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2f8vvg | what is digital millennium copyright act and how does it work? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2f8vvg/eli5_what_is_digital_millennium_copyright_act_and/ | {
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"[Googled it for you](_URL_0_) you first result is for Reddit, from 2013."
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"https://www.google.co.uk/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=1bcFVMGzGcaq8wew8ILACQ&gws_rd=ssl#newwindow=1&q=ELI5+What+is+Digital+Millennium+Copyright+Act+and+How+Does+it+Work"
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7zdnv9 | how do you tell whether something is a genuine mental illness or just a set of bad habits/personality traits? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7zdnv9/eli5_how_do_you_tell_whether_something_is_a/ | {
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"there are medical professionals trained in that kind of stuff. A lay person isn't going to have the skills or training to diagnose it.\n\nTry r/askdocs",
"In short: psychological diagnostics. This is a whole field of education and research. Psychologists and psychiatrists use a wide variety of methods to determine if a person qualifies for the definition of a certain illness, often following the [Diagnostics and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders](_URL_0_).\n\nIt comes down to being diagnosed. One key indicator of a mental illness is the client's suffering and how much the condition restricts the persons every day life. So what sometimes causes one person to be diagnosed with social anxiety whilst someone else just refers to 'not being good with people' is seeing a therapist because the person is suffering and seeks ways to get better. Also some person might suffer a major depression or is viewed as very depressed by peers and family yet never gets examined and thus - on paper - isn't seen as 'mentally ill'. \n"
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5otso0 | how do porn studios film "public" videos? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5otso0/eli5_how_do_porn_studios_film_public_videos/ | {
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"Usually they rent out the public space as a private staging area, and then fill the \"public space\" with extras that have consented to being there.\n\nMovies do this a lot to with scenes filmed in public places. They create a controlled environment and give it the appearance of a public location.",
"They have sex in public.\n\nSeriously, a lot of them is unauthorized and very illegal. Some places are private properties and use background actors and crew as the public. I could be off base but I don't think they prosecute people for sex in public after the fact.",
"Are they filmed in the USA? European countries are much more lax about public nudity (if perhaps not public *sex*).",
"Both Mininni and ajent123 are correct I think... Some are consented and legal as it probably should be but it's porn of course so they probably have an exit of sorts through a back alleyway or whatever. You know how in some scenes there's kidnappers taking a naked girl \"away from the scene\" for (obvious) sex purposes, or maybe after public lewd shaming? They're probably the ones helping the escape.",
"The answer is a combination of what /u/ajent123 and what /u/Mininni have said. \n\nUltimately it depends on the size of the studio. A lot of porn studios are extremely legitimate and professional. In that case, they pull permits for their scenes the same way any film studio would, and have a highly controlled environment, where extras have given consent, camera crews are standing by, as well as a full set of professionals for hair, makeup, etc. \n\nA smaller studio will most likely *not* do this, because it is difficult and costly, but also because they have less to lose. A large studio is a legit operation, with insurance, payroll, probably investors and parent companies. They need to be \"by the book\", but they also have the money and legal teams to figure out the logistics and make sure everything is above board. \n\nA smaller studio or freelance film crew can take the risk, film the scene quickly, and get out before they're caught. If they are caught, they may face fines, and may either just pay them or get out of dodge, depending on what they get served for.\n\n ",
"Asked some of my friends who have shot public stuff in Budapest a while ago (I think it was for digital playground or mofos, can't remember) \n\nSo they scout out a location that's not too busy, but also not completely dead.\n\nYou get the performers and the camera man and maybe a lighting guy do the video part, and the director/producer in the location.\n\nThen there are a bunch of people that walk the perimeter and are on look out and they have walkie talkies.\n\n\nThey also said a lot of stuff is staged, on in areas that are dead. But yeah, normally just lots of planning.",
"this is tagged \"culture\"?",
"Worked at a porn studio. On the Tech side, but I do have some inside info, in this case. It really depends. If it's in a shop, or something along those lines, usually there is an agreement to pay for the businesses' time and compensate them for the use of their business. If it's outdoors, there are many countries where nudity outside is not against the law, they'll film there. This way, they can do an interior shot for less money at home, and an exterior shot with a limited crew overseas.",
"They shoot very early in the morning, right when the sun comes up but before people have left the house to go to school and work. Nothing's open yet and the people who are out are usually commuting to work and too busy watching the road.",
"I saw a pornography film being shot in a park right by the Brandenburg Tor in Berlin back in 2005. It was barely dusk and she had fake breasts, bouncing up and down on the park bench. So that's how I guess.",
"I do urban exploration and can tell you a LOT of photographers just go and break into abandoned places to do photoshoots/videos. One of my friends once walked in on one while at a section of a closed section of a state park with abandoned buildings in it lol",
"Oh I have a small story about this. \nI went to a large public university (UCLA) and one time I saw these two blonds walking around in skimpy clothing (not much skimpier than normal since it was a sunny day in Southern California) but they were particularly standing out. They were on Bruinwalk which was the main walkway towards and from the dorms. \nAs I was walking towards them/back to my dorm I recognized one of them.......vaguely....They also had one guy in front of them shooting something on his large camera. No cones set up, no tape, just two girls walking and a guy filming them. Didn't think much of it since there are lots of famous people that visit the campus so I couldn't pinpoint who it was anyway. \n \nFast forward a year or two (can't remember how long) and I was watching this adult video and whaddaya know, the \"setting\" was on a university campus and it was the same scene that those two actresses were shooting that day! I tried to locate myself in the video and I could faintly make out my backpack in the background, it wasn't particularly crowded that time since it was during classtime. This was a large famous studio too, I can't remember the name of the video/studio though but it was easily recognizable, they didn't shoot the actual sex acts in public, it was just used as a setting. \n \n Also I've walked into many, many, many filming scenes of \"Lifetime Channel\" movies walking around campus, like literally into the front of the camera while it's rolling cuz they don't rope anything off. They give no fucks at all and it looks like they shoot without a permit or telling the school's administration. \n\n",
"Actual porn star here who shot Mofos Public Pickups -- I was very much at an actual Bank of America during the day when we shot the intro and later the BJ was shot behind an actual apartment building in an alley with a production assistant standing guard because it was DEFINITELY not OK'd by anyone.. Porn budgets are notoriously low, especially for gonzo sites that shoot primarily in Miami, corporate tries to make the product as cheap but effective as possible. The third party directors who take more risks get better results and thus they get more jobs, encouraging them to break the law more. I know of one company who literally shot a full porn scene (not just intro) in the back of a car at the Las Vegas airport. Extremely risky shit.",
"I saw one video of a woman doing some solo stuff and nude posing in a busy european tourist area. A cop comes up after about 20 minutes and asks them what they're doing. After a minute of talking to the attractive naked woman he decides he's okay with it and sits at the side for the rest of the video. Im pretty sure it was a real cop.",
"I had a friend who interned at a film company in college—it had a couple of subdivisions, one of which was adult films. One day they were low on extras for a public humiliation shoot so they sent him to observe, and asked him to bring friends if he could. He and one friend can be seen in the background laughing and making fun of the scene, because of how ridiculous/embarrassed they felt.\n\nSo, some scenes like this seem to take place in public, but are actually in areas that have been secured and filled with extras who're in on it.",
"I lived in Berlin and some years ago these guys posted on a very popular Facebook group, asking for volunteers to take part in the filming of a public humiliation video. I kinda wanted to reply, but I had a girlfriend at the time so it didn't seem very appropriate.. Still regretting it thought, would have been a really interesting experience\n\nTL;DR: most of the times the people are volunteers just pretending",
"Not a subject matter expert, but I would assume that it depends upon the professionalism of the production company. The larger, more professional companies do it \"right\" (get permits, etc) and the smaller, more amateur companies do it \"cheap\" (just do it and hope that they don't get caught).\n\nI live in Houston and stumbled across a smaller, more amateur company shooting a scene once. It is on a hidden side street near IAH on a bright spring day. I had been at my office and was heading home. I left the parking garage, turned onto this side street, and drove past a porn shoot. One of the actresses waved at me. I kept driving and then circled back around. I stopped and asked what they were doing. Without breaking stride, the lead photographer told me \"just shooting some stuff for a calendar.\" WTF? The actress who waved was smiling at me the entire time--while bent at the waist and her face between her ankles. It was interesting...\n",
"I stumbled upon a shoot in Buena Vista park in SF one day. MMF so three actors, camera and a dude with an improvised reflective screen. Lighting dude saw us, and nonchalantly gave the open hand-palm down \"Stay cool, stay back, stay quiet\" gesture then turned back to his duties as the spitroast turned into a conga line. \n\nFairly certain this was a very guerrilla shoot. \n\n\nYears later. \nFolsom street fair, it's not supposed to happen, but it does and the crowd slows down police response. ",
"A porn film was shot in my university library by Angela White. It's online, I'm sure you can find it around. The university did not give consent to the filming and I believe took legal action.\n\nLink: _URL_0_",
"I have a funny story here : In Japan, they used to film in public, like, in trains. They would just enter the train, having sex in front of people then leave at the next station.\nWhat could people do ? You can't do anything between stations, right ?\nNow, they CAN'T do that any longer because people have cellphones and can take pictures/videos and identify you, so they do have studios that are the size and the aspect of a train wagon and they shoot there."
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3luo8s | how is it that a drug that has been around for 62 years, and is effective in treating aids, has been hiked by 5500%. shouldn't there be generics by now? | [Article for clarity](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3luo8s/eli5_how_is_it_that_a_drug_that_has_been_around/ | {
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"Even though other companies are allowed to make a generic now, a company still has to decide that they WANT to make a generic and then apply to the FDA for their generic formulation to be approved. This application is much quicker and easier than the one needed to get the drug originally approved but still takes time and effort. Some drugs are not as commonly used or seen as not profitable so companies may decide that it's not even worth the trouble to manufacture a generic.\n\nWhat happened here is that this company bought the rights to the formulation which has already been approved by the FDA so that they can start producing it right away. Since no one else wants to bother making a generic to compete, this company basically has a monopoly on this specific drug and can charge whatever they want, until another company decides to step up and compete with them.\n\nSource: Pharmacist"
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6dapqs | why does wifi range seem to be determined solely by the router/ap? | I have noticed over the years, that increasing the power / antenna strength of an access point or router increases the distance that a signal is usable by a laptop/mobile phone/etc. While this might sound like a no-brainer, what about the signal getting BACK to the AP / router? It doesn't seem to matter how strong the radio is in the "receiving" device (yes, I understand the devices are also transmitting), only the "sending" device.
For instance, I routinely install long-range AP's in warehouses, some rated for 250+ meters (just shy of 1,000 ft.). Several times I have been required to increase the power available to the antennas in some AP's in order to reach specific devices behind concrete walls, through racks of metal, etc. I understand that this provides a stronger signal *TO* a device, but then how does the device (such as a laptop, that has a much smaller antenna and less power) still communicate (respond) back to the access point?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6dapqs/eli5_why_does_wifi_range_seem_to_be_determined/ | {
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"The stronger transmitter also has a more sensitive receiver. The signal threshold that your mobile device can detect is higher than what a dedicated router can pick up, allowing the mobile device to be compact and the router to pick up the slack on both sides of the communication.",
"the poweful antenna is better at sending out signals, but it's also better at recieving them. your laptop's signal may be too weak to be picked up by a standard AP, but there's still enough there for the long-range AP to pick up. at least i'm pretty sure that's how it works"
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6jvtq6 | what legislation gives politicians like mitch mcconnell so much individual power over the political process, like setting when bills are voted on, etc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6jvtq6/eli5_what_legislation_gives_politicians_like/ | {
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"[The constitution](_URL_0_). It says that congress gets to make its own rules on how it will make laws.\n\nMitch McConnell is the Senate Majority Leader, so he has a lot of influence in what those rules are decided to be.",
"He was appointed Senate Majority leader by the other Republicans in the Senate. Because he is the leader in the Senate, he's tasked to make sure Senators vote the way he wants them to vote, creating committees, etc."
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5cgadw | how do jelly fish avoid getting tangled with each other? | Visited Monterey bay aquarium today and noticed that there could be clusters of many jelly's with long tentacles but they never seemed to get tangled up with each other. How does that work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5cgadw/eli5_how_do_jelly_fish_avoid_getting_tangled_with/ | {
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"It depends in the jellyfish. At the Baltimore Aquarium, I saw a species of jellyfish with very very long, very very thin tentacles that would get tangled up in another's tentacles and flat-out get torn off. ",
"\"_Jellyfish don’t get tangled up because the tentacles are slippery. Their stinging cells don’t fire when they come in contact with their own tentacles or other jellies from their own species._\"\n\n[Source](_URL_0_)\n\nNow imagine if they somehow applied this to earphones. ",
"Best way to think about this is Spaghetti. The tentacles are slippery which stops them from tangling, to an extent. If the strands are long enough and thin enough then it will still be that they could become entangled.\n\n"
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54cxtj | how does (human) feces turn from chewed up food to a reeking log of matter? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/54cxtj/eli5_how_does_human_feces_turn_from_chewed_up/ | {
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"A huge part of the process is a huge constituent of our feces: Bacteria. More than half of what we crap out is... bacteria. \n_URL_0_\n\nNeedless to say a bunch of bacterial sludge doesn't smell fantastic on its own, but changes in your diet can also cause especially bad smelling feces. Generally speaking, the more meat you eat, the worse it smells, and there you're getting the contribution of... well... the smell of fleshy decomposition.\n\nStill by the far the greatest reason your feces smell are the loads of bacteria and bacterial corpses. "
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2ln13j | i'm not an alcoholic. but why almost every "last" sip from a bottle of whiskey is the one to make me gag almost (mostly) puke? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ln13j/eli5_im_not_an_alcoholic_but_why_almost_every/ | {
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"I think you're too young to be drinking whiskey."
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25fz4j | why sweden and neighbour countries are doing so well if socialistic solutions are generally considered uneffective? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/25fz4j/eli5_why_sweden_and_neighbour_countries_are_doing/ | {
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"Because in the U.S the media likes to bash socialism. Those solutions are considered ineffective in the U.S simply because the mass are fed with a lot of lies. In truth, countries that implement the best of every system generally do a lot better compared to those that favor one over another.",
"The reason why socialism works in for example Sweden, is that our culture is WAAAY different than the one in the US... In the US everyone carries on because of the hope of one day becoming rich and being super powerful. In Sweden most people are content with what they have and most people don't mind paying the taxes since we \"trust\" our government, (We don't trust our government, but we trust them enough to take our money) Healthcare in Sweden is pretty cheap and our Universities are free (+ students get paid to go to school). The reason our system wouldn't work in the US, is because you fend for yourself and you do what you do with your money...\n\nTL'DR Culture differences makes it impossible for socialism in the US.. \n\n+ Where the hell did you hear that socialistic solutions are ineffective? xD"
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bzovlr | why can an electric car (like a tesla) still be beaten in a race by a classic car? | I saw multiple videos about a Tesla family car beating all the competition on a 100 meter or so track. After that the classic engines gained on them.
Why is this? Isn't an electric motor able to just gain speed until the battery runs out since there are very little moving parts like in a classic engine? Correct me if I'm way off. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bzovlr/eli5_why_can_an_electric_car_like_a_tesla_still/ | {
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"An electric motor is limited by the amount of current the power supply (which is a combination of the batteries and the associated control circuitry) can deliver. \n\nWhy you're seeing Tesla cars beating muscle cars and drag-strip type cars has to do with the fact that an electric motor delivers maximum torque when it is dead-stalled, whereas a gasoline motor doesn't hit the peak of it's torque until well into middle RPM range. This is what allows you to stomp on the pedal in a Tesla and go from zero to 60 in a heartbeat while the guy in the gasser is still waiting for his engine to hit the sweet spot in its torque curve."
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1v69eb | if i'm watching something distant on a tv screen, do my eyes have to do the same focusing work as if i was watching the same scene in the real world? | I've heard that to lessen eye fatigue from reading or looking at a computer screen, one strategy is the "20-20-20". This entails looking at something at least twenty meters away for twenty seconds once every twenty minutes. This made me wonder if I could accomplish the same thing by looking at a distant object on my computer screen. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1v69eb/eli5_if_im_watching_something_distant_on_a_tv/ | {
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" > If I'm watching something distant on a TV screen, do my eyes have to do the same focusing work as if I was watching the same scene in the real world?\n\nNo. When looking at an image on a TV screen, your eyes are focusing at the distance of the screen.\n\nMirrors, however, work as you describe."
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2tvo9t | how can a government create jobs for the unemployed? | Like do they open up government owned offices and factories and receive workers? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2tvo9t/eli5_how_can_a_government_create_jobs_for_the/ | {
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"Governments can decide to invest in infrastructure (build a bridge for example). Governments can also create jobs though law changes (limiting overtime or making a workweek be 36 hours instead of 40) or incentives (gives companies tax cuts for every new person they hire).",
"The government can spend money. Much of the money comes from the taxes the collect. They can also spend more money than they collect which puts them into a deficit through borrowing money using loans or bonds.\n\nThat government money can be spent to pay the income for jobs. One of the reasons the US weathered out the Great Depression is that the government spent a great deal of money as part of the New Deal passed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.\n\nA great deal of money was spent to hire unemployed workers to construct public works such as government buildings, dams, bridges, and many of the highways that we now drive on. There were a great deal of unemployed due to the market crash from the Great Depression.\n\nEven though in the short term, the government lost a great deal of money, it was spending it as an investment that would pay off in the future. This is one of the reasons why the highway system in the US is so universal and why most of our goods are shipped via truck."
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1sdkq2 | what made us change viewpoints in art so much that appearance of products such as cars and clothing changed so drastically over the few decades? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sdkq2/eli5_what_made_us_change_viewpoints_in_art_so/ | {
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"I'm sure there are countless factors, but some that I can think of:\n\n1. Novelty. If something radically new is simply thought of, it might be fashionable\n\n2. Technology. As new techniques, materials and methods become available, new styles have the potential to become fashionable\n\n3. Values. This is perhaps my pick for the most important factor. We see obvious shifts in taste after large changes in values. Abstract art and modernist architecture appear after WWI, for example, and they reflect the changing attitudes to class, religion, society, nationalism and war. The growing abstraction follows a wider pattern as the values of Western societies move into modernist and later post-structuralist discourses.\n\n4. The economy. Grunge, for example, will only be fashionable if people are relatively well off and being poor isn't a reality for most. Similarly, architecture will get more ostentatious during wealthy periods\n\n5. Cultural transfer. Influences from other places will generally increase as a society becomes more exposed to that place. This coupled with novelty often leads to brief periods of fashion \"borrowing\" styles from a culture that it was previously unexposed to, but then will plateau. This also applies to time: if a particular time period is in the news a lot, it will likely have a larger hold on contemporary styles"
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afmem0 | could plants that were grown on the international space station survive if they were brought back to earth? what physiological differences do they have compared to their earth brethren? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/afmem0/eli5_could_plants_that_were_grown_on_the/ | {
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"From what I could find online, it doesn't look like there are major changes in plants grown on the ISS. A study using spruce pine only found different gene expression for 3 genes - that is incredibly low. Morning and afternoon gene expression is move varied than that.\n\nI suspect this is because plants need to be **extremely** adaptable to survive, because they can't move away from unfavourable conditions. A plant is more likely to die if you (instantly) move it from a humid greenhouse to a drier garden. \n\nThe greatest problem with transferring plants from the ISS to earth would be the journey back - it's a hot and really bumpy ride in a tiny capsule - they might get squished en route."
