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pvac8 | what would happen if the u.s attacked iran? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/pvac8/eli5_what_would_happen_if_the_us_attacked_iran/ | {
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"The USA has more toys and would \"win\" open combat. However the Iranians have something the America soldiers do not- the passion of playing on your own turf. I would predict another Iraqi freedom style debacle with USA wasting money and lives for a cause not worth dying for. Iran does have mountains big enough to hide partisan forces. Sorry if this isn't what you wanted, it is only my prediction.",
"It's probably a political impossibility, and the toll on the U.S. economy would be disastrous. To the west is Iraq and to the east is Afghanistan, both ostensibly allies of the U.S. but who could not supply much in the way of military support and would be deeply opposed to further invasions. Nato might well buckle under pressure to intervene, especially considering Iran's future nuclear capabilities. An invasion is practically impossible, but an Israeli launched precision strike against nuclear facilities would allow the U.S. to have plausible deniability, as the Israelis have done before. Arab unrest is very high right now, the short term implications are bad, and long term they are even worse. Even the most limited air attack would have terrible repercussions for relations between the U.S. and the Arab world for decades. Sorry if this isn't simple enough, but here's a tldr:\n\nThe U.S. would be screwed economically and politically for years, Iran would be easily dismantled, and the world would be worse off for it.",
"The muslim world would become more galvanized against the west, oil prices would rise because the persian gulf would be a war zone making transport of oil from that region more expensive, a lot of warmongers and business men would get richer, a lot of soldiers would die, several orders of magnitude more civilians would die, the U.S. economy would fall further into debt and recession, non nuclear countries would redouble their efforts to become nuclear as that has been the only proven deterrent to american aggression, china would further strengthen its position as the dominant world force as america declines, leaving everyone to wonder if russia and china would ever go to war or unite under a quasi communist/socialist association. \n\nThe ironic thing is that unlike its government, the people of Iran are fairly modern and open minded. So destabilizing the Iranian government could in the longterm speed up democratic reforms in the region as Iran has sway in several other countries, such as syria. But if that was the real goal, then the U.S. should invade Saudi Arabia instead, but that won't happen because they sell oil to the U.S. at prices we can live with. They keep us happy enough to overlook the oppressive theocratic saudi despotism. ",
"What about Iran's allies, Russia and China? An attack on Iran seems like something that could ignite a world wide conflict that the U.S. couldn't handle from an economical stand point. It's a scary thought and a can of worms that I hope is left on the shelf.",
"People would die.",
"This is tough to do with respect to the rules on the right, especially the \"no bias\" and \"no blatant speculation\" rules. The fact is that no one really knows what the consequences would be.\n\nThis is what we do know though. First of all, both Bush and Obama have encouraged a peaceful resolution, they understand that the American people do not want another war. This is an incredibly complex situation with lots of players on different sides. China wants Iran around for access to cheap oil, Saudi Arabia isn't on good terms for religious reasons, a large number of the people of Iran are dissatisfied with the dictatorship of the country, Israel sees Iran as its largest threat, etc. The conflict could get messy quickly if these other players stat stepping in.\n\nWhat would the war itself look like? It is unlikely that we would see the United States spearheading a regime change as in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan. They're just too costly and create enormous instabilities which take years to resolve. Most likely war would result in an indirect Desert Storm style operation where the aim is destroy the Iranian nuclear program, all key infrastructure contributing to the program, and Iranian retaliatory capabilities. This is the most \"cost-effective\" choice, but it may result in another operation at a later date to \"finish the job\". In any case, on-ground operations would be relatively limited--the US military is going to stick to its strengths.\n\nIran's advantage lies in expanding the conflict, which is a big problem. If there isn't any regime change, it's easy for Iran to call upon its allies to create trouble abroad. Asymmetric attacks on Israel, Saudi oil wells, etc. can be incredibly damaging even after the war is 'over'. Best-case scenario for the US: Indirect strikes from a collation of governments inspire population to initiate a revolution (similar to Libya's) who overthrow the existing regime and institue one not interested in pursuing nuclear capabilities.\n\n[This article is great](_URL_0_) if you're interesting in learning more.",
"let’s not forget a few key facts about Iran.\n1) Iran is huge. Bigger than Alaska with mountains as big. Multiple climates: mountains, deserts and jungles. The caspian sea is 3300 feet deep on the Iranian end: the biggest inland body of water in the world.\n2) Iran has nearly a million man standing army. That’s one million young men, well trained and armed, ready to die defending their country. They are sporting cutting edge weaponry and gear, not a bunch of ragheads waving kalishnakovs. The even better news is that Iran also has a national militia that can be called up in a matter of days numbering 11 million men and women. This is a real paramilitary militia already trained and armed.\n3)Iran makes all its missiles, tanks, planes etc. in country. They don’t rely on any other country to provide them with armaments.\n4) Iran has some serious allies, I don’t need to name names.",
"We would not declare war, and instead draw out the process for dozens of years, killing thousands of people, getting next to nothing in return.",
"This is a difficult question to answer because there are so many ways to interpret \"attack.\"\n\nOn the one hand, we've most likely \"attacked\" Iran several times already. When Ahmadi Roshan was assassinated by an Iranian terrorist group, [Iran pointed the finger at Israeli training of that group.](_URL_4_) The US pointed out that the group (the MEK, or People's Mujahedin of Iran) have been on their watch list since [killing a bunch of Americans in the '70s](_URL_6_). This, however, is [controversial.](_URL_7_) When a computer virus destroyed centrifuges at an Iranian reactor facility and fingers were pointed at the US and Israel, by contrast, no such distancing happened.\n\nOn the other hand, the United States and Iran have a long history [naval standoffs](_URL_1_) in which [much blood has been shed.](_URL_3_) The United States and Iran also have a long history of public bluster and private accord, as evidenced by the Iran Contra Scandal, the [Iran Hostage Crisis](_URL_0_), and countless smaller events. In many ways, we're each others' favorite bogeymen. Open war would be uncharacteristic of both parties, the US because tactical strikes, no-fly-zones and one-off aerial missions are more our style, the Iranians because they haven't fought a war of aggression since [The Sassanid Empire](_URL_8_) fell to the Arab Conquest in the 7th century. \n\nSo if by \"attack\" you mean \"go to war with\" it would be really hard for anyone to predict - the last time we declared war was in WWII and the last time the Iranians declared war was when Iraq invaded back in the '80s. If by \"attack\" you mean \"cause death within\" we've been doing that relatively non-stop since [1953.](_URL_5_)\n\nI recognize that this isn't quite the answer you're looking for and lacks the simplicity that this subreddit favors. However, our relationship with iran is [not at all simple.](_URL_2_)",
"SHIT WOULD GET REAL BAD. FOR EVERYONE. \n\nthat good enough for a 5 year old?",
"also iran has female ninjas \n\n_URL_0_",
"Liberals would get angry. Republicans would find a way to get rich. Middle Class would put Support our Troops stickers on their cars. A lot of innocent Iranians would die. A few soldiers would die for no good reason. ",
"It really depends on the circumstances, and what the attack was (ie, just bombing, or full ground war)\n\nThe Arab nations, especially Saudi Arabia, do not like Iran or the influence it has. They would support, in private, the destruction of Iranian nuclear capability. However, invading Iran would push many of the Arab citizens against the US, who would see it as the Americans invading another Muslim country. And the Iranian people themselves would rally behind their government, which is the last thing we want them to do. Plus, a ground war in Iran would make Iraq look like child's play. Their expansive, mountainous terrain, modern technology, and hardcore zealots with plenty of terrorist/insurgent know-how, would make the war a nightmare. Sure, we could knock out the government fairly easily, but as Iraq and Afghanistan have proven, that's only the beginning of the battle for the real objective, the people.\n\nAn air strike limited to their nuclear capability would have the benefit of setting them back at least a year, and avoiding the loss of potential allies in the Iranian people. However, it would still look the US bullying Muslims again, although the people that feel that way probably don't like us anyway. It would be better for Israel to do it, with our tacit approval and covert aid. Plausible deniability.\n\nIMO, the best course of action is to run a containment regimen, similar to what we did with the Soviets. Establish a NATO-like alliance amongst the Arab states, and Turkey, bringing them all under the protection of our nuclear umbrella. Place a small American contigent in various places like Jordan, in the kill zone of any nuclear strike. This works as a tripwire. We did this with the Berlin Brigade in the Cold War. Essentially, if the Iranians strike, they know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they will kill American soldiers, and we would have no choice but to go to war with them. This creates a strong deterrent, since they know we can't try to back out of our commitments to our allies. Continue with the strong sanctions to isolate Iran from the globalized economy. Since the people are modern and have access to the internet, they would know what they were missing. Some might blame us, but many that don't really like the theocratic regime anyway would blame their government's hardline policies. Here, we exploit this by covert action programs to beef up Iranian opposition groups. And then we wait. As George Kennan put it when speaking about the Soviets, the nature of their system itself is doomed to failure. Given time, the system will hang itself.",
"our economy would get even worse, that's for sure.",
"In the case of an attack on Iran:\n\n1. The price of oil skyrockets when Iran closes the straits of Hormuz for a while\n\n2. US bases in the region will be bombed\n\n3. Iran itself will be bombed to hell\n\n4. Israel will be bombed to hell\n\n5. Lebanon will be bombed to hell\n\n6. Gaza will be bombed to hell (again)\n\nI doubt that any one country is crazy enough to launch a ground invasion of Iran. Because of that, the US has little or no control over \"regime change,\" and the price of that attack would be exorbitant.\n\nIn short, the US will never attack Iran.\n\n",
"Shit will get real son. ",
"Remember when that reactor like looking building in Syria that got bombed by Israel in 2008? Syria couldn't shut up about it harder if it tried to. Which it did. ",
"World outrage. People think Iran, and they think \"third world country\", they aren't. The people there are modern, drive modern cars, use the internet just like the rest of us. They are under a regime that has strictly regulated everything, just like china. Their Regime is responsible for their image, not the people. Iran has Christians, Jews, as well as Muslims. They have churches, synagogues, and mosques. A **LOT** of people regard Iranians as turban/Burqa wearing terrorists, when in fact, most people could care less.",
"Well an invasion and regieme change are off the table, as the American public wouldn't tolerate it after Iraq and Afghanistan. What might happen is a bombing of the reactor near Qom and other sites. The first country to do it would be Israel, and in fact the U.S. are trying to keep them from doing this.\n\nIt would strengthen the Republican guard and hardline elements of the regieme, and make democracy even more difficult for Iranian activists. Iran would try to blockade the Straight of Homuz, but they're easily outclassed by the U.S., and might even back down like Saddam did from Israel when they bombed his reactors. Since it would almost certainly not have U.N resolution approval, the U.S. would be chastised in the general assembly, and promptly ignore it. Most importantly, it would drive nuclear weapons production further underground both in Iran and elsewhere.",
"Do you think our economy is shit now? Double how poor it is and you pretty much have it.",
"There are very few unbiased explanations here.",
"the political ramifications of such an attack are peculiar; politically speaking, there's no reason for us to attack iran. they have solid allies in russia and china and attacking them would cause international outrage, unless they did something absolutely heinous which they won't because nejad is more astute than that\n\non a purely military scope, it would be interesting. even when you consider how dated their technology is compared to ours, and all the superiority of our stealth aircraft and whatnot, history has shown that a dedicated force can still overcome those handicaps.\n\nthere was [an american stealth aircraft](_URL_0_) shot down in combat over yugoslavia. it was assailed by an sa-3, which were first built in 1963. the radar operator knew where to look and had a specific and unusual radar technique to spot the aircraft, and he did so.\n\nso while our technology is unmistakably superior to the 30+ year old hand-me-down russian hardware iran is using, the thing about military technology is that \"fifth generation fighters\" aren't immune to last year's model, they are only slightly better and offer their pilot slightly higher chances of not dying. planes don't have \"armor\" or \"shields,\" (unless you make an exception for the a-10 which is basically a flying steel sled with a giant minigin slung under it) they're not built to withstand hits from guns or missiles. they have countermeasures and pilot training to try to avoid contact, but that's all just sort of a best-effort, please-don't-let-me-die kind of thing\n\nsame deal with ground stuff, soldier training, naval vessels, everything. all the king's horses to make our people harder to kill, but you're still not going to stop someone from doing so if they're dead-set on it, no matter what piece of hardware we're riding.",
"Just a couple of points:\n\n-If the US engages there won't be any revolution like in the Arab spring. Iranians are very proud and react very allergic to outside influence.\n\n-Iran has the best non-US supported Army in the region. They are trained well, motivated, paid well and equipped sufficiently.\n\n-Iran has been very active in Iraq and Afghanistan. They know the weak points of the US very well.\n\n-It's suspected that Iran has a vast international web of sleeper agents. Especially in the US and UK. \n\n-Iran has a lot of experience in dealing with terror cells.\n\n-The strait of hormuz is extremely important for all of the western countries. And even RPGs can severely hinder traffic there. \n\n-Iran is very homogenous. Iraq has the kurds, the shiites and the sunnis. Afghanistan has different tribes, alliances and even languages. Iran on the other hand has very little internal conflict.\n\n-The western states have been extremely successful when it comes to covert operations against Iran.\n\n-In case of a war Iran can mobilize a militia of 11 million men.\n\nTo sum it up the US can't risk a full-fledged war. The risk for the strait of hormuz(40% of all oil shipments go through there) is too high. So is the risk of an asymmetrical war against a country that's already desperate and feels cornered by Turkey and the US. An Israeli airstrike is most likely although only the US can set back their nuclear ambitions significantly.",
"Canada would become very rich. "
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_U.S.%E2%80%93Iranian_naval_dispute",
"http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/bryan2.html",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655",
"http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-s-mossad-trained-assassins-of-iran-nuclear-scientists-report-says-1.411945",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d'%C3%A9tat#Execution_of_Operation_Ajax",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Mujahedin_of_Iran#Anti-American_Campaign",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Iran#MEK_support",
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine%E2%80%93Sassanid_War_of_602%E2%80%93628"
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czdth1 | how do strong hurricane winds actually tear down homes like we saw in the bahamas? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/czdth1/eli5_how_do_strong_hurricane_winds_actually_tear/ | {
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"The force of the wind and objects hitting the home surpass the structural limitations of the building. Buildings may also become compromised by erosion and flooding.",
"Wind snaps a palm tree, accelerates it to 100 MPH, and runs it into an unreinforced masonry home. This knocks bricks and timbers into the air, where they are accelerated and slammed into the next house. In a chain reaction, the houses become giant abrasives in a sand-blasting circle.",
"You don't necessarily need huge wind forces that simply blow over a building. The wind blowing horizontally over a pitched roof can create aerodynamic lift, like an aircraft wing, that literally sucks the roof into the air. If the wind can get inside too, the internal overpressure adds to that force. Once the roof has gone, much of the structural integrity has gone too.",
"Well let's tackle the first part:. How massive is air. I'm tackling these from memory, and not being to precise.\n\nOne cubic meter of air has a mass of about 1 kg. So it's not quite a as light as you think.\n\nMy next tool to start getting a handle on how things work isn't forces, as those can vary wildly based on angles, exposed area, etc. I use energy to get started.\n\nSo the kinetic energy of that cubic meter is roughly 2000 J with 100 mph winds. That's roughly the energy in a bullet fired from a rifle. At nearly 200 mph with more major storms that's 8000 J, or twice the energy released by a shotgun. And this is hitting the house constantly. For every square meter of the structure.\n\nIf it's spread evenly the materials can handle this assault just fine. But if it comes in focused on a particular spot, the force gets magnified (were talking pressure laws here) and the structure can fail at that point. This then exacerbates the problem as a structural flaw will funnel wind into that spot ( reducing area, this increasing the force) and weaken adjoining areas."
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4isank | can you catch germs through your eyeballs? | People wear face masks so they don't breathe in germy air, but can germs get into your eyes through the air as well? If someone coughs and you feel the cough hit your eyes, could you get sick that way? I know it may sound odd but I always wonder. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4isank/eli5_can_you_catch_germs_through_your_eyeballs/ | {
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"Well, 'through your eyeballs' itself maybe not. But there are mucous membranes around your eyes, and they can certainly be a pathway for infection.",
"Absolutely. How do you think Pink Eye works? ",
"Yes, your membrane around your eye is super thin. That's why any infections that involve the eye is taken seriously because it can get to your cornea very easily making the problem a lot worse. ",
"You can get germs anywhere. Most of them stay on the outside of your body, or in your GI tract which still kind of counts as 'outside' the body since it's not in your bloodstream. \n\nYou can get an infection in your eye though and if not treated, it could get into the blood stream through the many capillaries in your eyes and eyelids. \n\nDrugs can be absorbed through the eye though similar to how they work through the tongue. Anywhere there are blood vessels close to the skin you can absorb chemicals into the blood stream, but infectious agents are too big to just be absorbed like that. They have to break the door down to get in. "
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1o8ehx | what does it mean in betting to cover a spread? | and why is everyone freaking out about the Broncos vs Jaguars spread | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1o8ehx/eli5what_does_it_mean_in_betting_to_cover_a_spread/ | {
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"One team is usually favored to win, the amount of points they are expected to win by is the spread. covering the spread is scoring enough points to beat the spread. If team A is expected to beat team B by 10 points, and the final score is 10-3 A wins. B may have lost the game but they covered the spread because they didn't lose by more than 10. Conversely A won but failed to cover because they didn't win by more than 10",
"Broncos and Jaguars are a good example for this. The Broncos are really good, and the Jaguars are not good. So, it's very very likely that the Broncos will win. So there's not much point for someone taking the bets to base it on who will win, because then everyone will just bet on the Broncos and they'll all win and the person taking the bets will lose a lot of money.\n\nSo instead, what people bet on is the spread. It's not enough for the Broncos to win for a bet on them to be a winning bet; they have to win by a certain number of points for a Broncos bet to win. So if the spread is 28 points, as a quick google search indicates, and the Broncos win by only 3 points, then someone who bet on the Jaguars will actually win.\n\nPeople are freaking out because it's a historically large spread. There aren't many games that are won by that margin (although the Broncos did have two wins last season with a 28+ point margin of victory)."
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5ach33 | why are trans-continental cables needed to transmit data when so much can be done via satellite? | I understand that a hardwire connection is faster but with the amount of information that is able to be transmitted via satellite is there still a need for these cables? When will technology reach a point where these cables are no longer needed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5ach33/eli5_why_are_transcontinental_cables_needed_to/ | {
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"Cables are **much, much** shorter. Geosynchronous orbit is 36K km each way. The circumference of the Earth at its widest point in 40K km. In most places the optical cable signal can circle the Earth twice in the satcom one way latency. The goal of most communications is \"fast\", and satellites are not fast.",
"Satellites are quite expensive to design, build and operate. For geostationary satellites there is also quite a bit of signal delay due to the distances. And with satellites you only have a limited number of frequencies you can use. There is two main frequency bands allocated for communications satellites but you can use any frequency you like on fiber optic cables. It is true that the same frequency can be used on different satellites due to directional antennas but they are only so good so you can not use the same frequencies on close satellites. The total bandwidth available for the entire communications satellite fleet is limited by this. And it is lower then the available bandwidth over a single multistranded fiber optic cable as used in subsea cables.\n\nSo satellites are expensive, have a very high latency and low bandwidth. The only advantages they have is availability and broadcast ability.",
"Rear Admiral Grace Hopper used to carry around a length of fiber-optic cable that was 1ns in length that light can travel to explain to other members of government that there is a fixed length that light can travel in a given distance. The distance to satellites being so much greater would've meant a bottleneck for data transfer to satellites. Finally the last point was that wired communications were secure against over the air reception by unintended parties. In the end a combination of servicing, scalability, cost and reliability came to be why we laid cable in the oceans. Additionally the understanding and industry was already there as we had done the mapping to lay telegraph cables, which needed replacing as over the course of 2 world wars these had been intentionally and unintentionally damaged.",
"Stock-market trading is about finding inefficiencies. That's all handled by algorithms, and for those competing algorithms, [milliseconds matter](_URL_0_). So much so that new lines were laid that improved the connection by [just 5 milliseconds](_URL_1_).",
"The distances involved are too big and the speed of light is only so fast. You'd end up having massive ping / delay / lag with satelites and there's no way around that. Stuff like online gaming, split second trading or auctions become impossible. The second problem would be handling the massive amounts of data through satellites. We would need a lot more and way more advanced ones in space much easier to just put cables in the ocean. Much cheaper and low tech and produces much better results here on earth."
