *reflected* off of materials in the air like clouds or pollution. (You see those colors reflected, because the blue has already been scattered out.) You don't see green reflected off of materials, because if there is enough green in the reflected light to be able to see, then there is also red and yellow and the resulting perceived color is yellow-white. You don't see green scattered in the sky, because air is not green (light scattering in the air is very dependent on color.)\nThere is a third effect of light through the air that can result in the color green, but it is rarely visible. When the light travels through the air, it is *refracted* a different amount depending on the color of the light. When the sun is setting, the visible color of the light that is refracted (bent by the atmosphere) the least is red, and the most is blue. Since the blue light is mostly scattered by the air, that leaves green as the most refracted color. Since the green light is bent toward the ground more and red least, the last light you see when the sun sets is green. It's called the green flash, though there really is no flash. If you were to take identical images of the sun as it was setting with multiple cameras each filtered to allow only one color, you would see the red sun setting first, and the green sun setting last. They mostly overlap which is why you can only see the green for a brief moment right at the end of the sunset. This is so rare because it requires a very far horizon, very clear skies, and very clean air. ",
"You absolutely do see green in sunsets, regularly. It's faint, but at altitude it's almost always there. Source: airline pilot, I see a lot of sunsets, many are green.",
"alot of sailors use to see the \"green flash\" which I know is something out of pirates of the carribean but it has root in fact. _URL_0_",
"The actual answer is \"because broad-spectrum green looks white to us\".\n\nLight is complicated. For a start, see [Standard illuminant](_URL_0_), then follow all the links. See you in 8 hours.",
"It does very much so in tornado country. Under certain storm conditions the entire sky turns green and we all go outside and then start looking for tornadoes. It’s actually terrifying. And it feels very disconcerting. It makes you very uneasy. "
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2r0xi0 | why don't smartphones have built in caller id? | I know there are apps for android, however why is it not in by default? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r0xi0/eli5_why_dont_smartphones_have_built_in_caller_id/ | {
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"Yes our phones display the number that is calling you and the name, but only if you have saved it. I believe OP is asking why it doesn't tell you the name of the person or business that is calling.",
"Verizon will sell you this functionality for like $3.99 / month"
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a1j6oe | why has so much money been spent on finding maddie mccann compared to other missing children? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a1j6oe/eli5_why_has_so_much_money_been_spent_on_finding/ | {
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"A portion of it is the publicity. She went missing in a holiday type town that both the city and country of Portugal want to keep known as a save tourism friendly area. That’s one aspect to a higher amount spent.\n\nA second aspect is cultural. In some areas, it’s a cultural norm to allow a child to sleep while the parents are a short ways away. Those cultures are likely more heavily invested in following the news about Maddie.\n\nA third aspect is the fact that she was born to a family with enough wealth to at least afford the holiday and also the slew of private investigators that they hired to find her after the disappearance. Way too many people follow the news and stories of families of means.\n\nFourth, publicity. All of the above mentioned media want to be able to claim that they cracked the case, so they helped fuel the fire per se. \n\nFifth, her home country had to react strongly to show its citizens that they protect their own, even when on holiday world wide. Combined with all of the above, they have no choice but to have a high profile and high publicity, long lasting case."
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37amst | why do dinosaurs have to either cold or warm blooded, hence the argument? why not both? | People always talk about the ongoing arguments between warm-blood and cold-blood theorists about dinosaurs. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/37amst/eli5_why_do_dinosaurs_have_to_either_cold_or_warm/ | {
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"\"cold blooded\" would refer to a creature that regulates heat through external means like laying in the sun, can function with many different internal temperatures, and can control metabolism when it can't get sufficient heat.\n\n'warm blooded' would mean just the opposite. Body heat would be regulated internally, but the creature could not handle changes in internal temperature well at all so would have to stay mostly the same internal temperature all the time.\n\nThe two states are contradictory and cannot both be present as a result. Its literally impossible."
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2elmd9 | what does france's government dissolving mean? | # | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2elmd9/eli5_what_does_frances_government_dissolving_mean/ | {
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"When they say the government dissolved, it doesn't mean they have descended into anarchy. Basically, the President just fired his cabinet, and now he has to come up with a new government. In some countries, there would be an election after the government dissolves in order to create a new one, but France has a different system. ",
"In parliamentary democracies like the United Kingdom or Canada, dissolving parliament means that the Prime Minister has requested the Queen/King/Governor General to call an election. This usually happens when the ruling political party loses the confidence of the House of Commons. This basically means that the ruling party or the opposition can ask for the Members of Parliament to vote on whether or not they support the government; if there's no confidence, then the Head of State (or their representative) dissolves parliament and federal election date is set.\n\nMy examples are from the Westminster model, but it applies to any government with a prime minister. France's case is special because they're kind of a hybrid between a republic similar to the United States, and one from the UK. But essentially the PM of France handles internal affairs in the country, while their president is the guy who deals with foreign representation. But even then, when they say they're \"dissolving parliament\", it means like what I mentioned, and not literally dissolving the parliament building.\n\nIt doesn't mean much to the rest of the world other than the possibility that the country may possibly have new leaders."
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1ydags | does a federal minimum wage increase impact state minimum wage? | I haven't seen this question answered directly, and with all the hubub about it being raised, I'm curious...
Federal minimum wage is apparently $7.25, but according to the Department of Labor, there are many states that have a higher/lower state minimum wage. If states are allowed to have a smaller min. wage,if/when federal min. wage is raised to $10.10 would that really have any impact on states? Wouldn't it really only apply to federal employees? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ydags/eli5_does_a_federal_minimum_wage_increase_impact/ | {
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"it would only affect the states that have their own minimum wage pegged to the federal wage, a couple states are minimum wage + X%, ",
"The effective minimum wage in a state is the **higher** of the state and federal minimum wage rates.\n\nSo, any state that has a minimum wage lower than the federal rate is, in effect, just accepting the federal minimum wage.",
"Federal Law Supersedes State Law so yes it would.\nA state might have a minimum wage law of $6.00 but employers go by the federal minimum of $7.25."
