q_id
stringlengths 5
6
| title
stringlengths 3
296
| selftext
stringlengths 0
34k
| document
stringclasses 1
value | subreddit
stringclasses 1
value | url
stringlengths 4
110
| answers
dict | title_urls
sequence | selftext_urls
sequence | answers_urls
sequence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
4lq8jy | why are engines measured in 'horsepower'? what does it refer to and how is it calculated? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4lq8jy/eli5_why_are_engines_measured_in_horsepower_what/ | {
"a_id": [
"d3p9tyj",
"d3p9xxd",
"d3p9yrv",
"d3p9za2",
"d3pfsyb"
],
"score": [
10,
5,
15,
4,
3
],
"text": [
"Horsepower is a measurement of power. How much work something can do. \n\nWhen the term was originally introduced, it was used as a comparison of what the engine could do vs how many horses. \n\nInitially, engines were compared to one, or two, horses. Engines did not have the capability to produce 500 horsepower as compared to today's engines. \n\nThe term was introduced to compare how much \"work\" the engine could do as compared to a horse, that it could replace. ",
"It's a measurement of power. It's equal to about 746 Watts. It's calculated by measuring the torque, in pound - feet (essentially force exerted on an a rotating body) multiplied by the RPM (how much the wheel spins per second) and divided by 5252 which is scaled for what some dude in the 18th century thought was equivalent to a horse drawing a wagon. ",
"The term Horsepower was first used by James Watt, the man who made great improvements to the steam engine. He used the term to compare the power of his engine to the power of a horse (hence horsepower). Ironically enough, horsepower is a unit of power, while the other commonly used unit of power is the Watt, named after James Watt. So he created a unit that competes with his own name.",
"Horsepower is just a unit of work. Back in the days when horses did a lot of work and steam power was just comming into use, James Watt tried to make the two relatable. \"This engine will do the work of 4 horses\". \n\n\nA horsepower was initially calculated by having horses and ponies do work, like turning a mill or lifting weights on pullies. If you know a force (weight) a distance and how long it took, you can calculate how much work was done. \n\n\nOver the course of experiments Watt came to the number of about 33,000 ft-lbs/minute, or about 745 watts. This then became a good way to express the power of engines both steam and then combustion. ",
"Fun fact:\n\nThe horsepower was a unit of power (work per time) that would easily express how much horses a (usually steam) engine would be able to roughly replace. Because horses get tired, their peak output can be a lot higher, around 10-15 horsepower. If you let the animal work all day however, you'd average around 1 hp. A human being can produce 1 HP, briefly.\n\nSo that big ass V8 you've got, that's not the same as being pulled along by 350 horses."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
eobid7 | - when a person sweats, where does the fluid come from? for example, when you run and begin to sweat from your forehead, where was the sweat being kept before it comes to the surface and leaves your body? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/eobid7/eli5_when_a_person_sweats_where_does_the_fluid/ | {
"a_id": [
"febxer6",
"feb572v",
"feb5v9r"
],
"score": [
10,
25,
13
],
"text": [
"To help visualize how fluid gets from the blood to the outside of your body through sweat glands, [here is a diagram.](_URL_0_) The cells in the sweat gland take fluid out of the blood and then secrete it on the other side of them as sweat. \n\nAll bodily secretions work like this, with the cells that produce the secretion taking the raw materials from the blood.",
"It comes out of your blood. All your bodily fluids come out of your blood. Sweat. Spit... etc... Your kidneys filter your blood and produce copious amounts of urine which, ideally, is quite blood free. You do not have some separate fluid system just for water.",
"Your bloodstream. Blood is, for the most part, water, and your circulatory system distributes it around your body for a variety of purposes, including use in sweating."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://images.wisegeek.com/human-skin-diagram.jpg"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
3gi3xi | from what i've heard artists on spotify don't get allot of money from plays. then why do almost all artists put thier songs on it? | I just don't get it. Why wouldn't all artists just "protest" and remove thier music? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gi3xi/eli5_from_what_ive_heard_artists_on_spotify_dont/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctybd2r",
"ctycdvb",
"ctydj71"
],
"score": [
6,
9,
2
],
"text": [
"The really big artists do get a decent paycheck from Spotify, so there's some financial incentive for them to stay on. Taylor Swift is the exception, because she has enough support and exposure through traditional (and digital) album sales, radio plays, concert tickets, etc., to \"protest\" without a significant impact on her bottom line.\n\nThe small artists who don't make much, need their music on these streaming services so that people will hear them. Streaming is the wave of the future and a significant source of exposure. ",
"Musicians don't make much from Spotify, Pandora or Youtube. They never made much from terrestrial radio or MTV. But nobody is going to elect to pay for your recordings or to see you in concert if they've never heard any of your songs or have any idea who you are. ",
"Aahh thanks for the answers people. Makes a lot of sense though. Have not really thought about it in that way. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
ebcazp | what exactly do the newly-released afghanistan papers reveal about the war over there? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ebcazp/eli5_what_exactly_do_the_newlyreleased/ | {
"a_id": [
"fb3t8df"
],
"score": [
87
],
"text": [
"The \"Afghanistan Report\" is the nickname the Washington Post gave to something the Pentagon calls the Lessons Learned project. It's a 2000-page summary of 400 interviews conducted by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, between 2008 and 2014, in an attempt to find out, from as many people involved as possible, why the US invasion of Afghanistan has dragged on as long as it has and has so little to show for it. Very few people other than WaPo reporters have seen the whole thing (they had to sue the Pentagon to get their copy), but they do link to actual photographs of the pages they quote. Here are the conclusions they came to -- each of these is my summary of one of the six newspaper articles they've published (so far).\n\n1. Every single US President, Pentagon spokesperson, or high ranking military officer since 2003 who told reporters that the US was winning the war in Afghanistan was deliberately lying. By 2008, every single one of them knew that not only were we not winning, we didn't even have a plan to win. We've been in steady retreat since 2003, trying to lose as slowly as possible.\n2. Both Bush the Younger and Obama had ideas for how to win the war. It took very little time for them to learn that their plans weren't going to work. After each plan failed, both presidents turned their attention to other issues.\n3. Congressional representatives in charge of the Pentagon's budget had their own plan to win the war: dole out practical aid and whole palettes of cash to persuade Taliban-leaning areas to switch to the pro-US side. Most of that money was stolen. Everybody involved knew this and just let it be stolen because they couldn't think of an alternative. Furthermore, they were warned by multiple observers in the field that by concentrating their spending in Taliban-controlled areas, they were persuading pro-US areas to defect to the Taliban so that they would be eligible for that spending. Congress didn't listen when warned.\n4. By 2008, everybody in charge on the US side knew that the pro-US government was entirely corrupt, that nearly all of the aid money we sent them and nearly all of the locally raised taxes were being stolen by the President of Afghanistan and his friends. The Pentagon and the CIA actively impeded criminal investigations of Afghan politicians because they believed that they were the only alternative to the Taliban.\n5. Among the money that was stolen was at least a third, and maybe more than half, of what was spent trying to build a pro-US Afghan army and pro-US national police. Big chunks of that were stolen by the soldiers themselves, many of whom were spies for the Taliban; we were arming, fueling, and generally equipping both sides of the fight.\n6. High on the list of reasons why we're losing, maybe the main reason, is that once we declared war on Afghanistan, the Taliban flipped their position and re-legalized the growth of opium for export within Taliban-controlled territory. And opium has been more than half of Afghanistan's economy since Roman times. Without opium and heroin exports, the Afghan people would starve. No US President ever intervened, no many how times they were asked, to decide what our strategy for dealing with that was and impose any kind of consistency on our drug-fighting efforts.\n\nAnd what all six of those articles have in common is that multiple witnesses agree, on each topic, that any time from 2003-2014 (and presumably later, but that's when the document ends), nobody inside the Bush administration or the Obama administration would have contested any of these claims -- internally. It was official top-down policy of both administrations to lie to the press about it."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
5ust8j | what were airports like in the 1990s? | I was born in 1995, so most of my airport experience has been in a post-9/11 world. I also am used to using the internet to book travel, so I'm curious what airports and travel were like in the days of early internet and pre-9/11 world. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ust8j/eli5_what_were_airports_like_in_the_1990s/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddwk67s",
"ddwk9q8",
"ddwkewr"
],
"score": [
3,
7,
2
],
"text": [
"Pretty similar to today, the only real difference is amount security. In the 1990s there were only metal detectors (none of these millimeter wave scanners). Security was done by private companies contracted by airports instead of the TSA, and you could go past security without a boarding pass (so if I was meeting someone I could meet them at the gate as they deplaned, instead of at the terminal).\n\nThey're also more strict with what can go through security, obviously. No pocket knives (saw a dude at O'Hare once with a rather large Swiss Army Knife on his hip), liquids/gels/aerosols > 3oz., etc.\n\nAll of that was perfectly fine pre-9/11. \n\nedit: yes, lack of internet made things slightly slower as well. Since you couldn't check in on your phone you had to do so at the counter. Also you got more and better food on airplanes. Never understood why people made jokes about how bad it was, I rather liked the snack boxes. Especially the Andes mints you got on United and the chocolate chip cookies fresh baked on every Midwest Express flight (RIP).",
"You didn't have to get there two hours early, that's for sure!\n\nFrom what I can recall they did still scan your bags for guns, drugs and bombs, since hijackings and bombings were still going on... but pocket knives and such were allowed (knives longer than 4 inches were not). People were chosen randomly for enhanced screening, mainly by watching behavioral patterns. \n\nYour family was allowed to accompany you to the gate to see you off, and that's definitely not allowed these days. \n\nOne major difference was that on the flight, the cockpit was a relatively open space instead of a sealed chamber... the pilot would come out to greet people and check on things, and sometimes passengers (like, kids interested in aviation) would be invited to see the inside of the cockpit while in flight. \n\n[Huff Post] (_URL_0_) has an article on this topic.\n",
"The airport experience hasn't changed that much in my opinion, yes security is more intense but other than that it's pretty much the same. We used to have to book flights through travel agents which in hindsight seems silly, but a good agent in those days was like having a good stockbroker or a decent mechanic.\n\n Biggest change since the 90's is the rise of the discount airline. They have made air travel affordable for just about anyone and without them I doubt you would see as many young people as well as people from developing nations travelling abroad. There are also entire airport terminals dedicated to these low frills airlines and with them innovations such as machine check-ins, automated bag drop stations and less legroom. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/airports-before-911_us_57c85e17e4b078581f11a133"
],
[]
] |
|
4yywt1 | how did russia draw the border for european russia and asian russia | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yywt1/eli5_how_did_russia_draw_the_border_for_european/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6ri00r"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Russia has [a lot](_URL_0_) of economic and political subdivisions.\n\nIf you're referring to the \"official\" line between Europe and Asia:\n\nThe boundary between the continents has been defined in [several](_URL_1_) different ways by a lots of different people over the years. There's some debate over which flavor is best as they all tend to be unsatisfactory for one reason or another (for instance by dividing territory consistently held by one group of people for a long time). "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivisions_of_Russia",
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundaries_between_continents#/media/File:Historical_Europe-Asia_boundaries_1700_to_1900.png"
]
] |
||
7avd3y | why is bob dylan regarded as one of the most influential artists? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7avd3y/eli5_why_is_bob_dylan_regarded_as_one_of_the_most/ | {
"a_id": [
"dpd4plw"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"Before Dylan and the scene he was associated with, music was sharply divided into generic pop music and much more obscure artistic music.\n\nIn pop, the usual way of doing things was similar to what it is now: You had a face or a group of faces who would perform material written by a studio hack, or else bought/stolen from an original songwriter and then watered down for general audiences.\n\nThe artistic musicians, who often wrote their own material, were generally poor and obscure and wandered around to clubs for pocket change. If a studio liked something they made, they didn't have much choice but to sell it - they were not usually considered bankable as stars themselves.\n\nDylan broke that mold. He looked like a bum and had a bizarre, nasal voice, but he sang his own highly artistic, distinctive songs and managed to become famous based on their quality. He wasn't the only one, but he was early and prolific, and became the standard of the singer-songwriter of the '60s.\n\nA lot of his songs were covered by other famous artists of the time and became iconic - e.g., \"All Along The Watchtower.\" He was also highly influential in bringing together folk and rock music, creating the distinctively passionate sound of the era. The song \"Like A Rolling Stone\" is considered a watershed in the evolution of music.\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
2eonzi | why is ddosing so hard to stop for big companies? | Right now Twitch is down after being DDoS'd by what seems to be some morons who don't like a particular show that airs at this time. Twitch was bought for 1 BILLION DOLLARS by one of the biggest websites Amazon. League of Legends has been getting DDoS'd every night and the servers goes down regularly even though it's one of the biggest games in the world and Riot is one of the richest companies in the gaming industry.
Why is it so hard to stop DDoSing when the people DDoSing you are most likely teenagers living off minimum wage? Why is it so easy for people to DDoS big companies? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2eonzi/eli5_why_is_ddosing_so_hard_to_stop_for_big/ | {
"a_id": [
"ck1h0sx",
"ck1ib7s",
"ck1j760"
],
"score": [
2,
4,
6
],
"text": [
"Because to a server, a ddos attack just looks like especially heavy traffic, even to a human looking at server logs, its hard to tell if its malicous traffic or legitimate traffic. There isn't really a good way to counter an attack. If you just shut down the service you did their job for them. Banning people from connecting doesn't work too well either, the attackers have so many people hitting the site/service that just stopping a few users from connecting wont do anything.",
"Because DDOSing is not hard. Servers are programmed to listen for content requests, and then serve up content to each request. An attacker just sends tons of requests for large amounts of information, and there's no clear way to tell that they are part of an attack, or legitimate requests. \n\nIt's like if I told you that you have to reply personally to every single piece of mail you recieve. Some jerk sends you 10000 short letters a day under different names and at different addresses, each requiring a handwritten, page long response. You aren't going to be able to write all of those replies, so the actually important people who aren't trying to troll you find themselves 10001st in line to get a reply, and you can't actually get to them for weeks. That's what it's like being a server in a DDoS attack. ",
"It's the first D in DDoS that makes it tough to defend against: Distributed.\n\nIf someone does a DoS of your phone - calling and redialing constantly, what do you do? Either not answer a call from that number or have it automatically blocked.\n\nIf it's a DDoS (calls from lots of seemingly random numbers), you have to answer it to find out if it's a crank call or someone you want to talk to. That takes time away from what else you might be doing (e.g. talking to someone you wanted to talk to). Or you could arrange it so only calls from some select list of numbers will ring your phone, but you've then cut your phone off from most of the world."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
205rgr | the "asian tigers" and why they became so successful in the mid-late 1900's. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/205rgr/eli5_the_asian_tigers_and_why_they_became_so/ | {
"a_id": [
"cg02idg"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The term refers primarily to Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea. Starting in the 1960's, they maintained high levels of economic growth, primarily through rapidly growing exports and industrialisation although a well educated workforce and high savings rates also contributed to the phenomenon. This enabled them to become some of the richest countries (per GDP) in the world. The trick is to diversify as you go (which they did), thus surviving the Asian financial crisis in 1997 relatively in one piece. Singapore and Hong Kong are major financial centres, Taiwan and South Korea major manufacturing specialists."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
81g11j | we are taught small associations from a young age. for example, we are taught that skunks stink. if we aren’t told that they stink by our parents/others, would those “bad” smells actually be repulsive? how do brains decipher what smells good/bad? | The title kind of says it all. If we aren’t taught or told that certain smells are repulsive (or even a good smell?) would we think that it actually stinks? Or is it just engrained in our brains that those smells are “bad”
Sorry if this is confusing. Just curious as we have always told our kids “yuck! That skunk stinks!” And now they always say it.
How does the brain decide what smells good or bad?