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14qbk3 | why do i get cold-like symptoms in the mornings | Almost every morning, I wake up feeling like I have a full-on cold. This includes a runny nose, headache, sneezing, etc. By midday, though, they're all gone. What's happening to me? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/14qbk3/eli5_why_do_i_get_coldlike_symptoms_in_the/ | {
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"Do you smoke?",
"Yeah, I wish someone would explain this too. When I was young never had a problem. Now, when I wake up I usually have to blow my nose a couple of times to drain my sinuses. No headaches or dizzy spells just my nose being stuffy. After about an hour though, im fine.. I don't smoke either and never had bad problems with allergies. ",
"Maybe you are allergic to something in your environment? Dust, mold, etc.? Could be something as simple as washing your bedding with a different detergent, or maybe you need to run a humidifier at night.",
"Most likely you are allergic to either a pet or dust mites. It is easiest to rule out, so start with this.\n\nPet: Your pet sleeps on your bed. It's dander/hair is on your pillow/sheets. In your sleep you breathe in this stuff all night long. Your body reacts with cold-like symptoms.\n\nDust mites: You sleep in your bed, dust mites and dead skin fall off, you breathe them in all night long. Same reaction\n\n\nFix: Ban pets from the bedroom, wash your sheets and dry them properly. Double up your pillow cases, washing the outside one every time you do laundry and the inside one every other time. Vacuum, dust, and clean your pillows (beat them outside, tumble dry on low, or whatever setting they indicate). \n\nIf you still get these symptoms after two weeks, you should see a doctor about A) chronic sinus infection (laying down exasperates it, standing/sitting up drains and relieves pressure) or B) sleep apnea.\n\nSolutions provided in order of likelyhood and cost effectiveness.\n\nSource: Allergic to cats, dust mites, trees, and grass. Been there, done that.",
"Allergies! I get them worse in the winter when the heaters are going, blowing dust and everything around. If you have forced air heating in your house you can always call someone out to clean the ducts out. ",
"Black mold in your walls?\n\nEdit: Not sure why someone would downvote. My friend woke up everyday hacking up a lung and eventually found black mold in the ceiling of his bedroom.",
"[Vasomotor Rhinitis] (_URL_0_)\n\nI get it sometimes and I am told it can be irritation based on something as simple as getting up too quickly when you wake up. Relax for a moment when you wake up and get up slowly. ",
"Maybe you're pregnant. ",
"I had the same problem. In fact, at any given moment, if anything brushes by my nose (for instance, while holding a pen, it accidentally touches my nose), I would sneeze like crazy. My doctor told me its just allergies and that every single part of my nostril is on high alert making it really sensitive. I took Claritin (allergy medication OTC) and it went away. I also noticed that one Claritin helped ease the problem for at least 3 days. But that could just be me.",
"I had this for years, turns out I am allergic to something in antiperspirant. (Deodorant is fine.)",
"If it's allergies, taking a benadryll before you go to bed might help you sleep better. If that works well, maybe you could clean up your environment.\n\nalso, watch feather pillows, switch to hypoallergenic ones and throw them away every so often.\n",
"It's nice to know I am not the only one this happens too. I's say at least once or twice a month. And my ex-wife was such a nervous nelly about being around people that are sick so it was always hard to convince I know will go away. \n\nEdit: I do not have allergies. ",
"Hi, speech and swallow therapist. Have you considered that you may have gastroesophageal reflux disorder (aka GERD). It's basically acid reflux. Many/most people don't experience symptoms during the day, so they don't think they have a problem. However, at night, when you lie down the acid from your stomach goes up your esophagus and into your upper airway (throat and even up to your nasal passages and sinuses). People wake up with head cold symptoms, have post-nasal drip and clear their throat a lot. GERD has been shown to be one of the leading causes of coughing, as well.\n\nAsk your doctor about it and what medical interventions could be appropriate. In the mean time, there are behavioral interventions (i.e., things you can do that are free) to try to minimize symptoms and see if you get any relief. Here's what I tell my patients:\n\n-avoid foods that give you reflux (people tend to say it's spicy and acid foods)\n\n-sit up straight at meals- stay sitting up at least 30 mins after eating. don't eat riht before bed. avoid large meals.\n\n-Chew your food really thoroughly. This starts the digestion process in your mouth and can reduce stomach acid.\n\n-Sleep with your head elevated. Put a few pillows under your mattress to lift the whole head of your mattress up. This keeps stomach acid down where it belongs when you go to bed at night.\n\nIf you still wake up with cold symptoms then try a medical intervention or some of the things people suggest below. ",
"Are u psychic OP? I woke up this morning, had a cold, an thought to myself. This is my chance to ask an actual ELI5 question. \n\nWhen i login to reddit. I saw this on the front page :D"
]
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13dgk8 | what are libraries, in terms of programming? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/13dgk8/eli5_what_are_libraries_in_terms_of_programming/ | {
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"You can think of making them as function \"packs\". You have already written the functions, verified they work, and can now include them when you start writing other code, and the compiler will include them (if told to) to make the final piece of code.\n\nAn example of a library is the \"math\" library, this generally includes functions like square-root, power-functions. You just \"include\" the library in your custom code, then you can simply call the \"power\" function, and the compiler will search for that library, and include the proper \"magic\" in order to make the code work, without you rewriting that particular function.\n",
"A library is a bundle of code that accomplishes a specific task, usually something that might be of general usage. For example, you might have a physics engine library which can be used by games that need to have some kind of physics. Or, you might have a graphics library that helps you create a windowed environment in your application.",
"Most commonly, they are used to help reduce code, so libraries are usually made up of reusable code.\n\nFor instance a logging library. Typically you would log errors to a log file, which is simple enough to code in any application, but let's say you wanted to change that so it also emailed you each time an error occurred in your application. You put the logging code into a separate library, and 'include' or 'reference' it into your main and other applications. Now, your applications can fully utilize the logging code, without the need for any copy/pasting. Without popping it into a separate library, to use this logging code in separate applications you'd need to literally copy/paste it, so you shove it into a library that you can simply 'reference'.",
"When you explain to someone how to build a house, sometimes you want to say \"Hammer the nail in.\" This is really shorthand for \"Use the piece of wood with a shaped metal head to hit the piece of metal that is sharp on one end and a circle on the other end hard enough to go into the plank.\" However, this takes a long time, and if we spent all day writing that out, we'd end up saying things wrong just because the sentence is so long.\n\nSo instead, we replace the words \"piece of wood with a shaped metal head\" with \"hammer\", and \"the piece of metal that is sharp on one end and a circle on the other end\" with \"nail\". It makes everything easier to read, and sometimes you don't even need to know what the hammer is made of to describe it.\n\nThat's what libraries are, in an abstract sense; a bunch of words and tools that mean things that everyone agrees on, and the definitions are written somewhere so that you can translate from the shorthand to the full explanation.",
"Yishan's answer on Quora may be of use: _URL_0_"
]
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]
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||
k2okd | who is ron paul | Im spanish, I would like to know whats going on with Ron Paul, who is he and why is he now on so many top reddits. Thx | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/k2okd/eli5_who_is_ron_paul/ | {
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"He is a libertarian Representative who is running for President of the United States. He has run for president many times, but usually fairs poorly, often because the media doesn't treat him like a serious candidate. \n\nHe is a libertarian, so he supports reducing the size of government as much as possible. He doesn't believe there should be taxes, and he thinks many of the roles the government takes should be privatized (controlled by private companies). He is against the Iraq and Afghani Wars and thinks that the US shouldn't really be concerned with other countries at all. He thinks the Internet shouldn't be regulated and gays should marry and the war on drugs should be ended. This makes him different from other Republicans. While most Republicans want a smaller government and less taxes, they also tend to support laws that restrict personal decisions (such as drug use). \n\nReddit has a strong libertarian edge, so this is why Ron Paul is somewhat popular on reddit. He also has many people on here who disagree with him because they think his policies of getting rid of the government as much as possible would be disastrous. I happen to be one of those people.\n\ntl;dr: he is a presidential candidate who thinks people should be given more freedom to personal decisions that don't affect other people and also thinks that the government should have a lot less power.",
"[Ron Paul](_URL_0_) is a republican congressman from Texas. He is EXTREMELY pro small-government and has a lot of radical views on a lot of social and economical points. His anti large-government stance leaves him talking a lot about personal freedoms, including things like keeping the government out of our personal lives, off the internet, etc. He has a lot of views that are popular with redditors, but at the same time, a LOT of his views are VERY right-wing and extreme, and for the most part, reddit tends to disagree with him.\n\n\nOne reason people DO like him though, is that he seems very genuine. He's not beating around the bush. He's not playing nice. He's talking about the issues and being frank and clearly has a passion for what he believes in. ",
"He is a libertarian Representative who is running for President of the United States. He has run for president many times, but usually fairs poorly, often because the media doesn't treat him like a serious candidate. \n\nHe is a libertarian, so he supports reducing the size of government as much as possible. He doesn't believe there should be taxes, and he thinks many of the roles the government takes should be privatized (controlled by private companies). He is against the Iraq and Afghani Wars and thinks that the US shouldn't really be concerned with other countries at all. He thinks the Internet shouldn't be regulated and gays should marry and the war on drugs should be ended. This makes him different from other Republicans. While most Republicans want a smaller government and less taxes, they also tend to support laws that restrict personal decisions (such as drug use). \n\nReddit has a strong libertarian edge, so this is why Ron Paul is somewhat popular on reddit. He also has many people on here who disagree with him because they think his policies of getting rid of the government as much as possible would be disastrous. I happen to be one of those people.\n\ntl;dr: he is a presidential candidate who thinks people should be given more freedom to personal decisions that don't affect other people and also thinks that the government should have a lot less power.",
"[Ron Paul](_URL_0_) is a republican congressman from Texas. He is EXTREMELY pro small-government and has a lot of radical views on a lot of social and economical points. His anti large-government stance leaves him talking a lot about personal freedoms, including things like keeping the government out of our personal lives, off the internet, etc. He has a lot of views that are popular with redditors, but at the same time, a LOT of his views are VERY right-wing and extreme, and for the most part, reddit tends to disagree with him.\n\n\nOne reason people DO like him though, is that he seems very genuine. He's not beating around the bush. He's not playing nice. He's talking about the issues and being frank and clearly has a passion for what he believes in. "
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9mv8mo | how does mandelbrot's "roughness" calculation work? is it only geometric or can it be used in other domains? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9mv8mo/eli5_how_does_mandelbrots_roughness_calculation/ | {
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"Hey! I'm the same person from the /r/math thread.\n\nThe roughness calculation is called fractal dimension, Hausdorff dimension, or to give every credit Hausdorff–Besicovitch dimension. It is a generalization of the concept of dimensionality for normal spaces (i.e. lines are 1D, squares are 2D, cubes are 3D).\n\nI recommend watching [this](_URL_0_) video to get a good grasp, since this is a highly visual geometric concept, so visuals work best to demonstrate it. However, I'll give it a verbal go - if anything is unclear and it seems like the video contradicts what I am saying, the video is correct.\n\nWe understand normal dimensionality in terms of the number of directions that exist. 1D space is a line - it has 2 directions we can go, forward or backward. 2D spaces is a plane, and there are 4 directions we can go - forward, backward, left, and right. In general, N-dimensional space has 2N directions, or N axes, along which we can move around in the space.\n\nThere are numerous properties that evolve as we move up through dimensions, and we will look at one that is relevant in many places called scaling. The question is; if we have a shape, and increase its linear dimension by k, how much does its overall measure increase? For example, we have a line of length 1, and we stretch it out by a factor of 2. Well, now it has length 2 - the stretching and the total measure of the line are the same.\n\nIf we have a square, however, things are different. If we stretch out all the sides of a square by a factor of 2, it has 4 times the area! This is true of any shape - if we increase all its linear features by a factor of 2, the area enclosed will increase by a factor of 4.\n\nFor a cube, things are larger still - if we increase all the sides by a factor of 2, the volume increases by a factor of 8.\n\nNotice that these numbers have a pattern to them:\n\n* 1D - 2 - > 2\n* 2D - 2 - > 4\n* 3D - 2 - > 8\n\nThe linear scaling and the measure scaling are related through the dimensionality - 2^1 = 2, 2^2 = 4, and 2^3 = 8. This will be true in all dimensions. If we linearly scale an N-dimensional object by 2, its N-dimensional measure (hypervolume if you will) increases by 2^N.\n\nThis concept of dimensionality suddenly doesn't care about how space looks - it talks about scaling properties of shapes! We have many systems that have scaling properties, so we can look at these and see if a generalized definition could work.\n\nFor the traditional example, let's look at the British coastline, and measure it with a kilometer-long ruler. We might get 7,000 km (these are made up numbers). Now, let's scale up the linear dimension by a factor of 2 - or equivalently, shrink our ruler to be 1/2 km. Now all of a sudden we have access to some inlets that earlier our ruler was simply to large to fit into - the same coastline is now measured to be 9,000 km! If we keep shortening our ruler, we find this number continues to grow - and not only that, these scaling properties are related! It is roughly\n\n*coastline length ∝ ruler length^1.25*\n\nWe have a measurement of an object and a linear scaling factor related to each other by an exponent. Now, this is clearly not the same thing as the actual dimension - the coastline is a curve, a 1D object. However, if we generalize our definitions a little bit, we see that it's so rough it behaves a little bit like it's 'between' dimensions - a 1D object that goes through space so wildly it gets closer to being 2D. This is the usual definition of a fractal - any geometric object whose scaling properties with this ruler exceed its actual geometric (or topological, to use the correct term) dimension.\n\nNow, to answer your second question, which I love - both. This is 'only' geometric, but math is such that we can represent many kinds of objects geometrically, and so use geometric concepts to describe them. For example, there are objects called [attractors](_URL_1_) - solutions to complex systems. These frequently arise in population ecology, for a relatable example, as the populations of complex predator-prey-symbiosis systems oscillate in a seemingly random way. These are just solutions to equations, but we can plot them, and so get a geometric shape - and these geometric shapes often exhibit fractal properties, so all of a sudden fractal geometry is useful in the analysis of dynamical biological systems."
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dg2ktb | how did the usa help create the mess in kurdistan? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/dg2ktb/eli5_how_did_the_usa_help_create_the_mess_in/ | {
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"So there's a *lot* of history involved in this, but the most recent part of this deals with the lingering aftereffects of the US War on Terror, particularly the part where the US invaded Iraq. A lot of the factions involved within the Syrian Civil War (which the Turkish invasion of Syrian Kurdistan is a part of) are remnants of various groups that the US either fought with or alongside during the occupation of Iraq, including Al Nusra (which is an offshoot of Al Qaeda that operates in that particular region) and ISIS (which was formed around a core of officers from Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Military, particularly the Sunni parts that the US kind of sidelined during the rebuilding of Iraq).\n\nThe Syrian Civil War wasn't *caused* by the US, but a lot of the factions involved in the Civil War likely wouldn't exist (or at least, wouldn't exist in the same manner) without the US occupation of Iraq.",
"That’s frankly...not very true. Kurdistan is a contentious topic, but blaming the USA for it is silly. \n\nQuoted from a pair of BBC articles:\n\n\n*In the early 20th Century, many Kurds began to consider the creation of a homeland - generally referred to as “Kurdistan”. After World War One and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sevres.*\n\n\n*Such hopes were dashed three years later, however, when the Treaty of Lausanne, which set the boundaries of modern Turkey, made no provision for a Kurdish state and left Kurds with minority status in their respective countries. Over the next 80 years, any move by Kurds to set up an independent state was brutally quashed.*\n\nSo basically #thankseuropeanpowers. The treaty of Lausanne, which ended the idea of Kurdistan as part of officially ending the Ottoman Empire’s conflict with WW1, was negotiated between the Ottoman Empire, the Allied French Republic, the British Empire, Kingdom of Italy, Empire of Japan, Kingdom of Greece, and the Kingdom of Romania.\n\nAmerica’s primary involvement was in creating a quasi Kurdish state in Iraq is far more recent and also a necessity unless the idea of Kurds being gassed to death en masse gives you the jollies. It started initially with the creation of the no-fly zone across northern Iraq and was codified into Iraq’s constitution in 2005. \n\n\n_URL_0_\n\n\n_URL_1_"
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6ngbhu | how do natural clearings work? what tells trees not to grow there? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ngbhu/eli5_how_do_natural_clearings_work_what_tells/ | {
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"It depends a lot. There might have been a big tree there blocking sunlight for everything else and then the tree died for some reason. It takes decades for forest to grow so that would leave a clearing for some time. There can also be local soil conditions. For example a dry spot that kills off young trees in the summers or wet spots that does not give air to the roots and makes the soil rich in bacteria which again make the soil acidic. There are too many different reasons to give a decent explanation."
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4ci1fh | why is it fuzzy when you look in the dark? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ci1fh/eli5_why_is_it_fuzzy_when_you_look_in_the_dark/ | {
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"The eye uses two types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. Basically rods are better for seeing in low light but their resolution is lower than cones, hence the fuzziness."
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3xsayr | why was water on mars so important but we already knew there are oceans on enciladus? | When liquid water was recently discovered it seemed like a big deal but I am now learning that we already know of liquid water on Enciladus? Why was it such a big deal for Mars but not such a big deal for Enciladus? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3xsayr/eli5why_was_water_on_mars_so_important_but_we/ | {
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"Mars is a more Earth like planet, it's closer to our own, and its within its Stars habitable zone. ",
"Mars is in the Goldilocks zone, where people might live. Saturn is much too cold for the water there to do us any good, unless we're mining it to terraform Mars.",
"Water on Enciladus is like finding cheap gasoline on some random gas station way out of your way. Still a good find, but kinda inconvenient to use. Water on Mars is like finding cheap gasoline in a neighborhood you were considering moving into. Something that looks like, in right conditions, you would use a crap out of it."
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lro31 | what is the importance of imports/exports to a country's economy? | Just curious because I was watching CSpan and the British Prime Minister was using the fact that 50% of their trade comes from Europe to intervene in Greece.
Also I have no idea how international trade works so if someone would enlighten me thank you in advance. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/lro31/what_is_the_importance_of_importsexports_to_a/ | {
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"Basically if you want bananas but you live in a country where they don't grow, so you buy them (import) and bring them to your country. Another country wants strawberries which you have in abundance but can't be grown there, so you send them (export) what they want in exchange for something of value to you.\n\nThat's the simplest definition. However anything can be bought and moved across borders providing it's legal.\n\nExporting is good because companies can access markets and money beyond their normal borders, which in turn can create jobs locally. Imports are good because often you can find better variety or better prices outside of your own country.\n\nEDIT: but obviously it's a whole lot more complicated than that. If there's something specific you wanted to know, just ask.",
"Basically if you want bananas but you live in a country where they don't grow, so you buy them (import) and bring them to your country. Another country wants strawberries which you have in abundance but can't be grown there, so you send them (export) what they want in exchange for something of value to you.\n\nThat's the simplest definition. However anything can be bought and moved across borders providing it's legal.\n\nExporting is good because companies can access markets and money beyond their normal borders, which in turn can create jobs locally. Imports are good because often you can find better variety or better prices outside of your own country.\n\nEDIT: but obviously it's a whole lot more complicated than that. If there's something specific you wanted to know, just ask."
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4ciezo | why is centrifugal gravity not an option for the iss? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4ciezo/eli5why_is_centrifugal_gravity_not_an_option_for/ | {
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"It _was_ a possibility, but it would have had to be done in the design phase. The parts, orientation, and configuration of the ISS may all suffer if we just started it spinning.\n\nIn addition, it would have been more difficult (though not impossible) to build - if it were not being used, it would be fine; however, if it were being used as components are added, you have to re-balance the whole thing like a tire every time you add a component.\n\nWith the ISS as-is, finally, the centrifugal force can only be applied longitudinally, getting it to spin like a wheel with spokes, not axially like a pencil spinning but pointing in the same direction. Axial spinning could be done, but the \"gravity\" at your head would be 0 and the \"gravity\" at your feet would be 1g, which is not really ideal - it'd be sort of like lying down on a playground merry-go-wheel spinning really fast. The problem with spinning it as a wheel with spokes is, quite simply, that the floor would be the \"outside\" wall, and you'd be standing in the bottom of a multiple-story well.\n\nFinally, you would have had to have a counter-rotating part of the station to do the 0g experiments which are kind of the whole point of the station, and we would lose the long-term studies of space habitation, so it's not even clear that it would be desirable.\n\nIt was essentially a near miracle that it got built at all; with NASA's sensibility of simpler is better, and our experience with zero g being as good as it was, it was just the better approach.",
"The ISS was not built or designed for it. It would be a near impossible task to retrofit that type of gravity into it, all of the parts and engineering would have had to have been done with that force in mind. ",
"* it isn't very big, and would have to spin really, really fast to simulate 1g\n* spinning makes it hard to dock with\n* part of the point is to do experiments in a weightless environment."
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1y2ost | if a 15 year old has sex with a 2 year old, can the 15 year old be charged with rape even though the 15 year old legally can't consent? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1y2ost/eli5_if_a_15_year_old_has_sex_with_a_2_year_old/ | {
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"yep. having sexual intercourse and raping somebody are two distinctly different things. \n"
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aasgpw | why do humans sound bassier right after waking up? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/aasgpw/eli5_why_do_humans_sound_bassier_right_after/ | {
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"Our vocal cords get coated in fluid and mucus while we sleep. This results in a deeper, raspier voice when we first wake up.",
"The vocal folds are more relaxed after several hours of rest. When we speak/sing they become more tense/taut as a result of different frequencies in pitch. "
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30fkmn | i can go months without biting my lip, but when i do, why will i bite it in the same spot again three or four times? (pain). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30fkmn/eli5_i_can_go_months_without_biting_my_lip_but/ | {
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"Because that spot swells up and gets I'm the way"
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1qg0bl | what is the difference between a bank and a credit union? what are the advantages/disadvantages? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qg0bl/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_a_bank_and_a/ | {
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"The main difference between the two is how they are owned. Banks are owned by shareholders who each own varying amounts of the bank (depending their investments in to it) and generally work in a way where they want to maximise profit. On the other hand, credit unions are owned by anyone who is involved with them regardless of how much money they actually have in it, and work in a way to better the lives of their members/customers.\n\nBanks tend to be far bigger so they have advantages in being able to offer a lot more services, but the fact that they prioritise profit means that customers may not be getting the best deal in terms of things like interest rates.\n\nCredit unions have an advantage in the sense that being member-owned would mean that everyone would get a say in how it is run, so in theory this would help make the lives of their members more convenient. Of course, they're generally far smaller than the banks so you'd usually have far fewer services be available to you.",
"I see no benefit in a bank over a good-sized credit union. Banks exist to make money off of you. Credit unions exist to make money for you. ",
"The main difference is that a CU operates as a not-for-profit organization. They only generate enough income to finance operations and pay employees. The rest is paid out in dividends to customers. The customers are in essence the shareholders, by virtue of their deposits. The CU does not have executives with ludicrous compensation packages or stadiums named after it. \n\nIn many ways, a CU operates more like a traditional bank than an actual modern bank that engages in various methods of profit seeking. A CU takes deposits, offering customers interest on those deposits, and make loans to customers, sourced from those deposits. The profit from interest on those loans is used to fund operations, pay CU employee salaries, and pay interest to customers. Good old fashioned, boring banking. No dark pool derivatives, credit default swaps, etc. The drive for growth and need to appease stockholders does not exist at a CU.\n\nThe major pro of a CU is that they are able to offer better rates on both interest bearing accounts and on loans, due to the fact that they are not trying to make a profit. They are also tax-exempt, allowing them to be even more competitive with rates.\n\nThe major con is that some CU's, because of their small size, will not have all of the services under one roof that a large bank might have, like credit cards, ATM machine at every street corner, etc.\n\n\n**EDIT:** To those poo-pooing my cons, I did say \"some\" not all CU's lack services. My own CU does indeed participate in an ATM network which means I can use any 7-11 Store ATM free of charge. The credit card offerings are limited but adequate for my purposes. I have a Visa through the CU and also maintain an American Express CC account. MY CU also has e-bill payment and online scan-n-send check deposit. I don't suffer for any lack of services. But not every CU is my CU. OP asked for pros and cons. I listed the potential cons, to which I could add (at least in the case of my CU) that telephone support is limited to business hours, unless you're reporting a stolen or lost card. Also, they don't have an abundance of brick and mortar branches. But for me the physical branch thing is not really an issue.",
"This article actually does a pretty good job of explaining it...\n_URL_0_",
"TIL Reddit loves credit unions",
"Simplest way to say it. \n\nBanks use people to make money. (Interest on loans, fees, to investors)\nCredit Unions use money to help people. (Better rates, more R & D investment in technology, better hours.)\n\nThe service difference between a bank and a CU can be palpable. \n\nSource: 10 year sales engineer for the Bank/CU space. ",
"This is my time to shine!\n\nHere is a website that highlights some more benefits of being a member of a credit union and will help you to find a local one.\n\n_URL_0_\n\nEDIT: If anyone has questions feel free to ask! I have been hopping around the thread looking for any and answering them as best I can but I won't see them all.",
"I have belonged to a Credit Union, PSECU, since I was about 10 (dad set me up with a savings account). IMO its the best thing out there with all the features I need. They reimburse up to $20/month for ATM fees, deposit checks using your cell phone, super low rates on loans / credit transfers etc. \n\nAll in all they are pretty amazing. ",
"Just to mention here that credit unions vary is size greatly and range from work based ones to regional ones. The largest credit unions are multi-billion dollar ones and have most features if not more than banks. Other credit unions are only a few million dollars in assets and probably have fewer features; but more direct or local presence. The credit union is meant to specifically cater to the member it is targeting more so than a bank.",
"Always try and go local! Credit Unions are your \"local farmer's market\" while Banks are your national \"Wal-marts\".\n\nOf course, just like a farmer's market, they may not have everything you need for your situation.\n\nEDIT: But check out your Credit Union options first!",
"I've seen a lot of great answers in this thread, but I might be able to expound on those a little bit.\n\n**1.) Structure**\n\nWith a bank, the depositors' money is invested in various ways, usually in making loans, but also in high risk investment schemes. How well a bank manages this directly affects its growth, and the amount of services it can offer to its customers. Any profit is reinvested, or paid to shareholders that may or may not have any money with the bank.\n\nWith a credit union, the money is almost exclusively (but not totally) loaned out to members. Any profit that is made is used to grow the credit union or returned to customers at the end of the year.\n\n**2.) Attitude**\n\nOnce a bank reaches a certain size, its main opportunity for growth is by buying out other banks. Because the customers aren't a main source of growth past a certain point, the bank doesn't have a whole lot of reason to treat them very well. Banks know how hard it is to switch banks, and it is much easier to buy another bank to get new customers than it is to fight for them in the market.\n\nWith a credit union, their main source of growth is through getting new customers through good customer service. They absolutely can buy out another credit union, but CU often have clauses that restrict who can and cannot be a member, so it is more difficult to find another CU with the same membership clauses that they can buy out. Because of this, their customer service tends to be much better.\n\n**3.) Rates**\n\nBecause banks have a limited amount of money to invest, their rates will tend to be higher, because they have a higher opportunity cost for that money.\n\nCredit unions participate less in high risk investments, so their opportunity cost is lower. Because of this, their rates tend to be lower as well. As well, credit unions don't have shareholders that are screaming \"MORE, MORE!\" at them every quarter. Every customer is a shareholder, and the average customer doesn't want the CU taking great risks with their money.\n\n**4.) How it feels**\n\nI'm going to use some colorful language to describe my **personal** experience. \n\nHaving a good credit union feels like having a bank that cares about you, and then getting a check at the end of the year with a note that says \"This is all of the money we made off of your money this year, minus expenses.\" If an unauthorized charge is made to your account, they apologize for the inconvenience, tell you that they'll take care of it, and encourage you to check your other charges for any mistakes. That's it. No guilt, no 20 questions, no hassle.\n\nHaving a bank feels like being a fish in their net. You don't like whats happening, or where things are going, but you can't see a way out, so you just flop around feebly. There are charges for virtually everything, and you don't get why, because they're already charging you some ungodly percentage on a loan you have through them. If there is an unauthorized charge on your credit card, the process to fix it makes you feel like you did something wrong.\n\nIn terms of services offered, my CU lets me use any ATM, anywhere, for free, up to 10 times a month. If there is a charge to use the ATM, they pay it (up to 10 times a month). They only have one physical bank, but checks can be deposited from your phone, computer, UPS, or snail mail. Money can be deposited at UPS, or you can purchase a money order and deposit that. They offer loans, investment banking, college savings funds, home insurance, car insurance, credit cards, etc. Most of their products are top notch, five star products. What I mean by that is that they are the best, or tied for best in the products of theirs that I use. I also have two other CU to compare rates against. I don't keep hardly any money there, but if I need a loan, I check the going rate (_URL_0_), then check my CU. One of them invariably beats the going rate, usually by a healthy margin.\n\nOne last thing is that CUs do, indeed, tend to be much smaller than banks. I've never found it to be a problem, but some people like being able to go to any city in the world and stop by the local branch of their bank. It doesn't bother me. The last time I was in a bank was to get something notarized. They told me it was a $20 charge, but then found out I wasn't a member. Sorry, they don't do that for non members. In the same shopping center, I found a shipping place that did notary public, $15 charge. \n\nTL/DR: With a bank, you pay for the privilege of banking with them. With a CU, its a cooperative agreement in which both parties benefit.\n\nEDIT - Formatting",