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5mt8hb | how much does illegal immigration really affect the united states? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5mt8hb/eli5_how_much_does_illegal_immigration_really/ | {
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"Not as much as he would make you believe.\n\nIt isnt whats killed our economy, although it does cost us. the healthcare they get for free (usually through clinics) are payed by the tax payers.\n\nHowever, a lot of stuff that get attributed to them simply isnt true. *illegals* arent stealing our jobs. Its exceedingly difficult for illegals to get any kind of work, benefits, food stamps, etc. Theres a lot of red tape and citizenship verification, you *need* a social. which they dont have. The jobs they do get, are ones American citizens turned down. These are under the table positions (for under min wage) at small town businesses. The equivalent of a parent making their child work in the family business (which in many states doesnt have to be a paid position). Except doing this with illegals is highly illegal.\n\nIt isnt affecting crime like he says, gangs are, but our Hispanic gangs are filled with citizens who were born here, not illegal.\n\nits a problem yes, but it isnt whats killing us nor is a wall going to fix things. But its very, very easy to build a platform or get votes if you can channel blame.",
"Yeah, it's not remotely ruining our economy. If it was, you guys would have felt it, given that your economy is basically an extension of ours.\n\nThat being said, illegals do have effects. They generally take very low paying jobs in agriculture or industrial work, and as a result compete with American workers. However, there's also quite a bit of evidence to suggest that Americans simply won't do the kinds of jobs illegals end up doing in the United States, and because they lack proper identification they can't really work \"real\" jobs in the US at all.\n\nThe biggest problems are that illegal immigration is going to be associated with all sorts of other negative issues, particularly crime, gang, and drug related stuff, but that's also pretty much confined to areas where illegals end up living (e.g. they're a problem in Texas or Southern California, but not in North Dakota). They also eat into our welfare programs a little, but there's reason to believe that they generate a fair amount of economic activity, such that their net effect on the economy is probably impossible to conclusively pin down as a net positive or negative.",
"Honestly its not a \"huge\" issue but it does need to be addressed. Most people accuse Illegals of taking jobs and utilizing social programs without paying into them, which is mostly bs. For the most part the jobs they take are low wage laborer jobs that no one else will take. They also are not eligible for social programs and are able to pay taxes so they are usually not a \"drain\" on the economy.\n\nThey do however have an unemployment rate higher than the national average and are a high risk group in terms of crime. They also tend to send more money out of the country than any other group. Honestly the U.S immigration problem is a systematic more than anything else.",
"It's hard to quantify. That whole \"undocumented\" thing makes them pretty hard to track. One thing that few try to dispute is 10 million illegal immigrants depresses the average wage.",
"Way down in South Texas it gets pretty sketchy at times especially in the oilfield, but also the street tacos are amazing"
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7tyhec | why the us military can't deploy military police officers in areas of the country with little police presence or cities that can barely afford a functioning police force like detroit? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7tyhec/eli5_why_the_us_military_cant_deploy_military/ | {
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"The US military is not allowed to operate on US soil save in the event of invasion or fighting those of treasonous disent (civil war). It is one of the protections that prevent the President from becoming a dictator. ",
"The Posse Comitatus Act severely limits the power of the US federal government to use the military to enforce the law domestically. It allows this only for limited periods of extreme emergency and during insurrections.\n\nMilitary police are trained very differently from civilian police, and serve a different purpose. You really don't want them patrolling civilian neighborhoods short of Civil War 2 or an alien invasion. Policing in the US is left up to local authorities, which allows it to be responsive to local needs and answerable to local voters.",
"The Posse Comitatus Act. By an old federal law, the Army cannot be used to enforce domestic policies in the U.S., with very few exceptions. This is a notable difference from many countries (particularly those influenced by France) where military police are an ordinary part of life. ",
"I remember after Hurricane Andrew when I was in Miami as a red cross volunteer, the national guard troops we talked to weren't allowed to carry live ammo. Hoodlums used to throw rocks at them knowing they couldn't shoot back. "
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2zinyx | why am i able to see things when i'm dreaming, yet not when i'm awake? why can't i just close my eyes, picture something and hear voices like i do while i'm dreaming? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2zinyx/eli5_why_am_i_able_to_see_things_when_im_dreaming/ | {
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"Any question about dreams will pretty much be answered with \"we really have no clue because the brain is confusing as hell\" you won't get a straight answer here.",
"Your brain is constantly reality-testing, trying to keep up with the environment and sensory information. In your sleep, the reality-testing is turned off and your brain cannot tell the difference between real life and fiction.\n\nThe same effect can be achieved to some extent with certain hallucinogenic drugs, such as LSD. Once your brain isn't as actively trying to keep up with your surroundings, other information is able to sneak in."
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1y9hga | why do we generally consider the military liberation of nazi concentration camps a great humanitarian triumph, but balk at the idea of doing the same in north korea? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1y9hga/eli5_why_do_we_generally_consider_the_military/ | {
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"If we were to assault North Korea we would lead to the deaths of literally millions of people (including millions of south koreans).\n\nWe didn't liberate nazi concentration camps because nazis were bad, but becauase we were defeating a conquering german army and driving them back. As a bonus we got to free some unjustly imprisoned people. But that wasn't the main objective.\n\nNorth Korea isn't a conquering army. So it's a completely different situation."
]
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3hoeae | why are certain vitamins categorized by letter and then others like calcium not? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3hoeae/eli5_why_are_certain_vitamins_categorized_by/ | {
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"text": [
"The letter ones are complex molecules that are have long, difficult proper names. Calcium is just a single element, so there's no such trouble there.",
"Calcium is not a vitamin. Vitamins are organic compounds such as vitamin C (citric acid) where as minerals are not produced buy living organisms, such as calcium, iron, potassium."
]
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7pfau0 | did alcohol still damage my body or brain if i didn't have a hangover | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7pfau0/eli5_did_alcohol_still_damage_my_body_or_brain_if/ | {
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"text": [
"Drinking water doesn’t do anything, unless you dilute the alcohol beforehand. Any amount of alcohol damages your body’s cells."
]
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b18rk1 | how does the salary of nfl players/team work ? | I have seen a lot of posts about trades/ caps/ limits/ space/ WHAT DOES IT MEAN. coming from a fan of football but unsure of what all these words mean! would love it broken down like im a true 5 year old thx | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b18rk1/eli5_how_does_the_salary_of_nfl_playersteam_work/ | {
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"text": [
"While I don’t watch football much, these terms apply to most sports as far as I know. Personally I watch lots of basketball. Here’s how they all work.\n\nFirst, a team pays a player X amount of money to be on the team, and that’s that. If that was the only restriction, teams would probably end up offering hundreds of millions of dollars per player and it would turn into the richest team wins. To prevent this, there are rules in place. They work like this (in a very basic way).\n\nTrades: this is when two teams agree to swap players. When this happens, the teams simply give their player for the player they want (and players take their contracts with them). Some trades are simple, like Player A for Player B. Some are more complex, say, Player A, Player B, and Player C for Player D, Player E (generally a fairly average player), and a draft pick or two. Regardless, it’s basically “hey I want that guy and your team needs this guy, wanna trade?”\n\nSalary Caps: this is in place to prevent the Pay to Win aspect. Basically, each team has a limit to how much they can payout to players. While I believe there are limits for individual contracts (say, a team can’t pay a player more than $40M), I’m not 100% because, well, football. But more commonly people are referring to team salary caps. This is the amount of money a team can payout overall to all the player. It’s important because if your team is close to the cap (we’ll say $6M away), there are players you can’t trade for/sign. If you are $6M away, and want a player with a $20M contract, you will go over the cap. You would need to trade away a $14M contract to afford it. \nSide note: there is a thing called a Luxury Tax where basically a team can go over the salary cap for a hefty tax, but I’m not going over that rn.\n\nSpace and Limits: I’m not really sure what context this is in. Limits may refer to the salary cap limit, and space may be roster space. For instance, if there’s too many players on a team, there’s no space for one more. Or if you want to sign a new Quarterback but you already have 3 or something like that, there’s no space for another. But those are more general terms for other things, and I’d have to know the context. \n\nOverall, I hope I explained it half decently."
]
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8yqpp9 | how is topsoil formed and why does it take so long? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8yqpp9/eli5how_is_topsoil_formed_and_why_does_it_take_so/ | {
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"Soil is formed as leaves and stuff fall, also ferns, but once they fall, detritivores will break down material. Eventually it lets it’s nutrients go down to lower levels of soil(They have 4 horizons; O, A, B, C.) O is the organic matter, C is bedrock IIRC.\nSo first off, how many leaves do you think fall in a square foot of land at any given year, because that can be a major limiting factor. Also Temperature and Humidity also play a role, higher temperature gives more energy and water helps to break down and leech nutrients.\nSoil scientists will dig holes to look at the layers and they can also give a good description of the land. For the USA you can google, web soil survey, and look for a parcel of land that you are interested in and get a report about the predicted soils in your area(This is modeled, so always be sure to verify.)\nBecause soil takes so long to form some states like Idaho have listed it as a public resource, so you can’t do damage to it, in a forestry setting, you can’t run a machine too much on it. Washington kinda protects it, but more on the side, Washington has protections for the fish, which in turn protects the streams with a forested buffer, like 150-200’ wide from the stream bank, and also you can’t let too much sediment get into the stream from logging roads or erosion up stream. \nThe constitution gave states the right to manage their lands, other than national lands, so they have different rules between each state, Washington has one of the bigger rule books."
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1sevgr | why does florida stay warm year round when even texas gets super cold? | I saw [this] (_URL_0_) on the front page and I just wanted to know what specifically it is about florida that allows it to be so warm year round.