Thanks! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/81g11j/eli5_we_are_taught_small_associations_from_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dv2xrwk",
"dv2y406",
"dv2z02o"
],
"score": [
32,
2,
4
],
"text": [
"Lots of smell preferences come from experience, it's true - my wife hates the smell of Earl Grey tea and I love it, for example, but some smells are simply \"programmed\" by your body to dislike, and it can be difficult to overcome that.\n\nYour brain comes pre-programmed with a lot of instincts, and one of them is a dislike of certain odors. Fecal matter, rotting food etc. You can hold up a rotten egg to a baby and they'll naturally recoil from it - they don't have any association with the smell, but they don't like it anyways. That's a survival instinct that's managed to propagate in humans - poop and rotten food carry harmful bacteria and they'll make us sick. Our brain tells us naturally \"if you smell those bad smells, get them out of the cave and don't put them near your mouth.\" \n\nSkunk juice has a similar smell, because it's got a lot of sulfur-compounds (called thiols) that are similar to rotten food. They developed that smell *because* most animals are aversive to it, so the smell protects them. If they smelled good (to humans or any other animals), they'd be in trouble, because the stink is what keeps them safe from predators.",
"The brain is hardwired for survival - so it comes pre-programmed to like or dislike certain smells based on what it will interpret those smells to mean. Consider rotting meat, for example - it smells vile, because the unpleasant experience of the smell is your brain's way of telling you \"No, don't eat that, it's bad for you!\" and thus save you from food poisoning. \nSmelling something bad enough can make you vomit - because, if you were hungry enough to eat it anyway, your stomach needs to hit the eject button and get rid of the potentially-poisonous stuff right the hell now.\n\n(The opposite is also true. You know why sugary fatty foods taste so nice? Because they're loaded with energy, which is what your body needs to survive. Unfortunately our instincts have yet to notice that our species is no longer living hand-to-mouth!)\n\nSkunks have evolved to take advantage of other animals' survival instincts, by making a chemical concoction that triggers all the \"Eww not good to eat!\" messages of anything unlucky enough to get sprayed. ",
"This is a product of evolution. Not only throughout the two hundred thousand years of existence of modern humans, but going back through our ancestors as well. As it turns out, if you have an affinity for odours given off by things that will kill you, that preference will be selectively bred out of the population. Poisons, rotten foodstuffs, combustion products, gas products of decay and putrefaction - all harmful, and all universally recognized as \"bad\" smells.\n\nConversely, the smells that we recognize as food conveyed a survival advantage throughout our evolutionary history for obvious reasons. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
36d6te | why is cricket so popular? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36d6te/eli5why_is_cricket_so_popular/ | {
"a_id": [
"crcw9j0",
"crcwo0o"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"You could literally ask that about any sport or other form of entertainment in the world, American football included. \n\nThe fact that you're American doesn't make this question any more justified. \n\n\nBut, fine, I'll play along. It's popular because.. And you're not going to believe this - because people enjoy playing it. Crazy, I know.",
"It was largely introduced in countries that were previously part of the British empire, hence the massive interest from parts of the world such as India/Pakistan and Australia/ New Zealand among others."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
8f3ywd | why do some numbers in a list end in st like 1st, and others end in nd and rd like, 2nd, and 3rd? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8f3ywd/eli5_why_do_some_numbers_in_a_list_end_in_st_like/ | {
"a_id": [
"dy0cyrl",
"dy0fv15"
],
"score": [
2,
5
],
"text": [
"When considering the development of the numeral system, remember that many people in the middle ages during the development of the English language were effectively mathematically illiterate.\n\nWith no formal education system and no reason to count to large numbers, the common names for small digits developed fairly randomly in each language.\n\nThat's why our base-ten numbers have unique names to twelve for no reason and then suddenly shift to a different convention, and that's why 1st, 2nd, and 3rd have unique suffixes before shifting to a standard.\n\nThere's no real grammatical reason why \"oneth, twoth, threeth\" *couldn't* work, but \"first, second, third\" had already been borrowed from German, Latin, and Dutch respectively and cemented in the common speech before anyone tried to standardize numerals.",
"1. \"First\" is a word that originally meant \"foremost\", i.e. the one at the front (think of a race). It ends in \"-st\" because it is a superlative, like \"fastest\", \"cleverest\", \"best\".\n2. \"Second\" is a word that means \"next\" or \"following\".\n3. \"Third\" is an example of \"metathesis\", which is when letters are swapped inside a word. The word was originally \"thridda\" (from \"three\"), but the \"r\" and \"i\" became swapped over. The \"d\" is related phonetically to the more usual \"-th\" ending. For a long time, \"third\" and \"thrid\" were both in use, but \"thrid\" died out some time after the 16th century leaving us with the new form.\n4. From \"fourth\" onwards things settle down a lot. Old English used the suffix \"-tha\" or \"-thu\" to make the ordinal numbers, and we simply no longer bother with the vowels."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
cqxdxq | what is kabbalah? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cqxdxq/eli5_what_is_kabbalah/ | {
"a_id": [
"ex0e8w1"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"r/kabbalah might know better."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
609w9e | when something hits me in the nose but doesn't make me bleed, i smell something that i never smell in other situations. what is this smell? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/609w9e/eli5_when_something_hits_me_in_the_nose_but/ | {
"a_id": [
"df4m8eb",
"df4xtoe",
"df5av40"
],
"score": [
12,
13,
3
],
"text": [
"Could be micro capillary bursts that means you bleed but not in any way that's going to be noticeable unless you use a fiber-optic scope and look.\n\nYou could be smelling that.\n\nCould be that after getting struck there's a slight amount of swelling/edema and that alters your sense of smell temporarily. Think of it like a concussion for your olfactory nerves.",
"Iron from blood vessels bursting inside your nose. Your smelling the iron in your blood most likely.",
"Smell is just our brain interpreting the pattern of activity of olfactory receptors in the nose. Normally, this pattern of activity is induced chemically; the molecules in the air or your food bind to some of those receptors causing a specific pattern of activity that your brain interprets as a specific smell. But if you got hit in the nose hard enough, it's possible that your olfactory receptors could be activated mechanically. The pattern of activation you would get from that hit would be different from any other pattern your brain has experienced so it would interpret as a different smell. This is just a guess though. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
8tnrjb | why do our legs react and kick when hit on the knee on that special spot but nowhere else ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8tnrjb/eli5_why_do_our_legs_react_and_kick_when_hit_on/ | {
"a_id": [
"e18wufo",
"e18xtkn",
"e193mxm"
],
"score": [
3,
5,
2
],
"text": [
"It's a nervous system response (mono synaptic. No brain involved). This is from 9th grade, so I might be slightly wrong...\n\nBasically, the hit from the mallet pushes on a tendon. This causes the muscles to react. Nerves take this signal to your spinal cord and contracts the whole muscle. No response means never damage. Prolonged muscle jerks means something else is wrong.\n\nThere are a few other places: brachioradialus, bicep, and achilles tendon.",
"Physiologically it is a reflex pathway.\n\nIf I, say, poke you with a pencil, sensory neurons in your leg send signals up your spinal cord to your somatosensory cortex, which transmits information to your motor cortex, back down your spinal cord to your leg, and contracts muscles to move your leg away. This takes a while\n\nOn the other hand, your knee's reflex pathway sends sensory information to your spinal cord, which then sends the signals straight back to your knee for a \"kick\". It's much faster than going to your brain and back, and since it never goes to your brain, you can't control it.\n\nEvolutionarily it is because a sudden hit to the knee will cause it to buckle instantly, instead of after any sort of delay. This helps you not break your leg.",
"When you hit the \"special spot\" on the knee, you hit the patellar tendon. This tricks special cells in the tendon to give a signal to the spinal cord that the tendon is being stretched, which in an immediate feeback loop triggers the necessary muscles to counteract this stretching. This counter action causes you to extend you knee.\n\nThe special cells are stretch receptors. They are present in all tendons and a full neurological examination requires these reflexes to be tested on multiple levels, not just the knee.\nThe immediate feedback loop means the brain isn't involved in this reflex pathway. There is some constant surpression of these reflex pathways from the brain though.\nA person who isn't relaxed enough won't show a decent reflex since signals from the brain overwhelm the reflex pathway."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
29u36u | how does "glove mode" work on touch screen displays? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/29u36u/eli5_how_does_glove_mode_work_on_touch_screen/ | {
"a_id": [
"ciohjq4"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"It just decreases the threshold needed to register a touch on the touchscreen. It's essentially a high-sensitivity mode. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
5cj43v | why couldn't someone just buy an anti-radiation suit to survive the fallout from a nuclear bomb? | edit: I am asking about the *fallout* of a nuclear attack, not the other effects (including the blast). | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5cj43v/eli5_why_couldnt_someone_just_buy_an/ | {
"a_id": [
"d9wwcyh",
"d9wwghq",
"d9wwis8",
"d9wwjh4",
"d9x5gxm"
],
"score": [
3,
5,
22,
27,
7
],
"text": [
"I mean, you could, but:\n\nYou need a supply of uncontaminated air, food, and water.\n\nUnless you want to wear it 24/7 you need an uncontaminated bunker or something to live.\n\nNo suit is 100% effective.",
"Because there's no such thing as a suit that is 100% effective against radiation. They attenuate it, not block it, especially if we're talking gamma radiation.\n\nFurthermore, if you're living in an area contaminated by fallout, hope you and your descendants you don't mind living in the suit for the next 10,000 years, because a lot of the radiation is gonna hang around that long. \n\nAnd how do you intend to eat and drink in all that time? Doesn't take much for a fuel flea to get inside you, and then you're boned.\n\nThis is all IF you survive the initial bombing, the nonstop fires, the nuclear winter, the roving cannibal gangs,...which you won't.",
"\"Anti-radiation\" suits don't actually exist. The suits you see are there to keep people from inhaling, ingesting, or otherwise having radioactive material stuck to them such that it can't be removed. When they are done with whatever they were doing they take off the suit and any radioactive material on it leaves with the suit. But the suit doesn't block radiation exposure while they are wearing it.\n\nTo actually block the exposure you would need a suit so heavy you couldn't move.",
"1. A radiation suit will protect you from fallout from the bomb, but not from the blast itself.\n\n2. What you think of as a \"radiation suit\" will protect you from close physical contact with radioactive particles and gasses (like fallout) but they won't normally block radiation itself, making them of dubious usefulness in heavily irradiated areas.\n\n3. You still need to eat and drink. I find it unlikely that you would both have an uncontaminated source of food and water and still need a suit.",
"Radiation suits, called CBRN suits, are designed to work with respirators (gas masks) to prevent radioactive dust from getting in contact with you. They do not block radiation significantly more than normal clothes but as there are no gaps no particles contact your skin or are breathed in.\n\nWith alpha and beta radiation the charcoal lining will make a difference, especially compared to having radioactive dust on you. Gamma radiation mostly cannot be stopped without large lead walls. Alpha and beta sources from the dust are therefore mostly eliminated which is good, as these are more dangerous due to the higher energy. Having an alpha or beta source in your lungs especially would be a very bad thing.\n\nThe difficulty is getting a collecting protection (COLPRO) shelter that you can keep sterile in order to remove the suit in order to shit and eat without dying."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
2icuc9 | what is the purpose of expiration dates more than a year away? | I'm currently eating a can of almonds that will expire on July 28, 2016. What would happen if I eat them on July 29, 2016? How does the company predict that date? Do almonds even expire and they just want to write a date on the can? Or do almonds just expire very slowly? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2icuc9/eli5_what_is_the_purpose_of_expiration_dates_more/ | {
"a_id": [
"cl0z8u4",
"cl1d0qv"
],
"score": [
7,
2
],
"text": [
"There tends to be 2 forms of expiration date:\n\n\n* Use by dates - where the product is not considered safe for consumption after that date (e.g. milk that will have gone off).\n\n\n* Best before / expiration dates - dates on products that don't really spoil / won't got 'off' but nonetheless will no longer be at their peak after that point.\n\n\nAppreciate will be slightly different in the USA but that's the basic policy in the UK - as laid out by the [Food Standards Agency](_URL_0_)",
"There are a few food labs in the US (like the National Food Laboratory in Livermore, CA) that conduct tests on food to determine these dates. Most often, the date you see (even if it says \"expired\") is more of a peak quality date. After that date, many foods (even milk) are safe to consume if stored properly, but may not taste as good. Some foods, like yeast, will begin to lose their effectiveness in recipes after a certain amount of time. The food labs research these things and manufacturers use those findings to date their products.\n\nYou might find this article really interesting and informative:\n\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.food.gov.uk/northern-ireland/nutritionni/niyoungpeople/survivorform/bestreadbefore/usebyandbestbefore"
],
[
"http://io9.com/the-surprisingly-inexact-science-of-food-expiration-dat-1629542744"
]
] |
|
6h6h44 | why does your blood "run cold" after receiving devastating news? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6h6h44/eli5_why_does_your_blood_run_cold_after_receiving/ | {
"a_id": [
"divvi4j"
],
"score": [
14
],
"text": [
"It's an early shock response, same as a traumatic injury. Our brain evidently interprets emotional pain to be similar to physical pain.\n\nBlood to your extremities is restricted to limit bleeding and conserve it to vital areas, this is why you suddenly feel cold. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
24hscz | why is a sore throat the first symptom i get when i have a cold and also the first one to go away? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/24hscz/eli5_why_is_a_sore_throat_the_first_symptom_i_get/ | {
"a_id": [
"ch7ee9k"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"The mouth is a major opening in your body, a lot of things can enter your body through it. A sore throat is caused when a virus or bacteria is killing the cells in your throat. When you get bacteria or viruses inside your mouth, your throat is pretty defenseless. \n\nIf you want a more scientific explanation, the bacteria enters into your body and goes to the throat. The[ phage virus](_URL_0_) injects it's DNA into the cells of your throats and replicates itself over and over until either the cell explodes, letting all of the phages out to do it again or takes over the cell entirely. When you get a sore throat, a virus or bacteria is killing the cells. \n\nIt's the first because your body has responded to the virus/bacteria yet and it's the first place the virus/bacteria found to grow and attack. It's the first one to go away because once your immune system recognizes and kills the virus it's no longer killing the cells in your throat. Does that make sense? I hope this helped!"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41aqxcxsX2w"
]
] |
||
2i6d9q | why do every rapper and electronic music producer (even no-so-successful one) seems to easily start his own label while rock and jazz musician seems not? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2i6d9q/eli5why_do_every_rapper_and_electronic_music/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckz8xvv",
"ckzd6vl"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"In the beginning, a lot of individual labels were made for rap / hip hop / electronic music because no mainstream label would take the, didn't think it was commercially viable, or didn't want to be associated with controversial content.\n\nLess so jazz, but pop and rock music tend to appeal to a larger audience and are thusly handled by major mainstream record companies (e.g. Sony BMG, EMI, Virgin etc.).\n\nHaving your own label means you have a lot more creative control over what goes into your recordings, though it also means you don't have the production, marketing and distribution resources of a major studio, which is why a lot of smaller labels amalgamated eventually.\n\nThat said, rap / hip hop and a electronic / house / rave / techno / dub step all sound the fuckin' same to me anyway, regardless of which label it's on.",
"Because being a rap and electronic musicians requires less resources. To play rock or jazz, you need instruments, a recording studio etc etc. Meanwhile, you can make electronic music at home (most big artists do, you only need the software and a piano/touchpadthingy). Rap only requires a ~~bear~~ beat, since most of the music comes from you talking, which is a free instrument.\n\nThis way, a rapper or electronic music musician can more easily set up his own label, because they do not need someone with contacts to get all the equipment rock and jazz needs, they dont need someone willing to spend big bucks on recording their music in an expensive studio, they can make their first songs at home, sell those online, make money and start their own label.\n\nEdit: [Rapping bears](_URL_0_)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140319032606/adventuretimewithfinnandjake/images/f/f3/S5e52_Rap_Bear.png"
]
] |
||
3tg0qo | how does a nuclear reaction work and how can it create so much destructive force? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3tg0qo/eli5how_does_a_nuclear_reaction_work_and_how_can/ | {
"a_id": [
"cx5sd9l",
"cx5tj5u",
"cx5tkkh",
"cx66vv4"
],
"score": [
3,
4,
121,
2
],
"text": [
"When a large atom splits it gives off lots of energy, orders of magnitude more than when you break and rearrange bonds between atoms as in normal chemical reactions like combustion. \n\nWhen Uranium - 235 is hit with a neutron, it will split. One of the products of this reaction is more neutrons. Those neutrons will hit other uranium atoms, creating a chain reaction. Allow this to continue, uncontrolled, and you have yourself a fission bomb.",
"Imagine a huge room full of loaded mouse traps. On each mouse trap rest two ping-pong balls. Now, imagine you throw a ping-pong ball into the center of the room. Your ping-pong ball sets off the mouse trap, which throws 2 ping-pong balls into the air. Those two ping-pong balls set off 2 more mouse traps, throwing 4 balls into the air, etc etc. \n\nThis is how a nuclear chain reaction works. A neutron smashes into a uranium nucleus and breaks it apart, sending out more neutrons. Every time a uranium atom breaks apart, it releases roughly enough energy to move one grain of sand. There are trillions of trillions of atoms in a nuclear bomb. \n",
"Ok stay with me with this one.\n\nImagine you and a whole bunch of your friends came together and all of you decided it is a good idea to put exactly 235 mini-marshmallows in your mouths. (In this case you and your friends are like the nuclear fuel : Uranium-235) This is the absolute limit you can handle in your mouths without spitting it out or swallowing.\n\nNow someone comes by and shoves 1 more mini-marshmallow into your mouth... You can't handle it... You spit everything out and it comes out in four parts : One blob of 92 mini-marshes, another blob of 141 mini-marshes and 2x individual mini-marshmallows. Imagine now that some of your friends stood close enough that one of these pieces you spit out could enter his/her mouth. Obviously the two blobs are to big to fit, but one of the individual mini-marshmallows could enter. This would cause your friend to spit his/her marshmallows out with exactly the same blob sizes and 2x individuals. What could also happen is that both of these 2x new individual mini-marshmallows entered two new people's mouths and it all happens again.\n\nNow, if your friends were not close enough, this would be very unlikely. BUT, imagine now stuffing a gazillion people into a small room, each with 235 mini-marshmallows in their mouths and someone comes by and puts 1 more mini-marshmallow into a person's mouth... Yes you guessed it : Marshmallow Puking Orgy™ and lots of energetically charged stuff gets flown around.\n\nThis is basically what happens in a reactor, except that this Marshmallow Puking Orgy™ is contained inside of water. The amount of blobs flying around heats up the water and the water turns into steam. The steam then goes up into the chimney, and on its way out \"somewhere else\", the steam turns a turbine which in turns generates electricity.\n\nTo make sure that this Marshmallow Puking Orgy™ doesn't spiral out of control, someone comes and makes sure that only a certain amount of people are allowed into the room at a single time.\n\nYou are now an expert in Marshmallow Puking Orgy™ details. You are welcome. :D\n\nEDIT: minor grammar/confusion changes.\n\nEDIT 2: I realise now that OP only asked about a simple reaction and destructive force, instead of a reactor. However, I feel that the main idea was conveyed across. For MAXIMUM PUKING ORGY™ (DLC $0.99), you simply stuff as much people into the small room as you can and watch the room explode after about 1% of the people inside started hurling around squishy stuff.",
"There is a big crowd of people holding 2 tennis balls each. One person throws theirs randomly and anybody who gets hit throws theirs, also in random directions. If the crowd is large and dense everybody will quickly be hit, throw theirs, and the entire thing will get out of control very fast.\n\nIf the crowd is small and sparse most people will be missed by the previously-thrown balls, eventually the chain reaction will just die out. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
8i029h | what's the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8i029h/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_type_1_and_type/ | {
"a_id": [
"dynui9p",
"dynuk6m",
"dynuwme"
],
"score": [
7,
18,
4
],
"text": [
"Easiest way to explain is this: With Type 1, the body basically destroys it's insulin manufacturing cells so the pancreas can no longer produce insulin. Type 2 is when the pancreas still produces insulin but rhe body is unable to use it due to insulin resistance.",
"The body uses a chemical called Insulin to tell cells to take in sugar from the blood.\n\nIn Type 1 diabetes, the body fails to produce insulin. This is usually because of a genetic problem or injury or other failure of the pancreas.\n\nIn Type 2 diabetes, the cells in the body don't respond as effectively to insulin as they should. This can be due to multiple factors, but is usually because the body often experiences high levels of sugar and releases lots of insulin constantly to address it. The cells get \"used to\" the large amount of insulin and become less sensitive to it. In other words this can be caused by overeating or specifically, a diet high in sugar. ",
"Type 1 Diabetes is caused by immune cells attacking insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. The cells die and people can't produce insulin anymore. Insulin is responsible for smuggling sugar from the blood into your cells. If it's missing, it leads to hyperglycaemia, which can lead to nerve damage and so on. Other symptoms include adipolysis, so far cells get burnt since cells can't get energy by sugar. \nType 1 can be treated with insulin after meals and a careful evaluation of blood sugar levels. There is no cure (yet?).\n\n\nType 2 is typically found in older people, but nowadays also shows in young obese people. It is caused by high consumption of sugar over a long time, which leads to immunity of insulin receptors for insulin. It leads to highish blood sugar levels, but since it's not a total immunity the body does not starve in the same way as in type 1. It is treated with nutritional changes, tackling the obesity and can actually be reversed (as studies showed, I'm on mobile so I can't find it). \n\nThere are more factors to both types than Auto-immune reactions and obesity, genetic predisposition also plays a part and maybe a couple other factors I don't recall. Hope it gives you a brief overview!"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