"ELI5: CU = good, Banks = bad",
"well for a depositor, they're both FDIC insured, so if you have less than 250k in the bank/credit union, the only difference is service and fees.",
"Like you're actually five:\n\nBanks loan people money, and when those people pay the bank back, they pay a little more than they borrowed. That little bit extra is called interest. Where does the bank get money to loan? Some of it comes from people who keep their money at the bank (who are also paid interest for use of their money, but at much lower rates), and some comes from share holders. \n\nShare holders are like part owners. They buy a piece of the bank, and in return, they are paid a little bit of the money the bank makes from all the interest it collects. The more shares (pieces of the bank) they own, the more of the interest they get paid every year.\n\nThose share holders want to make as much money as they can, so they want to charge as much interest as they can get away with. They want to make even more money, if possible, by charging fees for other service the bank provides. These can be yearly fees for having an account, or for using an ATM machine, or whatever else you do at the bank. The shareholders decide (or at least have some say in) what fees there are and how much they cost, and the more fees they collect, the more they get paid.\n\nCredit unions also loan money and collect interest, but with a credit union, there are no share holders. The CU still has employees who get paid and a board of managers who make decisions, but they don't make more money if the CU makes more money. They have no incentive to create fees or raise rates. In fact, because CUs are non-profit organizations, they're not *allowed* to make money. Obviously they do make money, but after all their costs are paid off, any extra money left over *has* to be put back into the CU in such a way that it benefits the members. Since *all* of the money a CU has to loan out comes from members, it is in their best interest to keep these members happy.\n\nSo since the CU is not trying to make money hand-over-fist, they don't bother with fees. They keep their interest rates as low as they can (without going broke) and they use any extra money to give little perks to their members (because that's the law). These perks can include high rates paid to members for the money they keep in their checking/savings accounts (my CU pays 2.25% on my checking balance, compared to 0% for banks), reimbursement for fees other banks charge you to use their ATMs (mine covers up to $20 per month), and various rewards programs that pay you for using their services.\n\nFrankly, you'd have to be a big sillyhead to use a regular bank instead of a credit union. If you'd like to find one that you are eligible to join, you can search [here](_URL_0_).",
"I made the switch to a credit union a couple years ago and I'm very happy I did. I only did it because I was tired of my bank charging me $30 to have a checking account + $5 if I lost my card. Screw KeyBank. The credit union is free and as an added bonus, I found I get discounts to tons of local businesses. Including $25 anytime lift tickets to my nearby mountain.",
"I opened up an account at my local credit union just this week and every time I've gone in since (three times) they've made me a cup of tea, no kidding! Whenever I go into my bank they just make me wanna cry.",
"A credit union is often more personal and can be more exclusive. \n\nSource: My mom works at a credit union and only the people who work at the plant that they stem from (and their families) can have an account.",
"George Bailey vs Old Man Potter.\n\nIf you have no idea what I'm referring to, you're in for a serious treat...\n\n_URL_0_",
"I just pulled all my money out of Bank of America and put it in a credit union. The credit union was so much nicer than the big bank. And as for using my debit card at an atm, I am all good as long as the atm machine has a little triangle symbol on it.",
"Senior IT guy for Kootenay Savings Credit Union here.\n\nAnother major difference is that Credit Unions don't compete with one another, they co-operate. So in Canada, for example you can use any Credit Union ATM with no fees. We have large organizations that we all share to handle things like clearing cheques, running our online banking systems, processing point of sale debit purchases etc.\n\nWe are also mandated to demonstrate corporate social responsibility, so we give back to our communities, try to reduce our environmental footprint, improve our members financial lives and strive to treat our employees fairly.\n\nI love working for the credit union - I get to use my IT skills to make the world a better place.",
"credit unions are amazing, i actually got my mortgage through the very first credit union in the U.S. ive been with them for years and it honestly blows my mind why anyone would choose big banks, especially with all the law suits going on with them like BoA and whatnot. ",
"In a nutshell, Credit unions are non-profit, and banks are ALL about profit!",
"I worked for a bank and have worked for a CU now for almost 9 years. Hands down CUs are so much better. And my cu offers everything a big bank does and more. ",
"Credit Unions are mostly linked through a co-op. So look for the co-op sticker on the ATM.\n\nIn my area, almost every 7-11 ATM is a co-op. I find credit union ATMs almost as easy to find as a particular bank. \n\nNote: I live in Washington where BECU is EVERYWHERE. ",
"what about goliath national bank, is it any good?",
"A credit union will not try to fuck you hard the first chance they get, unlike banks who do it all the time.",
"In a nutshell:\nBanks: more services & more fees.\nCredit unions: less services & less fees",
"Quote: \"Credit unions are not-for-profit financial cooperatives and are among the most stable institutions in America. They exist to serve the needs of their members (who are also owners) and offer the same types of banking products and services you would find at other financial institutions, including savings and checking accounts, loans, mortgages, Internet home banking and bill payment, and more.\" Here is the link to the pros and cons on this website: _URL_0_",
"Credit unions don't try to fuck you in the ass",
"Not sure if this will blow anyone away quite like it did me a few seconds ago but I kid you not. The sole reason I got on reddit today was to search for an ELI5 for Banks vs. Credit Unions because I'm considering switching to a local CU. Anyway I got stuck scrolling down the front page before searching for it in the search bar and what do I find near the bottom of the front page, this ELI5, the very thing I came to reddit for. This blew my mind. Anyways it was just awesome for a few seconds and thought I'd share a cool coincidence.",
"One thing I don't see being addressed is not all CU are equal. Do your research! Yes, the chances of you being screwed over by a loan are far less...but it can still happen. It did to my mom when she went for an auto loan (it was more about misinformation because of negligence rather than them trying to screw her for more money). There are two others in our city that were far better.\n\nAlso, YOU need to take some time and invest it in your bank. Who is running it? When does the next vote happen and how do I vote (usually online)? At both CU I bank at, I vote every year who runs it. It's not that difficult. If you like the changes, tell them and vote for the same guy. If not, TELL THEM, and then if nothing is done, vote for someone else. \n\nIt's all about how much you care about something. If you want the power to make things better, you're gonna have to invest more than your money. CU are run by people. People fuck up. It's up to the rest of us to keep them on their toes!\n\nIf you care more about what's happening on the next episode of The Walking Dead, then feel free to bank at BoA and get butt#$%^.",
"Canadian & former credit union employee here.\n\n1. First of all, in Canada, banks fall under federal legislation, credit unions under provincial legislation. Usually this means credit unions can't operate outside their home-province (although there have been some legislative changes lately which I'm not up-to-date on). However, many credit unions have virtual banks such as Outlook Financial (ACU division) or Achieve (CCU division) - anyone in Canada can become a member there. Also, most people don't seem to know this but...you are only insured up to $100,000 with a bank under federal legislation whereas your deposits are fully insured under provincial legislation (at least in my home province, I quickly checked a few others and the same goes for them so I'm assuming it's across Canada)\n2. Credit unions 'charge' you a small fee ($5 usually) to open an account. Basically, you purchase a share in the credit union as it is co-operatively owned. This share is refunded to you upon closing your account.\n3. Credit unions charge way less, and there's plenty who will not charge you at all if you have things like payroll deposits with them. This makes them a very lucrative choice for those who like to have a physical branch but don't want to pay banking fees. I know of at least one CU in my province who is one of the largest and gives you free cheques, free banking and unlimited transactions as long as you have your payroll coming in (doesn't matter how much).\n4. The majority of credit unions are part of the AccuLink network (there is another, less well known CU network). You can make personal deposits and withdrawals at any one of those without any surcharges. Usually, if you bank with Bank A and make a withdrawal at Bank B, they both ding you a couple of bucks each.\n5. Credit unions, in my experience, are FAR more willing to bend the rules for you. Overdrawn today but got your payroll coming in tomorrow or the day after? No problem, we won't bounce your cheque and ding you a $30 NSF fee. They are far easier to work with than banks as banks follow the book and don't care about your personal situation.\n6. Online services: Credit unions are usually slower to adopt new technologies but there are currently very few to no differences between banks and most credit unions in terms of what you can do online.\n\nThere's more but that pretty much sums it up in my experience dealing with banks and credit unions alike.",
"A few differences between the two that I haven't seen anyone mention (sorry if I missed your comment).\n\nCredit Unions cater to consumers. As everyone is saying CUs are very competitive vs banks and in some (or even many) cases beat out banks completely in regards to serving consumers better.\n\nBanks cater to consumers, businesses (commercial, industrial, healthcare etc etc) and even governments. CUs are not designed to handle anything other than consumers (and maybe some very small businesses). This is why banks can grow to the gargantuan size that you've heard about. It's not that they bank so many more people (which some of them do but that alone won't get them to a massive size), they are huge because they bank businesses that will deposit hundreds of millions or sometimes billions of dollars and require loans equally as big. You'll see a major bank lend out more money to a single entity than your average Credit Union has in total assets. What is the advantage to a bank? To a consumer? see any of the dozens of comments above. To a business/government/wealth consumer (ie someone who needs wealth management), you're going to go with a bank every time."
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ad3ob4 | during development, how does the body know to put the organs in their specific locations? | For example, how does it know to put the heart in the center/left chest, rather than just “in the upper torso” or the liver in the upper right abdomen instead of “somewhere in the middle”? And why is it the same on (almost) every human? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ad3ob4/eli5_during_development_how_does_the_body_know_to/ | {
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"It's written into your DNA. Your DNA is coded to tell your body where everything goes and what to create and how to function. That genetic code in your DNA acts as a blueprint that your body follows as your cells multiply and figure out where to go and what to do. ",
"There are a bunch of hormones released during development that progressively specialise the cells in that area depending on the signals the cells get. These hormones switch on certain genes in the DNA that tell the cell what it needs to become.\n\nThese exist along a gradient and it's known as 'patterning'. In early development, the hormones are produced by a small collection of cells that tell the embryo what part is going to become the head and tail end of the body in the future.\n\nAs the body continues to develop, the collection of hormones change and become more specialised and may only exist in certain regions. \n\nUsing some of your examples, the heart knows where to go because there are various hormones all spread on a gradient. Maybe 3 developmental hormones are at their strongest concentration at the center of the chest, which then switches on the genes in these cells that allow them to specialise as cardiac muscle fibers.",
"Think of the human body like a balloon with drawings made on it before it is pumped with air. The drawings are generally the same for every human, due to DNA coding, and when the balloon is pumped, the drawings all goes to its respective place, and we then call it \"normal\". Simply put, the organs are already there, they just grow from a bunch of stem cells into full form."
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2pr7i4 | how come i see so many studies with n's of ~20-30. can you really get decent results from such a small sample size? | I get that it costs more money to have larger studies, and know it'll likely depend on what kind of study is being conducted, but a lot of times I see a study's sample size and just think "How can those results be statistically relevant?" | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2pr7i4/eli5_how_come_i_see_so_many_studies_with_ns_of/ | {
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"In medical research you do the best you can with what you can get. Recruiting patients for studies is very difficult even if you have the money. Some rare diseases have so few patients coming in the door to any one hospital you just have make do.",
"The short answer is yes. Someone will probably be able to give more info but my stats knowledge is rusty and fairly limited to begin with. \n\nBasically if you have a desired power and effect size, you can determine the minimum \"N\" that you need. You can see on a table [here] (_URL_0_) that if you have very low power goals, your n can be as low as 6 and still be statistixally relevant. This is for simple t-tests but I would imagine that there is an equivalent for ANOVA, ANCOVA, etc. Probably could be found in the same article. \n\nI'm sorry. As I finished typing this I realized that it's not very ELI5 at all and that my understanding isn't thorough enough to make it so. However I will still send it because it may help a little. ",
"You will get results. You will just be more uncertain of your results. Uncertainty quantification is the most important part of statistics.",
" > I get that it costs more money to have larger studies\n\nSo you start with a small, preliminary study, and if they register an effect, you move on to a larger study where the results will be statistically significant. You do a n=20 test to justify funding for the n=200 test.\n\nIt also depends on what kind of an effect you are trying to measure. If the effect is supposed to be large, say a drug that makes you vomit when you drink alcohol, that will show up in a small sample. If the effect is more subtle, like an antidepressant, larger sample sizes are called for."
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4p799c | when playing a sport, what biological factors cause the difference between a having a good day and a bad day? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4p799c/eli5_when_playing_a_sport_what_biological_factors/ | {
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"Fatigue can be a huge one, injuries, focus, hydration.\n\nAnd then just some days the odds just catch up. "
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4qavvx | why do perfumes smell the same when in high quantities? | I mean like if you get a spray bottle and put a few sprays on your wrist or something, it just smells strongly like alcohol. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4qavvx/eli5_why_do_perfumes_smell_the_same_when_in_high/ | {
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"text": [
"They don't. Most perfumes are made by mixing fragrance oils with alcohol as a solvent, but once the alcohol evaporates the fragrance varies by perfume. Try smelling it again after the alcohol's evaporated."
]
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1jh5k6 | in what ways have the "fiscal cliff" outcomes affected the us over the last 6 months? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1jh5k6/eli5_in_what_ways_have_the_fiscal_cliff_outcomes/ | {
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"They have taken the attention of the country's legislature away from important issues, preventing real action in the fields where it is really required. \n\nThe 'Fiscal Cliff', like debt ceilings, are political constructs created soley for party-political purposes. The media likes to play along."
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3fg8k0 | why do people spend millions on wildlife conservation that doesn't even work instead of just moving the animals to different countries? | Sorry if it's already been asked, but searching "wildlife" and "conservation" got nothing. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3fg8k0/eli5why_do_people_spend_millions_on_wildlife/ | {
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"Search \"invasive species\" for the answer, in a new country some animals will find they have no predators and the population climbs out of control which then threatens native species (see: Asian Carp)",
"Expensive. Some wanna do that by bringing rhinos to Texas. Hippos escaped Pablo Escobar and are thriving in Colombia.",
"Invasive species are a major problem. They destroy local vegetation and kill off the local wildlife if they are able to survive in the new environment. It conserves nothing. "
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7xybpn | why are us presidents old? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7xybpn/eli5_why_are_us_presidents_old/ | {
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"A CEO's career path could be getting an MBA then moving up within a company or even starting a company themselves. To be President the expectation is to work within the system for a lot longer, working local politics then moving up to state and then federal. It could take 20 years alone to do that considering term limits. And then there's the age minimums with office. You can be a CEO in your 20s but have to be at least 35 to be President. There aren't many age limits for some political posts, there have been young mayors before. But these age minimums mean a later starting point in the career as well combined with length of terms means older Presidents. ",
"The US President is required to be at least 35, Senators 30, and Represenatives 25. To gain enough party support to even be nominated for a national government, you must have built up a strong network of politicians, secured campaign funding, and built a reputation with the public. This takes a lot of time and is usually done starting out at local government. Here's a dramatization:\n\n\nYou're fresh out of the law school you've spent nearly a decade slaving away in. You start out in a local office and build friendships and show your worth to politicians making deals and playing the big game. You move up through the ranks from local Mayor, to county Superintendent, to State Governor. You gain the trust of the people and businesses, accepting \"contributions\" or enacting popular legislature. Eventually you express your aspirations to a national party leader and you are finally nominated to be a presidential candidate. \n\n\nYour past political friends express their faith in you to the public and corporate America throws money at your campaign, laundering it through shell organizations, knowing you're good for their bottom line. The primary election comes around and your efforts have paid off. The masses (or the right people) have spoken and you're \"elected\" to represent the party!\n\nYou spend the next 4 years slinging mud and insults at your oppenent(s). Nothing is sacred, every secret is thrown like table scraps to the media who spin it into a wild, incomprehensible scandal that dominates the public eye. Election night comes and your looks, charisma, and money have enthralled the majorities within the correct set of states. The state electors cast their votes and come December, congratulations, you're now the POTUS!\n\nYour journey has left you withered and bitter. Along the way you gave away parts of your soul, and destroyed anyone who got in your way, but it was worth it to be the most powerful man in the world."
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3rpvb9 | why does the wick of my candle turn into a flower shape after burning for a while? | [Here is a picture of what I mean](_URL_0_)
My theory is that it has something to do with the scents in the candle, presumably the impurities that don't/can't burn off entirely, but I wanted to see if someone out there can break it down a little better for me. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3rpvb9/eli5_why_does_the_wick_of_my_candle_turn_into_a/ | {
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"I think it has to do with wax being wicked up. There is going to be less wax at the top than anywhere else, so the top of the wick starts to burn whereas the rest of the wick is protected by liquid wax. (it is only gas that burns. The wax first gets heated to where it becomes a gas before it is consumed by the fire.)"
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"http://imgur.com/CHzc54R"
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6ekwpu | what is philosophy and what is pseudo-philosophy? | Does Philosophy even exist? Can anything be Philosophy and/or Pseudo-philosophy? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6ekwpu/eli5_what_is_philosophy_and_what_is/ | {
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"Philosophy is, at a basic level, the Love of Knowledge. Practically, as science progresses, the bits of things that philosophy covers diminishes. Currently, philosophy is fairly active in working on language, thought, knowledge, and an attempt to work on how stuff works. \n\"How do you know if you know something?\" That's a question for Philosophy. \n\"How do you know where your car is?\" That's a question for a GPS or something. \n\nLogic is a mighty tool that philosophers use daily. \n\nI've not really encountered \"pseudo-philosophy\" much. I do have a degree in Philosophy (I focused on Epistemology - the theory of knowledge). \n\nPhysics is eating away at philosophy. \n\"Why does the universe exist?\" \n\"How can you know something?\" \n\"What's different between a dream and reality?\" \n\nThese are all questions that philosophers spend a lot of time thinking (and write a lot of text) about."
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7gnoqb | how does charcoal clean your face? | Recently, I've been seeing a lot of advertisements touting "activated charcoal", and talking about how it will "attract the dirt from your pores". How does this work? Does it even work? and how is it any different than rubbing charcoal on your face? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7gnoqb/eli5_how_does_charcoal_clean_your_face/ | {
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"Charcoal generally has the property of having lots of pores that are approximately the correct size for medium-sized organic molecules to enter and become trapped. Activated carbon/charcoal has been produced in a way to maximize those pores, making it better at that process.\n\nIf you're making charcoal for fuel, you don't care about the ability to adsorb oils or contaminants. If you're making it for a water filter, you don't care how it burns, you want to maximize pores and surface area.",
"Charcoal and activated charcoal are two very different things. Could rubbing plain charcoal on the face just clog skin pores? I can't imagine it having any cleansing effect on skin. Not even sure about activated charcoal. First it has to get into the pores, but it also has to come out. Will simple rinsing with water do it?\n\nActivated charcoal (aka activated carbon) is traditionally used to filter water and to treat certain poisons. It does have a phenomenal ability to remove various contaminants and it's fairly safe even when ingested, so...",
"I would imagine it has to do with the absorption properties. My son ate some medicine he shouldn’t have once and the doctors made him drink activated charcoal. Did the trick. \n\nSo it would seem it pulls whatever it can into itself and away from whatever it was in. Makes sense to me anyway. ",
"Carbon has a property where it can easily bond with ions. Basically, the outer electron shell of carbon is only half full, so there are four spots available for negatively charged molecules to attach to it. When these attach to the carbon, they are bonded strongly enough that when you wash the charcoal off your face, it takes those ions and anything that they're attached to with it."
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4lvuns | why is the term 'white male privilege' not considered racist? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4lvuns/eli5_why_is_the_term_white_male_privilege_not/ | {
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"It *is* considered racist. It singles out a group of people based on race *and* gender, categorizes them all uniformly, and is said with the intent to put them down. It's like the exact definition of racism and sexism.",
"ugh.\n\n > Surely every race has a set privileges.\n\nNo, not really. White privledge is a thing because well its mostly white male men in charge of politics etc. Its about what people assume when they see you etc, not any real privledge. As in white people usually get less jail time for the exact same crime as a black person etc.\n\n\" I saw someone quote Asian men earn more than white males because on average they acquire higher levels of education.\" Yes this is true, and may result in some privilege if someone assumes you are educated just because you are asian.\n\n > Some companies now have quotas in place to ensure they have to hire xyz gender/race employees, this should also be racist/sexist.\n\nThis is usually to offset past injustices, its not a bad thing. IE the african american population has a much higher rate of poverty. Well thats because white people made them slaves a long time ago and they didn't start with many of the privledges we did. So hiring more african americans makes sense to try and pull the race out of their unfair poverty that white people gave them. It certainly is a racist practice to have set quotas etc, however its a racist thing that is overall viewed as good.",
"Simply having a colour in the name doesn't make something racist. Privilege refers to the way white people and male people (among others) tend to get exempt from some of the shittier aspects of life. It explains why well-meaning people from one group might not realise the gravity of a problem another group experiences because it's not an experience they can easily relate to. \n\nLike any idea, there are good uses and bad uses of it. Though the phrase \"check your privilege\" is a little infamously cliche nowadays, it's a useful idea; when someone from a group you aren't a part of is saying something they find something unpleasant or offensive, if you're wanting to give constructive input to the discussion, stopping to think \"do I experience this to the same degree as the other group\" and other questions is a good idea.\n\nPrivilege isn't just restricted to whites or men. If you've ever heard an older person wonder why all the young folk couldn't just get a job like they did straight out of school, that's a form of privilege. \"checking your privilege\" in that case would be stopping to consider that maybe complaints about how everywhere wants \"3 years experience\" or a degree are actually legitimate problems for younger people. ",
"The only people who think it's racist are the people who don't understand.\n\nAll privilege theory is saying is that fact checked statistics say people in certain groups have advantages. It's not racism, it's statistics.\n\nIt's statistics that white people are less likely to be imprisoned\n\nIt's statistics that white people are more likely to be born into a stable well off family and less likely to be born in poverty.\n\nIt's statistics that white people are more likely to go to college.\n\nIt's statistics that white people are less likely to be subjects of instituionalized racism.\n\nIt's statistics that most of the police force, most of the bureacracy, and most of the politicians in our government are white.\n\n\nPrivilege theory recognizes these statistics and says \"white people have a statistical advantage in these respects simply because they are white.\" And that advantage is called privilege.\n\nIt's not racism. It's cold hard facts."
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em482t | how can a smartwatch or any other activity tracking device calculate accurately the speed of a runner while running inside on a treadmill? | I got a Garmin vivoactive 3 for Christmas and while I was running this morning on a treadmill, I activated the activity tracker and it managed to calculate my speed so accurately that the difference between the distance on my watch and the distance on the treadmill was about 0.02 km. I was pretty impressed! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/em482t/eli5_how_can_a_smartwatch_or_any_other_activity/ | {
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"Did you enter your height and weight in to the settings on the device? From that it can determine average stride length and then based on your rhythm extrapolate how fast you would be going."
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3lxo84 | how does the gravitational pull/hold in the solar system/space actually work? | Obviously the objects with greater mass like the sun have a farther reach, but on a smaller scale, how does the gravity of the earth not bring the ISS crashing into us? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3lxo84/eli5_how_does_the_gravitational_pullhold_in_the/ | {
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"It's called \"uniform circular motion\" and might seem strange. \n\nTake a string and tie it to a heavy object. Now take the other end of the string and start spinning with a constant velocity. \nThe object should lift from the ground and end up at a constant distance from your body. This distance depends on your spinning velocity. \n\nNow, let's talk about forces: \nForces have both a magnitude and a direction. The magnitude of a force is defined as: Acceleration times mass. This means that any accelerating object has a force acting upon it.\nYou might also notice that it takes a little work to stop spinning.\n\nNow, there is a force acting on your spinning object is called the centripetal force (the center seeking force). This force goes FROM the object TO you. The force comes from the string which you tied between you and the object.\n\nIt might seem a little strange that the force is pointed towards you since it felt like the object was pulling away from you while spinning - but if your string didn't slip in you hands or break you noticed that the distance between the object and you was constant. \n\nThe same thing applies to ISS and any other artificial satellite. \nThe satellite is brought into rotation around the earth by a rocket like you brought the object into rotation around you. \n\nAt the right distance from earth (depending on the speed of the rocket) the rocket will release the satellite and let gravity take care of the rest. Gravity will act like the string did and hold the satellite at the desired distance. \n\nSo now you have a satellite moving with a constant magnitude of speed and with a constant magnitude of force acting upon it.\nThe direction of the speed isn't constant. The direction will constantly be pulled toward the earth due to the force (acceleration). \nThis will cause the [following situation](_URL_0_).\n\nNotice that the speed (red arrow's magnitude) doesn't change but the direction changes due to the centripetal force. \nThe satellite is held in place just like your string held your object in place. \n\nThere's actually a lot of math involved here (mainly periodical functions and calculus) and that's just the \"uniform circular motion\" which is just a simplified example of the \"circular motion\" where the speed's magnitude can change.\n\nIn real life other factor's need to be taken into account. This is why the distance between earth and the ISS isn't constant, nor is the speed nor gravity (and thus acceleration)."
]
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"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Circular_motion_velocity_and_acceleration.svg"
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39cync | why do programs update so often if the program i am using works fine? | I feel like it is a waste of bandwidth and pointless.
I know some updates are to fix errors and bugs.
Let take Adobe Air for instance. I use AA with Pandora Desktop, but there is nothing wrong with the Pandora or the AA. I don't see why I have to update AA ever 2 days.