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1jh07d | how do people like jeffrey skilling, people who are fined outrageous amounts of money, pay the fine? | Jeffrey Skilling was fined $45 million for his role in Enron. This number being quite high, what is the process that he would go through to pay this and what would the repercussions be? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jh07d/eli5_how_do_people_like_jeffrey_skilling_people/ | {
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" > Jeffrey Skilling was fined $45 million for his role in Enron. This number being quite high\n\nHe made $132 million a year at Enron.\n\n > what is the process that he would go through to pay this\n\nHe would write a check.\n\n > and what would the repercussions be?\n\nHe would have $45 million less dollars."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
|
5vgpxs | why do safari guides and zoo keepers wear khaki outfits? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5vgpxs/eli5_why_do_safari_guides_and_zoo_keepers_wear/ | {
"a_id": [
"de20l24"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"It's a neutral colour that blends in in most environments. Tan/khaki/brown clothing and even the cars/safari vans tend to match the environment to make the animals more comfortable"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
f2jt9i | for self-driving cars, how are lidar/radar/sonar resilient to interference from other self-driving cars? | Thinking about a future where most cars are self-driving. How would each of their signals not interfere with one another? Are these bands wide enough that each car could operate at a randomly assigned frequency and it be extremely unlikely that those signals would collide with one another? Am I misunderstanding something about how these fundamentally work (likely)? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f2jt9i/eli5_for_selfdriving_cars_how_are_lidarradarsonar/ | {
"a_id": [
"fhd113m",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Interference will be an issue that companies are going to have to deal with, yeah. Hopefully there’ll be standards (ranges of frequencies, protocols for the beams/pulses emitted, that sort of thing) developed as the technology matures, and that should help.",
"The problem is less large than you might think largely because there are a relatively small number of vehicles that can even theoretically occupy a relatively large area simultaneously. You can use just randomness to get pretty darn unlikely to have collisions. Bigger issues for radar are often seen as waveform interference concerns, not a collision of like signals.\n\nBut...the issues for radar on cars is an area of active research and there are many proposals out there for how to address this with resiliency and with less need for redundancy. The concerns for radar arise not from cars by themselves, but cars in conjunction with expected proliferation of use of things like gesture sensing, uavs of all sorts all alongside cars. This means that the amount of noise out there within a space could grow a lot more than via cars alone.\n\nHere's a recent published work on dealing with the issue: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[],
[
"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6832580/"
]
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|
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3g1n3c | why do curbs exist? why not just have sidewalks on street level? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3g1n3c/eli5_why_do_curbs_exist_why_not_just_have/ | {
"a_id": [
"cttzm1i"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Roads are very cleverly designed. All roads are a camber, which means that the road rises from the curb to the crown and back down again. This means all the rain, snow, slush and other general shite that might land on the road is forced to the sides, clearing the middle of the road of any debris. If the sidewalk was the same level as the road, all the shite that is pushed to the side of the road would be on the path. \n\nThere are other reasons, such as giving pedestrians a safer place to walk (a lot easier for a distracted driver to drift into a sidewalk if there is no indication that you're doing it), but that is the main reason. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
]
|
||
erk8ad | how did wood burning stoves heat the house up but not fill it with smoke? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/erk8ad/eli5_how_did_wood_burning_stoves_heat_the_house/ | {
"a_id": [
"ff473rv",
"ff488af"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"My house growing up had a wood burning stove and they're different than fireplaces. Wood burning stoves have an enclosed space for the fire. Vents allow air into the enclosed space and there is a metal chimney that vents smoke outside the house. \n\nFor a more traditional fireplace, the chimney vents smoke outside the house. The hot smoke rises and doesn't spread out.",
"Your flue controls the air into the stove and the damper controls the air out. With a properly sized wood stove it will heat a whole house comfortably."
]
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| []
| [
[],
[]
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|
||
ys0nw | the difference between hedge funds, investment banks, private equity, and other financial institutions | I know there are many different terms, but I just have a hard time figuring them out. Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ys0nw/eli5_the_difference_between_hedge_funds/ | {
"a_id": [
"c5ybwtl",
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"score": [
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"text": [
"This is tricky to explain simply, so I'll start simple, and if you want to know more, let me know.\n\n**Hedge funds** use money from a small number of REALLY rich people (or pension funds or endowments) to make investments. These investments can be in all sorts of things: stocks, bonds, commodities, etc. The distinguishing feature of hedge funds is the small number of very, very rich investors and the flexibility of investment strategy.\n\n**Investment banks** do a lot of stuff. For instance, they help advise companies that want to merge with or acquire other companies. They'll also do finance-related research for client companies. I think the distinguishing feature of investment banks, though, is the creation, sale, and purchase of financial securities. Financial securities can be a very wide range of things, and they are a whole issue unto themselves, but for now, you can think about them as ways for companies or people to make finance-related promises to each other and to buy and sell those promises.\n\n**Private equity** firms are involved with buying and selling stock of other companies. They can do all sorts of things within that. For instance, they can buy stock from very young companies that are probably higher-risk, but also higher reward (venture capital). They can also buy a majority share in a company, and make a bunch of changes to the company that they think will make the company worth more money, and then sell those stocks (buyouts).\n\nSo, when you think of **hedge funds**, think of general investing for rich people (or pension funds or endowments). When you think of **investment banks** think of financial services for businesses. And, when you thing of **private equity**, think of stocks.\n\nEDIT: Keep in mind that there are other institutions that let rich people make general investments, offer financial services to businesses, and buy and sell stock. I just wanted to cover the ones that you asked about.",
"A ***mutual fund*** will take money from people like you and me and then invest it in stocks and bonds to try to make more money for the people that have invested in it.\n\nA ***hedge fund*** is a mutual fund of sorts. It is a pool of wealth that takes money from a limited number of very wealthy people and invests it for them. Hedge funds have barely any government regulation on them, allowing them to invest in very risky and exotic investments if they choose. US law allows hedge funds to escape regulations that a typical mutual fund or pension fund would have as long as the total number of investors in the fund is under a certain number (100, I believe) and the investors are sufficiently wealthy.\n\nBoutique (smaller) ***investment banks*** typically just have one function: investment banking. Investment banking has two main components: The first component is that they raise money for firms by creating debt or equity securities for the company and selling them to investors. For example, Facebook's IPO was an equity offering. Facebook sold a large stake in its company (by selling a ton of stock in its company) for a large sum of money. The second component of investment banking is helping companies merge and acquire one another (Mergers and Acquisitions). The investment bank will use models to find a fair price for a company, assist a company in finding buyers/sellers, and work out all of the details to close an acquisition. \n\nLarger ***investment banks*** (including what are called \"Bulge Bracket\" banks) typically also have research, sales & trading, and other functions alongside investment banking. The research division analyzes certain stocks and publishes reports on whether investors should buy or sell them, along with predictions on what the prices of these stocks will be in the future. They sell these reports to investors. \n\nThe sales & trading division of an investment bank acts as a middleman between buyers and sellers of stocks, bonds, commodities, etc. For example, they might buy 100,000 shares of Apple from a pension fund and then sell it immediately, or as soon as they can, to another investor or investors. They (hopefully) make money from each transaction, through the \"spread\" or, the difference between what they buy it and sell it for.\n\nThe large investment banks typically have asset management divisions as well, which invest in stocks, bonds, etc like a hedge fund, but typically with more government regulations.\n\nNowadays, investment banks have merged with ***commercial banks***. JPMorgan, one of the most prominent investment banks, is merged with Chase, one of the most prominent commercial banks. Same story with Citi, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, etc. A commercial bank takes deposits from people and loans that money out to businesses. If you have a checking account, your money is being held by a commercial bank. \n\n***Private equity*** firms buy equity in companies, meaning they own part of the companies they invest in. They usually buy a controlling stake in these companies (meaning they own more than 50% of the stock in a company), which means they can dictate what that company does going forward. They can replace the CEO, change product lines around, expand into new territories, etc if they think these things will help the company be more profitable. When they buy these companies, they typically borrow a lot of money to fund the purchase. They try to make the company more profitable before they sell it a few years down the road for a higher value than they bought it for. Very rich people, college endowments, etc give their money to private equity firms to buy these companies and generate an investment return for them."
]
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[],
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2jozd7 | how much oil(gas) do we burn moving oil(gas) around the world? | We Ship and use trucks to move oil/fuel around the world. How much of that do we waste moving it around?
Plz expand on the question if you like. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2jozd7/eli5_how_much_oilgas_do_we_burn_moving_oilgas/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
14,
4
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"text": [
"Here are some rough numbers calculated from [Wikipedia](_URL_0_).\n\nCargo ship: 0.1-0.3% per 1000 km (in other words, to transport an amount of fuel over a distance of 1000 km, you have to burn 0.1% of that amount of fuel).\n\nFreight train: 0.4%-0.9% per 1000 km\n\nTruck: 3% per 1000 km\n\nAir: 8-9% per 1000 km\n\n\nEDIT: Line breaks",
"A suezmax tanker (tanker that will fit through the suez canal) fitted with a wartsila X72 engine burns 56.7 metric tons of fuel per day traveling at 15knots. A suezmax will carry 1,000,000 barrels of oil. 56.7 Mt of fuel is about 510 barrels. So, the ship uses 510 barrels/day to push 1,000,000 barrels of cargo 360 nautical miles (414 miles). Fuel efficiency will increase if the ship slows it's speed. "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_efficiency_in_transportation"
],
[]
]
|
|
c2w9y5 | we close our eyelids when we sleep. how do we "close our ears"? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c2w9y5/eli5_we_close_our_eyelids_when_we_sleep_how_do_we/ | {
"a_id": [
"ermwsvo"
],
"score": [
3
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"text": [
"You don't. Your brain is listening all the time for any noises that might mean danger but apart from that it doesn't process them further while you're sleeping. Think of it as a kind of stand-by mode."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
||
2p74du | how do light bulb companies know how long a lightbulb will last? | I've seen light bulbs saying they will last up to 20 years, and I wondered how they would figure that. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2p74du/eli5_how_do_light_bulb_companies_know_how_long_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"cmtyc2e"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"A lot of times they don't know. I have an acquaintance that works in the light industry. He sells lights to businesses to use in their offices and factories. He said that LED, for instance, is in kind of the 'wild west' stages right now (his words, not mine). He claimed that there is very little regulation in the LED lighting industry. Basically, anyone can start making lights in their garage if they can get their hands on the raw materials. They can box it up and make pretty much whatever claim they want about how long it will last and how much power it uses. I don't know how incandescent, florescent, compact florescent, sodium, mercury, (etc.) lights are evaluated, but, from what I understand, LED's aren't very regulated. I would have to think that the bulbs have been around for quite a while would be tested in a lab to determine average life, though.\n\nI found this website that was of some help. _URL_0_ "
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.americanlightingassoc.com/Lighting-Fundamentals/Light-Sources-Light-Bulbs/New-U-S--Bulb-Packaging.aspx"
]
]
|
|
159l4h | how does anodizing titanium change the color? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/159l4h/how_does_anodizing_titanium_change_the_color/ | {
"a_id": [
"c7kkd8d"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Anodizing creates a layer on the surface that reflects light. Then [interference](_URL_0_) happens eliminating all but one color which is reflected. The thickness of the layer determines the color.\n\nFun fact: anodized aluminum gets its color from coloring substances which are applied to the porous surface of the part."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin-film_interference"
]
]
|
||
36tqr9 | why do gardeners cut off parts of their plants / flowers? (pruning) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36tqr9/eli5_why_do_gardeners_cut_off_parts_of_their/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Not an expert, but pruning kills off lesser parts of the plant so other parts can thrive.\n\nCould be wrong, but makes the most sense to me.",
"For the most part, it's to keep the shape. Hedges, bushes, small trees, etc have a particular shape that many people want to keep, so they trim the growing branches in order to keep that shape.\n\nThe lesser known and more agricultural reason is to stop the plants from growing wild. The trunk/main stem can only carry so many nutrients. By trimming the small budding branches you are stopping the nutrients from being used there and they instead go to other parts of the plant, mainly the leaves and fruit.\n\nThis is why you will rarely see a wild apple tree with large and delicious apples, the apples themselves aren't getting as many nutrients as they would otherwise get. It's also why trimmed trees tend to look fuller and be a darker green.",
"I have a horticulture degree, and a big part of it for gardeners is to keep a certain shape, but another reason is to force a certain development. For some plants this could be used to force it into flowering more, or to focus on putting more sugar into the fruit instead of developing new leaves. If the plant lacks the places where it would ideally put excess sugars that generally enable it to survive better, it will focus on more or less secondary options such as flowers or fruit.\n\n"
]
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5xkpji | why were people compelled to kill the last wild specimens of now extinct species? | I was just reading about the extinction of the passenger pigeon on Wikipedia, and this passage stood out to me:
"The last wild individual in Louisiana was discovered among a flock of mourning doves in 1896, and subsequently shot."
You can find accounts like these regarding numerous species, such as the great auk. I can understand why hunters would kill members of a seemingly abundant species, but what mindset would motivate someone to kill what may be the last individual of an extremely rare species?
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5xkpji/eli5_why_were_people_compelled_to_kill_the_last/ | {
"a_id": [
"deit6a8",
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"score": [
11,
2
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"text": [
"One of the main reasons is so that you can collect and preserve a rare species. Once killed, the animal can be cleaned, stuffed, and mounted on a wall or otherwise preserved in perpetuity.\n\nThe people who do this care more about collecting those animals than they do about actually preserving a rare species.",
"Similarly, I've always wondered about the mindset of poachers. They must realize they are poaching animals to the brink of extinction and once that happens, their income source is gone. Are they that short sighted and figure they'll just move on to the next thing? I just don't get it."
]
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[],
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j2j5j | why are tv shows so heavily censored? even the late night shows? explain like i'm 5 | I don't understand the need to censor every curse word (and some are not even curse words) in every possible program (that is for USA shows, I haven't noticed that amount of censorship in other shows).
so just explain to me (like I'm five) what brought this insane amount of censorship of every possible TV show, because those beeps are getting annoying. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j2j5j/why_are_tv_shows_so_heavily_censored_even_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"c28louv",
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20,
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"text": [
"Religious conservative viewers. When they get offended by the word \"boner\" or \"tit\" they call and write letters. And they get all their friends to call and write letters. And their entire church to call and write letters.\n\nSane people don't call and write letters, so no one hears our opinions so we get ignored. The FCC is merely responding to all the call and letters they get.",
"Shows are censored so a Television Station can get advertising hours. Most companies don't want to be associated with bad words and vulgar gestures. This is how the station is able to make some money."
]
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[],
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5raihy | why after waking up from a well rested nights sleep do people experience decreased grip strength or muscle fatigue in their hands? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5raihy/eli5_why_after_waking_up_from_a_well_rested/ | {
"a_id": [
"dd5ojgo",
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"text": [
"There are two major reasons. \nSleeping reduces your heart rate, breathing rate. This contributes to less oxygen in your blood and around your muscles (since you don't need it). So when you wake up, when you want to do something that requires strength, your muscles don't have the oxygen required to operate at full power.\n\nThe second reason is that your brain releases a hormone that basically paralyzes you. That's so when you dream or whatever, you don't flip out, punch your children, give away your position to predators, etc. When you first wake up you still have some of this hormone and it takes some time to get rid of it.",
"It could be your pillow is not supportive enough and your neck is not getting support while you are sleeping. "
]
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[],
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||
1l5khf | why do american politicians care if a few extremely wealthy people like them or not, rather than the low/middle class who elect them? | Sorry if its a dumb question, I have read a lot of this these past few months and have yet to grasp the idea. Thanks | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l5khf/eli5_why_do_american_politicians_care_if_a_few/ | {
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"text": [
"Campaigning for election costs lots of money (paying for adverts, hiring people to manage it, transporting yourself around), so large donations from wealthy supporters can be a massive boost for any politician or party.\n\nExtremely wealthy people also tend to be rather influential either as themselves (celebrity status), or through what they own (media outlets), or their contacts. ",
"Running for election costs a lot of money. Big business supports politicians they like (or politicians that will pass favorable legislation). \n\nMiddle class would not know the name of a politician if big business didn't pay for election costs.",
"Low and middle class people aren't the movers and the shakers in society. The wealth, the power, and the influence flow from those in the upper class. But it goes even deeper than that...\n\nWhen you're a politician, you have to plan for what you're going to do when you're no longer a politician. If you aren't a former President, this generally means that you have to work. The upper class also happens to be fairly well-connected with business...so if you need them to get a job after you've lost an election or hit a term limit, you better hope that they're receptive. If they aren't, you might have to **gasp** decrease your standard of living (as opposed to increasing it)! The horror!\n\nOr, you need friends in high places to pull strings to give family members advantages that they wouldn't normally get. Junior needs to get an internship at a prestigious law firm, your nephew wants to advance in the government bureaucracy, etc. These things don't generally fall into someone's lap. \n\n"
]
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1nc16a | if a large enough mass was dropped onto the earth could it knock it out of orbit? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nc16a/eli5_if_a_large_enough_mass_was_dropped_onto_the/ | {
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"Sort of.\n\nA huge (another planet) object striking or moving close to Earth has the chance to disrupt the orbit, depending on the speed and angle of the impact.\n\nThis isn't really \"dropping\" though, since the object in question would be moving much faster and have its own gravity. The Earth as you know it would also be destroyed by such an impact.\n\nAn object too small to have any real surface gravity wouldn't be able to budge the Earth.",
"\"knocking out of orbit\" implies an object colliding with enough force to either accelerate our entire planet enough to enter an escape velocity or slow it down (or speed it up enough) enough to crash into another body (say the sun)\n\nEver played Kerbal Space Program (/r/KerbalSpaceProgram). Go ahead and launch a small probe into space, use the \"no crash damage\" cheat, and use attempt to deorbit the probe using \"whack a kerbal\" .\n\nIt would take a flippin' huge object traveling near the speed of light to cause the kind of change in orbital velocity needed to deorbit Earth. But if an object with those properties did collide with Earth, would there even be a Earth left to be deorbited?",
"Could a large object smash into Earth hard enough to send us flying into space? Well not really, because if something was that big and hit us hard enough flying off into space would be the least of our problems because our planet would be obliterated.\n\nBut if a stellar object with enough gravity entered our solar system, say for instance a brown dwarf star. If it came on the right trajectory and came close enough earth could essentially start falling into the brown dwarf. Eventually the brown dwarf would move out of our solar system and gravity, having already started pulling on earth could accelerate earth to speeds fast enough to make it escape both the brown dwarfs and the suns gravity and fling us into space."
]
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2oalvn | as we become more technologically advanced.. can it be proven that when we hit a certain point of computer capability it will be advanced enough to where it exponentially becomes more advanced and in much shorter periods of time.? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2oalvn/eli5_as_we_become_more_technologically_advanced/ | {
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"text": [
"Of course. That's happening *right now*. Moore's Law is exponential, and that's been going for decades.",
"Can it be proven? I don't think so. But there are a lot of theories out there about this kind of thing.\n\n_URL_0_"
]
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| []
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[],
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28hpod | how did they do the dinosaur sounds for jurassic park? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28hpod/eli5_how_did_they_do_the_dinosaur_sounds_for/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"This is the first write up I found with a simple google search: _URL_0_"
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/how-the-dino-sounds-in-jurassic-park-were-made.html"
]
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|
||
6xcq38 | how do modern cinemas show films? is it still reel to reel or are all of our movies on usb? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6xcq38/eli5_how_do_modern_cinemas_show_films_is_it_still/ | {
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"text": [
"They're on encrypted hard disc/SSD cartridges plugged into digital projectors, in the same sorts of formats you can find on iTunes but at much higher bitrates. You won't see actual film unless you go to an \"arthouse\" cinema.",
"The video format used in digital cinema is 12-bit images in the XYZ color space in either 2048 x 858 for Scope (2.39) aspect or 1998 x 1080 for Flat (1.85) aspect in 2K resolution. The image dimensions are doubled for 4K resolution. The actual images are compressed using JPEG2000 at a data rate of up to 250 Mbps for 24 frames per second material. The compressed images are packed in a MXF file and are usually encrypted using the 128-bit AES algorithm.\n\nAudio is uncompressed 24-bit at 48 or 96 KHz and the format supports up to 16 channels. Audio is also stored in MXF files and may also be encrypted.\n\nAn XML file called the Composition Playlist or CPL ties everything together into a Composition which is the basic unit that can be played in a theatre."