5srbfx | why do doctors tell us to not eat after we brush our teeth and vice versa? | You'll often hear this after you've gone to the dentist, where he'll tell you to not eat because he cleaned them, and online where they'll say the same thing as the title suggests. Why can't we do that? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5srbfx/eli5_why_do_doctors_tell_us_to_not_eat_after_we/ | {
"a_id": [
"ddh9b3o",
"ddh9epr",
"ddhgmbr"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Vice versa???? Why we dont brush our teeth after eating? Well I do.",
"Basically because we attack the coating on our teeth with acids.\nIf you 'rub' those in the damage done could be much worse.\nThis is After you eat , not before , that doesn't matter.\n",
"Your dentist used a [topical fluoride varnish](_URL_0_) or other treatment and doesn't want it to be rubbed off. You should brush after eating. Brushing just before eating makes no sense. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluoride_varnish"
]
] |
|
6ae40q | have we located a galaxy that was once two galaxies before colliding? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ae40q/eli5_have_we_located_a_galaxy_that_was_once_two/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhds38g"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Yes. It's theorised that most elliptical galaxies arise from mergers - two spiral galaxies at different angles would combine to make a galaxy without an overall disk pattern. And there are numerous examples of galaxies that appear to have recently merged. Some pictures on Wikipedia, _URL_0_\n\nIndeed our own Milky Way has some rings of stars at an angle to the main disk that are thought to be remnants of small galaxies that merged into the Milky Way becoming torn apart. The Milky Way has not however yet merged with another galaxy its own size, but it will merge with M31 (Andromeda Galaxy) and possibly M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) in the next few thousand million years."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_merger"
]
] |
||
19g9a8 | when do different parts of our bodies stop growing (like at what age does this body part stop growing, then this part, then so on and so forth)? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/19g9a8/when_do_different_parts_of_our_bodies_stop/ | {
"a_id": [
"c8nsqcd",
"c8nvtm3"
],
"score": [
5,
2
],
"text": [
"Let's start off with a mind-blower: your eyes never change size from the day you are born.",
"/r/askscience will give you a real definitive answer with sources. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
aqrzb2 | why aren't patents considered a breach of anti-monopoly laws? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aqrzb2/eli5_why_arent_patents_considered_a_breach_of/ | {
"a_id": [
"egi6c9v"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"No, because anti-monopoly laws were not intended to prevent the ownership of a particular schematic or design but rather to prevent the ownership of an entire industry, eliminating competition. You can’t own every car company in America, but you can own a unique engine design that makes your car more competitive in the marketplace."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
30gfoq | how is my electricity bill calculated? do i get charged less if i have burned out bulbs? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30gfoq/eli5_how_is_my_electricity_bill_calculated_do_i/ | {
"a_id": [
"cps7nr7",
"cps85mf",
"cpsb1xq"
],
"score": [
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"At least in the United States, you're charged by the amount of electricity your house consumes, as measured in a unit called a Kilowatt Hour (KWH). You get billed less if you use less; it has nothing to do with the size of your house (directly at least - although larger houses require more power for things like heating/cooling/lighting). \n\nIt used to be that this was measured by a physical meter that was in between the external power line and your house's power. Someone had to go from house to house and check the numbers, then bring that back to the billing office where someone would calculate your bill based on the area's rates. Now in some places it's measured by the power company before it reaches your house, depending on how new the power infrastructure in your area is. You'll still have the physical box though, which is there so you can check to make sure you're actually getting all of the power you're being billed for, and someone else isn't siphoning some of it off.",
"Hahaha! I agree with the kilowatt hour your meter measures. I happen to know for a fact you do not get charged for electricity before you use it. I could go on and on about electricity. Your burned out bulb does not cost you more money. Every single thing in your house which uses electricity does so when it's turned on. Anything not on, isn't costing you anything. What things use more electricity than others? Electric water heaters, electric stoves, electric heaters. They use more due to the heating elements in them, which are basically big resisters of electric energy. They become red hot and put out heat. These resistors require massive amounts of amperage. Amperage is what makes your meter usage higher. I am a journeyman lineman for the local power company. I'm like an electrician...only I deal with all electricity from the meter back to the power plants. Your rates are calculated by the kilowatt hour....anywhere from a few cents a kilowatt hour to 40 cents any hour depending on where you live, how your company gets it's power and how much you use. I'm sorry my comment seems a little scatter brained but I worked all night clearing up an outage and haven't fully recovered. ☺",
"I just posted an explanation on another post about electricity! [Here's think link](_URL_0_) if you're interested. You only get charged less in the sense that those bulbs aren't drawing any power, so they're not consuming electricity. There are lots of easy ways to use less electricity though. :)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30gndl/eli5_how_they_come_up_with_the_kwh_used_on_my/cpsakpw"
]
] |
||
6gh5dr | how are people able to walk again after being paralyzed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gh5dr/eli5_how_are_people_able_to_walk_again_after/ | {
"a_id": [
"diqbj40",
"diqdqah",
"diqsn8d",
"dir3muo"
],
"score": [
7,
10,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"After being bedridden for a while due to an accident that caused damage to the lower spine, their muscles \"forget\" how to walk, but can can be trained to perform the action again, provided that no major damage to the nerves occurred, rendering communication with the brain impossible. Worst case scenario, they'll need specialized prosthetics to get around.",
"I can only explain a little bit.\n\nIts going to depend on why there is paralysis.\n\nAs far as strokes\nIn my case I had a stroke in my left carotide artery. I got a tissue blockage and blood was not able to get to part of my brain. Starved for oxygen that part of my brain just stopped working. Because of this I had paralysis in my right side, IN MY CASE the blood vessels in other parts of my brain began compensating and pushing blood to that part of my brain with in a few hours this is unbelievably rare. In similar cases they are able to get the clot (if that is it cause) can be \"busted\" with a thrombolytic, returning blood flow to the area and regaining use of the effected limb/s. This must be done quickly, within hours hopefully min. Depending on severity of damage done to the brain lots of physical therapy can help regain mobility. Someone who knows neuro can help explain this part better than me.\n",
"I think there is also cases where someone has swelling around spinal nerves that causes tomporary peralysis, but feeling can return as the swelling goes down",
"The key to understanding this is that movement requires a number of steps\n\n* planning the movement in the brain\n* sending the movement signal from the brain to down the spinal cord\n* sending the movement from spinal cord to muscle\n* deactivating opposing muscle groups\n\nAnything damaging the spinal cord or brain cannot be healed, but *can* be compensated for. The body will take the existing circuitry and create some \"detours\" in order to restore movement. Oftentimes the person won't get their full function back. \n\nSometimes it is due to improper deactivation of opposing muscle groups. This is a more complicated subject where the nerve tissue is relatively fine, but transmission is messed up. This can sometimes be treated with drugs that relax the muscles or increase the deactivation signal. \n\nOther forms of paralysis have little to do with the spinal cord or brain. It could be bacteria, toxin, or nutrient related. These can be fixed by detoxing (i know professionals hate this word but I'll keep it for an eli5) or restoring nutrient/oxygen flow to the proper parts of the nervous system."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
9w86ki | why is there a deadline on recounting election ballots? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9w86ki/eli5_why_is_there_a_deadline_on_recounting/ | {
"a_id": [
"e9ilkg8"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Because otherwise someone can complain over and over until the total is never confirmed. The office will be vacant or appointed by the current Governor. \n\n\nIt never will be perfect. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
6wby55 | just like a lot of western languages are based around latin, are eastern languages based on a single language? specifically are there words in mandarin that you could understand if you spoke japanese? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6wby55/eli5_just_like_a_lot_of_western_languages_are/ | {
"a_id": [
"dm6uw8i",
"dm6xr45"
],
"score": [
8,
38
],
"text": [
"Actually, only the Romance languages are based around Latin, a relatively small percentage of Western languages. That being said...\n\nJapanese and varieties of Chinese belong to two completely different language families. They are as unrelated to each other as English is to, say, Arabic.\n\nHowever, because of centuries of close contact, Japanese does have a large number of Chinese loanwords.",
"The Romance languages -- French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and so on -- all evolved from Latin (with other languages contributing -- French, for example, has a fair bit from Celtic and Frankish languages, while Spanish was influenced by Arabic and Basque). They are all part of a much larger group of languages called the Indo-European languages, which includes nearly all the languages now spoken in Europe and several in northern India: these languages are all thought to have descended from an original \"Proto-Indo-European\" language.\n\nMandarin belongs to a completely different group. It's one of the Chinese languages, which in turn is a Sinitic language, which in turn is classified as Sino-Tibetan. It's thought to have evolved from a Proto-Sino-Tibetan language (although the evidence is quite shaky here).\n\nThis Sino-Tibetan group includes languages like Cantonese, Burmese and Tibetan. All these languages are clearly related to Mandarin: Cantonese relatively closely (about the same level of difference as between, say, English and German), Burmese and Tibetan relatively distantly (like German and French).\n\nJapanese belongs to a completely different family. It's considered a Japonic language, which is divided into the Japanese languages (spoken in most of Japan) and the Ryukyuan languages (spoken in the Ryukyu Islands stretching from Kyushu to Taiwan).\n\nAnd... that's all we know. In fact, there's no consensus about how exactly to classify the Japonic languages, or how they're related to other languages in the area. It's generally treated as being unrelated to any other language, but the argument rages on.\n\nThere are some very small similarities between Japanese and various other language groups, but they're such tenuous similarities they're probably just coincidental. Theories have been suggested linking Japanese with Korean, the near-extinct Ainu languages, and even Mongolian and Turkish.\n\nAnd yes, there is a theory suggesting that Japanese evolved from Proto-Sino-Tibetan. This is simply because Japanese grammar looks a bit similar to what linguists think the Proto-Sino-Tibetan grammar was like.\n\nTo answer your question: Mandarin and Japanese are, as far as we know, totally unrelated.\n\nEDIT: Spelling"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
k0en2 | difference between coke and crack? | Edit -- Ok. I am five. "The same but different" would not satisfy a five-year-old.
Why did crack come about? Whose idea was it to "cook" crack up? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/k0en2/difference_between_coke_and_crack/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2gk397",
"c2gkjdy",
"c2glnwu",
"c2gm33v",
"c2gmcrk",
"c2gk397",
"c2gkjdy",
"c2glnwu",
"c2gm33v",
"c2gmcrk"
],
"score": [
19,
54,
3,
2,
2,
19,
54,
3,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Coke is short for cocaine. Crack is _also_ cocaine, but in a different form. It's the \"free-base\" form of cocaine because instead of the normal, white powder salt, it is a free base. It's called crack because when heated, the crystals make crackling sounds.",
"Powder cocaine is a salt called cocaine hydrochloride. When you cook crack, you react cocaine hydrochloride with sodium bicarbonate, which removes the hydrochloride part, leaving you with the basic amine, which is called freebase cocaine. That's crack.\n\nCocaine hydrochloride is water-soluble, so you can snort it, inject it, smoke it (though it tends to burn, which is a waste and not what you want), eat it, or stick it up your arse and it'll work. Crack isn't, so you can only smoke it.\n\nCrack acts much more rapidly. It'll get you higher than cocaine, but for a shorter time, and it's more addictive. \n\nCigarette manufacturers actually do something similar with nicotine - like crack cocaine, crack nicotine is more potent, shorter-lasting but more addictive.",
"Coke feels better and the high lasts longer. Crack is cheaper. Also, crack will get you longer prison sentences than coke. There ya go.",
"Simply put, baking soda. Crack is cocaine, with baking soda added, in little rock form so it can be smoked easily rather than insufflated. It's the same thing, just different. Like cookies and cookie dough.",
"You put Cocaine into a teaspoon with some baking soda and heat it with a lighter. A chemical reaction occurs and makes a crackling sound and transforms the Cocaine into Crack, a more powerful substance.",
"Coke is short for cocaine. Crack is _also_ cocaine, but in a different form. It's the \"free-base\" form of cocaine because instead of the normal, white powder salt, it is a free base. It's called crack because when heated, the crystals make crackling sounds.",
"Powder cocaine is a salt called cocaine hydrochloride. When you cook crack, you react cocaine hydrochloride with sodium bicarbonate, which removes the hydrochloride part, leaving you with the basic amine, which is called freebase cocaine. That's crack.\n\nCocaine hydrochloride is water-soluble, so you can snort it, inject it, smoke it (though it tends to burn, which is a waste and not what you want), eat it, or stick it up your arse and it'll work. Crack isn't, so you can only smoke it.\n\nCrack acts much more rapidly. It'll get you higher than cocaine, but for a shorter time, and it's more addictive. \n\nCigarette manufacturers actually do something similar with nicotine - like crack cocaine, crack nicotine is more potent, shorter-lasting but more addictive.",
"Coke feels better and the high lasts longer. Crack is cheaper. Also, crack will get you longer prison sentences than coke. There ya go.",
"Simply put, baking soda. Crack is cocaine, with baking soda added, in little rock form so it can be smoked easily rather than insufflated. It's the same thing, just different. Like cookies and cookie dough.",
"You put Cocaine into a teaspoon with some baking soda and heat it with a lighter. A chemical reaction occurs and makes a crackling sound and transforms the Cocaine into Crack, a more powerful substance."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
n7err | american politics | Especially what "liberal" and "conservative" means. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/n7err/eli5_american_politics/ | {
"a_id": [
"c36u9f8",
"c36v07z",
"c36u9f8",
"c36v07z"
],
"score": [
30,
2,
30,
2
],
"text": [
"It has changed in the past so I'll describe the current situation, not the history of each party.\n\nLiberals are closely tied to the Democratic party, supposedly represent the interests of the poor and working class. They support unions, social services (food stamps, welfare, subsidized housing). The people interested in these policies are usually socially liberal and minority groups - ethnic, religious, sexuality, etc. However once in power they mostly focus on helping the rich at the expense of the majority of their constituents.\n\nConservatives are closely tied to the Republican party, supposedly represent the \"traditional\" american - mostly the white christian. During campaigns they promote socially conservative, authoritarian views - pro-christian, pro-military, pro-law enforcement. However once in power they mostly focus on helping the rich at the expense of the majority of their constituents.",
"American politics is really derived from the American historical experience. It starts way back in the colonial era.\n\nBefore America was a country, it was a collection of independent colonies ruled by Britain. There are three things to remember about this:\n*Colonies were so distant that they did not hear about British political events until they were finished. This made them feel cut off from British politics.\n*Colonies had no representation in the British parliament. They could see special interests in Britain get special treatment, but they felt unable to participate in that system.\n*Colonies were independent of each other. No colony had influence over another colony's affairs.\nNone of these feelings have ever gone away.\n\nAfter independence, Americans mostly identified with their states: \"I'm a New Yorker\", \"I'm a Virginian\", etc., not \"I'm an American\". The system of central government they adopted, called the Articles of Confederation, failed because it gave no power to the central government. Each colony wanted to be its own center of power, not distant, not lacking representation, and not subordinate to any other authority.\n\nThe reaction to this was the Constitution. The advocates of the Constitution were called Federalists because they advocated a strong central (\"federal\") government. The Federalists believed that the federal government needed to be in charge of a lot of things. Most of these are things that we now think of a government as doing, like taxation and raising armies. But many Americans thought that this was dangerous. These opponents of the Constitution were called Anti-Federalists. Nobody had ever tried a large-scale republic, and most people assumed that a large republic would fail. The federal government, they said, would be controlled by special interests, staffed by the friends and family of the people in charge, wouldn't know or care about local concerns but would interfere with them anyway, and would eventually take over the country and rule as a tyrant.\n\nThe Constitution has a pretty strong executive called the president. Because the presidency is a winner-take-all office, it encourages people to collect themselves into two parties. You and your group, whatever your interests, try to find people who are like-minded, and then you pool your resources and back a single candidate for president. America has always had a two party system, and it always will (unless the Constitution is heavily amended). The two parties have changed many times, but there have almost always been two parties. (There have been a few brief exceptions.)\n\nThe modern American parties really date back to the Civil War. In the 19th century, we had a war over whether or not we would allow slaveholding. The Republicans were the pro-freedom party. The Civil War began when the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected president and South Carolina felt he was too radical to tolerate. The Democrats were, roughly speaking, the pro-slavery party (there were several factions). After the Civil War, the South (which had held slaves) voted exclusively Democratic for nearly a century. The \"Solid South\", as it was called, was angry over their loss in the Civil War. They believed in \"States' Rights\", the idea that each state should be able to make its own laws with minimal interference from the federal government (see colonial history).\n\nAt the same time this was happening, socialist movements were spreading through Europe. They started to come to America at the beginning of the 20th century, where they were called Progressives. The Progressives looked to the future, to how we could make the world a better place. They saw themselves as using the government to reshape the world. They fell out of favor in the 20s, but they came back in the 30s with the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat, ruled America in a way vaguely similar to how Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler ruled their countries. It wasn't exactly the same--Roosevelt was not a brutal dictator--but like them, he shared the sense that he and his team of advisers (his \"Brain Trust\") could make people's lives better using government programs (the \"New Deal\"). The opposition, naturally, took root in the Republican party.\n\nThe two parties started to take on their modern character in the 50s. Probably the biggest influence was the threat of Communism. Communism, by design, has an enormously powerful central government. This has never sat well with the American people (see the colonial section above). So anti-Communism was a powerful force for decades. It was there in both parties (Kennedy, for instance, was anti-Communist), but because of the Progressive influence in the Democratic party, anti-Communism found a more natural home in the Republican party. With anti-Communism came strong support for the military and national defense. In the late 60s and the 70s, when American went to war in Vietnam to stop Communism, the opposition naturally gravitated to the Democratic party (even though Democrats like Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson had supported the war). And with Lyndon Johnson's \"Great Society\", which expanded government even further, advocates of States' Rights shifted to the Republicans.\n\nIn the 18th and 19th centuries, a series of religious revivals swept through the nation. These were called the \"Great Awakenings\". Many remote areas didn't have a local minister, so traveling preachers would set up \"revivals\". They would set up a stage or a tent and for a few days, everyone in the area got a serious, heavy dose of religion. The preachers whipped up intense feelings to make people feel like they had become \"born again\" (this is a Biblical reference). Soon the preachers would leave, and the locals, if they wanted to remain religious, had to rely on their Bibles and their personal relationships with Jesus. This was the birth of American Evangelicalism; an American Christian Fundamentalist is just an angry Evangelical. Evangelicals mostly did not try to influence politics in the 20th century. This dates back to the Scopes Monkey Trial near the start of the century: A teacher broke the law by teaching evolution, and the resulting media coverage of the trial was humiliating for the prosecution and evangelicals in general. But they came back in the 80s: This was a reaction to the 60s and 70s counterculture, which they saw as immoral. Since the counterculture was identified with the Democratic party (because of the Democrats' anti-war views), they joined the Republican party (which, because of their opposition to the New Deal, had long been in favor of less government control). Unsurprisingly, atheists and agnostics gravitated to the Democratic party.\n\nTo sum it up, you have:\n\nRepublicans, who believe in small government (anti-Federalist, anti-New Deal), strong national defense (anti-Communism), and tend to be religious (Evangelical).\n\nDemocrats, who believe in big government and federal control (Federalist, New Deal), less military action (anti-Vietnam War), and tend to be less religious (atheist and agnostic).\n\nBoth parties believe that the government doesn't listen to them. Both parties believe that the government is controlled by opposition special interests. And they both passionately believe that they represent the true American spirit. Which is true; they both do, just in different ways.\n\nEDIT: I forgot about economics. Roosevelt's New Deal was influenced by Keynesian economics and left-wing (Progressive, i.e., socialist) economics. Other traditions in Economics (the Austrian school, the Chicago school, etc.) have consequently taken hold in the Republican party, even when they aren't always a good fit. (Libertarian economics is almost indistinguishable from conservative economics, but libertarianism and conservatism are not the same at all.) However, humanity has a long tradition of corruption, and businesses have always wanted to get an advantage for themselves. So big businesses will often support both parties, hoping to get laws passed in their favor. Both the Republicans and Democrats participate in this. They both accuse the other side of participating and claim that they don't. Who you believe is more guilty depends on your politics.\n\nTL;DR It's complicated.",