It can't be that it is bordering the gulf of mexico, or that it is so far south (texas is just as far south). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sevgr/eli5_why_does_florida_stay_warm_year_round_when/ | {
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"The Gulf Stream blows warm air from the equator Over the Caribbean. The pacific currents carry cold air from Alaska down into the interior sometimes. ",
"Water has a moderating effect on temperature. Florida is surrounded on three sides by water, which neutralizes most cold fronts that approach it. The coastal areas of Texas can have a cold front approach by land from the north west.\n\nIn addition, the weather map you chose is from an atypical day. The central US is experiences record cold, while the east is not. It is more common for winter temperatures in Texas to be similar to those in Florida, and in some cases, even higher.\n\n"
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53uvdm | when a banana starts to go bad, does the banana make the peel go bad or is it the peel that makes the banana go bad? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53uvdm/eli5_when_a_banana_starts_to_go_bad_does_the/ | {
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"Neither. Food spoils due to a mixture of factors such as bacterial growth, water loss, chemical reactions etc but these will happen simultaneously for the most part. You could argue that the interior of a fruit spoils faster once the peel or skin is compromised but this would be due to the lack of the peel, not the peel itself.",
"Bananas don't give a damn about who eat them, they only want to be eaten (and theirs seeds dispersed). So, bananas will appeal to a broad spectrum of banana eaters to achieve this. How? they will release ethylene, which is a gas that sends a message (most of times is \"die, cell\") that makes cells in bananas to start to break apart complex sugars and turn them into easily digestable sugars. More simple sugars, more tasty banana, until it reach a point when it's just a bag of water and sugar that any fungus floating around can eat. That's what you call a bad banana. So, who's to blame? the banana itself, as a whole, not just a part. ",
"The banana and the peel are not separate things until you peel the peel off the meat.\n\nSubstitute apple for banana in your question to see what I mean.\n\n"
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29a6b5 | what is going on with the lost irs emails? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29a6b5/eli5_what_is_going_on_with_the_lost_irs_emails/ | {
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"The IRS (internal revenue service) is in charge of federal taxes. A scandal emerged, where it was found that the IRS was intentionally targeting conservative groups trying to get tax-exempt, not-for-profit statuses.\n\nLois Lerner was the director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Unit, which decides whether groups are tax exempt. Basically, this scandal occurred under her leadership, and she has been trying to protect herself by pleading the 5th. Recently, Lerner claimed that about 2 years worth of her emails were lost in a \"computer crash\" and the hard drive that contained the information had been thrown out.\n\nSo, to answer your question, we don't know what's going on, because people are covering their rear ends, and then lying about it. And people are buying it.",
"The IRS and all federal agencies are required to save all emails between employees. Losing her emails is almost impossible and she is most certainly lying. Its ironic because the IRS tells you to keep years worth of past tax returns incase they want to go after you. The IRS also leaked Conservative super PAC donor lists and IRS officials made an alarming amount of visits to the White House. Long story short: Obama is using the IRS to attack, deter, and harass political opponents.",
"Ok....\n\nHistory lesson on government email accounts.\n\nGovernment employees don't have \"unlimited\" email space on servers. Usually you have a pretty big size, but it's not unlimited. Call it 2GB for arguments sake.\n\nAfter 2GB, you lose the oldest stuff. But your system admin sends you an email when you hit 90% giving you a warning (1.8GB) so that you can backup anything you may need, to your personal archive.\n\nThese personal archives are on the MS Outlook Exchange Infrastructure, and frankly, they suck ass. They are notorious for crashing \"if you don't know what you are doing\" which most government employees don't.\n\nThe government buys cheap computers, and harddrives crash. People don't have redundant backups. So only emails that are still on the server are available.\n\nPeople purge all the time. It's really not a conspiracy, its just normal people getting rid of the crap in their emails."
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edcpjf | why insurance isn't a complete scam | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/edcpjf/eli5_why_insurance_isnt_a_complete_scam/ | {
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"The whole point to insurance is that if you cause a big accident one week after signing up for the insurance, you'll be covered for damages you cause. After 30 years you may wind up paying more in insurance than you get in return, but the point is that they cover huge debts when you may not have the money.\n\nIf you cause an accident and total someone's $80k car, do you currently have $80k to pay for it?\n\nIf your house burns down right now, do you have money to buy a new one or are you going to have to keep paying the mortgage on your burned down house and then also pay rent/mortgage for a new place to live?",
"No.\n\nSo let's say you decide that instead of paying $150 a month for car insurance you save it. You would need to save 15-20 years to have enough to cover your vehicle in a crash, another 15-20 years to cover the other vehicle, and more than 50 years to cover the average medical bill for a serious injury resulting from an auto accident.\n\nObviously, saving your money for 90 years isn't really an option for protecting yourself. So you pay an insurance company instead. Because while the chances are relatively low, the damages are ruinously high.\n\nI've used my car insurance exactly once. I would have to pay my premium every month for 163 years to cover what they paid out.",
"The legitimate purpose of insurance is to share risk. Rather than possibly incurring a life-devastating unexpected loss, pay a manageable amount periodically. You're right that it necessarily has a negative expected value in terms of dollars, but the first dollars that you use to eat and have a roof have much more utility than the dollars you would spend on luxuries."
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b7juyu | the head of the chicken is synchronized with the movement of its feet when walking. why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b7juyu/eli5_the_head_of_the_chicken_is_synchronized_with/ | {
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"The reason a chicken, or a pigeon, bobs its head when it walks is something called the *cervico-ocular reflex.* It (and the related *vestibulo-ocular reflex*) is there to stabilize images on the retina, so the world doesn't turn into a horrible blurry mess when we walk.\n\nWhen the head moves in one direction, a copy of the nerve signal is sent to our eyes, causing movement in the opposite direction (if we move our head to the right, our eyes move to the left, and vice versa).\n\nIn other animals, however, their eyes can't move independently of their head, and so they employ the cervical-ocular reflex instead."
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1qzot3 | why do currencies have an investment value? | Looking right now at the bitcoin boom. A currency is only the medium of exchange wealth. They inherently dont have any value (bitcoin, dollar, gold, etc) So why to buy a currency and expect to increment the wealth of oneself when there is nothing to backup that wealth? Right now just because someone says that the bitcoin is "legal", its value goes up, but there is no work, no resources behind this new wealth whatsoever.
Moreover, is it possible to have a currency where there is 0 investment value and it will only be used to exchange wealth. I think this will end lots of problems we actually have.
Sorry about my english.
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qzot3/eli5_why_do_currencies_have_an_investment_value/ | {
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" > So why to buy a currency and expect to increment the wealth of oneself when there is nothing to backup that wealth?\n\nWhen you speculate on currency you are speculating that its value will increase (or decrease) relative to other currencies. If I hold GBP and believe USD will climb relative to GBP then if I exchange my GBP for USD, wait for USD to climb and then buy back GBP I will have more GBP then I started with; I have made money.\n\nThere are many things that only have value because we state they do. Music & Art only have inherent value of the materials used to create them, a Picasso costs $10m instead of $2.39 because demand for Picasso paintings exceeds supply. A Picasso is a scarce resource.\n\nThis is called [marginalism](_URL_0_), price is a function of utility and availability not cost of production.\n\n > Right now just because someone says that the bitcoin is \"legal\", its value goes up, but there is no work, no resources behind this new wealth whatsoever.\n\nBitcoin is surging because of interest due to the congressional hearings as well as massive interest from China (spot price in China is ten times what it is outside of China). As the number of Bitcoin available is finite as demand increases for them price rises.\n\n > Moreover, is it possible to have a currency where there is 0 investment value and it will only be used to exchange wealth. I think this will end lots of problems we actually have.\n\nWhat problems do you think currency speculation creates?"