Any insight from them programmers out there? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/39cync/eli5_why_do_programs_update_so_often_if_the/ | {
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"The program may seem to work properly on the outside, but things can change a lot on the inside with no visible effect on the outside. Some operations could be improved, some flaws could be fixed, some exploits could be removed. If possible, take a look at the changelog of the program that was updated. Most of the time it says \"fixed bug X\" or \"improved Y\".",
"To add on to what /u/backplague said, a lot of times, the main reason for the update is to close up security holes and fix exploits that could lead to compromised information.\n\nSince people are always working on ways to get around that and find new exploits for it, they have to keep up with regular updates.",
"There are security updates, which likely will not affect the performance of the software so to you it looks like a pointless update.\n\nAlso, consider this. Microsoft office worked just fine in 1998. Would you like to still use that version today?\n\nThere are ui updates, changes to standards in file formats it uses, new features designed to compete or innovate (or fall flat on its face), and then there's the proprietary updates, like what Google apps do, where it changes the way the app interacts with Google, like with play services changing permissions or access or terms of service.\n\nGenerally though, apps that are constantly being updated, like every few days, unless they are games, suck and I avoid them. There's a reason they have to fix shit every 5 minutes.",
"Consider anti virus software. Download it on Monday and every day after that it'll want to be updated.\nTo vastly simplify the process, the anti virus in question connects to their server and 'asks' the server if they've found anymore viruses it should know about. \nServer replies 'yeah check this one out' and they go on their way.\nSo, the software will work on Monday because its just been installed and the database is 'fresh'. By Tuesday something might have changed (your anti virus might have decided your favourite game is bad! Although that doesn't happen much anymore). By Friday there have been a whole bunch of new viruses 'released'. This means that, sure the software still performs, but not as well. Hope that helps! Bonus points if you can find the pun. "
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99hlzr | why exactly does the toilet bowl get dirty over time (like the ring around the water) | I know probably bacteria, but what is the process etc? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/99hlzr/eli5_why_exactly_does_the_toilet_bowl_get_dirty/ | {
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"Not all of the line at the edge of the water is bacteria. In the water the city provides there are metals and other things that actually give the water a certain taste. (Distilled water tastes different than tap) the lining on the edge of the water is a combination of bacteria and leftover stuff from the water evaporating. If your house gets it's water from a well that's rich in iron, you'll see a slightly rust colored ring at the edge"
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nh6vg | your debt when you die. | I've been wondering about what happens if you're in debt when you die.
I'm 5 and what is this? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nh6vg/eli5_your_debt_when_you_die/ | {
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"If you're in debt when you die, the people you owe money to can make certain legal claims out of your *estate*, which roughly means all the marketable stuff you leave behind when you die. Once this window has passed, all debts you had in life are canceled. In particular, although you occasionally hear people claim otherwise, your children are *never* responsible for paying off your debts.",
"If you're in debt when you die, the people you owe money to can make certain legal claims out of your *estate*, which roughly means all the marketable stuff you leave behind when you die. Once this window has passed, all debts you had in life are canceled. In particular, although you occasionally hear people claim otherwise, your children are *never* responsible for paying off your debts."
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2um1wc | why do cartoons from over 15 years ago look "dirty" and "washed out", but cartoons today look very shiny and vibrant? is there a technique to obtain the former look? | For instance, if you compared an episode of Pokemon from the original series to an episode from the most recent season, you'd see that the original looks more like a bunch of muddy paintings, and the more recent ones look more smooth and vibrant. This is not limited to anime, as you can find the same contrast when comparing a show like Doug or Rocko's Modern Life to Adventure Time or Regular Show. Probably the best example would be Spongebob, which gets progressively vibrant and cleaner each season. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2um1wc/eli5_why_do_cartoons_from_over_15_years_ago_look/ | {
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"The older animations were done by hand and captured with cameras, most newer animations are digital. \n \n[Here's how Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was made](_URL_0_).",
"That is the difference between filmed cartoons and (for lack of a better term) CGI cartoon that are drawn entirely with computers. Older cartoons were hand drawn on transparent sheets and photographed or scanned in. Depending on the time/money spent in the labor intensive process, you can get incredible looking hand drawn animation (Studio Ghibli or classic Disney) or muddy crap (Hanna-Barbera).\n\nThe progression you have noticed in long running seasons is due a show becoming more popular and able spend more money on production values.\n\nIn contract, animation done with a computer will always be sharp and vibrant no matter how cheaply it is done. There won't be any noise or grain that normally accompanies a scanned image. And computers can now automatically draw some of the \"inbetween\" frames which results in completely smooth motion.\n\n",
"In addition to the other answers given here, there's the fact that film ages. That \"washed out\" film cartoon didn't necessarily look so washed out when it was brand new. As film ages, it fades and colors become less distinct from each other. Film which is kept in a sterile, sealed environment doesn't age as badly, but most film in a TV studio isn't kept in the hermetically-sealed vaults that the master prints are kept in. They're kept fairly accessible so they can be re-run... which means they're kept exposed to the elements. So the cartoon film being aired by the TV station degrades more quickly than the master copy held back at the studio."
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5t3v0i | why do you get small bursts of fizz when filling a cup at a drink fountain? | When I fill my cups at drink fountains with things such as soda or carbonated drinks there is small bursts of fizz that make my drink fill up a lot faster and it ends up being like 60% fizz, although sometimes this doesn't happen? Just wondering if it was a business strategy or just some strange way of making your drink. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5t3v0i/eli5_why_do_you_get_small_bursts_of_fizz_when/ | {
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"There's CO2 and syrup that mix at the time of dispersment. An air bubble in the syrup hose causes straight carbonation to go into your cup. It means that bag of syrup just got changed or is almost empty. \n\nTip your cup sideways a little and let it overflow for a second or two. Once you stop dispersing soda and level the cup, it should be quite full. "
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ep5ule | how do companies know their online data has been stolen? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ep5ule/eli5_how_do_companies_know_their_online_data_has/ | {
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" Hackers won't leave a message like 'we have stolen all your data!' So how do companies know that they really aquired x amount of data?",
"It depends on what was stolen and how it was done. In some cases it's as simple as somebody noticing some fishy logs, investigating what they see in the logs, seeing server and network activity that's not normal, tracking that abnormal activity to build out a picture of what happened. \n\nYou don't need to see a message saying \"Hey I broke into your database and ex-filtrated all the account information\", but rather you may see a log that shows \"Admin logged in at 2:37 am from X.X.X.X (IP address)\", then checking other logs (time cards or some other employee tracking system) to see none of the admins were working at 2:37 am, then looking that IP up and it came from a country on the other side of the world. From there you follow the session ID of that login and you can find exactly what they did (such as \"SELECT * FROM customer_db), before seeing a large amount of network traffic going from your DB server back to the IP above (showing they downloaded a large amount of data). At that point it's pretty likely that they downloaded your customer database and now have all that info, so you can formulate a public statement, investigate how they got access, implement security fixes, etc.",
"Often they do not. \n\nSometimes it is discovered later through review of system logs. \n\nOther times it becomes known when the data appears for sale. In these cases the veracity of the data is often called into question as well, because as you said there is no good way for a company to know.",
"Digital Forensics guy here. \n\nSo there are multiple signs that we can look for when we are investigating information theft. First of all the primary sources we look at are activity logs and security devices. This can cover a variety of events generated by security devices like firewalls, web portals, Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems, and so on. We organize these logs in programs called “Security Information Event Management” or SIEM Logs. This alerts investigators and security officers about possible suspicious actions and summarize information about them. Note that I said “possible” because alerts generated by the logs might be entirely benign. But there are worth attending to promptly. \n\nFrom that point we can take that information and try to investigate the incident further. We look for what is called “indicators of compromise”. That is to say signs that digital intruders leave behind that show what actions they took or tried to take. We look at different factors about the timing, method, actions taken, IP, and draw conclusions about what is happening. \n\nFor instance someone tried to login with IP 192.164.0.255 to port 22 at 6:34 (18:34) in the evening. We can look at that information and ask a bunch of questions. Why is someone trying to use that SSH internet port to connect to us? Why is this IP outside the network address range we authorized for our own network? Why at 6:34 in the evening? Did this person try to connect shortly after work or school? They tried multiple times to login with multiple default login and password combinations and failed but later somehow the same person logged in with valid credentials. How did they get those credentials? This is something we need to investigate. It’s an unauthorized login. \n\nFrom there we can track what actions the intruder took further with the system event log, security logs, and investigate other systems for signs that they were affected. Large unexpected downloads, applications that were used, were they reading database entries, unexpected emails, chatrooms, copying files, trying to elevate their system privileges so they can access different areas or be able to perform advanced actions, search for data alterations, and so on. When we get a clear picture of the events that happened we see that a significant breach has occurred and start the process to respond to it."
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79h9b5 | what's the deal with fusion reactors like iter and why do they keep getting bigger but still don't work? | All I know about fusion is that articles will say "well this reactor wasn't successful, but if we make a bigger one it will be!" Then when the bigger reactor is built, it still fails and scientists will say "we're close, buuuuut we need an even bigger one for it to work."
Is this all legit? Will ITER likely be successful? Or are scientists just talking out of their ass to get funding? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/79h9b5/eli5_whats_the_deal_with_fusion_reactors_like/ | {
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"We have made functional fusion reactors, the Joint European Torus actually works quite well, and the ITER should be significantly better but isn't completed yet.\n\nSo far fusion isn't *commercially* successful because it takes more power to create the fusion than it gets back out and cannot run continuously but it does successfully create fusion.\n\nWe keep going bigger because the goal is to keep the heat inside the plasma from leeching into the walls of the torus. By making it bigger you can increase the spacing between the plasma and the wall keeping it hotter for longer. Most reactors have seen an 8x increase in heat confinement with a 2x increase in size.\n\nITER should solve the issue of consuming more energy than you get out, and building upon the ITER design is [DEMO](_URL_0_) which is supposed to be a commercially viable fusion reactor(aka positive power output and continuous operation)",
" > Will ITER likely be successful?\n\nYes; ITER is expected to reach Q > 1 when it eventually becomes operational.\n\n > Or are scientists just talking out of their ass to get funding?\n\nNo. Funding agencies aren't idiots; they aren't going to fund a project unless there is a strong case that it can work.\n\nThe problem is that science *journalists* don't understand the technical details about the science they're writing about. And they tend to over-inflate the impact of various milestones in scientific research.\n\nReaching the break-even point for fusion requires overcoming a lot of technical challenges that we've never overcome before. It takes steps, and various iterations of trying things, and seeing where we can improve.\n\nNew reactors are funded and built when they are necessary to achieve the next set of milestones along the long road to the final result.\n\nRome was not built in a day, and a break-even fusion reactor won't be either."
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n99rz | the grand unified theory/ theory of everything | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/n99rz/eli5_the_grand_unified_theory_theory_of_everything/ | {
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"Classical (Newtonian) Mechanics does not (ideally) hold for tiny particles like electrons. Quantum Mechanics is too complex/inappropriate to be applied to big bodies. \n\nThe Grand Unified Theory is supposed to bridge this gap and give us a set of rules that would be applicable to everything in our Universe. Scientists believe that achieving such a theory would fill in the gaps in our current knowledge and revolutionize science completely. \n\nThis (essentially) is why it's called the Theory of Everything.",
"Before I get started, let me point out that, currently, there's *not* an accepted \"Theory of Everything.\" A couple of candidate theories exist (String Theory probably being the most popular), but none of them are generally accepted. As a result, I'll focus less on \"What is the Theory of Everything?\" and more on \"Why do we need one?\"\n\nFirst of all, a potential \"Theory of Everything\" is an attempt to join the theories of Einstein (Special/General Relativity) with Quantum Mechanics (explanations of the behaviors of things on very, very small scales - atomic and below). To see why the theories don't already agree, consider this analogy:\n\nSay you have a simple theory that claims, \"Any animal dropped from 5 times its own height is going to be injured.\" You test this theory by convincing your friends to jump off a 30 ft high building. Sure enough, every one of them breaks a leg. You further test this theory by dropping larger and larger animals off comparatively high platforms, until you get to the largest animal you can find, an elephant. Sure enough, when you drop the elephant off of a 50 ft building, it goes splat. After your extensive testing, you conclude that your theory accurately predicts what will happen when animals fall off buildings.\n\nBut then someone else tries to test your theory using an ant. We'll say he drops the ant from a 5 millimeter platform. Contrary to your theory, the ant is completely unharmed. You don't understand - every test up until now has correctly predicted the outcome. Why is your theory not working for ants?\n\nWe of course know that the reason your theory isn't working on small scales is that it's missing something, namely F = MA. There's a greater theory out there that more accurately explains the world (Newtonian Physics).\n\nThat's basically the problem between Einstein's theories and Quantum Mechanics. Einstein is great at predicting the orbits of planets, but can't predict what happens inside of atoms. Quantum mechanics can explain all about subatomic particles, but can't launch spaceships. Each has been rigorously tested within its own domain, but both fail completely outside of those domains.\n\nAs a result, we've been looking for a unified theory that works in *all* cases. That's the proposed \"Theory of Everything.\"",
"Classical (Newtonian) Mechanics does not (ideally) hold for tiny particles like electrons. Quantum Mechanics is too complex/inappropriate to be applied to big bodies. \n\nThe Grand Unified Theory is supposed to bridge this gap and give us a set of rules that would be applicable to everything in our Universe. Scientists believe that achieving such a theory would fill in the gaps in our current knowledge and revolutionize science completely. \n\nThis (essentially) is why it's called the Theory of Everything.",
"Before I get started, let me point out that, currently, there's *not* an accepted \"Theory of Everything.\" A couple of candidate theories exist (String Theory probably being the most popular), but none of them are generally accepted. As a result, I'll focus less on \"What is the Theory of Everything?\" and more on \"Why do we need one?\"\n\nFirst of all, a potential \"Theory of Everything\" is an attempt to join the theories of Einstein (Special/General Relativity) with Quantum Mechanics (explanations of the behaviors of things on very, very small scales - atomic and below). To see why the theories don't already agree, consider this analogy:\n\nSay you have a simple theory that claims, \"Any animal dropped from 5 times its own height is going to be injured.\" You test this theory by convincing your friends to jump off a 30 ft high building. Sure enough, every one of them breaks a leg. You further test this theory by dropping larger and larger animals off comparatively high platforms, until you get to the largest animal you can find, an elephant. Sure enough, when you drop the elephant off of a 50 ft building, it goes splat. After your extensive testing, you conclude that your theory accurately predicts what will happen when animals fall off buildings.\n\nBut then someone else tries to test your theory using an ant. We'll say he drops the ant from a 5 millimeter platform. Contrary to your theory, the ant is completely unharmed. You don't understand - every test up until now has correctly predicted the outcome. Why is your theory not working for ants?\n\nWe of course know that the reason your theory isn't working on small scales is that it's missing something, namely F = MA. There's a greater theory out there that more accurately explains the world (Newtonian Physics).\n\nThat's basically the problem between Einstein's theories and Quantum Mechanics. Einstein is great at predicting the orbits of planets, but can't predict what happens inside of atoms. Quantum mechanics can explain all about subatomic particles, but can't launch spaceships. Each has been rigorously tested within its own domain, but both fail completely outside of those domains.\n\nAs a result, we've been looking for a unified theory that works in *all* cases. That's the proposed \"Theory of Everything.\""
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2ogiuk | why is there so much clutter and loose wires on the international space station? isn't it dangerous? why don't they clean it up? | Edit: This certainly blew up!
Many may have (understandably) misunderstood my question.
I do not mean covering it up with panels.
I mean at least arranging it to not protrude from the wall so far. Maybe velcro could help in keeping it neat? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2ogiuk/eli5_why_is_there_so_much_clutter_and_loose_wires/ | {
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"My guess is so they can access it quickly and easily if it needs repair.",
"Well to begin with the iss is modular, so if you need to connect things, it's easier. Secondly, if something fries, it's easier to see what's wrong and fix. ",
"Weight is everything. The more weight, the large rocket required. More money. The exposed wires are not dangerous. Adding weight for purely aesthetics (covering up) would be unreasonable.",
"Gonna have to go with everyone elses answers. From building computers, the cleanest looking ones are usually the worst to do maintenence on. When everything is behind panels and zip tied down, removing things can be a total pain. And smart people are general \"messy\" because their ideas of organized are based on efficiency, not aesthetic. ",
"I would say it's more dangerous to have the wires cleaned up. When you have a problem in space, an extra 60 seconds to remove a cover and unclip a wire could be the difference between life and death\n\nAdditionally, let's not forget that anyone in the ISS is a highly trained, technically competent adult. It's not like there's a chance of a kid or pet stumbling in and ~~tripping over~~ snagging a wire.",
"Naval ships are built the same way. It would be crazy to have to take down an entire wall just to check a few wires or something like that. It is crazy to see like an important piece of machinery with the on and off button sitting right there in the middle of where everybody eats or walks.\n\nIf you know what you are doing you could turn the entire heating or air to somebodies berthing off and they would never even see you do it. ",
"Can we get a picture that captures this clutter? I was unaware it was so messy.",
"As others have pointed out, having quick access to components and reducing mass are some reasons. This story from the Russian space station Mir gives another one:\n\nIn 1998, U.S. astronauts participating in the NASA 6 and NASA 7 visits to Mir collected environmental samples from air and surfaces in Mir's control center, dining area, sleeping quarters, hygiene facilities, exercise equipment, and scientific equipment. Imagine their surprise when they opened a rarely-accessed service panel in Mir's Kvant-2 Module and discovered a large free-floating mass of water. \"According to the astronauts' eyewitness reports, the globule was nearly the size of a basketball,\" Ott said.... \n\nNor was the water clean: two samples were brownish and a third was cloudy white. Behind the panels the temperature was toasty warm—82ºF (28ºC)—just right for growing all kinds of microbeasties. Indeed, samples extracted from the globules by syringes and returned to Earth for analysis contained several dozen species of bacteria and fungi, plus some protozoa, dust mites, and possibly spirochetes.\n\n[link](_URL_0_)",
"Most of the time it's just not an issue, but accidents do happen. I remember in Chris Hadfield's book *An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth*, he recalls instances of bumping into experiments and having months of data ruined. It's just the nature of living in zero gravity. Having a cover on everything would be impractical. ",
"If you've ever worked in a datacenter more than a few years old, especially in the early to mid 2000's, this was very very common. \n\nThe ISS was launched into space over a period of time beginning in 1998, and has been constantly upgraded since. You'll see this frequently in a, not-well controlled, data center where there has been significant technological improvement. The cabling becomes a tale of the history and the organizational habits of the individual(s) who installed the equipment. \n\nAssuming that astronauts are somehow superhuman, in the sense that they also have an overwhelming desire to be anal, is probably natural. But it's incorrect. Astronauts are selected based on their physical capability and skill set. It's more likely that they developed these skillsets because they can mentally cut corners very easily, and do not obsess over things like neatness. You'll find this is common among very intelligent people. \n\nWhile I'm sure that there are several good reasons, I'd place my money that this is #1 by far. ",
"Another reason they don't clean it up is because they don't have the time. They are on a pretty regimented schedule and have higher priority duties and experiments to carry out.",
"Is there a place for junk that no longer has a use or would they just throw it out? I imagine some of those wires have been replaced in its 20 years of operation, what happens to the outdated technology?",
"A lot of people are saying that the cluttered look to the ISS was somehow planned or is set up that way because its some how safer or easier to maintain. But the fact is the space station is cluttered because they are running out of space. Problems like this go back to the stations beginning but it really came to a head a decade ago when [after the Columbia orbiter was destroyed and the shuttle program was shut down for a couple of years.](_URL_4_) It's actually not that easy to throw stuff out on the ISS, a lot of it would be stuffed in to a returning shuttle. When a shuttle brought supplies it could be in excess of two tonnes worth of stuff.\n\nThe clutter on the ISS is barely organised chaos. [Astronauts lose stuff, can't get to stuff.](_URL_3_) And while the chaos might be somewhat organised, it isn't planned. After seeing the Mir looking like an episode of Hoarders set in space they were convinced they would prevent the same thing from happening to the ISS but that plan went out the window when the shuttle program shut down and that was a decade ago it hasn't gotten much better since. Physical space in the station is at a premium so where stuff gets placed is a sort of organic process and because there is no *up* in the station every surface is a potential place where you can put something and that makes it look even more cluttered than we are used to seeing here on earth.\n\nOperating the station is an exercise in waste and trash management. Occasionally they have managed to \"throw it out the window\" but that involves space walks and overall they don't want to rely on this method because it adds to the growing problem of certain orbits getting cluttered up with trash. The typical cycle involves loading up one of the Russian Progress supply ships with up to 2 1/2 tonnes of trash and sending the ship down to burn up in atmo. [One recent trash dump included an old broken down treadmill](_URL_2_) that had been taking up space for a while, like a cluttered old basement some places on the station are devoting to just storing junk. The [very last Discovery mission had the honor of delivering a new room to store stuff in.](_URL_0_).\n\nThe clutter doesn't do anything to help mitigate problems because it gives easy access because everything is out in the open. Someone posted in another comment \"I would say it's more dangerous to have the wires cleaned up. When you have a problem in space, an extra 60 seconds to remove a cover and unclip a wire could be the difference between life and death\" when the more realistic scenario would be when something breaks on the station it takes a couple of weeks to go digging through storage containers to find the parts you need to fix it. [3D printers might make life a little easier for life on a space station](_URL_1_) but the technology is still being flushed out and its usefulness will can only be taken so far.",
"I'm a former Operation Support Officer (OSO). That is the Mission Control position in charge of maintenance. We are also in charge various random equipment inside Station like covers, panels, racks, and stowage bags.\n\nPretty much every response to this thread is wrong. It was the intention to have everything inside the modules be very neat, with everything hidden inside racks or behind covers. I went to many meetings to discuss covers and how to keep things neat.\n\nIt was always the goal to keep things neat.\n\nSome of the wrong reasons mentioned in this thread:\n\nMaintenance- there are very few possible failures that would need immediate access to the equipment for repair. There are so many redundancies on the station that if a piece of equipment fails, they just shut off power to that unit, and schedule a time to repair it at some point in the future. Wires are not left exposed to facilitate quick repairs. In fact exposed wires greatly increases the chances of something breaking. Also, most seriously time critical maintenance would require the racks to quickly be rotated out of the way, and clutter makes that task slower.\n\nWeight: this is a reasonable guess, but also not correct. Many different covers and other means of stowage have been launched into orbit. It was definitely the goal to keep everything neat, and the equipment was launched to make that possible. Just take a look at video from Mir to see why NASA was so concerned about making things neat.\n\nThe real reason it is messy is because of time. Astronauts are very busy. They want to be as efficient as possible. This means when they install a new experiment or piece of gear, they will do enough work to make it functional, but they won't spend the extra time necessary to make it super neat. Of course there is a trade off. If you spend too much time making things tidy, you are inefficient. If things get to messy, you become inefficient (see Mir). So it is a balancing act. In my opinion, the astronauts are too messy. My guess is that the folks in Mission Control (I'm not there anymore) think they are too messy. But the astronauts are the ones doing the job, and they have some leeway in how it gets done.\n\nI wrote maintenance procedures for on-orbit repairs. I would include all the steps for the repair, including how to keep things neat. I was told by astronauts reviewing the procedures that those steps would most likely be ignored. We kept the steps in our procedures, but we can't force them to follow all the steps.",
"There are 2 reasons to cover up wiring: aesthetics and safety. As pointed out by others, aesthetics would require extra materiel (and by consequence extra weight) to bring up. The cost-benefit ratio to do this would be unreasonable for it just to look nice. \n\nIn regards to safety, alot of the wiring in your own home is tucked away to avoid any accidents and because, short of an overhaul of the entire system, the wiring wouldn't need to be rearranged. The ISS is basically a research station in space, therefore, the astronauts might need to reconfigure and rewire systems from time to time. Having things more in the open facilitates access much like a computer modder doesnt bother to put the cover back on if he knows he'll always be fiddling around his computer. Also, the people up there are trained technicians that would take extra care to avoid any accidents and even if there were, they would be very capable of fixing it.",
"Looks exactly like a scientific laboratory. If no work is getting done, its clean. If lots of work is getting done, its a complete mess. It looks comfortably messy.",
"So they can work on the cables makes sense with the fact that it could allow for them to easily identify the issue by simply glancing over the wires instead of searching through all of the suspected comparments one-by-one full of wiring, which can be very time consuming and difficult due to the tight space, considering the fact that it is near impossible with the amount of space on board for wiring when compared to the amount of wiring that is needed, to have them all organized in a way that each individual component and wire could be seen with easy access and proper lighting.\n\nAt first glance I don't see why they would need to worry much about repairs to the wiring since the causes of a majority of electrical circuits and wiring malfunctions that occur aren't present on board (vermin, water, children, weather, etc.) and that generally repairs for these issues are not priority.\n\n**From this point it is all personal opinion, do not cite me on anything**\n\nBut then I realized that they are in a metal box in the middle space, literally at all times a wall away from instant death where their lifeless body will, for the rest of eternity, float through the dark and lonely depths that is the vacuum of space. The extra metal would add weight, and any amount of mass they could lose is mass that will be lost. There are EXTREMELY rare cases where wires and electrical circuits just FUCK UP, and any situation that puts the integrity of the shuttle in danger is one of extreme concern for the ones on board and for the mission as a whole. Training the astronauts to take extra precaution to not be the reason for damage to wiring has been seen as a better route than something simply FUCKING UP putting the entire integrity of the shuttle, any of it's life support, and the lives of the crew on board on a death clock and they are having to waste extremely valuable time meticulously shifting through each compartment for the cause of the issue then perform the repairs when it is found in a tight space prolonging the amount of time that it takes to address and repair the issue.\n\nJust my theory as to why, but like I said; Don't quote me yo.",
"Probay to make thing easily accessible for repairs",
"As a software developer directly involved in the development of the EDA software used by the industry to design the large-scale vehicular wiring harnesses, I have no choice but the dismiss most of the existing answers as bogus.\n\nI'll state in advance that my primary area of expertise is the electrical parameters of the harness, but I have the extensive knowledge of the mechanical side of our software as well.\n\nThe real explanation is that the number of mounting points the harness will have is directly influenced by such parameters as G-loads the harness will have to experience in practical conditions, strength-related parameters of the harness itself (materials used to manufacture the wires, the insulation and the reinforcing inserts), distance to the junction points and nature of the junction, curvature and the flexibility of the carrying substructure etc etc etc. These parameters are used by the CAD software to determine the required density of the harness mounting points in different areas of the supporting substructure. We do it for cars, ships, airplanes, satellites, etc. Personally, I was not directly involved in ISS harness design, but I have extensive experience supporting customers who manufacture satellites.\n\nOptimizing the placement and the amount of harness mounting points might not look as a critical task at first (\"why not just make more to be safe?\"), but with the extensiveness of the wiring in modern hardware this optimization actually results in significant weight savings. It is a big deal in aircraft design and satellite design, so I'd guess it is a big deal in ISS module design as well.\n\nThe conditions for the cable clutter you observe on ISS are primarily created by the simple fact that in weightless environment the wiring harness simply does not have to be supported by the substructure as often, as it would have to be, say, on airplane. In addition to that the cabling used on ISS is deliberately chosen with significant tensile strength, i.e. it is able to withstand accidental \"yanks\" without suffering catastrophic damage. \n\nThe ISS inhabitants are equipped with all they need to mount an annoyingly protruding section of cable, but they probably simply don't care about it enough to do that.\n",
"This is to make any repairs quickly and easily without dis mantling the cover. In the ISS you need to do repairs very quickly"
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18edb7 | what classifies something as kosher? | What restrictions, guidelines, procedures and/or rules must be followed for a food to be considered kosher?