"It has changed in the past so I'll describe the current situation, not the history of each party.\n\nLiberals are closely tied to the Democratic party, supposedly represent the interests of the poor and working class. They support unions, social services (food stamps, welfare, subsidized housing). The people interested in these policies are usually socially liberal and minority groups - ethnic, religious, sexuality, etc. However once in power they mostly focus on helping the rich at the expense of the majority of their constituents.\n\nConservatives are closely tied to the Republican party, supposedly represent the \"traditional\" american - mostly the white christian. During campaigns they promote socially conservative, authoritarian views - pro-christian, pro-military, pro-law enforcement. However once in power they mostly focus on helping the rich at the expense of the majority of their constituents.",
"American politics is really derived from the American historical experience. It starts way back in the colonial era.\n\nBefore America was a country, it was a collection of independent colonies ruled by Britain. There are three things to remember about this:\n*Colonies were so distant that they did not hear about British political events until they were finished. This made them feel cut off from British politics.\n*Colonies had no representation in the British parliament. They could see special interests in Britain get special treatment, but they felt unable to participate in that system.\n*Colonies were independent of each other. No colony had influence over another colony's affairs.\nNone of these feelings have ever gone away.\n\nAfter independence, Americans mostly identified with their states: \"I'm a New Yorker\", \"I'm a Virginian\", etc., not \"I'm an American\". The system of central government they adopted, called the Articles of Confederation, failed because it gave no power to the central government. Each colony wanted to be its own center of power, not distant, not lacking representation, and not subordinate to any other authority.\n\nThe reaction to this was the Constitution. The advocates of the Constitution were called Federalists because they advocated a strong central (\"federal\") government. The Federalists believed that the federal government needed to be in charge of a lot of things. Most of these are things that we now think of a government as doing, like taxation and raising armies. But many Americans thought that this was dangerous. These opponents of the Constitution were called Anti-Federalists. Nobody had ever tried a large-scale republic, and most people assumed that a large republic would fail. The federal government, they said, would be controlled by special interests, staffed by the friends and family of the people in charge, wouldn't know or care about local concerns but would interfere with them anyway, and would eventually take over the country and rule as a tyrant.\n\nThe Constitution has a pretty strong executive called the president. Because the presidency is a winner-take-all office, it encourages people to collect themselves into two parties. You and your group, whatever your interests, try to find people who are like-minded, and then you pool your resources and back a single candidate for president. America has always had a two party system, and it always will (unless the Constitution is heavily amended). The two parties have changed many times, but there have almost always been two parties. (There have been a few brief exceptions.)\n\nThe modern American parties really date back to the Civil War. In the 19th century, we had a war over whether or not we would allow slaveholding. The Republicans were the pro-freedom party. The Civil War began when the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln was elected president and South Carolina felt he was too radical to tolerate. The Democrats were, roughly speaking, the pro-slavery party (there were several factions). After the Civil War, the South (which had held slaves) voted exclusively Democratic for nearly a century. The \"Solid South\", as it was called, was angry over their loss in the Civil War. They believed in \"States' Rights\", the idea that each state should be able to make its own laws with minimal interference from the federal government (see colonial history).\n\nAt the same time this was happening, socialist movements were spreading through Europe. They started to come to America at the beginning of the 20th century, where they were called Progressives. The Progressives looked to the future, to how we could make the world a better place. They saw themselves as using the government to reshape the world. They fell out of favor in the 20s, but they came back in the 30s with the Great Depression. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a Democrat, ruled America in a way vaguely similar to how Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler ruled their countries. It wasn't exactly the same--Roosevelt was not a brutal dictator--but like them, he shared the sense that he and his team of advisers (his \"Brain Trust\") could make people's lives better using government programs (the \"New Deal\"). The opposition, naturally, took root in the Republican party.\n\nThe two parties started to take on their modern character in the 50s. Probably the biggest influence was the threat of Communism. Communism, by design, has an enormously powerful central government. This has never sat well with the American people (see the colonial section above). So anti-Communism was a powerful force for decades. It was there in both parties (Kennedy, for instance, was anti-Communist), but because of the Progressive influence in the Democratic party, anti-Communism found a more natural home in the Republican party. With anti-Communism came strong support for the military and national defense. In the late 60s and the 70s, when American went to war in Vietnam to stop Communism, the opposition naturally gravitated to the Democratic party (even though Democrats like Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson had supported the war). And with Lyndon Johnson's \"Great Society\", which expanded government even further, advocates of States' Rights shifted to the Republicans.\n\nIn the 18th and 19th centuries, a series of religious revivals swept through the nation. These were called the \"Great Awakenings\". Many remote areas didn't have a local minister, so traveling preachers would set up \"revivals\". They would set up a stage or a tent and for a few days, everyone in the area got a serious, heavy dose of religion. The preachers whipped up intense feelings to make people feel like they had become \"born again\" (this is a Biblical reference). Soon the preachers would leave, and the locals, if they wanted to remain religious, had to rely on their Bibles and their personal relationships with Jesus. This was the birth of American Evangelicalism; an American Christian Fundamentalist is just an angry Evangelical. Evangelicals mostly did not try to influence politics in the 20th century. This dates back to the Scopes Monkey Trial near the start of the century: A teacher broke the law by teaching evolution, and the resulting media coverage of the trial was humiliating for the prosecution and evangelicals in general. But they came back in the 80s: This was a reaction to the 60s and 70s counterculture, which they saw as immoral. Since the counterculture was identified with the Democratic party (because of the Democrats' anti-war views), they joined the Republican party (which, because of their opposition to the New Deal, had long been in favor of less government control). Unsurprisingly, atheists and agnostics gravitated to the Democratic party.\n\nTo sum it up, you have:\n\nRepublicans, who believe in small government (anti-Federalist, anti-New Deal), strong national defense (anti-Communism), and tend to be religious (Evangelical).\n\nDemocrats, who believe in big government and federal control (Federalist, New Deal), less military action (anti-Vietnam War), and tend to be less religious (atheist and agnostic).\n\nBoth parties believe that the government doesn't listen to them. Both parties believe that the government is controlled by opposition special interests. And they both passionately believe that they represent the true American spirit. Which is true; they both do, just in different ways.\n\nEDIT: I forgot about economics. Roosevelt's New Deal was influenced by Keynesian economics and left-wing (Progressive, i.e., socialist) economics. Other traditions in Economics (the Austrian school, the Chicago school, etc.) have consequently taken hold in the Republican party, even when they aren't always a good fit. (Libertarian economics is almost indistinguishable from conservative economics, but libertarianism and conservatism are not the same at all.) However, humanity has a long tradition of corruption, and businesses have always wanted to get an advantage for themselves. So big businesses will often support both parties, hoping to get laws passed in their favor. Both the Republicans and Democrats participate in this. They both accuse the other side of participating and claim that they don't. Who you believe is more guilty depends on your politics.\n\nTL;DR It's complicated."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
3a4bc3 | my girlfriend gets super stuffed up when we sleep with the fan on. why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3a4bc3/eli5_my_girlfriend_gets_super_stuffed_up_when_we/ | {
"a_id": [
"cs96vua",
"cs9731w"
],
"score": [
2,
21
],
"text": [
"My boyfriend and I are having this same issue... We live in FL, and it's pretty hot and humid here. We don't sleep with the A/C set super low to save on electricity, but we do keep the ceiling fans on since we'd overheat otherwise. It feels incredibly humid in my apartment, yet every single day we can't breathe well when we wake up. Someone once mentioned to me that it could be from dust and pet dander, but I clean regularly.",
"Allergy suffer and frequent traveller. It's because allergens rest on things. Dust, mold, pollen, hair, and others will rest until disturbed. Turn on the fan and the airflow will pick it up and into your sinus. Add in it will bteak your bubble of humidity and push dryer air to you, you get stuffy. Get a filter or humidifier."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
3awyp3 | why is it legal for anyone to buy products like mouthwash with pretty significant alcohol content, but illegal for minors to buy alcoholic beverages? | I just bought a 12oz bottle of Vanilla extract that was 41% alcohol by weight and the cashier didn't check my I.D. I've been doing this for years (I do a lot of baking), and not once has anyone asked for my I.D. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3awyp3/eli5_why_is_it_legal_for_anyone_to_buy_products/ | {
"a_id": [
"csgqmso",
"csgsbak",
"csgsj8q",
"csgsov6"
],
"score": [
4,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Baking vanilla and mouthwash are considered suitably deterrent in and of themselves. There is quite a bit of history going back to prohibition. Vanilla has to be judged as non-potable (no casual drinker would consume for pleasure) to be sold within the loophole.",
"I've known the most desperate drunks in lock up filter out alcohol from purell. If there's a will there's a way, no doubt.",
"Mouthwash - you're more likely to get sick before you get drunk. Alcohol used in it hasn't been refined for ingestion by humans\n\nVanilla - I would assume because by volume it's small. And a hell of a lot more expensive than beer",
"Although they aren't desirable like normal alcoholic beverages, desperate is desperate, and you will often find them sold in a more controlled way in areas with substance abuse problems. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
u2f1a | about the taika reform in ancient japan | I'm currently doing a project on Japan's history but I do not understand the Taika Reform, It is not making sense for me although I've read the information about in many books. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/u2f1a/eli5_about_the_taika_reform_in_ancient_japan/ | {
"a_id": [
"c4rsc2c"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Check out [r/AskHistorians](_URL_0_)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/"
]
] |
|
3mnthg | why is apple's shuffle not completely random? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3mnthg/eli5_why_is_apples_shuffle_not_completely_random/ | {
"a_id": [
"cvgl1gb",
"cvgl21e",
"cvgluab"
],
"score": [
17,
3,
9
],
"text": [
"Because when it was completely random, people complained that it wasn't random. People are actually pretty bad at judging randomness. For example, a truly random playlist can play the same song twice in a row. Or the same artist 5 times in a row. When people here this, they see the repetition or pattern and cry out \"not random\" so Apple changed it's algorithm to weigh against these possibilities that people think aren't random enough.",
"It's because it generates a shuffle list that can be repeated over and over instead of playing one random song after another.",
"Because random sucks. You almost never actually want random in a place you think it should be random. Some kind of weighted distribution is almost always better for more 'even' seeming results. Random is only random on a large enough sample size, and your ipod is *not* a large enough sample size. \n\nOur brains are built to spot patterns, were so good at it we can find correlations in places where there really aren't any. \n\nRandom is only really random on a big enough time scale, picture flipping a coin lots of times. You don't always alternate heads and tails perfectly, you get a few heads, a few tails, maybe a big streak of heads, another tail and some more heads.\n\nAt any point in your flipping spree you'll probably have more of one than another, sometimes by a huge margin, but the more you flip the less a streak of heads or tails throws off the total. At 50 flips, 10 heads in a row is a big swing. At 5000 flips 10 heads in a row won't change your percentages much."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
ov4nx | why are the credits on the back of dvd cases in that tall, stretched font? | Is it something to do with being able to read it at a low angle, or is it just some sort of tradition? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ov4nx/why_are_the_credits_on_the_back_of_dvd_cases_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"c3kak1w",
"c3kbxry",
"c3kc6me"
],
"score": [
33,
7,
2
],
"text": [
"\"In the layout of film posters and other film advertising copy, the billing is usually placed at the bottom and set in a highly condensed typeface (one in which the height of characters is several times the width).[14] By convention, the point size of the billing block is 25 or 35 percent of the average height of each letter in the title logo.[15] Inclusion in the credits and the billing block is generally a matter of detailed contracts between the artists and the producer. Using a condensed typeface allows the heights of the characters to meet contractual constraints while still allowing enough horizontal space to include all the required text.\"\n\nFrom [here](_URL_0_).\n\nSo essentially, the size of the typeface of the credits is something that's adhered to conventionally and contractually, but they have to squeeze it all together to make everything fit.",
"DonkeyParty got it right. That text is called a \"billing block\" and there are contractual standards regarding its use with talent, the guilds, etc. \"Some sort of tradition\" is about right, but its basically just a way of having all of the contractually-required credits take up as little space on the poster/case as possible.",
"Hold the case horizontal, just below eye level, touching the tip of your nose and read :)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billing_block#Billing_block"
],
[],
[]
] |
|
yd6em | how truck drivers communicate with their lights? | I was driving down the interstate at night, and there was a semi beside me, and one right in front of me in my lane. Then the one beside me flashes his brights. When he does this, the semi in front of me merges into his lane. He completed his merge, then flashes his taillights a few times and flashes both blinkers a few times after that. What is this mysterious language?? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/yd6em/eli5_how_truck_drivers_communicate_with_their/ | {
"a_id": [
"c5ukkrr",
"c5ux0ax"
],
"score": [
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Flashing your lights (preferably low beams) is a signal to someone attempting to merge into your lane that there is sufficient room for them to do so.\n\nThe merging truck flashed his taillights to say \"thank you.\"",
"Re-wording and clarifying dasmim's response:\n\nFlashing your **high beams** is a signal to **a truck, who is ahead of you and is** attempting to merge **or otherwise go** into your lane**,** that **you are aware of their intentions and that** there is sufficient room for them to do so. **Essentially, you are saying \"go ahead\"**.\n\nThe **aforementioned** truck**, after he has successfully moved into your lane, then flashes** his taillights **by turning his lights off and on again** to say \"thank you\" **for affirming he had enough space and/or for letting him into your lane.**"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
3q8sho | can someone tell me how drink menus and pricing works at bars? | I have yet to find a bar with a drink menu, but I hear phrases like "wells" to refer to price ranges and I really have no idea what any of it means. Is there a standard vocabulary/pricing system? And how can I get a bartender to show me a menu with prices? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3q8sho/eli5_can_someone_tell_me_how_drink_menus_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwd3iy8"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"You can ALWAYS ask how much something costs. Don't be afraid to ask!\n\nThere is no standard pricing, but there is some standard lingo that will tell you a lot.\n\nWhen you buy a drink at a bar, you are usually paying for the liquor portion. If you are at a fancy bar with more involved drinks, you may also be paying for the preparation.\n\nA \"well\" drink is one that uses a standard, often lower end liquor that the bartender keeps on hand and right in front of them. Like, for Vodka you will probably get Smirnoff or Sobieski. For Gin you may get something like Beefeater or Bombay Dry. \n\nA well will usually have Vodka, Gin, Rum, Scotch, Kahlua, Amaretto, etc. \n\nIf you want a specific *brand* of liquor, you will probably be ordering \"top shelf.\" You may also pay more for unusual or otherwise expensive stuff. \n\nThe way to differentiate your order is going to be something like: \"I want a gin and tonic.\" The bartender, without further instructions, will use their well gin which will likely be the least expensive gin they carry. Or, you can say \"I'd like a bombay sapphire and tonic.\" if you prefer that brand specifically. \n\nUSUALLY bars will carry standard pricing for well drinks that are simple. This assumes that the drink you order has only one shot in it, add another 50% for premium liquors and the sky is the limit if you get ultra expensive stuff, assuming that the bar you are in even carries it.\n\nIf you want a guide to pricing, just quickly ask the bartender the basic prices. They'll probably quickly rattle off well drinks, top shelf, any special they are running, import/domestic bottles, draft beers in glass and pitcher. Never be afraid to ask prices. Bartenders are there to get your moeny but they also want to keep you from breaking the bank so that you come back to them again."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
g1yjr2 | how does air suddenly change its direction? and keep changing? | I was watching a bonfire and the smoke was coming towards me then i changed my seat and the wind changed too, i tried another position but wind was just changing so much. Would love to know why and how? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/g1yjr2/eli5_how_does_air_suddenly_change_its_direction/ | {
"a_id": [
"fnie57k",
"fnigmmr",
"fnigqxf"
],
"score": [
5,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Airflow tends to be exceptionally chaotic due to all the possible sources of perterbations. Generally, it flows from areas of high pressure to low pressure, but those areas can move depending on climate, time of day (i.e. sunlight adding energy), and the influence of other areas of differing pressure. Then there's the Coriolis effect, which causes air to spin on large scales due to the Earth's rotation. And then there's the terrain and trees to worry about, which cause air streams to split, merge, turn, double back, and spin some more.\n\nLikely what happened to you was you were sitting where a small, slow vortex of air passed by (like a harmless, invisible, slow tornado), and that caused the smoke to spin about in all different directions.\n\nFluid dynamics is PhD. level stuff that involves massive supercomputers trying to figure out, just to give you an idea of how complex predicting even a small amount of wind.",
"* warmer air wants to expand, and in expanding cools down\n* warmer air is created by the earth's day/night cycle\n* colder air is heavier, and wants to sink, especially as it crests a mountain\n* the earth's rotation drives wind currents\n\nAlso, airflow is extremely complex and chaotic. Most of the wind might be blowing in from the west, but some of it is hitting a tree or a hill, causing an eddy, and that eddy impacts the air around it.\n\nAlso, a fire warms the air, causing it to rise and expand. The fire itself is going to be a source of air currents.",
"Are you in the city or out in a more rural area?\n\nBasically where I am at, in a city, there's lots of buildings and trees, with all of the hot air rising cold / cold air cooling and falling causing more sit to be pulled in behind it, bumping into all the buildings there's a lot of swirly twirly air\n\n[_URL_0_](_URL_0_)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/elements/citywind.htm"
]
] |
|
4l92no | why are games being developed exclusively for tablets and phones? wouldn't it make more sense to cater to the pc audience as well? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4l92no/eli5_why_are_games_being_developed_exclusively/ | {
"a_id": [
"d3ldfjb",
"d3ldkzo"
],
"score": [
3,
9
],
"text": [
"Mobile games are typically designed for smaller screens and don't always translate well to a pc monitor size. They are also marketed and developed for a specific audience that tends to enjoy more casual free to play style games. They tend not to be hardcore gamers, where as pc gamers often have very different expectations from a game. I think the simple answer is more often than not it wouldn't be that profitable to port the game to pc because pc gamers aren't their target audience.",
"For the same reason McDonald's doesn't compete with high end steakhouses. Both businesses are in the same general field, but they are catering to different markets and employing different approaches to maximizing profits. \n\nA Triple A pc game takes much longer to develop, costs more to produce, and is expected to meet a certain bar of quality in return for a higher initial investment on the part of the consumer. \n\nA typical phone game usually has a much shorter development time, much lower budget, and generally designed to be played much more casually. Because of this they are usually priced very cheaply, or are free with the potential for pay to unlock game features.\n\nDifferent market strategies and company structures entirely basically. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
700peb | i've just watched an experiment on bell's theorem: the quantum venn diagram paradox. can someone please explain it better than in the video? | Here is the video in topic: [_URL_0_](_URL_0_) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/700peb/eli5_ive_just_watched_an_experiment_on_bells/ | {
"a_id": [
"dmzkse0"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"Short answer: No. It concerns quantum physics, which even a quantum physicist will tell you is so weird, that if you think you've understood it, you haven't understood it.\n\nBasically, something really peculiar happens when you put three polaroid filters in a particular arrangement: they let far more light through than basic common sense tells you ought to be the case. Specifically, if you arrange two filters at 90° to each other, all light is blocked; but if, between those two filters, you add a third filter at 45°, suddenly they let light through again.\n\nThe video goes on to discuss the idea that each individual photon has some hidden variable, something in the photon that tells it whether or not it will make it through all the filters. It then shows how this doesn't explain the results we get, and this is what Bell's theorem says: local hidden variables can't explain quantum physics.\n\nThe two other important words here are \"locality\" (what happens here cannot instantaneously affect what happens millions of miles away because information cannot travel faster than the speed of light) and \"realism\" (a thing doesn't stop existing just because you can't see it). Those are part of our fundamental understanding of how the universe works, but we can't find a way to explain the (very simple) demonstration that anyone can do at home without violating at least one of those principles.\n\nThe conclusion seems to be, then, that the universe doesn't work the way we always assumed it did. The point about the experiment is that we don't know what's happening. All we really know is that it's not something in the photon itself determining whether or not it makes it through to the other side."