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5tqvv6 | why is self harm not as accepted as things like smoking and drinking? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5tqvv6/eli5_why_is_self_harm_not_as_accepted_as_things/ | {
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"I haven't self harmed and I am not close to someone that has. I think it's safe to say most people are close to someone who has smoke or drank at some point in their life. People that self harm make up a lot smaller percentage of the population. I would assume there is a mental issue that drives someone to self harm but smoking and drinking is known as a social behavior.",
"\nI think it is because cutting looks like a cry for help, something that most people have trouble accepting or acknowledging. Self-harm is difficult to understand for people, as having to make physical pain or blood show to relieve your mental anguish is seen as abnormal, even if it is the way that the harmer has leaned to cope. \n\nThe smoking and drinking analogy is valid, as you could view these as abnormal, but these are far more socially acceptable where harming is seen as taboo. See it this way, most police will not detain someone as a risk for drinking or smoking, but will for self-harmers. \n\nIf you are harming, I encourage you to find help. No, it won't be easy, nothing ever is, but you can do it. Don't become a statistic. Good luck.",
"People are really bad at calculating long-term consequences, that's why you have massive health education and promotion to persuade people not to drink and smoke. Meanwhile, immediate self-harm is obviously going to freak out people, that's an automatic subconscious reaction acquired through evolution, just as a sight of a sick man causes automatic revulsion (and partly empathy).\n\nNotice that countercultures often try to freak people out exactly by playing on gut reaction and emphasizing gross and unnatural outlook and behavior, low-brow humor, etc. Self-harm is employed by some of these subcultures. Tattooing and piercing can be seen as more benign variations while more serious and permanent body modifications will shock even many seasoned web dwellers. While cutting is not necessarily permanent, it's also harder to rationalize than aesthetic changes."
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2o3go2 | what does the halo represent above an angel's head? | I'm not looking for fights over religion here. Instead I would like an explanation for each religion if they mean something different in each. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2o3go2/eli5_what_does_the_halo_represent_above_an_angels/ | {
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"I'm not aware of it existing in religions other than Christianity.\n\nIn Christianity, it is a representation of divinity, the light coming from divine grace in a good soul. Hence, it is also sometimes found on Christ and Saints, in addition to angels.",
"Kings, heroes, saints, and prophets were often described as glowing in an internal radiance.\n\nA halo is a pictorial representation of this, which over the years became stylized as a circle around the head, and more recently, as a circle floating horizontally above the head. \n\nHalo have been used to depict figures from Greek, Roman, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, and Islamic traditions.",
"It was originally a concept made up by artists. They would draw a circle around someone's head to show that it's glowing to show divinity (because Moses's face was glowing after he talked to God). That depiction then evolved into a modern-day halo that angels have because, obviously, angels are considered holy. > I'm not looking for fights over religion here. Instead I would like an explanation for each religion if they mean something different in each. \n"
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3cuza0 | why has public breastfeeding suddenly become this huge issue in the past few years? | I'm in my 30's and haven't really heard much about it being an "issue". I'd see a mom feeding every once in a while out in public, no big deal. But it seems like in the past couple years, everyone suddenly has an opinion about it, it's in the news, and moms are posing in breastfeeding glamour shots on magazine covers. Did I miss something? Why is this a huge deal now?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3cuza0/eli5_why_has_public_breastfeeding_suddenly_become/ | {
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"In the uk,a high end tea room requested a lady stop breast feeding because of a complaint from another _URL_0_ kinda led on from there where both sides said their piece and ended up as a tv debate here,hence higher profile issue.(only speaking uk tho)",
"It's not really particularly huge now. It's always been a small controversy for the last sixty years or so. It flares up occasionally when something egregious happens like a mother gets thrown out of somewhere or threatened with arrest. We are in something of a feminist resurgence at the moment as well, which might be responsible for you hearing about it more. "
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1ufmkc | aren't home water filters like brita filters, built in refrigerator filters much better than buying bottled water environmentally and economically? why are people still buying a bunch of bottled water? | In fact, aren't bottled water basically just filtered water put into a bottle in a factory? I feel like cutting the bottle and the factory would save massive amount of money for all of us and is much much more environmentally friendly. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ufmkc/eli5_arent_home_water_filters_like_brita_filters/ | {
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"Convenience. People are lazy as fuck. Some bottled waters are just tap water, some do come from natural springs and aquifers, but it's all about not having to fill and wash a reusable bottle. ",
"Convenience. The same reason people pay $1.60 for a cold 20oz pop sitting next to a warm 2 liter that costs $.99\n\n",
"Dads across the country see the 24 pack for 3.99 and can't resist keeping that shit in the garage",
"My grandparents on my dad's side buy ridiculous amounts of bottled water. Like, they have a wall of flats of bottled water awaiting consumption in their garage. This is because, though they do care about the environment, they don't *really* care all that much. Why change when you've been doing the same thing for decades, and it works fine for you? ",
"Watch [Tapped](_URL_0_), a fantastic documentary on the water bottling industry along with the misinformation and harm it actually has on the world, as well as most bottles contain BPA within it's plastics which aren't necessarily good for us but what is nowadays?",
"Marketing, from advertisements and the like people think bottled water is cleaner and safer and tastes better than tap water.\n\nGood episode of Pen and Teller's Bullshit makes it clear:\n\n_URL_0_",
"I but bottled water not because it is water, but because it is bottled. It's convenient.",
"Brita filters are the bomb diggity. Can't do without it",
"Personally, I buy bottled water because I like having cold water. I have no freezer or ice maker, so the easiest way to get cold water is via bottles. Bottles also are able to be closed, which I can't do with just a cup of water.",
"Maybe it's just in my head, but I feel that bottled water tastes... fresher.",
"Because bottles are convenient.",
"Call me a picky ass hole, but imo bottled water tastes much more pure then whatever comes out of my fridge. Must be the minerals... ",
"Because it tastes better than tap to me. Maybe you should worry about something a little more important than what other people drink their water out of. I mean judging from your posts you seem legitimately pissed off about it. ",
"Apparently ELI5 is now \"I have an opinion and I want you to validate it\". \n\nIf you legitimately don't know something come and ask. If you want to say how everyone has a bullshit explanation and tell them what you think is right then go to /r/askreddit ."
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5my922 | why is it offensive to dress up like a favorite character from a show that is from a different race? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5my922/eli5_why_is_it_offensive_to_dress_up_like_a/ | {
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"It's not really - after all, what power do you have to negatively impact anything? The reality is that people that scream 'cultural appropriation' are (essentially) bullying you to make themselves appear more righteous in the eyes of their peers. \n\nIts not about you; its not about defending race; its not defending a culture - its all about virtue signaling and looking like 'the good guy'."