]
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46l9w8 | why is dead weight (unconscious person) so heavy when the person's weight doesn't change? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46l9w8/eli5_why_is_dead_weight_unconscious_person_so/ | {
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"When a person is alive and with-it, they \"participate\" in being held by making sure weight is distributed to your core. Getting a floppy body to have its weight distributed to your core muscles is hard and this makes balancing difficult and causes you to engage relatively weak muscles.",
"Because it's awkward. It's like moving a mattress from an upstairs bedroom out the front door. The mattress isn't really that heavy, but it's awkward as hell.",
"The weight of something small and carried cradled to your body, like a small dog, doesn't really alter how hard it is to carry when dead, because it is all concentrated in your arms and supported by your core either way (assuming the living dog is not wriggling around). But if you have something with more expansive weight distribution, you need some cooperation from the source, such that it is moving with you in tandem to keep the weight distribution more centered.\n",
"There's a Mythbusters that (tangentially) addresses this! _URL_0_ ",
"Think about how much weight you can bear. Than think about that same weight in grocery bags vs. proportionate dumb bells. ",
"Speaking as a funeral director who has moved 1000s of dead bodies this is my take on it.\n\nThe biggest problem with a dead body is the centre of gravity is always changing and as well the weight of the human body is not distributed evenly. This makes it difficult for the average person to move a body.\n\nA body has arms, legs and a head that will constantly move when the body is moved and this changes the centre of gravity. Even on a stretcher there are small movements that you notice. When you move a body on a two man stretcher part of the effort is simply keeping the stretcher level when you move.\n\nWith the right equipment it can make the task easier. Stretchers, backboards, straps and sheets are quite handy for moving bodies.\n\nOne of the things I observed about homicides is bodies are almost never moved by the person responsible (unlike Hollywood movies). Most bodies are left where they fell. I think this goes to show how difficult it can be to move a dead body.",
"Rigid weight is easier to lift. Imagine lifting weights using a normal barbell. When you move, the part of the bar that's in contact with you and the rest of it moves at the same time and speed. Now, imagine using [this bar](_URL_0_). It's unstable, and it's much more challenging to lift.",
"It's about the right angle of holding and the center of gravity of the person. For the same reason it is easier to carry 50 lbs of wood than a 50 lb mattress. The awake person can contract muscles to make a rigid shape that is easier to carry, while unconscious person will be floppy and the center of gravity will be unstable.",
"Weight that shifts around is hard to pick up. The weight shifts around requiring constant readjustment. That requires you to use different muscles to stabilize the weight which reduces how much you can actually lift. \n\nA good example is that it is easier to load 50 bags of fertilizer that are fully packed and hold their form than it is to move 50 bags that aren't fully packed. The fully packed bags weigh more, but they have a more consistent form making handing them easier. ",
"Carrying an unconscious person is not really all that difficult. If you know the proper technique you can move a person that weighs just as much as you or more. The \"pack strap\" method is very effective for large people. The \"firemans carry\" is great for smaller people. ",
"I remember back when I taught first aid. When simulating someone going unconscious, the kids would always generously fall into the rescuers arms. Then I'd give them a real demo of what someone is like collapsing and they were always shocked at how hard it was. \n\nWe kind of never realize that when we're conscious, we're always controlling and balancing our body in some way. Even as a form of self preservation. It's very hard to get your body to truly fall because you subconsciously know that it's going to hurt. \n\nWhen you're actually unconscious, no such inhibitions. ",
"In wrestling you learn this pretty quickly. When a person is trying to keep their balance (say, 100% of the time when they're awake) they're always trying to keep their hips underneath them, or an arm, or a leg, etc. The effort of trying to keep yourself erect actually stacks your balance vertically on one or two balance points. The person trying to lift simply need get under one or both of the balance points to assume most of the other person's weight rather quickly... over the lifter's own point of balance. Hence why in wrestling if you want to avoid being lifted, you drop your hips out like dead weight. When they're sleepy and floppy, most of the weight stays under you or too far away from you for you to get your balance under the majority of it. That's why it's easiest to stack that person up to a kneeling position and grab under one shoulder for a fireman's carry or something of the like.",
"Im actually studying biomechanics right now.\n\nWhat happens is what magters is torque, not weight. If youve done any physics or math, youll understand torque as being t =rFSin(theta) in which\n\nr = the distance of the center of mass to the point of rotation\n\nFsin(theta) = the vector component of force that is perpendicular to r\n\n\nSo when balancing you actually have an imaginary oval area on the ground in which your center of mass can move about without you falling over because your leg muscles can produce enough torque to keep you in place. Imagine your center of mass as a dot moving in a 2D plane on the floor inside of a sumo wrestling ring. If it goes out of the ring, you fall. Of course you can change the size and shape of this imaginary area by changing your stance.\n\n\nWhat happens is when someone is awake they try as much as possible to change your center of mass as little as possible. By staying close to you they dont change the \"r\" component very much. They just increase the F needed. So the torque you need to produce increases, but not by that much.\n\n\nWhat happens when someone is unconscious is they dont bother trying to keep their center of mass close to yours. Now youre increasing r AND F. So the torque you need to produce increases a lot more.\n\n\nTL;DR when someone is away theyll stay close to you which is easier to hold than if theyre unconscious and flipping away from you",
"Their center of gravity is constantly shifting, forcing your muscles to adjust constantly to account for this.\n\nThink of trying to lift up a barbell (center of gravity immutable - assuming, of course, the person uses clips to hold the plates in place) and lifting up a bag of rice or wheat or gravel of the same weight. The bag will feel harder to lift because the center of gravity will be constantly shifting (some of the difficulty is also due to the innate awkwardness in trying to lift a bag opposed to something more lift-friendly like a barbell).",
"Consistency. When you are conscious + being lifted, you usually tighten certain core muscles (e.g abs, obliques, lower back). This tightening causes a more consistent weight distribution. IN response, the lifters body doesn't have to make many adjustments, and the smaller fibers aren't stressed. In contrast, if someone is unconscious, their body tends to flay about as weight shifts around. Those rapid weight shifts force the person carrying to constantly readjust their angle, which places more strain on smaller muscle fibers (plus certain angles are simply harder to lift from). \n\nIn principle it is a bit like lifting with a machine versus free weights. In one instance there is only one path of resistance, in the other, there is deviation. This is why many gym / fitness professionals will start with free weights before using machines in their various routines.",
"Because if a person is conscious they actively help themselves help you. While unconscious they have no control.",
"Retired ballet dancer who lifted (living) girls as a career here.\n\nThe metaphor I used when working with beginning partners is this:\n\nImagine picking up a 40 pound dumbell. Pretty easy. \n\nNow imagine picking up a 40 pound bag of water.\n\nWhen you lift the dumbell, you can find the center and lift it from the center. When you lift the bag of water, the center keeps shifting. It's also much harder to hold on to.\n\nSame with human bodies. A partner who is holding her center is easy to lift. A partner who relaxes shifts around, and is extremely hard to lift.\n\nIt's not the weight that changes, it's the leverage. You get better leverage when working with a rigid body.",
"It’s like comparing holding a box with a handle and a sack. The 2 items could be the same weight but the sack is more work it is harder to grip can move around a lot more while you carry it. The box gives you somewhat more control and it is the same when carrying someone.\n\nA conscious person helps you when you carry them. Be it them holding onto you, moving around a little to help keep balance and generally stay rigid or at least more so and if there feet are on the floor they might even walk a bit and/or but some pressure on the floor releasing you. An unconscious person all their limbs are floppy you got all their weight on you. You get none of the help. You are the one keeping balance gripping and moving yourself and them.\n",
"We had to carry 200 pound dummies in fire training and Jesus christ is that hard. I can deadlift 500 pounds but i could barely pick that dummy up. ",
"It's far easier to hold an ice cube in your hand than it is to hold the same amount of liquid water in it.",
"It's a problem of leverage rather than weight. A conscious person instinctively tenses their muscles in ways that create points of leverage to support their weight, even if they're trying not to. We evolved that instinct to protect ourselves when falling - your muscles react before you even know what's happening. \n\nAn unconscious person can't do that. Muscles that are normally consciously controlled do nothing, even instinctively, because they are not receiving trigger signals from the brain based on sensory information. So their body doesn't maintain leverage points: You have to lug the entire weight of their body as if it were a sack of fluid (which it is). ",
"You've had a ton of people explain this but, if you want a super easy way to see it in action. Get a friend (anyone, boy, girl, family, whatever) and tell them you want to see how much heavier they feel when they're trying to not weigh as much, versus dead weight. Tell them to hop on your back piggy back style, so you're holding their legs and they're on your back with their arms around your shoulders/neck. Tell them to try to get as straight and close to you as possible and try to make it as easy as possible to hold you there. Great. That's if they're cooperating, now have them put their arms completely relaxed so you can hold them, and tell them to go completely and totally limp, suddenly they feel a whole lot heavier and you won't be able to hold them up nearly as long.",
"Need help hiding the body?",
"Think of it like carrying a heavy, solid board vs carrying the same weight/size piece made of super soft, floppy, flexible rubber instead. The board will not flex much and would be a lot easier to apply force to. The rubber would flop around and give. When you picked it up in the middle the ends could still be flexing and dragging on the floor, etc.",
"*~~My original explanation was removed for only being one sentence. However, I firmly stand by my one sentence explanation, since it accurately explains what you are asking for. The explanation poetically presented itself through my fingers, as a short explanation. So screw rule 3. The explanation being:~~* *\"***Dead weight can't lift itself.***\"*"
]
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[],
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"http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/dead-body-olympics/"
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"http://www.roguefitness.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/a/bamboo-bar-1_1.jpg"
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6y8e3b | what causes some people to be abnormally tall compared to so many others being between a certain threshold? | For example, I just read something about a soldier being around 8 feet tall. What has to happen in their genes to cause that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6y8e3b/eli5_what_causes_some_people_to_be_abnormally/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmlzv5i"
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"score": [
2
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"text": [
"Height is a polygenic trait. This means that many genes work together to determine how tall a person will be. If you have a lot of different genes with different effects on a trait, you tend to get a bell curve or normal distribution, where most people cluster around some average and there are relatively few people at the extremes.\n\nHuman gigantism is most often caused by a pituitary tumor that secretes excess growth hormone. This is not a genetic disease, although there are genetic conditions that can increase the risk of developing a pituitary tumor."
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
|
4jtbzd | how can companies like samsung make so many smartphones? | It seems counter intuitive for a single company to have so many similar products on the market at once. Wouldn't they cannibalize their own products? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4jtbzd/eli5_how_can_companies_like_samsung_make_so_many/ | {
"a_id": [
"d39dtxq",
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6
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"text": [
"Their different products are for different target groups. Say the Samsung Galaxy for those looking for the \"latest coolest phone\", Samsung Note for those who want a larger screen, Ace for mid range phone and with a tighter budget etc.",
"samsung is a country disguise as a company\n\n\n_URL_0_\n\nsamsung itself is 1/5 the GDP of South Korea. Basically, if you manage to split South Korea from Samsung they literally lose 1/5 their net worth.\n\nThe common joke is that South Korea is the Republic of Samsung\n\nYes, they literally make everything from toliets to life insurance"
]
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| []
| [
[],
[
"http://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/republic-samsung"
]
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|
am83a6 | how do apartments generate leasing prices? they seem to change daily without any reason. | It seems like apartment leasing prices can change daily, and it would be very interesting to know how they are generated! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/am83a6/eli5_how_do_apartments_generate_leasing_prices/ | {
"a_id": [
"efk1k2n"
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"text": [
"Like most other pricing ... supply and demand combined with competition and the most the owner feels the market will bear. \n\nPeople move out they may offer deals. Almost full up, less need to. Competition goes up or down? Follow suit. \n\nIn the end, like every other profit making business ever created, it is about generating the highest sustainable profit. "
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2go5vi | why is it when i rub my eyes at night occasionally there's a bright flash of light, yet i'm in pitch black darkness? | Afterwards my vision was tinted slightly blue like I had been looking into a light. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2go5vi/eli5_why_is_it_when_i_rub_my_eyes_at_night/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckkxmi4",
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2,
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"text": [
"Because your eyes are sensitive to pressure and it gets interpreted as light.\n\nYou can try this right now. Close your eyes (not tightly, just normally closed) and look as far to the left as you can. Now press *gently* at the right corner of your right eye. You can see the perception of light from the pressure on the nerves on the left side of your vision.\n\nIF YOU POKE YOUR EYE OUT DOING THIS IT ISN'T MY FAULT!",
"It's called a [phosphene](_URL_0_), and it created by activation of the optic nerve by a stimulus. This is usually light (natch), but can be electrical stimulation, manual (rubbing your eyes) or even exposure to a strong magnetic field."
]
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| []
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[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphene"
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3q2ab5 | does adding numbers to my password increase security in any way? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3q2ab5/eli5_does_adding_numbers_to_my_password_increase/ | {
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"text": [
"yes, it is because by adding numbers there is a much larger combination of passwords being able to be generated. however if the person that wants to crack your password does not know that your have no numbers(they asume you do) then it makes no diffrence at all as they will also need to test the combinations with numbers in them.",
"It all depends on how the person is going about trying to get your password. if you downloaded a key logger for example then your password could be anything and it would not be safe the moment you type it, however if they were using some sort of software to \"guess\" your password then yes adding numbers makes it harder/longer for them. Most \"hackers\" work backwards through systems and would work into your accounts through security questions or other method of optaining an account if you yourself would forget your password"
]
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e4aad4 | how does the fbi take down and restrict certain websites? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e4aad4/eli5_how_does_the_fbi_take_down_and_restrict/ | {
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"text": [
"The simplest way is by seizing the server that the website is running on, and disconnecting it or shutting it down.",
"There's a few important factors to consider. Generally speaking the FBI can only seize what resides in the US or what a host country allows them to. So they can't just take down some random website hosted in a foreign country, for example. \n\nHowever, relations between countries plays a part here....if a website is identified as targeting or harmful to the US, and we have good relations with the country the servers are hosted in, they *may* be allowed to seize the web servers. \n\nIf they can't seize the servers themselves, they generally can't take down a website, however they may be able to seize the domain name. This is possible because domains are ultimately controlled by [ICANN](_URL_0_). ICANN was originally created by the US Government and therefor all domains were in some fashion under control by the US. It has since transitioned into multistakeholder model where it is now owned by various Internet stakeholders from around the world. As such the US Government has less control over it, but the US as a whole is still a pretty big player in the world, they can still throw some weight around to take control of domains used to harm the US. \n\ntl;dr - The US has pretty good relations with many of the big players in regard to the internet. If the FBI desires to take down a website because it's harmful to the US, that website is either hosted outside of their reach entirely and survives, or the FBI is able to pull enough strings to seize the web server hosting the site or domain name pointing to it. This pretty much only happens when it involves criminal activity though, it's not something that just happens out of the blue because the FBI doesn't like your website."
]
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| []
| [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN"
]
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2ejt70 | while typing in reddit, why do i have to press enter key twice for the line to change in the post once? why not do the same by pressing enter just once? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ejt70/eli5_while_typing_in_reddit_why_do_i_have_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"ck05w7x"
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"text": [
"The benefit of the system is if you copy-paste a paragraph of text that is \"hard-wrapped\", meaning that there is a line break after each line instead of letting the browser wrap it automatically, it'll handle it like a normal paragraph.\n\nIf you do want just a single line break instead of a new paragraph, you can put two spaces at the end of a line before hitting Enter once.\n\nLike this \nand then this"
]
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| []
| [
[]
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|
||
1quba1 | why do you have to turn stuff in a microwave? | I notice on old microwaves, you have to turn the food like halfway through. New microwaves are constantly turning. Is this to make sure the food is evenly cooked, or is there another reason why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1quba1/eli5_why_do_you_have_to_turn_stuff_in_a_microwave/ | {
"a_id": [
"cdgk602"
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"text": [
"The inside walls of a microwave oven are lined with metal, which reflects microwaves just like visible light. Both are electromagnetic radiation, the only difference is the wavelength. Radar also works based on metal reflecting microwaves - the invention of the microwave oven was actually [something of an accidental byproduct of radar testing](_URL_0_)! \n\nThe metal lining concentrates the energy where it's needed so that it doesn't leak outside and heat things that aren't supposed to be heated. The microwaves bounce around the inside of the oven and, waves as they are, [interfere](_URL_2_) with each other, forming a [standing wave](_URL_1_) pattern like a plucked guitar string. At some points the waves constructively interfere, creating a \"hot spot\" of concentrated microwave energy. In other places, they interfere destructively, leaving those spot \"cooler\" than the surrounding areas. \n\nThe wavelength of microwaves, and thus the distance between the hot and cool spots, is on the order of centimeters (inches), so this is quite relevant when considering the size of things microwave ovens are used to heat. Without rotating the food, some parts would be left lukewarm and some might get too hot. Of course, most foods conduct heat sufficiently that the temperature tends to equalize if given a few minutes.\n\n[A demonstration](_URL_3_)"
]
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| []
| [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_oven#Accidental_discovery",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_wave",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interference_%28wave_propagation%29",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FhwTelc5Tg"
]
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|
3gwhol | why are humans mentally affected by death? | We all know that death is a natural part of the life cycle, so why are some/most humans negatively affected by witnessing death? I'm not really referring to natural death, either. Humans who witness tragedies are often left traumatised. Why? What happens mentally to cause that trauma? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gwhol/eli5_why_are_humans_mentally_affected_by_death/ | {
"a_id": [
"cu23klc",
"cu2iciw"
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"score": [
12,
2
],
"text": [
"If you aren't affected by death, you're less likely to avoid what's causing said death. If you're less likely to avoid the causes of death, you're more likely to die. More likely to die, less likely to have children. Over time those affected by death would have had more children, passed on the aversion to death, and these traits would have been evolutionarily advantageous.",
"Humans aren't the only ones that are \"effected\" by death. Elephants have been seen to morn dead relatives and even prefer to die or starvation and dehydration to observe with said relative"
]
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[],
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3ohq2v | if all of today's dog breeds are descendants of wolves that earlier humans domesticated, how can there be such a thing as a "pure breed"? | The title speaks for itself. How can a "pure breed" of dog exist when they are all descendants of domesticated wolves? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ohq2v/eli5_if_all_of_todays_dog_breeds_are_descendants/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvxbkar"
],
"score": [
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"text": [
"Dog breeds are a hybrid between breeding and cultural/social ideals and beliefs. As you say there is no pure breed from a breeding standpoint, instead there is a political body that artificially determines what they consider is pure bred. \n\nTypically these groups, such as the American Kennel Club work backwards, they (1) decide to recognize a breed as acceptable, (2) trace the historic root of the breed through country of origin and breeder, (3) declare which breed path and thus which sires and dames are pure, (4) use those sires , dames, and offspring to create a list of ideal traits for that breed. Then what follows is whichever animals were descended from those sires and dames are pure. \n\nOf course the AKC and other kennel clubs disagree with each other on which breeds are pure and which traits show purity. For example the European Kennel Club accepts White Schanuzzers as pure bred while the AKC rejects them. \n\nAll this goes to suggest is that it's not really a science nor an art but rather some very biased decisions made by so called experts. "
]
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[]
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|
fn1xjm | why does government spending stimulate the economy? where is that money coming from? | I understand that it is better for individuals to have money to spend in the market, but I don’t understand how the government get the stimulus money. If people are making less and paying less in taxes (plus tax cuts), isn’t the government low on cash too?
Bonus: how insulated are government jobs during economic turns? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fn1xjm/eli5_why_does_government_spending_stimulate_the/ | {
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"fl73ng0",
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"text": [
"Imagine you are making $300 a month. You'd be pretty poor, need a few roommates, eating rice and dried beans a lot, walking everywhere.\n\nNow imagine VISA sends you a credit card with no limit. You go buy a car, move into a luxury condo, eat at fancy restaurants every day, and when the bill comes, you just take a cash advance and send in the minimum payment. You are living a lot better than you were, and creating jobs at the restaurants, so they are living better too.\n\nThat's exactly what the government does. It borrows the money and just pays the interest - with borrowed money. Spending more than you have makes your life better, for now. The US is already spending a trillion dollars that it doesn't have every year. Notice that no one is talking about that deficit spending, or how it has been propping up the economy. But watch what happens when a Democrat is in the White House. The GOP that created this deficit with its tax cuts for the rich will talk about nothing but the need to reduce the deficit, because they know that will kill the economy and make the Democrat look bad. Watch and see.",
"The US government sells debt in the form of Treasury Bonds to raise money. People buy those bonds because they are a super-safe investment. At the moment the interest rate on bonds is crazy low, and demand is very high, so the government is actually profiting quite a bit from it's \"debt\"",
"No government that fully controls its money supply can run out of money. Essentially the US government borrows and pays back in USD which it can create out of essentially nothing. There are good reasons why no government would risk the stability of its currency (by irresponsibly managing it) because most of the social order and \"real\" productive capacity within its borders would fall apart should the currency be subject to hyperinflation.\n\nThere is also no particularly good reason for a government not run a reasonable deficit as long as the economy grows. (essentially borrowing to spend today what future citizens will produce and gets taxed against). In a crisis, it also makes sense for a government to issue more debt and issue funds in areas that it would typically not directly interfere with.\n\nThere is no \"rule book\" on how insulated government jobs are. Most government jobs are not for a profit seeking motive - law enforcement, managing the affairs of govt, postal services, maintaining critical infrastructure, air traffic control, education, social services, regulating certain companies and defending their borders. Most of these functions will need to be maintained even (and maybe especially so) during an economic downturn."