]
} | [] | [
"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcqZHYo7ONs"
] | [
[]
] |
|
jy1te | how my laptop can play a video at 1080p of a new game but can't handle physically playing the game at that definition | I am not a smart man. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/jy1te/how_my_laptop_can_play_a_video_at_1080p_of_a_new/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2g13y2",
"c2g1a0u",
"c2g13y2",
"c2g1a0u"
],
"score": [
9,
8,
9,
8
],
"text": [
"A video is a series of pictures already put together to play on your computer.\n\nA video game has to make the world as you are playing it, and make changes based on what you do. This uses up a lot more processing power.",
"Let's say it takes you 5 minutes to read a comic book. Can you draw the same comic book in 5 minutes? And if not, why not?",
"A video is a series of pictures already put together to play on your computer.\n\nA video game has to make the world as you are playing it, and make changes based on what you do. This uses up a lot more processing power.",
"Let's say it takes you 5 minutes to read a comic book. Can you draw the same comic book in 5 minutes? And if not, why not?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
aevkka | why does continuous stress deteriorate the brain and neural connections? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aevkka/eli5_why_does_continuous_stress_deteriorate_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"edt1s8p",
"edtdfrb"
],
"score": [
6,
2
],
"text": [
"When you are stressed out your body and brain will release chemicals (stress hormones such as cortisol) which are meant to prepare your body for a fight or flight response. These chemicals break down tissues to increase blood sugar and provide the fuel needed for your response. Excessive exposure to these chemicals will therefore cause your tissues to breakdown to a point where they are not easily repaired, and this can cause long term neural and muscular damage, or even diabetes due increased blood sugar.",
"Stress is your body preparing for intense activity. A good analogy flooring it in your car. Running the engine at full power. This is great if you need to run away from a bear or fight off some wolves who've come to close to your kids. You need maximum power in these situations and you need it quickly.\n\nbut running at full power also causes more deterioration then running at low power."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
clmu70 | why do voices from same radio hosts sound so different on fm vs. am radio? | CBC radio is broadcasted on AM and FM in Canada. When flipping between the two, I notice a pretty significant difference in sound and pitch. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/clmu70/eli5_why_do_voices_from_same_radio_hosts_sound_so/ | {
"a_id": [
"evwdi0g",
"evwgjrp"
],
"score": [
6,
4
],
"text": [
"FM radio is much higher quality audio than AM. There’s a reason music and higher quality programming transitions to FM, it’s simply a way better quality to listen to.",
"AM is pretty simple, has a lower carrier frequency, and a small bandwidth which lets you make an AM radio out of pretty much anything. The low frequency of AM lets it travel a long way but the low bandwidth per station means that you get questionable voice quality.\n\nFM is a lot more complicated and we shove a lot more data into that signal, it has a bandwidth several times larger than AM. The higher frequencies of FM don't travel as far but they do let you easily send more data, which results in a signal closer to the original(aka clearer voices and good quality music)\n\nSomething modern like XM satellite radio runs a bit under 2.4 GHz and has a very large bandwidth. It just beams a compressed datastream to the receiver which decompresses it and gets you pretty good audio quality."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
2r9tbm | how do people get "upgraded" seats on planes? | I sometimes hear about people getting upgraded to business/first class seats. Is this something that happens randomly? Or does it have anything to do with being a frequent flyer? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2r9tbm/eli5_how_do_people_get_upgraded_seats_on_planes/ | {
"a_id": [
"cndtbw1",
"cndtc8f",
"cndtpa3",
"cndtqh8",
"cndtxes",
"cndu83c",
"cndu85q",
"cndyye7"
],
"score": [
4,
3,
3,
3,
3,
4,
3,
3
],
"text": [
"Yes has to do with frequent flier \nAlso has to do with luck. If you ask and they have extra seats they may give to you. Same with the emergency exit seats and other seats with extra leg room. ",
"Use of frequent flyer miles, or they have upgrade coupons, or they whipped out the old credit card.",
"In addition sometimes a flight overbooks the coach section and will move people to first class.",
"When an airplane has extra seats in a higher class, people may buy upgrades. If no one does that, they may select people to upgrade to first class at no cost. Usually they have rules where they pick frequent fliers and VIPs first, and then randomly pick people. the \"random\" is usually up to the people right there at the time the plane is loading, so often times it's given to people who look like they belong there or that they need it.",
"Frequent flyer account + # of annual miles accrued vs. other frequent flyers + their # of annual miles/ number of open seats in first or business class + wait list. If there is no wait list to fly, they have no reason to upgrade a FF member. They do it to open up coach seats. \n\nI flew 22 trips in 2014 and got upgraded to first class twice. I have also been on half empty flights w no upgrade to the empty first and business class seats. Might hit gold status this year, which may increase upgrade frequency. ",
"One time, there was \"too many people in the back of the aircraft\" so three people had to move to first class (more leg space) to balance out the airplane ;p\n\n",
"Being nice to the gate agents and crew also helps! I've been upgraded a few times, even from standby, because of my patience and friendliness with the gate agents.\r\rI often bring candy bars for everyone without any agenda in mind. I've learned this from my boyfriend who is an airline pilot.",
"The vast majority of upgrades are due to elite status. Next in the upgrade hierarchy are passengers paying with miles, money or upgrade coupons. If there are first class seats available that no one is willing to pay for, airline employees on standby can take the seats if they want. Otherwise, the seats will just remain empty.\n\nThere are rare instances where we upgrade for out of convenience (upgrading to redistribute the weight of the aircraft, when coach is oversold, or when we need to seat a family together and you just get lucky), but these situations are pretty unusual. \n\nThere are also instances where an agent may spontaneously just upgrade people (dependent on airline policy). If there are seats available and I know you are experiencing a major life event (marriage/honeymoon, anniversary,family member death/dying/severe illness), but this generally because of something written in your reservation and not because you have been parroting up and down the concourse. In the past I have upgraded passengers just because--someone who has had a shitstorm of a day, a sweet and adorable elderly couple or someone who was willing to give up their aisle/window seat for a middle seat to accommodate a family.\n\nI can tell you with absolute certainty that anyone who asks or jokes about a free upgrade, no matter how jovial, gets to stay all snuggled up in coach surrounded by small children if we can manage it. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
4nxos4 | what is the purpose of short urls and how can they direct me to a different website? | How do they work? I always end up on a different website than the text say when I click them. So confusing and irritating sometimes. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4nxos4/eli5_what_is_the_purpose_of_short_urls_and_how/ | {
"a_id": [
"d47tbtb",
"d47tbxz",
"d47vb06",
"d47y1sl",
"d480ymb"
],
"score": [
9,
2,
12,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"They take up less space in areas where character counts matter, like Twitter. Even when the character counts doesn't really matter, it is easier on your eye to see 20 random letters rather than 60.\n\nThey work as simple redirect through whatever URL shortening site produces it.",
" When you click on a link like that, an HTTP request is send to their server with the full URL. e.g _URL_0_ . They read the last bit 18C5n03 and look it up in their database and get the real url and issues an HTTP redirect to it.",
"Short URLs were originally developed mostly to get around a problem when sending URLs in emails: some email programs would wrap text at 72 or 80 characters, breaking longer URLs. This is no longer such an issue, but they're still useful in cases where it's easier to write or say a short URL than a long one.\n\nTwitter was another area where short URLs used to be useful: a short URL did not take up as many of the 140 characters allowed for a tweet as a long one. I say \"used to be\", because Twitter has made some changes and all URLs -- short or long -- now take the same number of characters (Twitter actually uses it's own shortening service, _URL_0_, for all URLs). \n\nAs to how they work, the shortening service has a database that records the long URL matching every short URL that has been created. When a user's browser requests the short URL, the service looks up the URL in its database, and sends back what is called a 'redirect'. A redirect is an instruction to the browser that tells it to go to a different URL: in this case, the browser is redirected to the long URL.",
"Thanks for all the answers! I think I understand it now. How can I make sure the short url is not a virus? ",
"no one has mentioned one of the key purposes: tracking. The company providing the shortened URLs gets fantastic tracking data about how many clicks came from where. \n\nImagine I have an advertisement page _URL_0_. The shortening service can create separate shortened links for different webpages (different links for CNN, FOX, MSNBC, CNBC, etc) and can report back which websites are producing the most traffic. It helps the advertisers better understand audience click-flow."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://bit.ly/18C5n03"
],
[
"t.co"
],
[],
[
"www.buyme.com"
]
] |
|
4wttd6 | what part of our genes allow ancestry websites to determine which country we came from? | Are they able to differentiate between a Swiss background and an Italian background (two bordering countries)? Have our genes changed so much that each country has a certain difference? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4wttd6/eli5what_part_of_our_genes_allow_ancestry/ | {
"a_id": [
"d69ynau",
"d69ztje"
],
"score": [
3,
5
],
"text": [
"What they do is collect your data, provide you with the results and try to match sequences with other dna worldwide. However, I don't think they are very accurate. I also don't think that they have big enough sample sizes worldwide to prove a genealogy. So, I would answer this by saying they can't do this. ",
"Most of these DNA tests work by looking for specific DNA markers called single-nucleotide polymorphisms. These are minor genetic mutations that are easy to tell apart from each other. Because for most of human history, people didn't travel much or have partners from far away, these mutations tend to accumulate in specific populations of people. When geneticists look at these mutations, they can say \"this one occurs with high frequency in those of Scandinavian descent but hardly anywhere else\" or \"This one occurs most frequently in certain populations in East Africa.\" Then they look and which mutations you have, and trace them back to their origins. It's not possibly to say whether someone is Swiss or Italian, because those borders and those states in general have only existed for a minor fraction of human history, but it's highly accurate at predicted what general area your ancestors came from. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
8ym5d4 | what's the difference between say, a 16gb micro sd card vs a 256gb micro sd card from a physical standpoint? | Obviously the 256gb one can hold more data, but how does it do that if they're exactly the same size (and weight to my knowledge). Does the 256gb one have more places to store data inside? Does the 16gb one intentionally block off storage that could otherwise be used in larger capacity cards? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ym5d4/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_say_a_16gb/ | {
"a_id": [
"e2bxxo1",
"e2byer6",
"e2byfyt"
],
"score": [
8,
4,
2
],
"text": [
"The rectangular plastic thing you see from outside is just the \"shell\". Inside, there are a series of solid state memory chips, that hold the data. Higher capacity sd cards just have more and/or higher density memory chips inside. They do not artificially block off \"excess memory\", because the memory chips are the expensive part, it wouldn't make sense to put unused ones in there. ",
"Let's compare it to cribnotes for a test.\n\nYour teacher says you're allowed to write two chemistry exams with no textbook but a single sheet of 8 1/2x11\" paper with whatever you want written on it.\n\nYou really know the material for the first term's exam, so you only need a few reminders on your sheet. You write really big. But the second exam is all new material and your cribsheet for that one needs to have a lot more information. So you print a LOT smaller, using a very fine pen. As a result, you get a lot more information on your cribsheet, but you have to be precise when you write so you don't mash answers into each other, and you have to use separating lines or colour coding so it's readable. \n\nMicro SD cards are the same: they can pack more information into the same storage volume by using more precise manufacturing techniques. Work is at such a fine and tiny scale that printing the memory cards has to be extremely precise to avoid blotting and blurring, and they have to change the cataloguing and access systems so the data can be found and retrieved fast enough. The more the amount of storage, the tinier and more precise you have to be. Capacity for these cards continues to grow because our manufacturing processes are continuing to get more and more precise as time passes.\n\nBut why are they the same size though? Well, memory cards with different capacity still have to plug into different devices, so you need a one-size-fits all solution as much as possible.",
"As integrated circuit technology improves, the individual transistors get smaller and you can fit more of them onto the same chunk of silicon. This has been happening at an exponential rate: transistor density doubles every 18 months or so."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1ko1rm | why do some people toss and turn while sleeping, while others will stay relatively still? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ko1rm/eli5_why_do_some_people_toss_and_turn_while/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbqybbn",
"cbr8977"
],
"score": [
32,
3
],
"text": [
"When you dream, many things happen! First thing to happen is that your mind runs subconscious 'checks' to see if you're actually out (sends twitches down limbs and stuff). When your body stops responding, your brain begins the process of entering sleep paralysis to keep you from acting out the dreams you are experiencing. A lack of this ability makes people sleep-walk, or to a lesser degree, toss and turn. It may also be that the fitful sleeper isn't experiencing true REM sleep, and as such not sleeping as deeply as someone who is still. ",
"I move relentlessly. All my covers will be on the floor by morning. I've been known to sleepwalk, but most of the time I just move a lot. I have ended up the wrong way in my bed; as in, feet on pillow. I have often fallen out of bed. Can anyone help me?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
91mibq | why aren't 2x4s, 1.75x3.5, or 1.5x3, so that when you put 2 of them together in framing they are square? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/91mibq/eli5_why_arent_2x4s_175x35_or_15x3_so_that_when/ | {
"a_id": [
"e2z4ouo",
"e2z4y6t"
],
"score": [
2,
5
],
"text": [
"A 2×4 is rough-cut to 2\" by 4\". Then they take off the same amount on each side to smooth it. If they take off a quarter inch on each side, you end up with 1.5\" thick and 3.5\" wide.",
"In the old days they dried the wood before cutting it so a 2x4 was actually 2x4. Then they realized they could save money cutting wood before it dried. Makes it easier to cut and they get more wood from same log. \n\nYou can still buy a true 2x4 but it’ll cost you more. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
7xrfq5 | why can't/don't laptops use cell service? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7xrfq5/eli5_why_cantdont_laptops_use_cell_service/ | {
"a_id": [
"duaikgg",
"duaimoj"
],
"score": [
6,
2
],
"text": [
" > Why can't/don't laptops use cell service?\n\nSome can and some do. There is a cellular card available for most kinds of laptops. The issue is that in order to connect to cell towers there is a specific kind of antenna necessary, decoding hardware for the kind of network, and of course an active cellular plan to get service.\n\nOne major issue with including it in laptops as standard equipment is that there are at least three major network standards in use in the US alone: GSM, CDMA, and the future seems to be LTE. The problem in the past was that GSM and CDMA required different decoding hardware so mobile devices were designed to work with one or the other, but not both. You couldn't take your GSM phone from AT & T and switch to a CDMA network such as Verizon because the hardware simply wouldn't work.\n\nSo a laptop that came with cellular technology would need to have both sets of hardware which would drive up the price when many people wouldn't ever use the capability anyway since they don't want to pay for the plan for their laptop.",
"They can/do. Usually you have to buy a cell modem for them, although some models will have one integrated.\n\nBut it's an added monthly expense to setup a cell plan for your laptop (or add it to your existing plan) and not enough people are willing to pay for it to make it make sense to make them standard equipment on every laptop."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
32stlq | how does a person typically study? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/32stlq/eli5_how_does_a_person_typically_study/ | {
"a_id": [
"cqe9ycc",
"cqebcli",
"cqecpxd"
],
"score": [
2,
5,
8
],
"text": [
"This is really more of a survey type of question, that might be suited to /r/askreddit more than here.\n\nBut the answer not only varies from person to person. It also depends what type of thing you're studying. Something like a scientific principle or mathematical principle requires lots of practice until you understand it, then it sticks. Whereas historical facts or foreign language vocabulary can be understood on first reading, but will require re-reading until it sticks, and some people have techniques that can help with this. If you're studying for an exam, past papers can be important because they help you understand the format of the questions and the mindset of the examiner, whereas if you're studying for your own personal or professional development this might not be so important. And so on....",
"[Here is](_URL_0_) a pretty good thread that might interest you. I'll just copy and paste the top comment here. It's quite in depth and might help you out. \n\n > Well, this may be long but you asked. first, go to lecture, go to lecture, go to lecture. Unless you're amazingly bright you are not going to learn most subjects from a book (at least not science and math) because books won't elaborate on a point for you like a human being can. Go to lecture and listen, I used to teach at the college level and I noticed a high correlation between sleeping in class and being pissed at your grade. You will not passively pick up information from class at a high enough level to succeed, you have to attend lecture and actively participate in learning by taking notes and asking questions.\n\n > Honestly for any course 2000 (sophomore) level or below going to class and taking good, complete notes will be enough to get you a pretty good grade because 75% of the class won't even do that. Once you start getting past \"pre-algebra addition and subtraction\" courses though you may need to do more than write down the information one time. I'm a science person so I'm going to write how I study/studied for more advanced courses.\n\n > 1) Do the reading before class, do it. I know reading, especially science and math, can be boring. I don't care, you need to know what you're going to talk about and formulate questions that you want the professor to answer during lecture, and you need to wait through the lecture to see if they're answered. This is both a great way to familiarize yourself with a concept before lecture (makes it easier to understand) and keep you active in learning as you will be waiting to see if the points that needed clarification are clarified.\n\n > 2) Take notes in class. I never went too overboard trying to organize my notes in class because I focus on trying to get all of the information, but for concepts make sure you write down \"how the concept works\". Even if it's just a little blurb like \"renal artery stenosis; htn and high renin ... renin due to decr flow\"\n\n > 3) Re-read your notes within 24 hours of writing them, make sure to write down the important points. This is a crucial step for concrete memory formation, go back over the information and make sure you know what you need to know. You don't have to completely re-write your notes but at least write bullet points of important facts.\n\n > 4) Go back to the text and see if you understand it, if you still have problems, ask your teacher. They're teachers they're job is to clarify this for you, not once have I had a professor upset that I read and tried to comprehend the assigned reading. If your question is amazingly esoteric though, save it for private Q & A time (before/after class or office hours).\n\n > OK all that was not actual studying per se but rather how to prepare to study. If you did the reading, took notes, reviewed your notes, and reviewed the reading asking for clarification along the way you are ready to study.\n\n > 5) Begin by organizing your thoughts. For example when taking a microbiology course I tend to organize my notes into list such as \"Gram Negative, + DNA, dsDNA, etc.\" I then go back to my class notes and begin to fill in the blanks. I generally try and create many many lists with each thing I'm learning generally making it onto mulstiple lists. This allows you to compare and contrast the information \"E. coli is a gram negative rod with some species creating potent toxins. Salmonella is another gr - rod that is found in the colonic environment that can cause GI distress, both are enterobacters\" I find that connecting thoughts like this is very helpful on a test because topics are already connected in your brain waiting for one of many trigger words to bring it to the forefront. I've noticed that when I flashcard instead of list I need the \"key word\" to get all of the information about a topic rather than getting information by thinking of the information in the prompt (hope that sentence made sense).\n\n > 6) Now that you have your lists begin to write notes using those lists to write out all the information you have on each topic in paragraph form. It's amazing how much more you retain when you have to create a story from bullet points. My brain at least is very good at remembering concepts as stories.\n\n > 7) Find practice problems, and do them all. If you can't find practice problems form a study group where everyone writes practice problems in whatever format the test is going to use.\n\n > 8) Relax the night before the test. Give yourself at least 45 minutes before bed to relax and do something like listen to music or read regular literature (unless your an english lit major). Get a full nights sleep (7-8 hours) and set multiple alarm clocks (once woke up at 9am for a 9:05 final because my roommate unplugged my clock during the night) and rest. Nobody is as fast when they're tired as when they're awake so make sure to sleep.\n",
"No clue. I have ADHD so I do 25 minute bursts with 5 minute breaks inbetween. I have to do something physical, like take notes, do problems, etc. Just reading does nothing for me. I do my best studying standing in front of a blackboard.\n\nMy coworkers just sit, face book, and study. For hours and hours on end, without moving. It's horrifying."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/o0z2n/how_do_you_study_what_techniques_do_you_use/"
],
[]
] |
||
1mxr9b | why are racial slurs offensive to most people? | Maybe I'm just not sensitive enough, but I never get offended when people try to insult me, much less when they call me a name that describes something I'm not. So why do so many people get upset when certain words are said? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1mxr9b/eli5_why_are_racial_slurs_offensive_to_most_people/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccdn1wm"
],
"score": [
6
],
"text": [
"there's a few reasons.\n\nfirstly, people generally don't like to be insulted. secondly, using a derogatory slur is saying 'you are less of a person than i am', which sucks. similarly, it's dehumanising, 'you aren't a person, but a label'. and probably most importantly, race has been used for centuries to shit on people so it carries a lot of weight. if you grow up considering your culture has a certain history of oppression it's not a joke to have people put you down for that."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
3qinjo | how did the spanish language spread around south america with such prominence? | The British colonized India but Indians still retained their own language. The Dutch colonized Indonesia but the Indonesians still retained theirs, too. Same with the Spanish in the Philippines, most still use Tagalog.
| explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3qinjo/eli5_how_did_the_spanish_language_spread_around/ | {
"a_id": [
"cwfjnqy",
"cwfm60k"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Believe it or not, Racism is actually a relatively modern invention. In the early days of colonialism, religious discrimination was the only way that populations justified things like slavery and genocide.\n\nSpanish colonialism into South America was accompanied by lots and lots of missionaries. The Pope didn't want to turn the entire of Christendom into a slave state, he felt it was unchristian, so he ordered schools opened throughout the area. People were taught Spanish and converted, and interbred heavily with the settlers, who no longer recognized the converts as an 'other'.\n\nThe net result today is that hispanic lands have the slightly darker skin tone that came from their aboriginal ancestors, but they are mostly Spanish, with Spanish culture, religion, and even genetics. \n\nRacism was later developed as a means of preserving slavery, but the people who had already converted were not enslaved. By the time colonialism reached India and the Philippines, racism was a thing and the reformation had made religious discrimination slowly disappear, resulting in stratified societies. In the Americas, this meant a westward expansion with genocide in the same era.",
"It's due in part to heavy mixing between cultures between the native peoples and the Spanish cultures. This lead to an entirely new group of people, the Mestizos. These people possessed combined European and native american heritage. Being a contiguous landmass also helped the spread of their language and culture (unlike the Phillipines which is a massive archipelago.) \nAlso when colonizing South/Latin America the Spanish, being the good Catholics that they are, spread the Roman Catholic faith, opening churches and schools to teach the native population."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
8bxyyw | why are northern coastlines absolute messes compared smooth non-northern ones? eg scotland and canada vs india and somalia coastlines | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8bxyyw/eli5_why_are_northern_coastlines_absolute_messes/ | {
"a_id": [
"dxaj4oy",
"dxaj525"
],
"score": [
15,
3
],
"text": [
"India and Somalia were never under polar caps and multi-kilometers high glaciers. \n\nIn the northern climes during the last Ice Age, the Arctic polar cap went down south to the great lakes in America and almost to the Netherlands in Europe. \n\nGlaciers moves and grind rocks and moves loosened rocks to the end of the glacial tongue. This, over time, creates the sharpened coastline and fjords you can see in Norway. ",
"When I was a school I was told it was the receding glaciers that carved up the land in the northern areas like that and there simply hasn't been time for them to erode smooth."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
5zypbq | why an individual's condition rapidly deteriorates after being diagnosed with a disease | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5zypbq/eli5_why_an_individuals_condition_rapidly/ | {
"a_id": [
"df237it"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Certain diseases can only be properly diagnosed once they hit a critical stage, so by the time they find out someone is infected, it may already be very severe. It may also be something as simple as the placebo effect; by knowing you have a serious disease, it makes you expect health problems, which amplifies your perception of the symptoms."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
51v1hs | why is it darker when the sun is closer to (but fully above) the horizon? | What I think I know: that sensation of "brightness" is the result of electromagnetic radiation from the sun (in our visible spectrum) stimulating optical nerve structures, and that our eyes receive this EMR directly (by looking at the sun) or indirectly (via unabsorbed wave lengths reflected off of surroundings like leaves and roads and things).