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84jej2 | why are toy stores been driven to extinction? (eg toys r us) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/84jej2/eli5_why_are_toy_stores_been_driven_to_extinction/ | {
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"Amazon. There is simply no way for them to compete with online shopping. It’s happening to all the brick and mortar stores, but especially ones like toy stores where you don’t really need to see the product before you buy it. \n\nEdit: Source: I’m the uncle for several nieces and nephews. I have yet to step into a toys r us to do their Christmas/birthday shopping. ",
"I know that Toys R Us is going out of business due to poor online presence. Other companies, such as Amazon and Walmart, have put plenty of funds and work into making their websites easily navigable and accessible, while Toys R Us almost ignored its online website and presence for many years. From what I’ve heard, Toys R Us’ website was somewhat difficult to navigate and was not very user friendly. Thus parents that do their shopping online, which is becoming more and more popular, are going with other stores to buy their children’s toys. Apart from that, the competition has been getting bigger and more difficult to handle. As previously stated, Amazon has a very user friendly website, but apart from that, it’s prices are reasonable and often lower than its competitors. With that being said, Toys R Us has/had been having trouble keeping up with other competitors and their prices. Finally, Toys are somewhat less popular than they use to be. Yes, kids still ask parents to buy them plenty of toys, but in today’s day and age, kids are being distracted by other things, such as tablets, further reducing the demand and sales of toys. Combine all of these, and you get a recipe for Toys R Us’ end, unless they make a sudden and magnificent game change to their business approach. As for the other toy store you mentioned from Australia, I have no clue as to why they’ve been run out of business, but it surely shares some of the reasons that Toys R Us went out of business for.",
"The biggest reason is that they grossly over expanded, and went into areas where the rent was too high and sales too low for them to get a reasonable profit on many of their stores.\n\nThis is actually a pretty common thing in big box stores, and they have been bubbling over for about 20 years now since the 90s expansion booms where they were rabid to place more and more stores--even knowing that many of them would be in locations that would never turn a reasonable profit! The tactic is to corner the market, you build tons of stores, in lots of locations, regardless if they are making money or not. Your goal is to de-incentivize, if not outright stop other competitors in your industry from even trying to play the game with you, so that you get near 100% of the market.\n\nUnfortunately, one of the nasty aspect of this is that you end up with so many stores that are quite unprofitable, and you have long leases on their space, and they are full of stock that will never sell. You hope that the good performing stores, and lack of competition offset this loss, but it doesn't always work out, you try to close under performing stores at this point (since there is little competition anyways its often ok) but depending on specifics, this may not be realistic for long, since you're so far committed.\n\nPeople talking about online and amazon aren't wrong in it having and impact, but they miss the entire point of the strategy about why these stores are going down and the path they set. They did a very well known and well understood strategy, however execution isn't always as good as it seems on paper.\n\n\"Closing under performing stores\" is basically a buzzword in the industry for \"we did the normal strategy of flooding the market with stores, and now we are correcting where we need to\". But sometimes it just doesn't work out as planned.\n\nAgain -- this is a very well known strategy, so really at its heart, nothing to see here. We've seen it before, we'll see it again. The names and locations change, the strategy is all the same.\n\nWalmart has been regarded as one of the stores the seriously used this strategy (among other strategies on store placement in their early days) to *great* success.",
"If a big box toy store were to exist and compete I think it needs a whole different concept. The focus needs to be on being a destination for kids. Free party room for appointment parties. Easy way to get someone to buy a gift as they come in. \n\nThe store needs to be a large merchandise display with all of its inventory in regional warehouses that can ship next day. There needs to be toys for kids to play with and video game console stations with timed play of the latest titles to try them out. A large collectibles section with figures on display to be able to see them out of box. A game night in the party room to try new games. Adult nights for adult kids to come play with toys and games. \n\nThe focus needs to shift more towards being a hands on experience encompassing toys and games. You have to sell the experience and the toys will flow out the door with it."
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3jajdk | why can't big ships just go faster? | Stupid question, maybe, and perhaps my knowledge of ship travel is limited, but it seems like big cargo ships and what not move really slow and I'm pretty sure we have the technology to make the go a whole lot faster, so what's the deal? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3jajdk/eli5_why_cant_big_ships_just_go_faster/ | {
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"Moving a ship the same distance at higher speed uses more fuel.\n\nThe amount of fuel used by a cargo ship is *immense,* so even a few percent increase is a huge amount of money they don't want to spend. (And a lot of environmental impact too.)",
"It's all about cost. The faster they go the less fuel efficient they are. Container ships use A LOT of fuel. Fuel efficiency is a major concern because of all the costs. The extra time is not as big of a concern as the extra cost.\n",
"They normally sail at the most fuel efficient speed, also known as cruising speed. Once you get past crushing speed, ships tend to get very inefficient very quickly. For example, on a us navy cruiser, which has a cruising speed of around 15 knots, going from 28 to 29 knots using something like a an extra 1000 gallons of fuel per hour",
"Higher speeds tend to use fuel less efficiently (not only relative to time but also to distance), and the extra speed isn't enough to make it worth the extra cost. Ships are generally used for large quantities of non-time sensitive cargo, since that's what they tend to be most efficient for. If speed is that important, it's usually better to send it by train or airplane instead (though there is an obvious trade-off with how much can be carried at once). Basically, even if a ship was built for speed, it still wouldn't be able to compete with airplanes, but slow-moving ships are more efficient in transporting large quantities of cargo, as long as speed isn't important.",
"In addition to increased inefficiency at higher speeds, full displacement hulls actually have a \"maximum\" speed. Beyond that speed they actually start to \"sink.\" Smaller recreational craft actually start to plane, get up out of the water, to over come their hull speed.",
"Actual ELI5 / oversimplified. \n\nIf you went outside and started walking, how far would you be able to walk before you were so tired you had to stop? Not walking fast, just strolling? I think I could probably walk about ten miles / sixteen km before I got too tired and wanted to stop. It would take me nearly three hours. \n\nWhat would happen if you started to run? You could probably run about the same distance if it were at jogging pace. I'd get there quite a bit faster, maybe it would only take me an hour and half. \n\nWhat would happen if you went outside and sprinted as hard as you can? Well, you'd go really fast, but you'd get really tired, really quickly. I might be able to run half a mile at my top pace, but then I'd have to stop.\n\nNow. Let's change it and make it so you have to carry a really big bag on your back. \n\nHow far could you walk with the really big bag? Probably the same distance; you'd be more tired but you could get most of the way. \n\nHow far could you run with really big bag? Not so far, probably only six miles or so, and you'd be really tired. \n\nHow far could you sprint carrying a really big bag? Not far at all, you'd get tired really quickly. \n\nThe same thing applies to ships. Yes, we can make really fast ships that travel quickly, but they use way more fuel, cost more to construct, and are way more expensive to maintain. When you bundle in freight - which is really bloody heavy - the benefits to efficiency far outweigh those of speed. \n\nIn the meantime, there is a very easy way to transport items quickly. It's called air freight, and while expensive, it's much, MUCH faster than anything you can do with a ship. So there's very little benefit in shipping companies building fast ships that are inefficient. \n\n"
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ke7l8 | instincts, how they work and how a baby knows to suck on its mothers nipple to get milk | Title says it all. I get that all animals have instincts, but HOW? How do they know to do the things they do? Where are the instincts stored? Do they evolve over time? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ke7l8/eli5_instincts_how_they_work_and_how_a_baby_knows/ | {
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"I don't have any formal education in the theory of evolution, so I may be way off here, but I think it works like this:\n\nIf a baby doesn't suck its mother's nipple to get milk then it will starve, as you can't force feed it per se. Our genes store information for how to construct our brains. Our brains ultimately decide a very large amount of what we do, if not all of it. Babies whose genes didn't lead to brains that made them want to suck on nipples would have died, whereas other babies would have survived, passing on the genes that lead to that behavior.\n\nHope this helps at least a little bit, until someone more knowledgeable can give a better answer.",
"They are called the primitive reflexes, and wikipedia actually has a great article on them: _URL_0_",
"When your potential ancestors didn't do this, they died.\n\nThe one thing your ancestors all have in common, right back to the first molecule of organic matter, is that they survived long enough to produce offspring.",
"Is there such a thing as \"genetic memory\"?",
"I don't have any formal education in the theory of evolution, so I may be way off here, but I think it works like this:\n\nIf a baby doesn't suck its mother's nipple to get milk then it will starve, as you can't force feed it per se. Our genes store information for how to construct our brains. Our brains ultimately decide a very large amount of what we do, if not all of it. Babies whose genes didn't lead to brains that made them want to suck on nipples would have died, whereas other babies would have survived, passing on the genes that lead to that behavior.\n\nHope this helps at least a little bit, until someone more knowledgeable can give a better answer.",
"They are called the primitive reflexes, and wikipedia actually has a great article on them: _URL_0_",
"When your potential ancestors didn't do this, they died.\n\nThe one thing your ancestors all have in common, right back to the first molecule of organic matter, is that they survived long enough to produce offspring.",
"Is there such a thing as \"genetic memory\"?"
]
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53k1fp | how do apps and websites which require a large userbase to be functional (like dating sites) get started without immediately flopping? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/53k1fp/eli5how_do_apps_and_websites_which_require_a/ | {
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"text": [
"Soft launches to small groups; Facebook used to be only for people with a university email address, for instance. Consider also flyering a neighbourhood or city, sponsoring events, recruiting students to spread details via word of mouth."