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2kruh7 | why do actors in successful tv shows often receive (executive)producer credits in later seasons? | I've noticed actors in TV shows often receive producer/executive producer credits in later seasons as a show becomes more successful (e.g. Michael C. Hall became Executive Producer of Dexter from 2008 onward).
Why is this? I know what producers do, but why specifically do actors receive this credit? Is it effectively a pay raise without having to increase their acting salary? Is it so they receive royalties from the show after it ends? Something else? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2kruh7/eli5_why_do_actors_in_successful_tv_shows_often/ | {
"a_id": [
"clo363l",
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2,
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2
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"text": [
"Probably because they use their new found fame, influence and money to, you know, produce the latter seasons? ",
"There are limits to the amount of money they can make as an actor. Adding a producer credit gives them the ability to make more money. ",
"Producer (and *particularly* executive producer) is the slipperiest job title in showbiz. It might mean anything from the person who ACTUALLY created the production, assembled all the financial and artistic assets, and managed them (which is why they give the Best Picture Oscar to producers), or it might mean zilch. Producer credits are sometimes handed out like party favors to girlfriends, chauffeurs, or even hookers.\n\nIf a star in a production shows up with a producer credit, it *might* mean that they've actually been given a part in the real management/financing of the thing, or it might be just an ego title that was given to them, like a bigger dressing room or a personal costumer. It might be given in lieu of more money to stay with the show.\n"
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1vqy2t | why can't i just hop on a plane and go to cuba? | It's so close! Pictures make it look pretty! Seems like they would be begging for tourism... | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vqy2t/eli5why_cant_i_just_hop_on_a_plane_and_go_to_cuba/ | {
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"It's practically impossible to take a flight from the USA to Cuba without a license (permit).\n\nThat is because of the embargo that the USA enforces upon Cuba.\n\nHowever, it is not specifically illegal for a US citizen to travel to Cuba. All travel by US citizens to Cuba is regulated by the Dept. of the Treasury. If you comply with Financial restrictions, then you can go to Cuba. Flying to Cuba directly from the USA is tough because it almost always involves a financial transaction with Cuba.\n\nYou can obtain a permit or travel with an authorized tour group. Or you can go on your own with no permit, legally, if you do not violate any of the US Dept of Treasury, OFAC, regulations.\n\nIt is a common misconception that there are restrictions upon a US citizen traveling to Cuba. There are not."
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1kgp4f | why is it that old 1950-1960's engines do not produce as much power as a modern engine despite being double the cubic displacement? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1kgp4f/eli5_why_is_it_that_old_19501960s_engines_do_not/ | {
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"Mostly because modern engines have higher redlines, and can produce torque (or force) at higher revs. The power is the force, or torque, times the speed, so if the engine can operate at higher speeds, it will output greater power.",
"There are a whole bunch of reasons. Modern engines breathe better (\"volumetric efficiency\"), so more air gets into each cylinder. They also squish the air more (\"high compression ratio\"), which for a whole bunch of thermodynamic reasons boosts both power and efficiency. They typically run at higher speeds due to advances in materials and design (if one engine is running at 5,000 RPM and another is running at 10,000 RPM, all else being equal, the faster engine will put out twice the horsepower). Finally, they have better control over the fuel they inject into the cylinders, and burn it more thoroughly.\n\nThose are the main reasons, anyway.",
"Overall list\n\n* Greater input of air\n* More efficient combustion of gasoline in the cylinder\n* Variable valve timing based on RPM range to insure best power production\n* Gasoline injection insures proper amount of fuel per cycle\n* Higher compression ratios, better transmissions, lighter weight components, etc. Modern engines are overall better in every way when it comes to making power. "
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7na4ni | why instant coffee is water soluble, but coffee grounds aren't? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7na4ni/eli5_why_instant_coffee_is_water_soluble_but/ | {
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"Instant coffee is made by brewing coffee at a very high heat and pressure, then spraying it out of an orifice into a heated chamber where the water instantly evaporates, leaving behind just the coffee solids. Instant coffee is just dehydrated brewed coffee, where as the coffee grounds are just the ground up coffee beans.",
"Coffee grounds are made of stuff that is soluble (dissolvable) in water and stuff that is not soluble in water. \n\nInstant coffee is generally made by first brewing coffee - which dissolves the stuff in coffee grounds that is soluble in water. The coffee grounds are filtered out and thrown away. \n\nNext, that coffee is generally freeze dried - which removes the water from the coffee, but leaves all of the stuff that was dissolved in the coffee. \n\nSo when you add water to instant coffee, you're introducing water to those things that will dissolve in the water, hence no remaining non-dissolved solids. \n\n"
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9kwoc3 | why is it freezing in space if there is no matter in the vacuum to transfer body heat into? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9kwoc3/eli5_why_is_it_freezing_in_space_if_there_is_no/ | {
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"Heat can also be lost through radiation. That's the primary means of cooling a warm object in space. Only convection and conduction require matter.",
"Heat can be transferred two basic ways. One is conduction, like when your body is in contact with cold air. As you realize, you need something to conduct the heat *to* for this to work. \n \nThe other mechanism is radiation. Your body is constantly radiating infrared light, carrying away heat energy. (This is known as \"black body radiation\".) Black body radiation isn't all that fast, so freezing in outer space will take a bit of time. \n \nAll objects that have a temperature above absolute zero will emit black body radiation, so this process will eventually freeze you, probably after you've died from some other issue like running out of oxygen to breathe. ",
"There's still blackbody radiation. But you're not wrong, if you were exposed to space there'd be a number of problems, but being cold isn't one of them. It is true that the ambient temperature is very low, and you'd eventually radiate away all of your heat, but that would take a while.\n\nThe ISS, in fact, has large cooling fins and complicated cooling systems, and not heating systems, for this reason. ",
"There's a couple of factors here. The first is that while there's no matter to take heat from you, there's also no matter to give you heat. There's a lot going on on Earth, you're getting heat from everything around you. The atmosphere retains a lot of heat, the ground holds heat, etc. In space there's nothing really providing you heat. The sun is still gunna hit you with light (assuming it isn't blocked by some other celestial body), but just radiation from the sun isn't nearly enough to actually warm you up. I have a friend who interviewed at the Applied Physics Laboratory and even the probe they're launching towards the sun doesn't need much heat shielding since radiation from the sun alone doesn't transfer much heat. You'll get a nasty sunburn, but you won't heat up. \n\nSo what happens to the heat already in your body? Two things. The first is that it also radiates away. Your body, and pretty much every atom, constantly gives off heat in the form of infrared light. It's slow, but its not nothing. So you'll constantly be radiating heat away, without getting any real new heat. \n\nThe second is that there's no pressure. So all the water on the outside of your body will pretty quickly start to vaporize. And when water turns into a gas it tends to absorb energy, which will come right off of your body. ",
"Heat can radiate away in the form of infrared. With nothing out there to warm you up (nicely, nevermind the sun cooking you alive) you eventually lose all heat. ",
"The temperature of a system doesn't actually show how \"immediately dangerous\" it is. That just tells you the end result if you remain in it long enough to get to that temperature.\n\nFor example, going outside in -40C air is pretty damn cold, but you'll be fine for at least a couple minutes, even in the nude.\n\nBut jumping into a vat of -40C super chilled liquid would freeze you to death almost instantly.\n\nBut surprisingly floating in space in regards to freezing only would not be that dangerous at all.\n\nThe reason is because whats actually dangerous is **change** in temperature.\n\nYou equalize temperature (convection) based on the system you're in and some things are faster at transfering heat than others, water is much faster than air for example. Or metal is faster than wood. Touching cold metal feels colder than touching cold wood because it saps your heat much faster, and your body detects change in temperature, not actually the temperature itself.\n\nPeople mentioning radiation is just a different kind of losing heat, but the main one is convection, and in space there's (almost) nothing there for convection to work. Meaning the only way to lose heat is very slowly via radiation.",
"A lot of people have mentioned that you would still lose heat by your body radiating heat away. Which is true. But the real reason why you would \"feel\" cold in a vacuum is because all the moisture and sweat on your skin would immediately evaporate taking with it a lot of your heat. You would feel an extreme painful cold sensation.\n\nSpace is cold because of a lack of heat, not because of vacuum. If you are a small object then the Sun's radiant heat isn't enough to keep you warm. Even the Earth is only just large enough to stay warm to keep you alive and a lot of that is due to the atmosphere keeping a lot of heat trapped inside, instead of just bouncing off back into space.",
"I guess the only thing I'd want to mention that the others haven't is the fact that it *isn't* freezing in space, and that's kind of a buzz word that's come out of media. You can lose heat by radiating light, and gain heat by absorbing radiated light, but space itself isn't \"cold\".",
"Have you ever pulled the plug on a fridge? I mean everything is all locked up so it doesn't immediately drop temperature but over time the cold sloooowly leaks out and things slooooowly heat up?\n\nIt's like that in a vacuum, just in reverse.",
"Would body radiation and sunshine (close to earth) cancel each other out? ",
"As many other comments probably already explained the science behind it. I'll give you the common sense ELI5.\n\nIt's Hollywood bs, it would take long time for you to freeze in space. The only way your body gets rid of it's heat is radiation but then there's plenty of that out there to give you some heat back, so unless you're hidden behind a planet you'll be receiving heat, and i imagine a lot of it,sun in space, without the atmosphere to protect you would probably bake you crispy.\n\nYou would also not explode from the pressure inside your body trying to burst out. Yes you would definitely die, but your skin would most likely not rupture. Thinking about it, your temperature would probably lower a bit thanks to this also.",
"I see all of these answers talking about radiation and while that's true, I'd like to mention the fact that exposing body temperature water to vacuum will boil the water off, leaving only low-energy water molecules, which are cold and freeze.",
"For your information, if you removed a suit in space you would die of severe dehydration and ruptured internals far before you would freeze to death. In fact you would freeze only as quickly as your body is capable of radiating heat because there would be no matter to more quickly transfer your body's warmth to (natural heat diffusion occurs at a constant rate when uninfluenced by matter). \n\nLike I said, you'll be human jerky well before you start to freeze.",
"Like other answers have said, radiation is the main mode of heat transfer here. \n\nI like to think of it as the vast empty space sucking the relatively tiny amount heat out of your body. \n\nIt's not cold exactly, but heat is going from where it is to where it isn't. ",
"I thought your blood boils in space because the heat can't be transferred anywhere?",
"Im not an astrophysicist or anything, but technically there's no such thing as cold. Just less heat energy. So the heat energy is dispersing?",
"does this mean ebony maw is in avengers 4?"
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3voo4j | how come sometimes if i get poked by something sharp, i feel a sting on another area of my body as well? | Like when I get poked in my belly button and I can feel it on my... er... penis. How does it happen? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3voo4j/eli5_how_come_sometimes_if_i_get_poked_by/ | {
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"This sounds like what is known as \"referred pain\". As a concept, it has yet to be fully understood, but it likely has to do with convergence and divergence of neural information. Convergence is when a single neuron receives information from many other sources of information: receptors, other neurons, and relays all this information onwards through a single information channel. In this case the origin of stimuli may be misinterpreted, because further in the information chain, we will not be able to distinguish which of the original sources transmitted the information - we just know it came from at least one of them and may therefore interpret it as coming from all of them. Now, I have not previously come across any belly button-penis connection, but I guess it might not be the most well-documented area in science. Possibly, information coming from one of these sources are interpreted as coming from both of them, making you feel the pain in two places. Divergence is the opposite: Information from one source is transmitted onwards through several information channels, thus carrying duplicated information."
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4hzzh1 | if meat consumers ten times as much resources as vegetables why isn't it ten times as expensive? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4hzzh1/eli5_if_meat_consumers_ten_times_as_much/ | {
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"If you're feeding plants to animals, you don't have as high safety standards, you don't have to package it as expensively, you can buy in bulk, and depending on the type of farm, you might not even have to pay for transportation.",
"A pound of wheat = 8 to 9 cents. So...I think that holds up pretty well, although I can't say I really know what a pound of beef costs, but...i'm guessing it ain't less than $1.\n\nYes, you CAN find a vegetable that is more expensive. That's not the point the anti-meat people are making though. The avocado isn't exactly the path to curing world hunger (it will bring about massive amounts of joy and ultimately world peace though).",
"Meat doesn't necessarily consume ten times more resources than vegetables. It does consume far more resources than grains, and this is reflected in the price of meat being far more than grains.\n\nHere are some sample EcoIndicator 99 values for some foods:\n\n| Food | EI99 (Total) | \n|:-----------|------------:|\n| Beef | 0.397 |\n| Poultry | 0.098 |\n| Fruit | 0.036 |\n| Vegetables | 0.155 |\n| Rice | 0.068 |\n| Pasta | 0.038 |\n| Bread (white) | 0.056 |\n\n[Source](_URL_0_)",
"1) Subsidies. The types of plants used to feed animal stock are highly subsidized and therefore cheaper to the end consumer.\n\n2) Marketing. If the price of ground beef at your grocery store is $1/lb more than your competitor, customers will notice. But if your eggplants double in price, people won't really care.\n\n3) Externalities. Similar to subsidies, externalities are costs not considered in the final price. Some of these resources that go into your steak such as farm waste run off, miles driven to slaughter and the grocery store are not directly paid for. Environmental costs are borne by taxpayers and future generations. These resources are real, our accounting is irresponsible and short sighted.",
"**TL;DR: Processing, shipping, handling, packaging, grocery store markup, and a lot of other costs apply to BOTH so their finished-product prices are closer than their starting prices are. That, and supply and demand determine the cost of food, and that equalizes prices a lot.**\n\nA loaf of bread is roughly a little over a pound of wheat. Buy a train-ful of that wheat and the per-pound cost of that wheat is really low, a few cents on the dollar. And it only takes a little tiny bit of farmland to grow that wheat. \n\nA cow needs acres of grass and hay, or a whole bunch of harvested grain if grain-fed. But it takes a HUGE amount more grass-producing land to produce a thousand-pound cow than to produce a thousand pounds of wheat grains. \n\nYet it still costs a buck or two on average at the store for a one-pound loaf of bread at the store but a lower-cost roast cut is only three to four times that much. \n\nAnd that's because of all the other stuff that goes into the cost. \n\nFor the bread: Harvesting, grinding, processing into flour, shipping the flour to the bakery, baking the bread, shipping the bread to the store, and selling that bread ALL add costs. So your loaf of bread with ten cents of wheat gets another $1.90 or so in cost.\n\nFor the cow: Accommodation over winter, health care, fencing, transportation to the slaughterhouse, butchering, transportation to the store, further butchering and packaging, inspection, and store mark-up. So your $1 per pound to raise the cow gets another $2.50 or so in cost.\n\nI made those numbers up, but the point is the cow might be ten times more money to RAISE compared to wheat, but it's not ten times more money when it's SOLD in its final post-processed form. \n\nAnd then there's supply and demand which brings them even closer together.\n\nIf they tried to sell beef on average at $20 per pound, nobody would buy it.\n"
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4najew | why do we feel especially good after experiencing pain/irritation? | After I relieve a pulled muscle or take a dump after a stomach ache, why do I feel great or why do we experience a 'relief' sensation? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4najew/eli5_why_do_we_feel_especially_good_after/ | {
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"The short answer is: endorphins.\n\nEndorphins are the body's natural pain killers. They are hormones secreted by the pituitary whose sole purpose is to suppress the transmission of pain signals in the nervous system. You naturally release them in response to pain or discomfort. When the source of pain or discomfort is removed, the excess endorphins still in your bloodstream give you the effect of a natural euphoria. In fact, \"endorphin\" is a contraction of \"**endo**genous m**orphin**e\". Opioid pain killers like morphine and codeine, derived from opium, and hydrocodone, oxycodone, and fentanyl (the Prince drug) work because they bind to the same receptors.\n\nThere is also evidence that endorphins are part of the body's natural [stress response system](_URL_0_), perhaps contributing to that giddy \"high\" experienced after intense situations."
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4a919m | why do presidents/prime ministers generally hold a term of four years? why not one or two years? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4a919m/eli5_why_do_presidentsprime_ministers_generally/ | {
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"It takes a long time to get organized in the job, because they have to get used to working with hundreds of executive team members. So it makes sense not to change every year, or little would get done.",
"At least in America, it was originally agreed upon a 4 year term so that a President could accomplish things that take more than 2 years, and so it limited how much power they could have by being there for upwards of 12 years if they were elected twice. It was one of those precedent things that Washington started.",
"Imagine having a company that was changing bosses every year or two. Very little would be accomplished. It takes time to put your people in place, learn the job, build relationships and start to move forward, especially if you had to start running for reelection from day 1",
"In the UK there have been quite a few short-terms, it was only in 2011 that the fixed term parliament act came about, stating that from 2015 there would be an election every 5 years ([source](_URL_1_)).\n\n\nBefore that they were often 4 years or so but not always. See [List of Parliaments](_URL_0_) for the details - but in summary:\n\n\n* There was an election in 1964 (Labour win) and then again in 1966 (labour win)\n\n\n* There was an election in 1950 (Labour win) and then again in 1951 (conservative win)\n\n\n* There was an election in 1922 (Conservative win) and then again in 1923 (Labour minority), then again in 1924 (Conservative win)\n\n\nOne of the reasons the bill was introduce (at least one reason I heard) was to stop opportunistic election calling - that is say one party calling an election shortly after a scandal for a rival party - something that wouldn't necessarily be in the best interests of the country but would increase the chances of the ruling party being returned to power.\n\n\n"
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ohogl | how el nino and la nina work and why it's so warm and dry this winter. | I'm in the Western USA and this has been the warmest and dryest winter I can remember. Are el Nino and/or la Nina responsible? Why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ohogl/eli5_how_el_nino_and_la_nina_work_and_why_its_so/ | {
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"Copy-pasted from [here](_URL_0_): \n\nWeather changes whenever the temperature in an area changes. Let's say your hometown has a really hot couple of days. When it gets hot, the air pressure goes up. All molecules vibrate a bit, but gas (air) vibrates the most, and when the temperature goes up, they vibrate more and spread out because they start getting a little crazy. \n\nHeavier stuff in the air (like clouds) can't vibrate as much as the air as the gas can. Sometimes the clouds aren't that heavy, so they just get pushed away and go somewhere else, where it isn't as hot and the gas won't bump into them too much. But sometimes it gets so hot and so fast, the clouds don't have enough time to get away. Since the air's really hot, it's moving up and through the clouds and now there's more pressure above the clouds than below. That makes the clouds decide \"screw it\" and dump all the rain on everything below rather than bother carrying it somewhere else, especially since all the hot air is being a dick. Ocean currents cause this because they can make the temperature change. If they bring really warm water, the temperature goes up, and if they bring cold water, it cools down. \n\nBut that happens all the time! So what makes El Nino special? It happens around Christmas. He's the little asshole kid who goes to the tree on Christmas Eve and and messes the whole thing up because he's a brat. He's the freak weather pattern that makes every 5 or so years, and he basically reverses everything about the normal weather. Are you in New York and it's usually absurdly cold and snowy? He warms it up and dries everything out. Are you from SoCal? He's why you're drenched in ridiculously warm rain despite that winters are always depressing overcast with no rain. Wanna know what's worse? Sometimes he'll mess with you and won't just do this at Christmas. He'll come fuck up your Valentine's Day, your Easter, your Father's Day, and sometimes get there early to rain on your Halloween. He's an asshole. \n\nLa Nina is what happens after El Nino gets tired and goes the fuck to sleep, but she doesn't clean up his mess. She goes everywhere he went and does the opposite. If he fucked up the walls, she'll fuck up the furniture. Let's say El Nino wore off just before summer hits. SoCal is like, yay, sun when I want it! Except not, because La Nina's pouting at El Nino's mess and makes everything ridiculously cold. You're in SoCal and you're wearing sweaters and jackets because it's overcast and chilly, just like winter. La Nina is a bitch. \n\nSo, oh well. Weird weather every few years because of asshole ocean currents. What's the big deal? \n\nSoCal brats actually have it fairly easy. They get some rain and some weird weather, but it messes with anyone who has farms. Central California, South America on the Pacific Coast, almost all of Coastal Asia, and parts of India and Africa can get floods that are bad enough to ruin crops to catastrophic monsoons, landslides, typhoons, and cyclones that ruin the whole damn city and farms, let alone your food. If they don't get weather than drowns the plants and rips them out, they'll get unnatural droughts, blistering sun, and wind storms so the plants just die where they are. El Nino and La Nina suck for farmers. \n\nAs for why it doesn't happen every year: They both have to build up. El Nino and La Nina happen in the Pacific Ocean, and it's huge. The Ocean currents get a little warmer/colder depending on the season, but sometimes they're just a little wrong. Since the big circles the currents run in are so long, it may not be strong enough in any one area to cause problems. But every 5 years, it manages to build up just right so El Nino comes around and fucks up your holiday. Then La Nina comes around to make sure all your crops die. That fucks up any holidays El Nino missed because your food's going to be ridiculously expensive the next time. \n\nOcean currents will fuck your day up."