EDIT: Thanks to all who answered! Everything was explained very well, even the question about mass-produced foods certified kosher (that I forgot to ask about in my post!) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/18edb7/what_classifies_something_as_kosher/ | {
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"It's been many years since I learnt this at Sunday school, so I may have some of the finer points slightly wrong, but:\n\nFirst of all, only certain animals can be eaten. Land animals must have cloven hooves, and must chew the cud. Fish must have scales and gills. Only certain birds can be eaten, birds of prey certainly can't. And insects, for all practical purposes, can't be kosher.\n\nThe slaughtering of the animal must be done under the supervision of a rabbi, by a trained person using traditional techniques. Animals are slaughtered using a straight blade, not a serrated blade (although if a straight blade is not available, then a serrated blade with perfectly regular teeth may be used instead), which is used to slit the animals neck so that it bleeds to death. This was the best way of causing the minimal amount of pain to the animal when the rules were written.\n\nWhen preparing food, you can't mix meat and milk together, nor can you eat or drink milk within a certain period after eating meat. All food must be free of blood - there are special rules for ensuring the blood is drained from offal such as liver. Eggs must be cracked into a glass before use to check there is no blood in the egg.\n\nAll the kitchen utensils, pots, pans, cutlery, crockery etc. must never have been used for non-kosher food, and items which have been used for meat can't be used for milk and vice versa.\n\nIf the food is going to be sold as a kosher product, then the entire preparation must be supervised by a rabbi.",
"/u/LondonPilot did a good job of explaining the rules, but you're probably also wondering about the funny kosher symbols and why certain brands have them.\n\nThe symbol is referred to as a \"hechsher\" (usually pronounced like \"hek-sher\" by English-speakers). It acts as a certification that the manufacturing process for that product was overseen by a \"mashgiach\" (the \"ch\" is pronounced like the funny ch in Chanukkah that most non-Jews have trouble with). The mashgiach's job is to make sure that all of the rules of kashrut are being followed; meat and dairy aren't being mixed, the ingredients are all kosher, and the employees aren't bringing ham sandwiches into the manufacturing area.\n\nThe reason a lot of people get annoyed about this is that the mashgiach usually isn't a full-time employee (they may be at a restaurant or a large kosher caterering facility, but not with manufacturers). They drive around, checking on various plants and factories on a schedule. If the rules are being followed, it looks like they aren't really doing very much; they show up now and then, check off a checklist, and go home. Whether or not the rules themselves are outdated, they still have meaning to a lot of people, who consider this process important, but some people feel like the whole thing is stupid and paying a guy to make sure nobody's dropping cheese in the mixer is a waste of money.\n\nYou've probably also noticed that there are a bunch of different symbols. This is because there are different organizations, who have different standards. Some of them are national/international organizations, while others are more local, and each one has its own symbol. Fun fact: Sometimes you'll see just the letter K, but it doesn't actually count. You can't copyright a letter of the alphabet, so no organization uses it as a hechsher symbol; it's just companies being cheap and not bothering to actually get certified.\n\nBonus pro tip: most airlines get their kosher meals from the same two or three companies, and they're actually not too bad. If you know an airline has awful food, order the kosher meal; it will probably be better. :D"
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26flov | ukraine/poland in ww2 | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/26flov/eli5_ukrainepoland_in_ww2/ | {
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"I will just leave a link to: _URL_0_\nI know it is a lot of reading but it happened in that area. \nFor labor camp: _URL_1_",
"There is a TON of history there. \n\nBriefly,\n\nUkraine: Many people don't realize how evil Stalin was because Hitler became \"so much worse\" but before the halocaust there were revolutions happening in Europe with the Rise of Lenin, then Stalin and the Exile of Trotsky. This all had to do with Marxism. Skip a bunch of political jargon and basically Stalin needed to force industrialization to make Russia a super power. That required the explicit liquidation of the peasant class (kulak) and collectivism in farms. It ultimately lead to the Great Famine in Ukraine and essentially reduced the entire country to large-scale concentration camp. The Russian NKVD were and also Troikas had quotas of spies and enemies of the state. Stalin was incredibly paranoid, if you didn't die of famine or in the gulags you were shot dead by the NKVD. \n\nPoland: After Versailles, Poland was created as a buffer state between Germany and Russia. Both countries wanted Poland on their side but Poland wanted to be independent and also didn't want to pick sides in fear of the other. Eventually Hitler got tired of asking and made a deal with Russia between the generals Milotov and Ribbentrop agreeing to split Poland in half. This lead the the double occupation. Poland heard rumors to what was happening in Ukraine but was too scared to notify the west. Eventually they would form the national polish army while under occupation and assisted in the uprising of Jewish Ghettos. Poland became part of the General Government of Hitlers and was the experimenting grounds because Hitler didn't want the war to affect German Citizens. \n\nSorry for not having any links. I typed this all on my phone from memory. If anyone else would like to give links that'd be great. I hope this helps! Just try googling some of the Key Words.\n\nComment if you'd like some recommendation of books on the matter. \n\nTL;DR: Stalin was worse than Hitler, starved a killed Ukraine and Poland was split in half by a secret alliance between Hitler and Stalin.",
"Also if he was in Ukraine it was possible he was sent to the Gulag, not a concentration camps. People were often sent there for shorter periods of time and often eventually were released. Compared the the rest of WW2 not very many people died in the Gulags. ",
"The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was an agreement drawn up by Hitler and Stalin just at the start of the Second World War. To the rest of the world they announced it as a non-aggression treaty, in other words both promised not to attack the other. However in secret they also agreed to carve up Poland between them, as well as a number of other countries including Finland and the then-independent Baltic states.\n\nWithin days of Hitler invading Poland from the West (and thus starting WW2), Soviet forces invaded Poland from the East. Both the Nazis and the Soviets initiated a programme of forced labour for Poles, officially it was only people who refused to recognised the invaders who were taken but in practice almost any able-bodied Pole ran the risk of being picked up and forcibly sent hundreds of miles to either Germany or Russia, depending on who had invaded their part of Poland.\n\nAt the time of WW2 the Ukrainian/Polish border was in a very different place from where it is today. For example the city of Lviv that today is in western Ukraine was then part of Galicia, a region of Poland. The Poles called it Lwow; when the Germans invaded they renamed it to Lemburg. So it's perfectly possible for someone who calls themselves Ukrainian to actually have been in Poland at that time.",
"A pretty big misconception is that concentration camps were specifically for Jews. Anyone that did not comply to German forces, or if you were handicapped in any way, mental of physical you were sent to a concentration camp. Having dark hair and brown eyes could have you sent to a concentration camp as well.\nIf your grandfather was in Poland at the time than Germans were not the only threat because Russians invaded from the east at the same time, taking anyone that was educated, anti Stalin or anyone that resisted to a gulag.\nPoland had a death toll of 5.8 million, about half of whom were Jewish during WW2, mostly through war crimes such as systematic murder in these camps.\nI am of Polish decent and my grandparents have told me some story's of the war, and basically no one was safe, the biggest misconception is that only Jews were targeted, they were just the used as a scapegoat for Germany's problems to get the ball rolling to start a conquest for world domination."
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96k9sk | is marijuana actually 'stronger' these days? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/96k9sk/eli5_is_marijuana_actually_stronger_these_days/ | {
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"While I cannot provide a scientific response, from experience it genuinely seems so. Also, the availability of higher quality flower is greater. Part of me now is like, \"what happened to all the dirt weed man.\" If I take more than one hit, I'm floored. Can't smoke a whole joint anymore like used to, lol."
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2uknvd | how come pandas have their black and white pigmentation while polar bears and brown bears developed pigmentation that help them camouflage? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2uknvd/eli5_how_come_pandas_have_their_black_and_white/ | {
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"Mostly because Pandas never really needed to blend in to survive. They don't really have any predators and they don't hunt for their food. If they had something to hide from, then the least robust pandas would survive and generations down the line, they would not be as patchy and more closely resemble their surroundings.\n\nAnother example of this would be with peacocks. The male peacocks are know to have these enormous tails with beautiful feathers for the purpose of attracting a mate, but those are only in the areas where they do not have a ton of natural predators. The place where they do have natural predators, males who do not have ridiculous tails that slow them down will be the ones to survive and reproduce. So the males are much less interesting in those areas."
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1nze1k | the case the supreme court is looking at today (10/08/13) about campaign finances. | How does this effect money in politics? What are the two sides being argued? How does this connect to the citizens united decision? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nze1k/eli5_the_case_the_supreme_court_is_looking_at/ | {
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"There is a rule in the U.S. that an individual can't donate more than $2000 to a candidate's campaign. This is to prevent someone from pretty much buying their own candidate. But, the Citizens United case kind of gutted that. You can't donate unlimited amounts to the candidate, but you can fund a parallel campaign with however much money you want. Which a lot of billionaires did during the GOP primaries. \n\nSo, the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case today is saying \"that's a stupid rule. If my unlimited money is free speech when it goes to a PAC, then why isn't it free speech when it goes right into the candidate's pocket?\" He wants to be able to not have to do the PAC runaround and just give money to his preferred candidate directly.\n\nThe other side argues that this will increase corruption because candidates will only care about the few big donors, meaning that the candidates will be giving out promises in exchange for huge donations. "
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9vp7nj | what’s the difference between a rocket propelled grenade and other types of rockets like missiles? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9vp7nj/eli5_whats_the_difference_between_a_rocket/ | {
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"It’s important to notice that a lot of this discussion is about nomenclature. I will be using the US military one. This discussion has a lot of talking past each other dealing other countries who use different classifications, and various civilian agencies which might not classify things as precisely. \n\nIn this school of classification, rockets are fired and sustained in flight by a self-contained burning fuel source. Rockets are NOT able to make mid-flight trajectory corrections and adjustments. \n\nMissiles fire in the same way as rockets, but additionally have a method to correct their course during flight. \n\nA projectile is expelled from its launcher by a singular use of propellant exploding in a controlled way. \n\nAn RPG-7 firing a “standard” round is to be thought of as a projectile firing weapon with a “rocket assist” feature that kicks in during flight. \n\n***\n\nFirst thing, “RPG” does not mean Rocket Propelled Grenade. That meaning is what we call a “backronym”. It is people filling in the blanks after the fact. RPG actually means Hand Fired Anti-Tank grenade in Russian. Weapons of the RPG line vary in method of action across different models. \n\nThe RPG-2 is a pure projectile. The RPG-26 is a pure factory sealed rocket system. The Soviets didn’t mind varying up firing systems in the same weapon family. \n\n***\n\nThe classic RPG-7 weapon firing a traditional RPG round like a PG-7V works like this: \n\n1. The launcher physically strikes a primer on the round which causes an expelling charge to fire. \n\n2. The expelling charge pops the round into the air, beginning its flight in a similar manner as a bullet is expelled from a gun. \n\n3. Shortly after being expelled, burning fuse from the firing action reaches the fuel of the rocket motor, causing it to fire and sustaining a more aggressive flight path. \n\n***\n\nThis method of firing is different than a traditional rocket, which is fired entirely with a self contained burning fuel source. It is different than a traditional projectile or recoilless projectile, as the initiation expelling charge does not entirely get the round to the target, merely gets it out of the tube. \n\n***\n\nThis method of using an expelling charge for the round does a few things, but in short it allows for a variety of warhead types to easily be used with one launcher, and reduces recoil felt by the user. \n\n"
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55b3gm | why does a full hardrive have a different weight than an empty one? and where does the weight go if you clear it | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/55b3gm/eli5_why_does_a_full_hardrive_have_a_different/ | {
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"First, it depends on the type of hard drive. And it also depends on what you mean by \"full\" and \"empty\".\n\nOlder hard disk drives (HDD) use metal platters that can be magnetized to store information. They do not change weight when they're \"full\".\n\nNewer solid state drives (SSD) use NAND flash memory, which is basically a way to use transistors to store electrons. When a specific bit on the SSD is a 1, it has electrons stored, and when it is a 0, it doesn't. So it technically weighs more the more 1s are stored. In much the same way that an aircraft carrier weighs more if you put a few grains of sand on it, but even less so."
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4v9twn | how come kids movies are never rated: g anymore? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4v9twn/eli5_how_come_kids_movies_are_never_rated_g/ | {
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"the qualification for G is pretty tight, any violence will bump it to PG. It certainly seems as though the criteria has shifted, to think that finding dory tripped it, but finding nemo didnt... \n\nOr lion king for that matter.",
"The only group that consistently turn out for movies in theatres are teenagers, and there is the perception that they won't see a G rated film. Studios [specifically avoid it](_URL_0_). ",
"People are still going to take their kids to a PG rated \"kids\" movie. But, now studios are a little more free and don't have to worry about sticking to a G rating.\n\nThere's just less incentive to spend the resources and limit the creative options to get a G rating."
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729vtp | if water and electricity don't mix, then where do electric eels stand in this? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/729vtp/eli5_if_water_and_electricity_dont_mix_then_where/ | {
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"They don't stand anywhere; they kind of swim around.\n\nWater and electricity don't mix if your goal is to avoid being the easiest path for an electric current to travel. This is generally bad for living things.\n\nFor an electric eel, it's not a big deal, because the amount of current it generates is not enough to shock it. It is, however, enough to shock the smaller fish that it eats."
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3nk9wa | why is it that no other movies have focuses on dinosaurs in the same way that the "jurassic" franchise has? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3nk9wa/eli5_why_is_it_that_no_other_movies_have_focuses/ | {
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"They are very expensive to make and the dinosaurs needs to be skillfully made to be believable. This means that you need both a good team and budget. Most dinosaurs looks bad in movies, especially the old ones. Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) is the only one of the few good ones visually that springs to mind. The newer version of the movie, is dummed down, but pretty. A more modern movie is A sound of Thunder (Gave it 4/10 on IMDB). \n\nSci-fi and most fantasy movies used to have the same problem - no one really took them seriosly."
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20n6ff | if science has made spectacular discoveries such as the newest "cosmic inflation" why do we have yet to officially discover extraterrestrial life? | The articles I read kept saying how the discovery is from a "growth spurt in its first trillionth, of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second" in regards to the Big Bang...It seems that if we are able to discover things from that time, and I repeat my question, why have we not discovered extraterrestrial life yet?
Thank you :-) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/20n6ff/eli5_if_science_has_made_spectacular_discoveries/ | {
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"because background radiation from the big bang is everywhere, due to everything coming from there. alien life would relatively be very recent, and located in a very specific but incredibly remote location. \n\nwe've established the desert we're in is dry, and has lots of sand in it. that doesn't mean we can work out whether or not there's a watering hole 5 miles due west. \n\n",
"Because you can't see the leg that fell from an ant in the park just by looking out of the window."
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50h5f7 | what is a "mathematical model"? | What are they, and what are they useful for? If you can include examples with your explanation for easier understanding that'd be great! | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/50h5f7/eli5_what_is_a_mathematical_model/ | {
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"The simplest example is the paint the wall. How much paint will be required to paint a wall which is so high and so wide. The paint is sold in buckets which will cover so much. I use gallons and square feet. An eight foot wall can be covered by paint in buckets which cover eighty square feet. So you can paint a wall ten feet wide. That will be eighty square feet.\n\nYou can go to a paint store with your measurements. They will tell you how many gallons to buy.\n\nMathematical models get much more complex than this. Models are constructed to tell us what areas are likely to flood and how often. Many roads are constructed so they will flood only every ten years. Houses are built to not flood for much longer. These models are based on historical records. How much has it rained and how quickly?\n\nSo the models show that the Louisiana flooding was a once in a thousand year event. But the model constructors tell us that it does not mean that that kind of flooding will not occur again for a thousand years. It may mean that rainfall patterns have changed. We may have many more episodes where warm air laden with moisture will dump several feet of rainwater over areas of low lying land. The model is only as good as our estimate of reality.",
"A mathematical model is a way to describe something with math. \n\nNow, while it's technically true what /u/friend1949 says, that even how much paint is required to paint a X by Y foot wall can be described by a mathematical model, when scientists and engineers talk about \"mathematical models\", they're often trying to describe with math something that changes, for example with respect to time, or space, or both, and so on. These models are more precisely called *dynamical systems*, but they are probably the majority of mathematical models.\n\nThe \"thing\" that is described by the model is a system. From the Solar System to a small engine, from the stock market to the atmosphere (think about the weather)... these are few examples of systems that can be described by a (dynamical) mathematical model. \n\nMathematical models are very useful because they translate something you can see, listen, or imagine (a system) into equations, whose solutions can be used to better understand the system. They can even allow you to predict certain characteristics of some phenomena, although not always in a precise way (stocks, weather).\n\nNow, what kind of equations are we talking about?\n\nFirst, it's good to remember that math is not about 2+2=4, but it's mostly about **equations**. x-3=0, x^2 -3x+2=0, and so on. \n\nMathematical models are much more complex than those simple equations for different reasons:\n\n1) because there are a lot of variables, so not only x, but also y,z,w,x1,x2,x3,etc.;\n\n2) because there are a lot of equations, which have to be solved simultaneously (systems of equations). Example: x+y=2, 2x-3y=4. This is related to point 1), because you cannot solve a system of equations if the number of variables is greater than the number of equations;\n\n3) because the *degree* is often greater. *When talking about polynomials*, [the degree is defined in this way](_URL_0_). The simplest equations you study at school are polynomial equations, like 3x-4=0 or x^2+x+1=0. It turns out that they are, in general, not that simple. For example, you cannot solve *analytically* (more on that later) every polynomial equation of degree 5 or more, and even those of lower degree can have *complex* solutions, which means that they are not real numbers like -2, pi, square root of 3, and so on, but something else;\n\n4) because they are often not polynomial equations, and this often means they're harder to solve *analytically*. Something like x*sin(x)=2 is not a polynomial equation;\n\n5) because sometimes they cannot be solved *analytically*. You've noticed that I've mentioned this term a lot. Why? Because it explains a lot about mathematical models.\n\nHow do you solve a simple equation like x^2 -4x+9=0? You use a formula (in this case the quadratic formula), and get the results.\n\n Basically, that formula is actually a way to rewrite the equation from something like f(x)=0 to x= < something > . Think about something like f(x,y)=0. You can easily solve it **IF** there is a way to systematically convert this kind of equation into something like y=g(x), or x=h(y). If this is possible, you can say that equation can be solved analytically.\n\nHere's the problem. A lot of real-world equations don't have analytical solutions. A \"simple\" example: ax^5 +bx^4 +cx^3 +dx^2 + ex+f=0. There's no way to find a formula to solve this equation for different values of a,b,c,d,e,f. This doesn't mean that there is no solution. In fact, it can be proven that there are *five* solutions to that equation! So... how do you find them?\n\nMore in general, how can you find the solutions to an equation without using a \"formula\"?\n\nIt turns out that you can also solve equations **numerically**. This means that you use some mathematical techniques to find an approximate solution. Just so we're clear, mathematicians don't exactly try every possible combination of values (it would be impossible), but at a certain point they often have to take a guess at the solution and check if the result is correct, and if it's not they have to try with other values according to certain criteria. Simple example: if you're studying f(x)=0, and f(guess) > 0, sometimes (not always!) this means you need to try with a lower number, and so on.\n\nThis leads to... computers. Computers are very useful when dealing with complicated equations and mathematical models, because they're much faster than humans at computing and checking if the solution is the one you're expecting. But they cannot give you an exact solution, which means that the result is affected by an error.\n\nSome equations are hard to solve because even a small error leads to a **huge** change. Think about y=1000^ x . 1000^ 2=1,000,000, but 1000^ 2.1= 1995262.31497. \n\nThis is one of the reasons why it's hard to solve certain mathematical models.\n\n6) because they are **differential**. Think about an equation like y-5sin(x)=0. Once you solve it, the solution is constant. There are equations whose solutions are *functions*. A differential equation is an equation which relates the (rate of) change of a function to another function. This means you can use the past and present values of a function to get the future values of another function.\n\nExample: x(n+1)=3x(n)(1-x(n))\n\nYou have x(n), which is the current value of x. You compute 3x(n)(1-x(n)), and you get **the next value of x**. \n\nIf you know something about [derivatives](_URL_1_) (OK, not ELI5 here), you know that this rate of change stuff is similar to derivatives. In fact, differential equations are equations relating a function with the derivatives of a function.\n\nExample: dx/dt = 4x-2sin(x)\n\nAgain, you can have systems of differential equations.\n\nAgain, some differential equations can be solved analytically, other can't. When you solve a differential equation numerically, you need to be *very* careful, because your present value affects the next values, which means that if the *current* error is big enough, your error may increase from now on, until you get something completely wrong.\n\nHow big is big enough? Again, depends on the type of equation.\n\nThis is why a lot of mathematical models are hard to solve. This is why certain predictions, like those about weather, sometimes fail. Remember that these systems of equations are usually solved by a computer, and that you must accept approximations, but approximation may screw the results in weird ways.\n\nEver heard someone talking about the \"butterfly effect\"?\n\n > A flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil can set off a tornado in Texas\n\nThat's it. Small errors, or small disturbances, can lead to huge changes in the results.\n\n**tl;dr** \nMathematical models describe the behavior of a system (object, phenomenon) through mathematical equations, or more often, system of equations.\n\nA lot of mathematical models are used to \"predict\" stuff, from the position of an airplane 1 second from now given current speed and acceleration, to weather forecasts, and so on. Differential equations, or better systems of differential equations, are used to \"predict\", because they relate current and past values of a function to its future ones.\n\nThese (systems of) equations are way harder than the ones you saw at school, for different reasons.\n\nA lot of real-world mathematical models cannot be solved analytically, but must be solved numerically. This means a) that you have to use computers, sometimes supercomputers, and b) that the results are not exact, so there's always an error. \n\nSometimes the error is acceptable, sometimes it's not, so you have to be very careful when dealing with mathematical models. Remember the butterfly effect."