]
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| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
a9bh03 | how do brand new tv show's make their opening credits? | So, when a brand new show comes out, the starting credits usually contains scenes from much later, that happens seasons ahead that haven't even been made. How/why do they do this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/a9bh03/eli5_how_do_brand_new_tv_shows_make_their_opening/ | {
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"echyzl3"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"By the time you see the first episode, multiple episodes have been shot. Or they shoot specific scenes for the opening. "
]
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| []
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[]
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|
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1w12fn | how is it possible to survive 40 years without sleep (paul kern)? | After reading on wiki about [Paul Kern](_URL_0_) I am curious about a few things. Firstly, the article is very lackluster. Is this case considered to be genuine, and if so, are there any modern theories as to how he lost the ability to sleep?
Secondly, most theories of sleep treat sleep as a regenerative function (some treat it as a way of conserving energy). If sleep truly is a regenerative function, how is it theoretically possible for Paul Kern to have functioned (he reported feeling not-tired 24/7) without sleep?
Lastly, would it be viable to deliberately damage people's brains in the same fashion to eliminate the human need for sleep? What exactly where the drawbacks in Kern's situation? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1w12fn/eli5_how_is_it_possible_to_survive_40_years/ | {
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"Many people with sleep deprivation experience very quick spans of sleep for moments at a time. It may be that his sleep state was a nearly continuous process that just didn't become ordered enough to be efficient and require him to be unconscious. That or Russian medical records are suspect.",
"I do not accept the claim that Kern lived for 40 years without sleep.\n\nThere are documented cases of sleep deprivation causing mental disease and death after a much shorter amount of time.\n\nIn fact, there's a family in Europe with an odd genetic disease which causes some members of the family to simply stop sleeping in their mid-20s.\n\nThis swiftly leads to death, as has every other case of total sleep deprivation recorded in medical history.\n\nWhen you have one case which directly flies in the face of observed data, and that case has no sufficient support to it, the only real conclusion is that the case is false."
]
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| [
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Kern"
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[],
[]
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vwwh9 | how do servers and switches work in networks? | The whole network idea servers switches etc.
Thanks | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/vwwh9/how_do_servers_and_switches_work_in_networks/ | {
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"text": [
"A network is a bunch of computers connected together. Usually they each use one connection slot, so how can you connect more than two computers together? A switch is one way to do it: it's a box with several connectors, where you can connect several computers. The switch is managing traffic on the connections: when it receives a message from one of the connections, it checks who the message is for and forwards the message to the appropriate connection.\n\nA server is just a name that is given to a particular computer connected to the network when this computer offers specific services. For example you can put a website on a computer and set it up so that it shows the website through the network to any computer that asks. That makes this computer a web server.\n"
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1qgo17 | why exactly is it bad to watch a microwave while its running? | I've never gotten a good explanation for this! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qgo17/eli5_why_exactly_is_it_bad_to_watch_a_microwave/ | {
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"It's fine, the microwave is a Faraday cage; the microwaves aren't getting out.",
"Where have you heard that it is?",
"Because people don't understand how microwaves work.\n\nMicrowave ovens are ubiquitous now, so it is hard to imagine that 30 years ago, they were almost thought of as magical. When you are used to taking an hour to bake a potato, and now you can do it in 5 minutes without anything else getting hot, that is kind of amazing.\n\nYou combine amazing and not understanding something, and you get a lot of wild stories, about microwaves causing cancer, making you sterile, and otherwise being dangerous...people often conflated microwave cooking with nuclear power.\n\nThe reality is that standing next to a microwave is no more dangerous than standing next to a computer or a hair dryer.\n\n ",
"It's not.\n\nDoing that makes my eyes feel funny though, probably due to the knowledge that there is 3mm of steel - **with holes in it** - between 800 watts of ionizing radiation and my face.\n\nCreeps me out. Every. Fucking. Time.",
"Because our perception of time often means it will seem to take longer for your porridge to cook.\n\n2 mins watched > 2 mins sat back on the comp...oh just a sec microwave just dinged...what was I saying?\n\nmmm...golden syrup porridge",
"Can we not mark this as 'Explained'? Because the premise of the question is wrong. I scoffed at the question when I saw it but when I saw it was marked as explained I assumed I was wrong. If I hadn't clicked on the link I would have left misinformed. ",
"The only serious side effects of microwave exposure are cataracts. The only way you'd get that much exposure though is with industrial microwaves for curing logs and rubber.\n\nSource: my dad is a health and safety manager for a large rubber manufacturing company."
]
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29egea | why can't / shouldn't woman play world cup / premier league football? | I understand there is both Mens and Womans football (soccer) teams, however the difference in pay and followers is vast. If a woman was on the same level as a premier league player is simply just the rules stopping them from playing on an all male side? Would/Could this ever be changed in the future? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29egea/eli5_why_cant_shouldnt_woman_play_world_cup/ | {
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"There isnt a single girl who could play at the mens level. Now before you down vote me, please finish reading. The womens soccer/ WNBA/ etc are incredible athletes. They would destroy any misogynistic average athletic guy. But when you compare men and womens physiology, men are naturally bigger and faster. It would never happen",
"At a very basic level yes, the only thing preventing it is the rules.\n\n\nWere it entirely open competition then personally I think that some female players would make it into some professional teams but based on the average standards of women's football vs men (technical skill, power etc.) but that it would be unlikely they would be Premier League / World Cup level - more likely lower-league so League 1 / League 2 level.\n \n\nPersonally I think it's overly simplistic to say their physiology would stop it ever happening, because in the Premier League and at the World Cup there is a wide variety of players with all manner of different physical traits and honestly for me that's what makes football so brilliant - whilst speed, strength and size do offer major advantages you can still be a brilliant player without being fast, strong or or big provided you have the technical ability and vision."
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3g8p39 | what does your brain do when you find something/something interesting/attractive? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g8p39/eli5_what_does_your_brain_do_when_you_find/ | {
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"I would say your brain's pleasure systems get activated. This can provide you the motivation to further seek out those pleasant stimuli."
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[]
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||
7iailo | why do bicycle/car tires resist punctures from glass/nails on the street by having more air in them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7iailo/eli5_why_do_bicyclecar_tires_resist_punctures/ | {
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"As pressure increases, the amount of tire in contact with the ground decreases, and often this means the tire is effectively slightly narrower, and exposed to less debris. But the difference is small. \n\nOn bicycles, riding with too low of a pressure increases the chances a bump will cause the rim to bottom out against the ground. When the inner tube gets pinched between the tire and rim like this, punctures often happen.\n",
" > why do bicycle/car tires resist punctures from glass/nails on the street by having more air in them?\n\nIt doesn't.\n\nWhat higher tire pressure *can* do is make something called a \"pinch flat\" less likely to occur. The idea is that hitting a sudden bump can cause the tire to compress to the point that the rim of the wheel presses against the road surface, damaging the material of the tire and causing a break. But just being higher pressure isn't going to somehow repel sharp objects."
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2omdod | why is it easy to fold a piece of paper, but difficult to completely remove the fold? | Is it because of permanently broken chemical bonds or something? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2omdod/eli5_why_is_it_easy_to_fold_a_piece_of_paper_but/ | {
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"text": [
"At an above five level it's a question of entropy.\n\nAt a five year old level: not all changes can be unchanged.\n\nAt a five year old philosophical level it takes a whole lot more energy to create order than to create disorder."