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7k2y7o | why do people learn differently, i.e, by hearing, by visual, and by touching? | In my 4th grade class, I remember my teacher asking how we as a class learned. I remember being in the minority for people who learn by watching, I think only two other kids raised their hands. Does this change over time and why is hearing the most common? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7k2y7o/eli5_why_do_people_learn_differently_ie_by/ | {
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"They don't. It's just an old myth. \n\n > There have been systematic studies of the effectiveness of learning styles that have consistently found either no evidence or very weak evidence to support the hypothesis that matching or “meshing” material in the appropriate format to an individual’s learning style is selectively more effective for educational attainment. Students will improve if they think about how they learn but not because material is matched to their supposed learning style. \n\n_URL_0_"
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j3qom | so boehner's debt ceiling bill has a balanced budget amendment... what's so bad about that? | If it helps, ignore that it came from [Boehner's bill](_URL_0_). What's so bad about not spending more than we bring in revenue?
Or to definitely fit in this subreddit, what are the implications of implementing a balanced-budget amendment? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j3qom/so_boehners_debt_ceiling_bill_has_a_balanced/ | {
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"The answer to this question will vary differently depending on what somebody's core political beliefs are. ",
"To anyone who tackles this one: I'll allow it, but please watch the bias. Answer the question as rephrased in the description. ",
"I'll do my best to keep this politically neutral. \n\nThe arguments against are as follows: \n\n- There is a school of economic thought that says the best way out of a recession or an economic slowdown is government spending. The government spends money on roads and infrastructure, education and so forth. In the short term, this puts people to work which gives them money to spend at the shops and boosts consumer confidence. In the long term, America becomes better equipped to prosper when the economy ticks up. The problem is, a recession sees a decrease in how much money a Government takes in, meaning it has less money to spend to do these things. Many economists believe that it is ok for a government to go \"into the red (run a deficit)\" during these periods and this amendment would forbid it. \n- The government currently has a very large debt. A balanced budget constitutional amendment would force the government to balance the budget next year. This would mean instantaneously closing an incredibly large budget gap. This would require incredibly deep cuts to social programs or tax increases. Various commentators have described the former as disastrous and questioned the viability of passing the latter with such a large bloc in Congress having pledged to oppose any new taxes under any circumstances. \n- In an emergency, such as a gigantic national disaster or a war, the government may need to run a deficit just to cope. World War II was an example of this. This amendment would tie the governments hands. "
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39p7l5 | the last aaron swartz question. why don't we have access to publicly funded scientific journals that hide behind pay walls? is there anything we can do about it? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39p7l5/eli5_the_last_aaron_swartz_question_why_dont_we/ | {
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"Scientific journals aren't publically funded. The research published in them may be.\n\nScientific journals cost money to run. Some are run by not-for-profit ventures such as professional societies, others are run by for-profit companies such as Elsevier and Nature. The way journals have usually generated income to pay their staff is to sell very expensive subscriptions to university and other libraries; traditionally this has been the cost of the actual printed volumes, although increasingly the printed volumes are irrelevant and I'm not sure how many journals even still bother to print them. Anyway, if you're going to make money selling subscriptions to universities, you need to keep the content paywalled to those outside the university networks or else nobody will buy them.\n\nMany journals nowadays offer an \"open access\" option, in which the authors of a paper can choose to make it publically accessible on the journal site for a (usually surprisingly large, like a couple of thousand dollars) fee. If a national government were to mandate that all papers published by publically funded research in that nation needed to be open access, they could do so. However, unless the national government increased scientific funding to *pay* for all these papers to be published open-access, scientists wouldn't be at all happy.\n\nFor the most part, as a scientist, I don't know why anyone outside the academy would want to read scientific papers anyway. But if you do, you can always go to your local university library.",
"Most academiates I know publish papers on their university web space for the world to download.\n\n\nThat make retrieval a pain in the neck. Journals are suppose to do two things. Ensure that that paper is not made up, and aggregate by disipline.\n\nAllowing corporations to be majors funders the journals (ads) will eventually start a conflict of intrest. We want science to drive research not corporate profits.\n\nIt's not that we want to keep the research from the average joe. It's that we don't want, for example, tobacco companies funding biased cancer research again.\n\nWhat other suggestions do you have?",
"**TL;DR:** We're definitely making some progress on this front through the NIH open access policy and open access journals which is a good sign!\n\nAs other users have said, scientific journals themselves are not funded by the government. However, the research that goes into them in many cases has been funded by the government (I only know about medical sciences so that's what I'll be talking about here).\n\nWhat may not be so obvious is that we do have access to (literally thousands) of scientific articles resulting from research that has been funded by the government. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the major government agency responsible for funding medical research (including cancer, infectious diseases, and genetic diseases). NIH mandates that all funded research be deposited in a database (called [PubMedCentral or PMC](_URL_3_)) within a year of publication. Many journals make the articles free immediately. There may be other programs for other federal funding agencies but I'm only familiar with NIH. \n\nThere's also a movement in many fields to publish more research in \"open access\" journals that are free from the start. Some of the notable ones are the many journals published by Public Library of Science ([PLoS](_URL_2_)) and BioMedCentral ([BMC](_URL_1_)). Open access is gaining some real traction and many of these journals are quite prestigious to publish in. Even this costs money though because *someone* has to pay for the publication costs of putting together an article. In the case of open access those fees are paid by the researchers themselves. This actually isn't too unpalatable for a lot of people because some journals published by scientific societies (rather than commercial publishers) have charged people publication charges for years. \n\nAlthough we aren't 100% there yet, I think people are realizing there are alternatives to major academic publishers which is definitely a step in the right direction. However, this movement is relatively new so the majority of older articles will remain behind pay walls because there is a lot of work involved in digitizing them. Nevertheless, I expect more and more of this older work to come online for free in the future.\n\n[More details about the NIH open access policy.](_URL_0_)",
"As a bit of a tip, if you're interested in an article and don't have access to the journal, look for the author's webpage. In the math community anyway, it's quite common for authors to post pre-prints on their websites or arXiv."
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12wfev | can anyone explain the most recent xkcd to me? | Here's the link
_URL_0_
It looks like one of those XKCD's where it's hilarious if you understand the subject... but I don't. Help a brutha out? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/12wfev/can_anyone_explain_the_most_recent_xkcd_to_me/ | {
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"In the future you might just be able to check here:\n\n_URL_0_",
"The difference between the two schools of thought is that a frequentist will assign probabilities only based on what has happened, whereas a Bayesian will assign a \"prior\" probability to the initial state and then use what happened to calculate the new probability.\n\nSo a frequentist might say that the only observation in the experiment was a YES from the machine. That means with probability 1/36, the statement was a lie and the sun has not exploded, and with probability 35/36, the statement was true, so the sun has exploded. Therefore, it's more likely that the sun has exploded.\n\nA bayesian might say that initially, there is a 1 in a million chance that the sun has exploded. This is called a prior. Seeing the outcome from the machine, the bayesian can now calculate the new probability that the sun has exploded. The result will be slightly higher than 1 in a million, but it will still be overwhelmingly likely that the sun has not exploded."
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1qdioc | why non-veterans and military get off from work ( & school?) on veteran's day. | I mean, it's not like they sacrificed their sense of self for the cause their country deemed good enough to send them into the fray.
EDIT: meant non-military, not military. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qdioc/eli5_why_nonveterans_and_military_get_off_from/ | {
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"It's a federal holiday. Schools are off on most federal holidays. Most people also aren't Presidents, or Martin Luther King Jr, but schools also get off presidents day and MLK day.\n\nSome companies give people days off on veterans day as a benefit of employment, in general employees are happier when they have more vacation days, and saying \"all federal holidays\" is easier than \"all but veteran's day\".",
"Veterans can be with their family, too."
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39kgk7 | why is it that under 18 year olds in the work force (16-17) get taxed on their pay checks but get no right to vote or choose where the tax money is going? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39kgk7/eli5_why_is_it_that_under_18_year_olds_in_the/ | {
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"Because they can still use everything that has been funded with public money. People without a job is still allowed to vote, if we were to implement that paying tax = right to vote then we must also accept that not paying tax = no right to vote.\nVoting is not the core of a society, it's not what our tax money goes to.\nYou still get the use off:\nSchools\nRoads\nPolice\nMilitary\nEmergency help\netc etc",
"Members of Congress are in principle there to represent all their constituents, whether or not they have a vote or pay taxes. In that sense, everyone in the USA has representation (except DC, which has only a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives). If they were only there to represent the people who voted for them, you could argue that everyone who voted for a losing candidate is also unrepresented and shouldn't pay taxes.\n\nThe colonies, on the other hand, had no representation at all in the British Parliament - there was no MP for New York at all, so we don't even get to consider who voted for him.",
"Because you are still dependent on your parents, their voice is considered yours. Additionally, the usually limit how much someone under 18 can truly work, and when I was that age, you could claim student on your taxes and be exempt. IDK if that is still true today.",
"\"No taxation without representation\" was about import duty - not personal income tax, which didn't exist until the Civil War.\n\nAnd even so, every time their representative pushes for a bigger education budget, or tax breaks to parents so they can better provide for their kids, they are being represented. Then when they come of age, they can vote on these matters.\n\n It's pretty cut and dry.",
"Do any of us really have a choice in where the taxpayer money is going? Sure, if you're 18 you can vote and uphold the illusion that the people we put into office actually make a difference, but we the people don't get to vote on issues such as policy or allocation of funds",
"When this question comes up, I rarely see it pointed out that you receive 100% of the taxes you paid during the year back when you file taxes, if you make less than $7,500 or something around that or if you're self employed. \n\nVery few 16 or 17 year old part time workers will be making more than that",
"Income tax accounts for approximately a quarter of government revenue - so you can't really use that as the basis for getting the vote; after all, there are plenty of adults who haven't paid income tax in their lives, but I assume you'd not be keen on removing the vote from them. Even 10 year old children pay VAT when they buy sweets with their pocket money, and contribute to the local shops profits on which they pay corporation tax and local businesses rates etc etc. The American colonists problem was that they were sending loads of money to the \"motherland\" without any say on how it was spent, but this will always be the case to lesser or greater degrees as long as there are any limitations in voting whatsoever. As such, 18 is basically arbitrary, but so too would 16 be.",
"Like /u/KnugensTraktor said, but I'll add some more fun stuff.\n\nIf you live in the United States (or especially Canada), right off the bat, you're *not* paying for a solid 14 years of compulsory education. You still need protection, still use the sidewalks, still need the city hall to be open when you need to get a new health card, passport, whatever. Another major issue is the fact that not taxing citizens < 18 would cause quite the silly loophole in taxation policies. Suddenly, we've got a 12 year old CEO of Apple. ",
"Let's get this thing across: taxes are the necessary cost to living in society. Everyone who's living in society has to pay taxes. Everyone. Sometimes the structure is such that you get more than you put in. Sometimes it's the other way around. But taxes are what you pay to be a member of society.\n\nVoting, on the other hand, is a privilege you get when you come of age, and it's age-limited to legal adults only so that not-yet-knowledgeable children can't gum it up and vote without understanding what they're doing. One could argue that adults do a bad enough job of it as it is, but that's another matter.\n\nNow, during the run-up to the Revolutionary War, a popular thing to say was \"no taxation without representation\". American colonists were being treated as British citizens when it came to taxing them but they were treated as colonists when it came to representing them in Parliament. This wasn't an argument against paying taxes. This was an argument against paying *those* taxes *to Britain*. And it was actually not a very good argument; the taxes went to finance their own wars, not stuff happening a continent away. But those taxes were levied *only* on the colonists, and there were a lot of other measures put in place to make money from the colonists by restricting their trade. What it showed was that Britain wasn't treating the colonists well, and they could have remedied the situation but they decided to use force instead, leading to American independence.\n\nNow, the various US Territories actually *have* taxation without representation -- but they generally *like* it that way. Puerto Rico, for example, has had votes about whether to become a state, become independent, or stay a territory, and it has decided to stay a territory. Washington DC, on the other hand, actually wants representation, but Congress won't let it have it because it's controlled by Republicans and Washington DC usually elects Democrats.",
"The child is still represented because their parents are their votes. There are also ways of being taxed and not represented such as non-citizens and people with specific types of criminal histories.",
"To put it simply, because it is an INCOME tax. The ideas of voting and employment do not necessarily intersect anymore. If you are of legal voting age, you can vote. That is completely independent of employment, and therefore taxes. You only pay taxes if you have a (taxable) income",
"\"No taxation without representation\" as a rallying cry wasn't about a single person who has to pay taxes but had no say in governance. It was about **ALL** of the English people who lived in the American colonies being taxed and **NONE** of them having a representative say in their local government.",
"Well you technically dont. Yes they take money out of your check come pay day but around April 15th if you give your W-2 to your parents you get that money back.\n\nSource: Been working since I was 16. ",
"Non-citizen residents of the U.S. pay taxes but can't vote as well. Paying taxes is not the test of eligibility for voting.\n\n",
"You get all your money back. Try being an adult living in Wahington DC. That's taxation without representation. ",
"Wasn't this asked just last week?\n\nI'm guessing that Reddit is being hit with a bunch of teenagers starting their first summer job :/",
" > Wouldn't this be against why the U.S. Separated from UK anyway? Because of taxation without representation?\n\nRead a book. Seriously. Or just read the Declaration of Independence. Do you know who was allowed to vote back then? Landowners. They wanted representation for the colonies as a whole not for every single person in the colonies. \n\nAnd that was just one issue in a whole laundry list of problems (most of which were listed in the Declaration): \n\n > He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.\n\n > He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.\n\n > He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. \n\n > He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures. \n\n > He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.\n\n > He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. \n\n > He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands. \n\n > He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers. \n\n > He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries. \n\n > He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. \n\n > He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures. \n\n > He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.\n\n > He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: \n\n > For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: \nFor protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: \n\n > For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world: \n\n > For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent: \n\n > For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: \n\n > For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences \n\n > For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies: \n\n > For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: \n\n > For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. \n\n > He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.\n\n > He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. \n\n > He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.\n\n > He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. \n\n > He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.\n\nTL;DR Minors have their parents to represent the. The Revolutionary war was not just about representation.",
"Also consider (this may have already been said) some people with their own businesses would totally take advantage of it, and claim that thir 16-17 yo kid was making the money, not the adult, and therefore not get taxed.",
"No. The whole \"Taxation without Representation\" was because the colonies had no self elected representatives seated back in England. Disenfranchisement wasn't a factor at the individual level, it was more at the colony\\state level.\n\nIn the context of your question, the < 18 year old still has elected representatives from their state seated in Congress representing their state of residence, they just didn't get to vote for them.",
"Truth be told, those of us that are 31 still pay taxes and our votes do not matter as much as the couple mil someone dropped on a lobbyist, so I see it as good training for the rest of your life.",
"or more importantly, under 18 year olds get all their taxes back on thier tax returns, they have Zero tax burden under the IRS. so you dont really pay ANY taxes. You just have a sort of forced savings. \n",
"At that age and income bracket you get it all back anyway. All you are doing is going through the motions (of paying taxes).",
"Because you're still benefiting tremendously from tax dollars.\n\nBesides, with something like a summer job you're going to get almost all of it back anyways.",
"1. They are being represented by proxy through their parents. \n2.rich cunts would funnel all of their money through their kids and pay 0 taxes and then claim wellfair on top of that. ",
"That's a pretty clever question actually from a lawyers point of view. It is kind of strange if you're keen on the whole \"no taxation without representation\" thing. \n\nOn the other hand, you have a whole state (Washington DC) that has some problems with representation. \n\nAs others said \"No taxation without representation\" was more of a rallying cry against the english than that it is an absolute constitutional right.\n\nStill, your question raises a valid issue based on your history. ",
"ELI5: Why is this asked and makes the front page so often?",
"Uhm, young people (18-25) almost all vote for tax loving far left Democrats. So you might as well start paying now."
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r19zp | what was so offensive in the satanic verses by salman rushdie? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/r19zp/eli5_what_was_so_offensive_in_the_satanic_verses/ | {
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"_URL_0_ \nI'm making a synopsis right now. Give me a few minutes.\n\nEDIT: \nRushdie ends up using a lot of literary allusions to Qu'ran in poor taste including:\n \n* having a bacon-eating film star ascend to the role of the important Muslim angel Gabriel\n* naming a fallen character after the beloved Crusades-era Muslim hero Saladin\n* naming a girl who leads her village to ruin after Muhammed's main wife Ayesha\n* naming all the prostitutes in a brothel in the book after Muhammed's wives\n* referencing characters and places such as Muhammed and Mecca as names generally considered distasteful\n* referring to a particular set of verses (the Satanic verses) that were pulled from the Qu'ran and found to be non-canon\n\nI think it's pretty fair to say that Rushdie was intentionally trying rile ~~folks~~ excitable members of the Muslim community up.",
"I recently read it, and here's it for a five year old.\n\"Mr. Rushdie had some problems with the Muslims. This is because he wrote a book that got some of them mad-Specifically, the Grand Ayatollah in Iran. This is because, in the course of writing a beautiful book, he made some bad mistakes. He called their leader Mohammed \"Mahound\". This was a mean name only crusaders called him. He also used another mean crusade-y word, \"Jahalia\" for their important city, Mecca. He also said that Mohammed might have either believed or seen a fake god called Al-lat. That's bad in monotheism. Then, he made fun of the Grand Ayatollah by calling him silly and backwards. Lastly, he had a tale about a whorehouse where the women of leisure pretended to be Mohammed's wives.\"\n\nRegardless, it's an amazing book. I can't really recommend anything more highly than this. Pardon any spelling errors, I'm posting from mobile."