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4t9n1k | how did people of japan come together to build a technologically advanced nation, in the aftermath of world war 2? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/4t9n1k/eli5_how_did_people_of_japan_come_together_to/ | {
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"They had a lot of assistance from the US in rebuilding their infrastructure and because part of their surrender involved basically no longer having a real sizable military they were able to focus all of their attention on building their economy. ",
"Well, the US had the Marshall Plan, which basically was a plan to fund the shit out of all war torn nations after WWII, including Japan. And not having a military also makes it easy to fund other projects. Main issue Japan has right now is the low birth rate, most of their people are old as fuck, all retiring, meaning no work force.",
"I think a large amount of credit is due to the implementation of Six Sigma methodology in major corporations. \n\n_URL_1_\n\nEdit: I'd also like to recognize W. Edwards Deming, who was awarded one of Japan's Top Honors \"Order of the Sacred Treasure, Second Class\". \n\n_URL_0_\n\nEdit: Yes Six Sigma was not officially established immediately after the war...OP's question didn't state a specific time frame. However it did have a major impact on the development of the post WWII economy in Japan, and Deming's work had a direct influence on the establishment of Six Sigma methodologies (ex. DMAIC). ",
"The US promised to defend Japan in case they were attacked as long as they didn't spend any money on their defense/military. Japan used that subsidy to their advantage.",
"The U.S. also sent over the man responsible for the birth of kaizen (continuous improvement) methodologies. He taught them how to make their factories more efficient and it lead to the future power of their automobile industry",
"1. entering WWII, Japan is not exactly nobody. They were capable and top global players. Industrial and otherwise. advanced industry.\n\n2. They also have capable civil servant and imperial officers.\n\n3. literate and highly educated.\n\nThis lead to ministry, banking body, civil servant that can focus on particular given task. (ie. reconstruction.)\n\n...\n\ncompare this to philipine or Iraq .",
"Number of reasons:\n\n1) Determined not to repeat the mistakes of Versailles, the allies did not impose war reparations on either Germany or Japan.\n\n2) After WW2, it was immediately apparent that the ongoing war for economic supremacy would be fought between the USA and the USSR. The Soviets had seen incredible economic growth after the revolution, as they evolved from being a largely agrarian society into an industrial behemoth. On defeating Germany, the USSR declared war on Japan and occupied the northern part of its 'annexe', Korea, the south of course being held by the USA, as was Japan. The USA, keen not to let a similar fate befall Japan as happened to Korea, became a much more benign occupying force than might otherwise have been the case.\n\n3) The Bretton Woods Agreement saw the US Dollar tied to the price of gold, but held as the de-facto reserve currency of the planet. This ensured relatively stable and predictable growth levels, and opportunities for countries which manufactured industrial products.\n\n4) Bretton Woods also saw the establishment of (what became) the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, at least partly fuelled by the belief that countries which traded with one another were much less likely to become hostile combatants. The end result was that international trade got a whole lot easier, just as the global population boomed and demand grew for consumer goods.\n\n5) The Korean War. It was too slow for American and British armaments replenishments to travel in good time, so many Japanese companies were temporarily co-opted to make arms. Before WW2, the reputation of Japanese products wasn't great, but on the instruction of General Macarthur, companies such as Matsui, Mitsubishi and others benefited greatly from a direct transfer of technology from US firms such as Westinghouse and General Electric. Thus, in one fell swoop, Japanese firms received a huge technological and profit boost, paid in US Dollars, the world's new reserve currency.\n\n6) The Japanese Constitution, written in 1947 (I believe), in which the country “renounces war as a sovereign right of the nation and the use of force as means of settling international disputes.” Ergo, Japan had to spend very little of its GDP on defence, at a time when the rest of the industrialised world was engaged in an enormously expensive, some would say ruinous, arms race.\n\nHaving said all that, many countries find themselves the beneficiaries of exceptional circumstance - see certain places which found themselves atop a reservoir of oil, for example - and fail miserably to capitalise on it and create the sort of society which benefits not only its own people but the wider world.\n\nThat's a short precis, culled entirely from memory of things I read at least 15 years ago. It's obviously a lot deeper and more nuanced, but I *think* it's largely right.",
"They *started out* technologically advanced. Japan wasn't a nation of neolithic villagers: it was an old, cultured society lacking only enough natural resources for most of the population to be affluent. Where they had the money to spend on technology, it worked: the Zero fighter was better than anything the US Navy had at the start of WW2, and the Long Lance torpedo was better than anything we had right through it.\n\nAnd they didn't learn that stuff by \"copying\", but by reverse engineering. Reverse engineering is not a substitute for talent; it's a substitute for money.",
"One of the things that gets forgotten is that after the war, the Japanese decided to revamp their industry to prioritize quality, not quantity. This meant that Japanese goods were cheaper to maintain and lasted longer than comparable American products. The classic example is the auto industry; I once saw a graph of the variation in the production of transmissions produced by American auto manufacturers and Japanese manufacturers (more variation = more defects). The Japanese curve was very tall and narrow; there was not much variation. The American curve was very wide and flat; they had a lot of variation, and very many parts that fell outside of the acceptable boundaries. The corresponding graph showed the warranty costs of servicing the transmissions. For the Japanese, the costs were very low, for the Americans, very high. \n\nFor more, read *Out of the Crisis* by W.E. Deming. He tried to get American manufacturers to focus on quality after the war, and they laughed him out of the country, so he went to Japan, where they listened.\n\nThis is also why all of our electronics are made in Japan and South Korea, and not the US. Over there, they produce 0.02 defects per million. In the US, the standard is 27 defects per million. When you consider that a TV/computer/phone has thousands of components, and if one fails, the device will too, you can see why Asian manufacturers tore through the US electronics market.\n\nTL;DR: The Japanese focused on producing good quality products, not on quantity.",
"In addition to the other answers. \n\nThe BBC ran a really good documentary a few years ago about the geography of Japan and how it shaped the nation in various ways.\n\nEssentially a mountainous (and often volcanic) spine, considered sacred. Very limited populations live on hillsides. With large areas also dedicated to agriculture, the limited plains give rise to large density populations, even reclaiming land from the sea.\n\nCrowding leads to a culture of small sized dwellings and a psychology geared to space savings. This idea of minaturisation positioned the Japanese very well for the advent of the silicon chip age.\n\nThe other area it heavily affected was in the development of transport infrastructure. Mega populations enabled the business cases to invest in high speed trains such as the Bullet Trains and maglevs. \n\nIf anyone has a link I'd love to re-watch it as I'm sure my description is not doing it justice.",
"Because they had a large educated population/workforce with access to global markets. Just like before ww2. They were advanced and developed before, they were advanced/developed after.",
"As others may have noted: This was not the first time that Japan turned itself around in a very brief period. They went from a \"feudal society\" in the mid 1800s to being able to beat Russia in a war at the beginning of the 20th. This came from an organized modernization plan.\n\nI think a willingness to do what is necessary and having no fear of the new are big features of the culture.\n",
"The US came to them and helped them set up a manufacturing base in exchange for cheaper goods and to get them back on their feet economically. That's a very very simple short answer. ",
"More like how did European countries come together after WW2. They were far more devastated by WW2 than Japan ever was. And they were affected by WW1 aswell. ",
"Don't forget culture. People paid huge respect to not just those who are of high social status, praise was always given to those who weren't wealthy but were hardworking, skilled and of great integrity. Consequently, shame is attributed to the opposite. Never had I observe so much pride and professionalism from a simple store clerk who serves you fried chicken in the 4th floor basement of a train station. This sort of energy is ubiquitous. It is often encouragement to do your best, achieve higher and help yourself because no one else will give you a free meal. \n\nPersonal responsibility is also a factor reinforced by incredible social pressure. Ever seen people bow and apologize publicly? It's on the news daily; with important figures hosting media conferences JUST to apologize and to hopefully restore their image. Simple etiquette like staying in queue, cleaning after yourself and not speaking loudly in public are so wide spread. Almost all foreigners (except tourists) observe this from day one and follow suit. \n\nCulture gives value to their products too. Ever wonder why Japanese food is always more expensive? Trust me that the price is not just reflective of the material, but you are also paying to enjoy it's culture.\n\nLastly, the Japanese are very keen on western ideas. They will spend great fortune to absorb western culture, take what's best and improve on it. \n",
"Well part of it was because they didn't have much choice. Much like Carthage when they were beaten by Rome in the second Punic war, they were basically not allowed to have a military. So they focused ALL their development on other things and that's why they prosper so much. \n\nJust imagine if we did something similar in the USA, do you have any idea how many TRILLIONS of dollars weve spent on military things in the past 20 years alone? It boggles the mind to think of what amazing ways we could have used that money and man power instead of literally blowing it all up. #startingtoveerofftopic",
"The US didn't totally dismantle all Japanese government and military structure after victory, so some stability was retained, allowing for reconstruction. For the complete opposite, see Iraq -- it's a crime how badly that was mismanaged.",
"The wars in Korea and Vietnam were essential to the economic recovery of Japan in the aftermath of WWII.\n\nWithout the influx of American servicemen and the money they would spent on rest and recreation - not to mention the establishment of mil. bases on Okinawa - was of vital importance. \n\nIt also helped that the US saw Japan as a bulwark against Red China after the so called \"loss\" of that country to \"Communism.\"\n\n",
"IIRC, it was kind of an accident. The US needed allies against the Soviets so it helped to rebuild the Axis powers. At the time, it didn't think anything major would really come out of the tech/computer industries so it gave it to Japan as a leg to stand up on. Then when the industry exploded, the US tried to get in but it was too late. We're catching up now, but they're still ahead of us.",
"By not blaming all their problems on America like every other pathetic failure of a country likes to do.",
"Imagine what more the US could do if we didn't spend 600 billion dollars a year on military? Japan wasn't allowed to have a military after WW2.",
"If you actually go to Japan, you'll be surprised to see just how technologically advanced it isn't.",
"US financial aid, not having to pay for a military and a corporate culture that rewarded loyalty and discouraged individualism. Also Japan as a society is very different from Western nations, in that for them the nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Men principally would pull long hours at the office sacrificing their personal lives and in return they received ever increasing incomes and benefits based on seniority, rather than skill, as it was acknowledged that they would need more money as their family grew and their needs increased. Women were there to support the working male population and raise the children which also lead to a very unhealthy male-female relationship in Japan, but that's a different story. So basically everything I just said plus a very strong sense of national pride.",
"I remember my history teacher saying that not being allowed to have a military helped a bunch. An army, navy, or air force is expensive to build and maintain, and after World War 2, Japan was essentially being protected by the US. Because of that, they were able to focus all their money on advancing the nation.",
"One influence was the adoption of the then current American industrial production methods. \n\n_URL_0_",
"Short answer: they couldnt have a standing army after the war so they ended up with a whole bunch of experienced engineers with no more war machines the develop. After the war their talent didnt go to waste. They dispersed into commercial and industrial roles and began developing all sorts of things. "
]
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[],
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"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming#Work_in_Japan",
"http://asq.org/pub/sixsigma/past/vol2_issue4/folaron.html"
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||
cy4w30 | is it possible to "fake upscale" a digitally-filmed 1080p movie to 4k resolution? if so, how? | Specifically, the question is about two of the Star...War.s movies (II, III) which were filmed digitally at 1080p.
If Disney, with all of its resources and technology, were to re-release a collection of all the movies at 4K resolution, would it be possible for them to modify those two 1080p movies in a way that lets them fit in with legitimate 4K films? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cy4w30/eli5_is_it_possible_to_fake_upscale_a/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Yes, it is easy to upscale to any dimensions you desire. Just pick your choice of dozens to hundreds of interpolation algorithms to get the look you desire.\n\nNo, it is impossible to recreate a high-resolution work from a low-resolution one. The same, low amount of \"quality\" will merely be spread out across more pixels. There is no place to hide in between the pixels—any details that were not captured or that were thrown out during downscaling are gone.\n\nYes, there are ways to improve the appearance of an upscaled work, such as by sharpening edges or adding noise to conceal blurriness and banding, but these treatments cannot truly replace any actual fine details.",
"Yeah it’s really easy, even your crappiest TV can do it. The issue is making it look good. You can’t magically add details, so you have to try to avoid usual side effects like the staircase effect or blur.\n\nSomeone like Disnep who has a lot of resources can do it, so yes. A good enough looking 4K upscaled Star Wars is possible"
]
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[],
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|
1k37v2 | how can i see the moon during the day, shouldn't it be over australia (i'm uk), do they just not have a moon at night? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1k37v2/eli5_how_can_i_see_the_moon_during_the_day/ | {
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"text": [
"First, it can easily be visible to both hemispheres at a time. Think about looking at a ball from a long way away; you can see both the top and bottom right? Well people standing on those top and bottom sides can see you too!\n\nSecond, the moon does set sometimes. You can have a moonless night, so that isn't unheard of at all.",
"This might help\n_URL_0_"
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
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"http://i.imgur.com/Gvjtywk.jpg"
]
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||
b23al7 | what is a capacitor and an inductor on an intuitive level? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b23al7/eli5_what_is_a_capacitor_and_an_inductor_on_an/ | {
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"A capacitor stores power and releases it steadily. We use them in high power microwave generators to limit surges. Always ground them out first or you could get a bad shock because they still store a charge after power is removed.",
"A capacitor is just two plates with an insulator between them. That's it. The plates are made in unusual ways, so that they can be really large and really close together, but that's the idea. When you push electrons onto one plate, the charge pushes electrons out of the other. If you disconnect it, the excess electrons on one plate, and lack of electrons on the other, is stored energy that can be used.\n\nAnd inductor is a coil. When you try to push current through it, it has to do work creating a magnetic and electric field. If you disconnect it, that magnetic field starts collapsing, 'trying' to push the current on.\n\nIn this way, capacitors and inductors store energy. They can store that energy for hours, or nanoseconds, depending on how you use them.",
"If you think of a circuit as a system of pipes with water, a capacitor is like a stretchy membrane separating one end of the pipe from the other. Water can’t get through the membrane, but using pressure, you can push on the membrane, and the water on the other side will move too. In this analogy, water pressure is like voltage.\n\nAn inductor is like a waterwheel. When the water first starts flowing, it takes energy to get the waterwheel to start spinning, so the waterwheel resists the flow. Over time, the waterwheel is spinning at the same speed as the water, so it doesn’t resist the flow at all. But when you stop applying the flow, the waterwheel will also resist the flow. It wants to keep spinning, so it keeps the water moving some, and slows down as it transfers its energy to the water."
]
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[],
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b28u6l | how and when did we find out what was written on the hieroglyphs on objects and artefacts, i.e. the ancient egyptian writing system? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/b28u6l/eli5_how_and_when_did_we_find_out_what_was/ | {
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"We found a stone the was carved in multiple languages and was able to compare the languages that were known and able to translate the stone was known as the Rosetta stone ",
"Rosetta stone is interesting I read, thanks. So from when to when was the langue \"unreadable\" I wonder? As it was rediscovered in 1800.."
]
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[],
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||
99dfvy | what is the difference between molecular mass and formula mass? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/99dfvy/eli5_what_is_the_difference_between_molecular/ | {
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"text": [
"The formula mass is the sum of the weights of all the atoms in an empirical formula of a compound. The molecular mass uses the average atomic weights of all the atoms.",
"The molecular mass is the mass of 1 mol of the molecules.\n\nThe formula mass is the mass of the number of mols of molecules shown in the formula. So, if a formula makes 3CO2, the formula mass is three times the molecular mass. The molecular mass doesn't change from formula to formula."
]
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[],
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1yefk7 | if obama really wanted to make college affordable, why doesn't he propose to eliminate federal funding to colleges that raise tuition or don't meet certain standards? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yefk7/if_obama_really_wanted_to_make_college_affordable/ | {
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"text": [
"Mostly because the Feds are the ones responsible for massive college tuition in the first place (through heavily subsidized student loans).\n\nThey could much more easily bring tuition down by making borrowing for college financially realistic. "
]
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[]
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||
5peo7n | we normally can't see wind, so exactly how do we end up seeing tornadoes if it's just wind moving fast? | Please don't drag me through hell for this. Science was not my strong subject in high school. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5peo7n/eli5_we_normally_cant_see_wind_so_exactly_how_do/ | {
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"text": [
"We see dust and debris picked up by the wind and swirling in the vortex. Tornadoes can have different colors depending on where they are/what they pick up. ",
"The extreme conditions inside a tornado usually cause water vapor to condense in the funnel, turning it white or grey.\n\nOnce they touch down they pick up dirt and can turn brown or black.\n\nThis doesn't always happen though, some tornadoes do not have clearly visible funnels and may only be visible when they're carrying a lot of debris."
]
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6t927p | what are the factors that determine your internet speed? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6t927p/eli5_what_are_the_factors_that_determine_your/ | {
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"For a given Internet connection (say, streaming a YouTube video), the following factors determine your speed:\n\n- The efficiency of the data encoding. This is often quite close to 100%, but for some protocols (e.g. emails with base64 at 67%) it's significantly less.\n- Cryptography layers. About 99.97% efficiency for large files.\n- Network and Transport layer overhead. Depends on some factors, but typically 97%.\n- Transport layer automatic speed control and packet drop handling. This depends very heavily on the lower layers - expect about 90% tops.\n\nSo far, these are the levels that go from your computer to the other machine (e.g. YouTube). All in all, they are quite efficient, about 90% for large files, but signficiantly less for some protocols and small files.\n\nWhen your computer sends a packet, it is transferred from one hop to the next, for instance from your laptop to the router to your ISP's local router to your ISP's Internet router, over some Internet core routers to YouTube's router and then finally YouTube's server.\n\nThe overall speed is limited by the fastest hop. No matter how big YouTube's Internet connection is, if you're using a dial-up modem, the Internet speed will be slow. Let's go through the typical hops:\n\n- YouTube's servers are fast, especially when they're serving the video from main memory or SSDs. SSD speeds are on the order of 500MB/s, although the SSD will usually stream multiple videos at once.\n- Servers are typically connected with at least 1GBit/s, often 10x that. You're sharing this with all other users of the same server, but good services will always have spare capacity.\n- Internet backbones have ludicrous speeds (100GBit/s) and should always have spare capacity.\n- Your ISP's network should be well-connected as well, at the very least 10GBit/s (shared with everyone on your street) with spare capacity. For some shoddy ISPs, this may be a limiting factor.\n- Your ISP will throttle the connection speed according to your contract. This is software-defined, i.e. can be changed by paying more. This is the speed that's advertised. For home networks, it typically is in the range of 1MBit/s and 1GBit/s in the download direction.\n- Your medium of connection and the connection over it. Like in the protocols above, there is some overhead - expect about 98% efficiency for cable-based networks. Often, but not always, your ISP will make this as fast as the advertised speed - this saves them from doing software throttling. Devices and cables can often go faster. With VDSL you can reach up to 300MBit/s. With fiber optics or Ethernet, 1GBit/s is easily possible. LTE (wireless) can reach about 300MBit/s as well.\n\nFinally, there's the the connection between your laptop and your local router:\n\n- Wired connections will be between 100MBit/s and 10GBit/s.\n- 802.11g networks (very old laptops, iPhone 3G): ~3Mbit/s\n- 802.11n networks (old/cheap laptops, iPhone 4/5, cheap phones): ~10Mbit/s\n- 802.11ac networks (laptops, modern phones): ~100Mbit/s\n\nIf you have an old WiFi router and a new device, you'll of course be limited to the old router's speed. WiFi networks are half-duplex and otherwise quite inefficient. This means that the actual speeds given above will be about 10%-40% of the advertised speed on the box even under good conditions.\n\nBear in mind that network speeds are given in Bit/s - divide by 8 to get B(ytes)/s.\n\nTypically, but not always, the limiting factor is either the connection between your home and your ISP or the ISP's throttling. If you're using WiFi at some distance and have a decent Internet connection, WiFi may become the bottleneck as well."
]
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||
188j76 | why is the universe a ball shape? | There may or may not be other theories, but I was curious considering humans have existed for a while thinking they were on a flat plane (e.g. the Earth is flat), but it was proven (quite often and a few times even thousands of centuries ago) that it was a sphere-like ball shape. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/188j76/why_is_the_universe_a_ball_shape/ | {
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"Actually, scientists don't know the size or shape of the entire universe. It may be infinite, or it may just be really huge. All scientists know is that it's at least as big as the farthest things we can see with telescopes (called the observable universe), which makes a sphere-like ball shape centered on us, because past that edge, we wouldn't be able to see any light yet. That's because looking farther away means looking farther back in time, but the universe doesn't have an infinite age, so we can't see infinitely far away.\n\nedit: [source](_URL_0_) basically the last two sentences of this page.",
"Hi, \n\nFirst, flat and round mean different things when we talk about the Earth and the Universe. The Earth is round like a ball. The Universe may be flat or round, but round for the Universe just means that the gravity of the universe will pull things in from the edges of the Universe and no mass or light will go past a possible distance from the \"center\" (The Big Bang), while flat means that the mass and light will go on \"forever\" until it is completely spread out. \n\nThe Universe *looks* like it is ball shape to us because the special kind of light light we see from everywhere in the Universe comes at us in more or less a straight line, like the radius (distance from the edge to the middle) of a circle. Light only goes so fast, and the universe is only so old, so when we look as far as we can, the light we see is from the oldest part of the Universe. The light at the edge that we see actually looks like this big spread out energy. This energy is from just after the Big Bang. The really interesting thing is that this happens everywhere in the Universe! So, the Universe is actually \"flat\" meaning that it doesn't bend on average, and it doesn't have an edge like a circle. This is because the power of the Big Bang plus this stuff called \"Dark Energy\" is about as strong as the power of gravity. We know this because this special light from the furthest distance we can see is not completely evened out, it's just kind of evened out. And, these uneven places look like they have expanded \"in a straight line\" from when the Universe started in the Big Bang. \n\nThe Earth was proven round by seeing things like stars and planets \"moving around us\" and coming back to the same spot. Because this happens pretty much the same way (but sometimes with different stars) on different parts of the planet, the planet must be round. Then, humans went physically around the planet. Of course these stars and planets don't actually move around us. It just looks like they do because the Earth is turning, and we live on the surface of a sphere. Our Universe has no center, has no outer surface, doesn't bend on average, and cannot be traveled around by anything that we know of, so its flat. The shape of the Universe is only a theory, while the shape of Earth is pretty well known."
]
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1g0iri | why/how is whistleblowing wrong or illegal? why is the nsa whistleblower currently in china? | Maybe I'm looking at it the wrong way, I read the interview on the front page between the Guardian and the NSA whistleblower and it occurred to me that what he did is heavily discouraged in any field.
Besides the fact that he and every other whistleblower ever both exposed their employers' dirty little secrets, what did they do that's so "bad" within the eyes of the law?
To me, it seems like he's doing every citizen here a real solid by basically letting us know what Big Brother is up to, but now he has to camp out in China. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1g0iri/whyhow_is_whistleblowing_wrong_or_illegal_why_is/ | {
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"When you get access to classified data, you agree not to share it with anyone who doesn't have clearance. If you do, you are guilty of a federal crime. That's what Snowden did. He copied classified documents and gave them to the Guardian newspaper.",
"He is not in China, but in Hong Kong. That is a huge difference.",
"Whistleblower protections protect you when exposing illegal action. The NSA is not being accused of anything illegal. Perhaps it should be illegal, but even the harshest critics admit that it falls within the Patriot Act and the 4th amendment as currently administered.\n\nAlso when dealing with classified information, [you're supposed to Whistleblow to Congress](_URL_0_). Of course, since Congress was overseeing this and all had access to review FISA court procedure (despite all their feigned outrage recently), I'm sure he felt that telling them wouldn't so any good. "
]
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"http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Intelligence_Community_Whistleblower_Protection"
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ahhxky | when someone passes away, how do they preserve the body for a funeral 4 days later? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/ahhxky/eli5_when_someone_passes_away_how_do_they/ | {
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"I believe they put it in a morgue cooler, or funeral home cooler. Additionally, embalming assists with preservation.",
"The body goes to a fridge until the people at the funeral home are ready to get it ready for the funeral.\n\nThe body then comes out of the fridge, is cleaned up, and is filled with an embalming fluid called 'formalin'. This kills the germs that make the body turn back into dirt (at least for a while).\n\nThe body is then made 'pretty' for the funeral."
]
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cgvn8l | how is the british prime minister selected by such a small group of individuals? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cgvn8l/eli5_how_is_the_british_prime_minister_selected/ | {
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"The conservative party are in power, and the conservative party members elect the leader of the party. It's that simple.",
"The simplest explanation is that as a whole, the UK voted for the Conservative party to be in power, meaning that that party has the vote on who runs the Parliament.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nIt's also key to know, that the general public have again got a PM that wasn't voted for, we got May due to Cameron throwing his toys out the pram about Brexit and leaving, despite saying he wouldn't."