What I think is that @noon the sun is more perpendicular to the surface of the earth, light passes through a relatively thin cross section of the atmosphere, and less light is scattered or absorbed by the atmosphere, and that this is effect is exaggerated when the sun is more tangential to the horizon. So, on the moon per say, is it "straight on full day light" when sun is in full exposure to the observer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/51v1hs/eli5_why_is_it_darker_when_the_sun_is_closer_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"d7f4iue"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"You're basically right; light traveling through more atmosphere at dusk/dawn means more light is diffused in to the atmosphere and less directly shines in to your eyes straight from the sun.\n\nOn the moon where there is basically no atmosphere, the sun is always 100% full brightness. This is very noticeable with the shadows; look at pictures and you'll see just how sharp all of the shadow lines look."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
6f5t1i | how do some kids hit high school barely literate? | Their spelling is atrocious and they struggle to read. If you assume they've been attending school regularly, shouldn't students be able to read and write at roughly the same level? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6f5t1i/eli5_how_do_some_kids_hit_high_school_barely/ | {
"a_id": [
"difnieb",
"difokz8",
"difoqa7",
"difpk7x",
"difqoeb",
"difs7gh",
"difsoti",
"difu3ph",
"difuch7"
],
"score": [
4,
17,
2,
30,
3,
4,
5,
3,
11
],
"text": [
"It's called social promotion. A way for teachers to pass the buck while maintaining funding levels. ",
" > If you assume they've been attending school regularly, shouldn't students be able to read and write at roughly the same level?\n\nKids learn at different rates. Some kids have learning issues. Some kids have parents who promote the idea that learning isn't important. Some kids are heavily neglected. Some kids are the primary carers in their home for all of their siblings. Some kids come from homes where they are raped and or beaten at night. \n\nAs to why they aren't left behind if they don't meet some external benchmark. There is a running philosophy that suggests that keeping students behind affirms negative ideas that the learner has about themselves and opens them up to extensive bullying by their peers. ",
"Some students attend school but pay no attention at all.\n\nSome students are not very intelligent, and fail to learn well even when participating in school.\n\n",
"I only have anecdotes, but they're ones of a reading tutor, so that gives me some credit, right?\n\nI work with the same 20 kids each day for short, intensive sessions targeted to their specific gaps in learning. Some kids didn't learn letter sounds properly, which affects word decoding, some kids learned some obscure spelling rules but not others, some are just slow at retaining what they did learn. \n\nThe pace that classroom teachers have to push is grueling for some kids and they can't learn from general instruction, but need individual help that a teacher with 25 students just can't provide.\n\nThe bigger factor that I've seen that makes the difference is desire to learn and motivation. 2 of my 3rd grade students started the year at about the same word-per-minute rate (7) and one is now up to early 2nd grade rate (45 wpm) while the other doesn't really care and hovers at an early first grade rate (17 wpm). This is after working nearly every school day (cause kids are buckets of diseases that don't know how to cover their mouths) for the whole year. Catching up is hard.\n\nThere are a ton of different things at play, but kids really do learn differently. And then some kids just don't give any fucks, either because they don't see a point or they don't think they can do it.",
"Children learn at different rates and some kids with learning disabilities may need one to one tuition but can't get it in a classroom. So these kids fall through the cracks and get left behind. Some kids just don't care and don't put any effort into learning. Some kids can do the class work but struggle to retain the information.",
"Being able to read and write well means that you have to spend a lot of time reading and writing. It's not something that can be explained or memorized. \n\nThe kids that make it to high school with poor literacy either haven't spent the time (absolutely not blaming them) or they have a learning disability (hopefully assessed by the school, if not then shame on the school). \n\nTeachers are limited because they have a lot of students and they have to spend a lot of lesson time on ... lessons. There is little to no time for supervised reading and writing. Students that read and write outside of class time (whether of their own motivation or parent encouragement) become better readers and writers. ",
"Combination of issues:\n\n* the social issues brought up by AUTeach that affect the classroom,\n\n* learning disabilities,\n\n* the no child left behind syndrome, not the program, the concept that few parents will accept their kids not being promoted with their peers no matter how stupid the kid is,\n\n* passing the problem kids is easier than dealing with them\n\n* effective education is a matter of both teacher and parent participation, if homeschooling is not part of the process to support the teacher's and the school system's efforts then these kids fall behind\n\n* some of it is that we don't teach how to learn to learn before we teach facts and processes \n\n* we don't clearly get through to some kids that there can be two or more opposing rights, two or more opposing wrongs depending on the perspective of each, and/or the beneficial, draw back or perverse results of the unintended consequences of well-intended pragmatic thinking. Some kids experience the perverse aspects, don't understand why they are being punished for not doing anything wrong and just drop out of society",
"I can't speak for everyone of course, but I can definitely see how it could have been possible in my case. I was having a very hard time learning to read, and was diagnosed with ADD around this time. I don't know if the diagnosis is accurate, but I can say for certain the problem from my perspective was that learning to read seemed boring and completely overwhelming. I simply could not focus on it, and any attempts to motivate me with reward or punishment failed. This lasted until I was about 12 years old. Around this time, Jurassic Park the movie was being advertised on TV and I simply could not wait for the movie to come out, so of my own accord, I borrowed the novel from a friend and figured it out myself. By the time I finished Jurassic Park I was reading at a college level. So, in my case, in the end it came down to having a motivation that spoke to my interests. So for me, it is understandable how any cookie cutter approach to teaching children to read simply will not work for some. It makes sense for our educational programs to take an approach that works for the majority of children, for them it is a numbers game, and considering the resources they are given, it would be unrealistic to tailor the approach for every individual. \n\nIn short, while it isn't perfect, we're lucky to have public education. The world can't always help you, sometimes you just have to help yourself.",
"Our education system is horrendously broken. Federal funding depends largely on performance of students, whether through pass/fail ratios or through standardized testing. If you're below a certain threshold, your school can lose federal funding, which can make up a lot of money that gets sent for things like renovations, books, *salaries*, and more. So there's a push not to let kids fail. To fudge things, to get them just barely able to pass so that it doesn't show as bad on the school. Ironically, though, there's very little funding to help students who need it - students with a variable number of reasons for needing help are generally lumped together. But a kid with ADD, a kid with dyslexia, and a kid from a broken home need different kinds of help to learn, but there's no time, money, or resources to do that.\n\nNot to mention that, because of the ties to funding, it's not just the school, but it can reflect on the *teacher* as well. If one teacher is failing a bunch of students because they're not doing well, it's often looked at as a problem with the teacher. They get the blame for risking the funding or making the school look bad. So there's pressure on them from above not to rock the boat.\n\nAnd of course, parents raising hell on their teachers for \"giving\" the students a bad grade, despite what the student has earned. [This political comic comes to mind.](_URL_0_) So even if a student has earned a failing grade, parents may raise hell on their kid being \"attacked\" or \"picked on\" or \"singled out\" by a teacher for some perceived grudge, and threaten the administration if their student isn't passed, whether they've earned it or not."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/600x315/1c/09/78/1c09788af7a85dc03ff7c62fcfbe6db2.jpg"
]
] |
|
3z10q0 | how would the limit age for any human to live be calculated? | Basically, is there a definite limit to how long a human can live? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3z10q0/eli5_how_would_the_limit_age_for_any_human_to/ | {
"a_id": [
"cyicykr"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"There are limits right now. But there's nothing saying we won't eventually find ways to overcome them. We've overcome a *lot* of things in the past, and there's little doubt we'll be able to solve and overcome a lot more in the future. \n\nAt some point the question changes from \"How long can a Human live?\" to \"Do I still count as Human?\" "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
69r7n6 | what is the difference between a rechargeable battery and a capacitor? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/69r7n6/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a/ | {
"a_id": [
"dh8q34w",
"dh8q7ex",
"dh8sz0k",
"dh91373"
],
"score": [
26,
23,
10,
7
],
"text": [
"A battery stores energy to be released relatively slowly and stored for extended periods of time. A capacitor is exactly the opposite. It stores energy for short periods of time to be released quickly.",
"Batteries store energy with chemicals to release the energy with chemical reactions when there is a load connected. \n\nCapacitors are electrical devices made from dielectric (read: partially insulating) that can store electricity temporarily in the form of static electricity because of the insulation and the charge that was previously applied to the capacitor. ",
"Batteries store energy in chemicals. See: electrochemistry.\n\nCapacitors store the energy in a electric field. See: electrostatics.",
"The \"chemistry vs physics\" difference that others have mentioned leads to a practical difference: as a capacitor discharges, its voltage drops in proportion to the amount of charge that's been lost. In a battery, the voltage remains (fairly) constant."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
22cq3b | why does it seem like computers lose performance when the memory has a lot of stuff on it? | My phone was running really slow when I had a lot of music on it, then I deleted a bunch and now it runs normally.
Does inactive memory take up processing power? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/22cq3b/eli5_why_does_it_seem_like_computers_lose/ | {
"a_id": [
"cglicl7",
"cglo3pg",
"cgltv1u"
],
"score": [
4,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Basically, you're working at a really cluttered desk. And you keep having to shuffle papers around just to jot something down. Your computer goes through this same process. Clear up more room for it to work and its more efficient.",
"This is due to hard drive seek times and statistical performance loss. \n\nBasically for a traditional hdd it works like a record player, your data is stored with a needle and the disk spins to read and write data off the thing. The difference being that records are designed to be played in sequence, you read the song as a sequential loop around the record. Computer data isn't like that, you might put a file on the outer perimeter of the disk then 100 more after it before you go back and erase that file. The needle of the disk has to move from position to position to access the different areas where data might be. Hard disks, like records have their best performance when you have a sequential input, because they can just write everything without having to move the needle. \n\nAs your hard drive is more full the data is all over the place more often, this means more needle moving or \"seek time\" which means slower performance. \n\nThere is a technique called hard striping used in Datacenters where you basically mark off 20% of the drive space so data can never be stored there in order to keep your seek times down. Although you obviously sacrifice that capacity. \n\nSimilarly ssd technology suffers from something called statistical performance loss. The first time you get an ssd it's as fast as its ever going to be, it's misleading actually, once you fill it up past 80% it will suffer a performance loss which is permanent as well as a capacity based statistical performance loss. This is known as the 80% rule. The permanent loss is because the brand new drive has lots of areas or \"sectors\" which have never been used before, once you fill it up most of the way that is no longer the case and you see a performance loss. This original loss can't be recovered, that's why when you get a shiny new ssd and take it to your benchmarking tool and get an amazing number its too good to be true. What you should always do is fill it up then delete everything and then run the benchmark, this will give you a real picture of the speed of the drive over its lifetime. \n\nThen there's the capacity based performance loss, this is much like the hdd's loss when it gets full but it's for different reasons. Anyway, the statistical performance loss can be recovered by deleting stuff from your phone, the initial loss can't be recovered. It's likely the effects of both at once that make your phone feel so much slower than before. ",
"There are several types of memory, see [Memory Pyramid](_URL_0_). For long-term/persistent memory, we currently choose either solid state drives (SSD's) or hard disk drives(HDD's). Each have their own costs in terms of money and speed. Modern phones use classes of SSD's for persistent storage. \n\nPersistent storage is different than short term/volatile storage (RAM). RAM is very fast in comparison to long term storage but it is also more expensive and more volatile. RAM is optimized to have very low latency (time to transfer data) and as a result is physically and logically located very close to the processor. Persistent storage is usually removed a few steps from the processor by a bus which increases latency due to sharing with other devices. HDD's are comparatively slow to SSD's because they actually have to physically seek data on the disk by moving hardware into a correct position while SSD's use electronic signals entirely.\n\nGeneral computing devices have relatively low amounts of RAM compared to persistent storage due to the high disparity in cost and the volatility of RAM and operating systems can maintain a much higher address space (number of addresses) than the actual size of RAM in the system. The amount of address space affects the number of programs that can be resident in memory at a given time and the size of those programs. Remember that low latency means faster accessing, so it is preferable to keep a current program in RAM so that it runs as fast as possible, but this is not always feasible in multi-application environments. Every program needs memory and each is competing for the finite space available in RAM. OS and hardware designers have extended the amount of memory available to programmers (and consequently users) by creating a virtual memory system.\n\nVirtual memory means that there is an extremely large address space available but only a small subset maps to physical memory (RAM). Memory addresses that are not mapped into physical memory get offloaded onto persistent storage in what is called swap space or a swap file. If a segment of memory, called a page, has not been accessed for a long term, it gets flagged to be swapped out to persistent storage. If a page gets swapped out and then swapped back in later, it will take a relatively long time to get accessed because it first has to get loaded from persistent memory into volatile memory then loaded into the processor.\n\nIf you open a program, you are loading that program into volatile memory (RAM). If you load enough programs, eventually the program that is least active (we'll say it was the first) doesn't really need volatile memory anymore, so all of the memory it is using gets flagged as inactive. The hardware and OS see this and 'page out' that memory to the swap file in persistent memory. If you later bring up that program, the hardware and OS can't find those addresses in the volatile memory (generating a 'page fault') and locate the addresses in the swap file (taking a latency hit). Those files get 'paged-in' to volatile memory (taking a latency hit) and then passed back to the program. All of this is transparent to the program so it operates as normal, but it has been very slow because the underlying system had to manage the exchange of data from one memory system to another.\n\nHaving no available persistent storage (you filled up your drive with music) means that the OS can't even page properly, so virtual memory can't even operate with a large enough swap file. Generally, you want to keep some percentage of the drive free for the swap operations. This is often a setting in your OS, so dig into your settings to see how it is set up and how much can be reserved. Also, you can run less programs.\n\nFor more information see [Virtual Memory](_URL_1_)\n\nedit: some words and a little more info"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hierarchy",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_memory"
]
] |
|
2zglw0 | do we still need toenails? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2zglw0/eli5do_we_still_need_toenails/ | {
"a_id": [
"cpip9ot",
"cpipsyy"
],
"score": [
2,
6
],
"text": [
"Many people could probably get by just fine without them. Too bad that doesn't have any impact on our daily lives.",
"Something I can answer! So more likely than not, we'd be fine without toenails. They don't offer much benefit in today's human. They're basically vestigial at this point. However, that doesn't mean we're going to lose them one day (or evolve out of them).\n\nThere's this misconception with evolution that \"if you don't use it, you lose it.\" This isn't necessarily true. Evolution acts on active forces - if a trait stunts the survival rate of an organism, it'll be selected against and will likely vanish.\n\nMeanwhile a passive trait, such as an unnecessary body part, isn't going to be actively selected against so it frequently sticks around.\n\nFor example, toe nails don't impede your survival in any way, therefore a person with toenails and a person with a no-toenail mutation are both just as likely to survive to reproductive age and pass on their genes. This is what I mean when I say it's not being \"actively selected against\". "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
5i290t | how do space probes such as vogager 1 and pioneer 10 operate for such a long period of time in space? | I know it's NASA magic, but how does NASA do this magic?! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5i290t/eli5_how_do_space_probes_such_as_vogager_1_and/ | {
"a_id": [
"db4tlux",
"db4v5tt",
"db53dna"
],
"score": [
9,
17,
2
],
"text": [
"Voyager 1 has three radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) mounted on a boom. Each MHW-RTG contains 24 pressed plutonium-238 oxide spheres.The RTGs generated about 470 watts of electric power at the time of launch, with the remainder being dissipated as waste heat. The power output of the RTGs declines over time (due to the 87.7-year half-life of the fuel and degradation of the thermocouples), but the craft's RTGs will continue to support some of its operations until 2025",
"The first thing to realize is that they don't really need much to keep functioning. They don't need fuel, because they can just keep on drifting forever. They need a little bit of power (mainly to maintain communication with Earth, and to keep their electronics warm enough to function. If there's enough to also power any of the scientific instruments on board, that's a nice bonus, but they really don't need that much. We have gargantuan antennae dishes on Earth to catch even very weak signals, so the probes don't need strong transmitters. If they can cough out a weak signal, we can easily do all the hard work on Earth to detect it.\n\nThese probes have radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) on board. That is basically a big box containing radioactive material, which can be used to generate power (and heat, which may help solve the heating problem). And while their output gradually declines, they can still last decades.\n\nThese specific probes don't use it, but solar power also works a surprisingly long time. It's always sunny in space, and there's no dust or dirt that might otherwise accumulate on your solar panels and prevent them from working.",
"They generate power, as others have stated, from the heat of radioactive decay. A commonplace device that generates electricity from heat is a [thermocouple](_URL_0_). They are used in a number of gas fired devices to control the supply of gas to a pilot light. No heat from the flame, no gas allowed to flow. Another use is in digital thermometers, heating the thermocouple in the tip generates a voltage which is interpreted as temperature.\nThe radioisotope thermoelectric generators onboard the spacecraft is a great stack of Thermocouples that add up to useful amounts of voltage."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermocouple"
]
] |
|
4ezmck | why are lenses necessary to form an image in cameras and eyeballs? | Why do the eyeballs of organisms and cameras have lenses on them? Why can't the cells or sensors just get an image of the world directly from light shining on them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ezmck/eli5_why_are_lenses_necessary_to_form_an_image_in/ | {
"a_id": [
"d24pnk8",
"d24tic8"
],
"score": [
11,
4
],
"text": [
"You have a 'smart phone', right?\n\nIn a dark room, point the screen at a wall. You'll see a dimly lit patch of wall, but with no real indication of what the screen displays.\n\nNow hold a magnifying glass between your smart phone screen and the wall, and tinker with the distance. You should see an image of your smart phone screen on the wall, upside-down.\n\nThe light is all radiating out in every direction, from every pixel.\n\nThe lens focuses only the light going in certain directions.\n\nSimilarly, a pinhole will 'focus' light in the same way. Because most of the 'random' light isn't going in the right direction to make it through the hole, it doesn't interfere with the light that is going in the right directions. Only much less efficiently. This is also why you can generally see better in bright light, because your iris acts like a 'pinhole', even if your eyeballs' lenses are fucked up.\n\nThere's a Youtube channel you should be able to find called 'Physics For Future Presidents'. It's basically a college course where physics is explained without the math. Richard A. Muller is the professor for this class. I recommend binge watching it. \n",
"Something other folks haven't mentioned— its totally possible to have an image without a lens! Look up camera obscura, or a pinhole camera for a slightly more recent example. There are many animals with \"vision\" without lenses as well, it's just never good for seeing anything other than which direction light is coming from. Lenses just really, really, help with gathering light and concentrating light in specific places, they are necessary for a sharp, bright, image. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
7a7na2 | why are these frog legs twitching when salt is sprinkled on them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7a7na2/eli5_why_are_these_frog_legs_twitching_when_salt/ | {
"a_id": [
"dp7r7ww"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Salt has sodium in it, and sodium is an electrolyte, which lets signals and impulses travel along nerves. When you put salt on fresh muscle it twitches because there's still some potential left to carry into activity."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
ar8snz | if you have adrenaline in your body all the time, why cant you for lack of a better term just "adrenaline up?" | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ar8snz/eli5_if_you_have_adrenaline_in_your_body_all_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"eglhdpf",
"eglhr7m"
],
"score": [
8,
4
],
"text": [
"Too much adrenaline is dangerous to the body and dramatically increases wear and tear on the organs. Think about a car which can cope with travelling at 70 MPH for long periods, but take it up to 100 MPH and it starts overheating and various bits start to wear out.",
"Adrenaline isn’t present 100% of the time in your body, but it’s components are. If you had adrenaline floating around all the time, your body would constantly be in fight or flight mode even when it didn’t need to be (wasting tons of energy). When your brain receives an impulse from the outside world through nerves that puts it into that fight or flight reaction, your brain tells your adrenal glands (right on top of the kidneys) to start producing adrenaline (epinephrine). As the kidneys put the adrenaline in your bloodstream, it gets delivered to your muscles and you begin to feel the “adrenaline rush”. Unfortunately, you can’t trigger this process on demand unless you intentionally freak yourself out before the activity you want the adrenaline for 😂"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
632oa4 | why is it that, humans, who are (arguably) the most advanced species on the planet, produce offspring that are virtually helpless for several years. meanwhile, many or most other species can survive or fend for themselves almost immediately after birth, if not shortly after? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/632oa4/eli5_why_is_it_that_humans_who_are_arguably_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"dfqtp4h",
"dfqtxwe"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"There are 2 reasons:\n\n1. Human women have smaller birth canals than other animals. This is because of the bone structure needed to allow us to walk upright on 2 legs instead of 4.\n\n2. We have relatively big brains and heads, compared to the rest of our body, than other animals. This makes us smarter than other animals. But it makes it even harder for human women to squeeze those big-brained babies out of their narrow vaginas.\n\nThe narrow birth canal plus the big human brain mean that human women have to give birth to babies before their brains are fully developed. Newborn humans' brains aren't developed enough to control their bodies properly for a while after they're born. That's why they're helpless. But animals with smaller brains and bigger birth canals can give birth to babies whose brains are more fully developed when they're born.",
"Humans are so advanced because of our brain. (we have the largest brain:body ratio of any animal) The head of a baby is the limiting factor in how big a baby can grow before it has to be born. An animal like a horse survives because it can run away. So the horse fetus puts most of its energy into developing legs, so they can usually walk within an hour of birth. The brain of a horse isn't all that complex and definitely doesn't need 12 months of gestation to form. Since humans are pack animals, and early man survived as hunter and gatherers, we had the time and resources available to spend many years raising each offspring. In most cases, the number of offspring any animal has is inversely proportional to how many resources they spend to raise them. Most large mammals have one or two offspring and may spend a year or more raising them, while an insect can lay thousands of eggs at once, but the offspring may never see the parent."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
e2tnj4 | disc brakes. | I observed disc brakes of vehicles. There are two tiny plates that copmress and make the moving disc of wheel to stop. I can't understand how such a large vehicle having a huge inertia is stopped by applying a gentle pressure on brake step paddle?? Why it is not to press the step with huge force to do so? Is it due to brake leathers or somewhat different mechanism is involved?? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/e2tnj4/eli5_disc_brakes/ | {
"a_id": [
"f8xjuxw",
"f8xkg1x",
"f8xkp6p",
"f8xm4ws"
],
"score": [
6,
4,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"It isn’t gentle pressure. The calipers are full of pistons that are hydraulically activated- you press down and tons of force can be applied to the discs, creating friction between the disc and the pad, which slows the car.",
"There is a braking system between the pedal and the brake pads that amplifies the force that the driver applied to the pedal. Part of this is simple mechanical advantage like a block and tackle pulley system. The pads only move a few millimetres in response to the pedal’s full range of motion. Vehicles usually also have additional assistance via a vacuum reservoir that applies additional force when actuated. This vacuum is generated either by connection to the intake manifold on gasoline engines, or by a vacuum pump on Diesel engines, which don’t throttle the intake air.\n\nThe vacuum can be exhausted by repeatedly pressing the pedal, which is why braking effort increases with multiple presses.",
"The pressure of the brake pedal is not related to the braking power at all. The resistance you feel is from the small hydraulic cylinder that presses the pedal back up and allows pressure tuning. The pedal itself is a lever system connected to another hydraulic cylinder which pressurizes the brake lines. Your foot's force is multiplied by dozens of times when the calipers squeeze the disc.",
"The first thing you should understand is that, with vehicles, brake force on the brake fluid is assisted by a booster using a vacuum. If you lose engine power in a car and you’re coasting, the brake pedal requires significantly more force in order to stop the car. So, what you may be used to - relatively light force on the pedal - isn’t actually the total force required. \n\nThe second thing to note is that the design of the brake pedal itself incorporates leverage to multiply the force you apply with your foot. \n\nIf you were simply applying pressure directly to a piston to activate the brakes, then yeah, it’d be as you intuitively think - far more force than a person could apply to stop a vehicle effectively in a reasonable amount of space. \n\nAnother thing worth mentioning is that the friction material used on the brake pads is indeed extremely effective at converting mechanical energy into heat (which is the principle of how friction brakes work in the first place). Further, the brake disc itself is good at dissipating that heat into the surrounding air (as do the brake caliper and the wheel, albeit to a lesser extent). Because it’s very easy to overcome that heat dissipation, leading to reduced friction (“brake fade”) and boiling of the brake fluid (no pressure at all, so brake failure), some vehicles (large trucks) supplement their disc and drum brakes with compression brakes, which uses the engine’s air compression to put backward force on the rotation of the mechanical bits, slowing everything down. This also generates heat, but the engine’s cooling systems handle that heat just as they handle the heat from combustion and friction."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
1l188k | what would the universe be like if causality or relativity were traded for faster-than-light travel? | I remember in my old Usenet days every other conjecture about faster than light travel was shot down by the comment: "Causality, relativity, faster-than-light travel. A universe can only have two of the three."