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bjqm3t | the equation that is iterated to create the mandelbrot set. | Can you explain to a layman the math of the Mandelbrot set? Exactly what are we looking at, and how does the equation interact with itself to create it? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bjqm3t/eli5_the_equation_that_is_iterated_to_create_the/ | {
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"The Mandelbrot set is a collection of complex numbers, and the picture you commonly see drawn to represent the Mandelbrot set is created by coloring the points on the complex plane corresponding to numbers \\*in\\* the set black and numbers \\*not\\* in the set white, or with other colors (see below). I'm gonna assume you're comfortable with complex numbers and the complex plane. \n\n\nWhether or not a number is in the set depends on what happens when you apply a certain mathematical rule based on the number over and over and over again. Does the output from each application of the rule stay near zero? Or does it blast off towards infinity? If it stays near zero then the point is in the Mandelbrot set. \n\n\nThe mathematical rule has two parts \"start with zero\" and \"at each step, square whatever number you have and then add the number you're testing for Mandlebrot membership\". \n\n\nIf we test the number -2, we see it passes: \nFirst application of the rule: 0^(2)\\+(-2) = -2 \nSecond application of the rule: (-2)^(2)\\+(-2) = 2 \nThird application of the rule (2)^(2)\\+(-2)=2 \nAnd now we're very clearly in a loop that will repeat forever. The output will keep being 2, staying near zero and not blasting off towards infinity. -2 is in the Mandlebrot set. In the picture, it's the black point at the very far left. \n\n\nIf we test the number -1, we see it passes: \nFirst application of the rule: 0^(2)\\+(-1) = -1 \nSecond application of the rule: (-1)^(2)\\+(-1) = 0 \nThird application of the rule (0)^(2)\\+(-1)=1 \nAnd now we're very clearly in a loop that will repeat forever. The output will keep oscillating between 0 and -1, staying near zero and not blasting off towards infinity. -1 is in the Mandlebrot set. In the picture, it's in the middle of the circular region left of center. \n\n\nIf we test the number 1, we see it fails: \nFirst application of the rule: 0^(2)\\+(1) = 1 \nSecond application of the rule: (1)^(2)\\+(1) = 2 \nThird application of the rule (2)^(2)\\+(1)=5 \nAnd now we're very clearly getting away from 0. The next output will be 26, then 677. It will speed off towards infinity. 1 is not in the Madlebrot set. In the standard picture its a white color. \n\n\nMany pictures of the set don't just use black and white, they use a whole spectrum of colors for points not in the set. In these cases, the colors are chosen based on how \"quickly\" the rule speeds off towards infinity. So you might color \"hot\" points - points that create rules which grow away from 0 very quickly - with a red color and \"cold\" points - points which create rules which you have to apply dozens or even hundreds of times before they grow away from 0 - with a blue color and have a whole rainbow in between.",
"Complex numbers can be defined as ordered pairs of real numbers where:\n\n(a,b)\\*(c,d) = (ac - bd, ad + bc).\n\nAlso, (x,0) is the real number x.\n\nWe can picture the complex number (a,b) as the point (a,b) on the complex plane (which can be represented as a grid with two perpendicular axes, and an origin at (0,0) ).\n\nTo understand the Mandelbrot set we'll need to understand complex number addition and complex number squaring. Complex number addition works as follows: (a,b) + (c,d) = (a+c, b+d). Geometrically this can be understood in terms of the parallelogram law. Complex number squaring works as follows: (a,b)\\^2 = (a\\^2 - b\\^2, 2ab). Geometrically this can be understood by imagining (a,b) as an arrow pointing from (0,0) to (a,b) and then squaring the length of that angle and doubling the angle of that arrow. If I were explaining this to you in person I would be drawing lots of pictures...sorry it doesn't work the same way here.\n\nNow you define this recurrence relation:\n\nZ(n+1) < --- Z(n)\\^2 + C, where Z(0) = 0 and C is a complex number to be chosen.\n\nStart with a choice of C. We put it into the equation and get:\n\nZ(1) = 0\\^2 + C = C\n\nNow we use Z(1) to get Z(2): Z(2) = Z(1)\\^2 + C = C\\^2 + C\n\nNow we use Z(2) to get Z(3): Z(3) = Z(2)\\^2 + C = (C\\^2 + C)\\^2 + C\n\nWe get from this a sequence: C, C\\^2 + C, (C\\^2 + C)\\^2 + C, ((C\\^2 + C)\\^2 + C)\\^2 + C, ...\n\nThis sequence can be visualized as having a fixed arrow pointing from (0,0) to C and then squaring it, adding the result to C, squaring that, adding the result to C, squaring that, adding the result to C, and so on forever. In some cases you'll get pretty erratic behavior.\n\nIf this sequence \"blows up\" toward infinity (for any real number M, we can find an n such that the magnitude of Z(n) exceeds M) then C is not part of the Mandelbrot set. If the sequence stays bounded forever then C is part of the Mandelbrot set. In this case we like to put a black point (or any color) where C is on the complex plane. Once you color all the points black where Z(1) = C leads to Z(n) staying bounded, you have an image of the Mandelbrot set. If you want to add something more then what you can do is come up with colors that represent how long it takes Z(n) to exceed a magnitude of 2 (at which point it is guaranteed to go towards infinity). Some choices of C lead to Z(n) exceeding a magnitude of 2 faster than others, so give them different colors and it'll make your image more interesting."
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9qh54j | what does a poe/power-over-ethernet switch do? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9qh54j/eli5_what_does_a_poepoweroverethernet_switch_do/ | {
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"PoE means that the electricity required to power the device is sent over the Ethernet cable so you don't need to run an extension cord to wherever the device is in order to power it. This is especially useful for long-range wifi antennas that are in high-up or otherwise hard to reach places because you only have to run the one small Cat-5 or 6 wire up to it. \n\nA PoE switch is a switch that either requires PoE to power it or provides PoE to other devices connected to it. ",
"Generally, Ethernet is used for standard communication across the network and the end point device uses its own power source. Such as an AC adapter plugged into an outlet.\n\nPower over Ethernet (PoE) allows for end point devices to use Ethernet connections for power. [Edit] Usually around 44-57 VDC. This is very useful for many simple devices like an alarm device or a phone.\n\nEliminating the extra power connection, also simplifies installations in Remote places or where outlets aren't usually located, such as subfloors and ceiling spaces.\n\n[Veracity Global - POE explained](_URL_0_)"
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1pdubn | how could a person freeze to death in space? | Hear me out- We think of space as being very cold, and in movies we've all seen people freeze neigh instantly once they're exposed to the environment outside their space suit. Whether the freezing really happens so quickly or not, where does the heat go? If heat can be transferred by convection, conduction, and radiation, it seems that radiation would be the only way to 'cool off' in a void. If there is no air around you, what could you conduct your body heat into? If space is 'empty' (is a void, is just the 'relation between objects') it shouldn't be hot or cold, it should not pertain to having a temperature.
Sure a person dies in space for lots of other reasons, but I want to know why they freeze. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pdubn/eli5_how_could_a_person_freeze_to_death_in_space/ | {
"a_id": [
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"score": [
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"text": [
"You answered it yourself. Its in the movies. We wouldnt instant freeze to death. We would relatively slowly lose heat to radiation. Suffocation and the vacuum would kill us first."
]
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[]
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axmckz | why is it so hard to draw (freehand) a horizontal straight line compared to a vertical one? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/axmckz/eli5_why_is_it_so_hard_to_draw_freehand_a/ | {
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"More joints are involved in the drawing of a horizontal line so they have to compensate for the angle that the other one is at. In a vertical line it can be drawn by movement in a single joint.",
"Because you are drawing with your wrist, not your arm. Lock your wrist in one place and sweep your whole arm sideways. Voila, one straight line."
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f59dyz | what is a surfactant and why is it useful? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f59dyz/eli5_what_is_a_surfactant_and_why_is_it_useful/ | {
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"It reduces surface tension, making a liquid spread more thinly. Making water wetter, so it can get into tiny little places and dissolve contaminants in or on a material. Dish washing liquid is a good example of a common surfactant.\n\nSurfactants can also be used to make a dye run deeper into a material by making it thinner.\n\nThey are also used in fire fighting foams and oil dispersal agents.",
"Surfactants are a special kind of molecule that combines hydrophobic and hydrophilic properties. This is usually fairly large molecule, with one part of it capable of becoming charged (hydrophilic part) and other other being a long hydrocarbon chain (hydrophobic part). These are also called \"head\" and \"tail\" for simplicity. In water, these molecules will form a tiny ball (called micelle) and orient themselves in such a way that \"heads\" are on the outside and \"tails\" are inside. While micelles are still forming, \"tail\" portions can \"dissolve\" some impurities present in water, like dirt or grease particles/droplets and keep these impurities inside. This is what is happening when you are doing laundry - surfactants in laundry detergent will help dissolve dirt from fabric and carry it away.",
"Some molecules are kinda like magnets. Different parts of the molecules have different charges and they all attract or repel each other. That's why water forms beads.\n\nSome molecules are kinda like marbles. They don't have any charges and don't interact much, if at all. That's why oil doesn't form beads.\n\nIf you mix some magnets and some beads, the magnets will all attract each other and clump up. The marbles will just sit there and make way for the magnets to clump up. A surfactant is a molecule made up of mostly marbles but has magnets at the end. When you add enough of these, they'll form balls with the magnet ends pointing outside and the marble ends on the inside. That way you can have little balls of marbles throughout the magnet soup.\n\nNow replace the magnets with water and the marbles with oil, dirt, or any number of things. That's how soaps work. That's also why your skin feels dry after you use soap. Your skin has natural oils on it that prevent you from losing too much water. When you use soap, you strip those oils off it.",
"The name Surfactant is an amalgamation of \"Surface Active Agent\". In general, they most often are used to change the surface tension of water. Think about how a paperclip will float on water. The metal is denser than water but not heavy enough to break the surface tension of the water. Add a drop of dish soap, which is about 20ish% surfactant and the paper clip suddenly sinks. The surfactants in the dish soap lowered the surface tension of the water.\n\nSurfactants accomplish all of these interesting properties by having a water-loving(hydrophilic) head of the molecule and a water-hating(hydrophobic) tail of the molecule. This is what allows it to make foams, clean surfaces, and emulsify. There is almost an endless list of applications for surfactants.\n\nSource: I work for a company that makes surfactants.",
"From a physiologic perspective, surfactant helps keep the little air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs partially open even when the lungs are deflated. This reduces how much you need to work in order to get air in (imagine blowing up a balloon; it is much easier to blow it up once it is partially inflated than when it is completely deflated)."
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2pz8ho | if people can be given pig hearts, why are people still having to wait for heart transplants? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pz8ho/eli5_if_people_can_be_given_pig_hearts_why_are/ | {
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"Due to transplant rejection. Your body's immune system will recognize the pig's heart as a foreign mass, and your white blood cells will attack it, causing the transplanted organ to fail. This also happens with human-to-human transplants, but to a lesser degree.",
"They can't be given whole hearts from a pig. Pig hearts are similar enough that the valves can be used in humans. ",
"I don't know why you think that pig hearts can be transplanted into humans; with current technology that is 100% impossible.",
"I believe you might be misinterpreting your source information.\n\nWe are not quite at the stage of being able to transplant pig hearts into a human being. The main reason we have so much issue with human-to-human transplants is something called 'rejection.' Human bodies are quite capable of recognizing foreign organic matter, even when it comes from another human being. That's why transplant receipents take a regime of anti-rejection drugs, which have the unfortunate ~~side effect~~ consequences of suppressing their immune system as a whole in the process. Pig hearts would be even more likely to trigger an immune response...at least not without appropriate treatment.\n\nFrom the latest research, if I recall the article correctly, scientists have only just recently reached the stage where they were able to transplant a heart into a baboon subject and the subject did not reject the organ within a 6-month period. It's a promising start, but the pig donor had to be genetically modified in order to have a heart that wasn't rejected outright. I don't even think the research has been fully published yet.\n\n(Edited for some clarity.)",
"Thanks everyone! I had read about the pig heart valve transplants and confused this with a full heart transplant.",
"The only part of pigs that is actually used right now in terms of heart every is using a pigs heart valves to replace the dysfunctional human ones.",
"There are currently 80k Americans waiting on organs. These are people who have already qualified financially, responsibly and have otherwise healthy bodies and lifestyles.\n\nSign up to be an organ donor. [US Organ Donor Sign Up](_URL_0_)",
"You can transplant valves. Not an entire pig heart.",
"Feel I needed to pipe in here. This is sort of related, but I feel I can give a little first hand info. I was the first person ever with my specific condition to receive a bovine valve replacement in my pulmonary artery via a catheter. \n\nI have Tetralogy of Fallot (basically no valve in my pulmonary artery, so blood doesn't flow properly) but also only one oxygenating lung, which makes valve transplants all the more complicated (as that's the ONLY valve). I basically had what should have been open heart surgery, and I was in hospital for 3 days. I was back at school within a week. This was in 2003. [link here for anyone interested](_URL_1_)\n\nIf they can develop a way to do that without the need for major open heart surgery, I'm sure EVENTUALLY they'll be able to do what you're suggesting. However it needs replacing every 8 years or so as pigs/cows have shorter lifespans than us. I've had another valve replacement since then, in 2010. I need them \"topped up\" every 8 years or so. I'm pretty sure it works the same with full hearts.\n\nThere's an infection (Endocarditis. I think the bacteria themselves are called streptococcus oralis [link here](_URL_0_)) whereby bacteria that live quite happily on your skin, in your gums etc get into your bloodstream and attack anything foreign. It's a goddamn nasty bacteria that's pretty bloody deadly. I had it 3 months after my first valve replacement and spent a month in hospital on a drip. My mum saved my life. If they had caught it a couple days later than they did, I'd be dead. \n\nEven if/when it is possible, it's a minefield. \n\nSource - I have Tetralogy of Fallot and have had several valve replacements. \n\nEdit, added some links in. ",
"Risk averse patients avoid them, rasher ones don't.",
"You can't receive a whole pig heart, your body can use a pig's atrial valve when your own atrial valve fails. \n\nSaying someone who has a pigs atrial valve has a pigs heart is like saying that guy who lives in a concrete building lives in a wooden house because the front door is made out of wood. \n\nIf your heart is seriously fucked up, you need to replace it with another human heart. "
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"http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1414869/Heart-children-spared-surgery-by-new-technique.html"
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327ggl | what happens when he hold in our breath? how does our body "use" that air? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/327ggl/eli5_what_happens_when_he_hold_in_our_breath_how/ | {
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"I'm not sure if you were looking for what the other commenters said or if you wanted the full Biology of it, but here's roughly what happens.\n\nYou inhale air (which obviously contains oxygen). The oxygen is then absorbed into your bloodstream (into red blood cells) through the lungs. The oxygenated red blood cells then travel round your body and oxygen is taken where-ever it's needed. (A lot of oxygen is used for energy and growth in cells, eg the breakdown of glucose into energy, CO2 and water). These red blood cells then return to the lungs to 'collect' more oxygen.\n\nAt the same time, CO2 is being given out by cells as they breakdown glucose into energy. This CO2 is absorbed into the bloodstream and is then taken out of blood at the lungs. That's when you breathe out. \n\nSo overall, you breathe in, air goes in, oxygen is absorbed into the red blood cells while CO2 leaves the blood and goes into the lungs, then you breathe out and the absorbed oxygen is used (mostly) for creation of energy and growth. \n\nEdit: Typo and clarity"
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16h2vq | is it the actual tobacco that is bad for you in cigarettes, or all of the chemicals that are put into the cigarette? | I think the title is pretty self explanatory. Just a thing that I have always wondered. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/16h2vq/is_it_the_actual_tobacco_that_is_bad_for_you_in/ | {
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"text": [
"Both; but it is more complicated that.\n\nThe chemicals added are bad.\n\nThe act of breathing smoke into lungs is bad.\n\nNicotine is highly addictive and carcinogenic.",
"Okay first of all, *everything* is a chemical--not just the 'additives'. Yes, chemicals are added to cigarettes, but cigarettes already contain chemicals, because everything is a chemical, and there are an awful lot of them in tobacco, aside from nicotine.\n\nCigarette additives aren't good for you, but tobacco naturally produces a myriad of chemicals and radioactive isotopes that cause cancer when burned and inhaled. So no, smoking American Spirits won't really lower your chances of lung cancer.",
"It's a combination. In cigarettes, both the actual tobacco, and the chemicals, are what is bad for you. Filling your lungs with smoke is never good. Any kind of smoke. \nHowever, tobacco alone is not healthy. Chewing tobacco causes cancers of the mouth.\nIf you must smoke something, smoke an electric cigarette with no nicotine. You are actually inhaling steam, which is healthy.",
"It is primarily the carcinogenic molecules in the actual smoke that is bad for you. For this reason, anyone who tells you that smoking weed is perfectly healthy is full of shit. ",
"The fact it has to burn is where most of the nasty chemicals come from, both created from the tobacco burning and as additives to make it burn better.\n\nVaporisers (eg. [electronic cigarettes](_URL_0_)) are almost certainly healthier as you get the nicotine with none of the other harmful chemicals created by burning tobacco, tho there's still a lack of long term studies so we don't know what risks there still are using them."
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1bkwg7 | a high tide is where the the resultant gravitational field due to the earth and moon is minimal? | This textbook of mine says that high tides occur at the point where the resultant gravitational field due to the moon and the earth is minimum. At a point where the Moon is closest. How do the two relate? Would'nt a greater resultant force tug against the water more? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1bkwg7/eli5_a_high_tide_is_where_the_the_resultant/ | {
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"The Earth's gravty pulls towards the center of the Earth, the Moon's gravity pulls towards the center of the Moon. If you were to draw a line between the center of the Earth and the center of the Moon, along that line the two gravitational forces are acting in oposite directions.\n\nBecause the two forces are acting directly against each other, the resultant force is the minimum it can be at any time. \n\nDon't think of it as the Moon pulling the tides up, think of it as the Earth pulling the tide down. The Moon's gravity reduces the down-pulling effect by working against it, hence a high tide. "
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317xjn | why is it that people slowly dying often have a burst of energy or clarity right before the end? why isn't that state sustainable? | So often I hear of terminally ill people getting out of bed to come have dinner with the family one last time or whatnot. For example, my Grandfather-In-Law at the end of whatever he was succumbing from, got up walked around, asked for a martini, and was in good spirits near the end. The next day he was dead. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/317xjn/eli5_why_is_it_that_people_slowly_dying_often/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"There's some thought that it's a sort of fight-or-flight reaction, the body's last try at surviving. I was warned about this by hospice nurses a few weeks before a friend died. Sure enough, he had me research commercial fishing licenses, because he was going to start a fishing business. \"How are we going to get you into the boat? You can't even walk to the toilet.\" \"We'll worry about that later.\" etc.\n\nA few days later his BP and heart rate suddenly destabilized, and a week after that he was dead."
]
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26smic | torque steer. i know what it is, but what causes it to pull to one side instead of the other? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26smic/eli5_torque_steer_i_know_what_it_is_but_what/ | {
"a_id": [
"chu3ug0"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Front engined, front wheel drive cars have transversely mounted engines, so the transmission and diff are to one side. The shaft to the wheel on that side is shorter than the shaft to the opposite wheel. The wheel with the shorter shaft gets more torque."
]
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||
bks9vf | what just happened at the kentucky derby? why did maximum security get dq'd? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bks9vf/eli5_what_just_happened_at_the_kentucky_derby_why/ | {
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"text": [
"He got spooked by the crowd, couldn’t be controlled and kicked another horse twice in the back leg. Could have been a horse pile up with the potential for putting down several horses if injured."
]
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aszybv | how come a sudden specific sound or song triggers a flashback which is usually brought along with the scent you felt in that particular moment in time? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aszybv/eli5_how_come_a_sudden_specific_sound_or_song/ | {
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"Smell has very profound effects on memory, along with taste. It's the reason you can get a whiff of brownies and suddenly remember your 11th birthday. I believe the leading theory involves the fact that it is hard to imagine a smell. Because of that, memories brought on by smell seem very intense. And with that intense memory comes the emotions you felt at the moment. And what else is known for causing us to feel emotions? Music.\n\nA certain song hits the right chord in your brain and brings back that memory of a family barbecue, that song playing on the radio and the smell of burgers on the breeze.\n\n\nFun fact; When I was young, I had to have 7 teeth removed. Johnny Cash's \"Ring of Fire\" was played on a loop during the entire procedure. I was drugged, but not asleep. The dentists had the masks with the creepy clown mouths on them. Needless to say, I was traumatized. And for years, whenever I heard Ring of Fire, I felt unbearable pain in my teeth. "
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40nx9w | why are there hardly any european tonal languages? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/40nx9w/eli5_why_are_there_hardly_any_european_tonal/ | {
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"text": [
"Because European languages didn't evolve to be tonal. It's not that there are *hardly any* European tonal languages: there are *none at all*. The only Indo-European languages that exhibit tonality are Punjabi and Lahnda, which are very closely related and spoken in Pakistan.\n\nTonality occurs in only some language groups: most Asian languages, most sub-Saharan African languages, and several native languages in North and South America.\n\nMost languages in the world are not tonal, but they still have pitch -- it's just that in these languages (including our own), pitch does not affect the meaning of a word. We use tone to convey things like sarcasm or mockery, or to distinguish between questions and statements, or to show how phrases and clauses are related to each other.\n\nFor example, take these two sentences:\n\n1. The man who is wearing a hat is a criminal.\n2. The man, who is wearing a hat, is a criminal.\n\nIn writing, the only difference is the commas. But the intonation is very different: in the second sentence, the clause \"who is wearing a hat\" is spoken with a much lower tone than in the first sentence. This marks the difference between a defining relative clause (first sentence) and a non-defining relative clause (second sentence). The two sentences mean, respectively:\n\n1. Among this group of men, the one wearing a hat is a criminal.\n2. This man is a criminal: additionally, he is wearing a hat.\n\nSo, our language isn't tonal, because a word doesn't change its meaning when spoken with a different tone. However, we use tone in different ways, to clarify the sentence structure and to express the speaker's attitude to what is being said. We use tone, just not the same way tone is used in, for example, Mandarin.",
"Swedish has a small amount of lexical tone (tone used to tell apart different words), I believe... there are a few Swedish words that are distinguished by higher or lower tone. Maybe Lithuanian and Latvian have some words like this, as well.\n\nAnyway, as others have said, the European languages form a tight little family tree. Of the European languages, only three or four aren't Indo-European, and most of the rest come from only three branches (Italic, Germanic, Slavic) which only branched into the existing language recently. So it's not really like flipping a coin thirty-five times and getting 35 heads; its more like flipping a coin 3 times (Indo-European, Uralic, Basque) and getting tails once (Basque has some pitch accents).\n\nIs there any reason we wouldn't expect Indo-European languages to develop tone? One possible factor is that proto-Indo-Europeans, or at least speakers of many of the daughter languages, *could* produce and hear different pitches, but *didn't* use this to distinguish between different words that otherwise sounded the same. That might interfere with the development of lexical tone.\n\nA second factor is that where lexical tone develops on a large scale it replaces difficult clusters of consonants, or subtle distinctions among closely related series of consonants. The Indo-European branches in Europe didn't have either of these, so far as I know. (Punjabi, which another commenter mentioned, comes from a branch that distinguishes between voicing, aspiration, and breathiness; their tone replaces the breathy consonants, I think.)"