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1b6l0k | why is water wet? (actually been asked this by a 5 year old today). | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1b6l0k/eli5_why_is_water_wet_actually_been_asked_this_by/ | {
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"Water isn't wet. It MAKES things wet.",
"Assuming that the question is why water is a liquid at standard temperatures:\n\nEverything is made of tiny things called \"atoms,\" which group together to form \"molecules.\" A big group of molecules can form either a solid, liquid, or gas. A solid, like ice, is when all of the molecules are stuck together and can't move. A liquid like water is when the molecules are all together, but they can move around, sort of like balls in a ball pit. A gas like air is when the molecules are bouncing and whizzing around, and aren't stuck together at all.\n\nThe molecules that make up water are shaped sort of like a [Mickey Mouse head](_URL_0_). The \"ears\" and the \"face\" act like two sides of a magnet, so the molecules attract each other just like magnets do.\n\nBecause they're all pulling each other together, water forms as a liquid when it's at usual temperatures. The molecules like to stick together, but not so much that they can't move around.\n\nedit: normally I don't simplify this much, but you said you were actually asked by a five year old. doing a \"real\" ELI5 is harder than I thought.",
"Hydrogen bonds. The molecule attach to other molecules through it. Hydrogen bonds are weak so they easily break and form. Water is also adhesive and cohesive so they stick to each other and to other objects. So when you dip your hand in water, it sticks to your hand. When you pull it out, gravity starts breaking some of the bonds so it starts dripping. This gives a wet feeling.\n\nAs far as explaining to a kid, water loves other objects. So it decides to stick to it and hug it. But gravity be a harsh mistress and starts pulling the water. ",
"Because \"wet\" is the word we use for things that have water on them, sweetie.",
"Water,loves physical contact. When water is nearby a surface, tiny bits of it cling to that surface. Think of it like how you rub a balloon on your head then stick it to a wall. Water is like billions of tiny balloons, like a little ball pit. Imagine if all the balls in the ball pit were like the balloon, and the balls stuck all over you when you got out.\n\nNot all liquids are as thick or sticky as water. That is why water is so wet, because the little particles like to stick to things. Some things like skin, clothes and towels have lots of little bumps and cracks for water to get into, so it does!",
"All things are made out really little things. Things we can't even see - like super-small grains of sand. But the reason they stick together is because of something called \"bonds\". You can think of them as holding eachothers hands to stay together. These are called atoms.\n\nWhen things are really cold, they're solid. Water is ice when it's solid, for example! Different things are solid at different temperatures. Metal, for example, is solid. But if you get it hot enough, it can turn into a liquid. That's what lava is! If you get a liquid hot enough, it turns into a gas. Water can be a solid, a liquid, and a gas, as ice, water, and as steam!\n\nDifferent liquids can be looser than one another. This is called viscocity - vih - scah - city. Chocolate syrup has a higher viscocity than water, so it's thicker. Yum! But rubbing alcohol, the hurting water we put on your scraped knee, has a higher viscocity. Owch!",
"I believe a wise man by the name of Ghostface Killah also asked this question in GZA/Genius's first album Liquid swords on the sinlge 4th Chamber. "
]
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63y4qp | where did the stereotype "asians can't drive" come from? | As an Asian myself, I think we're pretty competent at it. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/63y4qp/eli5_where_did_the_stereotype_asians_cant_drive/ | {
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"text": [
"Probably a large amount of Asian drivers getting into accidents.\n\nI'm an Indian, there's a stereotype that our food gives people the runs. Because a lot of the time it does. Thankfully eating it from a young age has lined my stomach with iron.",
"I grew up in an area that was about 40-50% Asian. The majority of the slow moving drivers and people who hold up others I came across were old Asians or asian women. I'm not sure why it is. Most of the bad drivers seemed like people who were not born here and perhaps began driving later in life when they came to America. The younger generation was fine. \n\nThe overall worst drivers are just old people in general and young males. But, a lot of people in the area complained about the Asian drivers because they were the ones who were easily recognizable for holding people up and frustrating them, usually in parking lots, in the slow lane or when turning.",
"The stereotype I've heard is that asian women specifically, are bad drivers. The supposed explanation is that if they immigrated from a country where they were less likely to own a car, then they might still be novice drivers, and also if they come from a culture that doesn't encourage women to be assertive, then they might be unassertive on the road (heard this theory from another white student while going to a school with many international students).\n\nAnyway, here are some traffic-death statistics from the CDC that strongly suggest it's bupkis, asian women are literally the lowest rate on the graph. _URL_0_\n\nConfirmation bias is also a thing. I knew a chinese girl who had scraped her car up three times. But she had only been driving a couple years, and I did far worse to my car when I was 19, so it's not really an interesting data point.",
"To answer this we should answer why \"stereotypes\" happen. In this case racial stereotypes.\n\n\nIt all starts from how we are bad at identifying individuals from a foreign couture. It is just because we are not used to looking at some foreign race. So when we see Bob the asian brain just goes oh \"an asian\" instead of \"Bob\". We then see Bob drive badly and we don't like it. Our brain then says asians drive badly because we have a hard time identifying that asian is bob. Later on we see another asian say \"Alice\" driving badly. Our brain says damn it another asian driving badly. We then start associating bad driving to asians. We warn other people that asians drive badly. And a stereotype is born."
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9c03t7 | do pain relievers actually get rid of headaches or do they just mask the pain until the headache subsides? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9c03t7/eli5_do_pain_relievers_actually_get_rid_of/ | {
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"Pain relievers can work both ways, and some simply work with that much understanding about why.\n\nEvery medication is simply a chemical reaction between the drugs and how your body responds. Some people might respond well to masking medicines, and struggle with feel good kinds. While other people can be quite the opposite.\n\nIt's a good thing we have multiple ways to treat pain, or anything else. Everyone is unique, and there's no reason to believe treatment shouldn't be just as unique.",
"Headaches are often the result of inflammation. Many types of painkillers reduce inflammation, so the pain is actually gone. However, this does not mean that the underlying cause of the inflammation has been resolved. So..in this regard your question may not quite make sense! \n\nFor example, if you have a headache because you got hit in the head with a hammer the pain killer doesn't make you _not have been hit by a hammer_, but it does reduce swelling which is one of the things that is causing you to experience _pain_. "
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1bcu2j | how did the christian church become established after jesus' death? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1bcu2j/eli5_how_did_the_christian_church_become/ | {
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"Lots and lots of missionary work and being implanted right in the middle of the Roman Empire. A lot of people attribute the Roman emperor Constantine as being the catalyst the really pushed Christianity forward to become a world religion.\n\nHappy Easter!",
"Jesus's closest followers - almost all Jewish - decided that non-Jews could follow Jesus (become Christians) without first becoming Jewish.\n\nThis decision opened the door for the rapid, broad expansion of Christianity outside of Palestine. With geographical freedom, the church spread everywhere Christians travelled.",
"First of all it is important to recognise that the reasons for the rise of Christianity has been the subject of debate amongst biblical scholars, historians and theologians for centuries. There remains little consensus as to how and why the religion spread despite the many tomes that have been written on the subject; some theories are, however, more popular than others.\n\nAt least initially, the Roman Empire provided infrastructure and security that made it relatively safe and easy to travel from city to city. This connected the early Christian church, much like the Internet connects people today. In contrast, a lot of other 1st century cults remained in one location with little interest in wider outreach. The earliest Christian writings are the letters of Saul of Tarsus. Although only copies exist today, it is generally accepted that Christians churches were established in many cities by the late 1st century. ^_URL_4_\n\nMost of the people in the Roman Empire were polytheistic - they believed in many gods and often practised many different religions at the same time. The Roman Emperor Augustus started a tradition of requiring everyone to worship him as a god too. This wasn't a problem for the pluralistic pagans but the Christians refused to to pay homage. Since refusal was treason, the Christians were persecuted for this. ^_URL_3_\n\nChristianity remained outlawed but continued to grow, though it became increasingly diversified. Groups began to spring up and each believed something different. Some of the differences were fairly trivial but large differences, such as whether Christ was considered divine, also existed. ^_URL_5_\n\nBy around 325CE, the Roman Empire had outstretched itself and bitter infighting was tearing it apart. The Emperor Constantine, who was somewhat sympathetic towards Christianity, finally legalized the religion. A council was convened to try to unite the many heavily divided Christian sects. Delegates debated religious doctrines and beliefs and the central tenets of the Christian faith were voted on and made official by a small elite. ^_URL_0_\n\nThe Emperor then moved his seat of power from Rome (in the west) to Constantinople (in the east). This left a huge power vacuum in Rome, that the (now legitimate) church was eager to fill. ^_URL_2_\n\nIn a desperate act to try to unify the now dying Roman Empire, Constantine declared Christianity the official religion of the empire. At this point, a somewhat united church with a seat of power in Rome had become the established religion of the western world. Whilst the last remnants of the empire burnt themselves out, the church was strategically placed to take control and a new emperor, the Pontiff, would rule for the next thousand years. ^_URL_1_\n\nE & OE"
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8aqpof | what's cholesterol and why is it good or bad for it to be high or low? | Asking for Ron Swanson. | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8aqpof/eli5_whats_cholesterol_and_why_is_it_good_or_bad/ | {
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"Cholesterol is used by the body to build cells and transport nutrients. So some is good and needed. The problem comes from too much of the \"low density\" or LDL type. This stuff is big and fluffy and has a tendency to get stuck in arteries and blood vessels. This makes your heart have to pump harder and wears it out faster. ",
"Cholesterol is a building block for many essential things in your body. It is decidedly good.\n\nHowever, it was observed that people who have heart attacks often ( 50%ish) have high cholesterol, and that the plaque in arteriosclerosis is partially cholesterol. So someone decided that having high cholesterol is bad for you.\n\nIt gets more complicated when your realize they don't measure cholesterol, they measure specific proteins that transport cholesterol.\n\nSo, if you have an elevated level of some cholesterol-proteins, your chance of having a heart attack is greater. That's why they are called bad cholesterol. ( In my opinion there are a few steps missing in the chain of logic, though.)\n\n",
"Cholesterol is a building block for hormones (like testosterone and estrogen) as well as a huge component of the membrane that surrounds cells (cells are the building block of organs/tissues and the membrane is like the wall that defines the cells).\n\nWhen you get your cholesterol measured you measure fat and cholesterol carriers not cholesterol itself, namely you measure what's called LDL, HDL and VLDL mainly which are made of proteins, cholesterol and fatty acids primarily. These are just based on density you see if you suspend them all in a tube (low density lipoprotien, high density lipoprotien and very low density lipoprotien). \n\nBasically when you eat stuff your intestines absorb the good stuff (amino acids which make up proteins, fats, sugars and cholesterol). Unfortunately unlike amnio acids and sugars, fat doesn't dissolve that well in water (thus blood since blood is 55% water) so the body makes droplets of fat (think like droplets of oil) and to make it dissolve better it packages cholesterol in it which is kinda like soap in that it is partially soluble in water and partially soluble in oil. When it initially is from the intestines it's termed a chylomicron which goes to liver and then is reformed to VLDL which is simply a repackaged lipid droplet from the liver. Liver always gets first dibs on anything you eat because of a direct blood flow from intestines to it. VLDL gives fats to tissues and becomes IDL and it also picks up cholesterol from the tissues and that then gives away its proteins to a precursor HDL and in the process it essentially becomes LDL (it also picks up cholesterol from the HDL).\n\nLDL has a main function of bringing cholesterol to the tissues from the liver (which gets it from our diet) while HDL has the opposite function of bringing cholesterol from tissues to the liver. You need both since we definitely need to bring cholesterol to tissues but we also need to pick up excess cholesterol from cells, maintaining optimal levels are key.\n\nNow LDL has been implicated in contributing to atherosclerosis and that is a more complicated and less understood mechanism but essentially you Want to keep both HDL and LDL levels optimal. If you have too much LDL it can oxidize in your blood vessels and cause the formation of foam cells which cause them to inflame and get narrower so circulating blood gets harder so your body raises blood pressure to compensate (kinda like drinking water through a compressed straw vs a non compressed straw, you need more force through the compressed one) and to do this your heart beats harder and you can get more damage to your vessels and other complications.\n\nTLDR: LDL and HDL are what you measure when checking cholesterol levels, too much and too little is bad because you need cholesterol for a lot of stuff but too much can lead to a whole host of other issues like heart disease.\n\nSource: 3rd year Biomedical science student that is currently studying for a metabolism final\n\nEdit: Guys I'm not a doctor, while I appreciate that you find me informative and are looking for advice, I'm not qualified to give medical or nutritional advice. If your doctor isn't communicating to you about your conditions or the risks associated with chokes sufficiently then bring it to their attention that you'd like to know more about it or ask another doctor who's qualified on the matter. Take everything you read online or hear from someone else with a grain of salt and skepticism and look to gain knowledge from peer reviewed scientific literature but even then don't take what's given as gospel, but rather look for consensus among the scientific community ",
"you need cholesterol for the body to build cell walls and build signaling molecules that tell cells how to act and what genes to turn on and off, amongst other things.\n\ncholesterol is ingested in our diet. it then gets shipped from the small intestine to the liver (and some peripheral tissues like muscle and fat) inside of little things called chylomicrons which are like little cholesterol UPS trucks. the liver takes the cholesterol, and repackages it into some more lipid transporting things, maybe some fedex trucks (LDL, VLDL), which then circulate around in the blood to bring cholesterol to the tissues that need it.\n\nIf you have extra cholesterol, it'll end up in extra delivery trucks, circulating around the roadmap of your circulation. When the roads are damaged (and lots of things can damage the roads on the microscopic level, giving just enough damage for these trucks to get in between the cells that make the walls of the blood vessels), the trucks get stuck, lodge in the vessel walls, and lead to the build up of atherosclerotic plaques (This involves local smooth muscle proliferation in the vessel walls and fibroblasts, and macrophages eating up the cholesterol, but thats probably more detail than was wanted)\n\nThere are some scavenging trucks roaming around in the vessels that bring cholesterol back to the liver and clear it out of the circulation. These are the \"good\" cholesterols (HDL), and if you have a good amount of these (not too few, not too many), they help keep the arteries clear of traffic collisions and roadblocks (LDL and atherosclerotic plaques)",
"Cholesterol is a building block found in all living animal cells. It is necessary for normal cell function and production of hormones in the body. \n\nYou obtain some cholesterol from your diet (animal products), but the largest source of cholesterol is from the production in your own liver. This is why the science behind reducing cholesterol in your diet has not reliably shown to reduce your blood levels. Genetics and metabolism play a much larger role. \n\nThere are different forms of the cholesterol in your blood, which depends on its density. Some forms are \"good\" cholesterol (HDL), and some are \"bad\" cholesterol (LDL). \"Bad\" cholesterol has been shown to be an important contributor to the production of plaques in your arteries. If these plaques form in your heart arteries, it can lead to heart attacks; if they form in the arteries to the brain, it can lead to a stroke. Other important risk factors include age, being overweight, high blood pressure, and smoking. \"Good\" cholesterol (HDL) have a protective effect on your health.\n\nThe most effective way to reduce LDL cholesterol is through maintaining a healthy weight, and medications such as statins when needed. The most effective way of increasing HDL is through exercise. \n\nsource: medical doctor"
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8q208i | why are does ink disappear when writing on a smooth surface such as metal or plastic? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8q208i/eli5_why_are_does_ink_disappear_when_writing_on_a/ | {
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"Surface tension. It doesn't disappear, but forms small drops that are higher but smaller in area.",
"Ink is similar to paint, but isn't paint. \n\nInk is very liquid, and is basically designed to be absorbed INTO paper or some other porous material, and spread the pigment around as a result of the absorption. Here's [paper under the microscope](_URL_0_), it's like a sponge, and will absorb and spread out any liquid.\n\nPaint, on the other hand, is viscous and sticky like a glue, and it's designed to be spread onto the surface of a smooth material then dry and harden up. The spreading of the pigments / coloration in paint isn't dependent on being absorbed into the material."
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8pje5t | if the outer edge of a rotating disk travels faster than a point closer to the centre then is there a point in the centre that is at standstill? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/8pje5t/eli5_if_the_outer_edge_of_a_rotating_disk_travels/ | {
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"No because all points are spinning. There is a point whose location is not changing, but it is rotating.",
"It depends how you define \"standstill\". The point right at the center is rotating, but it is not moving at all through space. \n\nYou mentioned that the points further out travel faster. That point at the very center isn't traveling at all.. ",
"This is a case of linear vs angular velocity. Two points on a disc will have the same angular velocity while the one with the further radius will have a higher linear velocity. So if we want to define a center point mathematically (realistically center-points are impossible), the center point will have an angular velocity but not a linear velocity because it’s radius is 0 due to being at the center.",
"Yes and no. Points in real life don't exist, points are a-dimensional, and in reality we can only percive things that have 3 dimension, points, lines and planes \"do not exist\" they are concepts, with that said, a point can't rotate on itself because he has no dimension, so from a mathematical point of view, yes the point in the center is still.\nIn reality the center or a disk it's made of something being made of something it has dimension, if it has dimensions you can define a rotation, if it rotates\n\nEDIT: I assumed that with \"still\" you mean absolute lack of movement, someone could argue that the center is not moving relative to something, if someone said so the explanation starts to become a little more difficult and probably not pertinent to what you asked"
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2w9mcw | what's the rationale behind early voting days in the us? | As a foreigner, I was wondering what was the (historical I assume?) reason behind early voting days? I understand that voting day in the US is Tuesday, and that people work on that day, but why not making it Sunday and force employers to allow their employees to get some time off work to vote? I also understand that more days to vote theoretically ensure a higher turnout, but many countries have all citizens vote on a single day and turnouts are similar to US ones. Just being curious! | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2w9mcw/eli5whats_the_rationale_behind_early_voting_days/ | {
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"It's pure practicality for allowing more people to vote.\n\nSome people know how they are going to vote well before election day, or won't be able to easily scheme the time on election day.\n\nTherefore, we allow voting for a period of time leading up to the official polling day to allow for schedules and relieve crowds at the polling locations.",
"Crowds are the big issue. I don't know how other nations handle it, but in my area of the US, an hour to two hours wait is typical on voting day. Early voting cuts down on the lines.",
"In my state early voting ballots are mailed to me and I vote and send back with no need for a stamp. Since the ballot comes to me I always know when its voting time even for small local votes on city related stuff (usually more money for schools). Also, since I get it early I can look up information about all the candidates and find out all the information about the props."
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1sw85b | in context of science, could someone please explain paranormal activity. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1sw85b/eli5in_context_of_science_could_someone_please/ | {
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"Lens flare, double exposure, bullshit stories and photoshop. ",
"The paranormal activity didn't happen and those people are either hallucinating; or they experience something they can't explain and consider it to be paranormal instead of seeking a scientific explanation.\n\nThere are plenty of large monetary prizes available , being offered by skeptics, for anybody who can demonstrate solid evidence of paranormal activity. ",
"There is no such thing and it is often people simply lying for profit and attention or they genuinely believe their stories but they are confusing perfectly natural things with the paranormal.\n\nA lot of \"paranormal\" occurrences can be linked to [sleep paralysis](_URL_0_) which can seem like a paranormal event but is a completely natural and explainable phenomenon. ",
"People lie, and people are wrong about things. \n\nI read a story on _URL_0_ about how a scientist worked in a lab where a large percentage of people would feel a ghostly presence whenever they entered the lab. The scientist wanted to get to the bottom of it, and found out some machinery in the lab vibrated at a certain frequency that caused mild distress to people in the vicinity. He removed the equipment and the ghostly presence wasn't felt any more. \n\nWith 7 billion people on the planet and cameras a plenty, there is almost zero evidence of any paranormal activity aside from people saying they experienced it. \n\n",
"**Paranormal** is just another word for **Supernatural**. Both are unverifiable, therefore **outside of the realm of science** and reality.",
"Not an explanation of paranormal phenomena in whole, but an essay called [The ghost in the Machine](_URL_0_) identified the 'entity' haunting a medical engineering lab as a standing wave at the frequency 18.89 Hz.\n\nIn short, after finding similar case studies of work areas with similar frequencies being found \"oppressive\", \"depressing\", or inciting the feeling of being watched, they referred to some data compiled by NASA citing 18HZ as being the resonant frequency of the human eye. Stay in a room long enough with that frequency blaring (albeit inaudibly), and your vision will be somewhat \"smeared\". You don't really notice the smearing for the most part, as your brain is great at filling in the gaps when it comes to visual information, but the combination of occasional non-existent visual stimuli and the sense of dread caused by your brain trying to make sense of this combine to form a sort of \"presence\"."
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28zzgl | does studying literature provide any benefit to society? | Certain topics are studied at universities around the world, and those certain topics are studied for certain reasons. For example, physics is studied because it helps us understand how the world works and allows us to build useful stuff that benefits humanity. For example, someone might write a thesis on particle acceleration at the subatomic level, and knowledge that this person pioneered can lead to scientific and technological advancements. But what about an academic thesis on homosexual symbolism in the works of JD Salinger (just made that up)? Who cares? Who funds this? What benefits could it provide to society? (Please note that I'm referring to studying literature at the highest academic level, not required reading in high school. I just graduated high school, and plenty of people there think that classic literature is "boring" and "stoopid". I am not one of these people. I do not deny the greatness of literature; I am just questioning the societal purpose of studying it.) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/28zzgl/eli5_does_studying_literature_provide_any_benefit/ | {
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"Literature provides two main benefits:\n\n* it allows us to examine human nature in complex ethical and moral situations\n* it provides shared experiences that become cultural touchstones for sharing complex ideas...if I say \"the lady doth protest too much\", those 6 words convey as much information as a whole chapter of a psychology textbook",
"There are always those people who will argue that it doesn't help at all.\n\nHowever, you can use someone like Robert F. Kennedy, who studied a great deal of literature, and used that knowledge when breaking the news of Martin Luther King's death to a packed crowd in Indianapolis. He quoted the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus, doubtless well beyond the knowledge of most in his audience. But his words and compassion, gained from years of study not only of literature but also humanities and law, spoke to the hearts of his listeners that night. Riots erupted all over the nation, but not in Indianapolis. \n\nThat is only one example. People who say literature doesn't give us broader insight into human character and hearts are missing the big picture. Like kouhoutek says below, it provides shared experiences that become cultural touchstones. If all you want to talk about is money, finance, and science, it will be a really sad and narrow world.",
"What studying at university really does, for the majority of people, is teach them new ways to think, question and view the world around them. If people only studied things with a more obvious practical outcome, like law or civil engineering, there would be a lot less people in the world to ask 'why?' and in my opinion 'why?' is one of the most important questions that needs to be asked in our society, if only to improve our own bullshit detector. \n\nEven as simple as \"why is that charge on my bill\" or \"why is my employer asking me to do that,\" to the bigger questions like \"why is communism thought of as evil\" and \"why do we use fossil fuels if they are that bad.\" If no one asked these questions, society would most likely stand still, or head blindly downhill into a hole we can't dig ourselves out of. \n\nThis applies not to just literature, but all the other humanities.",
"Literature is a method of human expression and commentary on their own society. When you study literature, you study humanity's understanding of itself. It allows you to gain perspectives on the human condition outside of your own experiences. \n\nNow, the practical applications of *that* are a bit too broad to outline succinctly. It basically all boils down to empathy. Studying the culture of a foreign nation could help me to better relate to and communicate with someone from that country, to give a very mundane example.",
"There is many genres of literature, some may push the boundaries of a given languages' imagination and sound, while other pieces of literature might provide and array of metaphors for more complex subjects. As someone previously stated, many pieces of literature have reverberating effects on society at large.\n\nIn America we have neglected the arts as of late, and most people tend to get into more technical fields that are in higher demand such as accounting, engineering, MIS etc. Most people find degrees in the arts to be pointless, although nothing could be further from the truth.\n\nIll put it to you this way, and people may disagree with me but dont listen to them. It is fairly common to see people from wealth getting degrees in liberal arts since they come from wealth and do not need to get a desk job. Most top IV league schools have very strong departments in the arts. This is not coincidence, the arts are actually the most influential field of study that effects human kind. Most people get their knowledge of the world through movies, music, pictures, TV etc. and these are all subjects of the arts. People who cannot read, hear, or see can appreciate the arts.\n\nIt can be said that the arts may be the most important subject in society, as opposed to explaining to your average joe on the street about the significance of particle acceleration."
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5yhjtl | what would happen if i tried to deposit $1 trillion in the bank? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5yhjtl/eli5_what_would_happen_if_i_tried_to_deposit_1/ | {
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"If you attempted to deposit 1T by personal cheque, they would tell you they can not accept it due to its high probability of bouncing. \n\nIf you attempted to deposit 1T in cash, the police would be called and you'd have some serious explaining to do as to how you came about the money. \n\nIf you attempted to deposit 1T as an authorized transfer from another bank, you'd have some forms to sign and they'd have to confirm with the other bank but they would likely accept it. ",
"your hypothetical is so irrational that it pretty much breaks logic.\n\nNo one has 1 trillion dollars, so by default, you know that there is fraud if someone attempted to deposit 1 trillion.\n\nbillion? well its possible, but extremely unlikely. such a transfer would more realistically happen by wire transfer. When you have a billion, you dont walk into the corner office and ask the teller.\n\ncash of even a few hundred thousand would raise a lot of red flags as to where it came from. and would probably need preapproval to a special branch to handle that money. ",
"The cutoff is going to vary by the branch, but a trillion dollars is just impossible. Nobody is going to believe you are trying to deposit a trillion dollars legitimately. Probably the line would be a few million dollars.\n\nThe best way would be cashier's check. A personal check they would probably take with your ID and just wait for it to bounce in order to call the police; no funds would be released for your use. Cash would be impractical because it would about a third of all the USD on the planet and I doubt you could get ahold of that much. Even a million dollars would be quite the chunk of material.",
"A million is probably an amount that any bank is equipped to deal with although they'd probably want advanced notice.\n\nFor a billion and particularly a trillion, I'm pretty sure any bank would accept it, but they'd probably require advanced notice and other accommodations to be made. If you used a check, the money would have to already be in another bank to start with, so the transfer would just take place between the banks. The source bank would probably have already made an agreement with you about how much money you could take out or spend in a day because banks only have a certain amount of their cash ready to pay immediately. So, it's likely they wouldn't allow you use a check that big or would require you to give a lot of advanced notice. Depositing it in cash wouldn't have any real restrictions but would obviously require an insane amount of security. At the trillion dollar level, the ordeal might even trigger assistance from local law enforcement since you'd probably made a pretty big target for criminal activity.",
"If it is legitimate, they would likely accept any amount. Routine is probably in the thousands or lower, unless it is a business banking account, then it will just depend upon the size of the business and what is considered normal based on historic deposits. The difference in all of the methods (cash, personal check, cashier's check, wire, transfer, etc) is really the settlement time. Some of these methods will settle faster than others, making your funds ready to use/withdraw.\n\nAs an interesting follow up question, ask your bank at what point do they start to make you wait before you get your money back. I have seen numerous situations (for myself and others) where trying to withdraw more than $1000 can set off all kinds of red flags. In one case, the person was waiting in the bank for 3 hours!\n\nr/BTC\nr/Bitcoin"
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2fctig | how can colleges like uconn justify raising tuition of students, while paying their coaches for their sports inordinate amounts of money? | According to this article: [Uconn has raised tuition rate 6.5%](_URL_0_) for the 2014-2015 school year, and in the same year [Kevin Ollie](_URL_1_) was given a contract for $14M, to just coach a basketball team? Does the amount of capital gained from sporting events justify the pay rate? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2fctig/eli5_how_can_colleges_like_uconn_justify_raising/ | {
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"According to [this article](_URL_0_), in 2011 men's basketball generated almost $14M in revenue, netting the athletic department almost $4M in profit. Football and Basketball (including Women's basketball at UConn) effectively fund the entire athletic budget.\n\nPeople only go to watch winning teams. So yes, the capital gained supports the pay.",
"Athletic departments are completely separate from the university when it comes to funding.\n\nThey raised your tuition because they can.",
"The UCONN athletic program ( particularly their basketball program) put UCONN on the map and has brought in more money and new academic buildings that has made it a top destination. Coach Calhoun turned a somewhat low grade educational university into a school at the level of Rutgers or Syracuse. ",
"High-profile D1 sports teams generate a lot more revenue (ticket sales, TV rights, etc) than they cost to fund, and that money goes back to the school to fund other extracurriculars. They're actually subsidizing your tuition - not the other way around.\n\nI get that it's somewhat intellectually irritating that the coach makes more money than department heads and your tuition rises. But as long as sports draws larger audiences and sells more stuff than the arts and sciences, so it goes. The debate team unfortunately doesn't sell enough jerseys or TV rights to people outside the school.",
"At many universities, particularly large Division-I universities like UConn that have nationally competitive teams in men's basketball and/or football, the athletic departments are not funded by the university, but instead are bankrolled by a combination of internal revenues and alumni donations. However, this is not always the case, and I know my alma mater (D-I, not nationally competitive) was known for appropriating $1 million/year from the president's discretionary fund to keep the football team afloat.",
"Before men's basketball was popular and competitive at UCONN, their admissions were almost all in-state and they were very small. After 1999, when they beat Duke for the NCAA Championship, their out of state applications increased by an absurd amount. Out of state students pay more in tuition than in-state students. Because of the growth, the school was granted like $2 billion to build up the campus. Most of the main UCONN campus has been built in the last 15 years. Men's basketball is the best thing that ever happened to UCONN."