My question is: what would a universe be like if it had causality and faster-than-light travel, but not relativity? Or relativity and faster-than-light travel, but not causality?
Something tells me I may get an answer I'll be able to grasp easier in ELI5 than in /r/askscience. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1l188k/eli5_what_would_the_universe_be_like_if_causality/ | {
"a_id": [
"cbuqday",
"cbuqpfb",
"cbuw31y"
],
"score": [
25,
7,
2
],
"text": [
"Believe it or not, Greg Egan is the authority to which you want to turn on that question. He's a writer of science fiction books, but he's also extremely educated in theoretical physics. He sat down and said \"How would the universe have to be different for the speed of light not to be invariant?\"\n\nTurns out if you just change one minus sign to a plus sign in the Minkowski metric, that's what you get.\n\nBut the implications of such a thing are far and wide. Pretty much everything you could imagine ends up being fundamentally different. Plants generate energy by emitting light rather than absorbing it. Every color of light propagates at a different speed, so the stars in the sky look like rainbow streaks. And on and on.\n\nThe guy's written [what's essentially a *textbook*](_URL_0_) about the implications of a Riemannian, rather than Minkowskian, metric. It's good reading, as long as you're not scared of math.",
"This is an awesome question. For relativity and faster-than-light travel, read the answer to this question: _URL_0_\n\nThat should explain why relativity means that faster-than-light travel allows backwards time travel. With time travel it's easy to think of a paradox like killing your own grandfather before you're born. To resolve the paradox, we must accept that causality no longer applies. I can stop my parents from being born and still exist, because there's no need for anything to cause my existence.\n\nIt's very hard to think about what the universe would be like. I'm not sure if it's possible to wrap your head around this, it's like trying to imagine seeing in 4 dimensions.\n\nI'm a little less sure about causality and faster-than-light travel, but here goes: the example above shows us that we can't have time travel and causality. So, since relativity is what caused the time travel, relativity has got to go. On the surface, this means that the universe and the laws of physics are a little more intuitive. If you travel faster than light, you literally just go faster than light is going. If you look behind you, you'll see nothing because the light hasn't caught up to you. And you'll be invisible to people behind you, because there's no light reflecting off the back of your ship.\n\nAnd there is no \"speed of light\" anymore, light can travel at any speed. If you turn on a flashlight while you're moving, the light goes faster than it would if you were standing still. This would affect everything, some of the fundamental forces of the universe are based on light and I'm not sure how getting rid of relativity would affect them. Hopefully someone who knows more physics can fill this part in.",
" > \"Causality, relativity, faster-than-light travel. A universe can only have two of the three.\"\n\nI really think causality is pointless here, think about it for a second. So there are three possibilities: a universe without faster than light travel, a universe without relativity, and a universe without causality. And the lack of one of these things in each universe avoids things like the grandfather paradox. But that only really makes sense for the first two. \n\nIn our universe, the paradox doesnt exist because you cant go faster than light, and therefore according to relativity back in time. In another hypothetical universe, the paradox doesnt exist because relativity doesnt exist, and going faster than light doesnt cause you to go back in time. In the final, third possible universe, the paradox doesnt exist because....you simply throw out the idea of causality, one thing causing another. & #3232;\\_ & #3232;\n\nThe first two universes, without faster than light travel and without relativity, are plausible at least on the surface. The third, a universe without causality, seems unquestionably impossible. Maybe my brain cannot grasp a concept its never known, like a 4th spatial dimension, but how can anything exist if one thing does not cause another?\n\nTherefore, you should assume causality exist in all universes, and is not even a variable in that equation. In which case the though experiment simply becomes \"Relativity or faster than light travel, a universe can only have one\". Which is really the same thing. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/ORTHOGONAL/ORTHOGONAL.html"
],
[
"http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/52249/how-does-faster-than-light-travel-violate-causality"
],
[]
] |
|
dfjpnb | what are moons spherical | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dfjpnb/eli5_what_are_moons_spherical/ | {
"a_id": [
"f33jzwb"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Smaller objects actually don't become spheres. In general, the cause of spherification (not a technical term) is gravity. Any big bumps end up falling down one way or another. The result is spheres. This is why many asteroids *aren't* spheres - they haven't enough gravity to make this happen."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
5a2fir | is there a limit on the energy we can draw from geothermal sources? | Geothermal seems like a clean and sustainable energy, but is there a limit to what we can draw? If there is a limit (thermodynamics would suggest that a there is), is it beyond our world-wide energy needs? What would happen if we were to over-draw from geothermal sources? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5a2fir/eli5_is_there_a_limit_on_the_energy_we_can_draw/ | {
"a_id": [
"d9dpbyc"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Not an expert here, but it seems that there could be localized limits. If all the buildings in a city downtown tried to use the ground directly beneath them as a heat sink for their air-conditioning systems, I would think that they could end up putting enough heat into a small volume of earth to run into heat dissipation limits that would reduce the efficiency of the systems. (Same would apply in reverse for extraction of ground heat for winter heating.) The efficiency of highly concentrated geothermal systems would depend on the natural rate of heat flow through the ground under the buildings, and I don't know how much that varies from one type of substrate to another."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
6mt95u | how have humans survived for so long? | I'm thinking back to the tribal ages.
If our offspring takes 9 months to birth, then takes an additonal 10-20 years (give or take) to even become physically strong enough to help out the other members of the group. Another thing to consider is that back then the life expectancy of humans were drastically shorter as well, so it just baffles me how humans survived for this long without technology.
Other mammals seem to have no problem with this; usually a few minutes after birth they can already walk. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6mt95u/eli5how_have_humans_survived_for_so_long/ | {
"a_id": [
"dk44gpb",
"dk44sb2"
],
"score": [
6,
4
],
"text": [
" > back then the life expectancy of humans were drastically shorter as well\n\nThis is a myth that really needs to stop. It's true that the *average* life expectancy was terrible previously, but that's because there was a huge amount of child deaths. Iirc, in the middle ages, if you lived past age... 5 or 10 or something, your life expectancy was way higher.\n\nWikipedia actually [has a table](_URL_0_)\n\nIn the Paleolithic era (most of human pre-history), life expectancy was around 33 years, but if you reached 15 your life expectancy would be 54.\n\nIn classical Rome your life expectancy was about 20-30, but if you reached age 10 your life expectancy was 47.5.\n\nIn the late medieval English period your life expectancy was 30, but if you reached 21 your life expectancy would be 64.\n\nAs for how humans survived, we simply outcompeted the competition. Animals that can walk a few minutes after birth don't live that long.",
"Many monkeys also have around 9 month gestation periods. \n\nOne thing that helps is the tribal lifestyle. Where theres one human, theres probably at least a dozen others, no matter how far back you go. \n\nTo add to pregnancy, theres nothing that says you have to go 9 months sitting on your ass. Id hazard a guess that early humans were built of tougher stuff than we are now. On top of that, even my 5 foot nothing mother only gained 10 pounds with my sister and taught aerobics and kick boxing until she was like 5-6 months pregnant. Again, pregnancy is onyl a debilitating time period if you allow it to be.\n\nIt also doesnt necessarily take 10-20 years to help the group. Imagine that right from birth - or pretty early anyways, youre constantly walking with the tribe. Sure, a 10 year old today is going to probably be weak and slim. A 10 year old that has been carrying buckets of water since he was 4, probably not. Dont go saying thats too young either - I was in Kindergarten at 4, so at the very least even I was able to follow instructions and get about on my own at that time. You dont have to go too far back in time to find kids that age working on farms or something - even if its just light work. Very long ago, those kids could have easily been out picking up berries, nuts, etc. \n\nLife expectancy was shorter - but lets say its 20 years. YOure still outliving most other mammals at that point. 50? Theree are only a handful of things really living longer than you. You only need ~10 years before youre old enough to start passing on your genes by having kids. So even if you only live to 20, thats potentially 10 years of reproductive capability.\n\n"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy"
],
[]
] |
|
6gj1v8 | if 1=single, 2=double, and so one, is there one for 0? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6gj1v8/eli5_if_1single_2double_and_so_one_is_there_one/ | {
"a_id": [
"diqnfsu",
"diqnj35"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"_URL_0_\n\nNull-tuple or empty Tuple",
"Not really. In math it's known as an \"empty tuple\" or \"empty sequence.\" Colloquially there was never a need to come up with a term for a 0-tuple."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuple"
],
[]
] |
||
3fp2os | what makes tech different than other fields that women have entered into succesfully | Excuse me if my sentence structure is off, but I'm a little tired right now.
We always hear about the problem with a "lack of women in tech". Well in the past when feminism wasn't even as strong as it was today, women were able to enter into many eternally male dominated fields, many of which are now divided relatively equally between the genders, some of which are today far more dominated by women. These were fields in which as far as that society went, women had never performed in and yet they were able to enter into them. In contrast with the present day, even though they are a minority of workers, women have always been in modern tech jobs and currently are being extremely chased after.
Is the seeming difficulty of tech integration due to:
"Many STEM jobs are in fields dealing with emerging technologies and industries and we are merely at the beginning of women entering those new industries just like the previously male dominated fields of the past. Thus we are currently seeing the trees and not realizing the inevitable forest."
But then I must ask, why were women not along in the beginning of these emerging industries? STEM related jobs have always been around even though now they are becoming even more dominant and relevant. What made these industries before the personal computing age such that women were not as able to proliferate as easy in time for the rise of today's modern tech jobs?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fp2os/eli5_what_makes_tech_different_than_other_fields/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctqo5h5"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"STEM jobs require STEM degrees. You can hardly blame the tech industry for hiring 95% men when the graduating CS majors are 95% male.\n\nFor some reason women are not entering STEM programs in college. \n\nSome people think it is because women are more likely to be told they are bad at math/science/logic and more likely to be told they are intuitive/emotionally intelligent/good socializers. If you're told you're bad at math, you're not going to enter an engineering school. There's a confidence issue, it takes the same amount of effort to get C's in STEM as it does to get A's in liberal arts. I've been in science exams where the class high-score was 52%. If someone doesn't believe in themselves, this can be enough to make them switch. STEM degrees have really high attrition rates.\n\nSome people think it's because many girls are just not interested in STEM for whatever reason."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
1qxb0b | why international accents sound charming, but regional ones usually sound awful? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qxb0b/eli5_why_international_accents_sound_charming_but/ | {
"a_id": [
"cdhg5z4"
],
"score": [
4
],
"text": [
"Most often foreigners are exposed to a more elegant upper class accent/dialect/slang. They don't get to see the working class people who use a cruder accent/dialect/slang, as often."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3gdewi | would you die if you injected water into your bloodstream? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3gdewi/eli5_would_you_die_if_you_injected_water_into/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctx32nk",
"ctx7sdf",
"ctxahup",
"ctxhymp"
],
"score": [
68,
3,
3,
6
],
"text": [
"Depends on how much water you injected. A small amount (a drop or so) probably won't kill you. A larger amount would cause your blood cells to rupture because the concentration of water inside and outside the cell would be different. Water would rush inside the cell and blow up the cell membrane. If you kept injecting water eventually enough cells would blow up that you'd die. Even assuming that the cells could survive blowing up, you'd still die from your cells not being able to perform certain functions which require exact salt and sugar concentrations in your blood. ",
"I have read that nursing students learn to give injections by first practicing on inanimate objects (oranges, mannequins.) Then they practice on each other with injections of sterile water. But perhaps this referred to saline solution. I could not find a good link on this topic.",
"Depends on how much and what type. Tap water, perhaps since its not sterile. Sterile water, well too much of it would decrease the concentration of electrolytes in your blood. This would lead to problems. Your low Na would cause neurological problems and the low K would cause cardiac problems. Also your cells would lyse. ",
"But what about when people shoot up, they use water in the drugs. Is it because of the small amount? "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
5jnf52 | why does tobasco or products like tobasco stop congestion of the sinuses? | I'm not sure if it's scientifically proven, but Tobasco mixed in with water makes me feel like I breath normally when my nose is congested. Maybe it's a placebo effect, but at least it works. If tobasco sauce does serve as a decongestant, than why? If it is not, then my dreams are ruined. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5jnf52/eli5why_does_tobasco_or_products_like_tobasco/ | {
"a_id": [
"dbhj06q",
"dbhlcv8"
],
"score": [
5,
3
],
"text": [
"Spicy things are measured in Scoville heat units or SHUS. When something is spicy to us our body tries to cool the internal heat the only way it knows how, mucus. Much like when hot wings make your nose run, so will Tabasco and water help loosen your sinus. The higher the SHU, the more intense the heat and the more mucus your body will produce. Hope this helped! I tend to use habanero buffalo sauce in my food when I have a bad sinus infection and it'll help drain it all out, or at least loosen it up so I can cough it up. ",
"Question on a similar vein: \n\nFood with heat have capsaicin which activate heat receptors in the mouth.\n\nFood with cold like menthol trigger the cold receptors. \n\nWhat do sharp foods trigger? Ie mustard, wasabi and horseradish. \n\nThey're not exactly hot, and the sensation, which clears the sinus, is quite intense, so it's not just taste/flavor. What is it?"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
394qws | can someone explain how fluid passes through the kidneys? | I'm a bit confused on how the fluid goes to the renal tubules (PCT, DCT, Collecting duct). Because solutes (and water follows) goes to the afferent arterioles and into the glomerulus. This is where I am confused: my book says that filtration is the process of filtering solutes across a membrane, from the glomerular capillaries and into the bowmans/capsular space. Ok due to the layering of the membrane, should fluid be first filtered FROM the capsular space and then into the glomerular capillaries. ok I have no idea what I am saying Im so confused...
anyways What I am confused about is that the fluid is filtered in the glomerular capillaries, right? ok and then it goes out the glomerular capillaries (how? though what membranes), and into the efferent arteriole, from that arteriole into the peritubular capillaries. In my book the peritubular capillaries connect to the cortical radiate vein...where does the PCT, DCT, henle loop, collecting duct reabsorp? Like does the renal tubule connect to the pertibular capillaries? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/394qws/eli5_can_someone_explain_how_fluid_passes_through/ | {
"a_id": [
"cs0cow5"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"You're confusing yourself man. It's much more simple than this. The glomerulus removes all of the cells and proteins from the blood (this includes fats as well since they are bound by protein carriers). The glomerulus contains 2 barriers: fenestrated capillaries and the basement membrane. Cells cannot fit through the fenestrated capillaries and proteins cannot pass through the basement membrane. The remaining stuff is composed of plasma (the fluid component of blood), glucose and salt (sodium, potassium, chloride, etc...), and this is called the ultrafiltrate. \n\nThe PCT utilizes the high concentration of sodium and potassium to reabsorb the glucose into the blood. After this, the various other parts of the nephron (loop of henle, DCT) reabsorb various other salts, but for the most part, you can focus on sodium. The loop of henle reabsorbs water utilizing the flow of sodium ions while the DCT utilizes a high external salt concentration to remove the water. Also keep in mind that many different breakdown products (like drugs, for example) are excreted into the ultrafiltrate by active transport mechanisms. Everything that is left over flows into the collecting duct, which come together and drain into the ureters and eventually drain into the bladder. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
7uwlnf | why we can not see the colour red after we reach a certain depth in the ocean? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7uwlnf/eli5_why_we_can_not_see_the_colour_red_after_we/ | {
"a_id": [
"dtnq436",
"dtnqavi"
],
"score": [
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Does this mean that even a light shined on a red object would not show red?",
"The answer is very simple: because water absorbs the colour red more than it absorbs any other visible light.\n\nWater absorbs light the least a when it is blue. As the colour shifts to ultraviolet, or infrared, water absorbs more and more of the light. In fact, this almost certainly why your eyes are sensitive to \"visible light\" because other colours would have a hard time making it through water.\n\nThe relationship between the colour of light and how it is absorbed by water is shown in [this graph](_URL_0_). Note the vertical axis is a log axis, meaning that from the top to the bottom of the graph is a change of 100 billion fold."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_absorption_by_water#/media/File:Absorption_spectrum_of_liquid_water.png"
]
] |
|
kczf6 | magnus effect | The way it was explained to me when I was a child was that the spinning of a ball would pile up air pressure on one side of the ball causing it to curve.
What I really want to know is why does a ball with a lot of top spin go down and back spin go up? It's a sphere. If the description above is correct, shouldn't they both pile up air pressure the same way?