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bzs8qu | when you look to a spinning car wheel, everything gets blurred. but when you blink, all details are visible for a millisecond. why is that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bzs8qu/eli5_when_you_look_to_a_spinning_car_wheel/ | {
"a_id": [
"eqw5k5m"
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"text": [
"Persistence of vision. We dont see frames, we see continuous movement, and not only that out eyes/brain see several milliseconds at once.\n\nWhen you blink you reduce the amount of time your eyes can see so etching moving. Less movement means your eyes/brain have less time to see that movement, but your brain is smart and will actually catch what you saw and remember for a small amount of time allowing you to remember some details."
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1j4vnu | what is the difference between a starting pitcher, a relief pitcher, and a closer (baseball)? | Last week, I was watching sport highlights of the MLB All Star game. What got my attention was when the commentators mentioned that one of the greatest closing pitchers (Mariano Rivera) was retiring. Not knowing much about baseball, what exactly separates a starting pitcher from a relief pitcher from a closer? Is a relief simply a pitcher not good enough to be a starter, or do reliefs and closers have unique skills that make them completely different from starters? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1j4vnu/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a_starting/ | {
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"A starter is a pitcher who starts the game (obviously). They are typically good pitchers, but it is also required to have a lot of arm stamina, because they will be expected to pitch over 100 pitches if having a good game, which can be very strenuous. A closer is typically a good pitcher as well, but because they typically never pitch more than an inning, it doesn't require any stamina. A lot of times, pitchers with just a lot of raw power will be a closer, and just throw it as hard as they can because they don't need to worry about getting tired. Relief pitchers are more miscellaneous. They usually aren't as good as starters an closers, and/or have less stamina than starters. Sometimes they fill a particular niche as well. For an east example, it's always a good idea to have a few left handed relievers on your team, because its harder for a left hitter to hit off of a left handed pitcher. So if the starter gets into a hole with a few runners on, and there is a left handed batter up, you could throw your left handed reliever in to make it tougher on that batter, and then just replace him with another reliever afterwards.",
"Starter - The first pitcher for each team. He generally has a lot of stamina and can through for many innings. In the old days, starters would pitch the entire game. Nowadays, they generally are in the game for perhaps 5-7 innings, depending on how well they do. Each team usually carries 5 starters on the team. \n\nReliever - Any pitcher who enters the game after the starter. \n\nCloser - A reliever who generally pitches the last inning of a game (ie. closes out the game). Most closers come in when the game is tied or their team is winning by a small margin. The typical closer is really good, but can't last more than an inning or so.\n\nSetup Man - Kind of like a closer, but he comes in the 8th inning, trying to preserve the team's lead before the closer comes in. A team may not necessarily have a designated setup man. Generally a setup man has the same skillset as a closer and will become the closer if the closer is hurt. \n\nLefty Specialist - Pitchers have an advantage over hitters if they have the same handedness. In other words, lefty pitchers do well against lefty batters. A lefty specialist is a left-handed reliever who only pitches to a few batters and rarely faces right-handed batters.\n\nLong Relievers - Relievers who have enough endurance to pitch for many innings. They're usually used if the starter gets hurt or is doing badly early in the game. \n\nShort Relievers - Relievers who only pitch for 1 or 2 innings at a time.\n\nMany pitchers start out as starters then move to relief later in their careers. Mariano Rivera, for example, was a starter for the beginning of his career. Closers tend to throw really hard and have a couple of good pitches. They're not in the game very long, so they don't have to worry about stamina. Starters tend to have a larger variety of pitches and can conserve energy throughout the game. In other words, there are some unique skillsets, but it's not unusual for a starter to be converted into a reliever. ",
"A pitcher can throw the ball more in a game than the rest of the fielders combined, and as such, suffers from fatigue. Ideally, a pitcher throws for all 9 innings, but that is increasingly rare. So these days, pitchers fall into more specialized roles.\n\n* Starters - These are usually your best pitchers, who not only have the endurance to pitch 5-7 innings, but are good enough to get batters out, so they throw fewer pitches and last longer. They typically start once every 4 or 5 games. The best starter is your ace.\n* Middle reliever - Technically, if you aren't a starter, you are a relief pitcher...but middle reliever is kind of your generic relief pitcher. They are typically the guys who aren't good enough to be starters, but are occasionally good pitchers with bad endurance. Still, their first two innings are usually better than a starter's last two. They can play more often than starters, but their quality goes down rapidly if they play too much. You'll often hear about a team leaving their starter in to rest their bullpen\n* Setup man - A better than average relief pitcher, who can be relied upon to 1 or 2 solid innings when the game is on the line. Usually plays in the 7 and/or 8th innings.\n* Closer - Usually a good, strong armed pitcher who only plays in the 9th inning when the game is on the line then the other team will start pinch hitting a lot if they are behind. Because he doesn't have to save his arm for later innings, a closer can throw as hard as he can. Can appear in several consecutive games."
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2m1krr | why are my nails only strong if they're short? why can't they stay strong, like claws? | It's so annoying when you haven't cut your nails in a while and they just crack and hurt! I trim my dogs' nails and they're so much stronger-I would think they're made of the same stuff (keratin). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2m1krr/eli5_why_are_my_nails_only_strong_if_theyre_short/ | {
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"text": [
"Thinking of claws, they seem thicker and with a stronger root than our human finger nails which are thin, and broad, and with a different root than claws have. "
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3xevef | why were battles fought in straight lines of standing soldiers during the revolutionary war? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xevef/eli5why_were_battles_fought_in_straight_lines_of/ | {
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"Muskets. \nBefore the advent of rifling and mass production, the average infantry soldier was issued a smooth-bore, muzzle-loaded, black powder musket with a bayonet as the primary weapon. \nA musket is inherently inaccurate. A man hit at 50 yards with a musket shot was considered wildly unlucky. \nThe best way to increase the chances of harming the enemy? \nMass fire. Line people up in lines, and have them all fire at once. There were several reasons for THAT, too. First off, a single musket pointed at you was intimidating, but not THAT bad. A rank of 50-100 infantry, ALL pointing their weapons at YOU, that's got a bit more of a psychological impact. \nEven more important psychologically was the impact of a rank of soldiers all firing at once. Thunderous noise, massive amounts of smoke, and a hail of lead balls coming at you was a fearsome sight. \nAnother reason is that muzzle-loaded muskets take a long time to fire. A GOOD musketeer could get off 3 \"aimed\" shots in a minute. Think you can run farther than 50 yards in 20 seconds? Maybe 100? By having large formations of soldiers, the soldiers could fire in 2-3 RANKS. One rank of soldiers would fire, the second rank would be loading, and a third would be taking aim. It didn't increase the RATE of fire (shots per minute), but it definitely cut the amount of time between volleys of fire. \nLastly, and this is an important part, most combat was still hand-to-hand. Being in close proximity to a number of your comrades was a MAJOR advantage in a melee. \n\nWhy did soldiers stop lining up in massed ranks? \n\nMass-produced rifles. \n\n Around the time of the US Civil War, lining up in rank and file was recognized by US soldiers as a convenient way to commit suicide. The Europeans learned this lesson (finally, despite a number of experiences beforehand) during World War I. \nRifles had long been known to be much more accurate than muskets, but they were one-of-a-kind works of art of a master gunsmith until mass-production and the Minie Ball became common right before the US Civil War. \nThe range and accuracy went for 50 yards to 200-400 yards, even though the rate of fire didn't increase. With the advent of breach-loading weapons and repeating weapons , the rate of fire skyrocketed, making life that much MORE deadly for a soldier without something to hide behind. \n\nEnter trench warfare. \n\n"
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2377h7 | the study indicating the us is an oligarchy. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2377h7/eli5_the_study_indicating_the_us_is_an_oligarchy/ | {
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"Well, there won't be any consequences. It's not like the UN has declared the US President to be a warmonger or anything.\n\nBasically, a few people from a couple of universities have looked at laws passed by Congress, and in their opinion the evidence shows that Congress passes laws that favour big business and rich individuals. The newspaper article uses the world \"oligarchy\" because it sounds scary, but an oligarchy is a system where a state is governed by a small number of people and could actually be applied to almost every country.\n\nThe study itself uses the terms \"Economic Elite Domination\" (those in power are likely to be people who are also very wealthy) and \"Biased Pluralism\" (where everyone gets a say -- at least through the ballot box -- but the interests of corporations and wealthy people are better represented than the interests of the average citizen).\n\nIn short, the study is saying that big business and the rich are more able to influence government than Joe the Plumber. To be honest, it's not really news.\n\nThe consequence will be that anyone who wants to argue that the system is corrupt can point to a forty-page document written by some clever people who also think the system might be corrupt."
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4w9io9 | why do some movies look like they're shot in some sort of hue? | Underworld would be a good example. The entire movie is blue. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4w9io9/eli5_why_do_some_movies_look_like_theyre_shot_in/ | {
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"Because they either use hues (digital editing) or colored lights. Some hues like sepia tells the viewer that it's situated in old times. I've also noticed that it's for some reason used a lot when something is located in Mexico.\n\nColor is an easy way to convey emotion like blue giving cold and unwelcoming vibes, red giving warm and welcoming vibes and gray giving melancholic or depressing vibes.",
"Because in post production they changed the hue of everything. This is called color correction. It's done on computers.",
"There are movies in which this Color Grading is done to inform the viewer e.g. flashback scenes might be \"sepia-tinted\" to emulate old photos. *The Lord of the Rings* movies employed color grading extensively. ",
"Because different colors tell you different thing, bright white light is pure and innocent, dark shadows with red lights says evil and scary.",
"It´s pretty similar to the process of mastering audio wich ends up making a whole album sound \"similar\" after they record all the songs, they put the whole thing under the same chain of effects to make them sound the same.\nIn cinema, this is achieved with color correction. Filters are applied to the whole film after editing all the shots, making the transitions feel more natural and part of the same thing."
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2z04fg | why does google always show the same ads in front of youtube videos and doesn't diversify? wouldn't they get better results? | Google is supposed to know very much about us. Couldn't they mix up the ads in front of videos? They should have learned somehow in what I am interested and in what I'm not interested. Showing one person only 1 or 2 ads can't result in much clicks, which generate revenue for them, right? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2z04fg/eli5_why_does_google_always_show_the_same_ads_in/ | {
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"Google knows who you are, and what sorts of things you're in to.\n\nThey sell access to your demographic to advertisers, who pay for '20something males who like Star Wars' or '30-38 year old women who like celebrities'.\n\nIf you only routinely see two ads, it's because only two companies want to target your demographic through youtube. You might not be a lucrative demo for advertisers."
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3gcjsw | why is american sugar less sweet than canadian sugar? | My boyfriend and I recently took a trip to vermont. While we were there, we had many coffees. I would take 2 sugar packets, put them in my coffee - and taste nothing. In order to get the same sweetness of 2 sugars I usually put in Canada, I had to put 6 sugar packs in my coffee! We went to many different restaurants and it was always the same.
The sugar packs are exactly the same volume, labelled as 100% pure sugar. Is there a difference in the chemical composition? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gcjsw/eli5_why_is_american_sugar_less_sweet_than/ | {
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"When looking at sugar, we can taste its sweetness by how refined it is. The more refined the sugar, the sweeter it tends to get. Different countries and producers tend to have different standards on the refinery process, and these standards also reflect the typical palate of the people in the region. This is why sugar in Canada tasted sweeter, because although it is still 100% sugar, it has gone through the refinery process slightly different. Something similar to this situation is American Nutella vs. European Nutella. They taste completely different, and it is a result of developers attempting to fit the common palate of the area with ingredients that are easy to obtain and are used in that region. Hope this helped! :)"
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4ej5i9 | what's the difference between left and right libertarianism? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ej5i9/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_left_and_right/ | {
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"At it's simplest, the difference between left and right libertarianism is the existence (or absence) of hierarchy and the views on property ownership. Both seek to maximize the individual freedoms in a nebulous sense, and subscribe to a policy of non-aggression, essentially allowing you to do whatever you want as long as you don't hurt someone else. \n\nThe purest form of right libertarianism turns society over to the free market, preserves individual ownership of property, and takes no issue with voluntary hierarchies (the boss / employee relationship). The means of production (factories and markets) are owned by individuals, who could then purchase your labor and sell the excess value you create for profit.\n\nA left libertarian society would place everyone on a level playing field, removing hierarchy by not recognizing property rights beyond personal property (clothing, personal items, maybe a single residence). In other words, if you aren't actively using something like an apartment building, you can't claim ownership of it. The apartment would basically be held in trust by the collective residents, not owned by an absentee landlord wringing profit from it. Resources and the means of production would be 'owned' collectively, and all who participated in their use would receive the benefits of their labor with all profits going to the people working, or reinvesting into the collective. \n\nThat's a very simple explanation, as both exist on a sliding scale, and there are dozens of flavors on both sides of the spectrum.\n\nEdit: a word "
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dax8li | how are jellyfish alive? they are see through and have no organs or blood? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dax8li/eli5_how_are_jellyfish_alive_they_are_see_through/ | {
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"Some living things are incredibly simple in design and function. \n\nBlood is a system by which our cells get oxygen which is the fuel for cellular growth and repair. But, blood itself isn't necessary if that oxygen can be drawn directly from the atmosphere or water.\n\nInsects, as an example, breathe in oxygen directly through their shells or through tiny holes in their shells and have no circulatory system. \n\nOrgans are systems by which we process our food for necessary nutrients, minerals, proteins and fat and sugar. But, again, if you can draw those necessities directly from the water by simply floating through it, you have no need to develop organs. \n\nWe evolve to be as complex AS WE NEED TO AND NO FURTHER. That's how evolution works. As needed.",
"Bacteria are alive, and they have no organs or blood either.\n\nOrgans and blood are not criteria for life.",
"Question: I heard they are immortal (unless something kills them). Is that true?",
"To add on to what others are saying, life is usually defined as things that metabolize and reproduce. Jellyfish very much meet that criteria, eating food and having a complex life cycle. If you look at a jellyfish on the cellular level, there's DNA and organelles just like you and me would have, and many different kinds of specialized cells. They look different, but they're not only also alive but also eukaryotes and animals."
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385ljg | why hasn't anyone involved in the uk parliament pedophile ring been prosecuted? | I've heard about this story for some time now and haven't heard of anyone actually being punished. Is this due to corruption? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/385ljg/eli5why_hasnt_anyone_involved_in_the_uk/ | {
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"The answer is in the question.\n\n\"Parliament\".\n\nThey're in positions of authority and the peasants can't be given the idea that the same rules apply to them as to their lords."
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8vuis4 | why is plastic so much worse for the environment than naturally occurring oil? | So I saw a George Carlin bit where he says that the Earth created humans so it could have plastic. Obviously a joke, but it made me think... isn't plastic just a refinement of oil? What about that process is so devastating to the environment? Neither decomposes, and both pose a threat to wildlife, so how awful is plastic really? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8vuis4/eli5_why_is_plastic_so_much_worse_for_the/ | {
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"I don't know that you can say one is really worse than the other. Both cause massive ecological devastation. The thing about plastic is that we throw it away. Oil that escapes into the environment is lost money, so we try pretty hard not to spill it very often.\n\nPlastic on the other hand gets used and disposed of all over the world, and doesn't go away very quickly. It just builds up wherever it gets dumped.",
"naturally occurring oil is deep underground. Plastic is not.\n\nIt gets a little more specific but that is really about it. Plastic is above ground and the places we dispose of it interact with nature, naturally occuring oil is underground and doesnt interact with nature.\n\nIt is still really environmentally terrible when naturally occuring oil interacts with nature above ground (worse than plastic by a good measure)."
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pf34u | my little pony | Can someone explain why the show seems to have a cult following on Reddit and elsewhere? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/pf34u/eli5_my_little_pony/ | {
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"This question is [frequently asked](_URL_0_).",
"[FAQ](_URL_1_)\n\nTo sum it up:\n\n* It's a genuinely good show \n\n* It's made by the people who made things like the Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which are also quality shows\n\n* The creators made it so that parents (adults) could watch it with their kids and not get bored, which is why adults find it entertaining\n\n* It has pop culture references (such as The Big Lebowski a few weeks ago) and incredible, catchy songs based on famous songs by Sondheim and from plays like The Music Man\n\n* It's funny, it's nice to look at, it doesn't treat the audience like they're stupid (like Dora the Explorer does), and it makes you happy and optimistic about life\n\n* The community is one of the nicest and most active communities you could ever be a part of: everyone is genuinely nice (our motto is \"love and tolerate\") and helpful, and we have many, many creative people who are constantly coming up with pony-inspired music (usually techno/electronic), fanfiction based on the show (the greatest example of which is the 600,000-word epic Fallout: Equestria, which is one of the best stories I've ever read in my life), artwork, videos, parodies of the show, and so much more\n\nIf you have any more questions, go ahead and ask. \n\n**Edit**: I honestly didn't expect more than a few people to see this. I'm so glad I managed to convince some people to watch the show, even though my intention was merely to explain why I and so many others enjoy it so much. But I'm happier that I managed to change people's perceptions about the show and its fanbase!\n\n**For first-time viewers I suggest [Dragonshy](_URL_0_), which is about the main cast facing off against a dragon.**",
"I just watch it for the plot. Dat plot!",
"I just want to know why so many of the My Little Pony posts are nsfw..",
"I *had* become kind of curious as to why a television show from the mid-80's that was based on a toy had been talked about so much recently... I just figured girl cartoons were somehow suddenly catching up with the Transformers, G.I. Joe, He-Man nostalgia of the last 15 years. I very much expected Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake next.",
"Why not take 20 minutes and watch an episode? You may not come to like it yourself but you'll definitely see why other people could.",
"I really would like this explained. I watched half of season 1 and I just don't get it. I feel like the internet is playing a joke on me. If so, it is the most well crafted troll ever. \n\nI seriously don't get how this show has such a following. Does it get better or something in season 2? I just don't understand and I'd like to.",
"I understand when the response from people outside the target age group is incredulity and not wanting to watch it, but come on, man, you're 5!",
"It's a pretty decent, well animated show. It sometimes has jokes aimed at adult audiences and references to pop culture. The community surrounding it can be pretty fun if you are into that kind of people (turns out I am not) and most of the seem like genuinely nice people. ",
"Its aout friendship and magic AND YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!",
"Like you're 5?\n\nYou like My Little Pony. So do we, for largely the same reasons. ",
"It seems as if my fellow bronies have done well enough so I'll leave you this this tidbit i remember from the \"Trekkies\" documentary. \n\n[talking about her husband] \"Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the show and fans alot, but what really does it for me is his tenacity and his enthusiasm for it all.\" *not verbatim\n\nFor me, I am a brony because it's a good message surrounded by such enthusiastic and happy people. I like the show but I'm in it for the culture. ",
"OK, is this the same MLP as I grew up with in the mid-80s? If so, I'm very very confused.\n",
"Basically it is a well produced cartoon that has an awesome community built around it.\n\n[](/b03 \"Secret Pony Thread Anyone?\") ",
"The show itself can bring a smile to the face of the biggest pessimist on the planet. And then there is the community, holy crap are there some talented people there.\n\nLet me show you a super quick example. \n\n**1)** [Here is a 10 second clip from the show.] (_URL_2_)\n\n**2)** [That short clip was turned into a electronic song with almost a million views] (_URL_1_) (just listen to the first 10 seconds to get the idea)\n\n**3)** [Which is then remixed] (_URL_0_). Now I don't care what your thought on ponies is, that song is catchy as hell.\n\nThere are hundreds of similar examples in the fandom. Some of the best songs, funniest comics, and and most impressive artwork I have seen on the internet are done in the community.",
"Here's a 2 minute long [clip](_URL_0_) that I think shows why a lot of people like the show. ",
"I have been convinced by this informative thread. I'm watching this goddamn show, and I'm going to love it. I had no idea that the show had so many awesome people working on it; Powerpuff Girls has always been a favorite of mine. \n\nThank you for posting this. ",
"it has a lot of obscure references and inside jokes. if you don't get them, then its just not for you.",
"a lot of cartoon legends work on the show. The characters are well developed, and there is a great dynamic between them. The stories are fun. Yes, it is a cartoon, but that is just the medium.\n\nIf you can't appreciate cartoons, try The Last Airbender or Samurai Jack. The Last Airbender (cartoon, not movie) has very well developed characters and a great story. Samurai Jack is much less story driven yet is very visually appealing. It is meant to be watched, not necessarily thought about. And MLP offers both of those things.",
"I read somewhere that it also is a way of rebellion against gender stereotyping.\n\nIn that guys are not allowed to like fluffy furry things, without being called gay.",
"For a thorough analysis check out: _URL_0_\n\nIncludes a video if you don't want to read.\n",
"it has a different style then all the other crime shows etc i used to watch, its atmosphere makes you smile and it has some entertaining characters",
"No other show responds to the fans in the way the officially named speaking character Derpy does.",
"The animation is fantastic, among the other points put forward by my fellow bronies.",
"It's popular for a couple reasons in my opinion. First, in a world filled past the brim of bullshit, it's nice to, for lack of a better word, escape to a world where there's no politics, no real strife, and common appreciation between everyone every week, even if it's only for half an hour. That being said, people like everything for different reasons. Some like it because it's well written and the characters play off each other extremely well. Others like it because the villains, while few and are between, are very epic or just fun. Finally, people love Lauren Faust."