]
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29uo86 | how come blood pools in your head when you hang upside down but it doesnt pool in your feet when you stand up? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29uo86/eli5_how_come_blood_pools_in_your_head_when_you/ | {
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"Your cardiovascular system needs to fight the force of gravity so it works much harder to pump blood to your head than to your feet.",
"The veins in your legs actually have little check valves to help the heart pump the blood back up. Varicose veins are common in legs of people who stand alot usually for work. or sometimes women who cross their legs often are more prone get them. \nEdit : should explain that varicose veins are portions of the blood vessel that the blood pools in because these \"check valves\"have failed ",
"To reiterate the correct answer given by some. There is a series of one way valves in your legs veins that keep that from happening to a large extent, not so in the upper body (it doesnt need it gravity assits the blood to the heart rather than hindering it in the lower extermities). Here is a link explaining the valves and pics. _URL_0_ .............._URL_1_ ............As it turns out varicose veins are are usually the result of these one way valves failing at their job",
"because you're built to be right side up. millions of years of evolution has made your body quite good at pulling the blood up from your feet and pushing it up to your head, but not the reverse. ",
"Because your feet aren't empty",
"I'm gonna copy-paste my answer to a similar question here with some edits:\n(...) When you are standing up your head gets good blood flow, your heart is pushing blood against gravity up into your skull, and the blood then naturally flows down into the rest of your body. Free blood flow by gravity. Blood then naturally pools in your legs because it's the lowest part of your body, and is pushed back up by the movement of your leg muscles.\n\nVeins are quite cool, in that they have valves inside of them that prevent backwards blood flow, so veins always move blood towards your heart, usually through muscle contractions. In this case, the blood pooling in your legs/feet is moved back up to your heart through the activity of your leg muscles, and muscles lining your veins. If you tense the muscles in your legs really fast, you can actually feel the blood rushing back towards your heart. That muscle activity is why they tell you not to lock your knees if you are standing still for a long time. If you do, it stops your blood from circulating properly, makes your blood too acidic for your brain to work well, and you pass out to fix the problem.\n\nIf you are hanging upside down, the same thing happens, but this time your heart has to displace pretty much all of your body's blood, since gravity now makes your head the place where it wants to 'pool'. Your heart is strong, but not that strong... so your brain now gets poor circulation, becomes acidic and you pass out to try to fix the problem... but... you're hanging upside down, so unless someone saves you, or you fall onto the ground, you are going to die.\n\nDon't hang upside down.\n\n\n\n",
"A few reasons: skeletal muscle contraction in your legs causes adjacent veins to be collapsed and re expanded, pulling blood upward towards you larger veins. Addition of what are essentially one way valves called semilunar valves prevent the back flow of blood in your legs and promote venous return to your right heart. This combination of factors is why when you don't move, you have pooling of blood in your legs and feet. The cerebral veins act in a sinus system. That is to say they drain the brain in vast pools localized at indentations in the natural shape of the brain and rely on intracranial pressure and gravity to force venous blood from the skull. It has no muscle to aid in pumping and also has no valves. Blood in the skull can accumulate and pool when hanging upside down for these reasons. ",
"There are valves within the veins of our extremities that aide the flow of blood back to the heart. Basically, they prevent blood from flowing backwards, like a gate. These valves aren't within the veins of our head, so there is back flow. Blood can more easily pool, instead of flowing to the heart.",
"because your blood has pressure/gravity receptors which detect changes in blood pressure. when you're stand up blood goes down to your legs which blood pressure increases in the blood vessels in your lower body - this causes a reflex in your brain to tell your vessels to constrict to reduce the blood flow. this process is a autonomic process regulated by your brainstem which also regulates breathing, heart, gag reflex and a whole host of other things. ",
"Everyone is mentioning the valves in the veins. Another important aspect is that the fascia is thick and strong in the legs. This with muscles that contract creates pressure and allow blood to move up.\n\nThe veins in your head have neither of those aspects. ",
"The blood doesn't pool in our legs because the veins in this region have one way valves. This prevents the blood from flowing back down towards our feet. Furthermore, we have a muscular pump that forces the blood back towards our heart. This is achieved by a series of sinuses located within our calf muscles that fill up with blood then as the muscles contract during walking, the blood is pumped towards the heart.\nThe blood in the superficial veins of the legs is sucked into the deep veins via this muscular pump. This communicating vein is also valved to prevent backflow. When this valve doesn't work properly, blood pools in the superficial veins and the condition is called varicose veins.\nThe blood pools in the head because the veins in this area of the body don't have the same mechanisms as the veins in the legs.",
"It does, just not as bad\n\nWhen i was in cadets and we had to stand at attention for long periods of time, many kids would faint or simply just fall to the floor as not enough blood was circulating\n\nTo combat this we were told to tense and relax our feet and leg muscles to try and get the blood going while looking as still as possible\n\nfucking crazy shit honestly"
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32v2rv | why do websites sometimes show nothing but text when the internet connection slows down? | Why is it that sometimes when the Internet connection slows down, that sites only show text, as if it was formatted differently with the pictures removed? And why does it go back to normal when the connection speeds back up? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32v2rv/eli5_why_do_websites_sometimes_show_nothing_but/ | {
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"text": [
"The parts of a website are separated into different assets. The HTML code which contains the text and sometimes data, the CSS which formats the data into pretty presentation, and the JavaScript that dynamically makes the elements change on the screen. The HTML code is what loads first"
]
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| []
| [
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|
|
9qaqen | why was google fined $5 billion by the eu? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9qaqen/eli5_why_was_google_fined_5_billion_by_the_eu/ | {
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"text": [
"Something along the lines of if you wanted to use a certain piece of software (I think it was Chrome) then you had to download a bunch of other software too "
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
||
3wo015 | can i leave the car engine on while refueling? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3wo015/eli5can_i_leave_the_car_engine_on_while_refueling/ | {
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"You shouldn't leave it running because there is a risk of lighting your car and yourself on fire if there's a spark (e.g. backfire). [Like this](_URL_0_).",
"Can you? There aren't many confirmed explosions, but in some places, it's illegal.\n\nShould you? No, because a) it wastes gasoline (even though prices are going down), b) it tempts car hijackers, c) excessive idling isn't good for your engine, and d) other people are forced to breath in your noxious exhaust. "
]
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"https://i.imgur.com/jKhO80l.gifv"
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2e9er6 | why are world leaders tolerating kim jong-un? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2e9er6/eli5_why_are_world_leaders_tolerating_kim_jongun/ | {
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"[This is Seoul](_URL_0_). It's a fucking huge city, with 25 million people in the metro area. For comparison, that's a city with a larger population than Australia. [This is a map of South Korea](_URL_1_). The first thing you might notice is that Seoul is close to North Korea. Really close. Artillery range close.\n\nNorth Korea continues to exist because it has one of the densest collections of humanity on Earth as its perennial hostage. Any aggression against DPRK (North Korea) would be the end for Seoul.",
"1. South Korea doesn't want to engage because they would be bombed with atom bombs and if they don't, they will still will cause China to be angry. \n2. China wont invade because they don't really care and North Korea is still an \"Ally\" to them. \n3. The US doesn't want to invade so they don't endanger South Korea and again, anger China. \n4. Nobody else either cares or has the intention to \"police\" the World \n\nAlso: When anyone would destroy the current regime, they would have to kinda take care of the region, which is heavily underdeveloped and would cost more money to rebuild than anyone wants to spend. If you just kill the leaders and don't do any further stuff, you would be judged by the entire world because of it and its likely another regime will take the power. \nSecond also: Korea is only endangering themself at the moment, a War could endanger your people or troops.",
"China has a nice gap between it and what it sees as american territory. \nThat suits China ",
"Another issue with liberating NK would a large population of people that have been brainwashed into madness. You can't just take away the top and expect things to end well. ",
"Because end of regime in North Korea means that millions of refugees flee into China and South Korea. And this is not China's interest."