]
} | [] | [
"http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/6-5-percent-tuition-hike-for-UConn-5579641.php",
"http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/10970027/kevin-ollie-signs-five-year-contract-connecticut-huskies"
] | [
[
"http://articles.courant.com/2011-12-15/sports/hc-uconn-finances-1215-2-20111215_1_fbs-football-programs-eada-fiesta-bowl"
],
[],
[],
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|
9fh82h | what is article 13 and why is it bad for the internet? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/9fh82h/eli5_what_is_article_13_and_why_is_it_bad_for_the/ | {
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"Article 13 is the EU expanding its copyrite protects and enforcement. It means you that you can’t copy an image/thing on the internet without permission.\n\nBasically someone actually owns all the photos we use for memes, and we are kind of screwing them over by using their content with paying/recognizing them, so thats now illegal in the EU. No one is clear how it will be enforced though...",
"Article 13 is a copyright bill that forces websites to scan and remove copyrighted material. This is commonly referred to on the internet as censoring \"memes\", as ones such as \"unexpected thanos\", \"kermit throwing shade with tea\", use copyrighted formats (Thanos from Marvel, Kermit from Muppets), so therefore such memes would be considered \"banned\". In addition, any copyrighted material must be licensed prior to being uploaded, so any \"react to ABC\" video or \"people try this product XXX\" would require that creators would be required to get a license of use from company ABC, or people trying the product would need permission. In addition, any website companies that are not screening for copyrighted content are going to be fined in the EU, forcing sites like Facebook, Youtube, and other platforms to actively screen and censor uploads based on copyrighted materials.. \n\nEdit: added more info.",
"Article 13 is part of a directive of the EU on digital copyright. Directives are not laws. Rather they're rules that each of the memberstates have to turn into laws.\n\nArticle 13 says :\n\n1. That websites violate copyright by sharing copyrighted content without license even if it was uploaded by their users. Note : All previous exceptions in EU law continue to apply, so memes are not illegal. \n\n3. A previous excemption granted under a former directive no \n longer saves websites from being responsible for situations in 1. \n\n4. Websites are not responsible for copyright breaches if they make \na) A best effort to find and eliminate copyrighted data \nb) Respond to requests from rightholders to eliminate copyrighted data \n\n5. Best effort is relative too \na) Size of the organisation \nb) Sort of stuff users upload \nc) cost and effectiveness of industry best practices \n\n6. Copyright holders and websites have to work together. \n\n7. Websites need to avoid removing legitimite content \n\n8. Industry needs to find some best practices. \n\n[Full Text](_URL_0_).\n\nSo, contrary to what is often reported, Article 13 does not ban memes or reviews or whatever.\n\nAll it requires is that the websites find \" a solution \" that prevents the sharing of copyrighted material via their site. What this solution is, is not specified in the directive, though an automated upload filter is one of the options."
]
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[],
[],
[
"http://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/35373/st09134-en18.pdf"
]
] |
||
7b4un7 | classification and ratings of hotels | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7b4un7/eli5_classification_and_ratings_of_hotels/ | {
"a_id": [
"dpf7ye1"
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"score": [
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"text": [
"Assuming you're talking about the \"star\" rating - it reflects what amenities and services are available to the guest. \n\nThe star system is not an international standard; it is defined by individual countries. Typically, to gain a single star, the hotel must offer basic services; this would include a bed, an en-suite bathroom, TV, table and chair... etc.\n\nFive star reflects \"luxury\" services, such as a spa, personal greeting service, minibar, safes in rooms, etc."
]
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[]
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||
3a1psu | why is caitlyn jenner prized for choosing to identify as a woman, where rachel dolezal is criticized for choosing to identify as african american? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3a1psu/eli5_why_is_caitlyn_jenner_prized_for_choosing_to/ | {
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"text": [
"[This is a very commonly asked question](_URL_0_), so it has been removed. /r/asktransgender may also be helpful. \n\nIt's fine to re-post questions, but please indicate that you did a search and that previous questions/answers didn't help you understand. ",
"Because Jenner just wanted to be a woman and took actions to physically change. Dolezal repeatedly lied about her race to get jobs and schoolarships, dispite knowing she lying. Claimed to have hunted for her own food with bows and arrows and lived in a teepee, which never happened. Claimed to have been abused by her parents for having black skin, which she did not have. Claimed to have received multiple death threats and hate letters, which investigations by the post office revealed were placed there herself. Claimed to have worked in South Africa as a missionary, despite never having been there. Lied to police to get her people charged with child abuse. Claimed to have been raped and that her school covered up her report to the police, despite no report ever having been filed. Claimed that her biological parents weren't her real parents, despite her family claiming they are and having proof. Was reported for discrimination after telling her student that she couldn't participate in class because she looked too white. And a shit ton of other things. \n\nSo that is the difference. Jenner just wants to be a woman. Dolezal lies, cheats, and makes up stories to enjoy being treated like a victim and to get jobs/scholarships/benefits. She deserves all the criticism she is getting and more."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/search?q=%22transracial%22+OR+%22trans+racial%22+OR+%22dolezal%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all"
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||
akpg63 | why do all artificial sweeteners cause an insulin response in the body when the human body can't even process them? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/akpg63/eli5_eli5_why_do_all_artificial_sweeteners_cause/ | {
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"text": [
"It does not know it can not process them. The body knows that when something tastes sweet that means the blood sugar level will soon increase and that it needs to produce insulin. So the body starts producing insulin as a response to the sweetness. You even have similar responses to external stimulus as well. You may know the famous Pavlov experiment where he gave dogs treats after ringing a bell and then measured that they started producing saliva when you rang the bell. And tasting sweetness triggering an insulin response is a similar response.",
"Even the thought of eating food, can cause an insulin response. So it doesnt even have to be anything to do with the artificial sweeteners.\n\nDisclaimer: the study im remembering about this was done on anorectic patients. "
]
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[],
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] |
||
cxxhv8 | why do our eyes imprint the outline of images and portray them behind closed eyelids after staring at, say, a window or the sun? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/cxxhv8/eli5_why_do_our_eyes_imprint_the_outline_of/ | {
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"text": [
"Our eyes don't see in the same way modern cameras do. They have chemicals in them that get consumed when light hits them. These chemicals are constantly being replenished so it is rarely an issue, but when you go from something very bright to darkness, you can see where the chemicals in your retinas are depleted."
]
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[]
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||
2k0le5 | those powerful fans that blow on you at entrances to stores like kroger and walmart? | I always wondered what purpose those things have, other than just blowing air all over you. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2k0le5/eli5those_powerful_fans_that_blow_on_you_at/ | {
"a_id": [
"clgrslf",
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"score": [
6,
3
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"text": [
"They act as invisible doors to keep bugs out. ",
"The moving air acts as a shield between the inside and outside air. It keeps the non climate controlled air outside and the cooled/warmed air inside."
]
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[],
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|
5guy6d | how do content predictions work such as facebook's? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/5guy6d/eli5_how_do_content_predictions_work_such_as/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Artificial intelligence. (a program that does things that humans are traditionally better at than computer) \n\nPrograms that describe what's in a picture or video have been developed for a long time. for a few years, neural networks have become state of the art and brought big leaps forward.\n\nThis stuff is quite complicated and is sometimes explained by comparing it to human brains, which are also kind of networks of neurons, but this isn't very accurate.\n\nTry to think about like this: explaining what a smiling person is (in terms of pixels) to a computer is very very hard and will not help you with recognizing beaches or snow. The concept of seeing stuff in pictures is, on a basic level, not that hard. There are edges, colors and corners that form things together and can be recognized (oh, I have seen something similar the other day) and named(I call this things people and this part of them face), like faces, beaches and cats. Programmers build so called models that can do this things and instead of defining what kind of edges are a face and which aren't, they train the model with hundreds of thousands of tagged pictures.\n\nOther data like spoken language can be processed the same way but requires different models, since there are no pixels and edges. This networks are really not brains, at best, chunks of simulated brain parts in very very narrow scenarios that have some to a meat brain comparable concepts.\n\nSo, Facebook had a lot of pictures that were tagged as selfi on a beach for example and has build a program that can tag new, unseen images reasonable accurately.\n\nEdit :wording "
]
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[]
] |
|
7u35ii | which is better for levitating heavy objects, acoustic levitation with sound waves or magnetic field levitation? why? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7u35ii/eli5_which_is_better_for_levitating_heavy_objects/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"acoustic levitation is currently limited to a few kilograms, and creates noise pollution that can affect things that are sensitive to the frequencies used (you can use ultrasound so it doesnt bother humans)\n\nmagnetic levitation can lift much more (entire trains, for example), but cant directly lift objects that dont react to magnets so you need a platform that acts like an elevator. and it creates magnetic fields that can also interfere with nearby objects"
]
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[]
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||
7sb2o0 | why is water mist dense at 4 degrees c? does the density play into the fact that cooler water will boil faster? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/7sb2o0/eli5_why_is_water_mist_dense_at_4_degrees_c_does/ | {
"a_id": [
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"text": [
"Cooler water doesn't boil faster.\n\nWater mist is denser at lower temperatures because the colder air can contain less water vapor so the excess water vapor is forced to condense into tiny droplets which is what mist is."
]
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[]
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||
2wxn1l | if weather forecasts know and display the "real feel/feels like" temperature, then what`s the point of displaying the "main" temperature? | If it feels like 4 degrees fahrenheit outside, then what is the point of displaying the main temperature as 29 degrees fahrenheit? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2wxn1l/eli5_if_weather_forecasts_know_and_display_the/ | {
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"text": [
"If it *feels* like -10°C, but it actually is +10°C outside, you likely won't have to worry about icy roads or snowfall. \nAlso, perceived temperature can change very easily - step into an area where wind isn't present, and you will feel a lot more comfortable all of a sudden, while the actual temperature doesn't change at all. ",
"\"Real feel\" and the like are just arbitrary numbers created from other factors last me humidity and wind. Its very subjective, as it changes from person to person.\n\nHowever, if you're doing anything temperature sensitive, like some construction projects, the actual temperature is much more important."
]
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|
nii0v | what are the reasons behind companies like apple and samsung choosing the countries they file their lawsuits in? | e.g. why did Apple choose Australia for the Galaxy Tab sales ban and why did Samsung choose France for the 4S sales ban attempt. They've also filed suits in Germany and The Netherlands. | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/nii0v/eli5_what_are_the_reasons_behind_companies_like/ | {
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"text": [
"different countries have different laws. They pick the ones that have the most favorable laws for their purpose.",
"Imagine country A has laws that are intended to encourage new businesses, and so the laws there make is hard for old businesses to claim \"Hey we did that first!\" or \"Hey, that almost the same as what we do!\"\n\nSuppose country B has laws that are meant to protect that country's companies, and stop cheap-o foreign imitators from coming in and running the old companies out of business. For that reason, Country B's laws make it very easy for the old companies to claim \"Hey, we already had that idea!\" and very hard for the new company to claim \"Look, what we do is different here, here, and here.\"\n\nWell, you can imagine that the old company would want to get a decision made under Country A's laws, and the new company would want to get ruled on under Country B's laws. \n\nSo there you go. ",
"different countries have different laws. They pick the ones that have the most favorable laws for their purpose.",
"Imagine country A has laws that are intended to encourage new businesses, and so the laws there make is hard for old businesses to claim \"Hey we did that first!\" or \"Hey, that almost the same as what we do!\"\n\nSuppose country B has laws that are meant to protect that country's companies, and stop cheap-o foreign imitators from coming in and running the old companies out of business. For that reason, Country B's laws make it very easy for the old companies to claim \"Hey, we already had that idea!\" and very hard for the new company to claim \"Look, what we do is different here, here, and here.\"\n\nWell, you can imagine that the old company would want to get a decision made under Country A's laws, and the new company would want to get ruled on under Country B's laws. \n\nSo there you go. "
]
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6knqiq | how is animal cruelty, injury, or death depicted in films without harming the animal. | Is CGI more widely used now to depict situations like this? What about before CGI was realistic enough? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/6knqiq/eli5_how_is_animal_cruelty_injury_or_death/ | {
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"text": [
"How is human injury or death depicted in films without harming the actor?\n\nI believe the answer here is going to be very similar.\n\n(Though it used to be that some animals *were* harmed in the production of certain films, though nowadays there are laws against that sort of thing)",
"They use animals trained to act injured, or they use camera work to make it look like someone's injuring an animal when they aren't, or they use animal shaped statues, or animatronics to simulate abuse. ",
"In the past they actually were cruel to animals just to get the shot. Disney tossed lemmings into a river in Calgary, Alberta, to make it look like they were leaping to their deaths. Horses were tripped with wires to make them fall in battle scenes.\n\nSometimes fake dead (taxidermy) animals are used, sometimes trained animals are used, and sometimes CGI.",
"Today it's mostly CG. Humans are really bad at discerning well-made CG from reality. Unless you're trying to create a human, as we have evolved to pick up on the smallest details of mimic and gesture.\n\nIt's pretty damn easy to create a CG animal for short scenes like a battle with horses etc. and have it explode, stumble and whatever else you want.\n\nFor longer scenes it's more difficult, but still very easily doable, compared to other projects."
]
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2omxbw | will anything happen to tap water if i let it sit in a glass over time other than evaporation. if not, why? | Seems like a stupid question, but why doesnt water get 'old'? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2omxbw/eli5_will_anything_happen_to_tap_water_if_i_let/ | {
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"text": [
"The chlorine will also evaporate. It's one way to de-chlorinate tap water. Bacterial growth may begin as well, eventually.",
"Still water might become contaminated with bacteria over time. ",
"Tap water will dissolve carbon dioxide from the air. If you've ever had a taste of tap water that's been sitting around for a couple of days, it's going to taste different from water straight from the tap. That taste is from dissolved carbon dioxide which can form carbonic acid."
]
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1swm2n | if a cloud is heated water (steam) but the air is cold, how do clouds sustain themselves in the sky for so long? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1swm2n/eli5_if_a_cloud_is_heated_water_steam_but_the_air/ | {
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"text": [
"Clouds aren't steam in the sense you're thinking of. They're small droplets of *liquid* water that has condensed out of the air as it rose and cooled. Steam works the same way, in fact: the air above a pot of boiling water is much colder than boiling, so the vapor condenses there too."
]
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||
3ganrs | on netflix, why do old tv shows like rockford files and magnum pi start out with a 30 sec preview of the entire episode? a lot of older shows do this, but why? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3ganrs/eli5_on_netflix_why_do_old_tv_shows_like_rockford/ | {
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"text": [
"This is only my theory, but when they were on the air as new shows, there were only two ways to know what was going to be on: Buy a copy of TV Guide (it was a paper magazine), or look at the listings in a local newspaper. The former might have a two-sentence summary of the show, the latter would probably only have the name of the series.\n\nIf you wanted to get viewers to stay, you needed to give them an idea of what was coming for the next hour.",
"This was just what was done in the 70s and 80s. The preview was basically click-bait, to hopefully get you to sit down and watch the show. You have to remember that recording shows was fairly uncommon at this time. People actually sat down and watched these shows as they went to air. So the networks would put a few exciting scenes of the upcoming show on, hoping this was enough to lure you into watching the entire show.",
"It's probably to convince the viewer continue watching. Crime dramas typically have previews or major events early in the show that don't reveal much vital information to leave the viewer curious as to the who, the what and the why.",
"One important part missing in the answers so far is advertisement and news. The preview would usually come first, also often with a repetition of what happened before, then comes news, advertisement, and the likes, and only then the movie. It was basically to show people what they miss if they go away from the tv and don't make it back in time.\n\nIt might also have been used before the next episode (to remind people of the last one, and to fill in the ones who missed the last one, as there was nearly no recording), but as that's not needed anymore, Netflix put it up front to keep the movie complete.",
"Think about the news and how they give snippets of all the exciting stories they are going to cover. Or even better, think about the show Pawn Stars. Doesn't it kind of make you want to keep watching to see what happens or to know what it is about?\n\nThere are some major reasons why this sort of sell was more important in the past. Consumers often didn't know what they were watching and were more likely to click off to another show if they weren't liking it. You tended to find TV shows more by stumbling on them more than by word of mouth or recommendation, and choosing to watch one show would mean missing all the others.\n\nA subtle but big difference is that older television is more non-serial, while newer television is more serial. When something is non-serial, it tends to be marketed more at occasional viewers and will explain the concept of the show pretty quickly. This is actually why many show openings give an overview of the plot or concept, like the Fresh Prince and The Twilight Zone.\n\nSerialized shows tend to assume that the viewer has watched all the previous content, but may have a \"previously on\" to remind people. With on-demand being so popular now, there is a trend to less and less explanation of anything, and this is because people now will watch every episode starting from episode 1.\n\nA final little tidbit is that older shows which were serialized tended to have magazines that discussed the plot details. Soap operas are great examples of this as missing an episode or two could lead to a lot of confusion. Today, yeah we could DVR it or use the internet to find out what happened, but in the past, it was much more difficult to find out what you missed.",
"Every single Discovery channel show does this. Mythbusters is like ten minutes long, with thirty minutes of \"coming up after the break,\" and \"when last we left,\" segments before and after every commercial. ",
"Didn't the newer Battlestar-Galactica series do that as well?"
]
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da6t8c | how did the phone hacking scandals happen? how does someone tap into your phone ? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/da6t8c/eli5_how_did_the_phone_hacking_scandals_happen/ | {
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"Mostly they happened because people didn't change the default 0000 passcode on their voicemail. So anyone could dial the phone number, press whatever it takes to get into the voicemail system, and enter the default password to hear the messages that had been left.",
"very rarely does the phone device get hacked. usually it's online services that store your data, your pictures, your documents, your emails. online services are widely available to any client across the world. the phone itself isn't as accessible"
]
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[],
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||
2t3vir | american late night shows air time | Hi guys, as a French guy (with only 1 time zone here), I wonder what the air time for American late night shows (hosted by Ellen, Conan, Letterman, Fallon and so on ...) is on the west coast as opposed to the east coast?
Is it still like 11:00 pm or 9:00 pm like the time difference would suggest ?
(the question may have asked before, I couldn't find it so sorry for the repost in that case) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2t3vir/eli5_american_late_night_shows_air_time/ | {
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"text": [
"The west coast shows aren't shown with the time difference. They will almost always follow the nightly news. So the late nights start around 10 or 11 PM depending on the local network. ",
"Ellen is a day time show... no clue when it airs since I'm always working.",
"In the eastern time zone, late night begins at 11:35 pm EST.\n\nIn the central time zone, late night begins at 10:35 pm CST (so contemporaneously with EST).\n\nIn the mountain time zone, late night begins at 10:35 pm MST.\n\nIn the pacific time zone, late night begins at 11:35 pm PST. \n\nNo, I have no idea why central and mountain are different from eastern and pacific.\n\nBut that is why the networks will advertise a show as starting at \"8 pm eastern and pacific, 7 pm central and mountain.\" Because prime time is an hour earlier in central and mountain."
]
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c030n7 | why do some countries have visible electricity cables above ground whereas other countries have the cables underground? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/c030n7/eli5_why_do_some_countries_have_visible/ | {
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"text": [
"The key issue is the expense. Installation is far less expense if above ground. Also if the cables are going to need regular access for repairs/junction boxes etc.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nAnother factor with things like pylons is cooling. The cables stay relatively cool compared to burying them.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nThere was an interesting mini series on UK TV a couple of years ago following the installation of some massive pylons across some hillsides etc.",
"Putting in poles is cheaper, but unaesthetic. Some communities are willing to pay for the aesthetics, and some are not. This is a neighborhood by neighborhood thing, not country by country, at least where I live. The wealthier an area and more densely populated, the more likely they are to be underground."
]
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] |
|
bnqc4x | if rom is 'read only memory', why can you change bios? | [deleted] | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/bnqc4x/eli5_if_rom_is_read_only_memory_why_can_you/ | {
"a_id": [
"en88t86",
"en89yuv"
],
"score": [
7,
6
],
"text": [
"Because “read only” is a misnomer. There are almost always methods to overwrite read only memory, from swapping out the ROM chip itself, to using a UV light to erase it, to using a JTAG unit to flip a specific bit that enables reprogramming, to Flash ROM that can be programmatically rewritten by the right instructions.\n\nHaving said all that, BIOS systems have been generally replaced in the last 15 years by UEFI which is based on firmware loaders that assume you’re loading the hardware description from a combination of flash memory and regular read/write storage — so there’s no assumption of read only memory in the architecture anymore.",
"Because the BIOS actually sits in an EEPROM (electrically eraseable programmable ROM).\n\nIt behaives like a ROM chip, but an external extra electrical circuit is able to rewrite it.\n\n & #x200B;\n\nIn the 1990's, BIOS was sitting in an EPROM, which you could erase by shining UV light onto the chip (the package had a glass window for that)."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
|
1nb07b | how do arenas like the staples center have different events in them? | How do they change the inside (eg. for NBA, NHL, and now even LoL world championships etc.) | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1nb07b/eli5_how_do_arenas_like_the_staples_center_have/ | {
"a_id": [
"ccgzzhg"
],
"score": [
2
],
"text": [
"[here](_URL_0_) is a very nice timelapse video where you can see the transformation from ice hockey arena to basketball back to ice hockey! "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4rZjGNYxuo"
]
] |
|
47zqjh | why arent we directly aware when our bodies sub-consiously pick up on things? | explainlikeimfive | https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/47zqjh/eli5_why_arent_we_directly_aware_when_our_bodies/ | {
"a_id": [
"d0gh2on",
"d0ghuoy"
],
"score": [
2,
2
],
"text": [
"Because it would be extremely overwhelming. Think of it this way: when you're watching a movie, you see one, fluid motion picture. Your subconscious, however, registers every single individual frame. Imagine being bombarded with (about) 30 (give or take) images in a single second and processing them consciously as individual pictures in a sequence. It would be stressful, to say the least.",
"What /u/ruby32199 said, but also a lot of other things going on at the same time. Your mind picks up and files away little things as you go through your day instinctively for your survival; observing the people in line with you to get popcorn, smells that might be smoke or poison, that itchy spot on your hand that might be a spider bite, on and on! \n\nThere are some that think this kind of sensory overload happens to people in the autism spectrum, iirc. "
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
||
2hfq4l | why does poking a second hole make pouring easier? | explainlikeimfive | http://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2hfq4l/eli5_why_does_poking_a_second_hole_make_pouring/ | {
"a_id": [
"cks7kub",
"cks7mhw"
],
"score": [
8,
2
],
"text": [
"The second hole lets air in the container to fill in the vacuum created my liquid exiting via the first hole. The vacuum is what slows the initial liquid pour in the first place.",
"When you have one hole and try to pour out of it, air has to go into the can to replace the lost liquid. There is both liquid exiting and air going into the can through one hole. With two holes, air can go through the top one and not stop the exiting liquid from the lower hole."
]
} | [] | [] | [
[],
[]
] |
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