Why do opposite spins cause different effects? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/kczf6/eli5_magnus_effect/ | {
"a_id": [
"c2j9ykk",
"c2j9ykk"
],
"score": [
4,
4
],
"text": [
"The ball is _travelling through the fluid_ as well. If it's a stationary ball that's spinning, you're correct in that there's no overall force that results because of the spherical symmetry. However, the ball travels through air and pushes air down, in the case of topspin, and creating a lower pressure area underneath, pushing the ball down. In the case of backspin, the air is pushed up above the ball, creating a low pressure area there, thus providing lift for the ball.",
"The ball is _travelling through the fluid_ as well. If it's a stationary ball that's spinning, you're correct in that there's no overall force that results because of the spherical symmetry. However, the ball travels through air and pushes air down, in the case of topspin, and creating a lower pressure area underneath, pushing the ball down. In the case of backspin, the air is pushed up above the ball, creating a low pressure area there, thus providing lift for the ball."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
9xrw4x | f you have an autoimmune disease where the immune system attacks itself, would boosting your immune system (diet, vitamin, supplements) make your symptoms worse? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9xrw4x/eli5f_you_have_an_autoimmune_disease_where_the/ | {
"a_id": [
"e9upqhs",
"e9uqqaf",
"e9urgph"
],
"score": [
2,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"Nope. These would likely to help the immune system restore its reserves to fight infections, which are a mian trigger of autoimmune diseases.",
"Follow-up question: would suppressing your immune system with sleep deprivation and binge drinking improve your symptoms?",
"No. Drugs like steroids actually weaken the immune system but help your body with auto immune disorders like arthritis and eczema. \n\nStronger drugs like methotrexate work better but are even worse for your body (liver).\n\nThe best drugs for the diseases are biologics but they have the absolute WORST track record with your immune system.\n\nLife sucks and we ded."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
8ce92q | why are all bodybuilders too tanned when most don't find this aesthetically pleasing? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8ce92q/eli5why_are_all_bodybuilders_too_tanned_when_most/ | {
"a_id": [
"dxe94qa",
"dxe980e",
"dxemb43",
"dxf7itt"
],
"score": [
16,
77,
7,
2
],
"text": [
"In most cases it is tanning cream applied just before the contest. Apart the oily and shinny look, i suppose it makes a better contrast on the photos to a white skin.",
"Dark/black shows shadows from muscle definition better. White just looks white/less white. If they get it right it will look dark brown in the light and black where the ripples cast a shadow.\n\nBasically the human eye is better at telling the difference between a 15w and 10w light bulb than a 100w and a 95w light bulb. So they use that to their advantage.",
"It's tanning cream for the stage because the lights are bright as fuck and wash the details out.",
"In person it looks rough. Way too dark. Unnatural. On stage, they have lights coming at them from all angles and the darker skin can show the separation between muscles and vascularity much much better. If the same guy was on stage pale white or super tan, the super tan guy would appear much leaner and muscular even if everything else was the same. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
1bw8zc | explain to me why some tvs require such an absurd amount of time to change a channel, whereas others are almost instant. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1bw8zc/explain_to_me_why_some_tvs_require_such_an_absurd/ | {
"a_id": [
"c9ap9h7",
"c9apg89",
"c9ar744",
"c9at49b",
"c9atri4"
],
"score": [
7,
9,
2,
2,
2
],
"text": [
"It might be the cable service. My house had the regular cable and it changed pretty quickly. Once we got a cable box (the one with thousands of channels) that one TV now takes forever to change channels whereas the rest of our TV's still change pretty quickly. ",
"It may be the way the channel is provided by your cable provider. SDV or Switched Digital video Is a service that allows the cable provider to put 1000 channels in a pipe only designed for 100. When you change the channel it calls the cable provider and asks for that channel to be available it then tunes to that channel. ",
"cheaper components , people look at the picture quality and disregard the change time , i agree it should be important but people dont notice so why bother if they can sell the tv at a higher profit by putting in cheaper parts ",
"this happens to my tv, but i only get 10 channels :(",
"Most likely your TV is switching between the formats it displays the picture in. Some pictures are really nice because they have a lot of information in them. In fact these pictures are made up of 1080 lines. Some pictures are really nice... but they 'only' have 720 line in them. A lot of people don't notice the difference, so it seems like the picture from one format is the same as the picture from the other. Your TV notices a difference though, and it has to think a bit when you go from \"only great\" quality at 720 to \"really great\" quality at 1080, or the other way around. It does not have to think when you go from 1080 to 1080, or 720 to 720.\n\nMy TV displays an info bar in the upper left hand that says the format when you change channels. Check your setup menu and you might be able to enable this option on your TV."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
||
4yqoc0 | amber alerts: how does one get to my phone? | I **do not** have a smart phone; rather, I have a $20 phone and a $20/mo plan. I no longer live in the area code that my phone "belongs" to; and I'm pretty sure my phone doesn't actually know where I am geographically.
Nonetheless, I just received an alert, for an abduction 200 miles away.
How was it sorted out that such a message should be sent to MY phone?
It obviously isn't just every phone with a certain area code (for example, 406 covers the entire state of Montana). Did the system send a message to my carrier, who looked up my billing address, and decided I should get it? Is there logic in the towers themselves, such that the -tower- can send a message to every phone connected to it? If so, who decided which towers?
TL;DR: Sending the message is the easy part. Deciding WHO to send it to is the challenge. How'zat work? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4yqoc0/eli5_amber_alerts_how_does_one_get_to_my_phone/ | {
"a_id": [
"d6ppngg",
"d6pptg9"
],
"score": [
6,
10
],
"text": [
" > How was it sorted out that such a message should be sent to MY phone?\n\nYour phone must connect to the nearest cell tower so it is easy to know your phone is within a certain geographic area. Pushing the alert to all phones connected to a set of towers is easy.\n\n > Is there logic in the towers themselves, such that the -tower- can send a message to every phone connected to it? If so, who decided which towers?\n\nAbsolutely there is, and the carriers would provide the geographic coverage information to the alert system so they know what to request the distribution area to be.",
"When instructed all towers in a given area broadcast the alert and every phone in the reception area receives it. They aren't sending the alert to you specifically, it's a mass broadcast that your phone happened to pick up.\n\n > Is there logic in the towers themselves, such that the -tower- can send a message to every phone connected to it?\n\nIt's a little more complicated than that but the towers can send mass broadcasts to all phones nearby, like how a radio station can broadcast area-specific weather/traffic info.\n\n > If so, who decided which towers?\n\nIt depends how the alert system is set up, but basically the police alert the local cell phone operators and they figure out what towers are vaguely near the alert zone and trigger it remotely."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
6bslr1 | whats the feeling of weightlessness you feel before asking an important question? | Like if you ask someone out on a date (which i was horrible at) or what reminded me of it, proposing to my girlfriend (now fiance 😊) | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6bslr1/eli5_whats_the_feeling_of_weightlessness_you_feel/ | {
"a_id": [
"dhp7sai"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"This is your body's 'fight or flight' response. When your body is under stressful conditions, whether it is physical, or emotional, your body reacts by sending blood to the extremities to allow it to either flee from, or fight with, an element. Your body may feel numb, as it is going through this physiological response to stress.\n\nAlso, more anecdotally, when you get really focused or 'in your head' you typically aren't as aware of your body.\n\nIf you feel an acute 'floatyness' that is adrenaline/anxiety response. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
co9c4m | why do some businesses make you call to get prices for their products/services? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/co9c4m/eli5_why_do_some_businesses_make_you_call_to_get/ | {
"a_id": [
"ewgrj1l"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"When I encounter that, it’s usually wholesalers/quantities for mass production. You call in because it’s usually salespeople negotiating prices for multiple lots. There’s no option to order because they’re just dealing with larger clients and for their business model it doesn’t make sense to sell one thing of something."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
fmxg1i | what is a dipole (chemistry)? | Hi I really don't understand this part. It isn't in my Grade 9 syllabus but alot of points in my notes touch on dipole in atoms. Can someone explain it to me using analogies or just simple words?
For example, heres an extract from my notes:
1. Most ionic compounds are soluble due to favourable ion-dipole interactions
1. water separates positive ions from negative ions, causing them to dissolve | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/fmxg1i/eli5_what_is_a_dipole_chemistry/ | {
"a_id": [
"fl6japg"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"Every atom in a molecule has an electronegativity. The electrons between two atoms are nearer to the atom with the higher electronegativity. If every electron in a molecule go in the same direction, there are two magnetic poles, because of the negative charge of them. Thats a dipole. I wouldn't be a dipole if as example the electrons all go to one atom. (Sorry for bad english)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
1q1bse | i just got a new job, and won't be offered benefits for 3 months. how will aca affect me, if at all? | I've heard about being penalized for not having health insurance. When would that kick in? My employer doesn't provide insurance until I've been here 3 months. Will this automatically cause me to have to pay a fine? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1q1bse/eli5_i_just_got_a_new_job_and_wont_be_offered/ | {
"a_id": [
"cd85fyl",
"cd85kkn"
],
"score": [
4,
2
],
"text": [
"It's baked into the law already. They can require up to a 90-day introductory period before they start providing benefits and during that period you're considered covered by an eligible plan (assuming you're going to be eligible once the 90 days hits). You would only (possibly) be responsible for a fine if you decline employer coverage.",
"You're fine. Nothing to worry about. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
1pp5ql | why animals can only hear within certain frequencies. | Sound is essentially compression waves, no matter what type of sound it may be right? If that's the case, shouldn't all frequencies cause the hearing apparatus (whether its cilia or some type of membrane) of living things to vibrate (and consequently, allow us to hear sound)? I assume that our eardrums are actually vibrating but that the nerves do not activate an action potential unless the vibrations are of certain frequency. If that's the case, what would the evolutionary advantage of limiting our range of hearing be? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1pp5ql/eli5_why_animals_can_only_hear_within_certain/ | {
"a_id": [
"cd4kzxo"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Our eardrums vibrate - but that's not how our brain senses sound. The eardrum only transfers the sound from the outer ear to the inner ear.\n\nWithin the inner ear is the cochlea, the part that actually senses the sound. The cochlea is filled with a fluid, and the sound is transferred into this fluid.\n\nAlong the inside edge of the cochlea are many, many tiny hairs called stereocilia. Each of these is a different length, and each is capable of vibrating a particular frequency - the frequency depends on its length.\n\nIf the fluid in the cochlea is vibrating the appropriate frequency, this causes the appropriate stereocilia to also vibrate - and they turn this vibration into an electrical signal which goes to the brain.\n\nThe thing is, there is only a finite amount of room in the cochlea for a limited number of stereocilia - and this is what limits the frequency range we can hear."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
|
f6afi8 | why can't wind turbine blades be recycled? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/f6afi8/eli5_why_cant_wind_turbine_blades_be_recycled/ | {
"a_id": [
"fi3h139",
"fi3h2oq",
"fi3i832",
"fi3vzd1",
"fi3w0a1"
],
"score": [
29,
2,
4,
3,
4
],
"text": [
"Because they are made from composite materials. That means they put layers of a a cloth like material made from glass fibers into a mold, and glue them together with epoxy resin.\n\nThe reason you can't recycle that is that the process that hardens epoxy is an irreversible chemical reaction. So unlike regular plastic or metal, you can't just melt it down and reuse it.",
"I have no answer, but do you mean repurposed, reused, or recycled as in broken down and remade?",
"They’re made of thermoset plastic, which from what I understand, means it’s more along the lines of a composite material, or two things that are put together and cooked in an oven.",
"It's because there does not exist a process with which to do it economically or environmentally. The blades are principally fiberglass, and newer, larger blades are carbon fiber. It's far cheaper to make these materials from new than it is to try to reclaim them, and no process exists to break these materials down. You can incinerate them, but they have almost no net positive caloric value, meaning you're effectively not producing energy by burning them, and now you have a pile of ash that is itself worthless and destined for the landfill. You've reduced the volume but not the mass.",
"Wind turbine blades CAN be recycled however it hasn't been cost-effective so far due to low number of blades to be recycled. What's more, the technology of fiber-glass blades recycling is still developed and improved since it's a relatively new problem for our world. In US there is a company that recycles blades - Global Fiberglass Solution. [_URL_0_](_URL_0_)"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[],
[],
[
"https://www.globalfiberglassinc.com/"
]
] |
||
42ouj6 | why does your appetite basically become non existent when you get cancer? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/42ouj6/eli5_why_does_your_appetite_basically_become_non/ | {
"a_id": [
"czbxqrh",
"czby0fh"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"It depends on the type of cancer, and where it's located, but it's entirely possible that you don't lose your appetite.\n\nChemotherapy, on the other hand, is a poison that makes you feel so cruddy that you don't want to eat. In some cases, the treatment is almost worse than the disease in terms of raw suffering.",
"Cancer drugs/therapies can fuck with your digestive system which could cause a loss of appetite. They also can leave you feeling so tired that you don't feel like you have the energy to eat. Pain can also be a factor."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
ch2m9u | why do containers such as wine and beer bottles do the whole “glug glug glug” thing when being emptied? | Every time there’s a full bottle (which typically seem to be glass in this case) being emptied out, they make that “glug glug glug” sound and you can feel it too. Why doesn’t it just pour straight out? Does it have to do with the rate of liquid and the size of the opening? Maybe I’m searching for a more complex answer that isn’t really available - just is what it is. Can anyone help? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ch2m9u/eli5_why_do_containers_such_as_wine_and_beer/ | {
"a_id": [
"euo6xcz",
"euo7gco",
"euo87sk"
],
"score": [
9,
2,
3
],
"text": [
"Air displacement. When pouring a bottle upside down or covering the entire seal as it empties it creates a vacuum. The positive pressure from outside moves to the low pressure inside the bottle.",
"I'm assuming it's because of the air. Have you ever noticed something's such as coffee cups have a small hole, not only its it for steam but it allows air flow so that you can sip it. Where as if you tried to do that with a bottle, you would create a vacuum affect. So when you try to pour it the air gets trapped at the back of the bottle and prevents it from pouring gradually. When you pour it horizontally, the air flow allows it to pour with out gluging",
"The glug happens as air enters the bottle. Basically if you tried to pull the liquid out without replacing it with something else, there would be a vacuum that would try to pull the liquid back. Since there is air surrounding the bottle and the liquid is much heavier and thicker than the air, the liquid wants to fall and the vacuum wants something to replace it. The air forces itself into the bottle to fill the vacuum but the thickness of the liquid prevents a constant flow. This causes bubbles of air to enter. The bubble pushes the liquid out of its way as it moves up the bottle and the liquid races to fill the empty space behind it. The liquid slamming into itself and the bottle creates a pressure wave that can be felt and heard as sound."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
2gl9vs | why does it hurt significantly more standing on a 10 min bus ride, over walking for 20 minutes when commuting? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gl9vs/eli5_why_does_it_hurt_significantly_more_standing/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckk65rg",
"ckk675z"
],
"score": [
8,
3
],
"text": [
"Standing tends to strain the same muscles over a long period of time. Walking spreads the load over several sets of muscles, so that while you're technically expending more energy no one set of muscles have to bear the load for the entire period.",
"Static postures cause lots of things to occur - but mostly it almost always results in circulation issues to some part of you. When you hear about \"sitting disease\" and the effect of sitting at your desk on your general health, much of that would also apply if you just stood still for the same amount of time. It's not the sitting exactly, it's the being stuck in a static posture."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
2i40bc | how does groups like vice, get interviews with high profile criminals? | How do they manage to arrange meetings that are video taped with criminals around the world? Why do they even agree to be filmed?
| explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2i40bc/eli5_how_does_groups_like_vice_get_interviews/ | {
"a_id": [
"ckyllaa",
"ckyp7ex",
"ckyy3hb"
],
"score": [
5,
22,
14
],
"text": [
"Lots of bribes. Though I would also think that since much of the VICE reporting is as close to neutral as you'll see these days, those criminals perhaps give them a bit more credit.",
"I'd imagine a lot of it comes down to vanity.\nThese high profile criminals want power and control, they want to feel important, if you've got a journalist willing to hear them talk about their activities and how great they are, why the hell not I guess.",
"The most reputable media companies such as the NY Times, Washington Post, ABC and NBC news, etc. have a strict policy against paying for access for interviews. I have a feeling -- though I can't prove it --VICE does not have such rigid policies in place.\n\nThese criminal cartels/despotic officials have a hierarchy, and the right people were probably 'taken care of' to even get their request for an interview to the right ears. Maybe its cash, maybe its favors, maybe its for a favorable story, but I'm going to go with cash -- USD and plenty of it. Your old guard, traditional fourth estate journalists typically aren't willing to do this. You know, ethics or something like that.\n\n**TL;DR I can't prove it, but I have a feeling VICE pays for access to their subjects.** "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[],
[]
] |
|
36udp3 | why can't humans become immune to poisoning from undercooked foods, if animals can by puking bacteria into the mouths of their young? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/36udp3/eli5_why_cant_humans_become_immune_to_poisoning/ | {
"a_id": [
"crh5y6j"
],
"score": [
3
],
"text": [
"Animals die from infections due to poisonous or decaying food all the time. \n\nWolf puppies nurse until they are old enough to eat solid food then they brought food until they are old enough to follow the pack while it hunts, then they will eventually start hunting with it. During the phase that food is brought to them it is most often dragged or carried but if it is too large a kill then the mother or other in the pack will regurgitate some of what they eat for the pups. This is not always done and it is not done for the purpose of inoculating the pups as you suggest. It actually does almost nothing to inoculate the pups, what immune boosts they get from the mother is from nursing not from eating vomited food. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[]
] |
||
3fejgc | why do goods seem to be much more expensive than they were 100 years ago? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fejgc/eli5_why_do_goods_seem_to_be_much_more_expensive/ | {
"a_id": [
"ctnvb2r",
"ctnykyp",
"cto0w0c"
],
"score": [
25,
14,
3
],
"text": [
"Because of inflation probably? \n \nIn the U.S., $1 in 1915 has the same buying power as $23.63 today. Inversely, $1 today has the same buying power of less than 5¢ in 1915.",
"They weren't actually. Adjusted for inflation, most basic items were [pretty darn expensive](_URL_0_).",
"They're not. The value of our currency is just inflated.\n\nConsumer goods are much, much cheaper than they have ever been before."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[
"http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2015/01/02/a-glimpse-at-your-expenses-100-years-ago"
],
[]
] |
||
1ymkx6 | what is all of this stuff happening with netflix and fcc and everything to do with isp's? | I'd like someone to take the time to explain what exactly is happening; and preferably, with citation. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1ymkx6/eli5_what_is_all_of_this_stuff_happening_with/ | {
"a_id": [
"cflutom"
],
"score": [
5
],
"text": [
"The FCC had been pushing for \"net neutrality\" which meant ISP's had to treat all data the same. Recently the Appeals court shot down net neutrality so now ISP's are free to do as they please. \n_URL_0_\n\nNow why would the ISP's purposefully degrade their service to sites such as Netflix and Youtube? Well most ISP's are also cable companies and they have their own video service to push(and even the ones without their own cable service tend to have an invested interest in their own streaming service)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/14/5307650/federal-court-strikes-down-net-neutrality-rules"
]
] |
|
j3bbq | why television production companies don't want me to watch their shows because i'm in a foreign country? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/j3bbq/eli5_why_television_production_companies_dont/ | {
"a_id": [
"c28s0sz",
"c28s152",
"c28s4ff",
"c28s5ep",
"c28s6rc"
],
"score": [
4,
4,
3,
3,
2
],
"text": [
"I'm thinking you are referring to streaming websites like Hulu. If that is the case, Hulu pays networks for licensing rights. The rights are negotiated to include how many shows will be available, how soon after they air, how much of the back catalog will be available, on what devices shows will be available (many Hulu Plus shows are not available anywhere else but on a computer), how often the shows remain on Hulu, and in what countries the shows can be streamed. Hulu cannot afford the licensing rights to stream outside of the US.\n\n[Here](_URL_0_) is Hulu's official stance:\n > For now, Hulu is a U.S. service only. That said, our intention is to make Hulu's growing content lineup available worldwide. This requires clearing the rights for each show or film in each specific geography and will take time. We're encouraged by how many content providers have already been working along these lines so that their programs can be available over the Internet to a much larger, global audience. The Hulu team is committed to making great programming available across the globe.",
"Because it costs money to stream that show to you, they recoup that expense by showing commercials/advertisements. Advertising is a very intense industry - they don't just throw their money around willy-nilly, they target very specific markets to get the results they seek.\n\nAdvertisers aren't willing to pay for ads for people not in their target market and production companies aren't willing to stream shows without the advertisers.",
"Companies which make the TV show sign distribution licenses on a country-by-country basis. So they might sell someone like Hulu the rights to show \"House\" online in the US, and someone completely different the rights to show \"House\" online in Australia. And the guy who has rights to show \"House\" on TV in Australia is going to have a say about online showings in Australia as well.",
"Production companies (We make television) sell their product to distribution companies (We sell the shows). The distribution companies sell them to television station (We show the show.) \n\nThe problem becomes that the television station and the distribution companies sign a contact that say ether other station can show (Non exclusive) the show (Think of \"Friends\") or no other station can show the show (Think new episodes of \"Breaking Bad\") for a certain number of years in a specific country. So if I a television station buy the rights to show \"Breaking Bad\" in the USA and I but it online that legal to show the USA people. But if I then show it to someone in say Canada then I am breaking my contract. \n\nIt is not a bandwidth issue. Many television station would love to have a bigger audience. It is a legal issue from the distribution company. Television station make more money showing it on TV so in some countries they may not even put it online cause they don't make money for it.",
"Like you're actually five:\n\nInstead of paying for streaming television, we watch advertisements. The people who make these advertisements want only certain people to watch them, because it doesn't make any sense to show things to people that they can't or wouldn't actually buy.\n\nPeople in different countries don't have the same things in the stores as us, so because they can't watch the same advertising, it's like they can't pay for the show."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.hulu.com/support/content_faq"
],
[],
[],
[],
[]
] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.