]
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"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEG-bWp-YY8&hd=1",
"http://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/np48q/why_do_we_watch_ponies_faq/"
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"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbIGnY_DSIE",
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjWqTLWYERc"
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"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Krj5ycxdf6M"
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5z7cx6 | why do people rush to the grocery store in the masses in preparation for a large snow storm? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5z7cx6/eli5_why_do_people_rush_to_the_grocery_store_in/ | {
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"text": [
"Because with a large snow storm you can be trapped indoors for weeks, not just a single day. Now getting perishable things like milk is a little silly, but they may have a large family that goes through multiple gallons of milk a week. They may be buying for multiple families, or they may run a daycare and simply be restocking for a normal week. ",
"People sometimes do go overboard, and way overboard pretty frequently. However, large snow storms---like Hurricanes and other major disasters---can at times disrupt not just your personal power supply, but also the distribution of goods on a wider scale. To the extent you are potentially facing a significant storm, having extra supplies can get you past a period where, say, shipping is slowed and the local grocery store loses power for a few days and needs to restock. ",
" > The most you'll be stuck inside is like a day.\n\nUm, no.\n\nI live in a major city, and I have been stuck at home for as long as three days. I probably could have made it out after two, but it is a whole lot easier just to stock up before the storm hits.\n\nAnd if you don't live in a major city, it can be much worse. My brother lives maybe a half hour away, but up in the mountains, and he has been stuck for as long as a week.",
"If Hurricane Sandy is any indication, people can be out of power/water for days/weeks.\n\nBut what is ridiculous are people who buy a bunch of frozen foods/perishables where lack of power is going to be the biggest issue.",
"Because they have to make French toast for the masses!\n\nOn a serious note, if you are going to be trapped inside for a few days, maybe a week (depending on how far out you live) you want to stock up. And sometimes you are getting essentials for multiple families.\n\nThe real problem is people don't really no what the essentials are anymore nor how to plan for the possibility of not leaving their home for a few days.",
"People have to shop anyway.\nIt's a lot easier to deal with the shopping/driving thing BEFORE it gets ugly outside."
]
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5fwmh2 | how do lymph capillaries collect the lymph? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5fwmh2/eli5_how_do_lymph_capillaries_collect_the_lymph/ | {
"a_id": [
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"They are the lowest pressure in the system. They have no elasticity like arteries. Muscle movement raises the pressure outside them temporarily. So they fill.From there they journey and collect. It is not an active process. \n\nIf an IV infiltrates the skin turgor increases. Slowly this will drain away through the lymph channels. There are no little pumps working away. It is a drainage system."
]
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[]
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||
4ys9v1 | why do minerals form geometric shapes? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ys9v1/eli5_why_do_minerals_form_geometric_shapes/ | {
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"Every mineral's atoms like to line up in a certain way, because they \"nest together\" better in some orientations than others. This is called the material's crystal structure, and it determines the funky shapes minerals grow in on a large scale.",
"Because the atoms in minerals are arranged in geometric shapes. They have crystal structures ways for the atoms inside them to fill space, so that for each atom of a given type, its environment is completely identical to any other atom of that type. So if you have something simple like just iron the metal, every iron atom looking out at the world sees it the same (in an ideal crystal there are no edges, no surfaces it goes on forever its an abstract notion). And for iron, if you imagine a cube, then at each corner of the cube there's an iron atom, and at the center of the cube there's an iron atom, and you stack those cubes up in all directions to fill space. This is called a Body Centered Cubic crystal, because its arranged with cubes to fill space and at the center of each cube's body there's an additional atom. \n\nNow with minerals you have different types of atoms together, not just one element, and they all have to be around a certain amount of one another, because the have to be able to share electrons, form ions and then cancel out the net charges. So there are more considerations at work. For something simply like halite, NaCl, you have Sodium, Na atoms, arranged at the corners of a cube, and additionally 6 more Na atoms in the center of each face of that cube. So each side of the cube looks like the number 5 side of dice. The Chlorine atoms, Cl, are negatively charged and have to exist all around the positively charged sodium ions, and they are arranged essentially in between any two sodium atoms. So on the edges of the cube, they exist halfway up and they are in the body center. However this means they're also equivalent to the sodium positions just shifted up halfway. Really NaCl is two face centered cubic crystals interwoven. So when its growing as a crystal, it can most easily add on new atoms in way that matches with what's already going on, so it grows outward in a cubic way. \n\nThere are hexagonal crystal systems, and there are trigonal and tetrahedral, and different sorts of crystals will grow up, but all crystals have to have a geometric structure on the atomic level. ",
"In the broadest sense, it comes down to how the molecules or atoms that make up the mineral interact with each other. It's kind of like making a tile mosaic from individual pieces with different shapes. If I give you a pile of hexagonal tiles and you put them together in an ordered fashion, your finished product (the macroscopic \"mineral\") will look different than if you had started with square tiles, or if you had a mixture of triangle and rhombus blocks.\n\n[This website has a pretty down-to-earth explanation](_URL_0_) of the basics. The GIF of crystal growth on that page is cool, although the link to the original video is broken.\n\n[Wikipedia also has a good page on the various *crystal habits*](_URL_2_), with lots of good pictures.\n\nAnd, of course, you can delve into more complex applications such as [mineral pseudomorphs](_URL_1_), but it goes a bit beyond the ELI-5 explanation of crystallization."
]
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[],
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"http://www.xtal.iqfr.csic.es/Cristalografia/parte_01-en.html",
"http://academic.emporia.edu/abersusa/go336/holt/",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_habit"
]
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|
||
d2yzo5 | how do vlans work? i always hear just put everything on a separate vlan for security but at my job we have hundreds of vlans but with rules so they can all talk to each other. what’s the point besides organization is there if they all can talk to each other? | So for example I’m on vlan 5 and another computer is on vlan 40 I can log into that machine remotely access all the same shares everything. Is there still security being on separate vlans or is it moot cause they all can talk to each other? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/d2yzo5/eli5_how_do_vlans_work_i_always_hear_just_put/ | {
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"Hundreds of VLANs sounds super excessive, but simply, VLANs work by creating virtual (rather than physical) local networks.",
"Vlans separate traffic across your physical network. Your company doesnt have ACLs in place to prevent access, but the vlans are still useful for mitigating potential problems.\n\nIf one faulty NIC goes crazy, it affects just the devices on that same vlan.\n\nAlso, vlans are useful for controlling filtering of devices in some firewalls/content filters. For example, we have Student devices on their own vlan/subnet so we can filter them more strictly.",
"VLANs are to logically separate traffic over a shared infrastructure.\n\nBefore VLANs, if you had the same Ethernet segments in different floors, for example sales on floor five and seven, to have their Ethernet segment connected you needed to bring a separate cable between every floor for every Ethernet segment. So worst case you needed N! cables in your services riser, where N is the number of floors.\n\nWhy do you need to be on the same Ethernet segment? Several reasons:\n\n- Because the protocols for the discovery of printers, scanners, file shares are all based on Ethernet broadcast. Do you want to want to print something on the printer for your colleague at floor five? Just click on \"Floor five printer Sales\" icons, much easier than having to maintain lists of IP addresses of printers and hope you got it right.\n\n- The security policy for the computers attached on that VLAN: Some computers you don't want, or just do want, to be accessible by everybody: Printers for example could be accessible on the VLAN which everybody can access, the PABX and security cameras could be accessible on the VLAN only for the security team.\n\nAnd the last part is the normalization of calling Ethernet broadcast domains (or Ethernet segments, or LANs) a VLAN. It's not for the worst, but unless you know that a VLAN originally was for the logically separation of traffic over a shared infrastructure, it can be confusing if you have VLANs everywhere but never the same VLAN on other devices.",
"Any place you want to physically separate traffic as though it were on 2 (or more) different switches, you can use vlans to separate them in the same way. Two 4-port switches not connected to each other is functionally identical to a single 8-port switch with half the ports on vlan 1 and half on vlan 2.\n\nMultiple vlans \"talking to each other\" requires something to be on multiple vlans at once and act as a relay. Usually that's a router or firewall and those tend to have good firewall capabilities. PCs and servers can do it as well.\n\nThing is, switches (and servers if you go through the effort) support vlan tagging meaning that when you move data between two switches the vlan number is preserved on each individual packet and the other switch honours it. So now you can have multiple vlans safely traverse multiple buildings, cities, etc while still honouring your separation rules using a single \"normal\" network connection, where \"normal\" here is probably fibre-optic for such distances.\n\nHell, at home I have my router in one room because that's best for the Wi-Fi and is where my computer and NAS etc are, but my cable modem is in another room with the TV and game systems because that's where the cable comes into the house. So I have 2 vlan-enabled switches (yes I spent some cash on this) and one vlan is literally just cable modem - > router WAN port through 2 switches on a private vlan. One cable goes through the wall between switches and it all just works. And all the important stuff gets wired directly rather than WiFi when it can. So, yeah, lots of vlans is absolutely a thing.",
"Each VLAN is its own broadcast domain where each computer in it can talk directly to each other computer in it, without being restricted by the network infrastructure. In order to communicate with a computer in another VLAN, your computer's data has to pass through a router, which has the capability of restricting the data in various ways.\n\nIt is far easier to restrict access between VLANs than to restrict access between computers in the same VLAN. That's where the security benefits come from, but it's not required that any restrictions exist."
]
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[],
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|
3861gf | how does oil get on my pan even though i've covered the pan with foil? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3861gf/eli5_how_does_oil_get_on_my_pan_even_though_ive/ | {
"a_id": [
"crsl66a"
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"text": [
"Lighter cooking oils, or oils that come out of cooking meats like fish, are highly viscous (meaning it flows into small cracks and penetrates fibres like paper quickly). This is really accelerated by heat. \n\nUnless you used a single perfectly whole piece of tin foil to line your pan, what might look like a smooth surface of tin foil will funnel that hot oil through any sort of crack or seam or joint in that tin foil in the same way a drop or two of water on concrete will prefer to follow cracks as it spreads out. The result will drip into the bottom of the pan.\n\nSource: someone who cooks chicken drumsticks a lot."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[]
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|
||
39ezpg | what happens to the medals of sporting cheats after they are stripped of their titles. | I was just looking into Lance Armstrong and wanted to know, now that he has lost his Tour De France titles, is second place officially recognized as first? Similarly, do Olympic medals get moved down to the next competitor in line? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39ezpg/eli5_what_happens_to_the_medals_of_sporting/ | {
"a_id": [
"cs2thb9",
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"In lance's case, it created an awkward situation. Since many of the other top finishers also doped. So they just left it as no official winner.\n\nIn general though, yes, you have to return the medal, and it's given to the next winner.",
"Another example is the Heisman Trophy in college football: Reggie Bush of USC won it one year and was eventually forced to vacate it by the NCAA due to accepting outstanding gifts the NCAA didn't approve (as it violates the spirit of college athletics, so it's like a financial cheating). On Wikipedia:\n\n > Amidst reports that the Heisman Trophy Trust would strip his award, Bush in September voluntarily forfeited his title as the 2005 winner. The Heisman Trust decided to leave the award vacated with no new winner to be announced. The San Diego Hall of Champions sports museum returned the copy of the award it possessed back to Bush's parents in 2011. Bush eventually returned his trophy to the Heisman Trust in 2012.\n\n_URL_0_"
]
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| []
| [
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Bush"
]
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|
26wcpp | what exactly happens to my credit score when i don't pay on time or don't pay off the full amount? | Is there some sort of equation that deducts points from my credit score when these things happen? Inverse question: What numerical value is added to my score when I do pay on time and the full amount? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26wcpp/eli5_what_exactly_happens_to_my_credit_score_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"chv3c8r"
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"text": [
"The actual formulas for credit scores are kind of kept under wraps, as far as I know, and there are different reporting agencies which calculate them by different methods, like Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. If you check all three scores, they might be different. It's a lot of statistical analysis and number crunching.\n\nHere's a rough breakdown of the [FICO](_URL_0_) criteria. As you can see, on-time payments are the largest chunk - if you have a history of late payments, that will affect a larger chunk of your score more than, say, only having one credit card.\n\nI had credit scores explained to me LI5, so I'll parrot that back. Your credit score is a reflection of how likely you are to pay back your loans on time. A higher score means you're more likely to, and a lower score \n\nYou usually have one \"grace\" payment that you can miss, but if you have a history of missed payments, you look less reliable, so lenders won't want to entrust you with their money.\n\nAnother interesting tidbit I learned while going through a financial management training session was that sometimes things that make more sense to you can actually *hurt* your credit in the long run.\n\nFor example, if you pay off your credit card in full every month, and never pay interest, lenders look at that and consider the amount of money they *won't* be getting from you. This won't hurt your score nearly as much as missing payments, but it is something to consider. Credit is not free; you have to buy it just like everything else."
]
} | []
| []
| [
[
"http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Credit-score-chart.svg"
]
]
|
|
my2wc | what did gandhi do that makes him such a great figure? what's his story? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/my2wc/eli5_what_did_gandhi_do_that_makes_him_such_a/ | {
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"c34ri3e",
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"Up until 1947, the British ruled India. This was not a benevolent rule - there was widespread social repression and latent racism, coupled with strict economic rules. It was effectively a corporate rule of the country to extract as much money as possible.\n\nGandhi employed various non-violent means of resistance against the British rule. He went on starvation diets, staged protests, and in one particularly famous episode, he led a march to the sea to acquire salt (salt was heavily taxed by the British).\n\nAs to why he went down in history as a great figure, I think there are a few reasons.\n\n* He was effective. As a direct result of his methods, the British gave up on India and left. Furthermore, rather than becoming a failed state like many former colonies in Africa, India went on to become a vibrant, thriving country.\n\n* His methods were viewed in high regard. Rather than leading a bloody and terroristic resistance movement, Gandhi was strictly non-violent. Regardless of your beliefs about colonialism, it's very hard to find fault with his methods as a way of making a strong statement. These same methods were used by the American Civil Rights movement in the 60's.\n\n* He was a very simple and demure activist. Rather than being a rabble-rousing, firebrand populist, Gandhi lived a simple life, spoke simple things, and understood simple people. He lived a life of relative poverty and self-denial compared to the one his stature would have afforded him.",
"Up until 1947, the British ruled India. This was not a benevolent rule - there was widespread social repression and latent racism, coupled with strict economic rules. It was effectively a corporate rule of the country to extract as much money as possible.\n\nGandhi employed various non-violent means of resistance against the British rule. He went on starvation diets, staged protests, and in one particularly famous episode, he led a march to the sea to acquire salt (salt was heavily taxed by the British).\n\nAs to why he went down in history as a great figure, I think there are a few reasons.\n\n* He was effective. As a direct result of his methods, the British gave up on India and left. Furthermore, rather than becoming a failed state like many former colonies in Africa, India went on to become a vibrant, thriving country.\n\n* His methods were viewed in high regard. Rather than leading a bloody and terroristic resistance movement, Gandhi was strictly non-violent. Regardless of your beliefs about colonialism, it's very hard to find fault with his methods as a way of making a strong statement. These same methods were used by the American Civil Rights movement in the 60's.\n\n* He was a very simple and demure activist. Rather than being a rabble-rousing, firebrand populist, Gandhi lived a simple life, spoke simple things, and understood simple people. He lived a life of relative poverty and self-denial compared to the one his stature would have afforded him."
]
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[],
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||
8gvrl1 | how does wikipedia work..change..and update? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8gvrl1/eli5_how_does_wikipedia_workchangeand_update/ | {
"a_id": [
"dyf1mdi",
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"text": [
"Fundamentally, it's the same as Reddit or Facebook or any other website. When you submit content - be it an article, a post or a like - a record gets made in a database. The next time somebody views that page, the server reads that information from the database and builds a new page out of it.\n\nWhat makes Wikipedia unique is that (almost) anybody can edit (almost) anything and the system is set up to keep a history of it.",
"Wikipedia also has a well-established set of standards, which many users follow and help enforce. So it’s crowdsourced self-policing. "
]
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| []
| [
[],
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||
1t5y99 | what determines maximum internet speed/data transfer for a fiber optic cable? | I was discussing with someone about net neutrality and they argued that current infrastructure is already getting overloaded with increased data usage on the ISP's systems. Google fiber is installing new cable infrastructure in my town and offering 100x faster internet at competitive prices with current ISPs. So, what (physically) dictates how fast and how much data usage a cable can handle, regardless of ISPs "throttling" internet speed? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1t5y99/eli5_what_determines_maximum_internet_speeddata/ | {
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"How fast the little light on one end can blink on and off, and how many little lights are blinking simultaneously. Making little lights that can blink many billions of times a second is very, very expensive.",
"Speed in the cable is the speed of light since that's what fiber uses ... Light bounces inside the cable and doesn't exit ... But router and switch speeds are what slows it down ... Plus the amount of connections (convocations) the cable can support ... Hope that helps ... Its a cut down explanation but its the general thing",
"Hey, I might be able to help with this. When I had a dedicated line installed, I was told the maximum speed is determined by the quality of the fiber and the equipment used to send/receive. I asked, \"Theoretically, is there no maximum limit if everything is perfect?\" And I was told by the engineer that yes, theoretically there's an infinite spectrum of light so you could have infinite bandwidth on a single strand, split an infinite number of times. \n\nIn reality, it's much different. For 100Gbps fiber (the backbones and such), with current equipment, fiber has to be pretty high quality with nearly perfect splices. And now the best of the best is 500Gbps fiber which is even more difficult. For things like Google fiber, once it's installed, the limiting factor is the Network center (NOC) and exchange point (IXP) where everything meets to join the \"Internet\". There you're limited by complicated peering agreements, fiber technology, and switching capacity. So while Google will promise up to 1Gbps, they can't come close to delivering that for every customer at any given point in time. Just 10,000 customers would be 10Tbps, which is close to the maximum current bandwidth of North America, or something like that. That's why a best-effort service like cable and Google offer up-to, but in reality you are sharing with your neighbors, while dedicated service is guaranteed but costs more than 10x as much for less bandwidth.\n\nAnyway, that's what I was told by the various engineers pulling, splicing, and plugging fiber into my business."
]
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