]
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"http://cdn.seoulsync.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Seoul-Clintsharp-1.jpg",
"http://images.nationmaster.com/images/motw/middle_east_and_asia/s_korea_rel_95.jpg"
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30hyog | how come when i'm watching a youtube video and i click to go back a few seconds, i have to wait while it downloads & buffers again? shouldn't it still have the video i already watched still downloaded? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30hyog/eli5_how_come_when_im_watching_a_youtube_video/ | {
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"It's not downloaded, it's streaming, so your device has to make a separate request to the server to start streaming from whatever point you specified. ",
"Basically, the video player tosses out the already played video because you probably don't need it again. \n\nThis does ~~2~~ 3 things:\n\n1. reduce cache size (helpful for older machines) \n2. put less load on the web player (eliminates problems with the player) \n3. keeps people from going into the cache, and copying the entire video.\n\nEdit: I can't count :P ",
"One reason has to do with the compression used in streaming videos. Since downloading each frame as an image would take ginormous amounts of bandwidth streaming uses a method where it downloads the base image and then each subsequent frame is not a new image but a matrix map of the pixels color changes between frames. Only the pixels containing changes are sent, so if only a small amount of pixels and color changes occur between frames only a small amount of data is transmitted (hence why when large changes occur there might be a slight lag or freeze in image). A new base image is periodically downloaded a set intervals that are determined by the stream quality of the website and codecs used and then the cycle starts all over. \n\nWhen you click back a few seconds the stream player may or may not be able to reverse calculate the changes from the point you were at to the point you want to go. In addition, you may have clicked to a point in which a previous base image was used than the current one in use. In either case, a new base image closest to the point you choose to back up, but prior to that point is downloaded. Then all of the matrix map changes have to be downloaded and applied. ",
"All the answers are missing an important factor:\n\n_URL_0_\n\nYouTube implemented DASH playback a few years ago, and it's still causing problems to this day.\n\nBefore DASH, you could easily seek to an earlier point in the video without re-buffering. You could also pause the video & resume it hours later without the video shitting itself, whereas with DASH it's a problem to resume a video that's been paused for a while (although YouTube has gotten somewhat better about this). \n\nPre-DASH, you could pause & let the entire video buffer, whereas post-DASH it only buffers a few seconds ahead. Pre-DASH, you could even seek forward to an unloaded part of the video & it was much faster and less likely to shit itself than it is now.\n\nPost-DASH, you also have problems of resolutions changing & video re-buffering / seeking backward slightly every time you go into or out of full screen.\n\nBasically DASH playback is the devil. YouTube implemented it as a cost saving measure but their site is much worse off for it.\n\nYou can use extensions to disable DASH, however, once people started doing so YouTube blocked non-DASH access to 1080p and 480p video, so if a video doesn't have 720p, you're stuck with something like 320p which is horrid.\n\nDASH also serves as a week form of copy protection because most download programs just don't support it; the number of DASH-aware downloaders is growing but for a while there were very few options. "
]
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| []
| [
[],
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Adaptive_Streaming_over_HTTP"
]
]
|
||
9yofju | why is windows nt so highly regarded and used in network it to this day? | I asked a friend who couldn't quite communicate their reasons, other than that there hasn't been anything like it since? Surely Microsoft would try and make a similar product for networks? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9yofju/eli5_why_is_windows_nt_so_highly_regarded_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"ea2xe8b",
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"text": [
"If you're still using Windows NT to this day then you have some pretty serious problems...\n\nIt's certifiably ancient by IT standards.\n\nWindows NT is the platform upon which the follow versions of Windows were built. The NT Kernel laid the groundwork for what became Windows Server, Windows XP, and Windows 7+ \n\nSo in that sense, yes we are still using Windows NT to a degree. In the way that we are using it's children.",
"So for clarity, the current windows versions, Since Win 2000 (business/server) and Win XP (general consumer) are all actually built off Windows NT. It’s alive and well. \n\nThe more specific “server” version(s) after Win 2000 (which was essentially just the next version of NT, NT 5.0) were renamed “Windows Server” and continue to be in heavy use, they are still NT. ",
"I think you may have misunderstood something.\n\nWindows NT may have been quite nice in its day, but it clearly isn't highly regarded by anyone as something that one would willingly use for anything practical.\n\nThere may be some very few ancient computers sitting in some closet somewhere that still run two decade old operating system for some reason, but that reason is unlikely to be because someone things it is any good.\n\nWhat your friend may have meant is that modern version of Windows are descended from Windows NT.\n\nBasically Microsoft used to have a bunch of different OSs. Windows had Windows 95/98/98SE for home users and clients and Windows NT for servers. The 9x line of OSs came to an inglorious end with Windows ME and Microsoft decided to use the NT Base for Servers and after Windows 2000.\n\nWindows XP, Vista, 8, 8.1 and 10 were all technically part of the Windows NT line although that name hasn't really been used is a long time.\n\nNobody sane uses any windows that actually bears the NT in its name as none of those have seen updates in a very long time. Windows 7 and up do get used as do their server counterparts 2008, 2012 and 2016.\n\nUsually unless there is a very pressing reason, like a piece of software that can't be upgraded and won't run on newer OSs or simply lack of funds for licenses, IT professionals prefer to use newer version of an OS were possible. (Although many avoid the bleeding edge new stuff for good reasons.)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[],
[]
]
|
|
e84lbe | what is the difference between an etf, mutual fund, and an index fund? | I typed this question like 5 times already | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e84lbe/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_an_etf_mutual/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"ETF tracks an Index usually (like the s & p 500, but new ones have been made to track sectors). They are passive so basically a manager buys all the funds in the s & p 500 and doesn’t touch it. It does what that index does.\n\nMutual fund is like a company that buys whatever stocks or bonds they think will do well to meet whatever goal they have... for example if it’s an aggressive mutual fund, they will mostly buy stock or any aggressive investment that fits.\n\nIndex fund tracks a specific index like an etf, the difference is that etf’s trade through the day like a stock (you can sell whenever you want). A mutual fund will calculate its price after the market closes, and you can’t sell it, you would redeem it with the mutual fund company (basically they buy back the shares from you)",
"An ETF can be almost anything. It stands for exchange traded fund which literally means you can buy a piece of some fund on an exchange.\n\nYou can find ETFs on volatility, gold, bonds, health care and so on. People like ETFs because they give you exposure to a basket of instruments rather than one single instrument.\n\nBoth ETFs and Mutual Funds charge a MER - Management Expense Ratio. Because a lot of ETFs are ran algorithmically (nothing crazy just a simple weighting algorithm) they charge much smaller fees. A typical ETF like the SPY takes 0.1% while typical Mutual Funds will take 3-4% for \"managing\" your money.\n\nContinuing on about SPY, the people who run that ETF would be considered an index fund. Tfor example, the SP 500 is a \"cap weighted index\" which means AAPL would carry more weight than UBER. Therefore, if the index fund has 2B dollars from the people who have purchased their ETF (net of any short sellers) they would try to invest that money in a proportion that very closely mirrors the cap weighted 500 largest market cap stocks in the US."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
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|
8g44e5 | if you used a conventional optical (light-based) microscope, how strong would the magnification have to be to see an atom? (x10000? x1000000?) | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8g44e5/eli5_if_you_used_a_conventional_optical/ | {
"a_id": [
"dy8oes8"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"No such strength will work. An atom is so small (similar in scale to a photon's wavelength) that it does not *have* an appearance in the traditional sense. (Plus its electrons actively interact with photons, which would interfere with any such appearance.)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
cb5fq9 | how eating charcoal / charcoal skin care is healthy | ELI5 Not to long ago I found this post on r/food about a vanilla/pineapple icecream with charcoal cone. How is eating charcoal healthy in this weird charcoal craze or for that matter how is charcoal healthy in skin care products | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cb5fq9/eli5_how_eating_charcoal_charcoal_skin_care_is/ | {
"a_id": [
"etd75u2",
"etd7aae"
],
"score": [
2,
8
],
"text": [
"While it isn't bad for you I wouldn't say that it's necessarily healthy. Activated charcoal is just burned coconut (or other plant based materials) so while you are able to eat it there is no real benefit. I'd liken it to eating burnt marshmallows, some people like them and they're not too bad for you. Skin care is just talking about how it's naturally exfoliating and same type of jazz as with mud masks and other natural skin products. Basically people like eating food that is a weird colour and charcoal ticks that box for us right now.",
"I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say this is just another fad.\n\n_Activated_ charcoal (and I admit I don't know how it is activated) is known as a filter - Britta filters, for instance, are charcoal. It is also used medicinally to absorb toxins if you've eaten something poisonous; I might accept it absorbs some excessive oils in skincare.\n\nAs a random additive to whatever feelgood dieet, though? Useless, just like all the other fads."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[]
]
|
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